Taiwan!

taiwan is our destination!
SQ 878 1025 T3 1mar

will be back in 11 march.
hopefully we'll all be able to fulfill our expectations this no stress hols!

these few posts shld be able to last 11 days of missing me :P
read carefully, read more than once!
pardon my grammar and shortforms cos i really got to pack my luggage.

for my friends in uni:
study hard n jia you for exams!!!

for my sch mates:
happy hols or have a meaningful atttachment.

for my pri sch mates:
we'll play bridge when i come back and we'll snack on sun biscuits.

for my co mates:
all the best for perf! i'll join ur back in practise on 14 and 15 march.

lastly, for my travel mates:
are ur ready? ^^

wait for me!!!

graduation! (3)

out of my own will:

For the helpful ones:

I rmb her as someone impatient cos she is super particular abt speed. I know she is smart for the way she carried out our experiments so conscientiously. If not for her, the lab would probably be burned by now with my carelessness. She is none other than my long term partner, I see her everywhere. Though we weren’t close with our partnership I was glad she was in my class and she was my partner. She compliments me well. :) I will rmb the 2nd last day of clinic when she sat in my room and talked to me for an hr. it was the first time we talked together for so long though we knew each other from the start.

I rmb her as a vase cos she is pretty and I don’t know her well at that time. It was a blessing to have her in my final year project group. Trust me, her efficiency is superb. I wonder how she does it. If she was the leader mb the project won’t be so screwed up. Glad to have her fighting alongside with me and deir in this tough battle. And I take back my words that she is a vase. :)

I nvr knew much abt her her except for her interests and recreations. She is well known in class as ms gold and no one else deserves the name more than she does. She was in my gems class twice and we were nonetheless impressed by her results. Now I know her better thru alpha and I hope to get to know all 3 of them better but time has no allowance for regrets.

thank you class for leaving me with so much memories and keepsakes. its time to put a full stop but all of us has dropped our pens cos we don't want to end this...

cheers for friendships, anyone?!

graduation! (2)

By ling’s demand:

For the most impt people in my sch life:

She was the first person I met in cls, (I met ya lun in the first day of orientation). Then, I was behaving the same as I behave now, joking arnd but her face didn’t smile a single bit. I nvr talked to her again for the first sem of year 1 cos I tht she can’t tolerate clowns like me!

I still rmb her for her abrupt rudeness and absolute inpunctuality (there’s no such word btw). She hasn’t changed a bit in that sense, though I find myself becoming more like her >< - going more into her world and finding my true identity there.

I rmb the first time I saw her was in the sci lab and she was sitting beside me… I dropped my pen but I was so afraid of saying “excuse me, can u help me pick it up?” cos she look so fierce. I waited till the debrief ended and she moved away before I picked the pen up.

I rmb ppl telling me that she and I look alike cos we both had long hair tied in a ponytail with no fringe. Mb the amk ppl hav the same traits! Lol, but it was certainly nice having a tong xiang in class cos I can talk to her all abt it when I miss my hometown.

I rmb her as a princess cos of the way she dolls up herself. Pink! She was wondering why there’s such a person in the world who can talk non stop. I was blabbering to her the whole of the train ride though I hav no clue what I told her.

I can’t rmb how I got to know her? Think its because she is always the first one to reach the dover ctrl stn when we meet everyone at the train stn in first year. She reminds me of the old me… so, when I miss the old me, I talk to her. Miss the times mtg everyone at the ctrl and being late tgt, though I hate waiting for ppl.

I rmb saying that she is withdrawing from the course cos she didn’t turn up for sch in the first week. Then when she appeared, she introduced herself:” I make ppl laugh and they are always very happy with me arnd” (something like that, correct me if u want) then, I was thinking to myself, how can a person be so ego. It turns out that I can’t agree more to that statement. Lol.

I rmb her as my secret pal, cos of the way we communicate thru letters even though we see each other during lectures. I first wrote to her cos she commented that my handwriting was nice during jap cls. It sparked off f’ships and opened the door between me and her classmates.

From The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch:

I never made it to the NFL (National Football League)

My romance with football started when my dad dragged me, kicking and screaming, to join a league. I had no desire to be there. I was naturally wimpy, and the smallest kid by far. Fear turned to awe when I met my coach, Jim Graham, a hulking, six-foot-four wall-of-a-guy. He had been a line-backer at Penn State, and was seriously old-school. I mean really old school; like he thought the forward pass was a trick play.

On the first day of practice, we were all scared to death. Plus he hadn’t brought along any footballs. One kid finally spoke up for all of us. “Excuse me, coach. There are no footballs.”

And Coach Graham responded. “We don’t need any footballs.”

There was a silence while we thought about that…

“How many men are on the football field at a time?” he asked us.

Eleven on a team, we answered. So that makes twenty-two.
“And how amny people are touching the football at any given time?”

One of them.

“Right!” he said. “So we’re going to work on what those other twenty-one guys are doing.”

Fundamentals. That was a great goft Coach Graham gave us. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. As a college professor, I’ve seen this as one lesson so many kids ignore, always to their detriment: You’ve got to get the fundamentals down otherwise, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.

***

Coach Graham used to ride me hard. I remember one practice in particular. “You’re doing it all wrong, Pausch. Go back! Do it again!” I tried to do what he wanted. It wasn’t enough. “You owe me, Pausch! You’re doing push-ups after practice.”

When I was finally dismissed, one of the assistant coaches came over to reassure me. “Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he?” he said.

I could barely muster a “yeah.”

“That’s a good thing,” the assistant told me. “When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”

That lesson stuck with me my whole entire life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.

There’s a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It’s not something you can give; it’s something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: you give them something they can’t do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.

When Coach Graham first got hold of me, I was this wimpy kid with no skills, no physical strength, and no conditioning. But he made me realize that if I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can’t do today.
Even now, having just turned forty-seven, I can give you a three point stance that any NFL lineman would be proud of.

I realize that, these days, a guy like Coach Graham might get thrown out of a sports league. He’d be too tough. Parents would complain.

I remember one game when our team was playing terribly. At half time, in our rush for water, we almost knocked over the water bucket. Coach Graham was livid: “Jeez! That’s the most I have seen you boys move since this game started!” We were eleven years old, just standing there, afraid he’d pick us up one by one and break us with his bare hands. “Water?” he barked. “You boys want water?” He lifted the bucket and dumped all the water on the ground.

We watched him walk away and hear him mutter to an assistant coach:” You can give water to the first-string defense. They played OK.”

Now let me be clear: Coach Graham would never endanger any kid. One reason he worked so hard on conditioning was he knew it reduces injuries. However, it was a chilly day, we’d all had access t water during the first half, and the dash to the water bucket was more about us being a bunch of brats than needing hydration.

Even so, if that kind of incident happened today, parents on the sidelines would be pulling out their cell phones to call the league commissioner, or maybe their lawyer.

It saddens me that many kids today are so coddled. I think back to how I felt during halftime rant. Yes, I was thirsty. But more than that, I felt humiliated. We had all let down Coach Graham, and he let us know t in a way we’d never forget. He was right. We had shown more energy at the water bucket than we had in the damn game. And getting chewed out by him meant something to us. During the second half, we went back on the field, and gave it our all.

I haven’t seen Coach Graham since I was a teen, but he just keeps showing up in my head, forcing me to work harder whenever I feel like quitting, forcing me to be better. He gave me a feedback loop for life.

When we send our kids to play organized sports- football, soccer, swimming, whatever- for most of us, it’s not because we’re desperate for them to learn the intricacies of the sport.

What we really want them to learn is far more important: teamwork, perseverance, sportsmanship, the value of hard work, an ability to deal with adversity. This kind od indirect learning is what some of us like to call a “head fake”.

There are two kinds of head fakes, the first is literal. On a football field, a player will move his head one way so you’ll think he’s going in that direction. Then he goes the opposite way. It’s like a magician using misdirection. Coach Graham used to tell us to watch a person’s waist. “Where his belly button goes, his body goes,” he’d say.

The second kind of head fake is the really important one- the one that teaches people things they don’t realize they’re learning until well into the process. If you’re a head fake specialist, your hidden objective is to get them to learn something you want them to learn.

This kind of head-fake learning is absolutely vital. And Coach Graham was the master.

graduation! (1)

uiwinH

it was while reading my autograph book that I feel that I have graduated.
This time, there were no tears, I was smiling, smiling cos I shared so much beautiful memories with them.

I remember:
The hui min who chewed her wholemeal bread so slowly.
Who always greets ppl with a broad smile
Who is always being laughed at ><

Recap…
Time for me to recount and give ppl their autographs
First up is the minority ppl in cls.

I rmb the guy who i didn’t want to talk to till I found out that he acty knew my pri sch mate. He was the first male clsmate in cls who I spent time alone with as we attended jap cls tgt. I can always rmb how he always complained abt the timing of the class. I can still visualise the times we have spent on the train home. Although I’m always blabbering nonsense, he always looks at me in a serious manner. I’m equally grateful to him as much as I hate him for he made me see another side of things in another perspective but the way he imposed them was too harsh. Harsh to the extent that the stubborn me realize the need to change.

I rmb he was the I don’t know how many guys who approached me on how to chase a girl. The friendship started when he said he will follow me to wherever I want to go, the confidence that I will hav somewhere to bring him. It paused on the day when he said the place we go will be determined by the bus that comes next.

I rmb him as someone who I always laughed at but at the same time admire his confidence. He brought all of us countless happiness on all kinds of occasions. He was the first guy in cls I handmade a bday card cos he said he wanted it.

I rmb him as someone who I had no impression of in yr 1. The first time I spoke to him was during our class’s first chalet. We were sitting by the drain with our bicycles parked beside us while the boys with direction sense hovered over a map. I cannot imagine a guy with no direction sense and neither could I imagine a guy who had absolutely no tolerance of alcohol. Nonetheless he is a loyal friend like no one who enjoys speculating and hav shifty eyes.

I rmb him as the first guy who ventured to join an all girls grp to do project in the whole 3 years. He dirtied his hands from my bicycle on the first cycling trip which I was entirely thankful for. He is the “darkest” person I hav ever known cos he likes black so much.

To Class DOPT02:

Its been a change of life events meeting everyone of you.
I remember how I couldn’t find my classs on the first day of school. How I was the first to begin the series of self introduction. Then, I was shocked that so many people was previously from the cca that I wanted to join when I was in sec sch- band.

I’m not sure how by coincidence I got into a clique nicknamed SHD.
We evolved into SHD100D thereafter.
it was cause 3 little girls find it bored to eat by themselves and soon, we find each other indispensable.
They changed me:
They made me fat, make me feel loved and make me broke. :( Most of all, they taught me how to survive overseas together.

In sec sch, I was a girl who spoke little of her opinions in class. But the boys in class made me shout at them. Used to get so terrified by them that they haunt me in my dreams. I have dreams of them asking me: “have u refilled your bottle today?” They brushed up my cycling skills and chased away my dark clouds. They taught me “how to live in your own world”. They changed how I expressed myself.

The school may not hav imparted the SP core values to us, but we have left each other bountiful friendships, enough to last us a lifetime.
Thank you for sharing a part of 02 with me. I have enjoyed my 3 years tremendously.
A place where laughter is shared and tears shed.

No matter where we go and whatever we do, have faith.

Before I forget ur names:

Ann-marie. Sylvia.
Andrew. Jonathan. Kamen. Ping Han. Eddie.
Aik Leng. Chanel. Sheryl. Deirdre. Ruth.
SHD100D

its vday again!

can't rmb how i spent last yr's vday..
2 yrs back i spent my vday slogging and there was super a lot of couples coming in to eat.
the couple who left the deepest impression in me is the girl who dropped her "invisible bra" in front of me!
lol, my supervisor(male) picked it up and asked, " what is this?"

it was really funny and it'll definintely be more amusing to see me narrating in person. to this day, i still wonder how the girl coped without it. :(
-----

was walking out from the train stn on fri and sold mothers with their children selling roses...extra income to cope with the recession?

my mum's valentine gift for u all:



she made them!!!


thanks crappy deir for ur tulip on msn:)

and boys if u want to be really nice, give all the girls flowers!
i had a male cls mate who bought the whole cls of girls flowers, we tht he was really gentlemanly!

Reconciliation.

as the sch year ends for me and for many others,
shall begin with a sad post b4 all the pics of my sch mates comes flooding in.

do u realise when things come to an end or when ppl are gg to die,
they seek forgiveness, they forgive and then comes acceptance and reconciliation.

its good in the sense that we bury the hatchet and not carry on with the not so favourable memories.
however, don't u think its kind of insincere, cos u "forget" the old things not cos u don't rmb them.

whats done cannot be resolved, forgotten or left undone.
in truth, not many ppl can really forget the things the ppl they hated and the bad things ppl did to them. not jus cos they want to revenge but it has an impact on them, big or small...

i was wondering: does everyone who seek reconciliation gets the perfect ending..
y not? since they are asking acceptance. what is so hard abt it?
its nth easy when it comes to matters of the heart. jus like how do u explain the chemistry between two ppl?

how abt if those ppl who seek reconcilation jus wants acceptance and didn't cared a thing abt why they were rejected in the first place.
these words may sound harsh: they had not learnt from their "mistakes" or they jus think that the mistake belongs to others, cos it was the ppl's fault to reject me.

new year's baby!

proud to be born on the 2nd day of lunar new year!
today marks the end of the new year and i shall recount on the things that happened to me before and aft my bday.
was kept busy since 3rd feb and no time was wasted on my bday exp for sleep..
been a long time since i hav been simultaneously gg for activities during my bday period and cutting so many cakes! when my mum asked me to get myself a bday cake to celebrate at home, i gladly refuse and told her i had enough:)

was a thrilling and "natural bday"...

3rd feb: we went bungee!! my clique presented me with my new titus watch and sat thru the whole ride with me at the singapore riverside.
my long time love: sun moulin's green tea cake

5th: cycling at ubin. still a poor cyclist though they said i "level up!"really loved the natural landscape, so pristine! Alpha cls and dinner thanks to sheryl the gold! it kept our minds thinking abt life...

6th: celebrated with zhen and nic, it pains to see them lugging their "go home " bags. was a simple dinner and we were glued to our seats till they closed. zhen brought me for selegie's tau huay and butterfly fritters. we boarded the last train bound jurong east and she was the first one to see me turn 20.
my all time favourite: cheese cake from secret receipe

7th: to indulge in more naturalistic things, so i was at botanic gardens. funny things was i dislike phototaking but i camwhored with the wings and horns. camwhoring is really not my cup of tea, tired of the posing not of the trekking. 3 cheers for ling's instax n polaroid, xt's videocam and SLR, finally not forgetting my digicam!
cut the cake at shi min's hse, that was my first time visit and gladly shared my cake with the renowned ryu and jerome. went to co prac and was showered with gifts and wishes. at home, my family sang bday songs for me. saw my mum's face gleamed, wonder if she did the same 20 years back. ^^
my long time want: Guanji from Rive Ganache (recommendations from zhen)


8th: i tht i was sick of choc cakes, so buffet lunch at my co to celebrate new year was a gd change but my friends brought in a cake during the prac while i was kept busy tuning the instru. their faces shone under the candlelight, what can i say? the last thing i want to do is to cry in front of them.
my new love: Prima deli's choc truffle?!

i can nvr thank everyone enough.
my family for bringing me up these long 20 years without feeling that i'm nth but a burden and my friends for tolerating every bit of me.
your gifts were nth comparable to the time ur hav spent with me but they are the things i can keep and be constantly reminded of how blessed i am.^^

my wish is to pass on the love.

promise to upload pics when i get my hands off sch stuff aft next week.:)

its been a long time..

5 days seemed like a really long time,
cos its so hard to endure.
it seemed like such a short time,
cos we still hav to hog the com aft cls everyday to finish our report.

glad its all over, temp.:)
two more ppts to go and an important test, then i will be on my way to graduation.

was eating lunch with one of my fyp mate aft submitting the report,
we were like thinking back abt some gd and bad times in sch- there was a tinge of sadness in her tone.
i guess thats not jus all that we will miss when we graduate...
wishin everyone success in the test that determines our graduation.
somehow i hav a feeling we will all leave the sch tgt, cos we can't do without each other.

a big thank you to my generous friends! one who invited a whole gang of us to eat new year lunch, *starts to stuff myself with dumplings* and the other who tht i was there to send an email but i sat behind his laptop for more than 2 hrs and having made him walk me home. ^^

HAPPY CNY!

may everyone has a great year in the year of the ox.

my new year wishes are as follows:

peace, health, prosperity and happiness to everyone.
graduate with flying colours!
find a job and still able to cont'd to go co n calli:)

See u again?!

New year's coming!

like in 2 day's time.
but so many of us are still bugged down by our umpteen assignments.
was planning to go back to chinatown, but looks i don't hav the time till aft new year.

what does going to be 20 mean to me?
it means preparing for adulthood and maturing...
so i shall keep my new year resolutions simple this year, no more fancy and impractical goals.

to be more patient with the ppl arnd me.
spend more time with my family and treasure them.
stop taking pocket money and learn to depend on myself.


----

this is to respond to deir's blog post.
(lazy to tag)
we were taking train, lilin and hj was gg back to m'sia so i took the jurong east train with them. they left at kranji but we had a pretty much talk while waiting for her friends.
we were saying what we will do on the last day of sch.
hj say she will most prob cry, then i say i will be infected too.
so lilin say we will cry tgt. lol.
so we were thinking who will be the most unexpected person to cry.
the girls are out of the picture exp chanel, cos hj says she doesn't cry even when she watch her shows. if the boys cry most prob they are jus sad to leave their gay partners or they are upset abt gg to army more than leaving the class.

no more see u tmr in a mths time unless we are colleagues.
but its truly my fortune to hav met u ppl.
i hav grown changed and learned.
like all the cliches in the serial shows i enjoy,
if i hav another chance in my recarnation, i want to be ur classmate again. :)
my only regret is the xmas cls bbq =X
no see u tmr but we can see u again.

my LG KF350!

got my new phone, and my second phone:)
refer to 9 dec post.
got the new phone on 18 jan, an early bday gift from my bro.
i wanted the pink one. he knew, but got me the white one cos the white one is nicer in his opinion and he thinks white rep purity.
lol, but white phones are so common?!
nonetheless, it was still a dream come true, cos i wasn't even saving for it in the first place.:)

thanks gou for the gift and i enjoyed using it!

smt else to look forward to with the new phone.
this year's new year shopping was such a fluster.

not again?!

caught the flu bug
and the virus bug.

sniffing
and scatching my legs.

i hate bacteria.

will be back soon:)
resting in progress.

Windmills.

was a chinatown a few weeks back, on the 26th of dec.
how it was prospering with life.
the crowd is smt u will awe at on a weekday.
the windmills are one of the novelties of this year's new year,
believed to be able to turn ppl's bad luck into good luck.
i always liked windmills, don't u?
jus cos it keeps turning and turning...

anyways, wondering how me and my clsmates are gg to celebrate cny with so many things on hand. hmm, how come i don't see my friends in the other courses struggling like us? the cons are we don't even hav time to shop for new year clothes. not like i like shopping but it jus seems like smt is lacking if u don't shop for the new year.maybe its an excuse to want a break. we are runnign a marathon. the ending point is the last day of school.
how i wish i hav time to see the windmill turn round and round.:)
is that selfish of me?

~ling recover soon and watch windmills with me:)
~hope the windmill cheers u up!

u hav forgotten our promise, pls rmb to fulfill it.

a quarter sis.

i always wanted a younger sis
and my co friend who is 2 years younger wanted an elder sis cos she only has a sister 4 years younger and an older brother the same age as me.
we decided to xiang ren and we became half a sis to each other.
the other half is as a friend.
her younger sis, who was also my co mate divided the "portions"
and told me "then u are my one quarter sis."
if there's such a thing in the world. :D

i realised i like her more than i used to,
not cos she's my half a sis but cos of her personality.
she's the kind of girl who had the loudest and the craziest kind of laughter.
everyone thinks a girl should behave in a prim and proper way...
i fail to agree, i think there's no problem with her laughing so jovially spreading the laughter and that's the kind of cheerful character u see in no other.

--------------
another lesson from mr sim.
he says we shld not say we want to try to do things.
cos try is a word that gives urself an excuse not to do well.
u mus say u want to do things.
he likes to talk abt da dao li more than i do.
concede defeat to him.

------------------
finally, the much awaited finale of little nyonya.
lessons learnt?
to preserve ur our history and bury the hatchet.
still hav that very sadistic epi in my mind, if u know what i am talking abt.
wished i watched that epi of the culinary and embroidery competiton.
nice ending? i tht it was creative of the editor to twist the story like that though it might not hav satisfied all the viewers craving for the perfect happy ending.
waiting for the viewers review on the news tmr.
well, its all over, or is there a continuation.
sheryl, mus learn how to cook dishes and sew!!

--------------------

ppl of all religions,
pls pray for my friend who contracted dengue during new year celebrations.
wishing her a swift recovery.
ling, be brave k!

鸿

渴望进入他们的世界，
遗憾的是没有进入他们的世界。

我们不是属于不同世界的人，
只是缘分没安排我们进入彼此的世界。

不是闯心者而是路人甲。
一个飘浮不定的影子，没有固定的归宿，
在汪洋寻找能停泊的海港。

早知会孤独，为何当出大费周章去寻找。
只怪我性格太孤僻，
无法融入他人的生活。

但如果时间能倒流，
我还会选择如此。
因为自由价最高。

宁愿学会孤立也不选择依赖。

first post of 2009!!

hey everyone, happy new year!!
hope ur had a great countdown ytd or this morning.
lol, i was so close to achieving the first things i wanted to do this at the first second of 2009. wells i was prepared to go to slp but was jus glued to the television.

how i spend my last day of 2008?
i unraveled the mystery of my home.
5 years without visitors and then invited my friends from pasir ris and boon lay to stare at the data analysis program the whole aftnoon before bringing them arnd amk for tea break or early dinner.

she said, isn't it much better to go out and spend time with ur friends and walk arnd than staying home staring at the screen all by yourself?

will think twice to agree, thats y i didn't give her an ans ytd.:)
happy new year!!!!!

Cheers to the year 2009!!

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┴│　 Happy New Year!
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something nice i got from msn.
time to post new year resolutions, everyone?

may everything runs smoothly in the year of 2009.
hav fun squeezing thru the crowd and watching the fireworks for those who are gg for the countdown!
i prefer to watch the clock tick to 0000 tonight on my bed and shout to myself, "time to sleep!"
this is not no life, but enjoy life:)

every new year is a new beginning, but end the last day of 2008 well!
see u ppl in the year 2009!!
peace to the world!

open door concept.

anyone who sleeps in their room at night without shutting the door at home?
in my hse everyone does it.
when i was younger i used to think why there are doors to rooms.
cos in my family no one ever closes the door.
once my bro closed his door, we tht he was sniffing glue inside cos there was a stench when he opened it.
guess what he was doing? dancing on the para para on playstaion.
that was a long time ago.XD
i shut the door when i practise my instru or change nowadays.
to me it is smt insignificant.
hadn't realise how it affects a family's life till a mother told me how her daughter shuts herself in her room.

the door is a barrier,
if u always keep the doors closed at home if its not for the air con then it shows that u are separated from the family.
the door, blocks family members from getting closer to u.

a door, a barrier, a family "traditon".
its gd to hav a open door concept.:)