Wedding and friends

Today I attended a good friend’s wedding and I sat at a table with my good kakis. On my right was Cynthia, she is always full of life-giving words. How blessed it is to be her friend. One friend away is Otterman who organized my wedding, he’s a brother to me. Ladybug is sister. And then there is Jaswant and Kok who laugh like little kids. Down the table past them are Zee, Abby and Dione, wonderful people who I am proud to have as Bio kakis and fellow educators. One is indeed fortunate to be surrounded by good people. A blessing. I don’t know why I always feel that in such occasions where I meet good people, I sense heaven, its almost tangible and spiritual. I mean I have that with my family. But because these people aren’t family but they somehow seem heaven-sent, the sense of heaven is there. If you guys read this, bless you.

Heaven

Today at mass, I was wondering, where is God? Not that I am feeling lost but it was beginning to feel like the same stuff week in and out and, come on, I told myself, I can’t just try to sit out a mass. It would be a waste. Though I am so guilty of that more that half the time.

So as with most spiritual searching, one must knock on the door with some focus and so I knelt down and prayed quietly, “where are you?”

Like the breeze, heaven came with the beautiful voices of the choir as I had my eyes closed and mind quietened, how soothing it was and calming.

Later in the evening I met some kakis for dinner and we spent half the time chuckling away under the full moon like hyenas. Joy. Brother Broughton said in a prayer meeting once that as youths we would have such a great time when we met our friends at Macdonalds or some favourite meeting place. Those were like moments of when we would be experiencing heaven. What a beautiful and accessible description of heaven. Heaven is in the love we have for each other.

Charity Fun day meet-up

Today a couple of us met up to bring stuff to my place for the next Assisi Hospice Charity Fun day 2009. Its also a good excuse to get together. So Mei Fun, Thomas and Jen Kee were the first to come over. Cynth came over with the largest haul and requested manpower to bring stuff up.. I almost broke into cold sweat when I saw a lorry with large boxes and two workers ready to get going. Luckily that wasn’t her load (with Cynthia though, it would have been possible) ; behind the lorry was her suv with the bags full of good stuff to be sold for the Charity Fun day.

Otterman was at home waiting for a replacement M1 card which never came today so we thought we plug him in on the action through skype video….

sometime later… the dude is here (pic shows satiation by bryani)

I guess you can’t video-conference a packet of bryani.

The objective of the meeting was met; the first batch of goods to be sold at the fun day has been collected

- see the foilowing post for what the charity fun day is about -
http://otterman.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/assisi-hospice-charity-fun-day/
http://lekowala.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/5-loaves-and-some-cookiesbags-and-coffee/

Its good to do something meaningful with kakis.

If you want to contribute to our pile let me know.

5 loaves and some cookies…bags and coffee

The Assisi hospice charity fun day was a great way to spend the Sunday. So the kakis rounded up some used stuff such as bags, books and clothes to sell at the fun fair. We had ensured that the stuff coming in from friends and all were of good quality stuff so quite a few things were branded actually. And I had “let go” of some of my books as well that would have just collected dust on my shelf anyway.. They were nice books.. Like my Aung Sang Su Kyi book which I bought for 47 bucks and went for about $5 or was it $2? Well that depended on our mood. At the end of the day, Ivan was giving free collectibles or bags with each book sold.

Here’s Ivan demonstrating the read the book and then when people are around just tell them “5 for 1 dollar” move. it worked! Such business acumen!

Besides that, we baked cookies and Amy and Thomas made their homemade bread for the kaya toast section. I woke up at 6.30 to make some coffee (Sumatra Mandheing) to support the kaya toast sale.

Su Yin on the left sorting out clothes with Ivan. Clothes were hard to sell but the Polo Ralph Laurens, AIX and Timberland shirts from Charles disappeared soon enough from the displays.

Peck Wai and Oi Yee would have added to the already fun atmosphere but the stuff they parted with were valuable. Not to mention Oi Yee’s Gucci bags! Ah material things!

The day before we had gone to drop off stuff at the stall and realised that we didn’t have decor and a name… but as Ivan pointed out, that won’t really matter to the crowd who would mill around and have more fun sifting through the mess. Which is true as I found out when they rummaged through the boxes of bags which we had planned to arrange nicely on the table; so we dumped the bags into a big box and left it on the floor…. soon, women came and were busily going through the items..amazing.

Books were another great performer… it was nice to see people going through the books and we had our Rambling Librarian to artfully arrange the books. I was impressed at how he had done it in about 20 mins… He had a personable way with people and they took to him… it must be his height ..ha!

Otterman checking out the books

Otherman – a satisfied customer and fellow stall organiser blogs about the day

It was a busy day ferrying the family to the stall and back. But luckily the rest were manning the stations busily so I could bring the kids and wife to the stall. Jen had donated quite a few books and quite a lot of her own bags and helped me organise collections the past month.

What’s a funfair without the candy floss.

My sis, Natalie looking rather pooped out after spending 830 to 5 pm on the opposite end of the retail therapy.

Pix of the day goes to the lovely couple of Thomas and Amy who with much resilience and hard selling, got all the cookies and Kaya toast sold off.

This lady has the honor of being the first ever person to buy the Seastars album. She got her photo taken with us and also another free album to distribute. What a great person! 2 more came to buy our album so Ivan and I may be seriously thinking about launching our commercial album….

At the end of the day… a job well enjoyed and done with a couple of books, bags and clothes left.

Well, the hospice managed to raise over $550,000 according to the CNA news. So I guess our little stall added to that. Well done kakis!

Last year, the hospice saw over 1,000 patients – an increase of nearly 200 from 2006. This year, it expects to spend over S$6 million on improving its programmes.

A third of that amount will be covered by government grants and revenue, but the remainder of S$4 million will have to be met through donations

Zendogs ride again – part deux!!

The fact that we even embarked on today’s ride was a feat in itself as the last ride was just 3 days ago. What’s important in a zendog ride are the kakis…becos that means there’s gonna be good conversation and some good makan. Most importantly, the kakis are motivation to wake up at 5.45 am to get ready.

Otterman’s speedometer showed a total distance of 84.19km, in 4hrs 48 mins and 11s.

Most of the Zendogs couldn’t make it but we are on leave. The park connectors were ours in a sense as there were few people about. The highlight of the day for Siva was when we met up with another cyclist who was testing out the park connectors at Loyang to Changi and we started talking. He said he was doing some cardio and Siva said,”Oh, we are just going for breakfast at Changi…” The guy must have been baffled when he found out I was coming from Sengkang and Siva from Holland Village, just to go to rustic Changi Village for breakfast… ha. Which was a kosong and egg prata.

This is the view of the Serangoon PCN which I use to get to Tampines Road. Its scenic and with quite a few users, young kids, people jogging and some fishing or doing taichi.

That’s Siva on the Changi Coast PCN in the forest of rhus (Casuarina equisetifolia). It was surreal looking at the scene; it felt like I was in some pine forest in a colder clime.

That’s Siva not on a PCN and being a dawg… and trying out a new route, which in reality was not a route but some grassy space near a longkang, with lots of fallen branches.

A helmet light courtesy of Siva. Which came in handy as my backlight konked off on the way back. More accessories for the bike!

I also bought a backpouch for the bike. I left my chain for locking the bike back home today – and boy did that make a difference. I now have to remove the basket (to reduce wind resistance), oil the wheels and chains. The long distance ride’s pretty different from the short one (an hour) I take to work, so every thing counts. I also badly need a cycling shirt because today I realised I got abrasions. Well as Siva puts it, I am on the slippery road to getting a full kit… Now I know what I want for Christmas…

This is the Bedok Reservoir PCN.
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I had a PCN map handy from Sungei Buloh Nature Reserves and I used that to navigate. It was extremely useful and using the PCN was pretty easy. But I got lost at the Bedok Reservoir area and I think those people at the bus stop must have been thinking I was doing laps as I rode up and down the same road over 3 times looking for the park connector but luckily a taxi driver and an aunty on a bike going to the market helped me to Bedok Reservoir where the PCN was.

Although the map is good, there are some deficiencies, minor ones – the Bedok Reservoir Road area is a bit misleading as it doesn’t show the cross-roads.

Well, it was a nice ride and especially with things so quiet. The steady rain pelting on us along the Changi Coastal Road PCN was a nice feeling. At the end of the ride, at least my knees didn’t complain like the ride on Saturday. But I am sure if i try to take a big step up the stairs, my legs will give.

Zendogs ride again

Its been a while since I joined the Zendogs for a ride. The Zendogs was conceived circa 2000. So this time it was the park connectors (PCNs) we were checking out. From Sengkang, I took the Serangoon river PCN to reach Tampines Road and that was a beautiful road to ride on at 7am in the morning. Somehow, it felt like old Singapore kampung and the sense of history could be felt.

The view from Old Tampines Road in the morning as the sun rose

Met the rest of the Zendogs at Loyang and headed to Changi Village and had thosai there.

The second leg of the cycling trip was the Changi Coastal road PCN and that was nice and we could ride 3 abreast and have a nice conversation and easy cycle. The nasi ayam, gado-gado, soto ayam beckoned so we had another meal (plus some length conversations – hence the name Zendogs cos we tend to forget we still have 40 km to go and start to relak-jack). Most guilt-free eating cos of the mileage covered.

One of the most pleasant cycling trips I have had so far.

These are the dogs – damn happy ones from the looks of it. Check them out sitting in pits they dug out for themselves in the sand… they ARE the true Zendogs.

And these are some Zendogs (2 on the left and one uncle on the right… he’s enjoying the PCN too)

This is a Zendog contemplating the ocean on a Park Connector

More about the ride here at Otterman’s post on the ride

geneticmix

“genetic mix…”

finally got a new electric guitar about a month ago, its a modest one with one a single double-humbucker.   But its an ibanez with a nice feel.  The fret board is pretty smooth and nice to the touch.  Action is pretty low so that means the fingers don’t feel raw after playing for long stretches.

Its suppose to be composed for some science open house for my colleague to present slides with.  But because I was in such a relax mode to compose it since it wasn’t suppose to be in the album, I think there were some creative juices that flowed into the song.  I decided to work on it abit more after I felt I had used too many GB loops in the song.  So I changed the second part so that there was a chord change!  The first version didn’t have one cos it was suppose to be like some short jingle for powerpoint slides.

Spent the better part of 1am to 3am to add in some stuttering guitar leads but overall I am quite happy with this.  Its quite a feat to play the guitar half-asleep.  I remember going into the room and getting ready for bed at 1.30 and then waking up to add more guitar parts…. until 3 am.  then Josh wakes up 5 am tearful and says he can’t fall asleep so we moved to the couch outside and camped out….  eventually he got some sleep but woke up bug-eyed..

So this song is dedicated to teeming life in the sea and the world, the Burmese and also to the poor japanese man who died in Burma.

Thanks to Ivan for tips on layering the guitar leads and most of the fancy stuff I know on Garageband.   Also thanks to Siva for reacquainting us… viva la Ang Mo Kio Sec.  Several more songs to go before the album is complete.  As expected Ivan’s been prolific and providing a good balance to the album as it shapes up.

“Seashore days” (music mashup with Ivan)

Ivan’s the Rambling Librarian.. he is also my secondary school classmate… I had lost all contact with him until Siva inadvertently reunited us, since Siva knows a LOT of people. I remember he score lots of points with the ART teacher Chikgu Rahim because he could do some real nice water colour paintings while we were trying our best to use stencils to draw “No Smoking” and trying not to paint outside the lines… we were art morons in his presence.

I knew he was doing stuff on Garageband, so when I got hold of a neat Macbook recently, I dabbled with GB a little and got hooked. Saving up to buy my new axe… cos someone borrowed my Ibanez and never returned it and I can’t remember who. 24 frets some more… sheessh. Well, I guess that’s that…Anyway, the neck was warped beyond tune and the action was way to high so fretting was a bit painful on the fingers. It was also getting old and giving me random electric shocks..

So I did a few things with Garageband and jammed out an acoustic melody with some strumming here and there with the good old ovation one sunday morning and decided to send it to Ivan. I was quite impressed by how he added the lead… I don’t know what effects he has but the harmonics at the later part of the solo just agreed with me. The mashup was clearly a 1+1=3 kind of situation.

He gave it a neat title too… read more on his part here

Here’s the podcast

Ryan’s off to Round Island

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Originally uploaded by lekowala.

A farewell dinner for Ryan Ramjan at Zam Zam followed by tea at some Turkish cafe. He’s taken to drinking pondan tea (floral type without milk…unheard of!) Ah well, people mellow… ha ha

Well Ryan isn’t mellow. He is fiery, all heart and passionate about snake research, loves kids and volunteers for social work. Last year he took up social work and went around HDB estates to get youth who were loitering around to engage in meaninnful activities.

He got a job as a warden at Round Island, near his home.
All the best Ryan. It was a great dinner and also most of us spoke about our time at the labs in NUS and spoke also of the future. It seemed like there was a nice closure to that period of our lives. Most of us had more or less gone on our own paths and it seemed like a good time to regroup. It was nice to share and it became apparent that in many ways, we had depended on each other for support and meaning during our research years. Its surprising the effect you have on someone else. COSY, HL and FY (former hons students) were there too cos we sort of went through that period of our lives together. HL and FY were really great students to have and when I got them as students, I thought they were special and true enuff the journey with them was probably at the most interesting/trying in my life.  They made me also realise what my real interests were.   COSY as usual was her happy self and is looking at a very interesting job that really suits her very well. I am still convinced its a camping man or some mountain climbing person you’ll meet.

Its been a great blessing knowing you guys.  All the best in this next leg.

Scented walk in the forest

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Originally uploaded by lekowala.

This morning’s walk with Ladybug and Otterman from Macritchie to Bukit Timah summit was really very pleasant. The air was cool from last night’s rain and this flowers were in bloom and released a jasmine-like fragrance. I remarked about the nice scent permeating the forest at Sime Road but alas to the zoologist like Otterman, he commented that it was like Macaque urine. It belongs to a vine and was flowering in synchrony along the forest patches we walked through. Figs and the Bat lily seem to be flowering as well. Another masting event, albeit a low-key one?