Sunday 21 January 2007

23rd Birthday!

It has been such a long time since I have had any spare time to blog! Work has been very hectic, and saying hectic almost seems like a serious understatement. Overnights after overnights really took its toll. Since today is my birthday, I decided to put all things aside, slowly enjoy my day, and at least see-saw it back a bit on the sanity edge.

As it is a Sunday today, I kind of celebrated my 23rd birthday and 1st year re-birth day at church as well. Well just a year ago, I have gotten baptized (thus explaining my re-birth day =D). Though no one explicitly celebrated for me at church, I know that my Lord is happy for me and I could feel him celebrating it for me. =)

When I got home, my mom popped the question, “High tea?” I was like thinking, “Oh yeah sure!” Got myself washed up and together with my parents and brother, we started heading our way there. It was a terrible traffic jam along the way (not to mention the parking lot ordeal), we finally reached Fortuna Hotel (near Bugis).

I was so hungry by the time we got there, I gobbled as much food as I possibly could within that one and a half hours. Here’s the list of things that I ate if I did not remember wrongly:

  • 2 Bowls of Laksa
  • 2 Bowls of Pork Porridge
  • 2 Mini Soon Kway
  • 2 Mini Ou Kway
  • 2 Crystal Dumplings
  • 1 Bowl of Fruits Cocktail
  • 1 Mini Chocolate Brownie
  • 1 Spring roll
  • 1 Glutinous Rice
  • 1 Pork Bun
  • 1 Slice of Crispy Crust Pie
  • 5 Scoops of Chocolate Ice Cream

By the end of the wolfing session, I was so full I could hardly move! It has been really long since I last allowed myself to indulge in food, and it’s quite disturbing actually, that I can feel my tummy again. Of course, I’m not the only one. My mom, dad and bro were satiated too. Gluttony seems to run in our blood all of a sudden. =D

It was near evening by then, and was time to head to Esplanade Theatre. My God-mom, Kamee, has been kind to give my bro and I a treat to watch a performance by The Philharmonic Winds, which was conducted by John Boyd, with special appearance by trumpet player, Dai ZhongHui. She has always told me that watching live orchestra performance is very different from hearing it from a compact disc or computer speakers. I believe that’s the reason why she wants to bring us to this performance.

Though it was not the first time I attended a musical, I must say that today’s event felt very different. It was the first time I entered into Esplanade’s main theatre concert hall, and it looked grand in full splendor. I got seated in one of the best seats that I could possibly wish for, thanks to Kamee and Uncle Dan for booking it way beforehand.

John Boyd is a fantastic conductor. I can see from the way he moves his stick that it was flowing with passion. Dai Zhonghui is a genius with his trumpet. His solo performance of Alexander Arutunian still resonates in my head. The orchestra couldn’t have performed any better. Putting all that together, in the best seats we could have, I believed we all enjoyed it. It was a great performance, and it was rare too, that even my bro enjoyed it (he always enjoyed rock and rap songs).

We headed to Häagen-Dazs right after the musical, and ordered something that I’ve always seen people eat yet never had the chance to taste.

CHOCOLATE FONDUE (Another sin!).

The presentation itself was tantalizing my inner senses. A warm pot of rich, dark Belgian chocolate sets itself in the middle, surrounded by four different flavours of ice-cream balls, chocolate chip cookies, love letters, bread cubes, green apples, bananas and strawberries. Using the fork, I picked up a macadamia ice-cream ball and dipped in the dark chocolate pot, and brought it to my mouth…

WOW! An atomic explosion of taste and richness flowed from my mouth to the rest of my body when the ice-cream entered my mouth. What happened later was as natural as water flows from the river into the ocean. Different assortments and combinations of food dipped in chocolate and almond chips went down that chute of mine and I just could not control!

Though I am at home now, writing this blog, the day's happenings are still generating endorphins in my brain. I really want to thank my family members, Ma, Pa, Kamee, and Bro, and also Uncle Dan, for making me feel special and pampered today.

Extended thanks go to Shu Ling, Yen Lin and Sharon for their birthday wishes via SMSes, and my colleagues Arul and Bijesh for their birthday wishes via gTalk drops.

Tuesday 2 January 2007

New Blog Sites

After a day of tweaking and customisation, I've finally created the following blogs to follow up on my new year resolution. The links to all my blog sites are also located at right pane. You can follow from there. =)

Blog for Our Daily Bread
http://flashmechchristianwalk.blogspot.com

Blog for Learning Language
http://flashmechlanguage.blogspot.com

Monday 1 January 2007

Welcome, 2007!

Being a new year, I decided that since I’ve started blogging, I might as well pen down some new year resolutions.

Blog for Our Daily Bread
Not entirely as what you think that this is. No, I’m not copying the Our Daily Bread text into the blog and posting it as my own. What I intend to do is, spend some time writing my thoughts after reading each entry daily. I believe this will be a good and consistent way to grow in faith in my Lord.

Read the bible in a year
This might be toughest to accomplish, with compliments to my job that is. Haha.. It will be a huge commitment on my part, but still I’ll keep to my Lord, for He makes all things possible.

Blog for Learning Language
Having started to learn Japanese recently, I find that I’m so forgetful. Maybe I’m getting old? I decided that another blog should be maintained, so that after every lesson, I can post up the new words that I had learnt. In this way, I have access to them whenever and wherever I needed them.

Flash Expert Certification
Though I know there’s still a lot for me to learn, I intend to get my expert certification this year. It has been a long term goal for me back in the days of Flash MX, but since I had to go for National Service, that goal waited till today. One variable still remains though, as Adobe announced that Flash 9 will be shipping this year. Guess I have to study even harder then! =P

Japanese Language Qualification
Though it seems lame, but still I hope to get some qualification for the effort I’m putting in to study my Japanese. Still have no idea where and how at this point in time, but well, when the time comes, you will know it from my blog. =)

Well, I’m sure as the new year comes along, there’s still plenty more things that I want to do and accomplish, but let this be my commitment for now.

As the saying goes, “Even if you do not meet your goals in time, you’re never too far behind”.