Block Leave Activities

Block Leave is going well!

I’ve been getting enough rest and recreation during the past week. On Wednesday I met up with Pei Suan for Dinner. It was good to see her since school ended.

On Thursday I had dinner with Cerelia. We met up with Kenneth, Jonathan, Constantine and Nicholas at Muddy Murphy’s. The special occasion was Kenneth’s enlistment on Friday. That place is terrible; overcharging like nobody’s business. Fine, their business is good but I digress. Five dollars for a small cup of tea!? Hell, I can buy the box for tea for half price! The most funny part was watching Kenneth in in dismay after paying two dollars and fifty cents for a little bag of Bacon Chips.

I had fun. Dear Cerelia, I hope you were not too shocked with the company that night. Then again everybody else would be shocked when hanging out with a bunch of trads.

The many outings on the weekdays were starting to get to me, so much so that I decided to spend Saturday afternoon alone. I went to Novena Church, to give thanksgiving to our Blessed Mother for letting me come back in one piece from the army. After that, I went to Holy Spirit Church to pray for the late Father David Thexeira, who passed away last Thursday.

Another reason for going there was to look for Father Gerard. He was transferred over. So yes, I managed to drop a hello, but he said he would only be free to see me after Christmas. Well I hope to see meet with him soon.

During this week I’ve gradually started on my preparation for the next phase of training. I have cleaned some of my equipment, such as my helmet. Unfortunately I have failed to drag myself out of bed for some PT. I think I’m going to get hell next week.

In the meantime I’ve also done some Christmas shopping. Apparently it’s supposed to be for Chinese New Year too. Oh crap, I’ve spent most of the budget already. Never mind; I rarely shop.

This Saturday will be a busy day. Perpetua and Robin are getting married. I will be assisting. I hope everything goes well.

Sacerdotal Ordination of Deacons Damien de Wind and Valerian Chong

7 August 2005

I went to CL today. It was quite good. I was the leader today. The kids seem to be singing the songs with more joy now.

I had lunch at home with my family. I couldn’t be bothered to do my lab reports, so I was playing C&C Generals Zero Hour custom maps. Quite interesting. I was playing one mission where I had to fight off a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Oh, I attended a Sacerdotal Ordination today! Two deacons from Holy Family were ordained priests. It was crowded. I had to sit at the back with this old ma and share the book with him. I couldn’t see much of what was happening at the front, from the back. It was really, really long. But it was interesting. Today was the first time I seen something like this. Archbishop Nicholas Chia ordained the two deacons, Damien de Wind and Valerian Chong. I don’t know them personally though.

It’s interesting to see how the Sacrament of Holy Orders is performed. The Archbishop lays his hands on them and says the prayer of ordination. He then proceeds to investiture them with their stole and chasuble. The stole and chasuble are liturgical garments. Priests wear them during Mass.

The stole represents the priest’s distinctive sharing in Christ’s priesthood. It symbolizes the office of the cleric, immortality and the yoke of Christ.

The chasuble represents the yoke of Christ.

After this, the archbishop anoints their palms with chrism oil. The anointing of hands symbolizes the priest’s distinctive participation in Christ’s priesthood.

+2 priests for the Lord’s service. Praise the Lord!

The Wedding Feast of Julius and Agnes Koh

27 November 2004

Woke up at bloody 8 AM. Managed to drag myself out of bed by 8.30 AM. Went to meet Joshua and went to church. My brother was with me. Julius and Agnes were getting married. Wah, after 7 years. That’s a very long time. Things happen real fast in one decade. You know, this is the first time I’ve ever been to a Catholic wedding. Yeah, so I’m feeling very happy for them. I wonder if I’ll ever get a chance to stand in front of the altar and wait for my beautiful lady to come. Or maybe I will be the man who stands behind the altar. I don’t know. Let’s see what happens in the next decade.

Haha, Julius was damn funny. He was panicking and he misread the vow and dropped the ring. I think Agnes was also panicking, trying to say the vow in one breath. But anyway, the music was quite well done. Ah, the lunch reception was fantastic.

I left to go to Angela’s house to do our preparation for the camp. Time flies man. The retreat starts on Wednesday. I wonder how it will be like. I have never planned the year end retreat before, so that makes this my first time. So we prepared the nametags and warm fuzzy mailboxes for the campers. Yeah.

Kept falling asleep in the bus today. I’m tired. And I have -$0.83 in my EZ link card. Damn great.

I’m kind of relieved to pass all my modules. Some of my classmates did not have this good fortune. Well, Good luck fellas…

School of Mobile Suit Warfare is playing “Monfort Military Band – Princess Mononoke”
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