Bak Kut Teh

We had a very late supper tonight at the popular 'Founder Bak Kut Teh Restnt' at Balestier Rd. We patronise the place quite often and would go there late so as to avoid the dinner time queue.

Our regular orders would be the pepperish spare ribs bkt, tang oh chai (not sure the English name for the veg dish), yu tiao and rice. They usually give a generous refill of the tasty bkt soup so we always go home with our stomach filled with the warm pepperish soup. I hope we wouldn't be needing the washroom too often tonight.

Gathering of Old Friends

After church today, we met up with Min, his wife June, Joyce and little Jun for lunch. It has been some years since we last met Min. He is still pretty much the same, except that he now prefers to read in large prints :p

I came to know Min in 1991 at York. Then, I discovered that he and my bro went to the same school and were classmates. Sam knew Min from MSBC and they were both in the mime team. We had the opportunity to travel together to Florida, whitewater rafting trip to Ottawa and some of the YAM camps.

Min is a very humble, simple and helpful guy. I recall those days in my first year at varsity, when I had to write essays for assignments. At that time, I really have little idea of how to use the computer, let alone MS Word. I only vaguely remember playing computer games on a Commodore via Dos program back home. We didn't have email or MSN back then! So I really struggled to write the essay with my weak command of English and at the same time to learn to use the application. Fortunately for me, Min came to the rescue and spent the whole night teaching me to use the PC and construct my essay in Lillian's rented basement. The essay was due the following day. He pretty much helped pull me through the difficult times and taught me some basic computer skills. Now I have him to thank and have put my technical knowledge into good use and could even design my blog. And he has indeed put his patience and teaching gift to good use too :)

We met for lunch at Botak Jones at TP but I had Japanese instead as I had enough of BJ at the Tuas branch near work. We then adjourned to have dessert at Ben & Jerry's at Dempsey Hill. B&J is a pretty cosy and family friendly place to hang out for dessert. The place was packed but we managed to find a comfortable corner.

It was a wonderful time of catching up, and I am glad to have spent a lazy Sunday afternoon with friends. Thank God for blessing us with good old friends. Thank God also for technology to draw us closer. We could now know how the other person is getting along by reading their blog. How I admire the new generation and what they have been blessed with :)

Faithful to the End

On Saturday afternoon we attended a talk entitled 'Faithful to the End' (Book of Daniel) by Rev Dr Gordon Wong.

The first 6 chapters are about Daniel who was blessed for his faithfulness to God. He had deliverance and success on earth. Chapter 7-12 talks about suffering and persecution on earth but being honoured after death.

The message of Daniel for life in a troubled world is to be faithful to the end. Do not miss the woods for the trees. Sometimes the idea of prophecy may be thought of as prediction for the future, when prophecy could just mean Word from God. We should be prepared to face the harsh reality of life on earth, which may be ruled by different types of beasts. These beasts are issues, problems and sufferings. But take courage, as God is in control.

Although I was in a half sleepy state after a long Friday night performance and an early morning rise for the 'Beauty' Workshop, Gordon W's very captivating and interesting session helped me to bring home some important lessons. The lessons are to be faithful to the end as God is in control, and to give glory to God in all that you do.

Come Share this Feast of Love

Last evening, after months of practises VOP performed at yet another concert, this time to raise funds for the St Andrew's Autism Centre. The VCH was about 60% full even though the tickets were all sold out. But it was nice that we have the support of the Archbishop as well as our former DPM and his family.

The choir members were visibly tired from the intense rehersals over the past few weeks, and the rush to the concert after a long day at work. Still, we sang to our hearts' content as we were reminded that it is a time dedicated to worship, not perform. And kudos to Emilia our concert pianist who probably had the most difficult task having to play all the 24 chorales. Luke also accompanied in some of the pieces with his remarkable violin skill. The best moment of the evening was when the audience stood to join in the finale 'How Great Thou Art'. And I love how we ended with the last encore song 'Offertory', my favourite piece.

It was a simple concert with little fanfare. Only a few other volunteers were engaged to help in the event. Apart from singing, Sam was also responsible for the catering. Thank God the caterer arrived just in time to setup for the tea reception meant for the VIPs during intermission. They were half an hour later than the planned delivery time!

VCH does not exactly have a very friendly backstage to house 50+ of us, and we were all exhausted from standing through the night on and off stage. Most of our members are in their 50s and above, so you can imagine the challenges they have to face. As for me, I need to get better shoes! Also, we had to ensure that we drink enough water to clear our throat and at the same time, not drink too much as there are only 2 cubicles in each washroom backstage!

After the concert, some of us headed for supper at Kah Soh at Amoy St and had a great time of fellowship. It was followed by dessert at a Porridge restaurant a few shops down the road when we spotted John and his family on our way home. We finally arrived home around 1 am.

Glad that it is over. And we have again mastered some new chorales and proud to be able to serve in this meaningful manner. Our next project will be for a Christmas cantata in KL this Dec and practise will begin next Sunday. Looking forward to that!

Penang Food

This evening we decided to have dinner out and wandered our way to Penang Kitchen at Coronation Arcade across from the Shell petrol station. The food was surprisingly delicious though a tad expensive for 'hawker style' menu.

For starter we had the Tue special, lor bak - something akin to ngoh hiang but the stuffing is filled with meaty (as opposed to fatty) pork and the condiment is a sweet brown sauce. For the main, Sam had the Penang char kway teow while I had the assam laksa. The thin and flat kway teow was fried with prawns and eggs the Penang style i.e. without dark sweet sauce. The tasty laksa was made with tamarind for its soup base, and filled with mackerel, lots of he-ko (thick sweet prawn paste), mint, pineapple slices and cut red chilli. It was a little spicy but I still gobbled up the whole bowl. The Penang boy has endorsed its authenticity and I couldn't agree more. For drinks we had ice ginger tea and ice nutmeg with lime juice to help with the digestion.

One thing to note is that there is no service charge or GST. Still, our bill came up to $27. Apart from being a restaurant, they also sell condiments and confectioneries from Penang. They may need to improve on the ambiance though, cause the whole place is painted in bright green! Nevertheless, we enjoyed our meal and will probably revisit soon. Boy, am I stuffed!

Offertory

One of the songs we are practising for the upcoming concert is entitled 'Offertory' by John Ness Beck taken from the book of Micah 6:6-8. It meaningfully and simply shows God's basic requirements of us, which is to enact justice, embrace kindness and walk humbly with Him.

'With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
Shall I come before Him with yearling calves?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgressions,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man;
He has shown you what is good
And what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly,
walk humbly with your God'

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the
Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference;
Living one day at a time
Enjoying one moment at a time
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.

~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~

A Simple and Lovely Wedding

This evening we attended a wedding of an old friend, Wendy and her beau Tomas. It was held at Fort Canning Park. It was a simple wedding, with the solemnisation held outdoor on a lawn and a buffet dinner at Raffles House thereafter.

Tomas is Swede and they met in SG. Wendy has since left for Sweden with him in 2003 and has picked up a fair bit of Swedish. She loves to bake and despite her short visit actually made time to bake cookies for the wedding's pre-dinner reception. Tomas, what a lucky chap! :) Wendy reminds me so much of my late Godma...

Well, I was kind of looking forward to the wedding and to meeting the old friends. But at the same time I was feeling kind of jittery not knowing what to expect and how to react. It's been so many years and I do not know why we drifted apart, or rather why I am no longer in their lives. I do miss those days when we hung out at MYF and Sunday School. How I wish that time had stood still.

Now everyone's found a better half, and have families of their own. But I know one thing we have in common is God's love for us, and our kinship in Christ. Thank God for that.

The Meet-Up

It was great to meet up with Carol over the weekend. She loves the outdoors and returned this time to participate in the Ironman70.3 Race. She amazes me with her stamina and strong passion for the outdoors.

There are 3 legs to the Aviva Half Ironman race: the swim (1.9km), bike (90.1km) and run (21.1km). The race started at the East Coast Lagoon with the swimming leg, followed by bike race through the Benjamin Sheares Bridge and 4 laps from Raffles Avenue through the Marina Bay area, back to ECP and Nicoll Highway. For the final leg, the athletes have to run 2 laps from the floating platform at Esplanade to the Padang and round to end of Beach Road (Kallang Basin) and return. In other words, it is a long tiring race which took Carol about 6 hours to complete coming in mid pack.

There was certainly a lot of training and preparation work she had to do to get ready for the race. She exercises daily (swim, jog, bike), watches her diet and acclimatises her body to the heat and perspiration. It really takes a lot of discipline to prepare for such a sport. Apart from Triathlon, she also does Backcountry Skiing, Snowshoeing, Mountaineering, and whatever outdoor adventure you can imagine. Oh, and did I mention that she shaved her head for Canadian Cancer Foundation?! Way to go, Carol!

We had a great time catching up over slice fish bee hoon soup in Chinatown, and drove around to Far East Sq, Dempsey Hill and Clark Quay. And of course, we had to stop for our afternoon tea at Dempsey's PS Cafe (I should get a discount card for being a regular patron!)

Strangely indeed, even though we have been apart for so many years and perhaps not there for the ups and downs of life, we could very comfortably catch up from where we left off. And what's more strange is that I hardly meet up with friends who reside in SG but am more in touch with the those in foreign soil... technology has certainly helped to bridge the gap.

As for those outdoor sports, I don't think I will ever be drawn to take part in them other then golfing, swimming and the occasional hiking, snorkelling and skiing. The thought of running brought back memories of those school days when we had to run marathons and the 2.4 km. Most of those times I had to drag my feet through the race, and was always panting for breath. Getting into these sports would mean being discipline, watching my food intake and regular exercises. I would be contented to start with a simple step just to keep fit :p