rey's ramblings

A moment of silence

Music: Keane - This Is The Last Time

The past few days have been really saddening.

And I think that people shouldn't be asking why those
that were affected weren't warned because nobody could
have predicted that an earthquake of such a large magnitude
with casualties all over from Somalia to Malaysia would have
occured in an area that hasn't experienced tremors for many
decades. Simply put, this catastrophe was quite unexpected.
Even though the more knowledgable understand that there is
an enormous fault line running along Sumatra, earthquakes
around that area are miniscule in size and rare to begin with.

What's more important now is for aid to get to the badly affected
areas so that people there can continue on with their lives despite
how badly they have been scarred by the calamity.

I knew something just didn't feel right when I could hear my sister
exclaiming that some islands off the coast of Indonesia had been
wiped out. And the death toll just kept rising by the thousands, over
the past couple of days and as of now, is a staggering number, 68 000.

Its disheartening how everytime I switch on the television and watch
the news. Footages of wrecked beaches, huge waves rushing towards
the shore, total mayhem as people cry for help and just walk around
looking dazed and equally devastated by the tragedy. You can't bear
to think of those who have suffered great personal losses. Their lives
just washed away in less than an hour by these tsunamis. We here in
Singapore have a lot to thank for. We have hardly been hit by even
one natural disaster since our founding and we are so well sheltered
by Sumatra but many people are really complacent and can only look
at the small things in life. We have to be thankful for the Aceh province
this time. If that stretch of land did not exist, the entire western coast
of Singapore would have disappeared by now.

As more deadly disasters, both natural and human-caused strike closer
to home, we should not become more complacent but more aware of
these and always help those who are less fortunate. So, as a call for aid,
please visit the following link and see how you can make donations to
the following organisations helping out in this tsunami crisis.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves/donations.htm

I just received a sms about donations of canned foods, clothing and
other supplies to 1 Parliament Lane #01-02 at the Old Parliament
House. My parents are going to donate some old clothes and money.
So, I hope that you can make an effort in contributing aid. Thanks.

I crossed the bridge at 5:38 PM

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Boxing after Christmas!

Music: All manner of Christmas songs!

A Belated Merry Christmas to all! Hope everybody had
fun participating in the festivities one way or another.
Had dinner at the Changi Meridien on friday night. The
buffet was all in all rather good, but I sense that the raw
food was, well... raw. As in they werent really prepared
properly. So I refrained from eating too much shellfish
and salmon. Never really liked those anyway...

After the dinner, my parents stayed around to drink?
party? dance? I dont know. But I left to find joel, charisse
and esther at orchard anyways. And... it was really really
chaotic at orchard. There were people running around
screaming and spraying confetti on other people. I think
this policeman got sprayed too or something and got really
angry. Aha. Anyway, despite the mayhem, we managed to
get our way around the crowds and make it to orchard park
where we counted down the final seconds til Christmas Day.

After that, charisse wanted to go home because she was afraid
somebody would kidnap or do something worse to her. o.O"
It was really quite hard to get onto a bus later on so we took
the MRT which wasn't really much better but at least we
managed to get into the train. Lol.

Stayed at home throughout Christmas Day with quite a number
of guests coming over, mostly invited by my mother of course.

Today was really great! We had church service in the morning
and the sermon was very good. About how Christ came into the
world in such a humble manner. The testimony made by the
ex-convict about how God changed his life was also very touching.

After the service, we had a cell party at joel's place! And we had a
lot of fun singing christmas carols and dancing! Yeah, it was really
crazy because marcus started doing some weird tap-dance and we
were all laughing because he looked really really funny! Haha, sorry!

Anyway, the year is almost drawing to an end but its great to know
that I've had a lot of memorable experiences! =) I've still got some
Christmas cards to give out!

I crossed the bridge at 10:00 PM

Thursday, December 23, 2004

The Two Towers.... and Beyond!

Music: Band Aid 20 - Do They Know Its Christmas?

Well, I'm back from our neighbouring country, Malaysia.
Yes, with hordes of illegal/pirated/contraband stuff. Actually,
just a couple of pirated DVDs, thats all. A rundown of what I
did in the land of plantations and rather good cheap food:

Left early on Saturday morning and fell asleep in the car.
Which I did a lot during the entire trip, besides. Anyway,
reached Kuala Lumpur at about 2 in the afternoon. My dad
was practically speeding throughout the whole North-South
Highway.. but then again, so did everybody else. Got to our
hotel, the Marriott which was really near KLCC or better
known as the Petronas Towers. Anyway, just did a bit of
shopping around Star Hill, Lot 10 and Times Square which
just opened last year and is really enormous. Ten floors
and wider than Suntec City. Surprisingly, the latter had a lot
of shops selling pirated dvds and such. But the shopkeepers
were rather discreet about it cause their pirated cd section
was like right at the back of the store. Anyway, thats about
all for the first day...

On Sunday, we went up to the skybridge on the Petronas Towers,
which look really beautiful in the night, mind you. Its like you can
see them from almost anywhere in the city by just looking up. On
a sidenote, the transport system there is rather lousy. They have
very bad transfers at train interchanges and you have to pay for
a new fare when you're on a different line, unlike Singapore. Took
about a couple of hours to explore Suria KLCC. Reminded me of
Raffles City, but much much bigger of course (everything is bigger
in KL). The food at Jalan Bintang is great! The prices are really
reasonable and there's a lot of variety. And it's only a few hundred
metres from my hotel. There's this wonderful chinese restaurant
that serves delicious dimsum (!) and other chinese delicacies around
Sungei Wang. Later in the night, after dinner, I was walking around
with my family and bumped into gareth with his parents! At first I
couldn't recognise him but thats because he dyed his hair totally
orange! Haha, anyway left for ipoh early the next morning and had
lunch there. Hor Fun and Fishballs! =)) Bought more cheap stuff there.

Reached penang at about nine and stayed at my long-lost relatives house!
Well, not really long-lost but I haven't seen them for about two years.
Anyway, ate a lot of penang laksa, char kway teow and satay during my
stay there. And I went parasailing and windsurfing with my cousins at
the newly-opened water sports areas around the coast. Actually, I'm not
sure if its really newly-opened since I havent been there for quite long, but
they told me that it was, so I suppose so. Left early on wednesday and got
back really late, around 10pm. Woke up really late this morning. Yawn.

Anyway, christmas in two days! Looking forward to our cell's christmas
party on Sunday! =)

I crossed the bridge at 5:01 PM

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Uncanny Sightings

Music: Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For

Well, I have been rather lazy to blog but nothing too
much for the week besides. Went to get a gift for
Christopher, our cell leader, at kinokuniya with
charisse on thursday. Just as we were turning round
a corner, we bumped into Olinda from singapore idol
and somehow, charisse seems to know olinda because
the latter said "Hey, how's your shopping going?" And
I was just standing there really puzzled but not for long,
because apparently she had to leave for an appointment.

So charisse says they used to be neighbours and thats all.

Anyway, we got the Da Vinci Code for him and then charisse
had to leave so I took a train to novena and met javier at
united square to have a rather late lunch and some shopping.
For the third time in the holidays, he bought a pair of jeans,
so its like his total amount of spending money on jeans is
about $300? Haha, anyway, later we went to Junction 8
to have dinner at Din Tai Fung or something. The xiaolongbao
is really good! Its like as if you just stepped into a shanghai
restaurant in Singapore instead. Its on the New York Times
Top 10 restaurants list but the service wasnt excellent. The
food was good though. The queue was rather long but we
somehow got a seat ahead of the waiting line.

On a sidenote, I've been seeing a lot of people I haven't seen
or talked to in a while. Its nice catching up with them though.

Going off for a trip around Malaysia tomorrow! Should be
KL-Ipoh-Penang, if im not wrong, to visit some relatives
and do a fair bit of shopping. Its cheaper there anyways.

I crossed the bridge at 11:44 PM

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Shopping! Basically.

Music: Gavin Degraw - I Dont Wanna Be

One Tree Hill is a nice show! Go watch! Saturdays at 4:30 on
Channel 5! The theme song is equally nice. And nope, this isn't
blatant advertising but good advice! =)

Anyways, been a bit busy lately and besides, im quite lazy to update.
Just going around for christmas shopping this past few days,
especially around the Marina area. On monday, went out with
john and javier around raffles city -> citylink -> suntec city.
It was mostly shopping, a lot of walking and even more talking.
I think I've picked up a few more ideas for christmas gifts (or,
as a matter of fact, any type of gift) with this sort of shopping
experience. Had tea at Coffee Bean, 'pure chocolate Ice Blended'
was heavenly. The staff there are quite okay except that they
cant spell. Haha, they got all our names wrong I think.

Anyway, had lunch with javier at suntec again today. It seems
whenever javier orders pasta, the gravy's always watery. X)
Or maybe its the staff. Anyway, after that, bought a wallet
for him as a gift. Are wallets good? o.O Practical, I guess.
Anyway, the design on it looks nice. Now all I need to do is
wrap it. Later, he had an appointment with his sister or
something so I decided to call joel and esther out and it just
happened that they were shopping too anyway! (okay, like
what a coincidence.. ^^) So went over to orchard. Got stuff
for charisse, serene, cheryl, marcus and ben. Im not going
to list out everything of course, but basically erm... mostly
accessories? Yeah its supposed to be a secret anyway!
I guess Im gonna get joel and esther's another day of course.
I mean I don't think I would buy their presents in front of
them??? Just got back anyway. I think I've spent quite a
fair amount for gifts this season already... Umm.. roughly
around $45. Haha nothing was really expensive and besides,
I'm getting gifts for quite of a lot people so I would be broke
if I bought like designer stuff or iPods for everybody!

Actually, I've spent more this year than last year... And there
are still some people left! Well, at least almost all the grace assembly
people have their gifts now I guess. Come to think of it, I'm actually
almost broke! Oh no. Although I havent dug into my savings yet..
But I never like to withdraw from my savings.. Then it wouldn't be
savings, honestly! Well I guess that's all for today...

On another note, PM Lee supports Taufik. o.O"

I smell dinner, gotta go then. =)

I crossed the bridge at 6:35 PM

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Didnt waste my $1.50! and a Hangover of sorts

Music: Billy Paul - Me and Mrs Jones

Yesterday I woke up kinda late. Then left for orchard
to meet javier and sean. Did a bit of christmas shopping.
We had a couple of encounters with people asking us to
donate. And they were really rude! They just jumped
(literally) in front of us and waved the coupons in our face.
Hmm. Anyway, I didnt really buy anything but javier
bought 2 calendars! Sean bought some X'mas cards...
Then afterwards, I left for city hall to meet esther.

"So sue me for going to the finals!" What a random saying.
And by now, you should have figured I went to that crazy
event. So what was I doing there? Well I realised it would
be better than staying at home and a very kind esther here
had an extra ticket and we were sitting behind anyway! =)
So it was joel, marcus, charisse, esther and me side by side
at the front row of the balcony and the location was really
good except that unfortunately, joel was next to this aunty!
Who had dyed her hair completely blonde. And she screamed
for sylvester halfway when he was performing! >< Okay it was
rather unnerving. Anyway, I'm still a little deaf from all that
screaming but I suppose eardrums can regenerate or something.

o.O In which case that doesnt then oh well.

About the performances, I think the Spectaculars were rather good,
except for 'Stronger' of course. Was Olinda lip-synching?
It sure looked like it but anyway thats beside the point. As
usual, the judges were just being nice for no reason and giving
good comments for every performance from the two finalists.
Sylvester's version of Bon Jovi's 'Its My Life' was a trainwreck.
It sounded kinda awful. Taufik's 'Me and Mrs Jones' was good!
The other songs were kinda okay. I really think Sylvester should
just sing chinese songs only from now on. 'The Reason' performance
sounded pretty bad. Taufik and Sylvester cant sing together!
Nuh-uh, no way. Haha we were all sort of relieved when taufik won.
Especially since I had to spend $1.50 on the votes.

At least, we wont cringe when we hear him on World Idol.

But nevertheless, that 'sly guy'(!) is going to get a recording contract
anyway. The atmosphere in the Indoor Stadium was crazy. This girl
wanted to pay me $11 to vote for Sylvester 20 times. Like some $1
interest or something. And I was like 'No way, man!' Terrible black
market business that was going on. Anyway, after all that mania, we
trooped off to changi village to have some supper. Got home at 3 am.

Oh well, I just realised its World Aids Day today. Red ribbons anyone?

I crossed the bridge at 11:14 AM

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