Walking back home with Jesus

It's Friday again, as usual I played badminton with Ali. Both badminton courts in The University of Nottingham Sports Complex are reserved for staffs only every Friday 6p.m to 8p.m. Surprisingly most of the students there don't know. Well, why can I play with the staffs? I somehow brought forward my student helper identity from Nilai to Nottingham :P Actually I just helped once to clear the store room and doing stock check only, but I wish to help the sports committee (Ali and 2 more staffs) more in the future.

Overall, it's really nice today, kinda "on form" and played almost 10 games I think. Yupz, with my blistered toe and "crocodile" sports shoe (please refer to my previos post "Taking Comments") and I won more than half I think. Then, I walked home alone and take away some food from SA (Student Association) building. Haha, imagine a wet chinese boy with take away food at his left hand, a badminton bag on his right and walking unequally (toe injured mah). The same old me that most of the Nilai people know.

Really very tired. Walking from Sports Complex to SA building takes 2-3 minutes I think, then after take away food have to walk til the bridge that connects my uni to Taman Tasik Semenyih which takes approximately 5 minutes, and from the bridge to my house another 5-7 minutes. Usually the journey is very easy for me, but not with my problematic feet.

Seriously the night scenery in Nottingham is SUPER ROMANTIC. Moments like this make me feel so wrong to walk alone, then when I reached the bridge, I took out my Sony Ericsson W550i and pressed the walkman button to enhance the emotional impact. It turned out to be Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin, and suddenly I feel like something is in my head, just like LORD is talking to me.

The path is dark, but with dim lights, the night is cold and silent, I'm walking harder and slower than usual, with some "burden" on me (take away food and badminton bag is not that heavy actually, I'm just too imaginative). With the background music Jesus Mesiah, I feel like I'm one of the christian movie character in film. *SS (Syok sendiri or Self-satisfying)* Before I reach the bridge, there's a very steep hill I need to go down *ouch for my feet*, and the bridge is above a pond, after that before I reach home there'll be another hill that I need to walk up. However, I'm not feeling tired, or blaming anything eventhough the way is so tough (not really). Feeling like my desired is fulfilled by the things I've done just now and I know I'm going home, and LORD is with me.


So what flashed through my mind is, when Jesus is carrying the cross, He's walking to a hill, across a very far distance. Haha, here's the question, any christian out there knows from where to where? After a long discusion with most of the bible pros in Nilai and Nottingham, finally I know. It's from Praetorium in Jerusalem to the Hill of Golgotha (Golgotha means Calvary, which also means skull)! Thanks Sarah, Kai Seng and Alex for the info. The distance is 1.33 mile, according to my calculator it's 2.145792 km. He started walking from Praetorium at sunrise, which is 5.55 a.m in Isreal, and reached Golgotha at 9a.m, which is about 3 hours (I cannot confirm about the time taken cause in the movie Passion of Christ, He started walking at sunrise, and Mark 15:25 says crucifixion starts at 9a.m morning). Cheryl also said Aunty Elizabeth told her crucifixion normally happens early in the morning. Writting this post is hard where I did a lot of research online, through msn and also the BIBLE!

Praetorium in the city of Jerusalem:

Golgotha (Hill of skulls):

Think about it, He's carrying a big cross, just tortured by people, and crucifixion is designed not to kill people, but to humiliate. People are all around mocking Him, blocking His way. Every step He took is for me, you and everyone. There's some confusion where the crucifixion starts at 9a.m, but Jesus was crucified at the sixth hour, which is 12 afternoon. At 3 p.m He shouted "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?". So me and Audri assume that they used 3 hours (9 morning til 12 afternoon) to set up the cross and nail Jesus, but He sustained the bleeding/suffering for 3 hours (or more)? Correct, Jesus is the only person that can hang crucification for such long duration (info from Audri). Even Jesus cannot understand why he needs to die like that, and he asked LORD is there another way (info from Kai Seng). The crucifixion hurts the LORD much more than Jesus knew, but in this dark hour, He must do nothing. For our sake, for us who worth nothing, for our salvation, just because He loves us so much.

Well, I'm just having little problem on my feet, it's nothing compared to his unfailing love and great sacrifice. The furthest I ever walked is from Nilai KTM to Nilai University College which is about 7km and it took me 1 hour 15 minutes. Jesus took about 3 times of my time to walk 3 times less of my distance, it really tells me His body condition is very very very very very very BAD (He's sweating blood because His blood vessels broke and he took 66 whips - info from Audri).

OK, back to my walk. I somehow, tried to slow down my steps, breathe in deeply to feel the moment. When I passed by Kai Seng's house, I heard someone laughing out very loud (wonder what they are playing). Then it reminds me about something, it's so true that after He came into my life, I found happiness, joy and laughters. It's not those that I used to act out like before, I really love my life right there and then. I'm also thinking, I fear loneliness no more, as I used to love it last time, I think I'm accepting more that He's always there for me. With all these thoughts in my mind, I forgotten the pain on my feet, it's like He's lifting me up, I guess this is what people say "I wanna make this moment forever". It's indiscribable by words, it's just overwhelming. Lord is with me, and in me.

Well, because of this post, I aggresively contacted many people for info, thank you Kai Seng, Sarah, Alex, Audri, Cheryl, Aunty Elizebath, and Shaun (instead of answering me, this Shaun just asked me to send him Sing Sing Sing - Chris Tomlin and Mighty To Save - Hillsongs ... HAIZ). Nevermind la... long time didn't chat with this fella also.

Some more strange things that I found during discussion with Audri are, Jesus was crucified on Friday (where we called Good Friday), and He said He will rise in 3 days time, which is Easter Sunday. But Friday morning to Sunday morning isn't it... 2 days? Audri said Easter is just a celebration of eggs (what the...). Audri also told me Christmas is not when Jesus was born, no one actually know the actual date when He's born. There's a lot of twists but they're interesting (Audri repeated this more than twice). Wow... as a new christian I really have a lot to learn.

Today I did something very weird and so far I just told Shaun about it. Yesterday there was an african classmate come to me and ask me to teach him ProE. But he's from Year1, he should know that thing better than me (By the way, his name is Gift). I was actually blogging my previos post in the Engineering Com Lab. At the moment I only have one thing in my mind, one week ago I was like him, know nothing about ProE, and because there're kind people willingly help me and guide me, I'm able to finish my project assembly. Although he didn't submit the initial assembly two days ago which is the due date, but he still need the assembly for the final report. OK la, make it simple, I just feel like helping him.

So... I "guide" him (you guys know la...) from the beginning until the end. He's actually quite encouraged after knowing that I just took up ProE for 1 week, and he says if I did it, he will take the challenge. Not bad, he's willing to learn, he really wants to know how I do every step. So I spent 2 days whole afternoon (Thursday 2 to 5pm and Friday 2 to 5pm) "guiding" him in the com lab. From drawing a simple shoe until parts assembly X_X Ya... he finished the whole thing in 2 days and it's almost as nice as mine... This is not what I would do if I'm in my right mind, I'll consider it as wasting time or too free (nothing to do) if I were me. Somehow, I don't feel it too strong again. I'm kinda confused by myself. Shaun just said, I did a good job. Of course, while in front of Shaun, I'll show no mercy and just tell him I don't feel good doing that, but seriously what he said made me feel comfortable and in peace. (OK la, thank you Shaun)

Here it comes again! Proverbs 16, "We can gather our thoughts, but the LORD gives the right answer." Yes LORD, we are trying hard together to understand Your words, Your teachings, only through You we can see the light, through You we walk the right way, through You we seek the truth. So be with us, be with Your children, and let us be with You. One more striking verse is Proverbs 16:33, "We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall." Yupz, we're gonna lay our life to You, but we ourselves have to throw the dice with all or our heart! Dear Father in heaven, I pray that Uncle Chan and Aunty Elizebath will have a fortunate journey to Perth at early November. Give wisdom and determination to Cheryl and Charles to run Nilai Sunday Worship smoothly this Sunday. I pray for Shaun that is worship leading this Sunday so that he can prepare the students' souls to praise and worship You. Uncle Tome has heart problem and undergoes surgery yesterday, he has to stay at Austrailia for 3 weeks. LORD, I pray that Uncle Tome will recover soon and will be able to join us to worship You. Amen!

First Project in Nottingham

This is about the individual project that was making my life miserable and is still going on. Let me describe how it begun, our Design Lecturer just split us up into groups of 10 people, and each "tutor" will take 2 groups to supervise. He then gives out whole lot of papers/note on clutch and brake, whatever types of clutch and brakes. So, at first I'm totally blank where I know no one from my group (still new/innocent), we're suppose to have brain storming session together. Since no one from my group approaches me, then I'll just do whatever I see from the notes.

We're suppose to submit something according to the schedule each Wednesday, the first week will be submitting Initial Sketch, then Initial Calculation, Initial Assembly and Final Report. So it's a 1 month project. For the initial sketch, since it's a hand drawn idea, where the tutor just want us to make sure we know the concept, so I browsed through google images and wikipedia and just do my sketch. For initial calculation, I just picked some fancy and "relevant" equations and assume some data, and just throw it in ^_^ (Yeah! EngineerS!). Seriously I spent 7 hours (2pm - 9pm) in the library until it closes to do the calculations. I really don't understand how on Earth I became so desperate.

Here comes the exciting part, initial assembly must be done using the software ProE, others had already learn it during Year1, but I'm a direct Year2 entry! I never touched or even threw a glance on the software yet, and I only have less than 7 days left to submit the initial assembly. I'm telling myself, "are you joking? I need to learn a software that others took 1 year to learn in 1 week?" *Prayed a lot for this, really A LOT* . Anyway, me, Hinn and Yin went to the Engineering Lab and try it out, since they used ProDesktop for their final project before. In the end, we stared at the monitor and it stares us back, we have totally NO IDEA how it operates.

For that hopeless weekend, I went to Nilai again but alone (sort of I don't care about my project anymore). Actually Cheryl already includes me in the worship team, so I just have to go back, I can't wait to be back. Spent 3 days 2 nights in Nilai staying in Uncle Chan's house, trying to unstress myself from the dreadful software thingy. However, honestly I'm quite happy gathering with fellow Tze, Colin and Charles again. Uncle Tome was preaching that Sunday, so he picked me home to Semenyih after service. Thanks Cheryl, Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Chan for helping me on my CV (my personal tutor asked us to write one, it turned out really nice).

I got home on Sunday afternoon, I'd completed my CV and wait til dinner. Then I go to uni's com lab with some ProE tutorials that I got from the Year1 lecturer. Spent the whole night doing those tutorials until 2a.m I think, and met Brandon, one of my classmate. He was doing Mircrosoft Project (a previous assignment that I've done), and I just approached and "guide" him a little (since I'm tired with ProE arleady). Who knows, he's willing to teach me ProE the next day! *God answers prayer!*

So Monday was a public holiday, he and some of his friends were working on ProE, and I joined. Yeah! Met more friends *2nd prayer answered^_^*. However, it's not an easy task. I spent my Monday and Tuesday doing ProE parts and assembly until late night about 2a.m also. It's been a hard week for me. Anyway, below are my design (not really good since I just learned it for 1 week)!

Click on the image to enlarge

Shoe and friction material:

Plate and pivot:

Spring:

Assembly:

Proverbs 15 says that "If you reject criticism , you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding." Lord, thanks for fulfilling my desire, You blessed me step by step and slowly mold me into a fine creation. Uncle and Aunty Chan are going overseas this weekend, the Sunday service will be run by Cheryl and Charles only as the Abners are not around too. Lord I pray for Uncle and Aunty Chan's journey mercy and also for the Sunday service to be smooth. I also pray for Sen Loong, Clarence and Audri so that they get better from whatever illnesses. Amen!

Taking Comments

Haha, this week is the first time I join Badminton Club to play badminton. Somehow, they don’t establish a good system in organizing who and when to play, they have a system but I wonder why they don’t use it. As usual, one court will be occupied by a few pros and one court for noobs or newbies. Of course, I don’t know anyone yet, so I better stay at the easy part :P I don’t really say that they’re bad but … actually I don’t have to go full to play with them, that’s quite OK for that court. Anyway, I kinda blistered by toe, I think it’s the problem of the shoe… it’s quite old. Somehow, Kai Seng has a little accident on his motorbike today, and he injured his feet as well, more serious than mine… oh gosh.

Yeah, today we had bible study again. Honestly, studying in Nottingham really is all about projects and notes, so bible study or Sunday church is really what I await the most. It sort of a spiritual fuel station for me and also a chance for me to go out and take a deep breathe (now I have badminton too!). Actually, next week Tuesday there’ll be a Music Club annual general meeting, to recruit new members and also planning for the coming events. At first, I don’t feel like joining it cause there should be a lot of better talents around the campus, (sigh… what am I). Erm… surprisingly Hinn wanna try the club, and he “asked” me and Audri to join as well. Ok… let’s just see how is Nottingham’s Music Club.

Oh man… my project is really messing me up! We’re supposed to design an automatic clutch and brake system. Blur is it? It’s not a problem for you to be blur, but it’s a big trouble for me to be blur! Working hard on it, need a lot a lot of blessings. Somehow, I tried to “make” some friends around and tried to ask them to teach me how to use the software to design the device (the software is ProEngineering). Actually, some of them are really easy to approach, thanks Eric Khoo for teaching me some basics for the whole afternoon. Seriously, I need to celebrate after I finish this project.

Just now, Agnes called me. It’s about some business between us. She told me to send her some of my songs that I think are the best and she’ll be meeting a very experienced composer and try to get some comments (and also figure out what can they do with my songs). It should happened last two weeks, but it seems that that guy (Alex) was very busy and delayed the meeting til today. Agnes was so overwhelmed by the meeting and she called me immediately (if not it’s still a while later). She met two pros, Alex and another girl. Alex is more on pop and jazz songs, piano major. The girl is more on sentimental and instrumental songs. Both of them are partners of music production *cooooool*.

Actually they are very good friends of Agnes. Agnes made it quite professional, she let the girl listen and comment first, then Alex, seperately. Agnes always wanted to learn something from them, and also test test their professionalism, but her song is still hanging *feel like singing backstreet boys – INCOMPLETE~* So she decided to use my songs, just saying that we are partnership in these few songs, or else they won’t even want to listen to it. We’re doing this just to give ourselves a chance.

The girl, she listened to all 3 songs I sent to Agnes, for a professional composer to listen that much from a noob like me, I respect and appreciate her patience, THANK YOU! Somehow, she didn’t comment much on 旧伤 and 我没有错, just said that it’s too instrumental (OK, I admit… no vocal is my biggest weakness!). She also said that 我没有错 sounds like those drama songs, more specifically TVB… -.- Here comes the best part, she likes 夜雨星 (Haha! I knew it sounds nice). She also said that my songs very Chinese, and she asked Agnes “you know who’s suitable to sing this song?”, Agnes suddenly gone blank… Then the girl said “S.H.E”. When I heard this from Agnes, I LOL like no tomorrow, Agnes knew they’re my favourite too, so she laughed as well. I can say that she’s DAMN PROFESSIONAL by making that statement. Honestly, if S.H.E is willing to put my song into their album, I'll reach a climax where there's no regret in my life and it doesn't matter even it just ends like that.

Then it’s Alex turn, here comes the real chilly. Agnes actually jotted down all the important points, but her notebook is not with her when she called me, she just roughly tells me what she remembers. This guy is really hard to impress as he’s so good and experienced. Somehow he can tell that I don’t listen much types of songs in the market (Yupz, I’m quite limiting myself to a few artist). He also said that I’m very “Jim Brickman (Chinese version)” because my songs are so instrumental. Haha! Another head shot, I do love Jim Brickman’s songs a lot. He’s also my favourite, it’s quite an honour for people to tell me I’m like him, Mua haha! However, he uses Jim Brickman’s songs to point out my weaknesses, I’m blasting off too much, and it’s hard to differentiate the main melody from my background music, Jim Brickman can bring out the melody with very light and easy harmony. Somehow his songs are easy and simple songs but super nice! Thinking of that, I’m really adding too much stuffs where just like Alex said, I’m killing the simplicity of a songs and taking off the touch (indirectly I screwed up in doing something I thought is impressive). He also said 我没有错 very TVB, those songs that should appear in dramas. Since both composers have a mutual idea of my songs, I should work it out (some days…).

Besides that, I learnt new things. Always leave space for my song, he said my songs are too packed. Take note that the “space” he’s talking is not in term of melody, vocal or any composing technic, it’s about “space” for listeners to catch the meaning of the song, the “space” for audiences to imagine the scene, the “space” for people to understand the message I’m trying to give (Wow… he really needs to give me “space” to understand what he’s trying to tell). Furthermore, never use piano as a leading instrument to overtake the duty of vocal! Piano doesn’t provide the “turn” like other instruments… then Agnes asked what should we use, he tells us to figure it out ourselves, we must find something that suits our own but never piano. Finally, the most important point, he keeps asking Agnes about my music background, the reason is, I’m not doing what I suppose to do, so he wanna know roughly how good am I (if he knows it'll be seriously dissapointing). Bare these in mind, Adam! I am a “melody designer” that is seeking chance of a producer to take my song and work it out. So, I should hit the point of my songs as direct as possible. Making all those flowery backgrounds is not my job. Never compose a song that is more than 3 minutes, and keep the intro short. Afterall, I’m just doing a demo, the producer who listens to my demo should be able to feel the melody flow very clear, and also be able to map out the expression of the song. It means that, I should not repeat too many choruses or verses and keep my song ASAP (as simple as possible). He said that I am doing the job of an arranger while I still can’t do good in the basic, which is composing the melody (in term of bringing it out). A very good tip is always start composing a song from the point of view of a vocalist, everything I do just think about the vocal, because that’s the soul, the attracting point of a song!

I spoke with Agnes on the phone for more than an hour I think. Agnes really thanks me because she learnt a lot of things from them and she wished that I’m with her too while they’re giving the comments. I really hope I’m there too, Alex even give examples on how to improve via playing on his piano. Somehow, he said it’s a good start, and he's looking forward for my improved version of 我没有错. Haiz… suddenly I don’t feel like studying, just want to get my head in music. However, I’ll at least do all my best as a Nottinghammer. Don’t worry, I have God to planned my whole life, it’ll be the best for me. Have faith! Thanks Anges very very very much for giving me this opportunity to expose myself to these very very very great and talented people.

Ok, today is Proverbs 8, “And so, my children, listen to me, for happy are all who follow my ways. Listen to my counsel and be wise. Don’t ignore it.” Oh Lord, I pray for Matthew in Nilai, he’s having hard time as events, activities, performances and tests are all coming to him like waves of Tsunamis. Give him the will to overcome this and also let him not be deviated from You. KTT (Kolej Teknologi Timur) students are having their A-level final exams (either AS or A2). They are really blessings to Nilai Sunday Worship, I attended their CF twice, and they have extremely good and nice people around. I wish that they can have wisdom in exams and also may God be with them wherever they go to pursue their degree (mostly India for medical degree, all smart smart de). Talking about KTT, I received my “letters” from friendship month last Sunday. Thanks for all the concerns and encouragements! Especially Susu from Penang studying in KTT, she really knows how to start an essay, I LOVE IT! I also pray that Kai Seng will recover from his injuries, I had something similar before on my palm and seriously it’s not fun. May everything be as He planned! Amen.

*By the way, I have a link at the right side bar to my friendster account. Some of my songs are available at the media box in my friendster page. Please tell me some of your PRECIOUS opinions!

Kitchen Chaos

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a tough day -.- I had class from 9 morning until 6 evening. A little relief is that I passed up my design sketch which I dunno correct or not, but in return, next week we gonna hand in the calculation and material selection! Oh man... these are all the things I haven't do before and lecturers here (most are Dr) just leave it to us. Pray hard pray hard!


Then when I reached home, I thought of doing math (clear up the easy works first), who knows Eugene and Audri are cleaning the kitchen (just started actually). They say can't stand the canteen food anymore, so we must get our kitchen to funtion as soon as possible. Oh ok... so just do whatever I can do X_X

Kitchen when we just moved in:

So we clean clean wash wash rub rub, whatever can use we wash, whatever can't we throw! For me, I'll just throw most of the things of course, easy, fast and healthy ^_^ Hinn went to gym directly after class, so it's only me, Yin, Audri, Eugene and Teng. Honestly, kitchen is not my territory, except the few "lessons" I had during the stay in Uncle Chan's house, my experience can be considered negligible.

Eugene washing:

Teng cleaning the drain outside:

Audri rub rub rub:

Yin wash the things:

Me cleaning the microwave (while taking pictures):

Yeah! Finished cleaning around 7 something, but they want to go to The Store (supermarket nearby) to buy stuffs and have dinner. OK, so we waited Hinn to come back (actually waited for Teng to finish his DOTA game). Haha, we packed all 6 of us into Teng's Wira. I had 排骨王饭 as dinner ^_^ and 2 cups of 金柠檬, help a lot for my sore throat (RM9.60). We bought everything we need and came back at around 10pm. Aw... what a day.

After the big project:

Today is Proverbs 1 (Yes, being stuck in Psalm for more than 4 months, now I proceed), Solomon, the wise king, teaches his people proverbs so that his nation recieve instruction in discipline, good conduct , and doing what is right, just and fair. I'm thinking, how good is it if my tutor of the design project gives me clear guidance as well. Anyway, I believe God will choose the right path for me, have faith! Haha, finally Miri Goh online again, it's been awhile since he withdrawn from college in a sudden -.- hope he's doing good and every problem he face will soon turn to blessings. Yeah! There's a birthday boy today, Colin is enjoying around campus I think, I bet Shaun and Tze will "treat" him right, happy birthday Colin. Later we're gonna have bible study in Kai Seng's house, hope the words of God will touch everyone later. Amen.

Dr.Engineer

I am assigned to a lab group and it's gonna start soon. We were informed that we must have 3 special items (compulsory will be more suitable). They are...... *drum roll*

3 treasures of scientist 科学家三宝:

Which are:

(a) Lab coat (RM55)

(b) Lab shoe (RM50)

(c) Safety goggles (RM10)

Oh my gosh, did I registered myself to a wrong course? Why am I doing Doctors' stuff? Haha, no lah, engineers sometimes do such stuffs as well. After paying to the finance office (RM115), I went to the place where I should collect the stuffs, and it says "Collect your lab coat, shoe and google at 3.00-3.30 p.m ONLY !!!!". The moment I see the exclamation marks, OK, they mean it. Since it was 2.20 p.m, I lepak around computer lab. Something impressing is, the Year 1 Mechanical students are all doing their assignment at the com lab, using software to draw a connecting rod. Wow, Nottingham is really not a place to fool around.

Finally, it stikes 3p.m, and I went to the place again. Amazingly, there're already around 10 students trying out the lab coat inside (I thought I walked quite fast)... Then it's my turn, I tried the lab coat for L size first, it's OK, then I tried M size, Ok too... then S size... seems Ok too =.= (seriously I don't spot the difference). I took M, average. Then shoe, my size is 10, so I asked for it. Hmm... it seems like there's space to improve, I asked for 9. After I tried it, I'm sure, I must take it! Size 10! Next, the safety goggle, and I asked "no size for this?", she replied "free size". *Crow flies by*

Time to gear up:

So I guess I'm done with the lab equipments, carrying them back home. Haha, being a degree student is no more playing around like before. We already had a design project to do, but I'm still in the process understanding it. God bless me, please give me the wisdom to overcome this.

Today will be reading Psalm 148 (2 more days to finish Psalm), "He has made his people strong, honoring his godly one". I belief, for those who have faith in him, praise and worship the almighty One, will be blessed and given what they desereved. Lord, in Nilai Sunday Worship, the friendship month has ended yesterday (where people write letters of encouragement or appreciation and put it into the recievers' envelope, yesterday is the day for everyone to open their envelope), I hope through this event, people will understand each other more and are encouraged to serve the Lord. Kai Seng just shared in the bible study last week for the first time, although he's quite nervous, but it's good. May God continue to give him the leadership to lead the other children of Yours. Teng is recovering from the desease and is back to class. Thanks Lord! (But why is it my turn to get a sore throat...) Amen.

Songwritting Workshop

It was 4 weeks ago when I received an e-mail from Agnes about a Song Writing Workshop. Agnes is someone I have in my facebook for quite some time but we don’t know each other, plus, we don’t even have 1 mutual friend, so it’s a random add. Anyway, I’m quite interested and I scrolled through the details and there’re some problems. It takes place at Royal Bintang Hotel which I have no idea where it is, and payment must be made by banking in the money to their Standard Chartered Bank account. Plus, there’s only space for 40 people! Even I’m having these unsolved hardships, I made a call to the organizer and registered myself, and they told me to bank in before the deadline so that my registration will be complete.

I started mapping my plan, since the workshop starts at 9a.m, I can’t be travelling from Semenyih to the hotel on that day, so I have to get myself nearby a day before and stay overnight. *Bulb shines* I msn Tzuu Yao which is studying in KBU cause he should know KL area better, and he told me Royal Bintang Hotel is beside The Curve which is very near to his place, and I can stay there! Problem 1 solved. Then I have to get myself to Standard Chartered Bank, it’s not a famous bank to me, and I checked online for their branch offices location. There are 2 possibilities that I can get to, which is Seremban and Kajang. I settled it after my Nottingham registration, before I go to Nilai. Problem 2 solved. I’m really amazed with all the things I did, a boy who did not went out much can now settle things for himself. *Happy*

Haha, last Friday after class, I followed Hinn back to PJ because it’s near Tzuu Yao’s place, more precisely Bandar Utama. All other housemates went home too, tossing poor Audri home alone. I left Nottingham at 3.30p.m and guess what, after a long journey of Nottingham bus, KTM, and Rapid KL, we finally arrived Bandar Utama at 8.30p.m, WOW! Then, Tzuu Yao brought me to dinner and I spent one night at this house.

KTM madness:

After KTM, now bus:

Snapping around Tzuu Yao's house:

The view outside Tzuu Yao's balcony:

Woke up so early and ready to walk:

The next morning, I woke up at 7.00a.m and left the place. I walked to One Utama, and noticed there’s no taxi because it’s too early! Then I walked to a nearby hotel. I asked for taxi and they said there’s no taxi at the moment, but one might arrive soon. Out of desperation, I called Agnes, she said she just woke up and asked me to wait for awhile, she’ll be there for me soon (she’s really a nice person isn’t she). Just after waiting for 10 minutes, a hotel staff came to me and said the taxi is coming, THEY CALLED ONE FOR ME! The taxi picked me to The Curve (RM5.20), and I arrived at Royal Bintang Hotel which is just next door.

I was the 2nd to register in the workshop, and Brian John Yim (instructor of the workshop) arrived shortly. Before the thing started, he grabbed the chance to speak with some early birds to understand our music background. I noticed most of the people here either learn piano or organ, and some are already composers and we have a vocal trainer too. There’re so many marvelous people here, and I just said I started learning keyboard last year, that’s all. There're 23 people participating the workshop (they can't get 40 people full). Throughout the workshop, Brian presented slides about the fundamental of writing lyrics (which I’m not really interested but I need it) and composing melody (which I knew most of them). Besides learning new things, my main objectives are meeting similar people and expand my network in this industry.

In the conference:

Brian John Yim, instructor of the day, and his Roland keyboard:

Refreshment:

At the end of the workshop, we have to work in groups of 3 to compose a song, an ENGLISH SONG! After that, we have to present it and Brian will choose the 3 best songs. My teammates are Agnes and Vincent, Vincent is a new friend that plays guitar and also just started learning keyboard last year. I can say that I’m very impressed by them, Agnes set out the whole theme of the song, and illustrate the outline of the lyrics and feelings. Vincent can provide the right English words and sentence structures to fit in to the song, and what else? I’m gonna do the melody, my best part. However, I get the usual feedback again, many said that my song… very “Chinese” or “Korean”. Somehow, Agnes is the first one who said that it’s a compliment, it seems that I had established my “personal style”, so... congrats. The time limit is one hour (plus plus plus), and we cannot use any instrument during composing. It’s quite a new challenge, but I enjoyed it.

All the groups are getting serious with their song:

I need to gambateh too:

It’s time to present our songs, I’m surprised that we are the only group that goes sentimental (cause I compose de mah), others are like lively, energetic and bring hope (what we called fast songs). Our song title is "I'm Not the One", listen also know is break up song. Wah, so nervous… I have to play a song with the right chords that I imagined without testing on the keyboard. Somehow Brian says he likes the chorus. Not bad I guess, but just like every friendship competition, in the end… “everyone is the winner.” …duh… The workshop ended with some group photos. I really wished to show Brian my songs, but it’s quite embarrassing. Agnes encouraged me, and I did it. He said he’s impressed, and he asked me to make demos of the song, so that he can do something (Gosh, when he explained how studios charge the price, I *gulp* freak out). One thing that really stuck in my mind is… Brian told me personally, there’s not many churches which have their own songs for worship and praise, and he hopes that I can make a difference in my place. For all of his teaching on that day, this sentence somehow shaken me.

Workshop graduation:

Agnes is willing to send me to the nearest LRT/monorail (whatever) station, so I hop on her car. She’s trying to understand my music background more, so I told her I went to church and started playing keyboard, also have some songs composed but lack of lyrics writing ability. Then, she told me her sister also compose songs, and she herself are quite good in Chinese, but she has a friend who excel in lyrics writing. The things that I’m very impressed is, she even analysed the market of music industry, in what year, what kind of music is the hottest, and predicts the coming era. She also explains how composers sell songs and the hardships (no wonder people say working in music industry will starve you till death). Unfortunately, we took some wrong turns (KL road, you know la), but I enjoyed the conversation with her. She says she will keep me update if there’s something similar going on. Something funny is, me and Agnes chat a lot through online before this, so we can just talk when we met. We told people it's the first time we met, thye couldn't believe it, some even thought she's my sister. Haha.

Me and Agnes:

This trip, seems like just a weekend, but it makes my direction clearer. There’re so many people out there still trying their best to be what they want to be, no matter what age they are. There’re also many hidden talents, like a flower bud awaiting the time to bloom. What I am now is not enough, but giving up is not an option, oh God please give me the determination to hold on, as You will give me the best and I know Your timing is perfect. By the way, I met Cherry (one of the workshop candidate) at KL Central, what a small world. We exchanged contact too, and she even told me my songs are nice. *sweet*

Brian's album and he signed for me:

Today’s chapter is Psalm 141, “Keep me out of the traps they have set for me, out of the snares of those who do evil.” There’re so many different teachings outside, the greatest wisdom is to be able to differentiate good from evil, let false apostles who dressed in lamb clothing fall. Lord, there’re a lot of needy souls recently. Dami is stroke by Denggi fever, Emily’s father is hospitalized and it sounds like something serious, Teng (my housemate) also get infected by some “wabak”, he’s not staying with us now until he recovers. Tze said he hoped to be employed by IBM in One Utama, as he’s going to graduate soon, I hope he’ll get it. Charles is facing his final year project, graduate soon too, hope that it’ll be a success. Corvina just moved to her new house, wish that peace and safety will be with her during her study in HELP college. Jason is working hard for his practical in Lahad, may he learn much and make full use of it in his future, and worries less about girls. Lastly, thank you Uncle Chan, Aunt Elizabeth and Cheryl to pray for our new house! Lord, let you almighty blessings come upon your children, Amen.