so many birthdays n weddings coming up!

Wow, there's like 3 pple (including myself) who are celebrating their birthdays in my firm this month! Puikwan, Hongyee and myself, the 3 new lawyers somehow all have birthdays in october! And i think we get along pretty well as friends as well as colleagues, so thank God for sending these guys into my life! i mean, before they came, going to office was pretty lonely n boring, but after these 2 malaysians came, at least i had some pple of my age to talk to. seriously God does answer prayers, i've prayed for good colleagues becos i needed some lunch buddies n friends in the office, and He answered my prayers rather quickly! Hallelujah!

Oh n i got an SMS from lijuan, one of my old friends, who's getting married in november! actually, we used to like each other a few years back, when i had just broken up with my ex-gf, but because she's not saved, i didn't do anything n focused on God, n we still remained good friends till this day. i still remember we met during the new year's eve countdown at orchard, i think it was jason or weixiang who asked his friend to join us for the countdown party, n i got to know lijuan from that friend (i can't even remember that friend's name now! haha!) and i didn't realise Lijuan was from AJC as well, the same JC i was from, though she was one year my senior. haha.. i'm really happy for her, she's honestly one of the nicest girls i've ever met in my life. Congrats to her n her husband!

(oh yeah for those who're wondering what the heck am i doing blogging at 10 am at work, well my boss didn't come to office today n she's working from home, so yayy!! hahaha)

Last night had a nice dinner with Millie n Ian, somehow even though we've been seeing each other almost everyday for more than 2 weeks, i'm amazed at how we'll still meet up during our free time. I had to help Millie with her essay about triads, n honestly i was quite tired n had a headache, but hey, they always say, a friend in need is a friend in deed and indeed, i would want to be that friend. (haha, cheesy yes i know..!) had dinner at the pizza place n oh man, we ordered a large pizze n a pasta to share between 3 of us, Millie ate the whole pasta n took a slice of our pizza! think she must have been really hungry. haha.. but anyway after writing the essay we went to cineleisure to take a look at what movies were showing but it was too late anyway so we went home, n that was when i heard the "white hair and tits" joke n laughed until my face muscles ached! who wants to know more, why not ask the man himself, Ian Lim. Hahaha! Oh yeah, sorry i had to be the light bulb there guys. Haha..

oh n i bumped into Mikki at the mrt as well, n on the way home i called her to chat to catch up with her. so many things have happened since we last chatted, somehow i feel kinda sad that we're no longer as close as before, our lives have taken us in different directions n different circle of friends, but i'll always look upon her as my little sister, even if the cute little Mikki that i used to know has grown up and has many guys chasing her now. haha! but she's just not interested in anyone of them n wants to focus on her cell group ministry, so too bad guys, just back off or stay as normal friends, she doesn't want to be forced into anything until she's 21 (next May).

and as i was discussing with joan on how to celebrate my birthday n she was telling me its very diffficult to buy something for me, i just remembered last year the super romantic n sweet things she did for me at my birthday, i almost cried!

in 2007, i celebrated my birthday at my aunt's house in yishun, joan secretly worked together with 2-3 of my members, using light sticks formed the words "Happy Bday" at the grass patch n asked my cell member to bring me to the window, n i was shocked! then the next thing i knew she was in front of me with a chocolate cake n smiling from ear to ear n the cell group sang happy birthday! oh man, that was the MOST memorable birthday i ever had, joan was so sweet to organise everything to surprise me, n i really enjoyed myself. but ok, let's not go back to the past, like i was telling Ian, i wanna ask God to show a replay of my life when i get to heaven, so i can relive all those good memories! hahaha..

Sat, ktv with family, relatives n ex-cg members, Sun, dinner at clark quay with SF members, Monday, spending a whole day with Joan to celebrate my birthday. Somehow, like what Mikki said, I always like to celebrate my birthday with lots of pple. Sweekeng called n asked what am I doing for my birthday on monday afternoon n i was stunned n didn't even realised i haven't seen him in months n yet he still remembers my birthday! good friends, these chaps. ha, if they think my brithday is celebrated in a grand way, wait till they check out my wedding plans. haha! Strikeforce, church choir performance, band showcase, etc.. ok can't reveal too much now. hehz.

God, its been a great year so far, thanks for everything, for all the blessings, for the great family n friends in my life, for the new flat, for the good colleagues, for the strikeforce, for being my God even when i'm rebellious n stubborn n sinful at times, at the end of the everyday i want to be walking in Your will, i want to make You happy, i want to enjoy this Christian life with You.

F1 weekend - what an exhausting weekend!

Played a total of 7 gigs from last Wed till Sunday night, and man, does my body ache all over! My shoulders are aching from carryin n slinging all the toms, my arms are aching from carrying UDMs, my right elbow is painful i think maybe an old injury giving me problem since i use a lot of my right hand to hit the quarter notes, my knees are all blue-black all over, my feet n hands have blisters n i got a bit of sun burn. oh n my calves are aching as well, probably from all the jumping n dancing around with the tom. in fact i think my whole body is aching n was stretched n strained to near its limit, but not really at my limit yet, haha!

But it was simply FANTASTIC!!!

i haven't played tom for quite a long time, i think for past few gigs i've played snare or toys, but since there's abundance of real drummers this time round, i was assigned to the tom. oh n i played the sudo for one of the performances and oh man! i'm glad neo n rohan r the usual guys playing the sudo, because although its not heavy, it keeps banging against your legs and the sudo MALLETS are heavy! i didn't feel anything until near the end of flightphesy, at the tycotus, i was like, oh man, my arms are getting tired! n to think those guys play tat for several performances! hats off to them.

david excels at the rapanik. really, i don't think anyone in the strikeforce can play tat instrument as "Garang" n as musically as him! awesome solos from him, glad he was there to really add the punch to the solos!

yup, n this thurs there's another gig! when jen sms me at 7 am this morning, i was like, oh man, who sends sms this early. i don't know if i have the strength to play for tat gig, but since its 9 pm at night, i will be able to make it, so jus volunteer n see if my muscles recover by then! hahaha..

but..

although we had a lot of fun, n it was like party party jokes n laughter all the way thru out the performances, there were a few disagreements n unpleasant moments. people were flaring up n getting angry with each other, scolding n arguing n stuff. n the contact pple got a round table from Boon as well, as i heard from joan. i guess its inevitable to have conflicts when we're together so often, we get to see all sorts of "pattern" n personality clashes n idea differences between all the SF members. n of cos, we're all not perfect, differences will definitely exist. my poor dear was so stressed n upset, n i didn't even notice it until she told me she needed my support n encouragement.. i'm quite dense at such things sometimes. i mean, not as if i have a lot of experience in BGR to be able to understand girls so well! hahaha..

there's a lot of things that i noticed n probably even more things that i didn't notice but others did n told me, which are probably too sensitive for blogging, but i guess everything will work out alright. isn't serving God the ultimate goal in minsitry, n not satisfying a desire to express your disatisfaction or pointing fingers at others for their faults? as long as the performances go smoothly n everyone enjoys themselves at the gigs n God gets the glory for using us to shine for Him in the marketplace, i'm happy n satisfied that i've done a service for him. u may not be the lead player or the UDM player, but that doesn't mean u're not contributing. u may be taking video or pushing the UDM, or like Kell who waited patiently for us n looked after our belongings while we were performing. does it mean he's playing less of an important role? i don't think so. yeah sure, it must be really boring n no doubt i know i'd feel a little exasperated if i were the one looking after bags n pouring water to refill UDMs, but thats what we all did in the beginning. that's why i wanted to be a helper on friday n not a player, so that others may shine while i stay behind, to know that i don't live to show off my skills n perform for crowds like any band or school ECA, but i serve to glorify God in a ministry.

at the end of the day, my kudos don't just go to all the players. of cos they all did a fantastic job, they spent all their energy n played their hearts out, which is good! they did well n they received their praise from the roar of approval n thunderous clapping from the crowd. they got their reward, n they have every right to enjoy n savour the moments.

but my thanks also go to the very important pple who helped make the performances possible, who didn't even perform but helped out in any way they could. People like Kell, and Reid's girlfriend. I mean at least Kell's in strikeforce, but Reid's girlfriend isn't even part of the team n she helped looked after bags n stuff. People like Christine who took video n never complained about not being able to play. People like Desmond, who drove the equipment around the whole weekend, sacrificing his time n money (for petrol n ERP) to bring us the drums we need. They don't get their thanks from many people, they don't bask in the limelight of a great performance. But without them there would be no performance. So my thanks n kudos to all who helped out at the F1 performances! God surely has treausres stored up for your stewardship n servanthood!

on another note, oct 5 my birthday is coming this sunday. i wanted to celebrate with SF, but currently running low on funds from all the cabbing around, n i almost want to slap myself for buying that super-ex coat from zara, which i've yet to wear. guess i learnt a lesson not to shop on impulse! hahaha.. but really, i want to spend next monday with joan, away from everyone n everything else, no handphones ringing or smses, just the two of us, spending time together. its been a long time since we really had quality time, my job just keeps me so busy, plus drumfest n F1 n cell group outings n outreaches, i think i want to spend time with my girlfriend n just.. u know.. walk down the beach or have a relaxing drink or something. hope my boss approves my leave for next monday! =p

if i could i would take 2 days off, but as usual there's a dateline for a project next week, so yeah. it kind sucks living on a tight schedule, but at least wed is a public holiday!! can SLEEP in n relax, maybe go for a spa or something. haha.

i really need to get more sleep!

darn, almost fell asleep in the meeting earlier on! damn hard to concentrate when u've just had lunch n been on your toes the whole morning, n my mind is on a 101 things to do n i feel like i can't handle it anymore.. haiz..

i think i'm close to my breaking point liao. sometimes i see my work n i just don't even want to touch it. i see the mass of emails n the phone rings off the hook n i let it ring n refuse to answer. this isn't the way i envisioned this job to be. sigh..

last night worked until 9.30 pm before going for practice, until about 12 midnight, n reached home around 12.45 am. slept prob around 1.30, n woke up at 7 am today to reach office early to prepare for meeting. my eyes are quite dry from the freezing air con in my room, but worse is that my eyes keep wanting to shut n my body is slow to respond to work, my brain is not thinking clearly n i'm making more mistakes than usual..

i'll be glad when 1 oct comes n i can finally get a day of rest. i haven't even apply for leave on oct 6 to take time off to celebrate my birthday with joan, who's also stressed about her school and finances, she has to work to pay off her own sch expenses, books, etc, n she can't cope with the work load as it is.

things aren't looking good Lord, how can i survive the week.. i really need your grace n strength, n to get thru the F1 weekend, i need more supernatural energy from You n motivation to perform my best for Yout oo.. its not about the glamour of F1 racing, its just another super hectic n tiring weekend for me. but i love it nonetheless, which is more than i can say for my job..

We got the 5 room flat at AMK!

So many things happened over the weekend that I'm literally still in stunned mode.

Well, on friday prayer meeting was really good, i was quite surprised to find that after a long abscene from the cell group, i could still flow with them n fellowship with them quite easily n naturally. went for supper with william after cg, pratahouse was too crowded so we just had some bak chor mee at thomson road.

sat i was supposed to go back to office, but i was so exhausted i slept until noon, n then went for lunch with joan n family, before going to AMK central park to choose the unit. after a long deliberation on housing loan, which floor n which unit is better, etc, we decided on unit #27-227, 5 room flat at 117 square meters. it cost a total of $657,000 (excluding stamp fees n legal costs) and my parents had to fork out 5% payment on the day itself, and 15% payment in 9 weeks time. that totals to about $117,000!! no wonder a lot of units were left even though my queue number was quite high. i mean how many singaporeans can cough up 100k in 2 months? what, borrow from a bank or loan shark? its ridiculous, honestly..

but anyway i'm still happy that we got that apartment. not super duper overjoyed kind of happy, but just satisfied that i've made a decision to buy a property for my future. joan was super stressed n even up to last night, she was still so stressed up n worried about how we are going to finance the loan. to be completely honest, i was a litte apprehensive too. 600k is a lot of money! but then again, i shouldn't be afraid of working a little harder, saving alittle more, sacrificing a bit more for my future house. to be completed by dec 2011, so i suppose i can get married around oct or nov 2011, n that gives me about 3 years more.. thats actually too far away. haha!!

i actually want to get married in late 2010. i know 20 Oct 2010 seems like such a nice number right? 20-10-2010! but then again, it'll prob cost even higher due to the "auspicious" numbers! maybe will got for early 2011 lah. am i being very singaporean n overly pragmatic in basing my marriage on the price of the wedding n the flat?? hahaha..

don't worry i will still plan my great wedding proposal to joan. it will definitely be good, but not any thing soon while she's studying! it'll be too weird taking a study break to get married!

oh yeah n after getting the flat, we rushed for service, then went for KTV with the strikeforce pple. didn't really sing much, my voice wasn't too good that day, but still had a lot of fun with the SF pple! i think about 14-15 pple turned up in total. oh we celebrated rallen's birthday as well too. wah, heidi can sing quite well! she's really cute n pretty, she will definitely be a babe when she grows up! hahaha... then again on sunday i was supposed to go work, i overslept until about noon again!!

dunno why i'm so exhausted these days. but went to work for a couple of hours before going river walk for the practice cum photoshoot for the straits times. actually wasn't much of a practice last night, for me at least. more of a fellowship session n logistics session, moving back the udms to the warehouse n eating junkfood for dinner. but at the end of the night we had astons, n though the service was pretty bad, the food was excellent.

before we know it, monday strikes again. hahaha.. what a boring day. i mean i'm busy but i'm also bored, n i'm hell of a sleepy as well. i think i need to take bus back n sleep on the 76 home. tml got 2 meetings back to back n i still haven't prepared the stuff for the meetings yet. sighz...

corporate work is really quite boring. i'm falling asleep in front of my computer everyday after lunch. damn sian!

In a flash, its Friday already!

one more day to the selection of our flat at The Central at amk! i hope we get a nice unit above 10th floor facing away from the sun n away from the school! but honestly our chances of getting a desirable flat are quite low, given our queue number of 537.. crap, gotta get back to work, boss is hounding me again.. update again later

Drumfest 2008 and a big headache to rush my forms for the HDB loan..

(Apologies to Boon for putting incorrect statements on the blog. I'm fully aware who bears the cost of Drumfest, and I assume SF pple should know as well.)

Its 4.15 pm in the afternoon and I feel like I've already worked for hours when in actual fact I've only worked for a little over 2.5 hours or so? I just feel so lethargic and exhuasted, my muscles are a little aching, and the air condition is rather warm today (I suppose i should be happy that its not freezing cold anymore).

But anyway I had a great weekend at the drumfest 2008, starting with the gig on friday.

had dinner with millie n yanqin then went for a gig with only 6 pple at Hotel Intercontinental at around 9 plus at night. wasn't too bad, but definitely wasn't good either. mistakes made by almost everyone. haiz. but that was just the beginning of the super hectic weekend.

after the gig, went home to get the car to drive to airport to fetch the rockstar guys, Rafeal, Nate morton, Cory, and Storm Large. (i got a hug from storm, and oh man, she is tall and has that rocker chick attitude man!) they were really friendly and nice, but had a hell of a lot of equipment to transport, boon's RUSH and my WISH (which is a 6 seater with a boot) was barely enough for the band, plus the drivers and chaperone (Ian).

no wait, before fetching them i think Ian and i went to fetch Johny Rabb n chris paterson (sp?) the lesser known drummers but i think johnny was really nice n accommodating. i did talk to them a bit about the food in singapore n got their craving for local delights. hahaha! chilli crab anyone? apparently that was too spicy for them, hehz. that was pretty uneventful, but thank goodness i didn't pick up virgil donati, everyone says he's a little weird or eccentric, and come on , to practice drums for 5 hours in a row without any rest eventhough you're jetlag? its either ultra disciplined or downright nuts. hahaha...

anyway after fetching those 2 guys to the hotel, we went to studio to help shift things, that took about 1.5 hours or so, until around 3.45 am or so, then went over to Ian's house to take a bath n a short half hour nap, then at 5.15 am we checked the flight schedule and to our horror, Rock Star pple had landed about an hour earlier than expected! needless to say, we rushed to the airport and met them at about 5. 40 am with Boon.

oh yeah Ian's house is quite big, n the sofa is really soft.. hahaha! i think i knocked myself out on the couch while he was typing stuff on his laptop. poor guy. but then agian, half an hour of sleep didn't make much of a difference.

after sending them to the hotel, we went to fort canning to help out move stuff again, then went to buy breakfast for the pple, and i got to fetch the American idol pple with Sy Smith and Teddy Campbell, along with julia, so that was kinda cool! they weren't as friendly as the Rockstar pple, but then again, i was to zonked out n zombified to talk much anyway. haha..

after that the rest of the day was spent fetching artistes up and down from the concert venue to the hotel, n buying food n other stuff for them inbetween journeys. oh man, by the time the AI pple ended their set and I drove them back, i was on the brink of collasping.

oh yeah, n i did fall asleep at one red light while fetching the AI band back from their sound check in the afternoon! haha! i think they didn't really mind though. they were just laughing about it. =p

thankfully on sunday i managed to catch about 7 hours of sleep cos rockstar pple cancelled their sound check which was supposed to be at 10 in the morning, so i only needed to pick them up with Liting at about 12.30 pm. it was hilarious the way Rafeal was so obviously hitting on liting! "oh looks like there's no more space in the car.. liting will have to sit on someone's lap." and even nate got into the act!

nate: "are you coming to tonight's party?"
LT: "oh i don't think so i've got to get up early for work tml.. haha"
nate: (after a look that said you-gotta-be-kidding) "let me try this again. are you coming to tonight's party?" (ends with a super funny smile)

oh n i can't believe storm large is 39! man! in the photos she looks early 20s, in real life she doesn't have any wrinkles, wears tight leather pants and barely looks 30! amazing! n i thought americans age more quickly than asians. =p oh yeah n her vocal class was quite funny as well, she was more interested in talking about singapore than any vocal points. her first time giving a vocal class i think, n whatever she shared was pretty basic knowledge for any wanabe singer. oh except for the gaggling the throat with smashed panadols or baking soda. i think that's not a good way to deal with a bad throat before you sing, n it will get more damaged after that, but i guess that's a last resort.

sunday passed by pretty much in a daze, and oh yes, i forgot to mention the crazy speed at which we played crazy army! oh man, Ian forgot n gave the flightphesy BPM instead, everyone was shocked but we still played on, sounded alittle messy, but i guess its ok. flightphesy was good! i felt the vibes, the grooving was great, n FHW, all i can say is i never knew it would be tiring playing the snare part for FHW! i think i used a speed which was too high as well, Ian and everyone else was clearly super exhuasted at the end of it! hahaha... but i think the crowd liked us, we certainly opened the drumfest with a big loud bang!

sunday was more relaxed than saturday, but tempers flared and sales were not as well. actually there's a lot of negative things i can say about the drumfest, but i prefer not to mention the unpleasantness as this wil probably be the last time boon organises the drumfest. i don't blame him, after making huge losses for 2 years running, even if i had the cash to keep it going, i would throw in the towel and call it a day. n worse, to have partners n workers who aren't helping you effectively n do things arbitrarily (ahem, a certain black Mos burger) n sadly SF members who aren't helping out whole-heartedly (they know who they are) or didn't even turn up to help at all.

but on the whole i would say i enjoyed myself. i think Irenus was truly very amused at my girlfriend's comments to me n the incredulous look on my face when she makes unbelievable remarks. haoshan was also being very accommodating n professional in her job, n lynette (i never knew who she was until drumfest itself!) did quite a good PR job, the AI pple were on the news n Sy Smith herself commented that lynette was very good n had many connections with the media.

but seriously, at the end of sonofas' show, there were so few pple left, i think only about 30 or 40 pple in the audience bothered to stay so late, n the SF pple needed to go home to rest for work today. its just unthinkable to stay back to load things n transport heavy stuff around, n still have energy left for the next day at work. i mean school, o k lah, can always sleep in class or even pontang sch, but working adults can't just randomly take off from work.

which brings me to my last point, me taking half day urgent leave off to settle the HDB loan forms. joan was super annoyed at the number of forms n the documents which we needed to get before we could submit the forms. n to be completely honest, i just take the half day so i could catch 1-2 hours more of sleep, rather than to settle the forms, but it turns out the time was really tight for application for the HDB loans n other forms, so we had no choice but to rush to TPY Hub to get a queue number to submit the form. thank God my boss seemed to understand that i needed to settle the things, n i won't take urgent leave for no good reason.

like i said earlier to joan, i've got totally no strength or mood to work today, i just dragged my feet to office cos i know my boss will freak out if i take a whole day off, n i'll just get hell of a scolding tml. so i'm just here today to chill, reply a few emails, n answer phone calls. Sigh. Lawyering may bring in the bucks, but with added stress, responsibility n work load. i think i will only practice for a maximum of maybe 20 years before i get really fed up with this kind of job n lifestyle.

Too many things happened over the weekend! MC on Monday liao..

I can't even remember what I did last friday.. oh yeah, i went with my parents n neighbours n joan n weiliang n mindice to celebrate my mum's birthday at minori! honestly i think the standard of that place is dropping. either that, or i'm getting sick of going to the same japanese restaurant all the time. haha. oh man, the group of adults were so noisy, i felt like i was in a hawker center. but i think my mum likes the gift i got for her, so its worth it.

Watched Wall E with Joan at plaza sing at 11 pm after the dinner, n honestly i was quite tired n wanted to doze off at certain parts of the show, but somehow the movie was really so good that i ended up wide awake at the end of it! super cute wall E and Eva, robots who have more personality than certain humans i know! haha.. i dun mind getting the DVD when it comes out.

did i play a gig on sat? all i remember is waking up really late for SF prac at east coast.. ah now i remember. the practice under the hot sun from 10.30 am till about 1.20 pm, then went for lunch with a few of them, before heading home. was supposed to go back to work on sat, but oh well, screw it lah, work can always wait.. weekends are for relaxing! i think after taking a short nap at home, i went out with joan, we had thai express n spent time just walking around, n then had dessert, oreo cheesecake. oh yeah, n bumped into boon n family at marina square as well! small world! i think i went to joan's house to play with the kittens after that, until about 1 am, n woke up on sunday morning feeling sick. should i blame the cats?? hahaha...!

sunday didn't do much, just slept until 1 pm, then went to play DOW for a while, before rushing for MTT at riverwalk, then pratice at joochiat for the friday gig.

Monday i was totally wasted. sorethroat, headache, flu, the works. after seeing doctor in the morning, i went home to watch Hamburger Hill with my bro (who is still at home btw), then joan came over n we watched Meet the Spartans! totally stupid show, but quite entertaining lah. supposed to watch another movie, but joan wanted me to go with her for practice, so we went to meet up with Millie n buy Ian a ORD present (a wind vane no less!) then went to studio n practice until about 10.15 pm.

not quite recovered from my sickness yet, but no choice lah, had to come to work cos too much work to do liao. sigh, i can't imagine taking more than one day off from work in a week.

this fri got a gig at 9 pm, then followed by drumfest over the weekend, then one weekend of rest before the F1 weekend! tons of gigs n performances, exhuasting n physically tiring, but still i really enjoy spending time with joan n the strikeforce guys! esp now that more n more couples r springing up, its almost like, or rather it practically is, family!

really hope that ticket sales go up soon, 41 tickets for a 500 capacity audience is really pathetic. not even 10%! i mean, i really want to go out n help spread the word for drumfest, but my work is keeping me pinned down, n the most i can help is to drive the musicians around n perform on the day itself. yes, it will be glorious, it will be fun, lots of energy n hype,but at the end of it, i'm still worried for boon n his family..

Love song for the one

Verse 1:

The moon light shines down her face as she looks to
Me in our embrace and her eyes paint
A picture of love so beautiful noone can explain

We dance across the room slowly swaying
To the music that plays in our heads but noone else can
Hear the enchanting melody that isn't really there at all


Chorus:

You are the awesome love of my life the only one
Who can lift me up when my world comes crashing down
No other girl will ever hold a candle to you
You are the craziest girl that I've ever known
Your smile speaks louder than any word in this song
I thank God that I'm gonna live my life with you

Gonna spend the rest of my life with you

Verse 2:

So time passes by so fast we hardly knew that
we've been in love for 3 years and counting and I am falling
Deeper and deeper, I'm drowning in this ocean of love for you

Bridge:

waited for so long for this broken
boy who was hardly worth all you gave
you reached out your hand and pull me from my grave