Christmas Eve Overseas

Bonjour, here I am in Lyon, France, and its christmas eve. well, hols been ok so far, barcelona was nice, and i visited the nou camp to buy stuff for chor yuan. while u folks have christmas eve dinner in sinagpore, im gonna be on a plane to london, where i will be for christmas. punctuation sucks in this blog cos the french com at the hotel is frenchy, so the keyboards a bit screwed. i will write a more detailed blog next time, bye.

See Ya Late Alligator!

I'll be going to the airport in 1 hr to head for London. I'm a bit nervous, cos the last time I went on an aeroplane, it was to India, hold on, it was only last month! Anyways, I'm nervous cos of the pressure in my ears when the plane starts to land, I didn't have it for quite some time, not since primary 4, but suddenly it came back on the trip to India (or maybe it's just cos it was Malaysia Airlines :)). From London I'll catch a flight to Barcelona, yay! I'll also be going to Lyon and I'll be back in time for my grandfather's New Year's party on the 31 December, so I'll not be in Singapore for Christmas :(. In other news, Man Utd have been drawn with AC Milan while Chelsea with Barcelona, and BOTH Fergie and Morn-inho predicted they would face those teams...hmmm, I wonder... and I would like to congratulate Jarvin for converting to Christianity, thank God you've been saved, now Christmas will have more meaning to you than presents. Well, I gotta go now, goodbye, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Smith or Rooney

Wayne Rooney is overrated. Yes, as a Man Utd fan, I confess into having little confidence in Europe's young player-of-the-year. Why? I believe that is down to consistency. I am compelled to write this on my blog having witnessed Man Utd draw Fulham, a side which we really, should have stuffed. The problem with Rooney is that at times his passing is wayward, and his shooting as well. After a couple of years he will probably justify his huge transfer fee, but at the present, he should really work on the training ground and not start so many matches. Alan Smith, on the other hand, is a perfect partner to van Nistelrooy,bringing more grit and useful work-rate than the fiery Rooney. Ok, both are short-tempered, but would you prefer Smith, who can tackle, or Rooney, who can't? Would you prefer a consistent performer or someone who has a great game and is quiet for the next three games? Rooney has the potential to be an Eric Cantona, but not yet, come on Sir Alex, bring on Smith!!!

Sharity Gift Box + BRYC Camp, Rrrr!!!

Upon touching down, I had to immediately go for SGB, so I went and realised there was nothing much we could do, so Ben Siow, Arthur, Joel, me, and a few others spent the day until 9 pm listening to music, playing cards and playing hours of football. Went again the next day for half a day before going out for lunch with my grandparents, and had tuition after lunch. Discovered that I lost my handphone, but I found it later on. On Thursday went for youth camp and was surprised that all my parent's friends children were in my group. That changed my perspective of the camp completely as it would make it similar to a dinner at my parent's friend's house where I would just stone and completely not talk to their children. Well I did just that whenever there were group meetings (I told them I missed playing football, in which caes I'd be quiet for the whole holiday!), but made friends with people outside the group, with my own friends other friends, and people whom I didn't even know, like Bryce. Well I learnt alot about God in the camp and was really touched on the last night. Beng was surprisingly quiet, and he seriously jacked himself during the indoor games, being caught and made the pole for the pole dancing, lol, super funny. Anyway, I was nearly spy-of-the-year in the underground church game, cos I managed to trick like, everyone that I was a Christian when I was a spy, and together with Sherson, we rounded up 2 huge groups of Christians and waited for the secret police to catch them, but I was tricked by my cousin, Tessa, who told me she was a secret police but was actually Christian, but she only managed to get 2 people to escape. However, I was also tricked by my group leader who said that she was a Christian, but she was a spy, and I was a spy but I couldn't trick her, damn. So I guess I'm spy-of-the-year runner-up. But I am waterbomb catcher of the year, catching like, over 10 waterbombs to help our 5-man group to victory over an 8-man group, who only caught- ZERO waterbombs. It's like this, your group throws waterbombs and you are supposed to catch them with a bucket tied to ur back. The worship was nice, and I re-learnt bridge from this Chinese High guy and his RI bro. But I guess in those four days, besides severe lack of sleep due to playing cards, listening to music, wandering around with my friends trying to prank people at 2am, and playing games, I learnt more about living like Christ, living in Christ, and living for Christ, not to mention learning how to do QT properly too! Oh, and regarding the lost handphone which I found, I didn't lose it throughout camp only to lose it when I returned as I left it in a taxi after playing football (just had to be football) at Chor Yuan's house, now hoping desperately my phone is found cos I made 2 reports to citycab and comfort...otherwise my less than one month phone will be gone, and my mom is gonna screw me when I tell her...

Jesu Vin Namum

Oops, haven't blogged in ages, been very very busy lately, I can't believe they call this a holiday! Anyway, in a nutshell, my India trip was eye-opening even from the very beginning. As I stepped on board the plane, I saw the whole plane was crowded with Indians, when normally I see ang mohs, or Singaporeans. The smell was distinctive, and Malaysia Airlines sucked big time. The earphones didnt work, and everything was fuzzy. We stayed at a Catholic hostel on the first night, and as there wasn't enough beds, I slept on the couch with no blanket, and the air con was FREEZING. That would be the last time I slept in an air con room in days, but I didn't mind. Next day we went to Vellore where the Shalom(means peace) Home for orphans was located. Had a wonderful breakfast and we nearly lost the $6000 cheque but I found it. Anyway, stopped halfway at a Ghandi memorial to take photos, and saw many temples, shrines, churches-one with a red cross and was slightly inverted, before reaching the Home. It was extrememly clean and was a nice place to stay in, except that we had to bathe by using buckets of water. The food was great, and the next day we headed for our first camp, in some ulu village, where houses were made of mud, and the main mode of transport was bullock-cart. There was one guy with elephantitis, it was damn sick, and my cousin, another kid who was in primary 5 ACS(P), by the name of Joshua, and I went to explore as we couldn't do much in there. So we took shots of the place and wandered around, before going off early. By then I was discovering life without my ipod was tough, and my cousin, Shaun, likened it to a drug and this 10 day mission trip without my ipod was like cold turkey treatment. The next few days were spent teaching the little kids in the home how to play games, do action songs I used to hate in primary school, and visit important landmarks in Vellore. I was so in need of music I even called home and told my sister to play don't look back in anger by oasis from her speakers and place her phone near enough so i could record it with Shaun's PDA, lol, it didn't turn out well. Anyway, a few days later we departed for the Shalom home in the Yeligiri Hills, where there was no reception at all, so it was no impossible to call home as well. However, I managed to play football and badminton with the people there and went to the school to preach as well as help dispense medicine to hordes of people waving prescriptions at me. I also attended a youth camp in the Shalom Home in Yeligiri, and witnessed alot of crying, and had to teach the action songs to these 18 yr old "A" Level kids, how crazy is that? I felt touched there, but not to my maximum potential as I couldn't understand the Tamil worship before the sermon which was given in English and translated so the ppl could understand. However, I did learn that Jesu Vin Namum meant "In the name of Jesus". Went back to Vellore a few days later and visited a rural hospital on the way there. The gloves and syringes were reused, the machines 35 years outdated, dogs with rabies were walking freely, and new mothers had to be checked out immediately as there was no space. Oh, and spiders, flies and lizards formed mini eco-systems in the hospital wards. In Vellore, we visited a night school were we saw children of all ages studying, and they loved my adidas hat, constantly pointing at it. In the end, mobs of kids were clambering for my autograph, and I don't even have a fixed one! Oh well, I guess it made them happy. So India was a real eye-opening experience with so many stories to tell, I wrote things in my bio journal and told people stories I haven't written here as it would be too long a blog. One last experience was going to a Catholic-owned hill where Saint Thomas died, you know, the Thomas in the Bible? He went to India and was lanced there, and I saw his bone and the cross he had carved just before he died. I was asked to go again next year, I think I will, but as Jesus said," Yet not what I will, but what You will", so I put it in the hands of God, Shalom to you all.