WOOHOO! Yours truly exercised my right as a licensed driver and drove for the first time today! But no Subaru. =/ I think my dad traded cars with a colleague or something, so it was an auto Nissan. But it was still fun and on hindsight, I'm pretty glad that it was auto. Because when it came to parking it was quite challenging without the poles, but I still managed parallel parking and vertical parking! *patpat*

I drove from Jurong Point (because my parents wanted to check it out) all the way home, stopping along the way for supper. Driving on the highway wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Looking forward to driving to tuition tomorrow. And since my parents will be going out, I'll be the chauffeur again. Yay, more driving. =)

Anyway prior to meeting my parents at JP, I went to Telok Blangah to meet my aunt and give thanks to a medium for Guan Yin. My aunt had asked me to pray before going out on Friday for my driving test and so I said that if I passed, I would go down to the medium and give my thanks. When I reached the place (it was a HDB flat) it was pretty quiet, not crowded and noisy as I had expected. The medium was attending to another devotee so i offered some joss sticks and waited at the side with my aunt for our turn. This guy came up to me ans we started chatting casually. It started with mundane questions about me like where was I studying, etc etc. Then he started to relate his side of the story on how he became a believer. Apparently this Guan Yin specifically comes down to heal the sick. Tony(the guy) had a tumour at the back of his head which doctors said would take at least a year to remove with surgery and chemo. He heard of this medium so he decided to come down and check it out, even though he was initially a Christian. When he arrived, he told Guan Yin about his problem. She then burned some joss sticks and used the wooden ends of the joss sticks as acupuncture needles to treat him. After that she told him to turn around and she started to 'operate' on his head. Now I don't think I am a very religious person so I was starting to feel a lil skeptical by then, but obviously I shut up and continued listening to his story. He said he could feel something going into his head but there wasn't any pain. Then he felt that lump in his head being removed, and it was over. After that he went to the doctors and they said that his tumour had gone! Sounds typical of many faith healing stories right? That's what I was thinking too. But the dude was obviously a real believer, I could see it in his eyes. So even though I found it hard to believe, I decided to respect his experience.

Then it was my turn, so I went up to the table the medium was sitting at. Since I had no ailments and no problems I just told Guan Yin that I was here to give thanks because I passed my driving test. Guan Yin decided to take my pulse just to see if there was anything wrong with me( there isn't). She told me to drive carefully, not to speed with others and I'll be fine. She also said that I'm not a 'problem kid' so she told my aunt not to worry, except for the fact that I sometimes let curiosity get the better of me. So she said I have to watch out and decide for myself what's right and what's wrong. She said I'll be fine since I have good judgment. Lol. So that was the end of my consultation, nothing spectacularly spiritual or miraculous, but it did put alot of thoughts into my head.

There was this woman who went there with a stiff thumb. Apparently she has been having it for quite some time. Guan Yin took a look and said it was because her meridian points or xue dao in Chinese were blocked. So she took the joss sticks and used them to administer accupuncture. It wasn't just a simple prod on the finger, rather it was quite a number of steps and looked complicated, but after she was done the lady could bend her thumb slightly! sShe definitely wasn't as dexterous as you or I, but it was a vast improvement from when she came. I don't know what to put of it. To believe that a higher power exists? I can't say that I'm a total believer, I can't explain how Guan Yin works her mojo and miracles, and I can't say for sure its a hundred percent true. Moreover, we live in the 21st century and I'm a firm believer in modern medicine. But there are times and occasions when such occurrences happen and medical science can't prove anything. Faith healing isn't confined just to Taoism and Buddhism, I believe every religion has some aspect of it. I feel that even though it shouldn't replace modern medicine as a cure-all, sometimes, Man just has to place his faith and believe in someone higher than us all. Fascinating isn't it? I am super intrigued by tonight's turn of events.

Turned out to be a good night. I am supremely satisfied now, full tummy and all. And its perfect cooling weather to turn in now! Good night folks.