Concert day! Amazingly, i was able to sleep very well last night. No frills, no anxiety and panic attacks, no last minute looking at scores hopefully to spot any details that was missed out. In fact, I enjoyed myself as a performer throughout. *cross my heart* This has to be the kick in music performing. So to summarise everything in one word: SHIOK!
Had dingshan to ferry me to Victoria Concert Hall despite not knowing where on earth the building is (the previous concert, I followed the bus mah). Then spend the late morning moving the instruments..huge bulky ones. Thank the Lord for all the helpers (though they all gain 4 ECA points each..hahaha) who help lessen our load and kept us quite fresh before the concert starts.
Initially thot that our ticket sales was bad. But apparently, there was a huge surge of public pple coming to buy the tickets on the actual day. We actually had 90% capacity! Thank the Lord. For the concert, I think our DongNanXiBeiZhong was really good. And our ChuanDeng too. But the one piece that impressed my brothers was the guzheng solo with ensemble. Pretty stressful song, but I had pingan as my buddy! So no scare lor. A fren commented that the NTUCO had a lot of respect for GLQ from the way we performed to him.
A Thank You to GLQ, for showing me the joy of chinese music playing and appreciation.
A Thank You to Huimin for coming and bring her mum along, hoping to be entertained. Hope they are not disappointed.
A Thank You to Danny who came down because I told him there were really alot of efforts put in towards the practices from us.
A Thank You to Terry and Delia for coming even though they had never heard a chinese orchestrate performance before.
A Thank You to Tor whose first sentence,"I feel very inspired after the 2nd half." warms my heart.
A Thank You to David and Liting who bought tickets from me without hesitation as an encouragement. Brother David, i will never forget this.
A Thank You to Pinan for spending so much time to practice with me, and sacrificing the lunch breaks just to shut ourselves inside a tutorial room to train.
A Thank You to the BH guys: jj, jq, yx and jy who came down also.
So guess that's it. Right now, I feel pretty exhausted. But withdrawal symptons may come tomorrow...
Friday, February 13, 2004
11:38 p.m.
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First thing my lemon friend told me when we met during lecture today was this: "Hey, you know today is Friday the 13th?" I was like, "oh, issit?" But she gave me a face as if I am suppose to say something other than that. Anyway, I am not superstitious, so can't bother.
Tomorrow's valentine's day. I would have though Feb 14th to some kind of economic gimmick just to boost retail sales (flowers esp). Some guys were handing out helium ballons at canteen A, with many stalls selling self-made gifts and flowers. Never saw them at all for my first 3 years, maybe I wasn't observant.
Anyway, my valentine for tomorrow shall be my erhu. Just me, myself and erhu, and whoever is lonely enough to go NTUCO for our final practice before the concert on sunday. A sad thing to hear that our ticket sales is quite bad; our songs are rather nice; we put in so much hard work; NTU president coming...so at least must have a sizable, respectable audience right? Last I heard was somewhere in the 20% region. Haiz. Too bad we clash with the SCO performance on saturday night.
Did some practice myself just now, but couldn't continue. Sense alot of impatience within me, so since the practice isn't fruitful and only add to the fustration, might as well rest.
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Blogging is perhaps such a new thing to alot of people that they dun understand what it's really for actually. I blog to keep track of life, keep as history records to read/laugh at them later and to write out some fustrations and feelings.
I write whatever stuff that I dun mind other pple reading. If I mind, i wouldn't bother writing them in the first place. But if you want to ask me, go ahead, I may or may not share. But if i dun want to share, pls dun continue asking.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
11:20 p.m.
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I tried to blog something in chinese, apparently, the page doesn't show up. Oh well.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
11:13 p.m.
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世界真美好， 真的美好。
Yup, that's all.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
01:00 p.m.
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Missed two lectures today because I can't possibly survive with a 2.5 hours of sleep after slogging over my FYP the past few days. Anway, last night was a little different as there was NTUCO practice and a supper meeting with lio and ken.
The CO practice was great, throughly enjoyed it. In fact, GLQ was at his funny best and from where I am, all the players were enjoying the playing and practicing. And of course, that influenced our playing and all I can say is that our Dong-Nan-Xi-Bei-Zhong was not bad at all! Hopefully, we can put up a good show on sunday. Else the efforts the past few weeks will seem a waste.
Monday, February 9, 2004
12:32 a.m.
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Am glad how things are turning out. That it sure takes a considerable effort just to get to know a person. After that comes the part about getting to know a person well, which is the harder one. But then, I am happy, for now~~~ ^_^
Sunday, February 8, 2004
09:25 p.m.
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The God of three generations
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A revelation from the Lord yesterday at service. But first of all, I really missed pastor kwong and seeing him on pulpit again preaching actually brings joy to my heart. Yah, i really do miss him, as a son to his long-away father.
Pastor kwong shared a passage from Exodus 3, about us receiving the blessings through recognising the God of Abraham, the God of Issac and the God of Jacob, in a nutshell.
1) God of Abraham - Finding our destiny. For Abraham was called by God to built a great nation, with descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. That through Abraham, all the other nations will be blessed. And it is also through him, that the work to turn the tide of sin began. That it is not enough to live a holy life (big foundation shake for me) but we must also receive a legacy of bless.
2) God of Issac - To simply delight in our Lord. Basically, what issac did was just to enjoy his father's (Abraham) blessings. A reason given why we sometimes feel so burnt out while doing the ministry work is that we have not been drawing from the Father, and it's all in the flesh. That Issac was the one but not Ishmael because ishmael was birthed through the flesh and thus did not count inside the blessings.
3) God of Jacob - The disciplining, to be a disciple. Jacob wrestle with God and was given a new name, Israel, and through his sons, the 12 tribes of Israel was born. Being a disciple means you chose a life of being an overcomer. (Matt 10:37 ~ 39)
Thus it completes the 3 things we need to do in order to receive that blessings, Destiny, Delight, Discipline.
I am ready today to hear from dan wants us (me) to do/take up. In fact, i was ready to drop some stuff in other to go into ministry, but still had a lot of dying-to-self in that area. So when dan asked me to anchor the dg for the next 3 months, i will just take it up. But this time, may my flesh not be involved, again. Amen.
Saturday, February 7, 2004
01:29 a.m.
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NTUCO concert is on next sunday and I can feel the train hurling to hit us at the performance. Our chun1 jie2 xi4 qu3 still needs plently of tuning. Plus some songs in our concert aren't that well rehearsed yet. Other than that, think Dong1-Nan2-Xi1-Bei3-Zhong1 sounds alright, we still have a week left and 4 practices! =) I don't know about the other non-da-zu songs. Hopefully, they are good.
Been getting pinan to have extra practice sessions with me and coach me 1 on 1. The early meetings before actual practices, the mind-boggling 2 lunch hour sacrifices spend at MPE's tutorial rooms...hehe, looks like all our efforts for the past 1 month are paying dividends.
For some reasons, I volunteered myself for the ensemble song Yu2Zhong1Chang4Wan3 with a guzheng solo. Yah, thot that the extra stage experience will aid me in the long run..B-U-T i didn't know the song is THAT hard for erhu players. And add to the fact that the conductor only want a smaller group of erhu players to perform it. Gosh. (we have fewer players to cover for each other's mistakes) Practically the past week's practice sessions have been diverted solely onto this particular song, at the expense of others. "( The song is really stressful at some parts, you know, the kind where no one else are playing except you.
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Feeling a little jaded. Maybe I tried too hard. But still, not all is lost. =)
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
01:15 a.m.
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Woohoo~~ I am back from the weekend DG retreat cum chalet at changi! Was a great time. Had plenty of food, games and sessions with danny. Plus having the following monday as a public holiday gives more kick while going for the retreat. hahahaha.
This time round, nobody complained that about my sleep-kicking and punching antics. =P Had a few nice photos of the chalet and may put them up here if I can find a way of doing it. And the black and white photos that ken took at my home shld be ready this week. Hopefully, i can share with u all. Or maybe revamp this page, esp the format is more than a year old.
Jus came back from a NTUCO practice. Very late liao hor? Can't be helped. And with practices scheduled for mondays, wednesdays and fridays...gosh. And if BH have practices on thursdays and sundays too...where am i going to find the time for fyp?! Got to meet my supervisor this wed or thurs, really really prayin for the Lord's favor.
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Alrrright! I am one happy chap today. Anyone knows why? Hahahahaha! Took that step finally. ^_^ Haiz, what simple joy, and a simple guy i am. =P
Monday, January 26, 2004
12:35 a.m.
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Thought I had a big breakthrough today, of all days. Was actually going to think that sunday is going to be ordinary and with a CNY mini-performance coming up at night at BHCC, things are going to get..boring?
Was actually starting to think that I must have acted silly, but Ps benny ho's sermon saved the day when I really walk through my thoughts and found some of them, pretty damning. And that affects the self image and confidence.
And thank the Lord today, really, for today turned out to be great. I am really glad. Sometimes, just being able to share about your life with someone and, at the same time, that someone sharing back can be so encouraging, even if you may think it means little to the other person, even if it means tiny short little messages on the HP. For me, it didn't matter. In fact, I was rather lifted by it. But I got maybe just that little bit too enthuse towards the end, haha.. Hope it carries on.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
01:08 a.m.
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I like the way Ps Benny Ho talks about the issue of taming of our tongue. He has this ability to bring new insights into things and bring in a personal touch. =) Yah, plus waiting for Ps Roland to get back to us a meeting time and place for our long awaited supper with the "tripod".
The sky has opened up it's gates the past 2 days. Heavy rains for the whole period (it's still raining now); actually, if you think about it, it -almost always- rain on CNY every year. Could only remember a year when it didn't but that's like the rare one. Can still tahan the cold, but the disgusting thing is that the drains gets flooded and you get roaches crawling out. *shudder* Vile pests. Roaches behind part of the creation plan of God still muddles me. I should pray and ask the Father what He intended for roaches...*more shudder*
Thursday, January 22, 2004
12:15 p.m.
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Some reunion dinner. The portions of food on the table was incredible, just for the two of us. In the end, we could only finish the crabs and prawns, and kept the chicken and duck untouched. Feeling so full after that. =)
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
04:07 p.m.
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2nd round of birthday celebration for lionel late last night at a balestiar Bak-Kuk-Teh coffeeshop. Had a long day with ntuco practice in the evening, but thank the Lord that Lionel happened to be in the vincity to pick me up at ntu. kenny, cheeling and linnet joined in also, so in the end, the group turned out bigger than what was planned.
Linnet insisted on getting a cake for lionel and after a few tries in trying to find us, delivered a box of pandan cake.. Hahaha, can tell you it's quite funny to see a lighted candle on a pandan cake, but whatever. Cheeling bought a nice slice of durian cake for lionel, so that saved the day..hahahaha.
Anyway, got so tired that i decided to skip school today (BAD BOY ME!). Yah, just had lunch and finished spring cleaning my room. Some mess.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
11:47 p.m.
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A stomach bursting CNY steamboat dinner at danny's house for the entire cell group, plus 3 girls from eve's side. (Btw, eve is danny's wifey).
Day began early morning for kenny as he goes to the market to get the meat and ingredients for the lou1hei2. Yah, my afternoon was spend at his house shredding and chopping them. I must say we are quite haooy with our "product", a nice big colorful plate of louhei.
But due to the scarcity of tables, chairs and utensils at danny's rather-new-home, we had to bring over extra sets from kenny's house. Hahaha, like what kenny's mum said, "Piangz, like that might as well come our house and have the steamboat." =P But it was nice just to serve and prepare all the food. ^_^
Celebrated also lionel's and sebas's birthday after the steamboat with a huge cake and presents! With so much fun today, i'm quite sure everyone is going to drag themselves to work and school tomorrow. Poor us.
Thursday, January 15, 2004
12:13 p.m.
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Started the School Of Leaders 1 Course finally last night. Looked at the syllabus for SOL2 and SOL3 on the way out and I was just asking myself why it took us quite long to get to SOL1.
The pastor got me thinking about God's definition of Love, His way. And the session on loving has been very timely. Want to grow deeper into it.
Monday, January 12, 2004
11:52 p.m.
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Have been falling sick so many times lately, I wonder if it's just the weather or is it my body trying to tell me to stop the abusing..haha. Yah, I have been sleeping at 3~4am plus the past 2 weeks trying to rush my fyp programming. I got to take care of my body more. PinAn just remarked that I lost weight and looked quite fragile now..Haiz.
Going to pray, do some QT and then sleep. Even I can't go chionging around all the time.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
01:40 a.m.
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The Lord has provided, exceedingly and abundantly. Family hasn't been doing too well financially and I got to find ways to pay off my last semester, living expenses and at least some money to live off periods until a job is found after graduation. But the Lord has provided, through approved study loan and busary. Been at a loss for words today when i receieved the busary cheque today of 1K, so it's a God given.
2004, a year of change lives and rising up as a faith community. Things are starting to move fast and hoping that every1 in the dg will swing. No more talking, just move.
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
01:05 p.m.
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Some updates on my current wellbeing:
1) Bruised big toe from soccer game on sunday. Toe nail looks like it's going to come out any time. yuk.
2) So busy with fyp. Realised my threshold is 4 hours of programming, mind goes blank totally after that.
3) Took a liking of retro chinese music.
4) Confidence took a double whammy. One from soccer, the other I am still sorting out.
5) Nice neat armani-lookalike haircut. Finally got the hairgel that gives me what I want...after all these years.
Saturday, January 3, 2004
11:56 p.m.
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I took home a revelation from the Lord. Thought there was really a big breakthrough as our pastor shared, in terms of my mindset. Before the year ended, I have been asking the Lord the question about my fruits, or the lack of it. That why there hasn't been new fruits that birth from my life in the year 2003. Why the seeds I have planted with so much effort, wouldn't grow. The Lord gave me a word before this year ended that He promises me 2004 is a year of restoration. So many things have happened since 4 years ago that I couldn't fully comprehend what that mean. But do you know how excited I was when pastor shared, that I knew immediately what it meant. It meant fruitfulness. And I know that whatever's going to happen, it will be exciting times. That I have avail myself to the Lord in 2004: for ministry, for discipling, for gathering of fruits. So I shared that with the DG just now and all of us are gearing up for happening things. To think for the first time really, we could actually catch a glimpse of the vision of G12, the essence heartbeat of it. Am excited. You know the feeling when God’s truth just simply grips you, it will never let go.
Saturday, January 3, 2004
12:21 a.m.
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Lio and i went out for dinner at toapayoh and for the first time, sat at East Coast Coffee-Bean and chat for 2.5 hours straight. Talked primary about lives and the hand of our Lord in the year 2003. Many subjects were brought up, and we had a very good time sharing. Guess its the all time fav past time for guys, to just sit down over a drink and talk. Can be about anything, we can just talk. =)
Thursday, January 1, 2004
12:24 p.m.
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Year 2004 has arrived! Yay! Spend the whole of the evening and new day of 2004 at fort canning where fc's youthnet were there for the countdown and a time of worship, praying and re-delication of our lives for the work of the Lord in the new year.
Actually, my day started at TCT, where I helped move the logistics and goodie bags from bukit merah to fortcanning. Lio and ken impressed me when they manage to squeeze a van-load FULL of goodie bags. Like what they say, "Its an art to be able to do that."
Yah, and during the event, we (the DG) were activated to help distribute the goodie bags and drinks to a crowd of 2000 people? It was really pure joy, being able to work, even more so when you are doing the work of the Lord. Just sweating it out and knowing that the Lord is using you to bless someone else, in many ways, big or little ways, where you may even not know.
We even did area cleaning of the countdown area, our work weren't in vain, cos we did our best in clearing up the trash left behind.
Stayed after that for appreciation time at the steps of the ROM building. Shared our thoughts about each other, how we have all grown in the year 2003, and setting our plans for the up coming theme of 2004, A Year Of Changed Lifes. Looking forward to that; The Lord leads.
