let lemons be angry

My soul magnifies the Lord
My heart joys in God my Saviour
For He lifts the lowly
He's done great things for me

Talk about a humbling experience. I'd told my dad it was going to be a really good worship session. The songs were emotional, the band was tight, and we had practiced to a level that to me was pretty impressive. But then God didn't seem to want me to play today. My bass wouldn't sing through the D-I boxes, and neither on my amplifier; i was soundless. Apparently my batteries died. Jon cho said "just continue playing, anyway God can hear" and although we laughed at that, that was what i did. It was a disappointment to find that the music was still good without the bass, and just as worshipful. But maybe He wanted to show me that hey, I'm not actually Needed-- worship will not crumble and die without one bassist. Instead, it's my privilege to be able to play for Him. Not the first time I've felt chided by God after a worship session.

So what did you do for your father today? I forced my parents to get out of the house and come to the esplanade because i was there after recceing for Bus Rally. And i had one and a half cups of Mexican Spices and Chilli Hot Chocolate at Max Brenner; practically had to convince the waiter i liked it before he would let me buy a cup. There was a live performance by the bay. It took me a while to realise the singer was nick shen trying his hand at singing. Some girls behind me were gushing about him and his green shirt. ("I like green shirts!") The guest singer was an opratic has-been from Talentime years ago who reminded me of Edmund Kwok. When he gave intros to each of his songs, the guy sitting next to us went "bla bla bla". Despite all that, the musicians were fantastic, especially the guitarist, who has inspired me to take up the acoustic guitar more seriously. All because of his blues interpretation of "Leaving on a Jet Plane". And coincidentally enough, I like white shirts too.

I finally had my sun on the beach, but it's not obvious. I took my houseguest there and we fell asleep soaking up the very friendly sun while many young people tossed volleyballs in the background. Apparently beach volleyball is the trendy socialising event of today among dark boys who speak Chinese and girls in bikini tops and shorts. My houseguest is from Florida, but she said the Siloso beach is nicer. Artificial, perhaps, especially the contrived rocks on the little sand islands offshore, and wave-less, but nicer and prettier. I kinda miss her because we have the same kind of background, being children of Spiritual Superstars. We talked about our blurry future, and taking paths different from our parents, and even what kind of tattoos we'd like (although our parents probably wouldn't hear of it). It's not easy, being a good kid with better parents and wild dreams.

And... it'll get dark really soon.