Caroling with AG16 was on the 23rd of December 2008this post was actually typed out on the 2nd of January 2009haha yet another nite of caroling, this time i was playing the guitar together with kin yip......good thing i bought/brought the guitar strap for my ovation.....its really useful when caroling from place to place, then u wont havta worry about ur guitar slipping down off ur body, esp mine cos the back of my ovation guitar is actually rounded, (if u didnt noe already) for betta sound projection outwards/frontwards onli.....pastor eddy brought me to buy it for $500.....i like it quite alot heh.....its jus special to me, and not even the most expensive or rare guitar can replace it cos this one's mine.....well mabel asked me to play guitar when i was having our dinner/supper with ivan and the jamir sisters, dats like super last minute la.....but its ok la jus dat the onli thing is i'm not dat confident about playing christmas carols cos i noe from some experience dat christmas carols are quite hard to play cos come the chord change is jus uber fast, some the chords are quite unfamiliar and havta switch between them all dat......but i agreed to play despite my lack of confidence in my playing skills, i've been rusty as well, haven had time to touch my guitar baby for awhile somemore, well at least i was playing with kin yip, which made it slightly betta cos i guess he can play christmas carols betta........hmm i was very late to meet them in church cos i took too long on the comm, jus checking facebook and my mail and stuff, how time flies argh.......so sorry i was late guys, if u actually read this......well the first place dat we went was some old folks home, (All Saints Home, i remember now) uncle michael drove us (ying quan, alethia, rachel, sarah, ruth, kin yip, chris wu, tim sng and i) in the church van.....we actually got there earlier than mabel who was driving a car and she left first......haha she got lost again heh, oh so typical of her......we sang to onli about 4 or 5 residents......we didnt play much difficult songs so i managed to play jus normally lol....after dat we went to....(i cant remember where at first, but i realised i still have the email they sent out in my hotmail inbox so here goes......) Tan Yew Seng and Angie Tan's house heh....this is the home of the ever so generous Tan family, with clare (one of the singers in the "Its A Christmas Thing"), the other sarah tan (not the sarah tan bee hui the runner in my ag) who is also an 87-er who jus got back from overseas, and brian.......they are the heirs to the Tan home la haha.....well we went there last year too and we had a feast as well, which was like the bulk of our dinner and stuff......hmm i really thank God for their generosity and kindness for them to invite us to their place to carol with/for them and their hospitality as well......hmm pastor david played on my ovation on his favorite carol at their house too! (wait i went to find the pic dat ruth took with her cam & posted on facebook).....oh ya sarah (bee hui), ruth and rachel ng performed "we are the reason" in sign, while the rest sang and kin yip and i played for it......can tell we quite died playing it la, those unfamiliar and normally untouched chords.......the onli part we played the best for dat song was the chorus cos it was easier........
well after the very good meal at the Tan's, we proceeded on a very long journey to NUH to visit a Patricia Chou, who had leukaemia and had been warded for quite some time i think.....anyway cos i was late so i was kinda sitting in the front of the van, kinda alone, with chris behind me, and the rest sitting facing each other, talking crap and joking......i was kinda alone cos the only person i could effectively talk to was chris and its not like i have absolutely so much to talk to him like i can talk with andrew or titus like dat so we jus ran out of topics to talk about after awhile.....so i spent most of the time jus fiddling around with my guitar, playing the bass notes of "dare" by gorillaz or trying to play some of the harder carols while trying to read them in the dark, after awhile i was bored so i whipped out my trusty mp3 player and continued my movie of ultraviolet which is kinda an old show but since i hardly watch movies, its new to me.......we got to NUH shortly after.......kin yip decided not to bring out his guitar cos we had to be quiet in NUH, plus he didnt have a strap......it felt jus tons of wierd carrying my guitar into a hospital la, like i was breaking the social norm dat hospitals are meant to be solemn and uncheerful, emotionless places......but i guess it must have been wierd seeing so many people wearing formal and all, plus a violinist and a guitarist bringing their instruments into a hospital, travelling together......soon we reached her ward and we were told not to make so much noise so as not to disturb the other patients......end up chris played for most of the songs, some i onli did lite strumming (dat was if we were playing on the same key in the first place), it was hard to coordinate cos the song sheet dat i had was in a diff key from the songbook chris was playing with, so initially chris wanted me to start then he follow in the same key and all but it failed so chris played violin for most of the songs lol......the most champion thing chris did was show me the songbook with all the 'dao gay' and he said "i forgot my theory already.....is this in D?" i went like "eh! i dunno 'dao gay' u ask me for wad?!" LOL......good thing alethia was next to him and she like confirmed it was in D....almost died in laughter and unbelief lol, but socially speaking u cant laugh in a hospital, much less in a ward so i didnt laugh.....but dat being said and all, i saw the state Patricia was in and my heart really went out to her, she was on teh oxygen mask and the density of the air (i asked chris about the display of the machine) was actually quite low, much lower than an average oxygen density for a normal person.....and she was like gasping for breath, breathing very labouredly......chris was saying dat with the mask it was low density already, without it would be much worst......i cant imagine exactly how much pain she was in.......my heart went out to her and her husband, like i could feel jus a little bit of the pain they must have been feeling......well after dat episode, we headed back to bishan (i think) or was it elder chou's house im not sure......anyway we also visited elder chou at his place where we were treated to a wonderful green bean soup made by our host's family member herself, i had 2 bowls of it, wonderful fruit cake some konnayaku jelly and alot of drinks......we also visited rowena and her mother at their home....i was kinda reminded by mabel's memory dat rowena's mum did say sumtin at one of the (now-abolished) yw sessions, speaking about rowena's condition and i remember she is our age too.......we had lots of stuff to eat there as well but we had no time to eat there cos we had to go to our last house, it was like 2300-ish already, so we packed some food along the way, some buns and a few packets of drinks.....the girls did their "we are the reason" 'item' again for both houses, woah hard stuff....well our last stop was to this guy named john's house......i dunno if u see him around church before.....well he is the guy dat walks around with a limp and most of the time he walks around using a walking stick.......he teaches tuition to some little children......i think kevin got tutored by him before......well yeah dats the one......we went to his house as our last stop at about 2345 thereabouts....super late lol.....but i think he stays alone so not so bad i guess......but anyway he offered us wasabe peas which i so geniusly took and realised dat they were more potent, i think i gave some to ruth and i cant remember who else.....we didnt completely finish the packet and it was thrown away by tim i think oh wells......haha ale caught some couple making out in their car by the road or sumtin heh.....she went like "eh get a room la" qing yuan : "technically they already have one....." ale: "no! but they should at least like park in some secluded place away from the main road...." then they all started discussing wad ale should get off the van and do like teach the guy how to kiss and make love i think......"you should do (this) in (a certain way)......" lol.......when we reached the church, (pastor david had left slightly earlier and reached his home before us) the church gate was locked, could be expected........so i climbed in but couldnt find the caretaker anywhere lol......kin yip climbed in too, saying there was some lever we could release to manually pull open the gate.....but we couldnt find it in the dark (even in the day oso cannot find cos i dunnno wad to look for heh)......so i had to go up to pastor david's house to ask him to come down and help us open the gate cos uncle mike had to park the church van and aunty lily had to get her car which was parked in the vicinity of the church.......end up aunty jenny (pastor's wife) came down to open for us, pastor david was in his pjs quite a funny sight heh.....when we were all done, mabel very kindly sent me back home, of which im very grateful......haha somebody made a comment "daniel and ruth should not sit together in the same car!" haha i mean its true la, she stays in the west while i stay in east but they put it in dat way sounded abit funny heh.....i think lucas sent us both back before....woah man, the amount he or his parents must spend on monthly petrol fees must be quite abit.....im gonna treat him to a drink or sumtin for sending me home so many times more than one......well for mabel too of course.....and andrew......next time when i have a car i'll send ppl in my ag and my frens home too i guess WHEN i do get a car.......haha mabel is one kiond of a joker.......tell her directions havta tell her like 3, 4 times before she actually registers it......and another 2 times before she actually reacts heh, (i'm saying this for fun onli, not dat im not grateful for her sending me home)......super funny la.....but somehow getting sent home in her car is quite different from lucas sending me home, mayb cos i noe lucas betta in some guy ways i guess, we did grow up together, well come to think of it mabel and i did grow up together as well but she disappeared from our lives after around p6 i think, back then when we jus went into yd classes........good thing she had sarah in the car with her, if not i really dunno how she is going to get home from my place, she'll jus get lost la.......well dat concludes the nite of caroling with ag 16........i slept at 7am dat nite cos i was doing nonsensical nothings jus checking my mail and facebook.....dunno how the time passed so fast lol.......oh wells i got up jus about an hr or so before to get ready to go for caroling at food for thought, another last minute request to play guitar by ruthless jamir.....post ended on 02/01/09 1956hrs
tracy kee: hi mop....yeah i always had a blog since not sure when......nice of u to drop by haha.....
sarah ang dao hui: did i get the correct sarah? haha.....erhm yeah same as the above.......
actual yf caroling day was 231208
(post started on 231208 @ 0344hrs
and finished on 241208 @ 0533hrs)
hi haha.....so sorry people who normally check in and find dat i haven updated in so long.....wad can i do haha except apologise......erhm i didnt want to leave this stagnant on purpose but i've jus had so many things to do dat blogging has become very low on the priority list.....
recently i haven had much time during the weekends, my weekends are always so precious and not to mention packed......i always want to do as many things as i can with the little time i have in the weekends.....my mom always say i everything oso want, which i admit is kinda true alot of the times....the result is im always rushing for time jus to squeeze in another activity or event during the weekend so as expected the time for blogging almost doesnt come by easily even if i set my heart on blogging, i will somehow get caught up with doing something more fun i guess like trying to complete a certain game or sometimes jus surfing online alone will take up all the spare time i have so i dun have the luxury to slowly sit down, gather my thoughts and churn out one the long posts dat is so normal for my blog nowadays.....guess i do havta specially set aside a day meant for blogging, but if dat were to happen (dats a really big if), i can guarantee i can probably rant a post so long it may be the length of 3 or more of my normal posts haha......probably...well enough nonsense, i jus meant this as a short update, promising of more to come la.....it will come when it comes, im thinking of writing a short book on my blog which would hopefully make it more interesting lol....complete with the prologue, the main body with a few chapters and also an epilogue, but it has no happy ending heh, so its not a storybook rite? genius haha....
well i jus wanted to say something about caroling today.....i wore my new mandarin collar white shirt there......hmm let me see this was one of the 2 shirts i bought which cost 102+ altogether, the other one is the red one i wore for the musical, cna go see on facebook.....
i felt i had enough (ok mayb good is a betta way to describe it) sleep cos the previous nite i slept at like 3 plus then i woke up on caroling day at about 1330 like dat....the sleep felt good but still i noe sleeping at such wee hours is damaging to my body, today even worse, its like 0435am and im like still awake blogging, haven gotten down to bathing yet haiz....i will probably sleep at 0530 when this is done and probably wake up at like 1630 later hahah....ah my weird sleeping patterns, so unhealthy....wad to do....i'll sure want to catch up with normal sleeping patterns when i can......im dying now la seriously, well not literally but yeah.......i've got the 'christmas season, coughing, sneezing blues'....( a line from on of the songs in the "Its A Christmas Thing" musical by the way if u didnt get to catch it)......my eyes are tired and i have been rubbing both of them, my nose is red from all the sneezing (probably sinus la) but its getting betta thankfully.....ah i need sleep but i can onli get normal sleeping patterns after christmas or so i guess.....haha digression, now u see y i could probably type a 3 normal posts long post haha.....
well back to the yf caroling....it started very early today so my breakfastlunch was wad got me thru the day before tiny snack size bit of food came along......i ate some biscuits and a cheese and apricot jam sandwich after waking up so thank God it lasted me until like 7 or 8 plus......andrew didnt eat at all after waking up so he was very hungry by the time we stopped at gardens......but he couldnt go out and buy something to eat.....too bad la who ask him not to eat anything after waking up lol.....anyway i could tell dat alot of ppl were wearing very nice dresses and shirts for caroling this year.....hah random comment....anyway bj spoke to us on the reason on y we carol before we started, he said sumtin about isaiah 53, i'll go and read it when i have the time....oh ya we carol to proclaim Christ's name and tell others wad He done for us at the cross.....
we went to this lee ah moy old folks home first, the design of the home was like a gloomy and lonely and sad place (to me dat it), mayboo pointed out the called their resident in-mates, dats like for prisoners......even us national servicemen are not called dat la even though its kinda similar to prison lol......we had quite a big group of us walking around the long, narrow corridors of the home and like 2 guitarists, one was jerry all the way in front and the other was joe tee i think, somewhere in the middle or so.......it was quite a mess i must say haha.....cos by the time the info got passed down to the last few ppl dat they were singing a particular song, the front few had already started singing, then becos the middle guitarist cant possibly hear the front guitarist at all, he jus starts the same song as well at probably a line or 2 later......it was jus confusion heh, the front half dat could hear jerry would sing along with jerry then the back half dat could hear joe tee followed joe tee, the middle parts were jus confused who to follow so jus anyhow sing lol......hurhur i noe cos i was roughly in the middle heh.....we did dat for quite awhile lol, then finally we went to 2 rooms and the front part was in one room, the back part was in the other, then timmy decided dat we should jus stay there instead of move along with the front group so we jus sang our own carols, different from the front group.....
we stayed there for awhile, like 5 or 6 carols then when it was time for us to go off then we walked out, caroling as we walked well abit onli la, most dunno which part of "we wish u a merry/blessed christmas" to sing lol so jus anyhow bomb oso lol......in dat room, there was this one gentleman dat said "thank you very much for coming" when i wished him merry christmas and he said it in sucha way dat really impacted me in some way i cant really tell, he was very sincere and he realy meant it.....my heart went out to the man lying in his bed in dat room, in a sense of pity and yet care.....there was another man who seemingly was more chatty and aware of his surroundings and he didnt seem like he was the resident (or in-mate) of the home, not to mention he was the only one who was walking around when we caroled.....when we sang "God sent His Son" he was like shaking my hadn profusely la haha....first he shook my rite then with 2 hands, after dat i jus felt my other hand hand should go up too in courtesy which i later found out was a bad move haha, dunno y i did it oso.....end up he was shaking both my hands profusely and swinging them around left rite and up down lol oh wells......gayle and i oso talked to this resident who was lying on his bed and could sing some of the carols in his own slurred speech kinda way, i didnt bid goodbye to him tho hmm.....then we proceeded to another much smaller home which i cant remember the name......
(well danlee goes to sleep after bathing here, at about 23/12/2008 6plus am...then recontinues on 24/12/2008 0228am.....the crazy waking hours...zzzZZzzz....well and raking my memory for stuff i wanted to blog about)
well caroling at the smaller home was much more organised than the first....at least we all were singing the same carols at the same lines at the same tempos haha.....well when we were singing, we were supposed to interact abit with the residents (not in-mates this time haha) but i saw like those in the room were like jus singing there and not shaking the residents hands or wishing them blessed christmas etc.....like they were shy or something lol....so i had to initiate sumtin, being an older one.....i went to shake the hand of a resident who was awake when we were caroling.....at least some ppl starting shaking the residents hands then.....oh wells......then in between caroling, sarah ang dao hui (haha) became known as the (lousy) pail for tracy kee the mop hahaha.....its like super funny and sarah is like kinda retarded in onli the slow kinda way haha, kenna jack big time oso jus "huh i dun wanna be a broom, i rather be a pail...." one kind of self jack lol.....after it all we gathered near the home entrance where we has our first bite of something......they provided water in packaged cups and alot of quaker muesli bars of a few flavours supposedly one for each of the carolers or sumtin.....then there was this brown rice snack thingy which was totally tasteless, they were passing it around on our bus like way after we left dat place lol......everybody who tried it said it was taseless, like jus eating starch or sth like dat....
after dat we were an hour too early for our next stop, salvation army grace haven, which was a children's home so we dropped by gardens church ....we had to register our names and nric for the salvation army place lol which was abit dumb cos even if we didnt register,. there wasnt anyone to check the number of ppl who actually went into the home with us wad......well andrew was uber hungry then but too bad it was quite unheard of to go out and buy food anyway....
well so we proceeded to grace haven.....initially i thot it was an all girl's home, or so i was told by the best (kenji).....a lil suprised to see younger guys there at first.....then i felt i had to go over there and interact with the guys there....abit wierd at first cos i jus introduced myself to them and wished them blessed christmas....some of them jus shook my hand and held it there for quite awhile....which is wierd cos i really dunno wad to do, do i pulll my hand away violently, which would be rude by the way or wierdly let them hold onto my hand until they do let go? one little kid tried to bite my hand or salivate my hand when i wished him blessed christmas lol....i felt so disgusted after dat.....but oh well i didnt show it (i hope)...well i'll agree with joe tee on this, they really do have many diverse backgrounds and the spectrum of the types of youths there is really larger and far by the wayside (is dat the phrase? i dunno, cant be bothered to think so much, its like 0415am now la).....i cant help but notice a few of the kids are from ah beng backgrounds, meaning like speaking vulgarities here and there, some abit more violent than others....stuff like dat, i guess i can really relate to this kinda thing cos i was from a neighbourhood skool and i had a few frens who were like dat or way worst....so i've seen alot and the thing about these kids is i emphatise with them cos they all display this kinda behaviour becos of underlying reasons as diverse as their backgrounds they come from.....but really i dunno how to interact with them, without coming off as seeming too righteous or sumtin like dat.....i dun think i see this as a ministry for me to go into yet but i felt abit helpless on how to deal with them then.....
well over at grace haven, there was a decent pa set up, all brought from bishan and stuff, including the mics, mixer and high hat or sumtin jeremy played and perhaps sumtin like a portable drum and some waist level bongo drums or sth like dat.....they (daryl on his charis, david heng on guitar, jeremy khoo on the high hat thing and the drum 'box', david bob on guitar, and linus on the bongo thingy) performed an item called "Lord of the dance" which is probably a contemporary piece.....given dat they rehearsed at least 8 times for one performance alone, it was awesome, as usual daryl never fails to impress......but i felt dat tho it was good i dun think it was something the children could fully appreciate for the message daryl meant to bring across thru it as much as it being jus another "ordinary" good music performance......it was hard for them to fully grasp the meaning of the song la, mayb cos of age and mayb abit to do with background......some of the boys i was sitting with kept looking at the back of the place where we were seated, on following the directions of their stares and incessant pointing here and there, i saw they were looking at rachel ng, alethia tiang and gayle ng standing at the back, whoooo kenna distracted by pretty girls everything.....lol o_O i dinno wad to do so too bad i jus let them be lol......grayham and ibob and theodore performed "manger throne" for them too, the goh brothers were ok....ibob was doing the acoustics on guitar accompanying gray and theo played the violin.....my personal take on ibob's performance is dat he really sounded like an emo kid when he tried to sing in harmony for the chorus or sumtin, like a yellowcard version of the chorus which to me sounded abit bad heh.....i must applaud his courage for performing and singing but somehow i think his voice doesnt suit the vocal harmonising they were trying to do, sorry ibob heh.....good try tho...when we were making our way off from the place i met the guys i introduced myself to again and one of them jus grabbed my arm and asked me to bring him along with me, abit weird request i must say, i jus politely declined saying i cant bring him home....LOL.....
my next and last stop for yf caroling was theodore and grayham's house cos i was scared i wont have bus to go back if i stayed too late at megan's house which was the last stop......well nothing much to say at the goh's house...jus normal routine caroling....gray, theo and ibob did their item again, in a much quieter setting so ibob sounded even worst than he did at grace haven, he sounded jus constipated and emo.....i am not gossiping here its really how i feel.....but i dun wanna hurt ibob's feelings or like cause any misunderstandings or misgivings so i'd prefer he doesnt noe i wrote this heh.......after leaving from the goh's residence, sher, ivan lee, ruth and priscilla jamir, john and i walked out together to supposedly go eat....andrew insisted on going caroling at megan's house so we jus let him be la..... by the time we decided to go to chomps to eat/da pao, john decided he didnt want to take the risk of not having a bus after eating at chomps so he went off with sher after she da paoed her food.....i stayed behind with the rest since i said i would eat with them instead of da pao, taking the risk of not being able to catch the last bus.....i ate prawn mee which was really quite good i must say, altho slightly more pricely than the normal prawn mee, it had newspaper cuttings and all ma, the stall is called the penang prawn mee stall or sth like dat....ivan and i shared a towering lychee drink dat cost $3 which was quite ok i think for the amount we had.....ivan told us about the way he and his 2 other eating buddies normally eat at chomps, depending on how hungry they are....well they would pool like $20 each and jus order food then most of the time they finish them up la! wow madness.....after eating we saw a 73 bus coming so ruth and i ran for it, haha priscilla had to take out her heels to run barefoot heh....turns out it was the wrong 73 haiz....well then we finally took the rite 73 and then i found out dat i had already missed the last 59 bus so i took a random bus to toa payoh int and inquired which buses were still in operation (the wayward brother had already called earlier, dat genius didnt even noe the fastest way to get home lol, so i told him take bus from megan's to bishan and take a straight bus home, luckily for him (and myself) the last bus for a straight bus from bishan had not gone yet so i told him to wait for it lol)......then i took 28 from toa payoh, assuming i would be walking home or sumtin, it was quite a distance lol.....then end up i took the bus my brother was on, at one of the bus stops both buses stopped at.....thank God dat bus was still operation if not i would have to walk home.....well no more supper next time if its getting late, unless i have my own means of transportation other than cab lol....a bike of my own would be nice (if my mom doesnt kill me first), quite cool man, leather jacket, killer helmet and a fast bike for me to zoom around, dangerous la but the thot alone is thrilling enough.....i probably wont be able to learn bike ever la cos my mom is against it, even tho my dad allows it ;) he knows how to ride a bike cos he was from malaysia haha.....
well dats it i guess, i slept at like 0600+am and woke up uber late dat day, jus nice to surf online abit and see all the spamments made by valerie lew, rachel tan and whoever not on photos, woah like on msn they jus spamm lol haha, good thing i dun receive any emails from facebook from all this, was smart enough to unsubscribe from it, if not my hotmail would be like flooded la.....can u imagine like jus after one nite, then got like 50+ notifications, madness.....ok its like 0514am now la.....i shall blog about my ag caroling some other time la....
P.S. by the way i would like to know who are the owner(s) of these 2 blogs since i cant read ur blogs, i would at least like to noe who ye are haha:
http://elixirofheaven.blogspot.com/http://bleeedinglove.blogspot.com/
sher: so it was u i was talking about ah, thank u for admitting
sandra: okk thanks for the new link, i WILL update the link soon.....when i have the time haha....
er sao: ok ok i finally updated, happy? haha
valerie lew: lol stalker haha....how did u find my blog? dats the problem with public blogs, too many ppl "discover" it lol, i really should switch to wordpress soon but i cant bear to part with all my previous posts archive and yet too lazy to post them all one by one there, so i guess im sticking to this haiz......yeah la im the one and only danlee, the best ever and forever will be lol.....
et: lol who is this? im guessing from inferrence dat ur eunice tay? correct me if im wrong heh.....but i dunno anyone by dat name lol.......how u noe i'm a mad man? lol
grace lee: ok haha updated, didnt noe u read my blog too lol......thanks, blessed christmas to u too!
