Been talking to alot of people recently.

Been reading alot of stuff recently.

I think everyone's lives are slowly being eroded. Im seeing it increasingly in the people around me. And perhaps in me myself. Why?

Could it be due to the end of the hols? Could it be envy of watching others around you blossom even though you're still a seedling trying to sprout? Could it be that things you thought were constant and dependable are no longer so? Could it be a self realisation that the things that you thought were "right" were actually all "wrong" all along? Perhaps its just random pain, brought forth from currents from the past? Maybe we are casting our own thunderclouds over our own flowerbeds? Perhaps reality hit us alot harder than we could imagine?

-sigh-

Why?

There's so much I want to say. But I can't anyway.

Hang in tight everyone (me included)...after every thunderstorm, there's bound to be a rainbow.

Wanted to blog earlier but Blogger was giving me problems...

Thank you for smoking

Haha watched it with Jeremy and Ade, hella funny show, and to top it off, it actually reminded me of some of my NM modules haha...maybe I really should take the PR route...gaming might be cool...but I think advertising and designing all are just as fun....

Aunty also treated us to Ben and Jerrys...we had some merlion thing, 6 scoops with an obscene amount of toppings (which were darned good too)...and I think that sorta counted as lunch...

Went shopping for stuff and sent Ades laptop to repair too... quite a good day la I guess.

Food Hunt
Ok firstly, kudos to Brian again for the food hunt...it was damn good, damn tasty and really enjoyable to walk around with everyone, we also suprised fel with a cake and birthday gift..

only shame was that I ended up getting food poisoning from hell and suffered alot, through the night... thank goodness its all cleared up now...but man...so terrible...all the good food gone to waste haha...

NYDC

Supposed to go celebrate someones birthday, but the birthday person couldnt make it!! nvm...just have to shift to another day...

Did alot of talking (ok not that much)a lot of stupid thoughts swept through my mind during dinner...sian...must learn to stop thinking so much...but all in all a neatly packaged day I guess...

Yup thats about it for now...damn tired...

Phew, back from a 3d2n stay at tioman, and what a trip it was! Well to be honest, was a little bit disappointed at first when the number of people that came were so few, was honestly hoping for at least another 8 or so more people to come.

But hey, in the end, the five of us had a ton of fun (or at least I did haha) over there.

Day one:

Didnt sleep at all from Sunday (okay maybe just one hour) cause i was afraid of not being able to wake up on time. My dad managed to drive us down, was so nice of him to do that, thanks dad!

In anycase, Ben and Steph stayed over at my place, so the three of us rushed off to pick my brudder and Ade up. Thank God everyone woke up (or stayed up) on time.

We were damn high (some sleepy/hungry)while waiting for the bus at Scotts road, and I have the videos to prove it haha. Eventually the bus did come... so we boarded and left for Malaysia.

The transition and immigration went quite alright, no hitches no problems.

By lunch time, we hit the ferry terminal and we set off to Tioman. Personally, I didn't really know what to expect, I mean, sometimes the photos that they give in brochures CAN be deceiving.

And when we hit Tioman, I was in awe, the first things which I saw:
1) Huge ass mountain (or really big hill)
2) Crystal Clear Water
3) Sand which looked alot better in the brochure
4) RAMILY BURGER

I think Ben and I were too enthralled with the burgers to notice anything else. Mannnnn it tastes sooo much better in Malaysia...

After settling in to our room, some of them walked around to scout the area and I nua-ed in the room (and caught up with much needed sleep). Joined them to watch the sunset/dinner. Unfortunately Ade stubbed her toe (ouch)! (hope its getting better)

Amazingly, the stars were out that night, it was really damn beautiful. A marvellous creation by God! Tried to take photos of them, but I think my cameras Max Shutter speed was too fast and I don't have the super stable hands to handle that kind of shutter speed. So I ended up with two pictures that are just all black.

When we retired to the room, we became crazy again and well, played cards and laughed about every thing...good stuff. Good fellowship =)

Ohhhh and we concluded the day with a very nice group prayer =)

Day two:
Woke up and had a fantastic breakfast, if its one thing, the food here was fantastically delicious. However, the big spoiler was that WE MISSED OUR SNORKELING TOUR. Yup. Only cause we didn't ask specifically when it would be the day before. The good side though, I think the guy in charge took pity on us or something (and no doubt through Gods grace) he let us borrow the equipment for free!

Spent the noon wading around the waters of "our" island, now this one had the sand and the water that we saw in the brochures. Really good and relaxing. Had fun teaching Moses how to snorkel, and swam around abit to look for stuff to take pictures off. The two girls were sunbathing on a rock like beached whales =P. After lunch, we had our proper snorkeling session led by Ben (who was garang enough to recce the area beforehand)and we went around this huge rock and back, saw alot of stuff I had never seen before in real life... Urchins, a school of fish, sea cucumbers, coral etc... really beautiful.

After Dinner we kinda split up, some of them went off to star gaze and me and my brudder stayed in the room to talk. Really important sharing session. We shared over our beef satay and the mood was just plain relaxed man. No strees. I don't know if I should have my hopes heightened after the session or not, but yeah, it was nonetheless a good session.

Wanted to end the day with another group prayer but I KO'd after they came back, damn sleepy, plus my arm was hurting like mad, so ya, I just wanted to sleep it all away...

Day three:
FRENCH TOAST FOR BREAKFAST! Haha, haven't had that in a long time. And straight after that we got into frenzied packing/bathing and group phototaking. (I can't believe we only took group photos on day three hahaha) We also took pictures with the friendly dude who lent us our equipment for free.

Rushed to the burger joint for a final Ramily burger before we headed back to the ferry.

And well, yup ended up back in Singapore. (And after dropping Ade off, Brudder and me left for Alexis' birthday celebration haha)

My thoughts:
Well, I came with not many expectations. For me I just wanted to relax and just let go of everthing, so I guess for me, the holiday was very fulfilling. I hope I wasn't too much of a wet blanket for the rest of the group, I truly am sorry if I was. But I don't know, it seemed like Gods hand was at work again during the trip, and many of my initial fears/worries were allied during the trip itself.

Thats not to say that there weren't any bad thoughts at all. So old stuff resurfaced when I was sharing with Moses that night, but despite the hurt, I think it was good that we talked it out, really helped. Thanks man, I owe u a beer! hahaha...

But yeah, overall a great trip, can't wait for the next one where we can hopefully bring alot more people!

And I guess to end it all,

Thank you Jesus!

I don't know if its pre trip syndrome or something. But Im feeling damn miserable now.

Maybe I need to go for Mass.


rough day.

What do you do when you are forced to make certain decisions that you don't want to make?

Yeah it's hard ain't it, life truly is complicated, and its hard to weave through the intricate web of friendships, aquaintences, politics, demographics and the whole lot.

I pray that I will make the right choice, or at least that God prompts me, through any sign at all...

I guess its not as bad as I think it is. And alot of my burdens which I have carried have been shed off. Letting go is difficult, its tough, but sometimes it is so necessary. (refer to my old post about the scab/festering wound etc)

Yet at the same time Im starting to distance myself subtlely from everything around me. In a way, its comfortable, you get to stay in the shade, out of the sun, away from the heat. Then again, the shade doesn't last forever, if I were to stick to it, I guess there would only be a limited space to move about. Sure the sun might burn a little, but, within it we are all free to move as we please...hmm

I actually wanted to also comment about God in our lives. A series of events had recently reminded me about our faith. I realised that there are times where I tend to place practicality and worldly commonsense over faith. It is important to always overlay our faith into our daily lives. Its not something we should separate. As a priest brought up before:

And Im paraphrasing here...

There are many people who go to Mass, celebrate it, smile and are all holy and happy, but once they step out and get into the car, they start blasting the car horn and scolding people all the way home.

How do you overlay it? Well through constant reminders I guess, perhaps talking to God everyonce in a while, thanking Him for the little things. Then again, its easier said than done, and sometimes worldy distractions or periods of stress can really make you forget.

But hey, nobody said life was a bed of roses. And then again, rose stalks have thorns anyhow.

In other news...

1) Infiltration of shabu shabu
Yup, along with Moses Jon and Steph, we joined in Shabu Shabu's day of fun and games. And yeah, I must add it was really super fun. Despite the fact that I had little sleep that day and started acting like a complete fool (again) it was really great playing Cranium and all. Ohhhh and the dinner was super cool too, really fantastic food, and I would have pictures posted but they are presently in someone elses camera. I hope to get my hands on them soon. And as my MSN nick goes, I am now an honourary member of a group that I created. Weird eh? hahaha...but ya, great outing!

2) Arts Outing
Celebrated Trebeks birthday that night, with a super special prank. Made it seem like we cut his cake before hand and unknowingly haha. And as usual I lovedddd the BBQ food, but the stingray was a little too spicy for me. I love the arts people man, really fun to hang out with them. And today Moses drove! haha so the sending home duties were lighter today haha...

Well, thats about all for now...I have so many more thoughts, but some are hard to put into words...so perhaps till next time!

Well well,

I guess the last few days kinda ended the whole FOC at last.

And what a follow up it was indeed. 4 nonstop days of suaning, DDRing, EATING, playing games, talking, chatting, laughing, walking, shopping (for food), driving, getting semi lost, battling ants, concussing bees with baygone, BBQing, acting like an aristocrat, poking fun at Cripsy chicken eaters (even though its true!), sharing random facts about the world, singing, swerving, cooking, more eating and and and....

ya alot of things.

Thank you to everyone for your hard work in preparing this, for the freshies for coming down and for (most importantly) God for blessing the entire event!

Yay!

Well, its been a while since I last updated...and 2 very big events have passed by and I really want to write about them.

1. Firstly, some of the guys came down to my place for board games, which eventually turned out into a really nice sharing session. We really could use more of these! Of course, Ben and Jerrys is always a MUST...I think I really learned alot more about my fellow friends that day. Things are always more complicated than they seem and I guess its good to share often.

And of course GRAPEVINE my gosh, milk in heaven is damn fantastic.. never really tasted something like that but mmmmmmmmmmmm is all I can say haha. And of course, they silly games we played...thank goodness there was no "odd and even" in the end man...damn heng..otherwise there would be a bald patch on my hand.

And bald patches on my hand look weird. Trust me. I've seen it.

After that had a nice long drive home, you know I told myself I'd do alot more night driving this hols, I really should get down to it haha..

2. B-U-D-A-K, oh my gosh, that was one heck of a super duper event. I think words cant even describe how fantastic it was. And the 'preshow' with Mel was just as hilarious *remembers all the bimbo moments* seriously, it was a hoot. haha.

Also met a friend of Steph and Mel called Monica, so pounced on the chance to do some old tricks which I havent touched in ages. Oh oh and we dedicated the Baking song to Jon! wahahahahaha now THAT was funny. Man, the concert really flew by...it was really too good...its one thing listening to Budak on CD, but its a whole other story to watch them on stage. Gordon and Micheal...haha really damn funny duo la... I WANNA GO AGAIN =)

Its a shame that I couldnt go for supper after the event, but had to practice for a wedding...

Oh and the wedding itself went quite well...yay!

Phew, what a mouthful, now for FOC followup! woooohooo