jus had cell grp. it was great. thank God for the chance and LOTS of time at work today to do a final wrap up of my sharing today. it was indeed good to do a wrap up. so i have my tots organised and everything planned out. lyk the pointers, references and the qns to ask. thinkin of the qns to ask is definitely not easy...

and i'm glad there was a chance today for alvin to read a chapter of the guidance book evelyn gave me, which i brought for reference. i was surprised yet grateful to God. and i'm glad it brought in another perspective for him to think about (i hope). and i'm more grateful for his sharing to me about wad he believes in. to me, it's something new and different. haha. everytime i tok to non-christians abt religion, hearing their views and beliefs jus wows me. having no such thoughts myself, i'm really thankful tat God gave me a chance to see how they feel and think. though it's hard for me to say anything after that, it becomes a challenge, then, not to rely on oneself but on the Holy Spirit.

anyway, at cell, i tried my best. separated the passage jus lyk wad kah hwee did the last time and for easy sharing. then, okay lor. at least they responded though most of the time, the adults always get it right at the first try. and aunty gh felt sleepy..i'm sorry. but well, at least this time, i can drive home better the points i wish to bring out...i din manage to finish wad i wanna teach. left one small section. so i'm still leading the nxt session. oops. oh well. kinda expected it.

wanna say thanks to zhi wen. walked arnd with me in clementi today. first, it was the donuts where he waited for me while i choose 6 pieces! and they were really affordable. 6 for $6. decided to buy since i was earning. can't always let the adults treat me to supper. second, went to buy the mixing powder of brownies tat we are goin to bake tml! walking down the aisle finding where it's located. not easy. and there are not many choices either. third, accompanying me to find that beganwan solo shop and it made us go one big round cos we "mis-tot" which Mac's kah hwee was mentioning. well, we walked until quite late..arnd 645pm i guess. thanks lots!

so. okay. let's turn the clock back more. V-day was nice. one of the rare times i celebrate it with a guy. in fact, if i'm not wrong, it's my 2nd. last time, i always celebrate it with frens. either with sh and yw or with my JC1 first intake class (i still rmb tat..the fun we had). only at J2 did i not celebrate it. so i did have my share of loneliness. but this year, 2008, it's nice. wonderful, in fact. dropped super big hints to the guy and finally, only when i gave a scenerio kinda qn did he ask me out. haha. call me mean if you want. but it was still sweet.

then, it was the time of choosing the restaurant. having jus came out of NS and not knowing many restaurants (tat's wad he said. so quoting from him ONLY), there was a bit of trouble. so in the end, i checked out the PA discounts thinking i may have discounts. but well, at least it gave me/us some ideas of where to eat. so we finally settled for CHIJMES! yay!

it's totally awesome! cos i wanted to explore the place after seeing the photos cousin eric took when he came to spore. i wonder if CHIJMES really looked tat nice. so i was very happy tat there is a chance to go there. besides, it's my 2nd time there! the first was with evelyn and le jing at Sun with Moon restaurant. so after seeing the menus, we ate at Le Baroque. din want the V-day meal and jus chose the ala carte ones. prior to that, we were already looking at the menu on the net while deciding on the restaurants. haha. so we arrived there early at arnd 6.30pm plus. and dinner came arnd 7.10pm. glad they admitted us though we din make any reservations. he gave me a lovely necklace too! =))

the scenery was really nice. in front of me was the chijmes hall so can see a view tat eric took a photo of, i think. it's nice. i wish he was sitting at my seat to see that view too. and the half moon was in the sky above us! lovely! fountain was in front of us on the same level. so you can guess we sat on the outside. i feared ppl who smokes will be situated near us and true enough, there was a guy who was smokin sitting beside us. we requested a change of seats but to no avail. boo.

anyway, we had a great time while waiting for the food to come. great chats. and i dunno wad had gotten into me but i was blabbering away! not talking as in talking rubbish but was telling him alot abt myself and opinions on issues in the world arnd us etc. but i did so much talking. i felt so bad halfway thru, and even now, tat i talked so much such that i wonder if he got an opportunity to tok when he really wanted to. reminds me of last time khalis and i...anyway, our orders came soon. at least faster than i'd expected. bbq pork ribs and steak. mine and his respectively.

and boy! does my pork ribs bones look lyk 5 fingers after all the meat had been eaten up! haha. wad's more, they din detach all the bones..they are connected by some tendon/soft bone. so it looks lyk the ball of our palms. haha. okay. but the food tasted great! superb! but the company is better! talked alot ALOT again. jus abt anything under the sun. laughing and smiling all the way. and the least of wad i expected happened. we had a candlelight dinner. literally. a small candle was about all that provided the light on that table. a unique experience.

plus, there was a great music at the background! cos there was song dedication at the Lawn. the singers were really great! so professional and hit the right notes! the songs themselves was nice too! soothing and suits the event..calming and peaceful and puts love in the air...atmosphere was nice! indeed a high-class, romantic place...

oh. but there were irriatating things too. when we asked for plain water, the waiter gave us a choice of sparkling wine and we-dunno-wad-cos-we-can't-hear-clearly. so we ordered sparkling wine. and i can't believe one bottle jus fills up both of our glasses! so we only have that one glass to last us through the whole dinner! the second irritating thing is tat i kept feeling intruded by that waiter. i kept feeling that he was lookin over my shoulder whenever he stands beside me. but my fren said that the waiter was jus lookin at the other customers. haha. third irritating thing: the bill part! we din even ask for the bill and it came! hey! why are you chasing us off?? then, i'd to quickly finish off that glass of wine in big gulps. so unpleasant and choking. okay. i think i'd better stop here.

overall, dinner was pleasant. a place i wld still go back to. but me being me, i'll try all the other places first instead. i wonder if i'll have the capability and have frens to go with to try all the restaurants in CHIJMES in my lifetime...and interestingly enough, looking arnd me during dinner, i noticed we were one of the youngest couples sitting arnd there...and i began to think of wad reality is hitting in my face with. "why are you eating in such a high class place when you aren't even earning as much as them? aiyo. sharon arh. are you overspending again? shld you even be here? why are you here at CHIJMES?!?! you very rich arh?" sigh. was it a mistake? am i really overspending? i dunno. perhaps i really did go chijmes in the spur of the moment..to want another taste of it..before it's time? is there such thing as the right time in this issue??

so after that, started to explore and walk arnd the place. to the lawn, the corridor of shops that are closed, chijmes hall, studying the architecture, goin up the stairs, looking at the other restaurants...nice exploration. and i wonder if ppl can hold weddings at the chijmes hall. i think they can but it'll be very expensive. had a cheeky tot of holding my wedding there nxt time but of course, it wun happen. prefer it to be at a church that is familiar and closer to our hearts. but chijmes is a nice place to take wedding photos at! esp since the green land is gone cos IR is building there! i wonder why i hardly hear ppl taking wedding photos there at chijmes..i think i'll do mine there! haha. okay. i'm day-dreaming. wait till i get a bf and one who's serious then i'll talk abt this. lol.

oh oh. and we found out that the live band that was playing all the song dedications was actually 2 singers. a lady and a gentleman. and the gentleman was playing the guitar. he plays duo roles..both singing and playing. the 2 of them took turns to sing and the dedication msg was typed out and shown on the screen beside them. so sweet. i wonder how much they charge. the singers' voices are strong and good! terrific! =))

so after walking chijmes, i wanted to take a photo with him. though neither of us brought a digital camera, i tot of using our HP to take. but he din want to. he said it was weird. okay lor. so we left and headed down a street neither of us walked b4. towards raffles city shopping centre. it was 930pm then. i was debating if we shld go back alr. but i was really very reluctant to leave. the night seems so young. but part of it is to blame my eating slowly and taking time to get all the meat outta the bones. haha.

but anyway, we headed down to esplanade. checked out a little on the small play-ring there. i wanted to go and play lah. but after looking at it a bit, and judging frm the time on the watch, i decided not to go. the rides looked childish too. so went into esp so we can go to the bus stop to take 960. looked at the art exhibition a bit but was very disappointed with the lousy write up. not much on the works themselves. then, headed to bus stop and took the bus home. passed by chijmes again. so it's lyk we purposely walked to esp to take the bus home. haha. sounds stupid. if only time was on our side and then, perhaps we can walk arnd esp..be it downstairs by the river or upstairs at the rooftop...

i think he was tired on the way home. he din talk much. and so i jus kept quiet too. no point in me talking again when i'd talked so much already. besides, i think he needed rest. so the whole trip back was silent except for the part on discussing our nxt meet-up :) but he was nice. he sent me home still though he can actually walk home frm the bus stop we both alighted from. tat was sweet. haha. and call me a thinker, i was thinking abt this nights before that. lol. on the way home, i had a battle btw my heart and my mind and in the end my heart won. but when reality strucks, nothing happened. i wanted to give him a thank-you cum good-bye hug but din. haha. part of me wished i did but part of me was grateful i din. i think the latter outweighs the former, come to think of it now. i dun think i wld have the courage to face wadever consequences that comes if i did so.

so, anyway, reached home arnd 1050pm. was quite sad to find out that mum fell sick and was already slping. dad was non-chalent as usual. and boy seems to be non-chalent too. sigh. so neither of them questioned why i reached home ;ater than usual...

ok. on the last detail of V-day, i received 2 bouquets of flowers! one from alvin and another from jia wen. jia wen also gave me a card tat shocked me. first, he wrote his name super big in the front of the envelope. never seen the sender's name in the front b4. but he's rational was interesting: "so you'll rmb i gave you the card". so funny. then, i requested him to write the word "from" at the top too. haha. second was his long long letter to me. i was so surprised he can write so much. haha. well, alvin gave me real flowers, pink roses (i was so happy to receive roses! they are my favourite!), so i carried that out to dinner that night. and so i can transfer them and water them at home. haha.

it was really nice to be able to carry flowers out. i've never carried them out for long hours b4 and everytime i see gals carrying a bouquet of flowers, be it on V-day or not, i wld get jealous. haha. so i'm really glad i was able to carry one out that day! feel so proud man. haha. i think i sound crazy with my imaginations and fantasies again. lol. but hey. I LOVE FLOWERS!!

i rmb how alvin and jia wen kept saying tat they were so embarrassed buying the flowers, bringing the flowers home and bringing the flowers to office. lol. well, there's always a first time to all these. but i was laughing while hearing their stories. haha. but well, it's was still nice. i also felt quite bad. they spent so much time and effort in this jus to make me happy or fulfil that little gal's request. man. i think i was too much when i acted lyk a little gal requesting for flowers or something frm them on v-day. crazy me.

okay. so to wrap it up, jus wanna thank that guy for making my night memorable and special! it'll always be etched in my mind and stay in my memory lane! and i believe that everytime i step into CHIJMES or think abt it, i'll rmb that night we had together. also wanna thank my colleagues: Zhi Wen, Jia Wen, Yi Chen and Alvin for all your gifts! esp when you guys commented on my dressing and make-up. i still rmb wad yichen said after i'd put on the make-up, "you look nice. your face is glowing". haha. i was shocked to hear that. din expect it outta yichen. and i rmb wad zw said on the bus that we were on tgt, "your dressing looks...wow (mouth-ing the word)". haha. and tat was jus one of the many compliments he gave me tat day. haha. imagine tat! ain't i blessed? =) also to my frens who greeted me with happy v-day: khalis, le jing, charles, conray (which is totally unexpected), deborah, alison....

14.02.08 I won't forget this date!