This should be amazing. Check out how Kit Chan can look so dreadful with this supposed Empress Dowager outfit. That apart, this musical should be a must-see. Argh. Preview show tickets are sold out.

Yeah man! Finally met up with the girls to share our photos. Landed my hands on the cd that Steph burned for us. Another round of screening photos and laughing at how crazy we were to take so many pictures. Yipee! I can finally develop them and start pasting it in the album. Cool!

Sometimes life is so unfair

I was working at the River Boat thing with 2 other guys at Esplanade yesterday and I just thought that it's so hard for people of a harder family background to jump out of their pit and achieve something for themselves. The boys were from ITE - one recent school dropout another in NS. And here they are trying to earn money to feed themselves and get some pocket money, but all they can do is simple jobs like this that don't pay much. Hardly learn any skills that can be applied to another job, but a job nonetheless just to get them by. They're nice kids, loud and rough, but harmless and fun loving anyhow. Much as they try to find jobs that earn them more, being able to hit $1,000 a month is wonderful for them. And there I was sitting there wondering how is this even enough.

One of them was funny enough to say that after he ORDs and works as a technician, will I ask my company to employ him as a technician. And it struck me how simple they can be, to be content with a job and not strive for something more.

What made the day even more strange was how I met my friends later on that day. Our conversation topics are so different from what I had with the boys. With the boys, I felt so bad for being a graduate sitting there and having to be cautious of what I say because I don't wanna make them feel lousy about themselves. We speak about gambling, smoking and those ah-beng stuff like illegal car racing. And with my friends, we're talking about travelling, shopping and finer things of life while eating at cafes and stuff. There I was feeling quite happy and excited that I watched my first and only play in London, to only realise that they've watched a million plays in Singapore and abroad. This 180deg change of conversation topics kinda made me feel quite strange. How life is so unfair for the ITE kids.

Much as some don't have good attitude and don't wanna do better in life, but just to pass each day as it comes, there are also others who are just stuck. Even if they wanna try something more, they can only do as such. It takes so much more effort for them to move and get out of their quit-school-and-what-can-i-do cycle, to so call equalise with others; while other more fortunate people are already moving on so much faster.

Anyway I hate the job now cuz it's so darn boring. There's nothing to do in the morning except to talk to the boys and breathe their second hand smoke. And there's another job paying slightly better or the trail job thing as I'm waiting for Lance to get back to me. Hmm wonder if it's not nice to tell Xionghai that I'm not working at the River Boat thing.

Had a pleasant surprise today when I spotted Terrence on the same bus as me on the way home from church. Haha so strange that in one day, you'll actually meet 2 old friends - Gabe & Terrence. Ops, and there's Caleb. Haha Gabe, your brothers now look like twins. So different from the kiddy photos in my childhood photo album.

Why would anyone wanna travel all the way from Toh Yi drive to Jurong for a haircut? Dunno what Terrence was thinking of. But quite a nice way to catch up. A bit miserable to catch up on the bus though. Haha and our dear friend is still attending his gf's catholic church. Wonder if he's a catholic now.

It's so random, but I'm excited that Xiao is coming to church on Saturday! Erm a bit strange to invite her for a talk on a Christian's response to evil and suffering, but just ask first. God will decide how to speak to her. Maybe it'll spur something in her after we've visited a thousand and one churches, cathedrals, basilicas etc. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying hard. Maybe Ted will come too. Haha goody, two at a go. Even better. =)

For the first time in my 20 odd years in Singapore, I took the River Boat ride for the first time yesterday evening. How interesting! Felt like I was a tourist in my own country. Looking at the skyline of Singapore from the boat is quite different. Haha neither have I viewed UOB plaza from the river. Cool. The nice thing was that I took the ride for free! Haha cheapo-nana.

It's actually part of some job training. Thanks to Mister Xionghai, he convinced the people at Clarke Quay River Boat to take on another pair of hands to sell the ride tickets. So hopefully, this will occupy me for a month before official work starts. Not earning much, but at least to feed the ever-expensive transport costs now that it's adult fare. Yucks.

This ride also came at quite an interesting time after looking at how river or canal rides are done in Europe. We saw quite a few, but only took one at Cambridge. It's called punting, and all the rides are done by Cambridge students. The boat companies hire them to run the rides and introduce Cambridge to tourists. Very different from Singapore's rides cuz the commentaries are done in person and you get to strike conversations with the punter; unlike Singapore's super-unfriendly tape recordings.

There were also rides at Versailles (France) and Venice, but we didn't take them. Versailles was a silly reason to create opportunities for Xiao's Ted to give her a ride. Stupid him didn't get the idea of a romantic ride. What the heck. And Venice was just too expensive. Oh man, but the boats are so classic! So poor us, just took pictures and sat by the canal looking at people in the boats.

Yup, so Clark Quay might just be the new hangout for me if they call me back.

YOU ARE GOD ALONE - Phillips, Craig & Dean

You are not a God
Created by human hands
You are not a god
Dependant on any mortal man
You are not a god
In need of anything we can give
By Your plan, that's just the way it is

You are God alone
From before time began
You were on Your throne
Your are God alone
And right now
In the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone

You're the only God
Whose power none can contend
You're the only God
Whose name and praise will never end
You're the only God
Who's worthy of everything we can give
You are God
And that's just the way it is

Unchangeable
Unshakable
Unstoppable
That's what You are

:::

Xiao asked me why do priests and nuns give up their whole lives to make the vow of chasity and serve God, I guess this is what they might be singing in reply.

EUROPE WAS FABULOUS!

Touched down this evening in one piece, so thank God for His protection for all of us on the trip. Can't even imagine that I've been away from home for a month. It seemed just a while ago that we left Changi.

But all said, it's still nice to enjoy your little comforts of life like my bed and a clean toilet. You won't want to know how we bathed in some yucky shared toilet in Rome, and how I slept beside a darn urinal in Tours, France. Sick.

Ooo, we got to catch some real soccer fever while in Europe. Starting from the 2-matches a day routine in Derby, England with the Riisnaes to the climatic finals with the Italians in Rome. Good! I'm slowly getting the hang of what all the soccer craze is about. Still learning more about the rules of soccer like off-site and penalties etc. Trying to learn more names of the various players. Lemme try rattling some names to trigger my memory: Meterazzi (irritating Italian player who got head-butted by Zidane), Cannavora (cute Italian captain frm Jevuntus, what the heck I can't spell), C. Ronaldo (tricky one frm Portugal), Jens Lehman (brilliant goalie frm Germany) blah blah blah...

Europe is really so amazingly rich in terms of culture and architecture. Every city and town is unique in terms of the people and sights. And it's so hard to compare and decide which are the favourites. England is cool for the traditional English stuff and countryside, with amazingly lovely weather apart from the dullness of London. France itself has many different sides with the different regions. Germany's old town Dresden is very much untouched by the war. Prague is a reflection of Eastern Europe. Italy offers amazingly lovely landscapes.

The whole backpack experience has been wonderful and enriching. To explore new places beyond our little island, to expose ourselves to the many different cultures, and just to throw ourselves to the larger unknown. No regrets for making the trip to Europe. Everyone ought to save up for their own pilgrimage to anywhere in the world for their little backpack.

Lotsa great moments travelling with the girls. Can't wait to look at the tons of pictures again. Quite inspired to save up for a future trip to Spain/Greece/Scandinavia. But that will be a long way more to go. Must get back to normal life and ready myself for official work.

Last call... Last call to board...

Sheesh, we're leaving tonight. Can't imagine this is it man. 3 girls going on our own trip to the big wide Europe. Going with lots of different emotions - excitement, anxiousness, joy, fear, longing... Pure estacy. Kind of like my first taste of independence. Travelling alone w/o the family or guides. Being responsible for our own well-being in the unknown. So this is kind of it. I'm praying real hard that nothing goes wrong and all will be smooth and all so nice.

But people who know me will know what a worry-wart and a paranoid I can be. Thought that I was the one who worried the most during the whole planning stage, so kinda psychoed myself to not think so much and just go and whack it. Until we met up with the ruggers on Friday. Goodness, more scary stories of trouble and danger in Europe. Grr.. Made me even more paranoid. But I'm absolutely glad that I went for the session in church on Saturday. Reminded that we shall not fear for the Lord goes before us and is with us. So do not fear for everything is under His hands. Shall carry this with me throughout. As my dear Ah Lian said, "keep prayin each step of the way".

Thanks to everyone who will be praying for the bunch of us. If you wanna know who's going together - Wensi, Stephanie, myself and Xinyi (who's studying in UK now). I'm sure God will answer all our prayers.

Keep you guys posted of what's going on if possible. Ciao!

Our dear princess with a balloon band around her.

Finally learnt how to post photos. So not tech-savvy.. Just dug some old photos to test out. Random ones I guess.

This is it man! We're all set to go (cept for all the packing lah - haven't started) but yeah, everyone's psyched up to go and all. And I've finally got the camera...

Thanks to everyone who loaned me your precious things: Qinlei for her wonderful backpack, Amy for her money pouch, Chock & Yee Lin for your memory cards!

Thanks also to Shiwei for taking the girls for BS for the month. The girls are thrilled to have you back as the BS leader too!

As we edge closer to departure day, it's more and more busy. Changing of more currencies, packing of bags, finalizing the presentation.. Thank goodness Steph is collecting all our important train documents. Can't trust me to do this. I may lose all the passes.

So it's countdown to meeting the ruggers on Friday for our annual dinner first!

Thanks soo much for everyone's prayers! I'm feeling a whole lot better after the awful fever, chills, runny nose and flu over the wkend. Still struggling with a bit of sore throat and stuffed nose. But hey, it's so much better than the wreck I was over the wkend. Even sent my bro for his Chinese Os this morning (explains why I'm up so early).

Received some travel insurance certificate this morning and boy oh boy did I realise what a muddlehead I am. I put the dates of the insurance coverage totally wrong. The correct dates should be across a month, but I put in the wrong month. So the policy only covers 2 days for 3 of us clueless travellers. Humph, and I still wondered why NTUC Travel Policies are so cheap. I'm praying real hard that they'll amend the policy for me and then I'll just pay the difference rather than going through the online application again. This is also what I dislike about online payments cuz blur people like me tend to make a whole lot of mistakes with online forms.

But all's said and I cross my fingers that they'll be nice people who'll change em for me. Should be meeting the girls later on to purchase some more train tickets and get the gifts for Dave and family. Heard they're nice folks who'll house us even though they're all geared up for World Cup fever.

Even though I don't follow soccer all that much, but I do hope we'll catch some of the kinda massive craze they have in Europe! Who should I support? Hmm we'll see. But anyhow it's gonna be darn crowded everywhere in Europe with this season going on right smack during our 1 month stay. So it's both a gain and could be a real pain in the ass.

THIS MAN - Jeremy Camp
In only moment truth
Was seen revealed this mystery
The crown that showed no dignity he wore

And the king was placed for all the world
To show disgrace but only beauty flowed from his face

Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands
Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands

He held the weight of impurity the father
Would not see
The reasons had finally come to be to
Show the depth of his grace flowed with
Every sin he erased he knew that this was
Why he came

Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands
Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands

And we just don't know the blood and
Water flowed and in it all he showed just
How much he cared
And the veil was torn so we could have
This open door and all these things have
Finally been complete

Oh American Idol, American Idol. It starts to lose it's appeal with each season. Less and less grand finale/results show. It's only some fireworks at the end. Maybe it's just boring cuz it isn't Christ Daughtry who won. Taylor Hicks isn't all that bad, but boy he needs some dancing class. How can he start grovvying down for EVERY song? Strange footwork too.

With each season, popularity of the singer dies too. The only one left standing tall and strong is Kelly Clarkson then. Oh well, even if Catherine McPhee didn't win, with her smile n looks, it'll snare her some print ads easily. Then there's the Mustang convertible too. Oooo..!

Wonder what will come of Singapore Idol. Good? Bad? Average? Hmm.. Hopefully it's a good watch with some solid personality. No more Chinese Kungfu Rapper, Singapore Cowboy, Careless Whisper, Do-Re-Mi and what-have-you-nots.. Bbbbbrrr, shivers down everyone's spines.

I'm sucha TV junkie

No idea what I'm doing with the hols. Had this whole list of things that I mentally formed during exam period which needed to be done. Such as arranging the Chiang Rai photos (gosh it's been a yr since we went there) pack my closet (it's a mess) and my room (still a mess after exams).

Never seem to get my butt out to do any of those. (I've even got a gutt feeling that somewhere in my house is some super old photos back in 2000 that I took from Elliot. Yikes, haven't even distributed them as I was supposed to) Even the supposed morning runs have only be materialised into 1 miserable walk. And I didn't even make it to Ming Bao or Amy/Joe's place. Just around my tiny neighbourhood. Gross.

Enough's said about life here in Singapore. Can't wait for next mth to come actually. All the uncertainty before us. Never did anything really spontaneous in my life. Maybe it'll come when we're there. But what the heck. We'll just go there and whack it out. Then there's Penang again in August. Boring lah, but I hope it'll be mad fun with the rest who are going.

Meantime, I'm just counting down to meeting the ruggers again! Can't wait to hear from Jac about her stories in Canada/US and haha obviously grill her about some new guy Darius. Looks like we'll get prata treat soon too! Too bad Mighty Mouse Jieren won't be going, or it'll be double-prata!

Had my first taste of teaching in a primary school last week. Goodness gracious, it was a whole new experience. Nothing really fantastic as I thought it would be. Kids can be so monstrous when they're in school.

How guai kids we were back in kiddo days where we'll just shut up or mumble in whispers when the teacher walks in. But fast forward a couple of years and OMG! They actually scream at the top of their voices like everyone's deaf! And I stepped into some class with two boys getting into a small fight. I asked them to stop and they just continued. And THAT WAS IT. Just barely 10mins into class, and I slammed the table and shouted at them. Argh! Didn't even care that I kinda shocked some of the smaller girls, who probably were thinking what on earth is this new relief teacher who's not even much bigger than them doing. But yeah, my patience is limited when it comes to serious stuff.

Playing with kids is really fun and exciting. But not when they're irritating you and when they're in school for serious stuff. Esp when it's inside a class. Outside class, my eyes are closed. Do whatever you want. Ack..

Anyhow I'm probably going to be back in that sch for a couple of more occassions (according to the admin auntie who told my mom - a pri sch teacher) I pity my mom for having to talk to them at the top of her voice just to get their attention.

Maybe I'll be more prepared the next round and play interesting games with them. More sudoku with the P6s? Table soccer or handball for PE? OHP version of board games? Dunno. We'll see.

Thank goodness the week ended with a nice little baby called Issac Tan. Hahah he's such a dear. So mild. The only baby who I know has a cry that actually sounds like music. I thought babies wailed. He kinda whimpers. Haha so soft. But he's a darn cute baby. A happy and smiley baby to be exact. I'll carry him again next week. Nice conclusion for anyone's week. Joe & Amy are blessed with such a wonderful babe. Thank God for that man.

Can't imagine that I've just taken my first paper today. Think God is totally awesome and gracious. Just yesterday I was having mild fever, body aches, runny nose and a bad throat. Must be all the coffee that I've been taking to stay awake while studying with the rest. Or maybe it was because I feasted the whole of the Easter egg that I got over Good Friday. Oh well, whatever the case is. It's amazing how I only had blocked ears and a dry throat during the paper itself. Amazing eh! And you think that fevers usually manifest itself even more so after a day. Kinda strange but it was totally ok during the paper. A little tired now and sensing the onset of the fever again, but I'm sure that with everyone's prayers (thanks to dear Rou and my BS group) it should be manageable.

Eagerly awaiting the last paper on the 10th. Final taste of freedom from school! Although we've kinda planned out what we're gonna do for that day (with Rou and Queenlay), it's kinda not the typical things people do after exams. We'll see how it goes. It'll be fun.

A whole lot of things to do after the exams, especially planning for the trip and making arragments with the school about Dresden. It'll be great fun even though it's a rush for everyone. But yeah! First to Europe, then to Bangkok with the company!

I so love to travel..

Think my blog has sorta died over the past weeks. Anyhow I haven't got a good reason to resusitate it. But since I'm so bored after reading boring notes, might as well blabber around.

We're just the few idiots left in school waiting for the last paper to end (and we'll be officially graduates! no more undergrads..) A friend asked if I'll miss NTU, and without much thinking, I just said NO. Sounds so cynical and disassociated from school but yeah. I don't miss school. I don't worry about not keeping in contact with my small circle of friends, but that's just about it. NTU has totally no fond memories except the friends around me. Kind of like some transactional thing that you have with the school. Come and study -- that's it.

People might think this is so sad, that I've wasted 3yrs in Uni. But hey, it's ok for me man. I look forward to more things outside of NTU during these 3yrs. Just move along after graduation with my friends. Even boring NJ had more fond memories - the rugby team and our infamous coach Big Fat Rong.

Yeah! FYP, the absolute pain in the ass is absolutely over! Thank God for nice groupies like Wen (aka our stylo mylo girl) and Chock (aka the ever funny and chatty girl) who made FYP less excruciating. Can't imagine how we get from having lunch to gossips to talking abt philosophical stuff when we're staying back in sch for FYP. It was fun. And we've practically tried all Hall canteen around Business school. What a cheap thrill for staying in school late. But yeah, it was a blast working with you guys, even tho our tutor was full of crap. Thank God for you guys to keep me cool when I'm so pissed with our dear prof.

Looking forward to our celebration with the rest!

Just took the bus back from school and saw something tt's quite interesting. It was a crowded bus and so everyone was packed like sardines. So obviously when the bus uncle stops ahead of the bus stop, he's signalling that he's not gonna open the door cuz there's too many people. But some chinaman just had to knock on the bus door so hard to ask the uncle to open it.

The small showdown started when the bus uncle (and I was just standing beside him) turned and placed his hands on his hips saying "there's an empty bus behind, why don't you take that bus?" and the chinama just had to talk in such an act-intellectual manner saying "ke shi wo men deng le er shi fen zhong" and the bus uncle just stared at him. Like hello? Does it matter how long you've waited? Eh there's an empty bus behind. It's just behind this bus, can't you take that bus instead? No diff which bus you take since you've already waited for 20mins rite?

Strange people act in strange manner. Enough storytelling for the day. I'm looking foward to end of uni life..

Really can't stand it. My heart just kinda stopped when the irritatin British Airways webpage didn't let me book the cheap tickets. Oh my goodness... The offer is not even available online anymore. What the heck.. We've been trying to get it done all day yesterday and today. All the transfer of funds and stuff. And they tell me that there's no such promo anymore!

What's best is that there's a new promo that's even cheaper. But the catch is... must book with Mastercard. All of us travelling has NO Mastercard! Alamak! And the system is down all day, and BA Singapore office isn't open today.

Maybe it's just plain suay that we have to pay for exhorbitant tickets. People, you can start donating to my Europe backpacking fund. If not I can slowly walk back to Singapore.