Wednesday, December 06, 2006
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hi guys, it's very rare that i post after a week of the previous. anyways, i've been going for the SGB - repayment of last year's - and i'll be sharing with you all of my experiences + updating on what i've been up to so far too. this will be the first of two-parter of the 2006 SGB repayment mini-series. and you'll find that this post will be way longer than the Birthday edition post. competition's really heating up!!
i've been continuing works on my second album titled "Reintroduction", due to be out next June 2007. it has been really challenging writing songs again after six months of promotion for the debut album "Tearful" which has done extremely well ... download figures much better than expected ... if u like love songs, like "Heartbreak", "Seems Fine", "Broke Up" from the first album, then, you'll be looking forward to the brand new love songs that will make up about half of the next 14-track album. many ppl have been asking why only lyrics but no tune ... i would have to reply for once and for all ... that's because ... i'm not that professional to go and record them ... i don't own a music company u see ... but i'm very, very touched to see so many ppl actually wanting to hear the songs. u've been my source of hope to continue...
[Status] Tearful (Album) - 2x Platinum (as of 6 Dec)
[Singles Status] Stay On Forever - Platinum / From This Moment On - Gold / Heartbreak - Gold / Another Voice - t.b.a
[Next Album/Single Update] Reintroduction (Album) - Release in June 2007, Just Why (Single) - Release on Valentine's Day, 14 February 2007
SUNDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2006
much about the music side has been said ... now, it's down to the start of the longest post ever. on sunday, i made my way to the bb hq opp. great world city for the annual BB SGB (sharity gift box). after finding how to make my way to the hq the previous night ... i finally found out the most efficient way: mrt to tiong bahru, then 16 or 195 to destination. it was less than thirty minutes for the total distance travelled and was much faster than what mr. sim mentioned ... walking to the hq from the mrt station. -.-
anyways, this year, i would be doing 4 days of SGB, two of them being a repayment of last year's due to other activities and the last two being as an entire 12th coy (pri, jnr, br, i). though many might find it very waste-of-time, i found it to be rather interesting and exciting until ... i will say it later in the post. i saw shane, kenneth, arthur just outside the hq waiting for mr. sim + caleb sitting on the bus-stop bench. it was kind of a casual meet as we chatted here and there and about ten minutes later ... mr. sim came ... in a taxi, and not a car? i was puzzled there. after which, we proceeded to the canteen for a pre-sgb internal breifing. the tables (in yellow) and benches (in blue) reminded of my primary school canteen back at ah hood rd ... the tables and chairs were sticky - drink stains + food leftovers, and also unwanted waste from little creatures like lizards. then, halfway in the briefing, mr. zac tan (blog rival) came strolling in ... without his cap on. mr. sim said "you wanna die ah ... never wear ur cap" ... i was happily giggling away as zacary always puts the blame on me for things, but this time ... he couldn't.
all the bb boys + primers + officers then went to the Glasgow room (i guess the name got 'coped' from Scotland where bb was founded) for the half-hour long briefing ... led by the unprofessional not-so-good-command-of-english Sgt from another coy. the way he presented himself would have gotten him no where near distinction if were a project work ... cuz firstly, he was reading off the slides, secondly, he didn't explain/elaborate much (where's the p.e.e.p??) & thirdly, he wasn't that clear in his speech that led him to pass the mike to a fellow Sgt. then, we watched the new video, unlike the video which mr. sim described to be "the same, yearly video which he has watched for like seventeen times". but still, he preferred the old video cuz' it was sorta more sincere and touching. later, we were dispatched to the different collection areas + wish tree locations after choosing places which were left to preferences. zac & i were dispatched to the Marine Parade area and were very fortunate to have mr. sim accompanying us along. after receiving $10 per person for lunch + dinner, we headed for the bus-stop to take bus no. 16 together with kenneth's pair. they alighted at dhoby ghaut to head for their wish tree location at YMCA, while mr. sim, zac + me continued for another half-hour to Marine Parade. just before the door closed, mr. sim threw kenneth's cap out as he had left it on his seat ... what a sharp-eyed OC we have!!
during this half-hour, we were chatting about canoeing, the Asian Games ... etc. talking about the games, TV mobile was showing the match between Sun Beibei (SIN) vs. her China opponent. it was such an intense match ... Sun had lost the first 2 sets, before regaining an upperhand in the 3rd & 4th set. it was like ... she could loose the set anytime ... but she woke up in the third set before winning the entire match by chalking up her scores in the last three sets, thus enhancing the women's table tennis team chances of entering the finals, which they eventually did, but lost to China. back to reality in S'pore, zac wasn't abt to finish watching the 5th game in that match, cuz' we had to get down the next stop and he gave the -.- look. we got off the bus and walked past the Church of Singapore ... (which wasn't Zac's church ... supposedly to be his ... i thought) we continued walking up straight and when we crossed the road, zac said "welcome to my neighbourhood-estate" ... but i didn't believe him in the end. cuz' it seems like he didn't really know the way + the area besides the Salvation Army & the old library. luckily we had mr. sim to lead the way to NTUC fairprice and made a ke-kenan belok while walking (kidding).
well, in the store, we made our way up the nice escalator (i guess this is the best NTUC i've ever seen in S'pore?) we looked around ... it was rather neat and a little packed with people considering it was Sunday ... we wanted to approach the store manager, but the door had a "RESTRICTED" sign or sth like that. so we decided to visit the loo first before carrying on our 10-hour mission. on da way to da toilet ... a fairprice staff actually kindly informed us of the "Have a heart, share a gift" box. minutes later ... we were off to pushing (me) and pulling (zac) it ... with mr sim's help too, we managed to get out the approx. 50cm by 75cm box. we placed it next to the atm machine as well as next to da bench where 2 elderly were sitting while waiting for their transport. quick-witted mr sim thought of a plan which he had used in previous years to conquer the area outside the entrance by taking over the bench too!! he also decided to use ... er-herm ... the green baskets to fill up the box ... so that ... well, i shall not reveal...
the first hour was mainly just explaining and doing little "promotions" by giving curious passers-by who peered into the box the flyers that were on the mini-table. by 1230, the box was rather filled with stuff ... rice, sugar, can food ... and many more. this carried on as the members of the public kindly helped us out by buying more items and filling up the box to encourage others to do their part too. as we continued working for the next 2 hours, many things happened too. firstly, it was a cleaner who kept smoking and talking on the phone ... as it was breezy, the disgusting, unbearable, harmful smoke swept up to our faces ... and we could not bear but to face the other way, but at the same time, maintaining our professionalism. secondly, it was a very chatty ntuc staff who joked with us by saying that since we had lots of food already, why not donate some to him? all these stuff happened ... until it was lunch-time at 2pm ... sound kinda late huh ... but it was zac's idea!! he made us suffer for 3-hours.
after we had our lunch, zac mentioned that he saw joshua lim at the mcdonalds earlier...
t.b.c
original: 12 december 2006
new: friday, 22 december 2006
monday, 25 december 2006
M!©HæĹ at 11:41 AM
Friday, December 01, 2006
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my 14th year has finally arrived and so has my 14th birthday!! it was the biggest celebration this year, with one or two mini-ones coming up in december. i've never expected such a great turn-out. be sure to stay in touch with this post as it will be the longest-ever! the fourteenth-birthday edition.
touchdown ~ 24 November (first)
last friday, exactly one week ago, i had my birthday celebration - the official one this year. it was pushed forward by so much this year b'cuz my dad wasn't available on the planned 29th. it was a more successful party than last year's with less disruptions and more I.T-savvy using the laptop (not mine) for a second year (for the games). the invites has stayed more or less the same as previously drafted: 8 (though two couldn't make it).
one new (zacary), and others the same people including my neighbour, nicole. this year's theme was: doubles and everyone had to pair up. i thought that they would like to do the pairings themselves, or else they would blame me for choosing a wrong partner. but then, things headed for a change: instead, they decided to turn to me for help. the four groups were then announced after much considerations. but when everything was ready by 10.30am, they were too engrossed with the x-men 3 which ben brought ... (maybe next time no movies at all!!) i had to snatch the DVD controller and pause the movie. but just when i was walking up the stairs, i heard jean grey's voice ... i went down again and saw jean & cyclops talking face-to-face ... ||| (diaoz).
new games edition were played with one newly added (Wordle). i was so happy to see the games + the questions that i've crafted out over the 2 weeks to be such a huge hit amogst them. we had the interactive game titled "link of words", now in its fourth year, where everybody were in a group and shouting out the words linking with the last letter of the previous word, so on and so forth. everybody had their last laughs until the twin champion were clarified at the end of the game. and of course, the highlight of the day was the song game - What Am I? the number of songs were doubled to thirty following a feedback from ... er-herm. but it was a promotion session for each song ... cuz' after the party, the majority wanted the song list! (pictures will be uploaded soon ... for the first time)
bottom-line: new friends were made, new year ahead
explosion ~ 30 November (second)
just ytd, my 14th birthday had arrived and i'm gonna fill you guys in on the full details. it was started with a big bang in the morning waking up early in the morning for canoeing. i had to carry the heavy bag of sec 4 seniors' presents + mr see's gift to macritchie, what a pain for a birthday boy. anyways, then we were told of the most xiong training programme yet ... the 2-3-4-5 sets. initially mr goh wanted to do 4 sets, but then, luckily upon revising it through with the Ts, it was cut down to three. i was like phew ... the most tiring morning on a birthdate i ever had!! but luckily, with good co-operation with davin, our k2 was able to sustain through the entire prog. at the end, mr goh changed the prog with some sprints and the funniest + most entertaining snake-like rowing back to the finish line from 1000m mark. now, that's what i call a good one.
following that, while packing up, we heard some screw-ups here and there, forcing some scoldings ... but luckily, all ended well with several jokes, so as not to spoil the ROD later. and at that time, when we were released, zac & I were still having 'what ifs' in our mind, like ... what if the caterer doesn't come at all. after changing and collecting money (what a gruelling four-day process that was), we were headed for the bus-stop with the presents and life-jackets. instead of taking the 49-minute route (162 + 143), we decided to change it to the 35-minute route (93 + 51), which ended us up reaching the final destination an hour earlier than expected (11am). i played games like tai-ti, bridge with benedict, zac, adrian, lucas and later in the party, playing a 5-player slu* tai-ti with enthusiastic clifton, hilarious shengyu, cool-guy nic lam/cheater adrian + swift da-ge yibin.
once the caterer was done with the setting-up, we were led into a prayer with outgoing Captain Weng Ngai, before breaking into lunch, following the canoeing tradition of Yr 4/5, then Yr 3, 2, followed by the Yr 1s. everyone seemed interested in the food and i was half-hearted then. only when i asked seniors like lovable Jingwei, caring Weng Ngai about the food, they replied that it was good. only then could i heave a BIG sigh of relief, after worrying for days and nights. i would like to thank zac for helping me and being a very obedient servant. seeing the team enjoying themselves and feeling comfortable playing card games, entertained by Godwin, the superb magician and the x-box 360, i was really thankful that God has also seen through the proceedings.
some had gone for a game of soccer under the scorching sun which left mr see to saying "i wouldn't have let them row under such conditions, but ... they still can play soccer" it has indeed amazed him. =) though this years' event wasn't as elaborate as last yr's, but i could sense the bonding with one another, the fun and full throttle of entertainment. later, i, with hr & zac were being santa claus handing the out-going sec 4s their life-jackets and a joy/peace/happiness/love booklet as a farewell gift for each of them. it was meant to be something special for each of them and aside from previous years where, i guess the seniors were just presented with their l-jacks.
close to the end of the party, Mrs Jean Woo commended on the smooth-sailing party, which had no hiccups + she wanted to know more about the caterer (KCK Catering - Singapore's No 1). I must really thank her for saying that!! it was also her first time seeing catered-food so very well-received that nearly everything was cleared. mr see thought that i over-catered as he instructed me to, but in fact, i under catered like what Mrs Woo mentioned - ppl always under cater, if not there would be a lot of left-overs. the party ended with godwin playing his card tricks once again, which was an excellent form of entertainment + the highlight of the day. finally, we (zac, shaun, josh lim, me) were sent home by kind Mr Sim. a happy ending indeed!
thankyou:
God | for making everything possible
Joshua Woo, Mr & Mrs Jean Woo | for allowing the ROD to be held in their house
Mr See | for overseeing the entire ROD plannings + party
Canoeing Seniors + Grand Snrs | for being available at the party + leading the way in canoeing
Yibin, Nic Lam, Clifton, Zacary | for giving your undying support + helping in alot of ways
Everyone present | for making the 2006 ROD party a mega success
thursday, 30 November 2006
friday, 1 December 2006
M!©HæĹ at 1:40 PM