Sunday, January 18, 2009
THURR COMPETITION TU SEE WHO ACTS BEST LIKE HURR HAS STARTED!
Posted by keithc at 5:36 AM
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Hello all! this post will be full of pics! yay! reason is because birthdays only come once a year..(just like christmas and new year and chinese new year and good friday, easter, national day, deepavali etc all come once a year) and yes, everytime smth happens once a year, it is a rare treat therefore i will post pics!
with 18 years of age, suddenly i feel not young anymore. like i cant be that rubbish with my words and jokes and actions already haha. because im hitting 19, and very soon no more teenage! how can that be! on top of that, 18 allows me to drink and drive (no, not both at the same time of course) and yes i do feel old being a jan baby, and the privilleges are kinda cool, but with great power comes great responsibility. alright, lets go down to how i spent my 18th wooosh. and also the people who have been such a blessing to me from 08!
e 4f clique from 4f... though i dont like to call it a clique (but we are what, quoted from daniel's blog) tricked me to buying stuff with delci at her minimart and she made me carry 7 bottles of soft drink, thanks v much. that part wasnt rly a trick ah. i really love this bunch of friends, because its like a clique outside all the other cliques in church, school, and stuff. and its very relaxing and easy to share burdens, secrets and all with them (though i do miss out on ac gossip no choice). Thank God for delci and yanling, and most recently, cheryl and the dear guys esp caleb, enping, daniel and samuel. i think you guys have changed a fair bit and grown, though i know i too have changed quite a bit, maybe much more compared to you guys. but we're all growing in the Lord amen:)nono cheryl will remain forever cute!
this is us exactly 1 year ago, in my house's lift. daniel never changes his smile. the one above was in delci's lift (which was kinda small and caleb.. ahem... heehee) its rly hard getting all 10 of us together at times luh, but all 10 of us are in these 2 pics:)
after which, we went for 4f's dinner/ gathering and it was a great time meeting the others! i spent lots of time with the other friends who have also branched out to form strong cliques over the past year. the sophia/fion/eunice group, the biyang/chingyang/nicol group, the claire/grace/jojo/nina group. not to mention my ou xiang joy yeo and smiley xinghui. aww look at her she's changed her smiling style to look more sweet than grinnish because of...???spent almost all the time hopping around til i got thrown in the pool and wet my dear zara pullover that rophi chose for me. that was how my phone screwed up but for some reason, i have a new phone now, and its pink! its older than my act businessman e71, but well it serves well.
on wednesday was the trackers inauguration service, and i got to wear that makes-me-look-zhai-but-lumpy trackers t shirt again. and my rubbish skills to play for worship. but i believe God uses our rubbishness to do great things.. our band was gathered from so many diff churches and playing together for the first time, we were really afraid. however xiaorong said God uses our unpreparedness to, and that made sense to me, looking back at the number of times i had to do at hog things and the youth camp. sheldon is a fantastic drummer! after which, ronda and dionne and the whole lot of them together with dear kheng hao popped up with a brownie for charlene and i! charlene is also another zhai zhai jiejie that i have e privillege to work with from last year's trackers! truly both of them, xr and charlene are great examples to me:)
the brownie was so good everyone wanted a piece of it! unfortunately we didnt take many pictures together, not to mention i looked horrible so i shall post from the past!
Christabel and daye.. daye turned up during inaug too, and said he'll miss me in cj. thats rly nicee of him considering that we only played basketball together.. Chris will nevaa say she'll miss me in cj but tts because shes forward looking! to her, nothing's rly a farewell i guess? i wanna post a nicer pic of us but they're all in my old phone rar.
dionne and i never look good in pics because when one of us looks good, the other will look bad. so i compromise and chose myself instead:) if its one thing she has, its also the gift of encouragement! thanks dionne for the many sweet cards over the year and all. and your suanning on te*$ and the ducky card.
and this is ronda. i dont know how both of us got to know each other in trackers because we didnt really get to interact much (diff groups, diff mission trip, never rly met much after trackers,) but we've grown to be really great friends too. and she's a very liberal and open person, so i suppose its easy larh. of course, nicole came along the way and im mentioning her here too!
more womaniser pics, why do i look the least bad on the alumni night? hahahha. btw, that is commonwealth mrt and its also where im working now! wooo jolyn and her pokey face.
thats andrew and xiaorong. andrew i hope to see you soon! he always looks very cool, hahaa and is super fun to hang out with, crap and make lame jokes. think his suannage level is a bit higher than mine also lah. but he's more scandalous lol! xiaorong and i look super emo cause we're super posers. (sorry jestyn, and happy 21!!)
and this is INTAJ, our fabulous india mission team who still meets quarterly a year because pastor kaiming is a great follow-upper. we've shared on what happens in our lives over 08 and they are really a great source of support too. somehow, once or twice when i was at the lowest in the year, PKM organised a gathering and all of them are excellent sources of encouragement. indeed i am more than blessed when God sent such ppl into my life:) so many of them are older and more mature than me, and fun too (eugene!) and Wendy there is still with me now! i have learnt so much from her and her funny past!so, on the 9th of jan, now that i had no phone and stuff, i couldnt contact anyone after work and was feeling kind of down, knowing i had 42 smses unread because i couldnt read them and couldnt reply back. so i went to tgif because ariel asked me to. tgif is an outreach venue for Agape youth, and we get to play fun games there with other youths. however, i was shocked when only janice was there, and we had dinner together (rubbish fried rice made me so hungry cause we waited for eternity!) and i also told her that you can be called though you have no phone. (ponders)
after that, tracy and howkiat came and we played a while more before leaving to my house cause lois wanted to get smth from my sister. so tracy and howkiat told me they had to leave (for obvious reasons) and janice had to rush home.
so i was even more sian when lois walked me back to get smth from my sis, and she started going on about worship on sunday, publicity ministry, blah blah so sian. then when i reached my house door with the most "walao sian im at home before 10 on my bday!!!" attitude,
boom they all jumped out and happy birthdayed me! honestly though they claimed it was a bad surprise but it was a pretty good one to me!! totally never expected it! my dear sister and jess helped to make the HAPPY BDAY KIF on the wall as well and im really touched by how they planned everything and all. it was a great 18th surprise maans.
dear sister and dear jess!
the "laojiao" small group! which i always make fun of because of their age! but in reality they are pretty young in youth ministry. just that they''re the oldest in agape!! haha and im 18, that makes me a laojiao now as well! im rly surprised joel went, and andrew as well who just booked out that night. as well as adelle JIEJIE and van and nat, and clubber caleb! haha!
my dear small group, or rather half of them. missing are Eugene, Ariel, Kaixiang, Jacob, Ivan, val, and last but not least, DILLON!! miss you bro, hope u arent dying in bmt! to commemorate both of you,
our emo "band" shot hahahaa.
my family who claimed to have no part in the surprise. though parents fail at times, but when we look back at the big picture, in my case, from 17-18 years old, they have been great parents. my sister too, as she grew in her school and gb, i could see the ways she changed over the years (and it makes all the putting up with her worth it! HAHAHAHAH) but rly, never regret being an elder brother. unless ur sister is lois.
a very good picture to represent me and lois. HAHAHA. esp when she laughs at everything and i go dotdotdot.
janjan..
also quite a good representation of jan and i when we go high. ahhaha cause though she doesnt touch alcohol, she can be rly retarded. and we can laugh til siao. just like, rofl really! look at that face!
Alan my camp advisor, and its a pity i dont have a proper picture with Eugene, my mentor!Alan always gives me the impression of a backer. the ideas and support he gives me build me up a lot too, and so do his books haha. his suannage level is ultimate, and sometimes only both of us amongst a whole group of people will burst out laughing when he or i makes a joke hahaha. also love the way he plays basketball, super hiong!
Eugene, on the other hand, plays the role of a sayang person. he's seen me through the downest of my life. really, the mindblowing suicidal times and depression. when bombs hit you one by one. Eugene was always there for me in the serious ways, and he deliberately puts across the message to me, "im serious about being your mentor, im serious when i pray for you, im serious when you are a disciple of God". of course he's funny too hahahah.
presents!! indeed being more than blessed is an uber crazy gift from God! wooo. Keith is DA BOMB tshirt and PROFESSOR lol!!!. my super nice zara pullover, so many new tshirts, new books, cds. A STUDY BIBLE, cookie monster, crumpler lappy from my uncle. and of coursee
my new bass from my dad. its secondhand:) (like most of my gear)my dad's the best... most of the time, his presents to me are always "earned". at least to me. when i pass a test he'd thought i fail, when God aced me through Os, every year he would get me smth in between christmas and my birthday as a reward. but this year, though i disappointed and let him down, he still went ahead to let me get this bass! its not a real musicman, but it plays like one and it looks IDENTICALLY like one, complete with a decal at the headstock. and i know he may not have wholeheartedly gotten it for me, but i am equally thankful because he gave me something i didnt deserve, much like how God gives me everything i didnt and can never work for. :)
ive also seen this cute boy weekly over 08. alan, janice, lois, this boy kenneth, auntie annie, and a whole lot of others.. have became almost like a family too, though largely because we're geographically close. woo!closing off, this is my pedalboard, which i have also been NURSING and MAINTAINING over the past year.
LIFE IS LIKE A PEDALBOARD.
IT TOO, HAS GROWN A LOT SINCE 08.
A LOT TOO, HAS BEEN INVESTED ON IT.
IT TOO, needs special attention, nursing and maintainence.
you start of small, then slowly you realise what pedals you need, and what you want.
IT TOO, needs its own supply of power.
YOU NEED TO FIT THE BIG ONES IN FIRST, THEN THE SMALL ONES.
each pedal you choose and pick shine in a unique characteristic, but no one pedal can do everything on its own. therefore the pedals you use give you your sound, your identity.
sometimes, it gets noisy.
other times, you lose passion and continue playing guitar only because you have your gear to have fun.
sometimes, you rely on other sources to fill you up, but you know eventually you will have to find your source of joy (thanks eugene for lending me the red one:))
along the way, a few pedals that distract you come and you realise you dont need them, so you weed them out.
but along the way, you also find real gems, the pedals that you will keep forever.
All in all, the pedalboard grows and evolves because your sound and your music is also always growing and evolving. so more and more input, more and more output. more diversification of music.
therefore, life is exciting because we can look forward to newer things! of course we will have to weed out rubbish once in a while, but eventually, when we reach our common destination, we will look back and find that our pedalboards are finally, all filled with gems:)
whoaaaa keith zhai siol
Posted by keithc at 4:15 AM
Monday, January 05, 2009
Hello 09,Hello Love.
And i thought 08 was going to be a year of new starts, new perspectives and stuff, but it seems 09 will be one of an even greater change.
ive never made any life plans before, but now i can look into my near future for the next couple of years. im worried things still dont work out, really really worried. because if they dont, there's no way out for me anymore. i believe and trust God to take control of everything that lies ahead of me from today onwards.
Suddenly im making new year resolutions, suddenly im thinking different. usually i wont start serious, i'll leave it to when the time calls for it, but this year its just different.
it never ends with Jesus Christ dying on the cross and bearing our sins once and for all. a relationship with God is ongoing, progressive, always exciting and full of hope. And we gotta keep growing because we love him so much:)
09 will be when my sis takes her Os and my folks in CJ take As. Happy new year to all!
