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!!!

Twist Yo'r Bodae...

The results are out.
The points have been collected.
The subjects are at your mercy.

This - is Mid-Year Idol! *audience scream*

*theme song starts playing*

Hello, and once again welcome to Mid-Year Idol! This year, we've got 9 subjects on the line and it's up to our candidate to see if he will make it to the next round. First up, we have Language Arts! *audience cheers*

L.A., you sang about An Astrologer's Day by Malgudi. The Marker said that candidate tends to lose focus but that it was a good attempt at literary devices. The Teacher claimed that it would probably be just a good pass. The Candidate said it was a little shakey, but it should have covered the whole scope. The Examinors have voted, L.A.... you're in the bottom 3. *audience jeering*

Please sit over there at the stools. After her was Introdction to Human Societies! *cheers* I.H.S., you sang about weather Economic Hardship is the Greatest Resultant of Conflict. The Marker thought that it had a problematic layout and that validity wasn't touched on strong enough. The Teacher declined comment and allowed the class to watch The Mummy and The Mummy Returns after the Performance. The Candidate said that the best results could not be obtained as it was only found out at the last 20 minutes that there was yet another page of documents to concider on the exam booklet. The Examinors have voted... you're joining L.A. at the stools. *jeers*

Next is Physics! *cheers* You sang about momments, forces and formulas. The Marker didnt give much approval and said it just didn't seemed finished. *jeers* The Teachers said more time should be spent with the excersize books bought from the school. The Candidate said that the paper wasn't complimented with enough time. The Examinors voted... *points to stools* you're with them. *jeers*

Well, at least we now know that the rest of the subject are safe. *cheers* Let's see who's in the Top 3. Core Math, Marker caught a handful of careless mistakes in calculations. The Teacher carried on teaching about Alpha and Beta. The Student thought that it was a fun performance and that win or loose, things will still be fine.

Advance Math, Marker saw careless mistakes only in the toughest questions. The Teacher was glad that Goal 7 was achievable. The Candidate felt that the paper was reasonably fun. Examinors voted... you're both in the Top 3! *cheers*

Chemistry, the Marker commented that Section C was poorly handled, but the rest of the paper was rather decent. The Teacher said that it could have been done better, concidering that it was an easy paper. The Candidate thought that there was no real problem witht ehpaper and that it was one of the more straightfoward papers.

History, you performed about the French Revolution. The Marker said that points were rather vague and could have had more emphasis. The Teacher said that the flipsides of documents were not analyzed fully. The Candidate thought that there was enough relevant factors to write about in the essay.

Examinors voted... History... You're in the Top 3! *cheers*

And from the Top 3, winning by 13 marks, Mid-Year Idol 2008 is...
... A. Math!!! *intense cheering*

Yeah, finally that's over with. Overall agrigate points send me achieving the school target for this semester, glory be to God! Now to start thinking about my holidays. Recieved all my projects and assignments for Term 3 this week. The complete list would be;

A. Math Questions
C. Math Questions
Language Arts Coursework
Physics Coursework
Chemistry Experiment Proposal
Art (preparation for) Term 3/4
History Rebellion Research
I.H.S. (reaserch to prepare for) Model U.N. Confrence

Additonal things to do would be trainings at full blast for Canoeing Inter-School in July, as well as Project Reno with the prefects.

But looking at it from another angle, project works are to my advantage, and there's definitely fun for my end in this field. Project Reno's gonna be fun too, since renovating a room is reasonably the first step before taking on designing one. And StingRay's a fun boat to be with (Arguably the fastest rudder in our K2 Wave) so thank God I'm gonna be spending my birthday with her!

Speaking about my birthday, I'm concidering weather to celebrate it with friends or not. Based on my habits, I only organize birthday gatherings if I knew my current class for over a year. But this year, I guess I'm willing to make an exception. I won't ask directly, but if anyone is interested in watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the Saturday Night, do feel free to contact me. If I get a response of over five people (i.e. six people and above), I guess I'll go ahead and watch the movie, and I'll call it a party. If not, then I'll just celebrate it with God (but both ways, He's always invited, and He's always there!).

Ah well, better turn in for the night. Luke 6:35!!! God b;ess 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!!!

I am Blessed...

Yeah, a Sunday. Finally.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You're Hired....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mourning into Dancing...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now for the sad part.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Time Is It...

At last.

It's all over.

The Final Common Test, is finally over.

Good, now we can all relax and enjoy the next 5 days of freedom to ourselves. But I must say, God was truely with me during the paper, if not truely with the lot of us! The papers were a lot more easier than expected, and I can confidently say I can make good grades for this test, most likely even heading my targets! Ah, well. It's now in the markers' hands, so the only thing I can pray for at the momment is that God would give favour to the markers. :P

Anyway, I doubt I can type out all I missed out for the past 2 or so weeks, so I'll just try to draw them out. (Hehe, a picture is worth a thousand words...) I'll try to upload as many as possible, see if you can guess what the events were (take note, I'm not good in drawing faces accurately, appologies...):




[3 more pictures to upload...]




Ah, well. Better get rested for tomorrow! Wouldn't want to miss my first Canoeing training in a month! Ah, I'll get to meet StingRay again! But wonder who's gonna be my new partner...


John 14:11-14!!! God bless y'all!!!

When You Come Home...

Hey y'all!

Sorry about the mega-lag of posts. Was going through some spiritual warfare and had some things to settle in my walk with Christ. But I think I'm better now! Praise the Lord! Now my only worries at the momment would be a) finishing my holliday homework and b) doing the best I can to addapt to the Believers. But hey, with Christ in me ALL THINGS are possible!!!

Man, I've got LOTS to post about, like a couple of funny things God showed me, my times with the Believers, some mishaps at Canoeing, maybe a sad case within the point10ers, AND LOTS MORE!!! But since exams are around the corner (5 weeks is already counted as 'around the corner' at this age...), I can't promise that this blog would opperate properly just yet. In fact, I could predict another Hibernation Period coming soon. Yep, this thing's sure deter-rotating. [For those who don't get the joke, come to the upcoming Believers' musical - 'Thief of Always'! It'll be this Saturday and Sunday (8th and 9th September) at 7.45p.m. and 4.30p.m. respectively! Venue is Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' Secondary School (296 Lorong Ah Soo)'s Concert Hall, for those girl-minded people out there, and for those typical glop-till-you-drop Singaporeans, do come early as dinner WILL be provided! So come on down and get ministered by this touching drama this Sat or Sun (or both!) to watch Tim dance and me act like a waiter in a French Restaraunt! (I smell YouTube!...)]

So anyway, to make up for the missing posts (which I will somehpw try to get posted), here's a picture I drew up for you all:

Haggai 2:5!!! God bless y'all!!! Nite!!!

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!!!

Paul, Timothy, and who?...

Continuing from the last post, I ate an early breakfast at 4, then fell asleep again. x_x*

Woke up again at 8.15, slightly dissapointed that I wouldn't be able to make it for the Main Service today. At least there's still Lighthouse and Believers! So I ate a second round of breakfast, then took a bath before hitching a ride with Mom to Bras Basah Road.

We left the place at around 9.30, so reaching Bugis would mean... 10ish?

As I walked to Prinsep Presbyterian Church, I prayed that God would teach me something special today in whatever that would happen in Church. Let's just say I still had a little doubt to satisfy for joining PLH.

On the way, I felt rather thirsty and remembered that the last time I drank water was about 7 or more hours ago. So checking that I still had enough cash, I droped by at a nearby 7-Eleven to buy a drink.

In my wallet, I had a 2-dollar, a 5-dollar and a couple of 10-dollar notes. Making sure I had enough for offering and lunch, I looked around to see what I could buy with the 2-dollar note. I finally found a bottle of Jasmine Green Tea ($1.70)and brought it to the counter to pay.

At the counter, the Malay lady attending the stall said that they're selling those kind of drinks at an offer of an extra bottle for another 20 cents. She adviced me to take the offer, and despite my concience about not knowing if drinks were allowed int he halls of PLH or not, I took it up.

Packing the two bottles of Green Tea into my slingbag, which was a lot more than I expected rom just $2 at a 7-Eleven stall, God then told me, "Today, I'll be teaching about My grace in prosperity and peace! Get ready!..." (As if learnt in my walk with Christ, this is suppos to be one of those momments when I get excited 'cause I know something interesting's gonna happen soon!)

Once at Prinsep Church, I went to the Library to relax and wait for the Main Service to end and for Lighthouse to begin. While waiting, I decided to do the Bible workbook which they gave out. (Man, it's been a long time since I've seen these kind of books. About as long as the last time I've been in my previous cell group...)

The topic we've last left off was about the 'Conditions of Prayer' and 'For Whom Do You Pray?'. And what other ways can you ask for prosperity and peace than through the words of prayer?! I read along and saw the questions that went by, and was impressed by the way they organized their facts.

For example, Question 7) asks, "What conditions of prayer do you find in the following verses? - Psalm 66:18, Matthew 21:22, John 15:7, John 16:24, 1 John 5:14-15" Lets look at the verses now, shall we...

Psalm 66:18

18If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;

Matthew 21:22

22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

John 15:7

7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

John 16:24

24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

1 John 5:4-15

14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

It was interesting how many details I saw with the book, but when I was finished with the topics covered for today, I kept my book back in my bag and got out my MP3 to listen to for the remaining time. And just as I looked back up, Tim's sister was just right infront of me!

At first, I didn't recognise her so I didn't respond when she kept staring at me. Then she said a soft, "Hi!", of which my memory was jolted back and so I said, "Hi!" back to her again. We then chatted for a while and looked around at other books and sceneries before she ended the conversation and I sat back in my chair to listen to more MP3 tunes.

Soon, I notice that the crowd was increasing outside the Library, so I assumed that the Main Servie was over. Tim's dad came into the room and attended to Tim's sis, who pointed at me and introduced the both of us again. We then had a short chat about Tim's mom and the History Project I did with Tim, before I told them I had to go for Lighthouse, of which TIm's dad pardoned me off.

And coincidentally, the momment I turned around to get to the door, Tim popped out. For a momment, I felt like those oldies' scenes when the cops confine a criminal with their cars and shout out, "Alright, Mugsy! Surrender now - We've surround'd the house! Put'cha hands up in the name of 'eh law!"

I gave the ussual short salute as he walked in and met ith his dad and sis. I then walked out of the room, keping close to Tim so I knew what was going on for now. As we went up to Lighthouse, along with other PLHers like Zeik and friends, I admitted to Tim that I woke up extremely early this morning so I might be drousy for the latter half of the day.

And at the same time, Tim handed over the notes for today's sermon in the Main Service. What shocked me the most was that the Opening Song was none other than Ancient of Days! For a little introduction, Ancient of Days had played a great role in motivating me through my first year in ACS(Independent) and as such I highly reguard and like that song.

And it was played in the service I missed! My stomach sank, along with my heart if it had wanted to join in. But I told myself God might not have wanted me to come for a reason anyway, so the guilt of not being able to attend passed off.

For Lighthouse, we sang songs (as ussual), welcomed each other (I always have a hard time in this one, but I know I'll have to go through this one time or another. Now, how many times did I tell myself, "It's just a handshake, stay cool..."?), did worship, then dismissed to cell classes.

At around this time, we also found that Kirby's now with Han Jie's Church. Well, good thing he's found a place to settle down at! As long asthe Grace of Christ is taught there, it should be fine for him...

Anyway, we had loads of fun back in class, and jokes were shared here and there at good timings. I'm apparently titled now as the Migtionary in this class with my assumably greater knowledge in vocabulary and Biblical references. Especially when I saved everyone from doing homework by answering A.J. that the word 'hallowed' means 'sanctify'.



Then sometime later, we came to the topic of a meet-the-parents session later in the year and who's parents A.J. knows already. He claimed that he has met all of our parents, of which Zeik rebutted with the two new Chinese-educated guys that have just joined us and me.

"Well," he said, after stating that he's even met the moms of the two boys, "I don't need to meet with Miguel's mom - he's already ived up to his name."

Tim turned and asked, "What does 'Miguel' mean, anyway?"

"Michael means 'Who is like God?'", I responded softly, turning back to A.J. when he continued proceeding through the book.

Soon, we had to be dismissed and Tim and I went down to check when we had to return for Believers. While Tim was asking, Zeik asked me why I keep following Tim around most of the time. Tim then told him I was also joining Believers, of which Zeik emphasized, "He can sing?!"

I was a little wobbled, since I was still stuck in my 'lower-than-what-the-piano-can-play' situation. But then we soon ended the conversation, and Tim and I went to an Ah Mei's nearby to eat fried rice, then headed back. We took the elevator, with Tim commenting that we "Dunnid to burn calories, lor."

Once upstairs, told us to go to Sim Lim Square to buy CDs to burn the music for the musical, so we had to go down again, of which I told Tim back that we "nid to burn calories after all."

After searching around a couple of storeys of Sim Lm Square in search for CDs, we found a good shop and bought the stack of disks before heading back to Church, commenting on the History Movie along the way.

For Believers, I tried singing some of the songs, but could clearly see the frame which my voice was limited to so far. Going low was no problem for me (I can go about 3-4 ctaves low, as I was to find out later...), but it's the high notes I need to practice on (Can't even hit the plain C).

After some singing, we then practiced on the dance steps. Time after time, there would be food breaks, of which Tim would go to the back to shake me up and try to teach me the names of the Believers. I had a rough idea of who's who, but most likely I'll be forgetting again. It'll take me some time before I remember them all anyway, so no rush I guess.


On one of the breaks, Tim looked at the piano score of Go Light Your World and saw how low the bass hand had to play. Qurious, he decided to play the note and see if I could swoop low enough to sing it. It was a D note about 4 octaves under the middle C, and I reached i flat on the note!

Yay! For once, I saw where I was special in singing! For now, I can reach notes very low, somewhat beyond the grasps of Tanners, and so even I have notes only people like me can touch! But then Tim played The Phantom of the Opera on the same octave, and I was scared in a split-second.

In my mind, I was like 'Hey! Tryin' to emphasize sumthin, punk?' kinda surprized. For one thing, I take it that that was the correct octave to play The Phantom of the Opera. That means that songs that I can uniquely blend in would be... opera?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

NO!!! I do NOT want to join OPERA!!! I mean, with my greatest for some of the greatest scores in the Romance Era, I'll feel and look creepy for an opera singer...

Back to rehersals, there was more dancing, more breaks, more dancing, more break, even more dancing, even more breaks, and soon we called it a day. Aunty Lisa (I hope I got this right) asked us to form into groups of 4 so we could each 'hallow' our efforts for today. For once, I managed to pray for the team(!). God bless us and our musical!

The singers were then dismissed, but TIm and I decided to stay back a little longer to watch the drama rehersals. I caught a glimpse of the script, and also of the play as it was acted out, but soon we had to leave since Tim's parents needed him back by theshold-hour.

It's interesting how everyone in the hall, whether rehearsing or just resting, was friendly enogh to wave goodbye to us as we walked out! Yeah, this place sure is friendly. Split off from Tim at the first light-junction, since I found that Douby Gouht (Is that how you spell it?) and the 700 was just the same distance from the place, but in the wrong direction.

Once at home, ate bee hoon dinner with mooncake and watermelon supper. Never had something so traditional in a long time.

Well, better do that piece of work Mr. Tay assigned me with. The cover page for the GEP 2008 booklet is at hand!... (I need help: What's the first image that comes to your mind when you hear the word 'Stereotypes'?)

Oh, and if you're interested in wathing the musical, Thief of Always, 8th & 9th September (Sat & Sun), 7.45pm & 4.30pm resectively, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' Secondary School (PLMGSS) Concert Hall, BY ALL MEANS ask me or TIm or any of the Believers/PLHers with brouchers and invitations! I've seen it bit by bit, and I garuntee a night to remember!


Matthew 21:22! God bless y'all!

Blood and jeansley flesh...

First day as a proper member in Lighthouse. Hmm, went rather average, if you ask me. Let's start from the (end of the) beginning...

Woke up at around 7.45, and was informed by my Mom that she could give Kirby and I a lift to the church on her way to New Creation. I said I already arranged with Kirby to meet me at the bus stop down Petir Road to take a 700 to Bugis, then fell asleep again.

The second time I woke up, I went to wash-up and eat a quick breakfast before going to change/pack up for Lighthouse. My Mom then re-offered her lift proposal to Bras Basah, which is conveniently nearby Bugis. I soon gave in after realising that this would give Kirby and I an extra hour to rest first before we leave, so I tried to SMS Kirby about the new plans.

Soon, it was time to go again, and Mom and I left for the car. I informed her that I still haven't recieved any comfirmation that Kirby recieved my calls/SMSs, so we decided to drive by the bus stop just in case. When we got there, I checked the bus stop (and also the neighbouring one) with no Kirby in sight, and after calling for many contacts to find Kirb's house number, I couldn't find it at all. I knew that Tim had his nuber, but I doubt he'd respond in the middle of the Main Service.

Having done all that I could, I asked my Mom to drive past Kirby's house just to check one last time if he's out of the house, which he apparently wasn't, so we then drove ahead without him. Mom dropped me off before the National Library, and I walked the rest of the stretch to PLH (I hope I got the spelling correct).

Once int he building, I went to the library room, which Tim told me (and Kirby) to meet up with him at. While waiting, I went to look around at the variety of books they had. It was more or less Christian journals on one side of a wall, and Christian stories on the other. Another corner had cassets and CDs, and the last corner was, well, the door. Having a seat on one of the roller chairs, I scrolled sideways towards a book titled 'Pursuit for Holiness' and started reading the first few pages.

While reading, I heard the voice of what I thought was an upper-primary boy swearing a lot and saying how much 'I give up on life'. Hearing it over and over again, I decided to see who was muttering all the racket. I lowered the book I was reading, only to be surprized that it wasn't a young boy, but a girl.

I knew it was normal for an older girl to sound like a younger boy, but what shocked me was how she was blunting out all those comments about giving up her life and all, and I almost had the mind to stand up and tell her that "This is a house of God, and I would very much appreciate it if you gave the life God gave you a little more respect."

I mean, by all means share about your problems in life with fellow brothers and sisters of Christ in a Church, but don't so candidly talk about suicide or cursing until it becomes too much a habit that about every conversation involves a sadistic thought. But I saw a bit of the book in my hands that told me not to get too caught up on the situation, so I stayed with the book.

Later, a few people from the same Bible Stuby Class as me came in and was fetching someone from the room, when they saw me and said that Lighthouse was about to start, so I followed behind them and went out of the room. But then I remembered that Tim still wants to meet us here anyway, so I went back inside again.

Preparing myself for the Bible Study, I dug out a pen from my bag and placed it into my pocket, which was around the same time Tim, Zeik and another tall ang-moh ('Western-looking') guy walked in to see if I (originally 'we') were present. I explained to Tim I tried to find Kirby, but he was apparently MIA. He called Kirby's house (finally) and found out that he overslept.

Well, at least that answers a question or two. After being omfirmed that he was going to come next Sunday, we al went up the stairs to the hall up in the roof. On the way up, Tim was explaining to me that the new character was Hudson, and that he wasn't exactly a new character - just that he migrated to the States about 4 years ago and now the only things he remember of this Church was Zeik and Tim.

Well, I guess I wasn't gonna be the only one nervous this morning.

During Worship, we sang a few songs (and half-way through, we sang the welcome song, which was starting to creep me out in the sense that I - being a new kid in the block - was partially in a state of panic after not knowing which hands to shake) and then singing a few more songs and giving the offering. It was followed bya few announcements on Church affairs around the country and then a few verses to remember for the week.

We were then dismissed to our classes, of which I went alone since Tim had to go for a Youth Committee meeting first. When I got to the room, Zeik was beggin me to sit between him and the girls, of which the girls were requesting me not to do in response. I didn't know which was better - sitting beside Zeik with the satisfaction that I saved a life, or watching him suffer from being attacked by smacks and jokes by the girls - but I just decided to stay my ground since I was already comfortable where I was seated.

Soon enough, everyone who needed to be present was present, and we began lessons on how the Bible will help us in life. This went rather well, and time after time we all had a chance to answer the questions. One thing, though, was that I wasn't sure if we were being thought the Book of Laws, or the Gospel of Grace. There's a difference, but they're both in the Bible, and one acts as an introduction to the other, the other being the perfect redemption from the first.

We finished early, and after a closing prayer we were dismissed early as well. Tim and I went out to eat lunch before we would come back for Believers. Tim told me a list of eat-outs around the area we were in and asked what I'd like to eat. So noticing that my legs were still slightly shaking from the fact that I was still shy back there in Believers, I span around and tried to see where I'd end up pointing towards.

"Subway."

We walked down a few junctions and prayed that Tim remembered the way, which was ironically answered with a large sign above our heads reading 'SUBWAY'. We went to the shop and bought our stuff, which I did first because Tim needed to go to the toilet first. I bought an Italian B.M.T. without the meal (opps...), said Grace and ate.

I then had a chat with Tim about the music scores and thigs related tot he sort (Note: When I say 'chat' during a one-to-one situation, always expect large chunks of silences inbetween the conversation.) and he showed me a few scores to look through. Once we were done with our sandwitches, we headed back to PLH, along the way meeting lots of people also from PLH.

Once at the 'music room', we saw it was bare, and so we played around with the piano and practiced a few scores. Time after time, we'd display our best pieces; his being The Phantom of the Opera, and mine being He's a Pirate. He also tried to teach me how to read notes, but it was more or less the same thing everyone tells me. The only problem with me reading notes isthat I'd have to read every secific note from the 'C' or 'Doh', and that's a lot more pain-staking than just playing out of memory or by ear.

Soon, more and more Believers came to the room, and the different ranges were forming their groups; the Sopranos giggling away in their lady-chat manners (something you wouldn't mind watching/listening to at all) and the Basses making active jokes here and there with their flexible heavy voices.

Tim asked Shaun (or is it Shawn? Oh, for those who don't know, this guy is the, well, recognised Embassador of the Basses? Yeah, I'll put it that way) to comfirm that I'm a Bass as well, and after saying, "Hi." he was truely certain, later singing to the tune of Drunken Sailor as Tim was playing it on the piano.

Soon enough, practice started, and we sat in our ranges. Shaun was sharing his scores with me, so that he could help me pitch with them. But after singing a few rounds, he noticed that I always sung one octave lower than the required notes. Asking me to sing a few notes higher, I ended up having nothing coming out literally. I was declared out of range, which isn't a bad thing 'cause I can just try to expand my range day by day, but being a Bass 4 means I'm just as good as an opera singer.

Looking through the score, I saw that there was no note within my reach until two songs from then, so I patiently waited during the other two songs. And even on that particular song, the part of it within my range is at the back fo the score, so I'm more or less useless at this point.

So this is why I never sing along to the music I play. The reason why I don't speak that confidently when at casual with new people. The reason why no one actually finds me singing at randomly appropriate timings like Hao Qing or Kenneth or Marcus Chua. I'm just too low to sing a modern pop song. WHat scares me now is that if my octave really is that low, I'm right now only useful for Opera, Honkeytonk and 50's Souls. Which creeps me out imagining how I'd look like performing them respectively.

Soon, it was time for dancing lessons. Was told not to share too much, so I'll try to keep it simple. I didn't have a role in the upcoming musical the Believers were setting up, so I went to the back of the class to watch, which for a few seconds made me feel like Mumble from the movie Happy Feet. I then watched as the rest of the guys were figuring out ways to blend the dance steps together wit the music, which in the end they found out how.

We then had a little 'derief' on what would be covered next week and the events to come for the group. We closed in player, and were dismissed, shortly told to come back to celebrate the birthday of one of the seniors. Ice-cream cake never felt so hard, but the cookies-and-cream flavour worked well enough.

I went off with Tim to Bugis MRT Station and had a small conversation about PLH/Believers/School affairs before leaving our separate ways (of the Green East-West Line). I took a train to Somerset and was about to get a 700 home when my parents called to say that the family was going to eat out at Orchard for dinner, so I took a bus to Borders and went to Isetan's Food Republic to help get a table for them.

When we all met up, we bought some stuff to eat (ghah! Their Fried Kway Teow is spicy!) and had supper at the Toast Box, later dropping by some digital product shops to look atround. (I thought I heard my Dad saying he intends to buy a Play Station 3. Oh no - I don't know how to play...)The ladies then went down to buy a watch, and we all left for the car in Dad's office to go home.

On the drive back, while Morriel was playing some of Choppy's Japanese Pop songs, I was telling the rest of the car about my day with the Believers. They then each also shared their encounters with their own choir lives - Mom had traumatising momments with the nuns at her old school and their methods in ensureing the right pitch, while Choppy had faint memories of Mr. Chew back in Nanyang and also of her solo which she performed live on a National Day about a decade ago.

After the drive, we went back home to empty out and relax for the week ahead. Well, to sumarise what I felt about PLH today, I was slightly alarmed on how much we touched on the Laws in the Bible. We now live in the New Testament, and as such we should be following the Grace, not the Law, of Christ. Wasn't that the reason why he died on the cross in the first place? To pay the price we all owed the Law so we could all be worthy to enter God's precense, and through so we could recieve His eternal love?

But that was just one day. I'll come again next week and see if the same thing happens. But for now, I'm still satisfied that I've not only found brothers and sisters to worship God with, but also that I've found another method of praising His name and spreading the Good News!

Well, that's about it. God bless y'all, and g'dnite!!!

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!