Stacey Kent

A Prominent jazz critic once said this about Stacey Kent, "To hear Stacey is to love her". I agree. If any of you think that Diana Krall is good jazz, you have not heard Stacey Kent. In fact when compared to Stacey, I feel that Diana Krall is way way out of her league. This is the promo she did for her latest album "Breakfast On The Morning Tram" enjoy.... and eat you heart out Diana Krall!!!

Paper Boats

How come these precious things were made to seem remote?
How come the words I weighed were forced back down my throat?
There was no room for honesty
No quarter that was mine
No noble cause
I tried to fake a life
To fool those snapping jaws

From here I dare to launch
My flimsy paper boats
I shove each gently from the shore
God guard it where it floats
They must not drift too far from You
If you sense danger cause they are too frail
In time they will catch Your wind
And fly with billowed sails

Mike Mcgurk

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone I place my trust
And find my glory in the power of the cross
In every victory let it be said of me
My source of strength, my source of hope
Is Christ alone

Grounded

Due to the Hari Raya holidays I have been grounded. It is this only week now in a very long time where I have not taken a plane or a bus ride to some far away place. It is always good to be home of course, and I have taken the time to consolidate my thoughts about all the travelling around I have been doing and in the course of doing so learnt a few things about myself.

The first thing I learn is about money. Since I travel so often, it is hard to keep up a social life locally. Does that mean I have no social life and that is why I can travel so often? No. Frankly I don't think the amount of money I earn is enough to justify scarificing my friendships and relationship here locally. In fact, if it is just about the money I would much rather take a lower paying job and stay well connected with friends and family.

I know it makes no sense. But I feel that you can't put a price tag on the friendships you have taken so long to build with so much effort. It is priceless. So in terms of value, if I have to choose between a pay cheque and something priceless. I will choose something priceless. So the bottomline is that I am not doing all this travelling for the money no matter how good it might be. And if I ever fall into the trap of just working for the money, it will be pointless and worthless.

The second thing is to learn from all this exposure and experience I am getting when I am overseas. No, I am not learning a tangible subject like math or science, but something intangible that I can't explain in words. I seem to be developing an instinct that I know will serve me well later in life. Something like learning how to ride a bicycle or learning how to swim.

The third thing is that this arrangement will not last forever, sooner or later I will have to move on. I believe that I have mentioned in an earlier post that I feel that this is what God wants me to do in order to prepare me for his plans for me in the future. So if God were to call, this arrangement would have to end.

The fourth thing is that my source of strength and hope comes from God alone. When you are in a foreign country full of strangers and you need help. You can always call on Him and He will answer you. As a result of all my travels, I have learnt to depend more on Him and hopefully build a deeper relationship with Him.

It is ironic that in my act of reaching out and travelling around, I have been able to dig deeper into myself and learn more about myself and God. He works in mysterious ways.