This year Chrismas is filled with love.

Christmas Eve - Sat

Starting on the eve, I met up with a group of christians at Mac Res for a run. After the run, we were invited to Fang and Jason's house for lunch prepare by them. This is so special.

In the afternoon, I decided to meet up with my buddy Zach to watch Mission Impossible 4. Turns out he has free tickets and I was the beneficiary. I bought him a drink and we catch up over a drink at Ya Kun.

I'm not sure about the rest of the world. I got back home at 8pm. Spend some time to memorise the lyrics as I am singing with the choir the next morning. And I have to get up at 645am!! Very early for me.

Christmas - Sun

This is a video recording off our performance. It is not the best but we are happy we get together as a choir to sing for God.

Today is Christmas, so nice to have it on Sunday where we meet for service. Almost every year, my church will have a special program such as singing by the choir, musical or performance by the children. This year, Choi formed a choir of 18 members and we prepared 3 songs for the choir. My favourite is Pie Jesu. 

After service, I had lunch with my young teen Dylan, together with Weng Fatt and Jeremy. Compass Point is crowded as usual and we went to Jack's Place for Xmas set lunch. The restaurant is packed but we manage to get a table without much waiting. 

I was glad that I can be a part of these boys life in the young teens ministry. I hope they do well in the new ministry.

Because I have difficulty getting to sleep the night before, I am getting a headache now. After lunch, I have not much energy to do anything. I took a bus home to sleep. I know that if my headache are triggered by lack of sleep, the best remedy is to sleep!! Simple as that. 

Tonight, I'm going to Raymond and Sherlee's house for dinner. Also, I've agreed to help Raymond drill some holes on the walls to fix some shelf. As I walked from Khatib MRT towards their house, I told myself how blessed to have my best friends living so near to me. 

While Sherlee was busy in the kitchen, I interact with the boys in the living room. It's so fun to talk to him and hear them talk in a kiddy way. 

My friend's neighbour are my friends

Just when we were about to serve everything on the table. Someone called me from the corridor. Not expecting that to happen, I was in a slight state of shock. It took me a second to recognise Zoel!! Having sense that I'm shocked, she jokingly ask if I've invited her over for dinner. What was more surprising is that she ask if I've met Sam, our friend from Singapore Poly. I thought I've met the owner of next door unit, but I didn't think I know him until Zoel mention "Rama". Oh, I remember Rama!!! Excited, I went into their house and spoke to Sam (AKA Rama). We chat awhile before I let him go back to cooking and I also have to return to Raymond's house for dinner.

Turns out that Sam married Tiffany. Zoel is bridesmaid at their wedding. Sam and Tiffany are Raymond and Sherlee's new neighbour, and I am Raymond's best man at their wedding. Does it make sense. Doesn't matter, as long as I understand can already.

Boxing Day - Monday
Christmas party with the Young Teens Workers. We had great food and fun award given out. Gift exchange this year was a surprise. I actually received a lot of presents this year. I still don't understand this "buy present during Christmas season thing" But next year I know I will prepare more presents.

Talk about present, I've received a couple of present from Daiso. It make economic sense to get present there since it's only 2 dollars. But then some of these things I'm wondering when will I ever get to use them? Re-gift, anybody?

Met up with the brothers at NS HomeTeam Sembawang for a swim. It's been a long time we hang out by the pool Didn't swim much actually. Well, it's just an excuse to get together. We wanted to play a game of Bang!! together, but FJ has to go for a dinner appointment. With just the 3 of us, we went for dinner and follow by dessert. Hehe.

Halfway thru the night as I was writing this blog, I thought it will be good to go for supper. Zach was available after his appointment at 11pm. Then he picked me up from my house. I had 1 egg prata and 1 plain prata and a packet of hot milo at 12midnight. No wonder some of my friends are saying that I look stout after I came back from Nepal. Stout really sounds nicer than fat. Stout sounds more macho, fat sounds like I've been really lazy lately. Anyway, I'll work hard at getting rid of those excessive fats around my waist. Or as what Jason say, if you can lose the inches around the waist, increase the inches around the chest. Both have the same effect of making the waist appear less "bulgy"

Green Christmas

Christmas is just round the corner, but are you already experiencing party-fatigue? What is party-fatigue? It is a condition develop during the year end period due to over-involvement in planning for parties, preparing for parties and attending parties. Companies having dinners, ex-school mates having dinners, blah blah blah. And that's not all, you still have the new year eve party!!! My goodness, when is this all going to end?

Anyway, I found the antidote to party-fatigue and that is to travel. When you can't attend the party, you also skip the planning and preparation part of it.

It will be a green Christmas for me. I'm going to spend my Christmas weekend and a couple days after that in the National Park of west Malaysia. After 2-3days in the forest walking the canopy walk, shooting the rapids on the river, relaxing by the waterfall, trekking in the forest. We will then adjourn to the highlands in Cameron. Imagine strawberry picking, strawberry cake, strawberry jam, strawberry cookie, strawberry candy, and everything strawberry. Yes, I going to indulge in strawberrying. And then there's the tea plantation. And OH, I heard there are some trekking trails in Cameron too. Hmmm... Sounds good? See, I told you it's a green Christmas (though strawberry are pink/red, the leaves are green too).

December December...

It's the time of the year again. Party, indulgence, travel, senseless spending. Who cares about the real meaning of Christmas? In fact, who really cares about other celebration as well. We only care that it's a public holiday- Get a day off from work, free parking at HDB, sleep in till 12 noon, late night party on the eve.

A lot of people say that Christmas is a time of giving and sharing. I'm just thinking aloud. Where did that come from? It is biblical? Or is it from the mall and retailers. Here's my take. I believe that this "Christmas is a time of giving and sharing" comes from anyone and anywhere EXCEPT the bible.

First of all, Christmas is a day set by man. No one could tell specifically when was Jesus' birthday. It was a guess, not a fact. Jesus' birthday was nowhere to be found in the bible.

2ndly, why is giving and sharing restricted to the time of the year only. The bible didn't specify we need to be giving and sharing at a certain time of the year. If that is the case? What would be the 'theme' of Jan? Saving? Feb...Sacrificial love? March...Fasting?

Christmas is now celebrated by the world, christian and non-christian alike. Non-Christian make no reservation in the way they splurge on Christmas party, and in a totally secular manner. Santa Clause, Rudolf the deer, Christmas lighting has got nothing to do with the bible.

The retailers do all they can to make as much money as possible. According to reports, about 30-40% of annual profit comes from this period. The figure could be higher. Even at 30%, it's a pretty good time to milk the consumers of their money.

You might have notice my lamenting tone. Yes, I am complaining. Because as I Christian, I don't think I am celebrating Christmas (or preparing for the upcoming events) in the most meaningful way. I don't mind if we do away with all the party, good food and games. How about something meaningful and close to the real theme of commemorating the birth of Jesus?

Though I lament, I don't have a solution. But I think I want to go along the line of serving others and the community during this season. I was fortunately enough to sing at the Mount Alvernia Assisi Hospice last week. We sang 5-7 songs for the hospital and the patient. According to Raymond, this would be the last Christmas for some of the patients.

I'm already planning to come back next year. To me this is more meaningful than parties and get together. On the 21st Dec, we're going round the wards to sing to the patient. I hope our singing are music to their ears.

Next year, I want to contribute more. I could visit a orphanage or old folks home. Remind me next dec.

Christmas long weekend

Keeping awake throughout the night has not been my favorite thing. In fact, the main factor why I don’t like working in the maintenance industry is that I have to work shift, which would also translate to working past midnight and sometimes as late as crawling into my bed at 4am.

Over the Christmas holiday, I surprised myself by staying awake on the 24th and 25th of Dec. It wasn’t by circumstance, but rather it was by choice. Maybe I was trying to convince myself that though I am past 30, I could still do the things I used to do 10 years ago?

I was invited by my good brother Zach to join him for Christmas Countdown Party at Sentosa Tanjong Beach. And I was informed that the party would carry on till the morning of 25th Dec.

On the 24th of Dec, I rang up FJ and Dionne hoping to get some time with them as they had left for honeymoon on the 11th. To my surprise, they are going to the countdown party too. To top it of, they are bringing almost all their trekking gears as they plan to camp overnight at the beach. Now, there is really no way I can find an excuse not to be there. I was rather glad that they are going, and so we drive to Sentosa in my sister’s car.

We were the first few to get there. I put on my running gears and went for a run along the beach. FJ went for a swim in the sea. Dionne found 2 coconut trees to tie my hammock for a nap. I joined FJ for the swim after I did 30 mins of run.

The sun has set but the food are not here yet, we were getting hungry. We need the food to arrive soon or we need some good distraction or resort to cannibalization.

Caroling by the beach
Gigi turned on her singing talent and lead some of us in Christmas Caroling. I suspected we have created history by staging the best ever outdoor Christmas caroling since the time of Pulau Blakang Mati (as Sentosa is previously known.) The singing was in pitch-perfect 4-parts harmony, as the professional singer belted out the tune without any reservation. Gigi does her wonder by her jazz interpretation of Let It Snow, complete with synchronized moves.

Not to mention that the performance was enhanced by technology. Instead of having song sheets, we have the words on iPhone. As we could access the Internet via iPhone, we can take song dedication from the audience. Gigi read out the words for us. We make sure that no paper is wasted in printing of song sheets.

When it comes to 12 Days of Christmas, Gigi lead the audience to participant in the singing. At the climax, the food and the rest of the gang showed up, and so the singing stops naturally.

Dinner was prepared with love by Jennifer and Samantha. Great job girls!!! Dinner was great, but my very Asian tongue was craving for Bee Hoon and Chicken wings. So pardon me for not raving about the food.

The rest of the night were filled with activities- photo taking, light stix fashion competition, sparklers, card games, cycling, toilet visiting and more.

By 4am, I have to sleep. I grabbed my hammock and chose 2 coconut trees near the beach and a distance from the group. It was a great spot on the beach. It was an almost cloudless night. I put on my shirt after 5mins; the land breeze was quite chilly. Luckily, I have my fleece jacket with me; I almost left it in the car.

So deep in sleep was I that Justin had to wake in up at 0730hrs. The glaring sun shocked me for a moment. What a wonderful feeling to wake up to the sun, sand and sea on the Christmas morning.

25th Dec
1500hrs- Drove to Macritchie for a run. Met up with Hancong for dinner before heading to church for Christmas service. This is the first time in my life that I’m attending service on Christmas day.

After service, we head down to Upp Thomson for supper. That’s not the end of the program for the day. I’ve invited brothers over to my place for a night of BANG!!! Bernard, Hancong and Zach are with me. Victor, Kong Hong and Jeffrey will be meeting us at my place.

We had a show and tell session. I receive a new shirt from a sister. It fits well on me. FJ and Dionne gave Zach a very interesting T-shirt from Japan that has a Sumo wrestler on it. There were plenty of snacks to go around while we play BANG!!! Victor brought some corns for popping. A few mins in the microwave and BING!! We have butter coated popcorn fresh from the microwave.

BANG!!!
I’ve mention about BANG!! on a few occasion, but do you know what is it about? OK. It’s a card game set in the wild wild west and all the players are cowboys. Sheriff keeps the town safe, his deputy supports him. The outlaws are there to create havoc and to kill the Sheriff and his deputy. Lastly, the renegade wants everyone dead, but with a catch. He has to kill the Sheriff himself (and all the other players are dead). All players’ identities are kept secret, except for the Sheriff himself. However during the game, you can claim to be anyone. You identity will be revealed when another player kills you.

Being in the company of brothers and good friend is a great feeling. We were doing what we like to do as men- competing with each other. Sometimes the atmosphere can be quite tensed. In one of the game, I was the renegade, all Outlaw were dead. I was trying to win the trust of Sheriff Bernard by acting as a deputy, at the same time casting one of the real deputies as the renegade. Everyone started to doubt each other, I have to play the mind game and play my cards right. At one point I was the suspected renegade, then the tide turn and deputy Victor starts to shoot deputy Zach. Deputy Zach retaliated. I’ve won over the trust of Deputy Zach. Deputy Victor is unsure, he was alternating his attacks Deputy Zach and I(which further cast him as the desperate renegade trying to keep himself alive). Finally, deputy victor made his last bet amidst of all this confusion. You can tell by the look of his face that he is in agony over who to believe. I got killed and the game ended. But boy, it was so tensed! I almost took out my real pistol from my room. (ok, I don’t have one. Just joking)

Once the game was over, we were back to friends again. No hard feelings. Though we enjoy the moment when we were competing and killing each other.

We got hungry and went to the 24-hrs McDonald’s beside Admiralty MRT. We chatted for a while over drinks and nuggets. It wasn’t long before the excitement of the game calls us back for more killing. By 0600hr, the shooting spree is over and the brothers left for their home by train.

26th Dec
0700hrs. it was actually 1 hour ago that I lay down my head on my pillow. I have to get out of my bed. I’ve arranged to meet Charles at Bishan MRT to bring him to Macritchie Reservoir for our regular Sat morning run. Raymond was supposed to be there but he didn’t show up.

At noon, I finally got back home for some rest.

1700hrs. I was awake but not sure what to do. Mom wants a ride to dinner and so I agree. Today is Jasmine’s (my younger sis) birthday and I wrote her a card. Since she’ll be with Dave at the bicycle shop, I went over to see their newly opened bicycle shop just across the road from Sembawang MRT (HDB office). Business was good on that Sat evening. I’m happy for them.

Jocelyn and Kim dropped by around 8pm and we went to the nearby coffeeshop for dinner.

I think I am overdosed from activities over the weekend. I'm planning to bring it down a few notches over the New Year weekend.

My last weekend of 2007

My Christmas was boring. Everything restaurant and mall are closed for business. Christmas is a time for the Canadians to hibernate at home with their family. Kind of like Chinese family having reunion dinner during Chinese New Year. True, I agree that family need to spend time together. Especially for the whites, most of them moved out of their parents house before they hit 20. But one thing I don't understand is that why close everything? Family time can also be like going to a nice restaurant for dinner etc.

So to compensate for my miserable hibernating Christmas, I had a wonderful weekend at Vancouver. I felt privilege to be invited by Mike and Ivy to the place over the weekend. Let me tell you the highlights of my weekend.

28th Dec

MEC
I took the afternoon bus from Chilliwack to Vancouver. I got there at 430 pm and headed to Mountain Equipment Co-op to see if there's any year end promotion going on. If if there isn't, I still love to go to MEC. The store is gigantic, as huge as the total floor area of Causeway Point Foodcourt on the 5th level. MEC has almost every outdoor gear that you can think of- trekking, biking, climbing, snowboard/ski, kayak and more. It's an adrenaline-rush experience being in the store, looking at all the cool gears and stuff. www.mec.ca

Laksa for dinner
Yap, Ivy prepares Laksa for dinner. It was tasty, yum yum. The 3 of us had a great time chatting over dinner. Mike and I also plan a trip to the mountain to try out snowboarding.

29th Dec

Snowboarding
I like snowboarding even though I've never done that before. Showboarding has some similarity to skateboarding and surfing. The learning curve for snowboarding is rather steep, unlike skiing. Most people can almost maennourver on their ski within much coaching or help on their first try. We signed up with the drop-in lesson. It's a 2 hours lesson starting at 10am. For 100CAD, I think it's money well spend. That includes area pass, rental of equipment and the 2 hours lesson.
It's hard to describe my snowboarding experience. All I can say is I enjoyed it a lot. The snowboarding season is open from Nov to late feb. If I stay in Vancouver, I would really consider taking up snowboarding. It's only 45 mins drive from Vancouver. And that's the amazing part of staying in Vancouver.

Hotpot AKA steamboat
We gather at a sister's place for steamboat. Same concept as what we have in Singapore. Raw meat, fishball, noodles, vege, golden mushroom. All you need to to dump everything into the boiling soup. 1 thing different is they don't drink the soup. We scoop the food from the soup and dipped it in some traditional Taiwanese sauce. A little bit like 虾米辣 (in hokkien)

In the house, there is a room for pool and table tennis. No I am not kidding you, the house is big enough for a pool room. Mike and I had a good game of table tennis.

30th Dec

House church at Andrew Nyugen's place
Church service is not at the usual Justice Institude of BC, so we meet at Andrew's place. Again, a big and beautiful house. On the 3rd floor, there is a view of Fraser River and overlooking the city. It's hard not to adore Vancouver.

After service, I went to Mike and Ivy's place for lunch. I wanted to get back to Chilliwack early so I took the 230pm bus. On the way I was entertained by Hindi songs played on 93.1. Yah, I am a fan of Hindi pop.

"I'll be home for Christmas"

No, I am not coming home for Christmas this year just like last year. I was in Hong Kong spending Christmas with the Hong Kong Church.

I'll Be Home For Christmas is one of my favorite Christmas song. However, listening to this song and knowing that I will not be going home for Christmas leaves a bitter-sweet feeling in my heart.

亚丁 Ya Ding

-4 Degree

I'm thirsty but the tube of my Camelbak had frozen. i tried sucking hard to no avail. I also try warming the tube with my hands. It works.

Walking on snow really gets me excited. Xueshan was quite mild in comparison. In the last few days, we saw snow everywhere-on the mountain, on the rock, on the stream, on the grass we walk, on the trees and on its leaves. It's truly a white Christmas. I know, if you are living in the northern part of Norway you'll probably think that I am making a fuss. The island I call home is only 2 degree north of the equator. It's sunny all year round. Almost, except for this time of the year due to the monsoon rain.

There's always something new to learn in the wild. I learn that the snow melts and become ice. Logically, I should have know that walking on ice is not the same as walking on dirt until I saw Ben slipped and fell.

The other 2 brothers trusted me to lead. Because of the ice, we had to make a couple of small detour. On occasion, if the ice covering the ground is level,we still try to walk on it with caution.

30mins into DaoCheng Yading, we were very surprise to see someone coming down. Geng was alone and we found out that he came from the other side of the mountain in Yunnan. He left a good impression-solo traveller trekking for 6 days. He share a little on his trip. At a certain stretch, the snow were piling so high,even above his knees. He thought he couldn't get out already.

At 1600hrs, we get back to where we started. I saw a man in yellow windbreaker. Not a common color for the locals. Alvin told me it's the same guy we bump into earlier. When he got to the starting point, he couldn't get a transport out. Our nice driver offer to give him a ride out. While we were in the car, something inside me told me to grab this opportunity to get to know this guy. Someone who loves outdoor and knows China wilderness well. I love trekking but not those type that are commercialise by the authority.I love non-commercialise kind of trek. It's one of the beauty of the wild where things are primitive and back to the basic.

I get to talk to him in private when we got back to the hotel. Geng told me he's taking a break from work until CNY on 17 Feb 2006. I was hoping that I can meet him in Kunming. We might be able to arrange some trekking trips near Yunnan, maybe a weeks trek.

White Christmas

Hai Luo Gou, originally uploaded by Jerry Tok.

This is the white Christmas I am talking about. Pictures taken all seems to be in mono.

Xmas party

Xmas party, originally uploaded by Jerry Tok.

This brother Ryan is an avid jogger. He's sign up in the Standard Charter marathon in Hong Kong on Mar 2007. I invited him to Singapore to run the Standard Charter marathon in SIngapore on Dec 2007. In return, we'll run the marathon again in mar 2008.

Flying to Chengdu on Christmas

I'm going to have a white Christmas this year. Alvin Lo and Ben (from the brother's household in HK) will be flying to Chengdu too. Prior to my visit to HK, both of them are in the midst of preparing to visit the so-call Shangri La in Sichuan. God arrange for us to meet each other. Now I have travelling companion to China for 2 weeks at least.

We are visiting this place call Yading (亚丁）It is over 5000mt. Confirm snowing ah...

Btw, in case your geograghy very lousy, let me explain. Yading and Chengdu are town/city in Sichuan, one of the province in mainland China. Sichuan is a place famous for Jiuzaigou (九寨沟）and Si Gu Niang Shan (四姑娘山).