This Is The Day... Vel's graduation concert

All the hoo-ha and anticipation finally led up to this day. We were all so excited; changing Velouria, making sure her hair was all in place, putting on make-up for her (only to realise later that our enthusiasm was uncalled for as their teachers actually tied her hair and applied make-up all over again backstage).

After handing her over to her form teacher, we all milled into the concert hall and were all chatting and laughing, snapping our cameras and watching the Powerpoint slideshow (showcasing photos from activities that the students were involved in) over and over and over again. We were all straining our necks to see if anything was going to come out from the side of the stage.

Finally, at 5.30pm on the dot, the MC (a horrible one at that, kept getting all the names wrong) came on stage and went through the usual pleasantries. This was followed by a thank you speech from the Director of Grace House, Ms Isabel Ng, and the Head of Children Ministry of Grace AOG (can't remember her name but she was quite a character though - 'I love children and the children love me' is a line I'm going to remember for a looooong time).

Then came the graduation of the K2 kids. Their entrance could rival any banquet first dish presentation, with all the fanfare and marching. What really touched us was that Ms Isabel Ng actually prayed for the children after they were all presented their certs.

Then the concert proper began. The first item was of course with Velouria's group singing 'It's A School Day'. It was quite a mess (but a cute one) with all the kids more interested in identifying their family and friends in the audience. It was a good preview for the next few items coming up as the audience (us included) lapped it all up and clamoured for more (parents were all rushing to the front to get pictures of their kids).

There were more items in between but I think what caught everyone's attention were the Playgroup kids. These were children between the ages of 2 & 3 who were not eligible to go to N1 yet. It was a joy to see some of them running all over the stage (much to the teachers' dismay), some just froze and forgot what they were supposed to do, while others just freaked out and cried. It was a blast!

Then Velouria's group came out again. They were decked out in beach gear, with the girls in a fake hula grass skirt made from raffia and plastic flowers. This time they did a very reggae rendition of 'See The Works Of The Lord'.

But what topped it all was the finale item when ALL the kids came out and sang 'This Is The Day'. I believe this was the one that the kids trained really hard for as all of them were screaming out all the words at the top of their lungs (even for the Mandarin version!).

In the end, though we were all famished we all left smiling, satisfied that all the wait was worth it. This Is The Day indeed...

Electronic is evil

After having fun with the electronic drums for some time, I realised that this was a very basic set which had its limitations. Couldn't do any cross stick shots on the snare (i.e. hitting the rim of the drum with the stick) or bell shots on the ride cymbal (the roundish part that where it is screwed onto the stand, giving the cowbell kinda sound).

Sucks. Electronics and the digital age are all evil, so the acoustic drum set still rules. If only I can fork out somemore money to get a drum techinician to look at the drum set in church. The drums there are in a sad, sad state. Heck, even I feel sad just hearing the flat thump they give off whenever I whack them.

Growing old

I hate to admit it. But we are all growing old and it's scary.

Just today, one of my RSAF ex-colleagues, Peter, called me up to tell me his wife is expecting their first kid in February next year. Being the blur sotong that he is, obviously he's getting worried cos he's not the parenting type (honestly, none of us ever are till we get our first kid; it's one of those baptism by fire things).

So there we were yakking away (me teasing him mostly) and he said something along the lines like, "Wah, last time we meet up is to go dancing and drinking, now we have coffee to talk about kids". Yes sir-ree! We certainly have come a long way!

Next thing we know we'll be talking about where to hold our kids' weddings.

Shite... It really is worrying to realise you're not getting any younger. It's just one of those aspects of life that you never really bother about until it just falls on you like a ton of bricks out of the blue. Then you start thinking about how you are going to see your kids through to university, will you be able to retire in Florida, will you live long enough to withdraw your CPF, etc, etc.

But it's okay, as long as I can age with style like Sean Connery... :P

Going electronic

So there we were on Sunday at FairPrice Finest (the atas NTUC targetted at the ang mohs, situated at Bukit Timah Plaza), grabbing some stuff to bring to Tua Pek's house since we had been invited there for dinner by his new Korean neighbour who was doing all the cooking. Then we saw an ad on one of those lelong notice boards that are commonly found in all these ang moh places (they seem to have an affinity for lelong-ing their unwanted stuff). It read:'TDK Electronic drum set for sale. I paid $3000, you pay $500'. Only an idiot would refuse this offer.

So we called up the owner, viewed the thing and ended up paying $800 for it. Yes, it was more expensive than the original price but still a lucrative deal. And it was a Roland drum set, no less, with an amp and headphones, some 'Drumming for Dummies' guide book and an instruction CD.

I know how badly our church needed a new drum set. The current one we're using has been there for ages, all worn out and rusty. One of the cymbals had even been cracked by an overzealous drummer. :P

Ps Don had been talking about getting an electronic one for the longest time. But cost had always been a deciding factor that held us back. Financial obligations aside, I think this was an opportunity presented before us to help build God's sanctuary. So I just grit my teeth, signed the cheque and shoved everything into my car.

Digital equipment always have cons when compared to analogue ones so it will take some getting used to, but I think we're gonna have a great time with this new toy.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Rockstar rocks again with Manhunt 2

Finally! After so much hoo-ha with the censorship boards in UK and various other countries, Rockstar has finally received the green light to release the highly anticipated sequel to the gruesome stealth game Manhunt! Not before slapping it with an 'M' rating, of course.

For the uninitiated, Rockstar is the publisher of various other notorious games that have changed the gaming world and made everyone sit up and take notice. For all the wrong reasons unfortunately. After the mildly successful Grand Theft Auto III, they took the free roaming gaming environment to a whole new level with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. But this it did with a lot of flak as gamers took on the role of a gangster bent on revenge after being framed for a drug deal gone wrong. A pissed off gangster, lots of guns, a strip club and the ability to jack cars, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the potential mayhem that ensues. Much like the negative publicity that plagued comic books way back in the 1950s, parents were worried, teachers got upset and Readers' Digest even ran an article about the dangers of video games highlighting a boy who shot his parents (or friends, I can't remember) after playing GTA: Vice City.

Manhunt was no different. Players took on the role of a serial killer on death row due for execution who, by some twisted plot of a deranged madman, gets captured and thrown into a reality snuff film where other equally deranged lunatics are out to hunt him down. His mission was simple: to survive and get to the guy who put him there in the first place. This awesome game, while gruesome, offered players some really solid stealth action gameplay which required more thinking and strategy than your average 'point-and-shoot' games. It again received flak for its gruesome killing tactics, among them stabbing an opponent's eye with a shard of glass, whacking his head open with a baseball bat (like a pinata) and sneaking up behind a guy and beating him to a pulp after wrapping a plastic bag over his head.Wonderful!

But at the end of the day, we all have to remember that it's all just a game. It's this same exact reason why we play video games in the first place, to thrust ourselves into an environment where we can do things we know are impossible to do in real life.

Time to kill! Virtually, of course.

Cracked cymbal

'Praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.'

Psalms 150:5

Sunday's praise and worship was really rocking. I think I just went nuts the moment we played Open Up The Gates. In fact, I was so engrossed in playing that I didn't even notice the crash cymbal was cracked! That's a first for me, never cracked a cymbal before. Guess I took Psalm 150:5 a little too literally.

Also, other firsts on Sunday - first time I cried while playing (the worship was that good) and also the first time I dropped my drumsticks while playing (apparently nobody noticed the abrupt break).

I hope this never happens again, save for the crying. It's good to feel the Holy Spirit moving so freely.

Xtreme Singapore

I had the chance to be in the thick of the action of Xtreme Singapore on Saturday. We had gone in with Mountain Dew as the official drink (the high caffeine level is meant to get your heart pumping, thus the linkage with extreme sports... or something like that) so I was there to make sure everything was in place and that the event company we hired was doing their job.

Before the event even began, Murphy's Law caught up with the organisers. The electricity supply screwed up so they couldn't start the registration without the laptops and printers to do the necessary paperwork. For us that meant we couldn't turn on our chillers. Fortunately, I had prepared cooler boxes and some packs of ice so we could still chill our drinks. And it proved valuable as the day wore on with the sun blazing down mercilessly on us.

Our sucky sales aside, it was full steam ahead once the event went underway. It's amazing the amount of talent some of these kids have. There were three main groups: BMX, skateboard and in-line skates. It brought me back to my skating days - getting chased by the police for crossing the road on our decks, getting our names taken down for sitting on the steps of the War Memorial along Queen Elizabeth walk. But back then skating was a sub-culture. Kids nowadays are so blessed, with proper skate parks to go to and government backed events to showcase their talent.

I sat on the floor below the box-jump ramp to take some photos of the flying kids. I didn't realise I was sunburnt until I reached home and realised I was cooked like a lobster when Vel said "Daddy, why your face so red?".

If the stuff that kids can do are anything to go by, I'm definite the finals are going to be a blast. I'm soooo looking forward to that.