One Aeroplane Clap...

*clap*
whoo-whoo-whoo!
*clap*
whoo-whoo-whoo!
*clap*
whoo-whoo-whoo!
*clap*
Om-ba-pa-ei-ah-ei-ah, om-ba-pai oh!
Om-ba-pa-ei-ah-ei-ah, om-ba-pai oh!

Ah, the memories of surviving Pulau Ubin and Changi Beach. Few of the many memories I've had here in 2008.

Yes, it's been some time since my last update, but I might as well confess something - This blog's seriously in a coma. I mean, sure it's not updating as often as it would a year and a half ago, but I guess that's just the sacrifice for my busier schedules. My commitments are expected to grow stronger next year, and I can already smell the gists of the broth back here in late November. If the waves are starting to flood the decks, some things' gotta give.

Not saying that this blog has no meaning to me. (Being a guy who likes to archive memories so much until his 'memory box' is already bursting, this blog is the most practical solution to getting my views of the many special moments in my life at the time itself.) But then again, what's the point of archiving your life to strict accuracy if you don't have a life to live in the first place?

So my compromise? Termly updates, I guess. I'll just do whatever I do normally, and after every three to four months I'll just update whatever I can, like a set of minutes. And if there's something really special or if I still feel I need more events to fill up my 'report', I can always intercept or delay the rotation as I please. A bit like what I've already been doing for the past year really, just that it's an official plan with a proper layout.

So don't drop by everyday just to check for an update. (I can see from my cBox that everyone's already got the idea.) Now with that's cleared, let's see what I've been up to from the time of my last update to today...

For canoeing, I raced again this year in the Round Ubin Race! Ended up 5th this year, though. See, Ting Wei and I were expecting rough waves like last year, so the strategy was that we wouldn't get spray covers and just endure the entire course while trying to get a good lead till Chek Jawa, where we would encounter the really big waves and capsize. Once we recover on a nearby shore, we would have rested enough to go for a hard burst all the way to the finishing line in hopes to beating whoever's in front of us.

But the waters were calm this year, so without a wave to capsize us, we had no reason to rest and had to paddle the whole 22km non-stop (with water spashing into our boat). Joseph and Barnabas were somewhere behind us (like last year), but lost a lot of time when they didn't turn at the buoy marking the start of Chek Jawa. Lucas and Zhihong had a rather smooth ride behind them, and since it was Lucas' first time there it was probably an adventure for him.

And news also came that due to the Youth Olympics coming in 2008, all involved sports will have their tryouts around the later half of 2009, forcing all competitions of such sports to be pushed forward to the earlier half. THis means that the Inter-schools will be held around March again, but also means that dragonboating may be around the same month. As such, timetrials will be held more often now so we can quickly form up the team.

I'll be running for K2 and K4! Yay, K4 is really fun! When I first rode one, Winston (who's already left the team to pursue Fencing, God bless him) was the frontman, so I wasn't so scared. But now with new crew possibilities, and me being a more experienced frontman (hehehe), I'll probably be condemned as frontman for therest of the year ahead.

I heard the rumour that if you turned the rudder of a K4 too fast or too far to a side the tiller rope will snap. SO when it was my turn to try out the frontman position, I was really scared and didn't dare make the sharp turns I'd recklessly do with StingRay or Boaz. But after a few training sessions of using the boat, I got over the fear (just need to get use to telling the other 3 people behind me I'm turning before I actually turn).

Ooo, and speaking of StingRay and Boaz, Ting Wei and I have decided we're through with StingRay (sorry girl, it's time you had someone else to take care of you. Such good memories...) and we're now aiming for one of the Advance Kayaks! Yes, we're going for Boaz! But now we have to fight against Nick Ng and Eugene for that boat, so we'll just have to see how it plays out. Worst comes to worst, we'll have to settle with Hybrid (which Ryan and Victor gave up to get Nelo).

Now onto Prefects, I'm now HR (Assembly) Councilor!!! Haha, the election process was a little scary at some parts, but it was still a good experience. The speech in front of the whole Yr 3 cohord will always be in my memory, as it was the first time in my life where I can honestly say I almost fainted (backstage can really be nerve-breaking). But by the grace of God, I managed to pull myself at the last minute and did my speech on stage! At the last part of my speech, I did a mimic of the "Yes, we can" thing Barack Obama did for his elections. Hehe, fancy I was elected into Council the same year he was elected into Presidency...

After that was the interview with Dr. Ong, which I must admit was the weirdest interview I had. For some of the questions asked, I ended up asking myself later on, "What does that have to do with me being in Council?" But I just answered whatever I could and before I knew it the interview was over.

And on the last Wednesday of school this year, it was confirmed not only that I made it to Council, but I got the position I ran for: HR (Assembly) Councilor! So now I have a key to the boardroom, a key for my HR cupboard, a 'Prefect Councilor' badge and the licence to move around during Assembly! (Haha, so cheap-trill...) I'm also invited to go for a Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. next year! But it's not being sponsored, so I'm washing my godmother's car every week to earn a little money to ease the payment a little.

But I also had my responsibilities: Since being elected, I've had to create my set of 'Standard Operating Proceedures - Assembly', run a HR duty (Sec 1 Registration Duty, the second HR duty I was in-charge of after National Day Celebrations), slug out an Adventure Camp (which for once, the councilors got tekaned as well) and plan out an EOY camp while on holiday in Japan (especially the HR games).

Whatever the case, I still praise the Lord for the opportunity to go through this. I have faith that God will somehow bless me through this experience, hopefully to help glorify His kingdom. (Can I hear a good amen?)

Ooo, and I need to talk about Japan! It was AWESOME!!! My second time there, but this time we went to Hokkaido! And do you know what that means? SNOW!!! Haha, yeah I saw snow for the first time in my life!! It was white, and fluffy, and soft, and it was nothing like the fake kind of snow you find in Korea where it's just small chucks of ice: It was real snow!!! And mind you, this was not suppose to happen; my mom wanted a 'white Christmas' this year, so she claimed the holiday through Christ. And after a bit of searching (and a couple of miracles) she finally got the tickets.

To be honest, I was a little edgy on the idea of going overseas this year. Next year being my last year in secondary life (let's face it, there's a little form of isolation between the yr 1-4s and the IB batch), I wanted to just dig head-first into my duties (in canoeng, prefects or acedemically) and get through this golden year, afterwhich I can spam on holidays for all the world could care about.

But I guess Japan was required to relax me a little bit. Yeah, I also learnt snowboarding there, so now I can do that and ski as well! Also met up with a few family frineds, so we decided to have Christmas Eve Dinner with them (had the honour of saying grace, too). And somehow, I also met up with Joel Yap on Christmas Evening! Haha, he was apparently with a few family friends as well, and we so happened to have dinner at the same pizza house in that nice snowy night.

But when we were heading home, a heavy snow storm struck Hokkaido and as such our flight home had to be cancelled. Mom was praising the lord, cause she wanted to have more snow. Me, on the other hand, was coughing away in sickness, dissapointment and fear, as I didn't want to miss too much of EOY camp (esspecially since HR Games was under me, I absolutely could not miss that). Daddy was somewhere in-between: he was demanding the lady at the check-in desk for the best alternatives to get back to Singapore, but was thankful that we had more time to shop around for souviniers and delicacies we could give to our friends back home.

When we got to a hotel to last the night before our new flight the next morning, I quickly went to the internet service (500 yen for an hour) and checked out my emails to see how progress was doing for EOY Camp and other council matters. Also got a chance to get in contact with Clifton (Head Prefect '09!) through Google Talk and told him to tell the others I'd be a little late as I was caught in a snow storm (no surprise people kept teasing me with the phrase 'snow storm' when I got back).

Anyways, now that I'm back from both Japan and EOY Camp, I've lost my voice to a severe cough which is so bad, I cough everytime I talk. But in the name of Jesus, I'll be healed by the time school starts (which is when the first Fall-In proceeds!).

That raps it up for now, I guess. To one and all, a (late) merry Christmas and a(n early) blessed New Year 2009!!! Luke 7:50!!! God bless y'all!!!

Weekend Mix...

Whoopee!!!

End of exams!!! Celebrations in the house!!! Freedom!!!

Fine, it wasn't that exciting (in fact, it was rather stale), but the Marking Days Weekends was indeed a rather decent period for us all to rest, no one could disagree on that. So what did I do during this period? Well, let's find out...

Tuesday
Immediately after the last paper, I went out with some of the 3.17 people (let's just call them Malachites) to watch Eagle Eye at the Cathay @ Orchard. The group comprised of Jen Yang, Jeremy Bin, Asher, Victor, Julian Lim, Sheng Yung, Junyi, Joshua Lee, David Tai (whom we met at the Cathay itself since he didn't have exams that day: darn 3rd-language students) and me. We quickly went to settle our tickets before grabbing a quick bite of lunch and running back up to watch the movie.

Overall, I'd say it was a well-made epic-rush film, and you can really feel the suspense of the characters as they tackle the climax of the show. Won't spoil the show for you, so go watch it! After watching the movie, we gathered outside the theatre to decide on what to do next. Victor decided to leave while he still could, fore-seeing that more nonsense was about to take place, while I had to leave because I wanted to collect my new school uniform from Bibi & Baba just a few blocks down Orchard Road.

So after lending my jacket to Joshua so he can hide his school uniform inside and play LAN with the rest of the guys, I travelled back up Orchard and trailed my way to the uniform store, where my pre-ordered package ofsize 14-and-a-half school shirts were waiting for me. Just as I was about to pay for the clothes, a whole bundle of doubt on whether I ordered the right size suddenly squeezed through my head in a split second, and I took back my cash with appologise to the cashier and with the request to try out the size again. Appearing a little shocked, she pointed to the rack of shirt samples next to the dressing rooms. I quickly snatched a 14 and a 14.5 and rushed into a cubicle to test out the shirts.

You see, my main problem for my current uniform was that the neck hole was getting a little tight for my neck, and so I'd always suffer from heatiness in the head because my neck can't release heat as efficiently since there's a collar strangling it. So I had to find which shirt size had a looser grip on my neck, and at the same time won't appear to have sleeves ridiculously long over my shoulders.

To cut a 15-minute story short (I could hear the cashier wispering to her colleague, "What's taking the guy so long?"), I finally stayed confident with my choice of 14.5, and made the purchase before dropping by Borders to listen to a few tracks in their music section and travelling on to my mom's office for a lift home.

Wednesday
Me and the rest of the Council Understudies had to come to school for an emergeny meeting with the Prefect Council for a briefing on what other dates we should take note of from that day till the day that the new Prefectorial Council 2009 is announced, and what to do for each event. The closest event was the Nomination Speech this Tuesday, where we had to deliver a speech each for the Year 3 level to decide who they feel should be part of next year's council.

That probably scared the socks out of most of us understudies (especially Arjun, who later claimed he would drop out to purposely miss giving a speech before coming back in time for the Interview with Dr. Ong).

After this meeting, Clifton asked if I was free to scout with him for umbrellas to purchase for the board, and I agreed (partially aware that that decision meant I had to stay in school for another couple of hours to wait for him to finish with Band practice). So to spend of those 2 hours, I first decided to play soccer with the other Prefects. It was a fun match (I've learnt I'm best as Right Defence), until the Year 6s suddenly gatecrahsed our game. Soon we could not catch up with their levels of activeness, and backed out from the game. By then, I still had another hour to kill.

So the remaining understudies stayed in the boardroom to joke about what they would do if they made it to next year's council, as well as a really funny session about what can happen if the wrong people got elected into power. Still another half an hour left.

Visited the library, bumped into Adrian and Liu Yang, chat with them about what they were doing and what I was doing and whether I should go for the Global Young Leaders Conference next year or not, brozed through the Reference Section, and vuala. 1 minute to deadline.

I made my way out ofthe library, and lo and behold Clifton walking in front of me, oblivious that the guy he's trying to call is standing right behind him. I followed him all the way to the Spaceframe before making it obvious that I was floating around, and he introduced me to his companion in the band before ushering me to the near-by shops to look for umbrellas.

After searching around and heavy pondering, we decided to take note of the common supplier of the umbrellas of the shops who we've checked, and order our own Prefectorial Umbrellas (maybe even cheaper). After chatting our way back to school to await for our own transportaions home, I rode away on a 74 before Clifton could say, "STOP TALKING ABOUT POLO!"

Thursday
My first day of Canoeing training in... 4-and-a-half weeks. And I tell you, training never felt this miserable. Not only was I the second slowest by a mile (and as Mr. See would say, "...with enough lag time for the competitor to still paddle back to you and run over you and steamroll you and gammar-ray you till you can officially say you've been owned!"), I clocked two minutes above an hour just to complete 10 kilometers! That's, like, 6 minutes and 12 seconds per km, and that's real disgraceful for a Racing Canoeist. Ah well, at least there's no running today...

Spent the rest of the day playing Rise of Nations (gasp), but after 3 hours of playing I had to shut it off and look out of the window to prevent myself from barfing. I then tried to look throug the internet in sites like YouTube or Facebook or Blogger, but got bored after 5 minutes of brozing. Man, I didn't feel like it that day.

Friday
Had to wake up early again, this time to go back to school and do a prefect duty: The Annual ACPS and ACSJ visit to ACS(Independent). The primary 6 kids were lively with the post-PSLE spirit - too lively, to be exact. I must admit that when I was starting to get to know the class I had to tour, 6C from ACPS with David Hu, they appeared like spoilt bratsshouting as they pleased. But after a while, I personally got use to them and sparked of as much conversations with them as possible to get their undivided attention. Even made friends with some of them, although I never really got to know their names (like as if they got to know mine) so I may never meet them again unless they make it into the school.

*sigh* By the end of the duty, all the prefects who had toact as guides for the students were slumped on the chairs of the CPA 2, lying as if we were in coma from the shock of how hard it can be to control a mob of childish youths. We were so smashed, we begged Michael to give us debrief on the spot instead of having to walk all the way back to the boardroom. I'm just happy that unlike Jamie, I can still smile and laugh about the experience...

After debrief and a proper resting, I decided to help out Cliftom and a few othe prefects in cleaning up and tidying the boardroom. After a nice hour-long clearup, I left back for home to rest from the tought of the P6s that I've met. Ah, the flashbacks were at it again...

Saturday
Another day of training, just that with Ting Wei in a double, and with an additional 4 km to paddle in. The good news was that we could still paddle the standard goal of 11kmph as Mr. See had set for us last year. The band news was that we hit the target exactly. I mean, ussually we'd be 11.5something kmph, and now we're exactly 11.0kmph. That's a real drop in power, we had to admit.

And besides that, we had to face the good ol' Dam Runnin'. Yeap, the good Dam never fails to make us feel like dammin' it. But hey, at least it was a group run, easy push for starters and no push-ups. After cooling down and the dissapointment speech of how long we took to pack up Lower Shed (I'd agree; we've never had to take 20+ minutes just to keep boats for an easy programme), T.W. and I registered ourselves for the Round Ubin Race '09, even though we weren't certain if we'd survive ("Aw, just for the fun of it, lah.").

Strange, weren't those the last words of the guy who decided to eat an entire can of milk powder, only to die the next week from kidney stones after not realizing that the powder was made in China?

Sunday (i.e. today)
Pastor Prince is still preaching in the Hillsong Conference, so a guest speaker from Down Under too his place today. He shared about the signifigance of the Kindom of God - that it didn't just relate to heaven only but the entire rhelm of what the Kinghood of God could control and how it opperated - and how we must radically change to the ways of His Kingdom, and not clique-ishly remain in the ways of the world, in order to see the manifestation of finished works in our lives. I'm bad at sharing messages right off the back of my neck, so I'll just leave those who're interested in listening to go to the New Creation website and download the sermon.

Besides that, I finished my speech (yay!) as well as read up and watched videos of the current Presidential elections in the U.S. of A. And I found this;



Very cute. I must confess that even thought I'm Singaporean, and even without this video, I'm up for Obama for Presidency based on what I've gathered about the elections. (Go, Barack! Yes, you can!) God be with America, as He has already been with Singapore! Matthew 6:25-34!!! God bless y'all!!!

Generally Speaking...

*coughcough* ...dusty...

Ah. 'Ello. Woah, a term and a June Holiday since I last posted. Shows how much busier I've been these days (so those who intend to join IB, better be sure you can handle the heat; I've got Someone watching over me for protection, do you?).

Indeed many things happened throughout the time I was gone:
My 'B' Div Dragonboat got Bronze, just inching behind the 'B' Div seniors and Bukit Panjang Government High (by 0.03 seconds...).
Became a reserve in Inter-School canoeing (I blame Chinese 'B').
Raced and was defeated in Nationals.
Projects of many varieties filling up my diary, many of which my advantage of powerpoint cannot bloom in.
Did badly for Term 3 Art due to poor colouring.
And now, we're in Term 4.

But hey, those were just the bad highlights. Canoeing-wise, Ting Wei and I have been promoted with 2nd priority to the Boaz (that's a really good thing), and we're still paddling at around 11km/h in a Tiger so we're definitely qualified to race in this year's Round Ubin Race (I don't know about him, but that sounds good to me)!

The 'B' Division II Crew & The 'C' Division Crew (Dragonboat)

The 'B' Division Crew (Canoeing)

Social-wise, I've been going to a decent amount of gatherings lately (and at interesting venues, too). Had a Canoeists' 'End-Of-Inter-School' celebration at Wild Wild Wet, where we had extreme fun (especially at the Tsunami Pool!) and when I had my first theatrical encounter with a horror movie, having watched The Strangers in mid-afternoon ("Don't worry guys, I heard it's a great comedy!" - Davin). Also had Prefects Dinner Nite at the Mandarin Hotel next to Suntec City, where we all (or at least the enthu ones) dressed up in a Retro theme to party with the music (and make fun of the seniors using random song titles).

Me struggling off the tao-pok on Marcus.

Culture-wise, I did something which I think should not be witnessed or attempted by the faint-hearted. Please skip a few pictures forward if you do not intend to view an interesting item in Philippine cuisine: the Balut.

Basically, balut (say: BAlot) is like the typical hard-boiled egg. With a twist. These duck egg already went through fertilization. That's right, the egg now has an embryo.

Don't worry, we won't encounter live ducks when we open the shell; you boil it first anyway, so it'll definitely be dead once served. Here's the batch of eggs my grandma brought all the way from the Philippines:


After a few minutes, the eggs are brought out and broken:

Yeah, what my mom's touching is the egg white and the egg yolk. By now the egg white's hardened to much to be eaten, so that's taken out, while the egg yolk is rather juicy and has developed a few veins to make circulation between the chick and the yolk better (you do know that the yolk is the food supply of the embryo, right?).

'Speaking of chick, where's the embryo?' Good question.

Yup, that's the thing on the piece of tissue paper. Now with a partially-developed head (complete with eyes and beak), that's the main highlight of the whole thing. The main nutrients come from this chunk of a meat (actually, I don't know if it's considered meat yet), and it's supposedly something every mom would like to give her sick child (yeah, possibly to scare the illness out of them).

Ooh, a closer look int the embryo...

Yeah, the good stuff. Ah, well. Here goes my first try on eating this stuff...

Mmm, tastes like chicken. (Seriously.) I mean, the little bt of soup in the egg tastes like a nice salty broth with exposure to the embryo, and the 'meat' is kinda chewy (although the beak was a little annoying to spit out).

Yeah, I went for a second round. The flavour stayed in my mouth till the next day, even after severe brushing... And don't you stare at me with those 'you-Filipinos-are-barbarians' kinda eyes: did you know that this stuff originated from China? (Oh great, I'm still part of that race, never mind...)

Academically, my grades weren't that bad actually. In fact, I feel confident that Term 4 will be at my favour (In Jesus name, AMEN!). Health-wise, I'm still in good racing condition based on my results in the school's Annual Cross-Country Run (And my house won!)

CKS House
(I'm part of the crouching people at the center, next to Marcus Teo, who's directly above the guy with the towel, front row 4th from right)

Against my original thinking, I also ended up running for Council in the Prefects, and now I made it to become Assembly TransCouncilor 2008!

That means I'm (for now) Hadrian's heir, who's coincidentally also a canoeist and art student. As Assembly, I had to make a whole new Morning Duty List, as well as be I/C of National Day Celebrations (which was a little embarrassing 'cause I accidentally signed off my emails as 'HR Trans' instead of 'Assembly Trans', sorry Mike)! And the most interesting thing is... I get to be one of the Chief Instructors for Prefects' Recruitment Camp 2008!!!

Haha, unfortunately there's more to Selection Camp than meets the average student's eye, so I can't really write about the camp (otherwise I'd be spamming this blogpost with tonnes of stories). But what I can say is that I had my fair share of adventure and yes, I was FIERCE! (Don't believe? Have a look...)




Yeah, but besides those 'tekan' moments, I was busy with the logistics of the camp. Very busy.

Anyways, if you want to see more pictures, go to Facebook and check the albums that I've been tagged in. Ah, which reminds me, I've also now got over 100 friends (Currently 135) in my Facebook account!

Ah well, wanted to do a Mikipedia post about my oldest hobby, (Multi-genre) Music Appreciation, but I still gotta revise for Chemistry (exams are just a couple of weeks away!). Miguel, signing out for now.(gosh, how'd I sign off again? oh yeah-) Jeremiah 33.3!!! God Bless Y'all!!!

No. of bracketed statements = x
.'. Luke (x/2):(x-19) to (x+2) = Mig's favourite Bible story

Yo' Jesus So Big...

Well, the past week week had it's ups and downs. Free-periods coming about time after time, June Holiday/ Term 3 projects are slowly being revieled, canoeing trainings are kicking into full-gear in lieu of the competition 2 months from now (that's concidered as 'the last 2 minutes' in training terms; if you actually concider compressing all the hours of training left, you'd get 4 days or less) and the mid-year results (*gasp*) are in.

I feel that it's best I gave my parents the rights to be first to see the results in detail, maybe I'll share about the results another time. But for now, I must admit I had a great time today at church! But before that, I should start with what happened in the morning...

Basically, it was my (and Morriel's) test drive on (our) new roller blades! The family woke up early in the morning and had a quick breakfast before leaving for East Coast Park. Once parked, we found a good spot near by the shore in Section C and began putting on our equiptment. I said I wanted to explore by myself, so Daddy decided to rent his own set of skates to take care of Morriel. Uncle Eking also decided to rent a double bike to take Carlo around, leaving Mommy and Grams to look after the stuff while reading their own books.

I went as far out from our spot (somewhere nearby Marina Cove?) to the gardens out at Section F (the tower was real irritating to climb, esspecially while wearing blades) before turning back. Really interesting how many different characters you can see while moving along this stretch. Two youths racing against each other to the finish on their bikes, a young boy waiting beside the path with a dog on the leash, two lovers sitting beside each other alone in their lonely (but lovely) pavilion, while waiting for the catch of the day to pull against their line; The list goes on.

It's facinating what stories one can create just by seeing these small details of life. R. K. Narayan, writer of the novella Malgudi Days, once said that all he needed for his ideas was to 'look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story'. I truely agree with him, because I literally see it everyday. No matter what environment you're in, urban or rural, complex or plain, modern or traditional, even colourful or dull, there's always a story to tell: Let alone, a story to observe.

But we're getting too philosophical here. Back to my journey, passing through the 360 Ski Park, the Bedok Jetty, the Seafood Restaraunts, Castle Beach, the BBQ pits, the shore barricades and more, I eventually ended off my journey where I started it, greeting Grams with the words, "Do-we-have-water?" Realising that Mom wasn't there, I turned to see Dad trying to teach her to skate. I went over to try to help her out, seeing her slow (but steady) progress along the flat concrete road.

Also found Carlo playing at the shoreline with Morriel (who was lying on the sand and embracing the waves like something you'd see on Baywatch) with Uncle Eking and Auntie Lala supervising them. Apparently, Morriel fell once while testing her new skates, and did a little drama-mama on the impact, thus she decided to stop.

By around 11.30, we were packing up all the gear back into the car and decided to get lunch at Burger King. Little mis-communications here and there while getting the orders, but we eventually had our meal. After such (as well as a quick change of clothes), we headed for the city, where Dad dropped us all off a Suntec to goto church.

I told Mom that since it was 3rd Service, I'd might as well go into the main hall with my D.G. if it makes things easier for the group, so we split up and I went to the nearby collectables shop and looked around at silly scultures of Vandolf the Grey/White and Davy Jones and Luke Skywalker and King Kong and Venom and Alien and many other movie characters to kill time before meeting up with the R.A.D.I.C.A.Ls deep in the queue.

Been a long time since I met up with these people (missed sessions here and there because of competitons and exams and so on), so I thought catching up would definitely be a good idea. Apparently, Gab, John and Don (heh, interesting names for a trio) were interested in watching Indiana Jones' latest movie on the opening night. Hmm, better start thinking about those birthday plans of mine...

Since Sherrie had the queue ticket this week, she was frantically asking us to lend her items she can use to chope (local term for 'reserving informally') seats for us while we were (close to) the back of the line. We needed 21 seats for our D.G. today since we had friends wanting to join us, so we were really trying to find as much items we had to give her as possible (I gave here 3 Hillsong postcard invitations, my bible and notebook, my tissue packet and my sweater vest). Heavily loaded, she quickly stumbled her way to the front of the queue with all the jackets and bibles and notebooks and took her position with the ticket she had.

Finally, the 2nd service was fully flushed out of the Rock, and the queue was beginning to move. While walking our way to the gates, a friend told me that her sister had a picture taken dring the latest dragonboating competition, and apparently I was captured in it*raises eyebrows*. Others started questioning about how I happened to be there, and I had to explain about the canoeing team and how in ACS(Indep) both canoeing and dragonboating are one CCA.

Another good conversation sparked off had to be extinguished again as we then entered the hallway of gates into the auditorium. We slithered our way to the corner of the auditorium which is ussually packed with the youths of D.A.R.E. and the young adults of ARROW, and eventually found the full stretch of row booked for us. After sorting out who should sit where, we settled down minutes before Pastor Gabriel opened the service with the pre-service announcement.

Now I must admit, when I came into the hall, I was somewhat in a state of condemnation over a few things that happened lately, and was feeling a little doubtful of having a good week ahead. But boy, was today's sermon a GOOD ONE (and relevant, too)!!!

In a short summary (which I find hard since there's so much to say), Pastor Prince was showing how the words of Paul in Hebrews 10 explain to us that condemnation is no longer valid in our lives, since the price(s) to pay was all settled on the cross at Calvary and that we must thus keep our hope - direct translation, the joyful expectation of something good - firm in our hearts, since they will be satisfied. He also pointed to Romans 5:19-20 about how 'where sin abound, grace abounds more' - in direct translation, 'where sin abounds, grace abounds beyond measure, and still more on top of that!'.

Since we're now covered on all sides, sinning can no longer condemn us, and along with that the temptation to sin. But in the same way, if you accept the condemnations of sin, forgetting that Christ paid for everyhing on the cross, then you would also except the many other curses related to guilt. (So rebuke condemnation NOW!)

A good example of these blessing put into practice would be the life of Abraham, and how despite the lies he said which brought kingdoms into famine, he died as one of the wealthiest men of his time. Another example would be in Matthew 1:1-6 (a part of the geneology of Jesus as the promised seed of Abraham), where four women who didn't deserve the honours of being part of God's children were actually mentioned, instead of any of the other women in the timeline who were more likely to be permitted with these blessings. This shows how God can bring about your salvation even from the 'evil' situations of life!

The sermon was made more funny by the way all the youths screamed "Woo!" whenever Pastor mentioned Pastor Dan's (former Youth Pastor's) name, as well as after the announcements when Pastor's latest DVD sermon from last year's Zone concert was being introduced in a video (the later part of the video mentioned that the DVD had dual language in Japanese, and started showing Pastor Prince preaching in dual mode {hilarious}). Shawn then came on stage to perform a solo of the closing song, I Will Run to You, before Pastor Prince came back on stage to tell the church to rise (in Japanese) so he could bless us.

Dismissed with "Syonara! Arigato!" and an honourable bow, I quickly left the hall to meet up with Mom and the others at Carrefoure (is that how you spell it?), thanking God on the way for the new high He's given me to begin my week ahead! But just as I got out of the Rock, I heard Salsa music beking played. Apparently, the Samsung sales event downstairs had a performance of precaution instruments. It was so good, I could feel the Spanish blood I had in me tingling! I squeezed my way through the crowd that was forming alongside the raillings to have a better view of the performance.

"Mom can wait," I told myself. "No one of my type can resist such lively music." Boy, I stayed on till the performance was over, and by then I was literally drunk with the music. A great revalation with complimentary jive: I'm oh so prepared for the week! But giving myself a few seconds to snap out of it, I met up with the family and bought a dozen donuts to take back home to enjoy.

Well, that's about it for now. Until next time, whenever next time is, here's a little spoof for y'all dedicated to those Christains that are feeling spiritually low, or anyone for that matter who just needs someone to hold on to. As a word of encouragement, please don't lie to others (or God for that matter) that you've got no problems, and just Say His Name. (I don't have the technology to extract background music, so here's the original song - Say My Name. Just open this in another tab or something and read the words here along with the song.)

Romans 4:6-8!!! God Bless Y'all!!!

Say My Name by J.C.
(Chorus)
Say My name, say My name
When others imitate you, say "Jesus I love You"
No need to be ashamed
Say My name, say My name
You actin' kinda tired
Leave it to Messiah
Why treat me so strange?


Say My name, say My name
When troubles are around you, I'll be right there for you
Claim victory from My name
Say My name, say My name
You won't take long to find me
One quick call and I'm here
Quickly say My name

Any other day
I would call, you would say
"Jesus bless my day!"
But today it ain't the same
You don't read My Word anymore, by the way
Could it be that you left your whole faith on your Father at bay?


If your faith is low, first of all, let Me say
I am not the one to sit around while you're played
So tell the devil that I'm the Christ that you claim
And he'll return the thangs
That he stole from you yesterday

(Bridge)
I know you say that you're in control of things
Something's going down that's the way it seems
I should know the reason why you're acting strange
And distractions holding you back from me
Don't you know I'll be blessing you
With Deuteronomy 22
Why can't you just tell the truth?
Dont let satan tell you what to do

(Chorus)

What's up with this?
Tell the truth, why you sad
How would you like it if
I told you it's not that bad
Don't try to change it now
Sayin' you've already lost
When 2k years ago, I said "It's finished!" on the cross

It's hard to believe that you'll survive, by yourself
When I just heard the voice
Heard the voice of prayers "help"
Just this question
Why do you feel you gotta lie?
Fellin' caught up in your game
You just need to say my name

(Bridge)
(Chorus)

(Where my angels at) Yeah-yeah-yeah-yea-yeah
(Can you say that? C'mon) Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
(Holy spirit say) Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
(I can't hear ya) Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
(All the angels say) Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah..yeah Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
(Holy spirit say) Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
(Break it down) Ohh ooohh oh ooh ohhhh
(J.C., take it to the bridge c'mon)

(Bridge)
(Chorus until fade)



[Boy, imagine Jesus breakdancing...]

Keep Her Trim and On Course...

Hey, back from Malaysia (again)! And boy, was Encounter Jesus III Camp a blessed and annointed one! Bonded very well with my new D.G.: R.A.D.I.C.A.L. (which stands for Rooted And Delightful In Christ's Awesome Love!)!!! The games were fun, the hotel service was shiok, and my friendship circle grew across other D.G.s, across other levels - HEY, even across other churches! Even the theme night was interesting - theme being 'Mismatched', I ended up appearing in an attire that others commented (and that I agreed that) I looked like a Suntec City Security Guard! Boy, it was splendid and beyond my expectations, just like how God is all the time!

Ooo, but I think I'll share about the camp in greater detail another time, y'know why? Well, 'cause today was - The Round Ubin Race 2007!!! This one was a treat indeed! To begin the story, I meet the ACS(I) Canoeing team, along with Mr. See, for the first time in a week or so at the Pasir Ris shore, where all the boats were alined and ready for launching. Apparently, Trident was given to an ACJC pair after a mishap in our team, so we were left to race in RedandWhite. Quite a shocker, but I've had the boat before and I trusted it enough to paddles the seas in.

Mr. Ismail came a few minutes later to assist us in fixing our wave-breakers onto our boats, and Mr. Goh came another few minutes later to brief us on an altered route - apparently the race course had to be done anti-clockwise instead of clockwise as the organizers felt it was best that racers completed Chek Jawa (the eastern coast of Pulau Ubin) first before she reaches her wildest waves in the afternoon winds. By then Mr. See and Mr. Goh were in their gear (they were participating in the open categorey).

Closing towards Race Time, Ting Wei and I gave RedandWhite a spin on the water, approving of her stabability and direction control. At the signal of ligning up between the Starting Buoys, we were positioned along with Joseph and Barnabas (New Tiger) and Victor and Winston (Old Tiger), accompanied by the K1s (Nick Ng, Ryan, etc.). Looking around, I prayed to God that all I wanted in the race was just to have a memoriable good time and fun: even if there's no medal or no glory, all I needed was just fun. At around the end of my prayer, a horn sounded, and within splitseconds every racing canoe gushed out to embrace a race one would never forget to tell his or her grandchildren.

And so begins one of my first journeys out at sea - although it revolves 75 meters on average away from Pulau Ubin, the mere fact that both Ting Wei and I did not attend Picnic Day (a training day when Mr. Goh toured the racers in the team around landmarks to take note of during the race) meant we were rather unexperienced and had a slimmer chance of being able to navigate the waters - being filled with obstacles from as minor as stilt houses and mini-islands to as major as megawaves and patrol boats - , lest being able to get a medal.

To both Ting Wei's and my surprize, the RedandWhite was making a good stand within the first 10 canoes for the first 2 kilometers or so. There was Mr. Goh, paddling alone right in front of us, so fast any non-AC racer would loose morale the momment he zooms past. And there was Mr. See, paddling at our Starboard with a constant acceleration, well enough to get ahead of us by the time we've entered Chek Jawa. The only boat that scared us, though, was the Old Tiger. Victor's a fine chap, but watching Winston paddle ahead of one's boat was concidered a disgrace, even to me.

But by then, we were conciderably within the high dangers of Chek Jawa, and within a few more strokes the RedandWhite encountered a wave as high as our armpits, maybe even higher. And yes, we capsized. Out at sea. But the good news was that we were still within boderline of Chek Jawa, so the water level was slightly less than chest level. But then again, the waves were extremely harsh, and so Ting Wei and I got hold of the boat and stumbled our way towards shore, of which was extremely rocky and extremely dangerous to board a canoe with.

Nevertheless, we quickly found the most suitable spot we could find and did our best to empty water and launch off, missing jagged rocks by hairwidths. Unfortunately, in our hastely attempt to catch up with Old Tiger, we capsized again halfway through Chek Jawa, this time in deep dark waters and with shores mostly blocked out by the 3 storey fences defending the grounds of the Outward Bound Singapore camp. Knowing that the powerful waves would eventually wash us towards land, we held on tighly to the half-sunken boat and our paddles and drifted towards the rocky shores, blinded by the saltiness of the sea and choking under the pounding waves, at one point even shoved underwater by the boat's weight.

At last we reached land, but that was just half the work done. We continuously kicked away from the rocks to avoid scratching the boat or ourselves, and after a couple of minutes or more we found a relatively less rockly place to empty our water and launch back to sea. We knew it was least likely that we'd see the Old Tiger again, so we decided to give up on the medals and take the race slowly. Along our journey, we saw other sad cases of capsized boats along the route; boats in scary positions and even one resembling the sinking of the Titanic.

Soon, we heard a familiar voice in the midths of the overturned boats: It was Barnabas! The New Tiger had capsized, and both the Goh Brothers were strugling their way to shore, trying their best to catch their wondering blades, bailer and water bottles in vain. Having pity on them, and without a momment to loose, we decided to assist them to shore. We made a sharp loop at Port and placed our right leg into their cockpits. While they proceeded to swim by themselves to shore with their belongings, we paddled both our and their boats towards the mst friendly shore we could find.

It was hard controling two rudders with the toes on both my feet, but we eventually all made it to shore. Ting Wei suggested to take a rest on shore too, so we all (struggled against the raging waves that constantly slammed our boats onto the rocky terrain, but eventually) carried our boats onto land and sat for a while to take in the scenery - scenery of what you'd see on Maroon Island, that is. Other victims of the waves of Chek Jawa came to our shore and had a chat with us: Reguardless of school, boat type or age, we were friendly towards each other and talked anthing under the sun accept accept giving the slightest concern of getting the medal(s).

After what we assumed was 5 minutes (of which we purposely tried to drag longer), we decided to launch of, that is until we saw Nick Ng's boat - along with Nick Ng, of course - drifting towards ourshore and requesting for help. We all then decided to take this opportuity to (slack off a little longer and) rescue him. His boat being a K1, which is much more vulnerable to the waves than us K2s, we had to launch him first before we could leave the shore, which gave us even more time to rest close to land.

As we watched Nick paddle off freely again, we decided it was about time we just got over the route and finished it before we continue baking under the sun. Due to the limited shore area that was favourable enough for launching, we agreed that Barnabas and Joseph left first,after which Ting Wei and I would follow closely just in case any of us capsized on our journey through the rest of Ubin. Launching through waves that kept crashing onto you was a struggle indeed, but when we could finally paddle 50 meters away from shore, we wre relieved that we were 'officially' launched and made our way to the watery nightmare ahead of us.




Our promise with each other was well and true: both the New Tiger and the RedandWhite kept trim with each other, time after time we'd be separated as far as 50m due to the waves, but we'd catch up again. Soon enough, we caught up with Nick, who was still struggling to keep steady amongst the waves. Thus understandably, he couldn't keep up with us, and eventually he became a mark floating behind us, until we came to the sudden edge of the island where we had to slam hard at port, of which he dissapeared behind the island. And so the two K2s were alone again.


Unknown minutes passed; eyes hurting from the saltwater and the sun such that our watches were practically a blur. Paddling non-stop without knowing how far you've gone or how far you've got left can make you feel as if you're at the brink of getting mad. Ting Wei suggested we paddled a final time towards shore just to empty out the water we collected from Chek Jawa, of which I originally disagreed to but then realised theat 1) it will help us get over this faster and 2) it will give my mind a rest from the endless and never-changing terrain ahead of me. Either than that momment, no matter how many strokes may pass, the scenery was constant for ages: Pulau Ubin on the left, Johor Baruh on the right, endless mass of water stretching forward, waiting for us to colapse from the confussions of speed and time...

I tell you, we had the greatest joy when we saw the cargo ships: it meant that the turn was just around the corner! And that meant we've completed over half the race!!! Hooray, the turmoil was almost over!!! It was a relieving momment of thought, until we met up with another island.

Originally, this wasn't a problem: common sense would tell you that if you rowed at port, you'd take a shorter route tothe finishing line. However, the momment we saw a couple of T2s rowing starboard and away from the islands, we started to panic. Both of us not having attended Picnic Day, and not being fully briefed on what route we're suppose to take, Ting Wei and I were questioning each other of the possibilities that the minature trench in front of us was not part of the route, of if the plot of land was not actually an island but part of a penisula, which meant that we would be paddling into a gulf or dead-end.

We turned to Joseph and Barnabas, who were both also confused by the route taken by the T2s. There was no other boat surrounding us, and we had no other person to tell us which way to go. But in the end, The New Tiger turned left, and thus we followed suite. When inside the relatively narrow strip of water, the whole scenery somehow became a lot more peaceful: whether it was because there were no longer any big waves to torment us, or that the flora and fauna of Ubin was more close to us, or that we could see yatches anchored along the Ubin coast like floating cottages, you be the judge.

But just when we thought the only tough navigational question was answered, we were proven wrong. The momment we got out of that 'cannal', we saw this:

Now we were really scared. We couldn't tell head or tail where the finishing line was: all we knew was that it was at the same shore we launched from, but finding that shore was gonna be tough. Thank God, we ended up paddling towards an official's boat, which told us which direction to turn to and that if we intended a final sprint, now would be the best time to start.

Both RedandWhite and New Tiger gave ech other a glance; we both knew that if the end was that close, we'd might as well break formation and start acting competitive again. And without a word, both boats made a dash for what we were to assume was the finishing line...

Finally, the Finishing Buoys were defined enough for us to see. The New Tiger was now a few meters behind us, but that didn't matter. As far as we knew, the medals were no longer in possibility our posession. Nevertheless, we just wanted to have fun in the race, so we continued the sprint. Just as we were starting to increase our power for a final burst, guess what we passed by:

That's right! The Old Tiger had apparently capsized just 200 meters away from the Finishing Line!!! As we heard Winston and Victor shouting phrases of dissapointment at us, Ting Wei and I assumed that they could still swim the remaining 200m without drowning, and so we carried on to the finish...

By 100m, we could tell who were the figures that were standing on the shore just ahead of the line: There was Joseph's/Barnabas' and Ting Wei's parents, cheering us on; there was Mr. Ismail, just about to leave to attend to Lucas and Weng Ai, who've just arrived earlier on; and there was Mr. Goh, who began making his way into the water to catch our boat: one appropriate way to signal to us to go full force.

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-...

--
-...

*this is the part where everything goes slow-motion and the only sound made is that of a heartbeat*

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-...

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craSHeeeeeeeeee!!! (Sry, dunno what sound hold-water ['breaks' in canoeing terms] makes...)

The momment we crossed the line, we quickly started to back-paddle to quickly get the boat to halt (lest we colide into the sandy shore once again. Good thing Mr. Goh was there to catch our boat (phew). We alighted from our boat and carried it onto a safe area on the beach before rushing back to help RedandWhite out.

After a few more minutes of rst, we brought our boat to a washing point and rinsed off the saltiness from the hull (and from ourselves) before carrying it onto one of the trucks that would bring it back to MacRitchie. We then helped other rowers who were finishing up and had a chat with them when there was nothing left to do. Nick Ng was complaining about how he lost so badly, and Eugene was commenting on how the 'rescue' boats were more of a hinderance than a help.

Within half an hour, most of the team was alread back on land, so we started having our lunch that was provided by the race committee. Gathered at a small plot of grass, we shared our different experiences on how many times we capsized sunk. While I was listening to the conversatin, Joseph's dad came over to me and asked if I was Raemiguel. I said yes, and he explained that Joseph told him that I rescued him and his brother, and thanked me for my help. When Ting Wei came into the scene and asked for his credit, both brothers claimed that they heard Ting Wei say that we need not help them, sending the three of them into a candid quarrel.

Wow, I thought to myself, we rescued others. I thanked the Lord for the opportunity in a short prayer before returning to the discussion at lunch. It was around that time when Mr. See, who had just finished complaining that he sacrificed the race to rescue our K1s that fell along the way, announced that he wanted 4 representaties to stay back for the prize presentation, while the rest of the team would board the trucks and goto MacRitchie to help put the boats back into their sheds.

He ended up picking Joseph, Barnabas, Ting Wei and me: The three others because they had parents already there to send them home on the spot, me because I just agreed to it. Basically, all we had to do was represent our school at the presentation and collect medals on behalf of any team member who wasn't present.

So after we finished our lunch and comfirmed that our full strength has finsihed the race, the four of us watched as the trucks proceeded inland. While waiting for the rest of the schools to settle into the area and for the stage to set up for the ceremony, we were all chatting about random stuff to pass the hot and endless time.

Finally, the presentation begain, and we all eagerly waited for which people to play as. Due to the extremely hot mid-day sun, all the participants were staying under the shelters surrounding the stage, which were at least 10 meters apart from each other. So you could imageing the humour we saw when we watched participants scrambling through this distinctly big and empty space and collecting their prize, many a times staying a few seconds longer for a photo shot just to stay in the shade the stage was also under, before running back to the shade lest they get fried.

We were happy when we heard that Mr. Goh won the 'K1 Open Mens' Categorey, and clapped wildly as we saw him skipping acroos the baked earth to recieve the medal. But once the announcer arrived at the 'K2 Senior Mens' Event, we had an interest to hear if we made it, even though we had great doubts for such.

And schocked as we were, Ting Wei and I were announced 3rd in our event!!! Apparently, we were the boat after Lucas' and Weng Ai's, of which was after an NJC pair. Ting Wei and I went up to the stage speechless but nevertheless joyful, followed later by Jo and Barney, who were acting as Weng Ai and Lucas (we were giggling when we saw this).

After the whole presentation, we all parted our own ways; except for Ting Wei 'cause his parents offerd to drop me off at the MRT station. I then called my mom to tell her the good news, of which we both praised God for, and so she told me to call a cab home.

As the kind uncle (who allowed me to board his taxi in my filthy and salty state) drove me back to Upper Bukit Timah, I started to reflect on what happened today. I mean, I paddled 22 km worth of seawater, survived a couple of capsizings, rescued a fellow pair, endured an hour of insanity and beaten Old Tiger using RedandWhite! I've definitely had an ADVENTURE, and I've surely had FUN!!! God certainly answered my prayer, and more - He gave me the bronze even whne I didn't pray for it!!!

MY GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!!!

Well, that sums it up for now. 1 Corinthians 15:57! God bless y'all!!!

Red - Actual Route of Race
Blue - Route Taken by RedandWhite

I am Blessed...

Yeah, a Sunday. Finally.

Oh, hi there. Pardon me, I'm just tired after the past two days. I must admit, the Class Residential Camp was fun and even more necesary for the class. But I think it was a mistake for me to come. An extremly grave mistake.

It starts off with me and my dad being dropped off at Changi Airport by mom: dad because he's going to Melbourne with Uncle Peter to look after uncle while he goes through treamtment for his cancer tumour; me because I'm suppose to meet Mr. Tay here to help him welcome some Indonesian scholars to our country and school, along with a few other members of my class.

When daddy and I went in, he recieved a call from Aunti Alice saying that they were going to meet him at the next terminal, while I recieved sight of JKit a few pillars ahead of us. We exchanged farewells, and parted to our respective meeting points.

Jkit and I then continued aroiund the airport until we met up with Snil, followed by Tim. After some time, we decided to eat breakfast at Burger King while waiting for Mr. Tay's call. After finding a seat, we took turns to buy our stuff, and also took the opportuniy to top up our ez-link cards ahead of our traveling on the later part of the day.

After our meal and a few rounds of card games, we decided to ride the Skytrain back and forth Terminal 1 and 2, taking turns to call Mr. Tay until he responds every few stops. It ended when it got to my turn to call, when a sleepy Mr. Tay answered the phone to tell us to meet him at the Arrival Hall at the Terminal we were about leaving.

After reaching our destination, we met up with Mr. Tay and a few other members of the school, where we recieved instrutions to await for the scholars. To cut the long and eventless wait short, we helped to carry the luggages of our guests and boarded them on the bus, although this compared to the amount of translating the teachers did and the distances the scholars had to walk with their luggages without our help proves to be nothing much.

We all then rode the bus to school, where Mr. Tay told us to accomodate our classroom first while he settles the scholars into the Boarding School. We went and set up everything: the lights, airconditioning, tablets, xbox - everything.

Eventually along time, other classmates started streaming in. I also got the chance to obtain my new battery daddy bought for my tablet! Thanks dad! And JKit tried to introduce us to some anime about a boy who turns into a butler to a young girl to pay off a debt. There were many small things that happened during these few hours, but soon Mr. Tay called us up to meet him at the SpaceFrame for our departure to Plaza Singapura to watch a movie.

Changed and geared up, we proceeded as a class for the last time to the theatres to buy ourselves tickets to watch Stardust! But since the show was later in the night, we decided to go out our separate ways to entertain ourselves during the wait.

Toj wanted to go to a particular LAN centre, but in the process almost got half the class lost in the middle of the city. Not willing to go out just to get lost, I decied to turn around, but Tim suggested to go to Peace Centre instead, a centre a couple of blocks away from his Church. It proved to be useful, and so those who wanted to play LAn got their wish, while those who weren't game-tuned had a go at the arcade and billards.

When it was time to head back, we journeyed our route and collected our tickets before splitting up again to grab a quick dinner. At Subway, we took things slowly and chatted along our meal. I even tried proposing my hike to thosewho were sitting around me, and got a rather fruitful response. Once our meal was finished, we proceeded up to get ready for the movie, of which Kirby was still softly beging Mr. Tay to allow him to watch Halloween instead.

The movie was a lot better than I expected, I must say. True, it is a young fantasy, but the movie is rather suited for a wider age group. Shouldn't reveil too much, but I must admit I was stunned by one of the stunts in the show: how can swords fights be done lieing backwards?

The rest of the night outdoors was spent shopping for snacks and drinks, followed by finding the underpass to the MRT station, where we took a train back to school. People were competing on how late they can stay up playing with the xbox, while ZWei and Raam were teaching me certain drills they practice from their respective Uniform CCA Camps (NPCC[Sea] and NCC[Sea] respectively).

I also attempted to draw a scene of an island beach just to get the classroom into the holiday mood. I also wanted Peter to draw his 'Dan 'shroom' on the island so we could call it a class picture, but then I thought I better not disrupt his record of still being awake on Halo. Soon, I felt the drousiness upon me weighing down, and decided to quickly wash up and sleep.

Now, camp was suppose to continue the next day (or should I say 'that present day') with a cycle and picnic at East Coast Park through till the afternoon, when everyone was then free to go.

But unfortunately I still have Canoeing training in the morning to attend, followed by D.A.R.E. in the afternoon. And intending to gain more experience to survive in both my Ubin Race and my D.A.R.E. Group, I didn't want to sacrifice these two. Besides, Mr. See wouldn't allow me to skip for something like this, and there was to be a mini-briefing on the Encounter Jesus III Camp after D.A.R.E. service, so the more I shouldn't skip.

Wking up only 3 or 4 hours after I fell asleep, I quietly washed up and changed into my canoeing attire, packing my stuff into my bags before leaving for MacRitchie. When I arrived, I decided to drop a couple of bags behind the shed first, while bringing only one bag to the chin-up bars, just to avoid any comotion on why I look like I'm going on a water hike.

After doing a few sets of chin-ups (which I was surprized I could do despite the lack of sleep and breakfast), I went ahead of the team to place my bags into the Bags Shed before anyone saw my cargo, proceeding to prepare my boat and equipment with TWei as if I didn't bring in anything out of the ordinary.

Training was bareable (Thank God!), and I managed to get ome after training with all the weight of my bags in addition to the tiredness from both training and my lack of sleep. But it hasn't ended there yet, so I plopped my stuff on the floor, had a quick shower and lunch, and armed myself for another exciting D.A.R.E. service!

Well, the D.A.R.E. service was exciting. But I was so tired to get excited, I've no idea how many times I've fallen asleep during the sermon. Even during praise and worship, I was jumping by flesh but was begging for the music to stop by mind. I was desperately thinking of ways to get myself to stay awake: eating Clorets, pinching andscratching my arms, strangling myself with my crucifix necklace. All tried, and all failed.

I can't even remember what the sermon was about, just that it had something to do with worship.

So now I've learnt a very valuable lesson: As a canoeist, I must NOT participate in activities that ensure I'm awake the previous night of a training session.

And from this, I can also conclude that the Class Residential Camp was indeed one of the WORST mistakes I could possibly paticipate myself into. (Note: I said 'I could possibly participate myself into', not 'the class could possibly participate into'. The class definitely needed this last opportunity to be together, and I'll be more than grateful for that.)

Ah, well. No point blabering about it now that its over. God allowed mistakes so we could learn from them and make sure they never happen again, and if anything He's still our forgiving Abba Daddy no matter how severe the mistakes can get! So we'll just have to move on...

2 Chronicles 15:7!!! God bless y'allzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

You're Hired....

Well, yesterday was the second of a two-day worrkshop for Peer Support Students, and I must say it was rather fun going through the different stations our future juniors would be going through on the first day of school next year! There was absailing, and teamwork games, and class-control workshops, and the sort.

Well, to be honest, I never fully volunteered to be a Peer Support Leader. For one thing, I told my Pastoral Care Teacher that I was willing to participate ONLY if it wouldn't pose a risk to my Canoeing training (especially at this season, when the Round Ubin Race is just around the corner).

How did she respond? She went to the Year 1 Level Head and quoted to her my situation, and so she in turn told Mr. See to excuse me during the workshop.

Well, at least Mr. See didn't look like he didn't believe my side of the story. But yet again, he didn't look like as if he believed it either. Nevertheless, he, as well as Mdm Goon (who was visiting yesterday's Land Training), warned me that this may take up some time during the 1st Term, and so I had to make sure it didn't effect my other commitments (Canoeing and Prefects respectively).

They both had a point. Listing down my commitments, I have;
Acedemics
Canoeing
Prefects
Peer Support
(Christianity isn't a commitment: God isn't in my world, my world's in God!)

And the fact that I also want to pursue high roles in at least one of my commitments (Maybe a Committee Member in Acedemics, maybe Treasurer in Canoeing, maybe Chairman of a Committee in Prefects, etc.), I really need to plan out my time evenly. And I know I can't do this on my own, so through Christ ALL things are possible!!! Amen!

I think I better go plan out the rest of my holidays just to ensure there are no collisions or anything of the like. (I already have 7 Camps, 3 Smart-Formal Events, 2 Part-time Pay-free Oriental Jobs and a Race to attend through the holidays! May the Lord my God be with me in the excitement!)

Well, Psalms 5:12!!! God bless y'all!!!

Mourning into Dancing...

Well, I'm all tired and worn outafter today's training. Some can say I deserved it. So I'll just try to keep this post short.

Let's start with Sunday! Yeah, at least that gives a very happy beginning. It was both the outing day for AJ's group back in Lighthouse promised since the group was really fast in their study, and the party day for the Believers to celebrate the success of their (I take it I no longer have the rights to say 'our') latest musical, 'Thief of Always'.

It starts with me beign dropped of at Middle Road by my mom while she, Uncle Alex and both my sisters were on their way to New Creation Church. Journeyed my way to Prinsep Street, where I found the same ol' Prinsep Presbyterian Church standing like she used to.

Walking through (or more like 'stumbling through', with so much nervousness in my heart), and seeing that I was rather early, I decided to head to the Library to wait till the Main Service started. But finding out that the Library was still locked, I decided to tuck myself in the side alley of the Church where there was a bench swing.

Rocking myself to and fro, I tried my best to sing my nervousness away. I sang as much as I could remember of the songs from the Ron Kenoly tracks I recently bought, and soon enough after snging an average of 4 rounds per song, I calmed down well enough to get me walking properly again.

When I walked back into the main building, I saw that the Library was finally unlocked, and so decided to take refuge in there while I still could. I rested for a while and watched my watch closely to make sure I didn't miss my timing. And in a while's time, it was reaching to 9, so I went out and met Tim along the way.

We went up the building and sat along side Thedyus (is that how you spell it?) during the session. The sermon was about the disciplines required within worshiping God and was using the story of Moses' journey up and down Mount Sinai. I didnt really hear much about grace this time, so I must admit I wasn't able to catch much.

Once the main service was over, Tim went to the back to train a new techie while I stayed where I was for Lighthouse. Hmm, to think Eric would have trained me too if I stayed on. But I still know where God wants me to be, and so I shall follow.

After the worship session, the different groupswere dismissed for their lessons while AJ's group met downstairs before leaving for our outing. I heard many proposals through Tim, many about bowling or TCC or beaches, but this day was a different plan altogether.

This day, we were going to eat out at McDonalds! Heh, it was a good plan for many of us, but Zeik didn't like it since he had just eaten breakfast there. While AJ was taking down our orders, Zeik was bending his head away in preparation to puke at Thed.

During our meals, we socialised a bit and in the midths of the chat Zeik wanted to ask if we could go play billards at the billard station nearby. AJ soon agreed, and I agreed to chalendge Zeik. After finishing my apple pie and french fries, we went down and rented a table for half an hour or less.


Through the game, we (Zeik, spectators and me) had a great time and we soon tied in our winnings. But at around that time, it was time for us all to head back to Prinsep and call it a day, and so we journeyed back. Along the way, ___ talked with me about how I was doing and which Church I've moved on to, and so I told her about New Creation and D.A.R.E. and how God prepared it just right for me to come in.

Once we arrived at the Church, Tim and I went to search for the room where the Believers' party was suppose to be held. After much deduction, we found the room and so I tried to sit around while Tim searched for the remainder of Lighthouse members who were also Believers.

While being alone, I found myself leaning against a pillar in the room totally isolated from the pack. It felt torturous just to walk forward, and everytime I tried I ended up falling back on the pillar. In the end, I finally found grace with another table of Believers and sat with them as we all ate the buffet lined up for us.

Once finished with the main meal, I went on to the desserts and soon found myself stuck on the same pillar. By now, a fair number of the Lighthouse boys who were believers were present, and after awhile they called me to sit with them. I slumped myself on a chair and ate the remainder of my partially-crushed egg tart.

Soon, it was time to review the filmed version of the musical 'Thief of Always',and we all proceeded up to the hall to witness what we all looked like from the audience's perspective. After viewing what it looked like altogether, we proceeded with a little worship time with a few familiar songs.

Once done, Auntie Lisa gave us a short presentation on the aims and objectives of the Believers, and what was concidered achieved through this year. We then started our games session, of which was truely ripping fun and I must say I lost most of my nervousness through!

Before the games started, we were first divided into two groups, and then asked to give each group a name. The group I was in decided to call ourselves Milo, based on a regular catchphrase in the play, while the other group called themselves Soon Hock, based on what the nurse in the play tried to pronounce Boon Hock's name as.

It was also agreed within our group that whenever someone shouted, "Milo!", we'd all respond with a loud, "Marvelous!" (which was also blended in the catchphrase). And gradually in response to that, Team Soon Hock always responded with a "Fresh!" whenever their name was called. :P

Games included attempted re-enactments of certain scenes in the musical (which were fun to make fun of, since the actors we were using weren't the originals and more of dancers or backstae people!), quizes about the musical (which Milo ["Marvelous!"] had a great advantage in because most of the actors/actresses invovled in the question were in our group! :P) and even a 'pass the message'-cum-'sherades' game (which was extremely hilarious when you see people messing up while passing on the actions! My group even ended up composing our very own bhangra!)!

But after a couple or so hours of family entertainment (Which, I must say, was worth the effort! Good job, Shaun!), we closed in prayer and proceeded downstairs to finish off the buffet and feast on Uncle Collin's cake celebrating his child's 1st month! After much conversation and lollipops (hehe, we had candy for the winning prize, which both teams tied and both won!), we went our separate ways and went home.

Yeah, I must admit that Lighthouse and Believers were very nice groups to join and be with! I admire their hospitality and am willing to be called upon if I could possibly be of any help in the future! But as much as I'm grateful for them, God's prompting for me is to goto D.A.R.E., and please don't take me the wrong way but I'm excited to know what better gifts God has in store for me as I move on! Indeed, God will always love me and will never leave me!

Now for the sad part.

Monday. Well, I'll keep it shorter by just getting to the point. Monday was supposedly the extended deadline for the traning cards in Canoeing. You see, before Canoeing made a shutdown to give more time for us to study, Mr. Goh gave us cards listing simple drills we can do at home to prevent our fitness from dropping as much as possible. These included push-ups, sit-ups, running, back extentions and so on.

Beside each item, there was a quantity of how many of the item we were suppose to excecute. And beside these terms was a calendar of the entire period of time we'd shutdown for, excluding the exams itself. For every item we did each day of the shutdown, we had to mark it out on the calendar. And by the time we came back from exams, what should be expected was cards colourful with pen markings of mostly, if not fully, completed programmes.

And now the exams are over. So, what about my card? Well. My card. Let's put it this way: It's as good as white.

Well, as much as I did push ups and sit ups and running 2.4km once a week, the card still looked rather white with the many other items I missed out, and the number of days I missed them out by. That's as good as white.

And after secretly handing my card up after training to Eugine, who helped gave me a slower sentence by sliding it somehwere in the middle of the well-coloured stack (Thanks, bro), I quickly but calmly rushed back home and retired to my desk in great prayer that whatever Mr. Goh does or says to punish me for what I've done (or for this matter, what I've not done), I desperately wanted to cling on to the faith that God would still be there with me.

And that leads us to Tuesday. But before Tuesday's training is firstly school. Didn't recieve results today, but had a couple or so of briefings or so about what we'd expect next year as students. One of the things discussed was an Edusave test which promised that if passed, would garuntee my parents a smaller pay for school fees.

That made me look at the test more seriously. Normal secondary schools in Singapore pay roughly about $7 per month or so, as much as I've heard, and unfortunately for this case I'm not in a 'normal' secondary school. The school fees are as much as $300/+, and the priveledged lot are able to get through the fees well enough.

'Priveledged' is defined here as those who are rich or under programes that help to pay a portion of the fees. And as much as I'm in the Intergrated Programme, I'm still not a Gifted Education Programme student, nor a Music or Art Elective Programme student, and my PSLE score was still 260, 2 points away from an automatic application to the Edusave Scholarship.

And thus as far as the committee in charge of these payment priveledges are concerned, I am not woth the expense.

But PRAISE be to GOD, I have another chance! This scholarship will help my parents out a little more, and I am confident that God has lined it up perfectly as another one of His many gifts for me! And this means that by His name, His stripes and His blood, I can get through this test and claim my blessings!

But this excitement that relief was soon enough slowly died off when school ended and I proceeded to the MPH1 for Land Training. There as I was changing into my tangtop, Mr. Goh called for my name while looking down at the stack of cards in his hand. I said a short prayer, placed my clothes aside and made my way in front of him.

He looked up, and slit out my card from the deck, asking me if the crosses I marked meant that I did the excersize or that I didn't dot he excersize. I checked the tensions in my face to make sure I didn't give the wrong face, and I slowly admitted that it was the former. He then looked down and gave a short chuckle.

(Mr. Goh scolds somewhat like dad: both of them appear happy even when they're shouting and giving sharp comments. And also that they both don't scold that often, but that's not the point.)

He then commented on the lines of me givning him an empty piece of paper and chuckled again before sliding my card back into the deck and turning his attention to Mr. Ismail, who just entered the area at around the same momment. I took it that I was dismissed, and joined the queue of the chin-up bars.

When training started, Mr. Goh announced right after our Warm-up that he was greatly dissapointed that we did not do our programmes during the shutdown, pointing out a few particular dissapointments that included me and my 'empty piece of paper'. I bowed my head down while he was mentioning these dissapointments, but raised my head a little when I heard what he was going to do for running today.

He said he wanted us to run 10 laps on the track (that's 4km, for those who don't know) to see how fit we were in running. Good, I thought to myself. A chance to redeem myself. On Mr. Goh's mark, we jogged to the starting line, where we lined up with the C Division. And at Mr. Ismail's famous whistle, we dashed off for our longest dash since a month or two.

I ran at a good speed; although I didn't time myself,I was beating a good number of seniors and so I took it as a good sign. By the time we were done, it was starting to drizzle, so Mr. See asked us to proceed back into the MPH1. Inside, Mr. Goh was saying that our running was not up to expected and reveiled that today's programme was going to be the same programme as in the cards.

Again, although rather exhausted this time, I thought to myself that I could somehow make up for my 'empty' reputation by giving a good performance today. And so I did everything to my best, not that it differs from what I ussually do but that this time I had my cauntience of my killed reputation in my mind.

Once we all completed the programme, which Mr. Goh made us do twice each, everyone could point out thir own weankeses and strengths. For me, I was weaker in my abdominal power but stronger in my arms and legs. Nevertheless, I was well-relieved during warm-down that it was all over.

After training, I changed back into my dry uniform and bought a hotdog bun to nibble on before leaving for the bus stop. At the bus stop, I met up with Cliff and Abraham, who first greeted by quoting Mr. Goh's 'empty card' statement on me, but later commented that I was pretty fast during running, somewhat too fast for a blank card.

I smiled back, not saying much just in case that they were being sarcastic. At the same time, I praised the Lord that He gave me enough strength to go through today's training and out of it in one piece. It was around this time when I realised what the slow music in my MP3 were meant for. It was more or less a sense of comfort after a tough day of training: I even found myself skipping the fast-paced songs on my way home.

Ah, well. I'm just relieved it's more or less over. May the Lord be with me if there is more judgement to come next training (which is now Saturday this wekk, since Mr. See has to go for a meeting in school to decide a few grades here and there this Thursday). Now to look forward to the good things God's gonna bless me with: Tomorrow's Results' Day, so I'm claiming by faith that I'd get what I requested for!

Isaiah 43:2!!! God bless y'all!!!

New Mate Onboard, C'ptain...

Ah, finally (haha) my first Canoeing training in a month! And rather splendid, indeed!

Starts off with me arriving rather early at the Chin-up Bars near the Paddle Lodge. Mr. See was sitting comfortably at the mouth of the pathway, and when I walked closed enough he quickly asked what the 'meeting' yesterday was all about. I explained to him the 'messed-up' Boardroom story from the way I heard it, and his mouth slowly dropped as I went on about the messy details mentioned. Apparently the jaw-dropping was more because he thought I was reffering to Dr. Ong's Boardroom, of which people would obviously get the slaughter if it was meesed up with 'tables overturned' and 'football marks on the walls'.

I then asked him when the Round Ubin Race was taking place, of which he said 2nd of December. I then asked about what the schedule would be like, and he depicted a full-day event, which he added is only 'full-day' because the judges would have to wait for the very last boat to cross the Finishing Line before they could actually start distributing the awards.

Seeing how intense the day may be, I admitted my situation: that is, as much as I was definitely free on 2nd December and was upmost willing to give the tides of the Straits of Johor a good tackle, I would be indeed arriving back to Singapore from KL, Malaysia on 1st December after a 5-day Encounter Jesus Camp.

Understanding clearly what this would lead to, Mr. See explained to me that there was certainly no worries on getting a place and a boat in the registration and at the venue respectively, and so the only concern I should be having would be if I was physically and mentally prepared for a sudden island-span current-tackling harshful-navigating race once my body get's intuned to a relaxing-hotel mood for 5 trainingless days in KL.

I suggested I did more push-ups and sit-ups, but he rebutted saying that it'll take as much as running to keep as much fitness as possible, something dependably hard to find applicable in an outskirts-of-KL hotel. He then said he'll ask Mr. Goh for advice to see if I'd be in good condition to race, at which I nodded in agreement and proceeded to do my chin-ups.

Ghah, just like many others I've lost a bit of strength after not training for a month. My chin-up max. number has drastically dropped, and I'm not in a determined state to believe in God that I can work my way back up to tiptop shape within a month or so! Fellow Christians, please pray for me! :)

At the usual timing the lot of us were given the order to launch, of which I along with a small group had to stay with Mr. See and Mr. Goh to see which boats we'd be using today. At the end o the line, I was permitted any K2 Tiger. Partnering Ting Wei.

Hey, cool!, I thought to myself. Another new partner to try! Let's see what he's got.

We both got our stuff and went to the Upper Sheds, where we took down the Old Tiger and re-configured her to suit our needs before heading out to the pontoon to launch for a rather easy programme to start us back to the training mood. On the water, I was thankful to God that all I could remember about paddling racing-style came back rather smoothly after 250 meters or so out at bay. Steering was more or less auomatic, and my feet knew what to do if I encountered obstacle-situations in the water, especially rescuing capsized boats!

After doing a few laps and beating a few K1s along the way (not much glory for a K2 to beat K1s, but it was nevertheless a good cheap-thrill to start the season :P), I was rather impressed with how syncronized Ting Wei and I were in strokes! Well, Ting Wei would need to work a bit more on timing, and I'd need to work a little more on direction-keeping, but I must say we were rather well-opperated!

After training, Mr. Goh also told me in person that he felt we were very good on the water. Ah, another possible new chapter in my Canoeing life, eh God? Let's see how this one goes...

Once the boats were packed up, we got our shoes on and went running. Ooo, running! A long time since I ran! (a week and a half, but hey!) And where else to run but at the Dam Wall! Haha, the puns were ringing along as we jogged our way to the venue. You could hear phrases like;

"Hey, where're we running today?"
"At the Dam Wall!"
"Dam it! Dam the Dam Wall!"

And we'll all be laughing at the puns we could make up. Once at the Dam Wall, we ran a few laps on the Dam. I came in 4th place! Just behind Neil, Sheng Yi, Ray and Lucas, and just a head of Ting Wei. Once done, we went down the Wall to do a Warmdown and Debrief before eing dismissed.

Decided to rinse before leaving MacRitchie, since I was really stenched with sweat. Rather cooling, but wasn't really worth the towel. Once at home, I rested in bed with satisfaction on how training went today for an hour or more before getting up to eat lunch, after which dad called home to tell me he has left a little assignment beside the computer.

I checked and found a new Samsung printer box ready for unpacking and assembling! Hey, there's more stuff to do! Yay, activities! Haha, at least I wouldn't be bored for the next half an hour or so. Reading the manuals and diagrams, I fixed the cords and wires and cartridges respectively and downloaded the software into the main house computer.

Once everything was assembled, I congradulated myself by not wasting the activation of the house computer, simply by watching a bit of Rowan Atkinson on YouTube. (Come to think of it, a better reward would have been to play Rise of Nations. Darn...)

Ah well, nothing much left to report, just that after dinner when my parents came home, my dad gave a good inspection of the printer and approved of it's standards (Yay, dad!) and also had a chat with mom over what I'd want to do when I reach pre-/post-/University. Apparently, my parents want me to take the Air Force course when I go for National Service, but I still want to go to the Navy. Hmm, wonder how this'll turn out. :S

Well, before I sign off, might as well be faithful of a friend's request, 'ay? Enjoy;

1. Time of starting This?
10.17 pm

2. Were you named after anyone?
Both parents, really. Rae came from the first half of my dad's name, and Miguel came from the fact that it started with an 'M' like my mom's name.

3. Do you wish on stars?
Absoultely not! I trust in the Lord my Heavenly Dad for whatever a want and need and get! Let me hear an 'Amen', p'ple!

4. When did you last cry?
About a couple of months ago, when I was told by my parents that if I couldn't manage my time properly I would be stopped from joining Believers. Apparently, though, I was soon prompted by the Spirit to move on to D.A.R.E., so it doesn't make much difference anyway. But as much as I'm enjoying D.A.R.E., I really miss the people back at Prinsep. I tell you, I have never met such friendly people since the time I visited Japan! But I know very well that if God wants me to move on, it's because He has something better in store! I just pray that I won't miss Prinsep too badly in the proccess...

5. What is your favourite meat?
FISH!!! Yay, fillets!!! Horah, sashimi!!! Bravo, broth-steameds!!!

6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?
I'm not sure about CDs. But for casset tapes, there's one with a recording of what I sounded like as a young kid. The unthinkable will happen if it fellinto the wrong hands... :O

7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
Hmm, Mig seems like a nice person. I'm not sure, but he's always a kind person to others, and many a times talking about God's grace. Yeah, I guess we are sort of friends.

8. Are you a daredevil?
Depends, actually. I'd take my chances if it is really important to me that I do something particularly daring.

9. How do you release anger?
Complain to God. I'd just tell Him what's bothering me, ask for better alternatives and then end of saying that no matter what happens, I'm still aware that He's still got my back and is still protecting me. Usually works for me, ;)

10.Where is your second home?
I'm at the state where I'm more or less at the same level with all the societies I'm involved in, so I'm not certain of it now.

11. Do you trust others easily?
First impressions do count, but it's rather easy to raise my respect for a person, along with raising my trust.

12. What was your favourite toy as a child?
My security blanket was a bolster I named Finchy (which still sleeps with me to this day, come to think of it), but the toys I played with most were my building blocks. Loved to build things, then get the mega fan to blow it down and see which structures could resist the winds the best! Yeah, good childhood memories...

13. What class in school do you think is totally useless?
I have absolutely no idea.

14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Time after time, I guess. Just to keep a slightly funnier athmosphere, supposedly.

15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?
Wazzat?

16. What do you look for in a guy/girl?
Christ-centered, bubbly, supportive, very active and whom the love of God has favour with everytime I see her! Ooo, and if she's also genre-flexible and can sing, that'll be beautiful!

17. Would you bungee jump?
I made a vow that if I ever returned to Queenstown, New Zeland during summer, I'd give the jump a try. Wonder if I'll ever fufill the promise in my lifetime at all :p

18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Nah, too troublesome.

19. What's your favourite ice cream flavour?
Chocolate Chip/Vanila Cream/Caramel

20. What is your favourite colour?
Navy Blue! All hands on deck!

21. What is your least favourite thing?
In my possesion? A particular book that is kept high up in my shelf. I plan to throw it away soon. Maybe rip it apart first. It contains something I'd recomend no one saw or remembered.

But hey, PRAISE be to God that he's set me free to this day, so I can spread the joy of God to those I meet!!!

22. What is your favourite number?
8, the number of new beginnings!

23. What do you miss most right now?
The friends I can really use for company right now. :D

24. What are you listening to right now?
Give to the Lord by Ron Kenoly. Yay, Soul Gospel!!! (Y'know, one thing I'd want to experience in my lifetime is to see an African-American Church chior perform some joyful gospel music! That'll just be so cool!)

25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Navy Blue! All crayons on deck!

26. Whats the weather like now?
Dark and cloudy, but cooling nough for a comfortable good night's sleep! That's a good reason why I praise the Lord for this apartment: it's positioned in such a way that natural elements make living so comfortable!

27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Tim, about meeting him tomorrow for a good mornin' round of cycling.

28. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Gentleness. :)

29. Do you like the person who sent you this?
Yeah, I respect him as a good friend greatly. :D My face is just too cold to show it. :(

30. How are you today?
Blessed and loved by God!!!

31. Favourite drink?
Ice Lemon Tea! It's such a favourite, I usually reserve it for special ocasions.

32. Favourite alcoholic drink?
White wine. Sweet-tasting, yet doesn't loose the warm effect wine should have. Cheers.

33. Natural hair colour?
Asian black.

34.Favourite colour?
Navy Blue. It's the second/third time already.

35. Wear contacts?
Nope. Never intend to.

36. Siblings?
An elder and a younger sis!

37.Favourite month?
May! My birthmonth!

38. Favourite food?
Char Kway Teow!!!

39. Last movie you watched?
Can't remember, but the next movie I'd be watching would be Balls of Fury! :P

40. Favourite day of the year?
My birthday!

41. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?
I had difficulties trying to invite classmates to my birthday. Comprehendo's?

42. Scary movies or happy endings?
Don't they both usually go together? I'd prefer happy endings, though. :)

43. Summer or winter?
Depends on which country. Some are suited for summer, some for winter, and some so special they're still lively through both!

44. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs for now. I'll reserve the kisses for my love-to-come...

45. Do you want your friends to write back?
Their choice.

46. Who is most likely to respond?
Dunno.

47. Who is least likely to respond?
Dunno.

48. What book/magazine are you reading?
The last book I read? The Bible.

49. What's on your mouse pad?
I don't use a mousepad.

50. What did you watch on TV last night?
Last night, nuthin'. The night before, Boston Legal. (Haha)

51. What's your favourite smell?
Smell of good food! Haha, the typical Singaporean answer...

52. Do you regret ever breaking up with someone?
At this stage, it can only apply to best friends, so yeah I miss a couple of friends I've left behind in my past.

53. Time of finishing?
11.17 pm (Cool, one full hour just to finish a quiz! But hey, I was chatting with my mom inbetween, so that's just cheat.)

Isiah 54:10!!! God bless y'all!!!