Cactus in the wilderness

Been feeling down of late. That same question that has kept awake on countless nights before has returned to keep playing over and over again in my mind like a broken vinyl - why am I faced with another challenge YET AGAIN just when I thought I had left one behind and could finally move ahead to straighten my life.

That being the case, I have been fasting, praying and crying out to God the past week while meditating on some scripture from Psalm 55:

'But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.' (v16-17)

This portion of scripture penned by the psalmist described exactly how I felt. Desperate, alone and drained from the many assaults that he had been put through. Truth be told, what the psalmist experienced was perhaps far worse than what I had endured, but the resulting emotions at the end were certainly similar.

On Friday night, during worship at cell, I continue to literally CRY out to God and ask for strength. I was not even interested in singing the song right, just opening up my heart and stretching out my hands, asking God that I may just dip my finger into His presence just so that I know He has not forsaken me. As always, God never disappoints.

At the end of the worship Rob said 'Rennie, God impressed upon me to share something with you'. I was speechless. From a guy who barely knew me personally, I knew it had to be from God because the words he spoke were so true and it sent a resounding vibe of reassurance ringing through my head. Here was a man with his own struggles, yet he was willing to be used by God to encourage a fellow brother who was too caught up in his own turmoil to hear God speak.

Rob went on to say that God gave him a vision of a cactus in the wilderness. On the cactus was a fruit that God was tending to. It will be tough for the fruit to bloom in the wilderness, on a cactus no less, but when the time was ripe for the fruit to be finally harvested and eaten, it would be so sweet that even the genetically engineered fruits in the world would pale drastically in comparison. He mentioned that God has seen my heart comparing myself with my worldy peers around me, wondering why I've not achieved as much as them. But God said to look to Him and nothing else because there are several areas He is continually dealing with before that fruit can be harvested.

Needless to say, I was in tears by the end of it. All because I serve and awesome and mighty God.

Light at the end of the tunnel

A strange sense of deja vu had been plaguing me the past few months. It seemed that my life has been moving in circles and I kept asking God where all this was leading me to. Desperately wanting to understand God's will for my life, I was worshipping and waiting upon the Lord more fervently that I was normally used to.

I have always wondered to God why he never gave me an interest or talent in the financial, real estate or business arena - stuff that would REALLY earn the big bucks. And suddenly, like an epiphany, He pointed me towards the direction of education. It was like a refreshing splash of cool, clear water on my otherwise sullen and distraught spirit. I had been lamenting about not being able to find a job that I enjoy or something that was recession proof so that I didn't have to keep worrying about whether the gloomy economy would affect my paycheck and other similary nonsensical thoughts.

It was an epiphay because I had always loved teaching. I love working with children because it gives me a sense of immense satisfaction by imparting my life skills and knowledge to the younger generation with the hope that my (sometimes harsh) words would help mould them into valuable and effective individuals in future.

Going so far as to submit an application for a teaching post with MOE (which I never got a reply for so I assumed that is water under the bridge), I had a friend who introduced me a training post in a company which specialises in 'contextual learning'. The beauty of this system is that it not only applies to the education field, but can also be used for corporate training. It's basically a psychological technicality that simpletons like me would not be able to wrap my mind around. Yet.

I'm not at liberty to share too many details. Yet. But God has been great and I can finally see that small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. God had opened a floodgate of blessing which I am suddenly afraid to take on because I know I am not capable of handling it with my own strength. I continue to wait upon the Lord to guide me.

I'm humbled and awe-struck by what God has revealed to my heart. All I had to do was just trust and seek him.

New beginning

After months of hesitating and asking God for direction, we finally came to a decision to leave New Covenant Sanctuary. Maybe it's just us, but Sunday after Sunday, I feel that Penny and I were just going through the motion of going to church and serving our respective ministries. I cried out to God and asked for forgiveness that we'd become so passive. What had happened? We don't even know. I guess we came to a point where we were fed up of everything going in circles, and church was the last place we'd expect to deal with spirals.

Many have asked us - what if it was God's will for us to be placed in NCS, wouldn't we be going against His will by leaving? It's a case of being stuck between a rock and a hard place - we'd be damned if we did and damned if we didn't. Again, I prayed for forgiveness and told God that I'd rather sin in an attempt to get closer to Him than to remain there and sin anyway by harbouring so much bitterness that would kill our spiritual lives eventually.

I couldn't bear to leave everything that we tried so hard to build up, but I asked myself 'Would I be able to make a difference?'. In the end, it's all about doing it for His glory and not mine. I remember the prophecy given to me was that I'd work with youth of THE church; the prophecy didn't say THIS church, so I comfort myself with the thought that it's still His house no matter where we serve.

If it was really God's will for us to be there, guess He would send a 'big fish' to 'swallow' us up and spit us out back there.

We continue to pray for the people of NCS as we begin a new chapter in our walk with Christ.

Open up the sky

It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night
Psalm 92:1-2

I've played the drums for the longest time. When I offered my talent to the worship ministry, I did it with the intention of offering my best to the Lord knowing that this was one thing I knew I could do well without screwing up too badly. I love music and I have experienced first hand what the power of worship can do. While I take my drumming very seriously, I also love to sing and it was my hope that one day I would be able to lead the congregation in worship. To lead them to that realm of worship in order experience the touch of the Holy Spirit.

I take my drumming very seriously. Really!

Since I had some kucing kurap guitar skills, Daniel thought it'd be a good idea for me to try playing some songs. I'd led a few praise songs over the past few weeks, my signature tune being Tim Hughes' Beautiful One (I chose it for the simple chord structure and crowd 'ra-ra' factor - I'd heard him playing it live at the Planetshaker's concert last year).

Just last Sunday, Daniel decides that I should try leading the whole praise and worship. Praise wasn't going to be a problem, but worship was a totally different matter altogether. I decided to try Deluge's rendition of Open Up The Sky although I wasn't entirely sure if we could pull it off since the original was so heavy.

My benchmark for a good worship song is that it has to make your hair stand the first you hear it and cry the second. I cried the first time I heard this song and I had it on repeat in the car's CD player until the A-E-D-A riff was etched ever so clearly into my head. I have since played it umpteen times in my own worship with the Lord. Somehow the words of the pre chorus and chorus kept resounding in my head.

We won't be satisfied with anything ordinary
We won't be satisfied at all

Open up the sky
Fall down like rain
We don't want blessings we want You
Open up the sky
Fall down like fire
We don't want anything but You

It had been my prayer that our congregation be overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit during worship and the chorus seemed to echo that thought. For the Lord to fall down like rain and fire to completely engulf and surround us.

I just let the Spirit lead me when it was time to play. At one point, everyone just stopped the instruments and we just sang our hearts out. It wasn't even my intention at all but it all flowed so perfectly. Amazing what God can do when you surrender completely to His perfect will.

Can't wait to do it again.

Fearfully and wonderfully made

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:14-16

The above Psalm describes how well God knows us, perhaps even better than we know ourselves. I've always thought this to be a tad hard to swallow - can it be remotely possible that someone knows me better than I know myself?

God answered that question when He blessed us with Velouria. Seeing how Velouria has idiosyncracies and physical behaviour that is a combination of both Penny and myself has convinced me and very possibly a reminder from God to tell me that He indeed knows me and can even create a 'mini me'.

The year Star Wars Ep. IV was released, I was lying on the floor of an apartment in Outram Park having my favourite drink of the moment.

Some 28 years later, Velouria does likewise on our bed. In the exact same pose.


I would have excused it if it was the left leg over the right, but noooo... it had to the EXACT SAME POSE! Albert Einstein once said 'Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous'. Couldn't have put it better myself.

Spritual surfing

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1

Faith is a peculiar thing. Just when you think you have it, it eludes you and starts whether or not God is indeed there. The Bible tells us He is always there, however our sin separates us. How then do we not sin? Is it even possible while we live in a fallen and sinful society, surrounded by secularity each day? The Bible tells us it is possible; ‘I can do all things through Him who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13). But in order to truly believe in that, we need to have faith.

Hence my dilemna. I seem to be caught in a vicious cycle. Every Sunday after a good praise and worship session or a good sermon, I feel ready to take on the world after being touched by the Holy Spirit. Somewhere along the way, just when I thought everything is going to be great, things just don't seem to go my way. So my faith gets zapped and begin to wonder if God is there. This feeling of hopelessness sometimes even carries into Sunday when we go to church, so while everyone is worshipping the Lord, I’m wondering about what is going on in my life and what God can do FOR ME. From there, my logic takes over and I begin to take things into my own hands, which of course ends up

Evertime I pray, God tells me to trust Him more. How do I trust Him if I don’t have faith? Faith comes from the Word of God, so the Bible says. But again, if I can’t even bring myself to sing a song of praise, how do I open up the Word of God to focus on what God is saying?

It’s a sucky feeling to have to go through this cycle over and over again. Each time I think I’m up there, I find myself down below again. Day in, day out I ride the tides of wavering faith.

I reckon what I’m going through now seems akin to surfing. You see a great wave, you think you can handle it so you swim out and take it on. Halfway through you get wiped out and you ask God ‘Where were You when I needed You?’ Then God picks you up and sends you out there. You get complacent and the whole cycle repeats itself. Bummer.

Maybe one day I’ll have enough material to write a book. It’ll be entitled ‘Spritual Surfing: Riding the Tides of Wavering Faith’ and go on to become a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. I’ll be filthy rich from royalties, get complacent and find myself back here again.

Washed by the Water

Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

Even when the earth crumbles under my feet
Even when the ones I love gonna try to crucify me
I won't ever ever let you down
Won't go, won't go, won't go
As long as you're around me

Washed by the Water by NeedToBreathe

Have been quite frustrated with myself of late. There seems to be so many things that I know need to be taken care of but I just never seem to have the motivation to get them done. I am starting to question if this sense of nonchalance and procrastination are a sign of a mild depression setting in.

I have to admit, I have problems even trying to cry out to God. As hard as I try, I can't seem to even sit down for 5 mins and wait on God anymore. So many thoughts stirring in my head but yet I can't utter any words to speak to Him.

Just when thoughts of trying to stay afloat and keep my head above the water in a stormy sea, God speaks to me with Washed by the Water by NeedToBreathe (just like He did before with Restore To Me by Glory Revealed). Strangely, this song has been playing in my phone for the past two weeks (I ripped it from the WOW 2009 compilation I bought) but the words suddenly rang with such clarity that I just couldn't stop listening to the song all the way back from work.

Water in the Bible symbolises cleansing and purification. I sense that God is sending me a message to purify my heart again and set Him above all else so that I can stand firm with Him.

Hebrews 10:22-23 says: 'Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.'

The harsh reality of Christmas

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

John 3:16-18

It's that time of the year again. Frantic last minute shopping, lelong sales everywhere, rehashing old unwanted presents for office gift exchanges, ugly Singaporeans exhibiting the worst of themselves at shopping centres across the island and that unmistakable monster of a traffic congestion at every corner of Orchard Road.

For all intents and purposes, I believe that Christmas started off with the right note. Although some reseachers believe that Christ was born in late October, everyone knows that Christmas is celebrated to commemorate His birth. Along the way, however, a jolly, fat, bearded old man with a hearty laugh and dressed in a red suit flying around in a sleigh driven by reindeers gets thrown into the picture. Then all hell breaks loose and people start buying presents not only for children to keep the story of Santa Claus alive, but for grown ups as well.

People know that Christmas is the time for giving, but many do so miserably more for the sake of conforming to society while missing the driving force behind the spirit of giving.

God gave His ONE and ONLY Son to die for the world, to redeem us from our sins so that we may come before Him, spotless and free from sin. Imagine that – His ONE and ONLY Son. The Lord of heaven and earth, with all the power that created the universe, who created man and everything around us, He could just give up on us and let us revel in our sin. Or worse, he could just smite us out of our very existence. But instead, He sends His Son to die for US so that we have a Way to Him, His Kingdom and hence, eternal life.

He loved and He gave. So that we may believe and live eternally. For those who don't, I can only say 'What are you waiting for?!'

How cool is that? Think of that tonight as you’re exchanging gifts.

Merry Christmas.

Proud parent moment

There are various landmark occasions that that would denote your journey through parenthood as you observe your child growing up. Crying baby out of the womb in the delivery suite? Check. Baby starts walking? Check. First birthday with lots of fanfare? Check. First day of school with video camera and grandparents in tow? Check. Second birthday with even more fanfare? Check.

Today, 1838 days after God blessed us with Velouria, marked another significant proud parent moment for Penny and I. Today was the day we decided to remove the training wheels from her bicycle. I figured since she could handle her skate scooter with ease, that same sense of balance would augur well for her when handling her bicycle on two wheels. So off to the void deck we went!

She did have some problems starting out and we had to support the bicycle so she could concentrate on getting her balancing act right. Being a proud little girl with her own ego, she did give up (albeit only for a short while) and went back to her skate scooter for a few rounds when we teased her about not being able to handle her bicycle. Within these first few tries, she did manage a short straight which ended when she reached the wall as she hadn’t figured out how to turn yet. Naturally, she got tired after a while so we decided to head for lunch.

Reluctant to give up, she requested that we continue with the cycling at the playground. Her excuse was that the many pillars at the void deck were distracting her and she needed an open space. True enough, she did manage to get it right and she couldn’t stop going on and on around the playground even as the scorching afternoon sun beamed down on us. Her bum was starting to hurt (the seat was in an awkward position) so she stopped on and off to get a few drinks. She only agreed to go up after promising her that we would come down again at night when it wouldn’t be so hot. Which we did, and she went round and round and round again.

Praise the Lord for such a wonderful daughter.

Vel turns five

Five years ago on this very day, God blessed us with a little baby girl that we would later name Velouria. Looking back, it seems like only yesterday when we were frantically driving to the hospital as Penny's water broke, then the seemingly nerve wrecking 12 hour wait as I went walking around Orchard to while my time away.

We woke up a little late - our initial plan to go to the zoo were hampered by the rain that had been coming down all night. I reached for my guitar and sang a 'Happy Birthday' for Velouria as she woke up. She thought it was quite amusing so she decided to reach for her toy guitar and joined me in a (mock) attempt to play something.

It was already quite late by the time we had washed up and packed the house a bit, and since it was a nice, lazy morning we just decided to head to McDonald's for breakfast. Being Velouria's birthday, Penny and I made a pact earlier to accede to all her whims and fancies as long as they were within reasonable means. No better way to perk up her day than to start off with a Hotcakes Happy Meal!

After a roundabout to the Science Centre and back (the crowd there was horrendous!), we ended up at the McDonald's at Jurong Green Community Centre. Tempted as I was, I decided to have my usual SME instead of the Mega SME (after the disappointing BK stacker, I had but lost all hope in these supersized burgers). Velouria, as usual, couldn't decide whether to play with her toy or gobble down her Hotcakes. I guess she enjoyed the latter more as she ended up with margarine and maple syrup all over her cherubic little face.

It was back home after that. I had to take a crap and Velouria wanted to take her ang pao that Uncle Mike had blessed her with a day earlier before we went shopping. We had promised her that since the money was hers, she could buy whatever she wanted. We never made it for our shopping trip - the lull of our comforting home coupled with the cool weather made it difficult to leave again.

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch! Already quite tired of outside food which was deepened by the thought of dining at a restaurant that night, Penny and I just raided the fridge and dragged out whatever we could to whip up a simple meal. Which consisted of (among other dishes) a minced pork omellette, stir-fried celery with crab stix (we didn't have chicken to go along) and boiled brocolli.

Tired out by the array of activities (we seem to get tired easily nowaday), we decided to take a little nap since it was still drizzling outside. We planned to hit the Toys R Us before we to Liang Court to meet Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai for dinner, but our little afternoon nap took a little longer than originally planned and we only awoke at about 6PM. A little freaked out, we quickly washed up and changed before zipping out of the house.

Liang Court sort of took me by surprise when we walked in. The last time we were here, it was still the dead town that had become so familiar ever since Daimaru and the flea market at Clarke Quay ceased their operations. Confused by the shiny bright lights it took us a while to finally figure out how to get to Dragon Phoenix where we were suppose to have dinner.

Everyone was already there by the time we found the restaurant, so the dinner got underway a short while later. The food was, no surprises here, of a standard expected from such retro restaurants i.e. yummy! We started off with sharks' fin soup, had a yam ring, Peking duck and a crispy roasted spring chicken along the way.

Velouria, of course, had fun opening all the presents bestowed upon her, among which were tau sa piah from Hong Lim Complex - my mum's idea of a prank (yes, Velouria enjoys such traditional snacks that appeals largely to the senior citizen crowd) and a colour pencil set that strangely had a price tag of £1.50 still attached to it from my bro.

After opening all her presents, Velouria got bored so she dragged me outside to the hotel's kids' corner where there was a PS3 hooked up to a plasma TV (it was very well concealed behind the TV - the only reason I knew it was there was because I saw a kid playing there as we walked into the restaurants) while everybody else was chilling inside. The only game in the PS3 was Sonic, so I turned it on for her to entertain herself.

The game pretty much sucked so she got bored after a while. Fortunately, by then it was time to head for home anyway.

As we hit our beds, I thanked God for the fabulous five years that He has blessed us with Velouria as I looked back at all the ups and downs we went through while raising her. My prayer every day is that we will raise her to be a God fearing child who will bring glory to His kingdom.

Hopefully, I will be able to attest to that a decade later when I look back.

Napoli - il giorno sei **Naples - day six**

We barely had 6 hours of sleep before we got up. Like our flight from Singapore, I reckoned we could sleep on the flight back. Our flight to Munich was scheduled to leave at 6:30AM so we were just being typical Singaporeans and wanted to check in 2 hours before departure time. I awoke at 3AM to wash up and pack up all the things one final time, trying desperately to shove all the junk food that we’d bought without crushing the two huge bags of potato chips into our hand carry luggage (we could munch on the plane!). We bid our final farewells to our nice cosy room and headed down noisily (our luggage was damn heavy) to the reception to check out. Within five minutes, our cab to the airport arrived and sent us there in another fifteen since the streets were dead at this time of the morning.

When we arrived, the departure hall was dead quiet, save for one uncle mopping the floor. There were other travelers sleeping on the benches, perhaps in an attempt to save themselves from paying for an extra night at the hotel. My watch read 4:15AM, but yet signs of life were minimal. Being so used to a bustling Changi airport, the least I expected was some airport staff milling around. About an hour later, when my watch read 5:20AM the staff manning the check in counter finally came. We proceeded to check in to get our boarding passes for our flights to Munich and subsequently back to Singapore. Not knowing what else to do in the otherwise activity-deficient airport, we headed towards the departure gate, but even there the staff were just waking up and hadn’t even unlocked the doors yet. It took them another good ten minutes before they woke up, unlocked the doors and got the X-ray machines powered up.

‘What’s up with these people?’ I wondered to myself. Our flight was less than an hour away and these people seemed to care less. As we approached the boarding gates, I realized that the clock hanging from the ceiling read 5:15AM but my watch was already reading 6:15AM, just like the TV clock back at the hotel. I thought my watch had died on me without my knowledge again. Since, according to the clock, we had about an hour to go, we went up one level towards a café for some light breakfast. It was there that Penny learned the time was turned one hour back on Saturday (the day we were in Rome) as it officially marked the beginning of winter. But nobody told us, which meant that we had been living an hour ahead of time all this while. Which suddenly made sense now with the long wait at the check-in counter, the clock at the hotel, the café staff getting mad at us when we went down waaaaay too early for breakfast, etc.

Finally at 6:25AM, the boarding gates opened and we boarded the bus that would take us to the plane. As the plane took off, we could see the sun rise beaming down on Naples to wake the city up. We bid our final farewells to the city that was etched so deeply into our memories for so many different reasons. The in-flight snack came next before we could get some shut eye – it was that same sandwich made with parma ham, but without the accompanying chocolate bar this time round. The bread was so hard that you could probably hijack the plane with it, so I only took two bites of it and went to sleep. Next thing I knew, we were in Munich.

It was drizzling when the plane landed and the cold 10˚C temperature sort of took us by surprise – we expected it to be cold, but we didn’t expect that it’ll be made colder by the rain. As we got into the main building, we headed to clear the immigration and asked the information counter for directions on taking the subway to town. We figured since we had 4 hours to kill, we might as well see some sights in Munich. But the €18 ticket and the thought of scuttling around again made us rethink our plan. Fortunately, the airport had another shopping area attached to the main building so we headed towards there in search of ‘breakfast’ (it was only about 9AM by the time we got out) and hoping to kill some of our 4 hours. We found a little Nordic seafood shop and ordered some hot soup which I’d been craving for since our second day in Naples (contrary to what I thought, minestrone is NOT Italian) along with some tea. We never felt shiok-er (for lack of a better word)! After slurping up every drop of soup and wiping the bowl dry with the piece of bun provided, we proceeded to explore the rest of the shopping centre - stopping by a toy shop to purchase a Playmobil set for Danielle, Grace’s daughter; hanging out at a book shop browsing through comics and cookbooks in German and some German porn (segregated into different categories depending on your fetish!). We ended our shopping at a supermarket to buy even more tidbits (chocolates for me and a Wall-E Pez dispenser for Velouria since we’d promised her a Wall-E toy).

As we reached the boarding gate to our flight, we realized how crowded it was and were quite gloomy with the possibility of the flight home being full – which meant we didn’t have the luxury of spreading ourselves over 4 seats to snooze like our flight from Singapore. How were we going to while away 13 hours of flight time without being able to lie down and sleep?? True enough, it was indeed full and we were shoulder to shoulder with a plane full of Ozzies and Kiwis (they were continuing their journey on a connecting flight in Singapore to Australia and NZ respectively).

The flight was rather uneventful. We couldn’t really sleep as we were seated upright, so we just dozed a little here and there. We couldn’t stomach another meal of meat and potatoes and since we were craving for hot soup, we requested for Nissin cup noodles, which the attendant was nice enough to bring back later (try that on SQ and I’m sure they’ll tell you ‘Sure, we’ll stop the plane and you can go buy your own’). We managed to sit through Meet Dave which was quite hilarious (albeit a little too short to burn a substantial amount of our 13 hour flight) but the rest of the movies we’d already seen on our flight from Singapore.

Funny thing was (perhaps it was my dozing), the flight back was not as painful as I thought it would be since we were seated upright all the time. I didn’t even get out of my seat the entire flight - something I’d never accomplished before on any flight, let alone a 13 hour one! We landed in Singapore at 8:30AM and we couldn’t be happier to be home.

I can’t say this enough, but praise the Lord for this wonderful blessing that He’s given us. We just wanted to head home to sleep, and then probably head to Redhill for a hot, steaming bowl of our favourite fish soup and a nice massage to soothe our aching backs and necks.

Napoli - il giorno cinque **Naples - day five**

On our last day in Naples, we woke up really early since we went to bed rather early as well the night before. We wanted to hit the markets first thing in the morning, and since breakfast was served at 7AM we were up at 6:30AM having gone to bed at an unlikely time of 9:30PM the night before. We had to go down three times just to get our breakfast – at 7AM only to be told by the reception that breakfast was served at 7:30AM; again at 7:30AM only to be told by very grouchy café staff that they weren’t ready till 8AM; finally at 8AM when everything was ready. In between we just passed our time watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on TV. In Italian.

Breakfast here was simpler, not as fancy as Grand Hotel Oriente. Only one type of everything - bread, biscuit, tart, juice (orange from concentrate; it wasn’t even freshly squeezed!), ham, cheese, cereal, tea. But praise the Lord, they had cappuccino and Nutella! That was all I needed. Nutella with bread, Nutella with biscuit...

Crossing the road from our hotel, we decided to hit the supermarket first. Needed to buy something for the folks back home, and what better to give than local produce? As usual we just ooh-ed and ah-ed (being the Singaporeans that we are) at all the assortments of hams and cheese at the delicatessen counter, along with all the other merchandise on offer. We ended up with only sweets, chocolates (all the Ferrero stuff, with a dark chocolate version of Rocher!) and other manner of tidbits because everything else was just too damn expensive!

After heading back to our room to lighten our load, we went to the bus stop again (this time knowing full well where to get our bus tickets from!) to make our way towards Via Antonio Ranieri, the Napoli version of Hong Kong’s Temple Street. We got off the bus that travelled along Corso Umberto after spotting some stalls at a little lane off the main road – I still couldn’t figure out where the street signs were and the map didn’t make much sense to me. We followed the lane and, voila, found ourselves right smack in the middle of a horde of stalls peddling shoes, clothes, handbags, sunglasses and other fashion apparel. After circling the whole market, we only managed to find a pair of Converse-esque sneakers for Velouria. Dissatisfied that we still hadn’t satiated our craving for street food, we crossed Corso Umberto to head towards another market around the Via Rafealla Conferti area.

On this side, the market was older skool. The streets were lined with quaint little shops selling bread, groceries and gelato, among other things. The buildings here were older but still retained a certain charm about them. It was like one of those old neighborhoods that you’d see in an old black and white movie with Sophia Loren in it. Out of nowhere there was even an arch – a lovely piece of architecture that you’d least expect to see in an old, ramshackle neighbourhood.

Then, by the grace of God, we finally found one! An inconspicuous, kopitiam style shop in an unassuming corner with a little counter at the front selling pizza by the slice (at €1.50 a pop) and other fried fritters. With the help of a nice Italian lady who was also there buying some stuff to munch, we ordered some mashed potato fritters (something like a croquette) and some corn fritter (we heard the Italian lady say ‘mice’ initially, which had us taken aback for a while, but she actually meant ‘maize’).

Satisfied with our loot, we made our way back to Via Anotnio Ranieri in search of a some running shoes for Penny as her feet were beginning to hurt. Although we didn’t manage to find anything, we did have time to stop by a funny little toy shop – it was almost Halloween so there was plenty of amusing items being merchandised. We ventured further into the neighbourhood as I wanted to search for the Spacconelli - the longest and narrowest straight road in Naples that apparently split the city between the ‘old’ from the the ‘new’. However, after walking around in circles again (the map said we were there but I didn’t see any long, straight road), we decided to call it quits as we needed a toilet break. We ventured down one of the streets that I reckoned would lead us back to Corso Umberto (where we could hop onto another bus) and found an Asian supermarket selling stuff you’d normally find in your neighbourhood Econ mini-mart – Yeo’s Asian Drinks, Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce, Lee Chee Seng Sesame Oil, Royal Umbrella Rice, etc. Purchasing a can of herbal tea, we made use of the opportunity to borrow the washroom. Penny (as usual) struck up a conversation with the store owners and we found out they were from China (there they are yet again!).

We continued to make our way towards Corso Umberto again take a bus to the other side of town (we were what was considered the ‘old’ Naples, there was another street market at the ‘new’ Naples). It was a long wait for the bus as every bus which we could take seemed to be packed to the brim! When we finally got on one, it was a huge squeeze and Penny almost died being crushed by all the bigger, taller ang mohs that surrounded her. A change of bus later and we found ourselves at Villa Communale, the huge park by the sea looking out on to the Bay of Naples, where the famous aquarium was (though we never went in). Our stomachs were already rumbling despite the fritters we had earlier, so we decided to head towards our lunch venue first before hitting the street market.

Having had Italian food the past few days, we were craving for a thick slab of juicy steak so we headed to an American joint called Bar-B-Qool. Sources tell us that the American Consulate was in this area, so this was where all the cool restaurants and hang-out joints are since the Italians are so enamoured with all things American.

True enough, the Bar-B-Qool didn’t disappoint. We sat outside since it was such a fine day (but the wind nearly shrank my b***s). The staff spoke really good English, so we indeed got what we ordered (no surprises like the lobster spaghetti here). The appetizer of some chicken wings made with their home-made sauce and our main entrée of a ribeye steak was nothing short of fantastic. To top it all, we had live entertainment in the form of a road accident happening right in front of us (though we didn’t actually see it ‘cos we were so engrossed with our grub) – two scooters had crashed into each other and one rider was flung from his bike and quite badly injured. Interesting thing was, everybody just rushed out to help – passers-by got off their vehicles to help the victims, while others helped to direct traffic; the manager from the restaurant went out as well, with one of his staff bringing water to the victims. If it were to happen in Singapore, people would just stand around waiting for somebody else to do something, while they are copying down 4D numbers instead. Within a minute, the police and ambulance arrived. Impressive!

Satisfied with our lunch, we went off to hunt for our market. We went down the (in my opinion) wrong street where all the luxury boutiques were – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, et al. The staff were surprisingly friendly, unlike those in Singapore who would give you that ‘get out if you don’t have money to buy’ kinda look. Yes, true, we didn’t have the moolah to buy anything, we were just there to check out the designs so we could buy the fake ones later. We got lost for quite a bit as, again, I was confused by the map and all the street names. We did pass by some interesting monuments though, like a statue in another piazza and some embassy where security was tight.

We sauntered on and finally stumbled upon the market we were looking for. Unfortunately, it was already quite late so most of the stall holders had already begun packing up. Here, more clothes, bags and other fashion apparel were on offer but looked more fashionable than the ones earlier. Penny almost picked up a bag for €20, but later changed her mind when I concluded it didn’t make sense since she bought her fake Gucci for the same price as well.

Disheartened by the lack of any bargains, we stopped by an espresso bar for some cappuccino to take a break after all the walking (again!). And, wow, was the coffee wonderful. Perhaps it was the chilly air, or maybe it was just the ambience (the very being of in a streetside café in Italy) that made the cappuccino taste exceptionally good! We took a break to take stock of where we were heading for next. First thing we needed was a toilet break – public washrooms are hard to come by (we Singaporeans are so spoilt) - so we decided to walk back to the restaurant we had lunch in earlier (luckily they remembered us, else we would have just peed in our pants) and proceed our walk further back down Via Parthenope by the sea to see Castel Dell’Ovo.

It was beautiful as we strolled by the sea. People were hopping out onto the wave breakers to just chill out and we were tempted to do likewise. But we didn’t have the luxury of time to chill out on rocks so we proceeded on towards the ‘Oval Castle’.

A really long walk later (the entrance to the castle was actually below it near the back so we had to cross a bridge and walk around the side), we finally entered Castel Dell’Ovo and just blur our way around. Somehow or other, we found our way to the top and we did the usual touristy things, taking in the view that the height of the castle provided (we must have been about 15 storeys high – I almost fainted when Penny told me to sit on one of the side walls to take a pic of me with the city in the background), snapping photos of some strategically placed cannons and such. It was quite an amazing sight as the castle was quite huge – with its own streets and all – and it was being refurbished into an office building.

That was the last stop for the day. The next mistake I made was to walk down Via Parthenope to the bus stop to catch the bus back to our hotel. I had misread the map and miscalculated our distance. And, schisse, was it a loooooong walk. We ended up circling the entire seaside before reaching the bus stop when we should have just walked back to where we got off earlier to get on the bus (where the bus would cut through a tunnel to shorten the distance). Quite obviously, I was given an earful by Penny about making her walk miles and miles since our first day and about how her legs were aching. Oops, my bad!

We finally got onto the bus in one piece and got off at Via Medina (where we had our ketok case lobster spaghetti) to walk (again!) back to our hotel. On the way, we passed a street kiosk selling freshly squeezed orange juice (strangely, we never noticed the guy before despite passing this spot on numerous occasions before this). It had a tinge of lemon juice in it too and it was a welcome refreshment to our parched throats after all that walking.

We took a short break in the hotel room to wash and pack up, not knowing what to have for dinner – contrary to what I thought, we were quite tired of having pizza and pasta at every meal. There was a Chinese restaurant across the road but it just seemed so silly having to pay a bomb for what we could normally whip up at home (that meal at the Chinese restaurant in Gold Coast which cost us an arm and a leg came to my mind). We decided to just walk around and walk into the first restaurant that looked enticing to us.

Surprisingly, many restaurants were closed (it was only about 7PM) and the streets were starting wind down. We passed a McDonald’s and saw a poster which featured a Quarter Pounder made with ciabatta bread and Italian cheese, so we thought ‘Hey, why not?’. It may seem silly to be munching on a burger when we were in a city that had so much more to offer, but I had no regrets ordering that burger! The combination of the ciabatta bread with the parmaggiano regianno cheese, along with the thick beef patty, was something extraordinary that you would perhaps only find in Italy. It was a delightful shock to the palates with all the different sensations that the ingredients offered – a tad bland with the bread; the rich savoury taste of the juicy beef patty; the amalgamation of sauces and the light, sourish note of the cheese – which makes me drool just thinking about it.

After the wonderful meal, we took a really slow walk back to the hotel. It was, after all, our last night in Naples. We took the effort to breathe in the chilling night air and remember every sound that the city made. Over the past few days, we had meandered around the city so much that we seemed to know it at the back of our hands (more or less).

We packed our things one last time as we reached our room – our flight was at 6:30AM and we had to be at the airport really early. We were really grateful that God had blessed us with this trip and couldn’t have asked for more. We fell asleep with that thought, grateful that we were blessed enough to be flown halfway round the world into a country that we would have least expected to visit.

Napoli - il giorno quattro **Naples -day four**

After two days of intense walking and tons of activities, we decided to sleep a little later on Sunday. Spent some time with God after waking up since we couldn’t find a church to go to; it was Sunday after all. As usual, we headed downstairs for breakfast – our last in Grand Hotel Oriente since we were going to check out from here and move down the road to a cheaper hotel, Hotel Executive (rooms here cost S$240 a night, compared to S$117 down the road).

We gobbled down our breakfast and proceeded to bid our farewell to the hotel, paying €2 for a bottle of sparkling water we took from the fridge (they don’t serve complimentary bottled water here). Dragging our luggage down the street was more difficult than I thought with the cobbled stones on the pavement and the tiled roads! By the time we reached the next hotel, my arm had almost gone numb. But we couldn’t check in till after 12 noon, we were told, as the rooms weren’t ready yet.

So off to the market we went again. As we walked around, we realised that everything around us was closed. We thought it was a morning thing but later found out it was a Sunday thing. Even the McDonald’s next to our hotel was closed! It was like a ghost town.

According to the guidebook, La Pignasseca was the only market that was open on Sunday so we headed back there again. This time round (probably because it was quite late) more stalls were open. We relished the sight and smells of more live seafood, fresh flowers and delectable confectionery and pastries. There were more fake handbags on sale too – guess all the peddlers were eager to cash in on the weekend crowd. We walked along and found a fruit stall, so we bought ourselves a pear and some strawberries since our diet consisted of nothing but junk in the past few days. Gobbling down the sweet strawberries, we reached the end of La Pignasecca without coming across anything else that caught our fancy.

With everything else closed and nothing much else to do, we decided to do the customary tourist thing and see the city via the Napoli City Sightseeing bus (similar to our Hippo Tours, where all the ang mohs would hop on to see Chinatown, Esplanade and other such touristy places) . We took a walk towards Castel Nuovo where the bus terminus was. We sauntered around Castel Nuovo a bit and snapped some pics, since it was one of the many legendary, must-see sights in Naples. Never in my life have I come up close and personal with so many castles within such a short span of time (this was the second one after Castel Sant Angelo in Rome the day before).

The bus that we wanted to take, the route that travels along the bay of Naples, came by but it was too full to get on. I suppose we were not the only ones who wanted to see the postcard picturesque view of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background. After a few no-goes with the next few buses (credit card machine not working, too many people, among other reasons we couldn’t fathom because of the guides’ atrocious English), we were starting to get impatient so we just hopped on the next bus (the historic route) that came along.

We got off at Piazza Dante, after passing by some sections of the ‘old Naples’ with the chapels and medieval buildings, which is supposedly some intellectual corner with all the old bookshops (probably an equivalent of our old Bras Basah) and Speakers’ Corner-esque activities at night. We got on to another bus (the artistic route), which brought us past the Museo Archelogico (an archeological museum with artefacts excavated from Pompei and Herculaneum), the Sant Gennaro chapel (with the catacombs underneath, yikes!), the MADRE art gallery (some hip-and-happening contemporary art place) and the Museo e Bosco di Capodimonte (their national museum?). We got off the bus near Hotel Executive as it was past 12 noon so it was time to check in.

Our new hotel had a classic, rustic charm to it. It gave a homelier, cosier feel compared to the hotel we were in the past few nights. At S$117 a night, it was also relatively smaller than the previous S$240 a night room. But who cares, we only needed a place to lay our head and shower. After checking in (our luggage had been brought up to the room once it was ready) and going up to our room, we asked the guy at the recep for a recommendation for lunch. We were famished! He pointed us towards Ciro’s, a tratorria along Via Medina, a street perpendicular to where we were and just a 5 mins walk from the hotel. Along the way, we gave a quick call home to Vel who was at my parents’ since it was Deepavali back in Singapore.

The lunch, as expected, was fabulous. We realised that it was a norm to have pizza as an appetiser before the meal. Knowing that the pizza was too much for either of us to finish, we ordered one to share. The shocker of shockers was our main course of spaghetti. When we asked for a recommendation, the head waiter told us of their ‘special of the day’, with tomatoes from Vesuvio and something which we couldn’t figure out ‘fresh from the sea’ (we thought it was clams or something). It turned out to be lobster. Penny couldn’t stop laughing when she my face as I thought to myself, ‘Jia lat, kena ketok liao’. Praise the Lord the bill only came up to about €50, considered a reasonable amount for a decent meal.

We left Ciro’s feeling absolutely delighted with our lunch and headed back to the front of Castel Nuovo to wait for the Bay of Naples City Sightseeing bus. Surprisingly, it was quite empty now, perhaps because it was already rather late in the afternoon (it was about 3:30PM by the time we boarded the bus). We found a good seat on the upper deck and couldn’t wait for the bus to move off.

It plied along Via Parthenope by the sea, passing by Villa Communale along the way, before we hit Via Posillipo where the swanky residences are. From the top deck, we could see boardwalks extended from people’s houses and there were actually people sunbathing in the 20˚C weather! Insane!! It was windy as hell and it didn’t help that in our haste to fill our stomachs I had forgotten to bring my sweater with me! The bus came to a stop at a point that provided that typical tourist postcard shot – a full view of the Bay of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background. The bus moved along after everyone had their fill of snapping. On the way back, the bus plied along the sea again, passing Castel Dell’Ovo along the way and finally coming to a halt at the front of Castel Nuovo.

We took a walk back to Piazza Plebiscito, where the concert was a few nights back, since it was nearby - we wanted to take a look at it during the day. We hung around and snapped some photos and made our way into the Royal Palace. To our surprise, the ineterior had actually been converted into a museum.

Arty farty sculptures aplenty, we walked further in and ventured into the museum which housed displays of items and artefacts that were used in previous productions staged at Teatro San Carlo, the oldest theatre in Italy. We milled around a bit, being our usual nonsense self and trying to make sense of the arty stuff.

Though we failed, we tried to sneak into the Teatro San Carlo for a peek. Unfortunately, it was under renovation and the fursthest we went was the stairs at the entrance. As we made our way back, we strolled pass Galleria Umberto just to gawk at the intricate architecture. This was another old, colonial building refurbished to house high-end designer boutiques today. With nothing else to do, we made our way back to the hotel to get some rest before coming out again to hunt for our dinner.

We set out at about 6:30PM and decided to hit the streets again. We were not very hungry as the pizza and lobster spaghetti we had for lunch was still very much in our stomachs. Since we were quite tired with restaurant food, we walked down Corso Umberto in search of a small café or pizzeria to junk on some nonsense. Unfortunately, everything was closed as we trudged along although it was only 7PM. We finally decided to call it quits when we walked two-thirds of the looong Corso Umberto and reached Piazza Nicola Amore. As we circled the square, we noticed lights coming from a small shop selling cigarettes and titbits (kinda like a mamak stall). Delighted to see that something was open, we walked in and bought ourselves some titbits to bring back to the hotel.

We munched on our crackers and Tronky and washed it down with Coke as we vegetated in front of the TV. What a way to spend a Sunday evening when you’re halfway round the world. Penny was quite tired so she slept early. Me, I spent the rest of the night watching Back to the Future II in Italian. It didn’t matter thatIdon't speak Italian as I’d seen this movie umpteen times and knew the dialogue at the back of my hand.

As I went to sleep, I noticed that the clock on the TV read 20:32 while it was already 9:30PM on my watch. Strange…