5 months worth of posts...

[shit, this post was in my drafts. and maybe one day i'll get down to editing this again. but for now...life moves on.]

wow. its been nearly 6 months since i last blogged. gosh.

life has been a blur. i think i've got to be disciplined and start blogging. thanks to my superb short term memory, i might not be able to remember these parts of my life...

anyway, in summary (for now), may was great. went to hong kong with laine. sort of her mini graduation trip. had a h1n1 scare too. nearly couldn't make it there. but thank god everything went smoothly. also thank god that we managed to meet up with mike and his daughters...and also for the opportunity to visit the church in hk. it was really a blessing to be able to worship with other believers regardless of race. won't say language cox we all spoke english, and definitely not religion. haaa. lame.

so, may and june was my official attachment...to base camp pte ltd. coincidentally it was also a crazy period. we were consultants for the ntu adventure trail challenge 2009. highlight of it was the 6 storey abseil off a carpark in seng kang.

thanks to laine for staying up until 3am to help me put up this HUGE banner.

hmm..another thing to note is that media corp did a short coverage (better than nothing). really hope more singaporeans will be exposed to it. hmm..wonder how can i help to expedite the process...should i spend more time doing some pr stuff? hmm..maybe after i grad. right now...really coping with too many things...

so may and june flew past. july came. work spilled over to mid july, then it was char and aly's wedding. hmm, realized this sounds like a lesbian marriage. aly! haa. anyway, i really wonder what kind of answer do people expect when they ask, so how was the wedding? anyway, i always reply with the same answer. everything went smoothly and they got wedded lor. short and sweet summary right?

in all, i really thank god for the get away. its been a long time since the whole family, including the bf/husband and the gf managed to have a holiday together. and it was really really great that we went for a volcanic trek and the white water rafting...on a side note, i'm damn proud of my parents and baby sis. think my mum was suffering quite a lot; think she strained a ligament. but she still soldiered on. but on the other hand, i also can see how much they've aged. and its really hit me that they're not exactly young anymore. i do hope they do start a healthy lifestyle; by way of exercising, but then again, its my dad - that's where i got my laziness from. wahha.

[this post might be continued, depending on the writer's mood...stay tuned]

birthday celebration ends up with death

S'PORE: Tragedy struck the Lim family on what was supposed to be the 27th birthday celebration of the eldest daughter, Lin Shaojuan Charmaine. The body of a family member was discovered by the latter and her boyfriend, Alywin Chew when they returned to the bed-room at about 1734hrs. The body was suspended by a USB cable, tied tightly around her neck, to the ceiling lights. The victim has been identified as Pinkie and has been living with the family's youngest child, Benita Lin, since she was a young child. Benita was not available for an interview by press time.

Sources close to the family reveal that Lin recieved a sms shortly before the body was discovered and was visibly agitated by the message. She was seen showing Chew the message and even reading it mockingly, "Happy 27th Birthday Jie, you are getting old!". It is believed that the message was sent from Benita as Lin's other younger sibling, Samuel Lin was in the next room talking on his mobile phone.

Rumors of a conspiracy theory has been brewing. It is speculated that the murder may be an act of revenge; although it is anyone's guess if the murder was committed by Lin out of spite, or by Chew, in an romantic attempt to appease his girlfriend.

Police have classified this as an unnatural death and are still investigating the case.

guess the gender

alright all you people who had a good laugh over the other post. take a good long look.this is the picture of the sign just 3meters away.

male or female?

even a close up is highly misleading

the male toilet which is hidden in a corner

the girlfriend and her ability

i think my gf has a secret ability.

you know how some people can recognize an intricate characteristic in someone? some see an inert leadership in people, some see the potential, the kindness, etc etc...
hmm..think teachers. i think teachers have this uncanny ability to bring out the best in people and cultivate their strengths.
well, the gf, being an animal lover, sees the animal in a person.

once again, she shouted "zebra crossing!"

i looked at her and laughed, thinking of the previous joke we shared.

she obviously remembered and quickly said, "it's a zebra crossing!"

i laughed all the harder. she did too.

i love the way language can be read in so many different levels; its beautiful, if you really think about it.
but she's definitely more beautiful.

Thank you Father.

i love you just the way you are

today the girlfriend was complaining that she was fat.
i tried to reassure her, so i told her, "i love you just the way you are."
and then i chuckled because a funny thought just came into my mind, and i added, "that means you can't get any fatter, because i love you just the way you are.

anyway, she knows, and i told her that its a joke and i didn't mean it.

so dear, i really mean it when i say i love you just the way you are, and no matter how you look...but you sure you really want to test the theory? hahahha...

the most perplexing academic question of all ages

what can possibly suck more than walking down the stairs, and slipping; leading to a good roll down the stairs (and thank god the back is not broken yet). to your amusement, horror, relief, you find your face just an inch away from a pile of dog poo (thank god!). but u realized that something around your chest area stinks. that's when you realize that in your crash landing, you crashed straight into onto a pool if vomit. and as you struggle to get out of the vomit pool, your hand lands on the dog poo.

what a day!

strangely, i think i rather be in that situation than to sit for the exams. sigh. its only 3 papers this sem, but i am so not looking forward to it at all. i just want to get it over and done with.

AND i still have 2 more semesters worth of exams. sigh.

my 2 best buddies in sch are graduating. and i am sad. who can i lame around with late into the nights? ok. i still have a couple more lame shit best buddies around. but there's still a sense of loss with the 2 accountants wannabes.

i miss np. i miss odac. i miss her too...

maybe uni will be more fun if she's coming into nie.

warning: explicit content

one day last week, when i was at a particular place (no names shall be mentioned to protect the interest of the parties), i had a big business to attend to. and it was rather urgent. so i chiong-ed to the toilet.

first thought - nice white toilet, very clean. and interesting, got a lot of cubicle to choose from. first one, squatting - forget it. flatfooters ain't made to squat for long period of time. same goes for the next one. finally, i saw a cubicle to my liking, it was far in enough, and it was a seating one.

ANYWAY, it felt good. details will not be released due to its explicit contents.
and finally, i was finishing up. but was sending a msg to the girlfriend. sent. and then i heard 2 voices. at first, i thought nothing about it. and i realized something very very strange about the 2 voices. it was not the usual deep, course and rough voice you normally find in the guy's toilet. in fact, it was high speed, high pitched chattering. immediately, i was stunned.

what the heck was 2 girls doing in the guy's toilet?!

[flashback] - in my hurry, i don't think i checked the sign at the door...but i had the impression the person in the picture didn't wear a skirt. and he was definitely blue.and,there was a group of guys who were just chilling out just around the corner of the toilet

and i panicked.

i looked around. and guess what i saw beside me- A SANITARY BIN.

ok. have you stopped laughing for me to continue my story?

anyway, i was like. WHAT THE HECK MAN! this is superbly embarrassing. and now i'm stuck in the toilet with the 2 girls chatting outside. ok. i'm sure they will be done soon.

i was soooo wrong.

now i know why girls take so long in the toilet.
but to be fair, i was so stressed i didn't even hear a single word they said.

i just waited, and waited..and waited.

finally they left. i waited a moment more to be sure. and another moment longer just to be very safe. no sound. *phew*

opens the cubicle toilet door. peeks outside. coast is clear. no time for washing hands. might be caught at any moment. chiong! ok. now the most dangerous part of the assignment. opening the toilet door. prepared an excuse, "crap. went in wrong toilet" just in case an unsuspecting girl walks in. opens the door nonchalantly, sees 2 cleaners, but they are too engrossed in their conversation. took a right turn to avoid them. ended up in a dead end. felt stupid. turned around and walked quickly into a secret passageway, located the nearest male toilet and washed the hands, with soap.
in case you are thinking that i'm some dirty ass. i'm not. and i don't even have a dirty ass, have already cleaned it.

gosh. that was the most expertly executed escape plan in my life. i made Prison Break look easy.

darn. maybe that's why it is good for male and female toilets to be painted blue and pink respectively. yes, it is stereotyping gender but at least it avoids such potentially embarrassing situations. yes, yes, the states has many unisex toilets. but we are in singapore! maybe i should protest for unisex toilets.

ok, but as funny as this is on hindsight, it was really scary for me. thoughts of being charged for peeping, outrage of modesty (although i think it is MY modesty that is outraged), etc etc all came into my head. i was that close to trembling with fear.

last but not least, please do not repeat this story to others.this is especially to a certain someone who shows stuff to her friends, keeps compromising videoes (of me cross-dressing for theatre) and shows it to her mother and cousin and i-don't-know-who-else.

or the least you could do is to leave out my name. i have a reputation to keep, what's left of it anyway. haha.

what do you call an uncle who crosses the road?

while driving home from benita's birthday dinner, we [laine and i] were approaching a pedestrian crossing and there was an uncle who was about to cross, he was like 5m away from the road.
it was only now that i realized how rude laine is..so horrible man.
she screamed, ZEBRA CROSSING!
i was appalled! she actually called the uncle a ZEBRA!

tsk tsk.

we couldn't stop laughing after that. ok. actually only me, cox she was saying how i shouldn't be laughing at her lousy english, you see, in proper english, it would have been "the zebra is crossing the road!", but i guess she was just too excited and pek cek at the uncle. haha.

that's all folks..

her back is pain.

the following is a true account, it happened a few weeks back.

laine: dear, my back is pain leh.
a day later..
laine: my pain is back.
sam: huh? thought you said your back pain? how come now your pain is back? so which is it? *confused*

she just stared at me.

sigh.

my typing speed

81 words

Typingtest

You type 450 characters per minute
You have 81 correct words and
you have 0 wrong words

i'm a happy boy

i am so going to quote esther, "i am a happy boy!" ok, she used girl, but for my sake i just edited..
in the past week, since last saturday, i have finished
a journal - 2849 words
a review of a play - 1000 words
south east asian theatre essay - 2219 words
modernism essay - 2991 words
gender essay - 2333 words
total of 11500 words all within the span of 15 days. I think this is very good practice for my thesis. haha.
gosh. i am so going to play today. and sleep. think i've only slept on the bed like 3 - 5 days at most in the past 1.5 weeks. the rest were spent on chairs and tables.
right, and now its time to cheong the exams.
i can't wait for 28th april...sigh

the beauty of being ugly

i remember years ago when i was still in the navy, or perhaps even further back (can't really pin point the exact time), mummy asked me to please take care of my face. my pimples were all out of control - without any permission, they were just popping out to breathe some fresh air. i remember telling her this:

"if i'm good-looking, when a girl likes me, i don't know if she loves me for my looks or for who i really am. so, if i have lots of pimples and become more "ugly", then when a girl falls in love with me, then i know its for who i am and not my looks".

she just walked away. haha.

years later, after i got attached to laine; my mother came to me and told me to please take care of my face again. this time, i told her:

"if my pimples are cleared, and i look better, what if more girls are attracted to me? its better to stay ugly."

she just walked away. haha

anyway, today at dinner with my care group people, i shared with them the first philosophy. after the usual laughter, one of the girls, li jian, asked me, "what if our insides were all ugly and someone still loves us for who we are?"

in my typical and usual cheeky, trying to be lame self, i searched for a good reply. but found none. i merely replied, "good for us lor".

while showering, i was thinking, isn't that how God's love for us works? even though we are all sinners with ugly insides, He still sent His beloved son, Jesus, down to our world to die for all our sins. He did that for only ONE reason - because He loves us. yes, He loved us even when we all had ugly insides.

how blessed are we all.

thank you Father for doing this for us. and loving us.

the thin blue line

A thin blue line. Positive result.

Thank you Father for blessing my husband and I with a second child. The gender of the child does not bother me...am I kidding myself? It does matter –it matters a lot. Not that I favor one sex to the other, I will love my child regardless, but the situation I am in demands it. My in-laws have such a traditional mindset - a grandson is needed to carry on the Lin family line. Father, you can see into their hearts, you know their disappointment when our first child was born three years ago. Although they have come to love and care for her, they do still long for a grandson. But above all, Lord, may your will be done.

She stood up, pulled up her pants and walked over to the sink. As she stared into the mirror, a single teardrop mustered at the corner of her pale coffee eyes. She tried desperately to blink it away, but it was just too obstinate. Unsurprisingly, little time ticked by before the tear garnered enough strength to stage its revolt. The woman hurriedly wiped it away from her sunken cheek, almost as if she was afraid that someone would spy upon it.

Father, I am treading in the path of Hannah. Lord, you remembered her faithfulness and rewarded her with a son. Likewise, do not forget your humble servant and grant me a boy too. I will offer him to the Lord for all the days of his life.
Every sunrise thereafter was accompanied by the prayer of the woman. The words were never repeated, but the gist was unchanged. Lord, please grant me a son; I will dedicate him to your purpose. In addition, her prayer was always accompanied with a fervent belief that God would answer her favorably. Day by day, her conviction grew.

Married to the only son of a traditional Hainanese family, she was burdened with the task of bearing a son. Though they did not express it outwardly, when mother and daughter first emerged from the operation theatre, the elderly couple was, for a moment, disappointed. A moment only, for they soon found their granddaughter to be a bundle of joy. They doted on her, almost to the point of spoiling her. For three years, the baby girl remained the sole joy and comfort to her grandparents.

But now, their hopes were inevitably raised once more. The woman sensed their heightened anticipation and grew increasingly worried – worried that her in-laws had to face another bout of disappointment. Whoever thought that the baby would be a paradox? The bigger her tummy grew, the higher their hopes soared and the greater her worry amassed.

Their quiet disappointment when she presented her baby girl years ago was a torture – it had threatened to rip her apart. How she wished that they would verbally lash out, bear a grudge, anything! Anything would do to ease that pain. All she wanted was to let her in-laws fulfill their wish. A couple of painful months would slowly tread by before the truth was born – she did not want to know the results of the ultrascan; God was in control.

Hannah from the Old Testament gave the name Samuel to her son and proclaimed, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.” Why Samuel? Because it sounds like the Hebrew for “heard of God”. On 2nd July 1985 in a ward in Kandang Kerbau Women’s and Children’s Hospital; like his predecessor thousands of years ago, a baby boy was christened Samuel.

In pain she conceived, and in bliss she presented him.

God does answer prayers. He rewards those who seek Him earnestly. Thank you dear Lord for being real. Amen.

Date with a Woman

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner and a movie. She said I love you but I know this other woman loves you and would love to spend some time with you.

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it possible to visit her only occasionally.

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.

'What's wrong, are you well,' she asked? My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.

'I thought that it would be pleasant to be with you,' I responded. 'Just the two of us.'

She thought about it for a moment, and then said, 'I would like that very much.'

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous.

When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date. She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary.

She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel's.

'I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed, 'she said, as she got into the car. 'They can't wait to hear about our meeting'. We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady.

After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips..

'It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small,' she said. 'Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favor,' I responded.

During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation - nothing extraordinary, but catching up on recent events of each other's life.

We talked so much that we missed the movie.

As we arrived at her house later, she said, 'I'll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.' I agreed.

'How was your dinner date?' asked my wife when I got home. 'Very nice.

Much more so than I could have imagined,' I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to do anything for her.
Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place mother and I had dined.

An attached note said:
I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me.
I love you, son.

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: "I LOVE YOU!" and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important than God and your family.

Give the people you love the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till 'some other time.'

Add Two to Twelve Times Two

She is small in size; his built is big, and round.

In his prime, he was named “Best P.T” in his batch, not once, but twice - once in B.M.T and in S.I.S.P.E.C.

His hang out place of choice at that time was Dairy Farm. He biked in the trails and ran round and round. Yet what he loved most was to scale the rock wall there. But, his fall from grace at the rock face changed how he had to live his life from then on.

He owns a shop in town where he sells sports stuff straight from the States and which he holds the rights of. It was in there that he first laid eyes on her.

She loves to race; though now he can not race due to his wrecked feet, he is still in the sports scene. In his spare time, he plans and runs a race each year; three to date and all in his one-man show style.

She speaks in a soft voice. His gift from God is that he would not be missed. If one fails to see him, one will hear him for sure. He has to strain to hear her laugh while his is one that she can hear from a block down the road.

She is mild and meek. He is rough. Just.plain.rough.

Men shun his path when he comes. Things fall when he turns left or swings right. The best thing is - he does not know what has come to pass. But with kids, oh how he plays with them. His touch is firm, yet it does no harm to them. He loves them, and they love him with all their hearts too.

When he talks about her, which is all the time, we joke from time to time that we are on “Channel E”: Her name starts with an “E”. He should be a D.J. He makes use of his mouth, we - our ears. She loves the Smurfs, or at least we think she does. He bought the soft toy for her and grew to like the blue folks too.

She has a soft spot for dogs. So has he. Thank God he does not live in a flat; quite a few strays have come to live in his house since he caught sight of them in the streets. When he bought his own dog in March, it was dubbed “E”. So was the mouse that he kept as a pet. In the month of June, E the dog dashed out of the front gate and has not been seen since. The small white fur ball soon died too.

He calls her “Sweet”. Yet she has not had the chance to hear. Till now, we doubt she knows.

She falls sick quite a fair bit. And in the three years that I have known him, I have not seen him ill, all but that one time; the first and the last.

It was a short fight. All it took was four days for his strength to fade and his fire was snuffed out just like that.

At such a young age.