spreading the christmas cheer by giving and receiving gifts.. hohoho..

merry christmas, everyone!

I'm so used to eat lunch all by myself, it felt kind of weird that today people literally took turns to ask me out for lunch.

no wonder there's a saying, 'live your life today as if it's your last'..

it's madness in orchard road this time of the year. and the rain didn't help at all.

read some good reviews on khaled hosseini's the kite runner so I decided to get one copy for myself since kinokuniya was having 20% off storewide. started reading the first few pages and I'm hooked.

tried the hongkong cafe at marina square. their french toast was good, thick but soft with sufficient amount of honey and butter on top. tomato-sauced spaghetti doesn't sound like getting along well with blackpepper beef, right? surprisingly it's not that bad. the macau style fried noodle was nice, too, although it suspiciously looked like instant noodle mixed with tomato sauce.. :)


























watched christmas with corrinne may at esplanade's concert hall. awesome. 9 songs for the first half, 8 for the second, and 2 encore pieces. it's a mixed of traditional christmas songs (o come o come Emmanuel, joy to the world, hark the herald angels sing, away in a manger), the not-so-traditional ones (do you hear what I hear, in the bleak midwinter, what child is this), a song from her second album (angel in disguise), and a few pieces from her incoming album yet to be released, temporarily titled beautiful seed (beautiful seed, five loaves and two fish, on my way).

the audience loved her so much they always started giving applause way before the last note was played. in this concert she was accompanied by string ensemble and some percussions. SYC choir joined in for the second half, blending in to the enchanting harmony. to me, her songs' winning point lies in the meaningful, honest lyrics.

the cruise was fun! and I got exactly what I wished for in the riddle-gift-exchange.. :)

some snapshot on the ship:

IT yearly gathering cum christmas party for this year: cruise to nowhere! yeaa.. :) faced quite a fair bit of issues in planning and execution stages.. from support problem, attendence, budget, response rate. and finally it's here. it will set sail tomorrow afternoon from one of harbourfront berths, sail towards the southern islands and finally back to harbourfront. I'm crossing my fingers now that everyone will bring their passports tomorrow.

helped to take charge in doing the gift exchange thingy. here's how it's supposed to be done: everyone should submit their riddles, giving hints about the christmas gift they want. riddles would then be randomly assigned. the purpose is not to get the correct gift, but more to the fun of writing and solving them. too bad our enthusiasm was not equally reciprocated. not everyone's participating. but anyway, those who chose not to have missed the fun ;)

I guess my riddle is very easy to solve. here it is:
I wish to be pampered
by a wide selection of knowledge
both hardcover and paperback
both english and japanese
in the heart of orchard road

but turned out it is not easy at all. *sigh*. should have done proper UAT prior to releasing it.. =) asked a few ppl this afternoon and their guesses are either book or dictionary.. oh no, I think I'll get an english-japanese pocket dictionary tomorrow. or maybe the japanese phrase book.. hahaha..

attended latin mass this evening at the nativity church. everything was done in latin except the reading and homily. surprisingly, this latin mass was initiated by a group of young people. gregorian chant notation is quite interesting to decipher :)

visited bliss, a cafe beside punggol park's lake, en route from church to the bus stop. nice place with cozy ambience. they have lots of alcoholic drinks, and quite a number of normal stuff too, like finger food and dessert.

life is nothing but a series of decisions.
too bad 'bingung' is my middle name.. ;)

there was a commotion on our choir group, quite a serious one, I feel. but people might just shrug it off and simply continue doing what's convenient. it could be used as a chance to improve the standard once and for all, though. if somebody can just step out and take the lead.