Snippets of Life

New Comp and New Year

2010-01-09T15:05:00.002+08:00

Hi! Have been leaving this blog alone for quite some time already haha. Anyway, just want to continue on from my previous post. Remember I was talking about getting a new comp? Yea I got one during Sitex 2009 for $1169. It's pretty good. Acer aspire AX5810: Windows 7 64-bit, Q8400 Quad processor, 4GB DDR3 memory, 750 GB HDD, 1024MB Nvidia Geforce Graphics, Wireless Network. I combined the desktop with the current LG monitor I got. And now my flight simulator has cool graphics! Haha so happy... The best part is that I get to set it up in my room on my table lol.

Hmm about the pilot thing, nothing to continue about lol. So let's move on. My unit is going into standby mode, meaning I can't go overseas from now till around March. Not really affected by it, but the initial checks and inspection were quite intense. Everything had to be in tip top condition, so had to spend quite a lot at beach road recently. Closer towards Christmas, the training became more SOC oriented cos of the change of OC, who is more of the fitness kind of guy. Wasn't affected by it though, cos I already passed the first year timing =)

The Christmas weekend was the best cos it was the longest break from army I got, about one week and a half day lol. On Christmas, my brothers and I bought a Rock Band set for dad and mum, so that we can all have some fun singing and playing the instruments together. It's a very good deal from Challenger Funan. The entire instrument set (mic, guitar, drum set) plus Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band for just $199! Haha it wasn't a deal we wanted to miss, so we quickly decided to purchase it. However, I would prefer Band Hero to Rock band, cos the songs are more well known pop compared to the never heard before repetoire of rock/punk/heavy metal music. The Beatles is still not so bad, and it's quite suitable for my dad too anyway haha.

After the celebration of Christmas in church in the evening, I went home to prepare the place for the overnight party and bbq. My friends came and almost immediately got latched onto the Rock band game. Someone also brought PS3 with Time Crisis gun set along with it haha. We had good food and fun games through the night at my place. Towards the dawn, most of us would have already slumped on the sofa to sleep lol. It was a great gathering!

I was extremely tired on 26th. After catching like 6 hours of sleep, I went out to meet my little SACO group of friends at Kallang Leisure Park for lunch and movie viewing of treasure hunter. Didn't really like the show much. I felt the story very disjointed, and didn't know exactly what was going on. Walked around a bit, took some pictures with the Christmas decorations, then went home.

27th was my bro Amos's birthday, so we celebrated by having New York New York for lunch. Nothing much happened on monday or Tuesday, but I got sick with vomitting and other gastric problems. Hence, I took attend C on Wed, another extra day to spend out of camp haha. Unfortunately, I had to do guard duty on New year's eve. The moment it was 12 midnight, sua yu and I spent our first 2 hours of the new year prowling and safeguarding the camp lol. Well, I suppose it was worth it, cos we earned 3.5 pts from it. But I wonder if it's enough to escape guard duty on chinese new year. Almost every one wants to try their very best not to fall prey to that.

During the new year weekend, I spent saturday out with my jc classmates to celebrate someone's turning 20 year old day. Had lunch at some thai restaurant in marina sq, then went kite flying and tidbit picnic on top of the marina barrage. It was my first time there, found it quite a nice place to be. Lots of people having fun on the grass patch, enjoying the sea breeze and scenery of the CBD area. That time also got to enjoy the sunset =)

Returning to camp on Monday night, I got myself prepared for longer weeks of training to come. ICCT was on for almost the entire week. I really hate break falling. The continuous slapping on the ground gave me elbow abrasions throughout the whole 4 days. It never got a chance to heal cos the training was on every single day. I'll just have to tahan and endure till Tuesday this coming week for grading, then it'll be the end of it.

After booking out, my bunk went to golden mile complex to eat at one of their uncle's steamboat restaurant. It was Hainanese chicken rice served with chinese steamboat. Really great meal. The rice, the satay, the seafood, the chicken were all delicious. At the end of the meal, we counted about 21 bowls of rice eaten by just 8 army guys lol. That's more than 2 bowls average a person! I suppose I could count it as a celebration of being a one year soldier =D haha. It's just down to 10 months of NS in 5 SIR man.... Bring it on! haha I just wanna quickly get out of that irritating place...

New Desktop? Pilot career? Hmm...

2009-11-21T21:50:00.003+08:00

Recently, I've been thinking of getting a new desktop PC for my home. The thought started when my only desktop's memory is getting very low. So I was thinking of getting a new comp to transfer some programs over. Since I have a program called Flight Simulator X (FSX), maybe I'll go get a DIY desktop with good graphics card, more RAM and more HDD space. Then I can set all the settings on ultra high without slowing down the progress of the comp =D.

Speaking of FSX, I've also gotten more and more interested in flying. I haven't really got much opportunities to try out learning to fly. I went for the ST Aviation training academy information session at temasek poly on the 14th november. The course they run is a 65 week course in Ballarat Australia. The thing that turns most people off is the fees. It's about 128K sing$ for all the course resources, lodging, flight ticket to australia, etc. But gotta pay for own meals. An alternative is to try to get recruited as a cadet pilot with SIA. They like to train their own pilots. In this way, the cadet gets fully sponsored for his pilot training plus an allowance. Of course there's a 7-8 year bond, but in that way you've secured a job already right? Getting through the selection process will be the tough part.

In any case, I'll only try out a pilot career after my uni studies. Now is just the time, loads of time, to think it through and maybe plan on how to go about doing it. If I can't get through with SIA, then I'll have to think of a way to save up enough money to sign up for the STATA course. Another big question mark is whether i'm even medically fit to become a pilot. Many things are still uncertain... I can only dream of what it's like to be a pilot now. Take things one step at a time. At the end of the year, get a new desktop. After that, complete NS. Then get a driving license, a job, focus on uni, maybe get an internship or scholarship if possible. If I get the opportunity, maybe I'll get more career advice during my aerospace course in NTU. The best part is... I'm still young =)

From Brunei I Return

2009-10-25T09:01:00.003+08:00

Hey guys ~ I've not been updating recently, over a month now. No, I wasn't busy. More like caught up with more interesting stuff to do haha. By the way, I went on an exercise to Brunei from 25 sept till 12 oct, a total of about 18 days. The bunk conditions there are better than those in taiwan, thankfully. There were actual bed mattressed that we could sleep on rather than on sponge beds like I did in taiwan. Besides, the bunks in brunei camp were newly renovated. In the past, the conditions may be the same or worse than taiwan.

Just a brief overview of what I did in Brunei exercise. First day was settling admin stuff, getting to know where the cookhouse, armskote, etc. are. For us as scouts, our training started the very next day. We did river crossing, but in our case was more of combat swimming. Crossing a real river with underwater current was truly a new experience. The following day was a guided navigational exercise. Its purpose was to climatise us to the conditions and terrain in brunei, as well as to refresh us on the navigational skills we'll need for the next four days of Nomad.

Nomad started the next day, a 4-day navigational exercise comprising of 6 checkpoints, a mid and end point. For my team, we didn't manage to get all of the checkpoints, just found 4. I don't think we did our best either, but we learnt to continue our assigned task despite 2 team members falling out on the same day, one of them being our commander. Nevertheless, I think most of us learnt a great deal about navigation, plotting and pacing during the four days. It allowed us to gauge on how accurate we were, and to teach us how to navigate in such a way that will lead us to the desired destination without having to climb up and down steep knolls.

After that, the following day was probably a highlight for most of us. SWAMP WALK. Only the scouts were involved in this. We got to experience how navigating in the swamp was like. Not only was the terrain muddy and wet, but the vegetation was immensely thick and harsh as well. Thorn thickets were a common sight, coupled with humid conditions and lots of bashing made us all easily frustrated. There were instances when some of us got to feel how it was like to be waist deep in mud. I was one of them. You get the feeling that you're in quicksand, not in the sense that you get sucked down into the ground, but no matter how hard you try, you can't get yourself out. People had to pull the stuck ones out with much difficulty. As I was being pulled out, my boots felt like falling off! On that day, it was also the first time I got stung by a wasp on my ear. The initial sting was super painful, my ear starting to redden and swell. But after tolerating the pain for a few minutes, it died away. Thankfully I didn't develop any general reaction to the sting, meaning I'm not allergic to it. A few others got stung too. One of my members got stung 3 times at once, on the hand, ear and above the eye. Poor guy. Many of us were exhausted, wondering when it would all end. Reaching the end point filled me with a feeling of ecstasy. Every one was glad to have made it out. The entire thing was about 2km, taking us about 7-8 hours to complete. That itself was considered an achievement, cos from what we heard from the instructors in the camp, others before us have stayed in the swamp area overnight, only to emerge from the vegetation the next day.

The last leg of our training was a 7 day 6 night recce mission. It comprises of 2 different objectives, with a river crossing to be done between the 2 missions. Climbing Mt. Biang on the second day was like climbing the rocky path at Bt. Timah, except that this time we were carrying heavy load on our backs. Due to the closed terrain everywhere, there wasn't much of a view when we reached the top of it. During the 7 days, I was bitten on the hand and waist by unknown insects, probably sand flies or mosquitoes. Not only that, there were instances that leeches were found sucking on my blood... Super disgusting, really hate leeches.

Overall, compared to taiwan, brunei is not as tiring, but it's sure more dreadful and boring. At least we got our rest every night, because night time was a no move period. On the day of R&R, we explored the main district of Brunei on a guided tour. Lunch and dinner were both buffet, so the food was excellent. But I guess it was too much of a good thing. Got to visit museums and a water village. We last stopped at the local mall called The Mall, situated right beside the only Mac's in Brunei. Since there was nothing much to do in the mall, most of us went to watch surrogates in the cineplex before dinner.

I'm just glad all that is over. All the travelling in this period is making me really tired. Really happy to be safe back at home =)

Days Off

2009-09-10T11:40:00.003+08:00

Today, Thursday, the last day of my break before I have to return back to camp tonight. Nonsense right? Return to camp for a single day of Friday then come out again. Well, from what I know, there shouldn't be any major physical activities for us to do. Morning would be admin stuff, like shifting of ops boxes and writing statements for damanged equipment. Afternoon's main highlight would be the flight briefing for my Brunei trip later this month. Yes... Another overseas trip with the army for me again. This time it will be with my battalion, who will be training at company level. It's gonna be worse than Taiwan I guess, with nothing much to look forward to... Now that we're trained scout troopers, we'll have to live out the slogan we've all been chanting through our scout course.

Anyway, this post is not about me ranting about the future Haha. Rather it's about my days off. On Saturday, the day of my return, I had dinner with my classmates at Carl's Jr. in Marina Sq. I realised a carl's jr meal couldn't satisfy my hunger! My stomach must have expanded tremendously Lol. Got to share some of my tai yang bing with them. Then we went to catch G-force. The guinea pigs were so cute... Haha the storyline wasn't too bad as well, with a little twist towards the end of the show, or at least something I myself did not expect. Went home after the enjoyable outing with them.

On Monday, I went back to bukit panjang camp with most of my barang barang. It was so tedious and exhausting to haul all those stuff back to camp. Anyway, it was pleasing to meet up with long time no see friends back at the bunk =) After unpacking the stuff back into our lockers, a surprising news came that we could book out already! There was a cock up of things. We were intended to come back to shift stores and equipment back from pasir laba camp and to account for all the damages incurred. But it couldn't happen, due to transportation problems and the ongoing army open house restricting our means of doing so. Hence, with nothing to be done, we were given Monday off! The group of us, deciding not to go home so soon, went to West Mall for macs breakfast. I haven't had a macs breakfast for ages... Miss the hotcakes and hashbrown Lol. After the hearty meal, I made my way back to SAJC to collect my college day award. I got a plaque, a cert, and $120 prize! The plaque looks nicer than my last year's colours award Haha, but I'm proud to have attained both. It says a lot about my life in SAJC... So much different from Maris Stella cos I didn't get anything much besides certs from there. I also didn't manage to go up on stage for Founder's Day, but managed to get invited to 31st and 32nd College Day =D Amazingly, the 2 years of JC was more eventful and fruitful compared to 10 years in Maris Stella =P

On Tuesday, I went shopping at Bugis Junction on my own. I wanted to see what Natural Project has. Eventually, I bought a short sleeved shirt, a 2 in 1, and a very comfy V neck top. Total $153, managed to get a leather belt worth $29. Haha happy with what I bought =) I wanted to take this chance to go shopping as I seldom get the opportunity to come out on weekdays, when there are fewer crowds. In the evening, I had dinner at Astons with Constance. Finally got to show her my cert, and thank her for the lessons with a box of tai yang bing Lol.

Yesterday, met with my scout platoon mates for lunch at Carnivore Vivocity. First time went there, more expensive than Sakura! $30+ for all you can eat. Started with the salad bar, went back to our tables and ate. Once in a while, there will be these Brazilian waiters with a skewer each. On every skewer there's a different meat item! They've got beef, pork, lamb, sausages, pineapple, honey baked ham, chicken, fish, and other variations. It was a unique experience indeed. Was super full after that. Walked around, went to starbucks, walked around, nothing to do then went home Haha. For dinner, my family ordered 2 shepherd's pie. One was black peppered beef and the other was lamb special. Very delicious, but I think I was too full to eat much Haha. I just managed to eat one piece of each flavour. But, I continued to have that for supper Lol.

Haven't done much for today except to update this blog... Maybe I'll go sim lim sq or funan to look see later =)

Starlight... so bright...

2009-09-08T22:46:00.008+08:00

Hey~ I'm back from Taiwan!

I really really miss Singapore and all that I took for granted Lol... Not that I miss bukit panjang camp (or CSM for that matter =P), but I miss the security and the sense of home that Singapore has given me my whole life. Being in Taiwan for 3 weeks was the longest time I've ever spent overseas. Time seemed to pass slowly and painfully, awaiting for the end of ISPC to draw nearer and nearer... Now that I look back, I wonder how I managed to pull through the tough 3 weeks. I guess the secret would be to take things one step at a time...

When we touched down, we headed to our small little cosy camp. It was more of a barrack than a bunk, cos a whole bunch of us slept together on a long stretch of sponge bed Lol. It was totally different from Singapore, which in comparison is like heaven. It took some time to get used to the new setting. First few days, we had to condition ourselves to the weather. By the way, the forecast was supposed to be rain every other day. Surprisingly, it was dreadfully scorching hot with clear blue skies! Thank God for the clear weather =D haha... but a little cloud cover would have been better. I got sunburnt on the first day already, every one commented my face was red, this time permanently haha. But it soon turned darker instead, so it's alright.

Our first obstacle was exercise long walk. We're given 72 hours to complete a 60+km navigational walk from South to North for my team. We managed to complete it in 3 days 2 nights, which was about a little over 50 hours. My team was able to walk fast, but unfortunately we made quite a number of wrong decisions. On the first day, we had to bash 5 hours of vegetation, just to arrive back at where we started =_= The next few days, the irritating thing was all the back tracking, especially when we had to climb so high up the hills. At the end of it all, my feet blistered like I've never seen before... I couldn't walk properly for a day or 2 after the exercise lol. Had bubble milk tea as a celebration of our achievement! haha

The next step to overcome was the live firing - backward fire movement. This one wasn't much of a problem, just do whatever we're being taught, taking note of all the safety pointers and we should be alright. For me, right after we shot the live rounds, it was the start of the summary exercise. It's a whopping 7 day field camp where our skills as a recce trooper are being assessed, putting to use whatever we've learnt so far. There were a grand total of 3 missions, objectives are mainly YAMI BETTY and NICOLE. Haha also no use telling you... Basically we had to close in to the enemy objective and confirm whatever we're supposed to be looking for according to our mission goals. Part of the exercise is also to avoid being caught by the live enemies that are deployed, adding to the reality factor.

At the end of the 3 missions, we had to rendevous at a certain location on top of a knoll. All the teams were gathered there. We didn't have much time to rest before the instructors started shouting at us. It was the beginning of a very dreadful and long night of RTI (Resistance To Interrogation = being treated like POWs). We formed up, all face down, walked quickly up the hill together. When we reached the top, the redland forces were shooting blanks to the sky with joy at their captured enemies, the blueland forces. (If you haven't noticed, the redland peeps are the instructors while we being tortured are the blueland forces) I had to go through interrogation, stress positions in the mud, obeying their every command, be both mentally and physically exhausted to the max! All that with my shirt inside out and blindfolded.

After the gruelling 12 hours, when my hands were un-cuffed and my blindfold removed, emotions started to run within me. I was tearing and crying for joy when I saw the clear blue sky! We made it through at last! Most of us were extremely exhausted. We couldn't walk properly, our legs were like jelly from all the stand-sit-stand-sit-stand-sit....., our knees were all bruised from all the high kneel-left knee up-right knee up-left-right-left-right.... It was definitely a night not to be forgotten so easily. RTI was done, and we proceeded to the last phase of summary exercise, the E&E (escape and evasion). Given blind maps, we navigated and walked about 8-10km to our end point.

Happy to have gone through till the end, we graduated from the course on top of a knoll with strong winds and a majestic view of the ocean on the horizon. The jungle hat will be my prized possession after this long and hard training =D

After settling all the admin stuff back at camp, our R&R days finally arrived. It was a 3 day 2 night tour of taiwan up to taipei. First day, we went to the national museum of marine biological life. Interesting to see cute marine creatures like these:

We then travelled up to Kaohshiung and stayed there overnight. The next day, we headed for taipei. On the way there, we stopped at liufu safari theme park. I managed to ride on all the thrilling rides I've never taken before Lol. Didn't manage to ride on roller coasters though... I took the water slide, free fall, viking that went upside down, normal viking, and other thrilling rides. My greatest accomplishment would be free fall Haha. I don't know what made me wanna do it... But I did anyway =D Felt super shiouk after falling Haha.

In Taipei, we went to Shilin Night market and Ximenting for shopping and eating. Bought 5 shirts from taiwan, and a few boxes of goodies for my family and friends to try Haha. I had a very great fun time in Taiwan, especially with the company of my great pals from scout platoon 5 SIR!

National Day weekend

2009-08-10T21:07:00.004+08:00

Hi I'm back for a short little update before I head back to camp.

On national day itself, as usual my family went to church in the morning. After lunch, we went to watch G.I Joe @ GV Bishan, just 3 mrt stops away haha... so convenient lol. It's quite an action packed movie with a rather unique storyline. A number of surprises made the plot more and more interesting, making you curious as to why this and why that?... And I think there's gonna be a sequel to this show haha. It's a pity amos didn't join us to watch... We don really know why. He said he don think he'll like the movie, but from what I know of him, he's the kind that will go for these kind of movies... hmm...

In the evening, I watched the NDP on tele. During the parade inspection, I was shocked to see that the guard of honour (the guy walking beside the president during inspection) was the OC of my recce course! Haha... so he's the 'up there' kind of commander i see... I also got to see 5 SIR performers on the 9-storey high grid, and the guys who did the walking up the wall stunt seemed to have done a great job haha. At 2022 hrs the pledge was recited. My brothers made a little nonsense of it... lol.

Today, after going to beach road to get some army stuff for the taiwan trip, I went to vivo city to meet up with bcy for lunch. The black pepper beef speghetti I had was super spicy lol. At the end, we presented Birthday presents to the August babies Haha. It was kinda awkward celebrating their birthdays 2 weeks earlier... my fault cos of my absence haha. Glad to see they loved their gifts =)

Anyway, it's less than a week before I'll be departing for Taiwan. Hopefully I'm gonna have a full Friday off... then maybe I'll update one last time before my 3 week absence haha

Combat Survival Training

2009-08-08T22:14:00.003+08:00

This week has been quite interesting, learning about how to use resources in the jungle to survive. There were lessons conducted in camp, followed by a 3 day 2 night outfield camp where we put our skills learnt to the test. Honestly, I find it hard to remember all the plant food taught during the lesson. I never knew that there can be so many things to be used in an ordinary looking site of vegetation haha. Fruits are easiest to identify, cos most of them I already know from normal life, like jackfruit rambutan etc. We were also taught how to build an A-frame shelter, monitor lizard trap, how to get alternative water source and much more.

The 3-day outfield wasn't too bad. It's not as tiring as having to do infiltration like the previous week haha. Most of the time is spent chopping down trees, identify and deciding what to chop down that's suitable for use. My team comprising 3 men were allocated a virgin site of land, untouched by people who've done CST before. I can't say untouched by people cos I see plenty of glass bottles lying around nearby hahaha. We were a bit disheartened as we'll have to do everything from scratch, unable to have things originally set up there to aid ease our job. But after we entered our site, right before our eyes was a jackfruit tree with humongous fruits! Too bad they're unripe Haha... That boosted our morale a little. We started looking around our immediate surroundings for trees suitable to construct our A-frame shelter. It took us quite a while to get what we wanted. Probably took us 7-8 hours to created a sturdy structure complete with a roof and half-done bed =P I was very impressed with what we put up. It was super satisfying to see the fruits of your labour. First time I worked with a team to put up a shelter that I can actually sleep in haha... That is what I call real camping...

And what's real camping without a campfire? On the evening of the first day, after many failed attempts, we managed to set up a crackling fire on the ground. It's similar to setting up a barbecue fire, except that this time we're dealing with raw materials like wood, not charcoal haha. After the fire and heat has been exhausted, we got our charcoal which made it easier for us to get a good fire the next day. It was an unforgettable experience.

Speaking about unforgettable experiences, I've had one on the second day of the camp which was rather unpleasant. Every single one of us were to kill and skin a quail. They claim it's something we're supposed to learn in order to survive in a real situation. I felt a mixture of feelings for the quail as I stroked the cute innocent bird I knew was gonna die in the same hands =( One of my friends could not bring himself to kill. In the end he had to kill 2... so sad right? We were supposed to cook the bird and eat it, showing that we didn't kill for fun but to survive. My team boiled the meat, but buried it eventually cos most of us couldn't bring ourselves to consume it. I hope that's the one and only time I have to do such a thing...

At the end of the second day, we were given some raw food, how much was based on how well we scored for building the shelter, trap, utensils, fireplace, etc. I was surprised that they gave us seafood like prawns and sotong to cook Haha. Our empty stomachs were finally fed a little at the end of the second day. Amazingly, none of us actually felt hungry while we did our work!

It's National Day tomorrow, and I'm glad I'm not involved in it! Hahaha... get to spend time to relax a little. Will be back to update further on my holiday weekend =)

It's August!

2009-08-02T18:17:00.004+08:00

The year's probably gonna get more exciting with the turn of the month. July's past and August is here. National Day's coming up soon, meaning Monday off! Haha =P It'll be the last holiday weekend I'll spend in Singapore before departing for Taiwan on the night of the 14th.

The past week left me traumatised. 80% of the week was spent outfield training on Land Infiltration Movement. The week seems to fly by though, compared to the previous week. I think I'm getting more used to the training at pasir laba already haha. Otherwise it's just going outfield that time flies. Even though time was quickly spent, the training itself was super duper tiring. After the 4 days outfield training, my feet are full of blisters, as well as bleeding abrasions on my ankles. Oh man... how am I going to survive more outfields? Moreover I'm gonna be in Taiwan soon. And the terrain I'm gonna be trekking for 60km++ for 3 days will be like this:

Haha okay la... Maybe not like this, it's a bit exaggerated. But I think you get my point. It's gonna be mountainous terrain, unlike the puny hills and bukits found in singapore lol. Now I regret not buying goretex boots haiz. Maybe I still have a chance to get it somehow... Hmm...

I booked out on Friday and got to watch harry potter movie with my family at plaza sing. The movie didn't contain much action at all, but it's still interesting to watch as the plot gets deeper and darker, mysteries getting more and more complicated, building up to the seventh installment of the series where everything will be unravelled. On Saturday, my family went to take a photo shoot with my mum wearing her graduation gown. She had her convocation in NTU on Tuesday. At long last, after 5 years of hardwork and perseverance, my mum made it through to second upper honours B.Eng EEE. Haha now she can be a research engineer at her workplace =)

ISPC seems to take forever to complete. My positive attitude towards the course seems to have diminished a bit after going through so much gruelling training. And it's gonna get worse and worse. There's this sign board at the lobby of the RECCE block in pasir laba which reads "The only easy day was yesterday". Oh how true... But I try to keep telling myself to take it one small step at a time. Like looking forward to National day holidays and the following shorter training week before taiwan. The thing is to always look on the bright side of whatever you're going through. It's a mental battle indeed, but I'll never walk through it alone =D

Infantry Scout Platoon Course

2009-07-26T14:52:00.003+08:00

I just embarked on a new course at Pasir Laba Camp on the 16th July. It's a recce course with a local and overseas phase. Around mid-August I'll be flying to Taiwan for 3 weeks training. After which, if I manage to pass through all the challenges, I'll get my very own limited edition pixelised jungle hat! Haha I'll be like one of the elite forces of the army in some sense... but the lower end of the elite haha. Still counts for something right?

Anyway, Pasir Laba is a huge camp. My first book out from there I had to march approx. 1km from my bunk building to the main gate! Lol... On book out day, we had to do a 6km fast march... they won't let us off at the start already you see, trying to give us a taste of how packed the course is gonna be. Basically the entire course is quite a packed schedule. And the things involved for me to learn are both theoretical and practical. Hence I'm gonna be so mentally and physically shacked out at the end of every week. On book in day on Sunday night, I realised that bukit panjang camp isn't really that far from home compared to pasir laba. Pasir Laba is freaking far.......... probably another 14km more along PIE to reach it.

Something really worrying is the number of flu and fever cases that arose from my unit people itself in the first week of the course. On average, there's around 1 person falling out every single day. I'm the latest victim, down with high fever on Thursday. But thankfully the time I fell ill didn't affect much of my training. Meaning that I missed like one day's worth of lessons and activity at most. So with the 4 days MC coming to an end today, I'll be going back in there tonight. The most important key factor in order to pass out of this course is a strong mental capacity. If your mind isn't strong enough, the battle is already lost.

Last week I had some fun time with Sierra-O-Niner. We gathered together our unwanted clothes, made a few trips to the 'fitting room', and posed for the camera! Lol this is to set up a blogshop to sell these clothes online and earn something out of it as well. After that, we went to Katong shopping centre for karaoke session. I'm now more open to k sessions already... somehow... maybe I've become more exposed to more songs besides Christian and instrumental songs which I've always listened to. Moreover it was my first time singing with S09, but too bad lucas still isn't the karaoke type of person yet... Haha was hoping to sing with him a familiar tune or sth lol. It's ok... I was once like that also haha. My song capacity still very limited and teeny weeny, but it's growing yea... Just enjoying music. I love music. If I were to choose between my sense of sight or sense of hearing, I'd rather lose my sense of sight. I don't wanna live in a silent world =)

My weekends always seem so packed... and it's been so so so so long since I got to meet my CO friends. The outing for Ice age 3 was cancelled *sigh*. I'll be going to taiwan in 3 weeks also... Then it'll be my birthday... so fast haha. In just one week, the girls in NUS will be going back to school! Haha all the best to them in their continual academic pursuit.Work hard and enjoy a good and meaningful career =)

Weekly Update

2009-07-12T18:18:00.004+08:00

Hi! I'm back for my weekly update ~

In camp, I had a 4 km fast march in scout's fbo. The load was quite heavy inclusive of total 7-litres of water on my back. The effects of the load could be felt almost immediately after the start of the march when my shin-ankle muscles screamed out in ache and pain. Guess my body's not used to the increased load and increased speed. Endurance was key as I told myself I had to pass the march, otherwise I would not be allowed to go for the scout platoon course. The course, ISPC, will begin this thurs 16 July at pasir laba camp. It's a requirement to pass IPPT and complete up to 6km fast march before entering the course. That's why the past week, I also had my IPPT. The disappointing thing was that my standard dropped from a silver to a pass. And it has to be SBJ lol. Moreover I had to jump 6 times to be able to pass or not do a fault jump. It was a relief that I'm able to pass at least... shows that I'm able to go for the course haha. During that IPPT, I also managed to clock my personal record for 2.4km run, which is 9:20 minutes. It's a pity that my jumping is keeping me down, otherwise I could have gotten gold lol. There's always a next time... Try harder then. But now, concentrate on my combat fitness. Gonna be doing a lot of out-field/long march stuff during the scout course.

I managed to get my weekend free this time round. Haha. Oh btw, I didn't get my early book out on Friday because I received news via sms that College Day was cancelled/rescheduled due to the H1N1 pandemic. Apparently the school wants to hold the event after the outbreak has subsided somewhat. I sort of got a shock when I received the message, cos it seemed like a huge decision to postpone a major event such as college day lol. Well, it's all for the sake of safety and precaution. Hopefully I will be able to make it for the newly scheduled date.

Yesterday evening I attended another of my cousin's wedding dinner. It was held at a seafood restaurant in a simple hotel. This time nothing too extravagant like the previous 2, but the food last night was the best indeed =D I thought the most lovely and symbolic thing during the dinner was when the couple lit up a heart shaped candle structure. They ignited the flame at the top of the heart, and the fire spread from candle to candle all the way down to the bottom tip, as if they were drawing a heart shape in the air to symbolise their love for each other. Although the event was simple, it was definitely a meaningful one.

With that, it ends the chain of weddings I have to attend for the past month... whew. Hopefully I'll have more time now to spend with my jc friends. I really really miss them. Maybe I'll also have time to look at new places to shop for clothes... needa expand my wardrobe choices a little haha.

I found this quiz very interesting. My brother was doing it, so I joined in and I found it hilarious yet irritating that I cannot get it through all the way easily lol. Would you like the try it? Here's the link: http://www.notdoppler.com/theimpossiblequiz.php Good luck!

I miss my friends...

2009-07-05T18:27:00.003+08:00

Hi guys! It's been another ordinary week for me. Since there's nothing interesting to blog about my main week... I'll talk a bit about the wedding I attended last Sunday 28 June ~

On my mum's side, Desmond Tan Wei Quan, my cousin, was the first of my generation to get married. My grandma must have been very excited to witness her first grandson getting married and moving on to the next stage in life. Perhaps very soon, she'll be delighted to have her first great-grandchild! The wedding ceremony was held at Rasa Sentosa, which is a hotel situated near the seaside. My dad drove us in from the mainland, passed by the massive construction going on with the IR and universal studios and the dual rollercoaster seen in newspapers. For the first time, it felt as if Sentosa was quite large. The drive went through winding roads, and it took like 10 mins from the entrance of the island to the hotel Lol. The ceremonial setting made use of the sea as the backdrop. Unfortunately, the sea was full of container ships as was the nature of Singapore's busy port. Otherwise, the whole scene would have been perfect, like what couples would always dream of getting married in.

My cousin was dressed in Navy ceremonial uniform, being a regular as a captain. The wedding just keeps getting better and special doesn't it? As the bride marched in, the timing was perfect as the gentle light of the setting sun shone on the couple. The ring bearer was none other than their "sausage dog" Ruffles, who was dressed in dog's tuxedo! Really cute to see the dog running to the couple with their rings strung onto the dog's collar Haha. After exchanging wedding vows and being pronounced man and wife, the newly weds marched out through 4 pairs of captains who held their swords in such a manner that forms 4 arch gates to march through. It's like a mini marriage of a king or some high official! It was indeed the most lovely wedding I've ever attended.

The usual Chinese course wedding dinner began shortly after in the ballroom. I had to miss the dessert and last main course because I had to return to camp that night. Fortunately, I was already quite full by the time I left Haha. And so I went back to camp, finding my bunk mates all fast asleep. The week was pretty much routine, and nothing very interesting to blog about. I had to do Saturday guard duty yesterday, so I had to book in on Friday night after a nights off, then just got to book out this morning. I miss my bed...

But not as much as I miss my friends. Ever since I graduated from the jeep course in early June, I haven't got a chance to meet up with my jc friends. Almost every Saturday, I had to tell my classmates that I couldn't meet them for their outings either due to guard duty or weddings. I also haven't got to pass Constance, my music theory tutor, the certificate and to give her a treat to thank her for teaching me. This coming Saturday July 11th, I will have to attend another cousin's wedding, this time back to my dad's side. Hopefully I'll have time in the day to spend with my friends then.

Looking forward to 32nd College Day @ SAJC! It's this coming friday 10th July, and that means I get to book out earlier haha. I remember one year ago 4th July 2008, I was going up on stage to receive the Colours Award during last year's College Day. This year, instead of going up with yunguan like last year, I'll be going up with a few of my classmates =) I may also get the chance to see who Chmel is =P I'll also be watching SACO putting up a performance at reception I think... Provided the plan hasn't been changed haha. Gonna be seeing my teachers and friends, so I'm really looking forward to that day Haha.

Lastly, congrats to Joshua Generation for putting up a fantastic first original musical "The 17 year old virgin". Although I didn't get to see the show live, I was impressed with the performance seen on a DVD recording. I'm not close with the church youth group, but it's still heartening to see some of my old friends pouring out all their effort to ensure the success of the production =D God Bless them!

Half a year over... Half a year more to go**

Empty Week... Packed Weekend

2009-06-27T23:45:00.003+08:00

This is the last weekend of June, moving on to July in a few more days. For those attending school, it marks the end of the 4 week wonderful June hols Haha... Meaning back to school for most of them unless H1N1 gets out of hand... Quite scary, but not as scary as SARS hmm...

My past week was rather uneventful. Most of the time was spent on IBM (Individual Body Maintenance) ~ meaning resting in bunk Haha! At first all of us were rejoicing that we don have anything to do, can just nua on the bed and sleep till you're sick of it. After one or two days, I felt the week was very unfulfilling. We're supposed to be gearing up for a very tough scout training course in 2+ weeks time, but we're currently not doing anything much about it. Since this week was relaxed, I fear that the coming week may be a killer. Endure for about 2 more months! And all the tough training will be over, earning my limited edition pixelised jungle hat! woohoo Haha.

The week was not totally empty actually. We had one map reading/navigation lesson, and a few light PTs to train our arm power for some of us who need help in pull ups. Speaking of pull ups, whenever I reach like 8-10 my face will turn super red Lol. And my face will turn red at just about any kind of physical training, be it push ups, running, anything that require me to exert force. That's why I'm now very well known in my platoon whose face turn red quickly and intensely like guan gong lol. I guess this came from my mum, cos she also faces the same condition as me. On Friday morning, we had an SOC test. I haven't done that in quite a long time, so when I was doing it, I felt super duper shacked out. But I really really really hope I passed the timing, which is supposed to be under 10 mins. One of my friends who got the number chip before me told me that his stopwatch timing was around 9mins 50+ secs! But when I was approaching the finishing line, I didn't notice him. OH NO! please please pass Haha. If I pass I won't have to do the stupid SOC again for the rest of the year.... that's why I'm hoping so badly for it loL. Interestingly, after the test when we were all sitting down to rest, my friend saw that I was literally steaming. I couldn't see it, but I saw other people before, with vapour steaming from your body. Somemore my face was of course red, as if I'm fuming with anger Haha.

The week ended with guard duty on Friday evening till Sat morning. Here comes the weekend part. As seen from the title, my weekend is gonna be quite packed. Today I came home and rested a while. Then had to go for violin lesson in the afternoon. Went to cut my hair after that, then as a family we went to plaza singapura for dinner. We headed for The Cathay after a meal at Burger King for the Volvo Movie Fiesta featuring Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Despite seeing a review in the papers rating the movie with half a star out of five, I was still expecting a really exciting show. And I was not disappointed... The sequel is far more action packed than the first, with a very interesting story and plot, going to places like Egypt. I'm very fascinated by the extreme detail and effort put into developing such a film with such intense computer graphics for the transformers. During the show, there was this little boy sitting alone beside me with his dad sitting 2 rows in front. He was very excited about the show I guess, and he knows more about the transformers than I do Haha. Some parts of the show, he will like ask me "Is that the bad guy?... I think XXX haven't die yet, he's just faking [don wanna be a spoiler here haha]... Are those the new good guys?... etc." I was very amused with this little boy. He's super interested in the show, but at some parts where it seems a little scary, he would cover his ears or eyes tightly Haha. In fact, I think he's able to catch on the story quite well, better than other senior ppl whom I overheard after the show saying they don understand a thing Haha.

After the show, I got to do a little bit of shopping and bought a 2 in 1 short sleeve shirt. Wanted to find jeans but Robinsons don specially have a jeans section kind Haha. Tomorrow's main theme is another cousin's wedding. If you've been following, I had a cousin's wedding last Saturday as well. This is the second one. 2 weeks from now I'm going to have to attend another cousin's wedding again! I'm actually getting quite tired of all that haha. Morning have to wake up earlier, go tea ceremony, go to church, go for violin, go sentosa for dinner, book in back to camp later than the rest at night -_- Aww man, I don't have time to do my own stuff or go out with my JC friends =( Next week should be a better week I hope Haha.

I guess that's all I have to say for now. Hmm only 3 posts this month... Gotta try to make it a point to update at least once a week Haha =D

Back to Bt. Panjang

2009-06-20T23:32:00.002+08:00

I'm back after 2 weeks this time round. Haha wanna know why I didn't update last weekend? The reason was simple. I had Saturday guard duty in camp. Meaning I get to book out with the rest at 5pm on friday, but had to book back in at 10pm the same night. After sleeping overnight, I had to report for guard mounting and started prowling rounds at 8am. Saturday guard duty is the worst guard duty to have because it's a 24-hour shift thing. Hence, my entire Saturday was gone plus I had to spend 2 extra weekend nights sleeping in camp... I missed my comfy bed last week =( Lol. Anyway I got to book out Sunday morning 9am but had to book back in with the rest at 930pm -_- Since I was too tired out I didn't manage to spend time to update my blog for the past weekend.

2 weeks ago before I had to go back to bukit panjang camp, I bought Beethoven Virus DVD for $19.90. I didn't really ask my family whether they were interested to watch, but I just went ahead to get it anyway. Eventually, they kinda liked the korean drama. So when I'm in camp these past few days, they took some time and watched ahead of me... huh huh... haha. Yea I also find the story very tense with turning points here and there... typical drama tactics Haha. I'm glad we like it. As of today, we've watched up to episode 5. I guess this will help keep me entertained during my weekend off days =)

It's been 2 weeks back at the home of 5 SIR since I graduated from SAF driver training centre. In summary, training's been rather slack so far. My battalion has been busy with NDP and such, but us scouts will not be participating in the event. Most of our time is spent relaxing in bunk (won in a game of monopoly by having $100,120 in my possession!!) or helping move stores when needed. Last week, there was also Tiger Trail, an event put up by 3rd Singapore Division. I had to run 10km for that morning Haha. Woke up 3am, started running around 630am at jurong camp/safti. The turning point for the run was freaking crazy. We had to run up a knoll codenamed 'elephant hill'. The slope was more than 45 deg inclined! I just gave up and walked up instead of jogging Haha. Coming down was faster, but had to be more careful. The ground was gravel and stones, one wrong footing and I would have been sent tumbling down the hill Lol. It was very satisfying after completing the 10km fun run. Although my knees sort of ache after the run, it was still ok. Got to have complimentary red bull, milo truck, hot soya bean drink and a piece of banana! Hahaha. 10km is no easy feat... Was really shacked throughout. But I'm really glad I persevered by running almost all the way (walked up the silly hill >.<). A job well done. I also have to thank a friend of mine who was my running buddy that day =) oh yea... got to see ben at the event as well haha!

I just came back from a wedding dinner at Crowne Plaza @ Changi Airport. We were celebrating the marriage of another of my cousin. She's the last one in her family to get married. My brother's wire sculpture strawberry was being decorated with flower trimmings and ribbons to be used as the ring bearer for the occasion. Early in the morning, the couple came to my place along with their friends for the tradition of the groom having to break thru the challenges the girls have set in order to reach the bride. The girls put up some really difficult competition for the guys. The groom and his friends had to retrieve balloons from the swimming pool, had to walk around the pool wearing high heels, eat some random concoctions of vegetable mixture, do some push ups and PT, before successfully reaching my cousin. I didn't get to see much of the action cos I was actually sleeping LOL. Too early in the morning for me to wake up hahaha. But managed to get some idea about what happened from a video screened during the dinner about that morning's ordeal =P

Nothing much else to be said already. This coming week's training is gonna be more tough. I have a feeling that it'll be so... Gonna have fast marches in fbo and possibly have to go outfield most of the week. All I have to do is to press on thru the challenges =)

Btw, congrats to joseph and lucas for being posted to SISPEC!

Driving Permit Attained!

2009-06-06T22:04:00.003+08:00

Yes! I finally got my military driving permit! Haha ~

The past week was actually the last week of my class 3 driving course. Monday was my second attempt at the driving test. I managed to pass with 8 demerit points! I expected lower though Haha cos some of the points the tester picked out, I knew I did it during the test. Oh well... As long as I pass the test, that's all that counts Haha =D

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I could participate in the transport operations module of the course with a happy heart having passed the test =P Over the 2 days, we did cross country track driving, camouflage the vehicle, water fording and night convoy movement. All quite fun to do Haha because I don have to worry about any other vehicles like on public roads. The cross country riding was very bumpy, like a roller coaster going uphill and downhill. Water fording was also an experience, driving through flood water of 0.6 metres in depth. Night convoy movement was just normal driving, but with night vision goggles! I think I'll most likely be doing that only once in my NS life. The next few days was spent on Island Wide confidence driving, where i'm supposed to clock 200km. Got to experience what it's like to travel on the expressway, and try out the auto jeep as well. Having learnt how to operate a manual vehicle, auto transmission is like a walk in the park... So easy! Haha. But on the expressway, it gets kinda boring cos military vehicles like the jeep has a vehicle speed limit of 50 km/h. I was like a slow hog on the expressway, watching other cars zoom past me and overtaking me. Even buses and dumptrucks and other heavy vehicles are able to overtake me! Haha.

On the last day of the course, we were all presented with a certificate of achievement for completing the course. And of course, the authorised driving permit we've all been waiting for =) Yay... But I find it weird that the driving permit is a slip of paper -_- They didn't even make it card size such that I can neatly insert it into my wallet lol. I went to laminate it today anyway. Yeap I wanna thank God for seeing me through the past one month in the driving course!

In the middle of the week, I also received my certificate from ABRSM at last! True enough, I really got 100 marks. My teacher constance, her name was also on the cert... She must be overwhelmed by such results Haha. Now with grade 5 theory of music passed, I have the ticket to register for violin grade 6 and above. I'm not sure still when I should pursue my next violin exam... NS is not really a good time to do that. At least I'll have to wait till next year... maybe i'll be more free then. If my driving mileage isn't progressing fast enough to clock 7000km, I think I'll also learn driving from outside next year as well Haha. This year has just too many things already. For the next one month, I'll have conditioning training back in camp at bukit panjang. After that, it will be another month of scout training at pasir laba camp. Then I'll be flying off to Taiwan in August for overseas training. After coming back for a week or two, I'll be off again to Brunei -_- It's gonna be a rough ride for me subsequently Haha. I must endure and press on through the challenges faced =)

With the end of the driving course, my stay-out period has come to an end. I'll have to stay in back in camp week after week as usual once again. But I'll be meeting new commanders, new bunk mates cos I'll be in a new company. I hope to be able to build strong friendship with my new buddies next week on during training. More importantly, I wanna continue to draw closer to Jesus every day in camp =)

5 months down... 1 year 5 months left to go. Looking forward to an exciting Nslife ahead... Haha

The Climb

2009-05-31T21:31:00.003+08:00

Hey I'm back again for another week's update ~

I had my first driving test on Tuesday. Unfortunately it didnt go very well as I expected. It lasted a mere 5 minutes, exiting from the carpark and making one round just to go back in. Although I got the most strict tester for the day, I can't blame him for failing me. I have myself to blame for being over-confident and overlooking some safety points which I shld have taken note of. Starting off was okay, then he told me to turn left out of the carpark. Firstly, at the exit I didn't position my vehicle properly which made me end up doing a wide turn. Next, for turning left I didn't make sure my left was clear of vehicles and only watched the right side. Then to wrap up the disaster, a land rover came from my left as I was moving out of the carpark. My wide turning plus confined road space put rover and me in a perfect position for an accident to occur. The tester pressed the brake of the vehicle and stalled the engine. This constituted a major fault and immediate failure for me. My heart broke upon realising my silly mistake.

While the rest of the people who passed got to go island-wide driving on expressways, I had to continue with public road driving. In a way, I think it will give me better practice for the upcoming test tomorrow. I will definitely be more careful this time, be more patient and tolerant. I don't wanna be stressed out again by failing Haha. I also want to be able to go out for island-wide driving! I will get to clock more mileage from there =) Hopefully I'll be able to pass my second driving test tomorrow. And I hope the others who will be tested with me will be able to overcome this challenge as well...

On thursday, the Circle Line stage 3 was opened! This is a big thing for me because Bartley station is now my nearest accessible MRT station. It's so much closer to my home than the previous Serangoon station. With the Circle Line, I have access to NEL and NS line... and Bishan is just 6 mins away lol. So on Saturday after my driving in the morning, I took the train to Junction 8 to meet with the Dongs. We were celebrating Lucas' birthday. I wasn't with them in the morning. Those who were, went to lucas' house to give him a surprise. They got a big box enough to fit someone in it. The box was set outside the door so when lucas came out and opened the box, he got a pleasant surprise to find one of them inside Haha. How creative and fun it must have been. After that, they had lunch at food junction and I found them there. At around 4pm we set off to minds cafe at boat quay. Over there, we played I'm the Boss for quite a long time. It's a very business-like game with investments and deals to be made successful through negotiation between the players. With lots of thinking and scheming among ourselves, the game took quite long to play Haha. We moved on to Snorta! A fun game using animal sounds that I played before with CO people. I was silly enough to choose a sound "eh eh eh..." Because other players can accidentally say it without knowing they got the correct sound Haha. I think I was the loser for that game. We only had time for one game unfortunately.

After paying the bill, some of us headed to plaza sing for movie Terminator Salvation. I had to book the tickets beforehand because this show is a big hit now. There won't be good seats if we were to buy tickets that night. The show was quite confusing. I think I wasn't very familiar with the first 3 shows so I didn't really understand much. But there's definitely quite some action involved, and some cool moves as well Haha. Still somehow disappointing though... However, I had a great time organising Saturday's activity for the Dongs =D

Life has its ups and downs. There's a reason for everything God has put us through. It's always good to be blessed with good things in life. But beware not to be too engulfed by the treasures of the world for they will fade away like snow. All of us have been through hard and trying times, be it physically or emotionally challenging, it helps us to develop character and strength to embrace greater obstacles in future. Keep in mind that no 2 persons are the same in this world. Every one is unique. How wonderful that God has created us so differently with variety. He has a purpose for each and every one of our lives. So don't be discouraged if someone else seems to be doing better things than you do. What's important is that you carry out God's will for your life.

I find the song "The Climb" sung by Miley Cyrus very meaningful. I just want to share the lyrics of the chorus with you:

There's always gonna be another mountain
Always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's The Climb!

The Song can be found in the link under the Songs column =>
God bless you!

Blessed

2009-05-24T21:22:00.003+08:00

It's been a week of blessings I would say... Counting my blessings and Thanking Him for all his provisions =)

Last friday, I received an email that my music theory grade 5 results were released online. I've waited 2 months for this news to come! Anxiety and suspense started to build up within me as I logged into my account. When I clicked on the link which reveals my results, I was greeted with a single row of info. What used to be "No results published" was now replaced with details like Name, Test, Grade, Mark, Cat...etc. I looked under the column labelled Mark. There it displayed 100. Forgive me for sounding a little stupid, but for the first 2-3 seconds, I was wondering why they didn't show me my marks but the full mark of the paper? I expected xx/100 or sth like that lol. Then it hit me... My marks WAS 100/100!! WOW! I never expected that at all... the best I thought maybe 90+ get distinction happy liao... But God is good and He has given me more than I expected =D It's surprising because I didn't have much practice on composition, and was worried about failing that section comprising 15 marks. I never knew that they would award me full 15 marks! I'm now waiting for the marking details and certificate by mail. Hoping it won't take too long Haha. I've already waited more than a week.

Over the past week of driving course, I've had to go through 2 tests. One was the Highway Situational Problems (HSP) test, and the other was the Parking test. HSP is sth like final theory I guess, but it's an oral test. In order to pass, I'll have to pass 3 out of 5 boards within 15 mins. The tester will set up a scenario on the board which shows a certain type of junction using toy cars and trucks, etc. Then I'll have to mention ALL the steps correctly in order to make a simple safe right/left/U turn or go straight etc. If the tester is strict, he can fail your board if you forget or said one single point wrongly! Before the test I was worried if I could pass the first time or not. Haha I just wanted to get the test done and over with, don have to stay back and waste time. As I entered the test room and sat down in front of the tester, I was literally shaking on the inside Haha (really anxious + cold temp = spasms :-P) I am truly thankful that I was given a good tester who was lenient and patient with me. He also gave me scenarios that were simple, nothing out of the ordinary. There was one step I mentioned "slow down and give way to oncoming...." which was wrong. He stopped me and asked how was I to make sure that I move slowly until all the oncoming cars pass me by? Amazingly, he allowed me to repeat and correct myself on the spot! It was supposed to be "slow down and STOP to give way...." Look at how tricky this test is! Haha now can you see why I was so nervous? Eventually, I passed 2 boards and answered a bonus question correctly. With that, I passed the test with 3/3! Happy and glad =D

Parking test was held on Thursday. The tester was more than an hour late! Mainly because he was assessing another guy on driving test. When he arrived, he immediately told us to shift the poles away from our original practice positions. He sort of commented that we didn't know the dimensions and were all dependent on our instructor to take measurements for us. He gave me the impression that he's gonna be a very strict tester. When my turn came, I was confident I could clear it no problemo. Interestingly, the tester didn't seem to watch my every move. Most of the time, I would see him looking away from me, or walking around looking at the ground or anything else except the parking jeep lol. The test went smoothly for me, I didn't knock down any poles, and managed to complete parallel and reverse parking under the required 10 mins! So happy to have passed all these tests on the first attempt Haha =D

This coming week, I'll be having my driving assessment on Monday. I'll have to pass it in order to qualify for my first driving test (the real deal) on Tuesday. I really hope that I'll manage to pass all these on the first attempt with God's help ;) It'll be one of my greatest achievements to be able to do that. In fact, I may have a chance of being awarded Best Trainee! Who knows? Lol.

Regarding uni applications, I think I feel more inclined now to accept the offer by NTU aerospace engineering. I'm quite convinced that it will equip me with better experiences in the industry than NUS will. Though it will be very competitive, I'm willing to take up the challenge and bring myself to a new level as one of the top engineering students =) That will be my aim, as well as to build up my character and be a servant leader for others if given the chance to... Haha congrats to those who have found a place in their uni courses, especially the girls who will be starting term in 2-3 months time!

Time passes quickly by... Take time to stop to smell the roses for they're here today but gone tomorrow. Carpe diem... Seize the Day! =)

What to do? What to do?

2009-05-17T22:37:00.003+08:00

It's been another week full of driving, driving and more driving. Their training is intensive, not like outside learning from commercial instructors. Every single day, I have theory lessons, I have 100mins of public road driving, and some time for parking. Some evenings are occupied cos I have to go for simulator training. Yea it seems fun at first.... I think some of you would also enjoy going for the driving course here haha. But after the 2 weeks of training there so far, I feel very mentally exhausted. I have to quickly pick up a new skill in under a month. Not only do I have to drive well.... But I have to be extremely alert to situations all around posing potential dangers to me on the public road. I think I can safely tell you that I'm already good with driving the jeep around. Give me an empty road without an instructor beside me and I can execute all the courses without committing any major fault. I've come to realise, once you have other road users, once you have an instructor beside you ready to hound you on any fault committed, learning to drive is exhausting and stressful. Constant mirror checks, looking out for road hazards, beware of pedestrians and vehicles dashing out from side roads, do not race engine, beware of motorcyclists squeezing in out of nowhere.... and so much more to take note of! WOW! And as an SAF driver... I have to learn to be a defensive driver (meaning ZERO accidents on the road). Safety is the main priority. All this accumulates into one BIG multi-task which I have to execute in a split second on the road. I'm still having problems every time I go out on the road. Hopefully my confidence will increase subsequently, I want to pass my test the first time round...

Ok enough about driving. I attended an Information sharing @ high tea by NTU MAE (school of mechanical and aerospace engineering) on saturday afternoon. It was after driving in the morning (can't they give me a break? urgh...). I got to know more about the aerospace course. No doubt it's more specialised... maybe a bit too specialised. But if my passion is for that field of aerospace, why not? I'll be more equipped from NTU than if I go mechanical engineering in NUS. So I guess I can conclude for myself that I will choose NTU aerospace course over NUS mechanical engineering course. However, I've not accepted any of them because I have an impression that most of my friends are going to NUS. In a way, I may feel left out and more lonely studying in NTU. So... I'll wait a while more before making a final decision =)

Celebrated my grandma's birthday on saturday evening. Haha it's good to get to see family relatives again besides chinese new year. Got to talk a bit with my other cousins and other parents. Most of them asking me about NS and uni application lol... expected.

The things that are most bothering me now are driving and uni acceptance... what can I do to improve my driving and not get nagged by my instructor? What shall I choose? I hope this coming week will be a better and brighter one Haha...

Driving!

2009-05-10T20:57:00.003+08:00

Congratulations to SACO for attaining the Silver award for SYF 2009! Haha I'm proud of them having been able to maintain the standard and never giving up during practices. God has faithfully provided them with everything they need =D Enjoy your qing gong yan this friday guys!

This week has been eventful for me. I had training in camp as usual on Monday, when in the afternoon I was informed that it was confirmed I've been selected to be a scout for the battalion. It came to me as a shock and surprise. They've never given me prior notice, nor let me have a choice to choose whether or not I want to change. All I knew was that I was to pack my stuff and move out of my platoon to a new company in the same camp. Hence, I'm now in Scout platoon of Support coy 5 SIR.

The story doesn't end there. Upon arrival at the company office of support coy, I was told by one of the platoon sergeants that I was to book out that night and report to kaki bukit SAF driving circuit for jeep driving course! Wow! I was actually quite pleased to be able to learn driving instead of riding Haha. And so, after re-packing my stuff, I went home. From then on for the next one month till June, I will be able to book out every day! Haha another bonus I think, to be able to go home every night and enjoy the comfort of my own bed =)

However, I met up with complications the next day. Tuesday, I reported to the driving circuit as I was told. I also found some other new guys there from support company, so I followed them around. But I didn't know that they were there for the riding course. The riders were told to wait in the canteen. After about an hour, we were told that the course didn't start that day and we were to report back to bukit panjang camp at 11am. Of course, I went along with them. Little did I know that the jeep people had already started their course when I left the place. I wasted a whole day joining the support company in urban ops which I've already done. I realised my mistake when talking to the group of people whom I followed back to camp. By then it was too late, and I've missed an entire day's lesson on jeep. Thankfully, there was another guy from Bravo coy (same as me previously) who was just sent over to support for scout training like me. He also missed the first day of jeep course.

The next morning, both of us reported to the driving circuit and met up with the jeep people this time. The people present were already split into 2 groups A and B, so we were lost. When the instructor came, we told him we were new guys joining the jeep platoon. Immediately, we were told "What new guys? NO no NO no NO... We don't accept anymore, the intake closed yesterday already. Contact ur unit to confirm." Both of us were taken aback by his reaction. This matter caused a little commotion. Our platoon sergeant back in camp contacted the head instructor, and after a while, they finally decided to take us in. Oh Thank God! I'm really grateful that things got sorted out and we could still participate in the course. We still had to do some amount of catch up, but both of us are confident we will be back on track soon.

Currently, we're both behind by one parking lesson. Hopefully, a make-up can be arranged. I'm also working on the highway code, as I'll be having a test this coming Tuesday. But it shouldn't be a problem. Haha going to driving school every day seems so familiar, as if I'm back in school, going for classroom lessons on theory and such. Haha I get to exercise my brain a little during this one month as well.

I'm not sure what God's plan is for me, bringing me all around, making things seem so messy for me. But I'm sure He'll make a way, and deliver me through my difficulties faced =D Looking forward to another new week at Driving!

Labour Day weekend

2009-05-02T21:39:00.003+08:00

Hello! It's been a shorter week back in camp since Friday was May day public holiday... Haha a good rest after training =)

Had something special for training on saturday... We did urban operations (combat fighting in buildings). It's definitely more fun than conventional warfare Haha. In the afternoon, we as a platoon had to clear building by building with actual moving enemies deployed. There was one incident where we didn't coordinate well enough. One section went by the back while another went by the front. Eventually, when one section has cleared the enemies, the other section was still coming in, not knowing that the enemies have been eliminated. This led to a very hilarious friendly fire. A section commander shot his own man down, then a man from the other section fired the section commander!! Haha I was already dead by then, so was with the other dead ones watching this funny scene! Haha really laughed at them, super funny. I've never played counterstrike before, but this seems better than that haha... Get to play it real life LOL.

Booked out late on thursday but nvm! 3-day weekend ahead. On may 1st, a group of classmates came over to my place for potluck. My maid prepared fried bee hoon and chicken curry. Me the lazy one went to buy drinks and tidbits Haha. The rest brought specially made biscuit sandwiches, fried chicken wings, 'popcorn chicken', cakes, and interesting cheesy springrolls with either prawn or sausage. Haha all nicely prepared.... Unfortunately at the end of the day got quite a stomach upset =P but i'm okay now... Haha not food poisoning. Ben Tan brought Nintendo Wii along also, so we had quite some fun playing that. Most of the time playing some arcade-like shooting game Haha. After most of us ate our fill, we decided to walk around compass point. I thought the direct bus 80 to sengkang was a quick journey, but turned out to be quite long Haha. Sorry, I only came back home from sengkang once before. And I travelled with a special someone that time, so time passed by quickly then Haha. Anyway, didn't do much at compass point. Sat at starbucks coffee and didn't buy anything. We pretended that the used cups on the table left by previous guests were ours Haha. Most of them left for home after that, while me, benedict and lucas went to macs for ice cream. Long time since I ate McFlurry alr Haha. Then we talked about army stuff... Benedict now out of course from OCS, deciding whether to recourse or be posted to a unit. Lucas just came out of 2 week confinement in BMT. First time see his shaven head Haha... Now he can't laugh at me anymore =P

Today saturday, went for violin lesson in the morning, then went back to sajc for CO practice. Met up with Ben, Cindy and Cheeyae for lunch tgt at Macs. Sectional practice went on after that. I felt that huqin was not bad already, but there's much room for improvement. I hope that they'll manage the songs in time for SYF this wed. Stress coming upon Delia and Vanessa Haha... But guys, just go out there and perform like professionals =) everything will fall in smoothly when you have a confident mindset. Will be waiting to hear for the results! I'll you all in prayer...

So far my weekend is just that... One more day before going back to camp for another week of tough training. I shall conquer them week by week. Looking forward to the end of it all Haha ~

Thank You for Faith

2009-04-25T22:36:00.004+08:00

Hey Here I am again =) Needless to say, I'm going to talk about my past week Haha.

On Monday I didn't have to go back to camp! Haha and I thank God for placing my off-day so well that it fell on the day of my dentistry course interview. So I don't have to apply for special leave from camp, saving much trouble like for the dentistry manual dexterity test. Anyway, my dad drove me to NUH early in the morning. I think I got there just in time, cos not long after I registered my name, I was called to go in already. But before that, I met Gabriel from my BMTC bunk. He's in SISPEC now, and I think he just had his field camp this week. I saw he made quite an amount of written preparation on how to answer possible questions that might be raised during the interview. Haha I've made some preparations myself, but I merely thought about it, not as serious as he did.

As I went into the interview room, I was greeted by 3 interviewers. My first impression of them, was that they are very friendly people, a bunch that will just like to get to know you better and have a lovely chit-chat Haha. The first question they asked me was totally irrelevant to dentistry. "How's your NS? Where have you been posted to? What vocation? What does Infantry do?" Yup the interview kicked off with me sharing about army stuff lol. Then they started to ask about why I wanted dentistry and what I knew about it beforehand. I don't think I could substantiate myself well at that part, cos I've always been eyeing on engineering courses. It was only after I got my results, I realised that it can hold the key to many other opportunities, and one of which I would like to try is Dentistry =D From that, they also asked why not i choose eng first choice instead, since i'm more familiar with the subject, and have apparently more interest in it. Further on, they asked about my secondary student council life, what is my definition of positive learning attitude (since I mentioned it when asked about my strengths), how does my life in NS help in my future career. After asking me all that, they advised me to gain a better awareness of dentistry, perhaps thru seniors taking the course, or to look for job attachments after NS. Overall, I think I performed fairly, but I did the best show I could Haha. The rest of the application process I'll leave it up to God to direct my paths =)

During my training this week, I had to do guard duty for one of the nights. Actually I was first reserve, shldn't be on duty. But someone had to report sick, so I had to be activated for duty. It turned out to be a blessing though... Haha. My training specs was spoilt, the hinge screw was broken. I was worried about having to do SOC with my new specs. Having gone for the duty, the next morning I was excused from the SOC test along with others who did the duty with me. Haha thank God for the turn of events!

It's been 5 weeks in 5 SIR unit for me. The past week was the week after field camp. I was feeling really lazy and lethargic most of the time. Quite reluctant to go on with the physical trainings again after the gruelling field camp. Ironically, guard duty was supposed to tire me out. However, the morning of the next day was a total rest time for me. Haha I slept until I felt sick of sleeping. I had so much time because I'm not one of those who had to be trained for MG handling. I don want to complain though... Haha I don't mind resting =P but I guess I would be better off training harder, otherwise I'll be lazing around.

This week I've shifted my focus on the 4 Gospels. Honestly, it's the first time I'm going to read all 4 of them. In the past I've only touched at most Matthew and John. Currently reading Luke, I find that as I read through the different accounts of Jesus' story here on earth, his life and character seems to be etched into my mind. After all, I'm reading similar stories for 4 times in a row. Haha. It's interesting to refresh my mind about how Jesus led his life, and for me now, to take note of key aspects of his acts and try to apply them to my own lifestyle =)

~~Here I am, At Your feet
Crying out to You
Draw me near, Hold me close
Lord I wait on You
For you're my greatest love
You're my comforter and strength
You're the first, You're the last
You're my guiding light!

I will run I will soar
On eagles wings
As I wait on You Lord
My strength is restored
Fix my eyes on You Jesus
As I run this race
Help me fight
This Fight of Faith!~~

Devotion

2009-04-19T22:05:00.002+08:00

Hello! I'm here for an update~

Wondering why I can blog at such a time as this? Haha I'm not booking into camp tonight! Instead I'm going back on Monday night, as a replacement for my lost Good Friday. Haha happy and glad to have this one more extra day.

This past week from Monday to Thursday I had field camp near Choa Chu Kang. Nothing much to be said, so I'm not gonna talk about it. Don't you agree that it'll be boring if I keep talking about NS life every week? Haha but let's face it... I'm spending most of my life in there, so I'll have limited things to talk about. Thursday evening, after the gruelling field camp, my company was given the first nights-off. I had about 4 hours free time out of camp. During that time I went all the way to Kovan to collect my new specs. Haha you won't be seeing me wearing those thick framed army specs outside of camp anymore. Yup putting on a new look =D I also managed to spend some time at home before going back into camp to sleep.

I booked out on Friday to attend the Manual Dexterity Test for Dentistry course at NUH. I feel that the test is quite fun and interesting. It comes in 3 sections into one 3 hour test. The first section is modelling: mould plasticine to make a replica of a given model molar tooth. It's not as easy as it sounds, I had a hard time adding in as much detail as possible into my plasticine tooth. The next section is carving: carve a cylindrical block of plaster into the shape of a sample model given. This one's quite easy I guess, cos the dimensions are all straight-cuts, meaning no need to cut curves and stuff like that. The last section was wire bending: bend 2 pieces of wire and adapt them as close as possible to 2 given patterns shown on a piece of paper. I misread the instructions initially, I didn't know I had to exactly trace out the shape into the wire. At first I just made the general shape LOL. The last 15 minutes you could see me struggling to unfold and rebend the wire into the appropriate size =P haiz so malu of me... Anyway at the end of it all, I'm proud of my work! (could have been better for the wire... but haiz nvm =D)

At night, went out with family to IKEA and Queensway shopping centre to look for shoes and other stuff we need. Amos found and bought a pair of slippers so quickly! I was still slowly walking around the shops to find a nice pair of shoes LOL. I sort of decided on a pair, but was still feeling unsure about getting it... Not sure why... Eventually I bought that pair of shoes today! Haha and my dad got a rug from IKEA today as well.

I'm really thankful for all God has provided me with. He has helped me through difficult timings and schedules, through hardships and depressions... And I have acknowleged all He has done on a personal level through my prayers, for in Him all glory and honour is due. I want to give my heart and mind to Him, to focus on His will for me. Having said that, I wanna devote 100% to Him, and not to the things of this world. But I'm having trouble... I don't want to make a half-hearted commitment that won't last. I'm someone who's affected by emotions and deep thoughts going through my mind. So many memories, happy and sad, flash past. And I continue to dwell on them. But I don't want to... I would like to experience God's peace in my life again. I don't know how to explain the internal struggle I have. I know what to do but I find it hard to do them. To all my Christian friends, please pray for me =)

Through It All

2009-04-19T00:24:00.003+08:00

You are forever in my life

You see me through the seasons

Cover me with Your hand

Lead me in your righteousness

--------------------------------

I look to You and I wait on You

--------------------------------

I'll sing to You Lord

A hymn of love for your faithfulness to me

I'm carried in Everlasting arms

You'll never let me go

Through It All!

A Long Week

2009-04-11T23:29:00.002+08:00

Hey guys I'm back for another update. It's been 3 weeks since I was posted to my new camp. So far things are looking pretty up =D Beginning to get used to the training and environment, getting to know the commanders even better as well. I'll briefly go through this week's activities:

Monday was basically physical training... Nothing much to be said except that it's a very ordinary day of training. On Tuesday, we had a field trip to Pasir Laba Camp near SISPEC for our basic navigation course. We were tested on our pacing (judging distance travelled by counting no. of footsteps taken from one point to the other) and our skill in taking direction using a precision compass. For me, my pacing was quite off from the actual distance. I calculated around 1386m while the actual distance was 1360m. Haha well I guess it was close enough not to re-do again lol. As for the direction taking, I kept leading my team on a slightly deviated path. In future I must look for landmarks instead of keeping my eye stuck onto the compass needle all the way... I'll surely go off if I continue doing that Haha.

Wednesday had IPPT test. From now on there'll be money awards for those who get silver and above for the IPPT. However, I won't know when the money will be banked into my account. Haha so anyway, I managed to jump a distance of 225cm! This easily gives me a silver award for my IPPT. Aww man... I wonder why I didn't make it during BMT period. The commanders in my unit here are probably more encouraging than those in Tekong. Haha. Now I have to try to aim for Gold! It's really a tough challenge to tackle, but in my course of training down the road, I believe I'll get it one day. Haha!

Thursday nothing much besides SOC. Quite tiring this time around cos it includes a 700m run-down, tackle the obstacles, then run 600m towards the end point. Almost failed at the low rope. Then here we come to Good Friday (no I have not booked out yet). It's a live firing session dealing with high explosive weapons. So it's different from the normal shooting of guns and rifles which goes bang bang bang... But rather, the weapons handles that day resulted in more of a pssshhhhh/pop..............BOOM!! Ya sounds cool right? Haha it was indeed an unforgettable experience. A special way to celebrate Good Friday this year I think =D

I just got to book out this morning from camp due to the night firing session on Friday. I realise I have much to brush up on my violin... my skills are turning rusty every week :( I also got a letter from NUS informing me that I've been shortlisted for Dentistry course! I was excited, but looking at the date for the manual dexterity test, I got a little worried. It clashed with the last day of my field camp... Not a good thing at all. I pray that God will make a way possible for rescheduling or to be excused that day.

This coming week is gonna be fun. I'm gonna participate in a 4 day 3 night field camp training how to fight in a combat section. Haha I hope it's more enjoyable than the one I had in BMT. So I'll be back for another update after this episode. Stay tuned!

Work Hard... Play Hard

2009-04-04T22:58:00.002+08:00

Hey I'm back after another week in Bukit Panjang Camp ~~

I'll just share some of the activities I remember from training. Tuesday was the SAW rifle live firing session. We took a chartered bus up to Nee Soon Camp for the 100m range to shoot. The firing session has 2 phases: regular fire and rapid fire. It was quite a different feeling shooting an automatic weapon... Haha sort of more power in your hands but yet a higher chance of missing the target lol. Anyway, at the end of the day when the scores were released, I found amazingly I've got 27/30 for the entire session!! Haha was really surprised cos my assistant kept telling me to aim higher while I was firing... thought I missed more than that.

Wednesday had IPPT technique training. It was a good chance for me to try my best to improve on my standing broad jump. My platoon sergeant noted my IPPT results cos my 2.4km timing was 9:53mins but on the other hand my jumping was only 212cm... Haha. He asked one of the better commanders at jumping to demo for me on how to jump better. This time I managed to be conscious of how I jumped... to tuck in legs and to jump upwards more. And I eventually got a pass!! Not only that... I think my max distance that time was 228cm! Major improvement by my standards... lol. If I had jumped that far, I would have gotten a silver for IPPT. I had the same training on friday, but my jumping distance backed down a little bit. Still managed to pass, but not as far as 228... probably tired out after an entire week of training... Haha. Thank You Lord for blessing me with the above results =D

Throughout the week, I got to know my bed buddies and section mates more closely. Got to talk to each other about games, playstation, PSP, our past etc. Haha keeps my time there more occupied and enjoyable too. My tekong friends also brought along a chess set and a risk boardgame set. From our experience during the first week there, we found that 4 hour free time before lights out was a possibility. Due to this, we thought of bringing in these games to make time more enjoyable and endurable. Haha and true enough, there were opportunities for us to play Risk, which is known to take a very long time to complete. Through playing these games with platoon mates, I also can get to know others much better. To me, I find it quite surprising that we have so much free time. Our training schedule seems quite fast, but in reality it's not very rigorous. Thus, it's like working hard for the day, and relaxing/playing hard at night before knocking off to sleep =)

I got to book out in civilian attire for the first time! Haha feels good to have this privelege now as a private soldier in a combat unit. I also got to book out at around 4 pm yesterday... A bit early, but was happy to be out of camp nonetheless Haha. By right, my Good Friday is taken up by another live firing session, but I hope it won't happen... Hoping they would shuffle the activities and leave Good Friday alone... Haiz why must they take away our public holiday?

Today, got to relax at home for the day. I went to get a haircut as well! Haha and I look weird now with a new hairstyle =P In the evening, I went out with classmates for dinner at Astons. Found my dish wasn't very filling... but still delicious Haha. We wanted to catch a movie after dinner, but the whole place (PS and Cathay) was so crowded, and every show we were offered only the front row seats -_- aww well... perhaps another time. Joseph will be going into NS next Saturday! Wish him all e best! haha and lucas still has one more weekend till next Tuesday. Soon, I'll be seeing them balder than me... hohoho.

One more thing... I got a letter from NTU offering me aerospace engineering course!! WOOHOO! Felt happy to know I was able to make it through. Last year I was really unsure about whether I would really make it in there, but here now I'm being offered a place =D Thank You Thank You Thank You Lord! Acceptance period not open yet... so now I'll wait for NUS... wonder what course they'll offer me hmm...

Going out for CO outing tomorrow... It's been a long time since we went out tgt. Haha

Graduation!!

2009-03-29T17:11:00.003+08:00

Here's some pics showing my graduation parade on the 11th of March 2009:

The Kestrel board before the start of the parade!
My mum putting on my cap.
Followed by my dad to do the honours =D

The most memorable throwing of the jockey caps into the air!!
Section 3 of Kestrel Coy with our platoon commander =D
This is my bed buddy!

Hopefully all these pics are safe to be put up here... Haha!

A New Start

2009-03-29T00:11:00.003+08:00

Hi! I'm back after a week's training at my new posting. I've been posted to Bukit Panjang Camp, home of the 5 SIR, and I'm very likely to be staying there for the rest of my 1 year 7 months haha. When I first stepped into the camp compound, I felt that the place was so much different from at tekong. It was darker and gloomier, the buildings looked old and boring. As I went up to my company's bunks, I was frankly surprised to find occupants there already. These guys are in the mono intake, meaning they were posted to this unit upon enlistment and have spent their BMT days in that camp. My first impression of them: restless. Many of them were in their bunks, talking loudly, having their own fun time. I found out later from the platoon commander in an interview session that they are PSLE grads/O/N level/ITE holders. Basically they're people with lower education qualifications than the people from tekong. Since that's the case, I suppose it explains their behaviors as they come from very different backgrounds. I realised that the world indeed has ALL kinds of people. A big proportion of them are either Malays/smokers/gangster-like people. Many of them have tattoos on their bodies. Never before in my life have I ever been with so many of these kind of people all around me. You can imagine the kind of cultural shock I must have experienced when I went in there.

However, at least there were some guys from BMTC as well. I got to know some of them throughout the week. They share the same feelings and thoughts as I did at first, complaining about our posting and the new place we now have to make our second home in. As the week passed by, I gradually started to get to know more about my section mates and the commanders as well. It appears that 2 of my commanders were from Kestrel last time! What a coincidence... Haha. The commanders there are generally nice and kind people, it's just that sometimes I can't help but feel they're insulting my intelligence =P. Well, what can I do? I'm an A level cert holder in the midst of a sea of lower qualified guys. Okay, I don't want to sound so bad towards the mono intakers. Most of them are actually very nice at heart, and they feel the same way about being in the camp as I do. This is something we have in common: Our experiences in NS. Furthermore, they are a playful rowdy bunch of ppl, which adds life to our training sometimes. I'll have to get to know more of them, to be more a part of them as a unified group that'll work towards common goals.

Of course this means I'm also going to have bad influences being shot all around me for the rest of my NS life. I pray that God will protect me from all these and to remain strong in His encouraging Word. My faith has to be strong, so as not to be swayed easily by those around me. It's probably a good thing that I've been posted there. I'll get to experience what it's like to work together with these kind of people, but at the same time to grow ever stronger in my faith, staying close to my Heavenly Father. It's not going to be easy, but I believe God will see me through all the way =D Praise Him Praise Him Praise Him in Everything!

I'm currently in the Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) phase which will last about 6 weeks. So instead of looking forward to ORD which is miles away, I can just look forward to the 30th of April where this phase will end. It'll be good to take it in baby steps, so I'll have continual motivation along the way, making my time there less painful. Haha!

I guess I'll end of here for the week. ME will be back next week for another update. Till then! =)

The Journey Ahead?

2009-03-20T22:02:00.003+08:00

Sometimes I wonder how God sees my life. He's all-wise and knows the big picture of things. He plans ahead and works towards a bright outcome. I know I can place my total trust in Him because He is the one who knows me best, more than I know myself. But you see... I'm not God and I'm definitely do not have all the wisdom in the universe. All I know is the present. It is the present time that I'm living in, not knowing what may happen down the road ahead. And so I wonder... Where are You leading me? I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel now... Will I see it soon?

Patience. I must learn the virtue of patience. Right now, I must have the patience to find out what career God wants me to be in, and the patience to know if my posting to 5 SIR is a blessing. Although I didn't expect myself to go into command school, I somehow still long to see whether by some chance i'll be able to get in. I was like preparing myself mentally for tough training that will help me build my character and possibly leadership skills. But when I looked at the posting results, it was not meant to be. I was posted to a unit, and at this point I won't be able to command a section or platoon. I doubt there'll be any more chances.

On the brighter side, perhaps God wants to prepare me slowly step by step. All of you know that I'm not someone who'll speak up very much or talk a lot. So maybe it's best that I don't go to command school, and to slowly pick up good communication skills at a less demanding level. There's the other side that tells me, without pressure and stress and force, will I ever learn to speak up? In OCS or SISPEC, being a commander means being an example for your men and troops to follow, to be able to lead well. Under those circumstances, if I were there I will be forced to speak up and develop a better character. This leaves me a little puzzled... so what is God's purpose for putting me straight into a unit?

I guess this is a story to be continued... don't you think so? Haha and I'll be here to update about happenings in my new area of NS. Hopefully I'll be able to see from God's perspective, and observe the greatness of his plan for me =D

Making Decisions

2009-03-16T15:39:00.005+08:00

Hello! It's been quite a busy week for me... Haha so here's what happened in the past week:

Monday, Graduation Day parade rehearsals as well as OC afternoon. Haha other companies have OC evening but mine, due to time constraints, could only be done in the afternoon. The skits put up and songs sung were very entertaining. Comparatively, my platoon didn't perform as well as the others, but the presenters were very sincere and spoke from the heart, which was meaningful and unique in his own way.

Tuesday, CO parade where outstanding recruits and commanders receive due recognition and prizes. The rest of the day was mostly spent cleaning up the entire company building. Nothing much to say here. One interesting point to note: my lights out timing originally planned at 1945 became 2100 -_-. Haha and I had to wake up at 0245hrs. You can imagine how tired and sleepy I was the next day.

Wednesday, indeed I woke up with a headache, the feeling you get as if you had a fever. I didn't want to fall out or report sick or anything, cos it was the last 24km route march! I had a sense of pride to fulfill, so I told myself to endure through the rest of the day. The first 8km march was done before the sun rose. And almost the entire way my head was still aching. After the sun came out, the sky was painted crimson red among the clouds. It was a lovely sight, but sadly for those who wanted to keep a piece of the scenery, didn't have cameras. LOL! The rest of the way we could look forward to special treatment at rest points. At 12km, we could look forward to H-TWO-O isotonic drinks! At 16km, a bar of kit-kat. At 20km, sumptuous western lunch with pudding and banana =D At 24km, the end of the route march with H-Two-O and kit kat! Haha could feel the sense of accomplishment after the event. But a surprise awaited us at the end. We had to do OCPT again for one last time! It comprised of 100 push ups, 50 crunches, 100 jumping jacks. At around the 50th jumping jack my legs were already cramping up =O Haha still managed to complete them though. After that i had to massage my legs continuously LOL.

The day ended with the graduation parade! Met with my parents, gathered with friends to take pictures with commanders, etc. The whole parade went smoothly thanks to God. Before the parade started it was drizzling, but subsequently, my prayers for good weather was heard and the rain stopped. Thank God for the clear skies! Haha. After the entire thing, getting off tekong island and all that, I went home with my parents, feeling all tired and sleepy, shoulders and legs aching like crazy.

Thursday and Friday, I could spend some time at home relaxing my mind by playing XBOX!! Haha as if I have just completed A levels. But I also had to set aside time to study for my grade 5 music theory exam on Saturday. I was really worried about the composition section, cos I didn't really have a chance to practice it under guidance. I only had guidelines with me. Haha but I believe it shouldn't be much of a problem as long as my other parts are all right.

And so Saturday morning I went to Bukit Merah old HDB building for the test. There were some really young children, and a few people around my age. I went in and helped a young boy find the correct room (which happened to be my room as well Haha), sat at my own place and relaxed. The exam went quite smoothly, and I'm quite confident that I did my very best at it. Besides the composing section, I think I can safely say I got all the others correct. HAHA =D hopefully it'll be another distinction for me... After the exam, took 198 and travelled to boon lay mrt to meet lucas. Both of us took shuttle bus service to NTU open house. The time we were there, I could only attend the campus tours, engineering talk, and aerospace/mech eng tour. The rest of the time was spent looking around and collecting brochures. I have to say the goodie bag is good. The thing I'm wondering is why would they pack a packet of Indomee inside?? Haha. As I went around the booths, I asked qns about aerospace engineering. The a/prof i talked to wasn't very clear in his speech, so couldn't grasp much of the information he was saying. This makes me a little worried, cos if I study in NTU, I may have a hard time trying to understand what the lecturers are saying. But most of the graduates do well, so I suppose it's probably the least I should be worried about.

Sunday, went to church in the morning, had pizza hut for lunch with my family, then went for violin lesson. After which, my mum rushed me over to NUS open house to get a quick look around and attend the engineering talk. I was surprised to find out that NUS has a specialisation course in mechanical engineering for aerospace! And their facilities are the same, if not better than that in NTU. I was slightly tempted, cos I find NUS a better uni to be in. But nonetheless I think I'll stick to the one in NTU as my first choice. As I walked around, I met Vanessa with her classmates. Got a chance to talk to her for a bit. She looked tired, guess it's cos CO camp just ended that morning. Haha. I also got to meet a fellow section mate, as well as Jian Rui from my secondary school. And Jonathan, my bass junior, was there too! Haha he shook my hand to congratulate me for my results. Lol a bit random. Haha but it was good to see him there too. After the engineering talk, where the speaker was describing the glories of engineering, it's home sweet home for me.

Here I am now, thinking and trying to decide what choices I should consider in both NUS and NTU. I took time to meditate and pray to God about it, hoping that whatever I choose will be his plan for me =) Faith is very important to build and grow as a Christian. I hope that in time to come I will have a strong faith, and not be swayed or distracted by evil influences around. I also wish to have total trust in him, and have God's peace of mind and heart. For He has a plan for me, which will not bring me harm, and He knows what's best for me =D Thank you Lord!

Thanksgiving

2009-03-07T21:05:00.004+08:00

Hello! I'm finally out for the weekends after having the past 3 weekends taken away from me by my training schedule. Haha I miss going out with school friends from SACO and my class. It's great to be able to meet and talk with them after a month or so when we all gathered back in the school hall to await the release of the all-important A level results.

But before I get into the details of the results day, I just wanna mention what happened on my last book out that I feel thankful for. Since my last weekend was used for live range, I could only come out on the evening of 1 march (sun). And on that day was my mum's birthday. When I heard that we were gonna book out at 2000hrs, I was really disappointed and a little upset that I may not be able to spend time for dinner with my family as part of the celebrations for my mum's birthday. However, when I told my parents about it over the phone, they just told me to meet them at swensens white sands after I came out. And true enough, when i came out of the bus to meet my family, they were there. They've just finished ordering their food when I arrived. Haha so eventually I got to eat a little bit with them. I thank God that He provided time for me to spend with my family in the celebrations.

In the following week after I booked in was the re-IPPT test. I was hoping that I would be able to pass this time and make it out of BMT safe and sound. But it didn't turn out to be so. I failed my standing broad jump, meaning it's an overall fail grade. On the bright side, I wanna thank God for helping me in all my other stations. In fact, the results for all the other stations on the re-IPPT test were of gold standard. Especially my 2.4km run, I managed to make a personal record of 9:26 minutes!! Praise the Lord! Although my jumping didn't pass, but He provided for the rest, and i'm thankful enough for that.

Yesterday, the 6th of March was the release of the A level results. It was a great opportunity to get to meet back up with friends as I mentioned earlier. I had lunch at Toa Payoh with Ben before we went to school. We talked mostly about army life and things we've been through. After arrival at the school hall, I managed to meet up with more SACO ppl and of course my classmates. The level of anxiety and anxiousness began to build up as the time drew nearer and nearer to collect our individual results. Benedict went to collect his result slip. He got straight A's for all subjects except GP which was a B. Those around him gave him a pat or two on the back to congratulate him for the GP. Haha thank God that he managed to score better than expected for GP which he was so worried about. Same goes for me, I collected my results after him, and was glad to find that I had the same set of results as he does! How coincidental... Haha really really happy on the inside, smiling widely on the outside as I looked at my results. Truly thank God for His blessings.

As we move on to the next stage of our lives, applying for scholarships or university admissions, I hope that all of us will continue to keep in touch with one another. Now I also pray that God will lead me to choose the courses that He plans for me to take, for it is His plan that matters and not mine. Haha

I will be passing out of BMT soon, so by then I'll be able to spend more time with you guys back here in the mainland! Haha waiting for that day to come...

It's almost over!!

2009-02-22T22:35:00.005+08:00

Hey guys! I haven't been blogging for quite some time already... Haha as you can see this is the only post I have for this month of February. And it'll probably be the only one LOL. I've been away for the last weekend and this one. I'll only be free during Mondays and maybe Tuesdays until March comes along.

The last weekend was burned because of field camp. It's a 6 day 5 night camp out-field. I have to say it's very tiring with uncomfortable sleepless nights. But after the whole thing comes to an end, the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment felt really good. It's really a milestone in BMT that I've managed to survive and conquer. A moment that I remember quite clearly in field camp was the time when we received our letters from our family back at home. On that day, we were digging, digging, digging. Many of us were shacked, including myself. When our commander called us for a water break, he commented on our progress. Some of us were faster than others, who have found some form of motivation to carry onto completion of the task at hand. He then came about to ask us whether we have the motivation and determination to carry on. We as servicemen have the duty to defend our country of Singapore, and many people back at home are counting on us for protection. Our commander showed us the stack of letters in his hands, written by our parents and family loved ones. As he gave his speech, I believe many of us started becoming emotional, including the commander. Each one of us received the letters, sat down and opened the envelope. There were the letters written by my parents and brothers. I felt very moved at that point in time, with tears accumulating in my eyes. As I went back to resume the digging, the love for my family served as a great motivation to push on further and strive to reach for the sky.

This weekend, I had situational test. It's a 3 day 2 night thing where they'll split you up into random teams and be accessed on your leadership skills. It's much more fun than field camp. First part of the day would be doing missions, while the rest of the day is slacking around. Haha never thought we would have so many hours of slack time in the army like that, especially out-field. Over the past 2 nights I've been sleeping on an area of sand near the coast. Those 2 nights, I kenna bitten by sand flies like crazy. On one hand and a wrist, I can have as many as around 20 bites. It's super duper itchy!!

I'll be having my graduation from BMT in about 2 and a half weeks time. Haha it's gonna be over very soon. I just hope I'll be able to do better for IPPT then I'll be through with it once and for all. Hmm I wonder where I'll be posted to after I graduate... Hopefully command school haha... OCS may be difficult for me to get in I think. There are so many others with much greater potential to be leaders than me. I'm definitely not a good leader to start off with. But I'll be happy and content with whatever God wants me to put me through, be it in command school or some other unit. Because God knows what's best for me, better than I know myself =)

Fatigue

2009-01-31T23:40:00.003+08:00

Hello! I'm back again after 3 days training. It's the end of January 2009! Time flies by when we're all busy doesn't it? Haha as we inch deeper and deeper into the new year, I hope that every one finds their work and schedule smooth sailing so far =)

The CNY break was really good for me to rest and eat... Haha. Didn't really eat much of the new year goodies, like pineapple tarts/bakwa/egg rolls etc. But ate quite a lot of the steamboat food and other Chinese food. On the first day, I also had a buffet dinner at River View Hotel. The food there is really not bad... Haha was super full after the meal. On Tuesday, after having steamboat lunch at my grandpa's place, I had to reluctantly drag my boots back to pasir ris to go back to camp.

Although it's a short period of time of 3 days, the training was intense and tough. Thursday and Friday were killer days, where time for rest and recovery were very scarce. On thurs itself, I think we might have done a total of 400+ push ups, 300 jumping jacks, and 100+ crunches! plus plus other physical activities... So you can imagine how shacked I was at the end of the day. Friday didn't have any break time, so energy was quickly drained in the course of the day.

Surprisingly, NS is not just all about exercising day in day out. We have been given assignments as well... One of them is to do research on a topic (like issues concerning the Arab-Israeli Conflict) then present as a section to the rest of the platoon. Oh man... I thought my JC life was over already... LOL totally didn't expect to be doing such projects again.

Gonna book in again tmr evening. Still feeling very tired after the tiring week. I just wish for sleep as long as i want it to be... Haha so every time I'll be looking forward to booking out again to sleep =P

I pray that every one is doing well... every thing is going smoothly for all of you =D Keeping you guys in prayer...

Out for CNY!!

2009-01-25T19:01:00.003+08:00

Woohoo! I had my first book out from tekong on friday! Haha

For the past 15 days 14 nights I've been in tekong training for BMT. The first few days I felt really uncomfortable. Firstly, there's nobody there that I can talk to as almost all are new faces that I see. Next, is that my freedom is totally taken away from me!! I have to listen and execute orders and commands from the sergeants and officers there... Such a change in culture makes me uneasy at first. Subsequently, I got to know a few ppl. Since my batch are mostly JC ppl, they are mostly very nice or acceptable at least. Could be said that I'm back in my secondary school days in Maris Stella. All are guys and all are at liberty to scold vulgarities and such... Haha hopefully I'm rooted deep enough in God's word and principles to not be influenced by such behavior. I pray that as i draw closer to God, I'll be a light to others around me as well. =D

The first meal after book out was pizza hut! Haha =P Had delivery for dinner... really something different and delicious after having eaten food from BMTC for 2 weeks... haha. After having 10 hours of sleep, it was saturday already. Went to violin class, continued on practicing my bowing techniques. Following that, I went to plaza sing to meet classmates for lunch at xin wang. It was good to catch up with them again. Also got to share experiences with Timothy and Jin Quan about NS life. The 3 botak heads of the table there... Haha the only odd one out was Lucas =P

After lunch, timothy had to go. The rest of us just went walking around just to spend time away. Later, my classmates went to cathay while I remained at ps to meet cheeyae and yunguan to watch The Wedding Game. The show was not bad, hilarious at some points also... Haha. After my mac dinner, we went to bugis to meet Ben. Then the four of us went to look for clothes at Haji Lane. It was my first time there. My first impression was that there's nothing much to be seen, nothing much to shop around there. But after walking down the alley, we started to go up into the various shophouses, then I realised there's a lot more to be seen within. One of the shops had 2/3 really cute cats! They're very disciplined not to run out of the shop when the door is opened. Haha one of the cats was scared away cos of my violin case, then ran over yunguan's feet... Haha. Didn't get anything from there, so we went back to bugis junction. Ben and cheeyae managed to get some things from there. Went home eleven plus then slept.

Having reunion dinner now! Haha another great meal and gathering of the year =)
I thank you Lord for the lovely family that You have blessed me with. I pray that we'll continue to stand by one another through good or bad, and to grow in our relationship with You Lord. In Jesus' name I pray Amen.

Some pictures...

2009-01-06T17:33:00.005+08:00

Since the start of the new year 2009, nothing much has happened around me, so nothing much can be said about the new year. Anyway, this year i hope that I'll be able to devote myself daily to quiet time with God using Devos for Teens by Susie Shellenberger. This is the second book actually. I went through the first book halfway and stopped at mid year 2007 I think... haha. But since it's a new year, I guess it's good to have a new start, so I've begun to use this book and hope to be using it faithfully throughout the year.

Remember the Rafflesia flower I've mentioned earlier in kota kinabalu? I've got some pics here to show you... Haha.

These pics are taken by my phone, so the quality may not be so good... But at least u get the general image of how a rafflesia flower looks like... Haha this is the smaller species of the flower, so imagine the bigger one... Much bigger than this? hmm...

Yesterday, I went to collect my new plastic specs to wear for my NS life...

Haha for those of you who know me... This is super contrasting to what I used to wear... My specs frame now is so much thicker than the previous one... Looks like i'm wearing lab goggles? =P oh well... It'll only last me through ns, after which I'll get one that suits me more... Haha

I'll be going to tekong the day after tmr... so fast... Haha guess I'd better start packing my stuff and make sure I've got everything I need for the 2 weeks away...

Goodbye 2008 =)

2008-12-31T21:16:00.005+08:00

Today's the last day of the year 2008... The year passed by so quickly with lots of ups and downs... It was a hectic yet memorable journey =)

2008, being an A level year, was filled with assessments and tests and exams. I remember the weeks that all the subject departments just so happened to have tests on the same week! It's terrible... really terrible... Haha but still managed to breeze thru it, regardless of the results. Anyway the results were usually not bad ba... haha. So as the new year 2009 comes, I'll also be getting more worried abt how my results will turn out to be like. I'm really worried about my GP... it's really the worst subject out of everything (except Chinese as most of u know... haha) Furthermore, I don think i did well for the paper... my response for the AQ on history thingy was so not substantiated... =( Oh well... waiting waiting waiting... hopefully my sciences are all able to get A... haha and my econs... I'll be satisfied with B haha.

07S09 was more outgoing this year as well... We were quite a hyper group of people in class as well as outside I believe... Haha. It's a blessing to have such a class as them... just that sometimes I'm not very participative in their activities... haha well that's just me.

I've also been quite busy with SACO for the first half of the year. Had a few performances, at sgh, ngee ann city, sas, and in school. This year's concert was also very hectic. Our batch wasn't as efficient as the previous batch I think, so many things were complicated and relatively slow... But we all managed to pull off a good performance after all. Haha first time having a lead in a piece tango, and accomplished a new thing, arranging songs! Arranged 3 songs this year, Across the stars, Barbie Girl, and Pirates of the Caribbean!! haha the rest of the arrangers have also done a magnificent job meeting datelines and filling in the repertoire... great job to all! ;) I've also received the Colours Award which I think I don't really deserve. I was telling mdm hue that i didn't want it when she informed me that i would be a receipient... Haha she gave me a scowl face and hit my arm (I think...) however, i really think cheeyae deserves the award more than I do... she has definitely done more for the co than I did... In fact, there are a few others who deserve this award... I just feel a little angry that they didn't give out more awards for CO ppl... Haha I hope the next batch will do a better job than we did... A high chance that they will... haha

Another significant thing that happened to me this year was my relationship with yunguan. We started getting closer together since the end of 2007. Our bond grew stronger into 2008, and we started our secret journey from 17 Feb. I didn't plan to be attached, so we agreed to wait till after A levels till we get together officially. This didn't really work out in the end though. We did take the relationship slowly for a few months, but we started drawing away from each other in a way, with her doubting the security of our relationship. So since July, we've started behaving like a couple in public. However, it was another wrong move made. We were acting like a couple but we had no status as boyfriend/girlfriend. Eventually this caused some irritation along the way. Despite all this, we accompanied each other for study periods outside of school in preparation for tests and exams and A levels. Of course we couldn't neglect our studies right? And so, we've helped each other along the way towards completion of the A level exams. It was meant to be a great relief for us to have finally waited 9 months through thick and thin... But it didn't turn out to be so... I've become a more selfish person, and disagreements between our way of thinking, like dress sense, starting sprouting out and has really shaken our bond. In the end, her affection for me died off and it ended since the beginning of december. Through it all, I believe God wants us to get back to him. We have been focussing too much on worldly matters and on each other that we've been neglecting him. At least I've drifted away from him for quite a while. So for this new year's resolution, one of the things I have to do is to keep close to God's word and to build a strong relationship in him =)

I'll be going into NS very soon, in one week's time... Haha just got ready with basic necessities to bring into camp. Hopefully it won't be as tough as I think it will be... It'll probably be fun as well... haha I sort of look forward to experiencing this next phase of my life...

Gona have to welcome the new year in a few hours time... May God bless us with a good year 2009. Thank you Lord for all the blessings, relationships, friends...

Wish all of you a Happy New Year 2009!!

Kota Kinabalu

2008-12-29T21:53:00.003+08:00

Hi! I'm just gonna share about my trip to kota kinabalu from 23-27th december.

I departed from singapore in the afternoon, reached there at around the evening. First thing was to check-in to the resort. It's the best resort I've ever been to... haha. It's shangri-la resort and spa... a five star resort. After we got our rooms, we went to a nearby seafood restaurant at port view. It's relatively cheaper I guess... the food was also not bad. During our dinner, there was also a cultural show performed by the dance troup there. There were a few dances representing different ethnic groups in sabah... quite interesting haha.

The next day, took a long ride in a van to the mountain ranges. On the way, saw street side markets with fresh vegetables and fruits... can smell the freshness de... haha. And the shelters are all made of wood and maybe zinc metal roofs... very simple market. When we reached a place called poring (malay for some kind of bamboo), we had to trek to a canopy walk... it was all uphill to the canopy walk... The canopy walk path is only about as wide as your two feet placed together... haha and it looks very flimsy, like the supporting structure is made only out of metal ladders joined together. The trees supporting the trail are really really tall...haha. After walking around trees and foliage of plants, we went to relax in hot spring water nearby. Actually, we booked a private room with a big tub like a jacuzzi tub. Then we had to on the tap for the hot spring water to fill the tub... haha. Only my dad and brothers got to enjoy it, my mum decided not to. I think we adjusted the water a bit too hot... after being immersed in it for a long time, feel like i'm going to have a fever again... (oh i had a one week long fever in the first half of december... almost thought i had dengue)... We went to trek somemore after the hot spring at a cooler place... On the way, we managed to see a few bloomed Rafflesia flowers, the largest flowers in the world. There are 2 species of the flower, but i guess we only saw the smaller version of the flower. The flower can bloom up to 1.5 metres in diameter... and it's a rare beauty. The smaller version takes 9 months to bloom, and it will only bloom for 3-7 days. The bigger one takes 18 months to bloom, and bloom for a short while also. Haha Thank God we managed to catch a sight of the flower!! That was for christmas eve.

On Christmas Day, we had a more adventurous day out water rafting at kiulu river. It's grade 1 river rafting, with moving water and few or no obstacles... But i found it quite challenging already... haha. Very fun, first time water rafting. Since we went with a big group of people, a few boats were dispatched into the river at the same time. So on the way down the river, we would be splashing water at one another's boats... haha the instructors were a fun batch of people. At some spots down the river, the guides would ask us to get into the water to swim... Haha the water was cold and moving. It's like a water treadmill, where u swim in the opposite direction of the flow and u could remain stationary with respect to the river banks... Haha. Had to be careful not to be washed down the river by the current. What a wonderful way to spend Christmas... Haha. After that, went back to the resort. My dad, andrew and me went to try out the gym there. Haha got a chance to work out even when I'm overseas... first time lor. Had dinner at Fish & Co. at a nearby shopping mall there... Haha. I find the fries in Singapore is better than there though... but the rest are either as good or better than local. I bought a t-shirt from there... Apparently, the goods sold at Sabah may not necessarily be cheaper like in kuala lumpur...

The next day spent the morning at the resort beach... Not sure if i got a tan or not... Haha but my skin reacted quite badly with the seawater/sand... my body was filled with red patches all over... so itchy!! But it disappeared after a while before going out for lunch. In the afternoon, we travelled for abt 2 hours to a wetland reserve. Over there, we went to see probiscis monkeys and fire flies... These monkeys have big noses, and can be found in Singapore Zoo as well... anyway, we used speedboats to travel around the wetland there... So interesting right? I didn't expect that... I thought we had to walk around again to spot creatures... but we relaxed in the speed boat with the wind gushing at our faces, while the driver or guide spot the animals for us to see... haha. After our dinner there when the sun has gone down and it was all dark, we went on the speedboats again, this time to see the fire flies... In the dark, they flash on and off, resting on the trees such that it looks like christmas trees in the jungle there... Haha never seen anything like it before... The guide even managed to catch one and show it to us... It only flashes in the dark, and when other flies are flashing... According to the guide, they flash to find their partners... I donno how different the flashes are, so I donno whether to believe or not... Haha.

The following day was my youngest brother's birthday, we had little time in the morning to spend at the resort before going to the airport at around 930. Now amos is finally 13 years old and he can call himself a teen le... Haha

It's less than 2 weeks before I enter ns le... hopefully I'll get to enjoy my time there when my time comes... Haha and I'll also have to go shopping for basic necessities to bring into the camp with me...

Almost there...

2008-11-16T23:26:00.003+08:00

It's 16 November... Happy birthday Yunguan!! =] Haha hope your 3 wishes will come true!!

A levels are finally going to be a thing of the past once I completed my last paper on the 18th November... Haha at long last the my hectic JC 2 life can come to an end...

On friday, after chem paper, I signed in to xbox live Gold for the first time... Haha my brothers can finally play online on the xbox after waiting for probably a few years. They need someone who is 18 and above to help them sign in to xbox live gaming... so they waited for me to turn 18. But oops... even if I turned 18, my exams were not over yet. Furthermore, andrew has important O levels at that time, so we still could not sign up for it yet. So the day came on 14th Nov that I decided to let them have a go at the online gaming... Haha. Their patience all these years have paid off... Now most of their time is spent playing the xbox online with people all over the world... playing games like Halo 3, Gears of War 2 most commonly. Oh... this xbox live membership requires a Windows Live ID... so i used my hotmail account to sign up for xbox live. So whenever they are playing xbox live using the online account, I will pop up as online on msn messenger or something. Apparently, people were messaging my brothers (my account) while they were playing games... Haha. Therefore... my beloved friends online, please do not talk to me when my face is not on the display pic. If there's a pic, mostly red with a skull in the centre of the gear, or a gears of war insigna, me or my brothers are on the xbox so refrain from talking to me at those times... Haha thanks for your co-operation!!

Hmm... exams are going to be over soon... so what shall I do with my time after exams are over? Well, for starters I think i'm going to learn music theory and sign up for the music theory grade 5 exam next year March 14... haha hopefully I'll have time to study and memorise the theory stuff with all the Italian, German, French musical terms... Haha and most importantly, be able to turn up on the test date, since i'll be in NS by then... I should be able to make it, since my enlistment date is on 8th Jan next year... Haha... I'll be learning theory from yunguan's church friend, who was the one who taught yunguan for her grade 5 theory last year... According to yunguan, she teaches really fast, so I hope I'll be able to understand most of the stuff quickly... Haha so maybe I shld get started soon after exams are over to maintain the exam momentum.

Speaking about music theory, maybe sometime I can have a shot at the driving theory lessons... I'm not so sure how long on average it takes to complete the course, but if it's short enough such that I can do it before I enlist into NS, then why not sign up? Of course I'll have to ask my parents about that too... Haha since they are most likely the ones who will be paying for it.

Okay, tomorrow is the opening for the music theory sign up... Haha I should ask my parents about it... then can sign up and quickly learn all I can before my time is up for BMT... It's so soon, I'll only have about one and a half months before my freedom is taken away from me... haha but at least I won't have to waste time... Earlier go in, earlier come out, then maybe can peacefully work or be admitted into uni? Not so sure if Singapore uni will have January intake or not... See how then ba...

Alright, the post entry ends here... Haha at least I have some time to type out this blog entry now... better than nothing... Haha

study study study...

2008-10-16T21:15:00.005+08:00

Hi guys! I'm back for a short update to my long abandoned blog... Haha.

It's the study break now, and every one is just trying to squeeze everything into their heads. The final lap is finally here, but it's not the end yet. I believe most of us will be free and enjoying ourselves about one months time later. So all we have to do is jiayou! jiayou! jiayou!

I wonder if anyone practices what ms chia said about studying 10 hours a day... If any of you guys do that can tell me? Haha... just interested to know who's the hardworking ones this season...

And so I'm signing off.... Till next time!!

June Hols are finally here!

2008-05-31T22:11:00.004+08:00

The end of term 2 has arrived, and the mid year 4 week break is finally here. Haha...I've been looking forward so much to this hols. The school term was hectic, with so many tests here and there. Many times I really felt so lost and don't know anything much about the topic. I haven't been focussing much on my studies lately, so I kind of fell behind. Comparing myself now and my previous self, I think I'm even less prepared for my subjects than last time. Haha, well for one thing, I'm still lazy. I'm not so sure if I'll really use this holiday break to catch up with my work fruitfully or not. I always regret not spending enough time on studies during the hols. Will this break be any different? I shall see...

Anyway, I'm so glad to be rid of one component of my H2 sciences. YES...SPA is finally gotten rid of from my life. Haha... SPA is just so full of memory work. Every time I have to reserve a portion of my memory for the sake of putting in all the steps and concepts into my head, just to be regurjitated on the actual assessment. There's not much thinking involved in SPA. To me it's like total memory work. It's as if the answers are all given to you, and you don't have to bother to think up any other solutions. In a way I like it because I feel secured of having the standard answers in my head. But I still feel as if it was a waste of time and effort. What we've memorised will not be of much use in the written exams. At least I don't think so. Hmm...well I'll make an exception for chem skill A, but still only a small proportion of it is useful. In any case, it's over! No point complaining and grunting about it le...it's all over.

Another thing that's out of my life just yesterday was the H3 physics. I have spent my last half of the year struggling to understand the profound concepts and theories that I had to learn for the H3 syllabus. I started learning quantum way before the school started teaching it. It was so abstract that I really couldn't grasp it well enough. Haha...luckily the school went through quantum and semiconductors just in time for my revision for the H3 exam yesterday. If not for the H2 lessons, I think I'll really struggle trying to understand the complexity of the theories. So yesterday was the final paper, which has a 70% weightage for my entire course. Really scary if you ask me. It's such a big proportion of the marks. Anyway, I think I was able to answer most of the questions to some standard...haha. I don't think they're very good answers, but I hope that my concepts were exhibited correcly. As for questions with calculations, I'm quite confident that I got them right. All except for one question. And it's like 10 marks!! Haha...I think I'll just get at most 2 marks from there for calculating the charge inside and out of the cell. I really didn't know what the question was asking for. It sounded so weird. It may be correct, so I might not have studied that part very well. Haiz...all I want is a pass for the whole course. If I get a merit grade I'll be happy and content already...haha. Distinction...hmm....a bit hard though...but I'll never know. According to Ms Wong, it all depends on how the normal distribution curve turns out to be. I may not have done well in terms of the marks for the paper, but in relation to other people, maybe I've done better? Haha...of course if I think I did well but the rest did better, I'm at the losing side. Oh well, it's over and out of my life. So now I'm just gonna wait for the results coming out next year along with my A levels.

And with that, one week of the hols was taken up. The first week was spent going to school to finish up some required topics, tutorials to revise our past work, and for some would be consultation. This academic stuff was on for Mon to Wed. CO camp started on Wed, and ended yesterday. So sad...I didn't get to attend the camp and participate in the activities. From what I heard, it seems as if the games were quite fun and interesting. Got movie screening, night walk, outdoor game to eat food at bugis, telematch, etc. Haha...I really donno how fun or not fun it was. I'm just judging from people's comments. So while people were having fun and playing about, I'm studying, burying my head in my notes, and fixing my eyes on the comp as I researched on the abstract concepts that make up the H3 syllabus. Over the course of this year, I didn't have the chance of participating in a full CO camp. The previous orientation camp, I didn't stay over cos I had violin lessons. So I just came for the second day. This time around, I didn't get to do anything...haha, just came back to see people sleeping and eating and slacking. Never got to see them playing games...haiz.

So, how shall I spend the rest of my holiday? Which days can I relax and play, which days do I have to study and study and study? I really wonder...haha. I hope I can make some use of this holiday to catch up. Feels as if I'm really falling behind the rest.

By the way, does any one know who "someone from CO" is? Haha...

Birthday to grandma

2008-05-17T23:05:00.003+08:00

Today's my 外婆's birthday, and the party gathering was held at my place in the function room. It seems like that is going to happen almost every year, cos it was the same last year and probably the year before haha. Oh well, less travelling for me then...I'm just so lazy haha!

In the morning I had violin lesson, as per normal recently. The best part is that I only practiced on that morning before breakfast, immediately after I woke up. Haha...some warm up before the actual lesson is better than no practice at all. I think I did improve some bits, but I have to press on further and be more hardworking in my violin to get what I want for the exams. According to the school, I've only left like 8 lessons before the exams...oh my, that is very few. And I'm not that up to standard yet...really got to brush up my skills le. I really don want to waste this opportunity to get a good grade for the first music exam I am going to take in my entire life. Haha I really hope I can pull it off well. My exams will be a few days before my birthday, in the midst of my prelims. I really hope that I won't experience any clashes in any of the papers. Somehow I have the feeling it won't...haha. Hoping so...

After violin, I came home and rested a while. Then I started playing around with my handphone PIN and other codes...then up to some point, I cannot access my phone functions. Subsequently, still play around then in the end, the SIM card kenna rejected. Haha I felt so dumb. Then I told my parents, then after lunch we went down to a service counter to get a new replacement. Luckily they didnt charge any amt, cos i'll have to pay for my stupidity and ignorance of it. Haha, well once is enough, I don want to do it again. So, now I've lost all my contacts numbers. I'll have to find my old SIM card to get most of the contacts back if i can. Haiz, why did I do such a stupid thing?

At home, I practiced my erhu for the performance I'm going to give my 外婆 later in the evening. I was trying to choose between 瑶族舞曲 and 良宵. In the end, I chose the easier way out, by picking 瑶族, cos the other song is an erhu solo piece, and I haven't played that one for at least a year or so. Although I can still rmb the piece and most of the fingerings, I had not much confidence that I could play well enough for my grandma, and afraid that I may 丢脸 in front of my relatives. Haha, so I played my own rendition of 瑶族 in the evening. Oh man I'm so happy that most of my relatives thought that it was well played. I know I messed up a bit in the middle, cos someone told me to look up and distracted me...haha. I cannot really multi-task while playing an instrument. But anyway, I pulled it off rather well I suppose, made her happy. The other performing item was done by another of my cousins playing guitar. She was the accompanist to 2 of my aunts, who sang a lovely sweet song to my grandma...haha. 我的外婆一定被感动极了.

Before the performance was dinner. Every household would bring some food to eat. There were mee siam, salad, duck soup, cocktails, satay, etc. A lot of food to eat. After the performance was a movie screening, where some watched a film regarding 三国演义. I didn't really find interest in watching it la...haha. Cos I talked to some of my cousins instead, and some played billiard there as well.

That was the first time I played specially for my grandma to hear. Haha, I also rmb that I played a CNY song to my ah gong on chinese new year specially for him as well. But that time I wasn't really well prepared, so wasn't as nice.

"Happy birthday to you!..." Cut cake time. It was mango cake, something that Amos doesn't like at all...haha. But I enjoyed the sweet cake ba...seldom have mango cake coming along my way, since most of the cakes in my family are chocolate, as we have to accomodate Amos's taste...haha.

It was a fun time I suppose...

Break Time

2008-03-23T20:56:00.002+08:00

Hi ppl!!! Oh man, it's really been a long time since I updated anything into this blog. The frequency is really very low this year. I can't seem to make a point to blog or enter a small post every single day, or at least once a week. I'm just lazy. I know this is not school work or anything academic, but I somehow still treat it like so...like, the longer I don't post something, the more reluctant I am to blog anymore. It's like homework piling up, and you feel less eager to do them and finish them up, cos you know that u're not able to do so any time soon. Oh well, it's alright. I'm me, and I don't blog very frequently at this point in time...haha.

The start of the new term was block test 1. I felt that the papers set had some difficulty. I don't know if it's becos it is really difficult and tough to do...or I didn't study hard enough. Perhaps a bit of both. I know I didn't really study very hard for the block test, like practicing problems and qns, and taking the effort to memorise some stuff from econs. I think I'll be most disappointed in my econs. I only studied for it the day before, and I was just plainly reading through the notes, understanding some of the concepts. But, I understand already doesn't mean I can write out the facts from my head if I didn't take any effort to memorise them. So I guess I'll be sadded by econs. The other one is physics. This one I didnt take enough time to practice, so another saddening subject. I really hope the GP will be better, really hoping for a pass this time round..pls pls pls pass!!

Thursday was the last paper. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a very fun day that day. After the paper, I went home straight. At home, I went to watch Dvd. After that, I rushed out to top-up my ez-link card, and took the long way to go to H3 tutorial lessons. I was already late, but it seemed that my friends were even later than I...haha. The tutorial room had no more than 10 students....I really wonder what the others are up to. Are they too anchored down by work....or are they having so much fun that they don't want to turn up for the tutorial session. In the evening, I went out with benben, kenneth, vivian, and jason to bowl at TK shopping centre....too bad it was closed down, so we just spent the time to walk and talk. For me, it's better than slacking at home doing nothing. At least I spent some time out.

On friday, I went out with almost the same group of people to watch Horton. It is a truly hilarious show, really stupid, but cute and funny. Followed by that, I went to find nick at esplanade. We went to buy the tickets for the Casual Concert by SSO on sunday, which was earlier today.

On Saturday, I had violin recital, or mini-concert, in the morning. I played my exam pieces and one extra piece. From that performance, I seriously feel that I need to brush up on my techniques in order to get distinction for the actual exams. I really don't want to get any thing below a distinction. Perhaps I expect too much from myself, or perhaps it's from my teacher. Whatever it is, I guess I have to keep my eyes on the prize... After that, I went to Shiyun's place for buffet and to meet back up with some of the CO seniors. Got to say a few words here and there. Not much though...don't know what to say or talk about. It's just me.... I went home late that night. I didn't have the house key when I went home, and every one was already asleep. I had to ring the doorbell three times before my dad came to the rescue. I wouldnt have rung the doorbell any more than 3 times if nobody answered. Thank God that someone did....if not I'll just sleep outside, without my comfy bed.

The next day, today, Easter Sunday, started off with waking up early at 6. We had to go for an early morning service at Pasir Ris Park. It was a new experience I guess, though we didn't really get to see the sunrise. Baptism was also carried out that day at the sea...haha, it's just so interesting. There's so much space, the water is cold and salty....somehow, it's so natural to do it in that way....haha. Rather than at a small pool in my church. I had some time to sleep after I reached home later that day. As you can imagine how tired I can be when I slept at one plus and had to wake up at 6 later one during the holiday weekend. So ironic, I seem to be getting less sleep than I do during school days....weird me...haha.

In the evening at 5pm, me and nick went to see the SSO concert. It was my first time watching SSO and the first time I watched sth in the esplanade. The concert hall was really nice. The performances were not bad as well, just that the pieces can be a bit too long. It was such a pity that the solo violinist, Anna Lee, a 10-yr old girl, could not perform this evening. So, she was replaced by some older soloist. He was also not bad, really good with his techniques, feel and skills. Just that it was a bit saddening that we couldn't get to see a small girl play the same pieces. It would have been so much more entertaining to see such a young girl play such pieces that require immense skill my the player. Too bad....

Hope you guys also had a Happy Easter weekend, perhaps a good break from studies for some of you. Or a time to catch up with work undone. Whatever it is, hope you guys have done what you have planned to set out to accomplish....haha. Smile ppl!!! =)

Chinese New Year!!

2008-02-09T21:38:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, I'm back after a long time of disappearance...haha. First of all, Happy Chinese New Year to all of you readers of my blog, may this year be a prosperous and blessed New Year for all of you! Yes, and I'm sorry as well for not having posted anything for the past one month or so, leaving my blog abandoned and un-used, and so un-interesting...haha. Even Ben had to tag 6 times in a row to keep my blog alive with some activity...loL. Anyway, I'll take this CNY break to blog about certain things, perhaps not all the things that happened, but recent things.

Hmm, let's start with School in January. As some of you already know, I'm taking H3 Contemporary Physics this year, so it's like acting as a replacement for my Project Work, resulting in about the same number of subjects taken this year and last year. But, at least this will surely be more enjoyable than thinking of new ideas, fresh ideas, generation of ideas for PW...haha. H3 Physics sounds like fun before I actually took it. I looked at the syllabus, and we'll be covering topics on biophysics, nanoscald physics, and semiconductor physics, all are quite interesting to learn about. Little did I know that it can turn out to be a complicated subject to learn. Haha, I seemed to have underestimated the level of difficulty for a H3 subject. It will take me a while to understand what had been taught in one lecture, becos the things taught are abstract, and at the same time, the lecturer will usually go quite fast. Sometimes, the lecturer will ask for feedback from the students in the lecture theatre, for eg on whether he went too fast, or whether we could catch whatever that he was saying. I felt like slapping those ppl who said that it was too slow, and that they could understand every single thing that was taught. Those smart alecks are gonna be the death of me =X Ok, enough said about the H3 subject. It is an interesting subject to undertake, and I'll use it as a challenge to see how much I can understand the physics that was taught, whether I'll be able to understand how physics can be used in almost every aspect of our lives.

Next thing, CCA sign up day. I was very impressed at the number of students who signed up for CO, it was about 30+ ppl. Some of them had musical background, and some do not, but I was happy nonetheless to see that the years ahead for SACO could be promising. Although not all the ppl who signed up turned up for practices, but still, it was a small step that we had to take, to ensure that the CO will not die down, and that it will rise up to be one of the best which SAJC had to offer. Haha, I sound so revolutionary.....oops =P

Under the new management of the new principal, the JC2s are being drilled to the core in our academic studies. Our first month as a senior of the school turned out to be very hectic indeed. Within the first 4 weeks of our new school term, we are faced with many tests and assessments. The most irritating of all is the Milestone Assessment(MSA). This is like a mini-block test, or lecture test, which tests us mainly on our last year's topics. Of all the papers that I've taken, I'm most worried abt my GP. I already know that I'm gonna fail, without even looking at the paper, I already know that is going to be the outcome. The main problem with me in GP is that I take to long to answer the simple literal and inference qns of the comprehension. I have bad time management during a GP test, always being unable to complete the paper on time, not writing enough for the Application Qn. I dread GP la....I dunno how I'm gonna do well for it in the major exam. I must find a way soon....For the rest of the subjects, I think I have no problem. I'm very happy with my chem, maths although not A, but still managed to get a B for a tough paper, so I'm content with that. The others like econs and physics still havent get back yet. I hope I'll be able to do well in those 2. Oh ya, my physics teacher told me that in my class, only 9 ppl passed for the physics MSA. I hope I'm one of them...haha.

Ok, after that hectic first month of the new year, it's time to relax and look forward to the CNY break. I'm sure many of you guys out there were waiting for this break to come soon. I trust that your first month as a JC2 had been very tiring and busy. Come to think of it, if it's already so hectic now in the first month, the beginning of the year, then how worse can it be closer towards the second half of the year? It's already so tiring now trying to keep up with the school work, and studying for the tests, then the later part of the year would be like hell?! Haha, I cant imagine.Why are we drilling ourselves with books and academics? We're still youths arent we? We shld have some fun still....haha. I think I'll be looking forward to every bit of fun that comes along my way.

On CNY eve, CO had to perform 2 times for the celebrations. Once for the year 2, and then for the year ones. I was playing the banhu, the loud and high pitched one, I sure hope that I didnt screw up anywhere. Then after the performances, me and yunguan went to see the louhay competition. By the time we went there, the judges have alr chosen the top 6 dishes. The overall winner was 07S08. I think they used lumps of cereal to make their dish, making it look colourful, and have a sweet smell. Haha, the funny thing was, every one messed up their own dishes, spilling it all over the table, and all over the floor, onto ppl's pants and shoes. In the end, nobody wants to eat. So disgusting alr, sure nobody wants to eat...haha. After we were dismissed, a couple of us CO ppl went to vivocity to eat lunch at Central. I had the HK beef horfun there. It was quite nice to eat, I enjoyed that meal, got to try sth new. After lunch, some had to go home or elsewhere. The remaining went to watch the Singapore movie Ah Long. It's violent, but hilarious at the same time. The lead actors were all very good, funny and crazy, making the movie nice to watch. I guess it's like Happy Tree Friends. The shows are gruesome, but funny at the same time. But HTF is a bit too gruesome for my liking, cos I'll feel like puking after watching a few shows...utterly disgusting. The day ended with the reunion dinner at my place, and had a sumptuous meal that night.

The following day, I went to my mum's eldest brother's place at Tampines. As usual, we eaten dinner there, watched TV, played some comp games, some went to play 21. Then we went off to my grandad's house to visit for a while, keep him company on the first day. The day ended after we went home for dinner later. Later in the night, Ben and Yunguan asked me if I wanted to go and watch a movie. I was least expecting this sort of thing to happen lor. It's so random, but yet they were serious. They were asking me at like 1030pm, and they wanna watch kungfu dunk in the middle of the night. It took me quite a while to decide...in the end, I agreed to go along with them. So we went to Tampines Mall to catch the show. It was not bad at all, the show. It was a funny and yet thouching story....haha. Yunguan was tearing after the show....I guess it's a show that you must see. Haha, I managed to catch 2 movies during this CNY break, can de-stresss a bit le...haha. After the show, we went to yunguan's house to play wii. Some of the games are quite fun to play for the first time. But I think if I were to play it every day, the fun will wear off quite fast. It's good to play these with friends, cos every one will have a good laugh....hahaha. I reached home at 7 in the morning, and met my dad at my house's main door. He was going for golf training. I slept later till lunch time.

The second day was as busy. We went first to my one of my married cousin's house. It's super nice la...like living in a hotel. Very cosy for a young couple, but for children, may be a bit of a problem...haha. Next, we went back to my grandad's house. This time, there were the other relatives...so more activity. After eating dinner there, we went to my mum's eldest sis place. I played a game of monopoly there, and won for the first time in my life..haha. I was so happy, cos other times, I wouldnt even finish the game. It will usually take like hours to finish the game, so in the end, we wouldnt have determined the winner. But this time round, we played for only 2 hours. The other players all got bankrupt easily, cos all went to but hotels as soon as possible. Furthermore, people land on the places with hotels quite frequently...so the kick-out rate was quite fast. I was really fortunate to have won. Firstly, I bought the area which most ppl will land on, then ppl will pay me loads. Secondly, I keep going to jail, so I'm safe from stepping onto other ppl's property. Althought I dun get to earn the salary, I still get money from the other players...cool right? Haha, so eventually, the Jail King won...super funny la....

Ok, that's all I have to say for now. Today's activities were nothing much...haha, not worth blogging=X So, once again, I wish all you readers a blessed Chinese New Year!!!

Christmas

2007-12-26T21:48:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! I'm back to tell you more about what I did for this holiday season.

Let's start with the Eve of Christmas. Nothing much happened during the day. Evening and the night was more eventful. My family signed up for Christmas carolling with my church. That evening, we went to the church to have some time of fellowship and worship. Following that, we had a briefing and we were split into different teams, going out to various areas in the Lavender community. My family was put into a group which went to a nearby HDB block...really really near our church. Our group was so big, I had doubts that all could fit into one household. And, my doubt turned out to be true...haha. Anyway, my team was assigned 3 households in that one block. So, we went to each of them, one by one. I think we sang about 5 songs to each of the 3 households. All the same songs save for one. Ya, we sang songs like Silent Night, O Comes all ye Faithful, yi1 jian4 li3 wu4, We wish you a merry Christmas, etc.

The sequence of things to do were to go to the correct storey first. From there, we set off from the landing, singing as we walk down the corridor to the assigned household. The songs were led by a guitarist, and we sang 2- 3 songs first. Following that, we have one or 2 scripture readings to the families. Before the final song, "We Wish you a Blessed Christmas", the pastor of our group prayed for the family, for them to accept Jesus as their Savior should they choose to do so on that very joyous night. As we sang the final song, we passed out a small hamper as a gift to the family. Every thing went quite smoothly. The second house we went to was empty, so we sang to one of the other neighbours nearby who would accept the carolling. I believe that all the people who opened up their doors to receive the blessings have really been blessed, even those who were listening along the corridors. I saw one household with some idols inside. The owner came to open his gate to see what all the joyful singing was about. He did not say anything, but quietly watched us as we sang carols to another household. He stood there throughout our singing, till we were done for that particular household. If I'm not wrong, he abandoned his TV programme to watch and hear our singing. As we were leaving for the landing, I passed his house, and say a big smile on his face. This is one example of how people were blessed in one way or another that night.

After our visit to the community, we headed back to the church and had some supper. I think we were eating more of a meal than a mere supper. Can get quite full after eating the nice food catered for us. We talked and talked for about an hour or less, with other families and cell group members, then my family went home...of course with me along la. That night, my parents wanted all of us to sleep early, so couldnt really stay up past midnight to send more messages...managed to send some though. Thanks to all who wished me Merry Christmas in various ways...Really Appreciate them!

Coming to Christmas, waking up from a good night's sleep, considering I slept relatively early. My youngest bro was fast. Immediately after breakfast, he went to the tree and started to feel and think about what his presents were. Anyway, he also made clay models for all of my family, it was really nice of him to do so. Being the impatient person that he is, he also insisted that he opened up his birthday present on Christmas day. He just couldn't wait another 2 more days to his birthday. So, he opened it, and got a nice red ZenStone mp3, same model as what my other bro got for his birthday earlier this year. Now all of us have mp3 players, so he wouldn't feel so left out anymore, I hope. By the way, I got my Christmas present from my parents in advance, because I had to choose it during the weekend. I was really happy about this year's gift. It be the best one in my life so far.... (which I will not discuss here)

Yup, we were all happy, every one was happy and pleased with all their gifts, big or small, simple or expensive. We decided to go out to cycle a new route after this present opening. East Coast Park it was...but before cycling, we needed to have lunch, so we had Subway. Following that, we rented bikes for all of us. Since this was our first time trying out the new route of Park Connectors, we didn't even know where to start cycling from. In the end, we cycled the wrong direction, realised that the park connector was the other way, so we had to go backwards to find it. We have wasted time and therefore rental fees. I was told by my dad that the route we were taking was roughly the length of a marathon, which is approx. 42 km. I did not know how long that really was, but I guessed if you had wheels, it shldn't matter too much. I was so wrong....

The entire cycling trip that day took us a total of 6 hours, including wasting time to find our way and resting for drinks. The route, starting from East Coast Park, uses park connectors. So from ECPark, we took the connector to go to Bedok Reservoir Park. The connector itself was 8-9 km long. I remembered passing Kembangan mrt station on the way. At BRPark, we had trouble finding the next connector to the next area, wasting time again. After asking for directions from a cyclist, we continued on our way to Tampines. We had a long ride to Tampines, passed by TM, stopped at S11 for a drink. After that rest, we went on our way to Pasir Ris. One tedious part I remember was a very long up-slope part. On the bicycle, it was tough to go up the slope. I persevered all the way to the top and stopped. Once I stopped, my legs just began to break down, starting to cramp when I tried to even stand. It was really painful to walk at that point. The good thing was that after that, it was mostly down slope. Continuing, we passed by an industrial area. There was this Hitachi Chemical plant. I could smell acidic or some corrosive smell of chemicals coming out from the plant...disgusting. From Pasir Ris, we cycled on to Changi Village. Many people were setting up tents there, camping. They were mostly Malays and Indians. Cycling on, we finally arrived along the Changi Airport. Once we reached there, I was glad that we had a very straight road ahead. It felt good to cycle alongside the airport on the straight road for a while. Subsequently, it felt as if the road would never end. The road was extremely long, the whole stretch could be 7km. Besides that, we had some instances of airplanes taking off and landing. Yup, we were cycling along a runway or 2. Quite a nice experience to hear and see planes taking off on a closer scale.

After the long road, we arrived back at the familiar ECPark. I was so happy when we reached back. But it soon wears off, because it was still such a long way back to the rental place. It took us about half an hour to reach the bicycle rental, from the point we were just entering ECPark. The whole trip was really an experience. I dunno when I would try that again. I guess not so soon....very tiring. The next time my family does that, I think we will just go the other direction to the airport and turn back already.

If any of you guys want to try out the cycle route, u shld try at least once...haha. You can ask me to guide if u want =P..... jkjk

Overall, I enjoyed this year's holiday season. Now it's almost back to school, and time will be so much more crampy. Hopefully next year will run smoothly.

Last week of Hols liao...

2007-12-24T23:09:00.000+08:00

For many of you, the holidays are coming to an end, as in there is only left for you one week to have fun before the hectic year ahead. A funny thing to say that the holiday is ending, but yet the holiday festive season has only just begun....it's gonna be Christmas!! A much anticipated holiday in the entire year! Tonight is the night that Christ the Savior was born into the world....what good news is that?! Very good news!! He has come to us, taking the burden for all our sins, and paying the full price for them. Now we are set free!! Isn't that good news? This day is truly a joyous day to celebrate, the birth of Jesus Christ. So, I'll also take this time to wish all readers a very Blessed Christmas this year!!

Now, for the entry. Some days, or a week ago, my parents went to get the mail one evening. They came back with 3 special letters, all with the same design, designated to 3 different people. These were envelopes with a yellow banner on the top. If dun already know my family structure, I have 2 other brothers, making a family of 5. The 3 letters were for the 3 of us. It was the Good Progress Award!! And on top of that, ALL three of us got it at the same time!! My mum was really pleased to know that all her 3 sons, her 3 little lazy worms, had done well academically. So, this year, 3 of us, one primary, one secondary, one JC, all had different prize money...and I got the most...yay!! haha, we were all happy I guess. Amazing that all three of us got it! Thanks be to God!!

Last week held the last of the CO practices this year. I'm happy that my song got along relatively well, I suppose...haha, because it has been made easy...loL. No la, there's still some sections of difficulty, but they can be tackled no prob...glad to see that liu lao shi liked the song. I'm also pleased with cello at group F...that is a tricky part, but they kinda got it all right in just a few tries...haha, I'm impressed. Zhong ruan as well, the hordes of triplet notes all the way, you guys drive the orchestra!...Good job! Truly pleased by them. I guess I don't have to worry about the song too much now. Just have to add in guzheng appropriately, include slurs for strings...and that's it...a good job well done. All the other songs were excellent as well...we have some good arrangers in our midst I find.

I'm quite satisfied with the past week, managed to finish up, or attempt most of my homework. I'm just left with the Maths papers. So, I'll use the remaining week to do just that. But I'll have to do it out of home though, cos my toilets will undergo renovation starting this Christmas week. There'll be hacking and all that noisy and dusty kind of stuff happening around the house. The worst thing is that I have no toilet to use for some days...luckily my condo got showers somewhere, at least can wash up and release waste...haha. So troublesome...renovate the toilets just when it's going into the new year.

Just 2 more days after Christmas, on the 27th Dec will be the last birthday my fiamily will celebrate for the year. And that will be my youngest bro's bdae. Yup, it's this late in the year. This year, we keep getting confused him becoming 12 or 13. Cos he just finished his primary 6 studies, moving on to secondary next year. So, our minds sort of move towards the direction that he was going to be a teenager. But in fact he's not even 12 yrs old...quite funny.

Oh well, that's all I want to say. I'll try to update about my Christmas happenings and events soon. Right now, my mum wants me to sleep, so I'm typing in the dark, and the monitor brightness is killing my eyes!

Wish all of you a Blessed Christmas once again!!

Night Safari

2007-12-14T17:14:00.000+08:00

Yes...I know it's been a long time since I blogged about anything. Not because I have nothing to blog about actually, just don't feel like blogging.

Ok, let me start with Night Safari. I forgot which Tuesday it was, but I'm sure it was a Tuesday. That day, the original plan was to go to the zoo first with my ah gong at around 5pm, almost closing time. In the end, we reached there at 6, which is like closed already. So, my family plus ah gong had dinner at KFC. After eating to my stomach's content, we walked over to Night Safari. It has been very very long since I have stepped into the safari. I guess it must have been like more than 10 years already. I can't even remember what was inside. At the outer courtyard, there was a performance going on. Nothing to do with animals, just some tribal guys playing and doing stunts with fire, like "spitting" out fire from their mouths, and all those kind of stuff.

There was one part of the show where a foreign volunteer was asked onto the stage. He had to take off his shirt like the performers. Then, he was asked to follow their steps in some dance moves, and to shout a cheer/battle cry. The best part is that he was asked to put a flaming torch into one of the performers mouth. I think in his first try, the flame touched the guy's chin...haha. That volunteer must be super paiseh. With the help of another performer, he did it. After the final act, the show was over.

I looked around the area, there were lots of people. And guess what, they are ALL tourists. Well, at least 90% of them...cos we met up with other Singaporeans along the way. Our first stop is the creatures of the night show. It's like the bird park and zoo shows put together, except that most of the animals shown were small. I guess those night critters are mostly the sneaky kind. The most interesting part of the show, I think, was the fake emergency. Nearing the end of the show, the speaker was interupted by a member of the staff that something was let loose. The audience was asked to alert them if they found or felt anything brush past their legs. Most of the people were obviously a bit shocked. Seriously, I don't think it was a real emergency, they just put up an act like that to make it more interesting. The creature was a huge heavy python. They brought the python onto the stage, and started explaining about the creature. They even called up a volunteer to carry and touch the snake. If they can put up such a great explanation of the snake, I don't think the emergency was real.

So, after the entertaining show, we took a tram for the first half of the way. Do you want to walk all the way in the dark?...I dun think so right? We went on board one of the trams, relaxed as we went into the darkness of the safari. Along the way, we saw some animals, with the tram master telling us about what those animals were and all that kind of stuff. We stopped at the Leopard trail. We had a chance to stretch our legs, walking around, looking at some wild cats. Somewhere along the way, we went to see some fruit bats up close. They can practically cling onto you or land on your head if they want to. You are walking through their enclosure, and they are freely flying about, eating the fruits that were hung on branches of trees. Luckily they were fruit bats and not blood-sucking bats like vampires. I tried taking a picture of one quite close, but the picture always ends up black, as if blank. Too bad my phone doesnt have flash, but anyway, Flash photography was not allowed.

After some rest, we went back to the tram, and arrived back at the entrance. Sounds quite short? I'm briefly stating the main parts of the safari. We took roughly 2-3 hours looking around. My dad treated the 3 of us (me and bros) to Ben n Jerry ice cream. The ice cream was quite thick. Mine was chocolate chip, and the chip bits were huge, nice to eat something like this once in while. That marked the end of our family outing a few weeks back.

Over the whole trip, I can't help but feel a little out of place. We were surrounded by foreigners and I felt like I'm not a part of Singapore, acting like one of the tourists, sort of like being part of a tour group. There was one instance when we were waiting to enter the amphitheatre to watch the night show. We were standing in the midst of people from Thailand, and possibly Japan, with a few westerners. One of them, being friendly and sociable people, asked my ah gong where we were from. Since he couldnt understand English, he didnt answer, so the foreigner asked my mum. When she answered that we were from Singapore, he was quite taken aback. I don't think he was expecting that reply. It seems like Night Safari is one of the main tourist attractions, alonside the zoo. There were hardly any Singaporeans around.

The next day, my dad went to Cambodia for an Exposure Trip. It was like a missionary trip there, but not exactly much of that kind of job. It was just an exposure. The trip lasted for 5 days, and he just came back this Monday. Ah...now I know which Tuesday it was that we went to Night Safari, last week's tuesday. My dad brought back some fragrant rice, and other souveniers. The pictures he had taken were interesting to look through. There were images of the services there, which were kind of different from here in Singapore, without the standard buildings which you see around. It was like under tents, with a guitarist to lead the worship. He also encountered children. I don't know exactly what it was about, but there were pictures of many children. Perhaps it could be a school lesson, or a Sunday school, or a home/childcare centre...I'm not so sure at the moment, have to ask more from my dad.

Coming back to something closer to home, CO is currently coming up with new songs. So far the songs are all quite nice, yunguan's and hiajing's. There'll be more to come from yet more people. It's good to take this holiday season to practice on our instruments and to be exposed to more genres of music. I know my song is difficult with all the weird and rare keys coming out. I'll try to transpose it to something easier. Or even better, shorten the song for easier trasposition. But there is one thing not so good about all this, is that the original feel of the song may not be there anymore. It may become quite boring if shortened, become more happy or sad when the keys are changed. Hopefully, I can find a suitable solution soon. I havent been able to contact mr low online, he's always away...haha.

Half a month of holidays to go, better cherish it well before the school term starts again =)

Having fun?

2007-12-03T11:00:00.000+08:00

Continuing from the previous post, we come back to the SACO chalet at pasir ris. Before that, I just wanna add something. I dun noe why every chalet I have attended for school outings, be it cca or class, it is always either downtown east, or pasir ris costa sands. Why not east coast, or sentosa? =P Go downtown east also never went to escape theme park there to play. East coast got the beach right outside the chalet, just a few footsteps and u're there. Then there can also cycle longer distances, can even venture all the way to the airport runway there see planes take off...haha, I've only done that once.

Ok, CO chalet. The room was big enough I guess, at least for sleeping. The first night, a whole big group of people went to kbox, leaving only a few ppl behind, enough space to sleep. The second night, also a few ppl left behind, most of the seniors went off after the bbq. First night, at least I could lie flat on a mattress, could sleep for 2 hours plus, before the kbox ppl started knocking on the door, waking me up. Second night was uncomfortable. I didnt wanna sleep on the floor, so I slept on the stairs. It took me some time to find a comfortable position. And once I found it, I only had a short time to sleep before the seniors woke me up. But even that position caused my body to ache later. Another alternative was to sleep on the mattress with the girls, in a position that is not so risky...u noe what I mean...but this kind of thing better not take it too lightly, so sleep some place else is much safer.

That was the sleeping experience. Now for the activities, the contents of the chalet. First game played there was Taboo. It was the first time playing so long, so many rounds. I remember the first time I played was only one card, second time was during my class chalet, just a few cards to pass time. This one was seriously playing. I now realise that my vocabulary is worse than I thought, try to think of synonyms also difficult. Interesting game though, can see how good or how funny other members try to describe the word through speaking and acting...very entertaining =D We had dinner after that, it was beehoon brought by juyin, nuggets from yunguan, and spring rolls from cuiying, plus mixed veg.

Following that, 10-odd ppl went to kbox, leaving the chalet kinda quiet. Yehan's friend asked him out for a game of pool, so he invited me also. We went to downtown east there to play pool. His friend, Matthew, is a pro player. He is very creative in shooting the balls into the desired holes. Yehan also not bad. They must have played quite regularly...haha. For me, I always find the most direct ball to shoot, if not just anyhow bounce the ball, can hit the desired ball can already. Sometimes I tyco, can score unintentionally, loL. We played a few games, winner in-loser out system, so I managed to get the hang of the game after a while, won a few rounds, had some fun. It will be long before I get to play pool again haha.

We went back to the chalet, scared the girls. When we got to the chalet, the door was chain locked, and yehan managed to unlock it. We got in, re-locked the door, as if nobody can in. Yehan went to the bedroom door, opened it, hiding behind the door. After a while, he closed back the door. The girls must have been too frightened to check who did it. Subsequently, the girls, opened the door to take a look downstairs, to make sure no one had got in. Me and yehan were hiding. True enough, the girls took it that there was no one, and went back to their business. A while later, we just went up and showed ourselves. I guess they were most stunned by the fact that we managed to get in, without much sound, through a chain locked door...creepy. We had some ghost stories, and vincent came by, played some card games, learned a new one called 'maximise'. Later, we took a walk around downtown east, in the wee hours of the night, leaving vincent asleep in the chalet. It was the first time I had ice cream in the middle of the night. We went to mac after our walk to eat ice cream cone. Then, we slept for the night.

Next day, quite boring until I can't remember what we had done. I only remember that a few of us played taboo, played a few card games, played mahjong (me the spectator). Then came the amazing race. 3 teams, started out with sudoku. I didn't expect my team to be the last to complete...haha. If there's a mistake, the whole thing can collapse. Then, we had long walks around pasir ris park, played some games, and returned to the bbq. At the last station, I can't believe I mixed 'hao han ge' with 'xin fu de shen huo'. I sang the wrong song, and I'm not supposed to sing in the first place...ARH!!! so stupid of me!

Back to the bbq, me yehan and cuiying started up the fire, and managed to set up a strong one too. Thank God! The charcoal didn't look promising at first, but we managed to kick up the heat. As the food were being cooked, the others started streaming in. Liu lao shi also came along with his family. He has 4 sons. From my point of view, all four look strikingly similar, the only difference being the height! But all were as dashingly handsome as their father...hehe.

The bbq quickly passed, the seniors and ppl began to leave. After playing a few card games, me not included, some of us decided to go to orchard cine to watch enchanted. There were five of us, squeezed into a taxi to and fro. The show wasn't bad, quite hilarious, despite the very predictable endings which all fairy tales have. When I got out of the building, I found that the temperature outside was much cooler than the temperature indoors. Outside was chilly winds, I could shiver as I walked. After breakfast at mac, we took cab back, and slept.

Next day, nothing much, just packing up and left for home, all of us tired and sleepy. A fun chalet I might say...had fun?....yes.

Weird people...

2007-11-29T22:32:00.000+08:00

My bro's psle results are out! And he turned out to be the best in my family (excluding relatives), beating me by....one point! If u have seen my previous entry, u would know his T-score. So, my other bro's birthday celebrations went well. It was a time for celebration of good results and 15th birthday. The last weekend, we went out to Great World City to eat at Kenny Roger's restaurant. It's like subway in the way we order the food. We first choose the dish, then we choose the side dishes from the displayed, like in subway. There is a great variety to choose from, including salad. The drinks also come in big glasses. My stomach was filled after that meal, too much to eat.

This week, there was CO chalet at costa sands pasir ris. It was a 3 day 2 nite 'holiday', away from home at last. I've been cooped up at home most of the time with nothing much interesting things to do. So, being away from home having fun, is good relieving stuff, like being out of jail. On Monday, some of us met at the pasir ris mrt. We had a lot of time to kill, while waiting for people to come, and for the shuttle bus to arrive as well. The "on time" ppl went to NTUC to buy food and bbq supplies, and stuff for chalet. It was quite a fast one, like 20 minutes and we were out and back at the mrt, waiting for more ppl to come. The seniors met and went off to buy their own goodies, then joined us some time later. The time in between, after we shopped, and before the j2s met with us, me and yehan encountered some guy from Queensway/town Secondary. (I always mix up the two, cant remember) Anyway, he was heading for the chalet as well. His group were all girls, so I guess he felt left out, with no guys to chat with, walking around the station. At this time, yehan was playing a game on his PSP. This guy was walking around, and he suddenly decided to stop and take a look at what yehan was playing. First, he came behind between both of us, went off, then came back a second round, now behind yehan, with a good view of the gamescreen. He was like "wah.......wah......wah....." on and on and on. This cuiying took a picture of this interesting scene.

After he went off, we quickly went to sit down on the floor with the rest, thinking that the guy won't come and bother us if we were sitting down, acting peaceful and all. Well, we were wrong. Soon, this guy came and sat down with us!! He must be REALLY bored!! That time, yehan was not playing games anymore, but listening to music from his psp. He still came. He sat there for a while, then had that shocked look when he realised that yehan had his ear pierced. He was like "wah, not painful meh? How come so big?!" Yehan:"Of course its painful lah...." After that, it was the weirdest thing he said,"Eh...sorry sorry sorry!!" I tell you, both of us were stunned!! What did he say sorry for?? I asked him, he didnt reply. Further on, he asked us which school we were from, I answered SAJC, then "Wah, so good". I cant believe I said "thank you thank you", but I really had nothing else to say at that moment. There was another time when he realised we were j1s. He immediately greeted us as if we were his shifu "senior...senior". We were so taken aback by his actions, at least I was. I asked him, and found out that he was a secondary one student. If you had seen him, you might not have believed him, cos he was a big sized person. Me and yehan talked to him a bit, here and there, occasionally.

Finally, his group of friends began to leave. I thought that he would immediately say bye, but he didnt. In fact, he waved to his friends that he didnt want to go with them. I was thinking "no...no...go...go". Fortunately, he left with them. As he left, he stood up and gave us a bow. I think he gave us to much respect, although we were more senior than him. It was such a weird encounter. I felt like wanting to know him more, but also wanted him to get away, cos he was freaking me out. I don't think he is that kind of mentally retarded person, just a bit lonely, perhaps a little defecient in the head.

Well, that was one strange person I met this week. Hope I won't get to meet too many of these group of people, can be tiring to understand them.

By the way, I have good news and bad news from for tanbo ppl. U guys dun have to learn Ab major le =) But u guys have to learn Eb major. Ben told me that he knows Eb diao, so happy learning! The second half of the song is in G major, ur favourite. So, overall, the sequence is F -> Eb -> Ab -> G major. Challenging right? but not too difficult to learn...I hope. I must give u all some difficulty, if not will be quite boring, right? A good chance to learn new things from music...haha =D

Boring...

2007-11-20T22:25:00.000+08:00

Back again...I ought to blog more since it's the hols now. The prob is that I'm still as lazy, and during the hols, there is also nothing much to write. This hols is just quite boring, nothing to play already, got things to play also sian diao le.

By the way, I have not even started one single bit of my holiday homework. The past few days I've just been so lazy. CO frequency not very often, there is so much time in my hands, and I didn't do any work at all. I have this huge amount of inertia to start work again. It has been so long since I tried to solve Maths or Physics problems, or explaining chemistry concepts and re-iterating organic chemistry reactions....so long!! My brain is dead on academic stuff...very difficult to start it up again, so much reluctance to sit down, take out the qns and calculator and do my homework. I know there is a pile of homework waiting for me. There is Maths, Physics, Econs, Chemistry. All the main subjects, PCME. There is so much to do to keep myself occupied during the holidays, but I'm just not doing them. I guess this is what it means by it is more difficult to set a stationary object into motion than to maintain the speed of an already moving object. The static friction is so much greater than the kinetic friction to work.

Its a weird feeling. I remember that just when the holidays were beginning, I felt so empty. Every time I wake up to a new day, there is always the qn of "what am I going to do now?" Its the hols, but I havent entered the holiday mode yet. I felt so empty without work to do. It was a nice feeling to not have work to be handed in the next day, but there is still the wheel of my mind running. After the first few weeks of November, as PW was ended at last, this wheel started to slow down. I have not applied any force to the wheel as I have stopped touching homework, so the net force experienced by the wheel is given only by kinetic friction. It starts to slow and slow down, coming to a complete stop, put into parking gear. I have the handbrakes on, and I am stalled. I have drifted to music for a while, arranging Across The Stars. But when that's over, I left blank.

I guess its time to turn the ignition key, start up my engine...vroom vroom (I'm being lame here) and get the wheel rolling again. I hope I can overcome the static friction that I'm experiencing now. Well, I have to start some time, sooner or later. Perhaps start on sth tomorrow, at least a couple of physics qns, even one qn will be an accomplishment to me. Then, as I go along, I increase my velocity, accelerating from gear 1 to gear 2. Hopefully I can get to gear 4 by end this year, so that I'll be ready for the rigours of the JC 2 year ( A levels ). Of course, I should not put my mind to overdrive, that is just not right for holidays. Come on, I still can play =)

Coming 2 days, on the 22nd of Novemver is.........PSLE results release day. What has this got to do with me? u wonder. Why am I refering to sth that has been put behind us for 5 years? Well, its not me...its my youngest brother's turn. The last time my family will receive PSLE results. I'll be waiting to see how my bro does. Honestly, I sincerely hope my bro will be able to attain a score which is higher than mine...specifically higher than my 222, so that he can go back to Marist Stella High. Of course, if he can go beyond, that's better. So, I'll wait and see.

And then, the next day is interestingly my other bro's birthday, his 15th birthday. I hope the birthday atmosphere won't be destroyed by whatever the PSLE results were...haha. Interesting to think about...I dun recall the last time when my second bro got his results close to his bdae....see how it's like 3 days later.

I can't seem to get my mind over the flaw of my Across The Stars scores. The time signature problem is always bugging me. There could be a problem for the conductor and the orchesra members. Although the notes are alright, the 1, 2, 3.... beats may be confusing. If I can get my hands on the Sibelius software, I may want to write out tht song again, correctly. For those who know the scores roughly, I just want to apologise for the numerous accidentals in the scores, not nice to read...I know. I have to keep it at D minor (F major), I dun want to transpose it down to D major, cos it will result in quite a number of notes becoming out of range. So, have to learn to read F major...haha.

I hope the practice with this song will not be too difficult. It's a nice song, but there is some level of difficulty to overcome. OK, that's all I want to say...wish u all a blessed holiday this year!!

Dead Beat Tired....zzz

2007-11-15T00:12:00.000+08:00

I am writing this blog entry 1 hour after I woke up at 11pm to eat a very late dinner. Weird right?.....Dun I sound nocturnal to you? Maybe for now, I have to revert back to sleeping at night and be awake in the day.

Today has been an exhausting day, because I did not have enough sleep the previous night. I had a class chalet yesterday. We had a bbq at costa sands downtown east and I got the job of cooking food for the first few rounds...hope I didnt give anyone's stomach or digestive system a hard time...hehe. As a result, I didnt eat much, but felt full anyway. Maybe because I eat very slow. One chicken chop, rest 10 mins cooking, eat one sausage and satay, rest 15 mins, eat tang hoon.... I eat like that, after a few items already quite full.

Following the bbq, we went up to the chalet, started to play an assortment of poker card games there. One of which was Indian Poker. It's basically quite a game of chance. The card deck is shuffled all over the floor, then the players pick up one card each and place the card on their forehead. They cannot see what their own card is, but is well aware of the kind of cards the others have. All players have a chance to change their current cards once. When every one is settled, all the cards are placed face up on the floor. Either the one with the highest value card or lowest value card forfeit the game, depending on the rules. Various forfeits have been used, but I shall not elaborate on that.

Close to midnight, some of us started to watch the movie "White Chicks". It's played from someone's mp3 connected to the TV. It's a very funny show...extremely hilarious...haha. Some ppl started playing mahjong also. One of my classmates brought his PS2 console along, and they have been playing some soccer game practically for the rest of the night. A big group went out to walk. Some went to the beach, some just went to Mac, or walking around with no special intention. I remained in the room, decided to catch a few zzz's before the next day. But with all that soccer playing on the TV, its kinda hard to sleep soundly. I think I only slept for 2-3 hours on total, definitely not enough for me.

The next morning, some of us had to leave for various reasons, so I tagged along with them to eat breakfast at Mac, then we left together for the MRT. By that time, I was feeling a little sick in the stomach, the feeling of throwing up. Perhaps from the lack of sleep, so my body is retaliating. Long trip home...since I wasn't feeling so good, it felt like a very long trip. Once I reached home, I washed up, then sent to sleep. By that time I was EXTREMELY tired out. It's a good thing my mum was home, so I can rest longer before CO. Lunch was not in my records, since I had no appetite for it. So, my mum sent me to school, I went to CO room, found some new pairs of shoes lying around, opened the door to find 3 newcomers, the DSA ppl, percussion, dizi, and guzheng. I guess these are the ones who are already quite committed to SACO, really appreciate them for that. It is, after all, the end of their O levels, and they have all the right to play and have fun, but they decided to come, which is very good.

Today was a minor practice for open house. Apparently, I have to improve on my solo, intonation is horrible...at least to me. I hope this Saturday's open house will be smooth with a good performance by us. After practice, we cleared the CO room further. I was already dead beat tired. At least, I managed to go home. Upon reaching home, cooling down for a few minutes, I dozed off at around 530pm. I slept through my family dinner, waking up at 11pm. Even as I'm writing this entry, I'm still sleepy. My body really needs its rest...haha.

Anyway,
Happy Birthday to CuiYing and Liu lao shi!!

Ok...I'm just lazy...

2007-11-08T15:40:00.000+08:00

My blogging frequency has been super low lately, even though the exams are over and the holidays have just begun. Guess the obvious reason is that I'm just too lazy to blog...haha. I dun find much interest in doing so I guess.

Anyway, just yesterday, the whole year's Project Work as an 'A' level subject had ceased to exist in our lives! No more project work, one subject less next year, feels good. I hope I can say the same for my Chinese 'A' levels as well. I really do not wish to retake the paper next year. If I get an A (which is very unlikely) I'll definitely be over the moon. If I get B, I'll still be happy, so I won't retake the paper. If I get a C, then I'm not so sure whether to retake or not. Of course, if I fail (which again is not very likely), I'll retake the paper with no hesitation. So I'm now waiting for the outcome, just a few more months and we'll know our results...haih.

Now that the exams are over, Project Work is over, and the holidays have started, I have more time for other things. CO is one. Recently, we had a go at arranging next year's concert scores, but we merely copied from piano scores, so didn't do much arranging then. Just yesterday, we had spring cleaning. We cleared out the room, discovered quite a few old/lost/interesting items and instruments. Following that, we cleaned the floor, windows and shelves. The floor became sort of messy again later on. Nothing much was thrown away, so there isn't really much difference before and after the cleaning. Some instruments and accesories were VIOLENTLY stored into the cabinets, in an attempt to much optimal use of every air space present in the shelves. Once stored, there is no guarantee that they will be able to come out again. If storing was a painstaking job, then taking out could need tremendous effort. Besides, we may not be needing them any time soon, as some instruments were left out in the room.

At home, I have been arranging something myself, in case there is no more alternatives for the concert in terms of arrangement. The software I use is different, not Sibelius, but Finale Notepad, which is free. Yup, FOC. But it has limited functions. I can't change the time signature and the key signature once it's set for that piece. Also, I can't include more than 8 instruments, so arrangement for an orchestra may not be appropriate when using this. I'm currently arranging a Star Wars Ep.2 Love theme "Across the Stars". Its quite a nice instrumental song. I have arranged for flute/dizi, oboe/sheng, guitar/ruan, violin/erhu, cello, bass, and timpani. Not exactly an entire orchestra, but the parts for the other instruments can be derived from here. This song requires me to change from 4/4 to 3/4 to 4/4 to 3/4 to 4/4 and back to 3/4, but my software doesnt allow that, so sad. My scores are all in 4/4. Oh well, if this song were to be put into use, must be careful when transposing...haha.

The song is ready for your information, 30+ pages, took me a few late nights to finish it...yup.

May next year's concert be a "BANG"!!

Busy or just Lazy?

2007-10-23T21:59:00.000+08:00

Hey guys!! I'm back. Havent been blogging for quite some time already. Perhaps its because of the ever so stressful Project Work, with the Written Report and Oral Presentation. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to update, since I dun have much excuse as ppl like benben have been blogging so frequently...haha.

Ok, over the past 10 odd days, quite a few things happened, and I forgot the chronological sequence, so I'll just mention them in no order at all...so un-virgo-ish of me...nvm. Project Work was a killer with the dateline of the Written Report just around the corner. Every one was busy with their eyes glued to the computer screen, racking their brains for more ideas, summarising the document, surfing the Internet, so on. Almost all were in a rush to produce an acceptable Written Report. Well, its all over now. What a relief when we submitted the Written Report to the ST, our months of hard work had paid off in a nice binded WR. That's the end of that. Now comes the next worry, the OP and I&R. I just had OP dry-run today. Not too bad, considering that we just came up with the script just yesterday and managed to pull it off nicely today. First time also, quite acceptable. I just have to improve eye-contact and sound/act confident during Q&A, also to relate to the audience. So, I'll see to that on Thursday. I&R is still left hanging. Just done one draft which I'm going to re-do anw, going back to zero.

PW aside. Hmm...SACO got a new temporary conductor to replace Mr Low while he's away overseas. The songs he gave us were not bad, matsuri I played before, and the other one, keep forgetting the name of the other song...haha...both are nice. Now I know that our batch of CO j1s can learn fast as well. About the CO concert next year, we will discuss about that tml. I was thinking of encompassing a bit of everyone's idea into one big picture, under a theme of "Diversity". Well, I'll see how tml.

Academic results -->Promoted. I shan't say anything more, because ppl will just tell me to "go and die"...haha. I dunno why every one has the same reaction when I tell them my results... why arh? Btw, I was also thinking of taking NTU H3 Contemporary Physics. Although my H2 results is an A, I dun really know if I can cope with the work next year if I take H3. The H3 lessons are during curriculum time, so I have to make sure that all the other subjects are quite stable. I have alreday submitted the form, so...waiting for results which I dunno when will it come out. I'll leave the choice to God, whether he planned for me to go or not, I cant decide myself.

Well, this entry is short for a period of like 12-13 days. Whatever it is, I'm gonna stop here, there is nothing else for me to say at the moment.

Strive for EE in OP!

Project Work

2007-10-10T22:06:00.000+08:00

Hi...before I go on about today's events, I just wanna tell u guys that this is the 30th post since the initiation of my blog...whootz. I know that its quite few since it has been like from March till now, but we all have our own pace...haha. I will announce the 50th one...wait and see...

Today is declared PW day for the JC1s, whereby the entire day is devoted to completing the Written Report, finalising it, and for those who are really fast, I dunno who, may start on preparing for the Oral Presentation. Everything will move very fast now, there is no time to waste. The final, Final, FINAL draft of the Written Report will be due next friday, and the OP dry-run is just about 2 weeks away. Soon it will be the actual day, and I&R, then that is the true end for the super-hectic first year in JC. It will all be over in a blink of an eye, by the snap of a finger, that's why we do not have time to waste.

From morning all the way to noon, my group has been adding new stuff to our WR, organised it properly, added somemore things, research, cite examples, evidence, blah blah blah...By noon, we were all hungry, so we took a lunch break, around half an hour perhaps, then went back to the comp lab. As we were going back up, we saw the 2 Benedicts, our classmates, leaving. We asked them where they were going, and they said they were going to eat then go home. Wah, why are they so fast??!! Oh well, this motivated us to complete our work faster, so we can go off sooner...haha.

So, we kinda wrapped up our main draft at around 230pm. We are still left without annex and bibliography, but at least we have the main draft done. The other section shldnt be too much of a prob ba. It was still too early b4 the CO exco meeting started, so I walked around the school for a while, then settled in the library. Went to find a book on Physics, relativity, read for a while, find it too cheem, grabbed another book, sat down. Ahh this one easier to understand. After a few minutes, dozed off.....ZZZ. Haha, it was a good doze though, my mind was simply too tired, so that 20 min nap was indeed refreshing. Anyway, I carried on reading, reading, reading until past 4, then it got a little too profound, so gave up, went to CO room.

When I reached there, Mdm Hue was already there, but there was no sign of any meeting going on, so I guess I didnt miss out on anything. After a while, we started organising the CO room. The scores were arranged, the instruments were marked out and put in their places, and the room was swept a bit, unnecessary junk was out. Got my hands super dirty going through all that erhu, zhonghu and gaohu cases, many of which were empty cases, oh I also found a banhu, but dunno how to play, higher pitched than a gaohu.

Clean up done, the meeting started, during which some important events and tasks were distributed among the members, like there are sub-committees for things like spring-cleaning, chalet, CIP, concert, etc. Me?...Overall stage manager for Concert, expected. I hope I can do my job well...never done anything like this before. Further discussions on CO shirt, dismissed, then sth about bringing cloth and fabric, personalise it, for dunno what purpose. I dun have any cloth with pattern.......so what to do?....

PW day went pass, and I'm now waiting for tml, when the results of some promo papers will be announced. Its just my 'luck' that the first paper to receive back is the GP...I have low hopes in that.,.haih. Wish all those taking back papers tml good luck and all the best!!

Double Tagged

2007-10-08T20:05:00.000+08:00

1. Person who tagged me: Cheeyae
2. My relationship with her: SAJC Chinese Orchestra
3. My 5 impressions of her: Smart, Excellent in Art, Creative, Chinese not bad, Able to make ppl around her happy.
4. Most memorable thing she has done for me: The first CO member to tag my blog...haha.
5. Most memorable words she has said to me: "Can you lend me your...................?" :P
6. What if she becomes my lover, I will: Have more restrictions on where to eat.
7. If she is my lover, she has to improve on: Starting a "long lasting" conversation. (Applies to me as well)
8. If she becomes my enemy: The fabric of reality is distorted....
9. If she becomes my enemy, the reason is: I didn't listen to her...do things too slow.
10. The thing I desire most to do for her now is: To keep her in my prayers.
11. My overall impression of her: A good friend to have known and met.

1. Person who tagged me: Benben
2. My relationship with him: Fellow colleague in SAJC Chinese Orchestra
3. My 5 impressions of him: Definitely likes to talk, enthu about chem but not the tcher, Likes to ask opinions, Chinese-pro, Wants to become a model....keep it up!!
4. Most memorable thing he has done for me: Got me a soft basketball-like cushion for my birthday (which is very well liked and used by my brothers sometimes....so fun to play with)
5. Most memorable words he has said to me: "nan guai ni mei you kai kou, yi kai kou jiu suan ren le" =P
6. What if he becomes my lover, I will: NA ---
7. If he is my lover, he has to improve on: I dunno...
8. If he becomes my enemy: I will try to talk to him, untie the knot...
9. If he becomes my enemy, the reason is: A conflict which must be resolved
10. The thing I desire most to do for him now is: Post more comments on his blog.
11. My overall impression of him: Never a boring person to be with....hmm....ke ai?
12. How do I think ppl around me will feel about me: Need to open up, pro in everything ( which I'm not)
13. The character I love about myself is: Kindness, cos I will not tag ppl who tagged me=) Loves music, both listening and playing, and perhaps a go at composing.
14. On the contrary, the character I hate about myself is: Not sociable, wanna make new friends and meet new ppl, but will look stupid when I approach them. Care too much on what ppl will think of me. Not pro-active.
15. The most ideal person I would like to be: Able to take charge at times, Organise events well, Not afraid of ppl's opinion of me, Well-received by friends and ppl who noe me, Trustworthy, always counted upon to get the job well done.
16. A message to those around me and those who care for me: God bless! You are all wonderful ppl whom I have met and known.
17. Ppl whom I wish to pass this quiz to, to know how they feel about me:
-Nick
-Linus
-Timothy
-Lucas
-Seowjin
-YiQing
-Yunguan
-Liankai
-Cindy
-anyone who wants to, which kinda means no one will....haha

De-stress...ahhh

2007-10-06T23:18:00.000+08:00

I am posting entries theorectically on the same day, but on different days. Its the polar ends of the day, one right from the start, and this one at the end. Looks a bit weird dun it?

Today, was a day to de-stress from the stressful promos. I had my rest, woke on my own accord. I dunno how ppl can wake up so late, like 2pm or 12 pm?? What have they been doing? Anyway, morning slacked around at home, then afternoon went out to meet Nick, BenBen, and supposedly yunguan. But, she's one of the few ppl who wake up late and all that kind of stuff, so she didnt come, up to her. Other CO ppl also dun want to come with us go watch movie, so only the three of us went to Cathay Orchard.

For once in a long long time, I was late for this sort of thing, cos every time meet outside, I will be the first one to be there, then like so boring, have to wait for all the latecomers. So today, I delay a bit, reach late, then will meet up with the others, hopefully. Yup, had lunch at food chain, then went to watch Underdog at 1pm. The beginning part was kinda interesting for me, about the humble beginnings about this fateful Beagle. The rest of the storyline was quite predictable, keep seeing this type of shows again and again until u noe the next move. Actually, come to think of it, the story is like the spiderman 1, except that its in dog form. Despite the ordinary storyline, at least there was plenty of humour, so had a good laugh...haha.

Show ended, came out, Nick and Ben had the desire to catch another show, I never watched 2 movies in a row before, but since I have the effective demand for it, I'm alright with that. We decided to watch Lust Caution. The story was a bit hard to catch at the beginning. Started the movie with a conversation with some ladies playing mahjong, blah blah, u go and see urself =P Quite interesting once u catch the plot of the movie...ending quite sad though, I still cant believe it ended in such a manner. End. That marked the end of our cinema marathon...haha.

We then went to Ngee Ann City there to have dinner. It was Pepper Lunch. My second time eating at that kind of restaurant, and I chose the same dish I had the previous time...Hamburger Steak. Apart from the patty and egg, the rest is vegetable, bean sprouts, carrots. Luckily I'm not picky, otherwise I would waste some food. Oh ya, if u plan to try this out, take note that it will not come with buns, its just the patty, which is bigger than normal. I was really full after that meal, satisfying though.

The trio went to walk around, look at music scores and books and comics, walk around, bought pancake and cookies. Every one was tired, so we went to Orchard Station, go home sweet home. Managed to catch the 730pm show on channel U, Qing Gong Feng Yun. Tml is the last episode alr, so everything starting to wrap up, watched the climax today, perhaps tml oso have sth major happen...wait and see then.

That's all for today. About my September happenings, I post when I really have the time, cos I'm very lazy to type blog...haha =D

The End of the Promos!!!

2007-10-06T00:03:00.001+08:00

Yes!! Finally!! I can take a breather again...haha. Its the end of the promos, the final year examinations. And this also sort of marks the end of the academic year, but we still have Chinese and Project Work to focus on. Still, there should be less stress. If not, at the most, should be same stress =P...hope not. Taking a break, feeling tired, look at the time I'm writing this blog entry....so late. My mind is yearning to rest....a well deserved rest that is.

This past week was a busy week, with 4 out of 5 days having exam papers. At least its one subject a day, and not 2. Otherwise, I'm gonna do badly for the both papers....haiz. So one good point there. Overall, the papers were'nt so bad, it seems. There is a chance I can scrape an A for at least one of the H2 subjects....That will be my first A for a major exam in JC...haha. Going down the list, Chemistry was quite ok I guess....some dunno how to do, but at least I finished the paper, despite having had to go to the toilet, what a relief. Economics...hmm...my weakness is in humanities subjects, so I cant expect much from that. Luckily its a H1 subject. I had the paper incomplete...missed out on the conclusion. Guess I miscalculated the time taken for the first part, case study. One day break!! Carry on, with Maths the following day. Before the Maths paper, I was quite confident that I will do well, do so well that every qn oso noe how to do, cos I did some papers before this, found them quite easy. After the paper, I realised that I had quite a no. of incomplete answers. The answers were left hanging, as in I didnt noe how to totally complete some of the qns. Oh well, hope I can still scrape and A. The last paper, Physics, was done today. The MCQ part was quite alright, easy, finished it in 20+ mins. Then went on to section B, which was slightly tougher, got stuck at some parts, anyhow put answer. Still quite ok, can answer most of the qns. Coming section C, even tougher, needing more explanation. The stupid last qn, Thermaldynamics qn, I hated and still hate that topic. I cant do most of the qn. Maybe like more than 10 marks gone from there?....i dunno.

Anyway, its over, papers have been submitted, no turning back. The only subjects I'm worried about is GP and Economics. After the paper, I went to see the H3 Physics course. There is only NTU course posted. 3 modules there, only found one interesting, contemporary physics, title doesnt say much. After that, walked to the MRT with most of the class. The big group of them went to Marina Seoul Garden for lunch...unless they changed their minds, I dunno, cos I didnt go with them. Half of me wanna go, the other part of me wants to go home and rest, also worried about the raw food. So, in the end, didnt go anywhere today, except for violin lesson.

Time for some words of encouragement...haha. Every time at the end of the blog entry I will try to say some encouraging words. But all the same one. Jiayou for the coming Project Work!! And (for now) jiayou in your play and fun!!! Play hard! =)

Study Time

2007-09-28T09:11:00.000+08:00

Hi guys...miss me? haha. I'm only back for a short time, after which I'll be back burying myself in books and notes. I guess I'd better put in sth for this month, at least one entry, otherwise the archive will look quite weird with one month missing...especially if its one of my favourite months of the year =) "Do you Remember?......September...." I dunno where my mum got this from, guess its some old song?

Anyway, I'm trying my best to make this post as long as I can. A tiny little post amongst a list of long posts wont look so good will it? I have a whole lot of things to tell you guys about my September. Happenings during the holidays, my birthday celebration, the studying period and the start of the promos. I obviously cant tell u everything now, cos I really have to study, and I really need time for that. I'm a slow revise-er. Since I may have a lot of things to write about after the promos, I guess I'll give it to u all in snippets, instead of bombarding u all with one huge post which u have to take 20 mins to read? If it will take u that long to read, imagine the amount of time I would have spent typing it down...haha.

That will be after the promos. Too bad that after the final exams, we j1s still have to concentrate on project work. We will have to divert all our energy into project work, finishing up the written report, preparing presentation slides for Oral Pres. and doing up the I&R. All this will wrap up our one year of wasted time on pw. I seriously dun like the subject at all. Nevertheless, since it is a graded subject, might as well produce sth that will look good on our report cards. My group's written report still doesnt look so professional, so gotta work on that. WR constitutes quite a big chunk of the group's marks. Its a one for all, all for one thing. Everyone in the group will get the same marks from WR. OP also has such a high weightage on the individual, like 40%? We will be left with one more month to tidy up everything. In the midst of that is the 'A' level Chinese paper...haiz.

Coming back to present times, its 2 papers down. More specifically, the language papers, both GP and Chinese, are down. That leaves us with our "interested subjects". The H2s will come in next week. The battle will end next Friday. Like the Halo 3 slogan "Finish the Fight"....haha. My brothers are all crazy about the game, but we have to wait for all our exams are over b4 we can go around buying it. Anyway, GP was okay I guess, just that I was quite disappointed for the paper 1. The qn was simple, I think I could have done better, but I didnt, so hope for the best. Paper 2 was tougher, and my AQ answer was like one page long (incmplete). So again hope for the best. Chinese, I dunno how to say. To normal ppl, I guess they will find the paper easy right? Should be easy for them. For me will be slightly tougher, since the MCQ part has so many similar answers, so may be different for me...but quite satisfied with paper one, hope it will pull my marks up.

Ok, I really did make an effort to make this post quite long :P But now its the time for me to go back and study, putting as much into my head as possible...haha. To all you people out there having exams, a word of encouragement,"JIAYOU!!! The end is near, DUN give up, and strive for the best!!" To j1s: Lets see all of us next year as j2s!!

End of Another Leg....Get Ready for the Finale

2007-08-31T22:13:00.000+08:00

As you all know, this is the end of term 3, a very hectic term I would say. Its also the end of another month, the month of August. This marks the start of the school holidays again, and the start of September, when we will gear up for the big Finale of this year in JC1. Hasn't it only been a few days ago since we first stepped into this new college, trying to find a place in the new environment?..........Well, Time Flies.

Ok, for my last post for August, I'll just round up a few things happened this last week of term. Firsty, some of you will agree with me that the first 3 days of this past week has been super tiring and scary. Monday, I had 2 lecture tests. First was the Physics, next was the Econs test. Physics not bad, quite ok, felt good after the paper, and happy that I got A for it. Econs lecture test on market goods and market failure was not so well done. For one thing, it was an essay, I prefer case studies, at least got something to refer to. At least I hope I can make up for my quality in quantity, by writing 3 and a half pages in 45 minutes. My hand was practically dead after putting the pen down.

Putting Monday aside, we come to Tuesday. That day had another test, which was the dreaded Chemistry lecture test. I tell you, I won't be surprised if I failed the test. Its a game of time and applying knowledge, so obviously failing in any one of them would result in complete disaster for the test. I don't want to see the results...sigh. I thought my chemistry would be ok...guess I was wrong this time. That day, Tuesday, also got back the Econs common test. That brightened up my day, for me. I'm happy that I passed, and I'm happy that I got not just a pass but a C, and I'm happy that I'm in the top 2 in my class for econs. Ok, should'nt keep my head too big and complacent, cos it will only spell disaster for me in the upcoming promos.

After lessons on Tuesday, no make up lecture for maths, very happy go CO. We practiced Ju Hua Tai, mr low's version. roughly the same, but some parts he left out from the concert version...oh well, less load on erhu. After practice, we showed the CO male teachers the video we made to thank them as a teachers' day gift. Quite funny some parts, but I don't see what's so funny about me?!! Why when I talk, every body laugh??.....I dun get it...so paiseh =P Nevertheless, a fun time. This was followed by a song dedicated to the teachers, and presenting on presents which ............. bought. (sorry, I dunno who bought the presents) Got a quick lift home by my mum, and its the end of the day...sleep...

Waking up on Wednesday, first thing on the lesson schedule was Physics SPA. I wasn't so worried about it, cos its just skill B, follow instructions can get full marks. So, I relaxed myself, by not referring to the notes which I already read the previous night, went into the lab and did my stuff. It was quite and interesting experiment of torsional oscillation of the disc, something new. Overall, it was quite ok, despite 2 anomalous points I got, both of which I changed to make it look like no anomalous data. I don't want to write anomalous conclusion, so I recalculated and changed the plots to make it look better. Smart?...I dunno. Whoever is spying on me for this....dun tell the teachers...they won't care...haha :D

Wednesday marked the end of the lecture test spree. Went home, did no work at all, practiced violin. Thursday, no PE, dismissed after Physics lecture, go home, still did no work. My goodness, I'm super lazy. Went home, practiced violin again, and composed 8 bars of music for violin duet....its a canon....not bad for my first try at composing music...yeah! So happy, even liankai said it was a nice try. Its fun to compose your own music, and see it being played and appreciated by people...its worth a try.

Coming back to the present, it was teachers' day celebration today, the day when we celebrate the wonderful groundbreakers in our school life, making tremendous impacts on our lives. Programme started off with ACES day workout, which I didn't do at all. In my opinion, I think the dance is more suitable for girls rather than guys....some moves are just good looking for girls only....that's what I think. After the wasted workout, we had a short break before going to the CC to watch the performance organised my the new student council. Not bad I suppose, but I dun like one of the emcees, the one who was super animated and dynamic. Besides that, we all had a good laugh at the items aimed at the teachers. Oh, and did you guys hear Timothy sing (orange shirt) You Raise Me Up? Was it nice? Not bad right? At least better than most of you :P

After performance, went to see some teachers, then went out with Nick to help him choose his violin. We took a train down to Bugis, had lunch at the food court there, then walked down to Bras Basah Complex. I led him to the shop where I bought my violin, Swee Lee Company, and got down to choosing the right one for him. He got roughly the same violin as mine, suitable for beginners, and also got a tuner for himself. After he bought the violin, we walked around to find a place to sit, where I can help him tune the violin first. We ended up on the fourth floor, where people can walk pass and see what these 2 students are doing to a violin. So anyway, while he rubbed rosin onto the bow, I tuned the violin. Tuning a newly bought violin is tiring and frustrating work. The strings were all lose, all were totally out of tune. Furthermore, the pegs were so difficult to twist. I know its a good thing, but its really hard to turn. I took around 15 minutes to tune the violin. Although it keeps turning flat, which is natural, at least the pitch of the strings are roughly there, so Nick can just turn a bit instead of turning a lot and snap a string. I really hope he doesn't spoil it when tuning or playing. After teaching him how the hold the bow and the violin, we both went our separate ways home, and I believe both of us took a long afternoon nap...a rest after the long term.

And now I'm here writing this post. Its the start of the September holidays, another break to enjoy and to catch up and revise work. This time, I must resolve to make good use of the holidays, cos after this, there really isn't much time left before the promos. We have come this far, and I believe we don't want to go back and do it all over again, so lets all work hard for the grand Finale, and then, we can all play hard!!

Studies Deteriorating...

2007-08-25T21:11:00.000+08:00

Hello!! Back to tell u about key happennings this past 3 days.

Nothing much to say about Thursday, except that one of my classmates is gonna sing on the teachers' day celebration. It was the rehearsal that day (too bad CO didnt get in...or is it better...hmm) and he's gonna sing an altered song "You Raise Me Up" which is arranged by him specially for teachers' day. You look at the title of the song, you know its quite appropriate right? Teachers raise us up to be young adults in school. He is gonna sing it with someone else now, instead of being solo like on national day (he sang a rendition of "I Swear" becoming "I Pledge".....nice right?). So hope all you saints look out for him, ok?? =)

Friday, last day of term 3 week 9, started off with a principal's talk on how badly we done for our common test this year. We did worse than the previous batch, who are in j2 now....a lot worse for science subjects. I just hope every thing will turn out for the better during the promos. However, there are some students who done exceptionally well, people getting 69, 67 points out of 70....those guys are super-pro. Then its maths lect, and chinese, and pw, and no GP, and econs lect. Nothing much to say there.

After all the lessons, came CO practice, the second last for the term. I started out practicing zhonghu for dan yuan ren chang jiu. I just cant get a good sound from that zhonghu, dunno whether its the bow or the hu itself. Occasionally guiding nick and linus along, I kind of got the melody for the zhonghu part. Mr Low came earlier today, so we practiced earlier and could go off earlier (why am I telling you things that is common sense??). Started off with chai yun zui yue, quite ok, except for the last part where the other 2 still dunno how to play. Dan yuan ren chang jiu next, tried zhonghu, not very good, erhu dunno where to come in, so no sound there. After first try, reverted back to erhu, dun want to play zhonghu anymore, back to being a cue for the 2 to come in at the right time. Nick became crazy and started turning the pegs of my erhu, so play the song totally out of tune, mr low keep saying erhu bu zhun, so u noe the reason. Ok, note to self, I have to teach them to look at the score and play the song by themselves. Have to teach them tempo already, as well as fingering. A lot of things to be done, which cant all be done since only got one prac session left.

After the practice, every body stayed back to discuss with mdm hue what new posts to give to new ppl. Result, Linus can help cuiying by having the publicity post. Nick got the erhu SL position. And I got the Concert Master/Event Coordinator post. I gotta do more work now...arh!! First, teach Nick to be an SL, teach both of them to play well b4 next year comes, learn how to plan for concerts and camps and any CO event under the sun....oh, and make sure all sections are tuned during concerts....actually, SLs can help me do that right?...then liankai play A, every body tune. Is it like that?

Today, morning and early afternoon was taken up by Bible study and violin lessons. Come home, eat lunch late, went to sleep, and did only 2 qns for maths (perfect example of a lazy pig =P) I realise that my Maths is really not all that good as I thought. I do the qns already so slow...need more practice liao. Same goes for my other subjects, I really must do better for the promos, must improve, cannot deteriorate. Jiayou ppl!

Time is running out...

2007-08-22T14:32:00.000+08:00

Hey guys...sorry for not updating for the past week. Cos I was lazy to type, and also had nothing to write about. Leading a boring life here...lolz.

Last week, we had our first serious CO exco meeting. The only thing that took effect I think, was the change in some committee positions. We decided that some of our members holding double posts should give up one of their posts to those who don't have any. This will reduce the workload of the double post'ers and give others a chance to serve in CO. It will also give more people something to write for their testimonial/cca record...yup.

Ok, so the posts given up were the score librarian and woodwind sectional leader. The score librarian post was given to 2 members, namely jiamin and xinhua. The new woodwind sectional leader is none other than weng hao. So........Congrats to u all!! Let us all not regret the change...=X

Nothing much to talk about the weekend...very normal and ordinary last week. One thing I felt about the weekend is that, although its a breather and a break from all that school work and early morning wake-ups, it is also a time to catch up on some work as well. I know I have not been revising work for a very long time, and many things learnt before have all been forgotten. It seems like the lazy me is piling up even more work over the weekends than during school days...haihz. The promos are just 30 over days away from now...really have to be focussed and concentrate on work....no more honeymoon period.

Skipping Monday, we come to Tuesday, which is the most tiring day of the whole week. I really dread Tuesdays, with little breaks and a maths lecture which ends at 630pm. Well, at least there ain't anymore of late maths lectures this term, and hopefully never again this year. Tuesday, went through chem, maths and econs with undone work, still managed to understand some concepts. Then, end of the day was CO practice. We went through a new song for mid-autumn festival, cai3 yun2 zhui1 yue4 (sorry if there is any wrong pinyin). I would like to compliment both nick and linus. Both of them can learn the fingerings quite fast, although they dun know how to play the whole song yet. At least I know they can read the scores despite the change in key. I hope they will play well by end this year...haha...good job!!

Oiya, CO only left 2 practices this term. So we really have to practice at home to make our performance a good one for mid-autumn. Time is running out for both CO and our studies....so jiayou ppl!

Learning Journey...

2007-08-15T19:31:00.000+08:00

Hello, back to bring you another snippet of my life. Today was blood donation day. Nope, I didn't donate blood and I didn't see the donating process, so I'm just saying for the fun of it....haha. Anyway, those who donated their blood had colourful bandages. I think those are quite nice. Apparently, there were more girls than guys donating blood today. I judge by the number of people wearing the bandages, and it seemed that more girls were wearing it than guys...so got my conclusion from there.

After school today, my class went for learning journey. We went to the supreme court of S'pore...the new one that is. And....this is my second time going there, so its like a recall of what happened the last time. At first, I thought the tour around there was going to be the same as the last time I went. Well, the front part was the same, but later on, I went to another courtroom which I had never been before the last time. I'll come back to that later.

The tour started off with looking around at the ground floor heritage exhibition. It showcases the old supreme court with their Chief Justices from past to present. The guide told us about the structure of the building at the ground floor, then led us to a lift to go up to level 4, where we went into one of the 'tech' court rooms. These court rooms have some technology, like projection screen, visualiser, LCD monitors....etc. Just think of it like a mini-lecture theatre.

Following this, we were taken up to the eighth floor--the viewing gallery. Over there, we can see the Singapore River, with clarke quay, old supreme court building, VCH, parliament house, CBD area, and a nice view of..........ya. Now comes the part where I got to learn extra from last time. We went up to the ninth floor, which has the high court (literally), the court of appeal. This court room can house 3 judges, including the chief justice. Usually, this is the last stage of a case. When a case ends there, there will be no more appeals to be entertained, unless you go to the president and seek his...dunno, something. Ok, it was quite a large circular room, compared to the other court rooms.

Now, this is sth really extra. Some of my classmates wanted to sit-in for an actual court session, so we looked up for sessions held today, and found one on level 6. So I tagged along with them, went up to level 6, and arrived at the court room entrance. There was a door there where we could see a bit of the layout of the court. There, we felt a bit uneasy about going in already, since it was so silent and solemn, and the thought of going in there to see a lawyer defending the accused and the witness accusing the accused was a bit scary. Furthermore, we had no knowledge and relation to the people involved. So, we had to take in a deep breath, opened the door, and went in. We had to observe a certain conduct when going in. Like, we had to bow to the judge (not that he notices much) before taking a seat. I think when we went in, it was quite a distraction to some of the people there, since one big of SAJC students in uniform suddenly went in. The people in the court room started to turn back one by one to see what contributed the heavy footsteps.

I can't talk much about the case, cos I don't really catch what the whole story was about. Whether it was about money or family relations and disputes, I dunno. All I can say is that the court session was very slow. It was much slower than what I had expected. The lawyer defending the accused spoke very slowly. For example, "I put it to you that..................................................the accused.....................................did not take the letter from your drawer." (not actual conversation, just an example) Its like the dotted section can last for 15 seconds. So the whole thing took quite long. The session started at 10am. Anyway, we didnt sit in for the whole thing, since it would be a waste of time.

We went to marina square food court, some ate dinner, some ate desserts. Then all went home. Nothing much to talk about the outing, but many of the times, we were imitating the people we saw at the court session, and tried to act out a case with weird subjects. It was all very funny. Well, I got to experience something special today, so today wasn't a complete waste.....haha :P

Hope you all get a chance, or take the opportunity to attend a court session. Its open to public...so ya. Its interesting!!

Laziness & Misfortunes

2007-08-12T11:21:00.000+08:00

Ok, I'm back to tell you all about my national day holiday.

First, 9 Aug national day morning was spent with my church people at east coast park. It was a time where we can all fellowship and have fun and games together, to sort of foster bonds between different families. We had a picnic there, where people brought different kinds of food to be shared among the people. There was bee hoon, nasi lemak, japanese curry, and many others, quite a nice breakfast. My brothers and I also went roller-skating there. It was a good time away from studies.

After this, the afternoon was spent at home. Since I was quite tired, cos had to wake up early that day, I had a nap. Dunno how long it was though. One thing is for sure, is that I'm the laziest of my siblings. My other 2 brothers were doing work, trying to complete as much homework as possible during that time, and doing revision as their CA was around the corner. While they were doing all that, I was there sleeping. I'm super lazy. With the afternoon wasted, we prepared for our home bbq. Dinner was bbq food, and entertainment was watching the NDP 2007 @ marina bay on tv. The ndp was not bad actually, as the surrounding water was made use of to showcase certain stuffs. Music also not bad, with the combined orchestra consisting of SSO, SCO, Malay ensemble, and others. After dinner and a nice shower, I began to do some work. Also not considered work, but its still studying, I was reading the Physics notes on waves. So, that was the day spent.

Friday, a school holiday, with no parents at home, I played xbox with bros in the morning. Nothing interesting. Then, afternoon I had some self-control and got the physics tutorial done. The night was taken up by my violin lesson, where I started my new book. I have advanced to volume 3...yeah. Dunno when will I take exams and grading though.

Saturday, yesterday, was the worst day of this weekend. I woke up in the middle of the night, went to the toilet, and found that I had diarrhoea. I lost quite some fluid there, but I didnt drink water straight after that. Then, I went for a second time a few hours later. By that time, I was already beginning to feel feverish and had muscle aches. So that morning, could'nt go for bible study, stayed at home, lying on the bed most of the time, groaning abuot my empty stomach, no appetite, blah blah blah... Lunch, ate a little bit, then went to sleep somemore. Woke up with headache, went to practice violin, felt very warm, rested somemore. By evening, I felt slightly better, with the fever quite subsided. Then, my family went to NTU one-north, yunnan garden restaurant to celebrate my grandfather's 82nd birthday. The food was nice, but I could have enjoyed it better if I wasnt sick. After the satisfying dinner, went home shortly, had to go toilet again....go and do what?....I think you can guess.

Yesterday was mostly spent sleeping and done no work at all. I felt really disappinted in myself, with not making good use of the time given to me to study. Anw, woke up today, feeling much better, that's why I can write this entry. Hope that I can do up some work today, since its the last day before things start to pick up again.......haih

National Day Celebrations

2007-08-08T20:07:00.000+08:00

Yay!! Another big cheer for my class today...whootz!! Our class got second runner-up position for the singing competition, winning a 100 bucks for the class fund...haha. Well, at least we won't have to pay so much for the class fund anymore, I hope =P, cos we are in debt of about a 100 plus dollars. So ya...good that we won some money to repay our debts....lol.

My class performance: a lead singer, Timothy Ong, singing solo a very moving and breathtaking song, arranged specially for this day, "My Pledge". As he sung the first chorus, the people holding the lovely picture boards started to walk towards the stage from the ends of the field. I was one of them, holding the purple board with a CUTE painting of the NEWater water droplet, which is cuter than liankai =X......hahaha.

Anyway, we slowly walked across the field, went up the stage and let the audience get a last good look at the nice paintings, before we flip the boards to its opposite side, revealing the words, "Singapore! My Home". Wasn't it nice?? I'm sure it was at least for the judges, since we got third place out of eight....good right? Ahh, better than some classes..........with the sleeping merlion, laughing performers, jumper jumping on mic, blah blah.....ok, I don't be so bad. Every one did a fantastic job on stage..........well done!!

The other events were boring, namely floats and musical chairs, so I'm not going to talk about that. Later, went out with some co ppl out to tampines. We ate at Cafe Cartel, then some of them went away while the remainder watched Rush Hour 3. That show is super hilarious, must watch, really funny.......=D Nothing much to tell, only that Nick can laugh for long periods of time when provoked...haha.

Paradino!

2007-08-01T17:47:00.000+08:00

Woohoo!!! Yes!! My class won the paradino saints exploratorium competition....yeah! We had no intention of winning initially....really. We won second place just because we managed to land the dinosaur "into" the box. What actually happened was that our dino landed on the rim of the box, but bounced out eventually, so its really lucky that it was counted as in...haha. Another thing is that there are plenty of very well done parachutes which the other teams have made. Its just too bad that their parachutes all exceeded the maximum specifications of the parachute dimensions. So most of the good teams were disqualified cos of this....quite sad. They really deserved the prize for making the better parachutes. But, rules are rules, so ya, my team followed the instructions, did not exceed the 30cm limit and managed to come in to meritorious award. The person in my team who dropped the dino, Joseph, should really be thanked, cos without his almost good aiming, we wouldnt have won anything....loL.

So, I got a plaque made of plastic, so dont get jealous =P. If you are, then there are plenty of oportunities for you to beat me.....haha.....I'm so bad. Nope, I really dont think I deserve the award. Maybe for following the rules, but not the best parachute. All in all......remember to always follow instructions for competitions like this, and most importantly your examinations. You'll never know when following the rules will get u a bonus...so try to always follow the rules, provided they are right...yes? ............................I sound like a philosopher again....haha =)

Skipping details of the day, I will talk about the national day singing competition auditions. Yup, probably my WHOLE class is entering for the event. Not all participated today, so not the full strength yet. The performance for my class consist of some background acting on the stage with the main attraction being the singers, who are singing the lovely song "This is Home". 2 of the singers are singing, and the other 3 are just making the background tempo sound...like "ch....ch ch.....ch ch" u know, that kind of sound....ya. Its over in a few minutes, and I hope that we are not selected for the actual performance. I dont wanna go on stage and neither do many others.

Ok, H1 common test coming along now, which is econs for me. Up till now, I've been a lazy pok and not done any revision for the upcoming case study test. So, jiayou to myself. I dun wanna flunk this test.....no.

Summary for u all :P : Follow rules & jiayous for the H1 common test.....!!!

Action speaks louder than words

2007-07-28T23:24:00.000+08:00

This evening, I watched a show put up by the Chinese Drama Club of SAJC and TPJC. It was quite a nice show. The actors did not stutter when speaking. They really know their scripts really well. Their expression of their feelings are also not bad. Some actors also go to the extent of screaming their hearts out as if they were the characters themselves. Overall, the show was well produced, and the actors really did a fantastic job....well done to them.

The show consisted of 2 stories, one is some sort of love story and the other is about how a young Japenese girl, despite being diagnosed with leukemia, persevered on in her life by folding 1000 paper cranes. I'm not sure if I got the second story correct, but the moral of the story should be quite clear, that we should treasure every moment, every second of our lives, and cherish our family and friends, and to never give up hope, never squander away your life with foolish acts. Nice and understandable stories for me...haha.

By the way, I watched it with huiqi, yunguan and ben, all of which are CO ppl....lol. None of my classmates went, so sad...I'm sure they would have enjoyed it. Huiqi went home after the show, while the remaining 3 of us went to the soys shop, to eat and drink soya milk products...sounds weird right? I mean the way I phrased it, cos I dunno the Chinese pinyin for it. Most of the time was spent on arguing who should be shou3 xi2, or concert master, and how should the orchestra arrangement can be altered for the better, considering that the left side is very small now (erhu section). About the concert master thing, I dont think that its very important now, since the role has not been really practiced in many performances for our CO.

After that "lovely" break, we walked towards the mrt station. Halfway, for some strange reason, yunguan told ben to walk at a speed of about 1m/min. I have no idea what they want, or she wants. Trying to delay me from going home first? So what?... In the end they also miss the bus, no point right? Sometimes I dunno if yunguan is just crazy or crazy... U noe, she thought that the lights to illuminate the words "Welcome to Potong Pasir" on a HDB block, was used to illuminate and police station all the way below..............I dunno what to say.

I accompanied them to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road ( see, I'm so good =P). There, I was still engrosed in trying to solve the rubik's cube. Then there was this elderly lady carrying plastic bags of sth, crossing the main road, and not at the traffic lights there. Dun worry, she got safely across. Upon seeing this, yunguan started being compassionate about the poor old lady, that she have to pick up rubbish to make a living. She noticed that me and ben did not show any compassion. She started whacking my arm, forcing me to be compassionate as I am a christian. I had no idea she was carrying rubbish or whatever it was in her bag. I thought it was just some groceries. Anyway, yunguan has given me sth to think about. I have thought about it for a while, and can say that being compassionate is just the start. Feeling compassionate towards someone is useless if not accompanied by the appropriate actions. Without action, no one will know how compassionate u really are. However, it doesnt mean that you dont show compassion to anyone. Giving a helping hand starts by feeling for the person, followed by willingness to do sth about it. I know I sound like a philosopher, but its all based on a true saying that....

"Action speaks LOUDER than words"....

Learning Festival

2007-07-25T22:21:00.000+08:00

Today was learning festival for SAJC. It is a 2 day festival held today and tomorrow. There are many different courses to choose from. Sports, culture, aesthetics, etc. From what I know, I think there were about 90+ courses, out of which I chose 4. Since I signed up for the courses a bit late, I had fewer choices to choose from, so some may not be interesting at all...

First course for the day....from 8 to 9, its the "relax one corner lecture". Yes, I think the name of the course really suits what it did to me. I admit, after the course, I feel refreshed!! Ok...tell u what happened. Basically, the lecture was sooooo boring, it took me tremendous amounts of energy to keep my eyelids open...haha. In the end, I just slept, had a good nap, and the best thing is that the teacher allowed it...lol.

Next course, and I would refer to it as the best course for the day, was the "Impress at First Sight" course. The presenter taught us all many different ways to make sure that we look good to other people. These include walking, sitting, attire, hair leanth and style, a bit of dining rules, how to be well-mannered to different types of people, and how to treat the boyfriend or girlfriend properly when out on a date. The presentation was not at all boring, there was so much to learn from there, and the jokes and funny experiences the presenter had kept us all awake. I guess it was truly and eye-opener.

After the talk, Ben and I went to the Geog Room for the jiao zi course. Unfortunately, I didnt sign up, cos I had another course to attend. If I had nothing else, I would have stayed on with the rest of the CO ppl...if there was any vacancies. Well, the good part was, even though I did not join the course, I still got to eat 2 dumplings hand-made by mdm hue...haha. Really delicious, but the veggie one a bit sour.

The other course I had to attend was the "Fun with Rubik's cube" course. At least I had some company from liankai and esmond, otherwise I would be all alone...so sad, but that didnt happen...phew. It was basically teaching you how to solve the cube with a beginners layer method. The teacher also provided notes and instructions leh....whoa. Its my first time trying out the layer by layer method, since I have been doing the corner out method before I attended this course. It turned out that its quite easy to do, although both methods are quite similar. The layer one may take more time, but I dunno both has their good and bad points.

Then, its the end of the day for me at 2 o'clock. I wanted to continue the parachute thing with my team, but one of them said that he will do it and experiment, so that's it, I dun have anything to do...relax. Oh, and yes, I am taking part in the exploratorium on the paradino thing tml...so ya, hope to make the class proud by coming out the best....XD.

Wish me all the best!......

One Family Unbroken...

2007-07-21T00:26:00.000+08:00

Today....or maybe yesterday(look at the time!)...is definitely one of the happiest moments of my life, and it is the most wonderful day in my JC life.

A few hours ago, there was a farewell celebration and commendation of the new committee. After lessons had ended, Nick and I went to Toa Payoh Interchange to but a cake for the outgoing seniors. We decided on a blackforest cake from crystal jade, which I'm sure was delicious...haha. We arrived back at the CO room just in time for the entertainment to start. It was a great game organised by the zhong ruan girls, Cindy and Cuiying....good job in keeping the J2s entertained =)

Me and Yehan had to set up the AVA stuff, so we delayed our dinner and made sure that the equipment was working well. After our dinner, we sat in with the rest of the CO ppl to watch the concert video. It was both funny and enlightening to many of us I suppose. I realised that the mistake from Victory was not so bad after all. The blunder turned out to be quite alright...haha. Concert over...next...emo video. Yup, it was a video done by Huimin (good job!), and it showed us the many good and fun times we all had in our time in CO...really brings back recent memories...refresh the mind...lol.

When the vids were all done, it was the highlight of the evening, for me at least. The announcement of the new CO committee!! The mode of announcement was very interesting...its kind of hard to describe how it works, but I know I will remember it always...yeah! Anyway, I was appointed the new sectional leader of the bowed strings section....now is the beginning of my teaching career....haha. I hope that the section under my lead will work towards being the best of the best, and that I will lead them well.

Congratulations all who were appointed with various posts...woohoo!! I wish that this committee will put aside all our differences and work together as a team. No one must be left out from discussions...even those without posts. Every one MUST work together as a team!!

Followed by this, we headed back to the CO room to listen to many touching speeches, by both teachers and students. Next was the farewell item. Every section presented self-made keychains to our seniors and said a few words to them all. Oops...sorry yonghui, I forgot about u...paiseh. After some last words for the evening by our conductor, we all headed out to leave the school fast, fearing that the gate will be locked.

Well, the gate was indeed locked, so the erhu section took this chance to cut the cake. We had some last pictures of the whole group together...and these memories will go on forever!

Thank you seniors for every thing that u have done. From presents given, to support and care. Thank you all!! Indeed, you all deserve a loud long cheer!

Condolences....

2007-07-12T20:53:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, the Friday the 13th, a large group of SACO people went to visit the wake of the late Mr Yeo Puay Hian, who has left us on the 11th of July 2007. It had been long since I attended a funeral, the last being my grandmother's. There was a solemn atmosphere, but I just could not feel it touch my heart. That was indeed the first and, sad to say, the last time I got to see his face. It's sad that I only got to see him lying there, with that calm face, never ever going to express itself in any other way. Although I never knew him my entire life in CO, I could not help but feel a little sad for his family and his passing. I just hope that his calm face signifies a pleasant life with little or no regrets. Mr Yeo Puay Hian had gone to be with the Lord, and that is something that I can be sure and happy about.

I have never thought that he would be gone just like that. After my PE lesson, the least piece of news that I would expect from Sophie, is that Mr Yeo had just died. For a split second, my mind was blank, and after that, an interesting mix of feelings, all of which I can't identify. Of course, I didn't feel any intense feeling towards the late conductor, because I never even knew him. All the stories that Mr Yeo was a kind and caring conductor, with him giving long breaks and sweets and snacks for the students, made me feel a little sad that I can never get to experience it ever. Wish that Mr Yeo will rest in peace and rest well.

Knowing that it's useless to keep mourning about his passing, let me turn the clock back to the beginning of Friday the 13th. The day started off with a talk on how to prepare a proposal to create a well organised celebratory event. I suppose it would be a very good talk if we were as diligent as the teachers in scribbling down vital notes, but apparently it was a waste of time for most students that morning. After the talk, some of the CO people went to sign up for activities that we are going to do next week for learning festival. Too bad the jiao zi course was all taken up, and some of us didn't have that activity.

Late....we were going to be late. We had to climb the side gate fence to get out of school....what nonsense is that!! We brisk walked to the MRT station and managed to get to St. Andrew's Cathedral before the commendation begun. The whole event took an hour, during which there was a march-in of the councillors, singing of hymns, hearing of the message on effective leadership, followed by the presenting of badges to each and every councillor present, more hymns, a march-out, and the end.

We went out for lunch at the food court at Marina Square, where I eaten the claypot rice there. Although it was a bit salty, overall was quite satisfying. Liankai, Cuiying, Nick and I went walking around the centre taking a look at childish items and talked about how one student from S7 and another from S14 are really made for each other. It was a fun discussion. After the pleasant walk, we went to watch Harry Potter 5. I didn't think the movie was too bad, but my friends seem to think otherwise. I admit that the movie was too fragmented and was not as good as the previous shows. After the movie and a short rest at Andersen's Ice Cream Parlour, we took a long train ride to Lakside MRT to meet the rest and attend the wake.

On the whole, it was a pretty eventful day for me, and I hope my CO friends had fun on that day too. God bless them and the late Mr Yeo Puay Hian!

School Life...

2007-07-09T18:35:00.000+08:00

Hi ppl....I'm back. Sorry I didnt update for the past few days...cos I was lazy to type :P. Anyway, its the start of the new term, and work has just started to stream in. Sooner or later, work will start to pile up again, if I'm still my same old self....haha.

Last Thurday, I had to attend a SYF presentation rehearsal with some of the CO ppl, so had early dismissal at 12 noon that day...yes!...lol. By the time we arrived at the SCH via a cab ( which took very long to book ), there were already so many ppl. I suppose we just made it in time. The whole rehearsal was quite uneventful. Almost 5 hours was put into preparing for the concert, then my item only rehearse with music once, then technical run, thats all. The rest of the time was watching the other items and slacking around...what a waste of time...haih. The whole thing ended at around 1830-1900...very tired after the thing.

The next day was college day, so didnt need to go to school so early, so can sleep better for the oral also. Anyway, go school only to play the super boring, un-fun amazing race. My class very special case...confirm lose and a complete waste of time and energy. The first clue was sth about a multi-cultural place, so our class thought it was the Potong Pasir CC. So, we went there to find nothing. We were outside the school for more than 1 hour, still at the first clue, until Mr Jerry Chua suggested that we look at the school canteen. Then we slack a while outside b4 going back to school, all exhausted and hungry. We went to the cafe and found that the station was really there. Super angry and tired, no mood to play anymore. My class only completed that station and its the end for us. The oral students started to eat lunch, so I joined them, to have a good lunch b4 the oral. The whole amazing race was a complete waste of time for me.

Afternoon, was oral for me, I was like the tenth student or sth like that. The queue shortened amazingly fast. In just about 50 mins, it was my turn to prepare. I thought I read quite alright, the front part was ok. Got some difficult words though, I cant make any meaning out of it. Then the conversation topic was "What do you think about the situation now that more youths are cramming various languages into their speech?" Like for eg, youths speak with English and Chinese together in the same sentence. Actually, at the start I was stuck for a while, cos I was amazed that it was a topic that me and my mum were talking about the day before...haha. But I dun think that I did any better than if I hadnt discussed about it...nvm...its over and I should be glad.

Well, that's all I can say now, tml is the actual day for the concert, so got to rest well. Really gonna be busy tml...

Waiting for more results...

2007-07-04T17:11:00.000+08:00

Hi! Haha, I'm really making an effort to post frequently. I know this should be the way to use the blog...as in to post something new every day if possible, but update too frequently may be boring? Hmm...^^ maybe not.

Anyway, today got back my Physics paper and got to know my Chinese results. Well, its good news and not so good news. Surprisingly (or not), the Physics is now the not so good news. Usually for me, its the Chinese that I'm worried about. Ok, why not so good? Firstly, I got a C from it but I still passed. Then, Physics has been my best subject, and now I got such results....quite disappointing....but still relieved that I passed it at least. Next is Chinese. I think to many, if not some of you think this results are not that good and its really not up to mark considering the 'easy paper'. For me its quite good already...I got a B. Nevertheless, I must still continue to focus on the upcoming oral and listening. My listening is really bad, though I didnt fail it, I still got the lowest in class.

Counting down to my Chinese Oral 'A' level exam......2 days left to buck up my Chinese speaking. I really hope I can do better for my Chinese this year, so that I dont have to bother about it anymore next year. Furthermore, its the last time (I hope) that I will be taking the Chinese paper, so better make it a good ending, and get rid of it :P. Merit is what I'm aiming for...go for it!

I'm still held in suspense by the other subjects though, especially Maths....its probably worse than my Physics =X....Hope for the Best!

Common Test...?

2007-07-03T19:13:00.000+08:00

Ok...first day back at school after the first major exam was quite uneventful. Well, at least I think so, cos I've been expecting quite some papers to be returned to us, especially on the first day back. From here, I think you can see that I didnt receive many papers back. The only small thing I got is the Chemistry MCQ answers. I didnt even get back my own MCQ paper! Oh well, at least I know that I got at least 12/20 for it...haha I passed it.

Haih...if I'm not wrong, I may be receiving almost all the papers next week. Chinese dunno yet...mdm hue said that there's no lesson today, so dunno when we will get that paper back. Should be this week...since Chinese paper mark very fast one, apparently. Hmm...like that I think I can concentrate on the Chinese Oral le...I wish to get a merit maybe?

According to what I see around the school, I think majority of the j1s didnt have the results they want, which makes me all the more worried. I asked Linus today...he said that his Physics managed to pass...then his class only got him and another person got pass...the rest of his class got U...I really dunno how true...but one thing is for sure, the results are really like rock bottom. Aiyo...very worried for my results...especially phys and maths.

Hoping for at least a pass for all my subjects....

The Start of a New Term...

2007-07-02T18:46:00.000+08:00

Term 3 week one.....come and gone in a flash with all the terrible common tests which I think I did badly in...haih. I know I did not make full use of the hols to do sufficient revision and do some specimen papers....but too bad....its over. It seems like when you have the time to do many things...you tend to squander it away in playing or doing leisurely stuff instead of putting priorities first....and in the case of the June hols....that is studying.

First day back at school, first thing hear the principal say some nasty things about the students during morning assembly....didnt even say the traditional " Welcome back to another exciting term of school". Anyway, first paper GP I think I didnt do too bad, just hoping that I can get a B? Otherwise Mr Randy will give us all a 'whacking'. Next day...next paper...Chinese, a subject which I have the biggest problem with. That, I just hope to pass and I'm happy, but mdm hue already told me that my listening compre had a lot of wrong >.<...haih.

The following 3 days was all the science subjects, all the H2. I have to admit...the standard of the papers are much higher than that of the 'O' levels, and I think I really done super badly for it...on the verge of failing them all....again...hoping for a pass for all. Totally disappointed in my Physics, really jue2 de2 hen3 shi1 wang4.

Really have to buck up...although its J1 year shouldnt let my guard down. Have to start anew this term.

And I hope CO will start soon....I really miss the practices and the ppl....yeah!

Hols...or is it?

2007-06-19T22:18:00.000+08:00

Hey hi!!.......sorry i havent been writing here for a long time since the start of the june hols...i must be really lazy...haha. I guess it doesnt really matter whether i update this blog or not...i dun think anyone is reading it....hmm....nvm...its where i keep my thoughts anyway...

Speaking about me being lazy....i have been demonstrating this particular trait this whole holiday period...minimal work and revision has been completed and done. I take this last week seriously now....if not, its good luck to my common test. Haih...y must the hols be used for studying??? My brothers have finished their exams and are having a fun time this hols...it was so distracting for me at first...i often joined them in playing computer games and these sorts.

I have to exercise complete self control this last week....the results of the common test really depend on how well i spend this last week studying....really have to chiong already. I think my physics should not be much of a problem...just have to understand some concepts and formulas...with some practice...and i'm on my way to....perhaps an A? i hope so. Haih...chem....many things to study in this subject...i totally forgotten what was done for the whole of the first term....back titration...redox reactions...the gaseous state...all these dunno!!!

Regret...regret...regret....haih never make good use of the time given me...

Time...tick...tick...ticking away....

CO camp & practice

2007-05-31T22:20:00.000+08:00

This week is mostly taken up by SACO activities...with the camp from Monday to Wednesday evening, and rehearsal for the annual concert tml Friday from 12 to around 8. Yup...i know what u are thinking...its very tiring!! I totally agree that its tiring, i even slept for at least 11 hrs last night after the camp...i'm that tired. However, thru the tiring practices and "fun" games...i think it doesnt really matter...since CO is the thing that i look forward to in school...away from studies...and to meet up with the nice CO ppl again.

About the camp...well first day started off with sectional practices...nothing much to talk about. Then amazing race held at Sentosa. Basically each group was given clues to find their destination in Sentosa...and upon reaching the destination, complete the task given to them. Nothing much that i can rmb from it though...the only thing i can recall is one task that requires the group to act out a 30 seconds video based on the theme "Agape", possibly meaning unconditional love. So, me and Ye Han acted out a so called "Romeo and Juliet scene", where i was supposed to help him ( yes....yehan is a he...not a her ) down from a tree and present him a feather and proposed to marry...*bleh*, which was not at all well acted out, since i didnt even help him down the tree...haha...sorry yehan. The last task was carried out at Vivocity GV...where we had to take a picture with any "saint". Then free and easy for us. I had dinner at food republic...beef noodles...quite expensive there though...i decided what to eat for so long until late for the meet up with the others. Unfortunately i had my group's shoebag with their valuables in it. So they had to wait...cos i had cheeyae's ez-link with me...sorry guys...paiseh.

After that...we had practice again...slightly more than 5 hrs for me...very tired. The last song i practiced was victory...so tired already still got to play that mentally exhausting song...hun almost all the way...super tired. The worst thing was that we were not allowed to sleep in the CO room cos not allowed to on the air-con...so had to sleep in the classrooms...sleep on the floor and tables until my back ache...haih.

The next day had somemore practices...with some games. I took part in the "fastest watermelon eater game" and got second for it...yay. I ate the melon until my nose also went to join my mouth in the game...my nose was soaked with juice...disgusting. Anyway, the melon was sweet and nice to eat. I think after this nothing much to talk about the second day.

Third day...yes the last day...the long awaited day when i would go back to my lovely soft bed and sleep for as long as I want. 1 event that I can rmb is the skit that every group is supposed to memorise and act out...and the dreaded thing about it is that its in Chinese most of the time. Its some sort of crazy love story...which Group 1 acted out quite nicely and hilariously, especially yonghui and jiahui...super funny they all...yunguan, liting and sarah...well done.

Practice...practice. Then we had some sort of committee election. First, we blindfolded ourselves, then the J2s ask who want to be what post then we raise hand without any body seeing each other. After the blindfold thing, we were given nomination forms to nominate the president, vice-pres, student conductor, and my sectional leader. After that...end of the camp...then practice somemore...so boring right?...I like it. And I'm not going to tell u all what i put...its confidential.

That's about all for now...still havent started studying...haih. JIAYOU SACO...u can do it...do the concert well!!!

School Life + SYF

2007-05-19T16:35:00.000+08:00

This week was a killer. Lecture tests for 3 days in a week....all the H2 subjects have been tested...isn't that tiring or what? Physics, Maths, Chemistry....personally i feel all my tests are badly done...haih. I have been sleeping beyond 11pm every day this week...now i'm super tired. the latest i slept was at 1 am the next day...leesons and lectures...i could always be seen nodding off. Dunno if all the burning of midnite oil is worth it or not...o well, i shall see it in my test results. Since i have to study for tests and complete my daily homework, and attend CO, i do not have the time to update this blog for at least 2 weeks now...i think...really very busy.

Talking about CO, the SYF outcome, although disappointing for some, was good. WE actually got a silver! Like I said, we are the batch that finally broke out from the bronze trap...FINALLY. Its good news for the school and the CO of course. CO will not be disbanned...hooray. However, i am one of those who feel disappointed at the results. This was my last chance to get a gold...instead i had to experience a silver again. First time was my secondary school's CO...syf 2005 got a silver...when we were aiming for a gold. Now is a similar situation...we were a bronze CO aiming for a gold...very ambitious right? If our size was right, we would have already attained and achieved that silver...and i would be grinning from ear to ear...filled with joy...really. Well....now its over...i got a silver again...at my last syf also...too bad, I cant experience the thrill of attaining a gold anymore. I missed my chance...so did a few others in the CO.

Ok...now that syf is out of the way...we have bt.merah secondary concert to prepare...as well as our very own school concert. I hope during the school concert on the 4th of June will blow the audience away when we play our fantastic music :P Really....this is the chance to show the school that we can do it...we are no longer "that dying and sucky cca" anymore. The syf results already showed it in their faces that we are no longer the old lousy cca. Too bad our batch cannot take part in the next syf...the results and outcome of the next syf will be entirely up to the next group to get a gold.

That's all about school and cca. Today is my grandma's birthday...party will be held at my house...just hope that it will be a fun time away from the torturous study.

Nothing to add already...all that needs to be said has already been said. I'll try to update this blog soon...when I have the time...=) God bless CO and all my friends.

SYF - Coming Soon

2007-04-28T17:26:00.000+08:00

As you all know, I'm part of the SAJC Chinese Orchestra....and this time period is the exciting part. SYF Central Judging for Chinese Orchestra JC is less than 2 weeks away....that's on the fourth of May. Yup...that's very soon...getting worried and excited at the same time.

The first time I stepped into the SACO, I heard the music they played...and it sucked....total bu zhun...not accurate pitch. It was like a downgrade from Marist CO...I was a bit sad to be in such a CO. I didn't feel like I want to be a part of the CO...so lousy. I stayed on cos lian kai was there...he's the only marist that I can talk to well enough...:-)

The first few weeks of me in their training...I was worried that the CO will get a bronze again...and that will not be good in my records...so ya...was disappointed and unhappy.

As time goes by...I began to learn that the CO members are very nice and friendly ppl. They are a nice group of ppl to talk to...very fun at times. But I'm wondering what they will do for the CO in the upcoming competition. Fortunately, SACO got a new conductor...and I think that he has brought this CO very far...really. The music I hear now is definitely much better than the first time I heard it.

The past few days...the CO had 2 practices in the cultural centre in the campus. It was a good measure of how much our sound can travel...how loud and all. From there, we improve ourselves better. Under the new conductor, I am now very confident that the CO will get at least a silver....yay=). Now, believe it or not, we are further improving ourselves to a Gold standard. Although we have not achieved that level yet, there is still that possibility that every thing goes smoothly in the competition, and we may just get a gold. Wouldn't that be great?

This is my second time going for the SYF competition...also the last actually...haha. Its my very last chance to get a gold...I have not tasted the feeling of Gold before and I want it. That means I have to further improve my erhu skills...its not up to that standard yet...lol.

This coming Monday...CO going to SCH for rehearsal...1 hr 15 min only...better make it count...haha. I believe God has really blessed this batch of SACO ppl...a bunch of hardworking ppl...with musical talents...I really think we deserve at least a silver...only by doing it can we show our schoolmates...other JCs...secondary schools CO...that we can do it...we have broken out from our bronze trap...yay!!

"Never Again"

2007-04-20T20:04:00.000+08:00

Hi I'm back. Sorry I havent been able to update the blog for more than a week now. I really been busy and very tired. This weekend...must really catch up on my sleep...super tired. Now the school term is tougher than the first 2 months cos got project work. This week handed in PI draft...on Karl Benz...the inventor of the internal combustion engine for cars. What a coincidence...JuYin also doing the same person...hmm...great minds think alike?...haha:)

Hmm let me think...got what other impt things to say...oh ya. Last Friday to Saturday I had a CO orientation camp...weird right?...now then orientate...should do it earlier or later...not in the middle of the school term...haih...cause my homework to fall behind...so busy. Fortunately my gp teacher...mr randy...extended the dateline for an essay to next Monday.

Oh...speaking about mr randy...did u wonder why the title of this entry is "Never Again"? Well...its kind of a long story to fill up this post...haha. Anyway, it started when mr randy gave us an assignment...an essay...900 words long...last Thursday...to be handed on yesterday. That was the original plan. Then this week he asked if we wanted an extension...the whole class said yes then dateline on Monday lor. Yesterday, he wanted to test us on how hardworking we are...whether we consistently try to buck up our english. He told us to show him all that we have done for the essay. Guess what...almost the whole class didnt even write a single word or paragraph yet...including me...haha...I'm such a bad boy. Almost the whole class handed in a blank sheet of paper to him. At the end of the lesson, we gave us back the empty pieces of paper. Then he wanted to do a psychology test on us. He told us to crush up that piece of paper...then fold it out again. He then told us to write 2 BIG words on the crushed up piece of paper. And the 2 words are...yours truly..."Never Again". He told us to hang it up somewhere in our study area at home to remind us to never again leave homework unattended...this applies to all subjects. He expects us to show him that piece of paper at the end of the year.

Mr Randy is a nice teacher...a very special teacher i think...lol. Coming back to the camp...I sway sway got into a loser team. Actually its not the group that is lousy...its the leader...in the end...under his "guidance"...we got last place...so sad. But the camp was fun...the games organised were ok...some were unique...ya. It was the first time I had an overnight camp in SAJC...where the campus can be very dark at night...creepy.

Well...then today I experienced my first Sports Day in SAJC. The programme is different from Maris Stella's one...oh btw MSHS had sports day today too. The event consisted of a telematch...musical chairs...and 10x200m relay...which all classes have to send some representatives. At the end of the day...my house got 4th placing out of 5...ok la...at least its not last...haih I want to be in the black house Venn house...not a yellow house like Loyfatt...whose name sounds crazy.

Thats all I can say right now...I cant recount my whole week for you...time to rest then start doing work...ahhhh got a lot of homework to do...hope I can finish it all...:-)

Energy....Sapped

2007-04-05T21:15:00.000+08:00

Hi, I'm back from an all-exhausting week. Yup...as the title says it...MY ENERGY HAS BEEN DRAINED ALMOST ENTIRELY OUT OF ME!!!! A week filled with homework...CCA...and worst of all...PE.

This whole week, I was never given a chance to go back home to rest before 6pm. Monday, cos my timetable ended late. Tuesday, CO ended 830pm. Wednesday, CO till 530pm. Today, Thursday, CO till 830pm. Now you tell me, isn't that tiring? This is just the amount of time spent in school...wat about all the homework required to be completed every day? I believe all my CO friends are all very tired, exhausted, sleepy, etc. I think we all deserve a good long weekend's rest...ahhhh...wouldnt that be great?

Monday, which is the longest the on my timetable, ended with a GP session. The epilogue of tis lesson was a GP paper 2...to be done by Thurs(today). I appreciate the teacher for giving us time to do up our work and all...I suppose my other classmates have more time to do it than I did...haih. However, today I was found to be one of the few that completed the assignment entirely. Well...I dont blame my friends...the exam format is really new and different from the O level format. There are also new types of inferential questions and application questions. i personally feel that my friends will do better for the paper than I did...since they completed the work after the teacher has gone thru the more "tough" Qns. Oh well...I just hope that it will turn out to be a pass...and not like sec3 that time...O level compre keep on failing. These marks are going to be calculated into the overall Continual Assessment. Now the teacher, Mr Randy, probably noes my name and face, and I'll most likely be the next target for him to make me a center of attention, that is, besides Esmond...Nicole...Genevieve...

Tuesday, the next latest day on my timetable, ended with a Chinese lesson. It was ok that Mdm Hue didnt give our class any homework, intead she went thru a new topic in the textbook...and went thru our first written compo, which I got 6/10...argh. I am really weak in my Chinese...but I must still strive to do the best I can, at least for this year, I just want to get a C grade and I will drop the dumb subject. Then CO practice was next...which I felt was not done with much effort...probably wasting the conductor's time with us. That night, I had to do some Maths work, then I have to study for my Physics class test...so sian rite? Tuesday was really a tiring day for me.

Wednesday, ended so early...yet so late. Being the earliest dismissal time on my timetable, it has been spoilt by the CO practice following that. We had our Physics test first...a MEASURMENT test & a KINEMATICS test...separately...each 30 mins...total 1 hour...crazy...might as well put it all into 1 paper. I think I really flunked my measurements test...but Kinematics was quite ok...hope that I can excel in it...I love Kinematics =). Next was the dreaded PE, during which practiced our 5 stations. I really have to buck up on my physical fitness a bit more...and work towards attaining a silver...so that I dont have to go earlier into NS just to train up. Chinese lesson...nothing much to say...nvm :P

Today Thursday, the day which I consider the most tiring day. GP, Chem lecture, PW, Physics lecture, and the worst PE ever. The lessons were ok...considering we have plenty of break time to relax first before almost every lesson. PE was circuit training...no, its not 2.4 running...its worse. We have to do a series of exercises non-stop...training the arms...legs...stomach muscle. But we got a 30 mins earlier dismissal. After PE I coulnt feel my arms...it felt like paper. I suppose this is a more sure sign that I have to get started on training my arms for pull-up. CO today was usual...nothing really special...except that we celebrated 3 ppl's BD...and the conductor didnt come...again...I feel like its a waste of my time.

Well...after the long week, its only just to have a good rest this long weekend...when we celebrate Easter. Haih...tml's good friday gathering only cuiying turning up...I really hope I can make her feel comfortable. Lian Kai...I can forgive him...I understand tt he will feel alone...so I wont push him too much. I just hope that such future events will be more attractive to him. Maybe he will come for next year's Good Friday event?...who knows...?

Ok...that's my week given to you...indirectly explaining y I havent been updating this blog recently.

1st Quarter Gone

2007-03-31T19:06:00.000+08:00

Its the last day of March, so roughly 1 quarter of the year has gone by....time really flies this year. Soon it will be the June hols, then we will see ourselves taking the end-year exams....now I realise how short a time we have. I'd better get started on studying as if A levels are around the corner...if not I wont do a thing abt my studies. I really have to start being consistent with my studies/work/revision...its not the O levels anymore...this time its more advanced. Its very difficult for me to get out of my lazy habit...I cant concentrate and focus on my work...which can be a big problem for me.

This weekend, I have to reduce the pile of work I have accumulated since the beginning of term 2...I dont want to bring the work on to the following week....its terrible. Haih...this weekend I have to try to complete my physics tutorial 2-kinematics, maths tutorials, chemistry tutorial on atomic structure, and perhaps some others I cant think of right now. I cant believe myself...today I merely done a fraction of the physics tutorial and nothing else...I am so not disciplined enough. I believe discipline is one of the keys to success in my life..sth that I have to learn sooner or later...sth that I still dont have. Last year I was also as lazy as ever, doing last- minute study for my examinations and O levels...of course managing to pull through wth 10 pts is quite a surprise for me.

Some of my friends may think I am hardworking since the tests that I have done...the results surpass them, but truly I am a lazy person... a person that cant concentrate on anything for long. I hope my friends can see this so as not to be deceived by my test results anymore. Maybe we could study together as a grp...then we will move together and be on the same lvl...sharing wth each other methods to do well for certain subjects. Ya...maybe. But for now...I rly have to learn to turn away distractions and focus on my work.

I also have to balance my time well...for work...to practice my violin...and to have quiet time. I have been lagging behind on my devotional guide for the past few days, so I'll have to quickly catch up to the readings today. I have to commit myself to this daily reading to fulfill my this year's resolution to finish this year's devotional guide...I really hope I can make it a reality. My violin practices as well...are falling behind...i have to make full use of the time and money given me.

Ok...enough abt my reflections...now for my week...starting frm thurs. thurs was nothing much, got to meet my classmates and co friends again...no longer so depressed...then had co practice up to 830 in the evening. Ya...its been brought forward one day cos friday had a school event called the "Life Concert". Its not compulsory and I didnt go, so I dont what went on. Its a christian concert to commemorate Good Friday...it must have been fun for the ppl who went. Personally I dont really like rock concerts, so I didnt go. Then Friday we had earlier dismissal frm co at 6, went home earlier and relaxed after going through an exhausting week. Nothing much really happened. Then we also had new ppl coming in to try out our cca, maybe some of them can make it for syf...i dunno...at most 1 or 2...basically those wth musical background.

Coming today nothing much...morning started on the physics...practice violin b4 gg for the lesson...was late for the lesson...wasted money...continued my work...went for a swim in the pool...then now. Since the last post...nothing much happened really.

Over the span of the week, I also tried inviting a few ppl to a Good Friday gathering at my place. So far only cuiying agreed to come, the rest I may leave it to God to bring them in if he wants them to...I really hope lian kai could come, maybe even cheeyae. There's still a chance that they may come...but its very unlikely since they have alreasy turned down the invitation...however there is still the the slim possibility that they may change their mind...that would be great.

Well...that's abt all I have to say...I just hope I can complete the target I have set myself.
May God bless my co friends.

Depressed

2007-03-28T17:55:00.000+08:00

Today... its another point in my life where I feel very socially detached from the world. It started quite alright...we had morning assembly...then we had physics practical lesson on graph drawing...then PE. I tell u...PE almost killed my legs. We had a few rounds around the field, then fifty squat exercises...terrible. After the lesson...this is where the problem starts for me...my classmates were all taking a rest from the run...and I was sitting among them. Some of them were talking, some sleeping. Then some of my friends started walking to the caf...without asking me if I want to follow. That wasn't so bad, I've been through these things before. Then I'll just fast forward to my Chinese lesson...when we had to write a short essay to introduce ourselves, consisting of our characteristics and ambitions and thoughts...so on. This lesson was not bad I have to say...I don't mean the teaching...I mean the interaction with ppl. I was able to talk to my friend beside me...joking about some Chinese phrases. Nothing wrong there. After the lesson, there comes the second problem...similar to the first. We were finishing up our Chemistry practical assignment...we helped each other. At the last part, they finished their work while I was still trying to understand the question...they packed up without even saying a thing to me...not even about where they were going or even a "bye"...nothing. I really felt left out...seriously.

After this, I had nothing to do...and I walked around the school...around the caf. Then I spotted some old friends from my previous class, so I popped in. We had a short chat. Then I saw my friend lian kai...went up to meet him...talked to him for a while...met a new friend from my gp class...Esmond(if i'm not wrong)...then got separated. Then I had nothing to do...went to the library to meet my old friends again.

At 3...we went down to the cca maze mainly set up for j1s. I stayed there listening to my friend playing the sheng...then Ben told me to "zhou kai" move aside... What?! Can't he be more polite...like say "excuse me" or sth. I dismissed the thought...continued to stay around.

Isn't it boring for me to recount my day in this blog...I mean who would read it? I also think its boring...haih. Well...I'l try to finish up soon...just hang in there while I pour out my grief.

During the activity however... I started to think why nobody want to talk to me? Lian kai...give short coments to me when I talk to him...or he would immediately find interest in someone else adding more life to his talking. I feel that lian kai is just treating me as someone who just exists in this world...someone who is boring, uninteresting, and quiet. Apart from this, nobody spoke a word to me...except when the seniors wanted sth to be done...or ppl who just wanted to say a short sth to me, then go.

U noe how irritated I am about all this. Partly its my fault for being quiet and boring...but that's not all...WHY can other ppl interact wth others so well? Even the moderately quiet ones can attract ppl to talk to them...why am I so uninteresting?

I took an extended time coming home because I was walking slower than usual...thinking about what's going on. I really cant figure it out...I think I need to talk to someone. Lian kai?...He's only intersted in his dark brotherhood friends and gaming...Cheeyae, Cuiying yunguan, etc.?...I'm not very close to them. My parents...I dunno. What am I such a loser , toot-toot gia, quiet boy, silent killer, that nobody wants to talk to? What can relief me from this is for me or for them to start a conversation...when I talk to these friends all my angry or emotional pre-thoughts just subside, and I'll feel much better.

Maybe a gathering or outing can bridge some gap between us...so that I wont feel so left out. I dunno...I just hope that after today, I will forget all these thoughts and return to my normal life.
I really cant take too much of lonliness...I have to have a good talk to some ppl once in a while, maybe that's what i need...a good talk.

Haih...another sad thing...my school's CO is seriously lacking ppl...with only 5 ppl signing up. Its terrible. This CO might just die soon if we dont get a silver. I'm really in a mess now...even when i'm typing this post. There's still much I want to throw out of me...but I cant keep on typing can I? I just hope I wont get many of these depressions in my life...

School Life

2007-03-26T16:50:00.000+08:00

Hi...aaron here again. Today in my JC is the start of the lecture-tutorial timetable. Relative to my friends' ones, mine seems to be better. It has only one day when the lessons end at 5:30pm, and its on Monday, first day of the week. You may be wondering why I can post this earlier than 5:30pm, well... I'm lucky today that the teacher (no...he's not on mc) is on a course, so I have an earlier dismissal. I hope every Monday will be like that...I don't want to stay in school for lessons up to 5:30.

Going across the timetable, the next noticeable day-Wednesday-the earliest day of dismissal, which lessons end at 1230...nice. Unfortunately, no one is allowed to leave the school before 1300...oh well, its still early...I love my timetable. Its just too bad about liankai's class, whose timetable is worse than mine...with 3 days ending at 1730. What's worse, the days are filled with breaks, allowing the lessons to be pushed up (of course its not possible).

Something not good in my timetable for me...I have Chinese lessons 4 days a week...terrible...considering I hate Chinese. Enough about my timetable.

Today...3 homework...dunno if I can finish them. Maths revision tutorials BT and APGP, physics structured Qns, Chem practical worksheet. Haih...and its only the first day of lessons. I can't think of how much HW there will be following weeks...JC is going to be a homework nightmare...argh. And there's cca on Tues and Fri up to 2030...go home 2100+...that makes it worse. I really have to make time for HW to be done...otherwise I may not survive in JC.

Well...that's all I have to say about my day for now...may not post anything tmr wth cca ending late and all...haih.

First post!

2007-03-25T21:52:00.000+08:00

Hi, aaron here.
Hey... this is my first time blogging. I'm not sure if I can keep at it for long. Well... we'll see as time goes by. There's nothing I can think of that I can write in here...I suppose this is good enough for now...haha. I'll try to add in something once in a while. Haih...maybe I should have started blogging years ago...i dunno...its not too late to start anyway...lol. Well...that's all I have to say for now...I'll try to update it regularly, ok?