Fast & Furious : The Gangsta

This is a picture of me at the Go-Kart Track at Eagle Ranch PD.

Picture Credits.. Debbie Ng... thank you!
Her b'day present for me :D

Dew Race - The Saga Continues : Monica vs Oli

The final installment at the races.. have fun!!

Crash at the Races!

Watch & Laugh!

Dew Race #2 : Guys Take the Wheel

More Spills & thrills..

Hahahaha!

Dew Race #1

Let the movie speak for itself.. :P ROFL

Dew Crew Retreat 30/4 to 2/5

Over the Labour Day holidays... the Dew Crew had it's annual trip/retreat... we had loads of fun and a reflective time..

I'll blog more with pictures about what happened here and there.. but more importantly.. we had Pastor Mike to share with us from His heart specifically what we as a Service oriented ministry should consider as we continue to serve.. We had altogether 3 sessions.. these were the notes I gathered from the 1st Session.

Do read and drink deep..

Session 1 : Value Systems

Opening prayer:
God has enlisted us, adopted us
And God in your love u brought us in.
Let us consider what is revealed to us. Speak clearly to us.
Let us hear the voice of a loving father. Change our filters and see Him for whom He truly is.

Luke 15 - Prodigal Son
Investigate this parable
We might miss the point about this parable.
We might have worn out the "grass" on this passage. Read from the beginning the passage


There is a structure to chapter 15, pick it out.

My own observation:
Lost Sheep
- what if he lost the 99. what would happen if he came back and 1 more got lost? Never ending story
- how did he ask them to rejoice with him? Extravagantly? Did he have roasted lamb? :P
- did he count the self righteous, unrepentatnt unworthy to be saved

Lost Coin
- How much did she spend on "rejoicing"?
- Does rejoicing require spending?

Lost Son
- Father was equally prodigal/extravagant in his rejoicing

The Sharing:

This was in response to the muttering of the Pharisees
'This man' - making a distinction between themselves and sinners.
What were they saying about Jesus? They could have been implying that Jesus being one of the sinners. As only sinners associate with sinners.

Jesus' response. 3 parables in succession.
What JC was doing in reflection of the Father.
Pharisee's missed what was being shared.

Out of 100, 1 was lost -1% loss
Out of 10, 1 was lost - 10% loss
Out of 2, 1 was lost -50% loss
All rejoicing the rejoicing was done for over the 1 that was found

100 - 10 - 2
Sheep - Coin - Person (Sons)

Rhetorical questions...

Sheep - "Does he not leave the 99" - Implies a condition "Isn't it obvious?"
Coin - "Does she not" - the value is so great that you would expend a great amount of energy


However in the 3rd parable there is No rhetorical question..
Son - BUT JC does not say "Does he not" - JC sets up a twist in the story to setup the Pharisees.

You can recognise the value of sheeps and coins,
But don't you think that the Father can recognise the value of lives.

Paraphrasing it "See you can all rejoice when sheep and coin are found, but you can't rejoice when a person is found"

We forget the value of the individual, the thing/object over the person
We're prone to this due to fallen nature.
We devalue the human things over the material things.
People are still more important.
You rejoice over things, but not over people?

*End of the 1st Lesson * - It has to do with a wrong value system.

Consider the 3rd parable, the Father did not walk to search for the Son.

What are the Differences between these parables.

- Shepherd & woman owns sheep and coin
- Sheep can't find it's way back
- Coin unable to act on it's own to come back


Father has 2 sons, did not own the sons.
Son acted on it's own to come back, because he has ability to come back.
Father was looking out for his son, anticipation for his return, did not go out to search.
Father saw him and ran towards him. The son owned himself, he had to come home on his own.

The Father didn't stop when the son came back, he had MORE!

The elder brother became jealous, compared, refused to celebrate, bitter, evident when he said "This son"

Father's response
- my son, not servant
- you are with me
- all i have is yours, didn't have to be given, it's yours
- let's celebrate

what was the original motivation, the story to the pharisees
?

To reveal the perspective of the pharisees
and correct it to show them who God cared about.

The elder son, like the Pharisees.. needed a correction in their perspective of who they are.
It is
not that the Pharisees were bad guys, they just tried to OBEY the law.
They wanted to obey the law so much they created stricter laws in order not to exceed God's laws. They wanted God to be on their side. So they obey the laws they created so that they could have the good things.

As Christians, we have the possibility to become the elder brother.

Something wrong about the elder brother
- he didn't have the commendable attitude to the younger brother
- didn't have a correct perspective of the father
- while he was there, he never enjoyed any of it.
- so who was sadder?
- "I did all the right things.. now you owe me!
"

Elder bro - not enjoying his RIGHT-ness
Younger bro - enjoying his WRONG-ness

Scarcity Mentality - Even if you less or more.. still a threat to themselves.
Abdundancy Mentality - it's ok no matter what.

Those in service mentality can have this elder bro mentality
"Do more so my father will be pleased with me"

Your standing & position before God has nothing to do with what you do. It's because of who you are.
Do more does not equate to being Loved more


When the pressure is on.. know where your value lies.
YOur value lies in WHO YOU ARE!!!


What would happen if we lost our value by the value of our contribution.
If I were not able to do anything for you Lord, what would you think of me, what would i think of me?
What is my VALUE?

Closing Prayer:

Strive to please Him more than ever, with who I am and not for what I am.
He still loves me more no matter what.
Do not consider our son-ship something to be earned.

Do more out of love.
Don't do more out of commitment to please.
Your value lies in you.
Parable is not for the lost, but also for those who stay.

**END of Session 1*

Singapore : Tales and more eating & leeching..

The 4 Musketeers on top of Mt Faber. Chris was scared into believing that we had to walk about 3km Uphill to the top of Mt Faber. *gullible*

*btw.. Gabe why is your hand on Chris' knee?*

Side Track :
On our way down we saw the famed "Merlion" at the top of Mt Faber. Gabe then became a bit "complain-y" ... he said something to this effect

"This Merlion thing.. is a load of crap.. the government coined up some tall tale about how this Merlion thing came about. Singapore has such a rich history, and they came up with this story. They claimed that the Merlion came about when parameswara (Javan prince who came to Singapore in 1400s) and as he saw the Lion, it jumped into the sea and became a Merlion and has been since guarding the seas around Singapore"

*Merlion is supposed to be a Mermaid Lion* uh duh

So Singaporeans.. do you agree with your fellow Singaporean?



Off we went to Holland Road for dinner at ....





The Dinner Party. We were joined by my former housemate-cum-assistant cell leader, Janice



Janice and me.... hmmm there was a story behind "Janice and me" that someone suspected that we were husband and wife.. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" No can do.. we are so so so different from each other..



Surprises of surprises.. we met a DUMC member at Singapore.. Lionel was there, chatting up a gal.. ;)


While walking back from dinner, we saw Hypnotheraphy, so we asked Chris to be "hypnotised", unfortunately the flash bounced off the roadsigns... but i think the effect is cool. :)



We also met another DUMC Member.. Agnes.. the Guitar enthusiast.. she tried to avoid my camera shots.. heh heh heh.. We went to look for guitars and guitar strings... and look what we found?



Imagine taking this guitar through customs and security :O



Doraemon- guitar? wah lau!!



Back at Gabe's place.. Chris started downloading things from the web for his Nintendo DX... using the free web service... from the neighbours.. *see below* LEECHERS UNITE!! MUAHAHAHHA!!



Ohhh free wi-fi galore.. *grin* ...

Sinkapo Again!

I'll be away in Singapore tomorrow till Friday morning to give training to some of the people at a Subsidiary of my company...

Wonder if it's gonna be tough training them? See you all then...

Mustafa's .. .Sounds Like an Arabian Night's shop

True enough to what it sounded like... Mustaffa's has everything you ever need

from Groceries to Jeweleries to Electronic Goods to Clothes to Cosmetics to Cars and even a Mustafa's Hotel/Motel (in case you get tired)... We did some window shopping etc, I didn't buy anything.. Gabe did go and look for currency exchange rates, Luke and Chris bought some component cables... I just window shopped...

*en route to Mustafa's I caught a candid shot of Gabe*




Then Chris in the foreground of Mustafa's which is open 24 hours



Enroute back to the car we caught the BirdMan of Mustafa




In the moving car we caught 2 more sights of Mustafa's

24 hours Mustafa's



Mustafa Starbucks Cafe?

Singapore : Outeat Outeat & Outeat

We ordered banana leaf rice at Iniavan's for lunch (not too far from Rotan Lane and Foo Chow Methodist Church)
I wonder if the FooChow's like banana leaf rice.. ?




We ordered some chicken, mutton and crabs.. well a bit too much of crabs.. since I don't eat them.. *grin*.. So .. Chris.. out ate all of us.. to much of his dismay.. Watch Chris in action..

Gabe Helps Chris disect the Alien like Crab
While Chris Gives the Crab some Claw Action



Gabe still disecting the Crab (yeah the indian guy eats with fork and spoon.. an embaressment!!!)



And For desert.. Papadams!!

Back to What Happened In Singapore

So after doing the Nintendo Stuff and snapping pix of legoland, we went back to my car. On the way the weather turned nasty all of a sudden, with ash being blown from stuff that was being burnt in old oil drums. The clouds gathered and threatened to rain down on us. We hurried our pace towards my car in order for us to go grab some lunch.

Pix of the weather..





Enroute to lunch these were the funny sights!

Lotsa whippin' goin' on here.. ;)



Only FooChow's admitted? *kidding*

Trapped In the Dungeon of Tower Longshanks: My Rescuer

But... a valiant Knight (Locksmith Eric who works on Sundays).. heard my calls.. (well actually Lord Vader called him, because Lord Vader couldn't open the door)

ha ha ha
My Rescuer next to his trusty steed



Next a series of videos.. of what my rescuer did and what my captors did while I was being rescued

He drills a hole in the door to knock out the lock (note you hear whistling in the background)




Meanwhile the captors are fooling around

Lord SurfGod playing with his (or actually talking & whistling to) Nintendo DS.
While Lord Vader pokes fun and Luke...



More sights of the captors fooling around



In the meantime, Darth PaulOS is being set free.. and rescued.. the lock is broken.. and he runs for freedom.. (note: The Eye in the keyhole)

Trapped In the Dungeon of Tower Longshanks: The Cell & Captor

Pictures of Darth Paul in his cell


This is so that he doesn't stink up the halls of Tower Longshank


A mirror to groom himself


A throne.. most essential



Darth Paul was left to watch people play tennis from his cell view... oh the torment!!
because he loves to play tennis..



The captor




His pleas for mercy to release him were left unheard..

Trapped In the Dungeon of Tower Longshanks: The Tormentor

This is the beginning of a long series of pictures and movies.. please be patient as I upload the necessary


One Sunday morning at Tower Longshanks, the insidious Darth Paul was thrown into the dungeon... and he was tormented by the evil Lord Vader on that very morning...



and his evil minions!!!



In order to squeeze the "truth" out of me, Lord Vader served "truth" serum.. Coffee.. and cheesecake.. this dungeon is not so bad after all ..



to be continued

Interlude to Singapore Roadtrip

In between here and there.. we caught sights of Singapore city.. the Merlion City... *and that's another story*

Check out the following pictures..

oh.. by the way.. all the pictures were shot on Rina's digital camera, Canon Ixus500.. Thank you so much Rina... we hope that you enjoy all these pictures...

1. "Sinkapo Looks More & More Like LegoLand Oledi lar..." ~ paulos



Enter the LegoLand



Cool Gabe in the corner of the pic



Gabe & Chris talking at a junction.. background of LegoLand Flats



Even a church is not spared!!

Another Singapore Roadtrip!!

Chris and I have been planning this trip for a few weeks now, and at last I'm here! In Singapore, to see Gabe before he leaves for further studies in UK.

So, after work on Friday, I packed my bags and drove to Chris' (SurfGod) place. We had earlier arranged to leave at 2am. But we changed our plans to leave at 4pm. So SurfGod, Luke (surfgod's bro) and I tried to sleep at 11pm. I couldn't sleep very well, I don't know why, I prayed to sleep and prayed for my cell members etc etc.. and I still could not sleep until about 1230am. I got up at 330 am and woke the boyz up and left at 4pm promptly.

I drove from Setapak till after the Sg Besi toll, and then I let SurfGod take over, not before stopping at the Mobil station to get some snacks. ha ha ha... He drove all along the highway till Ayer Keroh. We made good time, approximately 1 hour 10 min from Sg Besi toll to Ayer Keroh R&R. Then after a "pit stop" Luke took over the wheels. He drove all the way till the Esso before the Immigration point. Ha ha ha .. so I literally was driven all the way along the highway. We reached the Immigration at about 750pm. After clearing Immigration on both sides (we had to get a new Autopass for my car).. we only reached Gabe's place at 840am, dumped our stuff in his house.. and then we went for breakfast at this place near Bukit Timah, had some Nasi Lemak and Roti Canai.



We then went back to Gabe's place to chill and "leech" of his neighbour's wireless network.

Then .. we again.. went out to Sim Lim to get Luke's Nintendo DS sorted out. It had a "lazy" pixel. .. so in short it was a defect. So we went to get it replaced at Sim Lim Square, but we were directed to go to Middle Road (about 5 min walk) to see the distributor at Fortune Square/Plaza. We trudged along and reached the place and found the office. Got the Nintendo DS replaced, but what was funny was this.. the gal (office administrator-sales person) told us to go to the Computer Fest in Suntec City. She said "Go there lah, got pretty promoter girls with short skirts there!".. I must say that I was shocked. This is one lady speaking about her own gender. Man... she thought we were "cheap"...
But Gabe and I joked "These 2 (SurfGod & Luke) are computer geeks, give them a choice between girls and computer stuff.. they'll choose computer stuff!" ha ha ha ha..

To me.. I think it wasn't something really good for one lady to be speaking about her gender in that manner.

Anyways, we left and walked back to my car parked at Sim Lim Tower.



*Check out.. my first long haul trip with Zeph (trusty grey steed) into Singapore*

*to be continued*

Vacating Tower Longshanks

Early Sunday morning, I was woken up by Gabe as he was preparing to leave for Church at 715am. He told me a few things, of which I only remembered one thing: “Grace’s number is on the table”. I then went back into slumber land for the next 30 minutes. After which I got up. I just messed around with something’s online, chatted with Chris for a while, took a bath and then popped in a CD. Tower Of Power, an excellent band playing Funk and Soul.

I got ready to go to church, gave Grace a call confirmed that she was gonna pick me up at 10 am. She was there on time and we then zoomed off to Gabe’s church, Church of Our Saviour. Not sure where it is, but it’s near Queenstown MRT station.

Got into the church foyer, and Grace met a few of her old friends there and I just stood there taking in my new surroundings. I noticed that there was another church just next door to this church (it was under construction) not even 50 metres away.

*my recollection of this day is running as I am blogging this 2 weeks after*

Well, we got into church, and worship was great and it was Holy Communion Week. I like the way they carry out communion. For me it’s a mix between traditional and New Apostolic Reformed style.

When it came to communion time, the ushers/wardens (as I would call them), would walk up aisle to the back of the church, and start ushering the congregation, row by row to walk forward. At the stage/altar, the congregation would line up in 2 rows. The front row would be waiting with their hands open, and the communion ministers will start distributing the host (the white wafers) to each person, and would recite “Body of Christ”. Then another communion minister will come around with a chalice containing wine (real altar wine) and present it to the person with the host saying “Blood of Christ”. Then we’d dip the host into the wine and then we consume it. The wine was sweet and tasteful, like how I remember it used to be. (Erhem from my Altar Boy days)

After celebration was over, I met up with a few of Gabe’s church friends and his brother Ernest, who’s taller but thinner than Gabe. Ernest plays drums very well, it seems he does session recordings and is able to sight read drum scores. That’s an amazing ability actually.

We then went for lunch (Italian) at a place, I can‘t remember the name. I had lasagna, and shared pizzas with them with some brinjal-cheese salad. They then left me to go about on my own to explore Singapore by myself because Gabe had to work and Grace had some family things to do.

I explored Singapore by myself for the first time, without a map and it was a disaster. I usually function well with a map. I asked some people for directions and all they did was confuse me. I wanted to get to Funan Centre from City Hall but they guided me in the wrong direction. So I ended up walking so far that I found myself near Bugis Station (near Sim Lim tower). I went in there to look for some computer accessories etc. It was labour day and some of the shops were closed. Some of the shop owners were nice, but there was this one guy who gave me “attitude” I had the notion to “pop” him in the face. But, hey… it’s a FINE country and I don’t wanna do that. *grin*

So in the end I couldn’t get what I wanted and wasted the whole afternoon there. Gabe, called and he picked me up in a cab not too far away from Sim Lim (Near our Lady of Lourdes Church)

We then popped by his parents place for dinner. Had a nice chat with his mom and dad. His mom cooks an excellent Chicken Curry and we had “thairu” yoghurt which I don’t usually eat, but it went well with the Briyani rice. It was a very nice visit to Gabe’s parents and dinner. Home-cooked food is so good.

Gabe then took me to Harbour Front so that I could buy my watch. After buying the watch which I am now wearing on my wrist, we then took the MRT back to Clementi (I think) to meet with Mr. Grant Knisely. Grant was a friend I had met over the Chinese New Year Holidays this year. Grant is an American dude from Ohio/Iowa (I forget) who’s come to Singapore to work with teenage kids of expatriate workers in Singapore. This ministry is called Young Life, and Grant (23) is a cool handsome and a man after God’s heart.

It was good to see him again, and then we caught up for some drinks (beer) by Gabe’s poolside. He quickly gave me a DVD called, Hope for Haiti (not Hi Tea), about Hughes Bastien who has successfully started a school in Haiti (in all the political unrest and poverty) for the children. I encourage you all to watch it. It’s a good ministry documentary to encourage us to keep praying for the down and outs. Please let me know if you wanna borrow it. It’s only 52 minutes long. I’ve already screened it at my CG.

We were then joined by David Elliot, another young Kiwi lad who’s lived most of his life in Singapore. He’s also working full time in World Vision, providing help and assistance in starting up exploratory work in different places in this region of SEA, and beyond.

It was good to be surrounded by such men who are involved in God’s work directly, impacting lives. Gabe, Grant and David all belong to this group called Purpose Driven group that meets on Tuesdays to help them on with their lives at work, ministry and personally.

Gabe and I then retired for the night, but not without praying for each other first. I went to sleep that night tired after a long day out in the city. The next Monday, I awoke fresh from my slumber, and after packing and bidding Goodbye to Gabe, I alighted a cab to my bus to head back to PJ. The bus left on the dot at 930am. I met Kim and we had a good talk on the bus, and hope that she’ll call me up sometime so that I can invite her to meet up with some of my church friends in hope that she’ll come to know the Lord someday. My cell members, Sharon and Emily picked me up at Menara Axis, PJ at 3pm and sent me home.

I thus ended my Solo Singapore Roadtrip, which has been thoroughly fruitful, because I got to meet up with Gabe and be really refreshed by a good friendship.

PaulOS Blogging Off

Batam oh Batam..

Dear Blogiary,

Today Gabe and I got up at approximately 815 am. Gabe prepared his famous oatmeal breakfast, melted in a bit of chocolate into the oatmeal, along with some heated up "cucuk kodok" and prepared a hot cuppa Ipoh White Coffee to go with it.

We then left the house @0920 to go see Grace, Gabe's friend ok ok.. girlfriend... sweet gal. We had to after all return her car. So we then drove to our next destination.. Harbour Port... why? We were going to visit Batam Island, Indonesia. We bought our round trip tickets for Singapore-Batam-Singapore, on the spot... for SGD27 each. We then proceeded to make our way to the immigration gates. I decided to purchase a cheap kodak box camera for SGD13.90...

Our water transport vehicle (boat-lah) was due to leave at 1020. So we hustled to our gate to only discover that the boat had not yet arrived. We waited for a few more minutes and then our boat the Asean Raider arrived. We boarded the boat at 1030 and took the open air seats. It was warm but I had hoped that the sea breeze brushing against our faces along the boat ride would be a welcome treat. The boat did not leave until 1055. The boat ride took nearly an hour to reach Batam Island. From there we passed through the customs only to be greeted by a hoarde of taxi drivers. Gabe was trying to point out to me a few CPF bounty hunters. (CPF is like EPF in Malaysia.. and these "bounty" hunters are out to identify pensioners who have withdrawn their CPF to be spent on the oldest profession in the world)... or so Lord Longshank tells me. I did not see any of them but.. as the Rock says.. "It doesn't matter"

We went to the hypermarket across the street to look for some maps of Batam. None were to be found at all. I had to whip out my Bahasa Malaysia with an Indonesian accent to communicate with the locals. Nothing much was to be found at this place. We then took a cab (after some negotiation with the locals) for a price of 25000 Rupiahs (1 SGD = 5760 Rps) .. So the cab ride was ok.. took about 20 minutes to our next destination.. the town called Nagoya. We arrived at a food stall that sold Nasi Padang. Food was nothing great to shout about.. and hence no pic were taken.. the bill came up to 77000 Rps... a rip-off.. the woes of a tourist huh?

Anyways, we walked around town, looking at different stuff looking for maps, a telephone cover for my old 6210.. it's cracked.. badly.. and there was really nothing much to look for.
Gabe bought a Polo shirt and then at 1500 we made our way back to the port.. we had already grown bored of Batam Island.. The taxi ride in this new looking Toyota costs us another 25000 Rps. We went back to the Hypermarket to have another look see before heading back to the port.. ho hum.. bored bored.. exchanged my rupiahs back to SGD.. and then went through the immigration and into the waiting lobby. We were expecting our boat to depart at 1615. Our watches showed.. 1550... and we were just waiting to get back to Singapore.

Then Gabe just prompted me.. "Hey, our tickets doesn't say which boat we're gonna take back. ".. I then took my ticket to the officers in the waiting room.. he looked at me with a "give up" look and said that I need to book a seat on the boat back. And the booking needs to be done at the ticket counter. So Gabe and I ran out of the waiting room, informing the custom officers that we were gonna book our tickets at the counter... We then went to the information booth, and local guy was kind enough to help us to the ticket counter to help us with booking our tickets. We booked our tickets for the 1615 boat ride. So we hurried back through the customs and down to the waiting room, hoping that we wouldn't miss the boat ride. It was 1610. And we were sure we wouldn't miss our boat. And to our relief-dismay, we were informed that the boat had not yet arrived.

So Gabe and I stood around waiting for the boat. Time passed by (1630) and still no sign of the boat.. the Golden Raider.. (what's this a sick episode from Indiana Jones?) So I went to the officers and asked them again.. "Where's the boat?" then they told me.. "The boat has not arrived yet, it will only arrive at 1615..... *Twilight Zone* .. then it dawned on us.. that we were there too early. Batam time is 1 hour behind Singapore. We were looking at our watches and still thinking in terms of Singapore time. AAARGH!! ha ha ha ha

So we sat there at 1640, waiting for our Golden Raider. Gabe was nodding off at this point of time.. poor dude.. The boat only arrived at 1710 and we boarded the boat and took a ride back to Singapore.. it was a relief...

We got back at nearly 1810, passed through a slightly congested immigration. I went to have a quick look at watches. My current Casio (given to me by Kerry in 1997) is getting a bit old and brittle. The price is not that bad.. I got my eye on a couple of watches...

About RM100. Not bad eh?

We then made arrangements to meet Grace at Holland Village. Gabe and I took a cab to Holland Village and agreed to meet at NYDC Cafe and there we were shortly joined by Grace.

I ordered the Potato Salad
Gabe had a pasta
Grace ordered the Chicken Pizza.

The company was so good that I forgot to take pictures of the food... but I did not forget to take pictures when the deserts arrived!!

Grace had the Jedi Mudster
and I had the Cookie Monster Mudpie

*picture to be inserted here!*

I can't remember the composition of either one.. i should've taken it down... but
1. Jedi Mudster ; Maltesers, Macadamia Nuts, Almond Ice cream and some stuff like that
2. Cookie Monster Mudpie ; Oreo Cookie Bits, Chocolate Chips, Almond Ice cream and some stuff like that

I daresay.. better than Swensen's.. well we then went home to Gabe's crib and chilled by watching the movie "Be Cool" (on his new Infocus Projector). We had all in all a great time yesterday..

Am now preparing to go to Gabe's church. Well, Grace is coming to pick me up for the 1000 celebration. Gabe's already gone off to practice and to play at the first celebration @0830.

That's all.. will attempt to blog another interesting day of shopping and adventure..

PaulOS Blogging Off

Blogging on the Bus

Here I am blogging on the bus waiting for the bus to leave for Singapore. Yes! I am going to Singapore for a holiday. A long awaited holiday.. ‘tis a pity none of the roadtrip gang is able to join me on this trip. I really hoped ppl like Chris, Cheryl, Rina, Joanne, Lina, Coolcat, Ivan etc were joining me on this trip.

It’s already 1834 on the clock of this bus, and the bus said that we leave “on time” .. so I left work early and came here way before time hoping that I wouldn’t miss the “plane”. Since aeroline’s tag line is “The Convenient Way To Fly”.

I just called Gabe and he’s gonna pick me up at 2330, at Havelock Road in Singapore. Where that is, I am not sure. I'm seated on the upper deck of this luxurious bus, with ergonomically designed seats, am not sure that it’s totally ergonomic, everbody’s a bit different right? Ha ha!

Anyways, I am now passing by MidValley Megamall at 1856, and I am seated 1 row from the front. Seated in front of me is a lady with her niece/daughter, and they look quite trendy. Next to me is the mother of the child or the aunt of the child. I’m not completely sure of the relationship of this threesome. But they do speak in Hokkien and English that’s as much as I know.

I am typing on my newly acquired notebook, courtesy of my company. Yes! A new notebook, DELL Inspiron 510m, P4 –Mobile 1.6 GHz, 512 MB RAM. 60GB Harddisk, 15.1 Inch Screen. It’s quite sufficient for my purposes. I am suppose to be using this notebook for documentation, quotations, presentations etc etc. How’d I manage to get the company to purchase one of these sweet babies for me? Well, I applied for a transfer from R&D (research and development) to join the.. Sales and Marketing department.

*Message in the bottle – Playing on my earphones*

It would seem odd for a techie person like me to ask for such a transfer. It has been an intense time for me for a period of 2 months (Feb – March), where I sat, walked, ate, slept and dreamt on what my next move would be. Move is the right word.... Move from my comfort zone, to a new job or not to move at all. I was getting down right comfortable and complacent where I was. My work was on par, but I could see it had lack of the zeal that would be expected of a test engineer of my experience. I did notice that I liked the “part time” role which I undertook by assisting in various product demos and presentations.

To make matters even more confusing, along came an offer in late February, for the same type of job, i.e. to test purely a software application. This new job offered a better pay, with a more prestigious location, compared to that of a factory, next to a cake house.

"Oh the trappings of life, how does one wish it was all theirs"… But that’s just an illusion and a lie, that one needs all such things to show that one has succeeded in life. Whilst it’s good to have such things, but once they become an obsession, and overrule all other things, that’s when you have to reassess. I was asked this question by my pastor, “What is your core value?” What is meant by "Core value" here? I believe it is simply the thing or passion that makes you feel alive. What is it that you know you were made for? Don’t get me wrong, doesn’t mean that I’ve completely given up on my career. It’s a serious misconception that when one pursues after things of God that one needs to sacrifice a luxurious and comfortable life. Be assured that God wants us to be successful and prosperous. What does “successful and prosperous” really mean to each person is really found in where God really wants you to be of great impact. The condition is this, keep obeying the Word of the Law. This Word of the Law only comes alive when you are in a living relationship with the Word.

I’ve often time asked myself at this juncture, how am I being impactful where I am?
Some may say that you can only be impactful when you go “full-time” or become a missionary. ‘Tis is not the case or the story. You can be as impactful as you want to be, because we have been created for a purpose. And knowing where you are meant to be is only found when you’re continually being in contact with your manufacturer/maker. So we need to know our source.

So back to me, what is my core value? My core value has always been, to serve God’s people and to nurture them. This is the outcome of my relationship with my Lord and saviour. What I see Him do for me, is what I desire to see Him do for others. Honestly, I do desire what others desire, like, a nice house, luxurious life, a nice car, a studio, a golf club membership etc , but in the pursuit of such things would this take me away from all that God desires for me? In a lot of ways I fear that.

In response to these thoughts and interest of a future career path, I’ve decided to stay in the present company with a change in role of my job function, I now (under probation) hold the post of Technical Sales Engineer which gives me the responsibility to aid and provide technical information for our Sales Executives. Previously, the Sales executives always relied on coming over to R&D department to ask the questions, which would be a good place, however, R&D being the busy department that it is, is unable to help them out all the time. So it’s up to me to keep abreast with all the information that comes out from the maw of R&D. I will also have the responsibility to look up new technologies to be integrated with our current products, recommend these products for implementation etc. I have more freedom to define what I need and want to do. I want to see my company’s product grow into a product that is more competitive than it already is. So I do pray and hope that this decision will lead to greater things, both financially and grow me into a better and more impactful person where I am. Impactful, both to my colleagues and to my company’s business.

Leading cell this year has been a most exciting journey as most of my cell members are persons who have only recently joined cell. This has been a re-birth of my cell group. And for this I thank God almighty for giving new breath to my cell.

This blog entry has become like a personal diary at this juncture, and I wonder if I should even publish it.

It is now 2040 and in that time, I’ve moved from my seat in the upper deck down to the lounge, where the seat is actually more comfortable. There’s a Sony STB K750P Home Theater system and a table and a power point. I’ve been trying to blog while watching a movie, The Animal. This is definitely much better than sitting up in the chair where it’s a bit tough to type etc etc.

Now that the movie is over, I am sitting here with 2 people. They’re friends and they are speaking in Cantonese, of which I don’t understand much. So I’ve plonked on my earphones and continuing to listen Sting as I blog.

Oh, just to note the toilet is damn small. A guy my size can hardly fit into the toilet. They did mention at the “pre flight” that the toilet is for “light use only”. And truly enough, it’s hard to get into the toilet. Maaan! I had to bend my head down so low, I felt like I was a giant.

Anyways, the 2 guys who were originally in the lounge with us came back and we started to watch another movie. Robots! It’ll be good to watch this movie again.

2215.... Rats!! The Robots DVD jammed. Now we’re watching a movie, called VIRUS. It’s got good actors like, Donald Sutherland, Jamie Lee Curtis and William Baldwin. But the movie looks and feels like a B Grade movie.

Now about my lounge mates: The 2 young chaps, whom I believe are about my age, are friends on a holiday, the young lady (just started working 2 weeks ago) is a new acquaintance, the middle age gentleman ( who doesn’t smoke) is a Singaporean who’s on his way back to see his family. During our rest stop at Pagoh, the 2 guys seemed to try to get to know the gal asking her this and that question. Yours truly just remained silent.. ha ha ha… They asked for her card, gave her their card, asked her . where do you hang out blah blah blah.. curious and funny. Did I ever do such things? I know I don’t ever do such things nowadays..

Now I’m just enjoying my mocha made by our “flight” attendant “Fifi”.. yes.. she prepared it by mixing Milo 3 in 1 with a Nescafe 3 in 1. . tastes ok .. but rather sweet.

Oh I forgot to mention that they also served light dinner on this flight. Rice, 2 small pieces of chicken, veggies and some squid in sauce. It was ok-lah.. What’d you expect? This return trip costs me RM140 and I think its worth it. I wouldn’t want to sit in the ergonomically designed seats.. too small for my liking. I’ll sit in the lounge on my trip back…

After getting down and going thru the immigration, I got to talking to lounge travelmates,
Namely the middle aged guy, a Mr Yoong and the young gal, Kim. Found out that Kim and I will be traveling back to KL on the same day. Do pray for an opportunity to evangelise to this young lady.
Found out that Mr Yoong is an avid audiophile. (music equipment junkie)..

Reached at about 0010 and there I saw Gabe waiting for me aside a black Toyota Corolla, belonging to a “friend” of his. It’s so nice of her to lend him the car to fetch me. I’ll get to meet her tomorrow, and probably on Sunday too. Right now, I’m at tower Longshanks tapping onto neighbouring “free” wireless networks and typing out this narrative blog.

And thus I end this blog .. and promise to bore you with another non-descript blog entry about my Single Singapore Roadtrip. PaulOS Blogging Off!!!