Church Camp Pictures

As promised, here are some of the pics highlighting some key events or people in the recent church camp that has gone by so quickly. If you want a full run thru, please refer to two posts below this...

So we started on our short [4hrs] journey up to the country of Malaysia, and the area called Seremban. The cars that went up weren't caught in a jam but apparently the 2nd batch of cars and coach were.



So we headed up and we finally reached Hotel Adelphi



The evening was filled with fun and laughter as we had some ice breaker games that even involved our camp speaker Dr. Robert Nienhuis and his lovely wife Bette-Joe. Both seen here playing our game and really interacting with everyone.



Yeh, the next day we also had some games... got sabo-ed into being the rep for the group. they said choose the most obedient one in your grp and alll the adults looked straight at me la. i was like WAD! NO! i'm not obedient!!! but i ended up being a small voice in an ocean of "approvals"... argh. jus all dun want to tio sabo. so anyways, i had to go out and after they setup the place, come back in and go thru this obstacle course blindfolded. Well, i wasn't asked to wear a blindfold so here i am jamming my eyes shut and following the instructions of my grp leader... the one who sabo-ed me... uncle Lawrence.



Not to mention mei got sabo-ed as well. i've got a guai mei can! haha... you can see here, her vain attempt at trying to fake an obstacle. haha she knows what i mean.



Yup, so that was the sabo games... then there were other stuff like writing letters on our limbs and then forming words with each member of the grp. i managed to skillfully get letters that were "word-formable" and so i got W-A-R-D on my soles and palms. that means i can form words like "war, ward, raw, rad" just by myself for photo ops. and once i got my letters, i quickly asked august over, resulting in this pic. :)



haha... it was quite funny coz i just realized that here i was wearing WAR on my limbs and the next day, Rach and jason were in kinda-matching tops that talked bout PEACE. :)


Pic here is of the youths on the 2nd day just waiting for the message to start.



Yup, after that, sab and i decided to drag august to take our pic wif the grand staircase. after taking a few pics, we decided to rope in Jamie coz we wanted to do that "many hand god" kinda pic.. but in the end we got the whole gang.. Chelsea and Alicia came as well so I was like taking pics wif 4 beautiful girls can. mwhaha envy me! :) i bet chelsea will jus say it's coz i'm a girl like them. but they know the truth... sigh. it's tough being a chick magnet. :) now girls, if you deny that, you're saying you're not chicks... so... dum dee dum. HAHA. anyways, here are a few pics of us. Like i said, we were posing like models on the stairs. everyone was jus snapping away, thus many pics.


Me strangling Sab


My beautiful sister and I


My Jie and Mei. :P


Me and my girls... ok fine, THE girls. HAHA


Balancing was tough while still smiling and posing for this


Group acting Dao


Finally a normal Group posing shot


Here's me and Master Pua posing. took me a while to get him to smile with me. silly boy. He's so cute la.



Oh, this is my lovely mei with Charlotte, the ever adored baby of Shalom... Both as flexible as anything, splitting for the whole to take pics of. pengz. haha. Jamie's got a wonderful smile here. Doncha think?


Pastor Planned up the 3rd nite's activity. He called it mystery night and basically it was jus more and more games. hahaha. But they were fun. to see what you missed, keep scrolling on. :)


First game of the evening for the Mystery Night Pastor planned up. This involved people running like mad people towards a plastic cup and using their tails [ball in a sock tied to their waist] to hit the cups down one after the other. We spotted some hot salsa moves and flexible waists on that night. A real treat to the funny bone and heart.


This was a game involving couples. The female would have to correctly identify their husband's foot and the husband had to choose a hand afterwards. It was quite funny coz some husbands didn't choose for fear of error. I think it's wiser to not choose than to choose wrong. Haha... though both cases could be detrimental to your health or you could always jus lose your place in the bed tonite. haha.
Thought this was an interesting game that really bonded the husbands and wives and it showed how much they loved each other. some were so confident like Leonard and Jennifer. Really thank God for marriages in our church going strong.



Thot this was an awfully cute picture of Rach and Jie... both got that kinda "plastic specs cuteness" can. haha i'll be joining their ranks soon coz of army. but yeh, thot i'd post it up. :) summore rachel's doing that "push up glasses" blur look. haha...


This is the game we played. Like always, same kinda game... the whole tangle wangle thing la. :) the youths were like super pro, thankfully we didn't go head to head with them. otherwise sure malu. :)


Broken telephone. Oh my, this game was FUNNN. the messages that turned up at the end was SO off and some were jus abs-forming hilarious. The messages were warped, twisted and bent till they made some really funny statements. :) It was good to see the children actively participating wif the adults. Here you can see me and Auntie Dawn making sure the message was flawless. It went hay-wire after it passed thru the children. Super funny.


Pic of August harassing joash... the poor boy had to room with the camp master and face all his nonsense every morning...


The next day we went to the OSTRICH farm!!! haha... here's a pic of the magnificient animal... bird. whatever. haha. it's feet really reminded me of dinosaurs and i can BET you that people used them as references to dinos... the way they look, walk... everything... it's like a dino. super cool. :)


Me riding on Ostrich... so they let us ride them and we got a dumb certificate after that. haha it was fun. grabbing onto their wings, you can feel the bones underneath. but it's like thin wires surrounded by muscle and feathers... wowz. wad an experience


Now, after riding it, you just have to finish the experience off rite? so you eat it. :)



Yup, that kinda concludes the photos for the camp..
Group Pic... wowz. Shalom getting so big liao. :) Praise the Lord.



phew. FINALLY finished uploading all the photos... madness can. :) well, it's worth it. hope you liked it!

I wonder to myself these days,
can love be demonstrated without actions?
i see in you everything i wanna protect.

i see in me, everything i wanna protect you from.

Sitting in the office now, nose is slowly recovering from being held captive in the packing room for the better part of the morning. Finally finished packing 3 years of invoices. it's taken me all this week and a bit of the last to sort, pack and label all the boxes. goodness, there was so many. thankfully i had my zen with me all the time to keep me company when smses were slow in coming back.

These days, honestly, I haven't been myself. In terms of cheerfulness and all. A wise fren questioned me about some stuff and it only made me think much much more about things I knew I shouldn't be thinking of when I'm alone. It's times like this that I see my weakness so clearly. So obviously. So, secretive. I won't say it's my deep dark secret but i know that it's been my mission these few years to continue to battle it. I can't seem to win over it, but i guess me standing here today is proof enuf that i haven't lost.

It scares me sometimes of the things that go thru my head during these times. God seems close yet far. He's a prayer away and I'm constantly talking to Him about it, i mean the Zen isn't very realistic to talk to, but it's like He doesn't really reply. It's like all He is is a listening ear. And that's rubbish coz i know He does speak to me. Just why can't I hear it and why won't I hear it?

I am nothing without You,
Just a shadow passing through.

I suppose He's never far, it's just that we don't listen. so yeh... here I am, trying hard to listen yet shutting any form of Him i can hear. ironic. Now

Holding back is one of the hardest things to do
yet, one of the most necessary.
It's not that i dun care,
it's that i can't.

My teacher once said that
I'll never pass A Math and that i'd fail in the 'O's. She was wrong. :)
Never in my life have i
Committed suicide. LOLZ. umm ok err. BEEN ATTACHED! yup!
The one person who can drive me nuts, but then can always make me smile
is someone i schooled with, served with and still serve alongside.
I like
my mei
because
she makes me happy, reminds me that no matter what, she can always make me smile.
When i'm nervous
I tend to stop believing in myself.
The last time i laughed was when
Thambi got locked out of his room during church camp. I only counted the LUPS kinda laugh.
My hair is
gonna be a toilet brush in a month's time!!! ahhh!
My feet are
walking on sunshine!!! woo hoo!
Last christmas
I gave you my heart, but the very nex... okok. ummm last Christmas was a turning point for me.
When i turn my head left, i see
my collegues in my work place
When i turn my head right, i see
my boss! eeps! haha.
When i look down, i see
the length of ground my knees have to move before kneeling for the Lord. and umm, i also see a little bit of crumbs from the snickers i'm eating. tee hee.
The craziest recent event was
Ostrich watching, riding, racing and eating. wootz! haha
By this time next year
I'll probably have stepped down from the Ex-Co. sobz.
I have a hard time understanding
God's timing and His Will. i mean, who doesn't.
One time at a family gathering
i wished i wasn't there. oh, that's all the time. ummm one time my aunt pulled me to buy the Zen Vision M right on the same day. mad woman. but I love her!
You know i like-like you if
I sacrifice too much of myself and if I tell you I do.
If i won an award, the first person i'd thank is
God. but He's not really a PERSON so... the person who gave me the award. lolz.
Triangles are
tasty! wad?!?? ahah. umm they're pointy.
My ideal breakfast is
breakfast in bed with nothing to wake up to. Notice it's ideal, coz it's never happened b4. sighz.
If you make me really happy
I would tell you how much i appreciated it and try my utmost best to make your day as good as mine.
Where do you plan to visit anytime soon
Tekong. but it's not my plans. HAHA.
Boys are
Dumb. till they grow up. Then they're stupid. Unless they're like me. HAHAHA. oops.
I'd stop my wedding if
my bride-to-be ran away.
The world could do without
Sin.
I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than
lick the belly of two cockroaches.
Most recent thing you've bought yourself
a handphone. Dumb army. making me spend money on a useless handphone.
Most recent thing someone else bought you
a handphone. long story. let's jus say i traded in the bought one to get a new one.
My least favourite time of the day is
when no one's talking to me. OR.... when i have to sleep and someone i love is online.
And by the way, please hold on
my snickers hasn't been bit in a while. *bite* umm yummy.
The last time i was high
I was with the Ex-Co having a meeting about the next 6 months. goodness. so dumbz can.
The last person i talked to told me
that she loved me. awww.
I shouldn't have
lost my mei for 2 years. stupid me. 2 long years. what an idiot i was... i am.
Last night I
bought a new handphone and watched CARS. on dvd. hehe
There's this girl i know who
loves me!!! and whom i love too. duhz.
There's this guy i know who
is currently in Tioman! argh.
I'll tell the next person who makes me really happy
That they made me really happy. -_-; HAHA. umm that they have really brought a smile to my heart. And that i needed that smile. :)
I'm listening to
My mei complain about her chinese tuition.
I last ate
My snickers. remember??? haha
My bedsheet is
due for a change. Mother keeps nagging. haha
I smell
good. HAHAHHAA umm i smell umm... nothing much. office air is smell-less. :)
On my table, i have
a computer, a small scanner, a cup, pens in a cup, my zen, my handphone and MY HALF EATEN SNICKERS!! grrr.
My full name is
James Bond. :P Joel Tan Rui Liang
The next 4 people who are gonna do this quiz are
considered really lucky coz I'm not so evil. :)

Jamie made me do this. ARGH.

Church Camp: Seremban, Malaysia, Hotel Royal Adelphi, 5-8th June 2006

Now that you mention it,
those times i worried about you,
those times i looked at you and wondered,
"are you thinking of me? are you wondering too?"

Thank you for telling me, you mean too much to me too.
I wanna be there for you, always.
I'm sorry I lost you for that long,
I'm sorry for not being who I'm supposed to be.

I'm back! *Warning, This is going to be a SUPER long post*

Yeh, finally back from my short one week trip to Malaysia. Church camp was a blast. Seremban, Malaysia, Hotel Royal Adelphi, 5-8th June 2006. Was really looking forward to the camp and I have to say that time flew by too quickly and here i sit, a broken and miserable man thinking of why a week jus passed so quickly. I'll update ya guys day by day but photos will have to wait. August is in Leader's Retreat and won't be back by tml, considering how he'll unpack, take time to get the photos worked out and burn them into a CD with the sermons, i say no photos till like, next week maybe. hmmm sighz.

Day 1, 5th June 2006
We woke up a bit late and drove off to Uncle Lawrence Yeo's house coz that's where our convoy of 3 cars were meeting. Uncle Lawrence, Uncle Alfred and Ivan were the 3 cars going up. So in Uncle Lawrence's car we have Uncle Lawrence, Rachel and Auntie Dawn. In Uncle Alfred's Car we have Uncle Alfred, Auntie Charlene, Chelsea, Alicia and Shaun. In Ivan's Car we have Mum, Ivan, Sab and myself.
So that's the 3 car convoy that i was in. One, if not the best, group of cars we can be in la. The other cars were people like Pastor, Uncle Vincent, Uncle Tony... those kinds la, hardly youth so i was real glad. Anyways, we went a bit late and after testing the Walkie Talkies, we said a prayer and were on the move. It was super exciting just driving towards the causeway and all. Walkie-ing back and forth with Chelsea and Rachel. So we made it past the causeway without a bat of an eyelid, we went early so there was like NO cars/jam whatsoever, so shiok. And made our way up. Stopped at this pit stop and i saw this Wooden Sword/Katana that was like $30RM. Cheap for the look and feel of it. but it was all wooden and didn't have a sheath. Decided not to buy it, though i kinda regret now. haha... but yeh, throughout the trip, i kept thinking of whether i should have gotten it and whenever we got to shop, i'd look around to see if i could buy a sword for myself but to little avail.
Anyhow, after having missed the turning coz Uncle Leonard kinda gave us wrong instructions, we got to Royal Adelphi and it was quite splendid. The surroundings were quite "CITY" like but when you step into the hotel, it's a whole world on it's own. Like a sore thumb stickin out in the city. But it was lovely. the interior was really like a nice hotel and the beds, wow. The rooms were wonderful. Two separate beds, shared room with Ivan, a bathroom that was almost fit for a prince. Bathtub, shower area, and the paraphernalia on the sink top was like, wow! haha... TV was like awesome. Nickelodean, Cinemax, Discov, CNN... not bad la for Malaysian TV in seremban. :) Oh, the best thing about this hotel? a 24hour A&W a 5 minute walk away. WOWZ!!! A&W can! we went there everyday can. haha.
Yeh so after we got our rooms, we headed down for lunch. Food during this camp was alrite. Not as good as we expected, but surely edible. It "Waved" la... some meals good, some meals bad. So finally the coach came when i was just about to finish eating and i just jumped from my seat, left the food behind and chionged to go and say hi. Well, i kinda was only looking out for one person so it wasn't too hard to say hi to everyone while still keeping myself free to say hi when mei came. Auntie Bee Leng turned round the corner and i was just like so happy la. haha... Said a big hi to her and gave her a *beam* and then Jamie came up too. YAYZ! haha.. Finally can! Chelsea and I must have been dying of waiting can. So the rest got settled and we had our first agenda for the day... nuthing till dinner. -_-; ahha We had free time till dinner so we went around exploring the place a bit, made sure we're all acquainted to each other's location in terms of where our rooms were and all. it was a real treat, we were all on the same floor excluding Joash, Jason, Jeannette & Joella... haha all the J names. They were 1 floor above us. Anyways, we had dinner and had our first message and all. The discussion group time we had after the message was so cool la. I loved everytime we had discussion coz it was a real good time to just air our views and talk bout the issues covered during the message. My group consisted of [leaving out all the Uncle and Auntie prefixes], Lawrence, Dawn, Alfred, Charlene, Steven, Jenny, Jim, Kwai San, Tuck Seng, Amy, August and Myself. I felt this was one of the better few groups to be in as well. The Yeos and the Puas were a real treat coz i'm close to the Yeos and i wanted to really have a chance to get to know Uncle Alfred and Auntie Charlene better during this camp. August was there too and the rest were people i only see by face, at the most talk to a bit but dun really know them. So was keen on hearing them out and stuff. Great group can!
So after discussion, we cleaned up and i spent the first nite in Chelsea's Room with Jamie coz they were studying A math, Bio and i had to get myself away from the temptation of hanging out coz i had LR stuff to do and plan for.
After clearing all our individual respective stuff, we parted ways and i met up with Thambi coz he wanted to hang. Mind you, this was at 12.30. Went to his room and knocked on the door. He shares room with Yong Jie. He came out and the door shut behind him. Only then did he realize he didn't have his keycard. So i said, never mind, we go down and hang a while then later wake jie up la. Then i looked down and realized he wasn't wearing shoes!! argh! so we sat there for a while, and chicken shawn was not brave enuf to ring the doorbell and wake jie up. So finally after 2 hours, we called his room but he didn't pick up and we rang the door bell. super funny coz it was super loud la. i laughed and laughed until i was literally almost rolling on the floor tearing. LUPS [Laugh Until Peng San, my newly created word during camp] Finally, we went down and got a replacement card and got Shawn into his room. That was 1am. gosh. haha went back to my room and PENGZ on the bed. Zzzzz

Day 2, 6th June 2006
Woke up on time and cleaned up. Breakfast was not bad, Eggs cooked for you personally and the spread was alrite. Not fab, but not that bad too. haha. We had our second and third messages after that and then had free time for about 3 hours. So we decided to go to the Shopping Centre opposite the hotel called "Parkson Grand" to shop and then head to A&W for Root Beer float. Pakson was so lousy can. didn't have anything worth buying or even looking at! gosh. we wasted the time there and i dun recall anyone coming back with anything from there save a few girls and their chocolates... The float was delicious... why Singapore has cancelled A&W is a mystery to me. seriously. So after that, we came back to the hotel and had dinner [some of us skipped it coz they ate at A&W]... after dinner, we had some ice breakers games that was quite fun. i tio sabo to do some dumb blind fold walkin thing. to re-enforce the lesson of one of the sermons on trust and obedience. Yeh, the games were fun and it was wonderful to see the church members just letting their hair down and having a good time laughing and having fun with each other. After dinner, the youths headed up to play cards and taboo and Yada. Yada is this game Nicholas intro to us. it's like a card game where you try to get the same card [each card has symbols on them] as another person and beat him to realizing it. Very fun game, but can get very noisy coz the girls would scream due to the stress or when they make a mistake. haha. super fun. but the best part of the game is that it's related to Da Vinci Code and it's manufactured by SYC, Singapore Youth for Christ. It actually can be used as an evangelistic tool to start conversations based on the controversial issue of the da vinci code. Yeh, quite an exciting game, very captivating, addictive and yet educational game. :) Taboo was a blast too. like it always is. give me a few more times and i'll prob have had so much experience with that game i'd be too cheater. haha...

Day 3, 7th June 2006
By this morning, i was already groaning that church camp is almost over and i was like URHHHH WHY SO FAST!!! haha. but yeh, woke up and the same usual thing... breakfast and then messages followed by a really enriching time of discussion. This last discussion time was really good coz the group really opened up and was encouraged to share testimony... Alfred, Lawrence, Dawn, Steven, Jenny, Amy, August and I all shared our testimonies and after that discussion, i was emotionally charged and really... moved by what they sumtimes said. i felt it was so blessed to be able to hear it from their own mouths and to know the background behind some of their lives, sumthing you dun always get to hear and get when you meet them for a few minutes every sunday. Uncle Alfred shared about his Salvation story and how he's glad his kids are in Shalom and all that jazz. it was really wonderful to hear and i was thanking God for sending this wonderful family to our church coz they've been such a joy and encouragement to me and to many others. The messages were wonderful too. They really get you thinking about how we are called to be IN the world but not OF the world.. Dr Robert Nienhaus covered topics like Pride, Arrogance, Obedience, Humility, Assertiveness, Discernment and many others. really captivated me and helped us to discuss many important issues during discussion like cheating, stealing, responses to persecution or mocking, choosing to be set apart... wowz. really enjoyed every session.
After lunch, we had an hour to kill before going to the Ostrich Farm Visit. It was really funny coz so many adults and a few youth were all trying to see if they could make the trip an optional one and didn't really see the need/want/motivation/sense in going to see dumb birds. ahaha but i was quite excited to go since it's not sumthing you do everyday. :) had a blast talking on the walkie talkie on the way there, crapping and laughing with people coz Jason now had a set since we had one more.
Finally reached there after braving a crazy rain storm and everyone got off the bus to this aromatic stench [heh wad an irony] that was and is the Ostrich Farm. Went there and sat thru a 5-10 minute talk by the guide and then had a moving tour. we saw some really big Ostriches and some small ones that were only a few months old. I made a really corny joke about how they looked like 'Emu's... and then there were some goats around there too so i pointed to the small Ostrich and said Emu and i pointed to the goats and said Eyang.... Emu Eyang... Yi(4) Mu(2) Yi(4) Yang(4)... geddit? haha quite a few people thot that was a super super lame joke, chelsea and kenneth included. haha i thot it was quite a cool fact that the joke came from my own ACS Kantang brain. haha but it was hilarious at that point of time, you gotta be there to really appreciate the lameness of it all.
Yeh, so on to the rest of the tour, i got my chance to feed the Ostriches and they eat corn... they jus peck down at your hand. so you hold your hand in a cup with the corn and they jus bulldoze their head repeatedly into your palm pecking everytime. quite a cool experience coz their beaks were harder then i thot so it wasn't painful at all. Alicia Pua was like scared of feeding them la.. aiyoh. took so much of me just to get her to feed it and in the end, she never did. tried so hard to help her not so gan jiong but can't. :S anyways, after that i went to ride the Ostrich and i got a certificate for it. haha yayz. :) for amazing bravery... nonsense. haha... got a pic of that.
After that, we watched an Ostrich race and pastor got on the 2nd time and raced the ostrich. all of them fell off the birds la. aiyoh. Uncle Lawrence Fu, Uncle Tiang and Pastor all fell off one by one and we had 3 rogue Ostriches running around. haha so funny. :) After that, we went to a hut where they served us Ostrich Satay and Ostrich burger. i knew i had to try it. come all the way here, must throw away face, disguist and anything to try everything so since i already fed and rode one, might as well eat one. HAHAHA k that doesn't sound good at all. :) It tasted ok, i preferred the burger to the satay coz the satay was hard and too chewy... the burger was better though it still wasn't like WOWZ! jus.. hmm not bad. haha... Chelsea, Alicia and mei were too grossed out to even eat it and i kept grossing them out by waving it in front of them and offering them a bite. :P hahhaa. i'm so evil. Chelsea was afraid of the Ostriches la! even when they were meat on a stick. haha... [yes, chels, i'm not deleting this part]
We proceeded on to the gift shop after that and they sold all sorts of interesting stuff. From feathers to bath soap and facial and hair products that had Ostrich essence in it... wowz. apparently, Ostrich essence is good for so many things.. the oil burnt off the fat also. pengz. like totally use the ostrich can. the skin is super ex too. i can't remember but i think they said a square foot of the skin is like $35 USD. wowz! that's ex for a small piece isn't it? haha... crazyness... yeh... then we left and headed back after that. it was an enjoyable, fun and educational [if u dun mind me saying, stomach filling too] trip... wad a change from what we do everyday. Thank God too coz the rain seemed to hold for us while we toured around... wonderful providence we easily can take for granted when focusing too much on the dumb birds. they have brains the size of peas. haha. wowz.
Went back and had this mystery night thing that pastor was super MUM about. not even August the camp master knew bout it. It wasn't much.. jus a showcase of the pics taken during camp so far and more silly games that touched upon families and couples in the church. haha it was fun watching and laughing along with them. After mystery night, it was the last nite so we all went to hang in one of the rooms playing Yada, Bridge and Taboo. it was a really fun night and i'll share some of the jokes here la.
We were playing Taboo and we're supposed to describe a word without saying some other words la. then the word we needed to guess was "BIMBO"... and i can't really remember who it was but she was like... you call Jamie this all the time... and we were all like huh? and then Jeannette said Bimbo! and she was like, right! haha then we were all laughing la and jamie was like ward!!!!!!! HAHHAA.. super funny coz it was so spontaneous. Other stuff were... Nicholas was trying to describe the word "SKY SCRAPPER" and he was like Taipei 101 and then Kenneth said "Hair Reduction!" and we were like nO! that's beijing 101.. so funny la coz kenneth tried to cover up his mistake by saying he doesn't need beijing 101 that's why he got confused and then a second later we realized. Eh! Beijing 101 also not hair REDUCTION! hahaha.. then we were like, yeh Kenneth, your hair drops off naturally.. dun need to use hair reduction. haha he was so pai seh that he got a double mistake. lolz. Yeh, so we played till about 2 then we went to bed... it was a real fun time and i laughed tons and had a great time guessing and making memories with them. :)

Day 4, 8th June 2006
Woke up today feeling so miserable knowing it was already the last day of church camp la. so so so sian can. i was like dragging my feet to breakfast and back up to the room to pack my stuff. 100% of me didn't want it to end. you know a lot of times a part of you wants to continue and another part wants to just go home? i didn't wanna go home at all la. aiyoh. haha... but i had to so we packed the stuff and i made sure i brought my luggage down early and loaded it into the car so i was free. Then i went around helping people on my floor with their luggage like Chelsea, Auntie Charlene and Uncle Alfred. Jamie and Auntie Bee Leng zhao so fast can! i went back up and Auntie bee leng was the first on my mind so i called their room and rang their doorbell but they already left to the lobby can! pengz. haha... so oops. didn't manage to catch them. but it's ok since they did manage to get the stuff down on their own. After that, hung around a while and helped load the coach knowing it's prob the last we'll see of them till sunday. super sian again but must smile smile and wave... aiyoh. haha... "time to say goodbye..." then the coach left and the car convoy started packing in. we had a huge convoy this time... about 11 cars... from 3 to 11. guess they all wanted to tag along and go as a group. super stress coz so many cars. haha...
After a lot of navigating, even in and out of a hotel carpark without paying, we reached our lunch spot which is this old chinese house that's converted to a eating place. quite freaky coz they kept the interior to look antique and all. we're talking marriage sedan chairs, opium beds and portraits on the wall of old matriach-looking women whose eyes dun seem to leave you. so freaky la! just waiting for one of them to blink or change positions when not looking. AHHHHH!!! hahaha..
Lunch was good, dessert was wonderful too. had chendol and after that, we decided to walk walk around for an hour before heading to mahkota to shop. The church session and staff left for Leader's Retreat though so had to bid them farewell before we went to walk-shop. Saw my Katana swords again can! but these had no hilts. so jus a long wooden pole in the shape of a sword with the grip... then the same shop had a collection of 3 katanas of differing sizes and a stand to hold them all. These were NICE! black and all with nice grip, length and look... if you put it on the stand and displayed it, it looks super nice la... but when you take the sword and unsheathe it, you'll see the blade is some cheapo looking greyish plastic. so not too nice la.. no shine whatsoever... jus looks like a blade... was tempted to buy it but it came in a set of $90RM... so that's three differing sizes [one normal one, one medium and one short one a little longer than a dagger]... in the end i walked off saying no la. save money. haha... sighz. :) shall continue to hunt around [but now in Singapore] for Katanas.... if you guys know of a shop, please let me know. i know marina square got one, but those are a few hundred bucks and they are real except blunted for Singapore... so i just want toys but yet ones that look real. real enuf to swing and cosplay with that kind la... love swords.
ANYWAYS, went for a short chendol stop over coz uncle Alfred heard much about it and then headed to Mahkota for *does the 'White Chicks' finger action thingy* SHOPPING!!! haha so went in and basically to cut a long story short, there was nuthing much to shop for la. ended up spending only like $30RM... bought a headband, a wrist band and a belt... wearing my belt now and prob will on sunday so if ya wanna see, go look at my belt. lolz. haha...
was so tired after shopping canz... slept quite a bit on the car ride back to Singapore... woke up at bout mid journey and started walkie talkie crapping with Shawn, Chelsea and Uncle Lawrence Fu... we were also keeping ourselves entertained by asking each other riddles and jokes.
We finally stopped off just a bit before the 2nd link causeway to pump petrol and ended up eating dinner at KFC! yay my plan worked. haha wanted to dinner with them one last time... rui grabbing on to anything he can reach just to not say goodbye so fast. haha... then after that we headed to 2nd link and back across to singapore. sadded. haha... didn't see them anymore after that.

Sighz... it was a wonderfully enriching and fun time la. memories that were made can't be forgotten and can't be replicated. It's time spent with people that really build bonds. talkin bout it won't do good, you just gotta invest time in people. Like i was telling nicholas during the camp, if you choose to spend time with certain people, it just means you can't spend time with others... it's choosing the better of two evils since you can't satisfy and 'patronize' everyone.
I love shalom, it's everything to me coz it points me to God, who IS everything, everyone and everywhere to me. Shalom Church Camp 2006.

thanks to these few people who really made a difference in church camp.
Uncle Alfred, Auntie Charlene, Auntie Bee Leng, 'Ivan, Sab and Mum', Mr Camp Master, Rachel, Jamie, Chelsea, Mini, Master Pua, My shadow Tiang, Nicholas, Joella, Jeannette, Tricia, Jason, Slacker Kwek, Joash, Yong Jie. Thank you so much for bringing smiles to my face and memories to my heart. I love Shalom.

I'm Gone

Gone for a week till Thurs night. dun message or call me.

if it's super urgent and you die die need to contact me, this is my sister's number.... 90692406. but please, life and death situation only.

Have a good week and i'll see ya in a week's time! with pictures and all. Ciaoz people, take care.

7 Qualities of my Perfect Lover

I got tagged by meanie Lydia to do this. So blame her if you have to read this and get bored.

7 qualities of my perfect lover... Gender: Female

1. Christian and God loving [high standard for this]
2. Doesn't put me above God
3. Feminine, lady like. Gentle and all that.
4. Honest / Trustworthy
5. Cares for others and then cares for herself
6. Listens and shares
7. "Since this is the last, let me squeeze it all in here." Loves her family and mine because she is my friend, my confidante and my wife-to-be.

So after i finish, i'm supposed to sabo 7 other people. So in a totally random order, here are the lucky contestants!!! :)

Meliza, Qiang, Jamie, August, Alicia Pua, Sean Teng & Angel

For those who have a blog, kindly post it in your entry and sabo 7 more. for those WITHOUT a blog, click the link below this entry and comment in here. up to you if you wanna sabo 7 more. haha. please leave your name if you're commenting. :) Have Fun!

Torn

Watched this quite a while ago and i think quite a number of you have watched it too. but for those who haven't, it's a brilliant comedy snippet that i think is really funny if you get what he's doing.
Some adult jokes inside but let's hope you skip those without realizing. lolz. enjoy.
p.s. i'm also testing my youtube. duhz. haha

Random Pics

Just found some pics worth posting jus for fun. :) Mainly retarded pics. :)

pictures make memories last a lifetime, but without friends, there won't be memories.

Edit>> new pic [pig? :P] of dinesh. :)

A Montage to insanity and yet, memorable moments of my life.

Celia, Meliza, Nicholas' Birthday Celebration

Friends are precious. when you find that group that you can always count on, you know that the world isn't there for you to go thru alone. God sends friends in the unlikelist places, people and situations. This group reminded me that no matter how different our practices may be, whether they be from a brethren church, a charismatic church or a BP church, we all share the same God, the same Father, the same Son and the same Holy Spirit.
Now how blessed is the thought of a man surrounded by friends who care.

Happy Birthday to Celia, you're a wonderful encouragement. I look at someone who had stepped into my comm a year ago with innocence and really no experience whatsoever with being a leader of youths and yet here you stand, on the brink of the next year of service, with zeal, enthusiasm and an attitude that stuns me all the time. putting people above yourself has become your second nature. you're a wonderful girl that will continue to be shaped, moulded and groomed for service in our Lord Jesus.

Happy Birthday Meliza, times will come when all you want to do is give up. When those times, remember that if the people before you did, you wouldn't be here. Leadership isn't an obligation or chore [though sumtimes it might seem like that. :P] Leadership is a calling, an opportunity to serve Him no matter how little you are. He never asked kings to be His disciples. He asked fishermen. If you think you can, and if you rely on Him, you will, like the fishermen of Galilee and the tax collector, reap forth fruit from and for Him. God uses all, and He has called you now. at least in TP, i urge you to drop your empty nets and trust in Him, only when you do that will you be able to harvest the fish He has blessed you with. He did for me, He sent you.

Happy Birthday Nicholas, a brother indeed. I must say that your prayers have always affected me in a good way. I've told ya before that the way you pray is so unique and intriguing, i won't take it back. i think that that's one thing that sets you apart from many. of course there are many other things... but i thank God for giving me a brother like you. someone i've always drawn strength from, looked at for a role model at times and prayed for. I know your struggles, you know mine. We are close like [intertwines fingers in a net] like that bro. :) As the year comes, this year will be one of the most trying year of your life and mine. the first year of army will test us in ways we will not be ready for if we don't place our hope in Jesus. May the God of peace that has brought you out of death into His marvellous light, keep and preserve you, be with you and bless you in the army and beyond my brother.

But alas, my little ode to all my friends ends with one more who has indeed helped me to see that friends come and go in the most unlikely people. i present to you "QiGong the monk"...

Why some people can be so embarrassing i dunno. haha jus kidding. :) your stupid antics never fail to bring a smile to my face and a raised eyebrow. haha... thanks qiang.

The boy who can't wait to see how God uses his friends this year. Exciting no? :)

Bought them Skates

Whee! haha guess who has new Skates??? :)

Rachel, Qiang and Rui.

These are my smashing new Skates!

K2 Exo 6.1 Skates. 80mm 80a wheels with Quick Lace, Powerstrap and Buckle... haiz. love it. the colour isn't this colour [which is awfully nice]... but i'll post up a pic of my real blades la. but this is the correct model and all. jus the colour is diff. ahha...

yeh, skated hard today at ECP after swiping my Salary away. sighz. hahah.. shiok until cannot shiok anymore one liao! it's so smooth and wah. like you're perpetually gliding on a cloud la. :) and we skated for like 3 or 4 hours without worrying whether we gotta go back to the rental shop to return skates. haha.. sigh. having your own skates is soooo much better. :)





Can't wait to go skating again. so tempting. haha i wanna go now. but too tired HAHAHA... what am i sayin. spastik. :)

i love skating.

Friendship?

Does anyone know the pain of a frenship lost? i'm quite sure many of us have faced times when frens have turned their backs on you. when they stop telling you things they used to, they shut you out of your life permantly. Times when all you care about is hearing how their day was, how u can pray for them or what it takes to bring a smile to their face. and all they do is front, they shut the door in your face. no. they slam the door in your face. "i dun wanna talk to you" "i dun feel like talking" "just leave me alone will you?"... words like these cut so much.
they say words are cheap. i beg to differ, i say words are priceless. coz there's no way you can pay someone to forget them. once they come out of your mouth, nuhting can erase a person's memory of what was said to them. i sure won't.

to whoever you are. you have jus killed a part of me. how long this will last, i dunno. but i sure feel that there will never be that link anymore. "the straw that breaks the camel's back" it jus broke. sorry for disturbing you and i know you'll never read my blog. but let this be a lesson to everyone else. your words are very precious. dun go and kill someone. Dun hurt someone, you can't say sorry.

friendship. dun make me laugh.

Mei's Dance Concert - 15May 2006

Last nite was Jamie mei's concert at VCH.. :) was so glad i was able to go for it and all. After work i chiong-ed to get her present... will post a pic when i get it from her... but yeh, it's a nice huge balloon with a awfully cute teddy bear inside... everything hand picked by yours truly. spent quite a while choosing which teddy gets selected coz they had 2 that were real cute but i ended up choosing the bigger, more expensive one... but it sheds fur!!! ee. haha... sorry mei, but trust me, it's so much nicer than the other one. and i love what the bear's shirt says. haha it's so jamie. :) peeeenk and all. haha

Met up with the rest of them at MOS at Raffles City... Chelsea, Cheryl, Cherie, Alicia K, Celia, Sean and Qiang. then we headed to Victoria Theater by walking and miss pua was complaining how far it is. haha.. oops. :) but yeh, we finally got there and the concert was fantabulous la. :) it's been so long since i've been to that area and what's more, much longer since i've been to a school concert.. so the atmosphere was as happening as always. with girls screaming, pointing, hugging... and of course the many "did you see sophia! she was with that guy she likes! ohmigosh! can't believe they're together!" kinda comments. was laughing with Rachel at all the comments flying around the place as people pointed at people and giggled, laughed, screamed at for a hug... gosh. haha

Crazy! now who wouldn't wanna be there. haha so cool. sad thing was that they're all so young. sadded. HAHA jus kidding. :) my silly box took up so much space la. so pai seh can. everyone stares at you when you're carrying a huge box, trust me on that... yeh so it was so huge that i couldn't put it in front of me when i sat.. so i had to put it on the floor in front of the seat next to me. thankfully whoever [if there was one] booked the seat next to me never showed up. haha. :)

yeh so jamie pranced on stage and she looked really freaky la... the make-up was done so well that she really looked quite scary. :) the dancers were quite good.. thot it was a huge treat for the eyes with all their mad pointes and crazy co-ordination. :) not bad la. glad i was able to catch the performance. Was real proud seeing Jamie performing... she seemed to put all the stuff she learnt to good use la... and she got quite a lot of parts that really made her stand out.. like her solos.. but not really. haha :) yayz for mei! ahha

after that, she came down and we took some pictures.. one. HAHA... i managed to snap a pic of her in her makeup. so freaky. it's a lousy pic coz i took it with my phone. but when i get home today and if i'm not too tired, i'll put it into my com, edit it and post it with this post la. dun worry, i'll tell ya if i updated the entry. :)

after that we went for supper at ba chor mee place... could tell poor mei was so tired... on the way there kept complaining bout how hungry she was and all. silly girl didn't allow me to carry her bag for her.. and it was so heavy la. aiyoh mei. why you so stubborn... got people here willing to help you carry also dun want... -_-; ahha... yeh but she had lots to carry.. flowers, bag, my dumb box. haha. :) glad she at least let me carry the box. otherwise you'll see a stumbling jamie. haha...

yup, that wrapped up the day. :) real proud of ya mei. you performed really well and your dancing is top notch. :) keep smiling and being you. will look forward to church camp. ahah...

yuppers, so here i am, back to work. there's CF tonite. yayz. okok. back to work. haha ciaoz peeps. oh btw, i'm buying blades soon. hehe...

Blading - Dinesh's 1st Time

Before we started blading....

real tired so this post will be short.

Went to blade today at East Coast Park with Adrian, Dinesh, Jodi, Shawn Tiang and Joash. in total we had 6 people and it was Dinesh's first time on blades.

*Random point* I'm so sadded. I've given up on her. Jasmine doesn't remember me at all. or she doesn't seem to appear like she recognizes me. sianz. haha not impt la. :) jus random point.

Yeh so we got all suited up and it was ready to roll. so fun la. love blading now la. Jodi was crazy la. she almost bought blades. jus like that... mad woman.
but yeh, after thinking bout it and talkin to my mum... i'm prob gonna buy one soon. when qiang returns from malaysia. i think i might go blading every Sat morning. jodi tempted me with the invitation. :) who wants to make it a commitment? exercise was never this fun... wootz!

yeh so dinesh kept falling on his butt so many times... and since it was a little drizzly, the ground was wet and sandy... in the end, this is how his butt turned out. apologies to di for showing your sexy tootsie. haha...
oh... after viewing the photo more [k that sounds so wrong] i've decided not to put it up... dun want to invade his privacy. :) ask him for the photo la. haha

yeh, we took an act cute grp shot after a normal grp shot and this is how it turned out. Adrian's not there coz he didn't trust the people with his camera... jodi will upload her pics soon.. with adrian inside. :)


This is a random candid shot of me. i think this pic is REALLY great.. minus the dumb expression on my face, i think it captured my mood very well. it's composed brilliantly and i jus love it a lot. :)
yup, that's bout it. going blading tml again. ahha call me crazy or call me rui. jus dun call me mad. HAHAHA. :) see ya!

Dating vs Marriage

A thought popped in my head just now while coming out of the shower. I'm using it as my msn nick now.

::† Prisoner Of Freedom †:: I don't wanna be a guy girls want to date. I wanna be the guy girls want to marry.

yup... i think that thot is not only a challenge but sumthing that i have to pressure myself to live up to too... there are times when it's so easy to say "heck all the Christian stuff bout waiting and let's go get a gf"... but no.. doesn't make sense at all la. jus like suicide.

so yeh. jus thot i'd blog a real short post bout this coz many youth nowadays have flings after flings... and apparently there's nothing wrong with it. sigh. so saddening to hear that. where has commitment, morality, trust and celibacy gone to?

SMU's Reply

Click it. enuf said. :) no matter... God's will not mine. that was my prayer, won't go back on it now. :)

Hungry (Falling on My Knees)

Hungry (Falling on My Knees) - Kathryn Scott

Hungry I come to You
for I know You satisfy
I am empty but I know Your love does not run dry
so I wait for You

I'm falling on my knees
offering all of me Jesus,
You're all this heart is living for

Broken I run to You
for Your arms are open wide
I am weary but I know Your touch restores my life
so I'll wait for You

I was listening to this track and thought the words were really meaningful. :) hope you enjoy it. if you want the song, do let me know. would be happy to share it. :)

Billy Bombers - Elections Day

Sorry for the late post... i really wanted to blog last nite about the whole day but i was really too tired to do anything other than source for some pictures to add to this blog entry.... yeh here's the entry.

Went to sleep at like 3 knowing that the next day was Saturday. I had nuthing planned for the day except Blading with Qiang and Adrian meeting at Bedok at 3. so was prepared to sleep till bout 11 or 12. Then dinesh calls at 9 plus and asks if i'm sleeping. of course i'm not sleeping anymore lah! i'm talkin to you!!! argh. so he finally got me up and out of bed with them promise to meet at Century Square for Billy Bombers at 11.30. He had some Polling day 50% off voucher and decided to use it. So he called along a few people like my 2 meis... but they both rejected him. until i asked them myself. HAHA... and Vera agreed to come after much psycho-ing her to ask her mum. Jamie couldn't join us coz she was meeting frens but i managed to bargain with her to ask her to pop by b4 she meets her fren coz it's all in tampines. haha so to summarize it all, Vera, Joash, Dinesh, Adrian and myself were going for lunch and Jamie was going to pop by. :)

Went there and seeing Vera again was really a treat for me la. i didn't need to eat or drink anything and i'd already have been a happy man. She came and we managed to take some silly shots by posing with the mirror above us. it actually was a really ingenious idea by Adrian. here we are, smiling before our meal...

Yup, as you can see, Adrian is holding the camera. haha... yeh... it was a cool gathering la... but what i really wanted to blog about was Vera. I know you're reading this mei, but yeh... hope you dun feel weird reading it and all. :P

Vera has been my mei for 2 years liao rite? since sec 1... it seems so short but actually the more i think bout it, it seems so long ago that i met this crazy young hyper NYGH girl. She came into my life in such a hurry and became so close to me. Youth camp, that's where it all started... i was your Angel rite? or was it that i was your mortal. sumthing tells me i was the Angel. haha. but nvm not impt. i remember how you caught my attention [as you do to everyone else] with your friendly, crazy and carefree attitude. :) must say that i immediately took a liking to your mad personality and was easily captured by your friendship. :) after camp, we got closer and i one day became her kor. dun ask me how it happened, but a huge part of me was very glad it did coz Vera's been such a joy to my life and there's no way that she can't make me smile. :) jus her little "i'm a princess-pouts lips" kinda expression is enuf. :)
Seeing her yesterday after such a long time was really a different experience for me i guess. i realized there and then how much we had lost in the few months that you took a break from Shalom. it really hit home when we took this picture...
When we posed for this, you jus instinctively rested your whole head on my shoulders... at first for a SPLIT second, i was a bit stunned... i guess it's coz this was the first time i've spent time with ya since you took that break... but in the next split second, i remembered exactly why i was your kor. I recalled all the times i watched you with a smile on my face and knowing deep down inside that i jus wanted to be sumone there for you, to protect ya [if i can] and to be an older person for you to look up to or gain support from. :) in that split second, i was so glad to be able to be there, at billy bombers, next to you, taking a picture that i knew i'd die to see when i got home...
I guess i really missed ya and was really glad you came. I did really want to grab you up in a tight embrace and ka-bish you for leaving church for so long... but i knew that you'd only give that silly pout look again. haha i hope you know that your kor wants you back ok? and that doesn't change the issues you might have with shalom yes... but jus know that i do miss you and would want to spend more time wif you whenever. :) i care bout ya loads k? :)

funny what one day and a picture can do to you. :)

Our food came and we started getting fat... jamie dropped by for like 5 minutes and she looked real nice too... was wearing my necklace. yay for mei! haha.but sad she had to run away so fast... next time la. :)

yeh. i'm real tired now and am actually dozing off in front of my com. so i shall end this here...to be continued....

---------------------------- The following was blogged on Monday, 8th may.

Yeh so like I was saying, the food came and we were all pigging out coz you should know Billy Bombers la. They have HUGE servings... decided to save mei and I some money and share our dish. We had surf and turf while the others had chix and ribs... quite a nice combi la considering how mei wanted beef steak and I was inclined to fish. So when our milkshakes came [of course we ordered milkshakes.. who wouldn't?] I was so excited to get some of the wonderful cookies and cream shake into my mouth can! Haha... and it was well worth the trip. Love the shakes from BB. Mei had a choco shake... so boring. HAHA. Oops.

Yeh so lunch was fantabulous... mei still needed me to cut her steak for her. Aiyoh. Vera ah vera... how old liao ah? Still need your 'servants' to serve you and cut your steak issit? Tsk tsk. but nvm, would and did do it gladly. Haha... so after our meal, things started getting crazy. Vera tried to draw on my hand with a marker but ended up getting vandalized on her "bei" the should blade part by Dinesh. He wrote stuff like "Hi Vera" and "Rui was here" on her shoulder blade la. Haha super funny... in the end I had to clean it off for her with COLD ICE WATER. Lolz. I'm so evil. Haha...but it was that or shakes... so I think shakes wouldn't have cleaned it off, only made it sweet. HAHAHA..

After that, we headed to Isetan to buy Vera's mother's day gift and Yamaha to look at Guitar Straps... hmm quite ex la. But as expected... so will keep looking around, maybe I'll find cheap ones. Who knows. after that, we had to part ways coz Vera was heading towards town, Dinesh and Joash to church and Qiang [yeh, he joined us after lunch at Vera's request], Adrian and I to East Coast park. :P Went to Bedok first to grab lunch for Qiang and grab roller blades for Adrian and I. Ended up spending quite a long time at Adrian's place... supposed to jus pick up the 2 pairs of blades and leave but I think we must have spent like half an hour or more there. Haha stupid qiang la... purposely trying to stall time so we won't end up going to ECP. Lazy bum.
So we arrived at ECP and it was crowded la! Sadly didn't take any pics there. we bladed for an hour and stopped by Macs to grab drinks before heading back to return qiang's rental blades. Jasmine, I spoke bout her in my last ecp entry, didn't seem to remember us. Finally [and I mean FINALLY coz it took a long time] got qiang to talk to her and ask her whether she remembers us... she apparently doesn't and dun think she read the tract we passed her la. From her replies, can see she dun even remember the tract. Haha sadded can... but yeh. Later on I made small talk with her about what she's doing now and stuff... intro-ed our names and we left for dinner… overall, the blading trip was fun la! Was learning how to brake from Adrian... he was teaching me the technique and until now, still can't brake properly. Shall keep practicing and learning.

Yup, the rest of the day was quite straight forward, dun wanna waste your time reading bout it. Dinner at Parkway and home. Chionged home by bus so I could watch the elections on tv... it was exciting la! Esp when WP won one of the constituencies... wah, can see the people who were pro-opp jus cheering. I was quite happy too la... not that I hate the lightning party [sorry, can't type their name... scared later government sue me]... but it was interesting to see how the times have changed... did ya see the Aljunid GRC? The lightning party won by like 56% of the votes la. How close is that can! The lightning party will have to work hard to keep support. yeh but it's all over...

Thus, this concludes the memorable day. memorable mainly coz of one person and a group of people that made my day sumthing worth blogging bout. thanks mei and the Billy Bombers peeps + Qiang. frens are always treasured.

Right now, sitting in office. This morning was fighting to stay awake. Dunno why I'm so tired. Gosh. Haha.. later so exciting, meeting up with a few Cfers... meliza, tian en, nick, maybe timo... we're going for dinner and then heading to Esplanade's Harry's Bar coz mel wants to go see and I dun mind seeing the atmosphere too la. The rest can go and drink their brains away... I'll have punch... or sumthing else. I should have brought a water bottle. Maybe I will. Haha I got a flask in the office. Cold water anyone? HAHA. cheap and good.

Yup, so thanks for reading this ultra long post. It's 2 days long! Wait... today's Monday... so it's 3 days. haha

haha! this is anonymous! i managed to hack into this person's bloggie cuz he has the same password as me!!!!! is that psychic or psychic. rOarS!!!! hehe. i don't know what to blog already.. this is so silly. Oh anyways THE NEWEST UPDATES:

-Mr Joel Tan Rui Ling is nominated for TP's valedictorian!!!! wOotS!!! *cheers* Congrats Joel!! Realised i didn't hear much about your school life.. only got to know you after it has ended.. lol. Anyhow, don't be so conscious about your grades too lar.. you have just shown how a valedictorian is not determined by mere grades only lor. They are nothing actually, just alphabets and numbers. =) You have been blessed with many other things like the ability to speak well and present well and many will agree with me on that. GOGO RUI!!! =)

hehe. that's it.. the end of my appearance. Continue to tag peeps.. ahaha.

Blading at ECP

Wah! i tell you. today was one of the better few public holidays i've spent can! :) Angel, Qiang and I went to East Coast Park to blade and it was a blast! promised to go coz Angel needed someone to teach her how to blade, and considering how i love ice skating and have bladed before... i offered to teach her.

though i knew i'd have to re-learn it again for myself. it's been SO long since i got on the ice and even LONGER since i bladed... last time i put on blades was probably 5 or 6 years ago now that i think bout it. or maybe even 10. i won't be surprised... needless to say, i can't find my old blades so went there to rent blades... Went to meet them at bedok and took a bus there.

We arrived at the blades shop and finally settled down after calling this girl to "serve" us... she was real nice, got us our blades and all but kept forgetting us coz of the busy-ness of the stall. So in the end when we were all suited up, i called her over and gave her a grin and said, urmmm we're all suited up but we haven't given you our IC or anything. and she was like. HUH?! you haven't paid yet? and we were like.. err no. haha... so she pai seh pai seh went to the back to issue us a receipt for our one hour of rental... [we were saying we should have jus bladed off la. they wouldn't know. but we were ethical and honest]... so she returned and we were on our way... her name's Jasmine btw, we asked.

Went to the learner's rink and it was quite funny coz there was quite a lot of people jam packing the rink... kids, pros... everyone was there blading, slipping, falling, laughing... you got it all there. haha so we slowly moved Angel there and of course being the first time in and on blades, she barely made it to the rink without falling. thank goodness she didn't coz the ground would have been very unkind. So getting there was tough enuf. we slowly inculcated her with instruction after instruction on what to bend, how to stand... it was quite info overload so we took it slow.. experiencial learning la... to cut a long story short, we spent the hour there letting her blade back and forth, falling numerous times [but getting back up immediately everytime]. We managed to even venture out to macs to pick up some drinks before heading back and trying again and again.
I'd like to say that i'm quite impressed by Gel... she was able to pick up quite fast, listen to our instructions and have the confidence to fall. Some people are so afraid of falling that they'll never leave the railing. but this girl insisted on going on and on with nuthing to hold on to but the railing at the end. She picked up real fast and was really much much better when we ended.

Yup, so after we ended, it started to drizzle really lightly. it was really good coz it was perfect timing. so we went back and Qiang made a comment about how the girl who gave us the blades looked like a Christian so we asked her when she came to get the blades back from us. Angel asked her if she was a christian and she said no. so i explained how she looked like one and so we thot she was... she said she grew up in a Catholic school though. IJ Punggol.. yeh, so anyways after she told us where she studied, Angel made small talk by asking her if she's workin part time and all. so after that, i asked her if it was ok if i gave her sumthing small to read. and i passed her a tract. We parted ways and she's been in my mind since then la. said a prayer for her that if i were to see her again during the day, i'd approach her and share the gospel with her. my little agreement with God. and if i didn't see her [which i didn't] i prayed that she'll read the tract and maybe find God some way. yeh. small perk me up for the day i guess. she was quite small sized but yet not really... told Angel that the moment i saw her, she reminded me of Angel herself. haha... maybe it was the hair, face or busy/blur service... and after a while, Angel agreed that she DID kinda resemble or remind her of herself. haha. it was quite funny. :)

Yeh, so after that, we went to macs so Angel could get her Hot Fudge and ended up walking all all all the way to the hawker centre at the other end of ECP. haha you know the one with good Stingray? yeh. after dinner, we took a stroll... mad. we walked all the way back to bedok interchange. haha it was fun walking in that "after rain" atmosphere. :)

yuppers... spent the day really well and had lots of fun. Thanks so much for the company and the great experience. :) *sian, tml got work*. haha... if anyone's heading to East Coast Park anytime soon let me know, i go ask you to help me find that Jasmine girl. :) thanks. aaha

oh yeh, due to the confusion about the prev post... this paragraph is dedicated to my other mei VERA SHAW! heh.. sorry bout that little mixup... was really glad when you promised me that time that you'll come for Family Day and even more happy when you did show up... i tell you, shawn and i were like sitting at the gate waiting for you to turn the corner and pop your silly head in la.. but you never came so we gave up sitting at the entrance of church.. we looked so dumb. haha... but we were looking forward to seeing you. it's been so long since you came back to shalom [well, the YF wasn't that long but...] but still, we missed ya, i know i did. So it was nice to see you. sorry i couldn't abandon my stall and walk the princess around. You're gonna have to excuse me on that but that stall only had August and I manning it.. and if you read in my prev post, i couldn't jus run away from the stall la. :) but yeh... like i said, for that short time i WAS able to see you, it was a joy to my heart. Sorry i didn't give ya a bye bye hug too. haha wanted to... but yeh... *hugz* gotta take that one as the real one for now... until you come back to shalom again... it'll be waiting. ahaha.. Yup. hope to see you more alrite mei? :)

pics from today:

Family Day 2006

Yawn. i'm real tired, mentally drained and quite physically exhausted too. so please excuse me if this is a short post. :)

Today was family day in shalom. it was a blast. though i was mainly cooped up in the fellowship hall, of which i vowed not to be this year but sigh, i still had an enjoyable time. k let me complain for one paragraph then i won't let myself complain anymore.

this year i really really really didn't wanna do anything. considering this year i'm chair of the yf, the last year as a free man from NS... and all the other stuff like me being the oldest YFer... i really wanted to jus spend time with the youths. going stall to stall hanging out with them, sharing laughters with them and basically being there for them and making memories with them. i tried my hardest and almost... almost was able to siam all committment this year. i was so close to being a free person today. i was all ready to buy coupons and just go fellowshipping game stall by game stall. I knew it was goin to be hard coz i'm quite high profile and all. rejecting yong jie and deb tan was really hard for me to do trust me. but i was able to not be stuck in a game stall this year. everything looked good.

then august asked me to help in his "wheel of misfortune"... wasn't 100% keen.. but i'd say 70% of me was quite excited bout it also la. jus joking with him is enuf to fill my day and all so i agreed. :S haha... i won't say it was a bad thing la.. but i really wanted to get out there and spend time with the youths... they were in the carpark and i was stuck in the deepest most inner part of the fellowship hall.

Was able to excuse myself from time to time to run outside, sit there and talk, laugh and help out the games stalls.. but it was really borrowed time. thankfully August was really really kind about not making a big deal about me being at the Wheel of Misfortune for maybe 50% of the time... but yeh. thanks august. really appreciated the time that i was given to go out and carry the laughs we made inside to the youths outside. :) [goodness... i sound like some maid asking for off days] haha...

but the wheel of misfortune was farn la. haha first victim was leonard and it was so saddening coz he won. haha... yeh but we had some good sabos... like my mum, vera, shawn tiang and dinesh. :) glad everyone was sporting and willing to pay to see someone get sabo-ed. :) it was fun spinning the wheel, dancing along to the silly looping music and stuff. :) thanks to august, he surely livened the station up a whole lot. :)

yeh, so to cut it all short, i gotta end off with 1 or two more paragraphs but family day was real fun. :) would do it again in a snap of a finger... but that's jus wishes. haha... i had tons of fun, the only reason why i'm so tired now. :)

Well, today made me realize how much i missed spending time and talking to my mei. yeh, this paragraph is dedicated to you and your kuku nonsense. :) thanks for smiling that heartmelting smile EVERYTIME. :) though i was afraid you almost lost my precious rings, i knew that even if i lost them, i was glad to have spent the day talkin and chilling wif ya mei. :) sorry i haven't been the best or least bit of a kor to you... hope to change that and watch out for you much more. but yeh, forgive me coz i'm still trying to work with the situation and circumstances surrounding my "absence" :) but hey, you still make my world and life so much joyous knowing you're being the silly pooters that i knew since you were sec 1. Just wanna say that i miss ya and though i dun or aren't able to always show it, you mean tons to me, more than you'll ever know. :) thanks, you. you're gonna be such a wonderful woman of God one day. i can't wait.

yuppers... that concludes my entry. :) you guys take care! going east coast tml! yay yay yay. aha i need the break from the drudgery of work. :) oh.. btw, the weekend flew by too fast.