My Thanksgiving slash Costume slash Birthday Bash

Last Halloween night, I celebrated my 26th birthday and 2nd year in Singapore with a costume party. My actual birthday is on the 9th but I figured it would be fun to host a halloween party for my friends. I rented the betty davis room at the House in Dempsey Hill, a quiant place located just after Orchard Road and which shelters a line of restos, bars, spas, and food shops.

There's actually ongoing halloween parties everywhere that night, and that's when I learned that people here regard Halloween seriously. Hence, the costumes...

I even had gate crashers that night!

Introducing Mr. One-Night Stand...

and Mr. (Flat) Iron Man!

Of course, my friends and I came with our own numbers...

But more than having fun at our costume party, I consider that night as very special for I was able to share my testimony to all my friends on how God has been faithful and loving as I go through troughs and valleys within my two years of stay in Singapore.

I came here last 2007 looking for a job with less than a thousand US dollars in my wallet. I only have two friends back then - an officemate from Manila and a college friend who lent me his condo while he's travelling to Japan. I lost my job two times in less than a year and found myself to a point of no hope, not to mention no funds to even buy a plane ticket to return home. But my Heavenly Dad has blessed me beyond measure. From 2 friends, I now have more than a dozen...and counting! From a jobless girl without a laptop, I'm now a fairy with wings...haha!

If there's one most valuable thing I've learned that I can share, it would be that it's better to trust God than to trust on myself. I just want to thank and honor God for being a generous, loving, and a miracle-making Father! The ROCK rocks, indeed!

View more pictures of our halloween in Singapore in my Multiply site. :-)

Ready for my post-birthday, halloween party!

For my 26th birthday, I thought of celebrating it by throwing a thanksgiving slash costume party. And there is no better date to hold it than on a halloween night! I said to myself, I better do this now while I'm still young and there's an excuse to act goofy =)

I want to dress up as a fairy in all white and glittery drama. A fairy won't be one without wings, of course. But instead of buying a ready-made set, I decided to create my own. The wings I made are quite simple but I loved the result. I learned the how-to through a youtube video which I didn't exactly follow to the letter.

This is how I did my fairy wings:

I bought the materials needed: Flimsy (yes they have to so you can bend them easily) hangers as the frame, pliers to bend the 'wingbone', super glue, black or white tights (depends on what kind of fairy you want to be), ribbons, string, a pair of scissors, and tons of glitters.

First, I bended the hangers into an oval shape. This is the most difficult part of the task. I used two small hangers for the top part and two big ones for the bottom part.

Then, I connected the same-sized circles by tying the ends, which will be the central area of the full wings. After forming the ovals, I dressed them up with white tights.

I also tied the ends of the tights and pulled them down to make a snug fit. Then the fun part begins - putting glitters to make the wings oh so pretty! I don't have much time to be more creative with the design so I just did the simple circles. The feathers helped in glamming them up even more!

Total cost in sgd: $30. Not bad. I like that it's huge and covers my entire back.

Yay! Ready to strut and party.

Princess Alicia's multi-colored coat like Joseph's

Serving in Sunday School has actually been teaching me a lot more than what I'm supposed to be doing for the kids. Last Sunday was an example. In the crafts activity part, we're supposed to help the kids create a colorful vest that resembles that of Joseph, the favored son of Jacob. The materials given to them were, shall we say, recycled - cut-out colored papers, plastic (Fairprice) grocery bags with holes for the arms, and staple wires to form an improvised vest. Um, not exciting at all! Well, for me, that is.

So I was surprised to find the girls in my group scrambled to choose different colored papers for their vest. They chose the combination of colors with infectious enthusiasm and glee! After the activity, I helped the girls put on their 'robe' and exclaimed an appreciative wow to encourage them to wear something I thought was not eyecandy at all.

But lo and behold, the girls loved them! Alicia who's in the picture placed stamp marks all over her vest to mark her ownership and proudy showed her mom our masterpiece. She was grinning ear to ear as she models the makeshift multi-colored coat. My heart became undone.

Clearly I've become jaded. I no longer see and feel like Alicia and the rest of the girls do.
I have grown up.

But it takes a child's teachable and modest spirit to produce this epiphany.
May I re/learn to wear the coat of the present with pure contentment, infectious enthusiasm, and unassuming heart like it is the best I could ever have. May my heart never grows dull and jaded and unappreciative of the little things that matter.

It's Monday and I got the blues...

I’m sensing that dreaded feeling at the pit of my tummy again. Perhaps it’s caused by the weather, or maybe I’ve had an overdose of melancholy songs repeatedly playing in my ipod. Shrugs…
I was browsing through an old journal and came across this entry from last year. Apparently, I copied this from a book I read somewhere (Max Lucado’s, I think).

The sad question is, am I moving forward:
 Life is full of wonderful and terrific opportunities beyond your wildest dreams.
Don't stop dreaming. 
Don’t stop seeking God for His divine appointments.
Live life with moments that take your breath away.
Don’t put your life on hold.
Embrace life knowing God has a plan even when you don’t always understand or see it.
Embrace His Word even when life doesn’t make sense.
Press on.

All in a day's work

How bimbo can I get?!?! Had a good laugh (and mentally kicked myself) today because of this.

Heads up: I was apologizing to boss because I was slow to pick up his complicated (not!) instruction... then i misspelt something which made the ensuing email exchange hilarious!

Note: Pls click on pic to read print screen.

Jules to Boss: It dawned on me just now...what you asked me to do..

Your slowpope,
Jules

Boss to Jules: No worries, Ms. Pope....

Jules to Boss: Er - slowpoKe... (Sheesh)

Boss: OK.. I thought it was some sort of Filipino Catholic thing ... :ob

Hahahha I should submit this to Reader's Digest, no?

John Wiley's Charity Run

A global publishing group John Wiley & Sons (which I'm proud to be part of) is raising money for children in Nepal. Run For A Dream is a charity event that Wiley arranged with Mitrataa Foundation to build an education center for Nepalese kids. How cool is that?

Thanks to Ria who accompanied me. This is our jabar moment while walking not running hehe

We got tired so we rented bikes hihihihi

Nepal was featured in Travel and Living a couple of months back and I've never known it was that beautiful! I would love to go on a mission trip if only I have the moolahs to spare. One trip can cost as much as USD3000! There's no direct flight because it's way up in the mountains, but we're really hoping that our effort would go a long way and make a difference.

Not that much but great effort =)

Check out the dream centers of the foundation: http://www.mitrataa.org/

@25, do things that you won't be able to (aptly) when you're married or older...

I stumbled upon a journal entry I wrote a few months back, just when I turned 25. I thought it might be good to post this so I could laugh about this sometime later :-):

1. Wear youthful, funky clothes.

2. Colour your hair purple. Or red. Or blonde. Wuddever.

3. Get a tattoo (?) - I scrapped this idea the moment I read Leviticus 19:28

4. Adopt a weird and cool hobby. We're going diving next month. Woohoo!

5. Make a LOT MORE mistakes BUT learn EXTENSIVELY.

6. Eat junk food and all those unhealthy stuff your young body can still manage.

7. Learn another language, a new skill or two. Playing air guitar, perhaps?

8. Indulge yourself with luxuries and guilty pleasures.

9. Read chick lits and more of those Judith McNaughts. Seriously?

10. Collect cute, little girly stuff.

11. Paint your room fuschia pink.

12. Study again. Ok ok, I'm retaking my gmat!

13. $ave. $ave. $ave.

14. Bless other people with your earnings. Give extravagant gifts to fam.

15. Invest on jewelry and quality finds.

16. Volunteer in charity orgs. Go for mission trips. Yebaah!

17. Write poems and rave about shallow things. Even oldies do these.

18. Go back-packing alone and soak in everything you encounter.

19. Go out on dates with God and listen.

20. Learn the art of being a true Princess ;)

Can i just rant?

At school, they tried to empower us; they've built us up, but only to be trampled upon and stepped on in the corporate world.

I want to move on right now; therefore I would not elaborate. Grrrrrrrr!

Yayas' Day Off on Labor Day

I had a fantabulous time riding the enormous waves in Bintan, Indonesia with Nipsy and Jo. For the long weekend, we decided to hop in a 50-minute ferry ride to Bintan Island from Singapore's Tanah Merah port.

We really loved the room - it was pretty!

We had the most sumptuous buffet, great worship time (although it rained after singing songs), much needed rest (?), 'juicy conversations' about crazy celebrities (thanks for the heads up, jo!), nerve-wracking (for me) adventure with the Indonesian officer, and 100% girly fun. haha

We woke up at 6am to catch the sunrise and worship our one true Love. It was really a great time of fellowship and expression of gratitude for our King :)

Out of tune with our morning voices, but the praises came from our hearts!

5-star hotel but 3-star beach, nothing beats Boracay still...

Kenneth Cobonpue (Cebu, Philippines) furniture all over the hotel!

Ivy's Farewell

My room mate just left Singapore. Tear! Ivy wanted to take a rest from her inconsiderate (I'm already being kind) boss and get married. Sigh! Her prince finally found her and I couldn't have been happier for her. But I'm really going to miss our late night chats, rants about demanding bosses, and raves about shopping and the glittery things we spent our incomes on. Yet, I believe there's a time and season for everything. And the season for love has arrived. Nuks.

Sheryl, Ate Ethel, Sokee and I bid her goodbye last night as we all went all the way to Changi to spend one last time with her. Some of Ivy's friends were also there.

It will sure be going to get a lot lonelier now... I'm looking forward to a new room mate though. Any takers?