A day of many smiles (#218)

Through practice which was tight and had our best drummer (and lead guitarist) return.
I've missed 'Your sound.' as I called it.

While walking around my old alma mater seeing that not much have changed.

Catching up with an old man.

Looking up at the high ceiling in the main hall remembering all those times I've been there.

Turning around and seeing the smile that said 'I'm here now.'

Messing with both ears without a word to stop me.

Going to Koyah second time in a row, finally savoring the great noodles again.

It was awesome how everything turned out despite an earlier disappointment.
Truly God works in mysterious ways. All I had to do was surrender.

When you think you know how a miracle would look like, 

you really have no clue that He could change things so that the outcome is still a moment of 

praising God for what He's capable of.

Totally *heart*...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt 

Brilliant in Looper.

As he was in 50/50.

Stories From A Place To Call Home

Happy Birthday, Nana!
Here's your birthday review.

Based on the musical A Place To Call Home, Anna Tan (Nana) has launched an ebook, giving us 10 short stories for the characters in the musical. 

Being Nana's first book, I'm super happy for her.
She has so totally worked hard for this and its beautiful how her passion for writing is being realized. 

Some of the stories in the ebook gives us an in depth look on how the characters felt about the central character Daniel being adopted into the Lee family. 
Since I actually watched the musical, I was delighted that I get to read more then there was about each character than what was portrayed in the musical. 

'Cock of the Walk' gives us a sense of background to the musical story. 
Like a prologue to what Daniel the main character gets himself into.
'So Surreal' dabbles into how Daniel is torn between seeing his prayer answered yet dreading what his new life would be like from the first impressions he had at the welcoming party. 
'Picking Fights' is one of those stories from the other characters. 
'Letting Go' sees things from Emily, sort of like the mother's POV. 
I felt for her during the musical. 
'Falling For Him' is like a scene from a girly sleepover.
I really liked this as it gives us a little more about the female characters in the musical. 
'He is Not My Son' is like the father's unmasking his disappointment with Daniel. 
'Leaving' gives us a little more background on Diane. 
'Closure' story is part of the thoughtful ending scene in the musical. 
'The Bench' is a sweet story from the future. 
'Dreams' is the ending that could have been. I would have loved to see the romantic scene, but at the same time reading the story lets me imagine it myself. 

Overall, I think I enjoyed it more after watching the musical. I'm not sure if I would be lost without having watched the musical. But then I have to be honest that I could be biased since its Nana's book. =) 

These stories were either in a POV style or third-party view. I like the third-party view ones better as I think the POV ones all have the same level of thoughtfulness for each character which lets you see how much thought Nana puts into each one of them but yet makes them somehow slightly the same. 
Having said that, I liked that there was both an Emily and an Edmund's POVs as it shows that a couple can see the whole adoption thing differently.

My favorite story of all has to be 'The Bench' as it gives us a happy ending of sort that can belong to both endings ('Closure' and 'Dreams'). Happy ending that equate couple did get together (oops spoiler!) isn't exactly the point of the whole musical, but that's my cup of tea. Which makes 'Falling For Him' kinda my second favorite story. =) 

Go have a read here. =)

Thankful things

#210 Made it back from Koh Lipe in one piece.
#211 Survived a busy week of work directly after.
#212 BBQ
#213 Staying out til 3am and NOT getting a single word about it.
#214 Steamboat =)
#215 Bump on my head has faded.
#216 Sunburns are finally shedding.
#217 Pulling a familiar ear.

'She's one of the guys now...' 

                                          

                           ....was both touching yet sad.

Because the truth is I wouldn't be where I am today if I have left or Big Bro hadn't left.

And I miss all of them.

Best-est highlight of the weekend

The absolute best-est highlight of the weekend had to be...

Lying on a beach chair... 

Watching the stars...

Listening to the waves...

Enjoying a bottle of beer held in one hand...

While the other hand pets one of the many beach dogs...
Feeling oh such bliss from being slightly drunk...
Yet doing so many of my favorite things at the same time.

Second place goes to...

Riding in the welded sidecar of a Thai motorbike...

Giggling and squealing all the way down a bumpy slope...

Heart pounding hard from this dangerous thrill ride...
All by myself in the sidecar.

Third place goes to...

Watching the sun set after walking a long way to reach Sunset Beach.
The ball of fire striking a ray of light onto the sea,
as it sinks into the horizon.
Those couple of minutes was amazing.