Shop shop shop...

I went shopping with xing wei for chinese new year clothes today; it’s becoming our annual event. last year we also went shop for chinese new year clothes. we went walk walk around vivo city looking for shirts and t-shirts. i was looking more for t-shirts but all the shirts look so nice, especially this long sleeve shirt from topman but it was too expensive so decided not to buy. xing wei got a polo t-shirt from topman coz he got this $20 voucher. eventually i bought 2 t-shirt, a brown t-shirt from freshbox and an off white one from nike bird. i was quite disappointed when the cashier told me my bird member card is no longer entitled to the 10% off items purchase but nvm the item was already on 30% off. xing wei got the exact same nike t-shirt as me too, we seem to have somewhat similar taste. i was quite tempted to buy a pair of leather shoes because i could get it at 50% off as xw was buying a pair and the next pair will be 50% off but i have 1 already so no, save money. then we went to tangs and xw bought a pair of brown onizuka tiger shoes and i bought a pair of red addidas sneakers. we were looking around after that and realized zara got some really nice jackets and both of us fell in love with this dark brown one that cost $215. xw actually wanted to buy it but i ask him better think 3 times before buying. by then it was dinner time and there were 2 choices kopitiam or banquet, since banquet got less people inside we went in, then we stop. every table that was occupied was by Ms, we immediately spun on our heels and walk to kopitiam. before we walk in, this kolo mian shop caught our eyes and we decided to eat there. all i can say is that we just had a bowl of high class wan ton mee. we bought the highly recommended abalone wan ton mee that cost $8.90 a bowl. very extravagant but its quite nice, the mian is very bouncy and the elasticity is just nice and they gave a very generous helping of the ingredients. the char siew is nicely roasted, got 6 wanton, 3 slices of abalone and 2 very fresh prawns. it'd be nice if they gave more noodles though, then i won't be hungry now while i'm blogging. after vivo, we went to compass point coz i wanted to buy more contact lens and make a new pair of specs. i tried on several pair but i didn't like them, i picked a dark blue half framed one and ask for opinion from everyone, all the optician and xw said it was nice and suddenly this lady who was also a buying customer commented that i look very nice in it too, wow how can i not take that pair so i got it. then its home i went, i need rest, i was coughing the entire day, at times attracting weird stares coz i was coughing too loudly. time to sleep...

Go the distance - Clay Aiken

The Father and the Son stepped out
Looked down at the world below
A distant world where sin-strong arms
Had struck a fatal blow
There had to be a sacrifice
Across the lonely hill
Someone had to span the globe
So Jesus said I will

I will go the distance
I will go that far
I will give up everything
to bring them where you are
Even tho I could choose the path of least resistance
Father I will take the cross
I will go the distance

To think about His sacrifice
Leaves me with a choice to make
So many stand just out of reach
With eternity at stake
I can be the go-between
Who walks the extra mile
If just one should find The Way
Then it's been worth the while

I will go the distance
I will go that far
I will give up everything
to bring them where you are
Even tho I could choose the path of least resistance
Father I will take the cross
I will go the distance

I will go the distance
I will go that far
I will give up everything
to bring them where you are
Even tho I could choose the path of least resistance
Father I will take the cross
I will go the distance

Father I will take the cross
I will go the distance

Too much party...

So many parties to go to, so little time, lots of oily and heaty food, not enough sleep, put all of them together and you got the formula for getting sick which unfortunately i know all too well. arghh.. i am sick... i lost my sense of smell and taste and its time to use my imagination once again. i meant to blog about yao long's party which i went to last saturday but was quite sick so i only got to write about it today when i'm feeling a little better. yao long ask me along to wild wild wet in the morning before his party at night, he have one last ticket and he thought of me, how sweet right? well at least until he told me he needed me to 'handle' his girlfriend's 2 other friends who are coming along so he can have 2 people world with his gf. anyway it was my first time at www and i thought it was pretty ok, kind of fun actually. i especially like the samsung U shape slide which i felt was the most most scary of all the rides, it was literally a 'balls shrinking' experience. initially we wanted to stay at www till 4pm but it rained at around 2pm and they had to close the place for safety reasons. back at the chalet, his sis wanted to return bicycles which she and her friends rented but it was raining, since yao long and me were already wet we offered to return it for them and i went cycling in the rain again. stupid yao long immediately grab the 1 seater bicycle leaving me with the other one that is meant for 2 people, i don't know what that bicycle is call. it was quite heavy but manageable. while happily cycling, i suddenly smell animal dung, then i heard yao long cursing and i realized why. in front of us was a horse, i almost fell off my bicycle, i never knew there were horses in pasir ris park! looks like its a place for some horse riding or something like that. anyway we managed to return the bicycles and safely returned back to the chalet. i didn't get any present for yao long so i told him i'd offer my services, i helped him set up the bbq pit and cooked the food, since he was celebrating his birthday and his gf one as well, there were truck load of guest and i was churning out plates after plates of bbq food like some mad man, damn shag, my t-shirt was drenched from my own sweat. i took a break after his friends had finished eating and they said they wanted to bbq some food for themselves. finally i could go get some food and take a break. then after that i was the camera man, i went around taking photos of the party and all the other shots of friends with the birthday couple. however i didn’t stay till the end of the party coz i have church the next day and i have to teach the sunday school kids, on the way home yao long sms me and said thanks for making his birthday so wonderful and that helping him the entire day was the best gift he could ever receive, how touching... so remember, the best present may not be the most expensive or the nicest looking, it just have to come from the heart.

Daniel...

The message for service today was on integrity, it was taken from the book of Daniel. since the start of this year, the sermon every sunday has been addressing my questions for the week, it’s amazing how God works. i was asked about love last week and God answered, this week i come across the sadness of this society and the resistance to conform to it and God answered it through the book of Daniel. many a times, as a Christian i come under heavy scrutiny and am often judge by people. to be a little more precise, i have been ridiculed because of my believes and my faith. In this current age we are living in where morality and integrity are something which is not uphold much anymore, many of us i'm sure have come to a point somewhere in our life where we are in a dilemma and do not know which way to choose, the right way or the easy, beneficial, unrighteous way. i must admit, i have taken the much enticing ways of the devil many times in my life, the outcome is satisfying but the aftermath is devastating. Peer pressure is one of the key factors in our path towards the tainted, we are influenced largely by the group of people we interact with and we submit to the dark side because we do not want to be left out or disappoint our friends. however, should we be afraid to disappoint our friends or be afraid of who is the one really disappointed. Then there is Daniel, this is a guy that is not a stranger to me, my dad told me stories of him ever since i was young, Daniel and the lion's den, his friends and the furnace, etc. it never impacted me much until today, i finally realized how righteous Daniel was, how much he uphold his integrity that no matter the outcome, his faith is strong and he believes in the God he worshipped. even when his life was at stake, he refused to acknowledge or do anything that will disappoint his God. that is the faith of Daniel, that is his integrity and his resolve. i encourage everyone to go read the book of Daniel to find out more. i know i am far from the ways of Daniel, i have many flaws but i want to try to be more like him, to put my God first above all else and to honour him for all i am worth. society and the rest of your peers may conform to this wicked world but i know i will not, i am a child of God, an adversary of his teachings, we are his soldiers of the light.

"Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God." Daniel 3:28

As always from my book, this is a story on boldness,

"In 1998 a pastor by the name of Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate in prayer. Instead of the political correct prayer that everyone expected they got a passionate plea for the nation to be brought to repentance. Some of the legislators were so incensed they walked out as the pastor prayed. here is the prayer in its entirety.
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. we know your word says 'woe to those who call evil good', but that's exactly what we have done. we have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. we confess that. we have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism. we have endorsed perversion and called it an alternate lifestyle. we have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. we have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. we have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. we have killed our unborn and called it a choice. we have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. we have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. we have abused power and called it political savvy. we have coveted our neighbour's possessions and called it ambition. we have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. we have ridiculed the time-honoured values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you to govern this great state. grant them the wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the centre of your will. I ask this in the name of your Son, the living saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen."

Yakitori...

Hahahaha... finally, finally i was able to complete my swim today! it didn't rain when i jumped into the pool, in fact the sun was scorching today. i went at 12 noon and there was very very little clouds in the sky, no way was it gonna rain, unless by some divine act of nature or maybe i have some hidden powers unknown to me where by it rains everytime i wanna go swim. anyway the weather was perfect and i was happily frolicking in the water. while i was playing wow today, one of my friends msg me and ask if i wanna join them for dinner coz he and another guy were in singapore for a short trip, its kinda hard to keep saying he and his friend etc, so i shall type their in game nick, bantai and hyuganas are both in town for a few days and they say they wanna meet me when they are in sg so since i got no dinner plans i decided to go meet them. btw both of them are indo-chinese and are now on some holiday. i have no idea how they look like, bantai told me to look for him, he was in grey cap and white t-shirt so i reckoned he won't be that hard to spot and i was right, saw him the moment he came to centerpoint. we then went to the building beside centerpoint to a japanese restaurant. the moment i step in, my mind went, "siao liao" this is gonna cost me a bomb. all the people that were there are all business executives, all look so rich to me. then i opened the menu, mouth almost drop on the floor, ok relax relax, chill chill, take deep breadths, stay calm look for the cheapest thing and it didn't make things any easier with such a complicated menu. ah ha! $3.20! i'm gonna order this, now to see what is it.... its its.... a cup of ICE TEA! omg almost drop the menu. ok ok, lets see what the others are ordering, i realized the restaurant specializes in yakitori, the japanese kind of satay i think and they have a huge variety of them hence the multiple page menu. they were just ordering like it was 10 cents a plate, i could only stare in awe.

bantai: "so aaron, what would u like?"
me: "err.. err... (how about a cup of ice water?)"
bantai: "go ahead order what u like, the beef is nice."
me: "err... err... (i have only $4 in my wallet! what can i order!)"
me: "alright, alright i'll have a plate of beef balls"

waitress: "sorry that is a stick not a plate, its $4 a stick, how many u wan?"
me(with my most calm voice): "(bloody hell, this better be worth it) i'll have 2 please and that'd be all for now"
bantai: "can we have a bowl of rice each as well."
me: "(omg die... i'll have to eat grass the next week liao, weeps silently inside)"

honestly, i have to admit the food was pretty good, but the portion was miserable, utterly horrible. i wasn't even half full and the bill totaled to about $140+ but luckily bantai paid for it, he just whipped out 3 $50 notes and paid for our dinner. thank God man, i dunno where to put my face with $4. then they wanted to go clubbing and ask me go along, i don't go club one but they want me go with them, then i just eat dinner and run also not good, but i really don wanna go, so no choice i had to lie and say i meeting some other friends. then they ask me join them after that, wa peng, its hard being so lovable, people can't get enough of you. They are meeting again tomorrow for lunch before flying home and ask me join them again. haha...

Burning Crusade...

This is it, the day that the world has been eagerly awaiting. today is the official launch of the expansion to blizzard's world of warcraft (wow), the burning crusade. it was released to singapore at 1pm at suntec today, i went there with benjy and some of his guild mates to collect the game. the queue was ultra long, extending to the outside of suntec, snaking round and round. fortunately we met one of benjy's friends who were already in the queue since early morning and i didn't have to wait long to get my copy of it. honestly if we were to queue i think it will take at least 2h before we even step into suntec itself. it was interesting to see so many people gathered together at that area but the other areas of suntec were very very empty. i saw parents coming with their kids, i wonder who is the one playing or maybe they are all playing. i didn't stay for long after getting my game, too many people, too horribly crowded so benjy and me wiggled our way out of the crowd and home we went, clutching on to our copy of the game like our lives depended on it. when i reached home, i decided to go swimming while i am installing the game and what a joke it was. it was nice and sunny when i went downstairs, so i happily jumped into the pool and started swimming. i swam like only 2 laps when it suddenly, i stressed again suddenly became super dark, the sky was overcast. the next moment, it was raining cows and donkeys. ok, nevermind go home play game so i got out of the pool and went home. so after bathing, i draw opened my curtains and stare in utter horror at the sight before me. it was bright and sunny, the rain had completely stopped. i really think God don wan me to go swimming, its been like that since monday already. oh well, at least i can play game...

here is a little story on the Bible...
'A father was approached by his small son, who told him proudly, 'i know what the Bible means!'
his father smiled and replied, 'what do you mean, you 'know' what the bible means?'
The son replied, 'i do know!'
'OK' said his father. 'so son, what does the Bible mean?'
'That's easy, daddy. it stands for "Basic Information Before Leaving Earth".'

On love...

Ah... the magical 4 letter word that make hearts flutter or send others flying out the window. Something everyone need and can never live without but many have no clue what it really is, so what is this mysterious phenomenon call love? Oxford English dictionary defines love as 'a warm liking or affection' and the bible in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5 says that 'Love is patient, love is kind. it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, its not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.' in fact read the whole of chapter 13, it has a very powerful meaning to the word love. if we want to be precise, there are many forms of love in this world, family love, love between friends, love for that special some one. however, all these fall under the greatest love of all - the love of Christ.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Which brings us back to the question, what really is love? from what i have stated thus far, to really love some one, you must be ready to give up your life for that person. are you willing to do that? i know i will for all those i love, now is that selfish? i honestly dare say that i will not die for a total stranger, But Jesus did just that, he didn't just sacrificed his life for his family or disciples, he died for everyone, he died to save people he has never met, for you and me. hence we are given life, what we do with this life is in our hands. i'm only human, i take a life time to learn and even if i use my entire life to learn, i can never fathom the love of Christ. but i know what i can do, i can learn to be more like Him, to love as he did, as he command: to love each other as I have loved you. For at the end of our journey, our way to heaven is not earn by how much money we have, how many cars we own or how much donations we make to charities, it has already been given to us, its just up to us to accept it. in this short life we have on earth, there is not enough time to even love, so put all your hate and grudges away and start by loving those close to you. In everything we do, if we do not do it with love there is no meaning to it.

This is another story i took from my book,
"Dr Robert Seizer, in his book Mortal Lessons: Notes in the Art of Surgery, tells a remarkable story of performing surgery to remove a tumour in which it was necessary to sever a facial nerve, leaving a young woman's mouth permanently twisted in palsy. In Dr Seizer's own words: Her young husband is in the room. he stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. who are they, i ask myself, he and his wry-mouth i have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily? the young woman speaks, 'will my mouth always be like this?' she asks. 'yes, it will' i said. 'it is because the nerve was cut.' she nods, and is silent. but the young man smiles. 'i like it,' he says, 'its kind of cute.' all at once i know who he is. i understand, and i lower my gaze. one is not bold in an encounter with God. unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and i, so close, can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works."

Some thoughts...

just got to talk to priscilla a moment ago, haven't talk to her in ages coz of her circumstances but it was nice just catching up a bit. i thought she never read my blog anymore but was surprised that she still reads it once in a while. maybe i should have been a little less lazy and continued to blog after july last year, i felt i let my adoring fan/s down. But since some one demands a new entry everyday, so i guess there will be one everyday from now if not i will get whack. pray that i don't get eaten up by Burning Crusades which is launching in 3 days time! i realized one can actually learn a lot about my life from my entries, i don't seem to hold back a lot when blogging partly because there are only 4 lucky people who actually knows about my blog. anyway pris said some stuff to me just now that i agree with, she told me that if i ever find a gf, she must best be a Christian, dad told me that too and i must agree. I’m glad you shared with me some stuff, i know i can't do anything to help you coz I’m gonna make it worse, so here is a little prayer for you...

"Dear God,
I pray that pris will always have You in her heart, she will be the source of Your love in her family. she will lead her love ones to You and walk in Your light. i wanna pray that you bless her r/s with her bf and that they will glorify Your name all the time, that u help with her burdens and whatever obstacles she may have in her r/s. Thank you God for this friend. Amen."

Yay... =)

So here i am typing another entry for dear yehong. i made a cheese cake yesterday and pass it to her to try. of all the people that ate my cake, she gave me the best compliments. she said i bought it from angie the choice. wow to be compared to angie, thanks so much. i'm really glad everyone like my cake, its really vey encouraging receiving all those compliments. yehong was so touched that she actually cried. Thanks yehong...

Rain, cycling and cheesecake...

This is the third time this week i got drenched. i was talking to zhang wei today and he said he wanted to try my cheesecake, so i cycle to his place to pass him some to try. i was damn happy when he said it was very nice! he kept saying it was very nice so much so that he wanted to learn how to make it as well. so we cycled to the nearby prime supermarket and source for the ingredients but could only find a few, i told him i got my ingredients from NTUC, so we cycled all the way to tampines mall to get the stuff. mind you it was raining the whole while, we got weird stares from people we passed by when cycling, it didn't get any better when we were in tm, 2 drenched cocksters walking around tm was a sight for sore eyes and it was freezing! initially i thought those hand dryers where u put your hand in were pretty cool, but now i prefer the old ones, at least i can put my head under them to dry my hair. after getting the necessary ingredients, we went for dinner hoping that the rain will stop or at least get lighter after we eat, it got heavier instead. and we were both dry already, now have to cycled back in the rain. zhang wei came over to my house to bake coz his home don't have the necessary equipment. ok by now, most people would squirm in their seats and their gay alarm would start ringing. zhang wei is the best friend i made in army, the only one i will go the extra mile for. we been through a lot together in the army, joys and sufferings we share are etched deep into our minds. he is a year older then me so he ord earlier, we didn’t really contact until today coz i guess he was busy with school and stuff but meeting him today, it was as if we just met yesterday. my army life was pleasant because i made such a friend.

i found some nice friendship/love quotes in my box of delights,

'If you live to be a hundred, i want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so i never have to live without you.' - Winnie the Pooh

'True love is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.' - Charles Colton

'Don't walk in front of me, i may not follow. Don't walk behind me, i may not lead. walk beside me and be my friend.' - Albert Camus

On Money...

Some say its the root of all evil, others say it makes the world go round. i say they are all true. many have claimed that health is wealth and no amount of money can buy happiness. tell that to the homeless, tell that to the sick who don't have money to even buy medicine. its a practical world we live in and as bad as it sounds, good health and happiness stem from having at least some green dough. the world today is cruel and this is not the first time i'm saying it, even with my little time on this earth, i have learnt and seen first hand when she shows her ugly side. don't get me wrong, this world has its redemming qualities else i'd be in mental hospital or even dead by now. before i digress further, no man in our time can survive without some glitter. its a materialist and practical society we live in, lets talk about finding a partner or most would commonly know it as marriage, some might even say its the beginning of the end. there is no such thing as some one loving you so much that even if you are a beggar, they'd still be willing to spend their life with you. honestly ask yourself, would you want to spend your life with some one with no job, no status, no money. if your answer is yes, then you are a candle of hope for this world or you have been reading too many fairy tales. love can only bring you this far, the rest is up to how you manage your finance. i cannot stress further how many vows were broken because of the $ factor. i was talking to yehong a while ago and she went like 'pls loh, you haven't even start making $ yet...' yea, it sucks to know that i still have a long way to go before i can be financially independent. i don't need to be reminded that as each day pass, the prospect of losing bread is getting higher. no matter how i run or hide, i know i cannot escape this grim reality. i will remember what i promise myself, i will remember what i have learnt the past 2 years. i was watching prison break just now and one of the characters resorted to stealing so that he can have enough money to be with his girlfriend. however he got caught and soon after his girlfriend was lured to his much richer cousin. But one thing he said left a mark, "your money cannot buy you everything." i hope and pray that i can find some one that is true and as dad said of the same yoke. i think i'm too tired, i think my inner demons are acting up again, i'm thinking too much and too deep again. i better go sleep before i start thinking nonsense again...

Cheesecake...

Ah... finally can sit down and write something for my adoring fan/s. if not wait someone complain i never blog again. my feet are killing me, went out the whole day today. i went sim lim square in the morning with benjy, he wanted to get a new hard disk, so while i was there, i went around and check out the price difference of the 3 more famous shops, i shall not list them out as i'm not paid to advertise for them, but for seasoned sim lim square roamers, you should know what i'm talking about. since i was so nice to accompany benjy to sim lim, i made him accompany me to go book my final theory test for driving. there is something wrong with their system, i was told my account with them expired on july 05 and i have to renew it. alright sure, i pay a small fee and my account is reactivated for another 2 years. sounds normal right? here's the catch, my 2 years started 1 and a half years ago, which means my account will expire july 07! what nonsense, i renew my account today and its gonna expire in 6 months. i didn't have much of a choice since i wanna take my final theory asap. my test date is on 27 feb, hopefully can pass and please pray for me. i shared a cab with benjy home coz it was pouring like crazy and also coz benjy wanted to rush home to fix his hard disk. when i got home, mom and sis wanted to go eat dinner and they ask me go with them, since i needed to go get my stuff for baking, i went along. i was able to get everything from NTUC except gelatine powder, now that was pretty frustrating, so mom brought me to her favourite baking shop in simei and there you have it, gelatine powder! now this i have to advertise, you can get all your baking needs satisfied at a shop call Phoon Huat in simei, its very near the mrt station and very convenient. for baking gurus out there, the brand phoon huat is synonymous with sim lim for computer geeks. it was still raining super heavily all this time and since mom only brought 1 umbrella out, i was wet through out most of the evening. i started baking my strawberry cheesecake once i got home, it was really nice baking with mom, dad even helped me crushed some of the biscuits. i learnt a lot of stuff again from mom today. now my cheesecake is sitting in the fridge, pray pray that it will turn out nice to the eyes and mouth as well in the morning.

After clearing up, dad told us that uncle paul is not at the pink of health lately, his sickness is acting up again and we must pray had hard for him. his daughter is only 12 this year and it totally sucks if you have to grow up with only 1 parent. maybe we were all together and the time was right, we had a little family talk. i know something must be wrong if dad was this serious, he looked troubled as he was talking to us. topics of our future came up, dad talk to sis and me about finding the right partner and we must always walk with God and some other stuff. i felt the most pressing issue is money, this is not the first time that this problem has arised, but every time God was there to provide for my family. sigh must really pray hard hard this time, just hold on a little more till i can come out to work. please God just a little more...

Here is the joke for today, this i personally found it quite funny, its on Alcohol...

"A preacher was completing a temperance sermon: with great expression he said, ' if i had all the beer in the world, i'd take it and throw it into the river.'
With even greater emphasis he said, ' and if i had all the wine in the world, i'd take it and throw it into the river.'
And then finally, he said, ' and if i had all the whisky in the world, i'd take it and throw it into the river.'
He sat down. The song leader then stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, ' for our closing song, let us sing Hymn 365: "shall we gather at the river?." '

Genova...

In case anyone is wondering, that’s the name of my bicycle. No, I did not give it a name, it has a sticker on it with genova so hence. anyway, I finally brought my bicycle out after so long to cycle again. its kind of in a bad shape so I brought it to the shop for some maintenance, readjusting and inflating the wheels, oiling the chains and tightening the brakes. Then I went for a little cycle around the neighbourhood. earlier in the day, I was studying the street directory on the routes that we took yesterday while at bedok reservoir park. wanting to redeem myself, I cycled back there to familiarise myself with the roads, it was a very nice journey, with the wind in my face and the absence of large crowds. I didn't stay for long as it was getting dark and I didn't bring my light. while on the way home, I met Titus’s (my neighbour) mom, she told me Titus has signed up to go on board Doulos, initially he was suppose to go with his friend but now, his friend cannot make it. she asks me to call Titus and ask for more information if I wanted to go. so I did, I called him and he told me briefly about the plans. he sent me the application forms and told me must faster submit if I want to go, it takes a super long time to process. i'm still thinking whether I should go or not, its not like a 1 week camp or trip, i'd have to go for 2 months and then there is the money factor as well. oh well, think think...

anyway here is another joke or rather this one is more of a story, it’s on adoption. its kind of heart warming and makes you go awwww, so enjoy...

" A class of junior school children were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had different colour hair from the other family members in the picture. One child suggested that he was adopted and a little girl said, ' I know all about adoptions because I was adopted.'
'what does it mean to be adopted?' asked another child.
'it means,' said the girl, 'that you grew in your mummy's heart instead of her tummy.' "

Block 85...

I finally went to the famous hawker center in bedok more commonly known as block 85 hawker center. go ahead call me sua gu, turtle or whatever, but honestly it was my first time. i stay so near there, heard so much about it on tv, from friends but i've never been there until yesterday. i went there for supper with yehong, i wanted to try the famous bak chor mee but it was close so never mind, move on and i realized well practically every stall is famous. they either have photos of some celebrities posing with their stall or some nice award given to them. however most of the stalls were closed as it was like 12am already. i went around the hawker center looking at all the various stalls, hopping to find this particular prawn noodle stall but to no avail, maybe i should try in the morning when they are all open. why this particular stall? back when i was in sec school, i always catch the first bus 69 from my place to bedok interchange and every morning i would meet this elderly couple at the bus stop. over time i got acquainted with them and found out they were selling prawn noodle at block 85, they told me if i was ever there, i must go find them and they will treat me eat. maybe i might go there to eat in the morning next time. however i did come across Louis’s dad western food stall, Pete’s grill but it was also closed. so after eating, i suggested we walk back to yehong's place, to walk off that supper we just ate. Haven't walk like this in the still of the night in a very long time, not counting those i did in the jungle where i can't even see my own hands. anyway, we discovered lots of places that was previously unknown to us, sounds sci-fi but i thought we step into another dimension. in short, we got hopelessly lost. well it didn't get any better when it started to pour, i wouldn't mind walking in the rain, in fact it was yehong who suggested it, it would have been awesome and all if not for the fact that i have a laptop stuff under my t-shirt. now my t-shirt is at least 2 size bigger so next time when i'm wearing my orange fila t-shirt, feel free to pass me things things to stuff under it. anyway, we did manage to get home eventually, as quoted from yehong, " the earth is round, we'll get there one day." now i'm just praying that she won't curse me for wanting to walk home. =p

as i was rummaging through my cupboard a while ago, i came across this book which i bought in church some years back, its call a box of delight. it has some of the funniest and wittiest sermon and preaching jokes collected by the authors. so i decided to include some jokes for every entry i post now. here is the first one, its on Atheism.

" A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist. She asks her class if they are atheists too. Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands shoot into the air. There is, however, one exception. A beautiful girl named Lucy has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different.
'Because i'm not an atheist.'
'Then, asks the teacher, ' what are you?'
'i'm a Christian.'
The teacher is a little perturbed now , her face slightly red. She asks Lucy why she is a Christian.
' Well, i was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mum is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, i also accepted Christ as my personal saviour and i am a Christian.'
The teacher is now angry.
' That's no reason,' she says loudly. 'what if your mum had been a moron, and your dad had been a moron. what would you be then?'
After a pause, and a smile.
'Then,' says Lucy, ' i'd be an atheist.' "

The calling...

I believe everything in life happens for a reason, God has a plan and when the time is right, He will show you the path. All my life i've been a Christian, I do my best not to sin and I confess them if I do. I say my prayers before my meals and I thank God everyday. thats what I thought being a Christian is. I never serve in any ministry in church, I have not even bring 1 person to Christ yet. I brought friends to church before only because I was told to do so, it was never my own initiative. I avoided joining YPM service like plague coz I find it too troublesome. To me, going to church every Sunday was enough, I thought I met my criteria as a Christian. A few weeks ago, after service ended, I went for lunch with mel, samuel and john. Samuel was asking if there was any area in church he could serve in. I went " wow why the sudden enthusiasm?" and he replied all my life i've been a Christian but have never really contributed, I wanna do something for God. That was kind of surprising to me so as I probe further, I discovered he just came back from a church camp organized by his girlfriend's church. he told me he received his calling there, he was touched and he wanted to do something.

I believe on this date, 07/01/07, I received my calling. before I touch on that, I wanna first elaborate how this day came about. As I mentioned above, everything happens for a reason. I believe meeting yehong on Christmas eve was no mere coincident. I dare say God had a hand in that. dad called me down to the clubhouse for some caroling session organized by my uncle's church but I was upstairs playing game with my cousin. I immediately dismiss the idea of going down for some mundane caroling. however, they said we will cut cake first and mom asks me to bring some containers down as well. as it was my cousin's mom birthday, it'd be rude not to go so I went down, meeting yehong. Now there is nothing surprising about meeting someone again after a long time, I met many friends whom I haven't seen in ages before but we never stayed in contact. it was different with yehong, not only did we stay in contact till now, but I also realized what a fantastic Christian she is. (ok yehong if your reading this I bet you'll go no la I’m nothing compared to etc etc) I shall not dwell into details about how much she loves God but what I want to say is that I was truely inspired. I look at myself in disgust and ask what have I ever done in my life for God, I never had the determination to leave my comfort zone to help others. I promise myself 2007 will be a life changing year.

Which brings us back to today. I never felt so happy waking up for church today. I was not tired even though I slept for about 4h only. today's praise and worship brought a tear to my eye, it hasn't happen in a long while and the sermon touched the deep recesses of my heart. one thing that stuck with me is, if God has chosen you to do his work, who are you to be so arrogant as to say that you are not befitting for it. the sermon called out to us to make disciples, to serve God. Then samuel ask me out of the blue, "Hey Aaron, you wanna come with me to help out in Sunday school next week?" without hesitation, I leaped at the opportunity. "so where do I sign up?" there is no way I can turn a blind eye anymore after all that God has shown me. As of now I still have much to learn before I can start teaching Sunday school, but I know in time, i'll teach all the little kids in Sunday school what I have learnt.

From meeting yehong to the sermon to samuel asking me to teach to this first Sunday of the year, I dare say a little miracle has happened...

Songs of life...

Heres something i found on my friend's blog which i found to be quite interesting.

Here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie

Opening Credits: 爱你不是三天 - 梁靜茹
i have no idea why my opening credits is a love song.

Waking Up: Guan bu guan - S.H.E
the song talks about not caring about another or something like that. well i guess i don't really care if i wake up or not.

First Day At School: Cinderella's tears - penny dai (i think)
ok fine, got me this time. i cried like hell when i went to kindergarden. my nanny had to stand outside the classroom for the entire lesson. No idea why cinderella though.

Falling In Love: kai bu liao kou - jay chou
hmmm... i never did tell any girl i like her before. i will always just be in her midst and be there for her.

Breaking Up: 龙圈风 - 周杰伦
well, base on my one experience with this, i'd say its a torrent of relentless feelings thrashing about in me. its quite appropriate.

Prom: 子彈列車 - 林俊傑
No idea what this song actually means. its a very rap song. i guess i can say that my life in jc was as fast as a bullet train?

Life's OK: Perfect - Simple Plan
Need i say more?

Driving: More to this life - clay aiken
there is more to life than driving? i haven't get my driving lisence yet so maybe when i get it i'll realized there is more to life than driving? no link...

Getting Back Together: I wanna grow old with you - Westlife
I'm not sure about any getting back together, but this is a song i will sing to my wife. i love this song, if u haven't heard it yet, i can send it to u.

Wedding: Muo Tian lun - S.H.E
interesting wedding i'm gonna have... i'm not complaining.

Birth of Child: ni yao de ai - Penny Dai
i think its more of a love my wife and i wants, not just one person. we both have to agree first before having a child.

Final Battle: 回到过去 - 周杰伦
wow, might be an epic battle with my past. face my inner demons.

Death Scene: If You Want My Love - 顺子
"if you wan my love, if u wan my joy, if u wan my body..."
ok... i'll leave it to your imagination.

Funeral Song: 棋子 - 王菲
its quite a sad song, the lyrics are very thought provoking. fairly appropriate i must say. it goes something like i am just a chess piece, move me and thats where i'll go. indeed i hope God will take me and place me where i am needed. My life is in you God... works better if it was my opening credits but its ok here too.

End Credits: Rock this country - Shania Twain
hahaha... i'm gonna rock this country. everyone will remember me after i die! i'm gonna be a great person! =p

Gotta catch'em all...

Sigh... in today’s episode of pokemon, Ash lost to Tyson in the quarterfinals of the ho-en league. I wasn't expecting that at all, thought he should have a better chance of winning since the final match off was between ash's pikachu and Tyson’s meowth.i mean common, that pikachu has been with him for like 8 years already! it should be like level 800 or something but noooooo it lost to a stupid cat, how disappointing. whats worse, tyson went on to win the ho-en league itself, all of these in just one episode. what are the producers thinking. Pokemon, one of the many things that played a significant role in my life. I remember first playing pokemon on my gameboy back when I was in secondary 1. at that time pokemon was super duper IN, every kid that has a gameboy will definitely be playing pokemon. your not cool if you don't play pokemon! we would bring our gameboys to school and battle each other's pokemon every morning before school starts. then there was pokemon trading card game, now that was really fun, or at least I though so. I sold one card to my friend for $30, that was one of the rarest card around, so proud of myself. I even thought my sis how to play but she very lousy then no fun at all, so I had marathon conversation with ka over the phone challenging him to pokemon cards. I still have all my cards in my cupboard, they always bring a smile to my face everytime I look through them.

Its the year 2007, where all the babies that popped out in 1986 turns 21. I already started receiving invites to parties. the long awaited year, the passage into adulthood and one step closer towards your coffin. Go ahead call me a wet blanket but I don't understand what all the hullabaloo is about. well to me its just another year, another birthday, another number. don't get me wrong, birthdays are great, its definitely a day worth celebrating, unless your hitler or something where people curse the day your were born. and I am glad I received invitation to my friend's party, at least they still remember me. For me, I’d celebrate my 21st birthday just like how I celebrated any other birthday, at home with my mom, dad and sis. its a simple affair, I get to order what I wanna eat and mom will cook it, thats her present for me. no fancy parties, no great buffet, just my family sitting down together and enjoying a home cooked meal. thats my idea of a great day. however, I am looking forward to my friend's parties and will take that opportunity to meet up with old friends and catch up with each other.

Memory lane...

I was browsing through some of my photos today and all of it brought back bitter sweet memories of my JC life. Many have said that we should look ahead and not dwell on the past, I shall go against the many and let myself indulge just this once in moments of my JC life which has made me who I am today. I had no idea why I went to a jc, I guess I was just following the crowd, the mainstream life of a student in singapore and eventually go to a nice university. I was lucky to have got into mj with a lot of my friends, a lot of us came from tk and well I had no problem with friends on the first day of school. I wrote once that friends come and go as the tide ebb and flow, many will appear but who are those who has left foot prints in your heart? I know I have these few great friends I can count on, its nothing great but these are the people who I have shared many joy and suffering with and we are still in contact. xing wei and me made a promise that 5 years after we graduated we will go back to claim our treasure.

To complete my little trip down memory lane today, I decided to run to mj. its been a really long time since I did that, I use to cycle to school every morning. The last time I step into mj was on results day, I was hesitating whether I should take a walk inside but in the end I went in for a drink at the water cooler. wow was I spoilt for choice, it use to be only 1 water cooler and now there are 5! these kids are getting so pampered. now back to my decision, which one should I choose? they all look so good so eventually, I drank from all of them. everyone was in the hall today because the j1 are having their orientation. I ran back after resting for a bit. then I remembered I have to meet li heng for dinner at 6pm but I dunno what time it was so I asked a lady at the bus stop for the time and it was 5.50pm already! I had like halfway more of distant to cover before reaching home and I didn't bring my ez-link card coz my shorts got no pocket so run la... run faster! I almost got knocked down by this stupid taxi, I was going to cross the zebra crossing and this taxi didn’t stop, it just drove right through, lucky I manage to stop in time if not the driver must spend money on repairing his taxi. then I almost fall down, got this muddy patch in front of me and I thought I could jump over it but apparently my legs a bit short and I slipped on the mud but thank God never fall down, if not some one will laugh at me liao. I reached home and immediately rush out to meet lh for dinner.

I was reading some of my old blog entries and came across this comment left by some one who I don't even know! this girl left a comment on my "its time to check" entry, saying she has learnt a lot from it. I am glad that entry helped her. yehong reminded me of POP tarts (must say POP loudly and sharply) today, I first got to know about POP tarts when I saw my friend eating it in camp. I went " wow where did u get those?" he told me its a US product but can be bought some where in singapore also. I forgot where that some where is, so I shall go on a quest to find POP tarts! must...... find...... POP tarts.........

Me no dumb dumb, you dumb dumb...

thats right, I went to watch "Night at the museum" with yehong today. it was a pretty good show with a simple story line. Ben stiller was awesome as always. however i felt that there were too many actors for such a short and simple story thus resulting in the actors not being able to showcase their full talent. On hind sight, i felt the "coming to life characters at night" to be much more amusing. Overall it was a great show with a good amount of humour and an even dose of heart warming moments. So anyway before the show, i was walking around vivocity with yehong and just talking and talking. i must really thank God so much for this great day, haven't felt so free in a long long time. its like the weight of my burdens was lifted and the chains holding me snapped, i felt free. Talking to yehong was fantastically funny, i can't remember when was the last time i laugh so hard just by talking. Come to think of it, i doubt anyone has got to know so much about me in a day, from weird things i do when i was young to weird things i do now. i'm divulging too much secrets! Many a times we would talk talk talk then end up forgetting where we suppose to go to then we keep turning and turning. i blame it on vivocity's lousy design, it confuses people.

And now, the second most embarrassing thing that has happened to me, i say second because there was another horrible "wanna stuck my head in ground inccident" that is still top, but thats another story for another day. Anyway, benjy ask me to help him get a pre-paid card for wow and i went to comics connections in white sands to get it. so after i bought it, i was checking it to make sure its all nice and sealed up while making my way to the toilet at the same time. This was what went throught my brain at that moment, ok 2 doors, both red, guys toilet usually first, saw cleaning aunty going in, ok lets go in, wow never knew whitesands guy's toilet was PINK, wow this aunty is staring at me. WOW OMG I'M IN THE FEMALE TOILET!!!! I immediately dashed out and hide myself in the comforting BLUE toilet praying no one saw my face. Thank God i made it home without any aunties chasing me with their bags. While i was in comics connection, i saw 1/60 Strike Freedom! it is finally out!! i waited more than a year for it, i wanted to buy it straight away but decided to wait 3 more days, if i am still thinking about it then i'll go get it.

On my way out today, i chanced upon this group of students from MJ freshman orientation and can't help but think back to those days when i was still in MJ. Being the pioneer batch, we got to come up with a lot of rules and many other things which built the school. One of which i am most proud of was the name of our houses, it was my class that came up with those names, so i can't help but felt a rush of nostalgia when i saw those students waving banners of their house names. i stood there and reminisced those days and felt glad that i made a mark in the history of my school. i always wanted to go back to mj but i am always making excuses. Ultimately, i know i don't have the guts to go back. i can't face my teachers after those shitty results i got. they put so much hope in me and i screwed up. Miss choo wanted to talk to me on results day but i ran away. Mr se sms me and ask if i needed help but i replied no. how can i still accept their help after repaying them with those results. Maybe one day, i might go see them.

i was watching "beauty and the geek" last week and what one of the beauties said suddenly struck me. "Why am i always smiling and laughing? maybe its because i am hiding something behind that smile." so here is a little prayer for yehong,

"Dear God, thank you for putting yehong in my life. thank you for allowing me to get to know one who loves you so so very much. i pray that you shower her with ur blessings and always protect her. i also pray that if there is any hurt behind those laughter that she will commit them to you. i pray that i may have the wisdom and understanding should she ever need some one to talk to and many many blessings for her final semester. Thank you God. Amen."

On a final note to everyone, if you ever buy teddy bears for anyone, i plea with you that you do not buy those with names that sounds very yummy like milk chocolate teddy, or vanilla shake teddy. Do not even think of buying those which actually look like thier names, this is a serious matter, the government should put an age limit to these bears. They look so delicious one might accidentally eat them. its a hazard. so please think before buying a butterscotch teddy. Now is that butterscotch i smell...

Look at us now...

I meant to write this entry yesterday but was too tired after my run, i bathed and immediately hit the sacks. Anyway, i went to samuel's house for a gathering of my cell group, its been too long since we last sat down together and had so much fun. i remember those secondary school days in church where we would all go down to our basement classroom after chapel service and have our lessons there. We would play games, have bible study and food. it was like a mini party every sunday. But ever since we went to jc, we had to stay in chapel for the full service and our meetings became lesser.

I had a great time at samuel's house yesterday, the food was awesome and we played taboo. it was girls versus guys again, just like we always used to back in those days. we played 3 rounds and the guys lost all 3, sigh how can this be, it must have been all the screaming that caused us to lose. it was really nice just meeting up again, a pity our teachers couldn't make it, they had other plans already. how time flies, we are now no longer teens, our teachers are getting married, it seems like yesterday when we were teasing them about their boyfriends and now wedding bells are ringing. For us, we are now all pursuing our different roads in life, the guys are getting ready for school again and the girls are entering their final year of uni. John got his own car already, samuel and tai wei are driving their dad's car. Look at how we've grown...