A Star is Born

My house was the site of pure pandemonium barely half and hour ago. All because one Kelvin Tan (Chen Wei Lian) won a local reality singing competition on Ch U called Project Superstar. There was screaming, jumping, crying (almost... and yes you guessed it, it would be me) and the exchanging of hugs. I think the whole block (and the next block) could hear our screams of joy and jubilation.

Now, gentle reader (YESS...), you may wonder who this Kelvin guy is to get us all so excited. Well, I'll tell you a little about him. Better yet, I'll show you his picture as shown in the official Project Superstar website (thanks Blogger! Love this new photo feature)



Kelvin is no ordinary singer. He was born blind. And yet he posseses a voice so rich with emotion that it would move the hardest heart (ok so I'm exaggerating a bit but hey, who ever said blog entries were supposed to be objective?). In fact, the first time I saw him was not on TV with everyone else. In fact, I had the privilege of seeing him live and up close way back before he even joined the competition. It was many months ago and Jurong East MRT station. I was with Lixin coming down the escalator when I heard someone singing along with the plucking of a guitar. Looking down, I saw a huge crowd of people (this was the evening peak-hour at a major MRT interchange, mind you) just crowded around one guy and his guitar.

Now I don't know about you but I have never ever seen Singaporeans stop for anything other than free gifts (then again, they don't really stop, they actually break into a run and pity whoever is in their path!), not even to help other Singaporeans in distress (more on that in a later post). But this crowd of people were just standing there, completely still and entranced by the busker's voice. Before long, Lixin and myself found ourselves inching closer to hear his voice better and maybe catch a glimpse of the man producing such beautiful sounds.

The man we saw looked nothing like a superstar. He was clad in a t-shirt and bermudas, his hair was not combed. He was clutching his guitar and there was a box in front of him for donations. From the very beginning, I was struck by his simplicity and his earnestness in his singing. Besides, he had an EXCELLENT voice. A tad nasal but man, when he sings, you can just FEEL him emoting. I remember standing there and getting gosebumps. In fact, it may surprise you, gentle reader, but I very nearly cried. That's right.

ANYHOO. We stood there for about 15 minutes (heck, it felt like only 5) and wanted to stay longer but had other pressing commitments. So I walked over to him, and dropped all the money I had in my wallet into the box. He looked up for a while as he sensed my presence (sounds like Darth Vader) and he smiled his famous lopsided grin and said simply and quickly, "Thank you."

And so, gentle readers, this is why I very nearly cried again when they announced the results tonight. Because I was reminded of that time when he was just a busker, and I was just me, and he looked at me and said "Thank you".

Congrats, Kelvin. You deserved to win more than anyone else.

And I'm glad you did.

The Call of Nature

Amazing stuff... it's been EIGHT MONTHS since I last blogged. Hahaha... how does anyone not blog for such an extended period of time?! It's just... WRONG!!! Heh. Seriously though. I've resolved to blog regularly from now on... and not as many sermons. Just wanna blog everyday stuff, especially if something funny's happened (preferably not involving me as the butt of the joke) cos hey! everyone looks better with a little smile on their face. :)

Anyhow, my inspiration to start blogging really came from spending the past hour or so reading everyone else's blogs. And the impetus for reading everyone else's blogs came from reading Christine's blog (she's in Canada). And the motivation for reading her blog came from my recollection of Nicky's blog, which is flat-out hilarious (albeit a little vulgar... but I can live with that). And when I say hilarious, I mean HILARIOUS. Not just a snigger or a chuckle. But the sort that has you in stitches howling in laughter and rolling on the floor. I especially like how he always says "gentle reader". It's so LIT! Reminds me of that book I did for EN1101E... Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone". I've got to use it sometime...

Anyhoo. All this reminiscing is doing you, the gentle reader (YES!!!) not much good. So. As I was saying, was just looking through all the blogs and am really amazed to see what God's been doing in the lives of the youths. I mean, they're really getting to be classic Psalms already... "I had a terrible week blah blah blah... and then God showed up!" kinda entries. And reading all these posts was really encouraging for me as I think it's also God's way of reminding me that He's FOREVER good and in control.

Particularly like Celine's last entry... about how she misses Sydney TRUCKLOADS! Hey girl, join the club! :) It really was the most fun and fabulous trip of my life. Besides Hillsongs conference, the company was simply great. Chris and Jason - my 2 best friends in the church; Aaron - my childhood nemesis turned room buddy; Celine and Jolene - formerly respectable but now I know that they're about as (if not more) SIAO as me; Sheena - our poor penniless friend who was so dying to go back to Singapore and of course, Lixin - girlfriend EXTRAORDINAIRE! :) Late night daidee sessions with the guys which always end in a "winner takes all" round which for some strange reason Jason always wins even though he's been losing all the way. Man. What a great 2 weeks.

I'm so gonna miss Chris when he's gone. Gonna miss his campy, corny, cheesy humour. His ever-ready smile for everyone. His dedication and devotion to serving the youths and God. His funny stories. His words of encouragement. His BMW (oops did I say that?). Gonna miss just hanging out with him. He's really one of the nicest and most fun guys I've ever met, not to mention one of the most God-fearing and God-loving Christians I know. The girl that gets him is BLESSED man. ALMOST as blessed as Lixin but I shall not go into details since there is only so much a head can inflate.

Well. To end this, my first post after eight months, I give you, gentle reader (YES!!!), my most favouritest photo taken in Sydney:



Heh. I took it with one hand on my own with no help at all! Good right! Maybe should send it to National Geographic. Wait... they only publish pictures of flowers and animals...