22.

"It's not every day you turn 22."

But it didn't really feel like a special day in particular, the day I turned 22. It was in the midst of SUAD rehearsals, and to be honest, I was pretty sure everyone forgot/wouldn't have time to celebrate for me. So I didn't expect anything. 

Boy, was I proven wrong. :)

The day before The Day, Mum took me out for lunch :) We got off to a rough start, because I overslept after crashing from a long day of rehearsals, and she HATES waiting. :/ We got off to a somewhat rough end as well when I dropped my transponder in her car and she had to drive back to pass it to me. 

(sometimes I think I was put on this earth to test my mother to her limits :x)

Nevertheless, we had a lovely lunch and spent some quality time together :)

At Blast! Class that same day, sweet Sabbie surprised me with a cake after class! :D Pat was really nice and sweet to prevent people from leaving before the birthday song too lol. Thank you, my Blast! family :) And EXTRA thanks and love to Sabbie for remembering and for always being a sweetie to me. I love talking to you and hanging out with you, and I really appreciate your insights into everything, how you're such a smart person and mature friend. :) It's always lovely to have you around.

I seem to have a knack for ruining cakes. :/

RANXM and Yanxin also gave me a shock in my room (which was really messy and had underwear hanging EVERYWHERE) with a cake and a pretty bag as a present!!! :D I heard they panicked when Yanxin asked them how they were gonna celebrate my birthday LOL. They are such sweeties, especially Yanxin who remembered... ^_^ I'm so thankful to them for taking the time to come down and surprise me slightly past midnight and get me a cake and how they are always there for me and how they always make laugh GAHHH. YOU GUYS. *sniff*

And I had a lovely birthday dinner with Jiayi on The Day itself :) The lovely girl treated me to all my favourite Ameen food! I love spending quality time with her and just talking about life and everything. She's an amazing person, and she always cares for me, and can relate on so many levels with me omg Jiayi thank you for all the support and love and care always. ^_^

And finally, my third cake :P (although I didn't actually get to eat any of this one haha) from dear Zhiwen! My choreographer and fellow ex co-captain! :) Thank you for the amazing item and for the concern and support always, and for being such a sweetie and making my birthday card and buying me a cake. =^_^= Totally didn't see it coming! hehe.

***

thank you everyone for making that day such a special day for me! :) So thankful to everyone for all the wishes and food and MOST OF ALL, for the LOVE and TIME SPENT with me. :)

I have come to realise that that's the most precious gift I could ever receive on my birthday. :)

Thank you dear Lord, for all the love and for the blessed people you put in my life. 

You are the reason we live. :)

❤ ❤ ❤

R! Recital Reflections.

Well it's been awhile since R! recital, and I meant to write a reflective post just after the Recital was over when everything is still fresh in my mind and the feelings still burn strong. But schoolwork and SUAD rehearsals and a thousand other things that i can refer to as excuses got in the way, and here I am, several weeks later, about to reminisce an experience that I really feel blessed to have been a part of.

Being in an external recital is really different from being in Blast! concerts. I wouldn't say which is a "better" experience, because I believe both have perks of their own. This recital has been especially gruelling because rehearsals for it were amid SUAD pracs, and our rehearsals always started at 10.30PM! @__@ naturally this meant that by the time we were done, it would be around 1-2AM, and we would have to take the dreaded Night Riders home. By the time I got home, it was usually past 3. It was....exhausting.

Nevertheless, no matter how tiring (and how last-minute it got toward the end) pracs were, I can safely say that I don't regret ever taking it up. :) I've learnt so much from Amsyar and fellow dancers along the way. I believe there's always something to be learnt, no matter what situation or opportunity you're in. :) 

what's more, I made new friends who share a common passion for dance, and got to know others I already knew from a different kind of viewpoint. :) It's really been eye-opening for me.

Not to mention, I really felt love from the supporters, who came all the way down to support me even though I was only dancing in ONE item. I'm so thankful for these friends, and to the God that let me meet them and gain a close relationship with each of them. This kind of love is irreplaceable.

 

***

In other matters, I ended up randomly doing a show at the Indoor Stadium for a community event! LOL. Here are some adorable and energetic old folks demonstrating Taichi to trance music!

In between breaks, I decided to make productive use of my time and sew my costume for Zhiwen's item! =___=

and here's my costume haul in one day! whoohoo!

***

Yummy food enjoyed over the weeks! :) I'm really a blessed person to be able to enjoy such good food with good company.

duck rice eaten late at home after a tiring day of pracs. I'm going to miss living in Serangoon...

***

These weeks have been physically and emotionally and spiritually trying, but things are looking to turn out good. :) When times are tough, we have to BE THE LEAF. Go with the flow, but know what you want. fight for what you want to do, but love the people around you so that you don't hurt them too much in your struggle for happiness. I always believe that the good Lord wants us to love our neighbours as much as He loves us. (and that's A LOT A LOT A LOT OF LOVE!!!)

and I end with a nice picture of Alex-san.

BE THE LEAF.

both sides of the world.

being in Cred has been quite an adventure, from being a supporter and friend, to a manager, to a crew member and dancer... it's been an amazing experience when i look back on our time spent together.

we were a bit O__O at how huge the stage was for the 6 of us!

this is sabbie trying to teach us her blocking via drawing diagrams xD

D'Hopz and blast! sharing a dressing room! :D

our packed schedule for House Party.

i can't believe the Dancetitude sign from last year is still here backstage! guess there's a part of us that's always at UCC, eh? ;)

i love my weird friends.

see we're actually on the program highlights!!!! :O

and that ends the performance spam of Cred over the first few days of school! we really crammed ourselves with too many shows and events, thinking that we could handle them all, even though we couldn't reuse our items for a lot of them (which resulted in overnight pracs and slight craziness due to lack of sleep). still, it was a good experience :) 

we're now on a short performance hiatus at least till after SUAD is over... hope we'll make a comeback sometime soon! ^_^ (and RANXM too haha i miss my boys sigh :( )

I uploaded the rest of the Cred and Friends photos here:

Friends with Cred.

***

other dance related adventures included a trip to The Big Groove! where we all got inspired by dancers from all over the world (especially JAPAN, Korea and our very own Singapore) and had a crazy fun time screaming, fangirling and just soaking in the atmosphere and common love for DANCE.

and here are some random miscellaneous photos, out of which most are of food :P 

these NUS biscuits were actually FREAKING YUMMY

mum's homemade breakfast ahhh i love my mum

mysterious anonymous stranger donated this mysterious shoerack to me! :O

Chomp Chomp night with the cousin before she flew back to US~

the lovely things i find whenever i clean/pack my room.

i love sashimi!

ridiculously bling gold cloth bought for Zhiwen's item costume!

a fire broke out in school at the engineering faculty recently, there was smoke everywhere! D: it was pretty huge and extensive, i heard.

outtakes from the womaniser shoot :) ehhhhh sexay ladies.

and of course, artwork. damn, i miss chilling at Starbucks to do these.

it's difficult balancing both art and dance, but i want to do it because i love both forms of art... let's just see how far this can take me. :) 

i don't want to give up yet. ^_^