Animal Planet

I was having supper with a friend recently when a giant beetle fell off the branches above us and landed on our table with a huge thud. It struggled for a little while before flipping itself off its back and then proceeded to crawl towards me. At this moment my friend started freaking out whereas I calmly scooped up the beetle with my hand and threw it into the nearby grass patch. My friend was properly horrified and shrieked at me, "How could you do that? GROSS!"

Why was it gross? The beetle was a creature of nature. One of God's creations. It wasn't intending to harm me or anything. It just happened to drop into the wrong place. I'm one who is generally at peace with nature. I love animals, and animals love me. In fact, after going through my blog, I've come to realise that I'm constantly in contact with nature and her animals in my adventures. Some have even been photographically documented.



So I say this to all you people out there. Love nature and other living creatures around you and life will be a more exciting place to hang out!

Extreme sport?

I'm going wakeboarding on the 8th of October and I was asking my cell group if they'd wanna come along and wow! What a response I got! Turns out there's gonna be 20 people going so we'll need about 4 boats. Some of them have never tried before and asked me all sorts of questions. Is it fun? Does it hurt? Can you die? etc etc.

Well, wakeboarding is an extreme sport I guess. And as with every other extreme sport, there are risks involved, coupled with the possibility of pain. However! You shouldn't let that get in the way of the immense amount of fun you will have! Wakeboarding is extremely fun and extremely addictive. It gives you a good workout too. For beginners, I daresay that you will feel no pain at all when you fall. The boat's moving to slow for you to hurt yourself when you're starting out in the sport. The only pain you'll feel will probably come from the aches the day after. What you'll get is great fun under the sun, wind rushing by as the boat glides on the water and great fellowship with those on the boat with you.

So be prepared for the fun time you're all gonna have and ride safe!

ahoy matey's!

Aloha! Guess what I did today? It was a pretty X-games day coz I went wakeboarding all afternoon and then roller blading in the evening till past 11! Ahhhh the vigor of youth. (Wat?!)

But what I wanna talk about here is not about my day. Rather, its about a serious thought that I had. See, while I was wakeboarding with Sharon and her cell group member Susanna, it was revealed that Susanna actually owns a house in Sebana! Ohhhh the wonderful memories of Sebana. The peaceful, serene environment. The calm and smooth waters. Wakeboarding Mecca I call it. Its great for the occasional getaway retreat. What a great place to have a cell group meeting!

Soon after we ended the wakeboarding session, we were talking about organising another one in 2 weeks and apparently, heaps of cell group members were very keen to come. I asked my own cell group and the response was good too. In fact, we'd probably have to book 4 boats to accommodate everyone at the current count. Christians love wakeboarding! Well the Christians in my zone at least.

So, we've covered 2 things so far. Susanna's house in Sebana. Cell group members wanna wakeboard. Following me so far? Coz here comes my brilliant idea. Why don't we buy our own wakeboard boat? Our very own ZONE BOAT. Sweeeeet. We could organise cell group meetings in Sebana where the boat could be docked (docking in Singapore would cost too much) and have whole weekends of wakeboarding in clear flat water!

Now, Yalan's zone comprises of 7 cell groups. Each cell averages 15 members. That gives us 105 individuals. Seeing how we pay cell group fund every month, we could set up a zone boat fund. So, a proper wakeboard boat like a mastercraft X series would cost around $80K. Divide that amount by a period of 12 months and 105 individuals, the monthly contribution to the Zone Boat fund would work out to be around $63.50 per member! Roughly the price of one wakeboard session. Brilliant! Hur hur hur. I wonder if the relevant individuals are reading this entry?

Fugu?

Konichiwa!

Did I ever mention that I'm an ardent fan of Japanese food? I love everything Japanese that's edible. Sushi, Sashimi, hand rolls, tariyaki, wasabi, tempura, ramen (EXCEPT THOSE FROM AJISEN!!!!) etc etc. You catch my drift. So it wasn't much surprise that Nicole and I ended up at raku over at greenwood for Japanese before she left. As usual, the food there was good. Fresh and delectable.

One thing that stood out that night though, was the Fugu. Now Fugu is Japanese for pufferfish or blowfish and it is a Japanese delicacy.


Most of you will know that this species of fish is poisonous and can be lethal if mishandled. It is the only dish that the emperor of Japan is banned from consuming and only select chefs with proper training and certification can prepare it. Well, I spied "Fugu" in the menu and immediately I was on the case! Wow! Another fear factor moment! A brush with death maybe? Anyone recall my food adventure involving the sea urchin? Sweeeet.

So I ordered and it took a while for it to come and when it finally did, I was perplexed. You see, in my mind I was expecting a soft, fleshy white dish a-la-sashimi. However what was served were thin brown strips of meat. It looked almost like jerky. Nicole was stumped as well but she prayed for safety anyway. So what happened next? We ate it of course. And this was the weird part, almost immediately an intense pain shot up my throat and up into my head! Everything was turning white and I started foaming and seizing!! I WAS DYING!!!! And then Nicole's voice totally pierced through my imagination and brought me back to reality. "It tastes weird huh? Like meat..." I was chewing on it too and you know what? It did taste like meat. In fact it tasted exactly like Bak Kwa! Bak Kwa is roasted slices of marinated pork, usually eaten as a snack.


How disappointing! They could've cut up a slice of bak kwa into strips and served it to me saying it was fugu and I wouldn't even have known! How come its brown and meaty anyway? How did the fish get that way? Nicole reckons its dried or preserved and all they did was heat it up and serve it with Japanese mayo. Sheesh, what a letdown. I guess I gotta go to Japan if I wanna try the real thing. So my fugu experience wasn't much of a "living-on-the-edge" one but at least I enjoyed dinner. I wonder if there are other places that serve fugu? And the REAL thing. Not some preserved jerky bak kwa wannabe.....

Brain stimulant

Has it come down to this? I have run out of ideas on what to write about. My regular posts filled with sarcastic humor have turned into bland and lame entries. I don't even know what kind of comics to make anymore! Where has all the nonsensilism gone?? The very essence of this blog has been lost.

Wanting to add a new post, yet not knowing what to write about the other day, I decided to look through my archives to see what I've been blogging about in the past. What I read were fun thoughts and ideas. Some mischevious, some sarcastic, some creative even. Well there were a few angry posts but we'll let those slide. So I sit here wondering, whats become of that spark that used to ignite the creativity and the words? How come I've not been able to create interesting articles for people to read?

I think I'll attribute it to my current state in life. Nothing's happening for me right now. I'm not having much fun, I'm not having great experiences and I have nothing to think about nor talk about. There's nothing to arouse my curiosity or to stimulate my mind. There's nothing that is provoking thoughts and ideas that I can repackage into a blog entry. My toe nail that died while snowboarding finally dropped off today. Thats all I can think of right now.

I'm not upset or uncomfortable or anything, but I'm not very happening either. Bugger. Well at least some of my shows have returned. Prison break and House are downloading as we speak and I hear that Lost and Grey's anatomy are starting soon. Save meeeeee

what REALLY happened on Buller

as before, click for a bigger view

Joyce's Birthday BBQ

Click on it for the bigger version. Its easier to read that way. Duh.

riding habits

Greetings y'all!

Having returned to Singapore for almost 2 weeks now, I am still having the occasional withdrawal symptoms from Melbourne and Snowboarding. SO! What better way to get my mind off things than to go wakeboarding? Yup, I totally dig being strapped to a board and moving around sideways at speed.

As fate would have it, Melissa and her friends decided to go and they extended an invitation to yours truely. Everything started off pretty well. The weather was good, the company was awesome and the water was acceptable (for a Saturday) but when it was time for me to hit the water, imagine the horror when I realised my riding was all stuffed up! I literally was, HITTING the water! Almost every jump I launched ended in disaster! I was crashing and crashing, but the funny thing was, I was crashing in a weird way. Not the normal "jump gone wrong" crashes I was used to. Rather, I found my body rotating a little in mid air and I would land in a weird position and SPLASH.

Being back on the boat after my run, I pondered for a bit and then I realised where my troubles lay. I've developed bad habits from snowboarding! It dawned upon me that when I was launching jumps on my snowboard, I'd look down towards the snow to spot my landing, my board would sometimes be rotating in the air and my hands are usually flailing around to keep my balance in check. Now, you try doing that while wakeboarding and what do you get? A crash. Why? Simple, coz you gotta keep your hands on the rope handle! DUH.



So I guess I gotta work on correcting those bad habits on my next session. I wonder when will that be? Anyone wanna go?

Ajisen Ramen Poison

I've been up all night. Diarrhea, Vomiting, Fever and cold sweats. Its miserable and I feel like crap now. My body feels like it got hit by a truck. I can barely move my limbs around. Never, NEVER eat at Ajisen Ramen. Its a pathetic and sorry excuse for Japanese food. The service was bad and the food tastes like crap. And to top it off, it makes you sick. The first time I had it, I got sick. Last night after eating the worst Ramen I've ever had, I spied the "Ajisen Ramen" logo at the bottom of the reciept and it all made sense. The restaurant at the Takashimaya food court was part of the Ajisen Ramen chain. And surprise surprise the poison struck again. Bastards. I'm calling the health ministry straight after this post.

Coming to a TV screen near you.....

Hahaha! Its complete! My snowboarding documentary is done! After 4 full days (and nights) of going through the footage and pieceing the segments together, I can safely say that I have managed to capture the true essence of my snowboarding adventures! This has got to be the most fun I've had making a video yet! Sweeeeeet!

For all the wonderful people involved in it, you'll be getting a copy in your mail soon! Hahahahahaha. In case I forget, you can place an order here. Laterrrrrr.

on the fly

This explains why I love snowboarding. Here's Brian, Wilfred and Grace catching air too! Sweeeeet!