NS Enlistment --- for grading

I am very sorry that this post is very late, but I have little time to write in this blog, with all the projects and CCA.

28 January was a very busy and eventful day for me. If our principal had not decided 28 January to be a day off for us, I would have passed a 'what should be' a very interesting day in school. I am extremely lucky that the 28 was a day off.

What could be so interesting, you may ask. But if you asked that, you are dumb. The title of this post has already given you a large clue. Some may wonder why a thirteen year old brat would go for NS enlistment. Actually, it was my brother who was enlisting for NS. Anyway I hope you know what NS is in the first place.

First, I will briefly introduce my brother. He is 18 years old, was ever in Victoria Integrated Programme, studied in VJC and is currently waiting for his A level results. I think he is constantly having nightmares about it. Anyway, he has flat feet, which means his sole is flat, and not arched. Thus he has trouble running. He downgraded to PES C, and -I am not sure if he is telling the truth- he is not allowed to run. He will have to be a clerk or a similar post. His training is slack, and I think he will be more fit at home. Well, the army must be scared after so many deaths of soldiers while training.

Every recruit is allowed five guests to follow him for enlistment. My parents and I became the guest. Firstly, we went to Pasir Ris bus interchange and queued up for the bus to the SAF ferry terminal. The queue was very long, stretching along the walkway of the interchange. We boarded the bus provided by the army and alighted at the SAF ferry terminal. We had to show or identification cards before boarding the ferry.

After about ten minutes of wait and ten minutes of travelling, we reached Pulau Tekong! There were posters of Basic Military Training(BMT) and NS, most of them are fancy phrases about BMT. There, the recruits seperated from their guests. The guests boarded the busses, waiting for the tour to start. We waited long. On the bus, two uniformed men, all I can remember was that one was a Third Sergent, became our tour guide and showed us around in the bus, explaining the facilites at the same time. After about five minutes, we got down to view the inner parts of the school. We waited so long and we spent only five minutes in the bus!

There are two schools there. My brother is in school 2. School 2 has fewer companies than school 1. We saw the bedroom. The beds were small, but better than I expected. There were only fans. Then we were brought to an airconditioned room. There were sofas and board games, magazines and more. The Third Sergent said that soldiers could relax there when they had time or were free... Most of us laughed when we heard that. How could they have free time?

After that, we were briefed about important things, then what the recruits will receive. We watched Mr Bean while waiting for the talk. After that, we watched a show 'the army experience' or something like that, I cannot remember too clearly. We were briefed even more. Then, we witnessed the oath taking of the recruits.

After that, we had lunch. We tried the army food. We had chicken rice and an apple. I thought that it was quite ordinary. Without warning, the recruits were called, and -I do not know if fall in could be used for this- stood in rows. We watched them. After refraining from taking pictures, because we thought that taking pictures was not allowed, I tried to take a photograph. Many were taking too. A tree blocked my view of my brother... I got blurred, tiny, pictures of him.






Pictures of my brother standing...


Blur picture in the ferry.

Anyway, we took a ferry back right after that. The bus brought us to the Pasir Ris MRT station. Since I was there, I decided to go to Ehub for the class outing. In the end, they were finishing their last game. I had never bowled before anyway, so I was spared of embarrasing myself. I just talked for a while.

Bryan took a ride with us back. After dropping him at his house, we went to the library to find books for RSP research. I could not find good books. Then finally, we went home...

A whole day out, sounds tiring isn't it. Well, it is. I hope that I will survive NS next time. Five years time... I will look forward to it.

Chinese New Year!!! --- for grading

Are you in a good mood because of the Chinese New Year? If you are, good for you. I am not really in a good mood, but I daresay I enjoyed Chinese New Year.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Chinese New Year? If you are money faced, I bet that it would be red packets or hong pao or Ang Pao. Whatever name, I am sure that you would be elated when you receive red packets, especially when you find a fifty dollar note in it (which may be supper rare). At this age of time, I doubt any red packet would contain less than two dollars. You would cry if you felt a lump of metal in the red packet. Anyway, I am happy with my loot. Hope you are too.

Chinese New Year also associates with red and noise. Many places were decorated with red and Lion dances with noisy drums caused me many sleepless afternoons.

Reunion dinner is the most important part of Chinese New Year. The reunion dinner allows family members to have a good meal together at least once a year. I had three reunion dinners.

The first one was at Chinese New Year eve, with my parents and brother only. We had steamboat. The food seemed better, I guess because I accept this kind of food more than the previous years. We had a great meal!

The second one was at my grandparents' house. Relatives from my father's side of the family were there. My aunts and uncles, and my cousins came too. Unfortunately one of my aunt is living in Australia and could not attend the dinner. We had a scrumptious dinner. After dinner, we sat in the living room and talked and watched the television. Most of the talk was about my brother who was supposed to enlist for NS on Wednesday. One of my cousins is studying in Australia, and has to enlist at the end of the year. So there was a lot to talk. Overall, we had a great time together.

The third one was at my grandmother's house. This time it was my mother's side. We had lunch there. My aunt, cousins and other relatives were there. We watched the television and talked. There were two dogs on the house. One was very old, the other was a huge baby. The baby was larger then the old dog, and definitely looked fiercer. It was just a little smaller then me! Anyway, we had a good time there.

I think this Chinese New Year is the best among all the Chinese New Years I went through. I hope next year would be better. Looking closer to the present, I wish for a superb year ahead!

Random Post

Sheesh... nowadays I am posting my post late... So busy. Just finished project. Sigh. Life is like that all the time.

Chinese New Year CeLeBrAtioN (VS) --- for grading

Time passes quickly. Chinese New Year (CNY) is approaching at the speed of time!!! Tomorrow will be the eve of the Chinese Niu year. It will be the start of the cow (niu) year soon, Yesterday was the last day of school before CNY, so obviously we had some celebrations in school!!

If you did not know already, I am in Chinese Orchestra (CO), and normally you would expect CO to perform on CNY celebrations. Somewhat unfortunately and fortunately, it was normal. I started learning the CNY pieces late, and played in the dazhu (whole orchestra practice) only on tuesday onwards -I will not state the reason why.

Anyway, rehearsals for CNY was on Tuesday and Thursday. Monday was usual CO practice. Wow!!! I got Wednesday free! BI ends at 3.45p.m. I can go home early! Ok I was sarcastic, but I really could go home earlier on Wednesday... Monday ended 6+, Tuesaday around there, and Thursday ended at 6.30, not including debriefing! Thats the bad side of performances.

Yesterday, performers were realeased at 9a.m. So I had to attend geography lessons, which was not too bad. We are currently studying about population. During the half an hour break after we were realeased, I had no appetite, so I settled for chips. While eating, I spotted a styrofoam box belonging to the Three Busketeers. At first, I thought that it contained some flamethrower for their first experiment. Then I saw the label 'dry ice'. Wow! How come dry ice does not sublime immediately? Is styrofoam such a good insulator of heat? For you own information, dry ice sublimes at -78.5°C! I asked Bok Woon about this, and he said it was getting lighter. I still cannot believe how come it takes so long for dry ice to sublime in Singapore's extreme heat.

After break, I changed into long pants, and headed to the CO room. Nothing much happened until the performance. Bryan, our student conductor wanted to rehearse once, but we had to go down to prepare already, since we are the first item. So we went down to the hall, and onto the stage (with curtains closed). We waited quite awhile before people started coming into the hall. Then, after a long wait, the gong sounded... that was the signal of the start of the celebrations!

Suddenly the performance started, suddenly it ended. I screwed up a little, and I think we played quite badly, I do not know. The rehearsals, the pratice, all gone in minutes!!! Wasted. I doubt the audience appreciates it though. And hence we deposited our instruments in the CO room after walking up the stairs to the parade square and down to the CO room the other side. Then we went down to wait for the singing part.

It was a long and boring wait. Then on the stage, every CO member tried to hide at the back like cowards. I was lost. Then I decided to just stand behind the Three Busketeers, having offered them my lyrics anyway. Mr Maraan stood beside us and sung the chourus and easy parts. Halfway through, it was so confusing that we lost track of the song and Mr Maraan thought it was over. Then we went back to the CO room and waited to be dismissed.

Overall, I had quite an unique experience and -I think- enjoyed more than the audience who had to sit on the hard floor for hours, 'enjoying' the performances. I will look forward to a good niu year ahead!!!

This is the instrument I play.

A picture of VSCO CNY performance I found in Alvin's english blog.

EDUSAVE SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS 2008 --- for grading

Today, there was this edusave scholarship awards. This is for top ten percent of each school-if I'm not wrong, I'm only 50% sure-and the top 5% gets more than the top 10%.

It took place at Bedok South Secondary School. I rushed from VSCO at 12.30. It was meaningless, as I was early-very early. Having not eaten my lunch, I ate in the car. I registered and went to be sitted. with almost an hour to wait, I sat in my chair and slacked. While slacking, I observed the people arriving. There were quite many victorians, especially sec 1. I guess since VS is a 'top' school, those good enough to get a scholarship would go to these type of schools.

There were some VERY NOISY girls disturbing my peace. "Oh my gosh! Isn't that ****!", "She is so....", "Oh my gosh...", "oh my gosh!" I don't mean to eavesdrop, but they were high pitched and loud. Oh my gosh, they are irritating and annoying. No offence to all girls.

I saw some familiar faces. There was one sec 1 from my primary school sitting on the row in front of me. We din't talk much. I saw Tristen too. The girl in front of him was my ex-classmate. Keeran (I hope I spell it correctly), who was from my primary school and was in VS was there. He was my senior by a year. He was wearing a VJC uniform I think.

I've decided for quite a while. I want to wear a VJC uniform next year (don't laugh at me if I fail to do so). Thats my ultimate goal for now.

WEEK 2 PART 3 --- for grading

Busy day, busy week... The projects. The homework. And not forgetting CO, what with the CNY and SYF performances, I reach home late everyday. Ok...late is an understatement, but you get what I mean. However, this week was quite 'action packed'. Read my posts to find out more.

Friday. The china students from the china exchange programme arrived. They arrived when Zhi Rui and I were having a heated argument about the math tfu (I wont elaborate). Anyway, I almost spilled vulgar out of my mouth in front of them. During chinese lesson (which was a free time), we had fun with them. They could solve math equations -which we need calculators to calculate-mentally. Then most of us did our math homework while the others entertained the china buddies with a game.

During RSP, Mr Leo briefed us on the RSP report. 10 page report...difficult...very difficult. And so we have to start on the thesis first. The topic I chose was Pontianak. Mr Leo suggested that I compared the malay pontianak and thai pontianak. And so, I have to go to the library to search for more than 2 books on pontianak and start my research soon.

After RSP, Bryan and I wasted no time and searched for Zhi Rui. He must have given up waiting for more than an hour for us. In the end, Bryan and I efficiently did all the measurements and photo taking for math tfu by ourselves. My primary school classmate borrowed my measuring tape for quite a while.

Saturday, CO and Edusave scholarship awards. Quite rush. I cannot go for the science buskers to support, I apologise, but I wish them luck. For CO I scewed up a little, and i could not stay back for my section's practise(mentioned above). This was because of the Edusave thinggy. I'll elaborate on the next post.

This week was indeed an eventful week. I learnt many things. During the RSP orientation, I learnt about the plants as I was stationed at the garden. The good O level results impelled me to try my best to reach my goal. I also wish my math could be on a level with the china buddies (not to mention chinese). After all this, I really am exhausted.

Phew! The week is over! I survived! Though barely. Tomorrow will be a rest day, at least after church. No wait, tution in the afternoon!!! Boo hoo hoo!!!

WEEK 2 PART 2

The middle of the week. I'm tired. The first two days had killed me off. I don't think I will survive the week. Very little hope left...

Eventful indeed. The RSP orientation was quite an event. CO was long as usual, but could have been longer. Read on to find out more!

Wednesday was the RSP orientation. There were many more sec 1 than sec 2. It is too bad that our batch was the pioneer batch - we did not have an orientaton to introduce us to RSP, or caring seniors to guide us. Anyway, we had a tour, an amazing race and some music in our orientation. Daniel Kong played the guitar, Daniel Lock played the violin. And Ze Xuan showed off his vocals! The rest of us were more like humming random words as we did not know the lyrics.

Overall, I think the RSP orientation was very meaningful. Although our batch did not have any, I think it is good that we help our junior, help them grow interest in useful things and introduce them to a whole new and unique programme!

Thursday had CO. My section actually was supposed to stay back till after 8! (at least that is what our section leader told us) Each section had their own time for staying back to practise more. After desperate pleas of some people, who apparantly had to present their tfu the next day, the staying back time was moved to saturday after dazhu. I have the edusave scolarship awards on that day, so I was spared.

On to the next part of the week. The end is coming, I am exhausted and drained, but I am hopeful. I see the end of the tunnel, a ray of hope...

WEEK 2 PART 1

The start of a new week is painful to some pessimists. I dread the week ahead. I have a feeling that it will be a very very very very very busy and eventful week. Yeah, very.

Monday was the release of the o level results. Hurray for the class of 2008. They gave us a day off (full day or no day, I'm confused with what they call it). It was decided that the holiday will be on 28 of January, so we could have a long weekend. I was glad that I could go and see my brother get enlisted. Maybe see him get botak or something like that. I don't know what they are doing.

In the end, class outing was decided to be on the 28!!! I could not go to see my brother get enlisted? Futhermore, 28 was the third day of chinese new year, I don't think some chinese would like to go on a class outing on that day. Anyway, even more people are disappointed with the decision of going swimming for a class outing.

Tuesday was project day for me. My maths tfu group went to Yek Teng's to do maths tfu project. Zhi Rui had band, so he had to come later on. We bought back food from school. Planning to eat at Yek Teng's. On the bus, we realised we forgot the spoons and forks, so we decided to use the metal ones at Yek Teng's. To make matters worst, Yek Teng found out that he forgot his keys, so he called his mother to help open the door. We decided to eat at the void deck first, however, there was no spoons and forks, hence we took a short trip to the nearby coffee shop to get some. Just then, it started drizzling. Foul luck. After our first mouthful, Yek teng's mother opened the door and we kept our food and went to the house. Then we had trouble with the math project and slacked till Zhi Rui came to help us.

I don't think forgetting your keys is a good idea, especially if you are bringing people for project. Don't forget your forks and spoons too!

Thats it for now. But so far, I'm sure you can see I'm...busy. I am tired. Two days down, four to go. I have little hope. I dread the coming four days.