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.

Post-celebratory

Today marks the end of the first Chinese New Year week, and the end of pretty much all the festive hype. Every year, my family & I would have completed our rounds of visitations by the second day of the festive season. When I was younger we used to go around visiting relatives all the way till the fourth day, but I guess times have changed. This year's Chinese New Year was like any other recent year's; it didn't give me anything special to remember. Everyone was pretty much celebrating for the sake of celebration. But although it was true that none of us saw Chinese New Year in the light it was supposed to be seen in, I don't feel that we abandoned the core purpose of the festive season at all. Guess the very act of making the effort to meet your relatives, some of who you may only see once a year, and wishing them well, is more than enough. A simple congratulation for having made it through the year, and an assurance that everyone is moving on with life along with you — powerful encouragements disguised as simple, seemingly meaningless thoughts and actions. :) Of course, a very heartwarming, enthusiastic celebration would be perfect. But a quiet, more reserved Chinese New Year isn't at all bad either.

I'll let some random snapshots do the talking from here:

Wednesday spelled back to school for all students (unfortunately). Had a mini lohei session with my class during our Civics period:

The funny thing was that I didn't manage to snap everyone tossing the vegetables and crackers in the usual sticky sweet sauce, the focal point of every lohei photo. Guess that effectively makes the photos above random shots of people getting excited in crowds over seemingly nothing, rofl.

On to something non-CNY related (not really): I fell sick shortly after the festive season, around the time when school reopened again. Gave a couple of training sessions a miss this week as a result, but the good thing was that I wasn't sick to the point that I couldn't leave my bed. I still did go to school, and as much as I hate that place, I don't really want to miss out on anything important. Though it's not like I even get half of what's going on during lectures (not so tutorials to be honest, so all is fairly well I guess).

Next week will be a hectic one, because the juniors will be informed of the tertiary institution they've been posted to on Monday. Which means I'll be expecting a new batch of students coming to school as J1s. Which marks the start of a horribly busy Orientation week. Hope things'll unfold just fine, I'm even planning to join the Mass Dance @ Suntec on one of the last few nights of Orientation. :) But then again, there's still tests to think about...

Let's just see if I can strike a balance between work and play this upcoming week, then (as much as I'm not confident of rising up to the challenge at all).

Start of a Dragon year

Right now I'm just here, wondering if I should continue keeping this. I used to do really well back in the days when I was still on LiveJournal. I wouldn't hesitate spending hours polishing my entries at all, let alone update my online journal regularly. Is it because of the change in the blogging environment? But I gave up on diligently documenting my life while I was using LiveJournal, sometime last year. I guess I'm really losing my interest. :/

Didn't mean to start this entry on such a low note, given that I do actually have quite a lot of cheerful things to update you (nonexistent) readers about! So my apologies for that.

I'm currently celebrating the Lunar New Year, which began about an hour ago, and I have to say: I've been soaking up the festivities pretty well! Had a reunion dinner with my maternal family yesterday evening (actually, just a few hours ago), and the food was amazing as usual. Had a more-than-generous serving of the steamboat soup and ingredients, as well as Grandma's homemade ngoh hiang, which speaks of awesomeness on so many levels.

Before I left for the reunion dinner with my family, I configured the Instagram app I installed on my mom's iPhone a few days ago, and got her phone all geared up to remember Chinese New Year in beautifully edited snapshots. For starters, we took a few self-portraits, as well as photos of the festive ornaments in our home:

I have to say, for a couple of point-and-shoot photographs, they turned out better than expected. Heheheh :)

Guess by now you're probably wondering about what I've been up to the few days I haven't been in this place, so here goes a lousy attempt at keeping you updated.

On Friday, my school held its Chinese New Year celebrations, and well, all of us pretty much went through the motions. But before the performance, my class had a break which stretched across two periods, so I decided to have my lunch then, and it was really delicious! The nice lady working in the Japanese stall at the school canteen made a new addition to her menu: dumpling (gyoza) rice with enoki mushrooms, and of course, I had to get a bowl for myself. I'm a fan of her cooking, it's always very good. Here's a picture of the dish (which I genuinely hope will set your mouth watering, hahaha):

Lol come to think of it, it doesn't really look that delicious from the photo, but at least I've tasted it in all its glory for myself.

After the celebrations I stayed back in school to settle some Orientation matters. I'm going to be a Station Master for this Amazing Race game during this year's Orientation; hope it'll be fun. But most importantly, I'll be able to skip a couple of classes, heheh. Went down to Eastpoint with Eveline, this ridiculously smart Indonesian scholar who'll be in-charge of the same station as me, and we did a short recce of the place, after which we waited (and waited) for the Orientation Group Leaders to collect our envelopes with the clues in them. Overall the whole affair was very dry, but at least I got to know someone new. And coincidentally, Eveline goes to the same church as I do. ;)

After we got dismissed, I went home to freshen up and take a quick nap before leaving the house again for cell group meeting at Faith's place. It was heartwarming to be back in E391 again, and after the meeting, I followed a couple of friends to the nearby playground for a few rounds of Blind Mice (a game I suck terribly in, hahaha). Also, the playground was where I realised Hui Yen was a monkey in her previous life (not meant to be offensive)! She's unbelievably good at that game. And it was so thrilling to watch her try to escape Faith (who was the catcher). If only I had a bag of popcorn then.

Anyway, tomorrow (later today, actually) will mark the first round of Chinese New Year visitations! Hopefully it'll be a fruitful one, in terms of both relationships and finances, if you get what I mean.

Wishing all my (nonexistent) readers a prosperous and bountiful Year of the Dragon! 恭喜發財, 萬事如意, 年年有餘, 心想事成! :)

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. :)

A purposeless mess

A new week's just begun, and life's cruel, like always. To be honest, no amount of rest will ever make up for a school day. Realised that despite a generous and well-deserved break, I still can't stand the suppression I'll always feel the moment I step into the campus. I'll always find myself moving from lecture to lecture and class to class feeling like a hollow, empty shell, and as if that wasn't enough, circumstances will always try their best to drain out the very little bit of life left inside me. It feels terrible. Really, if I don't find a reason to love what I'm doing now, a way to cope, I don't think I'll make it through the year as gloriously as I want, and am expected, to. And frankly, I don't think I'll find a direction anytime soon.

Right now, I'm trying to cram for a ridiculously demanding Economics test... obviously to no avail. And I guess you can say that I gave up completely on revising for it the moment I decided to update this space. I mean, is it even humanly possible to cover a year's worth of topics in a single night? :/

But on a brighter note, my GP tutor e-mailed me over the weekend, and she encouraged me to participate in this competition called the Stanford Book Prize. Initially I was interested, but after realising how packed this week was... I started having second thoughts. There's only 2 more days left to the deadline, and I haven't really drafted anything yet... but I think it's still possible for me to think of something within the time frame. Guess I'll see how things go for now. But regardless of whether I manage to participate in the end, I'm still very grateful for the opportunity.

Guess tomorrow'll be yet another crazy day. But at the very least, there's something to look forward to — dinner with a couple of friends at NEX. Hope the rest of the week will give me something to anticipate as well.

Some leftover pictures from last week finish off this entry:

Birthday highs (and lows)

The past few days have been really tiring for me; I barely had the time to even catch my breath. But hopefully tomorrow will mark an unofficial end to a really long week. Training this week's pushed forward from Friday, and after taking a quick look at my timetable, I also realised that school ends early that day. :) So I'm really grateful for this (although extremely rare) plan-free, leisurely (hopefully!) Friday that I'll soon be enjoying.

So, today was Rashid's birthday, and I'm really honoured to be part of the celebrations for his special day, which I thought went pretty well; better than I expected it to, at least. :) Along with a group of friends from secondary school, we had a delightfully sumptuous, but extremely sinful dinner at East Coast Lagoon Food Village. Pigged out on a lot of barbecued and grilled food, of which included satay, barbecued chicken wings, oyster omelette and the grilled sambal stingray. It truly was a feast to die for! Caught up quite a bit with the ex-schoolmates I haven't met up for a while as well, so all was great. And I really have them to thank for coming down despite their immense workload from school, and the fact that they haven't really finished studying for their various class tests.

Planning for this day did stretch me quite a bit, but I guess in the end it was all worthwhile. Furthermore, it was also my fault for assuming tasks only when deadlines started drawing really near. But I guess the whole experience was a blessing in disguise; managed to really talk to a couple of friends whom I would usually not hold conversations with. Met up with Liting & Edenuis at MOS Burger Bedok Point yesterday, after which I engaged Yiren, Junjie & Kristine at the McDonald's opposite our secondary school. Also, though there were some things that didn't exactly work out quite right, with the help of people who care, I managed to let unpleasant issues go surprisingly quickly. And I'm really grateful for that! Feeling so blessed right now. :)

Apart from my miscellaneous plans, school has also been doing great at keeping me really busy. For one, I now know the importance of really leaving holiday homework for the holidays, though I still can't see myself rectifying my "vice" of procrastinating homework till after school reopens. But school is, after all, still a bitch. And nothing will ever change that fact, at least not until the day I graduate.

As mentioned earlier, hopefully tomorrow will be the final busy day of this week. Really need some time to take a breather and really just rest. It's just crazy, how I've been coming home after dark every day the past few days and all. After training tomorrow, I shall burn the midnight oil in preparation for Friday's "much anticipated" Chemistry test. And that should be all for the hellish week already. No, actually, it must be all.

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.

Every November should be like this year's

Kinda thought that I should make better use out of my time spent on the computer, so instead of the usual stalking on Facebook and the browsing through of a never-ending queue of posts on my Tumblr dashboard, I'm here.

To be honest, blogging has become more and more of an obligation, because it kinda seems as if no one reads my entries, or rather, there isn't much interaction from blogging now, compared to last time. And that has really made this place boring as hell. But I figured that I had a lot to write about anyway.

I shall start with my egg-crack day: Thursday, November 3. It wasn't as big a deal as it was supposed to be (lol) and I was really quite disappointed, but in hindsight, I guess it was okay. Probably a reason behind why I was rather down then is because I'm used to being around people and having friends do all sorts of nice stuff for me, so used such that, unknowingly, I've started harbouring greater expectations from everyone.

The morning of my birthday was spent finishing up my PW OP slides during free periods in school. Dry, isn't it? But I just had to do it being the perfectionist I was. Just couldn't leave the job to someone else and be assured that everything'll sail smoothly. :S

Jasper went to find me after the Economics lecture to pass me my gift — a very beautiful tumbler with a photo collage. I was also given a birthday surprise after school by a couple of my closer classmates. On top of that, Rashid & Janet came to find me to pass me a huge plastic board they made complete with birthday greetings. :D

Went for dinner at East Coast Park with my parents after school. Had it at Jumbo restaurant, was pretty good. :) Went home shortly after, where Hui Yen met me to pass me her gift, haha. Was really sweet of her to come down and all!

Shared another birthday cake with my family, and when the candles went out, my birthday more or less ended.

November 4 was slightly better, but it just went downhill towards the end. Don't really want to remember that night; took me quite some of effort and self-encouragement to get over it.

After school that day, I went down to Parkway Parade with some secondary school friends to hang out for a bit and have a celebratory lunch together at Pastamania. I left them early to meet some of my classmates and head over to Somerset to catch 'Footloose'. The movie was okay, but I expected much more emphasis on dance, hahaha. The country soundtrack was good though.

November 5 all the way till November 10, which was the last day of PW for me, was spent with my PW group on OP, the final component. Hosted one of the meetings, and brought them to the McDonald's nearby for lunch, where we bumped into Jun Jie's PW group, haha. Because the final lap is usually the busiest, I compromised quite a lot of trainings, but it's not like compromises have never been made before then; I really did a lot of work for the damned subject.

The day of my PW group's OP was November 10, and it was really dramatic one (in a bad way of course). Was up for the afternoon session along with TJ082, Teck Wee's group. In summary, one of my group members got into trouble with the examiners, and this worked well as a major morale destroyer, after which we met with technical difficulties once at the start, once in the middle and once at the end of the presentation. The outcome? Two of my members breaking into tears after OP, when all of us were supposed to celebrate the end to a whole year's worth of hell. But they're really not to blame, though. But overall, the OP was still alright.

Our group was also not the only one that met with a whirlwind of... interesting, events. Teck Wee's group saw a rather awful spat between two members after OP, which left one storming out of the school. But of course, we did still take some celebratory photos after everyone calmed down and all. At least.

My 11/11/11 was spent with my class and E391. Met Michelle, Amira, Hannah & Cally in the late morning for lunch at Tampines Swensen's, after which we went down to the Udders at Siglap for the class gathering to spend the $200 worth of ice cream vouchers we won from various school events. It was a pretty successful gathering I guess. :)

Headed home for dinner after the gathering and left the house again in the evening for CGM. It was kinda ridiculous because the venue was at Opera Estate, somewhere near Siglap. So essentially I went from Siglap to Pasir Ris and back again, tsk.

Compared to the previous session, CGM that night was much better. Everything was great, from the worship, to the testimony and finally the word. Hui Jie & Yu Yun came along as well, so I had a good time of catching up with some friends I haven't met in a while too. We arranged for dinner next Sunday; can't wait. :)

The morning of November 12 was spent at the Outward Bound campus over at East Coast Park. Came totally unprepared for the gear check for the upcoming India expedition, and as a form of reflection (I already made plans to go shopping actually), I met my parents and we headed down to Queensway Shopping Centre to get my track pants, track shoes as well as a pair of fashionable Nike shoes (which I didn't intend to get initially), haha.

Dropped off at Suntec City after the shopping session for church service. Rev. John Bevere was up that week, and he was powerful and charismatic as usual. Rarely do I ever come across such outgoing and engaging speakers! Thoroughly enjoyed my time with him. And the word he shared was one in season, too. :)

After service, I headed down to Old Airport Road with E391 for a time of fellowship over dinner. Had good chicken chop and I finally got more of my friends to try the amazingly delicious tauhuey there! As expected, they claimed that flew up to heaven the moment the beancurd melted in their mouths. :P

November 13 was spent with my family in the morning over a dimsum meal at Paramount Shopping Centre followed by '那些年,我們一起追的女孩 (You Are the Apple of My Eye)' in the afternoon at Cathay E!hub with a bunch of friends from secondary school. Save the coarse language (though it's mild-sounding, probably because I'm not used to Taiwan's conversational Mandarin) and the many sexual references, '那些年' was a quality catch! The entire story was well-linked with a fluent flow, and the ending was made stellar by the beautiful flashbacks which tied everything together tightly. Lovely settings were used as well — a given for Taiwanese films, and they evoked in me a pleasant sense of wanderlust. :)

Headed to the new McDonald's at Pasir Ris Sports Complex after the movie to have some ice-cream and catch up for a bit. Jun Jie passed me his birthday gift there as well, and it was a cool USB modelled after a Canon DSLR camera. :D

Yesterday, being Ms Awyong's birthday, the class made an elaborate plan to surprise her at her house. We met in school and went down together to Parkway Parade to get a birthday cake, after which we headed to our ultimate destination nearby. As planned, she had a pleasant surprise, and even invited us into her quaint and cozy flat. Had a quick celebration, after which we engaged in mahjong and Taboo together.

We left Ms Awyong's place together with her at around 1. Went back to Parkway Parade with some classmates to have lunch, where I bumped into Hui Jie and saw Huang Jun Xiong filming for an upcoming television drama. It was such a pleasant coincidence! The story didn't end there — on the way back to TJ, I not only saw Rui En, but did so at close proximity, haha. That afternoon, Marine Parade was truly a district of stars.

Guess in essence, those were the highlights of the past week. If I feel like it, I'll update this blog again later with what happened today. Stay tuned. :)

Fulfillment beyond description

As I stare at this 'New Post' page, the inertia increases exponentially. It's so true that when you've put something off long enough, it gets harder and harder to pick it up again. That applies for both blogging and swimming, hahaha.

But anyway, I'm here. Straining my brain juices trying to recall what I did over the past week.

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Last Wednesday was complete hell for me. Had a PW meeting in my house from 11am to 9pm. Initially, when I fetched Jeanette & Sean from the station, I told them to end the meeting by 2pm so I could go down to East Coast Park for Terence's birthday BBQ in the evening, and I was even optimistic about us being able to finish on time and all. But as we started working and finding even more mistakes, my plan became nothing but a cruel joke, LOL. But I guess that was expected. We even thought that we could print our report that afternoon; how hilarious can we possibly get!

Of course, we didn't just work, work and work. In between all the PW was pizza, telling Sean to stop walking around the living room again and again (a habit of his), and distraction from my cousins' running about from room to room (thank goodness they left by 4pm). But we were still rather efficient; by the time we finished editing the WR, it was still quite early. But because we spent three freaking hours slashing 565 words off the report... yeah.

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The next day wasn't any better. Just when I thought the report we so painstakingly edited yesterday was the final copy, Jeanette had to look through it one last time when she got home last night, and come to school with a copy full of yellow highlighting over some points we had to look into again. I was really, really annoyed, but at the end of the day, I guess what she did was still for the good of our report. :/

Because of that, we spent the entire day editing the WR again. We wrapped up at around 6pm, after which we headed to the AVA room to find Kai Yuan's group. Helped the group cut a couple of words off their report, after which all of us left school and headed for Katong Shopping Centre. The whole process of leaving school was a complete frenzy; Kai Yuan's group was still busy cutting words while walking to the turnstiles and my group, on the other hand, did some last-minute laptop plugging in the canteen because we forgot to convert our report to PDF. By that time it was already nearing 7pm so we completely freaked out because we thought the printing shop was already closed, haha.

When we stepped out of school, we started running around frantically trying to hail a cab from the main road. It was hilarious, because initially there were no available cabs at all, then all of a sudden, two cabs simultaneously stopped in front of us. Guess God saw our desperation. :O

When we got to the printing shop, we bumped into Teck Wee. Then together, we started working the magic — printing the reports. Seeing half a year's worth of hard work finally take shape gave me such great fulfillment. Not that the effort will definitely pay off, though, but still.

All of us finished the printing at around 8, after which Kai Yuan, Michelle, Sheryl, Zhong Kai & I went to celebrate with dinner at Old Airport Road. Treated myself to the savoury tauhuey there before cabbing home with Michelle & Kai Yuan, tired but very satisfied from having lived through the most memorable night of my J1 life.

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Saturday night's after-service fellowship was a little different. Scooted off with Hui Yen, Daniel & Andy to nex @ Serangoon for dinner while the rest headed to Jurong Point, because most of the people we would usually eat with went home. It was still good though, because small groups travel fast.

After dinner, I went to get Drink Tea with Hui Yen & Daniel. We then walked around nex for a bit before going home. Saw this really attractive adidas Liverpool backpack; a pity I don't subscribe to any football team. xD

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Monday was the day of my GCE A-Level MT exam. To sum it up in three words: 死定了. But I'm still hoping, wishing and praying for an 'A' grade.

Went for lunch at Long John Silver's with the class, before heading home to do a bit of PW and then going for training @ ITE. Training's becoming more and more manageable for me now; hope that's a good sign. But it never fails to worsen my sinusitis condition, sigh.

Collected my laptop from Fransisca & Jeanette at Tanah Merah before heading off to meet my secondary school friends at Eighteen Chefs for dinner after training. Had a really fun time catching up with them! :) Missed them so much, especially the ones from MJ whom I don't really mingle with nowadays, and the VJ peeps.

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After school on Tuesday, I took a new route home with Michelle & Kai Yuan, which was bus 87 from Bedok Interchange to Hougang. The journey was long and winding, but that gave us time to really catch up with one another, and I enjoyed it thoroughly despite my tiredness. Talked about our childhood, and our elaborate and never-ending list of plans to do after PW formally ends, which includes a food hunt all over Singapore, but Michelle's probably gonna miss out on a lot, since she's going to be away most of the time on an SPH internship (which I was supposed to go for as well, but couldn't even sign up for because I was already accepted into OBI), haha. But don't worry, we aren't so evil so as to leave you out. :P

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There's still much more I'd love to write about, but I guess I'll stop here and post another part tomorrow.

p.s. Really glad I've been living life to the fullest every day lately. Am infinitely grateful for the ones who were always by my side; they're the ones who really made it happen. :)

School makes you do the craziest things

It's past midnight already, and I'm at McDonald's @ Elias Mall. On a Monday night.

Explanation? Sheer misfortune. I reached home at 7.30pm to a whole pile of PW deadlines to meet, and when I turned on my modem, I had a terrible surprise. Turns out the Internet access at home was completely cut off, because the phone line ran into some problems. And the best part? There wasn't any immediate way to fix it. So I had to jolly well do my designing for PW void of any form of online interaction (oh the pain), which took me four whole hours, and then make my way down to the nearest free Internet access zone.

Sigh, I should really stop grousing over this unfortunate situation, lest I run into similar ones in the near future. :/ But I have to say, what happened today was really untimely. The WR's due for submission in 4 days' time, so now's the busiest period ever for PW. And for the Internet to conk out on me during this time... that's really something. Seriously life... :(

Anyway, school today was yet another mundane whirl of events. The most interesting part of today was probably (I think) the training with my OBI teammates. After which I walked to the station with Michelle, Sheryl & Kai Yuan. Got KOI there before travelling back to Pasir Ris with Michelle and Kai Yuan. Really enjoy walking to the station/going home with them because we have the most interesting conversations, hahaha. :)

So, yup. That's all for today. Gotta go back home soon and knock out for yet another long day in school, and a long night of PW, tomorrow. Thank God Deepavali's on Wednesday, tsk. If not I believe I'll just collapse.

Not TGIF, but rather, for the weekend

Woke up at 1.30pm today! Feels so awesome. :) Thank God for the weekend!

The past week has simply been craaaazy. Yesterday was yet another one of those long Fridays again. And seriously, I doubt I've ever had a free Friday when I can just go home after school even once this year. My life's that sad.

Had to bring training attire, my very, very heavy laptop and the usual books and notes to school yesterday because 1. I had PE in the morning, 2. I had yet another PW presentation in the noon and 3. I was (supposed) to have OBI training and then land training after school, after which I would make my way down to Daryl's place for cell group meeting. Can you imagine how refreshing my schedule was?!

I really, really loathe school now because of all the presentation sessions; it just means that I'll have to always carry a heavy laptop to school because right now, I'm the only person in the group who has one. Actually, someone else used to do the bringing, but apparently he lost his charger in the school we conducted our project's pilot test in. =_=' He didn't show up yesterday anyway, so it made no difference... I'd still have to bring it.

After school, Ms Quek called Fransisca and told her that our PW report has been graded. So in the end, I went for an impromptu meeting with Ms Quek to discuss the report, and it didn't end until about 7pm. And that's how I completely missed all the training sessions I was supposed to go for after school. I would so rather train, though. :S

Michelle & Amira waited in the room for us to finish, after which we went down to Mac's together with Cally. Kai Yuan joined us a while later.

Were happily munching on our fries and talking over the meal, when Michelle started noticing this woman who kept looking at our direction and smiling whenever one of us glanced at her. We feared that she'd approach us sooner or later, but she really did in the end, and she got Kai Yuan to help her set up Internet on her iPhone. As expected of weird people (sorry but, yeah =_='), she didn't even have Internet access in the first place, so Kai Yuan had to let her use the Internet provided by his iPhone. After he fixed the Internet, she walked away, so he went all, "I think she's gonna come back soon because my Internet can only reach that far". And after he said that, everyone on the table gave this why-the-heck-did-you-just-let-her-use-your-Internet kind of face. HAHA.

After a short while, this plump man who looked almost exactly like the weird woman came in and sat near us. When I first saw him I thought the woman really returned, and Michelle went all "I know right?!". We didn't notice him walking back to buy his food, so when we were discussing about whether the woman will return, we saw him walk back to his seat again and once again, everyone of us had a mini heart-attack, hahaha. But the weirdness didn't stop there; shortly after, Cally went, "She's back again. I'm serious". And voila, we saw her again, and she even approached us once more. And as expected, she was rambling about how her connection broke, and tried to get everyone of us to fix it back. =_=' We made her leave our table in the end.

Seriously can't take weird people... and that's precisely the reason why I started disliking Bedok since yesterday.

Went down to Daryl's place after dinner for cell group meeting with Tina. It was great! :) Been really long ever since I sat for such an insightful message, though I don't mean it's bad that usually, we would gather and share our experiences and revelations. I couldn't really concentrate during P&W though, probably because I was just too tired. There's only so much I can take, and this week had drained me completely.

Reached home around 11, and that marked the end to a really, really long Friday. Gonna rest all I can... before starting on my revision for Chinese. :(

Rare days like these end fast

Today was, for me, a day dedicated to self-indulgence. Didn't go out, nor did I get myself involved in school activities or PW (not until later I guess?).

I spent this day nua-ing on the basis that I was tired from a really long week and not feeling very well too, so I hope I don't come off as some lazy bum, haha. Although I admit to being one most of the time.

So, what did I do in school today? Well, I spent the time rushing through Kai Yuan's birthday calendar as well as collecting more exam results. I didn't manage to take pictures of the calendar I made with Michelle & Sheryl though, but I have to say the cover page looks freaking awesome. :) Precisely because I was the one who designed it, haha!

The whole process was extremely impromptu and called for a lot of improvisations... including last-minute printing of another picture of Kai Yuan in the school's Zap shop due to some oversight in our intended calendar design. Because Kai Yuan wasn't with us the whole day due to CCA duties, we had the entire day to do up the calendar, but we could only do it during interstitial time between lectures so it was still a rather rushed job. He was supposed to be dismissed at 12.30pm, so at 12pm we started going frantic. We managed to finish designing by 12.20pm; immediately after that, we rushed down to Bedok Point to prepare his cake, but little did we know that he wasn't released until 2pm, so we spent an entire hour walking around aimlessly and waiting for him to be done. Tsk, =_='.

"Surprised" (failed attempt) him when he came down to Bedok Central with the second row classmates, after which he went to have lunch with them at Tampines Swensen's. I was initially supposed to catch 'Real Steel' with Michelle & Sheryl at E!hub and have Kai Yuan join us after his lunch, but I decided against going in the end and headed home to sleep.

And I really did. Now I'm here, refreshed. But I feel so reluctant to start on I&R, OP slides, WR... PW in general. :( And there's also Chemistry & Chinese tutorials!

How about I go back to sleep and wake up when November ends?

Still chasing my breath

I wanted to put blogging off to a couple of tomorrows, but I ended up here anyway since I'll never start if I keep procrastinating, haha.

So today wasn't a lazy Sunday at all, like how every Sunday's supposed to be. In fact, it was one of the craziest Sundays ever. Probably because I had a PW meeting in my house. No, wait. Precisely because.

Tried to read a little bit of Chemistry in the morning but I had to go down to the station to pick Fransisca up before I could get started on any tutorial, so in the end I didn't really do anything at all. Ran some errands before I met her, including getting myself a new pair of earpieces when I told her I was still buying ink cartridges to print the WR; little did I know that I made her wait for nearly half an hour in the end, haha.

Started with some research to support some new claims we made in our report when we got back. Jeanette came down after a while, and from then on we just went full steam ahead. It was awesome, because for this entire year, we've never had a single productive meeting. Managed to complete editing and printing the report at 9.30pm, with a lot of laughter, jokes and mini antics in between. The objective of the day was bleak, but the process was, well... different. In a good way of course. ;)

My parents were, as usual, extremely amicable and helped me be a good host to my friends. And I really can't thank them enough for that. Looking back at everything they've done today, including encouraging us as we racked our brains over the report and sending Fransisca & Jeanette home, I really have to say that they're the best parents I could ever ask for. Although it's quite annoying how they're way too generous sometimes, haha.

Chilled a little after I got back from sending them home with my dad, before Michelle started a conference call with Sheryl & I to plot a birthday wish for Kai Yuan. Basically she got us to keep quiet, after which she included Kai Yuan into the conference to supposedly discuss PW with him. And then all of a sudden, when the clock struck twelve, we started singing a birthday song for him. It was quite the failure, but at least we did it with sincerity, haha!

Yesterday was a long day as well. In the morning/early afternoon before service, I was over at the Outward Bound Singapore campus at East Coast Park. Had breakfast at Changi Airport McDonald's with Adam, Chu Bin & Alvin before boarding a bus down to the place, where we attended an important briefing about the India trip I'll be going for at the end of this year. Had an ice-breaking session after that, particularly with the Catholic JC students who'll be joining us for the expedition. From the looks of everything, I guess the India expedition's gonna be quite amazing. Though I can't say this so soon. But I should choose to be positive, right?

Got really tired during service because I spent an entire morning out. But the second half really kept me awake, haha. It was basically a really touching display of testimonies from ordinary people who, by the grace of God, overcame their obstacles.

The church screened the live soccer match between Liverpool and Manchester United right after service because Pastor, being the considerate him, knew that they wouldn't get home in time to catch it in its full glory. Since I wasn't that hardcore a fan of either team, I decided to go for dinner before going back to the hall. Had it at Banquet along Esplanade Xchange, but it wasn't exactly that pleasant due to a mishap which ended up with a bag stained by teriyaki sauce, shoes glazed with mayonnaise and chicken sprawled all over the table. And quite a lot of frustration that followed. The situation was overall quite awkward, but I guess everything's been cleared and all.

Despite all the sticky situations, I have to say that I spent this weekend quite fruitfully. And I believe it wouldn't be fruitful if not for the lows and all. Cliched, I know, so I'll stop. :P

Ah... time to face yet another week.

Sleep, a luxury that's always traded off

I have been sleep-deprived for the past few days and tonight, there will still be no signs of redemption for I will not be sleeping until 3am again. I guess this is the cost for not editing my Written Report for PW now, but there's just so many things to do and so little time. Factor in the time I need to really just get myself composed again after one bout of madness and voila, I don't get enough sleep at all.

Yesterday was an exceptionally tiring day as I turned in at 1am and had to wake up at 6.30am for school only to run 3km during the first period. I was refreshed after the run, like I always felt after any, but gradually, as the day proceeded, my vitality (as if there was even any in the first place, haha) began to show signs of faltering. And the lectures and tutorials didn't help at all.

Went for my first water training after a long break yesterday as well. At the start the sets were quite manageable but all hell broke loose when I started on the breaststroke pulling, haha. Could only finish half that set because the paddles made treading water a lot more difficult. Really ought to hone my arm strength so that I can go faster next time. Overall I guess I'm glad to be back in the water, although in time, I'll definitely feel nauseous at the smell of chlorine once more.

Had a team dinner at Simei Banquet after training. As usual all the members were really entertaining, but I didn't really contribute much to the conversation. Zi Qin freaked all the girls out over the dinner table once again, this time by demonstrating the elasticity of his skin. It was quite cool but gross at the same time. He was even able to twist and turn his ear so that it folded into a ball, haha!

Anyway, here's a continuation to my entry on Thursday — after much consideration, I went for the Seoul Garden dinner after all. And I didn't regret it because it was thoroughly enjoyable, what with the free flow of ice cream and all. Treated myself generously with peppered & barbecued beef, fried dumplings, tom yum soup, etc. And of course, I had a lion's share of yam ice cream as well.

Right now I'm preparing to leave the house for Suntec City to attend service. Will update about today when I get home before I start on my WR. Look forward to that. ;)

Temporary shelter from the storm

Long time no see — so long such that I believe that I'm currently writing this entry for no reader.

As promised, I'm here resuming blogging after an extremely long break of 2 months, and after the indescribably tumultuous Promotional Exams. You should have assumed that while I was away, I was busy cramming facts and reciting essays, right? Well, I wasn't, although of course, I did study, though not to the point where I could just drop dead. I guess I'll always be the kind who can't give my best for something I don't even have sub-optimal interest in. And I'm proudly admitting to this as I've also bore the consequences of always not preparing enough for the papers, haha. My results were, unfortunately, terrible. I'm not even certain if I can be promoted to JC2 with the scores I have so far.

Anyway, as with any long break, it's only natural for me to say that a lot of events have happened over the past two months, both good and bad, though not many have been significant enough to leave a lasting impression in my memory. In between the studying was play and my commitment to Project Work (I really can't be bothered with elaborating on this pain in the ass so I'll just leave it as it is). Although life has been difficult for me most of the time, there has always been reasons, although subtle, for me to continue to find meaning in my days.

In case you were wondering, I'm currently not at home, comfortable on my swivel chair and typing away after a nice, warm shower. And I'm definitely not anywhere close to that, as I'm still in school, in a claustrophobia-inducing room, drained and sleepy after a long, long day of exam paper collection, tutorials, lectures and presentations. But I wouldn't deny that the situation I'm in now is the very reason why I decided to take out my laptop and blog, hahaha. Too boring you see. Right now, I'm currently waiting for my friends to wrap up their PW discussion and the reason why I'm so (kindly) waiting is because I'm contemplating if I should go down to Farrer Park to have Seoul Garden for dinner with my friends. Honestly, I'm kinda reluctant to go for the latter, since I'll probably have a lot of PW stuff to do tonight. But it's Seoul Garden!

Sigh, this year, or rather, JC, really forced me to deal with numerous trade-off situations. And more often than not, I always end up doing the things I would rather not do, haha. Guess that's why I feel that my life sucks so much right now. But, as I've mentioned before, I shall always try to look at my circumstances through rose-tinted glasses... as far as possible, at least.

Can't wait for my freedom to come.

The beginning of an end...?

I've been away from LiveJournal for too long — close to a month already, to be exact. And when I returned today I wasn't pleased with what I saw. Apparently LiveJournal forced ads into every Plus account journal in their server, so right now my journal over there is a major eyesore. So I resorted to this place, haha.

But that isn't the main point. The point is that I know I haven't been writing as often as I used to, and I'm not going to make any more empty promises to update my journal on a regular basis... in fact, I'm just going to post one last entry (which is this) before I sink into a 30-day studying break in prep for the promotional exams near the end of this year... which, unfortunately, has the ability of making or breaking my future... although indirectly, I guess.

Well... it's amazing to realise that today marks the end of the second-last week of Term 3, and that means I've survived close to half of the torturous tertiary education in Singapore. I'm still going to have to stay strong, though, for greater hurdles await. But I'll leave that for when they really come. 2011's been great at driving me insane, and sadly the year hasn't even ended yet.

Anyway, the past few weeks were simply CRAZY. Project Work nightmares, perpetually growing stacks of tutorials, lightning-fast syllabus coverage, far-from-adequate amounts of sleep, and merciless training schedules chained me down with steadfast strength. Life in JC is so terrible it makes me want to just drop everything and escape, and sometimes I really did. But of course, I wouldn't be so ignorant as to completely drift off-track. Let's just say I indulge in occasional breaks, haha. Up till last week, to be exact — will definitely be moving full steam ahead from today onwards!

Last weekend: my "official" final weekend of socialising.

Friday was spent with my PW group members out of school, in a mission to carry out pilot-testing for our project. TKSS kindly hosted us by providing us with a computer lab and a class of 24 students. Overall the pilot-testing went smoothly, despite a couple of technical glitches at the start which wasted quite a bit of time. We managed to get the results we wanted anyway, so heck those mishaps, haha.

Had a mini celebratory lunch with Jeanette, Hannah & Sean after the pilot test at Domino's. Ain't a very great fan of cheese and the smell of their pizzas was initially extremely cheesy to me... but after a while I got used to the taste, haha. Because of our "extravagant" lunch, we ended up skipping quite a number of classes... but that just makes that a worthy trade-off. ;)

At night, I went to East Coast Park for a short barbecue session with my cell group. Didn't exactly have much to talk about, but I guess it was nice to be able to meet them again, after what felt like an eternity, haha. Really love each and every member a lot, though sometimes I get so preoccupied with my own situations that I forget to show the slightest bit of appreciation towards all they have done for me.

Went home with Hui Yen using her route, and ended up reaching my house at 11pm, haha. In retrospect... Friday was nice. :)

Saturday afternoon was spent with my PW group in my house in preparation for our next Written Report draft, and the night was spent in church. Had dinner at Marina Square with a couple of my friends after that, then went off on my own to do some gift-shopping at Raffles City. That reminds me — I haven't even wrapped them... and it's been a week already, hahaha!

Sunday was spent on a... should I say, grandiose? birthday surprise plan for Michelle. Met Amira, Sheryl & Teck Wee in Compass Point at 9am to settle the picnic food and cake, while Kai Yuan escorted Michelle around without her knowing what we were doing, haha. There was a little bit of miscommunication though. We were supposed to surprise her at Compass Point, but instead we went all the way to the picnicking place. Kai Yuan then had to throw in tons of excuses without coming off as suspicious as he had to drag Michelle to Compass Point and then take her on some random LRT ride to a field, when at first he told Michelle that they were going to have a PW meeting, HAHA.

When they reached the fields where we were, we surprised Michelle at the LRT station with a super chocolatey cake that kinda almost melted immediately under the hot sun. We then proceeded to have the picnic. Flew kites, ate stuff, listened to music, played a little bit of games... it was quite enjoyable I guess. ;)

During lunchtime, Sheryl left and we went back to Compass Point with her. Bought takeaway and then headed to Kai Yuan's place to watch some movies and have lunch. Strictly speaking, though, we were actually doing some homework with X-Men on the TV, haha.

And that basically summed up my simple, easy-going Sunday afternoon. :)

Woke up on Monday to yet another school week. Tuesday evening was spent in the school canteen studying with Michelle, Cally, Sheryl & Kai Yuan. The 'A' Level Chem SPA was on Wednesday and truthfully I'm not confident in my performance at all, considering how I've screwed most of the previous mocks. Thursday was an extremely sleepy day and this led to me embarrassing myself in front of the whole class during PW lesson... don't want to elaborate on that. Went home on Thursday to a pile of PW assignments to complete because the WR draft was due the next day. Everyone in class stayed up beyond midnight in an attempt to finish up their group drafts, with some crazy enough to remain awake through the whole night, all the way till 6am. As a result they didn't come to school the next day, except the group leaders who had to submit the drafts. PW is definitely the exemplification of sleep deprivation.

And finally, the present me, on Saturday. A me who's on my toes, worrying if I'll pass the upcoming exams. Because I really need to. But there'll only be one way out, and that is to study hard.

On a way lighter note, I've finally done my part here (not that it's an obligation for me to blog or anything). Until then, readers. ;)