Ode to Ah Ma

Just 3 days ago Ah Ma had gone to the place where all the saints live with the Father - heaven.Though i was sad and was in the daze for the past 3 days, i felt glad that Ah Ma no longer suffer the agony of the final stages of colon cancer. As during the wake, i just couldn't talk about Ah Ma in public so I decided to write an "Ode To Ah Ma" here.

Ode to Ah Ma

Thank you Ah Ma...

for the best chicken curry I ever have and your tasty "sharks skin" during CNY

for remembering that i love only chicken wings

remembering all my favorite food better than my mum

always buying food for me when i was much younger

putting your love and heart into your cooking for me

For babysitting me when i was a kid

Saying words of advice through the phone

nagging me sometimes

your incessant prayers for me to do well

I'll miss you always in my heart

HK drama nostalgia...

So happy that i finally managed to get the 3-part series of My Date With A Vampire (MDWAV) - my all-time fave HK drama !

I remember that the series was so ex (abt $60 per serial) which i almost gave up thinking of buying them. Just a fortnight ago, I saw the 3 parts of MDWAV) which was abt $24 each at TS. I was so elated & crazy enuff to buy up part I & II 1st then a week later part III.

Frankly my fave is part II where Tin Yau & Siu Leng ended up together. Both of them are my fave characters in MDWAV. In I & II, the story lines were good but III was bordering in between absurdity and sadness.

Though I watched many a HK dramas on TV, MDWAV is still unrivalled as my all-time fave...
For more, drop by http://star.virtual-palace.com/mdwav ...

Wart or wort ?

Really"GREAT" week i had... After going to the podiatrist at Singapore Footcare Ctr, my warts had just gotten worse. Worse as in more intensive pain after a change of ointment - a stronger one. Now my feet feels as though there were a thousand bees stinging. My left foot hurts worse.

Ok, i'm not making sense as the pain on my soles (e stronger ointment is eating away my warts & nerves) is making me lose my common sense of language.

But the good thing is that my fave "son" Russ and Faith held my hands to support me when I was hobbling away like an old lady. The pain intensifies each step i took. At the sight of my K1 students Russ who put his pillow behind my back for support and to massage my shoulders and legs + SY tlling me that she prayed for me 5X. The pain somewhat lessened. He even offered to spray the insect repellent on my legs. Well, i told him that it was for mosquitos though he pretended that it was oil to sooth my legs.

What really made me cranky was that i wnt for so many rounds of docs from the GP to the S'pore Footcare Ctr to the polyclinic then finally CGH A&E. Sickening ! Why is that so ? All becos of the dumb warts on my feet which was practically eating away my soles. My stupidity in delayed treatment which had caused the spread of from 1 area of the sole to another.

At least the painkillers that was prescribed helped much. So nice to rot at home with wary feet..

A really stressed week !

This week is a SUPER STRESSED WEEK !!!!! I was on the verge of mental breakdown (or rather tear breakdown) due to a huge load in my final school project yesterday. The whole class was shot down by my lecturer. And i had this insufferable show-off classmate who kep asking questions but her activities were shot down too, haha ! (i know it's bad of me but she go this irritating way of showing off dur classes, which i'm sure the others couldn't stand her)

But on the good side... i get to see my fave student, JS everyday along with Jacob, YK (in the K2 class though i dun get to teach them). Dunno why I like JS so much - he 's still got this innocent aura esp when he's sleeping. He would always greet me almost everytime he sees me in the centre. His fave is the Pokemon monsters which he could describe in great detail.

Today before i log off, he asked me if I will be coming on Sat. I could tell that JS liked telling me about th things he sees outside of school. Another one is YK, whom Teacher LJ & i dubbed him the Macho Man privately. This is becos he always have this air of machosm though i've heard him cry once before, which i think to him meant a great deal. I was impressed that he remembered cleaning and feeding the terrapin this morning as i had told him to the day before. Bravo, YK ! =)

After 2 months or so, i found that i really like my current job and i dun miss my previous students as much as i used to. I still think of them sometimes but it's ok. So the scar of my retrenchment had healed. And i actually look forward to going to work each day as the kids are my driving motivation to work.

Mayday rocks ! =D

Finally find time to blog ! Went for my 1st ever mega-ex concert @ Expo... Mayday, my fave rock band ! =) Though the tic was really expensive (cost like $128) but i say it was worthwhile. Frankly most artistes will go through the trouble of changing into flowery costume and can't sing properly. But for Mayday, even if they just wear normal T and jeans (like the last time i went for their autograph session), they still rock as a rock band !

Indeed i feel Mayday deserve my respect as they proved to be a band who is really versatile in re-arranging their own compositions with their own unique style. Even their concert has this unwavering theme of love and freedom. Not like this band whose lead had the same name as Mayday's lead. Who don't compose their own. Such a band i have lack of respect.

Anyway the stage had these gigantic white dolphins which had me wondering whether their existence was necessary. But the concert started with this movie-like short videoclip with Mayday acting with a little girl. Which had that feeling of world's end. Other than songs from their most current album, Born To Love, it was the songs from their previous album that seem to be more favored by the fans.

The highlight of the show was Masa who didn't mind being comedic when he spoke in this Taiwanes-accented English which i though was really cute. But hey, his English is better than those from the Taiwanese variety show hosts whose English is simply atrocious. Masa sang Coldplay's Yellow which won appreciation from the fans, yeah !

Mayday has always been known to interact with fans really well esp when they had the fans doing actions with the song "Lian Ai-ING", a cutesy love song. It was really funny to see how they had the fans following them at every action at the word L-O-V-E. And it was also amazing to see fans from HK, Taiwan and US who flew in just to watch Mayday. If i have the $$, i may just do that ! =)

Obviously the 3-hour long concert proved to be not enough for the fans even me too ! Actually Mayday do dote on their fans such that they went overtime beyond the 3-hours. For me, i'm just amazed at how they have that energy to do a world tour.

Ballloon sculpturing on 19 May 2007 @ MYMCA

Finally have time to blog about my latest fad - balloon sculpuring ! I went for this basic session on 19 May with my supervisor and my fellow colleague for the workshop at Metro YMCA (MYMCA) at Stevens Rd. I've had just realised that MYMCA & YMCA are just 2 different organisational entities, though i don't know how different they are...

Anyway the workshop was really fun but i really struggled to keep up with the fast pace that the trainer was going. Even my colleague sitting beside me had to help me twist some of the ballons into shape! Haha, I'm really slow, hor ? But hey, my balloons did not even burst even while I was twisting them, so it was a victory for me !



flower

sword (out of shape, keke...)



Ooh, the "wabbit" that looks really curious !



The black swan that looks more like the Black Cobra



My red teddy bear with a white balloon !



the squirrel mouse which was supposed to be a mouse !

The Last Breakthrough OST by Raymond Lam Fung

The Last Breakthrough OST by Raymond Lam Fung is really nice tho i have yet to watch the show. The story line sounds good though i wanted to watch becos of raymond lam, haha ! Too bad i got no SCV so gotta wait long long...

Twin "dragons" on TV !

Ever since i've started work, i barely have time to watch TV shows, after being tired out from juggling studies & work. I'm just physically & mentally exhausted... But I'm never "tired" when it comesto watching TV esp HK dramas ! Anw there's 1 show i've crazy about and never failed to catch... my fave HK drama,
Legend of the Twin Dragons or Da Tang Shuang Long Zhuan, featuring one of my fave lead HK TV actors, Lin Feng Raymond Lam with another cute actor newbie Ron Ng Wu Zhuo Yi.

[left: Ron Ng Wu Zhuo Yi; right: Lin Feng Raymond Lam in Twin Dragons]

As for Lin Feng, i always liked him when he acts in those era drama (he's looked more handsome, keke). I first took note of him when he acted in Lu Zheng Xin Ren Wang as a budding lawyer. He also managed to act serious and funny at the same time, which i think that is versatile of him. Many people say that he got noticed as an actor due to his semblance to Louis Khoo Tin Lok (same dark skin). Boy, he can sing ! He sang in quite a few of the theme songs in his shows. Recently a HK tabloid also showed a survey that he's got the most support for to turn into as a singer with his own album. Yup, he also sang the theme song for Twin Dragons too !



Anw back to talking about Twin Dragons, I've been faithfully watching the show. As usual, there's the usual sword fighting scenes and war zones and revenge plots but it's interesting that how HK can creatively come up with such story lines. In Twin Dragons, Lin Feng acts as Kou Zhong who's a good hearted rascal-like fellow with big ambitions while Ron Ng acts as his fellow quiet buddy Xu Ziling who's content with what he has and is a deep and calm thinker.



As history always shows, heroes have their "hong yan zi ji" so both guys have rather interesting "zi ji" in the show: Kou Zhong with the frank and loud rich lady, Yu Zhi and Xu Ziling with the serene, wanting to-save-the-world-Shi Fei Xuan.

[ Kou Zhong with Song Yuzhi]

[ Xu Ziling with Shi Fei Xuan]


Anw i now take note of Ron Ng too as he portrays his deep thinking character as Xu Ziling really well. Ay, he got really nice big eyes... Really... i can't wait for the next episode ! Wonder why Mediacorp don't allow dual language for HK dramas but for Korean and Jap ones ? I want to learn Canto but so pian sim....

Indie rock rules @ blue Moo on 9 Mar 2007

If you're a regular of blueMoo, you'll definitely feel weird if you were to step into a less-than-half-filled blue Moo. Only Budak seem to be able to pack the house to the brim i.e 250 ppl over the capacity. But frankly, the cosy atmosphere is definitely there without being squeezed like sardines...

Anyway, there were 2 groups performing: NUS alumni a cappella group Equivox and an indie rock trio 1point Brilliance. They were back for the 2nd time since Dec last year. And i was more attracted to the latter group because the musician in me responded to their music. I'm always crazy about playing in a band as i had the experience playing my church band for umpteen years before. Just last year, i joined with 2 other friends to form a jamming band which try to jm once a month, ranging to pop, rock, jazz(something that we have yet to try...).

Ok, back to 1point Brilliance, they were really good ! Recalled in Dec 2006, Danny, Pearls, myself and a few other blue Moo were raving abt them after we heard Danny's CD recording on his car stereo on our way to our usual supper place. The recording/mixing was done using the blue Moo sound system mixer and it sounded as if it was recorded in a room rather than the outdoors with all the background noise. And it sounded like CD quality ! Then we all decided that the group will be back again and so true enough, they are !

Well, i managed to capture the song "The River" by 1point Brilliance on my digi cam but sorry for the bad lighting, so here it is...

Taiwan TV soap wave

Have been watching hua yang shao nian shao nu (a.k.a Hana Kimi) as i found that the TV programs were really boring and had no sense excitement. But ever since Meteor Garden, i haven been so crazy over Taiwanese soap. But Hana Kimi is really funny and frankly Jiro and Chun in Farenheit (a.k.a fei lun hai) acted pretty well (at least better than F4) in Hana Kimi.


It's a pity that KO One is not shown on channel U but watching it on Youtube, KO One has a mixture of Hokkien (known as 'guo yu in Taiwan) and Mandarin so prob that's the reason it wasn't shown in Singapore. Btw KO One (feat.Arron, Calvin & Jiro of Farenheit) is quite good a show despite having scenes of lameness. The theme songs in both shows are pretty good except that the saccharine sugar voices of SHE is one that i cannot stand. But Tank is pretty good except that his style is too close to David Tao. But he pens really good songs.

Hokkien dian see kee ?

Found this Olympus TV ad from Youtube off this blog - http://blog.galvintan.com . . to think the director can come up with such witty and simple ad..

Here's another really lame one... Hokkien James Bond frm Youtube too...

blue Moo on 26 Jan

Last Fri, i rushed from my lunch appt with church friends at Plaza Sing as we (Adrian, Barry & Joel) celebrated Joel's bday at Swenson's. Should have met earlier at 1pm as i had to rush down to blue Moo to arrange chairs & tables. More like lugging things around...


Reached blueMoo really late like ard 3.45 pm as usually some of them will be there by 1pm to start preparing. Upon reaching & to my relief, nothing much was started. A guy named Eu joined us for the 1st time though he went for a few Budak performances at blueMoo. He wrote in to ask whether he could help out and so we invited him !


Yay, blueMoo got NEW chairs ~ black foldable ones from Ikea, nice !! Unfortunately the weather was really moody. Before i could think of any chair-table arrangement, it started to pour down heavily and the brand new chairs got wet though a few of us tried to bring them in. The rain only only stopped around 5.30pm and then we start work !


Just as we were hoping against hope, we were all not spared of the rain. The show was delayed for almost 1/2 hr as we scrambled to wipe the wet chairs and I was walking up and down like a pasar malam woman, distributing tissue napkins to the audience, haha ! Thankfully the audience were really patient, phew !


Anw the jazz-inflicted repertoire from KE just suited the rainy weather. Not surprised if quite a few left after 1st half. Jazz is one genre which one really need to appreciate unlike the usual blah blend of pop, r&b, rock. I think this time round the songs were better but they definitely cut down on the humor part (must be after my "kind" comments on their humor department !) Not that i dun miss Budak but the atmosphere is just not therew/o Budak. I' msure a lot of fans miss Budak at blueMoo as i know some of us were just not satified with their concert last year at the Durian. Really just not so them.

I enjoy being a girl ?

A really comical video featuring Caterina Valente, who along with Chita and Carol Burnett is singing "I Enjoy Being A Girl" ala Morticia (and in three part Andrews Sisters harmony no less!). And the poster on Youtube mentioned that the grave digger is Boris Karloff and the show that it's from is THE ENTERTAINERS...

When i went back...

I went back to my old working place to pack up my barang ands visit my ex-students. You really couldn't imagine the joy that i had at seeing my "darlings" (Faith, Tim & Matt, the twins)again !! When i hugged Faith and Bao, my tears were near to spilling out, it took all my willpower not to cry then. Tim and Matt said that they didn't see me and my heart just broke. Teacher still love you, dearies!

Faith was clinging to me, sitting on my lap. She had gotten a big bowl of rice and was really struggling to finish her food. But she took the effort to finish as i obliged her request for me to feed her. She sat on my lap as she did in the past. I had to follow her around even when she had to search for Teacher J to feed her medicine.

I was very much saddened when i saw how subdued they seemed when Teachers J & W took the class. Where's my lively, talkative children gone to? I still remember their eating and other habits and their personalities, which they only show to me. My heart still ached at the thought of my dearies...

Some thoughts... sad and glad

Ystd was a pretty relaxed day for me. Having lunch at Coca with the blue Moo family 3 of the Budaks (Gordon, Danny & Joe). Well, lunch was quite ok though i didn't eat much due to a lurch in my stomach - hai, my indigestion problem again ! I admit that i didn't want to go at first as a result of lack of sleep (as in sleepover at Joy's house & waking up at 7am in the next morn to have a cell retreat). Boy, i was glad that Gordon & the little girls (as in Nic & Amanda) were there. So sweet of the 2 girls esp Nic ! I just get really softhearted when i see children. Made me miss my little princes (Damien & the twins, Timothy & Matthew) & princess (Faith). Dunno how i got the strength to last the past 2 days.

I can't believe myself that how calm and composed I am (more like feeling nothing) when i told Joe that i was retrenched. Frankly i really don't know how i feel abt getting retrenched now. Previously i cried the whole week when i got the news about the retrenchment and the sadness continued till Budak concert. I'm was then really in my downs ! That i wasn't really paying attention to what i'm seeing and listening to during Budak concert. That's why when Gordon asked me for feedback, i just said that it was good. So robotic of me.

Ok since i'm on the topic on Budak concert which was titled Budak Pantai Unplucked. The stage had this retro ball hanging and some toys setup on the floor. I only noted the green toy snake twirled around the baby chair. Budak sang mainly "hits" from their current 4 albums like Abuden, All Rice. Leap. I really loved Ai Piah Jia Eh Ya which was a definite improvement when they first sang it at blue Moo in Oct 2006. Six O'clock was good as usual and Gordon changed the 2nd verse and added the bridge (which i didn't take to the bridge part). But it wasn't that bad per say as maybe i'm just not used to it. But i loved the verse & chorus of the song !

I think the "song" of the concert was Titanic Wars (which goes to say Titanic with Star Wars treatment). Joe was supposed to be "Darth Vader" but the effect wasn't too great as the sound engineer should have added a little effect as in the deep throated voice of Darth. Then the audience will probably catch it. I like the part where Gordon (the R2-D2) was drowning and Mike (the taller golden robot which i forgot its name) was trying to speak to R2. What a funny sight !

Also as they forgot to bring their metronome, Mike had to be the human "metronome", haha. Pretty good , i say ;)p Danny was kept amused by the antics of Gordon & Mike that he kept laughing at times and couldn't start playing his guitar. Even i was drawn to amusement ! Well, Mike did his usual teasing of Kak and they sang the Stalker song, which the humor of it was unfortunately lost on the audience. So unlike the blue Moo crowd would probably get in hoots of laughter.

Anw i'm not in the mood for anything today. Just felt like rotting and nua-ing at home. I guess that i will start my new part-time job search tmrw...

My New Year thankyous...2007

I should have done this at the the end of 2006 but too shacked out to do so... i guess it's not too late to do this thank-you thing at the 1st day of 2007.

Thank you to...

1. God - for Your peace, strength and providing me with the job and losing it. But the peace you gave me transcends all understanding. And the talent that you gave me sincethe age of 14 - a keen sense of hearing with a touch for music.Thank you for the opportunity to serve You in NTM & Kum Yan (outside of church). I long for more opportunities like this. I want to have more faith & more dependence on You this year. And oh, to read Your Word with times of refreshing...
2. Agape I CG - for being so encouraging despite my rebeliousness. Let's stay true despite all the ordeal around us.
3. blue Moo - has been great fun serving God in a unique alternative way & alongside with all of you with all the laughter & humor. Esp so to Pearly for giving me the chance. I've definitely learnt the meaning of servitude.
4. Caslin - thanks for trusting me to play background music for your musical drama for the children ministry at Kum Yan in Dec 2006 for His glory. I'm truly blessed and humbled by the whole experience, let's do it again at the end of the year... :)
5. Budak Pantai - You guys has always been a great inspiration to me in a cappella singing though I'm in the midst of going back to singing in an a cappella group again. You never fail to wow me with your odd-sort singing, haha !
6. Gordon - I really thank God for your kind words over msn sometimes. Really, as i said over msn, i do appreciate you ! I pray that the Lord will grant You joy & peace in your heart. Here's a big fat hug =)
7. Froggy & Piggy - for your friendship & crazy emails. The friendship between us is unique and strong. Super dino hug from me !!
8. Bighamster - thanks for helping me with Budak vids & live recordings all these while when my cam & mp3 went berserk on me. I truly appreciate you ! I make you my "zhu4 li3 ("assistant" in Chinese) !
9. Crappiecake - really happy 4 u that you've found a new job & happiness. Thanks for watching Budak concert with me :)
10. Judy & Mabel - thanks for trusting me to write the God-inspired tunes for you and to arrange them in an intimate manner. It's a form of ministry as you've said .

Ok, that's all i can thank for though it seemed to be shorter this year. Well, i can still find things to thank for along the way !