We had games

Food obviously, and the food was surprisingly good that night, with spring rolls, prawn, sausages, mushroom, chicken, and beef skewers, chicken wings, drumsticks, fish, so many I didn’t even try all of them.

As in any event, you need someone to hold the mic

to do some awards presentation

And lots more.

But one thing for sure, everyone enjoyed the night. Let’s hope that would kick off a good year ahead ^.^

Let’s strike a pose before we all started walking.

We started the walk from Southern Ridges, just opposite Hort Park, walking through the very long bridge towards Vivo City. The bridge was so long, sometimes I wonder if I get lost. Then I saw this sign.

hmmm… If I take this staircase to exit to earth, where am I now?

Slightly over half an hour later, we had walked through the whole long bridge to the first checkpoint.

Soon after, we reached Henderson Waves, a structure that was made to look like waves. When you’re there, beware of crazy and wild animal like this one.

The complete gang who sacrificed their sleeping time for a walk in the morning. Ten of us, nine in the picture, one behind the camera hihihi …

We finally reached Vivo City close to 12pm, and what’s else were on our mind but not lunch? *sluurrrpp*

About the start of our lunch, our table looked decent.

I had Beef Sukiyaki for my lunch there.

And here’s what was left after our lunch. Don’t underestimate girls, *sometimes* they ate a lot hoho…

Complete photos in http://hendrikch.smugmug.com/gallery/6875630_NpaMi

Ian and Akbar with their flyers to be distributed.

Anyone dare to challenge this chess grand master in a game of speed chess? Each person has 3 minutes total for the game. The person who ran out of time or get their king checked-mate loses. It’s amazing to see they play the game where each move required only 2-10 seconds.

Some random shots I took in Orchard

Complete photos in http://hendrikch.smugmug.com/gallery/6875676_Egezf

The turn out was great, and people were certainly enjoying the fun.

Girls played with smile

Guys, well, were serious and competitive

Me? I probably picked the shuttlecock more than I play hehe…

For volleyball, some were really serious.

Some simply looked funny.

And finally some were there to snap pictures.

After burning our calories in sports, nothing is better than having a good lunch

Complete photos in http://hendrikch.smugmug.com/gallery/6773708_Y4WBo

Games including Uno Stacko

Mini Mahjong

and Mickey Mouse Monopoly

Dinner were pasta with LOTS of cheese and vegetables, then carrot and potato soup, with chocolate cake for desserts. You can tell how delicious the soup was that Alvin finished a BIG bowl.

It was a very fun evening, especially when Akbar dropped the Uno Stacko that went to 29 layers if I didn’t count wrongly.

Complete photos in http://hendrikch.smugmug.com/gallery/6753757_tF7Uf

Thanks to all who came and especially to those who have prepared the dinner for all of us Arigatouuuu……

I have not met Tobias since high school days, during which he went to States for study, and now is teaching political science at Universitas Pelita Harapan in Jakarta. Shihoko herself is trying to get a job as a nurse in Singapore, wish her well. Reza, well, still works in Microsoft and probably won’t be going out anytime soon. After more than 10 years of not seeing Tobias, he certainly has not changed much. Neither did I, I guess.

For me, I managed to buy a pretty decent $5 laptop sleeve case for my Macbook, as well as an in-ear headphone in Sony MDR-EX32LP for $38.

Few hours later, we arrived back at NBC for young adults fellowship, and after that, we dropped by CK Tang for a while before went to watch The Incredible Hulk. The movie was pretty slow, and there wasn’t enough action to thrill us, the viewers. Only three smiles from me for Hulk

I didn’t even realised I was sitting at the same seat number in Lido and GV for different movies on different day, cool coincidence eh?

Today, a friend from Australia came, so I’ll meet her with Dian at Vivo City for lunch, before heading to church for cell group and Sunday service. Hopefully I’ll still have energy to spare to accompany my colleague to Newton Life Church for Mandarin Sunday service. Now I need The Incredible strength

Now, if we think that is tiring, imagine our pastor, Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong, who cares so much for us, that he, at the age of 67, will have session for teens at Cibubur from 5 AM today, then preached in Indonesian language at Jakarta at 7 AM, followed by 9.30 AM sermon in Mandarin, then fly to Singapore for Indonesian language sermon at 5 PM (which usually ends about 7.15PM), then continued to Newton Life Church to preach at 7.30 PM. Early Monday morning, he’ll fly back to Jakarta to teach those teens again in Cibubur, and rushed for an afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur, and continuing his usual journey to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and back to Jakarta on weekend. Phewwwww….. Now, that’s tiring !! If it is not for God and His truth and all of us, no one in the world would ever done that.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!

After all the adverst, the movie started proper close to 8.30pm, and here’s what I thought about the movie.

Warning: potential spoiler ahead.

The movie started as many movies, not as fast, to get the story into the audience. Some messages were sent across fine, like when Narnians can’t fight themselves, no matter what kind of tactics they employ, without the help of Aslan. It was made very clear in the movie, the moment Aslan came into the movie, how he reversed the battle for Narnians, from the position of almost losing to a clear victory. The message drive across was like our lives, no matter how much, how hard we tried to do things in our lives, without God, we will fighting a losing battle.

The second important point that the movie tried to send across, but probably didn’t succeed as good. After the movie, I felt that it’s though Aslan left Narnians to their own fight and Aslan was nowhere to be found in Narnians. The truth is Aslan was there in Narnia all along. It’s just that Narnians refused to believe that Aslan exists, and thus unable to see him. Similarly in our lives, it’s not that God doesn’t exist. He exists whether you believe in Him or not, but until you believe in Him, you’ll not be able to “see” Him.

Some sentences spoken were changed in the movie from the book, losing some important message in the process. I’ll just quote from Stand to Reason blog, who mentioned this fact too.

Changes in two key lines from the book greatly weaken his character. The first one happens when Lucy finally meets Aslan face to face. She remarks to him that he’s bigger. In the film, Aslan says that every year she gets bigger, so shall he get bigger. But here’s the actual interchange in the book:

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

This is actually a very profound idea and one of my favorite moments in the book. When we deepen with age and experience, we’re able to see further into the rich depths of God, and our understanding and awe of His greatness grows. It’s very clear in the book that the change is happening all on Lucy’s side, but the film leaves the impression that Aslan has changed (whether that was what they intended or not)

The second change is even worse (being more explicit) and involves another of the ideas most memorable to me–one that recurs throughout the series.  In the book, when Lucy realizes she’s failed to do something she should have–and could have–done, she asks Aslan what would have happened had she done what was right: “Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?” Aslan responds powerfully, “No. Nobody is ever told that.” Aslan has authority and perfect wisdom–rebelling against his command has consequences, and Lucy’s not doing what he had revealed for her to do causes new difficulties for everyone. But make no mistake, Aslan is quite aware of what would have happened had she obeyed. Compare this to the film version where Aslan’s response to Lucy’s plea is: “We can never know what would have happened.” We? Yikes! I’m not a fan of open-theist (open-lionist?) Aslan. These changes are small–just a few lines here and there, but they have huge implications that weaken Aslan.

The last part when Susan kisses Caspian was the worst part of the movie. I agree, a simple kiss on the hand will be much more noble and romantic.

Overall, the movie was good for 2.5 hours, I didn’t even feel the movie was that long. Despite all my criticism above, it’s a good movie. It’s just that some subtle changes to the sentences and the movie, that weaken Aslan, in turn weaken the movie message compared to the book.

Highly recommended. FOUR stars from me.