Just Jie Yang now.

Hmmm, where should I start? I haven’t really been very religious myself, because cynicism is imbued in me, and naturally religion and me aren’t the best of friends, but still, my family background is one that is Buddhist, more specifically towards Tibetan Buddhism, so yeah, went for this religious dinner that my parents were invited to and had quite a cultural eye-opener. Ian was there too!

I’m really sorry about the lousy camera angle and framing, but the table we were seated at was not exactly at the best spots in the erm, place. So yeah, had to make do. The woman in front had the same phone, but I think her photos turned out much lousier cause she kept zooming in, and any Tom Dick or Harry knows that zooming in just makes the photo more pixelized. Anyway, the above was the chanting of prayers before meals. It was very, very, very mind numbing, the guttural chanting was so deep that I could barely focus on having the meal till it ended.

It was a vegetarian meal, by the way. The “cod fish” was actually faux meat but they even had like black I-dunno-what plastered on to make it look really like a piece of cod fish meat. The man in the photo was carrying a painting around that was bound for auction, which is to raise funds for the Buddhist centre.

They had this lion-dance thingy, except that the lions are yaks (it originated from Tibet), but I think it’s easier than lion dance. Not really sure if you can see the bull from here. Couldn’t really capture it in time.

Testing out the paranoma shot function on my phone…

Making it a point to take photos of those who are present. My aunt and brother. Dad and mom were seating at the VIP table with the 19th incarnation Buddha (if I remember correctly) and some other major contributors to the centre. Very cool, it is said that Dalai Lama visited him? Not very sure, but there was this occasion where he came over to bless my house and it was very grand. Had to get like new crockery and everything for him to use.

The best picture of the night. I am not sure whether to feel happy or not.

More, formal, photos taken at my aunt’s place. I look strangely, like an adult now. Like older than 17.

Second brother with his blasphemic fashion sense and me. He dressed up really nicely today though.

3 generations together.

My oldest brother. He just cut his hair. Looks much better now too. I’m the only weird looking one in my house now because I cut my fringe myself (all hail Sheila.)

Will do up my resolutions soon when I become more cheery.

This festive season, as like recent years, I’ve helped my mum send out emails to her friend in the US, which has been a chore because she dictates really, really slowly, and does not let me rephrase what she has in mind, till this year, which I did help to modify every sentence that sploshed out of her mouth.

So, imagine my utter shock when I received another email from Auntie Hazel, my mum’s friend. I was like, oh god, another e-card to play for my mum/another photo for mum to gawk at.

But she wrote this:

Hi Jie Yang,

Thank you very much for your well written greeting card! Your mom must be very proud of you. Keep up the good work! You have a wonderful mother. Do treasure her. Please tell her that I miss her!

Here is wishing you and your family happiness, prosperity and continued success in 2009!

Auntie Hazel

I guess I should post what I wrote before I get whacked over this egoistic post.

Hi Hazel, nice to hear from you again, I’m sure your three lovely kids bring you bundles of joy everyday. Seeing Christina now is like seeing Hazel Neoh back in the days of ME How old are your children, by the way? My memory is failing me haha. Amanda resembles William, and William resembles your Dad hahaha. When will you be back? I will definitely cook your favourite soup when you all return for a visit. Oh yeah, how’s John? Is he spending more time with the growing kids. What’s going on in your life, dear? I hope you are not wasting your days away like me in another distant land at the side of the planet. Do find time for yourself, don’t be like a gong gong like ME.

My children are doing great; eldest son Jin Yang has just turned 21 in April, he’s at Singapore Management University taking a double degree in Business Ed. and Economics; second son Shen Yang is serving National Service in the Military Police division, no chiong sua, no chiong hai , almost back home everyday; my champion Jie Yang will be slogging his guts out waging war at the Cambridge A levels so as to bring great honour and glory to the Lee family (he is typing this message). Your Ah Soh friend here still lives life with passion and compassion and is living to the fullest ridding the house of dirt and clothes of stench, nourishing her children with the best nutrition available to mankind. All hope remains in her heart that her children will leave this nest as soon as possible. Please help pray for them when you’re in church. You won’t forsake me.

Oh and my husband, Patrick, has been hit by the economic crisis and he has grown poorer since then, but got over it, so don’t worry for us.

Once again, wishing you all a great year ahead and joy, fun and laughter for the Yuletide season under the mistletoe of tomorrow.

Swe Lan

I feel so good already. I think this must be what they call the festive joy.

I feel really bad about myself now, and I’m once again back to being an asshole because I went blog-surfing, and I found a lot of good reads. By good reads I mean those that I can laugh at them silently for more than 1 minute just reading what they write, or looking at their photos, and by excellent reads, I define it as recommendable to my friends (for all the wrong reasons).

If I reiterated here what I’ve told a few people so far about the links that I’ve given them, I think it’s bye-bye for me (perma demerit points). I’ve found a hell lot of people’s blogs, (volleyball guys, classmates, schoolmates, whoever, whatever) which gives me wonderful leverage onto how their minds work truly and it amazes me truly that even the ________________ can ____________________ so greatly.

Karma will visit me one day but then again it’s already a regular visitor so there’s no point worrying about it I guess.

And I guess it’s the very reason why I don’t blog-surf very often. Nonetheless, if you wanna know what I’m reading, just talk to me! (You must be black-hearted as well.)

Today, I went to play squash with 3/10 of the class guys, then went for lunch, a terrible steak at Prince, by the way, and only a piece of bread, then studied with Andre and Sherwin. Tried to study. Prince is a freaking scam, you know, the waitress told us that they were short of bread, then gave us only one piece each (norm is two), then went on to serve the waterpolo team, I suppose one piece each too. This is what I called major !@#$ed-up.

Anyway, today’s focus is on Andre. He’s so cute.

Stop trying to point your third finger at me la, I praise you leh.

You broke my heart, Dre.

Andre is a kind and helpful boy, with strong Confucian values inculcated in him since young. He likes to help people in need. But most of the time he’s in need instead.

The newest B-boy move created by him. The half-blink.

Let’s stay clean together forever, dre dre!

Okay, I know I’ve been more naughty and knotty than nice this year, and there was no present under my bed when I woke up, which has been happening since, urm, 10 years old, I think, but still, I received a pen, one pen from my godmother. So that is kinda like, Santa’s revenge on bad kids.

So yeah, went over to my godmum/aunt’s house for some family gathering of sorts, which objectives include deciding when is the reunion dinner for chinese new year, as well as what is the menu for the reunion dinner. Anyway, I think I am getting sick of company that is not of same age as me, because those who are older are just really irritating asking me why am I so tall and how old am I and what is IP, and those who are younger are just too innocent to remain within 2m radius of them. I only did feel comfortable in the presence of my cousin who is same age as my second brother. I’m not exactly close to any of my relatives too, so yeah there you have it.

My mum, my cousin, my niece, my cousin/godsister, my niece (from left).

Santa (when he was young).

Santa’s elf (before the shrinking process).

And the devil of my godsister, pardon me, I meant business-mindedness, entrepreneurial spiritness of my godsister never fails to amuse me. She took my brother’s dollar for a 10 cent payment, and told him, no change, when the coins were rattling rather nosily in the metal tin nearby (in her hands).

10 cents, Big Aunt, 10 cents.

And let’s do the merry jig for all those revenue made at zero cost.

My kind cousin offering cookies. Really nice. Decadent, as she says.

And my evil second brother tries to scam our niece of her chocolates (using his lollipop). We were playing bingo with a real bingo machine and cards, unlike those Bingo sessions during CME sessions in the auditorium.

Everyone had to continue playing Bingo for about 4 more rounds after everyone won so as to let my niece win. Who says we aren’t teaching the younger generation that winning and losing is part and parcel of life?

Playing ball at the porch. My godsister says she loves volleyball. Shame she doesn’t have one, nor know how to play it.

So it became jogga bonito for 5 mins, and then we left for home, where I relish the comfort of the sofas and considerably less adult + kid company.

Merry christmas, once again.

Went for some dimsum buffett at Hotel Penisula with the volleyball guys. Was swamped by siew mai and cha shao bao at the end, and the restaurant is such a homie, they run out of har gao and guo tie. I don’t know what kind of restaurant actually doesn’t order enough food when they expect such great demand. Anyway, the food and company was good.

Chen Xing: (in Chinese) “All those food that isn’t ours came, but all those that we order, all never come.” Another moment in time to put in volleyball montage. Junde took on a plate of kangkong that no one ordered, aiding his digestion greatly.

Went Haji Lane with Davin after that. It’s just at the back of Raffles Hospital, which is beside Bugis, in case you were a klutz like me. The lane isn’t fantastically long, and the shops are mostly for those who are willing to exchange money for uniqueness, or you’re simply rich and with too much time. The cafes there are really laid back and nice too.

Having a better (handphone) camera really helps.

I didn’t get much in the end, except sharing one gift with Davin. Going out tomorrow anyway, so I doubt it’s of much concern.

Here’s a very merry christmas to of all you people out there! Especially Wei Sheng, I just saw your sms!

Had Penang Buffet (it’s spelled with one ‘t’, please do remember) at York Hotel, which is just at the back of Far East Plaza, and the interior design has changed since last year, but the patrons still remain in the same age group, mostly >55. Guess this testifies to the authenticity of the food. Anyway, just uploading some photos to keep in memory the wonderful food in my stomach now.

Lor Bak plus Kway Teow Soup (4 plates and 2 bowls respectively)

Char Kway Teow (2 plates)

Penang Rojak plus Prawn Mee (1 plate, 2 bowls)

Penang Laksa (1 bowl)

Ban Chang Kueh, or peanut pancake (6)

I think the auntie was quite nonchalant about my loyal, steadfast support towards the rich heritage behind her peanut pancakes. My brother ate 6 (he claims 8), so the 4 guys in my family ate about 20 all in all. I failed to reach the target of 10. Still mourning over it.

Pig.

Chendol (1 bowl). There was erm, shutter lag. My bad.

(play some music) I’m really sorry, Auntie, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I didn’t mean to make you cry but tonight, I’m cleaning out your pancakes (one more time).

Fantastic lunch. I don’t feel guilty for not playing tennis with the guys in exchange for this meal.

Quite happy today, I am finally unshackling myself from the torturous and tormenting lagginess of the N73 and moving on a new phone on Tuesday, Samsung F480.

Touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, slim and small, doesn’t cost a bomb for its specifications, what more can I ask for. I’m the 4th person in my class to own the phone, and I hope I can change the colour of the phone that I ordered, back to platinum silver cause Edmund already took black, and I ordered black cause I thought he took silver.

I know that’s very lame. I liked silver. But maybe a bit too attention grabbing if I use the silver leather casing.

We’ll know on Tuesday anyway. I’m so excited. But the only letdown is that all stock was gone by today, which means a lot of people has the same phone as me, and it won’t look that stylish.

But then again, I’m the one carrying it, right? Right. I answer that myself, please don’t rebutt.

I’ll miss my N73 though. Loads of sentimental value, loads of good moments recorded down by it, very reliable (when it was new). It’s definitely worth more than 100 dollars to me. But then again, the trade-in value applies to what it is and not what it once stored.

Had a great morning helping NJC Canoeing Club raise funds so as to triumph over our own school, we were collecting old recyclables such as newspapers, old clothing, you know, those stuff you sell to the Karung Guni (cause they really did sell it to a Karung Guni).

My primary school friend was apparently involved too, but I helped out because Davin had a contact that got us this CIP opportunity. The two vice-caps came along!

And these are the brave soldiers scavenging the land for all valuables. It was so darn back-breaking, we were split into groups, and each block we go to would be swarmed in a neat, swift manner. The response was quite warm, with Indian families being the kindest, once again.

An Indian lady told us to come back, which we did, after she packed finish all her stuff. Dear God, she had this waiting for us.

A whole, filled laundry basket filled with shoes. I saw a pair of Reebok dunks, very old school. You seriously won’t believe the junk that people have at home, I ain’t that bad after all, we had like a laptop that weighed at least 4 kg and without a CD slot, and this handphone that eclipsed my dad’s first phone. I wanted to take it home to show the old man but it got broken during the packing process, so oh well.

I did wish that I brought food along though. I ravaged a 3pc chicken meal when we went over to KFC.

To be honest, this CIP wasn’t like really for the benefit of the community, I guess, because NJC has like an alumni that donates. And this can provide funding for their club funds. But from a different perspective, perhaps, perhaps this is what we call putting their brawn to good use.