First Work Experience

Extreme. The first day alone was enough to kill, but the friends I made there was what kept me going. A great experience I won't forget, although it was a job I didn't enjoy due to my quiet nature, it has indeed made me stronger, one way or another. I knew I was going to be very tired at the end of each day, but I never expected I would fare so badly to be the first to fall from exhaustion every night.

On the way home the last night, I wondered. If I had a family, perhaps, I should be the sole breadwinner. As long as I enjoyed what I did, and I could provide for everyone, I wouldn't mind spending only the weekends with them.

Today, it's back to school, and things did not go well. We were unable to carry out our experiments as the sun was blocked by the clouds, preventing us from locating the focal point of the lens from our structure.

First Day at My First Job

After procrastinating for 3 years, I finally got a vacation job. Went to do some stock taking and packing. It's very similar to the sorting period of Operation Juvi, except that this time the manpower was less than half than the night shift of the operation carried out back in July, and we were dealing with more than just clothes! We came across many merchandises, and started making our very own "to buy" list! Somewhere on the job, I guess I over exerted myself, and caused the injury that had almost recovered from the NAPFA test, to return. Hope I can recover before returning to work again later in the week, where the real fun begins.

That aside, I took a super long journey home again, by bus. I started off at 6.05pm at Aljuned on board SBS 40 bound for Bedok(my self declared regional bus terminal), arriving at 6.42pm. I waited for SBS 14 instead of 196 and 7 which were also bound for Clementi Temporary Interchange, though those 2 buses came way earlier at such high frequencies, as I wanted to see how it would be possible for me to travel home via that bus service if I happened to drop by Sean's place in future. At 6.53pm, the bus arrived, and the first thing I saw out the window, was the moon, almost showing it's full roundness. 2 more days to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which would mean a full moon.

The journey on the bus alone lasted 2 full hours! Adding the total travel time and waiting times together, I would have spent a total of 3hours, or 180 minutes(a new record)! With that, I can safely declare that I can survive the journey on board a budget airline to the neighbouring countries without much problems(even if I was very hungry before the flight). I had dinner only after I reached home at 8.45pm.

Tomorrow, it's back to school for my Final Year Project.

Felt like calling, as there's much to say, but on second thought, I guess I should just hold on till the weekend. You deserve your fair chance in your final sprint too, just like everyone else.

September'10 Vacation Birthday Surprise

Today was supposed to be a long day, but things turned out well. I woke up this morning, with the bottom half of my body in great pain. I guess I had pushed myself really hard yesterday during the walk around Pasir Ris with Jon(though I was already walking at a snail's pace).

In the afternoon, went out with my parents for lunch, before heading to school to surprise Melissa a day after she turns 18. Well, wouldn't say this was the best surprise ever, since she was always the one behind all the birthday surprises so far. I reached school at 2.19pm, but no one had arrived, so I gave Kim a call, and she was kind of depressed. Decided to help cheer her up by going all the way to Coronation Plaza to meet her. I seldom enjoy waiting for others alone. When I took my first step into the building, she called. I mistook her for a maid? Beside her was the cake and many other stuff that she and the others had prepared for the surprise! She had to do everything, as Iqbal and the others had a workshop and were unable to help us with the preparations. Though you were on the verge of breaking down from the stress of preparation, thanks for taking most of the trouble upon yourself!

Met up with Dandan, Shen Faye, Xinying and Jiamin when we arrived at 3. Slowly the others joined as time passed. We struggled to complete the custom made gift prepared by everyone she knew, before we left at 5.30pm. Till now, though some of them said the holder looks nice, I don't think I tied the card holder nicely. In fact, I guess credit should go to Shen Faye for helping me with the final touches, which brought the handicraft to perfection. The string looks worn from my rough handling! Looking forward to meeting them again soon...

The weekends would be a good time to recuperate from my muscle aches and preparation for my first job assignment coming up the coming week.

I guess maybe I should have returned 10 minutes earlier to at least bid goodbye, since things ended at the same time tonight. Perhaps I had disappointed. Anyways, enjoy the weekends!

SG "Tour"-Day 5;2010 (Pasir Ris)

The tour was kind of a last minute plan that I came up with this morning. Here's the actual deal for today.

I wake at 9, head to school from 10 to 11am for a module experience interview for the School of Interdisciplinary studies, before I head home to watch my fingernails grow.

I did the first part of the main plan. Many muscles in my body were aching the moment I woke. Somehow, I was still able to go about doing the usual stuff almost without any difficulty, except walking. The impacts of the 5 hard landings on the standing broad jump mat the day before has caused some injuries to my legs. I went off to school, and the interview went rather well! Claire, my compere, was surprised my tutor wasn't Ms Adelaine, as she was the one who had recommended me to go for the interview. My tutor for 1COMT was Madam Rosita, who taught and helped me in the module almost 2 years ago.

At 10.45am, I was done. I rang up my mum, and arranged to meet her at my Grandma's. Met my dad and the 3 of us went for lunch till 1pm. When I arrived at 11.40(after a 30-minute bus ride on board SMRT 61), my mum asked if any of my friends had asked me out during the holidays, then she asked about John and Jon. Jon returned the reply I sent him asking if he was free later in the afternoon or tomorrow morning earlier this morning. I had thought he stayed at Tampines, so perhaps I could go for a walk with him around the whole of Tampines(thanks to the photograph of the flat I took earlier on Monday during the Exco meeting). Instead, he told me his home was 5 minutes away from White Sands at Pasir Ris. Thus, it was decided we would be spending approximately 3 hours walking around Pasir Ris.

I rushed home, changed my clothes, packed my laptop, hard disk, and my camera and lens before setting off, all within 10 minutes. I left home and boarded the 1.46pm SMRT 106 for Clementi Station. As I was short on time, I decided to take the train instead. I had to make a total of 2 to 3 transfers if I had to take a bus there, which could last anywhere between 60minutes and 3 hours.

After passing Kallang, I noticed the designs of school uniforms of some schools in the East had the same design as some schools in the West(Alright. Random observation).I arrived at Pasir Ris at 2.45pm. At 3.10pm, we set off, our first stop, Pasir Ris Town Park. I had no idea why I wanted to go walking around. I felt as though something had been planned, so all I had to do was to get it going. What's more, my legs were still hurting, but when we walked, I practically felt no pain. Wow. What's more, I had been standing the moment I left home.

I'll let the pictures do the talking on the sights I saw with Jon. We talked about many things, school, colour schemes of the flats, possible costs, differences in accessibility by public transport between old and new estates, just to name a few.

At 5.45pm, as planned, we went on our ways, I would embark on my longest bus journey yet within the city state, while Jon would return home to prepare for a dinner with his friends later that evening.

5.46pm I ran for SBS 88, but missed it when I thought passengers were still queuing for the bus, and the moment I started walking, the bus left. I realised the queue was for another bus service! For some reason, all the bus services I had to use to travel around, always had to be at the extreme end of the Interchange(especially for SBS services).4 minutes later, another double decked bus arrived, and I boarded it. 88 was bound for Toa Payoh Interchange, the interchange closest to home without taking the train. I started uploading the photographs into my computer the moment the left Pasir Ris. Somewhere along the way, I looked out the window. I saw the void deck of a yellowish flat, with the table I saw in a dream not too long ago. I continued looking out. One by one, I started to remember places I saw in my dreams. Within the minute, dreams and thoughts flooded my carefree mind, akin to titanic waves of water gushing toward after breaking free from a collapsed dam. That, was really scary. At the moment, I had the strong urge to alight from the bus to take a cab home. Shortly after ward, I turned off my laptop the moment the uploads were done, and I took a nap. I woke up at Ang Mo Kio, and the first thing I saw, was a real life crime scene. I had thought it was the mock up by mediacorp. I was wrong. Officers were placing number cards beside fragile traces of evidence and the area was cordoned off. Even passer-bys and residents were looking on with great curiosity! That, was the first time I saw the real thing.

I did the usual, thinking about many things, like what I usually do on long bus journeys, ultimately reaching no conclusion or answers to those thoughts. 80 minutes after leaving Pasir Ris, I arrived at Toa Payoh at 7.10pm. The moment I got up, I fell back onto my seat. My legs were hurting once again. Badly. But, how was that possible? Perhaps, I had walked too much for one afternoon. Perhaps, someone out there was playing tricks on me. I simply thought, 'it was all pre-planned. I just had to make things happen.'.

I walked slowly toward the last berth(yes, again) where SBS 157 was. There was a queue where I lost my footing while trying to evade two passengers who wanted to queue behind a girl I was walking past. I brushed hard against her bag(hope it did not cause her any injury), and left quickly as I saw the bus reverse from parking. I eventually caught the bus.

I slept through most of the journey back to Bukit Batok Interchange, on the bus bound for Boon Lay Interchange. I arrived at the bus interchange 50 minutes later at 8pm. I missed SMRT 106 as I could not run for the bus. I waited instead, and boarded SMRT 77, bound for Marina Centre, at 8.10pm. I reached home at 8.20pm, a grand total of 150 minutes after leaving Pasir Ris! That has got to be the longest bus journey I had ever taken!

Till now, I still have the feeling that everything that happened today, was pre-planned. I simply did whatever came to mind, without thinking so much.

Heroes of Love

That was the theme of tonight's Toastmasters Formal Meeting. I don't know how to describe it in words, but it made it to my list of top 3 meetings! Gurion's voice was heavenly, I just felt like leaking a few drops of tears.

Before that, I had my NAPFA test. The result was rather unexpected. I did not expect to do so well for my sit ups, shuttle run and chin-ups. I was expecting to get at best, a D grade for all the test items. The only station where I under performed, was the standing broad jump, my worst nightmare since I took my first NAPFA at 9. I missed the D grade by a mere centimetre! I landed hard on 216cm, 1cm shy of 217cm. There goes my 1year and 10months of national service. The 2.4km was a breeze, as usual, except that I slowed down into recovery on the last lap upon seeing that my time was 9.29 minutes. My timing was 11.18. If only that was 11.11. Oh well. I'm so going for a retest.

Tomorrow, I'm going to school early for a module experience interview for the school of IS. Hope it goes well!

Thank you for the encouragement and conversation this evening! It saw me through the night. Just worried the last one might have cause a relapse of some tension..

Gundam Fiesta @ Compass Point 2010

Today was a great start to my second last Semester Vacation in a Polytechnic.

In the morning, I left home at 9.45am on board SMRT Service 106 for Dover MRT Station to have my passport photograph taken for a job during the F1 week. However as there was no photo booth there, I was forced to take a train to Commonwealth or I'll risk being late to meet my friends at Orchard station at 11am. I had my photograph taken, and boarded SBS Service 111 headed for Orchard MRT Station, arriving at 10.55am. I met Zhi Chyim and Eugene at 11.05, and we walked to our destination to submit our photographs, before walking to the bus stop opposite Far East Plaza at 11.25 to take SMRT Service 171 back to King Albert Park. At 11.55am, I boarded SMRT Service 77 home, while they transferred to school on SBS Service 74.

I spent 105 minutes at home, playing on my laptop and packing for a set of long bus rides in the afternoon. First, I would be heading for Compass Point at Sengkang, to take some photographs at the second Singapore Gundam Fiesta. I would then take a bus either to Bedok or Tampines from there(I was so engrossed in my game I forgot to check if any bus could take me straight to Tampines or a bus interchange nearby, and of course, I did not check if any bus services could take me closer to home from Tampines). Of course, if there's a shortage of time, I would have to travel by the Mass Rapid Transit train(which would be a minus for me as I only have a concession pass for travel by bus).

I checked the bus arrival at my bus stop. SMRT Services 189 and 106 were arriving at 1.46pm and 1.42pm respectively, and again at 1.55pm. I left home at 1.45pm, and boarded 189 which arrived at 1.55pm. I reached Clementi MRT Station at 2pm, arriving at the Temporary Bus Interchange(probably my first Regional Bus Station) 7 minutes later. I boarded SBS Service 156 bound for Sengkang Bus Interchange(my first long distance bus ride for the day, with an estimated travel time of 60minutes) at 2.14pm. The first part of the journey felt rather fine, as I was travelling on familiar soil. However, some time after passing through Bishan, I started to feel as though I was travelling in a foreign land. The change was subtle, yet I had mixed feelings. Although in my mind I knew that I was still in Singapore, my heart told me otherwise, that I was in some foreign land, though it wasn't as strong as a year ago when I visited Sengkang for the first time.

Shortly before I arrived at Sengkang Bus Interchange at 3.26pm(4 minutes ahead of schedule;total time of travel: 100minutes; distance travelled: 28.4km), the high LRT lines came into view. I felt as though I was in a commercial plane which was descending onto the runway. Upon alighting, I went to search for the board with the bus service information. There was only 1 bus service linking Sengkang to Bedok Bus Interchange. That was the closest I could get to Tampines. Oh well, depending on how things go, I might be forced to take a train from Bedok Station to Tampines Station.

I started off with a walk around Compass Point. As it was past 2.30pm, most students would have been dismissed from school on the first day, so it might get crowded. First thing I saw was the Gundam Fiesta. From the main entrance, I felt a little disappointed, as it looked exactly the same as last year's from that perspective. I decided not to worry so much and leave that for later. The first floor still felt like the current Jurong Point, connected to the Bus Interchange and Train Station. The rest of the floors felt like a "rounded" West Mall, minus the cinema. At the top floor, I looked down. Hey! The set up's different! There's much to say here, but I'll let the pictures do the talking. The link would be up as soon as I upload my photographs on Facebook. As I walked around, I planned my photo opportunities. Though I had slightly more than an hour to spare, I had barely ample time to take photographs of the whole exhibition(though the area covered was small, but the exhibits were greater in number this year with a whole lot of limited edition model kits on display). I guess it was a blessing in disguise for me not to have located the kit lens and was kind of forced to leave home with the 50mm prime lens that afternoon, for I was able to take lots of great close-up portraits of the humanoid models. I would say that this year's fiesta was planned in a similar manner compared to the previous year, and the organisers have gone two or three up to add on more new, and limited edition models, as well as the palm of a life-sized, 18-metre tall Gundam model that took 6 months to put together in Japan. For once, maybe I had missed it last year, I understood the different grades of the model kits, which are categorised into the High Grade, Master Grade and Perfect Grade.

I left for Bedok on board SBS Service 87 at 4.34pm(4 minutes behind schedule). I did not feel anything during the journey. It felt as though I was travelling on familiar soil, even though I had never been to a few places along the way. I arrived at Bedok at 5.10pm(6 minutes behind schedule; total travel time of 100 + 36 = 136 minutes; distance travelled: 28.4km + 13.6km = 42.0km). As I had only 20 minutes of travel time left(a result of my poor route planning), I had to spend a little more to travel the last leg of my journey for the day by train, from Bedok Station to Tampines Station, a total of 3 train stops. I did not notice Danial and Zarifah opposite me until Danial came over and gave me the bubbly 'poke'. They came from the city after catching Resident Evil, in 3D. We all met up with the rest of the Toastmasters group at 5.35pm(5 minutes behind schedule; total travel time of 100 + 36 + 15 minutes = 151minutes). We planned a couple of stuff from 6 till 8.30pm, before going to a food court for dinner.

At 9.55pm, I boarded SMRT Service 67 bound for Choa Chu Kang, toward my Former Primary School after King Albert Park, on my return leg of the trip. I had an unexpected, but enjoyable conversation via the Short Messaging System which helped keep me awake and relaxed on the way home. Before Entering Upper Bukit Timah, the moon tonight was one big, beautiful orange crescent! If only I was daring enough to take out my camera to take a shot of the sight. I arrived at the bus stop at 11.05pm(total travel time of 70 minutes). 15 minutes later, I boarded SMRT Service 77 bound for Bukit Batok, and headed home, stepping into my room at 11.28pm(total travel time of 70 + 23 = 93 minutes).

My travel history for the day:

106 > train > 111 > Orchard Road > 171 > 77 > Home > 189 > 156 > Compass Point > 87 > train > Tampines Mall > 67 > 77 > Home

Though for a moment I forgot the significance of confiding and having a conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent. I wouldn't mind sacrificing time for others, but I would mind if others had to sacrifice part of their time for me.

Level 3.1 Examination

One more day to go. So far, it's been going downhill. No motivation, little drive. And I had thought it ended long ago. This time it came back, stronger. Shall do a proper post tomorrow after it all ends.

This morning, I dreamt of something that's been kinda recurring for some time now, except that the places always change. I have no idea how to go about telling it. It's almost as if it was all happening in real time, and I would only notice it was a dream when I turned to another side of the bed. Even after I realise it was a dream, I couldn't get myself to wake from it, until I heard my phone ring. Twice. Somehow, the minute-long alarm just couldn't work, but the barely 2-second long message tone did the trick.

I can't remember much about the dream. It started in a flat. I was with a family. No idea what or why I was there, seated at the dining table with everyone else. Somewhere in between, I was conversing with a friend, either over the phone, or online. At the end, it was raining at the entrance of a shopping mall,and I was meeting the same friend. Upon seeing me, two kids (I think they're about 3) ran toward me from one of the pillars concealing part of the glass doors, happily. I can't remember if they were two boys, or a boy and a girl. Behind them, she followed. One thing I did not know was, who was their father?

I don't know for sure what it meant, but I had dreamt of something like that before, sometime last year, I had a dream where I was out with a group of friends, and someone I knew, was there with us for a moment with another guy friend who we did not know. They left 5 minutes after we all bumped into one another.

I don't know. It felt as if someone was trying to force it into me. I tried to force myself to wake, but I had to receive two messages before I could wake. The alarm did not work(I subconsciously turned it off and went back to sleep). From the looks of it, it'll happen in the future? I doubt it. Maybe it's too early to tell. The dream felt so real, and I felt joy being at the flat conversing with my friend. I was struggling to wake just before I saw her with her kids, as a result, I did not know how I felt during that time.

"Who was the father? Me? Wait. We have never been together, so that won't happen."

Almost throughout the whole day I was pondering over the same thought. Now, I'm feeling lost. What am I to do? It's one of my greatest dreams to reach that point in my life, but I'll want to know how I'll reach there, and with who. Perhaps, it was good that I did not know for sure who the friend was, but I'm glad whoever planted that in me was good. I rather live like a normal person, not knowing what would happen in future, though it's good to experience it twice, once in a dream, and again in real time. It's the journey experience along the way that provides the comfort and warmth.

Maybe, it was time to let nature take its course? I'll just continue being myself. Embrace whatever comes my way, living as if tomorrow was going to be the end of the world.