Beijing rendezvous

Was thinking on how to pen my first word on this, “Beijing here we come!” or “It was a hell of a trip!”, or so I think. Didn’t really like d first one but thought d latter wouldn’t weigh any better so I’ve come up to just make an ordinary entrance to this one. No, not gonna set off firecrackers or something, just a report on how things fared.

Pre Day 1: Mas Airline

Got up to an early plane, it was 12.30am Tuesday and didn’t manage to sleep well in there, you wouldn’t expect me to have enough sleep before d flight would you? Was dressed up in partial casual-formal, hoping to have a comfy ride and at the same time doesn’t look bad when someone pick us up. In an upbeat mood we lifted off to Nosejing. Thought you can actually get some sleep after all the boarding proedures? Wrong. Soon after taxing, the lights were up. “Would you like some late supper sir?” she said. “Yes, would you please gimme a loaf of bolster and 2 piece of pillow pls? I need some sleep and oh, you’d do me great favour if u switch off d lights and do us good.” I thought. “Yes, please.” And I replied.

After grabbing that polystyrene-packed bread w/ vegetable + fruit and placed them at the seat beside me, I shifted into sleep mode. But wait, your flight wouldn’t be complete without MAS’ signature Orange Juice. WT!@# wouldn’t you guys just leave us alone, or bring all things at one go? afterall it’s midnight, don’t you guys feel drowsy, or u’re just plain nocturnal??! Reminds me to a movie which I’m dying to see, a sequel to Twilight. Okay, back to orange juice. After d drink, I quickly settle myself for a dozing position. Mind you, the airplane engineers’ job is to care for passengers’ safety and, of course, to make things fly. These ppl don’t give a hoot about your backbone, or to the least the comfort of its poor boarding passengers. And so u’re up on a highly sophisticated man-made wonder but at the same time dealing with really shitty seats. Man I’d pay the engineers to actually seat on their own creation and fly from East to West and not hear them whine!

It was almost 2.30am when Part 1 saga ends, ensuring a relatively quiet rest time till about 5am but I reckon none of us will have d luxury of resting well under the above-mentioned circumstances. For once I even thought the turbine next to me(attached to the plane’s wing) was powered by those pasar malam generator. Had to use a headset and turn on to preset channels to ‘immunate’ myself to those horrendous pollution. Not sure about others but it works on me~

5am, early breakfast time, wasn’t allowed to incline my seat so I’ll have to seat up straight, and that didn’t help in my much needed appetite to gobble up chicken gravy rice w/ condiments w/ orange juice w/ tea/coffee. For the record I wasn’t even in the mood to open my mouth, I’M SO D@MN SLEEPY!!! Okay la, since I have to sit up right, might as well clean up the plate for them. Not too bad a meal I must comment, noting that there’s nothing much you could ask for being at 39000ft above your nearest Ramli shack.

The plane arrived on schedule and we went down only to find there’s little difference between Nosejing and Genting,

Nosejing- you pay loads of $$$ n travel 6 hours to feel the coolness of its breeze

Genting- A 1-hour drive but still costs you loads of $$$ should you really use its ‘money washing facilities’ there, but the cool weather is compliment from Genting.

Day 1 - Arrival

We managed to check-in to a hotel which is located next to China’s national stadium, aka The Nest and next to it the national water sports centre, aka The Bubble. Just a stone throw away is the 7star PunGu Hotel. From afar, it resembles the shape of a whole dragon- from head down to its tail. Really majestic I must say. And we spent the evening at a steamboat restaurant nearby with the hosts. The food has nothing to be bragged about, but we had been a little bit spoilt for white wine. -56% alcohol- it reads, n my mind reads, "Holy sh!t, you gonna be kidding me! I ain't gonna push that down my throat, i might actually catch fire!!!" Lol in the end we ended up emptying 4 bottles of it... no, i have nothing to do with that.

The Nest

Bubble - *where laundry was done*

7-star PanGu Hotel

(See its resemblance of a mystical creature?)

The Nest At Rest

PanGu in Bubble bath!

(Bubble in blue light, underneath)

Day 2 - Banquet

Early morning we were urshered to the Ballroom cum Conference Room. The scene was more like UN than meeting, with people coming from greece, US, africa, korea, pakistan, india, indo, france etc. Well, glad to make friends from around the world. And then at nite, the banquet! Again, the tiny lil' glass for white wine was sitted right next to red wine glass. Felt like there's a butterfly in my stomach, n this time a little idea pops up. "Excuse me gu niang, can i have a glass of pai kai sui ma?" (In China, it's dead-wrong to call a lady xiao jie, since xiao jie is mostly associated with an occupation rather than addressing someone). You're either asking for trouble by calling that or you're not asking for water at the first place. And so we had a great nite there...

Next post: Hotel: the insider story and Day 3...

A Night At Cloud 9

Was sleeping in a sleeping bag, lying on d balcony which has no roof on top, the sky was filled with cloud amid its sheer darkness lie a shyess moon(it wasn't thought to be there until when it finally turned up later).

It wasn't until 3am when d chill wind crops under my skin that the moon began to parade its elegance behind a curtain of cloud, joined by 3 awkward, but somewhat majesticly bright stars, guess there were more stars but i wasn't able to see them too clearly without my glasses lol.

What a night under the dark blue sky, accompanied by the melody of riverflow (that's right, there's a river just right across where we stayed) and the pleasant forest scent :D

It was the most memorable night by far, and perhaps even for years to come. Bukit Tinggi.

Glitches: Faulty Air-cond compressor contributed to sound pollution and a slight increase in overall temperature of the night

Back...

I'm back... once again... although not in full swing i reckon; guess i owe an explanation behind a sudden disappearance... It was not until last week's Pentecostal Rally that i was finally freed, not of a scale of entirety, but i felt loosening in progress... Was hogged by uncertainties that question the fundamental reason of my existence and the set of belief i so willingly die defending.

The first was our superintendant of AOG who showed me FAITH; through his early serving life; he's lost a cancer-embattled founding member of his current church right before his first Miracle Healing encounter in the Philipines and yet His power was unveiled in the presence of many through this wounded servant of His. Can see the contradiction? God has wanted us to exercise our faith before releasing His divinity...

The second was Pastor Timothy Yeung's eye opening message that strike a thunder across my dusty 'room'; we're not supposed to drag ourselves thru valley of death, but to embrace ourselves and be armed throughout the journey under the valley, as said in The Book. Don't ask, didn't bother to jot down which passage was it taken down from.

A Tribute To Late Raymond

This song was long held back in me, dated when late brother Raymond was still with us. And this song is now dedicated to Jacklyn and her beautiful children.

Dance With My Father
By the late Luther Vandross

Back when I was a child,
before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
and dance with my mother and me and then
Spin me around 'til I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure I was loved
If I could get another chance,
another walk, another dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
How I'd love, love, love
To dance with my father again

When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way, I would run from her to him
He'd make me laugh just to comfort me
Then finally make me do just what my mama said
Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
Never dreamed that he would be gone from me
If I could steal one final glance,
one final step, one final dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
How I'd love, love, love
To dance with my father again

Sometimes I'd listen outside her door
I'd hear how my mother cried for him
I pray for her even more than me
I pray for her even more than me

I know I'm praying for much too much
But could you send back the only man she loved
I know you don't do it usually
But dear Lord she's dying
To dance with my father again
Every night I fall asleep
and this is all I ever dream

Preparing this year's youth Christmas was hard for me. On one hand everything seems to be working fine. Practice schedule didn't go haywire during Raymond's passing, due to his children's insistance to carry on with the skit, or otherwise presumably being persuaded into insistance, whichever applicable. But underneath i can't help but to admire their perseverance, after the loss of prolly the most important person to them, that they keep digging the wounds freshly inflicted on them. I wouldn't have allowed that to happen.

It's just so fast, as i still remembered one fine morning when i gathered a few people to visit brother Raymond, that afternoon the devastating news of his passing. Have you ever been 30seconds late for your schoolbus and watch helplessly as it passes by? I have. Only this time a thousand times the heart break. My rest of the day went like the weather of that day; gloomy.

Perfect picture that paints my heart out.
And it's raining now, again.

How ironic.