Hi. Yes I know, it's been awhile.
This has been stuck in my drafts since the end of June. And by the time this goes up, some of the writings and musings you see here will be 4 months old. So, many of these details might not be the most accurate or up-to-date - do bear that in mind.
But since I managed to find some pockets of time to post this up, I present to you, the long-overdue but better-late-than-never — June's Months in Moments.
__
Can you believe that we are halfway through the year already? It's so surreal to think that I only have six more Months in Moments left to write about. On that note, here is the fifth one of 2018!
Joel, Hannah, Melvin, Marcus and I spent our afternoon in the dusty second floor of Giant looking at shoes. Well, the boys were intentional in looking for shoes while Hannah and I just tried on shoes for fun.
None of us got shoes in the end.
But the boys managed to pick up a pair of sneakers for Gabriel, who wasn't even there!
I stepped out of the elevator on the sixth floor and purposefully walked over to the pigeon holes.
Let me HUJI cam this moment, I thought to myself.
Making sure no one else was around, I took out my phone and snapped this photo before dropping in my research design proposal into the opening slot.
This was the last of my submission for all my assignments. And because I had no final papers to sit for as all of my units this semester were 100% assignment-based, this marked the end of my second year first semester of my degree.
This also means that I am now halfway done with my three year degree.
Time needs to chill.
Fun fact #1: finishing the assignment the night before left me with a sore neck because I was sitting in a wrong position for an extended amount of time. I couldn't find a smaller patch of salonpas from Family Mart so I asked Marc to cut it and put it on for me.
Fun fact #2: Marc, Nic and I were all wearing maroon that day. Later that night during Leaders' Meeting at church, we bumped into Joseph who was also wearing maroon, and so we took a photo.
Raise your hands if you have something maroon in your closet. Maybe we can all wear it and if we gather enough people, we'll call ourselves Maroon 5-thousand.
Joy, oh, Joy.
You hold a special place in my heart, always. I hope you never forget that, even when we ourselves tend to forget when was the last time we met.
With some free time in my hands, I went to have chicken rice and Inside Scoop with two of the Subang boys, Darius and Shaun.
The Respekt Whamen boys who are never hesitant in inviting me over for their lunch dates, ice cream sessions and FIFAs.
As much as I don't want to insert that cliche explanation of how they make me feel like "one of the boys", they really do. But they also never forget to be the gentlemen that they are to me as they exemplify it to the baby in the group to do the same.
All of us know how limited the seats are at Family Mart.
So the whole bunch of us spent a good 20 to 30 minutes just standing outside the SS2 branch, eating our green tea and coconut ice creams after dinner.
Pretty, isn't it?
This was what we saw on the way home from our dinner at Imperial Chakri Palace, KLCC. My parents are friends with the owner and/or the owner's father (I forgot who's who) and so we were invited for a buffet dinner of Thai food.
Driving back home, Papa was pointing out at the landmarks around KL as if he was a tour guide.
And at that moment, I really did feel like a tourist in my own country.
How strange.
But you know what's stranger than this...
...me, getting hooked on a Korean Drama.
This is probably the strangest thing that I've ever gotten myself into in my entire lifetime.
I watched a preview of this k-drama on Facebook that was about a minute and a half long and almost instantly I was emotionally invested in the characters of the show.
I've finished the entire series and I highly, highly recommend this.
Man, the amount of times I've laughed, cried or squealed out loud in my room as I watched the plot thicken in each episode...
Yes, I do realise that this is making me sound like a complete fangirl but I thoroughly enjoyed the series. And I think this is saying a lot, coming from someone who doesn't normally dabble in the Korean entertainment scene.
Daniel, one of our GENesis leaders, leaves to the land down under.
He's been saying that he'll be going overseas to study for what felt like the longest time and it finally happened.
I'm proud of you, Daniel. I always say this and I always will. Thank you for showing me how to love the members the way that reflects God's love for His people. You have taught me so very much.
I can't wait until you come back soon!
Lu, Jie and myself were asleep in the backseat of the car while Papa was driving us to PD. The three of us slowly woke up one after another and were greeted with a forest of green surrounding us.
"We're going to climb up to see the lighthouse!" Mama exclaimed.
Pretty sure that's the last nine words any of us wanted to hear the moment we opened our eyes.
But climbed the hill and fulfilled Mama's wish we did.
We headed back to the hotel for lunch and a much needed shower and change.
Spending the rest of our afternoons playing pool and swimming in the pool, we waited until it was almost time to head to the beach to catch the sunset.
There isn't much to do in Port Dickson, so we headed to the Ostrich Show Farm for fun.
I kid you not, I genuinely did enjoy myself there, despite us being the only older kids that were around the farm.
I'm sure the bunch of school children from Singapore can say the same, because the workers and the teachers let a handful of them compete against one of the ostriches in a make-shift track to see if they could out-run the ostrich.
Oh, the heavenly combination of pork rib curry and bread.
If it wasn't for what happened back in May, I would have been more than happy to have eaten more than just a spoonful of the curry, two pieces of pork ribs and one piece of bread.
Like I've mentioned before, my living room has turned into a hub for everyone to stop by after dinner and dessert for PS4 tournaments. This weekend was no different.
Both of us have said this to each other way too often, but we really are glad that this friendship has lasted throughout high school, college and now university.
You're the only guy in our circle of friends, but you've never let it get in the way of hanging out and spending time with us, even when we continuously make fun of each other. I don't know how you do it, but thank you for tolerating us.
Here's to (gladly) being in each other's friendzones for all eternity.
Jie and I made dinner that night!
I made the guacamole while he panfried the chicken and capsicum for the filling for the fajitas.
"Yia zak hao liang ha," Popo said, which means "this one is quite nice" while looking at the pictures we took at their 60th wedding anniversary last month.
For the past few years, my mama has been persistent on bringing her camera and taking hundreds of photos at every family event. The fruits of her labour have finally shown as a new family ritual has been introduced where we always take group photos during dinner and gather around the living room TV after to view the photos together.
My grandparents have also grown to like being in front of the camera. They now pester my mama for the photos, excited to see the faces of her sons and daughters and grandchildren.
Or maybe they're just excited to see their own faces.
Either way, it's quite adorable.
Village Coffee, Dream Centre's café, was looking to hire part-timers to work with them. And because I was on my semester break, I had the opportunity to learn the basics of being a barista at Coffex Coffee.
Fun fact: I am not a coffee drinker, mainly because it makes me poop.
So, everything was new to me: learning how to tell the differences between the taste and the smell of the coffee beans, to grinding coffee beans, to making cappuccinos and lattes.
Despite not being a coffee enthusiast, I had a lot of fun. And I smelled like coffee for the rest of the day, too!
Marc and I spent the rainy day in, working on our assignments.
As boring as this sounds, it's one of the ways we get to see each other during the busy, busy seasons of uni life. Not to worry, of course, we still squeeze in lunch dates before we start on work and ice cream dates after we've done.
It's the second year in a row where NextGen has hosted the PJ CF Rally.
Just like last year, I helped out with the sound team - running around to the different venues for the workshops in the afternoon, preparing the slides and lyrics for soundcheck for the night rally and playing with the lights.
Every now and then during the event, I was reminded of the time I co-chaired the 2014 PJ CF Rally with Jasmine and the rest of the committee.
We also had it at Dream Centre that year and the flow of the program hasn't changed since then.
But one thing different is that we did everything on our own back then - from designs, to sound, to ushering, to F&B and everything in between. As tiring and stressful as it was, I've personally learnt so much from that experience!
With that being said, I'm not salty that NextGen started helping out with PJ CF Rally only after the year I chaired. I'm actually so glad that we've been able to do so because I know that this has allowed the NextGen leaders to learn from the committee and that hopefully, the committee has learned a few things from us, too.
Marc was finishing his assignment where he had to come up with few write-ups on superheroes.
Being the F1 fan that he is, he did one of his write-ups about how he's always wanted to become a F1 driver and how watching the practice session for the final Malaysian Grand Prix last year felt like a dream come true. The dream still lives, as sometimes he drives on the road as if he really is one, telling me that, "I'm an F1 driver."
He finished up his writing and put in the photo he took of Valtteri Bottas on the track for his photography assignment last year (okay, why does it seem like we do nothing but assignments). You can see the photo on his laptop screen!
After gliding his fingers across the trackpad back and forth in adjusting the placement of the photo, he paused.
"This photo so nice," he said while cupping his cheeks, feeling mighty proud of himself.
And rightfully so.
She's back!
And the first thing we did was to head down to Village Park for a nasi lemak ayam goreng lunch.
The last I featured her was in February, but the truth is that we've actually been talking to each other literally every single day, with (probably) thousands of voice notes and video messages exchanged ever since I managed to convince her to move to telegram.
You're probably gonna see her a lot in the next few MiMs because she's going to be here until September.
How cute is this?!
Leanne and I popped by Deevya's place to visit her doggos that day. And even though it was only a couple of hours of cuddling her doggos and being bitten and jumped on by her baby husky, it was a good couple of hours.
After the visit to the doggos, I headed to church for the test run for NextGen's first ever Nerf War.
A combined effort of the 13 and 14-year-old CG leaders, along with the help of other NextGen leaders, we spent a good few hours figuring out the mechanics and smoothening out the gameplay for the teens.
Most of us leaders are older teens and young adults, but we had so much fun running around shooting at each other within the DIY battlefield (cheywah battlefield), though most of the time was probably spent picking up the bullets.
The NextGen Campus camp commandants and the admin team were planning for the buses, rooms and games groups. I joined in the meeting.
Ordered by Michelle to finish up the box of packaged cups of water, we were on a mission.
After 3 hours of drinking what seemed like an endless supply of water and making multiple trips to the toilet, we managed to finish 26 cups among 6 of us.
This man has been craving for his ramen for a good few weeks before this meal happened.
Fun fact: this was the first meal I had with Melvin alone!
I cannot imagine how we've known each other for so long and how we've had so many conversations about anything and everything and yet, this is the first meal I've had with him without anyone else.
I guess it makes sense since it has always been me thirdwheeling Marc and him on their dates.
Speaking of which, Marcus came to join us after this lunch.
Remember how I mentioned bringing Hannah, Kenji and Jeremy to the wrong yong tau foo place last month? Well, I finally figured out the right one. And it's been a crowd favourite ever since!
Also, since I was the thirdwheel for Marc and Mel the day before this, Marc became the thirdwheel for Pris and I this day. Fair trade.
This has been stuck in my drafts since the end of June. And by the time this goes up, some of the writings and musings you see here will be 4 months old. So, many of these details might not be the most accurate or up-to-date - do bear that in mind.
But since I managed to find some pockets of time to post this up, I present to you, the long-overdue but better-late-than-never — June's Months in Moments.
__
Can you believe that we are halfway through the year already? It's so surreal to think that I only have six more Months in Moments left to write about. On that note, here is the fifth one of 2018!
1 Jun
Warehouse Sales @ Giant, Kota Damansara
 |
| True friends (like Joel and Hannah) will help you poke your shoes to feel for your toes. |
Joel, Hannah, Melvin, Marcus and I spent our afternoon in the dusty second floor of Giant looking at shoes. Well, the boys were intentional in looking for shoes while Hannah and I just tried on shoes for fun.
None of us got shoes in the end.
But the boys managed to pick up a pair of sneakers for Gabriel, who wasn't even there!
5 Jun
The finish line
I stepped out of the elevator on the sixth floor and purposefully walked over to the pigeon holes.
Let me HUJI cam this moment, I thought to myself.
Making sure no one else was around, I took out my phone and snapped this photo before dropping in my research design proposal into the opening slot.
This was the last of my submission for all my assignments. And because I had no final papers to sit for as all of my units this semester were 100% assignment-based, this marked the end of my second year first semester of my degree.
This also means that I am now halfway done with my three year degree.
Time needs to chill.
Fun fact #1: finishing the assignment the night before left me with a sore neck because I was sitting in a wrong position for an extended amount of time. I couldn't find a smaller patch of salonpas from Family Mart so I asked Marc to cut it and put it on for me.
Raise your hands if you have something maroon in your closet. Maybe we can all wear it and if we gather enough people, we'll call ourselves Maroon 5-thousand.
6 Jun
Common Man Coffee Roasters @ TTDI
Joy, oh, Joy.
You hold a special place in my heart, always. I hope you never forget that, even when we ourselves tend to forget when was the last time we met.
Deadpool
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| Thirdwheeling Marcus and Jeremy for a movie date. |
7 Jun
Inside Scoop @ Taipan
Inside Scoop @ Taipan
 |
| I only managed to snap this picture because I knew that the two of them will be too shy for a proper one. |
With some free time in my hands, I went to have chicken rice and Inside Scoop with two of the Subang boys, Darius and Shaun.
It's a running joke in our CG that we're divided between two major groups - people who stay in PJ and people who stay in Subang (...and cue all the dan lain-lains that stay at KL demanding to be part of the narrative). It's also a running joke that us PJ kids never want to head to Subang because it's 'too far' and 'you need a passport' and all that.
So, I made it a point to go visit the Subang kids at their home ground.
Thank you boys for making the 28-minute-drive to USJ4 and then to Taipan a drive that I will make again anytime, any day if it means for us to have those conversations again.
8 Jun
Respekt Whamen
Respekt Whamen
 |
| Lil boy Nat showing us his bass guitar skills. |
 |
| Where else do we go... |
The Respekt Whamen boys who are never hesitant in inviting me over for their lunch dates, ice cream sessions and FIFAs.
As much as I don't want to insert that cliche explanation of how they make me feel like "one of the boys", they really do. But they also never forget to be the gentlemen that they are to me as they exemplify it to the baby in the group to do the same.
9 Jun
Family Mart
Family Mart
 |
| We get it, Ashton, you work out. |
All of us know how limited the seats are at Family Mart.
So the whole bunch of us spent a good 20 to 30 minutes just standing outside the SS2 branch, eating our green tea and coconut ice creams after dinner.
10 Jun
KL Lights
KL Lights
Pretty, isn't it?
This was what we saw on the way home from our dinner at Imperial Chakri Palace, KLCC. My parents are friends with the owner and/or the owner's father (I forgot who's who) and so we were invited for a buffet dinner of Thai food.
Driving back home, Papa was pointing out at the landmarks around KL as if he was a tour guide.
And at that moment, I really did feel like a tourist in my own country.
How strange.
But you know what's stranger than this...
11 Jun
What's Wrong with Secretary Kim
What's Wrong with Secretary Kim
...me, getting hooked on a Korean Drama.
This is probably the strangest thing that I've ever gotten myself into in my entire lifetime.
I watched a preview of this k-drama on Facebook that was about a minute and a half long and almost instantly I was emotionally invested in the characters of the show.
I've finished the entire series and I highly, highly recommend this.
Man, the amount of times I've laughed, cried or squealed out loud in my room as I watched the plot thicken in each episode...
Yes, I do realise that this is making me sound like a complete fangirl but I thoroughly enjoyed the series. And I think this is saying a lot, coming from someone who doesn't normally dabble in the Korean entertainment scene.
12 Jun
A GCT-Goodbye
A GCT-Goodbye
Daniel, one of our GENesis leaders, leaves to the land down under.
He's been saying that he'll be going overseas to study for what felt like the longest time and it finally happened.
I'm proud of you, Daniel. I always say this and I always will. Thank you for showing me how to love the members the way that reflects God's love for His people. You have taught me so very much.
I can't wait until you come back soon!
13 - 15 Jun
Port Dickson
Cape Rachado Lighthouse
For Mama's birthday weekend, we decided to head to Port Dickson for a quick getaway. Here's what we did!
Lu, Jie and myself were asleep in the backseat of the car while Papa was driving us to PD. The three of us slowly woke up one after another and were greeted with a forest of green surrounding us.
"We're going to climb up to see the lighthouse!" Mama exclaimed.
Pretty sure that's the last nine words any of us wanted to hear the moment we opened our eyes.
But climbed the hill and fulfilled Mama's wish we did.
 |
| What a pair of hip-looking parents. |
 |
| Sleepy, sweaty and confused kids. |
Thistle Port Dickson
We headed back to the hotel for lunch and a much needed shower and change.
Spending the rest of our afternoons playing pool and swimming in the pool, we waited until it was almost time to head to the beach to catch the sunset.
 |
| Funny how the 57-year-old birthday girl is afraid of swimming, but was the first one to run into the ocean. |
CocoMoo Gelato @ Weng Yin Seafood
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| Yummy, yummy gelato after dinner. |
Ostrich Show Farm
There isn't much to do in Port Dickson, so we headed to the Ostrich Show Farm for fun.
I kid you not, I genuinely did enjoy myself there, despite us being the only older kids that were around the farm.
I'm sure the bunch of school children from Singapore can say the same, because the workers and the teachers let a handful of them compete against one of the ostriches in a make-shift track to see if they could out-run the ostrich.
Lucky King Bun @ Seremban
Oh, the heavenly combination of pork rib curry and bread.
If it wasn't for what happened back in May, I would have been more than happy to have eaten more than just a spoonful of the curry, two pieces of pork ribs and one piece of bread.
 |
| Back to the beach again at sunset. |
 |
| Lu and I. |
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| Bottles of cider by the beach after dinner with the family. What more can I ask for? |
16 Jun
FIFA Party
FIFA Party
Like I've mentioned before, my living room has turned into a hub for everyone to stop by after dinner and dessert for PS4 tournaments. This weekend was no different.
19 Jun
Jun Wen
Jun Wen
 |
| Future Dr Ooi at your service. |
Both of us have said this to each other way too often, but we really are glad that this friendship has lasted throughout high school, college and now university.
You're the only guy in our circle of friends, but you've never let it get in the way of hanging out and spending time with us, even when we continuously make fun of each other. I don't know how you do it, but thank you for tolerating us.
Here's to (gladly) being in each other's friendzones for all eternity.
Wrappin
Jie and I made dinner that night!
I made the guacamole while he panfried the chicken and capsicum for the filling for the fajitas.
20 Jun
A quick trip back home
A quick trip back home
 |
| Sunrise, sunrise. |
 |
| The world's best taufufa is the one my grandmama makes. |
"Yia zak hao liang ha," Popo said, which means "this one is quite nice" while looking at the pictures we took at their 60th wedding anniversary last month.
For the past few years, my mama has been persistent on bringing her camera and taking hundreds of photos at every family event. The fruits of her labour have finally shown as a new family ritual has been introduced where we always take group photos during dinner and gather around the living room TV after to view the photos together.
My grandparents have also grown to like being in front of the camera. They now pester my mama for the photos, excited to see the faces of her sons and daughters and grandchildren.
Or maybe they're just excited to see their own faces.
Either way, it's quite adorable.
21 Jun
Barely a barista
Barely a barista
Fun fact: I am not a coffee drinker, mainly because it makes me poop.
So, everything was new to me: learning how to tell the differences between the taste and the smell of the coffee beans, to grinding coffee beans, to making cappuccinos and lattes.
Despite not being a coffee enthusiast, I had a lot of fun. And I smelled like coffee for the rest of the day, too!
22 Jun
Dates for Deadlines
Dates for Deadlines
 |
| Sending something cheeky to Melvin. |
Marc and I spent the rainy day in, working on our assignments.
As boring as this sounds, it's one of the ways we get to see each other during the busy, busy seasons of uni life. Not to worry, of course, we still squeeze in lunch dates before we start on work and ice cream dates after we've done.
23 Jun
PJ Rally
PJ Rally
 |
| Black kicks for days. |
It's the second year in a row where NextGen has hosted the PJ CF Rally.
Just like last year, I helped out with the sound team - running around to the different venues for the workshops in the afternoon, preparing the slides and lyrics for soundcheck for the night rally and playing with the lights.
Every now and then during the event, I was reminded of the time I co-chaired the 2014 PJ CF Rally with Jasmine and the rest of the committee.
We also had it at Dream Centre that year and the flow of the program hasn't changed since then.
But one thing different is that we did everything on our own back then - from designs, to sound, to ushering, to F&B and everything in between. As tiring and stressful as it was, I've personally learnt so much from that experience!
With that being said, I'm not salty that NextGen started helping out with PJ CF Rally only after the year I chaired. I'm actually so glad that we've been able to do so because I know that this has allowed the NextGen leaders to learn from the committee and that hopefully, the committee has learned a few things from us, too.
24 Jun
F1 Fan
F1 Fan
 |
| Yes, we're doing assignments again. |
Marc was finishing his assignment where he had to come up with few write-ups on superheroes.
Being the F1 fan that he is, he did one of his write-ups about how he's always wanted to become a F1 driver and how watching the practice session for the final Malaysian Grand Prix last year felt like a dream come true. The dream still lives, as sometimes he drives on the road as if he really is one, telling me that, "I'm an F1 driver."
He finished up his writing and put in the photo he took of Valtteri Bottas on the track for his photography assignment last year (okay, why does it seem like we do nothing but assignments). You can see the photo on his laptop screen!
After gliding his fingers across the trackpad back and forth in adjusting the placement of the photo, he paused.
"This photo so nice," he said while cupping his cheeks, feeling mighty proud of himself.
And rightfully so.
25 Jun
Pris
Pris
She's back!
And the first thing we did was to head down to Village Park for a nasi lemak ayam goreng lunch.
The last I featured her was in February, but the truth is that we've actually been talking to each other literally every single day, with (probably) thousands of voice notes and video messages exchanged ever since I managed to convince her to move to telegram.
You're probably gonna see her a lot in the next few MiMs because she's going to be here until September.
26 Jun
Dog-erpillar
Dog-erpillar
Leanne and I popped by Deevya's place to visit her doggos that day. And even though it was only a couple of hours of cuddling her doggos and being bitten and jumped on by her baby husky, it was a good couple of hours.
Nerf War trial run
 |
| If this isn't proof that we're game enough, I don't know what is. |
After the visit to the doggos, I headed to church for the test run for NextGen's first ever Nerf War.
A combined effort of the 13 and 14-year-old CG leaders, along with the help of other NextGen leaders, we spent a good few hours figuring out the mechanics and smoothening out the gameplay for the teens.
Most of us leaders are older teens and young adults, but we had so much fun running around shooting at each other within the DIY battlefield (cheywah battlefield), though most of the time was probably spent picking up the bullets.
26 Jun
 |
| My favourite hello. |
27 Jun
26 cups of water on the table, 26 cups of water...
26 cups of water on the table, 26 cups of water...
The NextGen Campus camp commandants and the admin team were planning for the buses, rooms and games groups. I joined in the meeting.
Ordered by Michelle to finish up the box of packaged cups of water, we were on a mission.
After 3 hours of drinking what seemed like an endless supply of water and making multiple trips to the toilet, we managed to finish 26 cups among 6 of us.
28 Jun
Melvin
Melvin
 |
| Stealer of girls' hearts and stealer of my soup. |
This man has been craving for his ramen for a good few weeks before this meal happened.
Fun fact: this was the first meal I had with Melvin alone!
I cannot imagine how we've known each other for so long and how we've had so many conversations about anything and everything and yet, this is the first meal I've had with him without anyone else.
I guess it makes sense since it has always been me thirdwheeling Marc and him on their dates.
Speaking of which, Marcus came to join us after this lunch.
29 Jun
Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo @ Taman Bahagia
Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo @ Taman Bahagia
Remember how I mentioned bringing Hannah, Kenji and Jeremy to the wrong yong tau foo place last month? Well, I finally figured out the right one. And it's been a crowd favourite ever since!
Also, since I was the thirdwheel for Marc and Mel the day before this, Marc became the thirdwheel for Pris and I this day. Fair trade.
The Day We Called 999
It's too long of a story to have it here, so you can read on here if you'd like.
And that concludes June's Months in Moments!
I feel like I've been saying this one too many times but I know, I know, I'm way behind schedule. And I even ambitiously promised you two Months in Moments in July.
I'm sorry. I'm really trying.
But guess what?
By the end of next week, I'll be done with year two of my degree, which means that I'll have a lot more time to make up for all the lost Months in Moments.
You have my word.
Question: how many fun facts have I mentioned in this post alone? First person to tell me the right answer gets a virtual hug. Yay.
