learned a new bitchy phrase today:

"Talk to the hand, cos the wrist is pissed."

Hey Peepz!

a little more update in my life! keke.

went home for durianz!!! keke. daddy bought them from dunno where. he said cheap cheap!

to me, cheap or not, durians are durians, and durians are the best!

Daddy and Mommy feasting!

I'm just happy stuffing them all in! keke.

Also, i completed my Osim triathlon sprint event! 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run.

Ore and Ron were also so sporty as to take part! in the mini though! hope to see them next year!

,

This must have been the most difficult competition for me so far. the swim felt like it was taking forever, i fell during the race when i was negotiating a bend, it started pouring when i started running, i fell again on the street on the way back cos traffic was so heavy, and to top it off, my tired punctured!!!

to rub salt in the wounds, metaphorically, 2 bus drivers REFUSED to let me board the bus, despite the bus being relatively empty; and the taxi which stopped as i flagged it down drove off as soon as the driver saw my dismantled bike!

then the third bus came by, and i asked if i could come up, at first he said no, but he say my pitiful but beautiful face and then he finally consented. all right, the beautiful is bullcrap, but i really was very pitiful. i was bleeding in three places, and my shirt was stained black with oil, and i was drenched from the rain.

i was so happy i took down his name and the bus license plate so i can send in a letter of commendation! this is what i call service man. then again, why the heck was i not allowed to bring my dismantled bike up the bus? its not like its durians!!!

still, it was really a great day of challenges, learning and negotiating bends and heavy traffic!

Just finished reading Mitch Albom's the five people you meet in heaven. a very delightful read. sentimental. thought provoking. tear-jerking towards the end. here are my favourite quotes. incidentally, the five lessons Eddie (and I) would learn.

The Blue Man smiled. “No, Edward. You are here so I can teach you something. All the people you meet here have one thing to teach you… That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”

“Strangers,” the Blue Man said, “are just family you have yet to come to know.”

“Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father.”

“sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.”

Ruby stepped toward him. “Edward,” she said softly. It was the first time she had called him by name. “learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.”

“lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different from, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end,” she said. “Love doesn’t.”

“Is where you were supposed to be,” she said, and then she touched his shirt patch with a small laugh and added two words, “Eddie Main-ten-ance.”

i think there is nothing more miraculous than life itself. and oh my god! they are so cute to boot!

keke. think my maternal instincts are emerging. scroll through photos in getty images to pick out these babies that have touched my heart.

enjoy, the MC's babies series!

the "huh?" babies

the "aaahhhh!!!" babies

the "i've been expecting you" babies

the "oh my god, is that madonna?" baby

the "i've got what i want" babies

the serenity babies

the "is he looking at me?" baby

the i-can-only-go "awww" baby

the happiest baby

the super-babies

and my favourite of the lot, the "hello!" babies

so what are my chances of waiting for the price of harry potter and the deathly hollows to drop to a mere 20 dollars to buy it without being exposed to the ending of the story?

Hey Peepz!!

my jc class met up last friday. for our once a long while gathering! keke.

started off with dinner at menottis at raffles city! i orginally organized it to be at ding tai fung, but shah, being muslim, had qualms about being in a "porky" place even if he was not eating.

In the end, we all gorged outselves on pretty decent pasta and oh-so-delicious desserts!!! i swear, i feel fat just looking at the mouth watering array of pastries through the glass! i certainly recommend the place for its desserts!

Following that, the rest of the people linked up with us at bobby's at chjimes for drinks. chjimes is a pretty nice place for drinks and for relaxing!!!

it was certainly a memorable night. i took alot of effort in planning. but as usual, many things did not proceed as planned, like quite a number of people were noticeably missing. but ah well. hope to see them next time!!!

see you guys soon! and no more puking allowed! keke.

cheers!

Our greatest fear is not that we will discover that we are inadequate, but that we will discover that we are powerful beyond measure.

Nelson Mandela.

Strength from Adversity

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

--- Author Unknown

appreciation can happen in the most subtle ways.

Hey Peepz!

its been a while! here's a little update about my life!

Ms Wen has graduated. here are the pics i've taken with her during her commencement.

am i eagerly waiting for this day to come for me? or am i dreading the new phase in life?

Jacob's left for his in-laws place and finally homebound. he's our few ang moh rowers who's stayed throughout. and have put in so much blood and sweat. hope to see him soon when he comes back singapore for a holiday!

After In Camp Training, i tried to organize a platoon outing. but it ended up as a section instead. still, its so good to see good o' Desmond Gay, my good buddy during NS!

Then a few of the commanders met up at Yao's place to play board games! it was pretty fun! Mall of Horror and Imperial. keke. should pick up some board games too!

where have all my memories gone?

into the distant fading of dawn.

and to wake up afresh and blank,

a bittersweet sadness, a heartful of hope,

and in ponderance regret my heart sank,

and in silent optimism, i shall cope.

hey peepz!!!

i am back!!! wah!!!!

just want to post a short entry before i sleep to announce my sleepy, diminutive, insignificant arrival back to civilization.

was in reservist the last 2 weeks.

unfortunately i did not bring my camera phone to camp cos there is no-camera-phones rule enforced throughout saf. and i dun wanna be charged for putting my pictures on my blog.

basically, for me, it was a good "break" from my normal life, as there was quite a bit of drama going on in my normal life. what with db, with relationships, with school work.

to go back to a relatively "peaceful" life, the one i had in ns was quite a good time for reflection.

of course, in the ict itself, there was quite a bit of drama. my company faced a shortage of people so the same load had to be divided among less people.

i remembered standing and falling asleep in the rain for 2 hours for our "enemies" to appear. i remember all the shit work that had to be prepared.

most of all i remembered the sort of friends i made, the ones who did not ask for favours, the ones who did not approach you for things they need, the ones who conversed with you not simply because you were of value or of utility to them, the ones who recognised you because to them you were somebody, and not just anybody.

it was something i wanted badly, i wished for sorely, which i found, was disappointingly lacking in my own civilian life.

i also remembered one quote from my brigade commander: "Excellence is not a coincidence."

and that i quite agreed.

immediately after ict, was the dragonboat festival race.

it has always been a race full of memories, full of emotions, full of drama for me. this year, it was of no exception.

nus did very well for the competition!!! both the guys and the girls. each of them faced their own sets of challenges, experienced their unique set of wins and losses. its not only the one during this race, but for the last entire year. and today, they have satisfied themselves by winning medals in all categories and winning the pm cups. its been a long journey for them. i felt so happy for them, i kept tearing for them. still, congrats guys.

and its been a long journey for me. thats it time for me to bathe and sleep!

see you soon!

and the other memorable quote of the day: XXX is xxxxxx's little rudder.