in this life

life as a primary school teacher

2010-08-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

God has a sense of humor.

when i was in primary school, and even in secondary school. i was very certain i didn't want to be a teacher. looking at my mother's unhappiness [not so much with teaching, but with the system she was under], i was pretty sure i didn't want to follow her footsteps.

however, when i entered JC, i met this teacher who really changed my perspective. in a lot of ways, i think i'm quite similar to him, and i guess that's why he became sort of a role model for me. you know how the greatest compliment to someone is if someone else yearns to be like him/her? i guess that is the best gift i can give to him, but erm, he has to figure it out by himself...maybe one day i might tell him straight out, but erm...maybe not. haa. anyway, he is really someone i respected as an outdoor leader and a teacher. he may have scolded the shit out of me/us, and even though some of the incidences were blown out of proportion, i did learn a lot from the man. in the short 2 years that i worked closely under him, my confidence in my outdoor leadership was at its highest...and in the dumps too. i remember how it took me a few years to slowly gain my confidence again, it affected me so much that i became so guilty, i just broke away from my entire batch. thankfully, a few of them didn't let go of me, and we still remain pretty close to this day.

in any case, while waiting to enter NS, i had 3 months to spare, and i went to my Alma mater to teach. but frankly, i didn't really enjoy it there. i had a grand total of 1 friend, this girl was my childhood friend and her mum's also a teacher in the school and she was employed as a librarian during that period. school was simply going into class, disciplining the kids, scolding them, giving them classwork, going through answers, sneaking ot the library to hang out with JB and then zoom back home or out as soon as the 1.15pm bell rings. it was such a stressful period that in the space of 3 months, i actually fell sick trice - and not just a simple cold etc, it was high fever. gosh.

and then i took a 4 year hiatus because of uni and BC. back a full circle and now i'm in another primary school. but the entire experience has really changed me. 30th july was supposed to be my last official day of school, and i was seriously depressed and emotional the entire week. i spent my breaks and lunch time in the bistro or walking around school, just to catch a glimpse of this child or that kid. if they greeted me, or smiled at me, it was enough to make my day. i think because at the end of the day, kids are really simple, they show their love and their acceptance of you in really straightforward ways...and its just so genuine. if i could, i would just hug them and kiss them! but sigh, i have to be professional and just too darn bad i'm not a female teacher. why is it that guys have to watch themselves and girls don't have to!!! [ok, don't reply, i know the answer too, but its just not fair!]

on a happier note, i had 2 surprises today. one of the girls from 1-9 is leaving for china next week, and her form teacher had a mini farewell for her. she gave out presents to her classmates and the class watched a video of her in a talent competition. it was just so heartwarming to see her really enjoying herself up on stage. it was just amazing. anyway, she came to me and gave me a beautifully wrapped present. i was so surprised i didn't say much except thank you. initially, i thought it was a generic present meant for her teachers, and i felt really bad, cox it might have been prepared for some other teachers and she gave it to me because i happened to be doing class observation. however, the form teacher later told me that she actually planned to give me a present! so sweet of her! *melts* anyway, p-ying, i hope you enjoy yourself thoroughly when you are in china, and i pray that you will find joy and satisfaction in all that you do! pursue what you love, and not what others tell you to love. its your life, enjoy every moment without regret. and of course, i pray that in your life, you will meet your true love, Jesus Christ. All in all, i wish i could have spent more time with you and your class, getting to know you all better. i apologize that so much of my attention is always given to the 4 boys + 2 girls in your class that i neglected you [and some other students]. take care and god bless, may he hold you in his arms forever...

the other surprise came after school, when another colleague came up with this boy from 1-1. apparently he prepared national day presents for his classmates and some of the teachers. and yes, he prepared one specially for me too! w-leng is such a sweet boy. he is always coming up to me just to greet me..and he gave me a drawing before too when i took his class. anyway, the biggest surprise was when he actually remembered and took to heart about what i said last term. i can't remember the circumstances in which i said it, but i told him to call me gan die [god father]. and so...his mum knows about it. i feel so guilty! lesson learnt: what one says to a child may be in jest, but it means so much so much to him/her. but i don't really know what to do from here on...should i acknowledge him? but i don't want to give him special attention outrightly! but if i don't do something, it seems like i'm neglecting him too? grrr...

anyway, my dear god-son, i don't know why but u are always falling sick. having tummy aches all so frequently. i pray that our heavenly father will keep you safe and free of illnesses. please eat well, and grow up healthily. and i'll see ya in school!

so what is life as a primary school teacher like? simply amzing. yes the kids can anger you, but they can surprise you so often, they can turn your anger into a smile with a simple innocent question or a remark.

once when i was fuming mad at 4-1, i apologized to 4-2 for being in such a bad mood. i explained to them why i was in such a bad mood and that i would try to calm down and treat them normally...and this boy shouted out, "Mr Lin, i'm the class clown and i'll cheer you up!". class joker, but it made me smile really really widely.

never will i forget that sarcasm doens't work on p1s...after telling a boy off for interrupting me [he ended up tearing...ooops], i asked the class if anyone else wanted to tell their story...and up came a girl's hand. "Yes, Y**a?" "Mr Lin, I went swimming in Singapore Poly with my daddy and i wore a mask..." [FYI, i was sharing with them some diving photos and was explaining what diving was about when the boy interrupted me repeatedly with some smart alec comments]. so you see, they really are such innocent angels sometimes.

sigh. think i'll end off her. getting quite emotional. miss them so much already....will update more often. think i'll really want to keep these memories of the children with me....now, if only i can get some photos of them! haa. gosh, i sound like some sick pervert. wahhaah

5 months worth of posts...

2009-09-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

[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

2009-04-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

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 sex

2009-04-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-19T03:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-04-17T08:28:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-04-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T01:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T05:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

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.

wiping off the cobwebs

2008-12-05T22:55:00.000-08:00

it has been a REALLY crazy month or so. i kid you not. and things doesn't look like its going to get any better.
first was the drama week, plus 3 essays and 2 presentations...all in the span of 1.5 weeks. how cool is that. and i broke a record. its the first time i actually finished an essay 2 days before deadline, and another one a day before...oops, just betrayed what a slacker i have been.
i'm rather pleased overall with the results. just pray that the exam results will be ok. will be so dead if it were like american last sem. gosh.

once exam was over, it was 2 days of exco evaluation. xiong. but it was good because we got alot of work done. so at least that is settled. then it was followed with 1 week of CF retreat / CGL workshop. much as i enjoyed the fellowship and teaching, it was really bad timing because i didn't get to spend any time with anyone else, laine in particular. so it was really bad in that sense. thank god i have the hainan trip to catch up with my family..but once again, laine is left out. sigh. oh well...at least thankful that we could spend friday together, although we wasted half the day because both of us overselpt.

oh..did i mention i'm in hainan now? the hotel has free internet access! how cool is that. haa. so i can pretty much catch up with any one i want! pity the gf is out shopping. grr.

ok. this post will be kept short and sweet. will update tonight after i get more pictures of my beautiful hometown. haa.

And God Said No

2008-10-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

I asked God to take away my pride, and God said, "No".
He said it was not for Him to take away, but for me to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole, and God said, "No".
He said her spirit is whole, her body is only temporary.

I asked God to grand me patience, and God said, "No".
He said that patience is a by-product of tribulation, it isn't granted, it's earned.

I asked God to give me happiness, and God said, "No".
He said He gives blessings, happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me pain, and God said, "No".
He said, "Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me."

I asked God to make my spirit grow, and God said, "No".
He said I must grow on my own, but he would prune me to make me fruitful.

I asked God if He loved me, and God said, "Yes".
He gave me His only Son who died for me, and I will be in Heaven someday because I believe.

I asked God to help me love others, as much as He loves me.
And God said, "Ah, finally, you have the idea

Ace Adventure [Dusk to Dawn] 2008

2008-10-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

heroes in the race - Jon & Grace

12th Oct 2008. finally. after many months of waiting - my thirst for adventure racing has been quenched. maybe a little bloated, considering the physical condition i am in now. sigh. its been a good 5 months since my last adv race [Eco X]. but sadly, because of work, school projects & presentations, CF etc..i have not been very prepared for this race. i trained not in the slightest bit (which i regret deeply now) and even the packing of equipment was done quite last minute too. by normal standards it was quite early, but because i had to attend laine's mum's birthday dinner...so everything was quite rush). anyway, had a minor hiccup with ruth..i did some minor adjustments and then i must have screwed up pretty badly, because i couldn't shift my granny gear...so i had to zoom down to tiong hin and ask uncle to help me adjust. thank god for him man. i bought a new tool bag, but that screwed up too, because i realized my seat's rails are not wide enough to accommodate the screws for the tool kit holder. SO..in a brilliant moment of ingenuity, i (i think it was laine's suggestion, either that or something she said that made me think of the solution..its a blur now, but she's the GIRL man) used 2 cable ties to hook up the tool kit holder to the seat. but in the course of it, i adjusted my seat...which i'm not sure if it affected by pedaling, coz it did feel weird later on during the race...but anyhow, i was good to race!

after dinner at ritz carlton, for more updates pls look to laine's blog, laine and i headed down to ngee ann poly where the race start was. it was nice to see so many familiar faces, but race start is not a good place to catch up when my equipment is not settled. sigh. anyway, race map was given out, briefing was done and shortly after, the men's category flagged off. the mixed category would only flag off 30min later.

while looking around, i quickly sized up the competition. it seems, from experience, that a podium finish would be possible, but not easy. esther was teaming up with kenneth and aloysiaus [all 3 are veteran adventure racers and very very strong runners], representing The North Face. lynda, greg and x [i didn't catch his name] were sponsored by paul to represent Hammer Nutrition. I'm not too sure abt greg and x, but i knew lynda was a very strong triathlete. came in tops in her division several times. and knowing paul, he would shortlist only good athletes. anyway, due to my off season in the past 1/2 years, i wasn't very sure about the other teams..but there could possibly be some other strong teams that i had not seen in action yet. but what i knew was to look out for the TNF and Hammer Teams.

competitors getting ready

i love that in AR, we all have our different roles and varying responsibility, it really gives you a feeling of worth...but its a paradox really. because i was slightly fazed. its wasn't my first time as navigator, but the weight of such a huge responsibility was all on me. what if i led the team to the wrong place again...what if we were in the lead but ended up lost because of a minor error? i looked at the map and saw familiar training ground. that eased my worries a little. and knowing that grace was beside me eased my fears a little. grace was to be the first aider, jon the lead runner/biker and me as navigator/bike mechanic.

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1!!! it was 1230 am on the clock

off to an easy pace...ahead of me was the team from ngee ann poly: normal, jia hui and said. i told jon and grace not to worry, they were going way too fast to sustain the pace. but i looked behind and saw that the next team, huntu huntu puteh (white ghost in malay) aka the Hammer Nutrition mixed team, was about 50m behind..were we going too fast too? but i check with jon and grace; the pace was good, we were all cruising along. slowly, we gained onto the NP team who were slowly but surely tiring out. after a good 2km, we hit the opening to the trails leading to durian loop. i was quite worried. we had just overtook the NP team at the opening, so they shouldn't be that far behind. and i knew that the Hammer team was just slightly behind us..but why we were in the dark jungle alone. it was silent and dark all around, which meant no teams were behind us for quite a distance. anyway, it was a familiar route, so we just whacked the trails..and finally we hit Check Point 1 (jalan kampong chantek - via rifle range road) and another short run later was CP2 (dairy farm road bridge). it was a rope ladder up to the bke exit towards dairy farm road. jon flew up the ladder and while grace was 1/2 way up, we saw the hammer team come in. where was the np team or the north face team.

after climbing the rope we run down diary farm road and headed towards the MOE Diary Farm Adventure Center. at long last, actually only about 10km, we hit CP3 (jalan asas - rail mall) which was the bike section. so we zoomed past a couple of men's teams, much to their amazement [is that the mixed team?]. it was at this point of time that we hit our first minor problem. somehow or another, we missed a turning and ended up on a trail that was going on the opposite direction. and we collided, thankfully not physically, into the hammer team and we followed them up the trail. so it was jon, hammer team, me then grace. as we spinned our pedals up the hill, i lost track of grace, who was out of sight. jon hit CP3A (dairy farm quarry) first, got out race passport but was denied up the abseil track because the hammer team objected violently that our team was incomplete. so greg from the hammer team left for the abseil first and as joanne asked us where our 3rd member was, i turned back and saw that bike light approaching. i calmly told her, grace is here..and zoomed went off jon to tackle the steep up-slope. to my surprise, jon came down the abseil first - damn, he is fast, and we grabbed our bikes and continued our bike section. we were really confident about this section since we had only met up to do some off-road night biking the night before, and it was the exact same trail. so after a super duper fun night bike, we hit CP4 (zhenghua/mandai) which was team biathlon. 1 person to bike while the other 2 were to run. we had discussed this earlier and decided to use the leapfrog method. person with bike to continue biking for a minute, then drop off the bike. 1st runner to run pass the bike, 2nd runner to pick it up and cycle for a minute before dropping it for the runner. CP4A was zhenghua park, the 3 of us had to scramble down a short rock valley and climb back up...i had the 'honour' of carrying ruth down and up since i was with her..but it was great fun.

at this point of time, i felt like my legs were going to cramp. shit. i have no idea why - but i realised i always cramp when i transit from run to kayak or from bike to run. anyway, jon realised that i was suffering and so, in a spirit of great teamwork, he sacrificed a number of turns on the bike so i can recover while riding. and i did a SUPER horrible thing. i left the bike for him at a super steep up-slope. ooops. anyway, we reached the end of the biathlon, which was about 7km. and i saw Hammer HEED! i happily drink a few cups and filled up my water bottle with it. i needed the electrolytes. fed some to jon and then i realized something! my saddle was loose; and we had another bout of trail biking left. so i adjusted my seat post while jon signed us out. damn. was quite gan cheong because on our loop back to the CP, we saw the hammer team just a couple of minutes behind us. and chee meng was happily making fun of me - "wah, you see, adjusting of seat post during race leh, not many teams can do...only the top mixed team can!". and i know the photographer did snap alot of pictures of me doing it. anyway, it was finally done and we headed to cp 5, mandai track 15.

nothing beats the speed of going downhill on the trails. the feeling of control, the delicate balance between braking and going fast, the positioning of the weight as you get thrown off course by the sudden pothole or the jutting stone or worse - rock, and the constant fear of that loud 'pop' which would signify a "10min pit stop"; without the luxury of a pit crew. voices loom all around - warning others about the upcoming branch, steep downhill, pothole etc. the exhilaration. the mental alertness. the eye focusing on nothing else but the beam of light just 7m ahead, straining to give the brain enough time to react accordingly. the reaction of the body almost instantaneous. . a state of calmness in a world of chaos.

ruth waiting patiently for us to sign out of CP9A

we hit the next CP 5A, which was a mini activity. we deposited our bikes before we were told to drag a tire for a 1km loop. by this time of the race, i was gone. my cramps were on and off. my muscles were tensing up in different places - places that i never knew existed. i kid you not. i attempted to drag the tire, but clever jon just picked it up and ran ahead with it. i struggled behind...we completed the loop and set off for a short 8km run before we would see our bikes again. throwing all ego aside, i asked jon if he could tow me. he agreed and i happily hooked on. after awhile, jon passed the tow over to grace. so between the 2 of them, i made it to the canel; amidst a couple of stops to stretch. we ran along the train tracks. sorry. we ran on the train tracks, which was quite fun. but the uneven ground proved to be a challenge to my recovering legs. i was using the different muscles to compensate for the uneven ground. and so i had to slow my speed. jon and grace were ahead about 50m. i studied the map again. and i realized that following the train track would not be the best course of route since it would make a right bend away from CP6 (kranji loop). i recalled joanne saying something about canal. but where was it? then it dawned on me that the canal was on our left, behind the tall mountain of grass and soil. i shouted to jon and grace and we bashed up the mini-mount. ta daa..there was the canal, and slightly more even trail. all this while, i was looking behind to see if there were any other teams. nil. phew.

finally civilization was in sight. we got onto our bikes and flew to CP8 (seremban scouts camp), not before hitting CP7 (lim chu kang lane 3) of course. and did i mention that jon was FAST on the bike. so we happily drafted him. i think we were going about 40km/hr. towards the end, i very nearly died. but it was a refreshing (for lack of better words) change to a short run to command center. we received our next instructions - proceed to CP9 (No.19 LCK lane 9A), catch 3 fishes (yellow, white and orange tail) and return back. at CP9, i was quite surprised to see Team Hammer Nutrition (men's category). wah. we made up that much time against them, although they had a 30min headstart. anyway, we left the checkpoint at the same time and proceeded on to the next and final course of the race. orienteering - CP 10, 11, 12 & 13 (in no particular order). apparently we had some miscommunication with the officials. jon asked if we could use our bikes, then this lady said there's no need. and when we went to CP13 (Jalan Bahere) first which was 100m away from the camp entrance, the marshal asked us where our bikes were. we were like..WHAT?! anyway, we cleared cp 13 finally, amidst some uncertainty (my compass went ku ku..maybe there were lots of magnetic interference) and the many different tracks seemingly leading to the CP. anyway, when we finally came into the camp, we saw Adventure in Motion (Kim Hong, Alvin and Hairul) leaving. my guess is that they came in tops and were leaving for another race. they said jia you and that we were the 3rd mixed team in. i was slightly worried. but what else could we do, just do our best lor. so we did CP 10, which was a series of obstacle course which ended up in a slide down the infamous milo pond aka mud pool. raced back to command center, went for CP 11 which was a 20m double rope ascend. NOT an easy feat. i knew in my condition i was not in the condition to do, although i had probably the most experience and may have been the quickest up (in prime condition). i felt that grace could do it. what she lacked in strength (compared to jon), she made up in experience. her start was frantic. maybe it was the rustiness of not doing ropes for some time, but after that, she went up beautifully. and may i add very quickly indeed. 1 cp down, another to go behind the end of the race. cp12, a simple scale up a 2m wall. easy peas. after which the 3 of us, hand in hand, finished the race. my goodness. what a race it was.

we saw no other mixed teams. a confirmation from ivy told us that we won! hooray to SART. i was so damn proud of SART, considering that we were out of the field for quite some time, and now we've proven ourselves better and faster than other more experienced and stronger team. Team SART/Golite definitely came up tops not because we were faster or stronger, but because we had hell of teamwork going on. thank you jon. thank you grace. it was fantastic racing with you guys. anytime. anywhere. i'll race with you. my promise to you is that i'll train! maybe it'll be my turn to tow you guys the next time round...

SART reigns once again - 1st in Mixed Category

catching up with other racers and race volunteers - one of the best part of AR
all part of the AR family

special thanks to laine who drove around making sure we were all fueled by HEED. and also for staying out, waiting for us at the campsite (although she finally succumbed to the sleepmonster), and driving me back home. i love you dear. thank you for being there.

2008-10-12T01:42:00.000-07:00

I LOVE ELAINE!!!!!!

ever wanted to be a superhero?

2008-10-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

ever since i was young, i always wanted to be a superhero. it was this childhood dream of saving people. i think at one point of time, every boy had that dream...maybe girls do too.

but obviously i grew up realizing that i did not possess any super powers. sigh. nor was i smart enough to come up with some devices to help me save the world (like batman), nor rich enough to hire someone to do R&D (like ironman), nor agile enough (like spiderman)...in short, i was doomed to a life of normalcy.

but during my 1st 3 months in Outram Institute, i came across my first blood donation drive. it was there that i realized it was my chance to save people! in a small little way. but i always hated the fact that i'm B+ (the most common bloodtype) and not O+ or A type...one saves everyone, the other in very limited supply. sigh.

in the past few years that i've been actively donating apheresis, i've tried to psych people to donate too. but the most common reasons for not donating is that they're scared of the pain...

i really hate to say this..but its such a selfish excuse! we all are scared of pain, who isn't? but if you can endure that ant bite (just for a tiny fraction of a second), you can save the life of someone who needs your blood. what if that person is a loved one, and the only blood that can save him/her is yours...would you hesitate to save him/her?

moreover, whole blood donation can only be done every 3 months, which means, even if you are regular, you can donate only 4 times per year! which is not that bad right..

in a world or even a society like singapore, its easy to have our prejudice against certain groups of people, and i think sometimes that hinders our ability to love them and care for them. take for example, i've never been very keen to care for the elderly because there's a communication barrier (maybe its an excuse), my chinese is substandard, and my dialect repertoire is non-existent...

and therein lies the beauty of blood-donation - the blood does not discriminate between sex, race, religion, language or even age.

in most, if not all, cases, the donors do not even meet the people they donated to..so there is definetely no 'rewards' to be seeked, so they are free of the accusation that its all about the rewards...

for me, i walk away after every donation with the simple satisfaction that i have done a little something to prolong the life of another human being. and that's enough.

Why Blood Donors are Highly Sought After. (taken from HSA website)
Blood contains many life-saving components that can help to treat different illnesses and injuries. For many people, blood donors are their life-line.

Your blood donation could help save the life of an accident victim, a patient with severe anemia, a person undergoing major surgery or even a newborn baby.

The platelets found in blood are used to treat leukemia patients. A single patient often needs platelets from 10 or more donors, all within a short period of time. Add to that the short 5-day lifespan of donated platelets, and you can understand why there is a constant need for platelet donors.

Every hour of the day, 15 units of blood are used in Singapore. We need to collect at least 350 units a day, as a whopping 90,000 units are needed in a year, just to meet the transfusion needs of patients in Singapore.

And with an aging population and more sophisticated medical procedures, the demand of blood is increasing.

visiting hours

2008-10-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

the past 2 days hasn't been easy for me. many things have happened that has taken its toil on me; physically exhausted, mentally exacted and emotionally drained.

one of the main concerns, which has since manifested itself physically, [think the CF-ers, laine, sammie and ah hui can all testify to that] is about my grandma. she was hospitalized the previous night for severe pain in her arm, chest and back. apparently it has been going on for the past 2 weeks; and she has since went to a doctor trice and a tcm practitioner twice, and it was just unbearable on tues night. so my parents rushed her to the hospital. and to top it off, she vomited a couple of times.

when first visited her on wed late morning, i walked in to the ward, walked towards the bed but i very nearly walked away again. i couldn't recognise the woman on the said bed! no way did she look like my grandmother. the woman on the bed was so frail looking, so tiny and so weak...that was not my grandmother. but that lady turned around, and i finally recognized her. it really pained me to see her like this. i was scared. i know it's a morbid thought, and probably worry blown out of proportion, but i was just so scared of losing her.

haix. doesn't help that i'm seldom home the past few weeks/months..and when i'm home, i'm just so tired and when she asks me relentless questions that sometimes seem so redundant and out of point that i get so irritated. i see now its just her way of communicating with her grandson. i know she loves me. i do hope she knows i love her too. when i came to her bed, i instinctively reached out for her hand, and so did she for mine. it happened between my grandfather and i a few months back..and its weird, because at home, there is seldom any physical interaction between my grandparents and i. sometimes i wished they were in hospital more, because its a time for me to hit the refresh button - all irritation disappears and patience gets refilled..and most importantly, i am reminded how much i love my grandparents. in addition, i get to hold them. last but not least..they can see how much i love them by the intentional visits..its just so different to show my love for them at home.

i just pray i have the patience to talk to them. and for the courage to hold and hug them out of the blue..[though i think i might just trigger a heart attack...]

when i saw her 11am that day, and later on at 1230am...she was having the same complaint - she was hungry and thirsty, but she was denied food and drink because she was supposed to clear her stomach for a GSO (i hope i didn't get that wrong, but basically they'll stick something into her stomach to see if there's anything wrong.) i was half angry with the hospital; i understand that things happen, but can't you see how painful it is for an old lady to go through the entire day without food. and my grandma loves food. and its even more painful for a loved one to see her like this and can do nothing about it. apparently what happened was that they didn't allow her food from the time she was hospitalised until the next day coz she was scheduled for the GSO, but it was later postponed because the doctor wasn't free. and by dinner, she was so hungry that she wasn't hungry..but later on, the hunger came again, and it seems absurd that the nurse thinks that a couple of packets of biscuits and a cup of milk would suffice for a lady who had no solid food nor drink for 24hours. i understand she did all she could, and that she had a time restriction (apparently the doc instructed that my grandma's no food/drink policy started at 12am), but its really heart-wrenching to hear my grandma beg for water. not once, but trice in the short 20mins that i was there.

i apologize to those whom was affected by my silence but i was really quite worried and affected by all that has happened.

to end off the whole saga, my grandma was discharged this evening..so she's finally home. i think my grandpa is happy too.

another morbid thought came into my mind this morning - i have a stinking feeling that if i should lose one grandparent...my other grandparent will follow soon after. the 2 of them are so dependent on each other. grandpa knows not one medicine to the next, he uses grandma as a walking aid and she's the only person who can really take his nonsense. but at the same time, both of them are kind of xiang yi wei ming. one would be so lonely without the other. in the day, the house is so empty because parents and char are working, ben and i are schooling...there is no one to talk to them..but then again, even when we are home, there isn't much communication between us too. hai.

if you could, please just pray with me that my grandparents will come to know His love...i love them too much to lose them for all eternity..

grandpa, grandma and grandaunt (grandpa's sworn sis..i think)
in happier times

desaru long distance triathlon

2008-10-07T02:06:00.000-07:00

ok. i've been bugged to update more. so now since i'm in the mood and have 30mins to spare, share post about my previous race: Desaru International Long Distance 2008.

2 km swim, 90km bike, 21km run

overall feeling quite satisfied, considering the circumstances, even though it is definitely not my PB* (personal best).

* 2006 race - 11th position, swim: 00:50 bike: 3.10 run:1.25. Total time of 5:25

anyway, so this is the result for this year's race.

57th position, swim: 0:49:09, bike: 3:44:51, run: 2:33:34. Total time of 7:07:34

haa..seems pretty shameless for me to post my super lousy timing up but heck, i'm pretty happy with it cause my swim seems to have improved. although the timing is the same, but i was really boxed in pretty badly this year. couldn't get myself free at all...and the current was really strong. and best of all, i came out strong. i wasn't tired after the 2km swim.

just 1 in a hundreds

next section was the bike leg..considering i was using Ruth, my trusty fiery hot mountain bike with normal mtb tires, i am superbly happy. i didn't come in last for the bike leg (which means i won many road bikers..bleah). i think it may have helped that i adjusted my seat post to be higher than usual, thus giving me better transfer of power to the pedaling. i loved the feeling of going upslope and overtaking the roadies, but sigh, when downhill or on the flats, there was no way i could keep up. it was a matter of machine, and not man. oh well. it was great training anyway. love that feeling. anyway, as far as i remember, i was panting slightly and had slight cramps coming up when i finished, but overall i was still feeling good for the run.

my first wife, Ruth

shoot and bike

the most sucky part of the race. i mentioned earlier how the adjusting of the seat post helped in the bike, but it totally killed me in the run. i think because i wasn't used to it, my itb was strained real bad. just 3km into the run, the itb just gave way. it was way too freaking pain. i seriously had a good mind to quit. after all, i wanted to keep my reputation. but part of me was telling myself that i'm no quitter and thank God, because i saw this really huge guy walking past me. he is seriously over weight, and he can't really run, so he just finishes the race by brisk walking. and i told myself...if he is not quitting despite his difficulties, why should i? so i painfully caught up with him, and told him that he was my inspiration! so we half jogged, half hobbled and half walked the rest of the 21km route. but towards the last 7km, i grew really really disheartened. i was taking way tooooo long for a 21km run. normally i could finish it in 1hr 30min (maybe)..but this walk was just draggy. so i sucked up all my pain, applied as much deep heat to my itb and just jogged/stride to the finishing point. see the pain inscribed in my face in the pic below. i tell you it was really no joke. anyway, imagine my delight and surprise when the german/big size guy came to me at the end of the race and told me that i was his inspiration coz he saw how much pain i was in and pushed myself..so he also jogged the rest of the way back..

that's what i love about sports, athletes inspiring each other to perform their very best. beautiful. just beautiful.

running injuries sucks

a big thanks to cat who helped massaged my itb despite it being super sweaty, dirty and hairy, without whom i would not have recovered as fast as i would have liked. that's what i was able to relax the next day...haa.

a well-deserved break

and not forgetting laine...

the love of my life
a.k.a p.a, photographer, cheerleader, support crew etc..

now that i've completed 2 long distance triathlons, aka half-ironman, i am thinking of going for a full one next feb. the one in langkawi. hmm..roadie or mtb. that's the question. hmm...

a long awaited union

2008-10-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

for the longest time, i've been waiting for 5oct to come. it was such an anticipated wedding. not mine, nor that of a well-known celebrity, but that of 2 friends - chris and weifang, or better known as fanny.

i've known the couple for nearly 4 years now. we've been through some really good times and some difficult times. but i thank God for bringing them into my life.

anyway, this couple first met in a diving trip in pulau aur..and the rest is kinda history. haa. [that's really short and sweet huh]. highlight of their relationship would probably be the high attitude proposal, where he carried a very heavy ring up to Low's Peak, one of 4 peaks of mount kindabalu where he popped the question; and touched + surprised beyond any words, she agreed. haa. did i mention that she loves trekking? really sweet and romantic of uncle chris huh..

the proposal

the proposer and the proposed

and so after, the ROM was set a few months later, on 7th July 2007. it was a simple affair, causal yet elegant in its own way. it was also one of the few times that majority of the SART people were around...

kong and esther couldn't make it. but see pauline? she's on the phone with grace

the couple [oops. wrong one]

the real couple

so, just 2 months ago, chris smsed the SART guys and asked if we can be his xiong di. i got to confessed, i was supremely happy and honoured to be part of his party...though i felt quite useless and inadequate. haa. i'm the youngest, most inexperienced and can't drink for shit person in the team. oh well..

5th Oct started with me waking up late, at 6.45am. thank God i packed everything the night before, so i just rushed off to drop the van at fanny's house, and cabbed down to chris' house. and guess what? i left my camera in the cab...but THANK GOD i managed to retrieve it in the evening, thanks to the honest cab-driver.

once everyone reached, and a few hundred photo shots later, the team started its 6km journey from redhill close to holland dr..it was super talk cock and racing up slopes..but we all enjoyed the ride there..and upon reaching our destination, we were greeted by the brother-in-law and the jie meis..who received our ang pao but demanded that chris choose a number 1 or 2. chris chose 2, which crystal responded with a "good for you" kind of laugh. i felt relieved. we later realised that the 2 meant that we would have 2 dices...which chris would have to roll. after much shaking and rolling in a super professional looking die container (for lack of a better noun), a grand total of THREE was rolled. this time round, crystal had a 'i can't believe your luck" kind of laugh. it was soon revealed that we were to start climbing up to the 22nd floor from the THIRD floor. i can't believe chris' luck! imagine if he threw one die and hit one. *faint*

anyway, to explain the following event, i must back track slightly. chris and fanny decided not to have a studio shoot and instead hired a photographer and video-grapher to record the entire day's event. so in preparation to the video montage for the evening, he wanted us to enter the life with our racing attire, but exit in our formal attire...[obviously we weren't going to change inside, but we wanted to make it seem so..so we had to take 2 shots, the before and after]. yup, so after the rolling of the die, the 9 of us, still in our racing attire, dashed into the lift [on excuse of film purposes] and waved bye to the jie meis who looked at us in astonishment. xiong di 1 - jie meis 0. we had cleared the first hurdle.

the second hurdle was easy too. each of us had a gift. and we were to use/put it on. each of us had some funny party disguises and we were to get 3 signatures from people living in the block. easy peasy. a mother and son + a random grandmother. we just explained that they had to sign or the groom couldn't get married. settled in 3 minutes. i kid you not. haa. helps that we were all not self-conscious and supremely thick-skinned.

last assignment for us was to fish our the gate key from a tray of flour, without the use of hands. lien attempted to cheat, but crystal preempt him and got another jie mei to hold his hands. so the smart scholar 'accidentally' flipped the tray over and ta daaa...there was the key in plain sight! haa. we would have gotten off clean but the jie meis obviously had other ideas with the semi-wet flour. and erm..crystal got it too. oops. for being mean to the xiong dis. haa.

on a side note, its a pity ian (below), mike, pauline and fuxy were not able to come. hai. i miss the 4 of them, but at least i'm still able to see the 3 of them..coz all that's left of him are photos and memories...

ok, its been a pretty long post. i will update the photos (when i get them for the couple who has just left for nepal for their honeymoon), and the wedding dinner (i have to leave for class now) tonight...

change

2008-09-08T04:13:00.001-07:00

why are inmates forced to shave?
i may be wrong, but it is to enforce discipline right...
maybe i need a little discipline in my life.

and doesn't a shaved head to imply reform.
maybe i need to be in reform too.

that are just 2 reasons...but the gist of it all is - i need some changes in my life. and i don't mean just physically.

do i suck?

2008-09-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

when someone says i suck, this is how i would reply.
a: you suck leh
sam: actually i don't really use a straw. do you use a straw?
a: yes i do
sam: and how do you use a straw?
a: i suck...

lesson learnt --> be environmentally friendly - don't use straws, or you'll be a sucker for life.

standing in unity, not division.

2008-09-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

just came back from National Conference 08 and it has been a good time - good, not as in it was super fun [ok, not saying it wasn't] but good as in it was a very good experience.
one of the biggest lessons i've learnt is that the world is just so much bigger than the world around me. all my educational life, i hardly had the chance to meet people from differnet language or enthnic group.
i grew up in a sep sch - Maris Stella High School, both pri and sec, which meant i did not have any malay or indian friends while growing up..and when i went aj, the entire odac was all chinese, and my class was all chinese too but one - hajar. we were in the same clique, but i guess at that point in time, i was already too sheltered and scared to initate a deeper relationship other then what was comfortable. and when i went serve my ns, it was 140+ chinese and about 5 indians only. so guess who i stuck with.
anyway, how many of us are too comfortable in our comfort zone? we happily stay in our churches, worshiping in our own language. or perhaps we get too narrow-minded in our denominations? somehow, sub-consciously, we forget that God's world is much larger than what we see. I thank God for Christian Fellowship. it offered me a glimpse of His world, one where people can worship and study the bible together with one purpose - because we love Him. for once we forget that we come from different denominations, and we get to know people from different church background and realize...we are not that different after all.
and i thank God for NC. being in the com added a whole new dimension once again. just as one part of my wall was demolished, God started to break down another. now, language and culture is not such a big issue anymore. yes, we might be limited by the language or culture barrier, but we are drawn together by a more significant similarity - we are all God's people and we seek to love and know Him.
somehow, i think God is speaking [not audibly] to me. when i first took office in exco, i shared that it has been too long that people [Christians and pre-believers] in campus has seen Campus Crusade, Navigators and Christian Fellowship as 3 different organizations. And now, after NC, i am even more convinced that
Many have asked...What is the difference between the three organization? Now with my new insight, when people ask me that question, i will ask them, "why don't you ask what is the similiarity?" yes i may be skirting the issue, but i think we need to start educating people that we are all one body in christ. we stand united in him, not divided. we merely are different body parts of the same body, doing different jobs, but orchestrated by one.

on a side note: blogging is not easy. i wish i can just transfer my thoughts into the blog, because it is not easy to translate my thoughts into words. its something that i have always struggled with. how can i verbalise my thoughts that people can understand what i am saying, without misunderstanding...

an extremely good question

2008-08-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

first and foremost, million thanks to the wonderful person who spent much time and effort to do up this blog. she single handedly searched through the designs, thought of the username, came up with the blog address etc. kudos to Miss Tan Peiyin Elaine. seasoned blog users may think that it is a simple job, but to me, it is a feat. i admit this much - i would never have been able to get this blog running. firstly, i lack the technical know-how, and secondly, because i am lazy.

so the question is, now that there is a blog, what will the content consist of?