Lost

We lost.

Lost by 0.12 secs in the semi-finals mixed team event and about 1.5 secs in the men's team event. Dui ah. Feeling dejected and disappointed after the whole event. Couldn't figure what might have gone wrong. Was hoping we could at least go into the finals. Overall, it was good experience for those who are taking part in the dragonboat race for the first time. Our timing was much faster than usual training since it was such a short distance of 250m. If we drop our stroke rate, we wouldn't have time to catch up in the race. We have shown much improvement compared to the Jun race as we were much far behind in other stronger teams such as OCBC, HSBC and Exxon Mobile. While heading to Suntec for dinner, we were joking saying that we shall stop using services of OCBC and HSBC. They shall experience a huge transfer of funds within a day for no apparent reason and vandalism occuring on their adverts. heh.

Gotta train even harder for the coming Nov race. It will be a distance of 350m and it's gonna be held in the Singapore River. I believe the next sets of training will be even tougher if we wanna get into at least a 3rd position in the Regatta. Shall motivate one another to take training more seriously and not take opportunity to slack. No more avoiding the chin-up bars after rowing. :P

Hope to get the holiday chalet at Sentosa so that we can head down to the beach and wack the beach volleyball. "All units are fully booked till the end of the year", said the chalet administrator. wah piangz. Now it's only Sep and all the units are fully booked??! gosh. I shall be contented with just a chalet at East Coast. Haiz. Prefer the Sentosa beach leh.

21 grams

Was totally shocked to learn that sister's Ivy's sister died in a car accident in China. Life seems so fragile to me at that moment of time ... Does life really weigh 21 grams?

There seems to be a research that a person weigh 21g lesser after death. After the death of Ivy's sister, I seem to have an interest in watching a Sean Penn's movie "21 grams" and get a dose of what's the movie about.

Hope we all would treasure life and stop killing and hating one another.

My Race

Finally. A chance to pen down something in my blog.

I'm counting down to 2 more weeks and it's my next dragonboat race. Kind of anxious about it cos the thought of losing is quite unwanting. We initiate to start our training for the season earlier than usual and we always train with a car tyre in our rowing. What we might be lacking is the timing and coordination and perhaps the aggresiveness in the waters.

I was corrected by my coach yesterday for not being aggressive enough in the last charging. I hope I can row up to his expectations on the actual race and clinch a title for our men's team. Seems like coach is not too keen in my idea of focusing on getting our mixed team to win and I want to trust in his decision. He might forsee something which I would not know until the actual race itself. I'm glad we had a good coach and with our once a week training, we are progressing steadily. I hope. Too bad we can't squeeze in another training during the weekdays or we would sure to pose a big challenge to other corporate teams.

I gotta stay calm on the actual race day. Can't afford to mess up the timing and the stroke rate. Stay calm as the water, I told myself. Focus. Don't get swallowed by it. Glide on it like a cruising boat. Yeah.

Just last Saturday, I accompany my aunt to watch the Sky Wu's concert. She also sponsored me to listen to it since she couldn't find anyone else to acccompany her. Heh. So fortunate to have a free concert ticket landed on me. It was a really long time since I watched a concert. It could be the previous Sky Wu's concert that I watched in Suntec a few years ago. Watching his concert at Suntec was a bad experience. The seats were not comfortable and the rows were not inclined. To make things worse, the stage was not high even. My view was simply blocked by a lady of permed hair. Couldn't enjoy the visual part of the concert properly. So if there's a concert that's gonna be held at Suntec, I'm not going for sure.

Anyway, back to the recent Sky Wu's concert. It was a concert shared by him and Jeff Zhang so if you are going to the concert solely for Sky Wu, you'll find the songs sang by him not enough. Sky Wu seems so energetic compared to Jeff. Jeff looks like he hasn't been exercising after disappearing for all this while. However, his love ballads are still as appealing and reminiscing and the most impression part of his performance is the song "guo huo" done in a spanish way and the guitar fingering as the intro. Simply fantastic.

After the whole concert, really wish Sky Wu could present more of his songs. There are so many of his songs I wanna hear him perform. Hopefully the next time he holds a concert here, my aunt would want me to accompany her again. Heh.

Master of the Universe

Can't believe that almost 2 weeks of training is gone and I'll be handling queries starting tomorrow. Hope that I can handle them well and respond fast. God will pull me through this.

Gosh. I sounded like I'm going to war like King David in the Bible.

Why am I so afraid of tickles??? Some say it's all in the mind but I think they just have lots of fats beneath their skin. Haha. I was telling fen fen that I'm the master of the universe and she should obey me. She knew my weakness and started tickling me. Haiz.

fen fen: God should be the master of the universe wat.

me : Then God is the Master of the master of the universe!

fen fen: ....

Tomorrow Cheow Sheng and I will be going through Psalm 19 for our first lesson of Bible study. I'm glad to be mentoring him again and may God bless our relationship and Bible study as He watches us study and meditate His words. Psalm is such a wonderful book to explore God's character and how to adore Him. Hope that Cheow Sheng will find the whole Bible study of Psalms interesting and help him in his walk with God. Amen!

Psalm 19

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,

like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens

and makes its circuit to the other;

nothing is hidden from its heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect,

reviving the soul.

The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,

making wise the simple.

The precepts of the LORD are right,

giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the LORD are radiant,

giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is pure,

enduring forever.

The ordinances of the LORD are sure

and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold,

than much pure gold;

they are sweeter than honey,

than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?

Forgive my hidden faults.

Keep your servant also from willful sins;

may they not rule over me.

Then will I be blameless,

innocent of great transgression.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be pleasing in your sight,

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

First day at the new department

Training, training and more training. My new boss is a super organised person. Plan my lesson and who is teaching at what time. It's totally fool-proof. It's in fact dummy-proof. I'm really looking forward to learn new stuff. New meaningful stuff than what I used to do but I stressing myself out cos I'm now dealing with real-time data instead of just handling historical data. In my new workplace, I need to restrain from laughing out loud from messaging rubbish with my colleagues online cos it's a smaller room now compared to the wide open office space I had. Must control.

Sonic Fest 2004!

It was great listening to the Christian songs and worshipping God under the starry night. The concert was better than I expected! Desmond told me last year's Sonic Fest wasn't up to expectation. Didn't want to raise my hopes to high in case the concert really turn out sucky because of the comment from Desmond.

When I was there at the concert I heard this year's concert had more people coming in than last year. By the time we reached the St Geroge's Church, it was this band from from Kuala Lumper called Altered Frequency to perform. Thought they were called Autum Frequency until someone said they were Ultra Frequency. When I went to the sonic fest website and checked, I found out their true name. The Frequency band was really good in my opinion. Their songs were simple and straight-forward. I like their playing style as well. Wanna buy their CD and listen but too stingy. Hee. After the Altered Frequency, the emcee wanted everyone to squeeze to the middle so he could take a picture and posted on the website. He said we'll be "archived" as well. Becky was kinda like "What?! Archived ourselves on their website??". Xuefeng happened to be among those being archived. Haha.

Next band was Sonic Edge Band. They are the resident band which means they get to play in every Sonic Fest. I guess the name of the concert was tribute to the band as well. Actually I dun really enjoy the songs from Sonic Edge or rather the performance of Sonic Edge. The guitarist was hoping like a wild dog on the stage. In fact, every guy in the band was hoping wildly except the drummer. It would be a magnificant feat if the drummer could join in and hop while he drums. Their songs are good but I'm kinda turn off by their performance la. Sonic Edge was the most jumpy band I've ever seen.

Lastly, the concert ended with this kiwi band called FORM. The sharing and music was good. Spent good time worshipping God with many people around me. Guess I'll be going for the next Sonic Fest. Let's Rock!

GOD OF WONDERS

Lord of all creation, of water, earth, and sky
The heavens are Your tabernacle, glory to the Lord on high

God of Wonders beyond our galaxy,
You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your majesty,
You are holy, holy

Early in the morning,
I will celebrate the light
When I stumble in the darkness,
I will call Your name by night

Hallelujah,
Tto the Lord of Heaven and Earth

God of Wonders beyond our galaxy,
You are holy, holy
Precious Lord reveal Your heart to me
Father holy, holy,
The universe declares Your Majesty
You are holy, holy, holy, holy
Hallelujah

Words and music by Marc Byrd and Steve Hindalong

House of Flying Daggers

Reuters organised this movie outing and the staff get to watch it for 2 bucks! It's too good a bargain to miss. Was hoping transport and pop-corns would be provided. Hee. Too bad non-Reuters people has to pay for the full price.

The movie opening was not too bad. First half and hour was good. Nice costumes, nice scenery, good cast but lousy ending. So if you wanna watch it, my advise is leave before it ends. It means you watch Disc One but dun watch Disc Two. Haha. The ending spoils the whole movie but I find the scene where Takeshi Kaneshiro moved towards Andy Lau to stop Zhang Ziyi from saving him kind of touching. Didn't expect that to happen in a action movie.

The Last Samurai

This evening, Fitness Network was supposed to screen the movie, "The Last Samurai" by the poolside. However due to the drizzle, we had no choice but to watch in inside the Science Hub. Fitness Network was really thoughtful in providing free hotdogs and drinks for us while we watched the show. Save me the money to buy dinner. Hee.

The disappointing part was that the DVD disc somehow would freeze in one particular scene when Tom Cruise was talking to Ken Watanabe. Very disappointing and disruptive during the screening while the Fitness Network Manager, Samuel tried to fix the problem. Samuel mentioned before the start of the screening that he love the show so much that he watched it twice. Perhaps he had caused the disc to have problem. Haha. Or the disc could be a pirated version. Anyway, back to the movie.

It was a great movie. Inspiring. This was my first time watching the movie and I regretted not catching it on the big screen. I would recommend people to watch it if they have not. It's definintely worth a weekend movie ticket. Many many months back, my good friend, Kiat told me it was a movie which I MUST watch. Totally awesome fights with spectacular scenes and scenery. I just smiled while thinking to myself that it's just gonna be another of those Hollywood type of movie. Pure action and brainless plot. However the movie was contrary to what I thought.

The sword fighting scenes are awesome. Not forgetting the archery skills of the Samurais. Some say their archery skills are better than Legolas but they don't look as cute as him. Needless to say, the sceneries were great too. The movie speaks about true courage and the way of the Samurai. The movie also seems to portray the huge conflict between modernisation and Japanese tradition. Modernisation for the economy of the country has caused Japan to sacrifice its long preserved and rich tradition. The Ruler of Japan in the movie was too young to voice out or know what was really good for his people. In fact, he has also somewhat embraced modernisation by learning English and he didn't bun his hair in those male Japanese tradition style. The movie makes me wonder was it worth losing a unique Japanese tradition and culture and adopt modernisation to boost the economy of the country. In the later part of the movie, it seems that Japan wasn't left with much of a choice either. I did a module on the contemporary history of Japan from the Era of Tokugawa till its modern stage and it made me realised so much about the history of Japan that I didn't know.

For those who had read the history of Japan would know what "The Last Samurai" was trying to say. It doesn't belong to one of those Hollywood type of movies.

Climb Up, Climb Down

During yesterday's lunch, fen asked me, " Have you thought of a story for your romantic film?" Within a nanosecond, my quick and warp brain creatively came up with this movie parody of "Turn Left, Turn Right" (one of my fav movie) called "Climb Up, Climb Down". Its chinese title is "shiang4 shang4 pa2, shiang4 sia4 zhou3".

me: The story started with this guy staying on the 2nd storey and this girl staying on the 3rd storey of a HDB flat. They didn't know about each other even though the guy climb past the 3rd storey and and the girl walk past the 2nd storey

fen: What reason does the guy have to go past the 3rd floor??!? *puzzled look*

me: Well, there's a park on the 10th floor and the guy jogs in the park regularly *face showing signs of small intelligence*

fen: OH! So it's taking place at Duxton Pinnacle. *gave a very confident look while pointing at me*

me: Yup. In the end, there was an earthquake and the guy dropped from the 3rd floor into the girl's lap while she's watching tv on the 2nd floor.

fen: Your movie is a romantic comedy. *laughs it off*

me: Nope. *gave a matter-of-fact look* It's gonna be a dark comedy.

fen: eh?

me: There will be a blackout followed by the earthquake. :P

fen: -_-'


Somehow I believe that if this story is taken and expanded, it'll get nominated for the "Most Unoriginal but creative and wu2 liao2 scriptwriting Award".

fen: So who's gonna be the lead actor?

me: me lor

fen: aiyo

me: I mean why not? Look at Jack Neo. Quentin Tarantino acted in his directed film, "Reservior Dogs". Tom Hanks acted in his debut movie but only the song became famous.

fen: What about the lead actress?

me: you lor!

*fen beams with pride and smiling like an angel*

Actually, I have someone else in mind and she's none other than Charlie Yueng. :P

Pictures please...

Yup. She's my next choice in mind regardless if I'm her last choice of director. I think she looks very compatible with Jet Li. Most probably he's able to do a mid-air flip if he even crashes from the 3rd floor. I could save costs on hiring stuntmen as well. I really don't mind sacrificing the lead role to him cos he's my hero. Anyway, the lead actress part will definitely go to fen fen la. Cos she and I are more compatible ma. Hee.

Okay. Back to reality. Gonna get some rest and slog hard tomorrow. Hopefully I can wake up early and go for morning swim. Heh.

Ambitions

Today, fen fen and I had buffet lunch at Marriott Cafe. They have this promotion whereby a lady get a complimentary lunch buffet if she bring a guy along. Have to make a table reservation and it was almost fully booked till end of July when I made the call to the restaurant in late June. Thank God we got a table cos the promotion will be over by the end of July.

The spread of food was superb especially the desserts. There was so many to choose from and my plate was like a mountain of bits of cakes from here and there. Love the raspberry cake! Simply unforgettable. My favourite is the fried fish platter which resembles so much like the one from Long John Silver but slightly smaller in size. Maybe Long John should copy the idea from them. Heh.

Over lunch, we talked about what we wanted to be before we end up where we are now. My initial ambition was to be a pilot. It was inspired by my classmate who always talked to me about how great and honourable it was to be a fighter pilot. Since I was very influenced by my peers and have not much of a mind of my own then, I took his ambition as my own. Well, ever since I wore glasses in Pri 2, I just put the whole pilot dream behind me.

In Sec Sch, I thought of being a film director. The common immediate response from my boy school friends was "You wanna film R-rated movies right? Must be it la!" and then laugh their silly heads off. Oh com'on. Being the actor is much better than being the stupid director shouting "CUT!!!" and "ACTION!!!" right? My wish was to do a genre of romantic comedy film. Like the nice warm feeling of seeing a happy ending for those who are in love with each other and making it funny makes the movie even more enjoyable. Maybe I could come up with the script as well since I'm quite an imaginative person. Fen realised my hidden talent when she saw how well I drew with my eyes closed as we were playing Cranium at Settler's Cafe. She managed to guess the thermometer I drew with my eyes shut but not the boxer shorts. Anyway, that was what I hope to do if I can't make it to JC and miraculously I made it to JC all thanks to the grace of God. To survive in the film industry in S'pore is really really hard but I really hope to do a film that is of my own.

When I was in JC, I thought being an Accountant cos accountancy to me may be my cup of tea. Furthermore I realised that I can earn big bucks being one. All thanks to my GP grade, I didn't even try applying for the Accoutancy course in NTU. Anyway, my A level subjects isn't that fantastic. I fail my GP and even to get a place in NUS was something I didn't expect happen. I got in with my first choice in Arts & Social Sciences.

As I was completing my Arts degree, I was thinking what shall I do after I graduate. Shall I be a teacher? NO WAY MAN. Now teachers are burdened with so much work which I think is too much. Furthermore, their teaching profession is not considered as any kind of working experience unless they wanna switch to working for private tutoring agency. Maybe it's just not the kind of job for me. No passion for teaching.

I wanted to be a farmer. I prefer manuel work to deskbound job. No office politics. Just me and the scarecrow. And the pigs and hens and chicks. But it's not gonna be possible in S'pore cos they would rather employ a foreign worker than a Arts degree holder to do the dirty work. Cheaper ma. Unless I go to Australia and find job as a farmer but I'll miss my family, friends and church here.

For now, I'm considering studying part-time in accountancy and intend to do so in the beginning of next year. To work and study part-time is really gonna drain me from my relationship and my ministry. Will need God's strength to pull me through this ...

Nearer, my God, to Thee

Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
E'en though it be a cross
That raiseth me:
Still all my song shall be
Nearer, my God! to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.

Though, like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I'd be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.

Then let the way appear
Steps unto heaven;
All that Thou sendest me
In mercy given:
Angels to beckon me
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.

Then with my waking thoughts
Bright with Thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs
Bethel I'll raise;
So by my woes to be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.

Or if on joyful wing,
Cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot,
Upward I fly:
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee.

~Sarah Fuller Adams~

Wow! I have my very own Blog!

Oh my. I'm here. My very own blog site! Cool. I love reading people's blogs and it really makes me wanna start a blog of my own. But I'm afraid that it won't be interesting or funny and turn out to be mundane and boring. Oh well, I guess I don't have to bother what other people think or say and just start this blog for myself. Yes. For me, me, me and only me. Heh. That's quite a company already. My very first fan of my blog is me.

Here shall be my space for recording all my happy, sad and frustrating moments where I can look back and laugh at myself and wonder "why didn't I think of that sooner". Ha.