The weekend is here and Christmas is getting closer

Nicol David

The local sections of our newspaper have pages and pages of Nicol David return to Penang. She was given two apartments, RM30K cash, some jewellery from the Penang Governor and other stuffs.

This weekend and the following weeks, I will probably, secretly bring my camera to church. Usually, she will go with her two sisters. Now that she is World No. 1, it is a must to snap a photo or two, right? I bet our church is going to give her all the honour and credits. During our mass last Saturday, we dedicated a special prayer for her. Praise God she has indeed achieved the title.

In one of the Life of the Spirit Seminar conducted by Martin Jalleh, she had told us that God plays an important part in her life and how she rely on faith to get where she is.

Carolling and tsunami

Last year, my cathedral choir group had very tight schedule, carolling from hotel to hotel almost every nights before Christmas. We did three hotels each night.

This year, we had upgraded ourselves several notches up with new songs. From calypso to jazz to Bob Marley kinda tunes. We even learnt 16th century Latin hymms.

On Christmas’s eve this year, we are doing carols plus sing during the vigil mass. (each year the Christmas eve vigil is alternate between Mandarin and Tamil mass)

But guess what? After learning so, so many new, modern, jazzy songs, the hotels in Penang are mostly cutting costs. Only one, Golden Sands is paying for us to sing. Penang Mutiara, Casuarina and the others all not engaging ‘this best choir group’.

I supposed many are freaked out with the December 26, 2004 tsunami and the recent sms prediction of another bigger tsunami happenning soon. (Bring it on! LOL)

(Explanation : Our cathedral choir has 80 members. We sang for the church. And whatever money we collected from these carolling engagements are donated to charities. The choir members are paying for our own charter bus fares. Sheesh, in case people mistaken that we are singing for money only.)

So, less carolling this year. Probably I will then have time to roast a turkey and a leg of lamb.

St. Joseph’s Orphanage

Since I joined the choir, I had only sung in high class hotels with foreign tourists. It is sort of like ‘putting on a great show’ while spreading the cheer. I am going to finally get the real carolling that I had always wanted.

Just sing. Without too much pressure on the parts of the tenors, altos, basses, sopranos and children. Sing as one big, cheerful, loud, happy group of people who is celebrating Christ’s birth. We are going to St. Joseph’s Orphanage to bring cheer to the kids there this Sunday. Really looking to this because I am bringing my kids there to get to know the home.

So, that will be my weekend. Hope yours is a good one, too!