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!!!

Too much to concider...

Daddy came back on Monday!

And you know what makes dad's arrival on Monday unique? Well, since midnight of this particular Monday, flights have been coming into Terminal 3 of Changi Airport. And yes, you've guessed it: Daddy's one of the first passengers to arrive at the brand-new T3!

Well, you can say it was an honour to be one of the first. But looking on the contrary, the terminal's still not complete.

I didn't really take much pictures, but there were absolutely NO shops! Not one in opperation at the time. Fountains still dry, stalls still flooded in bubblewrap, walls still smelling of paint fumes. Burger King was also still submerged in a cement puddle.

I watched from the viewing balcony as I saw the very few passengers entering the departure hall, only to realise that there was nowhere for them to eat, shop, read or even sit down at.

But hey, the terminal's a very huge project, and it takes time to complete it - even if it's beyond the expected deadline. And besides, the Official Opening is to be mid-January next year, so I'd recommend to everyone it's best you wait for it instead. (Unless, of course, you're one of those enthusiasts who're willing to go through any boredom just to tell your children, "Hey, I've been here first!" - happy sightseeing to you.)

But dad's back, and that's all that matters now. He says that Uncle Peter's doing fine back in Melbourne, and is giving a good response to his sound and light treatment (Amen!). Auntie Alice is next in line to taking care of Uncle Pete, so dad's now got her car to look after (Yay, a Merc!).

Besides that, the past few days with Uncle Jo's suddenly deteriorating in excitement, for some reason. I guess it's because I don't see Uncle Jo that often since he's got lot's of meetings to attend to. Nevertheless, if it's the bottomline I've definitely learnt new things each day! Design elements, components of a blueprint and even housing sales techniques (hehehe, now I know a secret or two of yours, Mr. Salesman!)!

But today, as I was taking a taxi to Uncle Jo's office, JKit called me to ask if I've 'moved'. In further elaboration, he's apparently moved class from 3.13 to 3.17, and wanted to know if I've gone through the same fate.

The reason for the move, he explained, was because of the overwhelming number of scholars in 3.13, which meant that some locals had to be moved to another class with the same subject combination and the same education status (Option E and Non-GEP respectively), thus 3.17.

Hmm, I thought to myself. Aren't some others who I know going to 3.17 already? Maybe Snil'll know. Or maybe it's Snil himself?

I asked how he knew about this, and he told me his dad was informed about it by the school, and from his dad to him. Asking a few more questions before chatting a little longer, we hung up, and I proceeded out of the cab to the office, taking dear note of the incident and remembering to ask daddy if he recieved any call first thing after my time with Uncle Jo.

When I got back home, I asked the household if they recieved any calls, of which they all said no. Until my dad came back from work, that is. After changing into something coortable and resting on the living room sofa, he called for me and told me that Mr. Liang Chew Man called from the school to inform him that I've moved class to (lo and behold) 3.17.

He added that Mr. Liang conveyed the information in such a manner that daddy didn't know if he was informing him of the change or asking him if he wanted the change. After consulting clarification, daddy got back a rather lengthy explaination, but got the main idea at the end of it all.

3.17. It's an interesting move. I still don't know who're the people there that I know (besides JKit) but for some reason I feel excited to go there. True, an extra $10 to pay for the change in OEP venue (From Vietnam to China), but my dad, who feel's it's safer to go to China, is willing to pay ("Hey! You think $10 too much for my dad, ah?").

But seriously, money aside, I have a strong feeling in my heart God's planned something exciting and new for me in this new environment! And thinking back, I guess there are some things I feel I need to correct in myself, so with God's help, restarting a part of my life is actually a good step.

Then, I recall a person I met at 3.13. Joshua Goh. What'll be of him if he doesn't move out? For personal reasons, he didn't want to be in 3.13, and for some reason of me being the only Prefect in the class, he was willing to stay because of me. Now that I'm leaving, how'll his hopes be effected?

I guess that's not what God want's me to bother with for now. I'll just have to trust that He takes care of Joshua, and that Joshua should do the same too. God bless that fella'! :D

There are some people I regret not knowing better while I still had the chance back in 2.10, but if God wants me to go another direction, I'd be willing to let go of everything and start all over with new characters (besides JKit)! Yes, the adventure awaits!...

Until then, I better turn in for the night now. Jeremiah 29:11-13!!! God bless y'all!!!

Build, Plant, Grow...

This week goes rather well, I suppose. Visited Uncle Jo's office at Architect 61, where he showed me around the life of what goes on in an architect's life. Being the Senior Vice-President (woah, I'm the son of the friend of a Senoir Vice-President of a well-known Singaporean architecture company! Rock on!), Uncle Jo has a very artistic office with a rather good view of the city! I mean, look at this view;


I'd be a happy boss if I had a view like this in my office! I could navigate my way around the city with less help from the directory! Uncle Jo also gave me some documents to look through: floorplans, brouchers, diagrams, etc. And like a typical young enthusiast, I looked through the documents with intent insight.

Hmm, it's rather interesting that this company has been responsible for many famous construction and restoration projects in Singapore, such as Capital Square, The Hereen, Caltex House, UOB Plaza, Raffles City, Hitachi Tower, The Fullerton, Cineleisure Orchard, Harbourfront MRT Station, Scotts Square, Marina Bay Front Bridge, Formula One City Circuit, Changi Airport Terminal 1 (Upgrades), People's Association Headquarters and Raffles Hotel (OHMYLORD, I held onto the blueprints of the Raffles Hotel Restoration Project!!!)

(sry, didn't dare pose with the plans in the office, so I had to take a photo of it back home while Uncle Jo lent it to me) Ah, one week of architecture down, one more week of architecture to go.

Today, I attended Family Day at Prinsep Presbytarian, since the Church apparently invited me to join since Im an ex-member. For Family Day, the whole Church (or at least the many Church members that signed up) was divided into 15-odd groups to compete with each other through mind-boggling, body-punishing, stomach-testing games! I joined the Believers' Group, which consisted surprizingly more chior kids than altoe adults.

After the main service in Church, our group gathered in one of the music rooms and got our attires ready. We've chosen to wear a black t-shirt and jeans, with stickers on the t-shirts saying 'BLAZERS'. Tim was telling me of the horror stories he had with the blades while trying to cut all the stickers the previous night, while the other girls were giggling their parts of their story on the stickers as well (yeay, there were only 3 males in the group, including Tim and me).

Topping our attire off with a mask each, we marched off to the MPHall whe the time called for the games to begin soon. Seated according to our teams, we were given a briefing on what to expect and opened with a prayer before racing against time to finish our games!

There were many games planned out ahead of us: There were wet games and dry ones, slurpy games and not-so-slurpy ones, word games and active games, games that required lots of skill, and games that required lots of patience. But overall, we had a very good game, and a very good laugh too!

I even had a chance to have a look at the main santuary!

But all things, no matter how gamey, come to a gradual end, and with a great triumphant cheer, we've achieved 2nd place! Everyone's a winner in the house of God (AMEN!), but nevertheless praise the Lord for our victory! Once the games were over, we rationed the prize items out evenly and soon parted our separate ways.

Before I left the building, Tim and his mom (who was apparently a station master) asked if I would like to have lunch with them. I accepted their offer, and so they (including Tim's sis, Stef) showed me to a recomended spot down the street. I was treated to a snack of pineapple tarts I decided to bring back home to share with my family first, and had some noodles and a bowl of herbal soup recomended by my hosts, followed by a sweet desert to loosen the chat with.

Once we were all done, I gave my thanks to them and parted my way home, attempting a new route I discovered would be somewhat faster than the 700 bus route I used to take.

Ah, well. I'm now home, and that's the best part for now: Rest. May God bless you with rest, that you may be still and for once notice the finer things in life you never noticed before, and know that He is God!

2 Samuel 6:11!!! God bless y'all!!!

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!!!

Going Down East...

Went cycling with Tim today. Never expected myself to be lagging behind that badly. :S But I guess it's because I've never cycled in a long, long time.

The day begins with me waking up at around 7.15 to quickly change into something light and packing my slingbag with snacks, an extra shirt and a towel. While packing my stiuff, my parents were suggesting that I organise an event of my own to respond to the many events of friends I've been going to.

I then explained to them that as a matter of fact, I was also thinking around the same lines. I have two proposals in my head to give to them, but can't seem to see which is more suitable, let alone which is more likely to be successful.

In Bid A, I plan to invite friends over to my place for a day to help me redo my room! This would involve the moving of furniture, 'part-by-part' re-assembling of my desk and even the painting of my remaining white walls with a shade of blue! The capacity has to be limited, though, since I wouldn't want too many people in my room. The only problem with this plan is that Cashew Heights is still under probation for En-Bloc sales, so it wouldn't be worth it if all the fixing and assembling and painting to not last even half a year.

And in Bid B, I plan to invite more friends to meet up at Bukit Timah Hill, where we'd spend the whole morning (and maybe a part of the afternoon if more rest is required) hiking on Singapore's highest peak! I could guide them to special areas on the hill which are extremely beautiful and which you'd never expect to find on this island, and the fresh natural morning air would do everyone good! The flaw in this plan now is that Some of my friends aren't really that keen in hard activities such as hiking, and wouldn't want to come. Then friends who would only go if these friends went would also back out.

Hmm, anyone has any advice?

Discovering that we didn't have anymore bottles of Ice Mountain water in the kitchen, I asked dad if we could drop off at a petrol station on the way to Tim's house to 'fetch some resources', of which he agreed to, and we were off.

Along the way, dad was teaching me about the market and how pricing of high-ticket items were judged by. Yeah, that's the good thing about dad: He teaches more than what you asked to learn, so you actually become more knowledgeable on the subject then you actually requested to! This is very useful as you never know when those extra details come in handy, and trust me I've already been proven that dad's abundance is always useful!

Say, this actually reminds me of our Heavenly Dad in heaven. He is always willing to bless you, and when you finally turn to Him for his gifts He'll pour out an abundance of it! Not just the measure of it, but an ABUNDANCE of it!!! Amen!!!

Anyway, back to today, dad soon arrives at Siglap, of which dad made a circle or two before we avoided missing the entrance. By now, Tim was calling me since I was 15 minutes late. By the 20th minute, I paced at Villa Marina's entrance and called him to tell him I was finally present.

He went out to greet me with a smile, one which I later realised my face never returned back, and we both went to his house so I could leave my bag there. Taking along with me a bottle of H-two-O and a munchy bar, I followed Tim down to the carpark to check out the available bikes for use (I don't own a bike, mind you, so I had to borrow one from his family).

Tim unlocked both his parents' bikes to see which were fitting for me, during which I was praying to God that I wouldn't mind embarassing myself, but as long as we could enjoy ourselves I'd be thankfully happy. After giving his dad's bike a spin, I chose it for my mode of movement, while Tim choosing, most sensibly, his own bike. We then took the lift up and cycled our way through to East Coast Park.

Along the way, we passed by a mosque which was celebrating Hari Raya. The atmosphere was very strong, and you could definitely tell how united the muslims were (on my way with dad, we both spotted an entire strech of road double-parked with cars!).

Once at ECP, Tim laid out options for our route: Left or right? I looked both ways blakly, then gave a mumbled yes before riding off behind him. Ah, yes, I tought to myself. A very fine day to cycle once again. Let's see what we've still got.

To my shock, however, whatever was still left was nothing much compared to what Tim already had. While I was struggling to keep up, he could easily dash ahead of me at will without realising he actually dashed ahead of me at will. And within a few minutes, my legs were starting to hurt.

I then remembered that I had just ran 5 laps on the Dam Wall at MacRitchie yesterday and so I'm still at recovery stage if my stretching wasn't done properly enough. Which apparently, it partially wasn't. Nevertheless, I gave all I could to keep up, sweating my paddles forward to as close as I could get the boat to Tim's.

Time after time, he had to circle back for me and then crawl foward, before realising he's overtaken again and cycling another loop around me, just so that I won't get left behind. Half of me was comforted with the fact that I was actually helping Tim with his routine by entending the trail everytime he loops around me. The other half is rather obvious.

When we finally came to the edge of the park, which wasn't exactly the edge but we stopped anyway since we were blocked by a costruction site, we rested for awhile so my legs and I could calm down.

"Man, it's definitely been a long time since I've cycled," I mumbled before taking a big gulp og H-two-O. Tim then comforted me with the notification that the other route mentioned earlier on would have been longer, so I was thankful to God for allowing me to take a better choice. We then cycled back down east and parked/locked our bikes up at McDonalds, where I bought myself a breakfast a couple of times much bigger than Tim's McSausage.

Tim stayed at our table to help chope (reserve) it, while I went throughthe queues to tackle my way for the most important meal of the day. When the food came, Tim asked how much he owed me, of which I accidentally tolm the truth of a bit over a couple of bucks. The thought of having the burger on my bill never crossed my mind, and I only realised it when I tucked the cash into my pocket, of which I concluded was a sign to show it was too late to insist. During the meal, we chatted a little here and there about current affairs and movies and cBoxes and so on and so forth.

Once done, we both got to our bikes to unlock them, of which Tim recieved message from Zeik that there was rain coming and that the event had to be cancelled all along. But from where we were, the sky was still a beautiful shade of blue and not a raincloud could be spotted. Until we stood up from the locks, that is, when a tree did not block our view of a rather big and dark one. But even that cloud was obviously very far away, and Tim and I agreed that it'll only rain by the time we finish.

We carried on our journey further east to see how far we could go till we needed to turn back home to arrive at what we arranged to be 10.30 am. Everytime Tim sped up ahead of me, I'd look down at my legs, of which a muscle would twitch from, a sign I've gradually learnt to mean, "Don't you even dare try."

When we estimated it was time to turn around, we could see an entire fleet of stormclouds heading towards us from North-West. But the sky still consisted mostly of the light blue of a beautiful morning at the beach, and so we still rode comfortably back to his house to end of the journey. Locking up the bikes back where they came from, we went to the appartment to tone back down.

"Announcing the arrival of two cyclists!" exclaimed a softly enthusiastic (Tim's) mom as we walked through the door, and after a few seconds the rain began to fall. The three of us were praising God in our own ways; one saying it aloud, one mummuring the agreement tones and one standing silent but with a thankful heart.

Tim's mom then invited me to use their bathroom to wash up in, of which I accepted. She brought me a guest towel, showed me to the toilet and gave me a mini-'guest tour' around the area. She was pointing out the different shampoos available. Once privately on my own, I locked myself in and did all I needed to (let's just spare the details, shall we?).

While bathing, when it was time for me to shampoo my hair, I tried to remember the characteristics of each bottle and brand. The most distinct of the bottles was a blue bottle that was supposedly pH-neutralised so as to suit many, if not any, forms of skin irritation. I was rather aware that Tim had a certain condition after hearing he needed medication during the OEP trip this year, but I never knew what condition it actually was, let alone what exact measures he took against it.

Neverhteless, I chose what I saw the most familiar: Heads and Shoulders. Once done with the soaping as well, which was made easier with only one bar of soap, I gave a final rinse and quickly went out of the shower to change into a new shirt and stuff. I tried to get out of the toilet when I was done, but accidentally forgot that it used a double lock. WHen I finally figured how to get out, I caught a slight glimpse of the family present giggling, something worth the disgraceful misguidance of unlocking a toilet door I guess.

I then observed around Tim's room while he had his turn of bathing. After a few more minutes, everyone was all changed up and ready to leave the house, Tim's family because they had to attend something of family affairs. We then proceeded down to the carpark as a bunch and drove off in their car.

They dropped me off at Kembangan MRT Station, where I stumbled my way to a west-bound train with pre-exausted legs. Instead of taking a simplified route of dropping off at Dover and taking buses back home, I decided I might as well get a haircut while I still had the time. Afterall, my hair was rather in a mess, and I had to clear it up before I returned back to school this coming Tuesday.

After trimming up at the $10 barber at Bukit Panjang Plaza, I bought myself a peanut butter pankake before walking back home for a nice and relaxing final bath and a good rest in bed. The afternoon was more or less topped off with a round of Rise of Nations for the first time in almost a year!

Highlights of the night was just me asking my mom of the possible opportunity prices that we'll have to pay if I wanted to learn an instrument, of which she said that both she and dad were willing to support me in these matters (music passion). How touching! But still, after she laid down the things I'd have to concider, which mostly consist of time management issues, I've limited my options to either the Guitar, the Saxaphone or my Voice. Gotta make a good choice, 'cause I'm willing for all three, but I want the one that'll have the best worth.

Anyone has suggestions in this area too?

Ah, well. Need to attend to other stuff now. Will leave you with this song titled 'Sing Out' by Ron Kenoly. (Yay for Soul Gospel!!! Man, after buying an approved collection of his hits, the songs are still paying in my head. Wonder how long this would last...)



Sing out
The Lord is near
Build Him a temple here
A palace of praise
A throne of thanksgiving
Made for the king of kings

Sing out
A joyful song
He’s love goes on and on
When praises abound
He’s glory surrounds us
Building His temple here
Sing out
The Lord is near

The Lord inhabits the
Song of His saints
And lives in their praises
The Lord inhabits the
Song of his saints
And lives in their praises

Sing out
The Lord is near
Build Him a temple here
A palace of praise
A throne of thanksgiving
Made for the king of kings

Sing out
A joyful song
He’s love goes on and on
When praises abound
He’s glory surrounds us
Building His temple here
Sing out
The Lord is near

We come to worship
Together as one
With Music and singing
Rejoice in all that the
Father has done
Let's lift up an offering

Sing out
The Lord is near
Build Him a temple here
A palace of praise
A throne of thanksgiving
Made for the king of kings

Sing out
A joyful song
He’s love goes on and on
When praises abound
He’s glory surrounds us
Building His temple here
Sing out
The Lord is near

Ezekiel 34:14-15!!! God bless y'all!!!

What reputation....

Ghah!

*sigh*, Raam B., for the last time NO we're NOT reviving the Detectives' Case! No one is interested and almost everyone has played a villan already, so there's more or less no point to it. Just leave it to the past and concider it a treasured memory once and for all, I say.

Apparently, Raam was going around blogs like Tim's and mine under the name of 'Nobody' and posted a few odd-structured sentences in the cBoxes. For Tim, he had;

13 Aug 07, 21:07nobody: oh yah found ah kong's blog
13 Aug 07, 21:07nobody: any1 wanna kno ask me this old ah ah
13 Aug 07, 21:08nobody: not realllly old tho13 Aug 07, 21:08nobody: but rather at an age similar to those who post as thy lamenting song of the sea (or of thy girlfriend)
13 Aug 07, 21:09nobody: does thee has 1? referring to lament master goh timothy?13 Aug 07, 21:14nobody: aaaahh tim i thot u didnt have any, d= so how could u guys have wacked part Cs with ur ball???xdld)::()

And for me, I had;

13 Aug 07, 20:59nobody: this is nobody here. nobody is sending this message in Leemiguel Raefusheng's message cbox. This is nobody here reading these blog posts. This is nobody here doing nothing.

I wasn't online last night, so I only found out about this this morning during P.E.. Tim was telling me he suspected it to be one of the Detectives due to the way the messages were typed out. And true enough, the common guess of Raam was right. I don't know if this was part of a plan to revive the Detectives, but NO NO NO we are NOT starting up again, and that's that. (Hmm, maybe I should post about the Detectives one of these days...)

*sigh*

Anyway, on with the post. I've been having doubts on myself, so I shall just type it out like a journal to relieve a bit of the stress. Please don't mind philosophical text.

Recess
I've come to discover why I go through sudden emotional changes during Recess, why I could have sworn I felt happy a minute ago, but at another momment during the Recess period I can suddenly feel somewhat sad. It's because of culture shock.

For the first half of Recess, I'd ussually make my way down to the canteen to buy myself a snack to last me for another quarter of a day. It's during this time that, after buying my food, I get a chance to go sit around with friends and classmates at a table and chat with them. Or even if I can't get involved in the topic because of no prior background knowledge of the subject, I can still rest in the thought that I am welcome to listen and see if my pinion can have a stand the moment I know a particular aspect in the conversation.

In other words, this is the only time in Recess where I can socialize with my schoolmates. Take a seat. Chill out. Have a talk or so. Invite more people so as to raise the variety of the chat. A few laughts here, a few points there. Overall, a nice social conversation to relax with, to show that you still have good friends indeed.

Then once I finish my food, I slowly place the plate back in the collection bucket, or crumble the paperbag into the bin, and make my way back to class. As I walk back, I may meet up with more friends and we'd probably tell each other a few comments on current affairs like training and duty schedules or how life's been to us. If there's no one, then I'd just smile to God and thank Him for the satisfying chat I've had in the SAC.

Then comes the sad part. The moment I step into my classroom, I here the shouts of people engrossed in their computer gaming in their PCs, telling each other how impressive the other's moves were and how their moves could have actually been better. Time after time, I hear opposite corners of the class reminding the main party their reservations for their next game. Time after time, I hear the screams of harshly-defeated gamers that regreted giving their opponents that tiny chance that meant their own downfall. Time after time, I even hear mini-fights which spark off due to these disaterous dissapointments.

And how do I join the club? Well, basically put, I don't. Or at least I can't.
True, it's partially because of how, as a prefect, I follow the rules. And yeah, it's also partially because I don't want to jam up my computer with all those space requirements. But take note when I said partially.

My main reason is more of my incapabilities with computer games. For one thing, I never got use to games that required me to press a series of keys to unleash a special force a number of times within a limited time frame, ussually limited because the opponent is also attacking you. I ussually find myself whacking the keys/joystick buttons randomly in great despair and hope that I could survive under the grace of God, and half the time it works for me.

Then there's also the fact that games get more and more complicated as time passes. Even though it's been about four years since I've started playing Worms, I only have the trial version. Eeryone else has the full version, some even with the 3-D version, and so they've got more experience on new weapons and features I never heard of. In the end, I'd still be averaged out as a person with no experience of the game and tossed aside.

Rise of Nations? Bah, everyone's taling about Command and Conquer II already. No point going around saying, "I play Rise of Nations!" when everyone else has something even more advance.
And how about the point that I still have this 'side-effect' with playing computer games.

Basically, once I finish paying a very complex computer game after a few hours or so and leave the screen, I feel rather dizzy and sometimes loose my grip on the meaning of life at times. As in, life suddenly looses its meaning and I seem to loose track of where it started or left off. I just loose direction until my mind regains contienceness within an hour or less, most of the time sped up if I quickly read my Bible. This effect doesn't really happen for simple games like Solitare or Pinball or even Diamonds; it happens more on games which are, well, 'complex' - Rise of Nations and anything beyond, as far as I've tested.

Now, obviously I can't spend hours on a computer game during a minaturely-compared recess, but for the situation in school there are a couple of problems I'd still face. One, well, there IS no Bible in the classroom, and unless there's a signifigant important reason I don't think I want to risk bringing my Bible to a class terrain. Two, I mentioned that it takes an hour or less for the 'life-is-meaningless' mindspell to wear off. And how long is recess? 40 minutes. Take away the half I use in the SAC, and we get 20 minutes. Take away the time that will be spent to play the game, and we'll be left with, well, nothing.

No time for me to ease my head before the next lesson starts. I may loose my optimism. And it's my optimism that keeps me working through the lesson. No optimism, probably no survival. Christ IS my optimism, and I think I'll keep Him in my mind as constantly as possible, especially during school hours when I need it well.

Don't get me wrong at that point: school isn't miserable to an extent that I'm struggling to strain out the joys in it. In fact, I think it would be if I introduced computer gaming to become a part of recess life. It would make things harder for me to cope in my studies, so I thinkit's best if I never try starting.

So all that was said in the last 8 paragraphs could be sumarised to one simple stand: I can't and won't play majorly complex computer games during class. And wha does this result to? Me having to stay in a restricted solitude of muteness, while the rest of the class carries on staying 'busy' on their tablets. Solitude that I can only spend on homework and (when I don't have anymore homework by memory) draw things on the Homework Board.

It's here where teachers miss the phinomenon where pictures 'miraculously' appear on the Homework Board to astound their eyes, changing their themes once every week. The one of the Kraken. A couple about Castles. Another couple about Ships. And even another about the Class Flag I composed a couple of weeks ago, which apparently Chairman Tim finds high interest in and demands the creation of more flags for the different clans of the class, something I'll get to once I can switch off the 'Philosophy' in my typing.

Yes, all of those pictures that ended up on the board were there because of me. Or more accurately, because of my loneliness. People drop by once in a while to critic, providing comments from how accurate my art is to how I can improve on some details to even what I can add or erase to make it more interesting.

True, it's those moments when I can talk to someone, and maybe from there spark another conversation that involves other topics, and maybe from there invite more people to join in and increase the fun in the chat, and maybe from there we even go so engrossed in the conversation we end up singing to the tune of 'We're All In This Together', which for some reason is playing in the background.

(*walks to Living room* "Morriel, turn it down!" *walks back to computer*)

Now, where were we? Ah, right. Yes, my actions of drawing on the Homework Board may result to an easier and more enjoyable recess that doesn't involve the misery of watching others play Marvel vs. Capcom while I stand there thinking hard for the next theme to put up. But I promise you, that is NOT my main intention for doing so.

I guess this period of silence is good for me - I can reflect on what I've done in the past few hours or so, I can finish up on work before hand, I can sit down and spend time with those who don't feel like gaming for reasons more emotional than practical, I can practice my drawing skills in hopes that I can start drawing comics again like how I tried back in Nanyang, I can even rest along side the window and draw its curtains to see the sunlight streaming through and praise the Lord within the silence for the fact that He'll always accompany me wherever I go, and will 'never leave you nor forsake you'!

I can't change others' lifestyles just so that mine feels a lot more comfortable. That would just be concidered a non-socialized decission, which would then be a greed, which would then be a sin, which would then circle around to mean one thing: I didn't trust God.

Well, overall I'll say I trust Him with my heart. And I'll also say I trust Him in how he handles my heart. And that, in my terms, would include a comfortable recess worth having before begining another half of the school hours. Besides, the drawing tips are coming really handy! Yay for drawing! :P

I guess all I can do is cherish those moments in the SAC, and after that walk back up to class, upright and dignified, with the mindset that everyday's a gift from God, even if it means you wouldn't spend it with others you really feel like spending it with. Maybe God's got something for them, and it doesn't rquire me as of the time being. I shouldnt interfier with His plans, for they're the best of the best of the best of plans. (For those who haven't believed, you have NO idea how awesome these plans have been to many Christians around the world and time...)

Or maybe it's because God wants me to pay more attention to someone else in the classroom, maybe someone sitting at the back corner of the room, sitting by his desk head in arms and waiting for God to help him out in a problem. I'll never know, or at least until God tells me so since He always instructs in many ways pre-hand.

Whatever the case, I'll always be thankful that Christ is still there beside me and is still listening to anything I'm concerned about in His plans. He's probably preparing a way to prove me wrong that my recess always have to be half-gloomy right this very moment!

Lunch
Say, it's during these second-halves of recesses which I wonder why people would actually want to friend me so much that I even end up being asked day after day wether I could go for lunch with them. I have a rough idea how God's changed me so much that I've become a good friend to others. I'm friendly, flexible and willing to go the extra mile for the satisfaction of pure intentions. But what is it from these that make me so, well, 'friend-attatching'? I know it's got something to do with my friendliness, but what exactly, I do not know.

[End of ePOM (Yes, for once this really IS an Extended Essay.)]

Well, to think it takes so many paragraphs just to write 'Recess' and only a couple for 'Lunch'. Very ironic, indeed.

Now on with archiving. For yesterday, painting in Art was cool, as I've leart how to paint shading! (Yay, art!) Kept singing the theme song of Pinky and the Brain with Tim and ZWei 'cause either Shil, Raam or ZRong made a special shade of pink. The singing annoyed ZRong to extents, let's just say. Raam was certainly playing around with the rest of the colours, I remember, and so he ended up with an entire tray of brown, of which the rest of us almost sang the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme song (chocolatey goodness, mmm...).

It was also around this time when my picture of the Flag of the Dan Empire was drawn onto the Homework Board for display as written somewhere above. Tim asked what the different elements in the flag meant, but another class started before I could say anything. Well, I never did write an explaination about the flag, so here's my say;

The White Cross: 1)Unity within all corners of the classroom. 2)The Roman Numeral of '10'
The Red Thirds: 1)Distinctly different variety in student population despite unison. 2) We're on the Red Level.
The Green Third: 1)Peace within the heart of the class. 2)Path for the snake [see Red Snake].
The Red Snake: 1)Read Genisis 49:16-17, and it says that the tribe of Dan 'will be a ruler for His people' and that 'Dan will be a snake at the side of the road, a poisonous snake beside the path, that strikes at the horse's heel, so that the rider is thrown off backwards'. 2)It faces upwards to show the class' progression towards a better class environment and our strive for the best.

Hopefully, that answers the questions. Tim also asked for another two side flags to be drawn at the sides of the flag. Hmm, I'll take it the two flags would be the Royal Standard and the flag of whichever cluster in the class is the greatest. Will see...

For today, PE was a fun round of Tennis, besides the 'Nobody' investigation. Paired with ZWei, but eventually had to move to the grouping of Shil, Raam and ZRong. Half-way through the game, I helped Shil with his NAPHA on Sit-ups, of which he gave up on because he was shagged from the Tennis, especially one with Raam and ZRong (because you always had to run an extra mile to catch the misguided ball). Had a practical test later in the Life Science Lab with Justin, and I guess things went pretty smooth (good job, Justin!).

Also had a rough estimate of how Mr. Ang found my group's documentary after hearing his splitting comments. Hopefully they were accurate enough, my predictions I mean. ISO was good since the new mentor was giving me more tips on how to improve my presentation, although he said it that there was nothing he found bad about it - it's only that it can do a lot better, that's all. For Maths, we wer told to do a lesson plan on Trigonometry, which got me praying 'cause I, along with a large portion of the class, had no head or tail on the topic. And glory be to God that Tim, the guy who kept complaining that his tution centre gives him 500-odd questions of Trig for homework, nudged my leg and asked me to be his partner! Praise the Lord XD!

Training is still standardly confidential, but let's just say that Kenneth and I have improved in our strokes! We're still crossing our arms, but at least our catch is more or less balanced! Now to work on co-ordination...

That's about it for now. If it'll thrill, the first person to tell me how many times I said 'time after time' gets a sweet from me XP! Mark 13:11! God bless y'all!!!

Overtime...

Ghah, I think I slept way too early yesterday. Even missed dinner. Well, that's time.

Anyway, yesterday didn't really have much either except that we finally found Derek's missing paddle in a neighbouring shed (which also resulted to the team's '10' push-ups) and that I went to JKit's house for the first time for the Geography project on the movie review on An Inconvenient Truth.

Somewhere deep in the heart of Holland Village, the home was a typical HDB set-up complete with modernzed furnishing. When I got there, I greeted his parents and grandparent before proceeding to what I took was the Study Room, while he went to his room to change into something light.

We then watched the movie through his computer, after which we started researching with his laptop and writing the main draft of the review on mine. Time after time, we also ended up looking at blogs and random websites (wait, demotivate.com?) whenever we needed a break. I also had the chance to see his NCC (Sea) No. 1 uniform(!).

Once we were roughly done, I was escorted out of the house, of which I was told to pretend that I didn't know the way back to the bus stop(I guess this had an obvious reason). JKit and I strolled down Holland Village again, passing by a few shops and dropping by a 7-Eleven for a light snack. Once we reached the bus-stop, the 75 came just a couple of minues later. Talk about accuracy.

Once at home, the only thing I can remember now is that I took out my Bible and ended up reading Acts 9-10. Chapter 9 was about how Saul was converted from a brutal christian-hunter to a preacher so convincing that even the Jews couldn't answer him back.

1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

5"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. 6"Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!"

"Yes, Lord," he answered.

11The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."

13"Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."

15But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

17Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." 18Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" 22Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

23After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, 24but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

26When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

32As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. 33There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. 34"Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." Immediately Aeneas got up.

35All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
36In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor. 37About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!"

39Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. 42This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. 43Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Chapter 10 was about Peter and the vision of the carpet of ritually unclean foods, and how we shouldn't concider other people 'unclean' when God Himself sacrificed His Son to make us ALL 'squeaky clean'.

1At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. 3One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"

4Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.

The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

5Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea."

7When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. 8He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

9About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.

13Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."

14"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."

15The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

17While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. 18They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. 20So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

21Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?"

22The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." 23Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. 24The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. 26But Peter made him get up.

"Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself."

27Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. 29So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"

30Cornelius answered: "Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me 31and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.' 33So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us."

34Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 36You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39"We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46For they heard them speaking in tongues

and praising God.

Then Peter said, 47"Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." 48So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Comes to show that just because a particular situation or person doesn't seem related to Christ, doesn't mean that that situation or person isn't in tune with God's great plans!

Then I somehow woke up and saw that it was still 2.30 in the morning. But since I already slept for 7 hours, I decided I might as well just post this post. Better get ready for Lighthouse now...

Haggai 2:9! God bless y'all!

Black Bell is master...

'Slowly, Miggy paddled my way towards the starting line. It was a sub-foggy afternoon, and the race was just about to begin. He was determined to put in his all, even if it was at the loosing stake, but was wondering if racing through the fog with the New Tiger was a good idea.

' "Just get ready for anything," he said to his partner, Hao Qing. "You never know what happens in this kind of wheather."

'He then turned around to check if everything was alright at the stern, only to find in shock that Hao Qing was... gone.

' "Hao Qing? That's odd. I'm sure I would have felt it if he went overboard."

'Just then, another canoe was heading towards the New Tiger.

' "Erm, hello there!" Miguel stammered. "I... I'm looking for my partner. You see, our event's almost starting soon, and we..."

'His explainaton suddenly seized into a mummur when the boat was close enough to see the paddler's face. To Raemi's surprize, the paddler aboard the K1 was none other than...

'...Zeng Rong.'

' "Zeng Rong? What are you doing here in the middle of Bedok? Shouldn't you be in school?"

'Zeng Rong just kept his eyes on him, holding his boat still despite the medium waves.

' "Bye, Mig," he finally said in a straigt face, and with a swack of his paddle, he sent Mig into the water, along with a few fragments of the New Tiger's frontman's cockpit. Down to the depts of Bedok he sunk to. For some odd reason, the lifejack he was wearing had no effect to his drowning. Paralised from the whack in the abdomen, Raemi continued drowning motionlessly. He kept his eyes towards the surface, watching the shadow of two vessels partially blocking out the sunlight.

'And just as he was about to reach the waterbed,...

GHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! *pant**pant**pant**pant**pant**sigh* Yes, that was a re-enactment of the first part of the nightmare I had last night. At least in the second part (when I went back to sleep), Hao Qing rescued me or something like that and for some reason, ZRong gave me a treat at a nearby FairPrice to make up for me being DQed (disqualified) at the competition for unattendance.

I know, dreams tend to be weird.

But then after waking up for the last time of the day, I went to eat a simple breakfast, cleaned up and packed my bag for the day's activities. I had a Canoeing Training, a Nanyang Funfair and an ex-Classmate's Concert to attend to, so I planned out my route, and so the original plan was to go to Nanyang straight after training, then from Nanyang head for the Singapore Conference Hall for the concert.

I packed clothes, a towel, a plastic bag and a street directory (just in case for SCH) into my slingbag, and headed off for training. During the ride to Kallang, Dad was trying to convince me not to put my 100% in my racing as it'll be bad for me. Hmm, somethin tells me he had a bad encounter with a race(s) in his past - this isn't the first time he's spoken about this, and I doubt it'll be the last...

Once at Kallang, I went to do some chin-ups along with the others while we were waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. That meant only enough time for me to do a 5-14. Ah, well. Once called out to get the boats down onto the water, we all rushed to the sheds to fetch/assemble/launch our boats. Hao Qing and I had permission from Mr. Goh to switch boats with Michael and Shaun, so we had a spin with StingRay for today! (Yay!)

Once on water, we did usual sets (which I've promissed to keep secret since the time I joined canoeing, heh) and just to cut things short today was the first time I capsized out at Kallang! Haha, yayz! After a couple of weeks out here, today's the first time! But the reason for capsizing was because the military speedboats were racing beside our lanes, and thus giving many of the boats present today a hard time tacking the backwash.

(But here's a good secret for those who don't know much about canoeing, sailing, shipping, coxing and physics; the best way to tackle a humongous wave [For a canoe, 'humongous wave' can mean waves the height of your hull above sea level and above] is to face your bow right through the wave. The best way to feel the wraft of waves and strain your stomach muscles to the hardest just to keep your balance, though, is if you face either side of your hull towards the wave. These statements are as demonstrated as by the diagram;)

Yup. So much for preparations for NDP by the military. This also brings me to another advantage of training at Kallang - you get a headstart on what's going to happen at NDP. And I must say, seeing so many giant balloons flying across the waters is rather... odd, for a season like this.

After training, we paddled towards the National Stadium Park, which we invaded and docked our boats along the shore. We then sat along the park and Mr. Goh gave us a relaxed debriefing on the spot. Man, debriefing never felt so... calm. It's an interesting twist to suddenly have a different terrain for a debrief, especially a park we just invaded simply by paddling there.

When we were done, we got our boats back onto the water and paddled back to the Sports Centre to pack up, of which Hao Qing had to stay back along with many of the Juniors and Leon for the 1-Star Test. When the boats were packed, I went to the showers to change into clothes for the rest of the day.

I did the usual proceedure of having a first rinse before taking off my clothes and having another rinse before drying up and putting on the dry clothes. But when I was done showering, I realised that I brought my French multi-pocket long pants. That doesn't seem much, but actually, it is. You see, those pair of pants are actually the right height, but the wrong waist length. So wrong, it feels as if I just slimed down. So much more wrong, that a simple tug and my undergarment would be in the line of fire, if you know what I mean.

In other words, I FORGOT TO BRING MY BELT!!! At first, I was somewhat panicky, but then I calmed down and searched for ways to substitude a belt. In the end, I simply took out my wallet, unchained the wallet chain, slung it acroos my wait and buckled it together. There - a nice belt to survive the rest of the day. Praise the Lord.

I walked out of the shower, thankful to God that the pants haven't slipped off yet. A good achievement, and I'll just have to sustain it for the rest of the day. Winston waited for me, and we both walked to the bus stop to wait for the 67 along with Joshua Tan. (For those who might not know, there's a difference between Joshua Tan and Toj.) Once onboard the bus, I lent my MP3 to Winston so as to keep him from bugging me while I try to search for a route from Nanyang to Shenton Way.

Once at Coronaton Plaza, we made a walk to the old school we both shared in common. Nanyang. Yes, it was still there, and with her clocktower still standing up and proper (and with the clock face finally de-rusted). But this time, there were major-event tents on the basketbal field and the courtyard. The funfair was taken seriously, I guess.

We went in and looked around. My, the place has been turned into a fish market! The entire area was all filled with stalls providing games, toys, souveniers and refreshents. They even had a section to dunk Mr. Ting! I'm amazed at his present level of stooping down.

While I was walking around trying to locate teachers that I knew here and there, Winston was trying his best to drag me along to Mrs. Lee (who apparently appears depressed now these days) and so I was tossed around and pushed and slapped and rammed at towards her direction. The more he tackled, the more I wondered to myself if this was really what Nanyang was all about. If it was, then I din't really think coming back had any value at all. But in good time, I persisted far enough till he gave up.

And at the same time, I was thrown by momentum towards the Monkey Bars. Ah, good memories. But before I could reach the bars to do one of the things I did (and still do) the best, I was dragged again by Winston do walk around more and search for more teachers.

To cut the story shorter again, I guess I made him loose my tail and I finally got personal with the bars. I climbed up and sat on top of the monkey bars, watching from up there the entire carnival at a peak. But then I was soon to be interupted by Winston trying to untie my shoelaces and yanking my shoes off so he could place them somewhere else onto he bars, of which I could easily swing myself to position at and wear my shoes still suspended above the ground. (I guess this is where I got my sense of balance for canoeing from...)

By now, we were being joined by Kevin and Joshua Au. We went aroud for another hour or so and explored more of the terrain before ditching each other, and whne it was my turn to get ditched, I decided to go up to visit 6A again, just to see how the classroom has changed. It hasn't changed much, I guess, but nevertheless not what I left it as.

The lockers now depend on padlocks, instead of the good ol' method of personal keys. Then the shelves were re-arranged at the back of the class, a lot different to the old 'library' arrangement my time left it as. The projector isn't kept in the large cupboard, which I assume now contains new contents, and for a unneccessary detail which I just want to state to bring back good memories, the 'Snow and Jelly' sign has been rubbed off.

Ah, 'Snow and Jelly'. For those unknown to this culture, 'Snow and Jelly' was basically just 'Show and Tell', just that someone rubbed off H's stem, added a curve below the T and an extra Y at the back. This sabotage started off a wave to refer to Show and Tell as Snow and Jelly. And soon, it was classified by the class as a 'reality show', where people display their items in a hilarious way via the choice of The Dip.

When finished observing, I checked my watch and found it to be 1pm. Not intending to spend the rest of the afternoon rotting away without good entertainment, I decided I'd take my leave and go home to rest. Once at home, I got to the papers and read a few artcles on the papers.

Choppy also came out of her room and gave me my Japan present. A pair of fake spect! Aww, she made the effort! Doesn't matter if it wasn't too accurate a gift, but it's just as good enough a symbol to represent that my elder sister loves me! Thanks, Chopp!

After bathing, I realised that my tution teacher sent me a message asking me if I could make it today at 3.30pm for tution. I checked my watch. It was almost 3. It would be good to do my tution today so I could make up for yesterday. So I quickly replied back that the proposed make-up was acceptable, then went to my room to prepare it for tution.

She came, and we did a usually-interesting lesson. She asked me if there was any particular event at my school yesterday, after overhearing from my maid that I went to school in casual clothing. I explained to her that it was my school's Youth Day celebration, and that we were permitted (and by some teachers, commanded) to wear casual.

So she continued the conversation by asking what we did for the celebrations, which I replied with 'watching a movie'. On asking which movie it was, I told her it was 'Happy Feet'. She then asked me to give her the main plot of the movie since she, altough heard of the movie, hasn't seen it yet. And thankfully, I was able to do all that with 85% of the conversation being Chinese!

After reading through a new chapter in my textbook and workbook, we finished at around 4.35, which gave me about an hour before I was suppose to leave for the bus stop to take a 75 to the Conference Hall. But a few momments after that, Nick Fung called and informed me that car transportation was available by Stanley, so I agreed to the 6.20 arrangement.

And that makes an hour and 40 minutes.

I then decided I should listen to a sermon to use the time, since the wireless in my house was appparently unstable at the momment. Getting my MP3 out, I flicked my way through the 'Sermon' folders and found one about Fresh Starts.

It was about the story on Ruth, and it was revieling a few truths here and there. For those who do not know the story of Ruth, well I'll give you a brief background about the story. The book of Ruth is the eight book int he Bible (heh, eight. The number of Renewal), and so let me share the things that can be found in Ruth. The sermom's rather long, so since it's 4 chapters long, I'll try to divide the sermon into three days (Chapt 1-2, 3 and 4). Here's Chapter 1 and 2;

Story
(Explainations)
[Message]

Chapter 1
Once upon a time, there was a man named Elimelech, whose wife was Naomi and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. (Here's something for non-Hebrew speaking people: Elimelech means 'My God is King', and Naomi means 'Pleasant'. How sweet - My God is King, and He's maried to Pleasance. Something odd, though, is that Mahlon means 'Sickness' and that Chilion means 'Dieing'. I mean, what kind of mom or dad would call their son 'Sickness'? Sheesh.) They were a happy family, and had a good life in downtown Bethlehem, Judah. ('Bethlehem' = 'House of Bread') But one day, there was a famine in the land.

(Here's something I'll have to explain as well. See, God does not send famines, persay. So what was that just now? Well, take note of this: whenever you see the phrase 'The Lord send a ______(Insert suffering, e.g. famine), always remember that if you look at it from the Hebrew translation (the original language the Old Testament was written in), the phrase is not in a causative tense, but a permisive tense. What chim terminology? Let me explain; Permisive tense (if that's really how you spell it) is, let's say, you give me a book AND I allow you to give it to me.

(Now for Bethlehem's case, this story was during the time of the Judges. And if you read the last verse of the book of Judges (the book before Ruth), you'd see that 'In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.' (NIV) This meant that if they felt like murder was necesary, they did it; if they felt that sex was necesary, they did it; if they felt that robbery was necesary, they did it; and so on and so forth. They didn't want what appeared to be an inverted-comma's God's instructions to be enforced in their lives, as they felt that His judgements were wrong.

(And so it is reasonable to assume that Bethlehem was also int he rebelion against God. Now, if you look through the Bible, you'd find that [Rejecting God] = [Voting for satan]. Thus, when Bethlehem said they didn't want God, they'd also be saying that they wanted to trust the ways of the world, that is, the devil's lies.) So God being a just and fair God has no choice but to obide to Bethlehem's request and stop protecting the land, causing the great famine.)

[And so we come to one point in the sermon: God only forsakes you when you reject Him. So don't do it. But don't get the wrong picture. If you're facing a rough situation that seems unbearable, you should know for yourself if you're facing away from God. If you didn't and had always been trusting Him, then it's probaby because God has something better for you than what He took away. ('Ah Seng had to loose his job as a massage parlor shopkeeper, so that he would - later in the future - become the Vice-Chairman of Product Design for OSIM.' Not true story, but you get what I'm trying to say, right?)

[And if you feel like as if there are thoughts in your mind that somehow try to convince you to reject God, just stay calm and rebuke those thoughts; the mind can be at times influenced by the distractions of the devil, but only you (along with God) can have control of your heart.]

And so they went to live for a while in the country of Moab. (If you read through the Bible again, Moab has always been enemies with Israel. Even till this day {Moab then is now Jordan}) But during their stay there, Elimelech died. So his sons married Moabite women, one named Orpah (Another weird case: Orpah means 'Stiff Neck') and the other Ruth. (Yay! Main character is finally here!) After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. [Well, so much for calling their sons Sickness and Dieing...]

[Ah, good. This brings me to another point. Later in the story, Naomi would also say the lines, "I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty." Well, if you were already full, why'd you leave in the first place? Another thing to learn from this story is that you must always stay where God places you at.

[If you know very well that God purposely placed you where you are - be it a situation, a position, a location or a relationship - DO NOT leave that place. Even Jonah suffered the wraft of fish digestive acids when he didn't go where God told him to go (Instead of going to Nineveh to preach, he went to Spain to run away, only to be stopped halfway through the journey. But that's another story altogether...)

[But don't get the wrong picture again: God isn't threatening you to stay still. Instead, He is just warning you to stay safe at where He left you. You see, God knows best. This applies to all situations and senarios. And he wants you to enjoy the best. So when he places you somewhere, there are two possible things that will happen when you move away;

[1. You'll just miss out on the blessing, and might realise what you've missed out on later in due time, or maybe not even realise it at all. Or 2. You'll be put to risk of a danger, the danger not limited to rationing but nevertheless a danger.

[God will protect you the best when you stay where He wants you to be. For Naomi's case, her family was originally staying at Bethlehem, which as I've said earlier means 'House of Bread'. God made many promises to Bethlehem in the past, present and future about Him protecting the city no matter what.

[And 'no matter what' should include droughts.

[Unfortunately, Naomi's family decided to leave God's promised land when things started to look very dry, and ende up at Moab. Now, Moab had to appear much more successful than Bethlehem in order to convince Naomi and her family to move there. Understand that Samson wouldn't have gone after Delilah if Delilah was ugly. So in the same way, the Elimelech family must had fallen for Moab's profound appearance in order to decided to migrate there.

[Do not be decieved by what looks 'better'. Just stay where you are if God wants you to stay where you are. You would know if God wants you there or not - He always reaches the heart. So don't be afraid to hold on in the harsh times that may come, 'cause they'll eventually go away.

[And besides, it may sometimes take years before the great blessing(s) that God's got in store for you take action. It took Joseph many years before he realised that the event of him being sent to Egypt as a slave by his brothers was all in line with God's plan to make him Second-in-Command of the whole of Egypt, so as to save multitudes from severe drought.

[So to repeat, whenever you're certain that God's placed you at the place where He wants you to be - even if it appears to be the worst choice at first - NEVER leave that place. A blessing may just happen to be right behind you...]

Naomi later found out from others that God was back protecting Bethlehem and was providing His people with food. Thus, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to migrate back home.

Then in the middle of the trip, Naomi turned to her two daughters-in-law and said, "Shoo, each of you, to your mom's home. May the Lord show kindness to y'all, just like how you've shown to your dead husbands and me. May the Lord see to it that you'll have refuge with a new husband."

She then kissed them, and they both wept aloud and said to her, "We will follow you!"

But Naomi said, "Go home, daughters-of-grace. Why'd you want to come with me? Will I get anymore kids that you can marry? I'm waaaay too old to have another husband. Even if I had a hubby tonight and then get twins, would you wait until they're man enough to marry you? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, girls. It's more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!"

[Look here, and you'll see that Naomi still thinks that God is against her because she missed out on the goodness of God. But she doesn't realise that it's also the goodness of God that brought her back to God. And she also doesn't know that she'll be part of a masterplan God had in store - she was soon in many many many years' time to be the ansestor of Jesus.]

At this, the ladies wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

"Look, Ruth," said Naomi, "Orpah's going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."

But Ruth replied, "No! I don't want to leave you! *sobsob* Where you go, I'll go! Where you stay, I'll stay! Your girls' night out will be my kinda jazz, and your God my God! Where you die I'll die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. (Sounds familiar? "Till death do us part..." Yeah, it originated from here.) When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging.

So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and they asked, "Can this be Naomi?"

"I ain't no Naomi!" she told them. "The name's Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. (Another intro: Mara means 'Bitter'. So she actually said something like, "I'm not Pleasant anymore! I'm Bitter!") I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. Y'know what I saying?"

[Like I said, God does not bring misfortune upon you. You placed it on yourself in the first place. All He tries to do is save you from the misfortune, and what do you do? Run away. Just like the first point, never run away from where God has placed you, 'cause you never know what He's trying to save you from.]

Apparently, Naomi and Ruth came back at around the same period as the beginning of the barley harvesting period, and so Ruth asked her mom-in-law weather she could go out and glean. (To collect the grains that the harvesters had dropped or left behind. This act is just as good as scavenging, and harvesters are usually keen to make sure they don't drop anything and let their profits go into their hands. So take note that Ruth was poor and a non-Jew, so she wasn't even qualified to become a harvester.) Naomi agreed, and so she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters.

Chapter 2
Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, a very rich and influential man, whose name was Boaz. And it so much as turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz. (In the Old King James Version, it says that it was her 'hap' that she was at Boaz's field. 'Hap' is old-English for, if converted to modern-English, 'happening'. Thus here, we can see that when things happen the way you like them to happen, you become happy! (yes, this was where the word came from) And happy are those who obey God's instructions! (Now, doesn't that sound a lot like a set of verses somewhere...)] Around that time, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem.

(Now, as you'll discover later in the story, Boaz is suppose to be the kindsman-redeemer of Naomi's family. What's a kindsman-redeemer? Well, the kindsman-redeemer is the person in the family that inherits any of the following roles;

(a. When the elder brother/relative is murdered, this guy would avenge his death,
(b. When the elder brother/relative sells away a property for aid of finaces, this guy can buy it back for him from the guy who purchased it from the brother/relative, or more importantly to the story,
(b. When the elder brother/relative died married, this guy marries the widow.

[Now, this reflects a lot about Jesus' role in Him paying the price for our freedom. For now, let's focus on the second use of the kindsman. Jesus wanted to help God purchase Man from sin. So what does he do? He acts as our kindsman redeemer. But shouldn't there be standards to meet to qualify to be a kindsman-redeemer? Well, there were. But even better, Jesus satisfied them all! Let's look through the requirements;

(1. He must have the tradable item(s) with him. (i.e. He's rich)) [Of course Jesus is rich! rich enough to buy you from the devil! Jesus has a rich Dad, and through Him so do we!]

(2. He must be related.) [Of course He's related! He was born as a man, so He now has a family relationship wit all of us as well!]

(3. He must be willing.) [Of course He was willing! He streched out His hands to show how much He loved us, and then died there on the cross to settle the debt.]

[So he does satisfy all the conditions! Well, just keep in mind the thought that Boaz represents Jesus for the rest of the story...]

"The Lord be with you, lads!" he greeted his employees.

"May the Lord bless you, boss!" they called back.

Boaz then looked around his field and saw Ruth, so he asked the I.C. of his harvesters, "Wow dude, who's that young lady?"

The foreman replied, "That chick is the Moabitess who came from Moab along with Naomi. She asked if we could let her glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters. Man, she's been working in the field from morning till now. Well, except for a short rest in the shelter, but that's besides the point - she's a tough worker!"

So Boaz went down to Ruth and said to her, "Hey, girl. Listen to me; Don't go and glean in another field away from here. Stay here with my servant girls, watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. Don't worry 'bout the men, I've warned them not to molest you. And if you need refreshments, go and drop by the water jars the men have filled."
At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She stammered, "Erm, Mr. Boaz, sir, why're you so kind to me? I mean, you don't even know me!" (Don't forget, she still doesn't know that they're related by marrige, but Boaz does.)

Boaz replied, "I've heard all about what you've done for your mom-in-law since your husband's death, how you left your real dad and mom and your homeland and came to live with us new guys. May the Lord repay you for what you've done! May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

[Another point: God is seriously closer than you think! I know you've probably heard this many times, but it's really true! It's just that people these days don't seem to realise how close God is. Society has manipulated the way people se God as, such as religeon.

[Let me remind you that being a Christian is not joining a boring religeon, but rather engaging in an adventurous relationship. But religeon has somehow made it look as if serving God is 100% a duty, inclusive only of greatly diluted enjoyment.

[The popular concept I usually come across with is that 'we should all prevent ourselves from sinning. We must not pressure God withour bad ways and so we should cleanse ourselves before we come to His presence, and make sure we stay clean while in His presence. Whenever we commit a sin, we should ask for another forgiveness.'

[Ya-di-da-di-dah! For one thing, God already knew we can't stop sinning by ourselves. The moment Adam and Eve ate the wrong fruit, earth - along with man - had become the property of satan. And as long as man did something wrong in the eyes of the Lord, satan had every right to punish man.

[And the only way to avoid the judgement at that time was to follow guidelines to help you not do things wrong in the eyes of the Lord (a.k.a. the Laws, or the Commandments). And if you couldn't follow the guidelines, which God knew you couldn't, then you'd have to be forgiven by God. How? Give a sacrifice. In summary, the sacrifice process is as follows;

[The sinner searches for a sacrifice, as according to his sin. When he finds the animal, he searches for defects. No defects? then he brings the sacrifice to the priest, who examines the animal carefully and searches for defects. No defects? Then he brings the animal into the Holy of Holies, where he kills the animal, probably by using the method of piunishment the man was suppose to recieve but more severe, and burns it in the alter's fire. In other words, the sacrifice gets the heat at expense of the sinner, thus he gets forgiven.

[But God didn't want to watch His creations suffer through these tidious processes. In fact, the original blueprints for earth was to be a Eutopia for mankind, where man did not have to labour or anything and could have direct contact with God. So what does He do? He sends His Son down to earth and uses Him as a perfect sacrifice.

[He was observed by the world around Him and was certified to be sin-proof. Later in life, He was sent to the high priests and examined by them carefully, so they could search for something to blame Him with, only to be able to find reason to blame Him by using lies. And there on the cross, He was crucified. And if you analyse the Bible closely, He actually went to hell after His death to be tortured for every sin man commited in the past, the present and the future.

[In other words, He died at your expense, so you could be forgiven for EVERYTHING! From that first lie you made when you were 2 years-old, to that credit card you stole from your co-league at 53. EVERYTHING was forgiven for! And now that the entire dept has been paid, He just wants you to enjoy life from now on! No need to repay Him with anything - it was all based on unconditional love!

[That's what grace means! God's Righteous At Christ's Expense!

[But many people have developed the theory that we should repay Him somehow. Maybe by being whipped, maybe by being caned, maybe sickness, maybe iron thorns, maybe excesive praying, maybe even getting yourself nailed on another cross. Hello? I mean, that's just stupid in my opinion.

[You want to know what'll please God? Enjoy the life He gives you. Yeah, that's the basics - just enjoy whatever He lays in front of you and keep enjoying His prosperities and peace. But like I've mentioned int he first two points, stay where you are if God has placed you there. You'll know if God placed you there, as God'll lead you there personally using your heart. But if you leave the place, He might not be able to loop His way through your life so as to catch you and get the blessing to you.

[But first things first, you have to trust Him with your life first before He can start work on it. You can't have a construction team to renovate your house unless you give them the house first. In the same way, God can only work in your life unless you allow Him to.

[Sometimes, this could mean saying prayers that sound lame or something, but it'll take time to get use to I guess. I also pray for my training programmes too, and at first I'd wonder to myself on why God would be bothered about a simple friendly race that isn't event he real thing yet. But now, I've come to realise that I shouldn't limit God's abilities. He's God, and He loves me, and anything which I'll concider as a miracle blessing -whether it be beating the Mosquito or gearing up on my grades - He can and will do, just as long as I say the magic words.

[No, not 'Please?'. In fact, it's 'Thank you!'. Why? Because God already prepared the package and is just holding it infront of me, and all I have to do is just acknowledge that I know it's there and that God will give it to me. It's a lot like Messenger, when a convo with God suddenly says;

[Blessings - Accept. Reject.

[And all I have to do is just click on 'Accept'. Just so simple. But sadly, people sometimes make it seen complex.]

"May I continue to find favor in your eyes, boss," she said. "You've given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I don't have the quality of any of your servant girls."

[In scale to Ruth, always remind yourself how deep in sin you were before you met God, all you Christians out there. Never say things like, "Oh, I wasn't that bad a sinner." Truth is, you we're that bad a sinner, and you're still sinning time after time. Those high-quality deeds/actions you've done aren't yours, but rather God's, as through Him we can accomplish all things.

[I also remind myself of where I came from. (Friends from ACS(I) may not be able to imagine a perverted and angry Miggy, but believe me there was once a time before I finally got to meet God. But I'll share this story another time.) Then I see where I am right now - the status reputation I've been declared with, the responsibilities I'm trusted with, the priveleges I'm provided with - and I turn it all straight back to God and praise Him for all that He's changed in my life.

[And also remember that God loves to give generously, like I've said earlier. And don't tell me things like, "Oh, but God also demands this this this, and that that that, and..." Even if He wants us to help Him get something, He'll first give us whatever we need to do so!]

At mealtime, Boaz said to her, "Yo, c'mon 'ere and have some bread! On the house! Ooo, and try the dip! It's wine vinegar!" When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Let her gather among the sheaves, and don't even try to stop her. Instead, just pull out some stalks from your bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't you dare rebuke her."

[See, He loves to give you blessings! And Ruth could just go and say, "See? I got so much!", but no, the reason why she got so much was because Boaz made the grains drop on purpose. Just keep on getting getting, and getting getting, and getting getting...]

So Ruth kept gleaning until evening, and when she had beaten it all out, she found it to have tallied to a whoopin' 10 kilos. She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out the leftover of what she 'tah-pao'ed ('take-away'ed) from her meal with Boaz and his employees and gave it to her.

Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where'd you get all this from?! God bless the man who took notice of you!"

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law, "His name's Boaz."

"The Lord bless hi...wait a minute. Who again?"

"Bo... Boaz."

"Boaz?"

"Yeah, Boaz. Erm, is there something wrong?"

"BOAZ!"

"Oh, nononononononononono! I didn't go out with him! We didn't go for a drink or something, nonononono it was a gift! Honest!"

"Oh, *giggles* nonono I'm not mad at you! Let me explain somethi..."

"No! I didn't do anything! He's the one who gave it to me!"

"No, don't be scared! I've gotta tell you somethi..."

"I... I won't see him again! I'll go to another field! I promise!"

"Ruth! Calm down, I need to explain our customs here to you. Boaz is our kinsman-redeemer."

"Our what?"

"Our kingsman-reedemer."

"Our kingsman-what? He's a king? Well, he's hot and rich, but... he's a king?"

"Let me explain. In our culture, when the eldest son of a family dies, his younger brother marries his wife. And if he dies, it get's passed down the familiy line so on and so forth from the closest male relatives to the furthest. After Chilion, Boaz is next in line! It'll be good for you, young lady, to go out with his girls, because in someone else's field you might get raped. Boaz will protect you for sure."

So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished, as instructed by her mom-in-law.

To be continued...

After that, it was just the right timing for me to go change up and go downstairs to the lobby of Stanley's block, with an extra remainder of time for me to listen to my MP3. After finding Nick, we both went up to Stan's flat and met up with Lester to wait for the arrival of Uncle Anthony's car, along with Stanley. While waiting, Nick showed usa few magic tricks while Lester gave good statements on warfare.

(Yes, these two were the people who introduced me to the art of warfare, which later got me reading up a lot on Hiroshima, which led to me starting work on my first animation film, 'Nucleoil: The Attack of Hiroshashimi' {which sadly was abborted after less than a month's worth of work.}. But nevertheless, these two guys introduced me to the many things related to war - from World War I and II to military armstrengths of many countries.)

Once Stanley arrived in Uncle Anthony car, we (Nick, Lester, Stanley, Auntie Shirley, Uncle and I) drove out towards the Conference Hall. But during the starting portion of the journey, Auntie Shirley came to realise that Nick, Lester and I hadn't eaten our dinner yet. She then asked us if we could ta-han ('tolerate') all the way till around 9-10 o'clock.

Well, I've always thought that it was normal to end up eating extremely late after concerts, but both Auntie Shirley and Uncle Anthony wouldn't take our excuses. They dropped by at the MacDonald's drive-thru at KAP and bought us each a meal. When it came to ordering the drinks, Auntie Shirley took it that we all could drink coke, so she told Uncle Anthony that we wanted coke. But I, being only able to finish consuming a fresh can of coke over a very long period of time, tried my best to mumble a "Ice lemon tea!" across the car.

Hearing my response, Auntie Shirley quickly asked Uncle Anthony to change my order, but he already made a great portion of the orders and so got annoyed by the sudden change in iunstructions. This led to a slight quarrel at the front of the car, and I was frightened with the uncertain guilt of whether I started the argument or not. I tried my best to say, "I'm sorry" a couple of times, but Stanley later whispered, "Don't take it too hard on yourself, Mig - He wasn't refering to you."

Thankfully, the rest of the journey was more or less controlled and calm, so when we got to the Conference Hall we were all geared up with full bellies and ready to take on the concert. We went up to the hall which the performance was to be held in, and up the seats we met up with Uncle Francis and Auntie Dorrie (the parents of Roxanne), who had helped up to reserve a few seats for us all.

We shuffled ourselves in, and we awaited for the performance to begin. Uncle Francis was on my left, while John Lim (who was here before us) was on my right. Nick and Stan were trying to point out some funny stuff in the booklets that were given to us as we entered the hall, but John found something he didn't want the two of them to find. He tapped me on the shoulder, told me to look at the back of the booklet, then directed my eyes to a radius around Roxanne's name.

I giggled, along with promising him that I would tell no one what I saw. I then asked him, in pure wonder, why many of the Cashew Heights people called him a particular nickname. Uncle Francis, who overheard our conversation, came in and told me the story of how the whole lot once went to an overseas trip together (which I unfortunately didn't get to join also) and on one of those days, an animal with that nickname as her name appeared to have liked John Lim, and thus the nickname.

We all laughed together before settling back in our seats and waiting a little longer for the show to begin. I then remembered that Shil was also somewhere in the theatre, so I started to look around the area, time after time getting in the way of Uncle Francis' view of Darren (Roxanne's younger brother).

When I fianlly spotted him, I rose from my seat and started waving vigourously for his attention. A friend of his who he attended the concert with caught me and pointed me out to Shil, of which Shil responded with a light wave and thus me toning down back into my seat.

And just a few seconds after that, the lights dimmered down to a shaded black (is there such a thing?). The show has just begin.

So as to not drag the performance too long, I shall just state a few main points that happened till the end of the show. It starts off with a few items by MGS, which Roxanne was involved in. It was interesting to see how they had to coordinate their bells properly so as to get the right rythem. They accomplished this by bouncing up and down like 'as if they had fits'.

Then also watching what kind of scores they could play, especially so much as complicated as Hungarian Dance No. 5, which is well-known around the world as one of the most - erm - 'steadfast-changing' music score composed.

It was funny watching the girls bouncing around with their bells clasped tight in their hands and whacking them at those right momments to keep the show on the roll. But at the same time, I respected them for the mere fact that they could actually play such a piece. I would be the least surprized if anyone of them told me the phrase, "It certainly is harder than it looks."

I honour that phrase a lot, as I'm also involved in it's meaning (non-canoeists have no idea how complex paddling a canoe can get - it's not all about the rotation, there's weight of the boat, the angle of entry of the blade into the water, the kicking of the legs, the steadiness of your tiller, the level of...)

During the interval break, Stan bumped into the Chinese Girl's School principal! On purpose! He sure had the guts to jump in front of her a second time! All of us were laughing, Nick, Lest, John, Alyssa, and I. We had a rough prediction of what the headlines would read tomorrow; 'Principal In Search Of Rude Boy - Wanted Dead Or Alive'.

After the interval, we watched another few affiliated school's bands play, until we came to the finale whereall the resent schools combined together to play a couple more scores as one whole assemble. t was very impressive, I must admit. One thing that scared me, though, was how hard the base bells were actually smashed onto the table. I mean, you literally see them cave inwards for a split second or two.

But overall, I thingk the performance was very well done (I never knew how many instruments could be replaced by handbells. I always thought bells either went 'ding' or 'dong', but I never knew they could go 'tink' or 'plink' or 'bok' or 'twang' or other sounds I might have missed out.)! Good job, Rox! :)

But after the performance, Nick and Stan felt letargic after sleeping during many parts (heh, am I really that immune to instrumental music?) and so we decided to leave early. Uncle Anthony arrived in his car a few short minutes after we got outside the building, and we drove off towards home.

But just as we were around leaving the CBD area, Alyssa called Stan and invited us guys for a supper at KAP. "MacDonald's again?", we all muttered in a low voice, and we decided we would just give the meal a pass.

But later on in the drive, it was Auntie Dorrie who called us, and she was telling us that she would pay for the whole thing. In the end, we gave in and decided to endure the Mac a little longer. As we arrived there, we were greeted by Auntie Dorrie, Alyssa and a friend of Alyssa.

We then searched around the area for available seats for all of us to sit together. Sooner or later, a series of tables towards the front entrance were at view and we charged our way to place ownership on the territory. We got ourselves seated and started taking down our orders for supper. (Even Auntie Dorrie took out a notebook and wrote down all our orders like a waitress, heehee)

We then engaged in conversation between one another before getting our meals and feasting a little bit while waiting for 'the star of the show'. Soon, when I finished my milkshake, Rox came in with Uncle Francis and Darren, and so we all feasted till the boys turned purple and the girls turned pink (purple because we dreaded to look at another MacDonald product for the next week or two, and pink 'cause they were just laughing at us).

Once done, we divided into our cars and said our goodbyes at a cross-junction (two cars aligned along each other, both cars scroll down their windows, the guys laugh at the other car, which had Lester and all the other girls locked up in a mobil) before going our seperate ways and heading towards the different ends of the Bukit Timah area. Lester now lives at Chua Chu Kang, while John lives at Coronation; two opposite ends of the area, and so we dided ourselve via these two people.

Once we sent them home, we could head back home and get some shut-eye for the next day. Ah, well. Tomorrow is Youth Day, wonder what God'll bring for me! God bless y'all!