Christmas 2008 and countdown to 2009!

Think my last blog entry was on 24th Dec on Christmas eve, here's the continuation! (On a side note, I didn't realise that so many pple actually bother reading my blog, there isn't really anything interesting here, just the nonsensical emotional rambling of a 26 year old! hahaha.. but thanks for reading, don't take offense at some of the strong opinions here! =P)

Dec 24: Lunch w YQ n friends, Christmas service, Momo's birthday and Ip Man movie!

Left office at about 12.15 pm to meet up with Yongqiang for lunch at Vivocity, didn't realise he was bringing along another 2 friends, Mandy, a very loud and overly excited and friendly girl named Mandy, and the other girl, didn't talk at all, so I can't remember her name, I shall call her Wallpaper. Haha. But anyway thanks Yongqiang, for the delicious lunch (if i remember correctly, it was at Secret Recipe, and I ordered mushroom sauce chicken chop)and for a great time of fellowship! Its always great to catch up with old friends (not literally old as in age! haha!) and its also nice to meet new pple. Mandy is from New Creation, smokes, drinks, clubs and likes to talk to guys. Haha. No further comment needed. She used to be from CHC, but she said she couldn't stand the strict standards and the naggy cell group leaders, so she went to NCC where she can do whatever she likes and God will forgive her anyway. Haha! I was really quite amused by her thinking. But who cares, I'm there to pass YQ his Xmas card n have a nice lunch, not talk to her about her warped perception of Christianity. After lunch, went home for like an hour before going out with family n Mindice to Seletar Country Club for afternoon high tea! i was kind of amazed that i could still eat the supreme meesiam with chicken chop after my lunch! haha. then went for the Christmas services with family, neighbours Stanley n Carine, Alex and his family. Thank God managed to find seats quite easily. So total I brought 8 friends for Xmas! Hahaha.. Thought the drama was quite boring n too many stupid jokes thrown in, the singaporean dialects, the lame humour, the unfunny jokes, I was quite disapppointed, as the title sounded really big, "Operation Save The World" i.e. a copy of save the cheerleader from Heroes. Only part which I woke up (haha) was when the flying angels came at the ending scene. Now, that was cool! But it lasted all of 10 seconds. The message was short, the candles we held for the candlelight service kept being blown out by the air condition, so it was really annoying we had to relight the candles every half a minute. What a drag. Anyway the fun part of the night was after service, when Joan n I went to meet up with Momo, Jeanette, Jaric, Boon Kiat, Elaine, JJ, Clifford n a few others for Ip Man, the awesome kungfu movie! I must admit, the movie really cheered me up after my disappointment with the Christmas drama. it was action packed, really funny also (the part when the young kid cycled out n said "mummy says you better start fighting back or else more furniture will be broken") and touching as well. it really stirs up the nationalistic feeling in Chinese! pple in the cinema actually applauded when Donnie Yuen kicked the crap out of the Japanese guys! woohoo go Ip Man, kick those Jap-asses back to their own country! it was a damn good show, and best of all, the hero doesn't die in this movie! I really don't like sad-ending hero movies, when the hero has to sacrifice himself, or someone he loves has to die, n the show ends in a very sad way. Ip Man has a feeling of triumph n excitement, that no matter how dire n bad the circumstances, when one man fights for justice and righteousness, things will change for the better. Awesome action, realistic to the core, i don't mind getting the DVD for this movie! After the show, a few of us when to Swenson for supper. there was jeanette's boyfriend n the Shortguy who joined us as well. it was nice to have BK drive us home, as tired as he was, we cracked a heck of a lot of jokes while in his car. haha.. think i reached home around 5 am in the morning!

Dec 25: Christmas Lunch at Angus, shopping and nothing much

Didn't really do much on Xmas day. I think the sad thing is, no Christmas presents to open at all this year. I guess I really miss the joy n excitement of tearing open the presents which I used to get from friends n relatives. Since young, i used to get dozens of toys n books n stuff for Christmas, but i guess we're all grown up now, its time to do the giving. Had lunch at Angus (had to wake up at 11.15 am! super sleepy n stoned) the usual steak set lunch. walked around orchard shopping and bumped in to many of my parents' friends! it was like old pple outing to orchard! my bro said all the young pple are at orchard on Xmas eve partying n at home sleeping on Xmas day, n then all the old pple come out for lunch at orchard on Xmas day! quite true isn't it? bought some clothes n shirt for Joan's dad, then went to my house to sleep, buay tahan anymore. i can't remember how long i slept, must have been 1.5 hours or so. oh yeah, we went to a CAKE shop to buy cakes n other deserts for tea! man, i think i put on some weight, eat n sleep n eat n sleep for the festive season! hahaha! wanted to watch movie but the DVD had some problem, so after playing a bit of COD5 game, I sent Joan to the bus stop n went home to continue playing before sleeping. I know, very "nerd" n no life, always stuck at home playing computer games right? but i can't help it, i bought a new computer simply for immersing myself in the latest FPS games! n i still can't complete the campaigns on L4D! quite frustrating. LOL!

Dec 26: SF gig at Orchard, jamming with Michelle Lim n my brother's band

A really bad gig! Out of the 3 gigs which we played at orchard ( i only played for 2 out of the 3, missed the first one cos i was working) i felt this should be the worst one. out of time, players not concentrating, certain players forgetting their parts, no vibe, wrong speed for the wrong sequence, wrong assignment of instruments for players, no obvious signs of leading the performers, pple getting tired after a short march, no support for the octopus, n many many other mistakes, I made a few mistakes myself, especially getting tired after the march along orchard road, as it was my second time playing the sudo (1st time was at F1) and my arms got tired from smashing the mallet on the sudo drum skin! really need to work on my stamina, and also my performance skills, i was so stiff while playing the sudo, its quite different from dancing n swinging the tom around! the sudo is so big n difficult to move around, n i probably didn't adjust the correct height. i was quite annoyed by the wrong playing of certain players, i don't want to name names since pple read my blog, but i think they know who they are. could hear Chow kiat shouting "Wrong! Wrong!" at those certain pple when they played wrongly, or can see Ian stare at the person who played the extra beat.

If these pple don't even know they played wrongly, they shouldn't even be performing in a gig. How can you go into a performance without being well prepared? Skill, mental preparation, stamina, sense of timing, etc. All crucial to a good performance. Honestly i was quite annoyed, i thought we could've done way way way better than that. Even Rallen's super energetic performance couldn't save the day, nor CK's fantastic solos (even though even this guy made a few mistakes here n there), nor the grand finale of FHW. Could see Boon was really angry with us during n after the gig. Haiz.

At least most of us had fun during the gig! And thankfully, the audience loved it, lapped it all up, and asked for more! After the FHW, the emcee asked for one more sequence! we were all shocked, wondering whether or not to pack up, whether of not CK's RIP would surface, or what else is there which we can play! Haha! That was the joke of the day man. Hehz.. In the end, we just played the usual space jam sequence loops.

Went back to Joo Chiat studio for sheraton hotel gig practice, but had supper at Astons first, since the other group was practicing first. That was where we had the "suan Nic about Meiqi" session! hahaha.. Guankeat really likes to laugh at other pple! He doesn't even do it subtlely, he does it outrightly! Poor Nic, first shona, then meiqi.. he went for the Tic Tac Toe thingy last sunday, but still can't over the SF girls. haha..

After prac, jammed a few songs with my brother's band, was quite bad, they weren't prepared for the songs which we originally intended to jam, ended up playing a bit of rubbish, only 2-3 songs were alright, the rest sucked. the drummer really lost form, the lead gutarist couldn't flow with the band, Michelle can't sing rock songs, n i felt it was a waste of time. But at least we had supper at some prata place, before my bro went to send everyone home. Haha i don't have to be the taxi driver liao, ever since my bro got his licence. Reached home around 5 am again.

Dec 27: Sujin's wedding, JC friends mini-gathering

Didn't do much on saturday except sleep until 2 pm! haha! i can't believe it, the weather was so nice n windy n cloudy, it felt really shoik to sleep! went over to joan's place for her to get ready, (met up with a few SF peeps at the TPY macs, they were practicing their rack sequence) and reached the OCC restaurant at about 8.10 pm. Amazingly, we weren't the latest pple there. The wedding only started at 8.45 pm, and honestly it was a bit weird, some pple were wearing t-shirt and bermudas and slippers! Oh man, for my wedding, if they don't wear long sleeve and at least a jeans, i will ask my bouncers to throw them out. So disrespectful to the wedding couple! One good thing about the wedding is that it gave me a chance to catch up with my JC friends, Wilson, Yewkwan, Kevin, Yiwen, Adrian, Qinning and our class teacher Ms Siau. We had a lot of fun making fun of Bengthye n his KTV skills n the sleezy location of the wedding, and Raymond with his cannot-make-it flirting ways! Qinning is the next to get married, Joan noticed the big diamond ring on her finger. Oh man, what an obvious signal, the ring practically shouts "i'm getting married soon!" hahaha.. Oh n Cuixia and her short pudgy BF came late, after the 2nd course then they arrived, if i remember right. Then they both went out for a talk with Adrian (who has liked Cuixia for a long time) and Wilson n YK n I immediately started laughing about the possibilities. The food was alright lah, not too bad, but the fun was chatting with old classmates. Kinda scary now that everyone is grown up n working n getting married!

Dec 28: Last service and last MTT for 2008! Dinner at the Jap marche (expensive & very average)

Nothing much, short service, quick lunch with YQ n Drew n Jennifer Chen, MTT with 2 new friends n the Boon welcome speech, dinner at the Shukudo or something, spent about $30 for Joan n myself, but the food was very average, n i honestly don't like such self-service places, its just an expenseive food court! n they still charge service charge 10% on the bill.. but nevermind lah, since its the last meal with all the SF pple for 2008. Had pratice until quite late, reached home about 12.30 am. Millie came back from her KL trip with her office pple, showed us some photos of her trip n pic of Jaslyn (of SF) going clubbing w her. some pple really aren't who they seem to be eh, go SOT, all holy n stuff, but when they get a chance to unwind, literally let all hell break loose. Though Millie was gone for only 3 days, it felt like we hadn't seen her for along time! Hhaha.. That's how close we are, brothers n sisters in the SF! Millie was telling us about the dream she had, about Nic doing something really stupid n ruining the SF performance, n the scary thing is, it could actually happen! LOL! but it just shows how much she misses SF, even though its only a 3-day trip.

Dec 29: Rash outbreak, last dinner with Joan at Pizzaplace at city hall, SF prac for countdown n chilling out with David!

Took MC, went home n slept until 2.30 pm (again!) before eating lunch, downloading the track n playing Crysis. Pretty uneventful day, just a day to really rest, catch up on sleep n relax at home. Had practice at studio in the evening, but ended quite early (comparatively to other practices, even though we still left studio at 11 pm!). Played Crysis until 3 am (hahaha) and now i'm zombified in office, just wasting time away until 6.30 pm, when we go to boss house for company dinner. Hope it ends no later than 9 pm, i really have no mood to chitchat about trivial things n spend time at some place where i don't wish to be.

Time to start planning my goals for 2009.. here's a list which i thought of, just off the top of my mind:

1. start coming to office on time (i.e. reach before 9 am)
2. start sleeping earlier (12.30 am latest)
3. start exercising, jog twice a week, 30 sit ups twice a week, 30 push ups twice a week.
4. start reading the Bible from the beginning, praying for at least 20 min after reading the Bible, before sleeping.
5. learn to understand girls (esp Joan) better
6. spend less money on cabs (max take cab twice a week)
7. complete building fund
8. resume Bible study classes after coming back from Dubai trip
9. start to treat my family more often to meals n stuff
10. spend more time with the cell group (haha! if possible =P)
11. start planning my career path
12. cancel credit card if unable to control my spending! ( just signed up for a free 3 year trial with standard chartered visa card last wednesday with a girl names Posh, can you believe it, i never imagined pple actually calling themselves Posh, what a stupid name! but the 3 year free trial is not bad, plus i get 10% rebate every time i use the card to pay for things. every $100 i spend, i get $10 back 2 months later. not a bad deal, thought i'd try it out.)

God, 2008 has been a very unique year for me. I can't say its all bad or all good, but really a mixture of highs n lows. I've really never had such a roller coaster of a year before. I mean in all things, spiritually, emotionally, in my finances, in my ministry, in my relationship with Joan, my cell group, evangelism, at work, relationship with boss, my personal time, etc.. every aspect has seen the ups n downs in 2008. I suppose its been that way for many pple as well, though for me honestly its been quite an unnerving n a little scary. ok scratch that, its horribly scary at times. yeah, i'm not a super human, i have fears n doubts about many things, even being a "lawyer". sometimes friends n other pple tend to think, once i become a lawyer, i'm set for life. good pay, good job, whats there to worry about? well, they don't see the other side of the coin. being a lawyer also equals more stress, more scoldings from bosses, less time for family n friends, less time for personal alone time, less time to play drums n pursue my interests. pple also expect more from you, have a certain awe or keep a distance from me (whether subconciously or not) and i really don't wish to disclose my job as a lawyer if i don't have to. God, i hope 2009 will be a much better year for me, i'll try my best to improve myself n change all the bad habits n wrong attitudes n mentality that i have.

In Jesus name,
Amen

The most happening weekend of December 2008 yet! Haha!

Too much stuff to type out, but just gonna summarise the events that took place over the weekend, starting from meeting Joan on friday night to get a card for Julia's birthday!

19 Dec - Julia's birthday party, SF gathering at Mecure hotel

Meet joan at city hall to get a card while waiting for Liting to arrive cos she was like, oh man, one hour late! Joan was annoyed n I quite irritated as well, but when Liting arrived, I was surprised that Joan didn't scold her. Haha. We bought a card from the basement bookshop, i think is Times bookshop, and walked around a bit, getting some snack n drinks, waiting for Liting. Anyway we took mrt to tampines and then took a bus to the SAFRA. oh man, its so far away, but quite nice lah the place. its actually a small ktv lounge with a stage, but Rallen transformed it into a performance stage with a jazz acoustic set, very nicely done! He also folded 999 roses from tissue paper for her as decor for the stage! Small candles glowing everywhere adding to the "chill out" atmosphere.

There were about 3 bands playing i think, Julia sang a duet with a friend, her poly friends, church friends, Strikeforce friends, and other small groups of pple, but of cos SF pple were the most! I think there were about 15-20 of us there at least. Millie saw me eating with Joan and Liting and came over to kick my leg, saying how can i eat with Liting, won't Joan get jealous?? I was like, huh? We're just eating dinner leh, even Joan also never complain, why she kick me. Haha.. Oh, n poor Millie lost her camera that day, dunno if she managed to find it. =p

SF sang Always Be My Baby to Julia, Boon played guitar, Neo and I sang, and it was all messed up and funny! But ok lah, i guess its the heartfelt thanks and effort that counts! it was all fun and we had a good laugh.

Later we went to mecure by boon's van, (haha cos i was carrying the heavy amp i got a lift from him!) and went to chill out in the room. its quite big, had a living room and a bedroom, on the 14th floor. we watched SF videos and laughed at our mistakes, then played the game TABOO. oh man, we played it for like 2 hours i think? cos it was really super funny, and Nic surprisingly was very good at this game! it made pple panic, esp Joan, and made pple pekchek n frustrated, like Yongqiang, and made pple talk nonsense and come up with the wittiest sentences as well! This is a fun game, i think i can try it for cell group next time. if i'm ever gonna do games again. -_- but anyway, we had fun, and after the game we decided to walk to Macdonalds for supper, i think it was around 2 am at that time. Ian, Millie, Nic, Meiqi, Joan, Yuhong and myself. i loved it, the wind was blowing, it was relaxing and we had a good time just chilling out. Went back to the hotel n most of them went to sleep, except Yuhong n i who went to the pool side n played guitar until 6.30 am, and Joan n i went home. I concussed at about 8 am, slept till around 1 pm.

20 Dec - Gathering at Kelly's house

Supposed to meet at 2 pm at Sengkang, but at 2.30 pm joan n i were still on the bus 163. haha! we ate lunch, and then played Guitar Hero with the drums, 2 gutars and a mike! really fun, i super enjoyed myself. Joan had a boxing match with Junhao, which she won like twice! hahaha! the Wii games were quite fun also, but honestly i prefer the guitar hero thing! Only $300 for the set, not bad. Videos and pictures are up on Kelly's blog. I think from the time we arrived (same time as yingyan n Jerald) at about 3 pm until we left at 8.45 pm, we spent close to 6 hours hanging out. haha.. i can't believe we played games until 7 pm in the evening, then we watched Kung Fu panda while eating Pizza Hut. 2 large pizza n we only paid $5 each! quite ok i guess. The gathering was super fun, even though there were only quite few of us, i think about 11 or so. any more pple n it would've been over crowded actually! haha.. Thanks to Jerald n Lishan who helped to organise this event, and of cos, initiated by yours truly.

Went off at about 8.45 pm for practice at Joo Chiat, where unpleasant event happened, but i don't want to talk about it, best to forget it ever happened. Was a lousy practice, felt it was a waste of time. most pple there don't even know the exact sequence or know how to play the parts. by the time i reached home, it was about 1 plus am, n went to bathe n sleep, n had a talk with Joan over the phone over an issue. again, too depressing to mention, but its resolved so its ok now.

21 Dec - Sun svc and the orchard gig, and dinner at Crystal Jade

Was late for sun svc, woke up at about 12 pm. by the time we reached the main hall it was the announcements. preaching was about pretty basic stuff, i guess the main thing is psyching everyone up for the Christmas svcs, so not very long preaching. had lunch w e CG pple, sebas, soohuei looked half dead. dunno why but again, the very sian feeling was eminating from our cg. Kenneth wasn't around, so we went to makan at the usual kopitiam, then chatted with Peijin abit on the way to the mrt station. Poor gal, she paid $4800 deposit for the publisher to publish her manga, but she isn't able to finish the book in time, and the deposit will just be forfeited! hope she somehow manages to finish it lah.

the gig wasn't really one of the best gigs we had, while the usual sequences were ok, not fantastic but ok, ck's RIP sequence was really messy n everyone forgot one part, which looked really bad. out of the 8 UDMs, 3 had no water as well, a logistics nightmare. however, the energy was high, the shakers n toy players were dancing their hearts out (including Joan!) and the crowd liked the performances, although honestly we were quite out of time while marching down the street n playing. i guess we really need to practice playing n walking long distances! its just quite different from playing in a fixed position.

had dinner at the noodle crystal jade place, was quite nice n quite reasonable pricing. then went to eat tang yuan at chinatown to celebrate yuan siao jie or some chinese festival thingy. by the time i reached home, it was close to midnight, n i played a bit of COD5 before going to sleep, damn i only wanted to play for an hour, but the game is so engaging i played until about 2.30 am before deciding to turn in! dunno why pple say its not very nice, i think its quite alright. i wanna complete the solo campaign, then can play the zombie mode! hopefully can complete it before end of the year, i mean, i think i only got 1 or 2 more missions to complete!

22 Dec - Xmas dinner with DLPians and supper with the bug in my teh ping!

had the gift exchange thingy with my office colleagues, while having dinner at hog's breath cafe at vivocity, not bad, we had 50% off the main course due to some special promotion. the food was good, the fellowship was fun. i spent about $37 on the meal, not too bad lah, considering we had appetisers besides the main course, n i ate like 1/3 of Ruby's steak cos she couldn't finish it!

Finally, the supper with clarence, Mikki, Michelle, Daryl n Joan at prata place. oh man, i really don't think i'm going back there agin after the horrible experience of sucking a bug up the straw into my mouth! pics on facebook for the size of the bug, its really disgusting, i almost wanted to puke had the guys not started laughing n makin fun of it! honestly i wanted to scold them, but decided it would be a waste of my effort. who cares man.. at least i didn't need to pay for my drink. yucks! =P

wanted to play the game a bit, but was really too tired, think by the time i sent everyone home n reached home it was about 1.30 am. too many days of insufficient sleep is taking its toll on me.. gonna sleep early tonight, after wrapping the presents n going for a short jog with Joan. i shall attempt to complete my 2.4 within 15 min! haha..

Tml having lunch w yongqiang, then gonna go home n SLEEP! take a short afternoon nap before going for high tea with family n neighbours, then going for Christmas svc at expo, dunno what "operation save the world". sounds lame. i liked last years Christmas at Changs musical, i think its really hard to beat that kind of standard! hopefully it'll be just as good or better tml! hahha..

Merry Christmas everyone!! God bless you all!

3.30 pm on a friday afternoon!

Alright, just about another 2.5 hours to go before 6 pm, until the weekend of parties arrive! woot!

Today is the first time i'm wearing jeans to office, its feels so good! And the shoes, much better than the working boring leather shoes (which are a tad too big for my feet)! Feels kinda relaxing today, plus my boss is on the plane to australia, and my big boss has not come back from his overseas business trip, the only "senior" partner in office today is Yvonne (big boss' wife) and she only came in after lunch, n she'll probably leave around 5 pm or so. what a good life man!

Anyway I didn't really do much today either, just read some agreements and edited some documents and sent a few emails. Basically spent about an hour or so surfing facebok, and after lunch another hour or so writing Christmas cards, in fact i still got about 10+ cards to write, but i'm actually tired of writing Christmas messages, so taking a break to chill by blogging.

Anyway, here's the plan for the long weekend!

Tonight at 6 pm - go for a drink with colleagues
7.30 pm - Julia's party
10/11 pm - Strike Force outing at mecure hotel
Saturday 1 pm - primary sch gathering
8 pm - SF prac at JC
Sunday evening - SF gig or Lawry's Prime Ribs dinner! Posh place, woot!

Last night also really enjoyed myself spending time with Joan, just catching a simple dinner, then buying pillow, then watching Yes Man, the romantic comedy starring Jim Carey. Really funny and feel good kind of movie, Joan n i loved it.

The end of 2008 is drawing near, perhaps I should reflect on what I've done in the past year of my life and set some goals for 2009. Maybe in another post! LOL!

Shopping trip to buy Joan's present!

Last night had a fun time shopping with Millie, Melisa and Yiwei (Yanqin's elder sister, Yanqin joined us later at Heeren but I went to meet Rallen around that time liao) at orchard. After dinner at far east plaza (at the ramen place that sucked big time, Mel n I couldn't eat the noodles cos it was so bad, n Millie dropped one of her prawns on the floor n was quite annoyed! haha), we went to some perfume shop cos Yiwei wanted to buy perfume for her boyfriend. They got together about 6 months ago, according to Melisa. Then Millie was thinking of getting this bottle of purple colour perfume, think the name is like Lankin or something. But anyway I smsed Melisa to convince Millie not to buy, so that Ian can buy it as a Xmas present for her, but when Melisa got my sms, she said loudly, "Oui Weiwen, you sms me for what?" and then Millie so kpoh go and see my sms to her, totally spoil my plan man! We were laughing for like 5 minutes after that lah! Hahaha..

In the end Millie did buy the perfume for $55 (actual price $126) and then we went hunting for Joan's Xmas present. Actually we didn't take too long to find the suitable present, cos Millie remembered this shop at far east where Joan said the clothes very nice, so I selected the item and they all agreed that it suited Joan and it was very nice. Haha! I'm a fast shopper.

Anyway after that we went to the perfume section at Taka cos Yiwei wanted to buy the really branded perfume for her boyfriend and she took like half hour to sample and select the perfumes lah, while Millie n I just talked crap and joke about Ian and Joan. Haha! Kidding lah, we were talking about our plans for Xmas. Oh, n how to find boyfriend for Melisa as well! Haha..

Met Rallen at somerset MRT cos he wanted to borrow an amp from my bro. That guy, he's really very detailed n good at planning, he folded 999 paper roses for Julia, which will be part of the decor for the stage at her party, and he's getting a band to perform for the night, n there will be 2 surprises for her. I asked him to do a drum solo for her, he almost freaked out man! he's alread quite stressed about playing in front of Boon n other drummers, but then again, its for Julia n not for anyone else so i told him to relax lah. seriously, he folded about 200+ roses in a day, and spent the last few days just folding the roses and planning for the party! what a committed boyfriend! Julia must be happy to be with him, hehz.

Going to Millie's cg later tonight, though I think its clearly a waste of time, its just some cg outreach thingy, i would rather play computer games at home! man i upgraded my PC just so i can enjoy the new games leh, its so unfair that i finally got my PC fixed up and now got so little time to play games. i think i will not go tonight, it totally doesn't concern me actually, being another cell group's outreach. -_-

Really funny stuff still ringing in my mind! Haha!

Taken from Corola's performance song at AC2008, the actual one goes:

Harvest, harvest, harvest
I can see the harvest, etc..

Asian version:

Malaysia, Malaysia, Malaysia
It is truly Asia, Asia Asia...

Strikeforce versions:

Neo, Neo, Neo
He can play the sudo, sudo, sudo
He's the Strikeforce hero, hero, hero
Neo plays the sudo!

Rohan, Rohan, Rohan
Play until buay tahan, tahan, tahan
Cannot lift the sudo, sudo, sudo
Just trying to be a hero

(thought about this while at Millie's birthday BBQ while we were playing at the park!)

What a great weekend!

Alright, back in office on a monday, but everyone's pretty much in a holiday mood already. Except for certain clients who's really kan cheong about certain matters, but I can't really be bothered about that, i feel quite annoyed with them n the other side's lawyer, who happily went overseas this week without letting me or his clients know.

But anyway, here's a brief summary of what happened over the weekend!

12 Dec - Thanksgiving cell group and supper with William, Nadia and Joan.

Really had an enjoyable cell group meeting with games, thanksgiving speeches, no preaching or singing at all, just basically time for us to give thank you speeches to all our cell group members. Regrettably, Joan n i haven't really been interacting with the cell group very much, so we aren't really that "gum" with them, so hopefully we'll try to make an effort to spend more time with them n build better relationship. I mean, they're nice pple n all, really hope we can get to know them better next year. Oh and i really enjoyed the fellowship with William and Nadia at geylang beef kway tiao shop, although i almost got knocked down by a car while going to collect the "hao jian" from the shop across the road! hahaha.. what a scary experience! Its really nice of william to drive us all home. Oh yes, he has some problem with traffic police, hopefully i can help him with the matter..

13 Dec - Shaun's holy matrimony, Bolt with michelle and Clarence playing L4D at my place

Really didn't want to go for the ceremony on sat morning, but Joan called me n bugged me that we should go, so i obliged in the end, was quite pai seh cos never gave him any ang bao. i mean i really got not much money left for the rest of december, with birthdays n other weddings to attend. Plus i'm not even that close to shaun n his wife ailing or something. but in the end we took cab down n it was quite enjoyable meeting up with ex-cg members n CL zone friends. went town to watch Bolt (not the 3D version though) at grand cathay. its a really touching n family friendly show about a really heroic n cute dog who is faithful to his owner, along with a cyncial cat n a very funny n semi-crazy hamster! the hamster's lines are really the best in the show, the inspirational speech, the super funny lines at the funniest moments! superbly crafted story n dialouge, very cute n realistic dog, except the huge head! i really don't mind getting the DVD for this movie n watching it again, its so cute.

14 Dec - SF thanksgiving gathering!

chionging for service (with the dancing buildings for the Ela song! LOL!) and then having a quick lunch w the cg, before going for MTT where we learnt this offbeat "Cup of Life" intro, really hard to learn! Boon had his half hour speech again, before we went to his mum's new condo for a potluck dinner n games! The games were really quite fun n funny too, it sure was noisy n rowdy! had the "Boon Talk Show!" with Ian n millie sharing about how they got together, n everyone was given a chance to share about how Boon and the Strikeforce changed their lives. it was awesome, the sense of belonging n brotherhood in the Strikeforce! it seems that most of us were indeed inspired n motivated by Boon's long speeches, even though we may joke about the long speeches, secretly many of us really are impacted by those speeches! amazing time with the pple i love, the Strikeforce.

15 Dec - signing the legal docs and giving $78000 for the 15% down payment

so scary, giving the developer such a large amt of money! n the legal fees are like $16k, so much money just to process a couple of documents! then had lunch at Sizzlers with Joan and mum, ate a really full lunch, even though its just salad mostly! the salad buffet was really good, i'm honestly surprised at the high standard of food in a heartland HDB area! a fruitful monday morning, and now back to work.. another 4 days of work for 2008! (or before my boss goes overseas lah! hahaah!)

Half day more of work, and next week 4 days of work to go, before boss flies overseas..!

Things to do for the remainder of December 2008:

1. Prepare ang bao for Shaun's wedding
2. Buy Christmas present for Joan
3. Write Xmas cards to friends and family
4. Buy gift for gift exchange for Hongyee
5. Bake Muffins with Joan as Xmas presents for friends
6. Wrap presents I bought
7. Prepare food item for pri sch gathering pot luck on 20 Dec
8. Prepare gift for DLP new year dinner at boss house on 30 Dec
9. Prepare angbao for Sujin's wedding on 27 Dec
10. Prepare clothes for SF overnight stay on 19-20 Dec
11. Love offering for Boon - depends on how much cash left after all the shopping!

To be added on when I think of more things that need to be done. What a busy Christmas, so many weddings n outings! Expensive leh, so many birthdays, weddings, celebrations, gatherings, etc!

New computer, got SF salary, KTV with SF and LAN with Bk n gang!

What a hectic weekend! Will just blog a summary of events since last Friday evening!

5 Dec - buying the new parts for the computer and installing them.. until almost 12 am in the morning!

6 Dec - pay day for Strike Force - $1750 in total, gave $100 to SF fund, spent $1600 for the 5 day cruise during CNY in Jan 2009, and kept a miserable $50 to myself. oh well, i guess i have really got to sacrifice n save up a bit more.. Joan got $1200 i think, which she is saving up for her studies for next year. Anyway after getting our pay n our presents (2 CDs, 1 DVD and 1 pair of sticks!) from Boon, Joan n i went to meet my parent n my aunt n cousin for lunch at chinatown area, after booking the 5 day cruise. Joan wasn't too sure about it, n honestly i'm not exactly keen on going to cruise doing CNY n spending so much money on it also, but my parents really want to spend time with me, so i felt as their son i had to make an effort to spend time with them too. my mum was just complaining i have so many church activities n don't really spend time with the family anymore, so i guess i need to spend more time with them, while they're still fit n healthy.

Oh, Joan brought me to this cool shop at chinatown point, which sells all the dragon stuff n cosplay things. we'll prob have a few of those things on display in our house next time!

at night we went over to my cousin rebecca's 21st birthday at her house, n man it was so cramped with her friends n relatives, there was hardly place to stand n eat! the food was good, all home-cooked, but the cake was really horrible. looked nice, tasted yucky. i mean compared to Joan's birthday cake, i'm sorry to say the cream cake for rebecca's birthday tasted bad. hahaha.. but anyway we didn't have much to do there except watch AVP, n then went home to catch Thank You For Smoking, a really good movie.

I really appreciate Joan for spending so much time with me this weekend, despite the fact that her exam is today and she has 3 exam papers.. thinking back, perhaps i should have let her go home to study on saturday night, or on sunday night after MTT.. sigh, but whats done is done, n she says she has confidence for the exams, so i believe her. i just hope to God that she's really done her studying n is really ready for the exams, which begins in exactly 1 hours from the time i'm typing this..

7 Dec - Svc w dr john avazini, MTT and KTV at chinatown kbox until 4 am on monday morning! pics will be up on facebook soon! adventures of SF at the supermarket! the screaming singers of SF, annoyed with the $35 bill! hahaha.. we had a lot of fun, but we were really exhuasted after singing until about 3.30 am, and had to take cab home in the rain.

8 Dec - woke up at about 12.30 pm, so basically about half the day was gone. spent the afternoon fixing up the com n installing programs with daryl n my brother's help, then had to WALK down 13 storeys because the lift was under maintenance! i was really annoyed, n the stairs were quite dark too. eventually met up with bowen n BK for lan at park lane, played a bit of BF2 and Left 4 Dead until 11.30 pm, n went for supper at the tau hway stall. Thanks to BK for sending all of us home, although he was really very tired as well! he's going into NS on friday, really hope the experience will make him a better man in Christ!

actually wanted to go visit Joan n surprise her with something, but i guess i'll save the money for her Christmas present, anyway its just mock exams n nothing major, so i guess its not really very important.. although honestly i feel bad for not visiting her, when she always visits me before my exam starts, no matter how late or how tired she is.. i still remember she came to encourage me with a balloon in 2007, when i was taking my final law exams in NUS, cos i was really very stressed n worried about my studies. i was so touched, i think i cried whenever i saw the balloon, n felt so blessed n loved by this wonderful girlfriend.

Don't worry Joan, i will definitely visit you more when u're nearing your actual exams, i will constantly encourage u, n will try not to say anything discouraging or negative. I know u read my blog almost everyday, in fact, i keep this blog only for God and you, a very few friends whom i trust n thats it.

Last thing i did last night n first thing i did this morning was to pray for your exams, n that you will do well, n be calm n confident, n you'll be able to glorify God in your studies. I love you so much, I really do. =)

A slack friday!

Alright, its mid-day, after lunch, n i'm feeling really sleepy cos i only slept like 3-4 hours yesterday night, or rather this morning.

Just realised that I've been meeting Joan almost everyday for the past few days! Haha.. on Wed we met up for dinner just because i missed her n wanted to have dinner with her, then it was pure coincidence that she ran into Mikki, and Millie called me for my opinion on what to buy for Ian, then she said she was at Funan, so she can join Joan n I at raffles city shopping centre for dinner at Soup Spoon. after dinner we went to have Ben & Jerry ice cream, Joan has been craving for it for a long time ever since we celebrated clarence's birthday at grand cathay's B&J. We were just talking about Millie n Ian n stuff n just chilling out.

On thursday (last night), we went shopping at taka n wisma, and we bupmed in to alot of pple! saw lydia out shopping with her friend, then we saw eunice ding, then we also bumped into shaun n yongji! what a small world. we went to (where else?) swensons at about 10 pm to have supper with some SF pple to celebrate Ian's birthday. i can't believe we were there from 10 pm until about 1.30 am! thats like 3.5 hours, just sitting there chit chatting n slacking n eating! Ian had 2 birthday cakes, one for sharing, one icecream on the house! Sharlyn was telling us the story of how she n Ivan met n fell in love, it was a really interesting story n its amazing how she can remember all the details, what time they met, what clothes they were wearing, who said what, etc!! its freaking scary man, the amt of things that she can remember which happened so long ago! Ivan totally can't remember anything, or so he claims. Pictures all uploaded on facebook already, anyway its not so much of the number of pple who went, but the quality of the friendship there. Boon, Nic, Ruyuan, Ian, Millie, Sharlyn, Julia, Shona, Yongqiang, and of course my darling Joan were there, and it was a really fun time of fellowship.

tonight Daryl's coming over to my place to upgrade my CPU, overhaul the whole damn thing with $900+ worth of new processor, new ram, new graphics card, even new power supply. He's a nice chap, hope he comes back to church soon instead of being so devoted to his paint ball! then going to meet Joan for dinner at 8.30 when she ends sch.

now its only 3.30 pm in the afternoon, another 2.5 hours to burn before i go home! i'm so stoned i can't do any work, and anyway there is no work for me to do honestly.

Joan's birthday

Better blog about it now before I really get busy over the next few days with the current deal that i'm doing. I've some breathing space now cos boss is busy preparing a deal for signing today, and once the client signs, she'll be bringing all of us out for a nice lunch, before embarking on the next project, which is to be completed before she flies off on 19 December. oh yes, and i almost forgot next Monday is hari raya, holiday! so that means minus today, there's only TEN (10) working days left for me to endure before boss flies overseas n the firm basically takes a break, most pple going on leave, i think i will take maybe one day leave, depending on whether joan will be free. I want to take a day off to spend it with her, even though there's not really any special occasion until christmas.

Ok back to the main thing! Joan's birthday.

Didn't really go so well, as i woke up with such a bad sorethroat that i needed to go to doctor n get some medicine. i was thinking whether or not to get MC so i can cancel my leave due to the MC, but then it will look suspicious, so i thought, forget it. joan overslept n missed her morning class, which led to another blast of sms exchanges, and i was feeling pretty lousy around lunch time. went to take a nap after lunch (still so exhausted from the gig n the BBQ) before going to meet joan at the grand cathay at about 4 pm. actually i think i reached about 4.20 pm, but i was honestly quite annoyed n not in a mood to go out, but because its Joan's birthday, i brushed all those negative thoughts aside, i mean most important is to make her happy n celebrate her birthday with her right?

initially wanted to bring her to this jap-western fusion restaurant at the central at clark quay, but since she wanted to try the tomato place at PS basement, we went there instead. 25% discount on orders before 6 pm, plus the reasonable prices, so i only paid $27 for two meals! and its not cheap lousy food, its beef steak with prawns for Joan and pork chop with sausages n pasta for me, complete with mushroom soup, garlic bread, n ice lemon tea! that dinner really cheered me up, n we really enjoyed the food. the ambience was a bit too noisy n the ceiling too low, but otherwise its really value for money.

after dinner we decided to go walk around orchard (oh yeah we bumped into Victoria n her bf too) n take photos of the Xmas decor, n also did a bit of xmas shopping (photos will be uploaded on facebook!) mostly window shopping. but there were these really cool Christmas toys n display items, trains, houses, music boxes, nativity scene, etc, all those nice n delicately crafted Christmas items being displayed at Paragon! i think each item cost around $100-400, except the mini-music boxes, which was about $50 each if i remember correctly. Joan n i spent more than half an hour just admiring the Christmas display items, really brings a smile to our faces. we were thinking, when we have our house, we'll put all these christmassy stuff up during Christmas season! we bought some christmas cards to send out to our friends, then we went to Taka side of orchard road to take more pics. we also went inside some large tent set up by some diamond n jewellery company (Sookee? can't remember, some cheaper local brand) whereby the diamond rings n stuff were up to 70% off but still very expensive, each item over $1000. but Joan said its really quite cheap for diamond rings, but too bad we're only getting married 2 years later. plus, they don't have the designs that we like, the designs there are too old fashion, one big diamond sticking out on the ring. joan doesn't like that kind, she prefers the rounded kind, a ring of diamonds. something like the kind that Ian gave millie! we did a bit more window shopping at Taka before walking back to Cathay, i was so blur i almost wanted to walk to PS! haha..

bought nachos n chips for the horror movie, a spanish show called Highway KM31 or something. we thought it would be good cos the spanish zombie show REC was pretty good, but this one, beginning was quite intense, but after a while got pretty predictable, n the ending really sucked. oh, n they claim its based on a true story. i bet the only "truth" in the show is that there's some highway whereby there's a lot of accidents n pple died there. because the show is FULL of loopholes, wrong sequences, obviously illogical parts. for e.g., in the tunnel, the police man went in before the male lead, but somehow, the male lead managed to get head of the police man in the next scene, to find his girlfriend. Joan was like ," thats not possible, there's only one way in the tunnel, how can he pass the police man first?" hahaha.. several other loopholes in the movie gave us a very bad impression that the movie was badly scripted. but still, there were a few decent scares, even if copied from Ju-on or the Ring. I could tell the movie sucked because Joan wasn't really scared at all. haha!

after the movie i sent Joan home n very reluctantly went to take cab home. i know i selected the lousy show, i started an arguement with her in the morning, i was late in meeting her, i wasn't able to surprise her with the dinner place, even the presents were no surprise to her, the CD n the eye cream n the underarm laser treatment. i honestly felt very disappointed with myself for not being able to make her really happy on her birthday. well, true, we did enjoy ourselves for most of the time, but i just felt i could've put in a bit more effort to make it a truly memorable day, instead of an average date out. of course Joan doesn't know how disappointed i was in myself because i hid it pretty well from her, and i'm glad she enjoyed the dinner outing n "pak tor" session along orchard, and i really hope this coming Christmas, i'm able to make it up to her n make it the most memorable christmas for her. Its our 2nd Christmas since we're together.

Joan's exams are next week on tues n thurs, so after that, we can really go out n celebrate n enjoy the rest of the december holidays. 2 n a half weeks of work left before boss goes overseas n we can really chill out. =)

Joan's Birthday BBQ, Millie's 21st birthday, a SF gig on Sat and Joan's actual birthday outing!

Too much to blog about all the events that happened in the past 4 days, suffice to say, i've had a really fun n tiring n exciting long weekend (minus the sorethroat and the couple squabbles during the past few days) n it kind of feels so weird to be back at work after enjoying the weekend so much! Well, not all was fun n happy though, i actually quarrelled with joan i think about 3 times, once before reaching Millie's chalet, second at her BBQ, n even in the morning of her brithday itself.. sigh. When I think about it I even feel a little heartache. But I'm here to blog about the good stuff first!

1. Millie's birthday

After work, had a drink with colleagues (on an empty stomach) and met up with Joan to go to the aranda chalet together, halfway on the journey i felt so sick n broke out in cold sweat all over my body n almost wanted to puke! i will never ever drink on an empty stomach ever again! that was a horrible experience! anyway that led to a short quarrel with Joan, saying i never take care of myself, n other things i can't remember, only that i was so pissed off i almost didn't want to go to the party. but things worked out alright in the end, we had a lot of fun sitting the swing n doing other fun stuff at pasir ris park, after the cake cutting with Millie, Yanqin n Jeremy. there were really a lot of pple there, i think as many as 60 pple scattered thru out the chalet n BBQ pit! Ian gave flowers to Millie n they look so happy together, i'm almost envious of them. Haha. but there were so many pple in the chalet n it felt so crowded, rohan, christine, neo, daryl, julia, meqi, nic, joan n myself spent about 2 hours playing at pasir ris park, rather than sit n watch the stephen chow movie in the chalet. everyone went home close to 2 am except joan n i, who stayed to fellowship n watch another movie with millie's friends, quite funny, i think i laughed quite loudly n woke the sleeping pple. hehz. we hung around until about 6 am before catching a cab home.

2. Sat - the gig without Boon!

Sat's gig was quite funny, a bit messy, but quite fun overall. reid made a super obvious mistake, n the FHW was speeding up n slowing down at different parts, n some pple were annoyed with each other, the vibe wasn't so good. but like what joan said, for a gig without Boon, its actually not too bad. a shame we didn't play flightphesy to warm up!

oh n we went to shop at ntuc near joan's house with yishan, toonsiong, bk n of cos joan. then at night after the gig we went to suntec carefour to buy smoked salmon. it was expensive! but ok lah, worth it.

3. Joan's Birthday BBQ

bowen n BK really helped out a lot at the BBQ, so many thanks to these guys! also, thanks to everyone who helped out, n those who made the effort to come down eventhough they're not that close to joan, she was really quite touched. i think i spent like $200+ for everything for the BBQ, and that's not even including the food stuff provided by my mum, joan's mum, clarence mum (the cake!) and the packet food my dad bought from the coffeeshop behind my house! there were really too many pple, i think about 50+ pple who came in total, although a few left early.

i'm happy that joan really enjoyed herself, n she loves being with all of her friends, just chilling n chatting n eating n relaxing. i mean, the effort n sweat n running up n down n driving pple around is all worth it, as long as my dear is happy. =) just thinking about her brings a smile to my face.

i think she got about 6-7 presents at the BBQ? not sure cos too many groups of pple there liao. good thing the cake was really huge n there was quite a big piece left over, taken care of by yuhong. haha. oh n i remember for me the most fun (or funny!) part was when junyi drove his car by blasting retro music, n we all dance mambo around his car! that was really hilarious, stupid, lame but fun too! mambo music rocks! hahaha. the strikeforce pple came quite late, but they got the best food reserved specially for them. haha.

think i'll blog about joan's actual birthday celebration another time. i'm going home for dinner.

oh yeah, this year firm is damn stingy with holidays, only 2 days off, of which one is compulsory leave! basket, this is ridiculous, i really feel boss is being quite unreasonable. but what to do, once i get my bonus, n the economy recovers, i'm getting my ass out of this place.