Just Friends

Wow!!! So many things have happened over the last 3 days I don't know where to begin... haha... Let's see how many things I can remember... hrmm...

Ok... Good Friday... went to set up early in the morning... around 7am but the door was locked... so I spent like half an hour worshipping outside the Concert Hall with my guitar before the security guard came to open the doors... Never seen him before... must be new... ok after that I put on the Unspeakable Joy CD and sang as I set up the instruments and all... the worship team started to filter in around 850... Tow Yong was the 1st... bless Him... haha... a few people were running late as usual... not that it mattered... I'm kinda laid back about these sorts of thangs.. hee... We had a wonderful time of worship that morning... Right at the very end of service as we sang the last note to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, it became evident to me that the presence of God was soooooo strong... and I was reminded of His sacrificial love for all of us, His death of the cross and it was just beautiful... I thought to myself, "Amazing Love, how can it be? That you my King would die for me" Awesome... Nobody wanted to leave that place that morning... there was such a stillness... even the worship team and the pastors wondered what to do at the end of service... You should have been there to see it...

Well after that, we packed up... and I went for lunch with Dan, Chang and Yado at Chang's country club... there was this new drink I was trying and it had a cherry in it.. I tried to get it out with a straw, then 2 straws and in the end I spilt the entire drink all over table after my last attempt to get it out with a fork! How embarrassing... Anyways... after eating, we went to Dan's house to work on the props for the "Blessed" evangelistic outreach... Or at least attempted to... haha... I think all of us were tired so we slept most of the time... ok... then we wanted to watch Hitch but all tickets were sold out at Plaza Singapore and Great World City so we went to have dinner in this Japanese restaurant at Grand Copthorne... The food quality was excellent... but the portions couldn't even feed a refugee!!! ok... maybe I'm exaggerating... but the whole bill came up to be $136 or something like that... for 4 people!!! my goodness... anyway.... we went to play pool at Bukit Timah Plaza after dinner... I'm probably like the worst player in pool history... Yado kept snookering me... Dan gave me chances as he foxied the pool balls in... and Chang just cleared the entire table without giving me a chance to hit even one ball... aiyah... but it was good fun... haha...

Ok... so now Saturday comes along and I'm dead tired from Friday... Had to wake up early to teach Hazel and her dad, Victor in the morning... You know what... Saturday didn't even feel like the weekend... it just felt like and extra day you had and you didn't know what to do with it... hee... anyway... Uncle Victor has improved so much since the last time I taught him... he's really hardworking... but I should have guessed as much when I saw that he didn't have enough space to put all his badminton and whatchamightcallit trophies in his cupboards... He had to line them up against the wall all the way up 3 flights of stairs... I think... it's a lot lah... haha... Had fun teaching Hazel too... She can absorb so much stuff and understand things really quickly...

Well, I had lunch there and they kept feeding me with chocolate stuff... chocolate ice cream, cake, chocolate itself... haha... rich... feeling woozy... I was talking to Hazel's mum Natalie too... She was going on about the dance or rather the creative arts ministry in church... and it was shame she hadn't told me sooner if not I would have gotten them to dance at Easter Service the next day... Rev Juliette wanted dancers but they were all involved in "Blessed"... sighz... But Uncle Victor and Auntie Natalie started dancing together as I sat at the dining table... it was so touching to see a couple dance together and have their joy in the Lord... Cute...

Anyway... I had to go to church to help Mei Jian with her songs for the Nanyang JC musical... So they offered me a lift but I said I didn't have to go that early... In the end I got a lift from Hazel... As she was getting changed and all I was talking to her mum... Auntie Natalie told me to try and encourage Hazel to go for this YAM movie at Barker that evening... She told me Hazel hasn't been to a small group since she came back from UK and all so get her into the YAM small group to meet new people and stuff.. haha... oh well... Hazel's parents went shopping after that and I waited for Hazel... Then we talked in the car and I asked her if she was going for the movie... ok cut a long story short... it was more like.. "if you go, I go" sortta thing... so she dropped me a Mei Jian's house and went off shopping...

Mei Jian has a great voice!! If you don't believe me, go hear her sing!! Amazing! Yea.. but her piano was out of tune so it was a bit funny and all... we worked on the 1st opening number and that one got done pretty fast... the inspiration was there... when we finished that... Mei Yen, her sister, popped into the room to say hi... chatted for a bit... ok... after that Mei Jian and I were finding it hard to write the last song so we sortta wrote down a temporary version of it as I had to rush off when Hazel called me... Good thing Mei Jian lives like a 30-second sprint away from church... haha... I said bye to Mei Jian and headed for church...

Okies... met up with Hazel in the lift!!! of all places... haha... we saw Cherene and her boyfriend coming late too as we were walking to Wesley Hall... Actually, all of us weren't that late... the group had just started ice-breakers and stuff... Saw a couple of new faces too... Ok... then the movie was like super long... The Gospel of John... we had more snacks there was well... Mia's muffins were spectacular.... I dunno who she is though haha... anywayz... A lot of them had to leave half way.... Hazel had to meet a friend for dinner... I stayed on and caught up with Yu Chang, Suyin, Cheryl, Melissa, Cherene and got to know 2 new guys Kenneth (Cherene's bf) and Halim (dunno if that's spelt correctly... haha...)

Yea... so we went for dinner at Adam road... had a very fun time there... Fiona called me halfway... said she couldn't make it for the carnival the next day and asked when I was going to learn her favourite song... "God gave me you"... By the way... does anyone have that song? Send me... haha... but Fiona's been busy... oh well... works for me cos now I can play captain's ball on Sunday!!! yay!! whoops... hee.... ok after dinner Melissa sent Cheryl home 1st then dropped me off at Junction 8... Got their numbers and had to delete some numbers from my phone cos it's got no spaces left free... hee... slept at 1145...

Easter Sunday!!! I woke up at 530am!!! So I was contemplating going for sunrise service... Actually took a cab down... and saw that the Concert Hall doors were opened so I started to set up instead... I could hear the service from outside anyways... Ben came after the sunrise service... helped me set up the drums and all and started warming up... he's improved sooo much!!! freaky... hee... next one there was Tow Yong... at around 845... then again... people started to filter in... It was a good thing Wyman was there too... helped with making the overall sound so much better... not that John isn't good at what he does... but with both of them there... they make an invincible team...

The service was good too... Rev Juliette was pleased that we sang "Church on Fire" that day... but I'm more concerned that God was pleased.... She kept asking us to sing it slower hahaha... tricky.... Ben was whack!!! He was having so much fun... Actually all of us were... we didn't wanna stop... We took some photos as well... the whole worship team, choir, pastors and sound crew... Then Chang called me to go for lunch with Dan and Edmund.... Deanne called us from America as Edmund was driving... She was visiting Jess and Yaozhang... Ok... Edmund parked at Great World City but we had lunch opposite at Zion road... The guys had Bak Ku Teh and Rojak... I chose roasted pork rice... I met Auntie Lee Ong and her grandmom there too... Just said hi... didn't talk much... I messaged Alex too and she said she might be coming to watch me play at Raffles Place MRT Coffee Club this Thursday... well, let's see what gives...

After that we went to Dan's house... again... haha... just to chill cos we really didn't know what to do... wanted to watch Spartacus on star movies but all of us ended up sleeping... far as I can remember... haha... when we woke it was 430pm and drumline was on... wasted... only saw bits of it cos we had to go for captain's ball at church at 5pm... Dan's cousin dropped by and we left for games after that...

Captain's ball was quite fun... but I had holes in my socks and was getting blisters... haha... Daniel had to burn his weekend in the office so the jazz outing that night was cancelled... I messaged Marina Xavier too to tell her me and my friends weren't going...

In the end, we had dinner at Adam Road... again (for me at least)... and all of us didn't know what to eat... haha... I went with the roasted pork rice... man... I'm so boring... hee... Was having dinner with Dan, Sandra, Dorcas and Rachel... Edmund, Joo Teng, Chang and Yado came to join us after for a little dessert... same place.. BOOooooring....

Somehow after joining us... the atmosphere became kinda insane!!! Rachel showed us her magic pencil and we were going on about talking sausages and talking gorillas and how to be an African and stuff... haha don't ask... my dessert actually went flying across the table as I said "HI DAN!!!" Fooomm.... and there you go.... little old klutzy me... the whole table burst out laughing... Anyway... I think it all ended a bit too soon... Afterwards... Edmund sent me home with my guitar and amp... Slept like a baby... :)

Hrmm... I finished my essay this morning... the hand-written one... had a tough time trying to cram all the words into one page... I still needa get those transcriptions of scores done, write Nikki a letter and listen to the songs for the Leslie Cheung gig... Mei Jian just messaged me... I think I'll be going to her house tonight... Phew... I'm glad this weekend is over... it's been fantastic journey...

And when I look back at how I was being so confused and indifferent about life on Thursday last week... I begin to realise that there's actually more to life than being so self-absorbed in your own little world and so selfish to think that you've got problems nobody's ever gonna understand.... In fact, I'm thinking of this song right now...

I cast all my cares upon You
I lay all of my burdens down at Your feet
And anytime I don't know what to do
I just cast all my cares upon You

Jesus is my comforter and my friend and when I think about the blessings that He's poured into my life.... things don't seem so bad anymore... You just have to open your eyes to the blessings He has bestowed upon you... family, friends and all those little thangs that make your life more worth living... My life doesn't seem so bad after all...

I thank God for all of you friends in my life...

Seriously...