Munster Youth Limerick

After a week of crazy calling and hunting down the youth from my church to RSVP for Munster Youth Limerick, it finally came around! (Arranging transportation for 15 people. Was great...fun)

Instead of games this time, we had several workshops. I was in charge of piano teaching which was in the Worship workshop. Also helped out in the vocals stealing the warm ups and all that from my musical rehearsals haha! It was definitely interesting cause I had to teach Cathal and Sarah piano. Cathal is already a pro by himself. Was wrecking my brains to find something substantial to pass on.

Thank goodness for the transitions ! Came up with some options on the spot.

There was also a Multimedia workshop where they got to learn the different ways of shooting videos, loading it on the computer and editing it. 

There was a sports one where instead of just training them how to do sport, they were taught of how to pass on their skills by being a coach in the sport of their choice. How there's something more to sport then just skills, but character and so on.

Along with that there was a drama workshop which did an extremely splendid job. They did a short skit of impersonating people from the bible. Was really creative and entertaining too. There was a dance workshop, didn't manage to get any photographs from that one since I was involved in the worship one.

We had an awesome time of worship after that with singing and then having group discussions about the workshops and what we were able to take from them and apply those lessons to our own lives.

Was one crazy tired weekend which resulted in an absolutely horrible sore throat. Mixture of biscuits, coffee, extremely high singing and nonstop chitchat.  Managed to spend a lil time with Ath while I was at it too and got to see Kuol and Joy back from the States. Also, got to meet Ath's dad. So that was definitely one exciting weekend :)

ONE MORE WEEK TILL MIDTERM HOLIDAYS YAYYYY CAN'T WAIT

Although dreading my Biology & Music test tomorrow...

Not to mention my first parent teacher meeting haha!

LIFE OVERSEAS: Lessons from shooting hoops

THE school holidays were approaching and every student‘s imagination was rife with thoughts of the amazing things they would be experiencing.

Students were scribbling down ideas and asking friends which dates were available.

I had jotted down “Basketball Camp” in my journal.

Those who know me well would be flabbergasted because sport has always been last on my to-do list and I am extremely clumsy by nature.

Anything that requires brute strength or cat-like reflexes would not be my cup of tea.

So, why the sudden urge to be involved in basketball?

It is because I was not a participant, but a member of the organising team.

And since it involved children, it just reeled me in. The camp started on a Thursday morning.

I set out my small registration desk at the front of the school hall. Armed with pens and markers, I was ready to write the names of participants on the little stickers.

In small groups, the parents arrived with their children of different ages, ranging from 7 to 13. There were 19 participants.

At first, I was surprised at the small number of campers, but realised that the young ones needed more care.

Most of the children did not know me.  This prompted me to start a conversation with an 8-year-old.

What made it more difficult was I was the only helper without experience in basketball. The other trainers were shooting hoops, sprinting across the court while I stood and watched on the sidelines.

At first, I felt excluded as I did not have the chance to interact with the children in the way the other trainers did.

We held drills to focus on the skills needed in basketball.

Then I realised that I could get involved by being supportive.

I cheered the children on to do their best and gave them assurance and positive reinforcement.

Little did I realise that it would create such a difference in a child‘s life, so much so that I got hugs at the end of the game.

Later that day, we formed groups of five to discuss the qualities — other than skill — of basketball players.

We talked about the importance of good character as a team player.

To illustrate this, every child had to state three qualities each — both positive and negative — about their personality.

What amazed me was that every participant said that confidence was one of their best traits.

I openly admitted that I am lacking in confidence — one of the most challenging things that I had to face up to. Our mission next week was to work on our flaws.

On the last two days of camp, we played a game of Knockout — where the objective was to shoot balls into the hoop until there is a score.

Then, a challenge arose when one of the girls asked me to join them.

I shook my head, smiled and politely refused.

Then she said, “Come on, you have to believe in yourself, you can do this.”

My mind went blank for awhile, and I was amazed when I realised that this was a 9-year-old urging me with such faith.

I decided to take on the test.

As I walked towards the basketball hoop with ball in hand, I could hear the children in the background cheering me on.

I took a deep breath and tried to remember the tips I overheard the coaches telling the children, positioned my arms and shot the ball towards the hoop.

And... I scored!

The writer is studying at a high school in Ireland. She loves to try all things but is a Malaysian at heart.

Read more: LIFE OVERSEAS: Lessons from shooting hoops - Sunday Life & Times - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/sunday-life-times/life-overseas-lessons-from-shooting-hoops-1.38515#ixzz1l3rSnrwl

Broken Pool Table

Jamzone @ Church last Friday was an UNFORGETTABLE DAY.

We were in the middle of games, basically there were two human trains, which both had a blindfolded leader each attempting to find certain objects around the room. Only to have an occurrence of an unexpected catastrophe.

Both teams surrounded the pool table while attempting to find the objects, when one of them accidentally leaned on the pool table as support. What we didn't know was that the pool table had chipped legs, which means its frame was unstable..

IT LITERALLY CAME CRASHING DOWN.

On several people too. There were several bruises but no deaths I assure you. This ended in crazy laughter and the awkward moment where everyone stares at the entirely broken frame of the pool table with their jaws hanging down.

Memorable.

Very memorable indeed.

Decided to attempt a scorpion.

My bedroom isn't exactly the nicest background to have so I had to make the colour nicer by you know, using the wondrous tool of PHOTOSHOP.

AND no, I didn't photoshop any of my own body.

Why the sudden reason to see if I could manage to do so?

This Saturday at Munster Youth there's gonna be a dance workshop! 

SO I just wanted to see if my flexibility had diminished since I last cheered in 2008.

Yes I'm EXTREMELY rusty. But hey, a scorpion was still achieved ! :D

CNY Makan in Dublin yet in Malaysia?

Nyonya Restaurant 

situated on Dame Street in Dublin is like walking into a little Malaysia.

With the national flags hanging from the ceiling, Chinese lanterns, with the very much loved menu with authentic Malaysian food of all sorts.

Ikan Bakar (Grilled fish)

coated with an extremely spicy sauce that would make your stomach turn.

Best part was eating it to the full..and we weren't even finished with it yet.

(Munches head off with a loud crunch...not kidding. crunchy fish heads are yummy)

Beef Hor Fun 

Stir-fried flat noodles (kuay teow) with beef bean sprouts andonions 

Stir-fried noodles with beef in black bean sauce

Pai Tee -  vegetables with pork stuffed into a crunchy shell with chilli sauce

Taofu goreng - fried tofu with chilli sauce

3 layer Malaysian Tea - coconut palm sugar (bottom) milk (middle) tea (top)

Then we got pleasantly surprised by the lion that entered the restaurant followed by the cymbals and gongs behind him, never thought I'd actually be in one of the restaurants the lion dances were going to.

Perfect timing!

In conclusion,

TRIP UP TO DUBLIN FOR CNY WAS AWESOME

The food

The atmosphere

The noise

Wishing there was more angpao, but I shall be content with one (thanks mum)

Thank you Uncle Mike for the trip up! :)

now i better go study for my test tomorrow and get ready for the public speaking competition which is ALSO tomorrow. GASP.

Chinese New Year in Dublin

Wearing a cheongsam (which belongs to mumsie) I went up to Dublin along with mumsie and Uncle Mike to welcome in the Chinese New Year. I normally who would get motion sickness realised I lost my medicine and resorted to forced-sleeping throughout the entire trip. only to discover it was sandwiched inside my notebook upon reaching Dublin

We stopped by a chipper for dinner and had freshly deep fried cod along with fat cut chips with tartar sauce and a slight squeeze of lemony goodness. To make it less sinful I decided to peel the batter off and eat the cod on the inside haha!

We headed to Castlebar and after many attempts to enter the Main Square which was congested with people, we finally managed to squeeze through the gates (after being allowed to pass through of course) The entire place was converted into a little Chinese street.

There were tons of Chinese children, both from Chinese families and Irish families that adopted a Chinese child. It was so adorable to see some of them fully clothed in the traditional Chinese costume. 

FOOD was definitely heavenly, tasted soooo authentic. there was even CHANG! and super awesome dim sum along with juicy hot dumplings with oozing sauce from within! mhmmm...

Was so delish I felt like buying everything on display (probably did :D)

As it was the year of the dragon, there were dragon dances as well as lion dances.

Weirdly and oddly it almost brought tears to my eyes.

Reminded me so much of what I was so used to annually

Was pretty fun being able to go up to Dublin for Chinese New Year. It gave the whole feel as if it really was 

for a day. Thank you so much to Uncle Mike and mumsie for making this trip possible :)

GONG XI FA CAI
GONG HEI FATT CHOY
XIN NIAN KUAI LE
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR :)

Being the background of an MV

On my birthday, at the party with the people in Shannon, my awesome talented friends

did a 

cover of The Script : The Man Who Can't Be Moved

Instrumental and Lead vocals : Trent Maglaque

Backing Female vocal : Kesiah Maglaque
First Rapper : Godknows Jonas
2nd Rapper : Guide Wayahtech

Background humans : all those that came to my birthday ahaha! :)

It was really fun being the random person swiping with the iPad and all that :)

Splashed with Colours

The first week back at school's always slightly hectic.

The first few days (practically the entire week) I woke up each day wondering why my alarm was making such a fuss, hit snooze several times...till my brain slightly warmed up to realise I had school in about..15 minutes? 

Adjusting to the usual swing of things was always 'pleasant'. The homework, the studying, the jotting down of test dates in my journal 'the joys!' and the revising of my public speaking speech which will be NEXT Tuesday. That's nice to know. Right after the first day of Chinese New Year too. 

angpao would certainly cheer my day up (moneymoneymoney!)

Saturday was an absolute heaven-on-earth day though. It was the day of slack. The day of doing absolutely nothing. The day where slugging around like a sloth while shoving all kinds of junkalicious food down my throat was allowed. The day every couch potato loves. Especially when they're doing it with a loved one :)

LIFE OVERSEAS : Keeping an eye on domestic violence

THE word foróige is unknown to many as it is of Irish origin. It comes from forbairt na hóige which means development of youth.
The Youth Citizenship Awards recognise ‘Ireland‘s Top Teens‘ for their accomplishments in their communities.
The youth club in my town of Killaloe was among the top 10 finalists in Ireland!

My friend Orla Watson asked me if I would support the Foróige youth club in Killaloe in its bid to win the awards.
I agreed immediately as I had a week of school holidays ahead. Why not make my week of freedom fruitful?
Of course, the best part is a trip to Dublin.

On the day of the trip, I stood in front of a white door and gave a tentative knock. It was the entrance to the Killaloe Community Resource Centre, where the youth group usually congregated.
As the knock remained unanswered, I pushed it to discover that it was unlocked. A familiar face appeared and I went upstairs to paint banners. We wanted to be the best supporters with big beautiful banners. We crafted works of art with paintbrushes, marker pens and glitter.

The bus arrived in the lashing rain and, after lugging all our posters onto it, our adventure began! After the sing-a-longs, jokes, junk food and bedlam, we reached our destination, The Helix, in Dublin.
The hall was as packed as a can of sardines! The other nine groups of finalists were present together with their busloads of supporters. As we entered the auditorium, streaming rays of light beamed around the room as youngsters bobbed multicoloured signs up and down.

My group in particular drew a lot of attention with our screams, cheers, waving of hands and even mini Mexican waves.
It was an exciting event; even the national television crew was there!

Each team was represented by a spokesperson. A video on its community work, including an interview clip of a person who supported its work, was screened.
Watson was Killaloe youth group‘s representative. Our team, named NRG (which sounds like “energy“), had mounted an art exhibition to voice its concern about domestic violence.
The members made five doors with a postbox hole in each. When someone looks through the hole, he would see a family scene.

Only one scene had elements of domestic violence, depicting the fact that in every five families, there is one where domestic violence is present.
The postbox idea also attempted to highlight that domestic violence is still a private matter and the outsider can only get glimpses of it.
Another team created an exclusive card which entitled holders to special discounts in local stores, which helped businesses.

A group from Galway raised € 25,000 (RM100,000) to fly to Zambia to help children there.
The event made me realise that everyone, regardless of age, can make a difference. The message is if we believe that we can enact change, then we can.

The writer is studying at a high school in Ireland. She loves to try all things but is a Malaysian at heart.

Read more: Facebook Comments - You - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/channels/you/life-overseas-keeping-an-eye-on-domestic-violence-1.32330/facebook-comments-7.34657#ixzz1jYIUdo1K

2000th POST! The Big 1.8. - Part 3 - Shannoners

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!

This is the 2000th post I'm posting on this blog!

IT'S EVEN CRAZIER THAT THIS HAPPENS TO FALL ON MY BIRTHDAY POST

Since 2007 and now it's 2012 it took me that long to reach my 2000th post.

I feel proud.

Astonished even.

SO anyway, I shall dedicate this post to every single person who somehow in someway, wished me for my birthday.

A big thank you to each and everyone of you that wished me via Facebook, Twitter, Text message, Whatsapp, calls or personally. I intended to list down each name one by one, but then after I saw the ginormous amount of messages on Facebook my plan seemed too much a hassle.

Especially thank you to the only two people who called me.
Jonathan Lim and Jonathan Ho
(How funny that both of you have the same first name)

On my ACTUAL birthday (6th of January) , Uncle Mike dropped me off at Athiei's place in Annacotty. Both of us were like zombies thanks to the lack of sleep (It was 9 in the morning..that's early during holidays!)

We decided to cook together so we headed to Mace to stock up on some ingredients.

So we cooked Korean Bibimbap. Which has rice, vegetables, Bulgogi beef strips, fried egg and a teaspoon of spicy fermented pepper paste (Gochujang). It was definitely something new to Ath :D Hahaha

The things I make him experience :)

Ended our meal with some brownies from the Wooden Spoon that were leftover from my previous party while watching Ratatouille!

Godknows came over to pick us up as we headed towards Tesco to complete the grocery shopping for the party. The typical party foods - loads of yummy junk food, burger patties, soft drinks, y'know the usual.

Thank you Ath and G for paying for everything. 

You guys made me go all melty like cheese on the inside.

The party was entirely planned by both Ath and G, giving me the freedom to thoroughly enjoy the entire party without any worries or checking who was or wasn't there. Thank you for doing all the calling and the inviting, and thank you G for opening your house for my birthday. It was so awesome to see everyone there.

The best part was that they had Wii Just Dance 3 which became our entertainment for the night. The need to dance was just booming in each person. People you didn't expect to dance suddenly displayed an entirely new side to them. I had the shock of my life when Ath beat me in the game. Utter humiliation. HUMILIATION. Although it was extremely amusing and I laughed nonstop thanks to his dancing.

My awesome birthday triple chocolate cupcake. I blew out my candle and gave a small birthday speech (not like the 2 hour Murli speech :D) All in all it was an awesome birthday with the people around me. Many people asked me what I wanted as a gift for my birthday, but my wish had already been granted, 

I got to spend it with the people I love.

Then later at the end of my birthday we began to film Trent and Kesiah's video clip for their cover of Breakeven. It was funny being the random person that probably becomes blurred out in the scene.

Thank you list

Antonio for the wonderful card

Mum, Uncle Mike, Murli, Godknows, Mina, Trent, Guide, Miriam, for the card and cash $$ oh yeah!

Samantha for the pretty pretty bracelet from Newbridge (extremely shiny one :D)

Masha and Tian for the gorgeous scarf and card

Wessel for the fowl keyring

Isorah for the buggy necklace

Sonia for the card from back home :D I wonder how many letters I've received from you already

But most of all thank you to my beloved who even appeared in matching colours (can't you just sense the cornyness) who spent the entire day with me, planned the entire day and got me tickets to watch 

Tyler Ward !!

AHHHH. I love you ! I can't wait for the concert. You made my 18th a special one. 

Definitely succeeded in gaining some brownie points.

The big 1.8. Part 2 - Killaloe-ians

The second part of my birthday begins!

Still, not on my actual date, I had my birthday dinner on the eve of my birthday together with my schoolmates. Getting ready for it was a nightmare! I was coming in from Limerick, dependent on the bus. And for some irritating reason, the bus didn't stop even after I waved. So, I had to call my mum to get me, which thankfully worked out. By the time I reached my hous-e, I had 15 minutes to get ready for my birthday.

The awesomeness of speedy catlike reflexes! It actually succeeded.

Aside from myself, there was another birthday girl who as well, was born on the same date as I was, 6th January. The only difference is...I'm an entire year older than her (facepalm)

But it was all good. I realise I'm the only 18 year old in my year currently (double facepalm)

We met up at Abacus, Killaloe and the entire restaurant was booked up by me. Thanks to Vicky and Katie who were our classmates AND our waitresses for the night, the room was beautifully decorated with balloons and "You are 18!" banners. The menu even had my name printed on it (Fancy)

An assortment of dishes were available. Many of them took the typical sweet and sour chicken, chicken curry or something that revolved around the word chicken.

I on the other hand indulged in an extremely delicious plate of duck with chilli plum sauce together with white boiled rice. It was absolutely nomalicious.

Katie D organised my birthday cake which was ordered from the Wooden Spoon! An enormous mountain of chocolate brownies, chocolate tiffins, caramel squares and rocky road drizzled with melted chocolate all over. It was absolute sinful!

So I blew out my candles, still unbelieving of the fact that I'm no longer seventeen. but i have officially hit the big

ONE EIGHT.

Thank you to all that made it,

Aine D

Aine R

Aisling

Amy

Anna

Caoimhe

Connor

Claudia

Daniel

Darragh

Emer

Emma

Eoin

Fiona

Jade

Jess

Katie D

Katie M

Lauren

Marie

Mary

Noel

Orla

Peter E

Phelim

Ronia

Roisin

Ruth

Sean

Shannen

Stuart

Vicky

What shocked me even more was when the owner of Abacus presented me with a humongous fresh cream cake on the house! It was even more humiliating when both of them started chattering to me in Chinese. 

I answered with the typical

"wo bu hui qiang hua yu" (I don't understand Mandarin)

But atleast I understood the "sheng re kuai le" (Happy Birthday)

Thanks so much to Darragh who gave me an adorable card with an awesome handbag which I absolutely love! Nice choice!! And also not to forget the 2 euros which you pitched in for my dinner and being one of my most awesome friends since I've moved here !

Eoin and Stewie

For getting me the best present in the world.

AN ORANGE IN AN ORANGE 

Nice racist joke giving a Chinese girl an orange.

Just kidding,

I LOVE IT. it made me laugh till my sides split :)

Marie

who gave me a hot shocking pink awesome clutch together with an adorable card. It's so funny how she chose the very picture I had chosen ages ago to put on my blog ages ago! The card was absolutely heartwarming. I love it!

Sean

for buying me a CREDIT CARD? Haha nah it's a voucher card which has 20 euros inside it which allows me to shop in any shop in the Crescent, Limerick which is awesome because it's valid for a whole year!

Thank you so much Sean!!

 

Thank you to Connor, Phelim and Claudia for all the wonderful birthday cards!

They are all safely stored in my box of memories in my room :) Thank you so much !