Yep! The holidays have officially started this week, and it's been a busy week so far. Oh, before we go on, this is the first of a weekly seven part series, on every Friday. Bringing weekly updates into the holidays as we progress into the next semester. The first week, was like a catapult on an aircraft carrier, propelling me into the holiday mood.
Monday-Tuesday:
The first ever class outing on this vacation seemed a great way to kick off this vacation, as we had a 2 day 1 night stay at a chalet at Downtown East. Met up with Yin Feng at 1.55pm, before An Yan came and we took a bus to the resort to meet up with the rest who were already waiting to check into the chalet. The chalet was way smaller than the one at Aloha resort, which was at least three times larger than our current one. There was a barbecue, followed by games and a drinking session? As the sun set, so did the aura of darkness overcome its chains that bore it down during the day. There were many parties being held, and playful pranks were in abundance, though the mess was expected, that did not stop a large group of students on a study trip to stay at the resort. As the place became darker, so did the intensity of some of the celebrations. All that I would say that, some things were unprecedented, but have taught us many lessons. At 10.40pm, Jian Hui,Jun Jie and I escorted Hamzi and Janna to the MRT Station and taxi stand respectively. That was due to past experience of what my friends experienced earlier this year, that we decided to do the same just in case something similar happened. As we approached midnight,I noticed that the place was sort of broken into three small parts(I related to them as the partying area, the middle line and the peaceful zone). We were in the Middle Line, as we were in the middle of the chalets of the partying students and those where tourists and students stayed at for the night. That night, a series of events brought us closer together, as well as a series of lessons that we will never forget.
Wednesday:
Today would have to be the day that I found courage to go for my first job interview. I had a strange, monotonous tone during the interview, which I had never experienced before. Strange. Well, till today, I have yet to receive a call that I have been selected for the job later during the vacation. Anyway, if by next Friday i have not received a call, I doubt I would have the time to get a job, and would be back to studying in preparation for the next semester's modules. After the interview, I decided to have a preview of the Comex, by walking to Funan to take a look at the games,earphones and tablet add-ons for my laptop. The pricing for some of the products were reasonable, but,I thought that maybe I would get those gadgets if I had received my pay, should I get a job. Headed home at 6pm.
Thursday:
8 days before the registration for Basic German 102(sequel to the Basic German enrichment programme that ended last semester) closes. I went back to school for the registration at 3pm, but sadly, I forgot the last digit of the pin. Oh crap. This was the third time I had forgotten something as important as that. The first time wasn't that important as it was a game, the second time, it was for the gym, the third was my password for my library account. This is the fourth, and I promised myself, today, would be the last time I would forget something as vital as the ATM PIN. With all that free time left, I headed to Suntec Convention Centre for Comex 2008. I happened to meet Darren by coincidence at the fourth floor. He was there with his dad and sis. The booth layout for the fair was alot better with more space for walking, but, one thing that was missing this time round, was the presence of good deals for computer accessories. Maybe that was due to the fact that today was the first day of the fair. After two hours, I reached home at 6pm.
Friday:
Today, met up with Andy and Zhong Rong at 7.45 at Lakeside MRT Station before going back to Yuan Ching to watch the Teachers' Day performance. there was a new segment, the school's new mass dance. Though I did not know how to go about doing it, the thought of mass dance brought back memories from the first month spent at MI. I'm wondering how the teachers who took the effort to take us on a tour into the realm of life in a JC, are doing. It's been 6 months since I last entered the school gates, though I still see it occasionally as I used to live there more than 10 years ago.
Anyway, back to the performance, it's still the same as the previous years, although there were not as many performances put up by the main performing arts groups. The class parties were brought down, to be held at the intra-school level, so as to liven up the celebration, and also to allow teachers to be with more than one class at any one time. Kudos to the organising committee for overlooking those factors.
This was proven by some of the teachers we met today, and this year, the school saw many former students coming back to see their teachers. I must say, that today was almost like a reunion for 4E1, with at least three quarters of the class being present in school today. Mr Liew even joked about going to one of the classrooms for a recap on differentiation and integration to bring back the memories we shared during his lively lessons which I till miss till today.
At 1pm, Andy,Randall, Gabriel, Chong Siang and I left for Boon Lay after collecting our testimonials and certificates. Andy had to head home to get ready for his swimming training, while the rest of us headed to Jurong Point for lunch. At 2pm, Randall and I left for the bank to reset my ATM PIN, before we went to Singapore Polytechnic so that he could submit a form for a camp. We the took bus 74 to Ngee Ann Polytechnic for my second attempt to make the payment for the Basic German 102 course. At first, the machine could not read the card which caused quite a scare, but on the second attempt, I finally successfully made the registration! Now, we went on to Vivocity to help Sean(MI friend) search for a high grade perfume that fetched a 3-digit price tag. Well then, I'm sorry, but exactly what errand I was running for Sean, must be kept a secret till who knows when. This afternoon, one thing I noticed was, every time he answered the phone with a smile, you could almost be sure that he was enjoying precious moments with someone precious. And today was no exception as well.
Randall and I rushed back to Clementi at 5.40pm to get ready for a small reunion dinner. After that at 8pm, the group of us who sat together for dinner went to the sports complex for 2 hours of billiards. Randall and I left early as we were too tired to continue. many Thanks to Randall for accompanying me for the whole afternoon today!!
Right now, I realised that I am feeling lost again. Would I meet that person soon? Is that person already in my life, just waiting for me to take notice? I have got no idea, and I seem to have lost my resolve in holding the bow and arrow, which could be the explanation to why I am feeling lost. Perhaps, dreams could help me see the answers to these questions, and hep me overcome these times once again.
A day ago,
we exchanged greetings.
A week ago,
We engaged in conversations.
A month ago,
We went almost everywhere together.
A year later,
Would those times still be there?
One day,
We met.
Every week,
We promised to be together always.
Each Month,
We would catch up on lost time.
A year,
Could our hopes last?
No one knows for sure what exactly could happen next. For now, I will just keep searching for the answers, hoping that one day, I would definitely find the precious stone and treasure it like there was no tomorrow.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Premature start to the holidays
Today's only the 9th day of the 2 study and examination weeks, and our class has already started celebrating with an afternoon spent at Sentosa's Siloso Beach. However, although our class has already inished our examinations, some friends who are from the other courses have yet to complete theirs. Some are completing their last papers tomorrow, while others will complete theirs on Friday, the last day of the examinations.
This morning, at the bus stop, I met a friendly bus captain at the bus stop, who recommended me a cake shop which sold really good cakes somewhere in Bedok. I guess I should really head down to try out the cakes, and perhaps buy some back home too, and if they're really delicious, maybe I could get a whole cake for a birthday party.
AN hour later at 12.30pm, met up with Jian Hui, Jun Jie, Izzat, Kisho, An Yan, Janna and Nura at Vivocity, before taking the Sentosa Express over to Beach Station, where we walked down to Siloso Beach. We set up our mats under a tree, and went for a game of beach volleyball. Well, today was the first time I tried the sport, but it seemed that I ws able to control the ball without much difficulty, perhaps because I learnt the basics back in secondary school? After that went for a dip in the sea, so as to prevent myself from getting sun burnt(it proved to be really useful, as it turned out that I might be the only one from the group who escaped being sun burnt). At 2.30pm, we cooked. Yes, we did cook, with solid fuel, a stove and 2 mass tins. To some tourists, we might have looked a like bunch of fools taking along packets of instant noodles to a beach. But, we did have fun cooking as well as finishing our dishes, for we had saved some bucks on service charge and GST.
After lunch, we continued on with our game of volley ball as well as into the water to cool ourslves down to escape from the afternoon heat that ws bearing us down. At 6pm, we left for the Luge for a short ride. The luge ride down to the finish point was refreshing in a way, and there were some nice scenes during the ride to the starting point! Jun Jie said that he was able to drift on the track as there were many sharp bends, but I'm not sure if it the craft could drift.
Some photographs taken today:
We left Vivocity again at 6.40pm, this time for a proper meal. At 8pm, only Jian Hui, Jun Jie, An Yan, Janna and I were the only ones left, so we decided to follow Janna on her hour-long shopping spree, which was considered to be one to the shortest so far. Anyway, the actual holidays only start next week. So what to do for these few days before the holidays start? Well, maybe I should continue to find a job, or maybe I should just search for some games to play online?
This morning, at the bus stop, I met a friendly bus captain at the bus stop, who recommended me a cake shop which sold really good cakes somewhere in Bedok. I guess I should really head down to try out the cakes, and perhaps buy some back home too, and if they're really delicious, maybe I could get a whole cake for a birthday party.
AN hour later at 12.30pm, met up with Jian Hui, Jun Jie, Izzat, Kisho, An Yan, Janna and Nura at Vivocity, before taking the Sentosa Express over to Beach Station, where we walked down to Siloso Beach. We set up our mats under a tree, and went for a game of beach volleyball. Well, today was the first time I tried the sport, but it seemed that I ws able to control the ball without much difficulty, perhaps because I learnt the basics back in secondary school? After that went for a dip in the sea, so as to prevent myself from getting sun burnt(it proved to be really useful, as it turned out that I might be the only one from the group who escaped being sun burnt). At 2.30pm, we cooked. Yes, we did cook, with solid fuel, a stove and 2 mass tins. To some tourists, we might have looked a like bunch of fools taking along packets of instant noodles to a beach. But, we did have fun cooking as well as finishing our dishes, for we had saved some bucks on service charge and GST.
After lunch, we continued on with our game of volley ball as well as into the water to cool ourslves down to escape from the afternoon heat that ws bearing us down. At 6pm, we left for the Luge for a short ride. The luge ride down to the finish point was refreshing in a way, and there were some nice scenes during the ride to the starting point! Jun Jie said that he was able to drift on the track as there were many sharp bends, but I'm not sure if it the craft could drift.
Some photographs taken today:
We left Vivocity again at 6.40pm, this time for a proper meal. At 8pm, only Jian Hui, Jun Jie, An Yan, Janna and I were the only ones left, so we decided to follow Janna on her hour-long shopping spree, which was considered to be one to the shortest so far. Anyway, the actual holidays only start next week. So what to do for these few days before the holidays start? Well, maybe I should continue to find a job, or maybe I should just search for some games to play online?
Monday, August 18, 2008
Return of the long-term break
The holidays have arrived again! Yes, this time, standing at 8 weeks(including this week), it's longer and perhaps, far better than the long break after the PAE period. This might seem all too appealing to the JC students, but, I don't really like the luxury of extremely long breaks, as it greatly reduces and kills the momentum that has been building up for the past 4 months. I' m considering getting a job for the first time during the break, but, I'm also not sure if I'm up for it.
Anyway, today's paper, was, as expected, the easiest among the three. Yet, ironically this was also the module that I spent the least amount of time to study for. Compared to the 10 hours I spent on Math, 6 hours I spent on Electrical Technology, I spent a meagre 1 hour on Mechanics alone. And that 1 hour of revision was done only yesterday. The language used in that paper was somewhat similar to the standard used in the "O" Level Additional Mathematics papers. Just read the question, and you would know right away what kind of question you were going to face. The Mathematics paper, for most of the time, all you had to do was simply to look at the question to know how you were going to answer the question. I would still say that the Electrical Technology paper was the most challenging, whereby each question carried a certain level of difficulty. And, true enough, this paper was definitely many times tougher than the common test which was held 2 months back. However, there is one thing in common in two of the three papers. The last question was always the one that would kill off the average students, who simply revise jut enough to pass the respective modules. The last question in both the Mathematics and Mechanics papers carried a total of 12 marks, which meant the difference between an extremely low A grade and a Distinction grade.The mathematics question proved itself to be one of the toughest any student who took the module had ever come across. As for the Mechanics paper, it was simple on first glance. But, if one were to do the calculations on paper in black and white, one would find the solution to the question to be extremely tedious, thus running a high risk of making a careless mistake.
On the whole, I will definitely secure a decent A+ grade, if not, I might be able to get my first AD grade.After the exam, half of the class headed to West Mall to catch the movie, Money No Enough 2. I won't say that the movie was not good, nor was it excellent either, though visibly, there were a handful of great actors and actresses in there. Though touching at times, the jokes also managed to pack quite a punch, creating a great ambiance at the start.
I headed home at 3.30pm, before heading to the nature park for a run after the rain, which proved to be a very big mistake. Firstly, I did not place the pedometer in the correct position in my pocket, which resulted in reading only 0.673 kilometers and less than 900 steps. Next, the frequent sprints every few hundred meters made me feel so weak that I felt like collapsing shortly after reaching home. Now, I'm down with a mild fever. So, I guess tomorrow, I might have to end up giving up on going on the Sentosa trip with the rest of the class. Even if I could Make it there tomorrow, I doubt I will have much energy for some of the activities there as well.
Anyway, today's paper, was, as expected, the easiest among the three. Yet, ironically this was also the module that I spent the least amount of time to study for. Compared to the 10 hours I spent on Math, 6 hours I spent on Electrical Technology, I spent a meagre 1 hour on Mechanics alone. And that 1 hour of revision was done only yesterday. The language used in that paper was somewhat similar to the standard used in the "O" Level Additional Mathematics papers. Just read the question, and you would know right away what kind of question you were going to face. The Mathematics paper, for most of the time, all you had to do was simply to look at the question to know how you were going to answer the question. I would still say that the Electrical Technology paper was the most challenging, whereby each question carried a certain level of difficulty. And, true enough, this paper was definitely many times tougher than the common test which was held 2 months back. However, there is one thing in common in two of the three papers. The last question was always the one that would kill off the average students, who simply revise jut enough to pass the respective modules. The last question in both the Mathematics and Mechanics papers carried a total of 12 marks, which meant the difference between an extremely low A grade and a Distinction grade.The mathematics question proved itself to be one of the toughest any student who took the module had ever come across. As for the Mechanics paper, it was simple on first glance. But, if one were to do the calculations on paper in black and white, one would find the solution to the question to be extremely tedious, thus running a high risk of making a careless mistake.
On the whole, I will definitely secure a decent A+ grade, if not, I might be able to get my first AD grade.After the exam, half of the class headed to West Mall to catch the movie, Money No Enough 2. I won't say that the movie was not good, nor was it excellent either, though visibly, there were a handful of great actors and actresses in there. Though touching at times, the jokes also managed to pack quite a punch, creating a great ambiance at the start.
I headed home at 3.30pm, before heading to the nature park for a run after the rain, which proved to be a very big mistake. Firstly, I did not place the pedometer in the correct position in my pocket, which resulted in reading only 0.673 kilometers and less than 900 steps. Next, the frequent sprints every few hundred meters made me feel so weak that I felt like collapsing shortly after reaching home. Now, I'm down with a mild fever. So, I guess tomorrow, I might have to end up giving up on going on the Sentosa trip with the rest of the class. Even if I could Make it there tomorrow, I doubt I will have much energy for some of the activities there as well.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
A leap throught time
This post was meant for yesterday...
Yesterday marked the start of the examination of the first semester. Just like back at the "O" Levels, the first paper was a Mathematics paper. It seemed easy at first, but, as you progressed along, one would feel as though he was scaling the height of K2. The last question practically killed almost everyone in the examination room. 12 Marks just to prove who could get the "AD" grade. What kind of madness was that?If my calculations were correct, I would be able to manage a maximum of 84 marks, which would secure an A grade. However, if the marker was strict, I would have to make do with 70 marks, which carries the B+ grade.
After the paper, I headed home to clear my mind of the ordeals of that paper by taking a short nap, followed by more revision for the next paper, Electrical Technology, at 3pm. I was still messing up the formulae for Electromagnetism and some other concepts. Although I managed to clear part of my doubts through the last paper that I tried, there was still the minor portions of the module that I had yet to clear. After an hour and thirty minutes at 4.30pm, I went to turn the TV on, out of boredom(I had lost my drive in revision after getting most of the tougher questions wrong on the first attempt). I happened to catch the third, fourth and part of the fifth match between Team Singapore's Women's Table Tennis Team against the South Korean Team. Well, it seemed to be going quite well after watching the fifth match, so I though maybe I should go for a short run(I planned earlier on Wednesday to measure the distance I covered on the route yesterday). My dad accompanied me on the first 1.5 km, and I continued on the remaining 3.5 after we reached the traffic light before the nature reserve. We set off at 6pm. As we covered the route, there were lots of occasional cheering from the nearby cluster of blocks of flats. From there, I could already tell that Singapore was just inches away from the window that would grant the city-state her first Olympic medal in 48 years(first ever since independence in fact).
Somehow, I managed to pace myself such that I covered 5 kilometers in 20 minutes, which was really surprising, as I had walked part of the distance and even waited at for the traffic lights to turn green twice. Maybe I should go for a second attempt on Monday to be doubly sure that I had covered exactly 5 kilometers yesterday. And upon reaching home, the Singapore women's' Table Tennis team really defeated the South Koreans to enter the finals! CONGRATS!!This also grants Singapore at least a silver medal in this year's Olympic games in Beijing.
On to today....
This morning, the second paper was Electrical Technology, another tough paper. Although the paper of somewhat manageable, I made a serious blunder at the 3rd question, which cost me 6 marks. If not for that question, I would be able to be assured of at least an A grade, but now, like the Mathematics paper yesterday, I run the risk of scoring between 75 and 84 marks for this paper. The last paper's on Monday, and that would be my last chance to turn the table around for this semester.
After the exam, went with the rest of the class for lunch, before heading to the library to get Jian Hui teach me the fundamentals of torque(a crucial topic if I wanted to get at least an A+ grade), before I head home with Jenere at 1.30pm.
Slept till 5.40pm, before I got ready to go for dinner at a restuarant at Velocity with my relatives. The food sure was delicious! Thanks alot! And, I guess I got another job offer, this time as a phone promoter, but I'm still not sure if I should head out to work, or just stay at home to enjoy life and relax as much as I can till the nest semester. I don't wish to repeat the same mistake of relaxing too much like this term, which has already potentially caused my loss in 3 A grades this semester.
Tomorrow's going to be one heck of a day, with the last chance to get at least an A+ grade on Monday(to make things easier, the Mechanics paper is always one of the easiest to do extremely well in, so the chances of getting full marks for that paper are pretty high).
Yesterday marked the start of the examination of the first semester. Just like back at the "O" Levels, the first paper was a Mathematics paper. It seemed easy at first, but, as you progressed along, one would feel as though he was scaling the height of K2. The last question practically killed almost everyone in the examination room. 12 Marks just to prove who could get the "AD" grade. What kind of madness was that?If my calculations were correct, I would be able to manage a maximum of 84 marks, which would secure an A grade. However, if the marker was strict, I would have to make do with 70 marks, which carries the B+ grade.
After the paper, I headed home to clear my mind of the ordeals of that paper by taking a short nap, followed by more revision for the next paper, Electrical Technology, at 3pm. I was still messing up the formulae for Electromagnetism and some other concepts. Although I managed to clear part of my doubts through the last paper that I tried, there was still the minor portions of the module that I had yet to clear. After an hour and thirty minutes at 4.30pm, I went to turn the TV on, out of boredom(I had lost my drive in revision after getting most of the tougher questions wrong on the first attempt). I happened to catch the third, fourth and part of the fifth match between Team Singapore's Women's Table Tennis Team against the South Korean Team. Well, it seemed to be going quite well after watching the fifth match, so I though maybe I should go for a short run(I planned earlier on Wednesday to measure the distance I covered on the route yesterday). My dad accompanied me on the first 1.5 km, and I continued on the remaining 3.5 after we reached the traffic light before the nature reserve. We set off at 6pm. As we covered the route, there were lots of occasional cheering from the nearby cluster of blocks of flats. From there, I could already tell that Singapore was just inches away from the window that would grant the city-state her first Olympic medal in 48 years(first ever since independence in fact).
Somehow, I managed to pace myself such that I covered 5 kilometers in 20 minutes, which was really surprising, as I had walked part of the distance and even waited at for the traffic lights to turn green twice. Maybe I should go for a second attempt on Monday to be doubly sure that I had covered exactly 5 kilometers yesterday. And upon reaching home, the Singapore women's' Table Tennis team really defeated the South Koreans to enter the finals! CONGRATS!!This also grants Singapore at least a silver medal in this year's Olympic games in Beijing.
On to today....
This morning, the second paper was Electrical Technology, another tough paper. Although the paper of somewhat manageable, I made a serious blunder at the 3rd question, which cost me 6 marks. If not for that question, I would be able to be assured of at least an A grade, but now, like the Mathematics paper yesterday, I run the risk of scoring between 75 and 84 marks for this paper. The last paper's on Monday, and that would be my last chance to turn the table around for this semester.
After the exam, went with the rest of the class for lunch, before heading to the library to get Jian Hui teach me the fundamentals of torque(a crucial topic if I wanted to get at least an A+ grade), before I head home with Jenere at 1.30pm.
Slept till 5.40pm, before I got ready to go for dinner at a restuarant at Velocity with my relatives. The food sure was delicious! Thanks alot! And, I guess I got another job offer, this time as a phone promoter, but I'm still not sure if I should head out to work, or just stay at home to enjoy life and relax as much as I can till the nest semester. I don't wish to repeat the same mistake of relaxing too much like this term, which has already potentially caused my loss in 3 A grades this semester.
Tomorrow's going to be one heck of a day, with the last chance to get at least an A+ grade on Monday(to make things easier, the Mechanics paper is always one of the easiest to do extremely well in, so the chances of getting full marks for that paper are pretty high).
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
2 days to the "Three Course Meal"
Firstly, Happy Belated 43 Years to Singapore~
Been some time since I typed about something in here. Let's start from Friday again. First up, the photos(Taken from Andy's blog)!!
The largest reunion since the start of the year(I bet the next one on August 29Th would be bigger)
Kim Fong, Andy and me
The whole group of us
Picture with Mr Foo
The temporary canteen(A sea of RED)
Picture with Miss Lee
(I still don't have the guts to pronounce her full name like the others)
Picture with Miss Ker
Anyway, on to Saturday, Went for lunch at a country club, guess I forgot the name of the country club and the restaurant, though we're going to another branch on Saturday. After that, went home, took a short break, before heading down to Lido Cineplex in Orchard to watch the Dark Knight with my cousins. Pretty nice show, with a balance mix of lines and action. At around 7pm, we went to the car park to get into the cars. Just then, one of the Black Knights' F-16 fly over the building! So, first, we saw the Dark Knight, then after that, we sighted a Black Knight. How cool was that?
So next day, I took a short break, before the real intensive revision started on Monday. On Monday, there were students who came over to practice the piano in preparation for the examinations. So, while that was going on, I memorised all the formulae or the 3 papers, of which the first paper would be on this Friday.
Yesterday and today, was plain revision. Raced against time to complete my papers within an hour. Did Mathematics in the morning, followed by ELTech in the afternoon. As for today, it was almost the same, except that I did something I have not done since February. I finally had the chance to go on a 4km long run. After going on the first 2km at around 11 km/h, I could not hold on any longer. By the way, I have not included the incline of the distance covered in the nature park. So, I guess it could be more than four kilometers.
Right now, my legs are hurting. I had never felt them hurt that badly since the long distance cycle a few months back. Anyway, tomorrow it's going to be one heck of a day, with only Mathematics revision going on for close to one full day.Maybe we should make that, slightly more than half a day, at around 12 hours. So, for now, it's 2 days and counting...
Is it going to come soon? Or would it be fine to just let it go, and no one would notice? Or, wait. I might be able to do something about it, yet no one would notice anything...
Been some time since I typed about something in here. Let's start from Friday again. First up, the photos(Taken from Andy's blog)!!
The largest reunion since the start of the year(I bet the next one on August 29Th would be bigger)
Kim Fong, Andy and me
The whole group of us
Picture with Mr Foo
The temporary canteen(A sea of RED)
Picture with Miss Lee
(I still don't have the guts to pronounce her full name like the others)
Picture with Miss KerAnyway, on to Saturday, Went for lunch at a country club, guess I forgot the name of the country club and the restaurant, though we're going to another branch on Saturday. After that, went home, took a short break, before heading down to Lido Cineplex in Orchard to watch the Dark Knight with my cousins. Pretty nice show, with a balance mix of lines and action. At around 7pm, we went to the car park to get into the cars. Just then, one of the Black Knights' F-16 fly over the building! So, first, we saw the Dark Knight, then after that, we sighted a Black Knight. How cool was that?
So next day, I took a short break, before the real intensive revision started on Monday. On Monday, there were students who came over to practice the piano in preparation for the examinations. So, while that was going on, I memorised all the formulae or the 3 papers, of which the first paper would be on this Friday.
Yesterday and today, was plain revision. Raced against time to complete my papers within an hour. Did Mathematics in the morning, followed by ELTech in the afternoon. As for today, it was almost the same, except that I did something I have not done since February. I finally had the chance to go on a 4km long run. After going on the first 2km at around 11 km/h, I could not hold on any longer. By the way, I have not included the incline of the distance covered in the nature park. So, I guess it could be more than four kilometers.
Right now, my legs are hurting. I had never felt them hurt that badly since the long distance cycle a few months back. Anyway, tomorrow it's going to be one heck of a day, with only Mathematics revision going on for close to one full day.Maybe we should make that, slightly more than half a day, at around 12 hours. So, for now, it's 2 days and counting...
Is it going to come soon? Or would it be fine to just let it go, and no one would notice? Or, wait. I might be able to do something about it, yet no one would notice anything...
Friday, August 08, 2008
National Day '08
This week, was actually, extremely unpredictable. First, I started habering random thoughts(the kind I never thought of before, but fre not, they are not the foolish kind of thoughts). Then, on Monday and Tuesday, things seemed to be going real well, but then, on Wednesday, disater struck. That's the first time I failed in something that I had so much confidence in. Yesterday seemed to be the only fine day, when I could do things normally. Anyway, the other days are over, so perhaps I should worry about those things afer te examinations, and concentrate on the up coming exams which is in less than a week's time. Tonight, I realised that I am not really myself, but still, I have got no idea exactly what it is.
On to today, I finally have the chance to return toYuan Ching again. Met up with Darren at 8.25 before joining up with the others at the bus stop. We then adjourned to school. Things have changed so much. The school budget seemed to have increased, and they have upped the number of vending machines by 3 from 1 to 4. For the first time after leaving the school, there was no parade, nor was there any performances. Well, at least the school kept that 4 year old tradition of having a carnival to raise funds for the school. Andy also gave his valedictory speech oday upon receiving the Most Outstanding 'O' Level result award and the All Rounder Award. And, Mr Hon is back! Yes, he's back, and that would also mean that the school's discipline would be climbing back up to where he initially left it a year ago. After everyone left at 11.20, Randall finally arrived. We headed to the office only to realised the clerk was not around. So, we decided to return on the 29th of August to collect our testimonials and certificates.
We went on to Jurong Point to meet up with Zhong Rong and the others for lunch. Once there, we did not eat anyting as either the queues were way too long or there were not enough seats for us. In he end, the rest of the guys went ahead to town, while Randall, Xiu Wi and I went to SP. Randall and I went for lunch, while Xiu Wei went for her lesson. After that, w went to his classroom to slack or an hour from 1.30 to 2.30pm. After that, I left at 2.30pm fo school, as the last lesson was starting at 3pm. There was a National Day celebration going on at the convention centre, but, it seemed that I din't have time for that as arrived in school right on the dot, and I was already lucky enough to be on time.
Anyway, after tonight, no, maybe after tomorrow night, then I will really start studying. I still want that 4.0!Tonight was also the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.Oh and photos will be up soon!
Could I be experiencing what some friends know as being emotional? Or, is it some other thing? I have never experience something as advese as this before. Being irritated for a moment, followed by feeling worried during the next and then feeling extrememly high and so on. I feel as though something worse might be coming, but, I have got no idea what could happen next, other than to just take things as they come, which is not really the best way out of things in situations like this. Someone help me please...
On to today, I finally have the chance to return toYuan Ching again. Met up with Darren at 8.25 before joining up with the others at the bus stop. We then adjourned to school. Things have changed so much. The school budget seemed to have increased, and they have upped the number of vending machines by 3 from 1 to 4. For the first time after leaving the school, there was no parade, nor was there any performances. Well, at least the school kept that 4 year old tradition of having a carnival to raise funds for the school. Andy also gave his valedictory speech oday upon receiving the Most Outstanding 'O' Level result award and the All Rounder Award. And, Mr Hon is back! Yes, he's back, and that would also mean that the school's discipline would be climbing back up to where he initially left it a year ago. After everyone left at 11.20, Randall finally arrived. We headed to the office only to realised the clerk was not around. So, we decided to return on the 29th of August to collect our testimonials and certificates.
We went on to Jurong Point to meet up with Zhong Rong and the others for lunch. Once there, we did not eat anyting as either the queues were way too long or there were not enough seats for us. In he end, the rest of the guys went ahead to town, while Randall, Xiu Wi and I went to SP. Randall and I went for lunch, while Xiu Wei went for her lesson. After that, w went to his classroom to slack or an hour from 1.30 to 2.30pm. After that, I left at 2.30pm fo school, as the last lesson was starting at 3pm. There was a National Day celebration going on at the convention centre, but, it seemed that I din't have time for that as arrived in school right on the dot, and I was already lucky enough to be on time.
Anyway, after tonight, no, maybe after tomorrow night, then I will really start studying. I still want that 4.0!Tonight was also the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.Oh and photos will be up soon!
Could I be experiencing what some friends know as being emotional? Or, is it some other thing? I have never experience something as advese as this before. Being irritated for a moment, followed by feeling worried during the next and then feeling extrememly high and so on. I feel as though something worse might be coming, but, I have got no idea what could happen next, other than to just take things as they come, which is not really the best way out of things in situations like this. Someone help me please...
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Two sides
Today was somewhat slacked, as I had totally left the books at one corner, ignoring the revision schedule for today(if I even had one). Met up with Andy, Damien and Zhong Rog for lunch to celebrate Andy's Belated 17Th birthday at Nihon Mura, Jurong West Sports Complex. Once again, many thanks to Andy for the treat!!The lace seemed pretty new, as when I went over to Andy's place last year, the complex was still under construction. We spent 3 hours on lunch and catching up on lost times. We sat down from 11.30 till around 2.45pm, before Andy walked home, while Zhong Rong and Damien went to Jurong Point for Some arcade racing, and for me, head home to keep some young guests company at home, at least for the next couple of hours before they went home at 6. The journey home took an hour and a half, as I decided to save on transport costs and took the bus instead.
So, headed home, sat down and watched a movie with them, before they went off at 6. had dinner after that, and watched The Day After Tomorrow at 7. Life seemed pretty boring after reaching home because of 1 reason. Tomorrow's going to be the first day I start not even 2 weeks, but 8 days of intense revision. After that, it would be 7 weeks of slacking at home, or perhaps, some occasional outings with friends.
During the course of the movie, random, but sensitive thoughts ran through my mind. And, I met my other self while that was happening. So far, had been giving it names, 3 to be exact.And as for the random thoughts, exactly when they arrived and what they were, well, I'm not really sure, and please accept my sincerest apologies as I don't really wish to mention them here. However, I might share them with you, if you're willing to lend a listening ear.
Maybe it came at the right moment, maybe it did not. Exactly whether it's time or not, I still have no idea, although I know very well that for as long as they're kept in, they'll never get out. So, when the time finally arrives, will I be able to make the right decision?Am I able to do the right things? Damn! Maybe, should I simply wait for that one window to appear, and see how things go from there? Or maybe...
So, headed home, sat down and watched a movie with them, before they went off at 6. had dinner after that, and watched The Day After Tomorrow at 7. Life seemed pretty boring after reaching home because of 1 reason. Tomorrow's going to be the first day I start not even 2 weeks, but 8 days of intense revision. After that, it would be 7 weeks of slacking at home, or perhaps, some occasional outings with friends.
During the course of the movie, random, but sensitive thoughts ran through my mind. And, I met my other self while that was happening. So far, had been giving it names, 3 to be exact.And as for the random thoughts, exactly when they arrived and what they were, well, I'm not really sure, and please accept my sincerest apologies as I don't really wish to mention them here. However, I might share them with you, if you're willing to lend a listening ear.
Maybe it came at the right moment, maybe it did not. Exactly whether it's time or not, I still have no idea, although I know very well that for as long as they're kept in, they'll never get out. So, when the time finally arrives, will I be able to make the right decision?Am I able to do the right things? Damn! Maybe, should I simply wait for that one window to appear, and see how things go from there? Or maybe...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Catching up
This week proved to be relaxed, yet intense at the same time. So far, it's still very much relaxed, as the syllabuses for almost all the modules have been completed, leaving us with just 1 week before the final examinations. After that, it's a whole new timetable with new lessons, lecturers and a wider social circle. And, I also feel that my English standard is coming back to me! It's een a couple of months since I felt that way.
Monday was a breeze, as the topics for Math and ELTech were dne befoe, back in secondary school, so the lessons were more or less revision. Yesterday, what' the point of going to school for 20 minutes? It's just to do a simple, 10 question quiz(but I think I might not do as well as the options were very similar to each other). So,maybe it should have been like the previous term, completing the quiz immediatey after the practical session, so that there would be more time for revision yesterday. Well, guess it could not be helped, as history can't be changed.
Today was intense, especially during the last lesson. Mechanics was like havin a competition of skill against time. 7 questions, 2 hours, 1 paper. The length of the question increases as you turn the page, and so does the number of lines it takes to completely answer the respective questions.
During Math, the lecturer was covering the last portion of Matrices, and it's damn easy. Today was the first time we were allowed to use laptops for the lecture, as it was required for the lecture, but, apart from using the program to do the calculations, some of us were having our own private conversations, so much so that our lecturer also signed into his account.
Finally it was computer programming. It was exactly one week before the exam, and we were still not very sure of one of the sequences for the programming. And, our project was due in less than a week's time! Wow. Man, we were all rushing to get thins done as soon as possible, so as to make time for our revision on Monday, our definite last chance to clarify any outstanding doubts we were having since the first lesson.
And soon, it's going to be the term break, and there's going to be a chalet stay, and maybe a small reunion with friends I had lost contact with for way too long.
OH, AND I ALMOST FORGOT,
HAPPY SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY ANDY!!!
Monday was a breeze, as the topics for Math and ELTech were dne befoe, back in secondary school, so the lessons were more or less revision. Yesterday, what' the point of going to school for 20 minutes? It's just to do a simple, 10 question quiz(but I think I might not do as well as the options were very similar to each other). So,maybe it should have been like the previous term, completing the quiz immediatey after the practical session, so that there would be more time for revision yesterday. Well, guess it could not be helped, as history can't be changed.
Today was intense, especially during the last lesson. Mechanics was like havin a competition of skill against time. 7 questions, 2 hours, 1 paper. The length of the question increases as you turn the page, and so does the number of lines it takes to completely answer the respective questions.
During Math, the lecturer was covering the last portion of Matrices, and it's damn easy. Today was the first time we were allowed to use laptops for the lecture, as it was required for the lecture, but, apart from using the program to do the calculations, some of us were having our own private conversations, so much so that our lecturer also signed into his account.
Finally it was computer programming. It was exactly one week before the exam, and we were still not very sure of one of the sequences for the programming. And, our project was due in less than a week's time! Wow. Man, we were all rushing to get thins done as soon as possible, so as to make time for our revision on Monday, our definite last chance to clarify any outstanding doubts we were having since the first lesson.
And soon, it's going to be the term break, and there's going to be a chalet stay, and maybe a small reunion with friends I had lost contact with for way too long.
OH, AND I ALMOST FORGOT,
HAPPY SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY ANDY!!!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Falling behind
Well, guess this is going to be one long post. Let's head back to last Saturday. Had wanted to post this up, but as I wanted to add some colour to the post, decided to keep it till tonight when all the pictures were ready.
Last week met up with CATS group for our project on jaywalking. Looked simple at first, but on closer look, there was a lot more things that had to be done, such as information gathering on the Internet, photo taking, recording short clips, compilation of a report, designing, circulation and analysis of surveys and the design of slides for our presentation, all of which will be compiled into one report. If I'm not wrong, most of the people in JCs would be doing that as well, perhaps, on a larger scale. For us, everything was done in 3 days, compared to the one year or so time frame for Project Work, done by students in the JCs.
Our group(from left):Jun Jie, Jia Jia, James, Yee Xiang, ME
Our class..
We started off from Orchard MRT Station, and walked from Wisma Atria to Plaza Singapura. The moment we were on ground level, there were already jaywalkers around us. Our job during the walk was damn simple. Just snap away at jaywalkers or take video footage of them jaywalking, without being detected by the jaywalkers themselves. Along the way, we were sort of slacking, crapping around, taking photographs every now and then, chatting with two groups of student buskers along Orchard road, either helping them complete a task or taking a photograph with them. By the way, Jia Jia was the best. She completed 6 things on that day itself. 2 projects, 1 short meeting with friends, collection of promotional hamper and helping two groups of students. Actually, she started out with 2, while us guys started with only one thing in mind, to complete the project. Soon, we had more "mini tasks" to fulfill. We took photographs for two groups of students, the first was for fun, and the second group was for a national event, carried out by students from SMU. Upon arrival at Plaza Singapura, she sort of coerced us to join her in the queue to collect a free promotional hamper. Once done, we trained down to Woodlands to complete half of our project(a quarter was done 2 Thursdays ago in school, and the last quarter was done on Wednesday).
Here's a small portion of what we took Last Saturday:
We brought us back souvenirs!
Dinner & project @ Woodlands
Today was the first and last Parents' Forum in school, as it was held only for the first year parents, to let them know moe about the education system in a polytechnic, a things such as the starting time each day, grading and examination system as well as the learning system are totally different from secondary schools. Only a handfull from our class turned up today, and there wasn't much things to comment about as well, as we spent like only 2 hours there talking to the lecturers and finding out about our grades, before heading for home. And, as expected, I did score straight As for the common tests last term. And, in less than 2 week's time, it will be the finals, and sadly, I had not started on revision of any sort. Well, will just have to start in the morning then, otherwise I would really lose sight of 4.0...
[BLOG UPDATE]
Added 2 new links:
Nicole(MapleSEA) and Janna(NP)
Replied tags
Last week met up with CATS group for our project on jaywalking. Looked simple at first, but on closer look, there was a lot more things that had to be done, such as information gathering on the Internet, photo taking, recording short clips, compilation of a report, designing, circulation and analysis of surveys and the design of slides for our presentation, all of which will be compiled into one report. If I'm not wrong, most of the people in JCs would be doing that as well, perhaps, on a larger scale. For us, everything was done in 3 days, compared to the one year or so time frame for Project Work, done by students in the JCs.
Our group(from left):Jun Jie, Jia Jia, James, Yee Xiang, ME
Our class..We started off from Orchard MRT Station, and walked from Wisma Atria to Plaza Singapura. The moment we were on ground level, there were already jaywalkers around us. Our job during the walk was damn simple. Just snap away at jaywalkers or take video footage of them jaywalking, without being detected by the jaywalkers themselves. Along the way, we were sort of slacking, crapping around, taking photographs every now and then, chatting with two groups of student buskers along Orchard road, either helping them complete a task or taking a photograph with them. By the way, Jia Jia was the best. She completed 6 things on that day itself. 2 projects, 1 short meeting with friends, collection of promotional hamper and helping two groups of students. Actually, she started out with 2, while us guys started with only one thing in mind, to complete the project. Soon, we had more "mini tasks" to fulfill. We took photographs for two groups of students, the first was for fun, and the second group was for a national event, carried out by students from SMU. Upon arrival at Plaza Singapura, she sort of coerced us to join her in the queue to collect a free promotional hamper. Once done, we trained down to Woodlands to complete half of our project(a quarter was done 2 Thursdays ago in school, and the last quarter was done on Wednesday).
Here's a small portion of what we took Last Saturday:
Our "starting" point(Not exactly ours, but this was Jia Jia's starting point)
We brought us back souvenirs!
Dinner & project @ Woodlands
Well, come to think of it, why was someone missing rom the picutres? Well, Yee Xiang had to meet a friend on that Saturday, and as we believed that it was a date, so maybe we should let him go, just in case we become the cause of a break-up.
Thursday was the submission day for our project, and everything was in place, until we ran into some problems during the presentation. The report was really well done this time, with little touch ups being done at the eleventh hour.Today was the first and last Parents' Forum in school, as it was held only for the first year parents, to let them know moe about the education system in a polytechnic, a things such as the starting time each day, grading and examination system as well as the learning system are totally different from secondary schools. Only a handfull from our class turned up today, and there wasn't much things to comment about as well, as we spent like only 2 hours there talking to the lecturers and finding out about our grades, before heading for home. And, as expected, I did score straight As for the common tests last term. And, in less than 2 week's time, it will be the finals, and sadly, I had not started on revision of any sort. Well, will just have to start in the morning then, otherwise I would really lose sight of 4.0...
[BLOG UPDATE]
Added 2 new links:
Nicole(MapleSEA) and Janna(NP)
Replied tags
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Little time, little progress...
Another week is about to end, taking us closer to the final examinations for the first semester. So far this week, I had been slacking off. Not doing any revision at all. Even if I did, it was pretty much last minute work, which can't really be considered to be revision at all. Yesterday stayed behind after class to do our project. Within 3 hours, we completed the backbone of the project, defining the problem, elaborating on the problem, finding the solutions, and creating the surveys. All that's left to do is the final report and to get pictoral examples as well as videos to support our report, so that we can be assued of a higher A grade this time round.
So far this term, had not been meeting up with friends that often, and I had not been revising either. All that I have been doing was, well, catching up on sleep?Looking forward to the days where I can meet the different groups of friends again, but, first, I have got to clear the semester, and secure the straight As I had back in the first term. It's just a month left before the next 2 month long break sets in.
Well, just finished creating the survey, and was pretty much an easy task, thanks to the JC peeps who looked me up since the start of the month to do their surveys. So, maybe I could say that it's time to get them to return the favour? By the way, don't worry, it wun't kill off more than 10 minutes of your life. Oh, and here's the link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=M_2bdI0_2fixcH5JH9gjdqcTIw_3d_3d
So far this term, had not been meeting up with friends that often, and I had not been revising either. All that I have been doing was, well, catching up on sleep?Looking forward to the days where I can meet the different groups of friends again, but, first, I have got to clear the semester, and secure the straight As I had back in the first term. It's just a month left before the next 2 month long break sets in.
Well, just finished creating the survey, and was pretty much an easy task, thanks to the JC peeps who looked me up since the start of the month to do their surveys. So, maybe I could say that it's time to get them to return the favour? By the way, don't worry, it wun't kill off more than 10 minutes of your life. Oh, and here's the link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=M_2bdI0_2fixcH5JH9gjdqcTIw_3d_3d
Friday, July 11, 2008
First C Grade
Today was the first time I studied so damn hard for a test this year. I studied from 9pm yesterday, till 3am this morning, and went to take a nap till 9am. School was easy going today, especially for the lessons and practical before the lunch break. Today was also the last day of the POLY experience for secondary school students, but, it was also the day of an examination for the computer programming module. Was expecting it to be extremely easy today, as the lecturer had reassued us it was going to be easy for us to handle. The practical for Mechanics was the same as the previous one, and today, it was also the last practical for our class. So, everything went really smoothly this time round, and because of that, I'm already looking forward to the new semester, where there will be more practicals.
After that, we went off to the library to study after lunch, and then back to class for more lessons. This time, I forgot to sign my attendance for the tutorial class. Damn. Well, perhaps being assumed absent just once for class would not hurt yea? After that, we went for Electrical Technology class. There were more things to remember, and this time, and I was dosing off in class, again. Anyways, I managed to note down everything taught in class today so that revision will be alot easier tomorrow. Today we were also released early as the people who took the retest could have their question papers returned to them.
So, we headed to the library, once again, to revise for the programming test. At 5.40pm, we went to the examination hall. The hall was on the eighth floor of block 53. I never knew that there could be such a large room on the eighth floor of that block. The papers were distributed at 6pm, and all hell broke loose. The paper was way difficult than expected. The first question, told to us by our lecturer, was really easy, so I should be getting the full 45 marks for that. As for the second, I knew almost everything except for the last part, so I should be getting around 25 to 30 out of 35 for that question. Finally, the third. That was truly a killer. With an estimated 50 lines of codes, with the total obtainable marks for that question capped at 25, who would even bother attempting that question? At least, that was the thought of some of the candidates who left the hall early after finishing the first two questions of the paper, while leaving the third question totally blank, without much trace of an attempt on the question. And I wonder, would you even do a survey on behalf of 50 people, and to make things worse, on a program that only the command prompt on the computer can decipher and tabulate on your behalf? I know that I won't waste my time on such things. Well, but, since it was just to test our proficiency on the codes and sequences, I must admit that, that question was very original. It seems that, although I put in lots of effort for the revision, it seemed that all I revised was not enough. So, for that test today, I should be able to secure between 65 to 70 marks for the test.
i have finally decided, that, for the rest of the term, I should become a little more lifeless, so that I can acheive the aim of getting 4.0 for the semester.
After that, we went off to the library to study after lunch, and then back to class for more lessons. This time, I forgot to sign my attendance for the tutorial class. Damn. Well, perhaps being assumed absent just once for class would not hurt yea? After that, we went for Electrical Technology class. There were more things to remember, and this time, and I was dosing off in class, again. Anyways, I managed to note down everything taught in class today so that revision will be alot easier tomorrow. Today we were also released early as the people who took the retest could have their question papers returned to them.
So, we headed to the library, once again, to revise for the programming test. At 5.40pm, we went to the examination hall. The hall was on the eighth floor of block 53. I never knew that there could be such a large room on the eighth floor of that block. The papers were distributed at 6pm, and all hell broke loose. The paper was way difficult than expected. The first question, told to us by our lecturer, was really easy, so I should be getting the full 45 marks for that. As for the second, I knew almost everything except for the last part, so I should be getting around 25 to 30 out of 35 for that question. Finally, the third. That was truly a killer. With an estimated 50 lines of codes, with the total obtainable marks for that question capped at 25, who would even bother attempting that question? At least, that was the thought of some of the candidates who left the hall early after finishing the first two questions of the paper, while leaving the third question totally blank, without much trace of an attempt on the question. And I wonder, would you even do a survey on behalf of 50 people, and to make things worse, on a program that only the command prompt on the computer can decipher and tabulate on your behalf? I know that I won't waste my time on such things. Well, but, since it was just to test our proficiency on the codes and sequences, I must admit that, that question was very original. It seems that, although I put in lots of effort for the revision, it seemed that all I revised was not enough. So, for that test today, I should be able to secure between 65 to 70 marks for the test.
i have finally decided, that, for the rest of the term, I should become a little more lifeless, so that I can acheive the aim of getting 4.0 for the semester.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Drift
Yesterday had the thought that everything was going fine, only until it was the second lesson of the week, Computer Programming, did I notice that I was in fact still not ready for the up-coming examinations. The first was going to be held this Friday, and it was for Computer Programming. I would do perfectly well for the first 2 questions. However, I might have to leave the last question blank if I do not do any reading up or practice the codes before Friday arrives.
ELTech was worse. After the common tests, I seem to be getting more slacked. I can't remember simple formulae for the 3 new chapters that were taught during the past two weeks. And as for Math, so far so good, not much problems other than the usual careless mistakes. Better start revising for Complex Numbers or I would not be able to get an A grade. With time passing so much faster now, there's less than 2 months before the exams. Even though it's just three papers, they still mean alot to the final grade. I really need the grades to achieve my first 4.0 for the first of six semesters.
Anyways, today was pretty slacked, and today we were building bridges! It's damn fun, as long as you don't get burnt by the hot glue. The bridge Hamzi and I built, can withstand a total stress of 5kg, but when the last frame is completed, I bet it could take much more than just 5kg. Instead of following the rest of the class to Bugis today, I headed straight for home. I believe that now's the best time to really get down to work to prepare for a possible project presentation for German class tomorrow, and for the Computer Programming exam on Friday. Guess I won't be slacking as much this term compared to the previous. And finally, I think I'm ready for some lifeless studying from next week onwards, once I clear the exam this coming Friday.
ELTech was worse. After the common tests, I seem to be getting more slacked. I can't remember simple formulae for the 3 new chapters that were taught during the past two weeks. And as for Math, so far so good, not much problems other than the usual careless mistakes. Better start revising for Complex Numbers or I would not be able to get an A grade. With time passing so much faster now, there's less than 2 months before the exams. Even though it's just three papers, they still mean alot to the final grade. I really need the grades to achieve my first 4.0 for the first of six semesters.
Anyways, today was pretty slacked, and today we were building bridges! It's damn fun, as long as you don't get burnt by the hot glue. The bridge Hamzi and I built, can withstand a total stress of 5kg, but when the last frame is completed, I bet it could take much more than just 5kg. Instead of following the rest of the class to Bugis today, I headed straight for home. I believe that now's the best time to really get down to work to prepare for a possible project presentation for German class tomorrow, and for the Computer Programming exam on Friday. Guess I won't be slacking as much this term compared to the previous. And finally, I think I'm ready for some lifeless studying from next week onwards, once I clear the exam this coming Friday.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Noises,Voices,Choices 2008, The History Project
This week sure was tiring and very packed. There were rehearsals from Monday to Wednesday, from 6pm to 10pm. Did not really focus much in class this week so that I could conserve some energy for the rehearsals. On Monday, almost evrything was in place, audio, lights and props. Tuesday it was the same, and Wednesday, everything was in place, almost as if it were the actual day. On Monday, things seemed as though almost everything just fitted in nicely, and that standard was nowhere near the expectations of the lecturers and directors. Anyway, with only two rehearsals left, things picked up speed. On Tuesday, everyone was more familiar with the cues, positions and lines. That was especially so for the speakers, who improved tremendously just over a day!
Wednesday was a day before the actual show. There were only a handfull of hiccups here and there, but on the whole, everything looked almost like a masterpiece. The speeches were almost perfect. Everyone had memorised their lines, and as for the backstage crew, there were some minor final adjustments being made, but everything blended very well. Everyone were in high spirits by that night, eager for the actual.
On thursday, everyone gathered real early. So early that about half of the crew arrived before a lecture ended at 4pm. Once it was 4pm, everyone got into full swing for the preparations of the stage, lights and sounds. At first things were messy, but as soon as the props were in place, the stage was neatly done. In fact, it gave the effect that the audience was going to look forward to a team of professionals giving it their all for that one performance that would last for 2 hours. At 5pm, some of us were getting restless, so we went to get some ice cream. At 6pm, there was this one last briefing for everyone involved in the production. After that, everyone got into posititons before the show started at 7.05pm.
That night, it was a perfect showcase of talents, and everyone gave it their all. Exactly how great everyone felt during the prodcution, I doubt words can describe that. Only when one is experiencing it, can he or she feel greatness, difficult to describe with words alone from the experience. The Interval provided a short moment of celebration for the actors, some of the speakers and the crew, but, that was only half of what everyone had prepared painfully for. The next segment of the show was going to be way better than the first. After 15 minutes, everyone got into positions once again, and this time, it was alot better than the first round, with our voices
projected with greater volume and clarity. At 9pm, was the moment we were all looking forward to, the curtain call. That short moment of great satisfaction was great, we were on cloud nine.
Soon after everyone had left, we cleared the props, packed up, had the last debrief, and finally, went for a short celebration at a place near the school.
And as for yesterday, well, sort of overslept, but somehow, managed to reach school 15 minutes before the lessons started. So, for the record, it took me only 20 minutes to travel from home to school. Reached the classroom at 9.50am, and I was only fully awake for the first half of the day. ELTech practical was damn easy and smooth yesterday, and I was second to finish. After that, headed over to KAP for lunch at 12.40pm, and at 1.40pm, headed back to class again. I was first to finish the assignment for Mechanics, but after that, I was starting to fall asleep. For the whole lecture on ELTech, I was dosing off in class...
That night sure brought back memories from past experiences. That night also opened new windows to how life would be like over the next few years. For now, my guess is that, that night was just the beginning of a new journey...
Wednesday was a day before the actual show. There were only a handfull of hiccups here and there, but on the whole, everything looked almost like a masterpiece. The speeches were almost perfect. Everyone had memorised their lines, and as for the backstage crew, there were some minor final adjustments being made, but everything blended very well. Everyone were in high spirits by that night, eager for the actual.
On thursday, everyone gathered real early. So early that about half of the crew arrived before a lecture ended at 4pm. Once it was 4pm, everyone got into full swing for the preparations of the stage, lights and sounds. At first things were messy, but as soon as the props were in place, the stage was neatly done. In fact, it gave the effect that the audience was going to look forward to a team of professionals giving it their all for that one performance that would last for 2 hours. At 5pm, some of us were getting restless, so we went to get some ice cream. At 6pm, there was this one last briefing for everyone involved in the production. After that, everyone got into posititons before the show started at 7.05pm.
That night, it was a perfect showcase of talents, and everyone gave it their all. Exactly how great everyone felt during the prodcution, I doubt words can describe that. Only when one is experiencing it, can he or she feel greatness, difficult to describe with words alone from the experience. The Interval provided a short moment of celebration for the actors, some of the speakers and the crew, but, that was only half of what everyone had prepared painfully for. The next segment of the show was going to be way better than the first. After 15 minutes, everyone got into positions once again, and this time, it was alot better than the first round, with our voices
projected with greater volume and clarity. At 9pm, was the moment we were all looking forward to, the curtain call. That short moment of great satisfaction was great, we were on cloud nine.
Soon after everyone had left, we cleared the props, packed up, had the last debrief, and finally, went for a short celebration at a place near the school.
And as for yesterday, well, sort of overslept, but somehow, managed to reach school 15 minutes before the lessons started. So, for the record, it took me only 20 minutes to travel from home to school. Reached the classroom at 9.50am, and I was only fully awake for the first half of the day. ELTech practical was damn easy and smooth yesterday, and I was second to finish. After that, headed over to KAP for lunch at 12.40pm, and at 1.40pm, headed back to class again. I was first to finish the assignment for Mechanics, but after that, I was starting to fall asleep. For the whole lecture on ELTech, I was dosing off in class...
That night sure brought back memories from past experiences. That night also opened new windows to how life would be like over the next few years. For now, my guess is that, that night was just the beginning of a new journey...
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Second Full Run-Part 2
Today was a really tiring day. In the morning there was the gym session again, and we had to do abs exercises. It was only the third or fourth exercise when everyone became half-dead. Long time since I had trained like that. Even for the running part, I lost alot of stamina and speed.
After that was CATS, and our group got an A grade for the previous assignment. Another A for the first term. CATS has got another assignment in line for us again, and this time round, we have got to come up with a video as the final product. Tomorrow I would be getting the third and final result for the common test. And I'm positive that it's going to be another A+ grade.
So, after school, went to KAP with Jian Hui, Hamzi, Amanda, Janna, Jun Jie and Yin Feng for lunch. Submitted the Eltech project there as well. So, it's back to 5 projects again.
After that, at around 3pm, went home for a short nap before heading back to school for another round of rehearsals. Slacked alittle, rehearsed alittle, crapped alittle, and at 10pm, we were done with another day's work. On Monday, it would be the first full dress rehearsal and that would also be the first time the AV crew will be in action for the actual performance.
By the way, TO YCSS 4E1 PEOPLE, YOUR 'O' LEVEL CERTIFICATES AND TESTIMONIALS ARE READY FOR COLLECTION!! Anyone free on any day to head back to the school to collect the certificate and testimonial with me??
Anyways, heres another poem that I had a sudden urge to compose, which I don't think would be a good one, since it's been a long time since I did something like that.
The night so serene,
The shadows providing shelter for the soldiers of darkness.
The peacemaker hiding among the moonlight,
Waiting for the perfect moment,
To lay his sword on the menacing darkness.
The night so calm,
The wind fuelling the coldness of the air.
The fire burns among the piles of wood,
Waiting for the perfect moment,
To conquer the icy elements.
After that was CATS, and our group got an A grade for the previous assignment. Another A for the first term. CATS has got another assignment in line for us again, and this time round, we have got to come up with a video as the final product. Tomorrow I would be getting the third and final result for the common test. And I'm positive that it's going to be another A+ grade.
So, after school, went to KAP with Jian Hui, Hamzi, Amanda, Janna, Jun Jie and Yin Feng for lunch. Submitted the Eltech project there as well. So, it's back to 5 projects again.
After that, at around 3pm, went home for a short nap before heading back to school for another round of rehearsals. Slacked alittle, rehearsed alittle, crapped alittle, and at 10pm, we were done with another day's work. On Monday, it would be the first full dress rehearsal and that would also be the first time the AV crew will be in action for the actual performance.
By the way, TO YCSS 4E1 PEOPLE, YOUR 'O' LEVEL CERTIFICATES AND TESTIMONIALS ARE READY FOR COLLECTION!! Anyone free on any day to head back to the school to collect the certificate and testimonial with me??
Anyways, heres another poem that I had a sudden urge to compose, which I don't think would be a good one, since it's been a long time since I did something like that.
The night so serene,
The shadows providing shelter for the soldiers of darkness.
The peacemaker hiding among the moonlight,
Waiting for the perfect moment,
To lay his sword on the menacing darkness.
The night so calm,
The wind fuelling the coldness of the air.
The fire burns among the piles of wood,
Waiting for the perfect moment,
To conquer the icy elements.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Results
The start to the new term was sort of great, but then again, it was not so good. Here's what happened. On Monday, we collected three of our Common Test results. I had straight As for my tests so far, and I have been feeling high over that for slightly more than three days now. I had 88/100 for Engineering Mathematics 1, 80/ 100 for Electrical Technology and 95/100 for Computer Programming, which I topped the class unexpectedly.
I must admit though, though the results for Engineering Mathematics 1 and Electrical Technology were promising, I did not put in much effort into the paper. It's all due to carelessness and mis-interpretation of concepts, but, I must say, it was just because of over confidence that the paper would be damn easy, that I ended up losing the unecessary marks. For the very next examination, the Semestral Examination, I will put in 100% for every paper, so that I will avoid the unecessary loss of marks like what has been happening since Secondary school.
I'm still waiting for the revelation of the last paper on Friday, and that isthe module of Engineering Mechanics. By the way, in case you do not know what Engineering Mechanics and Electrical Technology are, they are two modules that make up your Science known as Physics. Electrical Technology covers the elctrical part of the subject, while Engineering Mechanics covers the force-related topics in Physics.
And now, on to yesterday. Darren and I had arranged to meet up on Monday to collect our 'O' Level certificates yesterday. We met at the school bus stop, took a bus to Clementi MRT Station, took a train to Lakeside MRT Station, and walked to school. On the way, we met Ming Wei who was heading home, and Chong Siang, who was coincidentally also heading back to the school with us. Once there, the security guard had changed, and we were not stopped like what happened earlier this year. Anyway, we went to the office and met some teachers who taught us back in those years.
We were told that only the testimonials for 4E3, Darren's class, was ready for collection. 4E1's(our class') testimonials were still being sorted out. So, we had to come back another day to collect them. Once done, we took a walk around the school, only to find that some new chanes had been made to the environment there. We found out that there was going to be a performance in school on the 11th in the evening, but were not very sure if it was opened to former students like us. We went to the school library to relax for about an hour, before walking to the staff room with Miss Lee. Talked alot, and we did not talk the way we used to back in those days when we still had the school uniform on us. Anyway, although no longer part of the school, I still look forward to the day that I can visit it again.
You know, I really hoped that there was one day, or maybe, a couple of days where we could just meet up and catch up on lost time. Well, but as time catches up on us, it seems like it would be an eternity before something as good as that could really become a relaity...
I must admit though, though the results for Engineering Mathematics 1 and Electrical Technology were promising, I did not put in much effort into the paper. It's all due to carelessness and mis-interpretation of concepts, but, I must say, it was just because of over confidence that the paper would be damn easy, that I ended up losing the unecessary marks. For the very next examination, the Semestral Examination, I will put in 100% for every paper, so that I will avoid the unecessary loss of marks like what has been happening since Secondary school.
I'm still waiting for the revelation of the last paper on Friday, and that isthe module of Engineering Mechanics. By the way, in case you do not know what Engineering Mechanics and Electrical Technology are, they are two modules that make up your Science known as Physics. Electrical Technology covers the elctrical part of the subject, while Engineering Mechanics covers the force-related topics in Physics.
And now, on to yesterday. Darren and I had arranged to meet up on Monday to collect our 'O' Level certificates yesterday. We met at the school bus stop, took a bus to Clementi MRT Station, took a train to Lakeside MRT Station, and walked to school. On the way, we met Ming Wei who was heading home, and Chong Siang, who was coincidentally also heading back to the school with us. Once there, the security guard had changed, and we were not stopped like what happened earlier this year. Anyway, we went to the office and met some teachers who taught us back in those years.
We were told that only the testimonials for 4E3, Darren's class, was ready for collection. 4E1's(our class') testimonials were still being sorted out. So, we had to come back another day to collect them. Once done, we took a walk around the school, only to find that some new chanes had been made to the environment there. We found out that there was going to be a performance in school on the 11th in the evening, but were not very sure if it was opened to former students like us. We went to the school library to relax for about an hour, before walking to the staff room with Miss Lee. Talked alot, and we did not talk the way we used to back in those days when we still had the school uniform on us. Anyway, although no longer part of the school, I still look forward to the day that I can visit it again.
You know, I really hoped that there was one day, or maybe, a couple of days where we could just meet up and catch up on lost time. Well, but as time catches up on us, it seems like it would be an eternity before something as good as that could really become a relaity...
Friday, June 20, 2008
First Full Run-Part 1
Today was the first full run of the first part. Had to be a temporary understudy again, but it sure was fun! Brings back some memories though. Today there was nothing much as well, but it sure killed 6 hours. All we did were listen to speeches, re-ran the scenes a couple of times, went to grab a bite from the sandwich stall, and of course, went home. don't intend to say much though, but, there's something to share:
Ticket Sales for Noises,Voices,Choices 08, the sequel to Noices,Voices Choices Have Started! This one-time only production will be performed on the following Thursday, 3rd July 2008 in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.Each ticket costs 2 bucks, and it only costs 9 bucks for 5 tickets! Hurry! Limited seats available.
Ticket Sales for Noises,Voices,Choices 08, the sequel to Noices,Voices Choices Have Started! This one-time only production will be performed on the following Thursday, 3rd July 2008 in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.Each ticket costs 2 bucks, and it only costs 9 bucks for 5 tickets! Hurry! Limited seats available.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Second Rehearsal
Today was the second rehearsal for an up coming school event that would raise the fame of NPSTMC to a significant level. Nothing much happened, except that we went through a list of things that had to be gotten ready, went through lines and roles, as well as filled up some vacnacies for the production.
I went today, though I did not have to, but since I was dying of boredom at home, and two friends were going for the rehearsal as well, maybe I should just go over and kill some time. The effort to head down was paid off, since the rehearsal was damn fun and there were jokes along the way as well. Had wanted to go for the third rehearsal tomorrow, but, as I have got two projects to complete in one day, maybe I should just give tomorrow a miss, and clear both projects in one afternoon. There's one on electromagnetism and one on computer programming, both of which are due in less than seven days.
The next major rehearsal would be on Friday, and I'm looking forward to it, since that's going to be the very first full rehearsal that would involve the whole club!
I went today, though I did not have to, but since I was dying of boredom at home, and two friends were going for the rehearsal as well, maybe I should just go over and kill some time. The effort to head down was paid off, since the rehearsal was damn fun and there were jokes along the way as well. Had wanted to go for the third rehearsal tomorrow, but, as I have got two projects to complete in one day, maybe I should just give tomorrow a miss, and clear both projects in one afternoon. There's one on electromagnetism and one on computer programming, both of which are due in less than seven days.
The next major rehearsal would be on Friday, and I'm looking forward to it, since that's going to be the very first full rehearsal that would involve the whole club!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
An Unique Birthday Celebration
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I had a very unusual invitation yesterday. I was invited by Wei Ming, Sean's friend, over to his place to celebrate not just his belated 17th birthday,but his sister's 21st birthdayas well! Well, a little strange, but, since I had nothing better to do at home, so why not? After attending a friend's wedding(thanks for the invitation and best wishes~), I rushed home, got changed, and left the house. At around 1.40pm I boared the bus and headed for Clementi MRT station. The time I was suppossed to meet them was 3pm. But, since I was travelling from the West to the East, I would need alot more time to travel. So, at 2.45, I reached Aljuned MRT station, and depended on a small map to locate The Alcove, the place where the party was to be held.
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Well, true enough, I got lost, since the directions on the map were wrong in a sense. Whenever Im not used to a place, I tend to find a traffic junction when it comes to corssing busy roads. However, in that map, well, I was suppossed to jay walk. So, in the end, I took the correct route, but ended up getting lost as the map did not cover the area that had the traffic crossing. So, Wei Ming had to come escort me, just because I did not know where to turn.
Anyway, once we arrived at his place at 3pm, we played games,listened to music and surfed the net with our laptops. All three of us, Wei Ming, Jon and I, except for Sean who has yet to own his first. Well, at least Sean had something that we did not have(an ipod touch). Sean and I played counter Strike which became a game that was boring to play after spending close to an hour playing the same map over and over. So, after watching the first semi final match of the Aviva Open on TV, we went to the gym for a short workout at 4.30pm.
The gym was really small though, but the equipment were decent. This time I hit a new high on the treadmill, 16.5km per hour. I usually ran at 15, but since it has been 3 weeks since i ran on one, maybe i could use the extra speed to make up for lost time. after that I hit the machine. Sean handled 12kilogram weights without any effort. Well, for me, I was close to being half dead when I tried the 7kilogram weights. Finally we used the 6kilogram free weights, since those were the heaviest we could find(damn). By then, it was almost 5.30pm, so we went for a drink before playing at the playground. We were damn bored by then, so we played on the see-saw, and took photographs.The food arrived 15 minutes later.
At 6, we were back in his apartment, changing into dry clothes and slacking in front of our laptops again. We listened to more music, and I saw how the game of AuditionSEA was being played for the first time. At 6.30, we went down to the barbeque pit for buffet dinner. The food was nice and we ate quite a bit. At 7, we continued with our stuff on our computers, but an hour later, we went down again to cut the cake. The cake weighed 3kg, but when I carried it down, it felt as though it was only around 1kg. After we finished our cake, we took another photograph before heading back to the apartment, and locked ourselves in Wei Ming's room after viewing a short video clip made by him to his sister(and seriously, that was really my first time I watched it, though he did mention something about using The Click Five's sountrack for that).
Around 10.30pm, I left for the MRT station, with the escort of Wei Ming and Jon(just in case I got lost). surprisingly, it took me only 30 minutes to reach home, since it took me at least 45 minutes just to travel to Aljuned from home. And, I look forward to seeing you guys again sometime soon!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
First Week of Poly Vacation:Pre-occupied Week
Finally I hit the Hundredth Post in this blog(after 2 years). This week was not a busy week at all, since there were only 4 things that kept me occupied on 4 different days. First was last Saturday, followed by yesterday, today and Saturday.
Last Saturday, met up with Sean and his two close friends, Wei Ming and Jon who were from St Patrick's School at 1pm at City Hall MRT station.We went to Raffles City in search of a gift for Wei Ming's sister who would be celebrating her birthday this coming Saturday. Well, we were at a total loss about exactly what to get her, since she is an university undergrad and we have no idea what a girl her age would like. So, Sean, Jon and I asked the friends we knew about what someone like Wei Ming's sister would like, and we all ended up with the same answer: Bracelets and Necklaces. Sean and I got the same answer as to where to get them: Diva. Eventually, we did pass by Diva, but they did not have in store what we wanted. In the end, we decided to go for our last resort: chocolates.
We trained down to Vivocity and got a 38-dollar package of 6 assorted chocolates from GodDiva. We felt really bored after that and stoned for a short period of time, before making the decision to train to Terminal 2 of the Changi International Airport(all because a friend did not want us to meet her, and even "chased" me home in the process).It was around 8.30pm when we left the airport, after witnessing an SIA Boeing 777 plane being delayed in its flight.
Yesterday, I was finally able to reunite with Andy and Randall. They sure did not change much, except that Andy has improved in his studies, and Randall was just as slacked as ever. Long time since we met up yea? Anyways, Andy wanted a change in cinema this time round, so we decided on the Shaw cinema at Jurong Entertainment Centre. That building might look small, but its cinemas sure prove it to be otherwise! We watched the much talked about movie, Kungfu Panda at 10.20am at Cinema 3. Heard many critics saying that it was a must-watch during the holidays, and we wanted to watch it for ourselves to believe it. True enough, the 7 bucks we spent on tickets(one of the CHEAPEST so far since the price hike),and the large portions of pop corn(the cup was so damn big that you could not hold it with one hand!) sure was worth spending. That movie was a cocktail of action, humour and trust. The audience was laughing almost throughout the whole movie(us included of course)! After the movie, we walked around as we were too full to have lunch, and there was still some time to spare. So, we went to the arcade on the second floor to kill off 45 minutes, before heading in our separate directions once again.One more thing. The movie ended with humour, which put it at a notch above many other movies, for you would expect such scenes to be placed after the credits. There were two quotes that were insightful in the movie. They were "Yesterday's a history, tomorrow's a mystery and today's a gift" and "there are no such thing as accidents". I quite like the first one more, for it's definitely applicable to our daily lives, and as for the second, well maybe it's to reassure us that anything we do could be helpful to our future?
Finally, on to today! Today's meeting with Sean and Wei Ming was sort of like a last minute-plan, and I mean TOTALLY. We arranged to meet at 10am this morning at 1am the same morning(that was last night). So, this morning, we met up as usual, went to Sean's place to place our bags, and off we went for a jog near his place. We ran on the road of a private housing estate of bungalows, and the route was coupled with slopes that provided a bit of a challenge to us. We had prepared to run 5 laps, but on our first, Sean and i had stitches. Guess we did not eat enough for breakfast this morning. Nonetheless, we decided to walk for just one more round before heading back to his home. We talked about quite a lot of things before we arrived at Sean's favourite downhill slope. There, we sprinted down the slope and I easily went beyond my top speed and nearly lost my own balance.
As we had only spent a total of 30 minutes, we decided to go for a cycle from East Coast Park to Changi Village. There goes my third time cycling a distance of 40km. Sean was ecstatic when I told him of the route that the NP Cyclng Club used on our Orientation Ride in April. He's an airplane fanatic as well yea. We trained down to Eunos before taking a bus to the park, reaching there at around 12.30pm. We had a light snack, rented our bikes, and stocked up on water, before commencing on the first 20km of the ride. This time round, we managed to see many thrilling sights of plane landings and take-offs up close, but, those were only the warm-up. We reached our destination of Changi Village at 2.30pm. We stayed there for close to 30 minutes for a short drink and chatted before setting off at 3pm. On our way back, a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 jet passed directly over our heads. What's more, its flaps and landing gear were fully extended! NICE! Sadly, we did not bring our camera with us, so we were unable to take any photographs of the ride today. At 5pm, we completed the final gruelling 20km of the ride, with me tackling Wei Ming's bike almost every time he rings his bell at ignorant park users who stay on the wrong side of the track. Had a late lunch and early dinner at MacDonald's before we head back to Sean's place.
We reached Sean's house at close to 7pm, and went to slack in his study room after a nice drink. his whole family met up for dinner today, and the atmosphere was great. And for dinner, they had steamboat. Lots of delicious stuff tonight. Well, the food sure looked tempting, but, maybe i should not join them in their dinner? By the way, Sean brought Wei Ming and I into his room where we watched TV and looked at his collection of plane models. At 8pm, we had a short dinner before leaving for home. And, once again, many thanks to Sean for the great day of activities which were a bit of last minute, but they were really enjoyable!
So this is how the days will be like till the holidays are over? Days are slacked, but i still fear the probability of being off form once school starts again. So, how are things going on? Still good, or have things gotten a little tougher??
Last Saturday, met up with Sean and his two close friends, Wei Ming and Jon who were from St Patrick's School at 1pm at City Hall MRT station.We went to Raffles City in search of a gift for Wei Ming's sister who would be celebrating her birthday this coming Saturday. Well, we were at a total loss about exactly what to get her, since she is an university undergrad and we have no idea what a girl her age would like. So, Sean, Jon and I asked the friends we knew about what someone like Wei Ming's sister would like, and we all ended up with the same answer: Bracelets and Necklaces. Sean and I got the same answer as to where to get them: Diva. Eventually, we did pass by Diva, but they did not have in store what we wanted. In the end, we decided to go for our last resort: chocolates.
We trained down to Vivocity and got a 38-dollar package of 6 assorted chocolates from GodDiva. We felt really bored after that and stoned for a short period of time, before making the decision to train to Terminal 2 of the Changi International Airport(all because a friend did not want us to meet her, and even "chased" me home in the process).It was around 8.30pm when we left the airport, after witnessing an SIA Boeing 777 plane being delayed in its flight.
Yesterday, I was finally able to reunite with Andy and Randall. They sure did not change much, except that Andy has improved in his studies, and Randall was just as slacked as ever. Long time since we met up yea? Anyways, Andy wanted a change in cinema this time round, so we decided on the Shaw cinema at Jurong Entertainment Centre. That building might look small, but its cinemas sure prove it to be otherwise! We watched the much talked about movie, Kungfu Panda at 10.20am at Cinema 3. Heard many critics saying that it was a must-watch during the holidays, and we wanted to watch it for ourselves to believe it. True enough, the 7 bucks we spent on tickets(one of the CHEAPEST so far since the price hike),and the large portions of pop corn(the cup was so damn big that you could not hold it with one hand!) sure was worth spending. That movie was a cocktail of action, humour and trust. The audience was laughing almost throughout the whole movie(us included of course)! After the movie, we walked around as we were too full to have lunch, and there was still some time to spare. So, we went to the arcade on the second floor to kill off 45 minutes, before heading in our separate directions once again.One more thing. The movie ended with humour, which put it at a notch above many other movies, for you would expect such scenes to be placed after the credits. There were two quotes that were insightful in the movie. They were "Yesterday's a history, tomorrow's a mystery and today's a gift" and "there are no such thing as accidents". I quite like the first one more, for it's definitely applicable to our daily lives, and as for the second, well maybe it's to reassure us that anything we do could be helpful to our future?
Finally, on to today! Today's meeting with Sean and Wei Ming was sort of like a last minute-plan, and I mean TOTALLY. We arranged to meet at 10am this morning at 1am the same morning(that was last night). So, this morning, we met up as usual, went to Sean's place to place our bags, and off we went for a jog near his place. We ran on the road of a private housing estate of bungalows, and the route was coupled with slopes that provided a bit of a challenge to us. We had prepared to run 5 laps, but on our first, Sean and i had stitches. Guess we did not eat enough for breakfast this morning. Nonetheless, we decided to walk for just one more round before heading back to his home. We talked about quite a lot of things before we arrived at Sean's favourite downhill slope. There, we sprinted down the slope and I easily went beyond my top speed and nearly lost my own balance.
As we had only spent a total of 30 minutes, we decided to go for a cycle from East Coast Park to Changi Village. There goes my third time cycling a distance of 40km. Sean was ecstatic when I told him of the route that the NP Cyclng Club used on our Orientation Ride in April. He's an airplane fanatic as well yea. We trained down to Eunos before taking a bus to the park, reaching there at around 12.30pm. We had a light snack, rented our bikes, and stocked up on water, before commencing on the first 20km of the ride. This time round, we managed to see many thrilling sights of plane landings and take-offs up close, but, those were only the warm-up. We reached our destination of Changi Village at 2.30pm. We stayed there for close to 30 minutes for a short drink and chatted before setting off at 3pm. On our way back, a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 jet passed directly over our heads. What's more, its flaps and landing gear were fully extended! NICE! Sadly, we did not bring our camera with us, so we were unable to take any photographs of the ride today. At 5pm, we completed the final gruelling 20km of the ride, with me tackling Wei Ming's bike almost every time he rings his bell at ignorant park users who stay on the wrong side of the track. Had a late lunch and early dinner at MacDonald's before we head back to Sean's place.
We reached Sean's house at close to 7pm, and went to slack in his study room after a nice drink. his whole family met up for dinner today, and the atmosphere was great. And for dinner, they had steamboat. Lots of delicious stuff tonight. Well, the food sure looked tempting, but, maybe i should not join them in their dinner? By the way, Sean brought Wei Ming and I into his room where we watched TV and looked at his collection of plane models. At 8pm, we had a short dinner before leaving for home. And, once again, many thanks to Sean for the great day of activities which were a bit of last minute, but they were really enjoyable!
So this is how the days will be like till the holidays are over? Days are slacked, but i still fear the probability of being off form once school starts again. So, how are things going on? Still good, or have things gotten a little tougher??
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Blog Update
Time sure flies! Finally, another six months have passed, and it's time to change the looks of the blog once again. Well, some updates are:
-A new skin
-New Links
-New Link Categories
The next time would be in December, so until then, do expect more things to come by!! So long~
-A new skin
-New Links
-New Link Categories
The next time would be in December, so until then, do expect more things to come by!! So long~
Thursday, June 05, 2008
First Class Outing
As soon as the first hurdle has been successfully tackled, there is celebration. The atmosphere lurks in the air, welcoming the holidays in full swing.
Today was the very first class outing of 1A03, which was pretty much successfully and well planned, except for the meeting times and places. Met up with Hamzi and Wei Yong at 9.40am at Pending LRT station, before taking a bus down to vivocity, rendezvous with Jian Hui and Jun Jie. We had lunch at 12.30pm before meeting Issac and trained down to Sentosa. Then we had a hard time finding the rest of the class at Siloso Beach, our venue for the outing. When we finally did, it rained alittle. Went for a game of basketball, before playing soccer with the other guys. Not really sure myself, but, I was never that good at soccer. My stamina had fallen quite a bit, but at least my basics were still intact.
Once we were all tired, we went into the waters for a dip to cool down. After around an hour in there, Jian Hui, Jun Jie, Hamzi, Janna and I went to slack under a coconut tree, while the others simply left us to play volleyball. Since we had nothing better to do after taking a short nap, Jian Hui,Jun Jie, Hamzi and I decided to dig a shallow pit to dump some sandals in. As if that took alot of time, we went to dig another pit at around 3pm, this time with the aim of reaching the depth where we could obtain sea water from the pit. It seemed futile when, an hour later, we were still trying to reach our target. So, we changed plans and decided on bulding a "wall" surrounding our bags.
It was around that time that I noticed the group of students participating in an activity near us. Not just that, it soon dawned upon me that they could be, or maybe, they were Catholic Junior College students, since I noticed a familiar face there, but not sure if I was right though.
So, it was 4pm when the rest of the class returned from their game of volleyball. Some of them became nervous and frantic when they found out that their sandals were missing. So, pitying them, we gave the exact location of where the sandals were buried. We then went to wash up and change, before heading back to Vivocity once more, this time for dinner.It was around 8pm when we left for home, since tomorrow, there was another activity in line for us. Mechanical Engineering Course Inter-class Games. Can't wait for that, but now, maybe I should worryabout whether I am able to play in tomorrow's games of Captain's Ball, since I sustained a minor injury on my right foot.Oh! And the photographs will be up soon, maybe on Saturday.
Today was the very first class outing of 1A03, which was pretty much successfully and well planned, except for the meeting times and places. Met up with Hamzi and Wei Yong at 9.40am at Pending LRT station, before taking a bus down to vivocity, rendezvous with Jian Hui and Jun Jie. We had lunch at 12.30pm before meeting Issac and trained down to Sentosa. Then we had a hard time finding the rest of the class at Siloso Beach, our venue for the outing. When we finally did, it rained alittle. Went for a game of basketball, before playing soccer with the other guys. Not really sure myself, but, I was never that good at soccer. My stamina had fallen quite a bit, but at least my basics were still intact.
Once we were all tired, we went into the waters for a dip to cool down. After around an hour in there, Jian Hui, Jun Jie, Hamzi, Janna and I went to slack under a coconut tree, while the others simply left us to play volleyball. Since we had nothing better to do after taking a short nap, Jian Hui,Jun Jie, Hamzi and I decided to dig a shallow pit to dump some sandals in. As if that took alot of time, we went to dig another pit at around 3pm, this time with the aim of reaching the depth where we could obtain sea water from the pit. It seemed futile when, an hour later, we were still trying to reach our target. So, we changed plans and decided on bulding a "wall" surrounding our bags.
It was around that time that I noticed the group of students participating in an activity near us. Not just that, it soon dawned upon me that they could be, or maybe, they were Catholic Junior College students, since I noticed a familiar face there, but not sure if I was right though.
So, it was 4pm when the rest of the class returned from their game of volleyball. Some of them became nervous and frantic when they found out that their sandals were missing. So, pitying them, we gave the exact location of where the sandals were buried. We then went to wash up and change, before heading back to Vivocity once more, this time for dinner.It was around 8pm when we left for home, since tomorrow, there was another activity in line for us. Mechanical Engineering Course Inter-class Games. Can't wait for that, but now, maybe I should worryabout whether I am able to play in tomorrow's games of Captain's Ball, since I sustained a minor injury on my right foot.Oh! And the photographs will be up soon, maybe on Saturday.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
First common test
Quite alot has happened over the past few weeks. Good or bad, there are many. Some activities over the past few weeks were three insightful Student Toastmasters Club meetings and a cycling Endurance Challenge stretching 45 kilometers at the Paya Labar airstrip.
Anyway, on to this week, the common test period. Long time since I sat for an examination since the O Levels close to 9 months back.The examination style is slightly different from your average secondary school and JC. Rules and regulations are more stringent, and the penalties for cheating are more serious, and in some cases, that could cause you your school life.
Monday was the first paper, Electrical Technology. Since this module made its debut three years back in 2005, each year, the papers get significantly tougher. This year's paper, was the most challenging in terms of conceptual problems where you had play around with the laws and formulae just to arrive at the answer. I should easily get a B grade for this test though.
Yesterday, we had the Engineering Mathematics paper. Difficulty was 3 out of 5 stars. The paper was a breeze, with only a couple of tough and tricky questions. I'm almost certain that I would get at least an A grade for this paper.
Today was the final paper for the common test. Engineering Mechanics. Rating 1 out of 5 stars. The difficulty level was the same as the past year papers, up to two years back in 2006. There would be only one calculation error for that paper though (guess I forgot to check my claculations, apart from the method). I would get an AD grade(A grade with Distinction) for that test. Here's a spoiler: I did less than hour's worth of revision for this paper.
By the way, this was also the first time that I had less than five papers for a common test. It sure was surprising at first, but yea, after checking the announcements and all, there really was in fact only 3 papers for this term's common test.
So, with three days taken out for common tests, the other two would be left for fun and relaxation. I would be going off to Sentosa with my class tomorrow, then on Friday, it would be back to school, but this time, it's not for lessons, revision nor exams. Instead, it's back to school for a games day organised specially for the first year students of the course of Mechanical Engineering by their very own lecturers, to commemorate the completion of our first examination in a totally new environment.
Anyway, on to this week, the common test period. Long time since I sat for an examination since the O Levels close to 9 months back.The examination style is slightly different from your average secondary school and JC. Rules and regulations are more stringent, and the penalties for cheating are more serious, and in some cases, that could cause you your school life.
Monday was the first paper, Electrical Technology. Since this module made its debut three years back in 2005, each year, the papers get significantly tougher. This year's paper, was the most challenging in terms of conceptual problems where you had play around with the laws and formulae just to arrive at the answer. I should easily get a B grade for this test though.
Yesterday, we had the Engineering Mathematics paper. Difficulty was 3 out of 5 stars. The paper was a breeze, with only a couple of tough and tricky questions. I'm almost certain that I would get at least an A grade for this paper.
Today was the final paper for the common test. Engineering Mechanics. Rating 1 out of 5 stars. The difficulty level was the same as the past year papers, up to two years back in 2006. There would be only one calculation error for that paper though (guess I forgot to check my claculations, apart from the method). I would get an AD grade(A grade with Distinction) for that test. Here's a spoiler: I did less than hour's worth of revision for this paper.
By the way, this was also the first time that I had less than five papers for a common test. It sure was surprising at first, but yea, after checking the announcements and all, there really was in fact only 3 papers for this term's common test.
So, with three days taken out for common tests, the other two would be left for fun and relaxation. I would be going off to Sentosa with my class tomorrow, then on Friday, it would be back to school, but this time, it's not for lessons, revision nor exams. Instead, it's back to school for a games day organised specially for the first year students of the course of Mechanical Engineering by their very own lecturers, to commemorate the completion of our first examination in a totally new environment.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Back to Vivo
The time and place were confirmed way back, to around early April, where we first sat down to think of a good place to hold a birthday celebration. Finally, that day arrived, and today, though there were hiccups along the way, things didn't turn out to be as bad as they seemed to be. Earlier on this year, we went to Vivocity, three quarters of our class, just to help a friend who was always clueless on his fashion sense to get three sets of clothes for the Chinese new Year celebrations. Today, we were back there again, this time, for a different purpose.
Things started today with a two-hour long return trip to MacRitchie Reservoir at 8am, as I had to take my brother there in time to come for his guide assignments there each Sunday.
So, did some stuff from 10 to 2.30pm, before leaving the safety of the iron gates to head down to City hall to meet Sean and Cherie to get a group gift for the birthday girl who would meet us with others at 5.30pm later on. Turns out that the bag we intended to purchase was not on sale at Raffles City, so, it ended up with us heading down to vivocity instead to join Joycelyn with the search of a gift. In the end, we bought a green Tee and a pair of flip flops as the gift. It was close to 5.30 when we were done, so we headed for the intended meeting point, which was in today's case, the Harbour Front MRT station. For the second time, Weiwen(the birthday girl) was right on time. Maybe we should have asked er to arrive 30 minutes earlier since her church session had ended earlier today. Thadd, Lim and Fiona were with her when we arrived.From there, we decided to head to Marche' for dinner. Priscilla and Jerome joined us at the restaurant a little later.
Since dinner ended early at 7.50pm, we cleared our bills and went to a nearby arcade to wait for Sean and Cherie to finish their meal in the most romantic way. It took them quite awhile to finish, so we were able to delay the final surprise a little longer. While Fiona and I went to Bread Talk to get the cake, the others made their way to the amphitheatre to get ready. Finally, everything ended with a photo taking session(a Must Have whenever Jerome is around for our gatherings). Tomorrow's going to be another pretty relaxed day with most of the day spent at my cousin's place to celebrate my Grandmother's birthday(could that mean another cake to savour?).
Yea, those were the times when we were still alien to one another. True enough, it turned out that gradually, one of us would get attached to someone we knew well from that small union of friends who were always close to each other, and perhaps, maybe, even until each of the 5 of us found a partner... Would that day for me come soon?
Things started today with a two-hour long return trip to MacRitchie Reservoir at 8am, as I had to take my brother there in time to come for his guide assignments there each Sunday.
So, did some stuff from 10 to 2.30pm, before leaving the safety of the iron gates to head down to City hall to meet Sean and Cherie to get a group gift for the birthday girl who would meet us with others at 5.30pm later on. Turns out that the bag we intended to purchase was not on sale at Raffles City, so, it ended up with us heading down to vivocity instead to join Joycelyn with the search of a gift. In the end, we bought a green Tee and a pair of flip flops as the gift. It was close to 5.30 when we were done, so we headed for the intended meeting point, which was in today's case, the Harbour Front MRT station. For the second time, Weiwen(the birthday girl) was right on time. Maybe we should have asked er to arrive 30 minutes earlier since her church session had ended earlier today. Thadd, Lim and Fiona were with her when we arrived.From there, we decided to head to Marche' for dinner. Priscilla and Jerome joined us at the restaurant a little later.
Since dinner ended early at 7.50pm, we cleared our bills and went to a nearby arcade to wait for Sean and Cherie to finish their meal in the most romantic way. It took them quite awhile to finish, so we were able to delay the final surprise a little longer. While Fiona and I went to Bread Talk to get the cake, the others made their way to the amphitheatre to get ready. Finally, everything ended with a photo taking session(a Must Have whenever Jerome is around for our gatherings). Tomorrow's going to be another pretty relaxed day with most of the day spent at my cousin's place to celebrate my Grandmother's birthday(could that mean another cake to savour?).
Yea, those were the times when we were still alien to one another. True enough, it turned out that gradually, one of us would get attached to someone we knew well from that small union of friends who were always close to each other, and perhaps, maybe, even until each of the 5 of us found a partner... Would that day for me come soon?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
First month
Today marks the first month of a new life at Ngee Ann. Well, nothing much to say, since everyday is like studying, with the only time spent on releasing stress during breaks or after school. Before I forget, I was sort of losing inspiration on what to post up here, and as for this post, well, was forced by someone to update, so, here it is.
The commemoration of the first month spent in school sure was great. The first rainy day in school. Not just showers. The study area outside Cheers was flooding, and there were crockroaches and grass hoppers roaming around the area in search of dry ground, forcing us to head back to the bus stop before taking the longest route ever to class(but no doubt this route was also the safest). Just when I thought that the rain was all, the wind had just took up its share of the fun. Now it was not just wet, but cold as well. Been a long time since the outdoors was cold.
When everyone went home at 6pm, I continued on with 2 hours of enrichment lessons which was definitely enjoyable. After that, met up with jenere for late dinner at Cheers(again, but it's dry and cleaner this time). Right now, well, I'm at home, slacking after spending 12 hours in school. And tomorrow's no better. It could hit 13 or even 14 hours spent in school.
Sunday's finally going to be the next reunion with my MI friends. Been a long time since we had sat together for a nice meal.
TIme sure flies...looking back, just after we had received our posting results,but now, in two weekss' time it's going to be back to the examination hall...
The commemoration of the first month spent in school sure was great. The first rainy day in school. Not just showers. The study area outside Cheers was flooding, and there were crockroaches and grass hoppers roaming around the area in search of dry ground, forcing us to head back to the bus stop before taking the longest route ever to class(but no doubt this route was also the safest). Just when I thought that the rain was all, the wind had just took up its share of the fun. Now it was not just wet, but cold as well. Been a long time since the outdoors was cold.
When everyone went home at 6pm, I continued on with 2 hours of enrichment lessons which was definitely enjoyable. After that, met up with jenere for late dinner at Cheers(again, but it's dry and cleaner this time). Right now, well, I'm at home, slacking after spending 12 hours in school. And tomorrow's no better. It could hit 13 or even 14 hours spent in school.
Sunday's finally going to be the next reunion with my MI friends. Been a long time since we had sat together for a nice meal.
TIme sure flies...looking back, just after we had received our posting results,but now, in two weekss' time it's going to be back to the examination hall...