Bukit Timah Day...

Woke up very early today. Something like how I'd wake up for school, just that instead of spending 5-10 minutes getting ready for school I was spending about 45 minutes trying to strategise a way to pack 4 uniforms (Yamashita's, Percival's, my Dad's military and a civilian's), boots, four flags, a Japanese sword, a toy gun, my script drafts, stationaries, a green rag, Tim's 'translator' glasses, a Sunkist 2l-bottle filled with water, a can of H-two-O and a Japanese dictionary into a backpack and a sling bag.

Once I finally found a way, I went down to the bus stop to take a 75 to K.A.P., where I arranged to meet up with the rest of the team for the History project. Along the drive, I made a good eye on all the landmarks I planned to film at, and made a rough plan on how to vist each of them with minimal travel time. I was literally the guide for the Bukit Timah area, and so I needed to know my terrain well before being able to show my cast around.

Once at K.A.P., I met up with Joel at around the same time I sat down at a seat on the bottom level next to the counter. We then discussed on what we were going to do today, later bringing me to the point of sending an SMS to everyone else in the group where their locations might be at the present momment.

We then decided to buy breakfast first while waiting, of which later I recieved a few replies for my SMS and Joel recieved one from Tim asking the same question I asked him. Settling down again, I bowwed down to smell the long-lost aroma of Hotcakes. Mmm, mmm! Saying grace, the syrup was being poured over the cakes, making them look even more seductive.

Joel also suggested using the butter, which I've never tried for a very long time, so I gave it a shot. Splat went the blob as it fell out of the tiny container, and yellowness soon diffused around the surface of the Hotcakes. I couldn't wait any longer, and so I dug into the meal to satisfy my tearful stomach, tearful because it has seen and tasted such wonderful beauty.

I also had a small coffee with lots of sugar, and around this time the rest of thecrew except Peter arrived there. The rest were dealing with their breakfasts, while I was trying to strategise further if there was anything I underestimated for our trip. And once Peter came, we all changed into our first set of costume before leaving - Camoflague.

I led them to the petrol station bus-stop, and we took a 171 to Bukit Timah Hill. On the way, I tok out my compass from my pocket, and Shil and I were imitating Jack Sparow a few times before I finally realised that the compass was really pointing to what I want the most at the time. Tim came close to look, and we all looked up towards the direction of the needle. It was the hill.

We dropped off at the next stop, and made a long walk to the entrance of the hill. At the middle of the road, I reminded them to take good care of their bags, as the area was well-known for its thieving monkeys. (I lost my breakfast and lunch to them once...)

When we were directly at the foot of the hill and ready to hike our way up, a ranger came to us and asked what our buisness was here. We all explained that we were filming a documentary fo our History project, something I'd say the ranger wouldn't half-believe. He told us that the public is only allowed to hike on the hill, and so if we needed to do filming we would have to use the park instead, which was a smaller plot of area just beside the mini-museum.

It was more than perfect, to tell you the truth, bcause at least we're now stationed closer to the exit, and moving to the next location would require less time than what my planned route demanded. Praise the Lord for failing! We went up the wooden path, and we found a nice vegetated spot to shoot the Battle of Bukit Timah.

We had fun shooting this scene. Fon one thing, this is one of the main scenes where you get to use guns. For another, we had to design our own stunts, so it was entertaining doing it over and over again until we got it right, somethinglike a salsa practice. For a final, we always made Joel die somehow, both as a Brit and a Jap.

Once we were done (and covered with mosquito bites), we proceeded down the hill and back to the bus-stop we dropped off at. It was also next to a petrol station, so JKit and Joel went to get refreshments. Once they were done, we headed up the road again for an abandoned street which is now partially underneath Upper Bukit Timah Road and a lot of vegetation.

When we dropped off, I asked them for which end of the street they wanted: One end had the rough figure of walls and would make the scene somewhat fit to its setting, while the other end didn't even look as if there was a street there in the first place, but was a lot more convenient as it was on our side of Upp Bukit Timah Rd.

We chose the end we were presently at, and so Pete changed into Percival while I changed into Yamashita. We then did Journey to Ford Factory (and had a little cheekiness while playing around with Tim's handgun), and proceeded by foot for another half a bus stop to the Ford Factory itself. Once there, we did the second part of the Journey.

While directing the cast on what to do, I realised in my mind I once had a dream when I was a small child that I was also in the Ford Factory doing a film, just that not in my Yamashita uniform. Well, praise the Lord for dream accomplishments! But just as we were about to leave after shooting, Pete found out that his spectacles were missing, and was frantically asking each of us if we had it by any chance.

We tried to help him search through each of our bags, but sadly couldn't find anything. Pete then deduced that it was probably still back at the abandoned street, so he'd check it out later when we had the time. We went on to the next bus-stop and took a bus to the Standard Charter bank outlet just next to the Malayan Railway. No, we were not going to get more funds for the film. We were going to use the railway. For the Death Railway. Railway. Hmm, Railway's a nice word. Try saying it 12 times at a fast pace.

Anyway, after doing the shooting we recieved message from ZWei that lunch was ready at his place already, and so we crossed the road to take a bus to his place. Once at his place, we placed our bags down in great relief that we were finally inside a house after a tirng few hours in the rough terrain of Bukit Timah.

We had a friednly chat with ZWei and went over to the dining area for lunch, which was a rather simple and convenient meal to our favour. Once done, the rest of the crew followed ZWei up to the entertainment room (or at least that's what I'd call it, with the PS [not sure which version] and two computers in there) to relax for a little longer.

As for me, I quickly got to work to search the house once more and see which room is best for filming, and if there were any props along the way which we could use. In the end, I used an abandoned room in the grandparent's half of the house and added tables from ZW's sister's room, which I covered with wooden panels I found in his driver's room to make them look more oldish.

Once I finished setting up, I called for the rest of the group to film the Surender. But before that, we listened to a nice French song on YouTube which Pete found, hehe :). Once done with the songs, we first did the Japanese half of the scene.

You see, there was a fixed closet in the room I found, and as far as I've seen in the Memories of Ford Factory (that's what they call the museum) there WERE no closets in the office they surrendered in. So we'd have to film both ends of the arrangement at the same edge of the room with the clear wall, just that from different angles so it'll look like we're filming from a clear room.

For the Japanese half, I was again in my Yama, and the rest were in Camo and Jap caps. We did a few trial runs to make sure we had the angle correct. Now towards the ending part of this scene, Yamashita is to suddnly burst in a fit of anger after being annoyed by the translators. I

I was at first not sure if I would be able to sustain an angry look or voice. I mean, those who know me don't know how I'd look like if I end up fuming mad. But it was just a practice so I just tried what I could, and when it was my que I gradually raised my voice and slammed the table, sending the Japanese mini-flag jumping in the air by a short distance.

Everyone appeared shocked, and I was afraid I did something wrong again. But thankfully they started laughing, which I could infer that they were surprised that I could pull off something like that. We then proceeded with real filming. For a sneak preview, here's the order of events as in the film (and my personal comments);

-Yamashita shakes hands with Percival. (Hmm, there's no one there...)

-Yamashita tells Brit translator to tell Percival to stand down all hostilities, but gets annoyed at the fact that he has to look at the dictionary every 2 seconds. (What translator?)

-Yamashita orders his journalist to translate instead. (Hi Tim, nice spectacles...)

-Yamashita gets annoyed at the fact that journalist doesn't know military terms. (Man, I scrooled my eyes too much. Ooo, but here's teh fierce part...)

-Yamashita gets furious and displays his anger in a front.

I did what I thought I did the time before, and again the flag bounced on the table as I slammed it in 'fury', sending my translator in a fearful bow of apology (sorry, Tim). Then when 'Percival said 'Yes.' (Where's Perci?), I sat down and paused for 3 seconds before whispering, "Cut."

Instantly, everyone including me started laughing again, this time Shil caught this in a blooper. I sat back on my seat and had my head on the table, banging my right hand and saying, "Sorry." a few times in slight embarassment. According to them I did fine again, so I relaxed with the thought that it was over.

Now for the Brit half. This scene only required Pete (Perci) and the two flag holders (JK and Joel). All we needed to shoot was just Joel trying to translate the first part of the conversation with Yama (Where's Yama now...) and later Pete acting shocked at Yama's outburst. Was funny watching Pete fearful of no particular thingy in front of him, and for the first take he forgot to say, "Yes." so I told him something like, "Say yes! Say yes! Will you marry me? Say yes!"

It was then done for that scene, and we moved onto Surrender Conference, where Perci discusses with officers whether they should surrender or not. By now, we knew for certain that Tim's dad's uniform's sleeves were too big for Joel, so we decided to give the uniform to Shil and make him a star for once. We filmed a couple of shots before calling it a rap (yo, yo, wazzap...).

Almost finished, we filmed the Final Line of Defence, which involves Perci, Gen. Heath (JKit) and a messenger (Tim). At first, the front part of the scene went well, with Perci and Heath finalising what is the final boundary of British defences on Singapore. But when it came to the messenger arriving into the room with the formal draft of surrender from the Japs, it was just hilarious.

And why? Because either Pete or JK would end up saying something like, "At ease, Private Part." We kept on going through this cycle until Tim called for a switch of actor for messenger. And when I took over, I ended up saluting Percival with, "Private Part, we've just recieved a documen...ghahhhh!!!!!!!!" for the next couple of cuts, and the following I ended up sliding into the room instead of marching in. At the sucessful one, I didn't really salute Perci properly with my hand, but I guess it was a rap.

And finally, the last scene for the day (if it weren't for the fact that we skipped MacRitchie...). The Alexandra Hospital Massacre. I got up to the attic and kicked the cussions down to the second floor, where I found another room with enough space to accomodate the matresses. We then got Shil, ZWei and JKit to act as patients, and Pete to wear a labcoat and be the doctor. Tim and I were the invading Japanese, and Joel was the cameraman.

This one took many shots, since the patients fell at awkward angles when shot so it makes the scene more comical than dramatical. But we soon achieved a nice shot and called it a day! Yay! We went to the entertainment room and played around with the computer and the PS. And when Joel and Shil finished transferring the videos into Wei's tablet, we previewed the shots and took the perfect ones out to be part of the real film, leaving the rest as bloopers.

After sorting out which film goes where, I watched the film agai and again to make sure everything was more or less at a good angle, and later watched it in fastforward to give myself a cheap-thrill. Haha, it was funny watching us charge into battle at hyper speed! But when all was sorted out, and when Tim was dressed in his robes and had to leave for TKD, we all left as a group.

Although I had some trouble packing my bags so I had to be lagged behind along with Pete thus separating the group into two, yeah we left as a group. Pete's following me because I was to help bring him to where he lost his glasses, just to let you know. So we went there and did a 5 minute search before I found the glasses under a tree. Returnign them to Pete, I was given a squeeze hug before we went our separate ways and I went home.

And now that I'm home, things are starting t feel as a blur. Hmm, hopefully I don't sleep while standfing up or something. I'll find out tomorrow, I guess. God bless y'all!...

Beep, Beep...

Re-directing your call. Please hold.

Beep, beep...

"Hey, there. Sorry to keep you waiting on the line, but apparently I can't attend to my blog at the momment. Reasons are probably because I'm either eating, sleeping, training, doing holiday homework, spending time with my family, reading a few verses in my Bible, listening to another sermon, researching on World War II or stitching a few more pieces of the Union Jack together for my group's history project. I'll be back sooner or later, so if you need anything just drop by my cBox and I'll try to give back a little tinkle, K?

"I told you this was going to hapen, but no-ooo-ooo. Everyone just haaad to...

"Shush! Go on...

"Thank you. Anyway, I'll be returning soon, so just keep holding, l'right? Chao, and God bless y'all!"

Beep...

Who'd you think I am?...

Today's another non-Church Sunday, so I'll share about the Temptation of Jesus.

For those who don't know, this was an event around after the baptisim of Jesus. It's described in Matthew 4:1-11, where it says;

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"

11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Now, many people have made comments on the moves Jesus made. They'd ask questions like, "Why didn't Jesus turn the stones into bread?" or, "Why didn't He just fall and let His angels catch Him?" Well, I'll try with the help of the Lord to answer those questions.

Read the passage again. Notice in the first and second temptations how the devil begins his statements.

"IF you are the Son of God,..."

'If' was satan's way of trying to give doubt to Jesus on His status as Son of God. "IF you're really the Son of God, you should be able to turn these stones to bread, or fall off the building and let the angels catch you!" You see, if Jesus did the miracles the devil advised Him to do, it'll be showing that Jesus had doubts that He was the Son of God (Don't forget, He was still human).

Imagine a laboratory that's owned by the government. Now would the professors that work there experiment on whether paper burns? No! And why? Because they already know that paper can burn, and furthermore that it turns into carbon ash. Now, would they test on what frequencies of sound waves can actually start a fire? Probably. And why? Because no one probably knows, so the only way to find out is to do experiments.

In the same way, if Jesus performed the experiment of turning stones into bread, or jumping off the temple, He'd be saying that He wasn't sure if He really was the Son of God and so needed to do these things to prove to Himself. He already knew He could bun up the rocks and command angels to catch Him, so He needn't need to perform the miracles to prove to anyone if He was the Son of God.

And also in the same way, we should trust in the Lord on our lives without needing to doubt that He'll bless you greatly. Some Christians say a prayer like, "Dear Lord, please bless me with a wealthy income, and I promise you I'll praise you for the rest of my life." without realising that this wouldn't work at all. The person's saying the prayer because he needs the wealthy income to prove to him that God does exist. In order for God to be able to work in your life, He first needs you to fully believe in Him.

Think about a credit card deal. Now, in order to be able to see how the credit card can help you financially, you hav to trust the bank behind the card and sign the contract. You can't just have a 1-month trial period to see how things are before deciding if you'd like to sign up for the card - "It's either you're in, or you're out." You've got no choice but to sign it up on the spot in order to use it. (Maybe think about it for a few weeks or so, but you can't use the card until you've signed the contract.) You just have to place the risks at stake on the line, along with a signature, but trust the bank with all your heart that they'd do a good job.

In the same way, you'd just have to trust that the Lord will do it all, and discard all the doubts in your mind. The moment you allow doubt to control your allowance for God to control your life, it's just as good as tearing the contract apart since you're not sure if the bank's gonna forfill their part of the deal. But there's a diference between this Bank and the many others: You CAN trust this bank, satisfaction garunteed! So just rely on God already! And stop telling yourself, "It's impossible!", because that statements the thing that's making it impossible in the first place.

For archiving, I went out with Mom and Choppy to Lot 1 and Bukit Panjang Plaza, and I must admit that my shopping skills aren't at par to theirs. :( Then in the evening after dinner, we went back to BPP for desserts at BristoDelefrance. (Chocolate made tempting...).

"Kallang is the evil twin of MacRitchie..."

We had Time Trials today for training. In other words, we had our timings taken for our events. Like agreed, Hao Qing and I took New Tiger today, which after giving it a spin we found to actually be somewhat better than Old Tiger. (The strapped footrests were especially useful.) Before the Trials, Mr. Goh gave a short revision on how to board a canoe on a pontoon, so as to help prepare us for the conditions in Kallang. Barnacles.

We then paddled to our starting points (either 500m or 1000m, HQ and I being 500) and waited for our wave to start. First were the 1000m events, which took about less than half an hour to finish, before moving on to the 500m events, of which the K2s had to go first. Joon Sin didn't come today (again...), so Kenneth had to paddle Old Tiger with a Sec 1. But jokes aside, this Sec 1 is a very powerful rower, despite his angelic looks. Nevertheless, HQ and I wouldn't know if we're better/worse/at par to the Mosquito today because of JSin's absense. How sad.

Once we did a set of 500m timing (of which the Old Tiger colided into HQing's paddle's path of rotation at around 50m), Mr. Goh told us to do 4 sets of 2k Sprints, of which HQ and I didn't really hear clearly so we did Easy Row until we passed by Davin and Seng Jian's boat, when they shouted across the lanes that it was a "...BURST!...".

At least for the rest of the sets, New Tiger did what she could. Once done, we headed back to the pontoon to pack-up and brought the boat back to the Upper Shed, where Mr. Goh later brought the weighing scale to weigh the boats before we brought them to Kallang. (Yes, there are regulations in competions for boats to be within certain mass ranges so as to make the race more fair.)

Not to elaborate, but when Hao Qing and I placed New Tiger onto the scale, it displayed that she was over 19kg, a kilogram above the maximum weight for K2s! (Yes, boats can be overweight/underweight.) I know the solution for underweight boats is to put sandpackets into the bow and stern to increase the overall mass, but I don't know how they're gonna solve overweight. If only there were slimming sessions for boats...

Later, I went down to lower shed to label my paddle. (Yay! My name's just below Jimmy's signature! [Jimmy's a senior in the club.] Cheap-thrill thoughts, hee hee:P...) While labeling my blade, Yi Pin walked by and suddenly exclaimed in a soft tone, "Raemiguel! Your toe is bleeding like s***! Aren't you gonna wash it?" I looked down, and true enough, my toe was bleeding like - well, till half of my fat toe was red.

Others who heard or noticed stared and gave their random comments, while I just looked back up normally and sighed an, "Oh, I didn't notice." like as if nothing actually happened. Must had been caused by me sliding against a rock, I guess. Whatever it was, God heal my wound! I went to Mr. See to ask for permittion if I could run down to the toilet to wash the wound, of which without looking he permitted.

Down at the washing area of the toilet, a middle-aged man who was washing his shoes from mud noticed me sticking my bloody foot towards the tap and rinsing all the blood off. So he came to me and offered me a plaster. I thankfully accepted it, along with a couple of tissue papers to wipe the wounds clean and dry. While walking back up to the shed, all attended for but slightly limping, I prayed for God to bless that man. God bless him!

After settling paddles, blades, lifejacks and other small details I might have forgoten to mention, the 'B' Division was told to report at MacRitchie at the ussual time on Monday to help in transporting the boats onto the trucks, while most of the 'C' Division was to report at Kallang at 8.15 to wait for the boats to arrive. I wanted to volunteer to help out in the transportation of boats, but Mr. See wanted me to go to Kallang instead and be in charge of the Juniors (aww...).

We were then told of all the horror stories of Kallang and what conditions to expect. Such tales were like that there were some buoys which we had to stay away from, as they may be connected to high-tention cables which if snapped could slash through almost anything in its path ("...even diamonds would shatter..."), and that stepping on barnicles isn't dangerous - it's when you slip on them that you get wounds "far worse than what Raemiguel is having now.", and also on what debries could be floating just underneath the surface, most which are hard enough to chip/scratch/chip and scratch the hull of an unfortunate boat that paddles towards it.

In summary, "Kallang is the evil twin of MacRitchie," as quoted by Mr. See. I'd just have to be more careful when I get there.

Once dismissed, I gave Mr. See my phone number so he could call me once the trucks that would be carrying the boats were nearby the sports centre, and in turn he gave me his number just in case I had any troubles while waiting for them or with attending to the Juniors. After changing up and heading home and reaching home and feeling home, I said the prayer for a verse for the day and ended up at Matthew 1o:32-33, which is;

32"For those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same before my Father in heaven. 33But if anyone rejects me publicly, I will reject him before my Father in heaven.

To imagine that while we're down here on earth saying something like, "Oh, and y'know what? I declared His love for me, an' my love for 'im, infron' of that dude and told him that there ain't no nuthin' that's gonna stop my Pops from heaven from lovin' me, y'know wad' I sayin'? I love 'at God of mine, that Daddy y'all, and I'ma gonna praise Him as long as I'im gonna live!",

Jesus' probably chatting with God over something on the lines of, "Oh, and y'know what? He declared My love for 'im, an' is' love for me, infron' of that dude and told him that there ain't no nuthin' that's gonna stop Me from lovin' 'im, y'know wad' I sayin'? I love 'at boy of mine, that sonny y'all, and I'ma gonna bless 'im as long as he's gonna believe!"

Irony. Yet blessed irony.

Then I went to my mp3 player and played the sermon my Mom wanted me to hear about. The sermon was about Remembering and Rehearsing God's Deliveances. And since this blog was meant to be my Christian journal, I'll just type ou the notes I have:

-Flip to 1 Samuel 4:19-22, and it says;

19His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. 20As she was dying, the women attending her said, "Don't despair; you have given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay any attention.

21She named the boy Ichabod*, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel"-because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 22She said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

*('Ichabod' in Hebrew means 'no glory'.)

-Now go to Romans 13:11-14. It says;

11You must do this, because you know that the time has come for you to wake up from your sleep. For the moment when we will be saved is closer now than it was when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over, day is almost here. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light. 13Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day - no orgies or drunkenness, not immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. 14But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

-Now, there are 7 things which these verses talk about. Here's a list;

1) Alertness
If there is anything that we need today, especially now when it's real close to the EndTimes, it would be alertness. Don't forget, Samson only had his haircut when he was sleeping, and because of that he lost all his God-given strength.

2)Put off with the things of darkness

3)Put on the armour of light

4)Honest heart
One of the best differences between you and the enemy which you can addapt should be that you have an honest heart towards God.

5)No dual living
Don't comprimise and mix your life with things that would only harm it.

6)We need to put on the Lord Jesus
So that we can depend on the Lord Jesus.

7) We need to have priorities for Kingdom Living
The enemy would try to give you many chances to fail. Take none.

-We tend to forget what good things God has done for us. And so when we go through the storms of life, we fail to keep standing. We must stand through the storms (a person who stands through the storms goes forward, not back; thinks about the things which would push him on, not ways on how to retriet.)

-We have our season for Christ!

-Stand where you have favour! Stay where you have favour! Don't leave the favour! No matter how hard things can get! Keep standing!

-It's after the victory where the chaos comes! (When we all remove our armour and go party)

-Phinehas's wife had to go throught so much animosity and pressure ("like a pressure cooker!"). But don't give up! The times will feel like as if there's no exit, no solution, no hope, but just keep clinging on! ('Those who keep praising, will get rain!")

-Don't be influenced by those who feel that things will be hopeless. Save them, for you should, but don't allow them to alter your mindset with God's plans. Don't stop fighting!

-When you stop fighting, you'd feel like as if God has left you completely. You'll be spiritually 'blind'/'deaf'.

-If you think like that, just remind yourself where you are right now. ("I will remember.")

-When you give up, your mouth will freely spread depression. E.g., Phinehas's wife called her son 'No hope' and kept repeating that the Lord had departed from God. People always find it easier to say negative things than to say positive things, as negative things seem more likely and accurate while positive things are supernatural. But remember, God IS supernatural!

-Use the testimonies which God has given to you to push forward.

-The Word of God will give you confidence - try reading it up if you feel of doubt.

-"Your latter shall be greater than your formal!"

-Still, don't be over-confident in your own works - it is God who gives you the victory! Whatever you get from God, concider it as a priveledge!

-If you've got a target, keep at it! Don't put it down or take shortcuts that will make less of it all.

-2 Samuel 23:11-12 shares about Shammah:

11Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. 12But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.

-2 Samuel 23:16

16So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD.

-2 Corinthians 5:9

9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

-Zechariah 10:1

1Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.

And that's about it for the sermon notes. And if you wanted to see, here's a pic of the wound I recieved earlier on (now a lot more healed than how bloddy it was a few hours ago);

All archived down. Ah, well. God bless y'all!

"Welcome aboard the Old Tiger, Mr. Tan-ner..."

Today starts off with training. And if I haven't recorded it down here yet, Hao Qing and I are still trying to decide which boat we should take for our race: Old or New Tiger. There is a difference between the two boats, if you're asking. (The effects of time can cause a boat to loose its gliding power, and yet increase its stabability.) So since we've tried the New Tiger with both normal and angle seats earlier this week, we gave Old Tiger a spin today.

My vote was on New Tiger when HQing mentioned about th boat being more stable if we stepped harder on the footrests, since New Tiger comes with strapped footrests. (Straps hep to keep your feet firm onto the footrest, preventing them from slipping off during the race.) But then later in the day it changed to Old after finding out that we achived a stable journey by 40 minutes, something which we ussually couldn't do onboard the New Tiger.

Hao Qing second about stabability, but he wanted to test out New Tiger during the time trials tomorrow, just to get an accurate feel of which boat's better to race in. I agreed, and so now it's just a matter of time till we see the results. The rest of the time on the water, besides the main training programme, was 10 minutes of free time (yay!), this time it had to spent on practicing non-racing skills (erm, okay).

Examples of such are like Back Water, Draw Water (Left/Right) and Helicopter [Ooo, that one was fun!]. Hao Qing and I even had a chance to switch sides for a while and see what it was like to paddle from each other's point of view! Being Backman was a little more hard in the sense of effort put outside the boat (pulling your strokes, etc.) but a little more slack for effort put inside the boat (kicking [didn't need to worry about tiller], etc.). Hao Qing also felt a bit odd on my seat, and had some trouble in keeping our direction when doing sprints - after 10 strokes, we'd end up turning towards the left, and I'd end up finding myself shouting to the front, "Starboard! Right! Starboard!" when I saw that we were about to colide into the senior Cs.

After packing up, we were debriefed a bit more on what life would be like in Kallang, and what precautions we should - no, must - must take when we're at the river basin. We were also told that after the time trials tomorrow, we'll be practicing capsize drills and revise on how to do self-rescue. This would definitely be required as once you're capsized out at Kallang, swimming back to shore with your boat may take as much as half an hour, depending on how far out you've paddled (This can sometimes even go as far as the center of Marina Bay)

After debrief, I went back home and got out my Bible. After praying the ussual prayer of asking God to show me a verse which could help me around this time in my life, I flipped and ended up on Isaiah 48:17, which says (in the Sunrise Good News version);

17The holy God of Israel, the Lord who saves you, says: "I am the Lord your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go.

I gave thanks through my trust in the Lord, and later fell asleep on my bed.

When I woke up at 3pm later, I went to take my bath, eat lunch and then was about to start on the remaining flashcards I had to complete for Mdm Kavita's homework when I stumbled upon my mp3 player. My Mom has been telling me to listen to the sermons she had downloaded into it, and so I thought just one sermon for the day wouldn't do any harm, if not bless me greatly.

The sermon my mp3 shuffled to was about the Authoroty of the Believer - Knowing the Enemy.

In short, it was about how the devil was no joke. This liar has caused the deaths, infections and mis-blessings of thousands around the world through time, all because these people believed in his lies. But at the same time, with the name of Jesus we can rebuke the devil and stop his plans from diverting us away from God's masterplan for you. In James 4:7, it says:

7So then, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.

So all we have to do is to submit to God and His plans and ways, and the devil will run away from you. Run away from you. If memory serves, the New International Version should say 'flee'. Flee. Not even as dignified as 'step back' or 'pardon himself', but pathetically 'flee'. Scaredy cat. And be proud for God that the devil is a looser. Isaiah 14:16-17 shares that the devil is so pathetic;

16Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, 17the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?"

To think that the momment you glance at whoever is causing all the spiritual chaos you'd be surprised that the thingy could actually do all that with just a simple pack of lies, says that the devil really is pathetic. Imagine a crippled fallen angel on a medium flame, dried up as ragcloth that he can't even scream in the pain and skinny enough to see his insides so clearly till you could accurately point out where his liver is, crawling on a hard and rocky floor trying its best to grip onto your mind and make you feel doubtful in your life with God.

Nothing like what movies portray that thing, really. No horns, no tridents, no strength, no muscles, no magical pwers to transform whatever it wants into whatever it wants it to become. Not even the strength to touch a person with his own hands, if there's anything left of them. Just a useless shrip tring to get as many creations of God into joining him in his punishment as possible.

Don't fall for him, I'll leave you with that. Just when you think you've got it all under cover, you may just fall for his next lie. But at the same time, if the thing's really pestering you lately, it probably means he's afraid 'cause he's aware that God's about to bless you with something very soon, so the very more you should rebuke the thing and tell it to flee away.

After the sermon, I did as many cards as I could with Mdm Kavita's homework - 3 more extracts left to cover.

Better get back to somemore work. Will leave you with this: I've Got A Jar Of Dirt!

May God protect and bless y'all!!!

Break water!...

For today, we had Dragonboating training at Kallang. My Dad dropped me off at the entrance of the sports centre and oh, good ol' memories startes flooding back. I know this is my third session this year already, but it's been a long time since I've seen Kallang under the morning sun.

Everyone else who came earlier were seated along the sea wall with Mr. See, while everyone was waiting for Mr. Goh to come to unlock the gate. When he finally came, he unlocked the gates one by one, followed by us rushing into place our bags into the wooden cage to be (un)safely locked up. We were then told that the day would start off with running.

Joon Kiet was rather pale from the sound of that, so he asked me how far we were going to run, in hope that I'd tell him something slack and comfortable. To his disapointment, I pointed to the Benjamin Sheares bridge and told him that that would only be our turning point (In other words, we had to do double the distance). Then Joseph came in and told about how he remembered the Sec 2 seniors of last year had to run all the way to the Esplanade and back.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Doesn't that make us the Sec 2 seniors this year?"

JKiet quickly started saying "No!" in great hopes that he was right tosay so, but to his dismay Joseph was right. No, we weren't going to run all the way to the 'Durians' themselves. We'd run all the way to the second half of the Ben Shearse bridge, but that's nevertheless painful. And coming from me, that means it really hurts.

Good thing, though, was that JKiet survived the run. Yay! But Samuel didn't. So much for 50% attendance, Mr. See would say. Poor guy. Once back, we all took off our shoes and exchanged them for our water bottles and seats. We then divided ourselves into the 'A', 'B' and 'C' Divisions, so as to make it easier for Mr. Goh to assign us our boats for today.

There was a shortage of "B' Div, while there was (as always) extras from the 'C' Div, so Nick Ng and Leon went over to their boat. And that leaves Eugene and me to be the front rowers. And front rowers always break water. ('Breaking water' refers to having the first strokes on water surfaces. You see, in a theory, people at the front of the boat paddle still water towards the back of the boat to pull the boat forward, and while the people at the back are suppose to do the same thing, they end up pulling 'moving' water since the front rowers have already pulled on it.)

'Ah, that's gonna hurt.' The common thought Eugene and I had.

But somehow, I think we also survived this one. I might have sped off at a few moments, but at least we survived. And we even beated the 'B' Division boat by 1.5 boatlengths! But after the races, Mr. Goh floated pass our boat (he was onboard the 'B' div boat) and told us not to feel to lucky, because we were actually using the lightest and fastest boat in Kallang at that time. Wow, an honour!

It was rather interesting seeing all three coaches standing at the front of the dragonboats while we were racing - Mr. Ismail on the 'C' div, Mr. Goh on the 'B' div and Mr. See on the 'A' div (of which Mr. See commented was the first obease team he had to train in his whole canoeing life) - all of them like a General Washington of their own, posing like frozen chess pieces stuck on the bows and shouting back to us mistakes we might end up commiting. Rather interesting, if you ask me.

Once we were done with the training, we had a short debrief on what and what not to bring to Kallang the next time we train here. After that, Mr. See went to unlock the cage, and we got the bags out for us to shower. I forgot to bring my plastic bag to store my wet clothes, so I wrapped my towel around the things, a mistkae I was soon to realise.

I made my way to the MRT station for a train to Dover, where I took a bus towards Joel's house for the History group meeting. But then I checked my watch and saw that I still had over an hour left before the meeting time, minusing the time it'll take to walk from te main road to wherever depts Joel's condo may be. So I decided to go and have lunch at KAP before moving back to the place.

JKitt called up a few times during the whole trip. Some calls about purchasing of guns, some about where to meet and even one about whether he could meet me at KAP for lunch too. After my meal, I headed straight back for Joel's place, of which I met JKitt at the junction between Clementi and the road which Joel's condominium is at on the other end.

We journeyed our way to the edge of the road, as far as it could take us, until we found the semi-curved buildings which housed Joel in one of its appartments. We called for Joel, of which he responded by meeting us down there at the bottom of the building to guide us back up to his house. At his house, we met up with his granny and bro before making our way to his room.

Then the first part of the meeting started. Games. Wait, games? Command and Conquer, yeah games. JKit and Joel were enjoying one game before we could start, and so while waiting Shil (who arrived about 15 minutes later) and I went to the off-pitch piano to play a few scores before we were called in by Joel to start the meeting.

When we were gathered, all I could ask was fort he effects of the software Joel would be using to edit the videos. Rather nice tricks int here, I must say. At least I now know that some of my scenes can be made possible. But automatically after that, we had nothing much else left to talk about, so Joel and JKit continued playing again for th erest of the 'meeting'.

I felt so bored. I mean, most of the time when I say, "I'm bored.", I ussually mean "I'm bored, but I still have imagination and creativity in my head to entertain me!" (so even when I look bored, I'm most of the time actually rather entertained), but this time, even my imagination didn't know what to play around with. I literally went mad in the boredom, so I won't go to detail on the horrifying things I did for the remaining hours. And Matt (Joel's bro) made things slightly worse.

When it was all over, and Shil, JKit and I walked our way out and towards the other side of the road (again), I was starting to regain my sanity bit by bit again, so I was breathing somewhat calmly again.

When I got back home, I quickly went to the Bible and prayed to the Lord for something that will regain my full sanity again (hey, after four hours of madness...)

And I had 2 Chronicles 20:17;

17You will not have to fight this battle. Just take up your positions and wait; you will see the LORD give you victory. People of Judah and Jerusalem, do not hesitate or be afraid. Go out to battle, and the LORD will be with you! "

That made me feel a lot better, and so I ran normally again for the rest of the day. Well, I guess that's about it now. God bless y'all!

Let's have a story...

But before that, I'll just archive what I did today so it won't be left out.

Woke up at 7, said the Jabez Prayer and went to have a medium breakfast before going back to bed again till 9, of which I was awakened to change up to go to my Mom's office to help out in admin stuff. But first, we (along with Dad) had to go to Great World to eat breakfast, something I wasn't aware of so I ended up with two breakfasts. We ate at the Bread Box, so I had a set meal of French Toast, a couple of half-boiled eggs and a cup of Horlicks. Today's the first time I cracked an egg properly without the help of another person! Yay! That means baking/cooking would be a whole lot easier for me now, if I practice more (hee hee). Once done, Dad dropped Mom and I off at her office, and we began work. I had to help her sort out a pile of worksheets and file them in an orderly manner. When the both of us were about finishing our task(s), Mom and Dad were having fun SMSing to each other that we were ready for collection and that Morriel would be ready for going to the National Museum of Singapore using lingos which neither parties could understand. We finished off at around 2.40pm, and went out for a late lunch of Fried Kway Teow before heading to the museum, where I guided them around with my experience from the outing I had earlier this year with my school. I took down a few notes at the Japanese Occupation section, for the sake of my group's history project. When we were done, I bought myself a souvenior (a bronze mini-model of a grandfather clock cum sharpener), then we made our way back to the car to drive over to Mr. Prata at Clementi for a nice prata dinner. I minimised my eatings as I knew prata was on the list of Embargo Items, and that since now's a competition season I'm now under Full Embargo. After the meal and a good chat on politics, we all went back home and thus now I'm here typing in my blog.

So now, let's start on the story. I'm leaving out the title for now or the surprising twist would be too obvious. Enjoy! Chapter One...

From his high spot in the crow's nest, a marine slung out his spyglass and looked out into the horizon. Just begining his shift of duty onboard the Steadfast, he was attentive and made sure no stretch of sky meeting the waters was left unexamined before moving on to other directions.

"I'm certain there's gonna be another one today," he told himself. "Pirates are many-a-times active on Wednesdays."

Suddenly, the sailor spotted a smudge on the horizon from the port side. Could it be a pirate ship? Or was it just another merchant vessel passing through to the Gulf de Andes? And yet again, if the spotted ship really did intend to go to the gulf, it would have followed the ussual merchant route, which was at Starboard to where the ship was. Being trained not to take chances, The marine quickly leaned over to call for the Captain.

"Captain!" he shouted. "There's a vessel at Port Deck! Not certain if it's something piraty, though."

"Very well then," said the Captain, as he walked out of his quarters just in time to hear the marine. "I guess we should inform the Commodore now, shaln't we?"

He then gestured to another marine on the main deck to signal to the flagship that was beside the Steadfast, the Endurance, to report the finding and request for a command of action.

One thing was for truth, though. The spotted object on the horizon was indeed a pirate ship, the Faith, which at that momment was raiding a traiding vessel that unfortunately went off-course. Onboard the vessel, Mr. Glosh, the firstmate of the Faith, was observing the crew as they tied the ill-fated merchants to the masts of their trading ship.

"Pull 'em ropes tight, Mr. Gillons!" he said sharply at a fellow pirate who was tieing the ropes. "We wouldn't want any of 'em getting in our way while loadin' da booty!"

A few other pirates were running out of the many doors on the deck with loads of trading materials in their arms. They all laughed at each other as they compared how much value each man had in his load. But they were soon to fall into a softer tone when the captain of the Faith marched his way onboard the looted ship.

With his tricorne hat tipped forward to cover his eyes, the captain stepped around the main mast to check each merchant carefully. Out of the blue, he stopped in his tracks, brushed away the side of his thick indigo coat and whipped out his pistol towards one of the tied men.

"You there!" he exclaimed. "I take it you're the captain."

"No!" the fat man wheezed out in fear. "I'm... I'm just a lain..."

The captain cocked his pistol and edged it closer to the man's wrinkled forehead, emphasizing that he wanted to know the truth.

"Alright, alright!" the prisoner finally admitted. "What'dya want from me?"

The captain uncocked his pistol and slid it back to his waist belt, kneeling down towards the man at the same time. He then moved up his hat, reveiling his whole face to him for the first time.

"D'you know who I am, mate?"

After staring at his face for a couple of seconds, the man nodded slowly with his eyes still on the face.

"Good, then. So tell me, this is the Ghambary, aye?"

The man nodded again.

"Excelent! Listen closely, now. I'm gonna let ya' loose. But yau're gonna show me the next thing I whisper to your slobby ear. Savvy?"

The captain then bent close to the side of the man's face and gasped a few words even others nearby couldn't pick out. After listening, the man hesitated for a while, later to bow his head in acceptance. The captain slashed out his sword and sliced the ropes free, causing everyone who was tied onto the mast to fall flat on the deck.

"Pin 'em down," muttered the captain.

His crew got their weapons out and had them aimed at all the men on the floor, except the captain of the trading vessel himself.

"Now, show me the way!" said the pirate captain, now smiling with slight glee anddrunkardly gesturing his arms to show the other captain off. Both captains went up to the back deck of the ship, where the captived one went to the wheel and yanked out one of the handles. Along with the grip came a small leather pouch, which the man tossed to the other captain to catch in mid-air.

The captain observed the pouch, sniffed around it and soon slid it into one of the pockets in his coat. But just before he could tell his used hostage, "Thank you, mate.", a pirate on the crow's nest on the Faith suddenly shouted down to all who were present, " It's the Royal Navy! Their right behind us, captain!"

The captain walked towards the edge of the Ghambary's stern and stretched out his spyglass, observing that there was not one, but two naval ships heading their way. And onboard the naval flagship of the two, a commodore onboard the Endurance was pointing his spyglass straight at them in return.

"Ah," sighed the Commodore. "If it isn't Captain Midelo Fratez. The fourth naval sighting of you this week, let alone public sightings."

He then turned back to the captain standing behind him, who was patiently waiting for the command to call on the attack.

"Well, Captain Skulblaka. About time we saw if you're promotion was worth the trouble. Knock yourself out with this one."

The captain knew what he meant very well, and grinned back his response before turning away to give the orders to the crew onboard the Endurance.

"My pleasure, Commodore Kanine."

Back on the looted ship, Captain Fratez slit back his spyglass into his shirt.

"Oh, bugger," He mumbled to himself. "It's Timanor again."

He then swayed himself back to the raided captain, bidding him, "Well, it's been nice doing buissness with y'all! G'day!" and shaking his hand violently before yanking out his pistol and using the handel to whack the back of his neck to knock him uncontious.

"Alright maties, it's time to leave!"

All the pirates scurried back onboard the Faith with whatever they had in their hands and chopped loose the ropes that binded the vessel to the looted ship. As they driffted forward to the open seas, Captain Fratez was at the wheel, thinking of which strategy he should use to shake the Endurance off their tail.

The Endurance was catching up well with the Faith, and Commodore Kanine was as confident as ever that he would be able to catch one of the most wanted pirates of the shores within the Dan Empire.

"Go on Fratez," he mumbled to himself, as if speaking to Captain Fratez alone. "I'll be there to see you get a good drop and quick stop."

He then instructed the sideship of the Endurance to attend to the stranded ship that had just been looted.

"We can take him down on our own."

Onboard the Faith, Captain Fratez called over Mr. Glosh.

"Where exacly are our bearings?" he asked him softly.

Mr. Glosh went down to the captain's quarters and fetched back out a map. He scroled it out and pointed at an area somewhere in the middle of Centargos Ocean.

"Here!' Mr. Glosh exclaimed, with a hint of curiosity on what Midelo had up his sleeve this time. Midelo got out from one of his coat pockets a compass and checked which direction they were headed to.



South-west.

"Perfect!" said Captain Fratez with delight. "The current's at out favour! Send Geugitt up to the crow's nest. And tell him to take his rifle with him."

Then with a sly grin, he told Mr. Glosh further, "Tell him to 'take the wheel'."

Understanding him completely, Mr. Glosh coughed out an "Aye, Capt'n. Aye." and went down to the main deck to call out for Geugitt. Among Midelo's crew, Geugitt was the best in hiting the bull's eye with any firearms ever handed to him. From terrain as windy as Sat de Clase, to as rocky as onboard a ship inside a hurricane, Geugitt was able to pin the ace as far as yards may vary.

And so he was well saught for for 'taking the wheel', a proceedure among Midelo's favourites.

Geugitt climbed up the mast ropes and barricaded himself alongside the watchman on the crow's nest himself.

"Alright," he whispered in his Scottish accent, signalling back below to the Captain that he was all ready. "Bring it to target."

The Captain opened out his right hand, and slowly counet his fingers down one by one. On the count of the thumb, he tossed the wheel clockwise, sending the boat sharp at starboard. Back on the Endurance, Commodore Kanine had no idea what on earth was going on.

"At least he's going to slow down because of this. Fool."

Or so he thought. The captain steadily said in a loud tone towards the crow's nest, "Anytime when it's at your aim, Geu!" Geugitt took his aim, and waited for the Faith to sail far enough towards starboard so the sails of the Endurace wouldn't block his path. He quietly grasped at the spark when he knew the sails were almost out of the way, breathing quietly to steady himself.

Finally,after what seemed like a fast-paced eternalty, Geugitt had a clear shot of what he was aiming for: The tiller wheel. Geugitt took note of the wind direction and the motion of the two boats, and in a matter of seconds he made a bullseye at the right target.

The bullet struct the rope of the tiller wheel that connected it to the rudder of the Endurance, thus making it snap in the friction. With the Mid-Centargos current underneath the vessel slamming the rudder towards its direction, the rope was sent slicing through a couple of decks, causing a lower-deck cannon to fall further into another cabin below it, and thus destroying a large portion of the stern altogether.

With the crew onboard the Endurance not able to properly control her direction, they had no choice but to stop their pursuit for the Faith.

"Pardon me," said Captain Skulblaka, returning from attending to an injured marine from the mishap, "but that was one of the best moves I've seen from the enemy!"

Commodore Kanine was leaning against the railings of the bow, letting his head down in partial shame as he noticed how the ship was being pushed by the currents towards a reef a mile or so ahead of them.

"And Mr. Fratez will have yet to see my revenge," he replied. "Just wait and see."

The crew of the Faith were celebrating on the main deck as they watched the reef scratched a large hole into the Endurance's hull.

"Alright, men!" siad Midelo in a light-toned voice. He yanked out the pouch which the captain of the looted ship passed on to him. He then opened the pouch and took out a piece of leather large enough to wrap a cannonball.

"According to this, my mates," he continued, "we must head to a port by the name of... Andrewsville - my, the Governor city of Tenile Island - there a good amount of booty awaits our claim!"

His crew cheered a short, "Hoorah!" before reporting back to their stations to sustain the Faith's sppeded course. But just then, a pirate at the port deck was peering off the railings when he saw a large figure looming under the water. It was a lot larger than the Faith, and he had no idea what the thing was. Unless, of course, it could be...

"The Kraken!" he exclaimed in sheer fright. "The Kraken is apon us! Everyone, to the center of the ship!" The other crew members who overheard him went towards the port deck to have a glimpse of whatever this man saw, and they all could only conclude that he was right. The captain then stammered his way to the port to see what the thing was for himself, and at that moment, the sighting rose from the surface.

It was definitely not an animal, that was for sure. But whatever it was, it was wailing like bent metal and was a whole lot larger than the ship in almost every way. Suddenly, from the top of the object, a lid opened, and out popped a stout and plump man in a thick green suit with a hard-cased cap. He was a militant, that was for sure judging from the outfit decorations, but it was of no kind the captain had seen before.

"Tzu not fear me, Midelsko. This is a 'submarine'. 'Sub-ma-rine'."

The captain stared up towards the figure in slight amazement, somewhat hidden in his drunkard glowingness.

"Firstly," he said, "It's Mide'LOW', not 'SKO'. Where on earth did you get that from. And secondly, I just sailed away from the clutches of a marine fleet. What makes a sub marine any better?"

The man on the submarine rolled his eyes up in partial annoyance, but then relaxed again and made his way down to the Faith via an extended metal platform.

"Midelsko Fratezk,..."

"Captain!" Midelo exclaimed. "Captain 'Midelsko Fratezk'."

"Vuatever. Anywayz, I havk com from tzhe future by meanz ov my professorz, aand am willing to make a deal wiv you over zhe uze of zhat map of yourz."

He steadily pointed at the map Midelo was clutching with his right hand, his left hand stroking the hairs of his short mustache.

"I see," said Midelo. "And who is of great... honour to make this deal with?"

"Szpeak zimple hEnglish. I'm thrying to comprehezn you."

"Who on this planet are you?"

"Oh, vuhy dzidn't you juz say so? Lez juz say my name'z 'Hitler'. Bvuat juz call me 'Adolf' for short. 'Adi', if you muz."

"Okay, and what would your terms be,... 'Adi'?"

"Well, to make tzhingz simple, I knowz zhat you knowz zhat you can'ct juz bardge into Andrewzville like zat and expect to get all those bars of gold. So I propoze to you a plan. Cun we, erm, discuss in your quarters?"

Midelo tilted slightly to a crew member next to him, and nodded his head. The summoned man immediately went to the cabin and opended the door to the captain's quarters. Midelo then bowed down slightly and gesture to the door.

"After you."

Both characters went into the room, hidden fromt he view of others around the area for a few minutes before they both barged out.

"Agreedz, then!" said Adi in a joyful tone. "Vuat there'z juz one tzhing: How're you going to get accezz into the Andrewzville Hozpital, for za few monzthz?"

Midelo called for Mr. Glosh, who he whispered into his ear a flat instruction, of which Mr. Glosh ran down tothe bottom of the ship to fetch an item from the colected loot from the Ghambary. It was a leather-covered letter, coated with a broken seal of the Parlament of Tentile.

"This letter," Midelo exclaimed, as he reached for the letter, "was written to a Doctor Miguel Fusianalo to make journey to Andrewsville under the command of the Governor of Health of Tentile Island, where he would work for the Andrewsville Hospital under the supervision of a Proffesor Michael Rolebeth McKwarn, a member of the Andrewsville Council."

He then closed the letter.

"Unfortunately, I led poor Miguel to his plundge into bloddy waters, because he rebeled a little too far while I raided the Ghambary. But I guess it wouldn't hurt if I took over his place."

He then posed beside a portrait of the Doctor, which had not yet been placed below the decks along with the other loots, stating in a candid voice, "I look similiar to him anyway, don't you think?"

Adolf smiled.

"Fine, zen. At lezt we have that zettled. But remember, tzo and a halve more montzhz."

He went back into the opening of the submarine, only to pop out again to toss a thick book to Midelo before slipping back in, shutting the lid shut behind him. As the submarine sank back to the depts of the Centargos Ocean, Midelo flipped through what appeared to be a medical book.

"German," he sighed. "How'm I suppose to read this bloody thing?"

He then turned to Mr. Glosh.

"Mr. Glosh, would you be so kind as to help me settle this life boat down to the waters?"

"What for, Capt'n?"

"Dr. Miguel apparenly need to survive the looting of the Ghambary, and so he shall. Take care of this ship for me while I'm gone, will'ya?"

He then reached for his sword and sliced his beadr and mustach off till it looked a lot more Spanish-like.

"Meet you at Silentor in a couple of months time, savvy? I've got a Proffesor to meet."

To be continued...

Hee hee, ex-Detective's Case members would remember a few characters, now wouldn't they? If you've gueessed it, the title of this story is 'Before the Doctor', and it's about who the Doctor really was, if you know what I mean.

The MacRitchie Monster...

Someone sighted it again. MacRitchie's closed because of that. The public eyes...

It all started this morning, when I was packing up my clothes for MacRitchie, when I found out that I recieved an SMS telling me that training was moved to school because of a situation in MacRitchie. Partially relieved that I was able to get the message on time, I told my Dad to send me to the school for training.

After my Dad dropped me off at the Spaceframe, I walked my way to the re-creational centre, and as I stolled along the carpark I met up with Mr. See, who was heading to opposite directions to return the keys for the gym to the estate office. Before I could say, "Hi, Sir.", he said something on the lines of, "Later, I'll share with you all a story. It'll have a sad ending though... Actually, I don't know if the ending is a happy one or a sad one, but only time will tell. Go do your chin-ups first." Slightly confused, but not surprised, I continued my way to the chin-up bars, only to be told to go to the gym instead.

After doing a few sets of chin-ups, we headed down to the tracks but were stopped by Mr. See and the other two coaches for a short announcement(s) at the chin-up bars. He then told us about the 'story'.

Back in the mid 1990s, there was a public sighting of a crocodile in MacRitchie, and as such every school that trained there was chased out and not permitted to come back until 'professionals' could either catch the thing or prove that the thing wasn't there at all. And while the 'professionals' took their time to do anything, all theracing canoers had to move to other places to train. And for ACS(I), it was Kallang. But thankfully, we were all invited back to MacRitchie at 2005, sparing the future generations from the traumas of Kallang.

Until now.

Yesterday, all coaches recieved an SMS saying that another crocodile was spotted by the public, and so MacRitchie is declared close until further notice. That means we have no place to train... except Kallang again.

Well, it wouldn't make much difference at the present moment, since we were all going to move to Kallang anyway. But the only scary part was that we intended to move for only a couple of months, and if MacRitchie is really going to be closed it can mean a few years!

Mr. See then started stating that we should always make the greatest use of training time, because if you keep pushing the work to 'tomorrow', you never know when 'tomorrow''s going to be there. Many people wanted to do replacement trainings tomorrow to make up for times when they didn't come for training, but now that MacRitchie's gone, there's NO Wednesday training.

After a few more statements of possible actions to be taken if the reserviour doesn't open soon enough, we went down to the tracks to do warm-ups before starting on our running programmes. By now, people who didn't know that training was moved to school and had just been informed were arriving from the bus stop.

After running, there was gym, followed by medicine balls and then debrief befroe being dismissed. (Swimming was apparently cancelled for time.) During debrief, Mr. See stated that MacRitchie had just been re-opened again, so we could still train there before our move to Kallang.

But he also reminded us about not taking this for granted, and that we must always 'invest your 3% every training. Keep pushing the limit, gentlemen. Really. We can't aford to loose out because of things like this. So please, always push yourself beyond your comfort zone every training, and keep coming regularly. We've only got exactly a month before the competitions, so if you're going to say, "I'll push harder tomorrow.", this IS the 'tomorrow' already!'

We were also given our new Canoeing singlets! There were the men's cut and the women's cut. (The difference is the width of the shoulder straps - women's cut has wider ones.) I ordered for an 'M', but found that it was a little too big for me (I always fit in 'M's...). So I traded both my singlets with Joon Kiet, who also found 'S' a little too 'S' for him afterall. So once we were dismissed, I quickly changed into my women's cut and went off to the bus stop to catch a bus home.

I boarded the bus along with Tairoun (is that how you spell it?), Brandon and Jedd, who later invited me to join them for lunch at KAP. It was breaking the embargo, but I guess I woiuldn't mind having a meal with 'em guys. Tairoun, if you've missed out, was the junior who told me I was his favourite senior, later to spread the fanship to the other juniors. Brandon's his partner, and apparently his best friend here, and Jedd's my ex-partner whom Hao Qing replaced.

At KAP, we bought our meals and had a nice laugh at the conversations we had. Something like;

Tai: Hey, are those the shaker fries?
Jedd: Yeah. (Opens seasoning and pours into shaker bag, pre-filled with fries.) Why?
Bran: Make sure you shake it up properly. We wouldn't want uneven tastes in the bag.
Jedd: Yah, yah. (Shakes bag.) There. (Pours out contents.)
Bran: It's not even. Look, theres one side more yellow, and one side more green.
Rae: Variety!
All: *laugh*
Jedd: Fine. Give me another set of fries! I'll do another one. (Repeats process) Nah!
Bran: Still not even. Theres a distinct colour contrast.
Tai: Yeah. There's green, yellow, green...
Rae: Spain!
All: *laugh*
Tai: Let's change the subject. (Looks to Bran) Do you have a girlfriend?
Bran: Erm, I don't think so.
Tai: (Looks at Rae) How 'bout you?
Rae: (Stares at watch) Now? Nope.
All: *laugh*
Tai: I really need to learn that catchphrase!
Jedd: "Now? Nope." Hahaha!
Tai: This is the reason why he's my favourite senior...

And so on and so forth.

Ah, well. Nice morals, nice meal, nice shirt. 2 Chronicles 15:7! God bless y'all!

Where'd the Commodore go?...

Went to Tim's Church, which is apparently called Lighthouse. Interesting Church, I must say. Very interesting.

Starts of with me waking up early to eat early, change early and set off for Bugis MRT Station early. On the internet, I found that there was a direct bus which could take me straight to the station, but when I got to the allocated stop, I found no 61s anywhere on the signboards, so I took a 171 in a panicking rush, dropped off at Newton MRT and voyaged the rest of the journey through MRT instead.

Once at the station, I checked my watch and found that through my panic I accomplished an extra 45 minutes to kill while waiting for Tim. So to 'kill' those minutes, I decided to check out what the surface of the area looked like. Didn't look as cheery as the picture on the internet, but nevertheless comfortable to walk around in. Explored the area by a couple of blocks before turning back just to make sure I was at the station when Tim arrived, if he was 'arriving'.

Back at the station, I leaned against a small corner and pulled out my mp3 player to listen to some music while killing the remianing 20 minuites. But just then, Joel suddenly popped out of the crowd. Ah, company! The more, the merrier! I went over to him, and we had a really small talk before Tim arrived from one of the surface exits. He didn't seem to smile, so I also held a portion of mine back. Must be nerve-straining introducing a group of friends to another society only you're familiar with.

Chatting along the way, we followed Tim through a series of turns and paths, making sure we followed every direction without tripping against each other. Around this time, Tim also passed me my birthday present with a short greeting. Seeing that the morning rush was at present, I quickly said a soft thanks before falling back into line to make gliding through the multitudes within the MRT station a little easier. Once at the surface, we passed by a couple of bars that served San Miguel (Hee hee...). Soon, we arrived at the destination and landed at the gates of a middle-aged building.

Gliding through the 11pm crowd, we managed our way to the staircase and went a few floors up to a large hall at the sub-roof level. Many teens were seated among the chairs in the hall, and there was a small platform stage at the end of the room. On the platform were the band, ther instruments, a speaker's stand with the cross at the front and a projector screen. Tim went to the front sections of seats to fix a few mic cabels, so Joel and I followed to place our bags on the chairs nearby.

We later mingled around with assumably the Pastors and a few other members of Lighthouse. When the Pastors asked for my name, I told them I was 'Michael' (same thing I did in Japan) in nervousness that theyd probably ask further how to pronounce my real name, but told the members I was 'Miguel', of which they responded that this would be the first time they met a Spanish. (Hey, both names a technically correct in their own way, so stop staring at me!)

I was about to head back to my seat when one of the Pastors were asking around for Lighthouse volunteers to help him stack a section of chairs away so as to give space for a couple of activities later on. Tim pointed out my strength, so I gladly joined in the move. Unfortunately, I almost made a pile of chairs topple over another Pastor and Ziek (is that how you spell it?). What a way to start a first visit to Lighthouse...

Once done clearing the area, we sat back into out seats, only to find out that we had to move the remaining sections of chairs towards the back of the hall to transfer the empty space to the front of the stage. At least pushing is more safer than lifting. And a good thing I'm correct in this part.

Then the service started. We began first with some singing of praises. I've heard most of the songs before, but the first song they displayed was rather new to me. But the schocking part was that the song was able to depict a good portion of my life, wether it be minor details or obvious phrases. I literally started to drop my volume by the 2nd Stanza, but regained it when the song got back to the good parts. Dear Lord, who did You assign to write this song anyway?

After singing was a performance. And this was no ordinary performance. It was a dance item! By the Youth Committee! And one of the members were... I think you get my drift. A rather rare sight seeing him up on stage, but God always makes things possible anyway. The song was rather nice, and the dance steps were easy to follow (somewhat Broadway, that'll be my guess), but in the performance I saw how much everyone on the floor was enjoying themselves.

It's been a long time since I've been to a Youth Service, and I guess this was a simple reminder on how I long to join a cell group soon. True, there are many Christian classmates I can meet day after day in school. But I know them more as 'classmates' than 'Christian friends', so I can't really say I can share my 'struggles' and joys with Christ. But I've seen a couple of Churches lately and I've seen the friendship bonds members of these Churches share, and how willingly they'd probably share their problems with each other and pray together for a breakthrough. Together.

I tried my best to sustain a smile during the performance, but I guess it was somewhat distinct (if anyone was statring) that I was a litle troubled. God's been calling me to join a cell group for some time already, and must agree I need the support from one to go through my life with Christ. The problem is... where do I go?

Which group should I join? I'd like to be somewhere friendly (well, all Churches are friendly :D) but also where I could learn about God properly. I guess I'd have to keep praying about this. I better be quick, cause it'll be better to addapt now as a teenager than when I'm an adult. God be with me to show the way...

Once the performance ended (with a 'tip of the hat'), the troupe scattered back to their seats for more singing, before we had an ice-breaker activity: We were each given a card that had a word on it, and in a certain amount of time we were suppose to find fellow people with words of the same cathegory to form a group of 5 members; no more, no less.

For example, X recieved 'Batman', Y had 'Superman' and Z 'Wonder Woman'. Thus, they should all belong in one group under the cathegory of superheroes. After being distributed the cards, the whole lot of us started to giggle on the words we were being given. I had 'Orchird', while Tim had 'Oreo', Joel had 'Escalator' and Ziek had 'Inter-galactic Teleporter(or something like that)'.

Once we were more or less calm on the situation, we were released from our seats and scrambled around the hall to find our different groups. Tim was shouting through the crowds for foods, I was going from individual to individual for flowers or road names, and Joel was just moving around glancing for a machine of some sort.

After a minute or so, a girl then found a way to solve our problem. Noticing that each word was written with the first letter enlarged to almost trice the size of the other letters, she quickly shouted out her letter, soon to be joined in with others intending to see if her theory was correct. Soon, the entire hall was filled with cries of letters and people were running from end to end in search of their case.

When the time was up, and we were told to be seated ont he floor, I found myself in a group with Tim, a girl and a couple of guys. We said a few small "Hi."s before moving our attention back to the stage, where the Pastor then told us that we had to learn the names, schools, favourite colours, foods and a few other random details before he would test a random person on these details.

My group gasped for a little, but we managed to cheat a bit by standardising some of the favourites, like we all 'loved blue' and 'enjoyed Biology'. Then after a limited time, each group was told to send a representative up to the stage. Assuming that these would be the people being tested, we sent Tim to go up.

Big mistake. Apparently, the Pastor later announced that these people on stage were to be spared from the questionare, and that the groups had to send another representative to standup at their spot, this time being the real guys to be tested. Now, my group decided to send me as the sacrifice, so I stood up a little panicked and kept asking for my groups names once in a while.

To cut the story shorter, I managed to slip away in the nick of time when the Pastor found it time-consuing to ask each group once he reached the fourth one. We then had a little more singing till another Pastor came to share a message about the mentality of a Christian. I didn't really catch the last part of the sermon, though, so I can't really describe what he said since I dn't have the final piece ofthe puzzle.

After this, the service ended and we all went down for a burger-and-sushi lunch (To foreigners reading this, this is Singapore - about almost any meal around the globe is concidered an 'ordinary' meal.) It was more of a buffet, with uncles and aunties lined up to help you put the items onto your plate, and after collecting the stuff Tim lead us to the playground to sit down and enjoy our meals.

We chatted a bit, and at times went for seconds. Tim also invited Joel and I to the captain's ball match later on in the day, and so we agreed. After the meal Tim (followed around by Joel and I) went around in search for the area where the match was suppose to be held. We were told it was at the carpark, but it was still filled with cars at that time so we had to wait for a little while.

While waiting, Tim attended a meeting for the Youth Committee of the Church, while Joel and I went to a corner to chat about a game called Command and Conquer and taught me about an element in the game known as 'tibarium'.

After the meeting, everyone went out to check how the carpark was, and there was only onc car left to clear out, so we stayed around the drinks for a few more minutes till the coast was clear. We them went out and assigned ourselves to the two teams available. Throug the game, I couldn't help but notice how well everyone knew each other. They were all laughing and enjoying the fun and bloopers of the game, and even the adults were cheering along candidly at the corridoor just beside us.

Following the lines of what Tim once said, it really did feel like family.

No, I do love my family, and appreciate God's blessings of them. But everyone in the Church at that game was very, erm, united in a way. The many people, lads and gems, all mixing around int heir own way and making the group unique to the extent of great friendship. And with Christ. To also see how well Tim fits in the entire equation of the group.

I miss the good ol' days.

Times when if I had a problem, I could just go to a friend and share my state and we'd all comfort each other and be merry and praise God for each other. Not saying that I'm having problems... erm, I don't know.

I guess it's only because besides school and canoeing, I've got no more friends to be with. True, I've got God to comfort me. And I love Him, even though He loves me a whole lot more. But once you have the love of God, you just need to share it out among fellow brothers and sisters of Christ, or basically anyone for that matter, and let them enjoy it too.

It's something like a glass. (I've bet many Christians have heard about this before.) The champaign bottle is God, and when you recieve the many things from Christ you start to turn full. Now, before you go past the brim and spill out the excess champaign (which would be a waste), you'd get another few cups at the bottom so the overflow would spill into those cups. And then there would be other cups placed at the bottom of those cups, and more under those other cups, and more under those, and more under them, and so on and so forth until you get one of those pyramid structure you see in wedding ceremonial dinners, where all the cups have their share of champaign, all because that first cup at the top spilt its overflow to them all.

In the same way, I guess I just miss having friends. I mean, I do have lots of friends, but I don't really see them as regularly as how people ussually do. Unless this is just some holiday phase I'd have to go through for the next few weeks, I guess I'd just have to pray about it. But nevertheless, I really think I should join a cell group soon enough.

To think that the last 6-8 paragraphs went through my mind during the game. Ah, well.

After a few rounds, Tim Joel and I finally made our leave from the Church and went to the MRT. During the walk there, Tim asked us for comments on how the service was like, since he was part of the Youth Committee and had to know. My comment was that it was like the ussual set-up that the many other Churches I've been to, but somewhat more friendlier and socialble.

After a few more words with each other, we went our seperate ways in the train system and got to our homes (unless differing not specified).

Overall, I guess I had a nice time! [Thanks, Tim! :)] But I also take it that this is another one of God's ways to tell me that I really need to find a cell group to join now. My heart now has an additional longing...

Since I cant describe today's sermon, I might as well just say a few words in place of that. I shall share about Love.

Do you ever feel as if you love someone intensely, maybe even honour someone of the same gender greatly, but know in your heart that you're not suppose to 'fall in love' with that person? If the first example, you could brush it off to be puppy love, but if it was the second one, you might just panick and end up worrying if you're...

Rebuke that thought in the name of Jesus! You're not, erm, whatever-terminology-they'd-use-for-that. Flip to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, and it should say (in the New International Version):

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Sometimes, when you have an intense honour or love for somebody, it may just be because God wants you to teach theperson something. Maybe something you have which the person doesn't have yet. The love/honour for that person is just there to make sure your words, which would be said through God's will, carry dept and ensure that despite whatever respnse you may get from this person, you'd still want to share the good news to him or her.

But don't get me wrong - if you know that your love for her/him is correct and strong enough, by all means go on a date some time. But if you somehow have this small but strong thought in your mind that you're not meant for this person, or that this person is not the one God wants to bless you with a family, this is probably one of the reasons why.

"Then what do I teach this guy/gal?" Well, I don't know. I may or may not know who you are, or who that person you greatly honour is, but the only two beings who should be able to answer this question should be you and God. If you're not certain on what this guy needs for his/her soul, pray to God for Him to show you exactly what he/she needs, and He'll answer if you wait long enough.

And don't worry if you think you won't be prepared or experienced in the matter that this guy needs clarification about. God will prepare His servants before sending them out for His glory. So when it's your turn, you'll know exactly what to do. And if you think God wants you to find out the problem yourself, you can try asking the person directly if the person needs help. He/she may react shock for a while, but sooner or later he'll/she'll spill the beans and that's where you come in with God's help to comfort the person.

And when you and the person know the problem is solved, just give praise to the Lord, and you both now have a testimony to add into God's collection!

Now to unrap Tim's present. Ooo, Left Behind! Sweet! Thanks, Tim!

God loves y'all! Bless 'ou!...

Up is Down...

That's just weird.

The fact that you guys bother about this blog so much. I'm extremely surprized, somehow. People tell me my blog's worth keeping, Shil tries to give me reasons to continue, ZRong tells me measures I should take to sustain the blog, and even Tim's voices get their say in this topic. And later in the day, I recieve a 17-minute chat from Tim trying to convince me on why I should keep my blog. Won't elaborate much on the conversation, but I guess if everyone demands it, (and soon I bet God'll also drop a message),

I guess I'm keeping my blog afterall.

But must we celebrate?

I say we should!

Well, then. What should we do?

Try out another quiz?

Sure!

Check Tim's Blog, then come back if you found something nice.

Back! And look what I fou...

Well, that was rather fast.

Canoeing.

Same here.

Stop it, both of you. Now lay out the quiz. Oh, and don't forget the Credits, lest we get strangled again.

Oh, right. Courtesy of Lamentations.

--Here is the deal:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.

3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.

And there you have it...

01 How does the world see me? Bermuda Triangle
02 Will I have a happy life? After The Candles Burn
03 What do my friends really think of me? He's A Pirate
04 Do people secretly lust after me? S.O.S.

05 How can you be happy? Stick to the Status Quo

06 What should I do with my life? Lord Reign In Me

07 Why must life be so full of pain? Lead Me Through the Night

08 Will I ever have children? Does Your Mother Know

09 Will I die happy? The Point of No Return

10 What is some good advice for me? One Voice

11 What is happiness? It's A Miracle

12 What's my favourite fetish? Green

13 How will I be remembered? Before The Throne

14 What is your love life like? Will and Elizabeth

15 What's your life motto? Heart of Worship

16 What do your parents think of you? Angel Eyes

17 What's your favourite hobby? How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

18 What does your best friend really think of you? Above All

19 What's the worst thing about you? Angel of Music

20 Describe your mind. Hallelujah

21 How will you die? Siete Horas (Spanish for 'Seventh Hour')

22 How does your crush feel about you? Strangers in the Night

23 What is your wedding going to be like? Singapore

24 What about your honeymoon? Southhampton

25 Describe the last day of your life. Gasolina

26 Why does life suck? What If
27 Why does life rule? Worthy, You are Worthy

28 What's the craziest thing you'll ever do? I Give You My Heart

29 Will you achieve your goals? Start of Something New

30 What will your future job be like? Break Through the Chains

31 Your party life? Play Our Song

32 Overall, will you be happy? Forever
33 Or will you just deal with it? In Christ Alone

Ah, well. I'll do my best to sustain this thingy as far as she can go. Let this blog keep sailing through by the winds of God, even through the rough times! God bless this blog! And God bless you! Bon Voyage...

(Say, this picture gives me a good idea on another series of post I can publish...)