Thanksgiving 2005

This is the last day of the year, so its that time of the year to do some reflection again. I know its very cliche to write about my thoughts on 2005 now, but then its my blog, and I want to note down the defining moments in 2005 for me.

A lot of things happened in 2005. I've grown a lot, I think. There is a lot of hard times and a lot of good times. Many emotional struggles but also spiritual victories. New friends gained, old family rekindled. Career set backs and re-establishment.

Looking what I just wrote above, it seems like a lot of things happened in 2005 which I did not really blogged about. But I did, subtly. Wahaha.

Overall, I would say that 2005 has been a good year for me. With the main event of me coming back to God again. All my achievements, all my wealth, all the I have gained, they are nothing without the Giver. Without the Lover of my soul, all that I have cannot satisfy. As it is said: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

I stand amazed in the pressence
Of Jesus of Nazarene
I wonder how He could love me
A sinner condemned unclean.

I thank God for bringing me back to the community in Feburary this year. And I thank God for bringing me to the family of believers, that I am in now. I thank God for healing me of broken hearts and wounded soul, though the road to recovery is yet to complete. But most of all, I thank God for his patience to me, though many times I chose to walk away, He always welcomes me back.

I saw Him run to me
He took me in His arms, held my head to His chest
says My son's coming home again
Lifted my face and wipe the tears from my eyes
With forgiveness in His voice, He says
Son, do you know I still love you

I thank God for His many blessing and the many times He showed His love for me, for not giving up on me when even I have given up on myself.

I thank God for the new friends I have made. Like my new cell group and spiritual family and like friends that I have made through this blog. And I also thank God for old friendship renew, like my primary school friends and OCS buddies. And I thank God all the people that have been there for me this year, especially the good friends I have blogged about in my earlier posts.

But most of all, I thank God for His unrelenting love for me, for being with me all this time. It's not all a bed a roses y'know. There was a major heart break I have to go through and several disappointing moments and a career wake up call. But I know these are all necessary for me to grow. Although these are not easy times, I thank God for bringing me through them and being there with me all the while.

Thats about it I guess. I hope I will have a better 2006 ahead.

Mini LJ reunion

Had a mini Lijiang reunion today.

Had dinner + shopping + coffee at Marina Square/ Millenia Walk until 2230hrs.

Those present were Faith, Jason, Adam, Geraldine, Sophia, Yue He and me.

Just a quick update for record purpose. No pictures or interesting stories to share. =)

Reunion

Had a rather nua (aka lazy) day today. As with every morning in the past 2 weeks, I woke up at or about 0800 hours, to catch Who's Line Is It Anyway and Malcom In The Middle on Star TV. Who's Line is one of the funniest shows ever, and my favourite show of all time.

After that, I spend the rest of my day reading and playing guitar... and taking naps. Wanted to go Bugis Junction initially and visit my SM2 after that, but I cannot overcome my inertia. And stayed at home all day instead.

And I thought I would have a nice quiet evening at home watching cheezy drama serials on TV until I received a sms from my friend.

Mingjie: We are are fish & co, come and find us when you reach.

And I was like "Oh No!!! I forgot today we suppose to meet!!" Which is true. I T-O-T-A-L-LY forgot about our reunion meeting. Actually MJ smsed me last week to inform me of the meeting, but I threw it to the back of my mind and forgot about it completely.

So, no choice, I went to meet them after my dinner (at least can save money) Those present were Shunrong, Mingjie, Zhengxi, Peter, Anderson, Junqiang and Jiansheng aka Ah Boon. And we proceed to Delifrance for coffee when I arrived.

BTW, I forgot to mention, this group of friends are my army buddies when we were all serving NS together, where we went through all the er... stuff in OCS together. So our friendship goes back to almost 10 years back.

My!! I must say that the topics we talked about now are so different!! Now everybody is talking about their marriage and wedding plans, where to get their wedding rings and how much they paid for it. Except for the 2 of us who are still single and desperate. Sigh..

As usual, I was the more quiet one and let them do most of the talking, but I had a lot of fun catching up with them. Before we go, someone said we should take a photo together... except SR reaction was "A group of grown men taking photo!! That's so GAY!" Wahaha. And then someone said "Why dun we take neo-prints instead? Then we can paste on all our handphones!!" Wahaha. Thank God we settled for just the photos in the end. Will post it up once ZX send it to me.

What have I done!!?!?!?!?!!!???

I have been taking leave since 2 Fridays ago, so what have I done so far?

Hmm... I spend most of my time doing nothing, I guess. Wahaha. There was a SM2 sentosa outing on 17th Dec, that was 2 Saturdays ago. Quite an interesting bunch of guys. Then there was this Christmas party for them last Saturday. That was quite interesting as well. These are a cute bunch of kids, which is like 18-19 years old and waiting to go into our NUS and NTU. But I think I really need a lot of help from God to reach out to them.

2 Sundays ago, 18th Dec, our cell had a Christmas party, where each of us have to come in different costumes from the movies. Wahaha. That was a lot of fun! Wee Lyn (thanks for organising!!!) dressed up as one of Charlie's Angels, Sophia Yap was from the movie Chicago. Sophia Tan, who is also the host of the party, was Sassy Girl. Liting was Little Red Riding Hood (Is the a movie on Little Red Riding Hood) Cherie Ho came as Little Miss Santa Claus, or something.. I dunno what issit but she looks like the little lady Santa in the beer commercial, if you know what I'm talking about. Theresa came as Princess Jasmine of Aladdin, Jerry came as The Vampire. Kenneth (my cell leader) was Robin Hood while his fiance, Lynette was Miss Congeniality. Sing Ai was Dash from The Incredibles. Who else did I miss? Oh ya, I came a Rambo (very easy, just wear my army uniform can liao) But the best costume goes to Sarah, who came as the Land Lady aka Xiao Long Nu from Kung Fu Hustle. No pictures though, my camera was still recuperating from Lijiang that time.

What else did I do? Er... I played a bit of mahjong, quite a bit. Cos that's what most of my colleagues do when they are not working. Money was not really the issue here, just play for the fun lah. Wahaha.

I caught a few movies. Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, Perhaps Love, Lilya Forever. All were good movies in their own way. I wished there were more movies to watch though. Wahaha. After all these there's not much movies to watch liao.

I met up with Ayjen, and settled some financial stuff. I never really understood what she said though, even after 3 years with her handling my finances. Whatever she says I just nod my head. All I know is 1) My money is growing and 2) She is really pretty.

Other than those, I stayed at home quite a lot. I like spending time at home actually. That's where I read and blog, and play guitars all day long. I like to play guitar all day long, though I really suck at it. Wahaha.

Chronicles of Narnia

Narnia was great!!!

Very much true to the original story except for minor details here and there. Me got 23 other people to watch with me this time. Very long never organise movie for so many people liao.

Wahaha.

Those present include (in no particular order) :
Me!!! (Always must count myself, or else will forget to buy my own ticket)
Seth
Joshua
Ma
Kelly (thanks for bring my sister there)
Jiahui
My sister!!! (not the 1st time I brought her out for movie, but the 1st she sat throguh without complaining)
Theresa (she left half way cos she was not feeling well. Poor girl)
Wee Lyn (thanks for help me drive the people there)
Sophia Tan
Sophia Yap
Sherry Tay
Cherie Ho
Jen Lee and colleague
Magdaline
Denise
Lynda
Jerry
Andrew
Jinlong
Daniel and Elizabeth
Sarah (thanks for driving too)

Yeah!! We went in a little late though, Thank God we did not miss any of the movie. Just the trailers and commercials. Had a real enjoyable time, except when Theresa left cos she was not feeling well. No spoilers for those who haven't watch. All I have to say is: If you are a fan of the series, go watch the movie!!!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Was typing a long entry on the origin of Christmas but the computer hung on me. So I thought, what the heck, I'll just write about what I did this Christmas.

So far, I went for 2 Christmas parties and have no intention of going for more. The 1st one was with my cell group at one of the cell member's place. We had a lot of fun there dressing up and playing games. The second one was on yesterday where we hosted the SM2 students and showed them what its like to celebrate Christmas in Singapore.

No pictures for both parties though, cos I'm a bit too lazy to charge the batteries of my digital camera since I came back from Lijiang.

I spend most of my morning sending Christmas greetings smses and replying them. Most of them replied, with about half using these cliche or forwarded smses, and about 10% saying that they have lost/ deleted/ forgotten my number and ask who I am. Wahaha.

Did I mention I am on duty today? Wahaha. Protecting my country again, on Christmas Day itself. The cook house could be better though. So hungry now... think I will order pizza/ KFC/ Mac for dinner later.

Thanksgiving (Lijiang Trip) 3

Alright!!! Finally I decide to sit down and blog about my Lijiang trip again. Just to put some pictures to show all the fun we had while we were there. (Cos we cannot put up the pictures of the work we do there)

1st up, a meeting with a old friend at Kunming Airport!!!



Shishan (centre of pictue) was a dear sister who went to serve the Lord with her dentistry powers in Yunnan earlier this year. If you remembers, we gave her a farewell party and sent her off at the airport earlier this year. Heehee. She looks better than ever, heard she even got a 20% weight gain there... Wahaha.

Nice seeing you again babe!!

七星街 (Seven Star Street) is like our Orchard Road here, where people come to do all their shopping.



No prize for guessing where the girls spent all their free time at!! Wahaha. They got some really good bargains there, like a good pair of trekking shoes for less than $50 SGD!!

This is us having lunch at 七星街.



Our meals always cost us less than $3.00 SGD and we eat until our stomach explodes. The food is rather oily though. Everytime we asked them to put less oil and salt, the food still comes in as oily as ever.

Then next is some of our R&R photo shots.

This is the much coverted 玉龙雪山 (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain).



We saw this on the 1st day of our trip and had wanted to go up ever since, but we din get to do it in the end due to the weather conditions. Sigh.

We made it to the half way point though, at the 3000km mark, and here are some photos to prove it.









HEY!!! HOW COME ALL PICTURES OF GUYS ONLY???

This is soooo unlike me.... Wahaha... okok... Here's some pictures of the pretty girls I've met there.

Next, this is suppose to be a tourist attraction place... But when we went there, there is only horses and water... But we still take a picture there, and look like we are having fun!!! Wahaha



Finally, this is the photo of my favourite night.



We found this little pub there which plays blues and jazz music (in Chinese!) and we had our dinner there. Just the 4 of us. We had the best Drunken Chicken (which is like 90% alchohol!) and we ate dinner under the stars...

Now, that's heavenly.

Blog about nothing

I did nothing yesterday. So I'm blogging about it now.

Morning I woke up and did nothing. Still felt weak and a bit sick. At or about 10am, I went to take a nap... until 11plus when I woke up and had my lunch.

Then I did nothing again. Life is very difficult when you keep doing nothing.

Cannot take it. Went for another nap at 2pm, after doing nothing for 2 hours... Life is tough, when you have to do nothing all day long. Slept for about half an hour this time.

Woke up about 3pm. Decide that its time. So I changed my clothes and went out. I detest going to Orchard during the Christmas period. Because people mountain people sea, very hard to move around, and very hard to find parking space also.

But I got no choice, I'm going to buy my Chronicles of Narnia tickets today, or else it will be sold out very soon. I headed straight to Plaza Sing where I bought 24 tickets for 26th Dec, 7pm show. Wahaha. After that happy liao.

Very excited about Narnia. I've read the whole series twice. Can't wait to see the movie.

After that I went over to my SM2's place to visit them. Heehee. Cute bunch of kids.. They even treat me to dinner... Wahaha. Had fun talking to some of them.

At night I went home... to do nothing again.... Life is so tough.....

King Kong

I watched King Kong yesterday.

Its been a long time since I went out with Miss E but we finally met for movie yesterday. One thing about me and her is that we got very different tastes in movies. She likes all the high action explosion, kill'em all type while I like love stories, romantic comedies and human drama stuff. Hence, there are a lot of movies which we wun watch together, unless its the mega blockbuster like King Kong.

King Kong was not bad, but I think I slept through about half an hour of it. I think they spent too long trying to rescue the girl from Kong. And dunno why yesterday I felt really really tired. So I slept for a while... from the time they were chased by dinosuars until they threw chloroform at him until he is knocked out.

I enjoyed the later part of the movie than the initial, where Kong broke lose in the city and fought the army. Quite sad that Kong died in the end, but I more or less expected that though I never watched the original version. Miss E felt that Kong shouldn't have died. She says they should catch him and send him back to the island, or something like that.

Had a rather fulfilling holiday so far. Caught quite a few movies and and met a few friends... Need more slept though.. Cos I'm still sick........

Mid night movie

Somebody says since I'm sick, I should stay at home and blog more. Wahaha

Played guitar for cell group yesterday. This is 1st time for this cell group. I must say it could be done better. The co-ordination was quite bad and the guitar could not really follow the worship leader very well. Wahaha. A lot of AAR (i.e debrief) points. Well, probably its because the worship leader is 1st time also.

Need more practise ba. Haha. In short: Very humbling experience.

After cell group I went to watch movie with Jade. The movie is called "Lilya 4 ever" and its only shown in Cathay Cineleisure. I went into the cinema without knowing what movie it was about. Wahaha. Because Jade ask me to watch with her mah.

Anyway, it was about this 16 year old girl called Lilya, who is forced into prostitution and got raped wherever she went... So in the end she committed suicide. Not a bad movie, if you like movies about fighting spirit and all that stuff. Din like the ending though, I thought she could have ran away instead of jumping off the bridge.

BTW, the movie was not in English. Dunno what language issit. It could be Mongolian for all I care. Wahaha

Still Sick

I havent been blogging as much as I promised or wanted to. For that, I apologised. There are several issues which I wanted to but have not blogged. Like the thoughts, events, experience and aftermath of my journey in Lijiang, my church's big move, my involvement with the SM2s and the Christmas party which I went to last Sunday.

Maybe I just run through the events since I came back from Lijiang.

Come back from LJ, 1st thing is the Big Move of my church on 11th Dec.

After that is back to work work work....

Block Leave starts last friday but I had been sick ever since.

Saturday was spent at Sentosa with some SM2 (Senior-Middle 2 from China).

Sunday was church service (our church service moved to sunday now) where I saw Gabrielle. After that we went to the Christmas party organised by the cell group, where we had a lot of fun.

Wanted to rest a bit on monday but end up out the whole day. Watch Peharps Love with Sista Jiahui in the evening.. Wanted to watch Aeonflux but we couldn't find a good timing or location. But we enjoyed Paherps Love more, I think. I thought it was a great show.

Oh ya, I also sold 2 of my guitars on monday. Both for $50!!! Wahaha. Actually it was quite a bad bargain. Originally they cost a couple of hundreds each. But I have no use for those 2 anymore and there is no point keeping them. Might as well sell it. Anyway, can't blame the buyer cos the condition of the guitars is really really bad. BTW, I sold them to this shop that deals with 2nd hand guitars at Penisula Plaza. Sometimes can get some good bargains there.

That's all for now. Still quite sick so I need more rest.

Block Leave + Sick = God's Wrath

I apologise for the lack of updates this past week. It not really a overwhelming but nonetheless, still busy week, building up to....

BLOCK LEAVE!!!!

Wahaha. Will be on leave from now until 26th Dec. But the bad news is... I'm down with flu.

God's ultimate wrath... to fall sick when its suppose to be the holidays. Can take MC but took leave instead... Wahaha.

A lot of catching up to do in regards to blog writing.. Watch this space...

Thanksgiving (Lijiang trip) 2

Hey!! Finally I'm back from Lijiang!!!

Had the time of my life there... Bestest 8 days of my life. Haha. Besides spending time teaching kids there, we also had a lot of time to shop and do sightseeing.

Oops... Heehee.. Just been warned... a lot of things cannot say and a lot of pictures cannot post on blog... Haha.. Almost forgot.

But this sure can post:



12 course meal for less than 3 Singapore Dollars. Haha.

This is just a quick update. Going to church now.. Will be back for more updates... and more pictures (which I can post) later!

Counting down....

Going Lijiang in 8 hours time. Still havent started packing... Wahaha.. So excited...

.....................

Me doing duty at Changi Airport again. Serving my dues before I take leave next week and fly to China next week. Haha. This will be my last duty before I go. Yeah!

Speaking of which, I will be flying on Saturday morning and I haven’t even pack my stuff yet. Still have a lot of things never buy also. And I think I going to fall sick already. The fever demon is right the doorstep. *cough *cough.

Problems problems problems…. Sian.. I think I’m a problematic kid...

Really looking forward to my Lijiang trip. Really need the break. Will be away from Saturday morning onwards… and come back next Saturday evening.

Yeah Lijiang! C’mon baby!!