It was my 1st time on a jet like that, and I thought if anyone who has catastrophic,  it will definitely be a challenge. As we got on the plane, we were offered some candy and cotton bud, I didn’t know why, but when the engine started, I knew the reason. The video below taken in the plane while the plane was taking off, the noise of the engine was pretty deafening if your ears are not ‘protected’.

Different from Kathmandu, the air in Pokhara is less polluted, as we touched down at the domestic airport, we could immediately sense the difference of the air quality. It was nice to be breathing fresh air after that brief moment at Kathmandu. We needed time to acclimatise our body to the higher altitude before our trek, we spent 2 days walking around the town and shop for our necessities for the next 10 days. Thank God that we had time to do that as I was puking and had diarrhea for 2 days since our flight from Singapore, hence, it was crucial that I had time to recover before the trek. Sure enough, I recovered and got well for the rest of the trip.

Coming up, I will be sharing more about our journey in the mountains.

As we prepared for check-in, we were met with the first heavyweight weighing machine where we stagged our backpacks on top of each other. Nothing like what we’ve since before, especially from where we come from, all of us were very intrigued by the functionality and the look of the weighing machines.

After the weighing was done, there was no belts for the backpacks to be transferred to the baggage loading, but there was a man who does it the manual way – the cart. All these by far, were nothing like we’ve seen before, as long as they work, be it the automatic way or manually, it doesn’t matter at all.

Lastly, before we head in to the departure hall, we met with the handwritten boarding pass for the domestic flight to Pokhara. You don’t see any seat number, all you’ve got is the flight number and the destination that you are heading to.

This is all for now, there will be records of our first experience on a 14-seater jet, where all of us got the aisle seat and the setting and landing experience included.

The supposed idea of solo traveling was dropped when a suggestion of extending the invitation to the cell group was brought up and the rest is history. A trip planned nearly 6 months back started when we sourced for cheaper air tickets and correspondence began with our travel agent in Nepal.

26 November came when we had to catch an early flight from Singapore to Bangkok, then to Kathmandu. Flying on Thai Airways for the first time, I was pretty pleased with their inflight service.

After 7 hours of flying, we finally arrived in Kathmandu International Airport,greeted by this banner – “Welcome to Nepal”, we knew we were beginning the exciting 15 days of our lives in this land.

Linked up with Gerald who arrived a day earlier than us, the group of 6 finally came together in a foreign land, and we received a traditional welcome by our travel agent, together we were introduced to our dear guide, Krishna. After settling some remaining administrative work, we left for our 3rd flight of the day to Pokhara, where we will be staying for 2 days before starting our trek.

Carbonara with Tiger Prawn

Beef Fettuccini with truffle oil

This lotus-inspired museum is definitely one of its kind, whenever I drive pass the highway, I will always take a second look at the structure. It’s just quite interesting how the structure look and it’s definitely another new place to visit.

I remember watching Titanic – the movie more than ten years back, with a romantic love story that weaved into the history of this great vessel that was built, a blockbuster of its time. All I knew was that this huge, apparently ‘unsinkable’ was built and sunk on her way through the Atlantic Ocean. I took immediate interest in the exhibition when Pei invited the cell along, as I was really interested in the history of Titanic, instead of reading thick books, I rather experience the journey.

Greeted by this huge image at the entrance, you will have an opportunity to take your photo with the vessel, and of course, at the end of the exhibition, you will be charged an exorbitant amount if you want to purchase the photo of yours, hence, I did not even bother with that, and went straight into the exhibition No photography allowed, hence, you have go experience it yourself.

At the entrance, you will be given a Boarding Pass, a replica of the original design. At the back of it recorded the details of the actual passenger onboard Titanic, and you will be able to find the passenger’s name at the memorial gallery to find out if he/she is alive or dead.

Entering the exhibition, you are brought through 9 galleries, where you experience with your six senses the Titanic. Besides seeing, reading and watching Titanic, you will be able to smell the ‘differences’ in Social Class, you get to feel and hear as you go along. I should not be revealing too much, go experience it yourselves.

A photo of us with our Boarding Passes, both of Pei and Sunny’s passengers did not survive but mine did, their passengers below the 3rd in Social Class and mine was 1st. At the memorial gallery, there is this wall with records of all the passsengers onboard Titanic and they were segmented according to the class they belonged to, it was quite apparent that there were more first class passengers who survived as compared to the third class passengers. Sociologically, it definitely speaks of the obvious – Class Stratification. Besides the point though, I believe it’s worthwhile to pay a visit to the Museum, walk through the journey of how Titanic was built and experience alittle of how class was so apparent in the olden days.

The Exhibition just opened and will run till end of April 2012, it’s definitely worthwhile to pay a visit. Details of the Exhibition can be found here. Tickets can be bought online on Sistic.com; also take advantage of the 20% discount available with OCBC Card.

¹⁴ But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

– Matthew 19:14

Soul Surfer is a true story based on a “Mermaid” born to a family of surfers in Hawaii and Bethany Hamilton is truly born to surf. At the age of 13, she was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark while surfing one day, you can read her story from here. From this biography, some discussions birthed forth between E & I, about God and about “willingness”. As talented as Bethany may be, with the lost of her arm, it was really difficult for her to go into the water and surf like before and the matter of fact is, it will never be the same again.

With one arm, it was difficult for her to go back to surfing but with her love and passion, she didn’t give up, yet she was discouraged, but during a trip to Phuket to help at the tsunami-struck area, it made her realize the dream that she was supposed to fulfill. Back home,  she had to invest twice the effort into surfing again takes alot of determination and discipline. Reminded by the sermon about Extreme Discipline that Pastor Khong spoke about yesterday, this story delivered the message perfectly.

Her talent in the waters may have brought her closer to her dreams of being a professional surfer, but God had a better plan. After this accident, she developed the extreme discipline, and with the determination to fulfill her dream, Bethany became an icon, inspiration to many. The discipline that she went through before the attack was nothing compared to what she had to go through from there onwards. Not everyone have to go through what Bethany went through, but I believe everyone is called to have extreme discipline in extreme discipleship.

It’s always a choice, the willingness to allow God to work in your life.

Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave - 1 Cor 9:26

Back to school to pick Ash up, as I looked towards the school, there were already parents/grandparents/helpers waiting anxiously for the children to be released from class.

Most of the kids take school bus home, you could see all the bus uncles and aunties systematically directing the kids up to the respective buses. Man, I don’t remember having such services when I was a kid, how fortunate it is being a child in this time and age.

…we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

1 Cor 12:18

Happy Birthday Zach!!!

It was a really nice date on my birthday, a mark of God’s blessing.

View slideshow of the day here

The ex-cum-present O met up for dinner, as all will be in Bali for wedding. Nice and quiet night of chatting & gossiping, the way I wanted. Social butterfly as others may viewed me to be, I have always prefer small group gatherings, nice and cozy, when everyone gets to talk.

It was a pity that I didn’t get to attend the wedding with them, prefer to spend birthday back home. But I’m sure all them had fun!

Fast forward to post affair, the neo gals met for lunch on Sunday and we had a fantastic time catching up and knowing more about each others’ lives. It’s just amazing how paths can cross, though we are at different places now, we are still in close contact. 4 years in Big O was definitely missed, with relationships build and when it’s more than just politics and work. Glad everyone is doing well, it’s really heartwarming to know that we can rely on each other too.

Courtesy of Cailing

This trip marked a level of this group of friends, down the memory lane. For many of us, we’ve walked through the journey of school days, first job, courtships and weddings together. I thank God for this friendship which I can celebrate and every moment is precious.

Things may change in the future, many will have kids and life stage will be different, but I pray that we’ll continue to stick together and continue to be this Sunday Dinner Group

I thank God that Sociology opened my eyes to see so many things that I was blinded from previously. Reflecting back, I began to recognize, shortly after I started the course, why Glen was worried about me studying this course and how those theories can really eliminate the existence of God altogether. Never have I doubted once about the existence of God, during my studies; instead, I give thanks to the Lord, because I am able to differentiate between theories and God’s words & works.

Anyhow, for this semester, it’s pretty tough as well, having to sit for three papers and no time to finish my revision. Coincidentally, Pastor Derek came to our church to teach about ‘Supernatural Healing’ and I was thinking of giving that a miss due to revision, but I realized that that was just an excuse, reason being, during that timing of the sessions, were my most non-productive time at revision. I had the tug in my heart that I have to be at the sessions to hear and guess what? I was so glad that I went! Not because it was about the Supernatural Healing that was being taught, but it’s the rekindling of the love for God’s Word once again. It’s not about the teaching, it’s about the Holy Spirit behind the teaching. It’s not about facts, it is about the Truth.

Something that I caught, which is what I really needed during this season – Faith & Holy Spirit. I re-read the materials again on Sunday and this was what I recorded in my journal

Faith is the state of Quiet Confidence in God, that He has spoken and will always stand behind His Word.

I am learning and will continue this journey, continuing the marathon of life, one that will not end until the Lord says so.

Similarly, foundation has a great impact in our lives, in every area, be it family, education, relationship and our walk with God. Foundation has a new meaning to me in recent days; especially when it comes to building a relationship. Back to basics, foundation in a relationship is about getting to know each other, starting from being friends and towards a common goal of building a relationship together. If a couple do not build a good foundation in their relationship, the journey would be challenging and like buildings with weak foundation, it will be unstable, especially when God is not the foundation of it.

Being in a relationship as a christian couple is like a love triangle – the couple and God. Since my foundation years as a believer, I have always been taught that – as we grow closer to God as an individual, we will grow closer to each other. This is a principle that I hold on to so closely that I want to practice it when I am in a relationship. In the last sentence of  the introduction of ‘Too Close Too Soon – avoiding the heartache of premature intimacy’ (this is one book that I may need to start reading) by Dr. Jim Tally and Dr. Dolly Reed, it reads

Care enough about your relationship to learn how it can be better.

The wise man said when we met -

It all depends how serious you are in this relationship.

I guess this sentence nailed it for me, every journey is a learning process and every process is determined by how serious you are. Personally, it is about having openness with each other as a couple and also going through the journey with the mentors through accountability. Purpose of accountability is not about restriction, but freedom – the freedom to share and pour out, the freedom to learn and the freedom to submit. And I thank God that I have not 1 pair, but 2 pairs of mentors whom I can go to for advice.

I would like to add, how much I want to better this relationship also depends on how much I surrender to the Lord. BFF told me before in the beginning of her courtship (12 years ago) with the husband, that Pastor told her this -

this relationship is a gift from the Lord, receive with open hands and if one day, the Lord chooses to take it away, release it freely.

I thought, that is easiest to just receive, but releasing it and surrendering is the most difficult. My prayer is that all Christian relationships will be one that is Godly, we have Jesus, that makes the difference. Being in a love triangle with Jesus is the best thing that can ever happen.

Good Friday is about the Love of God for me, though we celebrate Christmas for the birth of Christ, but Good Friday has greater meaning to us Christians, because it is about God, who came to earth and died for us. The truth is there is no perfect man in this world, except Jesus, perfect and sinless. The righteous died for us sinners, with God making a way for mortals, grace being uleashed for all those who believe.

Jesus never fails to amaze me by what He did and over and again, I’m grateful for this love displayed. Taken from Isaiah 53, this song written by one of my friends, sums it all up – ” Jesus died for me”. Hope you will be ministered by this.

He walked the road and He carried my cross

He laid His life, and He died to save the lost

He had no beauty, or majesty

A man of sorrow and familiar with suffering

God struck his son, For me, For me

What have I done to deserve love like this

Thank you Jesus, for dying for me on the cross.

As usual, we planned our trip way before, I started monitoring the opening of registration for Hong Kong marathon 2011. It is a pity that the girls couldn’t join us this year, so the boys and I continued with our training after Singapore Marathon. Especially excited, knowing that the cut-off time for the marathon was extended to 6 hours.

I had the super runner, Li Lian, as my roommate and her passion for running really inspired me. Befriending the group of sub-4 runners blew my mind too! I came to the race wanting to finish within the cut-off time, that was my goal. We were all fooled by last year’s weather, this year was especially cold, maintained at 12 degrees during our stay. Most of us won’t prepared for the weather at all, so we were panicking when we heard the weather forecast on the news. On race day, our run started at 6.45am and it started to drizzle as we crossed the starting point, thanking God that I bought the cheap windbreaker to keep the wind off and the rain. The weather was fantastic, as we run on, we discovered that our pace were much faster than our training pace and we got worried, afraid that we would not be able to sustain till the end.

At 21km, as we looked at our timing, we broke our personal best already, I was exhilarated, knowing that it is possible to break my PB for the full distance. As we ran on, I felt so much better, looking at the scenic Tsing Ma bridge leading to the airport and then back, it was breathe taking. What more, I was praying and talking to the Lord along the way, chatting with Him about the recent happenings and expressing to Him my gratefulness. As I hit 36km, I started slowing down, knowing that my cramp is coming, but I decided to press on, knowing that I can go under 5 hours for the full marathon. As I approached the finishing line, I was literally close to tears, knowing that it’s been achieved. I really thank God for being with me through this journey, I am forever grateful. Recollecting the memories, I am reminded of the verse on my blog as I ran the distance

…I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

1 Cor 9:26-27

Thank God for my first sub 5 record, mentally, it did break my paradigm that it is possible to improve my timing. I am already looking forward to Tokyo Marathon 2012. I really hope to be there for the race!