i was enchanted...

Over lunch at home, i channel surfed and decided to watch Enchanted because it looked entertaining and quite amusing... Little did i know that i would find such a gem of a song. It's a little sad, message-wise, but it's just the moment that captured my heart.

I had goosebumps while watching them dance but most of all, through listening to the way the song was sang. The tone of the singer's (Jon Mclaughlin) voice, the pitch, dynamics, the heartfelt emotion poured into it. (oh man, the actor guy, ok patrick dempsey, sang a bit of the song softly to her, it was SO SWEET. Augghhh....)



Ok, a version without the actors talking midway.



Lyrics (Music Video of Giselle and Robert dancing from Walt Disney's "Enchanted"):

You're in my arms
And all the world is calm
The music playing on for only two
So close together
And when I'm with you
So close to feeling alive

A life goes by
Romantic dreams will stop
So I bid mine goodbye and never knew
So close was waiting, waiting here with you
And now forever I know
All that I wanted to hold you
So close

So close to reaching that famous happy end
Almost believing this was not pretend
And now you're beside me and look how far we've come
So far we are so close How could I face the faceless days
If I should lose you now?
We're so close
To reaching that famous happy end
And almost believing this was not pretend
Let's go on dreaming for we know we are
So close
So close
And still so far

Part 2 of Home Cookout: Potato Gratin/Potato Bake

Just some of the ingredients... But i had more stuff sitting elsewhere. Like a packet of onion soup, cream, etc.
Slow fried (to caramelize) these yellow onions in a little olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Boiling the russet potatoes first before baking, otherwise it would take forever to bake and the cheese on top would burn to carbon!
Messy cross section. But just you wait! We have a potato base, onions, red and white cheese, chicken, ham, cream, dollops of butter, a sprinkle of salt, french onion soup.
The unbaked finished product. Topped with potatoes again, onions, mozarella chesse, coarse black pepper and mixed herbs.
Baking in zee oven!
Tadah!
Yummers. Everyone loved eet! For once, joline makes something that she didn't have to eat all by herself to finish it (like in most other cases because got no business from family members even...).

In future, i could add prawns, button mushrooms, red/green/yellow peppers and garlic. Muah hahaha...

Part 1 of Home Cookout: Strawberry Cheesecake

Was on a quest to reattempt to make my strawberry cheesecake for V to try. Also doubled up as dessert for Jun who was coming over for dinner.

Creaming the cheese manually with the sugar and gelatine mixture.
Poured the mixture over my biscuit base which i had prepared earlier and placed in the fridge.

There we go! Into the fridge to set for a while before i lay out the strawberries.

Ok, this dude is my proof that i used organic strawberries. I was washing the strawberries that i had bought about 2 days ago, when i turned a berry over to find this little dude still and not moving with all his legs hidden somewhere. I turned my attention away for a bit and when i returned to my berries, i was surprised to find that s/he was crawling fine and dandy about! So there. No pesticides, fresh organic strawberries with a ladybug thrown in. Took the liberty to snap pictures of the lovely little harmless creature.

After the cheese had set, i placed my strawberries in rows and then poured my jelly mixture over the whole thing. Jelly mixture is the pink liquid you see... Raspberry flavoured.

The finished product after setting in the fridge for a few hours to ensure it was ready! The pink is actually a deeper shade. The colour here looks a bit washed out.

Here you go! :oD

Stay tuned for part 2...

I need a break from life. Not that i want to temporarily cease to exist. I just want a life without having to go through the mandatory aspects of surviving in this world. Know what i mean.

wish i could clone him

he stuffed his own face between the pillows and it was just TOO cute! :oD

just one of the many times...

I have one of the nicest human beings in the world as my significant other. He is SO NICE to the point that it is almost inhuman.

Today, i was at Challenger and called him asking for his opinion about the prices of external hard drives and which brands were reliable. Instead of just letting me buy the stuff off the rack there and then, he offered to go down to the now ongoing PC Show at city hall where he knew there would be better deals. Like, he WANTED to make the effort to squeeze with the rest of geeky Singapore just to get me my stuff.

Not only did he help me purchase them on my behalf, he took the trouble to travel back to the west so that he could pass the stuff to me when he could have simply gone home (east side) first. And when he arrived back to the west, he waited an hour for me to be done with cell group. And it was already late, like 10+pm. O.o

Since i wasn't feeling too good (stupid driving simulator practice i had made me dizzy and queasy), he saw me all the way home (west) even when it meant that he couldn't take the train home (too late), which would've been much more convenient for him. Some guys would've just cared more about his own convenience and let the girlfriend go home on her own.

I did stop along the way to pick up some yoghurt though, and because i was having a hard time moving around quickly (so as not to further upset my dizzy head and throw up) and deciding (mental processes had slowed down to a crawl), he very willingly carried my bag and purchases for me, waited alongside me as i took AGES to decide on what to get. Not a single squeak or complaint from him to me to hurry up. Genuinely cheerful, supportive and caring for my needs as always.

I was already so thankful but when i reached home, he slipped a big packet of cookies into my plastic bag of electronics. :-)

God really put a HUGE, soft heart in this guy, it's unbelievable.

When a person has never gone through a certain lesson in life or have really felt how others felt in true empathy, they can only have an ideal idea of how things and people should be like.

As much as my heart does not wish to judge others, events of late has taught me never to assume and draw a boundary around the capabilities of a person based on who we know them to be personality-wise or what we think they are capable of doing.

You can never know a person in their entirety and humans are complex creatures.

So, i would appreciate it if you would pause for a moment to consider the weight of your words before telling me or others not to judge because you do not know what i or others have gone through. I have emphasized it to you and hopefully you have listened and heard the pain in my voice.

It hurt me to think that you think i judge others, but my aim has never been to judge people (my career choice forbids me to fyi). I may tell you in time to come what happened, and so you will understand.

Just know that while ideals are great if you can upkeep them, also remember that life is never ideal. I have tasted that in my own life. As i have already stated clearly to you, I simply have learnt not to be naive anymore regarding certain things and people. That is not tantamount to judging, i am simply just more aware.

A testimony for the sceptic, who is me.

We were outside one of the practice rooms waiting for a group of people to come out, when cheryl, my band's bass guitarist, shared with me and others around her that she woke up this morning with her hands red, swollen and painful and she had no idea why. And boy, were they really red, and swollen. In my mind, i was thinking: "should we pray...? sigh, don't want..." (my lazy, faithless human mind)

But my worship leader said, "come, lets pray for cheryl..." so we gathered around her and a few of us led outloud in prayer of healing for her hands. When 2-3 people were done praying, we looked at her hands again and saw that the redness had lessened but it was still swollen and painful. Usually, i remain quiet unless i feel that i have something to say but during a silent moment, Tomlin said, "I just feel that, joline, you should pray for cheryl. I asked God who else should and i saw your face... Just hold on to cheryl's whole finger."

I was of course stunned (more on that later, because i have some background info) but so i started out. I firstly declared that we have the holy spirit in us, and that allows us to do what Jesus could do in the past and therefore we have every ability of the holy spirit. I said to God, since you said you wanted to use me to bring healing to others, then this is what i'm asking for. With that, i just asked for healing for her hand and commanded the swelling and pain to leave. When we checked, the redness had gone down a little more but it was still swollen and painful.

By that time, it was time to enter the room for our pre-service prayer and so we decided to just trust God for the healing to come in time.

As usual, we started our time just singing and worshipping God... And for some reason, the prayer time we had was so intense. People were receiving words of affirmation of love and also God was telling us how He wants us to trust Him and His ways and to move along with His plans.

While worshipping, i suddenly had this strong urge to go over to cheryl on the other side of the room to pray again for her hands. At first i was like, "Nah... are you sure this is me just wanting to be altruistic or is this really God inspired?"

But then, my pastor had a vision of a mighty rushing river, but there were people standing by the side afraid to jump in. She felt God saying that the river was his holy spirit, and was saying to us to not be afraid to jump in because although it looks scary, he will never allow us to be hurt or killed but instead would lead us with His power.

At first i thought that did not make much sense to me but as i reflected on it, it DAWNED on me that: HEY. THIS IS EXACTLY what i am going through... (more on that later, as i said! :oD)

We started to sing the bridge of the song "Healer" and i was again stunned because we weren't spending the time praying for healing but rather we were just listening to God.

With the urge so strong to go over to Cheryl and with the final push/cue as they sang "Healer", i went over with both faith and fear in my heart. It occured to me that perhaps God was going to allow THIS time instead to show us His healing power. This was the moment.

To my surprise, two of my other friends also started to approach cheryl to pray for her. I was like, "oh. my. word". It was like, we were all prompted at the same time!

(i checked with Tomlin and he said that at that moment, he "sensed that something was coming". Cool huh?)

I decided to choose confidence over disbelief, and knelt in front of cheryl, held both her hands and started to pray with two of my friends as the rest sang and worshipped in their own way.

As the time came to a close when the music died down, i opened my eyes and cheryl and i smiled at one another... And she opened her hands and... There was NO MORE REDNESS, NO MORE SWELLING, AND BEST, NO MORE PAIN.

Those around us who saw us in a huddle asked if her hand still hurt and she said "There's no more pain!"

I myself could not believe it even when she showed me her hands and exclaimed, "See! Back to skinny fingers! You can see the bone!"

Ok, my faithless doubting mind always doesn't run far from me, i had to keep looking at her hand to see the difference... It was indeed back to normal. Earlier on, it was seriously red and swollen but now, the difference was STARK. Haha, i told her we should've taken a before and after photo...

I still have to say that God has to throw a brick at me at times. I am a very careful charismatic (the denomination) christian and i question and doubt a lot. Even with a miracle occurring before my very eyes, i could still ask myself whether it was really true and maybe there is a scientific reason for it, or maybe it was my friend's prayer (which is such a ridiculous thought because it is God's power and not who prayed that makes the difference) or whatever.

It's not that we can demand things out from God the Genie as and when we want to. Whatever happens or does not happen is God's choosing. Even if nothing visible happens, that is not the point. What matters is that i'm relying on a living God with whom i have a relationship with, prayer changes things in the invisible spiritual realm and I am simply choosing to step out in faith (and some inevitable fear of course) and exercising the bible's truth.

I know that what i saw and experienced was true and real. Nothing can take away the fact that it happened and that God partnered with me and my friends to pray and see the healing happen to bless my friend.

This incident has bolstered my faith and my resolve to continue in my walk with God despite the things happening around me. I am tired of being a quiet status quo christian. I am tired of being sceptical and jaded. I want to bring God's kingdom onto the streets. Yes, i am an imperfect, weak and flawed human being prone to going back to my old ways, but my Father God is neither of that. And that gives me all the reason to trust and move forward and bring destruction to barriers and obstacles, seen and unseen.

***

Background info will share in the next post or so.