FRIENDSHIP

A lot was going through my mind these few days, mainly about friendship. Received a message from "The Count to 1,000,000,000 Believer's Worldwide" on facebook.

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.'

But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'

Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the Real Bids!'

But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting..' Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

'We have $10, who will bid $20?'

'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'

The crowd was becoming angry.. They didn't want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'

A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!'

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'

'What about the paintings?'

'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!'

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE

Start questioning yourself. What kind of friend are you exactly?

signing off~DE XIN

BoA - Eat You Up

Is she good or what?! MY GAWSH I really wish I can dance like her one day hey. Not forgetting Beyonce as well.

I have to admit I've underestimated BoA.

signing off~DE XIN

I can't find home ground. Can't find a place I fit in. Not here. Not in Perth.

Everywhere I go I just somehow feel so out of place. Is it me? Or have I just not found the right place to fit in? Even after 3.5 years?

2 months back into Perth, every breath I take, every second that ticks, is a struggle and almost like a living hell. They say 4 months will pass fast, I beg to differ.

Shopping and high-tea-ing with the mother, going out to find good food with the father, spending time with Grandma at her place, cooking with uncle, watching movies with Sherry, Thursdays with Elena and Nelson, spending time with the CMC and Y2K people and hanging out with Nancy.

I can go on. But it will just never end. I'm gasping for air here. And I don't quite like this feeling.

If only ending one's life wasn't a sin.

EASTER LONG WEEKEND WITH LOVE

Hmmm. Just watched Knocked Up. A little dodgy.....but it was still. so. hilarious. And sweet, at the end. Haha. Who doesn't like sweet endings, right?

Well anyways, the mother was here over the long weekend. She touched down on Friday morning (and I didn't sleep, fearing I would oversleep and not pick her up) and I had to rush off for dance practice right after I dropped her back at our apartment.

And for the very first time ever, I fell asleep during dance practice. REALLY. We were dancing in groups because of space constraints and while I was waiting for my group's turn, I dozed off until Gen went "right, De Xin?" And I just subconsciously went "mmm, ya.." until I jumped and realised they were correcting the dance. Not to mentioned I dozed off for split seconds while driving to and from dance practice. Hur.

Faith hitched a ride back with me because she was meeting Allison. Had a good catch up with Mummy and then she went off to meet Allison while Mummy and I headed down to Tiamo for lunch.Mummy had risotto! It was REALLY GOOD. I'm ordering that the next time I go back there.

I had the chicken pasta. Can't even remember the name already. That extra cheese on top was from Mummy's risotto HAHA.

She was test-trying the camera and then *FLASH* blinding.

Mummy ordered tea. I had this chocolate fudge cake. Mummy had a pot of rose tea. Absolutely lovely.

That was...not fresh. And the ganache was so rich AND SWEET it totally killed my chocolate craving until I go back to Max Brenner's again in Sydney.

Saturday morning. Dragged myself out of bed early so that I could bring Mummy to Blue Duck for breakfast =). My first time there too!

Mummy's cappucino.

My long macchiatto topped up.

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE HEART. The coffee was really good. Thick, strong, smooth and fragrant. Best drink to perk me up in the morning.

Mummy had two poached eggs on toast. She loved it! I don't know how they tasted because I don't like poached eggs so i refused to try them HAHA.

My scrambled eggs and bacon on toast. The scrambled eggs were SO SMOOTH LIKE OMGAWSH and the toast were really really good. Home made toast =).

Aaah breakfast by the beach. Nice huh. =D

After breakfast, I headed down to Curtin for rehearsals. Was SO dead (no sleep on Thursday night and only about 4 hours sleep on Friday night) I had to drink two bottles of coke.

After rehearsal, I drove down to Garden City to meet Mummy. She had arranged a meet up with her distant cousin, whose daughter opened a pharmacy at Broadway Fair, which is only 5 minutes walk from my place, and son is going to study in Canning College.

Didn't have anything to drink or eat while we were all seated at Dome because I was kinda craving for Michel's Patisserie.
Which was kind of disappointing because the black cherry cheesecake I had was so terribly sweet that I couldn't even taste the cheese in the cake and I had to eat the cherry layer separately so that I could totally enjoy the cheesecake.

And the coffee was burnt. They usually have really great coffee and cakes. Mumy and I suspect it was 'cos of the long weekend.

Performance was the next day. Where I woke up with back so sore it made me really nauseous. Popped 2 nurofens when I reached Curtin. Will blog about Easter Sunday again when I've collected all the photos and hopefully videos! =)

signing off~DE XIN

PHISH?

HAHA seriously. Garfield, Garfield. Aaah. My entertainment everyday.

Sorry peeps, I know I havent' been updating regularly. Well, you see, my new Panasonic compact camera is spoilt *mumble grumble* and I've been having dance practices at least once every two nights and most of the time its Saturday, Sunday AND Monday.

So yeah. Please spare me some thought and forgive me for the lack of updates. I promise more updates once Easter Sunday's over. Mummy's for the weekend =) really glad to have her back again. Although. Well. She's been quite a nag HAHA but it's all good. I enjoy it....but thats for short term HAH.

Till then!

signing off~DE XIN

AHAHAHAHA

Garfield is SO SPASTIC. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

signing off~DE XIN

LET ME THINK ABOUT IT

I thought this was a really powerful dance but GARGH the music to this dance was not allowed on this video due to copyright issues (all these copyright issues are really getting on my nerves).

This dance was originally danced to "Let Me Think About It" by Ida Corr Vs Fedde Le Grand. PLAY that music, have that music in mind, MUTE the video, and watch it. You'll know why.

That dance has left the greatest impression in my mind so far. Group dance I mean.

signing off~DE XIN

GET UP, GO AGAIN

Was just watching So You Think You Can Dance [Australia] Season 2 Episode 7 and I saw how a dancer injured himself while doing a very risky move with his partner. His dance had to be altered as a result but he and his partner still performed the dance so absolutely well. At the end of it, one of the judges (Bonnie, I think??) mentioned, "This is what dance is all about. Dancers get injuries. They get up. They go again."

The moment I heard that, I thought to myself, "Geez, how true, hey."

A little more than 6 months ago, while trying to put together steps with a few other dancers/friends for the dance performance for Search For A Star '09, I jumped and landed the very, VERY, wrong way. Ankle literally went 90 degrees and it wasn't the first time my ankle went that way. It had happened to me before once when I was in high school. That, however, was not anywhere near the pain I experienced last year.

The pain was SO excruciating I couldn't get my head together to know how to respond to what happened. All I did was just sit on the ground for a good 5 minutes or so (maybe even longer), with my friends frantically coming all over me, asking if I was ok. A physiotherapist friend had to use a wrap on my ankle and I couldn't dance anymore that day. For the next few days I was limping everywhere I went and it was the WORST sprain I had ever have in my whole entire history of dancing AND spraining.

I visited a pharmacist who told me it would be ideal for me to be on crutches and not dance for a few weeks but Search For A Star '09 was only around the corner. I went against her advices and took nurofen as often as I could and danced my way through. No doubt, my performance was affected but I still wanted to dance 'cos that was all that I can ever do AND enjoy.

A fear was still in me for the next few months as my ankle never really healed. I couldn't put much pressure on it, fearing I might feel the pain OR lose my balance. The pain/injury lasted all the way till my trip to Shanghai with Nancy. When I got back to Singapore I decided I had to do something about it. I had my ankle scanned and visited a few specialists (bone specialist, sports specialist, physiotherapist).

Oh by the way, the x-ray showed a small chip in a minor bone in my ankle.

The specialists and physiotherapist were all very optimistic and supportive of my dreams as a dancer. They said they've seen LOADS of sportsmen with the exact same injury and still going strong in whatever they aspire to do. They also assured me that I wouldn't have any problems with that either.

If you ask me what if I could never dance again, I can tell you, it's almost like the end of the world for me. It's not a secret now that my academics aren't going very smooth (even up till now when it's my last semester unofficially and I've tried so hard but I still feel like I'm lagging behind).

I guess I can only thank God for all that He's blessed me with. The strength to dance despite such an injury and the offer into LASALLE. I could never ask for anything better. He knows what's best for me and He gives me strength in my weakness. See? Such a cliche "He gives us strength in our weakness" can be put into this context!

Dance IS really all that I think of. There are many times where I face problems in life and I almost always can never find the strength to over come them if not for God. Dance, however, gives me the strength in everything. Not saying I depend on myself in dance but God planted that talent in me and I do not want to put it to waste. Not even for a minute.

Talking about strength, there was one point last year where I thought I just couldn't go on anymore. Uni, "friends", injury, life. I called home every night, crying into the phone, right at my parents. They didn't know what to do with me either because they felt so hurt that I was going through so much. But, unexpectedly, Daddy messaged me on MSN one morning telling me not to give up just because of little set backs, be brave and settle whatever problems I had. He reminded me of how I fell and injured myself during dance but still managed to perform on stage.

Daddy's encouragement has been so uplifting all these years. You can never imagine unless you feel it for yourself. He's always been the one behind the scenes supporting me all the way. Every performances I had, he made sure he was there at the back of the stage when I had a break or when I was done so that I could run to him and hug him and tell him how awesome it was.

God has really really blessed me with so much in dance I just can't find any better words to thank Him. So many opportunities, loving teachers who nurtured me, supportive parents who were there for me in every area of my dancing life. I just only have one choice.

Get up, and dance again.

signing off~DE XIN

Three Trees

Very recently, on Facebook (yesyes, it's Facebook AGAIN), I joined a group called "The Count to 1,000,000,000 Believer's Worldwide". Everyday they would send a message to all the members of the group with regards to The Word. But most of the time, due to my busy-ness AND laziness, I failed to open the messages to read. More often than not I actually deleted them.

Today, however, I decided to open it up and right there infront of me was a message with so much meaning and power I knew I had to share it. It was an interesting way of illustrating three very important passages of Jesus' life on Earth. Here goes:

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said,

'Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty.'

Then the second tree said, 'Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull.'

Finally the third tree said, 'I want to grow to be the tallest and
straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the Hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.'

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, 'This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter, 'and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree the woodsman said, 'This looks like a strong tree. I should be able to sell it to the shipyard.' The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the Woodsmen said, 'I don't need anything special from my tree, I'll take this one,' and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for.

The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end.

The third tree was cut into large pieces, and left alone in the dark.

The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams.

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and He stood and said 'Peace' and the Storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried theKing of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know thatGod has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, you are as close to Him as possible; and God will give you great gifts.

Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined.

We don't always know what God's plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always best.

Please keep this moving... pass it on, so God may inspire more people on the way.

May your day be blessed. And until we meet again, may God cradle you in the palm of His hand..


May you always have Love to Share,
Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!

I hope you had a good read =).

signing off~DE XIN