Profound Wisdom

"If God wanted women to understand men, football would never have been created ......Roger Simon

I think I can live on being misunderstood.
GO GET CHELSEA!!!

K for KARAGE

Ever had a lingering food craving that just won't go away?
Some weeks back, we had a primers camp in a flat at Punggol.
I got the primers to cook out a decent meal consisting of 1 soup, 1 meat and 1 veg.
haha. But the officers didn't have enough faith in them and had Plan B. James bought some frozen Karage chicken.
The primers expectedly had insufficient food and the officers hit the kitchen to cook up a storm.

There, i met K.

K for KARAGE.(Top Left)

"I've been thinking about you.." the song goes.
Some days ago, i thought about Karage again.
And with the encouragement of my good friends Tony and Min En(Top right, don't they look cute), we decided to make a cookout happen.

The spread resulted(Bottom left). We had, Curry Fish Head, marred only by the multiple bone structure of the wretched fish, Vegetables x2 (i can't tell them apart), Pork Chops with Hoi Sin sauce, Omelet with mushrooms, Steamed Pork, my "failed" Sweet Luncheon Meat and Tofu.

Tony and Min En did most of the cooking. I only did the luncheon meat, the omelet and the pork chops. It was fun being in the kitchen with friends. I was trying to learn how to cook the curry fish head from the real chefs.

After dinner, we tried to watch Babettes Feast, a classic film but only lasted a while. Soon ,i dragged out my old photos and we were talking about soccer. We looked through my photo collection on my "icheo" and were later urging Blackburn on to score the equalizer that never came. Oh how we taunted Daryl. It's not often that Liverpool fans are the minority. But Justin, James and me were all giving it to Daryl in the last 10 min of the game.

It was fun, all thanks to Karage.

Maryanti - 10 April 2006

It was more than a decade ago that I first met Maryanti.
She was back then still a student, and I was a volunteer at a Family Service Centre.
We were running some programs for her school and she was already such a livewire.
She went on to become a volunteer like us and we were running around conducting camps with David, Joel, Linda and gang.

Yvonne later introduced her to William at the Touch Cafe("YMM"'s Cafe). This was before Starbucks came along at its present location. She started work there and was serving smoothies and cakes to all the YMM folks back then who went to hang out after service.
We weren't that close friends or anything but she was always a bundle of joy.
I heard from William today that after Touch Cafe closed, the 3 waitresses, Josephine, herself and Candy still kept in touch(pardon the pun) a few times a week. And that was year 2000.

Today, i saw her again. But this time,there was no laughter and smiles.
Just a still figure lying wrapped in a shroud on her bed.
Cancer claimed her in her tender twenties.

I couldn't recognise her when i visited her in SGH last friday.She lost so much weight and hair. We heard she might not pull through the night and so we went to see her.There were many friends and relatives who gathered there. She was fighting for her breath and it was tough to watch. At one point, she actually sat up, looked at me and called out my name. She saw me! I was so glad she could recognise me.

But what did she see that night?
Beyond the many teary faces and dim lights of the ward 48, I think she saw fear and hopelessness. Many unsaved ones fear the end. I know Sharon shared the good news but she was resistant on Wednesday. But what went on in her mind on Friday, Saturday , Sunday and even this morning? Did she reach out to call on the Saviour?

She couldn't speak or hear very much after Friday, said her sister.
We bore the silent gospel with our presence at Ward 48 that friday night. We didn't talk but I hope she saw,understood and remembered the Savior we talked about before.
I hope she reached out.

When it's down to the one last glimpse you can offer someone, who do they see?


Goodbye Maryanti.

"In the arms of the angel,
fly away from here,
from this dark cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you feel.."

Matters of the Heart

I have to blog about this!

This is a 2nd time in 2 days someone said something about my heart.

On Tuesday, after a funeral wake, we went for BKT supper.
Ok, i know it sounds weird but we were so near Balestier. James and i could not miss out this time since the BKT store was closed on Sunday night.
Ok, i know it's probably bad for the heart.
And definitely bad-hearted yearning longingly for the BKT during the wake.
But that's not my point.
The point was what happened after that...
I was sending WC home and had to drop by the SPC kiosk to top up.
WC and I were chatting about her recent trip to China.

Suddenly, this elderly Indian man with dyed blond hair(not a lot of it) and arms full of golden bangles entered the kiosk. He was wearing this translucent flora linen shirt.He kinda looked at us and smiled at me almost immediately, like he knew me.WC and i continued chatting and this man went to pay at the cashier. As he was waiting for his turn, he turned around and looked at us again. Then, in an almost prophetic manner, he started saying things like we have good hearts, we will be of good to humanity , something else about our God..he asked about my profession and said WC looks like an academic(not uncommon remark it seems). He said he knows he cannot be wrong in his judgement. He went on to throw up some names in the education industry that he knew.Never heard of them.

It was really freaky you know.
And I actually felt I've seen that man before. Somewhere.
The only name that kept coming back to my mind was: The Devil
I dunno why. The incident that came to mind was the demonised slave girl who was proclaiming Paul was the servant of the Most High.
But it was uncanny, scary, freaky.
"You have a good heart."

And that's what my doctor said to me just now when i went to the clinic.
I did an x ray to check out my lungs and sinuses after the 3 month cough.It's april now and it's back again. =(
"You have a nice big heart."
Again, i couldn't tell if that was a complement.
Am i like, so fat, my heart is bigger than others?
Is that something to be happy about?
I have more blood pumping around?
What??!!
So i asked him to point out which was the heart.
"You're looking at it! Here!"
Like I'm supposed to know.
After he found out I'm a teacher and not some jock, he started to explain my condition in greater detail.
Blarh, blarh, blarh,..no more weekend warrior soccer for a while..(ouch!!)..blarh, blarh, blarh...
I went out to pay and OUCH!!
$49 bucks!! OUCH!!
I have a nice big heart, i now know. Not him though.
It was like the devil himself making me pay.