Lea Salonga, Dec 16th (Wed)

A shout-out for anyone interested in watching Lea Salong live at Esplanade Concert Hall.

As I have only 1 extra ticket, you have to fulfil the following criteria:
1. Know who Lea Salonga is and preferably keen to watch her sing live (duh)
2. Free on Dec 16th (Wed) (duh x2)
3. Be a student, because it is a student ticket
4. Secretly want to have a date with me.
5. Don't mind my company

I wouldn't go so far as to say first come, first served. Just in case nobody comes. Heh. But seriously, if you're keen, drop me an sms/email/call. (:

My solo movie experience

Nowadays, it'd seem that the only time I'm available (not technically, well, but.. :P) to catch a movie, is when I'm on call that night. Probably because I'd reason that I'd be working through the night (technically, but well.. :P), I deserve a break in the afternoon since I'm still a student. Afterall, there is only a certain period of time when you're officially a student ('tho we are life-long learners), and there are things that you can only do while you are a student.

Anyway, the previous time I watched a movie alone was quite some years back. It was Shanghai Knights. For some reason, I think I wanted to watch it quite badly, and my friends have already watched it, so I decided to watch it alone. (Maybe because it featured Fann Wong - afterall, you don't often see a local actor/actress make it to Hollywood back then. Now as well.) Maybe I was young and impressionable then, or maybe I just couldn't decipher tones of speech, but I don't remember experiencing what I experienced yesterday.

Me: Can I have a ticket to (500) days of summmer?

*I remembered that being Wednesday, I'm entitled to student discount. Hence I flashed my student EZ-link*

Receptionist at Box-Office (Henceforth known as R): I'd need 2 student passes.
Me: I only need 1 ticket.
R: Oh. So 1 student ticket and 1 normal ticket>
Me: No, ONE ticket would be enough.
R: Huh? Oh I'm sorry..
Me: It's alright. *And I gave her my classic smiley face*

Come on, what's wrong with watching a movie alone? No doubt, movies seem to be the most prevalent social event, whether for couples or for groups. (Correct me if I'm wrong) But sometimes, it's hard to find company, or find time when your company can make it, or find company who want to watch it (with you or otherwise), or find company who hasn't watched that movie. And I don't really wanna wait for the DVD, especially when I'm not sure whether I want to invest $20+ in a DVD instead of $6 for a student ticket.

So maybe in future, box-office receptionists should learn to conceal their expressions of disbelief when someone purchases a single ticket. (:

Anyway, (500) days of summer was not too bad for a movie. Could vaguely draw some parallels between the character and me. Well, in case there are people who read this and haven't watched it and are keen to watch it, shan't have any spoiler alerts. But a theme that struck me was reconciling expectations and reality. Very often, in relationships or otherwise, we have expectations of others, we think we can expect or predict how they would think or respond. But in reality, we probably can't.

Sometimes we expect people, who are of adult age and adult mentality (these 2 don't necessarily coexist, a pity to say) to know what they want in life. Maybe some people do know what they want, which is they don't want anything at that point in time. You can't fault them for it. Knowing that you don't want anything counts as knowing what you want i guess. Till then, there's really nothing much you can do about it, is there?

And probably, for me personally, where the line for friends and someone special is really quite distinctly drawn, a quote in the movie made me realise "You can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event." Because for the millions out there, perhaps the line for normal friends and someone special isn't that far apart. Not that it's wrong. It's just my personal take on things. Being the oddball, I should attempt to understand the norms of how people interact, even though I may not subscribe to it. That would probably save me a lot of interpretative errors.

Not that I want to be anal about drawing clear lines. But for me, clarity trumps ambiguity. Anytime. It may be really cruel, even for both parties, but I would think that its protective effect would reap more benefits in future.

"And there's no mountain too high, no river too wide
Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side
Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide
But I love you, I love you, until the end of time.

~Come What May, Moulin Rouge

Nothing's gonna change my love for you
You ought'a know by now how much I love you
One thing you can be sure of
I'll never ask for more than your love.
The world may change my whole life through
But nothing's gonna change my love for you.

~ Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You

I think we (or at least I) are a sucker for these songs which promise loads. Until the end of time? I remember what my pastor mentioned about many people: 说就天下无敌，做就无能为力. Indeed the future may really be unpredictable, and really not in our control. Does that devalue the promises that we make? I don't think so, because the promise is a commitment, to signify that yes, the future may be unpredictable, but come what may, I will walk through it with you. So till then, I'll still be a sucker for these songs.

Thank God for His Word and Love, the only things which never change. (:

Michael Jackson Medley

My sister shared this with me.
Like WOAH. Zai. Impressed, totally.

Would be fun to try it out, wouldn't it? Any keen parties? :D:D:D

My maiden experience as a wedding emcee

Strange and a little absurd, some may say, that my maiden experience as a wedding emcee was for a couple whom I'm not even acquainted with, and whom I've not seen until 1 hour before the commencement of the wedding luncheon.

I've attended quite a few church weddings, but not many wedding dinners/luncheons. Maybe only 2-3? But certainly less than or equal to the number of fingers on one hand (i.e. 5, unless you have polydactyl). And therefore, much can be said about the extent of my experience in the proceedings of a wedding reception, or rather, the lack of it.

It can really be stressful doing something for the newly weds during a wedding, whether you're presenting a special song item or being the emcee. (Actually these are the only 2 things I've ever done at a wedding; being a part of the audience celebrating the holy matrimony of a couple does not count. Hopefully, one day I'll have the honour of being a brother for the groom, and ultimately, if God willing, the groom. Haha). But anyway, the reason it can be stressful is because, you would want to be the last person to screw up any part of the wedding (if there are any screw ups at all). Well at least, for me, my wedding's gonna be, hopefully, perfect, in whatever sense of the word. Also because people only get wed once in their entire lives (ideally).

And so, it makes me (a person who really hopes everything runs like clockwork, according to every detail in the planning) very very nervous, and a little uptight, when there's hardly a proper run through of the whole sequence of events during a wedding ceremony. Especially when the not-so-proper run through is peppered with 'play-by-ear's.

For one, I don't know how a yum seng's supposed to work. So I guess I made everyone a little bewildered and amused when I shouted yum seng 3 times without taking a single sip in between. Oh wells. This is how learning and gaining experience takes place isn't it?

Everyone's placing a bet that I'll cry big time the day I get wed. I shan't comment on that, but I can probably predict that I'll be pretty uptight about it. Imagine that. But if my sister's gonna be my wedding planner, I dare say it's probably gonna go quite well, given how she arranged by surprise birthday party x2. And I think she'll expect a big angbao from me. Haha.

P.S. Have I mentioned that I'm considering embracing a concept of a musical for my wedding? If I have the time and energy, and if my other half agrees to it, hopefully I can be the producer, the director, the composer/arranger, and of course the lead actor/singer. Haha. May sound unrealistic, but I'm entitled to my dreams rite? Heh.

Words

Derek Shepherd: “How did he not know this happened?”

George 'O Malley: “Why is it his fault for not noticing? Going through life thinking they had the relationship where she could talk to him if she was in trouble, she would tell him. If you really have feelings for someone, if you really love them, then you talk to them.”

Owen Hunt: “Maybe she tried. Maybe words failed her. Sometimes, words fail."


In the Midnight Hour,
Grey's Anatomy Season 5

Mortality and Morbidity

Yesterday, I had some difficulty passing motion; and even today I kept running to the toilet a few times, with slight sensation of incomplete voiding. Now, normal people would probably experience these symptoms once in a while and think nothing of it. But when day in day out for the past couple of weeks, you've been talking to patients who presented with these symptoms and have now been diagnosed with some pathology, you can't help but have some morbid thoughts running across your mind. Disclaimer: I am not paranoid, nor am I excessively worried or anything. And now I am perfectly fine, physically at least, maybe with the exception of a slight weight problem :P Just had some thoughts. (:

A couple of weeks ago, during my night call, I witnessed for the first time, a patient dying in hospital, in probably what is the most dramatic thus far. The patient came in vomiting blood. For some absurd reason, he was sent up to a general ward (VS. ICU) even though he was quite hypotensive (i.e. low blood pressure). After some time, he started vomiting blood profusely, and even at one point, started to seize. Imagine a patient with a plastic bag full of fresh blood beside him, and now more blood on his clothes. The on-call team started resuscitation efforts. But at the end, he didn't make it. All this while, his family members were waiting outside, looking worried and praying hard.

I was just thinking. Had the patient known that the last thing he would ever say to his family and loved ones was before he was admitted into the Emergency Department? Had he anything more he would have wanted to tell them? Had his family anything more to tell him?

Was thinking about acute/sudden death (i.e. suddenly collapsing after a marathon, road traffic accident?) VS death due to chronic condition (i.e. cancer). Which would I prefer? For one, maybe an acute death would be less painful, as compared to the seemingly long-term suffering of a chronic condition, where one might perceive himself to be just waiting for time to pass. But if I knew I have a chronic condition, I would be able to plan what I would wanna do for the rest of my limited life.

I wouldn't want to be unable to tell my loved ones that I love them (if I never had before), just because some drunk irresponsible driver ran me over and I died instantly.

Such is the unpredictability of life. Certainly, I know the Hope that awaits me. Just that, just wondering, will I have any regrets should I just pass away the next day? Will I regret not spending sufficient time with my family? Will I regret not telling someone how important he/she is to me? Will I regret not mending ties with certain individuals?

So many potential regrets I can now think of. But will I be able to live my life differently, knowing I may have these regrets?

Anyway, I'm perfectly fine. I guess. Shall go read newspaper and do my 2nd case write-up after that. (:

“把碗洗得干净一点！”

Maybe my blog is really dead. But well, good thing that death is not an end-point, but a transition point. Just like I have the power to revive my blog as and when I want to, so there will come a day when all the dead-as-of-now will 'go to' another place, for better or for worse, but that would certainly be for eternity.

Anyway, just wanted to pop by (can you technically pop by your own blog?) before I continue on my surgical case write-up (which in itself can be a form of warped enjoyment, just that it's super time-consuming -.-"). There's been a lot of news lately, from publicised ones like Ris Low and disasters (natural or otherwise), to private ones like friends and acquaintances being hospitalised, witnessing my first death in hospital (this was like.. 2 weeks ago). Each of them deserve a full post, but well, until I have a little more time on my hands, I shall not venture into lands unknown, past the point of no return.

Just now, when I was washing the dishes (dish, to be more accurately - my own soup bowl), my mum nagged, “把碗洗得干净一点！”. The main point is not that my mum nags (which mother doesn't? Moreover I think my mum nags minimally already (: ) Thing is, if something is clean, it means it has to be perfectly clean. If it isn't, then it really isn't. It's quite an absolute isn't it? Oh. Correction - It IS an absolute isn't it?

As much as social studies and GP have taught us always to "agree [with almost everything, it seems] to a CERTAIN EXTENT," I wonder whether our minds have been accustomed to spectrumise everything. Law aims to make the punishment fit the crime, and rightly so, but have we forgotten that there is sin has no such grading system?

Can you love a person more over time? Love is an absolute standard too, isn't it?