Aegreo

I feel irritated.

This is primarily due to the fact that I've got come down with some sort of bug that gives me stomach spasms and gastronomical gases. Which is very irritating, since I'm actually in my most comfortable position when I am in a sort of half-bow. It's not fun to try to keep yourself upright so as not to look like a sot.

Plus, the afore-mentioned gastronomical gases have actually given me something that resembles a small beer gut. Which is irritating, since I actually have abstained from alcohol since September 2003. Didn't really take alot to convince me of course. I'm not exactly fond of beer. And I don't know how people can sip wine and say it's good when sparkling grape juice tastes so much better. But that's besides the point. At any rate, I can be thankful that most of the time, the gastronomical gases (this is so hard to keep on typing. I think I shall just call in GG.) have usually manifested themselves in the form of burps, which while highly impolite, is still a damn sight better than if it came out from my bottom. (Alright... damn smell better, though not by much.)

What is also irritating is that on the bus from Tampines to church earlier on, I also felt like puking. Cos I was trying to alleviate my suffering by trying to force myself to burp (I was discreet and polite, so no one was offended. I think.). Anyway, that started to make me feel like I wanted to release my lunch all over the floor. And every bump the bus went over made it worse, since the bus doesn't exactly have excellent suspension systems. Thankfully, I had just purchased Cowboy Bebop and so I hurriedly grabbed the plastic bag and put it in my pocket, after asking God to help me hold in the lunch till I at least managed to get to church, which He did.

What is more irritating is that the GG and SS (stomach spasms, not social studies, or SchutzStaffel or Segregated Socialists or whatever else you can come up with) turned me into an almost total wimp, as the peeps in church can testify to. The last time I was this sick was when I went to Starlight in 2003. And for the 3 hours that I was in church, essentially all I did was to sort of loll around, usually with my head on the blue circular table outside the kitchen where S and L were doing work.

Here I must mention that I'm really grateful for all the people in church who tried to make me feel better, like F and S who were talking to me, and Y who tried to comfort me, and J who thought I might have gastric and told me to drink milk, and Su, JN, V and L who screamed at me not to drink the milk, but almost gave me a heart attack in the process, and R, D and A who just asked if I was feeling better. Really grateful. But I guess I seemed like an ingrate earlier on, since I was in a sort of stupor most of the time. haha.

But, the most irritating thing, is that I'M NOW AT HOME TYPING OUT THIS ENTRY AFTER HAVING SEEN THE DOCTOR, WHEN I COULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING X-MEN 3!!! Bleah. Plus, the doc told me that I shouldn't eat oily or fried food. Where's the fun in that?

On a side note that is totally unrelated, look what I managed to get in Woodlands yesterday evening.



Cool, yes? We were going to Yew Tee to eat dinner and celebrate Y's birthday.

Cheerio

Desidero

I find something most peculiar.

When the Philippines MEET team left, it was like, "OK. They've left.", even though both A and Al are in the team, and I know them reasonably well.

But when the Thailand MEET team left, it was like something went missing, which is rather curious, considering that it is now school holidays (means I don't see them on a regular basis anymore), and of the four of them, M doesn't have MSN, I usually don't talk with H, P is usually offline, and in the end, D is usually the only one I talk to. But it's like something's gone.

Why?

I can't imagine what's going to happen during church retreat when half of my friends go to Batam. But then again, that's just for 4 days, not 4 weeks.

Bleah.

In other news, I have received information from a highly reliable source that I helped MS avert a Suaku Situation. Haha... But she said it's because she spent her time on better things. Well, that's gratitude for you. hahaha...

Cheerio

Adlegatio

I guess I have been rather slow in talking about going to Japan.

Well, to start of, it was early. Like I didn't sleep the night before we left, cos I hadn't packed my bag, and by the time I was done, it was late enough that I didn't see any value in sleeping anymore. Got to the airport, and then had a spot of a problem. First, was that our check in luggage was too heavy. (Not me, because I actually carried a fullpack onto the plane itself, but what with all the extra stuff we needed to bring...) And then, J realized that there might be a problem, as she was Malaysian, and she didn't know she needed a visa to go to Japan.

So we cleared Singapore, and we got onto the Northwest flight. I had gotten some pretty bad reviews about NWA from my friends, like how they said that there was only a single tv screen per cabin, and it didn't work, and how the food made army food taste good... but surprise surprise, it was actually very much like SIA. Maybe cos this was their Airbus A30 or something, maybe new plane? I dunno. So here's a couple of pictures.

This here is the tv.



And this is my breakfast. Looks very SIA-ish, doesn't it?



So anyway, me, J and M touched down at Narita, and then the real problem started. Me and M ended up waiting a couple of hours for J to clear the Japanese immigration, but by the grace of God, they gave her a 90-day visa after Uncle L spoke with the officials. Then we took the train to Nippori, transferred to the JT Yamanote Line, took to Ikebukuro, and then transferred onto the Seibu-Ikebukuro line to reach Tokorozawa. Got there in time for the youth church that is held on Friday nights.

Anyway, can't really remember a lot of details. And when I do, it wouldn't quite be feasible to put it up, cos there's way too much, so I'll just talk of a few instances.

God was really very gracious throughout the trip. He always provided for us, whether through the study of His word, or the people who were there. The people at the youth church were a great help, since I am argubly the most fluent in Japanese in the team (I'm not being arrogant. It's a fact. Haha.), and I cannot even hold a simple question and answer dialogue with anyone. Oh, and just in case you do know rudimentary Japanese, and think that's enough, you can forget about it. You talk to them in that little bit of Japanese that you know, and they automatically think that you are really a fluent speaker, so they blurb back everything to you in normal speed Japanese, which is really rather fast, and you probably won't understand.

But anyway, God showed His mercy, when Uncle L left his laptop bag outside the house, and we went to Saitama, at Urawa station. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get there, and then he realized he left it outside the house. S said he would go back and help him take it, so he drove back while we went to another karaoke place. And then about 2 hours later, he messaged back that he found the bag with laptop.

Oh and the karaoke place just mentioned, they've got this drinks station.



What's so cool about it? Well, there's hot drinks, and cold drinks, and ice cream, and soup. And it's free flow.

Yup. We got to meet new people, mainly through the Saitama International Fair thing, but also through the English classes at Waseda Uni, and also through the youth church.

Finally, I shall show the only sunset shot I managed to acquire. It was at the bridge near Uncle L's place.



Tada. Pretty nice huh.

Yeah. The night before we left, we went to onsen, which is really great, and then while outside Tokorozawa Station, the people from the youth church and the team stood in a circle and prayed. And it was really great.

Then we left, and I waited 3 hours till A and Al left for the Philippines with their MEET team, and I had to take a cab over from Terminal 1 to the Budget Terminal and it cost me close to 8 bucks, which coincidentally, is actually more expensive per km than my flight from Narita. I calculated wrongly last round at M's blog, but now I realize that the cab fare (@!&^$#) was going at $2.63 per km, but my flight cost only $0.07 per km!! Rip-off!

Ah well.

Cheerio