clean linen

1) HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZHULONG! He is 20 as of today and I felt quite bad yesterday because I didn't plan anything special for him. So we lapsed back into our usual routine of cutting the cake and singing the Happy Birthday song to him at Melting Pot. It was a S-duper last minute thing though because Amy just smsed me in the morning before first service and she got Jeremy Robert to get the cake. The both of them then cabbed down to church just in time for us to cut cake while the 2nd-service-people had to rush off for the second service. Zhulong was still surprised though and he was happy, so it's good enough for me! :) As my 'jie mei', I also gave him a card yesterday that's ridiculously bright pink, simply put - VERY GIRLIE. With orders that he could only opened today, he hid it in his bible and was very obedient in opening it only today. He likes the card too so, YAY! 2) A little reward I'm blogging because I just finished 3 Econs. essays in a time period of 2 hou...

Everytime a family member's birthday comes around, we will let the birthday boy/girl choose the place he/she wants to go for dinner, of course, my dad pays all the time:) This time around, my dad chose to go to a Northern Indian restaurant (No surprise here, he LOVES Indian food, but the family's not a big fan of it) called Rang Mahal on Saturday night. But my entry's not about the dinner! Today, the actual day of his birthday, I wanted to surprise him with a simple birthday present in the form of durian ice-cream from Venetia. Mainly because my dad adores durians, and that Tina and I think the durian ice-cream from Venetia is some good stuff! The thing I didn't expect was for him to come home so early! I wanted to surprise him the moment he came back from work, which I thought would be at about 6pm, but nope, he came back one full hour earlier when I just started preparing stuff! No worries, I still surprised him though, when he came back from his run. The first thing ...

On our "visit" to Chatuchak market in Bangkok, we walked and walked and walked and stumbled onto a section where there were a few stores selling puppies of various breeds and sizes. Here's a video clip of 2 puppies we video-ed: SO CUTE RIGHT?! heh. I still have another clip of 2 BULLDOG puppies! After seeing them, we're seriously considering getting another bulldog next time:)

Ok, if I was learning how to play the guitar, or knew how to play the guitar, I would try out this song, although I think I'll probably have to work on my guitar day and night for many days in a row before I can actually master this song. So this song, "Cannonball" by Damien Rice, is old. Honestly, I first heard this song when I watched the Korean drama serial "Spring Waltz" and was so taken by the song. Last night I was just listening to it on the soundtrack again and I decided that I must share this song! Lyrics are below:) there’s still a little bit of your taste in my mouth there’s still a little bit of you laced with my doubt it’s still a little hard to say what's going on there’s still a little bit of your ghost your witness there’s still a little bit of your face i haven't kissed you step a little closer each day so close that i can’t say what's going on stones taught me to fly love taught me to lie life, it taught me to die so it's not ha...

I'm feeling HIGH! :) I've survived a marathon comprising of Math tuition from 4-6.30 and Econs tuition from 7.30-9.45 with a break in between for traveling and dinner. I thought I'd be sleepy and zoned-out but, NOPE, I'm actually happy. Something's wrong with me... Oh. If you haven't realized, I'm back from Bangkok! ;) It was an enjoyable trip even though I spent Sunday evening in pain because I was having a slight case of food poisoning and a really bad backache. So I was aching in the front and back. I couldn't stomach much of my potato-soup-from-Tony-Roma's dinner and I couldn't go to the night market with my sister and father. Shuckeroos. My stomach's much better now and after spending most of Sunday night in bed, my backache wasn't such an annoying bugger anymore. Thank GOD! Ok, I need to go put in a little bit more studying now. I feel happy, and this feeling is becoming rather sinful.

Here are a few photos I poached from Jien's blog after she's scanned in these photos from her polaroid camera:

This is a "music video" I put together as a farewell gift for the One-Thirders so that they'll have something to play and look at whenever they recall any One-Third memories. There are photos from JC1 and from here, you can really see the great differences in our looks and styles then and now. I just want to give personal messages to my fellow One-Thirders now, even though I have sooo much I want to tell them, I don't know where to start. I think I'll just give them one-sentence messages: Daniel . There may not be many photos in the video with you included but you're very much a part of us, not someone that may be perceived by others to be the odd one out just because you're the only guy in our clique. Jien . You have really brought about change in me, the liberal-ness, I believe? ;) Tina . I thank God for a neighbour like you... don't move anytime soon please. Bella . You can keep looking at yourself in any mirror or reflective surfaces you pass by wi...

Venue: Ida's Restaurant :) Haha no lah , One-Third came over to my house to have the steamboat, with Joanne providing the stove and all. I said the venue's "Ida's Restaurant" because my maid, Ida, the wondrous cook of the house, prepared chicken satay and kebabs for us to grill. She also acceded to my request for oatmeal prawns and her d-e-e-licious cinnamon apple pie. SO. Here's a whole BARRAGE OF PHOTOS! The One-Thirders (minus Daniel and Sheryl because they were still on their way) gave a warm welcome to my dad when he returned home from work, as if it was a guest they were welcoming to THEIR house when it's actually the other way around... Julie was the Prawn-Peeler of the night while Joanne was the Candid-Shot i/c! In another role allocation, Jien was a reaaaallly efficient Ice-Cream Scooper. Eventually, we had to say our reluctant goodbyes, having a mini hugging session, which was preceded by a photo-taking session with Jien's polaroid camera [Wi...

I put on my tie this morning for the last time as a school-going child because today was the day of our Farewell Assembly. I will never need to wake up at 6am, be fetched to school by 6.50am in my dad's car and will never have to start a day of lessons with Assembly at the track or CC from 7.20am. I've been doing this for the past 12 years. While, according to Jien, we've all been wearing a uniform for 15 years of our lives, counting our Kindergarten education. How am I going to get used to this big change? Well, somehow I have to. So we began the day with photos... The J2 teachers sang a song entitled "Love Changes Everything". It gave me goosebumps and brought a few tears to my eyes, while Tina was VERY touched. After Farewell Assembly had ended, we proceeded to LT3 to meet Mr Lee for our last ever Civics lesson with him. He settled all the admin matters and then rushed off for another meeting, I think, but of course, we took a class photo first. Then the phot...

Jien told Tina and I on our walk to the MRT from school just now that she had a moment of epiphany during our consultation session with Mrs Tan, which is that every person desires to be validated/affirmed regardless of their status or situation in life. So I'm taking this opportunity to affirm myself and Jien because we also realized today that we're actually quite witty. Take a look at our little conversation-on-paper during the torturous 2-hour long Econs lecture we had today: Part 1 (Ignore the "Sheryl thinks you're charming?!" section that has the words lining the right hand side of this piece of paper) Part 2 Part 3 (NOW read the section beginning from "Sheryl thinks you're charming?!" If you don't get our whole witty conversation, it's all right. Just remember that we're witty people and you can praise us for our wittiness once in a while. Because everyone needs validation/affirmation. :)

For the first time in many many many years, I celebrated Midautumn festival. Cell meeting was cancelled in lieu of this special event. Each cell member was then asked to bring a lantern and mooncake each on the night of our mini bonding session at the park near my house. Even though it was very hazy night, we sat around a table at the park talking, laughing, eating and playing... Talking and laughing: Eating: Ben and Lydia brought hot green tea to accompany the mooncakes we were eating, which made me feel like eating Japanese food because my family is always drinking green tea when we have meals at Japanese restaurants:) Playing: We actually met a few children we know from HIS Connection, so you'll see many photos with Norman inside. He refused to take photos with us, not until he made me piggyback him by jumping on me while I was squatting next to his older sister, Amanda. Funny child. More photos: *The rest of the photos will be uploaded on my shutterfly site!

The only lesson we had in school today was Lit PC, where we analysed an extract from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra . With excitement, we left school for the VCD shops near my house so that we could rent the movie "Shakespeare in Love", since Jien had not watched this movie before, a movie that was recommended by Ms Sng during today's lesson. I must declare that I love the sonnets by William Shakespeare. Here's one that was used in the movie: Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eter...

It hit me again today, actually over the past few days, that songs are some powerful things that can move and affect your emotional being. To make yourself even more unstable, you add a daily dosage of "Judging Amy" and, ta da! You have one emo person. So besides the lovesick lyrics from boybands like A1 and Backstreet Boys, you have songs from Bread. I was reminded of their songs after listening to the Korean version of their song "Lost Without Your Love", which compelled me to search out the CD I knew we owned at home. Discovery: David Gates was one handsome man. Anyway, I shall stop my rambling and end with the lyrics of "Make It With You"... Hey have you ever tried, really reaching out for the other side? I may be climbing on rainbows. But, baby here goes. Dreams they're for those who sleep, life is for us to keep. And if you're wond'ring what this song is leading to, I want to make it with you. I really think that we can make it girl. No,...

My mother and I left home for Xinghua Primary School to join in the fun at HIS Connection's BBQ dinner and campfire at about 5.15pm. When I first reached there, I was all alone because Tina was still traveling over while the other 18-year-old guys present were busy preparing for the BBQ. However, after much walking around, I finally found the guys accompanying me as they got food to eat and I was just... snacking. Soon enough, it was time for the campfire! The principal of Xinghua Primary School was a guest of honour and she lit the campfire, which launched us into a whole series of songs with actions and a few speeches here and there immediately after. He Li did a GREAT job as MC for the night! After awhile, we "helpers/facilitators" weren't that needed during the actual campfire itself, so we ended up sitting in a row on a bench, eating fruits, taking photos, singing with the Backstreet Boys(I asked Tina to bring some "happy music"), proclaiming ourselves ...