IPPT.  The bane of every NSman.  Mine was today.

Looked at myself in the mirror this morning, the lack of exercise in the past three weeks, when my dad was in hospital, had taken its toll.  The flab was obvious.  If I keep this up, there’ll be two pregnancies in the family. 

That notwithstanding, I was confident of passing the test, but not certain of a Silver, let alone Gold.

During the test, I was probably nervous, and felt like crapping throughout (now I know what it feels like to be a woman !).

The first station was the Standing Broad Jump.  I usually take something like 20 jumps to get it right.  Surprising I got it right with just one try this time.  Guess all those leg presses in the gym must have helped.

As I managed to complete the other four stations with a perfect score (another surprise), I decided to try and hit the Gold standard for the 2.4 km run.  Otherwise it would be a terrible waste of my perfect score at the other stations.  I did it !

Now that I’m done with the IPPT this year, I can restart my more strenuous workouts to avoid a sympathetic pregnancy.

Went furniture shopping with my mother and sisters at IKEA. As the older sister had kindly agreed to vacate her room on the third floor to make way for Jerry / Geri (though I strongly suspect that mother had arm-twisted her into it), we needed new furniture so that they could move into the adjoining rooms on the second floor.

It was a traumatic experience. Shopping with family always is.  No-nonsense Joyce fortunately was having dinner with a friend.  Otherwise, she would have wrung off their necks.

We started at 1900 hours.  In the hope of teaching my sisters some life skills (because the little princesses have been pampered by my parents their whole lives), I encouraged them to make their own decisions on how to decorate their rooms – I would just pay.  Two hours later and one hour before closing, we were not even half done.  I seized control.  It’s amazing difficult to get hold of IKEA staff after 2100 hours.  Thankfully, we managed to pay for the items just before closing time, ie. 2200 hours.

I ended the evening by saying : “If I were any older, I would die of heart-attack”.  (I meant it.  I was not in the best of moods).

It troubles me that although the little princesses are already 21 and 16 years old respectively, they are ill-equipped to lead independent lives.  My parents are forever ferrying them from one place to another in the car.  The older one is clueless about important things like income tax, writing resumes, etc. while the younger one has to repeatedly be bailed out by my parents, who deliver textbooks to her school whenever she forgets to pack them in her school bag.  (For the record, I have always encouraged my mother to let her learn her lesson by refusing to help, but all these fall on deaf ears).

My parents are not going to be around to babysit them forever.  Neither do I intend to do that when my parents are gone.

Today’s sermon was from John 14 by Pastor Chong Yew.  He didn’t really touch on what I have to say below though – they are just my thoughts on looking at John 14 afresh.

Jesus told His disciples that He was going back to His “Father’s house” to prepare a place for them.  Thomas remarked that he did not know where Jesus was going, and consequently the way there.

Jesus’ reply in John 14 : 6 and 7 – “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really knew Me, you would know the Father as well.  From now on, you have known Him and have seen Him.”

I’ve always found that to be a cryptic answer to a rather straightforward question.  What struck me upon reading this passage afresh was that while Thomas (as do people today) look for the rules and commandments to observe so that they might get to heaven, Jesus instead offered a relationship as the way to the Father.

People expect : rules and commandments –> heaven
Jesus offered : relationship –> access to the Father

What a world of difference.  Many people, religious or irreligious, Christian or non-Christian, spend their lives looking for the rules by which to live their lives, so that the can earn better karma, or score enough points with God, to get to heaven or a better afterlife (or next life).

But Jesus said it’s not about what you do, or the rules you follow, but your relationship with Me, which matters.  It’s not about oppressive rules, the fear and guilt which comes from disobeying some divine diktat, or the feel-good factor that comes from doing meritorious deeds, but accepting My offer of forgiveness, friendship and love.

My dad was discharged from SGH today.  I think it’s a miracle that he did not experience any adverse reaction to the stem cell transfusion this time.

Joyce and I took leave today. We would have gone for a short trip overseas, but for the fact that my Dad is in hospital. (As it turns it, the stem cell transplant has gone very well and we needn’t have worried – should have booked a trip overseas … darn). So we headed for Sentosa instead, by cable car.

Sentosa was like ghost town. Hardly anyone was there. Almost everything was under renovation, including the monorail system.  The visitors looked bored. After walking about in the sweltering heat for about two hours, and getting nowhere, Joyce and I decided to call it quits and headed back to mainland.

Today’s papers carried a report one in four pregnancies (about 14,000) in Singapore are terminated each year.  More shocking is the fact that the number of tertiary-educated married women – people expected to be better acquainted with the use of contraceptives – who choose to abort have gone up from 300 in 1988 to more than 1,000 each year.  What are these women thinking ?  Have they never heard of contraception ? 
 
Isn’t it ironic that while some couples struggle so hard to conceive, others decide to terminate their pregnancies rather flippantly ?

Played Captain’s Ball with the youths in church.  Thank God for the excellent weather, though now I have a “bra strap” tan line.  Joyce says I’m being vain.

The other article that caught my attention in today’s Straits Times was about how the New Age movement has taken hold of Singapore.  What I find interesting (and disturbing) is how much this movement is about the individual (I !  me !  my !  myself !) – about feeling good about oneself – and not much (if at all) about looking critically at oneself (ie. evaluating one’s virtues or the lack thereof), caring for others or contributing to society, which traditional religion is about.  In our “search for centredness” (to borrow the term used by ST), have we become even more selfish and self-centred ?  Relevant extract reads :

“[The New Age business in Singapore] is financially viable only because of the surge of interest, the swift growth of the New Age community and the willingness of people here to pay … Most of these Singaporeans are well-heeled lawyers, doctors, housewives and professionals from the finance, advertising and IT industries … Singaporeans have been descending in droves upon psychics, whom they view as non-judgemental and morale boosting”.

Contrast the attitude of a New Ager with the call for justice, compassion and humility in Micah 6 : 8 –

“He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you ?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God”.

From today’s Straits Times, relevant extract reads :

“Three teenagers caught the Aids virus last year, as more sexually-active teens head for the only anonymous HIV-testing service here.  Some even arrive in school uniforms … Another worrying change is that the infected teens in the past two years were gay … Of the 113 youths [ Action for AIDS ] tested last year, 90 were boys and about half were gay.  The remaining 23 were girls, most of whom were heterosexual.  AFA expects to surpass the figure this year, given the number of youths tested in the first four months : 65”.

I am happy.  I have received word (after a delay of over a month) that the Organisation has approved my application to attend a two-week negotiations seminar at Harvard University in June.  The problem now is finding cheap accommodation, which may be difficult as the seminar takes place during the US summer vacation, and the Organisation (ever so efficient) has confirmed my trip rather close to the date of the seminar.