August 15th, 2006

Just got back from my 2-week trip to KL. Did a 2-week stint at SKRINE- one's Msia's leading law firms. Location's right down the road from my grandma's house, and opposite HELP, so i had a good time meeting tien, Yue Hua and Jean studying there :)

Anyways. I had to wear stuffy clothes and use mom's handbag *grin*- i think Yue Hua almost fainted or laughed herself mad when she saw me *winch*. All in all, it was an invaluable experience. There were 7 attachment students and we seem to get along well ( there's even a guy born and bred in paris!), and my supervisor's lovely and a christian. Found out when she took me out for lunch on my first day there:)

I was in the Intellectual Property department- which deals with trademarks, patents etc. I got to draft some letters to client, prepare a court hearing case, and even got to go to court to see Dr M's legal adviser in action against SKRINE's lawyers! Also got an invitation to see The 'Right Honourable Justice Anthony Kennedy' of the U.S Supreme Court deliver his talk at the Sultan Azlan SHah's 20th Law Lecture, with the Sultans of Perak, Pahang, and Johor present.

But however how 'wow' the above might sound, i think what i truly treasure the most was time with my grandma and my aunt/uncle. Grandma and I clashed when i was 18- I'd be out on a date, or wanting to go to one, and grandma was always 'in the way'. Prolly cus we're both stubborn- so we clashed. But funnily enough, this time,  although initially i called jing up and moaned 'annoying' at the beginning cus i didnt have enuf 'space', grandma and i got on well after a while. Kinda missing her now

My aunt just became a christian 2 months ago. We had time for a girly chat one sunday afternoon, and its encouraging to see her grow in her faith. I'm really glad they've got a 'niche' in their KL church, glad that they have godly people to support them (i met their friends- really lovely people).

Was reading something last night, about how Jesus made personal relationships his priority, and its good for us to emulate. Also in Phillippians, where Paul urges them to be Christ-minded, in that if we were comforted by Christ's love etc- so we are to do the same to others. Thats a high calling and a challenge, aint it?- to be willing to be hurt and to be willing to share other people's pain, to be there for them even at our expense- without expecting to gain anything in return.

Posted by janicetay at 06:31 AM | Add a Comment

July 7th, 2006

Suffolk

Just got back from a week at the beach with my UK church girlies. The female student workers have a tradition of bringing second years to the beach annually, whilst going thru a book. This year- it was Don Carson- A guide to Spiritual Reformation. Great book for prayer. i truly recommend it:D... didnt understand the importance of prayer till i read it

 

A michevious whim made me try to get as 'black' as possible, bearing in mind the cultural gulf of 'beauty' btw asians and whites. i prolly expected gasps of horror when i touched down kl. Sad to say, when i proudly presented myself to mom and dad, mom nonchalantly said that i was ONLY 'slightly' darker- how disappointing!

Anyways. i dont envy the english for their beaches. *shakes head*. their sand is mixed with pebbles (below), their seaweek is 'pebbly', and there's no shade. worse and funniest was the sea- ice-cold!!! like the lunatic i was- (cant believe a person going to a beach would not swim)- i braved the sea about 4 times-each time we went...and when we left, i has a slight cold. I think the granny and grandad from the first day laughed to see us- literally tiptoeing in, stopping, shivering, shrieking, then going another step in! Most of my friends preferred sleeping on the beach, enjoying the sun.

 

i had loads of fun, and learnt lessons i hope ill put into practice... We stayed at a lovely house in a village called Walberswick, and we alternate btw Walsberwick and Southwold (another village nearby) . the whole thing was pretty relaxed. it was great meeting new friends from church and wholly new experiences- eg toasting marshmallows, playing cranium (brit game), learning how to cook british food, swimming the english territories and patting a curious shaggy mutt ...crabbing deserves some explanation and was great fun. literally, go to a bridge, put some bacon on string, lower it to the bottom, and greedy big crabs will cling on to it while you pull the string up! we caught about 50+ of them in less than an hour!

pics below for shien/ shyen:

Reading Week STAG girlies!

the English beach! vast amounts of open spaces, no shade (trees) at all so ppl bring those blue plastic things

close-up of that pebbly shore

weird English seaweed (unlike our 'grassy types')

Beach-houses! (small) apparently they have a kitchen inside to cook/ have parties

CRABBING BRIDGE!!!!! check out the sea-gulls! they flew so close to me, it was beautiful!

Vicky (my crabbing partner) and I- we took turns with the line with the hook, and a net in case the crabs fall off

The harbour at Walberswick (village we stayed in)

Below: our groupings for CRANIUM!

 

 

Thanks mumdad for the lovely week!

Posted by janicetay at 04:36 PM | Add a Comment

June 19th, 2006

 after exams. finally!its nice to be 'normal' again- to feel that ur not running against time. nice hanging out with friends and knowing we dont have to rush off/ cut time

my college fam has deserted me :D i understand the feeling tho. funny how i planned my time before term started to hang around in cambridge/ go here and there/ do this and that- and after exams, u just want to go home. oh well. im stuck here until the 2nd of july. loads of may week events/ garden parties/ friends get-togethers this week, and next is a week at the beach- ought to be good.

DD has left (my german erasmus college son). He was only here for a year, but am gonna miss him loads. jooch was right when she said in the midst of exams- somehow God blessed friendships- theres more bonding than ever was during normal term. Exams werent too bad this time, i didnt stress-eat, which was amazing- Zip and I conclude that it was the company we were keeping.We all went mad together during exams (stress im sure), and there was a lot of laughter.

Below are the pics of his last day as a cambridge student: 1st pic- the college family, and the ones below of us drawing personal jokes/ msgs/ all our nicknames- on a shirt for him.

*edits*

i forgot to mention. our fabric paints did not arrive by post in time, so we used our make-up *grin*/ sun-block sticks and wuteva caught our eye. Makeup has now an extra dimension for me.

 

Posted by janicetay at 04:03 PM | Add a Comment

May 24th, 2006

got sick of my face pic. :D hair's growing longer so doesnt quite look the same

 

ever wonder what drives u? what makes u do the things u do, feel the way u feel- that forms ideas/ theories into hard-core 'discriminations'/ beliefs? *shrug*. i think i might have just given up trying to understand myself. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful, i.e. even if u think ur doing something for a particular reason... fact prolly is- ur doing it for another reason.

Exams start next week. hm. I dont quite feel it yet. I'm not 100% ready. Easter really helped... when i went home and buried my head in the books- literally. What do u feel when ur faced with verses 'wisdom of man is foolishness in God's sight'? I dont quite understand how the balance work. Aiming to have God's view is an admirable trait, yet it seems like there's a discrepancy in a way- i.e. some verses means 'literal' action, yet some not. argh. im crapping

 

anyways. ill be back early july. plan to play around with jared, do a law attachment in august, then travel with my 'college family' to their home countries- i.e. Finland, Germany, poss Italy. Groovy? Yea. .. I'd miss work tho. (oh yea, im a nerd)... its strange how much im enjoying work. Cus of exams.. ive cut down my 'nonsense' (*grin*), with the effect ive got oodles of time to chill in the library and read up on law... and surprise surprise= i actually enjoy myself and regret not reading the arguments earlier to think it through and reflect (man im a nerd). Law is beautiful. Love reading about it on BBC everyday- how it intertwines in our daily life. Wonder what area of law id do in the future.am going to be sad that my current subjects are 'ending' in 3 weeks. and now, i better stop before i sound sadder

 

lil bro has been contacting me about his dog. (we've got a new pup called 'Doggie'). She looks really sweet, i didnt get a chance to see her face to dogface tho. Bought lil bro a book on training pups... and instead of 'sit'.. he's taught her to 'swim'!  i was highly dubious when red called me the other day, to tell me Doggie's been learning breaststroke and is 'eager' to swim and 'protests' when Jared takes her out. Keep asking him to affirm what he said. Mum finally sent me a video of Doggie 'enjoying' her swim. Verdict? I think Doggie is  being tortured. If Doggie was a human...she would be able to claim that her human rights were violated (ek law again--- switch switch!). BUT she's not... and pity her cus I'm SURE jared thinks she's enjoying it.. and is dumping her into the waterfall everyday! and gives her NO CHOICE! and the worse bit is- he BELIEVES she likes it, hence puts her in even more!

Dad just told me jared and his friend threw his friend's dog into the waterfall the other day.... *shakes head*

 oh. hi to everyone in my chat box :) have reaLLY NOT been visiting my site for ages. practically forgot all about it.  i am practically oozing law out from my ears. Da Vinci Code, Gary?  If u think about it in a bad way- loads of ppl accept it cus they're glad to have an excuse to disclaim chrsitianity, but then they'd prolly do it anyways on a 'passive' basis. Me? I think its a good opportunity= to prove Christianity is based on real facts= hence is not subjective and based on humanity's whim. There's opportunities for broaching the subject. I also think its good for the Christians= challenge them as to what they really believe in, and urge them to stand up for it once they've made up their minds.

Posted by janicetay at 10:46 PM | Add a Comment

April 2nd, 2006

STAG's Great Escape

forgot that i had a blog again*sheepish* till dad talked about it, so its about time i updated.

 

am now back in ipoh for a lil more than 3 weeks. easter break. was very apprehensive that i wouldnt be able to study at home compared to in cam. (u know, fam, tv, friends, movies etc), but so far the 1st week has gone pretty well in terms of work. am praying it continues cus exams are looming ....

 

just got back from my uk church's student houseparty (i.e.  'camp', but in a house). there are 2 groups who go. i went for the 1st, then stayed back to cook for the next group with a team of 4.

there's truth in what jesus says, but i find it really hard to want to do it, if u get what i mean, cus it so contrary to human nature. for example, to God- its a blessing to serve others, yet its contrary to our human nature of always putting ourselves first. but yet, when u do it- u find out what God says is true, and so much better than u envisaged possible

i think serving with the team of 4 was one of the best moments of my life. there's joy in serving... and serving together actually meant we got to know each other better- fast. we even had cook's bible studies every evening! and i think the team's characters compliment each other... there's dav who's our leader-wise, droll and very musical, dav jones -mischief maker who really can make me laugh and who'se music taste i do admire, amy who i got to know really well and who was my roomate (feel like she's my sis now), and tim, who's really sweet and obliging.

 

the cooks of GE2

part of my bible-study group in GE1

part of my bible-study group in GE1

 dav jones- wanted to play a prank on the student team@ the houseparty (he wanted to wheeled out as a 'appreciation gift to the ladies!!!!' and amy was testing the 'wheeling out

Letton Hall

part of beautiful Letton Hall in Norfolk where we had the houseparty

Dolphin Court- the place where we had our sessions and sleeping-place for the guys

Posted by janicetay at 08:34 AM | Add a Comment
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