Embarrassing

Recently I bumped into an old friend whom I have not met in like 8 or 9 years at my workplace. I was on my way to another room when I saw this guy smile at me. I am usually pretty cool about it cos I have seen thousands of patients by now. Probably one of those I have seen before. Next thing I know he calls me by name and by my chinese name. Then I panicked. How did he know my name? I tried very hard to recall who he was but my mind went blank. Then he told me his name. Still, I could not recognise him. Then he proceeded to tell me that he was so and so's husband. Then I suddenly recalled who he was. Then a bigger shocker came cos he looked so different from how I remembered him to be. And before my mind could kick in, my mouth already shot off:' Oh my God, you have put on so much weight!'

There was a silence. Then my 'lightning fast' brain realised the implications of what I just said. Oops. I was embarrassed. I quickly tried to divert the topic. 'How have you been?' Frankly I was not paying any attention to what he said after that. I was still stuck in the 'OMG, you have put on so much weight!' part of the conversation. After a short chat, I quickly excused myself. The worst part is that he is intending to do lasik with us which means that I will see more of him. Eeeks. As much as I do regret for my tactless comment (which came out faster than I knew) I was really surprised at how fat my friend has become. The last I remembered of him, he looked lke the typical athletic type of person. But now,......

Was chatting with my colleague about that incident later in the day and she was telling me that it typically happens to guys after they get married. SCARY! So, to the guys, you better take more pictures before you get married. Those will probably be your glory days. To the gals, do take pictures of your man before you get married. Those pictures will probably be the best it gets. :)

WAKE UP!

Hmmm, managed to find a little spare time to blog this morning. Don't quite kow where to start though. Seem to have a lot of stuff on my mind right now.

Was watching some music videos posted by a student of Berklee in Boston. His name is AJ. I was really impressed with his musical talent. The way he plays the piano. The intricacies that he looks into. Again it started to make me question about what I am doing right now to raise my music abilities. I have slipped into the status quo attitude for my music and I find it difficult to rise above it. Same for my walk before God. I just don't wanna 'rock the boat' so to say. God I need help. The scary part of it is that I know that if I do not start doing anything different from now, next year and the years to come will remain the same. But some how I can't push my flesh beyond what it is now......

Today's Worship

I finally got through today's worship! Okay, sounds like I really dreaded which I did in a sense. No. 1 I had not seriously touched the keyboard for months.
No. 2 I only received the songlist on thursday so effectively I had only 3 days to prepare.
No. 3 There were fast songs with Cm Fm Gm Bb Eb Ab chords in it.
Arrrrrrhhhh.

Yesterday when we had the practice I really panicked man. Thank God for solid guitarists like Thye Peng. He was the one who played the most so I could get away with mininal playing. Whew. Actually he used to play for NCC worship team so he got 'liao' one man.

So the mandarin worship went pretty okay, thank God. Did not destroy the worship which I thought I would have. :) Then came the english one. Thank God it turned out pretty okay as well. My worship leader Daniel was really good. I am always impressed with his ability to take the simple skills that I have and make it sound good overall. Think I need to play more in worship. Gone rusty is really an understatement. I bugged Daniel to teach me keyboard after the session. Hope he can squeeze out time to coach me. That would be great.

Hmmm, so many things to learn, so little time. Hmmm, the conclusion? I just need like a million bucks so that I can quit my job and go full time into music. That would be heaven man. Okay back to reality again. Just take things one step at a time I suppose.

Thank you Lord for watching over my hands today. Really grateful that You pulled me through man......

Photo Edits

Was just playing around with the photo editing of my phone. Quite cool right? Hmmm, I seem to look better without much color!

Father's Thoughts

The father's thoughts,......

Son, I want to give you the best things in life.
I want to give you the toys that I never had.
I want you to enjoy the luxuries I never enjoyed.
I want you to be the envy of all your friends in school.
I want you to have the best education that my parents could never afford.
I want you to live in a mansion that I could only dream about when I was young.

The son's thoughts,......
Dad, I wish you could just spend some time with me.
I wish I could say 'good night' to you before I drift to sleep.
I wish You were there to comfort me when I was down and out.
I wish you would be there to say that you are proud of me when I have done right.
I wish you could make it in time to the dinner table so that we could have a meal together.
I wish you would give me more of your time than more of your money, your presence than presents.

Relaxing day

Thank God for today. A day without much of an agenda, rush or stress. God, I yearn for more of such days. It's been a tough week at work man. Had some stuff gone wrong that caused a fair bit of stress within me. Usually I seldom get overly stressed but I sort of lost it especially during the past 2 days. It's one of those things that would happen sooner or later. Anyway, since it's pretty much over, don't wanna talk bout it......

Went to the gym today, then I went to my dad's place to do some packing for him. That was all! Wow, such a day is rare, really rare. Watched some vcds and managed to practice my dizi as well. This should be the way life is. Think I really should not squeeze too much stuff in a day. Practical wisdom. :)

Music

I was listening to this group called 'Wilson Phillips' a while ago. They were quite popular in the 90's when I was in my teens. I realised one thing. Music does not seem to be outdated with time. The supposed 'older' music seem to sound as good as today's music even though technology has advanced so much more. I compare that to special effects in movies. When I look back at some of the older movies that had special effects that were spectacular for that era and compare it to our era now, I sometimes can't help but chuckle thinking bout it. But I can't seem to say the same for music. Seems that music never gets outdated. Some of the songs that I deem best are from the 90's. Hmmmm, just food for thought.

17 again

Went to watch the movie with some colleagues recently. Must say that I enjoyed it quite a lot. One of my colleagues did not join us cos she was not interested in a 'chick-flick' movie. She was right. It was to a certain extent that kind of a movie. In fact I was joking with a colleague when she commented that the rest of the actors and actresses were not well-known at all. I commented that the main bulk of the money had to go Zac that's why they could not afford to hire any other more popular ones.

As much as the show was focussing a lot of attention on Zac, it was one of those shows that set me thinking a little after watching it. If I could live my life again from 17, would I have lived it differently? Unfortunately the answer was 'yes'.......

1) May have taken a course on finance rather than optometry.

2) Would have spent more time with my poly course mates than working.

3) Would have changed my investment stratedgies.

4) Would not have ancouraged my mum to buy a much bigger than necessary unit when she left my dad.

Well, I suppose that there are always things to regret in life but I still have a life to continue living so its time to look forward instead of backwards. :)

My Labour Day

Had quite a good labour day holiday recently. I actually took the day before off so that I could have a super duper long weekend. Pity that it is on the brink of ending. Anyway, I went over to my sis' place to stay for 2 nights. It was pretty cool. We watched vcds, chatted, went out for supper,...... It's been a long time since I had the luxury to do such things. It actually felt a little strange on my first morning there cos it was a day without much agenda. I did not quite know what I was going to do and had a fair bit of free time on my hands. That felt good. Think I gotta do this more often man.

I enjoy talking to my sis a lot. It's nice to be able to talk about a lot of things and agree on them. I was joking with her that probably me and her were the ones who were picked up from the trash bins cos we both shared philosophies which were quite different from our parents and brother. We used to have this joke that I was the one who was picked up from the trash bin cos my sister never really saw my mum with a big tummy like a pregnant woman and one day my mum just came home with me. Frankly, even if it were true, I couldn't care less now. In fact, it would be nice if my 'original parents' are super rich and one day I get taken back into their family. :) Well, it doesn't hurt to use my imagination once in a while right?

What A Day

Hmmm, I thought that Sundays would usually be the best days in my life. Apparently it is not always so. Had a tough day today. To start it off, I had a hard time waking up cos of the rain last night. But I was on duty so I struggled to grab myself out of bed. Then my buddy in the pa (sound ministry) was late. Then we had issues with a mic that one of the worship leaders. The battery 'died' prematurely. That should not have happened. I made sure that it was sufficiently charged prior to slotting into the mic. Good thing we were near the end of the worship when that happened. So it was not too big an issue. The mandarin service went quite well. Instead of our pastor speaking, we had different so it was quite refreshing. He spoke bout the reasons why people reject accepting Jesus and he rebutted them one by one. Quite interesting.

Next came the English service. That was the tough one. There was an item introducing the children church camp and needed a whole lot more mics than usual. I was totally lost. Good thing my leader was there. She sure made it look like a breeze. I must admit that I was not paying attention to my pastor most of the time. I tried to spend a little time with my friend Enliang who had not been in church for three weeks due to travelling. Then I spent a little time as well with Caile and Macus. Hmmm, seems like I miss everyone.

After church I went for my usual gym session. Not too bad, I managed to increase my weights today for some of my exercises.

Then I headed to my dad's place to settle some stuff for him. Wish I didn't. His fax machine was spoilt and I had a hard time trying to get that dumb machine to work. To be frank, even if the machine was working fine prior, it would have been spoilt by the time I was done with it. I was so pissed with it I started to slam the machine harder and harder as if that would make it work. What made it worse was when I called my dad who is presently in Taiwan. He told me to call them and check with them how to fix it. As if I were so free to do so. As it is, I have been running much arrands for him since he went to Taiwan more than 6 months ago. I was pissed prior to calling and in the midst of the call, I would have loved to slam the phone. I am so glad that he would be returing end of the month. Can't wait to pass him back all his stuff.

Sigh. Thank God I am feeling better now. What a day man. So glad that I am at home now, resting and relaxing. Think I am gonna rest early tonight man,......