Yurong keeps wanting me to marry Cheryl (they're cousins), so that I can be related to her family in some way! Hahaha she's got this grand plan to link everyone together and create marriages within church so as to form one huge fantastical family!! Then Chinese New Year reunion dinner will just be like some after-service lunch!! Sounds homely, but I find this entire scheme very horrifying!! Although I would admit it's something to think about. Must you find your eventual spouses within your own church? Because it makes the commitments a lot more similar and familiar, rather than the husband serving in one church and the wife in another. And other various reasons which contribute, much like why you shouldn't be in a relationship with someone who isn't of the same faith as you because there's already a huge conflict to begin with.

I'm fine with marriage and inter-related families in church, but it's the whole dating thing that I'm more concerned about. Let's face it: at your teenage years your relationships are probably non-committal to marriage, because it's quite a far prospect that's beyond the nearest few years. You can be happy and everything, but what if the relationship ends? What's next? I'm always for the idea that even with the most amicable split, it's difficult to sustain a proper friendship with someone whom you once shared really intimate moments with. There will always be some unavoidable tension existing somewhere.

I think I would be in a very good position to know. =(

Okay change topic, but still on the same subject. What qualities do I want in my ideal girlfriend! Hahaha now's a good time as any! First of all, my ideal girl must have naturally curly hair! HAHAHAHA. But considering how difficult it is to find someone with natural curls, she shall remain as "ideal girl". My standards have degenerated into something like wavy hair, or more like the rule is she cannot rebond her hair and expect me to say that it's nice! Heh. Appearances aside, she has to share the same faith as me, be moderately independent, socially adept, charming, confident, intelligent enough, mature, responsible, thoughtful, sweet and cheerful. She must be able to write and speak well (for love letters), artistic inclinations like dancing or drawing or singing are optional, but at least know some musical instruments. She can have her own ideals and need not share my interests to go birdwatching, but has to be fun crazy wacky silly stupid, absolutely spontaneous and always ready to try new things. Must not be too demanding and clingy and possessive! Ideally low maintenance and can survive without me contacting her for five days, but I realise I cannot do this in a relationship. So the important thing is to trust!! In fact that's the most important, cos I have skewed ratio of a million female friends to one guy friend. And last of all, she has to be sufficiently girly enough to do all her girly things like make-up and manicures and blah blah!

Is this asking for the moon?

Anyway, off to Thailand for 3 weeks! I'm leaving behind a huge mess because I never really organise my schedule of things. But it's too late now hahaha.

Holland Village with Dezmand and Yurong in the afternoon today! We went with no clear agenda hahaha! Ate a bit, sat at Coffee Bean, then a sudden decision to go Settlers' Cafe. Bad service bad service! There was some miscommunication with the bill, but after a big fuss it was sort of settled.

Then I proceeded down to St Margaret's to find Jewell so that I can return her her iPod. Her school layout is abit confusing and I ended up loitering at some gate while waiting for her, and all the girls in polka dotted uniform who passed by stared at me like I was some pervert kidnapper!! When I eventually found Jewell, her friends went hyperactive and started shouting hello from a 100 metres away. HAHAHA. A lot of polka dots everywhere I turn!! And when I left, the same group shouted goodbye from 200 metres away.

Went down to church later in the night to pass Tim something, and they were just about to begin prayer meeting! So I joined in.

Sleepyy.

To ramble and hyperventilate: Jewell's songs in her iPod are mostly quite nice!! For the largely ignorant, the two of us decided to swap iPods for 5 days? She's got a lot of pop and rock and R&B and upbeat dance tunes. Avril Lavigne still ranks as the top guitar driven pop rock musician for me! And then there's the revival of all the Linkin Park songs I used to listen to when I was young and ignorant and innocent. Hahaha!

A little while ago, David asked me among the standard band setup of acoustic guitar, drums, keyboard, electric guitars and bass, which instrument I preferred most. Without hesitation, my answer was acoustic guitar! Hahaha because that's like the only instrument I can play??? Still, it's a personal preferance of mine that I will tend to pay more attention to a song with strong acoustic guitars. Maybe when I've got the time and patience I might try picking up the other instruments, but for now I'm happy with whatever musical talents I have.

Late lunch meet-up with Chiew Yee, Jaslyn and Qiling! Went Alexandra IKEA to eat meatballs and chicken wings. Then we went to opposite Tiong Bahru Plaza, and all of them being girls, they decided to go for a pedicure!! Poor me had to wait by the side. But okay it was great catching up.

Lazy lazy! No motivation to really blog haha.

Let's talk about... Beijing Olympics 2008! For some reason this is the first time I'm actually paying attention to the various Olympics events, and it's occupying quite a fair bit of time in my life! I think it is largely because I have a lot of spare time now, compared to all the previous years. Athens 2004 was my O'Level year, Sydney 2000 was my PSLE year, and all the other years beyond that but within my lifetime, I probably wasn't alert or aware enough of the significance of the sporting event. Hahaha! Quite a lot of off days from army this week and the last, largely because we just finished NDP and there's Thailand trip in another four days? So I'm seriously quite content to just sit in front of the TV and watch whatever events they decide to show! Gymnastics to synchronised diving to swimming. Even weight-lifting! Hahahaha.

Yeah, if you're astute enough you'll know where this is going. Michael Phelps winning his 8th gold medal in a single Games, obliterated a million swimming record times and being the most decorated gold medallist of all-time. I followed the later half of his races, and I'm glad I did cos it's history making in process!! Usain Bolt winning 100m dash in world record time and in an outrageously arrogant swagger! Singapore getting their second Olympic medal after 48 years! If you put all these together and seriously think about it, all these are the kind of stuff I can tell my grandchildren!! I figured it would reflect quite badly on me if my future kids were to ask me what Phelps did in Beijing 2008, and all I said was "I don't know ehh I was sleeping at that time". Absolutely tragic!

For my part, I think Phelps is beyond phenomenal. Usain Bolt too. Eventually it will be themselves who keep bettering their own records each time. I don't care about the debate on greatest Olympian, or better swimsuit technology, or all those pointless distractants. Oh oh, favourite gymnast is Alicia Sacramone! Kosuke Kitajima is my other inspiring swimmer. And the opening ceremony was WAAHH!!!!

Non-related note: Dragged Celine and Samantha into morning service. If you two are reading this, come in more often!! Then there was mini cell group lunch at J8.

Ducklings. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Pastor Paul's first session with us for youth leaders leadership empowerment training. And I'm quite disappointed, irritated, annoyed, angry and insulted! In that order!! I didn't really like some aspects of it. I wasn't contented that we could only give a 3 out of 10. I didn't like the fact that we started out from ZERO, then we went ONE, then TWO, then THREE. And what in the world do you mean we're not meeting frequently enough??! But okay okay okay. I get where we're all coming from, and I understand Pastor Paul's point of view. With a little bit of hindsight, it's always easier to reflect. But at that point of time, I seriously felt very indignant okay!!

After that ended, I went down to Toa Payoh to meet up with Priscilla! Our exploration aim was to get to Southern Ridges Trail. I've never heard of it before either, it was her idea to go, and apparently it's quite a new trail that brings you into some greenery and there's some highest overhead bridge over a road. It connects Mt Faber to Kent Ridge Park to West Coast over 9km! Hahaha my mum messaged me halfway to ask where I am, and I don't know how to reply her! But okay laa the trail was quite good! It's not very challenging, terrain was mostly smooth concrete, and the attractions were somewhat like MacRitchie's Tree-Top Trail. Ehh it rained a bit. Then Pris saw one of those plant information tags which said that one of the trees provide a herbal cure for stomachahe when you eat the leaves, then she insisted I find the tree and eat the leaves!! Hahaha my stomachache is killing me! Then we ended up at HortPark, which I never knew existed either. But it was all landscaped gardens and we both didn't like it, so we headed down to Seah Im for dinner before home.

Forgot to mention, I finally bought an digital tuner for my guitar! Hahaha I know it's a bit late for me to do so. I first started learning guitar on my own when I was 13, bought my first guitar (which I saved up for on my own) when I was 17. And any self-respecting guitarist, whether amateur or professional, beginner level or quite proficient, they would tell you that some form of tuner is right up there in the lists of accessories that you need to have. Which is quite true, because getting your strings in tune is the first step even before you start playing.

For my part, I've been using a tuning fork for the past 5 years. Hahaha!! I've got one of those pitch pipes, but for the life of me I can't tune my guitar using that. Tuning fork is quite fun, but it's a hassale as it only gives one note and you still have to manually figure out the rest. There are some people I know who uses their piano to check the tunings, but I don't have a piano at home and a piano simply looks black and white to me and the only song I know how to play is "Mary Had a Little Lamb"! Am I like super backward or something??

Still, new digital tuner!! I tried it out, it made everything a lot faster and snappier and more accurate. My old trusty tuning fork was horrible because I take very very long to determine if one note is higher than the other (don't laugh at me!).

But in my opinion, the best guitar accessory ever invented is the capo. I pronounce it kay-poh HAHAHA. I don't care if that's the correct pronunciation, because I say it the way I want to say it. It's like a first aid kit for poor guitar players like me, because I hate playing songs in weird keys and I'm always using the capo and transposing chords. And also because it allows me to sing it in a higher key, and jacks up the high notes even higher.

-BEAMS-

I bought a sunflower yesterday, with the purpose of making it part of an object lesson for youth service last night. I actually called the florist at J8 on Wednesday to place a reservation and inquire about prices okay! The woman told me that as long as I don't need it in a bouquet, I can just purchase over the counter. Hahahaha but it still cost more than I expected! So yeah, anyway, my message on nature went okay, or at least what I perceive of it myself. Then during cell group, I decided to try something different! Got a guitar, tried and get the 3 girls to sing along with whatever songs I have or I know. It wasn't too bad an experiment, cos their voices were beautiful. Except when they start switching octaves when the notes get too high, which I thought was super funny!! Okay. Next time I lead worship I must be mindful of making the song more congregation-friendly. Not that I'm not already am, but just more mindful.


After many many attempts using the 10 sec self-timer.


And Dora came along and helped us took this, which ridiculed the 15 minutes spent trying.

Back from a get-together cohesion with my army platoon mates. They managed to get a chalet just of Pasir Ris Park, so that's where I've been heading to for the past two days. Kinda weird right hahaha I always thought that this kind of activities are quite pointless, because I'm already staying in the same bunk with all my army buddies five times a week! But never mind laa it was fun anyway. Cycling a lot, watched movies, playing with Desmond's Wii console, soccer, then there was a barbeque.











A lot more photos of course, but I've only picked some of the ones with me in it hahahaha. And I finally understand why people say I smile as if I'm trying to show all my teeth! Anyway all the photos were from Zheng Cong, but his camera lens got dented after a horrible fall.

Tired of things. I'm trying really hard to try and be understanding, to comfort and listen and help wherever possible. But three-quarters of the time I feel really inadequate, because other than being empathetic, I'm not really doing much. Yeahh I know how everyone will say that that's really the best I could do. The moment frustration kicks in, it's difficult to get rid of it.

When God first prompted me towards this direction, I'm like OKAY LET'S GO, because the signs were clear and it's quite evident where I will head eventually too. But now, it suddenly got a bit murky. Even though I know the general direction, I don't know the exact route.

Raahh.

Anyway, some side notes. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones was a very good read, somewhat in the same mould of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The novel dealt with most of my favourite themes of loss, appearance and reality, love, blah blah. And an achievement in its right, because it was my third book in two weeks, which must have been the quickest rate ever in the last ten years.

Another thing. Eating chendol near midnight causes mild diarrhoea! But the company that came with it was good. (:

Someone pointed out to me a few weeks back that all of a sudden, a lot of newer Christian songs contained the lyrics "high and lifted up" in various syntax at various points throughout each song. And it didn't really strike much impression in me until I started noticing that the phrase keeps popping out everywhere. Well, okay, things like that happen to me all the time. For example, I just came across a new tough word, "obstreperous", and I'm kinda lazy to look it up in the dictionary, and it just so happens that the very next material I'm reading contains that exact same word but in a slightly different context to suggest a different meaning, so eventually I have to check it and I wonder why I don't bother in the first place.

Anyway, "high and lifted up". So far, I've got them in four variants: declarative ("you are high and lifted up"); desiderative ("be high and lifted up"); optative("we lift you high"); and comparative ("be lifted higher"). Hahaha my classification may not be very precise, but this is my take on it okay okay okay!! It's really scary, because all of a sudden this entire concept is being preached and brought forth a lot more frequently!

Here's my take on it. I think at any one time, our worship towards God falls into one of the four categories. Optimally, declarative is the ideal everyone aims for, because no matter what you say or do, God is always going to be high and lifted up, and hence it is up to your faith and your confidence to know that He is going to be. But most of the time we're desiderative, imploring but unable to do much. Then it goes down the scale, like it degenerates to something of an option instead of something you ought to do. The last one is atrocious, and I don't even know why it's on the list because in what way can God go any higher if you're already praying for God to be lifted high?? But it's there on the list because the same someone who pointed it out to me in the first place likes the song that the lyrics came from. But I don't like that song because the entire concept is warped hahaha.

And this other bit is unrelated, but since I'm on the subject I might as well expound it further. Whenever I have my quiet time with God and I decide to start/end by singing a few songs accompanied by my limited guitar playing, I have a nasty habit of using the capo to set it high up on the frets, so that the entire song is sung in a much higher key. Not that I have a really high voice, but I find that it helps me project and connect better with the song and its lyrics. It's somewhat similar to the whole notion of lifting up higher, in a very loose meaning. So hopefully this answers those of you who asked me why I always sing in such high notes whenever I lead worship.

Okie. Comments or complains, or if I said something wrong and you want to offer a correction, feel free to do so.

A bit moody now. Leaders' meeting left me feeling very stressed out! It never occurred to me that whatever I chose to involve myself in was actually quite a long-term thing. I never seriously thought about the entire continuity approach thing, because it kinda got overlooked until now. Or at least, until when I started realising what's happening on the other side that I never knew much of.

Joined in with the pre-teens today, we went to Bishan Park for some kind of treasure hunt and exploration race. Slight drizzle, but had a great time! I'm really too old for all these games hahaha! Again, I came off the entire activity astounded and amazed.

Went to Thomson Plaza with my family for dinner! Met Eileen, and I just so happened to fill my mouth full with tofu, so I couldn't smile properly and only managed some pathetic wave with my chopsticks. SO UNGLAM! Then I sprayed my sister with some tester cologne! Hahahahaha!

Raah. Still tired.

"Hello, I thought Lee Kuan Yew is supposed to have white hair!"

NDP 2008 IS FINALLY OVER!!! No more spending like 3 days a week just to launch boats at Kallang and ferrying a million people and whatever thrash! And no more phonecalls from weird people of various ranks and appointments going "Hello is this Corporal Low?" and asking me to do a million tasks!

Anyway, today was a really terrible struggle to stay awake! Hahaha was down at church at around midnight last night, then at 2am we all headed towards airport. Walked around over there, had small breakfast, photographs, blah blah, whatever we did before Sarah's departure. Kinda saddening whenever a friend has to go overseas for a long period, but that's life's little dramas for you. Okay, then I eventually reached back Bishan at 5.30am, so I went straight down to Kallang to get some sleep while waiting. Everyone told me to stay alert enough so that I won't fall off the boat hahahaha! Nahh I was super sleepy but it wasn't that bad. Had trouble with my boat's outboard, was involved in some intrusion exercise to test the PCG's vigilance (interesting haha!), grabbed sleep here and there.

I think, that's all for now.

This is kinda crazy, but I'm going to spend my night at the airport again! Okay maybe not the entire night. Going to send Sarah off to US for her studies. Hahaha the stipulated meeting time is 2am later, and my mum sort of went ballistic when I told her! She asked me a lot of questions, and then I told her I'm going straight down to Kallang/Marina in the morning tomorrow for NDP, and she was like "WHAT??" and she's afraid I'll get so sleepy that I'll screw up the show tomorrow! HAHAHA I wish I played such a pivotal role in NDP! All I do is drive the boat and answer phone calls (which all ask me to drive the boat).

Anyway, that aside, this week is very tired and sleepy. I can't sleep in camp!! The fan that is near my bed spoilt, and it gets super hot at night, and there are a million mosquitoes! Went down a couple of days to Kallang to ferry all the fireworks explosives, and the quantity is astounding. We were all for autographing on the fireworks shells hahaha so that we know we're a part of the fireworks support team!

And today, leading worship with Ming Ren. I may seem to be fond of minimal instrumental worship, but I'm not really, it's more like a rebellion on my part. Old songs today! David told me to be rebellious more often hahaha.

But yeah that's about it. Should I bother getting some sleep? Or should I just get out of house as soon as possible so that my mum will stop pin-pointing the entire NDP disaster tomorrow on me?

I'm never really a doggy person; I'm a cat lover! I find dogs very demanding and too rough and very high maintenance for a pet. In contrast, cats are gentler ice-queens and they don't need constant companionship and they can very well take care of themselves. So it is with some trepidation that I plodded slowly to this dog!! He's one of the SCDF's explosives detective dogs, and they were brought down to Kallang as part of the heightened security for NDP preview and the actual parade.

At first I really hesitated, but the green environmentalist in me took over and soon enough, the dog was all over me and sniffing my ears and licking and mock-biting. I really think that all animals can sort of sense whether you're afraid of them or you love them. I've had countless of experiences when all sorts of animals, including insects, are attracted to me instead of others around me, for some reason. Anyway, it took very long to get this picture right okay, because the dog was camera-shy! Whenever Zheng Cong came near with his camera, the dog will hide away.



This is another one, also trained as an explosives detective. But this is a bad picture because Zheng Cong snapped it while I was talking to him, so I look like I'm pouting or something. And this one was sleepy and grumpy.

From a book I read recently: "Mankind is the only animal on the planet who shows his teeth to smile." HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Ehh, oops. Bitten by my own words!! I realised that I haven't returned Ginny's book!! Her copy of Enid Blyton is still with me hahahaha it was lying on my table too. Okay this is the worst hahaha it's at least two years!

I'm... mortified!! Hahaha how ironic.

Cheryl Sim inspired me! I think she's on this crusade now to retrieve whatever books, CDs, items, blah blah, that she lent to all her friends but never got them back. When I heard about it, I was like "YAR YAR YAR" because it's something that I'm always frustrated with too! Okay maybe it doesn't trouble me that much. Most of the time when I lend things to others, I probably don't need it again in any hurry, so I just take it on faith and goodwill that eventually it'll come back someday. Then the loan period drags to five hundred years, and I still don't need it back urgently, but you know as with all things, it's good to have things back that belong to you!! I think it's even worse if it concerns money! I think it's very hard to ask someone to return money that you lent. Hahaha I've got a lot of such cringing, unpleasant experiences, so a lot of times I just write off the debt if I can.

Eh okaay actually I'm guilty of it sometimes also! The last time I borrowed a CD from Alicia, it sat on my table for weeks without me going anywhere near it! I meant to watch the DVD that accompanied it, but for various reasons, I never found the time to. So I made a very conscious effort to remember to return it, but I kept forgetting to bring it out, and that dragged on to another month! When I eventually did, I discovered the following week after I returned it to her, she left it lying around in church and didn't find out until then. HAHA.

Still, it's a personal resolution of mine to return all items as soon as I'm done with them, and to pay back whatever debts I have as soon as possible. For my own sake, and hopefully that people will reciprocate the favours too. Because I understand how thick-skinned you need to be to ask for your things or money back, even if they're your close friends!

So here's to all of you who owe me payment or things: please take the effort to return it to me, thank you!!

Okay, I've got quite a memory for my involvements in YP Sunday throughout the years in church! I've done things like back-up singing, lip-syncing with actions to songs, teaching simple dance steps, throwing balloons and confetti. But today's YP Sunday brought it another level higher! Doing a dance routine!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahaha!! Okay it wasn't too bad, considering all the last minute panic and forgetting steps and having to shorten the music because we couldn't finish the choreography! Good job good job, and my chemistry with Huimin was sizzling hahaha! The rest of the programme was equally fun too. Little kids leading worship with loads of actions and moves, then there was a short pre-teen skit.

Right after that, there was a Meet the Parents session. I never ever really take note who is whose parents, so half the adults there were unfamiliar to me! Quite a good interaction for everyone, and it made me realise that we've actually accomplished quite an impressive fair bit. Topic on the need for a long-term youth leader took 40 minutes alone! I think after that I got a little bit discouraged by something, but all the affirmations that I could recall was sufficient enough.

Dinner with Yurong and Tim at Ang Mo Kio much later in the night.

Sleepy! Down at Kallang doing boats for the past two days, and I'm horribly sun-burnt again. Like, shoulders are sore from red skin! Then rushed down to church for worship leading. It was just Sarah and me, not bad my voice didn't give way from this afternoon's KFC haha. Dance prac after that while they were watching movie! I think I complain too much hahaha.

Tomorrow's NDP preview. Security's so tight that they have to check our boats for bombs! Kinda scary, like it makes you think seriously about the terrorism threat.