"She was a -"
Prisca was the music director for Mahsuri: Retold, a project she did with her classmates. The few of us rushed off to Sunway University after CG on Saturday (for dinner and then) to catch the showcase.
It's super impressive that all the songs were originally composed by the students themselves. They're also producing this as a musical film this year, too! How cool is that?
Also, there was a part in the showcase where one of the male characters was giving out flowers to some of the girls in the room and Hannah received one. Don't worry, we held Kenji back.
2 Dec
Of fluff and foil
Of fluff and foil
NextGen Teens Camp was approaching, which meant that preparations were being made on the double. This also included preparing the decorations that we were going to put up in the hall, which Phoebe and Cara were in charge of doing.
The commandants - Khye, Elaine and myself, joined the small team that afternoon and had a lot of laughs while making clouds and moon rocks out of ping pong balls, cotton, rough paper and tin foil.
3 Dec
Dates
Dates
"Should I check my eyes ah?" asked the boy who had perfect vision, with no problem seeing anything near or far.
"Go la," I laughed, "it's free anyways."
December was a crazy month for the both of us.
I spent almost everyday running errands for camp - be it sorting out things at home, going out to buy stuff, or spending two to three days in a week at the church office so much so that it's like I practically work there, while Marcus was packed with back-to-back sessions of practice, rehearsals, soundchecks and gigs.
So, it was nice being able have a lunch date at "best in the world chicken rice" (it's what he called it as a kid) along with the rest of the day to just hang out and enjoy each other's company.
I looked over at the shy little boy and let out a small chuckle.
"Hi, excuse me. He wants to check his power. Can you help him please?"
And just like that, the guitarman was on the chair, staring into what I think was most probably a hot air balloon (...and all the people without 20/20 vision say "Amen").
And yes, he still has almost perfect vision.
Location:
Hoe Fong Chicken Rice
25A, Jalan 21/17,
Sea Park,
46300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor.
https://g.co/kgs/qEer8k
4 Dec
Shaun Queks
Shaun Queks
I remember texting him on Telegram, asking him to decide where to eat. And even when I've picked him up from his doorstep, even after he stepped into my car, he still asked, "Where we eating?" But it's a good thing he managed to decide within a minute.
Thank you for our twice-a-year lunches (the last one was in April). Thank you for the "talk more when we can"s that happen quite often. Thank you for helping me clean up the tea I (literally) spilled all over the table that day. Thank you also for screaming out the car window to tell the double-parker that we're leaving. You may possibly be slightly more than average.
Your hair though, is below average. But I'll accept it for who you are.
Location:
Restoran Sunrise
31, Jalan 21/1,
Sea Park,
46300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor.
https://g.co/kgs/y1nnhYs
5 Dec
Kawans
Kawans
Shin Wei was back!
And as any normal Malaysian would when returning after being overseas, we went to Village Park for lunch to satisfy her cravings. After that, we ended up walking up and down the streets of Uptown trying to find a place to sit and chill because for some reason a lot of the dessert shops like Beans n Beans and Shugatori weren't open yet. How odd. So, we ended up at Kory at Starling instead.
The bingsu was alright, nothing too spectacular. But I have nothing to complain about when I'm with these two.
Location:
Kory @ The Starling
Lot F-134,
The Starling Mall,
Jalan SS 21/37,
Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor.
https://g.co/kgs/SFjEdd
7 Dec
Surprise Yens!
Surprise Yens!
Praise went the extra mile with the party hat and the sash. We also had party poppers, too! But they didn't pop very nicely (as pictured above) so the boys just popped them for fun.. once after the birthday song and once after the prayer, which was after the birthday song. I'm sure you can imagine how very anticlimactic it must have been.
8 Dec
Leaders' Appreciation
Leaders' Appreciation
Once a year, NextGen leaders are treated to a special meal as a token of appreciation from the staff team. And this time round, we got to eat Won! I just recently went there with GCT in October, but, hey, no such thing as too much Korean BBQ (...though, I think there should be a threshold to it that I have yet hit).
Bernice, Yens and I were eternally grateful to have had Joel at our table. The seasoned KBBQ-er took the liberty of cooking the pork that day, and he even discovered a new way of cooking that made the pork oh-so-tasty by mixing up the sauce and the other ingredients on the grill! Too bad we only figured it out near the last few rounds of pork.
Location:
Won Korean Dining
F201, Second Floor,
Isetan One Utama Shopping Centre,
1, Lebuh Bandar Utama,
Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor.
https://g.co/kgs/kGCWW1
10 Dec
Camp errands
Camp errands
With mama tagging a long with me, I ran up and down the streets, went into the shops and browsed through what they had, took lots of pictures and asked Terry, Elaine and Khye to stay online on WhatsApp while we made decisions on the spot. Mama also took me to one of the bakeries that had ai yu bing for our tea break midway through the shopping spree.
After I got home, I spent the rest of my evening fixing up a leaf crown that we were going to use to crown the best dressed winners of our Hawaiian-themed Fun Night.
Yup, that's right, I made it by hand!
What with the Hawaiian theme, I tried finding a hawaiian haku, the head lei, that they usually put on for special occasions. But I couldn't find anything that day that resembled close to the haku and since the other option was to head to an actual costume store to buy a proper one, I went with the cheaper alternative to DIY my way through.
So with the garland of leaves, floral ties, and the flowers which I took off another flower crown, I managed to make two hawaiian hakus for the best dressed winners. I was pretty proud of it to say the least. And it looked really good on the winners, too!
 |
| Credits to NextGen for the photo! |
11 Dec
Lil' Louisa
Lil' Louisa
Terry invited a couple of us over to just hang out over some PS4. Not only did we have some pretty mind-blowing fried chicken for lunch, we also got to spend the day with lil' Louisa!
14 Dec
Wizards at Tribeca @ Jalan Imbi
Wizards at Tribeca @ Jalan Imbi
"I need to block your time. Date me," texted Sara.
Funny how this was supposed to be somewhat our "goodbye" meal, but we ended up meeting again early January for lunch. I guess it goes to show that you can never have one too many brunches/lunches with this lady right here! #sarqingforever
15 Dec
Commissioning
Commissioning
The day has finally arrived - Terry and Sara were being commissioned as pastors! It was incredibly exciting, for the ministry as a whole and especially for myself, too, as these two are people who I hold very close to my heart.
Thank you for the hardwork and the heart-work you two have poured out into NextGen and into my life as well. I'm a lil' bit bummed that I'm not there personally to experience where God will lead you two as the year goes by but I cannot wait to return and hear all about it.
Here's to you, Pr Terry and Pr Sara. I love and treasure you both deeply.
18 - 21 Dec
NextGen Teens Camp: THE PURSUIT 18
I'm not surprised that I didn't get to HUJI cam anything at camp, it was a crazy four days and three nights. And the crazy also includes days, weeks and months that the committee dedicated into making THE PURSUIT 18 happen.
Man, I have so many stories, too many to write it all down here. I know it's been over a month since camp has happened, but it really deserves a write-up of its own. Stay tuned to that.
This was the only photo I managed to take: after Marcus and I completely knocked out in the car the second Kenji started the drive back home.
Thankfully, Joshua was a good co-pilot who kept him company the whole way through.
That was a really, really, really good nap.
23 - 27 Dec
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
I got back home after camp that Friday night and had one day to not only recover from camp, but to also pack for a family holiday to Hong Kong, of which our flight was leaving on Sunday morning.
The video is in the works, but until then, here are some of the HUJI highlights of our trip!
Also, some of them have Christmas icons next to the dates because I turned them on for some of the photos! It's too cute.
Australia Dairy Company
Hong Kong Disneyland
Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade
Ocean Park
28 Dec
The Pawn Room @ TTDI
The Pawn Room @ TTDI
Marcus was getting ready to go for Ara Viet with some of his childhood friends - Garrett, Zachary and Christopher.
"You can join us for dinner," he asked about a week earlier.
I told him to go ahead and enjoy his boys night out. And no, I did not say it as a "test" (I've been seeing too many of those tweets going around LOL).
After dinner, he picked me up to join them for Chatime to catch the last of the RM2.50-with-the-Touch N' Go-app deal. The five of us sat at one of the tables at Starbucks and sipped on our brown sugar pearl milk tea while Garrett munched on some apples he bought from the fruit shop, because Garrett is healthy like that. Be like Garrett.
I feel like there's this thing about meeting your significant other's friends.
I mean, there are articles on what to say or what to wear, Yahoo answers, quoras and wikiHows (this page has been read 154,874 times, bro) all about it. And I can honestly admit to feeling that way before, especially this time round when it came to his childhood friends who he practically grew up with, and it's funny because we all sort of knew of each other's existence growing up, too.
But, I've never ever ever had a bad experience meeting Marcus' friends, whether it be his friends from uni who are so warm and welcoming or the musicians he works with who include me in their conversations and ask about me from time to time, and this one with his boys wasn't one either. In fact, we somehow ended up roasting each other while having inside jokes by the end of the night.
After we finished up our Chatime, we went to The Pawn Room for Marcus' gig with Talitha. Lim and Bird joined us there, too! Garrett then left after that while we ended our night the best way we know how - 223 for nasi lemak, fried chicken, satay and thoughtful conversations.
Location:
The Pawn Room
46, Persiaran Zaaba,
Taman Tun Dr Ismail,
60000 Kuala Lumpur,
Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur.
https://g.co/kgs/duMLTJ
30 Dec
An annual family occasion
An annual family occasion
It's been a tradition every year without fail for our family to host a Christmas/New Year's Eve dinner at our house, with all my uncles and aunties bringing their home-cooked or store-bought specialties.
The spread of food? It makes me thank-full. The conversations they have? It makes me want to laugh until I cry. The volume of their conversations? It makes me pray that the neighbours can't hear us. The different dialects they switch to back and forth? It makes me glad that I understand it so I know what they're talking about, but also almost always immediately makes me wish I never understood that adults-only reference.
All in all, I'm glad we made it a thing to do this - it's easily one of my favourites.
_
I guess this is the end.
Finally, a goal on writing that I've made at the start of the year that I actually completed! Although I did stray away for a bit when April came along. That's when all the MiMs after that were from weeks to months late. Nevertheless, I managed to complete all of my 2018 Months in Moments as promised. Good job, self!
I took a quick stroll down all my previous MiMs before finishing this up.
There are some moments that I still remember to this day, second for second of what happened, word for word who said what, but some of these moments I have slowly mixed up the little details of, and some I don't remember all too well anymore.
This is why I'm glad I wrote it all on here, because I can look back at these moments, remember why they were significant to me at that time and to think about how it's significant to me now.
Okay, getting a little too sappy here.
To all of you who have read my MiMs, whether it be one or all of them, thank you for sticking this out with me. You are truly the real champions.
I hope all of you have enjoyed seeing and reading how my months have passed in these little moments and that some of you have enjoyed being featured here as well.
The real question is: will I do this again for 2019?
I don't know, I'm still undecided.
January is ending in a couple more days and I have taken zero moments for this month. But, I did somehow spontaneously start this Life at Leeds, Photobooth-video-recording, talk-about-my-week thing over the week. It's here if you'd like to see it. Maybe I'll do that instead. But I'm still undecided on that, too (you'll see it if you watch the video).
Oh well, we'll find out together.
Here's to 2019 - all the moments, big or small, that are waiting to happen, for me and for you.
