Sunday, December 26, 2004
A star, a star, dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite!
Man. This has been one heckuva christmas! On Christmas my extended family would typically gather at one of our houses. This year however, we managed to book a villa at the Beaufort hotel.
Skipped mass to help my mom with the turkey and carrying all the stuff to the place. Was planning to thus go today, but more of that later on. Just as we were leaving a poodle wandered into our house and refused to go out until we had to shoo him off. He just stood outside the house and tried to come in ever so often. Had to 'stand guard' at the gate and shoo him off periodically. We could see him shivering so we fed him something and then led him downstairs before parting in a cab. Felt a bit guilty just leaving him around, but what else could we do.
The villa was right posh! Could tell from the moment we stepped in that it wasn't going to be a typical christmas. The pleasure of lazing around, eating and chatting with your cousins can really be amplified in a place like that! Played some bridge, talked a lotta nonsense with the guys, and watched Darren get prematurely tipsy. haha. damn funny guy, Darren is!
Played a lot with Lyon, did a lot of chasing round the room while roaring, and lifting him up and down. hehe, he's getting smarter, naughtier and heavier! :D Vanna's still scared of me, but now she's not scared, actually. More of ... uncomfortable. anyway at least now the sile on her face doesnt fade whenver she sees me. Vanna, incidentally, is my really young cousin. babies are always scared of me for some reason. :(
At around 11 the performance got underway. The whole family gathered in the living room to sing some carols. It all started with aunty Mona singing a rendition of 'Mary did you know' with Mark and Nick accompanying her with their electrics. I was totally blown away by the quality of singing and music! It nearly moved me to tears, seeing as how it was dedicated to two very special people. Sang a few traditional ones, and then, we sang what would henceforth be an olsen classic...The Twelve Days of Christmas! :D Mark and Colin were doing a great job of playing the carols on their electrics while eunice was on the keyboards. Allison Darren the girls and I then led everyone in singing some carols, and we showed off our recently rehearsed( and choreographed, by Darren) dance moves. haha, it put the orientation mass dance to shame!
At midnight the customary hugs and wishes went around. Presents were given out, and we had this mass gift-exchange thingy where I received a candle. bummer. Played some Bridge and Shithead ( they're both card games, mind you! ). Soon after we all headed off for a dip in our own private pool! How cool is that? The water was shivering cold, but after a while we got used to it. It was rare to see my uncles dive and cannonball into the pool like kids, and very amusing indeed! After a while Chris Mark Colin and I were playing that game where someone would sit on another's shoulders in the pool and push the other pair off balance. It was fun, except for the fact that my nose and mouth kept bobbing under water due to the pool's depth. Drank quite a bit of water. Chris Colin and I did a lot of intentionally diving onto my chest and stomach.. enlarging the surface area of the impact with the water and thus maximising pain! haha, it's a bit like a therapeutic massage, really. Played monkey in the pool with a small beach ball too.
Got out of the pool, went for a hot shower, and came out to see the other guy cousins playing twister. It was amazing how they stayed in such awkward positions for so long! Right in the end after much limb-numbing and common sense defying contortions, Darren emerged winner after what must have been an hour! The 'crowd' gathered on the couches however, fell asleep before the end. So for the rest of the early morning there they were sleeping on the couches.
With more than half the family finding a nice place to sleep somewhere, it was mostly the cousins and a few insomniac uncles who chose to stay up all night. Learnt a bit about guitars from colin... and man electric guitars are soooo much easier to play than classical guitars.. However Colin pointed out that it was advisable to start from classicals and then move on.. and I figures I should listen to my cousins when it comes to anything music!
After spending hours fooling around and learning a few songs, the sun started to come up and we all went out to watch it. My head was beginning to feel funny, and it was there that I realised that Caffeine and Alcohol don't go together! I was drinking quite a bit of wine throughout the night and even more coffee... and by the way there was an expresso machine! How cool!
Yeah so once the sun fully came up we went into the pool again. Soon a barely wakened Lyon joined us in the frigid waters of the pool while vanna looked on interestedly by the side. Lyon was practically shivering and chattering his teeth but he refused to come out. Soon a peacock came around, and Uncle Franz engaged in a shouting and calling match with it. haha. He's always been the weirdo and funny one! :D
At eleven it was time to leave but not before we took a huge group picture. After much difficulty getting in and out of eunice's sports car, we reached home where I jumped into bed mrere seconds after stepping in. Didn't even bother unwrapping my presents. That's how tired I was. Right so here I am, Nocturnal! Guess that's what happens when you go to sleep at noon and wake up at 10 pm in the night.That's why I couldn't go for mass. Sigh it 3.40 am now and I'm hardly tired. My body clock's a mess. Anyways, I leave you with a special version of the twelve days of christmas!
The Twelve Days of Christmas
an uncle franz special!
On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
A vibrator without batteries.
On the second day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the third day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the fifth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Five buah kanaks,
four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the sixth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the seventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Seven bras for sewing,
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the eighth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Eight maids a-shaking,
seven bras for sewing,
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the ninth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Nine strippers stripping,
Eight maids-a shaking,
Seven bras for sewing,
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the tenth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Ten balls a-swaying,
Nine strippers stripping,
Eight maids a-shaking,
Seven bras for sewing,
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the eleventh day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Eleven cocks a-peeping,
Ten balls a-swaying,
Nine strippers stripping,
Eight maids a shaking,
Seven bras for sewing,
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve goondoos singing,
Eleven cocks a-peeping,
Ten balls a-swaying,
Nine strippers stripping,
Eight maids a shaking,
Seven bras for sewing,
Six holey panties,
Five buah kanaks,
Four calling girls,
Three freaking ducks,
Two used condoms
and a vibrator without batteries.
Crazy, Crazy family. Crazy, Crazy Christmas! :D
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
[It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah]
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to ya?
There's a blaze of light In every word
It doesn't matter
which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool ya
And even though It all went wrong
I'll stand before
the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I'm still trying to figure out this song. Not sure if I really understand it. The problem about this song is that it's done so many times by so many different people that I'm not sure if these are the original lyrics. There is another set of lyrics to this song. But the only two consistent verses in all versions i've come across are the first two. The David in this song is the biblical King David.. he saw bethseba(had to check the spelling.. lol) bathing on the rooftop and married her by seeing to the death of her husband.
And to think they used the song in Shrek and in the ending part of the last episode of OC. haha seems a little inappropriate but the melody and emotion of the song is so .. intense. Thank goodness I was watching the last episode of OC.. unless I never would have heard this song.
For the record, I only watched that episode of OC cos my sisters hijacked the teevee and I had nothing else to do. =)
Monday, December 20, 2004
O Gabri, le slack Procrastinati ...
Oh dearie me. I am being harassed from all corners... everyone is demanding something from me... well I guess that's what you get from procrastinating and pushing everything to the end...
1) My mum's chasing me to clean and tidy my room
right, she's been harrying me since the start of the holidays. Well today she told me that she was dead serious that she wants me to clean out my room today. The thing is I had just set my mind dead set to clean out my room today. And nothing pisses me more than when someone tells me to do something I already plan to do. Sigh. just one of my quirks. Anyway, IN CASE you are wondering, yes, I am very near to completing Operation healthy living conditions. I'm taking a short break.. that has almost lasted an hour. tsktsk.
2) Sandra Tan is chasing me regarding council stuff
Hoo boy I am kinda screwed for my formation stuff... It's almost the start of the new year and my plans have been... anything but concrete. Thing won't be so bad if her husband wasn't chasing me too...
3) Tan Jek Suan is chasing me for Finale Night thingies.
Hoo Boy the crazy duo are after me. Well I guess it serves me right for not planning in advance. You shall soon discover ( or already have discovered, O astute reader! ) that this shall be a major theme of le blog entry.
4) Adel's chasing me (well, not really) to do my history project
Well, actually, she just gave me a reminder to do it soon.. seeing as how the group would have to come together to do a final conclusion before we hand it up on the first day of school. But horror of horrors, treepti will only be back on like, the 29th.. oh blimey we will be in a bit of a rush
5) No one's chasing me to do my holiday homework
.... and therefore I haven't done a single piece. Sigh. That's one funky chunky stack of maths questions and One history essay (not any normal essay, a superduper essay!) .
Sigh. So depressing. I think I'll go and meditate.
*After meditation*
yaay! Today was such a fun day! The Funnest part of the day was hitting the snooze button approximately 11 times to end up waking 100 minutes ( thats 1 hour and 40 minutes ... ) and turning up late for mass dance practise. Well, at least learnt the new dance that we will be dancing after thriller. Yeah we're doing thriller for mass dance. you know ... michael jackson. Remember? Back in the old days? When he was still black? when he was still a man? ( disclaimer: This may or may not be referring the the child prodigy turned child molester. There are more than one michael jackson in the world you know. although very few who have recorded a song titled thriller. but, i digress ... ). Yea. So that's that. Went to toa payoh to have wanton mee.. the coffeeshop behind ijtp.. I guess for nostalgia's sake. Used to go there often whenever my mom would bring my sister back to school for ballet lessons on saturdays. I think I was feeling very funny and weirdish after reading that book that was lying around in the cac room for ages.. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen. oh wow that's a new record, most number of adelines referred to in one blog post. And don't even get me started on mathew... er never mind.
Weeee so fun. Life is great!
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Funny, I thought I resolved never to type on this sucka again! Well this just shows how fickle I can be. oh well.
I have this strong urge to record down somewhere( and since I type faster than I write, I figures, why not I blog this down? ) whatever happened at the recent Air Hitam Farmland trip. First up, I'd like to state that the only reason I went for this thang was to fulfil some NYAA requirement. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with Malaysia, or the campsite we were at. If you discount the lack of flushing facilities, the huge puchis(flies/insects) , the unreliable water supply, the tendency of the running water to turn yellow-brown(i can only hope that its mud and nothing else!), the crazy blood-starved mosquitoes, the maniacal despotic camp leaders ( haha woops just kidding there!), the sick, morbid(yet hilarious) baby jokes, the over-used tamil phrases ( well, what's done is done, yea? ), the fly-tainted food, etc etc .. the place isn't half bad!
Naw, the trip was quite enjoyable actually. And thank wee kim wee for the nyaa, cos without it i would have only gone overseas once! And that was to pahang anyway... So good on me! My grand total no. of stamps on my passport is a measly two. Damn, I'm rambling!
Right, So we had to go through this pre-trip activity on Ubin. sigh. walk walk walk read map walk a bit more learn something walk walk walk read map walk get lost read map again scold person reading map walk walk walk receive a lecture from someone, walk walk and poof its 5 pm, you're bitten and blood-sucked more times than a goth with a vampire fetish. Yeah. No idea why they made us do that. really.
Air Hitam Farmland Trip!
Day 1
First off, we were dropped off at the foot of gunung lambak where we had lunch at this hotel-like place. After a not so hearty meal lest we puke all the way up and down the hill, we made our way up. The climb up wasnt too bad... only the last 200 metres up was really steep.. like at a 45 degree angle. But when we got up to the top, after a lot of coaxing jean up the slopes, the view was worth it! We could see the surrounding hills and highlands, as well as the farmlands below. It was quite a cool sight to behold. So we were there taking group pics and all. Would have been more enjoyable had that stupid bee not been following me around. It was quite funny though, Donovan would scream and run around anytime me or the bee went anywhere near him. haha. And group pics would be frequently be interrupted by the bee and ensuing screams ( mostly coming from tiff and dono. ha! )
Basket, I thought going down would be the easy part. Turns out it was as treacherous as I could imagine. Put a big klutz at the top of a slippery slope going 500 m downwards with loose rocks et al, and just picture it. Yeah, hardly 5 minutes into our descent I slipped once. I must have slipped and fallen on my butt at least 4 times. And that's not even counting that huge loose rock that I dislodged with my foot. The bloody thing rolled down the slope and missed this girl's head by inches, and then some. All we could do was shout 'incoming!' and watch the thing skip and bounce as everyone scrambled clear. Boy, I really appreciate flat ground now.
So we reached the little hotel thingy at the foot of the hill, and had a tea break. Got back on the bus and took a short ride to the Haiwan research Institute. Apparently it's an institute researching on the relationship between grass and cattle. And they supposedly have a gazillion species of grass growing in that huge-ass farm.. they call it an institute but don't be fooled! A farm is a farm is a farm!
For the rest of the day, we spent our time pitching tents and washing up. Had a little singalong session(courtesy of the ppl from the guitar club) , learnt some campfire songs courtesy of our camp facilitator (or whatever u call it) ramlee. To our surprise, out of nowhere we were split into four further campfire groups and asked to prepare a campfire item for the next day. Went over to Tiff's group from Jonchan's since they had too few people. The discussions over what to do for the item were not good.... and I really should learn how to keep my big mouth shut next time. =)
Had a discussion about Orientation outside the longhouse until they chased us to bed ( or to tent, in this case ) at 1 am. Knew immediately I would have a torrid time sleeping. What can you expect when there are floodlights shining through the tent right onto your face? Somehow I managed to fall asleep.
Day 2
When I woke, the sky was bright, at least on first impression. I was like, oh shit, did i oversleep? turns out it was only 4 o clock and the 'sky' was the stooopid floodlights. Woke up at 7, brushed my teeth, and took a shower. It was cool, wait I mean cold. Who am I kidding, the water was freezing! haha, but i enjoyed it.. It really woke me up, and reminded me of my crazy sji days where I used to shower with the water heater off in the mornings. In retrospect, it was a stupid thing to do cos 15 minutes after coming out of the shower, we were made to do 5bx and had to run around the farm. haha. Had our breakfast, of course while being mercilessly harassed by the puchis.
We were to go kayaking. One thing this little kayaking experience taught me was: appreciate the kayaks back in sg. The kayaks there had like holes on the deck and were infested with puchis. Jean and Tiff's had a huge black spider in it and they spent a good part of the morning screaming and shrieking. Mine and Ivan's had a lizard in it. haha. Well had to change partners after we carried our canoe to the shore. I couldn't fit into the back of the kayak. Had to swap partners and I ended up partnered with Christine. Man, at first we just couldn't go straight. After awhile we figured it out and we were flying! haha we were like the fastest kayak for quite a while. And then after turning back, we lapsed back into our inability to go straight and ended up being the last in. We were almost going in semi circles. was so tired after that. :P
Then we had to build a raft with string and drums. yeah so spent 1 plus hours tying some wooden rods to drums. When we were finally done, I got in to the little pond together with Teresa to help push off Wan nok and Linette who were supposed to power the rafts. Regretted going in instantly. The mud was sucking us under! haha.. it was really sticky and I had to make such an effort just pull my feet out of the mud! When Wan nok and Linette finally got up the raft, it overturned! haha, in the end instead of flipping it over we decided to use the raft upside down. and it actually worked!
We then had our lunch, and this mini telematch thingamajig. My group ( the campfire group ) did the trust fall first. Whoa, I've never done it before and I must admit the feeling is really cool!~ I thought I was going to be damn stiff and nervous and all.. but to my surprise when it came to my turn i just stood up straight and tipped myself backwards.. and after what seemed like quite a long period of time looking up at the sky and falling backwards I felt the simultaneous impact of landing on 10 pairs of arms! Lol. I picked a bad position in the 'chain' of arms, however, somewhere at 3rd or 4th. All those who didnt fall back straight but rather sat down, fell directly onto my arms and Deen's. Ouch. Our next station was some tyre obstacle course with planks... it sort of involved getting across without touchingt he ground, using the planks. I must have fell off 4 or 5 times in total and had to start all over again! ( what a klutz! ). In the end there was quite a cheer ( of relief, nothing else :D ) when I finally completed it. Next station, went over to the horse stable and did some math challenge. was really fulfilling when we finally completed it. Next Station, the raft station. basically we had to raft across the 'pond'( well.. there was a suspicious looking pipe running into it.. sewage pipe? ) without getting a piece of toilet roll wet. We all just stuffed it in our ears. haha. came out a little brown, and not because of the pondwater. :P The Next station was fun.. involved doing some pushups, sit ups and this thing called the elephant where we had to contort our hands in an elephant-fashion and go round in circles around this bottle. And all this was done with a lifejacket and harness on. At this point the guys from the other group would chant "Elephant elephant why is your nose so long? Go!" haha... then we had to climb into the pond, hook the carabena from our harness to a line over the water and pull our way towards the opposite bank. That was the really cool part!. Then with hardly 15 mins left we somehow completed the kayaking section, and got really muddy. After doing some cleaning up, which involved untying some really really wet gross and putrid lengths of string from the raft. Washed up, had dinner.
After dinner we proceeded to the campfire. Sang some songs. Did some embarassing things in front of the fire(more of that to come!). Then it was time for the skit! gross. Up till then we still hadnt really decided what to do. Yeah so we were second up and i proceeded to reallly embarass myself. haha we were so unprepared and for forgetting what i was supposed to do ( hey cant blame me.. we didnt have any rehearsal and i had no clue what was going on!) tiffany called me an asshole so loudly that everyone heard! =) Right. The group that was next was cool. told some really morbid baby jokes. But if you listen to those jokes in a detached and objective fashion, they were actually pretty funny! And of course the confucius jokes section were funny!
Confucius say, he who stand behind car gets exhausted, he who stand in front of car gets tired(Tyre-d)!
Confucius also say, crowded elevator smells different to midgets!
Confucius also say, squirrel who runs up lady's legs will find no nuts!
Confucius also say, man who sleeps with itchy butt will wake with smelly fingers!
Yea. So soon the campfire was put out. Laid some groundsheets and then some of us laid down like a compass needle, head facing north and feet facing south. tan hoe teck gave us an introduction to stargazing. We managed to spot Orion's belt, taurus, pelaides(is that how u spell it? ) and a few others. Was quite cool helping bryan ashley to spot Orion. haha. After the sky got cloudy told a few ghost stories.
Headed to sleep soon. Not before Jonchan Ivan Donovan and I made a pit stop to the toilet. For some reason ivan was peeing with the door open. haha... then halfway thru his business, we noticed a cockroach ( read 'puchi' ) in the corner of the stall. The only thing that kept Ivan from turning around and running away ( imagine the mess that would have created.. haha ) was its dead-ish appearance. But soon after Ivan was done, the puchi, which was on its back, started to flutter its wings.... and then for a split second we froze before someone exclaimed( think it was me) "eh, that means it can FLY!!!" At that the three giants and Dono were running away exclaiming "argh! big puchi!!!" all the way to our tent. Someone should have recorded that down!
Went to sleep, and thank goodness, this time the floodlights were off! Dono went off to SLeep Under The Stars (s.l.u.t.s. ... haha) with the T19 ppl.. so Me Ivan and Minghao had extra room in the tent! Somewhere before we went to sleep Ivan and I had a 'heart to heart' session.. was a bit of a bitch and banter session though, haha. Drifted off to sleep somehow.
Day 3
Woke up the next morning to the good news that there was no morning pt! But funnily enough, I had mosquito bites on my back! the sneaky buggers bit through my shirt! Wicked.....
Right so we had our breakfast, packed up our tents, and we boarded the bus to visit this museum type place... archiving the various forms of wildlife on the farm and showcasing some of the ... 'special rigours' they put their animals, esp the cows and bulls, through. There were like preserved specimens of calves, unborn ones and deformed ones, and stuff like that. Then there were pics showing how they fertilised cows, castrated bulls, etcetc. We even saw an artificial 'devices' used for the reproduction process. I don't get it.. why do they bother castrating bulls and aiding in reproduction? Why don't they just let the cows and bulls get at it? saves so much time, effort, and pain on the bulls' behalf. Saw a cow-milking machine.. reminded me of a joke i heard.. haha. yeah got on the bus, visited a rabbit farm, a goat farm, and a dragon fruit farm. Hopped on the bus and headed for Singapore!
On the bus ride back, I swear the air con was super duper weak and we were all sweating in the bus! Right, some people bought some chewing gum and were trying to hide it well in their bags.. was a bit funny. Halfway across the second link we were making lotsa noise.. we were a little happy to be back hahah. Got through the customs upon which Ivan kissed the ground... a bit drama, but what the hell. I can totally understand his sentiments hahaha. On the bus ride to CJ it started to rain, after three days of no rain over at malaysia. Funny, cos they were warning us that it was going to rain quite a bit. Imagine our elation when we saw the first HDB block at Jurong West. It may sound dumb but it's quite a relief seeing a building more than 4 storeys tall.... for a change.
Soon we reached cjc and dispersed. Well, that was it. An end to a quite fulfilling trip. So fulfilling it somehow got me to blog again. Oh, and it's worth noting that I'm still scratching my puchi bites from the trip. I guess it's the legacy of the farm.
Like how this wise sage put it, "It's gonna be just like The Simple Life!" And thank Paris and Nicole that it wasn't! I wouldn't be thrilled sticking my hand up a cow!! But a pity that Paris and Nicole weren't there though... would have made things slightly more interesting. =)
