How can someone supposedly close to me not know I am going through more than what appears on the surface?

Line of activities in December:

20th Dec (Sat) - Volunteering. With Youth and Little children this time. @ West Coast Park. The youth will conduct the ice-breaker, station games and magic shows for the children. They will come to understand responsibility and thru it, hopefully a sense of achievement.

21st Dec (Sun) - I need to shop for winter clothing. Gg to set time aside after chrch service to go shop. Haven't been able to do so due to work commitment.

23rd Dec (Tue) - Tennis lesson commences. CCK Stadium.

24th Dec (Wed) - The yearly christmas affair with my JC clique. Venue yet to be decided. *Gulp*

25th Dec (Thurs) - Relatives coming over for x'mas celebration. Actually it's a get-together for food, games (Wiiiiiii) and fun. Sadly, they do not yet know the meaning behind christmas.
PS: Miss XQ, please get ah-di and da-jie come down join us if u all at home that day. Play Wii the more the merrier. Haha..

26th Dec (Fri) - Departing to Korea 1030pm flight.

Seems pretty occupied this 2nd half of December. But why am I not looking forward to many of these exciting events? It's not the people nor the nature of the activities themselves.

Something inside me is not in place yet.

Standard Chartered Half Marathon

Yes, managed to accomplish this year 21km run without major hiccups. The only thing was the calf cramp which came at the 150m mark before the finish point. Calf just totally cramp and had to stretch by the side where the spectators are. This was exactly the same thing last yr, except I was prepared for such possibility. As such, I can only jog through the finishing line. Overall, it was a OK run.

Was just thinking if I should join again next year. Unless I am disciplined enough to keep up with the training, I think such marathon could be more detrimental then beneficial to the body. Shall KIV for now.

I stand

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

GP Family day 2008

Yet another volunteer event in Dec... but I am not complaining. What a joy to work with the good natured & fun-loving pple @ SCS. The volunteers are just great too. LOL.. Myself included of course.. Haha.

This yearly Guidance Program Family Day is organized with the youth and their families as the focal point, as a bonding session for the youth and their family members, to understand more about each other thru the games & activities and more imptly for the parents to witness their child completing an important phase in this guidance program. When the child realised that their parents actually cared, it can prove to be a major turning point in the youth's life.

It was a simple affair but I believe we all had our own share of fun in someways.

Southern Ridges

Southern Ridges.. Have been wanting to go, but didn't materialize becos (1) can't find khakis or (2) timing isn't right. So was glad to go as part of the NYAA program recee. However it was really more of our own outing rather than doing any recee-ing. Just an excuse to go out and have fun. lol...

We started off from Mt Faber with slight drizzle. However, the sky cleared fast and we had the sun for bulk of our trekking.. We went through the now famous Henderson waves, Forest walk, Hort Park then Kent Ridge Park. Had my share of fun under the sun and photo-taking... of ourselves and some artistic shots along the way. Miss Koh had more of these artistic shots... I managed one at the last min. haha.

It was good fun in all.

I've got Wii

Just a while ago from Sitex. It wasn't my intention initially but ended up coming home with one. It was an impulse buy. Whether it's a gd/bad buy, i will only know in time to come.

Certainly hope it will be a worthwhile investment.

All I want for Christmas

I am still around

And I had a great weekend. Finally free from work this last weekend and packed myself with activities. Cool!

Anyway, not anything super exciting, but in comparison to my past few working weekend, this last weekend was great!

Friday was out with my NUS CN7 mates for Halloween dinner. No costumes party lah. But it was a cool meet-up with 9-10 of us. That was when I saw the Singapore Flyer Pumpkin.

Saturday had a volunteer recee at Chinese Garden. But due to some changes in plan, we ended up just chit chatting in MacDonald. After that was Pot Luck session with my Cell mates. That was the highlight if the weekend. Really enjoy their company and everything. It was a bday celebration for october babies.. But they counted me in as well. Haha..

Sunday was down for Church service + the usual lunch session. Nice and enjoyable! After that went down to ECP for another volunteer session recee (different volunteer program). Original intention was to get a tan as well.. But sianz cos started raining. Nonetheless, we achieved our objective and were just glad to be in the car as it was raining pretty heavily. Melodyee, thanks for driving us about that day. Appreciate that!! Straight after that was dinner with my Family. It was for joint bday celebration for dad and myself. We indulged in Sharkfins and Crab Mee Hoon at Jurong ThaiVillage Restaurant. It was pretty good. The place, the food and the interaction.

So back to work today. But looking to more of such weekends. Hopefully less of "work" weekend.

My ABC Cell

what happens when you lose your hp?

I didn't know it can affect me so much.

In no particular order, here's how it affected me.

First, it's a new 1.5 mth phone which you are beginning to like it more and now u lost it.

Second, u realise you need to go suspend your line then get a new SIM card and then a new phone.

Third, u will need to pay for a new phone. After using a PDA phone, you dun feel like "downgrading" to a non-PDA phone. That means paying quite a bit for a new phone.

Fourth, u wonder y u can be so careless and starts blaming urself.

Fifth, u realise the inconveniences that not having a HP brings about.

Sixth, u just can't get over losing ur phone in the next few days to come.


I will see what would be a good phone for now. I do need a hp.

Work again..

It's a norm to find me in office even at 7plus - 8pm. Just like today, time is 753pm and I am still around. Just finished up a submission, so taking some time off to... blog!

Here's my workplace. Neat right?
Boss sits just behind me. A total of 7 people sits in this room.



Just the other day, I was down for Go-Kart at Taman Jurong, organized by a vendor. It didn't turn out too well, the car was controlling me more than I controlling it. Anyway, just got a souvenir from the Vendor today. Here's a pix. Yea, a controlled racing car.

By the way, all these pix were taken by my HTC Diamond and blue-toothed to my Laptop. Cool eh.

...

It's rare these days that I have time to rest, let alone blog.

For the past several weeks, I just feel non-existent.

Not a gd feeling.

Hello

I am still around. Just that work is keeping me occupied almost 24/5. And Sat is usually fully occupied with the usual stuffs I have. Sunday usually have to do some work after church service. How?

Actually I just need to apply better time management and I am sure I can fit in work, rest and play all in 24/7. But just need to get started to do planning.

Anyway recently, 1 of my close friend proposed to another of my close friend (eh.. understand?). I am so happy for them. After so many years of being together, they are finally settling down. My sincere blessing to them. Just feel so joyous for them. Can't wait for their ROM & wedding.

Yanlin & Yongshun, Congratulations!!!!!

Singapore Silver

Table tennis is so exciting. I am happy that Singapore got its second medal after so long.
They fought well throughout and they do deserve this medal.

just existing for now

It has been such a busy week for me.

All about work. Spent ~12 hrs in office everyday.

Just glad managed to get a breather today, despite the fact I was still doing work at home :(

a little worried...

It's my work.

One of my colleague is going for maternity leave, leaving just me and my Boss to manage the workload. As I have yet to master most of the required skill set involved at work, I am worried I will be of limited help to my Boss. Poor Boss will need to do most work by herself. Left 2-3 more weeks to learn as much as I can before my colleague goes on leave.

Just hope to quicken my learning for now.

Marine Tank - The one where the Abalone crosses

Family Portrait

All my relatives from my father's side gathered for my ah-ma 80th birthday celebration held at Yunnan View Garden restaurant last night. Even during the planning stage, I had in mind a whole family portrait. It was not the perfect gathering. People were late and conversation were limited. But with God's grace, everything fall in place eventually and we had a whole family picture taken :)

Of Rice Padi Field, Bai Tu Long & Endless Honking

Our Tiger flight brought us to Hanoi on 18th May 2008 (Sunday) 830pm local time. It didn't take long before we cleared the customs and were on our way to the hotel. Vietnam's cheap accommodations allows budget travelers to pamper themselves with great hotel at low prices. Our 3+ stars hotel in Hanoi only cost USD11 per pax per night. And this comes with free internet access right from our hotel room. How nice!

In our 8D7N trip, we visited Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay. We started in Hanoi, made our way to Sapa followed by Halong Bay, before making our way back to Hanoi again.

When we were in HANOI...There were lots of shopping to do in Hanoi. We were all surprised as shopping isn't associated to Vietnam. Things here are really really cheap. They have a large selections of bags, sandals, crafts and silk. You can find "Crumplers", "Roxy", "North Face", "adiddas", "nike" bags here. A decent 30-40L "branded" backpack costs less than S$15. And some are really nice.

While we were in Sapa (North to Hanoi)

Sapa is a mountainous area which is relatively undeveloped. Many tribal people stay in the villages around the town. Their main source of income comes from farming (rice and maize) and from tourism. They weave plenty of stuffs which they go round selling to tourists. You will be easily surrounded if you express the slightest interest in buying.

As part of the Sapa tour, we did some easy trekking around the region. Reflecting back on this trip, the trekking must have been my favourite part. The cool climate means we did our trekking with minimal sweating. Along the way, we had the opportunity to visit the villager's accommodation. It was interesting to see and experience the way they live their daily life. They survive on bare minimum while in contrast we had so much. Despite so, we do not seem to be living a more satisfying life.

Of course we also saw the rice-padi fields. You see them everywhere on the mountain slopes. The terraces are neatly ploughed, watered and seems ready to accept the new batch of rice plants. We even had the chance to trek by the narrow path on the side of the rice field itself. Seems easy, but it was quite a challenge balancing. Well, at least for me. Haha.

We also saw lots of animals. Mostly are farm animals such as buffaloes which help plough the land for rice-planting. The local guide even ask if I want to try. But seeing how big they are and the muddy ground I have to step into, I kindly rejected. I think she might really just let me try if I am on enough.We sure took lots of photos. Some are just for self-amusement sake.

While we were in Halong Long Bay

Like Sapa, we signed on a local tour that would take us to Halong Bay. Consisting of 3D2N, we spent 1 night on a Junk kind of boat and another night in a nearby island hotel. Essentially, we spent half our time on the boat where we cruised round Halong Bay. Oh, and the name of our boat is "Bai Tu Long" which has the meaning of baby of the descending dragon. Halong Bay apparently means descending dragon. We saw several rocks formation along the way, one of which resembles fighting cocks as shown below.

Halong Bay is a UNESCO heritage site. Supposed to be impressive huh. But I tot it was alright. Nothing that spectacular. Just that there are many rocks formation on the bay. Perhaps we were expecting nice bluish water instead of the greenish that we saw. Hah.. In all, Halong Bay did not impress me. But it was some fun spending a night on the Junk itself.

In all, it was nice fun visiting Vietnam for the first time even though Vietnam was not on my travel list previously. Personally, I enjoyed Sapa most. It probably has to do with its cool weather and the vast rice-padi field that you see everywhere. The friendliness of our local guide only makes our experience all the nicer. Like a visit to any developing countries, you can't help but feel the lifestyle contrast when compared to ours. It prompts us to appreciate whatever we have, even for a moment.

Last night in Hanoi

Here I am in my hotel room, enjoying the last night in Hanoi before I fly back tom evening. It has been quite a fulfilling trip with so many pictures taken in Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay.

Tomorrow will probably be some more walking around and shopping before heading to airport for our Tiger flight. Will upload pictures soon.

a bit of flu, a bit of Jaw ache and a bit of headache

Feeling all of the above. But jaw ache dominates. I dunno what caused that. It just appeared one fine day. But the nagging pain has since subside.

I wun want all these to interfere with my Hanoi trip in just one day time. So taking things slow from now til my trip. Rest all I can and be charged for the trip.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning and the rain is falling

As the Maroon 5 song goes.. It was indeed raining earlier on in the day when I was still sleeping. Now the sun is shining and it's a beautiful Sunday morning!

So next Sunday will be my Vietnam trip. U can tell I am anticipating the trip huh. Vietnam is mentioned in all my recent entries. But there are still things I prob need to do. I borrowed a travel guide book to bring along. But i may need a jab or something.. for protection against some virus or wat. So that means I would need to make a trip to the docs to find out more. Either a jab or to get some basic medications. I m not sure if i got the time to...

Anyway, gg to church now. Sunday morning and the sun is shining...

Work & Work & a bit of Fishy thing

Life is pretty much occupied with work these days. Social life has been on the stagnant side lately.

But prob will fit more activities in the coming weeks. And I be jetting off to Hanoi in 12 Days time. Need to read up more on where's where and what's nice. Pretty excited!

Besides drumming, u guys prob know about my the other hobby. Yes, the fish one.
So I finally get some much needed maintenance on my marine tank. Now it looks decent. So here' what I did over the weekend:
1) Bought a new brand of Sea Salt to try which closely recreate the natural mineral contents of sea water. Changed about 2/5 of my tank volume

2) Replaced my lightings. Now they are super bright. Enough to illuminate the entire living room even with ceiling lights off. Yes, super high output.

3) Cleared away thick algae that was growing like thick undergrowth.

4) Bought Phosphate removal to control alage growth.

In all spent quite a bit for this first phase maintenance. Looking forward to further up my tank standard. Photos will follow when the tank is nicer.

My Drumming Milestone

I hit the first milestone in my drumming journey. I passed the Yamaha Drum Grade 10. Thank you God :)

I know my weaknesses (Too rigid, poor rhythm & fill-ins linkage, inconsistent tempo... list can go on) and there is just so much to learn. But because of this small (but important) milestone that I achieved, I will just keep on going and seeking more avenues to better improve my drumming ability.

*Click on the player on the right for my Drum Exam Piece*

Late work + Gym

Have been staying back in office late these days due to the added work load that comes with my new role. But I am not complaining. For the first time, I am learning systematically and experiencing the joy of having mentors. I foresee the exposure I am likely to get in my new role and it gets me excited. However, before all that, I first need to catch up with my technical knowledge.

And I am making effort to make my California Membership worthwhile. I have been going down often these days after my work at about 8-9pm. The gym turned out to be pretty empty, which is good. Less crowd and no waiting for machine.

Tat's pretty much what I been up to these days. Looking forward to Vietnam trip thou :)

Updates

1) Had my internal posting Interview. Wonder how it will go.

update: I got it!

2) Attended a JSS fren's wedding @ Merchant Court. It was a nice evening. Congrats to them!

3) Vietnam Trip confirmed. Be flying on 18th May (Sunday) via Tiger to Hanoi.

My Drum Exam - The Aftermath

I had my drum exam on Monday. It was kind of bad.
1) I was nervous and had a bad start to my first segment. (Exam consists of 4 segments in all)
I missed out the bass right at the beginning. This then caused me to be slightly off the tune even though I got it back quickly. This never was a problem during my usual practice sessions. Must be all the anxiety.

2) One of the other segment didn't go as well. Partly it's my drum instructor's fault. He told us specifically what would be tested, but in the end, that was not tested. A different rhythm was tested and it was a slightly tricky one. I wasn't well prepared and so couldn't execute the sticking coherently. My worst segment.

3) The other 2 went OK IMO. But I guess the first two was bad enough and these two can only help salvage the whole exam.

Overall, I am kind of disappointed. Even if I were to pass this exam (result out 2 weeks later), I know I didn't perform as well. My friend commented I was quite rigid in my playing, which I admit. Dunno the reason, I guess I am too focused on the technical part of drumming (ie. reading notes and making sure I execute all the right stickings) rather than grooving along to the music and enjoying myself drumming away.

I will carry on of course. Ultimately, I would want to be part of a worship band in my church. Just hope I learn to let go of my 'technical' self and learn to let my creativity take over in my drumming and learn from the mistakes along the way.

Jia U!

Dim Sum Dollies

I went to watch Dim Sum Dollies yesterday. This will be my 3rd DSD musical.

Not too bad. Better than the previous one. But I believed it's not their best. Personally enjoyed the segment after the transmission much more. Especially the Japanese soldiers whose parachute got hung on the tree, the convent girls and the Fatimah part. Hossan leong is really talented. He portrayed differeny personality so effortlessly.


Brought my Canon SX100 camera along and snapped a few shots towards the end of the musical. Was pleasantly surprised by the clarity of shot at such a high zoom and despite the total darkness in the theater.



On a different note, I am a member of facebook liao.

The Race

The race route has been revealed more clearly now. With faith I will run.

Let's backpack!

how would backpacking in Vietnam be like?

Update:
4 of us onz for this trip so far and it is tentatively set to be in May, sometime around Vesak day. Most likely we will be touring Hanoi and Halong Bay region in the northern portion of Vietnam. The plan is to apply for leave and upon approval, will be to book the tickets.

Good ol' Sentosa

Weather forecast predicted rain in the afternoon. True enough, rain started drizzling down at 1+pm last Saturday afternoon, the day where my uni friends and I planned for a Sentosa outing. Actually I was prepared to forgo the Sentosa outing for alternate plan. But luckily we carried on with our Sentosa outing, for we had quite a bit of fun in the all too familiar little island.

So what did we do? In a nutshell, we spent the entire time at Siloso beach. Upon reaching, we wasted no time, and started our little adventure. What better way to start the fun than photo taking.

Here's what we did in some greater details:

We played Frisbee. Sometimes, it's the company that makes the difference. Just into our first few throws and all of us were like laughing at the feeble attempts by us all to throw and catch the frisbee til all our stomachs hurt. But it was not long that we got serious and played a good game. Not so much because it was a game well played, but rather its the fun that we had. Of course it was good to sweat it all out since we all hardly make time for exercises due to work and other commitments every other day.

We headed for some ice-cream after Frisbee. Afterwhich, we moved onto the highlight of the trip - an exploration of Sentosa natural shoreline. Whose idea? Mine of course. Haha. Was surfing the internet just the other day and chanced upon a blog entry of a local environmental organization. They were exploring this natural shoreline as one of their event sometime ago. I tot it will be a good idea to try this out, it will show us another side of Sentosa which many of us probably would not know.

Here're some shots from this natural shoreline, located just behind UnderWater World:

Warning Sign

Natural Shoreline of Sentosa

Let's pose with this as background!!


Caves behind us

A closer look at the cave


Francis doing some exploration


Back to Phuket island?


Caught glimpse of a marine organism -Tube Worm

We had a nice time doing some exploration on this unspoilt shoreline. We saw caves, weathered rocks and cliff, marine organisms and ... a different side of Sentosa. If it was low tide, we could have caught sight of corals and more marine creatures. But nonetheless, it was a satisfying experience.

Wed Evening

Due to a last minute tuition cancellation, I found extra time on hand. Hence, decided to go for a night swim. Checked the opening hours online and found that the pool closes at 10pm. Was down 845pm, but realised the tickets vending machines are all offline. Checked with the staff only to realise the pool closes 930pm and that all swimmers must vacate the pool by 9pm. If this is the case, they should state in their website mah! Dampen my mood. But was motivated enough to head home, change into my running attire and ran 3 rounds at my canal.

Just yesterday was down California Fitness for the Body Combat class. It was a high intensity workout, sweating away while boxing/kicking to fast paced music. Certainly feels good to get my engine running again. Gonna keep it up.

Exam

A drum exam that is.

After some hesitation, I decided to sign up for the Yamaha exam scheduled on 10-13 Mar 2008. With an exam in sight, hopefully I will be more diligent in my practice sessions. Afterall, I will get a certificate upon passing the exam and in a way, the money spent on drum lessons will not be seen going down to waste.

For now, I shall practise hard.

Tennis

Last night, I had a tennis session with a few of my Uni friends at HJ's condo. It was a simple game with just the four of us. Simple it was, we had quite a bit of fun. After the tennis game, we went to the gym, which I must say is pretty cool. I would prob not have signed up for my gym membership if I have such an exclusive gym at my doorstep. After our workout, it was dinner at a nearby park restaurant. Dinner was great. There was no sense of rushing, just lazing around chit-chatting over a plate of fruits.


After a hectic day at work, this simple meet-up for a game of tennis and dinner nicely marked the end of the day.

Guangzhou-Guilin Trip 2007

Last December, I was down China for a holiday with my family together with one of my aunt's family. Here're some photos captured during the trip that lasted from 22nd December to 29th December 2008.

2 families - 8 of us

The first highlight of our trip sightseeing was "yu shi lin" or directly translated as Jade forest which is a mountainous area consisting of "yu" which I believe is Jade. These are originally white jade which turned blackish due to the various growth on its surface. We did an one hour walk from the bottom, all the way to the peak.

An attraction of Jade forest is the "one-line sky" or "yi xian tian". Refer to the photos below and look for the circled portion in red. That is the "one-line sky" and was the peak of our hike.

Below are some miscellaneous photos taken throughout this trip. You guys probably know I vomitted and "lao" during this trip. I think it's mild food poisoning, but it jolly well could be the super oily food that somehow turned my stomach upside down.
Talking about food, here are some shots of the food we had. It looks decent? Good? Actually no. It may be delicacies to the locals or some others, but certainly not to my liking.

See the 4 instant noodles photo below? Tat was what I had with my sis and 2 other cousins back in hotel on the last night. Not too sure for them, but it was one of the more enjoyable meal I had for the 8 days trip.


Conclusion: Unless I know there will be jaw dropping sceneries that would make me stand in awe for a few seconds or something like that, I would like to give any China trip a miss in the near future.