A Seris of Exciting Events Part 1

My health is deteriorating at a sickening fast rate due to the exclusive amount of events and outings this past 2 weeks. With a stunning 3 months break, many a times i spend hours sleeping to get me through boredom. But after such a massive 2 weeks, I'm officially sick and condition seems to be getting worse every hour.
Semester break is undoubtedly the favourite part of the year simply because you can have loads of free time to yourself, doing things you cant with your busy schedule in school. That was the case past couple of weeks, been so happening man!!!

25th September
First up, last last thursday, on the 25th, i recalled going movies with my parents. It was about 6p.m. after their work, they rang me up and i was at home, probably half awake kind of situation that i agree to accompany them for a movie. Anyway, it was their treat, nothing much to consider, catching the show "Money Not Enough 2" which has already been in theatres long ago. We were fortunate enough that it was still screnning on cineams.
The storyline and spotlight once again falls on the lives of everyman in Singapore while poking fun at our uniquely Singaporean meantality and our government policies. At the same time, the movie hits home on common predicaments faced by families while addressing our eroding virtues. It was created with effects from computer graphics as it presents snippets of local life in outrageously hilarious scenearios before reality seeps back in. It described Singaporeans as essentially capable of complainng but yet afraid to challenge the status quo and face the consequences.
Jack Neo, Henry Thia and Mark Lee cast as brothers, effectively representing the low, middle and high income groups in Singapore with their varying income levels. In turn, they reflect just how varied their mentalities and attitudes towards money can be.
Yet they all share a common trait: the belief that money is never enough.
"Money No Enough 2" focuses as much, if not more screen time on families, sending us a strong reminder to check our bearings on the moral compass. True colours surface in crises, and the film's strong underlying message is that money is not everything. One's true wealth is in having the company of his loved ones, a perfectly contrasting rebuttal to the government's ceaseless push for economic advancement.
The surprisingly poignant plot also brings out what could arguably be the best performances (though methodical) by Henry Thia and Mark Lee to date. Jack's turn as the rich, vain, calculative, risk-taking second brother, in contrast, felt disconnected and gratuitous, intentional or otherwise.
As the eldest brother, Henry brings out a realistic performance as an endearing, yet gullible and filial pushover. The on-screen chemistry between him and his reel wife was heartwarming and sincere. Mark's selfish, irresponsible, hot-tempered and loose-tongued youngest brother's repentance for his wife's forgiveness on his past mistakes was moving, even if a tad conveniently scripted.
Additionally, Lai Ming's brilliant turn as the mother to the three brothers was bittersweet and heart wrenching. Victim of the Alzheimer's disease, with her ever-worsening condition, her character's readiness to shower unconditional love despite her circumstances effortlessly tugged at heartstrings and served as a touching tribute to all mothers.
My only disappointment was perhaps a lack of stronger resolution and call for action. The sense of optimism was so briefly preached by the most improbable and maybe inappropriate of characters. The message of sufficiency and thanksgiving was almost mistaken as resignation to fate.
There are even unmistakable hints of gahmen-style preaching.
Still, Money No Enough 2 is undoubtedly a must-see for all in this season as it will bring the much needed prescription of laughter and perhaps some tears.

27th September
Anyway, so then that Saturday, I got involved in some Mentu Ceremony who celebrated it's 15th year running this programme. Special awards and appreciation were given to pastors and the teaching staff whom had contributed in this ministry, which many had benefited including me myself. A few seminars, talks and sharing throughtout the whole service enriches me in knowing more of it, especially the speech delivered by some pastor from Hong Kong really struck me where i realized several mistakes and lesson i could learn from it.
Yeah, 7 or so more lessons to go before i graduated from Mentu 1... what a journey!

28th September
Sunday, I had a wonderful day in church, both the lesson and service. A group of us then went to Swensen lunch at Holland V agreed by all of us to celebrate Ernest's birthday which happens to be on that day. 8 of us in total spend 110 on food. Though neither do we have the cake nor the birthday song, we had a great time there. It doesn't really matter to him either, cos both of us know we went through a round of it earlier that Friday during Mentu class already, so it's perfectly fine.
Travelled to Bukit Timah Plaza for a couple rounds of pool before heading to city area to catch the first ever F1 night race here in Singapore. Thanks to yuhan's tickets, i've got a chance to watch it live. On a night when history was made, over a hundred thousand over spectators and F1 fans, close to half of them tourists worldwide turned up in the heart of the city to witness the world's first F1 night race. Hearing the howl of the F1 engines was something not soon forgotten.
And after an incident-packed two hours which saw several crashes and a horribly botched pit-stop involving pre-race favourite Felipe Massa of Ferrari, they were left hungry for more. The race, won by Alonso who had written off his own chances barely 24 hours earlier after developing an engine problem in qualifying - served up plenty of thrills for spectators.
There were three crashes, several lead changes and wheel to wheel action.
But while locals and foreigners alike said the race was quite the treat, they reserved the bulk of their praise for Singapore. And i most grateful to have this privilege of witnessing an intimidating, worthwhile and unforgettable historical moment.

ANYWAY, I would now use this opportunity to wish ernest a very happy birthday
hahah!!! 19teenn years old already :D
best of luck for whatever you do ok :D
thanks for being such a great and wonderful friend,
and I content and glad to have such a buddy.
though at times, life might seem bored or unfair to you,
i just hope you’ll live everyday to its fullest.
loves,

to be continued...

爱何等奇妙

耶稣祢被钉在十字架
把自己献为祭
祢的宝血为我流
洗净我全部的罪
眼泪是为我哭
一点一滴都充满爱
罪的重坦 在祢身上
全钉在十字架

主祢的爱 主祢的恩 日夜跟随我
祢是我主 祢也是我亲密的朋友
主祢的心 有我的名 祢是我避难所
爱何等深 爱何等阔 爱何等奇妙

耶稣祢竟然放弃生命
因祢真心爱我
在我寂寞的时刻
祢双手拥抱着我
又轻轻对我说
祢永远不离弃我
破碎生命 今已复活
幸福属于我


a song to cover up for the long lost.
sorry for not updating my blog for so long, been busy ya...
i will update soon, this coming weekend. =)

Random post(matt's masterpiece)

Hmm... have you ever had a moment where someone new comes into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become?
You never know who these people may be... a classmate, your neighbor, a friend, a lover, or even a complete stranger. But when you lock eyes with them, you know at that very moment they will affect your life in some profound way..

Sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair at first, but in reflection you find that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower, or heart. Lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul.
Without these small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved straight flat road to nowhere. It would be safe and comfortable, but dull and utterly pointless.
The people you meet who affect your life, and the success and downfalls you experience, help to create who you are and who you become. Even the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are sometimes the most important ones.

If someone loves you, give love back to them in whatever way you can, not only because they love you, but because in a way, they are teaching you to love and how to open your heart and eyes to things.
If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart... forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from those moments everything that you possibly can for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people that you have never talked to before, and listen to what they have to say.
Let yourself fall in love, break free, and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you.
You can make anything you wish of your life! Create your own life and go out and live it with absolutely no regrets. And if you love someone, tell them, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store.

Squash Camp 2007

Camp practically juiced out every ounce of energy I had in me. So exhausting it was that when I laid down to rest for a bit, I totally knocked out without even knowing I did! It was a massive 5 days, 2 camps in between them.
I doubt any of the days I had more than 5 hours of sleep. Every night we havoc, imagine not having slept well for the entire night and needing to be extremely high and enthusiastic the second day was a pretty hard thing to do. At times, I could feel the tiredness in me, it seems that my brain has malfunction. Nevertheless, we still involved ourselves with the games and activities planned out by the committee, knowing that they put in a lot of effort on it.

So then Day 1 of the camp started off with the usual briefing and ice-breakers. To kick start, we had games such as wacko, name game and pass-pocky. Most of them are interactive and interacting games, a chance for us to get to know everyone in the camp, a name to stat with at least.
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing some outdoor games, basically working out ideas for Squash Camp in our respective groups. Under the hot scorching sun, we had the caterpillar game, the heat was unbearable, a lot of us suffered blisters and cuts, some of us like me got my bump burned... switched to form the longest line game under some shade areas, to allow ourselves to cool for awhile. Though my group lost in both games, I'm sure we had a pretty fun time out there together.
Wasn’t there for the BBQ at night, having in mind I have a rehearsal to attend in the night, I left for church after my shower.



Half of them were already asleep the time I reported back, some weren't, so cards with those still awake as we proceed on to the second day.

Though there were some games such as newspaper game and role plays, the highlight of the day was the Amazing race round the campus and the Night Walk which most schools will certainly have them in their camps or what so ever. I can guarantee it was one heck of a dirty day.



From having to be bombed with water bombs filled with cold water, to finding hidden mash mallows candy in a tray filled with flour using just your mouth... eating watermelon and special added ingredients to the apple without using our hands.
Some even had to experience being blind folded doing things that make us looked really silly.
While doing all these challengers, we re-defined the camp the meaning of being dirty! We looked horrible and smelled like dung at the end of it all! I was fortunate enough don't have to participate in the water bomb games, didn't want attend choir or even men tu class being drenched.



At night, we had movie screening, supposed to be a horror show but it turns to be gaw. Night walk was interesting, group by group sent out to carry on with the walk around the campus, along the way, the history of the school was unfold as a lot of horrid stuff were revealed.
Anyway, so everything was finally done by about 1a.m or so. After that, we went to Mac for supper before heading back to our bunks for more card games. It was until like 3 plus, that I went to sleep, fell like a dead log on my bed, completely oblivious to anything and everything around. All the way till 9a.m. the same morning, before my dad came to pick me up.

Alright, gonna catch some sleep, church having event tonight, "bu dao hui". And tomorrow there’s dance camp. zzz!!!

my group(uno)

2008 Aviva Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Singapore



As part of its continuing commitment to Singapore's sporting scene, insurer Aviva has agreed to be the title sponsor of Singapore’s Ironman 70.3 competition to be held on September 2nd 2007.
This world-class competition represents two "firsts" for Singapore – 1) it is the first time Singapore has ever hosted an Ironman 70.3 event and 2) it is the first Ironman 70.3 to ever take place in Asia.

Participants will cover a course that will be centered on the Marina Bay area. They will each swim 1.9km, cycle 90.1km and run 21.1km, adding up to 70.3 miles, hence the name Ironman 70.3.
It had some major course changes, most notably shifting the entire race to the island's East Coast Park. The new venue is a long skinny park bordered four ways: between the airport and downtown, and with the sea on one side and an expressway on the other. A natural choice for a fast flat race, the East Coast is also used for local Olympic and sprint distance races.
With a pro field strongly biased towards the Southern hemisphere both the men's and women's race were charged with speculation as to who of the star-studded field would prevail. At the end of the day it was down to the strength and speed on the run.

The course design maximized opportunities for spectators hosting a double loop swim with brief shore exit, a three loop bike and three loop run. The swim course ran mostly parallel to shore giving the beach crowd a good view of the action. The much touted new bike route, which, for the first time in Singapore triathlon history, permitted cyclists on the expressway took competitors the length of the island and back three times to squeeze in the required 90km distance. Narrow in parts, there were a couple of pile-ups as less experienced racers wobbled through aid stations, and one of the race directors was seen acting as a human bollard at the mounting area to warn riders of a particularly challenging section.

After a month of heavy rain and a mini-tornado narrowly missing the east end of the race course during set up, the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore had the weather gods on its side. It was a good sign for us, less restrictions and difficulty in the whole setting up process.
So last sunday morning or rather the night before, I reported early at East Coast Park, started setting up water points along the cycling tracks and sealing up segments of the road, placing barricades and cones along the lanes.
Apparently, the job load wasn't as easy as it seems, having shortage of manpower, everyone worked doubly hard, so as not to fall behind time and everything will run smoothly on schedule.

Everyone got deployed to their respective stations after all the efforts spend setting up booths and water points in that whole morning. The race commences at 9a.m. as we waited for their arrival.
It wasn’t long where we saw the leading pack flashed past us in their bikes, getting the drinks they needed for the rest of the race from us. They didn't exactly stop for their drinks but instead cycled past with arms outstretched to collect them. A perpendicular line was formed up, allowing riders to collect their drinks from any of us if they fail for the first time. Some were a success, some were not.
In that period of time, I've experienced something rather scary, an encounter that got me into a trauma. Because there were a lot of bottles lying around the race track that will cause danger to those riders, specifically those in the middle of the park. Assuming that the paths were cleared of any traffic, I rushed to pick them up and stood traumatized in the middle of the road till some bugger from an oncoming bike honked me out of the way. I felt so relieved after escaping one of the worse scares in my entire life, felt so fortunate that I suffered only a minor bruise.
After a long and tiring morning, the race was finally over as winners of the race were announced. Time for us to clean the place up before lunch served. That was basically the day's event.

With Ironman 70.3 Singapore being the latest addition to the Singapore Sports Council's diverse, vibrant calendar of local and international sporting events, I'm so glad that I could be part of their crew managing this event.

photos will be uploaded soon once I received them from the management.

Sing Sheng Philharmonic Choir 30th Anniversary Concert

August the 31st, was a big day for me as well as everyone in choir. We were invited as a special guest to perform in Sing Sheng Philharmonic Choir annual concert which was held at DBS Auditorium. It was rather shocking cause I was skeptical or rather doubt the capability of our singing caliber at that sort of standard. With most of the seniors already graduated from Ngee Ann, the current year 3's were the more experienced one to fit in their position, guiding the rest to be as good as what us previously was.

It was one heck of an intimidating event, having such a complete different choir with so much of new faces, the pressure was really on us, whether anot we could deliver that expectation. The burden wasn't that bad though, besides we’re just a guest, and was not required to hold the performance for the entire night.

Anyway, was there early, left half way through second service to meet up with the rest of the choir peeps at Tanjong Pagar station. Basically, we were there early for some warm up session and to do a final run through of our songs. 3 familiar songs named, Adiemus, Sigulempong and Diao Hua De Ma An respectively.
We were given the stage to have our standing arrangement done and a technical run through. It didn't sound too good for the first time, having no conductor and the piano accompaniment, I think we did our best, but definitely we need to perform better on the actual performance.
After pretty much exercise, some of us started to get a little restless, some were starving. Everyone hopes that dinner will be served soon and that was it after the last briefing by the president. Everyone rushed to the buffet area for their food, you could tell from the expression, how delighted we were.

Then was the real thing, after so much rehearsals and practices, finally the moment we had all been looking forward to, had arrived. Lao Shi conducted us very well, we just love the way she conducts the choir. Very engaging and easy to catch, though I felt nervous, somewhat I felt happy and excited. Eyes were on us, Ngee Ann Polytechnic Choir. Personally felt that we sang well, judging from the warm applause, it definitely proved that we did a great job. I know that there was only one expression in the audience- Satisfaction/Satisfactory.

In between after our performance, we had some free time and that includes intermission as well. Had some bonding with the freshie but most importantly photo taking session. Had our photo taken with the Djembe player, Mr Jatin and among us fellow choir peeps too. Unexpected really, we saw Felicia Chin !!! She came for the concert and everyone was busy taking photos with her =). Heard she came to give her mum some support.
Time flies, we waited for the finale and once again were on stage for the song "Hua Zhong".

I'm glad that the concert was over and I was relieved that we did well and received pleasing remarks from friends who came to give their support.

Mr Jatin and us


though it looks kind of blur, but you could tell it's felica chin in the middle of the photo!!! =)


lele and me...(bff)

YOU ARE THE REASON!

Invite others towards good with wisdom.
Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets.
Face your past without regret.
Handle your present with confidence.
Prepare for the future without fear.
Keep the faith and eradicate the fear.
The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling
And even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it!!!

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person..
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support,
To aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
This person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons,
Things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson,
Love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being a part of my life,
Whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.
I wonder what mine will be?

My busy 2 days

Yesterday, went to school for the first time in like a month or so. The last time I was in school was the last day of my project when I went to submit my report for the entire project work. Ever since that day, I wasn't called up to school for any classes or even curriculums which I initially thought they will but was told that most trainings were removed due to the fact of common test and stuff.
Anyway, met up with Josie and yuting in dance studio this morning at 9a.m. and spend the rest of the day choreographing the dance moves as well as editing the song for the dance. The dance was pretty cool, kind of in the hip-hop genre but who cares whether it overlaps another club who's also focusing their dance strongly on hip-hop. The management wants our club to do less of those moves, more towards contemporary or jazz side, actually I'm quite worried that it won't pull through when Andrew the head of departments sees it. Though we enjoyed the whole dance very much, final decision is with them. But I really hope it could be approved and we can use it to perform the next 2 performances, radio heatwave and hop night for red camp.
That was all for yesterday.

Went out with a different bunch of people today, most of them are friends from choir. Met up with Kenny first before heading to cinnelesiure to meet the other girls, Sherry and Cai Le who made an effort to turn up for this outing where they came from school and from their final year project. Kbox session with them till six, had a lot of fun singing. Sang till I nearly lost my voice, 4 bowls of tidbits to go with it, makes things worse.
Anyway, suppose to have dinner with the rest of the choir members at plaza singapura, but eventually only Jeremy and teng qing turned up. That didn't demoralize us because the turn up rate was poor, but instead boosted up with excitement and was quite looking forward to the day's plans. Had our dinner at Ajisen, spend almost 2 hours eating our dinner, or I should say only half an hour spend on eating, the rest of the time we were happily chatting among ourselves. It was just a simple chat, everyone involved themselves as we had a great time there.
Proceeded to the arcade for some Daytona, car racing game with the guys and spot the difference game. Didn't manage to beat the high score, but claps to everyone, we did our best. Haha, saw our vice-president WEENEE...

Photo taking... Thanks Jeremy and Cai Le for taking the ride home with me. And specially to everyone, thanks for turning up, enjoyed myself pretty much today. Hope to have more of these in the future.

the group of us


cai le, teng qing, jeremy and me(from left to right)