well, this one's long overdue. went on superstar virgo for cruise on 18-21 dec. it was ok. not the best holiday but still...not one where i'm expected to learn or win something back. no photos here cos i didn't take many nice ones. sorry. the ship was really something. btw, my first time on a cruise. well, it took some getting used to. could feel vibrations all the time from the engine/movement of the ship. me shared a room with ah ma and popo. well, let's say, no comment about it. slept on a sofa bed. it was horrible. the thingy was so narrow and small and thin. could feel every single wire through the mattress. it was so narrow that it was impossible to shift position at all without falling out. darn. so you can expect that i racked up a HUGE sleep debt. and the longest time ever without my specs. yup, i forgot to pack my specs and had to wear my contacts for forever. first night, had karaoke (damn expensive) and watched "hitch". no stars out. dark night.
second day, arrival at penang. breakfast at bella vista had mixed reactions. on one hand, the food was good. on the other hand, the restaurant on a kinda low deck, i could feel every little movement that the ship did. ;p stoned on the balcony for a while. then, took the lifeboat (aka tender boat) out to shore. it was ok until the boat entered the jetty. rocking like heck. and so stuffy. so darn seasick. parents had signed up for shopping trip in penang. erm...well...i don't remember much of it. cos shopping is darn boring to me. oh ya, i bought my choir's black strappy heels. and there was a police raid on illegal vcd shop while we were in the shopping center. woah. first time i saw a raid. all the vcd shops suddenly closed as the warning spread that police were raiding. yup. the tender back wasn't too bad cos got some idea of what to expect liao. got back, was supposed to watch some kungfu show, but decided against cos wanted to go to the "beyond broadway". it was so worth it. the guy that sang "memory" was so good! pity my recording wasn't good enough. but it was such an enjoyable show.
third day, arrival at phuket in time for sunrise. so beautiful. ok, can't resist putting photo here.
patong beach is just the most beautiful beach i ever saw. so sad that it was the site of the tsunami last year. anyway, went on the shopping tour again. got a sting ray skin pouch. i don't think i'm gonna use it for anything specific but it's the only souvenior i got from there. know why? cos the tour ppl cheated us. took us to totally useless places to shop. and the guide tried to teach us how to bargain in thai, but she just made things worse cos the shopkeepers obviously didn't want to trade with asians. they were targetting angmohs. ya, so i just got some necklaces for the church ppl and that's that. the food was not bad though. :D that night was the gala dinner. dress up nice and all. parents booked bella vista for the dinner (to my dismay). the dinner was nice but the ship was moving so the restaurant was kinda 'moving' too. and to me, it's very sea sick causing. so me didn't enjoy dinner as much as i would have liked. watched "charlie and the chocolate factory". which was darn boring cos it was my 2nd time watching it. and i was bored the first time already. so why watch it again? cos dad didn't watch it before and cos it's free.
last day, back home! yay! i had traded beds with andrew cos he had the king size sofa bed and i desperately needed sleep. was ok i guess. not much happened. hmm...oh ya, had a huge chocolate icecream concoction at gelato cafe. ran through my carols (without much success i must add). stoned in the room for a long time. shiok. yup, anyway, back to singapore and i got sick at home. for some reason, once i got home and settled down to sleep, i got really really dizzy and had to go throw up. maybe i got used to being at sea, so being on solid ground kinda threw my internal system off balance. whatever. wanna go cruise again. maybe the one to alaska. haha!
moving on. recently i put a shoutout about not reading other people's blogs if you're depressed. well, in response to a comment i had, no, i wasn't specifically arrowing a specific someone's blog. it's just that, on that day, there was bad news all over the blogs that i read. death, arguments, sicknesses, bitching, etc etc. it was just depressing lah.
other stuff. christmas time. well, it doesn't feel anything like christmas. sadly. i feel like that girl in "how the grinch stole christmas": "where are you christmas? why can't i find you?" the whole shebang this year feels so much like a chore. so busy this year. no time to do much christmas stuff. the most christmassy thing i've done (i think) is listen to christmas carol cds instead of the radio. ya well, not much to say on the subject. another christmas come and gone just like any other holiday in the year.
went for 'christmas party' with LC this year. well, it was ok. dragged on for an hour after i had planned to leave but what to do? some folks went for the midnight mass (reporting that it wasn't exactly up to midnight mass standard). haha! hope fr khoo realised his 'mistake'. anyway, the cab back cos $5.95 (including surcharge). maybe we should have walked back at 2am. it would have been much healthier and cheaper. family 'celebration' when we got back. finally got to go to bed at 3am. pimple outbreak sia.
woke up 4 hours later to get ready for mass. sobsob. want to sleep. mass wasn't too bad i think. my first conducting stint. :D :D :D i think it went better than i was prepared for. yay! randall's psalm wasn't too bad, considering the drinking that went on the night before. and the stupid mix up of dawn and day mass. and btw, no i didn't practice at home. it's called beginner's luck. ;D plus years of watching other conductors.
went for lunch with the family. janice was her usual cute self. sweet. haven't played with her for so long liao. now she's fun to play with now that she's more aware of what's happening. love seeing her laugh. she with her missing teeth. :D jonathan and linus gave me this teddy bear that's practically as big as janice. they just love giving me huge toys.
didn't go for nus carolling. too tired. throat hurt. so i called in sick. sad though. i would have loved to go. but sigh...maybe next year ya?
watch dvd of "narnia: the lion the witch and the wardrobe". me rating: 4 stars of 5. it's good. the thing reflects the book's content very well. but not as good as i imagined it when reading the book. *spoilers ahead* aslan wasn't as impressive as i thought he should be. his mane was kinda scrawny. the stone table had a strong resemblance to stonehenge. again, the stone table isn't as impressive. a little trivia item that i think isn't too right. peter was riding a unicorn into battle. in one of the other books, it's stated that riding a unicorn is taboo. a unicorn isn't a common horse. btw, the unicorn's horn was puny. anyway, i think tilda swinton deserves an award for her performance here. beautiful working of the white witch. the battle scenes kinda resembled lord of the rings sequences. so it was a bit predictable. anyway, conclusion, this movie's worth catching. and buying the dvd. :D
anyway, i've finally realised the full impact and implications of me taking over the church choir. for one, and the biggest problem, there'll be no organist next year. dawn and daryl are both leaving. me and marion (the only other people who can play the organ) are no where near their standards. possible solution: request uncle james to play until we can train up well enough to handle it. or just look for another organist. there's got to be someone somewhere in the church who can play. another problem is my drastic lack of administrative skills. i'm assuming that my first 'solo' mass is gonna be next sunday, feast of the holy family. and i haven't got anything at all prepared yet. sigh. just thinking of planning for the rest of the year's masses seems an immense impossibility at the moment.
well, anyway, this post has gone on long enough. let's think some happy thoughts. erm...i passed everything for my uni sem 1 exams. haha! what a great achievement. although EL wasn't what i expected, the rest of it was not too bad. especially my cultural studies. i wish i could see my script. i have no idea what i wrote in there that prof phillips could have found worthy of a B+. to me, it was 6 pages of crap that i handed in. oh well, after a sem with him, i should know that he's a weird guy with even weirder thinking. so... :D
btw, did i mention that i hate bluetooth?
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