Min me?

Untitled

2011-07-24T22:57:00.002+08:00

If only it's snowing now.

I'd wear a thousand layers of clothing and walk on that quiet street.

Hopefully I'll reach some isolated shelter in the middle of nowhere.

Under that shelter there'll be a live band playing all that jazz and bossa nova.

I'll still be freezing cold. Somehow, the groove of the music will heat me up from within.

I will stand in front of that shelter, in the snow, watching the band, feeling the melody, replacing the lyrics with my own.

The best I can do now, in this little tropical island, is to watch the white clouds float by in that dark blue sky from the breezy balcony of my home.

If the world would just shut up for one day and let me find peace.

Forgiveness?

2011-07-14T23:18:00.003+08:00

Usually it's easy to just let things go and hold no grudges. I can get pissed off with some project group mates for a while, try to think from their perspective, then eventually let things be and accept the way they are.

There is however this one very thing that never seem to get out of me. Sometimes I think I have already forgiven; sometimes I recall the resentment, refreshed.

To forgive and forget. That's easier said than done.

My dad is sitting right in front of me solving a sudoku puzzle. Out of the blue. In the middle of the night.

Never peaceful mind

2011-07-06T23:02:00.003+08:00

When there's nothing to worry about, there's always something I'm worrying about. Let's just be pessimistic till...

Regrets

2011-06-18T12:55:00.004+08:00

Many a times, people would say things like, "If I could re-live my life, I would have ... ... What about you?"

Change nothing. I've learnt from everyday's experiences; even understanding my reaction when someone bumps into me counts. The ups and downs, thick and thin, fun and failures; it's everything that I've been through that makes me who I am today. I don't think I suck. Neither am I that awesome. I like the way I am. Not 100%, but I still like how I am now.

I've been thinking for quite a while whether I should continue to post on my blog.

When I look back at my posts, especially those back in the hey days of secondary school, I'm sure I don't regret spending so much time writing here. At least now when I'm not so involved in school stuff, I have recorded memories here.

Sounds like I have no regrets at all. Truth is, I actually do have regrets.

This short little article I chanced upon made me found my true regret. It's something, surprisingly faced by many.

5 regrets people have on the deathbeds:

http://www.matchmovegames.com/newsarticle/5-regrets-people-have-on-their-deathbeds

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Well, I don't think the last 2 statements apply to me, though I did hope to have kept in touch with my childhood friends from kindergarten and dance.

The very first time I realised living to the expectation was the day I decided to have a casual chat with Karen, the school counsellor and a good friend of mine back in TK. It was Art class, but my teacher wasn't in school and the studio was locked. On my way back to the classroom, I thought it would be less boring to do my work in the PCCG room, if it was opened.

Karen was there. I was laying my work on the table. Didn't feel like doing my work. There were just me and her, in private. It was school hours, nobody would pop by PCCG room.

I told her how stressed I was. I told her how much I felt like a failure, that couldn't succeed in everything I did. I couldn't catch up quickly enough in A-Math at the beginning of Sec 3. That caused me to lack confidence in Mathematics, thus affecting my E-Maths as well. 2 subjects down and I felt out of control.

Physics was sort of affected, probably because of the calculations. Chemistry got stressed up too, partly because of Tan Kee Hoe and the pressure to pull up my Science results with Chemistry. So 1 more subject dying.

Higher Chinese classes were filled with either uninterested slackers who disrupted classes with crappy work and nonsensical acts, or super pros who didn't need much studying to do well. I was demoralising. So were my grades. There went another subject.

Art was awful. It lacked motivation. Passion was too weak to support me. I lacked knowledge of art. And when everything else didn't seem to be going smoothly, where on earth could I even find time and purpose to do well for art? Maths and science are "always the priority", aren't they?

What's worse when my council teacher was my A-maths teacher and my co-form teacher and my character education teacher. I had to face her at least 11 periods a week, excluding Exco meeting every morning, and council meetings. Sometimes she wouldn't check my work; sometimes she wouldn't punish me; sometimes she would tell the class that I had council work to do at night; sometimes she'd tell me "you know what to do". It's like a silent killer. She's nice to me but I'd been letting her down when it comes to Maths! When I had to see her in council, all I thought of were "I have no say until I do well for Maths". How sucky was that?!

Growing up in a learning environment so driven by grades, I lost my directions. I didn't dare to face the fact that if I suck at 1 thing, let that 1 thing suck itself and not drag everything else along. And forcing myself to do well in the things I couldn't was plainly to meet the expectations of others. Or it could be what I thought of as the expectations of others.

I'm so pleased and relief that I'm out of that education system. It is more free now. I have seen how grades don't mean the world. 'O' Levels was nothing but another stepping stone.

Yet at this moment, I'm still seen as a high-flyer. I don't know if I'm born with that face or it's written on my head, people always think that I'll do well in everything. Well, I take that as a compliment that those people believe in my potential. I just have to keep in mind that I shouldn't take them as expectations. People can see me however they want to, but ultimately, I'm still the one leading my own life.

Lunar NEW Year

2011-02-07T00:06:00.005+08:00

The year is absolutely new. New feelings. New way of celebrations. New people.

Where should I start from?
除夕, or New Year's Eve.
I made a trip back to TK just for a home-coming visit to see my teachers. And the first person I spoke to was, of all teachers, Mr Tan. Yes, Tan Kee Hoe. At the traffic junction. He had never ever spoken to me in such a cheerful and non-judgmental manner. So that was a total different feeling as I was always against most of his way of doing things or treating people except teaching methods. By the way, I'm still very thankful for him (my year-head then) for giving me the opportunity to take Art as a subject by opening the class despite having me as the only student.

I was quite late. The concert was long over, teachers were leaving. But I managed to catch up with Miss Tan, my art teacher, for most of the time. So we're going to visit Mrs Tan, our 前辈 or my 师母, probably next week.

Back to the family, we used to spend our 除夕 preparing home-cooked 团圆饭, with home-made yu sheng, and all the steamboat little little this and that to be cooked. However, this reunion was really special. It wasn't just a reunion dinner. My dad doesn't say it, neither do his siblings, but it was a grand welcoming of my dad to his biological family; for the very first time, he was celebrating lunar new year with his brothers and sister. And never before had we had our 团圆饭 at a restaurant. I felt the togetherness of the family, something that I had been anticipating since December last year.
After the dinner, my bro and I wanted to head down to Chinatown for a walk, which eventually we did not. The entire family ended up doing last-minute spring cleaning! Till midnight. We finally changed the 20+ years old microwave. My area cleaning covered the living room and the kids' toilet (shared by us, children of our parents) and my room. So people who felt comfy at the living room, hope you enjoyed yourself =]

除一
The routine was suppose to be:
1. Dad's first sister
2. Dad's second sister
3. Dad's sworn God-brother
4. Mum's second aunt
5. Hwa Yew

Due to the missing of 2, we had to skip that.
We decided to postpone 3 till day 2 because we had to go Dad's second brother's place for lunch.
姨婆二 (say that in Hainanese) passed away last year which explains why 4 is gone from the routine list.

This year's routine is like... ok, we have a few must-go places at certain time, so the rest is just slot-in. Don't get what I mean? Never mind. So,
1. Dad's first sister
2. Dad's cousin
3. Dad's second brother
4. Dad's other God-brother, and his sisters
5. Hwa Yew

1. The place seems quieter as the old folks become lonelier. We happened to meet their eldest son and family, but sadly, they stayed for probably 10 minutes or so then left in a hurry. The way he gave his father the red packet, was like giving a packet of tissue, no sincerity. They were quite anti-social too. It's probably the second or third time I met them besides the passing of my grandmother. Total coldness.

2. We usually visit Uncle Foo on the second day. But due to the change of routine, his place was "on the way", so we decided to give it a try. And truly, he's always out on day one. Tough luck.

3. Dad's second brother, Uncle Richard's (not that I call him that) place was at Punggol, the newer type of flats. That's where Lenny, his son who's 14 years my senior in ADM, stays with his dog, Fei Fei. Dad's first brother, Uncle Eddie (I don't call him that either), is a great cook. So he dished out very simple but extremely heart-warming home-cooked sweet potato porridge meal. There was the previous day's 盆菜 which was still very tasty, luncheon meat with eggs!, and preserved vegetable.

I got to chat a little with Lenny, Uncle Richard and Uncle Sey Thong, the fourth brother. One question I posted out which had been itching inside me was: DID YOU ALL (the cousins) ALREADY KNOW ABOUT HAVING ANOTHER UNCLE ALL ALONG OR JUST AT THE GRANDFATHER'S WAKE?
The answer: They knew it all along.
That speaks a lot. It speaks about the significance of my dad to the Foo family. It's a missing piece of puzzle which no matter where you look at the whole almost-completed puzzle, there's still this missing piece which makes it incomplete.
Dad thought that the kids wouldn't know about him, but they did. I was touched.

The uncles also told me how they used to frequent the coffee shop where my dad lived in but was alway chased away by my grandmother. haha... exactly like what dad said.

4. Initially, we planned to visit him at Simei because it's "on the way" from Punggol back home. After making a call, he told us he was heading to his sister's place at Dakota, so that became our destination. New place, new people. Not really new, but I didn't notice them at grandmother's wake.

It's interesting to hear stories from my dad's past and the people he met. It's sad, though, that as they get older, they get weaker and more prone to illnesses. Dad's god-brother suffered a stroke.

5. At Hwa Yew, we have been changing our activities yearly for the past few years. When we were still little kids, we used to run around, play with firecrackers, have ball games, then it shifted to card games, then mahjong. Now, everyone has grown old =( I mean we're no longer little kids anymore. The last reunion, there was only one baby from the new generation. This year, there were three, but the eldest didn't turn up. We are all uncles and aunties now!

Most of the time, I was with Paul! He's very intelligent and extremely adorable!!! Initially, he was just fussing around with the food. Then we had him to do what he liked best, PEELING ORANGES!!! Soooooo cute! And my dad challenged the 2-year-old to peel a pomelo, which he did a great job with intense focus! Bravo to this little active boy.

Something I kind of regret was to have a good chat with my cousins. I have always been quiet over the years because of the gap. The line-up of the cousins is like this:

Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
.
.
.
Female
Male
Male
Male
.
.
.
Male
Female

And sadly, I'm the last girl, so all of my female cousins have passed their mid-twenties and I haven't been talking to my male cousins. It's really difficult to open up all over again. Moreover, everyone else talks about work, finance, engineering, army, business... once you talk about art and design, they kind of switch off. I just feel that the gap is widening. It's really aching as most of us meet only once a year.

As we all get older and with new arrivals, dinner ended earlier than usual. I guess it's going to be the same next year. The older folks got to rest, my generation's energy level isn't as high as before, and the little babies need to have sufficient recharging time before they get hyperactive again.

除二
1. Dad's sworn god-brother
2. Dad's cousin

1. Uncle was excited to see us, as usual. He exclaimed that he was expecting us the previous day. "There were so many people! And I prepared a lot of food!" Immediately, he heated and prepared more food for us! Before you knew, we were having our lunch at 11am. It was oh so scrumptious! Very home-cooked heart-felt food too.

Lesson learnt, we MUST visit him on the first day or he'll be disappoint again.

2. At Uncle Foo's place, we met Biao Yu. The last time I saw him was so many years ago! When I was still a primary school girl, I guess! Managed to catch up with him and watch his little boy play with his care bear and spongebob =]

And the question of the day was directed at my brothers and me: 有 girlfriend/ boyfriend 了没有?
oh well ...

3. Part three wasn't part of new year visiting. It so happened to be Vivian's birthday. Hui Min asked if I wanted to join the party to give Vivian a surprise. I was there for a while before I went down to River Ang Bao to meet my parents. Apparently by the time I reached, they were done walking around so we headed to Marina Bay Sands.

除三
1. SLC/NYC reunion lunch
2. ADM classmates new year dinner cum Cheryl's birthday

1. It's the third time I'm holding SLC reunion meal at my place but we had another member, Edwin Peter, this year. I happened to see his Facebook post asking who's free on that day, so I invited him over. Really glad to see all my council pals =] I just like seeing them. It reminds me so much of the times we has to see one another every morning for council meeting then morning assembly and podium duty. Not to forget the non-councilors in SLC, the memories from Hong Kong will never be erased from my brain. Love you peeps deep deep down, just that I don't say it out.

2. My classmates! These bunch of people are my closest friends in TP. It's a pity that a few of them couldn't turn up. Other than that, that night was awesome! We all love food, so obviously they had to have a wonderful time at Pang Chiaw Min the foodie's house.

I apologies if I wasn't a good-enough host 'cause maybe my energy was sort of drenched with so much preparations.

And I'm so proud to say that this year, I prepared everything without my mum's help. All she did was to sit down and eat! =] Special thanks to Si Yuan for being early to help wash the vegetables and 二哥 for all the little things you did.

I was so so tired, I fell asleep without showering =X goodness.

This Lunar New Year of 2011, I felt the warmth in kinship, the chill in "distancing relationships", the energy in young generation, the cosiness of old faces, the anticipation of strengthening bonds and the joy of coming together.

Better Understanding

2011-01-03T17:05:00.003+08:00

It's been a long time since my last post. Many things happened. Desicions were made. Somehow when they coincided and fell nicely chronologically, I started learning a lot, espcially about myself.

2010 was extremely fulfilling. I wouldn't say it was happening though.

Being bored of the long holidays thus deciding to look for a temporary job.
My first job days in Noel and Humming.
Getting into a course I longed to get into since primary school.
Settling down in design school while juggling with a CCA - Dragon Boat.
Being lost and unable to perform to my best both academically and in my CCA.
Racing at Singapore River Regatta 2010 for TP.
Deciding to focus more on school work hence opting out of TPDB.
Reuniting with an extended family - my dad's biological family.
Spending time with my sister and Fred; being the first to know their future plans to shift to Singapore.

Most importantly, by the second block of semester 2, I felt fully empowered to face all challenges from the upcoming assignments, just like how I initially started off as a newbie to design school.

I've learnt a lot. About life. About my life. About me.

If not for my first job days, I would have found it difficult to understand how to start afresh as a freshman in a new environment. I wouldn't know how to speak confidently in a phone conversation too.
If not for the projects in school, I wouldn't have seen how powerful I was in managing my ideas, my team mates and my presentations.
If not for Dragon Boat, I wouldn't have the courage and determination to pull through all the hardships for my school work. Of course, I wouldn't have seen the physically tougher side of myself.
If not for leaving Dragon Boat, I wouldn't have more time with my family members, especially when my biological grandfather passed away, meeting with the Foo family and being with my sister when she was back in Singapore.
If not for being in ADM, I would continue to dress badly, have low self-esteem, not have the eye for aesthetic appeals, and be poor shopper with low understanding of products.

Stepping out of being extremely enthusiastic about school happenings, always taking the lead, and constantly being in the front line is like stepping out of the rushing crowd, glaring at people's feet, evaluating how many times a single square tile is being trampled on every second.

Today is the first day of yet another block. 9 o'clock class ended by 9.45am. I strolled along Bedok Reservoir and sauntered my way home. As I looked at the kayakers paddling in the waters, I do know how much I miss rowing in a Dragon Boat. Then the cool wind blew, diverting my direction to the rattling leaves on the trees. Trees never fail to inspire me, in terms of the details of the texture of the bark, the colours, or the values one can draw from the growth of a tree.

People should grow like trees, standing stronger and getting wiser every year. At the same time, trees are still close to mother nature, protecting her, enhancing her beauty. That's the purpose of trees.

What about my purpose in life?
It used to be to bring joy to people.
Then it evolved to becoming a great designer who designs clothes for the rich, scoop out all those cash to safe the less fortunate.

But now, I just want to live life the way a human being should. Become stronger mentally, emotionally, intellectually, maybe physically. Embrace the nature of living. Enjoying life is not a way of extravagant living; it's understanding the purpose of life. IT IS PRACTICAL. Most people have lost this understanding, that's why researchers are constantly proving that our way of living is destroying our own habitat.

Nobody can tell when exactly the earth will evolve again. Likewise, nobody can tell when exactly my life will end. Making the fullest of my life would be my greatest satisfaction.

I'm in search of my new purpose. 2011 will be just as wonderful.

What's up

2010-11-20T00:35:00.003+08:00

Basically, nothing is really going up.

It has been 1 month, or 1 block in the design timetable.

Dragon Boat
I took part in my very first race at Singapore River Regatta. All those trainings I dragged myself to, all those hardships I forced myself through, were for this race. I wanted to understand the feeling of racing, the ultimate game of dragon boating.

I was very sure that from the moment the starter exclaimed, "Are you ready? Attention! *honk*" till the finish line, I treasured every split second of the race, every stroke I pulled, every cheer we had in the boat.

But after all these that I'd been through, the question that had been putting me in a dilemma came to me directly, face-to-face: Am I able to commit for the next race?

Who am I?

2010-10-09T21:48:00.002+08:00

A video posted on TP Dragon Boat Women's team by dear team mate Jackie set me thinking who I am?

The same questions keep me pondering every morning when I wake up.
The questions are for me to know, so are the answers to them.

Dragon boat taught me to persevere, bite on, do my best in everything that I'm doing, control my mentality (mind over body), be determined.

How would it be like without dragon boat?

My brother's love for archery is incomparable to how much love I have for dragon boat. Archery at one point of time was his life. I don't think I can ever treat a sport like that.

At every phase of my life, every segment in it, it is a redefinition of myself. I've never been this strong, physically, in my life; but can I be sensitive yet strong emotionally like I used to be again?

Yes, I am a Champion. in what?
What I had achieved back in TK were the past; I was a somebody then and a nobody now. What do I have to prove to others of my potential now?

Sickly sick

2010-09-18T22:04:00.002+08:00

If not for the ill people who

1. cough and sneeze openly in the house, leaving all the germs and bacteria everywhere before going on a holiday, only to feed me with germs and bacteria

2. got a weird fever that didn't make him look sick, got MC from army camp to stay at home during my supposedly "home alone" period, and probably breed more virus for me to inhale.

would I even be this sick?!

and at this moment in time, it's the peak period for both academic module and dragon boat trainings. what luck?!

sigh.

Teachers' Day as a Poly student

2010-08-31T23:14:00.004+08:00

Teachers' Day for me, is a time to go back to visit places which used to be my second home. In poly, I don't have teachers; adults who guide me are my Lecturers. This year's Teachers' Day was more like Chinese New Year and Christmas with visiting and wave of gifts.

Taking a cab from TP to TK is not cheap :$8, which can make up to 2 simple meals. As almost all teachers were gone by 1.10pm, it was more of a TK young alumni reunion sort of thing. Caught up with the familiar faces, had lunch at the usual places and I was off to my next destination, MBS.

From secondary school to primary school, I saw people of younger and much younger ages, which made me feel like I have added several numbers to my age and schooldays are something I call "those days". I started reflecting about my life, my journey thus far, my expriences, hardships, exceptional memories.

Pouring my heart out to Serene brought me cloder to her, made me realise how important she is and will be as my true friend. Though we missed out much of our time together in our teenage, this somehow did not seem like a barrier, or rather, a gap that is difficult to cover. For sure, we are clearer that we are best friends, for life.

Teachers' Day is always about 饮水思源, recognising the root of your success, how the first step to success come about. It is quite quite rewarding to find tune with my life, a little more.

YOG

2010-08-26T15:19:00.007+08:00

Being more involved in sports got me more excited for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. It's a pity, like what my prother told me, that I didn't sign up to be a volunteer, but being a part of the torch relay before the openings was quite an experience.

The torch arrived to TP via Bedok Reservoir by the Dragon Boats. Yup, I was in one of the 5 boats, escorting the torch.

Then Dad brought me to the final, full-dressed rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony. Though the spirit of the crowd was not there yet, the presentations were remarkably innovative. Here are some snap shots.

Yep, so like I mentioned before, being more involved in sports actually made YOG more meaningful to me. Understanding the values and spirits within every athlete, I'm not sure if the drive and passion in me is that strong yet.

I enjoyed watching football, which Jonathan Tan of TK played well in to get himself and the nation a Bronze medal, Table Tennis, Swimming and Badminton, the usuals.

Today marks the final day of the 12-day YOG. Didn't catch any games live, like at the venue. Boohoo. No tickets for Closing Ceremony. Nobody to watch fireworks with. Boohoo.

The IOC President, Jacques Rogge, on TV, was saying that if new events were to be introduced to the games, then they should replace the current ones considering how large scale the Olumpics is already. That brings me to wonder if Dragon Boat will, one day, become an Olympic sport.

A holiday breather

2010-08-21T11:53:00.002+08:00

Block 4 had been terribly exhausting, with 2 high-intensity modules and even greater-intensity trainings. It wasn't easy to stay focus. I had to skip a few trainings for school work and everything just went haywire; when I was at training, I think about my incompleted assignments, when I was doing my work, I worry about not being physically on par with my dragon boat team mates.

U like the previous 3 blocks, after submitting my final assignment, there wasn't this huge satisfying relief. I knew I wasn't pleased with the outcome of my work. It wasn't my best.

Returning back to dragon boat trainings... well, I feel demoralise whenever someof them can do a proper chin-up without much aid. I have to complete my 3 sets of 4 with a lot of support. Weak. Extremely. Even scooping water has much to be improved on.

Running out of creative ideas is totally unacceptable for a designer. Last black, I felt this way. The creative juices were just not producing in my brain. I was desperate to get out of the house and recharge myself.

Day 1 of holidays:

Went training. Training was suppose to be 1-man rowing, 300m x 4 with 1-minute intervals. But within 3 hours, only 2 pairs of paddlers manage to complete their set, then it poured.

Headed home. Messaged Cheryl. Off to Orchard!!! Walked and shopped and window-shopped and chatted and visited the YOG Superstore and really really had loads of fun! =]

Day 2 of holidays:

Went training. Played hantambola =] then went rowing, focusing on scoops.

Headed home. Off to Kallang Leisure Park where some other classmates were ice-skating. Didn't skate with them for I was still tired from traning. Walked around the mall while theycontinued till their paying time ended. I walked out of the mall too, towards the Kallang Field where the YOG Archery competition is held, also where my brother is a presenter at. =] But boohoo, no tickets.

I bought Hello Panda and Sour Skittles and JELLYBEANS!!!

We then moved on to Suntec where Aston's awaited for our arrival for dinenr. Went to Olympics Park to snap photos, the Helix bridge too, the Marina Bay Sands as well. Finally, a sweet treat at MOF at Marina Square, before I got into a sugar rush to end the day off.

Day 3 of holidays:

Wanted to go to ECP for rolelr blading but the weather wasn't on our side. Gui Ying and I went to the library for some recharging of words too. I was looking into creative books while she was at the Chinese section.

Then to Roxy Square Ban Mian stall =] for a cheap and super good lunch. Back to Parkway for a walk. Scoops Ice Cream. M)phosis had a 30%-70% discount sale, like-a zai only! Yup, you guessed it right, we bought stuff there. loved♥
And helped Cheryle get the small Merly and Lyo plushie keychains at the YOG souvenir store.

Next stop, Bugis. Walked around Bugis Street while waiting for the grand arrival of the princess, Jacelyn. Bugis Street's merchandises didn't really catch my eyes, since I have better knowledge of fabric quality and visual merchandising, sorry. Went to Giordano, bought a linen khaki. Went to Mu, a local designer's store ♥. Witnessed a flash mob. Looked at one-off hand-made woven bags. Finally princess was here and yay yay yay to Haji Lane.

It's my first time actually going into the lanes of Haji Lane, peeking into the used-to-be intimidating stores. The 2nd store we entered was called Missybella. If you're into more modern-chic with neutral hues like black, white, grey and faint blue, this is the place to find wonders. Preparing to beef up the store with a little cafe upstairs, Missybella definitely offers relatively affordable unique designs. What's more, the owner is about 10 years my senior from Temasek Poly's Temasek Design School's Apparel Design and Merchandising!!! So if you purchase anything from her online or at the store itself, you'll get a point of 10% of your purchase, and you can redeem that point as a cash rebate the next time you buy something again!
For more info, here's the website:
www.missybella.com
And here's the address:
23 Bali Lane
Singapore 189859

It'll be even better if you let her know that you have been introduced by me! =]
Exploration of Haji Lane didn't stop there. That lane really bombarded me with fresh ideas. I was so fascinated by the "trees ideas", as in, so many people out there find the structure of trees interesting too, like me!

We then had dessert at Ji De Chi at Liang Seah Street. Bagus!!!

I eventually went back to the hand-made woven bag store in Bugis Juntion and bought a very very very nice red bag. Very very very very very nice =]

Day 4 of holidays:

Today is day 4 of my holidays. Heading down to TP for training in a while. Today will not be a going-out day. I'll find things to do at home =]

The past 3 days were extremely helpful in changing the pessimistic me optimistic again. Block 4 was an experience, but Bloack 5 isn't here yet. It shall be an enjoyable one, I hope.

to understand and be understtood

2010-07-14T02:08:00.003+08:00

There are simply too many things on earth to understand, be it emotionally or just anything around us.

It's been about 3 months since I officially stepped into TP as a poly student and I've yet to make myself feel totally at home in the campus. Talking to my brother about the common school and studying environment he used to be in, I really feel something is missing, like empty... how to put it? ... like the sense of belonging I feel when I step home, or even TK... like people see you and will instantly acknowledge like "hey, you're part of us."... like I just want to do something for where ever I call "home".

I think I just need more time; getting use to independent learning the college style is quite different from spoon-fed MOE system. I took almost a year to blend into secondary school and another 6 months to love TK, so I guess time will help.

Partly, I suppose, people in TP don't really know me as who I am... like I'm always showing the quiet side... don't know why, but it comes naturally. I need to be understood, not just swallowing my feelings all the time. Back in secondary school, I'd make enough sacrifices for the benefit of others, but I don't want to be evil, mean and selfish because that is just not me. Will anyone understand? I'm a peer mentor, but personally, I need a peer mentor too.

By understanding others, I choose to give in and bear with whatever circumstances. I've never been with the best, but I like seeing things from the point of view of a runner-up who seeks to improve by challenging myself. Emotionally and mentally strong many may say, but deep down inside, I may be the most easily affected.

There are some things which can never be understood... it took me almost 2 year to get over this person and all of a sudden, you became the main character of my dream... -.-'''

Wondering why this post is so long and wordy? I'm just thrashing out my thoughts in the middle of the night, using my Motorola Dext. I've just changed my mobile phoneline, hence 97531515 is no longer in use by me. ( [=c]) if you want my new number, contact me via facebook, email or MSN.

For now, I should turn in and sort out my thoughts in slumberland.

New Term Ahead

2010-06-19T20:49:00.002+08:00

I was telling a few people what had been going through my mine -- my thoughts about Dragon Boat.

Before every single training, I would ask myself if I'm really serious about being a competitive paddler/rower. The irony was that I had to drag my lazy and reluctant body to go for trainings, but during and after trainings, I knew from inside out, these three-word lyrics kept singing, "I feel good!"

For the past 1.5 weeks, there were more trainings, for the mind, body and soul. But today, I was told to go for Sunday training tomorrow, with the seniors. This really means a lot to me. This makes me more certain that I have been fighting and my seniors have seen me fighting and I MUST fight on.

There is a possibility that I'll be competing in July. That's another motivation to train hard.

After training today, I decided to walk home from TP with Ying Hui, the other design freshie in Women's Dragon Boat. Feeling bad about asking her to walk with me, plus she lives about 1km away from me, I walked her to some where near her place and detoured back.
Keeping fit feels good, but I shouldn't take DB training just as a fitness CCA. Walking along the reservoir, looking at the waters, breathing in the fresh air, I really thought a lot.

I should and must look forward to every training be it land or water. Dragon Boat should be my new passion, like how passionate I was for Student Council and Girl Guides. The drive is somewhere in there but I have to get it out!

Term break is coming to an end. Next week will be the start of a brand new block with my fresh mind. I think I've rested enough to recharge my "brain battery".

School life will be about ballancing assignments and trainings well enough to not fall apart mentally and physically. Wish me luck =]

Originality for a Purpose

2010-06-14T19:21:00.003+08:00

So much of being a "fashion student" , and believing in living for a purpose, see how fusing this 2 can bring new creations in fashion and helping kids in need.

Uniform Project Picture Book from The Uniform Project on Vimeo.

This is pure originality I look up to.
This is purposeful trend I hope will never die.
This is passionate inspiration I like.

When originality in creative ideas sparks, AWESOME is the only word to sum it all =]

DVF : De Very First!

2010-05-28T22:55:00.003+08:00

DVF is Diane Von Ferstenberg in short, or at least this renown fashion designer's brand typography.

For the very first time in my life, I actually stepped into a high-end retail store! And I wore a designer's dress!! Which costs S$553!!! And absolutely fell in love with it!!!!

At DVF at Ion Orchard, the whole presentation of the store simply felt welcoming and the warm hospitality of the service was totally heavenly!

In case you're thinking that I'm starting to splurge on high-end designer goods because I'm in design school studying fashion and retail, I had to visit a high-end retail store for my project.

It's quite funny as I thought of how to make up a story just to get what I wanted for my project. I was suppose to sketch out the layout of the store but it's impossible to take out my sketchbook and start sketching in front of the staff and shoppers, so I came up with this scenario:

My project partner, Gui Ying was suppose to accompany me to look for a nice dress. So we went in, and started scanning the store, memorizing the positions. Then I looked for a black dress to "try", reason being I would be able to go into the fitting room and sketch the layout.

But what a waste to hold a designer's dress in hand and not give it a try, which was why I eventually wore it! I swear if I didn't give it a try, I would have so regretted when I walked out of heavenly DVF!

I'm looking for a black dress to wear on my brother's upcoming engagement dinner. The theme is BLACK because my brother set it as such. Simple.

Liddie Knot Fron Jersey Dress by DVF which I wore ♥♥♥

Gui Ying's job was to roam around and continue scanning the place then get back into the roomy and posh fitting room to direct me what to draw. Of course, to not create any suspicion, she got the sales assistant to pick a few more dresses for me to "try" on.

Satisfied with wearing 1 designer's dress, I quickly changed out and both of us worked on the sketch and successfully took down the entire layout at ease. In the midst of sketching, we made "fake comments" about the draping and stuff, and shifted the hangers as if I was changing into another dress.

An interesting experience it surely was. I will not feel intimidated to walk in DVF ever again. Next target, which I have to muster enough courage first, to step into will be either Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Cartier, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Dior or Dolce&Gabbana. If I can conquer all these, I will have the guts to walk into any store =]

I'm 17

2010-05-17T11:07:00.003+08:00

Right, in design school, there's no break when it comes to rushing for deadlines. How did I spend my 17th birthday on 12 May 2010? Went to school as usual, painted non-stop (ok, maybe breaks here and there to recharge) all the way till 10pm. Don't even mention about a birthday cake; I am grateful to have 2 muffins from my buddy =] thanks Lisa =] And a feast for dinner? Nope, I had cup noodles outside the studio with GuiYing, JiaXin and Cheryl. Great company, thanks girls =]

that's Lisa with the 2 chocolate muffins.

And thanks to Felix for the multi-million times "Happy Birthday".

It was heartwarming to see the number of people who flooded my facebook wall with birthday wishes. I've never received this many wishes in my life before... maybe it's just the number of friends increase as I grow older and meet more groups of people.

All in all, my 17th was really memorable, chiong-ing my 1m by 1m painting till I got pekcek.

THE IDEA BOOK from 大哥 and Siim Wii is very inspiring. Every idea quote, article and activity I read sets me thinking... I like =]

With this, it's going to help me generate lots of ideas in my future works. I'm looking forward to Block 2, with only 1 subject and one which I'm extremely interested in, Introduction to Visual Merchandising.

Keep it Going

2010-05-04T22:02:00.002+08:00

Today, I feel the enhanced bond with my closest friends in Design School. Somehow history always repeats itself, prabably because I'm always who I am and society's situation is the same everywhere. Without Suffian, Lisa and Karei, I really don't know how to continue to believe in myself, to stop thinking I'm sort of a loser.

I was on the verge of giving up, ignoring all my assignments and rotting my pass few days away. But I kept drilling Moses's words into my mind : Never Stop Trying. I brain-washed myself to persevere on. Slow and steady wins the race, I told myself to tackle the assignments one by one, with no fear. And now I feel so relaxed, after submitting quality work on time =]

Many a times, my mind will let me be influenced by my surroundings. People in my class can't be any better; every individual has such strong character which is the reason how influencial they can be to me. At the same time because they are all so different, I learn to really really really learn to just be myself and be carefree of what opinion others have about me. I like the nice people in class =] Thanks for making the effort for Dress Up Day: Rock today.

With dragonboat getting serious and workload being consistently well so far, I'm still striving on.

The Grand Entrance

2010-04-25T12:39:00.004+08:00

It's been 2 weeks in Design School and I'm excited about going to school every day. From Orientation's cheerings to the creative aura all around Block 28, this has been the sort of environment I've been looking for. So wanting to get into Design School is surely not just a childhood dream, but it's a possibility I've achieved!

Going to school for Art classes, drawing and painting, and studying the revolution in art and design and how they all affected life and culture... no crazy mathematical formulae, scientific theories... school is amazingly interesting!

Living in what used to be a dream, I have to live to the fullest now. It's only 1 week since school officially started but I'm wanting to get involved with everything. Most designers don't take up any CCA beacuse the workload is too heavy, but there are some who juggle them well. So I'm just giving Dragonboat a try... see how it goes for Sem 1. And there's YOG volunteering... it's probably once a lifetime experience and opportunity and that's why I really want to do my part. I don't want to go alone =(

A happening life means a life filled with responsibility means a busy life which can lead to a stressful life and can end up being a pessimistic life if I can't manage it well.

I haven't seen the worst of the design workload yet, so everything is still very unpredictable to me. I'll just see how things go ...

TK Band SYF 2010

2010-04-10T23:38:00.001+08:00

Going back to support TK Band as a non-band member alumni, I felt a strong bond within my heart with TK still. The fact that I actually woke up at 4.30am paid for a taxi ride to CCA Branch and queued till 10 am for ticket to watch the SYF Competition showed a lot.

This competition meant a lot to TK, especially for the band members and the Class of 2009 and 2010 because we witnessed the time when TK Band brought glory to TK once again and TK Band losing the title of the Best Display Band to Deyi. Many of us said it was just on loan to Deyi since we'd been holding that tile for a decade, so this time round, we hoped to say the "loan period" had expired.

From the number of alumni who came back to help or support, anybody could tell how imprtant the band is to every TKsian; there were just too many of us. TK band was, unfortunately, not able to sustain the Gold with Honours award despite putting up a remarkable performance.

"The band is the Spirit of TK" was something I overheard a parent saying. Indeed, TK Band isn't just our spirit, it's our soul and life; it never fails to bring us, TKsians together as one, and like I said, Your glory is Our glory. Getting a Gold award isn't good enough to you and that saddens us. From your sweat and tears, we all know that you'd done your best and we loved it! Maybe it's a learning point, maybe it's a time for others to enjoy the glory we'd enjoyed for a short while, maybe it's a time for us to reflect how we can improve ourselves, for failure makes us strive on even harder and this will bring us towards a Greater Success!

This song, Tegami, is dedicated to all band members, past and present...

I felt it was a well-selected song to motivate the band to move on because the past can never be changed and we can only do our best for the next SYF... Keep on Believing!

Here's the translated lyrics to understand the meaning of this song...

Haikei kono tegami yondeiru anata wa
Doko de nani wo shiteiru no darou

Juugo no boku ni wa dare ni mo hanasenai
Nayami no kanae ga aru no desu

Mirai no jibun ni atete kaku tegami nara
Kitto sunao ni uchiake rareru darou

Ima makesou de nakisou de
Kieteshimaisou na boku wa
Dare no kotoba wo
Shinji arukeba ii no?
Hitotsu shika nai kono mune ga nando mo barabara ni warete
Kurushii naka de ima wo ikiteiru
Ima wo ikiteiru

Haikei arigatou juugo no anata ni
Tsutaetai koto ga aru no desu
Jibun to wa nani de doko e mukau beki ka
Toitsu dzukereeba mietekuru

Areta seishun no umi wa kibishii keredo
Asu no kishibe e to yume no fune yo susume

Ima makenai de nakanai de
Kieteshimaisou na toki wa
Jibun to wa nani de doko e mukau beki ka
Toitsu dzukereeba mietekuru

Areta seishun no umi wa kibishii keredo
Asu no kishibe e to yume no fune yo susume

Ima makenai de nakanai de
Kieteshimaisou na toki wa
Jibun no koe wo shinjiaru keba ii no?
Otona no boku mo kizutsuite
Nemurenai yoru wa aru kedo
Nigakute amai ima ikiteiru

Jinsei no subete ni imi ga aru kara
Osorezu ni anata no yume wo sodatete
La la la, la la la, la la la
Keep on believing
La la la, la la la, la la la
Keep on believing, keep on believing, keep on believing

Makesou de nakisou de
Kieteshimaisou boku wa
Dare no kotoba wo shinji arukeba ii no?
Aa Makenai de nakanai de
Kieteshimaisou na toki wa
Jibun no koe wo shinjiarukeba ii no
Itsu no jidai mo kanashimi mo
Sakete wa torenai keredo
Egao wo misete ima wo ikite yukou
Ima wo ikite yukou

Haikei kono tegami yondeiru anata ga
Shiawase na koto wo negaimasu…

Dear you,
Who’s reading this letter
Where are you and what are you doing now?

For me who’s 15 years old
There are seeds of worries I can’t tell anyone

If it’s a letter addressed to my future self,
Surely I can confide truly to myself

Now, it seems that I’m about to be defeated and cry
For someone who’s seemingly about to disappear
Whose words should I believe in?
This one-and-only heart has been broken so many times
In the midst of this pain, I live the present

Dear you,
Thank you
I have something to tell the 15-year-old you

If you continue asking what and where you should be going
You’ll be able to see the answer

The rough seas of youth may be tough
But row your boat of dreams on
Towards the shores of tomorrow

Now, please don’t be defeated and please don’t shed a tear
During these times when you’re seemingly about to disappear
Just believe in your own voice
For me as an adult, there are sleepless nights when I’m hurt
But I’m living the bittersweet present

There’s meaning to everything in life
So build your dreams without fear
Keep on believing

Seems like I’m about to be defeated and cry
For someone who’s seemingly about to disappear
Whose words should I believe in?
Please don’t be defeated and please don’t shed a tear
During these times when you’re seemingly about to disappear
Just believe in your own voice
No matter era we’re in
There’s no running away from sorrow

So show your smile, and go on living the present
Go on living the present
Dear you,
Who’s reading this letter
I wish you happiness

Apple Cake, Apple Pie, Cinnamon Roll Cookies

2010-04-07T23:30:00.000+08:00

Unsatisfied with how my previous Apple Cake turned out, I made the cake again. I found a pie crust recipe to use up the apple filling, and this led me to baking cookies.

Su Juan and Zhi Yi were asked over to kill time and help me out, while Weiteng, the one who was so excited about baking was having a fever hence unable to turn up.

...................................................................................Apple Cake (take 2)
Follow the recipe from the previous Apple Cake post. That recipe is already refined. Something I did differently this time, were to include an Oreo crust at the bottom, not add in raisins for the cake is sweet enough, added more oil/butter, and use less apple fillings so that the cake forms in a better shape.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Oreo Crust
Ingredients:

normal size Oreo cookies
melted butter

Crush the Oreos.

You can simply crush them in your electric blender if you have one.
You can put all the cookies in a plastic bag (preferably Ziploc because it's thicker and there won't be holes eventually), use something to smash or a roller to roll over.

Mix with the melted butter. How much to put? Not too much. For 20 cookies, mix in 3 tablespoons of melted butter.

Lay the mixture flat at the bottom of the baking pan.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

..................................................................................................Apple Pie
Realising that I'd added too much apple filling into my cake batter, I found a pie crust recipe to make apple pie.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Plain Pie Crust
Ingredients:

1.5 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup butter (not melted)
4-5 tablespoons ice water

Cut the butter into small pieces then mix with the 1.5 cups self-raising flour until it is the consistency of cornmeal.

Sprinkle 4 to 5 tablesppons of ice-cold water over the mix ture a bit at a time. Meanwhile, use your hand to fold in the mixture. When the dough will form into a ball, stopp adding water.

Flatten the ball of dough on a lightly floured surface by pressing with your fingers. Roll from centre to the edge,until the dough fit you pie plate, making sure the thickness of the crust is as desired.

Carefully transfer rolled dough from flat surface to pie plate, keeping it centred.

If you plan to bake the pie crust before filling, take a fork to prick the bottom and sides to let air out as it bakes.
If baking immediately, bake at 200ºC for about 10 minutes (but watch it carefully so it doesn't get burn)
If following a pie recipe, use the baking time and temperature in the recipe.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The above recipe is only enough for 1 layer, meaning if you want a top crust, double the recipe.

Here are a few pointers I applied:

Make holes on the top of the top crust
Lay aluminium foil around the edges for about 15 minutes while baking so that it does not get burn before the filling is well-baked

.............................................................................Cinnamon Roll Cookies

These are the simplest to make. Light flavoury sweetness with a great fragrance from the cinnamon!
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Ingredients:

same as Plain Pie Crust
Butter/Margarine
1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
1/4 cup Sugar

Prepare the dough exactly like for the plain pie crust. Roll it flat to preferably a rectangle.

Spread butter/margarine on the surface of the flattened dough.

Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle the mixture on the surface of the dough.

Roll the dough up. Cut the roll into equal thickness.

Bake at 190ºC for about 8 minutes.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Splendid day of baking which left me with hardly any energy.

A must-have in anyone's closet

2010-04-06T11:53:00.003+08:00

Denim pants used to be worn by only farmers and factory workers because of their tough texture. However, I'm sure you'd agree that pair of jeans and a t-shirt is the safest fashion statement today.

But have you ever wondered how jeans or denim pants are made?

I think the stitching machines are interesting, but the suction machine used to flip the pants right side out is kind of a waste of electricity and totally unnecessary.

Imagine a $20 pair of no-label jeans and $200 pair of branded-label jeans... they both go through the same process. So, is it really worth splurging on a branded-label, or are the labels over-priced?

All about Eggs

2010-04-05T13:49:00.002+08:00

Eggs are widely used in baking and cooking, but when they step up to be the "main character" of your dish, you will not just call them eggs but amazingly awesome haven!

My highest record was to eat 12 egg yolks + 8 egg whites in 1 day.Well-known as my favourite, it's time to study the art of cooking Eggs.

Back to basic...
soft-boiled, half-boiled, hard-boiled, how to peel an egg.

how to tell if an egg is fresh, omelette

how to tell if an egg is fresh, poached egg

scrabled eggs

.....................................................ChiawMin's 100% fail-proof Egg Mayo spread
Ingredients:

Eggs (at least 5)
Raisins
Real Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper

Boil the eggs till they're hard-boiled. My trick is to add a pinch of salt to the water to increase the boiling point and boil the eggs for about 9-10 minutes. Leave it in the water for about 2 minutes because it seriously helps in peeling the eggs, somehow.

Put all the peeled, hard-boiled eggs into a bowl that is big and deep enough for mashing. I like to use a fork for mashing because it gives irregular sizes where the coarser crumps are not too large.

When the eggs are all mashed up, add in the mayonnaise, about 2 table spoon to start off. Mix well, really well. If you like it lumpier or you're a great fan of mayo, add more, but not too much. Remember, you're making Egg Mayo, not Mayo Egg.

Once you're happy with the texture of the base (egg and mayo), mix in however much raisins you want. This adds a nice chewy and sweet twist.

Season with lots of pepper (I like it peppery ^.^) but sparingly on salt because mayonnaise itself is quite rich in flavour and unfortunately high in fats.

Best served chilled.

........................................................................................................

I'd made this for 200 people as light refreshments and it was gone in a flash. To cut cost, of course I didn't include the raisins.

It's tasty on it's own.
You can wrap it with a slice of tomato in a piece of cabbage.
You can wrap it with sausage and some rice in a large piece of seaweed.
You can spread it directly on a slice of bread or after a coat of butter.
It's just very nice lah... perfect for holidays because it's "multi-purpose", You can eat it for any meal, and if you can't finish it, keep it chilled in the refrigerator till you feel hungry again.

Today, I tried a different rendition. I left the raisins and added a touch of Caesar Salad dressing for a slightly sour taste. It tasted interesting, still nice, but the original is always the best!

Update (photos)

2010-04-03T20:25:00.012+08:00

Meet-up with YiZhen (Primary School Prefect buddy)
and Serene (Primary School buddy, classmates for 4 years)

Ben&Jerry's Free Cone Day
(Heng Kiat, Jonathan, Weiteng, Zhi Yi)

Meet-up with Isabel (my chiobu!)

Dinner with TK friends
(SiYuan, YiJing, Sharon, Stefan, Zheng Jia, Aaron, HengKiat, Christopher, Daniel, Ryan, James)
First Solo Art Exhibition by Ong Hui Har
(Miss Tan, Miss Wani, Miss Tan's friend)

Held at The Arts House, this exhibition will run till 4 April 2010 (tomorrow).
Opening Hours: 10am - 8pm
You can also view all ther paintings exhibited at http://onghuihar.wordpress.com/

Also, check out the special report of the exhibition by RazorTV.

I tried to embed and paste the videos here, but they were too big and caused the borders to go out of place so click on the links.

Spot Miss Wani (interview, 00:43) and Me (03:02)!

This video is actually named after what Miss Wani said! (04:08)

Part 3

Update

2010-04-02T17:53:00.002+08:00

Since work ended, I have to look for things to do in order not to be bored. Besides just walking the malls, I'd met up with friends, tasted good food, walked for long distances, cook and bake, played badminton, watched videos; basically just anything under the sun which can entertain me.

I've been going back to school quite often. Excluding the band alumnus like Rifat, Jet and Ming Wei, I'm probably next on the "most frequently seen OLD face in TK".

Thinking that I still have a few weeks till school starts, I offered a helping hand to mentor the Student Councilors for this year's Anti-Bullying Campaign (ABC) which I pioneered 2 years back. They seriously need urgent help. Just 2 days after the agreement to help, TP sent me an email to acknowledge me that "Temasek Polytechnic Students' Union is g;ad to inform you that your application is SUCCESSFUL". By the way, that is the application the TPSU Freshman Orientation Camp -.-''' from 5April to 7April. The Design School Orientation is the week after next, the week before school officially starts. I guess I'm going to ignore the TPSU camp since it's not compulsory and I'll do all I can to safe the ABC project.

The most hectic day must be last Wednesday when I prepared gifts for my Noel superiors till 2.30 am and woke up at 4am to go down to CCA Branch to queue for SYF Display Band Central Judging tickets. Together with Rifat, Jet and Eddie, we reached there before 5.30am and there was nobody. Thinking that no one would actually go at that crazily early time, we went to Mr Prata, only a stone's throw away, for breakfast but saw a red cab stopped by. So, yup, we weren't the first in the queue anymore. But Rifat waved to the CCTV camera as a proof that we were there first, hah!

By 10.15 am, 4 tickets were in my hand, I went for a walk with Bernice and YiJing at Plaza Singapura, then took a train to Paya Lebar to meet Zhi Yi and Weiteng, then hopped on a bus back to Noel for visiting. I was about to faint when I met Zhi Yi and Weiteng 'cause my stomach was terribly upset in the morning and when I was forcing waste out from the bottom, I felt I puking from the top too. My stomach felt empty after 2 visits to the toilet, but I was too afraid to swallow any food, in addition with the lack of rest, a headaache was a red alert for my energy. Luckily I took a short nap while waiting for the 2 ladies to get done with their last-minute card preparations.

So I stayed at Noel till 5 plus pm and headed back down town to meet the Art teachers to an opening of an art exhibit. We had a chat after that at some posh cafe till about 9 plus and strolled till 10plus. By the time I reached home and showered, I sank striaght into bed before 12.30am. Super exhausting!

In case you were waiting for my Cheesecake post, my brother found out that the cream cheese he bought was spoilt, so I'll be whipping up the Apple Cake with the improved formula and an additional crust next week with guests =]

Hate to read everything above? I'll upload pictures right here on my blog. You can actually find them on Facebook already.

Apple Cake

2010-03-26T14:44:00.004+08:00

I found this recipe on the Internet and it says "fail-proof", so I thought it was worth giving a try; I mean, even if it really fails, it won't be an absolute failure.

What I loved about making it was that I didn't have to those bombastic electrical appliances which can be extremely noisy and a chore to wash. All I needed for the mixing were a spatula and a mixing bowl =]
As for measurements, it was so hassle-free because I didn't need weighing scale and measuring beaker, just a measuring cup, tablespoon and teaspoon!

So here's my suggested, improved recipe:
after following exactly to the original)
.........................................................................APPLE CAKE

Ingredients:
•2-3 tart apples, cored and peeled
•2 tablespoons sugar
•2 tablespoons cinnamon powder
•2 cups flour
•1 3/4 cups white sugar or 1 3/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
•4 teaspoons baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•4 large eggs
•1 cup vegetable oil
•2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
•Powdered sugar, for dusting; or toasted slivered almonds

Let's start baking:

Preheat your oven to 160ºC and lightly butter a cake pan.

Chop your apples into uniform chunks and toss, in a bowl, with the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients and stir.
Stir in the eggs and the oil.
Stir in the vanilla.

Either gently fold the apples into the batter and pour everything into the cake pan, or pour 1/3 of the batter into the prepared cake pan, then 1/2 the apples, 1/3 of the batter, the last 1/2 of the apples, and top with the remaining 1/3 of batter. There should be quite a bit of extra room at the top of the pan; trust me, you’ll need it.

Bake at 160ºc for 80 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool, in the pan, to room temp, then invert onto a plate and flip back over.
..................................................................................

Here's the original recipe.
I added raisins. You can try having smashed nuts to give your cake a little crunch.

My cake turned out slightly charred at the edges and not desirably cooked in the centre, otherwise, it's perfectly tasty on its own and that's the reason why I didn't include the toppings and glazing. A sweet treat indeed, so I suggest, if you're going to follow the original recipe, don't eat the cake with hot chocolate, hot vanilla or anything that is already sweet on its own.

Something I learnt is that for cooking and baking, never ever use Fuji apples. Fuji apples are very juicy, rich in water level, hence by the time your dish is done, the apples will be dry and the texture will not be as good as that of Tart apples. Tart apples are small, round and waxy on the surface. They are not as juicy and crunchy as Fuji, but ideal for cooking and baking. I don't know how to explain... let's imagine you're eating McDonald's Apple Pie... it's a little crunchier and juicier than that!

I feel like having another bite of the cake =] Bye!

Next week will be some cheesecake =]

Foodie Intros

2010-03-22T16:24:00.004+08:00

Since I'm such a great fan of food, I thought I should share the yummy treats my taste buds had enjoyed so that you can let yours have the privilege too.

Right.

Foodie Intro #1: Beach Road Prawn Mee

The best part of a bowl of Prawn Mee is definitely the soup. There's this prawnie seafood taste that flavours the entire bowl of noodles and that is incomparable to most hawker stalls but it's a pity that it's not served hot enough.

This bowl is the normal bowl of Prawn Mee with Bak Kut or Pork Ribs which are really soft even if you're having it in the morning which I did. There's tau geh and kang kong in it as well.
Actually, I ordered the kway teow. You can have it with noodles (the thick yellow ones), bee hoon, a mix of noodles and bee hoon, or just kway teow.

When you order Prawn Mee here, you'll tend to go to the stall next to it (within the same shop) to get a plate of Ngoh Hiang too. However, I was there to have a light breakfast, which was too much to be considered "light", so I didn't get to munch those fried stuff.

Here's more to this Beach Road Prawn Noodle House located at 370 East Coast Road. (link: ieatishootipost blog)

I'm not trying to help advertise or sell the noodles but I feel extremely fortunate to have a close friend whose father is the owner of this well-known Prawn Mee stall!

In case you want to make a trip down, they're opened from 8am-4pm daily but closed on Tuesday (because it's their family day -- so lovely).

A swim in my tea

2010-03-19T14:04:00.001+08:00

Teabags can never be this cute! Imagine if they're paperdolls which you can put different clothes on them... this is really cool. Pret-a-portea (teabags)

I just got an idea! I can make them as gifts! Perfect!

The Wonder of People

2010-03-16T00:35:00.004+08:00

When people come together, with a common passion, as one...

... it brings Wonders.

Domino

2010-03-07T17:05:00.000+08:00

This is really exciting and tests your patience to the max! You can definitely try this at home with anything and everything you can find in your house but do take note that mess created will be crazy if you're going to line a domino THAT MASSIVE, from your room to the kitchen to the dining room to the study then to another room then the steps and to the garden and maybe across your fish tank into the toilet and ending in the living room.

乐观

2010-02-28T21:57:00.015+08:00

大哥老师告诉我每天都是学习的一天,不一定要上学上课才能有学习的机会.今天是元宵节,是正月十五,也是轮到大哥请朋友到家里聚一聚的一夜.老二忙着练箭,只好有劳小妹我为他准备今晚的晚餐.

往好的方面想,我可以准备自己喜欢吃的菜肴,同时还能把空空的餐桌堆满美食.当用餐者脸上露出那因食物好吃而自然地,满意的微笑,为他们细心准备的我会很满足,而这只不过是个bonus.能为大哥做点小事,又能从中取乐,何乐而不为呢?

大姐曾说妈妈能为我们做的也只有家里的琐事.虽然抱怨的话会挂在嘴边念,但能为孩子做多一点事可以让她觉得自己其实还有能力帮孩子.是这样吗?

因为这些年来,看着妈妈的不开心长大,我更肯定的告诉自己绝对不能像她那么悲观.她自己都会说:"快乐也是过一天,不快乐也是过一天,干脆快快乐乐地过一天."因为了解知足我才得到长乐.每当我提起这话题,妈妈总会回一句:"人不为己,天诛地灭,"要认同她的说发,我办不到,只能说自己一然相信"我为人人,人人为我".

今晚的鱼生妈妈准备得很不愉快,不知用餐着是否吃得出怒味.谁说当老师的脾气都很好?不错,在校园里妈妈的确是位好好老师,但在家里的她对我们的耐心是非常有限的.

除了开长的鱼生,今晚的小菜及汤头都由小妹亲自准备.有时候不是不让妈妈下手,而是看她做得好像很辛苦,好像越做越生气,当孩子的我不知该阻止还是让她继续.

刚收到大哥的简讯,今晚只有两位朋友会到我家来.往好的方面想,大家都不需招待那么多客人,而且买了么多吃的,可省了多到超市一趟.

到厨房看了看,妈妈"自以为是"地把"所有"东西都准备好了.告诉她不必动手,她却面无表情,似呼闷闷不了地回复:"都弄好了.我要去睡觉了."往好的方面想,信好火锅最重要的汤及妈妈还没准备的一些料还是由小妹我来弄!

现在是六点正,再不开始动手,妈妈准备再多的菜,少了我特酿的味增汤(Miso Soup)(不知汉字是否用对因为词典里找不到),火锅就吃不成了.

28/2/2010 1800

费时费力地写了这么多,原本是想把心里头的不愉快以另类方式发泄,但好像只把"不愉快"写了出来,"心里头"的感受感受仍然不愉快.

我也只能以乐观的态度,往好的方面想,这可配养我的耐性,同时让我再次有机会以母与文笔表达自己.

乐观,简单地说,就只是以另一个较单纯角度看一见事.

Food!

2010-02-27T23:57:00.005+08:00

It's time I bring back interesting stuff to share and, of course, food never fails to excite me! (k, maybe, unless I'm suffering the effects of food poisoning or whem I'm extremely bloated)

Making food look appettizing is the key in tempting us to eat and hence integrating food with Art will bring a whole lot of wonders to the eyes, then to the tummy =]

You can DIY, but will you go to this extend?

When poor artists look for new sources of art materils, you realise food can be played the arty-way too.

Can you bear to lick off the chocolate?

The thing about Art, especially moedern/contemporary art, is that it's crazily creative and your mind gets blown away by how artists come up with beautiful creations using crap.

So much of wasting food to make Art, I'm not encouraging anyone to try these out unless you're sure you'll be eating whatever you've made.Just remember this "粒粒皆辛苦" ; every grain of rice doesn't come easily, so ... happy searching for more good food!

The 1st Treat

2010-02-17T22:45:00.003+08:00

Learning has never been this true and real till I step into the warehouse, working with people. Work didn't just taught me skills, it made me realise the value of kinship. It had been occupying so much of my time, having to sacrifice not just family time but also my sleep time. So every day was bluntly going to work and rushing home for a quick rest and the cycle repeated for 2 full weeks. This Lunar New Year was one which I see myself cherishing every moment spent with every single family member.

It had been awhile since I received my first pay, and taking the opportunity that my sister was back, this week was the only time I could ask for to treat everyone dinner. At 7pm, we're all at Astons at Katong, queuing for a table for 6. It was heartwarming to see how much my parents and siblings were enjoying the food and it was self-satisfying to settle the bill. Total cost for 6, including drinks: $61.90, totally worth the pinch!

Let's start anew with the Lunar New Year

2010-02-13T22:06:00.002+08:00

It took me some time to get over the aftermath of 'O's, but I think work had done a lot in helping me to recover.

If you've not heard from me, I'm really glad to get into my top choice for JAE (Joint Admission Exercise), Apparel Design and Merchandising in Temasek Poly. It has been a "dream course" since I was a kid, and getting into the course, to me, is a self-affirmation that I'm good and the school wants me.

At work place, I've been extremely well taken care of. Most importantly, I learnt that in life, grades really isn't everything. People may already say I'm a "people person", my job scope has taught me how to communicate effectively with all sorts of people, young and old. This time round, whatever experiences I'd shared with my juniors, especially the Peer Support Leaders and Councillors on Effective Communication, was brought to the challenge, because when I'm on the phone talking to the drivers, I can't express myself with my body language, and when I'm facing them, I had to keep in mind that I'm the bridge between the drivers and the company.

The thing is, work had kept me well occupied to stop me from having pesimistic thoughts and in turn, showed me how bright my future will be. The people there are really nice people, but sadly, almost all of them will not be staying after the Lunar New Year break. Even the good drivers I'd been contacting had said their final goodbye and the warehouse is really empty. I'm still staying and stirivng on =]

So the year of the Tiger has arrived, which means my mum has stepped into the next decade of her life. It's her year and I really hope and pray for the best for her health.

The year is kicking off and the Tiger's roaring! It's the perfect atmosphere to cheer for a great year ahead.

Out in the Real World

2010-01-10T20:03:00.003+08:00

It's after 'O's when many of us decide to get a job to kill time and make some money while waiting for our results. And it's this time when we really step out of our comfort zone where we're always well-protected by the adults and the rules set by them.

In TK, I was a somebody; a student well-liked by many teachers, a senior whom many looked up to, a junior whom every senior want as a successor, a friend who's there in need, a fellow schoolmate who if you do not know personally may think I'm a typically dilligent and intelligent student, an enthusiastic Patrol Leader in girl guides who's ever so energetic and somehow knows everything and anything about guides, the Vice-Secretary of the Student Council who always seemed so happening with school events.

On the first day of work when I was left all on my own, I felt it. It was a wake up call, that I'm long out of school and I am a nobody. People do not have immediately have a good impression of me and I have to earn it. Like the transition into TK, I tke time to make myself comfortable with the environment. i start of being really quiet and hardworking 'cause that's all I can do. People probably think I'm just a quiet person, so workplace is still quite a mystery.

And remember how I stop people from saying the f-word? Now, i don't really give a damn. As long as it's not associated with me or my loved-ones, go ahead, it just shows how low you are. In reality, I can't possibly stop everyone from doing what's wrong.

Well, this is life. Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher once said, "The only constant is change". I fear change, I fear adaptation, but it's happening all the time. After 'O's, it'll be Poly. Tomorrow is THE DAY when the beginning of the 3rd major transition in life begins. Tomorrow is Resutls Day.

To all my friends, people from TK Batch of '09, PLMGSS NYC friends, 14th HCI SLC Firminus, TKGS PB, other student leaders whom I've met, primary classmates and schoolmates who'd graduated in 2009, Sec 3 Higher Mother Tongue TKsians, all the best for your results!

Geog of Food: Problem of Affordability in DCs

2009-12-03T10:43:00.003+08:00

What you have seen is the situation in America. So when you go for buffets, don't give yourself the excuse that Singaporeans are suppose to be kia su and sweep piles of food from the buffet table when you can't actually finish them. Spare a thought; food wastage is a definite no no.

Imagine the number of people we can feed with 100 billion pounds of food. It's not that the world is running out of food due to rapid population growth. It's just how the food is unevenly spread around the world.

Spare a thought.

In the first 2 weeks of The Break

2009-11-26T22:56:00.002+08:00

How did I end off my examinations? It has been quite hectic, actually.

Immediately after my last paper (science MCQ), on the night of that day was class chalet. I'd never spend that much time with my classmates before. Though regretting to know some of them better only towards the end of my secondary school life, I cherish that little time that brought us closer.

Jasmine and Dean became true blue friends whom I was able to speak my heart to. For the 3 days and 2 nights, I thought they were the closest to me =] The second night was a time I truly mixed around with the Malay boys, I guess. I liked those moments.

It was extremely exhausting when you're in 4J because they really teach you how to play damn hard... maybe that's how my results plunged =x But you can't deny that this well-mixed bunch of people had been extremely fun to be with, be it lesson time, PE time, play time, gossip time or just heart-to-heart time.

I may not have been the fun-nest councilor friend who always seemed to be a goodie two shoe, doing all the "right" things, being the "teachers' pet", but I sincerely thank you guys, 4J, for the funnest memmories in Upper Sec.

The night after class chalet, probably only surviving with the little energy left from over-exhaution in class chalet, I went out to buy goodies for my juniors for their camps the next few days. Yes, I hardly had enough rest. I gave up packing the gifts at night and sank right in bed so that I wouldn't be late to report for Council Camp.

Council Camp and Guides Camp were happening concurrently, so, you can imagine, I was running around both sides like a mad woman. I managed to find time and hid in the council room to do the mass production: gift packaging. Seriously, council had taught me to do mass productions like this.

Anyway, while council was having station games, I joined guides for their self-defence session which was super fun! It sure was a pay-back time for the juniors to whack me with that "spongy stick". That activity was 100% physically straining, the fun way.

Afterwhich, I chiong-ed to shower to get ready for Council Farewell Night. The food was preeetieee and tastiieee, as usual ('cus it's council and we're the most priviledged and prestigious bunch =x). I was more impressed by the programmes for the concert. Never in my 3 years in council had I seen such a well-planned programme which was definitely entertaining, and every level get to put up something, including the nominated SCs from Sec 1! The Sec 1s were remarkable, having only 2 hours to prepare those skits... amazing!

So I slept in 2G classroom with Nazurah on my left and Olivia Tina on my right. We were the last to settle in the bunk. Talked a little... Olivia was a little demoralised comparing herself with her seniors and felt that she just wasn't a good enough leader. Is that true, Sec 4s? Absolutely Not! Wanna know what I told her? It's for me to know and for you to find out. When baby oli fell into slumberland, it was "senior chatting session" with Nazurah, the only other Sec 4 staying in the camp with me.

Rise and shine, me, the glutton sneaked away from council during morning exercise to have home-made breakfast with guides ( ok, it's not a secret now). It was soooooooo nice; scrambled eggs, sausages, bread and the secret formula Milo (apparently Miss Tan was so delighted to have found the exact amount of Milo powder, condensed milk and water to get the perfect capacity of tasty Milo to feed the total number of guides just right).

okok, i'm getting excited. Then, I joined back council for more food (oh no, isn't camps about food?) actually I was too full to eat, so I watched them eat. That morning, I was packing up from my bunk 'cus I intended to sleep with guides that night, with Si Yuan. Council was having sports games and I sort of flaged off guides for their Urban hike. All of a sudden, my phone buzzed and I was called to 3G classroom to help Esther and Miss Tan name ALL the songs the girls knew how to sing in preparation for Guides Farewell Night. (yup, so all the planning kinduf broke the surprise element)

I had muscle aches from the self-defence session the previous day and more back muscle aches from sleeping on the concrete hard classroom floor. I guess I was extremely drowsy and desperate for rest. I actually drank from Esther's bottle without realising. When Miss Tan left the room , I was chatting with Estehr about life in guides after the handover and I just slept with my head resting on the table, next to her.

I felt bad leaving her all alone in the classroom after I woke up, but I really had to wake myself up, totally. So I was back with council, having committee bonding session with Discipline Comm (Clarissa, I helped you bond with them in return for last year's duty >.<)

I love the games after lunch. School experience had never been this wet and dirty! There was this game which you put a water-filled balloon on your head then whip cream on it and ur team members were suppose to shave the cream off until the balloon burst. There was this station where skittles were mixed in whip cream and you had to get the specific coloured skittles out of the mess only with your face. There was this corner where you wear a pair of goggles and whip cream was spammed on your face, then your team members threw or placed nits and tidbits on your face and you all took a group photo. There was this station where you transferred water from one bucket to the other without pouring the water directly. There was also this court where people played hannd ball, but instead of a ball, you played with water bombs. As you can see from the above, councilors really play hard to the max and it's out of your mind.

The trouble came after games for council and guides showering time clashed. I was contented to see the councilors graciously letting the guides go first so that they could prepare for Guides Farewell Night. As the senior for both sides, I felt bad chope-ing 1 cubicle, but like the other guides, I had to get myself prepared too.

Guides Farewell dinner; food: not exactly nicely presented on the food table, but the service from the Committee Memebers was superb. When the dumb timed lights in the canteen couldn't light up, the candles were romantic (maybe cosy would be a better word). The dinner mgiht not looked good but the food was awesome! Extremely comparable to council food; quite unexpected.

Let's not talk about the gang-show. I was touched by my juniors' gifts. I mean, it's their way of showing appreciation on my hard work on them and the company. I cried, I really did and the tears rolled out of my eyes uncontrollably. It might sound cliche, but guides is very different from council, I don't know how to put it but I guess it's the sisterhood and all that I'd tried to build in guides that made me that emotional.

Well, I wanted to get over that watery moment, so I joined back council, with Clarissa for Night Walk. Yes, laugh if you want to, of my 4 years in TK, it's my first Night Walk because guides forbids Night Walks. The atmosphere was quite eerie, but I know TK and my juniors (the "ghosts") too well, it didn't turn out that horrifying, I even managed to ask 1 "ghost" to get out of his hiding place before he could scare me... hahaha..

The second night of camp, I hardly slept. Si Yuan and I spent our night talking, pure chatting, in the canteen till 3am, and then rest our heads on the table till we slept. Quite an experience =]

Like the previous day, morning was breakfast without council again. The menu was the same, only that the sausages were changed to ham. Still an excellent breakfast! Si Yuan left after breakfast. I stayed on with council for debrief and some confidential stuff.

Let's not rant about how long Mdm Halilah made me wait for her but council break camp at 11am. Some Sec 3s were suppose to be back in school by 3pm for Cambodia Trip preparation. I left school at 3 pm -.-
Oh, how much I love TK, you may say.

That, was 2 times 3D2N of hardcore fun. Of course, when I got home, I pengsan immediately.

You think I'm done, not yet. The next 2 days were shopping spree for Prom/ Grad Night.
Day 1 of shopping: I woke up super late. Went to City Plaza, hoping to fish out something cheap, worth and stylish. After browsing for 3 hours, nothing. Switch plan, headed to Parkway. Almost wanted to give up. FOUND MY DRESS!!! Had dinner with Si Yuan, Clarissa, Yuyi.
Day 2 of shopping: I woke up super late. Skipped breakfast and lunch. Walked around Far East Plaza for 4 hours, searching for shoes, belt, head accessories. Nothing. Too hungry to go on. Had lunch with Si Yuan, Isabel, Sharon. Almost wanted to give up and head to another mall. Persevered to comb the place. FOUND MY PREEETTIIIEEE AND COMFYYY HEELS!!! FOUND MY BELT! Headed to Plaza Singapura to get feathers for my hair but it was off budget so I dropped it. Bought nail polish though... for my toes.

I was extremely drained mentally and physically. So Prom Night was the day after all those shopping. Isabel volunteered to come over to my place in the morning to paint my toe nails (omg, damn girly, so unlike me). Let's fast-forward to the dinner itself.

Before I continue, I'd like to specially thank ONG SI YUAN for acoompanying me on both days, I meant both FULL-DAYS. I'd also like to thank Isabel and Sharon for joining in on day 2.

At Grand Corpthorne Waterfront Hotel, table number 16, the food was almost untouched. Partly because there were only 7 in that table, but I didn't eat much mainly because everyone else didn't eat much so I felt it was too much for me too eat. Well, I tried my best to force the scruptious food down my throat, but it was just too much. I'd never ever in my life wasted that much GOOD FOOD. I still feel bad.

Anyway, I like the Rifat's song "The Batch of '09" a lot. Took lots of pictures. Not very satisfied with the number, actually, especially when I only took photo with less than 5 teachers. A great night to remember, that's for sure.

Sunday, was a day out with the family and I watched 2012 with my bro. Had a surprisingly nice dinner at the food court in Tampines Mall.

Monday, I went back to school for PSL training preparations with Mdm Halilah. Glad to see Crystal mentor and Uncle Lawrence.

Tuesday, I went back for the actual PSL training. It was a Senior Sharing Session by the Sec 4s, so I was after the NE Ambassadors, including Ebenezer, Vincent, Jie Sheng and Kian Wee (isit? oh no, i feel bad forgetting your name), sharing on the topic on "How to be an Effective Communicator?".

Wednesday, what did I do on wednesday?

Thursday, I walked from home to Geylang Serai CC near school. Took me an hour and I felt very satisfied =] There, I played badminton with the weirdest combination of friends: Heng Kiat, Jonathan, Clarissa, Yuyi, Weiteng. After which we headed to Roxy Square for lunch at the Ban Mian stall. I left them after lunch.

Hardly having much time to take a breath, I showered, changed and met Si Yuan at Tampines. Hi-fived with Peter there, had dinner with Si Yuan at TM then we walked around casually. You know, everything that I was looking for my prom outfit kept appearing in front of my eyes and that was irritating.

Friday, Council Outing with my dearest dearest juniors! I can't express how much I love them... they're kids in my eyes... hehehehe... opps =x I loved the Carl's Jnr's lunching time, I loved the movie time, I loved the arcade time when we played at the basketball machine, I loved the Swensen's dessert and chatting time, I loved the Carrefour knowledge sharing time (on tea and honey and uh hum Naughty-G and chicken breast and turkey breast and olives and cheese), I loved the travelling home time.

Saturday, Get To Know TK Day. I thought it was a large-scale event, so I went down. Nicholas Ow, my 2-years senior went back too. Actually, I went back to see my juniors lah. Miss them a lot. Oh, they're afraid of me hugging them =( C'mon Alston, Han Jie graciously gave me a hug! If you don't have weird feelings then what's the matter with a friendly hug, dude?

So, November is coming to an end really soon. Many Sec 4s are out to work or on long holiday trips already. I hate to say that I don't want to be stuck with TK, but I'm still quite rooted there. All my juniors bet that I'll go back for sure... haha... that's so predictable. Anyway, I'll most probably be working at my Dad's Friend's soon. Gotta go meet him to confirm.

Phew, I'm done.

p.s. for more pictures to tell those thousand words above, check out my facebook photo albums and videos.

Oh my, my Os is Over!

2009-11-13T23:16:00.003+08:00

yep yep, the title spoke for itself; Tuesday was the day I summed up my 10 years of education and take a real break in life to re-charge for the next phase in life.

So much of an experience secondary school life has been, but I'm too exhausted spending my energy at gatherings...

... stay tuned (maybe you can come back on Monday night, 16 Nov) 'cause I'll be telling you more after my camps which starts tomorrow.

'O' Level Art Coursework

2009-09-22T14:33:00.003+08:00

Finally, after months of struggling, a final boost during the September break and burning midnight-till-dawn oil last night, I'm done with my coursework!!!

I'm pretty satisfied with my works. Most importantly, through this entire journey creating Art from scratch, I learnt to take charge of my character and show it in my work, especially for my supporting studies and development. I sincerely thank Mrs Tan for her guidance and for teaching me so many different ways to create art and to help me out whenever I was stuck.

I found out that many things can be done within my abilities; it's just that I do not have the confidence to just do it. My eldest bro motivated me much to being life to the 8 flat pieces of supporting studies. At the very last resort, due to time constraint, I forced myself to do pen sketches directly on to the board, which means no error can be allowed at all, once a stroke was drawn, there was no turning back. It turned out awesome!

I even did an entire board showing the layout using pen sketching. Initially, I wanted to give up pen sketching after completing the "Singapore part" because the "China part" was intimidating to me. I had the idea to resize and print the "China part" and then trace on tracing paper. After which, using an ink-less pen, sort of engrave the lines on to the board and shade them lightly with pencil. Then I realised that I didn't have the softcopied China landmarks. Hence, I was stuck. Ultimately, out of desperation, I compelled myself to just hold the pen and draw. And miracles happened; I managed to complete my work! It was simply stunning.
Like what the TK Team of Youth Congress 2007-2008 used to say, "Simplicity is the key to success." Simple sketching is classic art - pure beauty. That piece of board was one of my favourite ones.

So, today is the deadline. 60% of the most time-consuming subject is down... what a relieve. Just when you think I'm done with art, guess what? Art Prelims is just 2days away and I haven't even started doing anything.

I'm not a reTARD; I'm an ARTard =D

'O' Level English Oral

2009-08-27T21:07:00.000+08:00

To be exact, this is my 2nd Os paper ( the first is Art coursework ). The assurance given from how the examiners reacted to my response and I didn't need much prompting, I'm quite sure it's a distinction, or not that lucky, slightly below the dividing line.

With this, I shall be more optimistic about my other subjects. Next up is the completion of my coursework, of course. A B3 is something I expect, but definitely, I hope to push that up to a distinction score with my Paper 2.

Moving on!

Food Poisoning

2009-08-13T22:32:00.000+08:00

It's probably the worst illness I have ever experienced. Having to endure the stomachaches and frequent the toilet was already enough to torture my lifestyle, I cannot even eat like a normal person.

This is horrible!!!

Food has always been an important part of my life, not only to give me energy and keep my body functioning, it is utmost important that it brings me joy!
This food poisoning THING made me skipped dinners and cause me to have fear towards my favourite past-time, eating!

Apart from food, the tummy discomfort is the worst of all. Imagine that you feel like going to the loo every 10 minutes just to ease the contraction in your tummy... LS-ing has never been this crazy.I'm lucky for the LS is controllable, not the type that flows out without warning.

The LS symtom came first, but subsided once the headache and fever took over. That's when I seek medical aid from Dr Tan. So he gave me 1 week worth of headache + fever pills that can last within a week, but only 2 sachets of LS medicine that finished in a day...

Now, my headaches and fever is gone, but I'm still LS-ing. I want to get over with LS!!! Save me, will someone?!

Documentary: Life After People

2009-08-03T21:20:00.002+08:00

Sometimes, I feel that human beings shouldn't have existed to cause so much change to mother nature. This change is irreversible, unless we disappear, unless we vanish, unless we leave nature alone.

Air New Zealand Advertisement

2009-07-19T00:03:00.002+08:00

Take a closer look... do you see it?

It took my quite long to realise it.. i think probably after half the video played then I was like," Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! These people are super daring!"

So, open your eyes and take a good look at this advertisement.

You will never expect to see Singapore Airlines to have such an advertisement =]

"Our Story - Class of 2009"

2009-07-17T21:28:00.003+08:00

Solar Storm

2009-07-07T19:06:00.007+08:00

We're introduced to Magnetism during Physics lesson today when Mrs Goh shared about the Solar Storm.

Curious to know more about it, I went to check it out at NASA's website.

You can click on the page at

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/
10mar_stormwarning.html

or simply read the report pasted here...

*** ***
Researchers say a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years.
It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.

Like the quiet before a storm.

Recently researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies.

Dikpati's prediction is unprecedented. In nearly-two centuries since the 11-year sunspot cycle was discovered, scientists have struggled to predict the size of future maxima--and failed. Solar maxima can be intense, as in 1958, or barely detectable, as in 1805, obeying no obvious pattern.

The key to the mystery, Dikpati realized years ago, is a conveyor belt on the sun.

We have something similar here on Earth--the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt, popularized in the sci-fi movie The Day After Tomorrow. It is a network of currents that carry water and heat from ocean to ocean--see the diagram below. In the movie, the Conveyor Belt stopped and threw the world's weather into chaos.

The sun's conveyor belt is a current, not of water, but of electrically-conducting gas. It flows in a loop from the sun's equator to the poles and back again. Just as the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt controls weather on Earth, this solar conveyor belt controls weather on the sun. Specifically, it controls the sunspot cycle.

Solar physicist David Hathaway of the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) explains: "First, remember what sunspots are--tangled knots of magnetism generated by the sun's inner dynamo. A typical sunspot exists for just a few weeks. Then it decays, leaving behind a 'corpse' of weak magnetic fields."

Enter the conveyor belt.

"The top of the conveyor belt skims the surface of the sun, sweeping up the magnetic fields of old, dead sunspots. The 'corpses' are dragged down at the poles to a depth of 200,000 km where the sun's magnetic dynamo can amplify them. Once the corpses (magnetic knots) are reincarnated (amplified), they become buoyant and float back to the surface." Presto--new sunspots!

All this happens with massive slowness. "It takes about 40 years for the belt to complete one loop," says Hathaway. The speed varies "anywhere from a 50-year pace (slow) to a 30-year pace (fast)."

When the belt is turning "fast," it means that lots of magnetic fields are being swept up, and that a future sunspot cycle is going to be intense. This is a basis for forecasting: "The belt was turning fast in 1986-1996," says Hathaway. "Old magnetic fields swept up then should re-appear as big sunspots in 2010-2011."

Like most experts in the field, Hathaway has confidence in the conveyor belt model and agrees with Dikpati that the next solar maximum should be a doozy. But he disagrees with one point. Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.

"History shows that big sunspot cycles 'ramp up' faster than small ones," he says. "I expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007--and Solar Max to be underway by 2010 or 2011."

Who's right? Time will tell. Either way, a storm is coming.

*** ***

The knowledge required in order to understand all these is quite a bit. I tried to look up on more information at Wikipedia.

Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm

Hope I'll get a better insight of the solar storm after studying on magnetism. The thing is that I (and probably you, who are reading this) will live long enough to experience the up and coming Solar Maximum, thus there is a need to know what to expect and how to react when it comes.

English Vocab- the integrated way

2009-06-18T20:56:00.004+08:00

This kindergarten best friend of mine is one passionate blogger. Not that I aspire to be like him, but blogging has never been a priority in my life and definitely not during this stage of my life.

You may have heard of or witnessed the Flash Mob at Orchard Road on 13 June. This pal of mine was one of those crazy-looking people dancing on the street in pyjamas! What gave him that oppourtunity to be part of it was actually one post on his blog regarding the fashion sense of dear oh Singaporeans.

You can check it out right here:
http://joelthelegendary.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-singaporeans-dress-badly.html

What I like about such blogs is the language used. Most people's blogs are filled with short-forms and vulgarities and whatever nonsensical language errors you can think of. Well, Joel the Legendary has truly shown that teenagers can produce quality compositions. He can absolutely treat his blog as a new platform to replace magazines!

Anyway, my point is... I'm trying to learn vocabulary from his super long composition.

1. alter-ego : a second side to somebody's personality, different fromt he one that most people know

2. pun : a humorous use of words that involves a word or phrase that has more than one possible meaning

3. sentiment : a feeling or opinion prevailing among a group of people

4. galvanization : the stimulation of something into a great activity

5. avant-garde : writers, artists, filmmakers or musicians whose work is innovative, experimental, or unconventional, considered as a group

6: beacon : somebody or something that is a source of inspiration

7. self-immolation : suicide, usually as burning, as an act of sacrifice

8. disheveled : with messed-up hair or clothes

9. fedora : those nice hats... stop calling them hats... let me get a picture of it

9 new words! ... ... ... and hopefully I can store them in my word bank =]

belated birthday surprise

2009-05-19T18:31:00.003+08:00

Gotta say this:
That absolutely made my 16th birthday special.

Special thanks to
Si Yuan,
Stefan,
Josephine,
Olivia,
Sharmane,
Vivian,
Clarissa,
Estee,
Rifat,
James,
Kenny,
Soo Han
and Sharon
=]

My best cake EVER!!!
BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE from THE CHEESECAKE CAFE!!!

Oh, and the pranks to trick me to your secret hideout place... hahaha...

16 and striving on

2009-05-17T23:15:00.004+08:00

The Mid-year Examinations just ended a few days ago, and so did my birthday. This year's birthday is really different because there's no cake (and I didn't feel bad about it), no huge heavy dinner.

Anyway, a big thanks to all those who tried to make my birthday special with your well wishes.

12 May had never been so special. On my 16th 12 May, for the first time in my life, I celebrated a birthday during the examinations period.

My lifestyle has probably changed due to my learning environment, and partially myself, so I'm not as successful as I used to be. I struggled through this mid-years. It absolutely sucked to lose your confidence. I'd never ever felt nervous for exams. Now I understand what my neighbour used to complaint to her mom about -- to be totally prepared for exams but to blackout in the midst of the exams.

There was so much to study for. My plan wasn't to get a distinction for every single subject, but those that were within reach. Being better-prepared as compared to last year's exams, I desperately wanted to do well and get out of the low self-esteem cycle. It freaked me out when I saw my hand trembling and I couldn't control it while I was holding my pen.

Blame myself for being so nervous, my performance for Higher Chinese, A-Maths, E-Maths and Chemistry was disappointing. I know where I got wrong and how to improve.

Let bygones be bygones, there's no point feeling gloomy now. I'll just have to work harder and smarter, i guess.

So the past 2 weeks were the best time for self-study, I had little exercise and kinduf didn't care much about the house. This weekend was payback time. The painters were all geared up to re-coat my entire house! There were a lot of shifting, waiting, staring, cleaning up and clearing up going on in the house.

Cleaning had never been this effective. Because we had to shift all the furniture out, we were able to clean the dust-filled corners and edges where lizard shit was spotted occasionally. It had been exhausting, but fruitful. At least my house look brand new now.

My lifestyle varies differently every day. Most of the time, I find it pointless to use the computer, which is good, right? Or is it a sign that I'm going aimless again?

This blog used to be my life... I even studied here! If I'm not mistaken, my first few posts were all notes from Sec 2... haha.

Don't worry bout my blog being dead.. it won't... it will take care of itself... I'll just walk by when I'm bored =]

Till next time(probalby a month's time, 6 months' time? I don't know.),
Adios.

Meat and the Environment

2009-04-15T21:04:00.004+08:00

Should we just consume lesser meat?

Maybe we should all just stop being meat-eaters?

Unbelieveable but true facts!

Aren't these scary?!

School life

2009-03-07T16:23:00.002+08:00

I would say I had been quite focussed during lessons in school for the whole of last week. The school was really at peace with all the other levels away for cohort camp. Though I did miss my juniors and the noise level and atmosphere, the school became really an extremely condusive environment to study in.

So just when most of us thought that yay,no more juniors to squeeze with in the canteen during breaks, the drastic decrease in number of students queing for food absolutely did not make much of a difference because half of the stalls were closed and all the uncles and aunties kinduf slacked, even the manpower tending was halved too! boohoo... =(

Anyway, I just got back from a dialogue session at Macpherson Secondary School regarding Youth Volunteerism. I had gain insights of what providing international humanitariam aid is like. Some thing interesting is that the GOH, Dr Fatimah Lateef shared her experiences and her life as a humanitarian aider, an MP and a surgeon.

Well, at the end of the dialogue session, TK councillors actually got inspired (from what I observed) and we were interacting with the youth leaders in the community and were keen on extending an extra helping hand to serve mankind.

I especially liked Dr Fatimah's wrap up, which was the principles she strongly believed in: To share what you have, to learn as though life is never ending and to live as though every day is the last day of your life.
(I think i missed out 1 point, so anyone who realise it and can remember, pls let me know ya?)

Thinking Day 2009

2009-02-21T23:35:00.012+08:00

This is the last year I'm so called celebrating Thinking Day. It's definitely not some lame day ok! Some lame people actually asked me," Thinking day think what?" Well, to me, every Thinking Day is special because it's a day when brownies, girl scouts and girl guides from all over the world join our hearts to think about one other and how we can serve and help other people while keeping the Guides law, as said in our Promise.

Every year, we renew our Promise, and this promise has been kept the way it was originally for more than 100 years.

The Guides Promise:
I promise to do my best,
To do my duty to god,
To serve my country,
and help other people,
and to keep the Guides Law.

Well, let's not talk about how well the contingent did or what even happened in school. But but but but but, I'd finally got the chance to take a picture (maybe not 1) with my brother!!! I mean my scout brother =D

okay, enough of HIM.

So, this year's Thinking Day Rally was very different from the 3 others I had attended for the passed 3 years because TK guides didn't just go there to be part of the audience; we participated in the performance! As part of the theme: Preventing the Spread of Infectious Diseases, we skipped! According to Ms Tan, it's suppose to give the impression that maintaining a healthy lifestyle can prevent us from infectious diseases.

Usually, Thinking Day Rally is from 1 to 5 pm. This year, it's from 9am-5pm. Somehow, it didn't feel that long. In fact, it felt even shorter than 4 hours. We were red from head to waist so we were the most "spottable" in the Indoor Stadium. And how cool is it to be able to walk around the back stage area, to lie down in the middle of the stadium, to skip in front of Mrs Nathan, to simply skip and the crowd of more than 10 000 people will scream and cheer for you?

That was definitely a total different perspective of Thinking Day Rally. I like the song item put up by Geylang Methodist Sec and CHIJ Katong Convent:

When the Colour Party took over right in front of us:

And bading farewell to the VIPs:

More PICTURES...

So it's time to leave evidences of our memories in guides...

This was taken when we were in Sec 1 =DDD
Compare and contrast...

Clarissa's idea to get puffy

The above and bottom are of course my ideas lah
(at least more natural looking =] )

The 3 long-haired persons;
I seriously feel extremely fortunate to have snipped off my
long hair in Sec 2 so that I don't have to go through such
TORTURE!

Let's drop the topic... NOT!

2009-02-12T19:23:00.002+08:00

You know, when someone is not feeling happy about a certain incident or act or whatsoever and chooses not to bring out the unhappiness in himself/herself, it kinds of bring me to a conclusion that the person has given up the relationship (be it friendship, kinship or BGR) and found it pointless to clarify things.

I don't see why one cannot be open about one's thoughts so that since it doesn't make one very please, it will not happen again!

Yes, I do agree that any party should continue to dwell on the topic, but it absolutely irks me because there is no solution to this problem and without a solution which can be easily obtained only if the person is willing to unfold the hidden emotions, nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of the same situation can be resolved! In other words, the same situation will most likely happen again.

Think about it, this unhappiness doesn't only affect the person alone, it affects people around the person. So if it is not something pleasant, why not we just prevent it from occurring again?!

What is so difficult about it? Unless friends/family members/partner(s) are people who are not understanding... that, I would see as you have totally no faith in me as a friend/member of the family/significant other.

Wait a minute, those groups of people should be classified as "loved ones", shouldn't they? However, from how things seems to be, the "loved ones" will gradually drift to become "loved, once".

People, it's fine to speak your heart out. Trust me, it will make you feel a lot better than what you thought. Even if a teenie weenie incident can blare into a volcanic commosion, so be it; at least eventually, there'll be an effective conclusion (effective in the sense that it not only enhances the relationship between the parties, it also allows each party to have a better understanding of the other(s) ).

Don't support Kleenex

2009-02-09T18:34:00.000+08:00

Why should you not support the use of Kleenex tissues?

Watch this video:

Spare a thought for the environment; spare a thought for the forests...

Lunar New Year

2009-02-01T10:11:00.008+08:00

This year's visiting should be all and done unless there are any other last minute invitation or guests.

The warmth of family cosiness was surely something to cherish and something which makes me look forward to the next Lunar New Year. Nothing else on this earth ever replace such warmth I'd felt.

It's really difficult to get to see everyone, be it immediate relatives or not. I haven't seen my dad's cousin's family for probably 6-7 years. Uncle Foo's place used to packed with people from the third level of his terrace house to the ground floor living room with his sisters and their family members, and especially the kids running everywhere. I miss those times.

At least, I'm glad that my dad started visiting his god-brother since two years back and his place is now one of our destinations of the routine annually. It's quite interesting to listen to the adults chatting about their history and all the exciting childhood they enjoyed.

Fate gave my god-uncle's younger brother and my dad the opportunity to meet each other once again after almost 2 decades! Cool, 1 more new family member to know =)

My paternal family tree is seriously so complex that I guess only he himself can understand.

On the second day, we visited dad's friend who used to be his business companion, Uncle Richard. See those floats during Chingay, the street decorations along Orchard Road, Chinatown and Little India? He has been bringing Singaporeans all these visual satisfaction for years, or even decades. (He doesn't get the bid everytime, so if you see not so pleasant looking fabric decos, that's most probably not done by him.)

Mum's side is more clear to everyone. We always go to Hua Yew Wee for dinner on the 1st night of the lunar year for dinner. It's my grandfather's sworn-brother's family business established by him. As the cousin-gang *ahem* ages, more people are joining the gang and upgrading to the adults level (or rather, the married level), we do have a junior cousin-gang forming up too!

Before I go on, there's this practise in the family that for any gatherings, there'll always be 2 tables, 1 for the adults and the other for the kids =D

Anyway, back to the leveling-up, 3 of the gang members had tied their knots, 1 is already on stand-by mode with the ropes (so that adds 4 more members in the gang photo). The junior gang is extremely green, with the oldest only 2 years old and the 2nd member just born in January. Cute right?
That's the 老大, Leanette (not very sure of the spelling). Her daddy is the 老大 of my generation's cousin-gang too.

I'm still young and youthful =D I'm the youngest in my gang, okay?! I'm the only one who's still schooling in a school ( as in not colleges or polytechnics). The problem about this wide age range is, whenever the I finally learnt how to play the games the older ones always played, they upgrade to something new when I've not mastered the old one yet -.-''' It started off with fire crackers, then they moved on to mass games like captain's ball (like I was 5-7-year-old only?), then to poker cards. When I finally mastered the game of Dai Di, they advanced to mahjong. Lucky they were as new to the game as I was, if not, how will I ever catch up to their pace?

I'm contented to have seen my grand-aunt (Mum's aunt) in better health this year. As she ages, she tends to get forgetful. However, she was very clear about her past, like how she got to Singapore and raised her children. Very adorable, and lovely lady; I wish her good health forever.

Last night, I invited the TK-HK-SLCs over to my place for dinner. Rifat or Siddharth, if you happen to read this, I didn't invite you 2 because I was afraid that the food preferences, so do understand. I think it was so fun and funny! Everyone STOOD up to cook their food. Then when the oil "pop-ed!" and spattered on us, you could hear people exclaiming in fright and sting.Kenny, Ryan, Olivia, Josephine, Vivian, Sharmane, Estee, Clarissa and Sharon came. So fun, so fun... ok~.

I shall now reverse all the way back to the lunar new year eve night, also known as 除夕夜. It's a tradition to have reunion dinner on this night. So we prepared loads of food!

To include something new on the menu, korkor prepared soba noodles and raw egg for the cooked beef. It's vey Japanese style.

I love this year's Chinese New Year the most out of my 15 years! Oh, and I didn't eat Bah Kua!!! Yeah!
在此祝贺大家新年快乐,万事如意!

Chinese New Year Celebrations

2009-01-23T22:41:00.002+08:00

Mdm Ng approached me during the December holidays just to put up a 3-minute performance on stage for today. Having been an event/concert organiser before, I understood the difficulty in getting people up on stage willingly, hence agreed to help her out.

So today was the day. I, sure, was properly attired ("dressed" would be the proper word) for my GuZheng solo... I wore exactly the same outfit which I prepared for my cousin's wedding. I didn't want to feel over-dressed, so I dropped the idea of having make up on.

I kept practicing and practicing backstage the moment I was in the hall. It's absolutely not fun to play pieces which can be easily identified and to even do that alone! The thing about familiar tunes is that once I didn't quite catch it, that's it, I'd be doomed , 'cause the audience would realise it.

I had been used to strumming the string with my left fingers without the plastic "nails". The danger of that was since I had not been consistantly playing my GuZheng, my skin had turned soft again, and so if I over-practiced, the friction produced every time I plucked a string produced heat which gradually caused my fingers to have small blisters >.<

Anyway, the main point was, I did a good job! At least it wasn't as bad as last year's Lunchtime Showcase when nobody could hear anything! This time the audience was quiet enough for me to know that their attention was on my item and they did cheer, they did clap! Isn't that the thing that makes every performer's day?!

Well, other than my own performance, I'm quite impressed by the others too.
1)The Sec 4 Band members were cool, they came together within days and had the approximately 6 minutes performance up, with entertaining gimmicks>.<
2)I liked the spirit of the TK Dance club. The togetherness they had and the determination to persevere despite how people talk bad about them. Really, they kept saying things like "Let's show them what TK Dance is made up!" It kinduf reminded me the times I had in MBS Bhangra when every time I performed was yet another chance to show people the power of Bhangra... haha xD
Oh, oh, oh... and the way they changed their clothes... you can never imagine; they literally strip and "poof!" they were all changed! Kudos to TK Dance!
3)Mr Hareesh was out to impress again! This time he with a change of his mask, he was no longer the ang moh phantom, he was a romantic Chinese lover, singing <<月亮代表我的心>>! He's seriously super funny backstage. Imagine how nervous he was... he shared with me his experience the other time as phantom, when the moment he saw the audience, he was almost submerged in the tsunami of stage fright!
Mr Hareesh was great singing the all-time Mandarin classic!
4)This special guest had always been so supportive of school concerts! She was none other than Mdm Sadia, the administrative staff! This time, brought to us the lovable and lively <<梅兰梅兰我爱你>>.
5)And of course the awesomest piano duet by Bryan (Halim) and Ryan (Chin). I don't know how to describe this, but if you heard them, they're just simply remarkable!

All in all, this year's celebration was quite special for I think the reaction of the audience made the difference in atmosphere. I would rate the excitement level about the same as previous years, but because the audience was focusing their attention on the stage, the interaction between the onstage performers and the offstage spectators somehow seemed closer.

And I'm glad to have brought out my culture to fellow TKsians during this festive season =D

I'd like to thank all those people who cheered for me especially the TK (HK) SLCs, SC peeps, 4J (haha...xD), guides!!!, and maybe a few scouts and manybe a few 2F kids, and I think the teachers too >.<
Oh, of course to Mdm Ng for giving me this opportunity to allow me to play my GuZheng properly as a performance the very first time in my life!

The Roar

2009-01-16T22:18:00.000+08:00

This is a sincere apology to her...

I saw a Sec 3 guy tying the guides scarf around his head like some "sultan" and then he took her guides belt and further accessoriezed his head. Right in front of him, was her.

I was annoyed by the fact that someone was playing and fooling around with the guides uniform.

So I called her out loud, across the canteen, just intending to ask her to get her scarf and belt back, and not to let others play with them.

I did call her. However, when I go on further, I realised that this energy just control over me and made me roar at her, pointing directly at her with my index finger. I dislike people pointing at me like that in any situation.

" ******, don't let anyone play with your uniform! Treat you uniform with respect!" I bellowed while pointing.

I was done with conveyng the message. Then the canteen was in absolute silence. It came to my senses that, hey, Pang Chiaw Min, you just shouted/scolded your junior in front of quite a few people. Si Yuan and Clarissa were beside me. It was then that I knew that I just did something I'd never ever done in TK before.

I thought people who witnessed everything we stunned. They were, of course, for if not, they wouldn't have stopped whatever they were doing to sustain the moment of silence.

I really didn't mean to show that side of me... so for those who witnessed everything, please forget about what happened. Now you know that I can be fierce, okay, fair enough, remember 1 point and forget about the rest. please. please. please.

I felt that there was a need to apologise to her, which I did. I think she's accepted it. Anyway, she's in the wrong, so I just apologised for the unnecessary thunderstorm.

Mr Soh came over to me and asked me to 消气 (to calm down and relax). Knowing that I was fine, he told me that what I did was not wrong, if not my juniors will never understand the importance of it.

I guessed that just showed how significant Girl Guides is to me. Seriously, everything came naturally, not planned, so nature's telling me something.

Nothing happened, people, NOTHING! CHIAW MIN IS STILL A NICE AND PLEASANT PERSON! just don't mess around with her =)

My 1st 'O' level result

2009-01-12T20:39:00.002+08:00

Most people see me as a Chinese pro, even my cousin. How pro am I or used to be? I came from an all-Chinese school, Maha Bodhi School and though I didn't take Higher Chinese for my PSLE, I was eligible to take this special subject in secondary school.

It has not been easy coming this far. Chinese has always been one of my strongest subject ever since I started interacting with it. I would simply say it's my life. My parents both came from Chinese schools and are more or less considered very traditional Chinese with a rather open mind. So you can see how significant this language is in my family.

Other than my Da Jie (elder sister), nobody else had an opportunity to get close to this higher level of study towards my mother tongue amongst my siblings. Da ge (elder bro) told me that I should hold on to 2 very important subjects - A-maths and Higher Chinese- because they not everyone have a chance to study both of them and these 2 subjects can certainly help anyone in future.

So, days before I got my results back, I was rather confident that I could easily achieve my first safe high distinction of an A1 for my 'O's. Today, I wasn't at all nervous till when the Principal revealed the scorers and distinction rates. All that was in my head was A1 A1 A1 A1 A1 and nothing but A1. Weilin, beside me, was like : I know I didn't do well. I think I'm going to drop (Higher Chinese).

A1s were still moving randomly in all directions in my mind, just like how gas particles move around.

The queue was super long. I saw Mr Ngoi standing at the gallery. At that moment, I couldn't wait to get my A1 to show him.

Finally after struggling in the crowd of queue (if you know what that means), I got that slip of paper. I didn't want to take a look at it till I got out of the 'O' level candidates crowd.

Vivian and Lifeng and all were like: Hey councillor, how much did you get?
I was like: Hehe, don't know; haven't seen yet.
Vivian was like: Okay, I help you see.
And I showed her the side with the printed results.
She was like: Oh, not bad, still can take Higher Chinese.
And I thought she purposely wanted to make it sound like I didn't get an A1.
So when I was at the corridor, I took a glance.

Grade Alphabetical : A

Grade Numerical : TWO

I couldn't help it. People like Isabel shedded tears of joy. People like Bryan Halim and Taha can get A1 and either feel surprised or satisfied.

All those "A1 particles" somehow popped and disappeared or converted to "How? particles".
Those one-word questions were leading to: how am I going to carry on from here? Drop Higher Chinese? Continue?

You see, if it's A1 (a signal for me to continue) or a B3 (a signal for me to drop immediately) that's still not so bad, at least it's definite. A2 is like neither here nor there and once again, I've to make a tough decision which will change my life.

I couldn't get over it, I just couldn't. I want to study Higher Chinese not just to get a -2 for my L1R5, but rahter, it"s for the culture, the understanding. I talked to Mr Ngoi about it. Knowing that I have no intensions of getting into a JC, he said it was wiser for me to concentrate on other subjects and just re-take my Chinese and get a 1. The choice lies in me.

I was totally not in the mood to take the Chemistry theory revision test and the Physics practical in the afternoon lah, but no choice, just anyhow whacked. And after the tests, I continued crying... lolx.

I decided to go out for dinner for I didn't eat breakfast and lunch and since I wasted so much energy crying, I could feel that my stomach was filled with nothing but gas. I kept burping, somehow. I was hungry.

I called Mummy to tell her my dinner plans, and my "faithful" result, and uncontrllably broke down again.
I though I should tell my Er ge too, and unknowingly, my emotions got over me.

I'm so confused about my future!

Anyway, I'd like to spread my thanks to those who comforted me,
YinShuang
Jasmine
Soo Han
Mrs Lim (DM)!
Clarissa
Yuyi
Isabel
Hazel
4J boys (someone silently provided tissue)
4J girls
Naomi
Denise
Ms Tan
Mr Tan! (he seriously talked some sense into me)
Bernice
Cousin
Bobbi
Mdm Huang (she called me!)
Mr Ngoi >=( (can't blame him to by my HCL teacher)
Mama, Papa, Korkor
many many more... (doesn't mean that you name is not stated means you're neglected k?)

Right now, I'm waiting for papa to come home so that we all can sit down and have a discussion over how I should go on.

1st week of school

2009-01-11T11:52:00.005+08:00

A week has finally passed and I'm already not having enough sleep.

For 2009, there will be supplementary lessons or remedial or test every afternoon... how strenuous is that! And now there isn't even an afternoon slot left for art, how fair is that?!

Talking about Art, the only teacher who is not following me through is Ms Tan, my art teacher. Hence Mrs Tan is taking over. It'll be really beneficial from me for I hope to learn more from such an experienced teacher having been through 20 years in the Art education of TK. She's got substance ... and this week, she allowed me to explore and play around with water, glue and spray paint. It's seriously fun!

There's also a change in my CCA teachers-in-charge; Mrs Tey, the unit captain is transfered to dance club and a new teacher, Ms Tan (not my art teacher) who was previously from ZhongHua guides is on board now. Ms Razie is also joining guides.

You may be surprised like me when I suddenly heard this from the teachers, that they offered me a position in guides: Assistant Company Leader (trainer). Many people wanted to get this post because being a trainer recognises one's capabilities and skills. (Actually because the other 2 are Treasurer- nobody wanted to count money- and Quater Mistress -nobody wanted to take charge of the guides room- oops xD... haha).

Ms Tan and Mrs Ang told me that they had a long discussion together with Mrs Tey as well about this and they hope that I'll take it up. But of course, Mrs Ang wanted me to update her on my academic performances. Then she put reality right in my face, like studies, Student Council, family and other aspects of life and threw me a question : Will I be able to manage?

Ms tan summed up everything and she said that from her observation, when they revealed to me about the decision, I sounded very keen, however when everything else was placed in front of me, it seemed like there were things holding me back. I was then given less than 24 hours to make up my decision.

Clarissa and Si Yuan wanted me to focus on whatever that I am doing now for they saw how much I struggled last year. Everyone knew that I can't wait to get a position in guides. I really thought it through, real hard. I wasn't convinced that just because it's the 'O's year means I can't have a go for my passion. I am coping very well now, so I just wasn't convinced. Other things came into my thoughts. And I was glad to came to a final decision. I'll come back to guides once I'm done with everything else and when every other thing else is away from me.

Yesterday was CCA recruitment day. I was honoured to be able to stand within the Colour Party, representing the school as a flag bearer carrying the school flag. For guides, I was the in-charge for outdoor-cooking. To judge how good the food was, if you observed, everytime you take a glance at the kitchen dresser, there was always people gathering there. Okay, the scouts desperate scouts came over, craving for bits of food. As a Patrol Leader, I was glad that I had done my job well.

Nevermind about that, I was so drained after everything! A few of us went to lunch together, then some didn't want to head home so "early", so we continued to parkway. I'm skipping the part where we met *ahem* oh and the nice pants guy. We were quite bored, soooo extremely exhausted, but they STILL didn't want to go back! So we went to Best! denki and played with the Apple products. Deniese introduced us to this camera thing with special effects and then you could bluetooth it to your phone.
These were the results:

Be Brave for 2009

2009-01-01T10:31:00.003+08:00

It's a new year, a year which I was totally terrified of.

You may be wondering why...
Well, I'm really not prepared for Sec 4 at all, AT ALL! The thought that I'm only months away from the 'O's really haunts me! I was so not looking forward to school at all. Having to perpare for just a simple Normal/Express Chinese Paper was already soooo much work and this time round, it's not just 1 easily manageable subject I'm talking about, it's 4 major fearful ones and 3 hopeful ones. Just the thought of these makes me perspire alot (okay, maybe not, but I have that kinduf feeling).

You can ask Sharmane about how crazy I was that night (maybe 1-2am) when I was chatting with her online about not wanting to go to school, not being in the mood to complete my homework, etc. I was totally ranting everything out.
And then I wanted to be a hardcore... wanting to be kiasu when it comes to academia so that I won't have to face failures all over again... Life's tough.

I decided to head to bed and hopefully get out of it after a good sleep. That night, I had a dream...
Somehow the TK SLCs were on this charity project to help some place in Toa Payoh/ Bishan and we were suppose to go there regularly during the holidays. But when I finally got there after a bus ride with a chee-ko-pek (old male pervert) sitting right beside me throughout the ride, Josephine and Mdm Halilah were the only 2 people there with those folks.
Jo was telling not to worry and stuff...
And Mdm Halilah comforted me! I think she said: Put down whatever setbacks you have... don't let them hinder your way... (something like that)

That was weird! When I got up in the morning, that somehow helped, A LOT! I was getting more optimistic about the new year.

Just last night, hours before we changed our calendar, I was chatting online with Esther (guides junior). When I told her about this, she actually mentioned that Mdm Halilah may be my guardian angel! And Olivia (SLC) exclaimed that she's my fairygod mother...lolx!

It reminded me of the NYC days when she first saw me broke down during a peer mentoring activity in Sarimbun camp. It was about sharing with a partner a relationship which I hope I could improve on. My partner was Vivian. And when my tears dropped in her sight once again during March council camp while I was stressed out between school work and council elections, she asked Vivian to check me out. I was so touched. She may have never said a personal word to me before, but that kind of silent care she has been giving me... it's really kinduf like a guardian angel >.<

here's a soothing song <<慢舞>> by Rui En:
align="left">

here's another song, with a little attitude in it <<讨厌>>:

May 2009 bring joy, hope, success and peace to everyone!

TK Leadership Overseas Expedition 2008

2008-11-25T01:58:00.011+08:00

It has been 8 days, 8 fruitful days, 8 memorable days, 8 wonderful days, 8 days which we all will remember for the rest of our lives...

This update will be long,
and I'm sure if you're reading up to here right now,
you will want to go on
even though it may take you
an entire hour to read through
because this trip is too awesome to be missed!

I don't know what I'm saying,
but I know that I'll go through this
day by day...
Let's start from hours before we left...

Day 0, 7 November
Today was the very last time we all met for our finalast final briefing and meeting. Today was also the very last day of our truncated lessons (except Louis's and mine, but I still came back for Oral training and PSL training, anyway).

It's quite a weird feeling, and most of us shared this feeling... we were not very excited. At least for me, it didn't feel like last year when I was about to leave for China for my exchange trip. Really no excitement. Was it because we were tired?

It's close to tomorrow already and I've not packed, so are some of the others. We have to meet at 4.30am in the airport tomorrow. Nothing is pushing me to speed up a little so at least I can have 3 hours of nap.

Okay, be realistic, Chiaw Min, you are going to Hong Kong tomorrow for a great trek plus kayaking plus exchange programme plus shopping. You have been preparing and training and waiting for this period, right?
Erm...I don't know, maybe?

Day 1, 8 November
Right, I hardly had an hour of sleep in the morning. At the airport, 3E people and some other friends' friends and friends came to see us off. We checked in individually. My 2 baggages weighed 14.1kg. Got my boarding pass, sandwiched it between the pages of my passport, placed that 2-in-1 thing into the back pocket of my hand-carrier and I told myself, "Don't touch that pocket till I have to show the police officers."

We were given about 50 minutes to grab our breakfast because JetStar did not provide any food and drinks unless you purchase one. Okay, breakfast was done despite having to eat when I didn't feel like eating just to fill my tummy.
Let's go to the toilet. Josephine (Jo) was like running around searching for her boarding pass. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know what to do. So I just carried on with what I was supposed to do first. The first cubicle's door opened, Jo requested to go in for a search since she went into that cubicle just moments ago. Then I went in and *censored* (actually nothing much to censor lah, just everyday routine). Out of the loo, I thought I should give a check on my boarding pass too.
And, taadaa, it wasn't there! And I didn't even dare touched that 2-in-1 THING.
I began ransacking my entire bag over and over again, and I really couldn't find that damn receipt-like boarding pass (not the hard kind of material, seriously exactly like a piece of receipt which you would request not to have it from the cashier kind). The worse thing was that my dad just kept asking me to search everywhere in my bag (which I already did about 3 times) and refused to listen to any of my explanation or plain conversation. I was absolutely lost and petrified! I was supposed to enter the immigration counter within the next 10 minutes!
So Mum and Clarissa's Mum had told me to go to the counter to get a re-print as the last resort, but Dad was like, "找,你给我找出来!" ("Find, you better find it out" *direct translation) I was super frustrated for he was of no help at all, only adding on the stress.

Finally, Mum asked me to just get a re-print. Exasperated, I ran all the way from one end of the departure hall to Counter 1 at the other end where JetStar was. I saw Rifat on the way, but I hadn't get over my irritation, so I continued sprinting. I could feel the "Voom~" as I passed Rifat. The Jo was ahead, with James's Mum and a YMCA staff. "Jo, I've also lose my boarding pass!" I was panting while speaking. We brisk walked to the counter and successfully got a re-print with "DUP" written at the top of the receipt-like slip which I believed represented "Duplicated".
I was only about 4 metres away from the short queue at the entrance and Mum was like, "You better take care of yourself okay? Never bade goodbye to your father arh?"

And I turned to my left, where we came from. He was not in sight. I paused for 5 seconds. Alright, I saw him. I waved and said that word and turned back.

Mum gave me a pat on my back and repeated the same line.

"Orh," I replied softly.

Somehow the irritation got overboard and I got emotional. "Gotta be strong, don't let papa mama look down on you," I told myself. I wiped off every single drop of tears.

Those tears were not because I was leaving them, they rolled down because the last thing they gave me before my trip wasn't a smiley goodbye but a scolding when I was already so lost.

Case closed. Don't ask me more about this.

Clarissa and I successfully got pass the immigration counter. Jo hadn't enter yet. I hid behind a pillar so just not to show my wet face. I had to cry it out. Jo's not a Singaporean, so she needed some pass and her wallet was with Isabel Ho (who went to send us off) and Isabel handed it to Vivian thinking that Vivian will meet Jo anyway and Vivian was already through the immigration process and Vivian was in a phone restricted zone. So Jo called Vivian with Rifat's help (remember he was walking when I "Voom-ed~" pass him?), and Vivian just said "ok" as an airport staff was prompting her to switch off her phone. She just passed the wallet to Stefan (*ehem* the Athletic's Captain we're talking about here) gave instruction where to go and off he dashed.

Once Jo got through, everyone (of us TKsians) who were anywhere near walked towards her and she started tearing.

"I'm so touched, thank you all so much." That sentence replayed a few times.

You've got to understand that nobody was with her except her friends. Brave Jo, bravo =D

So on the plane we were. I was supposed to get the window seat but since Rifat requested for a switch, he sat on my left anf Ryan Lai was on my right.

We were kind of tired (hardly slept the night before, I guess). Rifat was observing the wings of the aeroplane. He shared that he wanted to be a pilot. Music would be a something to fall on if his pilot dream failed or when he retired, right? Ya. More or less... he DID say "something to fall on".

Ryan Lai was reading his book. I tried to sleep. I needed to sleep. I shifted so many times just to get into a comfortable position to at least nap. Totally unsuccessful, at all.

Gracie (YMCA staff who had been with us since the first briefing in September) was sitting right behind me and she slept throughout the entire plane ride and I was so impressed!

Though hungry and thirsty, I beared with them especially when Rifat ordered his Gormet Sandwich which cost S$7. Sharmane (sitted next to Gracie, on the left) treated some mini chocolate bars.

There was this sudden clear air turbulence and as usual, I grabbed the 2 arm rests beside me, okay, maybe clenching them. Rifat was like, "Chill, relax. The captain crew is very experienced, he can control the movement of the plane very well." Then together with Ryan, they told me about their experience on the flight to Melbourne in June when there was more than 30minutes of ups and downs and O Wen could still drink his soup.

The landing was really smooth, and cool. We were staring out of the window, in search for land for all we could see was water. Then suddenly, we landed, hardly feeling the 'touch' on the ground.

----------------------------------------------------------After typing soooooooo much just for not even half a day, I've decided that I'm too lazy to carry on, so... for more information, do check out the TK SLC blog (there's a link by the side) or watch the video done by the video team or flip through the pages of the scrapbook done by the scrapbooking team which will be placed somewhere in school (I hope so).----------------------------------------------------------------

PAISEH!

I shall let the pictures speak then...

Truncated Lessons

2008-11-07T23:55:00.000+08:00

Truncated lessons are finally over, people!

Can you imagine (this only applies to non-TKsians), 1 period is 1.5 hour long and every day we have 3 periods of lessons with a short 25 minutes break in between. As usual, some teachers like to eat into our breaks. The worst of all is that poor students like me often find ourselves starving during breaks for there are hardly enough food available in the canteen!

Well, I'm glad that it's all over now.

I've got to pack for my Hong Kong trip now. I'm not sure why, but I don't feel the excitement at all. It's so unlike last year's China Exchange. I guess I'm quite tired.

Got to meet in the airport at 4.30am tomorrow morning, so I've got to go now.

Will be back in a week's time...

RGS Peer Support Sharing

2008-10-26T13:37:00.000+08:00

Right, the moment I stepped into RGS, I met up with the other Main ExCo members and... Soo Han was still having breakfast?!
Alright, as we waited at the foyer, I saw Rachel! Yes, that Rachelly Rachel from HCI's 14th SLC's Firminus! COOL!

Back to the topic, TK is opening a new board known as the Peer Support Board, hence nurturing this bunch of Sec 2s (who will be Sec 3s next year) each holding the title, Peer Support Leader. Thus, the 5 of us were sent to RGS yesterday to interact with other schools and hopefully bring back useful tips which will help hold this new board till it stabilizes.

I'll just jump straight to ice-breakers...
They were awesome! I mean, the games may look and sound silly, but everyone had a wonderful time participating in them! Tip taken: Where to get the games from. RGS PSB kindly included the URL in the programme booklet =P I ain't gonna let anyone know...it will be too useful for those who read my blog whom will be planning games for their various camps =PP

A school counsellor from RGS also gave us tips on how to be an effective peer mentor and what a peer mentor really is.

In the afternoon, there was a workshop by Trybe on Peer Mentoring. The reason why I was quite bored (I bet so did Soo Han, Sharmane and Ryan) was that it wasn't the first time we did that storyline thing. We knew exactly the correct arrangement and how the story ran. Since we didn't want to spoil the activity, we just followed each of our own group, as if it was our first time playing that THING.
I've got to say, this time round, the stories were much crazier and there was even a no-link musical! There was skin bleaching, waxing, stalking, scandal and actually all of them had no link to Peer Mentoring... haha... but super entertaining!
Anyway, it's supposed to be a story about Derek Redmond and his Dad, a true mentor we all should aspire to be.

Other than that, RGS, Cedar Girls' and VS shared their boards' structures, the events they run, specialities which others schools may want to pick up, etc.

It was definitely fruitful and I made new friends!!! That's the best part about going for such interactive leadership events.

Let's just hope that TK's PSB will build up smoothly and (I'm crossing my fingers) that there won't be any clashes between leadership roles with the SCs.

Post Exams Day 4

2008-10-23T21:05:00.002+08:00

It's officially the last day of school today and everybody's busy cleaning their classrooms.

Well, for us Sec 3s, it's the last day of our Sec3 life because truncated lessons will started tomorrow and we will no longer be Sec 3s.

It was a slacky day in school because no lessons were lined up so immediately after we were done with classroom cleaning, it was purely nothing to do but to wait for time to fly.

Right, 2 more weeks of truncated to go...
PERSEVERE ON!

Post Exams Day 3

2008-10-22T22:09:00.000+08:00

3J and 3F went to the Mint Museum of Toys today.
It's such an exciting place filled with wonders!

I was totally fascinated by the colour schemes used at different periods of time and at different places. The design and styles also varies.

Those were the real stuff, the real collectables, peeps.

If any of you want to go there, try to get the curator Charles to be your guide; he knows his stuff and he's filled with the knowledge of every single toy displayed. He's super professional and anyone can easily tell how much passion he has for his job! (He said he gave up his designer job for this... awesome choice)

For more information on this place you should visit at least once, do go to:
http://www.emint.com/

They change their displays once every (about) 6 months, which means I should visit there annually, ya?

Post Exams Day 2

2008-10-21T22:51:00.000+08:00

I wouldn't sum up yesterday's Lunchtime Showcase as a disaster because I think mine was the only super perform-like-no-performance item.

Here are some impressive improvements from last year:
- We had a platform stage in the middle of the canteen which successfully captured most people's attention!

-It was cosier than last year's venue.

-We were able to continue the show despite the unhelpful rain.

-There were more performance items up than we had expected which meant that it was more responsive and well-liked by the students!

Here are some room for improvements:
-Plannings need to be prepared earlier.

-More time should be given for preparations on the act day

-More chairs should be brought into the canteen.

-Sound system should prepare an acoustic microphone especially when someone plays a musical instrument which produces clear, light and pleasant music known as the Guzheng!

This was it. I got up the stage. People were quite impressed with a girl carrying a musical instrument which was larger than a guitar all on her own. They were amused seeing a musical instrument which they had hardly have a chance to see and hear.

As part of the organising team, I was supposed to be the "extender" of the show if there's a need to. Well, there was. So Mdm Shahera asked me to perform 2 songs instead of 1.

Look, the thing was that the normal vocal microphones were not powerful enough to capture the soft tune of the 2 pieces I had been practicing the passed few days.

Those who could hear sounds either chose not to hear or gave up since it was noisy. And so the noise level went up. Close friends tried to show their support by giving giving me their attention. Most switched off totally from the Lunchtime Showcase.

The AVA people were trying to fix and adjust the mics to maximise the volume and was unsuccessful even till the last string I strummed. It was really bad for I couldn't really hear my Guzheng too. What was meant to be a hope became a disaster...

We had bands, karate, silat, violin and magic too, so was a good mix of different types of performances. There were also impromtu performances by 2 other combinations of half bands... haha, if you get what I mean.
Thanks Rifat, for trying to make my day. He said that I did well >.<
Thanks Dude!

It was really fun to interview the new SCs too. Most of them didn't know what's really expected from them and what the SC does, from what they told me.

There were awesome people I couldn't wait to recruit them in and some were totally off the job.
As a whole, I think the teachers and the ExCo felt that this batch of nominees were pretty outstanding in general, but who will take over after the our next batch of ExCo? It's really hard to tell with no performance to judge. Well, I do have a girl in mind whom I feel has the X-factor and the potential to lead the SC... hopes she gets into the top 5 then.

ProjectWork Conference!

The only thing I could help as a student councilor was to design the coverpage for the event, which I did.

With the theme: Ignite you Imagination, I thought of thought-bubbles and light bulb (representing ideation). So there's this big empty cloud at the top right hand corner of the page. During my RadioShow presentation, I saw this Sec 2 girl who filled that empty space with all sorts of drawings in many colours, and that made me feel that, hey, that's the whole purpose of igniting your imagination with your own ingenuity!

This was the first time I actually present my project together with my group because I was on MC on presentation day. In other words, today was the first time I heard our group's production work. I would say it's not perfect, but in deed it's a job well done =D

Since the extra component was the interactive part, they handed that segment to me >.<>

Here are the words up on the powerpoint I made:
Egg
Ewe
Sachet
Pizza
Yacht
Concierge
Love
Alumnae
Sobriquet
Corps
Christian Lacroix
Lanvin
Haute Couture
Otiose
Yves
Saint Laurent
En masse
Tête-à-tête
Debris
Attaché
Lingerie

Many teachers popped in to join in the fun and it's really quite facinating to see all the different reactions, like how some people can look so puzzled just to try to pronounce a word... hilarious.

Pre- Post Exams Day 1

2008-10-19T20:39:00.002+08:00

End-of-Years are finally gone and over...
I just have 1 sentence to wrap this entire academic year:

THIS YEAR IS SERIOUSLY SCREWED UP!

I guess from that, I don't need to go into how I did for my papers and I don't wish to anyway... I'll get back on track (that's a promise to myself.)

So, it's the post-exams period and TK Student Council had and will be handling the key events such as Games Carnival, Lunchtime Showcase and Project Work Conference.

I did participate in this year's Games Carnival, representing Einstein House for the badminton doubles. Clarissa and I competed with Tagore House (Shirley and Fang Ning) first and lost slightly by 19/21.
It was quite dumb lah... we thought we were immediately out for the rest of the games, so we didn't go for the continued matches on Wednesday. I heard that SiYuan and Rachel (right?) took over and were quite pissed. I'm sorry if to any of you, playing a sport is a chore and not an enjoyable activity. Thanks for covering anyway.
Einstein didn't win for the B-division, but I believed we (they) all did their best.

Lunchtime Showcase will take place tomorrow and this year, we have MORE performances lined up! Stretching from last year's 1-2 periods, this year's programme will be from the end of recess all the way till school dismissal!
To support this project by the Student Council, I'll be playing my Guzheng!!! Don't be too excited and have high expectations yet, the first, last and only time I performed was 7 years back during Maha Bodhi's Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations. And I didn't really strum the strings, just touching and gliding over because my fellow classmates were SPEEDING!
So, do look forward to other performances, especially the piano duet's finale! Well, I shouldn't share too much and keep TKsians in suspense >.<

Oh, oh, oh, TK Student Council nominees will be undergoing an interview by us, YES, US, the Main Exco together with the teachers. It's probably one of the most terrifying moments for you guys right now (it was for my batch too, last year), but don't worry and just answer frankly... DON'T GIVE STANDARD ANSWERS PLEASE =)

coming up with more; till then...
bye for now.

End-of-Year Examinations

2008-10-04T19:52:00.003+08:00

The examinations are still ongoing.

I'm in the midst of preparing for my Art Exam, so I've been researching and stuff.

This video is really cool:

I bet you've never thought a plain piece of paper can be this incredible!

I think I'll be trying 1 of those for my final work...

... and maybe explore more during the holidays...

This EOY hasn't been as good as I'd thought...
pray hard for me, people *crosses fingers*

Calling all TK Talents!!!

2008-09-18T19:57:00.001+08:00

Weak and Sick

2008-09-17T10:10:00.002+08:00

I guess it's time I've to raise the white flag to whatever virus that's got me. It's really horrible to have a fever with muscle aches and headache!

I tried to bear with it in the morning yesterday, hoping that it would just come and go, but it got worse.
Though I did manage to pul through 2 periods of E-Maths lesson, 2 double periods of both languages, I finally gave up.

Since Mr Ngoi was just going through the meanings of the vocabulary section of one of the practice papers, I requested to have some rest. He said I had to complete 1 summary which I didn't do. So eventually, I slept for 1 entire period.

The toughest period was actually English period because we had to complete 1 comprehension assignment. I tried my best to forget about the pain and discomfort and somehow finished it on time.

I really could not take it further, so I called for help. I desparately needed to sleep (I mean rest)! The muscle aches are so irritating that I just wanted to run around the school and do continuous jumping jacks to numb them and the headache was so unbearable that I wish I could just bang my head against the wall!

Dad brought me to see Dr Tan. I didn't want to trouble him since it's working hours. That's nice of him.

Got 2 days of MC. I hardly take MCs.

So I slept the entire day and night. The thing is, no matter how long I slept, I just feel weared off and tired. The medicine Dr Tan gave was quite effective; at least the pain and irritation aren't that intense anymore.

I'm suppose to have PW presentation and Geog. Elect. Test and Social Studies Test today. Oh, and I missed yesterday's Art assessment and 1-and-a-half hours of Chemistry Lecture.

DEAD!!! There's only 9 more days to the first EOY examinations paper, and there're actually 6 tests and 1 assessment this week?!?!

I'm almost fine now, but somehow though my fever's gone, I still feel the heat coming from inside and I still have muscle aching here and there and I get dizzy sometimes. I hope the slight diarrhea is not here to stay, or I have to see Dr Tan again -.-'''

Toddles people, I hope to be fully charged by tonight so that I'm all well to head back to school tomorrow!

P.S I've never posted such a boring post before. Probably has got something to do with the illness...

Back to my senses, I guess

2008-09-09T17:50:00.003+08:00

Thanks Dad, for giving me a day off. I really needed today to think through some stuff thoroughly.

I've never ever been this terrified. It's more sever than a life and death matter.

Well, it was quite a weird feeling to stay home all day on a schoolday. I wouldn't want to ask for another day off again, it feels like something's missing all the time and I don't like that.

I don't know how much determination and courage I have left, but only must I pull through this period can I come to a conclusion to give up.

Will I ever give up?
Hopefully not.
That's so not me.
And if I just cannot see no light, no possibilities, no meaning,
I guess I'll only be left with the last and final choice.

That moment will make me face this question again:
"Am I going to give up?".

早安.晨之美 ~ 卢广仲

2008-09-05T10:21:00.002+08:00

有好多好多早餐在這裡
you hao duo hao duo zao can zai zhe li

在我們最熟悉的早餐店裡
zao wo men zui shu xi de zao can dian li

不管你睡的多晚起的多晚
bu guan ni shui de duo wan qi de duo wan

晨之美永遠在這裡歡迎光臨你
chen zhi mei yong yuan zai zhe li huan ying guang lin ni

Chorus

對啊,對啊。對啊,對啊。
dui a, dui a。 dui a, dui a。

對啊,對啊。對啊,對啊。
dui a, dui a。 dui a, dui a。

對啊,對啊。對啊,對啊。
dui a, dui a。 dui a, dui a。

對啊,對啊。對啊。
dui a, dui a。 dui a。

Repeat verse and chorus 2x

we share the morning~

we share the milk tea~

我一直在這裡陪你一起
wo yi zhi zai zhe li pei ni yi qi

對啊,對啊。對啊,對啊。
dui a, dui a。dui a, dui a。

3J Class BBQ

2008-09-03T00:10:00.000+08:00

I just got back from my class outing at East Coast Park.

I've got to really praise Nazri for starting the fire. I've never ever seen a BBQ fire started so quickly! Like within 10 minutes of my arrival?

The food was great too! I've never in my life go to a BBQ where ALL the food is actually gone!

Well, it was a nice time sitting cosily together under the hut by the chilly, breezy beach. Though there was a lot of nonsensical question asked with nonsensical answers in return, it was a time when we actually sat down to talk about everything under the sun (or the moon for tonight). I did share with them my million dollar big secret I thought I would have never revealed. It's not a big thing to me now for I should let bygones go.

At this moment, some of them may still be at the very same spot, staying overnight or having a game of bowling.

3J is fun =D With so many nice people though scary they may seem.

I'm quite tired now. I still have to go to Sentosa for some observations tomorrow morning.

Anyway, I was chatting with BLim aka Benjamin Lim aka Benny the Boo Boo Cow and whatever random nicknames he holds. He told me that there's actually an African Idol going on. So I checked out some of the short clips on youtube:

The ugly and bad...

The Happy Rapper...

the ultimate winner for 2007...

Both of us agreed that even though they have this competition to search for talents, there's hardly any market for development there. Unless the rurual areas have technology then will they be able to afford and own a television set.

Happy Teachers' Day

2008-09-01T09:48:00.009+08:00

Most of us celebrated last Friday and I'm sure we will never forget how much our teachers have been sacrificing for us all these years. Youngsters, be thankful... a teacher's job is not easy, it's not just about looking at your damn face and having to bear with your sh*tty attitude, there're more to that.

Anyway, this year's teachers' day concert and decorations are quite different, I guess?

We've got the "Helium guy" to pump the balloons!
Some Exco members and vice-chairs of events and training comm, Peter and Rifat stayed back to do up the HOD room, staff room, staff lounge and the hall on Thursday.

We love to have fun while working together, but every time we do something slightly noisy or even just taking pictures, Mrs Tan will stop us... haix...

Well, the concert did run smoothly. I was the manager backstage, informing the performers the arrangements. Estee was almost everywhere to ensure that every single thing flows well.

I also had another role, which was the quiz master with Siddharth for the "Know-your-teachers Quiz". So it was a battle between the teachers and the students. It was quite an awkward scene when the DnT workshop assistant (one of the quiz participants) came to me to tell me that my answer was wrong. There was also a student who came to me after the concert to tell me that the other answer was wrong too.
Erm... all I can say is the answers were from Mrs Poon, the concert teacher-in-charge, and my job was just to host the game. Anyway, as said, it's just a game. It was really fun to see everybody discussing about the questions. It kind of comforted me while I was on stage for somehow I kind of felt that everybody's attention was not exactly on me but the questions. A very different sort of "public speaking" experience I would call that, because it's 10 000 times more informal than delivering a speech at the podium.

After which, the Maha Bodhians headed back to the holding school (campus) at Macpherson. I heard that they actually celebrated 2 days in advance.

So I met a few of my teachers, Mr Preston Tan, Mrs Angeline Pang, Miss Kwa, Miss Seah, Mdm Lee, Mrs Yew (Ms Kong), Mr Chee.
I didn't get to see Mr Rahmat, Mrs Dorris Ng, Mdm Wong Mei Teck, Mrs Song... probably many of my teachers had already retired...

And and and... MANY MANY BATCHMATES! It wasn't like the previous 2 years when we saw one another and just acknowledged their presence in silence, we actually talked and ya, it was like a family get-together.

Today marks the 365th day since I started bloging.

To Dear Bloggie, Happy Birthday=D

VS campfire

2008-08-31T00:45:00.002+08:00

I just got back from supper actually.

This year's campfire was much better than last year's, probably because my seniors shut me up when I was trying very hard to hype up the atmosphere.

Anyway, I like the gateway. It's very interesting and innovative. If they were to make that as a mini-structure gateway on East Division Day, they would have got the 1st prize!

There were no more seniors to hinder us and no more TK scout seniors to do dumb acts, hence it was totally us this time round. The games were quite okay, I thought. Just that the Arrow Scouts were not very thoughtful in the first game, having the participants to speak into the microphone around their neck. It was like talking to their necks?! Hello, there're guides, you masked guys.

One more point to note was that their choices of songs were almost similar to last year's. Maybe because they're using the played musics to the songs and they only have limited songs? I don't know. Other schools just sing aloud with any music to follow.

Hmm... managed to see Yong Jia and Kun Hao.
Yong Jia was from TK and transferred to VS only this year. He was in the Student Council. It's such a pity to lose a great leader like him... he would have easily got into the main exco next year...
*senior here wishing you all the best. you seemed very satisfied with what you've got so jia you and thanks for all your encouragements you've been giving me.

Leong Kun Hao was disappointed that he couldn't go back to Maha Bodhi yesterday for visiting. He even emphasized that he had to camp in school overnight to prepare for the campfire.
*must have been tough on you, but lucky your sister is still shorter than you. don't worry, your "height-shooting period" has yet to come, I won't be surprised if you'll be as tall as WeiCong.

The unexpected person was Zi Jian from Boy's Brigade. Goodness gracious~ But I did take a picture with him 'cause I wanted a picture of the BB uniform (see post below on TK NDP celebration with NCC (Land), NCC(Sea), Red Cross Youth and NPCC).
*I've got nothing to say. Old pal who had forgotten me? I remembered everyone in my class okay. Won't blame you lah, we're Primary 1-3 classmates which was like 6 donkey years ago?!

Oh oh oh, and Manjusri Red Fox Scouts, my korkor's scout unit. Ya, all know me as my brother's sister accept for your senior who bothered to ask for my name... at least you peeps said hi =D

Update!

2008-08-30T09:50:00.014+08:00

Gosh, indeed it has been a long time... many things had happened, ups and downs...
Term 3 ended quite nicely with Teachers' Day celebrations but the last week of the term was definitely not easy for me (talk about it in a while)

This post will be long, so bear with it if you can take it =P

August 2 and 3
Talk cum Training with the Singapore Women's Everest Team

Early on the Saturday morning, the Student Leaders, who will be heading to Hong Kong for this year's Leadership Expedition at the end of the year, had to meet Mr Rizal at the National Library. We went to the top floor where the Prime Minister delivered his National Day Speech last year!
It was quite a different Saturday morning, knowing more about exciting mountaineering and outdoor expeditions. At least it's better than staying at home to sleep for a little while more. Basically, these ladies are awesome peeps.
They'd been to Cho Oyu in Tibet and crossed the death zone and reached the summit! Death zone in mointaineering refers to the altitude above a certain point where the amount of oxygen cannot sustain human life. Incredible to be able to hit the summit of the world's 6th highest mountains isn't it? Moreoever, they're females!!!

So it was more or less a sharing session on Saturday.

It was time to get physical on Sunday! We headed down to Safra Yishun (where the ladies usually train for high elements) for training, or rather a gain an experiencial try. There were 3 elements, the "ice" wall, abseiling and I forgot what's the last one.

We did the one I've forgotten first. It's climing without belaying, so we slide the agent upwards as we climbed. It was quite interesting and it made climbing faster, not having to worry whether your rope was loose or not.

Then we headed to the second element which was abseling. The initial feeling was quite scary 'cause you had to "sit in the air", but after that, it was a breeze. I wonder why the other schools had so much problems on that.

Due to the time frame, unfortunately, only a few TKsian had a chance to climb the "ice" wall. It's the first artificial ice wall in southeast asia and it's made of high-density foam. So climbers have to wear those spiky-sole shoes and use the blade-like hooks to aid in their climbing. It's quite a pity that I didn't have the chance to climb up that one.

The Women's Everest Team actually planned to go for their final destiny this year, but because of the lack of funds, they have to postponethey trip to Everest till next year. So do give them your support as Singaporeans or mountaineering lovers by donating or buying their products.

For more information, check out http://www.womenoneverest.com/index.html/ .

National Day

The school decided to go for a rather different approach this year; the National Day Parade style. Instead of holding the concert in the hall immediately, the entire show was down at the Assembly Plaza.

The programme was divided into 4 parts: Pre-parade, Parade, Concert, Grand Finale.

I was in the first 2 segments, and the 2 are of extremely different atmosphere!
Pre-parade was a sing-along cum cheering session and I was super high, trying my best to hype up the school, but I didn't know why my hyper councilors became quite dead and muted when leading the crowd, so frankly speaking, it was unsuccessful.

Right after the tiring screaming, cheering, rara-ing, I ran all the way to my contingent to get into position. I was the contingent commander for guides >.<>

I went around snapping pictures with my dad's camera (mine's servicing)after that...

And more pictures on NDP actual day...

Fund Raising

For the year-end trip to Hong Kong, the school will kindly be subsidising 25% of the whole cost and our parents have to pay 50% of it. On our side, we have to come up with the remaining amount by getting sponsors or selling things or any other legal means.

Together with Estee, Sharmane, Clarissa and Si Yuan, we've been working on hand-painted shoes with other accessories for the pass 2 months. Do support us and purchase our products once our blog shop is up =D

Pre-Update

2008-08-28T20:22:00.002+08:00

I know it's been more than a month since I posted something...

...no intentions to give up this LaLa Land of mine cus

it's

..a place where I share thoughts and nice things with people
..a place where I actually practice proper English
..a place where I update about the latest happenings and things I learn from these experiences

It's going to be dearest bloggie's 1st birthday in 3 days' time.

I'll update soon...
... just too much to catch up
'cus everything happening to me is either enriching or fascinating..

type + pollution =???

2008-07-11T23:27:00.003+08:00

Miss Tan showed me this video to try to help me get some inspirations for my coursework and final work for Art.

Entitiled "Typolution", I feel that it shows a very realistic problem we're all facing in our advanced and high-tech world.

It's only in black and white, did you realise?

What message is this video trying to bring out?

Update!

2008-07-07T22:35:00.000+08:00

28 June : Manjusri Campfire

It's awesome. I had a sore throat because of lack of hydration during OBS, followed by singing and teaching the Sec 2 guides their dance for East Division Day, immediately after I returned from OBS. And the sore throat got worse cus i was screaming and shouting thoughout the campfire with almost no water to sip at all.
All my effort was paid off as we clinched the "Most Supportive Guides Unit Award"!!!

P.S I didn't pull strings with my brother ok... he asked his seniors (whom I don't know them and they don't know me) to walk around the campfire to observe so it's 100% fair.

5 July : Hougang Sec Campfire

The hospitality wasn't very warm in the sense that I felt that they didn't really make their guests feel comfortable around. It affected the programmes of the night as the few invited guides units were rather monotonous except for Damai Sec which eventually got the "Most Supportive Unit" Award. Not everyone "rah rah-ed" the way i expected, so I guess I would grade it as a "if you have nothing better to do then go" campfire looking at how unprepared and unwelcoming they were.
However, their gateway was impressive. There's this bridge and followed by a staircase-like structure leading the way down to the campfire site.

Brand New Beginning

2008-07-04T22:48:00.003+08:00

It's been a week since lessons started proper, and I guess I was able to manage around quite well. I took a new approach and I guess I had a new attitude towards school life.

Thinking about it, what the Principal, Mr Lee said is really coming into my life. He said something like," ... and surprisingly, you will find that the busiest time of your life is actually the most fruitful period of time", and he went on to share about his hectic schedules during his university times.

I'm thrown to more tasks and jobs and assignments and more responsibilities.
+Student Council (Vice-Secretary position)
so that's like a lot of things to type and to help out with because there're a lot of changes planned...
and I've to be at the at the podium every morning before 7.15am...
+Girl Guides (part of the 7 nominees for the 4 positions)
so the teachers hand the sec4 committee members' work to us and I've been putting in a lot of effort to prepare the sec2s for the upcoming Dance Competition for East Division Day... * I'm trying to train them to get an award!
and we're preparing for NDP Parade in school; 1st time ever in TK... (they used to have it for Speech Day -.-)
+Mdm Halilah is back
so the pace for A-Maths lessons are back to the "always on the go" speed and
also, she's the student council mama - she pushes hard for things to be done on time.
+Academia
so the workload should be more or less the same so far...
and I seem to be able to handle the new mathematics topics quite well!...
so the pressure for the 'O' levels Express/Normal (Chinese Language ) is here to stay...

In fact, to be frank, I feel that it has been very enjoyable to go to school every day. It seems like every other day is filled with new explorations which will be sure to keep me in awe. I like school.

No, no, what am I saying?

I LOVE School! I love TK! I just cannot ask for anything more!

This beginning is definitely something I hope will last, as long as it can stay...

Sec 3 Cohort Camp @ OBS, Pulau Ubin

2008-06-27T21:57:00.006+08:00

Many must be wondering where had I been to and what had happened to me as I was "missing". Oh well, I was away for yet another adventure and this time round at Ubin under the supervision of Outward Bound Singapore (OBS).

Do bear with me if this post is too wordy for you but really, too many things happened and I want to try as far as I can to note down every single detail. So...

*****
Day#1
Soon after flag raising in sch, the Sec 3s were on our way to Punggol Jetty to catch the OBS boat to OBS Ubin Camp 2. We finally arrived and got into our split groups and I was in Magellan. To my surprise, Si Yuan, Clarissa and Eileen were in the same group as well! (Gosh, is that fate? Why am I always with Clarissa?)

So basically, these were initially
the close ones: Clarissa, Si Yuan, Eileen, Edwin Peter
the known ones: Farhan (1), Faris, Ashraf, Gordon, Darren, Mark, YiSong, ZhangXin, Si Yan.
the unkown ones: Glen, Han Siong, Instructor Bernard, Instructor Bibiana.

Before lunch, we were with our groups, cheking out what's in our store and some ground rules and administration works.

And our duty list...
Day 1 i/c: Edwin Peter
Day 2 i/c: Gordon
Day 3 i/c: Chiaw Min
Day 4 i/c: Farhan
Food i/c: Faris
Store i/c: Ashraf
Bathing&Welfare i/c: Han Siong
Time-keeper: Eileen
Medical-kit i/c: Glen

In the afternoon, we had a low-element game of 'Trust Fall'. It was quite fun, really.
Bernard: Magellan, remember the drill. Magellan, are you ready?
Us: Magellan ready!!! Magellan Pull!
Person falling: Falling!
Us: Fall on!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Though I'd done this before during Youth Congress camp with group mates hands as the "landing mat" rather than having groundsheet with proper handles for 10 hands to hold in OBS, I realised that I was still afraid of the height and the nothing-at-your-back feeling, and I ended up bending my body.
We made Bernard did the fall too... and Bibiana signalled us from Bernard's back to wrap him up after his fall. So fun!!! So funny!!!

So up next was the belaying practice to prepare us for Day 2's high elements. Bernard was a little too stressed up about the safety rules and became quite unclear in his instructions, so he flared up all of a sudden but then apologised for his short temper. But I think it was ok lah~

As Bernard had something on, Bibi took over. She then thought us how to pitch our tents with the clove hitches half hitches and all those little little outdoor tips (guides rocks for this, it was common sense to us... hahahx... sry, should maintain humility xP). Then as most of them continued pitching the tents, Si Yuan, Clarissa, Faris and Me were busy cooking for our watch, all 16 of us. And we prepared hotdog rice, braised peanuts and our very own secret recipe: Chrysanthemum Tea!
In the midst of cooking, it somehow looked as if it would be pouring anytime, so Bibi told us to get the big blue plastic mat known as 'tup' to build an emergency shelter over our food. Since WE 3 VERY EXPERIENCED GIRL GUIDES were around (Mag's got to be glad and honoured about this man), Magellon was SO LUCKY that we were the only ones who knew how to build it up. (No lah, actually the Farhan and the few also very smart; they thought of using the tent pegs to hold the poles and twines to the ground.)
Then we realised that we were the only watch which was down at the outdoor sleeping area cooking and holding our "BOMB SHELTER" while the rest were under the concrete shelter having their dinner comfortably... (so what, Magalinis enjoyed ourselves =D)

After showering, we were supposed to start packing our trekking bags with clothing, food and equipments. I was made the 2nd food i/c to help Faris out 'cause food was very important and we didn't want to bring too much to add to the total weight or too little and someone would get hungry. And all of a sudden, there was a fire drill! That took up so much time that we only had 10 minutes left to pack before lights out -.-

*That night's sleep was the best out of the 3 nights.

Day #2
Bernard gave instructions for us to had breakfast and strike our tents before 7am, I thought our watch was the only 1 which had breakfast before our morning exercise. Anyway, we played many many games, did some warm up, had some 5-dunnowad work out, quite an intensive jog and a cool down. Shiok man! I loved it! I was perspiring like... just shiok lah.
After morning circle when we were given time to write in our little OBS journal and we signed in a Commitment Book if we agreed to commit to the regulations inside.

We were then given some (really some, like 20 minutes) to pack and then we were off for high elements. Magellan was so lucky to get the elementary rock wall to climb. So that was my challenge for myself. It didn't seem too tough to climb because I'M A VERY EXPERIENCED GIRL GUIDE but it deceived me =( I climbed till only half of where I had expected to reach.

Anyway, after lunch, we continued to seize whatever time we had to continue packing until it was time to line our bags up and head to the jetty. Whatever for? It was time for kayaking!!!! We learnt how to kayak (it was a recap for me and some others), we tested our PFDs-personal floatation device, practice capsizing, learnt the T-rescue, learnt the Wet-exit and due to time constraints, we missed out 1 more and set off shore for Jelutong.

Peter and I helped everyone else out to the water then we left (last kayak in other words). Surprisingly, we always end up amongst the front few. He's the best kayaking partner dude! However, JasminePoh and another guy (both from another watch: Marco Polo) had trouble coordinating and was always a distance away from the rest of us. So the instructors on the motor-boat had Peter to change with the guy, which mean Peter wasn't my partner anymore! =( But I was glad to help to speed up the journey or we would be waiting for them all the time. Our 2 kayaks were always on track, somewhere in the middle. Midway, the currents were choppy and it started to drizzle, but that did not hinder us to strive on despite how tiring it was. This journey was super duper uper enjoyable and I loved it too! We took about an hour (which didn't even felt like that long at all).

The unloading of our backpacks and water from the motor-boat was fun too. Marco Polo and Magellan formed a human chain and we just kept passing and shouting the watch that item belonged to. This was so army style lah (Bernard was an officer mah), but it's very efficient.

It was quite dark already and that was a bad sign because it'd be more difficult to pitch our tents and cook in the dark. So we quickly dispatched ourselves. Cooks (us) prepared curry chicken noodles, sambal ikan and Day 1's uncooked food. It was seriously very very very difficult to cook in the dark even though there was the cooking fire as a source of light. The tent pitchers took more than twice the time needed to pitch 4 tents rather than the expected 5.

We couldn't bathe there and the public toilet was about 200 metres away from the campsite. So we changed out of our wet attire into clean, dry clothes, then headed back for debrief and further instructions. The instructors told us that there would be night duty as it's a public area (which means people cab strole in to grab our stuff) and there were stray dogs (they bite anything). The 4 watches : Marco Polo, Livingstone, _______ and Magellan circulated the timing and Gordon managed to negotiate for us to get the last 3 slots. So Mag's girls did the 4.30am-5am slot.

Lucky for that man, or I'd die in the 4-men tent. The 6 of us were sqweezing inside and they didn't want to un-zip the netting, fearing that they'd get stung by mosquitoes and I let Si Yuan had more space to I was the one at the corner, suffocating. After duty, we got back and I just slept with the tent opened, my upper torso in the tent and the lower out of the tent.

*The worst night of the 3.

Day #3
We had to strike out tents and pack our stuff by 7am, but we dragged till 7.35am. Then all 4 watches headed to the basketball court near the Ubin Village. We had morning games and morning circle there. Then we started off our treeking expedition with Ashraf and Farhan as our navigators (which means Day 3 i/c can rest >.<).

The first game was to get a small stone and only with the right hand, throw the stone to the person on the right in our own watches. Only with 3 consecutive successful throws without any stones dropped then could we head off to the next checkpoint. At every checkpoint, we would have a game. We successfully got through the first 2 checkpoints quite easily with the game of "ascending life-jacket" game and the "turn over a new leaf" game as the first and second respectively.

The third checkpoint was very challenging. Not only was is very far away from the second one, it was also very high up... at the highest point of Ubin! It was so very pretty, I mean mesmerizing!!! We could see the quarry, the hills the tree... nothing can ever beat the beauty of mother nature! We were given the luxury to had our lunch right there, yes, the only watch to enjoy the scenery while enjoying our quick lunch.

The fourth checkpoint was yet another tough one. It was so off that we had to walk deep into the bushy area where people did their business (I could smell it even having a blocked nose) and almost into a swamp. That was the BONUS CHECK POINT! I think if you're from another watch, your won't understand this. According to our insturctor, because we were ahead of the time, we could get a dip in the swamp!!! Yes, the beautiful swamp! No others get this except us! Plus a 10-minutes swim inside! No salted water! Clear Blue water! Not opened to the public except under supervision by OBS instructor! SCREAM!!! AWESOME MAN!!! And we camwhored inside (Instructor Bernard's cam-phone)!!!
So, all freshened up, we walked another long long way to find our last checkpoint and another long long way back to Camp 2!!!

Basically that was why we took more than 7 hours to trek that journey of more than 8km and my feet was hurting though walking was my hobby. My track shoes were torn apart on the first day so I had to walk in my half-booties-half-dunnowad cheapo shoes I bought in China which had soles less than 1cm thick and base area small than the bottom of my feet, plus I wasn't wearing sock at all.

This was yet another great accomplishment!

After some rest, we unloaded our stuff and prepare for a culinery competition. (phs phs... actually Mag's cheated abit, we had those who didn't want to do the food to pitch the tents first... shhhh........) The given judging critirial were creativity, taste, teamwork and cleanliness of the cooking area. We decided to focus more on the first 2.

Since Bernard liked to tell us moral stories that had always got to do with either Ah Seng, Ah Huat or Ahmad, we came up with the Ah Huat Noodles (curry chicken noodles: canned curry chicken + maggi noodles and a bit of the MSG inside), Ahmad Soup (cambell's soup with wheat crackers crumps and bread strips as garnishing) and Ah Seng Tea ( chrysanthemum tea in an apple: boiled secret recipe tea placed in the apples which we cut a big hole to hold the tea as a cup. it kinduf gave some sweetness and fragrance too!).

They ultimate winner was everyone but we knew in our hearts that if they did not emphasize on everyone being winners, ours would stand out more because all our food was edible, mouth watering, displayed creatively and we were the only watch which provided 4 servings for each of the judges.

That night, we cleared up, tried to clean the store and put everything back in place as much as possible and turned in, all collapsing anytime. Instructions wa s very clear that we had to wake up the next day at 5am, strike the tents, bring everything back to the store, wash up and meet Bernard at 6.

Day #4
It wasn't really a rise and shine. We were all late!!! Bernard came to our tents to wake us all up! So malu lah. It was already 6.05am! So we quickly got out of our tents, lifted them and carried them down to our store and spread them out for cleaning later. After regulating for the girls to wash up first while the guys pack the store then a switch after that, we had a short morning activity. The girls were leading Bernard not to have us run since the night before.
So after playing 1 game,
Bernard: Ok, Magellon, line in 2 rows, we're going to go for a run.
Girls: Huh? What?! Don't run can? Can we just jog?
Me to guys: Hey, let us stand in the front or else y'all will just sprint.
Bernard: Ok, never mind, just jog on the spot first. We're going to jog 3 rounds.
Girls: What?!
Me: Around the parade square?
Bernard: Ok, Jog on the spot. Now jog and turn 1 round.
All: LoL... *jog and turn*
Bernard: Turn another round. ... ... ... ... ... Turn 1 more round. ... ... ok, now y'all need to cool down?
All: Of course not *smiles on faces*

And we spent the rest of the morning packing the store and cleaning and everything. Some other watches went for the Jetty Jump but, so what, we had fun trying to get things back into our store. We did trading and found things. Oh, since we always found tent pegs during area cleaning, we replaced them with our lost ones and traded those too. Moral of the story... you're in advantage if you work harder.

Once the store was done after a few hours (we lost 1 jack-knife, so that's 40cents each Magalini, not so bad) it was time for area cleaning. We were in charge of the toilets. The guys we wondering how to clear the pile of dung in their loo. We girls were luckier. Our toilet was the not so dirty one and we took only 2 minutes to clean it! So we got back to the gathering point and started singing and cheering and dancing till I realised that my voice was gradually turning coarse.

When everyone's back and we've all got our valuables, Bernard had us to put down our bags under the shelter where all the watches were to gather, then brought us to the beach for morning circle as the other shady areas were taken. Bernard and Bibi apologised for having to take us to such a place but I didn't understand what's so bad about it... we had the best view of the appealing sea view by the beach. Anyway, Bernard got us to pick a stone which we felt represented us best then had us to stand in a row facing the sea. And he told us a story. He knew we'd tease him if he were to name the characters Ah Seng, Ah Huat or Ahmad. And the story goes:

Long, long, long time ago, in the southern part of China, there live this person called Steven and Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob was very good at building houses. Woah, he houses arh never fall before 1, can last very very very long. So Steven hired Uncle Bob to build houses for him.
Uncle Bob worked for Steven for a very long time. So 1 fine day, he decided that he wanted to rest. He was about 80 years old already, so he needed to rest. He told Steven that he had to take a break.
Steven couldn't bear to let him go, but he knew that Uncle Bob was very tired already. So he asked Uncle Bob to build 1 last house for him. Thinking that ... aiya, my last day already still want me to build a house, I just anyhow build lah... so anyone could tell that that house was definitely not build by Uncle Bob because the standard was too low, but he just couldn't be bothered to put his heart into it.
When he was done with the house, Steven thanked Uncle Bob for working for him for so many years. And with his gratitude, he gave Uncle Bob that very last house he built on his own.

In life, we all have 2 wolves living in our soul, a big bad wolf and a good wolf. For everything you do, you can choose to feed the good wolf or the bad wolf. You are here to learn something and I am here to help you. I cannot change your character and your personality. So now, you've taken a stone that best represents you. Forget all about the bad you have done bring back all the learning points. You can choose to let go or you can choose to keep them in you. Once you've thought about it, throw your stone into the sea, and learnt from those mistakes.

Well, I tried to hold back my tears, but the emotions ran over me. Probably I still cannot let go of the lowest point of my life, it's probably still traumatising me. I quickly got myself back to normal before everyone made a big woohaa about it.

By the end of the 4D3N camp,
the close ones were : Clarissa, Si Yuan, Eileen, Peter, Farhan, Faris, Gordon, Ashraf, Si Yan
and
the known ones were : Instructor Bernard, Instructor Bibiana, Zhang Xin, Yi Song, Darren, Mark, Han Siong, Glen

Friendship ties were made and be it Magellan, Magelini or Mag's, Ah Seng, Ah Huat and Ahmad will forever stay in our hearts because
it takes 1 minute to meet a stranger,
it takes 1 hour for us to be friends,
it take 1 day for us to know each other,
but it takes a lifetime to forget our friendship.

The Last Lecture ~ Randy Pausch

2008-06-21T19:18:00.003+08:00

I'm sure 99% of us, teens out there are rushing to complete as much homework as you can right now. Well, though I'm blogging, I'm actually sailing in that same boat.

What made me want to post despite having very little time left for my homework was this very inspiring professor, Dr Randy Pausch.

I got to know about him though this book which Crystal and LiJuan mentors gave me for my birthday present.
If you had achieved great things in life, and just when you're beginning to enjoy probably the peak of your lifetime, you realised that this thing called cancer was here to stay forever and you would be left with 3 to 6 months of healthy life, how would you lead the rest of your life?

I'm still halfway through the book, but if you want to know a little bit about what's going on, you can watch some videos available on youtube. *Catch the 2nd one if you don't have 1 hour of patience to hear him speak.
Watch Video 1:
The actual Last Lecture in Carnegie Mellon University (1h 16mins 26sec)

Watch Video 2:
A rough lecture he shared on Oprah Winfrey's Show (10mins 7sec)

I watched both. Hearing him speak was livelier than reading the book alone, but there're much more stirring stuff in the book. It's really worth reading and not only have I learnt a lot from him, what he said and wrote recognises what I've always been believing hence he's indirectly encouraging me though he don't know each other at all.

Randy is the guy, and I just hope a miracle will happen.
If not, live on your 'tigger attitude' because that's you, that's fundamentals of life and that's the only way for anyone to not regret once living a life as a human.

Update!

2008-06-19T14:19:00.002+08:00

16 June

Haig Girls' School Student Leadership Collaboration

On Monday, the former and current Main Exco of the Student Council (so that's 9 times 2, which is the 18 of us) were down for this very important event for our council. Though not the entire council was summoned down, this collaboration actually marked a step further for the council as this was the first time the young TKSC of a history of 6 years had ever worked with a primary school and conduct a leadership course for young student leaders.

Due to accepted reasons, 3 couldn't make it for the actual day.

Initially, we had problems trying to communicate with the girls because they were extremely quiet and, since they were mixed into groups with people they might not know and they were ONLY primary school kids, they hardly converse with one another. It was tough, but the 5 group heads/ facilitators (I was 1 of them!) tried our very best to bring life to them and make things sound fun and exciting.

It was very easy to tell of what kind of a personality each and every one of them had as a leader through discussions and games. I felt that in my group, they were not well-prepared and ready at all time, they were not very united (can't blame them for that) and were almost waiting for me to guide them and give them the solution rather than to sit together, talk to one another and take the lead. I expected the event to be a little more "high" since it was an all-girls school we're talking about here, however, it was quite disappointing seeing how much enthusiasm they showed.

Though my group, Robin Hood didn't emerge as the top or any other followed behind except for the last position, I felt that they were stronger than other teams in their own unique way which they might not have realised, that they were very determined and persevered on even when we had to restart the game while others were already done.

These girls were quite cute.
There was a piece of mahjong paper with the words " Cooperation and Patience " on it and I was too lazy to throw it. So I asked if anyone wanted it and a girl said she'd like to have it if everyone signed on it. I felt that it was unfair because there were 12 of them and others might be unhappy about 1 person taking the 'representation' of the group. Then another wanted my autograph on her lecture booklet. Thinking that it was a simple job that'd make someone's day, I took the paper pushed to the centre of the table for easy-reach, and signed. The centre gradually piled up till a hill and then to a mountain! That moment was so satisfying because it really showed that my existence was greatly appreciated.

Exchanging or revealing of contact was strictly not allowed, hence this was the only thing they could have to remember me. It's indeed a wonderful experience and I hope they did bring back precious values and memories back with them
and
and
and
don't throw the lecture note with my signature on the cover page =P

Youth Congress Chalet
Immediately after Haig Girls' Collab, the entire Sec 3 Main Exco except Siddharth were heading to our 3D2N chalet. Sharon joined us 'cus she received a mistaken call from the Mdm Shahirah. Mdm Halilah gave us a ride to the MRT station and we were so indecisiveof which MRT station to go to and finally agreed on Tampines. Thanks Mdm Halilah, and her lovely husband and her sweet little daughter =)

So at Garden Terrace B of Aloha Loyang, Rifat, Peter (I'm used to calling Edwin Peter as Peter rather than Edwin) and Uncle Lawrence were already there. There were 2 double decked beds in a room and 2 single beds in the other. Since Rifat was the only male sleeping overnight, we decided to let him have a room to himself.

While the others were playing games and chilling out, I went into the kitchen to help Uncle Lawrence prepare dinner. It was so much fun and I didn't know he was once a chef! We exchanged some of our little cooking tips, and as one by one those outside came in, culinery became the topic of the talks within the spacious kitchen.

We had sphagetti, tomato-mushroom sauce, cream of mushroom, potato salad, fish fillet, chicken wings, marshed potatoes, mixed vegetables. Yummy was the food and bloated we all were as we munched, watched 'So you think you can dance?' and commented.

After Peter, Ryan and Sharon left (they had to go home =[ sad ), Uncle Lawrence set up the projector and plugged it to his laptop! That is cool or what?! We watched the 'Employee of the month' till probably about 12+ ? But it wasn't enough for me and the other were still in the watching mood, so we watched short cartoon snippets. And soon, we washed up one by one. The night (or early morning) didn't end there. We played hand games and card games and had so much fun, while Rifat was sleeping....shhh....

Oh, and I realised that I had a flu after the movie. I voice became coarse and horribly unpleasant to the ears. I couldn't sing!!! Oh no!

17 June

Day 2. I was the first to get up. Since the eggs were meant for breakfast, I prepared smashed eggs with mayonaise to match with the bread. Oh, and I heated up the night's left-overs; they were still tasty! No proper drink, and Heaven n Earth Jasmine Green Tea was the closest we could get in the fridge. Rifat, Estee, Clarissa and I were watching Ellen's before Oprah's shows on TV while playing DaiDi while the others, I believed, was playing Truth-or-Dare in the ladies room (not the ladies).

We then headed to the beach.
LiJuan mentor was made a statue for her Dare the previous night.

Rifat was playing around with the waters and sand. He was collecting foam!

And then there was the whole SAND WAR!!!

And the 4 of us who were at the 14th SLC showcased our cluster performance : The Ketchup Dance; however, Vivian was seriously nuts and all the while she ahd the motive of getting me wet in mind! Since I was already wet to the neck, I thought why not just get myself entirely wet.

There was no point screaming for help because
No.1, My voice could hardly be heard;
No.2, Even if they could hear me scream, they'd rather watch me sadistically;
No.3, Vivian was too strong (physically) a person for me to defend myself.

After an hour or two at the beach, we decided not to go roller blading or cycling since we're so wet and there wasn't enough clothes to change into, we sneaked into the pool. Yes, I mentioned sneaked because we weren't properly attired. Then we had a game of 'Ice and Water' in the pool. I'm sorry but I was the worst swimmer of all. C'mon, I last swam when I was in P4 okay? I almost got myself a Bronze certificate when the SARS came and the whole lot of puberty nonsense came. Oh, the instructor was lecherous too.

Anyway, in the midst of our game, we saw Hwa Chong people entering the chalet main office area. Then as they walked along the pool to wherever, gosh, I saw the kukubird (sorry if this is foul language, but it's a nickname the Cultivation of Leadership Cluster used to call that guy)!

Later on, when the pool was roughly cleared as it was lunchtime, we, again, sneaked to the children's pool to play on the slide. It was so fun. And hey, we're definitely not deprive of our childhood, it's just that it's so irresistable and everyone wishes to be a child, so innocent, so likeable and so thoughtless, don't we?

It was about 3 when we were showering and preparing for lunch, but decided to get pizzas and chicken wings delivered to us. We were about done at almost 5.

Vivian ans Sharmane still wanted to cycle though knowing that our BBQ would start at 6 and the ready-made raw food had arrived more than an hour earlier. So we all went out to the beach side. Estee and I didnt want to cycle, so we took a stroll.

I was just sharing with her about the last time, or rather, the first time when I was at the exact same place in Pasir Ris Park, I saw many kites in the sky. The wind was strong and I saw a huge Merlion and dragons flying high up. And as she popped the question," Why don't we fly a kite?", the was a little koisk on our left and we went in to check out the kites. They were reasonably cheap, so we got 1 and started getting it up in the air.

An uncle saw us, so inexperienced, so he offered to help us get it to fly first. However, the wind was shifting. Estee could tell. She's a sailor. After aiding for about 20minutes, the 2 of us were left alone to try to fly the kite. The kite was testing my patience, and Estee was all the time so optimistic, encouraging me to be patient. Then I was calling out the slogan of this year's investiture, "Altivolus, Soaring to Greater Heights!".

As the 4 of them cycled back, they saw us flying the kite. Rifat bought 1. After returning the bikes, Rifat and Clarissa joined us back on the patch of grass and we kept on trying. It was quite fun and at least both kites did fly to a certain height and remained in the air for about 3 minutes before dying down.

We headed back for the BBQ. And our guests were already there. They were Mr Ernest Fu (TK Admin Staff who booked this wonderful terrace), Melissa (Bukit Merah Sec's mentor), YanYing aka YY (PLMGSS's mentor) and Uncle Lawrence). Although most of them left a little earlier than expected, we managed to put up a little performance with our *ahem* standard Ketchup Dance, You Raised Me Up, We Love You... . They liked it.

Guess what, it wasn't us who didn't want to stop, the kids from the next door gathered at the edge of the low dividing wall and watched us. So we sang and did all the nonsense we knew. They requested for "Umbrella". We didn't deliver. In turn, we told them that it was their turn to perform for us. They sang ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, BaBa Black Sheeps, and other nursery rymes. Please, they were in primary school already.

We cleaned the pit area, went back into the 'house' to freshen up and walked to E!Hub for a drink at MacCafe. When we were back, everyone was too tired to stay up for more and we were in slumberland before 2am.

18 June

BeeHoon and Spring Rolls from previous night's BBQ was for breakfast. I took the unwanted whole potato and ate it with mayonaise. We were watching Ellen's show after Prime Time Morning on 5. As we played more DaiDi, the 2 mentors were back in bed for more sleep.

I ate at the small coffee table on my own while they played DaiDi and forced one another to finish up the BeeHoon and the AgaAga Uncle Lawrence made. I was very lucky, wasn't I? After being chased out of our 'house', we really wanted to go to MacDonald's for breakfast no matter what. We were almost bloated! So with our rucksacks on our backs, we walked to DownTown East and had second round of breakfast at MacDonald's!!! We're just too pro and I bet you're nodding your head in agreement (exclaiming : OMG!).

Rifat went home to put down some stuff and took whatever necessary for Band Camp from 18-20 June.

Shamane, as usual, so fortunate to have such a Dad who picks her up almost anytime she calls. While as for the others, we took a train back: Crystal mentor at Kembangan, Vivian at Simei, Esteer and Clarissa and Me at Eunos, Rifat to school at Paya Lebar, and LiJuan mentor at Kallang.

That's it people, this is a super duper uper long post. I couldn't complete it yesterday because I slept before 4pm and woke up this morning at 8am, unbelieveable yeah? I can't imagine sleeping that long myself as well!

虽然我愿意~ 伍家辉

2008-06-14T22:17:00.003+08:00

请让我靠近你轻轻对你说
别让我每个夜为你受折磨
是多么不容易才默默放手

为了我就当作这次为了我
别让我因为你被回忆折磨
而空气凝结了我们的脸孔
我别无选择

就算我们之间有什么问题
依然想念着你
虽然被放弃
虽然我愿意

就算我们之间有什么难题
黑夜我还想着你
心碎人孤寂
虽然我愿意

再让我靠近你轻轻对你说
当我说我要你从此好好过
是真的否则我怎么肯放手

为了我就当作这次为了我
赐给我你现在幸福的笑容
别让恨冻结了我们的脸孔
请你做选择

就算我们之间有什么问题
依然想念着你虽然被放弃
虽然我愿意

就算我们之间有什么难题
黑夜我还想着你心
碎人孤寂
虽然我愿意

心碎人孤寂
虽然我愿意

就算我们之间有什么问题
依然想念着你
虽然被放弃
虽然我愿意

就算我们之间有什么难题
黑夜我还想着你
心碎人孤寂
虽然我愿意

(心还想着你)

long-lost buddy

2008-06-13T21:54:00.002+08:00

I so have to post this, really!!!

Indeed, he's Joel the LEGEND! The boy (note that I use the word 'boy', not 'guy') I first met 12 years ago at this little corner in Eunos Community Club where we became best friends soon after, which lasted till the very last day we were there. However, we were not matured enough then to even understand the importance of taking down each other's contacts and hence lost in touch.

But fate brought our friendship back together again!!!

He's the guy who created the friendster group for 14th SLC, and he requested for me to join the group, which I did.
Then he requested for a personal 'friend' add. It was then that I realised that the name was so familiar and this person was probably that very person I've been wanting to get in touch with all these while. (Well, he got the picture of the SLC nametag with his full name on it as his primary picture, or the one on display) I recognised that full-name immediately, and was like...

...click the name
...click the photos
...browse through the photos
...*looks like him right?*
...*it's been 9 years; he's definitely not going to look the same!*

...better send a message and get things clear!

...message sent!

And within a minute, I got a reply. IT IS HIM! HE'S THE ONE!
Oh goodness that I have a healthy heart or I would be in the hospital by now. I added him on MSN as fast as I could!

"Omg" filled the first few lines of our conversation, followed by all the "I remember that...".

Gosh, why didn't Shaun Seah told me that they were from the same school, same Student Council earlier?!?! (He must be super puzzled wondering what has anything here got to do with him...haha)

He is LEGEND;

JOEL LIM XING ZHI

IS BACK!

14th Student Leaders Convention - Aftermath

2008-06-11T23:54:00.002+08:00

14th SLC had already ended 2 weeks ago, however, it's not stopping there...

Not only the OTs (Organising Team) has kindly uploaded the official informal and formal picture, and the action papers of the various groups and clusters on the official SLC website for participants to grab, there will also be a self-initiated gathering, or mass outing they call for SLC participants!

The fever did subside a little but I'm sure that on 21 June, it will be oh-so-SPICAY (like what Jon always says) and it will definitely be fun-filled! Can't wait for it... but how unfortunate to have guides walkathon on that day as well (moreover, we were only indirectly notified like today?)

Anyway, I forgot to express my greatest thanks to each and every fellow fond FIRMINUS friends in the previous post regarding SLC.
Though I'd written small notes on the 'thumbs-up' post-its, I'm still goina honour these fellow fond FIRMINUS friends:
(not in any sort of order)

Fac.Alvin - The TeddyBear of Firminus! Though he couldn't make it for the 1st one-and-a-half days, we were still very close to him for he always had that big smile on his face and shares sick and lame jokes which were sure to make our day.

Fac.Gordon - He was suppose to be the head-fac for our cluster, but as Alvin was not around, he took over. Firminus was the only group which he actually knew each of us in person as we interacted a lot, having spent time together in the orientation games and the initial brainstorming for the action paper.

Rachel - The forever Rachel-ly Rachel who never fails to ask people whether she's a bimbo because all her friends in school calls her one. Whenever she's bored, she'd just share her lame jokes around or crave for more sick and lame joke from fac Alvin.

Siti - The ever so glamorous girl who's quite quiet but you'd just never be able to spot her being un-glam... haha

YiHui - She joined us later on the first day when we were back from Marina Bay. Quite a pro in Chinese Language as well (like me... xD), we always laugh at how the Hwa Chong boys tried so hard just to translate whatever we were doing to the Chinese students.

Shahirah - This girl was definitely super duper uper bimboistic with all the "oh-my-GORD"s going on in Firminus. We all know what that means don't we, fellow fond Firminus friends? This sassy girl is definitely not a girl you don't wanna joke around with...hehe

YuWei - She's from China, and was quite lonely because we have an odd number of girls and most of the time she didn't understand what was going on because we all speak English too quickly (for the Chinese). She's innocent looking on the outside, but since we're talking about the aftermath, I guess Firminus knows her power now!

Benjamin - Should we call him our saviour? Quite unsuitable for him. Blim never fails to speak for Firminus during cluster meetings and this guy was one of those who made Firminus really Firminus. I actually got to know him better after SLC because both of us are online more frequently than the others. There's just too much to type...

Jonathan - Jon, can almost be the thinker of Firminus. When we finally ran out of ideas how to put it in our action paper, he just took over, together with his buddy Blim. They seriously make a pair, I don't mean gay.

YiHeng - I hardly heard him say a single word except for the time when we were playing "Honey, do you love me?". I wrote in the little note that he was the soul supporter of Firminus because he's always with us but not really woohaa-ing like everyone else. He gave the most moral support man.

Siddhant - He's from India. He's emo. He takes his own stand. He's super duper uper confident. He can be really really scary~

KeaHoa - Sid's PILLOW!!! well, Sid treated him as a pillow in the auditorium and I guess during cluster meetings as well. It kinduf got on his nerves but hey Pillow, I've got to tell you that at the end of the day, you were Sid's last bestie in Firminus... hahaxD

ShenXin - Soooooo tall, also from China. I liked his attitude. Though like YuWei, he couldn't really understand, we tried as far as possible to get involve and perticipate actively. He's quite funny too =D

ZhiJian - How could we ever forget about him. He's only Sec2 but yet was able to interact very well with us. I applaud for your courage man; I'd have been very timid if I were you! Oh, and everytime when we have mass conference on MSN, this guy would be like 'what's going on? ... huh?' because he's under-age to understand the nonsense... haha... don't feel too bad about it because I still admire your courage!

So before I end, once again, bringing to you...

FIRM-IN-US!

P.S. Check out the official 14th SLC website @ http://www.hci.sg/14slc/
for details about the 14th SLC
and the photographs and action papers
of the various groups.

Say It Again ~ Marie Digby

2008-06-05T23:16:00.005+08:00

the thing about love
is i never saw it coming
it kind of crept up
and took me by surprise
and now there's a voice inside my heart
its got me wondering
is this true..? I wanna hear it one more time
move in a little closer
take it to a whisper
and just a little louder...

Say it Again for me
cause i love the way it feels
when you are telling me that i'm
the only one who blows your mind
Say it again for me
it's like the whole world stops to listen
when you tell me you're in love...say it again

the thing about you
is you know just how to get me
you talk about us
like there's no end in sight
the thing about me is that i really wanna let you
open that door
and walk into my life
i move in a little closer
take it to a whisper
and just a little louder..

Say it Again for me
cause i love the way it feels
when you are telling me that i'm
the only one who blows your mind
Say it again for me
it's like the whole world stops to listen
when you tell me you're in love..

and it feels like
it's the first time
that anybody's ever brought
the sun without the rain
and never in my whole life
have i heard words as beautiful as when you say my name.

Say it Again for me
cause i love the way it feels
when you are telling me that i'm
the only one who blows your mind
Say it again for me
it's like the whole world stops to listen
when you tell me you're in love..

Say it again, say it again, say it again;
Say it again, say it again, say it again;
Say it again, say it again, say it again;
when you tell me you're in love,
Say it Again.

Council training camp

2008-06-04T17:04:00.007+08:00

The moment I stepped into the library, all I observed was councillors sticking to their usual group of people and just waiting for time to pass. I wasn't sure if it was because I just attended SLC which enriched me too much, or was it that they had always been like that and I hadn't realised all this while. There were 2 thoughts in my head: 1)Was I really looking at TK's student councilors? 2) Something ought to be done to improve this situation!

Other than that, I really learnt a lot about myself the passed 2 days; my strengths and weaknesses, what I can do to be a better person in turn a better leader, how I bring myself out as a leader, and what kind of leader I am.

I saw how different I was compared to who I was 5 years back. Wow, I didn't realise that it was such a drastic change.

I'm not a charismatic leader, but one who takes charge whenever I think it is necessary. I personally feel that I'm not a good enough leader and may avoid taking the lead or only lead when there's a need to. I tend to want to build up the people around me and want them to grow with me. I can be quite pesimistic at times.

The games were very engaging and also able to bring the entire Council together. However, the bond is not strong enough and I believe everyone can feel it. The Sec 2s brought some issues up to the trainer and he told me about it. Don't worry guys, when it's under our control, we will control it and ensure that Council is NEVER boring. You have my word for that, I promise.

Oh well, the Student Council is still standing strong. This is where I belong, the place where rare opportunities were given to me and I take pride leading this Council together with the 4 other main Executive Committee members.

No Odds Too Great, we'll serve with that spirit!