Heaven's tears...

It's been a long time since I've last come home so late at night. Went to Shih Han's birthday chalet yesterday evening, and I have to say I had a good time. Chatting with old classmates, fooling around with Han's friends, playing my favourite role as the over enthusiastic camera man. Yup, it was fun. I mean, it's been a helluva long time since I've last been in the centre of attention of a bunch of gals who are 3 or 4 years younger than me? Or should I say this is the first? Drove down to Changi Village for supper with the birthday boy, Elaine and another new friend, after which it was off to explore the infamous Changi Hospital. Dark spooky place, but not quite as disturbing as the Red House. Overall, a great, fun time. Ah... I'm feelin young again.

The past week or so has been pretty eventful, in a good way, thankfully. OK, so i haven't been going to the gym as much as I should have. And maybe I'm feeling that extra flab crawling back up my belly again. But its ok, I've been busy, and that's what I like.Let's see, for memory's sake, I'll make a list of some recent events worth highlighting.

• Jamming with the band: After goodness knows how many months, I finally met up with Leaf, YJ and zul to jam! OK, we were a little rusty here and there, but I can't remember the last time I had so much fun during a jam. Even got a new song out for us to work on. And the solo I improvised on that run was pretty cool too.

• New shoes!!!!: I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked into camp one morning to see a spanking new pair of Puma shoes sitting next to my bed. A group of my MP mates, including my section commander from my trainee days, all chipped in to buy me the shoes! I don't believe it man... this is the first time in my life I've ever gotten a gift from a group of friends! I'm so so so touched... Though there was no specific occasion for giving me the gift, a number of reasons included "to repay you for all the things u did as store IC mah....", "u drive us home so many times, the shoe to pay for fuel..." and my favourite, "your old pair shoes suck!!!" Seriously, I'm so touched by the gift. I've got a new pair of shoes thanks to them!! I was way up in Cloud 9 the whole day man... One moment I'll never forget. I know I've said it a million times, but once again, thanks guys. Oh and by the way, did I mention that the shoes look greeeaaattttt??

• Dinner with baba and Rong: A last min birthday dinner for Angie at Marche. Had a pretty good time hanging out with them after such a long while. Should have brought a camera though, damn. Could have taken alot of nice pics at the Esplanade. The weather was wonderful too. Hopefully there'll be more outings in the future.

• Lounging with Ben, Shuh and YK: Ben brought us to the Equinox at the Swisshotel for some drinks. Lovely place with a lovely atmosphere. If I had appreciated alcohol more, I would say that the drinks were lovely too. But after a tall cocktail and a martini, I was washed out. Head pounding, neck aching, I went home a shaken and mildy tipsy man. Slept like a baby that night...

• Family outing: Another first. My family went out for lunch at some Thai buffet restaurant with David. Can't remember when was the last time I went out with my parents and my sis, but it turned out to be much better than I expected. Excellent food that was marred by your typical Singaporean buffet-goers. After lunch, my father brought me, sis and David to Sim Lim (mother went for her own shoppin) to buy some stuff. Got me a new set of headphones for the PS2 and a MP3 player jack for the car. Cool gadget... All in all, it was pretty enjoyable.

• Birthday celebration for Shuh: Tried my best to make her as happy as possible during my time with her. Dinner at Marche again (see where the flab's comin from?), followed by a brief meeting with some of her skating mates at the Esplanade (who thought that me and her were "pa-toh-ing"). After which, it was off to our fav spot at Kallang, where I gave her her present and card. She liked it alot, thankfully. Hug, hug, laugh laugh, picture taking, flash flash. And I sent her back to her place, where she met another guy friend of hers (filthy rich prick who drives a Merc S class). Somehow, I get the impression that she appreciated his (expensive) gifts more. Nothing said bout the message I wrote on the card either. Oh well... it was still a nice outing. At least I contributed a tiny bit to making her happy on her ultra-packed birthday. If that's all I can do, then... oh well.

• New year celebration: A bit of a pickle, this. The initial plan was to goto the Sentosa countdown party; Shuh had gotten me a ticket. That didn't materialise, and a trip to the Esplanade to see fireworks was proposed. But due to a lack of company, that was scrapped as well. Finally, Zouk was the only remaining option, but I backed out myself. Didn't want to club with a group of people whom I wasn't familiar with. So.... silly little depressed me spent the last night of 2004 playing Silent Hill 4 with my sis instead. Scared ourselves silly in the process, but all in all, it didn't turn out to be such a bad idea after all. Must play our favourite game more before she flys back, which is *gasp* in 2 weeks time!!

Well, that just about sums up all the events that I can remember. Plenty of nice memories to cherish from all of these outings.

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The recent tsunami tragedy is just about the most disturbing and saddening natural disaster to have affected me. To be honest, the reality of the situation didn't hit me until I received 2 tight slaps from Life itself. Firstly, my platoon sergeant still hasn't been able to contact his friends and family in India since the waves first hit. Secondly, I downloaded a couple of home videos made by Caucasian tourists whom were at different coastal locations which were affected by the tsunamis. I saw, in one of the videos, a father and his young son, desperately clinging to a platform for their lives, only to be washed away into the murky sea water that was destroying everything around them. Their bodies just disappeared into the brown rushing water, and in less than a second, they were no more. The camera man, and others around him, were totally powerless to do anything. In that video, I saw 2 people being swept, quite literally, to their death. Nuff said.

The title of this entry is called "Heaven's tears", as is my MSN nick. I have made a personal link between the recent wet weather in Singapore and the tsunami tragedy. When was the last time it rained so much here? I don't know why, but somehow, I get the impression that all this rain is Heaven's tears. Tears of mourning, for those who perished in the floods. Of course, one could argue that this whole event could be Heaven's will, but who are we to know such things? It's just a thought I had...

It feels weird for me to type this, but as a closing note, I really really hope that all the survivors of this disaster will pull through and find the strength to carry on with life. Their suffering really puts our problems into perspective; I remember being depressed over Danielle, but by God, what's my suffering compared to theirs?! Not even a pin prick! And to those who lost their lives in the floods, I hope that they have all passed on to a better place, where they won't have to suffer and be afraid, ever again. May they rest in piece...