2 Milestones in Life

This week is a week of milestones for me..

Milestone 1: I completed running 5km much faster now.
On Saturday, I actually woke up at 545am to run! Inspired by the enthusiasm of my sheep, she was very very keen to practise running the Stan Chart Run really early in the morning! Poy and Ah Cheng both had something on at 11am so Zhu Zhu came up with the idea of running at 7am at the River Valley Ministry House!

I was so surprised myself that I can drag myself up. Previous night, I had returned home late after watching Forbidden City with Irene..It's superb, shall blog about it another time.

Woke up and dragged myself to River Valley having reached Sengkang Station at 630am. After a short warm up and stretching we were off, cutting through Chatsworth Road, through to past all the Embassies and Gleneagles Hospital and then Botanic Gardens!
The morning air was so fresh, really could feel my whole body more at ease when I ran in the morning then evening. Not albeit muscle and knee pains after that...:(

Botanical Gardens was refreshing, some crowds of people are already there, walking their dogs, and practising Tai Chi and swordplay...;P there was even a Chinese Christian Choir doing warm-ups with their voices...

Phew am so tired after the run that I plonked down and napped on the couch in the Ministry House..:P

Milestone 2: Passed my Violin Grade 6 Exam with a Merit!
I cannot believe it! It's really God's grace again! Throughout the 11 months preparation, I was even more broke than last time, spent much more money in fact about 3.5K in total! God showed me in more ways than one, His love manifested through many people:
First, I managed to get Geo to help me with the Aural preparation, to teach me how to sing and manage all the "tau geh" on sight.
I have to thank my dear friend Nizam!! He managed to grabbed hold of secret lock codes for me to enter into free sound proof studios complete with an upright Yamaha piano in each of them! It's exhorbitant to rent studios and they were charged at 40 per hour. I nearly cried when i heard the pricing...

My dearest pianist Salome reduced her hiring fees for me so that I could save on all the expenses, and even kindly provided for me her church premises, her house for me to practice on the violin...:P

God is so gracious! She had went on a conference in Taiwan and had come back earlier especially for me! Can you imagine how touched I was? Was super touched...Despite the break in training... My boo boo in the actual exam, I trembled even much more than I did last year and could not even play my scales properly!! I remembered vividly that I even turned off the air con cos it was blowing my music sheets all over the place....EVERY SINGLE MISTAKE COULD BE HEARD CLEARLY :P

I think I pity the British examiner, in a hot and stuffy room without aircon, in long sleeves and tie, okay what's worse? i) Being STUCK with me. What's worst for him? ii) Being stuck with my awful violin playing. What's really torturing him at that time? iii) I was the last candidate in that time slot that ate into his precious lunch time...:P Phewwweeee!

I thank God for being with me every step of the way...I shall press on to complete my training!
I would also like to thank every single one of my friends, bros and sis who prayed for me and with me for this exam! You all make a difference! :D