All I have to say about mangrove replanting is its dirty and muddy! To the extent that when we were finally back on concrete clean dry land, I was so glad that we have clean air to breathe, hard ground to walk on.
But it was good work. Like one of the GVN people said, a few decades down the road, we can tell out grandchildren: That tree over there is planted by your grandmother!
I learned that not all trees you see in nature parks are really "natural". Human beings have to replant some of them. I think its because while deforesting to create the boardwalk you usual walk on when visiting nature parks, they overdid it and killed too many plants. It is rather ironic that to create a nature park, alot of litter is left around (by the construction workers, who have no sense of basic respect for the environment) and there had to be this group of chung cheng high students to clean them up (but some of them were not genuinely there to help clean up so they sort of got sarcastic remarks from Grant). Still, they helped us with the transportation of the mangrove plants to be replanted which reduced the number of trips we had to make across the stretch of mud in the mangrove forest. One of Pei Ling's friends, I think a cousin, who had volunteered (totally not for CIP hours) to come along, was unlucky enough to fall into the muddy water (estimated to be about 30cm deep) as her boots got stuck.
My hands stink of mud so much that I had to wash them like 5 times to get rid of the smell. Fortunately we were told to bring extra clothes so we changed out of those that smelt of mud and had mud stains on.
Anyway, basically, what we did was to transport the mangrove plants (some were heavier than your usual school bag! and the mud caused some to be so slippery we had to grab them with the aid of our fingernails), dig holes with hoes, put the plants into the holes (the mud holding the roots, not the shoots of course) in the right direction, fill up the rest of the hole. Sounds simple but its hard work considering the pungent smell (got da bian smell.. ewww..), the muddy uneven landscape with pools of muddy water and the litter around.
Janice was telling us that there's going to be a St. Andrews Village at Potong Pasir 'cause SAJC would to moving over to where SA Junior n Secondary are now. I was asking her how the MRT station at PP was like but she had difficulty comparing the pre-MRT station PP and post-MRT station PP then I mentioned that the PP in my mind is the PP my dreams created. I can't even differentiate the real PP six years back that I had in my memory and the virtual PP of my dreams. I dream so much and remember them such that my memory of my dreams seems similar to the type of memory of real-world events (which I often forget so I think that's why its brought to the same level as dream memory).
After that, I went Marche for dinner! I bet I was the dirtiest and most awfully dressed person around. *argh* but the food was great!
I did CIP with kids from Hougang Student Care Centre yesterday and I must say its the most enjoyable CIP I have done so far!
I am really fortunate to be attached to those four kids! Initially, Sandra and her friend, Priya, wanted to be with them because Justin is such a cute little boy! However, Sand went over to Joanna then there was Yuxian and Justine so I thought they would join Priya together but Jus joined Sand so Yx and I got the best group! Priya got separated later as the kids spoke mainly mandarin.
haha, everything seemed to turn for the better for me. The original plan was to go to the Botanic Gardens but just before we were supposed to set off from Hougang, the coordinator over at the Gardens called to inform Mr Tay (the in-charge for the outing) that it was raining rather heavily at the Gardens so we changed plans and went to the Science Centre instead. This made everything so much more convenient for me =) since I had to go to NIE in the evening. The only bad thing was this giddy spell I had which I think is either due to lack of sleep or the heavy bag I was carrying because I had to return Bo Yang the Chem textbook I had borrowed. (He kept asking me when I was return so I couldn't return later) Just imagine carrying a - erm.. - 6-kg bag and following kids around for three hours.
ohya! Lionel told us a piece of good news - Mr Yong might continue taking our class next year! He smsed Lionel after going to the class chalet that he realised the bond he has with our class is too strong for him to leave us so he is appealing to the HOD to take four S5 classes! Yay!
Mdm Low is posted to ACJC next year so she won't be taking us. I'm not saying anything! *tries to look innocent*
k, back to the CIP. I learnt that I have to take the initiative to be friendly to build a good relationship within a short time - because I started to get to know them on the bus so, soon, they were telling us alot of things. Then Yx played with them too.
There's Jasmine, 10, Jocelyn, 8, Justin, 5 who are siblings and Shandy, 8. Shandy's the most talkative one, bringing lots of life to our group. At the beginning, she was telling the others about her parents' cars and I was rather amazed when she was talking about their models - what Honda Matrix (??) etc. She took most of the photos with my digicam (I must say her photo-taking skills are very good for someone her age!) - would have taken all if I didn't 'mediate' and get her to let jocelyn have a chance. Fortunately, Jocelyn isn't the type who will fight it out for things she want. Actually, it would be great to have kids like the three siblings - one's cute (Justin! especially when he grins!), one's sensible (Jasmine) and all are rather obedient, especially in today's Singapore. heez.
It's great that they love taking photos, otherwise I would probably have less than ten.
The 3 girls were holding my hand leading me around to see things they discovered - made me feel closer to them than I am to some of my cousins though we merely knew each other for less than a few hours.
Then there was this thing which I could figure out what it was for. Yx found out that one of the computers that had a digicam attached to it could print out the photos in the format of the frontpage of a newsletter (one free page per ticket). It was then that I realised that 'thing' was a printer! haha, I feel so silly, I had been looking at it as if it was another unusual exhibit in Science Centre.
Jocelyn thought that Nicholas looks over 20! haha.. Joce n Shandy were chasing him around to take photos of him. Later on, they chased Russell but didn't succeed. haha, nian ji xiao xiao jiu zhui nan hai zi.
Then I broke my boycott of Macs, 'cause the kids were eating and there was nothing to do so I rather eat.
Most of them went back to Hougang in the chartered bus while Yx n I went to JRL 'cause she wanted to borrow some books and I had more than 3 hours to spare before band practice. Then I toured around JRL and did a bit of work in between. Wow, its really one of the best local libraries - the entire top level was made specially for teenagers and there were comfortable sofas and vending machines selling snacks. There were also tables to do work and the aircon wasn't as senselessly freezing cold as WRL. The new system for searching materials was also more user-friendly.
I met half the band at the interchange before proceeding with them to NIE. I was the only female clarinet player from NJCSB despite the fact that our section has 5 girls. haha.
Swee Peng's instructor sent us (Sp, Jun Hao and me) home. It was very kind of him since he stays at Serangoon while the 3 of us live in Sembawang. Along the way, he was asking what we intend to take in university and giving us advice. I told him I am considering business courses but I can't do public-speaking and he said that it's a very important skill because you have to talk to your colleagues/ employees/ clients etc. Hence, if I want to do business, I have to pick up the skill like for him he can easily talk to us thought we don't know each other. That's a very important skill for people who do business. If I can't do it, I have to go into jobs that do not require PR skills.
sigh. My skills and interests are different. How am I going to choose which course to do?
For the rest of the past week, I was stuck to the computer slacking most of the time... even till past midnight...
It seems that once I start playing, I can't get back into working mode...
Yay! Just had my first attempt at making Konnyaku! They are soon ready to be eaten =D
Made it with Mom, and it nearly solidified before being transferred into the mould. Luckily Mom heated it up again.
Tried making peanut butter cookies yesterday according to a recipe found online but it was not as tasty as the reviewers said.
Never mind, shall try another recipe maybe on Tuesday or Thursday! Hopefully that will be successful! :)
Kk, got to go now, Mom's hurrying me! Hopefully it doesn't rain, I'm going for a swim!
You're a responsible person - with a clear sense of right and wrong.
High standards are important to you, and you do everything to meet them.
You are your own worst critic, feeling ashamed if you're not perfect.
You have the highest integrity, and people expect you to be fair.
Yay!! I finally finished creating a class blog - complete with a nice template! =D *Yawn* Its indeed tiring - more than five hours straight in total. I seriously hope they'll understand my efforts. Although I once said I would stop trying, I simply can't. So, yes, this is another attempt!
Keep reading to the bottom of the page -- don't stop at the feet (You'll see).
Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family.
The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room.
Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement.
As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it.
When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied,
"Things aren't always what they seem."
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife.
After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest.
When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears.
Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.
The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen?
The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused.
The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die.
"Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied.
"When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall.
Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it."
"Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead.
Things aren't always what they seem."
Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don't turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every out come is always to your advantage. You just might not know it until some time later...
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That's why it's called the present!
I think this is special..live and savor every
moment... This is not a dress rehearsal!
THIS IS A SPECIAL GUARDIAN ANGEL.... YOU MUST PASS THIS ON TO 5 PEOPLE WITHIN THE HOUR OF RECEIVING HER, AFTER YOU DO MAKE A WISH....
IF YOU HAVE PASSED HER ON, YOUR WISH WILL BE GRANTED AND SHE WILL WATCH OVER YOU FOREVER....
IF NOT, HER TEARS WILL FLOW AND NO WISHES WILL BE GRANTED....
Now don't delete this message, because it comes
from a very special angel.
Right Now -
-somebody is thinking of you.
-somebody is caring about you.
-somebody misses you
-somebody wants to talk to you.
-somebody wants to be with you.
-somebody hopes you aren't in trouble.
-somebody is thankful for the support you have provided.
-somebody wants to hold your hand.
-somebody hopes everything turns out all right.
-somebody wants you to be happy.
-somebody wants you to find him/her.
-somebody is celebrating your successes.
-somebody wants to give you a gift.
-somebody thinks that you ARE a gift.
-somebody loves you.
-somebody admires your strength.
-somebody is thinking of you and smiling.
-somebody wants to be your shoulder to cry on.
SOMEBODY NEEDS YOU TO SEND THIS TO THEM
Never take away anyone's hope. That may be all they have
I just realised it has been a year, 11 months to be more exact, since my previous major meddling with webpages. I am into it again.
But in between, many things have happened. (in chronological order. nearly.) :-
I started chatting online;
had four gatherings with my primary school classmates (one of which sent me to hospital for food poisoning and had my stomach aching tortuously. there was one where I played pool for the 1st time! and another which was on '04 new year's eve because we wanted to countdown- my 1st countdown!);
entered junior college, readjusted for life in a mixed school;
1st started staying in school till after sunset during orientation;
entered a fun-loving class which had a few of us left out (and I hated it for that) but there was huitian, who taught us silly games and made life fun, and pam, one of the extremely rare few whom I could talk alot to;
made new friends and lost touch with some;
joined NJCSB, learnt that one of my house reps is actually not only from my senior class but is also my direct senior in band! ie Lydia - a wonderful, caring senior who told me alot of things;
joined enterprise club, sold flowers for valentine's day and left the club;
took part in competitive road run and unfortunately had stitch;
started playing national anthem and college song for flag-raising every morning;
collected my 'O' level results and nearly cried because I got A2 for all three sciences but did not;
played card games (bridge and dai di) so frequently I became bored of them;
stayed over at a friend's place for the first time in my life - Xin Yu's place;
eagerly anticipated the addition of new classmates with the hope of a positive change in my class; finally got to know the old classmates better, but class bonding seemed to worsen as there was no longer a centre of attraction to hold those guys, and a third of the class was made up of newcomers, many of whom were often left out;
continued to be in the same section of the same cca with Jia Yun for the 5th consecutive year after a 3-month hiatus (is this an appropriate usage?) when she was at YJC;
welcomed 2 new section mates - Karen and Adeline - in addition to the original four of us (Jurena, Edo, Bo Yang and me) and I am very glad that none of us left;
performed during Ms Kua's farewell, College Day, Etude XXIX, National Day, Open House;
had my worst ever experience of NAPFA test for the 5 items;
went on a vacation trip (Genting) for the first time since Primary 6;
amazingly did better in Chemistry Common Test than expected (because I didn't prepare well) and got into Chem O;
joined greenlink;
stayed in school till 8/9pm during the weeks leading up to promos and also while preparing for CL 'AO';
worked extremely hard for PW, had forgone sleep for at least 4 nights;
went to orchard after school over the past 10 months more times than I did in my four years of secondary school life (haha, I think);
finally got to know more of the other band members after 10 months, and they are really great people - i wish we could stay as a band for more years;
AHHHH!!!!!!! This is driving me nuts!!!!!!!! I just made alot of additions to the series of events and blogger screwed up!!!!!! What a time to screw up!!!!!!!!!!!
**I need more air!**
Whatever! I have to try to recall every single addition! argh!
________
Ok, I think I have put back everything that was gone. Gah!
Hmm, I thought I changed alot. Then quite recently, I realised I still basically am the Fenella I was a year ago, just that its because I was faced with new situations and new people, so I handled them differently causing me to think that I had changed. For example I thought I became more talkative, but when I was around my NY friends again, I was back to the Fenella who didn't have much to talk about. Hence, it dawned on me that it was because of the new friends I meet who influenced me to talk more.
I can go anywhere I want with much prior notice (unless it’s outing with friends past midnight).
I have a mother who does not put pressure on me to get good grades.(In fact, she rather I get enough rest than work so hard, which is indeed the greatest irony since the complaint is often that the parents force the children to go for all those enrichment lessons.)
My friends can come to my home anytime (of course not too overboard like late in the night, but my brother’s friends sometimes do stay till midnight).I can even get my parents to go out so that we have the place to ourselves.
I have a mother who does so much for me – book chalets through her friend, buy things for me, wake me up in the morning (though I am already 17), brings me to enjoy better-than-average meals so often (many a times agreeing to my last minute request to have lunch in between her working hours), etc etc
But actually, much (expect for the last point) is due to my ability to think as a mature person (sometimes my parents think and behave more childish than me. Haha)
Haha. Its so amusing.My paternal grandmother just called exclaiming how beautiful the swimming pool at the new condominium my uncle recently moved into is
Yes, I just realised that, and am very glad about it. =)
I just returned from my third friday night practice at NIE and I must say it was the best one so far in terms of playing.
I like to play with people who's playing is superior to mine (but of course not so much better that I feel too inferior to even play). In fact, I like to carry out activities with people who are better than me.
Today, Adeline was not around (she went for the Endau Rompin Trip) so I was the only Thirds from NJ. Initially, I sat with Karen at the second row because Jia Yun was also not around (she was unwell). Then, Phil (I didn't know his name until just before I left when I asked. haha. And I found out that he thought I was Addy. hahaha. When I clarified that I wasn't, he thought Karen was Addy. It seems that he is much better at names than at faces) came. There wasn't enough scores so he suggested that I move back to the third row. Now I am glad that I did because sitting with him enabled me to have a better learning experience.
For example, for "A Gift of Time", I had found it an awful song last Friday because it was very difficult and I could not play it. However, this time with Phil, I managed it realise how lovely it sounds because instead of being totally lost (which I usually do), I could follow his playing and play along as well.
Half-way through the practice, I received a message from Ken that there's nature trail to pulau ubin on Monday morning. Hmm. I think it will be interesting, but I hope I don't get any insect bites, I also hope I won't be too exhausted to study for Chem O. There's not much time left.
I borrowed two Chemistry textbooks from Bo Yang. When I messaged him, he said he has only one organic Chem tb - as if I needed more than one. I doubt I can even finish 10% of one... and the one he has is actually the best one recommended by Ms Koh! How lucky! =) Thanks to *the good one*! haha. The other tb, a general one, is actually the one that I had previously borrowed from the school library - no wonder he could show off his knowledge of that book so well. I thought he read alot of the tbs in school.
The books were heavy. He had to lug them all the way from his home (at Serangoon Gardens) to NIE and I had to lug them from NIE all the way back home (Sembawang). Actually while I was having dinner, I had thought of asking him to pass the books to me at Sembawang MRT Station since he goes to NIE via Sembawang so that I can leave them with the station staff (haha, if they are kind enough) or with my aunt who lives right in front of the station. However, in the end, I gave up the idea.
Bo Yang is truly more 'girl' than a girl! He told me more than a dozen times that I have to take good care of the two books. However, something surprising was that after he warned me not to write in the books (as if I would.. its way off basic courtesy of borrowing - that one is not to leave any markings in a borrowed item), he gave me permission to do highlighting. I don't highlight such textbooks.
According to him, I have to get a gold for Chem O. I wonder if I can - though I doubt it. He was the one who got Gold for that Mathematics O taken during Sec 2 - and I only got a Bronze for it.
I was talking to Swee Peng on the train home (Qing Yang, Daryl and Bo Yang were talking about scores...). I regret not signing up for the Maldives trip. She went for it during the March Holidays. Not only did they gain the experience of building a community hall for the locals, they also got to enjoy the sheer beauty of the place, and they clocked 70 over hours of CIP!
We both prefer playing with the NIE members than on our own. She said for her, its because the pieces are easier, which is true. She also agreed with my reason (as stated above).
Some of the band members went to Orchard Road before band practice. Hmm. I should join them next time. I need to bond more with people from the other sections. One year has flown by without me getting to know them enough. I have to cherish the remaining time I can spend with these wonderful bunch of people.
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. --Anais Nin
I am totally stunned! Just checked my mailbox and there was this e-mail to inform me of a comment on my previous post from "a passerby"!
Hmm, if you do visit again, I would like to say, thanks for making the effort to leave a comment! The first ever comment I have! I really appreciate it! =)
Care to tell me your identity?
Actually, you know, I did a Project Work on charity so I know more about the local charity sector than I had used to. Hence, now I sometimes worry that the money I donated may not go to the beneficaries. Hopefully it does because the young man who knocked at my door to sell me the ticket said that my donation goes 100% to the needy. And I went to the NCSS website to ascertain through the NCSS license number that it is a genuine charity. haha. As I have learnt, we donors have to be more discerning.
I just got persuaded to buy a donation ticket again!
~$10~
I thought I have stopped being so easily swayed to donate. I was swayed like don't-know-how-many times until I started learning from my friends who always manage to escape. I am always the one who gets targeted. Just yesterday, while leaving Jurong Point, another person selling donation tickets approached me! Argh. Do I have 'I am gullible' written on my face? The others said is because I am always smiling. Do I?!
whoa. finally finished blogging that 6 nov post. i set a new personal record on longest post again.. sianz.. so long. i wonder if i can finish reading my own posts again in the future. though i had blogged exactly for that purpose.
haha. That scene is so funny - when the 3 sisters orbed back and Jason fainted.
Band practice at NIE (10am) clashed with Chem O at NJ (9.30am) just now. So I had to go to NJ first before rushing over to NIE. Unfortunately, I forgot that the lesson would be held in the libary so I wore Band Tee and was denied access to the library. The librarians are extremely strict when it comes to ensuring that students abide by library rules (to wear only Full Gray or Polo Tee in the library), yet they do not even abide by basic library courtesy - they talk so loudly one can even clearly hear them more than ten metres away, they play the radio at similar volume as well.
Hence, I had to swop my top with Yi Yun. She was very kind to agree to help without much hestitation.
However, the teacher scheduled for this Chem O lesson on Thermodynamics was on MC and a Physics teacher who had taught the Chem O students of the previous year this topic came. He gave out the notes and spoke for less than ten minutes before leaving us to do group-study.
What? I took all the trouble to get into the library in anticipation of attending a lesson yet there was none?
Then the others started doing self-study. I had wanted to leave for NIE immediately but I succumbed to peer pressure and stayed on. I suggested a few times to go since we were doing any group discussions but they continued studying. Finally, I could no longer continue staying when I knew that I have another commitment so I left. Somewhat annoyingly, some of the others also subsequently left.
I rushed over to NIE. It was a long way, a long way. I had to leave through the main gate, cross the bridge, take a bus, take the train, take another bus and walk.
There were alot of people going into and leaving NTU. The bus frequency seems insufficient to handle the number of passengers. When I reached the NIE bus-stop, it was so floated I had to squeeze through the crowd. I wondered if this situation is only because of the examinations period.
Everyone turned to look at me when I entered and Mr Ho called me but got my name wrong. haha. He has a fabulous memory but somehow, he is just unable to get our batch's names right. He can remember all the ex-band members and the years they were in band; the countries NJCSB went and relevant years etc but he mixes up the names of the trumpet girls, calls Joanne Joanna, etc.
wah.... its really difficult typing in proper punctation and proper english!!! ahhh. i have to persevere!
We got to know the pieces that we will be playing with our respective bands for the Band Festival. Band Rossini is playing two Chinese songs (Cai Yun Zhui Yue and Feng Yang Hua Gu) that NYCB had played for concert so its easier on me - I have less new songs to learn but Feng Yang has some rather technical parts that I have yet to master. I don't like to play Chinese songs - they are transposed from music written for Chinese orchestras and some parts are very difficult to play on Western instruments. We will also be playing Suphanrojn by Prateep S. BA LRSM (seems manageable) and The Wind in the Willows by Johan de Meij (four movements, eight pages, lots of running notes - basically madness). Initially I thought they gave me the wrong scores because the numbers of the bars seemed to not follow correctly. Then I realised it was actually because there were four movements. haha.
I found out that Wendy is also in Rossini! But there's very few NY girls participating since quite a large number went to HCJC which according to the guys, does not participate in this Band Festival because of "some politics".
-- Start of Advertisement --
Band Festival concert
4 Dec, $6 at NTU's Nanyang Auditorium.
Anyone interested? There'll be people from the majority of the JCs (over 300 split into 4 bands) so you will most probably see your friends from the other colleges! Can go with your NJ friends, your secondary school friends who are at other JCs now and are supporting their friends in the bands of other JCs, your date, your church friends, anyone!
Just leave a tag or message me =)
Thanks!
--End of Advertisement --
After band practice ended, a few of us went to Jurong Point, supposedly to celebrate Bo Yang's birthday which falls on Thursday. (haha - Deepavali boy) But there was EXCO, PP and section leaders meeting so we had to wait.
Jurena tried to be mean, saying "have fun!" to those section mates who were alone in their respective bands but I turned the tables when I informed her that her section mate for Band Festival (Adeline) would not be going as she will be going overseas instead. So Jurena ended up laughing at herself to "have fun" too. It was rather funny.
As Jurena had quintet practice, Jia Yun, Karen, Adeline, Bo Yang and I proceeded to Jurong Point. Most of the other band members also went out but we went different places.
Along the way, I found out that Karen's family is actually very rich - they go to England every year on a couple of weeks of holiday. Though she explained it was because her elder sister's studying there, it doesn't deny the fact. And her sister is actually a British! Her parents had lived in Britain for ten over years before moving back just before Karen was born. Now she complains of this move of theirs because she would gladly be a British citizen too. haha.
Bo Yang was crazy over watching Princess Diaries Two but the time of the movie screening was too late for us (two hours later) and the only one with suitable time of screening (3pm, ie half an hour later) and that we were fine with watching was Shark Tale. So we bought the tickets before heading to Long John Silver's for late lunch.
Karen and Addy suggested buying a chocolate pie for Bo Yang as birthday treat after he declined a lunch treat.
An observation (haha. No offence):
These two SC girls do not seem very economical. It was only after buying the food did they realise that they are paying alot for their order compared to ours which was much more worth it.
However, Karen and Addy are great people to hang out with because Karen is highly amusing and Addy is a great conversationalist (haha, i had to check the Chinese-English dictionary to translate jian tan to this. lousy me).
By the time it was almost 3pm, they still had unfinished fish so they put the fish in my 'boat' wrapped in plastic bag and smuggled it into the cinema in Bo Yang's bag. haha.
I realised that when guys do get carried away talking about something of interest to them. Its the same case with Qi Sheng and Russell. Bo Yang was commenting about a scene and laughing so heartily at it he didn't even hear my question.
Anyway, Shark Tale is a must-watch for anyone who wants to have a good laugh. The scriptwriter added numerous witty lines which made the movie very enjoyable and suitable for people with intelligence above that of children though there are also many parts that are rather silly but also makes the movie funny. Hmm. Now to think of it, that's rather paradoxical.
There are sharks acting as 'mafias' and a 'town' where underwater creatures lead underwater life that bears some resemblance to human's in the underwater sense.
There's a part where Lenny (his actions are very cute!), a shark, painted himself to look like a dolphin. Actually I didn't catch it until a later scene when it was mentioned again. And sometimes, i actually looked at the Chinese subtitles when the spoken English was too Westernised for me to follow.
Oscar's actions are also funny. And Sykes' change of voices when he puffs up.
I think it is the first time I laughed so much watching a movie. A pity Jia Yun didn't watch the movie. I think its also the first time I watched two movies within less than a week.
We headed for home after Karen and Addy bought ice-cream. Again, they didn't economise and bought separately instead of sharing a double-scoop. Actually its not all their fault. I didn't think of it either.
I took the train home with Bo Yang (but I get off before him) and found out that he is a 100% fan of Charmed. He watched it since the first series, knows the US telecasting, knows all the characters and which episodes they appeared in, remembers all the episodes, watched the seventh season (the one on Channel 5 now is only the sixth) etc. Die-hard fan. Amazing memory.
For me, I found out that Charmed is a fabulous TV serial only this season.
Found out from Bo Yang that Catholic High's band played the same song for 4 years! ie. the same song for 2 consecutive SYFs!! *knits eyebrows*
Back at Sembawang, I had to get tomorrow's breakfast and in the end, I didn't have a single cent left! Spent exactly all the money I had with me - the notes, coins and stored value in my cashcard! How amazing!
Then I had no money left to get the cookie mix I wanted to buy to make cookies. Have been deprived of a chance to make cookies...
Sunday.
Farewell party for Uncle Hua and his family at Seletaris. My younger cousins were very playful and noisy. They entered the gym and played with the equipment although it was against the rules. Luckily no one was injured.
There's a billiard room at basement! None of us had known about it. Otherwise we would have rented the room in advance so that we could play!
I realised that my elder cousins, Yan Ling and Yan Ping, whom I only meet once in a long while, have rather different personalities. Yan Ping, the younger one, is more vocal and amiable than her elder sister. Yan Ping was also from NJ!
All my cousins were fasinated with recording videos and taking photographs on handphones. The elder ones used Yan Ping's new Motorola to take the younger ones while the younger ones all wanted to have a chance at using mine to take our youngest cousin, Yi Xuan, who will be one on the 25th. Haha, they managed to take several cute photos.
Monday.
Despite not having any school activities, I had to go to school to get the schedule and write the letter to employer for my NKF work attachment. Argh. They moved the commencement of the programme earlier to 2nd December, clashing with Band Camp. Hence, I have to miss the first two days of the work attachment which is very bad. Sigh. What can I do.
However, I have to thank *the good one* for letting me have such a wonderful teacher-in-charge - Ms Dorothy Chua. She's an extremely cheery and positive teacher, always showing that signature warm smile of hers.
After settling work attachment matters, I stayed in the library to prepare for Chem O and met Qing Yang again. He was doing PW. My secondary 1 and 2 classmate, Karen, is actually in the same group as him! When he saw me, he asked with his usual friendly grin, "Ni hai zai mug ah?" and Karen commented with a smile, "Ta ben lai jiu shi zhe yang de."
"Shen me?!"
Whatever. They can work hard for PW and when I prepare for Chem O, that's called 'mugging'. Sigh.
After awhile, Bo Yang, whose oral presentation just ended, came by. He tried to 'suan' me for 'mugging' but I managed to get back at him because he kept accidentally reveal that he read alot Chemistry textbooks while trying to show off his knowledge, whether through crapping or true knowledge. He is an absolutely professional crapper - I couldn't differentiate when he was crapping and when he was talking sense though I managed to catch him at 'E1 reaction' because he said "E-l" instead. haha. But he is definitely very intelligent and better at Chemistry than I am. He had read several textbooks and was like "oh, this textbook is very good". He even knew all the things that year1s are supposed to have yet learned, and also the contents of the textbook I was reading and where the good material was!
However, it seems like Biology students have an edge in Chemistry over non-Bio students due to the overlap in content. I was once told Bio is based on Chem (which is based on Physics). Hence when they teach Bio, they have to touch Chem.
Anyway, I was trying very hard to get him to replace me for the endau rompin trip. Then I saw that his birthday's coming (he was filling in a CIP form) but still did not realise that the reason for him not wanting to go for the trip was that he wanted to celebrate his birthday. How slow of me. I simply remarked that he made his birthday known on purpose without realising what was the more significant implication.
Tuesday
I had Chem O in the morning. Then Ms Koh was choosing someone to assign to send some notes for photocopying for everyone and I got the job. Actually I was looking down because I had the feeling she would choose me but it did not work. Its seems rather weird how some people whom I do not know well trust me while others do not.
While having lunch, I met Terrence, who asked me if I would be going to our class chalet. He just finish canoeing training and would be going over. How sad. I couldn't go. Hopefully we can have fun at another class outing. But everyone's schedule always is clashing. Sigh.
I was in the library yet again when Joanne and her Indian friend who were doing preparation for CIP came by. Both are very friendly people. Her friend also likes Nokia 3220 and was rather excited when she saw mine. Haha. She knew all it functions as well.
I met Daisy who said I looked darker! Hmm, but I didn't even go out into the sun!
In the evening, Jia Yun and I went back to NY for alumni practice. I was waiting for her in the canteen because she had a meeting for the Youth Expedition Project which ended late. The seniors' Mathematics examination was just over and they crowded all around. One had plotted a graph despite its not being asked for at all and he was announcing to everyone how he had wasted half an hour on it. Poor him. Hmm. I have to learn from him to read the questions carefully and never to commit such a terrible mistake.
Jia Yun and I had to walk half-way around the entire campus of NY to its main gate in the rain despite the side gate being open because the management had in place this new security system as too many year1s were going back and wandering around. They feared that there would be unwelcomed intruders, especially during the 'O' level period. How inflexible. Since they have hired security guards, surely they can identify who the unwelcomed intruders are and keep them out right? Furthermore, as seniors, when we go back, of course we would not create unnessary disruption for our juniors right?
Anyway, we had dinner at Coronation Plaza before returning for practice. Jia Yun told me some anecdotes of her and a guy in class. haha. Interesting ;)
It was more that 3 months since we last met Novella and we all hugged. She noticed that I grew fatter. How observant! My face is much chubbier now. haha.
Then Jia Yun for-I-don't-know-what reason linked me to this Terence Chew person whom I do not even know personally. So in return, I explained to Novella that her flu was due to frequent dates at the beach. haha. Full of rubbish.
To my surprise, there were not many people who went back, in fact, there was a grand total of only eight j1s (out of which 3 plays the clarinet and the remaining 5 belonged to the BBB - Baby Brass Band), two uni2s and Ms Chong.
I totally disgraced myself with my sub-standard sight-reading skills, especially since they made me play the 1st part. =(
Nevertheless, it was fun seeing the ever so amusing BBB again.
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. -- Malcolm Forbes
i just got my ears pierced! hohoho. n its very painful... ouch.
my ear lobes are pretty small. too small.
had lunch at sizzler - with mom, dad, uncle hua (we call him ah hua ah zeik) and his family coz they are going to america for 2 years. jan was real naughty, kept hitting ian, but jan's real cute too. haha.
hmm.. there's alot to blog again.
yest. the end of another of my commitments - chi exam! yay! i seriously hope i'll get an a. but the mcqs were unreasonably difficult :( lin lao shi said she'll write to them abt it. its really unfair to us. all those phrases that we never ever saw/heard. evil setters.
initially, i felt that the zuo wen ti mu were quite difficult. i had prepared myself for doing the yi lun wen but it was "in present day singapore, jing tong ying yu bi jing tong hua yu zhong yao. what are ur opinions?" so i looked at the other qns but just cldnt come up with any storyline. wasnt in that mood. so i had to do the yi lun wen. wrote an acceptable length - 2 and one quarter pages. not alot according to average standards but more than my usual 2pages or less. even used some of the 2nd one and a half hours for the final half a page of writing. always spend too much time at the beginning.
quite relief i could do the tian xie han zi. not as pathetic as the zero for promos. but the mcqs were really too much. they ought to be shot! n unlike the usual 1 self-elaboration qn for li jie wen da, there were 2!
anyway, after that, i went to orchard with yuxian n joyce. quite pathetic. then i realised many of the girls dont take chi. jus went home to mug. pam was meeting her s** j*** so she wanted to go home 1st. haha. those arent the real reasons but they just didnt come along.
yuxian had to go back to sch for co so i kept getting this sense of restriction to having fun.
i had wanted to eat at some place where it was more slow paced, since life has been such a rush. but joyce had low budget so we ended up with takeaways at taka basement. there i met jiayun with her wonderful class of s15. actually there wasnt the whole class, but there was an even mix of guys and girls. oh ya, before that, i met charmaine, michelle chen, n valerie dining at mos. i guess they were catching up. hmm.. charmaine n mich shldnt have gone over to hc. nj band's great! will even better with them. win-win situation. but guess its the ny to hc traditional they were following.
so in end, i only ate one custard cream puff and one ultimate spicy tuna curry puff. hey. now that i typed them, i realised they are both puffs! haha. lame. both tasted great. then we were about to walk to far east plaza when joyce decided to go. i think the combination of the 3 of us makes us feel weird. different freq? maybe. so yuxian n i proceeded to far east (on the way, i met phyllis) where we simply walked around without really going into shops n looking at things like what we did the other time with sand. we met mr yeo who was about to join the other teachers for hi-tea. wah. not bad. enjoying life.
then i hurriedly bought a wallet yuxian recommended before rushing down to lido to watch ladder 49 at 3pm. i was really sick of looking for a wallet. its been like more than 5 shopping trips that i've been on looking for a wallet n i had been too choosy. this time i just had the impulse and bought it, though it may not b that up to my expectations.
yuxian went back to sch. then i had nothing to do till band prac. initially planned to join the rest of the band who were supposed to be shopping around orchard for mr ho's bdae present but i didnt meet them along the way at all, n none of the clarinets were with them, so i decided to join jiayun's class for the movie though its not the type of movie i would choose to watch. it was like less than half an hour before the 'commencement' of the movie when jiayun called n within seconds, i made the decision n called back to ask her help me get the ticket. whoa. i have truly changed. everything used to have to be planned beforehand. now, decisions are made so quickly.
oh. i forgot to thank *the good one* (someone whom i just created impromptu to thank for all nice things that happen :D) for cancelling the chem o lesson originally scheduled for 1pm. otherwise instead of all these out-of-school, more specificially out-of-library activities, i wld be preparing for chem o the entire afternn.
whoa. i accidentally press my shutdown short-cut combi. luckily i managed to 'save as draft' before my comp shutdown. otherwise i'll flip. something good about it's 'lagginess'.
ladder 49 was quite a mix of the different genres - action, romance, comedy. there was life and death, family, friendship, work etc. its about the life of a fireman - jack morrison. seems like a true story. i think the way it was filmed - showing flashbacks throughout the whole movie in between short scenes of the latest ongoing. oh my. i just found out from a webpage that dennis n ray are brothers. no wonder ray was treated so specially when dennis died. n i didnt even know that guy was called ray. i only recognised him as the guy who acted in love actually. n in fact, he isnt even him. haha. lousy me.
the fire scenes made my heart beat fast. that's why i dont like to watch such shows, make myself scared.
it was so touching i cried twice towards the end. jiayun had to hid her tears otherwise her classmates will 'niao' her like they do to krystle who cried real hard. haha. she always uses the word 'niao' to describe what they do. but other than that, can tell that her class is great. like when we were leaving, one of the guys said 'take care'. even jiayun herself didnt expect it. haha. oh, before i entered the theatre, i met kangqi with some acjc ppl. he looked kind of surprised i think. or was it blur? anyway, it came to my mind that i cant imagine how he would look in nj grey. actually, i couldnt imagine anyone in nj grey until we were in it. haha. i think it would be very interesting to see people trying out nj grey.
addy, who was shopping with her sc friends, joined us before the 3 of us went over to jurong point to join karen and debra for dinner at the kopitam. mabel, jasmine, junhao and adeline koh also joined in, n more ppl came along. it was great fun hanging out with them =)
found out from the trumpet girls that erwin is lame. like if someone dropped something and someone else offered to help and the 1st person says "i'll pick it up myself", he will comment and repeat "how do u pick up yourself?", doing the picking-up-himself silly actions. haha. totally changed my impression of him. he looked like the quiet serious type.
mabel knows wenyi. not personally though. mabel knows loads of gossip. haha.
while we were leaving for nie, i met weiliang! he was like so blur, couldnt recognise me. perhaps coz i tied up my hair. it was like 5 seconds after i started waving to him that he noticed it was me. haha.
hmm, meet so many ppl within a few hours. pri sch classmate, sec1/2 classmate, nycb n njcsb mates, 1st 3 mths classmate. whoa.
on the bus, i laughed even more until my whole face was jiang ying by the time we got off the bus.
before prac started, thomas rushed in with his hair all wet. he just had bio o. 5 hours of 250 mcq after 3 hours of chi exam. madness!
it is mr ho's bdae on next wed, 10/11. so the nie ppl held the celebrations today. n the njcsb ppl zhan dao pian yi. haha. coz they bought alot of nice food. it was after 9.30 when an nie member (i suppose the band major?) brought in the cake from behind while mr ho was still conducting n gave him a little surprise. i think he was quite happy. like earlier on when karen, addy n i wished him happy bdae. actually we didnt know the actual date of his bdae. haha. but he looked very happy and said something like 'so early' n i thought we got it all wrong. heard that they celebrate his bdae every year n every yr he would be surprised. so i was like so he's surprised every year on his bdae for the past 35 years? haha. i think he feels fortunate. anyway, the nie person was rather crappy, saying he's getting old so didnt switch off the lights like last year etc etc. i think nowadays, singaporeans are becoming a crappy bunch of ppl. or is this overgeneralisation?
we were allowed to leave at 10 but most of them stayed so i followed. n played this piece "a gift of time" composed by an nie member, brenda. initially when i saw the name of the composer on the score, i was thinking, hey, a chinese composer with english name! whoa. n it ended up that the composer conducted the song for us! i didnt know they really had to compose songs. quite cool. but the pc was very difficult.
half of us left just before 11 for fear that there were no more trains. then some got lifts home n i ended up being the one girl left with youzhi, boyang, qingyang, junhao, donaphan n daryl to get home by public transport.
oooo. just visited youzhi's blog. n there was the list for the band fest groupings! no one in my grp is someone i m quite close to. i suppose that should be good. i shall get to know my grp members more!
paste what he wrote hear:
everyone will spilt into 4 different bands, namely J.S Bach, Rossini, F.Lizst and J. Strauss. Quite corny if you ask me to name a band after a CLASSICAL composer, but that's not the point. Ok so the 4 bands will be named A, B, C and D respectively on my blog ok? Here goes...
Band A Han Jie, Elizabeth, Esther, Jun Hao, Erwin, Mabel, Qi Sheng, Emmiline Band B Merra, Edo, Fenella, Wanda, Yi Xian, Ming Hui, Zhiyong, Shu Jun, Joanne Band C Swee Peng, Jurena, Adeline Tan, Daryl, Qing Yang, Valarie, Adeline Koh, ME, Thomas Band D Sixun, Bo Yang, Debra, Wei Xian, Jasmine, Sharon Hiu, Clarine, Boey Wai Kit Donaphan, Crystal, Janina
so i m in this band called rossini. i wonder what will happen over those 4 days. should be very fun as lydia said.
he also said "SYF next year is at Singapore Conference Hall on the 5th of May." the day will come real soon. i hope mr ho decides on the choice pc within these few weeks. i need alot time to master it.
whoa. a mynah nearly wanted to enter my room. it was on my window ledge. luckily i have the nettings to keep it outside until i m 'attracted' into my room to shoo it away. otherwise there would be a bird in my room now. it isnt the 1st time birds land on my window ledge.
ok, back to the trip home. initially i felt somewhat awkward. but it wasnt that bad. band ppl r great ppl to be with. donaphan was real funny. kept trying to irritate the rest of the guys by saying stupid things. they were seated as a row on the mrt train n i was on the opposite side so it seemed a bit like watching a show. haha. that's mean of me. boyang was another lame one junhao oso buay tahan n i even denied that we are in the same section. haha. youzhi was the serious one. cant believe both donaphan n youzhi r from the same sch (chi high). daryl was the quiet one. both boyang n daryl r from cat high. hm, schools groom different types of ppl.
then i was saving the hp nos. of bandmates n they thought i was mugging. even when they found out what i was doing, they said i was mugging the contact list. haiyo.. how did i officially become known as a mugger.. youzhi even tried to test if i could recall erwin's no. sigh. ok. so youzhi n qingyang n boyang all met me studying chi in the lib. but ppl who study in the lib arent true muggers! true muggers can study at home. then after i said that i m not mugging the contact list, that lame donaphan replied that the contact list is mugging me. -.-" haha.
n boyang was playing a fool with the call diverting function coz the guys were callg him for fun. diverted 2 calls to me la. n i didnt know about such a fn. was like showing daryl my phone n asking him y he was calling me. coz it was quite weird since i didnt really know him. yuan lai shi boyang gao de gui. haha. didnt know serious daryl does such stuff too. calling for fun.
at least i learnt about a new fn. but i will use it for real needs.
just found a njcsb website created by qingyang! i think i super lag. but at least i found it now. there r links to hundreds band photos there. lovely =)
just joined band msn group! laggiest member again. to make up for that, i uploaded some of the band photos i took to share.
whoa. i guess that's the longest ever narration of the happenings on a single day.
back to the week before..
mon (25/10)...
mrs cheng gave us this 2nd module of leadership talk based on "who moved my cheese?" showed us this video on it. it was very meaningful. i want to buy the book!
lin lao shi told the 11 of us who were offered 's' papers our results. no one got 4as. tianen was disappointed. mayb cher too. i did worse than for common tests. aacc to abbc... or does ac = bb?
chem dropped the most. raw score of 82 to 53. nearly 30 marks. i think out of the whole level, my score had the most drastic drop. many of the others ended up with better overall than me. enough of the crap that i m gd... but actually i have myself to blame. for preparing so poorly. thankfully, the moderation of 5 marks to the promos score and my ct score managed to keep me in b range - 62.8% ~ 63%.
econs oso dropped.. mainly because i did not answer 4b at all. the marker commented "please manage your time wisely". hm. n i need to be clearer in what i say.
let me type some of the comments the marker made on my answer for mrp theory.
"you are trying to convey so many ideas in a one-sentence para! bad habit because you lost focus of what you want to say!" - on my 7+ lines of one-sentenced intro para.
"do not squeeze diags together!" - the marker wrote in caps..
"draw large diag!"
"too small and squeezy!"
"discussion of theory is too narrow! you must not:
1. draw diag that are so small that it frustrates the examiner trying to read it.
2. include many points of discussion in one sentence. you lose focus on important issues and at the end of the sentence, both yourself n reader are lost."
hmm.. very helpful to make so much comments. or perhaps he/she was really irritated by my lousy ans..
for the other qn, my crap about eos was all extra. nearly one page of crap. wrote them in simply because it was one of the few things i studied. i only spent like less than 7 hours in all preparing for the essays. real bad.
dropped from raw score 58.4% to 55.73%. moderation of 3% helped. but i need another 1% to get a b! argh. 58.7% ~ 59%... boohoo.
math. improved abit. raw score 76% to 80%. btw, actually i havent looked at the scripts since getting them back.. looking now... oh ya.. my silly move of cancelling away the asymptote.. lost 1% there.. n the marker put a qn mk. haha. puzzled by my silly move...
holy shit! i missed out 2 whole marks! oops. too vulgar. argh!! its just an easy sketch! i overlooked the qn! sigh. sai. but now i have lost touch with math. dont know how to do them now... lousy... only 1 month n forgotten.
hey.. i dont uds y i got some parts wrong..
i think its extremely unfair that we dont get to check our papers. its an internal exam! they should go thru the answers and we should be allowed to ask for the marks at parts that they overlooked. such things do happen. n its no like really troublesome like for cambridge exams where the papers have to fly in airplanes..
okok.. stop complaining abt my only a.. but they rounded it down! 79.2% ~ 79%
phy. improved the most. coz of the hints? i guess so. raw score 58% to 67.14%. but sooo many ppl got a... did badly for the gravitation qn despite having tried to improve my grasp of the topic. sigh. ideal gases was bad too. my mcq score was among the lower ones in class. guess that pulled me away from a. so i had to settle for b. n they rounded it down again! 65.3% ~ 65%
i have to practise phy mcq from the tys. oh ya. i didnt touch the tys mr yong got us to buy at all...
chi. dropped 2nd most. raw score 76% to 67%.partly coz of the zero for tian xie han zi. also did worse for the other sections.
gp. improved by a pathetic 0.5% from 49% despite so much effort put into improving my content - reading the daily newspapers. my lang dropped from mediocre to inappropriate.. "avoid awkward expressions" was a comment. i think i wasnt in the english mood, in addition to my already weak grasp of the lang. had alot of trouble finding the right word/phrase, esp coz of the requirement for transposition. i tried. i failed. i want to go for gp clinic. i want to improve. i need help. oh ya. i forgot. i have to type my blog in proper english. ok. from next entry onwards. i must.
i was stuck at the edge of c6 bcoz yet once again, they rounded down my marks. 49.4% ~ 49%. how can they do this to me. i did work hard. i did improve. though its was a pathetic marginally increase. y cant they be kind enough to promote me to c5... i got the lowest for gp out of everyone in class who was offered 's' papers... i am in the bottom 23%...
sigh. i always miss the next grade by a tiny bit..
:( all my percentiles fell... (gp - by 16; chi - by 4; chem - by 9; math - by 2; phy - by 1) expect for econs which maintained. proves my observation that the others always work relatively harder and do better for the more important exam. the trend has been like that since p6.
k. enough of grades.
after chi lesson, pw meeting n op tech run, i was about to write my overdue zuo wen in the lib when i received a call from a stranger. it was ms dorothy chua asking if i want to go for the nkf work attachment coz someone just backed out. i had to decide fast otherwise she would call someone else. so i called youzhi to check if i can go n then i was down for it! after i ended the call, i noticed that yz was actually on the other side of the lib.. kinda waste call time
tues (26/10)...
i was in the lib again preparing for chi while waiting for chem o to start. it was sort of a chatting day? qisheng, kaiyun, yiyun, boyang all came by. havent talk to kaiyun so much for such a long time. she had lost touch with chi. asked me if i regret taking cl ao. i do not. coz i need to get a better grade. cant stay with my c6. n i stayed in touch with my mother tongue. 'bananas' may roll their eyes but i want to stay in touch with chi. i m a chinese. not any other race.
nathalie is super hardworking. has slacker pw grp, in council, takes 2 olympiads, is leader of harmonica band, n has whatever other commitments. was still reading a chi bk though she's a philippino n doesnt take chi. pei fu pei fu.
just visited an nj ip student's blog. can tell that the nj ip students really enjoyed themselves this year. they formed extremely close relationships not just with a few cliches but across the 5 ip classes. although many of the jc students dislike them, i think that its more of jealousy than plain dislike. the school did alot for them. they had lots of new experience. now is their turn to become snrs. no longer just "ip kids" as they are often called. the 2nd batch of ip students have joined nj. i think the jealousy sprouted not only because the ip students are given alot of new opportunities that the jc students dont have, the ip students are also very intelligent, multi-talented, vocal, enthusiastic ppl. its not pure coincidence that they are like that. the school chose them out of the many who signed up.
wed.
got our result slips. a disappointment. actually i didnt set a target for myself. but i did worse so its considered a disappointment.
supposed to meet clarinets at 1pm but no one turned up. ended up that karen n addy didnt arrange to meet the rest. karen changed plans n addy was busy with 's' papers application. choosing between chem n phy with veena's help. veena kept persuading her to take chem coz she liked it but she didnt do well enough for promos to be offered chem 's' so she had to appeal, while she was offered phy 's', n her whole family is pro at phy. i was rather impressed by the way veena was convincing addy to take chem 's'.
(addy was already convinced by veena but in the end, 2 days later, she took phy. perhaps after talking to her family.)
i was also deciding on which 's' papers to take. initially, i was choosing between all four because i thought there's a somewhat equal possibility for me to do any and i didnt know which ones i was weaker at n where my interest lies. then i realised the reason for me having to choose is that i was weak at all of them n not truly interested in any.
chem? i seem to be not that bad at it. but there alot to memorise for organic chem. i cant memorise.
econs? i think i m interested in it. but its for the pros only. extremely difficult to get distinction. alot of work to do on our own. i lack the willpower to put in so much consistent effort. its all essays. my weakest.
math? its my only a. the only subject that my performance is maintained there. but i m competing with f math students. they have an advantage. n i heard the qns are totally different from math c.
phy? i think i m interested. but it could be because i like mr yong's teaching style. i do badly for tests and exams. electromagnetism. i m weak at that.
(finally took chem n math coz there no pt taking 's' paper though i cant get distinction n i m weak at the explanation for phy n it requires good knowledge to handle the qns - i lack that. i can push myself to do math. chem o should help me with chem 's')
then addy n i went down to jurong pt for late lunch before heading down to nie. we talked alot along the way. actually she did most of the talking. then she said that between 2 friends, 1 has to be the listener. otherwise if both talk alot, they'll be fighting to talk. sounds logical. though many people who r chatterboxes become good friends as well. hmm.
found out that she also likes subjects because she excels in them. that's y she had liked chem. math was my favourite subject during primary sch coz it was my best subject. i think many ppl are like that.
we ate so long we ended up more than half an hour late for band. luckily the nie ppl werent there.
on the train home, i think it was the first time i really talked to yulin. found out to my surprise that s10 has 6 cliches. they had seemed a rathered united class.
thu (28/10).
op dry run.
greenlink nature trail training.
fri (29/10).
got back the papers. supposed to have normal timetable but most of the tchrs merely returned us our exam scripts. for phy, like the previous time after cts, mr yong got us to write reflections. this time i had more to write. the generic points that he gave for us to cover helped. then he said he would be going new zealands. i think he was joking. but he said whatever the case, he wouldnt be taking our class next yr coz we are motivated enough. no!!! we need him! he was the one who increased my interest in physics. anyway, our class isnt motivated... its just that during 1st 3 months, he build up the class's fear of him so we always submitted physics homework. he can't drop us! s09 isnt disciplined at all. if he isnt our physics tutor, i wonder if everyone will still be as obedient.
have already blogged about this day's band prac.
sat (30/10).
greenlink riverkeeping. 2nd earliest to reach pasir ris mrt at 7.45am, after huiling. most of the others were late. ming jun was so late n he lost his way that he didnt do riverkeeping at all so he treated us to macs icecream. kind of weird coz i dont know him at all. didnt want to accept the treat but huiling insisted.
found out that baorui is actually attached to christine. really surprising coz they dont behave like a couple at all. ok, i shall keep quiet.
we had lunch before i went in search of news articles for pw op. wanted to find the nkf article that supposedly caught our group's attention and attracted us to do charity... i went from pasir ris community lib to tampines regonial lib. found a number of useful charity articles after more than an hour of looking through the microfilm and was about to print them but the lady-in-charge of photocopying services wasnt there. waited very long but in the end i was told the machine had broken down... it was exasperating coz such unlucky incidents always happen.
went all the way back to woodlands lib where it was pouring heavily. fortunately, this lady-in-charge of photocopying services was very helpful and cooperative. had nearly the same critical demand as me. adjusted even single article to the best.
i think the machine is quite fun. it would be great if i could do all the adjusting of zoom, rotation, sharpness etc on my own. but they charged exorbitant rates. $0.90 per photocopy. n it was limited to a3. spent like $8.10 on that... n printed one extra article...
had swensens for dinner. 2nd round of icecream in 1 day! fattening..
the whole of the next 2 days (sunday morning all the way till monday night with only an hour of sleep in sch lib in between) was spent on pw. pw. n more pw. at the expense of studying for chi or chem o. while the other grp members did do chi.
what can i say.
on sunday night, qisheng called. his op was on monday n he needed help with it.
i think its my weak spot - always trying to help when asked and its not impossible to help (in fact nothing is impossible). that's why people don't hestitate to ask me when they want help.
then i sort of yue bang yue mang coz i suggested changes but i shouldnt coz i made him panic. however, luckily i cut out useful articles so i managed to find the article he needed without much hassle. his topic was on chi. totally so him. absolutely pro at chi. the other time i was waiting for mr yeo so that i could put in my annotated articles (it was tues after chi), qisheng came by n taught me despite me having taken hcl n supposedly have learnt more.
i was late for pw meeting on both monday n tues coz of pw. how ironic.
had to take taxi on both days.
mon (1/11)
pw meeting till 12+
had greenlink nature trail at 1pm. unfortunately, it was raining so we could only stay under shelter. there were only about 5/6 people (2 councillors, 2 from ny - anqi n zhixiu, another from band - thomas, but who left half-way) who joined the trail, but about 15 greenlink members. hha. quite funny. hmm.. can tell where people who are supportive come from. yea. and out of all 20 people who stayed throughout, 4 are from the same class of the same secondary school. ;/
actually its rather interesting to learn about the nature life in nj. the plants (there's a banana plant with bananas growing! yea, there's no such thing as banana tree) ; the trees (took a closer look at this 'monkey puzzle tree' in the garden which i had just taken for granted before that. found out that it can be a christmas tree too!); the spices (there are curry plants, lemon grass that really had the smell!) etc. people complain that nj is all stoning. but they don't want to care about nature either. whatever.
after that, i went to the library to complete my individual annotations but fell asleep for like an hour before starting on work as i could no longer withstand the tireness.
all the other pw groups of s09 were in school too
tues (2/11)
when i boarded the taxi, the taxi driver thought that i am not local; that i am a philippino. hahaha.. how absurd. he said my english (accent?) sounded like a philippino's. i had been considering to use mandarin initially but at the spur of the moment, i just felt like using english. then once i sensed that something was wrong, i asked him, ni yao bu yao jiang hua yu? then he still had to ask to confirm if i am a true-blue singaporean.
aiyo.. i think my languages are seriously easily influenced by others. i had transformed from a more chinese-speaking girl from chinese family background in a chinese school to a "ang mo kia" in a matter of weeks/months and now (perhaps because of nathalie who is a philippino - but it isn't a convincing reason since we only sat together during chem o lessons). what happened to all my 17 over years of mandarin-speaking at home? what about all the mandarin i spoke back at ny? couldnt have lost it so easily right? or i could? coz i did??
talked alot to the driver. hmm. i talk to strangers more when i am anxious.
when i got to school, there was my group n pam's group (serjing, estelle, russell, wei qi) together in the canteen. serjing was quite amused by the donation tin i made with 'pws flag day' labelled coz i said 'pws' represented 'pw sux'. he even joked of putting 'pws' on every slide of their ppt
when op was over, i felt that the intense build-up of fear over the previous few days was finally released. ahh...
hm, my fear for other academic stuff never started this early... sometimes it was only until the morning of the exam that i would get that scared feeling. even for 'o's.
the sense of fear heightened while we were audience for the first two groups.
the s08 groups with us were both 4-guys-1-gal teams. christina's group, the second group to present (ie the grp b4 us), with kim ong, did biometrics. i think they were of eee (exceed exceeding expectation) standard. most of them had no cue cards, showed full confidence together with friendly smiles, engaged us throughout their presentation with their interesting information and home-made videoclips with music and style of presentation which made the originally so scientific topic of high techology that was alien to me so easy to understand - coming up with name of 'c cube' method for their course of action making it easier for the audience to remember it.
to sum it all up with 1 e - excellent.
during the 1 hour break before our presentation, i suggested a run through but the others were reluctant. so i left to practise my own speech - for the first time. perhaps its a blessing in disguise? that i was given a chance to finally practise my own speech? then they came back when they changed their mind. so we went back to the exam venue to practise b4 the examiners - mrs nair (gp) n mr chris ho (econs) - came back when it was time to assess us. so our presentation started. i was extremely nervous but i tried to appear confident, tried to included gestures (which i think looked awkward...) and tried to look at the audience but could not maintain the consistency due to lack of practice. the examiners looked very bored and unhappy, which was totally discouraging. perhaps i sounded too agitated??
they should give us a feedback so that we know how to improve our presentation skills.
then i went to the lib again to prepare for chi. russell played neopets till 8 and kept distracting me, asking me to see. of course i didnt ignore him so as to study (i'm not that type), furthermore i was once so addicted to neopets i even played for hours during the yr-end exams so the sense of familarity and interest is still there.
actually i didnt manage to study much coz chai xin msged to ask about last yr's pure history qns n though i didnt take pure hist, i went around asking those who did. then qisheng also called
so basically it was kind of a relaxation-after-pw-stress thing
then at 8+, lydia found me and was worried about my safety. such a nice caring senior.
i was the only person not on library duty who stayed till 9pm. there were the council pres, another councillor, a student librarian, a non-teaching staff, and a ultra nice biology teacher mrs khoo who offered to give me a ride to the bus-stop! so kind of her!
ok, here's what i wrote on the final day of pw. not for reading.
mom complained that i spent too much time on pw. i was too "niao". i asked her - if i don't check through (the slideshow) again and again after making changes, who is going to be responsible for any errors? i am the only one who has the whole powerpoint because i created more that half of the slides n modifies the rest because the others didn't bother to add any animations. so i was the one left to add all the graphics - usage of visual aid is the only group component of the entire op section, and somehow, it seems that they take muchmore initiative doing their individual components like their own script, practising presentation of their own part, and doing individual annotations. then i was implicitly expected to ensure that the whole ppt runs smoothly, print the slides, know how to coordinate everyone's speech with the ppt w/o any running thru as a grp save for the dry run which was compulsory and which i already had difficulty coordinating the ppt with each of their speech yet their was no chance for me to confirm with them the coordination - all group components. leaving my own preparation of cue cards till the very day of the real thing and speech-practising up till the very last hour just before the real thing, while the rest of them had already practised several times a few days before.
fortunately, we did do our one and only run through as a group, just less than an hour before the real thing. because during this run through, i screwed up alot of the clicking so if there was no such run through, what would be screwed will be the real thing. this run through was held only after my outburst of final initiation. i had asked for a run through on monday but they said it wasnt necessary. ya, of course they found it unnecessary - for their individual components. it was stated that visual aid was to be counted towards grp. n i was the only pathetic person who thought that a run through was necessary because i was the only person who was silly enough to place higher priority on grp components than individual ones, doing the powerpoint from sunday afternn all the way till monday morning, helping joyce with her new slides, despite having not done the improvements to my own script that mr yeo wanted and thus creating more slides as well. i had also not done the improvements to my own annotations, which again was required by mr yeo, to monday afternoon to night. actually mr yeo had told us about them the wednesday before and the other group members had already made their individual improvements by the friday before but i didnt because of my commitments...
ok. this post is the very last one with pw ranting.
i think i m glad that my op was on tues. coz that gave me some left time to prepare for chi.
wed (3/11).
we had more than 2hours of chi lesson in the afternn and asked alot of qns. maybe the most ever. yea, last minute burst of questions on the final lesson before exam. initially zhang lao shi was very unhappy with our class and the way she treated us and those from the other class (it was a combined session where we just went to the classroom and were supposed to 'grab' for a chance to clarify any doubts coz everyone had qns). towards the end, it got better coz i think all she wanted was for us to concentrate on chi n not waste our time there chatting (which we did on tues).
i am such an emotionally weak creature. i was studying chi again in the lib and the no. of ppl got less until finally i was the only person not on duty left. n ms sharon phua popped out!
she asked if i were a yr 1 or yr 2. (later while walking out, she said that she saw that i was studying chi and deduced that i am a yr1. she had came over coz she thought i was her yr 2 - yea, she kept using the phrase 'my yr2' - panicking for gp.) so she told me to go home, saying its already so late, 6 people are looking after only me.
then i started feeling overwhelmed by emotions and tears began surging up to my eyes, all ready to flow out and i tried hard to blink them back. when i starting crying, she kept asking why, kept repeating, "i ask u to go home so u cry?" (or sth like that) and even asked if its because i dont like to go home. so i had to keep saying no... i think i said at least a dozen "no"s. coz she kept repeating. made me feel like a problematic student who doesnt want to go home...
i do have lots of problems but i am not problematic.
anyway, i think she's actually not that bad if you dont break any school rules.
on my way out of the library, silin (i was hanging out with janice n singyin in the afternoon n silin joined them. she was actually from rgs but claimed that she was from swiss cottage and i actually believed! then she guess that i was from rv and explained that it was coz don't have the girls' sch look! how interesting how people deduce the schools that others are from) , who was on duty also told me to go home and rest. aiyo.
then sp walked out of school with me. asked about my chinese results - o lvls (i explained i was a hcl student), common test, promos. also asked about promo grades and commented that it was very good. haha. quite encouraging. she said getting b for promos is already very good.
oh! i should have told her my gp results. then she'll faint. hahaha
asked about my subj combi and rightly guessed that my c was for econs.
asked where i live, what sch i was from. haha, i told her to guess and she said st nicks (which she repeated a few times even after i already said no). also guessed anderson and it seemed that she was trying guess the schools that are not that far from sembawang. so i said its quite far and she guessed cedar. in the end i had to disclose it myself. hm. though teachers know possibly more students than we do, they sure arent better at guessing our ex-schools. haha.
basically asked loads of qns - how i travel to school, what time i reach, if i had to take the 1st bus, my siblings, who i live with (i think she seriously thought i have family probs.. yea, i do have a prob - i need a quiet peaceful place where i can concentrate to study! that's why i stayed in the lib! should have told her that)
the security guard asked about her not running this night. then i found out that she runs every night at 10pm! whoa.
also found out that the guard will be there in the morning during the 'a' lvl exams period (he is usually not there) and they will be locking the side gate at 8.30 instead of the usual 9 for fear of strangers entering to discrupt coz it happened to other schools before. whoa. so careful.
hmm. this seems like a talk-to-adult-strangers week. 2 taxi drivers and 2 teachers whom i had never talked to before.
i m now torn between going for the endau rompin trip (11-14) or preparing for chem o. ugh. i thought it was after chem o. didnt know it was before... n subconsiously signed up for it... n now i need to find a replacement... but its too last-minute...
just created my 1st ever planning schedule. for this hols. haha. hope i can stick to it. this hols is probably the dec hols with the most commitments i ever have.
i was looking at the reviews for a movie to watch tmr after exam. then there was this movie, "de-lovely", which had 5stars n according to the review, it would "leave you derilious with delight". sounded like a real funny show so i felt like watching it before i noticed that it was rated m18. then i realised. i m 4 months to 18. so old! now that i counted again, i m actually 3 months to 18!
Have Read
'04 year-end holidays (highest number of books read in a long time)
-The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (gd read)
-Princess Diaries: Third Time Lucky by Meg Cabot (fun read)
-Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (must read - inspirational)
-Slab Rat by Ted Heller (full of office politics and R21 stuff - not for kids)
-The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (makes u want to finish it)
-A walk to remember by Nicholas Sparks (simple but meaningful)
-The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (can identify with)
-The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (romantic love story with too much R21 stuff)
-Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks (even more R21. ugh)
-The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
-Unstrung Heroes by Franz Lidz (autobiography about his four uncles and father)
-The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (very unique POV of an autistic boy)
-The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux (love the breadth of the plot, one of my favourites)
-Wild Orchids by Jude Deveraux (alternating between two first persons' view - unique, but don't like e plot)
-Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (philosophy tb in a story; gets abit dry though plot saved)
-forgot what i read...-
-Working Wonders by Jenny Colgan (story of an urban planner)
-Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (impressive intelligence with bits of great humour)
-Just between Us by Cathy Kelly (thickest bk i've ever read-600+pg, too long for me but not bad)
ha, started a few bks but didn't enjoy them enough to read more.
'06
-Life of Pi by Yann Martel (novel based on true story; a lot to learn from the book - animals, religions,
survival, appreciation of simplicity; marvelous descriptions of both the tangible and the intangible,
such that I could feel their realness; bits of very enjoyable humour; a must read)
-The Complete Analects of Confucius, Volume 1 - Asiapac Comic Series (some good teachings.
didn't read everything though)
-The Parable of the Pipeline by Burke Hedges (lent to me by Shujun; like she said, its a short version
of Rich Dad Poor Dad - good financial tips)
-The Alchemist by Paul Coelho (simple story with deep meaning)
-Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
(hai, doesn't seem to be working for me - cos im not applying..)
-haven't been updating from Jun'06 to Jul'07-
'07
-Take a Chance by Sarah Webb (very interesting twist towards the end)
'08
-A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer (very saddening. made me realise how significant family is in how a child behaves)
-Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden (refreshing book with many pics)
-The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Rui Zafon (amazing how people can think of so much plot to pack into one book, wld b a gd tv series)
-The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (the story is interesting but i think the ending cld hv been better written)
-This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes (a bit thought-provoking on relationships but i didnt like e abrupt ending)
-Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner (gd knowledge but partly qte repetitive)
-For One More Day by Mitch Albom
-The C Words by Mark Mason (made me keep wanting to read on. light & funny)
'09
-Return to Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux (another good read from Deveraux)
-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (gosh such vivid descriptions! very well written book. i liked d theme of friendship and the realness of the story)
'10
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (a must-read!! i love the expressed thoughts of the protagonist, esp those about friendships, and the writing style - it seems like she's telling me her story specifically to me)
How to Save Your Own Life by Michael Gates Gill (an inspiring read, for emotional liberation and greater joy in life)
Reading
on hold
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Waiting for chance to get hold of
The Little White Car by Danuta de Rhodes
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
My Left Foot by Christy Brown
Gotai Fumanzoku or An Unsatisfactory Body (Translated into English as No One's Perfect) by Hirotada Otatake
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Other Recommended Readings by Marc
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin – Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life. Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”
Lolita – This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption… and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each. The story is as devious as it is beautiful.
Getting Things Done by David Allen – The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done. Nuff said.
How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman – 900 pages of simple instructions on how to cook everything you could ever dream of eating. Pretty much the greatest cookbook ever written. Get through a few recipes each week, and you’ll be a master chef by the time you’re 30.
Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner – Franz Wisner had it all… a great job and a beautiful fiancée. Life was good. But then his fiancée dumped him days before their wedding, and his boss basically fired him. So he dragged his younger brother to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon and they never turned back… around the world they went for two full years. This is a fun, heartfelt adventure story about life, relationships, and self discovery.
Self-note: Tip for my future business =D
give employees reasonably high pay to keep them- otherwise they are unlikely to stay loyal.
treat employees not according to how well they treat me but how conscientious they are at work
(of course, musn't expect them to only do work throughout the entire working hours -
give some breathing space too, we are humans, not machines) Movies watched(listing started on 6jan08)
in cinema from VCD/DVD
1Sep07: "Hairspray" w TK, GH & SH
14Sep07: "Ratatouille" w mom & extended family
28Dec07: "The Pianist" w Jus & Pam (heartbreaking but good lessons; i recommend!)
2Jan08: "I Am Legend" w Sherm (scary! but good acting; thought provoking; i recommend!)
5-6Jan08: "A Good Year" alone (excellent show! i like the acting; funny; good lessons; touches my heart; i recommend!)
11Jan08: "Le Grand Chef" w WLing, JT & Irene (good! funny, very touching, :) nice; watch if like humour+meaning+food)
7Feb08 (CNY 初一): "Ah Long Pte Ltd" w parents (pretty hilarious - but u gotta understand dialects, some teary parts. wells typical of jack neo movies but with diff content)
11Mar08: "The Leap Year" w Sherm (so sweet! :) and apart from couple relationship it touches the theme of mother-daughter and best friends too)
6Jun08: "P.S. I Love You" w Sherm (don't know if its coz we watched it on laptop, coz it didn't impress me as much as it did for him in cinema)
8Jun08: "The Forbidden Kingdom" w Lisa, Karen & Sandy (ums..guess i'm really not into kungfu)
8Jun08: "What Happens in Vegas" w Lisa, Karen & Sandy (simple,relaxing show)
7Jul08: "我和狗狗的10个约定" w Sherm, his ma & sisters (very simple,touching but actually not my type of show)
10Jul08: "Before Sunrise" w Sherm (hmm maybe watchg on laptop really affects appreciatn of movies..)
30Sep08: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" w Sherm (i didn't like it as much as i thought i wld when i saw the ads)
31Dec08: "Yes Man" w Mom (inspiring and funny)
11Feb08: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" w Mom (not as impressive as i thought it wld be)
1Jul09: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" w Yumei, YY & Matt (the best thing was the soundtrack. heh.)
14Aug09: "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra" w Joyce (it was awesome! best action movie i've ever watched)
17Aug09: "Food, Inc." w SYL & RuiQ (learnt some stuff abt the American food industry but it was a bit boring and not worth the $10)
22Sep09: "The Time Traveller's Wife" w WB, VanD, WLing, CHL, Irene, VanQ, Mf, Pg (i liked it. having read the book really helps w udsg)
21Nov09: "Gokusen" w Mf, Eva, Tony, Sarah (funny inspirational movie)
24Dec09: "十月围城" w Tony, WLing, VanQ (action action and a bit funny? tony criticised the plot. my fav scene was the running n jumping through the crowd along the five-foot ways w/o cuts)
30Dec09: "Sherlock Holmes" w Irene, Tony, Sweetee (my favourite genre of books made into a movie - what else can be more cool? acting effects humour excitement suspense all in)
12Jan10: "Avatar 3D" w Mom (didn't appreciate the digital effects which everyone wowed about. content etc was so-so. cathay's 3D glasses were too heavy for me)
8Feb10: "The Truman Show" w Ky n sis n Yuhshin (a must-watch. very thought-provoking, funny. reminder to be spontaneous and create your life the way you want, instead of falling into a typical routine
14Feb10: "New York, I Love You" w Mom (I loved it! a good couple movie with meaningful pointers to keep it going. but i think some stories could be more developed)
16Feb10: rewatched "The Pianist" (still find it good, tho i still feel first viewings are the best)
17Feb10: "Valentine's Day" w CHL n WB (laughed throughout - a feel-good movie; liked the fact that the various stories binded tog so well with the little surprises here and there, vs NY ILU in which each story was separate)
20Feb10: "赤壁二" w Addy, Karen, Sharon, SJ (should have watched the first one first cos i ended up not knowing who's who and what's happening and had to keep asking :/ and couldn't pay attn.. if not i think it should be a pretty good movie..)
4Mar10: "Alice in Wonderland 3D" w Mf (i found the 3D effects of this @ CCK Shaw SO much better than Avatar @ The Cathay =/ and the movie was much more enjoyable too! - cheered a sad me up :)) favourite quote - the Mad Hatter: “You used to be much muchier before. ... You have lost your muchness.”)
18Mar10: "Nodame Cantabile" w Irene, Mf (i thoroughly enjoyed some of the orchestra pieces - SO impressive! the expressions of the actors were really amusing :D)
23Apr10: "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" w Mom (funny, touching and meaningful - about love between friends and family. i cried 3 tissues! cos some touching parts i could really understand the feelings of the characters involved)
Inception
Letters to God (very simple Christian movie)
22Nov10: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" w Ame, Irene (they loved it. pretty good, i guess the main problem i had was that im not familiar with HP :X)
13Dec10: "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" w Sj (not bad, could follow the story unlike HP. like the meaningful teachings, too long - in a post)
2Mar11: "The King's Speech" w Ame (hilarious, inspirational, tho it doesn't impress me that much to understand why it's the Oscar winner)
Mar11: "10 Things I Hate About You" very funny. silly sweet high school romance. just right for having breaks in between doing homework
23May11: "Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides" w Wb Yl Ame Pg (pretty good - scenery, freakish parts, fighting scenes, dressing, humour, bits of Christianity like when the Spanish said "only God gives life")
6Jun11: "Xmen First Class" w Wb Ame Pg (i was very keen on watching it and it was really good! intellectual, makes sense, cool action, some humour)
9Jun11: "Legally Blonde 2" w Irene (seems like some dumb blonde movie but kind of meaningful too - speaking up for yourself and what you stand for)
17Jun11: "Something Borrowed" w Sandy Lisa (quite funny, somewhat meaningful wrt friendships. they didn't like the lack of sense for one part tho)
16Jul11: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" w Irene, Sweetee, Kw (not bad. i didn't understand some parts again but the humour and effects were pretty good)
Aug11 "Horrible Bosses" w Ma (she fell asleep! gosh. the movie was very crude i must say but there was the humour)
25Oct11: "The Three Musketeers" w H (i would rate it 3.5 for humour/intellectual language and 4 for action. it's by the same producer or director as Sherlock! but a bit less awesome albeit a good chill out movie)
5Nov11: "Real Steel" w Hl (action packed but not too hardcore for me. i liked that there was the father and son element and how the father eventually softened his heart and especially the part when charlie was having trouble telling max sth and max was so understanding saying "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." touching and demonstrates true fighting spirit)
12Dec11: "50/50" w L (adopting her words - a heavy topic put across in a lighthearted way, but not taking away d meaning. most of it was rather hollywood-ish trashiness but there were a couple of punch lines "u can't change ur parents, but u can change d way u respond to them.")
25Dec11: "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" w KY (ultimate action packed! super tense almost throughout the movie, and interesting Tom Cruise made it such that not everything happened smoothly - he would jump and misland and get all sorts of injuries..it's really the courage to jump without hesitation even though you are not sure you'll be alive after that. KY loved d movie and said she would watch it again!)
3Jan12: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" w KY (i love mystery (: and the witty sarcastic dialogues. good level of excitement with the action. didn't understand some parts as usual. i like Holmes and Watson they depict such a true pair of buddies ;D)
23Jan12: "You are the Apple of My Eye" w mom (now i understand why guys like this movie so much - the anxiety of chasing after a girl and the acts schoolboys do to get the girl's attention and hopefully affection. the initial fluttering and the subsequent quarrelling)
22Mar12: "The Iron Lady" w KY (really love Thatcher's sharp words. inspiring and thought-provoking, tho i was still left uncertain of what to do with my life, the movie is definitely an encouraging one)
29Mar12: "Barney's Version" w SJ (a funny movie of a screwed up life of a man who had 3 wives, smoked and drank but very heartwarming at the same time, the relationships with the dad and the 3th wife - quotable quotes!)
27Apr12: "The Hunger Games" w Mom
4May12" "Avengers" w MF n PS (funny, action-packed)
7Jul12: "The Amazing Spiderman"
21Jul12: "The Dark Knight Rises" (fantastic depth, loved the twists)
20Aug12: "ParaNorman" w Mom (simple funny animated movie, heartwarming support)
Performances watched (listing started on 25Apr10)
20Jan10: Patrick Marber's Closer by outoftheBLUE, NUS Science w Pam (
13Mar10: The Rain Came Down Like Pearls the Night I Died... The New Musical - Sing & Tell by Mark Chan w Addy & Jy
21Mar10: Quintessence by NUSCO w CHL