xuan

Long Time No Post

2011-10-11T20:23:00.002+08:00

I was reminded by my sister that I haven't posted anything on my blog in forever. The thing is that besides the fact that I'm lazy, I didn't think anyone was still reading it. In fact, I think it's just my family. So I'll just put a post to let them know that, no, I didn't get a new blog, and yes, I'm still alive and well down under.

The last time I posted was on my birthday, and if I have to recap I think it would be pretty hard, since my memory isn't good. I'll just put down what I remember.

*long pause*

Mid-Year Break
- Michelle came to visit from Melbourne to Sydney and stayed with me for about 10 days! It was nice catching up with her! Sorry for being such a lazy host :P
- I went for the Mid-Year Conference organised by Campus Bible Study, as we looked at the theme of humanity in the whole Bible. It was really cold (apparently was -2 deg at one night) and also really intense. I think one really interesting bit was reading through the whole 1 Peter as a small group without a leader and without paragraphing or verse numbering.

Teaching Period 3
- We started the term with a new half of my tutorial group - all 1st years, plus the 2nd years whom I've been with for a year already. It's a bit weird to be the older ones in class now.
- I started the course A Life Worth Living in FOCUS Team this session (was doing 2 Ways to Live in Session 1), and it's a really good course. It makes you think about fundamental aspects of the Christian life, such as why you believe, the importance of the Word, prayer, sin, and reaching out to others with the gospel.
- I joined the welcome team and music teams in church. It feels good to be actively serving in a defined role in church once again :)
- The New College Revue had a slot for a choir, which I participated in - we sang Somebody to Love by Queen in parts!
- Our Growth Group had a picnic social at Centennial Park, in which we ate pizza, played Taboo, and had lots of fun!

Teaching Period 4 - now
- I picked an assignment on euthanasia and ethics, and have managed to just about finish it, way before the deadline, yay.
- The women in church had an evangelistic event with baking, high tea and a panel of our own girls to answer questions that our friends had. I helped Jieyu to make quiche! My TEA group (me, Jo and Grace) was researching on the reliability of the Bible, focusing on the gospels. But since I was co-MC with Renette, Jo had to be on the panel :)
- My UNSW choir concert is coming up this Sunday, and I have bits and pieces of the songs stuck in my head!

That's all for now. I hope whoever may read this is satisfied.

21st Birthday!

2011-05-25T21:55:00.003+08:00

I turned 21 today!

For a birthday, today wasn't really a day in which I could celebrate, because Wednesdays are my busiest days. It was marked by especially cold rainy weather with vicious winds that kind of spoilt my umbrella.

Special things:
- I received Jiejie's birthday card to me on Monday
- I went to my cousin's house yesterday, and she cooked chicken rice (yum!) for dinner and baked me a cake with chocolate icing and sugar roses that were speedily devoured by her children
- I got calls from my parents and my sister: literally held 2 phones with both parties on the line at one point! note: this made me a little late for my lecture.
- Audrey got me a slice of cake from 85 Degrees!
- Gilly got me a brownie!
- Renu wrote me a card!
- I got birthday wishes in person, via SMS and Facebook wall posts from more than 100 people! the ones in person are the best :)

I think a birthday is only as special as you make it out to be (Lin, 2011).

People in Australia seem to make a big thing of turning 21, which is bizarre considering they can do most things when they turn 18. For me, it means I can vote, but I wasn't 21 early enough to vote this month anyway. I don't like the idea of being old - 21 really means that you're an adult, apparently.

I'll be sort of celebrating with my Bible Study group on Friday with another guy's birthday, and then with the Singaporeans in my year with another 2 people's birthdays next week. It begs the question of how important the actual day is. And yet whenever I see the date 25th May pop up anywhere, it makes me feel like it is my special day!

College Musical Finally Over

2011-05-14T22:35:00.003+08:00

As the title indicates, our College production of the musical I Love You Because has finally come to an end after it's three-night run this weekend.

I guess I was pretty excited last year at the prospect of there being a musical rather than a play, and I kind of volunteered to be a choral director without thinking that I actually don't have the vocal training to be one - that was silliness on my part. But I'm glad the directors thought I could help out being the rehearsal pianist and teach the parts to the singers in the musical!

Then I got roped into being one of the keyboardists since I had to learn the songs anyway, as a rehearsal pianist. Thank goodness Audrey played more songs than I did for the actual thing, or I might have gone crazy trying to do it.

While the musical wasn't perfect, if I have to be very honest about it, it definitely was a success in ticket sales and audience response. The best was when one ex-Collegian (who's a very talented music student) complimented the entire production, especially the band!

Tonight was the final performance, and as could be expected, some actors took the liberty to do funny things they hadn't on the past two nights. The funniest was probably when the Chinese-restaurant-manager actress put on a sort-of-Chinese accent - I think it came out as a little Singaporean at the end of her lines, but it was hilarious!

Being the final night means that at the end the producer and directors gave speeches and thanks to all the people involved. And the directors were so sweet - they gave me a gigantic bouquet and gave me special mention in their speech and in the programme booklet! Considering how I can think of five other people at the top of my head who could have easily done my job, I don't think I was as instrumental as they said, but then, Collegians are very affirming and encouraging people!

Now if only I knew how to keep the flowers alive...

FOCUS Church Camp 2011

2011-04-25T15:46:00.003+08:00

I just got back from the church camp over the Easter weekend - it feels like no time passed at all while we were there!

I got to sit on the bus with lots of others this year rather than in a car, which I think they generally allocate to people coming for the 1st time. It was nice sitting on the bus and talking to Shiwei, except that the driver kept going fast and braking suddenly.

The theme was riches and money, and the talks were about our attitudes towards riches, while the Bible studies were on Ecclesiastes and the meaning of life. I feel like I know the book of Ecclesiastes a lot better now, even though we only looked at about 6 chapters of it plus the 2 verses at the end (that provided the twist and conclusion).

There were many electives to choose from: I went for the one on Common Grace, which is the idea of how God gives grace to everyone in many ways, but is different from the grace to give us salvation who believe; and the elective on Materialism. It's depressing to realise that you're actually materialistic when you thought you weren't, because materialism isn't the same as extravagance, but stems from discontent.

The talks were about the blessings from God, how we idolise money and give excuses for it, how we should be spending and saving and sharing, and what it means to live the good life and desire good things.

I feel like I got to speak to quite a few people during this camp, and there were lots of conversations about what we learnt, questions that we had etc. I also got to interview people for the FIC blog.

Free time was well spent playing games like Big Taboo, Jungle Speed and Saboteur, plus a game of Captain's Ball that I just watched but had a lot of fun laughing at. The best part was definitely when Simon fell onto poo while attempting to score.

Camp is now over and I'm looking forward to a week off from uni before getting back to the normal grind again. The things we do under the sun are meaningless unless they are done for God - that has everlasting consequences and meaning.

Earth Hour and other things

2011-03-26T19:34:00.003+08:00

So tonight is the night that people around the world commemorate Earth Hour by turning off all electrical appliances, including lights, for one hour. Of course, in college, there are some lights that have to stay on, such as the EXIT lights, in case of an emergency. But most of the people were downstairs in the dark dining hall playing cards or singing along to the guitars.

I'm doing the Communication Assignment this term, which means I have to interview someone, make a transcript, and then evaluate my communication skills. At first I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to find anyone to interview who had some meaningful experience of anything related to this term's course themes, e.g. respiratory illness, HIV, infectious diseases.

But I didn't even have to look, and managed to interview a friend of a friend who had swine flu! Better than that, I managed to find two other people for two of my friends to interview as well.

Transcribing was slow and painstaking as usual. I like to think that it's because of my little experience in transcribing for the research I did in NIE that I managed to transcribe at a faster rate than other people - 2h 15min for 16 minutes of audio.

All the 2nd year students just got the postings for Year 3, and I'm posted to do Clinical Coursework, as was my preference on the form. I don't know what I'd do if I had to do the research project, so that can wait until Year 4.

That's the important updates for now. I will next post...well, whenever it strikes my fancy. Back to my assignment!!

Coogee-Bondi Walk

2011-03-12T20:02:00.002+08:00

I realise this is the first post I've posted since getting back to Sydney. I'm just too lazy to post regularly; maybe I should make it a point to post once a week or something just for fun. Maybe if I'm feeling free I will post on dates that have already passed.

Today we had the FOCUS social in which we had breakfast at the Quad, then walked to Coogee Beach, and then did the Coogee-Bondi coastal walk to Bondi Beach. I somehow slept through my morning alarm and didn't arrive at Shiwei's place early enough to help with preparing the breakfast - so paiseh!

We had a late start, and the sun was really hot, but I learned my lesson and applied sunblock! I'm still gradually losing the sunburn I got last Sunday from watching the inter-college volleyball matches in the late morning - early afternoon sun. There was actually only one FOCUS newcomer, for all that it was supposed to be for the new people, haha.

I was an awful participant in that I complained most of the way about the length of the walk, the heat, my tiny headache and sore feet, so I apologise to all the people who put up with my complaining, especially Rachel! But I guess I had a good time with the beautiful scenery and talking to quite a few people along the way. I also happened to walk near the street where my cousin lives near Bronte Beach.

Anyway, I felt pretty accomplished when we reached the end. According to the Internet, the coastal walk is about 6km, which means it's like walking on High Street along UNSW from Anzac Parade to the junction at Botany Street 6 times, or walking around a typical school track for 15 rounds. It doesn't sound like much when you put it like that, but it felt really long.

College is currently pretty quiet with a lot of people gone to Weekend Away, or at MedCamp, or who were at some festival at the Randwick Racecourse tonight. It's simultaneously nice (being peaceful) and strange (not hearing the usual noise).

Meeting Up with Many Friends

2011-02-16T23:30:00.002+08:00

14/2

So this was the day when Shern, Sarah, Ode and I were free for dinner, and I happily suggested having dinner, forgetting that my brother would be flying off that night and that it was Valentine's Day. Thankfully, Shern said she was free and I managed to make it there in time!

I was at the Aston's and just managed to sit at a newly empty table with 6 seats, when I saw this girl and boy looking for a table not in the smoking section, so I kindly suggested that they sit at this one, since there would be 2 of them + 4 of us = 6. It totally didn't occur to me until five minutes after they accepted that they were on a V'Day dinner date and would find it awkward to sit at a table with strangers!

Then Ode came to join me, and it turned out that she knows the girl from school, what a coincidence. The even funnier part is that it totally didn't occur to her EITHER that her friend was on a V'Day dinner date with that guy!

The 4 of us eventually at at the Tea Party place that I've heard of but never been to before. It was really noisy with all these JC kids talking and laughing. There was a group of boys playing the guitar in one key and singing in a different key, and a smaller group of people playing an out-of-tune guitar but singing Christian songs nicely. Honestly, if you want to have worship practice, do it somewhere where you won't disturb others!

After our dinner and taking a lot of photos, I went back to Shern's house to talk for half an hour or so before going home. It was great being able to meet up as the 4 of us rather than separately, and there was a lot of good conversation!

15/2

DURIAN PARTY! I went to Serangoon again to get the durian from the same shop as last week. I told the uncle that I wanted 7 of the $8 packets. He said he'd give me 8 packets for $50, which was a $14 discount, so I was okay with it. Then while picking the packets, he said he'd give me another one for free, and spent the longest time choosing one between two of the remaining packets, leaving me dubious about the quality of the 9th packet, but that was a great discount anyway.

Rachel came first, followed by Hongyu, Louis, Ian, and then Melody and Daryl who had gotten lost trying to come to our house by the shortcut. We had a lot of fun eating our durian, pretending to contaminate Rachel's durian, and choosing between bitter and sweet seeds!

I'm sorry I won't be able to attend the first SNYFfers meeting of the year, which is on my flight day, nor their paintball event, which sounds like a lot of fun!

16/2

I met with our girls book club for lunch, as we discussed chapters 6 and 7 of our book. Unfortunately because we'll be changing groups this year, this is the last time we're meeting as our girls book club, so I'll just have to read the last chapter by myself.

We spent really long just finding a place to plonk ourselves at to eat and discuss! It's a pity Ade wasn't free to join us, and that Dior had to leave early. But we still had some good discussion about the marriage institution, cohabitation, the gift of singleness and cultural perceptions.

I just came back from the dinner at Thai Express at PS with my choir comm friends. It's exciting because X-min is back from Japan, and I haven't seen Conana, Ek Ping and Eugene yet. Many thanks to YJ for organising!

Eugene had fun taking a million photos with YJ's camera, enough so that he can make .gifs of us already! It was a lot of fun listening to XM's and EP's stories about their university friends. JA, YJ and Conana will soon have lots of stories of their own when they enter university this year!

See You, Michelle Ng

2011-02-11T01:59:00.003+08:00

We sent Michelle off at the airport tonight. She's on her way to Melbourne right now, and it's exciting because we'll both be studying in the same country! It's good that both her parents will be with her to settle her in.

There were lots of us there to send her, and I think most of them ate dinner with their family at T3. I guess my brother and I cry less than others, because as fellow overseas students, we wouldn't get to see her either way.

The plan is to visit her in July where she'll let me bunk at her place. Domestic flights probably ought to cost less than $150, I'm estimating. Now, I'm thinking the weather in Melbourne then (it's winter) will be more miserable than in Sydney, but I don't know if I've been there before, so it's a good trip to make.

Happy 17th Birthday, Yan!

2011-02-06T22:12:00.002+08:00

Today is Yan's birthday! No longer 16 going on 17...

This afternoon after church, we had a KFC+pizza lunch after service as a post-musical celebration. I enjoyed the food and the conversation!

Highlight:
Yue: Xuan, when are you flying off arh?
Hongyu: *GASP* You mean you don't know?
Louis: Even I know! on the 19th!

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Yan and Nicklaus, who each got cakes, as well as Rachel our musical director.

Following that, we went to the mini-chapel to have some programme, with a short worship, sharing session, photo taking and musical screening. I think we really have to thank God for so many things, including how He took care of the costs, manpower, ticket sales and production even though the entire process was rushed within those three months or so. And I fully admit that this musical is better than Giant Faith, with the beautiful backdrops and full audience and great music.

We had to be home by 4pm, and we went to West Mall for Yan's birthday dinner at Swensen's. I shan't go into how long we waited for three of them at the Singtel shop, but suffice to say, I've taken so long to eat a set meal before.

I realise I haven't blogged in forever, and lots of things have happened since my last post, so I'll just backdate them when I feel like it.

First Day of 2011

2011-01-01T22:33:00.003+08:00

It's a new year 2011!

Yesterday we had our church's annual dinner, and I enjoyed the food a lot, especially the tapioca basket (rather than yam). Pity there was only one youth table so Yue and I were sitting with parents, but that's good too - adults tend to give kids more food!

Then we had the testimony sharing night, which was really encouraging to hear from so many people. And considering how they all condensed their sharing times to fit into 1 1/2 hours, I think maybe next year it'll be extended to 2 hours or more!

I got to drive today on the first day of the new year, and nearly punched out the wrong hole for the parking coupon as 2010 rather than 2011. I felt a bit like an only child today, because my sisters were in church and brother was at work, so parents took me to City Square Mall (which I've never been to before) for lunch and shopping.

As for recent events, I've been going to the Cancer Centre in SGH on attachment, and it's interesting because it's different from my other experiences of hospitals, probably because of the focus on cancer.

I wonder what this new year will be like. I'm turning 21, for one.

Exciting December!!

2010-12-20T21:45:00.003+08:00

Well, the most exciting thing happened today, but I'll save that for last.

My mum and sisters went to New Zealand, so I was the only girl left at home!

NJ Chorale had our carolling performances outside ION Orchard / Wisma Atria on the 10th, 11th and 12th of December. I couldn't go on the Saturday, on which night the altos were overpowered by number imbalance - what a pity. I was a bit disappointed in how the crowd was seemingly more interested whenever it was the choir performing or group acapella, but many walked away when it was a solo singing. Seems like they can't appreciate solo good singing. Maybe because they see solo singers all the time, but not choirs or group acapella.

I went for a sleepover at Sheryl's house with the rest of them after that weekend. I met XW and KX at Plaza Sing for lunch, and of course RO was late as usual, and then we went to the National Museum to see the Pompeii Exhibition. It was pretty cool, but KX and I were rather tired of walking so much so we took a break at the sitting area where I read one of the books, but XW and RO took so much longer than us!

We had our wonderful sukiyaki dinner at Sher's house after Eliz joined us, and it was just really nice being able to catch up with all of them and talk about lots of stuff through the night!

I had to leave the next morning to go to church for worship practice for camp. I'd intended to stay to do props for the musical, but the people in charge weren't there and nothing was being done, so I decided to go back to Sher's house. We played bridge for a while before I returned home, and then we picked up Mummy and sisters from the airport.

I also was free to go for The Briefing book club at Joanne's house, and we had a good long discussion about our article on prayer. I went home with the idea of eating lunch with sisters, but I was late. I feel I haven't seen them so much, and then they had to go off for Juniors camp so soon after.

I had a pretty busy Saturday then, with NJ carolling practice in the morning, followed by Christmas musical worship practice in the early afternoon, followed by the musical choir practice after that, and then the rehearsal for the musical in the evening, and ending with extended worship playing for the Juniors camp. An altogether tiring day!

We had our Christmas musical event in church yesterday, and I think it went much better than the rehearsals did. There were so many people that the choir had to give up our three pews at the back to sit with the kid performers in the seminar room. The little angels were all adorable!

Today I went for lunch with XW at Bugis, with the aim of buying shoes, because in my absence two pairs at home got spoilt and thrown away. We walked through practically the whole Bugis street and I managed to buy a pair, but since there was still time before I had to go for my Knowing God book club at Kovan, we decided to return to Bugis Junction for a drink and aircon.

Now, earlier on after our lunch I paused at a magazine store to look at those with Korean idols on the covers. There were about 3: 2PM, Miss A and Kim Hyunjoong. And XW said she wasn't really interested in any of them (neither am I), as opposed to if the magazine had Super Junior, for example, or Song Joong Ki even.

When we returned from the shoe buying, before we went back in to get a drink from Macs or wherever, I saw a banner at a stage with barriers and people saying "Song Joong Ki" with his picture on it. XW said she actually had known that he would be in Singapore, but thought it was over.

But we went to check it out and it said he was coming for a fansign meet at 4pm, and at that point it was 2:50pm! Imagine my excitement, considering it was totally unplanned and coincidental! Since there weren't that many fans waiting there, we decided to go in the aircon area to get a drink first.

When we went in, we saw lots of girls crowded outside a shop, and even on the balconies of other levels looking at the shop, and realised that it's the shop he endorses. But there were too many people for us to see anything, so we went back out to the fansign area and waited. Gradually more and more people came, and at 3:45 or so, this lady host came out and started talking, and the fans got pretty excited, and after a few minutes SONG JOONG KI APPEARED ON STAGE.

I was really SO EXCITED TO SEE HIM IN REAL LIFE, I TELL YOU. He looks thinner in real life, and his voice is to die for, seriously. The lady talked to him in Korean and translated his answers, about how he was thankful for the support. The best part was when she asked him to wink as was characteristic of his Goo Yong Ha character in the drama Sungkyunkwan Scandal which was his shot to fame.

They also had these little boys and a small 2-year old to present him with some flowers on behalf of the company, and it was so cute when he carried the little boy! 2 lucky representatives of his fanclub presented him with Christmas gifts of Singaporean food and a handmade personalised travel book, and he put his arm around them!

I left when they started the fansign, and ended up being late for my book club. I've learned my lesson - never take a bus when MRT is easily available, even if you have to keep changing lines.

Anyhow, it was really coincidental and cool and amazing to see him in real life!

Good to be Back Home

2010-12-02T23:03:00.004+08:00

It's been exactly 2 weeks since I reached back home to Singapore. One one hand, it's great to be back home, where: my family and friends are, Chinese people are the majority, public transport is better, food is more diverse and cheaper, etc.

On the other hand, the weather isn't particularly great. The moment I stepped out of Changi Airport the humidity hit me like a block of water. It's been raining quite heavily the past few days, which barely lowers the temperature but increases the humidity by a lot!

I've been going to church a lot to help out with the musical preparations. I've helped to cut cloth, sew sleeves and pant-legs, and thread elastic for the costumes, cut cardboard, crush newspaper, paint eggshell trays and glue paper for props, pretended to be an Israelite singer, and subbed Yue as 3rd keyboard when she was at school.

Speaking of her, of the 14 days I was back in Singapore, I've actually only seen her for about 5 days. She got me a lovely present (which I haven't opened yet, lol) from her Taiwan trip.

We celebrated our parents birthdays together by having a great buffet lunch! But I've come to feel that buffets are bad for you. You upset your stomach cycle by starving yourself before the buffet just so you can eat enough to make the price worth it, and then feel sick after.

Yan had a brilliant idea when buying the birthday cake, and we got a small general cake, plus a slice for each of our parents catered to their individual preferences. We also surprised the Prima Deli salesperson by asking for a lot of candles. She thought we didn't realise that one large candle = 10 years!

Brother and I have joined the CS adult choir which will be performing a few carols at the Christmas musical put up by our church on 19th December, being its youngest members! I felt really surprised by how much fun these "old-er" adults have :)

Most of my friends were still having exams when I came back - in fact, some of them still ARE. Thus far I've only gone out with Sheena & Yong Jian & Jing An to watch the movie Red, with Michelle Ng & Foo, Yingxuan, Nicolette and Cheryl for our Sunday School dinner at AMK Hub, and I met Clar the other day in town.

Mummy and sisters left for New Zealand last night, and I feel rather sorry for them, because I think Yan had food poisoning and Yue gets motion sickness. If you guys are reading this, guess what: Stephanie and Adeline had food poisoning too! I suspect the prawn mee shop near church! Though the only explanation then would be that I have a stronger gastrointestinal tract than all four of them, since I ate the same thing.

I just came back from the alumni chorale carolling practice (one of three pracs before our gigs) and it was really nice singing with everyone again! Many are surprised that I don't have an accent, but I'm not talented at imitating accents, so too bad.

I regret not being able to go for my first bookclub meeting - hope it went well with the rest! But it looks like our girls bookclub will be meeting tomorrow - looking forward to seeing them!

Going Home

2010-11-18T05:27:00.004+08:00

I can't believe I'll be flying home to Singapore today! It feels like I've been in Sydney for forever already.

The last few weeks had been mostly about studying for the AEB theory exam, and after that, for the progressive prac exam. I think I'd gotten so used to only having 1 exam every 8 weeks that having to study for another exam after the first one felt very strange and tiresome.

But I must say that because this time round I studied with friends like Rachel and Suyi (law library gang!) it was a lot more interesting and helped me remember things better.

We all went to eat ba chor mee at ASEANA after the exam on 9/9/10, and I've decided that when I go back to Singapore I need to eat it again - as some others have agreed, it's pretty sad that my first experience eating ba chor me is in a foreign country.

The prac exam wasn't exactly as horrific as I thought it would be. I think it's a matter of how well you know your pracs and histology slides, and the main factor is that you're given very little time to write stuff down.

I followed some of the others after the prac exam on 15/9/10 to this Thai place, and got this green curry that was nice but spicy! Thanks to Mann Ying's recommendation! Then went to Coles with Renu and Wenyan for some random last minute shopping for things to bring back - didn't end up with much, really.

In our One Wei Bible study group, Christie organised this mass card-signing thing where we each write a short note to each person in our group on these pretty cards that she made. And I love doing this kind of thing - it's a priceless memento. But I realise some people like Kwong haven't written on my card yet, so I'll go chase them in Singapore.

The last few days have been spent packing up my room in college for good - since I won't be getting the same room next year, so it's a different feeling from when I had to pack it end of last session. And I've rediscovered how much I dislike packing. I wish Jiejie was here to do it for me. (Plus I had Wella and Christabel to help me last time!)

But many thanks to Dan Foong for the use of his weighing scale, Gizmo for the use of his printer, and Rachel for the use of her room, haha! Without these people I would have been in big trouble by now.

I've made so many new friends over this year in college, classes and church that I'm kind of afraid that I'll go home having forgotten a lot of friends in Singapore. I'm not sure what the brain's capacity for remembering people (faces+names) is. If I appear to have 848 friends on Facebook, how many will I actually be able to recognise, put a name to, and tag on my memories of that person's character to?

Anyway, I've got to go do some really last minute tidying up. Looking forward to going home!

Canberra Visit

2010-09-15T18:43:00.002+08:00

I just came back from my short trip to Canberra, for which I left yesterday morning and came back from this afternoon.

It was pretty last minute, but thankfully my cousin managed to get me a seat on a coach from the station to Canberra. But I had to get there pretty early to take the coach for more than three hours to get there.

Aunty Rose picked me up from Jolimont Centre and dropped me off at the Floriade at Commonwealth Park, which was my main aim in going there. Unfortunately, I think it's pretty early in the spring, so not all the flowers were totally grown/blooming yet. The flowers were generally arranged in a pattern resembling some picture, but I think because the arrangements were really big, so unless you're high enough, you can't really appreciate them.

After that I went on to cross the road over the lake to get to the National Library, which is a really cool-looking building. The bad thing is that I didn't go to find any books (not that I knew where they were), but used the free internet for like 40 minutes or so.

Then I moved on to the Old Parliament House, which has been converted into this museum of Australian democracy or something, and it was pretty cool, because they had this exhibition of democracy with touchscreens and everythng. I went to see this exhibition of all the Australian prime ministers thus far. They even had the recently elected one, so that's quite updated!

It's rather humbling to see how all the schoolkids know so much about their politics and history and stuff. I think we Singaporeans in comparison might be more apathetic.

When I left it was raining, and I walked on to the new Parliament House, but I reached there with only 15 minutes left to closing time, so I popped into the shop to get a couple of postcards and waited for Aunty Rose to pick me up again.

She brought me to her house, and we went out for dinner with Uncle Joseph and Tim at a Chinese restaurant, and the food was really nice! I stayed at their house for the rest of the time, just sleeping/watching tv/talking, and it was great.

This morning because Aunty Rose had to catch a flight to Sydney, Tim sent me back to the Jolimont Centre, and I took another long coach ride back to Central Station, wishing I had gone to the toilet before boarding.

So I calculated that I spent about 24 hours total in Canberra, 9 of which were spent sleeping anyway, so I didn't have that much time overall to visit places, but I guess I can always go again.

Spring Break 2010

2010-09-08T22:22:00.003+08:00

So it's supposedly spring, but it's still kind of cold, and the weather just changes from day to day.

Today's Brother-in-law's birthday! I Skyped with them earlier on in the afternoon, to see the baby and say hi to Jiejie and wish BiL happy birthday. He received my card even though I thought I mailed it late, according to the post office lady.

I'm so glad my exam is over today! There is a sense of freedom in the air!

I guess the only other interesting thing is that Prashanth came to Sydney, so we had tea together in the Chinatown part of the city. It was really great being able to talk about all the choir stuff I've been missing out on, especially the concert.

And just now, we celebrated Bryan and Yi Chen's combined birthdays, which are actually tomorrow. We had dinner at Aseana, which I enjoyed, even though it was kind of funny because it was like one long table, and I could only talk to the people around my end.

Now I just need to find out what I'm going to be doing in my break until next Sunday. I love how I don't have anything to do at the moment!

August 2010

2010-08-30T22:27:00.002+08:00

So, it's been quite a nice month, to my recollection. For one, we celebrated several birthdays.

There was Simon's birthday for our Bible Study group, as well as going out for karaoke with most of the 1st year med people. There was also cheesecake, which is always good. Even though it was practically chosen by him, despite it being a 'surprise' cake.

Then the week after was Rachel's birthday, and while our surprise didn't really surprise her, it was quite a fun attempt at sneaking around and organising things. It was more complicated because we were planning to surprise Andrew as well, and he was definitely surprised! The kidnapping thing was kind of fail, but it all worked out ok in the end :)

We celebrated Justin's birthday in an elaborate set up with 2 surprise groups, one at the movie and the other in the quad. I was in the quad group, and my only regret is that they didn't walk a bit faster, so that by the time they reached back, all the sparklers burned out!

And in NC, we celebrated Ice and Wallet's birthdays one after the other, with cake, chocolate, balloons, poppers, music and pass the parcel!

Both my individual assignment and group assignment have been submitted, so I only have the exam left, which happens to fall on a certain Brother-in-Law's birthday. Coincidence!

NC put on their annual Revue, for which I was in Tech, which was a new experience for me! I might have stuffed it up on the first night, but I hope not many people noticed! Revue was really funny, especially all the fillers!

We recently had our 2nd Dialogue Night together with The Min(g) Dynasty, and I'm thankful for all the invited friends who came to listen to the Word, and watched the Christ Files video, which was excellent.

I've had too much cheesecake recently as well. Once at formal dinner last Wednesday, then at Dialoge Night on Friday, then today at SG, courtesy of Renu's great baking skills. And then all the cake at all those birthdays!

And most exciting of all, there was a fire yesterday! Flick and I were returning from Randwick Coles at around 12:15? We first noticed a police car stop at the junction of Botany St and High St, and the policeman got out, and we were wondering what was happening.

Then as we were reaching Uniwalk, we saw the smoke in the distance, and decided to check it out. We didn't know which building was actually burning, though I think later someone said it belongs to UNSW. There were many fire engines, ambulance cars, a couple of helicopters, and film cameras.

Seeing the flames was really exciting, and I have great respect for the firefighters. They even got out this pipe from the ground at the road and connected a hose to it. They also stopped all the traffic between the Barker St traffic light and the High St one, I think.

At first there were only about 4 of us from NC watching the fire, but then more and more people came out to watch. Lots of them were taking photos, and some too advantage of the emptied road to skateboard. I think a few of them brought out their lunch on a table and sat eating while watching the fire.

Disrespectful, or funny? Not too sure myself.

Social Studies Trip

2010-07-29T19:57:00.003+08:00

Our bible study group went to Central Coast last weekend on a social+bible study trip, and it was really fun!

First off, we loaded our luggage into Jordan's car, before 11 of us went to take the bus to Central Station to catch the train to Wyong, while the other 3 were in the car.

The bus was late, so we didn't have much time to get to the platform after purchasing all our tickets, so we were half-running down the tunnel to the platform - that was fun!

The train ride was pretty long, and some people slept, while some of us played bridge. Chris seriously has the strangest way of playing bridge I've ever seen! The mystery of how he can bid like 4 diamonds, while possessing weak diamonds, calling the heart of jack for his partner when his hearts were already strong, all because of only having two clubs still astounds me.

We reached Wyong in time for lunch, and finally decided on a fish & chips shop, where the owners were really friendly and gave us complimentary tartare sauce! They suggested that we go to the riverside where there were sheltered benches for us to eat. I also bought 2 books at a secondhand bookstore that we saw.

After lunch, most of them went to catch the hourly bus to the place, while Chris, Ade, Dior, Jordan and I went shopping for groceries for dinner. Our plans changed to have a bbq, due to newfound knowledge that the house had a bbq grille! While choosing foods, I think Jordan received a call saying that the others had taken the bus the wrong way, so they had to go back the other way! Poor things.

When we got to the house, the guys were playing games, while the girls were organising the foodstuff - how separatist! Then we continued playing games, and I learned how to play this game called Saboteur - pretty fun, but I was a Saboteur both times, which is hard!

We continued our study overview of the Bible from Friday's one, until quite late, and then we had dinner. Josh and Simon did most of the bbq-ing for sausages/meat/pineapple, while the girls did the other stuff like vegetables/rice/watermelon/mashed potatoes. I really enjoyed the mashed potatoes that Rachel had supplied us with, "in case you guys screw it up", LOL!

After dinner and washup, we finished the 2nd part of the Bible study, then took a break to take turns showering and playing Monopoly Deal, and then had a time of sharing in a circle, almost like a campfire!

At the end of that, some went to sleep, while others stayed up to watch the VCD of 5 People You Meet in Heaven that Shawna brought. I think the movie was a bit draggy at certain parts, with a lot of cheesy lines, but still quite nice, and I presume the book is even better. Weibin, Janelle, Chris and I were the only survivors til the end of the show!

The next morning we had a great breakfast with eggs, pancakes, toast, leftover mashed potatoes etc. It was followed by the 3rd and last part of the Bible study, and then we had to clear up everything in order to catch the bus and train in time.

But the bus was really late, so Christie was warning us we'd need to run once the bus reached the station. We chionged into the station, only to realise that we needed to be at the platform on the other side of the tracks, and the overhead bridge linking there was outside the station. So some people ran to the bridge, while some of us ran to the lift and made it to the other side in time. Except for Shawna and Christie who were buying all our tickets for us, and Simon who was dunno where. We were yelling at them to run, and thankfully we all got onto the train!

The train ride back started with us eating Subway that Jordan had got for us, followed by a lot of bridge playing and/or sleeping. We finally got back well in time to get to church.

The trip was really fun, and I learnt a lot about God's big picture in this overview of the Bible. I guess it's interesting to draw the graph of the progress of the kingdom of God, and to see the promises God makes and keeps.

Mid-Year Break: New Zealand

2010-07-18T20:35:00.002+08:00

Unfortunately, my holiday is over as of today, and I have to start school tomorrow. What a depressing thought.

I spent the last 3 weeks in NZ at my sister's house. It was really great to have both my parents, my brother, my sister and brother-in-law. And of course the latest addition to the family - baby Caleb!

Having a baby isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, he's adorable and has big eyes and smells nice, but he cries a lot, and has to be carried around, and strapped in the car seat, and there's a whole bag dedicated to him: milk, pacifier, warmer, cloth, diapers, changing mat, rattle etc.

I spent most of my time waking up later than everyone else, reading my sister's books, watching Yang Jia Jiang (while not understanding it), and eating out with everyone.

Parents, Brother and I went on a 3 day trip; first to Mt Ruapehu in an attempt to take a beginner's lesson at snowboarding, but the winds were too strong and the slopes were temporarily closed, so we didn't do it in the end. Then we moved on to Lake Taupo and spent most of the time watching the free DVDs provided by the motel. On the way back to Auckland, we visited Hamilton Gardens.

I'm really glad I got to eat lots of Chinese food, whether cooked or bought. I'm especially thankful to my uncle for cooking carrot cake for our breakfast, and my aunt for making chicken rice TWICE!

Among other things, we went to Mt Victoria, visited Queen street, did two jigsaw puzzles, had fish and chips by the sea, bought oysters from Clevedon, and saw lots of sheep, cows, horses and alpacas!

Parents left on Friday, and I left NZ this morning. We had to wake up really early just to get there by 6:15, only for me to find out that my flight had been delayed by 1 hour 15 min! I spent a lot of time just sitting around waiting for the gate number to be shown.

Spending these three weeks with my family makes me miss them all the more now that I'm back in Sydney. Four months to go!

Winter Break '10 in New Zealand

2010-07-03T20:19:00.002+08:00

I probably should be sleeping now, but my body clock seems to be adjusted to Sydney time still, which is 2 hours behind Auckland.

I had my first flight by myself from Sydney to Auckland on Sunday, and I'm thankful that I was kept safe throughout. Plus I had an impressive welcoming party at the airport of 6 people!

I've spent the last week or so staying at my sister's house, staring at my nephew, eating, watching The Big Bang Theory, using the Internet and reading books. In particular, I've read about 14 books since Monday, I think.

Today Mummy, Brother and I went to my uncle's house, where my mum and uncle made pumpkin cake, and I finished the jigsaw puzzle (with 2 pieces left over, imagine!) and read my sister's newly bought Poirot murder mystery. And my aunt and uncle made chicken rice for dinner, where we were joined by my sister, brother-in-law and baby!

My younger sister was on the phone in the evening, and she told me that my ex-classmate from MGS, who was also in GB, recently passed away due to leukaemia, after being critically ill. It was shocking to hear this, especially because at the age of 20, you don't expect ANY of your friends to be dying from illnesses.

While I wasn't a close friend by any means (the only memories I have of her is that she was impossibly skilled at Five Stones, which was a post-exam activity in primary school), I just felt really relieved that she was Christian, I'm pretty sure, which means she's in heaven. My condolences are with her family.

After Exams

2010-06-24T21:50:00.002+08:00

Today we had our end of course BGDA exam - and I was just really thankful that it's over! We found the shorter way to walk to the racecourse, and I feel like a dummy for walking the long way round the last time, haha. I just feel sorry for the 2nd years who have to study for tomorrow's prac exam.

I don't remember studying so hard before. But it's kind of annoying that all the microbiology, anatomy and embryology didn't come out! After I went through all that effort too!

Christabel and Kailun are leaving UNSW, so we had dinner together with most of the 1st year med people, at Old Tote at the Village. We couldn't really find a big enough place for all of us, so we all brought our own food there to eat. I had a really fun time just talking to all of them, and I feel that I've gotten to know some of them better.

I'm really sad that the two of them will be leaving, but I'm sure that they'll do well in their respective universities. And after all, if we're all studying the same thing, chances are we'll get to meet again!

Happy 20th Birthday

2010-05-25T21:41:00.002+08:00

So today's my 20th birthday. My age now begins with a 2 instead of a 1, signalling that I'm no longer as young as I'd like to be. I got pretty depressed on my 19th birthday, because you're still a teenager up to 18, I think? I guess I just have to accept it...and then dread turning 21!

So, I had a pretty great day today. I received a birthday sms from Jiejie at about 8am, and then Mummy called about 10 minutes later to wish me as well! Not to belittle all the other wishes, but these were the ones that mattered the most to me.

Subsequently, I got a lot of wishes from my fellow med students, college people etc. It did kind of make me feel a bit special!

Another good thing is that I only had 3 hours of class today! If my birthday had been yesterday - 7 hours of class - it would have been kind of sad. As it is, I went to have a Chinese lunch with Christabel and Audrey, which was fun. And they bought me a slice of cheesecake - so sweet of them!

Afterwards I went to Sze Hui's house to kind of celebrate, and even though she didn't have time to make a cake (not that I expected her to!), she managed to whip out 12 tiny cupcakes and put them together with a candle! And I've been invited to her daughter's birthday party too!

Then I returned to find my room decorated prettily by 2AB group members, after which they had a cake that Stanley baked, and two birthday cards!

I'm currently trying to respond to the mass of Facebook birthday wishes that people have posted on my wall. I suppose it won't be finished by tonight, though.

Even though I'd have loved to spend my birthday with my family, I guess living here and having so many new friends just multiplied all the well-wishes that I received, and it really made me happy!

I'm really thankful to God for the past 20 years of my life, in which He has given me so many things that I don't deserve, and always protected me and loved me. I hope that I can become more mature and wise as I continue to grow wholly as a Christian.

What a Nice Day

2010-05-23T21:58:00.002+08:00

The weather's been getting colder, probably due to the continuous rain, and sometimes we can breathe out warmly and see the air!

I spent time with the lovely freshers from 2CD playing Billionaire and Jungle Speed. Many thanks to them for inviting me to play with them. Also, Happy Birthday to Perry! I'm so jealous of him for the pillow he got from Fluff's mum!

My FOCUS Bible Study group had dinner at Chong Hing with another group called M&Ms after church just now, and at the end they brought a marble cheesecake with 2 candles on it to celebrate my upcoming birthday! I was really happy!

Actually we had homestudy on Friday night at Weibin's house, which was when they were writing on my birthday card. Our guest member Lester said that he was watching them write it before I'd arrived. Then when we did a round of introductions and I said my name, he immediately turned to Weibin to say, "Oh, so she's the one you guys were writing the card for!" Of course he was sitting far away, so I didn't hear him.

Then during dinner that night apparently Kwong Ming said something like, "aren't we celebrating Sixuan's birthday?" But I didn't hear him even though he was RIGHT BESIDE ME (so blur, right), and then Adeline looked at him and was like, "You say it a bit louder, can?" LOL.

I returned to college with the rest of my cake, and then it was time for group supper. We had it in the courtyard for Pedro's suprise proposal from Nicola, and it was really beautiful with everyone's participation and all the tealight candles and the singing!

End of Teaching Period 1

2010-05-01T20:52:00.003+08:00

I kept meaning to blog, but always forgot when I actually had time to do so.

I had an exam on Tuesday, signalling the end of the Foundations course I've been in for the past 8 weeks, i.e. Teaching Period 1. It was harder than everyone thought it would be. And to think the lecturers made it seem like it was going to be so easy, suggesting that we might finish it in 2/3 the allocated time, and, I quote, that "it takes real talent to fail".

The exam was at the racecourse next to the school, and the day before the exam I dragged Christabel with me to see how long it would take us to walk there, and which of 2 routes was faster. The walk itself was very pleasant, due to the weather, which is gradually getting colder.

I went out with some of the Singaporeans after our exam (coincidentally turning out to be all Christians, lol) for a dim sum lunch, and promptly felt guilty for spending so much money.

On Wednesday, we all had our first visit to our assigned hospitals, which was more of an orientation than anything. And mine was at Bankstown, even though my actual venue in the coming weeks will be Liverpool. I'm glad I had quite a few friends going with me! We even played cards on the train, and only saw that we'd reached our station just as the train pulled up into it!

After a 40 minute introduction by a doctor, we were taken around in small groups by older medical students to see certain wards and such. Apparently people in other hospitals didn't get to do that!

But it kind of felt like a waste of time, because it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there, but we only spent about 1 & 1/2 hours there, before taking the same amount of time to get back.

Then on Thursday we had our last SG session as SG-A4, because for the next term we'll be split half-half according to our hospital allocations and mixing with the 2nd year students. It's pretty sad because I do like our SG (we even have a Facebook group), and don't know if we'll be put together again. We went through exam answers without our papers, and ate lots of yummy food.

On Friday, we had practice at NCV for our Dialogue Night for three songs, after which I went to the library to use the Internet, but got evacuated due to goodness knows what, then went to the Motor Registry to get a NSW Photo Card. My cousin kindly invited me to her house for dinner again. I think I made her baby cry - he doesn't like me!

I went to Bondi Junction with Cub today to help someone get art stuff, as well as to see to a little shopping, because she didn't really know how to get there. It was fun, but we both agreed that the shopping loses its excitement after spending too long doing it.

I just spent some time watching The Prestige with two of my groupmates, and I must say that the plot is pretty cool!

Our College has been busy preparing for the play that is being performed next week. I've helped out a bit with painting the set and doing backstage stuff - it's really fun! It's a play about a play, and after watching the first five minutes of their rehearsal I got pretty confused.

That's pretty much it for this week. I will try to update more often, I guess. If anyone's reading this at all.

I am now an AUNT

2010-04-17T21:37:00.002+08:00

Today is an extremely special day.

Today, my first ever nephew was born to my sister and brother-in-law in New Zealand.

I've been waiting for this day for the past eight months or so, and I prayed every night that my sister and her baby would be safe, because this is a precious miracle baby.

And God has taken care of them all and produced my nephew, Caleb Matthew Chang Yi Jie.

The first time I saw a birth, I nearly teared at the sight of new life entering the world, even though I didn't even know the person. But this birth today is of course much more special.

My status has been upgraded to that of AUNT! Praise God!

Outing to the City

2010-04-07T21:36:00.002+08:00

I've recently got back from the FOCUS church camp, but I haven't gotten down to writing an account yet - I'll do it some other time.

So this afternoon I met up with Shernise to have lunch in the city of Sydney.

I actually woke up pretty late this morning, and I kind of freaked out when my watch said it was already 10am, but then when I was replying her sms I noticed my phone saying it was 9 plus, and then I realised it was because I forgot to set my watch back one hour for daylight savings!

Anyway, we'd previously meant to meet at Circular Quay, but then it was raining and not conducive for the amount of walking we'd planned, so she suggested the Queen Victoria Building.

So at breakfast (where I was the only one!) I was thinking about how to get there, after having consulted the Sydney travel website. Thankfully a senior came and sat at the same table, so I could ask him which bus to take. Apparently there's a big statue of the Queen in front of that building - so it's pretty hard to miss!

I met Kailun at the bus stop, and he was going on the same bus too, but not that he knew exactly which bus stop for me to get off at either, so we were both kind of trying to figure it out. Thankfully the bus stop was really near the building!

Also, the interesting thing is that because it was a cross junction, and I was diagonally opposite the building, I would have had to cross two roads to get there. But then suddenly all the traffic stopped and people could not only cross the road normally in two perpendicular directions, but also cut across the empty square of road in between diagonally! This doesn't happen in Singapore!

So I met with her and we ate rice and stuff at this food court place, which was pretty good. I miss Chinese food. It was great talking to her after so long, and it's pretty cool how we've both come to Sydney after being friends for so long!

End of Week 4

2010-03-28T16:40:00.002+08:00

Yup, so it's Sunday and week 4 at uni has ended.

I guess the most important thing for school this week was that our individual assignment was due. For College A and B it was due on Thursday (includes me), while College C and D had theirs due on Friday.

I'm glad I wasn't one of those people who might have put it off til the last minute and then slogged the entire night, because I wouldn't have been able to do that! I need sleep. (no disrespect to such people, though!)

And so even on Wednesday night when we had supper crawl, I was more concerned about doing my laundry than my assignment, because it was finished already, after receiving peer feedback on Tuesday. Many thanks to my oldie who gave me excellent feedback prior to that!

Bible study on Friday was at Janelle's home, where we celebrated Ade's birthday, with lots of fruits, weetbix and popiah! We played a bit of Balderdash, had good food, and studied the parable of the rich fool and stuff.

We did Revelation 4 in church today, and the image of what the throne in heaven must look like is utterly brilliant and amazing. I wish I could have seen what it was like! God is holy indeed.

On a side-note, I encountered some fellow 1st year medicine students who find the current curriculum (Foundations) to be boring because they're merely being taught and not really using their critical thinking. Somehow they're not really fascinated by how what we're learning is happening right now in their bodies.

And they're probably not sure if they've made the right choice getting into medicine. Meanwhile I also know people who want to get into medicine but didn't make it (just like me for NUS!) and I find it just sad that places get taken up by people who aren't that keen, or perhaps didn't think it through properly before choosing this pathway, and by doing so deprived others of a place.

I guess not everyone knows exactly what they want to do or study or be when they grow up. And realistically speaking the university will try to pick the best students as it sees fit. That's life for you.

Dinner at Sze Hui's home

2010-03-19T19:16:00.003+08:00

So it's the end of my third week here! And I was looking forward to it because my cousin Sze Hui invited me to her house to have dinner!

So she picked me up at about 5, and we went to her friend's house because she had to discuss something, while I played with her friend's two cute children! And the little girl gave me a sticker!!

Then we went back to her house where her kids were watching the Wiggles. And they are so cute! There were these books with cutesy cakes for kids and we flipped through them as Zacky kept asking me what the cake decorations were made of. I'm a little scared of Max, because he's only a year old, and he cries a lot! Maybe he doesn't like me.

And here's a funny thing. During the break between lectures today Cheryl and the UNSW village people were talking about having chicken rice for dinner - and of course I was terribly envious because chicken rice is like my favourite Singaporean food!

AND THEN. Sze Hui cooked chicken rice for dinner!!! HURRAY!!! Dinner was just her and Danny and I, because the kids had their dinner earlier.

I piggy-backed Ashleigh and was invited by her (so cute, they call me Aunty) upstairs where they were supposed to go to bed, after which I got driven back to New College.

I'm so thankful that I have them here, because Sze Hui looks after me so well! Much love to Danny and the children too! (SO VERY ADORABLE.)

1st Week of Uni

2010-03-04T20:22:00.002+08:00

Everytime I mean to blog about my day's events (and during O'Week there were PLENTY of events) I get lazy and end up not doing it.

The rest of O'Week was pretty fun.

Thursday: PT Rally where we went around to various places including UniSyd; Trivia which really had all sorts of information and challenges unheard of.

Friday: Harbour cruise, where the theme was A Fresher In Uniform, so every group had their own type of uniform, and we made a pretty gay sight on the way to the harbour. The cruise sights were really pretty, including the Opera House and Harbour Bridge!

Saturday: Jet-boating, which is always a thrill, and too short a trip, followed by lunch at Manly Beach; Schoolies Night, which I couldn't go for because I couldn't prove my age, so we got free gelato and watched Valentine's Day at a theatre instead!

This week: I've had some scenario group sessions, practicals and a lot of lectures (got 4 more tomorrow), and it's been a good opportunity to get to know people! I was surprised at the number of Asians (whether Asian-raised or Australian-raised) in the faculty - much more than I'd expected. Of course, about a quarter are international, half of those coming from Singapore!

Orientation

2010-02-24T13:26:00.003+08:00

So far I've had three days or so of orientation, mostly in the residential college and a little bit of stuff in the main campus, and it's really tiring. I feek like I'm living each day very slowly, maybe because there's so many things to do.

I've made many new friends, especially those who are in my rooming group 2AB. Everyone at the college gets nicknames (don't know WHY) based on info about themselves or their names or could be totally random, so mine is Panda (please don't laugh), and my friends include Bones, Stanley (a girl), Elvis, Rashman, Spoon, Rocky, Shamwow, Gilly, Bora, Sahara, Tingle, Pixie, Squishie, Chansey, Brumby, Ben (a girl), Taxi, Keg etc.

Other names include F'Taang, Swede (he's not a swede though), Fluff, Brick etc. No one can pronounce my name except the China people, the Singaporeans and the Malaysians. I love Chinese people!

I've just done my 100 check point to confirm my identity with the medical building, and am sitting in a campus food court using the free wireless because I can't stand having to pay for the internet usage by the kilobyte in my room in the college.

Okay, I'm too lazy to post anymore.

Edit: okay, I have free time and shall post a bit more about tonight's shenanigans.

They had this compulsory formal dinner which I wanted to skip but couldn't. So we had to sit at pre-assigned places, thank goodness I had one of the other Singaporeans with me. The food was pretty good!

And then we found out we'd been pranked for what must be the umpteenth time already. The seniors had said they'd wash our fresher t-shirts for us, but what they did was to hang them all in funny places in the courtyard on level 1, like hung really high, or in the soil, or on benches or whatnot.

It was terribly noisy and all, but I did manage to direct a few people to their shirts, though not finding mine. So I gave up in the end and went up the usual way to my group's common room. I thought I'd walked to the wrong one again, but it turned out they'd swapped the decorations for each common room to confuse people.

It was really thorough, including the number plates and bathroom toiletries. At this point I concluded that the seniors had got to be the most kongxian and boliao people ever.

Apparently they managed to trick people into thinking that they'd swapped all the stuff in their rooms and switched the locks or something. I swear if they'd really done that it would be theft. And plus some people locked their rooms anyway.

A special shoutout here goes to Fluff. He came into 'my group's' common room (which was probably actually his common room) to take a golf club from behind the door, claiming he was trying to get a fresher shirt down.

Then later as people were going out to do the mass dance, he returned with a shirt and the golf club, and asked if anyone was missing a shirt, which of course I was! So I asked for the label, and found that it was indeed mine! He said he'd gotten it off a tree. A TREE.

I'd helped him earlier in the courtyard to identify Sahara's shirt to give it to her, so I guess he'd just gone around helping people get their shirts. Many thanks to Fluff the whipcracker!

I'm in Sydney now!

2010-02-17T18:26:00.003+08:00

I haven't really had the time/energy to blog about my arrival in Sydney, but since I emailed my family about my adventure today, I'll just copy and paste it here, and then slowly backtrack the past few days.

Today Papa and I attended this welcome and panel/forum in the morning where we got some more information for international students, and got a small free lunch too!

Then we went back to New College to eat more lunch and then adventurously took a bus (with the help of the kind bus driver) to a terminal closest to the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge! [Circular Quay]

We walked quite far from the wharves (which offer ferry rides) towards the opera house, and of course there were lots of tourists there, especially Chinese and Korean. We took lots of pictures with Papa's camera, so you'll get to see them when he gets home.

I think the Opera House and Harbour Bridge are really cool when viewed from far, but when you walk up to it, it's kind of ugly, I dunno. We also strolled around a little bit at these Botanic Gardens which are right next to the Opera House.

After that we were even more adventurous, and took a train from Circular Quay Station to Central Station and spent a long time in front of the map figuring out where the Chinatown is! Then we spent an even longer time walking there, but you can tell you're entering an Asian district when you see more and more Asian people, and stores with Chinese words on them!

There was a sort of small shopping centre on Dixon Street at the Chinatown, and it felt like being back in Singapore because of all the Chinese shops! But then Papa said he had to go buy a birthday present for baby Nathanael (18/2/09) and we got this cute panda stuffed toy from a Korean-owned shop.

Then in an attempt to be brave and find a bus stop to take a bus back rather than going round-about on the train and troubling Si Hui to pick us up, we found a better shopping centre where we bought me some Yeo's Chrysanthemum (6 x 250ml) and ate chicken for dinner!

We were directed by another waiting bus passenger to the correct bus stop far far away, and the stupid bus timetable is so inaccurate! Please lah, within 20 minutes the same number bus came like 5 times (more frequent than the timetable) and the bus we needed took 25 minutes to come when it ought to have been there in one minute or at a shorter interval!

Unfortunately since it was about 8pm it was pretty dark and hard to see the road names, but thankfully a lot of people got off at the UNSW bus stop near my hostel anyway.

I won't be seeing Papa tomorrow off at the airport because I already signed up for this academic preparation programme that's 8 hours long for Thursday and Friday, so I had to say goodbye to him just now when Si Hui came to pick him up.

It was fun being a tourist for today, but now I have to go back to being a student! I miss everyone back home!!

P.S. to everyone back home who sees this, please appreciate how great the Singapore public transport system is, including the EZ-link cards, cheap fare and frequent buses and trains!

NJChorale AGM 2010 + Tutoring

2010-01-24T15:02:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was a busy day. In the late morning I went to tutor my P2 student for the last time (so sad right) at Toa Payoh. Then I was to meet Rachel to kind of help her with some maths, outside the Toa Payoh Library.

They were having this sort of fair/basar malam (though in the day) - the typical kind that has Ramly burgers, lower quality takoyaki and fried stuff, and other random clothes and stationery tools. So I got myself 5 pens for a dollar, as well as two pocket files to bring to Australia.

There was also one booth selling CDs, though it looked mostly chinese, like CNY songs or old chinese shows. But then as I was waiting, Super Junior's Sorry Sorry started playing! And following that was SJ-M's Super Girl, wahahaha!!

Anyway the library was too crowded (and I doubt the people there would appreciate us talking) so we went to Toa Payoh Hub's Macs to eat my lunch and study.

I'm glad she asked for permutations and combinations, because those are easier to remember, than say complex numbers or statistics. Differential equations required much checking of formulae for integration though!

But we got politely asked to leave (because you shouldn't really spend so much time studying at a fast-food joint) and moved over to KFC where now she ate and we had a good time talking! Mostly about university, studies, and relevant stuff. Many thanks for her encouraging words about being a doctor!

After that I made my way to the condo where the AGM was to be held, though it took me a while to realise that the aforementioned function room was the room labelled 'Multi-Purpose Hall'.

I helped Amanda with her mini-banner (that wasn't used in the end!) and blowing balloons and stuff! The food was good (though I didn't like the wasabi prawns), and the company was excellent! Clarissa, Eunice, Jocelyn, Yuting and I went walking and found this greenhouse place with aircon and pretty plants and water with fish inside! It was really picturesque!

Also, Eunice has recently gotten into K-Pop! And she likes Super Junior too! It's always good to know fellow fans!

We came back to find the rest playing Pictionary. They were separated into 2 groups - by whether your year of graduation was odd or even. The evens had less people than the odds, because Xuemin's year had a lot of people, and Xingqun's year as well!

Thank goodness I didn't have to draw (can't draw to save my life), but at least I managed to guess Linus' 'Mona Lisa' picture in time! It still baffles me how Cheryl guessed 'Lady Gaga' from Chee Jun's drawing!

They also played Queen of Sheba, and I think the funniest part was when Gabriel and Yong Jian had to try saying the alphabet in the shortest time! Xiang Ting was laughing like mad!! Another funny part was when they wanted someone from each group with 'the weirdest face', and Eugene (that terrible boy) told Shamini to just have her normal face!

After the games came the more serious part, like introducing the new committee members/understudies (Eunice, Sheena, Eugene) and SLs (Sheena, Clarissa+Eunice, Gabriel, Jiahao), and discussing things like communication avenues and the upcoming concert's musical direction.

Then when it was over I was going around taking photos with people, eating more honeydew sago dessert, talking to friends I hadn't seen in a long time, etc. We finally left the place at about 10:30, and I'm glad Sheena and I had 2 straight buses home.

Sheena has volunteered to come over and "watch me pack", rather than help me, but I think I'll still enlist her!

Body Worlds and Books

2010-01-15T22:17:00.003+08:00

Yesterday my brother and I went to the much-advertised Body Worlds exhibition at the Science Centre, and it was pretty interesting and informative.

They showcased specimens that came from real people or animals, sometimes showing the muscles or the skeleton or particular organs. It took a long time to get through the whole thing because there was lots of information to read, in the glass cases or on the walls.

I liked the quotes they had on certain large posters on the walls, generally talking about life or age or the mind. They also had these blood pressure machines, but both my brother and I tried and the machine didn't put the final reading, but it worked for the lady after us!

I was really tired after it because there's no place to sit down at all! And after we left I bought a notebook which says I <3 My Body, only that the heart picture is like a real heart and not a valentine. So cute!

Today I went to NUS Co-op to get my textbooks, with Justin's help and member card for a discount! Then we saw Gloria, Melody, called Liu Xuan and Kai Xin to meet them (I thought KX might be going home too but she still had class) and Jessica as well! It must be so fun to go to uni and bump into your friends like that!

Brother and I made spaghetti for dinner, with our maid's help of course, we'd probably fail otherwise. It was quite nice!

05IP05 Class Dinner 2010

2010-01-10T23:05:00.003+08:00

We had our first class gathering ever since we weren't an official class any more yesterday night, 9th Jan 2010, organised by Ben!

It was sad that many couldn't come or weren't even in the country, but at least those of us who came had a good time!

After tuition I went to near Xiaowen's house, to eat lunch. She also bought this takoyaki, but sadly her piece had no tako! So ridiculous! She'd made the jelly already, and we found that it could be jam-packed together so as to stack three layers of helly into my one tupperware box!

And we also watched stuff as she connected her laptop to the tv, making everything BIGGER :D Then we left her house at about 5pm or so to go to AMK Hub to the NTUC to get the utensils, plates, drinks and some fruit syrup because the jelly was slightly tasteless.

We met Rachel there, who helped to carry, and we chionged across the road the moment the green man lit up, because the 74 had already reached the bus stop! Finding the condo was easy enough, though finding the function room required more walking.

AND... we were the first ones there! I was surprised, because I expected Ben to be there already, but he was still at home making the food, with some other guys I guess.

So we just sat there waiting and talking until Kai Xin and Kai Qi came, followed by Xin Yuan, then Ben called Xiaowen to tell us to help take the things from HIS parents CAR. I'm so jealous! He got to drive!

Right, so his car had all the beehoon and ice and other stuff, and Gerard and Jiayi were with him. It took us so long to find the mysterious staircase leading to the car park! Many thanks to the friendly resident who showed us!

After we'd laid the tables and started pouring drinks, I think the people who came after us were Daniel, Wu Si, Rongrong, Daixi, Terence, Jessica, Justin and Jeremy. It was fun being able to talk to everyone after so long!

After a lot of phototaking, I was tempted to go home with Jess since her father was here to pick her up, but decided not to in the end. Then we began playing games prepared by Ben! I applaud his efforts!

So the first task was to write down the names of everyone in the class next to their register number, and their secondary school. I confess I don't know the names of the scholars' schools! Just put Vietnam and PRC! But anyway I finished first, followed by the joint Daniel & Xin Yuan, then Xiaowen. But everyone was copying from each other anyway!

The next thing was a 40 question quiz on events in our IP life, some easy, some ridiculously tough!

E.g. what did we do for Funtasia 2? Everyone remembers the Haunted House :)
E.g. who was our IH2103 teacher? I didn't even know what SUBJECT that was!
E.g. what was Jiayi's rank before entering university? GUY-BIASED QUESTION.

After which the girls received an education on army stuff :D stars, crabs, bars, chevrons, OCS, Specs, and Man!

It was really fun, and we all helped to clean up afterwards, and split up between those going to the bus stop towards the west and those going to the east in Ben's car. Kai Qi was taking a cab anyway, so I went with her, but didn't have enough change to pay for my trip! And she was so nice, saying it wasn't necessary!

I've been blessed to have all these friends from school, all really nice people, and to be able to meet up with them after a year shows how we've grown, and had new experiences, and that we're still good friends!

2010 is Here

2010-01-01T00:59:00.002+08:00

It's the first day of the new year, and we just came back from the watchnight service at our church.

I was wondering how the youths (many from the CJ were there) were going to get home since I think most buses don't run past midnight, and apparently a lot of them are staying over. Since most of them just finished their church camp, it'll probably feel normal anyway!

I'm surprised that our church managed to get the Bishop himself to preach the sermon! Are we so important? Haha, kidding only. But there's at least one message I'm sure every one took away:

Life is short,
Death is sure;
Sin the cause,
Christ the cure.

Amen to that!

The service comprised singing of both older contemporary songs and hymns, a sermon, a symbolic lighting and placing of candles on the cross-shaped table, Holy Communion, and much prayer and reflection.

Oh God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

Last Sunday of 2009 - Church Annual Dinner

2009-12-27T22:33:00.003+08:00

Today's the last Sunday of the year, and also the last Sunday that our pastor will be preaching at our service as our pastor in charge for this term.

But I wasn't able to listen to his sermon (on the end times, no less!) because I had to go and teach Pri Sunday School, in which something nice happened. I was supposed to give out the Christmas presents to them, and I could choose in which order to let the students pick out the ones they wanted - in accordance to good behaviour. There was also one special present for the best student, in terms of attendance, behaviour, character.

So I laid out all the presents on the table and let them say which ones they wanted. There was a surplus and some repeated presents, so there wouldn't really have been a problem, except that two kids wanted the same one of which there was only one.

Because one of them was really better behaved than the other, I let her pick it first, but I asked the other kid whether he'd be the more magnanimous one and let her have it, and he agreed reluctantly. I'm pretty proud of him for doing so, and I gave him the special present.

As for the annual dinner, I was supposed to be the co-MC (like interpreting the Chinese to English) and was pretty stressed about it, but in the end I felt rather superfluous, because the other MC would read out the whole English thing, and then there'd be clapping/standing/praying etc, rendering my translating unnecessary.

I seriously think like 90% of the church understands Chinese anyway! And the 10% who don't normally understand the dialects instead of English. But it was good being there, because the youths had all been positioned far away back at the minichapel, where the noise wouldn't disturb the adults, and they had no idea about anything going on the social hall!

So at least I got to see the welcoming and farewell-ing and praying and singing! The pianist is pro! And bilingual pastors even more so! Rev Chai was right when he said we're such a blessed church to have the most pastors in the CAC, despite the mass swap-around we're having next year.

The minichapel with the youths presented a rather rowdy and chaotic situation, with more people out of seats than in at some points, a lot of yelling and cheering and walking around and taking of photos. Even the children of pastors left their prestigious seats at the stage and went to the back where we were!

I'm grateful for the sane people at my table (even Melissa and her photo-snapping frenzy). Though I think we wasted a lot of food, since Yue, Jodie, Serene and Andrea were MIA for a few dishes.

I also think the CJ people were rather high because they're having their camp now. Looking back at it, one year ago I probably wouldn't have been able to name more than a handful of them (also those from MM), and now I recognise and greet many more. It's great to have a combined youth!

D'Arts

2009-12-26T23:28:00.003+08:00

This morning I went for Jamin's wedding at the ARPC pretty near our house. I mistook Jamin for Jeremy, because somehow he looks more like Jeremy than he used to! Good thing I didn't say anything to them! The bride is pretty, and her dress was even prettier!

It's nice to know that the parents still remember our names, even though I'm sure the kids have forgotten us already. What a pity, we used to go to church together before they changed, and later went overseas. All their children are the same respective ages as the first 4 children in my family!

Then this evening was the long-awaited D'Arts evangelistic event that my siblings had been preparing for, as they both played in the band! I'm especially proud of my sister for not only playing keyboard but also singing the harmony for so many songs!

I was originally supposed to be an usher, then a server. It mostly required making the drinks, because Priscilla told me first how to make it, and then I told the others. There was like a chain of people putting ice into cups, filling the cups, adding the cordial, slotting in the straws, and bringing them to the people.

It felt rather hectic and inefficient at times, partially due to the lack of lights (for atmosphere), but it was fun! I think being busy is pretty nice as long as you're not TOO busy, because you feel occupied and like you're doing something useful. Good job to everyone who helped! (Yue, Joanna, Yi Hong, Nicklaus, Camilla, Tan Juen, Delia etc.)

They had the band performing plenty of songs, though the sound got cut off halfway during one of the songs. Then there was a drama (starring Nicole and Yong Qiang), including dance segments, and then wonderful guest performances.

Cleaning up after the event was tedious, and at first we wanted to reuse the pretty cups for Juniors, but Yue dumped them into the trash bag by mistake, so we left it. Then Camilla and I got to mopping the floor, but she was distracted into a fight (brandishing her mop) against Shawn, and ended up slacking! So Ying Xuan began mopping, relinquishing the broom to Yan instead.

Yue (to Cam): Let me join you in slacking!
Xuan: You! You're not doing anything but converting oxygen into carbon dioxide! Come and help!
Yan: Xuan, can you stop being a nerd? Or I'll disown the both of you.

Terrible, I know.

By the time Yan and I got down after cleaning the mops and pail, there was hardly any food left. I took the samosas and spring rolls.

[Yan takes a spring roll]
Edward: GASP. Yan is eating something!

Good thing Parents let Brother drive the car. We even had space to fetch YQ to Kovan before going home!

Caroling with NJ Chorale

2009-12-24T23:56:00.004+08:00

This year I'm glad I was able to carol with the others in the NJ alumni choir. At first I didn't say I would, because I wasn't able to make it for the Saturday practices, and I understood that they probably didn't want people to just swoop in in December and expect to be able to sing with the rest who'd been faithfully practising.

But I guess they were pretty understanding, and I joined them for my first practice in December after my Malaysia trip. They had quite a few new songs, which kind of scared me (especially the 12 Days of Christmas) but in the end the only new one we stuck with was The Christmas Song, which we never sang anyway, incidentally.

Today was my last caroling session, having already carolled on the 19th and 20th of December. There were like thrice the number of people in the lounge compared to the previous sessions, and balloons in the air, and it didn't feel like we were just singing to ourselves!

Unfortunately, today was our split between the places, so there were only 8 of us plus CK as conductor (but he sang T1 to help) - practically an acapella group! But the audience were supportive and clapped and took pictures!

I realise that it's a bit deceptive when we warm-up and practice in the holding room, because we sound pretty loud in such an enclosed space, but when we go out to the lounge our sound isn't anywhere as good.

I really like caroling with the choir! It's so good to be able to sing in parts with people who do it well, and to create festive music for Christmas! I'll admit I don't really like certain songs, but I love others, so it balances out. It was also an opportunity to see people I haven't seen in a long time, e.g Serene, the J2s, and a new senior, Xiao Ying.

Now we can add a little segment of the holidays to our memories: singing in the lounge, out-of-tune warm-ups, eating log cake (donated by Sheena's parents), demanding sandwiches and water bottles, wearing the silver dresses and black strappy heels, etc.

The only bad thing is trying to get home from Orchard. Tonight was especially crowded, and Sheena and I walked to a further bus stop just to make sure we'd be able to board a bus that wasn't already full. We got seats!

Two Outings with Friends

2009-12-21T22:21:00.003+08:00

What a lovely day today was! I got to go out with the Choir Comm 07-08 as well as my own IP friends!

First the choir people were supposed to meet at 11:30 at Dhoby Ghaut, and I'm ashamed to say that I was late while LC, Gnia and WY were on time, and XM, JA and YJ were waiting at the wrong entrance I think!

We actually walked to the Cathay and debated over Nihon Mura and Aston's before deciding to go back to Cine to eat the Suki Sushi buffet because we were hungry and didn't want to wait until 2:30 for the other one.

Unfortunately they only had one table seating 6 available, so XM, LC, Gnia and I went to eat first, feeling guilty that the other 4 were still standing there for so long waiting for a table!

Eating with the other 3 was super fun, I felt like I was going high from all the laughter, stemming from LC and XM insulting each other, scheming of ways to hide leftover rice so as not to be charged with wastage, and Gnia's and XM's antics over the sushi train!

XM: Wait, let's keep the plates to keep count of how much we've eaten. (to make sure it's worth the money)
LC: Why not keep the (plastic) covers instead, it's easier.
Waiter comes to remove plates.
Waiter: Shall I remove the covers?
XM: Oh, no, we want to keep track of what we're eating.

XM: Oh, what's that?
Gnia: Mango pudding.
XM takes the mango pudding and takes one bite.
XM: I don't want any more. Where's my chawanmushi?

*facepalm* MAJOR FAIL, XM.

LC: What's that?
Gnia: (takes the plate) I think it's duck.
SX: DUCK SUSHI?
LC: It looks like...something that begins with a C and ends with an R.
*stare at LC*
LC: And has a D in the middle.
SX: OH, I know......wait, maybe I don't know, what is it?
LC: Something like a corpse (i.e. "cadaver").

YUCK, LC!

XM: Eee, the carrot is uncooked!
LC: No it's not!
XM: Yes it is!
LC: No, you just got to let it boil a bit more! Why are you so stubborn?
Later...
SX: (pokes carrot) It's STILL hard!
XM to LC: YOU SEE? It's uncooked! Why are YOU so stubborn?

Then there was a part where Gnia and I were laughing like mad, but I can't remember what about. Yun Tian joined us about halfway through and didn't eat anything, but had to leave early.

Wanyun's table finished first, and they were urging us to finish, I thought they wanted to go to school to see the choir's caroling practice with the conductor, but in the end we didn't.

Anyway, they gave me this farewell gift (even though I only made it seem to be my last outing to guilt trip them to come) which was a personalised 2010 calendar with all their pictures on it (because there's 12 of them excluding me, BRILLIANT) and I think YJ put in a lot of effort making it, so I'm SO THANKFUL FOR IT!! *cries happy tears*

After walking with WY, Sheena, YJ and XM to Dhoby Ghaut again, I took the train up to AMK to meet XW!

We stoned at the Macs while waiting for the others and I was telling her about the Mu Lan movie I already saw. Then Sheryl came in with all her presents and stuff (thanks!), followed shortly by KX and Eliz, and then we went back to AMK Hub to decide on Pepper Lunch for dinner. Maybe we should call it Pepper Dinner.

RO met us after they'd all ordered except me, because I was a bit full and didn't really feel like eating PL. RO gave us our Christmas cards, and Sheryl gave us our presents, including a large toy hedgehog for RO the birthday girl!

I wanted to go to BBQ Express because I remembered liking the chicken wings, but unfortunately they were sold out! So Sheryl and I got takoyaki, and we wandered around in NTUC for a while, spending the most time debating on which sushi pack to buy!

There was much phototaking with Sheryl's pro camera and angles of trying to get XW to look pregnant in her billowing dress! I'm glad we got to take photos together, it's been ages!

Today was tiring, but utterly fun. I love meeting my friends, and the time we've not been together just makes the meeting more special. Maybe I was wrong about "out of sight, out of mind", as I quoted to YJ earlier today.

Model Bag Retreat + Caroling + Movie

2009-12-09T21:17:00.003+08:00

I came back from the Model Bag Retreat that my parents brought us along to in Johor from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.

The actual people in the Model Bags include Pastor and wife, plus my parents, plus 9 more adults. This makes 13 people. And then they brought along their kids, which totals to 18 children.

We had to eat lunch by ourselves first (at Serangoon) before reconvening in church and leaving. One car was supposed to follow ours, and since Yue and I were the ones sitting at the back, we had to keep turning our heads around to check that they were still behind us!

The hotel was really nice, apparently 5 star, and the bed was super king, so all three of us sisters could sleep on it! The only problems I had with the room was that the aircon wasn't working properly, and the bathroom couldn't be locked. So you kind of go to the bathroom in mortal fear that someone will accidentally open it!

I think I spent the most of my time watching TV! The room had KBS, Star Movies, plus the local channels, MTV, Hallmark, NHK, ESPN. We got to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua, World Mixed Doubles Billiards, and some show that Minho from SHINee was on. (Dream Team?)

Most of the meals were eaten together, and REALLY GOOD. Lots of seafood! One of the meals we had just as our family was Monday's lunch at this big Jusco building. I was more concerned about finding new sandals because the bottom of my left sandal came out!!

And then my mum and Yan abandoned us, claiming they didn't want to eat lunch anyway, while we were busy getting the sandals, so it was just my father, brother, Yue and me eating at this Chicken Rice Shop on the 3rd level.

Guess who we found having "tea" at the 1st level? THE TWO ABANDONERS. HMPH.

On Monday night there was a mass gathering of them in parents/our connecting rooms playing the Bible games we had brought! I'm no good at In Other Words, but I think Outburst and Tribond are somewhat easier!

Then four cars left on Tuesday, while Pastor stayed and one car went further to KL. We had a combined lunch at this Bamboo place, though I was pretty full from the wonderful buffet breakfast!

Last night I went for my first caroling practice. I'm kind of panicking because there are so many new songs to learn! Twelve Days of Christmas is a KILLER. It was good seeing the choir people and singing with them again!

Today Yan and I went to watch Gokusen: The Movie at Marina, because it was only showing at GV cinemas there and at Vivocity as of today, and I think today was its last screening!

I think we were cheated by the ticketing girl. She gave us 3rd row from the back aisle, when we really should have taken the 2nd row from the back, if we had known that those were more centred!

In order to watch it, I went to re-watch most of the 1st and 2nd seasons, and watched half of the 3rd for the first time. In retrospect, I should have watched the 3rd season Special, because some of the characters in the movie were only from the special.

I don't recommend people who haven't seen any of the dramas (i.e. people like Sara Chan!) to watch the movie. It's exactly like the movie reviewer in the Straits Times Lifestyle section said - it's like a big reunion full of old characters that are familiar only to those who've watched it!

It was great seeing the older characters, especially Oguri Shun and Koike Teppei, and I think it's a pity Matsumoto Jun and Akanishi Jin didn't have cameos.

The first half felt like one of the typical episodes, while the 2nd half was more different and interesting. I like how the problem was resolved in the end. No romance this time, though!

Happy Birthday Papa!

2009-12-05T23:02:00.004+08:00

So today was my father's birthday, and I must say it's the most things we've ever done for someone's birthday!

We woke up early to go to this Bukit Batok Nature Park place to go walking, though it was only about 1.6km therabouts! We then had a late breakfast in one of those under the hdb places.

Then I was allowed to drive with Yan to collect the birthday cake from Fiona. It started raining soon after I'd left, and in the end I nearly missed the turn, and there was a sense of panic, but I managed to go there and come back without causing any accidents!

We went to Tiong Bahru Plaza to watch the movie Mulan, followed by our dinner.

I thought the movie was pretty nice, though predictable at many points, and the transition between scenes and length of scences in the first 30 minutes weren't that good compared to later in the film.

For anyone thinking of watching it, I say it's an enjoyable watch. My father's watched at least 2 drama versions of Mulan, and this one has "entertainment value", according to him!

One touching part was when they were cornered, and their men who had stayed back to allow them to escape back were being tortured by the enemy, and Mulan started singing the song they sang for the dead soldiers.

It's a pity about the ending, Yue said the plot wrap-up was anticlimatic, though I was okay with it, but of course both my sisters were upset about the ending, pertaining to the romance, while my brother and I were more pragmatic about it!

We're going to Malaysia tomorrow!

Australia Buddies

2009-12-03T21:00:00.003+08:00

Today I met up with Melody Cheong (back from Brisbane for a visit) and Shernise, and we had a nice long lunch at Ion Orchard!

We ate at the Xin Wang Hong Kong cafe, and I find it funny that Melody is dying to eat all the Asian/Chinese food after being in Australia for so long, while I who eat Chinese food EVERY DAY opted for cheese baked rice!

Shern and I are wondering if we'll acquire accents like hers! But it was fun to catch up, and it's a bit sad we won't be in the same region. It's also great to have someone to give advice after being there for so long.

On a side note, I think Shern is right about my not really being suited to ACJC. I guess it's a good thing I went to NJC instead!

Interesting Part in Luke

2009-11-30T08:50:00.003+08:00

Yesterday during Sunday School the passage included a part I'd never really noticed/bothered to read before.

It comes from the time when John the Baptist sent his followers to ask Jesus if he really was the one they'd been awaiting, and Jesus told them to report to John the wonders he was doing etc. Now, I knew that part, mostly because of this song based on it, but I digress.

After that, Jesus was talking to the people/Pharisees about how John was indeed the messenger preparing the way, and that even though he was the greatest among those born of women, even the least in God's kingdom would be greater.

Luke 7:31-35

31."To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32.They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
" 'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.'
33.For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' 34.The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' 35.But wisdom is proved right by all her children."

The idea of the children in the marketplace playing different tunes and being unsatisfied when the people comply one or the other is really quite true of the people being unsatisfied with a John who lived a terribly strict lifestyle nor Jesus whose lifestyle was radical.

Happy Birthday Mummy!!

2009-11-15T16:42:00.002+08:00

Yup, today's my mum's birthday!

We were supposed to eat at Quality Hotel for lunch, but because Brother had practice, we went to Parkway Parade instead. And I looked around the shoe shops, but didn't see anything I liked.

Actually yesterday at Toa Payoh I went into 3 shoe shops, saw 3 pairs I liked, and didn't buy a single pair. It's not just that I don't want to spend the money, I also have no more occasion to wear such pretty shoes. I felt depressed after that, and indulged in Burger King! Mushroom Swiss FTW.

Just tried a hand at seeing available Qantas/British Airways flights to Sydney from Singapore - the tentative departure date is 14th February, 2010, i.e. Valentine's Day, i.e. Chinese New Year 初一.

Anyway, during sermon today Pastor told a funny joke, that's actually based on a game some people play, called Fortunately, Unfortunately, where people take turns in telling a story that alternates between being fortunate and unfortunate.

So Pastor's story was about a guy sitting in the cargo area of the plane, and fell out, unfortunately.

Fortunately, he had the parachute and opened it.
Unfortunately, the parachute had a large hole and he began to plummet down.
Fortunately, there was a very large haystack below.
Unfortunately, there was an upright pitchfork in the haystack.
Fortunately, he missed the pitchfork.
Unfortunately, he missed the haystack as well.

THE LAST LINE CRACKED ME UP!

CAC Retirement, Ordination Cum Closing Ceremony 2009

2009-11-12T23:21:00.003+08:00

I came back from the CAC Closing Ceremony (see above for full title), and I didn't expect it to end so late!

Yeah, so at this ceremony they have the retirement of pastors, the ordination of pastors, and the posting of pastors to the various Methodist churches belonging to the CAC (Chinese Annual Conference).

Bishop Dr Solomon was the speaker (Rev Louis Chai translating to Chinese), and for a short while I was wondering why he was the CAC president when he isn't Chinese. Then I remembered he's the bishop in charge of the Methodist Church in Singapore, and Rev Chong is the president of CAC! I'm so blur!

So I didn't know Uncle Francis was retiring! He's so cute - he asked the Bishop if he could receive the graduation hat which he was unable to when he had really graduated years back! And his whole family was there, as well as my parents, and my father's sister and brother and wife!

Then Pastor Jasper got ordained as an elder, which means he can conduct Holy Communion now! He used to be our youth pastor!

Then finally it was Rev Chong's turn to speak, and he told Rev Louis Chai his work wasn't finished yet (as a translator)! So Rev Chong spoke in Chinese and Rev Chai translated it to English, then suddenly Rev Chong switched to English, and Rev Chai just kind of stood there for a few seconds, the congregation laughed, and Rev Chai promptly translated back into Chinese!! HILARIOUS!!

Thus began the long list of pastors who were called out by their District Superintendents, and because it was all in Chinese and my Chinese is worse than some Primary School kids', I couldn't understand WHICH churches the D.S's were referring to as they called the pastors up to the front, except PLCMM and Toa Payoh, lol.

Thanks to my father, whose Chinese is excellent, I have been informed that our C.S. pastor Rev Wilfred Leow will now be the Pastor in Charge(I think?) of Grace Methodist, and our L.S. Pastor Albert Ong will be preaching in Telok Ayer Methodist.

Uncle Keng Tat (i.e. Joshua's dad, whom I didn't know was a real pastor until he came to preach last month or something) will be splitting his time between Grace and our church. And we got a new pastor who I think was previously at some South Korean Conference. I'm pretty sure Korea has many churches. I think he is pastor Gideon Choi or something that sounds similar.

The districts are East, West and Central (called in that order), so all our pastors were called up first, since Paya Lebar is clearly in the east! This includes Rev Chai, Rev Ng B.K, Ps Kong, etc. I think Pastor Jasper is going to Changi Methodist? So far! I also recognised Rev Ngiam (she used to be in our church, her sons still are), and Rev Daniel Lee (used to be C.S. pastor) in the Central District row.

All this swapping around might take a while to get used to, but I'm sure it's all decided upon much prayer and of God's choosing!

It's All Relative!

2009-11-07T22:49:00.002+08:00

So, last Saturday was Zi Jie's and Shan Yi's wedding! A joyous occasion indeed! In the line of cousins, I think Zi Jie is about one year older than my sister.

We went for the tea ceremony in the morning at 5th (note: 4th) Uncle's house, where we got to see the tea-serving, tea-drinking, the pretty bride in her impressive gown and the groom in his shiny suit! We also ate lunch there, while the couple had to run off to her family's side for the same thing.

There was much fun playing with Gwen, though her parents weren't there - the grandparents brought her along. Yue played with her like a lot! I even took a photo with my phone :) She's fascinated by the pictures of herself on Yue's phone as well!

I had to go for tuition, then went home, and the solemnisation and wedding dinner was held at the Marina Mandarin Hotel, I think. Their wedding invitation was so cute, like a movie promotional postcard titled The Proposal!

The wedding dinner started rather late, and for once I was at a table with some people I don't know.

On Sunday we went to see Yan's performance at the Sounds of Hope charity concert held by MGS, in which the performing arts groups each did their own performance. I quite liked The Happy Prince play by the drama group, and the secondary dance troupe, and of course, the string ensemble!!

Today is 1st Uncle's birthday, and as always, we celebrated the dinner, cake and all, at this Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant at UE Square. Actually because my tuition ended at 5:30, I was prepared to take a straight bus from Toa Payoh Interchange to UE Square, but in the end I met my family at Newton and got fetched, yay!

Our table had the four of us kids, the four from 8th (note: 7th) Uncle's family, and Gabriel and Angie. Natalie was MIA for more than half the dinner - I think she was fascinated by the fish!

The babies were evenly 'distributed' at different tables: Natalie, Ke Xuan and Anthea, who are all terribly CUTE!

Zi Chong's table kept passing food over to our table, and at a certain point we had to redirect the food to Anson's table, haha!

The cake was pretty nice, with milk chocolate flakes and blueberries. Apparently there was some alcohol in it too. This might explain why Natalie spat it out after being fed by Grace. Clever girl.

Anyway, it was kind of funny seeing all our relatives again, because it felt like we only just saw them a week ago! I love how our family is so big!

Japanese Cultural Night

2009-10-16T23:08:00.002+08:00

Otherwise read as ni hon bu kan no yoru, or something like that!

This evening, I went to watch Clarissa at her dance performance, organised by the NUS Japanese club that she and Xiaowen are in, inclusive of dance, tea ceremony, koto, and a guest drum troupe from SP.

I just missed the 151 when I reached the bus stop, but any way the trip was only about 15 minutes (so quick!) that I reached my destination earlier than I needed to! Then Yi Hoong and Samantha met me there and led me to the LT where the performance was.

Xiaowen came in at the 3rd item, and we all took pictures during the intermission!

It was pretty interesting, and I especially liked the last dance. It was so energetic, and had lots of performers on stage, plus people off stage chanting, SORAN, SORAN!

After that XW and I went to the BK to have a sort of dinner thing, and I realise how much I miss having my friends around to just talk about everything.

Just sitting at the bus stop earlier and seeing this whole bustling activity, made the campus really seem alive. I hope my university experience will be fun as well! I'm kind of scared, because I haven't been studying for the past year, I hope I'll be able to adjust to schooling again!

Updates since last post + Permanent Fish!

2009-10-16T00:07:00.003+08:00

Well, so far I've just been doing my data coding job, getting used to the programme.

I'm also currently waiting for the responses of the residential colleges I applied to. I'm feeling rather nervous, but perhaps they're not used to applicants so early in the year, since their Year 12s haven't finished their exams yet.

On Wednesday my sister and I followed my mum to NIE to have a nice sushi lunch and watch this Japanese acapella group called Permanent Fish perform at NTU. They have 5 members - one vocal percussion, one bass, and three others sharing the lead and chorus parts.

And they're really good! Okay, perhaps I'm not an expert on acapella, though I have been in a group before and watched other groups from choir, and I think it's cool that their total singing is pulled off by 4 people, since the 5th guy does the VP.

They really had a lot of energy! I think the VP guy really just went on and on without needing to drink water! And the bass guy went pretty low! And the 3 chorus guys all have excellent strong voices! Plus one of them can make these cool sort of electric guitar sounds with the mike!

Apparently they've also released Korean albums, including a version of the old Korean song Balloons, which DBSK sang a remake of! I bet that there were some DBSK fans in the audience, because they looked excited when the middle guy introduced Balloons as their next song!!

They had a concert on Wednesday night at the Esplanade, but anyway I couldn't go because I had tuition. I think it's cool how they just keep singing non-stop, and don't seem to need any time to get their notes for the next song immediately after finishing the previous one!

I hope they really can go 'from Kobe to the world'!

Interviews

2009-09-24T17:01:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was the last day of the interviews for the project, and I'm quite sorry to think that I won't get to do them anymore. Especially because the last school we went to was that one at stevens road, it was so interesting to hear what they had to say during the interviews, and I really enjoyed it. I also met Jodie on the way from the bus stop - she looked pretty surprised to see me!

I feel like I've met so many people who were also administering surveys and conducting interviews for the past two months or so, and I've had the chance to go to so many different schools in this research position, it really was fun!

But anyway I was the youngest one doing the interviews - most of them were either undergraduate students or masters students already. And of course there were older adults too!

I'm just going to list some of their names down here so that I won't forget them next time - I hope it won't complicate anything: Yongqing, Xinjie, Huihui, Zoe, Joanna, Selina, Guan Leong. I didn't really talk to the masters students, I mean they were their own friends anyway.

I wish them all the best on their future endeavours!

Cheerio, Yihui and Yiwen!

2009-09-15T20:56:00.003+08:00

Today I went to Changi Airport Terminal 3 Row 2 to send Yihui and Yiwen off to England (going with Aunty Sabrina). Daryl, Michelle and Rachel were also there!

Yiwen's going for a year to do intense studying for her Masters. I didn't know that a Masters degree could be finished in only one year!

Yihui's going to study law at Leeds, I think, but this means she'll be separated by a 5-hour coach ride distance from Yiwen, poor thing. I don't think she's living exactly on the campus? I vaguely remember her saying something about cycling 4 miles to school.

I'm really going to miss them, but because Australia timetables are such that the long holidays are at the end of the year, while the UK one is in the middle of the year, it means while I'll see Yiwen at the end of 2010, I won't see Yihui until she gets back to Singapore!

Oh, but to go to England, how cool! The land of sarcasm, royalty, musicals and the Queen's English! I love British English!!!!

I hope they'll have a safe journey; they're still on the plane now I think, silly Yihui asked for my letter to last her the whole 14 hours. I said to her at the farewell on Friday, to watch the free movies! That's the best part of flying! That and the playing cards you get to ask for.

Yihui's been my church friend for as long as I can remember, and it's going to be ultra weird not seeing her on Sundays any more. What's happening to our Sunday School class!?!?!

God bless the both of you! :D

Data Coding Completed!

2009-08-31T11:32:00.005+08:00

My gosh, I'm not sure I've ever had a job that felt like it just dragged on forever.

Data coding was my job for one of the projects done by CRPP in NIE, and it was essentially to assign codes to the answers given by the survey-takers in an Excel file.

Now, there were 13509 survey takers, and 4 responses each, though not all of them filled in all the entries, so there were blank cells here and there.

So thankfully, instead of 13509 x 4 = 54036 entries, it was only about 46400 entries. And also, there were already pre-assigned codes, so it wasn't as if I had to come up with a whole set of codes by myself.

It was really easy at first, because being an excel file, I could arrange the column in alphabetical order, which would put all similarly spelt answers together, and then just put the correct code in the next column, click and drag until wherever necessary.

Unfortunately as it went on, I had to try to figure out typo errors as well as make decisions on creating new codes, or conforming to older ones.

I kept doing it, until the point where I thought I was going to go crazy because after entering the codes so many times after a while you it kind of just sticks in your brain.

And FINALLY, as of 11:15am this morning on the 31st of August, I finished the last entry, completing my job!

The good thing was that I got to work from home, so I didn't need to go to NIE like every working day. I think my general knowledge has increased as well.

Now I'm going to have lunch with Jane and Adeline (old MGS friends!!), and they just missed the Teachers' Day celebrations at MGS. I THOUGHT SO, they wanted to be there at what, 11:30, but my younger sister came home at about 11 already, so they must have been late!

EDIT: We had lunch at the Soup Spoon, a first time for me. And it's really filling, until I couldn't finish the bread bowl. It was really nice to see them again, but they're both flying off this month to the UK for university studies! I actually didn't know that Addie had been studying there for about 2 years already! She talks a little like a Brit now, how cool! And Jane's gonna do medicine (in Scotland), like me!! Yay!

Bye Bye Sheryl

2009-08-20T13:56:00.000+08:00

Yeah, so I know I haven't blogged in forever - I keep meaning to, but then get lazy when I actually sit down in front of the com, and then end up not doing it at all.

Recently everyone's been going to university, except for us overseas-bound people. I'm still working!

This morning Xiaowen, Elizabeth and I sent Sheryl off at the airport, where she's headed right now for USA to commence her university studies! Actually I didn't feel as sad as I thought I would, because she's coming back in December. What the heck lah, going for like 4 months then coming back for Christmas??? It's barely going away!

I spent so much effort making her farewell card too! But at least I think she was pleasantly surprised by it :D I also got her a birthday card she can open on the 23rd when she's there.

After that Elizabeth's mum fetched us to TP where her dad works, and we were talking and walking around and chilling in the library before her mum very nicely sent me to Toa Payoh where I had tuition.

After tuition on my way home I met Jane Lua coming down from the overhead bridge on her way home with her da-baoed lunch (just like me, haha), and we talked for about 25 minutes? She's also going to study medicine, but in Glasgow, Scotland, and she's leaving in early September. Everyone's flying off!!

Nothing much exciting has happened in this month, I guess. Let's see, there was the sort of choir lunch that not many people actually went for, including k-boxing in the afternoon, (including Yong Jian, Gabriel, Ann, Chee Jun, Zhirui, Amanda).

Then there was the choir alumni gathering at Thomas' house that I couldn't stay for because of our family gathering on the same day. At least since I arrived earlier I got to play guitar hero, as well as eat yummy satay!

Oh yes, we had our church 70th anniversary on the 16th; the service was at this church near Harbourfront, after which we walked over to Harbourfront Centre to have the anniversary dinner at this Dragon Gate restaurant place.

The entire dinner is kind of a blur for me now, but I remember that there was tonnes of food, but our table always had like one person's share extra leftover, probably because my sister was barely eating. She and Andrea were both studying for their bio common test the next day, haha!

Then there was talk of this Farmville application on Facebook that I was talked into adding by Ian, so now he and Rachel are my neighbours, and I ought to go add Daryl and Nat too.

And then Melody was trying to call Ian at the next table regarding Alicia's flying back to USA on Wednesday, and it went something like this.

Melody: Ian! Ian Wong! (no response)
Me: Haha, let me try - watch this. FARMVILLE!
Ian: Did I hear someone say Farmville? [Doesn't respond to his name but hears the word Farmville. Good grief.]

Yeah, I think I'd better try to post more, or it'll become a dead blog, and I don't think I want the idea of a dead blog hanging over me.

NJChorale Concert!

2009-07-31T23:30:00.003+08:00

So today was our NJChorale - the NJChoir Alumni concert, a culmination of the weeks of practice we had.

Well, it's not like we practiced as hard or as often as we did when we were in the school choir. It's not easy to get the same level of commitment among people who have really different schedules and aren't forced to attend.

Anyway, today for the first half we sang Lux Aurumque, Crown of Roses, Bogoroditse Devo, Burung Kakaktua, Paruparong Bukid. Then the first two acapella groups were the Chinese Yi Bi Yi group and my Lollipop group.

The first group had Lay Wang (who arranged the song), Shermaine, Bi Fang, Gabriel, Hua Cheng and Jia Hao. My group had Xiang Ting, Priscilla, Jia Yun, Ann and me.

We practiced for acapella quite often, though spending quite a lot of time on things like movement, the intro, what we were going to wear etc. At first we were going to just wear the choral gowns, but then decided that the song was too cute for it and wore colourful clothes in the end :D

The funny part backstage was how we all rushed to change. Straight after going back in (after Paruparong) the Yi Bi Yi girls just chionged into the toilet to change, while the guys just stripped the shirts off behind the curtain! Jia Hao was stalling for them

And then Lollipop while waiting for the toilet to have space quickly changed the shoes and tried to do the hair first. And then we rushed to change our clothes, and then rushed back out to tie on the red ribbons, and the guys backstage probably thought we looked hilarious.

After the intermission it was Oh No John, which was hilarious everytime I saw the acting by Thomas and Priscilla. The people singing were Xiang, Shermaine, Cheryl, Jia, Chee Jun, Gabriel, Xingqun and Linus. They probably went sharper and sharper :)

Then it was Fire (Cheryl, Jia, Xiang, Zhirui, Linus, Jiahao) and In The Still Of The Night (Cheej, Linus, Zhirui, Thomas, Gabriel). Based on the cheers we heard they must have done well! (The backstage curtain kind of muffles some of the sound, and we can't see the performance, pity.)

Then we went back to the chorale performances, singing Humpty Dumpty, Vincent (Starry Starry Night), Moon River, Song (composed by Pris) and Shima E. And the encore piece was Ye Lai Xiang.

I'm really thankful to all the people who came to see us, whether it's our choir juniors, people from other choirs or our families, including my two younger sisters!

Last Day at GPR

2009-07-14T22:50:00.004+08:00

Firstly, today's my brother's birthday! Happy Birthday!! You're now a quarter of a century old!!

So today was my last day officially working at Graduate Programmes and Research Office [Teachers' Professional Development] in NIE, but not my last day in NIE.

For the past two weeks, I've been kind of like a regular worker - I would wait for the chartered NIE staff bus for the Holland - Farrer - Bukit Timah area, along with Dr Joan Fry (and for a few days, Mark as well) at the small side road beneath the train railway.

The people on the bus are Auntie Kok Mui, Auntie Lek Cher (both of whom know my mum), Joy, Shih Fen, Dr Fry, Mark and Mary. The two of us would always sit in the back with Mary. Mark was there for the first few days, but wasn't there when he went to Japan.

And then I'd reach NIE at about 8:05am and go to Block 3, hoping that someone would be there to let me in, because I have no pass-card.

I'd be working/slacking from 8.20 - 5.40 or thereabouts, with an hour-long lunch in between. Before my mum went to NZ, I'd just stay in office until about 6.15 to wait for her to be done, and then meet her at the carpark. But for the last two weeks, I had to remember to close everything at about 5.37pm or so, and leave before 5.40pm so as to get to the bus by 5.45pm.

Jun Qiang from the other side of GPR left on 29 June, I think, because the person he was relieving came back from maternal leave or something, and Amos was complaining about all the baby talk, haha.

They also shifted my seat, swapping places with Radha, so that she now sat beside Charles, and I sat in front of Jiahui. At first I wasn't too happy, because I liked being tucked away in my old corner, but at least in this new place I could talk to Jiahui! Madeline also got shifted to one of those tables near the pantry/toilet. (The computer guy, who's Grace's husband! shifted the computers around.)

Sitting at the new place was quite different. The aircon was less cold (made my old corner feel like the North Pole), and I occasionally directed people who came in to the right people to ask their questions to. Also, my desk was right outside the meeting room, where the people inside could be noisy despite the closed door! And once, Mavis came in, I wonder if it was on behalf of my mum?

Then Jiahui's last day was on 3rd July, because she was going to Taiwan on the following Tuesday, and the manager had been officially hired already, so Chris 'terminated her employment', lol. We had Canadian pizza on her last day - good stuff!

After that I was the only one left in my column, the three people in the other column belonging to the other side of GPR (Emma, Asmidah, Mazian). I think it's called GAP or something.

The new manager's name is Wei Ling, I think. She's pretty tall! But then Chris had to go eat with her and the higher-ups, and Su-Ming and Madeline would go by themselves, so I ate by myself once or twice, and once with Amos (we boycott Broadway!).

And they had this TPD lunch-meeting thing on Friday where they ordered KFC. I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to go, but it turns out, I was! Apparently the lunch time was like the manager getting to know everyone's family, work history etc. Hers is really colourful, even more than Charles, but no one can beat Radha: working at NIE all her life! And she looks way too young to be the mother of a 20-year old! Then they had their meeting while I did my work outside.

Yesterday I took a half-day off to go to school to get my SGC, so I only spent the morning in office. Because I took the cough medicine, I was literally falling asleep at my desk! And then the LP people (Audrey and Ros) came in with lots of leftover samosas and fruit tarts, which I admit I stuffed my face with. Kept me awake!

Today I went in (with Cindi) and it took a while to realise that my computer was missing! Rather, they moved it to two desks in front of Madeline, so that the entire column was now empty, and anyone looking for TPD would have to walk to the right, my desk being the first in line.

The good thing about this desk is that I could eat my pau without being seen! But a lot more people walk by it, and I feel a bit paiseh if they see me playing games - not because I'm a slacker but because Chris didn't give me work!

Today at least TPD remembered it's my last day, so Madeline, Charles, Imelda and Su-Ming kind of wished me well with my future endeavours. They're so cute, they all like to shake hands or something. Even Dr Tan!

It's currently the teacher investiture going on, so Charles and Madeline got volunteered to be ushers or something, so my last lunch was at the Cafe by the Quad (teri & yaki chicken!).

Anyway, despite it being my last day, I just realised that I left my earphones there, so I'll pop by tomorrow to get them. I'm going to start my new work at CRPP (thanks to Shih Fen :D), so it's still NIE!

I think NIE is so fun. I don't know why. It's like everything works together. Like how the Foundation Programmes people are all involved in the TIC these 3 days, where teachers previously trained under the various AGs are now released into the schools, and they'll later come back to GPR for other courses! Cool.

Dinner with Choir Comm 07-08

2009-07-07T20:05:00.003+08:00

Haha, this post is like three days late.

Sheena organised a dinner for the 07-08 NJChoir Committee, and we were to meet at City Hall MRT. I came from Toa Payoh MRT (after tution) and reached at about 6.15, but only Jing An was already there.

We were speculating on who would come next, but before I could give my final answer, Sheena showed up. We took a long time deliberating where to eat, meanwhile being joined by Ek Ping, Wanyun, Yun Tian, Yong Jian, Conan, Xuemin and Eugenia. (Eugene was already at the Esplanade area.)

In the end, according to Yun Tian's suggestion (trust the veteran, as JA says) we went to Marina Square, and finally settled on this place whose name escapes me right now, but it was that typical western food kind of place. With good dessert.

I don't really remember exactly what we talked about over dinner. I think it probably revolved around topics of school, army, food, work, choir, alumni concert etc.

Sixuan: I got my driving licence, see?
Eugenia & Xuemin: Ohhhh.
Jing An: What's that? Your student card?
Sixuan: No, it's my driving licence! (expression of glee)
Yong Jian: Haha, so what. I also can drive! Some more the one I drive is like 10 times bigger than yours.
Sixuan: Oh, so like some big tank thing? (expression of wonder)
Conan: You never tell her you can only drive at like 30km/h. *snigger*

There were also the NDP rehearsal fireworks, though from where we sat, unable to see the sky, thought it looked a lot like lightning in the sense that they lit up the buildings in flashes. After dinner, we went to take a picture outside the place.

Wanyun: Okay, let's take a picture!
[Yun Tian takes out a comb and combs her hair.]
Some of us: Aiyo!
Sixuan: Do you NEED to comb your hair?
Yun Tian: Hey, it's important, okay?
Wanyun: Let's be thankful she didn't take her mirror out like she usually does.
Sixuan: That's true!
Wanyun: If she were a more bimbo person, she'd take out perfume and spray it. You know, even though it doesn't actually show on the photo!

Afterwards we went back up and walked around, Ek Ping and Yun Tian went to the Puma shop to see if the bags EP got on sale were really going for that price. Xuemin and I got our cheaper ice-cream from this Japanese shop, and we sat down at a Starbucks table (Conan and YJ got drinks) while Eugene described the present choir situation to Eugenia, JA and me. It sounded frightening.

Then Sheena and I went home together right after, and I only got home at about 10.30pm. Though this is because she pushed back the original meeting time of 6pm to 6.30, and then we waited until 7pm for everyone to come before going to Marina Square.

I realise that I didn't know how much I wanted to see them again after so long until I actually saw them. These are people I used to see thrice a week, about 40 weeks a year, and for 2-3 years depending on which of them.

Well, at least I've tried to wrangle an assurance that when I organise another meeting at the end of the year(with those in my year since the rest will be having A levels/prom/holiday), they'll set aside the date if possible.

I miss them already!

Transformers Movie Outing

2009-06-26T08:29:00.002+08:00

Last night a big group of youths from EJ, CJ and MM went to PS to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

My sisters and I went to join some of them for dinner at the Kopitiam [including Priscilla, John, Yun En, Yun Ze (and their sister), Judith, Gin Gin, Qihang, Michelle, Nicholas, Christopher, Andrew, Yunting, Yihern, Magdalene, Noel, Nicklaus, Joanna, Linus, Joseph, Deborah, Anthia], though Rachel and Yan dabao-ed Subway.

Yan and I went into the Puzzle World to have a look around. We saw a puzzle that's the same as the one our mum bought for us to do and hang up at home, only this one was at least twice as big!

At the 7th level where the theatre is, the promotion for the 6th Harry Potter movie had already begun, and there were the life-sized cardboard figures of the 3 main characters. And Yi Hern asked Dickson to take a picture of him with his beloved Emma Watson :D

Yue actually went to print out the synopsis of the movie, and Yan was quickly trying to read it before going in.

Yan: I don't know ANYTHING about Transformers!
Xuan: Okay, never mind, I'll explain to you! Do you know what a Transformer is?
Yan: No!
Xuan:...Okay, you see the Big Big Robot, that's a Transformer!
Yan: Orh, okay.
[Later in the movie, when the small Decepticon appears]
Yan: I thought you said Transformers were big!
Xuan [oops.]

Poor Yan. I think it's not too easy to understand the 2nd movie without watching the first. Especially when all the Autobots/Decepticons look roughly the same. Apparently the only names she heard were 'Optimus Prime' and 'Bumblebee'.

The movie was quite good, I think. Obviously a lot of it was the fighting and CGI and special effects, but those were good! I think the plot/script could have been better at certain parts, and I felt that some of the momentum was ruined by interspersed moments between Sam and Mikaela in their whole when-are-you-going-to-say-you-love-me thing.

One fun thing about watching with so many people is the collective similar shared emotions felt when watching the movie. For example, in the earlier parts there are bits of humour, and even if it's not very high-class humour (his mother runs out of the house in fright and hits her head on a hanging flowerpot) everyone still laughs very loudly and general merriment ensues.

Movie Sam: You see those three stars over there? That's ORION's Belt...
All the Orion Campers: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!
Haha, so funny!!

We ought to have more events like this! Maybe we can all go watch Harry Potter or something. And find a way to help Yihern steal the Hermione figure.

PLCMC Combined Youth Camp 2009

2009-06-19T16:34:00.005+08:00

Yup, my sisters and I are back from the Orion Combined Camp 2009, held at PLMGPS from 14th to 18th June recently.

I want to say firstly that I wish we'd thought of having this combined thing much earlier, like say 5 years ago? Because the 3 different youth groups didn't really know each other, and by now when I'm already 19 - soon to be a not-youth anymore - it feels kind of late.

It started on Sunday evening (after MM's programme), but Yan (publicity) and I (logistics) had to be there at 4.30 for briefing and preparation, which included registration and clearing up the classrooms to be used for sleeping.

We had dinner and a bit of time to get to know our groups. I was first put into group Rigel (leader Amos Seet), but then later just before worship I found out I had been put into the wrong group! Sihui tried to find another tag, but there wasn't one, so I just got a different lanyard. And in the middle of the worship session (so weird right) I was introduced to the Hatsya group leader Dickson. Lol, the first thing I said after seeing him was, "You're Freda's brother, right?" Because they look SO ALIKE!

Worship was done by the MM team (supposed to be my team (Andrew's) but there was a swap, so in the end I couldn't sing for his session on Monday). [I know this isn't the point, but their keyboardist Luther plays AMAZINGLY.] The first theme talk by Pastor Kong (bits of it were in Chinese, imagine!) which was about the relationship between God and I. Good thing I could understand most of it! We formed small groups (Michelle Ng, Yingxuan, Qiying) to pray, and then he concluded it with a totally Chinese prayer (I understood 65%).

Anyway the logistics team had to go prepare food/drink, and Tan Whenn and I were to put hoses in the toilets for bathing later. John showed us the way (MM always uses the place for camp, I think).

Then my brother came to fetch me home, because I had my driving test on Monday, 15th June. I remember telling a few people in the camp that my test was on Monday, so when I went backsome of them, including Pastor Fui Fui, asked me about it, so I happily said that I'd PASSED!! Thank God!

Yue just arrived after me (being at GB camp) and we went to the hall to find them playing the cat-and-mouse-maze game, so we just watched, haha. Afterwards was the telematch (station games): Frog-race (frog), Soap/grape sliding (tofu), Egg-race (egg), Waterpipe game (bowl of water), and Find-Eraser-in-Flour game (paper scrap).

The frogs were gross! I don't know how Yong Chiang could stand carrying it around everywhere after the first station! And Si Kai SQUASHED OUR FROG. He practically jumped on it when their frog won the race!

The soap was pretty gross too, but we all did it. Amos Chong and John continued splashing soap on after previous members had wiped it off the mat with their backs! After it was the egg-rolling race, and I just want to say I'm glad I didn't have to use my tongue (Louis) or forehead (Caleb Chua)!

The waterpipe game was classically wet, but thanks to Dickson's long and skinny arm, we only had to fill it around halfway before he could reach in to grab the pingpong ball! We lost the final game, and got to take a picture with white-streaked faces and clothes!

We only got like 6th place in the end, but never mind, it was fun! The cleaning up wasn't as fun, though. It required many pails of water and brooms to clean up the flour/eggs etc. There'd be a lot of people waiting for Edward to fill up the buckets before carrying them across the field to the dirty areas, using them up in a minute and going back for more water.

Joshua (slacker!) was talking to Yue and Yiwen about coming up with a new Bible Quiz that's biased against me, involving physical fitness! Afterwards they continued talking about cheemer stuff (joined by Emily and Nicholas), and then it was dinner time.

I was surprised that I was supposed to be a station master for the night games, though my station was terribly easy. Tell group the rules (find extracts of a story hidden in the canteen), remind them of the time (15 min to find & memorise, 5 min to recite), hear the recital and send people to the torture chamber. It's pretty funny how some people can recite about 3 long sentences perfectly, while others can't even do one sentence right. My group (combined with another) was terrible! Aiyo, I even gave them helping words!

I bathed quickly when the rest of the groups were still playing their final game, and came down with Amanda (who hurt her toe), but there was no more supper (beancurd) left.

Despite sleeping pretty late, the three of us sisters still got up relatively early (7 plus) and went down to the canteen. [Yan claims there's something wrong with us :D] My log briefing didn't really occur because the guys were still sleeping!

Group QT was led by Dickson, who was responding to a question asked by Rachel on Monday about the Word in fellowship. The 3rd theme talk was by Rev Leow on the Church and Us, after which we had an interesting group discussion on our personal role in church and changing churches.

After lunch we had the outing game, which was basically a murder mystery where we had to travel to various stations in the region to ask the characters involved questions. Sadly, my group wasn't able to get the better time slots, and ended up having to go around in circles! So frustrating! Thank goodness John knew how to go everywhere from everywhere by which buses!

As a result, we were too late for the last station (PLCMC), so we asked Michelle Foo the questions at the bus stop while waiting for the 62, which took forever to come, and we were the last ones back at the school! We barely had any time to come up with our re-enactment of the murder solution, with Rachel in the main role despite her not having been on the outing!

All 10 acts were good, some hilariously funny and entertaining! Things like Augustine the dad lusting after Zhi Xiang the mistress, Joshua the Butler trying to cosy up to Yi Hern the mother, Rachel the hysterical crazy mother, Benedict the emo girl cutting herself for not wanting teh-o-bing, Priscilla the threatening police officer, Sara the Ah Beng boyfriend and Noel the random Mango Tree!

I wasn't satisfied with the real story (in which nobody actually died and all the 'clues' had lame explanations) because it made me feel I wasted my entire afternoon going round in circles and walking until my legs hurt. But I guess the point was to have fun watching what nonsense acting the groups could come up with in the span of an hour!

I think I slept even later (worship practice till 2.45am), but still managed to get up at around 7 plus again on Wednesday(not bad right). The final theme talk was by Rev Louis Chai (whose 2 sons are in the camp btw) about God's Kingdom and Us. I confess I was terribly sleepy during the talk.

It was free time in the afternoon, to be followed by theme-related games, but they switched the games to the night, so most of the people were playing games at the track/field, jamming in Naomi Hall or sleeping.

After dinner we had a photo-taking session for each group (everyone wore the camp T-shirt), and then the committees and such. It took rather long, and our team was wondering when worship would start.

Then we had the extended worship, for which I was playing keyboard in the first slot, with Andrew on guitar, Si Kai on drums and Caleb Tay on bass. My left leg cramped after that because all my weight was on it as I tried to reach the poorly-placed pedal with my right foot. I think the worship was a bit too long perhaps for the CJ and MM people who weren't used to it. Oh well.

Then we had Pepsi and pizza for supper! After that I remember playing a bit of bridge, before they told everyone to go to the hall to play Twister, involving answering questions related to the theme talks and programme. The representative whose group answered correctly wouldn't have to move, while the representative whose group answered wrongly would be the only one to move. In the end, probably because it was taking too long, they started killing off players more quickly, and in the end made it a final deathmatch.

I think our group's Dickson was seriously the best one, because of the 5 combined groups, three of them got out, leaving him, this MM girl called Jessica, and Qi Hang who was playing for fun. Essentially, Jessica kept doing things like changing position, removing her hands/feet from the positions and resting her knees on the mat, but kept being saved by the MM people's cheers, while Qi Hang occasionally got up to say things in the mike, being the programme IC. So those two didn't have as hard a time, while Dickson was trying to keep his left foot on right index finger with the other hand on blue or something!

That night I guess most people got very little sleep. I played bridge and poker in Naomi Hall. One thing I noticed about the CJ people I played with, is that they like to high-five each other when their pair wins. Seriously. They even high-five when someone else washes and hypothetically one pair with super good cards would clearly have won. This includes Joshua Huang, Benjamin, Yi Hern and Yunting.

I was going to hopefully sub one of the losers in Si Kai's playing group, but then Joshua, Chris etc. came in and I went to learn to play Texas Holdem Poker with them, using random cards from Joshua's and Alicia's wallets as chips!

I decided that I needed to sleep since log team always has to be up earlier, so I went back to the room at about 4am to sleep. I still managed to wake up at 7 something, but only really got up at about 8.10am. Despite breakfast being at 10am, most people were late (as usual), pushing the programme backwards by a lot.

We split up for cleaning, and I was in charge of the 2 groups cleaning the classrooms we slept in - picking up litter and rearranging the tables and chairs to their original positions. I thought we were done very fast, only to realise that Linus' group (toilets) had been finished long ago, asking if we needed help. We went back to the canteen to see most people slacking around with a few guys doing the final hosing of the floor.

The last part of the programme included sharing time (commandants, Darren, Priscilla, Yan, Amos Chong), and revealing of angels and mortals time. My mortal, Steven, was actually Yan's angel, and he wrote her like 12 notes! I spent so much effort on my last note to him and he didn't even see it because he'd left! My angel was Dickson, who only wrote me ONE note because "I didn't reply him"! It's not my duty to reply him! Lol.

They gave out certain mini-gifts to committee people, group leaders etc. They even had a slideshow for "outstanding campers", including things like Best Charlie's Angel (Joanna), Star of Talentime (Noel, Mango Tree), and Prettiest Camper (Barbarella Monika Cheng!!!). Rev Chai covered his face when the slide showed Augustine as "Most Tempted to Touch" from the Talentime.

The camp ended with Rev Louis Chai praying at about 2.50pm, and we cabbed back to KAP for lunch at 4pm before going home.

I'm sure I've missed out many interesting-er snippets of things that happened, like people putting frogs on their mouths, or Yue reading the Bible in Chinese, or talking to Caleb about Bleach, but the most important thing is that the camp was good and I got to know a lot more of the PLCMC youth! Praise God for the wonderful camp!

Family Malaysia Trip

2009-06-14T14:52:00.004+08:00

My family went to Malaysia for about 3 1/2 days, 7th to 10th June recently. We stayed at Kuantan in Pahang from Sunday to Tuesday morning, and then went downwards to Kuala Rompin for the last night, in order to cut our return drive home into two shorter distances.

My mum wanted to go to the beach (I personally don't really like it), and I think my parents just like going on holidays.

We didn't really do a lot of stuff - mostly driving around, going to the beach, staying in and playing games brought from home (I stuffed 6 games into 2 game boxes!) and looking for places to eat.

My mum really wanted to see the sunrise on the sea, since it's the east coast, so every morning we got up to see the sunrise and take pictures, but it was really cloudy for the first two days! At least the Wednesday morning one was nice.

We also went to this turtle sanctuary where they keep these turtles in mini-pools and feed them lettuce! They also have an exhibit there for information, and a hatchery where visitors go to at night in hopes of spotting a turtle laying eggs there. My parents and brother went, but didn't see any.

The villa we stayed at for the first night was nice, even with a small private jaccuzzi pool, but the maintenance was bad! At one point there was a very short blackout, before the lights came on again, but some of the aircons stopped working, and we had to keep calling the maintenance people over to fix the stuff!

The second place was a golf resort, and my parents booked a chalet that IMO was in need of repair (the manager claims it's due for renovation), so we switched to the hotel-type rooms for very little money! Thank God for that! I wanted to go kayaking with my sister, but the seasports centre was closed, sigh.

One thing I really don't like about going to Malaysia is all the mosquitoes and flies. Another thing I wish they had were big shopping centres, but I suppose you'd find those in more densely populated areas like KL. Finding nice places to eat was hard! Lots of seafood though.

And my parents bought lots of DURIAN for us!!! Well, mostly for me, but who cares, right? DURIAN, PEOPLE.

I guess it's nice to be able to go away and just relax, doing nothing, but eventually we have to go back to work and school and whatnot. E.g., the moment I went back to work on Thursday, Jiahui and I had to continue organising and filing the stuff. At least we got it finished by Friday! Just need to put labels and we're done. (I got 2 paper cuts...)

This Saturday I felt like everything was so packed, because I had choir alumni practice from 10am - 2pm, and I thought it was going to end at 1pm and planned to get a haircut, but then I couldn't because I needed to bathe, pack for camp (which starts later), go for my penultimate driving lesson at 4.30pm - 6pm, then go to church for worship practice at 7.30pm. GAH.

I haven't finished packing for camp! And my driving test is tomorrow!!! In the words of my mother, "You're a busy little girl, aren't you?"

Working

2009-06-05T22:23:00.002+08:00

My mum helped me get a temp job at NIE GPR, and I started on May 27th.

Actually it's pretty slack, and the other temp staff Jiahui also isn't particularly busy, so I have absolutely no idea why I was hired. But I'm not complaining! I get free transport, cheaper food, aircon, computer access etc. everyday!

The people in the office are very nice to me, and I was initially kind of a bit afraid that no one would ask me to go out for lunch or something, but they always do! And they go to different places, introducing good stuff to eat, especially reccommending the shaved ice (it's flaky!) in Canteen 2. Pity the NIE Canteen closed, so we must walk further to eat lunch.

I even got treated to - can you believe it - Sakae Sushi on my 3rd day there, courtesy of Madeline, whose birthday was upcoming! She knows my mum and vice versa, and it was super nice of her to treat us!!

I've mostly been doing things like entering data into those master excel files they use for all the 2009 courses, typing out things based on templates, filing things in their respective paper folders, photocopying a bit here and there, putting certificates into envelopes... not much, really.

But today began what looks like a bit of hard work, because Jiahui and I are supposed to go and organise files that date back to 2003, for all the courses and stuff whose paperwork has been collected over the years. And it's all in this somewhat stuffy storage room with cabinets and cupboards and LOTS OF FILES. Chris has all his ideal scenarios, which would mean a lot more work for us, and we've decided he'll leave it to the people who come after we leave in July :P

So we spent some time talking about how to arrange it, and then actually got down to taking the files out and arranging them chronologically by year, and alphabetically by AG. We only managed to do from 2003 to 2005 today (considering we only started at what, 3.30?)

I'm going to Malaysia until Wednesday, so we're going to resume the organising when I go back on Thursday, because it's really sucky for one person to do it alone! Some more Charles has reservist, so Jiahui will probably be helping Chris/Suming out I think.

There's another temp staff on the other side called Amos, who is really really lame. But besides that, he likes to take things. I shan't say it for fear of getting him arrested (kidding), but it's really O.O when you hear what he and his friends have taken. I can't believe such wu liao people exist on this island.

It's been pretty good thus far, hope it stays this way!

And also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YUE! [she turned 14 yesterday!]

Maybe there's such a thing as a Birthday Period

2009-05-25T20:57:00.004+08:00

Meh, the past 5 months of the year or so have really passed by so quickly it's reached my birthday today!

Still, it didn't feel like a real birthday today. Maybe not that I felt lonely, but more acutely alone, since I spent most of the day out by myself getting stuff done.

On Friday the 22nd we had a sort of celebration and sleepover at Sheryl's grandparents' house - me, Sheryl, Xiaowen, Clarissa, Kaixin, Liu Xuan, Rachel and Elizabeth. I actually felt rather un-cheerful before I went there, because the MOH interview was late, and I screwed it up, and I didn't have time to go to McDonald's to get my free cup.

But after I went there I felt a lot happier! The power of friends, I tell you. We ate chips and chicken rice and cheesecake (courtesy of Sheryl), played a lot of guitar hero, tried desperately to get internet connection in one corner of the room, played mario kart wii and stuff! It felt really good to just spend time with friends - it didn't even feel like a birthday, more like a fun gathering.

We slept rather late, since we were playing the wii until goodness knows when, and carried on talking about all kinds of stuff even after going to bed/mattress. But I had to wake up earlier on the 23rd morning to go home to change before going to NUS for the FOS open house.

Over there Xiaowen, Clarissa and I met Audrey and we mostly went to the same talks together, surprisingly unsleepy. But after that I had to rush to church for worship practice, and I was half an hour late! It's my fault for not leaving early enough, but the 151 also got stuck at this place near the Raffles Town Club for like 10 minutes without moving!

At least my mum was there to fetch me home after her own English class thingy :D following which we had chili crab and mantou at home. YUM.

Then on Sunday for lunch we had Sakae Sushi (because of my father's voucher, without which I BET they wouldn't have brought us), then for dinner after eating a slice of hazelnut cake each, my parents, Yue and I went out for DURIAN with our uncle and family (back from NZ)!! HOORAY!!!

So for today, the actual day, the only thing that shows it's my birthday is the smses/facebook wall posts wishing me a happy birthday. I really appreciate all the messages! Even if they only know it's my birthday because facebook sends reminders to their emails, I still appreciate the time they bothered to use typing out the message. I LIKE THE SMSES EVEN MORE.

I actually spent today first going to a recruitment agency, then going to IDP to check university application stuff, then eating lunch and buying myself 2 bags at Marina Square.

I feel terrible for splurging money on bags! I realise the easiness of spending money when one has a NETS card. I think I'm never getting a credit card unless circumstances force me to, or unless you get random benefits for owning one - such as getting Sakae Sushi vouchers, LOL.

I'm supposed to start this temp job on Wednesday. I AM GOING TO EARN THAT MONEY BACK, EVEN IF IT KILLS ME.

Happy 19th Birthday, Sixuan :D

Well Done, NJCHOIR Juniors!

2009-05-05T20:51:00.002+08:00

Today I went to watch the JC Choir SYF competition, and I had the AM ticket because NJChoir was performing at 11.45. I was too late to go in to hear the first choir, was it YJ? If I remember right, I heard VJ, RJ, JJ, AC, CJ, DHS, NJ, TP, MJ.

It's so nice to hear choral performances after so long, but so many different choirs! I had fun looking at their costumes as well - one JC had a purple gown so similar to NJ's that I was really surprised!

Anyhow, I liked NJ's performance, and my heart was thudding all the way through, more nervous than I'd been during my own SYF performances! I liked the performances, possibly because I like the songs as well, the set piece isn't as horrid as last time's one; this one actually has written vocalisations, fancy that!

Of course they weren't perfect - no one is - but I think they performed well! And the way they entered and stood was so impressive! Even though they don't have as many choristers as some other sizable choirs, they had stage presence. I personally prefer the ending of Kalinda not to be that fast, but I remember there's a time limit to the total singing duration, right?

Oh well, this is all irrelevant since they got GOLD WITH HONOURS, BABY.

Now I'm eagerly awaiting the concert, let's see who wants to sell me tickets :P

P.S. I would try embedding a certain video or two that I got busted for trying to record, but the files are crazy big and would probably hang my computer.

Lazy to Post

2009-04-23T22:30:00.002+08:00

I've regressed into a laziness that surfaces every time I think about blogging. Even though there have been many noteworthy things happening these two weeks or so since the last time I posted, I've just been lazy.

1. [10/4] My sister and brother-in-law are back from NZ for a short 2 week holiday! We've gone out for SUSHI, but I feel we didn't eat as much as usual...and then my sister complains that's all we want her back for - to buy things that our mum won't buy us! She let us read her new books, and handmade us these individual wooden things with a picture each and our names in block wooden letters to stick on our walls. Also, she made me clean out my bookshelf. Hmph.

2. [17/4] I had the NUS law interview. It was really short! I met Sarah and Daixi there later. I also talked to 2 people while we were waiting in this nice big room - they even provided chicken wings, mini-muffins and orange juice for us! Then I went back to school to see my choir juniors singing. I still think their Kalinda is regrettably fast - I say 'regrettably' because Ms Lim has decided on that speed (so it's not wrong), but I like it slower. It's still cool, though.

3. [18/4] We went to church for this Juniors Sat programme with many fun games. Most notable was one where 30 paper plates each had a number from 1 - 30 written on the front, messed up in random positions, then were overturned, following which we had to overturn them in ascending order! Then we went home promptly to eat popiah as we celebrated Lorraine's birthday with ice-cream and chocolate cake!

4. [19/4] I had the NUS law written test on Sunday smack in the middle of Sunday School time, 9 - 10.15am, so I was understandably annoyed. Plus it took them about 1/2 an hour to finish collecting the 800 scripts and count before letting us go. I was even late for LS, which starts at 11.30, mind you. From NJ I saw Sarah, Jessie, Ly, Crystal, Ernest, Louisa; from MGS Valerie, Deborah, Kelly, Cheryl Tay. I think I even saw this girl from my Pri 6 class (Amanda Thng?), but obviously she wouldn't remember me.

5. [22/4] My mum flew off to London in the morning for some recruitment thing she's doing at this Singagpore Day event they're having there for Singaporeans in London, I presume. My cousin went as well (as part of the S'pore team), while my mum and this HR person went representing NIE. I hope she enjoys her Full English Breakfast.

6. [today: 23/4] I went for the ISAT in the morning. I didn't realise how far to walk in the road to RELC was, and I arrived at about 8.35, but just in time when the guy started giving out instructions. I saw Shauntel, Jia Neng, Isabel and Jessica! Shauntel meant to cab, but she nicely walked out with me (cos I had to take the bus to the clinic). THANKS!

Looking at all this activity, I still feel like I'm waiting for something to happen. Like I'm just whiling my time away, until something important/life-changing happens. I sincerely hope this life-changing thing will be that I pass my driving test. I detest changing lanes.

Because He Lives

2009-04-12T23:35:00.003+08:00

Today is Easter Sunday! We had a lot of group time, and then I had to go sort out how I was going to teach my Sunday School, with no classroom. There was also baptism done, and we saw Michelle & Melissa's father, and Elaine get baptised by immersion at Charis Methodist.

My car battery spoiled this morning when my parents were going for breakfast! I was really worried - I thought we'd be taking the bus home from the unfamiliar church, but thank goodness it doesn't take too long to get fixed!

More lyrics shall be put here!

God sent His Son
They called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal and forgive
He gave His life
To buy my pardon
An empty grave is there to prove my Saviour lives

And because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
And because I know, I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives

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

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia
Sons of man and angels say Alleluia
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleuiia
Sing ye heaven and earth reply

Via Dolorosa

2009-04-10T21:48:00.004+08:00

Today's Good Friday, where we remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, during Holy Week in this season of Lent.

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, where we remember how Jesus and His 12 disciples celebrated the Passover, and had the exchange which we now practice as Holy Communion. If I'm not wrong, "Maundy" is derived from the Latin 'mandatum' which means command, referring to His command that the disciples love one another as He loved them. The action: washing of the disciples' feet! [And of course, dying for them, but that's another day.]

Today we went for the service in church, and it was held in the LS style, where we got to sing hymns and such!

We were there a little earlier, where they screened this video with a song called 'Via Dolorosa', I think, showing scenes [from a movie?] about the physical toturing of Jesus, and the road on which he carried the cross up to Calvary. I think it was quite nice!

I didn't know how to sing most of the songs, but thank goodness, because it's in LS, as long as the songs come from hymnals, one can always sight-sing! Yay. There was also the LS choir!

Later on I had driving, including in the circuit, which was empty because the school doesn't have lessons on public holidays, but unfortunately it was raining [how apt!] and I could barely see the road markings nor the parking poles sometimes.

We went to the airport to welcome my sister and brother-in-law back for a two week visit from New Zealand. But I stupidly bought western food for dinner, that took long to cook and longer to eat, so my brother and I were desperately scarfing down hot food at an unhealthy pace, while my smarter younger sister and father had bought sensibler things like rice or noodles, and went up first.

My sister gave each of us this handmade wooden plaque things, with the individual name and picture on them!! So pretty! I need to figure out exactly where on my wall I'm going to stick it.

I think I shall list down some lyrics from various hymns that are relevant to the season! Seriously, we should sing more hymns. I feel that the words are better than some of the contemporary ones we typically sing today.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

See from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown
------------------------------------------
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
The emblem of suffering and shame
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
-----------------------------------------
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

It is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul

-------------------------------------------
Jesus, keep me near the cross
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calvary’s mountain

In the cross, in the cross
Be my glory ever
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river

NUS Medicine Interview

2009-04-03T15:22:00.003+08:00

I just had my interviews today at NUS.

Funnily, I met Justin on the way to the venue, but I didn't even notice him (I just saw these two guys walking from where I was headed to) until he kind of snapped/waved in front of my face, and I got a shock! Lol.

Anyway, I couldn't find the venue, mainly because the paper told me to go to LT28, but when I went there I only saw the room for another team that wasn't mine, and so I had to go find my one which was nearer the LT27!

Because I didn't know how it was gonna work, I asked the guy waiting before me whether his interview was at the same time as mine, but his was 30 minutes before mine. Now, they tell you to arrive 60 minutes before your interview time, and this chap explained it that they take less than half an hour to interview you, before sending you to another room for the 2nd interview. So I guess they make you come earlier so they can get it done with faster.

The two ladies at the desk had this list in front of them, but I couldn't read it to see perhaps if they arranged the interview order according to name or index number or something. The lady that stayed on (one left) was really nice, like she smiled at me encouragingly and gave me a free bottle of water!

So some time after the guy before me came out, (there was another army boy after me), the bell rang and I went in. I had kind of expected some panel of like 5 people, but there were only 2!! So it didn't feel so scary, haha.

After mine was over, about 20 minutes, the lady directed me over to the other room, where I saw the guy before me sitting beside a girl who was presumably before him, and still waiting. Apparently the 2nd interview takes quite a bit longer than the first.

Being my usual garrulous self, I started talking to them, found out the girl is from TJC, the guy from RJC, what they put as 2nd choices, how the 1st interview went, stuff about their schools, etc. The fellow after me only came to sit down after the girl (I think her name was Michelle) went in. And his mother is so nice, she fetched him from camp, and waited all the way throughout the process for him, and even gave him newspaper to read! I borrowed his Life! Section.

I realise how talkative I am. I went on asking the one before me about his army stuff, found out things like why he's Pes C (shoulder injury), his CCA (swimming), his musical skills (not a lot, apparently) and all that. He saw his friend (I'm thinking schoolmate, also Pes C) who had already finished the interview and was relating the experience. He's a son of a politician, (imagine that!), and apparently his parents didn't care that he put medicine as his only choice, like what I and the chap before me wanted to do, except that our parents told us to put other things. The girl also put Law as 2nd choice, like me.

Then after he went in, I started talking to the other guy (from CJC), and I can't believe he got an interview okay. He put medicine as his THIRD CHOICE. WHAT THE HECK. Like other people in his platoon got more As than him, put medicine as 1st choice and still weren't shortlisted! And because of that he gets called the "med student", and tutors some guys in the same room/bunk/whatever who are retaking their A Levels!

One thing that occurred to me is, all the three army boys I saw had their parents fetching them after the thing was over! And I said, "Wah, parents so free to come and fetch their kids." The fellow after me said, no, actually his mum got to work, but take leave to fetch him, "Because this is very important." OH MY. SUCH NICE PARENTS. But he admitted it made him seem spoilt, haha! Good that he knows!

I realise I've said a lot about these people (on this blog) I've only met for less than two hours today, and will possibly never see again. Good thing I don't know their names. But I think it would be ultra cool if we all got in, then during university, we can point at each other and say, "Hey, weren't you the person at the same group for the interviews? Wow!"

EDIT:
I just got back from my first ever night driving lesson (I actually forgot to re-turn on the lights after I finished my parking section and went back to driving), and I saw that I received this letter from NTU.

I've gotten an acceptance to NTU Biological Sciences! And I'm stunned, firstly because I didn't know how hard/easy it might be to get in, but mostly because, even if I have nowhere to go, I now have somewhere to go!

This sounds utterly contradictory, but it feels like at least a part of my future is secured. Even though obviously I want to get into NUS medicine more than anything, but even if no other university would accept me, NTU already has! Haha!

Class Dinner for Sarah's Birthday

2009-03-13T23:31:00.002+08:00

After my driving lesson today I went to Cineleisure, where we were supposed to meet for Sarah's birthday at the Long John Silver's. I was the first one there, since I knew my lesson ending at 4.30 would allow me to reach by latest 5.45, and I waited around with my coke Slurpee until I met Elaine!

Then we went to find a cake, and decided on apple crumble at this place called Spinelli's at Heeren. After deciding the timing and everything, we returned to LJS, waiting for people to come for about 20 minutes before finally Melody came!

And a bit after that Sarah, Kai Xin and Xiaowen appeared, apparently having walked around for a while after not seeing anyone at the LJS. Actually before the three of them came, Elaine suggested changing to Subway, since we like it more. When they came, followed by Terence and Jeremy, we proposed Subway, and the guys were so relieved! Terence even said they'd meant to da pao the subways.

We managed to get a long string of tables, and were joined later on by Rayshio, Jiayi, Tse Mei and Ben. Then ensued dinner, photo-taking, talking and merriment. Jem had to go for CG, so we quickly took a group photo first!

Under the pretext of just going to Spinelli's for fun (KX and XW left), we surprised Sarah with the apple crumble with a candle on it! Thanks to Rayshio's prisoner cap question that was occupying them at the table, she hopefully didn't see Jiayi and Tse Mei waiting for the crumble to be ready and for Ben to return from the restroom.

We went back to Cine for Sarah to play her guitar hero, but it was booked until 10, so we went down to check out the karaoke which was expensive, then we went downer to look at the movies, contemplating the 'comedy' Friday the 13th, then finally went to this place called Indo-Chine.

By then, it was only Rayshio, Jiayi, Tse Mei, Elaine, Sarah and me left. So while they ordered their Expensive Drinks, we sat there taking photos, talking and listening to the live music - 2 guitars, 1 bass with singing.

I needed to go home, and we left at about 10.20.

I want to complain that after so much time on Rayshio's prisoner cap question, he refused to reciprocate and listen to my prisoner cap question, which I think is slightly harder. Though it made me happy when he said I solved his one quite quickly, though I THINK I might have heard it before, so I know the route to solving it.

Out of annoyance, I shall post my question:

There are 5 hats - 3 white and 2 red. There are three prisoners lined up in a single file facing one direction. Each person has a hat put on them, without knowing the colour. The person in front cannot see anyone else, the person in the middle can see the front person, and the person at the back can see both the other two.

The person who can tell what colour hat he/she has on must tell the warden and will be let off the death sentence. Mere guessing (and getting it wrong) will cause him/her to be hanged.

I confess I can't quite remember how the question was phrased, but it was up to the first person to guess his hat colour, while the other two couldn't. Then you're supposed to say how he guessed.

Oh well, it all goes to show I'm not a very good quiz giver.

Dinner with old friends

2009-03-11T17:52:00.003+08:00

Yesterday I met Sarah, Odelia, Su Yee and Shernise at Citylink mall's New York New York for dinner!

As usual, I was the first one to arrive nicely on time at 6pm, and some 10 minutes later Sarah arrived, and we were talking about stuff like results and work. Odelia came after that in her working clothes - she looked so professional!

We went in first, and Su Yee came at about 6.30, Shernise messaging that she'd arrive at about 7! Apparently she met my sister on the bus on the way to violin class! It's all near the Orchard area.

We talked a bit about our results, how the overall results were in our respective schools, university applications, choosing courses, work experience and such. In ACJC they call up everyone who gets at least 3 H2 As, so it must have taken very long! Lol, Sarah and I went to the school website to go see our friends' names!

I found it funny how Su Yee was so prompt, knowing exactly what she wanted to eat, and she convinced Sarah and Odelia to choose the same thing there and then, though we'd been staring at the menu for like 10 minutes before she arrived without deciding anything!

Shernise ordered this dish I thought sounded good but didn't dare to try, and I think since it cost the same as my pasta but looked like more substance, I should have ordered that instead. Sigh. Hawaiian Teriyaki Chicken - sounds yummy, doesn't it?

We had fun taking lots of pictures by ourselves, rarely asking the staff to help us take. We also celebrated Sarah's birthday (early), and shared ice-cream and mudpie! We took their free candy floss too! After dinner, Shern's mum was in the area, and fetched Sarah and I home!

It was really nice to be able to meet up with them again, and talk about how our lives have been, and what we want to do for the future. Next time it's Sarah's turn to organize, so maybe we should have it on Ode's birthday in April :D

Also, my parents are bugging me to go get a job, but I'm a noob and I don't know how to go about finding one... the classified ads positions all seem to require at least 1-2 years experience, want you to do it permanently or need certain diplomas and such. HELP.

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

2009-03-06T19:57:00.003+08:00

So today was D-DAY. Kind of like Armageddon, educationally speaking. It was the day in which all 2008 GCE A Levels candidates received their results. To most of us, it is the means by which we can decide what university course we can take, which may ultimately decide our careers.

So after my driving lesson, I went back home to change and take some Lit stuff for Wei Qiang, and I arrived at school at about 1.10pm. I saw Eugenia there at the bus stop with her friend, and we were talking about driving and such. Gerard 'prodded' me on the shoulder when he got there, shaved head and all, and went in first.

So I went in, and after looking around, managed to see Liu Xuan walking up the stairs to the canteen, but we didn't know where Kaixin was, so I bought my lunch from the new Asian Delights Japanese stall. Their soup is not nice.

We were joined by Tse Mei and Aretha, and later on Kaixin and Huizhen. So the place was getting filled with a lot more of our cohort, many of the guys sporting the army hairstyle, one person even wearing the green uniform. I saw Yong Jian and Amanda having lunch on one end, and Jing An queuing at the drinks stall.

So after a while, Kaixin, Liu Xuan and I were walking aimlessly around the linkway, then we sat down at the oasis, because it was still 2pm. We were joined by Xiaowen, and then Yi Hong and Yi Lin. With abounding excitement and worrying and speculating, we finally headed up to the hall.

We were to sit according to class, and as it was last year, IP05 is at the back left corner. People present: me, KX, XW, Kai Qi, Wu Si, Linh, Sarah, Melody, Jessica, Xin Yuan, Elaine, Sherrie, Ben, Terence, Jiayi, Gerard, Jeremy. I didn't see at which point the rest, like Charlyn, Jessie, Justin, Wan Ting etc. joined in, but they did. Sheryl and Rachel were wilfully late! Possibly Rayshio too.

There were lots of NJC students standing at both sides of balconies staring down at us, and it made me feel more scared and uncomfortable. I admit that I've been among those people for the past two years, and only now do I realise that it's quite intimidating. A bit like being on exhibition at the zoo.

So the principal started talking about how the percentage of 3 As and above increased from 49.9% to 51.7%, I think. The exciting part started when she began saying which subjects had 100% passes. There were massive cheers as the list went on: Biology, Physics, Computing, English Lit, History, Geography, Tamil Lit, China Studies etc.

I don't remember her mentioning Maths, Econs or Chemistry. Anyhow, then she listed those students who'd gotten 8 distinctions! Pity no one in my school got 9 distinctions. Possibly no one even took 9 papers, and I hear all the top students with 9 distinctions come from RJC this year.

The 8 distinctions people, who got their photo taken, included Shiane, Linjiang, Zhang Kang, Apoorv, Tan Junyang, and I forgot who else. She also named the 7 distinctions people, asking them to stand, bow and sit down. I remember it including people like Wendy, Gloria, Wu Duo etc. I was really awed by how they managed to score so well! It felt liberating, and a bit like the celebration of human ability.

Finally we were told to line up in front of our class tables where the civics tutors were waiting with a lot of documents, and the nervousness really went up three notches. I started babbling on about how if I didn't get 3 'A's I'd be below average for my school. I seriously didn't believe that I could get 3 'A's, actually.

It took really long for each person, because we each had to check our testimonial, CCA and CIP certs, and sign the paper, and take one piece of each newspaper or brochure on the desk, as well as a bag with even more scholarship adverts and university information, and then our CT would hand us the results slip, looking at it and saying whether you'd done well or very well or whatever.

So after checking my documents for very long, because I value accuracy, I guess I took so long that Xin Yuan started a bit after me and got her slip first. Then when the CT looked at my results slip (all I could see was the back), he looked at me and said, "Very good", or "Very well done", or something like that.

At that point, I was a little sceptical, like not allowing myself to believe that I'd done well. Anyhow, when I finally saw my results, I didn't feel ecstatic or disappointed. It was more of a relief, like "Oh, okay, good", kind of reaction. I think I reverted back to my stone-ness that I'd been having before going to the hall.

There was talking, and photo-taking, and we collected our College Annual. I went to briefly see my Chem and GP teacher, and my Chem teacher knew my result, and she patted my head! So cute. And my GP teacher was also happy for me, and as I explained how surprised I was, she said that humanities are usually unexpected, and that the GP paper was indeed skewed towards the arts students.

I also went to the atrium to look at the list posted of the people who get a certain number of distinctions. It was quite cool to see my name, since I never imagined it'd ever be there. My older sister called me because I hadn't called her (only smsed my parents), and we talked for quite a while. I requested a present from her, and she said she'd get me a ticket to New Zealand. I only realised at home that she never mentioned a return ticket!

Afterwards I went to the choir store and handed Wei Qiang the stuff. After leaving my stuff in the AVA, I went back down to get a drink, and spent time talking to Ben, Elaine, Tse Mei, Joanne, Wilbert, Jiayi, Zhirong and Gloria. I really miss IP people! I also hope that if lots of us can get into medicine together, it'll be so much better!

Jing An, Yong Jian, Rachel, Ling Chung and I went for the choir practice (Beng Hui went too), and there was aircon in the AVA! Amazing! Inside was Xuemin taking combined girl sectionals for the J1s, and she's become really strict! Then of course the stupid guys said she learned from me. Hmph!

We talked to Ms Lim for a while about grades and university course choices and personality. Later on we saw Chye Keong, Cheng Luan and Xiang Ting come as well, and talked about our results, naturally. And Sheena and five others came back from this song recording thing, and she told me she got A for her Chinese! I'm so envious!

We left when the choir combined under Ms Lim's conducting, and I was tired and wanted to go home. I wanted to thank all those people who wished me all the best for my results - I got smses from Odelia, Jia Wen and Michelle, Marcus, Xuemin, and a few well wishes from some choir people I saw on the way.

I don't really know how I feel about getting back my results. Before entering the hall, I wasn't anxious. I'd spent a lot of time praying about it, asking for peace and no worrying, and leaving it all up to God, and I supposed He answered my prayer, buffered with hymns :D

I confess I was worried when in the hall, about to get our results. It was as if the previous 12 years of education was all culminating in this short span of time, too much pressure on this one day.

But when the slip was handed to me, I just felt like I wanted to just see it and get it over and done with. After seeing the results, like I mentioned earlier, I wasn't particularly joyful or anything, mostly relieved, and a wee bit disappointed in my H3.

I also felt a bit like I didn't quite deserve my results. Just as my sister put it, "you feel like it's not fair that other people who worked harder don't get as good as you". I don't know if I worked hard. I know I worked harder than ever before, but certainly not as much as other people, such as LC, who deserves the mugging crown if anyone ever did.

I was thinking, that my apparent lack of excitement in the end might have shown that I learnt that perhaps grades just aren't that important. I think this process of my thinking that I was quite screwed for my results, praying hard to leave it all to God, and then getting what I did and realising that it didn't quite matter that much, was a learning journey for me.

But this could be hypocritical, because I'm sure I'd have been sad if I'd gotten all 'D's or something. Is it that I can say all this because my results are okay? I at least hope some of my perspectives have changed. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

The Day Before Tomorrow

2009-03-05T22:20:00.002+08:00

It's raining right now, and I find it partially significant and amusing, but I'll say why later.

Today was possibly my last day at the clinic, though it wasn't particularly different. I left at 3pm to go to Plaza Singapura to meet Xiaowen and Elizabeth, to watch the Japanese movie Suspect X!

It was quite a good movie, in my opinion, though not quite what I had expected. From all synopses seen, I thought it would be some cool mental game between the physicist and the mathematician trying to cover up the murder, with a lot of false alibis and misleading information and tricking the police here and there.

It wasn't quite so much of that, though the alibis were really boggling me, until of course the ending part where the physicist Yukawa manages to solve everything and tell it to the mathematician Ishigami, who says by the time he finds proof to turn the hypothesis into a fact, it'll be too late anyway.

The actress playing Hanaoka is pretty! Besides that, I think I understand why one review said one thing the movie might have lacked was what it was supposed to be talking about, in terms of theme. Is it about logic, crime or love? You watch it and desperately want to know just how it was done, even though you know the murderer from the beginning but sympathise greatly with her, and even the guy helping her cover up.

At the end, really the only character I didn't like was the guy who was killed in the beginning! I quite like the policewoman Utsumi, who's being unfairly treated by those chauvinist men she works with. I think it might have been better to be like Elizabeth and actually have watched the drama first, which stars the same actors for Yukawa and Utsumi.

Afterwards we went to the Ichiban sushi to eat with Kaixin, Sheryl and Rachel. The three of us started ordering and eating first, and I abandoned my previous plan to eat this sashimi rice set. Sheryl came by 7, I think, but Rachel only reached at about 7.30 because of bad traffic.

We ate lots of sushi and sashimi, and I got my chawanmushi and agedashi tofu, and we talked a lot about many things, including Kaixin's accounts of how NJC has changed, people's work experience, and a lot of other things that I can't quite seem to remember now. The dinner cost more than I thought it would!

I'm supposed to meet Kaixin and Liu Xuan for lunch at school tomorrow at 1pm before our results are released at 2.30pm. Though most likely they'll spend the first 15 minutes waiting for people to arrive, and the next half hour talking about how 'well' we've done, and who the top students for each subject or stream are.

And that brings me back to the rain. I'm guessing all the thousands of JC students and private candidates who sat for the 2008 GCE A Levels are experiencing some degree of nervousness right now. The rain just adds to the mood and signifies the worry and anxiety felt all around the country at this point.

Personally, I'm not feeling worried. It's not because I'm supremely confident about my results, but more like I've handed it over to God, and anyway worrying is not going to magically change my results to suddenly get 6 'A's or something. Why worry over what you can't affect, or rather, couldn't affect ever since you handed up that exam paper?

I have a sneaky feeling my results will be average. I always have these imaginations before getting results, such as the miraculous 4 'A's, and the disastrous 4 'D's. It happened when I was waiting for my PSLE results, when I swung between worrying that I wouldn't get above 200 and wishing that I might get 270. In the end I got 263, which should have been roughly expected.

Then it happened again when we got back our O Level Higher Chinese results. I was both dreading that I got a D and wishing that I would somehow scrape an A2, but in the end I got a B3, which was also to roughly be expected, a B at least.

Maybe my idea of average isn't the same as everyone else's. Perhaps ABBC? I'm not contemplating getting an A for GP, since I never have, but I really hope I can at least get an A for math. I've never not gotten an A for math in a final final exam, I think. My mum would probably be so disappointed she'd disown me, but not before my older sister did. Haha!

Medicine and Driving

2009-03-03T21:11:00.002+08:00

Sounds like a weird heading, but I have my reasons.

Today's driving lesson made me feel rather depressed afterwards. I finally started on parallel parking, but I felt a lot of uncertainty on whether I wasn't turning enough or whatever, but somehow each time I finished I wasn't far enough 'into' the lot.

And this is why I hate going to 4th gear. I went to 4th gear on a 70 kmph road, and I was looking at this green traffic light in the distance, all the while thinking, Please don't turn amber, please don't turn amber, don't make me go down to 1st gear again...

And I was so happy when I saw it remaining green, I happily sped along, and didn't notice when it REALLY TURNED AMBER before I reached the last arrow on the ground, so my instructor had to brake hard for me!

Afterwards, I was to turn out into the main road, and it was a red light for that road, the line of cars stretching very far back as they were stopped. Only a bit later did I realise that this bus was halfway on the road and halfway in MY yellow box! As was the van beside in on the right-hand lane! By rights I should have the right of way to turn in.

And then the instructor wanted me to try to inch into the right-hand lane so I could u-turn, but I was apparently too slow, and got a little stuck at this 50 degree angle in the left lane as the light went red again. So I was again too slow to get in front of the yellow box in the right lane, and this minivan went there.

Then this motorbike came along and kind of blocked the other car in the yellow box, so when traffic resumed moving, I was able to go to the right lane! Thanks to the motorcyclist!

Anyway, this experience has made me question slightly whether I should be allowed on the road, if I'm not focused on the traffic signals and have slow reaction-time. Driving is practically wielding a potential murder weapon based on how good your brain, eyes, hands and feet are working. Unsafe drivers should be banned from the roads.

This is linked to medicine, because being a doctor concerns lives as well, maybe not always as serious as death, but definitely impacting quality of life. Thus, people who are unsuitable for the profession ought not be given the opportunity to acquire it.

And this is why getting into medicine is so hard, right? Being a doctor doesn't just require you to have 4 or more 'A's on your GCE A Level certificate, to show that you're brilliant at your science and math and language and a contrasting subject to boot, as well as at juggling multiple studies at once.

Of course, they want the medical students to be good speakers, capable people, not too susceptible to stress, able to constantly work under pressure and lack of sleep, confident in making decisions...etc. And I guess doctors need to have good people assessment and communication skills in order to deal with all kinds of patients. And they need to be morally upright, or at least trustworthy, so that people are willing to entrust their health to them.

How many people are there like that who want to become doctors? Yet there's more than 2000 people fighting for the 250 places in NUS medicine here, perhaps not all of whom are thus qualified.

With luck, those 2000+ will reconsider, and realise that their skills will be better applied elsewhere. Or maybe some of them will discover that they can't handle the blood and gore, and leave a better chance for me to enter.

Of course, it'll all be revealed this Friday when we get our life-changing results. And hoping is not of much use if you get 4 'C's and a D for GP.

What's the moral of the story? Leave it all in God's hands, duh. SO SIMPLE AH.

When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Who Do You Consider To Be A Friend?

2009-02-24T19:32:00.004+08:00

"It's very easy to know a friend, even over a dinner. But friends aren't made over one month; one year. It takes five decades to form a true friendship." - My uncle.

This is what he said to the last patient who asked him why he wouldn't want to move overseas to live with his daughter and her family - that he wouldn't have any friends there, despite the supposedly large 'community'.

It got me thinking about friends. As in, I haven't lived 19 years yet to even talk about 2 decades, let alone 5, but I just started wondering about who might be considered to be friends, perhaps not just from my point of view, but for people in general.

And then I saw Jean Koh on the bus as I went home. She actually walked past me as I was boarding to presumably pay her fare by coins, but no hint of recognition on her face. She was my Sec 2 classmate in MGS, in the same CCA (GB) though not in the same squad, but she was in my contingent for the drill competition in 2004.

So as I sat down on the seat nearer the back, and she was standing up nearer the front, I was just wondering if she was my 'friend'. I mean, I haven't spoken to her in more than 4 years. Even if she was my classmate, it's not like we were close, or sat together, or did projects together.

Basically, was/is she my friend? Was/am I hers? Where do you draw the line between acquaintances and friends? Is it then true that even someone who was a very good friend, let's say for your two years in JC, might become quite a stranger if you don't see them again for the next 8 years or so, until one day you bump into them on the street?

Isn't that then quite sad? Considering all the good fun, camaraderie and bonding you experience when those people are quite central in your social circle. It's lost after years of no connection or communication, with perhaps the occasional "Happy Birthday" SMS you send because you get an email reminder of it.

I suppose it's also a bit sad if you would have considered the person your friend, at least remembering their name, face and how you knew them; while perhaps they've kind of forgotten who you are, until you need to remind them.

I was thinking of various degrees of friendship with people you happen to meet on the street.

- the kind you see, recognize, and then avoid their gaze because you don't really want to say hi

- the kind you see from afar and don't look at them directly until the last moment and then 'notice' them and say hi, before walking off

- the kind you see, and when you near them, say hi loudly enough, maybe ask them where they're going, before parting

- the kind you see, say hi and wave to, ask them a bit about their lives in general, wish them well and then part

- and the kind you see, hurry your steps to reach, wave and say hi with a smile, ask them what they're doing, how they are, share similar sentiments, and then ask if they want to go for lunch together if they're not busy.

Imagining scenarios is quite interesting, actually.

I also thought of something weird on the way. "Greater love has no one but this, that he lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13

Would you be willing to die for your friends? And of course this is a hypothetical quiestion, but it refers to dying in a noble way, not a stupid way. I think we'd all like to say we're unselfish enough to be willing to die for our friends in one of those really terrible situations.

I think I might be able to; or at least I may say now that I could, though I wouldn't really know until confronted with such an option. But then I realised, I'd probably sacrifice my life for a friend because I know it's the right thing to do, rather than because I love my friend.

I know it sounds quite stupid and contradictory, but it's somehow true. On the other hand, I'd be willing to die for my mother or father or sister or brother because I love them, not because it's the right thing to do. And I'm quite sure of that.

Isn't it all kind of weird?

Watched a Play

2009-02-22T19:48:00.003+08:00

I, Sarah, Xin Yuan and Elaine went to support Rayshio at this play he was acting in yesterday night. The bad thing was that it was at Republic Poly all the way in Woodlands! So far!

I actually reached Woodlands MRT early because my parents dropped me off at Yio Chu Kang to take a train at about 6, so I reached at 6.30, and ate dinner at Causeway Point. I got my favourite Mushroom Double Swiss at Burger King, then sat down at Macs (after buying a drink) because there was no other space.

I really wanted to buy these DVDs that were on sale, but I forgot to put more money in my wallet, and I resisted the temptation to use NETS. I realise now what it must be like to have a credit card and just use up money from the bank because you think it'll always have enough anyway.

I met Xin Yuan and Sarah at the control station, and we met Elaine at the bus interchange, only to learn that the 169 had just left! So we had to wait, and were very late for the play, only reaching at about just before 8pm.

The first play about 3 Fat Virgins was really funny. I laughed a lot at the part about the daughter who has to do the infamous growing-green-beans-in-cotton-wool experiment with varying amounts of water. The girl proceeded to try other liquids, including soya bean, 100 plus and saliva! And of course the mother tells her, "If it's not in the syllabus, you don't need to know!"

The next one was three mini stories about love, food and family, which is the one Rayshio was in. Pity I couldn't always hear what he was saying, because he was mostly on the other side of the stage.

After the intermission, when we went out and I saw Natalie Ng from primary school, and a lot of IP people: Gim Lim, Doris, Zhirong, Joel, Wei Liang, Joanna, Ying Ting, Louisa, Ben, Jiayi.

The last play was one about the daughter of a deceased brilliant but insane mathematician (hence my interest) who writes a ground-breaking proof involving Germain Primes, but is doubted by her sister and father's ex-student, thinking it to be her father's last piece of work. I sadly was unable to catch the math joke about imaginary numbers, because I think the actor talks too fast. But I found the story interesting!

The whole thing ended very late, at about 11, and we spent the longest time waiting outside for Rayshio to come out, only to find out that he was down at the first level! So we took a picture and tried to hurry home. I was intending to go with Sarah and Doris on 961 at the interchange, but as Elaine, Sarah and I crossed the bridge, Doris had disappeared!

I think she got lost, but managed to catch up to us on the bridge after calling her, and then Zhirong and Jiayi and then Ben followed. We JUST MISSED the 169 back, so we decided it was too late (11:20) and cabbed home, the three of us sharing with Zhirong. It was a nice ride back, talking about the play, about work, mahjong, results, school etc.

I miss school people!

Snippets of life thus far

2009-02-14T00:03:00.004+08:00

I'm too lazy to go into accounts, so I shall just jot down some stuff in bullet points.

- On 11/2/2009 I think, on the 171 from Orchard road to home, I saw Melissa Tee with a friend on the bus, but she didn't see me until quite a bit later. Probably because it was terribly overcrowded.

- On that same bus, I could have sworn I saw this girl I remember now as my Pri 3 classmate, but I think she changed school to go GEP or something: Jacquelyn Tan. She still looked exactly the same - tall, fair, glasses, short wavy hair!

- I passed my Final Theory Test on 12/2/2009, and I managed to get a practical test date at the end of April, so I really hope I can pass in one shot! Thank God!

- I just came home from watching Talentime 2009 in NJC. This may sound utterly mean and superior, but I feel that the standard may have dropped, based on the performances. Of course, I think the OST one with Xuemin, Sheena and Trudy was good, save the terrible microphone balance.

- It's as if people don't really see winning Talentime as such a big thing anymore, or really like music, but just take part for fun. I don't know which position is better, though.

- I recently saw Wen Song and this new bass called Paul on television at this performing event, where I think they represented our school. Well done!

- I kind of wish I'd signed up for relief teaching, but then I'm reminded of how great a responsibility teaching actually is. Those poor kids would probably suffer from my inadequate skills.

- Today on the bus I thought I heard some girls mention 'Tohoshinki'. Dismissing it as my imagination, I then definitely heard 'Super Junior M'. LOL!

Happy Birthday Yan!!

2009-02-06T22:28:00.002+08:00

Well, today's my sister's birthday! She's turning 15, which is the age when Singaporean citizens get their pink IC! I don't really feel that she's so old, but then, we all get older unwittingly.

We didn't even celebrate today, but yesterday, and tonight she went to eat pizza with her friends. And I wasn't feeling particularly hungry tonight, and I forgot about the cake, so I didn't eat it either. Aww.

Sick!

2009-02-05T22:12:00.002+08:00

Yeah, I'm kind of sick today. Last night I had that terrible experience when I'm sort of dreaming and sort of not, like my dream involves what my body is moving in the night, but twists it into something strange. It sucks because it's not really sleeping, and it's uncomfortable.

So I didn't go to the clinic today. I think I have a mild fever, along the lines of 38 deg Celsius. Which really isn't anything to whine about, but because I've been feeling crummy, so I've been complaning. Feeling hot, sweating, unable to sleep well, muscle aches, possible heartburn (or at least discomfort between the oesophagus and stomach), etc.

I want to apologize to my family for being so grouchy today. Seriously, I should be avoided when I'm sick, because I'm terrible. I was unfriendly during dinner, when we were supposed to be celebrating my sister's birthday (which is tomorrow). I made them eat my leftover dinner!

Anyway, there's an apt verse for this. Proverbs 17:22 "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

Class Lunch

2009-01-31T23:04:00.003+08:00

Today was supposed to be our class Chinese New Year + Birthday Celebration for Justin and Terence lunch.

We were told to meet at Dhoby Gaut at 12.30, but I guess we forgot that the station is an interchange with multiple exits, and so no one knew where exactly to go. I was waiting for about 15 minutes at the first level near Plaza Sing, and only saw Linh and Elaine, who'd been at another entrance.

After many phone calls, finally there were 9 of us: me, Elaine, Linh, Ben, Kai Xin, Xin Yuan, Jessica, Sheryl and Wan Ting. And we went to the PS basement to eat at Pizza Hut.

Lunch was fun; we were all talking about what we'd been doing thus far. And it's at this point that we realise how old we sound, talking about work, driving, and later on, the army. Like Jess said, we used to talk about homework, now it's about work.

Quite a few of them are teaching, and I think I've been scared by XY's stories of the neighbourhood school she's teaching at. Seriously, the kids didn't even show up for her first class! Inconceivable!

We went to the arcade in the station after lunch (Elaine had to leave), where we took pictures in the neoprint booth using WT's camera, lol. Then they played things like DDR and some shooting thing that Ben's very good at. I suspect he's played very often.

After a while, Jess, Sheryl and WT also had to go, after which Justin and Charlyn turned up. Justin's an army boy now! And he was wearing this fedora thing, and XY wondered why he was suddenly 'so stylish', before realising he was covering his hair, or rather, lack of it!

Then after they got tired of playing, Linh, KX and XY also left, so it was the four of us, and we walked to the Cathay to Ben & Jerry's (Ben wanted to!), where we met Jeremy, who was wearing a cap too!

I confess, we had no ice-cream. We just drank water and talked, and ought to be ashamed of ourselves. As was expected, the two guys were talking on and on about army stuff in army lingo, and giving friendly advice to Ben, who's only enlisting in April.

I was actually concerned about going home in time for dinner, when my mum smsed me to say they'd be eating somewhere else, so I could go eat by myself! But anyway, I just went home, lugging the winter jacket that KX returned me.

I'm a bit disappointed by the attendance today. Perhaps we should have another one at someone's house, at a better time. But seriously, guys are only free on weekends, with different booking out times, and people have other stuff on, like church. It's hard to coordinate!

The main thing about today is that I think I've been struck by how we've 'graduated' from school. I do quite miss it, going for lessons with friends, eating lunch together in the canteen, CCA, etc. Like I said, when we talked, it was all about working, earning, driving, army, essentially conversation that had never occurred before.

And like I said to my parents, it's possible that I'll never see some of them again if I don't keep in touch. Maybe the last time I'll see them is when we're getting our results (supposedly in the 2nd week of March), and then they'll fly off to some university overseas, come back at different times, get jobs, and never be seen again by me. Or perhaps they'll migrate!

This is actually quite depressing a thought. Yup, I'm gonna ensure that we meet again year after year. Organize some annual dinner when we can update each other about our lives, and remind each other to invite the class to their weddings. Yay.

Happy Lunar New Year

2009-01-26T21:37:00.002+08:00

Today's the first day of the Chinese New Year, or as many posters are saying, the Niu Year! Yup, the year of the ox is here, and all those cows previously used for that Moove advert thing are sprouting out here and there in Singapore.

I like CNY, not just because in school you get a holiday, and sing fun Chinese songs if you're in choir, but also the whole festivity of it. Well, mostly the food!

- Pineapple tarts (the best ones are made by my aunt)
- Love Letters
- Dried prawn rolls (Hei Bi Hiam)
- All kinds of nuts: peanuts, roasted/salted/plain, cashew, pistachio, almond
- Mandarin oranges (Gam)
- Chinese BBQ Pork (Rou Gan / Bak Kwa)

This year, I've found myself thinking less about the hongbaos and more about the food. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not!

We just came back from our extended family 'reunion' dinner together. It was fun, the food was quite good, and we played zhong ji mi ma to finish up the leftover yu sheng at our table. I think yu sheng is quite wasted on us young people, and we mostly just wanted the salmon and the crackers.

Funnily, my sister turned on the tv to MTV, and it was supposed to be this Korean Pop programme, but it was close to ending, so I didn't hear any KPop songs, what a pity. But then the next listed programme said 'Super Junior at MAA'. I thought it had to refer to something else, but it was really Super Junior!

I realise I've already watched a bit of it online, the 2008 MTV Asia Awards, where SJ won best Korean artist or something, but this was backstage, and of course has English subtitles! I feel so stunned that I could actually watch Korean stuff like this on tv at home!

Blood Pressure

2009-01-22T18:15:00.002+08:00

For any of my classmates who may remember, our school has their annual blood donation drive each year in the campus itself, where students and teachers alike may go to donate potential life-saving blood, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

And I've complained extensively before about how I've tried twice in my four years there to donate, both times unsuccessfully. The first time was in IP2 when I was legally old enough to do so, and the reason I was disallowed to donate was because the doctor or whoever it was who took my blood pressure told me it was too low.

If I remember correctly, the numbers were somewhere around 88/58. Something like that, which in all honesty is quite low. My uncle says blood pressure around 90/60 is considered low. However, that person used an electronic device to measure it.

Today there was a patient who has high blood pressure, and she found some discrepancy in measurements at home and at the clinic. Apparently, this is because the one she owns is electronic, which may under-register the blood pressure, as opposed to the typical mercury level one you normally see.

I asked one of his clinic staff to measure my blood pressure for fun, and it was 110/70. Which is perfectly normal! Hence, I've concluded that the blood pressure measured that time in school was wrong, possibly even 15 units lower than the actual, both for systolic and diastolic. Which makes my disqualification then invalid!

No point getting mad over it now though. The CNY mood is uplifting. I ate so many pineapple tarts today, it might as well have constituted my lunch!

Desert Song

2009-01-15T07:41:00.002+08:00

This is my prayer in the desert
When all that's within me feels dry
This is my prayer in the hunger in me
My God is a God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flame

And I will bring praise, I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice, I will declare
God is my victory and He is here

And this is my prayer in the battle
When triumph is still on it's way
I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ
So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship

This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I've recieved I will sow

Afternoon at KK

2009-01-12T21:07:00.002+08:00

Today at lunch, I went back to the Metro in Paragon to see if the shoes I liked were still there, but woe betide me, the whole set of those going for 2 pairs for $46.90 were GONE. REMOVED.

It took me about half an hour to get to KK, which I did by taking the MRT from Orchard to Little India, and then walking in. Then thankfully there were many helpful signs to help me find my way. My one question is why the breast centre is in the children's tower.

I found out that there was another student from Duke attached to Dr. Hong, and at 2.30, he was going back and forth between two consultation rooms, so one student in each room. The nurse said he sometimes does three rooms at once!

Then an MO (I think?) called Dr Tan came in to relieve him of the room I was in. She didn't talk to me as much as he had, but I think she was surprised to see me there. She was much nicer to the patients, but in all fairness, I felt he didn't have the time for chit-chat or pleasantries when he was juggling both rooms.

The MO was nice; not only did she ask whether I needed a lift home, she also talked to me about some of the let-downs she felt after working in the hospital for five years. Then she encouraged me to go be a banker or something else! LOL. And one of the nurses, after hearing that I live in Bukit Timah, asked me to confess what it was my parents did for a living to let me live in the rich area! They're funny!

Working in the public sector must really be quite different. There's so many more patients, and I guess the good doctor-patient relationship can't really be forged since you keep seeing new patients. And I suppose if you deal with cancer, you wouldn't really want to see your patients again.

Unrelatedly, there's a Prima Deli right next to the breast centre! When I left the place I smelt really good food, and was almost going to walk to the Kopitiam to see what it was, but I restrained myself, walking the other way to the entrance, when I realised the great smell came from the Prima Deli! I love their chicken pies!

I didn't get to eat the teriyaki chicken pizza bread thing I bought from the Breadtalk at Paragon until I got home :( I suppose technically I could have eaten it at the bus stop, but what if the bus had come right when I was halfway through it? Gah.

2009-01-05T19:55:00.002+08:00

On Sunday we had a Juniors/Sunday School programme in the parsonage. Uncle Jeffrey talked for a bit, then they handed out the good attendance presents, and then we got to know our Sunday School teachers and class venues for the year, and finally got to eat char siew pau!

I got 100% attendance, though it can't be, since I think I missed a lesson when I was in Italy. Our teachers for 2009 are Aunty Jee Nee (still) and Uncle Sam. And even though our class is quite big, they've displaced us from our original big classroom to the smaller one previously occupied by the Sec 1s last year. Hmph. Plus the older seniors get the nice seminar room! Unfair!

At night we went to the Bukit Timah Market near our house to eat dinner, and surprise, we met Uncle Wong Keng and his family there! It was really a surprise because they live all the way in Hougang, but apparently they were visiting the grandparents.

I had a dream where I was late for my last A level paper, which was an afternoon paper, so I didn't notice the time pass until it was too late to make it to school on time, and I chionged like I never chionged before in my life. Of course, in the dream-state, it was all weird here and there.

Today for my driving lesson I got to drive on the road. It was mostly in a smaller carpark at first, but then there was some driving on the small roads, and finally on a real road. When I say real, I mean there were more than two cars driving in both lanes at each time, and even a bus or two. Some car honked at me for being slow, and I know I'm at fault, but I hope they'll be kinder to us poor learners!

I was let off near the Bukit Gombak MRT station, but I thought I'd seen 970 go on a road nearby, so I brilliantly walked towards that road to the bus stop, only to find that I was WRONG. So I had to walk all the way back to the mrt bus stop, which only has 945, that doesn't go to the bus stop I'm used to going to to change bus.

But I saw that it goes to the interchange, so I cleverly took it to the interchange, which has 852 and 77. Since the 77 driver came first, I boarded the bus and tapped my card, before taking a precautionary measure to ask the driver whether it went to Dunearn Road. To my surprise, the driver said something about it turning before Dunearn, and told me to take 852.

Thankfully, the driver did something to return me the money in my card, [thank you bus uncle!] and I went to the 852, but I think the driver didn't understand English very well. Hmph. Only later I realised the 77 goes to Toh Tuck, where Yihui and family live. SO the trip would be longer, and I'd probably have to pay more.

I want my student fares back now!

Another bus ride home

2009-01-02T18:34:00.003+08:00

One of my so-called resolutions was to try to eliminate the need for lunch. It's only a conditioned reflex, as my uncle says, so I didn't eat lunch today.

BUT I gave in to temptation, by buying a chicken-and-mushroom puff from Old Chang Kee on the way to the bus stop. Oh the shame!

On the bus, which stopped right in front of me as it arrived, I was the first in line and quickly got one of the seats facing backwards, as there were two empty ones. Then there was this grandmother, mother, daughter and little son. The mother carrying the son sat on a seat facing the front.

The grandmother sat beside me, with the small daughter standing beside her, so I got up and let the little girl sit down. The grandmother looked kinda surprised, which I suppose is a bit sad, since we shouldn't be surprised at people being willing to give up their seats.

Incidentally, they're Korean. At least I heard the mother calling the grandmother something like Haelmoni. Later on I heard the little girl talking to her grandmother both in Korean and English, but rudimentary English. And she had something that looked like a guinea-pig pencil box.

On the other side of the bus, in front of the mother and son, there were four girls already there when I boarded. Two of them were wearing ACJC t-shirts, so I guess they're JC2 this year, since school starts later.

I know it's not any of my business, and it makes me sound like a self-righteous prig, but none of them even tried to give up a seat for the older people standing in the bus. When I boarded, there were at least two women above the age of 50 standing up.

It's true there wasn't any pregnant lady, or white haired balding wrinkled old man with a walking stick or something, but there were older people who would appreciate the seat much more.

Lastly, this morning when I boarded the bus to go to the clinic I didn't notice the beeping. But just as I was going to alight I remembered that it was already 2009, so I beeped my card, and it only beeped once! I did it again on the way home, and it took about $1.10 for the trip! It used to only require 45 cents!

You know you're old when you lose your student concession on the bus. Hmph.

The End of 2008

2008-12-31T19:49:00.003+08:00

It's that time of the year, the end, actually. At this point I guess people normally review how the year has been, things you're happy about, things you regret, things you know you don't want to forget, etc.

This was definitely an interesting year for me at least. Regarding school, I had the most major and important set of exams of my life, though that's obvious, since I don't imagine anyone would continue their education and blog at the end of the year that their exam wasn't the most major one yet.

The period of studying for A Levels was the most intense I've ever had before. Granted, the only O Level paper I took was for Higher Chinese, so I haven't had much experience in this all-out mugging mode. It was terrible and fulfilling at the same time, to see the culmination of the past two years of learning in NJC.

Regarding choir, we went to Italy this year, and it was the last lap of being in the NJChoir after three and a half years. Going to Italy was undoubtedly enjoyable and meaningful, a lot of unexpected things happened, we faced disappointments, but at least we grew up there.

It was also my first time caroling with the Alumni choir. It's a different type of experience, though I won't say now whether it's for the better or worse. Oh yeah, I took part in Talentime for the first time this year as well. Acapella was fun, tiring, disappointing results, but a worthy experience nonetheless.

In this year, I finally officially graduated from NJC. Despite all the typical complaints by NJCians about the school, whether about rules, money (or lack thereof), staff or syllabus, I do like my school. I like the people I've met there, I like most of the teachers I've had, I like the CCA I joined, and after a while, even the uniform isn't so bad.

As for the Prom at the end of the year, it did not meet my expectations (through no fault of the organisers), but it still was interesting. It reminded me how troublesome shopping is, why I dislike dresses, how I'll probably never see some of the people again, and that makeup is an unnecessary device invented to stimulate the economy. And to always charge your camera just in case.

The Olympic Games deserves a mention, since it was the first time I ever watched it and the events before, and I guess since Singapore actually won a medal!

This year I began following DBSK and Super Junior, and all those Korean pop culture things, inclusive of watching many shows, dramas, comedies, also from Japan and Taiwan.

As for family, my sister and brother-in-law left for another country this year, which is something I'm absolutely not happy about, but am powerless to affect. At least I'm sure they're having a good time there. Also, though it's not particularly important, we got our family pictures done. These pictures mark the passage of time for our family.

As for schoolmates, as I've already said, I appreciate them extremely, and they've made school a much more enjoyable place to be in. If I were to go back to when I was in Sec 2, to choose freely for myself whether to come to NJC IP, I still would. Mostly for the friends there.

For church, I stepped down as chairperson of Juniors early in the year, so my responsibilities immediately decreased. I like being a group leader, though my group is rather quiet, so they ought to speak up more! I spent this year's retreat as an adult, in the sense that there was no youth session for the first time. I played more board games than bridge there too!

I'm very thankful for my Sunday School teachers, who have been very conscientious teachers who never fail to engage the interest of the students with thought-provoking questions. I have been blessed by them.

Thank you God for this year, and may there be many more like it in the future, even as we welcome 2009 tomorrow.

First driving lesson

2008-12-29T21:33:00.002+08:00

Yep, so as the title says, I had my first driving lesson today. Sadly, my driving instructor speaks Chinese, but I'll get by.

It comprised a quick run-through of the parts of the car, including lights and mirror adjustments and stuff. I was really scared to get into the driver's seat. When you've sat WITH the driver your entire life, sitting in that seat is terrible.

Then for a while I practised going forward in first gear, braking, then reversing, braking, and repeat. I hate the clutch. I can't find the in between part for clutch and accelerator, and I can't put the right pressure on the accelerator to maintain the speed I want!

After that, he let me try turning round the carpark, turning left, that is. The carpark was more like a bus/big vehicle-park, mostly empty, with about two other learner cars. I had the bad habit of letting the wheel slide back, like my father does, but apparently you can't do that. I also tend to lock my arms crisscross, instead of shifting the hands.

I had bad problems trying to turn and not unconsciously increase the pressure on the accelerator at the same time. So thankfully he went into 2nd gear, so I didn't need to depress it anymore. I then stupidly asked to try turning right. I didn't realise that turning right requires a larger turn than turning left does, in that carpark. So it became harder, and I did it badly! Oh no!

Bah. And I want to point out that the argument by my father that driving has to be easier than A levels is void. I have never driven in my life, as opposed to the approximate 12 years of education preparing me for my A levels.

I've got another lesson tomorrow. I hope I don't crash.

Dinners

2008-12-28T23:18:00.003+08:00

Yesterday, on the 27th Dec, we had our Juniors Christmas Dinner! Actually we had to come earlier, at about 3.30 to practice our Christmas skit one last time (having rehearsed on Friday already), this time with Yiwen and Emily who hadn't been there on Friday.

I subbed Michelle Foo (who wasn't there yet) as narrator for a while, but we skipped through the songs, so Yan didn't get to play as much. There were many people making delicious soup and mashed potatoes in the kitchen, as well as others trying to move the red cushiony things into the mini-chapel.

Some people brought friends, Tan Whenn, Selena, Amos (with the outrageous hair) and Neoyun, I think. We started off at about 5.30 with games led by Leroy and Nicholas. I liked the first game, but it was kind of messy.

People stand in pairs, and there's a runner and catcher. The catcher chases the runner. The runner can attach himself to one side of a pair, and the person on the other side has to be the next runner, and so on until the catcher catches him, and the roles then reverse. Since we were standing in a circle, with two sets of running people, it was confusing!

We also played animal Concentration, and the losers Nicholas, Rachel Ng and Elaine had to do the chicken dance as a forfeit. Our group had Nicholas, me, Elaine, Serene, Michelle Ng, Joel Leow (who didn't play), Selena and her two friends, Rachel Ng and Jeslin.

At 6.30, it was time for our skit. We actually had a fast run-through with baby Daniel as baby Jesus, but when it was the actual skit he didn't cooperate well, and had to stay with his mummy Melissa.

I was the one clicking the slides with the lyrics, so I couldn't really see the performance, not to mention I wasn't facing them, but behind them. But I think the overall reaction to the skit was that it was pretty well done!

Cast
Joseph: Christopher
Mary: Selena
Gabriel: Joshua
Angels: Yiwen, Deborah
Shepherds: Emily, Benedict, Yue

Thanks for the hard work put in to the skit! I'm sure Ying Xuan enjoyed organising it as much as I did.

The food was great. There was chicken chop, and I really liked the mashed potatoes! The soup was nice, I like the tomato flavour, not so much the kidney beans... Yiwen and I both reached the table for second helpings of potatoes, and when it looked like a struggle might break out, Sara came to say that Hannah and Melody hadn't had any, so we all shared.

In the end we didn't sing carols, so I'm a bit regretful over it. There was quite a bit of bridge playing, and I was playing with Chris, Ian and Josiah. My cards were used by Hongyu, Amos and his two friends.

At 9, Deborah and Jodie, Ian, Rachel and Andrea, and the four of us siblings left to go to Uncle Melvin's house where our parents were. We were mistaken about which bus we could take, so we ended up waiting longer, and then while crossing the bridge, we saw the only bus we could take drive away before our eyes.

I felt we must have seemed a strange group of young people to be going somewhere together. We made it to the house by about 10pm, but had to leave soon after.

Today, we had our church's annual year-end dinner, this year's one organised by the C.S. There was much confusion about the seating, because there were more people than allocated seats. My brother got pushed to the Juniors tables because of some mess-up with his cellgroup, and a few of the Juniors hadn't given Delia their names.

Anyway our table ended up having the normal 10 people: me, Melody, Selena, Michelle & Melissa, Emily, Elaine, Deborah, Camilla and Yue. The table next to us was mostly guys + Rachel Wong, and they kept playing Zhong Ji Mi Ma, and somehow most of their forfeits involved people at our table or other tables.

Ian seems to have been the lucky winner of the night. He had to take a photo with Michelle Ng and Elaine, peel prawns for some of those at our table, massage dunno-who's shoulders etc. At some point, we started playing too, but our forfeits were mostly eating things. This helped in finishing the food!

We may have eaten for free, but the youths helped to clear up, mostly by carrying all the chairs out of the hall. I myself can probably only carry 5 at once, but Tan Whenn carried 10!

Christmas Day

2008-12-25T00:00:00.003+08:00

Currently it's about 12:03, so it's officially Christmas Day in Singapore.

I'm not feeling particularly excited or anything about Christmas this year, I wonder why. I was disappointed today because I thought I'd get to see a natural delivery, but it was impossible in the end.

Anyway, perhaps if you're Christian, and you know that Christmas is all about how Jesus Christ came down to earth as a baby human in order that He might be fully man and God at the same time, then you don't really need a specific day to celebrate it.

It may be somewhat unrealistic, but the Christmas story lives in us all year round, just perhaps more emphasized in December. I occasionally get annoyed at the Santa Clauses and incessant repetitions of Jingle Bells, but you can't have everything your way!

Caroling this year was quite fun, except having to wear the dress, of course. The new songs were nice to learn, though it's a pity we had to abandon O Holy Night.

We're organising our Juniors Christmas Dinner on the 27th, but I realise our carol/skit is not prepared well. Hence the scheduled practice on Friday. I look forward to singing all our lovely Christmas songs and carols in church!

Little bit of trivia: the word Christmas originates from Cristes Maesse, i.e. the Mass of Christ. And Noël is French for Christmas! We celebrate to remember!

P.S. Happy belated birthday to Rachel Ong - 20th Dec. My sister's birthday is on the 21st, but we wished her early because she called before we went to church, but our mailed card hadn't arrived yet. And, I suppose, a happy birthday in advance to that baby who'll probably be born in an hour or so without me to observe.

Change in Position

2008-12-18T23:02:00.002+08:00

Today at the clinic, Ling was on leave, and she'll still be on leave tomorrow, so my uncle told me to go sit at the counter to see how things are done. To his credit, he said if I was bored I could go back in to listen.

So Winnie kindly showed me what she does, including taking the patient's card, slotting it in with their case notes, writing their time of arrival, checking the urine test strip thing for extra glucose/protein, writing their names in the list of patients, writing the number of arrival on the small slip of paper attached to every set of case notes.

I also saw where they keep all their patients' case notes in drawers arranged by register number. About three new patients came today, so we also used the new sheets.

One really cool thing in my opinion is the typewriter that Winnie uses to type out letters and patients' information. Because obviously all the other standard stuff is already printed out, so she inserts it in the machine, and adjusts where she types according to the lines on the paper, so it comes out in type.

I felt rather helpless and useless at first when patients look at me and ask something I can't reply, so I have to wave frantically at either Sister Lam or Winnie to get them to answer. Plus they're constantly answering the phone as well!

I think there may be some problems with the patient viewing system. There are those who make appointments and those who don't. However, since even though consultations are booked in 15 minute slots, there are those who talk for up to half an hour.

There was a patient who came right on the dot for her appointment, but there were still about one or two patients who were there before her. However, one of them hadn't made an appointment. Perhaps then the one with the appointment ought to be seen first. If you don't make an appointment, maybe you ought to wait longer.

That's just my opinion though, I don't own the clinic!

On The Bus Home

2008-12-15T18:40:00.003+08:00

This is just going to be a short post about my bus ride home. Interestingly, I met my aunt while on the way to Far East where the overhead bridge to the bus stop is, so I guess she was returning to the clinic or something.

Anyway, after waiting rather long for the 171 to come, I boarded it, and it wasn't particularly full, though of course there was no space for me to sit.

About 2 bus stops later, I noticed that this mother with a little girl and a littler boy, sharing two seats among them, were Japanese. Or at least they were speaking Japanese. I only noticed because the mum said something to the kids.

I confess I secretly tried to look at what she was typing in her phone, to see if it was in Japanese or something. She was typing really slowly though, so maybe it was in English.

After that, I noticed that these two guys sitting near the exit door were Korean. At first glance I could tell that they weren't local Chinese. As in, roughly we Oriental Asians look alike, but you could just tell they aren't quite Singaporean.

The fellow beside the window started talking a bit loudly on his handphone, which is when I heard the Korean come out. Later on nearer my stop the other guy started talking on his handphone, though much softer, still in Korean.

Lastly, somewhere along Bukit Timah Road just after Newton MRT, I saw a girl board the bus, I'm positive that it was Lydia Hang from my squad in MGS GB 1st Coy. When she got on she was far away from me, because the bus was crowded, but I saw her anyway.

Alas, I didn't have the gumption to actually call her when she moved nearer the middle where I was, eventually standing right beside me, facing another direction. I was actually planning in my head to call her at the bus stop one before mine, so that any awkwardness would be minimised.

I even had an ideal set of sentences in mind, along the lines of, "Hey, you're Lydia, right? Lydia Hang. I'm Sixuan, from MGS, GB, your squad, you were my squad leader..." etc etc.

Unfortunately she got off at the NUS Law campus bus stop, so that idea went down the drain. Bah. The Japanese mum and kids got off one stop before mine.

And that's it for my ride home!

Edit: I realise I DID post on the 15th of December, so I shall just make a note here. Happy Birthday to Junsu from DBSK! And to his twin as well, of course. I really didn't notice the date until it was too late. I hope he had a good celebration!

Caroling Practice + Outing

2008-12-13T21:01:00.002+08:00

Today was my first caroling practice. The one on Thursday doesn't count, it was more for me to sing the new songs with the few people who were there: Ann, CJ, CK, CL, XT, XQ, Yuting, me.

I thought I was going to be late, and the first two buses that appeared at the stop were exactly the only ones I cannot take to school, i.e. 77 and 970! Just as I was walking in, secretly looking out for cars to see if any of them were driving in, the car that turned in actually slowed down.

I couldn't see well through the tinted windows, but I finally saw Michelle Koh inside, beckoning to me! After I got in, I saw that she'd picked up Shamini as well. And then we zoomed past Shermaine who had been some distance in front of me!

When we reached the alumni room, it was closed, and outside it waiting were Ann, Amanda, Beng Hee, Eunice and Sonia. After discussing respective heights, Xiang Ting arrived with the key, yay. As well as Jia Yun, Yun Tian and Shermaine.

We sat in our sections, and us hardworking Altos pulled out our scores and began singing the new ones to familiarize ourselves, at which point the Sops joined in. This happened for a few songs, till CK and CL arrived, and then XQ and Gabriel, and we started, soon joined by ZR. More people came, like this senior sop I don't know, Lay Wang, Bi Fang, Benjamin, Prashanth.

CK was mean! Kidding, but he made us memorise Adeste Fideles on the spot. It's only my second time singing it, if you count Thursday as the first, and I don't even know the Latin words, for goodness sake. So I sort of bluffed my way through. Thank goodness I already knew the rest of the carols we sang today.

After it ended, we sang Mamoru and Lay a Garland. Then Prashanth fetched Lay Wang, Bi Fang, Jia Yun, me and Benjamin out in a Mercedes! The window had had a dragonfly eating another dragonfly on it, but I suppose they got blown off the moment he started driving.

Jia Yun was so nice, she took the same bus as me and showed me how to get to the food court in Raffles City. I ate lunch there with Elizabeth, Kai Xin, Sheryl, Rachel and Xiao Wen. It's kind of expensive, but it's expected of Raffles City, plus the design of the place is really nice, and the cleaning aunty was super efficient.

I ate Pepper Lunch again, partially to let XW try it out, and partially because I thought their prices are fixed anyway. I was happy until Sheryl pointed out that they would just probably reduce the amount they give me, and indeed I think there was less beef! Rachel ate bibimbap, Eliz had this potato salad that was nice, XW got her bobo chacha and I couldn't see what the others ate.

We six ate like three bowls of ice kacang. KX and Eliz's one had the brown colour sauce, probably gula melaka. Sheryl's one which she shared with me and XW was a typical one with less of the stuff below. I went to get another one, with durian, added condensed milk, and kosong, i.e. no red bean jelly stuffs, and shared it with the two of them, while Rachel ate some ice cream thing.

We just sat there and talked about stuff for like two and a half hours, though Eliz had to leave early. I tried to promote the comedy series I'm currently watching: The Big Bang Theory. It's really funny, and I highly recommend it! Then we started to walk around the place, and in the end Kai Xin left early because she had a sore throat, and possibly still needs to pack for her Japan trip.

We deicded to walk to Suntec, and again walked around pretty much aimlessly. Sheryl's sister met us at the carrefour where they bought some drinks/food. I thought we were going to eat dinner, but Rachel and XW were going on about no money and feet hurting, so we went home, while Sheryl and Carol (Ann) went to eat their own dinner.

It was fun, and I hope we can have another outing like this. Feels good to talk about anything!

Basic Theory Test

2008-12-12T22:25:00.002+08:00

This afternoon/evening, I took my Basic Theory Test at the Bukit Batok Driving Centre, and I PASSED. Thank God!

I went early to the hospital to see a LSCS, then observed my uncle as usual, and then I left at about 3.30pm to go to the BBDC. I actually estimated that the total travel time would be about 1 hour 15 minutes?

I had planned to go by bus, but since I didn't know the route, I decided to be lazy and take the MRT about 16 stops to Bukit Gombak. Not by the Woodlands direction, but I changed twice, to the green line, then back to the red line!

I didn't realise how fast the MRT goes, since I never take it. I reached the BG station at about 4.30, and my test was supposed to be at 5.40, participants to be there 15 minutes beforehand. So I was early, but because it's rather far from the MRT, and there's no straight bus to the driving centre down that straight road (can you believe it), I took the 945 and walked.

I spent some nervous 30 minutes or so last-minute mugging at Level 1, before going up to Level 2. These few days I've been mugging the theory book at home, on the bus, MRT, during lunch break, etc.

As usual, my stomach felt terrible, like it does before any test or stressful thing, so I had a teeny bit of diarrhoea :( I prayed, and it became better, and we entered the computer room. There were so many foreigners taking the test, and so few Chinese people! Surprising, considering the population demographics.

I want to complain about their system. Before the test, after confirming everyone's ID, they screened a video with instructions on steps to take. By the time they reached the end of the video, I forgot the first part about starting the test. Plus, the screens didn't all come on at the same time!

So I was at the password screen wondering why the screens were different, another person two rows down was at the questions, while the person two computers down didn't even have the password screen.

They also say not to poke the touch-screen with anything sharp. I had to press like mad with the pad of my thumb, before seeing the fellow next to me poking the screen with his nail. After which I began to poke as well!

Anyhow, out of 50 questions you can only get a maximum of 5 wrong, and I guessed about 7 questions that I wasn't sure of, so I thought I'd fail, and I was praying really hard, looking through the MCQ options thrice, and then I finally pressed the 'End Test' button!

I was so relieved when the green rectangle with the word 'Passed' appeared on the screen!

I think this day 12th Dec seems to have many things going on. I took my BTT, my father returned from Israel (with presents in tow), probably many babies were born due to the nice date, Yihui is flying off to America for 2 months, and Ling Chung has been enlisted into the army!

What a day.

100th Post

2008-12-10T18:31:00.002+08:00

Wow, I've apparently reached the 100th post!

I was able to observe a few operations today, including the delivery of babies by C-section. It was really kind of miraculous, to see at first all the cutting up, and suddenly they pull out the baby's head!

Plus the baby was cute, even when he first came out, and I've heard they're supposed to be ugly at that point. I was really touched somehow, by this creation of new life, bringing the baby into the world.

Other than that it was mostly the same as yesterday. I ate a chicken foldover meal for lunch, yum!

I went home by myself today. I saw the 171 while on the overhead bridge, and I was walking slowly because I thought I wouldn't catch it anyway. When I saw that it was still taking passengers, I gradually hurried, increasing speed though I thought it would leave. Until I was on the escalator down I was really anxious to get it. In the end it was too crammed with people. Oh well.

Mount Elizabeth

2008-12-09T20:16:00.002+08:00

Today I went to my uncle's clinic at Mount Elizabeth Hospital Medical Centre to observe him at work. Nothing so exciting as major surgery of any kind; it was more of seeing him see his patients.

I was actually worried that I wouldn't be able to find his clinic. Thank goodness they have a sensible chart at the first level arranged according to specialisation, so I could find out that his clinic is on the 10th floor. It's actually the first clinic to be seen after coming out from the elevator.

He's a gynaecologist/obsetrician, so obviously all his patients were women, though not all were pregnant or trying to get pregnant, as I had thought they might be. Some have had menopause, others with menstrual problems, etc.

I think everyone who walked in wondered for about 5 seconds why there's this weird girl sitting beside the doctor and not doing anything but listening. There was actually a lady who looked like she worked there or something, since she had some sort of nametag/pass card on her; and she looked more at me than at my uncle when she entered, so I felt a little uncomfortable?

It wasn't that she was antagonistic or anything. At the beginning she said she wanted to ask him something in private. Just as well, after he did the checkup first, I asked him if I could be excused to the toilet, so he told me to go and only re-enter the room when he called me.

I had to go for lunch all by my lonely self. At first I confess I imagined I'd be eating in the hospital, but instead I was directed to Lucky Plaza. It was really crowded, since it's the lunch hour, but thankfully I was able to find a seat and eat my chicken rice :D

For two of the patients, I was allowed to write names on the glass slides with the pap smears! I know it sounds like a cheap thrill, but at least I got to do it, okay.

I learned a bit of how they estimate the foetus' weight by measuring the head, abdomen and leg, and a bit about how fat people have it better for osteoporosis, and that it takes about 5 months to know the baby's sex, I think.

Mummy was able to fetch me home after picking Yan up from her violin lesson. I was waiting at the bus stop, and behind me were two girls talking in Korean, from what I heard. Then they came up to me and asked, "Excuse me, do you speak Chinese?"

I think I just stared at them, and wondered if I'd heard wrongly. They said they wanted to interview me for their mission for school, in Chinese. The moment she spoke Chinese I understood that they must be Korean students practicing their Chinese in Singapore, and it must be some assignment of theirs.

They were really simple Chinese questions, like "How old are you this year?", "Where are you going now?" After the few questions, I said, "You're Korean, right?" And they affirmed it. I realised only too late that I should have asked if they know DBSK or Super Junior. Just to see if they're fans!

Choir BBQ

2008-12-08T00:03:00.003+08:00

I recently came back from the choir BBQ at CJ's condo. It was quite fun, possibly because I wasn't the one putting in effort to barbeque anything. All I did was wrap some potatoes in foil, and later on shine the torch on the pit.

That sounds weird, but the lighting wasn't very good, so we couldn't even see whether the chicken wings were chaotah or not. The cheese sausages were good! The potato salad that CJ made had somewhat undercooked potatoes. Allegedly, he overcooked them previously, so he tried to minimise it, and did too good a job!

Sheena and I thought we'd be late, but when we reached, there was CJ, Beng Hui, Elvin, Ann, CK, ZR and Amanda. Oh, and CJ's younger brother, who looks like him! Haha.

More people came along, like Xiang, Louis, YT, Bryan, Shermaine, XQ, Linus, JH, Yueh Hsin, Rhoda, Charmaine, Sophie, Royston, Cheng Luan, Eunice Yeap, Siew Peng, Prashanth, Beng Hee etc.

Hence, there were very few of the choristers still in NJChoir, i.e. people of Sheena's age and below. I don't blame them if they didn't want to come, because they don't really know the seniors unless they're from IP.

Our seniors are friendly and nice people, but they naturally will talk among themselves, so if the juniors aren't as sociable, it's not as easy to mix around, perhaps. Honestly, when I was IP1 I thought the JC2s weren't particularly friendly.

Of course the altos were okay, being in the same section, but when you're 3 years younger, smaller, less verbal and not very sociable, while those from other sections don't talk to you at all, it just isn't as friendly.

The J1s at that time were more friendly and approachable, perhaps partly because they're closer in age. But they have those people like Louis who are like super friendly too!

Before coming, I was thinking of attempting potato salad, but I forgot about the time and my mum took us to eat the buffet at Sakae Sushi at J8 until about 4.00pm. Best of all, during our lunch, they were playing DBSK's Japanese songs from the Five in the Black album!! SO COOL!!

Another good thing is that CK photocopied the new scores for us, and I got them today! So I have to go learn them by Thursday. Apparently they still haven't decided on the dress code for the performances.

Actually I remember Xiang and Ann mentioning it yesterday at Ms Yang's wedding. Speaking of which, I was surprised there weren't more people singing the song, and there were only 2 Altos, so Ann had to sing Alto as well.

Our table had CJ, XT, BH, Ann, LC, YJ, JA, Eugenia, me, YT didn't make it, and these 2 HC people. The food was quite nice as well, and Ms Yang looked SUPER PRETTY AND CUTE in the wedding photoshoot pictures and in present as well! Congrats!

Seoul Garden and City of Ember

2008-12-03T21:28:00.004+08:00

Today I went out for lunch with Sheena, Xuemin, Yong Jian and Jing An at Seoul Garden in Ngee Ann City.

It's my first time there, so I was quite a noob, not knowing what the buffet actually provided. For anyone who may wish to know, it amounts to about $14 per person, from $11.99 plus 10$ service charge plus 7% GST.

It's quite fun to barbeque your own meat and such, but one drawback is how the oil keeps spattering, and you'll see us suddenly withdrawing our hands very quickly with a small hiss of pain. They also have pasta, vegetables, ice kacang and ice cream, different kinds of pau, and free flow drinks.

Afterwards, we went to Cineleisure to watch a movie. Actually we couldn't decide which movie. Jing An and I were more inclined towards City of Ember, while Xuemin wanted to watch Wild Child, and Sheena was still a bit disappointed that Bolt wasn't showing yet. In the end we chose City of Ember, and I think it's quite a nice movie.

It's about a post-apocalyptic city built entirely underground, functioning on power by some generator to provide light, meant to last for 200 years before the people are supposed to venture back up to the surface.

But the vital box with the information gets lost, so the people continue living, but supplies are running out and the blackouts are getting longer. The main characters are Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, teenagers who are assigned their jobs at graduation, as pipeworker and messenger respectively, but they swap.

It goes on to show how Lina finds the box, and with Doon's help, they figure out how the greedy mayor keeps his stash of luxury food, and finally, the way out of the city. And since they are wanted for accusing the mayor, they only have time to grab her cute little sister away with them, and go on a boat through a long water ride, before climbing out.

The problem that I had with this movie is that it felt like a lot of scenes were somehow missing, and the entire story was too compressed and short. In my opinion, they should have included more about the characters and the concept of the city, and shown a longer process of analysing the map.

I understand that the film being too short could be due to budget restraints or perhaps the producer was made to keep it to about 90 minutes only. Surely the book was longer, but movies have time limits. I was secretly waiting for some form of romance between the two of them, but it never happened.

Anyway, it was fun going out with the four of them, and we followed Xuemin to get her blue hair extension. I think one piece isn't enough, go do more! Maybe a dark red one if you can find it!

Grad Night ~ Prom

2008-12-02T00:58:00.003+08:00

It's 1am now, and I came back about an hour ago from our Grad Night, a.k.a Prom.

I managed to get my hair done and reach the hotel (Swissotel the Stamford) by 5.45, even though I thought I'd be late. However, in my hurry to get my hair done, since I stupidly didn't prepare beforehand in the morning, I took the wrong necklace, and didn't really think about my shoes.

Worst of all, I didn't bother to charge the camera that I borrowed from Nicole, so it died on me before we entered the dining hall. It was so annoying, because I couldn't take all the photos that I wanted to, and had to depend on other people for photos.

When I reached, I saw Jie Ning outside, who was waiting for Elizabeth, and some time after we went in, we saw Rachel. There were some of the 02 people in the lobby as well, such as Bingxin, Fang Yu, Yee Lin, etc. Then we found our way to the actually ballroom, where Kai Xin, Xiaowen and Liu Xuan were waiting, and more people, like Silvia, arrived as well.

Eugenia's class was there, with Quang Son dressed as a mummy, and two of their friends as pirates. Everybody gets a mini goodie bag with vouchers and stuff when you register with your ticket. So we went in and took more photos!

Just as we decided to go into the room, the camera died. So we went in to find our table No. 25, and were joined by Jessie, Jessica, Xin Yuan and Sarah. I absolutely LOVE Jessica's dress, because it looks like she stepped out of a Grecian movie!

There were so many different dresses, in black, blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, magenta, white...... The makeup on most girls was quite similar, but everybody looked so pretty and glamorous! It's really amazing how lovely they all looked, with the makeup, dresses, shoes etc!

The MC was a bit annoying, but he was just doing his job, and it's not his fault the sound system was SO LOUD. We had to yell to be heard, and I covered my ears whenever any music played. He came up with a points system where each side gets 1000 points for standing up and waving the napkin every time La Bamba plays.

They had various items, such as singing and dancing performances, and contests such as Best Dressed (Trent, Sophia), Mr and Ms Congeniality (Gerard, Hashvinia?), Sweetest Couple, the Lucky Draw with the final musical chairs, and Prom King and Queen (Trent).

The dance item performed by Mel Tee, Tisiana, Louisa, Terence, Jem, Gerard, Joel, Johnson, Wei Liang and Zhi Rong, choreographed by Ying Ting, was really entertaining!

Xiaowen actually got picked for the top 7 in the Lucky Draw, but she got eliminated in the first round since the boy pushed her and got the chair instead, so she won $80 Takashimaya Department Store vouchers.

The 1st prize was a IPOD nano, and the 2nd was a Digicam, both possibly equally attractive. The guy who won is from Yong Jian's class, the one who lives beside my sister's previous house in Marymount. Possibly he negotiated with the 2nd winner as to who wanted which prize more.

The food was okay, though I couldn't take the spicy and sour soup, and I was too full to eat my noodles, so I gave mine to Xiaowen. I took lots of photos with people and more photos for people. The worst part is when you want to take a photo with someone else how doesn't have a camera, and unless you have another friend around, you can't do a thing.

At the end, we took an IP photo, as well as a class photo. But it was so hard just to gather everybody, due to all the noise. For example, for the IP photo, we'd taken quite a few, before some of the 01 girls came running over and we realised not everyone was there.

I regret that I wasn't able to get my choir group photo in the end, because the microphone system had already been disconnected,so I couldn't call them, and it was impossible to find all of them in the crowd. At least I got different photos with Conan, Yun Tian, Jing An, Yong Jian, Michelle, Jaime, Sara, and Eugenia.

One might ask what the point of prom is. You typically pay a lot of money for your clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, occasionally, as well as for the dinner itself. Is it actually worth it to have the trouble of dressing up and going to some hotel to take lots of pictures and barely eat half the food?

The people may look nice, but it's not how you'd remember them anyway.

You remember them in school, in full or half grey, studying in the library, sleeping during lessons, eating in the canteen, telling stupid jokes, recounting anectdotes, having CCA, standing for assembly, preparing for projects, running around the track, sitting in the LTs, presenting in class, walking up the multitudinous stairs, meeting with teachers, crowding the photocopy shop, and sitting for the A Levels.

You remember them as down to earth students, whom you eat, walk, sit, stand, loiter, run, wait, talk, laugh, joke, work and mug with. Not so much as the well-dressed beautiful people more concerned about their appearance on that one night in a dimly lit room with expensive food, colourful strobe lights and blasting sound everywhere.

Perhaps we take the everyday routine of school for granted. You don't see people whipping out cameras to take pictures of people studying in the oasis. No, we wait until the last week of school before realising that we wish we had pictures to maintain memories of our typical school life.

Perhaps that ought to change.

NJChoir Seniors Farewell

2008-11-30T17:09:00.003+08:00

This is a belated post on our long awaited seniors farewell for choir, which occurred on Friday.

Surprisingly, what I wore was slightly more formal than others. Of course, if you're like Jing An and can't read the font on the card, (he thought the word "formal" was "journal") then it can't be helped.

We were only allowed to go to LT3 by the bottom entrance, outside which was a heart of balloons, since the theme of our farewell is LOVE. Goodness knows why the "S" for "Seniors" was in fact a " $ " sign.

Eunice and Wen Song were the MCs, with Kenneth manning the laptop and typing in random things on the screen for us to see, such as "applause".

We had our dinner first, though I thought it was rather early for dinner. Who eats at five? The seniors sat together and the juniors sat together, and it was rather quiet. I suppose our batch has rather few people compared to previous years, and some people weren't here.

Since Conan hadn't come yet, Yun Tian had to make a speech, after which there were a few rounds of Don't Forget The Lyrics.

The altos item was excellent! It had a medley of songs, and the background singers were really good, and they gave us all roses and medals. The funny thing is that the medals were clearly meant for gymnasts or sports people!

The guys item was nice, except that for the second song, the lead singers were going too much faster than the supporting vocals, who couldn't go faster without messing up, so it was all quite funny.

The video was really nice, with so many pictures of us, especially those from Italy, including the video of me egging on Eugenia to paste the aeroplane sticker on Ling Chung's face!

The sopranos item was good, and I liked the harmonization and little actions. Hence, it has dawned on me that we could consider forming a SSAA choir instead. They really sounded good!

Then Sheena, Xuemin and Caleb performed a song that was composed by Sheena, and it was really touching, except that I couldn't always hear the words.

Finally, the juniors performed Autumn Leaves, with Xuemin conducting. Some of them didn't sing, because they went to get these presents for us, consisting of a choir photo, a CD and a toilet brush that is supposed to resemble a singing microphone! The only thing is that there were very few altos, so I couldn't hear them as well, compared to the sops.

Then came the traditional sort of handing over from the person of the previous position to the current one. It's a pity that some of the previous comm members weren't there to give their gifts. And then some people like Sheena and Xuemin can just give themselves presents, LOL!

I'm very thankful to the juniors for the farewell and performances and gifts that they prepared, even though we could see that at some points the flow was a bit disorganized, and the entire thing was somewhat shorter than previous ones I've been at.

I never thought about graduating from NJChoir, since I've been in it for 3 & 1/2 years, and been an SL for 2 of those years, and had many friends, so it's quite sad to officially leave now.

At this point, some senior will pop up and say, "THERE'S ALWAYS THE ALUMNI." Haha!

BCML Outing

2008-11-29T11:33:00.002+08:00

On Thursday we had our BCML outing - me, Silvia, Tse Mei, Melody and Sarah, and Justin joined us for a while.

It was mostly shopping around for things that we hadn't gotten yet, like shoes, earrings and stuff. And Tse Mei's wardrobe malfunction was funny!

I was looking forward most to the SUSHI BUFFET! Tse Mei is so lucky, she's already had so many sushi buffets that she knows the exact price after GST that we had to pay. I think Mel was probably the hungriest among us since she didn't have breakfast. POOR THING.

I really benefited from going with people like Silvia and Tse Mei, who know so much more about what to order. I didn't know that the buffet which only allows coloured plates, allows you to order chawanmushi! I love the chawanmushi!

Poor Sarah was sick, so she couldn't eat certain fried stuff. Mel kept on ordering unagi stuff, Tse Mei loves her cold soba and Silvia her fried salmon skin. Surprisingly I didn't eat more than one plate of salmon sushi due to the other lovely things I ate.

Another thing that I learnt, is that it's a good idea to go shopping with Silvia. She really has a good eye for things, and she's very good at convincing people to buy certain things. She can go be a salesperson now!

Yay, we should have more BCML outings! With more SUSHI!

05IP05 Class Outing

2008-11-26T23:09:00.003+08:00

I just came back from our class outing, and my legs are aching! Haha.

This morning I went to the doctor again, because my eye was still a bit swollen, so I needed to get the cream for it. I also managed to get my results from the Hepatitis A and B test from the blood the doctor took from me on Monday.

So when I left the house, I chionged to the bus stop to catch the 154, which terminated at Eunos Interchange, from which I walked to Sims Avenue to take 13 to Marine Crescent. From that point I was quite unsure how to go, ready to whip out my map, when I heard Xiaowen and Kaixin calling me, as they just arrived! How timely!

Using the map Terence provided, we found the underpass and made it to the Macs at about 2:35, to find that no one was there yet! And we thought we'd be late. Hmph. We were soon joined by Jessica, Linh and Sherrie, and afterwards by Ben, Jiayi and Justin.

The nine of us spent forever deciding whether to rollerblade or cycle, since it was going to rain, and Ben was talking about his cumulo-nimbus clouds and sea breeze. Since Kaixin doesn't know how to cycle, she went back to the Macs, and the eight of us cycled, with Xiaowen and I on the double bike!

It's harder than it looks, and it's mostly the front person in control of the direction. I didn't know the pedals are connected so that if one person stops, both people stop. We initially thought that since two people were pedaling, it would go as fast with less individual effort. But it turns out that since it's almost twice the weight, it's harder.

After about an hour of cycling to one end and then nearer to the other end, we went back for me (who is lousy and couldn't take it any more) to swap with Melody, but then it started pouring, so we went back to Macs. We were joined by Rayshio afterward.

Then Sherrie, Jess, Mel and Linh decided to go to the Expo for the John Little sale, while Justin went off for his hockey chalet, so the remaining six of us set off for Kallang. Most of the bus trip was spent talking about horror/thriller movies, which is kind of weird, now that I think about it.

Ben and Jiayi went to the squash centre, and the four of us went to the Kallang Leisure Park, looking around the shops. It has one of those Korean Marts! Kaixin also looked at the winter clothing, and I just remembered I was supposed to ask my parents whether I could lend her a jacket. Oops.

We were joined by Xin Yuan (still in school uniform), Wu Si and Rongrong (who bought a doughnut), and Terence. We loitered around in the arcade, joined by Daniel (!), waiting for the Expo people who thought dinner was at 7:45 instead of the stipulated 6:45, so it was too late to go home with my parents.

We ate at KFC (can't believe it), and Rachel joined us after getting lost somewhere in Bedok. Jess wasn't with us because she had to go to the airport, I think. Dinner was fun, including a lot of talk about Korean and Japanese stuff. More playing around the arcade, before we went home. Thank goodness Rayshio seems to know the way everywhere, so the scholars and I reached Dhoby Ghaut and took the 171 home.

We took 16 to Dhoby Ghaut, and we actually ran like crazy for the bus. Thank goodness Terence is fast. We were talking a bit about our future, and I suggested that we ought to have class reunions like five years, 10 years, 30 years later or so. I even have the perfect date: fifth of May. Guess why.

This is the last time we'll be seeing Wu Si and Rongrong before our results next year, since they're going home on Friday. It feels a bit sad that not everyone was able to come today. I still miss our traditional going to someone's house and eating dinner and stuff.

I wonder where we'll all be 15 years from now. We'll be 33 by then. Possibly people married, with a kid, stable job, whether interesting or boring. I hope we'll still be able to meet up some day in the future, though. How lovely!

Post A Levels

2008-11-24T09:38:00.002+08:00

A levels are officially over!! Well, they were officially over last Thursday, but I'm a little late.

Strangely, I didn't feel particularly joyful when the paper finished. During the Lit Paper 3 on Wednesday, I could feel this sense of excitement at impending freedom from the arts students as the papers were being counted. For me, I just felt tired, even when the teacher said we could go and a bunch of people just whooped in happiness.

So on Thursday, Xiaowen and Elizabeth came to my house to watch the Super Junior Super Show DVD, and it was 3 hours long! I liked most of it, except perhaps somewhere in the middle there were too many slow songs sung by little groups of them and it got a little boring.

We also watched the MBC Every1. I swear the number of videos XW has in her laptop is staggering. She even has some DBSK videos (such as the variety show, catch the mouse on Heroine 6), and she doesn't even follow them that much!

After that, my mum took me around to find a dress for prom. I think she's relieved that I actually like what we got, and asked her to buy it. She probably thought at some point that I was turning into a boy or something. To which I protest: I have long hair! =)

I also went out with Kai Xin and Liu Xuan on Saturday to find stuff, and it was quite fun, but extremely tiring. After about two hours my feet wanted to drop off already. I literally sat down on the floor in the department store, though I was hidden by the racks of stuff.

On Sunday we tried to find a day for our Sunday School class outing, and it's practically impossible, because people just have too many things on. Paul alone rules out all weekdays, and Nicolette and Michelle got KK, ruling out Saturday afternoons.

So for this week, I have a lineup of things to do, including getting a blood test for Hep A & B today, going for the class outing, then the seniors' farewell during choir camp (to which I haven't been invited by the way), and Shernise's birthday party on Saturday! And then the Sunday School outing on Sunday. WHOOPEE.

Tomorrow is D-DAY

2008-11-02T22:06:00.003+08:00

Yes, my A levels officially begin tomorrow at 8am when I will sit for my first exam - GP.

I've had a few more slight panic attacks, when suddenly I'll get this odd clutching pain near my oesophagus, and if I'm with other people I'll stop talking for a while to calm down.

Good grief, I sound like a nutcase.

At this point, good wishes are flying around via sms as people try to reassure each other and encourage one another to hang in and stay calm and do our best.

Many thanks to all of you who've been sending such messages: Liu Xuan, Elizabeth, Ling Chung, Kai Xin, Silvia, our teachers, Eugene and the choir juniors for also wishing me 'all the best' every time they see me, even telling me not to be distracted!

I'm also grateful to the constant prayers we get in church for us, whether it's by Pastor or by Delia or just praying for each other in our groups.

I smsed my Sunday School people: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him... Romans 8:28

Perhaps the verse might be more for when we're waiting for our results next year, but I think it's still a pretty good one to use.

Another typical one: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus - Philippians 4:6,7

This one's good for panic attacks, right? Haha.

I'm partially comforting myself as well by listing down all the stuff I want to watch when exams are over; every time I think of something I put a note in my computer. Kaixin wants to go out and "play", though. Silvia wants to go to the zoo. I have strange friends indeed.

Oh well. I'm off to sleep now. Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy.

D-minus-4 Day

2008-10-29T20:56:00.004+08:00

I went to school today (like I have for the past few weeks) to get some studying done, plus I had GP consultation along with Kim. I didn't know Mrs J came from a family of teachers! Must really run in the blood. At the end, she said something like, "So next Monday, please do well."

The moment she said "next Monday", I immediately felt a wave of panic! It's genuinely hard to believe that the all important A levels are so close.

There was a whole commotion at the Oasis because of these people with tonnes of unfolded cardboard boxes in stacks, and I was trying to figure out what they were for. I stupidly even said to Sheryl, "What are they for? So far the people taking them have been scholars. Mostly IP3..."

To which she said, "maybe they're packing?" OF COURSE. They're preparing to move all their stuff to the NJC boarding school, which is almost done by now, I think. Poor things, having to move stuff must be such a hassle.

Anyway, after lunch, I was sitting down trying to study chem, and out of nowhere I started to kind of hyperventilate in my mind about A levels, and my vision was a bit blurry as well. Yet another panic attack! My brain started thinking of all the sub-topics I'm unsure about, such as Cell Structure, Duchess of Malfi, Complex Numbers, Reaction Kinetics etc.

When I got home, the Daily Bread topic was about how large our problems seem to be, unless we put them into perspective.

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth ... He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:27-31

It also brings to mind what Pastor Albert said on Sunday about worrying, though the context of his sermon was money. "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" - Matthew 6:33

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer.

In His arms He’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.