Grimacing

If you see me limping around school these few days, it is because I have injured my toe.
An injury happened to the middle toe on my left foot during an unpredictable time:Phys. Ed./ Pendidikan Jasmani. It may sound like a very predictable time that I would get an injury but unfortunately, the very thing I wanted to push to the back of my mind then was of getting an injury.

It was Tuesday morning and I woke up feeling a little drowsy because the night before I had been scheming football in bed. Yes, I was that serious about the game, roll your eyes as you may. Football was a common game that we play during these lessons. The teacher would just let us play until it was time to go. We weren't messing around on that pitch, I guarantee you. We were playing HARD and SERIOUS. What I mean we were taking the end result seriously, not the rules. I don't think we ever had a fair play. I know I shouldn't pick sides, but I think our opponent class (I won't say the name for certain reasons.)were breaking the rules more than us. Our class had been losing pretty most of the time and I wanted to put a stop to that.

As the first period of Phys. Ed. drew nearer by the minute, my friends and I were still thinking ways of doing it. But there was not much a choice. Speed was the thing in this game...and to have speed you have to pass less. SO certain people were jumping on the idea of going on towards the goal alone, "I want solo." C says. I agreed that speed is the thing. SO how to put more speed to the game? On solution: Run bare-footed. WE didn't have gear like football shoes that were light, so another option was to take off our shoes. I have not been doing that for quite some time because it isn't safe. But I didn't know what came over me then to make me take such a risky option, maybe desperation.

And thus I came down to the pitch in P.E. clothes with the rest of the class, seeing that the opposite class (Let's call them O) were already on the pitch. I didn't realize that there were less people from O on the pitch until someone told me because I was debating to take off my shoes. So, I tested the pitch I thought that being barefoot would be O.K. on this field. I took off my shoes and pealed of my socks. I took a couple of "test steps", the grass was cooling.

To fasten things up, I wasn't 2 minutes into the game I felt a sharp pain on my left foot middle toe. I had hit someone's white, rubber and cotton made, solid shoe. instantly, I was limping. I sat down at one side of the pitch, clutching my toe, and started finding out what happened to it. My toe looked slightly bended to one side, or was it already like that before? Well, apparently, I couldn't play anymore, but what I didn't take seriously was the injury. I had been getting quite a number of injuries when I was exercising to take them for granted. I thought this was some minor inury and it would go away in a minute. But it didn't.

I went home, and when my mom heard of it from me, she scolded me because it turned out to be a pretty bad injury. The area around the injury had swelled and it was bluish green. I ended up lying on my bed with an ice bag on my foot for most of the afternoon which meant that I went a little slow with my studies.

Yep, that's the reason I am limping around school recently. The only way I can go faster is to skip or jump on my right leg. No running. :(

Currently, my toe is healing. Thank God there were no broken bones and thank God He taught me a lesson. But I can do gladly with some of your prayers.

CF Lunch 2009

18th of September proved to be a very much anticipated day. And there were no disappointments. That day, which was a Friday and a holiday, was boiling with excitement with the prospect that organizers have chosen it for THE CF Lunch. And I was there to witness it ALL.

On that sweet, sweet day I woke up at 9.30a.m. Thinking it was another boring day, I went back to sleep but merely moments after that, I jumped out bed like someone had transfigured my mattress into a crocodile. (So sorry for the exaggeration.)
"I have to go to Weng Hiong at 10.30!!!" screamed my conscience. I would be ushering later during the Lunch on this fine, sunny day. So, as were the same with many CF members, I was told to come for a little “briefing” and preparation at 10.30a.m.
Immediately I put on my glasses to see my room come into focus. I rushed to the toilet and did the things I normally did. Let’s skip this part.

My sister and I arrived not all that happy but well, to see people leaning on the balcony outside the restaurant. Apparently, nothing serious was taking place. Still, we rushed upstairs, to find the AJKs huddled together, discussing nothing else but the lunch due later.

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Everyone is busy preparing

It rained earlier, but thanks to the prayers of the CF members and God, it stopped.

The lunch was going to start half an hour from now. The worship team were rehearsing and several people were had arrived. A few people were taking the opportunity to take some before-lunch-photos. So far, so good. Though the LCD had some problems with the spelling, and people were having headaches over the attendance, we still had time…

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I was holding my own list of attendees when people started coming in.

“Welcome to CF Lunch 2009, what is your name?”

I must have looked weird. With pen and paper in hand to tick the names of the arrivals, and my camera stuck in my pocket while I kept pulling my slightly loose pants up, I don’t want to know what he was thinking then.

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Finally I went back to my table (table 8) that had exchanged places with table 23 earlier for some reason. Chatted with some friends and snap a few photos. Okay, out of my world. Time to tell what happened.

First, it started off with the worship which I missed due to the constant flow of people arriving. Next were the speeches by Mr Wong Kam Piew (of course), Jonathan the former president of Christian Fellowship and finally Pn. Choo. She gave a good speech and I hope that there were people listening for the seed to be planted in them because I know quite a few people who weren’t. Then Mr Leong, the former headmaster of Bukit Mewah prayed for the food.

At long last, the food came. Not with the dull munching sounds of food being consume, of course. There were games and activities carried out to accompany the food. And the masters of ceremony were very good. Stephanie Liew and Gopinath Nambiar, who had been preparing for weeks, went up the stage and lightened up the place straight away. Well, there were quite a few activities. First, the hosts asked questions regarding the pictures that were shown by the LCD, for example: “What was so and so wearing in the picture?” or “How many people are there in this picture?” The pictures were of course, not shown when these questions were asked. There was another fun game called “How big is your hand?” Don’t get the expression that they were going to measure your hand. It was pretty much similar to earlier game - asking questions and whoever answers correctly gets to grab with ONE hand as many sweets and snacks from a big box full of that rubbish. So, many people came and went taking as much as they can with one hand. Then Praveen who had thought outside the “box” come and gave it a shot. He answered the question correctly and instead of inserting a hand into the box, he just grabbed the whole box. Problem is, he had to use both hands. Bad luck, Praveen. Anyway, at least he wasn’t disqualified, but had a nice share of sweets and snacks thanks to his big hand. The hosts continued asking all kinds of questions as the prizes kept on changing with the people answering. There was also two prizes that were cakes shaped to be a dresses with a plastic doll planted in. Mr. Wong got a cake him self, too. One of the cakes unfortunately, went to a different use. I’ll come to that soon. Well, one table among more than 30 tables was livelier. This table, which seated Andrew, Carolyn, Aravinthan, James, Hannah, Clement, Shakilun and other fun people had sparkling wine (special thanks to one of them who brought it) and did a loud “ Yam Seng”. Remember the cake? This was the table which put the doll cake to another “use”. Well, James actually started it by putting some cream on Andrew’s face and I think you can guess what happened next. Their faces were not full of cream though (how thoughtful…), though each went to the toilet to clean the innocent cream off their faces.

The happy and eventful lunch finally ended. The CF members had a nice, oversize-family-like photo taken together before everyone went home.

I want to thank everyone who helped in the lunch. Your efforts are really appreciated. I just cannot wait till the next lunch a year later…it is a really wonderful feeling for different people from different religions to come together to fellowship and hopefully, learn about God. Thanks to everyone who attended CF Lunch, you made it HOT!!

UP

Yep, I have just watched this movie. I may sound very lame, but it doesn't really matter now. Cause I just want to talk about the movie.
First thing about, "UP" is that it is not "just a kid's show". Well, that was one of the things that came to my mind as my family and I watched the movie. It is pretty on the romantic side during the first quarter of the movie, telling about a boy that is crazy about adventurers, whose idol is an adventurer named Charles Muntz and meets a girl who has the same interest as him. Well, they get married, and they live very normally; they go for picnics, the wife repeatedly puts on a tie on the now grown-up man's neck. …...
But they couldn't have babies. The happily married couple had just this one problem. The wife became kind of depressed and gradually, as she became older, she became weak. One day, as husband and wife climb up the hill where they usually have picnics, while the husband reached the top easily, the wife stumbled half way up.(She didn’t die because she stumbled.) Well, she became ill after that and one sad day, she passed away, leaving the old man depressed. So, the real story begins from here. Since I don’t have much time, I will just write a short summary of three quarters of the story. Some construction work is going on in the old man’s neighborhood and all the people have moved out, their houses gone shortly after. Only the old man stubbornly guards his house. One day, a boy scout comes to his house to “help the old”. He cleverly sends him away. Not long after, he hurts a man over his post box, goes to court, and is forced to go to an old folk’s home. Well, the night he was informed of THAT, was when he started thinking. He came across his wife’s “Adventure Book” and he remembers Paradise Falls and his promise to her that their house will be beside the falls. Paradise Falls is the place found by Charles Muntz and he claims there are “out-of-this-world” animals there. So, he remembered the promise, and he came up with a plan, a plan that kills two birds with one stone—attaching thousands of helium balloons onto his house, sending it flying into the sky. Well, he brilliantly does that with curtains as the sails and a door knob as the steer. Thus, his adventure begins. First, with the finding of the scout-boy on his porch, to the finding of Paradise Falls after a terrible storm. They (the old man and the scout-boy teamed up finally with the old man saying, “Oh, alright!”) find an abnormally large bird (which proves Charles correct.), Charles Muntz himself (who has become slightly paranoid) and his “smart-dogs”. In the journey, through many perils and hardships (and funny parts), the man and boy build a strong, understanding relationship.
This is quite a bad summary but it ends with the old man’s house ending up beside the Paradise Falls.
I loved this movie and I know that you will if you have watched it or you are about to watch it.