Moment Musicaux

(Left to right)

Top row: Melville’s the twin that’s asleep, Melchoir’s the one still running about.

Middle row: Melchoir again, and my oh-so-cute niece, Tori.

Bottom row: Enkainia, my cousin, Melissa the cousin who towers over me at 1.75m, my sister. 

I’m down with a flu+fever+cough, but I appeared anyway for my uncle. The bad emcee didn’t make it any easier for me. Whoever distributes party poppers and snow sprays DURING DESSERT? My white fungus soup was ruined, and so was my night. He had poor crowd control, bad jokes, was quite rude (even to the MD’s son??), and checked his handphone onstage while making the guests do choo choo train when the dinner wasn’t even over.

Terrible. Regret not going for Omega Nite - heard it was fun. Oh well, my health isn’t up to anything either.

Blessed Christmas to all!

Singapore hasn’t been at her best weather for Christmas, but it’s an even greater reminder to me that Christmas really isn’t about the festivity. Christmas comes once every existing year; Jesus’ birth happened only once: to last an eternity (:

Haven’t been online for the longest time (what, 10 days?) because my modem ‘was spoilt’. And there’s been the youth camp, plus many Christmas rehearsals in church ‘cos I’m playing the timpani and back-up singing.

(I’m trying not wonder how much I’m lagging behind in schoolwork right now.)

Regardless, having no online connectivity only pointed out a glaring fact — that I also waste much precious time on the Internet. I managed to finish reading two books of the five or six that I’ve really read this year, slept earlier and spent more time with the family in the time I had without the net. Hooray!

Christmas’ been nice (albeit busy) though, despite the fact that Mr A. is in Canada visiting his relatives. =( Carolling was fun, bluffing my way through the chords on the guitar before my fingers felt really tender. The services were great, responses to the altar call was good (: Lunch at Hai Tien Lo with the 2nd uncle and family today was fantastic too. My stomach (and exhaust pipe) is kind of feeling the after-effects of stuffing myself silly though, sigh.

Went back to the company for the Christmas party too! They were mad, as usual — drag queens, loads of jokes and jibes, high and hyper people. I miss all of them, really! So here are some of the dress-up competition pictures I tried to take that night to round off this post. Try to spot the um, real drag queen. Cheers. (:

 

This is my first camp as a coach rather than a camper. And because school was still going on, I couldn’t be around for many of the activities and messages.

I was griping during a brief, impromptu sharing session with the logistics ministry and a few coaches how I’d personally felt ‘left out’ this camp. But when I thought about it again a few minutes after I said that, I saw how self-centered my thinking actually was.

I was feeling ‘left out’ because most of my closest friends in church were busy preparing for camp and the Thailand mission trip, whereas I was just hovering about, clueless and feeling unneeded.

Upon reflection, I realized what I’ve learnt from being ‘not involved’. I’m always used to being in the thick of the action, wanting to be involved in everything because I don’t like sitting around doing nothing. This time, I was doing less and seeing more – I made more observations than I usually did and spoke to more youths that I haven’t really spoken to.

Most of the youths I’ve spoken to agree that this year’s camp vibe was pretty different. A positive kind of different. I felt the same too.

On the last night of the camp, it was tradition that the youths were allowed to stay up to play till late, if not, the whole night through. But a heartwarming sharing session happened instead, and could have lasted more than the 3 hours it took.

It takes much courage to stand up and speak to a crowd. And it definitely takes more than just courage for one to tear down their own young, developing egos and admit to weakness in front of their peers. I still say, It takes the most courage, self-discipline and determination to make a resolution – and stick to it.

Dear youths, I’m really proud of you all! It’s my hope and prayer that you guys will continue to display the love you all did during the camp, and continue to grow spiritually in Christ. (:

A year of many firsts; today being the month.

Thanks, you. =)

Yesterday marked my very first Standard Chartered Marathon.

Though it was only 10km, I guess I did quite alright — considering the fact that I haven’t been exercising regularly nor trained up for the run, and that I’ve never ran more than 4km in any one sitting. I mean, running.

(And by now it’s a known fact that I hate running long distances. Okay, not so much anymore.)

At 7.45am, we started off from the Esplanade bridge. A record 30,000 (10km) people were running! we ran down Raffles Quay and toward Marina Park. The first 3km was pretty managable, and I maintained a good pace alongside Rose and Jean.

The Marina Park area was slightly demoralising — the path was split into 2 directional lanes — imagine having people run against you when you’re still running in search for the roundabout and you can’t see what’s ahead! At 5km, Rose went ahead when I started brisk-walking with Jean. Thigh muscles were slightly edgy then.

So I walked for 5 minutes, saw everyone around me determined to run, and decided to abandon Jean, heh.

An annoying abrasion between my left big toe and index toe was threatening to form a blister, so I decided to jog up to any individual carrying a pouch and asked for a plaster. When the plaster arrived, I went on my way for the final 4km.

My running shoes weren’t exactly the best for running (I have rather high-arched feet), and by 6km, my feet were threatening to break down. I decided to run and brisk-walk intermittenly (no music, forgot to bring my Nano’s armband), and kept encouraging myself mentally.

1:35:00 (approx.) at the Padang, mission accomplished! That’s the timing I saw on the clock for the women’s race (they started 15 minutes before us). Hopefully the official timing is somewhat there.

I also ran (pardon the pun) into quite a few people from DDB, my primary and secondary schools. It’s interesting to see how fit a lot of my ex-schoolmates have become after joining a sports CCA in JC.

Here’s Rose and I… 

Me (I love the colour of the tee!). 

Nicholas (who completed the half-marathon, 21.1km: On 2 hours of sleep, an oily dinner, no breakfast, and NO training whatsoever in a monstrous 2hrs and 20minutes).

After the race we rushed down to church to catch the sermon, then it was my sister’s very first public performance with Yuhua Band at the band’s Passing Out Parade. She’s at a much higher standard than I when I first started out. She definitely can surpass me soon! Work hard, little one!

Moral of the story:

Look around for stick bags. Well, INVEST in a stick bag, fine. But I don’t like to carry a stick bag around, looks so poseurish lah.

Yes… The worst thing I’d wanted happened.

Anyway. We were the 5th band playing — and played 45 minutes late because of certain could-have-been-prevented delays. Really annoying, some rockstar attitudes. As a result, we were cut from 3 songs, to 2, to just ONE.

And for that ONE song, my stick had to fly… I tried to continue with one hand. What makes me more ‘ughhh’ was that I failed to notice THAT THERE WAS A STICK BAG BESIDE ME LAH.

At least others said it wasn’t obvious and I guess I managed to tie up the outro. The crowd was really good though, and it was fun lah. Pity we didn’t get to do the full set.

Must keep pushing myself to improve… Practise!! Oh wait, no drumkit. Ha. Okay enough about it already, pardon the rambling.

edit: StanChart run’s tomorrow. I’m so…… unhealthy. Oh well, hoping to finish it in a pathetic 2 hours. HOPE.