Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Apples


Okay, I have gotten lazy and decided that typing 21 days of Singapore would be quite mendokusai, so in a nutshell, we had a SUPERB time in Singapore, The Science Centre was AWESOME, Sakura was DELICIOUS, ECP was EXHILARATING, the youths of Jurong and LAP were GREAT people, we were treated to meals 40% of the time, the MRT system ROCKED, and last and by all means the least least, the hawker food SUCKED.

At the Science Centre

A picture of the DELICIOUS food at Sakura and cycling at ECP

Jurong Youths

Lim Ah Pin Youths


Oh and the apples there are nice. Yep, definantly much better than Malaysian apples.

That aside, it's Chinese New Year again! Yeah! Firecrackers!
Well, I spent my 1st and 2nd day of CNY in my grandparents house in a remote place called Bukit Pelanduk, in the already small district of Port Dickson in the State of Nine. 

Since the 1st day of CNY fell on a Sunday, my family and I worshiped at the Seremban COC. The had quite a large youth group going there, with a 2:3 ratio of boys to girls. Met Chye Leng there, not that I could miss her, since she was wearing a very beautiful cheongsam, and looked equally stunning in it. Well, it is Chinese New Year and everybody wants to look pretty. Met quite a few of the youths there who I attended children's class with when i was still a midget about 7 years old..... Honestly, I have almost zero remembrance of my Sunday school days in Seremban. There was this girl my age who said that she was in Sunday School with me last time. Well, couldn't recognize her, couldn't remember her name, asked her name, still can't remember her name. Well, hopefully the current drug of most people's lives, Facebook, can provide an answer.

Speaking of Facebook, I see that Facebook has now taken over the world. In just the span of 2 years or so, Facebook has boomed. Almost everybody has Facebook. It's so popular, that TV advertisements are now promoting viewer to view their Facebook page and become a fan. take for example Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut commercials nowadays usually end by asking viewers to visit their Facebook page. This is the 1st time that I saw something of that sort. No social site so far have made it to the big screen by being officially named. Facebook is like the connector of all connections, the one place were people gather and share a common joy. Socializing. But then again, as stated in "The Big Bang Theory" having 312 friends on My Space does not make Shelldon anymore sociable. Facebook still can''t beat the joy of going out there and seeing, talking, hearing, touching and tasting people. Okay, maybe not so much on the touching and tasting. Facebook is good to reconnect and keep in touch, but forming and building relationships are still more effectively formed away from a computer screen.

Take for example today, me and my Form 5 buddies went out for makan and movie. We spent our time eating, laughing and talking . A Face-to-Face is always superior to a Wall-to-Wall. The main reason of the usage of Facebook is that is allows people to share their joy with other people, instantly. And i my case, my pictures instantly. Not just so that they can post some attention seeking status on their profiles. Which is most probably why Twitter did not get as much fame as Facebook.  

With that all said and done, let's talk about apples.

Apples are red, 
Apples are white, 
Apples look good,
That apple of his eye.

Over the mountain,
Beyond the line,
There in that mansion,
The apple of his eye. 

But alas!

The distance great,
The dangers rise,
Will he ever meet,
That apple of his eye?

Should he face the danger,
Should he go that distance,
The answer is a wager,
On that apple of his eye.

~Author Unknown~

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Singapore! Day 2

Monday, 18 January 2010 : First Day of School

Got up at around 0700 hours. Left for the Jurong COC Building after breakfast. Aunty Moi Chee fetched us there in her car.  We reached the building at around 0815 and was greeted by the low voice of Bro. Eddy Ee when we rang the bell to the building. We then heaved our luggage up two flights of stairs to the 3rd floor where the Fourseas Bible Collage was situated. There we met Uncle Peter Chin (love his accent) the dean of academics of Fourseas and his wife, Aunty Pooi Fun, the librarian. Uncle Peter gave is usual, “I’m so glad that you decided to use your free time a useful way for the Lord” and stuff like that, which he would be stressing on a lot during our stay in Singapore. Or as I call it, Trying to brainwash us to become full time preachers speeches.

Suddenly we heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and after a while, there stood before us, the (suspected) nerd, Ernest Lau Sze Ngee. Or so we thought…. For as we found out later, Ernest was in fact a pro Dota and L4D player! Yeah!! No man can be a nerd if he plays Dota and L4D! Awesome!

After that we headed for our very first class which was on the The New Testemant Church, by Bro. Eddy. Basically we had 7 classes :  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we had courses on The New Testament Church, A Preacher and His Work, Church History, and 1 Corinthians. Tuesdays and Thursdays, The Gosple According to John, Christian Evidences and The Book of Hebrews.  Excluding us there were already 6 other students in Fourseas, Ernest(part-time student), Paul & Hope(full time students from China), Hai and Phuk(Full-time students from Vietnam) and aunty Molly from Kuantan. More on them in Alvin’s Blog

So we started our 1st class of The NT Church. Err… basically it was Bro. Eddy with a low voice droning on about the New Covenant. Okay… at least it is only for an hour… Otherwise I think I would be half dead by the end of the class….. After that we had chapel, and on Mondays everybody had to recite a memory verse that they memorized. Lucky for me, my mom had already made memorize plenty of verses when I was a kid, so all I had to do was flip through my Bible and look for coloured verses. After chapel was Bro. Peter’s class. Bro. Peter’s classes was probably the most interesting classes of all the other classes. They way he presented his lessons and the visuals can keep anyone glued to his words. Well, he DID graduate from Memphis School of Preaching, so he ought to be better than the rest…

After his class was over, we dismissed for lunch. Conveniently there was a food court behind the building so we headed over there for lunch. As we were about to exit the building, we met Bro. Goh Leong Chuan was also heading out for lunch. Well when he said, “Come lets go for lunch together” only one thing was going through my mind, “FREE FOOD!!! YEAH!” I sound so cruel right now. So he treated us to the local chicken rice, which was by any means or ways NOT COMPARABLE AT ALL TO MALACCAN FOOD! Seriously, If you’re a Singaporean and you’re reading this, you have no idea what your missing. Cause (Ernest has probably heard this a million times since we got there), MALACCAN FOOD ROCKS!!


{Evil smirk}

After having lunch which was quite filling we proceeded to our next class, 1 Corinthians by Bro. David Chew which in the days to come, would be more popularly known as the Cloister of Trials. Reason? Because Bro. David talks to himself most of the time, making it hard for us to hear what he says and thus sets the mood of sleepiness. And the thing is its after lunch and we’re all full. Imagine this, you’re full, it’s a hot afternoon and you in a nice air conditioned room, the next thing you know, you’re nodding. His class seriously tests your will to stay awake and alert. My mind wanders around 75% of his class. The 1st ten minutes are ok, but after that…. “Did he say something? What’s he talking about?”

{Sighs}

Well after His class, school was dismissed, so we were free to do what we wanted. We then found out that Sis. Meow Ching, Eliza’s mom had passed on to be with our Lord, so we decided to follow Ernest to pay our respects. Took the SUPER EFFICIENT MRT from Lakeside to Braddle where the wake was. At the wake we met up with Jon Yang, Lucas, Isaac, Benjamin, Justin, Bernice and Yin Yin who were all super surprised to see us in Singapore. Well after having a jolly good time chatting with them, we left for dinner at one of the stores nearby. And guess what? FREE FOOD AGAIN!! This time is was Jon Yang. Dang It! Life is good! Well during dinner we found out that some of the LAP youths were bikers so we shared our tales of perilous mountain biking with death hazards and ended up being called crazy by them. 
{tone of disgust}Gah! Road Bikers! XD

We left back to the college after dinner. Oh we were staying at the college dorms which was in the Jurong COC building itself. Reached at about 2100 something, and after stealing wireless connections and using the internet, we slept.  

Thus was the evening and the morning of the second day. And Jonah saw that it was good.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Singapore! Day 1

3 weeks have come and gone. I can't believe that it passed so fast. My 3 weeks in glorious Singapore.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, which i posted in Singapore, I would be further blogging about my stay in Singapore when I'm in Malaysia. Well, I'm back, so it's time to get my virtual pen flowing again.

Lets go back when it all began, 17 January 2010 : Day of Departure

We left after church. It was a hectic afternoon on that day. Getting packed, making sure that we didn't leave anything behind, going to the bus station, having lunch...all in the span of an hour before our departure. We departed from Melaka Sentral at 1400 hours and thus began the 1st step to our 3 week stay in Singapore.

Arrived at the Johore Bahru checkpoint at about 1800 hours and crossed the causeway without any problems. It was at the Singapore checkpoint where we got held up. It seamed that we forgot to fill in our white cards while we were in the bus, so we wasted 5 minutes or so filling them up at the counter. BUMMER! Now, we were supposed to board our bus to Lavander, but because we were held up, the bus left. So we were now stranded at Woodlands. But all hope was not lost, we connected to the Aunty Moi Chee hotline and were told to proceed by bus to the nearest MRT station and hed to Tiong Bahru where we would receive further instruction.

After boarding a bus and alighting at Kranji MRT station, we took the Green Line to the checkpoint, Tiong Bahru where we met Commander CK. Commander CK brought us to his hum wee where we loaded our luggage and proceeded to have dinner with Aunty Moi Chee and her relatives. We ate dinner at some Chinese Restaurant in Tiong Bahru, where the food was very nice. Especially the chincau drink.

The cincau drink


After dinner, we went to the CK Hotel to stay the night. Anuty Moi Chee and Commander CK was kind enough to open their home for us to stay. Truly a very beautiful house, fit for the Director of Maple Tree and Chairman of Jurong Port. We went to sleep at 0000 hours, in order to prepare ourselves for the day ahead. The 1st day of Fourseas Bible Collage.

Thus was the beginning and the end of the 1st day in Singapore. And Jonah saw that it was good.