The final lap at ulu land

Committee retreat was fun over the weekend. It started off with Jon, Reuben and me heading to Lerdie's house on the 31st. It was planned that we leave campus at around 3-4pm but car air-con problems meant that the three of us were stuck at the mechanic repair shop for almost 4 hrs as they refilled back the gas into the air-con box. We finally got the car started and it was 7pm when we left nilai. We got a little lost around Sunway while trying to find Kylie's house and by the time we reached Lerdie's house, it was 9pm. We quickly had our dinner and some rest and we headed off to St. Paul's Church at 11pm for the watchnight service. I was expecting the usual service like maybe a band or something like that but it was a traditional Anglican service equipped with full hymns and processions and of course, with the Bishop leading the frontiers. I looked at Reuben and Reuben looked at me, we both agreed in telepathically that it's gonna be a long long long night..lol. It's an interesting experience again because this is the first time I'm in a traditional Anglican service. It reminds me alot of the Catholic Masses that I once attended in SJI. The Holy Communion was rather similar in style in that everybody shares the cup but it stops short in drinking from it for the Anglicans. We just had to dip the bread into the wine in the cup.

After service, we went to Bangsar McDonalds for supper. The whole town area there is still reeling from the New Year Celebration and policemen are crawling everywhere keeping watch to ensure that the crowd doesn't get out of hand. Afterthat, we crashed to bed and woke up pretty late the next morning at about 11am. I led devotion after everyone has gathered around and then we are off for our first session. The sessions went fine and we had our lunch and dinner at the not-so-expensive areas in Bangsar. On the second morning, we played a really hilarious game which involves us trying to guess the character name that was written on the paper pasted on our backs. "Girly Man" conjures up some really interesting questions to ponder..lol. During that lunch time, for some funny reason or so, my car alarm sound animated to life after being silent for all these years. That was strange but it's a welcome anyways. Dinner on the second day was a fun affair as all of us cooked spaghetti in the kitchen with Lerdie's mama helping us. The Bishop joined us for the dinner and he opened up 2 non-alcoholic fruit drinks from the bottle. We had a jolly good time listening to him telling stories of his experience at Israel as well as the historical aspects on the origins of the Bible. On the last day, which is Sunday, we headed off to Erwin's church for Sunday service and finally back to campus in the afternoon.

Oh well, it's the start of my final semester here in Inti. There's the dreaded mid-sessional results that are about to be released and I hope that I don't get slaughtered that badly. It's gonna be the most busy semester yet and it looks set for me to end the lap at ulu land with a massive bang and burnout.