Soul Out Cafe Recee

It was our 2nd last rehearsal...And our dearest bassist Linus fell sick...making him absent for 50% of the rehearsals...Haha. But shouldn't be much of a problem la...since he's adaptably pro. Haha.

After our rehearsal, we went for our recce :D

 

Matthew, Marc & Myself :D Looks good eh? Ignore the baby seat there...HAHAHA! LOLS.

 

Getting there's horrible...Here's the story...

Matthew & I boarded a cab at around 8pm+ and I told the uncle "Pasir Ris Farmway 1"

The uncle's reply "There got what?"

Me "We're heading there for dinner in a bistro cafe"

Uncle "Cafe for dogs ar?"

I looked at Matthew & said "erm...humans?"

The uncle then laughed and told us there was a farm place for animals and all...never did he hear of a cafe before. Haha.

And guess what? He hor-lan-ded... -__-" He turned into Pasir Ris Farmway 2 and went to 3, and didn't make it to Farmway 1 because he made a wrong turn. We also had no idea where we were.

Upon Marc's verbal directions through handphone, we managed to make it there... -__-" It's a really really long walk in if you don't have a vehicle. The place is inaccessibly ulu...Don't know how they survive man...

Anyway, they had a tentage there where people were dining and the place is mainly open-air. Their kitchen and sheltered dining area was kinda small...

 

Our main concern was our set up area. Where our 5 piece band will be positioned. We'll be situated in between 2 ponds!! & it's open air. That's my main concern. Cos if it rains halfway & our equipment gets screwed. I'm so gonna screw them. Haha. Here's our stage...

The STAGE :D

The screen would be projecting the lyrics slides made by Marilyn I guess and the audience would be in front of all of us.

 

The thing is, the drums will not be wired up...which means it'll sound quite bland. The rest of us will be though...My fear is that we drown the sound of the drums...However, Nick (Marilyn's friend & POC @ the cafe) assured us with his 7-year experience in the music & events management industry that the drums will sound just fine.

I'm abit apprehensive cos it's open air and if the rest of the band is hooked up to the house & sounding real good...and there comes the raw sound of the drums splashing in from nowhere and echoing against the buildings surrounding it...Not a nice picture.

But o well, we'll see what we can come up with that day :) Here's the rest of the pics...

Matthew & Myself :D

Marc & his standard JBs...HAHA!

If you're wondering where this picture's taken, it's taken inside Nick's van. He gave us a ride to Pasir Ris interchange. Whew...If not we'd have had to road march out...Around 2-3km road march out sia! HAHAHA! Thanks nick! :D LOLS.

Yup, we're nearing the event already :D Let's pray that it won't RAIN! And that we will be really excited and give a good show on that day :D

Limited Viewership

The reason behind this new imposed exclusivity is found in the blog post before this.

I've added those whom
> I know read my blog
> I trust won't give me problems with the secret information I disclose
> I read their blog / granted me access to theirs
> I consider my close/best friends
> I think are open to me and will benefit from what I have to share
> I think I should be accountable to with my bare thoughts
> I think are trustable :)

Yup, like I said, whatever I'll be posting is not politically correct...It may stumble you or you may feel insulted after reading it as it attacks your core beliefs. But this is where I make my thoughts transparent, audible, readable, understandable.

"A friend is a person whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud."
Emerson

My thoughts are for my friends. And my definition of 'friend' is stated above.

If you're reading this, you've gotten the exclusive rights, congrats! :) HAHA!

Blog VS Website

Came across a really, really funny video! A pianist/worship leader's blunder on stage! LOLS! Check it out!



Martin Smith is oh-so-handsome man...haha. I simply love the way his eyes grew big and the way he turned around and looked at his drummer...I wondered what's the drummer's reaction man. He probably raised up his 2 hands in a don't-look-at-me gesture. Haha.

This happened once in Bethel's youth service too. Haha. Xin Yi was on the 2nd keys and she accidentally activated the rhythm on the keyboard too...HAHA! She was like "OH MY GOSH!!" out loud and clicked away the "ARP" button while laughing away...hahaha. Hilarious man...

Anyway, today I learnt the reason why quite a few of my friends don't share their blog openly like I do. Their defence was "I don't want any tom, dick or harry know so in-depth about my life"
My rebuttal "Aiya, blogging is meant to be public what. If not you blog for what? Give who see?"

I now know why they do that. Today Mr. Mark Leong Zhi Wei walked into ops room and just announced "Jonavan called all of us self-righteous"

Now, that's intrusive & black-mailing. I didn't take it too badly la because if I dare to blog, I dare to say. But sometimes, saying your heartfelt thoughts out, however true it may be, will not help the situation and maybe even exacerbate the situation.

Because people are blinded by their own perspectives & their notions of right & wrong...telling them your perspective and what you feel will be like trying to caress a cactus and telling it to soften its leaves.

But sometimes, you need a place to rant and you want the right eyes to see it. For the wrong eyes will intepret what you say out of context or reveal certain truths at the wrong time, inappropriately. Those eyes that are meant to see are those that really know you, love you and are not there to use your most vulnerable thoughts to blackmail you.

I came to a conclusion... BLOG is so not equal to WEBSITE. I treated my blog like a website. And I know now why my friends are so anal about who has access to their blog...I shall follow their methods.

I'll either change blog or limit viewership from now on. Cos I don't blog politically correct things. I blog razor-sharp truths that I perceive. Few people I give avenue to challenge my stand. Those who love me enough to brave my skepticism and friendship tests & still love me, are God's greatest gifts to me.

But it's still heartening to see that some of my friends actually care enough to read about my life in my blog. Cos some of my closest friends don't.

Anyway, gonna try to complete my book review on the book "Dug Down Deep" by Joshua Harris by this week. If you've been seeing my facebook wall posts, they're mainly quotes from his awesome new book. :D

Fat Boy & HOG :D

I shall blog in reverse chronological order this time :D Haha.

 My very own restaurant!! :D Standard ah...JB! LOLS! :D

Guess where this is?? :D It's a burger place which serves awesome burgers.......FAT BOY! :D Melvin has been wanting to bring me there for like 3-4months already...Finally, our plans coincided and he made his recommendation a reality. Haha. On site was Matthew, Myself, Daryl, Jon Wee & Melvin :D

I bought the Elvis burger for $11...It comes with burgers, fries & salad (lettuce, cucumber & a slice of tomato) It was awesome...The burger bun was some chocolate bun dotted with peanuts and the patty? Oh...the patty is really interesting and GOOD :D It was a beef patty topped with fried bananas and finished with peanut butter!! WHOAWWSSS!!

I should've taken a photo of it man...It was awesome! Indeed awesome! Man is my vocabulary limited now...Army reduces you to a mere piece of existential junk man...haha.

My wall :D

Being rather interested in finding out who the other "Jonavan" is, I asked restaurant's owner "Who's Jonavan?"

His reply "Oh...It's not a 'J' it's a 'D' Donavan's the designer of our restaurant. :)"

And I thought there was another miracle like me existing in this world...HAHAHA! :)

Well to me, the letter 'd' sure looks 'j' to me :D HAHA! So I continued snapping a few more photos :D This time, with my dearest Daryl who just came back from Thailand!! :D He's gonna be higher rank than me soon man...diaosS...HAHA!

 

 OCT Daryl & 3SG Jonavan :) Haha!

Standard ah! Pose by me :D LOLS!

After our hearty meal @ Fat Boy, the commanders headed down to Hougang for a game of pool while the man went home to emo...HAHA! Jkjk! :P And this army-fied statement wasn't meant to predict melvin's future rank that he'll hold...haha! :D

And before our Bethelite gathering at Fat Boy, I came from a Heart of God-ian (HOG) service at Paya Lebar! :D

Lemme share with you my heart-warming, tear-jerking, spirit-lifting, soul-inspiring experience in that particular service.

One thing the HOG-ians really believe in is their services. They put in hours of rehearsals (not just the worship team) before they present it on stage for service. The worship team puts in at least 16hours of rehearsal time before they play for that Saturday & Sunday. They go back from Tuesdays to Saturdays for at least 3 hours per day to rehearse. That explains their superb band dynamics & tightness in their song presentation.

Beyond the musical aspect, there's the spiritual aspect too. People there believe that God is real when they worship. Unlike Bethel. They dance, lift their hands, sing, etc...you can feel the people engaging...and this creates synergy which inspires everyone around them to worship. In Bethel, people are looking around, afraid to sing too loud, skpetical about the song lyrics, worshipping God by standing absolutely still (which I'm not against...but that can't happen every week!) etc...

If you love God and can't show it in the most basic expression of worship - congregational singing of spiritual songs - then I don't think that you actually do. Or at least, love Him enough to tell Him through words that have tunes attached. After all, He deserves our all. Unless you tell me you have a regular lifestyle of worship that doesn't include song singing, but dancing & you dance regularly as a form of worship to God...then I'm impressed, but not convinced. Because expressing worship through written songs are the easiest form of worship...Most of us are just plain lazy or disengaged because we think God is not real or not worthy of our praises.

The main thing about yesterday's service was their testimonies. HOG church is now going through a month of giving...where people pledge $$ to the church. If you think people get put off by sermons on giving, you're right. That's why Ps How made the sermon the people - the people's testimonies.

They got 3 people up to share their life testimonies on how Heart of God has changed their lives...Upon hearing the 2nd testimony, tears already begin to well up in my eyes. You can see how God real is in their lives and you can feel what church is and know what the church is for.

The story that touched me the most was this gangster's testimony...They showed his tattoo that occupied his whole back and all...and he shared on his heinous lifestyle of stealing, fighting, trying to find acceptance in gangs, his violent father, etc...His friend from HOG then brought him to service and his cell leader really made him feel loved.

They (his cell group a.k.a. connect group) bought him a pair of sneakers which he really wanted. Here's a paraphrase of what he said "When they gave me a pair of sneakers, I broke down and cried. I thought to myself 'How can someone love me enough to buy me this? Not even my dad'll do that'" He then joined the usher ministry and he had no formal shoes so he had to borrow in order to serve. The head usher upon finding out, bought him a pair of formal shoes the next service and presented it to him...He broke into tears again as he felt the sincere love & concern shown to him...this time not by his direct superior (his CL) but by his ministry head. Now, that's pastoral leadership.

He was so touched & loved that this love began to overflow to his friends. He then shared on how he brought another friend to Christ...another Ah beng...His gangmate if I'm not wrong...He then invited his friend up to share his testimony next to him...Whoa. Seeing these two long spike-haired, punky spectacled, skinny jeans-ed 16 year old boys share so confidently on stage is simply amazing. 

His friend then shared on how God used him to bring his family to Christ...and his siblings were also seated right there in the service! Haha. They then showed their results...from being the last few in class to being the 1st & the 5th in class...They also received some "model student of the year" award from their school man!!

I don't know about you...but as I heard their words peppered with raw conviction and gratitude it just brings back up a familiar longing in my soul...a longing that says "THIS IS CHURCH! THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO LIVE FOR!! THIS IS WHAT I'D GIVE MY LIFE FORR!!!" Something was stirred deep within my heart again to see God's church impact people's lives this way.

In Bethel, I just get pissed off with their obsession with events, plans and mission statements while all the while they're screwing up their execution & oblivious to the irrelevance of the things they are doing and want to do and all. Gosh. How oblivious some people can be. BUT, God still placed them there for a purpose. I don't know what purpose...but I'm not there to find out...My faith's getting killed by these good-intentioned, but lack-the-know-how, not-fit-for-the-job pastors.

Good intentions? Willingness to serve? Got the heart? All these are good. I'm not discrediting that! But they must be placed in the right places and not in places where they think they should be in. That's Bethel for you.

Anyway, after the testimony sharing Ps How summed it up like how I would've "I don't have to be a pastor. I have my own business. I can do other things. But it's people like these that make me want to continue serving. It's stories like these that make my serving worthwhile. It's because of you guys that I can continue doing what I am doing for the rest of my life."

Me too...To see changed lives, I'd give my life for that. You can smell hope there. You can feel the reality of the vision God has gave Ps How. You can feel the tangible sense of God's presence there. Bringing that experience out of the church's four walls is the hardest task. But they've done it. And they've grown to a predominantly youth congregation of 1200 people!

And the people there give crazily. The 3rd person's testimony was a girl who pledged $10,000 to the church's building fund when she only earns a tenth of that amount a month! But she had faith. And she sacrificed so much to give to God. Like what Ps How says "Sacrifice luxury, not living!" She didn't compromise her standard of living to give to God...she sacrificed her cab rides, walked home, eat cheap, etc...What's her motivation to give so much to Heart of God (HOG) church?

It's spelt V-I-S-I-O-N. She can see what her giving will result in...more lives changed...more families restored...more gangsters becoming role models...etc...They didn't talk too much about "giving for the church building". The emphasis wasn't on the building...it was in what was happening in the building.

I guess that's what a lot of churches miss out today. So sad how we can lose the essence of what the Church was called to be...Reference the early church in Acts & you get an embarrassing picture of insecure pastors playing politics and masquerading their carnal earthly desire to build a big building and get famous and all...If this is not so, then why is the Church impotent today?? It's the hope of the world!! It's the refuge for the oppressed!!

But I still strongly believe God is gonna use His Church in the last days powerfully. It's just a matter of which church gets hit by revival and which church ushers it in.

So yup, I've made up my mind to attend Heart of God church. I will tithe there, serve there and hopefully find my soulmate there. HAHA! But somehow, there's something in my heart for Bethel that is unabated. I know God wants me to do something there...I know it...But for now, I will need to revive myself in another church and see what God says...

Like Regina told me "When the time comes for you to go back, you'll know it."

Like what Cai Jie told me "You need to move on, move out to see what God is doing outside of what we see every Sunday. If you're too disillusioned by the church, move on."

Like what Ps Daniel Teu told me "Jon, this church is too slow for you...If you can't live with that, you've gotta move on."

I may wanna furnish that list of people whom I allow to speak into my life. There's still like Abigail, Meryl, Anna & Jeremy whom I've yet to hear from. We'll see :)

Supper's in my braces

I'm adapting well to the newfound armour that is donned by my teeth. Got a few cuts & a few tongue ulcers in the first week. But now, everything's fine & I can eat normally again...I just can't bite with my front teeth. Haha.

The extremely irritating thing about braces is the way the food finds it's way in between them. Rice, vegetable & meat remains can be found in between the cracks & crevices of my teeth's armour... -.-"

That's why I said supper's found in my braces...AHAHAHA! After dinner, the food remains in there can be my supper man...LOLS!

But thank God for oral scientists...or dental doctors or whatever you call them...who invented the braces toothbrush. That amazing invention aids the removal of all the food remains where the tongue can't scrape off, where the finger can't dig out and where the toothbrush can't brush out...haha...

Without that toothbrush, my mouth would be quite an eyesore...likened to be like a rubbish dump full of unwanted food remains...LOLS!

Anyway, braces wasn't as bad as what others depicted.
Leslie told me he had a headache the whole day upon tightening of the braces...he just wanted to sleep the pain away...etc...
Boon Kang told me you'll be in a rather pissed off mood the entire week because of the discomfort & pain...
Some guy in HQ told me he had to blend all his food upon the inception of his braces...etc...

But I stand here now telling all future braces club members...it ain't that bad! You just can't bite with your front row of teeth...cos that's where the tension is the highest. Biting straight into an apple will make you tear apple juice man...haha!

Yup, braces FTW! HAHAHA! Whatever...LOLS.

Finance OJT @ Selarang

This week's Monday - Wednesday was awesome. Why? Like my blog title says...I'm on course...finance course.

The course just taught us how to do auditing, raise & approve purchase requistions & how the finance system in MINDEF works. Now I see the how the system actually makes sure that our taxpayer's money is used properly.

The course is from 8am - 5.45pm...just like my office hours...but the good thing is...it's in SELARANG CAMP!! Direct bus for me!! No taking of ferries!! No stinkin' smell of ops room & its self-righteous people!!

& it doesn't really start at 8am...it starts around 9am. Haha!

There were only 3 of us...Myself, PTE Jian Ming & REC Victor. Jian Ming & myself already have hands-on experience on the EPS system so we already know half of the stuff they're gonna teach...while REC Victor has zero knowledge or experience so he took quite a while to cope with & digest all the information overload. Haha.

The good thing about Jian Ming is, he DRIVES! So I got a free ride to the bus stop the next 2 days! :D HAHA!

Anyway, I met my finance bosses from HQ 9DIV/Infantry, Mrs Joyce, Mr Neo, Ms Doreen & Mrs Ai Nah. Now I know the person behind the computer that has been replying my emails...Haha.

Mrs Joyce is really nice and candid person. Says how she feels and is a naggy kinda person. She's the classic example of a naggy mother who wants the best for her kids & her work. Haha.

Next we have the sarcarstic Mr. Neo who is very anal and rather perfectionistic. He'd drop tests and questions to gauge your understanding and when you fail his verbal tests, he'll rate you & become sarcastic & all...So for this kinda ppl, you must know your stuff before you talk to him if not he'll write you off. That's probably the reason why he's still single. HAHAHA! :P Jkjk :D

Next we have Ms Doreen a typical friendly, semi-ah-lian kinda girl. I called her girl! HAHA! Cos she looks young & talks to you in a friendly & suan-ing kinda way. So we jokingly suan-ed each other here & there throughout our convos. Haha. Like when I go to the mess to take a cup of coffee she'll just look at me and say "Aiyo, why never take for me??" kinda thing...haha

Finally, we have Mrs Ai Nah...a mother of two lovely girls whose pictures are pasted all over her work desk. Haha. She's very nice, meticulous and friendly person. She's the kind who'll help you when you're in trouble. She's the patient teacher who'll patiently teach concepts & explain things to you even though you may have asked her before.

These are my finance bosses. They also have finance clerks there to teach us...NSFs like us...3 of them also taught us the auditing process, what to look out for, how you allocate which IO to use for what purpose etc...They are CPL Kenneth Lui, CPL Eugene Phang and LCP Madan. They're also all very nice people who taught us, laughed with us during lessons, ate with us at the cookhouse and got scolded with me at the specialist mess...HAHA! Here's what happened:

The good thing about Selarang camp is their MESS. It has a hot drink dispenser which allows you to choose 5 kinds of drinks...Milo, 2 kinds of coffee, mocha & teh tarik. Whoo hoo! Free drinks!! HAHA! On the 1st day, kenneth & madan brought me to the specialist. I went in & took 2 cups of drinks. 1 for me, 1 for my guys...& the cups is the styrofoam cups...not the glass goblets or whatever...haha.

Upon walking out of the mess, a warrant officer (ME3 Savarajan) walked out from the mess and shouted at me. Scolded me for taking drinks outta the mess for others...he said "If you want to take a drink for them, invite them in and drink there! If you walk in and take drinks for them then the machine spoil how?!" I wanted to counter "Show me the standing order that says the drinks can't be taken outta the mess."

But I didn't la...Don't wanna land myself in a tussle of words & legalistic laws. So I just stood there, nodded and said "yes encik" to whatever ungrounded accusations he was making. He was probably just promoted to ME3 & wanted to wayang his rank or something man...haha. Who'd leave the comfort of the sofa & TV in the mess and walk out to scold a 3rd sergeant over taking drinks out of the mess? Rubbish. haha.

After that, Kenneth & Madan were kinda shaken up and pissed. haha. O well, like what Xiao Hua always says "Warrant officers are the most useless people in the army. They don't have proper education but are given the rank & respect." Haha.

On the 1st day, we ended early, 5pm. So I went to ask Ms Doreen to let us go. Wrong person to ask. Knowing her argumentative kinda personality, she said "you sure you all learn everything properly not?"
I was like "Yes! You wanna test us ar?"
Her expected reply "Ok lor...call the rest here I'll test you all"
"If we pass the test you let us go ok?"
"yalar..."

Haha. Should've known her verbal test to the 3 of us would've lasted for 30mins... -.-" So we ended up leaving @ 5.30pm...normal time -__-" I then took their 5.45pm permstaff bus to tampines. :D

2nd day, upon ending early, I didn't ask Ms Doreen liao...I asked Ms Joyce! HAHA! I walked into her cubicle and when she asked me "yes?" I replied in hokkien "Eh sai chao liao bueh?" She then asked Doreen out loud across the office "Doreen! Got anything more for them?"
"Nope."
She then said "Ok lor...you all can go :D"

WHOO HOO!! haha. We left at 5pm! Got a ride from Jian Ming to the bus stop & got home by 5.30pm :D I wish I was posted to Selarang camp as an admin spec man...haha.

3rd day was the best. They gave me a 2 hour lunch break. I met Xiao Hua for lunch @ the cookhouse & then went to the mess (again) to play pool. Surprisingly, I bumped into Allan @ the mess who was also playing pool with this friend! Haha. I then joined them and played 3 rounds...Haha. While playing I was also patronising their free drinks stall...HAHA!

After the 3 rounds of pool, 2 of which I won :D HAHA!...I drank 2 cups of milo, 1 cup of teh tarik & 1 cup of mocha! HAHA! My risk of becoming a diabetic exploded to an all time high of 100% that day man...haha!

I also met Benjamin Tan, my secondary school friend who was posted there as a medic. Haha. I do have many friends all over after all :D HAHA!

So that was my lil' break from the boredom of my ops room duties & responsibilities with people who don't feel like doing anything...haha.

Long Time no JAM!!

The title is self-expressive...It's been quite some time since we did music together man. Yesterday (Saturday) afternoon we met at Canaan Centre @ 5pm to practice for our upcoming gig at Marilyn's 21st birthday! :D

We = Me, Marc, Matthew, Linus & Mark Leong. Marilyn was also present to grace our first jam session. Haha. If you're wondering who's Mark Leong, he's my army friend. I see him 5 days in a week (unless either of us is away) from 9am - 5pm. Work doesn't start at 9am for us...but it does for him...& leslie. Haha!

Anyway, we had a great time jamming...Ok, I didn't had too much fun...That's because I thought we could be better. Haha. Me & my expectations. When we tie down all our arrangements perfectly, that's when we start to jam :D Haha. Once we've mastered what we're to do, then we can play around & have fun. :D

I also didn't plan out the session that well. I didn't think through the arrangements thoroughly enough & I didn't memorise the song lyrics of "If It's Love"! HAHA! The number of words in the song's verses can equate to the number of grains of rice I eat for one meal man! HAHAHA!

On top of that, we didn't have the actual keyboard that has all the effects & all...& the rest (excluding Linus & Mark) didn't listen to the mp3s of the songs & Reuben wasn't around...etc...I can always find things to rant about...haha...But yalar, like I said, it wasn't that bad a jam session la. :D Great job guys! :)

I hope our next session will be more fruitful, where we will all tie down our parts & level our sound etc...

Anyway, my risk of asking Mark to be our drummer wasn't a bad risk. Haha. He ain't that bad...got the groove & rhythm...and once we've developed the chemistry...I'm sure there'd be the soul infused into our playing.

The rest says that Daryl is better still...I think Mark's not too far off la...haha. & it's cool having someone else play with us :D

For the next rehearsal, Matthew & Mark will either be late, if not, absent. -__-" HaisS...haha...Lookin' forward to the next one man :D Hope we can piece it all together & give Marilyn & her homies a good show :)

My Braces Journey: The Armour

The last visit was the longest ever man. I sat in the dental chair for a good 1hr45mins - 2hours while my doctor put on all the individual brackets on my teeth...aka, armour. Haha. The previous post was entitled "The Clothing" right? Now comes the armour man...

See what I mean?

 

 The infusion of my teeth's armour. And yes, my favourite colour's all over my braces bands...Haha! :D

My doctor asked me "What band colour do you want for your braces?"

Without hesitation I replied "YELLOW :D"

Haha! Some preferences are innate. I was born to love yellow. :D

Anyway, here's what transpired in NDC level 4, Dr Jason Su's cubicle...After cleaning my teeth, he went on to put the "glue" on my bottom teeth to stick the individual brackets to it. Before he did the insertion, he put 3 rolls of cotton at the bottom of my mouth to open it up.

And toward the end of the armour-ing of my bottom teeth, 1 roll of cotton dislodged and went into my throat!!! It choked me real bad. It was like half in my gullet and half in my mouth. WHOA! I simply vomitted out the whole roll of cotton...and accompanying it was quite abit of blood from the bleeding after the cleaning of my teeth -__-"

This is just the start. After inserting the brackets, he began tying the wires across the top of it. That's when one of the brackets came off and flew onto the chair I was lying on...Whoa...The doctor then re-attached it.

Next, as he was tying the wires across the bottom part of the brackets, another bracket flew OUT! This time, it flew to my THROAT!!! The doctor was like "DON'T SWALLOW, DON'T SWALLOW..." as he took the bracket out of my mouth with his tweezer. The moment he took it out, I again felt that surge of vomitting feeling...Cos when something touches the end of your tongue you'll feel like vomitting.

Thankfully, I swallowed neither of the stuffs I choked on. Thank God man. Haha.

Anyway, I've been unable to chew on literally anything the past 2 days. I've been swallowing all my food. From swallowing kuay chap to porridge to mee sua. I tried biting on a steamed piece of fishcake...It resulted in sudden jolts of pain sent through my whole row of newly armoured teeth.

-_-" I'm packing porridge for lunch to camp every day till I can chew again man..Cookhouse & canteen doesn't cater to us braces-boys & toothless old people..haha.

Overall, I'm coping well with all of it :D Let's hope it stays that way :) Haha!

Go Green, Go Veg -_-"

Once again, this is a really lag post...haha.

My last picture with him before he left for Thailand. Haha. I talk like he not coming back lidat sia...HAHA!

He has just left for Thailand last week. Was there to send him. Jake, Matthew & myself were there to send him :)

Wondering how were the 3 musketeers formed? We came from a SYFC evangelistic jam session @ Dhoby Ghaut.

Aaron Tan was the pianist there. They werent too bad. Played a few christian contemporary songs & then incorporated the gospel with food... The only downfall is the lack of food...& the quality of it. Haha.

After that, Matthew, Jake & myself headed down Dhoby Ghaut area for dinner...& of all places we chose to eat at "The Loving Hut"

The food items on the menu looked really good with the savoury pictures of wanton mee, spaghetti, laksa & all...and the price wasn't too bad. So we headed in...

Upon seating down and browsing through the menu, Matthew asked a really important question when he saw one of the posters advertising their dish of the day "Glutonine Kuay Chap". However, we just shrugged it off and placed our orders.

When the first dish - Jake's Laksa - arrived...We all said our prayers and Jake was eager to dig in when he realised "eh...how come laksa got mushroom one? And why no hump or prawns?"

Upon further investigation, we saw on their wall this slogan with a few pictures of famous people like Mahatma Ghandi that said something like "These people are vegans...what about you? Join the vegan elites today." That's when we realised, we're eating VEGETARIAN FOOD!! &*()%$*%#&$*(@_#!@ HAHAHA!

Scam Tactic 101: Don't blatantly put a "Su" sign or use the word "vegetarian" in your menu!

Their menu didn't state anything about synthetic food. The only clue was in their first page in super small font size beneath their shop's logo that said "Go Veg, Go Green" My gosh!

Then came Matthew's spaghetti. EPIC. The menu depicted a plate full of minced meat and tangy red bolognaise sauce but all that came was lettuce and other kinds of veggies mixed in the sauce...HAHA! Where'd the mince meat go? O we're vegetarian. OWNED.

Then came my wanton mee...Mine was the best la huh. The noodles were great...so was the FAKE wanton and fake char siew. But it tasted like the real thing and looked like the real thing.

O well, this whole episode taught us to be more sharp next time. LOLS!! Anyway, we did the world good by going vegetarian for one meal right?? HAHAHA!

After that we headed down to Changi Airport to send Daryl off...That's when we had an awesome meal of REAL MEAT @ Burger King!! :D Woots! Nothing beats the original man. LOLS!

Shokudo + Pictureka

Had dinner with Abigail, Anna & Janice last Saturday at Shokudo :D It was the first time I used my Shokudo member card! HAHA! Whatever...LOLS.

Had a great time chatting & eating over there...but that wasn't the main attraction of our outing. After dinner-ing, we headed to Xin Wang Taiwan Cafe for bubble tea and played PICTUREKA!! :D

Haha! We really brought life to the cafe man. Haha! Our screams and shouts of "pictureka!" and impassioned arguments just to get a point in the game turned many heads in the cafe and made many smile/laugh at our interaction. LOLS.

We invented a new game mode! We layed out the picture cards 8 x 5. We all take turns to describe something vague / specific and the rest will try to find the card that best fits the person's description. :D

It was UBER FUN! :D It created quite a ruckus. Haha!

 

Anna & Janice searching intently for my "lock" in the picture cards :D HAHA!

The funniest description was made by Anna. She said "Chinaman"...We searched through the cards and made wild guesses but to no avail. We all just couldn't get the card that she wants...haha!

Upon revealing the answer, we realised that it wasn't really our fault...Here's the "chinaman" card Anna was referring to..

"The Chinaman" Anna

We couldn't stop laughing the moment we saw the 'answer'. HAHAHA! Epic man...Maybe the shirt & the collar makes him look like a chinaman to Anna? Haha. Who knows? LOLS.

Anyway, we had a great time of catching up, eating, drinking (bubble tea) & Pictureka-ing :)

Talking about bubble tea, it reminds me of desserts! Matthew & I found an awesome dessert place at Plaza Singapura.

You won't forget the shop's name...It's called "Ji De Chi" which means "remember to eat" in Chinese. HAHA!

They serve an awesome kind of ice shaving dessert bowl called "Snowy Ice". It's AWESOME! I ordered the Durian Snowy Ice with Durian puree, pomelo and pomegrenate.

WOOOTTTSSSS! The durian flavouring and the actual durian served together with pomelo & pomegrenate make an absolutely mouth-watering dessert.

Here are a few pictures:

 

That's what I wanna eat next time :D

 

This too! :)

Tasted. 5 stars! :)

Yup, will bring others there soon too :D But must wait till my teeth gets used to my braces :(