getting to sleep only at 4plus am on fri, and 6plus am on sat, im a wreck.
boot camp was physically exhausting as a result of the mental exhaustion we suffered.

change is good. but not all the time.
there are many underlying reasons to the way people behave.
like closing up.
preventing anyone from knowing your thoughts.

i am one of them.

Part of Fr. Joachim's Homily during evening mass yesterday that i thought was worth sharing:

"Even if the walls start crashing down right before your eyes, still, trust in God. Our lives are filled with problems so that we will not be complacent, so that we will draw closer to God. The people who have no problem at all with their lives, are the ones who truly have a problem."

i've been sleeping later and later these days. either 3plus or 4plus in the morning. cant seem to get to sleep. and i wake up at noon. so my required 8hours of sleep has increased to bout 10hours during the hols. some Ah neh family were screaming and howling at eachother at around 3plus am. wth! i stood by the window, waiting to watch some live action. and then my youngest sister came out and was surprised to see me too. haha. that's singaporeans for you. :) but i guess it's natural for me to do so cos i was dammit irritated by the noise pollution in TAMIL at the wee hours while i was playing my brick game! oh the ah nehs are a block away from us. but we have a clear view anyway. the benefit of residing at the 22nd storey. :)
it was really funny seeing the residents of that block start coming out to watch the 'show'. but the best part? there's one pathetic lady carrying her dog to catch the drama! lol. me and my sis were laughing at the extreme the lady went to.
but, enough of uncivilised neighbours.

Bootcamp for main programmers starts tmr till sun.
Torture awaits.

2 new lacoste sneakers! yay! and a Chomel necklace. :)

i have to find a new roommate.
sigh...
it wont be the same.
can i adapt to my new roomie's habits, sleeping patterns etc.?

aderat,
i will miss clapping my hands to jerk you up from your sleep in the morn.
i will miss locking our door while you're in the washroom.
i will miss going to bed earlier then you with a smerk on my face while you mugged like hell.
i will miss "pretending we're not in the room" with you, in order to skip certain hall activities.
i will miss many many things that are just gonna be memories from the new sem onwards.

how did this happen?
:(

hey there little young thing,
be glad for you've been blessed for 20 years.
the breath of life that flows in you, have been painstakingly given.

now, live your life.
the life you want. the life you've always wished for.
for life's too short to mumble, grumble and stumble.


hold on, and not let your heart be troubled.
for your God will help you.

welcome to earth once again! :)

[More photos to be uploaded once the cambodians send them over!]

Lina and me :)

mdm Kuon Nary

incomplete LOs: shan, me, edward. orchard hotel!

thailand

the stupa where the buddha's tooth relic is kept?

thais in pjs!

Float - cambodia

at ThaiExpress!

Guanyin

thai kids! :)

cambodians at esplanade

hui shan and the thais!

singapore dance group - dance horizon

cambodians

myanmar elephant dance!

getting ready for our turn for the parade rehearsal

Myanmar peacock!

sri lankans. they're damn power can do somersaults and back flips many many consecutive times!

dance horizon, and people asked me if they're from china. lol.

uncle kelvin w the cambodians

Vesak Festival 2551 '07! in conjunction with the opening of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (singapore)


got this job as a liaison officer for a week. benjamin's one of the event coordinator for this event thus he intro-ed me. anyway, more bout the job, it's actually to take care of the foreign performers that will come to sg to perform at the parade and carnival at chinatown. was hesitant to take up the job cos i have no experience. but then again, i wanna try something ive never tried before and besides, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. so i accepted, and was given the cambodians to be under my charge.


had a few meetings with ben and the other liaison officers prior the arrival of the foreign performers. we were told more bout what we have to do etc etc.
accomodation and meals are provided too!
so me and the other LOs: huishan, samantha, sherilyn, edward and gareth stayed at Riverview Hotel. basically the performers are 4 main groups: cambodia, thailand, myanmar and sri lanka.
cambodia and thailand stayed at riverview too. as for myanmar and sri lanka they stayed at Miramar Hotel which is just across the road to riverview.

Day 1 - 26may2007 [Arrival]
arrived at Miramar hotel at ten in the morning to have a meeting w ben and the LOs.
got to know Uncle Kelvin, who will be helping us out since he's very experienced in the hotel, airport and travel industry. left miramar around 11 or so. took a cab w uncle kelvin and huishan to airport. had lunch at the airport canteen. then went to T2 to wait for the cambodians.

the cambodians arrived around 2plus in the noon with ALOT of baggage. their instruments. brought them to the bus and a van was arranged to send their instruments to the temple (BTRTS). checked into riverview hotel with the help of another experienced lady, amanda.

afterwhich i sat around at the lounge to wait for the arrival of the thais wom huishan's in charge of. the thais were late cos they were questioned and detained for bringing two long knives. it's for their performance. but a very very thin one. not exactly a knife. more like metal blade. but you know singapore. so after what seems like forever, they arrived at the hotel! :)

i was shocked to see soooo many kids! i thought they're adults like the cambodians.
and what's more funny is that many of the thai kids have the same luggage. from Louis Vuitton! hahaa. pirated lah. after all the hussle, we had dinner at the hotel.
then the LOs have another meeting w ben regarding the safekeeping of passports and air tix.
yawn... just day one and i feel kinda dead tired hah.
arranged for morning calls at 0615hrs for the thais and cambodians.
day 2 will looong and dreadful.

Day 2 - 27may2007 [Rehearsal and full dress rehearsal!]
started the day waking up around 0630hrs. washed up, changed and then proceed to wake ms sim huishan up. rushed downstairs to have breakfast at the coffeehouse. had to check if the cambodians are all down alre. called the bus driver, Ah heen, to confirm the bus arrival. after breakfast, off we go to some Kim Soon Lee grounds at eunos. it's some open carpark area w a tentage set up. damn bloody bad weather. so freaking hot. all those poor performers, w their make up, costumes and dancing right under the hot sun. :(
had packed lunch from JustGreens some disgusting vegetarian food. then it was back to hotel for some rest cos night would be hectic too.

gathered at the hotel lobby at 4plus in the evening and off we go to BTRTS. dinner, at the temple and then prepare for the full dree rehearsal with 2 road lanes closed. so crowded! many people took out their mobiles and cams and click like there's no tomorrow. i cant imagine the actual parade day man. the rehearsal was okay. but kinda messy with so many working personnels and volunteers helping out for this event. reached the hotel around ten plus or so.
still had to attend a meeting w the EMPEROR of the four empires , mr ben chee at one of our rooms. meeting meeting meeting... sigh..

Day 3 - 28may2007 [out and BTRTS tour!]

all four groups of foreign performers and their respective LOs headed to Mustafa after breakfast. the initial plan was to shop at mustafa for like 4 hrs?! omg. luckily, the LOs decided to cut short the shopping time and bring them elsewhere in addition. so the thais and cambodians went to the Esplanade area after mustafa whereas the sri lankans and myanmars went to Sim lim square. had a rather fun time at mustafa SURPRISINGLY. walked around with the cambodians girls and ladies. mustafa is so dammit crowded and i have to ask for the price for many of the stuff. the cambodian women love the bangles and accessories lol. they bought alot!

Esplanade was fun. took alot of photos. had lunch at ThaiExpress. but most of them asked for no chilli. lol. you should see how the thai kids eat their packed food. the amount of chilli they eat can scare the hell out of you. it's amazing to just see how people from different countries and cultures (no matter how similar they may seem to be) have markedly different habits and behaviours. and the thai kids are very polite. unlike singaporean brats lol. (that includes me i guess hah). explained to Moni, one of the cambodian lady, about the significance of the merlion. lucky i read up bout it before this trip. haha. i think the merlion is kinda a whole lot of crap though. sigh singapore and our identity crisis. haha.

merlion = singa + temasek. (still not sure? read up, dude)

Day 4 - 29may2007 [Orchard Hotel Welcome Dinner]

quite a slack day except maybe for the night would be more tiring. free and easy for all groups. they can do whatever they want go wherever they want after breakfast. me on the other hand, have some stuff to do. watched the cambodians practised their coconut shell folk dance near the hotel for awhile. then Mr Ney Sakal, the person working for the cambodia embassy came to meet me, Mr chhieng (the leader of the camodians) and 2other cambodians at the hotel lobby. we went to the Asian Civilisation Museum to check out the area where the cambodians will be performing at night. it was supposed to be jus the Orchard hotel dinner for tonight. but since the cambodia embassy wants the cambodia group to perform for some dinner at the ACM, well we have no choice. the cambodia embassy subsidised alot of money for the cambodians trip here. so you know, money talks. after ACM, we went to Gullimard Camp to look at the floats for the parade.

went back to hotel. had a short rest then had to change into formal wear and get ready for the dinner.

the stupid dinner started very late. the cambodians and i ate like 2 courses (soup and appetisers) then had to leave for the ACM while the rest of the foreign groups get to stay and enjoy the dinner and performances. but heck, the dinner was vegetarian. and its damn bad. that's what the other LOs told me.

the cambodian dance was fanastic.

Day 5 - 30may2007 [Parade Day]

another free and easy day. had a meeting for the foreign group leaders together with the choreographers at the temple's office in chinatown. tagged along. and since i had some time, went to shop around for souvenirs for the cambodians. had lunch at riverview hotel. most of the performers did not go out. they rested and prepare for the parade at night. in the evening, all headed to the temple, had dinner at the holding area and then off to the standby area.

my my.... the crowd was like....... ........... ............

it was so warm and stuffy. terrible!

the parade was really great, somewhat like a chingay concept but more traditional type of performances i guess. and i recalled the part when we were ready to board the bus back to the hotel. omg. south bridge road was closed. and the traffic's really terrible. plus the people. i walked around like an idiot trying to 'catch up' w the bus w 20plus cambodians following behind me haha! imagine that! had supper at the hotel's coffeehouse. then meeting again. and when i finally get to shower.... ahhh it was like a feel of heaven. nice hot bath.

slept at 3am cos i was busy writing a note for each of the cambodians to put tog w their souvenirs. only managed to complete the 15 notes, for the men.

Day 6 - 31may2007 [Carnival Day]

had lotsa laughters on this day. besides the hussle and bussle of the prep for the carnival at night, i had a great time spending time w the cambodian girls and women at the holding area near the stage. Moni tried to mimicked the sri lankan dance. w the shaking of head and all. plus the coconut shells. what she did... hahaha. i shant disclose. i truly enjoyed myself very very much. all these memories will be etched in my heart forever.

completed the other 15notes for the ladies. slept at 4am! DEAD TIRED CAN!

Day 7 - 1June2007 [Departure :'( ]

really cant bear to part with them. really miss all of them dearly. especially the cambodians since they're under my charge. and not forgetting the thai kids. always so cute and polite. they call me "pi alison". which means older sis alison. lovely kids.

almost cried when i sent the cambodians off. then i rushed to T2 jus in time to see the thai kids before they left. felt so lost all of a sudden. like im all alone. like i dont know what im to do next. it had been a week of learning to be selfless, to care about other people's welfare first, to always watch over the people you're given the care of, and then suddenly i stood there at T1 alone when the cambodians left.

all im left with, are sweet memories and contacts of people i will never forget despite the language barrier.

Thank you , Lord, for this great journey and experience. for ive made many new friends. the LOs, and people from other parts of this marvellous world You've made. Bless and watch over them, wherever they may be. Amen.