After a long while

Wow. I can't believe that it's mid-February already. And this compels me to first apologise for my long absence, though I'm probably just apologising to myself here. But honestly, I'm really regretting how I've not been keeping track of all the important happenings in my life as dutifully as I used to. But I'm also glad that I'm actually making a conscious effort to salvage all that's left of my belief in writing.

I know I've written about this subject so many times already, and it's really of no use if I continue writing about it, but really — life has just been so terribly demanding. At the same time, I'm also in the midst of coming to terms with a lot of circumstances I would otherwise not accept if I had a choice. I believe I'm really going through a season in my adolescence where I'm just steadily embracing radical changes in terms how I look at things, how I value relationships, as well as what I expect from them. And as of now, from where I stand, I can say that I'm really looking at a clearer view now. I've grown to become more open-minded at the very least, and less sensitive and touchy-feely about a lot of things.

On another note, I guess February has also been good to me so far, as measured by how long I'm able to keep myself 'afloat' each day in the month. I'm less tired now, and although there's still a long way to go, I guess I'm making progress towards an on-task lifestyle as well. It's a promise I made to myself, to do something useful about my studies every night, regardless of whether I come back lazy from school or exhausted from training. It's hard, but what matters is that I'm still trying.

On top of a general reflection about the period I've been away from this place, I guess I should also delve into some details I find good to remember. Generally the late-January-to-mid-February period has been a rather quiet one when it came to my social life, and although I'm still hanging out, I guess I'm doing it less enthusiastically now. But I believe it's a good change. Personally I wouldn't want to get too attached this year, there's greater things that need more of my attention.

I'll start off with 28 January, yet another one of those CNY visiting days. This time I went to my distant aunt's place at Hougang. Her family keeps a very furry and well-fed cat, and I had much fun admiring it! It looks beautiful.

I would love to keep a cat or a dog in the future if possible. :)

The following day was 人日, a special day in the 15 days of CNY which celebrates the Chinese race, I guess. Apparently that day's considered as everyone's birthday. A tradition of 人日 is, of course, yusheng! Headed off to the Chinese restaurant at Paramount Hotel after church with my family to celebrate the special day. Gotta love Chinese food :)

In the evening we hosted a couple of relatives for a few rounds of mahjong, and for dinner I had some really good takeaway Chinese cze char. I was seriously so well-fed that day!

It was back to school for me the next day; the JAE results for those who completed their 'O' Levels last year was also released that day. Glad to see quite a lot of people appealing to Temasek, though there was still the usual group filling in forms to get themselves into 'better' places. There was also a list of the names of all the incoming J1 students outside the auditorium, and all of us spent quite a lot of time trying to see if any of our juniors got admitted into the college. The more extreme ones went as far as looking up the names on Facebook to see if there were any pretty juniors coming their way, rofl what creepers. xD

Tuesday was the start of Orientation, and the entire school got completely hyped up. Looking back I kinda regret my decision to give the OGL interview a miss, everything seemed so fun! I was still involved in the events though, as I was one of the many Station Masters running the Orientation games. Gave classes a miss on Thursday & Friday as a result.

On Tuesday evening, I followed Michelle, Sheryl & Kaiyuan to NEX for a quick dinner with them before Sheryl & Kaiyuan left for tuition in this Graffiti Cafe place with a lot of hilarious writings on the walls:

So my station on Thursday was in the hall, so all of us spent the entire day there doing almost nothing. But I'd rather do nothing than go for class actually, heh. Was with with the girls from the first & back rows and Daryl.

Friday was a much more happening day for the SMs. Was stationed at the sports complex this time, and we had to carry out the game 4 times without much rest in between, so it was quite a challenge for all of us. Didn't have any classmates with me this time, was quite happy about that in a way since I was able to meet new people. For some strange reason I was really enthusiastic that day, joining the OGLs in their cheers and jumping and prancing around, hahaha. At the end of everything, OGs came over to our station to give us a couple of SM cheers, and of course, I participated heartily. ;)

In the evening I was up for a sermon in church with clinical psychologist Dr Robi Sonderegger, and I have to say, he's such a gifted and charismatic speaker. :) Because I was bound for the city anyway, I dropped by Mass Dance @ Suntec (one of the major Orientation activities) with Rashid before I left for service. Brought back a lot of memories for me! Though things have really changed since, Orientation remains one of my outstanding memories of TJ.

The next Monday was an especially rushed one. Our class was supposed to be in charge of this 'Let's Get Talking' current affairs notice board below one of the lecture theatres in school for the week, and because then Orientation just ended, there were very little people helping out with the research. Stayed up till quite late the night before to help poor Jeanette compile and organise all the information, and the next day all of us found ourselves hastily assembling the board during one of our breaks. I have to say, we did quite a good job, save the weak Blu-Tack we used which caused the whole thing to come loose later in the week, hahaha.

We chose the hotly debated issue of ACTA, and though it appears to be quite the boring issue, with so many stakeholders and opinions involved, it's actually pretty interesting to know about... I guess.

Looking back, the week which followed was a rather terrible one... lol. There was the PDP (a fancy term used in my school for CCA) exhibition after school on Wednesday, and honestly it was kind of a waste of time for me, I didn't get to do much, or rather, I didn't feel like it. Headed off to the pool at ITE College East after that for training; it was a more fulfilling session because the weather that day was so freaking hot.

But I'm happy to say that Friday night broke the chain of mundane events! :) Met up with a couple of secondary school friends in school and we went down to Parkway Parade around the time the sun set, which also made the school a beautiful spectacle:

Got my brother's birthday present from the Smiggle store at Parkway, after which we headed down to Old Airport Road together for a good dinner and time of catch-up (something we probably won't get to do again in a long while). Of course, when one goes to Old Airport Road, he has to get his own stash of soy beancurd, and we did exactly that, heh. :)

The next day, my family celebrated my brother's birthday in advance with a seafood lunch at East Coast Lagoon. Went to church in the evening and met Huiyen's distant cousin who never realised she has been going to the same church as him for the past, what? 3 years? Hahaha. Tried my best to accommodate him and make things less awkward, along with a classmate Xiaoshi only recently brought along, Sheryl. Hopefully things will become more natural as time passes.

On another note, Saturday's service commemorated Valentine's Day with a drama production, and Ailin was one of the leading actresses who took the stage! I was really blown away at her fast progress, she did really well. :) Can't wait to see what's ahead for her in the drama ministry.

Sunday was my brother's big day, and also the day before mom left for Shenzhen on a work trip. Had a simple celebration at home with a delicious ice-cream cake from Swensen's:

And I guess that wraps up all the highlights during the time I was away! Though there were certainly more, but I just don't have the patience to remember every single one of them in great detail. This week's gonna be a physically trying one, with the annual Road Run on Friday. I'm participating competitively, so let's all hope that I'll bring back some good news and victories. ;) Apart from that, let me cross my fingers and hope for a good later-half-of-the-week ahead.

Need to hit the books now, I'll probably come back again, but chances are it won't be too soon. But I believe I'll eventually make it a point to write.

Untitled

Last Saturday, I went for 'Go Green Day', an annual charity event hosted by my school. Along with the rest of the student body, I was tasked to go around the neighbourhood collecting used newspapers and old clothes residents' home, and proceeds from the collections were donated to two organizations for the underprivileged.

To be very honest, I felt that the whole event was a waste of time; a touch-and-go affair. It was a nightmare, having to simultaneously carry stacks of old newspapers and bags stuffed with old clothing (though actually it wouldn't really be that bad a nightmare if it wasn't for the fact that it was Saturday), and to make things worse, my class was assigned the old-type HDB flats, where the lifts only brought us to certain floors. As a result, we found ourselves toiling while repeatedly climbing up and down the stairs to reach floors not served by the lifts.

I really believed that I couldn't get any more crankier then, because the week before really made me both mentally and physically exhausted. I really didn't see a purpose in slogging during a day when I could've gotten some rest. But at least the efforts I put in didn't really go to waste; after all, what I did was for a cause. And I wouldn't deny that I was kept rather entertained by the classmates I worked with, hahaha.

My class got off work at around 1pm, so we decided to head to a nearby hawker centre for lunch. Mrs Chua treated all of us to a cup of bubble tea each, and honestly I didn't expect her to be so nice. After all, she was always holding us back for an extra period whenever her Chemistry classes with us fell before a break. :/ But regardless of whether she's been nice or not, I'll still have to get to appreciating her anyway (she's the form teacher for my class this year), for my final year in TJ to be smoother one.

On another note, the Economics test on Tuesday was, in the end, cancelled!! :) Which was a good thing for me because I didn't study much, heh. I didn't have training on that day too, so I decided to stay back in school after classes ended to catch up on my work. The session wasn't very productive, but I strongly believe that I wouldn't have done as much work as I did if I went straight home after school. While studying, I also played around with the Instagram on Michelle's new iPhone 4S, and came up with some pretty nice (LOL in my opinion at least) shots:

We left school at around 6pm to meet Sheryl at the station before heading home together. I still remember how I still had the Permutations & Combinations tutorial to complete when I got home (it was already around 8 then)... it was just terrible. Turned in very late that night. :/

The next day, I went to the swimming pool at ITE College East to train after school. Admittedly, ever since the teachers-in-charge of the swim team got serious and hired a new coach, the trainings have become more intense. I was really bushed at the end of training that day, and at a certain point when I was still swimming, I even faced difficulties breathing. Kinda over exerted myself I guess. So that day, to put it in short, was demoralising. But at least I bothered to make an effort to go down and train... that itself to me is already an accomplishment.

On to more cheerful things — Chinese New Year's finally round the corner (:D!), and I thought it'd be good if I considered doing some major priority reshuffling to mark some sort of 'new beginning' for myself. After the festive season ends, I will be expected to go full steam ahead in terms of academics, and I really need to prepare for that. Right now I'm still approaching my work half-heartedly, and succumbing to numerous, "lethal" distractions. I still haven't grasped good time management, and this really sucks, because 2012's a really important school year. Therefore, I really, really need to set my priorities straight, so that everything will fall nicely together, each in their own rightful place. So that I can finally start being productive, as well as start inching closer and closer to my ultimate goal for this year, which is to do exceedingly well for the A-Level exams.

So, hope you'll wish me luck, to whoever's reading this right now. :)

Penultimate

So today's been a really long day, and just the thought of blogging about today makes me feel really lazy. But after some consideration, I figured that if I just let the tomorrows pile up, I'll have to write even longer entries in the future, and waste even more time trying to recall what happened for each day I put off writing (come to think of it, this might just be the next motivation for me to blog regularly).

Yesterday night, or more aptly, this morning, I turned in at the usual ungodly hour of 4am, despite being perfectly aware that I would have to wake up at 9am in time for TJCarnival 2012 (my school's open house). I woke up half an hour late in the end, and although it was very demoralising, I still dragged myself to school in the end — a result of an extremely difficult struggle against my bed.

Another reason why I would so rather stay in bed then was because my school's notorious for its mediocre open house programmes, and before anyone starts pointing fingers, I'm sure that at least a dozen other TJC Year 1 students from 2011 will agree. But in hindsight, I guess my trip to Bedok's hellhole today wasn't really a wasted one. This year's TJCarnival adopted a similar format to last year's, but I saw some improvements here and there, which was great. :) For one, the stage performances this year were much better (really enjoyed the rendition of 'Pumped Up Kicks'), and I think this year's open house was the first to see cheerleading performances... if I'm not ignorant at least.

But the irony was that I was supposed to promote the swim team at the open house, not to watch the performances. I did contribute something, though — I took up the job of the TJ Ambassador, which was to show the visitors around the school (it's such a pity I don't have the shirt, just sayin'). But being an 'ambassador', at the very least, enriched my sense of (twisted) humour. Seeing how all those students, fresh from secondary school, didn't have a single clue whatsoever of the hell which awaited them if they chose to enroll into a JC... I just couldn't help but find entertainment out of that. But karma's already bitten me long ago, for I already know that ahead of me lies a predicament that's much worse (sigh).

During the open house, Atika dropped by to pay us (more specifically, Rashid) a visit as well, and when we brought her to Janet, she went nuts... literally. But actually, what really happened was that she started exclaiming and jumping in joy. But before she could do anything else, the kacang putih cones she held toppled and the nuts sprawled all over the floor. It was an embarrassing scene, but well, it's not like she had any shame to begin with, HAHA.

Got off my duties at 2pm anyway, after which I headed to the hawker centre opposite school to have lunch with Rashid & Janet. Headed home immediately after lunch, only to go out again shortly after taking a shower. Initially I was just gonna head straight to church, but I made an impromptu decision to meet Rashid & Janet yet again, this time at Old Airport Road. Wanted to be there to witness their "Lao Ban moment", hahaha. Singaporeans will get what I mean perfectly. :)

Was half an hour late for church in the end, but the service was a long one, so I guess I didn't miss out on a lot. Got really drowsy halfway through, but for some weird reason, I became wide awake all of a sudden after a period of time, lol. I'm guessing it's probably due to a burst of energy.

And admittedly, service today wasn't a very fruitful one. And to make things worse, I'm starting to harbour some doubts... but I guess it's still better if I hung on for a while more so as to catch a clearer picture of the entire situation.

Oh well, guess that's all for my day today. Tomorrow's gonna be the last day of the November/December holidays (LE SIGH)... I'd better treasure it while it lasts.

Mundane beginnings

On New Year's Day, I spent time with my classmates in a chalet at Aloha Changi. Practically, it was a failure, because less than half the class showed up, leaving the organisers unable to cover the expenses. But the good thing was that since the costs were too huge to be completely absorbed by the people who went, the class will be claiming payments even from those who decided to give the chalet a miss once school reopens. Though I can't help but feel that it was such a pity everyone checked out by the second day because there just weren't enough people willing/able to stay over. To make things worse, the chalet was really spacious! Bigger than my flat, at the very least.

Thankfully, the chalet only remained a logistical failure. Genuinely enjoyed everyone's company during the time I was there, and the fact that we got just enough food for the barbecue's really comforting... at least for a person like me who simply loathes wasting food. The food was good too, and the best part was that they were spicy! There was sambal... everything, including stingray & sotong, of course. Although I had sambal stingray and chicken satay earlier that day for lunch with my family at the Changi Village food centre nearby (très delicious, by the way!), I still claimed my share of the barbecue food. Heheheh

The next day, Michelle, Cally, Amira, Hannah & I had a meeting for our Economics project at my place, but we didn't actually get much work done. Cally brought along the souvenirs she bought for us from the Taiwan though, including the I♥TW shirt I asked for:

Personally I find it weird to take pictures of a shirt and even weirder — to make the pictures look deep & artistic lol, but the urge to snap some photos just hit me when I took it out of the closet. Which is still weird, but since when have I been normal, really.

Lol anyway, the following day was yet another mundane whirl of events; the only difference was the company. Went to Tampines Regional Library to catch up on my work with Rashid & Atika, though I didn't get much done lol. That day was also a bad one for me. I was already late in setting off to start with, and the weather that afternoon was terribly hot. Despite that, I just had to make a trip all the way to the IKEA bus stop only to realise that I left my file at home. And the best part was that I didn't even touch that file the whole time I was at the library.

Stopped studying earlier than usual because all of us acknowledged that it wasn't a productive session at all, after which I had dinner with Rashid before hopping on a bus home from the interchange.

In hindsight, I guess the first few days of 2012 played out rather mundanely for me. Though I shouldn't say it's a bad thing. Once school starts in 4 days (gasp), I'd probably do anything to get my mundane life back.

A day documented with Instagram

As mentioned in the previous post, today was supposed to be a hectic day, and it definitely was, though I woke up in the morning feeling really lazy — swear all I wanted to do then was just camp in my room and watch episode after episode of 'Heartstrings' until I was done with it, hahaha. And I did indeed watch 'Heartstrings', though what I actually did was halfway between being a punctual boy and turning up at Paya Lebar station at 1.20pm sharp and being an utterly lazy pig and not leaving the house at all — I watched one more episode of the drama series and told the rest I'd be going down with Rashid & Li Ting, the two people who already planned to turn up late beforehand. The ones who went ahead first are so going to kill me once they read this, lol...

Met Rashid & Li Ting at Tampines station at around 2pm anyway, after which we went to the food court upon Li Ting's request to have her lunch. Because I took my lunch before I left home, I spent the time there fooling around with the Instagram app on my iPod touch, which later became brutally abused (will be made apparent by the upcoming picspams). While I was busy snapping away, Rashid & Li Ting had their lunch — two kaya toast & egg breakfast sets. If their appetites aren't weird, then I don't know what is.

After lunch, we went down to Bras Basah station in search of The Mind Cafe along Prinsep Street, where the rest were. Was a little bewildered initially, but with a little dose of common sense, we managed to get to the place pretty quickly in the end.

The Mind Cafe wasn't exactly what I envisioned it to be; the place was noisy and cramped, but of course, there was a generous selection of games. But shortly after we met the rest at the cafe, Rashid, Li Ting & I decided to leave the place, as since we reached so late, it'd be unprofitable if we were to stay and be charged the same rates as everyone else. And so we headed to the public area in LaSalle College of the Arts to... well, lepak.

We then caught up with the rest shortly after they left the cafe to walk to Liang Seah Street together.

Once we got there, we scouted around for a suitable steamboat restaurant, and quickly landed on our final decision. While waiting for more friends to arrive, we went to prepare the food and got the soup bases ready.

After I had my fill, I rushed off to Marine Parade for the E391 thanksgiving party at Faith's place, but by the time I got there, most of the activities were already over; but well, at least I didn't give it a complete miss, hahaha.

The journey home today was a rather different, or should I say special, one. For one, it made me realise my stupidity in all its glory, lol. Hui Yen & I hopped on a bus from the Mandarin Gardens stop which took us to Little India station via the city, i.e. Bugis. So that means I could've just boarded the same bus to Faith's place when I was leaving Liang Seah Street earlier, instead of hopping on a packed, half-hour train ride to Bedok... LE SIGH.

It was also special in the sense that today, Hui Yen made her maiden trip to Little India station. It's hard to believe, and especially so because she's Singaporean! But that's not really the point — when we were at the platform waiting for the train, she completely lost it, and it was hilarious. Made a fool of ourselves by taking some retarded photos, and we even documented it on Twitter, hahaha.

Also realised that nowadays, whenever it comes to going home with her, we'll stop at Punggol station. And I don't mind it at all actually; I really enjoy bus rides along expressways at night. And I'm guessing it's also a form of payback for all the times she was the last one to leave the bus when the few of us went home together after school. :P

Well, to sum it all up, I had a surprisingly blissful & enjoyable day. And it's definitely a good way to end the year. :)