Happy New Year 2009

To start off a blog entry it's always appropriate to start with a greeting, eh? I wish you guys a Happy Lunar New Year 2009!

It's just crazy this season. We started off 2009 on 1st January with an economic downturn, and now people are complaining about the high prices set during the Chinese New Year season. Still, monetary crises aren't gonna stop us from celebrating - life still has to go on. At the very most, we don't celebrate New Year with that much goodies this year.

But for us Christians we have much more reason to celebrate, amen? Pastor Bennett made a very good point over why the streets are red in colour - the red signifies the blood of Jesus shed for all mankind, bringing a new meaning of which it means Christians ought to celebrate more during this New Year season - we rejoice over this gift of salvation that God has given to us, the same thing that money cannot buy, nor can be earned by any means of human effort.

Then again, if salvation could be earned through human merit, Christ wouldn't have had to die on the cross for us(Galatians 2:21)!

Slept at 2.30am last night, why? Mom came home at 10pm, and went to the night market to grab whatever's left of the freshest choice meat, veg and other quality food, getting ready for a reunion steamboat today, and I was to be there to lend my hands for that. By that time, I was dead tired, but thank God I'm doing this for Him - wasting no time in waking up early and going to church with one sole purpose of singing praises and thanks to my Lord and receiving His word of the day.

Of course, I can't please everyone by going to church during this season, so I'd rather please my God than please men. Makes things more convenient - pleasing one God with one complete and wonderful purpose for my life versus pleasing many people with many conflicting ideas.

About high time

So, it's been a long time since I last wrote anything on this blog. A lot of things have been going on recently, such as trying to get over the natural disappointment and the occasional chide of me getting bad O Level results. Well, at least I've made it to a junior college(JC) - that's what everyone is trying to tell me.

So, how badly did I do? An L1R5 score of 15, how's that for a start? It ain't bad, but it ain't good either, so I'm stuck on no-man's land: Out of all the JCs of choice, only 6 are available for me, and only Meridian JC and Tampines JC are at East Singapore, nearer to where I live. To be honest, the only problem that stands before me is the problem of transportation.

They say that taxi drivers' children get free transport to school everyday. I think not - Dad's always too busy out there at work, trying to make ends meet. Thing is, I think he's only trying to make HIS OWN ends meet instead of contributing money for family expenses. So far, only Mom's giving me pocket money because he's always not at home - see the problem there?

Not that I'm deprived of fatherly love or some sort of mumbo-jumbo - I have learnt to draw strength from my Heavenly Father, so who's to say that I'm not having a Father who cares for my every need in my life?

Results and family matters aside, it's finally good to go back to school again - no more crappy lifestyle of being a couch potato, and freedom to roam around Singapore as and when I have the time. Meanwhile, things that the Lord have taught me during this few months of free time have begun to make a lot more sense by the day, and someday I might just share them right here - my blog - so stay tuned!

Greenhorn fisherman

Been taking up time trying to figure how to fish since the January 2nd. It's a really cool thing, I tell you. As for how I took up this new sport, it's quite peculiar actually.

Since last year I have been hearing Uncle Daniel and his two kids Theudas and Thaddeus talking about the big fish they caught at a kelong(offshore fishing village) and the details were enticing. After that I was telling Uncle Kelvin whether we should join them and take up fishing. To make things better - the new fishing equipment store that took up residence beside my mom's workplace - the furniture shop - sparked my uncle's interest. Along with Uncle Steven's fishing history, we had a 3-man team among us. One with money, one with experience and one with brains, so to speak.

Then on 2nd January, Uncle Kelvin woke me up in my 12-hour slumber to tell me of his plans to go fishing that day. At first I thought he wasn't serious: normally he would try to find some excuse to get me excited about the day and get out of bed whenever he could help it. So, I went along and saw them going to Changi Village to get the equipment. We got fishing lines, rod and things like floats and weights, and so we set off.


"I'm still waiting for the fish!"

After buying the fishing equipment, we went ahead to fish, first at the nearest known place possible - Pasir Ris beach. Bought large earthworms for bait, only to find that there wasn't anything there at all. Except for this little bugger below.



I don't know what kind of fish is this bugger over here, but it's my first catch. In fact, the only catch that I got on 2nd January. Wasted a whole load of bait just to catch this bugger that was less than a handspan. Don't get tricked by the zoom - this is just a small fish.

It soon dawned on us that the fishing hooks that we got off the fella at Changi Village was too big to fish such small fry in Singapore. After that we went ahead to try our luck on Sunday, 4th January.


"Fisherman's Paradise. Quick, get me the camera so I can take this down."

And so we went for the Bedok jetty, near Carpark F1, East Coast Park. See the crowd - there must be some big fish or pretty good catch that day, so we settled for a whole of 5 hours. And sure enough, God made sure our patience didn't go to waste - we caught a dozen fish, without any bait, just some fluorescent nylon string tied onto the hooks so that it looks like small fry for the fish to take the bite.

As for how we got the small baitless hooks, we saw an old man beside us shaking his fishing rod up and down. For a while we thought he was trying to be funny, doing such rigorous movement. After we saw him dragging a big catch of 2 to 3 small fish at a time we went ahead to ask him what kind of bait he used. Interestingly enough he showed us his small fishing hooks, so of course we asked him where he got the hooks from. Kind, respectable uncle sold us 2 sets of fishing lines, ready-made with nylon "bait" and small hooks, with weights.

So, just as we were trying to use mealworms instead of earthworms for deep-sea fishing, we found that we needed no bait - and boy, the catch was exciting every time there was a big tug. To keep a long story short, we got to keep our good catch.


"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."

Count it, there's 12, no doubt.



Of course, God was with us the whole of 4th January. First it was the Covenant service that we had in the morning to renew our covenant with God for the new year, and in the afternoon, we went fishing, which of course beats wasting their money on tombola trips periodically every week, which I reckon is technically gambling. At least fishing gives experience and fish - it's a win-win situation everytime.

And did I mention that after fishing, we couldn't find a seat at all at the nearby hawker centre? God gave us a seat at one of the barbecue pits within sight of the hawker centre, so we were able to settle down there and eat. With char-siew noodles, sliced fruit and quietness beside the shore for a decent dinnerplace, what more can we ask for?

New Year resolutions, anyone?

Well, we can't run away from it. It's already here, so might as well decide for ourselves what we want to be accomplished this year while it's still new eh? So, I've come up with a list of what I want accomplished this year:

1) Keep up with entertainment news.
2) Spread God's word to the ends of the earth - or at least to the ends of whatever school I end up in this year.
3) Learn the art of diplomacy.
4) Learn better time management as I go along.
5) Write a few songs.

New Year - Somehow, this year's feeling is different

This coming new year is going to be different from all the other years of my life that I've lived past, so to speak. For one, it doesn't seem much like the new year at all. Take for example, there's no more looking forward to going back to school - at least NOT YET - because JC school term doesn't start until 1st February, I was told. Also, there's other people telling me that Polytechnic students start school a lot later, which makes it all the more draggggggggyyyyyyyyyy...

Guess when the world is about to experience a second economic Great Depression, life for me follows suit - it gets ever more boring every day I stay at home waiting for my GCE O Level results to come out. To hell with the suspense of the results - just tell us the date of release, for Christ's sake. I just want to get out of the house, go to school and break this monotomy of sitting at home rotting at the sofa, being a couch potato. Can't time just past more quickly?

That being said though, I'll just worry about the grades when I receive my O Level cert. After all, each day has enough trouble of its own, so what's the point worrying about what you cannot have any control upon?

And another thing - this coming new year is what perhaps nobody is actually looking forward to, throughout the globe. Look at the economic mess that everyone has got into - shareholders, Leyman Brothers' mini-bond victims, everyone fighting tooth and nail to preserve their rice bowls, and no more splurging on "necessities" like PSPs, Nintendo DSes, even MP3 players.

Even the thrifty people aren't spared at all. Just when I was about to make plans to buy myself some expensive gadget like a DS or just a cheap and decent MP3 player, the economic crisis struck - and sometimes I wonder why I went about so much effort to save money when I can't even spend it on my own stuff in the end after all. Maybe God wants me to start saving for the many more rainy days to come, I guess...

Simply put - the moving on to 2009 isn't anything grand after all, it's just a continuation of the troubles we are currently facing in 2008. Therefore, I don't see much reason to celebrate after all, apart from the hope that when worse situations come, we see more of Christ's glory made manifest in carrying us through those tougher circumstances.

Hence, a short message to those fortunate enough to read this entry - I urge you to place your hopes, aspirations, pain, worries, everything on Jesus this year, for he is saying today, "Come to me, all ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."(Matthew 11:28)

Uncle Daniel's House Party - a Christmas party before Christmas Eve

Yep, I gotta catch my breath these few days after Christmas events, so I haven't been updating this blog lately, so it appears dead - but not anymore. Fresh new content coming up next year, so stay tuned.

Or maybe you guys wouldn't have to wait for so long after all...

Anyways, on 23rd December 2008 Uncles Kelvin and Steven and I went to Uncle Daniel's house for a celebration for the successful performance at the Peerless Name Jesus Christmas Dinner '08. We waited until around 9.30pm for everyone to reach there so that we can start the "debriefing" and comment on our performance. The consensus was this: we couldn't have done it without Jesus Christ, our common Lord and Saviour, helping us behind the scenes and putting everything in order with our common prayers. Now THAT's one spirit, one mind, and one common faith being manifest in us, namely:

• Jesus Christ - the one keeping us together in one piece and one mind, making miracles out of situations that seemed impossible beforehand, and teaching us along the practice periods and holding our hands throughout the stage fright period.
• Uncle Daniel and Auntie Norines - for organising our group for the dance item.
• Uncles Kelvin and Steven, Brothers Maran and Chris as well as Theudas - for being the ones out there doing the meat of the dance
• Sisters Osheana and Shirleen - for endless behind-the-scenes moral support, and providing invaluable suggestions throughout the dance practices.
• Thaddeus, Malcolm and Brother Maran's new daughter, born during the crisis of the group, when our group was about to buckle under the pressure and hiccups here and there - for providing comic relief when everyone was stressed up about the performance and being endlessly attacked by Satan via problems and circumstances that came out of the blue.
• Any other people who helped behind the scenes that I forgot to mention in this list of credits.

So, with all the problems that happened beforehand, and the startling comeback that we did in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, this was no doubt reason enough of celebration because of His grace and faithfulness to see us through till the very end and beyond. And boy, did we enjoy this party, of course!

Just look at the spread, haha.

From top left to right: roti jala, mutton curry, roast turkey, sliced-'n'-spiced chicken franks.
From bottom left to right: chocolate pastry(I don't know what's that thing-a-ma-jig called), pork knuckle, and steamed butter rice.
As for the milk bottle, I don't know how it ended up there - probably it's meant for Brother Maran's new baby daughter(I still haven't asked what's her name).

Of course, we wouldn't possibly forget starting the whole party singing praises and worshipping Him, right? So we sprang into action and had a great time indeed.



Brother Chris and me, holding the guitar, posing for a photo impromptu.

And just after dinner Uncle Steven's birthday was announced - on 23rd December 2008 - perfect timing! Uncle Daniel got us a Christmas log cake for us to share, which doubled as a celebration for Uncle Steven's birthday, and boy, that was truly Christmas, considering that God made the events fall onto place: Celebration and debriefing of the Christmas Dinner'08 dance item, celebration of Uncle Steven's birthday, and early celebration for Christmas at Uncle Daniel's house.



Christmas Log Cake, aka Uncle Steven's Birthday Cake. Good stuff!

Sweet stuff for a Sweet and Merry Christmas. Perfect. I was told to eat a whopping three thick slices just after eating a whole lot of stuff, so I did - and being the first to eat the Christmas turkey stuffing, which nobody in the house ever noticed until I told them, I was fully stuffed like the turkey I ate. I hope they're not thinking of using ME as next year's Christmas TURKEY? Haha...

A barbecue, again

Had a barbecue today at Uncle Yiye's place, so we were to leave the house at 1.45pm to set off to his house. Before going there, we went to Shop 'n' Save because Aunt Wanyin had to buy diapers for baby Claira, so along the way we bought a bag of chips to prepare for the barbecue. Unfortunately there was just so much food for the barbecue that we left the chips alone. Ha, so much for wanting us to try wasabi-flavoured chips...

After hanging around at Uncle Yiye's condominium abode we went downstairs for a swim. Boy, that swim was dangerous even though it's still a 1.2m flat pool - we found a stray orange plastic container meant for a Super Soaker floating on the pool out of nowhere, and I almost slipped into the water because of a dumb transparent glass marble at the pool floor!

Anyways, we hung around the pool for a while more until the barbecue started, since for the rest of the day we had nothing else to do. Then we had this problem here: the delivery for the barbecue food didn't arrive until 6pm, when the scheduled time was supposed to be 5.30pm. So, we started behind time and the fire was started. While trying to dispose of the excess burning material, we accidentally burnt a hole through the dustbin bag - luckily for us, that bin was made of fireproof plastic so we didn't damage any property. Wow, even soft drinks can put out fires, man...

Despite that, it was still worthwhile the trip anyway - we went back with full stomachs, and excess food to take home too.

Blog wipe - getting ready for the new year!

New skin, new look, and new stuff coming right up!

As all of you may have already noticed by now, this new skin looks more posh than the previous template I used, but there are sacrifices for this. For example, where once I put in the Anglican High School logo, and stuff like little write-ups at the side are no longer there. In its place is something more, should I say, empty space.

But there's the juice of this entire new blogskin there - I get to customise more of this blog and make it more personal than just rigid computer-generated layouts. No more plain designs anymore - life's just about to get more colourful with the modifications made on this blog!

Visitors, do tag a lot more - it seems a little empty so far, so help me bring some life into this blog, thanks in advance!

Glycemic Index - a clue to healthier eating

As always, I get stuck at home due to the bad weather outside, and because there ain't anywhere worthwhile to go without spending big money, I'm bored stiff, apart from whatever Playstation 2 and computer games are available to me while I'm still killing time during this long waiting period after the O Level major examinations.

So, I just did a little Net-surfing and found this familiar topic that appeared in the Biology textbook - the glycemic index. Basically, glycemic index isn't some complicated topic after all.

Simply put, glycemic index is a measure of how fast the carbohydrates in food are released into the bloodstream. The higher the index of a particular food, the faster the glucose derived from the digested food gets absorbed into the bloodstream. So, to quote a few examples,

Foods with high glycemic index(GI): potatoes, bread, corn flakes, sweets, cereal, etc.
Foods with low GI: foods like nuts, milk, fruit and veg., chicken and fish.

So, to ensure your blood glucose stays steady I'd suggest you eat more fruit and veg, and nuts are a good thing to snack on if you're gonna burn midnight oil. For a quick fix just grab the nearest chocolate bar. However, that doesn't mean eating nuts despite food allergies, so don't use this information provided against me when stuff like that happens, okay?

Still trying to kill time after sharing this to Netizens reading this entry.

Random doodle

Just bored over what to do, so I came up with this sketch. It looked pretty good on pencil, so I decided to improve on it by ink, and here's what I'm ending up with.

Of course there's imperfections here and there, but I guess this will have to do for now...

The hidden story behind the AHS Guitar Ensemble Farewell Chalet 2008

Just thought that if I kept this any longer in my heart I might burst anytime, so time for some serious ranting, yea? That being said though, if I have offended anyone by name or reference, I apologise in advance. So yeah, I'll go ahead with this...

When I was told of this Guitar Ensemble Farewell Chalet meant for the Secondary Fours, I already knew who was gonna come and who wasn't. Daniel and Jonathan were feeling really down and dejected because they were rejected for the Harmony 2008 Concert, so I knew what they were going through. However, I still tried to persuade them to come and join the rest of the Ensemble, to no avail, obviously. Knowing Benedict's couldn't-care-less attitude, he wouldn't even bother to come even if I tried to get him to, and he didn't come.

Great, I've been with them bass boys for the past 3 years, being looked down by Mrs NC Koh, being seen as the boys who couldn't do anything of substance within the CCA group. I was the one down there doing their dirty job of annotating the scores so they could play the bass section of the pieces, and many times I fork out their lunches and snacks out of my own pockets. This is what I got for 4 years of service in the CCA.

Thank God He sent Jacob to come for this chalet - at least I know there's someone out there who still cares for this socially-challenged senior of his.

During the first day of that farewell chalet, I was told that there wasn't any barbecue on that day itself, but rather on the next day. Of course, I was really angry at that time because it meant that I couldn't attend that barbecue due to my hip-hop dance item training and practice for the Christmas Dinner 2008 starting at 8pm the day after. The "today no barbecue" quote was already turning my stomach upside down the moment I heard it.

I was just recovering from this disappointment as the day went on, until the rest of the Secondary Four batch went for the movies without me. Hell, nobody even told me that they were wearing the batch tees and they just up and went for the movie marathon without asking me along at all! So naturally, being the only Secondary Four boy among the entire girl-dominated batch there, I felt left out. What to do while they were out at the movies? I stayed with the juniors, playing cards and behaving immaturely just to fit in.


The next day, after hitting Li Pin's mouth with the "ball", which was actually a soap bar, by mistake due to some rough Captain's Ball playing, I felt really bad. I actually injured a girl, and the guilt made the day worse, and after being told off by her I stayed my distance from Li Pin, just so that she might feel better with my brief absence. Hell, if you guys performed friendly fire in the middle of a rough game, you'd understand why I did that.

After buying drinks for a parched Guitar Ensemble, a familiar voice shouted out from the crowd: "Aaron, I forgive you!" That forgiveness made me ponder about some things much later. However at that moment I dared not look back at her. I just didn't dare to - I didn't, and still don't know why.

Despite being forgiven I still felt lousy for the day - and the rain had to spoil early barbecue. Two ladies were cooking at our pit just before the rains came - I wrote about this before in the previous posts. And I was later called back to the Secondary Fours' room in the chalet and told about some admin issues the Secondary Three committee were lacking on and mistakes they made, and I was to be there for a, supposedly, Secondary Four batch photo.

Apparently I don't think I was supposed to be part of it from the start. I was about to join in the photo-taking, but one of them said it was only for the girls, so what was I to do, being the sole minority there? I stood as I watched them take some photos and decided this wasn't getting anywhere, so I got out of that place.

Good riddance, I thought. I didn't belong there anyway. Uncle Steven came at the right time - at 7.30pm. The rain was so heavy that day that the barbecue failed anyway, so in a way I was delivered from a situation whereby everything looked really bad and hopeless, to a community who was working towards one common goal - to spread His name to the rest of a portion of the Singaporean community and to raise funds for the church building in the name of Jesus, via doing our part in preparing an English Congregation dance item for "Peerless Name Jesus" Christmas Dinner 2008.

After all of that was over, I sat back in the room to think about why all that happened, still bearing hidden grudges and things. She might have said that just to make me feel better at that moment, but if she can forgive me for what I did to her, why can't I do the same to those around me, just like how Christ has forgiven those who believe in Him?

Yeah, maybe it's time to just put aside all that ostracism and get on with life, as it is with Jesus around.

To put it in a dramatic sense, God delivered me out of all that anger and frustration and changed all that into devotion and concentration in the item. And there I found my solace - no more loneliness in Him, no more need for needless explosions of anger. And I'm still holding onto His promise that He will never leave nor forsake me. come hell or high water.

Let Christ be the Lord of your life and everything within

Just a few months after I first got into church, I was introduced to a cell group which I now attend, and the members of this cell group are very fervent for the Lord, and these are the same people I have come to see as exemplary models of what a life with Jesus Christ should be like. It was also in this cell group that I've first heard of this story that Brother Arulkumar has shared with me earlier this year. Pondering about random stuff, this story came abruptly into my mind, and therefore, learning that blessings are to be shared with everyone else, I've decided to retell this short story in this blog entry.

A man once bought a house, and decided to dedicate a room for Jesus, where he could be alone and free to be with the Lord. "This room is yours, Lord, and bless this house and my family," the man said. Jesus accepted this offer.

The first night that the man spent in the house, he could not sleep in peace because there was a figure that was knocking on the door and making a din. Looking out of the window in his room, he realised that it was the devil at the door, making such a din at the door that the whole family was woken up by the immense noise. The man, in his desperation, went to call upon Jesus in His room. No matter how much he tried to beg and ask Him to get the devil out of his doorstep, nothing happened throughout the whole night. Fortunately for him, the devil walked away by dawn.

The next day, everyone was not in their best condition for work and school, so together, they took an afternoon nap. Who would've known that the devil came knocking and making a din at the doorstep again just as they were about to fall asleep? Soon, they were getting desperate again and the man went into Jesus' room and pleaded with Him to get the devil out of the doorstep. Still, nothing happened and after the devil got tired of disturbing the household, he went away, only to came back at night again. This went on for several days.

Finally, angered and fatigued by all the days of noise and lack of sleep, the man went to ask Jesus why He wouldn't do anything to stop the devil. However, all He replied was, "You dedicated this room to me, but what about the rest of the house?" At that very moment the man realised his folly, and declared that He be free to move around the house as and when He likes, and that He be part of the family too. Hearing this, Jesus went to the living room, rebuked the devil, and the devil cowered in fear of His voice and scampered out of sight.

From then on, Jesus was the VIP of the household, and the man and his family went on to dedicate their lives to Him more than ever since this incident, serving His ministry and furthering the gospel to many more people and bring them to Him for their salvation, sometimes even performing miracles in His name, such as healing the sick and occasionally even raising the dead back to life in His power and glory.

Moral of the story: If you get stingy with Jesus and try to limit His place in your life, He won't perform miracles nor help you much in your life. Knowing that human effort alone cannot accomplish anything of substance, and that in the flesh dwells nothing good within our spirit, it is mandatory that we should let Christ help us in every aspect of our life, to ensure our success in life in Him. After all, what greater blessing is there for every man than to have a loving and gracious God to help him succeed in everything he does?

That being said though, we must set our hearts right before God first before you ask anything of Him first, then He will send His Holy Spirit to help us.

Looking back at my past...

Just a quick review of what big events that I could take note in my life so far in Anglican High, since there's pretty much little nonsense to do except think and talk of nonsense.

It's in Anglican High where:

1. I soiled my first uniform because I puked out of carsickness while travelling in bus 17 to school on the first day - and was granted permission to skip the first day of school to clean up the mess.


2. The first friend I made in Anglican High actually broke wind real loud in front of the whole class in just the 3rd day of school - and of course, it was a stink bomb.


3. I was put into the 4th out of the 5 CCA choices I made - and so I joined the AHS Guitar Ensemble.


4. I was the first person in history to bring frogs into the Guitar Room for "horrifying entertainment on the loose".


5. I was the first person in history of the Guitar Ensemble to bring a live tortoise into the Guitar Room - and attracted a lot more attention whilst Mr Shi, the instructor, seemed to be insensitive to its presence.


6. I became one of the four who got ostracized in class 2L'06 - but gave ample time for us four to bond with each other, being the "losers of the class".


7. I became the "babe of the class" in class 3B-4B from '07 to '08 due to some joker trying to ruin my reputation in the new class - and the title stuck with me among my classmates to this very day.


8. I became the smart-aleck in the class - getting the answers wrong most of the time.


9. I attracted a lot of attention - both voluntarily and involuntarily.


10. I was made fun of by my classmates because of a rumour spreading that mentioned about me being a potential FHM model - see (4) to know why.


11. I was the butt of the joke in many places - like walking into the glass panel in public places, and playing guitar to an audience who wouldn't even bother whether there was music being made or not.


12. I was St Bernard's irritant fly buzzing at his ears.
13. I pushed myself to the limits and sat for the GCE O Level Examinations.
14. I had to shit in my pants in the middle of a major O Level paper. I repeat - a MAJOR paper where if I didn't, I would lose time and not be able to finish the paper.
15. I gradually learned to differentiate assholes from true friends, and to cherish the good ones.
16. I learned major lessons on money management - many times, I overspent my pocket money on food in the school canteen alone, not to mention spending it on fast food.
17. I learned that a loud voice isn't everything - anger doesn't accomplish anything at the end of the day but instead makes your blood boil faster.

There are just too many more things to list down about the stuff I did in the secondary school years, but there is just one thing that I can't deny - it is in Anglican High where I got to truly accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.

Swimming phenomena

Just a little thing I've noticed while I'm accompanying my sister to the public swimming pool for her swimming lessons. Some of the kids swim with their pyjamas on, I wonder why?

At first glance I thought it's just them, trying to do some free laundry after their afternoon naps. Driven by curiosity, I went ahead to disturb Shang Bo over the phone to ask why. I was told that the pyjamas were there for training for Silver and Gold swimming courses, and they tie the ends up and blow it up so that it doubles as a float.

Wow, interesting discovery for the day...

Long hair gives long irritation

Well, I guess it makes sense. Hair grown too long covers the tip of the ears, and spectacle rims pressing the sideburns against the head definitely isn't a good idea. In short, you just feel irritated and sleepy most of the time when there's long hair.

Just look at this sleepy picture of mine above, and you get the idea. My God - it's like, just two months since my last haircut, and already it's feeling irritating for quite an eternity already. Maybe I'll have my haircut tomorrow - finally salvation has come for my head. Much as I'd like to keep the hair there, the irritation gets worse for every day I leave my hair long.

It's easy to turn into a sleepyhead with this kind of length of hair, man. Time for a haircut!

December Woes

After the farewell chalet I reckon there's pretty much nothing of substance to do, except perhaps paint the house this coming Monday, walking around aimlessly at the mall, or just visiting the library to read some random crap. As for looking for a job to earn my keep, I'm having second thoughts about it. Perhaps, yeah, Uncle Kelvin does make sense. Why not just chill and relax and enjoy life while it lasts.

Or maybe I'll just find time to catch up with some of the Primary 6/9 folks while the holiday lasts.

AHS Guitar Ensemble Farewell Chalet 2008 Day 2

It was a short chalet time for me, because I had to set off for practice for the hip-hop dance item for Christmas Nite 2008 fundraising dinner for My Saviour's Church. In other words, I didn't have time to stay for the barbecue.

First things first, I overslept while at the same time telling the juniors that I'd be there at around 7am in the morning. In the end I reached Aranda at around 9.30am. Along the way, I was thinking, since I hadn't had any breakfast yet, I might as well drop by the Mr Bean store and grab some pancakes there before the activities, namely an Amazing Race, was to begin at 10.30am. Along the way I bumped into the rest of the Sec 4s who stayed overnight, and they were heading for McDonalds anyway, so I just tagged along. Yay, good chance for me to use Wi-Fi in public places.

It turned out that before you could use Wi-Fi service provided by McDonalds and other fast-food chains, you had to register for a Wireless@SG account and log in. Having 2 sets of wireless Internet access, one being the Wireless@SG one and another provided by Downtown East, I used the Downtown East one instead, since there wasn't any prerequisite required to use it anyway. It worked, obviously. Yay, another job done to ensure continual Internet access outdoors.

Ate a simple breakfast of tea and Sausage McMuffin, while the others ate stuff like Big Breakfast. Nothing against McDonalds food, but it's a tried-and-tested experience that when you eat Big Breakfast, especially the scrambled eggs, you begin to start to want to go to the toilet for the big business. Not a good idea to start the day when you're in a hurry to let the games begin. Anyways, we continued on, with the rest of the girls making beelines to the toilets while I headed off to the chalet to unpack entertainment machinery there.

Alas, nobody was opening the door despite button-mashing the doorbell button and smacking the door like nobody's business. It can't possibly mean they're all outside the chalet - the slippers were all outside the door. Fruitless banging and the building up of steam meant that I waited outside like some desperate guy. Ah, but at least Wei Xiang came just at the right moment and, man, she is literally EXPLOSIVE and blew the door open with her brief rant and smacking of the door.

Um, I guess that's girl power, so to speak?

After getting in, I hung around with the juniors who were there, playing poker cards, a couple of rounds of Tai Ti, got acquainted to this game called Bridge, and the games started. It was Captain's Ball, but with a little rough twist - they used apples and Lux soap dipped in a Softlan laundry softener and flour mixture so that it's very slippery and hard to catch. It didn't turn out to be a good idea - the right lens of my spectacles dropped off the frame, some people got hit hard by the hard soap, and I accidentally hit Li Pin's mouth with the soap during the game. Of course, that made her pissed at me - who wouldn't, when her mouth is bleeding at the lip?

We decided to leave the games alone, and check on Li Pin, to make sure no tooth damage has been done. It didn't hit the teeth out of position, I reckon, so phew for me.
Lessons to learn from this rough and dirty game:

1. NEVER use hard stuff like soap or apples for Captain's Ball, Monkey, or any other game that involves throwing the stuff to a teammate, to avoid friendly fire.
2. NEVER use Lux soap or Softlan laundry softener - Alicia's arm turned red after washing the stuff off with tap water, and it's probably because she has sensitive skin and does not really know it until it turned red.
3. ALWAYS play dirty games in an area near the toilets. We had to take a walk for 5 minutes before we could reach the nearest toilet, which pissed a good lot of us off as we went there to wash up.

Terrible experience. Apart from some other clichéd games, we were exposed to the sun for quite long, and had an eating competition for 2 teams. The other team won, mainly because they had Zhi Tao, who's a big eater. And wow, Wanting sure can eat, and she apparently gorged herself full of the food, and I was told that she threw up later at the chalet.

We ended up not having the Amazing Race that we used to have every year, because there was just too little people attending this Farewell Chalet. Even so, the weather wasn't very good to us - we went indoors at around 2 plus, and there we stayed and hung around until 5 when it rained. Just before it rained, someone was using our barbecue pit just when we were about to start the barbecue. Thanks ladies, whoever you are, for using our barbecue pit just when we were about to use it... (sarcasm)

"Hey, that's our barbecue pit," someone yelled out to the ladies from the balcony. It just didn't make sense. We tried to get her to use some other barbecue pit, but we all we got was this answer: "Aiyah, it's only the numbers, what... Go use the other pits, lah."

Ahem. Barbecue pit 2313 is the one we paid for, not the others. And what's up with that lame excuse of the other barbecue pits being "too hot" when there's no burning charcoal put in the grills yet? "Whatever you are cooking, make it quick. We're gonna use the barbecue pits soon. Hurry up," I answered them. Of course, everyone was pissed when the rains came just when the inconsiderate ladies left with their pot of inedible crap half-cooked.

It rained, and stopped. And it rained again. How are we to barbecue? We waited and waited. By 6-plus the people were grumbling and becoming desperate for barbecue, so someone started the idea of starting the barbecue at the BALCONY, of all places. Nice place to have a barbecue, but what about the smoke signals? Luckily for us, we managed to stop them in time just before they opened the pack of firestarters.

The alumni seniors came to join us, all drenched in the rain and stuff, and still they lent us hands to start the fire at the pit, but it still ended up being a failure anyway - there was no fire, only more rain soaking through their clothes and wet umbrellas. I wished I could stay longer, but by 7.30pm I really had to go for practice because the next day's the full-dress rehearsal for the hip-hop dance. So, much to my own personal dismay I just "disappeared" from the chalet hungry until 10.30pm when the practice ended.

Ate a lot on the first day, starved on the second day, both emotionally and physically.

AHS Guitar Ensemble Farewell Chalet 2008 Day 1

Back, as usual, after a day out at the chalet that's meant for us Secondary Fours. After all the slogging, grilling at murderous guitar pieces for the performance at Harmony 2008 Concert at Victoria JC Auditorium, it is finally time to relax, have fun and, um, eat till your belly's gonna burst...?

When I got to Aranda Country Club lobby at 2.15pm, I had this hunch that that was definitely the wrong place to go to, because I didn't even know which chalet room we were to meet in. I checked the phone message sent by Wai Ping earlier yesterday, which confirmed that I was to go to Pasir Ris MRT Station instead, which proved my hunch right. Took a 10-minute walk back from Aranda to Pasir Ris MRT, and met Shawn, Zhi Tao and Genevieve, and later some more Sec 1s, before walking back to Aranda. Heh, talk about a little exercise of the feet, sand and mud...

Went to the lobby to wait for Yannis and some adult to check in for us before we could get into a chalet where we could unpack and play around in. After getting in, there was practically nothing much to do except some self-entertainment by playing poker cards and Uno, though of course, there weren't any monetary wagers involved at all.

A while later we ate instant noodles for late lunch. Soon after, they planned to go outdoors to play some messy games, those that involve putting chocolate into flour so that it looks like you-know-what, and probably either making you step and squish it or throwing them around, etc. Quite terribly, it began to rain, so we were stuck indoors and the games were cancelled. Instead, we went for dinner.

Wow, oookay... look at this, fellas. I just ate instant noodles at 5pm, ate some chocolate at 6pm, and now we're out for dinner at 7pm. Still, I ate sliced fish soup with rice, and a bowl of cheng tng
and surprisingly, I still managed to stomach them down. Dropped by KFC to buy a large box of popcorn chicken to munch on in the chalet, then later we resumed self-entertainment among ourselves - Shawn, Zhi Tao, some of the girls and I playing cards and occasionally, the PSP that I borrowed off Shang Bo but still have yet to return to him, and the girls playing tau pok(human pile) in their room, making such a din that for a while, we thought they were doing gang-rape inside.

Anyways, after an awful long time of boredom and joking around, Hai Long finally managed to come, with me meeting him on the way to the lobby and directing him back to the chalet. After his arrival, things soon became different - in a good way, of course. For one, he asked me to go hang around downtown so that he can explore around in this corner of Singapore, and also for him to withdraw some money from the ATM and buy Subway sandwiches for the girls upstairs at Aranda.

Look at this, people, LOOK AT THIS. Instant noodles at 5pm, 2 packs of chocolate at 6pm, sliced fish soup with rice and a bowl of cheng tng at 7pm, popcorn chicken at around 8pm, and now Subway at 9pm. Thanks, Hai Long, for bringing me to such a place to get tempted to eat like nobody's business out here...

In the end by 10pm I was stuffed. I just couldn't eat anymore for the day. After the heavy supper, I hung around for a while more before Uncle Kelvin called up and I had to leave the chalet to come back home, to keep everyone else updated about the happenings during this chalet.

Harmony 2008 Concert

It's always like this - all the tough work first, then the actual thing just breezes us through like nobody's business. This performance is the last of us Secondary 4s under the name of Anglican High School Guitar Ensemble, which is kinda significant to us. Call it a farewell gift to the school - we helped our school raise some funds for the new indoor stadium.

Anyways, I reached school at 8-plus. It was such a bore at first, with only the few of us waiting for the rest of the Secondary 4 group. The usual stuff - get your stuff ready to go to Victoria Junior College to last yourselves one whole day until dismissal at 10pm.

Crapping around and talking nonsense among the juniors was common, and it always happens whenever there's events that we participate. This bus trip from Anglican High to Victoria Junior College was no exception. I guess by the time we reached VJC everyone had a common topic to talk about - we were put inside Lecture Theatre 4, and boy, the entrance stank like rotten cheese left there for years!

There we stayed, there we crapped, until the dry run session. Sean and Jiayu was performing a guitar solo and dance duet - something that probably those Renaissance art enthusiasts would consider "class". Meanwhile the rest of us Sec 4s were preparing for Lovers' Theme and El Vito, as well as Walk in the Woods by the whole ensemble as one. After the dry run, lunchtime was what all of us were waiting for.

Due to Wei Jie's stature, he was nicknamed Marcus Khoo, after one of the teachers in Anglican High, who is both fat and knows how to play guitar. He soon became the centre of our attention, being made fun of by us during lunchtime and throughout the rest of the waiting period before the performance, though of course, there were no hard feelings at the end of the day.

Thanks to the air con valve blowing directly down from one end of the elevated lecture theatre to the bottom end, I managed to turn my hair into a semi-permanent mess with the help of some hair wax to bring my fringe up. Finally, after years of hair length control by the school, I can finally whip up a presentable hairdo while still leaving my hair long and heaped at the top! At least now, the school authorities have less power over what we do to our hair, as long as we give them what they wish for.

Despite rehearsals and dry runs, and endless practices, we still messed up at some point in our limelight. Lovers' Theme was alright, and the beginning of El Vito was okay too, but at the transition part of the song to the second half, some of us were playing too fast and the rest, too slow to catch up. Luckily for us, there was another pause within the music score, so we managed to come back as one again at the ending, and with a "Ooh!" and multiple hand-poses we caught the audiences' attention and received roaring applause, despite the fact that most of the top-deck seats are empty and that most of the audience are at the bottom deck.

After the performance, I got my bird whistle from the backstage, saw Sean, and gave him well-wishes before his duet, then went back to the stinkin' Lecture Theatre 4 to start boring myself until the interval was up. Meanwhile I was telling about Jacob and Benedict of our screw-up on stage and they were like, "Whalau, you guys suck lah. Look at us, we only Sec 3 nia, can perform much better than you guys leh. Summore, we Lambada people go first leh."

Well, okay... Wait till one day you screw up, and tell that to your juniors. Most likely you guys'd probably get a similar answer.

After the whole performance, we went back to the Lecture Theatre 4, only to find more of our seniors coming back as alumni members of Anglican High! People like Song Han, Wan Ling, Xin Lin, Xinyi, Si Hui, etc etc... Heartwarming sight, to have people who were once part of us coming back for moral support and chatting about life after Anglican High graduation. Thanks, guys!

Of course, good stuff always has to end at some point in time, and so we parted ways at Victoria JC. Some of us went back home by public transport, while some of us came back to Anglican High in order not to waste the money paid for 2 chartered coaches to bring us back to school.

To keep things short, Harmony 2008 Concert was a blast!

Full-dress rehearsal

Nowadays, the big thing is about the guitar performance, so naturally this is what I'm gonna blog for during these few days. It seems that you're gonna see more entries about what's going on in my life during the holidays, since I'm having much more free time than ever to burn at my own sweet time...

First things first, the guitar playing has been going on smoothly for now, at least for the rhythm guitar part. At first, I thought El Vito was quite a tough piece to play, but it ended up being easier that I thought. Thank God for all this, man. And to make things better, I finally managed to sell 2 tickets off to Uncles Kelvin and Steven!

The whole full-dress rehearsal started at around 9-plus in the morning, so we went to school early. In fact, I reckon I was the earliest - I reached school at around 7.10am and there wasn't a single ghost around until Shi Yong from Harmonica came 10 minutes later. Meanwhile, I was burning my time away until we decided to go to Market 85 for breakfast, since the canteen isn't open, and Market 85 was just within the vicinity of Anglican High anyway.

As always, many complaints and things left locked inside the Guitar Room meant that there was a lot of inconvenience for everyone. Still, the whole programme and rehearsal went on smoothly, and we were dismissed at 12-plus at noon. Being always with Sean, Hsuan Tien and company, we went to lunch after getting ties for us boys and waiting for the girls to get their stuff ready. By the time we reached Market 85 for lunch, it was already 1-plus.

As we were walking down the side gate towards the market, I looked back only to notice that Jiayu, the dancer who was with us, was lagging behind and I wondered why. Thinking back from her saying that she's fatigued, I understood why and went ahead. But how was I to know that she'd just up and fell down onto the floor without any rhyme or reason?

At first, I thought she was just playing possum on the dirty outdoor concrete. But, something was amiss - it seemed she was on the floor for real. Later on I was told that she had hypotension - low blood pressure - and to make matters worse, she didn't even have a proper meal during our lunchtime at Market 85, just ate an apple whilst we were already eating heartily to our hearts' content.

In any case, we went on to carry her aside and made her sit, rest and recover. Just then there was a passer-by uncle who saw what was happening, and passed me some medicated oil. Somewhere along the conversation I heard that uncle say "That one your wife, ah?" Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there, uncle. I've barely finished my last year in Anglican High, and I didn't even mess around outside, man! I mean, can't you differentiate us students from working adults?

...Or, maybe not. Both Sean and I were still wearing the full-black attire that looked kinda like office wear, so probably that's why that senile old guy made such a big mistake. Worst thing is, Mr Poh was also there among us who were out there helping her get up and rest, so yeah, go figure. He was laughing his way back home, or school, I guess.

Lucky gal, that Jiayu. If she didn't travel with friends around as a group, God knows what might happen if she were alone and feeling weak all of a sudden.