rake the leaves, and discover for yourself

the power of unity

2006-07-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

and i will stand here;

soccer. nothing at first. totally looked down upon. we rose and got second. lost by penalties.
captains ball girls nothing at first. looked down upon too. rose and got second. lost by a point.
basketball. totally not a single hope. we rose. and got champions.
volleyball. hard takes. tough games. mind boggling times. we rose and got into finals.

i mean, everything's a team game. nothing can be achieved with just ONE person alone.

as of now, all four games played for invigorate, and v12 has been into all the finals. as of now, after the completion of cap's ball, bbal, and soccer, [vbal finals yet to be played], v12 is top the table with 10 points and v11 with 9.

well done people.

3 stripes. for the 3 finals we fought.

cheering i think we might win too. just look at the number of mates frm our class and how we cheer as compared to the rest who jus sit around.

and you, dun take it to heart lah. well there are jus these kind of people around. we just have to take it as it is, listen and understand, and not let if affect you. relax. its not your fault anyway..

its been a great time.

lost in your love

volleyball

2006-07-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

i am not ashamed;

blue blacks. muscle aches. strains. sprains. headaches. tire.
all for volleyball. i think its worth it. looking at the two dsa people who were down to train with us i really think we stand a good chance next year. but that means i'll have to work harder to get into the team. anyways, felt my spiking better today. at least the ball goes down.. and receiving's not bad. guess uhm overall improve? im happy.

tomorrow invigorate. volleyball. im fired up now but i've sprained 2 fingers. on my RIGHT hand.

and the rumours are not true. like its said, its rumours, so how can it be true?

lang arts test today was ok-ok. thought it was one of the better few i guess. thing is i did study for this one, even though not much earlier. but yeah. hope i do well. so yeah. ok.

of the gospel, of your name

all over again

2006-07-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

hear the angels; shout his anthem

there you go. stress all over again. alright, got back math quiz today, did really badly. like the worse score for anything i've ever gotten. seriously bad. i guess its some kinda wake up call. yeah. i shall start studying

went to visit mum in da hospital. seems to still be hurting from the wound a bit, has trouble moving around, but yeah. thank god the operation was smooth. god will heal. i trust.

lang arts test tmr. i've studied, well though late, i did, and im happy. i'm convinced that the hospital is a nice place to study. for once with REAL studying, i felt like i understood things.

on another side note off studies, its THAT feeling again. how now brown cow?

ever living, god we adore you

so far

2006-07-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

would you believe me if i said;

argentina's out. ukraine's out.
england's out. brazil's out.

portugal france
italy germany

i dun wan germany to win! as of now im supporting portugal and france. cus of henry, and scolari. but yeah they're meeting each other so either one will do. i dun mind any of the 3 winning, just except germany.

well ym at pnp today. well it was quite ok except for, maybe worship? but yeah. not for me to comment, so yeah.

den come back sleep. nothing much these days i suppose. except like invigorate. which my class got into both finals for caps ball and soccer, and we lost both finals. but yeah. we're tied at the top now with v11. but we're gonna win. see wad happens when you look down on v12?!

jar-red more fish now. hafta get more containers man.

louis and ben over at my place now, gonna play/ maho house slack!

oh my mum's goin in to hospital tmr. operation on tues. pray fer her pls. thanks pple.

we are the ones who can make the change in the world today

two sides?

2006-06-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

what i've anticipated;

ghana played well, they lost
spain played bad, they lost
what's the reasoning?

everything has two sides? win or lose. dependent on luck or fate? well we'll never know

well i guess i said i'll like try totally shut off msn frm me. but it seems quite an essential communication method now. like without msn u cant discuss work. or u cant arrange meetings. so i guess i'll onli go when i really have to. if not and im studying away from the comp i'll sign out.

yeah. thank you daniel for the fish! its so nice nice nice!

one of the best form males

of course there's the front side...

and the back side. lol

everything else will be over-rated

sayanora MSN

2006-06-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

He's the one, the slam; don't you people understand?

alright. this is it. spoke to matt bout some stuff jus now. and yeah. we needa be more serious man. so no more msn for me. onli skype. and if u cant contact me den sms. heh. i hafta study for EOY's. 2 years of huge piles of work to be tested upon. and my basics are not there.

i dun wanna leave this thingy behind just like that after all its done to me. how's its screwed me up. im gonna leave a big impact.

its been a long day. lessons has still been alrite. maybe still cus its beginning days. but yeah i hope this continues.

ran 5 clic today. had pe, did soccer blah blah. and training. SHACK.
but soccer keeps me awake!

point: relax ah matt, we'll jus haf to know wad's wrong and change

you're staring at the Son, God's reaching out his hand

record truly

2006-06-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

jesus your love it lifts me high; gives me reason to run this race with joy

record for many things.

first up, world cup. portugal vs holland. siao ah the referee. 4 reds and 16 yellows. for what sia. i wonder how portugal's gonna play next match v england really. deco's out. well whateva.

second up, school! amazing how i can watch the matches, and then stay up after the portugal match to do a bit of LA, and still be awake in school the whole day. i didn't even feel tired. maybe it was just the snacks, oh well!

third up, maybe not really a record. more original source!

fourth up, after 1 and a half years. my teeth are free of those metallic bonds. PEARLY WHITES.

-------------------

still have yet to find a verse:

chorus:
amazing grace has found me,
and taken me as i am
for all you've done
my heart, goes wholly after you.

--------------------

funny how my songs always seem to be these kind though. heh.

suddenly teacher come up today tell us chinese book test is tmr. i'll DIE. im at page 40 now. 100 more to go. so im gonna read it now. cya

jesus i'll dance before your throne; bring this heavenly sound to you alone

world crumbling

2006-06-25T00:57:00.000-07:00

my allegiance and devotion, my hearts desire and all emotion

truly sadness has engulfed this world. sweden has just lost 2-0 to germany. and larson has missed his penalty. worst thing, the swedish din appreciate the swede's national team play at all. just look at their faces and it was tell all.

two nights back in singapore. one more night to go before sch reopens. sigh. work work work. stress stress stress. i can do it. i CAN

started on my wing zero, head body right arm complete. more to go i suppose. hopefully i'll find da time. really cant wait till the fixing of the wings.

well well. 8 in church tmr. ym service showcase. its been what a day, nevertheless, soccer later at 3!

nites!

go to serve the man who died upon that tree

The Guessing Game

2006-06-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Guessing Game

In shanghai now under the moon
Lying down, holding my spoon.
Each bite, each piece of cake,
Faces turn, expressions fake.
The tv’s on, without a sound,
If I asked, would he even give me a pound?

The day, fine as always
Forgetting, always our ways
The night, oh so starry
Weather of fear; oh how stormy

A few words, a wrong move
To my music still, would he/ can I groove?
Weathers from sunny to stormy
Feelings from cheeky to weary

He comes back in; silence
Not even a word of sentence.
He sits beside, he reads his bible
Im typing this, his mouth not even a nibble

Asleep he goes, onto his bed,
How is he now, still feeling red?
The tv’s on, without a sound,
If I asked, would he even give me a pound?

I hear his snore, can I do more?
Than sitting here, with just a little beer.

The regret, if only we could express.
The guilt, if only we could compress.
Show them how we could be our best,
Alas, hearts will rest.

shanghai '06

2006-06-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Alrite. Quite a good start considering I could wake up despite the long day and the soccer match the night before. But the plane ride was super horrid. 5+ to 6 hours without a freaking tv. Actually its da first time im on a plane without a tv. well anyway, here’s about the first day of shanghai

So in Singapore I guess they said shanghai to be such a wonderful place? but then like even 10 mins before we landed we couldn’t even see the land lah, like the place quite foggy, or if not den its their pollution real bad lah. So we landed, and the plane din haf the connecting tunnel thingy, we walked down the plane den walked to a bus which fetched us to da airport. High tide me went to the first toilet I saw, and my and behold, even the guys had to q-up. ok no probs, we’ll just wait yeah, best thing some Chinese guy comes in front of me and cuts my queue, it’s ok.. im forgiving, but the thing is ah, these Chinese people really pee damn long. Like they stand there. My dad and I finish liao the “neighbouring” one still standing down there. Like whatever for. And they don’t seem to know the existence of other people. They just push, like mr yang says. Yes PUSH

Den we took some levitation train to some station lah. Which ran at like 431 km/h. and then we crossed another train we din even know, cus all we heard was POM and then 1 second the two trains crossed each other. Oh the feeling of being in a bugatti veyron x)

Met my uncle at the hotel, den he brought us around. He took us to this place for dinner which had relatively nice food. Like there was this noodle which was served as a bowl of soup, a bowl of noodles (dry) and a tray consisting of many many plates of ingredients. So just take all and dump it into the bowl of soup and mix it urself. A little like pepper lunch actually. The fried rice we ate there really tasted like the pepper lunch back in Singapore. Then we walked around the mall for a while and they had some really nice shoes, but at like 200 bucks Singapore. Well they had the converse allstars canvas’ for like 40. I wanted to buy, but like I realized those kinda shoes dun really fit me, so yeah.

Back to the hotel. Watched 2nd half of japan croatia.. and then zzzz

Day 2

Breakfast was a relative ok-ok onli. Why din they haf cornflakes! But anyway, I only took porridge, cus it was like the nicest already.

*ohoh I forgot to mention that I ate this portugese egg tart yesterday for supper which was really really nice.!

First stop for today was some water village. Quite cool actually. Seeing the people sit around play cards eat nutes play mahjong. You would imagine that if we were the ones we’d probably be bored to death. But I guess the people there really enjoy it. den we took some boat ride down the river for some cruise, not bad lah. Quite soothing. Heh

But then ah, we shuang here shiok there den go lunch, which was really really bad. I shall not talk about it. and then they asked us to walk around dat place for like 1.5 hrs and like all of us* said we din wan, so they took us to the next stop first. At the next stop apparently it was some tomb of some famous Chinese people lah, den they brought us into this room which they tried to explain some fengshui thing to us, and then obviously show some animal and persuade us to buy some ornament or smth. But like my family heard all these before, and the other wasn’t interested. So we left the place early too.

*note: the tour onli consisted of 4 frm my family and 1 couple. So 6 pple.

With 2 stations being cut down, we went shopping! Fruit juices in shanghai are really really good. They’re so fresh u could just drink 2 cups for ur lunch. We walked around some shopping centre and got some stuff, well they were quite cheap so why not? So we got my mum her sports shoes after much persuasion, for 230 rmb, which is like S$ 40+, and then my dad bought some Wilson titanium tennis racquet for like 599 rmb, but they had 100 off for every 300. so in the end he onli paid 400 rmb, which is S$80. I’ll list the stuff i bought later.

After that we went for some acrobatic show, wah I tell u ah. The people there flexible until like siao. Like bend here bend there I think I would break my back but they just do it. the show’s like all the normal bending stuff here and there balancing here and there lah, but its really nice. Den they had the imported stunt of the bike motoring in da cage. Okok lah. They should put people in da centre, den drive around them. Better.

Dinner at some restaurant, but as usual we couldn’t finish cus there was so little of us only, they served this milk ice-cream which was real good, better den haagen dazs, in my opinion.

And then my family went back to people’s square where we ate dinner yesterday for more shopping, cus there were hell lot of shops there. But a lot of the shops the fashion quite jialated, so like we onli got a bag for my mum, again after much persuasion, and she got some stuff for her staff.

Well watching Ukraine v Saudi Arabia now. Gosh Saudi arabia’s keeper sucks! Score now 2-0 yeah.

List of things I bought:
1 mizuno tee
1 jeans

ok I know I don’t buy a lot, relax I’ll but more.

Day 3

Ok, breakfast again, all I ate was porridge. But I took bread this time which seemed to make the breakfast nicer.
First station we went to the shi huang miao[4]. The place was soso lah. Apparently hearing from my aunty and the guide they said that there were a lot of shops inside, but like we walked around and we din see much. There got a lot of shops lah, but like all those weird weird stuff.

Then we went for lunch which was quite good. Like 11 course including rice. And guess the price? 150-200 rmb. Which is like 30-40 S$ onli. Obviously like there were a lot of left overs, cus 6 people eating a 11 course meal, with one person not feeling well and not eating at all.

After lunch we visited some silk factory. Pity we cant see the worms and da cocoons and see them eating and stuff, but well they showed us how they got silk. They actually dump the worms in hot water to kill them so they can get the silk. And then they stretch da thing and then the pull, which will let us get the quilt covers. It seems quite long lah. Den they haf like silk paintings, they’re really nice but too ex to buy so nah. They had this 7m long silk craft which had a 100 horses, it took 4 people 1 whole year to do it!

And then we went to the well, famous xiang yang market. Famous for fake goods! So we started, walked in first thing we saw was wad van asked, le-sports-sac. So ok lah, at first one for 15 rmb, which is 3 S$. so we bargain bargain den ok. so we bought 5 at 25. which is 5 rmb for one. Den walk here walk there, den see somemore nicer designs den buy like 5 more. Den at first I tot enuff, but then I realized I forgot to count aud, yy and yv! So ok we go buy somemore. Best thing about this market right. U really really have to bargain. Like this le-sports-sac thing rite, 15 for one. There was this shop like we straight away ask price he says 5 rmb for 1. we tried getting like 4 rmb for 1 but he says no. well at least he knows the price. We took anyway.

So like yeah walk here walk there buy this buy that lah. But we din manage to walk the whole place. so prob we’ll go back on thu, 2 days frm now, jus before we leave. Well this was a fruitful shopping trip.

Dinner was aboard some boat. Which was good! Another like 10 course meal. The last and best meal. Well dun really know how to describe meals. Cant let u taste them rite, so like yeah it was good. I drank beer!

After we went aboard another boat for a 1hr cruise on the river. This was the like most best place of the trip sayable so far. I mean at least there were nice pics to be taken and at least there’s something to it lah. Although the water village also not bad. Shanghai has really nice lights!

Then we came back to da hotel and we felt hungry so we went down for supper. We went to this desert shop which has desert comparable to bakers inn! Tristan take note! They had like coconut paste soup with durian and black glutinous rice which was really delicious, and I had like durian pancake which rocked!

I guess that’s it for now. Shopping has made me tired, yes I said I would shop more today, here’s wad I’ve got.

Frm today:
2 shorts
2 tees
some other tees for pple
15 le sports sac pouches x)
of course like da other 3 in my family bought as well, I think they bought more den me. Like my dad bought a luggage for 200 rmb, which is S$40. and its hard cover and really really big!

ciaoZ

day 4

ok. one last night one last full day in shanghai. Well uncle came to pick us from hotel to his house first, his house like real nice lah, very different from Singapore. They have like sound sensors!

Anyways, after that he brought us to some “sim-lim” like place near his house, where we could find all sorts of electronic gadgets and blah blah, quite cool lah the place

And then we went back to xiang yang market again to shop more. This time.. muahahha I managed to get my models! And then we walked and since we were there and in china, why not just buy cus the whole place’s gonna be torn down anyway..

After which, we went for dinner at some super posh restaurant on the 86th floor of some hotel. Apparently it was the worlds tallest until some other toot toots went to build buildings higher than it. it was a nice scenic place lah.. and the dinner was really good! But quite ex though, like 550 S$ for 5 people.

Then we went to walk around the bund thingies and the tower at the bottom. Photography sucked today. Well at least got 1-2 quite presentable lah. So okok lorh. Reached back. Tired. At least here got soccer.

Dats all for today.

As usual, things bought:
2 tees
2 shorts
2 models

more relax tmr. Nites!

last day

ok im back in sinagpore! our plane for delayed for duno how long we spent duno how long waiting at the airport. but the flight back was relatively short thank goodness, and then, like i slept all the way which i din think i would.

came back home to find that czech lost. how sad oh my goodness. but oh well. i guess italy's just stronger. slept again frm 9 plus after breakfast till bour an hour ago. well, its time for HOMEWORK!

ushering retreat

2006-06-18T00:59:00.001-07:00

i want to care for others;

hm. woke up today to a meeting with chin hui. well we did discuss quite alot of stuff actually.. and yeah. as we went along most of the things went well for the retreat i guess. though there were quite few people onli.

after, we had the sharing by shaocai, of which he showed this really touching video, and i wanna get my hands on it. so i can show ya all. true love man. indeed how deep the father's love for us. and he shared two things, about welcoming others, which confirmed wad we did for bible study, remembering the people on the outside, and he spoke of love of matthew 25, which we did too!

see? the wonders of the works of god. yes now im ready, to take on ushering. let the changes start! for the better i hope. and all for the glory of god!

well well, do i really look that old? chin hui and i went to buy ice-cream frm my fav ice cream ~~store~~, i mean, the motorbike uncle. its the nicest ice-cream ok, im serious! well anyway, chin hui paid for me first, and the uncle was like.. "hao la, ni de nu peng you qing ni chi leh". translation: not bad, your girlfriend treat u. but then. chin hui's like 3-4 years older den me? well well, or maybe she just looks young. heh

well, watching czech-ghana now. its heartbreaking. czech cant seem to control at all. well lets hope the second half will be better.

flying tmr to shanghai, cya man. bye

like jesus cares for me

ushering retreat

2006-06-18T00:59:00.000-07:00

soccer fever

2006-06-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

my whole life i place in your hands

indeed man. not just world cup. its just a season of every 4 years
4-5 straight hours of street soccer.
shiok!

tired. now. but yeah. 0-0 half time. england trinidad.

god of mercy humble i bow down

empat - kosong : ultimatum

2006-06-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

alrite. there it is. as nazri puts it. empat kosong. 4-0. spain like totally owned lah. ukraine had like no chance at all. but i feel the ref a bit biased lah huh. oh ya. CESC PLAYED. for a while at least. but still! yaha! the first and only team to win by a 4 goal margin so far. nice game eh.

ahh alrite. lets talk about today. i wasted like 6 bucks cus like those going down to paint banner today din like haf any paint brushes. and then i nicely and happily went to carrefour to buy paint brushes for them. and then when we got there like jiemin bought like 3 packs of the same of those that i bought. but its alright lah i guess. can always keep for another time.

so we started the painting of banners. first to finish: ymove. aiyah that one just walk here walk there. but its quite nice. ushering wise.. i left halfway. richie left alone to finish it. well i guess it should turn out alright, considering the's an art student.

went to play badminton with dad and cousin. like i partnered my sis for doubles. fine lah, ask me take the back courts, then u stand so far back. if u're so damn good den just play all by yourself lah. idiotes.

ok fine,. anyway at night i went for worship with reuben morgan! yeah he's da hillsongs guy. it was a nice time of worship. nice to see the drummer come up and speak to us. like how often do you get drummers evangelising out to the congregation? anyway, i bought his cd which i long so wanted to buy. jus that i couldnt bear the money to. 14 bucks. kinda cheap man. and yeah, he sang this new song, which i dun think is in any album yet. here it goes:

[unknown]
by Reuben Morgan

.........
.........

chorus:
saviour, he can move the mountain
my god is mighty to save
he is mighty to save
forever, author of salvation
he rose and conquered the grave
jesus conquered the grave

well its quite simple, but its meaningful eh. its like those kind of declaration songs. which i really like often. well, he sure plays good guitar. like his "band" has like 4 pple. 2 guitarist, one drummer, one bass. no keyboard lah. but it still has power in it. see what god sees is the heart not the music!

i felt an impression over the past week through the camp comm sharings and discussions and today's drummer sermon kinda summed it all up. yes our ushering ministry really needs love. the basic of everything. the verse god impressed upon me.

colossians 3:14

*ESV [the bible im using]
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

but i quite like this version too

* the message
And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

i guess the second translation might have a different meaning though. well we'll pray!

so they planned for a night cycling tmr. i really wanted to go, but like when i asked my mum she was like a bit worried about me cycling on roads and blah blah. but i guess its alrite lah. every mom does that rite. furthermore its my first time.

still anways, i gave her the ultimatum. so i asked her, tmr night cycling overnight with church pple, or soccer with cousins 4-9? choose one. either way i still stand to win. heh. so she chose soccer. so yeah. i'll jus go play soccer tmr.

dats all for now i guess, watching tunisia vs saudi arabia, 1-0 tunisia leading.

ciaoZ

kangaroo kicks

2006-06-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

but the only question with me now is;

so rachel asked me to check wad the score for japan australia match was. it was 1-0 japan was leading and she was so so so happy cus she had just seen that cornflake guy on television. and then at the 84th minute, tim cahill scored the first australian goal in world cup history. so i called her to tell her, im supposed to be her official world cup reporter/updater

matt: someone just scored
rachel: who?
matt: im so sorry, australia scored.
rachel: how many minutes more?
matt: 6 plus la.
rachel: okok.

then at the 89th minute, cahill scored again. so i called her again

matt: someone scored again.
rachel: JAPAN?!
matt: no australia. too bad
rachel: what? are you kidding?
matt: no im not, hehh. too bad.
rachel: ok how long more now?
matt: 1 plus minute lah. plus xtra time.
rachel: ok call me when match ends, i go and pray first.

*note: seems like rachel went to pray for australia?*

then at the 92nd minute some no.15 guy frm australia scored, so i called her again.

matt: there's another goal
rachel: whowho?
matt: u guess lah
rachel: japan?
matt: no australia
rachel: are you kidding me?
matt: no! u go check soccer net lah..

k the convo was something like that, cant really rmb. but the key points are there. see? its never impossible to bounce back. hail the kangaroos. they uhm kick!

--------------------------------

soccer stuffs aside, my sis and i were teaching my dad how to play solitaire today. so like we started at four, and then like he was slowly clicking, and then put the cards also must align properly one.

so he thought he was good enough, he started challenging my sis. like each clear 3 games, take the best two timings. obviously my dad got thrashed lah. like he did 600+ seconds and my sis like 200.

he din stop playing! remember i said he started playing at 4? at about 6 when i was back from running he was like YES NOW I 500+ SECONDS. GOT IMPROVEMENT. oh wells. sad case sia.

time now, 2354, and he's still going! talk about me being addicted to the computer yeah. alrite match start. czech vs usa. watch john arne riise.

ciao

do i make you proud?

world cup day 2

2006-06-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

i've jus survived 2 and a half matches. watched england, sweden, and then slept frm end sweden till second half for argentina. its a tiring series man

england 1- 0 paraguay
sweden 0 - 0 trinidad &tobago
argentina 2 - 1 ivory coast

england match was BORING lah. no0t much entertainment value, yesterday's opening game was much much better. then sweden played nice football, as well as trinidad and tobago, score was well quite unexpected though. jus hope that this will not happen to spain. argentina's match was alright, as per normal.

i've done quite alot today! managed to study at least. heh. did notes for bio 2 chapters! time to sleep. tmr church.

ciao

match 1

2006-06-10T05:04:00.000-07:00

results of group a

germany 4 - 2 costa rica
poland 0 - 2 equador

thats it. look at the time now and im so super shacked. thats it. nights.

day of fun

2006-06-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

another day. another rain. seemed a nice weather to be sleeping at home yeah. but no lah, some people were already on their way to my home.

so they came, and we watched a few shows, like scary movie 4, the benchwarmers, and x-men 3. it was quite a well, uhm a marathon in a sense. so we did nothing but just sit around the tv and watch the shows and talked and laughed, it was a nice time of fellowship, now that i realise we were all christians there. lol.

then foo had to leave for some church stuff over at tampines so we continued the show, and then it came to an end. and we had a game of hearts. of course this time now ben did not win! i rmb the first time i taught him on the plane, he just learnt, i taught them i lost. he just learnt he shot the moon twice. oh wells. stuff happen.

we should have more of this mann. so how? the australian pot luck confirm? i wonder..

trip to OZtralia '06

2006-06-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

alright im back from australia. here's my recounts.

Day 1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR LAM! Ok so we sang a song at the airport and gave him a cake and blah blah... the journey was quite alrite, the pilot did a very good job in taking off and landing, it was a relatively smooth flight, despite the long wait because of the delay initially. So we reached the airport, and headed straight off for the Sydney fish market. Well, sadly cause of the delay in the flight we missed the auction by just a slight margin. It was a very good experience nevertheless, first time being to a fish market actually, and there was jus this smell that is so different from the fishy smell back home in Singapore, it might be a bit weird, but at least it doesn’t make one puke, as much as that in Singapore. Well there were a lot a lot a lot a lot of fish there that have like all kinds of weird stuff, like some super slimy weird looking fish, and some blue fin tuna that is commonly used to make sashimi. Of course there was the huge bass there with some really bad eyes. You know what’s the best thing? And then we went to some resellers and there even the lobsters and the crabs have price tags on them!

And then, we were headed off to the eco-house by the UNSW, it was a quite an ok ok place la, and they do some really nice stuff there that I think really helps protect the environment. They had like some kindergartens there and when the children are free they would be brought into the gardens to like do some planting, and the kids there are really really cute!

Our last stop for the day was the UNSW itself, where we would be studying if we were there, and what it would be like. Well the talk by the person was relatively droning at first, like probably because many of us were quite tired and the talk was well, probably not as interesting as we thought it would be. Well the tour of the UNSW was much better; the buildings there were like new and modern, probably one of the nicer universities in Australia, well I would not know, I’ve got two more to go to. The people there are sure like real undergrads, like walking around of course with books in their hands, and sitting under trees to study, and lots of other stuff. It’s a nice place, really.

There wasn’t much for tonight, well we went to darling harbour though. Sadly enough I DID NOT BRING MY CAMERA! And there were like quite a few nice shots to be taken there, but oh well. What’s done has been done. We did take quite a few stupid poses there like 3 of us standing and ready to jump straight into the harbour.

Just to wrap up for today, one thing sad though was that the shops in Australia closed really really early, so like when we’re back in the hotel at about 7 to 8 plus, there isn’t anything much for us to go around shopping even if we had the time to do so.

That’s all for now, it’s another long journey ahead again tomorrow.

Day 2

Ok! Here we go, day 2 of the trip of OZ

First pit stop, the Sydney inner west migrant centre. Well, first thing if you ask me about how the trip there was, I would say it’s a super tough training on your legs. I mean, not to be complaining la, but like we din get a chance to sit down, or like maybe some of us did towards the end. But it was like we were standing and talking and moving in congested areas and then this and then that and we were all very tired from standing. x) Well, the lady spoke a lot; quite a lot of information was gained, probably because she spoke so much.

And then just next to this mall was this mega mart kind of thing like giant. They had like a lot of cheap stuffs inside. Like they had Maui and Sons apparel long sleeve t-shirts that were like 12 bucks or something, but they looked a bit suspicious, besides, I din really have a need of t shirts now, so yeah, I din get much of them, but I know Tristan did get a few though. Things I got there were like food only, like some gummy thing that I knew was really nice, and some huge box of jelly beans and of course, the nicest white chocolates!

Next we went off to the UWS. It did not seem like a university at first, really I hold my word. Like there was like just run down buildings and like ranches and jus fields barricaded by some sort of fence. And things did not change much when we were asked to enter into place like a cottage kind for the talk. But soon, everything changed. As we proceeded outside to view the place, we realized that it was a different university that looked so run down because of the kinds of courses they ran. They had like agriculture as one of the main few, that’s why we would see the huge fields of deer and horses and cows. They were like really cute and i'm sure the whole group of us did have a fun time feeding the deer. We then proceeded into a sort of LT there where the head of the school spoke to us. He was really a nice person to be hearing from, especially because he’s very interactive. He speaks in a really interesting way too. As far, just from these 1-2 hours that we’ve been to this university, 3 kind of confirmed farmers have been found in our group of 17.

MysteriOZ today was relatively nice, we had like pasta for dinner, and the ice cream was super good, the mango was heavenly and like the tiramisu was indescribable. Well mysteriOZ today was just to like see what was so special about that street that we were in and to compare and contrast it with the other normals. Well main thing I found out, they just had a lot of Spanish cuisine there, and even the atmosphere caused by the design of shops and the buildings there caused the feeling to be aroused.

One more night today, and off for Canberra tomorrow!

Day 3

Today had only two stops. Of which were the winery and the museum.

First up, was traveling! We spent quite a long while on the road, about 5 hours from Sydney to Canberra, then we stopped for lunch, and finally we reached the winery. The winery was quite big, though I never heard of it; it seemed quite well done up. Learnt quite a lot about the wine making processes here, I had always been drinking at family dinners but I never knew it was done as such. Sad though, that we could not get to taste the wine x) as we were all under aged. So all we got to do was smell the wine only, OH WELLS.

And then we went on the national museum, which was very very nice. Like 873645936745 times nicer than ours back in Singapore. They had a lot of dunno what kind of modern structures and all. and inside was really a museum, they had a lot of things and blah blah, a lot of interactive stuff too. We were sent for some workshop kinda thing to learn more about the natives of the past, the guy who took us was relatively interesting, judging by the words he used. Heh. Then we were supposed to make some poster but in the end din, I guess it was alright though.

Oh and when we reached the hotel and unloaded our luggauges, foo was like eh where’s my luggauge and we were like are u joking? Seriously his lauggauge wasn’t there, and it was left in the hotel at Sydney. It was a moment of frantic for a bit and then all was well again. Thank goodness, at least we’re going back to aaron’s hotel, the hotel we past stayed in for the past two nights, again. So I guess he just had to borrow some clothes for like night wear and reuse his clothes for tomorrow.

And then cus we ended relatively early for today, mr lam and miss low decided to bring us to some supermart to shop for a bit, so we like started walking, and walking and walking. Then like during this walk a lot of stuff started to come up and a lot of people started to talk a lot of nonsense and blah blah. And then we couldn’t find the place. and we realized we took a wrong turn, so we turned back and went the right direction this time. Well bought a few stuff and all, and Tristan and ben bought some maxi drink which was like 2.25l?! probably the reason for australia’s obesity rate.

Its been a long day.. of travels. Nites

Day 4

Arise and shine! We’re going to the national capital exhibition today. And then a few of other government buildings too. Had some reshuffling in our itenary so like we first went to..

The national capital exhibition. So it seems that they had like quite a lot of trouble finding out why they should have a capital and how to get the capital. Finally they decided on Canberra and they had some city design competition, and some guy won, with the design of some concentric circles, and using the waters around the land, they constructed some series of buildings that would eventually run in a straight line, and a lot of math here and math there, and then we would get the design for the concept of Canberra. Really interesting eh.

mysteriOZ 3 was one of shopping. Which was great obviously. Just that this mysteriOZ was for us to see how expensive things in Australia things could get. Some high class shopping centre we were brought to, and boy oh boy, it really was an eye opener to see the prices clearly. I looked for the flavoured mouth guard for my friend frm Canterbury, but they din haf it. and another point, canterbury’s a shop frm the NZ if im not wrong, and how come they dun sell the all black’s jersey?!

Second stop of today was the parliament house. it was so huge. And it was so nice. Like they had their building made of some special kind of wood, and had pictures of all the past plants that were oh so useful to the people of the past up on their walls. We walked through and it was said that they were having hundreds of room in the building. We went for the question time in the parliament house too. Sad we cant bring in camera but yeah it was an experience of a life time. You know, like Australia government is like not afraid at all the let the people question them. I think by doing so they are very sure that they would have made right choices, and in the process of making these choices, they would have considered the consequences of this question time, and thus make even better choices. It was quite funny though to see the minister for health and ageing speak. He just seemed to take everything as a joke and spoke very light heartedly, which was in a way good. And it was also nice to see the oppositions start rambling and ridiculing at the ministers, and how the speaker had no power at all.

The last stop of today was the ANU, sadly it was pretty run down and the lecture thingy was a little boring. Or maybe I just wasn’t as interested in International relations as it is. Well they did put in a lot of effort in to planning though I must say, and the two students who brought us around were well, friendly.

Oh, now we’ve gotta plan for some presentation for governance in Australia, and then to plan for our gambling skit too, well that’s it for now, off to bathe and then to party in mr lam’s room!

Oyasumi nasai!
Day 5

Two places only for today. Quite along journey out to the nasa deep space centre.

We went there, I was kinda like expecting to see how they operate and stuff and probably see some construction of some space-craft, or it not just see the field for the rockets to take off. But no I was wrong. Wad the Australian nasa did was to collect information and just to basically communicate with the space craft all through out the day. Yes that’s all they did. We watched some video on how big the space was, with ideas related to taking steps and looking in circles and boy is the universe really big. You know, the guy who presented to us really had a lot of knowledge. Ben and I were talking to him during the break time, like ben was asking if there were like limits to knowing how big space really is or smth like that, and like he spoke of relativity and big bang and a lot of other stuff. Seems like astronauts haf to know much more than space alone. He explained some other theory which I thought was quite interesting, its like the universe was said to be contracting, and then when they got so close together, the force was like kinda too big so they in a sense bounced off each other, giving a huge explosion, and probably forming the planets. Not bad eh.. and that’s the reason for why the universe is said to be expanding now.. also, they haven’t confirmed if Pluto is a planet, so the textbooks might be wrong. Even so, the media has published that sedna is actually a confirmed planet, but the astronauts themselves haven even confirmed it, since Pluto is nearer to earth and not even confirmed. Look at the destructive power of the media man.

Next we went to the birrigai aboriginal centre. Birrigai, meaning laughter. We had some Barbie, meaning bbq, lunch which was good. The chicken was seasoned until duno wad, in a good way, cus its like so super nice! And the sausages were not bad too. Of course, as rob said, wads a Barbie lunch without Barbie sauce? And actually, thank goodness the aboriginal person did not come, if not we wouldn’t have been brought up to the mountains. Where we really stepped on faeces, and chased after kangaroos just to take their photos. The view from up the mountains there is really breath taking, and there were rocks and nice bushes and all. they had some eucalyptus which really smelt like tiger balm and some plant that could stun fishes to bring them to the surface so we could scoop them and keep them. They had this rock there called the mushroom rock, cus really, it’s a big stone, and on top of it balances another huge stone, really in the shape of a mushroom! Cant imaging what would happen if it fell. And then the guide asked if anyone would crawl through a cave with her, I would haf, if only the jacket I wore was mine, so I had no choice to decline, as she said too that we would get dirty. But in the end they came out super clean! What a wasted oppoturnity but oh wells, I guess it was alrite.

Trail of words for tonight, we had to present our skits on gambling and it was quite funny. Cus a lot of it was very impromptu. Like rachel’s group did some majhong thing, and Rachel din know how to play and all so she couldn’t act and ended up getting people laughing at her. Heh. And audrey’s group too, when Audrey started to go siao siao again.

Today has been the most fun day of the Australia trip, really the most fun. Getting close to nature and kangaroos!
Oh ok, as all’s done, no more presentations, and no more stuff after packing luggauge, lets go party again! We were playing around all sorts of funny games in one of the rooms till about duno wad time, then sleep. heh

So that’s all, one final FULL day in Australia tmr, lets get the best of it. nites!

Day 6

Yes, indeed. No more concentric circles as we leave Canberra for Sydney again and for foo’s luggauge!

so yeap. We went down to penrith fruit orchard. First thing I noticed when I saw the guy was his hands. It was really strong and big and sturdy. He showed us around and explained a lot on orange farming. Seems like there’s so much more than it meets the eye and how we can get rid of pests without making more damage to the world. and then he asked us to pluck some oranges so that he could show us the operation of the machine, and so we did. It was a nice experience, and being the usual us, we would choose and pick and choose and pick den we’re happy. Next up he showed us this other machine that helps elevate him up to above the tree to pick oranges that are harder to reach, and the whole machine’s totally controlled by his legs, so it leaves both his hands free for plucking oranges. Of course he demonstrated his skills to us, in like 30 seconds he plucked like 30 oranges? Somewhere there. Its just so fast looking at him go man. Then he showed us the machine, like how all the oranges were poured and then washed and then dried and then sorted. The sorting part is super cool, though using a simple technology. And at the end, they gave us 3 oranges each, how nice.

And then came mysteriOZ 4. which nobody really knew what it was about, when it finally came to reveal it was so nice. It was like free time to do anything we want. We could go paddy’s market, to the aquarium, to darling harbour wadeva! Ben foo and I wanted to go hillsongs church, but then we couldn’t get the connection to check the map so in the end we went shopping. Looking for ben’s shirt sure is no easy job. And yeah its quite nice lah shopping. We went down paddy’s market where we bought quite a lot of stuff and where I got my sis’ jumper for her. And foo too, when he pointed out that he wanted a design for a girl! Heh.

Off to the hotel to change up into our shirts, and then to the Sydney opera house. dinner there wasn’t that cheap. But I had two cakes. One mud slice, which was a totally awesome cake, which has this taste there that I couldn’t describe and no one else who ate it could, den it was so tempting so I tried another called the chocolate truffle, but the first was so much better.

Into the theatre for THE HANGING MAN. And before the play started I already had a relatively eye piercing show right in front of me, ya noe wad I mean yeah Tristan? Well the show was unique in its own way, especially how they made use of their underground stages. Of course there were some pple who slept. one for example was sleeping and then dropped and really shocked me, another leaned forward and slept, den awoke and started fanning herself, and some who knew they were sleeping and then I saw them and they smiled at me. Heh. It’s a good play, really. The opera house itself is nothing much though.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we took public transport to and fro frm the opera house, it’s really nice their subway system. Its double deck-ed!

Last night in OZ, no lights out limit. But we’re all tired, so yeah nights!

Day 7

Ok by the time im typing this means im already back in Singapore. So we started off driving around and sight seeing for a while, which was good, cus rob told us a lot of nice stuff and interesting facts too.

Then we went to the beach. Funny how Australia onli seems to haf surf shops near the beach and no where else. They weren’t that cheap too, if compared to Singapore it was about the same price, so we would lose out on exchange rate. Ok enough about shopping. The waves are unlike any in Singapore, the sand too. First the waves, you can really see them breaking, of course its not like those Hawaii kind or those that we see the whole person engulfed by the wave, but this one can see still. Its super nice. And the sand, its like once u step u’ll sink in it. wasted we should have a time there to haf fun, not just to sight see the place. ben and Yvonne went to feel the waters though, and they ended up walking barefooted all the way back to the meeting place cus they had sand on their feet and ben’s shoes were soaked.

So we took a ferry over to the rocks, and boy oh boy some of us went to the front of the boat and beheld a breathtaking view of Sydney. It was really really nice. We really saw a lot of things, and the wind was very strong and waves were huge that we were brought up and then landed and water came splashing up. one thing to notice though, after the water splashes onto u, and u dun remove it, u see salt crystals after that. Heh. There were like birds flying right above us and eric was so lucky he got the top prize from the bird. Of course in the front of the boat we would have the best view and the best chance to capture the Sydney opera house and the harbour bridge at the same time. It was way cool.

Then we “landed” and went on for more shopping at the rocks. We were so lucky it was a weekend there and they always had a market thingy there every weekend. So we could shop. They had some really cool shops there, like this shop that sold timber coasters which were really nice. And shops that sell some really cool customizable lights. The coolest shop there was of course the spray painting shop. There was this guy there, who sold art of spray paint, in like 10 minutes, he created a whole picture of earth and the sun rising behind it and planets around. It was superb man. I wanted to like get a few pieces of his art or if not at least 1, but its too expensive oh well.

Rob sure knows his country well, he brought us to this scenic place where we could get really nice shots. Thanks rob! And yeah. That’s the end of our trip to oz.

The plane ride back was really really long though. Of which I had no idea why it was. Like 3 hours after flying in the air we were still over Australia. But nevertheless, we reached Singapore alas! Oh we were kinda so bored even though we watched pink panther which was really funny, we squeezed 5 pple in to a 3 seater to play cards! Hahas. The dumb stuff we do sometimes.

Sayanora Australia! The end of the trip to oz.. the end of the yellow brick road? Or will the self discoveries continue..

Cya peeps. If u all wanna see some photos I’ve uploaded mine on www.flickr.com/photos/blakwhites . yeap. thats all

reason for raking

2006-06-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

oh ok. i dont know why i created this as well mostly also. well i guess i just need a space to really express my thoughts sometimes. and not like just keep everything or enthrust everything to one or two people thru verbal conversations.

i've read many blogs, i've owned a few before. i've closed them all down.. i tot it would be alright, just looking at forums and replying to those topics there and expressing myself. but it din seem to help much?

this is just a space, a space for me to rub on. yeah.

oh remember i took part in montage sg? its my first official competition on my own, and first photography competition. hahas. one pic that i've sent in got into the top 10 percentile! and they're gonna give me a certificate! but sadly, i was overseas in australia, and the seminar they invited me to was during then. well i guess it was alright, and i'll go down to nus one day to collect the cert!

i guess thats it for now.