Who's to blame!

I have just noticed something very unsettling about myself. I tend to blame God whenever things do not go how I wish they did, and then lambaste the scriptures for giving promises which turn out empty when viewed in the context of my predicament.

Rubbish.

Since when was it the case that a religion is there just to give you comfort and make everything sail smoothly?

In fact, I cringe even as I use the word 'religion'. Is that what Christianity really is about?

Or is it a relationship rather than a religion?

That's why there are so many ups and downs, joys and pains.

Immobilized

By pain. The dull type that stems from a regular flow of blood out of your body. It ebbs. I can feel it.

But I shall resist the urge to sleep it away.

Maybe it would dissipate, or at least become less localized, if I pound real hard on the treadmill today.

And I must abolish stereotypes. Hurhur. Just because you're form a certain school in a certain discipline under a certain bond does not necessarily mean you are going to look upon me as a piece of scum.

God help me.

Is this a direct Yes, No, or what?

So Mum prayed on my behalf today and an answer came.

Its just an answer. Its not a 'yes' or a 'no' or even a 'wait'. It could be anything, or even a conjugation of 'yes take this and you will feel that you should have said 'no' but wait this is what I want you to do.'

Fortunately I do have some time before I have to make a decision. And I'm brewing in a cauldron of skepticism and hope.

But you see more than I can, you know more than I would ever know.

And you love me so.

And I must love you too.

So, help me.

The 'Smelly Sofas'

It is really frightening how Mum and I can just end up shopping. We walk into Tangs @ Vivo intending to buy 2 blouses for Mum to attend her friends' children's wedding, and we ended up buying clothes for me and Jie too. But I must say that we made productive buys. I really loved the red coat I bought and I can imagine using it for CNY, overseas etc. I'll put pictures up when they are washed and tagged.

Anyway, Jie and I drove down for practice at night. This kind of practice:



And I ended up laughing my head off at the 'smelly sofas'. Sounds weird? Inside joke.

Cheers. Its gonna be a long night tomorrow as we count the new year in.

The Christmas Season

So yes, 23 hours and 7 mins of Christmas Day has passed and I finally have the chance to sit down and blog about the things that happened during the holiday season this year. The family did have a Christmas lunch (and dinner) today over at my paternal cousin's place, but I have no photographs to show simply because I was too preoccupied with playing Rock Band and Rummie. In fact, Jie and I got so caught up with Rock Band that we didn't even manage a full lunch. Hunger only started to set in after we reached home and hence we begin feasting - almost immediately - on the leftover turkey, siew yoke and popiah that we brought back from lunch (hence the earlier parenthesis).

However, I am blessed to have another Christmas lunch to attend this Saturday and I am rather certain that I will return back with a full stomach as well as a camera bursting of pictures. Simply because this lunch would be over at my maternal cousins' place, the group of relatives to which I am comparatively closer to.

Hence, apart from the above-mentioned lunch and Rock Band, the only other thing the family did today was to attend church. I had expressed my feelings for the music event in an earlier blogpost with a picture of Gazette's Uruha. Now that the music event is over, part of me is still sunken in such an emotion, namely because of 'key' troubles with a classic christmas carol. But, I shall have to chuck aside my humanly sentiments in favour of what He has to say.

On this note, Mum and me took a trip down to PS 2 days ago and were happy to see this as part of the decoration:

Almost like a 3 dimensional version of my Sunday School books. Lovely. I bet it struck a chord with my mum, the ever so hardworking Sunday School Coordinator.

Then we headed over to Spotlight, since Mum decided to (gasp!) sew the curtains for the new house by herself. Entering Spotlight was awesome. Encountering rows and rows of fabric like this

and this

put together in a technicolour tapestry! A feast for the eyes.

But of course we were looking for raw materials for curtains, and so sifted through stacks of this

and more of it!

And I simply had to laugh when I saw this

The use of a literary device - the fricative! Was this divine intervention, or what? Maybe God was hinting that school is starting soon and I'd better snap out of holiday mood. On hindsight, it appears that God was indeed making his presence known as well. Here is another testament to that:

How often is it that 3rd Commandment appears in print medium apart from the most famous book in the world? And here it is on a piece of fabric designed for clothes!

Well, we emerged from the divine Spotlight with good stacks of lace. Now the hardest part would be to get down to sewing the curtains. We barely completed the first step - unpicking the extra strip of fabric along the top - and boy it was so much harder than expected. But heck, there's so much more work that needs to be done for the new place I'd just grit my teeth and work with the needle and thread, and 2m long piece of lace.

Yesterday we encountered a rather disappointing incident regarding the new house. However, it did produce 2 rims of silver lining as well. Firstly, it served a bigger incentive to get the new house ready for habitation ASAP. Simply because that disappointing incident could have been avoided if the place was ready. Secondly, it let us to discover the way to cook corn in a toaster. Mum did it a la barbecue style, with silver foil and all. And it emerged excellent.

As sweet and juicy as it would have emerged from a steamer. I had 3 chunks to myself.

A delicious Christmas Eve dinner. Speaking of which, I still have not given up my dream to host a lavish Christmas banquet for family and friends, and I believe I would be able to host it over at the new house. Next year maybe.

And, before I hit the sack, Camello (the crayfish) started to freak me out again by attempting to crawl out of the red tub. The creepy sound produced when his feelers and claws scraped against the smooth plastic surface convinced me that he had to go for real. So, this is what happened of him:

Good riddance. May you enjoy your new home @ Pierce Reservoir. Bet your fellow shelled counterparts will declare you King of the Puddle, since you definitely outshine them in the size department.

Another unexpected show-up

There is the horribly cliched yet undoubtedly true saying: 'a picture paints a thousand words'. Following these words, this picture - or rather, the expression of the person in this picture:

Unfortunately, this person (and thus HIS picture), does not belong to me. Thank you Facebook.

Very aptly summarizes how I feel about the music-related event that I am going to be part of this Christmas.

Oh GOD, miracle needed. Please. The hearts are ready, give us the technicality.

That aside, Jar Jar Binks has been usurped from the post of 'latest shocking discovery in my block' by a crustacean.

Jie and I first saw this crayfish at the bottom of the stair landing and dismissed it as part of the junk that my neighbours tend to throw out of their houses once they get bored of them. Yes, I assumed it was a toy, especially since it laid motionless there even when we walked near to it. It was only on our way back to take the lift that I noticed some creature crawling on the pavement. I simply cannot ignore crawling creatures and this is not because I love them. I need to glance at them, at the very least in 2 second intervals, so that I know when to flee should they come too close for comfort or charge at me for the matter. So that was how I noticed the crayfish.

I contemplated selling it to the nearby tze char stall or something but Jie's animal-friendly tendencies got the better of her. As I'm blogging, the crayfish is lying in a tub of salted water with an empty dental floss box to play with and some strands of lettuce. Hooray for Dad - nothing ever scares him - who swiftly swiped the crayfish off the pavement and placed it in the tub. But Dad has also expressed plans to release that creature into the Bedok reservoir or return it to the white flower pot, outside a certain neighbour's house (no, its not the jar jar one), which contains water, dirt and (surprise, surprise) 3 other crayfish! Talk about irresponsible ownership. For the matter, Lilbro John has suggested naming it Camello.

And before I hit the sack:

It actually stopped to pose when I whipped out my camera. Thanks Kitty.

Jar Jar Binks

'The Zebra Consequences' saturday show saw an unexpectedly smaller crowd than that of the day before. In fact, in my course of duties as an usher at the 2nd level, the number of ticket stubs which I ripped off the ticket and flicked into the white envelope could be counted on my fingers.

On the bright side, this gave us more time to explore the school compounds.

We even had time to sneak away from the doors, to do our own dancing on the steps.


But at least Mum came along today to watch lilbro John in action as part of the Crew in Black (i.e.backstage), and Dad was up and about with ushering duties as well, though he guided cars, not people, to their spaces.

We only reached home at 11pm, after the post-concert clean up and all, and indulged in some Turkish Pistachio Chocolate (courtesy of Clarise and Yong Xiang).

The chocolate was much sweeter than the local Nestle Products, but the salty pistachios neutralized this.

And guess who turned up at my neighbours' corridor today?

An armless Jar Jar Binks. Jie posited that Jar Jar was part of the Star Wars promotional props at the Tiong Bahru GV or something, and was carted home in a jiffy after somebody emerged from the midnight screening. As for the broken arms, Jar Jar was probably too wide to get through the exit but in his hurry to get the prop home, someone simply squeezed whatever part of Jar Jar that could get through the door, leaving 2 appendages for the Star Wars promo. But how often is it that one displays in public, something which he has acquired through rather discreet measures? Poor Jar Jar, just a few months ago he was probably the proud centre piece of a HDB flat, but now he's going to be thrown out with the other junk during the Chinese New Year Spring Cleaning.

I wanted to give the soon to be discarded Jar Jar more dignity with, perhaps, some portrait shot under some aptly styled chiaroscuro. However, I met Jar Jar at a time when my neighbours were congregated near the open window, and the only way I could even snap him was to pretend to be talking over the phone while not slowing my pace at all. So, my apologies Jar Jar, but I actually felt that saving myself from being pelted with mahjong tiles by angry neighbours was more important than getting a good shot of you.

Then again, there are so many on the world wide web.

The Magnetic Cat

As I said in my previous post, Jie has better luck with cats than me and yesterday she managed to catch this cat in action.

The poor thing gobbled a magnet, got it lodged at the back of its throat, and walked under a pole. Now, that explains the glum look etched on its face.

And speaking of Jie, we both volunteered as ushers for:

Taken from the complimentary t-shirt given to all the ushers

We arrived early, as usual. There was C-themed graffiti beyond the compounds of the school where the musical was staged - a charming attempt at working the C in different contexts.

Guess what? We'll be going back there in a couple of hours time. The Saturday show might just be more crowded so that means more work for the ushers! Till then,

Local Pastries

This morning's breakfast was a refreshing change from bread and spread, courtesy of Mum and Dad's post-Ikea divergence to the ubiquitous traditional local bakery. I had my Lipton Tea, as usual, with these delectable pastries:

Gai Dan Gao
This was disappointing though. They looked delicious for sure but turned tasting like chewy sugared yellow dough.

Mah Ti Su
These were brilliant! Crisp, baked shell that flaked at the bite concealed an adequately sweet and sticky brown sugar paste.

Pong Piah
Another one to shout about, since it was pretty much just an enlarged version of the very delicious Mah Ti Su.

Mum and Dad also brought home these peanut candies, which aren't exactly meant for breakfast, but I simply couldn't resist them.

Imagine biting through a sweetened peanut casing to get to the soft and fluffy peanut powder within.

Mum and Dad probably don't know about my blog but I must say a big THANK YOU! to them for such a lovely breakfast.

However! There is a heavy price to pay for Sweet Indulgence and I set off jogging up Mount Faber again this afternoon. For me, every jog must be preceded by this routine whereby I sms Mum to say I'm off jogging, and she will always reply me with something along the lines of a prayer for protection. Today, she responded with such a witty one-liner that she really should get an award, a 'Quote of the Day' type of thing for it. Here goes:

Me: Going Jogging
Mum: OK, the LORD jogs with u.

Now, I wonder if the LORD wears Nike too?

After I returned home from my jog with the LORD, Jie surprised me with a Random Cat pic she took near the rubbish chute (thank you jie!).

This picture had put an end to my nagging suspicion that the Random Cat column somehow scared all the cats away from me.

Double 1sts

It is not often that I do more than 1 activity for the first time within a day, but 15th Dec was surely an exception.

The first 1st today came in the form of Nihon-Go Lessons with Jie.

Beautifully typed hiragana with translation at the side, courtesy of sensei Gabriel!

Learning Japanese is a bittersweet experience. While I'm certainly looking forward to the day where I can listen to Gazetto without having to google the translation, writing out all those characters, memorizing their pronunciation and stringing them together to construct a sentence is a pain indeed.

So all 3 of us were seated atStarbucks for 1.5 hours, poring over the list of super basic hiragana, until an unsuspected call from mum had Jie and I heading down to some place I had never been before.

Big, black speaker

Not so sure of the jargon, but this was part of the huge sound-mixing device

I still can't believe we actually recorded a song. Well, true enough we sang only the chorus and did a short scating, but I was happy enough at the chance to sing in a professional recording studio. The parts we had were simple and hence we finished it in less than an hour. Hopefully my future involvement with this organization will allow me more than a glimpse into the life of a recording artiste (though I know its going to be lots of hard work, retakes, experimenting, late nights etc.)

And I did manage to land my hands on a packet of Vitasoy, but I had no camera with me to capture that moment in a picture. And Eden jiejie prepared chestnuts again, albeit when I was out.

What a day of new and wasted opportunities. Now i must grab another packet of Vitasoy and document it for sure.

Lists

First things first:

"Trials and Tribulations are a staple of every *********'s life'

- Simon Phua

Emphasis mine.

Yes that's what it is: a staple, not just a part.

Yes, the beauty of words.

Second thing next:

I love making lists. I somehow enjoy sitting down with pen and paper - or with fingers poised over keyboard - and creating a bulleted paragraph of the things I need to do before adding the finishing touches with a title. And I get a thrill out of ticking out the boxes I have drawn next to those bullets. Of course, the best part comes when every single box has been ticked.

The latest list I made was the 'Post-Exams Activities' - an attempt at making my post Year 1 Sem 1 break as productive as possible. And it looked something like this:

Ok so i cheated on the boxes for this one, but I guess I made up for it with the addition of those vertical lines labelled with the numbers 1,2,3 circled. A list within a list. Anyway, the lines were not completely ticked cause I took this picture something like a month back. As of 14th Dec 2008, they are :)

Being the list-maker I am, completing a list warrants nothing else but making another!

So here goes the list of 'Things to squeeze into the 2.5 weeks before Year 1 Sem 2 starts"

• Get vitasoy - I've been ignoring a terrible (but unexplained) craving for this drink and I can't wait to get my hands on a packet. I'll definitely blog about drinking it and (hopefully) get some artistic shots on the way.
• Savour some good laksa - Not just those ordinary ones you get from foodcourts or hawkercentres. Something like. Katong Laksa, or the Alexandra Hill Claypot laksa would suffice.
• Memorize every single alphabet (both hiragana and katakana) of Nihon-Ji - Argh. Its so hard. Maybe characters are not my forte but that just means i have to work harder at it!
• Run at somewhere else other than the Mount Faber route - Its getting boring.

Yay! Another list done.

Now, has my fascination to lists festered into an addiction? Well, a random check in Google shows that I am not alone. Yet, it has also told me that I am in danger of becoming a victim of 'list-making dependence'. The latter's symptoms include:

1. Making lists everyday for everything in the world
2. Referring to the list more than once every hour
3. Essentially forgetting or missings tons of stuff once the list is gone

1,2,3. Eh..whoops.