I just had 2 of my lower teeth extracted this morning. I feel so lousy.. It must be that my daimoku was not enough.

I remember that I had my first 2 tooth taken out about half a year ago. I was very brave then. I had, and still have, extreme phobia of needles. Yes. Injection needles.. Since young, due to my phobia of needles, I never had my baby teeth extracted at the dentist. They gave way themselves. And yet, I went alone without any fear of the extraction half a year ago. The jabs at the outer gums were not painful, but the ones inside were really very painful.. Too painful to bear. But I still went through it without any fear.

However, my fear had began 2 night before this time. I had even cried in front of the dentist before she gave me the jabs. The jabs this time were not as painful as half a year ago, but the mental stress of having to take the jabs make me broke down. I cried from before the dentist gave me the jab, till I took all the 4 jabs, and was left alone for 5 minutes for the antiseptic to numb the gums.

I really felt that I was really useless, crying at such little things. Although I slept through the whole afternoon when I reached home after the extraction, I had actually cried even in my sleep. The tears were shed, for the cowardness that I showed at the dentist, and for realising that I am defeated my my own fear.

Yet, I have to brace myself, for later's 4 division meeting...



The time now is 8.30 am. I am on my way back to Zurich, where I'll be visiting the Rheinfall. The trip will be taking us 3 hours by train to reach our destination, which will be approximately 11.30am. We'll be needing to change trains at Ber, at Zurich, and at Winterthur. Now, I know why the lower decks of the train the so quite. Cos it is the quite area.

Yesterday, we were adventurous enough to visit 3 places - Grindelwald, Gimmelwald, and Murren. Wee, they aren't tha far apart, as both are only about 1/2 hours train journey from Interlaken Ost.

Once we reached Grindelwwald, we wasked around for places of interest where we could go. The answers we got was none, except if we go up to Jungfraudjoich, which will cost us more than CHF100 each. We didn't plan to go up to Jungfraud, due to the cost that we'll incur, as well as the fact that we had already went up to Matterhorn, and Junfraud, although it's a different mountain, asa well as of a differenet height (Jungfraud if the Top of Europe), both are still mountains, and we couldn't see the difference.

Although so, we did take a bus ride up to Busslap, another lower mountain, where we could see Jungfraud. However, the coulds were still low. There was a point where the bus drove through the clouds! Imagine how low the clouds were! Besides this, the road up the mountain was very narrow and curvy! It was so narrow, that from my seat, I though that the road is narrower that the bus! And with such a narrow road, when the bus was making turns, I could see straight down the mountain, as if any moment, the wheels will get off the track and the bus falls down the mountain!Of course, the bus did not meet with any accidents, if not, howwill I be able to write these now?

For this ride, we paid CHF 19.80 each, which is 1/2 of the normal price again, as we have the Swiss Pass. Can you imagine? I paid CHF19.80 to scare myself? Well, I did learn and see a lot of things too! I saw lots of the summer huts on the mountain, and learned that the families only return to theirhuts in summer, as the other times were too cold. I wonder if they need to buy the piece of land their huts is on.

When we reached back at Grindelwald, we realised that it is a Sunday, and most shops were closed. But still, I managed to buy a cap for brother, but I don't know if he would likre it. If not, I'll have it myself then. Besides, I've also bought a fashion watch at CHF64.60 after discount. It has quite a long face, and its strap is tourqoise in colour. This is considered the most expensice watch that I bought for myself. I only buys watches that were SGD10, and the most expensive watches were a Fossil wacth from Geralding and sister, for my 21st birthday, and a Citizen watch from my group of colleagues for my 22nd. What a splurge!

The next destination was Gimmelwald and Murren. They are just a cable car stop next to each other. Remember I said that we went back to Interlaken Ost from Grindelwald? It was the same train to Gimmelwald. It's just that at one of the stations, the train spolits into 2, with 1/2 of the train going to Lauterbrunnen, which was the station to alight for Gimmelwald, and the other 1/2 to Grindelwald. From Lauterbrunnen, we took a bus to __________, where we took a cable car (free) up to Gimmelwald.

Once we reached that station, all those in the bus who saw the cable wires got a shock of their lives! Of course, this includes me. The gradient of the slope was so steep, that one can hardly imagine! In Singapore, our cable cars are all horizontal to the ground, but the one in Gimmelwald was from 2 very different heights! The cable car, unlike Singapore's, can occupy a lot of people, all standing up, and there is only one cable car, going up, and the same one going down, unlike the ones in Singapore, where a cabin only caters for a few people, and there are a number of cabins on each wire.

The scary part was not going up, but in the middle of the trip up, there will be a tower that holds the wire. It's after this wire that the cabin will have a slight drop in height, and made me feel that I lost my legs. This was the 2nd scare on the same day.

Once on Gimmelwald, we saw that it's very different from Grindelwald, where it's like a small shopping town, it's more like a chalet town in Gimmelwald, where there are cows, sheeps, chickens, and even horses around, and they have vegetable and even flowere plantations. It's a very relaxing and serene place.

Next was Murren. Same thing, there's only one cabin up to Murren from Gimmelwald, and the same thing happened at halfway of the journey up. Murren is like the in-between of Gimmelwald and Grindelwald. It does not have the shops like Grindelwald, but it has lots of hotels and chalets, and the houses are quite packed in a systematic order. However, it also has the atmosphere of Gimmelwald, where it's relaxing and serene.

The way back to ___________ was even scarier! Imagine the height going up Gimmelwald. Next we were going down! Wow! I lost megs for a even longer period of time!

As the places we went yesterday were of shorter distances, we thus could get back earlier, and walked around Interlaken Ost. There, we saw lots of people paragliding! The people coming down from the skies seemed to be neverending. At first, we thought that they are from a club or society for paragliding, but it was when we walked further down the street, that we realised that they were doing business, providing the paragliding service. I wouldn't mind trying that, but it's just that I don't know how to navigate the glides, thus someone must accompany me. But, I won't want to paraglide with a stranger. No. It's too dangerous. There would only be the 2 of you up there, and you will feel so helpless. Now is 10.45am. Reached Zurich airport. In around 45 minutes, I could be reaching Wintherthur.



The time now is 1.30pm. I'm now at Grindelwald, waiting for the train to return to Interlaken Ost, where we will contrinue our trip to Gimmelwald.

We went to Zermatt yesterday. To get up to Matterhorn via train, we paid CHF36 each, which is 1/2 the price, as we have the Swiss Pass. Initially, before going up the Matterhorn, we had wanted to take the cable car up instead, as it is cheaper, and the last time that I took a cable car was when I was an infant. I can't even remember how it is like. As we walked towards the cable car station, we saw 2 groups of people having hocky match. And the music they played while having the match was so high, that it suits the match to the max! As we got nearer the station, we saw 2 people, whom we asked for direction, and they told us that that the train is more worthwhile, as there was too much snow at the cable car station at the top. Thus, we walked all the way back to the train station. The CHF36 paid was really worthy!

On our way up, we saw the Matterhorn from various abgles, and took lots of pictures! The sky was also clear enough for us to see the tip of Matterhorn. This is also the first time that I saw and stepped on snow! I, too, made my first snowball. Now then I realise, that snow looks just like the ice for ice kachang!

We went to the restaurant there, and realised that it's prices were similar with Curten-Kulm, reasonable. That was the most lunch that I ate since day 1 in Switzerland. I had to recover my energy, as the air at such a height was thinner, I experienced shortness of breathe. Besides, the snow, with the sun shinning on it, was so glaring, that my eyes needed rest too! My eyes were fo tired, that I dozed off on the way down.

On the way down, we saw that the tip of Matterhorn was covered by clouds and could no longer be seen, just like what Maimunah had said. So, it's really the protection of the shoten zenjin that we managed to see the Matterhorn clearly at least once.

Back at Zermatt, I bought the jigsaw puzzle of Matterhorn, as well as my 3rd ice-cream in Switzerland. At one point, I even lost my footing, and tripped over my own foot. With Gohonzon's protection, I didn't even twist my ankle!



The time now is 7.01am Swiss time. I'm now on my way to Zermatt. From the wettness of the ground and the coolness of the weather, it must have rained last night.

Let me recall what we did after we reached Thun. We didn't catch the ferry. Instead, we took a train back to Interlaken. But what we did at Thun was quite amazing!

Thun is quite a shopping area. And there are lots of birds too!We window shopped for a while, and proceeded to the Castle of Thun, The Schloss Museum. We had walked one big round around the castle, before finding it's entrance, and who would know, that the entrance is in between the shop houses?

From between the shops, we walked up millions of steps! Of course, it's not that exegerating, but it felt like a million steps!

The steps are these: Then these:
My legs felt like they weren't there after reaching the top.

When we reached the castle, we were told that the castle consists of 5 floors, in which incoporates a museum. There was a flight of spiral steps, so high and small, that my legs went wobbly before I reached the top.

Inside this museum, we saw this:
And this is a:
Yes. An ancient jail, for female prisoners only. I saw that one of the weapons used looked like a crucification crown..

We also saw clay utensils of their time,musical instruments and the oldest band photos, and some writeups of famous people like Johann Wolfgang von something, Felix Mendelson, etc.Finally we reached the top of the castle! We saw the whole view of Thun, just like we saw the whole Bern. These were a few photos that we took from the top tower.How tired we were!



8.30 am: We caught a train and is on our way to Bern. Remember the train that we took from Zurich? It's the same kind. Now, we are sitting on the upper deck. The only difference is that we're now higher up, thus we could see the scenary that we couldn't before.

2.40pm: I'm feeling sleepy already. Now I'm back on the train towards Thun, hoping to catch the ferry that travels Lake Thun, back to Interlaken West.

The time that we spent this morning is quite a mouthful. Immediately after we left the train station at Bern, we took a bus (No. 12) to the Bear Pit. It was at the last stop, that we realised that we took the bus to the wrong direction! Luckily there wasn't that many stops. We took the same bus and went straight to Bear Pit, with the help of the bus driver. He's our shoten zenjin (buddhist god)! At the Bear Pit, we saw 3 bears. Big Brown Bears! Wow! We managed to take their photos, but without me. Why? I had always disliked myself on the photos. But I did try to be part of the photos, but my aunt is such a hesitater, and she always make me move here move there to take better photos. I told her that the camera is with her, she should be the one moving, as she would have a better picture of what is on the screen Besides, she takes such a long time to adjust this and adjust that, that my eyes, which were facing the sun, hurts.

Speed is a very important factor for a photographer, as once you missed the best time, you'll miss it forever. She had learnt photograhpy once upon a time, and yet she seem not to understand this theory. I wonder where her learnings went to..

We saw the Bern Show, which talks about Bern's History. We went to Rosengarten too! We saw a great deal of flowers, only after climbling up a very long and very steep slope. I think we climbed for around 15 to 20 minutes! The slope was so steep, that I didn't dared to walk down it! We passed by an old lady whom she said was 77 years old, although she looked younger, and she told us that tulips were just over last week. So, Hui Kian should have managed to see it if she visited the Rosengarten. Although the old lady also said that most of the flowers have not bloomed yet, we still saw lots of yellow flowers. Besides flowers, we also had a great view of the whole capital.As we dared not walk back down from via the slope, we decided to exit from another gate, which made us walk through the streets where ordinary Swiss lives. Again, we saw art graffittis. I also saw that they have speed cameras too! It looks just like ours. Amazing!As we walked, blindly, we managed to find the busstop that has bus No. 12, and got back to Bern RailCity. From there, we took a BernMobile to Gurtenbahn. This rail is just like a train, but the tracks are not the rail tracks with stones, but the tram tracks. It walks on a 2-lanes car road. So imaginea train, with around 4 cabins, on the road, concurrently with other buses and cars, and wires above it. I think if it were to walk a Singapore road, it would jam up the whole place!

We arrived at Gurteuban Station (which is something like a bus stop), and walked around 5 minutes, up a slope to the tram station, where we took the tram at CHF4.50 each (with discount with Swiss pass), up to Mount Gurten. On the tram, I was thinking "Oh no! How are we going down again?!" The tram moves up a very steep slope! So steep that I felt that it was a slow version of the roller coaster! But when we reached the top, we realised that we did not make a bad choice afterall. We could see the whole Bern at birds' eye view, just like the map!We took our lunch at the mountain top, as we enjoyed the scenary. We walked around for another 1/2 hour, before taking the tram back down. This time, I bravely sat at the front row, and realised that it wasn't that scary afterall. So here I am, now - Thun.

I've reached Brienz. Saw a ferry named Jungfrud and took it around the Lake Brienz. Finally realised what it's like to be surrounded by giants. Mountains are all round me! It's the first time that I saw a natural waterfall too. Although it's not as grand as the Nigera Falls, it's already quite a sight for me. The people working here told us that the ferry will take Brienz. Was wondering how come the ferry would take such a long time to travel around the lake. Now I know. After looking through the schedure, we found out that the reoute is from Brienz, travelling all the stops to Interlaken Ost, and back to Brienz through the same route. Thus, we decided to stop at Interlaken Ost, and continue our journey from there.

At 1305hr Swiss time, we took a train from Interlaken Ost back to Brienz again. Thinking that there's nothing much to do, we went shopping to Coop, their supermarket, like our NTUC or Shop 'n' Save. We bought some juices and biscuits. It was after we bought these stuffs, that we decided to go to Meringen, a station away, where we could visit the Gorge at CHF 7 per person. Initially, we thought that we must be crazy to bring the stuffs along, but we did, eventually, after the lockers at Meringen did not work.

Too bad my camera's battery went flat after these photo.. If not, I could have taken more...

The time now is 7.45am. I'm now on the train From Zurich Flughafen, going towards Interlaken West. The train is warm, and the silence is deafening. You can hear everyone's breathing and their flipping of the papers. Estimated arrival time at Interlaken is 10.03am.

As the train travels, I can see art graffitis on the wall. But most of the route are underground. It makes me sleepy. But the scenes are enlightening. I see houses on mountains, smoke coming out of chimneys of high-rise buidlings, and lots of railway lanes and wires above my head!

Oh ya! the train that I'm now in, is a double deckered train! I'm on the lower deck, of course, as it's stupid to move up to the second deck with such heavy luggages.



The time now in Singapore is 11.30am. In 1 1/2 hours time, my colleagues will be having their lunch. But, I'm still on the plane. Had been on this plane for nearly 12 hours, but I still have at least 2 more hours before I reach Zurich, at their time, around 7.30 am, 11 May 2006. Getting a little confused whether Switzerland is 6 hours earlier of later than us.

The sky is bright now. I can see the clear blue sky. I'm not sure which part of the planet I'm above now. I'm not sure whether I'm above land, or sea. I thought it's land, but then, the "land" I thought it was my only be clouds. Too bad I'm sitting at the wing area. If not, I'll have more view of what's below me now.

I recall the first time back from Holland in 2001, when I saw a rainbow surrounding the shadow of our plane then.

Although I may be sitting at the wing area, I have received great benefits since I started checking in last night. My Aunt told me that it is not usual that the staff at the check-in counter will help, but he helped us found seats next to each other near the front exit and the toilet for our convenience. We had also checked in without problems. Our luggages were checked in immediately when we reached the counter, which was not what my Aunt had experienced before.

Just announced that it is 6.30am, 11 May 2006. Will be arriving in approximately 30 minutes. The temperature is 4 degrees celsius. Oh... Will it be freezing? Well, landing soon. I better stop writing.



The time now is 12.20am. I'm now on the plane SQ246, taking off to Zurich, Switzerland. The plane is taking off in 2 minutes time. How's my feeling? Calm. Normal. This is the third time that I'm taking a plane. Felt that I didn't want to feel too excited, like a kid, like when I was on my first overseas trip to Helsinki in 2001. Am I being indifferent? Or am I just not bothered? To speak the truth, I wasn't that keen on this trip. I rather stay in Singapore and Concentrate on the Project Fusion.



Well, after the last blog entry, I seemed to be staying stagnant on my decision. Nothing concrete yet. So, what do I want to blog today?

Let me share what happened on May 3rd, the Soka Gakkai Mentor and Disciple Day. This is one of the very important days for Soka Gakkai.

So, how is this significant day, significant to me? This year's 5.3 is significant, not only to me, but to SNCO too! SNCO? What's that? SNCO is Soka New Century Orchestra, which comprises the newly formed Soka New Century String Ensemble (SNCSE) and the Soka New Century Wind Ensemble (SNCWE), renamed from the Soka Wind Ensemble (SWE). This name had been given by Ikeda Sensei, and thus this year's 5.3 is a brand new start of the SNCO!

During the LGT1 - 5.3 Commemorative Meeting, SNCO had our debut performance as an orchestra. General Director Mr Ong Bon Chai had goals for us, and that is to perform in the VCH, and ultimately, even in the Esplande! Mrs Chua, our conductress, was also full of emotions that day. Afterall, SWE was her baby, as she was the one who founded the then Soka Symphonic Band (SSB). After leaving us for a period of time, she was back again to conduct us for our debut performance. Although she may not be with the SNCWE everytime, she must have seen the growth in the band that made her proud of us. She had also made a vow, during her Kenshu trip, to sensei and to the Gohonzon, that the orchestra must always play music that touches people's heart.

That's the difference between us, the SNCO, and other community and professional bands and orchestras. Other bands may have more professional players, who plays better than us, technically, but they play music, for the sake of playing music. We may all be amateurs, but we each have a mission to fulfil, and that is, to play music that can touch people's hearts and lives, and be able to encourage each and every individual who heard our music, to carry on with their lives, fighting every obstacles bravely.

To my dear non-gakkai friends, you may be puzzled, as in how on earth does one do that? A professional flautist, Nestor Torres once told us, that for him to pick up his flute and play is easy, as he has the talent, and is gifted in music. However, he will not be able to play music that can touch people's hearts, unless he chants lot of daimoku.

I've also heard many many times, from Mrs Chua, my seniors in SNCO, and our SNCO committee, that it is also through our own struggles to make the performance the best for the audience, that touches people's hearts. I had experienced that myself. Perhaps if you could look through my blog, and you'll find that I had twice been sick on the performance day, and had much trouble going through the rehearsals, but yet managed to perform the whole show whitout feeling I was sick.

Well, so much about SNCO and 5.3, so what's will the next entry be about? FD? or will I be back from Switzerland then? I'm not sure too... Things may change, and plans may change by the next blog entry too... So...

So long for now...



Well, I'm not sure what to blog... There are a lot of things that I wanted to blog, but I just can't seem to decide which one to focus on in this entry. Besides, I'm free in office now, so I thought of updating my blog now. Firstly, no, let's not put a sequence to it. Ok, Let me list down the topics that are in my mind: updates of SWE, updates of FD, updates on 4D, my upcoming trip to Switzerland, my plans for future, my life, how my life condition is recently... seems like a lot of things... I can't even decide which is more important to be put into my prayers first... All seemed interlined, even though they look like separate issues... Just like what we learned in our previous Zadankai - Oneness of Man and Environment - where we learned that although Man and its Environment seems like two separate entities, they are actually interlinked. To explain this, I think I need another entry, or else everything will be blurred..

Same thing here, I can't decide whether this blog should be a record of my life, or a record of my learnings. Perhaps I should set up another blog solely for my learnings, be it Buddhist Fundamentals or other learnings, while this current blog records my dailies. But, Buddhism=Daily life, thus if I were to setup another blog solely for Buddhist Studies, doesn't it make that blog a redundant? hELLO..!! Make up your Mind!!

the angel

# finance officer
# violinist
# clarinetist
# singer
# dancer
# bodhisattva of the earth

loves

# singing
# dancing
# music
# chocolate
# pink

wishes

# always be happy
# bring happiness to people
# to sing
# further education in communications

readings

# the alchemist
# the white russian
# falling leaves
# tuesdays with morrie
# the five people you meet in heaven
# for one more day
# the kite runner
# the little prince
# totto chan: the little girl at the window
# da vinci code
# digital fortress

fellow angels

*f.a.m.i.l.y*
:: mei.zi

*s.o.k.a*
:: alvin.khoo
:: huimin.loi
:: shuhui.tan

*t.p.s.d*
:: fabian.ng
:: jeraldine.tan
:: zhirhong.foo

*f.d*
:: boonhao.lim
:: future.division
:: jasmine.chew
:: joey.tay
:: yingqi.chen
:: yunting.chen

*s.n.c.o*
:: candy.chye
:: chelsea.ng
:: desmond.chew
:: guangyi.chua
:: jasmine.chye
:: kailing.shim
:: noven.chan
:: vanessa.lim
:: weili.liang

*f.r.i.e.n.d*
:: andre.hanz.lee

*s.t.o.r.e.s*
:: hampigal
:: pretty.pink.pink
:: the.sister.company
:: vogue.chamber

seeks

:: daisaku ikeda library
:: daisaku ikeda quotes
:: sgi
:: sgi experiences
:: ssa
:: ssa youths

past

:: February 2006
:: March 2006
:: April 2006
:: May 2006
:: June 2006
:: August 2006
:: September 2006
:: October 2006
:: November 2006
:: December 2006
:: January 2007
:: April 2007
:: May 2007
:: June 2007
:: July 2007
:: August 2007
:: September 2007
:: October 2007
:: November 2007