the days following christmas have been really fun and refreshing..
can't believe its th big 30 of december already, school's in 5 days...

went out with clarence/elendrus/xinquan on boxing day...
watched curse of the golden flower, and it was a pretty odd show, though the acting was commendable...
the person sitting next to ET two seats to his right was causing him some discomfort, which caused him to like lean towards the rest of us on the left throughout the whole movie, so poor thing..
had lunch at subway then i accompanied ET and clarence to get their hair dyed/cut at this cool hairdresser at kovan...
xinquan left to get his reserved adicolor wallet first before meeting us there...
they went over to clarence's place while i had to rush home to prepare for the annual debate party...
it was somewhat significantly nostalgic this year coz its joan's last time as our coach, and we finally presented her with the acdebate '06 jersey we got at queensway...
spent the night playing hours of pingpong with paul, and just like when i play with my classmates, it turns out to be more chat then playing, which is totally fine by me... x)
events after this are meant to be kept a secret coz of undisclosed reasons, but let's just say that we did what paul/ET and the council gang did two nights after...

paul and i met darius for lunch on the 27th at pepper lunch shaw plaza, my first time there...
went shopping at wisma/taka and then for tea at coffee bean where we did what we do best - talk...
paul and i left for home to prepare for our night appointments, both with our ex-classmates...
met darius again at mer's place with the majority of the 04 ppl...
it was really great seeing them again...
spent most of the first hour or so watching love actually and playing with mer's uber cute dog pebbles...
the potluck dinner was way too much for all of us, so there was tonnes left over...
played mahjong with celle/joel/colin for a while before we did the anonymous present exchange...
left with terrence/jolynn...

was in church for the infocomm retreat for the larger part of the 28th...
most of the time was spent at settlers playing random board games and eating...
borrowed the mighty to save DVD from chris to watch at home, and i'm shocked to find that there are 4 songs which aren't in the CD! couldn't burn it into my iPod coz there's something up with my iBook's disc drive...
the most memorable part of the retreat was going to bedok corner with amanda bennett/regina...
its kinda the last time we could spend together as the founding members of Amplified...
we were talking about how cool it was that since the first meeting where only the three of us and amandayong (and zhaoming who came up with the name of the mag, kindaof a legacy to his participation in church) dreamed up the first issue, infocomm has grown to include a sizeable number of new members like louis (joannatng's bro), calida, yvette and so on...
its probably our final chance to do something like that coz bennett's going to aussie to study next year...
oh and i ate like 20-odd wang4wang4 biscuits during the course of the 29th, its addictive...

was ultra late for worship practice this morning, but it was kindaof ok coz they hadn't started after hour coz of some problem with photocopying the scores...
we managed to get the practice going after that though, so yeap...
while mallhopping before coming home, i found the nike ringer tee that jake wanted to buy in phuket, and since it was 30-odd bucks, decided to get it coz it looked pretty pretty...
i quite regret not getting the Eugene Trials ringer from nike that jake/adriel bought at the mall in phuket, so have been trying to find it to no avail in singapore, and one question i had was who the heck is eugene and why are his trials so famous...
finally understood when i looked carefully at the words on the nike tee jake/pet/ariel got me for christmas, and found out the Eugene's a place in Oregon, the city of choice for the nike's tee's this season...

xinquan sent me JoJo's song from THE HIGH ROAD, "How To Touch A Girl" last night via email, and i haven't been able to get it out of my head since...
its just superb, and she has amazing range, especially that low note in the last line of the chorus...
go check it out!

saving all my love for you,
jlc.

christmas today was fun, as all christmases are...
went for BOTH services, yay me...
while exchanging gifts in the fellowship deck, i got an sms from mervyn, and he was like i'm in bmc, now, second service, and i was like NO WAY!
didn't wanna go find him straight away coz he was with his family, so i sat at the back with sam/josh to scout around, and when it came to the shaking hands part i finally found him a few rows behind jake, so went up and tapped his shoulder, and he was as shocked to see me as i was to get the msg from him... x)

so here's my thankyou list, which isn't particulary exhaustive, yet (i hope)
for the messages: merv, stuart, huiting, collin, jit, cherry, paul, justin, meltee, ron, jin, tiff, elendrus, sher, jamie...
for the cards: xinquan, rachh, joanna, abby, sher, debng, regina, jake...
and the gifts:
jake/pet/adriel for the nike tee...
josh for the two ringer tees with uber cool motifs...
debng for the handphone stand...
rachh/sher for the random questions book...

and i got my acdebate'06 jersey, its quite nice...

went for lunch with the musks at pasta fresca at the airport...
then to sam's place to just chill (just like last year)...
no one slept, but we played fifa'07 and nfs on the xbox...
and i beat jake at topspin 2 using my roddick against his sharapova... x)
took a ride from josh's cab to head home...

last week of hols...

in heavenly peace,
jlc.

SALVATION IS HERE was a huge huge success, and it was tonnes of fun to boot...
all the items went as rehearsed, and there was loads of that for sure...
arrived at church at 10 to fine-tune some songs, then had lunch before preparation in prayer...
the hour or so before we were up was really funny, coz we were backstage joking around...
we finished our set of 10 songs with as much energy as we'd hoped...
i stayed on to play for the testimonies and the drama...
the worship team went to do the candle thingy, and during the alter call, coz nat was playing the big keyboard, amanda bennet and i shared the synthesizer, she on bass and me on treble...

didn't wanna head home straight away, considering its the eve of the eve of christmas, so i kinda tagged along with jake and elisa xu to renaldo's for apple strudel...
i stocked up on my entertainment needs for the last week of vacation...
got jan's FIRST and LIME and dec28's 8DAYS, and rented CLICK...
the two of'em were doing calculus, and i kindaof helped in question 11, sorta...

though its not the norm for me to not go to church on sundays, and christmas eve no less, i accepted elendrus' invitation to join him and xinquan at ron's church coz it was evangelical, and i hadn't gone to any other church in a really really really long time...
got lost on the way there and only found ron/xq on my third attempt, had breakfast, then headed to the third floor of an office building to attend the service...
its the smallest i've ever attended, congregation totalling 120 or so, and everything was very conservative and un-complex, from the carols to the kids nativity item...
the service lies somewhere in the middle of the charismatic spectrum of worship services i've ever attended, of which number only 3, with BMC at the high end and st andrews cathedral on the other...
it really reminded me that without the electric guits/strobe lights and all that jazz, its an intimacy each worshipper looks for, and that can be achieved in any way...
a huge contrast from just 24 hours before, when the drums and synth were in overdrive... x)

its just a few minutes to christmas, and upon reflection, its been a good year so far...
with that and the gift of salvation in mind, there really is quite a bit to be thankful for...

a merry christmas indeed,
jlcaines-athos.

speaking of music, this year's range of new holiday season releases isn't particularly abundant...
sarah mclachlan has released WINTERSONG, a full christmas album that's nominated for a grammy (i was like what??!!)
on the american idol front:
Elliott Yamin remakes THIS CHRISTMAS, and the video of him in the recording studio is amazing...
Katharine McPhee redeems herself after the horrible first single off her yet-unreleased album, OPEN TOES, by doing a very good cover of Oh Come All Ye Faithful...

was at practice for SALVATION IS HERE last night and tonight, and its been really challenging, coz its hard to maintain the energy and intensity required...

met darius after 7 months today as he just came back from the states, and we went for lunch with cherry at taka's crystal jade la mian xiao long bao (i haven't been there in ages, so was craving the xlbs)
watched eragon after that at cine...
i was meant to catch it on boxing day with the 4/11 ppl, but i guess we'll have to watch another show... x)
its not bad all in all, but it lacks the poetry of LOTR and the appeal of harry potter...
the plot just jumps from one important event to the next with minimal character development...
but, as is very in vogue in hollywood, there's gonna be a sequel coz of john malkovich's really cool last scene where he reveals his own dragon...

lovers at a great divide,
jlc.

new music tuesday!
finally a worthy day of music premieres to blog about...
so 3 artistes in particular:

Norah Jones' third album is available for pre-order...
NOT TOO LATE features the first released single THINKING ABOUT YOU and promises more of the raspy jazz that she's won grammys for...

Fallout Boy return with a series of videos that probably indicate an upcoming third album...
THIS AIN'T A SCENE, IT'S AN ARMS RACE is the latest release on MTV...

barely a year after NOTHING IS SOUND, Switchfoot explodes with yet another thought-inspiring album...
the sixth release is entitled OH, GRAVITY and is due to hit stores soon...

and on the side, The Fray have released a holiday season EP, which honestly isn't much to yell about...

time to compile your fav 100 tracks/albums of 2006!

the sweet escape,
jlc.

this year's want-list is very skinny, so here goes...
My Christmast Wishlist 2006:
1) Topman Gift Card (the amount in it is up to you!)


2) Gap Tee (the ubiquitous one that says GAP on the front and nothing else, cool hor)


3) Birkenstocks white leather


4) Hillsong Mighty to Save DVD


5) Crumpler iBook Carrier 13inch, BLACK

yup, that's it.. 5 items that are totally practical...

christmas in a week,
Jlc.

this is gonna be a long post... seriously, way longer than my bintan post...
normally i like to sleep the whole experience over before reflecting, but since its still pretty early on saturday morning, i might as well get a headstart...
and also coz i had some time to reflect on the plane ride back, looking at the lights of singapore etc...
so let's start with that shall we?

tiger airways flight 155 from phuket intl to changi singapore was as smooth as any 1 1/2 hour flight can be...
we did fly through some clouds that were having some serious cases of lightning going on, but it was pretty cool to look out of the window...
i wasn't cramped to death coz jake/sam/me got the emergency exit seats, so there was tonnes more leg room...
the flight attendant (same for both flights) did the whole emergency procedure briefing for us, and i shuddered to think of having to toss a plane door out into the open sky...
i did have thoughts of doing that to get out the plane quicker after it landed, but yeah...
listened to jake's RAZR most of the flight back, and rediscovered my love for disney classics (vanessa williams) and was reminded of the joys of orchestral pieces (the imperial march)

flight 152 from changi singapore to phuket intl was arguably harder to bear, coz sam/jake/me were really squashed, and it was really hard to sleep or do anything else... jake and i just chatted about anything and everything for the hour or so...
post-landing, we were zipped to the JW Marriott in a Honda CRV, one of many different cars our driver, yung (is that how you spell it?), would ferry us to and fro in...
arriving at the hotel lobby, we received the perfunctory welcome or an orchid wreath each, then we waited by the gorgeous eternity pool before heading for breakfast at the Marriott Cafe...
breakfast, you ask?
well, after SYC COP on sunday night, i cabbed home at midnight, watched OTH 4x10 (so good!), slept for an hour, got up, blogged and was the the budget terminal at 4plus on monday morning, and because phuket, just like bintan, is an hour behind singapore, we arrived at 8plus at the hotel, just in time for breakfast...
the buffet was nothing to yell about, but it was certainly presented very lavishly, as we would soon realise was the concept of the entire hotel...

initially i was worried about how much space we would have, coz in bintan, when they said "villa", it didn't quite come up to as large a compound as i had envisioned, so when the same word "villa" popped up here, i had my apprehensions...
but i was so wrong... so so so wrong...
opening the door to 2213, we entered into a suite large enough to accommodate a wild part of 30 or so, and then some...
the smaller bedroom had 2 larger-than-normal super single beds, and the ultra big master bedroom had an ultra ULTRA big king-sized bed that could have easily fit 5 ppl.. i was shocked...
and if i had thought the bed was the largest piece of furniture in the suite, i had yet to be amazed by the gigantic hot tub in the enormous master bathroom, which came with separate frosted-glass particions for the lavatory and shower...
we had 3 tvs, a dining table, a fully stocked fridge with alcohol and everything...
whatever inconvenience caused by the startling language barrier was quickly made up for by the luxury the staff provided us...
room service folded my laundry on the floor, so that whatever articles of clothing i left the night before would be miraculously neat again after breakfast the next morning...
everything we could possibly need for comfort was provided for, albeit after a bit of cross-cultural communication, but hey, i ain't complainin' when you've got what we had... and double that, coz sam's parents had one suite to themselves...

so we watched some TV on the 20-odd channels (i told jake i would have killed for mtv at that moment) before adriel and sam went to sleep...
jake and i stayed up to watch Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events and the first half of the Arsenal-Chelsea match i had missed last night (i was supposed to join ET and clarence's place to watch)
then we set out to explore the compound, but ended up immediately at the billards room...
so when i was in bintan, there was a tonne of stuff i didn't do, either coz i didn't know how to or just didn't get the chance to, and it is really cool how i got to do all that stuff on THIS trip...
first and foremost: I HAVE LEARNT THE FINE ART THAT IS POOL!
jake taught me the proper handling of the cue, the various rules of the game (i kinda knew already coz i hang around my pool-playing classmates so much) and whatever else, and its really quite addictive...
didn't think it would entertain me for that 2odd hours, but it certainly did...
sam and adriel joined us after their nap, and while we waited for the table to be vacated, jake and i played the silly PS2 games that were on...
a bit more pool, and then it was back to the room to change for the night out at Patong...
our driver picked us up in this huge passenger van that had 12 seats, most of which reclined, and drove the 45minutes to the seafood restaurant...
super good pineapple rice and tom yam, but the crab was a tad disappointing...
we walked around the various stretches of the Patong shopping district for the next 2odd hours, rarely stopping to look at the stalls coz they were ALL selling the same stuff... literally...
i didn't buy anything the 2 times we went there coz i'm just not a fan of imitation designer goods, and the original stuff didn't really vary much from the singaporean prices...
there were tonnes of gender-confused ppl around, and it was sometimes a little hard to distinguish who were born with genetically-endowed boobs and who weren't...
i was totally exhausted by the time we got back into the car, so all through the trip to Tesco, the wait while groceries were being shopped for, and the trip back to the Marriott (all about 2hours in total), i just slept...
watched a bit more TV when we arrived before going to sleep...

woke up at 9 for breakfast (which were all had in 2111) and the morning sermon (really quite hilarious in retrospect),
then it was off cycling... 17kilometres worth of it to be exact...
along the way, jake's tyre broke, so we had to seek refuge at a kindly phuket native's front yard for an hour or so waiting for the hotel repair person to arrive...
it was definitely an experience in itself, and it gave us a look at how thai ppl live...
after lunch it was off to the pool... of the 3 in the hotel, we only used the silent blue pool, which was probably the prettiest...
went to the beach to sail the katamarans...
note to self: if ever i'm to get lost at sea on a small boat, bring jake along... he was telling me all about the technicalities of sailing, all while maneuvering us along... even the guy on board looking after us was impressed...
swam a bit before going back for dinner...

day 3 dawned similarly, with breakfast at 830, but it turned out to be the funnest of all 5 days there...
first we went to the shooting range in our Toyota Fortuna, where jake/sam tried rifles (similar to the air rifles i used back in secondary 2), while i decided to try something new with adriel, the .45 caliber pistol...
its way harder coz the recoil is hard to control, and i got a 55% accuracy...
note to everyone: don't trust me with a gun ever, i might just kill you with it, unintentionally of course...
then we picked the All Terrain Vehicle over paintball, and it was a BLAST!
its one of the stuff i really wanted to try in bintan but it rained the day we went, so i finally got my chance...
we followed the guide through the 1-hour route, and every minute of it was exciting...
we had to weat wellingtons and shower caps, but that only added to the hilarity...
tonnes of mud all over the place, but it made for the most delightful drive...
sam had quite an accident halfway through when he was driving up the steepest upward hill...
i was directly behind him, barely 3 yards away, so i kinda saw the whole thing in slow motion...
his front-right wheel didn't catch the ground, so when he accelerated again, the whole ATV just flpped backwards, and it landed just in front of me, thankfully not crushing me or him...
but besides that, the only other time we stopped was for some photo-whoring, which cost 200baht per photo..

then it was lunch at a ubiquitous seaside restaurant before heading to look for a place to absail and whatever, but it wasn't suitable, so we made an impromptu detour to the most amazing go-kart track i've ever come across...
it had such wide lanes and cool horseshoe turns, and i made full use of them =)
20 minutes was all we got, but the first ten were better coz in the latter half, i made the mistake of starting behind adriel (the world's worst driver), and he skidded on all of the first 3 laps, causing me to crash into him on the second, and from then on i just kept a good distance away...
we drove over to Patong beach after that, and i DROVE A JET SKI!!!
the first ride out i was the passenger behind jake, and we were both like how to do this??!
but it got really exhilirating after the first few throttles...
i drove the next round, and we switched places while at sea, coz i got kinda bored after half an hour of skimming across water... adriel took my place while i lounged and read on the beach...
i fell asleep a few minutes later while the played beach soccer, and when i awoke, we decided to do a bit more shopping before heading for dinner at another of the countless restaurants around...
we then went to Central Festival to shop, and its s seriously big and chic mall...
sam and adriel were too tired to do any serious buying, so jake and i fully utilized the one hour we had, rushing all over the bottom 2 levels looking for the perfect buys...
in the end, we only bought stuff at Nike and Calvin Klein..
50% sales must never be underestimated...
slept on the trip back to the hotel, where we watched Six Feet Under and Sometimes in April on HBO...
the latter was an extremely haunting show about the atrocities in Rwanda, though only adriel and i stayed up to its conclusion...

thursday was chill out day, so i woke up at 11 local time, had breakfast and then lounged at the pool...
this was another thing i didn't get to do at all in bintan, coz all the times we went to the pool was in the evening when the sun wasn't around...
so i finally got down to some serious tanning...
i was on my 3 flip (15 minutes each side) when jake screamed for me to join them at the pool bar for tea...
abandoning my almost-tan, i had haagen daaz c&c and fries...
jake/adriel/me then went to the beach for some severe camwhoring...
played beach soccer after that for slightly less than an hour...
then it was back to the room for our room service dinner from the andaman steak & grill and the jap restaurant...
i had the delicious lobster and tonnes of salmon/maguro sashimi...
dessert was the best, with cheesecake&blueberry jam, brownies&vanilla sauce, and the chocolate/macademia nut/strawberry ice-cream...
all this while watching The Bodyguard (Whitney's best show before she went on drugs, also the movie with my 2 fav songs from her, I Have Nothing and I Will Always Love You) and playing bridge...
slept at 3ish...

woke up at 9 today for breakfast, then watched Hitched before going to the pool for round 2 of tanning...
swam a bit before heading back to pack...
lunched at the Marriott Cafe and had a non-thai meal (pasta marinara) for the first time in 5 days...
drove to the airport in 2 cars, a Honda Jazz and a Toyota Corolla...
our driver was pretty innovative, reversing on a main road for about 500metres so as to avoid having to make a long u-turn...
then it was just the wait before boarding, and now, here i am, back in singapore...

there's a lack of photos coz i need to get adriel's memory card..

half of december is over, and so is the greater portion of the hols...
i'm satisfied, no doubt, with the 2 trips i've had (really, its the company that matters), and the random stuff in between...
but i'm NOT READY to go back to real life...

before that though, is another significant milestone - CHRISTMAS '06!

get ready your yuletide joy,
jlc.

so i'm flying to phuket in 3 hours time...

last night's COP at SYC was really great, the whole worship and alter call...

a good end before a good start...

mystery unthinkable,
jlc.

watched Open Season yesterday morning at 1030 (earliest i've ever gone to a cinema) with ron and elendrus...
we actually wanted to watch Happy Feet, but ron had some timing difficulties, so we made the trade...
the show wasn't as funny as paul thought, but it wasn't half bad...
now i still wanna watch happy feet!
got the brittany murphey track off the soundtrack, "somebody to love", and its damn impressive...

ron rushed off after the movie, leaving elendrus and i to walk round (literally) the basement levels of plaza sing for an hour and a half, deciding what to do or where to go... xinquan didn't wanna come down *pfft*
we talked about life in primary school and the ppl who've come and gone, very introspective...

headed to clarence's place after that to keep him company coz he had to watch over his renovations...
played a few games of dota and watched a 90's movie on hbo, then left for the east, elendrus home and me to church...
on the journey there we talked about the ppl we know now, how we got to know them and how they've changed since knowing them...
sorry i can't be at the match on sunday yeah, phuket's way too close for that...

watched 50 first dates, and its a really sad show...

met paul/sean/sam at queensway for lunch and to hunt for our debate jersey...
we chanced about this pretty chic place that was all decked out in black with a white christmas tree that was exactly what we were looking for, and after an hour or so, we finally decided on the black FBT jersey with the respective personalizations...
since it was really early, we went to sam's place to play his new X Box 360...
tennis/basketball/soccer, though the former was most fun...

finished packing for phuket, hope its really fun!

grammy 2007 nominees are out, and all i know is i'm supporting JT all the way!

by the way, its my 500th post...

i can only imagine,
jlc.

so i just finished listening to FutureSex/LoveSounds, and can you say AMAZING?
its the single best album this year, hands down, and has the highest concentration of 5-star songs in my entire iTunes library right now...
go get it, you honestly won't regret...

as i did for bintan, here's what the JW Marriott Phuket offers us travellers:

they do have a lot of pools:
Blue Swimming Pool
Main Swimming Pool
Tranquility Swimming Pool
Indoor/outdoor connecting pool
Jacuzzi
Whirlpool

and the typical rustic resort lifestyle:
Biking trail nearby (15 km)
Horseback riding nearby (30 km)
Jet-skiing nearby (35 km)
Jogging/fitness trail
Kayaking
Mountain biking, trail nearby (15 km)
Nature preserve, trail
Rock climbing nearby (25 km)
Sailing
Sauna
Scuba diving
Snorkeling nearby (15 km)
Surfing
Table tennis
Tennis
Volleyball
Water-skiing nearby (35 km)

Sawatdee Kaa,
jlc.

worship practice for SYC was last night, and there were loads of laugh-out-loud moments...
playing for friday and sunday nights...

have to be at the airport at 5am on monday for the flight to phuket...

when the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long,
and you feel that love is only for the lucky and the strong

just remember that in the winter
far beneath the bitter snow
lies the seed, that with the sun's love,
in the spring becomes the rose.

i say love, it is a flower
and you, it's only seed.

it's definitely you,
jlc.

the premiere tix for ERAGON are all sold out already, the last i checked, but i guess it doesn't really affect me coz i'll be in phuket on the 13th... can't wait for the trip and the show!
spent the last two nights talking to elendrus online till 3plus, so didn't go for FL this morning...
rented COACH CARTER and GOAL...

wanna go watch happy feet?

there's nothin' you can do,
john.

so its been 5 days since i last updated, but with good reason...
was at sam's place from wednesday to thursday, went there after meeting the jyc comm at ikea for tunch...
went cycling with adriel, visited VBC, then just chilled for the next 20-odd hours...
came back home last night coz had concert this evening (friday i mean)
it was pretty great, congrats yewjin/ron!
fav piece was the imperial march by acjc...
went out for supper at essential brew with the two of them and elendrus...
talked till 130 before cabbing back...

advanced tix for ERAGON are out

keep holding on,
john.