Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you."

Copyright © 1984 Mary Stevenson, from original 1936 text, All rights reserved.

My thigh muscles are aching. Went jogging last evening and again this morning. I forgot that I'm no longer as fit as I was during NS. Now, I intend to jog on Monday and Friday mornings, yoga on Tuesday evenings and swim on Sunday mornings.

I bought 3 posters today. 2 large ones and a small one. All thanks to Martin for asking me to accompany him to the poster sale. One big poster was an art painting of the last supper (the one with Jesus and His 12 disciples) and the other was the footprints poem (which has been reproduced as above). The small poster was the cover picture from the movie Brokeback Mountain. It's now taped on the wall of my room. I'm hoping that it won't fall off anytime soon. The disadvantages of not haivng blu-tac.

I spent most of my night (well, not really long but I found it rather long though) with V. We watched Big Brother on TV in my room together. It was so nice having V around. I love V's presence and all the things that we did together. I hope that we'll just stay like that or progress to something better. I'm not sure if I'm putting myself in danger by trusting in V so much and treating V so much like my partner. I'm just hoping that no one betrays me and such. And after reading the footprints poem, I wish I could be the one carrying V and being with V through all the thick and thins, the most trying, low periods of life and sufferings.

It's time to turn in. Have a goodnight everyone. Remember that Jesus will never forsake anyone. Jesus doesn't care what you've done before, now or forever as long as you have Him in your life.

It's left.

V's not feeling right, both physically and emotionally. I'm affected by it, emotionally. I'm worried for V. I've no mood for anything now.

Gosh! How can this possibly be? How can I be so easily affected by someone? Sighs...

I hope V will be fine soon.. I'm praying to God for strength and that His hand will be on V and V will just be much better soon.

=|

Pastor Russell Evans @ Northside Church

I went to Northside Christian Church this morning. Pastor Russell Evans from Planetshakers City Church was the guest speaker today. He spoke about our church's theme for this year, Devoted To Make A Change. During the first service, he spoke about bringing Heaven to Earth and in the second, he preached about us as missionaries of God. The context was the same as what he spoke in Planetshakers City Church, only difference is that he had no powerpoint slides to highlight the key points and that there were lots of examples in everyday life and stories. After listening to the sermons, it really impacted me, seeing the grace of God, how He blesses people using people like us and everyday circumstances.

Decided not to go to Planetshakers City Church today so that I could come home to concentrate on my studies and start my assignments. I had Subway for lunch. It's always the same thing that I have from Subway. A wrap (the only thing which I have to choose is the type of wrap I want, as in the filling), all vegetables, salt & pepper, honey mustard with a drink and 2 cookies. It's been about an hour since I've reached home but yet to start on my assignment. Will be going jogging with Faezah at 4.30pm. Downloaded the latest version of OpenOffice, OpenOffice.org 2.4. I dislike my wireless broadband. Not only is it slow, I'm unable to have VOIP calls as it lags badly, Trevvy takes ages to load and fails to load properly, I can't play MapleStory on it and go googleing on earth with it. Even listening to YES 933 is a problem as it buffers every 5 seconds or so. I can only listen to Power 98 or Jia 883 or use mIRC with it.

I miss SportsmenAsia and New Urban Male (although I don't frequently patronise NUM, only for their Havaianas). I'm looking for shops which are as good as NUM for clothes and such, but I just can't seem to find them. I might go over to South Yarra (Commercial Road/Chapel Street) to look for shops which sells clothes from Ajax63, Priape, Toot, N2N, neo:geo, Unico, xXx, Intense, 10%, 2(x)ist and such. My current pair of Havaianas are giving way. Thankfully Derrick's coming over on the 15th so I can ask him to help me get a pair and bring them to me when he comes.

I like people to be direct with me. I take hints very badly (real, real bad) and like those who are close to me to share their feelings and thoughts with me, be it positive or negative. I like them to help me what they like and dislike and such. I love to hear them saying things from what they are really feeling, what they wish and like and not what I would like to hear. I like people being sincere.

I woke up this morning feeling tired. Now, I'm still tired. I'm a real lazy pig. I've wasted my whole afternoon away. I should start doing my work tonight. After waking up this morning, it dawned to me that I wasn't missing V anymore. It has been for the past 2 days that I woke up wishing that V would be by my side. And while showering, I suddenly had the feeling of loss, that I had lost V. It struck me hard. Losing someone is not a good feeling at all. Reality came back at me. V's still with me. Like I've said earlier, if things don't work out well, we'll just be friends. But for now, I no longer miss V, but just long to see V again in time to come. I really wonder what's the pull that V has on me. I would think that it's the heart, attributes and personality. Physical attributes are secondary - they aren't important in the recognition of humanity I recon.

Oh well, I shall let God and time decide. I walk by faith, each step, I take, I put my trust in You.

Cheers and Blessed Sabbath!

Mixed Feelings

It's a Friday! I'm waiting for my lecturer to finish marking my very first assignment written for university. It was supposed to be ready for collection by Thursday but the last time I went to check its status as of 4.30pm, it wasn't ready.

There's the Glenn College International's Dinner later. We're going to Mosskito Cafe Bar & Lounge in the city. It's then the PlanetUni Urban Life after the dinner if it isn't too late.

Assignments and essays are driving me nuts. There's so many times which I felt like giving up, withdrawing from uni and the head back to Singapore to work or apply for a business visa and concentrate on film 5 in Australia. I'm so thankful to my friends here for all the support given to me and such.

I got to know V. V's a very nice person with a cute sweet smile. I told lulu about V and he says that V's good-looking. We have been rather close to each other for the past week. Will what people say come true - that I'll come back with an Auzzie? I'm not sure as yet. It can't be denied that feelings for V is slowly growing. It all started when I was bored during lecture and I started smsing people asking them how their day was and I happened to see V on my contact list. Not remembering who V was, I sent it over and V replied. We met and got along quite well with each other. As for now, it's just time to get to know more about the both of us. I'm not sure where this would be heading, but it's progressing very fast. Although I feel that we should give more time, it's easier said than done. Lulu was encouraging me, better chase and pursue my dreams, after such a long time. I felt quite relieved after hearing what he said, but then again, it's all up to V. Right now, I just miss V.

Ta!

PRESS RELEASE: Film Five Management to bring Australia operations from June 2008.

--- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ---


Film Five Management to bring Australia operations from June 2008.


Film Five Management has reached another milestone today. It received its Certificate of Registration of Business Name on 28 April 2008, pursuant to and subject to the Business Names Act 1962, in Melbourne, Australia from the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria.

Film Five Management in Australia will provide web-media, photography and event planning cum management services. Videography and talent management services would still be managed by the head office in Singapore. All existing clients would still be served by respective account executives in Singapore or UK and will not be affected.

Job openings for the Australia office would be available in a fortnight's time or so. Check back on our website at www.film5.com.au in time to come.


About Film Five Management

Established and based in Singapore as Film Five Productions in year 2000, the company has expanded and is now known as Film Five Management, registered and having an office in the United Kingdom as Film Five Management Limited in 2006. In 2008, the company reached a new milestone by expanding the operations to Melbourne, Australia.


Contact Information

Singapore - Head office
Film Five Management
VBox 888494
Singapore
Telephone: +65 6447 8577
Email: info(at)film5.org

Australia Operations
Film Five Management
c/o. Edgar Mirantz Tan
Glenn College, La Trobe University
Bundoora
VIC 3086
Australia
Telephone: +61 (03)9479 5287
Email: info(at)film5.com.au

New URL's

My blog can now be assessed via 3 URL's.

edgarmirantz.com
edgarmirantz.net
edgarmirantz.info

Whee!

Time to blog.

There is a right time for everything. There is a time to be born and a time to cry. There is a time to plant and a time to pull out plants. There is a time to sing, laugh, cry. I wrote this song and put the music to it when I was 11 when I was a student with Agape Center with the help of my mentor with the words from the bible. Till date, i still have the score with me on my table back home. Memories come flooding by when it was performed by my friends for the opening ceremony of the Agape Center.

Then there are the memories of the times while I was serving in church, whereby I would be in church almost everyday when I was 16. More recently, it's the memories of me and the kingdom. I would consider them my family. The fun times that we had and also the not-so-good times that we had. I still remember the night when everyone gathered at the airport to see me off. If not for the rush and hecticness, I guess I would have just cried. In the plane as I looked at the card that they gave me, my eyes swelled and tears rolled down my cheeks.

Now there are memories of Australia. All the wonderful people both asians and the locals and those who accepts me for who I am. God lead me to a wonderful church, Planetshakers City Church.

I got to know this local - A. He's a rather nice guy and stays just 10 minutes away from the university. I just found out that he has a pool in his house. That's so cool. Nicolaas's parents are in town for the fornight. Fazeah and me would be preparing some asian dishes for them on Monday night for dinner. I'm still not sure if I should just ask A to come though.

Till then,

Happy ANZAC Day (which was yesterday actually)!

Debut on Australia's National Community Radio

I got lost on my way to church today. My internal GPS didn't work. It might be due to the bus making so many turns. I alighted at the wrong stop. 30 minutes later, I landed myself in a train to the city. Went to South Yarra instead to walk around the shopping district.

I made my debut appearance on Australia's national community radio station, JOY 94.9fm. I kinda co-hosted with 2 others in the studio for the Probation program from 6 to 7pm. If everything turns out well, I might continue co-hosting every Sunday.

Oh well, it's end of week 6 and the start of week 7. How time flies.

Hurrah!

Floor Crawling | Pancakes

Every Thursday night's Bar night over at the Eagle Bar. Most of the time, I wouldn't be joining the rest of the people in college for the bar night. However, this week, they had a floor crawl (going from room to room on the floor). And since there was a slip of paper under my door after I arrived home on Tuesday telling me which group I was assigned to, I just agreed on participating. Our theme was on Pacific Islands. Photos of the 3rd North Floor Crawl are on Facebook. Thanks to Charlie for taking all the lovely pictures.

It was great fun seeing people do all sorts of stuffs and playing games and drinking. Of course the good me didn't drink much. Went to Eagle's Bar thereafter for a while. Heard some clubbing songs and how I wish I was back in Singapore over at Taboo. I miss Taboo and clubbing. Once again, I felt so much like dragging. Whahha...

It's Saturday and I went over to Preston Market as usual. Didn't buy much this time. Nick Chew came over to Preston Market for the first time. He bought himself a grater, a bar of chocolate, drinking cocoa powder and a can of whipped cream - to make for himself hot chocolate with whipped cream and some chocolate flakes on top. That's real nice - really enjoying life to the fullest. I can imagine holding up that cuppa of hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate flakes during winter and sipping it slowly. How lovely.

In the afternoon, we went over to Faezah's place as usual for lunch/tea/dinner. Made pancakes from scratch using plain flour, eggs, sugar and such. As we were using the electric heating pan, it took us so long to get it done. After we finally finished, it was almost dinner time. And now, I'm really sick of pancakes and I doubt I'll eat it for the next one month at least.

It's swimming with Martin tomorrow morning and then to shake the planet in the afternoon. I might be going over to JOY FM's studio in the evening as I have a friend who's volunteering there. He says that as the studio's old, everything is done manually. I'm really curious as to how it's done manually and I would really love to have a look and learn. He's actually also looking for someone to co-host with him, and perhaps I'll see if we can work something out.

Cheers to all!

Almost 2 months...

It's 2 more days before it's my 2 months in Melbourne. Life here's not as bad. In fact, it's rather good other than the loss of food in Singapore, not-so-good public transport system and the high cost of living. In fact, almost everything here is so expensive.

I've since submitted my first essay on Monday. A 1500 word essay on Plagiarism. I intend to edit it based on the comments of my lecturer and thereafter submit it to the Singapore Nursing Journal for publication thereafter.

I bought a Logitech 2.1 sound system, a portable heater, a lamp from ikea, 14" color television
as well as the antennae. All these cost me a bomb. And at the 1st week of the semester, I bought a Littmann stethoscope for A$120. It comes with a 3 year warranty and hopefully i'll be able to use it till I retire from the profession.

Looking at what lies ahead of me, I'm a little afraid of my future. I'm not sure how I'll fare for all my subjects and such. Will I even be able to pass the first semester? If I don't do well, my student visa would be terminated and I'll have to go back to Singapore. The money which my parents and I have spent would all go to waste and lotsa people would be disappointed.

I'm just trusting and putting my faith in God. Whatever the outcome be, I trust that it's His plan. If I were to stay on with CGH after my NS, I wouldn't be here in the first place. I would have learnt so much about doing business (and expending my company), hypnotherapy and working over at ESH.

It's the 2nd week that I've tried Hatha Yoga and Pilates (combo). It's rather fun and I've been stretching my whole body from head to toe. 2 months to go before I can say that I'm proficient with Yoga and Pilates.

I'm still deciding if I should attend the PlanetUni camp organized by Planetshakers from the 25th to 27th of this month, Friday to Sunday at Philip Island (the place where there're lotsa penguins). Friday's ANZAC day therefore, it's a public holiday. It costs A$155, inclusive of all meals, accommodation and transportation. Oh well, I'll just pray about it.

I'm going rock climbing tomorrow. It's a floor activity (meaning for all those staying on the same floor as me, 3rd North). Wish me luck that my pants won't tear or I won't be able to reach the top or get stuck on top and can't get down. Whahaha...

Till my next post, which I don't know when it'll be,

Cheers!


Love from the land of the Roos,

Edgar MiRaNtZ

Home Phone & New Photos

I've finally a LAN line. Below are the ways to communicate with me (or even send me surprises).

Home Telephone: +613 94795287
Handphone: +61 433353646
Postal: Glenn College, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086
Email: mirantz(at)gmail.com or ch6tan(at)students.latrobe.edu.au

Went to Williamstown and Boxhill during the week long Easter holidays.

Photos are on Facebook.

I'm not enjoying the cold here. It's been cold the whole week with a low of 9 degrees.

Still chiong-ing my 1500 word essay on Plagiarism.

Ta!

World Pillow Fight Day & Easter

It's World Pillow Fight Day today. In Melbourne, they had it over at Federation Square and I took part in it. Click on the image to see what's it like. It was fun!

Happy Easter everyone! Was Good Friday yesterday. Easter Sunday/Monday's just tomorrow/day-after and followed by a week of holidays. The university's closed till Tuesday. It's rather quiet over at college as most locals has went back leaving the internationals behind.

Still have lotsa assignments to work on and study.

Time to snooze and thereafter, get ready to shake the planet (PlanetShakers City Church) in the afternoon.

Send off @ Changi Airport T3

I just received the pictures which Joe helped to take at my send off over at Changi Airport. Joe's my other partner for Film Five. I counted and there were 18 people (2 not in picture) who came from the Kingdom aka 88 thread and in total, inclusive of my parents, relatives, friends and church mates, I had 42 people (again, the 2 weren't in the picture - Dominic Teng and Hazmi) who came to send me off. That's a real big group. To think of it, I feel so lucky and fortunate.

I've decided to signup for Vodaphone's wireless broadband special offer which will give me 5gb of data for A$39, which of course comes with a 2 year contract.

Should you want the send-off pictures, do email me and I'll send them to you.

Cheers!

Net @ home!

Yay! Finally I've internet connection at home. Home = a small room in college, in a university. It's expensive to use it though, the bandwidth costs 3 auzzie cents per megabyte of data transfer. That equals to A$30 per gigabyte (gb).

I'm rather tired today. Just finished printing all my notes for tomorrow's lecture. I'm going to sleep early tonight, most prob about 15 mins after I blog.

Take care people and Happy Birthday to me. I'm officially 23 years of age in less than 2 hours time (Australian time, on day-light saving). It's rather saddening that no one's going to celebrate it with me. The only thing that's going to comfort me is that lulu's (Marcus) going to cook dinner for me. I actually asked him out for dinner so we could dine out but he says that he's tired of outside food so he'll cook instead. That's so sweet of him.

Goodnight people!

I'm in the library using the net again. Brought my lappy to the library but it couldn't get connected to the internet. Connected with limited connectivity. Therefore, I resorted to using the pc terminal. It's late at night therefore there aren't many people here and I can use it as long as I like. hehe...

Assignments are coming in and I don't like it. Imagine writing 1000+ words on the topic of plagiarism. Gosh!

Since I'm unable to upload photos into facebook using the pc terminal, I shall do it here.

Enjoy the pictures...

No net @ home but outside the library

I still have no internet connection at home. I resorted to bringing my laptop to the outside of the library late at night at about 8.30pm when it's all dark and use the free wireless. At home, I've to pay 3 auzzie cents per megabyte of data transfer. That's expensive. Therefore, it would be good to go out to the library to use things like skype and such. And unlike in Singapore, there're no power plugs to be found therefore, I've to rely on my battery, which can only last me for about an hour or so.

It's the third week that I'm in Melbourne now and life has been quite good thus far. It's getting colder day by day. It's now 15 deg outside. I took quite a few pictures, but won't be uploading them so soon, perhaps till tomorrow or so. I'll be posting them into my facebook album so check it there.

My lecture will be at noon, so i'm practically free till then.

=)

No Net Still

I'm back in the library again.

I enrolled for my course yesterday and I'll only be getting my Statement of Account in about 3 days time. Until then, I've to live without net at home. I'm hoping that once I get my SoA, I'm able to tap into the wireless networks which I detected back home.

To get a connection back home, I'll still have to apply for it and pay $90. :(

I went over to University Mews to check out the apartments. It looks nice and I wouldn't mind shifting there. However, single bedroom units aren't available and only double units are so I'll have to make do with it and be put on the waiting list.

It's Pub-crawling tonight and I'll be going out with my neighbors (over at my building) to various pubs. They have a drinking culture here but I don't really drink - so yea...

Cheers!

Night @ campus

It's real boring at night without any internet connection. No MSN, no Trevvy, no Facebook and such. The coin-phone at my college is faulty - the coin keeps dropping out after inserting it and to use the mobile phone to call the calling card number is expensive. The only way I can chat to people back in Singapore is to walk all the way out to the "central" of the uni, about 4 minutes walk, to use the phone booths. It's under shelter but it's cold and it gets dark after 8pm. It's unsafe to travel alone in the streets of Melbourne, even it school, it gives me the creeps.

No gay life here. There's a GLB society here and I went to take a look at their unit - the Rainbow Room but it was closed. Guess perhaps it's not the start of the semester yet. I'll go join them as it'll make me feel more with my kind - the queers, i suppose.

I wanna go watch Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert but it's just too expensive.

Sigh...

For a better tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day people...

Cheers!~

MiRaNtZ in Melbourne

I'm now in my university's library using the computer terminal as thenet connection in my room's not available yet. I hope that it'll be up in about 2 weeks time or less.

My phone number is: +61 0433353646

My address is:

Edgar Mirantz Tan
Glenn College, Room 319N
La Trobe University
Bundoora
VIC 3086
Australia

Presents, parcels, letters, books, love notes, condoms, dildos, cock-rings and other items can be sent to me using the above-mentioned address. I'll be very much delighted to receive items to my mailbox/door.

Cheers!

No more work!

I regret for not updating my blog for such a long time. just feeling plain lazy to do so.

It's a Monday and I woke up only at 1pm. Slept close to 5am, that's why. I was busy uploading photos from the chalet and Taboo to facebook.

It has been a hectic week and I foresee that this coming week would be another busy week with me flying off to Melbourne this Saturday night.

I had my farewell chalet last Thursday with a BBQ dinner on Friday, checking out of the bunglow on Saturday morning. It was clubbing at Taboo at night and Dinner with Yong Sen, Daniel, Bastian, Marcus and Dan over at Chomp Chomp hawker center last night.

Please visit my facebook photo album for all the pictures which i've taken.


Cheers!