Gosh, I tell you, it's not easy to attend a Holy Thursday mass in this city. Not when your workplace is that far to the right, anyway.

Thirty churches and only nine with a mass after 7pm. None in the proximity of the office. When I finally reached the church -- after a 20-min walk -- it was 10 mins into the service.

A few things to note:

1) People were all over the place! Mostly in work attire. I guess it's really difficult to find a Catholic church in the area. Twenty minutes in and it was hard to find space to stand. And it's not like it was a small church.

2) The church had a permanent drum set, how cool is that? Or at least it looked permanent. Couldn't really tell over the hundreds of heads in front of me.

3) It was a beautiful church -- yup, my first time there. The layout was not your typical Roman Catholic church. At least not one I'm used to. Not sure how practical the layout is, though, with the multiple steps and mini stories. The ornaments were lovely. The stained-glassed windows were awesome. I managed to work 'em out: those to the right of the altar depicted scenes from the New Testament, those to the left the Old Testament. There was this particular scene with some young guy holding a beheaded head. Couldn't figure it out; my best guess would be David and Goliath.

4) A girl standing two persons from me suddenly collapsed. Since it was a church, people rushed to aid her. Good people. We need more of you out on the streets. Me? Oh, I was about to help, but when I finally settled my laptop bag, there were more than enough people helping her, so...

5) The priest was my fav priest in the city. So he'd been hiding there, good for him. Guy had lost quite a bit of hair but his sermon was still entertaining. He even gave the other priest a big hug. I'd been watching too much South Park lately, so my mind inserted several automatic gay jokes in. Bad mind. Go to your room. Alone.

6) The first cantor was, uh... Well, let's just say that singing wasn't her forte. My same bad brain immediately played a few Cowell-esque comments. I was tempted to type some here, but nah...

7) The second cantor, on the other hand, was first class! Which, on reflection, was cruel to the former lady. But seriously, the latter could easily crack Singapore Idol's top 10. Then again, which half-decent singer couldn't?

8) The culture in this city is that you kneel when it's time to kneel. You're not sitting in a pew with a padded kneeler in front of you? Too bad, then, you still kneel, hard floor or not. Which is OK. Except now you could barely find some space to stand, let alone kneel on the floor. Well, you kneel when it's time to kneel, so we did. Kinda.

8) The communion was -- as expected with so many people standing (and kneeling) around -- chaotic. Somehow, though -- to my amazement -- we completed the process successfully. When it ended, I found myself standing ten meters from where I had been. Whoa, I just realized something! I forgot to say my after-communion prayer. Go to my room.

9) Outside, there was this big banner: "Clearance Sale". With the mandatory complementing banner, of course: "Everything must go!" Huh? I know we're in a country with a sale-loving population. But it's a church! Well, on sale were Christian things: crosses, crucifixes , rosary beads, books, etc. Still, how dare you turn His Father's house into a market!

10) Somewhere between the homily and the feet washing, I conceived this idea for the next entry.

Current music: Iwa K - Nombok Dong
Current mood: happy