Sentosa!

Finally able to blog bout




So on thursday, I decided to take Meliza out to Sentosa since i've been like super away from CF and all and she's been complaining non stop... oops did i say complaining? i meant... being concerned... yes... :)
We hopped on the Sentosa bus and it took us across the land of the dead to the land of the living! [no we didn't die, we jus crossed the bridge] haha...

Grabbed our tix and headed straight for the underwater world. inside there, we met up with lots of weird creatures... they were grossly coloured, didn't seem to be very agile and some just stood there waiting for people to take pictures of them. it was really irritating seeing those creatures in the underwaterworld... oh and apart from them, we saw some fish. :) haha... i tell you, some people in the underwater world just crawl along and stay at some exhibits too long. :) but no la. just kidding. it was a fun time of gauking at some reallly cool looking fish, sea creatures and having a blast riding on the moving belt thing... travellator [sp?] Here are some highlights of the tunnel and it's other features. I've excluded many pics coz there were a tad bit too dark. [captions found below each photo]




We met this cute little boy inside. he was runnin around and making noise and mel jus grabbed him, shot him with a a tranquilizer dart and pushed his mouth up for a smile to take this pic. okok no... his parents willingly loaned him to us for this pic coz mel absolutely adored him. he was cute really.. but i was more interested in the huge fish behind them...


Just thot this sign was real cute. i had NO idea what it had to do with the crab enclosure... much like it had NUTHING to do with us... *innocent smile* wad suspects? haha..


Check out this fish la! it's so cool. it's called the 'Unicorn Fish'... for very obvious reasons.. but i was thinking to myself, it's so amazing how God can create creatures like this. Fish... fish.. how different can they get? :) take a trip down Rabbit Hole in the Underwater World and you'll be amazed. :)
Oh, this fish reminds me of someone who's like constantly frowning. maybe it's coz he's got this huge stick potruding out his forehead. hmmm haha.


Classic shot. :) Why horsefish? well, long story... i shant explain it coz it's jus embarrasing... but Qiang should know why. haha... The seahorse [yes, that's their real name. i'm not a complete idiot] were real nice... jus 'galloping' in the water... they look so... 'trumpet-ty'... haha dunno why their snout's like that la. :) but i can see why "Adam" named it a seahorse. :)


EMO SHOT! :) i think this is a super cool shot... Mel staring intently at the jelly fish while i stole a shot to capture the "blue" mood. :) apologies if it's blur... you can't always get clear and good candid shots.


AHHH! THEY'RE UPON US!!! okok. no, it's not the end of the world... just a swarm of jellyfish... yeh, it was quite cool yet gross... i was thinking of that scene in umm what's that movie... hmm the one where the guy got killed by all those evil jellyfish... oh.. "Sphere"... yes. :) that was the show... i was thinking to myself that i'm SO glad there was this huge thick glass protecting me from from... THE KILLER JELLYFISH!
[oh, no offence joella, purple [yes purple] jellyfish are nice creatures] :)


A posed shot to show how terrifying it is.... to let someone else hold my camera for a while. HAHA. jus kiddin. we wanted to look scared... i think i spoiled the shot.. i jus look dumb. :) or surprised... or well, surprisingly dumb. HAHA.


Meliza finally daring to put her hand into the touching pool and gently grace the back of a small shark... i managed to feel the stingray when we arrived but SOMEONE [i won't mention who] was too scared to touch it so she missed the chance... It was a nice experience though... how often do you get to feel the back of a stingray as it glides so gracefully in it's environment... kinda. :)


Of course there were more shots inside the tunnel of the fish, but like i said, it's real dark so i dun wanna waste your eyes straining for the fish... like some game.. "spot the fish!" and behind door number 1 we have a picture of the dugong! spot the dugong!!! *strain strain*... OOPS! time's up. sorry. you lose.

After that, we headed to the Sentosa Luge and Skychair ride thing... will explain later.. but here are the pics...



Passed by Silosa Beach and now HOW many times can ya resist a shot by the nice siloso words? thus this pic.. if you look at the "i", you'll see this real small dot... it's a cup on top of it.. make one brilliant guess what it is. :) k k, i'll save ya the trouble. it's my cup of ben and jerry's ice cream! wootz. haha... loves to bits... though it did disappoint me. i'm taking chunky muuunkeeey next time... or cookie dough. :) or maybe it's just coz we saw too much PHISH just now so it was a bit too much phish. :) heh.
Anyways, this is me, bravely putting my NS training into practice... ns made me stronger... hey, that "S" was heavy can... it was like woah... but no matter, i've got "S"trength! heh... and no wise cracks [oh gross i jus made one] bout me holding up the S. :)


Woo! skychair ride... okok, let me explain this to you. this is part of the sentosa luge ride.. the luge is like a small car thingy that you put your feet into as you sit in it and ride down this slope that's winding and relatively steep. So before you can ride down, you gotta go up rite? You sit in this chairlift thing and it takes ya up 320m or sumthing like that and it's pretty long la... anyways, it's pretty high...
Mel was super scared la.. i have a nice video of the whole thing... but she won't allow me to put it up. so if you wanna see her screaming away, you gotta ask her for permission and then you gotta pay me a small nominal fee. hahaha. jus kidding. but it's really worth it. :) trust me. hahaha
btw, this pic was taken at the start of the ride... it goes much higher. :)


Meliza faking a smile for the camera. once again, i have many shots of her in her not so... composed facial expression. :)
I can be bought. hahaha the pics go to the highest bidder.


Yeh so this ride is like super super fun. it cost ya $8 only la... save a bit, skip dinner and take this ride. it's cool la... like some Tokyo Drift can... haha but ummmm sentosa drift. hahaha... it's not that short a ride too so i think it's quite worth it... i would go again if it were cheaper. Talkin bout that, the staff all wear this black t-shirt that says "Once is never enough"... so true. :) Go try it today!




Next we made our way via tram to the Dolphin Lagoon... this sign on the tram was just... sigh... it's like DUH. :) But i guess there are children who just leap off... well in my opinion, stupid children like that ought to get hurt... ahha jus kidding jus kidding. :)


Ladies and Gentleman boys and girls, The Pink Dolphins of Sentosa!!! Yup, these are the cute dudes and dudettes who inspired the pink dolphin drink... though i've never tasted it before, the show was fun. the pinkies all doing cute stuff like waving, dancing, hitting the rubber balls above and gliding across the water... it was spectacular to see them leap so high out of the water... so much so that their whole body is like dunno how many feet off the water's surface la. wowz. respect.


We then moved to our final destination of the day... the famed and legendary musical fountain called Magical Sentosa... i will not bore you with why it's called that... but it was quite a long long wait. k, so i was kaisu and reached there at 6.40, an hour before the show... but they DID say they would close gates at 7 or when it was full... so yeh, i was stressed... and we had snacks. haha...


then it started drizzling and a nice shower of blessings was brought our way. we both took turns to pray as the other watched our bags and all... after a really short time, the drizzle moved on and we were able to once again, wait for the show... -_-' haha...


As the sky dimmed, the lights came on and the show kicked off with a super animated and obviously voiced-over Emcee... haha he was quite entertaining with his overly exaggerated body movements... :) then the water screen came on and the projector flashed us with a brilliant image... the crazy magical monkey... he was freaky... but super nice. if i were a foreigner, i'd be real shocked at Spore's technology.. it was really nice...imagine holograms..yeh.
It looked so real, so 3D and so... THERE that it was really hard telling yourself that it was just an image on water... here's a short video clip of the monkey in action.




The show ended with a blast... literally... fireballs and water jets boasting off it's best... it was really nice see the flames and feeling the heat even though it was like, so far away... wonderful show. really really. must watch.


Yup, the final shot of the evening... taken with the beautiful backdrop of the visitor arrival/departure centre... Look look! my paul frank has been to sentosa! aha


Yup, with that, it wraps up the Sentosa blog entry.. sorry that it took so long. haven't been able to get down to doing it... but it's finally complete.... if you guys have free time and a bit to spend, go down to Sentosa.. it's really fun... :) seriously.

ally the guest blogger

ALLY THE GREAT WAS HERE.
cause rui is too lazy to blog.

(: ok byebye.

Loved?

*Disclaimer*
Before I begin this entry. i must stress to all those who read. i am NOT depressed in any way. Not sad, not down not disappointed. I am perfectly fine. i actually write this entry with a smile on my face. so PLEASE dun think i'm sad. i jus wanna remember some thots i have now. ok? I AM NOT SAD. please dun think i am. [phew]
*Disclaimer*

I look around me at the 2 people who I've given my heart and soul to before. 2 two people who have meant the world to me and hopefully i have meant the world to them too. i see them happy. happy being loved or taken care of by some guy or someone. I know that they're enjoying it and that it is a real nice feeling to be loved by someone. I hope... sincerely hope, that they will continue to be loved. whether i am loved by someone or not doesn't really matter to me right now. suddenly, it fades into the distance as i look at my 2 frens. [i won't mention who]. But really. for me to say this, is a big thing... "i'm happy that they are happy". that's all that is to it.

May you continue to be loved and cared for. :) I'm happy for you and all of you. Don't forget this feeling. Some people never get the chance.

God's teaching me something thru observing people. it rawks.

Guard Duty + POC!

Went back into camp for Guard duty... Monday afternoon-Tuesday morning. It was quite ok la... i paired up with my buddy ben and waited to get our detail and when we're doing our duty. then the sergeant purposely went to all the pairs, took one out and shifted us around so that everyone was paired up with someone from another platoon. wahhh. we were all like... aww man!!! stuck with someone else... someone i dun know!!! argh. haha yeh, disappointment 2 came when i was assigned to do prowling in the last detail.. that means i gotta walk the school grounds [2km] at 10pm-12 and 4am-6... sighz... so yeh, paired up with this big guy called Mathew. He's quite a cool guy la. so i was fine.

So we prowled... it was tiring i guess but fun to go around talkin to him.. getting to know him a bit better and also to tackle my fear of the dark and unknown... all those tekong ghost stories. :) we prowled the first round and reached the guard room at about 11 coz it was raining so we picked up our rain coats and had to bring 2 for the other team that was prowling the other way... we met up with them and were ordered to remain stationary at that meeting point till11.45 to wait out the rain.
So after that, we continued prowling at 11.45 rite.. and we were expected to reach the guardpost at 12 to end our prowling but come on, if it takes 40 minutes to prowl one round, and we're only at the 1/4 mark.. there's no way we can complete the other 3/4 in 15 minutes rite? pengz...
so to cut a long story short, we reached back at 12.10 and apparently we didn't walkie talkie back to the guardhouse when they called... but we did la.. apparently they didn't get our signal. so for their side, they've got 2 guard who didn't radio back and came back 10 minutes late... so obviously they think we were slacking. anyways, we tried explaining ourselves out of it but it was futile. we had to be punished... so they made us do the next shift again... that means 4 rounds around tekong, in 4 hours... straight without a break. pengz... we were so tired la... and we were complaining to each other as we started but realized that complaining doesn't do any good so we jus took a positive mindset and continued on our journey knowing we were given 2 more hours to get to know each other much better and also the route even better. HAHA. :S

so we ended and rested... wah it was like crazy la. feet were aching and it had a blister at the heel so by the end of the shift, i wasn't really walking normally. sighz... what to do? :) punishment's like that wad. yup. so that was my memorable guard duty experience. haha. sighz.

anyways, that's guard duty... boring.

POC LOH! haha... pass out liao loh! I actually thot we'd have a passing out ceremony. but we didn't have ANYTHING. like NOTHING la. it's more like POS... passing out saikang [shit work=referring to cleaning up parade square, arranging chairs, serving refreshments...] we really saikang king lor that day... like saikang the whole day can. we book out at 8.30pm, and we only stopped doing saikang at 8.15... chiong back to pick up our bags and go to ferry terminal liao. haiz... all bcoz those pes A and B people and their families are dirtying the parade square and leaving litter everywhere... *snarl*... so they mess the place up and leave early... and the SAI KANG WARRIORS from ULYSSES [my company] gets to clean up after. whee! haha.. sigh

but other than that, it was quite sad and painful time to realize it could be the last time i see many of my frens... we'll all be posted here and there after this and we might never meet again... so quite sad la... on the bus, we were singing our songs and stuff... sigh... said bye to all of them and wished them all the best... but it's still so empty... spending 7 weeks together and knowing them so much, then have to pull yourself away... sighz.
but we'll all still keep in contact la. i guess. especially my bunk mates. :)

yarh. that ties up the bmt experience. it was really a fun and enjoyable time. i loved it for many reasons yet still had my issues with other stuff. :) with this entry, i wrap up the bmt life of RECRUIT [now Private] Tan R L. :)

POC LOH!

Shalom's 25th Anniversary Musical

The Anniversary Musical finally came and gone. I booked out in the morning and thankfully didn't get the Saturday guard duty. was praying real hard too and did my best not to get called down for the guard duty. thank God that only Eugene was called back for guard duty while the rest of us were let off for that day.

So i reached mainland, chionged home and made a mad rush to go prepare stuff whilst still having to clear the normal stuff like laundry and unpacking. sighz. that was quite a crazy day if i think bout it. went to church in the early early afternoon for practices and all. It was still quite mad coz the practices were still not really up to standard... well for one, i cracked on my high note. i freaked after my song. i was like. oh sheeet oh sheet. it's tonite. i jus cracked. oh sheet. i KNEW i shouldn't have sang so many army songs during the route march and shouted the commands so loudly. argh argh why!!! haha... but yeh, i was really scared i'd crack on the actual day itself even though i hit the note on all the practices before. just not reassuring enuf. However, it was quite funny and nice for all the people to start giving me tips.. they were like... if you crack that note then jus crack all the way... since it's an emo song... and it's the most emo part of the song, you can jus crumble to your knees and act like you're crying... they'll think the cracking is on purpose.. very professional one. HAHA... then i was like.. yeh, i gotta crack the whole chorus... august will jus slaughter me la! haha... but it was funny, coz i was thinking that was going to be my safety net just in case. HAHA

so as showtime started inching closer and closer, my nerves were a bit on the high end... so before i was confined [urg, i hate this word] in the vestry, i sneaked out to the mph and jus threw away my shaky feet by singing my song in the mph not caring whether i hit the note or not. thankfully i hit it everytime in the mph giving me the much much needed confidence boost... then i made my way back to the vestry knowing that all i needed to do was try it and whack. do or die. if i crack then crack. as long as i tried. :) it was really interesting though... asking God to use me to show His glory and help the audience feel Him more... it's like a normal daily prayer in army to get me thru training and here i was, askin him to help me sing a note. so different. haha.

Anyways, the musical went off smashingly well. thank God everything went well. Aunty Dawn was jus splendid lor.. she looked me in the eye and delivered just the right amount of frustration, irritation and sympathy that was required of the character. really, if anyone thinks i acted well, it's only coz she did better than me and that helped me reach my character deep down inside. I was so glad she did so well... thank you aunty dawn... i can't thank you enuf for trusting in me and delivering your lines with such a professional aura. :) So yeh, the acting was all good, the singing was great too... it really makes a diff that the audience is there.. it makes everyone give their 110% la.. really.. that.. "oomfh" as my mum calls it. :)

Thank God that everyone did well and it was all a success. really thank God for so many people i can't start to mention here otherwise there'll be too much to write. really. but here are a list of people of special mention coz they really put in tonnes of effort.

Sab, August, Eunice, Lorraine, Jodi, Ivan, Shawn Tiang, Adrian, Aunty Dawn

After the musical, we had dinner. nice! but didn't have much coz we came down late... ate 7 of that corn cup dessert thing though. it was nice can! :) oh and of course i've been dying to type this ever since i started the entry...

WANYI AND MINI CAME! :) yayz yayz

so happy can... was like. woohoo! spent quite a bit of time jus chilling with them and catching up... making sure that i wasn't wasting the time they were here.. showed mini my slippers. haha she was like jealous... weren't you? ahha... but yeh, i still think the other flip flops are nicer... but that's why it's not mine. haha... nonetheless, was really glad they came and stayed to fellowship with all the church people and stuff. :) [han looks like paul frank].
Talked to Auntie Charlene and Uncle Alfred a bit too. thank God for both of them... really will miss them if this continues.. managed to just get a bit of a sharing from Auntie Charlene la. so i was really glad coz i barely am able to spend proper time talkin to her and stuff... praying for her and hope that things will work out soon. :) i miss the puas.

With that, it concluded the night and people started slowly inching out the gates to home... i was just mentally dead. really really tired... route march the day before and everything... wah, was just ready to pengz on the bed. so was real glad to get home, shower, unpack and hit the sack.

p.s. the anniversary mag is just so fantabulous... Rachel is a genius.

Thank God for Shalom's 25 years of existence.
only reason why i'm here praising God is coz of Shalom.

Wootz! last week till POC!

POC LOH! okok, not just yet. but in like 4 days time!!! wads poc?

PASSING OUT CEREMONY!!! wootz!!! it means i won't be a chao rui-cruit anymore.... i will be a private! gosh. that doesn't really sound like an upgrade actually. hmmm but well, i won't have toilet brush hair anymore... neither will i have to book in to Tekong every weekend... prayfully, i'll get an 8-5 job and working life will carry on...

kinda afraid that i'll land a shitty posting in some far away ulu place. but i think i can have assurance that God will answer my prayers again.. and he's answered them all so far. God is really really so good. i can't start to describe how much He's given me during these 6 weeks of bmt lor. last nite again, he answered my prayers. but too lazy to type it out. i think i'll do a real proper blog entry after my poc then sure got time to blog. now, i'm rushing so many stuff. weekends are always like that. finish reading blogs, check emails, this week got musical stuff to get ready for coz it's tonite, and i have to apply for passport extension coz i going overseas... then they need to make a new passport for me coz mine too old, then now still got my overseas trip things to settle. of course there's still laundry and msn. sigh. pulled in so many directions.

but it's been a good week. thank God that He helped me thru my route march... my graduation march. He gave me the physical and mental strength to pull thru all the 8km. wahz. thank God manz. no one could give me those things other than Him and He held the weather for me, just as i prayed. thank God.

ok, so i'll end the entry here coz i really gotta go get lots of things done. see ya in church tonite. especially Chelsea and Alicia... two goondus... haven't seen ya in 3 weeks. thankfully i'll be able to tonite. :)

to all the musical people... all the best and may God shine thru the musical. All glory to Him and Him alone!!!

p.s. in the next episode, watch out for pictures! we took some pics in camp. but of course, i'll have to edit them first to protect government secrets. :) Watch this space!

.: Amen :.

GRENADE! 1thousand 2thousand 3thousand....

Book in liao loh! haha... booking in in 6 hours time. sitting in the church office blogging coz i dun have time to blog when i am out on weekends. But anyways, wanted to blog this week coz there was grenade throwing on sunday so must blog to remember. :)

Sunday-booked in on sat and was preparing for grenade throwing. well, you can't practice la.. jus get everything you can ready then go there and pray. :) it was really fun i tell you... you throw the practice grenade and it jus bangs in this loud clap... sounds so wah already.. then the first real grenade was thrown... BANG! bang until cannot bang anymore la! wah! it's like this immensely huge door slamming shut right in front of your face la... imagine a door that's like three times the height of a normal door, and 3 times the length too... ok, it's hard to explain but the bang is loud enuf to shake the ground la... and we're so far from the actual throw can! the waiting area is like... wah. :) anyways, it's like wowz. when you actually go into draw the grenade, you get so stressed sumthing goes wrong coz there's a live grenade in your pocket area...
So when ya go there, you actually jus get so stressed bout the drills that you'll do sumthing wrong, pull the pin too early, let go of the grenade or let it slip out of your hand... whether you'll throw it well or what.. aiyoh! haha but it's real exciting coz you know the thing you hold has so much power in it. :) so when it's thrown, the impact you feel after that is like. woah. shockwave can... and you get to experience it 4 times coz a detail has 4 people. :)

anyways, the day was real cool la.. it's a super fun experience and if you have the chance to throw one, DUN YOU EVER give up the opportunity... unless you really can't throw coz of medical conditions... but if you can, DUN YOU DARE miss it!!! it's so cool. :) totally worth booking in on one sunday. :)

yup, the rest of the day was quite relaxing and fun... slacking in the bunk training up our UNO skills. :) inclusive of strip uno and junyang uno. haha aiya, dun worry if you dunno what i'm talkin bout, i wrote that to remind me of what we did... for my own remembering sake.. heh.

glad to be going in i guess coz there's live range this week. in a way it's quite sian coz that means there's a lot of chances to do sumthing stupid and get confined... but then again, it's fun coz it's real bullets with real targets and real recoil... yup... there's my graduation route march of 10km on friday too... that should be fun coz of the singing and the rara spirit within the men. heh.. we'll see. sure damn shagged after that la. see how. haha there's games day and recruit's nite this week so it should be quite interesting. :)

yeah, so before i book in, wanna say that civilian life is boring la... it's boring to the point that i look forward sumtimes to booking in. :) tekong is cool. it's a holiday chalet. really. :)
talkin bout that, they told us that those who stay in the east side has a higher chance of being posted back to Tekong for our posting. eeps. haha if it's an 8-5 job, i think it would be really good.. it's close to home, close to church and more flexi with its rules... so that should be nicer. :) but i dunno.. i think as long as i get an 8-5 job, i'll be ok... jus praying real hard for a good posting. God has been so good to me so far, i dun really see why i should worry. but i'm sinful and i can't stop worrying. :) posting results coming out on 16th sept. :)

Pray for me people. see ya in a week's time if everything goes ok. haha...
Shalom BP Church 25th Anniversary - 2nd Sept 6pm in my church... if anyone's interested, sms me. i'll pass ya details. heh.

btw, musical is stressing me. we did a full run thru yesterday and it still seems a bit messy. thank God i pulled off my solo song good enuf to appease myself. haha so we'll see how the full run goes today too. yeh, i'm waiting for practice to start. haha..

real sad that wan yi and mini didn't come today. kept looking back to hope to see their 'si lang tao' faces in the back row... but alas... not sumthing that happened. owells... will pray that i'll see them next week coz i see the puas have signed up for the anniversary dinner. haha. miss them all.

but nonetheless, it was an ok sunday. thank God.

was glad we talked.
seeing ya today sure helped.

Paul Frank Slippers

My newest buy. :) Paul Frank Slippers. hehe... so why can't i splurge on myself once in a while huh? :) Bought it when i got a pair for mini. it was too tempting and i needed slippers anyways. haha

sorry Jamie mei. you know wad for. u know the number to call too yeh? :)

For all those who showed concern, thanks but i'm fine. You know me. heh... one more week to POC. wahhh so fast... i'm gonna miss tekong.

p.s. sorry for not blogging. haven't had the time to or mood to. Real busy with church musical so yeh, go figure. will blog next time.

Booking in for Grenade!

I'm going to be booking in to throw my live grenade on sunday. pray for me people. pray no one does anything wrong or that i dun do anything wrong. live grenades are scary. they kill badly... hard to explain coz dunno if it's classified info but know that if one recruit does the thing wrong or sumthing happens like a grenade slips out of their hand, we could all die. and this could be my last blog post. eeps. :)

bringing in guitar so today i book in with a duffel bag and a guitar. pengz. :)

here it is.


You know BMT is too nice to you if you're bringing in your guitar to play during free time. Lol.

happy birthday to August, Dinesh, Jason, Christie and Christa.
and... a special sweet coated sugary and caramel encrusted shout out goes to mini.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINI!

Wish you all the best in the coming year ahead... continue to be that silly sweet girl that you are yeh and dun stop missing me when i'm away... i know it's hard to not see this charming face but must try ok? HAHAHa JUS KIDDING!!! :) sorry i'm not there to celebrate all your birthdays too. would have loved to but the reason i'm not there is so that you'll live to see your next birthday. Defend the nation!!!!!!! haha

Confused, wishing what i'm thinking is wrong

I don't want to believe what my mind might be telling me. jumping to conclusions is always the worst thing to do.

what's worse, i'm booking in later on today so i can't really have a proper conversation.

should i just leave? would this be the third that has to go? will it ever be possible to maintain sumthing i start?

i'm afraid to know the answer. but i think i need to know. i need you to tell me what's going on.

how i've trusted, so much. misplaced and misguided dependance and faith? i dun want to think i'm right.

yet, somehow when i think more about it, a lot of things fit in. the story you told me long ago about your friend... the times i wondered to myself if it was because your hp bill might be high.

right now, i dun really know wad to believe. but trust me on this... i'm prayin hard that i'm wrong. very hard. i can't lose you.

Out to Outfield

Going field camp for this week so my handphone won't be with me. dun contact me or expect a reply yeh? :) pray for safety of the commanders and men under their care (i.e. me.) heh... yeh, pray that it won't rain too. otherwise quite sian. :)

yup. so far army rawks. quite the fun la... it's all about the mindset and i am so far enjoying it. will have to miss church next week coz i'll be throwing live grenades... so i'll either see ya next saturday at YF or i won't see ya for the next 2 weeks.
Morale: come for yf. but pls, dun jus come to see botak rui. haha

oh, we're allowed to bring cameras to outfield so expect pictures when i'm back and it's all uploaded and all. whee! haha see me in dumb camo cream! hahaha

Yuppers people. have fun on this little island of yours, i'll be having fun on my even-little-er island. haha... catch ya guys this coming weekend!

Off to out field loh!

First YF since book out

Today we had our second Youth Worship. It was quite interesting, with it's discussion style and all. Uncle Ricky led the discussion about Language and Dressing. Thought that it would be applicable to my situation coz of all the vulgarities in the army. the olden meaning of the word "vulgar" was "common" and in army, vulgarities are really vulgar. jus pray that i won't be desensitized to them.

Yup so i had 2 surprised today. first, managed to greet Rachel in person today and it was really nice seeing her again... dunno why but i guess i missed her too. didn't communicate with her at all in the past two weeks so yeh, it was nice seeing her. she gave me a birthday present that i absolutely loved la. gosh i love it so much can! haha... really so glad to have gotten it. :) i love Christian shirts and i know they're not cheap so thanks rachel jie jie... it means tons to me. :) here are pictures...



The front of the shirt says JC [Jesus Christ] and the ring around the letters JC says "Ministry of heaven, army of God" that's me with the wrapping paper it came with la.


Yup, another pic of me posing with my gift. it came with a badge too, that's on the shirt too la, i pinned it on.


The best part, the back of the shirt.... i'm sure you can read... so applicable, but that's prob why she bought it. :)


Qiang and me. brothers doing stupid things together all the time. :)


Yup, then i had another surprise after yf... went to the roof for "games" and the youths were gathered upstairs for a birthday bash for me... there was food and cake and all... awww. haha... dad, mum, sab and ivan brought the food and all. and i tell you... there was FOOD! Fish fillets, twisties chips, watermelon, fried rice, chocolate and of course the best thing ever, cheese cake!!! haha... it was nice to jus chat with people and all... and jodi got a huge orange card thingy for the youths to all write messages on for me... haha.. so nice la... was real touched that they all bothered to waste their time on lil me... glad to know Tekong didn't pull me away from their hearts and vice versa.


Click for larger view

Yup... so it was a real nice day. thank God for friends who make me remember God sends Angels my way every day. :) first Saturday since book out has been so nice and special. can't wait for church tml, :)

Book Out Loh!

The Angels that sent me off.
Aaron, Auntie Dawn, Rachel, Dinesh, Leonard, Qiang, Shawn, Nicholas, August, Dad and Mum.


Dinesh and I acting "Garang" in front of the place i'll be spending my next two weeks. Notice the hair is still intact and puffy. I love the bright glare of this photo though. :)


My two friends who bothered to take time off their schedules to send me off. Matthew and Dinesh. thanks man.



My parents and I... Bidding farewell to their son, my parents and to civilian life. It was quite sad to see them go knowing that i'll not see them for 2 weeks. yet, looking behind me, it was exciting at what was ahead.


And here i am now. back after 2 weeks. Looking like an army boy. With my Jockey cap and my field pack, proud to be a soldier, proud to be in my army uniform.
'Pride carries a man, but only when it's displayed can you tell a soldier from a prisoner.'
[yes, i just came up with that myself in case you thot it was propaganda they drill into us]


Smiling shot of me and my baldy head. :) i love my hair now... and my uniform. :) really rawks to be an army boy in my uniform. changes the look of a person so much.


Woo Hoo! guess who is a chao recruit!!! haha... okok. let me do everything like what Army is all about... regimentation, order and timing. :) i plan to finish this soon [but i know i won't]... let's start with enlistment day. :)

Originally i had planned for Matthew and my parents to be sending me off.... then suddenly Dinesh also decided to go Tekong with us coz he had nuthing to do for the day, it might be his only chance to go tekong and i had an extra ticket... plus he gets free dinner in tekong. haha so yeh... then suddenly people started asking me what time i was to be at Pasir Ris and to cut a long story short... my sending off party was like mega big la. so pai seh can. i didn't need all of you people to come down. but seeing you guys did... it really touched me. shut up all those thots i used to have last time about what would happen if you suddenly left the world for some reason. see who would remember you and all. and i know that God sent these angels to remind me that He's given them to me for this short period on earth. :)

Yup, so after the huge send off, we headed to tekong by ferry and it was quite cool la... i remember seeing the SAF 7 core values on the way to the ferry and it was like... wah. cool man! :) go on to the island and was split up. Enlistees one side, parents and visitors one side. immediately when we were split and out of earshot... the sergeants started shouting at us to run and hurry up do this and that and blah blah. then they drilled us on the proper things to do for the ceremony... how to sit, what to do on this command and stuff. haha very regimental. then we went into an auditorium after waiting super long... then we sat still while parents came in slowly. we were commanded not to move, not to wave or even smile. wahhh stress. :) it was quite funny to see some recruits when their parents wave and wave and call their name... then they jus have to stare straight. SO SAD. :) but yeh, after watching this video about the army [which filled me with pride like wanna chiong and join the army straight away] we were called out and asked to join our parents for dinner. it was cool how we all stood in a long line and the parents would walk past the line and pick up their sons one by one... yup, after the dinner sent them off and we went to split into our platoons.
straight away kenna scolded for marching badly... thank goodness i was a primary school scout so all the basic commands and marchin are no problem to me... after splitting into platoons, we were asked to go grab our duffel bags and field packs and all the standard issue stuff. so much to carry and pull and stuff on top of our civilian bag we brought in. madness. then we gathered with all our barang barang in this lift lobby and we were already like super sweaty and all... then standing there like idiots, they asked us to change into our stuff one by one to test size.... think bout this, 47 of us, standing there sweating like nuts and asked to strip and change into the type of outfits they asked us to. like heck care bout everything and jus change.
So after that, after confirming all the nonsense and being assigned a bed, we went to go change the sizes of the things we needed to change. then we chionged to SHAVE OUR HEADS!!! haha...
After that, we went for dinner and then sleep. got to know my bunk mates... that was the first day. i was really really glad coz my first 2 prayers were answered.... i got a Christian buddy and my bunk mates all quite fun and good. it's really amazing la... nvm, i'll elaborate later.

Day 2: woke at 5am. wah. did administrative stuff today la. lots of nonsense. had a lect and a short drill to intro us to military commands. then a lect on military discipline and got our sbo and helmet to tag and fix. had a fire drill at night too. fun! haha but we all kenna scold for being slow and all. Regimentation of cupboards started then... everything must be neat and the same and all.

Day 3: We had our Route march today. 2Km in vest and slacks. it was so fun la. march and sing songs... very... enthusiastic la. :) But what bugged me was they took a super long time sorting out who can march and who can't... briefed us on all the safety things, and what to do if you wanna fall out. all the PES C regulations. quite funny. they're like SUPER cautious. keep repeating the fact that we should know ourselves and know our limits coz they can't read minds.

Day 4: we had lunch in our long 4s today. which is my uniform with sleeves down... Saw ian and said hi. was so glad to see him, dunno why also la. We went to the firing range today to watch our sergeants demonstrate the power of our guns... Sgt Iswandi is like Zhun la! so accurate. it was so cool seeing all the things there... the watermelon blowing up to bits and also hearing and feeling the impact of the gun going off. wowz! live rounds!
Went to draw arms [weapon] and at night we had our Arms ceremony. very meaningful and memorable. with the wonderful weather and the solemn atmosphere... i was married to my rifle that night. :)

k, shall blog less nonsense and keep to main points now.

Day 5: Learnt to strip and assemble rifle under 1 minute. so far, this is my favourite thing about BMT... i managed to practice till i can do both under 30secs each.... very fun. had our first stand by area.... kenna whack upside down for bunk and toilet too. sigh. haha

Day 6: we got our injections today. one on each shoulder at the same time. like jab jab. go. next! HAHA... sianz. had our first dose of malaria pill today. must take weekly.

Day 7: 3 boring lectures today. insurance and Orientation talks... Boon sun was sent home today coz of leg injury. managed to talk to Ben today abit durin lect and we shared about our preferences in Christian music... yay! both of us think Casting Crowns is super good. :)

Day 8: went swimming today and passed so dun need to swim for the rest of my BMT life. lolz. Oh, another thing was that the counselling people came to talk to us about drugs and opened the invite to join them as a research assistant. it's an 8-5 job next to CMPB. so it's really good la coz i can use the skills i learn there to help me next time counsel people and help my dream to one day work as a youth staffworker or pastor in church. so ben and i are super interested in it. :) we shall go for interviews when the time comes coz only 7 people will make it to the job. eeps. ahha. At night, very few smses came in and i felt quite lonely la... but nvm, my section is bonded! my bunk mates are rockers man! as in, they rawk. :)

Day 9: We had foot drills in the parade square today. wahhh tiring plus super hot lor. like march and march and train all the timing for the many different commands. sumtimes i wish i spoke malay. at least then i know wad he's sayin and all i have to do is recall the steps... but noooo. haha... sigh. nvm. :) it went well la but still super hot and like wanna peng san but can't coz sergeant major is screaming down your face to get the [bleep bleep] timing right. haha army is full of vulgarities by the way. :)

Day 10: one day before my bday and the smses slowly came in. so nice coz the past 2 nights were quite lonely... had me sleeping early coz i didn't have anything to do. today we had our 3km route march. wahh tiring too... but sang songs again so it was real fun. singing songs while marching really makes the march so fun and short.

Day 11: Happy Birthday! haha only Ben wished me coz no one else knew it was the day mah. so heng. haha. today's 4km route march was CRAZY la... super tiring coz not only issit 4km, it's 4km with sbo, helmet, rifle and field pack. rifle weighs 3plus kg. field pack is bout 5kg and the sbo and helmet could come up to really lots all together la. pengz. want to die can. haha but it was fun coz we sang songs and all. managed to have fun with Derrick along the way too la.. singing dumb songs and laughing away. :) very interesting birthday lor! haha but SUPER shag.

Day 12: can't remember what happened today la.. but i do recall i had a dream... really weird one... involved someone coming to visit me in tekong. then we both started running and i was finally caught by the police man and jus at that moment, i woke and realized ben was grabbing my leg to wake me up. ahaha weird.

Day 14: Today was super slack. slack until cannot slack liao. haha we had like one lecture and the rest of the day was doing silly things that didn't really take much time too. like going Emart and stuff... nothing to do today la. :) can chat with bunk mates a lot and relax. i love PES C9

Day 15: Today we had arms drill. mad. the sun was so hot and we had to do all those marching and commands but this time with the weapon. arms aching like siao la. then sweating like dunno waht pig la. pig also dun sweat so much. haha

Day 16: BOOK OUT DAY! today was cool la. we went for our range simulation. that means it's like an arcade game. we hold the rifle [due to security, i won't explain much] and practice shooting with a simulation la. did quite ok. jus need to improve on certain stuff bout how i hold my rifle and all. Ben super zhun. like marksman. very happy for him. hope he'll continue to do well for this.
After that we had stand by bed where we got whacked by sgt major upside down. drop 20 for him and then BOOKED OUT! wootz. it was so fun booking out la. had KFC with dad and mum. :) and now here i am, dying coz i wanna sleep but know i have to blog.

so far so good. God has answered so many of my prayer requests... i think all of them if i'm not wrong. and really it's wonderful to see God working la. my bunk has 10 people, 2 Christians... so that means i had 1/9 chance of getting a Christian buddy and guess wad. :) so many other things i wanna thank Him for la. but yeh, God has been so real to me... and i thank Him for daily grace. really. i guess only i will understand what that means but everyday He's been giving me grace. i can't wait for Him to once again answer my prayer request with such specific answers.

sorry for blogging long. BMT! :)

Leaving for Army Loh!

How cool, this is my 100th post. now how funky is that? :)

In a spur of the moment yesterday [also known as a unwillingness to be alone], i decided to print out some pictures of people who mean things to me. to bring in and to look at when i'm down or lonely. printed some others but they go into my wallet. These are the ones that i decorated my bible with. and trust me, i love my bible now more than ever. it is MINE. not some bible bought off the shelf.. but it's Rui's Bible. wowz. i love it la. take a look see...


Front of my Bible. to remind me that i'm committed to shalom. The pulpit reminding me that God' Word is truth. that no matter what people say in there, there's only one truth. God. To also remind me that if God's Word says i can get thru anything thru Christ who strengthens me, then i better believe it. And that He will never leave me.

It says, Thy Word is Truth. It's my church's pulpit.

This is the back of the bible. Reminding me of the 2 major groups of people i have poured my life into and will still continue to. The Shalom YF and TP CF. Special groups of people with individually special people. The reason i serve, i love and i will persevere. They give me strength that God has so blessed me with.

The YFers on the top and CFers at the bottom. 2 groups of blessings.

The final product. My 1st pair of black specs that might not have even been made coz of a few complications. So now i have 2 pairs. but i only desire to feature one pair coz i think it's nicer. :) yup. i love it. so dun expect me to be changing back to my normal ones anytime soon. haha

Black Specs are comin! Nod your *botak* head!!!

All my bags are packed, i'm ready to go. :) sigh. am i really ready to leave everything else behind and step into this new phase of life? i dunno. i'll only know after i leave.

CFers, if you squint, maybe you can see a few stuff from your survival kit. like Yan Yan choc at the top right of my bag. with the tag still on. :)

This will be my last post before i lose my pink IC for the next 2 years and become a chao recruit for 7 weeks. it seems really surreal that i'm finally embarking on NS. It's one of those things that you always say, aiyah, still got a long way more. [just like marriage. eeps] But hey, it's happening in 3 hours time and yet it still seems like it's a dream that i'm going to wake up from. Let's start with the happiness.

I can't wait to shave my head. it's getting too hot. I wanna see what army's all about. Get to know new people and to see a totally different environment. I wanna build up myself coz i think i'm a bag-o-bones. I'm lookin forward to doing all the stuff that you always hear bout.. like throwing a grenade, shooting a gun and doing army commands. [i dunno how much i will be able to do though]

Now to the bad things that NS is doing:
Leaving people i love.
Parents - They've really been helping me thru the initial stages of my life. always looking out for me and going out of their way to make sure my life as a child and teen is one that i can be comfortable in. I know how hard my Dad works and what my mum does behind the scenes.
Sab - Can tell how much you'll miss me and that's just a reflection of how much i'll miss you too. Doing things that i never ask for, stepping out to help me whenever i needed, thanks sab. More than i could ask for in a sister. Dun stop.
Jamie - You know that apart from family, you're prob the hardest to leave too. 2 weeks. i can do it. so can you. Dance well mei. I'll see you very soon. and i'm claiming that welcome-back hug. you better be ready! oh btw, with these two weeks, i'm surely gonna win our little competition. mwhahaa :)
heh. sigh. six letters, so hard to say. b.. y.. e.. m.. e.. i. 'Parce que chaque jour j'ai pensait à toi.'
Chelsea and Mini - dun intend to grp the two of you up but i sense i might have to explain muchies if i dun. haha. thanks for both your encouraging posts on your blog and your personal wishes to me. whether it be thru smsing, msning, card writing or just that look in your eyes that says i'll miss ya. I'll be back yah? and remember what i told ya both. take care of each other ok?
Angel - didn't get to catch ya online before i left but your sms last nite brightened up my night quite a bit. can't say i wasn't waiting so thanks for it and take care of yourself as you slack till sch starts. :) update me yeh, you can still sms me. and thanks for everything. we'll do New York New York again when i get back.
YFers - for those who do read this. thanks for making a difference in my youth life. Needless to say, it's been a joy serving you guys.. the only reason i would wanna stay for a 4th year even though i'm like SO old can! haha... but yeh. have a good first youth worship and i'll see ya guys in 2 weeks. apologize if i stink when i come back in 2 weeks, coz if i book out and dun have enuf time to go home, i'm coming straight to you for yf. see you guys soon. and thanks for all your smses and blessings.
CFers - Meliza, Lydia and all the rest of you who mean so much. thanks for your survival kit and for your unending love for me and for each other. dun stop loving each other and striving to show others what Christian love and fellowship is all about. You've touched my life in so many ways trying to type it would do it injustice. stay strong. stay strong.
August - sorry i have to miss the musical. and thanks for [going to] send me off. you take care of yourself and the musical people. dun rara too much at the interchange later pls. HAHA.
Friends who dun fall into those categories - for parents of youth, school frens or just people who have somehow sent me greetings for ns. thanks. i'll be fine, you just take care of yourself will ya? :)

Yup. k, that's my extensive list of goodbyes... 2 weeks.. what's the big deal? :) yup. will look forward to many many things when i book out on the first weekend of aug. sorry to the musical people that i'll be missing your musical practice sessions. blame the governme... umm i mean, sorry. heh

Yuppers people. you guys all take care alrite? i'll be back real soon and i'll be looking forward to catching up. here's my prayer list if you wanna pray for me.

Pray that:

• I'll not feel lonely in there.
• I'll not be ashamed of my faith and to shine for Him
• I'll have company mates who are understanding and fun to get to know
• My personal walk will not suffer
• I'll have a Good buddy
• I'll find a Christian in there to pray with
• I won't get sick
• I'll see you in two weeks

Heh. Alrite. this is recruit RL Tan signing out. Good bye civilization and Singapore mainland. I'll touch back down soon. Pray for me!!! *poof*

CF Farewell

Yup so today... hmm took so long to try to convert the videos, upload them and upload photos that now it's already the day after... so yesterday, tuesday, i went for my last CF before i enlist. It's quite interesting though, how i won't see them for the next 7 weeks or the next 2 years. :S

Meliza and Lydia and the rest got me a big gift can! argh. not supposed to!!! but no!! they wouldn't listen. :) but it was really nice. funny and corny. jus the way i was remembered i pressume. :) i'll explain each item to you... or well, most of it. :)

It came in a huge peeeenk box that said "Joel's survival kit from CFers. use with caution" on the box... i'll let the video at the end of this entry explain it all la. it'll come with a script and all so you can watch and read at the same time dun worry. :) Now on to pictures.


My Survival Kit.


Cap to protect and hide my soon-to-be-botak head. Wargh. haha nice cap though. yayz.


Yan Yan Chocolate given to counter depression in camp. -_-; ok... i dun think i can bring it in but thanks.


Complete Survival Kit with Meliza's Letter behind.


Mark being dumb. me being dumb with him.


Lydia 'Bangthe' Goh. personal joke sorry. haha. Big smiles braces shining brightly!!! :) she suddenly seems so small.


Nick. My buddy, spiritual support and constant friend.


Meliza, the crazy babe. With lydia messing our picture. yeh, that rouge head belongs to the small girl. :)


Tian en looking so sad i'm leaving. trying to mimick his dumb-ness... but i guess he's got a gift i don't. HAHA


Mayfern! Staffworker extraordinaire. :)


Meliza and me. minus crazy lydia. :) This crazy gal is the reason why CF is always a joy to go to.


Qiang. sigh... he's the chair of the yf? sigh. HAHA jus kidding. looking spastik jus for me. :) thanks qiang.


Finally, a group shot of all of us awaiting the bus. sigh. memories.



Videos!

First part of opening presents

Script: Copy and paste to notepad so you can have it beside the video while you watch. [Each gift has a tag attached to it describing what it's there for. the first is a bottle of dettol]

Me: You can never be too clean. *duh face plus act cute smile* Are you even taking it now? YOU'RE DOING A MOVIE? then i have to do faster.
Then you shouldn't be doing a movie. coz then people will have to tilt their heads to watch. ahh. *smiles* now start again. *laughs*
Oreo, 14grams of energy.. ok it's getting umm hmmm... ok...
Mark [camera man]: I'm i'm sorry! *flips camera around for fun*
Me: Oh gosh, you better take another video.
Memopad, fo... *snigger* for you to write love letters to your... *dun want to say CFers* Christian friends.
Meliza: CFers, by the way. *not one to let the limelight get lost*
Me: to say how much you miss them. Use with envelope and pencils for best results. *flips and finds envelopes* OOO... Where's my pencil? [demanding tone]
Lydia: Inside
Me: inside ah? oh shucks! :).... Pencil.... You should have given me this before i went to shop.
Mopiko... in case Axe oil doesn't work. *bewildered expression* the same right?
... Alwyn, we're sleeping overnight... Sugar... Sugar... sugar....
*oh my goodness expression* Axe oil. In case mopiko doesn't work. [super funny la]



Second part of opening presents

Mark: Do again, do from the previous one.
Me: *Exaspearated look* This IS the previous one!... Eno. For the sore throat after eating all our tidbits... too much...
Halal soap... If your Sir happens to be an Indian [realizes how racists this cf is so slows down pace] use to score points. This is a RACIST CF.
Honey.. oh... Honey stars. [reads label. *oh my gosh*] Be a star in 'YA' camp. Grammtically wrong. must have been done by Meliza.
Box! ok that's all. thank you oh.. nothing right?... cup noodles.
Lydia: OH! Where's the pullups?
Me: *Grabs qiang's pants* Qiang! [he was joking earlier bout wearing it]
Meliza: Well, you can take us for now. hehe.. take together take together take together! ah ah, wear the cap.
Me and Mel, poses for camera shot forgetting it's a movie clip.
Lydia: haha. you'll look so funny botak.
Meliza: No no, we must present this, we must present this. Lydia!
Lydia: You know is this for?
Me: k, lay it on me come on... [expecting lameness]
Lydia: For you to practice your pullups.
Me: [super duh look while laughter goes around the room]
Mark: Wah! hen leng hen leng ah! [very cold very cold. referring to the joke]
Me: Thank you very much, Thank you very much, Thank you very much.
Me: ok you can stop the video now.
Meliza: Must use ok!
Me: Ummm *lydia laughing hysterically in the background*...some... yeh, i'll use some.




Mark playing "huggies commercial song"
Background to this video, CFers gave me the Huggies pull-ups. and Mark had that dumb huggies song in his phone so he played it while i showcased my gift.
Me: It's to practice my pullups... ok i said it.
Mark's handphone: "I'm a big kid now. I'm a big kid now."
Me: *stupid dumb "duh" expression*

Now dun miss it. :)

Sunday Farewell + Pirates movie

Hey peeps. first of all, i wanna say thanks to these people for coming for joella's birthday celebration + my farewell... in no specific order of reference...

"Sean, Alicia Kok, Adrian, Chelsea, Shawn, Joash, Nicholas, Jamie, Joella, Qiang, Dinesh, Ben, Seng Lee, Mini"

Thanks for coming for the movie and some of you for the dinner. It was really something that i was looking forward to during the entire week. a special mention goes out to Jamie, Chelsea, Nick and Sean for helping to plan this entire thing. i know it's been quite stressful organizing the people, trying to see who's going and who's watching the movie. And i know even at the last moment, it came down to chionging to tampines to buy the movie tickets. I know how hard and frustrating these things can be sometimes so i thank you so much for making it work out in the end and for getting us such smashingly awesome seats. :)

Oh, i have to blog bout this. I want to publicly apologize to Shawn, mr thambi. I do admit that i made a huge big mistake by forgetting to inform you about the time change and thus causing you to waste almost an hour of your life waiting for us. I really do apologize for that and trust me when i say this, it was TOTALLY not my intention to do that. it just slipped my mind in the flurry of things going on that day. I do want to make it up to you but i hope you will forgive me for that big error and i'm sorry once again thambi.
Once i got his call at 3 plus rite, and realizing what had just transpired... it sent me into this sorta crazy downward spiral into semi depression can! and then seeing him at the mrt... wah piang. i could jus stab myself with a thousand knives. but i had already done that a hundred times on the way to the mrt station. Sigh... after that, i couldn't really recover from that state till the movie and so i apologize to anyone else if i was like quite dao before the movie... didn't mean to be that way but jus couldn't feel happy.

even seeing YOU there, wasn't able to bring a lasting smile to me.

but yeh, after that i guess i got better. :) the movie was the best thing that happened on that day. Guess it's coz i got a sms and managed to fulfill a certain request that made it all good. i dun think i need or want to explain further... the intended party knows what i mean. but i'll tell you that i will always remember that movie... and i am taking it with me to Tekong in times of loneliness. :) I shall stop myself here coz i dun want to write sumthing here that might cause me to have to explain myself out of next time but yeh. i was really glad. really glad. *big beam*

After the movie, that pooters Jamie had to leave... sigh. so disappointing can. farewell dinner and she run away home.. no.. to SIGLAP! hahaha.. jus kidding mei. :) i know you can't help it.. but yeh, i was like WHAT!?!? haha.. but never mind... at least i got me hug before you left. a long overdue one if i might add. :) It was tough saying bye knowing that it'll be 2weeks till i see her again and stuff... but i guess it's only 2 weeks rite? :) 14 days, should be fine.

We ventured to many places for dinner but settling at Yoshinoya coz it was much cheaper than anything else we had originally suggested. Thambi had to leave as well and that was like WAH sadded... never say bye somemore. DAO KIA can! ahaha.. stupid goon, i expect you to say bye before i leave for tekong! ahah...

Yuppers, bought Joella a cake and surprised her at yoshi... it was quite nice... the cake was tasty! yay! good choice. and fellowship there was fun too. :) Chelsea and mini had to leave halfway coz mum was there to pick them up. -_-; all running away. haha... but yeh, i'm real glad they made it. i would have much rathered them to stay though. hahaha. jus kidding.

After dinner, we parted ways and i was finally able to get a chance to be alone to read a cute silver card that i got from mini. my one and only card. yayz... so sweet can. :) rush all the way from tuition just to say bye to me and stuff. :) *meltz* thanks a ton mini. i really was glad to see you outside that cinema. :)

Went home and i realized that although i was ready to leave for my two weeks vacation, there was still that part of me that i could never really leave. that part of my heart that will always remain here... and no matter how ready i am to leave, i won't ever be ready to leave THAT. so i'm just gonna have to bite it and take the plunge i guess. bring what i can to remember it with and then just "ren" for 2 weeks, 7 weeks, 2 years.

but you know i'll miss you. you know it so much.

So thanks again to one and all who made sunday so special. i didn't wanna blog too early about this sunday thing coz recently i've been quite emo [in a good way]... so didn't wanna say sumthin here that i might regret. but i've already jotted down my thoughts somewhere else so i should be fine writing this publicly-viewable entry. :)

3 more days! :)



The birthday peeps. Joella 'jellyfish' Lam and me. :)


The kind souls that bothered to come down. well, half of them.

Pirates of the Curry Bun 15th July 2006

I regret to inform you that i have no pictures taken of Pirates of the Curry bun, so for those who were looking out for snapshots, i have to apologize as there was no camera present at the event today. now.. on to more important things.

Today was the pirates of the curry bun yf activity. the one that i have been busy planning over the past 2-3 weeks... really glad it's finally over and that today was SUCH a huge success. Let me go choronologically la...
met up with Thambi early to get the last minute supplies like snacks for the ends, tape to stick clues and all that jazz... Was a bit afraid that we might not have enough time to plant clues and all because we left Parkway quite late. stupid queue in bread talk was like uber long and slow... finally go to ECP and planted the first clue and to cut story short, went to macs to wait. there i was chucked with quite a lot of bad news.

First of all, nick said he'll be late and that we might have to start without him while qiang was also no where to be seen though it was still early.
Second, Celia called and told me that there were only like 3 people at bedok. so i had to make a decision on the spot and asked them to wait longer while we pushed back the starting time to accommodate the late comers. In the end, they left like super late... 2.30 but thankfully there were more with them.
Third, the sky started to darken and reports from Abigail said that it was already raining at bedok. the rain finally came but lasted for barely 10 minutes. thank the Lord. was praying so so hard can. and the rain really dampened my spirits. you plan so long for sumthing and natural weather hinders it and threatens to totally cancel it. wahhh. So yeh, i was quite down for a 10 minute period at macs... just waiting for people to come and watching the rain pelt down my activity.

But then the rain stopped, the bedok people left for ecp and the people starting coming by themselves to ecp like Joash, Tricia, Yuan, Nick, Joella. :) it was really great to see people coming although you know that some will turn up la. but still... sumthing struck me then... in the moment that everything came together again.. this came to my mind.
There has to be a storm for there to be a rainbow. There cannot be a rainbow if it never rained.

Speaks volumes if you ask me... and i had my little rainbow when everyone had finally gathered and the activity slowly kicked off. :) it went really well and the only regret i had was that i didn't have a digicam. SUPER sian ok. but yeh, the games were done real well and the last game was the super funniest of all of them la... really great ending game if you asked me.
Credit goes to my CF friend Lydia for giving me the idea. it was SMASHING girl. really. :)

But before i explain the last game, commercial break. Thambi and i were sitting down in those huts thing, catching our breath and waiting for nick to arrive so that he could prepare his station. then it was super funny coz from a distance we saw the other group coming so we were like super gan jiong la. we grabbed our stuff and had to chiong to the jetty coz we had to go put up a flag thing so that they could spot where the next station is. haha super funny we were like. OH CRAP GO GO GO! [in the end shawn fell on some sand chionging off. but it was so funny] i surely heard Tricia being a real nicey by asking me if I needed her to give me some time to set up the stuff. i just shouted back, "you never saw me"... HAHA.. but it all worked out fine in the end la. they didn't see the flag coz it was so small but they surely saw us, so we bacame the marker for the next station... which is a game.........

Picture this people. the group was gathered around a stuff toy in the center of the circle on the floor. a raffia string is tied to your waist and the other end is tied to a central rubber band... not touching the stuff toy in the center or the rope, you and your team have to stretch and manuever the rubber band so that it "KIAPs" the stuff toy lifting it off the ground. sounds easy? trust me, it isn't. coz that's not all. you have to move as a team to the cover a distance while your stuff toy dangles over the ground... so the group has to walk at the same pace while not stretching the rubber band to release the stuff toy. sigh it was so fun coz it was so hard.
We played this game at the jetty and the whole jetty slowly stopped their fishing activities and looked at us la. it was like the whole jetty was watching us play our game and you could see they all had a smile on their face lor... glad everyone, even specatators, were having such fun. :)

So finally when the game was completed, we crashed at the next stop which was big splash and had worship... nice grassy patch and Abigail led worship. wowz can! lead worship and play guitar at the same time. talented. real glad she was leading. yayz for her. haha... yeh, then we closed the event and fellowshipped at the beach area singing songs, laughing, telling jokes, just basically being youths. :) it was such an enjoyable time..

Then it struck me there and then. when i finally took off my blades and shared the time with them, it struck me. i had to take a break from my busy day before i could see what God wanted to show me today. i shared this with Adrian, Jodi and Qiang. my peers, my friends, my support. I saw the youths really, like REALLY enjoying themselves today. they were laughing, having fun... there was nuthing in their faces that told me they were forced to be here or made to come... every one of them looked like they were real glad they came and really wanted to come... it was SO internally uplifting. it's like God speaks to you in that small way when you've cried out to Him so much about that issue.

It may just be a change of environment or a fun activity.. but i saw the youths having fun today. having fun the way we used to have fun back in the old school times... i haven't really seen that in a long time and it just was so comforting and moving. it's tough to put to words and i dun expect you to know this... but it also boils down to one thot that hit me there and then.

A chairperson's greatest success is knowing that after his term in service, the people that God has called him to serve are enjoying themselves and God. Not dreading meeting up. And today, it just was so.. so... wonderful that i can't really describe it.

Thanks be to God for giving them a wonderful spirit of unity, bond and fun today. nothing can ever replace that sense of fellowship i felt today. walking back to parkway, i saw the different groups having fun talking, teasing or messing with each other and it was just.. like wow. i'm so glad they're just being youths. this is a youth group. this is Shalom. Thank You Father. you know my thots.

Yeh so it was a really great day. super tired now but i HAD to blog this down coz i didn't want to forget this. one thot i shared with jodi was that she agreed too that the youths today really spent time together the way the old yf had. and it was just cool to see it repeating in a whole new generation. and sumthing struck me as i walked on. something i'm gonna to hold on to till i'm back in 2 weeks time...

I'm ready to leave. to leave the yf for 2 weeks... but also, to leave the yf this year. I'm ready to leave.

Thank you all for coming. and for those who couldn't make it, thanks for praying. i know you did. thank you so much. so so much.

One week left

Wootz! i've got one week left till my overseas 2 weeks vacation. Looking forward to it i guess. it's gonna be so exciting can. Already bought my stuff that i need to bring in save a few small items like duck [heh, duct] tape, detergent and stuff... wowz. :) it's slowly getting exciting. Finally able to leave this island behind where no one can really kinda contact me.

thinking bout the duration is also a bit ok la. slowly getting used to thinking 2 weeks ain't that long. unless i can shot or sumthing. then you won't see me for the rest of your lift. but i dun think that'll happen. haha...

Praying hard for so many things. God will be opening heaven's doors and pouring down too many miracles if just but one of my prayers are answered... but i'm fervently gonna pray hard for those things... esp the vocation. realized that this tuesday might be my LAST LAST CF before the rest graduate. too scary. Thank God for heaven.

Last prep for Pirates of the Curry Bun are underway. this is the plan for extra people, unforeseen circumstances... all that jazz. it's kinda stressing me out coz it seems like there'll be much more people than we thot would be going so must plan for an extra group. pengz... but it's good that there are more people too la i suppose. praise the Lord... jus need to push up the budget and buy more stuff for the games lor. hahaha pengzzzzz

Had dinner with 2 good frens last nite. It was quite nice to just sit down and have a dinner after a super long day of shopping... glares at one of them, i wonder why. :) but yeh, really enjoyed the company albiet the madness that the billy bombers waiters had to see. It really brought a smile to my face and lifted my heart with joy to know that both of you would bother to just set aside time [even though last minute] to give me a nice dinner. really appreciate it and i look forward to when i can do the same in return. Seems surreal that my birthday will be spent overseas... but hey, birthdays never meant anything to me, always thot it was a hyped up day that only should be celebrated if it's other people's birthdays. haha

yup, i'm not really going anywhere with this post. jus rambling thots. depressing news of the week... china doll and mini doll weren't able to come for YF.. or well, can't come for yf later on. i totally understand why so dun worry and dun be angry, like what i said in the sms and msn, do that first then there'll always be another chance. Submit, obey and trust will come. I can vouch for that although mine are totally different from yours i understand that too. but trust given is generic.

anyways, seems like curry bun planning just went into full throttle. might have to take into account for one more group. pengz, stress. :)

see ya later peeps. shall blog more, trust me.

Creative EP-630s

Yeh so I haven't been bloggin for a while. I apologize. kinda been no mood for bloggin i guess. but since August has bugged me, here is the newest post! wowz!!! haha... k lame.

I recently purchased a crazy mad item off the shelf that day. After doing a bit of research and coming to no final decision, i just decided to pick up the ones i thot of buying first... Went down to Marina South and grabbed a $69 Creative EP-630 earphones. yeh, it's pricey.. but trust me, unless you've tried in-ear earphones, you dunno what music is about... :) haha it's a really cool sensation to really hear the music in your head and not in your ears... let me try to describe it.. but first, here's a pic of the smashing earphones i spent so much on.



First of all, the silicon rubber will make sure that no outside noise goes in. that means once you put these pair of babies in your ears, you practically can't hear much of the outside. that means you prob won't hear the horn of the speeding car hurtling towards you as you enjoy a bit of heaven across the road. :) but hey, look at it this way, you'll die a happy man.. and you wouldn't know wad hit ya.
haha.. but apart from that, i think it really brings listening to music to a whole new level. you hear things you've never heard before... the bass is increased... always find myself tappin my foot to the bass much much more. and me being a drum obsession guy, that just rocks my socks off. The little things of the song ya never really noticed becomes super obvious and the quality is jus so much sharper. it's like... huh? there was this harmonizing part meh? or like... oh that adlib was super cool, why never hear b4 leh? haha

yeh so overall, i love my new earphones. only one problem with it... when the wire hits my body [i.e. walking] you can hear a tap in the earphones... it gets to you a bit at the start and i realized i was holding the wire against my chest quite a bit to make it stop swinging into my chest... but after a while, you slowly get used to it and trust me, there's so much more things to concetrate on when listening to music that the constant [thump thump thump] becomes a small thing. I only "re-notice" it when the music changes tracks and there's no music filling my cerebral core.

yup. so i'm real glad with my buy... jus hope it doesn't get underused coz of dumb ol' NS. :)
the only regret i have with these are that i didn't buy them earlier. :)

High School Musical - Breaking Free

Yup, so i watched it and i think it's quite a nice movie la. :) go check it out on Youtube la. :) nice songs too. i think the girl's voice is fantab... :)
Sorry it's quite soft. they all are, jus increase your volume la. :)

Oh and i blame Cherie mainly for this. she made me go check out the movie. ... all your fault la! haha. thanks Cherie.