Curse of the Golden Flower
Watched the movie at TM GV with Zhenyi and Qingwei this afternoon. Sad ending, cos only the Emperor and Empress were left at the end. Haha, I heard my mum say that in the media interview, Chow Yun Fatt commented that handsome guys like Jay Chou sure have to die in the movie. And his character sure did.
After that, Qingwei suggested going to the Courts megastore in Tamp Ave 10 to look for new comp games, but I also wanted to visit the IKEA warehouse there. Both stores are huge, and Courts even have lots of cheap offers for customers! IKEA's warehouse has a very tall ceiling, some of its products that are stacked high up can only be reached by using forklifts!
When we were about to leave IKEA at 5.40pm, (IKEA closes at 6pm today) we waited in line for the shuttle bus to arrive. But after 20 mins of waiting, everyone was getting frustrated and some people in the queue tried asking a carpark attendant if there's still a shuttle bus service available. However, even after 5 mins, there was still no bus in sight so we three decided to take a public bus home instead. My intuition tells me that there isn't any shuttle bus left for the day, and those people still waiting in queue probably stood there like goons for another 15 mins.
Nonetheless, the two warehouses are good places to go if you've got no idea what to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Talk about retail therapy!
Sunday, 31 December 2006
Shopping and eating in Taiwan
Taiwan is famous for its street snacks. S'pore's chain of Shilin street snack stalls actually got its idea from the night market food stalls in Taipei. Every night market sells slightly different snacks, and with the weather so cold in Taiwan, there's always room in the tummy for street snacks after a proper meal. Ah, now I know how I gained that extra 2 kg while I was there!
Young people will be most interested in the variety of clothes and accessories sold at Ximending. Within a 1km stretch of shops, there's already a Hang Ten, a Baleno, a G2000 if I recall correctly, among other smaller shops/stalls that sells cute handbags/cosmetics for young women and shoes for guys. I think the prices for things there might be slightly cheaper than what is found in S'pore. Too bad a lot of the shops are selling winter clothing now so it's not practical to buy them in Taiwan and bring it back to S'pore to wear, after all S'pore is sunny all year around!
PS: It seems like for every Macdonald's, there'll always be a KFC nearby to compete with it. In Taipei I observed that there was one KFC outlet just diagonally opposite Macs, and both were facing a busy road junction!
Geography of Taiwan
Like Hong Kong, at least half the land area of Taiwan cannot be used because it is too mountainous. That's why all the cities and towns are along the west and east coast, with the mountainous regions in the middle. Previously before tunnel diggers were available, travelling from west to east would require one to make a detour to the north or south first. Anyway, Taiwan is 400km in length from north to south and 200km from west to east, approx. That's half the size of Malaysia, am I right?
Taiwan is famous for its street snacks. S'pore's chain of Shilin street snack stalls actually got its idea from the night market food stalls in Taipei. Every night market sells slightly different snacks, and with the weather so cold in Taiwan, there's always room in the tummy for street snacks after a proper meal. Ah, now I know how I gained that extra 2 kg while I was there!
Young people will be most interested in the variety of clothes and accessories sold at Ximending. Within a 1km stretch of shops, there's already a Hang Ten, a Baleno, a G2000 if I recall correctly, among other smaller shops/stalls that sells cute handbags/cosmetics for young women and shoes for guys. I think the prices for things there might be slightly cheaper than what is found in S'pore. Too bad a lot of the shops are selling winter clothing now so it's not practical to buy them in Taiwan and bring it back to S'pore to wear, after all S'pore is sunny all year around!
PS: It seems like for every Macdonald's, there'll always be a KFC nearby to compete with it. In Taipei I observed that there was one KFC outlet just diagonally opposite Macs, and both were facing a busy road junction!
Geography of Taiwan
Like Hong Kong, at least half the land area of Taiwan cannot be used because it is too mountainous. That's why all the cities and towns are along the west and east coast, with the mountainous regions in the middle. Previously before tunnel diggers were available, travelling from west to east would require one to make a detour to the north or south first. Anyway, Taiwan is 400km in length from north to south and 200km from west to east, approx. That's half the size of Malaysia, am I right?
Friday, 29 December 2006
Hyperactivity gone too far...
On my flight back to S'pore two evenings ago there was this young boy of about 4/5 years of age who was bouncing around the aisle while waiting for his turn to use the toilet. His father was quite annoyed by his hyperactivity, but was rather helpless in trying to calm him down. My mum, who was waiting behind the toilet queue, tried to teach him a lesson by staring out of the window of the aeroplane door next to the toilet. The boy, sensing that my mum was trying to look out, tried to be playful and drew down the window shutter so that nothing outside could be seen. After my mum lifted the shutter back up again, the boy tried to pull it down, but this time, my mum said a firm 'NO!' After that, I think the boy got kind of scared and didn't dare to 'gao gao zan'... (before that he even tried to take a peek at another passenger's in flight entertainment screen to see what she was watching)
Meanwhile, I looked at what had happened with amusement and I thought of teaching that boy a lesson too. But in the end I decided not to, and I moved to another toilet because no one was waiting outside the other toilet cubicle. After I returned to my seat, my mum told me that the boy took a long time to pee and tried to mess up the toilet after he finished using it, even though his father was supervising his every move just outside the toilet!
Haha. Young kids can be so hard to handle!
On my flight back to S'pore two evenings ago there was this young boy of about 4/5 years of age who was bouncing around the aisle while waiting for his turn to use the toilet. His father was quite annoyed by his hyperactivity, but was rather helpless in trying to calm him down. My mum, who was waiting behind the toilet queue, tried to teach him a lesson by staring out of the window of the aeroplane door next to the toilet. The boy, sensing that my mum was trying to look out, tried to be playful and drew down the window shutter so that nothing outside could be seen. After my mum lifted the shutter back up again, the boy tried to pull it down, but this time, my mum said a firm 'NO!' After that, I think the boy got kind of scared and didn't dare to 'gao gao zan'... (before that he even tried to take a peek at another passenger's in flight entertainment screen to see what she was watching)
Meanwhile, I looked at what had happened with amusement and I thought of teaching that boy a lesson too. But in the end I decided not to, and I moved to another toilet because no one was waiting outside the other toilet cubicle. After I returned to my seat, my mum told me that the boy took a long time to pee and tried to mess up the toilet after he finished using it, even though his father was supervising his every move just outside the toilet!
Haha. Young kids can be so hard to handle!
The weather in Taiwan
The air there is cool and not humid at all! For the 7 days I was there I could feel that my lips were absolutely devoid of moisture and my mum complained of a dry throat. The nights there are very long too, starting from the 22nd of December (which was the start of the winter season) it turned dark shortly after 5pm! By 6pm the sky seemed as though it was 9pm in S'pore. No wonder I felt I should be sleeping very early. But every night I didn't sleep until 11pm or later cos I was busy writing down the events for the day.
The convenience of convenience stores
In Taiwan, convenience stores are everywhere, just like in HK. On the same street, there could be a 7 Eleven and at least two more Taiwanese-branded convenience stores. And, in line with the government's policy of encouraging recycling, the stores do not issue plastic bags, instead you've to buy them at NT$1 a piece! (equivalent to S$0.20) Compare that with the situation in S'pore and you realise our supermarkets are giving away plastic bags as though our oil resources are infinite!
Buses, trains and MRT
The majority of buses in Taiwan are single-deck and have something similar to S'pore's TV mobile system in it. I think it's got to do with their low overhead bridges that limits the height of their buses. Only Taipei has an extensive MRT network, I took it on the 2nd last day of my trip there, and it's very similar to HK's, so nothing new there. One thing I found rather interesting was their platform doors: they are about 1.5m high only and reminds me of the glass panels that S'pore's MRT wanted to install on above-ground stations to prevent people from falling onto the tracks recently. And, I noticed that one train could possibly be operated by 3 staff members: one driver and two assistants who will come out of the front and back of the trains to check if anyone's still boarding the MRT!
The air there is cool and not humid at all! For the 7 days I was there I could feel that my lips were absolutely devoid of moisture and my mum complained of a dry throat. The nights there are very long too, starting from the 22nd of December (which was the start of the winter season) it turned dark shortly after 5pm! By 6pm the sky seemed as though it was 9pm in S'pore. No wonder I felt I should be sleeping very early. But every night I didn't sleep until 11pm or later cos I was busy writing down the events for the day.
The convenience of convenience stores
In Taiwan, convenience stores are everywhere, just like in HK. On the same street, there could be a 7 Eleven and at least two more Taiwanese-branded convenience stores. And, in line with the government's policy of encouraging recycling, the stores do not issue plastic bags, instead you've to buy them at NT$1 a piece! (equivalent to S$0.20) Compare that with the situation in S'pore and you realise our supermarkets are giving away plastic bags as though our oil resources are infinite!
Buses, trains and MRT
The majority of buses in Taiwan are single-deck and have something similar to S'pore's TV mobile system in it. I think it's got to do with their low overhead bridges that limits the height of their buses. Only Taipei has an extensive MRT network, I took it on the 2nd last day of my trip there, and it's very similar to HK's, so nothing new there. One thing I found rather interesting was their platform doors: they are about 1.5m high only and reminds me of the glass panels that S'pore's MRT wanted to install on above-ground stations to prevent people from falling onto the tracks recently. And, I noticed that one train could possibly be operated by 3 staff members: one driver and two assistants who will come out of the front and back of the trains to check if anyone's still boarding the MRT!
Traffic in Taiwan
I think it is common knowledge that vehicles in Taiwan are left hand drive, and it's pedestrians give way to cars rather than vice versa.
In rural areas, there isn't much cars and there are no pedestrian crossings, just zebra crossings! But at busy traffic junctions, even though there are pedestrian lights, the motorbikes don't give way! On the last night of my trip, while my father and I were walking to an MRT station, we spotted police officers trying to catch offenders. There was this motorbike that just whizzed past the police officer even though the officer blew his whistle and tried to cross his path to stop the motorbike. In the end the officer managed to write down the bike's license plate I think. That motorist will probably receive his summons in a few days...
Ah, something cute about the pedestrian crossing lights: the green man really walks!
I think it is common knowledge that vehicles in Taiwan are left hand drive, and it's pedestrians give way to cars rather than vice versa.
In rural areas, there isn't much cars and there are no pedestrian crossings, just zebra crossings! But at busy traffic junctions, even though there are pedestrian lights, the motorbikes don't give way! On the last night of my trip, while my father and I were walking to an MRT station, we spotted police officers trying to catch offenders. There was this motorbike that just whizzed past the police officer even though the officer blew his whistle and tried to cross his path to stop the motorbike. In the end the officer managed to write down the bike's license plate I think. That motorist will probably receive his summons in a few days...
Ah, something cute about the pedestrian crossing lights: the green man really walks!
Thursday, 28 December 2006
Cool weather
I know it's been raining cats and dogs in S'pore for the last week, sometimes non-stop for 24 hours, but in Taiwan, it was surprisingly fair weather!
The only thing I couldn't bear with was the cold draughts that were very strong when I was along the coastal areas. The worst was at Fisherman's village, the filming site for Liu Xing Hua Yuan. The wind nearly swept me off my feet!
Well, at least I managed to avoid the rain here and enjoy the beautiful sunshine elsewhere!
I know it's been raining cats and dogs in S'pore for the last week, sometimes non-stop for 24 hours, but in Taiwan, it was surprisingly fair weather!
The only thing I couldn't bear with was the cold draughts that were very strong when I was along the coastal areas. The worst was at Fisherman's village, the filming site for Liu Xing Hua Yuan. The wind nearly swept me off my feet!
Well, at least I managed to avoid the rain here and enjoy the beautiful sunshine elsewhere!
Gained weight!
Yesterday before I left Grand Hyatt Taipei for the airport I took their bathroom scale to measure my weight. Goodness, all the 10-course lunches/dinners for the past 7 days have made me gain at least a kg or two!
In particular, there was this seafood restaurant in Taipei called "Hai Ba Wang". According to the tour guide, it charges steamboat dinners by tables and every table is served portions enough for 12 people, no matter how many people occupy the table.
Throughout the tour, I think my family ate the most among the tour members seated at my table. The other 6 tour members never liked to eat much.
There's also another restaurant in Taipei which I dined in on the 1st night. This one does the cooking for you, so you just have to wait for food to be dished into your bowl. No wonder the tour guide called it the "Lan Ren Can" (Lazy Man's meal)
The food in Taiwan is quite appetising. I enjoyed most of it.
Yesterday before I left Grand Hyatt Taipei for the airport I took their bathroom scale to measure my weight. Goodness, all the 10-course lunches/dinners for the past 7 days have made me gain at least a kg or two!
In particular, there was this seafood restaurant in Taipei called "Hai Ba Wang". According to the tour guide, it charges steamboat dinners by tables and every table is served portions enough for 12 people, no matter how many people occupy the table.
Throughout the tour, I think my family ate the most among the tour members seated at my table. The other 6 tour members never liked to eat much.
There's also another restaurant in Taipei which I dined in on the 1st night. This one does the cooking for you, so you just have to wait for food to be dished into your bowl. No wonder the tour guide called it the "Lan Ren Can" (Lazy Man's meal)
The food in Taiwan is quite appetising. I enjoyed most of it.
Wednesday, 27 December 2006
A close encounter with an earthquake
If I had departed for Taiwan 2 days later, I'd probably be in the thick of the action at Kaohsiung yesterday, and I'd probably have experienced an earthquake of a lifetime. But anyway, I'm back here safe and sound! With a few exciting moments though.
Because the earthquake affected the telecoms in Taiwan, my phone had completely no reception this morning. Also, at the airport at noon, the computers for checking in baggage were malfunctioning. I still remember queueing up at the check in counter at 1.15pm when my SQ flight was due to depart at 1.40pm. And the staff there said proceed to boarding gate immediately after check in! Thus, I didn't have any time to explore the airport's departure hall shops... what a pity.
The flight was delayed by half an hour, but there were others that were worse, like this Japan airlines flight for Tokyo. Many Taiwanese and Japanese were queueing up for the 2pm flight at 1.20pm and the queue line was made longer by other passengers due to leave at 3pm! One staff there tried to communicate with the passengers in Mandarin to allow the people belonging to the earlier flight to check in first, but I bet half the people in the queue couldn't understand him at all. Lol.
Ah, I'm quite tired from all that long distance travelling by tour bus... Guess I'll blog more about my trip some other day.
If I had departed for Taiwan 2 days later, I'd probably be in the thick of the action at Kaohsiung yesterday, and I'd probably have experienced an earthquake of a lifetime. But anyway, I'm back here safe and sound! With a few exciting moments though.
Because the earthquake affected the telecoms in Taiwan, my phone had completely no reception this morning. Also, at the airport at noon, the computers for checking in baggage were malfunctioning. I still remember queueing up at the check in counter at 1.15pm when my SQ flight was due to depart at 1.40pm. And the staff there said proceed to boarding gate immediately after check in! Thus, I didn't have any time to explore the airport's departure hall shops... what a pity.
The flight was delayed by half an hour, but there were others that were worse, like this Japan airlines flight for Tokyo. Many Taiwanese and Japanese were queueing up for the 2pm flight at 1.20pm and the queue line was made longer by other passengers due to leave at 3pm! One staff there tried to communicate with the passengers in Mandarin to allow the people belonging to the earlier flight to check in first, but I bet half the people in the queue couldn't understand him at all. Lol.
Ah, I'm quite tired from all that long distance travelling by tour bus... Guess I'll blog more about my trip some other day.
Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Sunday, 17 December 2006
The photo album
I was sorting out all the photos that I've taken with friends and classmates since I was sec3, up till the most recent prom night, and all of them have managed to fit nicely into one photo album. Ah, looking back, I think my facial features have changed slightly. So have everyone else.
A photo says a thousand words. Just look at one and all your memories will resurface again. Ah...
And, I noticed, it didn't really matter if you wore slippers/sandals to prom night and took photos with your friends, as most of them are just half-body photos! Of course, you'll probably look weird walking into the ballroom in slippers and short pants to match that outstanding looking suit...
Christmas is just one week away. But I'll be spending it somewhere cold and rainy though, which I've never experienced before. ^^
I was sorting out all the photos that I've taken with friends and classmates since I was sec3, up till the most recent prom night, and all of them have managed to fit nicely into one photo album. Ah, looking back, I think my facial features have changed slightly. So have everyone else.
A photo says a thousand words. Just look at one and all your memories will resurface again. Ah...
And, I noticed, it didn't really matter if you wore slippers/sandals to prom night and took photos with your friends, as most of them are just half-body photos! Of course, you'll probably look weird walking into the ballroom in slippers and short pants to match that outstanding looking suit...
Christmas is just one week away. But I'll be spending it somewhere cold and rainy though, which I've never experienced before. ^^
Saturday, 9 December 2006
The Past Few Days...
Yesterday I visited my godbro, the day before there was harmoc prac with the juniors and a BBQ cum mini-gathering with some of my AHS schoolmates, and Tuesday was Prom Night! 3 full days spent in the last 4 days has really started to wear me out.
Today was the actual harmoc CIP performance for CGH patients. Well, I guess if the patients enjoyed it I have nothing to comment about, after all our duty is to make them feel happy today. After I came home I was so tired that I decided to skip my seniors' AHS HO chalet. My feet were simply unwilling to move.
Anyway, Prom Night was interesting, and there were a couple of surprises. My table won $500 worth of dining vouchers which we thought we would share with the class when A's results are released. Two of my classmates also walked away with The Cocoa Tree hampers which contained a few different kinds of chocolates. (what else!)
I think the most amusing part of the Prom night was when the winner of the Grand Prize was to be chosen. The emcee called up 5 people on stage and each of them chose a 'racetrack' to follow. The first person walked away with an apple pie (he happens to be my CCA's chairperson), the second had an apple strudel and so on. When it came down to the last 2 people, one walked away with just one juicy apple whereas the other bagged a iPod Video with speakers and all its accessories.
Another thing to note was that everyone was just busy taking photos of each other before, during and even after Prom Night ended. The emcee, a teacher from my school, had to even threaten those standing outside to come into the ballroom or else he would close the doors and lock them out. Lol. I also found the whole programme rather messy with everyone walking about even when food is served. That means you can't really get to enjoy the food cos you'd either be looking for friends to take photos with or be too engrossed with the lucky draw/performances that you won't touch your food!
After prom was over, some of my classmates went clubbing, other friends had their own plans like spending a night in a hotel nearby or camping at another friend's house. Instead, I shared a cab back home with a classmate and her friend. Just that this time, prom ended rather early compared to my sec 4 prom. I still remembered the time when Qingwei and I shared a cab back home 2 years ago at 1+am and he was brave enough to walk home alone from my house cos he didn't want to incur extra expenses for the cab fare.
A few other interesting things I noted about prom night:
1. There was no night disco, although the school booked the venue till 2am.
2. When the cold dish is served, that familiar tune composed/performed by Kitaro will be played.
3 Then, there was the Sad Life Club. Now, there's the No-Suit Club! Haha Weijian was happily posing the "Look! I don't have a suit!" expression with many of us as he was one of those who just dressed in a shirt, long pants and tie.
At least, this time I managed to take many clear photos! That's what I'm most satisfied about the prom. (nonetheless, there were one or two that were dark cos the flash happened to take a nap, or else the photo was slightly blur cos it was not focussed properly)
I'm very happy with my entire outfit too, although I didn't realise I look somewhat like Arsene Wenger with the red tie and suit till Nengyang told me.
For the next few days, I'll be rather free. Time to look for things to occupy myself with. Like studying for highway code. Or completing that "Dimwit's guide to using the computer" for my mum to read. And completing that Pokemon Sapphire game. Oops.
Yesterday I visited my godbro, the day before there was harmoc prac with the juniors and a BBQ cum mini-gathering with some of my AHS schoolmates, and Tuesday was Prom Night! 3 full days spent in the last 4 days has really started to wear me out.
Today was the actual harmoc CIP performance for CGH patients. Well, I guess if the patients enjoyed it I have nothing to comment about, after all our duty is to make them feel happy today. After I came home I was so tired that I decided to skip my seniors' AHS HO chalet. My feet were simply unwilling to move.
Anyway, Prom Night was interesting, and there were a couple of surprises. My table won $500 worth of dining vouchers which we thought we would share with the class when A's results are released. Two of my classmates also walked away with The Cocoa Tree hampers which contained a few different kinds of chocolates. (what else!)
I think the most amusing part of the Prom night was when the winner of the Grand Prize was to be chosen. The emcee called up 5 people on stage and each of them chose a 'racetrack' to follow. The first person walked away with an apple pie (he happens to be my CCA's chairperson), the second had an apple strudel and so on. When it came down to the last 2 people, one walked away with just one juicy apple whereas the other bagged a iPod Video with speakers and all its accessories.
Another thing to note was that everyone was just busy taking photos of each other before, during and even after Prom Night ended. The emcee, a teacher from my school, had to even threaten those standing outside to come into the ballroom or else he would close the doors and lock them out. Lol. I also found the whole programme rather messy with everyone walking about even when food is served. That means you can't really get to enjoy the food cos you'd either be looking for friends to take photos with or be too engrossed with the lucky draw/performances that you won't touch your food!
After prom was over, some of my classmates went clubbing, other friends had their own plans like spending a night in a hotel nearby or camping at another friend's house. Instead, I shared a cab back home with a classmate and her friend. Just that this time, prom ended rather early compared to my sec 4 prom. I still remembered the time when Qingwei and I shared a cab back home 2 years ago at 1+am and he was brave enough to walk home alone from my house cos he didn't want to incur extra expenses for the cab fare.
A few other interesting things I noted about prom night:
1. There was no night disco, although the school booked the venue till 2am.
2. When the cold dish is served, that familiar tune composed/performed by Kitaro will be played.
3 Then, there was the Sad Life Club. Now, there's the No-Suit Club! Haha Weijian was happily posing the "Look! I don't have a suit!" expression with many of us as he was one of those who just dressed in a shirt, long pants and tie.
At least, this time I managed to take many clear photos! That's what I'm most satisfied about the prom. (nonetheless, there were one or two that were dark cos the flash happened to take a nap, or else the photo was slightly blur cos it was not focussed properly)
I'm very happy with my entire outfit too, although I didn't realise I look somewhat like Arsene Wenger with the red tie and suit till Nengyang told me.
For the next few days, I'll be rather free. Time to look for things to occupy myself with. Like studying for highway code. Or completing that "Dimwit's guide to using the computer" for my mum to read. And completing that Pokemon Sapphire game. Oops.
Friday, 8 December 2006
Prom Night and a whole load of outings...
Ah, *yawn*, so much has happened in the past few days. Maybe I'll blog about prom tomorrow, perhaps post a few photos too. Meanwhile, I'm so sleepy, my eyelids are drooping already.
One prom night, no midnight disco, no visit to the nightclub.
One harmoc prac with juniors, one BBQ outing with my ex-schoolmates, and one really long day.
Ah, *yawn*, so much has happened in the past few days. Maybe I'll blog about prom tomorrow, perhaps post a few photos too. Meanwhile, I'm so sleepy, my eyelids are drooping already.
One prom night, no midnight disco, no visit to the nightclub.
One harmoc prac with juniors, one BBQ outing with my ex-schoolmates, and one really long day.
Saturday, 2 December 2006
As time passes...
I was glancing through the photos I took at AHS HO farewell for the past 3 years, starting from the year I graduated, and I realised how much my juniors have grown! It really makes me start to feel old...
Yesterday during HO farewell Wenjun mentioned about a 'Sad Life Club' - specially for all the guys from HO who have graduated: that makes me, Kelvin, Wen Rong, Tai man and Wenjun himself in it. Why sad life? Because boys are becoming extinct in AHS HO. In my batch, and subsequent batches of HO members after that, there was only one guy for every 10 girls. I guess for Kelvin and Tai man's case, it's because NS has more or less taken away their opportunities to interact with the opposite sex for 2 years... Haha.
Anyway I finally managed to shop for my Prom Night clothing. I even had a sneak preview of how it would look like on the big night. I must say it's a million times better than my Sec 4 prom night outfit. But this time I look like some businessman (young entrepreneur?). Lol!
Just 3 more days!
I was glancing through the photos I took at AHS HO farewell for the past 3 years, starting from the year I graduated, and I realised how much my juniors have grown! It really makes me start to feel old...
Yesterday during HO farewell Wenjun mentioned about a 'Sad Life Club' - specially for all the guys from HO who have graduated: that makes me, Kelvin, Wen Rong, Tai man and Wenjun himself in it. Why sad life? Because boys are becoming extinct in AHS HO. In my batch, and subsequent batches of HO members after that, there was only one guy for every 10 girls. I guess for Kelvin and Tai man's case, it's because NS has more or less taken away their opportunities to interact with the opposite sex for 2 years... Haha.
Anyway I finally managed to shop for my Prom Night clothing. I even had a sneak preview of how it would look like on the big night. I must say it's a million times better than my Sec 4 prom night outfit. But this time I look like some businessman (young entrepreneur?). Lol!
Just 3 more days!
Seen double!
While I was waiting at Harbourfront MRT yesterday for my friend, I spotted a familiar face. She looked like one of my juniors in AHS HO, so I smiled to her, and she smiled back too. But somehow I thought maybe she wasn't the person whom I knew. It turned out that she was actually the twin sister of my junior! (I found that out only when I asked my junior tonight during the annual CCA farewell) But I'm quite surprised that she actually recognises me, given that she's not in the same CCA as my junior. Hm, sometimes, it's difficult to distinguish between twins eh?
Year after year, I have witnessed many AHS HO farewells, and with each passing year it just gets better. I guess the juniors have become more enthu about their CCA. This is a good sign, as just a few years ago we seniors thought HO might one day be forced to close down...
Even the prom nights are held at better locations recently, compared to a few years ago. In my time, Sec 4 prom was at Four Seasons Hotel. But the batch after mine had theirs at the Fullerton Hotel, while this year's Sec 4s had the privillege of going to the Marriot for prom!
Which reminds me, my JC prom night is coming in 4 days. I better start thinking of how to style myself up for the big night, cos I don't want a fashion disaster to occur yet again.
While I was waiting at Harbourfront MRT yesterday for my friend, I spotted a familiar face. She looked like one of my juniors in AHS HO, so I smiled to her, and she smiled back too. But somehow I thought maybe she wasn't the person whom I knew. It turned out that she was actually the twin sister of my junior! (I found that out only when I asked my junior tonight during the annual CCA farewell) But I'm quite surprised that she actually recognises me, given that she's not in the same CCA as my junior. Hm, sometimes, it's difficult to distinguish between twins eh?
Year after year, I have witnessed many AHS HO farewells, and with each passing year it just gets better. I guess the juniors have become more enthu about their CCA. This is a good sign, as just a few years ago we seniors thought HO might one day be forced to close down...
Even the prom nights are held at better locations recently, compared to a few years ago. In my time, Sec 4 prom was at Four Seasons Hotel. But the batch after mine had theirs at the Fullerton Hotel, while this year's Sec 4s had the privillege of going to the Marriot for prom!
Which reminds me, my JC prom night is coming in 4 days. I better start thinking of how to style myself up for the big night, cos I don't want a fashion disaster to occur yet again.
Thursday, 30 November 2006
VivoCity & Casino Royale
After walking through all 5 levels of the shopping mall, I don't see why it is the 'biggest shopping mall in Singapore'... Just because its corridors are wide doesn't mean that it's big! What about IMM and Jurong Point? Aren't they supposedly bigger? Anyway one interesting feature about the mall is that it has a rooftop wading pool where people can dip their feet into it and walk from one end of the mall to another. But if it rains then good luck to you.
Well, of course, while I was at Vivo I took the opportunity to visit the GV cineplex there with my friend which was also said to be 'the biggest cineplex in Singapore'. Ok, there might be 14 or more cinema theatres there, but each of them, I guess, are still of standard size.
Casino Royale is rather special, cos for the first time, you see a James Bond that's really so clumsy. After all, in this movie, it's his first assignment so what more can you expect from a rookie? I quite liked the song accompanying the opening credits: 'You Know My Name' by Chris Cornell. The opening titles itself was very cool too, with spades becoming bullets and people disintegrating into diamonds after they are killed. I'm rather satisfied with the movie. Fortunately my friend didn't 'keep her eyes closed throughout the movie' just because Daniel Craig doesn't look 'Bond' enough!
After walking through all 5 levels of the shopping mall, I don't see why it is the 'biggest shopping mall in Singapore'... Just because its corridors are wide doesn't mean that it's big! What about IMM and Jurong Point? Aren't they supposedly bigger? Anyway one interesting feature about the mall is that it has a rooftop wading pool where people can dip their feet into it and walk from one end of the mall to another. But if it rains then good luck to you.
Well, of course, while I was at Vivo I took the opportunity to visit the GV cineplex there with my friend which was also said to be 'the biggest cineplex in Singapore'. Ok, there might be 14 or more cinema theatres there, but each of them, I guess, are still of standard size.
Casino Royale is rather special, cos for the first time, you see a James Bond that's really so clumsy. After all, in this movie, it's his first assignment so what more can you expect from a rookie? I quite liked the song accompanying the opening credits: 'You Know My Name' by Chris Cornell. The opening titles itself was very cool too, with spades becoming bullets and people disintegrating into diamonds after they are killed. I'm rather satisfied with the movie. Fortunately my friend didn't 'keep her eyes closed throughout the movie' just because Daniel Craig doesn't look 'Bond' enough!
Tuesday, 28 November 2006
Class Gathering
As the A level exams draw to a close, I've been receiving more invitations for outings...
Oh well, but for the first time in my life today, I sang karaoke!
Ok, maybe I have a lousy social life that's why I've never experienced such a thing.
But anyway, it's still a first time!
I suppose more first times will come...
As the A level exams draw to a close, I've been receiving more invitations for outings...
Oh well, but for the first time in my life today, I sang karaoke!
Ok, maybe I have a lousy social life that's why I've never experienced such a thing.
But anyway, it's still a first time!
I suppose more first times will come...
Thursday, 23 November 2006
Finally...
After 2 years, the day has arrived. But it seems like there isn't much of a celebratory atmosphere as half of my classmates have one more paper to deal with, so not everyone can start partying yet. Well at least now I can heave a sigh of relief.
I think I ought to start thinking about fully utilising my one and a half month of free time before enlistment. Zhenyi has already started thinking about playing Fifa Manager 07 even before his last paper tomorrow!
After 2 years, the day has arrived. But it seems like there isn't much of a celebratory atmosphere as half of my classmates have one more paper to deal with, so not everyone can start partying yet. Well at least now I can heave a sigh of relief.
I think I ought to start thinking about fully utilising my one and a half month of free time before enlistment. Zhenyi has already started thinking about playing Fifa Manager 07 even before his last paper tomorrow!
Monday, 23 October 2006
Sunday, 22 October 2006
Sunday, 8 October 2006
Saturday, 7 October 2006
Last day of school...
On the last day of school, I:
1) ate canteen stall 2's potato wedges for the first time
2) took tons of photos with classmates
3) still sat in the front row in class (as usual...)
4) ate lunch at RI, which was usually the case on Friday.
That's probably the last time I step into room A42, which has been my permanent classroom for the past 9 months.
Sigh, you only treasure something when you're about to lose it.
If only life was like a DVD recorder. This reminds me of the recent movie 'Click' which starred Adam Sandler. I didn't watch it, but I think the story is something creative.
The butterfly that can't fly.
These few weeks I've been observing caterpillars growing and munching on the leaves of one of my plants in the balcony. Many of them developed into a pupa and subsequently butterflies, but there was this big butterfly which emerged yesterday and was so tired that it couldn't fly! Then when my mum discovered it shifted its position, one of its wings was torn already so it could just barely flutter its wings... How saddening. A butterfly that managed to develop but can't see the world!
And there was another butterfly whose pupa was much tinier yet it could fly away when it finished metamorphosizing today.
It's all to do with Darwin's theory of natural selection perhaps?
On the last day of school, I:
1) ate canteen stall 2's potato wedges for the first time
2) took tons of photos with classmates
3) still sat in the front row in class (as usual...)
4) ate lunch at RI, which was usually the case on Friday.
That's probably the last time I step into room A42, which has been my permanent classroom for the past 9 months.
Sigh, you only treasure something when you're about to lose it.
If only life was like a DVD recorder. This reminds me of the recent movie 'Click' which starred Adam Sandler. I didn't watch it, but I think the story is something creative.
The butterfly that can't fly.
These few weeks I've been observing caterpillars growing and munching on the leaves of one of my plants in the balcony. Many of them developed into a pupa and subsequently butterflies, but there was this big butterfly which emerged yesterday and was so tired that it couldn't fly! Then when my mum discovered it shifted its position, one of its wings was torn already so it could just barely flutter its wings... How saddening. A butterfly that managed to develop but can't see the world!
And there was another butterfly whose pupa was much tinier yet it could fly away when it finished metamorphosizing today.
It's all to do with Darwin's theory of natural selection perhaps?
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
6 days of rest days...
5 people turned up on Sunday
4 consecutive trips to McDonalds (Saturday to Tuesday)
3 outings in a row
2 bicycles rented on Monday
1 3I class outing on Tuesday
0 more days of enjoyment.
It's back to work tomorrow! =(
S'pore's Island Resort
I haven't been to Sentosa for ages... My last trip there was probably when I was still in primary school. Now, with the monorail gone, the ferry services terminated and many old attractions demolished, Sentosa has been given a new lease of life... But I think the only thing worthwhile to do there is to lie on the beach or play beach games there, cos everything else has a admission fee tagged to it.
I guess time and tide changes everything. Weijian commented that if you don't visit any part of S'pore for 3 years, you'll probably find that it's changed the next time you visit it.
5 people turned up on Sunday
4 consecutive trips to McDonalds (Saturday to Tuesday)
3 outings in a row
2 bicycles rented on Monday
1 3I class outing on Tuesday
0 more days of enjoyment.
It's back to work tomorrow! =(
S'pore's Island Resort
I haven't been to Sentosa for ages... My last trip there was probably when I was still in primary school. Now, with the monorail gone, the ferry services terminated and many old attractions demolished, Sentosa has been given a new lease of life... But I think the only thing worthwhile to do there is to lie on the beach or play beach games there, cos everything else has a admission fee tagged to it.
I guess time and tide changes everything. Weijian commented that if you don't visit any part of S'pore for 3 years, you'll probably find that it's changed the next time you visit it.
Monday, 25 September 2006
Something interesting that I stumbled upon on Wikipedia...
It all started off with the most recent Colin Goh TalkingCock article posted in 8 Days magazine.
(extracted from TalkingCock.com)
"WHICH IS A LORD OF THE RINGS CHARACTER AND WHICH IS AN IKEA PRODUCT?
1. Grimbold 2. Kvart 3. Deagol 4. Grima 5. Arden Ruta 6. Norrgrund 7. Faramir 8. Aneboda 9. Frodo 10. Freda 11. Sultan Talliden 12. Galdor 13. Boromir 14. Heimdal 15. Nandor"
Want answers? Go visit the website yourself!
Anyway, I saw this Wikipedia article about IKEA just now. It's quite unbelieveable that "The IKEA Catalogue, containing about 12,000 products, is printed in 160 million copies (2006) worldwide, and distributed free of charge, through mail and stores worldwide. The IKEA Catalogue appears to meet or exceed the Bible (estimated at 53 to 100 million copies) in number of copies printed annually." (from Wikipedia)
Wow. Just consider how many IKEA shops are there in the world and how many trees have been cut down to print the catalogues!
Just some food for thought. :P
So you must be wondering how IKEA names its products too right?
"IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are either Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product name are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.
...
For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of children's toys, OSLO is a name of a bed, JERKER ( a Swedish man's name) is a popular desk, DINERA for tableware, KASSETT for media storage. One range of office furniture is named EFFEKTIV.
A notable exception is the IVAR shelving system, which dates back to the early 1970s. This item is named after the item's designer."
Cool.
It all started off with the most recent Colin Goh TalkingCock article posted in 8 Days magazine.
(extracted from TalkingCock.com)
"WHICH IS A LORD OF THE RINGS CHARACTER AND WHICH IS AN IKEA PRODUCT?
1. Grimbold 2. Kvart 3. Deagol 4. Grima 5. Arden Ruta 6. Norrgrund 7. Faramir 8. Aneboda 9. Frodo 10. Freda 11. Sultan Talliden 12. Galdor 13. Boromir 14. Heimdal 15. Nandor"
Want answers? Go visit the website yourself!
Anyway, I saw this Wikipedia article about IKEA just now. It's quite unbelieveable that "The IKEA Catalogue, containing about 12,000 products, is printed in 160 million copies (2006) worldwide, and distributed free of charge, through mail and stores worldwide. The IKEA Catalogue appears to meet or exceed the Bible (estimated at 53 to 100 million copies) in number of copies printed annually." (from Wikipedia)
Wow. Just consider how many IKEA shops are there in the world and how many trees have been cut down to print the catalogues!
Just some food for thought. :P
So you must be wondering how IKEA names its products too right?
"IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are either Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product name are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.
...
For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of children's toys, OSLO is a name of a bed, JERKER ( a Swedish man's name) is a popular desk, DINERA for tableware, KASSETT for media storage. One range of office furniture is named EFFEKTIV.
A notable exception is the IVAR shelving system, which dates back to the early 1970s. This item is named after the item's designer."
Cool.
Sunday, 24 September 2006
My Singapore Idol
This time, I think Hady really deserves to be crowned the 2nd (and maybe last?) S'pore Idol. He's got a powerful voice that's under control unlike Jon's whose voice is as thin as a sheet of paper. Maybe it's just too bad that they both sang the same song and Hady did it better.
I was thinking, if Hady wins SI, will he replace Taufik as 7-Eleven's poster boy?
Or will he appear on Ricola advertisements instead? Haha!
Anyway, I finally managed to step out of the confines of my neighbourhood today. Went to have lunch with the usual gang comprising qw, yf, sj, xyu and surprise person feldman. After that we decided on going to Pasir Ris park to cycle for 2 hours. At least that's better than just stoning around or doing window shopping.
I wonder why teenagers like to stone so much. It's so... wuliao!
Hm, tomorrow I shall be walking along Orchard and cycling at ECP with another friend! :)
And class outing scheduled for Tuesday. Hopefully it will be finalised by tomorrow!
This time, I think Hady really deserves to be crowned the 2nd (and maybe last?) S'pore Idol. He's got a powerful voice that's under control unlike Jon's whose voice is as thin as a sheet of paper. Maybe it's just too bad that they both sang the same song and Hady did it better.
I was thinking, if Hady wins SI, will he replace Taufik as 7-Eleven's poster boy?
Or will he appear on Ricola advertisements instead? Haha!
Anyway, I finally managed to step out of the confines of my neighbourhood today. Went to have lunch with the usual gang comprising qw, yf, sj, xyu and surprise person feldman. After that we decided on going to Pasir Ris park to cycle for 2 hours. At least that's better than just stoning around or doing window shopping.
I wonder why teenagers like to stone so much. It's so... wuliao!
Hm, tomorrow I shall be walking along Orchard and cycling at ECP with another friend! :)
And class outing scheduled for Tuesday. Hopefully it will be finalised by tomorrow!
Saturday, 23 September 2006
Bored bored bored bored bored...
Oh my. Besides playing old comp games, I can't think of anything else to do! This post exam period should probably be my most boring one so far!
Went for a walk to Challenger just now, and realised that many games on the shelves now are all for Xbox, rarely any new games for PC! So, what else can I do besides playing 'classic' comp games like Sim City 4?
It was reported in the Straits Times today that the Income CEO is stepping down after 30 years, and he's got a blog! www.tankinlian.blogspot.com After reading some of his entries I kind of sympathize with him, especially when he's not supposed to announce his retirement but the media wants to make the most stories out of rumours. Oh well.
PS: Summy, let me tell you one last time, there's no 'big shelf of books' at home!!!
Oh my. Besides playing old comp games, I can't think of anything else to do! This post exam period should probably be my most boring one so far!
Went for a walk to Challenger just now, and realised that many games on the shelves now are all for Xbox, rarely any new games for PC! So, what else can I do besides playing 'classic' comp games like Sim City 4?
It was reported in the Straits Times today that the Income CEO is stepping down after 30 years, and he's got a blog! www.tankinlian.blogspot.com After reading some of his entries I kind of sympathize with him, especially when he's not supposed to announce his retirement but the media wants to make the most stories out of rumours. Oh well.
PS: Summy, let me tell you one last time, there's no 'big shelf of books' at home!!!
Thursday, 21 September 2006
Still Fantasy?
I think Jay Chou is running out of ideas. All his songs in his latest album can be matched one for one to the November Chopin album! Ok, maybe the song with Fei Yu Qing was just one new item, but other than that, the style of his songs is... murmur, murmur, rap, rap, occasionally some love song, and that's it.
Maybe I shouldn't have bought the album last week, cos I had the 'Ye de di ba zhang' tune ringing in my head for the past week. Bah!
I think Jay Chou is running out of ideas. All his songs in his latest album can be matched one for one to the November Chopin album! Ok, maybe the song with Fei Yu Qing was just one new item, but other than that, the style of his songs is... murmur, murmur, rap, rap, occasionally some love song, and that's it.
Maybe I shouldn't have bought the album last week, cos I had the 'Ye de di ba zhang' tune ringing in my head for the past week. Bah!
Head on the chopping board!
Prelims is finally over, but for some schoolmates, there's still a Physics S tomorrow. Anyway, why should I bother since I don't take it? Haha.
The prelims has become a scavenger hunt for marks, like one classmate of mine who said he reached the end of the Maths paper 1 hour before time was up and spent the remaining hour salvaging whatever marks he can.
And some have given up on preparation for S papers cos they know they'll sit in the exam hall stoning. Lol.
Oh well, one's gone, but another will come again. Just one month and one week plus plus plus to go...
Meanwhile, celebrate! ;)
Prelims is finally over, but for some schoolmates, there's still a Physics S tomorrow. Anyway, why should I bother since I don't take it? Haha.
The prelims has become a scavenger hunt for marks, like one classmate of mine who said he reached the end of the Maths paper 1 hour before time was up and spent the remaining hour salvaging whatever marks he can.
And some have given up on preparation for S papers cos they know they'll sit in the exam hall stoning. Lol.
Oh well, one's gone, but another will come again. Just one month and one week plus plus plus to go...
Meanwhile, celebrate! ;)
Sunday, 17 September 2006
Finally!
It looks like Singapore is finally going to take part in some form of motorsport!
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060912/5/singapore229766.html
Maybe we'll nurture a Schumacher in 10 year's time? Lol... I just wonder.
It looks like Singapore is finally going to take part in some form of motorsport!
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060912/5/singapore229766.html
Maybe we'll nurture a Schumacher in 10 year's time? Lol... I just wonder.
Thursday, 7 September 2006
Occupational Hazards
It's quite surprising that the famous Croc Hunter Steve Irwin died due to a stingray attack. The irony is that he died while filming some documentary about the ocean's dangerous creatures, but the stingray was supposed to be docile unless provoked!
Just like Lance Armstrong suffers from 'some type of cancer' that could be due to prolonged sitting on the bike cushion? Haha. *-)
Just some food for thought.
It's quite surprising that the famous Croc Hunter Steve Irwin died due to a stingray attack. The irony is that he died while filming some documentary about the ocean's dangerous creatures, but the stingray was supposed to be docile unless provoked!
Just like Lance Armstrong suffers from 'some type of cancer' that could be due to prolonged sitting on the bike cushion? Haha. *-)
Just some food for thought.
Tuesday, 29 August 2006
Sunday, 27 August 2006
Static Electricity
Some of my classmates and I had a fun time zapping each other during Physics tutorial yesterday in a freezing Seminar Room 1... Easily accomplished just by rubbing your forearm against a plastic chair or table.
It's simply... shocking! *CRACK!*
And I think I've mastered Mok's magnetic pen cap trick. It's just simply deceiving...
Some of my classmates and I had a fun time zapping each other during Physics tutorial yesterday in a freezing Seminar Room 1... Easily accomplished just by rubbing your forearm against a plastic chair or table.
It's simply... shocking! *CRACK!*
And I think I've mastered Mok's magnetic pen cap trick. It's just simply deceiving...
Sunday, 20 August 2006
Saturday, 12 August 2006
Thursday, 10 August 2006
Everyone's changing...
As time passes by, you notice people change. Not just in character. Example: look who's going along with who now in your class, CCA, in school, etc...
Perhaps at this point in one's life, it's necessary to have a "very good friend"of the opposite sex to spice up an otherwise boring, routine school life?
Many people around me have changed. Even I've changed. Time changes everything.
Argh, I noticed that I'm seriously incoherent when I blog. I better do something about my English.
Smile! You're on camera!
Anyway, I was looking at some pics taken by my classmate during National Day celebrations in school last night. I must say that people look best when they're natural. Maybe that's why I feel uncomfortable when I need to smile for the camera. (That's also why you seldom see my two rows of teeth in any of my pics, I merely grin, not smile.) After 18 years of my life, I still have no idea which type of smile is best for me. How pathetic.
Perhaps I just have that 'dao' look. I'll probably look better when I don't open my mouth wide when I smile. ^-^
As time passes by, you notice people change. Not just in character. Example: look who's going along with who now in your class, CCA, in school, etc...
Perhaps at this point in one's life, it's necessary to have a "very good friend"
Many people around me have changed. Even I've changed. Time changes everything.
Argh, I noticed that I'm seriously incoherent when I blog. I better do something about my English.
Smile! You're on camera!
Anyway, I was looking at some pics taken by my classmate during National Day celebrations in school last night. I must say that people look best when they're natural. Maybe that's why I feel uncomfortable when I need to smile for the camera. (That's also why you seldom see my two rows of teeth in any of my pics, I merely grin, not smile.) After 18 years of my life, I still have no idea which type of smile is best for me. How pathetic.
Perhaps I just have that 'dao' look. I'll probably look better when I don't open my mouth wide when I smile. ^-^
National Day
I think for the past decade the heavens have been kind to Singapore and not rain during the NDP. I can't recall a time when the NDP had to be postponed because of rain...
Anyway, even though the 41st National Day Parade is the last at the National Stadium, it definitely isn't as impactful as last year's. What a lousy ending to the closure of the Stadium after it was built in 1967 (did I get my facts right? *-) )
I still remember last year there was this giant NDP carnival held at a large open field near to my house during the celebrations, and I was with Qingwei and co. This year, no such carnival, not much excitement. Hai...
So, where's next year's NDP going to be held at? The padang?
I think for the past decade the heavens have been kind to Singapore and not rain during the NDP. I can't recall a time when the NDP had to be postponed because of rain...
Anyway, even though the 41st National Day Parade is the last at the National Stadium, it definitely isn't as impactful as last year's. What a lousy ending to the closure of the Stadium after it was built in 1967 (did I get my facts right? *-) )
I still remember last year there was this giant NDP carnival held at a large open field near to my house during the celebrations, and I was with Qingwei and co. This year, no such carnival, not much excitement. Hai...
So, where's next year's NDP going to be held at? The padang?
Sunday, 30 July 2006
Saturday, 22 July 2006
Feeling faint...
I never knew that fainting can take many forms until today. And all along I thought you'll faint only if you're giddy or feeling nausea. Seems like I found the cause of my blurred vision and blocked ears during a Bio live dissection practical 2 years ago. I always thought that sensation was like God telling me: see no evil, hear no evil that's why I can't see properly and hear properly that time and also this morning.
Anyway, I'm still writing in my diary very frequently. It really does offer more freedom of speech and more flexibility in writing what I want or treating it as a scrapbook of pics. So I doubt I'll blog very frequently in the near future too.
Summy, aren't you glad that I declined to watch Pirates with you and xyu this evening? I hope you enjoyed yourself! Heehee... ;)
I never knew that fainting can take many forms until today. And all along I thought you'll faint only if you're giddy or feeling nausea. Seems like I found the cause of my blurred vision and blocked ears during a Bio live dissection practical 2 years ago. I always thought that sensation was like God telling me: see no evil, hear no evil that's why I can't see properly and hear properly that time and also this morning.
Anyway, I'm still writing in my diary very frequently. It really does offer more freedom of speech and more flexibility in writing what I want or treating it as a scrapbook of pics. So I doubt I'll blog very frequently in the near future too.
Summy, aren't you glad that I declined to watch Pirates with you and xyu this evening? I hope you enjoyed yourself! Heehee... ;)
Sunday, 9 July 2006
Coming to an end...
As the saying goes: all good things come to an end. So somehow the World Cup must also end right?
Anyway, one month ago, an electrical appliance store was promoting things like home theatre systems and portable DVD players at $0 if the customer's selected team wins the world cup. Think that choosing Brazil will be a sure win situation for you? Haha. The catch is, they only give you 5 choices: Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and France.
Half a month later, this same store changed their promotion: the items would be sold at half price if the customer's selected team wins the World Cup. I guess they knew that these European teams are progressing well in the tournament and they'll definitely suffer a loss if one of the 5 teams win.
Tomorrow, either France or Italy will be confirmed winners of the World Cup. Since both teams are part of the 5 choices for this promotion, does it mean that the store can prepare to close shop after the World Cup? *-)
As the saying goes: all good things come to an end. So somehow the World Cup must also end right?
Anyway, one month ago, an electrical appliance store was promoting things like home theatre systems and portable DVD players at $0 if the customer's selected team wins the world cup. Think that choosing Brazil will be a sure win situation for you? Haha. The catch is, they only give you 5 choices: Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and France.
Half a month later, this same store changed their promotion: the items would be sold at half price if the customer's selected team wins the World Cup. I guess they knew that these European teams are progressing well in the tournament and they'll definitely suffer a loss if one of the 5 teams win.
Tomorrow, either France or Italy will be confirmed winners of the World Cup. Since both teams are part of the 5 choices for this promotion, does it mean that the store can prepare to close shop after the World Cup? *-)
Wednesday, 5 July 2006
Sunday, 2 July 2006
England vs Portugal
As expected, England lost, thru a penalty shootout. They were never great penalty takers anyway.
What could the players be thinking after the match? These could possibly be running thru their minds now:
Sven Goran Eriksson (England coach): Yay! Can go back and make love with my girlfriend already!
Steve McClaren (successor to Eriksson): Yay! Finally can become England manager, don't have to hide behind Eriksson all the time anymore! I shall show everyone I can be a better manager than him!
Luis Felipe Scolari (Portugal coach): Yay! See, me last time Brazil coach (won 2002 World Cup), Portugal sure going to win World Cup this time!
Wayne Rooney (England/Man U player): Christiano, you are so going to get it from me during training @ Man U when next season starts!!! :@ (C. Ronaldo tripped Rooney and caused him to be sent off for rowdy behaviour)
The entire England team: We should go bang our heads against the wall...
Awwww... simply bad luck, England.
As expected, England lost, thru a penalty shootout. They were never great penalty takers anyway.
What could the players be thinking after the match? These could possibly be running thru their minds now:
Sven Goran Eriksson (England coach): Yay! Can go back and make love with my girlfriend already!
Steve McClaren (successor to Eriksson): Yay! Finally can become England manager, don't have to hide behind Eriksson all the time anymore! I shall show everyone I can be a better manager than him!
Luis Felipe Scolari (Portugal coach): Yay! See, me last time Brazil coach (won 2002 World Cup), Portugal sure going to win World Cup this time!
Wayne Rooney (England/Man U player): Christiano, you are so going to get it from me during training @ Man U when next season starts!!! :@ (C. Ronaldo tripped Rooney and caused him to be sent off for rowdy behaviour)
The entire England team: We should go bang our heads against the wall...
Awwww... simply bad luck, England.
Friday, 30 June 2006
Theme Hospital
Sometimes, playing a classic comp game like the one above makes you wonder whether older games are more fun to play with despite their less than ideal graphics as compared to whatever high-res RPG games you have today...
Anyway, this post CT break is quite unusual. Usually on the day after CT my class will be having a class outing, but so far no one has really mentioned or suggested one...
Sometimes, playing a classic comp game like the one above makes you wonder whether older games are more fun to play with despite their less than ideal graphics as compared to whatever high-res RPG games you have today...
Anyway, this post CT break is quite unusual. Usually on the day after CT my class will be having a class outing, but so far no one has really mentioned or suggested one...
Celebrate the day!
Hello blog.
I haven't been here for one whole month already!
Well, thanks to 'popular' demand, I decided to blog today!
Celebrate what day? Not the day Brazil/Germany/Argentina/Italy/Ukraine/Portugal/England(!) wins the world cup, but of course to celebrate the end of CTs lah!
Yay, good riddance to CT2s. Made me eat so many Antacid tablets and cause me to have high blood pressure. Bleah! :(
Hello blog.
I haven't been here for one whole month already!
Well, thanks to 'popular' demand, I decided to blog today!
Celebrate what day? Not the day Brazil/Germany/Argentina/Italy/Ukraine/Portugal/England(!) wins the world cup, but of course to celebrate the end of CTs lah!
Yay, good riddance to CT2s. Made me eat so many Antacid tablets and cause me to have high blood pressure. Bleah! :(
Monday, 29 May 2006
After the Monaco Grand Prix...
Darn it! Alonso is 1st again, Montoya 2nd!
Jarno Trulli was almost at a good position to finish 3rd until his car gave way just 5 laps from the finish.
Anyway I think this race is the most exciting of all the races in the F1 calendar, simply because it is a circuit set right smack in a city environment. And I really admire the lifestyle of the people of Monaco. Their Friday is a rest day! That means a 4 1/2 day work week in that country? Ahhh... coupled with such nice scenery to look at, it's really a paradise country man... How I wished I lived there, so I can catch a Grand Prix race every year~
Darn it! Alonso is 1st again, Montoya 2nd!
Jarno Trulli was almost at a good position to finish 3rd until his car gave way just 5 laps from the finish.
Anyway I think this race is the most exciting of all the races in the F1 calendar, simply because it is a circuit set right smack in a city environment. And I really admire the lifestyle of the people of Monaco. Their Friday is a rest day! That means a 4 1/2 day work week in that country? Ahhh... coupled with such nice scenery to look at, it's really a paradise country man... How I wished I lived there, so I can catch a Grand Prix race every year~
After 1 1/2 years of blogging...
I think it's time I stopped blogging that often. The recent turn of events in my life have prompted me to keep some of my memories just to myself, so I can't be too liberal about sharing my life story.(boring as it may seem, like that guy in the Navy advertisement) Therefore, at 12+am this morning, my good ol' diary has been resurrected... something which I have not touched for 2 years already since I started blogging. Although this time it takes the form of a free TV mobile notebook that I found in one corner of my bookshelf, I think this new old diary shall be my scrapbook of pictures too!
So far, 2006 has been a roller coaster ride for me, and I hope the best for the year is yet to come! And come to think of it, 1st June is coming soon... The 1st anniversary of me visiting HK. How fast time flies man. And how much things can change in a year...
PS: I wonder why Qingwei has the same sentiments about quitting blogging too... how coincidental!
PPS: Recently I've become so sentimental, listening to ABBA songs all day long!
I think it's time I stopped blogging that often. The recent turn of events in my life have prompted me to keep some of my memories just to myself, so I can't be too liberal about sharing my life story.(boring as it may seem, like that guy in the Navy advertisement) Therefore, at 12+am this morning, my good ol' diary has been resurrected... something which I have not touched for 2 years already since I started blogging. Although this time it takes the form of a free TV mobile notebook that I found in one corner of my bookshelf, I think this new old diary shall be my scrapbook of pictures too!
So far, 2006 has been a roller coaster ride for me, and I hope the best for the year is yet to come! And come to think of it, 1st June is coming soon... The 1st anniversary of me visiting HK. How fast time flies man. And how much things can change in a year...
PS: I wonder why Qingwei has the same sentiments about quitting blogging too... how coincidental!
PPS: Recently I've become so sentimental, listening to ABBA songs all day long!
Sunday, 21 May 2006
Resonance 8
This year, I felt that vj harmoc concert couldn't compare with ours, not like last year, when they totally surpassed our standards and I really felt like bashing my head against the wall. This time, half the j2 exco went: Me, Kaichen, yunxuan, Yokeshan, and a few j1s, such as Eesin, the 'RG trio' and Christina.
As usual, met a couple of AHS HO juniors and seniors, including Wenrong, Kelvin, Weiquan. This time Eeleng and Luyi performed a quartet (Tears in Heaven) with two other AHS 4K classmates.
During the intermission the new j1 vice-pres raised the same question as what Kaichen asked last year: 'Should we consider changing conductor?' Indeed, Mr Tang who coached AHS harmoc in the last year I was there is creative, but I can't remember why we still stuck with our current conductor, Mr yew, after considering a switch at the end of last year...
Hai. Choices. Why does it have to come down to the same situation this year again?
This year, I felt that vj harmoc concert couldn't compare with ours, not like last year, when they totally surpassed our standards and I really felt like bashing my head against the wall. This time, half the j2 exco went: Me, Kaichen, yunxuan, Yokeshan, and a few j1s, such as Eesin, the 'RG trio' and Christina.
As usual, met a couple of AHS HO juniors and seniors, including Wenrong, Kelvin, Weiquan. This time Eeleng and Luyi performed a quartet (Tears in Heaven) with two other AHS 4K classmates.
During the intermission the new j1 vice-pres raised the same question as what Kaichen asked last year: 'Should we consider changing conductor?' Indeed, Mr Tang who coached AHS harmoc in the last year I was there is creative, but I can't remember why we still stuck with our current conductor, Mr yew, after considering a switch at the end of last year...
Hai. Choices. Why does it have to come down to the same situation this year again?
Friday, 19 May 2006
Sunday, 14 May 2006
The feeling of emptiness...
Starting tomorrow I won't have to stay till 7pm in school every alternate day for harmoc anymore. It's quite sad actually cos I'm used to it already and suddenly there's another change to my daily routine. Oh well.
The numerous holidays for the past month has really tweaked my biological clock a little. Vesak day holiday seemed like a Sunday, and today? Like a public holiday. Then there's another school holiday coming up next Tuesday, just before GP common test.
Starting tomorrow I won't have to stay till 7pm in school every alternate day for harmoc anymore. It's quite sad actually cos I'm used to it already and suddenly there's another change to my daily routine. Oh well.
The numerous holidays for the past month has really tweaked my biological clock a little. Vesak day holiday seemed like a Sunday, and today? Like a public holiday. Then there's another school holiday coming up next Tuesday, just before GP common test.
Saturday, 13 May 2006
CCA Handover and a belated b'day celebration
Today I finally handed over my duties to the next batch of exco members. There was some significance in the presents I chose for the 3 SLs (of course, I did discuss it with Manyan and Marcus beforehand...) It was decided that one will get a set of cymbals, another will get a castanet, and the last one a pair of shakers. Since Sinlay (the 3rd SL) fiddled with the cymbals during concert, I thought it would be appropriate to give her the finger cymbals. Then Tabitha (the 2nd SL) received the pair of egg-shaped shakers while Sophia (the 1st SL cum Music Director) got the castanet.
Today's activities included soccer (with girls forming the majority of the teams) and captain's ball. At 10+am we went to the LT and stoned there for a while. The j1 exco and most of the j2 exco were actually discussing abt something which I didn't know at first, until I overheard them mentioning my name... Hmmm... After playing a few rounds of Bluff with Minkhai, Eesin and Marcus, I decided to pop over and listen to the 'discussion' going on. Looks like they were talking abt next year's plans, it seemed. Or so I thought.
Lunch was at the KFC outlet in j8, there wasn't many people there at first but by 12pm the lunch crowd was coming in. Yunxuan and Yokeshan were among the first to leave and go jalan jalan, but they were actually scouting for my belated b'day present. (I didn't realise it till later) It started to rain heavily at around 12 plus, so Marcus, Minkhai and I decided to walk around j8, first down to the basement and then slowly making our way up to the top floor. Actually the 2 girls were inside Minitoons on level 4 looking for my present, when we three were walking past Poh Kim video and stopped to watch I Not Stupid 2 for a while.
At 1pm the heavy rain became a drizzle so we all made our way back. Because some j1s had to leave early and the SLs haven't decorated the presents yet we quickly hid in the LT exit and decorated the shaker, castanet and cymbals (basically just writing our names and the j1 SL names on them) I received a bottle of Songshan Winter Honey from my successors. (so cheapo, but it was meaningful) The j1 exco also gave us each a card with the Harmonix group photo at the back of the card, among other things...
After the handover was done Manyan tried to lure me out of the LT by saying that she needed to complete writing some cards to give to the j2s and I took her excuse. She led me down to the amphi benches, where she started taking out the cards. But not more than 5 mins later, Kaichen called us back to the LT and voila, surprise for me... they revealed the b'day surprise, which included one chocolate cake and a monkey toy. (Argh, maybe if I hadn't taken Manyan's excuse that easily their plan would have been foiled! Basket!) The monkey toy is supposed to be hung around my neck, and it makes me look like one of those MPs doing their rally speeches. The monkey really resembles a garland. Maybe I'll post a pic of it sometime later.
Actually it was not too much of a surprise either. They had celebrated Kaichen's belated b'day last Saturday but because of SAT I didn't want to rush back for prac. So they ended up buying 2 cakes for 2 people, haha! And Yokeshan almost disclosed the plan to me accidentally when she messaged me: 'hey do you know what flavour geoff likes?' yesterday morning while I was having piano lesson.
At the end of the day, I think I should cut a long story short and thank the following people:
1. those who turned up for Harmonix (including my parents, godparents, classmates like Hanlong, 6i classmates like Hongwei, Jiacong, OG mates like Hanyang, Timmok)
2. the 2 other SLs Manyan and Marcus for working with me for the past 1 year
3. the rest of the j2 exco, ie Mingjie, Kaichen, Yunxuan, Elizabeth, Yokeshan for all the wonderful/tiring/tedious moments
4. the j1 exco, for being so united and organised and for helping us out in Harmonix prep
5. classmates who couldn't turn up but gave me presents like Julia or sent encouragement msgs like Rachel
6. the j3 exco for supporting us on the day of our concert and helping us do our makeup :P
7. Qingwei and Zhenyi for expressing interest in coming for Harmonix but couldn't due to workload stress etc...
Lastly, thank the j1 and j2 exco again for organising today's belated b'day surprise for me. I'm very touched and thankful to you all. :D At least I enjoyed my day.
All the memories of RJ harmonica for the past year I will never forget.
Now, it's on to other more important stuff like how to tackle my Grade 8 piano exam coming up on June 6, common test 2 and theory of driving test?
Today I finally handed over my duties to the next batch of exco members. There was some significance in the presents I chose for the 3 SLs (of course, I did discuss it with Manyan and Marcus beforehand...) It was decided that one will get a set of cymbals, another will get a castanet, and the last one a pair of shakers. Since Sinlay (the 3rd SL) fiddled with the cymbals during concert, I thought it would be appropriate to give her the finger cymbals. Then Tabitha (the 2nd SL) received the pair of egg-shaped shakers while Sophia (the 1st SL cum Music Director) got the castanet.
Today's activities included soccer (with girls forming the majority of the teams) and captain's ball. At 10+am we went to the LT and stoned there for a while. The j1 exco and most of the j2 exco were actually discussing abt something which I didn't know at first, until I overheard them mentioning my name... Hmmm... After playing a few rounds of Bluff with Minkhai, Eesin and Marcus, I decided to pop over and listen to the 'discussion' going on. Looks like they were talking abt next year's plans, it seemed. Or so I thought.
Lunch was at the KFC outlet in j8, there wasn't many people there at first but by 12pm the lunch crowd was coming in. Yunxuan and Yokeshan were among the first to leave and go jalan jalan, but they were actually scouting for my belated b'day present. (I didn't realise it till later) It started to rain heavily at around 12 plus, so Marcus, Minkhai and I decided to walk around j8, first down to the basement and then slowly making our way up to the top floor. Actually the 2 girls were inside Minitoons on level 4 looking for my present, when we three were walking past Poh Kim video and stopped to watch I Not Stupid 2 for a while.
At 1pm the heavy rain became a drizzle so we all made our way back. Because some j1s had to leave early and the SLs haven't decorated the presents yet we quickly hid in the LT exit and decorated the shaker, castanet and cymbals (basically just writing our names and the j1 SL names on them) I received a bottle of Songshan Winter Honey from my successors. (so cheapo, but it was meaningful) The j1 exco also gave us each a card with the Harmonix group photo at the back of the card, among other things...
After the handover was done Manyan tried to lure me out of the LT by saying that she needed to complete writing some cards to give to the j2s and I took her excuse. She led me down to the amphi benches, where she started taking out the cards. But not more than 5 mins later, Kaichen called us back to the LT and voila, surprise for me... they revealed the b'day surprise, which included one chocolate cake and a monkey toy. (Argh, maybe if I hadn't taken Manyan's excuse that easily their plan would have been foiled! Basket!) The monkey toy is supposed to be hung around my neck, and it makes me look like one of those MPs doing their rally speeches. The monkey really resembles a garland. Maybe I'll post a pic of it sometime later.
Actually it was not too much of a surprise either. They had celebrated Kaichen's belated b'day last Saturday but because of SAT I didn't want to rush back for prac. So they ended up buying 2 cakes for 2 people, haha! And Yokeshan almost disclosed the plan to me accidentally when she messaged me: 'hey do you know what flavour geoff likes?' yesterday morning while I was having piano lesson.
At the end of the day, I think I should cut a long story short and thank the following people:
1. those who turned up for Harmonix (including my parents, godparents, classmates like Hanlong, 6i classmates like Hongwei, Jiacong, OG mates like Hanyang, Timmok)
2. the 2 other SLs Manyan and Marcus for working with me for the past 1 year
3. the rest of the j2 exco, ie Mingjie, Kaichen, Yunxuan, Elizabeth, Yokeshan for all the wonderful/tiring/tedious moments
4. the j1 exco, for being so united and organised and for helping us out in Harmonix prep
5. classmates who couldn't turn up but gave me presents like Julia or sent encouragement msgs like Rachel
6. the j3 exco for supporting us on the day of our concert and helping us do our makeup :P
7. Qingwei and Zhenyi for expressing interest in coming for Harmonix but couldn't due to workload stress etc...
Lastly, thank the j1 and j2 exco again for organising today's belated b'day surprise for me. I'm very touched and thankful to you all. :D At least I enjoyed my day.
All the memories of RJ harmonica for the past year I will never forget.
Now, it's on to other more important stuff like how to tackle my Grade 8 piano exam coming up on June 6, common test 2 and theory of driving test?
Thursday, 11 May 2006
Harmonix IX
It was a success, the crowd enjoyed it, the seniors knew there was an improvement from last years', and we all know we didn't screw up for most of the concert. As usual there were the occasional score-dropping or stage lighting bloopers, not forgetting the instant where Jean's harmonica push button fell off during Nutcracker and made a loud 'tock!' when it hit the floor. Although this time I didn't have as much 'air-time' compared to some other j2s (I blew only 4 ensemble pieces and 2 small group songs) I had the opportunity of soloing the final phrase of Qing Fei De Yi (exco song) and also one small part in Carmen which was the finale. Ah, but I guess the audience spoiled my first solo cos they started clapping even before I could finish blowing it. Anyway, it's over liao... (I reached home at 12am last night, slept at 1am. No wonder I was a zombie today.)
Now, the feeling of leaving harmoc is bittersweet. On one hand, I don't have to devote my afternoons to practices and shouting my voice hoarse just to conduct prac. But on the other hand, I'll most likely not see my CCA-mates and exco members that often already...
Today my Math teacher had her last lesson with us after she announced her retirement only two weeks back. Just before leaving Colin asked her what's she going to do for the coming months. He suggested she became a politician, or go on a round the world trip. But she replied that she'll most probably stay at home shaking legs enjoying her retirement until she is reinspired to teach again...
On Sunday I went to watch RJCO concert at the Esplanade. My godbro was part of the highlights, leading his team of RJCO, RICO and RGCO percussionists (which includes my godsis too) in drumming 'Qin Wang Dian Bin'. I'd say that after the concert I feel enlightened about how prepping for a concert should be like. So perhaps that's why Harmonix turned out to be better than last year?
It was a success, the crowd enjoyed it, the seniors knew there was an improvement from last years', and we all know we didn't screw up for most of the concert. As usual there were the occasional score-dropping or stage lighting bloopers, not forgetting the instant where Jean's harmonica push button fell off during Nutcracker and made a loud 'tock!' when it hit the floor. Although this time I didn't have as much 'air-time' compared to some other j2s (I blew only 4 ensemble pieces and 2 small group songs) I had the opportunity of soloing the final phrase of Qing Fei De Yi (exco song) and also one small part in Carmen which was the finale. Ah, but I guess the audience spoiled my first solo cos they started clapping even before I could finish blowing it. Anyway, it's over liao... (I reached home at 12am last night, slept at 1am. No wonder I was a zombie today.)
Now, the feeling of leaving harmoc is bittersweet. On one hand, I don't have to devote my afternoons to practices and shouting my voice hoarse just to conduct prac. But on the other hand, I'll most likely not see my CCA-mates and exco members that often already...
Today my Math teacher had her last lesson with us after she announced her retirement only two weeks back. Just before leaving Colin asked her what's she going to do for the coming months. He suggested she became a politician, or go on a round the world trip. But she replied that she'll most probably stay at home shaking legs enjoying her retirement until she is reinspired to teach again...
On Sunday I went to watch RJCO concert at the Esplanade. My godbro was part of the highlights, leading his team of RJCO, RICO and RGCO percussionists (which includes my godsis too) in drumming 'Qin Wang Dian Bin'. I'd say that after the concert I feel enlightened about how prepping for a concert should be like. So perhaps that's why Harmonix turned out to be better than last year?
Sunday, 7 May 2006
Bad omen?
Just now at 8pm when voting was about to close it started raining heavily in Tampines with really strong gust of wind. So could it mean that the PAP was going to suffer in this GE? Perhaps perhaps perhaps...
We treasure what we have only when we're about to lose them...
Harmonix IX is coming up this Wednesday, and the Saturday after that is handover. Come to think of it, did I really treasure the time I spent with my other exco members? Although there were good times (interviewing potential j1 exco people and trying to 'diao' them) and really bad times (like having to rush out scores a few months ago), I think 1 year simply is too short a time... Yes, I enjoyed the time I spent in RJ harmoc exco, and these few days will hopefully the best part of my memories of RJ harmoc... But I really regret not enjoying it even more... Sigh...
Manyan says she'd like to have the next few days pass by quickly so that all the exco's 'troubles' can finally be dumped to the j1 exco to continue our legacy, but somehow I feel that I'd rather not have Wednesday come so quickly.
Hai. -_-
Just now at 8pm when voting was about to close it started raining heavily in Tampines with really strong gust of wind. So could it mean that the PAP was going to suffer in this GE? Perhaps perhaps perhaps...
We treasure what we have only when we're about to lose them...
Harmonix IX is coming up this Wednesday, and the Saturday after that is handover. Come to think of it, did I really treasure the time I spent with my other exco members? Although there were good times (interviewing potential j1 exco people and trying to 'diao' them) and really bad times (like having to rush out scores a few months ago), I think 1 year simply is too short a time... Yes, I enjoyed the time I spent in RJ harmoc exco, and these few days will hopefully the best part of my memories of RJ harmoc... But I really regret not enjoying it even more... Sigh...
Manyan says she'd like to have the next few days pass by quickly so that all the exco's 'troubles' can finally be dumped to the j1 exco to continue our legacy, but somehow I feel that I'd rather not have Wednesday come so quickly.
Hai. -_-
Election day results
My prediction? Status quo. Simple as that.
Looking at the results that have been announced (which is all), PAP has lost some of the votes from the people! But I was thinking, in a couple of GEs time, when Mr Chiam and Mr Low retire from politics and can't find a suitable replacement, will PAP have total domination? Maybe...
This time, the counters are more efficient, even before 1am all the votes have been tallied!
Looking back at the past few days, I noticed some amusing things. Like why do more people turn up for opposition rallies (eg WP) rather than PAP rallies? I think what the PM said in the newspapers yesterday were quite true, that PAP usually tackles the same few issues which they think are important to the people, whereas people may want to listen what the opposition has to offer.
And the issue on Gomez, which was about whether more red tape should be cut.
What's more, how Tampines opposition candidates have "funny butterfly hairstyles", enjoys drawing cartoons in his free time, or hopes to make Tampines a 'high tech' estate (with free internet access for all residents?) because he's a nerdy looking IT technician.
Just on Friday there was a WP flag that was found in my classroom during GP tutorial. One classmate was waving it throughout the lesson, lol!
So I think that this election has its pretty interesting moments. By the time the next GE comes (probably in 4.5 years time), I'll most likely be of legal age to vote! Yippie! (provided some opposition party contests my GRC la)
Oh yeah, and my prediction is right, status quo! (PS: I did my prediction way before the last result was announced hor!)
While I was taking SAT today...
1. I saw a couple of other RJ students at Starhub Centre, and also Yu hui and Yingying from AHS.
2. RJ harmonica was practising in school despite it being a holiday, and according to Manyan we're still as screwed for concert which is this Wednesday.
3. My parents went to the polling station.
Ah, I must say that SAT is very tough on the brain. Only two 5 minute breaks and one 1 minute break ("to stand up and stretch") means that you must strategize what to do during the breaks. It'll most likely be a visit to the toilet and some face massages and then it'll be the next section.
After the test I felt that the math sections were alright (just like what many others feel too), despite a few tense moments where I took my foot off the pedal, but the worst was the reading compre sections. I had just enough time to complete my essay.
Now that it's over, I shall wait for the results to speak for themselves. I just hope they're good.
My prediction? Status quo. Simple as that.
Looking at the results that have been announced (which is all), PAP has lost some of the votes from the people! But I was thinking, in a couple of GEs time, when Mr Chiam and Mr Low retire from politics and can't find a suitable replacement, will PAP have total domination? Maybe...
This time, the counters are more efficient, even before 1am all the votes have been tallied!
Looking back at the past few days, I noticed some amusing things. Like why do more people turn up for opposition rallies (eg WP) rather than PAP rallies? I think what the PM said in the newspapers yesterday were quite true, that PAP usually tackles the same few issues which they think are important to the people, whereas people may want to listen what the opposition has to offer.
And the issue on Gomez, which was about whether more red tape should be cut.
What's more, how Tampines opposition candidates have "funny butterfly hairstyles", enjoys drawing cartoons in his free time, or hopes to make Tampines a 'high tech' estate (with free internet access for all residents?) because he's a nerdy looking IT technician.
Just on Friday there was a WP flag that was found in my classroom during GP tutorial. One classmate was waving it throughout the lesson, lol!
So I think that this election has its pretty interesting moments. By the time the next GE comes (probably in 4.5 years time), I'll most likely be of legal age to vote! Yippie! (provided some opposition party contests my GRC la)
Oh yeah, and my prediction is right, status quo! (PS: I did my prediction way before the last result was announced hor!)
While I was taking SAT today...
1. I saw a couple of other RJ students at Starhub Centre, and also Yu hui and Yingying from AHS.
2. RJ harmonica was practising in school despite it being a holiday, and according to Manyan we're still as screwed for concert which is this Wednesday.
3. My parents went to the polling station.
Ah, I must say that SAT is very tough on the brain. Only two 5 minute breaks and one 1 minute break ("to stand up and stretch") means that you must strategize what to do during the breaks. It'll most likely be a visit to the toilet and some face massages and then it'll be the next section.
After the test I felt that the math sections were alright (just like what many others feel too), despite a few tense moments where I took my foot off the pedal, but the worst was the reading compre sections. I had just enough time to complete my essay.
Now that it's over, I shall wait for the results to speak for themselves. I just hope they're good.
Monday, 1 May 2006
The heat intensifies...
With election coming up in 6 days, it's no wonder why today the PAP van made its rounds near my house at least 10 times from morning till night. And finally I saw the SDA one as well, but its recording is so screechy at times you can't hear it properly...
If you read today's newspaper, you'd have read WP sec-gen Low Thia Khiang's humorous reply to the ST's interview question. He was saying that the PAP knows how to hold election at the right time, but on doing so it rains every night. (meaning that rallies cannot be held outdoors) I take this to mean that he's 'suan-ing' the PAP for poor time judgement? Maybe you'd have other interpretations...
This election is getting more interesting...
With election coming up in 6 days, it's no wonder why today the PAP van made its rounds near my house at least 10 times from morning till night. And finally I saw the SDA one as well, but its recording is so screechy at times you can't hear it properly...
If you read today's newspaper, you'd have read WP sec-gen Low Thia Khiang's humorous reply to the ST's interview question. He was saying that the PAP knows how to hold election at the right time, but on doing so it rains every night. (meaning that rallies cannot be held outdoors) I take this to mean that he's 'suan-ing' the PAP for poor time judgement? Maybe you'd have other interpretations...
This election is getting more interesting...
The heat intensifies...
With election coming up in 6 days, it's no wonder why today the PAP van made its rounds near my house at least 10 times from morning till night. And finally I saw the SDA one as well, but its recording is so screechy at times you can't hear it properly...
If you read today's newspaper, you'd have read WP sec-gen Low Thia Khiang's humorous reply to the ST's interview question. He was saying that the PAP knows how to hold election at the right time, but on doing so it rains every night. (meaning that rallies cannot be held outdoors) I take this to mean that he's 'suan-ing' the PAP for poor time judgement? Maybe you'd have other interpretations...
This election is getting more interesting...
With election coming up in 6 days, it's no wonder why today the PAP van made its rounds near my house at least 10 times from morning till night. And finally I saw the SDA one as well, but its recording is so screechy at times you can't hear it properly...
If you read today's newspaper, you'd have read WP sec-gen Low Thia Khiang's humorous reply to the ST's interview question. He was saying that the PAP knows how to hold election at the right time, but on doing so it rains every night. (meaning that rallies cannot be held outdoors) I take this to mean that he's 'suan-ing' the PAP for poor time judgement? Maybe you'd have other interpretations...
This election is getting more interesting...
The heat intensifies...
With election coming up in 6 days, it's no wonder why today the PAP van made its rounds near my house at least 10 times from morning till night. And finally I saw the SDA one as well, but its recording is so screechy at times you can't hear it properly...
If you read today's newspaper, you'd have read WP sec-gen Low Thia Khiang's humorous reply to the ST's interview question. He was saying that the PAP knows how to hold election at the right time, but on doing so it rains every night. (meaning that rallies cannot be held outdoors) I take this to mean that he's 'suan-ing' the PAP for poor time judgement? Maybe you'd have other interpretations...
This election is getting more interesting...
With election coming up in 6 days, it's no wonder why today the PAP van made its rounds near my house at least 10 times from morning till night. And finally I saw the SDA one as well, but its recording is so screechy at times you can't hear it properly...
If you read today's newspaper, you'd have read WP sec-gen Low Thia Khiang's humorous reply to the ST's interview question. He was saying that the PAP knows how to hold election at the right time, but on doing so it rains every night. (meaning that rallies cannot be held outdoors) I take this to mean that he's 'suan-ing' the PAP for poor time judgement? Maybe you'd have other interpretations...
This election is getting more interesting...
Sunday, 30 April 2006
Rally speeches
Recently we've heard a couple of speeches from the j1s interested in running for exco.
Just now I went to listen to the East Coast GRC rally which surprisingly was held in an empty field near the Tampines entrance from Simei. When I arrived SM Goh was talking about creating jobs for the going to retire individuals, then he went on to comment about the WP. Part of his speech was rather funny and was aired on the news, like the part where he said 'do you want Gomez to be your finance minister, who can make his election paper disappear?'
After that I walked over to the SDA rally at the stadium. Couldn't catch much though, cos it was almost 10pm. But there were quite a lot of residents there, equal or even more than that at the East Coast rally...
This is the first time I attended political rallies, and is also the first time I came close to seeing SM Goh in person. Hmmm...
Recently we've heard a couple of speeches from the j1s interested in running for exco.
Just now I went to listen to the East Coast GRC rally which surprisingly was held in an empty field near the Tampines entrance from Simei. When I arrived SM Goh was talking about creating jobs for the going to retire individuals, then he went on to comment about the WP. Part of his speech was rather funny and was aired on the news, like the part where he said 'do you want Gomez to be your finance minister, who can make his election paper disappear?'
After that I walked over to the SDA rally at the stadium. Couldn't catch much though, cos it was almost 10pm. But there were quite a lot of residents there, equal or even more than that at the East Coast rally...
This is the first time I attended political rallies, and is also the first time I came close to seeing SM Goh in person. Hmmm...
Thursday, 27 April 2006
GE is here!
On my way home today at nearly 2pm I saw a few PAP grassroots riding in a truck putting up posters already. Hm, I'm surprised, where's the SDA posters ah? Unless they decided to put them up only tomorrow...
Took part in the sign language Civics elective today. Shall elaborate on it some other time. Grrr... so busy!
On my way home today at nearly 2pm I saw a few PAP grassroots riding in a truck putting up posters already. Hm, I'm surprised, where's the SDA posters ah? Unless they decided to put them up only tomorrow...
Took part in the sign language Civics elective today. Shall elaborate on it some other time. Grrr... so busy!
Wednesday, 26 April 2006
18~
At exactly 6.42am today, I was one step nearer towards adulthood. But, I'm still a teenager with, like what Yi zhe said, 'new rights' like eg. watching M-18 movies, or learning how to drive.
Today was quite an eventful day, especially when RJ harmonica was supposed to have its j1 exco election. At the end of the day, 8 new faces: 7 girls and 1 guy, have emerged. As to why the exco turned from 4 girls 4 guys to a superbly girl-dominated exco, it's all because the boy:girl ratio in our j1 batch is screwed up this year.
Throughout the day I received a few SMS greetings, the earliest being from Xiuyu at 2+am in the morning (of course, I didn't read it till I woke up) and the latest being from Elizabeth from the harmoc exco. I was quite surprised that at around 2pm, my civics tutor sent me a b'day greeting as well!
Hmmm I'd say that year on year, b'day celebrations have lesser frills. I remember the days when I had to pack 30+ goodie bags for each of my classmates to give out on my b'day (instead of receiving presents from them) and holding b'day parties at home with relatives.
Haha, of course, I still remember my 16th b'day where Shijia Xiuyu Jinlai Qingwei bought me that ty beanie pussycat and the '4 da cai zi' freaking stripped me partially after school!!! Or last year, where my OG brought a super mini tiramisu cake just for me and a soccer ball as well... (the soccer ball came about because one of my OG mates planted Chicky as a spy to ask about what I liked most and I answered Chelsea FC, but apparently they couldn't find Chelsea merchandise so they bought me a soccer ball instead)
Anyway, this time around, it's almost like last year. Harmonica prac till 7.30pm (at least slightly better than last year, which ended at 8pm) and by the time I got home, it was 9pm already. Cut cake (this time it's a simple Bengawan Solo one, no Swensens ice cream cake) at 9.30pm. So here I am blogging about today.
Well, I guess I should consider myself fortunate not to have a b'day during the holidays, when most likely no one will remember your b'day existed, and you won't receive presents on your b'day itself except those from your parents. Or worse, people who have b'days during or near to the exam period, like Eli, Yunxuan or Manyan... (two of them told me they celebrate their b'day with just a cake-cutting ceremony, but I guess that's almost like mine too...)
Once again, I'd like to thank those who sent me SMS greetings today, 2S03I for that birthday card with some really 'interesting' birthday wishes, the harmoc exco who wished me happy b'day and blew a b'day song before I left, and also Eli and Yunxuan for 'sponsoring' that white tie that's supposed to be worn on the day of Harmonix concert. :D
Ah, the 6 hour long harmoc prac has drained me of my energy. I think I'll have an early night!
PS. Today is also a milestone in S'pore history! lol, if preparation for GE nomination day which is to take place tomorrow, counts.
At exactly 6.42am today, I was one step nearer towards adulthood. But, I'm still a teenager with, like what Yi zhe said, 'new rights' like eg. watching M-18 movies, or learning how to drive.
Today was quite an eventful day, especially when RJ harmonica was supposed to have its j1 exco election. At the end of the day, 8 new faces: 7 girls and 1 guy, have emerged. As to why the exco turned from 4 girls 4 guys to a superbly girl-dominated exco, it's all because the boy:girl ratio in our j1 batch is screwed up this year.
Throughout the day I received a few SMS greetings, the earliest being from Xiuyu at 2+am in the morning (of course, I didn't read it till I woke up) and the latest being from Elizabeth from the harmoc exco. I was quite surprised that at around 2pm, my civics tutor sent me a b'day greeting as well!
Hmmm I'd say that year on year, b'day celebrations have lesser frills. I remember the days when I had to pack 30+ goodie bags for each of my classmates to give out on my b'day (instead of receiving presents from them) and holding b'day parties at home with relatives.
Haha, of course, I still remember my 16th b'day where Shijia Xiuyu Jinlai Qingwei bought me that ty beanie pussycat and the '4 da cai zi' freaking stripped me partially after school!!! Or last year, where my OG brought a super mini tiramisu cake just for me and a soccer ball as well... (the soccer ball came about because one of my OG mates planted Chicky as a spy to ask about what I liked most and I answered Chelsea FC, but apparently they couldn't find Chelsea merchandise so they bought me a soccer ball instead)
Anyway, this time around, it's almost like last year. Harmonica prac till 7.30pm (at least slightly better than last year, which ended at 8pm) and by the time I got home, it was 9pm already. Cut cake (this time it's a simple Bengawan Solo one, no Swensens ice cream cake) at 9.30pm. So here I am blogging about today.
Well, I guess I should consider myself fortunate not to have a b'day during the holidays, when most likely no one will remember your b'day existed, and you won't receive presents on your b'day itself except those from your parents. Or worse, people who have b'days during or near to the exam period, like Eli, Yunxuan or Manyan... (two of them told me they celebrate their b'day with just a cake-cutting ceremony, but I guess that's almost like mine too...)
Once again, I'd like to thank those who sent me SMS greetings today, 2S03I for that birthday card with some really 'interesting' birthday wishes, the harmoc exco who wished me happy b'day and blew a b'day song before I left, and also Eli and Yunxuan for 'sponsoring' that white tie that's supposed to be worn on the day of Harmonix concert. :D
Ah, the 6 hour long harmoc prac has drained me of my energy. I think I'll have an early night!
PS. Today is also a milestone in S'pore history! lol, if preparation for GE nomination day which is to take place tomorrow, counts.
Tuesday, 25 April 2006
Sunday, 23 April 2006
Saturday, 22 April 2006
Kena 'suan-ed'
During yesterday's j1 exco interview, I encountered a couple of responses that seemed very 'suan-ing'. I know they may not have been made on purpose but for the fun of answering the questions we bombarded them with. Anyway, here goes some of them... (I might not be reproducing the exact words so the following quotes may not be 100% accurate)
Exco: Why don't you want to run for a position like Sectional Leader, rather than Secretary/Treasurer (given your previous experience as a Assistant SL)?
j1: I dunno how to sing.
!!!
What made her make such a response? I'm thinking that it's because usually when I'm conducting prac, I hum out tunes instead of demonstrating how the tune sounds like on the harmoc to save time... And given the fact that I was never from choir, you know why la...
Me: You have seen me shouting and screaming at pracs before trying to get all of you (members of harmoc) to keep quiet and pay attention to me. So, how are you going to conduct prac and get everyone to listen to you?
j1: ... (says some things first)... I believe that if I'm not saying anything nonsensical, people will definitely listen to me... (continues the answer)
!!!
Does she mean that I'm fooling around when I conduct prac??? I hope not!
Learning Journey @ Woodbridge IMH
From 10 to 3pm today my class was helping out a volunteer grp called 'The Achievers' in painting a wall in one of the wards. After employing the help of 10+ classmates and a few of the volunteers themselves, the ward director and volunteers themselves were quite impressed with our work. After all this is our first try at mural painting.
After we finished painting our wall we went to another ward where there were other volunteers who were painting another wall, and you can see the difference in artistic standard between them and us la. I guess when the photos are up you can visit http://achieverssg.blogspot.com/
Between 3 to 5pm we toured around one ward which was an all-male ward. There were some patients who were more sociable than others, and more enthu than others. After all these patients are just like anyone of us with feelings and emotions. There was one patient who tried to write a note/letter and passed it to one of my classmates to read, but she couldn't read the handwriting. There was also another patient in his 30s who saluted to me and I saluted back to him, lol. Maybe I resembled his army general or someone? And then there was another who claimed he came from Raffles in the 90s and one who's a fortune teller and palm reader. What an interesting mix of personalities.
Unfortunately, we learnt that many of these patients have to be on constant medication and thus have few chances to be let out of their ward to explore the outside world. Their daily life revolves around sleeping, eating and hanging out in the common area with the rest of the patients in the same ward. If nobody comes to visit them, they'll be left to interact with each other only, and usually they live in their own worlds and seldom want to talk to each other too.
When we were about to leave most of the patients gave us handshakes and waved us goodbye. I guess we all had a good learning experience and we left something behind as well: a painted wall which will add more colour to the otherwise white and purple wall. (Theoretically speaking I did leave my fingerprints behind cos I used my fingers to paint one part of the wall)
After leaving IMH I took bus 27 from Hougang interchange back to Tampines with Julia. And argh, I didn't realise that 27 actually passed by Buangkok station, if not I could have taken it this morning and shave off 15 mins of travelling time by train. But come to think of it, chances of taking the North east line are few and far between, so I guess I don't mind trying the NEL this time.
PS: Buangkok is a really really ulu station (aka the White Elephant MRT station), it was practically empty except for a few of my classmates clustering at one corner of the station when I arrived there this morning.
AND, my b'day's going to be ruined by harmoc for the 2nd year running. Last year it was on a Tuesday and Harmoc prac ended at 8pm because SYF was just a few days away. This year, it's going to end at 7.30pm because concert is coming near.
Ah, since I've come to the topic of concert, is anyone interested in watching Harmonix IX: A Walk Through Time? It's on 10th May, 7.30pm at my school's Performing Arts Theatre. Tickets are really the cheapest among the other CCA performances held in PAC, just $6!
During yesterday's j1 exco interview, I encountered a couple of responses that seemed very 'suan-ing'. I know they may not have been made on purpose but for the fun of answering the questions we bombarded them with. Anyway, here goes some of them... (I might not be reproducing the exact words so the following quotes may not be 100% accurate)
Exco: Why don't you want to run for a position like Sectional Leader, rather than Secretary/Treasurer (given your previous experience as a Assistant SL)?
j1: I dunno how to sing.
!!!
What made her make such a response? I'm thinking that it's because usually when I'm conducting prac, I hum out tunes instead of demonstrating how the tune sounds like on the harmoc to save time... And given the fact that I was never from choir, you know why la...
Me: You have seen me shouting and screaming at pracs before trying to get all of you (members of harmoc) to keep quiet and pay attention to me. So, how are you going to conduct prac and get everyone to listen to you?
j1: ... (says some things first)... I believe that if I'm not saying anything nonsensical, people will definitely listen to me... (continues the answer)
!!!
Does she mean that I'm fooling around when I conduct prac??? I hope not!
Learning Journey @ Woodbridge IMH
From 10 to 3pm today my class was helping out a volunteer grp called 'The Achievers' in painting a wall in one of the wards. After employing the help of 10+ classmates and a few of the volunteers themselves, the ward director and volunteers themselves were quite impressed with our work. After all this is our first try at mural painting.
After we finished painting our wall we went to another ward where there were other volunteers who were painting another wall, and you can see the difference in artistic standard between them and us la. I guess when the photos are up you can visit http://achieverssg.blogspot.com/
Between 3 to 5pm we toured around one ward which was an all-male ward. There were some patients who were more sociable than others, and more enthu than others. After all these patients are just like anyone of us with feelings and emotions. There was one patient who tried to write a note/letter and passed it to one of my classmates to read, but she couldn't read the handwriting. There was also another patient in his 30s who saluted to me and I saluted back to him, lol. Maybe I resembled his army general or someone? And then there was another who claimed he came from Raffles in the 90s and one who's a fortune teller and palm reader. What an interesting mix of personalities.
Unfortunately, we learnt that many of these patients have to be on constant medication and thus have few chances to be let out of their ward to explore the outside world. Their daily life revolves around sleeping, eating and hanging out in the common area with the rest of the patients in the same ward. If nobody comes to visit them, they'll be left to interact with each other only, and usually they live in their own worlds and seldom want to talk to each other too.
When we were about to leave most of the patients gave us handshakes and waved us goodbye. I guess we all had a good learning experience and we left something behind as well: a painted wall which will add more colour to the otherwise white and purple wall. (Theoretically speaking I did leave my fingerprints behind cos I used my fingers to paint one part of the wall)
After leaving IMH I took bus 27 from Hougang interchange back to Tampines with Julia. And argh, I didn't realise that 27 actually passed by Buangkok station, if not I could have taken it this morning and shave off 15 mins of travelling time by train. But come to think of it, chances of taking the North east line are few and far between, so I guess I don't mind trying the NEL this time.
PS: Buangkok is a really really ulu station (aka the White Elephant MRT station), it was practically empty except for a few of my classmates clustering at one corner of the station when I arrived there this morning.
AND, my b'day's going to be ruined by harmoc for the 2nd year running. Last year it was on a Tuesday and Harmoc prac ended at 8pm because SYF was just a few days away. This year, it's going to end at 7.30pm because concert is coming near.
Ah, since I've come to the topic of concert, is anyone interested in watching Harmonix IX: A Walk Through Time? It's on 10th May, 7.30pm at my school's Performing Arts Theatre. Tickets are really the cheapest among the other CCA performances held in PAC, just $6!
Friday, 21 April 2006
2 1/2 weeks
I think people in harmoc don't realise the severity of the situation.
Harmonix IX is coming up in just more than 2 weeks but yet everyone is super screwed!
Maybe none of us in exco are as 'bitchy' as our previous vice pres who made everyone stay back if things weren't done by the time prac ended.
Maybe, I should use such a tactic too, esp with EXTENDED prac hours starting at such a GREAT time, which is my b'day week.
At this time of the year last year, my b'day was ruined too all thanks to EXTENDED prac for SYF prep. So I don't see why if I sacrificed my b'day celebrations, why can't everyone come for prac this Wednesday.
Just be prepared to see a different side of me during prac in the next few weeks. I've already told the rest of the exco what I'll be doing in the next few pracs to come...
I think people in harmoc don't realise the severity of the situation.
Harmonix IX is coming up in just more than 2 weeks but yet everyone is super screwed!
Maybe none of us in exco are as 'bitchy' as our previous vice pres who made everyone stay back if things weren't done by the time prac ended.
Maybe, I should use such a tactic too, esp with EXTENDED prac hours starting at such a GREAT time, which is my b'day week.
At this time of the year last year, my b'day was ruined too all thanks to EXTENDED prac for SYF prep. So I don't see why if I sacrificed my b'day celebrations, why can't everyone come for prac this Wednesday.
Just be prepared to see a different side of me during prac in the next few weeks. I've already told the rest of the exco what I'll be doing in the next few pracs to come...
Hectic week
Wednesday
Had to send my dog to the vet late at night because it was having diarrhoea all day long...
And what a surprise, at Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital I think I met Ms S'pore Universe 2005 Cheryl Tay! (after all she works as a vet...)
So Lucky has to be hospitalised and will be out only tomorrow. This is also the first time that I visit an animal hospital!
Thursday
A harmoc exco meeting at 5,30pm meant that I had to wait 5 1/2 hours in school. This time was spent eating lunch at RI and staying in the library with some classmates to figure out a 'model answer' for SPA Skill A which was today. The meeting was just no longer than an hour. What a waste of time! When I came home I was too tired to do any homework already.
Friday
Finally, all Phy SPA assessments are over!
Harmonica exco interviews today took much longer than we had expected (4 1/2 hrs to be exact), and voting will take place this Wednesday. There was actually this list of 'funny questions' that we wanted to ask some of the j1s at first just to 'kacheow' them, but there was simply no time.
The interviews took place in a air conditioned IT Resource Room and we purposely placed a chair in the middle while we sat in a row about one metre away. 6 people vs 1 j1. How not intimidating lor. But anyway, I was telling the other exco members before we started that 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'. Last year, the seniors treated us in a similar manner, so we must also treat our juniors the same way right? Then whether or not this year's j1 exco wants to 'diam' the next batch of students, it's all up to them. Bwahahaha... There were people who were enthu, j1s who like to fidget around, and there were a few who I simply dunno, tried to purposely act uninterested or was really uninterested in joining the exco (although I felt there was some potential in that j1)?
Oh yeah, finally yesterday we got the yearbook (which comes with a CD as well) and the 'Limited Edition' Stikfas RJC 25th Anniversary toy. Heard that one costs $100+, IF it is left unopened and unassembled. Well, Stikfas collectors must be really crazy about them man. Who wants to buy it if I put it on sale at eBay har? Lol. Just kidding only. But I just don't have the time to fix it this weekend, with a IMH learning journey cum CIP for 7 hrs tomorrow, I'm left with just a Sunday to catch up on work! And yearbooks are always a source for people to look for cute girls and handsome guys, and guess what, one tutor from the Chem dept acted so 'gay' in one of the photos! I think every j2 in school knows about it liao. Eeeeyer......
Wednesday
Had to send my dog to the vet late at night because it was having diarrhoea all day long...
And what a surprise, at Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital I think I met Ms S'pore Universe 2005 Cheryl Tay! (after all she works as a vet...)
So Lucky has to be hospitalised and will be out only tomorrow. This is also the first time that I visit an animal hospital!
Thursday
A harmoc exco meeting at 5,30pm meant that I had to wait 5 1/2 hours in school. This time was spent eating lunch at RI and staying in the library with some classmates to figure out a 'model answer' for SPA Skill A which was today. The meeting was just no longer than an hour. What a waste of time! When I came home I was too tired to do any homework already.
Friday
Finally, all Phy SPA assessments are over!
Harmonica exco interviews today took much longer than we had expected (4 1/2 hrs to be exact), and voting will take place this Wednesday. There was actually this list of 'funny questions' that we wanted to ask some of the j1s at first just to 'kacheow' them, but there was simply no time.
The interviews took place in a air conditioned IT Resource Room and we purposely placed a chair in the middle while we sat in a row about one metre away. 6 people vs 1 j1. How not intimidating lor. But anyway, I was telling the other exco members before we started that 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'. Last year, the seniors treated us in a similar manner, so we must also treat our juniors the same way right? Then whether or not this year's j1 exco wants to 'diam' the next batch of students, it's all up to them. Bwahahaha... There were people who were enthu, j1s who like to fidget around, and there were a few who I simply dunno, tried to purposely act uninterested or was really uninterested in joining the exco (although I felt there was some potential in that j1)?
Oh yeah, finally yesterday we got the yearbook (which comes with a CD as well) and the 'Limited Edition' Stikfas RJC 25th Anniversary toy. Heard that one costs $100+, IF it is left unopened and unassembled. Well, Stikfas collectors must be really crazy about them man. Who wants to buy it if I put it on sale at eBay har? Lol. Just kidding only. But I just don't have the time to fix it this weekend, with a IMH learning journey cum CIP for 7 hrs tomorrow, I'm left with just a Sunday to catch up on work! And yearbooks are always a source for people to look for cute girls and handsome guys, and guess what, one tutor from the Chem dept acted so 'gay' in one of the photos! I think every j2 in school knows about it liao. Eeeeyer......
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Quick debrief.
I know I've been blogging quite often (like what yunxuan commented), but there's so many interesting things to tell!
Monday:
Chicky was telling me that there's one more week left to something, and I was thinking, my SAT is 3 weeks away, NAPFA is over already, GP common test isn't till end May, so what was he referring to? Looks like I'm rather busy this week until I forgot something that's going to happen next week, exactly on Wednesday. Hmmm...
Almost all the j2s in harmoc went for the Harvard Uni talk. Attendance was super poor, except for the j1s, I think almost every one of them came. One prac wasted.
Today:
Met Weishan, my AHS HO senior, on the train ride home today. She's teaching at Yumin Pri, and it seems like a relief teacher's pay is rather good! Hmmm it's not a surprise that she became a teacher, after all last time in AHS HO she gets bullied by all the juniors, haha. But she enjoys it, so that's not a problem!
I received a message from Kaichen saying that there's a exco meeting with our teacher i/c on Thurs. Darn it, there goes another super free Thurs afternoon for me again, and I've got to wait 5 1/2 hours just for one exco meeting that's probably going to last one hour or less??? Oh well. I just have to accept the fact that the week before my b'day is always the most hectic, for eg in primary sch and secondary sch at around this time of the month there's Compo exams. And I thought once I come to JC I don't have to face such a lousy week just before my b'day. Sigh...
I know I've been blogging quite often (like what yunxuan commented), but there's so many interesting things to tell!
Monday:
Chicky was telling me that there's one more week left to something, and I was thinking, my SAT is 3 weeks away, NAPFA is over already, GP common test isn't till end May, so what was he referring to? Looks like I'm rather busy this week until I forgot something that's going to happen next week, exactly on Wednesday. Hmmm...
Almost all the j2s in harmoc went for the Harvard Uni talk. Attendance was super poor, except for the j1s, I think almost every one of them came. One prac wasted.
Today:
Met Weishan, my AHS HO senior, on the train ride home today. She's teaching at Yumin Pri, and it seems like a relief teacher's pay is rather good! Hmmm it's not a surprise that she became a teacher, after all last time in AHS HO she gets bullied by all the juniors, haha. But she enjoys it, so that's not a problem!
I received a message from Kaichen saying that there's a exco meeting with our teacher i/c on Thurs. Darn it, there goes another super free Thurs afternoon for me again, and I've got to wait 5 1/2 hours just for one exco meeting that's probably going to last one hour or less??? Oh well. I just have to accept the fact that the week before my b'day is always the most hectic, for eg in primary sch and secondary sch at around this time of the month there's Compo exams. And I thought once I come to JC I don't have to face such a lousy week just before my b'day. Sigh...
Saturday, 15 April 2006
What day is it today?
Should be a Saturday right?
I think my biological clock is going bonkers again, especially with the long weekends for the past two weeks.
Yesterday, I had a make up piano lesson. Since my piano lessons are usually held on Sundays, yesterday seemed like a Sunday.
Today, I met Qingwei Xiuyu Shijia Yufeng for lunch at tm mac. Most of the time these short gatherings with them are on Sundays, so today also seems like a Sunday. Anyway, we spent half the afternoon talking crap at Mac, and the other half at the void deck of one block near my house trying to study/do homework and chit chat at the same time. This sort of thing tends to turn out unproductive. And it's true!
Tomorrow, there is no piano lesson cos my teacher has to attend to another student's concert preparations, so it won't seem like a Sunday, although it IS indeed a Sunday tomorrow! What day will it seem like then? I wonder...
Ah, I kinda figured out why yunxuan can be so smart. She's got a high forehead! haha... Remember the time where people said having a mole under your mouth (or some part of your face, like me) will bring you wealth in future? Or having free earlobes will also bring about the same effect? Or having a mole on your forehead will protect you from calamities, like what Nancy Sit in the soap opera 'Zhen Qing' once said?
WARNING: Two more long weekends coming up very soon!
Should be a Saturday right?
I think my biological clock is going bonkers again, especially with the long weekends for the past two weeks.
Yesterday, I had a make up piano lesson. Since my piano lessons are usually held on Sundays, yesterday seemed like a Sunday.
Today, I met Qingwei Xiuyu Shijia Yufeng for lunch at tm mac. Most of the time these short gatherings with them are on Sundays, so today also seems like a Sunday. Anyway, we spent half the afternoon talking crap at Mac, and the other half at the void deck of one block near my house trying to study/do homework and chit chat at the same time. This sort of thing tends to turn out unproductive. And it's true!
Tomorrow, there is no piano lesson cos my teacher has to attend to another student's concert preparations, so it won't seem like a Sunday, although it IS indeed a Sunday tomorrow! What day will it seem like then? I wonder...
Ah, I kinda figured out why yunxuan can be so smart. She's got a high forehead! haha... Remember the time where people said having a mole under your mouth (or some part of your face, like me) will bring you wealth in future? Or having free earlobes will also bring about the same effect? Or having a mole on your forehead will protect you from calamities, like what Nancy Sit in the soap opera 'Zhen Qing' once said?
WARNING: Two more long weekends coming up very soon!
Friday, 14 April 2006
The punch
While I was enjoying some time in the LT playing piano with yunxuan sitting around listening to my 'horrible' playing, I received this message from my mum: Enountered unpleasant incident at Tamp Mall just now one guy punch a woman in front of me in lift she fell crying in pain 2 men standing behind qtn man why hit her he said she block the way they call security went out to wait actually his mum behind him act as tho nothing had happened something wrong i dazed.
At first when I skimmed through the entire text message which had no proper punctuation marks and was at least 10 lines long, I only noticed the words highlighted in orange, and my first thought was, shit. Something bad must have happened. Then after reading thru the msg carefully once through did I heave a sigh of relief. Fortunately the victim wasn't my mum. But anyway, the victim was someone else. Even then, there was cause for concern. What if my mum happened to be standing at the door? Or what if the man who punched the woman started behaving more weirdly and start to punch the rest of the people in the lift? What if what if what if...
It seemed like everyone in the lift 'tio' stunned after that man delivered that punch. Of course, there were three men in the lift who 'jian4 yi4 yong3 wei2', one of them quickly clambered onto the floor to shield the woman after the man punched her, while the other two went to call for help.
I was just thinking, what would I do if I were at the scene of the incident? My mum thought of flinging her bags of groceries at that violent guy, but was simply too stunned. Maybe I'd have done it if I was standing in the lift at that time, and perhaps hurl a couple of Hokkien expletives at him?(something that you've never seen me do before) Ok, maybe I'd be stunned as well and just stand there stoning...
So, lessons to be learnt:
1. Never stand near the door in a crowded lift.
2. Always try to anticipate what will happen, although it's quite unlikely that you'll be able to do so.
3. Never be afraid to retaliate after getting punched by someone? (this is questionable indeed)
4. Never take the lift if it is crowded?
While I was enjoying some time in the LT playing piano with yunxuan sitting around listening to my 'horrible' playing, I received this message from my mum: Enountered unpleasant incident at Tamp Mall just now one guy punch a woman in front of me in lift she fell crying in pain 2 men standing behind qtn man why hit her he said she block the way they call security went out to wait actually his mum behind him act as tho nothing had happened something wrong i dazed.
At first when I skimmed through the entire text message which had no proper punctuation marks and was at least 10 lines long, I only noticed the words highlighted in orange, and my first thought was, shit. Something bad must have happened. Then after reading thru the msg carefully once through did I heave a sigh of relief. Fortunately the victim wasn't my mum. But anyway, the victim was someone else. Even then, there was cause for concern. What if my mum happened to be standing at the door? Or what if the man who punched the woman started behaving more weirdly and start to punch the rest of the people in the lift? What if what if what if...
It seemed like everyone in the lift 'tio' stunned after that man delivered that punch. Of course, there were three men in the lift who 'jian4 yi4 yong3 wei2', one of them quickly clambered onto the floor to shield the woman after the man punched her, while the other two went to call for help.
I was just thinking, what would I do if I were at the scene of the incident? My mum thought of flinging her bags of groceries at that violent guy, but was simply too stunned. Maybe I'd have done it if I was standing in the lift at that time, and perhaps hurl a couple of Hokkien expletives at him?(something that you've never seen me do before) Ok, maybe I'd be stunned as well and just stand there stoning...
So, lessons to be learnt:
1. Never stand near the door in a crowded lift.
2. Always try to anticipate what will happen, although it's quite unlikely that you'll be able to do so.
3. Never be afraid to retaliate after getting punched by someone? (this is questionable indeed)
4. Never take the lift if it is crowded?
Thursday, 13 April 2006
PW results day
PW results came out today. At 12pm we asked our CT to let us check our grades at the General Office before starting his Chem lesson. Anyway the result was more or less expected. It was either 1s or 2s in my class anyway.
Today after lunch I went to LT 5 to find Yunxuan who was playing the piano there. Then as soon as I got in a few guys came in, so we thought someone was using the LT and we left. LT3 had a lesson going on, while LT4 was being cleaned. So after circling around the three LTs we finally went into LT2, cos that was the only other place (besides the open amphi) that has a piano. But, a few secs after we stepped in, there was this sound coming from the stage (the piano was hidden behind the stage curtains). Either there was someone practising piano there, or could it be some supernatural being??? Eeeeek.....
Then we walked along the corridor once more and peered into LT4 and 5 again. The cleaners were still busy in LT4, while there was someone who took the piano in LT5... So we decided to go back into LT2 again and listen to this mysterious person/thing practising on the piano. Whoever that guy/girl/thing was, he's definitely quite pro.
Later we headed to the photocopying shop to zap some GP writeup that my grp was supposed to share with the class, followed by a trip to the bookshop. At 3pm, LT4 was finally vacant. Listened to each other play some songs, no matter how lousy we were... but since yx has already passed Grade 8 piano practical, her playing is def better than mine la.
While Phy S was going on I went to the library read my novel. I think the teacher librarian was rather annoyed at the noise level and I found it quite hard to get some peace too.
Harmonica today was just all about Carmen. And I was about to become Frosty the Snowman by standing under an aircon vent that's constantly emitting bursts of what else, cold air lah! I doubt anyone else besides Manyan or Mingjie knew how cold it was, until the end of prac where Elizabeth came down to discuss abt programme booklet design with the com that she noticed how cold it was too...
Tomorrow's Good Friday. Happy holidays everyone! It's the start of yet another long weekend.
PW results came out today. At 12pm we asked our CT to let us check our grades at the General Office before starting his Chem lesson. Anyway the result was more or less expected. It was either 1s or 2s in my class anyway.
Today after lunch I went to LT 5 to find Yunxuan who was playing the piano there. Then as soon as I got in a few guys came in, so we thought someone was using the LT and we left. LT3 had a lesson going on, while LT4 was being cleaned. So after circling around the three LTs we finally went into LT2, cos that was the only other place (besides the open amphi) that has a piano. But, a few secs after we stepped in, there was this sound coming from the stage (the piano was hidden behind the stage curtains). Either there was someone practising piano there, or could it be some supernatural being??? Eeeeek.....
Then we walked along the corridor once more and peered into LT4 and 5 again. The cleaners were still busy in LT4, while there was someone who took the piano in LT5... So we decided to go back into LT2 again and listen to this mysterious person/thing practising on the piano. Whoever that guy/girl/thing was, he's definitely quite pro.
Later we headed to the photocopying shop to zap some GP writeup that my grp was supposed to share with the class, followed by a trip to the bookshop. At 3pm, LT4 was finally vacant. Listened to each other play some songs, no matter how lousy we were... but since yx has already passed Grade 8 piano practical, her playing is def better than mine la.
While Phy S was going on I went to the library read my novel. I think the teacher librarian was rather annoyed at the noise level and I found it quite hard to get some peace too.
Harmonica today was just all about Carmen. And I was about to become Frosty the Snowman by standing under an aircon vent that's constantly emitting bursts of what else, cold air lah! I doubt anyone else besides Manyan or Mingjie knew how cold it was, until the end of prac where Elizabeth came down to discuss abt programme booklet design with the com that she noticed how cold it was too...
Tomorrow's Good Friday. Happy holidays everyone! It's the start of yet another long weekend.
Wednesday, 12 April 2006
Goal for Gold
Finally, for the rest of this year, I don't have to worry about doing extra PT during PE lessons! Hurrah! All thanks to some consistent training I have done for the past few weeks.
Here's a breakdown of what/how I did: (in order of the stations done)
1. Standing Broad Jump: first try was a fault jump, 2nd try a 236cm (I think.) and I opted not to jump a third time.
2. Sit and Reach: At first I thought this station was chicken feet, but when I saw the 37cm mark to get at least a D I was shocked. But anyway I managed a 46cm and in the process strained my back. It is aching now, and I hope it doesn't break tomorrow.
3. Pull up: After I did my 3rd pull I was swinging so violently due to momentum that I had to stop pulling for a few secs so that I won't be disqualified. Fortunately last night I managed 6 reps and this time it was up to expectation.
4. Shuttle Run: The track seemed quite slippery even though it was dry, maybe it's because we're sprinting and it is difficult to stop just in time to pick up the block and make a 3 point turn. This one took me 10.3 secs.
5. Sit ups: The easiest of all the stations. The mat was harder than my bed mattress, so I did each sit up more slowly. But an A grade was really chicken feet for this station for everyone.
6. 2.4km run: I was surprised to be running in 2nd place for 5 laps until the final lap where 2 other classmates overtook me cos I slowed down two times to catch my breath. The runner who was in front of me all along even lapped me when I was doing my 5th round. His timing? 9 min 9 sec (not surprising since he's a canoeist). My timing? More than two minutes greater than his: 11min 22sec. This was 2 sec faster than the practice run I did at Tamp Stadium on Monday morning.
So overall I think I qualified for Gold, which is an improvement of last year's result. But as long as I kept up last year's standard of silver, I was assured of a silver cos I took the NAPFA after my b'day last year and this year, it's just a few weeks before it. The trend for NAPFA results for the past 3 years was: Bronze, Silver, Gold. So I'm rather pleased.
Tomorrow's the release of PW results. *gulp!*
Mexican Wine (by Fountains of Wayne)
He was killed by a cellular phone explosion
They scattered his ashes across the ocean
The water was used to make baby lotion
The wheels of promotion were set into motion...
Recently one classmate of mine, Jiawei, is hooked on this song. The first 4 lines sound stupid, but I have only been hearing these few lines so far. I shall get the MP3 from him sometime soon.
Finally, for the rest of this year, I don't have to worry about doing extra PT during PE lessons! Hurrah! All thanks to some consistent training I have done for the past few weeks.
Here's a breakdown of what/how I did: (in order of the stations done)
1. Standing Broad Jump: first try was a fault jump, 2nd try a 236cm (I think.) and I opted not to jump a third time.
2. Sit and Reach: At first I thought this station was chicken feet, but when I saw the 37cm mark to get at least a D I was shocked. But anyway I managed a 46cm and in the process strained my back. It is aching now, and I hope it doesn't break tomorrow.
3. Pull up: After I did my 3rd pull I was swinging so violently due to momentum that I had to stop pulling for a few secs so that I won't be disqualified. Fortunately last night I managed 6 reps and this time it was up to expectation.
4. Shuttle Run: The track seemed quite slippery even though it was dry, maybe it's because we're sprinting and it is difficult to stop just in time to pick up the block and make a 3 point turn. This one took me 10.3 secs.
5. Sit ups: The easiest of all the stations. The mat was harder than my bed mattress, so I did each sit up more slowly. But an A grade was really chicken feet for this station for everyone.
6. 2.4km run: I was surprised to be running in 2nd place for 5 laps until the final lap where 2 other classmates overtook me cos I slowed down two times to catch my breath. The runner who was in front of me all along even lapped me when I was doing my 5th round. His timing? 9 min 9 sec (not surprising since he's a canoeist). My timing? More than two minutes greater than his: 11min 22sec. This was 2 sec faster than the practice run I did at Tamp Stadium on Monday morning.
So overall I think I qualified for Gold, which is an improvement of last year's result. But as long as I kept up last year's standard of silver, I was assured of a silver cos I took the NAPFA after my b'day last year and this year, it's just a few weeks before it. The trend for NAPFA results for the past 3 years was: Bronze, Silver, Gold. So I'm rather pleased.
Tomorrow's the release of PW results. *gulp!*
Mexican Wine (by Fountains of Wayne)
He was killed by a cellular phone explosion
They scattered his ashes across the ocean
The water was used to make baby lotion
The wheels of promotion were set into motion...
Recently one classmate of mine, Jiawei, is hooked on this song. The first 4 lines sound stupid, but I have only been hearing these few lines so far. I shall get the MP3 from him sometime soon.
Monday, 10 April 2006
Short week ahead!
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then yet another holiday!
But argh, NAPFA's either tomorrow or the day after. *crosses fingers*
And this weekend's nearly a wasted one again.
I just wonder how yunxuan can afford to slack and get ahem... wonderful ct results. Nothing much to think about I guess, cos she's got a lot of brains I must say.
Cut my hair at the new QB outlet in CS, and received a $10 voucher which means my next haircut will be free!
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then yet another holiday!
But argh, NAPFA's either tomorrow or the day after. *crosses fingers*
And this weekend's nearly a wasted one again.
I just wonder how yunxuan can afford to slack and get ahem... wonderful ct results. Nothing much to think about I guess, cos she's got a lot of brains I must say.
Cut my hair at the new QB outlet in CS, and received a $10 voucher which means my next haircut will be free!
Sunday, 9 April 2006
Palm Sunday
Look around you today and you'll see some people carrying these leaves around. Yes, it's Palm Sunday and I didn't realise it till I read the comic PreTeena in the Sunday Times.
Yesterday my dad managed to sell a set of children's encyclopedias on ebay singapore. And that's when I realised I don't really treasure what I used to have. The encyclopedias were bought at least 10 years back but I seldom read them. Only when they were about to be given to a new owner then I took them up to read some articles. But, it's all too late...
Likewise in my routine life. I don't think I'm really treasuring every moment that I spend with my friends, classmates, family, etc. It's like, one second gone is just another second gone, there's nothing much to treasure about it. Maybe I'm being too sentimental, like I always have been.
The results of the Ms S'pore Universe 06 are out. This time I almost made a correct guess about the winner. I was rooting for Jade Seah, but looks like the eventual winner was Cheryl Tay-lookalike Carol Cheng.(did I get her surname correctly?) They almost look like twins.
Just now I spent a couple of SMS-es just trying to 'accompany' Yunxuan while she was waiting for a bus at some ulu bus stop. So for that she's agreed to treat me to ice cream heehee... :D
Anyway, from what I've heard from her about her class outing which just ended, it seems like my class is still rather sociable and active. And we can organise really economical class outings like the last one, whereby everyone only chalked up expenses of about $5 for an entire afternoon's activities and dinner.
Oh yeah, newater's actually got a mascot. It's name is Wally, and is no more than a mere water droplet. I shall post a pic of it sometime later, when I consolidate all my camera phone pics.
It's an extra day of holiday tomorrow, but it's nearly time to get back to business again. Sigh... Nonetheless, the mass b'day week is coming in a little over 2 weeks time! And guess whose b'day is coming? haha. It's simply too obvious.
Look around you today and you'll see some people carrying these leaves around. Yes, it's Palm Sunday and I didn't realise it till I read the comic PreTeena in the Sunday Times.
Yesterday my dad managed to sell a set of children's encyclopedias on ebay singapore. And that's when I realised I don't really treasure what I used to have. The encyclopedias were bought at least 10 years back but I seldom read them. Only when they were about to be given to a new owner then I took them up to read some articles. But, it's all too late...
Likewise in my routine life. I don't think I'm really treasuring every moment that I spend with my friends, classmates, family, etc. It's like, one second gone is just another second gone, there's nothing much to treasure about it. Maybe I'm being too sentimental, like I always have been.
The results of the Ms S'pore Universe 06 are out. This time I almost made a correct guess about the winner. I was rooting for Jade Seah, but looks like the eventual winner was Cheryl Tay-lookalike Carol Cheng.(did I get her surname correctly?) They almost look like twins.
Just now I spent a couple of SMS-es just trying to 'accompany' Yunxuan while she was waiting for a bus at some ulu bus stop. So for that she's agreed to treat me to ice cream heehee... :D
Anyway, from what I've heard from her about her class outing which just ended, it seems like my class is still rather sociable and active. And we can organise really economical class outings like the last one, whereby everyone only chalked up expenses of about $5 for an entire afternoon's activities and dinner.
Oh yeah, newater's actually got a mascot. It's name is Wally, and is no more than a mere water droplet. I shall post a pic of it sometime later, when I consolidate all my camera phone pics.
It's an extra day of holiday tomorrow, but it's nearly time to get back to business again. Sigh... Nonetheless, the mass b'day week is coming in a little over 2 weeks time! And guess whose b'day is coming? haha. It's simply too obvious.
Saturday, 8 April 2006
Opening ceremony events
Last week, RJ made headlines about the India Bicultural Programme. This week, it's official opening.
Ok, I shall start recounting today's events from 7am.
The ORA walk-a-jogathon was alright, just that the route was too short. Just one round around the school compound. Can't compare to AHS walkathon 2 years ago, where the whole school walked around various parts of Bedok. Other than the starting confusion at the exit gate where some RI and RGS people turned left to Marymount and the RJ and some RG students turned right into Bishan, causing a momentary traffic jam, the event was otherwise uneventful. I expected that there would be a teacher waiting at the ending point to congratulate the students on completing the walk-a-jogathon, but the Specs Gal was empty when I returned to school!
After that Yizhe and I thought of popping into LT1 to catch the opening ceremony live feed, but it wasn't going to start till 1 hour later! (This is also the first time I saw a full-house LT1.) So we took the opportunity to walk around the amphi and look at some exhibits. While we were admiring the model of the new RJ campus, this photographer came up to the model and we thought he wanted to take a photo of just the model, so we 'siam-ed' one side. Then, when we looked at the model of the previous RJ campus, this photographer came up and wanted to take pic again. So we 'siam-ed' again, but this time the photographer said: 'Eh, don't move away lah, I want to take a photo of you two looking at the model.' Just as he was about to leave, I noticed his SPH nametag. So maybe, I'll appear in the Sunday Times... Or most likely not la.
At about 9.30am we found Nengyang and Weijian loitering around the amphi too, so we called them over. We then decided to go into LT2 instead, hoping that there'll be less people inside compared to LT1. But it's all the same. So we sat on the steps towards the upper portion of the LT. Meanwhile, I also spotted Yunxuan sitting towards the lower portion of the LT diagonally opposite where I was...
Finally at exactly 10am the opening ceremony started and PM Lee had to 'endure' the performances by the dance groups before he could be seated. (why I said he endure because his expression looked rather stony, like observing some memorial service). Then he started his address speech blah blah... Next was the unveiling of the plaque, and I wonder if the parade square was really like a hot oven, cos the PM was wiping his face with his handkerchief halfway thru the ceremony.
As usual, the microphones that the emcees used screwed up occasionally. Only the mike that PM Lee used for his speech was working properly throughout his 15 min speech. And the cameraman (who I have no idea whether he is a member of the sch's AV club or an external cameraman) who was filming the live feed definitely isn't professional enough. While the performance arts groups were performing, the camera was often focused on the wrong people. Eg, when members of the chamber ensem were busy bowing their violins, the camera was aimed at the Chorale people when they were not singing anything at that point in time! And when the PM walked out of the parade square to flag off the Raffles Trail, the camera couldn't or wasn't zoomed in fast enough to capture that moment. So all we could hear was this blaring sound of the air horn and the cameraman trying frantically to shift the camera to capture some students running across the parade square, but to no avail. Then for a moment the connection between the camera and projector receiver was lost, and by the time it was working again, the Raffles Trail participants were long gone. Weijian said that in that few seconds he thought the cameraman was going to dismount the camera from the tripod and run after the participants like in the real Amazing Race, lol!
Oh yeah, I was surprised that there's even a Old Rafflesians' Association CREDIT CARD! I wonder what benefits does the card provide... Me, Weijian and Yizhe all took a pic of the banner with the card design on it. I shall post this pic sometime later...
Overall, the official opening ceremony had many funny moments. I can't stop laughing when I recall them. But anyway, the school's finally officially opened and it's a joyous occasion for the school and the other two Raffles' schools as well.
The best thing is, Monday's a school holiday! :D
Last week, RJ made headlines about the India Bicultural Programme. This week, it's official opening.
Ok, I shall start recounting today's events from 7am.
The ORA walk-a-jogathon was alright, just that the route was too short. Just one round around the school compound. Can't compare to AHS walkathon 2 years ago, where the whole school walked around various parts of Bedok. Other than the starting confusion at the exit gate where some RI and RGS people turned left to Marymount and the RJ and some RG students turned right into Bishan, causing a momentary traffic jam, the event was otherwise uneventful. I expected that there would be a teacher waiting at the ending point to congratulate the students on completing the walk-a-jogathon, but the Specs Gal was empty when I returned to school!
After that Yizhe and I thought of popping into LT1 to catch the opening ceremony live feed, but it wasn't going to start till 1 hour later! (This is also the first time I saw a full-house LT1.) So we took the opportunity to walk around the amphi and look at some exhibits. While we were admiring the model of the new RJ campus, this photographer came up to the model and we thought he wanted to take a photo of just the model, so we 'siam-ed' one side. Then, when we looked at the model of the previous RJ campus, this photographer came up and wanted to take pic again. So we 'siam-ed' again, but this time the photographer said: 'Eh, don't move away lah, I want to take a photo of you two looking at the model.' Just as he was about to leave, I noticed his SPH nametag. So maybe, I'll appear in the Sunday Times... Or most likely not la.
At about 9.30am we found Nengyang and Weijian loitering around the amphi too, so we called them over. We then decided to go into LT2 instead, hoping that there'll be less people inside compared to LT1. But it's all the same. So we sat on the steps towards the upper portion of the LT. Meanwhile, I also spotted Yunxuan sitting towards the lower portion of the LT diagonally opposite where I was...
Finally at exactly 10am the opening ceremony started and PM Lee had to 'endure' the performances by the dance groups before he could be seated. (why I said he endure because his expression looked rather stony, like observing some memorial service). Then he started his address speech blah blah... Next was the unveiling of the plaque, and I wonder if the parade square was really like a hot oven, cos the PM was wiping his face with his handkerchief halfway thru the ceremony.
As usual, the microphones that the emcees used screwed up occasionally. Only the mike that PM Lee used for his speech was working properly throughout his 15 min speech. And the cameraman (who I have no idea whether he is a member of the sch's AV club or an external cameraman) who was filming the live feed definitely isn't professional enough. While the performance arts groups were performing, the camera was often focused on the wrong people. Eg, when members of the chamber ensem were busy bowing their violins, the camera was aimed at the Chorale people when they were not singing anything at that point in time! And when the PM walked out of the parade square to flag off the Raffles Trail, the camera couldn't or wasn't zoomed in fast enough to capture that moment. So all we could hear was this blaring sound of the air horn and the cameraman trying frantically to shift the camera to capture some students running across the parade square, but to no avail. Then for a moment the connection between the camera and projector receiver was lost, and by the time it was working again, the Raffles Trail participants were long gone. Weijian said that in that few seconds he thought the cameraman was going to dismount the camera from the tripod and run after the participants like in the real Amazing Race, lol!
Oh yeah, I was surprised that there's even a Old Rafflesians' Association CREDIT CARD! I wonder what benefits does the card provide... Me, Weijian and Yizhe all took a pic of the banner with the card design on it. I shall post this pic sometime later...
Overall, the official opening ceremony had many funny moments. I can't stop laughing when I recall them. But anyway, the school's finally officially opened and it's a joyous occasion for the school and the other two Raffles' schools as well.
The best thing is, Monday's a school holiday! :D
Friday, 7 April 2006
Pre-opening ceremony preparations
These few days, the canteen is practically empty. There are no more canteen benches, no canteen stalls open, no queues. However, there are a few sheets of silver cloth dangling from the ceiling and 'Welcome' signs on the walls. Somehow I hope these decorations will not be taken down after opening ceremony is over. It really beautifies a rather green and white looking canteen.
Anyway, it seems like what comes up, can come down. Halfway thru Phy lect today, the big 'RJ opening ceremony' cardboard sign at one side of the LT suddenly lost its grip onto the wall and fell down. Fortunately no one was hurt, but I think the sign was slightly creased when it hit the floor.
Today Yunxuan offered to help me 'da bao' lunch cos originally there was an exco meeting scheduled for 1.15pm when my lesson ends at 1. And the canteen's not open as well. But I managed to grab a bite during the break after PE and at least the canteen snack stall was open so I didn't starve. (Oh yeah Yunxuan, offering to help me buy ice-cream from j8 isn't doing me a favour. Cos by the time the ice-cream reaches my hands I'll just be drinking liquid cream...)
During GP lesson my GP tutor gave away a packet of fries she had ordered by delivery (I guess, and which is what many students are doing as well for the past 2 days). So, being among the first few to arrive in class, I had the privilege of having some mid-day snack. My tutor even tried to hurry us 'early-birds' into finishing up the packet of fries quickly so that the classmates who came slightly later had no share of it! So, after more than half the packet was gone, it seemed like no one was interested in the fries anymore so she decided to pass them to me, citing the reason that 'I was the skinniest in class.' Ok, maybe I'm really skinny. But at least I got a few free fries... haha. :)
I've got to jog tomorrow for the annual jog-a-thon. So I better sleep early tonight.
Till next time!
Oh yeah, in commemoration of the school's 25th anniversary we'll all be getting a Stikfas Rafflesian human model. (I think.)
These few days, the canteen is practically empty. There are no more canteen benches, no canteen stalls open, no queues. However, there are a few sheets of silver cloth dangling from the ceiling and 'Welcome' signs on the walls. Somehow I hope these decorations will not be taken down after opening ceremony is over. It really beautifies a rather green and white looking canteen.
Anyway, it seems like what comes up, can come down. Halfway thru Phy lect today, the big 'RJ opening ceremony' cardboard sign at one side of the LT suddenly lost its grip onto the wall and fell down. Fortunately no one was hurt, but I think the sign was slightly creased when it hit the floor.
Today Yunxuan offered to help me 'da bao' lunch cos originally there was an exco meeting scheduled for 1.15pm when my lesson ends at 1. And the canteen's not open as well. But I managed to grab a bite during the break after PE and at least the canteen snack stall was open so I didn't starve. (Oh yeah Yunxuan, offering to help me buy ice-cream from j8 isn't doing me a favour. Cos by the time the ice-cream reaches my hands I'll just be drinking liquid cream...)
During GP lesson my GP tutor gave away a packet of fries she had ordered by delivery (I guess, and which is what many students are doing as well for the past 2 days). So, being among the first few to arrive in class, I had the privilege of having some mid-day snack. My tutor even tried to hurry us 'early-birds' into finishing up the packet of fries quickly so that the classmates who came slightly later had no share of it! So, after more than half the packet was gone, it seemed like no one was interested in the fries anymore so she decided to pass them to me, citing the reason that 'I was the skinniest in class.' Ok, maybe I'm really skinny. But at least I got a few free fries... haha. :)
I've got to jog tomorrow for the annual jog-a-thon. So I better sleep early tonight.
Till next time!
Oh yeah, in commemoration of the school's 25th anniversary we'll all be getting a Stikfas Rafflesian human model. (I think.)
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