Am currently in the midst of drafting up some new worship leader training curriculum, because I'm trying to make my holidays worthwhile and productive. Aiming to finish the document before the end of July! And while I am doing this, I have to admit that for the longest time this is a constant dilemma to me because I have never ever felt like I am fully called into this area of ministry. Yes I lead worship sometimes and I play for the music team sometimes, but I always tell people that my worship team commitment is what I do on the sidelines. I'd like to think that I am called to do other things, that God has given me other giftings and talents which I feel I'm more adequate at.

Over the years I've attempted to reconcile the fact that I am never fully ready nor am I equipped, by telling myself to just be obedient and see where this takes me. Nothing strikes at your own ineptitude and  inadequacy as much as when you have to prepare for a training curriculum. Too much stuff you thought you knew, but you don't really; too many things you thought you did, but you never really. Currently I'm praying really hard for some form of direction with regards to my worship ministry. 

Well okay pictures! This is the amount of reading I've tried to plow through. And, my copy of "Worship Matters" is loaned to someone, but I can't remember who! If you're reading this blog (and reading that book), please return me asap, this current copy I loaned is Matthew's.

Holidays are the best, because I can sleep as late as I want, and therefore wake up as late as I want in the morning too. I'm not up to much currently, been reading a lot and online a lot. The few times that I've been out are mostly to catch up with friends or to do meaningless shopping. Downsides about these are that the more I go out, the more money I tend to spend. And this is dire because I don't have much income nowadays; all the guitar students are on summer holidays and I don't teach as much tuition as I used to.

Speaking of tuition, I do teach at Gracehaven once a week, and today finally broke the test of my resolve. I had to remind myself very firmly why I even started volunteering in the first place. Okay I admit, every week is a struggle to psych myself to make that (not so) long trip to Gracehaven and to set aside time for that tuition slot. There are so many other things that I can do on a Tuesday evening, and I needed all the persistence and perseverance in me to uphold that commitment I made.

I think volunteering and ministry work and serving people is pretty much about ensuring that everything is perfect and great for the benefiting parties, and very little about me myself benefiting as a result. I want to serve because it is a privilege for me to serve, and I don't want to have to drag my feet and coerce myself into doing things just because I have to. Maybe that's why I always believe in serving from my own overflow of abundant grace, because when it becomes difficult and dreary, it always helps to reference myself back to the first excitement.

Right now, I'm in my kitchen reading Eat Pray Love, and drinking Pepsi in an iced cup, and watching a little cockroach scurrying around my kitchen floor. Don't feel like killing it, because at 4am that's the only companion I will get. I hope eventually it will just get itself out of the window, or I will chase it before I sleep. And, can I just say, Pepsi is really diluted and just... weird. I drank Coke Zero today too, it tastes much too bland. Give me the real Coca Cola anyday. 

Back from Australia for almost five days now, and have been attempting to do more productive things like learning guitar or going out to meet people or reading vociferously. I am currently alternating between Batman comics and about to start Eat Pray Love (everyone keeps asking why read some girly book) and some magazines and some Christian teenage fiction book which I got from Aussie. Adjusting back to the hot sunny Singapore weather is a chore too, because I was so happily freezing in sub-10 Celsius degrees in Melbourne and Sydney. But I was only acclimatizing to cold weather for two weeks; have friends who are in colder parts of Europe for months on exchange, not to mention that it's mostly rainy since I got back, so I'm not really feeling the heat yet.

Our itinery for Australia was to head down first to the Victoria state for about a week. We spent a few days in Melbourne lazing around, found friends of Spencer and Meena, headed out to an out-back safari. Then began the road trips to Phillip Island to shudder with the penguins, and drove out about 8 hours to Apollo Bay via the Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve Apostles. Kinda amazing we drove so far out (and back) just to see some limestone rocks heh. Sydney we went after that, with another few days just touring the harbours and walking around. We did meet up with Melanie and Col Prema, who was there at the conference too! And more new friend(s).

Hillsong Conference was really great, it was so good to be going there as a participant without doing anything and to just soak up everything that was said and sung. To be truthful the topics and the electives were a big mishmash of information, from personal discipleship to evangelism to the various church ministries, but I think the beauty of it was discovering the many facets of a church life within the church life. Some of the stuff were really life-changing, it brought a new dimension to the way I saw things. Others were just continuous reminders of the ministries that I've committed to carry out and the awesome privilege of being able to do things in church. So fired up from all the new perspectives, and then back smack into the processes of leaderships, haha I have to remember to be humble and to be obedient, to change the things within my reach and to trust the things to God out of my control.

The smallest trivia while on holiday: I finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy within the two weeks. I prefer the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Opera House. I took all my pictures using a film camera, it ran up to eight rolls of film (yet to be sent for developing). I think contemporary art really makes you think, but it is too subjectively controversially weird. And once I've fought off the ibises and the seagulls for my fish and chips by Darling Harbour, I will never ever find fish and chips as good as it will ever get in Aussie. 

I have about 6 more hours before I'm flying off to Australia in the morning! Can't quite decide whether I should sleep or what, because I have to be at the airport early too. Going there with Min Jie and wife, Spencer and wife, for Hillsong Conference in Sydney!! So excited about it, but before that we are going to take a week or so to holiday in Melbourne.

This is probably one of the rare times when I'm traveling and not caring much about the things that I am leaving behind. They will take care of themselves haha I don't need to be a busybody.

Okay I think I shall sleep after all. If I do update this space at all while on the road, see ya! 

Looking back at these past two or three years that I haven't been as active in worship leading or playing in a worship team as previously, I kinda realized that it actually freed me up in a lot more ways than I initially thought it would. Things like, the stress and the pressure is not as much now, mostly because I go about thinking that there are people who lead worship week in week out way more times than me, and their challenge to keep it fresh must be much greater than mine haha! And I'm more adventurous and more likely do things off routine, because, well, I only lead once in a while, so why not. Heh that may be good or bad depending on what or who or when, but I don't just shake things up for the sake of it. Or maybe just the fact that I get a lot more time to actually worship in congregation.

But really one thing that really freed up were the song selections and set lists. In the past I really needed at least a month heads-up to plan, but now it's all coming to me so naturally that I actually have to read and reference the Bible a lot more than I needed to, just to confirm and be certain. A lot of times it's just trusty guitar and then the chords or lyrics just flowed nicely, or the right song just appeared in that right moment in iPod, or something like that. Which is really great, because I try to think that I should lead worship and plan all those transitions blah blah just as how my quiet time is like.

And of course in these times, it helps a lot to have a new guitar!!!!! One that I'm really enjoying playing right now and it sounds very very good. Anyway, will be going Australia for two weeks on Saturday, and the guitar needs to go to someone who will utilize it within these two weeks. I don't want it sitting in my home unused haha. Let me know if you (or someone) want to borrow it!

I've always tried to go through my life without getting too attached or too sentimental over my belongings or my possessions, but truth is I am quite the hoarder. I keep useless things, I archive notes and letters, I have tonnes of things that I say I will find a use for it but never ever do. I treasure the things that I buy for myself, I am reluctant to give away the books I bought, and I usually take too long to deliberate if I am to give something away. I need a friend who will raid my apartment and not be afraid to discard or donate things that I have in excess, because I always make reasons for myself. It just never really works. 

It is with the hugest regret therefore, to announce that I have sold my Maestro guitar that I've had for four years. Got it during army as a 20th birthday self-present, it wasn't too expensive but it has the richest and most luxurious and most harmonic sound ever, to me at least. For years I will ignore all naysayers who complain about the guitar's playability, or size, or the sound (how dare they!), and I really enjoyed all the times playing with it in quiet time or worship leading. But deep down I know there are better guitars out there haha, and it's natural to aspire to get something more high-end, but I have been thinking for too long if I should even splurge to get a new one because the guitar is really great. 

And it all came to an end when I saw a forum post on Sunday requesting to buy the exact same model of my guitar! What are the odds of that, because it's not like my guitar is super-good and super-popular choice haha. I made the buyer an offer without considering too much, and by evening the same day I was meeting him for the transaction. Probably sold it at a cut-throat price because it's got several stains and scratches and knocks, but aargh it's gone and I felt like I lost a part of me at too impulsive an action. Reality only sank in when I remembered I still have to lead worship this coming Friday! 

But I'm only guitar-less for one day. Haha just got the Taylor GS Mini yesterday, too good and too nice and too melodious and an absolute joy to hear/play. Again I think it was a very impulsive decision, but haha I am very satisfied with my purchase and it's definitely a worthy replacement for the sold guitar. Still can't quite get over the fact that I sold my old guitar without as much consideration as I wanted, but oh new guitar!!! Haha the first ever guitar that I've got for myself, I considered for super super super long before deciding to give it to Celine, because all the nagging thoughts keep bugging me to keep it or sell it or just frame it up! But nah, giving it away without asking for payment really puts it to rest for me, because it severs all the baggage attached to it. Now that I sold the previous guitar, I feel like calling the person up again to buy it back hahaha. 

Okay. Good morning world. 

A while back I had a huge rant with Peggy about what constitutes art and culture. Haha she studies at Laselle and does all the arty stuff considered of an arty artist, so I figured it gets as close to the horse's mouth as I could haha. Okay I kinda believe that the notion of art is a very loose term; you can almost lump everything under the guise of "artistic expressions" and it can be considered art. So the very evident ones like oil paintings and ballet dance and sculptures and photography and theatre and stuff like that, no one will ever question their artistic worth or value or intention. But it's the more abstract and more postmodern stuff like Warhol's Brillo Boxes and Campbell Soups made into pop art, or the whole Dada movement. And they're constantly doing more ground-breaking stuff, like the lady who was rolling in black paint, which is why I tend to think that the divide between museum art and everyday life doesn't really make much sense anymore. If I am acclaimed enough, I can pour cereal in a bowl in a museum, and people will say that's art too, because culture is just everything.

Which is why I also believe that for something to be considered art, there has to be some form of agency and intention for it to be called art. So I still can pour cereal in a museum, but that's because I want to pour cereal in a museum, and this makes my art worthwhile, and possibly for some appreciation by others. It doesn't have to create value, just as long as I have the guts to do it and the foresight to do it first. 

Hence I think that the recent news about the SKL0 lady is great stuff, because she's real ballsy and she doesn't shy away from the risks involved in her street art, or graffiti, or vandalism, whichever you choose to view it. I do like her work, it captures the Singaporean life in a very succinct sticker and encapsulates the frantic spammage of the traffic light to conform to the hectic society haha. Her arrest is a shame, because the government spends millions promoting art and art development, but when art really appears, they clamp it down and shut it up. That said, I have to say that top-down imposition of art doesn't quite cut it. They always say they "gazette" spaces like Portsdown Road or Holland Village for bohemian cultural uprisings, and then they commission artists to "vandalize" postboxes as if it sprang out overnight like graffiti. But when authentic street art appears, all of a sudden it's not approved and not sanctioned and not commissioned, then persecution. However, I think that her actions are also a form of activism. She stuck the stickers with full knowledge that "anyhow stick kena fined", and it is a blatant risk she undertakes to impose her artistic messages. Which is why I find the petitions to free her as innocent artist kind of demeans her work, because then where's the highlight and emphasis of the ridiculousness of the government's double-standards on art?

Okay. It's time to sleep. I don't think I am making much sense anymore. 

Tonight was one of those nights that I had to make a choice what to watch, with the options spliced evenly between several DVDs and movies. I'm in the midst of a self-learn guitar resource, and then I just got another separate guitar resource from Min Jie earlier today, and I kinda just started the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Not to mention several movies which I wanted to watch haha. But nah, after several wrestles and tussles I went with this Louie Giglio's series of talks on grace.

From my ministries at church, and with the benefit of hindsight, I've realized over the years that I tend to be too much of a do-er. My natural response to any problem is to prescribe a do-able solution, and I'm not happy if no action is done. Or I try my best to do everything myself. I still do too much sometimes, and I tend not to allocate, or to just be, instead of doing. So we have this whole thing about grace being God at work over the things we cannot do, and I have to constantly remind myself to surrender and let God take control of the gracey stuff. And then elsewhere it says also to work out your salvation, that it is an outpouring of the grace given that we aspire to be Christ-like, which again I have to remind myself that it is "work out" and not "work for". I'm working out because of grace, and not so that I can gain grace. I don't need to, but I want to.

At the risk of this blog post sounding schizophrenic, I shall stop here. There's a lot more to grace than this too. But I'm glad I picked Giglio over guitar tutorials. Maybe now I will go on to HIMYM. 

The holidays has been extremely agreeable with me, I am taking my time to do the things that I want to do and I am sleeping vast amounts of hours that I haven't been able to do so previously. Regrettably, the reading has not been as prolific as I would like it to be! I bring my novel everywhere I go, but it usually stays in my bag and seldom sees the light of day. Which I guess is a really bad habit developed from my literature modules; I bring my assigned lit novels everywhere I go during term time too, but it remains well-traveled but not well-read. 

Anyway, I've got more time to spend it with cell group too, because I've always believed that young people need to go out and you need to do stuff with them to really connect. From lunches to dinners to movies to running to guitar lessons. I've been watching a lot of movies at home too. And in the guise of self-improvement I am finally starting to "formally" take guitar lessons from a DVD, which can get a bit boring after a while because learning music is essentially tedium and loads of memory work. But I will persevere. 

If you see me idling about, please nag at me to take out my book and finish reading it. 

It's a pleasure and a privilege to serve in church really. Gave a mini-message on language last night, and then was leading a small worship session tonight. I have to stress that I don't do both very often nowadays haha. I think half the technical skills or the spiritual acumen that I need to be an effective speaker or worship leader is lost through years of lack of sufficient practice. 

Tonight kinda reinforced what they say about the worship leader is to be ready with a word or a song for all season. I know Commissioner Lim reads this haha, but when Min Jie asked me to lead worship he only said 2 to 3 songs! Well it became 5 haha, but I'm just thankful that I've got great quiet time moments that I can bring into actual worship leading, and all the times that I force myself to go onstage without chord references. 

And last night was a very strong reminder of God's grace, and how it applies in my life. I'm not a perfect man, but it is really only through grace that I get to do the stuff I am doing now. A while back during Matthew's cell group, we watched a Louie Giglio DVD series on the topic of grace, and sadly to say I can't remember most of what was said haha. Need a refresher, and I think I will do just that. 

I seldom put up songs here, but this is an exception because of the song story that went behind it. This one is called "Hati Hamba", or translated as "Heart of a Servant". I first heard it sung at Heart of God Church when I attended one of their services. Maybe a few months later, I went back again, and they sang it for worship again! And I remembered the song striking a chord in me for each time I was there, whatever my circumstances and situation. I simply had to ask one of the youths in the congregation what song that was, and he said it was written by an Indonesian church and it's one of their more familiar songs that they always sing for worship. Great lyrics. You can search it up on Youtube or something.

HATI HAMBA

Standing in awe of Your grace
Setting my feet in Your ways
Entering into Your presence
To behold You face to face

God of all heaven and earth
Holding me in Your embrace
Unfailing love that surrounds me
Oh God I stand amazed

My Jesus, my Lord
You're the love of my life
Wherever You go
Wanna be by Your side
No longer I
But Christ living in me
Serving You for all eternity

My eyes set on You
In this race that I run
No longer my ways
Let Your will be done
Make me a servant
My heart's ever true
Clinging to the cross
I'll follow You

Exams have ended, and I am now currently enjoying my holidays! For most parts of it, my exams and revision has been great, this is one of the better prepared semesters in my university life. Really enjoyed what I was studying, and it actually felt like I was learning something this time round. The saddest part is that I will not be taking anymore literature modules from now on! Maybe I will sneak in for some of the lectures from the modules that I've always wanted to try, and I will read the books assigned for the course haha. But yup, the semester is over and I have a four months break now!

There's probably too many things I want to read and learn for the holidays. I kinda like just waking up and bumming around at home reading, or just mill around. Actually it's only been a few days since I ended exams. Have been helping out with the exam revisions for the young ones yesterday, Maths is great but I have to revise my Sec 3 Chemistry stuff just to be able to be of help haha. My want-to-read list for the holidays is too long and too intimidating, but I am determined to plow through it and complete as much as I can. 

And today's another interesting day, I'm going to start tuition with one of the boys from Gracehaven! For the longest time, Augustine has reminded me time and again of their need for volunteer tutors to go in and help out academically, and for the longest time I have been procrastinating, and also because I really have too much to do. But last year I partly recommended Joe Yong and Kah Jie to give tuition there, then Auntie Kristy has been literally goading me to go in hahaha every time I meet her she's challenging me what am I doing with my life. The confirmation kinda came when Jolene told me she's looking to volunteer there too. So, in I go tonight. 

Will post my reading reviews up here, partly to keep myself accountable to the things that I've set out to do this holiday! 

These past few days were spent mostly in church studying for my exams! I only have three exams this semester but my first paper doesn't start until Saturday! Which is really really late, because my sister ENDS on Friday and I only START on Saturday. Haha the additional time to study has been really helpful though, just that I tend to procrastinate and get complacent a lot more. 

It's exams for some of the younger people in my cell too, so I have been "helping" people to study as much as I am studying myself by nagging at them hahaha. But the most challenging was Ethel asking me A Maths questions! When I was in secondary school, both A Maths and E Maths were probably my strongest subjects, apart from Geography of course heh. But I can't remember most of my A Maths theories now, although I'm still fine for E because I have been teaching tuition for that. And before I forget, I'm really happy that Ethel's getting acquainted with everyone, she's joining us for about a month now and is another addition to the Sec 1-3 kiddies that are invading my life. 

And the corps officers decided to do a quick cleaning up of the office cabinets and shelves today. There are things that are lying about for months that we probably don't need, but we still keep them around anyway. It's with pangs of guilt that I watch them clear up, because I meant really to organize a spring cleaning before Chinese New Year! Totally overdued. And they wanted to cart out huge stacks of old War Cry copies and the Words of Life devotional, which is when I realized that the hoarder in me really aches to have them thrown away. Okay at least the Salvationist in me reasons that we're supposed to be selling the War Cry as evangelical material. So I figured I can just lump like three months' worth of War Cry issues together, put our church flyer on it then distribute it door to door to my neighbours. At least there's some chance my neighbours will read it somewhere. As for the Words of Life, it's going to be my cell's new devotional for the next three months! 

Pictures, to cover up for the long wordy post. 

UPDATE

It's time to announce the winner! Congratulations to Joe Yong!! Thanks for inciting an illicit love triangle for my duck and Bulbasaur and Buttercup, I really laughed out at your tweet, and Matthew confirmed it hahaha. And, a consolation prize to Andrea too, for the literal lame-ness of it haha! To all those who participated, thank you for indulging in my silliness, really appreciate your efforts in crafting a caption, and I hope this little contest does not render the quality of your replies (and my friendship with you) diminished in any sense; they were all great and really entertaining! Hope you all had as much fun following this as I did, at least till the next contest that I can think of. You can read all the entries below. Thank you again!!!!!

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Reaching my 10,000th tweet on Twitter, and I've decided to hold a small caption-the-photo contest to celebrate the occasion! I really got my inspiration from a friend of mine from school, he has wacky contests every now and then to celebrate his birthday and Christmas, and he just wants to give away prizes for the fun of it. And since this year is the year-to-be-generous year for me, I'm doing the same and my photo that I've asked people to caption, is this!

And these are the responses I've received thus far, I will add on to it when I receive one.

Lynn - Bubbles: "We shall not discriminate against the duck, just because he isn't green".
Yurong - in deep discussion on how to cure their owner from boredom.
Priscilla - Ducky to bulbasaur: Stop bulling buttercup. Buttercup (smugly): Yeah! Bulbasaur (grouchily): Okaaayyyy...
Joe Yong - Duck: Wat u looking at? This hot babe is mine. Green monster: I think I like u*pointing to duck* buttercup: this is awkward-.-
Tammy - duck: "hmm is that edible?" buttercup: "only one way to find out!"
Shi Hui - "now, Duckie, we'll just have to sit back and wait," said buttercup as she set down the watering can, "maybe he'll bloom."
Si Xuan - duckie and buttercup fighting against bulbasaur to save the world of twitter HAHAHA
Andrea - Duck: Ouch buttercup, ouch! you're stepping on my feet! Buttercup: oh yeah baby! Duck: bulbasaur, don't just stand there! Bulbausaur: bulbasaaaur~ Duck: bulbadsaur.
Eunice - THINGS IN LIFE THAT CAN'T BE STOPPED!

Some of it really cracked me up, haha the competition is only on Twitter or Instagram so you've gotta create one if you don't have one. And it's till 12 midnight tonight, the winner (chosen by me) will receive a $20 voucher. I don't know, maybe you can vote for your favourite so far and hopefully influence my choice. Have fun, cos I am having fun!

Been caught up with the frenzied writings of all my essays for the past two weeks. I am a literary machine churning out words by the thousands and sentences by the hundreds. So far it's been great, except that the grades I'll get are probably mediocre most of the time. The most frequent comments I usually get from my profs are "this is beautifully written, but ..." or "great expressions of language, but ..." haha! That's it, I just write well, but my arguments are usually lukewarm and my academic critiques half-hearted.

Anyway, I have to say the most interesting ones I had to write this sem include a 2,500 on Andy Warhol in the style of a museum review, and a 3,000 on three political cartoons. I'm quite sure my Warhol essay does not really fit as a review, but it was great fun to write because I'm learning about Pop Art at the same time. And I deliberately chose more obscure and complicated cartoons for the political cartoons one, so that I actually have the scope to write that much. But Tim was a great help for that paper, with his popular references and current affairs knowledge. I have one last paper to write, which is arguably the most difficult because it's the 20th century literature, I love studying it but I hate writing stuff on it.

Anyway, I took the night off writing tonight. Partly organized a small dinner and dessert, with some of the little ones from the cell. It involves dropping by Upp Thomson Road and checking out the new Udders ice cream shop that everyone is talking about. Photos below.

Managed to find time on Tuesday to go down to the Andy Warhol exhibition that's showing at ArtScience Museum now. Actually I don't really have a choice, because I have to do an essay on visual culture, and the requirements were to visit an exhibition of some sort. The module is great, just that I am not an art historian! While I do understand impressionism and modernism and abstract expressionism and some of the other art movements to some extent, I don't really have as much appreciation for the formal representations of art haha.

But Warhol is brilliant. There's no excuse to be mystified or bewildered by Mr. Pop Art himself, because it is really the dumbed-down version of high art into a celebration of the everyday. Really enjoyed the exhibition, just that towards the end I kinda realized that everything is silkscreen and repetitive (which is probably what Warhol wanted heh). So I went to watch his films. Which is even more repetitively deadening. Hahaha.

It was raining when I was done, and the Museum is a standalone building with no shelter to the Marina Bay Sands Shoppes. They have staff standing at the entrances of both buildings, lending out umbrellas for everyone. Pleasantly surprised, kinda made my visit even better.

Some of the shots I managed to sneak, until the museum staff came to tell me no photography. Love the Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor ones. Just classic.

Good Friday and Easter came and went, I was involved in the worship on Friday evening, and again on Sunday sunrise service. Believe it or not it is only my second or third sunrise service ever in all the years at church, which is really incredulous because I stay so near church and logically I should make the effort to wake up and hop over! This year is "mandatory" in a sense because I am playing guitar haha, but I'm glad it gave me impetus to drag myself out of bed at 6am just to come down. 

Good Friday evening was, needless to say, phenomenal and astounding. I don't know how to deal with emotions onstage heh it always always always overshadows the things that I want to say or do. Think I will probably need to devote time into this practice, especially at appeals and reflections where the Holy Spirit just decides to bless me with the greatest visions ever, but I can't articulate it without being breaking down. 

Probably the most meaningful Easter for the years to come. 

This needs to be written, because I cannot believe the amount of guitar/ukulele troubles that I am getting in the past two weeks! Last week I discovered that the nut on my ukulele snapped just where the E-string is supposed to be grooved at, and I was so devastated! One of my young guitar students wanted to learn how to play Train's "Hey Soul Sister", and of course you need to play that song on the ukulele because it just doesn't quite cut it on the guitar. Actually the ukulele is not so bad, the nut breakage just means that my first fret is effectively a dead spot. I can still get decent chords out of it as long as I compensate by playing one fret higher on the E-string. But nah, too much trouble and the guitar student just have to stick with her guitar and not the ukulele.

Then just now, because I will be doing the Good Friday service tomorrow night, I decided to give my guitar fresh strings cos the previous set of strings didn't last as long as Matthew and I thought it would last. But trouble always comes right after the other, I discovered that one of the bridge pins was semi-broken and just about hanging there for its dear life. Obviously I cannot just steal bridge pins from the other guitars, although I was very very tempted to just steal the pins from Tyrus' guitar hahaha. He will never let me hear the end of it if I do! But anyway I decided I will take the risk and reused my semi-broken. Then while tightening and tuning the new strings up, the lowest E-string snapped! You have to understand that I have never ever snapped any guitar strings before. Not when I am stringing guitars. Not when I am playing too. Can't believe my misfortune! Have no choice but to reuse the old string.

And in the midst of all of these, Joanna and Tyrus put me in a fix with one of the most difficult questions I have to answer. So they started nonchalantly asking if I ever contemplated leaving Salvation Army for another church, and of course I cannot wriggle my way out of that one. Heh the last serious decision for this matter was in the beginning of 2010, where I was really very close to just dropping it all and move on elsewhere, but I stayed on. So when your cell members ask you these sort of questions and then they ask why, the most horrifying thing you can tell them is because THEY are the reason I want to leave hahaha. Then they started talking about how they will get to my age one day and then bemoan their old age, or when I'm 50 and they're around 40s and we all have children and we are normal friends. Hahaha cannot imagine, cos I still think they are so itty bitty! Okay this will come back to bite me. I don't think they will read this. 

This is sort of a continuation from the two posts previously, with regards to the Good Friday and Easter activities for this year! It's probably the biggest and most exciting one that I've had all these years. The corps officers, and with the help of several groups of people, they've transformed the auditorium into an exhibition of different displays related to Good Friday and Easter. Major Paul nailed a huge cross himself, and there's an actual empty "tomb", and various artworks, and the weapons used in the torture of Christ etc etc.

Probably the most intriguing display that really ignited my thoughts was the Holy Communion practice. I remember a while back I was questioning quite a few Salvation Army officers about that subject, largely because it was triggered by Sarah haha. I've been to other churches and on the occasional services they partake Communion, I merely just sit or kneel without taking the wafer/bread or juice/alcohol. But I have tasted the wafer out of curiosity before heh, growing up in SA without really knowing much about Communion until I'm much older haha.

Do take the time to walk through the displays this week!

Now that we are in April, I just wanna pay tribute to all the concerts and performances that I managed to catch in March! It's almost as if March was a culture month, because I was at one or two art galleries, then I caught the Wicked musical, and then was at Esplanade for a guitar concert by Tama high school from Japan, then the most recent being at St Margaret's band concert because Joanna was performing.

I think the best experience would easily be Wicked, because I was really captivated from beginning to end and everything was just very well executed, with a great story and all. Haha really impressed! Think I seldom spend money and time to catch all these things, so when I do I am mostly wowed. Haha hard not to be wowed when you are already sitting in a grand auditorium!

Next up is Andy Warhol!! Anyone has books or notes on Warhol, please lend me! Need to write like 3000 words on him.