seeing the world through different lenses

just came back from funan, and of all things to do there, it was to make specs/contacts. :) haha. yes, not to buy some electronice stuff but to make new specs. weird huh.

now this current pair getting blur liao. when i got them checked it was roughly inc of 100 degrees in both eyes. which probably explains why i have to strain a bit to see what's on the screen during lectures... :) sigh, one of the many down sides of mugging for med.

but the optician was VERY good. very professional who really showed tt she cared and went to the very last detail to make sure u're comfortable and a happy customer. price wise also good price cause got intro from jg mar. haha, his mum's friend. i'm quite impressed with the service really. so here's some advertising -- B.S. Moey-Chong optometrist & contact lens practitioner. it's in funan IT mall #01-23. haha no, they didn't pay/bribe me to do this. :)

studied in the lib just now for a while, think cleared up some misconceptions and also clarified some doubts. yoda chan's lecture was terrible, but jawatz did the trick nicely.

oh, just heard on the radio tt they're gg to open the disneyland in hk soon. wah didn't know they were building one there. wah lau. maybe we should have waited a while then go next time. anyway go liao so don't bother kbing lar.

next wed is holiday! next fri is SUPER SLACK DAY. whoah.

moon

have u seen tonight's moon? it's really a perfect circle. and very yellow so much so tt it looks plastic one. haha. what more it's a cloudless sky, so it's very beautiful.

just ended a game of dota with enil and friends, i think it was exciting. though we lost lar. it was quite imb to start with i guess. but i really enjoyed myself despite getting whooped so many times by kiat's sa. haha. DOTADOTADOTA.

looking at the moon, i was reminded of the li bai's poem tt the sec sch chinese teacher made us memorise. ren(2) you(3) bei(1) huan(1) li(2) he(2), yue(4) you(3) ying(1) qing(2) yuan(2) que(1), ci(3) shi(4) gu(3) nan(2) quan(2)... hmmm, thought it was quite true. hope tt all my friendships will be like the moon tonight, always round and bright bright high up in the sky.

oh, went with my dad to COMEX to subscribe to the scv max online 3000. it was actually a good 2 HOURS from the time we started queuing to the time we finally left the hall. impossible. only at conventions like this. my back started to ache lorz when we finally left. talk abt standing in an upright position. tiring. oh yes, they're giving out free xbox for each plan u sign up. limited edition 'crystal' xbox. we didn't choose the xbox but instead went for another freebie-scheme.

then both of us went for dinner at old airport road. an amazing thing happened - my dad started to talk to me abt bgr. so shocking. cause i never told him i had any problems, don't think i looked tt sad to him or any of my family anyway. but i took it as something from God speaking to me through my dad, especially cause i felt super comforted and felt much better after listening to him. i gained quite a bit of wisdom and saw what i could do in those daily episodes of depression attacks. and now when i'm feeling sad i will contact the 2 friends instead of trying to contact tt person liao. (which is actually disastrous according to jg)

better go sleep now liao, sch starts at 8 tml. NOOOOOOoooooooo........

saving for a ray-ni day

b4 i forget... start saving guys. impt person's bdae is a day less than 1 month away.

scripting

oh yay, the script for playhouse is almost out liao! met up with g today to finalise the ideas for the play and the scenes tt we want to include. it's quite weird cause in the end we just trashed the whole idea abt politics and so now it's something different.

then we went to have dinner at glutton sq. :) what a name man... haven't been there yet before so thought it would be an experience. had chicken rice cause all the rest of the queues were SO long lorz. esp the satay and orh lua. mmmm, chicken rice is not bad. rice very fragrant, but chicken not tt nice lar. g said tt it tasted like dead chicken. *ponders* :) think he meant stale chicken. like i thought so too.

oh... alot of pple are running for med soc! haha, must go support them. saw andre in the lib today cause he was rushing to finish writing his testimonial (i think is tt it?) and also devin and wenshen and cheesie and david and jingyu. haha. terrible. mugging season has started. cheong arr! must go start jioing some mugging kakis liao.

quite happy today cause bought waterbottle at hereen! buy 1 get 1 free mar, so got 1 for luke and 1 for myself. $9.90 for both, thought it's ok larz. and also slippers. cause if no one realised by now, my old sandals are SO stink. haha. really smell liao can faint one. come on, even i am disgusted with the smell of my OWN sandals. :)

i was feeling sad again today. it's not my fault lar. all tt stoopid gu(1) dan(1) bei(3) ban(4) qiu(2) tt we heard at wheelock. it's really periodic episodes of depression and anger. someone in sch asked me how come i sound so suidcidal on my blog but looked ok in sch (honestly i didn't appreciate tt comment) - i'm really trying to get over the past, and i'm trying to occupy myself too to not hu(2) si(1) luan(4) xiang(3), but it's hard to occupy yourself 24/7... but anyway, i was feeling down. now ok again almost immediately after i blasted over the phone. pls don't ignore me. instead help me get over the past slowly. i need to be loved back into wholeness.

played DOTA again just now! haha. got trashed left right centre. :) jiu(4) wo(3) arr!!!

dota-ish

hey pple when are we gg to have a game? must jio when the time comes! :)

shopping for a cause

wah today was very taxing lorz, the whole day was so packed with lectures and of course the pharmaco tut... my tutor was prof gwee actually, who was the person who scolded the whole lt for not taking pbl seriously last year.

and it was also he who delievered a SUPER-confusing lecture abt muscurinic receptors... damn sian.

but in the end tut wasn't tt bad. in fact it was quite informative lorz. and i learnt alot. clarified up alot of doubts and learnt many interesting facts and potential examinable qns too. :) but his tut was very pbl-ish lorz. as can be expected lar.

oh yes, and i finally learnt to open my locker! haha so happy. now can start dumping stuff into it. :) and the item to inaugurate the opening of my locker is none other than... katzung! :) qich left her microb there too cause we were gg shopping after sch and lugging the bk ard is not exactly nice lorz.

and guess who was supposed to go also? ms lim lorz. and we arranged to wait outside the lib after tut. and apparently me and qich got a bit worried when she didn't come even at 1730. we though her tutor super onz... msg/call also never respond one. aiyoh.

then finally when we got through, ms lim was actually on her way home. wah lau... can u believe it, she actually forgot lor... according to sources this is 2nd time she did this type of thing...

anyway she met us after tt in orchard.

shopping was real fun! made some meaningful buys. :) didn't go bs today though cause before 1930 our mission wasn't accomplished yet, so thought i should stay behind with the other 2 lorz. and considering today was the 1st time shopping with them it was quite exciting and relaxing and happening! really enjoyed myself. :)

tml is a surprising day. watch out for ht, qich, ABC and me. haha.

only gg to sch at ard 12 tml, so can go for another game of DOTA!

oh, wm's feeling ill. hope he gets well quick...

hopey and the brain

this is some brain test. seems to be fairly accurate lar i think. g asked me to do it.

here's the link. :)

http://www.mindmedia.com/brainworks/profiler

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 23%Visual : 76%Left : 50%Right : 50%

Hope, you exhibit an even balance between left- and right- hemisphere dominance and a slight preference for visual over auditory processing. With a score this balanced, it is likely that you would have slightly different results each time you complete this self-assessment quiz.
You are a well-rounded person, distinctly individualistic and artistic, an active and multidimensional learner. At the same time, you are logical and disciplined, can operate well within an organization, and are sensitive towards others without losing objectivity. You are organized and goal-directed. Although a "thinking" individual, you "take in" entire situations readily and can act on intuition.
You sometimes tend to vacillate in your learning styles. Learning might take you longer than someone of equal intellect, but you will tend to be more thorough and retain the material longer than those other individuals. You will alternate between logic and impulse. This vacillation will not normally be intentional or deliberate, so you may experience anxiety in situations where you are not certain which aspect of yourself will be called on.
With a slight preference for visual processing, you tend to be encompassing in your perceptions, process along multidimensional paths and be active in your attacking of situations or learning.
Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself -- and of others -- while maintaining an "openness" which tempers that tendency. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity may not be in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, obvious and the more functional

thanks :)

it's really nice to know tt there are so many friends ard u who're concerned abt u. just like asking what's wrong, offering to talk, dropping an sms, or even just being physically around. it's really sweet i think and it often keeps me occupied enough. and i guess i've moved on liao, there's no pt dwelling on the past, esp when it's sad. :)

many a times it's not up to me to tell myself - hey i'm not gg to feel sad today. but really it's just something tt creeps up and suddenly swallows u. just have to be watchful and grap it by the neck b4 it gets me depressed again.

but as to the details of what happened i think it would be best to leave it alone. and what's more, i think everyone just wants to move on lar. i'll take it as a lesson learnt, nothing to be sad abt. still resolving, still patching things up.

hey and if u're reading this: i'll really really sorry for the stupid things i've done in the past. our friendship is no longer like b4, now tt all this has happened. i really hope to make up and gain back the trust and friendship tt i once had in you. i guess tt mistakes are part and parcel of life. let's not let them affect us disproportionately. hope u'll forgive me? it'll be best if we're just purely friends. :) i'ld like to tell u tt i really value having u beside me, when we could joke and laugh at each other, talking about almost all rubbish and teasing each other.

those were the times. and i really enjoyed those times with ur companionship. :) *hugz*

ok, on another note, was discussing with g abt the playhouse script. tell u, VERY exciting and thought provoking. haha, tt is if the current script gets approved larz. :) must come and watch!

zy just called me, gg running with him tml morning b4 lecture! good good. keeping fit is good. and keeping fit through running is even better. :) so.. have to sleep early... :)

and pple, have to do PHC tutorial liao... esp those in grp A horz. i'll do it tml after sch i think. :) go koon.

aiyoh...

just came back from dinner with the scouts. rt's flying off this coming sat tt's why we specially met up again for dinner though we just met a couple of times in the last months. dinner was at the WORST of all places - seoul garden.

anyway it was a meat feast lar as expected. but as weiwei doesn't eat beef the pple sharing the same frying contraption as him were relegated to eating chicken. which frankly tasted just like what we would think taste like oiled rubber. all tasting the same irregardless of the 'marinade' tt they labelled the piles of meat with at the self-help counter.

pricing also was terrible. u know u MUST order a drink (fruit juice) if not they don't even serve u plain water? *sigh* the evil genius of the management. which actually makes pple quite irritated and cheated when the bill comes up to abt $6 more than their 'advertised' price on their poster just outside the shop.

the tokking cock during and especially after dinner was wonderful. caught up with many pple who i haven't seen in a long time. gideon just finished their recourse because of downgrading, cy still going strong with mx (he just came from a date), rt earning a handsome sum and telling us how he was gg to invest in the money in insurance with GE, and of course ben lee who has actually started his own company with one of my ex classmates and another army guy. the trio are actually earning tidy $um$ every month, much more then any of us (including those on psc or safos) could be. yes, whilst they are still in ns. pei(4) fu(2). but really it's hardwork, 7d wk lorz.

and after dinner we were discussing abt politics! haha, so interesting. ben lee, gimyong and me 'against' rt, gideon and weiwei. haha. really interesting. ben lee is really very good and he has a gift for arguing and putting his pt across strongly. *clapclap* of course lar, abt dissatisfaction with the garmen lar, what else. but maybe the topics we discussed will be a different post altogether. it put many of today's nd rally points in pm lhl's speech into controversay. i don't think anyone really 'won' in the end, but i'ld like to think my side was 'winning'. :)

was so full after the buffet and had so much gas inside my stomach... and something very strange abt me is tt i have difficulty burping. :) all the gas in me just gets stuck lar. have to induce burping one by irritating the throat... which i did only just now in the toilet. :) haha. anyway next time when u see me hiccuping non-stop then u know tt i have alot of gas in me just waiting to be expelled. *grinz*

yay, qich removed her password! never mind one lar, blog is just post let pple know more of the real u mar. for me i don't really bother to hide tt much cause it's MY blog, i post largely what i think and what i want.

alvin was very nice to help me burn the michael buble - come fly with me. thanks alvin! *waves* wanted to buy it but it costs $23. bought another cd though, this jap jazz singer who's totally off. not good. wasted $.

tml's a long day... oh yar, and it's also the nussu elections too. gg with devin etc to support lishan after class. :)

dnd was great! just popped by with zj after campus to go look see and everyone was SO nicely dressed! haha all the yandaos and chiobus! and ht's hair was so hard cause the hairstylist just dumped lots and lots of gel whilst trying to gel her rather short hair. yq's choker was very nice! shiny shiny one with lots of diamonds. real one or fake one hars? :) and devin! haha, well done bro, proud of u. got guts. :) left before midnight though cause things started to get a little boring after a while... but trust it must have been fun. :)

one thing i must say is tt i'm very impressed with john wong. he strikes me as a very earnest, hardworking, approachable and efficient person. one who'll make the effort to interact with his students. i mean after all he's a full prof leh. taking time off to enjoy the event with all the rest for those hours too. i mean most GOHs will request to have the prize presentations pushed forward, and leave after their 'job' is done. but he didn't lorz. and also from mediquiz when he graced the occasion too, and also his initiative to arrange for a 'meeting' to discuss with the students their views and inform them abt the cirriculum.

quite impressive. :) u go man. :)

haha getting delirious cause i'm REALLY tired. nitez.

*piong piong piong* OUT

i'm watching the womans's gymnastics qualifiers replay on c5. quite sad leh they'll, cause alot of top medal hopefuls and defending champions are all out because of the trampoline event. they just CAN'T stay on the trampoline and alot of them just crashed out. and by crash out i mean they don't even qualify for the finals...

aiyoh. train until so hard then liddat. just at THAT moment cannot perform. suay lor. just to paint a clearer picture, there are 8 events for the qualifings, the ave mark for the trampoline is abt 30 odd... the pple who crashed out got 16 odd. sian diao.

so it's really no hope to get into the finals liao since the difference in pts for each event is at most 3.

haha, the lousier pple all very happy now. all the horses black black one. :)

yesterday morning i went running with jingyu. haha, we ran the entire a1/a2 route at 0740... haha. but i figured tt i need to train to strengthen my knee if not it'll take a longer time to recover. very good also cause i got intro to colin by jingyu. hmmm, must get to know more pple also lar, be more sociable better. :)

oh, i'm going to make contacts today! last pair of monthlys liao so got to get it done by this month. gan has got lobang cause he knows this spec shop person! thanks gan. :)

those gg for dnd enjoy urselves hor! i'll try to pop by on my way home today to take pictures with all the chiobus and yandaos. :) play until kai(1) xing(1) yi(4) dian(3) hor!

tired...

alright this will be a quick post since i'm damn tired today... just came back from a good chat with a & g, in fact we were sitting at wheelock just talking abt stuff. well, i'm sorry if this sentence is the only coherent sounding one in this entire post but these are just thoughts flying past tt are jotted down.

it still hurts leh. i don't think i can get over it so soon, don't think this sort of stuff will be ok so fast one lar. i need some time.

what's it tt keeps u going back to someone who u know will disappoint u and make u feel sad? i don't know, it's something tt's mysterious and unfathomable. i know, it's hope. hope tt things will change for the better, but at the same time unwittingly commiting urself into a + feedback cycle, making everything worse by making others more irritated with u and all the more not wanting to talk to u.

it's really sad. but i can't seem to help it most of the times.

on my way home just now, i was telling god tt i want to move on. i really want to move on. cause now it's' causing me too much hurt and pain. what's a thing of the past is already gone, but yet i'm still drawn to it and still holding tight, don't want to let go.

i'm still trying to get over stuff and straighten things out. with myself, not with anyone else. tt person has already told me no again and again. but yet i still willingly go back to get hurt.

when u like someone, u want to do everything for him/her. but the problem comes when because of changes things of the past are nto what they seem to be. previously happy times are now gone. always looking for your company becomes now has me looking for.

it's been a long day. i know something is happening in me i can feel it. something's happening to my thoughts and mentalities and beliefs. i think i'm becoming a little more pessismistic but let's wait and see. i do want to find out. hopefully i can retain my optimism and ideals. hopefull i won't be too cynical...

i think i should move on. i want to move on. break away from the sadness tt covers me now.maybe get more involved in other stuff. work's a way to get by.

the worse thing is tt i really can't talk to anyone abt it. don't feel slighted. i really can't.

gtg sleep now.

visited zq in hospital today. he's supposed to be quite sick. believe with him for his healing. waiting for his good news.

really thankful for a to have dinner with me today. i really needed the company if not i would have started to hu si luan siang again... just for someone to sit beside me and be there for me. sometimes even if nothing is said, presence is more than enough comfort for those tears in the heart.

dnd's tml. enjoy pple. have a great time. :)

i want to move on.

with tears.

every inch of ur body is screaming at u to give up. SCREAM BACK!

just came back from sentosa, cause the nike REAL run is today! hehe so happy tt i completed the run. today was much more tiring than last times, also don't know why leh. everyone's timing slowed down.

met alot of med pple there too, didn't know so many pple were running. i went with chris, colin, alvin, mingchang, and his 2 fwens.

the t shirt was ok lar. actually i'm a little disappointed, doesn't look as nice as i hoped. it' my fav color though. :) i'll wear it to sch someday.

left knee came to zhuo(4) sui(4) again, but it's ok lar, not as bad as last wk. oh, the place was SUPER squeezy lar. think got abt 10k pple (or more actually). alvin was ill with fever but he still down to run. aiyoh, don't think it's advisable lar but anyway he completed the race still. get well soon alvin.

later got church then meeting jc pple to watch fireworks. :) it's the hk choreographers today, hoping tt the show will be splendid. :)

oh, the title of this post of unabashedly stolen from the REAL run poster. just for the copyright concerns.

margaret drive chicken rice

today was chicken rice day. well it all started off with the COFM person starting off his lecture with chicken rice to market across the point of evidence-based medicine. :) and of course the empty stomachs. wah i tell u, i was almost fainting from the hunger lar. have u ever got hungry until u headache??? piangz. :)

so after sch andre, wm, weiliang and shuwei and me agreed to go eat the famous chicken rice at margaret drive. can take 198 from opp nuh, very fast reach liao. the food was good lor. rice was especially fragrant and tasty, chilli is the most shiok of all the chicken rice i ever ate. :) haha, i salivated a bit just now when i got to the part abt the chilli sauce! siao liao. the chicken was not really spectacular though. soft enough lar, but shuwei say not hua(2) enough.

and after tt we went down for tao hui ju and ham jing peng. aiyoh, tt was superb. the auntie was very nice also, she gave me discount! haha, from 60c to 50c lar. but also discount mar. it's the auntie bargaining syndrome. *grinz*

guilty. i ate 2 tao sar hum jing pengs. came home and straight away slept.

oh, i'm playing guang liang's di yi ci now. hmm sad song. self pity is abominable so i shall not get myself into it. i really don't feel as sad as i thought i would be, must stand up and life has to carry on. after all, what's not of God has no power over me. :)

*smilez*

late photos

some of the advanced open water certification photos. was figuring out how to use "hello" and these are just some photos i used to try out the programme. quite easy lor to use. can expect more photos here in the future! :)

anyway i'm feeling much better now since yesterday. guess i sorted out alot of stuff, but i'll prob blog abt it another day. thanks to the friends who smsed or called or dropped a note or asked when they saw me in sch today. really appreciated it. cheers! :)

another beach. here we were making stones skip on water. managed to make almost anything skip >= 1 times. highest was 6 times i think. alot of dead corals on the beach. 

this is a beach. the island in the picture is actually aur. very near to dayang! 

dayang jetty. nice waters. can see alot of fishes swimming ard when standing on the jetty. 

this was on the trip back to mersing from dayang. way home... 

nice starfish. it was really quite big actually. photo taken with an underwater cam, not my own. 

today is a very sad day.

really don't know what to think, cause pple who i really care for don't seem to respond or show concern at all. and i'm really someone who needs to be talked to, know tt pple are there by u. i need to feel cared for and loved. i'm really very sad.

when all your other friends around showed tt they care by asking how i was but u didn't, do u know how much it hurt?

when others show they want my company by asking me along for their outings but u didn't, u know how lonely i felt despite all the company?

when others showed tt they were interested by participating in stuff i loved, u know how much i wished u were here too?

when people could flash a warm smile right across the room but u don't even give me an indifferent look, u know how sad i felt?

when i was alone on the bus, u know how much i longed for u to be beside me?

when u were away having fun, u know how much i wished tt u would just invite me along?

when i was waiting for your sms reply tt never came until i sent u a reminder, u know how nervous i felt?

u know when i was talking to u over the phone, u know how sad i felt or how much i cried?

u know how sad am i now?

i just can't go on typing anymore. and no u don't know. cause all u think is tt i'm just being unreasonable and reading too much into things. maybe u're right, that i was always so reliant and u were always so independent. i never realised tt our characters clashed so much and it may time to rethink if we've set off on the wrong footing right from the start.

i'm waiting to hear what u have to say.

reality check!

it's really insane to look at the current state of reality shows around. the latest kid on the block is "my big fat obnoxious fiance", which is totally tasteless. *bleh*

so basically this show's abt this girl who's supposed to convince her family tt she's marrying this loser (who's intentionally out to make everyone hate him) in the hope of winning a million dollars, tt is, *if* she manages to pull the stunt off.

sigh.

it makes marriage seem fraudulent. degrades it even to something tt can be toyed around with and joked about, taking all the formality and grandour out of marriage. i don't put all the blame on this show, especially so when it hasn't even premiered... because there was bachelor and all its sequels and relatives which put forth strongly the idea of instant true love... afterall, how many couples deemed to be most suitable for each other finally held firm to their vows of love?

aiyoh.

i guess the reason behind the popularity of these programmes is their voyeristic nature. people thrill at the idea of being 'empowered' to look into the lives of people. to be able to comment on someone else's business. to observe a 'hidden' side of someone from the safety of their sofa. it's ingenious of the producers to spot this trend in today's society, and it's highly probably tt this trend of insecurity, together with the number of programmes of voyeristic nature, will increase.

and really also just to see pple look totally dumb on tv. cause it makes pple feel good. certain pple have managed to exploit this fact by looking TOTALLY dumb. word spreads around about their dumbness, and very soon more pple know about the idiot than the vice president of the united states... who's the idiot now? who's laughing all the way to the bank?

really it's all the wrong values tt such shows are promoting. materialism, back-stabbing, i-don't-care-as-long-as-i-win, gossip, promiscuity, deceitfulness etc. the difference is tt these examples tt pple see before them now are REAL. no longer the ingeniuty of some happy scriptwriter sitting in hollywood. paradoxically the greater evil.

very entertaining though i must admit. i just luv the apprentice. donald trump's a genius. after all what else more could u want after u've got tt much money? international acclaim through holleywood of course. and guess who's helping him out in his little scheme?

me of course. a willing victim to the very end for the sake of satisfying my need for entertainment. :)

there and back again

today was a VERY hectic day. woke up at 615 to go prepare, cause was going to sentosa for the final trial run for the nike REAL run. alvin joined us today! yay. :) think mingchang was supposed to come along too but because he had some stuff on the night before till quite late so he didn't come in the end.

the run started at 8, and i tell u, i haven't pushed myself so much in a LONG time... and as a result my left knee now hurts like crazy. i think it's most probably from running on the beach for the 2.5km where i kept slipping down on the soft sand towards my left. as a result i had to stress my left leg more...

very bad.

so anyway, now even during normal walking my left knee hurts. even during class outing which was after tt and church too it hurt... aiyoh.

everything ended ard 10 and we left sentosa. rushed home to shower and change before heading out again to suntec for 2nd service at 1115. of course i was late lar. came in at the last song, but really i was glad to be in time for communion. pastor joshua led communion and i think he did it well. he just reminded me of how undeserving i was of this blessing on my own, but through Jesus i deserved every single bit of tt healing. so i'm going to believe tt i'm healed! :)

service was excellent. pastor started off a little slow but gradually he picked up pace and it just got better and better. everything just came through. was sitting with wanlin and gan cause there was class outing after church and we intended to go meet up the rest together. in the end wanlin didn't go cause she had lunch with her family (family day on sun) so i went down with gan lor.

expected the service to end at 1315 but it ended only at 1410. haha. never go 2nd before. so anyway the dim sum buffet ends at 1430, so we didn't go there to eat. caught a cab right after service to go down to meet the class just as they were finishing off the last siew mais and deep fried beancurd skins. not many pple went today anyway. 12 of us in all only, but of course it's much better than previous class outings. suppose tt not many pple are interested / busy with other stuff. most pple are back liao though and it would really have been good to see more faces around, chatting abt rubbish and abt stuff tt's happened in the past year.

cherlyn and zhengyu left after lunch whilst the rest went down to funan for a great swensen's feast. read: TOPLESS 5 GOING FOR S$1.60. at the table we ordered 7 topless 5s. well, things started to get a bit quiet there as we were waiting for our ice cream to come, and some great mind suggested playing this 'guess-my-number' game (zhong1 ji2 mi4 ma3). the penalty was a whole glass of water. which may not seem much at first, but after ur 4th cup (like urs truly), u really pengz liao. and mind u, it's ice cold. and we're sitting in a air-con-freezer ice cream palour. when the ice cream came i was already so cold liao. wah lau, still ask me to eat ice cream...

eating ice cream has never been such a torture. haha. :)

after ice cream went to my aunt's place to join them for dinner and to celebrate my dad's birthday. his is on 9th aug leh. tt's national day! how patriotric can u get. haha.

meeting eliphilet pple tml. gathering at marine cove in the morning. sigh, was hoping tt someone would be free tml but apparently not. never mind stay at home and take some time to rest. :)

arrivals

finally the UOB visa mini debit card is here. after alot of saga really. first started with me sending 2 applications cause i couldn't remember which signature i used for opening my account.

well it turned out to be neither. i had used thumbprint.

so i had to go down to the branch office to change the thumbprint to signature before they could process my application.

but guess what? tt's not all! also got my PADI Advanced Open Water card today. hehe. been waiting for it liao, not tt i can do anything with it at the moment lar. :)

went to the OG closing down sale to look for dad's present, in the end got a pair of business pants for him. and got a nice pair of shoes for myself. hehe.

tml's presentation, probably be going down to look see look see. but the problem is tt i've to send my bro to school tml first, but tt's at 0800. so oi also don't know how lar, given tt presentation starts at 0730. i'll still go down to see though, hopefully i won't miss anything.

tml's a great day. cause there's the live recording! haha. can't wait. can't wait man. :)

chinatown

just came back from an uneventful 3 hours of roaming the chinatown streets in search for cheap music cds. well i got alot more than i bargained for, having 1) missed my bus stop; 2) walked in the wrong direction towards raffles place; 3) got distracted by cheap-but-poorly-made merchandise; 4) the rumblings of my tummy leading me to maxwell food centre, a stall selling taiwan sausage, and old chang kee (@ peninsula plaza - yes i walked tt far).

but the mind-dulling pace of life there really made me reflect on the pace of life in much of the remainder of the island.

everything's too fast. everyone's rushing off to somewhere to do something. running to catch the blinking green man before he goes. rushing to finish off tt last spoonful of char kway tiao before rushing off again to finish running through those doccuments back in office.

rushing to fetch kids from school. stepping on the accelerator before the ERP gantries light to life. rushing to cook dinner when they get home.

rushing to lectures. frantically copying the last paragraphs of a chapter to finish off a tutorial. rushing to tutorials.

it's funny for people to be so engrossed with cramming every bit of their lives with details and programmes; with appointments and commitments. people seem frantic, or even scared, tt a minute free would equate to a minute wasted, lost into all oblivion.

the trouble is tt pple are too anxious to achieve. to reign supreme in every sphere, so fondly ingrained within our hearts, and yet who has questioned its correctness. we automatically assume tt to achieve and to be able to check each and every little box on life's score card is a good thing, but who's assuming here?

i definitely won't go as far to suggest that sloth is a virtue, but what i'm saying is tt a little rest and relaxation sometimes is really what's most needed. just like the chinatown folks.

most of the residents have age twist their arm to do things slowly, perhaps the only way tt would correct our hurried nature. but observing around me, i observed pple strolling unhurriedly across the pedestrian crossing indifferent to the flashing green-man; browsing through the cds one by one, with some hokkien song blasting unglamorously through big ugly speakers; the auntie browsing through rack full of clothes and haggling with the shopkeeper over 1 dollar for 30 mins; ang mos looking at cameras whilst the shopkeeper tries hard to mask his smirk; the bus driver waiting patiently for an elderly to board the bus and seat herself instead of rushing off the moment 1 foot leaves the pavement.

the pace here is slow but not dull. fluid. smooth. calming. thought-provoking.

yet it has an aura of loneliness and irrelevance heavy in the air.

i had initially made the trip down to chinatown to scout for some jazz cds. shuwei told me tt the cds at pearl centre and pple's park were a couple of dollars cheaper than elsewhere. though he did warn me tt they may not have jazz, i still thought it was worth a shot especially since some plans for today were cancelled (very hurriedly as u may expect as part of our pattern of life) due to unforeseen curcumstances. true enough all they carried were lots of chinese pop, old love ballads, mind-blowing material like hi-5, and exercise cds with scantily clad women on the cover meant to tantillate those frequent goers of yangtze and its likes.

well... anyway... not a wasted trip after all since i explored a little more of chinatown and its surrounding area on FOOT, being lost and all tt, and having the time to roam a little into the corners of *almost* obsolete shopping centres.

--

did u know? -- the m1s are selling roses today. kinda made me feel even more left out and alone. can't wait for tml to come.

friends-ter

hmmm, just this morning i was running through the friendster site clearing up with the couple of messages in the inbox when i started browsing through the other network of friends tt were in my network. realised tt there're alot more friends tt i haven't added yet into my network, and so began to add.

and when finally friendster told me tt i couldn't add any more friends because i "have too many requests pending", it suddenly dawned on me tt in these past few months i've met so many more pple, forged so many more friendships. many friendships have also flourished whereas others have gradually died down. many pple i've got to know better, and many pple i've not realised were slipping out of my life.

it's amazing. we're constantly meeting new people and making new friends. oblivious to me, friendships have changed, mostly for the better. as i clicked from profile to profile i'm propelled into different groups of friends tt i have - scouts, school, classmates, church etc, i sort of gauged how each group grew or reduced in size and in proximity of the heart.

no one ever wants to lose contact with any of their friends, because every friendship matters. but often due to the hectic lifestyle we have, it's rather difficult to stop and smell the roses, or to ponder for a moment 'how so and so is doing'.

well. 'difficult' is really just an excuse.

when tt thought of a geographically distant friend comes into a mind, it's always good to send an sms to ask "hey, how're u doing?" it warms hearts to hear from someone close once in a while despite both parties being tied down with mundanes of life. sometimes even, it may be refreshing and comforting. like everything else, friendships take effort to maintain. both sides should take the initiative to keep in contact. even just 1 person trying to maintain tt link would be better than allowing him/her to slip away.

people will always be wherever we go. it's just whether we choose to make them acquaintances or friends, or someone who we'ld never know because we never approached them and choose to let our impressions be based on others opinion of them. even friendships after a season of seperation need to be strengthened once a while.

yummyummy

oh i cooked some beef stew today. mmmmm... very nice. haha, but self praise is really no praise but disgrace yar... aiyoh. but really it's quite nice. purporsely went to tekka market to get shin meat, which is really tendinous.

which is why u have to stew it for 3 hours. then the whole thing becomes less chewy, more soft, and tasty. mmmm...

tendons. they're my love.

but now very full liao lar. eat and eat and eat and eat. think i ate 200 grams of it after some more durian. haha.

oh a couple of us are also planning to go up to jb for a eating and shopping trip on wed. currently the list stands at ivan, alvin, shuwei, george, me. waiting for some more replies too to confirm finally who's going. hope to be able to go eat the zi cha(4) cause it's really nice and cheap too.

SCHOOL'S STARTING.

now tt was unnecessary wasn't it? *bleh*