OCF Welcome night this time round felt somewhat different even though it wasn't a lot of people. But it is still good because there were a lot of new people and for the first time in quite some time, it felt like there were more new people than older ones (of course quite a number of the older ones are still now back here yet). That is a good thing and it seems like majority of them seem to enjoy our company (not to mention our lame behaviour and stupid things we say and do). The real test will the weeks leading up to and just after the Easter holiday on whether most of them will stay in OCF or not. Even better if they stay for church as well but that would be optional.
I finally decided to restring my bass but it has caused more trouble than it actually is. But I guess it is my fault for not restringing often enough. I bought 2 sets of strings ages ago because they were on sale. About 4-5 years later I decided use the other set. Barely 1 round and the string snapped indicating that the strings have gone past its "use by" date. I'm going to try again tonight but I hope I don't make any mistakes otherwise it is going to cost me about $45 and that is quite painful.
Thanks to the recent events, I've gone back to listening to some of the old anime music I had and it makes me feel like I was 18-20 again when I was studying Japanese and just immersing myself into some of their likings. I really really want to go back to studying Japanese again. After 7 years in Melbourne (and not practicing Japanese), I still remember a lot of what I had been taught albeit rusty of the vocabulary and grammar. Thankfully I had really good teachers back then and not to mention fairly intensive courses on Japanese. The fiercest one was a 4 hour class once a week for a whole year. It didn't feel so bad but there were a lot of sacrifices that I had to make. One was that the class was on Sunday morning and afternoon so I had to skip church for a whole year. There were Saturday services as well but at that time I was also working in a bookshop and quite a number of those Saturdays I had to work. But I think it was worth it. I feel like I should see to it that I am fluent in Japanese some time in the near future since that I've already come this far and still not falter.
And now, for the news:
Nature is beautiful and strange at the same time. Here's a look a (completely) asexual species of lizards and how they still can have enough genetic material to not wipe out its species.
Even the president of the most powerful country in the world (debatable, I know) still need normal friends to hang out.
To say that my parents were a generation ahead of its time in light of the following is quite funny.
I should probably try to jump on the toy camera bandwagon. Why not.
A highly interesting article on settling written by a self-proclaimed feminist. Highly interesting because it actually answers a lot of questions about other people in relationships that don't seem to make much sense. And highly interesting because it paints a slightly different perspective on marriage. Kudos to Bing for this article. Not the search engine. Warning: This is a pretty long article so this is not one for light or quick reading
Drain + various sources of light = Art
For those who remember the post I wrote on Tissue Hime, I finally found the bass tabs for ALL of the covers (s)he has done. Awesome! Note that the site is in Japanese but it shouldn't take to much brain cells to work out how to get the tabs.
Animate Everything
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
at
7:13 PM
We're moving into less than a week before the uni term starts. Quite excited because from now on I will be doing subjects that are according to the speciality that I have chosen, which are network and security. But the more interesting part are the electives that I will be taking on computer graphics. That will be fun but I think I am going to experience the most pain in terms of work load. We'll see what the term has to offer.
Also, all of the sudden there is a sudden surge in the number of newcomers to OCF. I'm surprised because it is barely near the end of the holidays and we are seeing this many of them coming in. My wish, as it is with every other year, is that most of them will stay in OCF and I somewhat have a good feeling about retention this time round. Which is a good thing for obviously OCF but as well as myself. This incident will either elevate me out from my problem with OCF that has been plaguing me for the past year or so or that it will change nothing and simply is delaying the inevitable. So many things to decide but more important is that I do not get my hopes up too high about it, unlike the last time. Above all, pray that God will continue to work among the newcomers and the old-timers to be focused on the gospel.
So with the little time I have left in the holidays, I found an old anime series that I forgotten I have. Well, actually it isn't mine but obviously I forgot to give it back. I couldn't watch it on my laptop for God knows what reason but now I can on my desktop. It kinda inflamed me to do a lot of other stuff like dig up my old anime music (assuming that my old hard drive is still up for it), getting a Japanese dictionary and hunting for a good anime source. If Disney has the reputation for ruining everyone's expectation of love, I'd say the anime world isn't too far behind. For some, they have Korean, TVB series to mope over and others on anime. I don't get Korean or TVB, largely too predictable (Khai would know this as well =P). Anime has somewhat the perfect combination of action, comedy, romance, cleverness and awkward and somewhat questionable scenes and/or content. It used to garner a lot of conversations last time because so many were on to it and the content was interesting, now it is like a dying tribe. I remember last time after church, 2 other anime fans and I would take away a bucket of KFC and have an anime marathon at my place. Nowadays it's hard to name even one person who still watches anime however infrequent they do. Hopefully there will be fresh meat this time round =P
And now for the news:
You know something is wrong when there is a Miss Cougar competition going on. Eeew.
Normally anyone who makes fun of someone's disability is not cool which makes Sarah Palin right to criticize Family Guy. However it's not so simple when the person "in charge" of making fun of that same disability has the very same disability. Who's going Down now? =P
Is this Trump guy serious? wth.
How about having a wedding at an Apple store? Cute and a bit on the nerdy side but...I don't know.
I so love shot #8. Kinda brings me back to the whole photo project in Turkey.
You can't have too much archeological finds about the Bible now, can you?
Maneuvering around social networking etiquette is getting trickier.
Thanks to WongFu Productions, have a blast at the short clips of their series of Technology Ruins Romance.
Also, all of the sudden there is a sudden surge in the number of newcomers to OCF. I'm surprised because it is barely near the end of the holidays and we are seeing this many of them coming in. My wish, as it is with every other year, is that most of them will stay in OCF and I somewhat have a good feeling about retention this time round. Which is a good thing for obviously OCF but as well as myself. This incident will either elevate me out from my problem with OCF that has been plaguing me for the past year or so or that it will change nothing and simply is delaying the inevitable. So many things to decide but more important is that I do not get my hopes up too high about it, unlike the last time. Above all, pray that God will continue to work among the newcomers and the old-timers to be focused on the gospel.
So with the little time I have left in the holidays, I found an old anime series that I forgotten I have. Well, actually it isn't mine but obviously I forgot to give it back. I couldn't watch it on my laptop for God knows what reason but now I can on my desktop. It kinda inflamed me to do a lot of other stuff like dig up my old anime music (assuming that my old hard drive is still up for it), getting a Japanese dictionary and hunting for a good anime source. If Disney has the reputation for ruining everyone's expectation of love, I'd say the anime world isn't too far behind. For some, they have Korean, TVB series to mope over and others on anime. I don't get Korean or TVB, largely too predictable (Khai would know this as well =P). Anime has somewhat the perfect combination of action, comedy, romance, cleverness and awkward and somewhat questionable scenes and/or content. It used to garner a lot of conversations last time because so many were on to it and the content was interesting, now it is like a dying tribe. I remember last time after church, 2 other anime fans and I would take away a bucket of KFC and have an anime marathon at my place. Nowadays it's hard to name even one person who still watches anime however infrequent they do. Hopefully there will be fresh meat this time round =P
And now for the news:
You know something is wrong when there is a Miss Cougar competition going on. Eeew.
Normally anyone who makes fun of someone's disability is not cool which makes Sarah Palin right to criticize Family Guy. However it's not so simple when the person "in charge" of making fun of that same disability has the very same disability. Who's going Down now? =P
Is this Trump guy serious? wth.
How about having a wedding at an Apple store? Cute and a bit on the nerdy side but...I don't know.
I so love shot #8. Kinda brings me back to the whole photo project in Turkey.
You can't have too much archeological finds about the Bible now, can you?
Maneuvering around social networking etiquette is getting trickier.
Thanks to WongFu Productions, have a blast at the short clips of their series of Technology Ruins Romance.
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Short Itch
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
at
11:09 PM
It has been a fairly good response so far about the pictures from Turkey. I hope that you all enjoyed it.
Since coming back, I had trouble sleeping because I've been scratching pretty much non-stop and it's very annoying. Gah...
And now the news. Sorry, nothing much going on these few days except unbearable itching:
John Mayer's recent controversy just makes him more of a douchebag despite his music being so awesome. In his apology both formally and in one of his concerts, he's said that he was just trying to be clever which essentially just blew up in his face. And so, the one who sang "My Stupid Mouth" said he's just going to refrain from being clever and just play guitar. In many ways, that sounds a lot like me. I sometimes try to say something brilliant or clever whether in Bible studies, jokes with friends, stuff to teachers/supervisors/older people and it just kills me. And the solution he proposes is also something that I think I should do as well. Just shut up and just do your thing.
God created work and there is a good reason for that. We'd die faster.
Having multiple sexual partners makes those "swimmers" go faster. Survival of the fittest?
I'd like to have a supercomputer as a toy. They're just super cool
After all the history we have in trying to break down any hints of racism in our society, it still seems like it is a subconscious attitude to be racist.
Should we students in Australia be scared? Maybe. Take it from a guy who got mugged twice.
Singapore? Boring? No wai!!1!
She's disqualified for being a cheeseburger overweight for her luge. There must be a cat somewhere.
Since coming back, I had trouble sleeping because I've been scratching pretty much non-stop and it's very annoying. Gah...
And now the news. Sorry, nothing much going on these few days except unbearable itching:
John Mayer's recent controversy just makes him more of a douchebag despite his music being so awesome. In his apology both formally and in one of his concerts, he's said that he was just trying to be clever which essentially just blew up in his face. And so, the one who sang "My Stupid Mouth" said he's just going to refrain from being clever and just play guitar. In many ways, that sounds a lot like me. I sometimes try to say something brilliant or clever whether in Bible studies, jokes with friends, stuff to teachers/supervisors/older people and it just kills me. And the solution he proposes is also something that I think I should do as well. Just shut up and just do your thing.
God created work and there is a good reason for that. We'd die faster.
Having multiple sexual partners makes those "swimmers" go faster. Survival of the fittest?
I'd like to have a supercomputer as a toy. They're just super cool
After all the history we have in trying to break down any hints of racism in our society, it still seems like it is a subconscious attitude to be racist.
Should we students in Australia be scared? Maybe. Take it from a guy who got mugged twice.
Singapore? Boring? No wai!!1!
She's disqualified for being a cheeseburger overweight for her luge. There must be a cat somewhere.
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Kittehnity
Monday, February 8, 2010
at
7:45 AM
*update with news at the end*
So it has been another long while since the previous post but all is good. Came back from Turkey this morning and I have to say that it was a pretty enjoyable trip, more so because I am Christian. 8 days of full-on traveling and history/cultural lessons on Turkey.
I've visited 4 of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations, of which Pergamum and Ephesus were pretty epic. It was a pity that rain had to disrupt the visit to Pergamum but easily made it up when in Ephesus. In both cities, so much of the ancient city remains intact and it is pretty amazing how people of that time managed to build such colossal buildings. The other place of interest is Cappadocia, briefly mentioned in Acts 2 and 1 Peter 1. It was interesting how the early Christians survived the persecution in Cappadocia and again much of it still remains intact.
Pictures to come soon after I head back to Melbourne on Tuesday night and have my film processed. Overall I was quite happy with my project and we will see if my film photography is up to scratch. My prediction? I'd say about half of them are not as sharp as I wanted it to be or of meh-quality and a few shots where I regretted not changing perspective for that shot (I can think of at least two).
Regardless on whether my photos do justice to Turkey, I highly recommend going there especially if you are Christian (there is some weight for Muslims as well but I figured it's more for the Christians). If Israel proves to be a hassle to get in (Malaysians should know this pretty well, our passport says so. You lucky Singaporeans.), Turkey is the next best place. The Turkish government seems to like Malaysia so much that we don't need visas to get in and pretty much buy anything there (even houses) without much paperwork and vice versa. Go for the first hand experience of seeing the early churches and the progression of Christianity.
Religion aside, the one thing I noticed while in Turkey is that there are a lot of cats. A lot. These are not your typical alley cats that get startled with every movement you make or any effort to get close to it. They will let you pet it. All of them. There are so many cats that I came across a local photography book entirely on cats around Turkey. They are fluffier, cuter and in some cases bigger than any other domesticated cat I've been used to.
Fierce.
*edit*
News before I go:
You certainly don't hear this kind of last wish grants every day
Kinda ironic, don't you think?
Drink up guys and gals, beer is good for your bones =D
Googlopoly anyone?
Think of it as a treasure hunt except the treasure's with you. If only I had some power tools and a soldering iron...
So it has been another long while since the previous post but all is good. Came back from Turkey this morning and I have to say that it was a pretty enjoyable trip, more so because I am Christian. 8 days of full-on traveling and history/cultural lessons on Turkey.
I've visited 4 of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations, of which Pergamum and Ephesus were pretty epic. It was a pity that rain had to disrupt the visit to Pergamum but easily made it up when in Ephesus. In both cities, so much of the ancient city remains intact and it is pretty amazing how people of that time managed to build such colossal buildings. The other place of interest is Cappadocia, briefly mentioned in Acts 2 and 1 Peter 1. It was interesting how the early Christians survived the persecution in Cappadocia and again much of it still remains intact.
Pictures to come soon after I head back to Melbourne on Tuesday night and have my film processed. Overall I was quite happy with my project and we will see if my film photography is up to scratch. My prediction? I'd say about half of them are not as sharp as I wanted it to be or of meh-quality and a few shots where I regretted not changing perspective for that shot (I can think of at least two).
Regardless on whether my photos do justice to Turkey, I highly recommend going there especially if you are Christian (there is some weight for Muslims as well but I figured it's more for the Christians). If Israel proves to be a hassle to get in (Malaysians should know this pretty well, our passport says so. You lucky Singaporeans.), Turkey is the next best place. The Turkish government seems to like Malaysia so much that we don't need visas to get in and pretty much buy anything there (even houses) without much paperwork and vice versa. Go for the first hand experience of seeing the early churches and the progression of Christianity.
Religion aside, the one thing I noticed while in Turkey is that there are a lot of cats. A lot. These are not your typical alley cats that get startled with every movement you make or any effort to get close to it. They will let you pet it. All of them. There are so many cats that I came across a local photography book entirely on cats around Turkey. They are fluffier, cuter and in some cases bigger than any other domesticated cat I've been used to.
Fierce.
*edit*
News before I go:
You certainly don't hear this kind of last wish grants every day
Kinda ironic, don't you think?
Drink up guys and gals, beer is good for your bones =D
Googlopoly anyone?
Think of it as a treasure hunt except the treasure's with you. If only I had some power tools and a soldering iron...
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I <3 SG
Thursday, January 28, 2010
at
2:50 AM
Warning: Long post
So yes it has been a long time since the last update but I really can't help myself. I went to Singapore for 6 days starting from the 15th to the 21st January and I tell you I was loving everyday of it. It somewhat got to the point where I thought on the flight back home that 6 days really wasn't enough and, like I've told a lot of people, I really like Singapore. *shake fist*
So, from the previous entry, I had a problem with accommodation. Key word is "had". So thanks to a certain recently married friend, I got to stay with a friend of his that has been housing an OCFer whenever he goes down to Singapore for a visit. The catch is that I would have to sleep in the living room but that is really no catch at all. This person that I was staying with is also married and has a 3.5 year old daughter and plays bass for a very large church. I'm liking it already. So I make my way to this family's condo and met the wife. So she showed me around the condo and have a relatively brief chat. Then when she showed me the daughter's room, she said this is where I will be sleeping. I was in complete shock and quickly tried to reject the offer. In an unusual twist, it wasn't on her word that she insisted for me to set up bed there but her daughter's word. While I was very very grateful that I have a literal bed, I was also thinking what kind of a 3.5 year old would give up their own bed to a stranger that she's never met. As a by product of that, I can imagine how cute this daughter of theirs is (she was playing with one of her neighbours next door, so I didn't see her when I came in the house). Chatted a bit more with the wife and quickly she has shown herself to be a very nice and generous person.
According to the mother, Shannon has been taught to share with other people but even her own actions surprised her. One example of course was the bed incident stated above. The other one is that she will give her last favourite sweet to her friends. Every time. Obviously I was speechless and I'm sure that the mother was too when she found out about it. What happened to us in going from a child much like Shannon to now being adults where sharing is such a rare thing? This is probably the best example to the term child-like faith.
Then Shannon came in.
She is so cute! And a lot of my good friends know that I have a very weak spot for cuteness, especially 3-6 year old girls and animals. She is remarkably chatty and smart for a girl her age and continue to amaze me with her cheeky-ness, intelligence and values throughout the week I was crashing at their place. Continued talking to the wife and occasionally playing with their daughter before I went out to have dinner with a childhood friend. But just as I was gathering my things to go out, Shannon asked me "Kor kor, where are you going?" which I promptly replied that I was going to meet my friend. She replied "Don't want" and she started getting a bit restless and gave a gesture for a hug. I gave her a hug and she latched on to me. I said I really have to go already but she keep saying don't want and getting more restless. I put her down and she ran towards the grilled front door and she used both her hand to cover the keyholes on either side of the door and said "Don't want, don't want". Think about it for awhile. At that age she knew what was needed to open the door (using a key to the keyhole) and to prevent the door from opening she did what she thought best, block the keyholes. She has thought and formulated a solution based on the current problem, me leaving, and the observations she's had. That is remarkably clever. And how terribly cute. With a heavy heart I still manage to leave the condo to meet a friend because she's forgotten one thing. The grilled door was already unlocked and all is needed is to pull the handle. She was clearly unhappy.
I did manage to meet the the husband and he is really a cool person. There was one time where we just sat down and jammed on Christian songs with him on the guitar and me using his 5 string Fender Jazz bass *drools* at 1 am. So not used to playing a 5 string bass but I somewhat got by. But the even cooler thing was that after we finished jamming, he looked at me and with a strangely stern look and asked me if I was hungry. I replied I can eat but if not I'm also fine. So he brought me to have roti canai at 2 in the morning while we chatted a bit more and he still goes to work the next day. My brain has been officially been blown to bits by this family.
Singapore has changed so much since 2 years ago. All of the sudden more shopping centres appeared along Orchard Road, most of which apparently opened within the past 6 months. And these are no ordinary malls. They are big, bold, "exciting", upbeat malls we are talking about. If Singapore had a recession, one look at the Orchard Road environment tells you otherwise. The new Circle MRT Line is well on its way to completion which now makes transferring between the 3 existing lines a lot easier. More low-rise condos are being built for those who can't afford houses but rich enough to afford a little more space. Plus a whole lot of other things that are pretty much terra-forming the Singaporean land. But there are aspects of it that hasn't changed, some for decades. That will be another story.
Much of the trip to Singapore are characterized by 2 main things; food and friends. I've had a lot of good food in the past 6 days that I am convinced that my parents brainwashing that Singaporean food is bad is completely wrong. Sure there are some things that are similiar to Malaysian food, there are enough differences to set itself apart. The most important food item that I must have and indeed I did have it was Bak Chor Mee (BCM). I suffered cravings for BCM ever since Boba Pearl in Melbourne closed down more than 2 years ago. It was the only thing that was good there apart from their bubble tea. Also, I managed to find a very good coffee place that is pretty near to the coffee giants in Melbourne like St. Ali, 7 Seeds etc and it is even complete with the culture of Melbourne. This place is tucked away in some relatively obscure laneway occupying a very small but relaxing area. And it seems virtually everyone there were in one way or the other related in Melbourne. This is the only place for good coffee in Singapore. I can pretty much guarantee it for the moment.
I've had a big problem with the dynamics of friends in OCF in Melbourne last year and I yearn for a deep and close relationship with friends. I found it in Singapore with the OCFers. That was quite strange but that has thrown a spanner in the works. Regardless, I have buckets and buckets load of fun with them; going out to church with them, travelling in search of food and many other activities. In particular, I've spent a lot of time with two girls who have taken the time to exhaust me bringing me around the island for two days straight. We might not have done much per se but I've gained so much from the conversations we had and the stupid, funny, random things we did. I'd say that this was the jump start that I needed so desperately in the second half of last year when I felt very "useless" (for a lack of a better word). I never got this from most of my fellow country men in OCF which to me just highlights the social differences between Malaysians and Singaporeans. But that is for another discussion. Point is, I'm happy for that spanner.
After being exhausted for 2 days, I crashed and rebooted with 12+ hours of sleep and I was determined to spend some time with the family that I was staying with because I essentially treated the place like a hotel. And they are really really really epicly nice people. So for most afternoons until I came back home, I played with Shannon. She loves to play some games on my iPhone and likes toying around my camera that I have brought along for the trip. It was quite sad that I didn't have a tertiary camera with me since the iPhone and camera were occupied by Shannon. It is quite fun playing with this little girl who has like the energy output of a nuclear power plant. It's quite hard to keep up with her at times but you feel like there is nothing else you would trade for. I guess that's how parents feel about their children.
But alas, the Singaporean trip must come to an end. My one regret was that I didn't have the time to at least have a meal together with the whole family. I will come back and do that. Also, I left on a rather bad note to Shannon. I left for the airport at the time when she was napping. So I left without saying goodbye to her. I really felt quite bad about it. Again, I'll visit them again next time. I've thoroughly enjoyed my trip there that some of my Singaporean friends have started pulling me to stay and work in Singapore. *shake fist*. Don't tempt me...
After coming back home, I thought it was going to be another very normal but boring week but no. Some of my Singaporean friends that I've met when I was down came up to KL. And so begins 4 more days of insane food hunting, shopping and talking. The same 2 girls who brought me around Singapore were part of the group and so it was my turn to return the favour. I also followed them for shoes, accessories and clothes shopping.
Yes, you heard me right. I tagged the girls for shopping. It is actually quite fun if you take the time to talk to them and analyze what sort of things they like. Also, I'd have to thank my sister for passively educating me in fashion and accessories because that helped a lot. Once I have somewhat proved my worth, they'd asked me for second opinions. Again I have to thank my sister for the training. I think my sister would be proud =P There was also another day where I spent a day trip to Ipoh with 5 girls, food hunting and talking. Again it's more fun than you'd expect if you take the time to talk to them and analyzing what's going on.
In short, I had a blazing time over the past 2 weeks. No amount of words used here could have described the events, feelings and thoughts that have occurred because that is simply impossible to picture it in its entirety solely with words. I have this renewed faith in my OCF friendships, oodles of fun and lots to think about for the rest of the year. 2010 has just barely started and I've got off to such a high note. May it be as good if not better than this. One event that I am looking forward to is the trip to Turkey this Friday for 10 days where I will embark on a personal project of mine. Photograph Turkey solely on film. I am not going to bring my digital SLR along at all. Everything manual.
This will be fun.
I can feel it...
So yes it has been a long time since the last update but I really can't help myself. I went to Singapore for 6 days starting from the 15th to the 21st January and I tell you I was loving everyday of it. It somewhat got to the point where I thought on the flight back home that 6 days really wasn't enough and, like I've told a lot of people, I really like Singapore. *shake fist*
So, from the previous entry, I had a problem with accommodation. Key word is "had". So thanks to a certain recently married friend, I got to stay with a friend of his that has been housing an OCFer whenever he goes down to Singapore for a visit. The catch is that I would have to sleep in the living room but that is really no catch at all. This person that I was staying with is also married and has a 3.5 year old daughter and plays bass for a very large church. I'm liking it already. So I make my way to this family's condo and met the wife. So she showed me around the condo and have a relatively brief chat. Then when she showed me the daughter's room, she said this is where I will be sleeping. I was in complete shock and quickly tried to reject the offer. In an unusual twist, it wasn't on her word that she insisted for me to set up bed there but her daughter's word. While I was very very grateful that I have a literal bed, I was also thinking what kind of a 3.5 year old would give up their own bed to a stranger that she's never met. As a by product of that, I can imagine how cute this daughter of theirs is (she was playing with one of her neighbours next door, so I didn't see her when I came in the house). Chatted a bit more with the wife and quickly she has shown herself to be a very nice and generous person.
According to the mother, Shannon has been taught to share with other people but even her own actions surprised her. One example of course was the bed incident stated above. The other one is that she will give her last favourite sweet to her friends. Every time. Obviously I was speechless and I'm sure that the mother was too when she found out about it. What happened to us in going from a child much like Shannon to now being adults where sharing is such a rare thing? This is probably the best example to the term child-like faith.
Then Shannon came in.
She is so cute! And a lot of my good friends know that I have a very weak spot for cuteness, especially 3-6 year old girls and animals. She is remarkably chatty and smart for a girl her age and continue to amaze me with her cheeky-ness, intelligence and values throughout the week I was crashing at their place. Continued talking to the wife and occasionally playing with their daughter before I went out to have dinner with a childhood friend. But just as I was gathering my things to go out, Shannon asked me "Kor kor, where are you going?" which I promptly replied that I was going to meet my friend. She replied "Don't want" and she started getting a bit restless and gave a gesture for a hug. I gave her a hug and she latched on to me. I said I really have to go already but she keep saying don't want and getting more restless. I put her down and she ran towards the grilled front door and she used both her hand to cover the keyholes on either side of the door and said "Don't want, don't want". Think about it for awhile. At that age she knew what was needed to open the door (using a key to the keyhole) and to prevent the door from opening she did what she thought best, block the keyholes. She has thought and formulated a solution based on the current problem, me leaving, and the observations she's had. That is remarkably clever. And how terribly cute. With a heavy heart I still manage to leave the condo to meet a friend because she's forgotten one thing. The grilled door was already unlocked and all is needed is to pull the handle. She was clearly unhappy.
I did manage to meet the the husband and he is really a cool person. There was one time where we just sat down and jammed on Christian songs with him on the guitar and me using his 5 string Fender Jazz bass *drools* at 1 am. So not used to playing a 5 string bass but I somewhat got by. But the even cooler thing was that after we finished jamming, he looked at me and with a strangely stern look and asked me if I was hungry. I replied I can eat but if not I'm also fine. So he brought me to have roti canai at 2 in the morning while we chatted a bit more and he still goes to work the next day. My brain has been officially been blown to bits by this family.
Singapore has changed so much since 2 years ago. All of the sudden more shopping centres appeared along Orchard Road, most of which apparently opened within the past 6 months. And these are no ordinary malls. They are big, bold, "exciting", upbeat malls we are talking about. If Singapore had a recession, one look at the Orchard Road environment tells you otherwise. The new Circle MRT Line is well on its way to completion which now makes transferring between the 3 existing lines a lot easier. More low-rise condos are being built for those who can't afford houses but rich enough to afford a little more space. Plus a whole lot of other things that are pretty much terra-forming the Singaporean land. But there are aspects of it that hasn't changed, some for decades. That will be another story.
Much of the trip to Singapore are characterized by 2 main things; food and friends. I've had a lot of good food in the past 6 days that I am convinced that my parents brainwashing that Singaporean food is bad is completely wrong. Sure there are some things that are similiar to Malaysian food, there are enough differences to set itself apart. The most important food item that I must have and indeed I did have it was Bak Chor Mee (BCM). I suffered cravings for BCM ever since Boba Pearl in Melbourne closed down more than 2 years ago. It was the only thing that was good there apart from their bubble tea. Also, I managed to find a very good coffee place that is pretty near to the coffee giants in Melbourne like St. Ali, 7 Seeds etc and it is even complete with the culture of Melbourne. This place is tucked away in some relatively obscure laneway occupying a very small but relaxing area. And it seems virtually everyone there were in one way or the other related in Melbourne. This is the only place for good coffee in Singapore. I can pretty much guarantee it for the moment.
I've had a big problem with the dynamics of friends in OCF in Melbourne last year and I yearn for a deep and close relationship with friends. I found it in Singapore with the OCFers. That was quite strange but that has thrown a spanner in the works. Regardless, I have buckets and buckets load of fun with them; going out to church with them, travelling in search of food and many other activities. In particular, I've spent a lot of time with two girls who have taken the time to exhaust me bringing me around the island for two days straight. We might not have done much per se but I've gained so much from the conversations we had and the stupid, funny, random things we did. I'd say that this was the jump start that I needed so desperately in the second half of last year when I felt very "useless" (for a lack of a better word). I never got this from most of my fellow country men in OCF which to me just highlights the social differences between Malaysians and Singaporeans. But that is for another discussion. Point is, I'm happy for that spanner.
After being exhausted for 2 days, I crashed and rebooted with 12+ hours of sleep and I was determined to spend some time with the family that I was staying with because I essentially treated the place like a hotel. And they are really really really epicly nice people. So for most afternoons until I came back home, I played with Shannon. She loves to play some games on my iPhone and likes toying around my camera that I have brought along for the trip. It was quite sad that I didn't have a tertiary camera with me since the iPhone and camera were occupied by Shannon. It is quite fun playing with this little girl who has like the energy output of a nuclear power plant. It's quite hard to keep up with her at times but you feel like there is nothing else you would trade for. I guess that's how parents feel about their children.
But alas, the Singaporean trip must come to an end. My one regret was that I didn't have the time to at least have a meal together with the whole family. I will come back and do that. Also, I left on a rather bad note to Shannon. I left for the airport at the time when she was napping. So I left without saying goodbye to her. I really felt quite bad about it. Again, I'll visit them again next time. I've thoroughly enjoyed my trip there that some of my Singaporean friends have started pulling me to stay and work in Singapore. *shake fist*. Don't tempt me...
After coming back home, I thought it was going to be another very normal but boring week but no. Some of my Singaporean friends that I've met when I was down came up to KL. And so begins 4 more days of insane food hunting, shopping and talking. The same 2 girls who brought me around Singapore were part of the group and so it was my turn to return the favour. I also followed them for shoes, accessories and clothes shopping.
Yes, you heard me right. I tagged the girls for shopping. It is actually quite fun if you take the time to talk to them and analyze what sort of things they like. Also, I'd have to thank my sister for passively educating me in fashion and accessories because that helped a lot. Once I have somewhat proved my worth, they'd asked me for second opinions. Again I have to thank my sister for the training. I think my sister would be proud =P There was also another day where I spent a day trip to Ipoh with 5 girls, food hunting and talking. Again it's more fun than you'd expect if you take the time to talk to them and analyzing what's going on.
In short, I had a blazing time over the past 2 weeks. No amount of words used here could have described the events, feelings and thoughts that have occurred because that is simply impossible to picture it in its entirety solely with words. I have this renewed faith in my OCF friendships, oodles of fun and lots to think about for the rest of the year. 2010 has just barely started and I've got off to such a high note. May it be as good if not better than this. One event that I am looking forward to is the trip to Turkey this Friday for 10 days where I will embark on a personal project of mine. Photograph Turkey solely on film. I am not going to bring my digital SLR along at all. Everything manual.
This will be fun.
I can feel it...
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Cursed Lion
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
at
5:06 PM
I think I am cursed whenever I decide to go down to Singapore by myself. Every time I decide to go to Singapore, one thing always happens and that really sucks and that would be that I would be coming at the wrong time. The last trip down, I had so much trouble meeting up with people because either they are working or they are on holiday overseas or busy with something. This time round it is proving to be another round of wrong timing. Even now, I'm still finding it difficult to find a place to stay because so far everyone has said they can't. Meh.
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