A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth.
~ Henry Ward Beecher
Selamat Merdeka!
Boy, I must say, it was spectacular!!!! As proven since the very moment they were announced to host the Olympics, China has never failed to impress us even until the very end.
Although the closing ceremony is not quite as impressive as the opening ceremony, nonetheless, it was definitely well done. I believe that China has shown and proved themselves well this Olympics and deserve every wonderful moments they have had throughout the 16 days of non stop games.
London would have to work extremely hard to come up with something that can impress the entire world just as much, if not more, than China. They did show us parts of what we can anticipate and look forward to in the London Olympic Games and i must say, they have loads to improve on. Leona Lewis sounded really weird and the short stint was far from entertaining. Perhaps, it is not something that we can compare with China as the latter have an extremely rich culture that they have managed to showcase to the world. China has millions of people helping out with the performances and they were definitely well trained and extremely synchronized. I love, and i am sure every is to, with every bit of the Beijing Olympics. (Aside from the big boo boo about the fireworks and the little girl)
I am proud of China and they have definitely showcased my personal best Olympics ever. Kudos to them and i say, keep up the wonderful job and make us all proud and truly believe that we can achieve:
One World, One Dream
I am well aware that i have yet to blog anything regarding the Beijing Olympics and i cannot believe that i failed to blog even the most lame entry to mark the 080808 on the blog calender. :(
Anyhow, i have not really been diligently following the Olympics schedules due to the irritating fact that my wonderful oldie TV decided to stop working and disappoint us. It played games with us too! My sis and i were enjoying the swimming competition on one of the days and we were happily laughing at how the guys looked in their swimming suits (not trunks anymore!) and then they were getting ready at the platform waiting for the indication to start. Just as the horn was blasted, the TV went PooF! BLANK SCREEN!!!!
AND WE DID NOT GET TO SEE THEM DIVING IN!!!!!! Which is the best part btw. ARgh!
It only resumed when they were already halfway swimming.
And then it died again.
And it continued that way for the rest of the few days we were watching the Olympics. It got so irritating that my dad took out my bro's miniature sized TV that looked dwarfed next to my oldie TV, and we watched Olympics that way with some of us occasionally moving closer to the TV by standing up to watch it. LOL! Pathetic right?
But! We are definitely planning on getting a new TV soon! WhooHOOO! :D
Okay then, i'll leave my other updates for another day! :D Will be back for more!
;)
- Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.
- Cicero, On Friendship, 44 B.C.
Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC - 43 BC)
Wondering on the subject on friends recently, i came to realise how greatly influenced we are by the idealistic image of the perfect group of close knit friends whom you share your darkest secrets with and the same bunch of people whom you feel most connected with and can find no replacement for.
It is, to me, a subjective matter and really depends on the individual based on the feeling of a need to be surrounded by a group of friends that you feel imperative to hold on to for life. Based on my own observation so far, aside from the regular family orientated television shows and movies, they almost always feature story lines that center around characters and their need for friendship. It is true that we do occasionally seek out the guidance and connection that you cannot quite get with family, with friends. I suppose if everything were to be shared only within the family, everyone would go crazy.
To me, friends are the people whom we share certain issues with. People whom we share our frustration / joy / sadness or about anything else that we sometimes get the idea that "my family just won't get it".
The usual saying about friends is that friends come and go. Throughout my life, i have experienced friends who have entered my life, inspired me and left me to search for new friendship. I have always had an idealistic idea of a close bunch of friends. I am sure we all secretly do. But i am learning to understand that in life, we are meant to know more people, reach out to different individuals, inspire them and move on with life. Like a give and take cycle of life. Sure, having a particular secured group of friends whom you can identify and share similar values with to hold on to is ideal. But is there really a need to?
I do have good friends. And i am thankful for them and the guidance that they have provided me and i feel extremely blessed. Especially to those that have truly inspired me, motivated me and most importantly, believed in me. Friends like that are hard to come by and that itself, is a blessing. Though i hardly stay in contact with many, especially those in my school years, that's ok. For i know that they have coloured my life in so many different ways that now my world is so much for colourful than i ever thought it would be. Various shades of colours is what i have and i have had friends from almost all walks of life. That is something i am grateful for and to all my friends reading this, thank you! :)
And to answer my own question, No. I don't believe that it is a need to have a particular group of friends to constantly be together with. But it is, wonderful to have various bunch of friends to be connected with! :)
What to do you think?
...I am relieved!
The weekend just went by without me even realising it. It feels strange. I still don't feel as if i had just had my weekends at all! But i guess the most important fact is that i am, for now, free of any assignments apart from my weekly submissions! :D
Just to let you in on some events that has happened for the past few days, we had a pot luck party at Wei Ning's place on Friday and it was a very...eventful night. xD The highlight of the night was a chance to notice and witness how well some can sing to Abba's Dancing Queen and also to have a chance to experience Kit Yee's driving! :D
On the pot luck party day, i had a ready picture in my mind's eye of how the party would be roughly like. I had the vision of Wei Ning's house and the tables spread on the garden and we would be sitting around enjoying food. Once we (Chu Ian, Ben and I) arrived at the party, we noticed (or i did) that the neighbourhood had a small field/playground at the very center of the area. It was brightly lit and i noticed something strange when we took a turn around the basketball/badminton court area.
I saw a group of people crowding around in a small circle as if they were praying.
Just as i was about to tell Chu Ian and Ben about my "finding", i saw Kit Yee.
HUH?! Kit Yee joining some sort of cult praying?!
WAIITTT...she's...eating????
RIIIIIIGGHHHHHTTTT....THAT IS WHERE THE PARTY IS!! HAahHAHAHA!! (yes i know...lameness)
So yes, we had the party at the playground area and i fed the greedy mosquitoes whilst everyone else played (or should i say vandalize the swings and SEE-SAW) that sent slippers flying around. :D
We did eventually go to Wei Ning's place to have a karaoke session...no..wait. Half of them had the karaoke session and another group terrorized the piano (xP) and a smaller group played chess. (No points to guess who was playing :D)
The karaoke session was interesting with people like Lup Yan singing to some songs and others belting out some romantic tunes. Mostly Chinese songs until we had Abba! :D Almost everyone sang to Dancing Queen, Money, Money, Money, and all of the Abba songs while Ivan did the milking the cow move famous in the 70's!! xD
We eventually went back home by 11:30-ish p.m. and i went home with Kit Yee and Chu Ian's excellent caramel cheesecake. I will not, in this post tease Kit Yee about her driving but i will comment and say THANKS KIT YEE for sending me home safely and taking the trouble to send me! :D
Yeay! It's nearly lunch time! :D Adios till the next round! ;)
