CNY III + 2 movies = Dog tired

Heehee, just a quick update before I go to sleep. So tired now.

Tomorrow have to go back to work. So sianz... After such a long holiday. But looking on the brighter side of things, it will onle be a 3 day week. YEAH!!

Watched another 2 movies this time. One is Fearless by Jet Li on monday and the other is I not Stupid 2 by Jack Neo today. Both are good movies, but I like Stupid better. Maybe Its because I can identify with the story rather well. And its very funny and touching at the same time. Sometimes want to laugh, sometimes also really want to cry. Too bad I missed the 1st 10 minutes.. Cos I was late again.

Other things that happened this CNY: Visited my boss's house today. Watched my colleagues and my boss play mahjong but did not join in. This is the 1st time I sat through the whole session without playing. Haha.. The feeling was... weird.

And we also had a big celebration for the SM2s... It was quite fun, except that I was too tired by then. Here's another picture of the group of them...


I think I'm having a bad hair day...

CNY II + new guitar poses

So far my chinese New Year has been great.

On the 1st day, I went to church for service. Ya, I know, it's 初一 (Chinese New Year 1st day), but it's also a Sunday. Anyway, I dun have to do any visiting.

As I always say in Chinese: 我不需要去拜年，他们会来拜我。

Haha.

I invited my SM2 group to my place for dinner on the 1st day. To tell the truth, I am a bit disappointed that the turn out is not 100%. 3 of them got other programs planned and 1 of them got sick. turn out is 10 + 2(befrienders) out of 13 + 3.

What did we do? The usually stuff that people do when people come and visit lor. We treated them to the speciality of my mother's home cooked food (拿手好菜). (which all of them said was very good) I showed them the room which I had spent the whole day cleaning up; We went through my photo collection (before I start using a digital comera and all my photo get digitised) and I woah-ed them with my guitar playing skills. Heehee. Here's a few pictures of me playing the guitar, which they took for me.


Trying to look cool...

The guys behind, don't watch TV! Look at me!


Check out my Red Flying V! Tell me it's not the coolest guitar ever!

Tell me! Tell me! Which pose is most cool? 1st, 2nd or 3rd wan? Personally I think the 2nd is my favourite so far. There should be more but they haven't send it to me yet. Heehee..

Of course, finally, its the group photo that we took in our room, with the special guest appearance of my darling little sister.


Quick! How many fingers?

Chinese New Year I

Finally! I am ready for Chinese New Year!

Heehee, spend the whole of yesterday picking out all the unwanted rubbish in my room and throw them away. According to Chinese tradition, all rubbish of the yesteryear must be thrown before the new year comes. So in the end, I finally managed to clear all my rubbish by 2000hrs yesterday. Yeah!

Then I spent half of this morning to tidy up whatever mess that is in my room to make everything spick and span. Yeah! Spick and Span... Heehee, haven't heard that phase in quite a while.

Well, here's a "Before" and "After" look at my room...

Before:



After:



Before:



After:

Not entirely the "High C" kind of neat and tidy but I think its ok lah. (although actually I can be quite high "C" wan)

And this is the rubbish I thrown away, all 4 trash bags of them!



Oh ya, I dug out a little letter from my next door neighbour. I think this was written about 5 years ago. I dun remember the details of everything, but I remember I start receiving these cute letters one fine day. I can't remember what the first letter is about either. I think she was introducing herself and stuff like that, written in brightly coloured pens and decorated with cute stickers.


This is not really her 1st letter

Then she wrote about how she enjoyed listening to me playing guitar every night and stuff like that. Haha. But then that time she's only like.. 15? 16? Anyway, all things she wrote is about girlish stuff, like which star she likes, etc.. So I never really paid much attention to her. I wrote a few letter back to her, but its all polite and friendly stuff.

Counting the years, I think she's about 20-21 now. I dun really see very much of her cos I am seldom home. But there's one time I saw her a couple of weeks back. She turned into a real babe now. Wahaha. That's what the Chinese call "女大十八变". (meaning that girls really changed a lot after they have matured) I heard she's been approached by some model agency before even. Haha.

Too bad i did not have foresight.

Counting down to CNY...

Just a quick update:

Me just came back from a 3 day 2 night tour in Lim Chu Kang again. think I'm getting too old for this. Though I managed to keep up with the younger guys, I think I fell quite sick after the ordeal.

Time is 1430hrs, Chinese New Year's Eve. Nine and half hours to CNY. The room is still messy as ever.

Mission: I am to get my room cleaned up before 0000hrs, Chinese New Year, so as to have a clean start to a good new year.

Situation: Room is messy.

Enemy: Rubbish.

Concept of Operations: Throw away all my rubbish.

H-hour: 290106, 0000hrs

Of spring cleaning and spring cleaning

Had a nice weekend. Overall, eventful and satisfying it was.

Actually, I set out to do some spring cleaning in my room on Saturday. But I'm ashame to say that I did not complete what I set out to do. My room is still in a terrible mess. And I won't have time to do my spring cleaning again until New Year's Eve. Wahaha. Eat Six (jialat)

I did get my New Year clothes though. Haha. I went with Melissa to Bugis Junction where I bought 2 shirts and a pair of pants. Initally I was suppose to go with Jade but then Melissa asked me so I went with her instead of Jade. Boy, was Jade angry. Lesson learnt: when you promised to go out with somebody, keep the promise and not change the appointment flippantly.

In the end, I also met Jade at Far East in the evening before going for a church meeting in the evening.

Pastor preached a powerful and convicting message at the meeting last night.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" -Matthew 6:22,23

Basically, the message is that we have to clean up our lives and not let darkness come into our body anymore. One thing he said that hit me: There are 2 kinds of Christians. The 1st, people will come up to you and say "You christian? Of course I can see that" and the 2nd kind where people will say "You christian? Really ah?". I think I belong to the 2nd category. Very convicting indeed.

So I have to re-look into my life and do some spiritual spring cleaning as well.

Spent the entire sunday at church. Talked to God quite a bit.

Am really tired. Din really rest well this weekend, and next week is a long and tough week ahead. I haven't really drag booking in for a long time. But now I do... feel the drag... of booking in... tonight.

SIANZ!

No point whatsoever...

Finally, I decided to sit down and blog a post. Apologises to my readers, who have been checking for updates daily. A few times, I sat in front of the computer thinking if I should blog, but then I decided that I did not have the time, energy and focus to pen a good entry. So I decide against it.

What happened this week? I dunno... nothing much... all I remember that this is the 1st 5 day week I had in a long time. Haha. Tired...

Life has been pretty monotonous. Mostly work, some leisure, ocassionally God. I am trying, to put God at the center of my life. Focus Numero Uno. But its not easy, for me at least. It takes a lot of deliberate effort on my part, and I lose focus easily. I was once taught that we are not to put God on as the number one priority of our lives. Rather, God should be the centre of our lives, and all priorities will follow from there. Hmm... not sure if I got that correct. But its something like that lah... I think.

Linguist, I am not. But I have expanding my vocabulary in other languages, namely Bahasa Indonesia. It's part of a program organised by the SAF so I'm learning it for free. Had my third lesson already, and I can say simple phrases like "Selamat Pagi" (Good morning), "Nama saya Guojun" (my name is Guojun), "Saya punya banyak uang" (I got lots of money) and of course "Saya cinta Kamu", which means "I love you" in Indon. Very useful in picking up Indon girls. Wahaha.

Very fun to learn a new language, especially if you have somebody to converse with. Right now, I can talk to Jade and Melissa (who is sleeping in the next room from me) in Indon... but it's barely decent. Eh... Barely decent as in my Indon is not very decent... not as in we talk stuff that is not very decent... Ahem.

Oh ya, I cannot find anybody to watch Memoirs of the Geisha with me! I am so sad I cannot believe this. Sigh.. Most of the friends have other plans to watch with other people, and I'm not suppose to join them.. So maybe I dun really have any friends after all. Sigh Sigh Sigh... Maybe I go watch alone?

My life is so sad. Reminds me of the times when I am growing up, when I really had ZERO friends, and no one I could talk to. Thank God I have some now. Or at least I feel that I have friends now. I dunno. Getting a little melancholic again. Ha!

Change topic. Yesterday, the whole group of us got scolded by Boss in the morning. Haha. Then all of us very sad. Then one of the guys said "Everytime I got scolded by Boss I am damn low morale, Then I look at Chew sir (that's me) I feel much better. Because I never karna as jialat as him before."

Yeah!

Goal sighting in clear Chinglish

The sun is out! In fact, the sun is out the very next day I blogged the previous post. Wahaha. It like God bring out the sunshine the next day after I said looking forward to the sunshine after the rain.

Met my SM2 again today. This time, we went to Labardor Park to have some fun. The objective of this session is actually to help them set some goals for this year so that they will have a focus and they can have more clarity of what they wanted.

They set goals like "learning 10 English words a day" or "read the English newspaper (New York Times) everyday" and stuff like that. Can see that they are much more concern about their studies than anything else. Also, a few of them set other goals like "to exercise at least 2 times a week" for the guys and "to lose weight and stay slim" for the girls. Wahaha.

The goals I set with them there is not much different from the ones I wrote in the blog a couple of entries back. And we are suppose to hold each other accountable for the goals that we had set, so that we can be sure everybody is committed to what they have written down.

Today, I learnt that actually, it is very difficult to facilitate in Chinese!! Wahaha. I always thought that my Cheena is quite powerful but today I have to think again. Facilitate halfway then cannot make it, have to talk in English. Then get one of the seniors to help me translate. Wahaha. Really CMI.

The Devil prefers the dark

It's been raining and raining and raining non-stop for the past week. The sky is gloomy and the air is cold. Everything seems slightly less cheerful.

But I like it this way. Really. This is a feeling I feel most at home with: Melancholy. It is a feeling that I am most familiar with for most part of my life. Cheerless, lifeless melancholy. Thinking back, I find little memory of cheer in my growing up years. All I remember is that:

to not feel pain, I must not feel anything.

And I had come to accustom my emotion to an atmosphere of gloom. In my teenage years, I like to hide myself in my room, with the doors and all the curtains closed. With little light as possible creeping in, I wallowed in its dark loneliness. In such a world I created for myself, I found comfort and rest, away from the rest of reality.

In those days, my favourite time would be when it is raining. For it is then that no sun rays would try to force itself into my room, and the gloom outside compliments the grey of my room, and ultimately, the darkness in my heart. And there I found comfort and rest, away from the rest of reality.

Those were the days. Gone they have and hopefully they will never come back. Thanks be to God, I have since found sunshine in my heart and a little more cheer in the sky that I see. I still enjoy the wet air of unceasing rain and its dark gloominess nostalgically. But now I also look forward to the sunshine after the rain. For I know that someday, the dream will end, the Rightful King will come and rule, and the rainbow will never disappear.

OK, this post is a little heavy. Think I will stop here.

To little piggy, if you are reading this, just want to let you know that, I'm sure they care a lot for you. But sometimes the way they might not express it the way you need, and you thought that they did not care about you at all, which is not true. I myself was hurt many many times, and even some of the wounds still hurts now. But I know that those people DO care for me and I learn that I need more love and care from others. So I look to God for the love that I need but am not able to get from the people.

Hope this helps and hope to see you smiling again soon. =)

The good Lord provide car parks too.

Slept at 0430hrs last night this morning. And wake up at 0800hrs today.

My biological clock is like that. No matter how early or how late I sleep, I will wake up by 8.00am the next day. That is why I'm so tired now. Anyway, the reason I slept so "early" yesterday is that my cell group decided to play Risk again.

Wahaha.

I dunno why they like to play Risk so much. Personally, I'm ok with the game, but not really crazy about it. I think the fun part is the people, where you can see them go crazy after they were overcome by the lack of sleep and they start to do crazy things.

Wahaha.

I won my very first Risk game last night, which is good, I suppose. But its because I got all the easy missions. Oh, for those who are not aquainted with Risk, its a game whereby the players have to conquer their opponents countrys and complete missions to win the game.

Yesterday, we decided that to "do a Daniel" means: to think very hard and waste a lot of time planning the next move.

Ya, one thing I forgot to blog the last time. When I was meeting Jade for Sushi, we decide to go to the Sakae at Bugis. The car park was full beyond full. And I thought, maybe I can pray to God that He will give me a parking space. But then the next thought that comes to my mind is that: Its so bad, like treating God like a vending machine like that.

But Lo and Behold, a parking lot just appear if front of me, and its directly in front of the entrance to the shopping mall.

So maybe God does provide parking spaces after all.

Jade Sashimi

Argh!!!! How to maintain my figure (aka number 1 New Year Resolution) when mummy keep making those devilously delicious cakes!?!? Sigh.... Think I am doomed to get fatter and fatter.

Wanted to take picture of the cake, but my mouth is much faster than my fingers.

On a lighter note (pun intended), I met up with Jade today. Its been a long time since I met her, and even longer since I took her out for sushi. So, today I brought her out to eat sushi. The Sakae at Bugis Junction improved a lot since the last time we ate there. As usual, she had her 2 plates of Sashimi. Wahaha.

Had a wonderful time catching up with her today.

Tomorrow going to work again... Then its holiday again!!! Wahaha. January is great.

New Year's Resolution

Nowadays, my mother has been telling all my relatives that I am getting fatter and fatter and fatter.

That's it!

My 1st New Year's resolution is to lose weight and stay fit. To maintain at 70kg or less and maintain at IPPT Silver. I told my boss I will cut my 2.4km run by 30 sec this year. (Talk big, so now have to suffer.)

I bought a book, called "A Year with C.S. Lewis" which contains passages from his works broken down into daily readings. My 2nd NYR carry out these readings as religously as possible.

My 3rd NYR is to get my Class 2B civilian bike licence. Going for my 2nd (repeat) lesson tomorrow. Then I will buy a Honda Phantom. (My friend say 2k can get liao) Yeah! Then I can go sian biker chicks! Ok, maybe getting the bike is more of a dream than a resolution.

To play in a band!! That has been in my NYR for countless consecutive years now. Though now my guitar skills still sucks. But last week got a friends approach me. His NYR is to start playing again. So we can help each other!! But of course, his guitar prowess is so much higher than mine. I'd just be an "extra" in the band with him around.

I will be more involved in the work of God. Hmm... That sounds very vague. In the words of my network leader, I will commit 50 invites and 250 prayer hours this year. Wah, sounds quite big.. or maybe my faith is weak. Have to start keeping a journal or else I will lose track of all these. I will read the Bible more, including my Chinese Bible.

I will learn complete songs. Starting with Classical Gas on my guitar, and Chase on Piano. Been learning Classical Gas for almost a year and still in the beginning stage. Chase is worse: I've been trying to play that for 10 years. It's true. TEN whole freaking years. And I still sucks at it as ever.

I will clean up my room. Wahaha. That's more for Chinese New Year's spring cleaning than a whole year thingy.. For once, I will clean my room. Wahaha.

That's all I can think of now. I think got more... But can't remember liao.

QWERTY

Now I'm in camp office again. Not working, but enjoying the company of the people, watching the 9pm show on channel 8 together.

Lets see if I can come up with my New Year's resolution for the year...

1. Er...

Nope. I can't.

Nothing much happened on the 2nd day of work. Waiting for weekend already.. Haha.

Sleepy... (aka 1st day of work)

Sometimes I have nothing much to blog but I want to sit down and blog anyway. Then again, it's running a little late and I am kinda tired... Wahaha.

Not much of a point here. Got a few things I want to blog about but not tonight, cos I dun have the energy to develop my ideas. Its mainly about my new year's resolution actually.

(Almost) Daily blog entries has been a luxury which I enjoyed for the past couple of weeks during my break. But today is my 1st day of work and very soon, I might not be able to update daily again.

1st day of work, nothing much. BTW, its the 1st day of school for my SM2s also. I went to visit them after work. Seems like they are not having much of the problem with school... so everythings fine today!

Wallace and Gormit (and last day of holiday)

Watched Wallace and Gormit movie today. Wahaha, never expect to watch the movie actually, but sister Jiahui asked me to watch with her.

So in the end, I brought Jiahui, Kelly (as she was giving tuition to my sister), my sister and her schoolmate-neighbour-best friend to Plaza Sing to catch the movie at 7pm. Wahaha. Me and FOUR GIRLS!!! I must say, it was fun bringing the girls out, especially with my sister and her friend, who is like giggling non-stop since the minute they meet.

We missed the 5pm show as it was almost sold out and the kids dun want to sit in the 1st row, so we bought the tickets for the 7pm show instead.

Dinner was at Pizza Hut, where I think we over stressed the waiters with our never ending demands. Wahaha. The little girls had their 1st pizza there, in between their whispers and giggles.

Oh ya, Wallace and Gormit. Kiddy show, no doubt, But real funny and entertaining. If not for the fact that I am in terrible lack of sleep, I would have enjoyed the movie much much more. This is the 1st time I watch Wallace & Gormit but I think they did a wonderful job, considering they are transported there from the small screen.

Really sleep. Tomorrow going to work liao. End of holiday, start of a new year of work.

Jia You!

How I spend my New Year's (aka why do people like to fight wars in the dead of the night)

I did not go for any parties, or any count downs for that matter. I did not watch the whatever New Year variety shows that they have every year on Channel 5, or Channel 8 or Channel U or whatever channel Mediacorp has nowadays. On New Year's Eve, I slept at 10.30pm. At my Brigade's Ops Room.

Yup, I was on duty again on New Year's Eve.

Sigh... I think I have a very sad life.

My church's New Year Bash was on sunday, New Year's day itself. But I did not attend the party. Cos my buddy Ben Lim is going to have his wedding next month and we are going to help him with all the co-ordinations and stuff. So we had a BBQ cum meeting that night for all the "brothers" and "sisters" of the couple to discuss about the wedding. Haha. This is the 1st time I am a "brother" for a friend's wedding, so I'm quite excited.

Ben is one of those who knows me as Lef, and now, his fiance and all his friends know me as Lef too. Wahaha. Think I kinda like that name. Cos, like Ben's mother-in-law said, It's unique.

After the BBQ, which ended about 10.30pm, I went to meet my cell group for a game of Risk. I have no idea why they like to play Risk so much, or why they like to play in the dead of the night, so much. I reached the place about 11pm, but they only reach close to 01.30am. (they went for supper at Simpang Bedok) after the church new year bash.

Anyways, (there is really no such a word as "anyways") the crowd that turned up was not really what I expected. They included Kenneth, my cell leader and his fiance Lynette Lim, Daniel, Lawrence, Sophia Tan and myself. Actually I was expecting more of a guy's crowd but then again, who say girls cannot play Risk (or fight war for that matter?). In fact, Sophia Tan won the second game.

But the thing I dun understand is, why must people play all these games in the dead of the night? Like my mahjong kahkis, they also like to play mahjong from night until 6am type. Like that next day how to function?

But I had a good time playing Risk with them, at least I got to know them much better. Like how Lynette got all crazy after midnight and how serious Daniel can be when planning to kill people. Wahaha.