just a small note. jiewen-mei is now in kuala lumpur because her grandma has had a bout of heart attack in genting. fellow brothers and sisters, let's pray for them.

on a lighter note, who wants to watch the world cup finals in my church tomorrow? pretty nifty large video screen to enjoy the match... leave your comments so i know you're interested... quickly!...

what talkcock king, sai wee, has to tell me regarding my newly purchased boots...

"got wear soccer boots to zzz? then u can be good player....u dunno u muz wear it when u first bought it....it is an initiation. then the socks muz lay neatly on the table.....then u muz put friuts there to offer it..and say your prayers......to it.....make it like super sock. then 2morrow u muz put the socks in the boots and bring it to the highest place near your flat and let it asorb the solar and humidity power to bring it alive. no....then when it is done....u got to talk to it every day....u call it umbro........it is your mate... then remembber u muz pour mud water over it eeryday so as to nourish it.....free from artificial material... remember.....it iis calll umbro.... dun tell anyone how this will enable u to be top socreer.....as beckam also did that..."

basically went back to nie in the morning after receiving a wakeup call from alwyn at 0915, telling me meeting's starting at 1000! i rushed, and reached the nie canteen by 1130 instead... oops... anyway, after that, lily, alwyn, yung, yingsi, angie and me went to jurong point's banquet foodcourt for lunch. ban hwee joined us midway through. after the lunch was done, ban hwee, alwyn and me went off by train to city hall. we then waited to meet sai wee at pacific coffee on the ground level, and after discussing my business idea with them, alwyn broke off and went back home, while the remaining three of us went into marina square to buy me a pair of soccer boots. my first leh! i bought this pair of umbro's called firestorm, for about 42 dollars. quite ok la, stitched sole, permanent polyurethane studs... can last can liao lor...

went out with loner from the afternoon to a multitude of bike shops along eastern singapore. just to recount...

1. yuppie wheelers
   
2. song seng chan
   
3. hock sin hin
   
4. chin hong cycle
   
5. cyclecraft
   
6. attitudebikes
   
7. soon watt
   
8. treknology bikes 3
   
9. cannasia
   
10. singletrek

in the evening, we went off to pick up some specialty bread at werner's oven... some corn, some walnut buns. suuuuper aromatic! then following this was a long, slow walk back to parkway parade, and we took the same bus together. i then got loner the movie "messengers" for her to view, along with waterboys as well.

enough explaining done. gosh. i've never hit a two-digit number of comments if not for this saga. no love lost, man. i'm still myself - eating, drinking, breathing. Hallelujah! feel slightly sickly now, must be the drizzle i got caught in a couple of days back. just a little addition here - i do not have anything against females. neither am i pro-feministic (because i couldn't figure out what it means).

*yawn*

yesterday i had gone over to sim lim square. wonder what has happened to it since those days last year that it was simply bustling everyday. then i later made my way down over to gee hin chan to get some spare inner tubes - i bought two cheng shin schraeder tubes at four dollars each, for a total of eight bucks.

later at night i sorted out the components that i got to have in my bike repair kit. spare presta tubes, spare schraeder tubes, tire levers, allen keys, lube. still miss screwdrivers and appropriately sized wrenches. especially the size 15 combination wrench.

ah... good. germany against brazil for the finals. a good chance to see solid defending against the samba boys...

in reply to the last blog, here are my replies -

paperdoll / partially for yenyee too : i never knew what got into you. you didn't seem to ever, ever leave a comment on my site before (maybe you did, but i forgot about it - i'll need to check the archives) but once you started to post things on my site, they were caustic. by the way, let me re-iterate this to you again, i supported solely the south korean team, and not the fans. for both your comments that it was an "unglam win" (paperdoll) and "unglam victory" (yenyee), why couldn't both of you keep your comments to yourselves, when both of you have a history of hardly commenting on anything on my site? note that in my reply, i actually included a smiley. does that mean i'm serious about women being ignorant about soccer? and for the following reply, what i want you to know, paperdoll, is that throughout most of the match i was on my computer in my room, and the television was tuned to the scv live coverage. and i definitely wasn't attentive to hear what the commentator say about the laser pointer incident, if he did say anything at all. i only watched continuously the last 30 minutes or so of play, when i finally switched off my computer - by then that incident was already probably long over. although i am watching the world cup coverage, i do not follow soccer to the extent that i know who's who, or who's transferring for how much. you get the idea. only until you added in the url for the laser pointer mpeg file, then did i see it happen. but let me re-iterate this - i supported, and still will support the south korean team. but i greatly disapprove of the person who shone that laser beam. what i meant by my views of the game from my profession, i'm watching only the on-field play by the teams, and not what the fans do. paperdoll, you apparently over-reacted to a tongue-in-cheek remark from me that to you, sounded extremely sexist. but you got personal here. i do not need you to remind me why not i have a girlfriend, thank you. regarding this reply you made, i have no idea whether you are doing in tongue-in-cheek, or with otherwise intentions.

delwen : look at this post you made. i want to let you know i had absolutely no idea what that banner meant until so yenyee translated it for me to understand. and regarding this comment you made, i believe you made an assumption that i side with people who demean others. i do not.

yenyee : this post you made was somewhat distasteful. were you implying that i would actually assault you?

ennie : i don't feel i have any ego swelling. i sense rather, the automatic response of self-defence coming up in me. too many people writing something negative about you - how would you feel? and by the way, i do agree i have a seriously low eq. maybe some bad blood started to broil that time i referred to your guy as a "boy", and not a "man" - because he hadn't even gone through ns himself yet. personally i feel, if an individual hasn't even been through bmt, he's essentially a civillian. once a person dons green and get dirty in mud, muck or soil, he grows.

mavic : you're supposed to stay O-U-T. apologies to you for what's happened, but since you decided to join in the fracas at the wrong time, sorry. in the meantime, work on your cycling. who would like to go around with anyone who often mutters the work "fuck" in life? and think again. i don't make big money. by closing your inner troubles to yourself, think about how i felt too, when i popped by your site to see that i'm not trusted in whatever was bothering you then? this comment you made seems to deem you as a bitter person. fancy asking me to trust you, when you didn't trust me in what was going on in your life. oh. regarding togoparts.com, by some likelihood, you would have found it anyway by yourself. but who introduced it to you? "The 2k wif that sales guy? Cos u chose to be cheated by that sucker!". if you knew what was in my mind regarding the money, i tolerate myself, to give him the time and chance to change. i didn't know what he was going to involve me into then - if i did, i surely would have had handled things differently. but yes, you're brutally right, that i "don't even seem to care how janice felt while she was with" me. because i try to do whatever i feel would be caring and whatever i think is called gentleman behaviour when i was with her. i am just insensitive, as in i am not versed in how to sense how another person is feeling. but that doesn't mean that i do not care for her! please watch your words.

verda : if i have ever tried to pull you into the "big picture", i will apologize. but i will not, in this scenario. what happened was just essentially a tongue-in-cheek quip from me. i have a severely twisted sense of humor. and literally being "suaned" all along my secondary school years and on didn't help - i just got more resistant to rather painful jibes. and not to forget, the butt of a lot of hurtful jokes. most of you didn't grow up the way i did. and if i just went overboard, then i'm sincerely, sorry. i'm openly not sensitive enough to how easily others may get hurt by what i personally deem to be "friendly jibes", because i got immune to it. i have not tried to put words in your mouth, and what i did was to paraphrase you albeit in a playful manner. if you noticed, practically all of my comments from the first days of my blog, have smileys to them, for a proper cause. even my blog entries themselves too, are decorated with smileys.

wx : similarly, you have not have a history of commenting on my site, and your comments of "why are you trying to speak like a saint?" is absolutely repulsive. if you can't comment constructively, please don't comment at all. you were pouring oil into a fire, mind you.

to the rest of the folks -
it is utterly useless calling me using some expletives (typo here). i do not turn away constructive criticisms, but i immediately take a strong action when someone immediately labels me. how would you feel if someone came to your site, and labelled you a multitude of unpleasant terms?

and take this into account. has fifa ever rescheduled a match to be replayed, even though the referees were just biased? the answer i can offer you flatly, is NO. no matter how unfair, or biased the appointed referee was for the game, there has not been a match to my knowledge, replayed in its entirety because the judging panel decided that it was a one-sided affair. no matter how unjustified the italian players have felt during the matchtime, they have to take that unfair decision and eat it - because a referee's decision is final. how many times must i tell you all that?

to those whose comments i deleted - it's time for you to use your actual identities and grow up.

note : some of the direct links to the comments do not really work well, so you may need to search manually for that particular comment i'm highlighting.

in the wee hours, i cycled to cue's place, where he took a look at my bike and helped me rig up a burst inner tube on the right chainstay, to functionally replace the lizard skins protection pad, which i found pretty useless - it keeps on sliding and twisting. then i cycled over to meet gordon and we cycled off to ang mo kio/yio chu kang for some supper. his bike (rather, jenny's) took a fall when a taxi driver in a hurrying back to his cab, knocked it down. ouch. one of the brake levers actually got a scrape of sorts, now the toptube of the giant bike is well, left with a scrape. we finished our supper and cycled along the entire stretch of yio chu kang road, and i accompanied gordon back to his block before i went back home myself. good luck for your bmt man!

what a disgraceful win for germany. ballack should have been sent off for his tackle from the rear on one of the south korean players. which means he wouldn't have been around to score that goal. referee kayu!

last night after bidding isamu farewell after our prata dinner with loner, i accompanied loner back to her place, since anyway, it was along the way back home for me. we sat outside the 7-11 around her neighborhood, and i discussed with great detail about that business plan that i had all along with her. once i move into hostel, i can run it off to earn my day's meals for a start, then later on... there's simply no telling where i might go from there on! the possibilities are endless, and i'm confident that He has guided me with this divine plan... that started off a few years ago, all the while the idea germinating within my head...

and one funny thing to note - while i was explaining to loner how a bike works, and did a demonstration of how to change an inner tube, this middle-aged indian man who was smoking on a ciggie and drinking a can of beer, suddenly told me that he wouldn't fall asleep listening to me explaining how a bike works! he actually said that the way that i explained it was "interesting"! oh my goodness... and he meant it as a compliment! kinda funny, to get this kind of praise. and guess what? it was just sharing with loner what i've learnt within the last couple of month.

"Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams." (acts 2:17)

d - desire - i may tire in something, but i never will get tired of it
"delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." (psalms 37:4)

r - research - explore all my options
"for which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it" (luke 14:28)

e - entreprise - willingness and courage never to give up - the bigger the dreams you have, the larger the adversaries you will face.
"for a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." (1 corinthians 16:9)

a - association - hang around with the right people
"he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed." (prov 13:20)
"do not be deceived: 'evil company corrupts good habits'." (1 corinthians 15:33, please refer to actual niv)

m - mastery - gotta work hard to be skilful
"moreover you shall select from all the people able men..." (exodus 18:21)
"and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." (psalms 78:71-72, please refer to actual tlb)

"success is never final, and failure is never fatal"
"if you aim for nothing, you will never be disappointed."

my dream in life is to own a bike courier company. change your friends, if you want to chase your dreams. to all brothers and sisters out there, may your dreams come true.

what i can reflect on the episode that has happened on my site of late, it tells me to change my friends who stand in my way to pursue my dreams, who hinder me from getting closer to them. there comes inevitably, some events, or conflicts in life that leads to the expulsion of some of them from our lives. although i agree much that i should do my part to guide them, it is not always possible, due to conflicting core beliefs. so let's part hands, and establish stronger relations with those who remain, because they are far more worth it. let all fellow dreamers get together and put dreams into reality.

thank you to all of you whom have stood steady by me throughout this time. you are worth very much a friend.

here's what happened yesterday - i brought along kit leong out to bugis junction to meet shaoqing, who was "hounding" me to buy tickets for her school fair, crescent girls' school, on 20th july. anyone else wanna go? anyway, too bad for the guys though, she's attached! whoever wants to go pop a look over there, just post your requests in the comments ok? i'll forward all ticket orders to her for you... anyway, she should be dancing that day, if i'm not mistaken.

oh. forgot this - before i went over to bugis junction to meet her, i met up with a few other togoparts people at gee hin chan. van was changing to a zaskar frame, if i'm not mistaken. then i brought kl with me to meet shaoqing, and after getting the tickets, we proceeded on to cycle to song seng chan, to accompany him to look at this giant race bike. too bad it was using just shimano sis derailleurs, not even sora! well, that's why it's selling for only 400 bucks. we proceeded over to east coast park, where we continued to the very end, to changi coastal road. it was really monotonous, cycling the entire length of the coastal road using my mountain bike. pity though, kl was cycling on his steel bike on 24" wheels! we made a brief stopover at the changi village market there, and topped up our promptly emptied gatorade bottles for some cold pokka green tea! yeah! we then cycled by the route that i ran back then in 1997 for the mobil marathon '97. gosh. i couldn't really believe that i really ran through that route - rolling slopes, enough to tax one's patience. and to think that i went through that section to reach the 21 km mark in 1:30! in fact, now i remember i wanted to slow down for the extra 21 km that lay ahead! wow...

oh, anyway, we went over to bedok blk 85 for bak chor mee and then we cycled home. kl got two more angry warnings from me regarding his cycling. eh! you read this better remember what not to do, ok? oh, by the way, the total distance cycled was around 60 km, i think...

started off to meet alwyn and angie at gary's place late. did some swimming, and had a quick tan. it was nice, that the condo had a very nice pool, with jacuzzi jets at the sides. watch the match (mentioned earlier) and of course glad that brazil won. then i left to meet with with jiewen-mei at plaza singapura at 5:20pm. after walking around liberty supermarket looking for her hamsters' feed, we went off for dinner, and had it at marche's in the evening. her bill - just under $17, mine was just under $19.

ha, the world cup. soccer. did you just re-realize that in this playoffs, when two teams meet, one of them must bow out in defeat. i'm glad that ronaldinho scored the winner, that wicked shot that was just too high for david seaman to reach for. go brazil!

welcome to my blog.

after waking up, the best thing to reflect upon is a bunch of pundits who would rather be happily saying they're not glad to be asian. go on, shoo! migrate off and forget your roots. probably the same bunch of people who would criticize the singaporean government and think they're better. problem is, they can't do nothing about it. there's too many philosophers that i can do without here on this site. read the title above. "welcome to my blog".

i guarantee you, most of these ardent supporters don't take part in any sports. they support a team just because they do. and it's a fact that none of them ever understand the work that the coach must do - to coordinate the entire squad to play according to will.

shoo's to - wx, delwen, paperdoll, fe, and, mavic, and yenyee. you all can own the comments, but i eventually am the one owning the blog. if you don't like what i write, fine. so beat it!

robert kiyosaki once wrote in one of his books, never write about any of the following - money, sex and religion. i think i should add football to the list.

oh, by the way, welcome to this site where i write and wax lyrical. sort of, in my own way. yes, this is my blog, and i defend the ideas i write about. reflecting on what has just happened within the space of a day, i've learnt that to get the most number of comments for any blog is to write something controversial. and write it in such a language that some people will insist that i'm pointing out their biggest flaws. duh.

anyway, girls. oh man. can't do without them, but some would rather do without them. some will let everyone know that they're doing everything for their guy, but the guy isn't responding well. yeah. reminds me of this - for every cheerful giver, there must be a cheerful receiver. i treated her as a lady as much as i could, and well, i got no response. must be my adhd acting up on me.

ok, to those happily-commenting-at-me people, read this. i have not, and will not talk down at specific persons. what i wrote is what i see happening generally - downstairs at my local s11 coffeeshop, what i read online, what i know some friends and acquaintances are probably doing right now. i support the bravado by the korean team. i find the italian players generally sleeping except totti and vieri. i do not proclaim to be a saint. i do not welcome people here whose views greatly differ from me. whenever i post anything about my own church, i have no idea why there are so few comments, if any at all. is it to maintain a neutral stance, or to prevent lashing at my church?

anyway, like it or not, i looked at the game from the perspective of a physical education professional.

most of you are not doing so. change your sunglasses that have been clouding your view and see the game in a different light. try to figure out how the coach can instruct all 23 players to play to a strategy that he masterminded. then you will see the bigger hidden picture very few people (save for soccer coaches) know how to tread. how many of you are in the physical education line in the first place? chances are, you are not, and so how will you see the physical education side of the playing? can you control the ball like the players do so effortlessly? how are you going to teach the physical skill to a child? that's what i'm looking at.

now dig this - i supported italy most of my past years, up to france '98. after that, i was ok-ok with them. this year, i find them severely lacking. whoever's interested in manchester united? i don't support them, and i wish every single team on planet earth can beat them. but in the end, i still will agree, that they're a fantastic team. they're consistent. heck, beckham is good great! but i just don't like the team. although now the proof of the banner and the laser pointer incidents are both out, i take a personal responsibility for supporting south korea. read carefully, i support the soccer team, not the audience. read my words c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y.

if you so wish to, mavic and paperdoll - i'll remove my links to your sites right now. anyway, i do not constitute a large part of referred clicks to your site. paperdoll, if you didn't notice, the reason why i linked you up was as a sign of courtesy, because you signed my guestbook. and yenyee, do you want me to remove the link to your site? i don't mind doing so if you request so.

to all those of you who think you know the game of soccer, think again. stop behaving like my sister - who showed me her lack of maturity in viewing the game. she wanted brazil to lose to belgium so that her beloved england wouldn't need to face the samba boys, and end up possibly losing. too bad. brazil is gonna play england now, anyway. personally i favor brazil, but should they lose to england, so be it. football is a game. it simply isn't life and death. the world cup, in every four years in its coming, brings out the beauty and ulginess of men and women across the world.



there are people, who bet on the match, hoping to get some quick money out of it. but woe befalls those who have apparently forgotten, either side can still win in the end. people, desperate to get a quick buck out of betting, bet on any, and everything they can. if you've watch the comedy movie rat race, you will see what i mean. the people in the show bet on every single facet of life. it's sad to see people not appreciating the beauty of the game, and face the inner struggles within the players and team, to win, or to accede defeat at the final whistle - but put it down to (as so i quote from john steinbeck's grapes of wrath) "cold, hard cash". some of you may defend yourself, saying, "but i bet only recreationally!" yes, you may do it recreationally - but that is still taking a gamble, or gambling as i see it. you could say to your best friend, "i bet that brazil will win the match!" and not have money attached to the verbal bet - but it still is a bet, nevertheless. at many a time, most of the punters who aren't players themselves, but seem so passionate about soccer - are just what they are - punters. they don't know how easy it is to misplace a pass; deliver a lob into the opposing territory to a teammate, nothing. they only know to watch the channel when the match is on - and these are the same people who practically live a 100% sedentary life. they know absolutely nothing about conquering the mind, to push on, the physical fatigue - they know nothing. they just talk and talk and talk.

from an asian's viewpoint, let me ask you this - those of you who fervently support italy to go on and trounce south korea - were you born in asia or europe? if you were born in europe, go ahead and support italy. i'm not saying though, that one cannot support italy. i did support them - up to france '98 - but this year, they seem more like sleeping giants in the world cup finals. so it's good riddance of them this time, i feel. you cannot pine and pine for your team to progress if they aren't playing up to scratch. face it.

from a physical education viewpoint, a lot of you out there need to read up more stuff regarding the game. you may want to get fifa's footballs rules, and have a good going over it. i've downloaded it yesterday, but have just quickly scanned through it just now - and from first look, it's seriously informative.

addenum :
paperdoll seems to have pretty scathing, personal-attack kind of comments regarding my views on soccer. if you want it this way, you are more than welcome to make a conscious decision to (or not to) visit my site, thanks. and this message is to those of you who have been feeling in the gutters recently, and feel like sowing your depession around. what i want to tell the depressed ones, i have no place for you to sow your depression here, but i gladly welcome you as a visitor. remember, just because you feel sad or down, doesn't mean the whole world has to slow down to pity you. and yes, paperdoll, for your information, what you wrote about the laser pointer fiasco, that's not team players doing it anyway. and it's not reported on the official fifa world cup site either. i watch only the televised match and nothing else. yes, i'm a flirt and everything, if you don't know what i practice, go ahead and read it up. and i do not go around chasing girls, for your information.

wonderful! south korea has done asia proud by pushing on into the world cup quarterfinals! and without question, this was one of the most beautiful goals in the world cup so far


sadly, some people disagree that south korea should have won. wonder if they're asians at heart or not. anyway, italy was sleeping... and for those who thought that italy should have won the match, go enjoy yourself italy should have won? no point over it.

by the way, dolphie, it is of no worry about that slight 3kg gain you said you've gotten. you've gotta trust your friend in the physical education line here! otherwise...

although japan bowed out to turkey 1-0 in the afternoon, it is good to know that they've got through to the round of 16! but now, the biggest news is that sports history has been created -
korea won 2-1 over italy!

this is the first asian team that has gone through to the fifa world cup finals' round of 16 - now they are up to the round of 8. history has been made!

in the morning, i met cue and beef nuggets over at paya lebar mrt, and after probably 5 minutes, we rolled off to meet lighters outside the honda showroom around eunos. met up with other guys, ghostami, wer, paceman and many more... too bad i've got slow memory... the ride was about to start as we entered into the airbase. gosh, it was hot waiting for that son-of-a-mama to arrive and flag off the ride. let's just do without him in the future lar... disgrace, make so many people wait for him, and couldn't get there faster somemore. i did a single 15km ride, and ditched the idea of a 30k ride. can die man! i mean, after all, i still had the try-athlon in the afternoon... chasing those average roadies was quite ok, but keeping up with the intensity of the speed on a chromoly (read: heavy) full suspension (read: even heavier) bike is not easy. in fact, it was killer! well, managed to be unofficial tgp's shotsman of the day, landing in pics of babes around the place... will upload them soon (yeah!).

after the cycle, the whole group of us (plus van, pureposer and more) went along to somewhere around hougang/defu for breakfast. after the breaking up, i left with cue and pureposer to learn a little and watch them attempting/practicing dropoffs... then it was back home to *crap*, followed with rushing to pandan side for the tryathlon with zombie, dolphie and kit leong.

i came back at probably, 10pm, after cycling back from the west coast area after having dinner with kit leong, zombie and of course, dolphie. late in the afternoon, probably at 2:45pm, both kit leong and me set off from serangoon central to go to the pandan swimming complex to join both zombie and dolphie in our try-athlon training. yes, you read it right, it's TRY-athlon, not TRI-athlon training. both kit leong and me reached the pool late, and already the other two had started their swim! r32 was there to look after our belongings and our bikes. it was really good that r32 offered us his services in looking after our stuff, as well as helping us take our timings! and not to forget, he helped to bring out my 2 liter water bottle and top up one empty gatorade bottle for me as i was about to start my run leg!

yeah, anyway, we did a 800 meter swim in the pool, followed with a quick transition just outside the pool, and then it's off to cycling three rounds around pandan reservoir. it was really gruelling, the cycling. must have been the runway cycling in the morning that sapped my energy, then again, maybe not. it could have been the hurried ride to pandan swimming complex from home that did it. the loose gravel on the course was not something that i welcomed. there was a severe loss of power and speed for me. three laps of cycling down for me, and it was left to the one final round of running around the reservoir. initially i ran on the gravel, in the end i ran on grass. sadly, i didn't have the chance to have a smooth run all the way. i had a bad stitch, probably due to drinking too much water too late. i think i lost a minute or two on the run leg because of the stitch, because i lied lay down on the side of the running track, and did some crunches to alleviate the pain, as well as walking for a minute or two.

our timings in the end,
mine - 18:30 (swim), 56:05 (bike), 29:30 (run), 1:44:05 (total)
kit leong - 19:45 (swim), 1:02:05 (bike), 45:00 (run), 2:06:50 (total)
dolphie - 19:54 (swim), 59:45 (bike), 33:34 (run), ~1:53:29 (total)
zombie - 19:41(swim), 53:21 (bike), 44:16 (run), 1:57.18 (total)

from what i see here, dolphie has packs some serious potential danger to the national junior women's triathlon squad members. i'm serious! somemore with her somewhat problematic knees, triathlon training can build her capabilities to far beyond what she thought she's capable of. dolphie, i'm SERIOUS and SINCERE here, that's why i'm posting this on my site! i seriously ask you to consider the possibility of doing multisport... i offer to help you train plus train with you for multisport... because you CAN, and you HAVE the ability to excel in it, and it can help you to excel in running!...

on a lighter note, can you imagine? dolphie actually wore her new tyr booties to church in the morning! and she wore it again to dinner with us!

frankly to most of you, this wouldn't ruffle your feathers at all. but i was. the cake i bought especially for father's day, was not well received. sis and fabian were ok, mom initially said that she "cannot" eat mango (her and her chinese medicine ballyhoo because of her afflictment), but later still took some strawberries. how do you taste the entire cake by eating the strawberries? dad was worse. he objected eating the cake at all. i felt so rejected initially - that was the time mom came into my room to tell me to take it easy. here i was, for the first time i can ever remember, buying anything for mother's and father's day at all! why did it go this way? i broke down, because i was grieved that he wasn't touched, and refused to show his appreciation. not as if he can't eat anything, like mom. but there was a thought that flashed across my mind, that one day the Holy Spirit might touch him too, and let him see what Jesus has done for my life.

maybe i should think of it this way - only those who are closest to you can hurt you. that means then, that i love my dad.

oh yeah. i forgot to mention that huiling reprimanded me for "losing my commitment" by not going to service as promised. does missing two consecutive weeks' service due to sickness mean that i'm unfaithful? i didn't want to explain to her halfway over the phone, and since i was watching the service online anyway, i just hung up on her. i hope i can let her understand that i love people for who they are. or at least, i actively make effort to know about people, and talk to them. this is my gift - the gift of the gab. this draws a parallel with mom too. i often have to lecture her, for her own good. why? because she's so concerned about my safety, she gets herself worries needlessly. the spirit of fear is rampant in my family; i have a bit of it too. i have a fear of meeting bervyn because i don't know what he will do or how he might screw me up in regarding my failed teaching practicum. but i have to face the truth too. for "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and a sound mind" (2 Tim 1:7).

some of you may remember what i wrote about my personal view, if my *someone* doesn't approve of my coming from city harvest church, that time when i was wooing janice. although she went physically to the concert along with valerie and me, i would say from what i saw of them, they were skeptical in their own ways. i shall not elaborate more on this issue further; it serves no one anything. i would rather follow in a life full of Him and be single, than a life with her if she really does oppose my coming from city harvest.

do the people out there think that city harvest members are snobs? mutants? what?... i have no idea for myself, but i do say, i account to myself for putting an effort to touch lives in small little ways that i know how to. like this time i gave up my bus seat on service 70 to an elder, after the chc business breakthrough dinner. i turned back and smiled at him, and stood on the bus all the way back home, perhaps for 10+ stops? i was feeling good that i let up my seat to him, and i'm sure he's somewhat touched - he actually looked out of the bus to take a look at me as the bus pulled away from the stop where i alighted to go home.

the following is a full article by pastor kong regarding the legalistic/liberalistic view of many churches around the world. city harvest is a liberalistic church, for those of you who are misinformed, or not knowing. remember, in the book of matthew (or was it?) , there was a time where Jesus rebuked either the scribes or pharisees who were waiting for Him to perform a healing for a sick man on sabbath. Jesus then replied, rules were made by man, not God. that's more or less what i'm trying to convey here. city harvest is known for not sticking to conventional rules and practices most churches have. we have a lot of people with dyed hair. but ask yourself this question - does dyed hair mean a person is not a Christian? jeans are still proper garments to be worn, albeit more lok-kok. here's the article - "just how liberated are you?" part 1, part 2 and part 3. oh and by the way, where in the bible is it stated that you can't sing loudly, or generally have a good time in church? and instead have a "mourning" session most of the time?

let me share with you my own little story how i got to be part of this wonderful place called city harvest. for me, i had my own special coming with it. little did i imagine, in a space of just over five years, i would be patronizing a church that i then thought was run-down, and simply unique for the fact that it was renting a disused cinema for its church services. guess what? i passed by that very church when i was studying in vjc for 3 months, in 1996. little did i expect that to happen. but the Lord touched me deep inside only when i went to city harvest's 12th anniversary celebrations last year. that was the only time i was ever invited, up to that point of time, by seven invitations (3 written, 4 verbal) to any Christian event.

oh, by the way, i came back from home, and bought one half-a-kilo mango cake for a special occasion. what's that occasion? father's day, tomorrow. i hope that everyone will treasure your moms and dads and experience the happiness that i deep down inside have experienced since Jesus came into my life.

"This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal. 3:2)

took this via mavic's site

yesterday morning, what i did was set out from home at about 7am, and cycle to buona vista swimming complex to meet dolphie for a morning swim. both of us were late, and once we reached the pool, i locked our bikes outside the pool. we then proceeded with paying the entrance fees, and promptly put down our belongings, and changed into our swimming attire. we both managed our own workouts. i gave dolphie some tips regarding her apparent slow swimming and things like that, and a little on plunging... and after showering, we met up with lionel over at provence for breakfast. boy, the "pizza special" (not sure whether i've got the right name or not) and the danish peach were *great*! once we finished with eating, we cycled to nuh, where dolphie went inside with lionel to get some medical notes (???).

once all these were finished, we all proceeded to bikehaus, for me to check out the prices for the cervelo bikes that i'm dreaming of. colin let me know that with full ultegra parts, the cervelo "one" would cost about 2800 to 3000 dollars. the cervelo p2k would cost 3800 with full ultegra parts though. details to be worked out later, but i already have an idea. i took down the one's frame, as well as the p2k's frame to look at. but i guess, colin was only too eager to help us put it back, because when i took each of the frames down, there was quite a lot of aluminium clanging that can be heard. for your info, the "one" frame is tagged at $1700, the p2k frame is tagged at $2500.

as we were leaving for clementi, lionel broke off from our group, and hurried home, leaving dolphie and me. after some talk (and dolphie admitting her current tyr swimsuit was a goner) we made our way to sportz and fitness team. after trying out probably 10+ swimsuits (ranging from tankinis to workout bikinis to reversibles and waterpolo suits), dolphie finally settled on a waterpolo suit! you should have seen the live action comedy where she would try out one suit, feedback that the fitting is not for her, and then take another to try, and letting one of the staff there hunt for specific sizes of the various swimsuits she picked, and telling me her favourite colour is blue... in addition to that, she also picked up one pair or booties, after seeing that i picked one pair for myself. as for me, i bought 2 pairs of tyr running shorts for only 12 dollars (for both!) as well as one men's triathlon top and one pair of beach shorts, all tyr. total haul - she, $59++, me - $76++! after we left, we went for a quick lunch at bukit merah town central (bmtc, if you didn't realize it).

we went over to clown's place after i successfully egged dolphie to join me to the pool. but as you would expect it, she didn't want to change into and try out her new swimsuit. for me, i haven't ever seen one single person wearing the waterpolo swimsuit before in singapore, so i was kar-cheowing her to do so. but her answer was the best - "i'm tired ar..." yup, that more or less sums up the day!

p.s. this is a sidenote that dolphie requested... she wants me to mention that both lionel and me met her track mates from nygh, and one of them (wonder who) said that i look better than lionel?...

i'm going out pretty soon. will be joining dolphie over at buona vista swimming pool for a morning swim (we're meeting at 8am), and then we're proceeding with breakfast at provence... and i would be having lionel joining me to bike haus in my hunt for a cervelo bike...

came back from the sun with love concert. oddly enough, although janice was sitting beside me, and valerie was sitting one seat further away, i didn't feel ecstatic exactly about their presence. i enjoyed singing along to the songs (as i believe most of the people there would too), but both of them didn't really join in. oh brother. the concert was smooth, good, but there's something that was never there although she janice was sitting beside me. something was... dead.

by the way, who wants to buy lexmark printers that can print 2400x1200 dpi at S$189, please contact nerissa. she's got a friend who's doing a promotion in jurong point. just leave your interest in my comments, thanks.

kewl... i'm now updating my blog from pacific coffee at citylink, and boy, this keyboard's spacebar is getting on my nerves. now i have the (dis)ability to type at 10 words per minute, if i try hard enough. anyway, it's a surprise to see vernon working here as a part-timer here!

oh, later i'll (rather, valerie and me) be meeting up janice once she finishes her driving lessons. err... or are they driving lessons... damned, this spoilt spacebar and the screwed shift keys are driving me nuts...

p.s. it's a microsoft keyboard, for goodness' sake!

yesterday (tuesday), i cycled over to meet dolphie, zaskargal, lionfish, shengwen, zombie and clown at fong seng over breakfast. it was basically a togoparts.com small group gathering. i had my share of breakfast - two cheese pratas and teh-peng. then after makaning, it was action time - we cycled over to west coast park. but too bad, it was showering all the while. so we were basically stuck in an underpass within the park itself for quite a while, as i answered dolphie's various questions regarding her/the knee(s). luckily i understood my anatomy stuff pretty well, so i figured that i helped her a bit there.

after the showers sort of died down, we all proceeded to west coast food centre for lunch, and then crossed the road to ginza plaza. some of the folks were thinking of playing pool, but where could we park our bikes? in the end, we all went over to rodalink. look-see for a while, then we went on over to dolphie's house. her dogs were pretty nice looking... blackie sorta likes me; brownie doesn't really - he avoids me. ah well. zaskargal, clown and me were so bored (for a while) at dolphie's house that we cleaned her bike, and serviced it as well!

then here's the fun part - we left the house later, to pandan reservoir, and dolphie and i did some fartlek training around the perimeter of the reservoir, and shortly after we finished the run, xiaochun appeared! well, she asked me to accompany her around the reservoir for one round, because she would be damned bored running three rounds by herself. shortly after this accompanied cycling/run, the guys (minus zaskargal) reappeared, and we went for dinner.

then after dinner, we proceeded to hong leong gardens. clown and dolphie proceeded first to play tennis, while i went for a short quick swim. i didn't swim too long, and i joined them back at the tennis court soon after. hey, this was my first time playing tennis leh! dolphie might be better suited to play tennis with a golf club - she whacks the daylights out of the poor tennis ball with deadly low accuracy!

as for today (wednesday), i met up with kit leong and we went over to orchard. quick summary - we started off at treknology bikes 3 (tanglin place), where i purchase a trek kryptonite bike chain, and a set of 3 trek bike tyre levers. following this was a quick stopover at crawford place, and then i bought the current issue of runner's world, then backtracked over to wisma atria where i re-registered for cable modem (YAAY!) then our final stop was geylang, where i got my hair cut after two months! for his patience, i rewarded kit leong with a subsidised treat of beef hor fun at geylang lorong 9! these two days were damned fun alright... and tomorrow (thursday) i'm going to the sun with love concert with both janice and valerie!

You're PRIDE! You like yourself, and you aren't afraid to show it. You don't like to admit when you're wrong, and you think you're better than most. You're represented by the color violet.

Which Kiss Are You?

You are 20% evil! [?]

You're pretty non-evil. You're a little bit off of being all good, but you tend to still be orderly and peaceful. You aren't the bad person at all...for the most part.

What Jelly Belly flavor are you? I'm -

Find your flavor here!

anyway, forgot to write in here yesterday that i ran over to macritchie from home in about 25 minutes, and tired myself out. the next thing i got was a blister on my right achilles', and then later it was promptly spotted by haripin who asked me, "you having blister ar?" to which i answered, "how you know?". his reply? "you're bleeding"...

it all started out when encik ng gave me a call at about 6:47am, and asked me, "ngoh, you coming to run one or not?"... well, i have to concede, a pair of running shoes with dried blood on its heel counter doesn't seem too inviting...

japan won!!!
nice classic goal from inamoto... but as the match commentator said, he's *everywhere*! too bad nakata couldn't slam home the long range shot, that would have sent japan into a frenzy!

5% of me is filled with jealousy. Aren't you JEALOUS?

19

I act like I'm 19.
This test was brought to you by David - Part of the David and James phenomenon. Take it here.

i get this feeling this test is for kids. hmmph.

anyway, valerie came over to my place to return me my digicam, as well as let me transfer out her pictures taken while in bali. hmm. can't remember what else i did other than trying to fix teck heng's computer from 9pm to 12:30am. gosh, am i lethargic for the whole day today or what...



Click Here To Find Out Which Symbol You Are

SimilarMinds.com Compatibility Test

Your match with Verda you are 62% similar you are 88% complementary

How Compatible are You with me?


Red: 8/100 Blue: 14/100 White: 13/100 Yellow: 10/100

Take the Color Code Test
by Dano

earlier yesterday afternoon, i could have lost my life. kit leong was the only person who witnessed how close i was to joining my Lord in heaven. anyway, after that incident, we continued to hup leong where he changed his brake pads, saddle, and got a fresh pair of adidas cycling gloves.

just finished watching the match between turkey and brazil. those of you who missed it, well, too bad. i managed to watch some turk (who was botak) slam home from close range in the 47th minute. and of course, in time, ronaldo did a two legged flying kick (actually, only his foot barely touched the ball) and shot into the turkish goal just 3 minutes after. and of course the first sending off for the match, that resulted in a penalty kick to which rivaldo scored in the 87th minute. and of course, the 2nd sending off for turkey as one of their players kicked the ball at (notice, it wasn't "to") one of the brazilian players who was supposed to take the corner. good game, brazil always on the breakaway, and turkey was good too, countering the attack and not overpowered by the samba boys. hey ash! when you taking singapore into the world cup?

anyway, i've come to a conclusion. i am not going to go for janice anymore. there's no loss on my part; it's only her loss, because she doesn't appreciate (and won't be able to do so anymore) how i put in my effort to show her concern. we'll remain as friends, nothing more. it's odd that i'm feeling pretty stable right now as i type it.

p.s. how come no one commented for the last two blog postings? something is wrong...

just came back from the city harvest church business breakthrough dinner with dr a. r. bernard. gosh, coincidentally, yesterday (sunday) was also pastor sun's birthday! YAAY!

i sat at table #105, along with brother altona, seng khiang, mervyn, tim and titus, as well as sisters (from w180)melly, sabrina, fengyi, as well as jacqueline and valerie. anyway, for the preaching of the night, there were a total of 11 points that dr bernard had, but he only spoke of two of them. the following is what he spoke about:

#1 luke chapter 19 - learn to manage rejections and disappointments

this story covers that Jesus went to the house of zachaeus, the chief tax collector. in verse 1, Jesus enters jericho, and then in verse 3, zachaueus wanted to see Jesus very much. then in verse 7, the people (and probably the disciples too) murmured about Jesus' scandalous identification with the chief tax collector (tax collectors were treated as scum then). then this is the key point : honor those whom you want to influence. in doing so (by visiting zachaeus' house), Jesus honors him, and then the end result is that zachaeus decides to give half of all goods he had to the poor, and return to those falsely accused fourfold. in honoring zachaeus, Jesus changed the man into a caring, and giving man!

in verse 9, salvation came because zachaeus changed immediately (salvation) and the man became a blessing to those around him! remember this, Jesus blesses you so that you can be a blessing to others!

after this mention, there were two concrete examples given in accordance to this statement: "look to serve as many people as quickly as possible" - #1 ray kroc decided to serve as many people as possible with hamburgers. result? mcdonalds. #2. some guy decided to serve food on airplane flights instead of having people buy food before boarding the plane. who's the man? the founder of marriott hotels...!

in the Christian walk, what is known to the world as "high achievers" are actually "overcomers". overcomers are less sensitive to rejections and disappointments.

in the real world, when you have any "bright idea", you will face mainly four kinds of people - those wayward ("nah, this idea won't work..."), those on stony ground (indifferent), those who are on "thorny ground" (they're hot for a while and once trouble comes, they scramble), and those on good ground. and of those of the good ground, they may multiply forth 30-, 60- and even 100-fold! in the world we live in, this entire scenario is called "diversification" - because you can't afford to place all your eggs in a basket...

#2 mark chapter 2 - overcomers surround themselves with positive relations

insecure leaders are always afraid of competent subordinates. secure leaders surround themselves with competent subordinates. why? because it's always a relationship that brings you to a new level. and also because life's a network of relationships.

in mark chapter 2, the story is about a paralytic who was carried by his friends to Jesus' home to be healed. now, this story isn't so much about the paralytic, but about his four friends. looking in verse 5, Jesus looks at the paralytic's four friends, and only then He heals the paralytic. you see, you are affected by the company you keep. the paralytic's friends took him to above his then-physical capability - and then he was healed, and then he could walk! in other words, we need friends who can take us to above what we can do, because we all have our limitations - and then exceed them! when you surround yourself with positive relations, you get positive results. and when you surround yourself with negative relations, you get negative results. there are times when God rewards you according to your positive relations, but there are also times where God cannot reward you accordingly because of negative relationships. anyway, back in verse 10, the four friends who carried the paralytic were glad - because firstly, the paralytic is healed, and of course, secondly, they need not carry the paralytic anymore!

friends are there to carry you for a while (when you are weak or down), but their real objective is to carry you to where you then can carry yourself...

p.s. dr bernard made a mention about carrying a notebook, voice recorder or palmpilot around, so that you can record down your ideas that may spark off your wealth.

while you can, read this wonderful report about city harvest church in the new paper online!