Teachers' Day 2007 Phototgraphs

Here are some of the photographs taken during yesterday's Teachers' Day celebrations in school. Most of the pictures were obtained from Andy and yesterday's official and in-official photographers(thanks for the pictures).Following are the pictures taken on the first and second day of the decorating process:

An essential hand-made item for every celebration and party,the invitation card:














The very first item that the team started work on, the two Banners...
The first:







Andy,Weng Ling,Banu and Carina are really focused on the cuttings
























Siang Lin and her 'C'









The Black background's finally up,and O.o why does Siang Lin has an additional pair of hands???








4E1's very first bubble tea shop:Happy Tea~


















and it feels great to have Afian back as our assistant and advisor on Wednesday~












Now,on to the second:
This is one of the toughest tasks for the decorations,as instead of drawing and colouring, friends had to cut out templates for the spray painting to be carried out...






































Randall,Banu,Gloria,Yong An(I think), Kuan Wei and Ying Xiu decorating and wrapping up the wine glasses to be used as gifts for the teachers






















The end products~



























There, a reunion of the founding members of ELDDS Drama Society, two years after their debut performance at the Drama of History Competition in 2005(could this be their swan song?PS:hope not)...























Not to forget:Damien's performance that was a real morale booster for those who were decorating the class on Thursday. It sure was a great start to the long time we took to decorate the class on the second day...Thanks Damien~



































Classmates busy putting up the decorations for the actual day all the way till nine in the evening on Thursday even though it was getting late. Must have been tough on everyone,but it seemed like everyone was not tired yet...This was,to me, the best 6 hours I had spent during the two days of decorating the classroom for the BIG event and I enjoyed myself thoroughly during those times!







The ribbons and balloons going up to create the "red-carpet" effect for Ms Lim and the other subject teachers of class 4E1










An attempt to dress up the lights with glass paper(if that's what they're called) to create the ambiance of being in a nightclub,with the final touches being made to the rest of the classroom(the backdrop aka the banner for the 'stage') This is a job suited only for the very tall of 4E1










































































Damien with Yong An and Wei Xiang performing an item for the camera~















Yea~Mr Liew was back to see us!Well, at least we were glad that he was well enough to at least pay us a visit late at night in school,when we were working against time to complete the surprise for the teachers, especially Ms Lim the next day.Thanks Mr Liew, and do get well soon~

























Some extra photographs taken on the way home on Thursday night(a typical student does not always experience this often on his/her way home from school at night):





The new school building at night(seems nice)











Into the darkness

30minutes later at 9.50pm:


I think the others will reach hoe before I do,but,I'm almost home~
The full moon was really big that evening(the blue light in the horizon), sure is a once in a blue moon sort of thing...







Now,On to the actual day:






The side gate was reported and was to be locked at all times yesterday(as instructed by the security guard)...













ACES DAY:you don't always get to see this in school, teachers wearing the school PE attire.












A pose for the camera



















Mr Chia enjoying a game of floor ball in a teachers-students game at the street soccer court behind the techinical block











The 4E1 team,formed at the eleventh hour,beating another student's team to get a chance to get back at the teachers!












Alas!The moment that class 4E1 had been waiting for has arrived! The drama item put up by the founding members of the ELDDS Drama Society who took part in the Drama of History competition and clinched thrid place for the school in 2005. Here, there are two guest-stars in this performance.Can you identify them?(Hint:look at the earlier photographs)
























Group, Pair and class photos taken during the celebrations in class 4E1:
























~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Post-Teachers' Day Celebrations at class 4E1, YCSS






Sadly,some of the decorations had to go,although we were given the green light by Ms Lim to keep some of them








Finally, this is the very first batch of photographs that I had put up on this blog, after almost another year of blogging, so, this is my "surprise" to mark two years of blogging?As a matter of fact, these are just some of the photographs which I obtained from Andy's,Steven's and Damien's blogs(since they're among the first to have the pictures up).It's thanks to them that I was able to put these up as a mini album.


If only times like these never failed to occur day after day,month after month and year after year. If that was so, how enjoyable life would be for all of us...

Teachers' Day 2007 @YCSS Class 4E1

Today was defintiely the best day I had ever experienced in term 3. Arrived in school at 6.45am. Headed straight for the classroom with Steven and Banu. Checked on a few things like the gifts and the balloons before the group of us got chased out.

There was the ACES(All Children Excersing Simultaneously) Day and a teachers versus students floorball for the upper secondary students. Until 9am,4E1 formed a team to challenge the teachers. Though the students did not win, we still managed to maintain the score of 3-0 and had fun during the games.

Now at the school hall, there was a Lion Dance performance, two rock band performances,two modern dance items and a skit.The band performances were good, but the first item was so loud and high pitched that it left almost half of the shool covering our ears.Next was the dance, and I liked the one which Clara and her friends performed in, and there were some good comments by dancer in our class too... There was also a prize presentation ceremony for the teachers in the school, and Ms Lim won the overall Best Teacher in the upper secondary category as well as the Most Caring Teacher award in the school. Mr Liew won the Most Energetic Teacher Award.

Next is none other than the Teachers' Day 2007 @ YCSS Class 4E1, the main event of the day! I love this part the most, since we had spent more than 24 hours on the whole putting the bits and pieces of the party together and making this party a success!Thank you 4E1 for the efforts put in for this day! The moment the concert ended, everyone headed back to the classroom as fast as we could. Girls formed a line along the windows of the classroom, while the boys formed a line along the parapet of the corridor. Every alternate classmate had a popper(if that is what its called) in his or her hand. Finally, Ms Lim came, and as she passed, the poppers were released one by one, creating a grand ambience. Now, the classroom was more of a pub than some grand place.With 'coloured' lights, hand-cut and spray-painted banners, the place was far from a grand party, for this was more of a once-in-a-lifetime sort of a celeration.Soon, teachers came and joined us for the cake cutting ceremony,the drama put up by some of our classmates,the video made by Damien, the giving out of presents and gifts to the teachers and finally, the buffet prepared by some classmates who stayed up later than most of the class who left school at 9pm yesterday.


Everything does not end here though.
This part is continued at 7pm:

Finally it was time to leave school.I had promised the teachers,three of them in fact, from my primary school, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School that I will be back this year,since I knew that I would not be able to get pass the security guards at all last year(due to the late dismissal time). Sadly,Gloria had decided not to return to school this year, I had to go alone(good, one less person to worry about), since there were only the both of us who were posted to Yuan Ching Secondary from Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary in 2003.I tripled my walking speed today(yea, new record) in a successful attempt,well not so successful afterall, to make it back to Upper Bukit Timah Road, where the journey took 40 minutes. Arriving near the school at 1pm after taking bus 61, I sprinted for the gates. I saw the security guard and crossed my fingers. Will I be let into the school this year?I walked up,and asked."Yes!By all means,feel free to enter!"He answered with enthusiasm.I entered with appreciation,but not before he gave me a light pat on my back.The school sure has changed alot since the new principal took office this year.Met up with Ms Loh and two ex-students from my class(glad we still recognise each other, though I had forgotten a girl's name,who donned the familiar greyish Jurong Secondary uniform).I was in luck.She was preparing to leave the school until I entered the staff room.The two teachers of whom I was so eager to meet today had left for lunch earlier today. Nevermind, at least I could meet my former Chinese teacher who was willing to let me write a short note to my other two former teachers who taught me the English Language,Mathematics,Science,Social Studies and Physical Education.Without them, I might not have made it to where I am today. I really long to meet them in school again some day, and I knew that this day is drawing nearer by the days. I found out that many things had changed for the better along with the new principal's entrance. I also found out that last year, the school was ranked fourth in Singapore among all the Primary schools in the island,with a top T-score of 28x.Nice work.Although my stay was not very long, I was sort of happy with the ideals of the new principal.

Anyway, to think that theres a part three to today. I call it the outside school visit(first time Im doing this). the teacher I visited today is my Chinese tuitor,who lives in Bukit Panjang and has helped me outside tuition hours at her home at no extra charges. In addition, she has taught me for the past four years!I'm very appreciate of her efforts in helping me to get this grade(although she was not very satisfied with a C,since I could have gotten a B instead). I brought her a self-knitted sweater by my mum, together with a card and some chocolates.Took a joy ride on the LRT before heading to Jurong Point for early dinner at 5pm(I had intended to stop by at Jurong Entertainment Centre at first,but the thought of unecessary spending of money on plastic models there made me change my mind).

Finally,at 5.20pm, I took the proper route home, meaning that I took the MRT train to Bukit Batok Station before taking a bus that stopped near my home.I reached home at 5.50pm(typical journey time).Now, I'm back at home, taking a short break before embarking on recovering more than ten hours lost during the decorating of the classroom which was worth the effort.

Although the urge to let those words out of my mouth is geting increasingly unbearable, it might not be good now, for it could affect the other's performance at the final hurdle;it would not be fairto do that now.
Also, as it is less than two months before it is time to jump as high as I can over that hurdle,this would be my one of my last posts till further notice. The last post before I start again would be the 18th of september.

Some Videos taken today:

Pre-Teachers' Day 2007 @YCSS Class 4E1 Preparations-Part 2

Today is the best episode for the Teachers' Day Preparations. Today we had lots of free time given by our teachers to do the planning for the decorations during the last two hours of school today, since Mr Liew was not well(get well soon yea) and Ms Lim gave us that time to do the preparations.



It was only after school when everything went into action. The tables were stack in threes(interesting ain't it?) and the chairs were stacked as per normal. They are hidden in some place of the classroom with a black banner covering them. Today, Siang Lin liberated two hours for the class by telling Mdm Azlinah that the whole class was involved in decorating the classroom(which was quite true). There, if not for that three hours, things would be a lot worse, since we completed everything at 9pm sharp.There you go, unexpected twists and turns that you meet o your life.



The memorable parts for today? Simple, for they are all unexpected twists and turns which have added a new facet to my life. First up, Damien's performance, Laying out the decorations, Helping classmates with the decorations, heading out to a familiar place to buy items with Pei Xuan, giving friends a treat who were still there to get a snack for them, meeting my uncle and aunt who were there to pick up Clara after her reharsals,Mr Liew's unexpected visit with his tablet PC and something which surprised the ten of us who were still there at the time and finally, forging deeper bonds with our classmates.Today was also the day I felt totally refreshed, with everyone working together as a whole class.

Pictures will be posted on Staurday night,since I experienced an error while doing this.

Somethimes though you know that you had done all you can to make something work for you, there might be the chance that you can go further with the plans,just that the chance has yet to be discovered...

Pre-Teachers' Day 2007 @YCSS Class 4E1 Preparations-Part 1

This is sort of like a sneak preview to the actual Teachers' Day celebrations on Friday,31st August,2007. Actually, this is just a short list of the things that would be done,or was done and completed today. Gifts, rough plans and actual preparations for performances and decorations for the actual thing.Note:If you see a black banner at the back of the classroom tomorrow, Don't,DON'T even think of fostering any temptations to play any games(soccer,friesbee etc.) at the area. That's all for now and I'm feeling dead tired after two long days with five hours of sleep in between.

Start of School Prelims

The first day of the prelims.Nice.Everytime it's the first day of any examination in Secondary school, it's always going to be a rainy day(for those who had not noticed this for the past four years, please bear this in mind),though I doubt it might happen for the Ordinary Level Examination.

Anyway, straight to topic. Did question one."Life is a journey with many unexpected twists and turns."How far do you agree with this statement? My first impression, is this a Social Studies question? Alright, questions two,three,four and five seem to be hard,but doable. Personally, I had always liked to write expositary esays, whether or not it is easy to wrtie(though the only time I do so in an examination is when I am so unlucky that all the questions are just as hard). I wrote another short essay today, at about a page and a half. The risk I took for this paper, my substantiation of the points to be questions seems like they are repetitions(This could mean suicide). To be honest, this is my seventh expository essay this year(pathetic ain't it?).

Next, paper two was rather interesting. Two passages, with the first passage being easy to understand but its questions take some time before the candidate can understand what it wants. The second, you need more than a couple of readings and some inference to understand the passage, and you will ace the questions for this passage, for sure. The vocabulary questions today are a sure killer,and as for the summary, I must say, it's filled with "double-line crosses".


Now, Mathematics lesson was vacant today, sadly. Anyway, used this time to do what we can for The Day Before September. After that, we went for lunch before departing for Jurong Junior College. It was a long walk,yea, but fortunately, there were shelters along the way,since around half of the group had not brought their own umbrellas. Sad to say, but tomorow we might have to go without Mr Liew again, for he has been hospitalised for an illness which Ms Lim said is food poisoning,while we were on the bus.Hope he gets well soon before the BIG event...

We were honored, to be the first secondry school to visit the JC on their Open House.Learnt quite a deal there, knew how much the place had changed and I felt relieved too, since I had the chance to take up Biology there.Now, it's down to whether I should take up Chemistry or Physics. Something really strange happened.Just as the last person int he group stepped out of the shelter, it poured.I sort of helped the others by holding te umbrellas while allowing their owners to pass throught the gate. After that, all was normal again, so we just parted and headed in all directions. Although my papers and books are safe in my suppossedly water proof computer bag, the bag was more or less drenched on the outside when I finally reached home. So tomorrow, there's going to be another switch of bags again, since my main has gotten a little mouldy on the inside.

Finally, my decision is made, JC route, Science course(either Chemistry or Physics has to go).


So, this is how it goes. The path has been planned, and it's time to head out on the journey with the end in mind. Almost everything else does not matter so much for now, till the last hurdle has been crossed in late October.

Run after run

Yesterday was the annual Corss Country Run, then today I am running a fever.
Damn. There goes my study plans for today.Highest temperature:40, lowest:36.5 Nevermind, the moment it subsides, just take out a textbook and a five year series book to attempt some questions.

I'm feeling relieved that Im not involved in the buying of Teachers' Day decorations. Anyway, at least I have got a little luxury of relaxation. Maybe it's time to get more rest, so see ya soon...

Annual Cross Country Run, Strange Occurences?

Today was a day which I like,not becuase of some unexpected news, but more because of the ups and downs that happened today.I like adenture(to a certain extent)~

Anyway, Steven broke out this news to me today, about this admirer thing(felt like I was being shot), anyway,I dint really believe him, till sometime later. Anyway, A few good things happened in school today. Ms Tan finally entered Physics class for the first time this week, and I finally hit Distinction(a mini celebration) for MCQ!It sure is possible to get an A for Physics after all.Next,Social Studies, Steven passed me a set of my notes(how did it get here?). Stupefied, I just took it, examined the pages, and kept it in my bag.The only thing I remember was that the last time I took those notes out was during the Mid-year examination period, moreover, how was it that a secondary 2 student could get his or her(I think it's a her) on my notes? Nevermind... English lesson, I finally get what I wanted; a one-to-one session on letter writing with Mdm. Azlinah. i really get the idea of proper letter writing and less unecessary words and sentences now, thanks!

After school, had a meeting for that special day, and then, after lunch, went to the study corner with Randall to slack. Count it as strange,but I felt someone was looking from above(third floor in fact, two people). Felt strange, but perhaps it was my oversuspicion of things, since I was feeling sleepy at the moment.

Next, the actual cross country run. Was inspired to clinch the top 10 positions for this one with Gabriel,Sean,Cazua and Fong Yong, until I felt one stitch on my right adomen.Forget it, must be lack of water.Pressed on, and then the piercing pain got worse, decided to go easy on this one, then a second stitch occured, this time on my left side. Dammit, I'm losing velocity and concentration! If only I had drank more water just before the run(if pnly I had read the papers this morning, this might not have happened, cause there's an article whch talks about what to do in a long distance run). Anyway, Gabriel took off without me(wish him luck), followed by Andy(wish him luck too). Ok, I came to this cross-roads where only girls were permited to take. Guess what? Boys, a wave of them, roughly 5 in the group, charged out from within(where were the teachers and student marshals?)Fine,it was only five pathetic souls without any sense of integrity. The next one really pissed me off. anothr wave of students came out from a road junction, this time, around ten of them. Fine, I have decided. So,AT THE TIME WHEN I THOUGHT THAT I COULD ENJOY A RACE THAT HAS FEW OR EVEN NO CHEATERS, I WAS WRONG? Ok, Nevermind, let's walk :) ..."Engine failure" reported,right thigh muscle aching. I had not been running for the past three or four months ever since our NAPFA ended. This was near a block of blue flats. Ok, this is one more reason for walking.Come to think of it, this is my last time running in the school's race. Ok, I have promised that I will not receive a card with three digits. I promised my self that I shall not exceed number 50(my number in 2005 was 25, if I remember correctly). So, the moment I hit the traffic crossing,I started accelerating, thinking of a couple of motivation incidents experienced during the past three years and eight months. I hit the finish, and got a devastating 63. Tat was downright appalling. So, that goes to say that there were more of those who took the short cuts? Nevermind, let it rest. This final race shall be for fun only.

This is the part I liked most about today. The prize presentation. The 4Es formed a new cheering team. When classmates and friends went up to collect their prizes, 120(roughly) students unified as one and cheered and clapped for our friends and classmates. Sure is memorable. On the way home, found out that another schoolmate stayed in Bukit Batok...

Tuesday is going to be the start of the Preliminaries, and that marks the time when I should be really ready for the final one...

Somethings ought to be remembered,
Somethings ought to be forgotten.
Somethings ought to be cherished,
Somethings ought to be abandoned.
Somethings ought to be made,
Somethings ought to be destroyed.

SLightly less than 2 months

Yup, it has finally reached and fell below the two month mark before the actual O levels. Everyone is finally starting to show signs of acceleration in their studies, and most are taking pride in it as well. It's a good sign, but tomorrow, it might be good just to relax and run the annual cross-country tomorrow with pride as well, cause we are going to wear our class tee, possibly for the last time.I'm eyeing the top-fifteen,if not,the tenth position, since this is going to be my second and last chance to take aim at it. Right now,I'm feeling sort of weak,grats to me for getting a really bad cough now. Last year, a green stick fracture on my left elbow left me immobilised for the run, and i wish that tomorrow, I will at least give it my all for that position.

I finally have got my time table out, but I'm trying this out:plan for the week on Sunday, review on Saturday, then make improvements and plan a new schedule again n Sunday(I won't feel bored of studying~)...

I'm just glad that for now, things are going just as fine for most of us, although some might fall at the next hurdle,the preliminaries. Hope that that will be a "once bitten,twice shy" sort of an experience,so that no one will fall at the finish...

Relaxing Wednesday

Today,the periods before recess were practically spent outside the classroom, just like any other Wednesday in the school term, and today might just be our last. After Biology, we went to computer laboratory 4 for our Quality School Experience survey(we did that 2 years ago). Today, it was unique for me. First, I did not have a basic unit(computer) to start off with. I just sat at a dark corner with Auggie, and we waited for our 'work stations' to be ready. When we finally had our computers, I thought everything was solved. Ok, maybe the computer's Internet speed was a little slow, so we had to wait a little. One minute,two minutes."Fine, we'll just have to give you another computer then,"the administrative staff replied.I was stupefied(ok, first the 'vip' treatment by the technician which I least expected, and now, again, by a staff). I finally got my computer, a normal desktop computer. Better than nothing.

Back in class, Lee Zhen, Xue Li, Andy and I came up with the idea of organising some event on a special occasion(not to be disclosed), which then led to a class discussion.This carried on during Physics lesson as Ms Tan was not in school again today, and that gives us just sufficient time to complete the foundation work. Tomorrow, the gathering of resources begins(quite fast and efficient are we, huh.)

Anyway, just hoping that tomorrow can be just as relaxed as today, since the only lesson we (Biology students,yes, the eight of us)literally had today was a mini MCQ test at computer laboratory one.

No more free periods...

Thats it...no more free periods for the rest of the year. PE and the Mother TOngue lessons have ben substituted with other lessons.Making this real short...almost mid night, time to go. See if I can update again tomorrow...

Near Misses

That does and proves it. I'm good at evading~ Best of all,I liked the thrill of it(though doing so too often would put many in danger). During today's Physical Education Class, we were playing Frisbee,and Randall and I used a competition frisbee(the black one). I was getting the hang of it, though mine kept flying real low. Ok, consider it going a little overboard, but I actually played long range with Randall. That freaked many of those nearby out. I was in the middle of the danger zone, with many frisbees going in all directions.Those going at low altitudes were slow, so it was simple to avoid them, but there was one particular one, which I remember was a black shadow whizzing past my eyes, narrowly missing me(whew).However, Damien and Ko Hein did not seem so lucky, when their frisbees crashed onto the roof of the store house at the parade square(if you see it there tomorrow, I got nothing to say, since Mr Lim, our class mates and a few other upper secondary friends have tried in vain to get it down.sep11 sure comes early...f7[some game code where you get that zzz look])

Then,next up was Physics. We were doing this practical which was very similar tot he one we did some time ago.However, luckily,my marble fell off the bench and veered away from the drain and rolled towards the bench in front.

Well, Mathematics was not very good today, with Andy and I dosing off at times.Did he look so obvious(even Pei Xuan said she saw him nodding his head)? Our worksheets have fade lines drawn during the times we slept during the lesson...Funny thing was, while I was dosing off for a couple of minutes, I was dreaming. Strange eh? Maybe it could be possible, since being banned from the game takes only a couple of seconds.

Now,I feel glad that I have finally gotten the go ahead to go into full gear(this is the time I work best at home)...For now, maybe a short visit to the server would not do much harm,ya?

"Stress-free" Examination

It was just like the title said. Stress-free. We entered the hall as a class(there were only 19 of us?)

I did a little calculation, which is like, my turn will come in an hour's time(Darn, if only I had that black figure-of-eight ball),and it did. The questions were real simple(since I had done it before). The passage was simple to read. Perhaps my ulcer got the better of me when I was at the word "conversations"?(Oh yes,it just dawned upon me that the examiner,no offence,but the thinner one said that those from our class under their team yesterday were quite good).

Part 2-Picture Discussion. I remember clearly answering seven out of the 10 questions in the picture, paying lots of focus to the bench of school children(the one with an empty seat in the middle and an old lady), as well as the man with the spectacles.I used the bonus question,which was :If this were a ohotograph for a news article, what caption would you give it? My Answer:A named Primary School Invites Parents And Grand Parents To Help The School On the First Day of School Of Primary One pupils.

Part 3-Conversation
Question1:
The question for the day was on FOOD(nice~). I think I aced this one(except for fluency).

Question 2:
The question was about how I would help the less priviledged people in less priviledged countries. Not too bad at all, but this time, I think I did better in describing some facts, instead of using more vocabulary.

The final question was a round-up of the two questions asked earlier, and I did perfectly for this(from the look of both examiners).

Finally, the time has come to hit full speed ahead. This would mean less posts and of course, less frequent updates... till then....

First Wave of Results

This is for the whole National Day holidays.

First, the actual day itself. Boring, since I started coming down with flu and all. The only thing memorable was the National Day Parade this evening... Due to time constraints, I wont be talking so much.

Next, we had hard core Physics the next day, a Friday. Since we did not have much time left for our practicals, we decided to sacrifise our Friday for this.However, it turned out that we had normal lessons instead. Though unexpected, but it proved to be useful, since we did revision on Electricity today. That was really a time-killer, for three hours and thirty minutes just flew by. What's more,this was the first time all thirteen pure physics students were having our lesson in our own classroom, and having our longest ever physics remedial.

Fast forward to Sunday~

Finally, after 12 days in the UK, my brother finally touched-down at Changi International Airport at 6.06pm.OK. Here's the best part. The moment we reached home. We smelled something like lasksa(but we dint cook it,did we?)Did a sensory test. Led us to him. Wow. It seemed to us that his feet had cooked laksa in Hong Kong. Now, the smell was killing us all. 12 days of activities, ONE pair of socks(I take my hat off for him),nice. Anyway, found out that he had a bad infection, that's why he has that infamous Hong Kong's foot. Next up, souveniors! His bag was loaded, not with gold bars, but more of gifts and momentos. I like this particular stuffed toy of a hare(its life sized~), though its not for me(T_T). Anyway, still liked the things that he brought home(I got an owl, except that it was a porcelin one)...

TOday, received my first batch of General Certificate of Examination for Ordinary Level results for Chinese Language. Well, to put it crudely, I passed with 5 points. Not very appealing to many people out there, but like Darren, I would be more than happy with a pass(whats more, I improved by at least a grade or two).

Anyway, tomorrow is my English Language Oral examination. However, timings have been a little too perfectthese days. I have to get this ulcer today(dammit)....I'm pretty confident of acing the oral examination tomorrow, just like I had aced my Chinese oral examination a few months back.For now, see you soon...

National Day celebrations and Speech and Prize Presentation Day

Overslept this morning and reached school slightly later than usual. At 6.50 am, I came in with Gabriel, before we went to meet up with the rest of the class at the canteen and outisde the staff room.

Today was definitely different from other days, since we were there for celebrations in the morning, followed by some Math later in the afternoon. Things were slightly different for me this year. Instead of being at the parade square, Darren and I were in the hall throughour most of the parade this year. So, we sort of like missed watching the parade inspection and the march past, but, we did catch one thing;The choreography of the Guard of Honor and their new drill, whereby the middle row is to join up either with the row in front or the row behind, forming only 2 rows. While the rarade went on under the sun, the 100-strong prize winners were enjoying the air conditioners inside the hall,though we still had to run through our steps once again.

We watched the National Day video today(my first time viewing one in the school), and the scenes were great.

Now the moment has arrived, but things did not go as most of us had expected.Mr Chia went up on stage with the Guest of Honor(dint really remember his name)?Some of us were wondering"what is this? Wasn't it to be that only the Guest of Honor went on stage, and with the help of an ursher(a councillor)?" Nevermind. What's past, is already past, it can't be undone anyway.

The Carnival. YES! TOday is the first anniversary of me putting on my braces~ However, want to know how I celebrated it? I could only eat things that required minimal biting, since I had changed the wire again(the fourth so far). Cazua,Darren,Wee Keong, some 1E3 peeps and I shouted our throats hoarse today,but it was a good attempt to draw the crowds(including some VIPs to the stall). The service that the kids'(as Andy would say) provided was efficient and great.Nice effort put in!

After that, went back to staff room as most of the class was there. There was some sort of a small question and answer session about Junior Collgeges there, listened a little, and found out that I did not quite know many things(more than those Caleb had told me a couple of weeks ago). Nonetheless, rushed to Randall's place for Guild Quest later, and the initial processes seemed fast, as we completed the first stage in 5 minutes! Another record broken. I messed the boos stage up by forgeting to use my skills to avoid being killed, and caused the bags to disappear.

Now, almost time for our lesson.Randall packed his bag, I took two slices of bread(thanks~ though, but I can't really bite well) and we took a taxi down to school. We practically brought it to Ms Lee, who happened to flag down our taxi as it stopped near the bus stop. Nice.

The lesson was refreshing, though most of us were starting to dose off. So, Mr Liew went into Plan B. We did a graph question, and that really worked(at least it kept me fully awake for an hour), before I started to feel lethargic again. 4.59pm. Wow, he sure kept his promise, to release us before 5pm today. I like it, feeling that I had recovered some lost skills in Mathematics.

Next up, a miracle(not really).I accomplished part of my resolution of the year today, by talking to more than one teacher(as I had not done so for the past 6or 7 years) in one day. Somehow I felt really close after that, and new insights amd truths.

Home Sweet Home at 5.50pm, I read the papers for awhile before starting to feel unwell. Maybe like Cazua said, we are going to watch the NDP tomorrow at the hospital(sounds like fun)... On second thought, maybe not. 7.30pm, I dosed off after staring at the computer for 20 minutes. I had finally depleted all that energy for the day.Now, I did not even have the mood to study, since I was still feeling really tired before I finally forced myself to even type this in.

Alright then, time to go. I'm dead sleepy now. Hope I get well soon tomorrow morning...


so, it all boils down to today, that I feel the committment that I had put in for the last 3 years fading away. Seems like it is time to get down to serious work, and less socialising for now at least, I hope. Right now,I'm still wondring, did I even make the right move two years back, to make the choice of coming this far, and doing little about it?I'm still lacking that determination and courage...

Applications of Humanities

Gabriel had finally narrowed the gap between Social Studies and Geography for the class today. using some skills we aquired during Gepgraphy yesterday, he managed to apply those facts to Social Studies. Wow. Since nothing much happened today, other than having Steven's "game" being passed around the class, we had English.This time, we had to apply Geography and Social Studies into English, since this was going to be the oral topic for today. Wonderful. We did just as well as this morning, applying both SocialStudies and Geographical concepts into this. After school, just wentfor lunch, chatted with some of the juniors, before going home with Andy(and who was the other kid?). Strange, every one in twenty to thirty students who went home after brought home pillows with shades of grey,black, white and some, yellow home. Weren't those the pillows I found dumped at the school's back stage on Wednesday?Oh yea,right. They were used for the SYF...

Nice, short and sweet, that sums up everything for today~

Close, Yet Very Far

I still have other plans after this, so I'll make this short. School. For the first time, I had believed that the school uniform go through only one major revamp. This one turned out to be made up of many minor ones, with the worst being the new orange school Tee shirt. The colour scheme seems to be unmatched ith the uniform. Nonetheless, I'm feeling lucky that we're the last batch of students to graduate in white school Tees.

Nothing much really happened today, except that after school,after the Mathematics remedial, went to 4E3 with Andy to watch him play Grenado Espada. Liked the music and Graphics. As soon as he started and as soon as the atmosphere started to build up, Damien and Cazua entered. Well, as least I gained some insight about the game. As they were organising something for a major event(seems like outsiders, including members of the same class are not allowed in), mybe I should just leave quietly. SOmehow there was a voice from within, saying"leave them, it has nothing to do with you, don't say a thing. Just leave."Subconsciously, I just did that.

At home, something similar occured. Slept for two hours, as I slept for only one and a half hours the night before.I could see two things happening simultaneously,one at the classroom, the other, what was going on back at home(Strange and extraordinary, ain't it?). Somehow, those images seemed so real, as though I was involved in them.

Anyway, Wont be talking much for now... Theres still a test tomorrow, and my brother's flying off to London tomorrow morning.

Photograph Taking Session

The highlights of the day, photograph taking.

This morning, there was this mysterious rain cloud. It seemed that the rain cloud covered only the school. It started raining soon after, allowing us to head to the classrooms. Biology lesson, we went to the computer laboratory and passed time there, surfing the net.

Geograohy lesson was sort of hilarious, with us having only half a period of lessons. We had to take our class photograph, you see. Once back, it was more photo taking as no teacher was around. The boys took their photographs within 10 minutes, while the girls, well, took about double that time to have their first shot taken. We went on to take our 'class' photographs, starting off with those in Biology class, followed by English and Physics.Sadly, the girls "killed" my camera battery after our English lesson.

Other than that, we took photographs with the two Ms Tans, Ms Lee, Ms Khor(pardon my speeling), Ms Kang, and of course, our Vice-Principal, Mr Gomez. Ms Lim came by and gave us(I mean, me) a short lashing for not being in class during our free period after recess.

Gabriel,I and a few others went to help Ms Lim later to carry the newspapers sponsored by her parents( I had forgotten about this project), before joining the rest of the uper secondary students in the hall.Later, we found out that we had 300kg worth of newspapers.Wow.

After school, there was going to be Social Studies remedial, and as there were construction works going on, we had to change our location. I managed to keep myself awake during the first part of the lesson, as I was already very tired at that time. However, I somehow managed to beat most of the classmates in doing our assignment. I wrote at a speed that was twice of thrice my normal speed. Randall was last,and I had to wait for him. I wanted to watch the reharsal for the National Day Parade. Ms Lim was there, and I managed to spot a terrible and pathetic mistake done by the juniors. Where were the seniors? The juniors were not alert at all, noticing the commands only close to fifteen seconds after the command was given. THIS IS WAY TOO SLOW. However, good thing many things fell into place. Ms Lim succeded in chasing me back home this time, I reached the bus interchange and, guess who I met? Sir Jun Hao! It was pure coincidence. Luckily, he was there. I found out that both of us were sort of at fault, since he was not there for the past two weeks, and I had not been watching over them for the whole term.Nevermind. At least now that he knows of it, something can be done. Also, since there is only a few more weeks to go, maybe I could take a small risk by training them a little.


Thats all for now, looks like another long post. Tomorrow, I wonder what awaits us, and I won't be attending the CCA photo taking session after school tomorrow, since I had never done anything beneficial to the CCA groups at all since the start of this year, or to make it sound worse, zero contribution since Cultural Nite 2006.

Tensed

Yeah, as Randall told me this morning, "you sure are tense these few days." i agree to that statement.It was so this morning during Biology lesson and Physical Education. Biology, I burnt myself again, this time, by Andy's literally Red Hot tripod stand. As I thought that it was just the paint, I did not give it a second thought, and, there you go, a swelling red index finger. During PE, I just decided to take things easy, with me running only after hitting the bridge.Next, in the hall, we learnt a game, which was a cross-of a badminton game and tennis game. Well, was it Pickle-ball again?Never mind that. I had fun, since it had the basics of badminton and tennis.Damn, I was a target by someone. upon remembering Randall's statement, I just decided to let it pass, right here.

There was going to be no remedial at all today, neither mathematics nor Physics. That would mean freedom for the class. So, while there was a meeting going on in class, a small oral examination lecture outside, and another meeting of which I cannot disclose went on in the other classroom. What a class!Another group gathered, with the members being Jun Jie,Chie Heng, Yong An,Chong Siang,Gabriel, Wei Fan and of course,me, had the idea of going to Jurong Point for lunch, before the rest of them went for a viewing of the movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with Chong Siang and I going our separate ways later on. We decided to have lunch at KFC, and there it happened, me being tense again. I was separating these fries, when the tray toppled due to its unstable equilibrium, toppling my cup of cola(also due to the cup's high centre of gravity) and causing it to spill its contents onto the floor. Slience settled in for a while, and all turned back to normal. On the way back to school, I met up with the same four. They were Hui Jun,Yixin, Suzanne and Pei Xuan(pardon my spelling). Three were heading for home, while one had a class back at the classroom. That meeting should have ended by now, I guess. And that was where I found out another tinge of darkness looming at the corner of class 4E1. Other than that, there were only 5 classmates aspiring for today, while some others were having an English Language supplementary class.

Anyway, tomorrow's the photo taking session for the school, and I'm going to spike my hair for the second time.,plus I will be bringing my own camera to school.

This time, in commemoration of the lost cameras incident last year, I will not lose them again this year.

Last Chinese paper

Today was another day of major examination. The 'O' Level Chinese Language Listening Examination was on at 3pm, 94.2 FM radio. Well, the day was not as important as this, so, I will just talk about this for today.

The music sounded familiar, as though I had heard it on national radio before. As the music pieces played on, it just become more obvious. Is that Symphony 92.4?My doubts were cleared after the Disc Jockey announced it. Well, perhaps it was a little too late to tell relatives that they could 'sit' for the examination together with me.

I felt really clam this time round. Could it be the music that was played while we were waiting? Classical music has been known to calm most people most of the time. Or could it be the small size of the examination room, given that there was no more than 20 candidates in the room.

3.02 pm on my digital quartz watch. The last cheerful piece of music that was aired had just ended. The tone and sentences ran through the corridors. It had begun.

Everything seemed to be just the same, and our invigilator( I forgot to ask for her name and the school she taught), kindly told a handful of us that the paper was quite simple, and she even helped us to check our answers!Wow! Thanks!I found three to four mistakes after she told us her prediction of the answers to the questions.

Now, I can finally enjoy the days(for now) without the need to study Chinese like there was no tomorrow at the Secondary level at least.The Chinese OWL (you should know what I mean if you have watched the fifth Harry Potter film.I seem to like this abbreviation.)papers have ended!!!YEA!!!

Now, i can finally say,"Whatever the outcome is, and any for any grade that I get for my Chinese
language, I am proud to have the confidence to say that I have done my best for the three papers, and will not take the paper again, even if I should fail."

Sadly, as more 'O' Level Paers fall between the national Day period, Ms Lim does not allow me to march for the school's parade. Hope mysome of my juniors can understand why I broke this promise, for she meant well.

A 'Magical' Friday the thirteenth

This is the second time this year,but it is also going to be the last time in the four years of secondary school.

Anyway, the day began, the first incident arrived. Heard that the Meet the Scientist Event at the Science Centre was going to be cancelled, as registration had closed for this one. The second incident.Morning assembly, there were many new rules introduced. I find them not much of a difference compared to the old ones, but they were either too impractical or too strict.

Physics class.Nothing happened here though, excpet that the third incident came when Randall was summoned for his late homework.

Social Studies. This one was the worst today. Being the fourth incident, I pricked my finger twice by a stapler bullet on my notes which protruded from the paper.

FIfth incident. Mathematics was held unexpectedly aduring our Chinese lesson, best Friday the thirteenth incident today.

Sixth incident, that came after school. Few classmates stayed back after school today.

Seventh incident, cheers! They had bought the tickets! We're going to watcht he movie at Jurong Point at 4pm after all. Met up, went to collect the tickets for Harry Potter(it's only the second day) and The Order of the Phoenix.The movie was nice, especially the duel between two high-level wizards... One thing I noticed, was that one large part of the movie showed school rules being added consistently, the new temporary head-master was hated by the school?As well as the part where the head-mistress stomped into the room... I just felt that maybe what happened in real life was similar to these few scenes( How coincidental)... Anyway, for a more detailed review, perhaps you could visit Andy's site...

As for now, lets just hope that few incidents would appear tonight...And, hopefully I can take part in the school's National Day Parade once last time, for this year, St John is the GOH(I think)...finally...


Ok, fine.maybe it just isn't time to be thinking of unecessary thoughts... Now that its only 3 months away, that effortand endurance would be wort it. It's almost there.

Team of Two OWNED

At first, we were owning the class. Next we were being owned by the largest team in the class. Imagine this: First, a team of two were leading the whole thing at 85 points... next, a team of 6 caught up with and took the lead with145 potins, leaving the pathetic(not really) two with 115 points.

Never mind that... at least we learnt something today...

From today, things would be a little shorter, till mid-November.

First, it felt like half the class travelled back in time to our secondary one days... remember the time when we had a walkthrough for our first cross-country run? It rained heavily halfway through and we had the best run since then... today, history repeated itself, with us running on a different route, but the rain was not as intense as the one we ran through 3 years ago, though a few of us had difficulty runnng with our glasses on...

While the girls went change into their dry uniforms, the boys, being more active, played captain's ball in the hall... If it had not rained, Iwould have played a game of badminton for sure...

Anyway, Physics practical... I drew the shape of a middle finger for my graph today...WOW.... after that, was Math, Physics, and English. Fun, but I always go onto the stage to take a look of the classroom. In other words, I never said a thing up there... Now.... Just type up to here then... I need a break....

Collaboration?

Things just weren't right, at least till the somewhere in the middle of the COMPASS programme. Maybe it was because I slept eraly again last night, or was it because I forgot to complete a couple of assignments the day before?

Nevermind, at least the eight Biology students got our most appalling threat of the year. No matter what,I wont be empahsizing much on it any further. Next period, we did not expect COMPASS to start so early today. At 8.30 am,everyone was already seated and ready for the activities(never felt it as a lecture in the first place). Andy was called by Mr Ong to participate in the National Day Rally speech by the PM, hope you will go on that day,Andy. Seemed like the others were taking their time going back to class(thinking it was geography, but I thought that it was not, with all that talking going on inside). Entered the classroom as though it was my first time there. Strange, yes, as some classmates were seated at different parts of the room. However, it was more because of the fact that I saw two very familiar people in the classroom. Did it look like a typical Geography lesson? No, and it never was.Unfortunately,the place I decided to sit at was the worst decision I made this morning, to move all the way to the front,sadly, won't give any reasons for this one. To make things worse, it was lonely to sit there. Nonetheless, at least I could still get involved in the activities.

We had a break from 10.20 till around 11am(strange, theres only one break today, compared to the usual two break given).Reason? 16 VIPs will be having their Chinese Language oral examination later in the afternoon, and thus, the instructrs wanted to finish the course as early as possible.

11.51 am. The 16 oral candidates have left. With some of the more talkative ones MIA(missing in action for short), the classrooom is no doubt more silent and, obviously, more spacious. Heres where all the fun things of today came in. More hands on work meant being more awake(Randall dint seem to be affected in any way, except that I felt it was just as someone had told us about the way he slept... it was definitely as randall told mea few days ago!!!WOW)

Anyway, after the course had ended, went to meet some of those who had finished their oral examination. Not that difficult for the reading part. The topic conversation question was difficult to understand, but easy to answer, from the look of some of their faces and the way they explained their answers to me. Maybe, it would not be so bad when it is my turn to be on the hot seat in a few days' time. Tomorrow is Be Yourself Day-cum-St John Day. So, perhaps, I will just donate SGD2 for not wearingmy full uniform tomorrow.

It's just the fourth day of the new school semester, and the thoughts that have haunted me for the past two years are back again. Maybe this time round, I should not run away, but find a way to put an end to it. Whether or not it will cause emtional damage, I will have to make the move...

Flight of Time

It's less than 6 months, and we are going in our own seperate ways again, just like what happened four years ago. Seems like this will repeat itselfin another few years' time, and again later in life. Though I hate this, its nothing that can be changed, theres always a time where we all have to leave one another, only a matter of sooner or later.Nonetheless, I wont talk much abut these right now, but will go more in depth as that time comes nearer.

Anyway, a new semester, a new term and new experiences accompany the same people and the new timetable. one word tells it all,"madness". Three quarters of mathematics lessons for the whole week squeezed into two days, WOW, lets just hope I can focus for that length of time.Another thing is the number of new teachers entering the school. Its not that I hate this,but just that with so many coming in at a single point of time just does not seem right. Anyway, enough of ranting(it neither helps nor solves anything).

At the start of the term, that was, Monday, we received many handouts, particularly the timetable. Though it was not at all that bad, I feltit was going to be better days ahead, with more Physics,Social Studies,Chemistry and Biology classes but less Geography periods.However, time is not necessarily the limiting factor most of the time, as although one can squeeze little stuff into a lesson, others might benefit from it. Something that gave me hope was the LEAPS CCA point allocation slip. 18 points! Im now just short of 2 more to get a distinction for my CCA. Its going to be a new record for meand Darren, who will most likely break the record of being possily the first SJAB members to get distinctions for our CCA...

Now, on to today, yesterday was treated like any other normal day. The day was slow and sort of sleepy, but I found that the PE lesson was more energy consuming this time round than those we had in the past.Why? Simple. Many were sleeping soundly during the Mathematics remedial today. Not just that, they were mostly seated in the front rows(true, I found a few who looked cute when they slept...it was just a passing glance across the classroom),Andy left, lesson ended15 minutes later, left school, reached home, end of story.

One last thing though, this Friday is Be Yourself Day, and its also St John Day.Im just wondering, if all the secondary 4E members did or did not wear our full uniform, do we have to pay that SGD2 ? I dont mind paying, but what do you think? If that were you, would you wear the full uniform, or would you just come to school as a normal student?

Drastic measures?

It has been quite a while since I last posted, haven't it? Well, anyway, since there's only less than five months to go, might as well cut down on posting, till the final examinations are over for the year. Although many memorable things have taken place, it might be good tojust put them aside for a while,wait till I have more time, then, maybe just this once,let everything out in ONE single post, anyway, take your time to read it once its done, for I believe it will be close to, or maybe even more than a thousand words long.... till then....

End of first barrier...

Seems to me like it always rained on the first and last day of the examinations. Today, the turbulence of the wind was worse than before.I nearly lost my umbrella to the wind and almost destroyed it due to the air resistance. Anyway, today was the last paper,finally.

We were in the canteen, talking about which questions to expect and going through the formulae one last time, before heading up to the hall, prepared and ready. I did not expect the questions today to be simpler than I had expected.There were only a handful of questions that were hard,but solvable,although I have the doubt I will not score well for these questions.

Anyway, I'm dying to get this post over and done with, so, let's just skip over to the final moments...Ms Lim had our post-examination treat waiting for us in the canteen!Nice!I could skip lunch and save up morethis week(make up for the money I lost due to forgetfulness-did not know I left my ruler in the bag, and had a spare pen in my pencil case).Thanks MS Lim!

The most surprising thing, was that many people I knew were boarding the same train after the examinations today.Strange, but maybe it was because it was the adrenaline rush to do some post-examination shopping with someone close(Right, Siang Ling???)...

Anyway, going off for now... hope that tomorrow will not be feeling so bored...

Hate to say it, but why did many friends made their wrong decision 2 years back and are only feeling remorseful only now?Why din't they appeal,and why did they not thoroughly consider their applications before submitting their choices???

Recovery...

Today, my main focus for the examinations was to recover from the wrekage I caused on Friday. We had our Science(Chemistry) paper 2 on Friday. I messed up for my time management, as I read the wrong time. It was suppossed to end at 9.17am, but I misread the time as 9.47am, as that was suppossed to be the time for the Secondary 4 Normal pupils. Well, this was the first time, but once is ENOUGH. The carelessness was enough to kill me of my target of A1, which was my grade since I took this course.This is going to be my first and last time I got a grade lower than that.

Anyway, back to story. Today the 6 pure students were not here, as they did not have any papers today... So, the eight of us, being the minority who took the Science(Biology) papers, had the first 8 seats. Fortunately, I finally got the chance to seat under an air-conditioner!Call me sick and everything, but I enjoy the cold. I did better this time round, aceing through paper1. the questions were challenging, of course, but there were more questions that required thinking. I went down for a drink of coffee so that I would not see the wrong time again(luckily, this time there was only 1 paper). As I did not have the habit to do last minute revision for all my examinations(since primary 1), I decided to relieve myself by tutoring those who took the Science(Physics) paper 2? Their notes were downright simple! 1 thing that I found out about most students I helped(no offence), was that they were not strong with thier formulae(common for those who did last minute revision/did not do frequent practices) or had weak concepts(I'm one of them under this category).Hope they did well for the examination though...

Anyway, that's all for now, there's the last paper tomorrow which I am not so worried about, excpet that I have yet to conquer my weaknesses in the topics I'm weak in...

This brings the "O" Level Mother tongue paper a lot closer, to 2 weeks away, which is the following monday... All the best for all those taking this examination!

Elites???

Yuan Ching Secondary School,Semestral Examination,Day 4,Thursday,10th May 2007,Secondary 4,Express Stream,English Language Paper 2, Physics papers 1 and 2.

Reached school at 7am to meet Andy, Steven and Jun Jie. Revised Physics notes, formulae and concepts 4 hours before the examination began. Summarised version of today:

English paper started at 9am as school starts late on Thursdays. It was considered to be an esay passage together with practically simple-to-answer questions. I am confident of getting near,if not, hitting distintion this time round.Sadly, although the paper ended really early at 10:40am, the 13 of us had to stay on for 2 papers which started at 11:25am.

Headed to the canten, watched the "unpure" people heading out of the school gate one by one. the boys gathered at the canteen, stocking up on our mental fuel. We struggled through the final moments of memorising to ensure nothing was left out during the crucial two-and-a-half hour papers.

11am. The whole hall was empty, leaving only the pure and the "elites"(Randall and I thought of that name for the thirteen of us) to dominate the whole area. During paper 1, we were seated wrongly, as if free-seating was allocated for the paper(damn it, should have taken the table all the way at the ohter side of the hall). Anyway, an hour later at 12.23pm when the first paper ended, we were rearranged in the correct order this time round(luckily, still no air-con spot). We agreed that this time round the multiple choice questions were very straight forwars and easy to answer. Fortunately, there was a ten-minute transition period before the next paper started at 12.34pm. I headed for the washroom first,since I had a stomache during the first paper, but luckily,it did not cost me much of my concentration. The paper started,and I was perspiring like anything in the hall. Who had turned down the temperature of the air-conditioners?I did not care, just keep the jacket on(who would want to waste time on trivial matters?). I lost concentration at the start, due to that problem, causing me to "donate" a couple of marks to the marker. Anyway, the rest of the paer went on quite smoothly, and I managed to finish it 10 minutes before time-out. After that,left for home immediately at 2.19pm...

imagine us on the actual "O" Level examination, The Elite Sanctum having their Pure Physics paper in the hall, taking up only 13 places and leaving the rest of the seats empty...

Conflicts

The events that occured today all revolved around this word, "conflict". The first incident occured as early as this morning, as I was struggling to wake up. Now,being a "fine" Tuesday morning, the journey to school was short, and yet filled with many incidents. A female student and another teenage girl having a conflict at an escalator landing, followed by two paramedics leaving the Clementi MRT station shortly after 6.30am. No wonder those flashing lights were turned on at the opposite site of the road.

Now, in school, I had some sort of an emotional conflict?Should I tellthe others that the classroom can be opened, or should I not, since it was almost seven in the morning, and that meant only twenty minutes before school actualy started for the day. Never mind, just walk on, and there they were, at the staircase opposite the admin block. At first, I thought, should I go over?Unfortunately, I was spotted. Am I such an ominus person(as Im someone who seemed to be the least interesting)? nevermind, let's just head over to the canteen, have a little chat with Gabriel before heading over to them later on. Went there, took a short break, saw Ms Lim with Zing Zai heading to the office to get the keys to the classroom.Headed up the stairs. Where have they gone? 3N2 classroom. Andy,Steven,Banu and the both of them, as well, were in there(See that, I still can't make up my mind whether or not to list their names down!!!). Helped Andy with his revision, since, if I was unable to get those acts in, might as well help those who were still willing to take the risk and make full use of the last minute revision.

After assembly, the whole class was wondering which way to take, since we were the first to head to the hall. Once there, examination started, I could not make up my mind about which essay question on conflicts would help me sustain a 2 this time round? Guess, after that futile attempt,that grade would only be wandering in my dreams. English Language Paper 1. My favourite. Did the question on "Singaporeans today are more demanding and impatient becuase they are more educated. Do you agree?"This one was much betterthan the two essays I did earlier this morning. I finished it in twenty minutes,inclusive of planing time. Guess what?I broke my record for writing a discussive essay(previous best:30minutes, inclusive of planing time, as well as using only a piece of paper to write a single essay for the first time), Here,I had a battle of words to propose about the ideas for the letter writing, with the main attraction being my one hour of pondering over the format to use for the proposal. In all, I used up an hour and twenty minutes to complete this section. The remaining 5 minutes? I did a mindmap about the title,"Freedom". If you had watched the anime series, Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny, you will know what is the freedom Gundam. Well, you guessed it, I wrote out a plan about the description of the Freedom, as well as the conflicts it and its pilot went through.Surprisingly, I took only 2 minutes and a half to come up with the plan, but, I sort of erased the plan in case someone found out about that.

Anyway, after that, headed home, had a mental conflict this time, Should I even touch the computer? That was my undoing tonight, for I had wasted 3 hours' worth of revising for the coming examinations, which I have completed only 90 or so percent. Seems like its time to stope here, as I have brainwashed everything that had happened to day right here... Seems like I won't have to worry about today until the results are released next week or the week after...


Until today, I have never known the true meaning of stress, not even last year, when I fumbled while at the frontline of the uniformed group. Till today,I only know that I had met my worse enemy, fear, and stress has yet to make its first appearance. ..

Preparation for the storm

It's drawing near, so I'll keep this short and simple. I did my second "long distance" revision, or revision marathon today. I had been laxed since the start of the year, not doing much intense reivision and such, I had even ben sleeping in class and skipping homework? That was the first time it ever happened...Now, the consequences are showing up. Forgetting some basics, unable to reabsorb most of the information taught in class and such. It has past. Now, the best thing to do is to try to revise as much as possible before the final moments draw near.

Anyway, forget about that for a moment, and just take a short break for now. It's not like I can just go on without refuelling. Anyway, many things, both pleasant and unpleasant have surfaced this week, however, these things seemed to have been more intense than those I faced during the past few weeks. Whats more, impossible as they seem, it's like the past is being repeated somehow.I just don't really know how to phrase all this for now, so, maybe I'll just think a little more in depth for the moment, at least, till the startof the examinations.

Friday, did quite little, and the only two events that I remember were the netball finals and the Jurong Point trip. Although our class did their best, they did not come in first, but second. They are not at fault, since, the nature of this class is more toward the frontline on the examinations, the class of the elites, as we have been told many times. Anyway, even though the break for them was a pathetic 2 minutes, but they seemed to have more or less recovered from the previous match...

After that, went to Jurong Point with Andy and Zhong Rong, for he had wanted to buy a few items for the examinations. After that, we went to Macdonalds to grab a bite, talked about the future of the CCAs and a couple of societies, before calling it aday and heading in our own ways....

It seems like we will all see each other for a few more months, before we all part in our own separate ways the same way when we all first came in and met one another...

Official Step Down...

Finally, I have got a lot less things to do in St John Ambulance Brigade and as for ELDDS Drama Society, I'm not so sure whether I have officially stepped down as a member or not. Today was no doubt pleasant right from the start of the day.

Something strange happened to me this morning on the way to school. I somehow managed to get the feel of my legs being restless. With that alone, I seemed to accelerate very quickly, and went beyond my top speed within seconds? After that, I overtook almost everyone on the way, and an ambulance passed by... I sort of got carried away from it, and before I knew it, I was heading for the busstop outside the the school. Stange,ain't it?I entered the school the traditional way. However, I did not see the "advertisement" at the bus stop this morning. maybe it was taken down by someone?For more, visit Damien's post.

Biology, don't wish to talk about this. next, English lesson. We went to the computer laboratory to do some essay assignment, with the title "River Swimming", and the situation as while you were swimming in a river, something shiny caught your attention...Damien finished it even before the lesson started, as he finished it at home. During recess, Mr Liew came and asked Augustine and I to help with the stapling of 45 past year Mid-year Additional Mathematics papers. As I was holding my new,unstapled Biology paper, I felt that I could use the stapler as a service charge.Now, let's head to the time when it's after school(the main course).

I arranged the tables as soon as everyone left the classroom, which is like, solo work?It was definitely a one-man show back there, but as I liked to kill time by arranging tables and chairs to perfection, I did not mind that at all,even at the cost of having to rearrange them again a few hours later(hope Siang Lin sees this). I went back to class to help one of Andy's secondary 1 student to write a letter (err, Andy, what was her name again?). Another area of my interest, and soon, I was so engrossed in it that I sort of exagerated a little?

Finished the two-page write-out in twenty minutes, and headed down to the parade square to watch the 4E1 netball team own the whole inter-class games. We pawned most of the upper secondaryclasses!Went back to class after it started raining, and that was where all the drama tok place. A small group of three were studying, and that area accumulated after some time. Well, the others were playing a short game of Monkey when Siang Lin finally came in, and exploded?Semed that way to the secondary ones, but after that, she was smiling behind their backs...Well, they sort of got shocked, as Andy and I felt that it was perfectly fine to stay in the classroom, which did not seem to be the case, as priority goes to anyone who was studying in class. We packed up, and went to Jurong Point after that. As today was suppossed to be Sara's, Xu Wei's ,Darren's and my last day at the St John Meeting in Yuan Ching Corps, we were prepared for 3.30, however, that timne never came as no one assembled at the study corner...Or was it, suppossed to be next friday? Maybe let's just wait for further news for now, yea.

Went to Jurong Point to celebrate my Last CCA day? notreally, we went there to relieve our stress, four secondary one students(Sorry, but I seemed to have forgotten your names),Zhong Rong,Andy and I. Stayed there till 5.50 before heading home, to prepare for tuition at 7.30pm. Now's already 11.05, and I am here posting, after a day of hard work.

These four years in St John has been a great one, howver, I was not ableto help the corps to break free from the bronze barrier, but we actually did not break the 3-year chain of bronze awards. Although my time in Drama was a pathetic two years, I managed to find committment n the CCA and did my best in acting as well. That Secondary one student, looked so much like her when she was Primary 6...please, don't tell me that I am going to sccumb to the same fate andoutcome I faced four years ago???

The day when More comes to light...

The title's said it. Todays the day when another outcome of the choice I made four years back has come to light. It dates back to the day when the PSLE results were posted in 2003. The were expected, at 214, but we were prepared. Right away, we set off. Visiting schools that meet my requirement. There was this school. It was old. Though it was, there was this clitch about this school. The staff in the compound were kind and friendly, and most of all, the more we went back, the more I felt that it had to be the one.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, a newspaper article today prompted me to write this down. The title of the article "'Ganster School' Fights Back" speaks a thousand words about Yuan Ching Secondary. 29 years old, it is progressing at an amazing rate. Though there is much to say, I believe, that they should be said at a later date... Anyway, I can feel that I had made the right choice, which was choice no.2 on the list.

Yuan Ching Class Quest???

Nothing interesting happened so far except for that, and although there was another incident yesterday, well, it might not be good to include that in here...Now, allow me to take you back to the annual NAPFA Test of Yuan Ching Secondary held on Thursday, 19th April,2007.

3pm. Everyone gathered in the hall for a short briefing. Andy sure was a little satisfied, since this was the first time 30 or so Chinese Dance members were relocated out of the hall for the sake of 9 classes of secondary four and five students. But since Randall was telling me some facts of the sharinean guild quest(MapleSEA), I thought of typing a walkthrough of the NAPFA test in the same format.We had entered the hall after taking our attendence(registration).Anyway, we were given our Station(stage) order after that, and the first was the standing board jump.A test of the classmates' leg strength and jump distance(haste, scrolled for jump equipment and teleport strictly not allowed).There were 18 boys today, as 4 were down for intensive practice for SYF. I made my attempt, with my final score at 226(second attempt).

Second stage:Sit and Reach. A test of the classmates' flexibility.Here, one must sit on a board with a metre that has a metal slide in front of him, while he is supported on the back by another board and a belt preventing him from bending his knees. I wasalways the last to attempt, so I could have gotten the upper hand. I think that I had gotten the highest for the class, at 50cm. CLEAR! We move on to the next stage.

Stage 3: Pull Ups. A test of the classmates' arm strength.Here, one must hang on a 2-metre high pole before lifting himslef up to the rod, thus having only his chin above it. Once done, it is counted as one, and he must get down again, straightening his elbows before going on the next attemptand so on. For this, the top scorers are Andy, at 11 pull ups,Kamal at 9 pull ups and the others who did 5 and got a "C" grade. Many classmates "died" at this stage.CLEAR! We moved on to the next stage.If I was not wrong, this was a "boss" stage, but since it was not the second last stage, it think it cannot be considered to be one.

Stage 4:Shuttle Run. A test of the classmates' agility(Haste and scrolled for speed equipment strictly not allowed). kamal broke the record of another class by hitting 9.78 seconds on the clock. I got another "D"grade by clocking 10.77 seconds. CLEAR! We moved on to the next station.

Height and Weight. A checklist of the classmates' height and mass. Well, this is simply to kill time, and also to restock a little on our lost liquid intake. Well, it was certainly a joke to have my height read as 136.5cm(humilating, eh?).Ont he second attempt again, it seemed better, but I think I had shrunk by a centimeter, from 170 to 169.No CLEAR, as it was more like a transition than a stage.We simply moved on to the next stage.

Stage 5:Boss stage for class 4E1, boys' group. Sit-ups. A test of the classmates' endurance and stomach strength(if that is what they call it). This one'sa though one. No one got killed here, though it was the most tiring after the pull up station. I did 41, and Randall did 43. Just one more, and I could have gotten an "A" grade! CLEAR! We moved on to the Bonus stage.

BONUS Stage: classmates get to re-attempt any one station he did not do so well in. Randall and I returned to the first stage, the standing board jump station, and we got slightlymore satisfying results.

Caualty count(injuries): 3. Gabriel who experienced a bit of thoigh preoblems before his attempt at the standing board jump station, Andy who crammed his left leg at the sit-up station and me, for a crammed thigh at the sit and reach station.

Casualty count(failed attempts of classmates): i did not pay so much attention for this, although I know that about less than 10 failed their pull ups.

First aider(Cleric): Me,of course... :P

I'm finally out of the bronze barrier after 7 years,but a silver's not good enough for me...

SPCA Flag Day

This might seem a little outdated, but i have just only found time to write about it tonight. Anyway, I woke up at 4am in the morning to catch up with my maplesea account...Strange eh? I would not have anymore time for that once it hits daybreak. For your information, I am a ludibrium-based level 44 cleric in the world of Delphinus of MapleSEA. My IGN is RY91D. Soon, I will be creating a new character. Anyway, back to topic. Ended at 6.30 to prepare for the Flag Day. I reached Jurong Point at 8am, as it was the reporting time. The people from SPCA came late, at around 8.25am. Andy,Randall and I formed a team, collected our can and flags(not stickers) and headed out to on our quest to "beg" for donations.

First stage, Jurong East MRT Station. As we travelled by MRT, we were among the first to arrive. Weselected the first spot, the traffic crossing. It was extremely fast, though, within less than an hour out of the 2hours and 30 minutes allocated to us, Randall had already completed our first page of flags! However, as time passed, so did more groups pass by. Time to change our collecting location.

Next stop, Jurong West Market. We headed back to Lakeside MRT STation, rehydrated ourselves before heading there by bus 187. Sadly, we hardly sold more than 10 flags there. 3 groups of 2 had already taken that spot. So we moved on to the third stage at our final location, Ghim Moh Shopping Centre. We rehydrated ourselves again before taking bus 99.On the way there, guess what? Yong Chuan(pardon my spelling),together with a few others was playing basketball at a nearby basketball court!Wow!There they were,slacking away while having a job to do. Think about this, someone having 2hours and 30 minutes added into his CIP hour bank for playing basketball??? Anyways,back to the scene.Andy did a little while outside the shopping centre. By then, our can was already three quarters full. I took over after that, and completed our 100th flag before going off for a lunch break at 11am. We went back at 11.35pm to fill the last quarter. I managed to get out of my shell this time, ask anyone who came our way to collect a coin or two.There were kind ones, morale boosters and also, those who would not like to make a donation or they had already made one. That, was in fact the hard reality of society.

12.10pm, I sold the 150th flag that filled our can to the brim(RECORD BROKEN!!!) 5minutes before time. We took a bus straight back to the end point, Jurong Point Shopping Centre. We were praised by the collectors at the collection point, for achieving a grest collection that filled the can. That day was the second time this year that I participated in a flag day. The last time was two weeks ago when St John Ambulance Brigade had one, but I did not have to "beg", as I had Mathematics remedial that day. Now, what comes after each party quest in MapleSEA is completed? The BONUS Stage, of course! We got a certificate of participation and a bottle of water for the hard work.

I headed back to Jurong East after that to buy some paint and brushes for my model set, which is already nearing its completion, due at the end of term 2. Headed home for lunch and to get ready for tuition at 2.30pm(that's why I could not make it to the school's Chinese Dance troupe's full-dress reharsal at 3.30pm)...Tuition ended at 4.30pm, and I prepared for the next one at 6.15pm, at Bukit Panjang... Finally, at dusk, I reached home at 7.30pm,had my dinner, completed somerevision before participating in Azure Sanctum(my MapleSEA guild)'s next attempt at the new Sharinean Guild Contest and guild quest...

For now, maybe its back to a little more training before i reach level 50 and help the guild once again...

Annunal Sports Meet 2007

Today was possibly the last time I attended Yuan Ching's annual sports meet. Woke up at 5:30am(15 minutes earlier than usual) to pack some essential items before leaving for Clementi stadium at 6:15.As expected, reached Clementi MRT station at 6:24am and the first person I saw was Alex. Stayed with him for a moment before heading off for the stadium(had to reach there before7).

Once there, there were members of the public jogging, walking and exercising at the stadium. So far, as much as I could see, Andy and Fong Yong were the only ones there at the time...Went to meet up with the other St John members, before having our briefing for the day. Joined the class for National Anthem and pledgetaking before reporting for the first aid staton on the other side of thefield with Xiu Wei and Brendon... We had a little "party" there, with snacks and drinks, since we were expecting the least casualties to appear at that area(only track events that consist of distances over 400 metres were our area of concern). However, we still had to liase with the other three stations as they were running out of certain equipment before the first hour after the first event started.

10am, went back to class. Well, this is the first time in four years that I actually joined the class for the annual sports meet.After that, went to meet up with Andy to take a walk around the grand stand...A stormarrived at 11:34am, causing the last few events to be cancelled, and of course, the finale of the meet was pushed forward...There was cheering at last, comingfrom the secondary four area, which had been almost quiet since the start of the day...Really had fun back there.

Went with some of the boys to Jurong Entertainment Centre after we were dissmissed for lunch,before heading home earlier than expected.I had wanted to go watch Mr Bean's Holiday with them, but I was going to watch it with Andy and Randall on Saturday anyway...

Sometimes,being physically lonely does not always mean that one is emotionally and mentally lonely...

Turning 16

Today sure was one normal day. Although it might have been my birthday, I believe that is just a small significance to this time of the year. However, no matter how fast time flew today, I still had a chance to celebrate it, and that was during supper, since I had SJAB after school followed by tuition at 7.30pm. Well, we celebrated the occasion with Chicken,coleslaw, Mashed potato and a 1.5Litre Pepsi bottle, not to forget, the cake. Other than that, although I did not receive any presents in the real world, I did receive two in the virtual world(seems like the virtual world of Maple sea is full of surprises, just like in the real world)...

There was a course today on making plans in life, no matter how short term nor long term they may seem. This course is known as the Compass Programme. Was it interesting and exciting? From my point of view, it was, though I found myself falling asleep, not because that the course was boring, but I was so comfortable with the pace that I lost concentration and almost drifted off to sleep. That occurred after Mr Liew left the class(he sat beside me during the one period after our recess).

Shortly before and after SJAB ended today, it was just too close for me, since Damien had left for home soon after the Compass Programme, I was on the Most Wanted List for birthday bashes. Everyone was chasing me for a short period of time, but the sudden but vital appearance of Ms Lim for the CCA debrief saved my line. That marks that my first and last birthdays in YCSS do have have such a thing as a birthday bash...:)

Such times like these are rare,but I believe that that is what gives a family portrait a rainbow of colours...

Closing in

The start of the new term marks another step closer to the examinations. however, there is still time(except for one) to make improvements...

This time, I will simply be doing a short summary of the things done since the start of the holiday...till today.

Monday:
Biology remedial. Late start and late end with little being learnt defeated the purpose of the lesson. Went home and did more revision after that. However, little did I expect a calm after the storm, when Clara invited my brother over to her place to do his job week(He's a scout), whereby we enjoyed an ice-cream treat before and after the job was well done.Her parents sort of brought us out for dinner on our way back home.

Tuesday:
Today was a little more interesting. Mathematics remedial in school.Although I was late, still managed to catch up with all that was learnt since that morning only yesterday. After lesson, went home, more revision(that's the best time to do my revision, for once the school starts, there might not even be a decent time for proper revision).

Friday: Only tuition...

Saturday:
Went for a friendly match against Cazua's friends at the field near Commonwealth MRT station. We were trashed 13:2 with weak defences and attack strategies. However, I managed to learn one thing about my capabilities for the 2000 m fartlek relay held during the Sports heats on Tuesday. After that, we washed up and headed to Jurong Entertain Centre for lunch. After lunch, Darren and I went to a model shop to take a look at the models there(offer on going).I saw something I liked, and returned that evening after tuition to purchase it. What was it? Maybe I'll release it at a later date.im done with the fixing phase already. Now there is just the painting phase to be done.

Start of Term 2

Monday:Other than the fun activities during drama, I dont seem to remember anything else...

Tuesday:
This was what I found out on Saturday's trail run on Saturday.I had only 1 good chance of sprinting successfully, and that has got to be appropriately timed, for a blunder could bring disaster to both the team and myself(during the trial run, I was on the verge of collasping). To make things worse, I could only sprint for 300m during the last lap after cruising on my first lap and another option which was also very risky, was to sprint the moment I received the baton, for that way, I could complete the first 600 metres at top speed should I be in top form on that day, however, I will not be able to run normally after that, as I would have exhausted all my energy on the early sprint. When it was my turn finally for the relay, I took the second option, which really turned out as I had expected, since I had only looked at the short term goal for that part of the race, which was to gain back the first place and maintain speed(which I would most probably fail to do so). The disaster occured when I found myself only able to sprint to second place for the first 500 metres before losing all that energy to last me the next 300 metres. When almost all others passed me, I made that lethal gamble: To make that second sprint to finish in 4th, but I will most probably faint upon reaching the finish line. I did that, but on the last 50 metres, I found myself starting to lose my sight, causing me to crash into Clement. By right I should be slowing down, but for unknown reasons, I was going a little faster, only to lose out to him at the finish line. After that was when I made a successful attempt to get back to my friends. Although we lost, I know for sure that I had put in more than 100% into that final leg of the qualifying round.Bad news was, my legs were in terrible shape after I reached home at 8:20pm, with a really bad muscle ache and temporary paralysis.


Thursday:
Today during PE, Though my legs had recovered quite a bit, they were not really in the best condition for a long distance run. Surprisingly, I could run without stopping for 2.4kilometers and still complete the run within the time limit! I had expected myelf to fail terribly...
Had Geography remedial till 4pm, before going back to the classroom to do some bio revision for the test tomorrow. Reached home, had second session of tuition with cousin before doing this now...

Anyway, tomorrow's going to be another tough day with a test, a course, CCA and tuition...


Though there was hardly a chance to relax, those good times would still arrive, sooner or later...

Prelimary examination comes early...

The English prelimary oral examination was on since yesterday, and might not be ending till around Friday. Today was actually to clear those in 4E1,group 3 who did not have any CCA today.

Anyway, though the day past really fast again, it's only another 3 days before the March Holidays start, bringing us another step closer to the final examination. We got back our Pure Physics and Science(Biology) Common Test paper today. yesterday, I received my Geography Elective and Science(Chemistry) common Test papers. The marks are as shown:

Geography:16/25
Physics:19.5/30
Science(chemistry):25/30
Science(Biology):25.5/30
Science(Chemistry/Biology):81/100


Today, Pei Xuan came to school with a bandage on her left wrist. Well, from a distance, it looks like a wristband, while on close scrutinity, it looked like a bandage made from a piece of thin paper. Though it sort of reminded me of the month where I had the cast on, I felt that I was lucky to escape from the fact that I did not have to go through the torture of doing an experiment in the science laboratory(wonder how it was like using only one arm to turn on the bunsen burner and use the spatular)... At least though she said that it was her injury that got worse after dancing on Saturday, after helping to do some housework, but I felt that it was more like retribution?

Tomorrow I am finally going to get back my Mathematics and Additional Mathematics paper, and possibly, my misplaced Chinese common test paper?

Happy Chinese New Year-Part 4

Today's the 14th day of Chinese New Year. What's the significance of this day? Well, I don't really know, excet that today is the third gathering and reunion dinner... redundant eh? It might seem that way, but the time we spend was worth it. Though weonly had dinner and watched the Liverpool versus Manchester United Leg of the English Premier League(my second or third time watching the league)...

For food, there was sushi, fried rice, pasta and noodles with some respect to Chinese New YEar tradition(where you mix the ingredients together with auspicoius words and use your chop sticks to aise the noodles up as high as you can), and although that was the third time, I quite enjoyed it, for thosewere the onlytimes when you find it meaningful to play with your food, I guess. Finally, I am so glad and relieved that my stomach has recovered from it's worst nightmare this month, that is, I can eat like a normal person again!Yeah!

The match liven up the atmosphere of the gathering tonight, and that was the main highlight for tonight, with ManU scoring 1-0 to Liverpool. As I am sort of like a neutral party in soccer, I dintreally care which team won or lost, I just looked out for the sportsmanship of the two teams, though. While at that, My mother was sort of talking to my cousin's mother about what we did for our CCAs in school, as usual, and guess what, I learnt even more about my cousin's CCA, however, I don't really know whether that is something good or bad...

We took 5 photographs before calling it a day(Our usual finale itemfor most gatherings), at 11pm. By the way, right now, I am right here typing this, and soon, it will be time for a good rest...

This is the record number of times we ever had gatherings over the 15days of Chinese New Year... Maybe there might be 4, or even 5 next year???

Week of the Tests

This week was another sign that this year is filled with challenges. The first "examination" period for the Academic Year of 2007. English Language(Paper 1) and Social Studies on Monday, Mathematics and Geography Elective on Tuesday, Science(Chemistry/Biology) on Wednesday, Pure Physics and Additional Mathematics yesterday and Chinese Language today.

Well, of course, there were bound to be moments of relaxation in between too, for they are mainly lessons, events in class and games of soccer today. If you are asking about the events, they all occured yesterday. First was Mr Liew's talk session, which srt of knocked some sense into the class about the efforts Ms Lim to bind the class together. Next was free period, as Ms Lim was on the way back from a conference from Suntec. While discusing about the class-T, Pei Xuan actually gave me, Damien and Chi Kai some sweets. However, I had doubts, as the sweets had a weird taste. Indeed, I was right. Since this morning, I had been in and out of the washroom for almost 10 times now, including a visit of which I went straight into the toliet cubicle around ten minutes after arriving in school. After that, we went to the hall for an inspirational talk of a very successful former student, followed by the class chairmen investiture.


Today, it was lessons, Chinese common test, followed by two games of soccer before heading home to prepare for tuition inthe evening.... What happened during those times? It's sort of like a long story... Damien's page would have the best typeout for this area...

After this today, there is another gathering at my cousin's place again tomorrow. Hopefully I will be in good health to savour the food tomorrow...

Times like this are rare, but...