Merry Christmas!

A very merry christmas to all! I notice that evry christmas some ppl, including christians, will use the word XMAS instead. Now i really dislike that word. X is sumtimes used as a word censor, just like in this case. And the word censored out is Christ. Whats christmas without christ? So actually wishing ppl Merry Xmas is no meaning.

Heh. today i had a christmas gathering with my paternal relatives. my grandfather came 1/2 hour early and went to use the toilet. he took so long inside.. and finally we found he was stuck inside! some metal part between the door n lock got jammed and the door cant open. and he got so impatient during his stay in the toilet he started banging the door every few minutes! haha! Such an interesting incident on a christmas day! i thought he may have to spend the gathering time sulking in the toilet n we gotta deliver him food thru the window! poor old man. wahaha!! Anyway, the problem was solved abt an hour later when more manpower came. they continuously pried at the metal piece and then my big fat uncle just charged at the door and rammed it open! Here we see how Clement chua may be of good use next time! haha!

And every year's christmas is somehow never the same, be it a small or big difference. Perhaps its cos im in a growing phase, so personality and perspective changes. Many changes to the envt and ppl around me also occur within a year.

Christmas celebrations were the grandest when i was younger. (same goes for my birthdays.) I used to recieve piles of presents during christmas and birthdays, and there will be a big gathering to celebrate. But this year, i didnt recieve a single present for my birthday and christmas, except from my parents. For the past few years, my birthdays were just settled by a dinner outside. Seems very simple, but i dunno what else to ask for that is reasonable.

The past 2 weeks had big activities. The Destination:where concert on 15 & 16 was really good. And the skit contributed at least 50% of the niceness. Too bad i wasnt devoted enough to devote my time for actor training for the skit due to some complications, if not i would have taken over the lead role. Haha! jus kidding. An usher is a rather uninvolved role, but hey.. ppl would get lost and cant even get to see the concert if not for ushers like me! haha.

Then came the Christ & co church camp at 19-22. It somehow passed very quickly. Maybe cos too little activity. But ah well... every chruch camp is enjoyable ever since i found my place in JYM. I shall not talk much about the camp. that will be reserved for a detailed diary-like account that will be posted on a new blog.

Keep a lookout for a link that would appear above all my other links as soon as i completed writing part of it. If i have time, i may post the account of last year's RACE camp after that.

ROD day #2

My days have been quite monotonous... still havn found a stable job to last my 2 months remaining. so.. nothing much to update about. BUT, i found out i havn done the continuation post on the ROD thing.
So here it is: the events of the next day, continued from ROD night #1

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I woke up before 7. its been barely 5 hours of sleep, but thats very good compared to the rest of the ppl. I know most of the others stayed up much later. plus, from their sleeping conditions i could tell they couldnt have slept well either. I sneaked a few shots at some sleepers.

twin sharing of a tiny mattress.

Sleeping outdoors for fresh air. (this guy was really sleeping.)

All covered up. how to breathe? wasnt cold anyway.

Also, though the girls didnt mind me sleeping in their room, i could tell they were quite 'scared' of me. 2 of the girls slept in the further half of the queen size bed, leaving the nearer half empty. The other 2 squeezed into the mattress on the opposite side. I see absolutely no point for them to do that. doesnt make them any safer! haha.

I found this big tub of leftover mee siam sauce. The mixture separated into 4 different layers and it looked and smelled hideous. It was later dumped into the toilet bowl. haha.

When i went out of the room, there were alr a few guys outside, sitting around doing nth. The girls all got up quite early too. But in the guys room, there were still several of them sleeping like logs. those were really the heavy sleepers. The TV was left on the whole time through at volume 15! One of the boys played the hi-frequency sound on his HP but no1 woke up. So he proceeded to play some noisy track. still no response. Then i increased the TV volume to 20+ . still no response...UNTIL.... the national anthem video was played on th TV! haha! Those ppl r either really loyal citizens, or they really hate the anthem. i guess its the latter cos theyre forced to sing it every morning of school!

After everyone woke up and done their washing up, we played more cards for the next few hours while some went swimming at the pool on the compound entrance rooftop, or buy some junk food from the nearby shops for breakfast. i found a cup of leftover kachang puteh n had it for breakfast. at about 10.30 we had to help tidy n clear up the place n pack up all the stuff. By 11 we checked outta the chalet.

I didnt delay or detour from there. i walked to the MRT station n went home. a really long and boring journey, taking almost an hour. i tried stopping an mrt stop early n take a bus home, then i found that no bus there takes me home, so i had to walk home from there. I reached home all tired, exhausted and dehydrated.

Then i remembered that my friend was going off to malaysia that day n he wanted to borrow my novel but havn done so. so i called him, n he said he was alr at the airport, n asked me to go all the way to changi! if i known, i could have just made it there by 4 stops from pasir ris. now i wasted a long trip back, n gotta make another long, boring trip to changi! He wasnt gonna be back till next year n he offered to treat me lunch, but still i dunno y i agreed to go. perhaps it was cos he was so poor-thing that only 1 other fren was there to c him off. We went to burger king for lunch n i ordered the most expensive meal there: double whopper meal upsized. I had to make my trip as worth as possible! haha.

I had spent about 5 hours travelling around n i was never so tired before. i reached home in the evening. but, i somehow didnt feel like sleeping. cant sleep anyway. its too late and too early to sleep. (if u noe what i mean.) I held on for a few more hours, then i had a nice sleep. i slept for 10 hours.

Morningmares!

Early this morning, i had a series of short unpleasant or scary dreams, of which the last one woke me up prematurely. (Since it happened in the early hours of morning, i call it morningmares.)

Its actually been a long time since i had nightmares, and an even longer time since it was this bad. I was actually in cold sweat for the next few minutes after i woke. I did not watch any shows or read any books on horror or paranormal stuffs, so i dunno y it hapens. There were many dreams in that series, but i only remember a few. they may not be in sequence.

In one of them, i was at a place like a shopping centre, outside a toilet. the whole place was dark, unlit and desolated, except for 1 small light from the toilet. I was supposed to be a vegetable seller! I was sitting at that corner on a stool, with some birdcages beside me. inside these cages, there were vegetable leaves packed together in the shape of birds! super weird. Of course, it made no sense trying to sell vegetables at a deserted building at night, and outside the toilet. Then, i saw 2 torchlights shining around and approaching from the darkness. they were being held by invisible people! in quickly dismantled 1 of the veggie birds n covered myself with the leaves.

Next, i was on a SBS bus. there was bright moonlight lighting up the place outside. evryone on the bus was sleeping. the outside place was unfamiliar, and i din noe where the bus was heading. the bus kept travelling n it didnt reach any familiar places. there was also no bus stops outside. i felt very lost n helpless.

The next dream only lasted a few seconds. i was on the same bus. there were messes of bloody stuff on the seats, cant tell what they are. sth like entrails. The circular handles hanging from the ceiling (for ppl to hold) was replaced by hooks of the same size, with pieces of flesh hanging from them.

Next, i was in my school. the sky was covered with dark clouds. i was on the 2nd storey of the classroom block. i looked down onto the quadrangle, which is a grass-covered area used mainly by CCA groups. The quadrangle had been turned into a cemetery, with typical western-style stone tombs on it. then, a parade of people approached from the main gate. they were short figures in white robes. 8 of them were carrying 2 coffins to the cemetery n the rest followed behind. i ran to the science block, which overlooks the soccer field, and i found that the field had also been turned into cemetery! the main thought in my mind: how and why did my school become like this?!

And this is the dream that woke me up. I was in some unknown large indoor place. i was at the entrance of what seemed like makeshift temple. it was just a room with a large altar in it. (cant make out the figure on the altar, but it had 2 glowing globes at the sides.) Suddenly, a person with a plastic bag wrapping his head came running past me and into the room. once in front of the altar, he took off the plastic bag. He stared at the altar with a really horrified expression and then started screaming.
Then i woke up.

I was still semi-conscious, but i couldnt get to sleep again. after goin back to sleep for a few moments, new nightmares would attack me. (i was still awake and i could voluntarily stop those dreams.) I somehow sensed some aura around my room, almost expecting some demon to appear anytime. I prayed hard and focused my mind on the fact that nothing can harm me, with the holy spirit around. thats how i finally slept again, peacefully.

I did have another dream after that, but it was about comp games! haha.
I woke up again at 11am.