Wanna bet?

I woke up to a cool morning with heavy downpour. What a great weather! It turned to be heaven crying for Brazil who was blitzed 1-7 by Germany. Ouch! It was not just a loss.. I guess it was the humiliation that hurt more. Not only they lost at home soil, they lost with such a great margin. I did not watch the match but it seemed interesting and exciting with Brazil conceding 4 goals within 6 minutes and down at 0 - 5 at the first half. If I were watching, I guess that was the queue for me to go back to my bed. Haha.. Oh and congratulations to Miroslav Klose for his 16th goal in the World Cup which earned him a place in history. Haha.. He will still have a chance to add more goals in the final. I was rooting for Brazil by the way T_T

However, there is a funny thing that comes along this victory by Germany, particularly in Singapore.

This is an anti-gambling ad.

The TV ad

Pardon me if you can't hear the words clearly because of the accent. Even I am not able to hear all the words clearly. So yeah, the ad basically backfired.. Haha.. It even tempts me to start betting for the remaining World Cup matches too!! Lol..

See what it becomes after the match:

It will be exciting to see the final as well as how this ad will turn out. Will Germany really win? Haha..

Fuleco

Anyway, even if you get blitzed, I still love your mascot. This keychain is a free gift from McDelivery when making payment using Visa. Hehe..

Okay, I hope Argentina will win later... because the team I am rooting for usually will not win. Lol..

Indonesia Presidential Election 2014

I don't really bother about politics but this year's election is simply too extra-ordinary and too important to miss with all the campaigns (both black and white campaigns) and the involvement of social media from the supporters of both parties. I remembered clearly that people were not even bothered much with the election 5 years ago. I personally did not bother about the previous presidential election as it was a competition among people who had proven themselves incapable to solve all the problems besetting the nation.

2014 election, however, is special because both presidential candidates are considered 'fresh' in the sense that they have not been involved in the governance on national level. I think there are 2 things which make this election very exciting: the stark differences between the 2 candidates and Jokowi factor. Jokowi is seen by many as a beacon of hope for Indonesia and since the fall of the New Order, we have never seen a politician who can draw public support as much as him. The similarities drawn between him and Obama are not deniable and I will not be surprised if the participation rate for this election will be record-breaking.

For Indonesian who live overseas, the election was held from 4-6 July, depending on which countries. The election in Singapore was held today and by yesterday, there were already news that the turn out at other countries were crazy with people queue-ing for hours in unfavourable weather just to vote. Simply amazing. There was no such report for the parliamentary election in April earlier this year. That is understandable as people are losing faith and do not have hope with the parliament so people think whoever they vote do not matter or it does not even matter whether they cast their vote.

I have to say that the turnout was definitely much larger than the parliamentary election. I went at roughly the same time (lunch time because I was hoping that people were going to eat lunch and it would not be so crowded). In April, it felt as if I was late and they were going to 'close shop' soon. Today, it was crazy. Thank goodness I registered and brought my letter as the queue was much faster. In fact, it was less than 10 minutes for me to clear everything. The report about hours of queue-ing is more for those people who did not register earlier. Of course it would take longer time to capture their data etc la! However, hats off to the facts that they were still eager to vote and did not mind the wait. There were definitely more Indonesian Chinese too which I could barely see during April election.

By the way, I don't know if my voting slip will be considered invalid T_T My first poke caused a tear instead of a hole T_T I poked another time.. Haiz.. heck.. At least I have done my part. So many people are openly declaring their support online but I am not going to do that. Election should be something secret =p Haha.. I can only pray that God will bless Indonesia and Indonesians and whoever wins will bring the country soaring to greater heights.

The overseas Indonesians have done our part and our number is very tiny as compared to the rest of the people who would be voting this coming Wednesday. My Indonesian brothers and sisters who are living in Indonesia, the rest is up to you and our country's future lies on your votes. Please pray and vote wise :)

2 weddings and a wedding dinner

5th July 2014 is really a special day for marriage. I have 2 friends who are getting married today (nope they are not married to each other). Even among our common friends, some are also invited to 2 weddings today. So the conclusion is there are really a lot of couples getting married today! In the past, when I attend weddings, I always felt amazed ,"Woah.. they are getting married". Nowadays, I always feel rather emo, "When is my turn?" or "How will my own wedding be like?". Sigh.. Biological clock is ticking..

The first wedding was at 9am at Holy Cross. Thank God for the beautiful weather in the morning that made me slept a bit longer. Haha.. I was almost late and had to take a cab. I thanked God because I managed to meet and congratulate my friend when he was getting ready for the entrance to the church. I had to leave early and I planned to leave after photo taking. Surprisingly, it was rather unusual that the photo taking was not in the church after the mass but at the dining area. Bleah.. I decided to skip the brunch and the photo taking because I did not want to miss my other friend's wedding which started at 1015am at Risen Christ. I reached at the 2nd reading so at least I did not miss the homily.

Sadly, I don't have a lot of common friends so I was rather "outcast" at the socialising part. Oh well.. I know some people would just skip their friend's invitation if they have no common friends. I attend weddings for my friends who have kindly invited me so my own feelings don't really matter lor.. In fact, I feel that sometimes God is the one choosing whether I can be friends with certain people but not with others.

The bride of the second wedding that I attended is my friend. We were in the same group when we went for World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney and that was it. We were not at the same batch, we were not in the same course (although we were in the same faculty), and I could count the number of times I went for campus mass or for CG. Perhaps we just had once a year outing with our WYD members but other than that I don't think there are other things. However, we just click so well.. Then guess what, when I moved house 3 years ago, I lived on her neighbouring street!! Haha..

Well I am wishing her a big congratulations! May today be a memorable day and may God bless the wedding and the newly formed family. I can definitely see that she enjoyed herself today. She and her husband really make a cute couple. Both have similar fun-loving personality and that shows even on their wedding day. Nothing fake to look serious or what on this special day. 

I am really touched that I am considered worthy enough to be invited to her wedding dinner. Today was my first time to know that there is a hotel at Fort Canning.. Haha.. Again it was kinda awkward to be seated with strangers but oh well, I attended it to grace the couple's special day. I regretted drinking "too much" wine (is 1.5 glass considered a lot?? lol) as I felt tipsy.

Oh ya, almost forgot that I feel happy whenever I meet with half of my WYD group members. That is also something weird because I am not particularly close to them too. But they have this welcoming and holy aura that makes me feel happy when seeing them. Of course the first topic that comes to their mind is whether I still attend mass o_0 Gyahaha... Honestly I am not offended. In the group, I am the prodigal child.. I guess they understand that without any involvement in any church group, it will be very easy for me to just leave. Hmm.. perhaps I have a different mindset with regards to church. I go to church to find God and not to find friends. So my going to mass is dependent on my relationship with God. When I don't go, it is because I don't feel like praying.. when I don't feel that God bothers about me. Anyway, their question is suitable. I just recently "returned" to church. I skipped masses since before Easter I think :p

What a tiring but fulfilling day... Good night..

Massive bankruptcy in June

This is a preview of the things that I bought in June 2014 (and made me bankrupt!). Perhaps this is only 80% as the other 20% is not Disney-related. I have not finished taking pictures of all the items shown here too. So for the next few days/weeks/months, I will try to post pictures and reviews of these great items and the heartache they caused me T_T Haha... It is going to be tough taking pictures and re-sizing the pictures so please be patient and keep a look out :)

Save small.. lose big..

Time for my childish tantrum! And it's all my sister's fault..

I am running out of LINE credits and I am tempted to buy the newly released Saint Seiya sticker set. My sister told me last week that she could buy LINE stickers/themes using her pre-paid phone credit which got me thinking if I could use my Indonesian pre-paid number. My Indonesian pre-paid number has a lot of credit because I have to top-up every 2 months to keep the number alive until the next time I go for holiday and no way I am ever going to use finish the credits.

I tried to purchase coins but there was no option other than adding card to my gmail account. Then my sister messaged me that she did it via LINE store. Great.. So I switched my Indonesian SIM card to my phone.. only to realise that such service is not available in Singapore -_-". Even in Indonesia, the service is only available for Telkomsel users and my SIM card is not from Telkomsel.. Okay fine..

The trouble is when I put back the SIM card to the Samsung dumb-phone dedicated for use only in Indonesia. My sister cut the SIM card to fit into micro-SIM phone and because this phone is still using normal SIM, she gave me SIM card adaptor. Unfortunately, the idiot who cut the SIM cut it too small and the cut SIM does not fit snuggly to the adaptor. When I pushed the adaptor, the SIM card slid off while the adaptor was pushed it. I could not remove the adaptor because it was stuck to the metal thingies that help to read the SIM card! FUCK! That's the end of that phone. Fixing it will cost more than buying a new low-end dumb-phone so I threw it away. I did not even get to remember the type of the phone..

I regret and am angry at myself for having itchy finger.. I wanted to save money buy using the potentially unused phone credit but I ended up throwing a much more expensive phone.. T_T Of course I can't help but feeling more angry towards my sister: she cut the SIM card although she was not even using it, she gave me the stupid adaptor, and she gave me wrong information about the LINE store!

And now I have to buy a new phone when I go to Bintan next week. Damn it!

Mid-year resolutions

Welcome to July which basically means we are halfway through 2014! Wow.. Time does fly indeed.. I am feeling very tired recently and that contributes to my somewhat emo feeling. June was crazy and I still have a lot of things to for July too T_T In the midst of all the busy-ness, realising that half of 2014 is gone made me look back at the 2014 new year resolutions and assess how far I am from fulfilling them.

Money is the root of all evil so let's start with that. Realising how much I spent on toys was a huge shock. The amount I spent was almost the same as the amount I saved. That basically means if I cut down massively on toys, my savings would double T_T Honestly, perhaps I am addicted.. Everyday without fail I will check eBay, Yahoo! Japan, toy shops to actually look for things that I may be interested in buying.. Sigh.. Another part of me feels that it is buying happiness although that is only an excuse. In the end, after seeing how much I spend on toys and how cluttered my room is, toys are making me more depressed. Sadly, I am nowhere near to what I set out to do 6 months earlier. I bought too many things to the point that I simply had no time to catch up with the pictures.

I am vain so my acne trouble provided the much needed force to watch out on my food and that indirectly should help me to lose weight. I am amazed that I managed to avoid fast food, potato chips, instant noodles, and bubble tea for several months! Unfortunately, my acne is not exactly food related as avoiding these still did not improve my condition. After going to a dermatologist and following the "skin care" technique, my acne improved and that began my relapse to the unhealthy food habits. Perhaps after many months of abstinence, it is payback time! Thanks to World Cup, KFC's Cristiano Ronaldo water bottle was the first relapse. After that, I had 3 McD meals within a span of 1 week! I simply could not resist the temptation when my colleagues asked if I wanted to order in McD on the days when we had to lunch in for some lunch talks.

After moving to the new place, my exercising also stops. Coupled with the crap eating habit, that makes me gain weight obviously. I tried to do this 30-day abs challenge that my friend recommended and I gave up within a week because of my inability to do proper leg raise, together with tiredness and laziness.

Let's skip the playing computer part as that is the only form of entertainment I have.

I also fail in the spiritual revival part. In fact, I skipped Sunday masses from March/April up to sometime in June. It was only a few weeks back that I started to attend Sunday mass regularly again but it is still difficult for me to restart my habit of night prayer, daily rosary, and daily readings..

It has been 2 days since I decided to take another attempt to fulfill my new year resolutions as mid-year resolutions. So far no issues with toys at least until September as I paid for most of my pre-orders already.. Haha.. Not exactly a good thing but at least I will try to avoid making new purchases. Food is the most difficult part especially for bubble tea (blame it on the weather!) and potato chips! So far I am still holding myself but the temptations are always there every time I pass by a supermarket. The inclination for fast food is not there, thankfully. I guess the 3 McD meals in 1 week made me sick of fast food already haha..

And I don't wanna talk about the rest.. Haha.. I am hopeless..

Church deconsecration

It sounds bad but deconsecration is not the same as desecration. Before a church building is used as a place of worship, it has to be consecrated. The reverse, i.e deconsecration, happens when the church building is no longer used as a place of worship. As an institution which is almost 2 millenia old, there are some rituals to follow and it will be interesting to witness and experience this.

The first time I went to Church of Sts Peter and Paul was during the pre-Easter churches visitation in 2008 just before my baptism. I was not too impressed with as the building was deteriorating and not air-conditioned. The signs of its grandeur, like the super high arching ceiling and larger-than-life statues of Sts Peter and Paul welcoming the congregation before using the holy water to make the sign of the cross upon entering the church, were overwhelmed by peeling paints on the walls and the ceiling. After another 6 years, it was finally time for it to be renovated. Today also happens to be the Feast Day of Sts Peter and Paul so it is apt to start the renovation work tomorrow.

Frankly, churches with no aircon will never be my choices to attend mass. When the church is full, it is very uncomfortable to sweat in the heat and the sound of the fans are sleep inducing. However, since Sts Peter and Paul has 430pm mass on Sundays, I have been going there for mass this year and not once that I managed to stay awake during the mass. Embarassing, I know.. People are surprisingly sentimental and actually attended the "last" mass. I followed the warden which assigned me to 2nd pew from the front.. So yes, obviously, I did not fall asleep today. Haha.. but perhaps there was another reason.

With a statue of Jesus and His outstretched hands above me, obviously I would stay awake. Haha...

The mass itself was the same like any other mass. The ritual for the decommisioning/deconsecration/closing of the church only happened at the end. And thus I am going to highlight the special things that happened. And before that I have to apologise that I am not familiar with the liturgical terms so my description will be in a very layman language. Even google does not have a lot of information about deconsecration ritual.

Firstly, the pastors had to remove their robe (I don't know what it is called. Basically it is the colourful robe that changes depending on the liturgical season) before the ritual and the main celebrant wore a different robe. It was followed with the reading of the decree from the Archbishop for the deconsecration and the closure of the church building for any worship activities. It is interesting to note that there is actually Canon Law governing this but I can't remember the numbers cited.

At every Catholic church, there is always a light burning next to the Tabernacle to signify the presence of the Lord (in the Eucharist) within the church building. As the building was deconsecrated and the Eucharist would be moved out of the building, the tabernacle lamp had to be extinguished too. There is even this special tool to extinguish the lamp.

The container for consecrated hosts in the tabernacle was removed and put on the altar while the main pastor knelt down and did something beneath the altar. I am not sure if it was just some prayer or he removed the Saint's relic. FYI, in every altar, there will always be a holy relic embedded either on the altar or beneath the altar. After that, the pastor would bring out the container filled with the consecrated hosts out of the church. Here comes the exciting part, when as he was walking (and holding the container), one of the altar boys opened up an umbrella. I find this very fascinating! Haha..

I should not hesitate and snapped a photo when the priest was still near the altar. At least I won't have this random person's head!

The most beautiful thing was that the congregation was expected to follow the priestly procession immediately and exit the church. That is to signify us following the host to its new place of dwelling and after everyone exit the church, the church will be locked.

After following the procession to leave the church, I did not follow all the way to the chapel where the host will be placed. I went back to the church to take a photo of the statue of Jesus (the one shown above) which kept me awake today. Thank you, Jesus!

The priest mentioned that the church building is already 140 years old and the renovation will take about 1.5 years. I can't wait for it to be completed and then to witness the process of consecrating a church. In the mean time, from next week onwards I will experience attending a mass under a tent in the carpark. Haha...

It hurts...

Imagine..

You want a limited out-of-print item which was released a decade ago with a price tag of USD 395.

The common price of the item in the secondary market is above 1 grand.

In fact, a few months back, there was 1 damaged and restored piece being sold for USD 700.

Then suddenly a seller appears and sell it for USD 925.

Will you buy it?

I did.. and I regretted it.. Sigh..

The seller did not ship outside US so I took the risk to get it through proxy. I was expecting the proxy to refuse my request as previously they refused my request to buy similar item which was deemed fragile although it cost only USD 120. It took about 2 days for them to process it and while waiting for the "Yes" or "No", my gut feeling told me that perhaps I should just cancel it. Guess what.. they approved my request.

While waiting for the transit of the item, another item was put up on auction starting from USD 1 and the seller was willing to ship overseas. I honestly was praying that item would arrive broken at the proxy warehouse so I can get a refund and to get from this auction. Obviously, that did not happen. And to make matters worse, another 2 appeared over the weekend starting with USD 1 too T_T

The first item ended this morning at USD 660. With shipping costing almost the same, I basically overspent close to USD 350 needlessly :'( I even hoped that my item arrived broken to me this evening and again it did not happen.

Seriously.. it hurts.. I could get another 1 or 2 items with the difference. Fuck, man!

Boyish charm

Yesterday I met 2 of my junior high school friends that I last saw almost 12 years ago before I left my hometown for this foreign land. They are here to attend a friend's wedding. I can't tell you how touched I was when they were looking for me and could not wait to meet me. I felt very tired throughout the week (thanks to doing opening shift!) and was tempted to just slack at home after work. But seeing how eager they were to meet, I decided to heck about my tiredness and to meet them.

It never fails to amaze me that despite having no contact for the past decade, once we met, it was like we were teleported back to our younger days. There was no awkwardness and we could have a very normal conversation. I guessed I really had a good teenage days back in Indonesia. In contrast, I would imagine a very awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere when meeting with "friends" from my secondary or JC days here. It also made me imagine how my life would be if never left my hometown in 2002. Back in those days, social media was non-existent and I sort of "lose contact". I guess a part of me is just being anti social and I don't bother to look out for my friend to hang out when I am back at home for holiday. I guess it is too late now with many of my friends are married and already having kids. 

I am glad that they did not find me changed other than me being fatter now. That was not a surprise since I am 10kg+ heavier than I was in 2002. Haha.. They still find me very boyish, perhaps because I don't smoke and I don't drink. I kinda felt disappointed that they drink and smoke. I just find drinking and smoking are things that bad boys do and it is not a sign of maturity. I know it is just a stupid prejudice that I have but that is how my mindset is formed by my parents.

I still can close 1 eye for drinking as drinking wine can be classy (and beers are always low class to me) and I am fine as long as people know their limit and do not get drunk and vomit. I just personally don't drink because I have a weak gastric and I get the Asian flush very quick. Thus I don't really find drinking pleasurable.

Smoking, however, is just a big turn-off for me. I don't see anything cool about harming your own health and worse, harming others too! Bleah... They asked me if it was okay for them to light up with me around. Out of courtesy, I said okay. Haha.. They did their part by asking permission so it was my "loss" for not saying no. Having friends who smoke changes my perception on smoking a little bit. Other than the smoking, I don't really see a lot of change to my friends as compared to many years ago when they were not smoking. I should not see smoking as a sign that someone is bad.. but I still dislike smoking as it makes everyone around them suffer. Just from 1.5 hours of exposure, I am already having phlegm since this morning o_0

So while my friend was enjoying a beer, I got myself a mocktail (yes.. alcohol-free LOL) and a slice of Tiramisu.. Haha.. Yes no wonder they still think that I am a boy boy. And I am not offended by that. Lol..

Flying Dutchman

World Cup 2014 has begun. I am quite distanced from soccer news nowadays, especially after Manchester United screwed up their English Premier League latest campaign. In fact, the only thing that caught my interest to read news on the opening ceremony is Jennifer Lopez-lookalike who sang with Jennifer Lopez for the opening ceremony. Her name is Claudia Leitte and she is a Brazillian pop-singer. No idea why she looks so alike to J Lo in the opening ceremony. Haha.. Anyway the official song for World Cup 2014 sucks so I am not embedding the video here.

J. Lo is the one in green.

The hottest news about World Cup now is about The Netherlands demolishing Spain 5-1 and of course the star of the game: Robin van Persie with his beautiful and unbelievable header. Epic goal, goal of the century, the best goal of this World Cup, wonder goal, Flying Dutchman, and I don't know what other things people will be calling this goal. It also has become the latest viral meme sensation of internet. With Louis van Gaal as the new boss of Manchester United, I hope Man U will return to her glorious days in the upcoming EPL.

I am sure there are better quality gifs out there which I am unable find T_T

Just one of the meme

KFC Singapore is bringing back Double Down burger starring Cristiano Ronaldo to celebrate this World Cup. I am not too interested as I tried it previously.. but wait.. the promotion is not only on the box with CR7's picture. There is actually CR7 water bottles too! I shall see if there is something special with water bottle like his signature or something. If there is nothing special, then I guess I should just get the red/black version.. Wait.. the red/white version looks nice too... and the green/yellow has green.. Aaarghh!!! I am not exactly a fan of him but oh well, it's World Cup fever now!!