taste tested

here's dat post i promised i'd try to salvage yesterday...on a whim Richard my good camp bro n miself decided to do a little shoppin yesterday...incidentally i also wanted to do a little, shall i call it, litmus test, across the board of service in da various class clothes joints/boutiques in Singapore(by wat they call themselves u can tell how classy they style themselves)

first we started off in the upmarket stores with e 3 to 4 digit price tags (so u noe its REAL upmarket) like Armani Exchange, Polo Ralph Lauren, Barneys n Les Amis before movin on to e mass market brands like Topshop, Zara, G2000 n Nautica before headin to the Singaporean brands like Samuel n Kevin as well as Jean Pierre at Cine (not Jean Paul Gartier mind u, dun do beng reviews)...n since i've been to the underground, alternative, guerilla joints like Commes de Garcon, New World Order, DCP's A Slurpin Ape, Flesh Imp n de like last week, i had a pretty good idea wat service there was like..

i, for one feel that the service at upmarket boutiques is very quiet except for Les Amis which actually got mi to stop in my tracks when i was leavin e store to try lookin for somethin i liked..i found a nice striped shirt of fine cotton...made in France n costin 300 plus...ouch..

at the mainstream shops service can be even worse...i guess its probabli due to the brisk walkin in n out of half-hearted shoppers n e occasional shopper-from-hell..too jaded i guess..overall very consistent service (or lack thereoff)..none even bothered to greet, smile or thank...mayb u'll say dats bein artificial..but its my money n i'm not spendin it at such places..period..

at e singapore brands, i found service better overall, Samuel n Kevin was good n Jean Pierre was excellent...i managed to find a tee in a colour i was huntin for e whole nite with a simple design n bought it at an affordable price...i think dat when u're small, lean n hungry, u tend to perform better n keep the things dat count on top of priorities...u're also more respectful, grateful n humble...dat settles it..i'm throwin my lot behind small n medium enterprises..

a point of note: at e guerilla stores such as found at Far East, dun expect upmarket service...pick wat u like (its very much a wat-u-see-is-wat-u-get sales phiosophy), make ur purchase n F*** off (or be F***d off by the staff)...n only basic, specific n short questions are entertained like do u hav this in____ colour or in____ size?but i like e underground..its like i find a new, alternative voice when i wear their clothes...one dat says i'm outta da commercial, mainstream loop by choice...since i've alwaez been the Outsider, e Outcast, Reject n Rebel, i dun realli mind now, do i?

to end it all, i feel dat service cannot be applied across da board in all stores the same but it is true dat some of e more prominent brands should buck up their standards man..though i generalli like to be left alone to shop in peace, if i'm goin to be payin 3 or 4 digit sums for personal clothin, i think i deserve a little service dats value for my dollar rite? dats part of dollar diplomacy sales frenz...

Frustration

F***!! i just lost a post i was doin...it was on da service industry in singapore...shappin up to be somethin i realli liked...now its gone with my creative juices...*pause to swear all e vulgarities ever used on mi in e army n which i hav in turn used on those who've known mi in due time n with which i curse e SAF everday*...ok..i'm too tired to rewrite dat post...but here's an address regardin my last post..Yve, sweet lass, dat mention of females who've disappointed mi, hurt mi n pissed mi was nae includin ya...excluded u are from such a condemnation lass...n i WILL keep ya guys in e NWO updated...u are one of e things dat mattered enough to mi to warrant my stoppin long n hard to think before takin e plunge into e waters of da cool dark pond...so to speak..n to Shian..bro, u dinnae hav any idea wat God has in store for ya after e black days spent at e green gate, waitin for it to end...6 hours did Christ spend on e cross; can anyone say they've spent longer than Him, waitin literalli, for e curtain (in e temple) to fall? or longer than my Father waited to turn back His Face to His Son? n Gabriel? i'm callin ya today..we hav to talk before u go to Cambridege...ur decision to leave was a chief catalyst for my own decision though i knew it not at e time

in fact, many things catalysed my decision...i believe that e direction for some things in life is set by many forces...just like e course of history..historical epochs (big word with big purpose) like e outbreak of World War 1 or 2 cannot be reversed or changed...man is too small to do that...historical events like e assasination of Franz Ferdinand or Kennedy may hav been prevented, but e events arisin from them would hav occured nonetheless...one would be naive to think dat World War 1 or e US involvement in Vietnam would go away just by changin these historical events alone...historical direction at least is, usin a word anathema to my college History tutor, S Tay, inevitable...

darn..i overreach myself..dats my philosophy u might say..haiz..i'll try to reconstruct dat lost post (dats a nice one) tmrw when my mind's not doin mental gymnastics all over mi..would hav been real nice to see it published to nite..g'nite all

Where Sure Decisions are Unmade n Phantom Choices Solidify

I dun usualli talk of my experiences in the army in detail but some events are too momentous to leave out...like the time i literalli felt my entire world view deconstructin itself in my heart n mind post Support Weapon Live Firin in SISPEC BSLC..gradualli reformin into something else dat is the current incarnation of Jonathan Chua..or der time in my battalion where we had our Advanced Trainfire Programme (ATP) live firin n i just could not hit e targets to pass with der minimum of 21 shots on target..

dun bang ur head against e wall i learnt dat day...its futile n fruitless...i remeber askin myself on e 2nd day of firin if i wanted to do engineerin, which i alwaez struggled with, (it was not engineerin but Maths n Physics act) for e rest of my life..no was my honest confession...n i began searchin for alternatives to Engineerin at NTU dat day...

in e past year since, i realised i should hav done Design at Poly when i was 16...i loved design back then though Goh Boon Pin freaked mi out(till dis day, i sometimes still wake up in cold sweat in e middle of e nite wonderin bout wat he would say bout der slow progress on my imaginary portfolio work)..still i was loathe to admit it till this year...

as mentioned in my last post, certain situations n pple catalysed my choice...disappointment in love n certain frenships, the slow wastin decadence in e last few months of NS, the belief dat e Youth ministry can manage well with or without mi in constant involvement n e renewed belief in God's sovereignty even in e unknown led mi to make der decision to pursue Architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Tech in Australia from Feb next year onwards..its a 5 year course n a welcome change i need la...

as i said, there's not much dat holds mi back now la...my best frens all settled in uni n i am assured they will not forget mi unlike some gals i noe, e foundation of e Charis Youth Ministry in place n in good hands...there's nothin n no one worth dat much to mi dat opposes my decision (my parents are in favour)...n for whom i might possibli change my mind so there u hav it, a seachange in myoutlook n educatinal interest...

come next feb, i'll be bloggin in der big oz..so dun worry..i promise there'll be consistency n continuity here (not dat i believe anyone realli reads though haha)

Rice Tableu anyone?

if anyone who reads this blog has a thing for food , i hav a nice place to recommend for wat its worth..The Rice Table at Cuppage which serves excellent Indonesian food Buffet style...translated from the Duch word Rijstaffel, its style is quite unique...they serve one a range of choices of Indonesian foods like Satay, Otah, sweet n sour fish, fried Tahu, Lontong, curry prawns, curry chicken n other Indonesian favourites in small plates on a heated metal platform at one's table...one chooses from these dishes as much as we want..these hav been pre-selected by the management n can be added on to..a unique buffet style..

costwise, its affordable...in der region of 30 bucks for 2..as buffets go, its low-priced..bring company u can talk to while eatin to ignore the spice in der dishes...i went with my fren Christine whom i've not met in more than a year n who is Indonesian Chinese (explains the culinary choice does'nt it?) but sadly, her appetite failed to live up to expectation...no fault of hers or der food though, i must stress, just a freak of health like Katrina strikin her stomach so to speak..

Good company she was, God bless ya heart Chris, on a borin Monday out of camp clearin leave n wonderin wat the Hell some of my other frens were gettin on in their uni studies n life...anyways, i guess i've found wat i want to do for my Tertiary education post-NS...its been formin up in my mind like a storm at sea since August last year n things hav come to a boil lately due to some input from circumstances n interactions with certain people in life...its somethin i've wanted to do but never had der courage to take up or the passion to defend pre-NS...its related to Design n my daes doin D&T way back in the SA commonality which i shared with e closest of my frens n brethren...will write bout it next blog in more detail but suffice it to say, there's nothin much keepin mi back anymore dat i feel would disapprove of my current choice...anywaez, try the Rice Table if u hav time..its worth the while..

My Kinda Girl

seen Lindsay Lohan lately? i did..on Herbie; Fully Loaded...the first thing any guy notices bout dat gal is der size of her mamaries..beautiful...and all e women will start accusin mi of bein shallow here..but she does have a good set of...lungs

i for one went straight for her legs...now those are elegant i must say..if i had to gauge the beauty of a woman, i'd give high weightage to her legs..on a primodial level i guess it cos we see a woman's legs n hips as part of the fertility equation..on today's FHM Testosterone-charged level, i'd say the length of the gal's legs plus the more well sculpted they are squared by the ratio of her hips to waist indicates how much sexual pleasure the male ego fantasises in der said act of imaginary couplin...

wats my point? other than der fact that i like leggy babes ;-) n i am like any other guy in bein attracted to ...chest-level theatrics, i like gals who are themselves aroun guys n who do not put on airs or pick n choose who's worthy to be their frens (like some pple i noe; yes its u i diss n show e middle finger to) as would most real guys who work hard for an honest day's livin n hav some nasty b****s to contend with in their lives who are the most farcial people to walk this planet...

i'm sorry..got a bit carried away there...look, i speak out for the odinary guys out there...the women of this generation are economically n sexualli liberated...i dun begrudge this (i am a political liberal after all) but ladies, please do not become the same obnoxious creatures that the women's liberation sought to dethrone...regardless of sex, sincerity n humility are virtues esteemed by humanity and humanitarianism (of which feminism is a branch)...give the odinary guy a chance even if he's not very bright, rich or handsome...dats love

unless of course, feminism does not believe in love, the family, marriage or reproduction any more..just workplace equality, 'free' sex n abortion...whereby it ceases to be feminism but rather callous egocentricity that is not part of our Liberal Humanitarian ideals...in short, stop categorisin guys accordin to wat u think e guy is like man...try gettin to noe him as a fren before formin an opinion..n no, lindsay lohan is not my kinda gal...prefer older women act..

That Name Game

there are 2 christian faiths aroun in der protestant world today...the true sufferin kind that the secular world loves to sling mud at and wat i call the 'pop christianity phenemenon' one has at places like, dare i say it, City Harvest and New Creation aka the Rock...

i saw a wonderful demonstration of a assembly line Baptismal service yesterday incorporatin the best of Henry Ford's mass production efforts with der Model T..there might as well have been a discman or mp3 playin "i baptise u in the name of the Father and The Son and the Holy Spirit" as many times as there were baptismal candidates...look i'm not sayin all this is bad..God's Kingdom can do with more than one kinda ministry style so u work ur side of the street while i work mine...that Christ may have mercy on us all and save our souls right?

before any of the members of these places do a Salmon Rushdie (noe who he is?) wanted list for mi, i want to ask a few questions...have you heard of John of the Cross? Theresa Avila? Thomas Kempis? Shusaku Endo? Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky? Thomas Merton's The Seven Story Mountain? Dietrich Bon Hoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship? no? then u noe nothin of the other Christianity i mentioned earlier...and maybe u should find out what it means to be a Christian under the Nazis first by readin The Cost of Discipleship...then again, in this day and age when Christians read their Bibles durin Sunday(or Sat) service only, that would be askin too much of you right?

please dun get mi wrong...i love the Christians from City harvest whom i met...and i enjoyed the worship and to an extent, the preachin...but the execution lacks a certain, shall i say, finesse and ever so slightly offends my Christian tastes..its always been my sincere belief that Christ may have come to save sinners and prostitutes but He strangely never saw the need to adopt a prostitute's garb or a Tax-collector's speech..i wonder if we could be smarter than Him or we are simply bein 'too clever by half' as someone famous once said...

the Long Road home

sometimes i wonder if anyone even bothers to read this blog...then a fren like yvonne drops a comment to say, hey, u're bloggin...good to see that...so thanks all my comment droppers and frens who read this stuff...

i had a bit of a week here man..was a taxi driver to quite a few old uncles in their 30s to 40s..even had the dubious honour of bein screwed verbally by not a few...another feather in my cap you must be thinkin..i never thought i would rough it out after my ATEC trial but there i was supportin some officers in their higher level trainin...in the field 24/7 for half a week..

i was made to think of all the various times i went out into the 'field' in the damn national service and all the stress as well as to some extent, pleasant memories i've had..i learnt all the hardest lessons of life out there from bein too sure of myself to the value of standin up for myself when only God is on your side... along with some of the terrible habits that will eventually kill if i continue them...i had my first cigarette out there (and a jolly good stick it felt back then) but i've given that up since..

the point of all this mish-mash bein that i've learnt some nasty lessons out there in the wide open world of the army and done some pretty nasty things totally out of keepin with my character...now i guess i'm on the mend and comin back home to God and sanity..its a Long Road home for mi and i just want to say sorry to those i've hurt durin those dark days...and to those who have hurt mi, i forgive u dudes (but not without consequence man..thats comin ur way)

i've learnt the lessons from this stage of life well enough la...and i will say that i hope never to have to go down such a dark path again or relearn these lessons...lessons such as havin a backbone to stand for what u believe in...thank God i'm on my way back from the edge of the precipice..

Run Forest! Run!

i'm not dat great a runner realli..but i enjoy runnin..its fantastic when you have fresh blood pumpin up ur arteries while air rushes down ur lungs and aroun ur body, and the inner fires of the metabolism are stoked that drive the legs up and down, in and out, forward and back...it makes a man feel..so alive...more excitin than sex i feel it is and infinitely more scenery as well, not to mention no risk of catchin stds..

when u have a bad day as Daniel Powter sings, its great to run..it clears the mind and opens new perspectives to our horizon..it forces us to discard the dross n keep onli the essence of our problems that we then face n focus on solvin...and it takes our mind off the pain of our hearts n minds that we sometimes may be undergoin...

so it was when i ran for the New Blaance Real Run last weekend on Sentosa...the sand trail i tell u was more than i expected..truly gruellin and teeth-grindin..i was forced to take my mind of my temporary melancholy and focus on the run at hand...i had been wonderin bout friendship n the transcience of life on this little mud-ball called Earth..when would i be able to start a new term at university and i felt sad that all my closest frens had moved on while i was still stuck where i was...because of where we are in life, i felt that people stereotype us and choose our worthiness to be their frens...not my closest frens but others i noe..

well i guess the run helped mi break out of dat melancholy...a paradigmn shift happened in my mind...my turn will come as will all of us..n i will enjoy employin the skills i hav acquired as a wordsmith where i've been all this while on certain kinds of people in der university...like Darthsidious, the Revenge of the Sith is at hand..and also i noe that we learn who our true frens are in times of need n difficulty...havin had some of my frenships sifted in the my 2 odd years where i am, i noe who to keep n who to discard into the 'rubbish heap of history'..thank u Trotsky for that phrase...

About Karukku

i like stories bout underdogs, the oppressed n how life alwaez has a maddenin tendency to screw us all every now n then...

imagine my reaction when i read that Indian writer Bama was comin to Singapore for the SWF recently...my interest was piqued i tell ya...i cannot wait to get my hands on the English tranlsation of her book, Karukku, on the fate of the Dalit class of outcastes in Indian society...

people like myself who've always seen ourselves as 'the Outsider' in life, relationships and even the Kingdom of God will take to this book i believe sincerely...the bigotry of Indian social relations serves as an amazing counter-point to the emergence of India on the World stage as a potential political actor of some repute..no love, no education and no hope of becomin somethin better..how can a society which produced great moralists like Gandhi ever clear its conscience about or discharge its responsibility to these people?

in her own words i finally understand wat Paul meant when he talks about the 'wall of separation' that Christ tore down between us and God...Bama says,"despite all my books, a Dalit is a Dalit. I will be a Dalit even after i die, because there is a wall between the upper caste crematorium and the Dalit crematorium" (italics mine) this absolution is removed through One and by One Alone i believe...the hope of all social, political systems, governments, peoples and individuals..and i will point others like the Children of the Broken Earth to that Person till my dyin breath...