Gua Tai

Whhooaahh!!

I accompanied my mother to watch the "Ge Tai" just now!

It has been a long time since I watched a Ge Tai. This is because I am not a great big fan, the content is about other gods, not very Christian content (eh, hokkein, chinese, ge tati leh, what you expect??), and also simple there are not really many Tai near my place, need traveling. As for today, my mother have plans to watch a Tai, so she suggested that we go to eat at Potong Pasir (the Ge Tai's area) before going to watch when I asked her where should we go for dinner.

We were quite late when we reached there and had our dinner before proceeding to the stage area. We were quite lost as were not very familiar with Potong Pasir. We depended on our hearing to find the stage area. Cool, right?



The singer when we arrive at the Ge Tai


Can you recognise them?

They both acted in 881. The guy (Lin Li) acted as the host for the Ge Tai when the Papaya Sisters and the Durian sisters are having the final showdown. The lady (Lin Ru Ping) acted as the mother for Big Papaya. Both of them are quite famous in the Ge Tai field, according to my mother (you think I would know that?? No way! Actually I only know Lin Ru Ping is famous)

The 2 hosts, they brag about the quality of tonight's show. Saying that the band is the most expensive Ge Tai band, the 2 of them are the top hosts (they are like talking about each other, but kept denying that they are that good, quite humble though, haha.. don't know if it is for the show, or they really felt that way). That the singers tonight are of top grade. The male host also say that every year on the 19th of Lunar 7th month the Rong Hua Ge Tai will always be held at Potong Pasir. Uuually when the other Ge Tais are on random dates. They say the organiser insist on having one there every year. They also brag that the cost of this Tai is very expensive, easily 7 to 8 thousand. Lightings 900+, Band few hundred, stage material, few hundred, singers/hosts. Sometimes you can wonder how come those Buddhist and Taoist can be so generous when it comes to organising their religious events. Then you look at our own people.


Look! A male singer. Before he steps on stage, my uncle is already telling me that his singing is good. You know, his voice is hoarse after what (today is the 19th day of the 7th month), I guess 19 days of singing. He can barely speak properly, but somehow, he manages to sing very well, except a few slip notes on the harder-to-reach parts.


Another actor of the 881 cast. She acted as Karen in 881. The lady who got kidnapped by the Durian Sisters.

I watch it until about 9pm, then decided that I should go home first. Haha, the song are unable to stir up further enthusiasm for me to stay. Although I only know a few songs, I enjoyed the performance overall. Again, I shall state this fact: I am not a Lao Ah Pek. I am not an old man. It just happens so because my parents listen to their CDs at home regularly and subconsciously, I learnt those songs. I also went there to see how the stage was put up, how the lighting are put up, how the musicians play. Can rope in some tips for Christian Worship, although it might be hard to integrate those few small pointers.

Come back to the generosity problem. This is a very good point that Christians can learn. Although I cannot find any verses to support my view point now. I still think it is a good trait. Ever went to Chinese funerals? You can see that they give 'white gold' in 50s and 100s. But it is a sad thing to see Christians giving 2s and 5s during Christian Funerals. Some Christians ask them to give weekly offering is like wanting their life. What happened to Jesus's teaching about the old lady in the temple? Are you thinking that he is only joking and only wanted to compare her to the rich people? Numbers may not be the problem, sincerity and attitude is; maybe this is the way you might say to argue back to say about Jesus's teaching. 2s and 5s? Really, do not kid yourself, you cannot kid God. Yea. I just hope that I will not become some who is so stingy with my money that I will not fork out money for Christ's sake.

Relive the moments

This is not an impersonation of an antelope. It has got to be at least a reindeer. Because of the antlers. Antelopes have horns. This was taken in IKEA the week before when I went there with Addison and Min Hui.

Moments like these. Captured on film (digital film here) are memories. Some of these memories that do not come by often. Fooling around, having fun. Harsher moments are harder to capture, but usually people would not want to remember those bad times. Who would keep an ablum of their family members fighting, pictures of yourself frustrated or loved ones in hospital beds? Not many. Relive the happy moments, nice photographs bring back happy memories. Relive the interesting moments, queer photographs made you wonder why you choose those as your picture's subjects/do those actions.

Back to the reindeer topic. Christmas is coming. Soon. Soon enough to start preparations. Start the preparations, any takers? Takers to participate. Participate in the Christmas Party? A Party that should make a difference. Differences between Christian and non-Christian? Christ.

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Swing

How to swing, alone? Here's how.

1) Find a swing. If have a childhood, you would know what it look like. It seems that the generation of today are not so well-acquainted with the swing, simply because they are seemingly missing from the child-safe playground.

2) Sit on it.

3) Either a) Use your legs to pivot yourself away from the ground. Placing your feet flat on the ground/sand at the spot where your seat originally form a perpendicular with.

4) Release yourself.

5) This step teaches you how to gain altitude. When you are swinging bend your knees to "keep" your legs. As you swing forward kick both of your legs forward too. Then you "keep" your legs as you swing backwards. Make sure to kick hard so that there is a force to move your higher.

This chapter is also considered housekeeping because it is something you can do to relax and enjoy as you housekeep.

Practise and perfect it. Your kids will thank you in the near future.

OIA, MIA

Missing in action. Sigh.

We were supposed to do some preparation for John 3:16. I believe not much people did. Rev. Yang asked who did the homework. He repeated a few times, waited for a few minutes. No one raised their hands. Then i believed that those who really did, did not dare to raise their hand/s. We got a mini lecture from him. He was talking about the hardships and trouble and life-risking events that Martin Luther has to go through to make the Bible a household item, a book which is meant for all of God's people instead of only the Clergy as God wants everybody to know his word. That is why he felt heart-broken on behalf of Martin Luther.

The New Balance

The New Balance


Balancing Act


N-LOCK


1223

Series of fortunate and unfortunate events.

Ice-cream. I scream. We screamed. Too much already. If you go around checking out some of my church friend's blogs or their personal message. It would be saying things like "no more ice cream for next 6months" , "I have enough of ice-cream" etc. We had so much ice-cream on Saturday for our ice-cream 8 course dinner and we did not even finish all 8 courses. Imagine 4 tubs of 6 litres plus around 15 tubs of 1.5 litres. I guess that was quite an accurate estimate of how much ice-cream we bought for the event. I think we managed to finish ½ of those.

I was the usher for Sunday Church service. While doing so, I noticed one lady who looked like Felicia Chin (but she is not, She looked tanned and a bit older compared to Felicia Chin). What first caught my eye was her colourful rainbow coloured tee she was wearing, next was her make-up, then was her look-like-Felicia-Chin face. I wanted to confirm her identity but I could not get a better look as I was engaged in my duty. At the end of the service, I saw her talking to some of the Pastors and Uncle Shan Ping. So Lunch came. Its the birthday celebration. We catered Nasi Lemak from Kovan Hup Li. Guess what, there are still ice-cream left from the previous day. So Hao Jie initiated to play the game they played yesterday. It is sort of like "follow the leader" where the leader will give a specific set of instruction such as : use your right hand to take the spoon, pass it to your left hand, scoop the ice-cream eat it put the spoon down after you say 'thank you'. If people did the action in the wrong sequence or missed out an action, they will have to repeat and thus eat more ice-cream. He managed to clear a lot of ice-cream using this method on Saturday, he is trying it again. Haha. After lunch we had combined Bible Studies. Reverend Yang taught us the OIA method to study the bible. His focus was on O: Observation that day. Some of us were amazed some of us were shocked, some of us were simply just doing the worksheet. We were asked to read Matthew chapter 2 and there was questions like: how many kings went to visit the child and mary; did the star led them to where they were; how many types of gifts was presented; the gifts was present to who. Do you know the answers? Next was describing the picture like that of an oral examination. The picture was about a car accident. MAN, there was much disagreement going on as to who is to be blamed for the accident. Homework is to read John 3:16, using the 6H, list down our observations. After bible study, most of the other peeps went home, the committee stayed back for meeting. Such a long meeting. we discussed about how are we going to operate during the renovation months, the plans for next your, rooms to use, camps, follow up for events and the upcoming Christmas event. It was about 6:30pm, Reverend Yang did not join us for dinner. The few of us; the 1724s (proudly) finally decided to eat at Thai Express.SLURP SLURP. When I got back home, I MSNed and chated with Reverend Yang, I remembered that he might know the Felicia-Chin-lookalike is. He mentioned that she seems to be a finalist form this year's Starsearch. I was like,"oh really ah, no wonder wear until so colourful".

Went swimming on Monday. And what is the worst forgetful thing that you can do there? Forget to bring the swimming trunks home. And that was what I did. I realised it only after I reached home and was unpacking my bag. I have to walk back to the pool, asked the staff to let me in, go to the toilet's second cubicle to retrieve my supposedly lost swimming trunks.

Wow, Tuesday is an eventful day. Went to cut my hair @ Tampines by Steven, my favorite hairstylist. Nice. Nice. I proceeded to Queenstown/Queensway to meet Hao Jie. 1) to look and take measurements of desks and swivel chairs from IKEA. I was thinking of buying AMON table top 30$ to fit with GALANT frame 40$ and A-LEGS 15$/pc. For the chair, I was thinking of buying either the ALLAK (synthetic leather) 128$ or the KARSTEN (mesh back) 238$. Hao Jie have been wanting to introduce one of his favorite drink of all time to me. Durian Milkshake from block 120 opposite IKEA. He seems to know a lot about the 2 stalls operated by 3 brothers. 1 is the Ba Kut Teh Stall, next to it is the Fruits & Juices stall, owned by 3 brothers. We had Ba Kut Teh with rice, then next, wah. Next wah, comes the wah, thing. The Durian wah Miklshake. Wah. I ordered Soursop Milkshake. Soursop Milkshake taste refreshing, but wah, Durian Milkshake wah wah is very powerful wah. Each mug is only 2$ very worth the buy! Wah. Must try. I got a feeling the SF people will be able to try it, maybe within this year. If you know what I mean. Haha! The wah surprise. Wah² Wah²! I wanted to buy a new pair of running shoe for a long time already, my targeted shoe is New Balance 1222. It was quite an old model, as in it was around the market for about 1 year plus, so not many shop carry the colour (lime green lines with white base) that I wanted nor do they have the size (13). All along I thought I was a 13, but then after what the uncle said, I was convinced I am a size 12 new Balance wearer. He said that if I wear 13, after a while, I would have to tighten my laced to make the shore "re-fit" my feet. But with a 12, I do not need to do that. Since my NS time, I have been wearing size 13 New Balance, and this problem really occurred to both pairs of shoes. What worries me is the length of the shoe, the truth is that any shoe will expand after it is seasoned. Here come s the tricky part. I am a flat footer and have wide feets. Some shoes comes in different wideness (measured in 'E's. Common sizes are 2E and 4E.) 1222 only have 4E. Uncle recommended me 1223 size 12 2E. Good. Haha. It fits. I missed Tuesday's 9pm show on Channel 8 cause I was just paying the uncle @ 9pm. Tsk.

Tell you one thing. Next time you go to Queens to buy shoes, go to the 2 shops manned by 1) Mr Singh and the other shop by the Indians. They give better deals than the Chinese and Malays. It seems so. They give better advises and seems to be more experienced at the shoe business.

Today, wow, woke up at 7am. I had a job interview with a*star company at Buona Vista scheduled at 9:30am. The interview lasted ½hour, it went so fast. I didn't even know if it was good or bad. It was a hot morning, I was sweating as I was on my way, and I was still sweating when I was at the table talking to them. Was an unsightly view. After the interview, I went to Raffles City to have BK breakfast, a little treat for myself. The wrong thing I dis was to got down at Raffles Place MRT station instead of City Hall MRT station. After brunch, I took a walk down to Suntec. I bought a CD: Olivia from HMV. http://oliviaong.com/index.html The CD I bought is the Singapore release, which is not reflected in the official website. I saw Zhang Fend (NS friend) along the way and Danny (church friend) at G2000Blu. One thing caught my eye. This:



I had always wanted a V-neck long sleeved tee. It gives the causal look a new definition. Cool and casual. Then I continued my journey into the pointless window shopping and saw this nice picture at a art gallery/shop just beside minitoons.



It may not be well taken here cause I was using my k750i and it's not really a neat camera. Just good enough for blogging and such. The next thing I know, I was in the DC comic shop, selling all the DC superheros stuffs. There are Superman, Green Lantern, Flash tees going from 9$ to 19$. You know why it is so cheap, because the new stock are going for 80+$. They are those black tee with "diamond studed" Superman "s" logo. Wow. Ex Pen Sive. Another thing that I had always wanted to own is a neat Superman Belt Buckle. But they are slightly on the expensive side. The buckle is 89$ and the leather strap is 30$. There are the smaller and not so to my liking ones going @ 29$ per buckle. I did not get any, no budget ah. Wait till I get my job. Went home!

I did not go swimming today. Lazy is the word; I was thinking that I should give myself a break. My sister went out after her ½day at school and got home at night and she packed a half-eaten Chicken & Mushroom Fusilli from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.



Yawn! I took such a long time to complete this entry. Because I was blogging, watching TV and MSN-ing at the same time. AND guys are not so good @ multitasking. Haha. That explains. I dun think I'm gonna bother about any spelling mistakes in this entry. Remember. lazy's the word.

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Housekeeping 101

How to clean your fan.

1) Remove the front frame by un-clicking the clip holding the front frame to the back frame (it is found at the bottom edge), then unscrew the cap of the blades in a clockwise direction, then take out the blades, them unscrew the nut holding the back frame, then remove the back frame.

2) Bring the items to your cleaning ares, preferably your toilet or somewhere you have got a hose and a basin and a sponge. Oh, and water.

3) Use the wet sponge to clean both frames. Clean in a big circle around the surface of both the front & back of the front frame and both the front & back of the back frame. The dirt should and will come out all stick to each other, forming some sort of a string of threaded dirt. All the dirt in one line. How smart.

P.S. If you are using 3M product, the one with a green scrub surface and the yellow spongebob squarepants surface, use the yellow spongebob squarepants surface.

DO NOT CLEAN ALONG THE SPIKES! THE DIRT WILL NOT COME OUT!

4) Rinse the cap and the nut. (The NUT, not YOURSELF!!)

5) Use the hose and spray onto all 4 items. Hold the frames at one edge, hold it up and spray water on it. Just spray the cap and nuts as you would spray anything else.

6) Give the frames a good beating, as if you are the nurse beating the bottom of a newborn baby, to shake off excess water.

7) Use a clean cloth to wipe off the water still clinging onto the surface of the items.

8) Put the back frame back first, then screw the nut back in a clockwise direction, then put the blades back, then screw the cap back in a anti-clockwise direction, then hook the front cover back and secure it.

9) Turn the fan on to see if it works (Yes! Turn it on).

10) Tell your parents that they do not need the maid anymore.

I hope enjoy your fan-cleaning process, do it often and you might get the hang of it. Do it regularly enough and your parents will start to ask you to clean the whole house.

For more housekeeping tips, please go through NS! Thank You!

Dragon

Went to eat Sizzler @ Suntec yesterday. The 3 of us went in first, as Jason was late. It was the first time I'm eating at this restaurant. But to Hao Jie and Eugene, it was not. They forgot how it was. Earlier on, Hao Jie had asked me along to eat Sizzler's buffet. I was the earliest guy to turn up, so I went to check out the restaurant. I realised that there was not "BUFFET" sign at the entrance of the shop. I was telling them that when we met up. They did not believe me and said that they had always remembered that Sizzler served buffet. Hao Jie went in and ask. They do serve salad buffet. We were all puzzled. Then suddenly Hao Jie remembered that we are entitled to the buffet when we buy a main course. We went in without Jason after he confirmed with us that he will be late.

Next destination after dinner is the Arcade. We threw baskets. Haha, they were hooked to the basketball game, and I sort of like joined in the fun. So Jason issued a challenge. Our 3 combined score multiplied by 1.5 vs his score. The loser does push ups. In the arcade.

We did push-ups in the arcade. Lost to Jason. I got 93, Eugene got 98, Hao Jie got 104. Jason got around 475. So we need to do 31 (the difference) multiply by 2 times of push-ups in the arcade. We cheated by doing only 21 each, so totaled up to 63. Good thing it's the closing hour!

Jason and Hao Jie asked me to go over and learn how to steer the dragonboat. I was hesitating whether to go or not.This is because, firstly, my mother would not like me to associate with Dragonboats. Secondly, I would not have time in the future to help Jason, even if I go learn tonight. You see, I study night-school and most of his sessions are in the night.

I did not go, that is why you see my post here.

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