If you've been wondering why I've been rather quiet recently, or less quick to make a snappy comment, it's because I've had a lot to think about. I'm still thinking how to go about expressing some of those thoughts so for now I'll just mention some highlights in my life since my last post.

Three Thursdays ago, Rev Robert Solomon came to speak at chapel. The focus of his message was how a Christian should walk closely with God. At one point he was talking about fasting, not from food, but some other things. One thing in particular he mentioned was fasting from words; not saying anything but focusing on what God is saying. This has been a big help to me over the last two weeks.

The day after that, I played soccer with my schoolmates. I scored three goals and made one. My three goals consisted of one penalty kick, one tap-in, and one from a direct free kick. The penalty kick just required steady nerves, the tap-in required some composure to trap the ball and sidefoot it in from a moderate angle. The free kick needed a lot more than composure. It was from a central position just outside the three point line (basketball court). There was a three man wall standing in front of the ball on the free throw line. To score, I would have to curl the ball round the wall and have it dip so that it would fly in over the defender in the goal. It's not something anyone can do consistently on a basketball court but I decided to give it a shot. I took a few steps forward and took the free kick. The weight and direction of the shot was perfect and it curled round the wall and flew into the goal. Earlier on, I had played a perfect airborne pass which my teammate headed for another goal. It's nice to know I haven't lost my touch.

On the downside, I must have caught a bug that day. By the time we finished playing, I was on the point of collapsing. Had to take a taxi home. Perhaps it wasn't so bad because I was feeling so ill and weak that when I received some bad news the next day, I was too weak to react too strongly. I'll elaborate on this in a later post.

The following week we had no classes, but we had to attend a seminar instead. That wasn't too bad. On Wednesday, I met up with some others to celebrate Accan Jaey's birthday. I had a Thai class to teach after that but thanks to my watch, I left the dinner venue too late. You see, in the time that it took to have dinner, my watch lost ten minutes! I wonder why... hahaha...

Soon it was Good Friday. In the morning, I made the long train ride to Expo for the Easter Convention. It's a bit of a hassle that Expo is the venue. Anyway, the acoustics were poor, the songleading was weird, but the message was pretty good. Had lunch at Macau Express then went with Nat to have a look at the book fair. Bought two packs of MENSA word puzzles. Then it was another long train ride home.

In the evening, I went to meet some of my JC classmates. We had a good time catching up. It was interesting to find out that two of them are PhD candidates in engineering. Anyway, the night's conversation somehow moved on to the point where I was sharing with them about Good Friday. It was a blessing to be given this opportunity because I've never had a chance to do this in the ten or so years I've known them. Thank God.

I'll have to stop here for now. Got to get back to work. Ha.