Yesterday was Graduation Day.

The convention centre was pretty calm until the computerized announcement, "And now, please welcome the graduands of the Diploma in Media and Communication" came.

And then, for one whole minute, the centre erupted into chaos. Clapping, shouting, cheering. Everything short of whistling, which is fine by me, because whistling would degrade such an occasion.

I love how our course wouldn't go out without a bang. =)

And, of course, the centre would erupt again whenever one of our classmates went on stage. And again at the end when they were giving out the super-achiever awards to Becky, Mei Hui and Jesslin. I am so proud of you all! =D I was smirking as I told my parents at dinner that whomever got really loud cheers and clapping on stage were my classmates. I was positively beaming with pride. Hahaha.

I also loved how it didn't become a sad occasion. Not for me, anyways.

We managed to gather a bunch of classmates and dragged them by the hair out for lunch (haha, of course not. They were perfectly willing, except one. *glares at James*). I say "managed" because with our class, you can never expect to have a full class for any class gathering. In fact, we'd be beaming with pride if any one of us managed to gather half. Haha.

We did lunch after tons of photo-taking, of course. Bug JY if you want the pics. But don't worry, I already requested that she try and send me the photos before my university graduation =p . We took tons of photos in the stupid graduation gown. Aizat said I looked exactly like Harry Potter in it. Under different circumstances, I would have welcomed the compliment. I think it makes people look more like members from a church choir.

Anyway. Lunch. We wanted to eat at Sakae Sushi (I'd been craving for the egg sushi for a few days. Though that is pretty much all I eat at Sakae, so it's not really worth it.), but they only had the teatime buffet which started at 3. It was only 1.30 when we arrived at City Hall. So after some deliberation, we decided to have a cheaper lunch and a good dessert. So we went to Long John, walked around and then had cakes and mudpies (yum!) and ice cream at Changing Appetites. Shar made a mysterious exit here, saying she had "places to go". Hmm. JY and I had the Frankenstein mudpie, which was absolutely delightful. Jesslin and Sonia ordered the Double o mudpie, which was not so delightful. The cream tasted weird and so did the brownie base. Oh well.

Aizat and Sonia had to go after dessert to make it in time for Sabby's Anugerah performance at Mediacorp, so we split up to go home. It was only 5 pm. But oh well. We were all pretty tired from waking up at an ungodly hour to get to school by 8.30 a.m. to turn into Harry Potters.

Well, since it's a Graduation post, I might as well say a few words. DMC zero two, you all are the best class like ever and I couldn't have wished for a bubblier, more energetic, kinder, fun-ner, better bunch of bananas to have spent the past three years with. The years flew by, because of you all, and I will never discard those memories we created together. Let's create more in the years to come; I know nothing lasts forever, but let's try at least for a few years. Hahaha. I want to be in zero two again in my next lifetime.

Remember our obsession with food, the words that would be in vogue for a semester at a time, the people we mocked talked about, my wonderful chalet, overnight cycling, foodcourt six, lectures we skipped as a class to go to K Box or do whatever, shopping, swimming, Ryan's place parties, tutorials where we either drove the lecturer mad or decided that the lecturer was the best ever, tutorials and lectures where we learnt nothing but the fact that it is possible to laugh and feel on top of the world for a whole hour (a lesson that some people would never get a chance to learn), the personalities that we gave each other, the groups we formed, the projects we completed together, the fights we had over projects, the sleepovers when we did not sleep, the grouping methods we used every semester to try and make sure everyone was happy, the times spent in Helen Ng's room, Helen, the other lovely lecturers, swearing together whenever it was time to choose our GEMs, choosing lousy GEMs, lamenting about how the GEMs classes were so boring without zero two, pre-exam meetings at McDonald's, post-exam celebrations in town, Jawei's condo, World Cup finals...and so much more.

Remember, my dear classmates. And I'll be seeing you. =)

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I feel all alone even though I am surrounded by people online and offline.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I feel my positive thoughts and happy memories darken like an ink splotch on a pristine piece of white paper.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I feel that my dreams are foolish and will never take flight.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I am swept up in the sea of sadness and feel unable to swim to the shores of happiness.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I feel like staying up until the sun peeks over the horizon and chases away the darkness in the sky, the coldness in my heart.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I know I am surrounded by love but am unable to look up and accept its warm embrace.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when in my mind's eye I witness the theft of the joy I felt just a few hours ago, over and over again like an endless rerun.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I struggle stubbornly against the blanket of sleep slowly descending upon me, when I know I will regret it when I wake up in the morning, tired and unrested.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when insecurity takes over and questions every comforting thought and happy memory, until there are only little candles of warmth left in my heart.

I hate times like these, in the dead of night when I write blog posts and then struggle with the decision of whether to show my weakness to the world.

But at least at times like these, in the dead of night when I write such posts, I know that come morning, most of the darkness will go away and my heart will be warmed up once again. I am grateful for this knowledge, and sincerely hope that it will never be taken away from me. Please and thank you.

Dang, I should sleep early in future.

I'll be on board a cruise ship from today to Sunday.

Next week, I'll be at a chalet from Tuesday to Thursday.

Kindly attempt to keep your 思念 at bay. =D

Friday 4 May 2007 - Becky, Flora, Jesslin



These beautiful girls decided to help me celebrate my birthday on last Friday. Poor Jesslin actually braved her broken heel strap to come for this outing. So touched. We went to Surf 'n' Turf (western food restaurant selling mostly beef and seafood dishes) at Suntec for dinner. The food wasn't bad. Normal western restaurant fare.

Then we decided to walk off the fats at Marina Square. And so it was the usual girlie shopping and catching-up talk. Simplicity. Happiness. Flora suggested that we go to Andersen's Ice Cream for dessert. We obliged. She spent some time at the counter, so I knew she was up to something. Hahaha. We had the Family Fondue. I still think it's too little to feed a family. But it was delicious nonetheless.

Then out of nowhere came one of the waiters with an ice-cream Tiramisu cake! And so the birthday song was sung, and the birthday girl's day was made.



After all that excitement, we sat back, relaxed, and began talking about all sorts of things from dropped wombs to university. Ah. This is the life, ain't it? Just chilling with a couple of great friends. =D



Becky and Jesslin even made a tribute to me using the leftover fondue chocolate. How sweet.

Thanks girls. I couldn't have asked for more than a little gathering with my favourite people from poly. Too bad JY and Sharina couldn't make it, otherwise it would have been even better. Hehe.

Sunday 6 May 2007 - Cheryl, Ailing, Jian Nging, Shi Yun

On Saturday, Cheryl smsed me to tell me that the meeting time and place would be 10.30 a.m. at Chinatown MRT Station. I instantly began smelling a rat because it was such a weird timing in such a weird place. Hahahahaha. But it didn't stop me from guessing her surprise, hehe. Though because of the venue I did play with the idea that actually it wasn't a birthday celebration, she was just asking me out to go Chinatown and check out travel agencies with her for her impending overseas trip. Lol. Don't blame me, Cheryl. I have a very active imagination.

As I *kind of* expected (cos there is a limited number of people who she could have asked), she had asked some of our old secondary school classmates along. I had a feeling that we were going to K Box, but I thought there wasn't one in Chinatown so I was doubtful. But I wanted very much to go, and in the end my intuition was correct! Haha yay.

SY had actually been in the MRT station with me for some time, and I had seen her and found her familiar, but I didn't go closer and so didn't recognise her. LOL. After a while she saw me and walked over. Hahahaha. The others showed up after a while, and we made our way to the K Box at Lucky Chinatown.

We went for the K Lunch package. As usual, the lunch wasn't something to write home about, but we did have loads of fun singing (except someone, who refused to sing -_-). They did manage to surprise me, in the end, with a mango cake. Using the ol' "Let's 'go to the toilet' and come back with a cake!" technique. Dang! I can't believe I fell for it haha.

After the K-Boxing session, we went to People's Park Complex for Cheryl to collect travel brochures. JN had to go after a while to meet her friend. The rest of us decided to go to Plaza Singapura to walk around. We ended up sitting at Long John Silver's in the end to plan for the upcoming chalet. Shi Yun and Ailing left after we finished planning. Cheryl stayed to accompany me for dinner. Had another meaningful chat over dinner, and then went home.

Happy.

Monday, 7 May 2007, 12 pm - Leong, Yun Ping

Met Leong and Yun Ping for lunch at the glasshouse Fish and Co. beside Park Mall. There were hardly any people there, so my announcement that I was not going to produce my i/c and accept the staff's humiliating celebration met with little resistance. *smirks* I had New York Fish & Chips, YP had the erm normal Fish & Chips, and Leong had the Coriander Catch. Mine was ok. Too little cheese though. YP didn't comment. Leong said there was too much coriander. Hahaha. The fried calamari side order was good though.

We ate and catched up on each other's lives, and then proceeded to Plaza Singapura (again) to walk around. Leong and I then decided to go to Bishan library while YP went home.

We slacked around Bishan library until it was almost time for Leong to give her tuition. Then I was left alone to wait for an hour or so to meet the Tous. Haha it's not as boo hoo hoo as it sounds. Though yeah a bit sad to spend like 4 hours of your birthday at the library, but I'm not complaining man!

Really glad that Leong, YP and I still meet at least once a year on our birthdays. A toast to our 7-year friendship! Thanks for the code message in the card, by the way. Very creative. Took me quite some time to decode it because you all forgot to include the punctuation marks in the legend -_-.

Monday, 7 May 2007, 7 pm - Bee, XY, Isabel, Wen Fang

Xy arrived first, and called me when I was nose-deep in an old copy of FiRST magazine in the library. I went to join her at the bus interchange, and she announced that we were going to take 410. I asked why. She said no questions. I obliged.

She brought me to the Ritz's Apple Strudel cafe at Thompson. Yay I got my wish (after watching an apple strudel special on tvmobile one day, I told them that I wanted an apple strudel for my birthday)! Waited for a while for the others to turn up. And then who should appear at the door but my best friend Bee. Jaw-droppingly shocking. Hehehe. A successful surprise at last!

We ordered mango strudel, cos I still remember the one Ms Helen Ng bought our class for a class outing many moons ago, and it was delicious. None of them could finish it though, to my disappointment. Haha. And I discovered that eating apple strudel is a very messy and crumbly process.

The chatting began. And then the cafe staff showed signs of wanting to close, so we started to discuss where to go next. While we were discussing, Isabel sneakily sneaked to the counter and bought a slice of Tiramisu for me.



One birthday song later, we finally decided to leave and go to J8. Sadly, most of the shops were closed so there wasn't much to shop in. So we sat in Coffee Bean and talked about anything and everything. Ah...bliss. I opened my presents (which I had heavily hinted for). My happiness climbed one notch. Grin grin grin.

I am truly lucky to have been surrounded by my favourite people in the whole wide world who came together just for my birthday. =D Thank you all so, so much for making my 20th more lovely than I could have hoped for.

Labels: birthdays