It's the most wonderful time of the year

i rather like the feeling of the holiday season coming. even though this year's christmas doesn't feel quite as christmasy without the pre-holiday, without the daily bus rides into town, without the caroling practices.

on wednesday, sam and i decided to prepare our rather dead looking (and super messy) office for the festive season by trudging down to a strange part of singapore where flat buildings prevail. it felt a little like when i was living overseas, sans the winter coat. so just standing there post-shopping, one hand with ketchup&mustard laced ikea hotdog buns (yum) and the other hand with hot dilmah tea, talking about how we're glad strange and abnormal people have decided to congregate together at the epiphany office, thereby nullifying the anomalous nature of each of us, but yet still anomalies because we are still odd balls. (but happy to be one!) it felt almost like we weren't in singapore.

a couple of silly things happened again (strange attractors we are to such things):

1. ran like 2 kids screaming for our bus to stop and missed it by a whisker of a millisecond.
2. when asked whether he could inform us when he reached ikea, bus 58 driver laughs, "haha! i also don't know. it's my second day at work.^^"
3. got down 5 stops before we were due; GPS malfunction.
4. got on the same bus again to the amusement of other commuters.
5. the cardboard christmas tree which we wanted to get was sold out (thank God. $29 for fancy green cardboard!)
6. went to Giant to shop for sandwich day with a $50 voucher and intentions of getting real good ingredients for the next day (and wine, if we didn't hit 50!) but ended up with tons of processed food and overshooting our budget
7. paid in coins on the way back home and glanced at the driver. we catch each others' glances and pause for a second, then burst out laughing. his second day at work, working a round shift.
8. he exclaims "wah, enjoy ah!" at which i looked at him incredulously; i'm carrying 384 plastic bags with my spectacles slipping from my nose bridge and looking as though i might collapse any moment.

life is amusing.

soup, sausages, and pastrimi sandwiches on a cold thursday noon. it felt like christmas!

having a month long secret santa by playing secret penpals to find out each other's likes before christmas. we've been confusing each other by dropping candy and messages for everybody.

a post-it christmas tree! we're so cheapo hehe

orchids and heathers.

due to my mom's horticulture obsession of late, i decided to surprise her with this. i surprised myself by standing by the potted plant section for 10 minutes choosing the perfect orchids and having a conversation with sam and myself.

eh, these flowers look pretty, but they look diseased at the stems! (prod here and there.) eh, these are also pretty, but there only 5 flowers. (prod prod) there's 8 for this one, but the flowers not so nice leh. okay, i will get this one.                ..eh no maybe not. sigh,why do the stems look diseased! (prod) sigh! eh, this one abit sengeh. got character. okay, i will get this one.                   ..eh no maybe not. eh, this one got even more flowers. (prod) but so tiny. urggghhh!

after 10 minutes i felt like i was becoming just like my mom so i decided to make up my mind and be happy. i also decided not to let anality consume me by getting sam to pick out the heather flowers for me before i started comparing potted plants all over again.

after a while of walking around i glanced at my potted plants and they looked so perfect! that was when i suddenly realised, that's exactly how humans are like - potted plants. we're so perfect just the way we are, formed and made perfect in Christ. till we start to compare ourselves with others. but for our God-given strengths and spiritual gifts, are we willing to stop short-changing God for the wonderful blessings that He so readily pours into our lives, and start using them to glorify His name?

谢 - gonna live by what my surname pronounces!