Just another boring day

Determination

2010-02-05T08:17:00.001+08:00

Things seem to be going wrong.

2009-09-07T19:46:00.003+08:00

I don't know why, but it seems to me like things are going wrong for me in certain areas of life. I can't really explain why I feel like this, but this thought has been in my mind for some time already.

For some reason, I've been feeling slightly depressed (I think), with so many thoughts coming into my mind for no apparent reason or basis. Why am I feeling like that? Am I just simply thinking too much, or what?

I really don't know. Perhaps all this emotions have been kept and stored up inside me for such a long time and it is finally beginning to spill out of me.

Start Of The Season.

2009-08-14T20:37:00.004+08:00

Wayne Rooney is the key to Man Utd's title defence and success this year. The Club is gonna be needing him and his dynamic presence if they want to be successful. He is simply THE man for the Red Devils now.

My Buddy group and El-Shaddai are collaborating tmr for the Home Improvement Project (HIP) at one of the homes in Commonwealth tmr. I can't wait to get to work, and to see how nice the house would look after we are done with everything!

Last Night.

2009-08-11T22:13:00.002+08:00

I couldn't sleep last night, and many things came to my mind while i was tossing and turning on my bed. How many friends do I have? I mean quality friends, friends that would make the effort to spend time/chill out with you, and support you in times of need. Friends that would actually be concerned about what's happening in your life.

For the matter, how is friendship defined? On what basis would a friendship be established between two people? Is it based on common interest, lifestyles, activities, events, compatibility issues? How about those who have people they would love to be friends with, only to realise that the friendship doesn't work out since there's nothing common to talk about? Does it mean that the relationship is to be deemed as pointless and useless in pursuing?

How about those who are socially discriminated in the environment that they are living in? Do they deserve to be treated like that, to be considered as "untouchable" in that sense and a shame/joke to be friends with? Do people have the absolute right to judge for themselves who is "worthy" to be friends with? If so, what would happen to those who are not deemed to be "worthy"?

So as a result, many questions filled my mind, and as more questions came to mind, it naturally became harder for me to sleep. Perhaps the inability to sleep was the natural consequence of drinking 3 cups of coffee in day, or it could be a combination of many other things. In any case, it's been a while since i've endured a sleepless night.

Last Day At Work.

2009-07-20T22:39:00.003+08:00

Today was my last day at the student care centre in tanglin halt. I've spent close to about 5 months there, and i've gotten to know all the kids pretty well. Looking back, sometimes I may find it tiring taking care of them since they were all so active and moving about, and to take care of 30 kids at one time sure is mentally and physically challenging at times. However, when you see the little joy that surfaces on the faces of the kids whenever you spend time with them, it really makes everything seems fine after all.

I have learnt many things during my time in the centre, most notably patience! On a more serious note, when you see the innocence and genuineness displayed by the kids when they go about doing their things/homework/play, it really makes you wonder where all that innocence that was once in all of us all went to. Perhaps that's what God yearns for all of us to have, an innocence in all of us that will please Him.

I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to serve in the student care centre. The children and the staff have been a blessing to me all this months, and I'll never forget them. All the lessons that I've learnt and the precious time i've spent with the children cannot be found in another place in my opinion, and I'm extremely grateful once again for the whole experience.

Well I guess that's the close of a chapter in my life for now, and on to the next chapter, university studies. Basically I'm not looking forward to going back to studying since it's been 2 1/2 years since I was last at an educational institute. It will probably been kind of a cultural shock to me, but i guess i will adapt soon enough. Hope school will be fun and enjoyable for me.

But first, I'm heading to cambodia for another mission trip in 2 days time.. Can't wait to see all my fellow brothers and sisters over there haha. It's been a half a year since I've seen them, and I'm feeling pretty excited about the trip.

Back To Work

2009-07-01T09:56:00.002+08:00

I've been struggling to find the same level of motivation I had in the past to work this time round. Perhaps I've expended all my energy during the camp that it kinda feels anti-climax to be going back there again. To be honest, I'm not really looking forward to work, but perhaps things would change when I see the kids again. Then again, it could also be that I've enjoyed hanging out with cell people the last couple of days just chillaxing around so much that work just doesn't seem attractive.

Received an sms from Wen Zheng last night, and that sms really reminded me of how fragile life can be. We really need to cherish all the time we have, simply because Life is full of rude shocks. Reality is harsh at times.

Probably gonna chill at Timbre (for the 1st time) tonight with some of the guys, waiting for some of them to confirm today. We'll probably meet much later in the night, and I'm pretty excited to be going there.

A Good Choice.

2009-06-27T21:11:00.003+08:00

Journey ( Don't stop Believing)

Just a small town girl, livin in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south detroitHe took the midnight train goin anywhere

A singer in a smokey room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

(chorus)
Dont stop believin
Hold on to the feelin
Streetlight people

Nice choice of song on your tribute video my friend, I'm sure your Mom loved it :).

Looking Back.

2009-06-24T10:15:00.006+08:00

First and foremost, i would like to thank all the camp parents/games helpers who helped out/volunteered their time during the Commonwealth Children Camp. You guys formed the bulk of the manpower in the camp and without all your support, enthusiasm and commitment the camp would not have been that successful. I believed that the children really enjoyed their 3 days with you, and I hope you have enjoyed their company as well. I would especially point out the great amount effort spend into preparing the QT lesson for the children, and that was truly commendable in my opinion :)

Commonwealth Camp Committee 2009!!! I would like to say that i really enjoyed the time we spent together planning and executing the camp together. In my opinion, we gelled well as a team, and I'm thankful to God for everyone of you. :)

Malcolm: Your calmness and ability to make decisions, always with the welfare of the children in mind, has always been an encouragement for me. The effort you make in ensuring that the food/drinks during meal times were prepared so the children didn't have to wait just simply shows your passion your the children. Not to mention, you were good in handling the finances of the camp, and it was through your preparation of the accounts that we managed to get approval for the money for the camp t-shirts. Well it takes a smart brain to handle finances, and you were more than capable of doing so. :)

Catherine/Darryl : The enthusiasm that you've shown when preparing the games for the children has really encouraged me on many occasions. The passion that the both of you have in ensuring the children had maximum fun with safety in mind is really truly worth commending on. I've also noticed the amount of time the both of you spend preparing the games during the camp itself, and i've been impressed with the way you handled the games. The constant running around, to ensure the games were alright and the welfare of the children was never jeopardised really showed the passion and the desire you have for the children to be having a good time with the games. Well done guys for the games, I for one can tell you that the children thoroughly enjoyed it :)

Cristal: Your efforts in ensuring that Malcolm Lee helped us in the BBQ was truly a blessings for all of us, camp parents and children alike. We all enjoyed the BBQ, and it wasn't for your communication with Malcom we would not have been blessed with such good food. Secondly you have always been giving such great input on things, be it in meetings or even in the camp itself. I dare say that we would have neglected/overlook a lot of things it wasn't for your input :) Your enthusiasm and cheer personality really and always rubbed off on us a lot, even at times where we may feel tired and weary in the camp itself. Thanks for always being ever-ready to help during the camp, I really appreciate it.

Once again, thanks to everyone for putting the effort together to make this camp a success! we all managed to pull it off together, and I'm sure everyone had a great time :) Praise God, as it was only through Him that all things work out to be good in the end, and that the children responded as well :)

Alright then, now to my next objective, the Mission trip to Cambodia!!!!

The Week.

2009-06-14T21:37:00.002+08:00

Finally the week has arrived. All the planning, the meetings, the hard work, all of it is going to come out in full force this coming week. It really seems like yesterday when we had our first meeting. Well time passes really quickly, and I'm sure all the effort and time the committee have invested will bear its fruitfulness when the camps begin. I'm feeling pretty nervous at times, now that the camp is so near, but I know that the whole camp is for God's Glorification, and that brings me relief, since it's God's Camp as well :)

I'm going to bed real soon. Gotta ensure that I won't fall sick at this critical period of time. I have a pretty bad cough, but it should not pose a problem so long as it remains as a cough and not develop into a cold or flu or something.

Time to hit into overdrive haha :)

One Occupied Day

2009-05-16T23:45:00.003+08:00

We had Boy's Brigade Cell Meeting in church in the morining, and it was great! It was my first time leading worship, and it was a good experience personally on my part. I had a good time during the meeting, and I'm really looking forward to our next BB cell thingy.

Had Cell retreat and Commonwealth ministries meeting running concurrently during the afternoon. It was the first time i had the experience of rushing from one meeting to another. I hope i didn't miss anything out during the meeting, and I'm sure to further improve on my organisational skills.

Well, I was supposed to go for my buddy group outing at Landy's place for steamboat, but i chose not to because i needed a break after such a long day.I'm sure that they are having a great time of fellowship and fun together .

Gotta sleep earlier tonight. More things to do tomorrow morning haha. I can't get enough of this.

To My Distant Friend

2009-05-04T22:53:00.003+08:00

I wonder how you have been doing. I haven't heard much from you or about you, and i hope that you are doing fine. With the Swine Flu taking place around the world especially in where you are now, I pray that God will continue to watch over you and take care of you, and draw you to Himself with Love. Please do take care my friend, and it's my promise to you that I'll continue to lift you up in prayer.

Hope all is well.

An Old Song

2009-04-17T23:00:00.007+08:00

It Never Rains In Southern California

Albert Hammond

Got on a board a west bound seven forty seven

Didn't think before deciding what to do

All that talk of opportunities, TV breaks and movies

Rang true, sure rang true.

Seems it never rain in Southern California

Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before

It never rains in California

But girl, don't they warn ya

It pours man it pours.

Out of work, I'm out of my head

Out of self respect I'm out of bread

I'm under loved I'm under fed

I wanna go home

It never rains in California

But girl don't they warn ya, it pours, man it pours.

Will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it

Had offers but don't know which one to take

Please don't tell them how you found me

Don't tell them how you found me give me a break

Give me a break

Seems it never rains in Southern California

Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before

It never rains in California

But girl, don't they warn ya

It pours man it pours

This song is so true for many who tried to pursue careers in the Hollywood/Music Industries, industries that has a lot of media attention and fame attached to it, only to be rudely awakened to the harsh realities of life that sometimes things don't go the way you want them to.

Favourite Footballers Part 2

2009-04-15T21:16:00.005+08:00

BB AQ weekend

2009-04-06T09:43:00.002+08:00

The past few days have been pretty congested for me. I went around preparing for all the possible AQ logistics/check on the boys taking part in the Race, and even stayed with them overnight at Aldrin's Place the night before the race since the reporting time was at 3.30am. I was pretty worried while we were are Aldrin's place, as he wasn't feeling well and was having gastrics. We would have to activate our reserve member Cheng Long if Aldrin couldn't recover in time. Imagine the kind of stress Cheng Long was facing, since it was such a last minute thing and he wasn't even mentally prepared to go for the race if needed. Well, Aldrin got a lot better when we were about to leave his place and was well enough to particpate in the race, so we really have to thank God for allowing Aldrin to recover in time.

Well, the boys finished with the 31st position out of 120 teams, so it was a pretty good result for us. I guess the good performance this year will springboard our performances in future AQs, and maybe get into the top ten in the near future :o)

I just bought my new phone, the Nokia E63 model. It has been a delight thus far, and I still think I got it at the best available price at $198, since it retails for about $400+++. No more army phone for me now!

And Manchester United won 3-2 against Aston Villa yesterday night!! In your face for all those who were hoping for another loss for the Red Devils haha! I'm pretty sure this match will be the start of an amazing run of wins for the team, and I'm sure the remaining teams that will be facing them will suffer dearly haha :o)

Children Management

2009-03-25T22:54:00.002+08:00

I should really go for a course on children management, as i really have no idea how to handle some of the kids in the centre. Kids are so unpredictable. One minute they are telling you that they wanna behave themselves for the day, and the next minute they begin creating all sorts of trouble here and there, throwing tantrums and all. Sometimes I wonder what really goes on in the little heads of those kids, then at least I would have a better idea ofwhat to do. Too bad I can't read minds, so that idea really gets thrown out of the window.

"It takes a village to raise a kid" - I totally see that happening, and it's so energy-sapping.

"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance" - I so totally agree with this comment!! The children will always test your character in that sense in almost any situation that you can be put in, and I can definitely say that my patience has improved slightly so far.

"Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted." - That's the hope that I cling on to so dearly, that the children will benefit from having me as a kor kor and a friend in that sense. It would really be heart-warming to know that you will be in the child's childhood memories in the future, and there is just so much potential for me to be a blessing to them.

Well, back to youtube for me again for now. I'm really enjoying myself watching all sort of random videos on the website. :o)

BB Camp Tomorrow!!

2009-03-19T20:50:00.002+08:00

As the title indicates, I'm having Camp tomorrow! I just found out in the afternoon today from Han Chiang and Bryan that an officer from BB HQ is going to be sitting in for my LDC lessons tomorrow, so now that's the first surprise. I wonder how it will be like, though it's very likely I wouldn't take much notice of him anyway since it is a lesson I have to conduct nonetheless.

Just looked through the presentation slides for LDC, and now I'm gonna do my packing for the camp. Gotta wake really early tomorrow, so I'm gonna do my best to be asleep by 10! Hope nothing else comes up..

Alright, off to packing and to lala land soon!

Scene At Macs.

2009-03-18T23:17:00.003+08:00

I went to Vivo Giants to buy the camp logistics together with Bryan and KT in the afternoon after work today. We bought quite a bit of stuff, and the shopping for the camp stuff was pretty fun to be honest, much to my surprise as well.

After we were done with getting our camp logistics stuff, Bryan and I went to meet Guo Cheng at Harbourfront Macs. Normally we would NEVER eat in Macs for various reasons, but it seemed that Guo Cheng had some coupons that we could use to buy an extra value meal and get a free burger or something using that coupon upon purchase. The three of us were pretty excited at first, as we thought that we could get extra Mc-Spicy Burgers or Fillet Burgers since the coupons was showing the pictures of the burgers.

We then went to the food counter and presented the coupons to the guy at the counter, and placed our orders. Guo Cheng asked for a Double Cheese burger meal with the coupon to get the "free" Mc-Spicy burger, while Bryan asked for a Fillet Fish Burger. Guess what, the free food item WASN'T THE BURGERS!! It was some other food stuff (think Nuggets, Mcflurry), and all the while we were so confident that the free food item was the burger; in actual fact the coupon for the burger was FOR US TO ORDER THAT BURGER MEAL!! All three of us really felt dumb after that, and the counter guy even asked Bryan whether he understood the meaning of a free food item. Totally dumb-founded if you know what I mean.

BB camp is in roughly 1 days time. Things are looking good for the camp commitee at this point of time ,but we should never take things for granted, since the unexpected always happens in camp. I'm sure God will see us through the camp though ,and I trust that He will ensure everything will run smoothly in His Own Way. :o)

And I desperately need to get a new Handphone. My current one is really obsolete in my opinion, and it's high time to retire that phone soon. I wonder whether anyone has a good deal or bargain for Handphones, because I really need a new one soon.

Football In The Heavy Rain

2009-03-15T21:13:00.004+08:00

Played football with the rest of the church guys at 3 this afternoon as usual. It was raining rather rather heavy, but i guessed everybody wanted to play badly so no one cared and the match carried on. Personally I think I played pretty well today, so it felt good :o)

Work at Tanglin Halt is gonna begin at 9am for the holiday week, so that means I have to wake up earlier than usual, though it shouldn't be too much of a problem since the sun will be up anyway, which means to say that I'll wake up the moment a ray of sunlight dawns upon my room.

I have been going to Page 1 at Vivo City to read a comic strip titled "Ziggy". It's such a heart-warming comic strip, and it really make you look on the positive side of life with its unique and funny depictions on how we can view life and approach it. I totally love it, and I'm guessing that means more trips to the bookstore in future haha.

Tom Wilson, the Creator of this comic strip is really good for coming up with the character Ziggy.

Tough Day At The Centre Today

2009-03-04T22:21:00.002+08:00

The children in the centre were uncontrollable today, for some reason that I still can't quite figure out why. The kids were particularly playful today, to the point whereby the centre really looked like a mess. This has never happen so far, so I hope it's just a one off situation which hopefully will not happen again. I'm totally getting sore throats from raising my voice in the midst of the noise in the centre to maintain the orderly in the centre. Hope the sore throat would not get any worse than this.

Met Ben Tan and Bryan in the evening at Harbourfront to discuss about camp matters over dinner. It's good to see that things are beginning to finalise at this point of time, and I guess things are still running smoothly so far with regards to the planning. The camp is just 2 weeks away, so I'm looking forward to executing this camp out soon :o)

Anyway Bryan, if you are still reading my blog at this point of time, please do your best to STOPPPPPP!!!!

Haha :o)

Man Utd take the Carling Cup.

2009-03-02T10:30:00.004+08:00

Manchester United are now Carling Cup Champions, after beating Totteham on Penalties at the scoreline of 4-1. Congratulations Man Utd, two down, and three more trophies to go!! Glory glory Man Utd!!

A Night At JP

2009-02-25T00:59:00.003+08:00

I faced a difficult situation in Tanglin Halt today. Two kids were arguing with regards to who should sit beside this other boy during study time. I had no choice but to take the two kids to another room to do their homework and spelling revision, so that things could carry on as usual. This has been the first time in many years that I've seen two boys at such a young age arguing with so much emotions (pre-dominantly anger). The two boys were on better terms at the end of the day, much to my relief. Well, I hope that they could co-exist better in the future, otherwise it would be detrimental to their relationship with one another as well as the general harmony of the kids in the centre.

After work, I began looking around the neighbourhood for a shop to make some passport size pictures. Realising that I might not have enough money, I decided to draw out some money at the atm located at the train station. It was then when I saw this automated passport picture taking machine at the side of the walkway. I decided to try it for the first time since it seems kinda fun. Guess what, i tried putting my notes into the machine, but it just wouldn't accept it. I mean C'MON, if the machine couldn't accept the newer notes, then get it fixed so that IT DOES!! I felt really dumb after that, like I've wasted 5 minutes of my life trying to use the darn machine. I ended up taking my pictures at a kodak shop nearby.

Went to meet Landy, Nat and Aloysious at Jurong Point for dinner. It was pretty fun hanging out with them, simply because they are really funny and interesting people to hang out with, saying the most random of stuff that will tickle you silly. While we were at fair-price xtra, Nat tried on some pink clothing, and my goodness it was TOTALLY HILARIOUS!! I still can't get that image out of my mind,and I'm guessing it will probably haunt me in my dreams tonight, so I'm guessing there will be a lot of "sleep-laughing" later in the night :o) Regardless of the situation, kudos to Nat for being that gung-ho in the dare factor department.

Gotta sleep soon. still wondering whether I should watch the football match later, since I still have much to do tomorrow morning.

And I loved the movie Amelie!!!! I wondered how I missed out on such a nice movie all this years, and I totally agree with Ashley when she told me to watch the complete, unedited version. Totally funny and nice :o)

Cousins :)

2009-02-23T22:01:00.000+08:00

Starting Work Soon.

2009-02-23T10:34:00.002+08:00

I'll be heading to work soon, in just a few hours. I wonder how the experience will be, and how the day is gonna be like. It's probably likely that the first few days or so will be time given for me to get used to the work environment, and I hope I don't mess things up.

My knee is still slightly hurting from yesterday's football game. It seems like age is beginning, though it sounds weird since I am still relatively young. I guess this means I need to take more care of myself and not be involved in too many strenous activities at one go from now on.

A Day In Changi

2009-02-19T18:47:00.015+08:00

Went to the Water Venture centre at Changi in the morning to register the AQ boys for their Kayaking Star 1 course. It was a really "out of the way" place to get to, and it really helped that I had my Ipod so that I could blast music into my ears, which really made the trip seemed a lot faster and bearable. When I got there, I realised that the place was pretty nice, wind was good and the scenary was not too bad as well. I settled the payment for Jian Ye and Aaron, so that leaves with only Joash to sign up for the course. However, the course is from 14-15 March, and I remembered that the sec 3s have some camp going on, so that may be a slight bit of complication for Joash to take the Kayaking course.

Bryan came over to the Changi Water Venture centre to meet me in the afternoon, after I was done with the registration and payment for the course. We initially wanted to meet up so that we could go for a run at the park, but we didn't in the end, partly because my legs really felt sore. We ended eating at the food court at Changi Village, and after that we headed down to the airport to chill a bit. We stayed at the airport for a good 3 hours or so, before we headed off back home.

When, I got home, I began surfing on Youtube, and my goodness they have a healthy selection of movie/drama parodies, especially on Lost. I think I was viewing these videos for a while, and I can't remember how it happen, but somehow I ended up in the Amoeba Records website.

Look at those Selections!! Amoeba Records sells tons and tons of Indie albums as well as the latest albums and used albums of the past. Just think of all the great bargains you can get, and you'll be satisfied. Then think of all the good Indie albums you can possibly ever imagine, and they'll have it! Last but not least, they have a good collection of classic Vinyls if you wanna go retro! They are located in the States though..

I can't get enough of this, I wanna go there now!!!! :o)

Botanical Gardens

2009-02-17T15:48:00.004+08:00

Cycled to the Botanical Gardens earlier in the morning. I wanted to go to a Garden enviroment to do some reading of books and other stuff, hence the destination. The route that I took to get there was filled with many crazy upslope roads that by the time I actually got the Gardens, my thigh muscles were aching severely.

I walked around the Gardens for a while before I managed to find a bench with a good shade. It was facing the Symphony Lake I think. Took my book and some Tanglin Halt camp materials that I got from my sister a few days ago, and just sat there and started reading and examining them. After I was done with the both of them, I continued walking around the Garden. I never knew that the Garden was that big; I always thought that it just the size of any other typical park in Singapore, but I was dead wrong.

Anyway, as I was about to leave the Botanical Gardens, I saw a sign describing the "Dos and Don'ts" of the Garden, and to my surprise saw the part which says "no bikes, no cycling aorund the Gardens"!! No wonder there were a few people who looked slightly puzzled when I brought my bike into the Gardens.

Now, as I was cycling I was experiencing unusual bumps on my bike, even when I was cycling on the smooth paths. I stopped to examine, and to my horror I realised that back tire of the bicycle had deflated to the point whereby the metal rim was touching the ground. Talk about the worse thing to happen to a person who was cycling, especially when you were cycling in a area no where near your house! The result? I ended up walking a huge distance ( from Clementi to Pandan) back home while guiding my bike with my hands. I'm gonna change my back tire, probably in the nex t few days.

Tokyo Police Club!! Tokyo Police Club is a Canadian indie rock band from Newmarket, Ontario. They are another great band to listen to, so for those who had not heard of them, go check them out already!! :o)

A One Week Break Before Work Begins

2009-02-16T09:49:00.002+08:00

Was doing laminating of 'O' levels certs at SEAB from Monday to Thursday last week. It was a pretty mundane experience, and the only thing we did from 8 to 5 was to simply put the cert into the laminating sheet and laminate it. I have never done so much laminating in my life before, and I'm pretty sure that my laminating skills are way better than before, not that it matters anyway. The job was supposed to last for a duration of a week or two, so you can kinda guess the ruthless efficiency of the laminating 'team' since it only lasted 4 days in actual.

After the last day of my temporary job at SEAB on thursday, I went down to Tanglin Halt to fill in my job application form and have the interview with the supervisor of the childcare centre. Even though I have been helping out in Tanglin Halt for a couple of years now, I had no idea what to expect since it was a new supervisor at the helm, and I've never seen her neither know what kind of a person she was. The only clue I had prior to meeting her on thursday was from Lingna, who told me the supervisor sounded friendly on the phone. In any case, I went down, and while I was speaking to this lady ( whom I thought was another helper in the centre) regarding some of the details of the application form since there were certain things i didn't really understand, and so we talked for a good few minutes or so. After I passed the form to the lady, she told me to wait a while, and I thought that meant waiting for Mrs Tiong, the new supervisor to come and give the interview for the job. Imagine my surprise when the same lady came back with some other forms, and a file, sat down on the chair beside and started the interview!! My goodness, the lady I was talking to all this while was Mrs Tiong, and I didn't even know about it!! Well, the interview went well, and I'll be starting work on 23 Feb, which is a week from now! Woohoo, I've gotten the job that I have been wanting to do since late last year, so praise God for granting this opportunity to do so!!

I have been facing some difficulties in BB recently. The boys who were selected to participate in Adventure Quest were required to have Kayaking star ibe certification in order to qualify for the competition, so I passed the application forms to the boys so they could fill them up and I could then subsequently enroll them for the kayaking course. This happened 2 weeks ago, and I gave them a weeks deadline to complete the form as there were only limited available slots for the kayak course and up till now, I've only received one form out of the three boys who were supposed to go for the course. I hope that I'll be able to get the rest of the forms during the parade on wednesday, so that I'll be able to enroll them into the course while there are still available slots.

Went out with some of my jc friends Eddy, Henry and Jing Kai last night. It has been so long we last met together for a meal or a chilling session, and it was really refreshing to see them again. All the best to Henry, Jingkai and Dylan (whom I thought was supposed to join us as well) who flew off to Hong Kong earlier in the morning, especially when I heard of your plans to go there and get "lost" in the country so as to immense yourselves into the culture with no backup plans or any plans for anything at all. Actually that only applies to Henry since he was the one who wanted to do that, and Jing Kai and Dylan would just have to go through with since they will be there anyway. All the best again, and hope you guys enjoy yourselves over there!

This week will be a free week, since I'm not working. I'll probably take this opportunity to enjoy myself thoroughly before I start work again next week. Perhaps I should call some of my friends out to chill or have a meal or something haha.

What I'll be doing for the most of next week.

2009-02-02T20:12:00.003+08:00

Yup, it is laminating stuff. Recently found this job that lasts for about 1.5 weeks, starting from next Monday. Sounds pretty temporary right? It's probably the best kind of job that I can have while waiting for the par time job opportunity in Tanglin Halt to come ringing on my door. The job in Tanglin halt, to me would be the most ideal as I would also have the opportunity to take care of the children in the centre as well as know them better prior to the camp. Until then though, I guess it's still short-term jobs for me..

Once again, it'll be BB Adventure Quest training for the boys tomorrow. Time does seem to pass real fast, and I'm left to wonder whether the training will do the boys any good when the real thing comes. Perhaps I'll try something different for the training tomorrow, something that will really challenge the boys. Hope they won't be freaked out if I do though haha..

The future is always filled with much uncertainty. Yet when I looked towards you, somehow I know that things will turn out just right again. I don't know how you do it, but you always seem to have your mysterious ways of making everything well in the end. That's why I trust you, my God and Father in Heaven, for You are always Faithful even when things appear bleak and stormy.

Looking for a job.

2009-02-02T20:12:00.002+08:00

I have been looking for a part-time job in the past few days. I've been checking on the papers for part-time work and in the midst of doing so, I realised that the Recruit section has shrunk by a whole lot. It probably is due to the recession situation, and I'm wondering exactly when things would pick up again in that aspect.

I received an email from Lingna today, and realised that the best date (so far) for the Tanglin Halt camp is from 17 to 19 June, which happens to be just 2 days after the cell retreat. Things are kinda looking awfully tight here, and I'm thinking of ways to ensure that my involvement in the retreat will not affect my commitment/responsibility to the Tanglin Halt camp. I'll looking through the stuff Lingna sent to me later in the night, and will begin to come up with the" key responsibilities" of the "key people". Sounds pretty high level, and I hope to do it well, with the help and guidance from God :o)

Anyone who is interested in helping out in the Tanglin Halt Camp in June, Please feel free to let me know!! You'll be much appreciated!!

ORD LO!!

2009-01-27T22:51:00.003+08:00

That took place 2 days ago, offically at least. In fact, the celebrations started way earlier than that, and I must say I have never eaten that much in my life over the past few days!! I went for so many buffets, I'm having a bit of food phobia. The best buffet/steamboat experience of them all, was probably the one at Seoul Garden. I went there with Guo Cheng and Bryan for dinner last friday, and we really ate to the brink of being overfull. Initially we did not pay for the drinks as we all wanted to eat more than drink in Seoul Garden, but somehow we paid for a person's worth of a cup for drinks and I'll leave it to Bryan to explain for those who may be wondering about this :o) In any case, thanks guys for being with me during this ORD day of mine, I really appreciate it, and you can definitely count me in for your ORD/Enlistment dinner in the future!

CNY was somehow different this year. It kinda seems shorter compared to the previous years of celebration, and I can't seem to understand why. Perhaps the CNY experience changes as we grow older, and somehow I don't really look forward to it as much as compared previously. I'm pretty sure the collection of Hongbaos this year would be significantly lesser, no thanks to the economic situation but nevertheless, It still feels awesome to be collecting Hongbaos! Damien Kor and Magdeline gave their first hongbaos this year, so that was really interesting to see.

I went to meet Boon Han and Tham at night for a chilling session at Indochine in Holland Village on the first day of CNY. It was a great time of catching up with one another, and reminiscing our past experiences in Tekong. It also helped that Happy Hour was on, and that there was this 1 for 1 offer for drinks, so we drank to our heart's content. That wasn't the end though, because we headed for Chocolate Fondue at Haagen Daaz after finishing our drinks and chilling in Indochine. Now that Boon Han is leaving for overseas studies in Australia in Feb, I'm pretty sure the 3 of us will meet up again for such a chilling session before he leaves the country.

I need to look for a part time job really soon, one that offers flexible working hours. Anybody has Lobang for this? Please let me know if you do. I kinda need to get a new pair of earphones for my Ipod as well, but there are such a large variety that I don't really know which one to get. I guess it's about time to call up my musically inclined friends for help, and I'm pretty sure you know who you are. :o)

The Platoon guys during our ORD outing on Sat, but ironically one of them hasn't ORDed yet :o)

Once again, ORD LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

After A Long While..

2009-01-17T19:58:00.003+08:00

I'm back on blog! It has been an incredibly busy period for me in recent days, so much so that I haven't had the chance to blog for a while. In fact, just checking, I realised the last post was a month ago! Darn, I should really make more time for blogging.

Anyway, we have 9 new boys in our Company!!! That's a really good number we have there, and the best thing is that some of them play FOOTBALL!!! This is kinda besides the point, but well it's a good to have. The new boys came for parade today, and from the looks of it, they really seemed to enjoy themselves with the games and bonding sessions. That's good, and I'm sure they will enjoy themselves in the Boy's Brigade in time to come :o) Personally, this is to me the first step towards the growth of of our company. The signs look good, and I'm really excited to see how our company will grow in the future.

Six more days to the Big day!! Pink is the trendy colour!! After a long, long, long wait of 2 years, the contract is finally coming to a close. :o) I'm so gonna party after I get that precious pinkish card!

And to Kah Kay, yup I have a blog! It ain't difficult to set up, and it sure doesn't need a Dictionary haha..

And lastly to our my bro Henry, we should hang out real soon :o)

Favourite Footballers :o)

2008-12-09T19:12:00.007+08:00

Some of my favourite players :o)

I'll be flying off to Cambodia early in th morning tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to the trip as well as what we can do over there. It's going to be a short trip (5 days), but I'm sure those 5 days will be fruitful.

Past Week.

2008-11-30T19:55:00.002+08:00

My sister safely returned from Thailand to Singapore yesterday, after a delay of one day. It was really great to see her safe and sound, and from the way she shared about her experiences during dinner, I'm sure she learnt a whole lot from this OCIP trip. In any case, it's really good to have her around again at home :o)

I have not been able to attend Cell group for the past two weeks due to the BB/GB camp as as well as the BB Day Hike that took place yesterday. I also realised I have not been spending time with people from cell for quite a while, since there was also mission trip practice and meeting after service for the past recent weeks, which meant I couldn't join them for lunch and fellowship as a result. I hope I have not been missing out on too much cell stuff, and i'm definitely gonna spend more time with my cell group after I come back from Cambodia. Having said that, I have zero regrets being involved in the mission trip and BB as they are things that I personally feel strongly for and want to do well in.

Anyway, I'm going to be in LEAP next year. I wonder what lies in store for me in LEAP, but in any case it is about due time that I went for LEAP. It seems like a training phase that would benefit me greatly, and I have always looked forward to the day when I can have the opportunity to be in LEAP. It gets better, since Bryan Tan is going for LEAP as well, so that means I will company during LEAP. I'm also looking to get confirmed next year as well, so it seems like 2009 is going to an exciting year.

There are these few insect bites that I have on my body for about a week or so, and they still itch even after a week has passed! My goodness, the itch just seems to get stronger each and every time i accidentally brush my hands across them ( for whatever reasons), and it is PURE IRRITATION!!! Rebekah suggested that it is likely to be sandfly bites that I may have gotten from my BB/GB camp, but this is the first time the itchness is so potent!! The last time I had sandfly bites were in OBS in 2003, but thoses were uncomparable to the current itch gotten from bites in the recent BB/GB camp.

I want to play football soon, and hope the itches on the possible sandfly bites to go away soon. Haiz.

BB Camp.

2008-11-20T21:08:00.002+08:00

Just finished packing my stuff for the BB/GB camp that will be taking place from friday to sunday afternoon. I really hope I didn't miss out on any item to bring for the camp, because it will really be a painful self-inflicted sucker punch to myself if I suddenly realised that I forgot to bring my towel to the camp, just to quote an example. There are lots of activities planned for the camp, and I'm sure it will be a fun time and experience for the boys and girls.

I'm probably gonna be rushing for the mission trip combined meeting in the afternoon after breaking camp, so I hope not to miss out on anything. The slap dance practice will start immediately after the combined meeting, and I'm guessing it will probably be another time of having fun in the midst of all the dance preparation.

I can't wait for the camp to begin tomorrow. Think of all the fun that is gonna take place in the BB/GB camp :o)

You are always so serious and passionate in whatever you do, my friend. People always have their own impression of who you are, that you are supposed to be all funny and comical, witty and stuff. But when they really begin to know you, either through work or as a friend, they begin to see the passionate and genuine side of you. That's what I like about you, the genuine, strong person that you are, my friend. :o)

Blisters

2008-11-17T22:09:00.002+08:00

Got blisters from training yesterday with the flags for one of our dance items prep for the Cambodia mission trip. I was rather suprised that all it took was a short practice session for my finger to get blisters. Rebekah said it was largely because we were handling the flags in the wrong manner, so you could say that Yong Qiang and I were "punished" in that sense. Yong Qiang got the blisters way worse than me though, that's for sure. The next training will be this coming wednesday in church, so I hope that I'll be able to brush up my dance steps with the flags by then.

Was in office today clearing my work. There were so many leave applications to make, so it will probably mean that I'll have to make more trips back to office to clear all of them. I also realised that Daniel has been taking more and more responsibilities in camp nowadays, and that totally reminds me of the legend of the office, Swee Yee. I really hope that Daniel doesn't fall into the same footsteps of his predecessor, since that will really meant too much work and responsibilities to handle.

BB camp is taking place this weekend, starting from friday. It will probably one action-packed weekend, so I'm hoping that I'll be prepared to be of any use to the camp committee and the activities they are organising. I have the feeling that the camp is gonna be fun and enjoyable as well as being spiritually led, so I'm totally looking forward for the camp to come soon. It has been a while since I went for a camp like this, so I hope it won't be a culture shock for me.

Busy Busy, but totally worth it :o)

Obama.

2008-11-06T17:02:00.003+08:00

Hmm.. I wonder how the world is gonna change now that Barack Obama is elected the next president of the United States. "Change has come to America", he says. I wonder what kind of changes are gonna take place, and I really hope that it'll be for the good. Some of the guys at the shop in Penisula Plaza that I just went sounded really optimistic about Obama being President, with the exception of one who said it wouldn't affect us anyway. To that one dude who said that, I think you should know better that anything that affects America affects the rest of the world, Singapore included, and I'm not just talking about economics here.

I've gotten considerably better from my flu, and I really hope the flu bug won't bug me anytime soon, simply because it really stinks to be sick; you can't do almost about everything properly. Mom just came back from a trip to China, so it's good to see her around again.

I've began helping out in the Boy's Brigade Ministry in church, and it really brings back a lot of fond memories that i had as a boy 4 years ago. I met such nice friends and had so much fun during the 4 years of activities in BB. With that in mind, I really hope to bring that kind of mentality to the Boy's Brigade Ministry, the mentality of being able to make great friends and to have fun in the Brigade, because that was what I enjoyed as a boy. Wen Zheng passed me a book about the founder William Alexander Smith, and it is rather motivating reading about how he founded the Brigade as well as his character. It is rather ironic that I only managed to have better understanding of the founder at this point of time rather than 4 years ago. I guess you can never be too late to gain such knowledge :o)

The Departed is such a good movie! I have watched it quite a number of times on DVD already, and I still freaking love it to bits!! Leonardo Di Carpio and Jack Nicholson really played their characters with so much intensity in the movie, and you don't really get many movies like that recently. Gosh, I can watch it over and over again, and i can't get sick of it.

Sick.

2008-10-30T18:18:00.003+08:00

I've been down with throat infection the past few days. The sore in my throat was so unbearable that I could hardly speak or eat. I'm feeling much better after taking some medication for it, though it still hurts slightly. I guess it must be quite bad, since the doctor gave me an MC for today.

Symptoms of tonsillitis include a severe sore throat (which may be experienced as referred pain to the ears), painful/difficult swallowing, headache, fever and chills, and change in voice causing a "hot potato" voice. Tonsillitis is characterized by signs of red, swollen tonsils which may have a purulent exudative coating of white patches (i.e. pus). There may be enlarged and tender neck cervical lymph nodes.

I don't think my throat infection is that bad, but you roughly get the picture. Hope things get really better by tomorrow, so at least I can make it for the buddy group dinner. Seems like we are going to have steamboat.

Bumming around

2008-10-22T10:21:00.004+08:00

I've been able to clear my off in recent days. It helps to be finally be able to slowly detach myself from my national service, and it's about time i guess?

Will be heading down to Azhars for dinner with my cell group. It's an unusual day to be meeting for dinner, since it's in the middle of the week instead of the typical friday dinner meetings, in the midst of all the work and studies for some, if not most of us. Good for me though, since I'm on off anyways :o)

I've gotta head down there for my holidays after my ORD. It really seems like a nice place to visit, and I guess the main obstacle in my way would be the money needed to go there. I think it's rather costly, but still worth going to.

Was tagged on this picture by Vincent on Facebook. This picture was taken roughly 2 years ago during the Christmas period, when we were preparing for the Christmas outreach event in Tanglin Halt. Looking back, it was both a rewarding and a fufilling experience, one that still stays on my mind even up to now. When it was announced that there will be another outreach event this year, I had the impression that we were going to be doing the same thing again, but having checked with Jingying, I realised the the plan is different this year. The plan for this year is not to hold a concert event in Tanglin Halt, but rather it is to be blessing the neighbourhood by doing door to door blessing I think. God has always put his favour on the Tanglin Halt Ministry, and I'm sure this year will be no exception. The event clashes with the sectional camp since it is on the 20th of december, so I would have some difficulty helping out. Time to to shift my focus to helping out in the swimming days for Tanglin Halt :o)

A Long Break

2008-10-15T20:21:00.005+08:00

I took 3 days off, which actually started yesterday all the way to friday. It's kinda like the longest break I've taken ever since the time I passed out of BMTC. I'm sure the next 3 days are going to be filled with total relaxation and maximum enjoyment, it does feel good.

Just bought my copy of Fifa 2009, and my goodness the gameplay is simply spectacular. It definitely looks more like the real thing, and it even adds in characteristics of certain players and what they actually do on the pitch (E.g Cristiano Ronaldo's posture during a free kick) and you simply gotta give thumbs ups to the EA Sports for making such an incredible game that transcends it earlier editions.

It's really good, and football lovers should really get a copy of the game. Trust me, it will be very difficult to find faults with this game.

You may ask why David's picture is here. Well, this is simply because I feel that he's the model footballer, regardless of what happens off the pitch. He's the kind of player who seems to play better when the odds are stacked up against him, and you can see his heart for the game when he's playing for England. Unlike other "star" players, he doesn't demand to be on the starting lineup or that he keeps his jersey number, but he would simply be contented to be part of the team, and he trains even harder to remain on the team. I don't really admire the "commercialised" version of David, but he is a great player on the pitch nonetheless.

" A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenceless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart sceptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if he has failed over the years to listen to his own doubts, which should over be discarded after long reflection. Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts, not only their own but the perople around them as well." adapted from "The Reason For God".

We need to be aware of the doubts that may reside in our hearts and begin to ask God to reveal His Wisdom to us so that we may begin to understand the Truth as well as the reason behind our doubts in the first place as well. Only when we are able to acknowledge our human doubts and trust in God to help us through it will we begin to be better equiped to help others who may wrestle with such doubts in their lives. Being able to handle human doubts with the guidance from God will allow our faith to be built on things of more solid foundations. Having doubts should not push us away from God, but it should push us to have the desire to overcome them through proper reflection so that we may then begin to have a clearer understanding of God and our relationship with Him will strengthen as a result.

A Different Sunday.

2008-10-05T20:11:00.002+08:00

Didn't really do much today. I was supposed to be playing soccer at 5pm at Bishan Park Secondary with the church guys, but my right foot was hurting so much that I could barely walk properly, much less be able to play a full soccer match. I ended up going back home to rest, with the hope that my foot would get better with some more rest. The pain in my foot was made worse yesterday since I played soccer in the evening at Ngee Ann with the pain. It was slightly uncomfortable, but I was able play throughout the evening, and it was only when I reached home did the pain began to surface out on a larger scale. Definitely more pain ful than when I first got it while getting into a tackle with dylan while playing soccer in school earlier in the morning yesterday.

A life led towards the direction of comprehending and fufilling the purposes that God calls us to ultimately leads us to enjoy Godly pleasures. We always need to make the conscious effort to put our trust in God and to allow Him to take control in ouy lives. This would effectively mean that we begin to lead more fufilling lives as we are then able to be free of all the worldly burdens and not be distracted from the works that God calls us to do. Being free from worldly burdens through God's Peace is not the same as being indifferent to the situations and events that occur aound us and in the world today. We still have to be consicous of such events taking place around us, but the difference is our decision to respond in a different manner as compared to how the world responds.

It is through our testimonies in leading a fufilling life in Christ in the midst of all the uncertainties surrounding our society that we begin to show others that hope/securities based on financial security is hope placed on a weak foundation, and it is only through placing our hope /securities in Christ that we begin to fully enjoy the blessings of genuine Peace and Joy that comes from Jesus.

Personal Engagement with God -> Purpose in a life led by God -> Godly Pleasures

Work, and Radiohead!

2008-10-03T12:24:00.007+08:00

Feeling really jaded from work, so took off today. The work still seems to pile up even now, and it just seems to be like an endless amount of work to complete. Complete one task, and just when you think you have the time to take a break, another comes knocking on your door. My goodness, it's times like this when I kinda hope for the year to be over quickly, simply because that would also mean that I'll be closer to ORD, but I guess it's another 3months before that happens?

This week is gonna be filled with so many soccer matches for me. I'll be playing with my JC friends on the Saturday morning, followed by another game with the El Shaddai guys at Ngee Ann Poly in the evening. I'll also be playing on Sunday evening with the church guys too, and I heard it's going to be full match duration for that one. Hmm, I wonder if my legs will be able to handle all that running, but I'm sure it will be alright. I mean, what can possibly go wrong there?

Radiohead is an awesome alternative rock band, and they just seem to get better and better as time passes by. I'm sure they are on the Ipods of almost everyone, because they are just that awesome. For those who amazingly have not heard of Radiohead, check out "Creep", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Karma Police" and "Just" for starters. I personally like "The Bends" album, but each of their albums has a very different style to the other. I guess that's what makes Radiohead very good :o)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

2008-10-01T19:23:00.004+08:00

I actually tried to stay up late in the night to catch the Champions league matches last night, but I kept dozing off here and there, and I could only summon enough strength to watch the first half of the match between Manchester United and Aalborg. But it's okay, since Man Utd won 3-0 against Aalborg.

Went shopping with my sis at Vivo City in the afternoon, and got 2 pairs of shorts :o) I also had the luxury of finally being able to eat at Carl's Jr, and my goodness the chilli cheese beef fries were REALLY good! I guess the reason why I really liked the food there is simply because I only ate there once prior to this, and I'm definitely returning for more of Carl's Jr so long as they keep up the standard of those Chilli Cheese Beef Fries.

Received a sms from Daniel saying that he had fractured his finger, and that he was going to be on 7 days MC to recover from it. It was actually quite shocking, since we thought that it was only a bruise and nothing more, but I guess with that kind of swollen finger it was bound to be something worse. I guess that means less time on the computer playing Call Of Duty for Daniel in the next few days.

Yup, I'm going to Cambodia again at the end of the year. I'm really excited about the trip, as this time the events/activities that we are going to organise or share with the people over there are going to be more elaborate. Uncle Peter was saying that there are plans for a 10 week preparation prior to the trip itself, and I can sense that this trip is going to be more fruitful and effective this time round. I'm really looking forward to meeting Romany and the rest of the team in Cambodia again :o)

"It's not just what you do that you need to get right. It's your heart, your attitude."

At Home

2008-09-24T18:16:00.002+08:00

I'm at home tonight. Usually I stay in camp during nights off, since it was too much of a trouble travelling back home simply to spend an hour or two at home. Today is different though, as I had to make the trip back to get my football boots and shin guards for the Inter-Battery Soccer Final, which is taking place tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure the match will be fun :o)

How do you feel when you decide to buy something to give or to bless someone else, but you never actually see them use it? Perhaps I'm a little too sensitive regarding this matter, but I always make a conscious effort to use whatever that others bless me with regardless of whether it is to my personal liking, as I believe it would really make the other person happy to see me actually use what they gave me. Of course I don't mean you just simply use whatever other people give to you, since there may be really weird stuff that people may give to you. But how about things, like a pen or a shirt? Now if you actually used the pen or wore that shirt, you would really make that person who gave you those items really happy. Now that's a personal opinion of mine.

Checked out Wen Zheng's Blog, and I have to agree with what he mentioned on the blog. We may struggle with various things in our spiritual walk with God. These struggles may come in the form of being a good testimony to the people around you, or trying to keep your prayer life and quiet time in check with God or maybe fighting against various temptations. All of us will have struggles in our lives and there will be times where we fail, but we need to know and understand that God looks into our heart when we are facing struggles, and it pleases Him to see us putting up a genuine fight/struggle since the very action in doing so is a display of our love and desire for Him. It is like a child trying to make pancakes for breakfast for his Father. The child may not know the proper way to cook delicious pancakes, and may even make really burnt pancakes. Despite this fact, the Father is still very pleased with his child as he sees the effort and desire in the child to want to please Him by making breakfast, and that itself makes the Father really pleased.

And I finally bought the book entitled " The Reason For God" by Timothy Keller! The book was recommended by Professor Donald Carson during his seminar a while back, and I'm sure it is gonna be a good book :o)

Man Utd Need Cristiano Ronaldo At His Best Soon.

2008-09-19T12:41:00.003+08:00

After last weekend's loss against Liverpool, I believe United needs Cristiano back on the team. In the short while that he played against Villareal in the Champions League, United definitely looked more threatening on the attack, with more opportunities presenting itself. It is like United lack the cutting edge on the their without Cristiano Ronaldo, and with the next match being against Chelsea this weekend, Cristiano has to be playing in the team. There may be some people saying that he may not currently be at the peak of his fitness, but having said that, United is gonna need him regardless of his condition if they are thinking of beating Chelsea. As much as I don't really like Cristiano for his somewhat "arrogant" attitude on the pitch, I must say that the team really needs him to be playing for them.

Haha, I think the football craze is coming back to my life again. Well, I guess it's more Premier League Action for me from now on :o)

Anyways, a few of the cell peeps and I will be heading down to Cathay in the evening for dinner at Astons. I have never heard of the place before, so I hope the food's gonna be good. I was actually hoping that we might have dinner at Fisherman's Wharf ,since that was the other place we were actually considering in the beginning, and I really loved the food there. I dunno, perhaps the food at Astons is comparable or even better? Well, in any case I'll be going there later, so I hope the food is good.

And gosh, Death Cab For Cutie is really good. I'm actually listening to them right now as I'm typing this down, and I must say I can't get enough of them. They are THAT good, well at least in my opinion.

Go Man United! Thrash Chelsea this weekend! Woot!

Converse Sneakers! Woot!

2008-09-15T14:24:00.004+08:00

Got a Radiohead DVD consisting of all the MTVs of their greatest hits for Nat for his birthday last saturday. He is a huge fan of Radiohead, so I thought it would be a great thing for him to have. I was actually afraid that he may already have that DVD considering how much he likes Radiohead, so I was really relieved when he said he was actually planning to get it sometime in the future.

Hanged out in Orchard with some of the cell guys on sunday afternoon. We really walked round the whole of Orchard, starting from Far East to Tangs, and then to Wisma Atrium and finally to Heeren. In the midst of all that walking, I began to notice the rather terrible condition of my shoes; seemed like the sole was coming off. We then headed to the Converse outllet in Heeren to look for shoes to get. Needless to say, I decided to get the red coloured pair of sneakers as it had been on my mind for quite some time already. It was at this point where Nelson saw another pair of Converse Sneakers that he liked, and he too decided to get a pair as any true Converse lover would do. Good purchase for the both of us :o)

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
– Theodore Roosevelt

Saw this above quote on Wen Zheng's blog. It is a good reminder of how we should stay firm in our beliefs and have the courage and boldness to step out of our comfort zones to make a difference with our lives for what we believed in, regardless of whether there may be risks and obstacles in our way. If we choose to stay at the sidelines, in our own comfort zones and watch others do what we might or could have done if we had chose to instead, then we are essentially beginning to lose the very purpose to which our lives have been destined and planned by God to fufill. That, in my opinion would be the worst thing that can ever happen to anyone, which is a life led without fufilling the purpose to which it was called to do.

The Week In Summary

2008-09-12T18:08:00.006+08:00

I first found out on monday that we did well in th HR knowledge test, especially Clement who I think probably is the top scorer in the whole examination! Kudos to Clement for that extremely unbelieveably good score, the whole branch is really proud of you. This actually means more pressure put on Daniel and the rest, since they will have to match up to the scores from this year for the next year haha! Our boss decided to give us two days off for the good results, so it was really worth the time spent on the exam (though both of us only knew about the exam quite late on). Praise God for this wonderful result!

I bought a Nike knee support band on tuesday, and promptly tried running with it the next day. Well, I guess the support band is rather good, since i did not experienced any knee pain after the run. Seems like the knee support is gonna be a regular fixture in future runs for me, at in least in the near future.

We had a surprise half day off today, so I went back home. I'm going to the Macs at West Coast Park later in the night to meet up with a old friend, someone that I should have met up with much earlier on. I hope everything goes well later, that it would not be an awkward scene, but one that is comfortable and relaxed.

" An apple a day keeps a doctor away" : taken from Daniel "Boss" Peck.

This picture is totally hilarious :o)

Indie music Alert! Check out the bands " Black Kids" and "The Decemberists", they have some rather decent music up their sleeves. Found out about them on the internet on Indierockcafe.com, which is another awesome website for Indie music :o)

Guitar Hero! and others..

2008-09-07T19:27:00.002+08:00

Played Guitar Hero on the Wii system today. I heard a lot about the game, that it was really fun and cool from lots of different people, but today was the day I finally understood the reason why the game is so fun! I'm sure the feetwashers had a blast of a time with the game as well, and it was great just seeing them being able to blend in well with us through the game. Well, I hope that's the first of many that we are gonna see them in church and more importantly, in cell groups as well.

There was a small group of us (Nelson, Chin Wee, Nicolette, John Chew) who began challenging each other in Guitar Hero with the song "Through the fire and flames" on the easy settings. It was really difficult even on the easy settings, and it was only after two tries that Nelson and I managed to complete the song. Haha, the whole experience was really fun :o)

I've realised in recent days that my left knee has began to hurt slightly. I hope it is only a strain, and that it will go away soon enough. It would really stink if the knee pain becomes a permanent thing in my life, simply because it will definitely affect me when I play sports or even just simply jogging. Perhaps it is time to get myself a knee support guard from queensway soon, so that there will be less strain on my knee.

Should I invest my money on a good pair of runnning shoes? I've been eyeing a particular model from Adidas for quite some time already, and it still looks good to me when I checked it out at Vivo today. Perhaps I should get it also for the sake of my knee, but John Chew was telling me to get one from Asics. He says that they have the best shoes for running.

Gosh, I think I have been drinking WAY TOO MUCH coffee. I should really stop downing down so much of those caffeine infested drinks, but it really is easier said than done. Iced Americano is the one that really puts some kicks in. I'm probably gonna start by drinking a cup less each day, and hope i limit my intake to just two cups a day in the near future :o)

Definition Of Weird

2008-09-04T10:05:00.000+08:00

Definition of weird: of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.

I have been wondering for a while why there are people who call others weird (in a negative way) . Sometimes a person may have his or her own style of doing things, and perhaps this style may be out of the social norm today. But should someone simply conform to the ways and lifestyles that the media depicts as socially "acceptable", just to be accepted by others in that sense?

What about just being comfortable with who you are, and being the unique person that you are? Surely it is more important to be genuine and true to yourself, than to put on a facade and a mask and to pretend to be someone that you are not? The media has a very good way of trying to convince us to live up to their expectations of how life should be led. Just look at the girls who are scarily skinny, being portrayed on magazines and television by the media as the "ideal" image to strive for. Is being skinny and unhealthy cool? Obviously not!!

It's definitely way more cool and right to live a life that is free from all that stereotypes today. After all, we all only have just one life to lead, so why lead the life of trying to be someone else? People may call you weird at times, but maybe that's because they already have this image in their minds by the media of what is "cool" and "socially acceptable", and hence might have difficulties accepting something that's not the "social norm" altogether.

More Pictures of my birthday :o)

2008-09-02T00:15:00.001+08:00

Taken at White Dog Cafe :o)

Birthday! Opera!

2008-08-29T18:05:00.000+08:00

I had a very different experience for my birthday this year. Met up with loads of people, some of them friends, some of them family relatives. First up, I met my nanny and her family..

Now people have been asking me why I've always said that i have four sisters instead of one, like they couldn't really figure where the other three sisters came from. Well, I'm proud to say that these three sisters are the daughters of my nanny (Now that's a long time ago....), and they have been taking care of me ever since the day I knew I even existed, and I've been addressing them as "Da Jie, Er Jie and San Jie" for as long as I've remembered.

Well, we met up for lunch at White Dog Cafe at Vivo City, and we had one sumptuous lunch! I've never eaten so much for a long while, and my goodness it was really good! For those who have not heard of White Dog Cafe in Vivo City, they have affordable set lunches which costs roughly about ten to fifteen dollars depending on what deserts you order, and trust me, it is worth your money for the kind of food they served :o)

After lunch my Sis and I began walking around Vivo City. We didn't have any plans though, so it was simply a matter of total randomness, bumming around in the various shops. I was quite sure my sis wanted to use this opportunity to get me something I like while shopping, but I ended up being the one buying stuff for her! I mean, birthdays can be a great occasion to be receiving from others, but personally to me it can also be an ocassion of giving as well. You don't always have to receive something to be happy, and sometimes greater joy can be derived from being able to give to others.

Having spending the afternoon with my Sis, I headed down to The Esplanade to meet up with the rest to catch the opera "Turandot". Naomi was in it, so we kinda went for the opera so as to show support for her as well. Watching the opera was a new experience to me, and you can't help but be amazed by the vocals of every single person involved in it. It requires a whole load of technique and vocal talents in my opinion to be able to sing in an opera. It is simply a form of art to be admired :o)

After TCC, we headed to TCC beside California Fitness in Orchard for supper. The guys were nice; they got me a cake and managed to sing a birthday song just one minute before midnight. It was cool in my opinion, so thanks guys!! I really appreciate it :o)

We took this on our way to TCC on the bus. It was DIFFICULT taking the picture on a moving bus, so credits to Cristal.

The flowers weren't mine. I just borrowed it from Naomi just for the fun of it. I wouldn't blame anyone if they find that this picture looks wrong; even I think it looks wrong. (For your information, I'm not a flower lover, so this is as close as you can get seeing me with one.)

Music On Ipod = Ear Pain?

2008-08-29T09:42:00.000+08:00

Darn..

My ears are slightly hurting. I've only felt it in recent weeks, and I think it may have something to do with my excessive usage of the Ipod I got this year. That isn't good news at all, because that would mean that I probably got to stop listening to music for a while to allow rest time for my ears!!

Think about all the book ins, or all the travelling i do without the world of music in the midst of that! It is gonna be really boring and draggy doing all that, at least in my opinion :o(

Someone, anyone who knows of really good headphones that doesn't give you ear problems, please LET ME KNOW!!! I'm gonna splash on one as an investment, so that I can enjoy my music on Ipod, period.

Just saw the email that uncle peter sent to me regarding the next trip to Cambodia at the end of the year. I really wanna go on the trip, but there may be slight complications if it clashes with the Tanglin Halt Christmas Event. While we were on our way back to Singapore from Cambodia the last time, there was this feeling that compels me to wanna make a return trip back to do more for the team over there with whatever little I have to offer. I can't explain what i felt, but I was more than sure that I'll be making a return trip to Cambodia, and the December trip is the next one. Let hope I have the opportunity to do so..

Meiko is a good Indie Singer, all Indie Lovers should try listening to her songs, especially "Reasons to love you", and "Hawaii", two of her better songs.

Wait a minute, I'm listening to her song right now.. Darn gotta stop before my ears explode from music 'poisoning'.

The Half Marathon And Couple Shirts.

2008-08-24T18:49:00.000+08:00

I went for the Army Half Marathon today. We were there really early, kinda about 5 plus in the morning, and the only people walking around the gathering point were guys in army PT attire. This is really an odd scene as i've never seen City Hall with that many NSFs in my life! There was this group of runners who were already doing some warm-up runs when we first got there, and I'm guessing they are probably not local simply because Singaporeans would never do that, not for anything in the world I would reckon.

Anyway we were in for a very unpleasant surprise when we step onto the field where we were supposed to report. It was raining just a couple of hours ago, and the field was soaked with MUDDDD!!!!! The floor looked like someone just dump a whole lot of Chocolate Nutella onto the field, and it only took a few steps before my shoes were completely coated with mud, like some messed up version of a chocolate fondue. It was that bad, and I really felt sorry for those who wore branded shoes, especially the Adizero folks.

Well, Clement and I brought some bread and tuna for 'makeshift' breakfast, and it wasn't so bad. At least we didn' have to run on an empty stomach :o)

After the race was over, the medical guys, clement and I went to Cineleisure for "brunch", since it wasn't lunch time yet haha. We went on our separate ways after that though as the medical dudes wanted to have sushi, whereas Clement and I were looking forward to some old fashioned good burgers. Yi long tried his best to convince the both of us to go for sushi too, but well it just wasn't the day for sushi for me. Clement and I were talking about ORD and stuff of the like, saying how fast time has past since we first enlisted into the army. It's just 5 more months to FREEDOM!! Talk about having extraordinary enthusiasm when there's still one last hurdle to clear; the HR Audit. I endured it once, a second time is just simply overkilling on the experience meter. :o(

Bummed around in HMV for a while, listening to some really random music that they have available for sampling, and waiting for cell people to come to town. So after bumming around in HMV long enough, I made my way to Plaza Singapura, where Tedric and the rest were buying tickets from sistic for Naomi's opera performance next friday. I'm really looking forward to that day, as I've never seen an opera myself before.

After buying the tickets, we subsequently headed to TCC for a slack session. Vincent introduced the song"Dear God" by the Avenged Sevenfold. It did sounded really good, though Vincent promptly reminded shortly after the majority of their music's metal, which ain't my cup of tea. Well, at least that's one more nice song added to my Ipod, so no complaining over that.

Here's a group picture of us in TCC, looking really stoned out.

Now that's more like it, like we finally injected some emotions to our poses. Then again, the guys must be feeling over emotional with the poses, and only the girls look normal..

And I still don't have a good opinion of couple shirts. I think they are really weird, like some major catastrophe in my opinion, but I have some friends who are more than ready to make me eat my words. They have even thought of setting up a group in Facebook in favour of couple shirts, ready to convert me anytime, especially Nianci and Nicholas (that loving couple)! Haha You have to try harder than that dudes haha! :o)

Good Old Ancient days

2008-08-22T14:42:00.000+08:00

Look at those photos of us all those years ago.. This may sound cliche, but it seemed like yesterday when the pictures are taken. It's been a while, so we may look kinda dorky :o)

I'll be heading over to the teochew porridge shop beside Al Azhar later to meet up with Nianci, Beattite, Shiying and Henry for dinner. Yukun can't go though, he just texted me telling me that he's down with some viral infection, and didn't want to infect us as well is he went. Rest well dude, and perhaps we will catch up again sometime soon :o)

Cambodia Trip

2008-08-16T11:01:00.000+08:00

Time to talk about the cambodia trip! I've been very busy in recent days, hence the lag in the posting of this very entry. Well, lets begin then :o)

Cambodia is a really different place from Singapore in virtually every aspect. The roads were filled with loads of dust, and the standard of general cleanliness there will be a catastrophe for any cleanliness freaks out there. It was really an eye opener for me since it was the first time I've been to that country.

1st day: We went to the church VBS in Phnom Penh and did the 'Hands' skit, followed by some songs with simple actions for the kids to enjoy and have fun in the midst of the worship session. It was initially difficult for the team as there was this language barrier since the children could only understand khmer, but our cambodian friends were there to help us do the translation for the kids to understand. With their help, we managed to pull it off. It was really heartwarming to see the kids enjoying the sing-a-long session in such a innocent manner, and you could really see the joy in their faces in the midst of all the singing and actions. Later in the afternoon, it was the kids' turn to perform their skits in a talentine fashion. It was hugely enjoyable, and I particulary enjoyed the parts whereby the kids will sing in khmer. After the Talentine was over, we begin to hang out with the cambodian youth who were helping out in the church, and got to know them better through games, though for the guys all it took was a game of basketball for us to really click well together.

2nd day: We made three trips to 3 different villages in the countryside. The truck ride to the villages was particulary filled with loads and loads of dust!! By the time we reached the first village, all of us was covered with so much dust that all u need to do was to jump, and the place around you will suddenly appear smoky. It was THAT much dust. But the trip was more than worth it when you see the kids in the villages enjoying the many games and songs we brought to them. For them, such simple things will already bring such joy and fun to them, which really made me think about the kids back in Singapore, who due to the exponential advance of technology have begun to place their enjoyment in more sophisticated and costly things such as the PSP, and hence are only enjoying themselves in a virtual world and not the real world. Now that really stinks in my opinion. Anyway, the skies were filled with dark clouds when we got to the second village. It was getting really windy, and the team was beginning to get worried as a rainstorm would really complicate the whole situation. Seeing this, I said a small prayer in my mind, hoping the clouds would be diverted to some other place or perhaps disappear altogether. Guess what, by the time all the kids were gathered to the tiny shed we were in, the skies were cleared and the sun was shining brightly!! Some people may attribute this sudden change of event to some extraordinary luck or what have you, but there is no doubt in my mind that Only One Person is able to do that, and because i gave thanks in my heart for that :o)

The guys then bunked in the village church for the night, and I could tell you that the preparations made just to sleep that night were elaborate to say the least. Mosquito nets, repellents, coils were put into strategic locations so that the mosquitos would have no chance of biting us! We couldn't do much about the dogs though. The dogs really love barking in the night, like it was singing in their opinion, but really it was just noisy for me. Just when you were finally about to sleep, the dogs kinda sensed it and they start barking away. Fiesty creatures they are, though I suspect the reason why I would say something like that is because I was really stretched out on the irritation meter that night.

3rd day: We visited a church service in Tahmau, one of the provinces in Cambodia. It was a simple place in my opinion. After that we headed back to VBS in Phnom Penh for their youth service. We took a lot of pictures after that with our cambodian friends, and some of us exchanged handphone numbers and email addresses with each other so that there will still be some form of communication there, and we can continue the friendship through that. In fact, I'm waiting for a reply from the bass guitarist Romany. Both of us hit it off especially after the basketball game, and I offered my services as a tourist guide should his family ever decide to come to Singapore for a holiday. Hope they are doing well..

For any other information regarding what happened for the last day of the Cambodian, the only notable thing I had was being able to eat FRIED CRICKETS!!!!!! Now is that freaking cool and awesome or what? I really wanted to try the fried spiders, but they were only on a per kg sale, so I kinda freaked out upon hearing that, simply because no one was that hungry for spiders!! I also bought a bag for my sister, and I'm glad she liked it :o)

More of Cambodia soon!!

Cell Group

2008-08-04T10:28:00.000+08:00

I love these dudes :o)

Now this is what I call one big happy family..

Congrats once again to Vincent, Calvin and Ashley for taking the next step forward!

Hands, And The New Zealand Trip

2008-08-02T21:17:00.000+08:00

The Cambodian mission team met today at the nursery room. Uncle Peter began to brief us regarding the schedule and the places that we will be going during our stay there. I guess there was a huge relief among the members in the team when we realised that the area that we were going was very far away from Thai-Cambodian border conflicts since we will be travelling around the central region of the country. However having said that, it would also mean that we would be too far away from Siem Reap and guess what, Angkor Wat's IN THAT REGION!!!

Darn it.

Haha what am I talking about? The main focus of this trip is to reach out to the youth over there and to bring Genuine Hope to their generation. Anyway, the mission team decided to prepare skits and games for the children and the youth during our visit to the three churches in Kampong Speu. I was part of the team preparing the skits, and our skit is titled "Hands". Now this is a skit that was last seen in Malan Road at the old SAJC campus a few years back, so when when we were told to prepare the skit, only Shirley Sim and I could roughly recall the fundamental actions and movement that were used in the skit. Haha suprising that a guy who was once called "Dory" due to his forgetfulness could actually remember something that took place long ago!

Lights, Camera and action time :)

The people involved in the skit were Wen Zheng, Jingying, Tedric, Shirley and myself with Brenda as the narrator of the skit. We had a blast of fun during the rehearsals, trying out all sorts of different ways to bring out the story of the skit! It was particulary funny to see Tedric trying to look as if he was in a lot of pain and suffering during his scenes since his facial expression were a mixture of pain and laughter, but you gotta give thumbs up to the guy, because he brings that sort of comical feeling to the skit instead making it seem so serious. Having said that, I heard that the cambodians like comedies, so I guess that's a plus point to the skit. We were having so much fun rehearsing that we completely forgot about the cambodian translator that was involved in the skit as well! All the time we have been taking ques from the narrating by Brenda that we forgot that her narrating will be followed by a cambodian translation!

Uh oh.

The team decided to rehearse this time with the inclusion of the Cambodian "translation" by Jeremy. For the first few attempts, all of us had the inclination to act our roles immediately after the English Narration and we tend to forget about the Cambodian translation part. Thankfully, after a few more attempts, we were doing a much better job at acting out our roles. I guess that was probably due to the fact that we were all serious about doing the skit properly and yet we could also have so much fun enjoying the whole process!

After the meeting was over, we had a quick lunch, and it was off to Cell Group. The guys, particulary Nat, had a really huge reaction when I was telling them about extending my service time to go New Zealand. "Jerome, you've got to be crazy to even be able to think about doing such a thing! I wouldn't mind subsidising your trip to go there some day, but you got to be really crazy thinking about extending for 1 FRIGGING month just to go NZ!" was one of the many comments( or should I really say criticism?) that I received from Nat. Is it really so bad a decision? I'm really thinking about it right now, and I'm supposed to give an answer to my superiors on wednesday. I mean, who know when I would have the next opportunity to go to a country filled with such beautiful sceneries? Maybe never, and that's why it's really bugging me because on one hand it's really an exciting opportunity to be able to go to that country and possibly have a unique experience over there, but yet on the other hand everyone is telling me not to go!

I really need a tie breaker on this issue, otherwise my mind's gonna go bonkers and EXPLODE!! Haha, somebody help me on this one.

It's gonna be Vincent's Baptism tomorrow! Kudos to you dude, I'm gonna be there tomorrow with the Cell Group in the afternoon to show my support for you :)

Sick.

2008-07-27T17:36:00.000+08:00

I've been hit pretty hard with the flu bug in recent days, spending the past two days just downing medicinal pills and sleeping with the hope of recovering faster that way. It really stinks to be feeling this sick, simply because there are a ton of things I can't do properly while being so sick.

Guess this weekend is purely for resting and recovering from flu.

Electrico's latest album titled " We Satellities" is a rather good album. A good album for people who are into indie rock, this local band is really worth listening to :)

Back to resting I guess, the medicine's really good at making anyone drowsy and tired.

BB Old Boys Reunion In A Long While.

2008-07-22T15:15:00.000+08:00

Watched the Batman movie on sunday at the Shaw House, and felt that the movie was absolutely awesome! I've never expected the movie to be that engaging, but the actors really put a lot of intensity into portraying their characters in the movie. I particularly liked the scene where Batman was interrogating the Joker in the interrogation room as the scene was so intense! Kudos to the makers of the film, it's going to be an uphill task producing the 3rd movie simply because of the massive standards that were raised by The Dark Knight. I think everyone, regardless of age or preference, should watch the movie. It is definitely worth your time :)

I headed over to Holland Village yesterday evening to meet up with the BB guys. It's been a real long time since we hanged out, but there were still so much to talk about when we came together as a group. Miss Chai was treating us to dinner, so we headed to Sushi Tei for our dinner. I just can't get enough of the restaurant. Too bad for Sy, who can't eat beef and crab, and that takes away a sizable proportion of the good food experience in Sushi Tei for him. After that we headed down to Haggen-Daz for Chocolate Fondue. It was really good, but that also meant that the fondue was gobbled and finished at an exponential rate. The guys started discussing about having a soccer match with the current BB boys, and decided that the best date to have it was during the National day weekend..

Darn.

That means I can't be a part of the game because I'll be at Cambodia for missions during that weekend. Never mind then, I guess there's a reason why there are 2 legs in soccer matches. Hopefully I would be able to make it for the next one.

Now that I've mentioned about the Cambodia Missions, I better look up on the internet and books to prepare myself for the trip. It would totally stink if I were to go to the country and not be able to speak their native tongue, as that would totally ruin my chances of being in a position to understand their needs and their cultures and what have you. Time to buck up on the preparations.

Anyways, my friend of 7 years, Ze Hao is finally enlisting this friday! I know this sounds sadistic and self-deprecating, but welcome to my life soon to be recruit haha! :)

(Btw: check out Shirlyn Tan's music, she is a local musician, and she is really good.)

Sushi and Haagen-Daz

2008-07-16T20:49:00.000+08:00

Went to Vivo City to meet up with my cousins, about 5 of us. Kor Damien wanted to treat us to dinner to thank us for the help that we provided on his wedding day, so we went to Sushi Tei. When I first got to the entrance of the restaurant, the queue that was forming up to enter the the restaurant was insanely long!! I've never seen such a long queue for Sushi Tei, especially it was a weekday and the general idea was that everyone would be at home being totally exhausted from a long day at work, meaning to say the restaurant would not be so crowded..

Wrong opinion this time, dude.

Anyways, we began ordering food from the menu like crazy. Initially I found it awkward to be ordering anything at all from the menu since the prices were rather steep, but after Kor Damien continually insisted that we just order whatever we wanted, I began to order more food as requested from him. The food was REALLY GOOD!! It's probably the best sushi restaurant I've been to in quite a while, and the best thing's that you don't have to wait long for the food to be served! I'll probably make more trips to the resturant in future, even though it means burning more money to good food yet again.

After dinner we headed to Haagen-Daz, which was just beside Sushi Tei. Kor Damien and Magdeline ordered sccops of ice cream on waffle and brownie. I've never thought that strawberry cheesecake ice cream would ever be such an awesome combination!! Really good, cheesey choc lovers should really take note :)

Ok, seems like Daniel's getting prepared to lock the office. Time to go home.

Cambodia

2008-07-14T11:31:00.000+08:00

Had a briefing about Cambodia today in the afternoon by Canon Wong Tak Meng. The briefing were for those who were either going for the Cambodia Mission trip in august or had the desire to support the Mission trip either through prayer or future trips there as well. Canon Wong shared with us that Cambodia was a country whereby time had stopped, and the conditions in the country had only improved slightly in recent years. The reason for the dismal living conditions were because it was a war plagued country in the 70's and 80's, and the political instability faced in the country after that promptly ensured that only slight improvements were made. It seems that there are a minority of people in the country who are well to do, while the vast majority are still poverty stricken. Things got worse for the Cambodians especially during the global food price increases that took place this year. The general increase in the price of rice would mean that many more Cambodian families would not be able to afford the same amount of rice for their meals, and this is bad news since rice is their staple food.

Darn.

On a lighter note, Brother Elijah, a man of God who had been serving in Cambodia for 4 years now began teaching us some of the basic Cambodian phrases. It was really interesting because you really had to do some tongue twisting to produce the pronunciation required to make it sound cambodian. It was really an eyeopener session, to also learn about the various traditions that the Cambodians adhere to, such as greeting one another with a bow and having your palms closed together with the bow. I really hoped that with all this knowledge, I would be able to be in better position to be a blessing to the Cambodians when August comes :)

After the briefing, some of us made our way down to Dhoby Ghaut Station. Rachel had to go to SMU to study with the rest, so Naomi and I decided to chill at the Starbucks in Cathay. We kinda began crapping about many random stuff, like exotic locations to retire and the exotic nationalities that our future spouses would be. I think retiring as a farmer in a place like Canada or New Zealand would be totally cool, like you could really take care of your animals/vegetation while basking in the cooling weather and the beautiful scenaries around you at the same time! Talk about killing 3 birds in one stone, now that's my idea way of retiring, but that's another 30 years later i guess..

I'm actually suffering from flu right now, with the exception of the fever. Think I'm gonna be resting the whole day tomorrow, and hope things get better for me.

Public Transports, Ipod, Waterman

2008-07-11T23:34:00.000+08:00

Bad news. Firstly, I'm pretty positive that my ipod headphones is gonna self destruct really soon. I've only been able to hear some creaking sounds on the headphones recently, which most probably is a result of a very bad personal compulsive usage disorder that I've been subjecting my Ipod to ever since I got it. I mean, not many people that I know can summon the extraordinary determination not to whip out their Ipods whenever they are travelling by themselves or when they are just plain bored at that moment of time. Secondly, my left ear has become more sensitive in recent days, and that means less music for my ears simply because my left ear can't take the heat. Darn, what i just mentioned simply meant I have to cut down on the music. :(

Went down to the airport to receive Dad in the evening. I was only able to reach the budget terminal after a long journey that spanned closed to 2 hours, and the fact that the shuttle bus left right in front of me as I was walking to the stop didn't exactly help much as well. Talk about a mega bummer! It was only another 15 minutes later when the shuttle bus showed up again at the bus stop, and this time I totally made sure I was the first to enter the bus. Met up with Dad and Mom and had Dinner at Han's. Soon after we decided to take the train back instead of the usual cab back home, with the idea of spending more on supper later on. True enough, we had supper at one of the many food courts in Jurong central, and sis joined us as well.

When we finally got home, Sis and I decided to suprise our Dad with a birthday present. The present was a fountain pen from Waterman, something both of us thought would be a very practical present for Dad, so we got it for him. I was both glad and relieved that Dad really liked it, because it was my first time shopping for something like that, so i wasn't sure what kind of a design he would had like. It took me 2 WHOLE DAYS to kinda shop for the fountain pen, so I'm really glad he liked it since it meant all my efforts were worth it. And I hope he will really use it. I'm sure there's a reason why the brand's called WATERman and not DRYman. :)

Sentosa's coming tommorrow, I hope the weather's gonna be good. Not that I'm interested in sun tanning; I have probably maxed out on the tannometer of my skin already. Hope it's gonna be fun!

What A Long Day

2008-07-09T11:40:00.000+08:00

Kinda began my day doing T trail first thing in the morning at 2plus in the morning. We began to move out to do Sai kang ( meaning odd job work for those who are seeing this word for the first time). What do i mean by this? Basically it means feeling jerry cans to the brim with water as well feeling some water dispenser with ice for safety reasons, it's kinda some proper procedure to follow so that we can be prepared for anyone who get injured in the midst of the trail thingy. The whole thing lasted till about 9 in the morning, and most of us who were involved in the working party were exhausted by then. I mean, being caught in the middle of a rain storm in the wee hours of the morning totally stinks to the max capacity! The guys started bumming around around after that; some went to canteen for food, some were playing their PSPs, and others were just dozing off in all the possible places that you can think of. The bus that were supposed to fetch us back only came at 11, but generally the mood was high because news had already spreaded that there would be an off day tomorrow! Haha, the perfect way to boost the morale of the men i guess :)

Went to take out the stitches on my finger in the afternoon today. I found it rather amusing to see the little holes left on my finger after the stitches were taken out, and the doc suggested i continue to cover the wound so as to prevent any infection at this point of time. Despite the fact that the stitches were now removed, certain parts of my finger were still numb even to this point of time. Wonder whether this would be a permanent condition, but I guess it ain't so bad since I'm able to retain the majority of my finger. I can't really imagine how it would be if I was one finger down, but then again, I probably wouldn't want to think it anyway. Probably too gruesome a prospect for me i guess..

I was dumbfounded when the news came last night. I was expecting it for some time already, had the hope that it wouldn't come so soon, but it came and smacked me straight in the face when it came. I really don't know how to react after hearing it, so i simply shrugged it off for the moment. What am i supposed to do? Am i supposed to be happy and supportive? Yet my heart was not for it, rather it was against it. I guess.. it didn't come at the right time. Perhaps it would be better to take the next few days pondering over it..

This sentence is dedicated to a girl who's probably still outfield as I'm typing this. You know who you are, so endure through it! I'll see ya on friday haha, perhaps you can share more about yr outfield experiences :)

This movie's worth the wait :)

That Pair Of Jeans

2008-07-06T22:20:00.000+08:00

It was quite an enjoyable day today. I had the luxury of sharing with the rest of the cell peeps regarding the cut on my finger. Even though the cut was already old news, some of the dudes were still in a state of disgust, much to my suprise. Anyway, it's been a long while since i saw that many cell group peeps on the same bus heading to Marina Square, wonder whether we can continue to do so on a weekly basis.

After lunch, we kinda bum around in Marina until we reached Times Bookshop. One book caught my attention, i think it was entitled "Do Ants Have Arseholes?" Both Clarissa and I were swiped off our feet reading the many lame answers to stupid questions. For instance, how many naked people does it take to kill one elephant? Ans: 100, 1 to lay the bait for the elephant, 2 to entice the elephant to take the bait and 97 others to jump and bite the elephant until it bleeds to death. I mean, what kind of a stupid answer is this to a stupid question? I rest my case.

Shortly after that we head to Gloria's Cafe for a short chillaxing session, and kinda stared at the many pictures of baby shannon. I kinda think that there are too many pictures of her on everyone's hp, but I guess the reason's simply cos she is cute :) Haha, I'm still one of the privellage few to have shannon call me by my name, so that's still way awesome in my opinion.

It was roughly 5 plus in the evening when everyone kinda left for home or concerts, and the only ones left were kinda Cristal and myself. We started scouting and hunting for a pair of grey jeans that I've been thinking of getting for a while now. Most of the shops didn't have what I want, and we were beginning to lose sight of our objective until we entered the fox outlet. Right in front of me was the ideal pair of jeans that I had in mind. Guess what, it totally fitted! I was gonna buy it, until I saw the frigging price tag and that kinda slapped me in the face. Haha, better think twice before trying any jeans huh Jerome :/

Well, I'm in the office with the rest of the branch dudes, and amazing enough everyone is in the branch on a sunday night! Haha, I guess everyone's feeling real sian, but the guy who deserves the Award for "Best Consistent Complainer" goes to none other than PAY LEON KHEE!! The guy's still complaining to us even as I'm typing this blog down, and I think the dude's brought the art of complaining to a whole new level haha..

Tiring Day

2008-07-05T22:48:00.000+08:00

For some reason, i feel really drained out and tired today. It might have been the amount of work i did the day before, but in any case i felt really jaded today.

Thought the Word shared by John really brought a new mindset of thoughts to me. John shared about "Laziness", and it really got me thinking, what do we spend most of our time doing? Are we taking control and ownership of our lives by serving God and reaching out to people around us through love and concern, or are we getting too comfortable in our lives to make a difference for God? On a personal note, there are times in my life when I knew something needs to be done or said, but somehow i don't do it in the end. Could it be because I did not want to be put in an uncomfortable position by doing so, or am i just simply being lazy about it? All those thoughts came rushing through my mind when the topic was being discussed during buddy group, and perhaps it's time to really DO SOMETHING instead of just waiting for something to happen.

Oh anyway, I guess my buddy group were totally grossed out by the details about the deep cut in my finger. Everytime I mention the word 'blood' to them, all of them would cring at the sound of that word, and by the time i wanted to share about the stitching process to them, they were too affected to hear about it! Hmm, I guess the mention of blood and things of the same nature don't really go well with certain people, but I kinda think the stitches looked cool on my finger. The only thing is that it still hurts if i press the stitches, so that's the only downfall i guess haha..

I'm still wondering about the possible reasons that could attract a lady towards signing on in the army. Can't really figure it out simply because 2 years in the army is already unbearable, what more 10, 20 years of it? I should probably ask Vivien about it since she's kinda hanging out in the unit, I'm sure the reason will be interesting :)

Talk about being awake at the wrong time. Seems like it's gonna be a long night for me :/

Moments of insanity

2008-07-03T21:50:00.000+08:00

Felt the mood in the office was generally high today. It might have been the stress of work, or perhaps it could have been the kinda food we were eating, but for some reason everyone went totally bonkers in the afternoon. We started blasting really ancient 70's music from Wyatt's Ipod, songs that range from cheesy "there's a kind of hush" by The Carpenters to just partying "staying alive" by The Bee Gees. We started doing really weird dance moves in the office that probably were the coolest actions at that time, and Wyatt really showed us just how much he knew about such groovy moves haha! It was at this point that i suddenly thought that Mdm judy was probably exposed to such music more than any of us, and it was really hilarious simply thinking of how Mdm would had grooved to such music on the dance floor in her time haha [she claims that she's not that old (:]

Come to think about it, I wonder how my parents would have looked during the 70's era. I'll probably check the old pictures out and see just how cool my parents were in the past! They should look totally trendy and colourful i think :)

A new OCT joined us today btw, i think her name's Vivien. She would probably be around for a couple of months, so thought the guys should kinda get her involved in our branch activities. The Lady deserves respect though, there ain't many girls out there who dare to be different from the social norm kind of girls in society these days, and that is simply coolness and independance in its own right :) Kudos to her, i think she'll probably go far in this career that she has chosen.

Btw, i still can't rmb what kind of noodles it was on sunday, think i better ask Vincent before even he forgets about it as well :) Maybe supper tmr would be a good time to ask i guess..

And I still think Bjork's a good singer, mind you Daniel :) You should probably listen to more of her music man bro haha!

first things first

2008-07-02T15:39:00.000+08:00

I know tat its really horribly late to start on this, but this is a blog about my not so colourful life. Just got my finger cut real badly 2 days ago, like blood was literally squirting out of my wound. Didn't really thought much about it till Daniel yelled, " oh man dude, your hand's FRIGGING BLEEDING!!!!" I've never really seen my finger being so messed up before, like the skin was really shrinking with blood continually oozing out of it. The peeps at the medical centre could not stop the bleeding, so i ended up going to NUH for treatment at 1 a.m in the wee hrs of the morning. Didn't really get treated immediately though, the hospital was amazingly crowded at that time, and other situations/cases considered more importantly promptly resulted in my rotting on the treatment bed for 1 hour!! when it finally got to my turn, the doc clean my wound up and up to my 20yrs of life experience, was the MOST PAINFUL thing i've ever been subjected to!! The stitching of my wound was not so bad though, mostly cuz of the two injection of painkillers of some sort, and at the end of it, i could see three blue ends of the stitches ( for some weird reason the doc chose blue) sticking out of my hand like they were cactus growing on my finger or something. Sounds really eventful, but i kinda thought tat even though the whole stitching experience was way cool, i probably would not want to go through it again :)

So all the many rehearsals that gone by were for nothing in the end, mostly due to the one moment where someone thought it'll be good to use a nice knife to adjust something, and ended up adjusting his own finger instead. Shame on the dude.. :(

What a way to start the first entry of ze blog.