Going to MounT OpHir tomorrow! [back on Friday =)]
See Hwei, Matilda and I met to go Bernard's house this morning and we were soon joined by Grace and Janice, to pack our bags! Bernard's dad, who went Ophir even before all of us were born showed us slides of their trip. Interesting that his fellow climbers included some of the other's uncles and aunties and Bernard's mom as well, most of them still singles.
Their bags are really small, compared to the ones we are bringing. But ours is more of a fun trip so we are bringing a lot of 'luxury' food items - cooking dinners on the mountain ;) and thus the weight. We have chocolates and biscuits for lunches; bread with nutella and rasin buns for breakfasts; sausages, baked beans, eggs, bananas and chicken curry on rice and spaghetti with tomato sauce, spicy pork cubes for dinners. Tough on our backs for the comfort of our stomaches. ooo. There's plenty milo, chrysanthemum tea, almonds, raisins too!
Ohhh I am like the least spontaneous person in our group, always stoning around for our past few trainings and this meeting. But they are nice people =)
Cherlyn and Ashley joined us after the final grocery shopping, bringing along the haversack Cherlyn helped me buy. Its yellow! haha, my favourite colour during my childhood. Guess how much it costs. $15! Very cheap for such a BIG bag.
Oh about packing, we sort of vacuum packed everything using ziplocks. Bernard taught us the army way of doing things. Like sitting on the ziplocks to squeeze out the air before zipping them up. He's the leader cum funny man, livens up everything with exaggerated comments. A good team leader. Cherlyn, our assistant leader is super spontaneous and takes good care of everyone. Both very cheery people.
After lunch at what they said is the most famous prawn noodle stall (its very near Bernard's place), Matthew, the church youth worker sent us to and fro the army market in the church van to get See Hwei's bag and final useful stuff. Its my second time there, the first time also with them, after we went to the treetop walk.
Back at Bernard's place, we finished up the packing of the food before a quick tea break. Wah I think I stoned super alot. Not very helpful. Anyway, after that, we tried setting up all the tents, generally successfully =) Oh there were only the two guys Cherlyn Janice and me left after we got back from the army market.
Hmm this is going to be my second time staying in tents, the first being in OBS. Hope the ground will be much less pebblish. ha.
Ahhh time to finish up my re-packing of my bag and go to bed! last comfortable sleep before the trippp. gotta go from Sembawang to Kembangan by 0830 tomorrow morning and take the van back up to Johor! haha not as much to and fro travelling as yesterday's amazing race. ah that's another story, for another time. oh my muscles are beginning to ache from yesterday's running around during the race, some of the others said they are aching too.
I don't know why but I received two significant unpleasant news today.
One. Karen's parents don't allow her to stay in hall, so I've to find another roommate. Two. Janice is down with fever, so she may not be able to go on the Mount Ophir trip.
Hmm. Over these eight days of my parents' absence, the days in between were fine, but the first two days and the last two days just have got to be not so. Is it supposed to be some kind of omen?
Maybe I have been affected too much by The Alchemist. Ha.
These eight days made me realise how much a family means. Especially someone to talk to. It seems like when I am in a home without my mom to tell about my life, I feel so pathetic. Yes I had been away from home, from my mom for even longer periods - to the Maldives; in ny hostel. But being the one at home while mom is the one away from home sure doesn't feel good.
I'm just so selfish. 需要人的時候才了解到自己不在的時候是如此的不好受。 Xu yao ren de shi hou cai liao jie dao zi ji bu zai de shi hou shi ru ci de bu hao shou.
Wow this is totally awesome, cool, impressive, highly commendable, definitely better than marches by uniformed organisations - simply because the music comes from within.
Ahh I wasted 80% of my single compulsory automatic transmission lesson a few hours ago. Um that's about $47... Hai. Well I have sort of gotten over the troubled period, though the pinch is still there. I was in temporary disbelief when I first realised at about 9.40pm that I had an 8.50pm lesson. After that I was thinking whether to rush over to SSDC or simply stay at home. Then I finally decided to make a rush for whatever time is left, not before mentally calculating that I would still be able to catch at least $10 worth of lesson time. Ugh. Silly me. Fancy booking somebody else's trysell slot and forgetting to go for it when she has already mentally planned what to do because she forgot to update her handphone calendar.
Ba.
There was the first wednesday ny alumni practice two evenings ago. Made me realise that some good things are better left in the memory. One's hopes for the good things that happened in the past are easily dashed because times change and people change.
Missing the times when we were all innocence and simple.
I want to be,
can we all be?
Then again, I'm thinking too much when I'm alone. Be with others and I'll be fine.
Ren zhi chu, xing ben shan.
whoops I better log off, I'm falling asleeeeeeeeeeeeeee
from Lisa's blog! (she got it from her friend's blog too, ha)
Thing number 1 of 3 Go to Wikipedia and look up your birthday (excluding the year). List four neat facts, three births and two deaths and one holiday/observance in your journal, including the year.
Thing number 2 of 3 Book Meme Instructions: 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. 5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
The nearest book only has 111pages... From the next nearest "book": "Life was difficult then but things have gotten better and better over the years."
Its Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary, by the way. haha.
Thing number 3 of 3
Four jobs you've had in your life: tutor, office assistant, accounts cum office assistant, assessing cum counter officer Four movies you could watch over and over: um I once watched a movie I liked (Love Actually) the second time and the feeling was already not there, ie don't think there's any movie I could "watch over and over" Four places you've lived: Potong Pasir, Grandma's place??, Sembawang, Nanyang Hostel Four TV shows you love(d) to watch: Under the same roof "Tong zai wu yan xia", Da Chang Jin, I can't remember the shows, haha Four places you've been on vacation: Brunei, Phuket, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur Four websites you visit daily (in my case when I use the comp): SSDC, my communicator, my blog - only these 3 for nowadays Four of your favourite foods: chicken wings! raisins! potato! ice-cream (depends on my mood) Four places you would rather be in: school =) people's heart =P library (with NOT so cold air-conditioning), bandroom back in those old times Four things you should be doing right now: sleep~! (its like 1+am) um, 3 other things I could be doing if it were earlier - revise driving notes, read all the new books I've bought, start to pack my bag for next week's Mount Ophir climb!
Wahhh for some of these I really had to think hard to get four.
I don't believe in such things, "bad days" I mean. But today just is.
Well I was supposed to have a driving lesson at 4.40pm, but I put it on trysell once I got home last night (which was nearly midnight) because at about 11pm, I was informed that today's training session (to go treetop walk) was in the afternoon. I had wrongly thought that the training session would be in the morning, which actually isn't possible at all since they have church every Sunday morning.
So at past 8am when I woke up and checked my handphone, a message said that I needn't trysell my driving lesson because they realised there's no time to go treetop walk, so we'll just train near their church. Ok. So I immediately went online to check the status of my trysell. It was "successful". How ironic.
Then it was already time to get ready to leave for the training, but I was still blogging. So I ended up leaving home late.
______________________________
My mood was turning well with watching "Xiao Chao Ren" on Channel Newsasia at 8.30pm. The boy Glendon is so impressive. Then I received a sms from my mom and I started crying again. Replied like everything's fine. What's the point of letting her know how bad I am feeling. It'll only spoil their holiday.
Anyway, back to where I was before I started watching "Breaking the Da Vinci Code". It was already 12.30pm when I was in Sembawang MRT station and I was supposed to reach their church, near Kembangan MRT station at 1pm. Then I received a call saying that training is postponed to Monday or Tuesday because it was raining heavily over at their church.
So it turned out that from having a training session and a driving lesson, I ended up with neither. Spending a Sunday alone at home, blogging listening to music sleeping watching TV. Should have been such an enjoyable day doing such leisurely things. But my heart doesn't allow me to. Or should I say it was my brain? Then I decided to bake cookies. I had already thought about it earlier in the week - a plan was training in the morn, driving in the evening and baking at night, but whether I would really bake was subjected to my level of energy and enthusiasm by then. Then everything changed.
No training, no driving, I still got to bake. I wanted to bake my cranberry-oatmeal cookies for my colleagues, and if there were enough, I wanted to bring some to Wednesday evening's ny alumni. But the cookies didn't turn out like what they usually did. They didn't spread out while they were baking. Usually they did. Out of the few dozen batches of cookies I made during the pre Chinese New Year period, only 1 turned out like that. Why has it got to happen again this time?
I already felt something was wrong when the dough was so soft. Okay fine so I tried to make a new dough, and baked my chocolate chip cookies. Sigh. They didn't spread out either. Even a second try didn't turn out as preferred. I threw away the remaining half of the dough, unbaked. The cookies don't taste all that terrible. They just tasted more powderish. But what I wanted was what they usually were. Of convincing retail standard. Yes people, events and nature do change. Does baking effect has to change too?
Was it the flour? Was it the proportions? Was it the way I rubbed the butter into the dough? Perhaps it boils down to the lack of the heart. I didn't measure out the butter as carefully as I had the first few times I baked. The touch I had relied on for the later few batches after I started getting more familiar with how the dough should be isn't with me now. After all its been 3 months since then. One has to be happy when one prepares food to do it well. Just like when one does any other thing.
Okay. So my once in awhile breakdown has just occurred. This time its at home (like most other times) so its fine, as in nobody gets terrified, cos I'm the only one around (my parents have just left for a one week holiday yesterday late afternoon). The previous time I broke down was first day at office. tk got frightened and though it was his fault. It wasn't. Oh I better emphasise - I am fine now.
Last night pam was telling me about her friend who broke down the night before, after quarrelling with another of their friend, supposedly over something small. Now to think of it, maybe she was in the same situation as I was in when I broke down that day, two months back, in the office. A build-up of flammable materials (in this case emotions) deep within that needed just a spark to blow up a fire, in this case an emotional breakdown.
Comfortingly, the scared feeling is not around, as of now.
Appearing to be so comfortable alone, she actually needs others too.
Nobody understands.
(Friends:)"She did so well for her studies, she got into the course she wanted all along, what the hell has she got to be bothered by?!"
Is that really the course, that only and one, that she wants? Is she such a fortunate girl to like such a course that "guarantees" a secure job that predictably leads to a high paying career?
Actually she isn't certain of it either. She's such a greedy person who wants to learn some of everything. In learning, she loves breadth, much more than depth. How can she go into university studies, which requires greater depth than breadth? Should she have chosen something else? What? Why? How?
It is pointless for her to ask such questions now since she has already accepted the offer. By thinking about such issues she is just making life difficult for herself.
But she can't run away from her thoughts.
One can run away from doing things (yes she frequently does like most people do). Just procrastinate. But how does one run away from thinking? Away from feeling?
Appearing confident, thin, taller than average, looks fine.
Nobody understands.
(Colleagues:)"What has she got to fear? She generally pronounces words, both English and Chinese words, well. She looks presentable. She doesn't seem scared at all!"
"Asking for too much la! That bothersome girl!"
Yes. She is asking for alot. What's wrong with asking for alot of oneself?
This is what's wrong. She hasn't been able to truly relax herself. Mind and body.
The significant incident, that occurred at past 2pm on 18 May 2006, a Thursday, at counter
[Um maybe I'm making too much of an emphasis - to some people it may be no big deal, but to me it is a first time. As we grow older, 'first time's generally decrease in numbers, and most of the times we don't take note of the 'first time' before it starts to fade off in memory]
Okay so it started off like any other "typical" interview with the Tp wanting to check his income tax. Shucks. Maybe this issue is too sensitive to be blogged. Better not..
I am in the adult world now. Handling serious and confidential matters. There's the line not to be crossed, in what can be blogged and what can't. Possible consequences of blogging it could be unbearable.
Sure feels good to help others & be appreciated =)
Well, I am currently what some people call a "customer service" officer, so helping others is supposedly my "job". Still, it feels good when I see the happiness and/or gratefulness of some people when do all I can to help. Actually perhaps its more because of the poor treatment given by others that leads to their appreciation for anything better. In life there are bound to be comparisons - consciously or subconsciously.
Life at frontline is never certain, we can't predict what will happen, and that's something I quite like about it. Other than my main reason for my initial insistence on doing something that seems obviously not fitted for my generally quiet personality, (which was to training my speaking,) I also wanted something that would require me to think faster and won't be mundane. In everything there's the good and the not-so-good. Like yesterday was a taxing (nOt meant to be a pun - haha it was just that the word suddenly popped into my mind) day with several interviews that made me frustrated or were tough to me (and Swee Lan, a perm staff even came to help) , while today the interviews went more smoothly (so I was happier). Though statistically, both days I took almost the same number of interviews and clocked in the same 8.5 manhours, emotionally it was different.
Oh and there's a significant incident. Something that I have never encountered and that my shi jie - Sharon, and shi xiong - Guo Hua, never encountered either happened. It can be considered "pleasant", but as mentioned there's the not-so-good side to things. Ah I shall describe the details in the next post. I was asking Joanne, a very nice perm staff (approachable, readily helps us and offered me some expensive mint yest on hearing my deep nasal voice due to terrible flu and I was coughing from throat irritation), and she said she knew of Tps buying food for the officers, but she didn't mention anything involving that.
I wish I could get answers. Though it seems really difficult to answer.
I feel like every day I am pretending to be someone I want to be but someone I am currently not. And its so much of a torture to my heart.
I am pretending to be confident, when I actually feel so insecure. I am pretending to be fine, when I am actually frantic.
I miss school so very much. I miss the sincerity and simplicity of school life. As compared to the working world, I must add. I simply don't fit into this world. Or at least my current working environment. Where it is the norm to complain about Colleague A to Colleague B behind Colleague A's back. Fine, so Colleague A has made a mistake. So its only human for X to be unhappy about Colleague A and voice it to Colleague B? Fine. So that's life? Well I just can't accept it as yet.
Is this the negativities to make me aware of how lucky I have been in my past 12 years of school life to have around me mostly nice people who don't speak badly of others? I suppose so.
Back to the pretense of confidence. I wonder if I should continue to do it, in the hope that one day I will become truly confident, and no longer need to pretend to be. I don't know what I can do...
Another issue is regarding being "green", or environmentally friendly. The "government" encourages us to be "green", to save paper. Yet at work SO MUCH paper is wasted EVERY DAY. Most of the times printing is done single-sided. And most people don't care. Why? Some simply don't bother. Some 'don't have a choice' because 'efficiency' is key - double-sided printing requires more time and its already the "norm" and hence easier to look at documents printed single-sided. Many a time, it boils down to the red tape due to the size of the organisation.
Yet another issue. Maybe I shouldn't make myself be nice when I am actually not. It just creates such a facade that is so difficult to maintain. It gets to a point when I either keep quiet or say something mean out of mischief. And often once it gets out of my mouth I regret it almost immediately on sensing the response.
_______________________
Ah my mood has turned good. After watching the performance of Soul in the Superband competition show. haha. No mood to talk about serious stuff le. heez. Anyway. I really like their performance. So enjoyable. So slick and pretty and cool. =D plus they are tall and good-looking.
Who isn't attracted to good looks?
Okok I shall stop thinking so deeeep. If not I won't get to enjoy anything
Met Wang Yang! ; 1st training for Mount Ophir climb
I was on my way home after the training (climbed 17 storeys 3 times) with Janice and a few of her church mates (Ashley - NOT my junior Ashley, Matilda and Eileen), when I saw Wang Yang (my sec1 and 2 classmate) at City Hall station.
Haha, she said I am still the same, in terms behaviour ;)
She looks prettier but seems rather tired and stressed. Ohh and she's moving to Sembawang in June! Haha yay another friend at Sembawang. Blk 506, she said - if she didn't get it wrong. That's so near Lisa's Block 502.
Back to Janice's church mates. My first time meeting them. I was the quiet self. Argh. Not good for a first meeting. Anyway, about them, Ashley's rather talkative (sometimes over, ha, then the girls ignore him) and friendly, Matilda's rather humorous, friendly too. Eileen gives me the impression she's the big sis in her family. She also looked quite tired from work. Well, hope I will be in my "conversational mood" at the next session, Wednesday at Tree Top Walk! Otherwise I would seem so unfriendly, ugh.
You have a deep desire to be kind and fair to others. You are preoccupied with finding kindness in the world around you, far more than you may realise on a conscious level. This makes you unusually empathetic and very sensitive to other people's feelings. Your kind nature makes you an optimist at heart and allows you to see the best in the people around you.
Because you're not judgmental, others seek you out when they need a friend. Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you will understand who you really are...
_________________________
Very interesting test. First time I tried such a test - "inkblot". Rather long for me. Haha I am quite impatient. Hmm, the results, true, except about me not being judgmental - I thought I am consciously very judgmental. But this is about the "subconscious mind" so I don't really know much.
The following are the details of the above process that I went through just a few minutes ago, on day 2 of the acceptance period - 2 May 2006 to 5 June 2006 - (haha I sound so formal..whoops) :
Online acceptance form will be available here once the application results are released. Please take note that the application results will be released in batches. Do check here often for the latest updates.
For students who have applied under category A or B and have been offered the full-time courses for NTU, NUS and/or SMU, please click on the link below to indicate your choice.
Joint Acceptance form for category A and B offers
[clicks the link]
For Applicants who have been offered Admission to Undergraduate Courses by NTU, NUS and/or SMU.
Application Number
Identity Card/Foreign Identification/Passport Number
Date of Birth (in DDMMYYYY format)
[fills in accordingly and] *submit*
Please select the course you wish to accept:
NTU - Accountancy
Reject all Offers of Admission
*submit*
You are now accepting NTU - Accountancy
Please click Confirm to confirm your selection or click Modify to change your selection.
*confirm*
The course you accept
NTU - Accountancy
has been registered by the Joint Acceptance system.
Life update - university; etc (to be continued... hopefully I do)
Hmm, I realised I haven't been blogging about what exactly has been happening in my life these days.
Well, as usual there's so much to say.
Hmm. Let me start with "the next big thing" in my life - university.
Okay. So that goes back all the way to the beginning of March. Oh ya~! I actually didn't blog about such an important day! - Results day! Oh no. There's really soooo much to blog about. Ahhhh! Ok, one step at a time.
So I worked half-day (instead of having the day off) because there was a deadline to meet. Okok, actually if there wasn't the deadline I might have possibly went to work too. Anyway, so Justine came over from PwC (Raffles Place) to meet me for lunch at Chinatown. Hmm, actually it was only me who ate cos she wasn't supposed to for some special reason. Whoops. A lot of narration again. K. So we kind of took time rather leisurely, looking for a place for my lunch and catching up, then it was almost 1.30pm (I think) after I've had my KFC lunch when it hit me that we didn't have much time! It was reported in The Straits Times that we could get our results from 2pm onwards. Then Jus was saying there would be long talks before they would really give out our results so she and her peers at work had planned to be late, if I didn't ask to meet. Pam wanted to meet us only in school so we had arranged to meet at 2pm there. Jus and I reached school slightly after 2, and to Jus's "mock" unhappiness (because Jus was the one who had planned to be late and Pam isn't the kind of person to be late), Pam was even later than us. Ok, I am realising this is really "over-detailed", shall put in small fonts. Anyway, so we waited for Pam at the grandstand, and boy oh boy was it HOT. Oh ya I forgot to mention, PeiLing and Ken were at the back of the bus when we boarded it. Ok, back to the grandstand. So other j3s who arrived later than us were walking pass us. Then at about 2.15pm or so, Joyce called me to say that they were already giving out the results~! Wow my reaction was really "big". Especially taking into consideration that I was telling Jus to be calm before the call. Haha. Very soon, Swee Peng came along, so I told her, rather excitedly, that they were already giving out the results! Haven't seen her for so long, especially since she didn't go for the GuangZhou/ HongKong band trip. She wondered why I was still there, well, we were still determined to wait for Pam. Then people with their result slip already started leaving school. Actually there weren't many, just a few individuals. Still it should have seemed rather puzzling that we weren't all that eager to know our results. Haha.
Pam came before half past two, and we headed up to the hall, not before Jus told Pam about her "unhappiness". Heez. Oh, actually I planned that we take our result slips and go to some less crowded area to look at what we got. But as things are, they tend not to go as planned. Everything happened rather fast and in a rather unexpected way. One moment we just entered the hall, which was really crowded and messy, and the next moment I was in front of the desk assigned to Lin Laoshi (after seeing Jasper who directed us there; it was actually just a few steps from where we just the hall) hearing her say something like "bu yong pa (or was it dan xin?), ni de cheng ji ___ ( I can't remember what word she used.. was it bu cuo? or hao?), chu le 'S' paper" and the first thoughts that came to my mind was the speculations of my results that her comments could possibly mean and also wondering what about my GP, until the moment I saw the grades.
Then I seemed to neglect my two good friends when I saw Joyce whom I had planned to make an apology to. Ah I am just such a lousy close friend.. Ended up asking Jieyu and looking around at the corridor on the right of the hall alone before Pam called to tell me they were already at the foot of the staircase to the canteen. Then they wanted to leave but I still wanted to hang around in school so we parted.
Whoops. Its past 12 now. work @ 8am @ IRAS tomorrow. Bye for now then. A LOT more to say.
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