congrats, baby…

…on getting a HD for your accounting essay!

watching you slog through all your research material and the many nights of sitting at your laptop wrecking your brain for ideas and trying to understand the concepts paid off with His grace.

so proud of you! *muaks*

a new-found kind of peace

been busy juggling both my holiday jobs the past few weeks and the next few weeks to come, but i have been happier since the last time i blogged in here, although holiday plans were thwarted by H1N1 and the unpleasant saga of ah-long paint attacks continue indefinitely.

my bro, aunt and i finally got together and decided to wrap my gate up with plastic cos’ my parents got so exasperated with the cleaning up, they left it to Ju and me to get rid of the paint stains on the last visit by the vandals and the vapour from the paint remover bit my skin like crazy even though i wore gloves. my cuzzie calls my custom wrapped gate a ‘fortress’ which seems to be holding up pretty well – for now. heh.

last week, we watched on my cctv how the vandals (one female and the other, male) appeared again with loanshark paraphernalia to try and make a mess, but on seeing my gate totally wrapped up as if we were preparing a new textbook for a new school term, they headed a level downstairs to splash paint at my neighbour’s unit. i felt so sorry for these neighbours who were made scapegoats in our place. anyway, the police have increased the no. of stake-outs and patrols at my block, so we have had better nights of rest. thank God for favour with the authorities.

to those of you who text-ed me excitedly on hearing the news that 17 loanshark runners (another 3 just today) got arrested of late, i have absolutely no idea whether they were the ones who were harrassing my family, though i doubt so. i just pray that they will quickly disappear and find the right guy who borrowed money from them in my bro’s name, cos’ we ain’t gonna’ pay a cent.

i’m grateful for the busy schedule i have on my hands to make money (yes i’m earning my own keeps to support my life as a student), keep me occupied and not let my mind wander about. after all, an idle mind makes a great toolshed for the devil. staying at home alone, even in the day, drove me crazy because i would check my peephole at the door every now and then. i became paranoid about every sound i heard – the sound of the lift arriving at a certain floor, the slamming of doors, loud thuds, people talking, etc. to begin with, i don’t think i have the ability to sit still and do nothing for too long. slacking is clearly not my forte. :p

at last sunday’s service, pastor reminded us to not only thank Jesus for the good times that we go through in our lives, but more so to thank Him for the tough times we experience, because His grace will abound exceedingly and turn things around for our good eventually. upon hearing that, i felt the knot in my heart untie and the perpetual cloud of fear and worry that has been hovering over my head dispel almost immediately. i know God didn’t send those bad thugs to make my family and i go through a hard time and i am looking forward to help those in a similar situation get through and emerge out of it stronger.

at least for now, i am thankful that my family has been closer than ever, since we have also been more expressive towards one another in showing our concern and love and we have been spending a lot more time sitting down with one another communicating while we keep one eye on the cctv every night – something which we never bothered to do before.

harrassed

yes, i’m still alive, for those of you who read my entry on 28th may and are wondering how come i have not blogged for an entire week or so.

4th paint attack came again this morning, following the 3rd one on 30th may, which my CCTV managed to capture a good shot of the 2 runners that look like foreigners trying to earn fast bucks by carrying out such vandalism. but sadly, even with the CCTV footage available, our police force have appeared sluggish to want to crack our case and return our deserved peace to us.

this past week, my family and i have been liaising with northeast CDC, pasir ris-punggol town council and the sengkang neighbourhood police post for increased police surveillance, installation of CCTVs in the lifts and lift lobbies where the vandals have repeatedly and consistently scribbled graffiti to harrass my family to make repayment of debts owed by a fraudster who misused my brother’s lost I/C to borrow money from loansharks. we watched how over the entire week, the CDC pushed our requests to the police and the police referred our requests to the town council and the town council avoided our requests and asked us to go back to the police all in a roundabout fashion, instead of doing anything effective and advising us on how to deal with such a situation. we are so exasperated at the way that they are shirking their responsibilities in one way or another and we are this close to taking matters into our own hands. they seem to have no qualms about allowing my family to bear the brunt of the loansharks’ fury and becoming scapegoats in an episode that we don’t know how we landed ourselves in, leaving us most befuddled. never in my life did i expect to go through such an ordeal that only seem to unfold in channel 8 TV dramas.

dad, mum and i have all lost precious nights of rest in the last 2 weeks, with our body clocks all adjusted to wake up at 4am or at the sound of any noise to monitor the CCTV to see if any suspicious character is lurking outside my door. 999 is on our speed dial but yet the response time for the police has been most pathetic, averaging at 20 minutes when i can drive from the police station to my house in 5 minutes. the police recently tried to do unsuccessful stake-outs to arrest the culprits, but only after dad made a big fuss at the station itself.

for the last 2 nights, policemen in uniform and plain clothes came by my house to check at 2am, each time making a loud din when they checked the stairwell, absent-mindedly forgetting to ensure that the door to the stairs close softly. we have repeatedly told the police that the paint attacks usually take place between 4-5am, hence i do not understand what is the use of patrolling my area 2 hours before and then not being able to catch the idiots when they come at 4+am? have we entrusted our security to a bunch of people who don’t seem to have it altogether up there in the first place?

maybe that just simply reinforces and explains the atrocious mas selamat escape that sparked a nationwide manhunt, lots of public slamming and a downright degradation of our singapore police force’s reputation.

god help us poor and tortured souls that have gone on for many sleepless and anxiety-filled nights.