aquariusblues

back home

2009-09-13T12:44:00.003+01:00

it's been 4.5 months since I flew back home.
Singapore feels different, from when I left for the US in 2006.
definitely more crowded. was recounting with a friend about the more peaceful, or should I say 'tranquil' times, when I was in school. Then, the population of 3 million was a more homogenous and closer-knit one. Today, the population has 'boomz' (yes fav word of the moment). But it's sad that the people who make up the numbers are just that... with no sense of belonging nor ownership.
Anyway, back to changes... I love how the skyline is changing at the marina bay area. love love love the skyline of Singapore:)one thing that I missed lots in Madison. city living!
and the new shopping centres - Orchard central, ion, iluma. but haven't been in the mood to shop ever since i came back

settling back into Singapore has been relatively easy... except for the weather.

brother's 21st!

cousins! dinner at long beach before Mike leaves for France...

pulut hitam with ice-cream, chilled on a cool green liquid. paiseh not a chemist so dun know what that is...

first snowskin mooncakes... the teacher prepared everything for us, so it was quite successful. but my own attempt was bad:(

pimply kitty mooncake <3

at Shillawon :)

not ready to graduate just yet

2009-05-01T14:25:00.007+01:00

How ironic. To think that all along, I have been counting down the semesters and looking forward to the day when I'll finally graduate. Yet now, I just want a little more time. It's a scary thought actually, that my final semester here at UW ends in just 2 more days. One exam, a couple of papers, a thesis and I am done officially. Commencement is next Sunday.
It's hard, the thought of packing up and leaving for good. Never never had I imagined that I wouldn't bear to leave Madison. Ok. I am looking forward to graduating, but not about leaving Madison. Leaving the place that I have grown so comfortable with. One where so many memories, good and bad alike, started...

try this

2009-03-26T04:35:00.005Z

By the pool,I scooped some water with my palms. The water remained carefully contained within the careful cup my hands formed.
But, as I try to close my fingers around it, it spills through every crack it finds...

precious time

2009-02-22T06:45:00.005Z

The hours of Mondays through Fridays get drawn into the chasm of onerous routines. And whatever little time left is salvaged, is cherished, is thanked for.
The weekend becomes the cynosure of each week. Yet, they have to fly by.
I don't want an end to the weekend. And sometimes, just sometimes, I woolgather and wish I had the power to freeze special moments in time.

I'm just amused. How strange it hadn't struck me till now - the value of time. Not with the passing of each birthday. Neither did it during the A levels or finals.

Yet, now, I've been reduced to a scavenger, a hoarder.
Every hour, every minute, every second. They matter the world.

YES! one more semester to go!

2008-12-15T16:59:00.005Z

And so classes ended last Friday, marking the end of yet another semester. To be exact, the second to last.
The end is sort of in sight, and really, it helps to know that this chapter is finally coming to a close:)I can't wait to graduate!

what will be will be

2008-11-16T22:16:00.003Z

It was my 4th attempt, and the outcome was the same as the previous attempts.
Not an immediate failure, but the points I chalked up were enough to cost me.
I was really upset, more with myself than anything.
Starting to seriously doubt my abilities, and question whether it's all meant to be in the first place.
Whilst I'm trying really hard to convince myself that it was just my luck running into such a b*tchy tester, one can be that unlucky only a couple of times. Now is WAY pass that threshold. And I guess it's just something wrong with me... if you're good, you're good. the tester or test conditions wont' be a significant influence.
When people start asking how i did, don't even want to answer them. Yea, maybe before the next test, I should tell them to assume the worst case scenario, and not ask unless they see me jumping for joy.
Some people can pass on their first attempt, but me...
Everytime I think about taking the test again, I get knots in my stomach.
It's the thought of failing yet another time. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if that happens...
Whether or not I pass this test is inconsequential. Life goes on. But the fact that it's taking so long.. the feeling is absolutely crappy.
And the pressure just increases with each attempt
Pretty amazing how little things like that can make you doubt your self worth.

about decision making

2008-10-29T04:22:00.003Z

Sometimes, no, actually all the time, I wished I could make better decisions.
A number of wrong decisions back then, and I am living with the consequences even till today.
And it's only when everything is carved in stone, that people tell me that I should have made this and that of a decision. Yah, I appreciate that very much.
If only I could turn back time...
算了

你是答案

2008-10-09T03:58:00.002+01:00

very sweet song:)
Ni Shi Da An 你是答案 - Fan Wei Qi 范瑋琪

a mind of our own

2008-09-10T04:28:00.006+01:00

I wished...

Sometimes, even the most sane person make the most irrational decision.
And the most level-headed person allows emotions to rule his head.
Moods swing like a pendulum because of who-knows-what chemical fluxes in the brain.
The worse is being hapless as the biochemistry of it all overpowers our ability to think straight.

back in madison

2008-09-03T07:29:00.007+01:00

2 years have passed. And I thought it would get easier to return to Madison and start Fall semester all over again. It just gets harder to leave each time... Maybe because summer back home was only 3 weeks. It flew by and I guess I didn't get to do everything I wanted to.

Finally rearranged everything in my room, and it looks and feels more cosy than the previous semester!

I love my new table, which was a gift from dear jo. Thank you! Haha... and the very comfortable papasan, which I got from Yun. One of the best things is reading papers whilst slumped in it... and getting lulled to sleep:x

Hmm. It's only the second week of school now, and I feel really tired - both physically and mentally. To the extent that I don't feel like going anywhere, doing anything or meeting anyone. Sigh... And it doesn't help when it rains for the whole day. But I probably need to sleep more too.

Breathless

2008-07-23T04:12:00.000+01:00

the Corrs
album: Best of the Corrs

love this song!

Cambridge Week 5

2008-07-19T22:48:00.031+01:00

Destination: Dublin, Ireland!

First and only trip out of the UK over the 8 weeks.

Welcome to Stansted Airport, a haven for cheapo overnight airport campers like me. An experience to forget asap... The airport was a hive of activity when we reached at 12 midnight! There were obviously seasoned campers... who were already sprawled across the prized benches by the time we arrived. The champions were those who set up shop on the floor with their sleeping bags and blankets. And you thought a jacket was sufficient. No... not at Stansted because, for some reason, the entrances were left open. I barely caught a wink, no thanks to the cold drafts. At around 3 am, I saw 2 armed policemen patrolling the terminal. Got a bit worried... They were called in because some joker left his bag unattended. After some instense interrogation and admonition, the poor guy was let off. He probably would never dare leave a packet of tissue on the table to reserve his seat anymore...

Dublin in a day!

Avalon House, the hostel we stayed on Saturday night...

A trip to where it all started... the St. Jame's Gate Brewery.

Guinness is good... not that I have tried lots of other beer. But yes, I like the clean taste of the brew... it's particularly refreshing... Cheers~

It started pouring by the time we reached the temple bar district.

We scrambled for shelter at a random restaurant/bar, and the food was not bad!

Guinness beef stew...

Really glad that we went for a tour to Wicklow and Glendalough the next day!

A view of Kiliney coastal area, where all the rich and famous stay... See if you can spot Enya's castle towards the top left of the picture

Wicklow Mountains... Loch Tay aka Guinness Lake

the view was marvelous!

Glendalough... at the ruins of a monastery.

with yunqin at Upper Lake...

The famouse Trinity College of Ireland, where the Book of Kells is kept. Unfortunately, we got there too late, and the library was already closed to visitors...

The fickle weather did dampen our spirits... but still it was a fun-filled weekend, thanks to the wonderful company!

photos stolen from khian hong!

Cambridge Week 4

2008-07-08T23:40:00.004+01:00

DESTINATION: Stonehenge, Windsor, Oxford

All in a day's work! Pretty amazing eh?? One good thing of a package tour - every minute is stretched to the last second (that is a bit of an exaggeration)... you get the point!

1st stop: Windsor Castle!

What visit to the UK would be complete without a visit to any one of the castles? The royal family, albeit anachronistic, remains an integral part of the British identity... even for tourists like me!

A closer look at the flag atop the round tower... the Royal Standard! So the queen was in that day...

Heavy, thick stone walls with narrow slits (for the archers) surrounded the perimeter of the fortress. That sure didn’t prepare us for the interior wards of the castle, which were... residences befitting of royalty - extravagance complete with a touch of cosiness...

And the much touted Queen Mary's dollhouse... A fully functional house, only a miniature one (a scale of 1:12). The chandeliers and the grandfather's clock in the front foyer actually work! And there is even electricity and plumbing in the dollhouse! Even vintage wine, albeit a mini bottle... Amazing... A dollhouse fit for a queen indeed! It's really worth the see, trust me!

2nd stop:

Presenting...

Once a site of pagan worship, now a place where tons flock to marvel the construction feat...

Set amidst rolling meadows, it is probably the most prominent feature in the vicinity. Probably why it was, and probably still is, a place of pagan worship... Close to 4000 years ago, they transported the bluestones from Wales over sea and land for close to 240 miles! Go figure! Although the Sarsens were brought in from 25 miles away, they were HUGE...

What purpose the stones served remains a mystery...

3rd and final stop: Oxford!

It was a shame that we spent less than 2 hours in Oxford, of which half an hour went to a walking tour of the campus.

Christchurch college! Harry potter!

Thankful... for the wonderful weather that weekend amongst many other things!

photos were stolen from khian hong!

Cambridge!

2008-06-12T13:51:00.000+01:00

CaMbRidGE!

And so a long overdue post. Just an update… Been in Cambridge for almost 2 weeks now. Did everything there is to do around here – went to Corpus’ formal last Friday (thanks to Shireen),

sure looks like one of those harry potter dinners, doesn't it?

punting on Saturday,

and that is expert punter Hong King, together with Yao Feng (left) who brought us around Cambridge on Saturday.

and more sightseeing on Sunday.

Corpus Christi College

Everything but what I had set out to do in Cambridge from the start – research! Ahh! I am frustrated but yet, I can’t do any bench work until my work permit gets approved. I have been reading paper after paper, attending seminar after seminar, and I am bored stiff. My mentor, Al, has been showing me the protocols, and has even started my project for me, just because time is an issue. 2 weeks gone, 6 weeks left. I am worried because I may not be able to complete the project in time. I am really annoyed because these delays were completely avoidable. Enough said. And the sporadic showers don’t help at all.

On a lighter note, Sean, the group leader of the lab I work in, was really nice about these delays. He kept apologizing about all the red tape and told me that if I got too frustrated, I could take a day off and head down to London. Sounds like a plan to me! Initially I planned to do just that tomorrow, but apparently not already, because I have quite a bit to learn tomorrow.

Cambridge is a really nice place and I am settling down well. Thanks to Xiao Yang, who has been showing us around the place, and came to pick us up from Parker’s Piece on Sunday when we first arrived. Khian Hong and I would have never found our way to Sonali’s house if he hadn’t. And Sonali is the landlady of the house the three of us are staying in. She is a really nice woman, and she is 7 months pregnant with a baby girl.

13 Tenby Close

the living room

my room!

our first attempt at cooking dinner

And her 16 month old son Virem, is such a dear! Unfortunately, she stays over a lot at her mom’s, so we rarely get to play with the boy…

Aww... look at Virem!

and khian hong was trying to buy Virem over with chocolate

As of now, we are getting place to place by walking. It’s a one hour’s walk to the city centre, and when you walk enough, you just get used to it… But I should learn how to bike.
So yesterday whilst I was walking home, a 4 year old boy on a mini bicycle, passed me by. His dad was pedaling at a deliberate pace so that the boy can keep up. In a desperate attempt to comfort myself, I scanned the bike for trainer wheels. Sadly, there were none…

all pictures courtesy of khian hong:)

nonsense

2008-05-15T05:01:00.001+01:00

I am so sick of studying for biochemistry... Actually I shouldn't be complaining because as compared to people who are doing biochem 508, biochem 503 is but the tip of the iceberg. And I had all the time from Monday to study, but I did
not want to. the bolt of finals during the last week of school just killed me...
So what did I do on Monday and Tuesday? Hmm. That is a really good question. Time just flew by... For one, I burnt the whole of Monday in lab, running my western. And I am glad I went to lab because I would have whiled away my time watching Bleach anyways... I spent half my Tuesday in lab, and the other half watching Bleach... Hopelessly addicted to Bleach. I started watching Bleach 3 - 4 weeks ago, and I am already at the Arrancar Arc. I skipped the Bount Arc though, but I am planning to watch that some time in summer. But Bleach is the coolest anime, really... not professing to be some anime guru, but go watch it, and you will know why it is so addictive. I regret not watching it with the rest last Spring... and back then, I wondered about the magic of Bleach... now i know.
Ahh.. back to mugging for biochem... Studying is so much harder when are studying about things that you have already learnt in, say genetics, but yet, you have to force yourself to plough through that useless crap because there is a different (aka biochemical) slant...
Just willing next Monday to come...

take a deep breath

2008-04-14T04:02:00.000+01:00

take a deep breath

The end, to the semester that is, is already in sight. 5 more weeks! It's so close, yet so far... so many things must transcend before it's finally time to leave.

It is just scary to think about the things I have to settle before the end of the semester... Academics, summer internship, the Europe trip.

I can't, and don't even dare to think ahead now... Just taking one step at a time.

On a lighter note, I couldn't believe my eyes when I got back my 2nd Andersen exam... lol. Seriously, I thought the exam was bad. Firstly, I went through my notes ONCE... Plus, during the exam, the girl beside me was happily munching nature valley bars... can you imagine? Here I was trying to concentrate so that I can put an essay together, and there you are creating a din with all your chewing. I was really irritated, and I even contemplated writing a postscript in my essay, to tell the professor to ban eating during exams. Thank God she was done with all her eating after 15 - 20 mins, and I did well for the paper. If not.. hah... Seriously, eat before the exam or something, because it is really disruptive to the people around you when you eat during exams... Anyway, distractions aside, I did not even know what I was writing during the exam. After the exam, I felt like crap. Now, I am just AMAZED at the art of bull...

And Mammoth cave that same weekend. Woo. An experience of a lifetime.

all spick and span before the tour

They weren't kidding when they said that the Wild Cave Tour is physically strenuous. It was mentally exhausting too... Personally, Kathleen's Crawl was the worst for me. All the leopard crawling drained my energy. If it wasn't for the encouragement from jo, roys and kh, I would have given up halfway... which is silly because you would have to leopard crawl all the way back anyhow... And an 18 inch high tunnel really doesn't give you a lot of space to adjust and be confortable. All the crawling took a toll on our knees, and it is really admirable how the guides are doing this every so often.
There was less crawling in the second part of the tour, but what was installed for us was just as challenging. The canyon walks were really good... and I really enjoyed them, although there was one where getting a good footing was tricky because the rocks were slippery, and there wasn't a good handhold anywhere... that was really scary. But I survived... haha.. thanks to jo, roys and kh:)

And yes, I think it would be really cool to spend a night in the cave. I love how it becomes pitch black once we turn off the headlights. Plus the lovely temperature around the tens...

Oh yes, and something that we concurred on: if not for the helmets, we would have suffered from concussions... bumping into the roof of the cave was quite a common occurrence...

Look at us after

with Ranger John, in all our caving glory

not so clean after it all. But really really glad we went for the tour:)

Pictures courtesy of kh:)

Sunday was another adventure in itself... in the interest of time, it's a story that I'll blog about some other time... Got back to Madison on Sunday later than expected, and could not do much about Biochemistry the next day...

Hah... I think I screwed up Biochemistry... bigtime. Screwed up many other things too... Trying to take things in my stride... Getting better but yes, it isn't easy at all. I guess after it all, you see that what is meant to be will be. What is not meant to will never be.

what a day

2008-04-09T05:36:00.000+01:00

I baked some cookies.
I cleaned and tidied my room.
I did my laundry.

*****

I cleared the trash and
sorted the papers and ads
I could recycle.

**********

I printed my notes.
I made a photo collage.
I grocery-shopped.

***************

Then it was dinner.
Then I watched some trashy show
Now it's time to sleep...

ahhh.

********************

Delayed reaction
on the morning of wednesday
But it worked wonders...

crap

2008-04-04T06:53:00.000+01:00

ahhh... it is close to 1am now, and I am not even halfway through the material I need to cover for my exam at 12.05pm later today.
Panicking, and nothing seems to be going in anymore. And I want to sleep. But there are still so many things on my mind, on top of the exam.
Things that I have to settle before leaving for Kentucky later in the afternoon. I have to make a trip to the mall after my exam, to get a pair of boots. My winter boots, though non-slip, will never pass the test cause they need to have deeply threaded soles, and I don't want to be turned away just before the tour. I have to draw money. I have to pack. I have to go to lab. All in an hour and a half.
And things I have to settle for summer. And many many more...

My priorities are in a mess... ahh! Trying to search for the has been, but realizing that it might not even have been in the first place. Or maybe is not meant to be anymore. Tiring myself out... looking and feeling like crap...

The most incredible roadtrip

2008-03-22T17:49:00.000Z

The most incredible roadtrip

Madison, WI > Indianapolis, IN > Nashville, TN > Memphis, TN >
Dallas, Tx > Oklahoma City, OK > St. Louis, MO > Springfield, IL > Madison WI

Spring break was really fun, in spite of the horrid weather! We were expecting clear blue skies and some texan sun as we headed south. But no... it was rainy, gloomy, cold and miserable. BUT, the company was more than enough to make up for this!

Bicentennial Park in Nashville, Tennessee

Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville TN

Home of Elvis, Graceland in Memphis TN

Oklahoma City Memorial, OK

Arch @ The Lou, Missouri

Pictures courtesy of KH:)

More updates to come... if I survive next week.

spring beckons:)

2008-02-29T01:51:00.000Z

The gentle rays of the morning sun stream in through the blinds, and it's only 630am in the morning. The days are getting longer, and before we know it, it would be time for daylight savings.

As winter melts into inexistence, Earth enters into yet another orbit around the sun. It's mind boggling how this passage from spring to winter, so seemingly predictable, can vary so much, so much that we are actually caught unprepared.

This winter, the 77.3 inches of snowfall (as of 6 Feb) in Madison broke the record set in 1978-79. And we almost did not have enough gravel and salt for salting the roads and the pavements. Countries like China weren't spared from the heavy snowfall too. Millions of people could not make it back for their lunar new year reunion because of the snow...

Anyway, I was just thinking about how much had happened in the past 5 years... the tsunami that wrecked beach resorts in asia, Hurricane Katrina that destroyed New Orleans... Just when we thought we have control over it all, Mother Nature shows us that she is capable of WAY more. She never fails to remind me how we can never be in control... however hard we try. That's why the best laid plans often go awry... It took a decade or so to establish tourist resorts and poof... it gets wiped out in just a matter of hours. Hah. how small and hapless we stand, and how insignificant our efforts are in the grand scheme of things.

The quirks of Mother Nature... and just for the record, the earth is actually closest to the sun in the deep of winter here in Madison. How paradoxical!

But oh well, life is always like that...

and i know that this post is just a random assortment of stuff... that sounds disconnected from each other, and not relevant to the title of the post in any sense... because i'm just writing whatever comes to mind.

anyhow, spring beckons!
let's hope that the year ahead would be a better one for us.

The snow, and the ice, is starting to melt:)
and i am loving every moment of it!

Part of Your World

2008-02-17T15:35:00.000Z

Maybe he's right. Maybe there is something the matter with me.
I just don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad.

Look at this stuff
Isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Wouldn't you think I'm the girl
The girl who has everything?
Look at this trove
Treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Looking around here you think
Sure, she's got everything
I've got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty
I've got whozits and whatzits galore
You want thingamabobs?
I've got twenty!
But who cares?
No big deal
I want more

I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see them dancin'
Walking around on those - what do you call 'em?
Oh - feet!

Flippin' your fins, you don't get too far
Legs are required for jumping, dancing
Strolling along down a - what's that word again?
Street

Up where they walk,
up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin' free - wish I could be
Part of that world

What would I give if I could live out of these waters?
What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?
Bet'cha on land they understand
That they don't reprimand their daughters
Bright young women
sick of swimmin'
Ready to stand

I'm ready to know what the people know
Ask 'em my questions and get some answers
What's a fire and why does it - what's the word?
Burn?

When's it my turn?
Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea
Wish I could be
Part of that world

This song is beautiful!

enough is enough

2008-02-03T07:44:00.000Z

Something I really have to learn.
When to stop, and when to push it.
What is appropriate and what isn't
Period

I am really sorry...
I didn't mean for it to turn out that way

About falling

2008-01-26T21:55:00.000Z

Argh… I am such a klutz. I fell too many times since the start of winter. 5 or 6 times to date. And I did not even slip last winter. Something must have gone wrong in between.
Each fall on the pavement was hard, and painful. They always happen when I am walking too quickly. When I am distracted by other thoughts. And 80% of the falls occur around the area I am staying. Probably because they don’t really bother about pouring gravel and sand on the minor pavements. And I don’t learn my lessons, do I?
Anyway, what hits immediately is the embarrassment.
Then I realize the sharp pain, which I amazingly bear with until I collect myself and continue walking.
As though I am fine. As though nothing had happened, when really, I just want to dig a hole in the snow and hide…

spooked out

2008-01-24T00:35:00.001Z

I stirred from my sleep as my phone rang at 2.52am. It was from a local number I did not recognize. There was no answer from the other side when I answered. Thinking that some drunk must have dialled the wrong number, I went back to sleep.
It was 2.54am when the phone rang again. And there was no answer from the other side when I picked up the phone. All I could make out was gibberish... My phone was my alarm clock and I did not want to be late for class later, so I was was reluctant to switch it to silent. I thought the calls would stop.
Just when I thought I could go back to sleep, the phone rang at 2.59am. ARGH! That was the last straw... I was quite irritated because whoever this person was, he or she was defintely preventing me from getting my sleep. I was peeved! I was tempted to holler at the person but I was more overwhelmed by fear, no thanks to my over-active imagination, so I rejected the call, and switched my phone to silent. I would probably wake up before 8am the next morning anyway...
I thought I could finally get back to sleep, but my mind was too busy generating all the worst case scenarios... This is going to sound really silly, I know. Every creak made me jump. The wind rattled the windows in their frames, and sent shivers down my spine. I curled up even more under my blanket...
It did not help that it was 3am in the morning. Really, this shouldn't have that much of an influence if I hadn't known it as the devil's hour... Yes, you are probably sniggering. But I couldn't help it. It was really spooky, and the strange thing is that after I switched my phone to silent, the calls stopped.
whatever man... i only managed to sleep at 4am.
And I learnt that the alarm of my phone goes off even when my phone is switched off, thanks to jo... hahaha... peaceful sleep from now on:)

i want answers

2008-01-21T04:06:00.000Z

There are so many things I want to know about, that I want to find out. Imagine how nice it would be to be omniscient.
I want to know why my experiements fail all the time. Why DNA recombination don't always work. Which step went awry? Just what is wrong with the Ecoli cells? Why do they express the genes at times, but more often than not, do not? At times when my mentor does the experiment, I see progress. More often than not I feel like I am taking a stab in the dark, and things just don't work out the way they should...
Maybe its something wrong with me. With how I approach the whole grand scheme of things. Maybe it's because I do not know enough about the techniques involved. Maybe it's because I am ignorant about the very science the trade is built upon. Maybe it's because I try to rush through, and haste makes waste...
Maybe maybe maybe.
Just what exactly is wrong?
It's frustrating to want to know, yet realizing that there is no one you can ask who will provide a sufficient answer. The Ecoli would know the answers to my questions, but I cannot ask them.. can I?
Like me, my mentor cannot pinpoint which step has gone wrong. I repeat the experiment. When it becomes apparent a certain approach is wrong with each successive failure, I guess which step is the problematic one, and a different a approach is attempted. But there are only so many alternatives. And you do get tired of guessing and trying.
Maybe some experiments are never meant to work out in the first place. But who ever knows that?

giving thanks

2007-12-17T01:15:00.000Z

I know I really shouldn't be writing a blog entry right now in the middle of my studying for finals.. but yes, I will consider this as a break...

The insanity of the past semester has finally ended with the last day of classes. yay! I am so done with o chem lab...(haha kelvin, i'm blogging abt it:) strange though... i wasn't over the moon after the last o chem lab. More of being thankful and relieved that it had ended. Looking back, how I survived the semester was indeed amzaing! (anyway, studying for the finals is another story in itself)

Ever had times when you felt tired of being tired? Well, I finally knew what it meant. there were so many times when I wanted to throw in the towel. When I just did not want to go for lectures anymore, especially bacteriology lecture, partly because it was at 8am. Especially towards the end of the semester when the mornings get so cold that its so nice to sleep in. but you wake up only to find that it is already 745am... there's only so much you can do in trying to make it on time for that lecture... unless you can glide (something I should really learn from roys... haha). anyhow, I digress! where was I? Yes, tired of being tired. And you don't even want to "chiong" for exams anymore, which is BAD... I recall the last day in Minnesotta when jo, roys kh and I were so reluctant to go back to Madison to finish the last leg of the semester. When we actually contemplated quitting school... which is actually a really nice thought(i'm serious!), something which I still wish could happen without any consequences.

reality reality reality... never pleasant when it hits, but you can never run away from it...

anyway, to put it simply, the semester was a crappy one... I screwed up so many bacteriology midterms that I don't even dare to think about what my grade would be in the end... Nonetheless it was the most fun-filled and meaningful one. I am really be thankful for the wonderful company that has seen me through the best and the worst times of the semester. All the lunches together and cookouts, all the late nights at union south and wendt libary, the sleepover at kh's place, all the road trips... and most of all, the support and encouragement! and for just being there!:) the friendship that has developed is truly amazing:)

Most importantly, I also want to thank You for everything!

hahaha sorry i'm becoming mushy and everything... haha... anyway, it's just 5 more days!! it's probably time to end this entry and hit the books... i promise to update more over winter break!

some long overdue pictures from the minnesotta trip, courtesy of kh:)

thanks guys, for all the times we spent together!

only 1/3 of the semester to go??

2007-11-12T07:20:00.000Z

i am 2/3 through with this semester! on the one hand, this is good because I want to be over and done with this insanity. On the other, I'm really unsettled... Am i really 2/3 through with the semester? Why do i feel as though what transcended over the past 10 weeks was merely the tip of the iceberg? but it's like - what more can there be in just 5 more weeks?? hah. just 5 weeks? more like 840 hours, and I wonder how much will actually be spent sleeping.

the past 2 weeks were hellish, and I really don't know how i managed to pull through. caffeine? hah... i hate caffeine... i really doubt it helps to keep me awake. and i feel extremely lethargic after that... and i suspect the terrible headache I got on saturday was all thanks to caffeine as well. but the college runs on caffeine... almost everyone I see carries a thermos mug of coffee. I seriously doubt anyone can get through college without cultivating this reliance on caffeine. of course there are exceptions to the rule. but still...

hahaha anyway enough about caffeine... I am really looking forward to thanksgiving in Minnesota! in 1.5 weeks! Seriously, it's the only holiday we have. Other schools get fall breaks,Veteran's day off etc, but we get only the bare minimal. The timetable here is so well-thought of, that the semester starts exactly after the labor day holiday... whatever...
back to Minnesota - yes! Mall of America! woo! and guess what? people start queuing at 430am when the mall opens only at 8am! haha! that's madness... other than that, there isn't really a lot to see and do in MN. it'll be a nice getaway, and really, it's the company that counts! looking forward to chilling out n slacking the whole day:)

i wouldn't be taking organic chemistry lab...

2007-10-19T20:34:00.000+01:00

if i didn't have to.

i will be ranting about o chem lab in this post, so beware... if organic chemistry is the love of your life, and you just want to spend every single waking hour in the organic chemistry lab, steer clear...

I don't like o chem lab at all. EVery single thing about the lab is so intimidating. From the solvents in the fume hoods to the glassware. In retrospect, analytical chem lab wasn't that bad. The only good point about organic chemistry lab is that you don't have to spend a whole lot of effort washing your glassware. Just use Acetone. and everything (i think) in you flask will dissolve and can be poured out. spick and span glassware in less than 5 mins. I remember the days of having to wash analytical chemistry glassware with microcleaning solution.. but oh well, those were the days...

Besides the above, everything isn't good. Firstly, the chemicals are volatile. Using the fume hood doesn't help a lot because once you take the compound out, the vapor gets to you. What's more? Sometimes, we have to heat organic solvents. Congratulations! Imagine the amount of hexanes you will be breathing in... And these tend to give you a bad headache, and god knows what else they do to you...

Plus the machines we have to use - people are generally not familiar with how to use them. So for the simplest task of determining the refractive index, which sounds hard but really isn't, people can take a whole 10 mins! My gosh. I don't know how they can spend 10 mins looking through the eye piece to determine the RI! it's not like as if its a kaleidoscope -_-"
Plus those gas chromatography machines that we have to use are really 'lao pok'. They have 3 machines to be shared among 64 students. 2 of the machines are not working. So you can imagine the queue that starts to build up, and it's really frustrating.

Oh man.. i really dread O chem lab... Every monday and wednesday, I will just get super nervous, anxious and frustrated. i know because I feel my heart racing each time I step into the lab... i hope this will get better ove rthe next 8 weeks...

my stats professor is super cool

2007-10-19T04:35:00.000+01:00

ok... my stats professor is really funny. oh my goodness! he tries to be funny in lecture ALL the time. plus it's always so subtle and when you least expect it. it takes awhile to realize the joke, then it's just uncontrollable laughter... I guess these are the things that make the 1hr 15min lecture bearable...

so he told us to calculate the standard deviation to a problem. someone shouted "0.22". For some reason, he kept hearing it as 0.23, 0.32. anything but 0.22. So the person kept repeating "two two. two two." he finally heard it as 0.22. He went "oh! two two..." wrote the answer on the board, and then after a pause, guess what he said, "you know ballet tutu?".. then he did the classic ballerina pose. My goodness!

and then he was explaining this problem where a researcher counted dendrites in 35 neurons obtained from 7 guinea pigs. He was trying to illustarate why the 35 neurons were not totally random and independent variables. Well, basically it just takes a little bit of common sense to figure that out - the 35 neurons should have been obtained from 35 guinea pigs. But he went on about how a guinea pig can be an Einstein guinea pig or an idiot guinea pig and that the Einstein guinea pig would have more dendrites in a neuron.
seriously! einstein guinea pigs having more dendrites in their neurons?! that's the most absurd thing i've heard!

Plus, what does it take for someone to wake up in the morning, and decide he had to shoot the first squirrel he saw outside his window? Hah! and proudly flaunt his kill to the class... and he claims that his GPA was 0.65 in his freshman year. HAHA! how do you ever do get that?

6 weeks down, 9 more to go!

2007-10-15T00:49:00.000+01:00

this semester is going way too fast!

it is starting to get cold in madison now and the sun is rising later and setting earlier. I guess it was gradual process, but I was probably too busy to notice. It was only on saturday that i realized it was already dark outside when it was only 630pm!

Yup, I should probably stop complaining about the weather. Before the temperature dropped, i was complaining about the heat. now, i am dreading the cold. Oh man! I want it to be 18 degrees celsius all year round! but that's not being realistic... anyways... i am not looing forward to experiencing winter in wisconsin all over again. I heard from a senior that winters in madison have been getting milder (yes, -28 degrees celsius is mild by mid-west standards). i hope that winter this year will be even milder! Should we be thanking global warming?! HAHA...
i watched Ratatouille. A really good movie, filled with humor and wit! my goodness! i was laughing throughout... It was for nearly 2 hours? But time flew by...

Anton Ego to Linguini " you're slow for someone in the fast lane."
Linguini's retort " you're thin for someone who loves food."

Gusteau "You know what I say. Anyone can cook."
Remy "Yeah, anyone can cook. That doesn't mean that anyone should."

Gusteau "What can I do? I am a figment of your imagination..."

i need an excuse to get a new school bag

2007-10-11T04:22:00.000+01:00

My school bag is almost 3 years old! I want it to spoil, but it just refuses to!! AHH!

Once in a while, i stuff in so much barang that it will weigh more than 7kg. But it refuses to give way... What more can I do? Plus, it doesn't receive the best treatment - I throw it around on the floor, and i expose it to rain and shine... But it refuses to spoil. Oh man... how how how? I want that north face borealis... hmph... help me think of a good reason to justify getting a new bag... lol

cooking

2007-10-11T02:50:00.000+01:00

I have always wondered why chefs are inevitably men... it's only when you try cooking for yourself then you know the reason why.
The wok, by itself, is heavy. Imagine it with meat and whatever you are supposed to cook. it becomes REALLY heavy. ok, at least to me. if you cannot even lift the wok up, how are you supposed to be tossing food in it as you cook?
what about cooking stuff in 'cauldrons'?? firstly, you need to make the broth, which means you have to move buckets of water. then you need to stir. Wahh. don't play play and think that stirring is simple. you need to overcome the viscosity of the broth ok...
cooking is not as simple as it seems.
i have a newfound respect for chefs

a good saturday to make up for the week

2007-10-07T17:25:00.000+01:00

yup! saturday was a blast! i wish that every single weekend in Madison could be like that...

on saturday morning, we drove to Cave of the Mounds, in Blue Mounds, WI. It was a short drive away, but it felt really good to be away from it all. The cave is a growing limestone cave, so water was dripping from the stalagtites and all... I really liked the cave bacon, a limestone formation just like the stalagmites. They really look like breakfast bacons, trust me... and there's something truly amazing in this cave - a formation that really looks like a parrot. and guess what? Polly the parrot is a stalagmite growing on a stalagtite. Figure that out! apparently, when water was still flwing through the cave, the force of its flow actually knocked off the stalagtite from the ceiling...

then it was Mt Horeb, the troll capital of the America... there weren't that many trolls after all.... we saw llamas though. haha.. just an aside.. i was horrified at myself for mispelling "llama" as i captioned my photos... i guess it was pretty late at night then... so when I was typing this entry this morning, I remembered that llama is spelled with a double "L". oh man!

plus hotpot dinner at xuejiao's placE!:)

one week passed, just like that

2007-10-06T04:01:00.000+01:00

i am in utter disbelief that one week has flown by, just like that... papers, work, lab, exams, quizzes and lectures... and the cycle repeats itself every week...
this week was a really really bad week. many things happened.
for one, lab. well, my experiments have been working well so far, as compared to last semester where i spent the entire semester trying to transform bacteria, to no avail. But still, i cannot spend as much time in the lab as I would like to. And somehow, I feel that my mentor isn't very pleased... sigh. oh well... i'm really worried. but there's nothing much i can do about it, except wish that i had 36 hours (yes, again!) in a day...
then exams - i was surprised that i even managed to get through 90% of the material i needed to cover... i overslept and i had to skip my bacteriology lecture to make up for lost time...
then the horrible english paper i submitted on monday, which i did not even have time to proof read. I don't think my arguments were very coherent. and i am seriously worried... crying over spilt milk, i know...
but whatever... whatever is done is done. the weekend is finally here!:)

haha.. one week has passed, just like that
i'm getting better at moving on as time passes me by...
pretending that i don't care when it matters the world to me

stupidity

2007-10-01T03:53:00.000+01:00

sometimes, i wonder why I don't learn from my mistakes.
I wonder why I make decisions that I end up regretting.
Then hopelessly wish I could turn back time.

I only have myself to blame...

busy busy busy

2007-09-30T02:54:00.000+01:00

yes, the past week was just busy busy busy. The pile of work NEVER gets lesser. It only grows. Ahh. And when there is conflict of interests, you really don't know which one you should prioritize. There are so many things I want to do. But I only have 24 hours a day. I guess I should learn to live with the fact that I cannot always get the best of both worlds. Something's got to give.

I want more hours in a day! ike 36 hours! So that I can go to Devil's Lake today. So that I can go shopping at East Towne mall. So that I can go to more football games! Football games are really fun... I really really like the atmosphere, although I don't really contribute to it. and cheering for UW, and jeering at the random supporters of the offensive team... ... haha. I know this is mean. But it is really fun... Today, we beat Michigan state! Woo! Imagine the adrenaline that was pumping in the stadium. Oh man! When the game ended, I looked at the people filing out of the stadium from my apartment. I think this is absurd, and it could be just me. but it's nice to just watch the sea of red after a football game. It just feels good. Especially after we beat the other team. It's probably Badger pride. haha... I promise to get myself season passes for my senior year.

at the citadel game

welcome to junior year

2007-09-15T15:26:00.001+01:00

Woah... it has been 3 weeks since I came back to Madison. And it has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs...

It's funny how leaving Singapore this time felt much harder. I don't know why. It's really ironic. I was really looking forward to starting a new semester at Madison. But at the departure gate, i was overwhelmed. It suddenly struck me how much I am leaving behind... But oh well... Everything went well enough, until the transit at JFK. The flight to ORD was repeatedly delayed - from 315 pm to 540pm. And then, it was cancelled!! My goodness! Apparently, there was a tornado at Chicago, forcing hundreds of flights across the continent to be cancelled. The next available flight to ORD was from Washington Dulles airport at 6am. Haha. Stranded at airports for almost 15 hours. Not a nice feeling at all... But yup, finally reached Madison. I am settling well into the new apartment, but my room still looks bare. I'll get posters and put up pictures when i find the time...

my room!

It has been 2 weeks into the semester, and I feel overwhelmed by work. I don't know if I am overloading my semester, or if it is like that for everyone in their junior year, or if it is just me. But yes, there are so many commitment - academic, lab, friends and family - and sometimes, I feel as though these are tearing me apart. The past 2 weeks have been really bad. So on Thursday, I decided i needed a break. I tried cooking, and yes, that was like the first time in my life that I actually cooked a decent meal. It turned out well enough. But I severly underestimated the amount to cook for 5 people. I thought 2 cups of rice was enough. Haha. And for the fish, it just shrank by some kind of magic after I stir-fried it. Lol. So... Had to thaw more fish. Thank god for microwaves. They make life so much easier.

And guess what, I baked carrot and raisin muffins from scratch on Friday! haha! it seems like I am going into some sort of compulsive disorder. haha! the things people do when they are stressed.

and yes! I am going to my first football game in Madison in half an hour's time! so excited!

unsent thoughts

2007-07-18T18:09:00.001+01:00

i realise i should not buy cards in future.

I have successfully accumulated a stack of unsent cards.

Some of them are cards I buy on the spur of the moment, WAY in advance. But things happen along the way and often, you don't feel the same way as you did at the time you bought the card. Or there were unexpected change in plans. So the card remains tucked in one corner. But this is OK. Because somehow you will find a way to put the card into good use...

Worst are the cards I have already written in. They are all ready to be sent. But somehow, I just don't get down to the sending part.
I guess writing and actually sending the cards are different things.

random

2007-06-24T15:26:00.000+01:00

My goodness! I am so lazy now. I have so much time and I don't feel like blogging... this post will be just a random compilation of things from the last post till now. Nothing much changed, except that I am now back in Singapore. It felt surreal upon landing at Changi Airport. I guess it is because everything was happening so quickly. After finals, it was packing and moving out of the dorms. Then it was the New York trip. I felt as though I was being pushed forward by the tide of time.

It feels good to be home after 9 months. Meeting family and old friends once again. Getting to eat Hokkien Mee and Chicken Rice once again. The only thing about Singapore is the heat and humidity. I miss the weather in Madison! ahh! but I should not be so greedy...

haha! whilst shopping at Ho CHi Minh city, my sister and I mistook wooden chopsticks for hairsticks!

HAIRSTICKS!

oh my goodness! So we wanted to buy ONE hairstick. And the lady took another identical stick and told us the cost of a pair. So we thought we had to buy a minimum of 2 hairsticks. So put the one that she gave us back and chose a different pattern. But she told us that the 2 had to be of the same pattern. Haha... we did not know the reason why then... But after walking around Ben Thanh market for awhile, we realise that those were chopsticks! Argh!!

And during the trip, I saw the most adorable baby girl ever! Her name is Tashi!

Aww!

My sister is so good with carrying her! I try to carry her... but see what happens.. Haha! she's trying to leap away from me!! oops!

And I have started my 8 week attachment at IMCB. It's really fun and interesting, and the people in my lab are really nice people. Especially my mentor who is so patient with me... (I can be quite a disaster in lab) The only thing I don't like about lab is the cold room. I find it really cold inside... but it's only 4 degrees celcius in there! Oh man! Imagine the amount of adapting installed when I get back to Madison! And there is also the dark room, which is really dark... It's pitch dark, except for the red light. I couldn't see anything despite the red light, but my mentor could navigate her way around the room without any difficulty! It's pretty scary because you keep hearing noises but you cannot make out the source of the noise... And imagine if you are the only one in there... if someone ever tries to pull a prank on me in the dark room, I think i will be scared out of my wits. I should eat more carrots to improve my dark vision!:)

spring in Madison

2007-05-28T13:07:00.000+01:00

Bascom Hill

Spot the squirrel

moving out

2007-05-25T04:01:00.000+01:00

Moving out of the dorm was an experience of a lifetime. I promise you would not want to experience it ever again. It was really funny how I felt busier and more stressed out after my finals, which ended on Thursday afternoon. I started packing on Thursday evening, through Friday and Saturday evening. I was really amazed at the nonsense that had accumulated over the year. My goodness!

First, I packed things like my comforter that I wanted to store over the summer. And I managed to fill a 24" x 24" 24 " box to the brim. When the box was picked up for storage, the guy commented that it must have weighed a 200 pounds.. he could barely lift it up into his van...

Then came delofting, which was the worst part of them all. Katy moved out earlier in the afternoon, and after seeing how she and her other friend managed to deloft without any major problems, I thought it should be an easy task. But I was so wrong. I forgot that they were rowers...

Esther, my housefellow, together with Trina, helped me deloft. It was the hardest thing ever! The bed frame was so heavy, and it was not easy to slot the metal frames back... No wonder they say you need a mallet to deloft... And came mopping! Gosh! the amount of dust that had accumulated, despite the fact that we vacuum the room *occasionally*... I really don't know how the dust came to be. They just appeared! and accumulated happily...

Miraculously, I managed to return the room to its original state. Don't ask me how... I don't even know how I did it...

It's goodbye to lakeshore for now... It's really ironic. At the beginning, I thought I would be looking forward to moving out of the dorms. But now, I feel that I will really miss everything about dorm life and about lakeshore...

Clockwise from top left:

Outside Cole

Katy's desk

Holt commons

Mei busy with Trina's birthday surprise

ooo... i can smell singapore

2007-05-06T01:09:00.000+01:00

I am so excited about going back to Singapore!! woo hoo! Singapore in 3 more weeks!! My goodness! The wait could have been 2 weeks... but all well... its just 1 week more... not much of a difference... i hope...
ANyways, there's so much to do over the summer, and the wait is simply killing me...

And I have made a "To Eat" list when I get back to Singapore:):):)

The top 4:

1) Pork floss bread from BreadTalk (ooh.. my ultimate ultimate favourite)
2) Chicken Rice (mainly because I miss the chilli)
3) Yong Tau Foo
4) Walnut cookies
The list is exhaustive...

How about a "Not to Eat" list (lol)
which isn't too long for obvious reasons...
1) Dim sum (overkill during spring break...)
2) Ice cream (too much in Madison)
3) Pizza

spring break part 3: pike place, pioneer square, univeristy of washington, boeing factory, space needle

2007-04-14T17:12:00.000+01:00

SEATTLE!

Stop 4: Pike Place!

a huge market! selling all kinds of produce from raw fish to homemade jam to t-shirts and souvenirs. the highlight was food and more food!

and i did not realize why it was "sleepless in seattle" till i came to pike place. and lo and behold! i was introduced to life, the seattle way. you get a coffee joint at almost every other corner you turn. Oh my goodness! if it wasn't a Starbucks, it was Seattle's Best Coffee. Else, it was Tully's! And did you know that Seattle was the birthplace of Starbucks? I wonder why its not surprising...

at the very first Starbucks joint:)

I am not a fan of crocs. and what i saw waS simply bizarre...

oh my goodness! oh my goodness! that was the only thing i could say... it's as if crocs are not outlandish enough. they have these things which you can insert into the holes! OH MY GOODNESS!

to all crocs lovers out there: Good for you!

as we were walking around downtown seattle, we stumbled upon this waterfall park in the midst of the CBD... hmm

Stop 5: Pioneer Square

the underground tour was quite an interesting experience, an eye opener. so we were introduced to the history of sanitation in seattle. how it was a challenge to the hilly terrain of seattle. and so fortunately for a fire that razed to the city to the ground, the city could be rebuilt with a better sanitation system. Ok, point taken. but it was the longest 1 1/2 hours ever. enough said.

sarah, me and kayi. with the brave firemen:)

what did i say about totems?!

Stop 6: University of Washington

It is such a beautiful campus! And to think they say that UWMadison is a nice campus. It really pales in comparison to UWashington. At least UWashington has buildings which are of the same architectural style - very European style. Whilst in Madison, you get random buildings everywhere. In Madison, you get a modern looking glass panelled building, which sticks like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the humble brick ones. haha... but its still a nicer campus than you know what... oops:x

a picture we took at the entrance of the university, at the expense of being laughed at by passing drivers

Stop 7: Boeing factory

and what visit to seattle would be complete if you did not visit the boeing factory?! woo.. it was absolutely cool. you see 777s being put together. and 787s in the making. not that I really knew what the specifics of 777s were. but at least i learnt that the wings of 787s could bend so that turbulence is reduced. and something that dawned upon me only then: airplanes are HUGE!

one of the propeller engines. just look at the complexity! respect for aeronautical engineers!

Stop 8: Space needle

ooo the space needle towers over

the skyline of downtown seattle

sunset by the bay

sunset... again

all in all seattle is one of the nicest US cities i have been to so far. it is somewhere i wouldn't mind going again and again and again:)

group pictures courtesy of Khian Hong

spring break part 2: skagit

2007-04-14T16:48:00.000+01:00

SEATTLE!

1st stop: Factory outlet!:):):):):)

Yeah! we decided to stop by Prime outlets on our way back to Seattle:) Shopping! yeah! but this Prime Outlets was so small! but it was better than nothing! what trip would be complete without some shopping, right?:) hee. anyway, GAP had a really good sale! and I spent so much...

2nd stop: skagit - tulips tulips and more tulips

it was a pity that the tulips weren't in full bloom yet... but we still managed to find a small farm where there were some:)

the pink tulips

more tulips!

yellow tulips

i like this picture:)

group picture:)

WCP at the tulip farm

3rd stop: La Quinta

and guess what we saw in the car park? a WCP car!!:) ooo

group pictures courtesy of Khian Hong

spring break part 1: vancouver

2007-04-14T15:32:00.000+01:00

spring break was invigorating!:):):)

vancouver and seattle were really wonderful places.
the scenary was beautiful - mountain ranges and the pacific ocean

the weather was awesome! it did not rain on us! which was really really rare because it rains almost everyday in seattle!:)

VANCOUVER

1ST Stop: stanley park

we were all SOO excited when we saw trees with pink flowers! i am tempted to say they are sakura trees, but i better not, knowing how bad i am with plants and animals. but i am starting to learn more about animals.. and i promise i will get better:)

you'd be surprised at how much i have to learn about animals. and yes, i recently learnt that ducks could fly! oh my goodness! and swans too!

kayi, sarah and me with the tree with pink flowers!

doesn't this look like something you would take in Japan? Sakura flowers with Mt. Fuji in the background.... ok.. i should stop misleading people into thinking that there are Sakura flowers in Canada...

and Lion's gate bridge! haha! guess what? it is green! My goodness! what a gaudy color to choose for a bridge. it successfully spoilt the whole scenary

Lion's gate bridge at Prospect Point

another view from prospect point

and so, we were so captured by the scenary that we decided to make a stop at Prospect Point in Stanley Park. In our zest to take in the scenary, we did not realize that we had to pay to park at Prospect Point. When we got back, we GOT A TICKET!! and the fine was $31 plus. We did not know what to say for awhile... but when we went to pay our fine the next day, they waived the charges because we were tourists! can you believe that? :)

totem poles! and i thought you only see these in New zealand. ok, maybe its just me... haha.. but you see a lot of totem poles in seattle and vancouver

2nd stop: Capilano Bridge

capilano bridge, which is suspended 70m above the ravine

the ravine!

but we made it through:)

the bridge hangs behind

3rd "stop": Grouse mountain

we decided to give this a miss because we did not have time to enjoy the activities that it had to offer... like skiing and ice skating...

grouse mountain

the chairlift up to grouse mountain!

Stop 4: Granville Island Market

It was a really small market. Nothing much to see or do, thus quite a disappointment...

Capilano bridge and group pictures courtesy of Khian Hong

missing home

2007-03-30T03:59:00.000+01:00

It's strange how I don't feel excited about the coming trip. Or about spring break in general.

Spring break is finally here!!! yeah!

I am trying, but it's just not working.

As I walked to my classes today, some folks were already waiting for parents or friends to pick them up. I thought back to how different such breaks meant back in Singapore. I really looked forward to holidays then. There was always this buzz in the air when a holiday drew near, and the holiday mood that I would be in. I did not know the reason back then. But now I see why. It meant short trips with my family. It meant lazing around the house with them. Just spending time together. There is probably a buzz over spring break, but i don't feel it. How I wish, and wish and wish that I can be back home in Singapore.

I suddenly realize why I did not feel the anticipation for any of the trips we have had, or the coming trip to New York. I am looking forward to the trip back to Singapore though. I feel as though I have lost my interest for travelling.

Some have plans to go places or enjoy the sun and the beach. But the lucky ones are those who get to go home...

Holidays are meant for things you really want to do, for you to touch base with where your heart lies...

Anyway, it's just 2 more months! Let the countdown begin:)

a breather

2007-03-21T23:31:00.000Z

it has been a long while since i blogged!
half a semester has just whizzed past in a blink of an eye! wow! it's only 8 more weeks till i will be back home again:)
been really busy this semester. Monday just comes and before you know it, its already friday, then Saturday then Sunday, then Monday again.

some of the more significant things so far...

MY FIRST ATTEMPT with baking EGG TARTS
which was undoubtedly a failure. The crust was so disgusting! ahh! i should have taken a picture to show you guys how badly the egg tarts turned out... The crust was tasteless and the custard was not sweet enough. But they were so nice about it... saying that the egg tarts were nice. haha:D will try baking egg tarts again when i have more time back in singapore.

I am starting to learn driving, again. Haha! And i realize i am super bad with reversing!

And some of you might know, I have never been a fan of chocolate milk. BUt UW Dairy plant produces very very god chocolate milk!

And bagels bagels and more bagels! bagels are so yummy! I remember when we first tried it in LA, i swore never to touch it ever again. It tasted really bad back then. I guess it is an acquired taste, and perhaps it was because I thought it was a donut! yes! that's why i did not like it when i first tasted it.

the past 3 weeks were really HECTIC! i am so glad that it is finally over, and spring break is coming:)

Madison - at long last

2007-01-20T17:40:00.000Z

Never thought i would be so glad to return to Madison. Just last month, I was looking forward to FLorida, and now, I can't wait to zoom back home. I am probably exhausted from 3 weeks of travelling. It could be because we had spent too long in Miami, FL. 2 weeks in FLorida would have been just nice. And I would suggest spending a little less than 1 week in Miami. Trust me. Miami isn't a place you would want to stick around much. Go to beaches in other parts of Florida like St. Petersburg.

We were checking the weather in Madison every other day, just one and a half weeks before our return. And we realized the temperature was constantly dropping. From around 40F, it dropped to 32F, then to 20F and finally to 8F. Congratulations to us! We escaped the mild, and were just in time for deep winter. And we weren't armed with our down jackets and what nots. But whatever. I don't care if I freeze...

We arrived in Madison at long last. The feeling of being back 'home' was really good. I can't imagine how I will feel 5 months later when I finally get back to singapore:)

Winter Break 2007 - Florida - Part 4 - Tampa & St. Petersburg

2007-01-20T05:01:00.000Z

Tampa

This leg of the journey started off badly. We did not know there were 2 La Quinta Inns in Tampa. We got down at the wrong stop, and still ignorant of our mistake, we started to trudge along the highway to the inn, each complete with 12 kg plus of luggage which we had to bear the weight of because we did not get trolley bags (that's another story). The Inn was probably 800m from the bus stop.

then as if sent by an angel, a good samaritan stopped by to ask if we needed any help in getting to wherever we were heading to. Elcias offered us a ride to the La QUinta down the highway. There, we realized that it was the wrong La Quinta! The right one was like 4-5 km away. Oh Man! We were really really thankful that Elcias stopped by to help us. He even invited us to a cuban dinner with his family! Wow! But we did not want to impose on him anymore, so we declined the offer. Looking back, I wonder what I had done to deserve such kindness from a complete stranger...

Florida Aquarium @ Tampa Bay

This is a really good aquarium. It would beat Miami Seaquarium handsdown. ANd I found it much better than the Underwater World at Sentosa. Haha, maybe it is because I haven't been to many aquariums. But I found it to be an eye opener.

St. Petersburg

A really peaceful, pristine place to tour around, and possibly stay in. The inn we stayed in was run by a couple, and it was a really homely place.

Bayside

Salvador Dali Museum

It was a real eye-opener. I don't profess to be a fan of Dali, but through the tour of the museum, I have gained a deeper insight into Dali and his works, and I must say they are really really impressive.

15 Jan - Commemoration of Martin Luther King

the procession

Kayi and I, with the beaded necklaces that they were giving out during the procession...

Winter Break 2006/07 - Florida - Part 3 - Miami

2007-01-13T23:52:00.000Z

After a 3 hour drive, we finally arrived in Miami. The original plan was to countdown from Miami BEach, but the roads there were packed, and we could not find a parking lot. So we headed back to McArthur Bridge which overlooks Biscayne Bay. The view of the skyline of downtown Mimai was really nice. Reminded me so much of Singapore.

Miami's downtown - pretty right?

Welcome 2007!

When the clock struck 12, we heard lots of honking on the causeway. It's probably how the Americans express their joy. lol

Miami Seaquarium

was not as good as I had expected it to be. not a must - go...

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

A really impressive architecture. You can imagine its grandeur during its era. Had lots of fun taking pictures here

the exterior of the museum. we could not take pictures inside the museum

behind the hedge... lol

statues

Florida Keys

the atlantic!

Part of the US 1 Highway Between MArathon and the Lower Keys (Florida Keys, FL)

the ocean!

WCPs @ 0 mile marker of US 1 Highway (Key West, FL)

AHH.. Physics

LEarning how to Cycle

I am so happy that i learnt how to cycle @ Miami. I still cannot cyle well though. But at least I can balance on the bike already! Woo! Have to thank the guys - Khian Hong, Kangyi and SOngyu - for their patience in teaching me how to cycle! Haha. It must have been tough for them, because i know how hopeless i am with the bicycle.

I could not practice more that day though, because I had a blister from gripping the bike handle too much. But when i get back to SIngapore, I will definitely make sure I learn how to cycle properly:)

Everglades

i liked the airboat tour through the everglades, although it was quite a short one. Firstly, it was a unique experience, zig-zaggingthrough the marshes on an airboat. Secondly, it wasn't as scary as I had thought it would be. THe alligators were not as big as i imagined them to be. We probably saw around 3 -4 gators, each at most 1.5 - 2 m long, and slim.

swampy

on the air boat

mahjong tiles - PONG and 眼睛

Aventura Mall

And how can a trip to Miami be complete without visiting the much touted Aventura Mall? We expected the bus ride from South BEach to Aventura to be long, perhaps an hour. But the ride turned out to be 1.5 hours long! Oh man! And there was nothing much at Aventura. The usual anchor malls like SEARS, MACY's, plus the usual boutiques like GAP and Abercrombie which were not within our reach. The highlight though, was the Cheesecake Factory! Yummy! We don't have a Cheesecake Factory in Madison. The nearest one to us is in Chicago. Despite its proximity to Madison, it is ironic that we have never found time to tour Chicago. Sad right? OK, I digress. Back to the Cheesecake Factory. Would we let the opportunity slip us by? NO... Haha.

Tiramisu CHeesecake - NIce, but was a tad too sweet.

Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple - Good!

Kayi and I did not eat lunch. But we were SOO full after eating the cheesecake. I cannot imagine how people have such cheesecakes for dessert. Hmm... lol

Next one on my to-try list - Godiva Chocolate CHeesecake. Yummy! We wanted to try this, but it was sold out:(

Winter break 2006 - Florida - Part 2 - Orlando

2007-01-13T02:04:00.000Z

Kennedy Space Centre - NASA

rocket garden

WCP @ rocket garden

act blur

Florida's Natural Orange Grove

can't get enough of oranges

presenting... the orange grove!

(seems like we are in a large grove) hee

Cypress Gardens

The rides are more thrilling than the Disney's, but there was no theme to the park. The whole park felt like a "pasar malam". Haha...

Chicken Dance

waterfall at cypress garden

Wonderworks & Ripley's Believe it or Not

Virtual Reality - Goalie

ooo! Backwards Clock

WCP

Winter break 2006 - Florida - Part 1 - Orlando, Disneyworld

2007-01-13T01:08:00.000Z

Our flight to Orlando was at 1030 am, 24 Dec. We took the bus from Madison to Ohare, and We arrived at around 5 am. Checking in was really chaotic. But on the lighter side, we had a really good laugh at how the lady at the checkin counter pronounced our last names.

Tried Dunkin Donuts for the first time. I tried Apple and Spice. Its really good! Yum yum! This one was like a soft pastry with apple filling in it.

When we arrived at Orlando, the scramble to find directions to our accomodation and to rent a car was really a memorable one. Something I Will find hard to forget. the entire process of getting the key was like a treasure hunt. After unlocking the first clue, you get another clue which will lead you to the next clue.

outside our apartment @ high grove

Disneyworld!

Magical experience:)

Animal Kingdom

we simply love donald duck!

Magic Kingdom

Just some thoughts:

Whilst we were queuing up to take pictures with Donald and Mickey, we noticed something really interesting. The children had autograph books that they wanted the characters to sign. We were like - these aren't even the "real" DOnald and Mickey. But i guess the children don't realize this yet. To think parents actually buy autograph books for their kids, and encourage their children to get autographs from the characters! Hmm...

sashimi + ice cream cake = pure indulgence

2006-11-18T07:50:00.000Z

wow! I'm sill reeling from the wonderful dinner we had just now at Epo Sushi. It was so good! Sashimi mever tasted so good. I was deprived of japanese cuisine for 3 whole months! wonder how i survived.. anyways, the presentation of the Sashimi Platter was so appealing, and the sashimi - simply delectable! especially Salmon and mackerel. The squid and the scallop was good also! If i had brought my camera along, I would have taken pictures. But I didn't!!! Wanted to kick myself. But i'm sure i'll go back there one day, so till then...
We were celebrating Yuyun's and allan's birthday, and there were 2 icecream cakes from coldstone - one with raspberry ice cream, the other with chocolate. It was pure indulgence. And this explains why I am still up at 2.30am.
Looking forward and counting down to thanksgiving! YEAH!!

it's snowing

2006-11-12T03:06:00.000Z

friday 10 November

it started raining, and raining and raining the whole morning. then sometime in the afternoon, the rain became snow. Although it was really nice to see heavy snow fall, it wasn't at all nice to be walking in the snow - having to brave the wind and bear with being bombarded with icicles...

view from my dorm room

outside my dorm, taken without flash ( i don't know why the picture came out so blur.. i tried taking a zillion times, but it just came out blur everytime. hmm :x

outside my dorm, cool effect right?

snow fall is really pretty! but it also makes it so difficult to walk about. the snow melts quickly because its not cold enough yet. And combined with all the gravel, we get sludge! try walking in sludge with normal canvas shoes. at the very least, your socks get thoroughly soaked. And if you are going through a rough day, you can complete your day by slipping and falling on the ground. i'm so glad that i got boots. Not only do they make it so much easier to trudge through the sludge, but they also make me look taller... hee hee...

yum yum.. korean dinner

2006-11-04T04:31:00.000Z

we had dinner at New Seoul Restaurant today, and it was SOOO good! I can't say how authentic the korean cuisine is, because sadly, it is my first time trying Korean food. Well, techinically speaking, it is not because I should have tried Korean food before when I went to Korea. But then, I was too young to remember, or appreciate the food, so it's not counted.

One thing that was really really, really really good about today's dinner was the spiciness of every single dish we ordered! oh man! so wonderfully spicy! I miss chilli! So far, i haven't had spicy food here - spiciness that you get a kick out of... Even the thai food here isn't spicy (WTH)... and the closest thing you get to chilli is BBQ sauce, or those cheapo 'duck chilli' from those dubious takeaways that label themselves "asian".

i'm gonna treat myself to a spicy spicy spcicy meal every week. Life without spicy food is simply depressing...

argh!

2006-10-09T03:21:00.000+01:00

really should be studying my anthropology now.. but nothing seems to be going in and being retained. it's like placing a cyclinder in the midst of an electric field, and all the EField lines that goes in from one side goes out from the other side. ZERO NET FLUX. argh! so pissed with myself... i don't know why also.. homesickness? which is true. i miss my family, and singapore food - yongtaufoo (especially the brinjal one), hokkien mee, ban mian etc etc. and i'm so distracted by so many thoughts and stuff... sigh:(

shopping @ outlet mall...

2006-10-09T03:02:00.000+01:00

was a blast!

there was just so much to see and do, and most importantly, to buy! i splurged and i think i overspent. Oops! but it was so fun!! the trip was fun! many thanks to kayi for entertaining me with her videos on ipod. Haha. brought back so many memories of predeparture - like the times at Settlers cafe, partyworld, songyu's fringe shake. thanks to songyu for navigating and being so forever bubbly. thanks to lokewei for driving us to the malls, and having to deal with the poor logistics of Enterprise. and to taka - although he was sleeping most of the time in the car, but when we were on the way back to madison, he gave us insights into his research - haha. actually he was sleeping.. but when songyu was pondering aloud as to whether he should take psychology as a major, he suddenly woke up, and said " No No, never take psychology as a major.." Hmm.. wondered how psychology has terrorised him...

we got back to madison at ard 1230am. i was exhausted and i became very irritable. I cldn't believe it also. first, i cldn' open the side entrance to my dorm. and i was pissed just because i had to walk an extra 100m to the main entrance. then, when i went back to my room, my roommate was sleeping already. I fumbled around the room in the dark, and i kept dropping or kicking things. and i started cursing... i guess i was just pissed with myself for being so clumsy, and not eating enough carrots to improve my night vision. then i realise that i didn't want to talk much also. not that there were lots of people to talk to... . but when someone asked me abt the trip, i gave short curt answers. i feel very very guilty.. sigh:( the effects of sleep deprivation... never catch me when i haven't got enough sleep, or when its way past my sleep time. i'll just be cranky, and you'll regret it...

a nice jog by the lake

2006-10-01T01:12:00.000+01:00

I should really be exercising, in view of all the icecream I have been indulging in, right? Haha! So i decided to take a scenic jog to picnic point in the afternoon. (5 miles back and forth). It was warmer today, around 20 degrees celsius. Perfect for a run, at least that was what i thought too, initially.

But it was only when i started jogging that I realized what i was in for. The horrid wind!! horrible wind! I hate you! As I jogged, the wind just blew mercilessly. Argh! It was chilly, and it made it so difficult to run. Although the sun was shining, it doesn't help when the air you breathe in is so freaking cold. But the jog along the lake was so refreshing! wow! The lake was so picturesque! I shan't bother to describe, because I know i'm really bad at that. But I promise to take a picture next time, and you'll see what I mean:)

oh no! ice-cream again!

2006-10-01T01:01:00.000+01:00

Even i can't believe i had ice cream yet again, and it was in spite of the cold rainy night. But ColdStone was just too good to resist. I'm serious.

This was what I tried:

SOOOO Extremely sinful... but it was worth it!! It's really good!

喜欢你

2006-10-01T00:38:00.000+01:00

曲：梁文福词：梁文福
歌手: 陈洁仪

喜欢你
给我你的外衣
让我像躲在你身体里
喜欢你
借我你的梳子
让我用柔软头发吻你

喜欢你
车窗上的雾气
仿佛是你的爱在呼吸
喜欢你
那微笑的眼睛
连日落也看作唇印

我喜欢这样跟着你
随便你带我到哪里
你的脸慢慢贴近
明天也慢慢地慢慢清晰
我喜欢你爱我的心
轻触我每根手指感应
我知道
它在诉说着你承诺言语

This song is SOOOO nice!! it's just replaying itself in my mind, and i can't seem to get it out, no matter what i do. Tuning it out with other songs doesn't help. Once i stop playing those songs, this song comes back...
Is it just me? Or is it the song?

sinful indulgences

2006-09-23T06:33:00.000+01:00

Argh!! been indulging in lots of ice-cream and chocolate.. afterall, this is america's dairyland... I can't help it if they come knocking on my door... (it's not TOTALLY my fault, right?)

today, we had a housewarming party at the senior's place. And it was ice cream galore!

Ben&Jerry's! My favourite because of its richness.. mmm...

my favourites so far:

yum yum... still reeling from the sugar high

PLUS PLUS we have our very own babcock icecream. The texture is superb! really!

one more thing that I really really like: Butterfinger!

It's just SOOO nice!

Plus they have Combos here! Yes, i'm a Combos fan! It's just so nice... and its sad that we don't get these in Singapore anymore....

And, did i mention parties?

man! oh man!

so you think chemistry lab is fun...

2006-09-22T01:32:00.000+01:00

well... it is, if ALL the reagents are already prepared for you, and all you have to do is pour 50 mL of solution into the buret, or pipet 25 mL of a reagent, and start your titration.

Analytical CHemistry gives you the whole package. So now, you get to prepare your stock solutions, weigh out your chemicals and dissolve them to form a solution. And if you think that is all, no no.. you're wrong.

I felt like I enrolled into a dishwashing class on the very first laboratory session we had. We had to wash all our equipment with Alconox, and scrub them real well. Then wash with distilled water and the usual.

Imagine:

12 125mL, 2 500mL, 2 1L polyethene bottles
6 250mL conical flasks,
6 filter crucibles
3 weighing bottles
2 sets of glass beakers (each set contains a 100mL, 250mL, 500mL and 1L beaker)
100mL, 250mL, 500mL and 1000mL volumetric flasks
1mL, 5mL, 10mL, 25mL, 50mL pipets
50mL buret
etc etc etc

And its not only the washing. Today, we had to prepare NaOH solution. We had to dilute it from 19.1M (mols/L) of concentrated NaOH. Man. I don't know how i got concentrated NaOH onto my hand, because I did not even recall spilling anything. But I felt something biting into my skin. Being the itchy hand that I am, I rubbed that area, and it was soapy... eww.. 19.1M.. so freaking concentrated... In JC, we always worked with concentrations of point something... and those are already quite corrosive...
Later I found out from Kelvin that his TA had told them to wear gloves before taking the concentrated solutions. Argh!!!

Besides all the above complaints, analytical chem is really fun. I'm starting to like it a lot! It beats secondary and JC chem lab work. It rocks!

Yup, so you think chemistry lab is fun? It is!

so cold

2006-09-22T00:47:00.000+01:00

AHH!!! it's only end summer early fall, and temperatures have dropped to 10 degrees celsius. The nights get freezing cold (although it is 8 degrees only) because they don't turn on the heater yet. Argh... I had to wear gloves when it got so cold one of those nights, something which utterly shocked my room-mate and my neighbours. Man! I wonder how I'll survive -20 degrees celsius.
Now I know how wonderful it feels to drink something hot when you're cold. And i realise the importance of a good down comforter. Haha.. That is probably the reason why I'm starting to like sleeping. Once i'm out of bed, the cold starts to hit again... Especially bad when you're walking against the cursed wind, or worse, in the rain.
Boo hoo... I have to check the weather forecast religiously. So if there's a chance of precipitation, i know that i MUST wear covered shoes. Not sandals or slippers. How I miss sunny Singapore. Haha... I will never complain about the weather in Singapore anymore...

pictures of Lake Mendota @ UW-Madison

2006-09-17T21:18:00.000+01:00

pictures don't do justice to the picturesque campus, but i'm still gonna post them anyway

the beautiful lake mendota

mahjong

2006-09-17T21:15:00.000+01:00

we simply love kayi's mini mahjong set!

madison

2006-08-30T14:32:00.000+01:00

the land of moo moos

nice!

woo.. LA

2006-08-29T14:30:00.000+01:00

had a whale of a time in LA! As the saying goes, pictures speak a thousand words, so enjoy!

Highlights of the plane ride!

190806 Venice beach

190806 Getty Centre

200806

lunch

Hollywood!

210806 Universal Studios

shopping is FUN!

2006-07-29T17:59:00.000+01:00

trust me!
for the past week or so, the four of us had been going on a shopping spree, getting stuff ranging from laptop accessories like laptop sleeves and ethernet cables to miscellaneous things like torch lights. lol i have burnt a big hole in my pocket already:( and i have yet to finish buying everything that i need.
and guess what. if you inspect the things that we have bought so far, you will find at least a 50% similarity. what we call - shopping 'communist' style

i want a hedgehog

2006-07-13T05:55:00.000+01:00

thanks to huiling, who has successfully converted me into a hedgehog lover...

Now, what exactly is a hedgehog? To put it simply, and to quote my dad, a hedgehog is just a small little animal that lives in a hedge.

And as huiling has explained, a hedgehog does not equal to a porcupine!

Hedgehogs have modified hairs on their neck and back called quills. These quills are not barbed like a porcupine, as many people assume. Hedgehogs cannot "throw" their quills, either. Their quills feel somewhat like a rough scrub brush.

A baby hedgehog = hoglet

And remember i used to have a virtual pet, pokey? Yes! pokey!

I want a domesticated african hedgehog, which has a nice white belly:)

african hedgehog

And guess what? Hedgehogs help to control insect and vermin populations. They show a high tolerance to toxins, both natural and human-made. They have been known to consume many animals whose toxins could be fatal to humans including certain beetles, wasps, bees, and venomous snakes.
wow! they actually eat venomous snakes? Cool! i going to bring it along for trekking and camping!

sentosa!

2006-07-02T03:11:00.000+01:00

wow! haven't been to sentosa for a long time, probably for around 3 years to date, and when i went there with hui jun on 30 June, I was in for a nice surprise:)

it's really nice now:) clean beaches and waters, modern facilities which gave the place a 'sleek' look, and loads of things to try out.

Most thrilling of course would be the luge ride! It is part go-cart, part-toboggan, basically a fun-filled gravity ride that cleverly exploits physics.
lol. I couldn't help but think about the formula for centripetal acceleration as i approached bends. When I was too fast, and the luge 'skidded', i knew why. And the course was banked! cool. lol... imagine if i hadn't taken physics, i wouldn't even have noticed that it was banked!

[digress: during my driving lesson, the instructor pointed out to me that the bends on the roads were mostly banked. I did not notice this, probably because of the scale. Then he went on to explain, and trust me, this is a good explanation. He said the banking, or slope as he called it, was to allow the rainwater to run quickly into the drainage system. It sounds logical, and I am sure that it is one of the spin-off benefits of having a banked road, but i had a hard time trying to control my laughter]

picture of a luge

yup, and the beach was really nice:)

nice sand

muah haha!! look at how we ruin the sand!

The sunset was really beautiful! And Hui Jun managed to capture very nice pictures:)

pictures courtesy of hui jun

pre-departure

2006-07-01T22:06:00.000+01:00

haha:D right after obs was a week's worth of pre-departure programme. And it was fun:)

The highlight was of course cooking lessons at Shatec. It was a really nicce session - at least it helped assure me that cooking is not such a daunting task afterall. However, the hands-on session proved that, perhaps, I am not meant to step into the kitchen.

First mistake: I boiled the spaghetti, but i forgot to add oil to the water... so when we drained the water, the spaghetti clumped together:( Luckily Yunqin knew how to salvage the situation - she placed the spaghtti back into water. Smart girl:)

I had to fry rice to... At first, I put just enough oil to line the pan, and I thought it was a lot. But an assistant came around, shook her head, and asked me to add a lot more oil. Wow! (they say its ard 11 tablespoons of oil)

Moral of the story: Fried rice is really oily - you put a lot of oil, and the rice still comes out looking dry:(

Anyway, I started out well enough, until I had to fry the egg. Guess what? Here comes mistake 2: I did not know we had to control the fire as we fry the egg... so the egg was stuck to the pan:( and it became cao4 ta1.

But i told myself nevermind, and continued to fry the rice. I happily stirred fry the rice, and third mistake: I forgot all about adding soy sauce! oh man! by the time i realise it, it was too late. The rice was too dry to add anything. Sigh. Had to salvage it by adding pepper instead. So the rice turned out bland.

The stewed chicken turned out good! because Yunqin was in charge of it. Hee.

But i guess i'll not cook when I'm in US, unless

1. it's a group thing, and i'll offer to prepare the ingredients. They can handle anything to do with the stove.

2. it is deep in winter, and going out for food is not an option, and I have no rations.

3. it's baking:)

yup! after that, our watch decided to have a Raja KTV outing. We made our way to Youth Park, sat down and started eating the food we ate. Then its off to orchard party world. I must say we have really good singers amongst us!

@ youth park!

On friday, we also had a sharing session with our seniors, and it was really insightful! For example, I have decided to take my driving test in the US, although I'll still continue with lessons in Singapore. Firstly, it's the time factor. I'll not be able to get a test date before I leave for US. Secondly, and the more important reason, is that it is MUCH MUCH easier to pass in the US. The test is only 5 minutes! You just drive around a block, and wah la! You get your license.

group photo of us (departing batch) n seniors from wisconsin-madison

pictures courtesy of kangyi and khian hong

OBS

2006-07-01T18:53:00.000+01:00

was a wonderful experience!

Kayaking was fun! besides the fact the wAter off pulau ubin leaves much to be desired (lol:o i had nowhere to look but at the sea. I shall describe it briefly - you can see brown foam - most probably diesel from motorboats that ply the channel. You can also spot bits of styrofoam with algae growing on it, food wrappers etc. If you're lucky, you'll catch the remnants of a dead fish). i'm so glad we kayaked cross island (not to Sembawang sea sports centre), partly because of the distance, and the other part because we got to kayak though the river and mangrove systems of pulau ubin - which was really beautiful. lol. it was easy to get caught in the branches of some of the mangrove plants though. and to add to the experience, we had to navigate ourselves! cool! my partner was the navigator, and i must say it wasn't an easy job at all. The map that they gave us was completely outdated (various elements had caused new features to be formed, previous ones to be eroded). We had a hard time deciding which inlet to enter, which turn to make etc. A few times, we had to rackie (is this how you spell the word?) to confirm a route. One thing about this route is that we had to beach-up and carry our kayaks over land 2 times before we finally reached camp. It was completely exhausting, and the kayaks were heavy... (ok. i'm useless) We kayaked for around 6 hours before we finally reached an ulu camp site on the north of pulau ubin.

We had to construct a raft there - given 4 empty barrels and 8 pipes. Seemed easy enough. We constructed the 'tried and tested' model of a raft that had the 4 barrels as the base, overlaying the pipes on top to form a square base. We proudly named our raft the fantastic float - and boy, it was 'fantastic'!

the fantastic float!

the ulu camp was nature. nothing more. nothing less. we had toilets with a sea view. we rinsed ourselves, complete with our life jackets, in the quarry. supposed to be clean because it is rainwater. But i guess with batches of OBS participants using it, the water wasn't going to be as clean. lol. i developed rashes after the quarry dip... And how do we get into the quarry? Correct! we plunge in. It was quite traumatising, considering that I had slight hydrophobia, and I did not know how to swim. During the interval between jumping in and finally emerging from the depths of the water (thanks to the life jacket), I panicked slightly, and hyper-ventilated. But this time, it wasn't as bad as when we did the capsize drill for the kayak.

During the 2 nights we camped out, we had to cook ourselves. The first night, we decided that we had more time, so we decided to cook rice. And we learnt a valuable lesson - never attempt to cook rice without a rice cooker, or a proper stove at least where you can control the fire. Haha:D It was one of a kind, and the taste is something that you'll never forget. Soft on the outside, crunchy on the inside. With this distinct, slightly charred flavor to it.

cooking lessons

cooking rice! hee

We had instant noodles for the second night, and it was good! complete with chicken curry:) yummy.

Oh yes! sentry duty was nice! pity it was short... i got up at ard 2.20am to do a 20 min shift together with Melissa. and besides looking out for strangers, we had to look out for hogs. They will ruffle through our bags to find food. Smart aren't they? Throughout the night, we had life entertainment from the fishing villages out at sea. There was music blasting, and we tried to provide explanations for this - Mambo night? Or probably to keep the morale of the fishermen out of sea high. lol

The sea expedition was good. But we had to endure land ex too.. complete with our barang barang which weighed around 8 - 10kg. We trekked to the highest peak on pulau ubin - puaka hill (75m high). It was a 4km trek, and we drank loads of water to lighten our load. And it was worth it! The view of the largest quarry on ubin was superb.

view from puaka hill

raja @ the summit:)

A lot of other things - like scaling the inverse tower, trust fall, going through a tunnel alone in complete darkness in the middle of the night - made this OBS really memorable as i faced some of my deepest fears, and pushed myself to the limit. And most importantly, the friendships forged:)

Raja rocks!:)

A memory is what is left when something happens and doesn't completely unhappen. And I'm glad that OBS did not unhappen.

pictures courtesy of kangyi

we won!!

2005-07-30T21:09:00.000+01:00

it was an eventful day of ups and downs.
But the first team guys still trashed hwa chong in the end!!
by a score of 172 to 105. A remarkable feat, i must say:) All their efforts paid off! and rj brought back the challenge trophy.
Yes!! sweet victory:)

life..

2005-07-29T21:04:00.000+01:00

i have been complaining a lot about my life and the things around me recently.

Every little thing seems to irritate me.

Like how irregular buses come -- have you ever noticed that you can wait a whole 20 minutes, and the bus just doesn't come. When it finally comes, you see 2 buses.
And how some people just like blasting the music from their walkmans or mp3 players. I pity their ear drums.

and my mom is sick and tired of me ranting and raving

最初的梦想

2005-07-10T21:06:00.000+01:00

Fan Wei Qi
如果骄傲没被现实大海冷冷拍下
又怎会懂得要多努力才走得到远方
如果梦想不曾坠落悬崖千钧一发
又怎会晓得执着的人拥有隐形翅牓
把眼泪装在心上,会开出勇敢的花
可以在疲惫的时光闭上眼睛闻到一种芬芳

就像好好睡了一夜直到天亮
又能边走着边哼着歌用轻快的步伐
沮丧时总会明显感到孤独的重量
多渴望懂得的人给些温暖借个肩膀
很高兴一路上我们的默契那么长
穿过风又绕个弯心还连着像往常一样

最初的梦想紧握在手上
最想要去的地方
怎么能在半路就返航
最初的梦想绝对会到达
实现了真的渴望
才能够算到过了天堂

2005-07-01T21:03:00.000+01:00

I was just looking at the subjects that I am currently taking, and I realised how science has now become such a major part of my life. How could this be possible, considering the fact that when I was in primary school, my science was really lousy, always bordering 70-80. And science then was supposed to be considered easy. Sigh. I guess my mind was not very coherent then.

Well anyway, I particularly remembered one question from one of the continual assessments. It goes something like this: Mrs. Lim went to buy fishballs. The fishball seller told her that the fishballs were made purely from fish meat, and no flour was added. How does Mrs. Lim test if what he was saying is true?

Haha, it seems like an easy question right? But at that point in time, I was really stumped. I was thinking along the line of tasting the fishball. But unless she is a real connoisseur, how would she be able to taste that 0.1% of flour added? Haha.. The solution is to add iodine.

Sigh... But I guess somehow, somewhere, I got better:) which was a good thing:) I cannot imagine myself mugging some humanities subject for A levels, because I just don't have the flair for it.

my june holidays and what is left of it...

2005-06-18T21:00:00.000+01:00

Common tests are really drawing near now, and I am starting to hyperventilate. looking back at my june holidays, I realise that I have been slacking through it, indulging in television, and doing anything but studying for cts ( e.g cross stitch) which was a waste of time. But surprisingly I haven't been surfing the net for a while, thanks to my internet connection, which screwed up of all times...

Went to Kbox on Tuesday with Jiaqi, Vic, Peifen and Bernice. Had a good time singing our hearts out for some 4 hours. And thanks to you guys for putting up with my substandard singing -_- heh. But Jiaqi was really impressive, singing music of the night and phantom of the opera. Haha… Probably brought back some fond memories for her:D

Had mediquiz training today. No prizes for guessing how many people turned up for training today. Haha. 2 – me and chin wern. A new record. Everyone mugging for cts... And to make things worse, the room was locked when we got there. Sigh. I really cannot stand it already. I made the booking through the general office, and they don't open the room for us. Then why have the stupid student's booking system in place? We should just go through teachers…

Enough of complaining for now. I guess its time to start mugging. Real hard.

Sunny Side Up!

2005-06-01T20:52:00.000+01:00

Sunny side up! Was a wonderful experience. But I was really exhausted by the end of the day. Mentally exhausted, I guess.
The kids were really hyper. It was difficult to keep up with them. But they were really fun and adorable:) wanted to pinch their cheeks and ruffle their hair. Haha. Jiaqi called me a pedophile because I kept commenting about how cute the kids were. Nevermind. Lol.
Hmm… the most memorable was the charades. The kids were really "shen" at it. They guessed every single word that the facilitators had. We had to rack our brains to come up with more words, like "Casper". That was really funny. Lol. The facilitator acted like a ghost. Then he gave a silly smile. And the amazing thing was that the kids actually guessed it correctly. Then we decided to give them killer questions like "Draco Malfoy". Haha. They took a while before getting it. But they are good! Credit must also be given to Brian, who gamely agreed to act out the terms like powerpuff girls. He was good at it, and I guess he really had that connection with the kids.

During our lunch break, Jun Xu gave an animated description about the illustrations in his storybook. He was so cute. He was enthusiastically describing the pictures in the book, which were really illustrated to the most intricate detail. He even topped it up with sound effects like "whoosh", "bang", "bong", plus his star laughter:D It was so entertaining to listen as the whole scene was vivdly painted out in front of us. Cool.

It was heartening to see most of the kids open up over the course of the day. And I guess all of them, even the few who were quite unenthusiastic about the whole thing at first, were happy at the end of the day. Yeah! :D

idiosyncrasy

2005-05-12T20:49:00.000+01:00

hmm... i tend to 'join' 2 words together if the last and first letters of the 2 consecutive words are the same e.g "so odd" becomes "so dd" haha:D u get the idea.
this is bad. Must be the effects of Newater.

dialect names...

2005-04-28T20:47:00.000+01:00

today was unexpectedly a nice day (despite it being a long one)

I had a good laugh listening to how Jiaxin was trying to translate jiaqi's and her own name into hokkien. she would be "chua kah sin" and jiaqi would be "kok kah kee". lol
It just sounds very funny, especially for a girl's name... Haha.. maybe it is just me.
We started to trying to translate other names and had a certain sense of achievement and a real good laugh when we managed to stumble upon a suitable hokkien name for a certain someone, making jiaqi go red in the face...

lost

2005-04-22T20:42:00.000+01:00

first of all, if you haven't already realised, the tagboard is down. And I cannot be bothered to download another one for now. bear with it for now:)

hmm. I don't understand anything that is going on during physics s lectures.
Somehow, I feel i should not be there at all.
Sigh.
I don't think my physics is half as good as most of the people there.
And I am not putting in the effort to do the tutorials properly, getting even the most basic of concepts wrong.

Sometimes, I really wonder if I should continue with Mediquiz.
Why I am still investing so much time and effort in it?
And sacrificing a whole lot of other things.
I think I am stupid.
It was a mistake right from the very start to join Medquiz.
Seriously.
I was indecisive as to whether I should drop it or not.
Then came a whole turn of events.
That seemed to seal my fate.
Or did it?
I guess I could have still dropped out.
But I chose not to.
Nonetheless, I am very tempted to do so.
I am torn apart within.

And why must there be unofficial and official match support events?!
And to think that we weren't even informed of such a policy.
Aren't they ALL match support?
Supporting your fellow peers?

me vic peifen and cheryl went down for rugby match support at RI.
And we stayed there long enough to realise that there were no councilor's ard.
we went to ask ard, and it was only then we found out that no match support points will be given for this match.
whatever man

term 1...

2005-03-16T20:41:00.000Z

one term has passed.
already.
i don't really know what i have been doing.
Just being pushed with the tide of time.
Mediquiz trainings have started to intensify.
i am lost in lectures, and falling behind my tutorials.
I guess this is because I don't prioritise and plan my time properly - like updating this blog when i haven't started studying for common tests...

SSEF is finally over.
and the results were quite predictable actually...
Went home empty-handed.
Wasn't expecting to win anything in the first place
Since my results were not conclusive.
And there were flaws in the procedure, which I realised only 1 day before the judging.
But it was quite sad that people like Joshua, who came up with the project all by himself did not win anything.
Nonetheless, I guess the experience was a good one.
At least now I know how 'pro' other projects are.
And I met up with classmates from 6H'99 NHPS.
And I got to know people better and made new friends:)

choices

2005-02-15T20:38:00.000Z

Too many things are just happening.
Simultaneously.
There are so many alternatives.
I have to make choices.
But I don't know how.
Think win-win is what we learn.
But I don't see how.

I hate decision making.
But the first step in living life to the fullest is knowing and deciding what you want.
Do I know what I want?
Will decision making be so tough then?
There are so many things to do.
But there is so little time
Should I give up some of my commitments?
Victoria and jiaqi gave me some invaluable advice. [Thanks:)]
And I think I know the direction I should be headed to now.

2005-02-09T20:38:00.000Z

Happy Chinese New YEar!!

cny celebrations..

2005-02-08T20:34:00.000Z

was quite nice... except towards the end when we all became quite stoned.
It started off with Lion dance.. which started off well enough. As we were all sitting in front (in anticipation of Jiaqi's performance), we had a very nice view of the lion dance performance. the movements of the lion were very cute... with the shaking of the tail etc. then the performers wanted to jump onto 2 benches... but they missed and... ouch... it must have been painful, especially for the guy in front. But they got onto their feet again, and tried the stunt again.. and succeeded eventually:) Nice!

Sad to say.. because of the 4 permanent bands at the parade square, there wasn't enough time for Jiaqi's performance:( sigh... we all wanted to see her perform... i think the organising committee should have screened out some performances that CMI, instead of accepting everything... it was torture...

anyway.. things ended well enough.

mugger gang

2005-02-06T20:32:00.000Z

members : jiaxin, jiaqi, victoria, peifen and me
honourary member: xunqi :D
courtesy of terence

Jiaxin was quite bothered by the name, but especially uncomfortable with the 'gang' part. So she said maybe we should not stick together so often. victoria and I were quite surprised, and we started laughing, as we were more disturbed by the "mugger" part to the name...

Victoria said that terence was nice enough not to call us "mugger toads" haha... i still laugh at this term now... Don't u think it is funny... Try saying "mugger toad" out loud, and think of the toad, possibly a bespectacled one... lol. it is probably just me...

Anyway, I think all of us don't deserve the honour. I must agree with Jiaxin's analysis that we all look like muggers, in a way, because we are all bespectacled, 'quiet', always sit in front and appear very serious and what not... but i guess looks can be deceiving. For one, though I would very much like to be a mugger this year, i am sadly not one yet... :(

have to go back to spring cleaning... bye for now =)

yea!

2005-02-05T20:30:00.000Z

the worse is over, and now, I can finally sit back and relax :) and help in spring cleaning and stuff.

Looking forward to CNY celebrations in school. I want to hear jiaqi sing "chao1 kuai4 gan1". I think she sings very well... go jiaqi! i think the school is doing its best to bring in the festive mood, like all the decorations around the school by the different factions. I think the decorations outside LT2 are the nicest. The ones at the parade square, which is sadly by Med Fac, is really pathetic. But the little decorations here and there in the huge campus is really insufficient to bring about an impact...

biggest loser in the world...

2005-02-04T20:27:00.000Z

and yes, that is me.
Sigh.. thursday was a terribly terribly bad day, at least for me. We had 2 SPA assessments in a row, back-to-back, literally. And guess what? No reward for guessing correctly. I screwed both SPAs, being the loser that I am. If you don't believe me, read on.

First, Chem SPA Skill B and D. I have always hated skill B, and I always mess up my practicals. So during this SPA, I forgot to clamp the conical flask with the retort stand, despite constantly reminding myself to do so before the assessment. Guess I was too nervous. And if that wasn't bad enough, guess what, besides swirling the conical flsk at the beginning to ensure proper mixing, and swirled it throughout the experiment... as i did not understand the instructions about not swirling it continuously. So I happily (and yes, stupidly) swirled the conical flask, and was very happy when bubbles emerged so quickly. it was only later that i realised that we should not be doing that. So my experiment for FA4 was done correctly. Then I wanted to do the reaction for FA3 again, so, I tried to act smart. Whilst waiting for the reaction to complete, I multitasked. I prepared all the reagents, and told myself that I am supposed to add FA3. Apparently, I added FA4, because when I started the reaction, bubbles did not emerge as quickly as it is supposed to for FA3. I realised it, and I was very very pissed with myself. I wanted to cry... cry for being the fool I am.

Then it was physics SPA. I got everything right, at least I could not figure out what was wrong at first. Then I started discussing the paper with Victoria on the way to the bus-stop. I told her I used a 250ml beaker to contain the testtube, and she started laughing... of course I realised my mistake... how can the testtube which is supposed to fit 50g weights float in a 250ml beaker of water?! Sigh... It will be too heavy to float in that little miserable volume of water, much less bob up and down... sigh... Do u realise what a loser and what a peabrain i am now?

Sigh sigh sigh...what a lousy day.

hmmm

2005-01-28T20:23:00.000Z

had the first Physics S paper training on thurs, and it was quite bad, especially the last question that he went through - about the estimaton of thickness of the flat, spherical earth. He kept 'slicing' the crust into increasingly thinner slices, and i started laughing uncontrollably... many others did too. Don't know why also...But anyway, i think physics S is quite hard.
But I don't know what else to take. Not considering Maths S because I don't have the 'stamina' to sit through long questions... my mind tends to wander off after a while... and I know i cannot compete with the F maths people...

Anyway, on friday, there was mock Napfa. standing broad jump is my nemesis. enough said...

At the end of the day, we watched Farenheit 9/11. The film was very disturbing, as all the evidence in it seemed to point to 9/11 being part of a big money-spinning conspiracy...

'interesting' maths

2005-01-20T20:20:00.000Z

one week of school has passed, once again. I am sure many would agree that Maths lectures had been the "highlight" of the week:D Not that I enjoy her "here in this case"s, but I find the things people do to empahsise this fact amusing.
Like during one of the lectures, there were some people who pasted "IN THIS CASE" on the wall of the LT. And as if that was not enough, they pasted a tally sheet beneath the banner. That was the last straw, and most people started laughing uncontrollably. I was guilty of laughing too. sigh... Apparently, the lecturer did not realise what the laughter was about (but my instincts tell me she knew what was going on, and choose to ignore it). Instead, she 'mistakingly' thought it was due to the santa claus hat soemone was wearing.
Anyway, during the next lecture, the issue sort of died off.. until this "brave" soul from some class asked a question, in which he injected "in this case"s. making his point... obviously. She then trademarked her "In this case". And I think she is quite proud of her trademark too.. no wonder she does not want to make an effort to change...

new year, new start, new campus

2005-01-08T20:11:00.000Z

hello!

It has been a while since i updated this blog. Been rushing all my holiday homework, which, till date, have not been completed. haha.. whatever.. anyway, i guess the tutors will not be going through these till much later in the year:D
One week of school has passed, and it was like just a blink of an eye. I guess life in J2 is just more fast paced. I can't imagine how hectic it will be when s paper lectures and CCAs start...
But for now, I am loving the new RJ campus! although some people feel theold campus was more homely...but i like the new campus better... It is so cool! Spanking new, well equipped, sprawling, nice LTs and what not. Best still, we get a home room. The classrooms are bright and airy, more conducive for learning, as compared to the dull, dusty, dirty and old classrooms down at Mount Sinai. That's all for now...

The whole week

2004-12-05T20:04:00.000Z

Many things had happened this week, but i had not been blogging about it, bacause I was too lazy :D

Monday

The highlight of the day was a rare OG gathering. I had felt very very bad for arriving late for the previous OG dinner because I had overslept. So, I decided to arrrive early. no one was there yet...except for felicia, who was the host. Nevertheless, had fun playing Jenga. The ben woon and ben chen arrived. Ben chen actually brought a bottle of absolute vodka. But i did not dare drink it, even when it was mixed with coke... scared I would get drunk and then mumble nonsense..
i tried my hand at pool. sigh... it was quite a disaster. I realise that I could not hit with sufficient strength. The white ball was just rolling extremely slowly, then if I get lucky, it will touch the target lightly... nudge it so tt it rolls only slightly... Goodness.. haha! lol

I had a pleasant surprise when I saw Jiaqi outside the function room. realised that she lived there too. haha.. we talked and gossiped a lot, and i went to her house also, and watched the RSI vcd.. quite funny, and I bet that they really had a whale of a time there.

started home at around 1030pm, much later than what I had expected. The whole group of us trudged slowly down to clementi mrt station, and when I reached home, it was already 11.10pm. My parents were furious, not because of the time I came home, but more because I did not answer my phone when they were worried sick about my whereabouts. Seriously, my phone was on silent mode, and I forgot about it completely. I felt really bad about that, especially when I saw the number of missed calls.

Lesson learnt: Never leave your phone on silent mode!!!

Tuesday

Biosoc exco meeting.
Because of the 5 day week policy, we can't have meetings on Saturday anymore!!! and fieldtrips on Sat has to be preapproved by the school first.. Sighz.. That means we have to plan everything this year.. But this could actually be a blessing in disguise, so that future meetings would not be so boring and aimless anymore :) We had quite a fun time discussing the details of the CIP camp. because of this "toilet break/water break" thing after every 1 hour block.. Geez...But i am looking forward to the CIP camp. It will be very very enriching and fun ^o^

Wednesday

Much as i had been cynical about games like warcraft, Red Alert etc, I was surprisingly fascinated by how my brother was playing Diablo II.

Unbelievingly, I spent a few hours just watching him play that game.. It was really interesting. But of course, when i tried my hand at it, it wasn't as simple as it looked. hee hee. it is probably just me. Anyway, i was arguing with him about what he should be doing. Like how he should not be filling his inventory with all the healing potions and mana, when he can collect the weapon and shields for selling. And when I told him to sell some weapons, he was quite hesistant, because those were more powerful than his current one, but he had not attained the required strength and skill level to use it.. haha sigh.

And i was quite fascinated by this concept of there being a King amongst the group of bad guys that will attack you. You have to attack the king first, if not, the bad guys will rejuvenate etc. etc.

Anyway, taufik rocks!!! although Sylvester really improved a lot for the finals, Taufik is ultimately the better one. Although I was elated when Taufik was announced the winner, this feeling did not last long. I was saddened to learn how both were offered equal prizes, and that everything was already mapped out for sylvester, whilst the plans for Taufik were still hazy. Sigh.. I think this is really going to be like American idol, where the runner up does better than the winner, traditionally. It is really not fair for taufik.. but there is really nothing much we can do about it.

Thursday
Nothing much happened, except that I watched the Polar Express. It wasn't that nice. Not as awesome as what I thought it would be. Felt really stupid after the show. All the advertising gimmicks and packaging were really misleading... that's all i can say.

Friday
Mediquiz.
Then I tried to find the buzzer which the trainers wanted so we can train our reflexes. Sigh.. tried the shops in my neighbourhood, but it was to no avail.

Saturday
So, I went to Sim Lim square and Sim Lim towers. Can you imagine?! I could not find the buzzer at all. what I found was the electronic part of the buzzer. The shopkeeper said we had to assemble such things ourselves. Not very helpfu, considering the fact that i am not a technical person, and that I had forgotten all my electronics stuff. And so, the search continues... haha

Sunday
Passed the time learning and playing tai-ti with my father, brother and sister. Quite fun, and considering that I am still a rookie, i did quite well, thanks to beginner's luck :D Anyway, got laughed at quite a few times for making stupid moves, but still, I had a good time.

Slacking

2004-11-25T19:58:00.000Z

I have been watching tv programmes and movie after movie for the past few days.
I like "tian cai go go go" on channel u.
very nice - funny, 'intellectually stimulating'.
at least better than rotting on the couch, simply taking in everything that is being aired.
but personally, i think it is impossible to complete the final stage, no matter how much time you give me. haha ^o^

Feeling overwhelmed right now.

I was once addicted to neopets in lower secondary.
But I got over it at the end of Sec 2.
Probably because I got more practical.
I would rather do some other things - although watching TV is not a very constructive past-time too.
haha I have thus never come to realise why my sister is still addicted to it.She logs onto neopets, navigates her way around neopia quickly to collect all the "free gifts".I was really impressed with how she knew every single place in Neopia so well. I bet she has the map of Neopia in her brain already.She just clicks venue after venue, goes into one place in another.I was really confused after a while.

Neopets has really evolved into a more 'complex', 'sophisticated' domain in the 2 years i left my account cold. Even the games are more varied and interesting now.Had a whale of a time playing Petpet sitter and Maths Nightmare. haha.. very wu liao rite? nothing to do during holidays what.Don't feel like doing anything at all.
Just want to sit around, slack (as some may call it ;)But i prefer to treat it as a form of relaxation.But its really time to get real.
The holidays are going to end.
The good times are going, going.
I better wake up soon.

2004-11-19T19:55:00.000Z

Taufik is in the finals. yea! but Olinda is out :(

Road Safety CIP

2004-11-13T19:52:00.000Z

I learnt a lot of things today.
Most apparent of all, road safety.
I had never participated in such carnivals before.
Because my primary schoold never orgainsed it.
Probably it was only my year.

Anyway, I was a pedestrian.
Partly because my other team members wanted to ride the Go-kart and the bicycle. Partly because I could not cycle.
Confidently thought that i could breeze through the route. All you had to do was to follow the route, keep to the pathways, and don't jaywalk right? Yes, but I got 3 summons.
2 for not obeying the kerb drill.
In other words, i forgot to look left, right, then left again when crossing. the other was for forgetting to raise my hand when i crossed the road. I forgot?
Haha. Probably.
Moreover, wouldn't we look like a complete fool by raising my hand when crossing the road?

Even before the event started, the children were so enthusiastic about the whole thing. they bounced up and down, chased each other, and disturbed each other playfully. The synergy was infectious.

Their vibrance was a stark contrast to my jadedness.
Their eyes shine, they smile at every thing that happens.
Be they how small, how insignificant or how unimportant.

A small child is not aware of its innocence.
His or her innocent nature is completely unconscious.
But soon, the child's purity and innocence will begin to disappear. Impurity and ignorance will take their place.
The qualities of wonder and joy, imagination and faith that we see in a child are short-lived.
As long as a child remains a child, his innocence is there.
But a child changes.

2004-11-05T19:50:00.000Z

everything's smiling for you,

you should be happy.

are you?

or do you want more?

Pw OP

2004-11-03T19:45:00.000Z

Yeah!! OP is finally over!! i can finally heave a sigh of relief:) though I seriously messed up the question and answer session.

When Jiaxin's group were drilled with the questions from the judges, I knew that things were not looking good. Questions asked were really critical, though ours was not so bad. But still, I was totally stumped. it was probably just me. hesistated like nobody's buisness. but nevermind.

I was actually praying very hard that it will not rain today, especially during our presentation. Else, our voices would have to "compete" with the rain. The problem was probably more significant for me.. because i cannot project my voice for anything in the world. So much for Speech and Drama lessons...

But anyway, it started to rain just before we started presenting. luckily, the rain stopped as soon as it had started. Phew.. saved but it started again halfway through our Q n A session. got heavier as jiaqi was answering the questions and guess what, xunqi went to "rescue" his er-hu as it was placed near the windows and thus, was getting quite wet due to the rain pelting into the classroom. can really see how much he treasures his er-hu.

I am still very happy that Op is finally over! And life can go on as per normal. but there is still Bio O around the corner. Don't feel like studying for it... but looking at all the "pro" people, I guess i will have to study a bit, so that i will be able to do some questions .. and not feel like a complete fool when all the rest are busy shading the choices..

haha. class outing will most probably be on friday, after bio o... by right, i should go. but it is my sister's birthday. how??? in a dilemma once again but life's like that. i will see how things go on that day, before committing myself to anything.

...

2004-10-25T19:43:00.000+01:00

our class really broke the record today. 6 pple, me included, turned up for PE. sigh... and as usual, the game of handball was dominated by the guys... we were just slacking away.

things were no better when the teacher made only the girls play a game. we were trashed by s01a...once again. but i don't think we really care.. haha

must study for physics spa now.. though i don't think it will be of any use.

Ohana!

2004-10-22T19:41:00.000+01:00

open house was quite fun and interesting on the whole, with all the performances to keep you entertained. but it got a bit draggy at times, especially when we were "swatting flies" at the bio soc booth... haha. luckily, we shared the board with Alchemy. Else, our board would look too plain... yea, and the Alchemy guys said something abt our board making their board look cooler... haha. but their green gooey stuff was quite cool. I mean, when you pressed it softly, your hand sinks, but when you hit hard on it, it is ... hard.
the performances were good too... Chamber was nice. Harmoc's music of the night was very nice too:)

after the promos

2004-10-16T19:38:00.000+01:00

finally, the promos are over *sigh of relief* but life after promos has apparently taken a turn for the worse..

on thurs, it was nothing but bio..first it was mediquiz, then bio o. the next day, it was bio o then mediquiz.. sigh.. WHAT KIND OF LIFE IS THIS??!!!

To make matters worse, there was the farewell assembly, during which almost all the J1s were stoning, and of course, trying ways and means of escaping school. the speeches and performances were good no doubt, but the prize presentation just dragged on and on. after the whole presentation was finally over, jiaqi, cheryl and i decided to give the picnic a miss, and we went to macs instead...had lots of fun making fun of jiaqi.. haha