Christmas 2007 has come and gone (at press time).. All the hard work that we have been putting in has finally been paid (or still hutang? I'm not sure la).. The pictures in this post does not do justice what us carolers went through, but at least better than nothing.. Next year, besides singers, guitarists, percussionists, we will need camera women/men to snap more shots. I think Jennifer and Marisa took a lot of shots.. share share la..
This year, our collection amount is not as much as last year's but we did pretty well I guess.. Will leave it to Andrew to announce it to everyone.
List of carolers 2007, in no-particular order:-
1. Fiona Chuah
2. Louis Chew
3. Edwin Koh
4. Michelle Tan
5. Kenneth Ho
6. Andrew Ho
7. Daniel Ho
8. Daniel Khoo
9. Alvin
10. Stephanie Ng
11. Philen Ng
12. Claudine Lee
13. Marisa Lee
14. Jennifer Lee
15. Prenny Ng
16. Teng
17. Ming Lee
18. John Sek
19. Jemmima Soh
20. Kevin Theseira
21. Elizabeth Teng
22. Geraldine Teng
23. "Little sister" Teng
24. Elizabeth's friend 1
25. Elizabeth's friend 2
26. Caryn Liew
27. Annemarie
28. Andee
29. Charles Teh
30. Regina Teh
31. Oliver Teh
32. Paul Chuah
33. Joshua Tan
34. Juliana Wang
Did I miss out anybody? If I did please say so..!
As usual, makan is the "most important" activity during caroling. Here you can see the youths feasting at the Bukit Bandaraya BEC Christmas Party..
Kevin, " Take one more photo and you'll end up like the curry chicken on my plate!".. And you can see Louis looking from the corner of his eye..
A pretty crib at the party..
Self-proclaim leng-luis of the caroling bunch..
Hartamas BEC Christmas Party.. As you can see, the black t-shirt people in red hats in the background happen to be our youths, and as usual, crowding round the makan table..
Young starlets that sing better than us.. belting out their rendition of "Thank You Lord for Christmas".. accompanied by Paul Ng on guitars..
My gosh..!! What's this fella doing? The last I remembered this was a church blog??
Once again, the usual suspects crowding round the makan table at the marsh-mellow boy's house..
Hmm.. we do look a bit disorganized and messy in this photo.. but what the heck, we all come in different shapes and sizes anyway..
Special thanks to Marisa, Jennifer and their mom for wrapping up the pretty presents; Fiona for calling and texting the carolers; Juliana for the Johnson & Johnson gifts and printed booklets; Caryn for the booklet cover design and binding and re-conditioning the collection box; and all the drivers, carolers and homes that we visited!
Merry Christmas everybody!!
LADIES and GENTLEDIES!
Yes people, our carolling session for the year 2007 has already begun! So if you want to join us, it is still not too late. Better late than never, anyway!
Upon confirmed registration, you will be provided with the HRC Youth's Carolling Kit! Yes, you heard me right. You will be given free stuff, even though you are a complete stranger to us!
So what's in the carolling kit anyway? Simple. A HRC Youth Ministry T-shirt (which would probably cost about RM20)...
...a carolling X-mas hat, and a fully new and refurbished carolling booklet (which you can see from the previous post)! Now ain't that a steal or what?
All it would cost you is RM(Time + Voice). Cheap only ma..no integers involved also!
First stop...Aunty Susan & Uncle Paul's place!
It was so happen that Phelan and little Sammy were going to celebrate their birthday next week. So Aunty Susan decided to throw one big party to cater for her childrens' birthday, as well as to start off our carolling agenda.
One of a kind birthday cake for Phelan. I've always thought I've seen 'em all. Once again, I've been proven wrong.
Note to self: I'm going to adjust my human clock and push it 1/2 hour later...since Malaysian timing means everybody WILL be late anyway! I was told to go there at 9.30pm, mana tau everyone only started coming about 10.10pm!!
There you have it...Malaysians. Can't live with them, can't live without them.
Our group consist of about 15 happy-smiling-go lucky carollers. But wait, that's the problem! When got practice that time...got nobody. When the real thing starts, people start popping out of nowhere! No, not like popcorn that kind lah.
It was a good thing the 20-something crowd were pretty sporting as well. So much so as to light the candle while we were singing. Awww, so touching. Suddenly it felt as though we were performing for a live concert. Except that, our singing...err...
Eating is always one of the best part of carolling from house to house. And I'm glad to say, Aunty Susan's place always lives up to my expectation! (Aunty Susan is gonna have to maintain this standard next year too, yah?)
Look at that ham! Err, is it ham ah? I also dunno what I eating. Just wack down only.
Always remember to pray before your meal! Look, we were even blessed with the presence of Jesu- I mean, Louis...who positioned himself nicely on the table under the photo frame. How apt.
Here we can see that Kenneth just couldn't resist taking a bit out of little Sammy's cake. Look, he's even more excited than Sammy that he even pushed her aside and booked the 1st row seating!
Yes, we all know what kinda cake to get for Kenneth's birthday next time, ya?
Guess what? Once again the spotlight is on Kenneth. This time, it's on his head!
Well if you've noticed, Kenneth has regain some hair on his head, as opposed to the previously miniature bald patch (no offense la Kenneth! haha).
Looks like the Yun-Nam haircare treatment is effective after all?
GOLD BULLIONS!!! Oh wait, saw wrongly lah.
Look, "someone" even donated a gazillion one cent coins! Going to be outphased next year already lah...still want to throw on us meh! Think we MPPJ meh? Haha.
And once again, Kenneth gets himself under the spotlight.
Kenneth seems to be under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Tirelessly scooping up the one-cent coins, the 2 partners in crime had to pay for their crimes of
throwing money away on the floor. Aiyo, next time throw paper money lah. Don't so kiamsiap!
Next stop...where?
As you may or may not know,"Ka-Chang" is a Cantonese phrase for tools = 架撐. Not to be mistaken as:-
1. Bahasa Malaysia - Kacang = Bean / Peanut
2. Hokkien - Khah Ch'ng = Backside / Buttock
3. American Slang - Ka-Ching = Money (sound of the cash register). Shania Twain's song:-
First up here are the door gifts that we will be giving out to the houses we carol. I have to say Marisa and Jennifer did an excellent job in wrapping up the J&J products. My photo here does not do justice to the pretty wrapper and curly-wurly ribbons. Thanks to Juliana who bought the bottles and bottles of Baby Lotion and Tip to Toe Shampoo..
A box full of pressies..
Our collection box had to be sent for a make-over and overhaul as it was in a really beat up condition. We have been using the same box ever since we started caroling (which I think was in 2003), and this box has brought us much fortune, and some fame (we were featured in The Herald ok.. don't prraayy prraayy..). So being the typical superstitious Catholics that we are, we decided that no matter what, we will still continue to use our barang (including guitar chord sheets that looked like they've been to war) as long as we can, all in the name of "passing on the tradition". Caryn did all of the superb work on the collection box, but I just had to tambah something. I fitted "braces" using plastic sheets, to help hold the top flap.
Mr Snowman was stuck onto the box using double sided tape, but it did not last very long. So I sewed him onto the box. And had a hard time trying to tie the knots. What you expect? I ask my mom to sew my buttons ok.. Mr Snowman was always looking downwards, probably depressed of the upcoming fuel price hike, so I stiched his head to look straight.
The final masterpiece.. There are 3D Christmas Trees and Stars on the four sides. And of course, Mr Snowman is now forced to smile. Caryn did an awesome job don't you think? Oh ya, sorry la, the back ground is my messy table. Anyone want to help me clean before Christmas?
Here are some left-over "Ka-Chang" that I used for my "contribution"..
Here's our 2007 booklet! A huge improvement over the past years, with full color and comb-binding. Limited Edition of 20 copies only. We hope to use this for at least 3 years so to all carolers, please jaga the book! Previous years' booklets are so "ham-choi" (sayur masin) that look like we sang in the sewer or something. Once again, Juliana help printed all the booklets in color and Caryn did the front and back cover design. Apparently she got quite upset with the stationary shop that printed the front and back covers and binded the booklets for messing up some details, that she did not pay them! Don't mess with designers I tell you..
Now how did this phrase from "Silver Bells" pop up in "Winter Wonderland"? Unfortunately, we only found out while singing it on the first night of caroling (which Daniel Khoo will post something about). Embarrassing eh?? But at the same time quite funny also la..
Anyway, just for fun, here's a picture of my home's Christmas Tree. I set it up myself just now, since Fiona is not feeling well from her stomach upset. To everyone, if you have a tree at home (preferably a Christmas Tree la), please take a photo, upload it, and send me or Daniel Khoo the link. We will post it up here so we can have a collection of Christmas Trees of our youth members' homes..
This was the last caroling practice that we had before going out to the homes and parties to carol. And by far this practice had the most attendance. We had siew pau for breakfast (thanks to Andrew). And Aunty Susan brought us some nice chocolate wafers.
Here we can see Sammy bored..
Again, Sammy is bored here..
Uncle Paul and Aunty Susan joining in the practice..
Our new guitarist for this year, Matthew Tan..
Prenny and her relative.. Got sing or not??
About 2-3 weeks ago, I was asked to play for some BEC mass, located in somebody's house in the midst of somewhere in Bangsar.
Yeah, I didn't even know where I was. And even now, I didn't knew where I went. Blur case lah me.
We even had Father Daniel who was roped in to handle the mass for us. Special guest of honor!
I didn't had any idea whose house we were in, I simply say hi and bye to any uncles and aunties that I came across with. Maklumlah, I'm a nice guy mah.
See lah, during mass also we so happy can berchatting at the back. And not only that, we also had ample time to take lots of pictures of ourselves, not that we were infatuated with ourselves in anyway whatsoever, but because...we were bored?
It turned out to be more like a chill-out session, with Father Daniel as the speaker.
Cam-whoring!!
Here we have Fiona (also known as "baby"...although she's not that small anymore..ahah) trying to act cute. Or rather, caught in the act of acting cute. One way or the other, doesn't matter. Cute also lah hor?? (Thanks ah Fiona, owe me 1 chi yok yin fan)
Ah, here is my boss who dragged my ass down from PJ to play with him. On the upside, we were provided with really good food after the mass! Kudos and thanks to the cook, or aunty, or whoever it is you are! Got sooo many choices...nasi lemak, mee, biscuit, sherperd's pie...whatever yummy food you can imagine, it's all here.
Except shark fin soup. And char kuey teow. And Bak Kut Teh.
Ok lah, maybe got not sooo many stuffs. But still alot nontheless.
I can't really remember it now due to the fact that it was more than 2 weeks ago!
...only bad thing was that we were 'tortured' a little. It was almost 8.45pm, halfway during mass and we haven't taken our dinner yet! The food was just behind us but we were separated from it by a grill door. I guess it's appropriate to use the phrase, 'So near, yet so far!'.
We could only smell the food at admire it whilst our stomach groaned with all kinds of funny noises. Or maybe it was just mine.
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The following Sunday, a small group of us went to visit the old nuns in I.J Convent, somewhere in KL I think. Yes, I could proudly say that our presence there brought them their much needed joy. It is not easy being 80 years old and finding out that you have little, if not no reason to live for. Although it may not be nice to say, but I'm sure that there are some of them there who are just waiting for their time to come.
The least we could do was to cheer them up!
Who said Andrew couldn't do anything?? Well, he certainly proved his critics wrong this time. He did...*tada*....projectioning! I'd say he did a pretty good job, and Regina gave a performance worthy of a round of applause as well!
Everybody clap for Regina, who led the short Praise & Worship!
*clap clap*
Tagging along with the members of the St. Vincent de Paul for this outing was really an eye-opener for me. And I'm not one who would usually go for these kinda trips to old folks home or anything else, for that matter.
Yes I admit, I'm pretty much lazy. But so were the rest of you who weren't there!
It is not everyday that you get to see highly-motivated old people who desire nothing more than to just live a quiet life, help those who are less fortunate than themselves and to pray for the world to be a better place. I must say I am pretty much amazed as some of these old folks here are rather updated with the latest issues that has been going on in the outside world.
But I really do admire their courage to live and to praise the Lord, together with us!
The members of St. Vincent de Paul drop by this place once a year, I think. Perhaps I could be wrong and they would come down more than once, I wouldn't know.
But next time, YOU should come along too...just to get the experience of what's it like to be around these wonderful people. I was afraid at first too, afraid that I might be surrounded by old, sickly people with various contagious diseases.
But then again, I might have taken my imagination a little too far.
Makan time is always the best!
Here we were provided with chee cheong fun, porridge with yau char kuey, cakes, curry puff and even ice cream! Definitely much more than what I was hoping for.
Well, we had originally planned to go for a chun meal at Bangsar's Pork Noodles haven, but only to be stuffed till the brink here...I guess Pork Noodles will have to wait till some other time.
What a great weekend! For those of you who missed it, I hope that you would not miss the next one! (if any lah..)
Till then, cheerio!
