A call last night brought disturbing news, someone had been confirmed as a H1N1 case and now I'm stuck at home for a week. Just when I was supposed to start work. As if finding a job this hols wasn't bad enough with the economy and ICT smack in the middle of the hols.

But nothing compares to coming home and finding a letter from NTU, a letter that seals the waiting of many months past, a letter that seals the doom of many months to come. My application to NIE failed...

Just shoot me already

Things gone wrong: 9999
MK: 0

Friday: A visit to the dentist and experienced what is known as a lockjaw. Opened a bit too big and a bit too long and after being told to rinse, I could not close my mouth. Talk about scary. The dentist then had to "wrestle" with my lower jaw, pushing it down and back to get it back into it's socket. In the afternoon went down to NYP to help out in Wee Kok's FYP. They were doing some pilot test on a study of some obscure muscle related to the shoulder. Had to learn how to locate and get a feel of the muscle before they did their test. Had to exert and hold for 4 mins while their machine drew some graph. After 2-3 mins I couldn't quite feel the muscle and was relying on them shouting

"No I'm losing it, MORE IN MORE IN"
"C'mon Matthew pull your shoulder down and in down and in"
"YES YES ok maintain maintain"
"Wah this is a beautiful graph"

Hilarous. And an extremely cold room.

***

Finished a few of Tozer's books. One of many gems:

As long as the Church can sing her great hymns she cannot be defeated; for hymns are theology set to music. Hymns do not create truth, nor even reveal it; they celebrate it. They are the response of the trusting heart to a truth revealed or a fact accomplished. God does it and Man sings it. God speaks and a hymn is the musical echo of His voice.

***

Sunday: Went to Hope church with Keith again. I was really glad I did, the whole service, especially worship, was like finding something that's been lost for very long. In line with Father's Day they had a short skit of a father and his son, followed by preaching by first their senior pastor (who doesn't seem senior in age at all haha) then a teacher from the children ministry.

Monday: Killing spree at Tecman. Went down and was looking at some books and wanted to buy quite a number. But each book was like 25+ and I didn't wanna to spend too much over 50. Tecman card holders get 30% off so I grabbed 3 books and went to ask how much it was to sign up to be a cardholder. Only $3! So the 3 books cost me just slightly over 50 (It was like a buy 2 get 1 free compared to non card holder). All books by A.W. Towzer.

Tuesday: Peter gave some of the ex-NS cell guys a treat at Kuishinbo to celebrate his birthday, but in the end only Kok Sin, Chris and myself could come. Kinda a pity that we didn't really eat much. Oh and its like my 3rd time there in 2 months or so lol!

Wed: Return of the arena with North. Our gear is terribad and he got bursted down quite easily in some games, esp by warriors dropping him somewhat then blowing bladestorm to seal the deal. I should probably consider a more aggresive spec seeing how the games went with north always being the one being focused on. Fun combi though, unsnarable melee putting constant pressure on the healer while a priest stays alive and mana burns when he gets the chance. Fear/cyclone/roots/MC to throw off the dps. Wait for trinket/DS to be blown, get savage roar + rip up and blow berserk burst down and maim the heal ftw. Double dps teams are rocking us cuz we're low on resilience. But one to two weeks more of gear and we should be climbing to more decent ratings! According to pehpeh, Episkey and a feral druid hit 2.4k rating so there's potential for this combi. But if the feral was Nui that makes two exceptional players but its ok North is exceptional and I'll pick my game up as we go!

Desire

There are a lot of things I desire that are yet to be. Nothing that can be done but pursuing and waiting...





Watched night at the museum 2 at Plaza Sing with my sec 1's, don't understand why people said it was bad, I found it funny though. After that we went to the arcade for a bit and it was bball/racing. Cedric proudly announced how man he was after doing a dramatic crash-in-first-5-secs-of-the-game 4th place comeback to 1st .

Service, shortly after worship I wanted to just walk out, but just stayed in the end. Eunice came over to sit next to me midway through service. The hippers will be another group of people I'll really miss... All the talk of healing and people sharing testimonies, I wanted healing for my knee. The wound has been there since Jan 24th, bursting again every now and then, bleeding and drying again but never going away. Tore it again just on friday and while bathing after swimming the floor was a light orange cause of the blood. How so much blood came from a wound that wasn't very big is beyond me. Anyway I just wanted a miracle, a breakthrough, maybe a reason to stay? Eunice prayed for me, when Pastor Jenn made a call near the end of service I went up and Nathania and Zhongguo prayed for me as well, even went up to one of the Bethel guys and asked him to pray for me. Sadly nothing changed, I came expecting 100% but well life goes on...

Clarence passes me a nike desire wristband, Liane whom I haven't seen in quite a while passes me a bottle and a note, just before leaving the hawker Oli passes me a lollipop heh. Before leaving the sanctuary I had promised her I'll be back to visit now and then, and I'll make good my word...

9/6 Tuesday: Went for a swim in the late afternoon before meeting Keith for dinner. For him SSM has partly been repairing a broken telephone line where things have been passed down pretty distorted and most things have been clarified, though some things are still not. I guess we both are looking for the same thing, that there can be preaching of the word accompanied by signs and wonders just like the times in the bible. One to the exclusion of the other is worthless.

10/6 Wednesday: Turn up for pick up was incredible lol. We started as 4 a side then quickly became 7, after that it was 7 with 5 waiting at the side, meaning only the first 2 to make it back to the line after scoring would get to stay. In the end we had 2 playing fields. Totally tired and aching after all the sprinting for discs. After reaching home did some static exercises and was thinking about loving and giving and how they are so often intertwined. Thought about the woman is Luke 21 who gave all she had, and the others who gave out of their abundance. Probably more was given to us at the crucifixion than we could ever fully realise or understand. We often mention John 3:16 as how much God loved us, but I felt like God gave His all as well, the curtain was torn in two and we can come before the Father, the Son carried the cross and atoned for our sins and the Holy Spirit is given to us. It wasn't just a commandment by the Father or an act by the Son, God gave everything.

wed 3/6: caught Terminator Salvation at Cathay with Sean, Daryl and Joel in the afternoon, it was a pretty ok show, not much action and not much of a storyline either heh. Evening it was bball with the old Gessians, Alvin, Teck Seng, John and Felix. Good to be playing again, though it meant I wasn't able to go for pick up.

Good byes are never easy...

30/05/2009 2359: Adidas sundown. The race started off pretty badly for me. In general I wasn't as prepared as previous marathons and in addition I haven't been as rested lately either. Very early into the race my shoulder started aching badly and by the 9km mark I started walking, as opposed to the 21km mark during last year's stan chart. It was pretty discouraging to start walking 12km earlier, but I know that I can't just give up.

Walk, run, walk, run

Finally hit the 21km mark and was heading out of East Coast Park. My shoulder stopped aching somewhere along the way thankfully, but my legs were pretty exhausted as well. Suddenly I was greeted by a very strange sight, we had to cross an overhead bridge. It turned out it wasn't the only one either. We had to cross a total of about four overhead bridges as part of the "Heartland Twist" and "Waterfront Trail" (http://www.sundownmarathon.com/uploads/images/Sundown_Raceroute2.jpg). The 20-30km portion passed pretty quickly.

4a.m.

Two hours to finish before 6. I knew it was impossible to finish faster than last year or to do it under 5h30min but under 6h was still possible if I pushed it. The 30-42km portion felt like the most intense portion of the run, was pushing at abt 7.5-8 min per km. 10 mins after passing the 40km mark I still hadn't seen the 41 km sign. Did my pace drop so drastically so suddenly or did I miss the sign? The end can't be that far since I was already pass the bus terminal. Then someone shouts

300m more! Just up ahead!

One last push and I cross the finish line, it took about 5h42min. Collect my medal, finisher shirt, refreshments and head over to the baggage area. Pick up my bag and head over to where everyone was resting. Took off my shoes, leaned against the railing and relaxed. Back before 6am.

Raced the sunrise...

***

After breakfast and some sleep I headed over to Bukit Merah Central to meet the rest of the secondary one leaders for lunch before we headed to Rachel's place for our cluster gathering. After we had a great time playing Guesstures and Catchphrase, Vic announced to everyone that I would be leaving. When given a few minutes to share it was pretty hard, some of us go way back to when we first joined the p6 segment, some were rather new and I didn't really know them, it was really difficult to say what I'll miss and what I enjoyed during the times yet trying to include everyone.

When everyone took turns to share and affirm me it got pretty heart wrenching. Especially when it came to Vic and Alina, the two people I'm closer to. Vic started all the way back to the time I was in sec1, which is like 10 years ago. He was the one who roped me into serving after NS and post ORD we shared a lot together, HIP and eventually he took over the p6 cluster from Pastor John. He shared about the gifts he received from me and the one we gave him on his birthday this year and how he was surprised when I delivered it right to his doorstep that sunday morning. Alina knew my sister from way back, and was in the same cell as my brother for a period as well. But we never never each other late 07, then it was Timor, leader's advance and starting out in the p6 segment together. Just before NUS started we spent 9 weeks in HIP; all the early mornings, sessions, sharing, planning and running the secondary segment camp. She also helped me get a place in Eusoff as well, the day I moved in asked me if I was free for touch rug. She started to cry as she shared how she'll miss having me around, and Olivia started to cry as well. Sigh, I wish I didn't have to leave, yet I know it's time for me to move on...

Good byes are never easy...