I used to think I am very 潇洒; I thought I will have no problems with issues that people will find hard to accept, like death.
That is, until one of my own friends died.
He wasn't exactly a very close friend, but nevertheless a closer one among those in my unit during National Service. Even though we were in different platoons and we hardly worked together, we had hung out together on nights out, played Company of Heroes countless times online, and went for Exercise Wallaby, especially the 2008 version where we were part of a group of seven who went under the Forward Support Group flag.
At Wallaby, we dealt mainly with radio, which I lacked experience in, because I worked mostly with computers. He was, however, the radio expert, and I learnt alot from him. Outside of work, he was a nice and humorous person, and I enjoyed all the times we spent together.
After we ORD, we never really met up anymore, because he flew off to Australia for his university studies, and I began mine as well. Facebook recorded our last photo together in 2009, when a bunch of us were at the airport to send him off, and our last wall post in 2010 where I wished him Happy Birthday [and I realised I did not wish him for the past two years]. I have already forgotten when was the last time we met, although I have memories of us bidding goodbye to each other on the MRT as he alighted at Dover, during one of his summer vacations home.
I have mentioned before how I feel that people are generally more willing to accept the inevitable when it comes to someone who is expected to die soon, like old age or long term illness, as opposed to someone who dies all of a sudden from an accident, and indeed, I am finding it a little difficult to accept the fact that he is already gone just like that. I thought I had read wrongly when I woke up this morning and saw the chain of messages on my Whatsapp and Facebook.
I now know that I am not that 潇洒 after all.
It hurts a little more when he is a friend I actually know, one whom I had spent more than a year in the same unit with, one who I had looked at, talked to, listened to, played with, worked with, ran with.
Thank you for being my friend.
I am going to spare readers [and myself] all the 'Life is unpredictable, cherish what you have' kind of reasoning, because after today, we will be back to wasting our lives away memorising facts for examinations, doing jobs that we don't like, playing games, watching dramas, and ignoring all the friends that we have on Facebook but never talked to in years. Its just human nature I guess; we can't start 'cherishing everything we have' all of a sudden.
Life just goes on.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Southpoint + UNC vs Duke + Richmond + Raleigh
I have tests to study, and I feel like sleeping, but I am lagging behind in blogging, so I thought I shall spend some time doing that today. That said, I should try to stick to at least an entry a week.
2 weekends ago was another of those 'low key' weekends, as we were, as usual, bogged down by work. However on Saturday we made a trip down to Southpoint, a nearby commercial area with a cinema.
On the bus to Southpoint. It offers WiFi to commuters, although it was quite slow. A one-way trip cost $2, which we paid by slowly slotting dollar bills into a machine.
One of very few photos I took because, well, it is just an ordinary shopping area.
On impulse we bought movie tickets to watch Underworld, which wasn't too bad except that it was too short. Spent the remainder of the time walking around and watching UNC came back from behind to beat Maryland in a weekend basketball match.
Inside an A&F shop. Took some photos inside here because my friend wanted me to help me buy some home, saying that they cost much cheaper here compared to Singapore. However the shop was displaying mostly winter wear, and obviously not a good time to buy for wearing in Singapore.
Sunday was Super Bowl! Super Bowl is basically the most important American football match for the entire season, and the top two teams would play in this match to decide the winner. Not that I was very interested in the game, but I still followed my friends down to an event organized for exchange students to watch the game.
Still couldn't really grasp the rules of the game even after watching for so long.
Last Wednesday was the much awaited UNC vs Duke match. Sadly none of us got tickets to the game, so we had to be content with watching from the dining hall in our residence.
That day's campus newspapers.
The rivalry is intense.
According to Wikipedia, this column would be published before every UNC-Duke game.
Sadly we lost, to a last second three pointer. As I have said before, UNC has a very strong team, but they are too inconsistent. We were leading Duke by 9-10 points for most of the second half, but lost the lead, and the game, in the last two minutes.
The campus newspaper the day after the match. Because UNC had lost the game, our newspapers had to print its newspaper title in Duke's blue, and put a small footnote saying Duke is 'still the best'.
Back of the newspaper.
A friend's lecturer made a very interesting remark: Basketball is probably the only game where one can lose after the game is over. Rightfully, we have won the game, because at the moment when the time was up, our score was 84-82. The three pointer went in after that, became 84-85, and we lost.
But well its ok, there will be another game in March, played on Duke's homeground, and if UNC can beat Duke there, it will be very sweet revenge. Of course, before that can happen, they really need to work on consistency. I watched the highlights of a game where the currently top ranked University of Kentucky played, and they are really good.
After several 'low key' weekends, we rented two cars and drove up to Richmond, the capital of the neighbouring state of Virginia, last Saturday.
First stop: Maymont.
Its basically a garden.
Its supposed to be full of beautiful flowers, but its winter now.
Some random building.
Ducks roaming around freely on the fields.
Some pavilion by a hillside.
Italian Garden.
Japanese Garden.
Waterfall which had no water, again because it is winter now.
Horse carriage!
Another random building which I think is a museum.
At the place was also a little farm where some farm animals are kept.
Children getting all fascinated with farm animals.
Children getting all fascinated with farm animals II.
After the garden we wanted to go to James River, but it started to snow[!] heavily, so we had to change our plans and go to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts instead.
Opened in 1936, and had just underwent an expansion.
Heavy snow showers, as they called it. It didn't last long though.
We reached the museum at around 4pm, and it closed at 5pm, so we didn't really spend a long time there. Most of us couldn't really appreciate the artwork on display there anyway.
After dinner we went for laser tag! In simple terms, laser tag is such that two teams battle out in an indoor arena, with each person wearing a vest and a gun that fires laser beams. Idea here is of course to shoot each other.
We played three games, and my second game was the best out of the three.
It was 10+ pm when we left, and we drove through the night to reach back at Chapel Hill at 2am.
Sunday we went to Raleigh, capital of North Carolina. Although I have been here for more than a month and Raleigh is just a 40 minute drive away, I have never been there until Sunday haha.
My friend drove for the first time in US that day, and I was the co-driver for the first time that day too, helping him look at the GPS and pointing out which road to go, which turn to take and which lane to keep to. It was a little stressful to say the least.
First stop: Lake Johnson.
There is actually nothing too special about the lake; its more famous for water activities like kayaking and canoeing. However, again, its winter, so water activities were not available to us.
And again, ducks roaming freely around.
Among the whole bunch of them, only this grey coloured one bothered to react to our presence. The rest avoided us.
Also at the lake were a bunch of seagulls.
They were either flying around, or lazing around. What good lives they lead.
Panoramic view of the lake. We will probably come back again in Spring.
After the lake, it was the NC State Flea Market.
A row of second hand shops.
VHS tapes of Stars Wars and 007 omg!
Many random stuff on sale too, like Singapore's pasar malam.
Besides an outdoor area, they have an indoor area as well.
A booth selling military stuff! There were even helmets on sale o.o
Shock of the day: a signal set on sale O.O. That was my guess actually, and I don't think it worked anymore.
After the flea market we went to Downtown Raleigh.
Downtown Raleigh is a ghost town on Sunday. I think people come to Downtown Raleigh only to work, but don't live here, hence on the weekends the place is much quieter.
The few attractions that we could go. On the left is the Museum of Natural Sciences, while on the right is the Museum of History.
The museum closed at 5pm, and we only had 15 minutes to walk around.
I was pleasantly surprised at how good this museum was.
It was a pity we only had 15 minutes; I had no time to slowly go through the exhibits.
And of course, we had no time to go to the Museum of History. A friend who had been there a few days earlier said it was boring though.
A memorial to commemorate all North Carolinian soldiers who died in the various wars.
Ghost town.
Dinner.
After dinner we went to a small amusement park nearby. Once again I have no photos of us there, but we didn't stay too long there either. We only played bumper track there, something like go kart but at a slower speed. It was in the open and we were freezing by the end of our five minute play haha.
Sunday's trip to Raleigh was a preview; I am especially impressed with the Museum of Natural Sciences and will definitely be going there again in the near future.
This week I will have a quiz on Thursday and a mid term on Friday; good thing is that I have cleared off most of the homework that is due this week. One reason I wanted to get this entry out is because we will be going Washington D.C this coming weekend, and I will probably have new photos coming in hehe.
On a sidenote, I am obsessed with taking photos of others taking photos. Personally I feel that the presence of the photographer makes them more interesting. Haha.
That's all for now!
2 weekends ago was another of those 'low key' weekends, as we were, as usual, bogged down by work. However on Saturday we made a trip down to Southpoint, a nearby commercial area with a cinema.
On the bus to Southpoint. It offers WiFi to commuters, although it was quite slow. A one-way trip cost $2, which we paid by slowly slotting dollar bills into a machine.
One of very few photos I took because, well, it is just an ordinary shopping area.
On impulse we bought movie tickets to watch Underworld, which wasn't too bad except that it was too short. Spent the remainder of the time walking around and watching UNC came back from behind to beat Maryland in a weekend basketball match.
Inside an A&F shop. Took some photos inside here because my friend wanted me to help me buy some home, saying that they cost much cheaper here compared to Singapore. However the shop was displaying mostly winter wear, and obviously not a good time to buy for wearing in Singapore.
Sunday was Super Bowl! Super Bowl is basically the most important American football match for the entire season, and the top two teams would play in this match to decide the winner. Not that I was very interested in the game, but I still followed my friends down to an event organized for exchange students to watch the game.
Still couldn't really grasp the rules of the game even after watching for so long.
Last Wednesday was the much awaited UNC vs Duke match. Sadly none of us got tickets to the game, so we had to be content with watching from the dining hall in our residence.
That day's campus newspapers.
The rivalry is intense.
According to Wikipedia, this column would be published before every UNC-Duke game.
Sadly we lost, to a last second three pointer. As I have said before, UNC has a very strong team, but they are too inconsistent. We were leading Duke by 9-10 points for most of the second half, but lost the lead, and the game, in the last two minutes.
The campus newspaper the day after the match. Because UNC had lost the game, our newspapers had to print its newspaper title in Duke's blue, and put a small footnote saying Duke is 'still the best'.
Back of the newspaper.
A friend's lecturer made a very interesting remark: Basketball is probably the only game where one can lose after the game is over. Rightfully, we have won the game, because at the moment when the time was up, our score was 84-82. The three pointer went in after that, became 84-85, and we lost.
But well its ok, there will be another game in March, played on Duke's homeground, and if UNC can beat Duke there, it will be very sweet revenge. Of course, before that can happen, they really need to work on consistency. I watched the highlights of a game where the currently top ranked University of Kentucky played, and they are really good.
After several 'low key' weekends, we rented two cars and drove up to Richmond, the capital of the neighbouring state of Virginia, last Saturday.
First stop: Maymont.
Its basically a garden.
Its supposed to be full of beautiful flowers, but its winter now.
Some random building.
Ducks roaming around freely on the fields.
Some pavilion by a hillside.
Italian Garden.
Japanese Garden.
Waterfall which had no water, again because it is winter now.
Horse carriage!
Another random building which I think is a museum.
At the place was also a little farm where some farm animals are kept.
Children getting all fascinated with farm animals.
Children getting all fascinated with farm animals II.
After the garden we wanted to go to James River, but it started to snow[!] heavily, so we had to change our plans and go to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts instead.
Opened in 1936, and had just underwent an expansion.
Heavy snow showers, as they called it. It didn't last long though.
We reached the museum at around 4pm, and it closed at 5pm, so we didn't really spend a long time there. Most of us couldn't really appreciate the artwork on display there anyway.
After dinner we went for laser tag! In simple terms, laser tag is such that two teams battle out in an indoor arena, with each person wearing a vest and a gun that fires laser beams. Idea here is of course to shoot each other.
We played three games, and my second game was the best out of the three.
It was 10+ pm when we left, and we drove through the night to reach back at Chapel Hill at 2am.
Sunday we went to Raleigh, capital of North Carolina. Although I have been here for more than a month and Raleigh is just a 40 minute drive away, I have never been there until Sunday haha.
My friend drove for the first time in US that day, and I was the co-driver for the first time that day too, helping him look at the GPS and pointing out which road to go, which turn to take and which lane to keep to. It was a little stressful to say the least.
First stop: Lake Johnson.
There is actually nothing too special about the lake; its more famous for water activities like kayaking and canoeing. However, again, its winter, so water activities were not available to us.
And again, ducks roaming freely around.
Among the whole bunch of them, only this grey coloured one bothered to react to our presence. The rest avoided us.
Also at the lake were a bunch of seagulls.
They were either flying around, or lazing around. What good lives they lead.
Panoramic view of the lake. We will probably come back again in Spring.
After the lake, it was the NC State Flea Market.
A row of second hand shops.
VHS tapes of Stars Wars and 007 omg!
Many random stuff on sale too, like Singapore's pasar malam.
Besides an outdoor area, they have an indoor area as well.
A booth selling military stuff! There were even helmets on sale o.o
Shock of the day: a signal set on sale O.O. That was my guess actually, and I don't think it worked anymore.
After the flea market we went to Downtown Raleigh.
Downtown Raleigh is a ghost town on Sunday. I think people come to Downtown Raleigh only to work, but don't live here, hence on the weekends the place is much quieter.
The few attractions that we could go. On the left is the Museum of Natural Sciences, while on the right is the Museum of History.
The museum closed at 5pm, and we only had 15 minutes to walk around.
I was pleasantly surprised at how good this museum was.
It was a pity we only had 15 minutes; I had no time to slowly go through the exhibits.
And of course, we had no time to go to the Museum of History. A friend who had been there a few days earlier said it was boring though.
A memorial to commemorate all North Carolinian soldiers who died in the various wars.
Ghost town.
Dinner.
After dinner we went to a small amusement park nearby. Once again I have no photos of us there, but we didn't stay too long there either. We only played bumper track there, something like go kart but at a slower speed. It was in the open and we were freezing by the end of our five minute play haha.
Sunday's trip to Raleigh was a preview; I am especially impressed with the Museum of Natural Sciences and will definitely be going there again in the near future.
This week I will have a quiz on Thursday and a mid term on Friday; good thing is that I have cleared off most of the homework that is due this week. One reason I wanted to get this entry out is because we will be going Washington D.C this coming weekend, and I will probably have new photos coming in hehe.
On a sidenote, I am obsessed with taking photos of others taking photos. Personally I feel that the presence of the photographer makes them more interesting. Haha.
That's all for now!
 |
| Southpoint + UNC vs Duke + Richmond + Raleigh |
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