Tales of Divine Sisterhood

2009-04-12T03:25:00.006+08:00

I have (finally) outgrown Avril Lavigne (at 21 years old)

so check out my new blog at

www.smellslikedeespirit.blogspot.com.

2009-04-07T23:46:00.003+08:00

Set off at 8pm, Thursday night after work

Took the cheapest train to destination. Train reeks of the real China.

Sat in a hard seat, with a man sleeping underneath, for 13 hours.

Heard the song "北京欢迎您"countless times before reaching.

Moments of "mouth open" amazement that we survived the overnight train ride.

Checked into a youth hostel, thus authenticating myself as a true blue backpacker.

Saw Chairman Mao's large portrait on red building.

Dared housemate to lick a stone pillar in Temple of Heaven.

Also licked stone pillar in Temple of Heaven.

Ate Quan Ju De's Peking Duck. Just the Duck.

Ran around Tian'an Men to get to queue.

Queued for 1 hour to see Chairman Mao's mummified body.

Saw his body for less than 1 minute.

Licked a marble carving in Forbidden Palace. Tasted like marble.

Climbed to the top of Jin Shan to see the whole of Beijing beneath our feet.

Watched the sunset and took a trishaw from Qian Hai to Hou Hai.

Licked The Great Wall of China. It tasted huge.

Wasted time at tourist traps. Saw some unimpressive role-playing and a disturbing con company.

Suspected that the Water Cube is made of PVC, but nonetheless, looked impressive on the inside.

Tried to call McDelivery but was rejected because could only provide the address as "Bird Nest/ National Stadium".

Ate two fried bugs at a food street for a dare.

Suddenly thankful there are things such as chilli powder and salt, and that they are aplenty on these critters.

Walked the longest corridor of the Summer Palace.

Recorded a voice-dub for fun in Movie World, the sets of shows such as My Fair Princess.

Played hand-Chapteh at the carpet grass in the Bird Nest.

Got electrocuted a little when running across the Bird Nest.

Ate Da Dong's Peking Duck. This time, we added drinks but they tasted bitter.

Felt hot and bothered by the weather. and Beijing's resemblance to Singapore.

Hummed "北京欢迎您", sometimes sang it out loud, for the longest time. Only knew that 1 line out of the entire song.

Slept on the upper deck of a good train from Monday night. Expensive, but good.

Was packed like sardines on the subway in Shanghai on the way home Tuesday morning.

Reported for work 1 hour later.

Ended this post with a cliched line such as "We came, we saw, we conquered Beijing."

2009-03-26T23:14:00.000+08:00

2009-03-24T23:39:00.002+08:00

Got bored after having to draw the outlines of skyscrapers, so did this. Okay, time to rest my eyes from the computer!

2009-03-22T22:03:00.006+08:00

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 6-放屁三月下扬州

There's a saying that goes "烟花三月下扬洲" (which means March is the best time to look at flowers, because it's kinda foggy, creating a mystic vibe.). I wonder if that phrase was of any use, but we spontaneously decided to go anyway.

In the end, we saw flowers, climbed weird rock formations in a garden, ate Shi Zhi Tou (狮子头)meatballs, one kick ass soup dumpling each, engaged in a staring contest with old ladies while fighting for tables in a restaurant (phrase that comes to mind most often: The Fast and the Furious), took the Chinese bullet train, squeezed with a few thousand others on the way to the platform, rode on a bus that drove on a highway that looked to go nowhere, climbed a 9 storey pagoda, and refused to go into the main attraction of Yangzhou- Shou Xi Lake (瘦西湖) because of the high entrance fee.

The highlight though, was none of the above. It was our hotel room, or should I say motel room, which was the most intriguing of them all. Our bathroom has no door. The shower cubicle shares a door with the toilet bowl cubicle. There is a curtain outside the shower cubicle, in the main room, that can be raised for one's viewing pleasure. There were 5 of us- three girls and two guys.

Before you let your mind wonder though, nothing happened in the night. We were too tired and too old. Something else happened though, and on a very high frequency. We farted, and farted good. While others come to appreciate the wonderous nature that surrounds the ancient town of Yangzhou, we were standing near the hotel room doorway, smiling sheepishly to each other when we felt one coming, and sometimes, one joker will say,"I'm going to fart" and let a wet one rip.

By the end of the trip, I could have sworn we've become much more acquainted than before. And so, the lesson is, disgusting things make people get closer. Take it from me, I make friends better when we have sleepovers. Therefore, we brought out our worst in Yangzhou, but Yangzhou brought out the good in us.

On the above photo, there's a girl in the red vest smiling. That's Yan Jing, one of our friend's friend from Shanghai. She has been taking care of us a lot, and has been going out of her way to help us. This trip was supposed to be a trip for her and her university friends, but she asked us along anyway. She's just fantastic. Our "老衲". I'm already thinking of where to bring her to eat when she has the opportunity to come to Singapore. Really grateful and thankful for her presence. She gives hope to mankind, and I'm not stretching it by saying that.

2009-03-12T17:51:00.004+08:00

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 5- How cool is cool?

When there's no work to do, I've been surfing ffffound.com and looked at plenty of uber cool pictures.

Maybe, if I've been to this website before I did my Graphic Communication module, things may have worked out differently. Oh well, it's been 2 semesters, so I'll stop beating myself over it.

Art's so random and unlimited. So cool.

This week, I discovered that Singapore is not far enough- not for me at least. You know, sometimes people migrate somewhere to escape from their reality back home. Well, I've got nothing much to escape from, but this feeling of freedom from all the rubbish at home makes me high-kinda (even though I've not much rubbish back home). This morning, I was squashed (packed sardines-like squashed) in the public bus on the way to school, with some stranger's elbows poking me, and I was hanging on to dear life as the bus flung its passengers from side to side. But there I was, smiling. Taking in these tiny adventures and challenging my comfort zone. That's the excitment of life, right there, in that 2RMB bus.

Today though, I collected for myself a pile of rubbish. Don't ask. My housemates and I came to a conclusion that I thought too little and they thought too much. Don't worry though, nothing drastic happened. And right now, in hindsight, I do think that I face a prevalent problem of thinking too little. My philosophy of "there's always a solution" doesn't quite work sometimes, because it neglects the pros and cons of each viable solution to any problem. At least the pile of rubbish is not big (I wonder why I even bother to collect it in the first place), and therefore, not growing (I hope). Therefore, I think that I need to start thinking just a little bit more that what I deem necessary and be more sensitive to my surroundings.

I love my housemates (family). I really, really do. I feel blessed for having them right here with me, listening to my words and having the patience to explain their point of view. My housemates kick ass man.

So, in this fifth week, I'm contented.

2009-03-09T22:35:00.002+08:00

Roads.

Highway

Tunnel from Pudong to Puxi

*sounds are just mindless conversations

2009-03-09T22:32:00.001+08:00

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 4- The Delicate Relationships between humans.

Before I start off, I would like to say “Hello MUMMY! I love you too!”

(Today, my mum called me because she thought I had a hard time with my housemates from my previous post. Asked her if she read till the end and she said she didn’t have time. So she reads my blog. Cool eh?)

This week marked my 4th week, and concludes my first month in Shanghai. Over here, I’ve been leading the city dweller’s life, but this experience is still significantly different from the Singaporean urban lifestyle. For one, the gap between the poor and the rich is striking and in-your-face. I see beggars shivering in the winter rain, people who come from rural towns with their baggage and clothes that stick out like sore thumbs, and the local Shanghainese.

I learnt that Shanghainese people refer to people out of Shanghai “foreigners”, or 外地人.This classification is to distinguish themselves as superior to the other towns, since Shanghai is one of the most advanced cities in the country. If you think that’s bad, they were merely following the footsteps of the people in Beijing, who refer to people out of Beijing “百姓 (commonfolk), because they feel that they’re nobility for living in the capital. People who live in Guandong also join in, calling the rest of China “穷人” (the poor) and themselves “富人”(the rich).

Now before I point the finger at these locals and accuse them of being snobbish, I myself have a confession to make. I discovered that I’m no better, along with the rest of these people who stick their noses up the hazy air of Shanghai. One morning, Joyce, Felicia and I took the public bus to school. It wasn’t crowded, so I sat in one corner, listening to my iPod and watched the roads fly by. The bus stopped, and up came two passengers. It was a man and a woman, both dirty and their hair in a mess. Their clothes looked dusty, and their faces were dark, like they haven’t had a bath in days. They were carrying a huge bag of stuff, and suddenly, all eyes in the bus were on the two of them. On instinct, I clutched my bag tight. The man beckoned the woman to sit on an empty seat, which was next to this young man. She refused, and so that man sat down instead. Immediately, I could feel the young man tense up. He fidgeted in his seat, grabbed something in his bag, and started to read. In the meantime, the man was looking up and down and the young man. He moved. Immediately, I craned my neck to look, as they were seated 2 seats in front of me, at the space between the young man and the older one, wondering if the older man is trying to rob the young man. I got down the bus shortly after, thinking to myself how sad it was that I couldn’t help myself from making such an assumption based on appearance. How sad for me, as a human, to feel that way at another human, and how sad for humanity, for the entire bus was feeling that exact same way too. Finally, how sad that I would say so much now and not done anything at all!

Yes. This world is selfish.

But then again, there are instances where people help out one another in times of difficulties. The following example, however, cannot be compared to the above, because it’ll be like comparing apples to elephants- while both can exist as living things, they are as different as heaven and earth.

This is the following example. Felicia was told, one rainy day in her office, that she had to collect “Fa Piao” (发票), which are official receipts. This system of collecting Fa Piaos is just like claiming money from receipts, but in China, Fa Piaos are claimable, not receipts. You can get fa piaos from all licensed establishments, and for anything too. Food, transport, phone, groceries, taxi rides- anything. We never knew what Fa Piaos were, but it didn’t take long before we had to know. First, Joyce has to collect fa Piaos on food to be able to get a portion of her pay. Without that amount of fa Piaos, she cannot collect that amount of her pay. For her though, it has to be for food, like her daily meals. Nearly one month later, Felica’s company, who conveniently forgot when she started her internship, told her that she has to collect 2200 RMB worth of fa piaos for food and living expenses for the month of February and March. 2200RMB is no joke. It’s about S$400, and March is already here. So she rallied everyone she knew (people in the Global Immersion Programme) to help out.

Before we knew it, fa piaos of all shapes and sizes and amounts have come pouring.

(and I discovered I need Fa Piaos too after telling my boss about Felicia. He said, “Eh, you need to collect fa piaos also leh. You know anot?” So much for laughing at her predicament.)

It’s gratifying to see a seemingly impossible task being solved just like that with the help of our fellow citizens. At least it can instill some hope into mankind. But then again, I did say I was comparing apples with elephants.

Well, all I can say is, I’d probably not be like Kevin Carter (http://africanhistory.about.com/b/2006/04/12/Lthe-journalist-the-vulture-and-the-child.htm) , because I don’t have his guts. Like I said, the world is selfish.

2009-03-05T01:08:00.002+08:00

Learned some photoshop techniques while at work (cos nothing to do) and so practiced a bit, and taa daa!! Not very nice la, but still learning. Woohoo, graphic design is fun (but anal-ly tedious).

2009-03-01T22:54:00.004+08:00

When Champions Webcam on 22nd Feb 2009, our "month-sary".

1. First, they do an introductory dance. That's Ka Lai, with Jayne sitting down like an Ah Pek. The rest of the girls are around, but they can't be seen cos the webcam too small.

2) Still dancing.

3) Then we play Asshole Dai Di together. Ah Fang holds up my cards for me, and I end up being the Shit shit shit shit twice.

4) We rest.

(There are other things, some really funny and stupid things that we discovered can be done over webcam. Next time I shall take pictures of all of them and post it up!)

2009-02-27T20:54:00.001+08:00

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 3- On Conflicts

When you’re living abroad with 3 other people, no matter how close you may be to them, there will still be some friction. It Today, I’ll be highlighting the tension between us, through various examples that surfaced the past few days. These conflict have been putting a strain on our relationship, and it is definitely unhealthy if we keep living this way.

First, let me introduce you to my 3 other housemates-and their various quirks, sometimes endearing and sometimes downright irritating.*

Felicia: Comm studies friend. Studied in the same JC as me, but didn’t make friends then. Am the most dictator-like person, and talks the way a politician conducts a rally. However, because of this quality, she keeps us on schedule for all plans.

Joyce: Comm studies friend, traveling buddy. Frequently exploited by us for being the only one with a high proficiency in Mandarin. When in doubt, she’ll appear doe-eyed, giving us the urge to box her.

Soon Hui: From Business. Was a complete stranger when we decided to make him our housemate. Doesn’t have a good sense of direction, as he got lost once and made us wait out in hunger. However, he makes up for that by helping us clean up every time.

The Conflict between me and Soon Hui

The day he got lost, we were at Qi Pu Lu (七蒲路), a mega shopping belt for cheap stuff. It is like Bugis Village, only much better and bigger. He went on separate ways because we wanted to shop for girl stuff. We decided to meet an hour later so we can have lunch together.

After shopping, us girls went to the meeting place to wait. We called him and he said he was on his way. After a long, long time, he was nowhere in sight. Felicia and Joyce decided to walk around while waiting. I was tired, so I leaned against a counter and continued to wait. A good ten minutes passed, and he called us to tell us he was lost. He was on the first floor, but couldn’t find the designated meeting place. I asked him to walk on the outside of the building and come in through the main entrance.

Another ten minutes crawled away, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, almost fainting from hunger, I called him and asked, “Where the hell are you?!” He said he was at the entrance, and asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m at the entrance! Are you SURE you’re at the right one?”

“Ya. I’m at the lion statue there!”

“I’m also there leh! Do you see a GREY BRIDGE?”

“Ya I saw…”

The conversation continued for another three minutes, with me spinning around in all directions to see where he was. I was getting most impatient. Then finally, FINALLY, he appeared in front of me.

As we walked to find a place to eat, I said, “Wah, can you hear that I was like, shouting?”

“Shouting meh? I cannot really hear. I was also shouting. Did you hear?”

Okay. So this conflict was a failure. (Which I was glad for) We found out that the reason he got lost was that he walked a bridge (inside the building) that connects to another building across the road. Therefore, he ended up at the first floor of the other building, and that was why he couldn’t find us at all.

It was a misunderstanding, not a conflict after all.

However, the next tale of conflict is more tension-filled, quite scary and ended up with a fight.

The Conflicts between me and Felicia and Joyce**

1. The tissue paper/ Coke conflict

I clearly recalled seeing only one box of tissue paper left in the house’s store cupboard, and thus faithfully reminded Felicia to buy more when there are chances to go to Carrefour. We bought another 3 boxes when we went to Carrefour, among the other groceries. Felicia saw a bottle of Coke at the supermarket, and said that the Coke at home had finished. So I said, okay, let’s buy it then.

When we went home, Felicia opened the store cupboard and dug out 3 new boxes of tissue. Dangling the boxes, she said, “Deanna Tan, I told you I bought new boxes the other day but you keep insisting there’s no more. Huh? What’s this? Come, tell me.”

In my defense, I swore I didn’t see the boxes at all.

So I retorted, “Well it’s finishing what. If you compress all the tissue boxes (they were plastic boxes, not the cardboard kind) and if all the air come out, it’ll be 1 box already what. Then I’m correct- there’s only one box left.”

Later, I opened the refrigerator and I saw that there were still some Coke left. I was not at ease with the way Felicia chided me, so I asked her into the kitchen.

“Hey Felicia, can you explain why there’s Coke in the kitchen when you say there’s no more? Huh? What’s this? Come, tell me?”

“HELLO, the Coke left how much? Your tissue boxes got 3 new boxes leh. The Coke very little okay.”

“Got Coke lor. You tell me don’t have. Huh? Why, why? Still scold me for the tissue paper la. You same lor,” I said.

She ignored me on that and went to do other stuff. Joyce, meanwhile, shook her head as she watched on.

2. The Meat in Broccoli conflict

One night, we decided we would cook dinner the next day. Tucked in bed, Felicia was thinking of what to cook. I hopped to bed too, and when she said she would cook Bak Kut Teh and a dish of broccoli, I asked if we can cook meat with broccoli. After some muttering to herself, she said out loud, “Aiyah, tomorrow’s matters tomorrow then think la!”.

Shortly after, Joyce came into the room, preparing to go to bed. (The three of us are sleeping together in one bed now, because Soon Hui’s bed hasn’t arrived. He is sleeping in Felicia’s room currently). Joyce started asking Felicia if she wanted to go to the supermarket tomorrow to buy groceries after work. They started talking animatedly, but all that was in my mind was the pieces of meat that would end up in the plate of broccoli.

“Can you go buy meat? Then we can have meat in the broccoli dish tomorrow!” I chipped in.

Felicia turned her body to me, looked at me for a moment, and said, “Eh, Deanna Tan, you never listen to me issit? I said that we’re gonna have Bak Kut The and broccoli with meat right? Ah, never listen to me. See la”

Fancy having amnesia at such a young age. Pity.

“Er, no. You said…” and I proceeded to quote the words she had said, and finished with her “tomorrow’s matters tomorrow then think la!”

She fell silent. Tried to give me an act cute face, hoping I’ll forget her false accusation. But I continued,”Ah, still say what? Huh? Say I never listen right? I got listen k? The coke also la. Listen to you, then buy new bottle when still got coke. Huh…”

And it went on and on as we dug up the Coke and Tissue Paper issue.

3. The Cotton Pad fight

Another time, I was doing my own things when Felicia came over excitedly to show off her cotton pads. You know, those small things you use for facial toners and other mindless stuff like that? Yea. Irritated by her, I swept my hand across the bag of cotton pads. Little did I know, half the pads fell to the floor.

Felicia looked at me in horror and disgust. “Eh!” She shouted. Joyce jumped up in alarm.

Unable to take the nonsense anymore, I swept my hands again, and only 1 quarter of cotton pads remained in the bag. Angry, she threw the remaining cotton pads on the sofa, and stared at me with her huge eyebags.

Therefore, when we live abroad, I realize there is bound to be tension and conflict. We cannot avoid them, and so, I did what I thought best- to fling cotton pads off your housemate’s hand. Yes, and even though the cotton pads shall never be clean again, we’ll still move on and try to not suffocate while living with these outrageous people.

(to be continued…… straightaway)

*disclaimer: Actually these quirks aren’t irritating la. In fact, I think I’m the one who irritates them the most. Hehe.

**Any conversation in this section was done in a joking manner. Of course, some of my retorts are completely nonsensical, but in order to keep comic timing, I did them in the straightest face possible, which in turn made Felicia and Joyce very tempted to throw me off our house window. And everything we said was followed by bouts of giggles and stupid faces. Especially when I was flinging the cotton pads. (and picking them up after that, apologizing profusely to her)

Conflict? Collision, more likely, and everything good comes out of it.

Okay, I bluffed anyone and everyone who’s reading this. Hehe. Well, because I used to believe that when people live together, there is bound to be conflicts and disagreements. However, this has really been a fairytale living here. Even though we do have arguments (the meat in broccoli thing, Coke and Tissue Paper thing and the Cotton pad fight really happened), we tend to solve them with laughter and mindless nonsense. Which works!

Therefore, in conclusion, I really love it here. And I feel extremely fortunate that the above people are my housemates, because they take care of me very well!

2009-02-21T23:05:00.002+08:00

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 2- Things I learnt in the Office

Interns, as said on the tv show “Grey’s Anatomy”, are the bottom of the surgical food chain. Using the same theory, I’m current right smack at the bottom of the advertising food chain, the tiny person who sits behind a desk, trying to decipher what the boss just said because he just used terms unheard of, waiting for the rest to start packing up before I dare to shut down my computer to go home and of course, the most clueless designer, if it’s even legal to call myself one, in the entire office.

Welcome to my “Professional Internship” phase in life. Where the term itself is an oxymoron. How the hell can someone be a professional intern? Either you’re a professional, or you suck. But well, that’s what the school calls it, so let’s just stick to it.

I’ve just gone through my first week, and it’s with a smile that I daresay I’ve learnt quite a bit from this. My kind of learning is unlike Felicia’s, who has learnt that her office’s server is so fast that she has finished watching most of her favourite drama serials online.

Therefore, I have decided to catagorise the things I’ve learnt so far.

1) “今天天气好晴朗”shall never be uttered until summer comes.

On my first day, I imagined the office to be a sparse, cool space. Well, it’s quite sparse, in an arty-farty way, and it is way too cool. Cool, in weather-sense. For some reason which I have yet to discover, the people do not switch on the heaters when they work. So there we are, all decked out in thick winter clothes in the office. Why, my fellow intern Jin Jen wears five layers of clothes at work everyday!

Thus, I have started to do something that I never did in Singapore. Check the weather everyday. Shanghai is a place where people actually pay attention when you talk about the weather. And it’s important, because I realize I can’t think very well when I’m cold. It’s brain freeze, in a different way. Gosh, I’d take a 7-Eleven brain freeze anytime over this.

2) Katy Perry is hot in Shanghai.

There must be an alluring quality to her song “I Kiss A Girl”. For the past week, the radio station that my colleagues switch to put this song on heavy rotation. I really wonder if the radio people understood what the song was really about. Cos Singapore don’t ban it on the air for no reason. It’ll be funny to hear a girl singing along without knowing what it’s all about.

Well, the radio station is quite happening. It plays a mix of English, Chinese (by Chinese I mean mainstream songs from artistes we already know, not some Beijing Opera-sounding songs), Korean and even Japanese songs. Cool eh? That’s what I call variety.

3) Adobe Illustrator.
Uh huh. For the past week, the only programme, other than Photoshop, that I’ve been staring into is the above. On day 1, my skills were basic. Now though, even though I still consider myself a basic user, I have managed to do quite a few things with the programme. Which is good news. And even though it feels like a rehash of Chris Yaw’s Publication Design, only I’m doing Illustrator instead of InDesign, I enjoyed my time at work. The past week I was working on a mock newsletter for a client with a prestigious image. It kept me up on Wednesday and Thursday night as I tried to think of a good layout. Ultimately, I submitted my work this evening, and I can safely say I’m comfortable with what I’ve done. Of course, this won’t be enough in time to come, so I hope I’ll be hardworking enough to come out with good works.

3) Being anal is a virtue in design.

Once you’ve tried your hand at it, you know there are rules. Follow the rules, calculate the measurements, be accurate and precise, and viola!

It takes a lot of discipline to stick that pole into your butt. And plenty of reminders. But it’s a good rule of thumb.

4) Staring into the computer screen too long will make you feel “pixel-ated”.

I begin to see a tiny pixel here or there, or maybe a dot or two, and was unable to differentiate between dark green and black for a while- after looking into the screen from 9.30am to about 5pm. It’s really quite scary, actually, but I was more concerned about being freezing cold than blind.

5) It doesn’t feel like being in somewhere far away at all.

My two bosses are Singaporeans. One fellow intern is also from Anti You. That leaves 2 other Chinese designers and one Chinese administrative staff to complete the staff roll.

As I’m told only to take instructions from the two Singaporeans, and they do speak a whole lotta Singlish, I feel that I’m right back in Singapore everyday. Other than broken conversations with the 2 Chinese designers in Mandarin, I speak Singlish (and proud of it) the rest of the time. I walk back home speaking Singlish to my fellow intern, I go home to my Singapore friends. I have dinner with Joyce’s colleagues, who are interns from Ngee Ann Poly. Therefore, in my own brain, I’m still in sunny (SUNNY!!) Singapore.

One week down, 21 more to go. Can’t wait.

2009-02-14T11:38:00.003+08:00

"You're not supposed to be thinking of home" Part 1

The streets were packed with flower-selling peddlers last night. People were holding bouquets of flowers as they walked along the street. And I was thinking, besides the fact that Valentine's always, always a lousy day for me, the atmosphere must have been the same in Singapore.

Last night, I watched The Simpsons till I dozed off on the sofa. Fate would have it that one episode was on Valentine's Day. I fell asleep for a while before Felicia and Joyce woke me up to go to bed.

I had a weird dream last night. Gee, it was so complicated, that I have half a mind to check up on the meaning of dreams. Damn you Sigmund Freud. But then again, my other half of a mind is that lazy, thus I shall just brush it off.

On a brighter note, I had a major web conference with my champion teammates on Thursday night. They're the ones who kept reminding me of home, of Pey's nice Hall 2 room, of sucking Hello Pandas and playing asshole tai ti till we become "shit shit shit shit", and the now legendary game- 7th Level Pig. I look like an idiot grinning from ear to ear every time.

Well, I do miss Singapore, kinda. Actually, I miss playing basketball more than anything. With my Champion teammates and with Ooosh.

Damnit. I'm not supposed to be thinking of home.

2009-02-11T21:51:00.003+08:00

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 1- FAQs

*shenanigans
n. Acts of misadventure or playful mischief. Frequently involves Lemmiwinks, 1 beer, and Sharpies. May result in speeds in excess of 88mph and size 14s if a lamb's pit is involved.
Taken from Urbandictionary.com

This is day 6 of my new life in Shanghai. Well, I think it's boring if I went through every single mundane thing I did over here to spice up the apartment (but seriously, we bought so much stuff from Carrefour, which is very near us). Therefore, I shall tell you what Shanghai really feels like. Sort of an FAQ section for everyone who's been asking me questions about life over here.

1. How is it over there?

There have been a lot of opinions formed on the people and the place of Shanghai. First impressions, really, and as we all know, first impressions can be wrong. They are a quiet lot when it comes to giving way. They won't say a "sorry", nor an "excuse me", but just push their shopping cart till it bumps gently into your butt, making you jump up in alarm because you thought that someone has just violated you. They don't, or seldom queue up, and it really is irritating considering that I lived 20 years in a country whose entire system is based on the concept of queuing. Many times, I just want to put my basketball boxing out skills to use, especially my razor sharp elbows, but Singa the lion will always appear in a dream-like motion, beckoning me to resist.

Now, as for the place itself, it is as modern as Singapore, if not more. It is indeed a city, as high skyscrapers dominate every subway station. The skyscrapers are all awe-inspiring in their architecture, so different and beautiful, yet so similar at the same time. Things are easily available, and the public transport system is very efficient. Seriously, except for the fact that our heater is currently spoilt, therefore making bathing at night a bitch, everything works the same.

My only gripe is the darn hazy sky. I am very tempted to take a cloth, aim it at the sky and start wiping. Visibility is not good, and buildings at night cannot be seen unless they have bright signboards or advertisments on them. The other night, I was at the Bund, where I thought I saw two eyes floating in the dark sky. Turned out to be television advertisments on a skyscraper.

2. Is it expensive over there?

Well, in comparison, clothes in Bugis Street-styled shopping districts are tentatively cheap. Probably the same price as those in Singapore, or a bit less expensive. Chic outer coats that cost more than S$100 are only S$20-$30, and prices are dropping like mad since spring is starting. Boots, too, starts at S$20, sometimes even less. And the good thing is, there's H&M here.

3.What have I been up to?

For 6 days straight, since I landed, I have been in the two floors of Carrefour. Everyday, without fail. And even though I go there everyday, there's something new to buy every single time. For example, today, we need to buy a peeler so that we can peel potatoes. Also bought a house bell, so people can "ding dong".

4. When do I start work, and where is it?

I start next monday, working in an advertising firm under the Creative Director. My only fear is that my photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator skills are not up to par. However, I do believe when there's a will, there's a way, and in using computers, there's always a way.

The workplace is conveniently located 15 minutes away from my house, to my happy surprise, and therefore, I can wake up rather late every morning. Also, there is a lingering temptation to buy a bicycle so I can ride to work- something that will never happen in Singapore. I shall KIV this, and decide whether to do it or not.

Next week is the week I start work. Wish me loads of luck!

2009-02-10T00:26:00.002+08:00

Yes, welcome to Shanghai. Modern, efficient and most importantly, butt-numbing cold. It has been 3 days since I arrived, looking forward to start a 6 month internship over here. It's really like living all over again, starting from ground up.

As you know, I left on the morning of 7th Feb. Most of you will know, since, most of you came to send me off anyway. It was quite overwhelming, because really, almost everyone I knew showed up. My beloved Champion teammates, Andrea, Steph, Shi Qi and Gek Eng, and there was Gwen, Yuen, Grace and Ya Qi (yes, thanks for calling me Cleavage one last time), Leanne Wong, Victor and David, Zhao, Jac(quline..hehe), Amanda and Char, and of course my CS gang, Cathy Chia, Chee Harn, Ros and Col!

And then most of you guys didn't tell me that you were coming, which led to such a wonderful surprise. However, I must apologise the fact that I didn't have time to say a proper goodbye to all of you guys. It was a rushed trip into the departure gates, because Felicia's mum was beckoning me to go in. But still, I really appreciate you guys waking up at such an unearthly hour to send me off.

Thank you!

After a 1 hour transit at the Thailand airport, we endured another 4 hours before we finally touched down in the land of the Orient Pearl. With so much baggage, we went ahead and took the airport bus downtown. Sound good, doesn't it, the airport bus? Well, for the first 30mins, we stood at the front of the bus, with Felicia carrying her ten kg backpack and us struggling for balance. The bus was so packed but we were just cheapskates. (But it was really very cheap. Sing$6 from the airport to a place near our apartment!)

And it was well worth it, because when we finally got to our apartment, we faced a house with nothing. Sure, there was a sofa, tv, beds, a dining table. But there wasn't any pots and pans, bedsheets, toilet rolls and the works. We had to go buy an electric kettle, because the heater didn't work. Thank goodness our house is very near Carrefour. We lugged back a whole lotta things the first night- bedsheets, quilt blankets, toilet rolls, bowls, cups- (SEE RECEIPT on picture above for evidence) and it was, in Felicia's words, "torturous" because our fingers felt like they were dropping off from the heaviness and coldness.

My proudest moment yet is fixing the internet! Yes, we had to buy a wireless router, and 2 LAN cables, then figure out the whole shazamm. But I did it, and that's why you can see this post. Woohoo, I AM SMART. (Even though it took me 2 days to do it)

Well, there are too many things to tell, but I'll leave it till tomorrow or another day. For now, check out these pictures.

Champion Cynthia stuffed this into my bag while I was distracted. I only found it just before we landed. It's a notebook!

Champion Angel, Michelle, gave this to me, and I stuffed it into my lugguage without much thought. Now it serves as a standee for Cathy's cards to all of us.

The Champion photo frame, given to me on Thursday, which is on the TV table so I can see it everyday!

My "Respect the Champion" pillow is on my bed :D Okay, goodnite, show you guys my "Welcome to my house" board next time, where Cathy, Ros and Col's faces are stuck there to "bi xie".

2009-02-09T23:11:00.001+08:00

Forget about the new webpage, guys. I can access blogger in China! Woohoo. Times have truly changed.

2009-02-06T11:58:00.001+08:00

Because China banned Blogger,

visit http://myorientpearlwenthome.spaces.live.com/ instead.

2009-02-03T11:59:00.003+08:00

Too Much Playing on Chinese New Year Makes One Sick.

A whole long weekend of playing cards, mahjong, taboo and steamboat made me feverish yesterday night. I guess it was over-exhaustion that did me in. Nevertheless, it was the most fun CNY with my teammates and friends.

And so, last night, the parents whisked me to the 24-hour clinic in the middle of the night, and forced me to stay home today. The good thing is, at least I can start packing.

Photos!

Amanda's house on Saturday night. We only slept at 6am.

Team A's celebratory photo after we won! Check out Amanda's new hair.

Team B listening attentively.

It was gathering with the Champion teammates the next day. Also a full day of activities. This was Karaoke at Cynthia's granddad's house.

Lastly, I suspect this is the thing that did me in. Alcohol, whether in the afternoon or any other time, is never good for me.

2009-01-30T20:18:00.000+08:00

Just one week till...

http://myorientpearlwenthome.spaces.live.com/

2009-01-27T13:12:00.001+08:00

"the mad cow got to say happy NIU year."

Another year. Another snoozefest.

2009-01-24T23:41:00.002+08:00

A Video made for the Champion team using the only available resource at home, Windows Movie Maker.

and another one where Cynthia mops the court floor while trying to find her shoe.

2009-01-23T16:47:00.002+08:00

We are the Champions.

It was the Global Immersion Programme talk that very morning. The speaker was animated, keeping the crowd entertained with anecdote after anecdote of the things in Shanghai. There I was, sitting on the third row, trying hard to focus on his floppy grey hair and the way they reacted whenever he moved.

I yawned. My eyes are droopy, but I shook my head to keep awake. It wasn't the speaker's fault, but mine. I had slept at 5am, finishing up a video conceived by Cynthia and Felicia so that I can show it tonight, after the IVP finals.

I didn't know I had drifted off, and only found out when I heard a voice that said "Nan Da..." It was only when I wanted to open my mouth to say "Jia You", that I awoke and found myself at an inappropriate place to shout the "Jia you". Now the speaker was talking about doing business in Shanghai, or something along that lines. I listened.

Then, instinctively, my shoulders moved. My body was trying to do a fake. Wait, I reminded myself, I'm not at the basketball court now. I'm in a bloody auditorium, with Joyce dozing off beside me.

It was weird, but it made me smile under my breath.

Fast forward to 8pm later, we were all psyched up for the final game. Us versus (reverse) SUN. SUN was a powerhouse team, no doubt, and brimming with stars. They crushed all their previous opponents in the tournament, not just crush anyway, they steamrolled them. With nifty pick and rolls, and a penchent for fast passes and shooting, their offense moves killed the defence of many teams in the first quarter.

We were a different team altogether. Drafted into the "Group of Death", where two teams were in the top four last season, we had to play every game carefully. There were detractors all around, such as Mr Jerkface, saying that we'd never survive the first round. Our team was also different. Every victory was a hard fought game, where we always clung to our lead till the last whistle. By the end of the first round, we did the impossible by becoming top of our group.

That was because we found the winning formula.

The answer to winning was simple. It wasn't just about the stronger players in the team, whether they performed well individually or not. It wasn't a calculation, to see whose bench players are stronger or weaker. It wasn't about the 5 people on court, whether they worked well with each other.

You see, basketball was not meant to be played with 5 people on each team. It is meant to be played with 15.

From the first game to our last, one could feel all 15 players on court. We shouted ourself hoarse during every match, from the first quarter to the last. The five players who represented us could hear our voices, and they could feel our belief. We never gave up during any matches. All of us had the same thing in mind. There we were, killing the opponents who only played with 5.

There was many tricks to make 15 become a team. Throughout the tournament, we played the Angel-Mortal game. We had training in between matches. We had dinner together after training. We played 7-level Pig. We played hide-and-seek. We had a sleepover. We played Taboo, Twister and Hide-and-Seek.

All of us became friends.

As friends, we started having inside jokes. Our captain is Ah Fang, and Cynthia is the no. 1 in 笨笨排行旁. Pey Pey emits light, and Jayne's hair may be a wig. Pin is too young for her age and Bao Shuang has face spasms. Kalai loves to dance as much as Xiao Hei loves to bounce. We strive to have beautiful endings with WanMei and Yan Yan wins hands down for being the loudest. Kathrin is practising her "Nan Da Jia You", and Zhi Hui is the glue that holds us. Belicia shows us where's the love, and Pris is Babarella. Jean and Michelle are our pillars. As for me, I live in the "mole-ment". And of course, our beloved Coach, also known as Charlie (we're Charlie's Angels) always provide us with fruits for thoughts like "Do you gets it?" and "Walk your talk."

Therefore, we went into the finals, knowing that this would be the biggest advantage we'll have over the SUN.

The game started. Jayne tipped the ball, but none of our team players got to it. As the oppenents started their 1st play, the whole SRC suddenly boomed with our voices. "DEFENCE, DEFENCE!" We shouted. I swore it was the loudest ever. As much as I could be wrong, I did feel that the opponents were taken aback by the ferocious screaming of our team.

We went on a 7-nil run. The spirits were high.

After a while, they managed to rebound back and were neck-and-neck. We would pull away with 10 points, but they always managed to close the gap fast. We had a few shots in which were quite ambiguous too. The ball would dance around the rim for a while, twirl a little, but it went in. We call that "home advantage".

During the fourth quarter, in the last 2 minutes of the game, we were still neck-and-neck. However, the difference between our opponents and us began to show. Their five people looked frustrated. Their bench was quiet. Our bench, on the other hand, were just making as much noise as we can. For every free throw they get, we'd go "REBOUND BLOCKOUT REBOUND BLOCKOUT" as much as we can. With every ball we got in, everyone was jumping. The last minute came, and the bench held hands and stood. 50 seconds left and we were leading by 3. 15 seconds left, we were still leading. They started to foul us, forcing time to stop. There was a time out, where we were all jumping like monkeys already. Coach has to shush us to talk. Cynthia had two free throws and the whole bench shouted "Just put it in!" (another inside joke) while laughing among ourselves. Yes, she put them all in. We led by 5.

2 seconds. Jayne put in a lay-up and was fouled. 60-53, the scoreboard read. We were already jumping for joy. The bench were hugging each other. She shot. It rebounded and landed somewhere. The buzzer sounded. And then, the entire bench erupted.

It was the most surreal feeling. We all rushed out, and everyone hugged each other in a mass hug. We were screaming like mad, and it was fantastic. After shaking hands with our opponents, we proceeded to Tau Pok our coach- yes, only when you win Championships can you do that to your coach- who, poor him, almost suffocated and crushed by our weights. Bel said," I've never been so happy before to be sitting on the bench," and I agreed with her totally.

After having 2 trainings a day, 3 trainings a week in December, including Christmas Eve and New Year's eve, trainings in January in the midst of the tournament, we've done it. The blood, sweat, tears and laughter paid off. I couldn't be prouder to be in this team.

We went to Geylang for supper, my eyes nearly closing from the lack of sleep. We whispered to each other, "hey, you know what?" and when the latter asked "what", we'd shout in the poor person's ear, "WE WON!"

Last night, as my head finally hit the bed at 4am, I fell asleep with a huge grin on my face.

2009-01-21T09:18:00.002+08:00

On MSN last night,

nicknames changed.

Mine: Deanna. I love my Nan Da teammates. The white ones, the black ones and the other colour ones.

Pey pey: Yin. I love my Nan Da teammates too- Those with mole and those without.

(-_)

Felicia: I love my Nan Da teammates. Those with big ankles or not!

Belicia: I love my Nan Da teammates. Those who are SQUARE (ahfang) or not.

Cynthia: I love NanDa too. Be it at night or in the day... you are cordinally invited to join the BEN (笨) club

Pris: I love my nanda teammates! Those who are blur (cyn& bel) and those who are smarty (i.e myself and angel)

Pin: I love my Nan Da teammates. Those who are in the Ben Ben Pai Hang Bang (笨笨排行榜) and those who are not!

Bao Shuang: I love my Nan Da teammates too- Those who are fat (Cyn & .... ....) and those who are slim n slender like me.

Kalai: Kalai is slow but she loves her Nan Da teammates too!

Gosh! One more day to go before the showdown!

2009-01-20T11:41:00.003+08:00

Dear Jennifer,

I have a very vivid memory of you this morning. I remembered the wink you gave me on saturday when we shook hands, and the friendly bye you said as we left the court. Oh yes, how can I forget, when you were the one who brought so much upon me. So much, an understatement, as to how I've suffered this past week. Throbbing toothache, check. Swelling gums, check. Desperate fear that tooth will fall off anytime, check. And of course, like they say, the best is yet to come.

Oh the best came. It came real good this morning, bright and early when I went to the dentist. Two jabs on the gums, which usually doesn't make me flinch a bit, brought me to hell and back. "The nerve had died, from the impact of the fall," he had said. I would have corrected him "a hard knock from the back of your head" if I wasn't in so much pain.

"There may also be a chance that the rest of your other front teeth flare up, we just don't know when," he mentioned casually. What a nice man, my dentist.

As he worked on the tooth, my gums were on fire. You know, something like a constant throbbing discomfort. I know what you're thinking. Discomfort, alright, probably I can handle it. Well, let's just say discomfort was an understatement. Anyway, I tried to remind myself how you look so I won't pass out from the pain. And I noticed you bleached your hair blonde. Nice. So while you walk around like some beach goddess, I was in my own living hell.

Well, anyway, enough of the humour. I can't laugh properly, you know, it still hurts. And my friend pointed out that my face looked kinda weird. I told her it was the gums. It seems quite amazing how you don't notice that they are part of your facial muscles unless something drastic happen to them. Ooooh, you should come touch the lower half of my face sometime. You'll see it throb real hard soon after.

Anyway, I haven't reached the climax yet. The dentist (and believe me I'm gonna describe this in true graphic detail) pushed into my swollen gums, causing me to cringe and moan in agony, in order to push pus out. Yes, pus has collected itself when my nerve died. He was unrelentless, my dentist, and asked his assistant for a blade to cut a tiny hole so the pus can flow. You should have been there to look at all those blood that flowed out. And of course, I think I can say my pain threshold has increased. Just imagine his one hand pressing on them swollen gums, throb throb throb, and another hand forcing a blade in- let's just say I should have passed out. It'll be more painless that way.

I need to tell you how I left the clinic with my mouth shut. With each step, I can feel the gums. Throb throb throbbing yet again. Yes, what's new right? I can probably get used to the throbbing, if not for the fact that it was excruciating. As much as I would like to cry out, I held them all in. For your sake. For you had winked to me on Saturday, thinking that I'm really alright and nothing has changed.

You're quite right. On the surface, nothing has changed.

Loads of love,
Deanna

2009-01-18T20:58:00.003+08:00

It's a good January to kickstart the rest of the year.

2009-01-16T14:51:00.002+08:00

Toothache.

This incident must be explained
With a vivid flashback
Of a game with a ball
and ten players, in fact
There was a head which knocked me back
Along with it, my tooth, which bled, bled and bled.
Off I went, to the dentist then
But not before I winced and sobbed
The pain was just too much to cope
Did I mention it was my front tooth,
the one where everyone sees the first time they look
On the way over, I thought in fear
What would happen to my smile, with an empty space here?

The dentist used his strength and might
To pull the teeth back without a fight
He did mention a tiny little thing for thought
A thing that I never once did forgot
He said, there may be a chance that the body will reject the tooth
For it may become unfamiliar, as foreign as it could
We'll never know what'll happen indeed
But come regularly, so we'll check up on it

For months and months, it felt alright,
But one day it didn't, it felt odd inside
My mouth was trembling, there was a little pain
But what do I know then
I thought I was already okay
Then two days back, for a while I winced
A pain shot through the gums, and boy, did it sting
I called up the clinic but to no avail
My doctor, dear doctor, he'll only be here next tues
From then, it'll sting once in a few hours
Like a pendulum, it comes and go with increasing powers
My front tooth feels like it's having a war
To tell the truth, I'm tempted to smash it through a door
What keeps me from going insane
is the empty space nightmare that's more fearful than pain
Today I rhyme to tell this tale
To distract myself from stinging that's real
What happens if it all falls true
I wake up tomorrow,
And where's my tooth?

So now I'll keep my mind in check
Make sure I breathe through, front and back
It's a painful ordeal but I'll make it through
For tuesday, oh tuesday, better come to

2009-01-15T10:26:00.002+08:00

Everyone is copying the Anti-You team now.

Photos and Article from Redsports.sg

Nanyang Technological University, Monday, January 12, 2009 - The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) women’s basketball team overcame Republic Polytechnic 60–51 in a Group B game of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Basketball Championship.With the NTU men whitewashing RP, it was now the women’s turn to show what they were made of. TheRP women team were no pushovers after they had registered a 60–42 win over SMU in their previous game.

However, NTU had beaten the same opponents 74–43 margin, and so this was a match to watch.
NTU went on the attack right from the get-go as they dominated the early proceedings and hit RP on the break early on with their speed and passing.

RP, on the contrary, were having problems getting settled and this affected their passing game. The silly mistakes by the team didn’t help their cause as they found it hard to score.
By the end of the first quarter, NTU had accumulated a comfortable 10-point lead at 21–11.
The second quarter started where the first half left off with NTU dictating play and RP trying to get settled. With their fast-paced attack, NTU brole RP down with tremendous ease.

This did not last long however, as a series of turnovers by NTU gave RP a chance to settle into the match. As a result, the team from Woodlands strung a few points together with #5 and #10 contributing significantly.

Despite this, NTU held on to their lead and extended it to 13 points.

The third quarter proved to be much tighter with both teams scoring 10 points. The paced of the game increased, and the referee was called upon to make many calls. Despite having many free throws, RP failed to make them count with poor shooting.

Both teams cancelled each other out in the final 10 minutes with NTU only scoring nine points throughout the quarter.

A late spell by RP gave supporters hope, with the RP #10 dictating play. Although they outscored NTU 13-10 in the fourth quarter, it was too little too late as NTU held on to win the match 60–51.

With this win, NTU improved to a perfect 2-wins–0-losses record while RP fell to 1-2.

------

That was three nights ago. Yesterday, we managed to beat powerhouse ITE to maintain a 3-0 record in a nail-biting match. We, who were on the bench, were shouting like crazy to up the spirits of our teammates who were fighting for us. And all of us never once gave up, clinging to our lead, which was only 1 or 2 at times, until we shot right ahead to more than 10. We booked ourselves a place in the semi-s, and a lot of us went back with hoarse voices.

(but it was worth it)

TP had a shock loss to RP, which means that they will be clamping fast and furious on us in a bid to advance. But we're not afraid, because when Anti-You plays, the whole fifteen players will be doing something, no matter if we're on court or on the bench. We'll just bring the old SRC down with our voices tomorrow. Yes.

Kick butt!

2009-01-13T13:49:00.002+08:00

Never draw Adolf Hitler as a representation of Germany.

That's what I found out, after drawing Hitler to represent a teammate from Germany on one layer of a birthday present for another.

It's really not a good thing to do that, she said to me yesterday, but also said that it wasn't the first time someone did that. It left me slightly embarrassed, as a matter of fact. I spent the next few minutes wondering why I didn't draw some gorgeous German, like Michael Ballack, and instead, drew a tiny, moustache man who had blood all over his hands.

Plus, Hitler isn't even from Germany. He was born in Austria.

So, this was an enriching lesson for me. Never draw any sensitive political figure to represent any country in this world. Therefore, no Hitler, Attila the Hun, Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Qin Shi Huang, Mussolini, and definitely, definitly, no Sarah Palin.

2009-01-10T20:41:00.001+08:00

How to have a smashing good time.

2009-01-09T16:16:00.002+08:00

Almost all cleared, good Ma'am!

While cleaning up the drawer choke-full of letters, I found

1) A Ziplock bag full of notes from the Team Exellence Camp people while we were camping in Malaysia. Among them was a note from Sivalingam Charlene Liye. "Thanks for washing my spoon and fork for me," she wrote.

2) A newspaper article about 3 perverts preying on teen girls online. The mosiac-ed man on the picture, balding and wearing Adidas all over, was unmistakenbly my ex-coach.

3) A string of letters from Ng Li Ping while in Primary school. I have no idea how she look like, or how her life is right now. We corresponded through snail mail, writing stuff like Qiong Guang Dan (Penniless Egg) and "I hope your mama scold you" in our letters, even though we lived one street away.

4) A poem I wrote as a junior for my basketball team in Junior College. It was stuck on a photo of all of us, including Ms Rivera, acting cute for the camera in the lobby of a hotel in Malacca.

5) An orange Aces Day 98 cap, signed by most of my classmates in class 5/C.

6) Letters from the US from Shaz, one which she wrote on the plane, and a birthday card from Belgium written by Charlene Su.

7) My official Driving Test paper. It states that I passed with 10 marks on the 26th October 2006.

8) 2 D.I.Y Christmas cards from Clara.

9) An organiser where I recorded the top 100 songs of the year 2002. "Dilemma" beat "Complicated" to become no. 1. Mandy Moore's "Cry" was at 71 and Santana's "The Game of Love" was at 41. Gosh, I was such a radio junkie then.

10) My PHS yearbook 2002.

11) Singtel bills, Prudential reminders, True Yoga crap, POSB passbook updates.

12) Countless ticket stubs. Included one Singapore Idol admission ticket.

13) A few membership cards of Deanna's Outdoor Club, a fictional club yours truly set up when she was still a tween. I remembered having high hopes for that club.

14) The autograph book for Girls. My autograph book for Boys was confiscated by the principal of the Primary school, and got a few boys in class caned because I allowed them to write swear words all over it. Probably was the naughtiest thing I ever did as a kid.

15) Unsent cards from me to others.

16) Leanne's letter on a photo for Valentine's 08.

17) A police report of my wallet being stolen. It was stolen on my birthday, hence making 2004 the worst birthday ever.

2009-01-08T11:42:00.002+08:00

Ho hum, ho hum, home.

While my peers are out busting their ass interning in some Singaporean firm right now, I have been staying home like a pure goody-two-shoes.

I only go out at night, to school no less, for trainings, to watch matches and tonight, to kick ass until the lao kok kok Sports and Recreational Centre collapse. Yes, IVP season is underway and my team is playing tonight.

Basically, other than going to Pioneer North and making a few rounds with the food centres after training, I am home most of the time. This is a strategy, said Joyce, to save our money. A good strategy, no doubt, but it leaves me not knowing what to do.

Yesterday, I cleared out one of my cupboards. It contained precious memories of the days spanning from nursery school to my university life, such as organisers I used every year. One of them, a Presbyterian High organiser in Sec 4, had an assortment of Manchester United scorelines and B division basketball scores in it. Also apparent is the presence of many song lyrics in each organisers; you wondered why I can memorise song lyrics so well huh. There were many other stuff in that cupboard, including magazines with Avril Lavigne on the cover, and tests, assignments of my entire education. I re-read my General Paper Mock Exam paper, which I wrote on Sports. Sports was just so easy to name-drop, but then again, I spelt Kornikova wrongly. People pay more attention to her face than name I guess.

Which brings us to... today. I will attempt to clear the drawer brimming with letters given to me from the time I was born till now. It's a lot of letters, which means it is full of nostalgia. Maybe this time, I will be transported to the time where I was a pimply- no wait a minute, I was never pimply- mushroom headed kid, trying to eat as fast as possible so I could play.

And by the end of the month, my stuff shall be fully cleared, and the three of us'll have enough to go to Shanghai without having to sell our butt.

I leave on February 7th, by the way. It's a saturday morning, bright and early. The plane leaves at 8.10am, so it's exactly 1 month later. Oh yes.

2009-01-06T11:09:00.004+08:00

I have no choice, blog. I really don't!

The Avril Lavigne blogskin has been with me since J2. I find it amusing that I still have such a "teen angst" type of blogskin, especially when the contents are not about swearing, being disgruntled with life, being suicidal and you know, all the other things that teenagers like to talk about in their blogs. For one, most are incoherent, plus their grammar is really terrible and they like to insert the f word in between every word as if it serves a similar function as the spacebar.

But I digress. I was distracted after reading one too many blogs written by teenagers. They can't seem to do their past tense right!

Anyway, the reason why this blogskin has lasted so long is due to a technical one. Everytime I typed an entry in, I would have to convert them all to "white", because someone once complained that they couldn't see the words if it was in black. Therefore, for goodness knows how many years, I have been painstakingly (alright, I know it's not that hard) converting all my entries to the colour white. Hence, if I would want to change to say, a lovelier blogskin with no screaming teen angst Avril, I would have to go through all my entries, all 500 or more of them, and change them all back to black.

Well, I chose to be lazy.

I have been going on all day about this, but in fact, what I want to say is that I have created a new blog somewhere in the vast universe of the internet.

GASP! Why?!

Blame it on the Great Firewall of China. The last I heard, they're still banning Blogger. Therefore, I have set up another blog, so that people can at least know I'm still alive 800km away, in the next 6 months.

www.myorientpearlwenthome.spaces.live.com

Yes. It's "my orient pearl went home" at MSN Spaces. That hasn't been banned by China yet.

So, yes, I'm going to have to abandon this space over here soon. Goodbye Avril!

oh anyway, I won't blog on the other one until I truly go over. So only check that space after I'm gone. Toodles!

2009-01-04T15:25:00.009+08:00

The Overseas Family Album.

The Tan family, off to Taipei, spearheaded by the father who thinks he's in some Chinese Opera. At Ye Liu Geological Park.

The 3 Tan sisters attempted to jump for freedom!

The fattest and oldest failed in jumping. Too much holiday weight.

See! Even the future brother-in-law jumped higher than her!

The parents also attempted to jump. While the mother scored full marks for poise, the father... well.. what kind of jump is that?

They were transported to their teenage years.

My mole is back at Gou Guang Hotel, Ximending!! I showed it to my mum, who doubted it was a livable place.

This was one super early morning, where we walked till our butts were sore because the hotel refused to check us in till 3pm.

Camwhoring on the plane before takeoff.

Plane crashed??

She farted, which led to this expression. (JUST KIDDING!)

Cruise Ship! Nothing but the sea!

On the cruise, you do nothing but to take pictures of yourself...

And your parents.

Goodbye 2008!

2008-12-31T02:13:00.004+08:00

2am is not a good time to not be able to sleep.

Therefore, I am going to unravel the mystery of why I have been kept busy the whole of December.

And there is only 1 answer to that. Fat Camp.

No la, that was a joke. I'm so slim, I don't need Fat Camp. It's none other than basketball training.

As they say, 2 trainings a day keeps the trophy nearer.. and nearer. So for the past 4 weeks or so, exluding Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and times where I've been overseas, we've been training our ass off for 2 times a day, 3 times a week. Yes, my butt now has muscles.

Some of the photos below were taken from Yan Yan's website.

Polaroid of Zhi Hui and me, and a little bit of Kalai, who cut herself off unsuspectingly in the self taken shot. We were waiting for Coach to pick us up to Unity Sec. Notice my chin was still scar-less.

One day after morning training, Yan Yan, Michelle and Xiao Hei decided to try out breakdancing moves, with hilarious results.

After the friendly with Autofocus, most of us were very exhausted. We had morning training that day, then Inter-hall, followed by the friendly. Still managed to put up a smile though. Going home after that was a long and ardous journey as the legs were sore.

After friendly with Autofocus, Kalai started to feed everyone with Subway cookies. See behind me and Yan Yan for example.

It was Christmas Eve, so we had a half-day training only. (Yay) We did exchange of presents too, and dressed in red and green for the occassion. Sadly, only 2 came in green, and Yan Yan came in white with a converse star on her jersey. We picked lots for the presents. Felicia got my present, a pair of Nike socks, while I got a storage box from Kalai.

We tried to form a Christmas tree.

Well, time flies and it is only one more week before the tournament starts. Being in the Group of Death is no fun, but it does make us work harder. I believe that the hard work that we've put in, including having to wake up at 6am to get to training in time, will give us the physical strength to put up a good fight against our opponents.

The scar at the bottom of my chin will be my motivation.

2008-12-30T20:53:00.002+08:00

Reasons why exploring a country by yourself is better than following a tour group.

1. You get to plan everything, like booking an air ticket and knowing a hotel room awaits you after landing.

Instead of, say, taking a midnight flight, landing in Taipei early morning the next day and not being able to check in because "check in time is at 3pm, sir". What do you do nex? You (and your whole family) try to walk from the hotel to Ximending because you have so much time to spare, and end up walking half of the city because you went the wrong way, only reaching Ximending 2+ hours later.

2. You get to spend quality time exploring every sight.

Case in point: Jiu Fen, a winding and narrow street that streches for miles atop a hill. When by yourself, you get to walk the whole stretch, go down plenty of steps and listen to jokes about "groins".

When with a tour group, and on a SATURDAY afternoon, you have 1 hour to eat lunch and walk the bloody crowded stretch. By the time lunch was done, half an hour had gone. We went as far as ten shops down, gave up, and turned back to the starting point to wait for the rest. And queue for the toilet.

3. You don't end up in presentations about highly priced products you don't even need.

Case in point: Two places. One "Princess Mo mo" and one shop that sold jade lion pieces.

In each location, we are brought in to a room, be sat down, and (forced to) listened to a painfully long explanation about the products. In the case of the second shop, a long lecture about luck, fengshui, and blah blah blah. While seated, am just chanting "waste of time, waste of time" in head. Stop trying to disguise these hardsell, unorthadox, promotion methods of useless products as educational lectures of general knowledge. It's a bloody waste of my tourist time. I think I gain more breathing in air from the outdoors of the foreign land than sitting down in that room being brainwashed.

After having the experience of going to countries by myself and exploring them own time, own target, I feel that tour groups are nothing but manipulative, bloodsucking and useless. For goodness sake, I would rather play poker cards in a coffee place in Myongdong, Korea all day than listen to another word of the "princess mo mo who lived in Sun Moon Lake". Tour groups try the hardest to squeeze every tourist dollar out, leaving no mercy for the unsuspecting tourist who thinks he or she is going to a place of interest. Having time constraints for exploring a place of interest just because the itenary for the next few destinations are these crap shops makes no sense, because the tour group is not respecting the time which the tourist has forked out for the tour. The value of the country in which the tourist hopes to gain isn't there. It is tourism at its lowest, as the travel agency, instead of showing the tourist the beauty of the country, does the reverse and shows the tourist the ugly side of capitalism. On the other hand, travel agencies and tour guides may argue that that is the way they can earn money- through commission offered by such places which otherwise may not get much business from the local people. That is the way they make their living, and sadly, it is through exploiting the time and money of tourists. Perhaps, this may be the reason why tourism is always able to generate a lot of income for a country.

Therefore, I shall avoid tours like the plague, for there are better ways to gain the beauty of a country. Being exploited not being one of them.

2008-12-24T19:00:00.002+08:00

"Ho, ho, ho." The "ho" stands for "Holiday".

It was only 7 months ago where I left sunny Singapore for this place with 3 other girls, wrote a whole lot of wordy sentiments about it and kept holding on to those memories lest my work in the office sucked me dry of all social emotions.

Then poof! Here I am, at home, with a lot of opened suitcases, looking at strewn clothes everywhere, and watching my big sister perform a show where she dons different tops each time she walks out the room. My mother is panicking, trying to tell us to bring things in small quantities. She tried to convince me not to bring any shampoo over, but after having disastrous hair the last time, I vehemently protested.

Seriously, this family's full of theatrics.

And then, while everyone is counting down to the Christmas of 08', I'll be stuck in a plane which smells of canned air and hoping that nothing explosive happen at the end of 3, 2, 1 other than a friendly "Merry Christmas" from the pilot.

It's been 4 to 5 years since the family has taken a vacation together. Well, this time round, it can't quite count as a family vacation since the brother isn't going. He has been replaced by the future brother-in-law, who, at least will make good conversation pieces. I have been pestering my dad to tell me what's the itenary, but all he would reveal was "Eh, you think I don't know where is Yang Ming Shan? I know okay. I got go before one okay."

Ya. On His Honeymoon 24 years ago!

With that little bit of nonchalance towards the rest of the people having a wet Christmas Eve in Singapore (I would want to put my hand on my armpit and make the chicken wing move and go "Sayonara, suckers!", but I do realise i am 21 now. And my sister pointed out that we're not going to Japan.), and that little surprise excitment on where the hell we're going, I think we're going to have ourselves a good trip.

And maybe, just maybe, survive each other's antics while at it.

Cos that's what make us family, isn't it?

2008-12-23T12:21:00.002+08:00

The Yuletide Spirit in 2008

In the blink of an eye, it's the christmas season once again. Orchard Road is filled with seas and mountains of heads- dyed, balding and/or otherwise. Huge pine trees, fancifully decorated, stand in shopping malls, greeting visitors with a "Danger-High Voltage" sign. And while we hear the chatter of excited christmas shoppers talking about getting lucky under the mistletoe, I can hear the sound of various objects dropping out from the pocket.

Why yes, can't you see, that there is a rather huge hole in the pocket.

The hole is still increasing, because Christmas isn't over till the fat lady, or in this case a man because he's Santa Claus, sings.

In this week alone, my expenditure from gift exchanges and birthdays have been rising so rapidly I fear people can see my underwear from the hole in the pocket. Thankfully, my air ticket to Taiwan will stopper the hole, because, it won't be my pocket that will be feeling the heat over there (hehe). Tomorrow, before my flight leaves during midnight, I still have an impending basketball training session in Anti-You where the captain has given us orders to wear either red or green jerseys. Actually, I really think it will be fun, and even suggested that we pile ourselves up into a pyramid and one person shall hold a star. Either that, or we do a 1-2-3 formation on court, bringing in the coach to be the extra man so at least, we have ourselves a chrismas formation.

Well, I think too much, don't I?

Merry Christmas, anyway, everyone! Have yourself a jolly good time!
(but watch that waist while at it, too)

2008-12-21T20:33:00.001+08:00

Bush ducks two shoes.

the only question in my mind when viewing this video is, why didn't the fella aim properly?

2008-12-19T15:06:00.001+08:00

"Doesn't look that bad, does it?"

- Christmas '08 with the SR ballers.

2008-12-18T23:17:00.001+08:00

南大，加油！

2008-12-18T11:24:00.002+08:00

In Stitches.

Thought I could avoid a common childhood injury by turning 21.

Still, my dumb move on the court had me in stitches. 2 to be exact. And a huge bandage under my chin to which my mum said, "now you look like Santa Claus".

Not painful at all, but it has forced me to stop all my physical activities. Which sucks, because I am just about to get my stamina back on track. Argh!

I'm going out on a limb to say this, (ha! Pun intended) but the new year's resolution shall be no facial injuries in 2009!

2008-12-16T22:57:00.004+08:00

Basketball from 2000-?.

fig. 1

Today, I managed to sneak in a little time before my inter-hall game in Anti-You for a friendly game in my mother school. The A girls, as we are now called, went up against the B and C girls of Presbyterian High School.

Only a handful came. However, it was quite a nice feeling to be back in that school. The gray, concrete floor of the basketball court has given way to a blue one, and the benches filled with red ants and tall trees which provided much wanted shade were gone. Thankfully, the people whom I trained with for that 4 years were still the same. And Hui Zhen did remark that I am still funny, if not funnier, after all these years.

The thought of having to run outside the school every single saturday morning is still fresh in my mind. First, an uphill slope, then we'll see the market, then a downhill slope and finally the end. Sounds short, but I bet it was almost 2km. Come to think of it, those runs were responsible for my 23" waistline, which has also become nothing but a memory.

Another fond memory (and this, I am thankful it remains a memory) was the very cool hairstyle I sported. Check out fig 1. It was called the mushroom, much similar to the one growing above Mdm Ang, the home economics teacher's head. Some time ago, I had stumbled onto some photos which a friend possessed where the friend was posing with some other friend in 2000 something and I was walking right behind, oblivious to the photo-taking. There, I saw my fourteen year old self with the Mushroom, socks that went up to my ankles, and shorts that revealed my (can i say sexy) thigh. It was an honest mistake though, because my dictionary had not contained the word "fashion faux pas" at that time.
The first thing that I told Hui Zhen when I saw her today was that I had upgraded from being a forward (actually I was a guard) to being centre because I grew taller. The centres in B and C division basketball were usually the tallest and bulkiest. Looking back, I believed it was the ballooning in waist size that allowed me to become a centre. I was so skinny then, like a beanpole before O levels came and stopped all sports activities. Now I can hardly fit into Europe Size 36 whenever I try on jeans at Mango.

Oh well.

After some time at the court, where the highlight was one spectacular stunt of hitting the ball into a lamp-post with deadly accuracy , I had to rush over to the obscure university for the inter-hall game of what else, basketball.

I think, try as I might, I'll never be able to quit basketball like the way Heath Ledger can't quit Jake Gyllenhal in Brokeback Mountain. Like what Amanda said, it'll be fricking cool when we're playing basketball while our kids sit by the side to cheer for us.

My kid will be standing there, with the Mushroom on her head, socks that go up to her knees and teeny fbt shorts, holding up a poster that says "My mummy will kick your mummy's ass". And maybe then, will I consider quitting the game.

2008-12-15T23:35:00.005+08:00

Cruises are orgies for old people in disguise. (A biased and possible-unfactual opinion about cruises from a bored-to-death passenger)

The father announced one day that I was the chosen Tan kid that he had selected to go on a cruise with him and the mother. And so I hatched a plan to become their favourite kid in the course of the cruise.

Right before we went aboard the mighty Superstar Virgo, I sent a message to my big sis. “My quest to be the most beloved Tan kid has just begun.”

She returned my message with this.
“Have fun…………………… loser.”

Did I mention my sister looked really fat on my birthday? That’s beside the point, though.

It was my first time on board a huge ship, and triggered a lot of “Titanic-ish” moments. Sadly, those moments were with my parents, and not any Leonardo DiCaprio look-alike. I do not wish to elaborate on these moments because it involved some hanky-panky by my father, which led to some “oie, go away la” by my mother, and then it was all me and my ipod, and my back facing them.

Since it was my first time on a cruise, I was quite amazed that the whole ship was well stocked with food for all meals. Anywhere with three meals is by default, fine by me. However, a sense of unease washed over me when it was 9pm the first night, and the lights of construction cranes at Sentosa was still in the background.

We’ve been on the bloody ship for 2 whole hours and it hadn’t moved yet?!

However, it started cruising at 10pm, and we saw the sunny island set in the sea drifting further and further away. And our trip to nowhere officially begins.

I abandoned my quest to be the favourite kid in the Tan household when my mum tried to wake me up after I fell asleep watching wave after wave of the sea crushing onto each other and I refused. “Let’s explore the ship,” my mum said as she nudged me. Finally she said, “There’s supper you know.”

In a flash, we were up and walking about, into the casino and out, into the photo gallery and out, into the buffet table and out. My dad’s friend, his wife and his daughter, who had been my colleague for some time were also on the ship, and so thankfully I had a companion of my own age.

There were three kinds of guests on the ship. One- the old folks who come to eat their fill, and gamble the days away. They did not care that the ship was just going to the middle of nowhere, then turning back to Singapore, they cared more about their jackpot winnings and poker card games. Two, the sua ku people who wanted to see how it was like to be on a cruise, which is the category my parents fall into.Three- the younger folks who were dragged along by their parents, like me.

The reason why I said that cruises are akin to orgies for the old, is because of the fact that it is. While the Beverly Hills 90210 wannabes engage in sex orgies, and the reason being they love sex, the old are not as nimble and therefore, they switch from a love of sex to a love of money. (See, I did say this is a biased and possibly un-factual opinion) Just looking at them, with nary a care, placing bets and smoking cigarettes makes me want to take a stick and whack them real hard.

Why I have the urge to whack them, I do not know. I find no meaning in gambling.

Which makes me very grateful for my parents, who are such good role models, albeit sometimes too good for comfort, but still, the most perfect parents I could ever ask for.

For the rest of the three-days two-nights cruise, I ate to the fullest with my parents. I guess food has some sort of relation with gambling. More food, more gambling? That’s the only reason why I feel they keep the whole ship well stock with a free flow of food throughout the day.

Also went to the gym, where I spent 10 minutes running the treadmill while staring at the big, wide ocean. Julie, the daughter of my father’s friend, brought me to the sauna so that we can sweat out whatever we ate.

The best part of the trip was looking out to the sea with her on the upper deck in the middle of the night, where it was open-air, and just chatting about anything and everything. We saw shadows of hills from faraway islands, blinking satellites trying to disguise themselves as stars, and a kindly old man look-a-like made in the shape of clouds.

And there we were, just enjoying the calmness of the ocean.

Ironically, atop a gambling ship where turmoil and high stakes reign.

Oh! Bonus! We got to see a 45 minute showcase of Jeff Chang, the same dude who gave us hits like “过火”and “爱如潮水”.

Jeff Chang! OR 张信哲

Mummy and Papa.

And finally, the beautiful sea.

2008-12-12T14:44:00.002+08:00

and I shall be off,
to the borders of the sea
to relax the exhausted mind
to take a little time
and coax my parents into thinking,
I'm their only one.
(teehee)

be back on monday! Technically, Sunday afternoon.

2008-12-10T07:38:00.004+08:00

Early birds get the worm.

I woke up pretty early just now, in anticipation of having to ride the "지할철" to school today for training.

Then my big sister, half asleep, said in a groggy voice the golden words. "You can take the car today."

Which means that "시간이 있어요".

Hence, I will post up some "사진" of my "생일파티".

This bunch got tired after a while and decided to sit down to watch TV. See, Clara's still watching.

Basketball mates! How come Amanda and YZ look so white eh?

Did I mentioned I got mugged that day? By 4 paper gun-toting, garbage bag-masked women.

Anti-You basketball team!

They were listening attentively to...

...Cathy's shrieking voice.

And so are they.

Anyway, I have a tonne more pictures that I myself have not taken from others yet, so there are "정말 많이" pictures not yet uploaded into fb. So just hold on, and watch this space for more.

2008-12-09T23:30:00.002+08:00

Where's the "me" in "Time"?

From a very long time ago, I have heard the phrase "you very busy one la" said to my face many, many times. My secondary school friends started the trend, then my jc friends continued, and after so long, Joyce asked me if I had any "me" time at all.

Hmm. "Me" time. A period of time where one sits down, relax, and do whatever the hell he or she wants in the comfort of her own skin without any other human being around.

The truth is, ever since the day I started to be a referee, I created a schedule such that there will be something happening everyday. Today, a few games at this venue, tomorrow a gathering, the next day another few games. Then, I took on two tuition kids as well. That was when I divided my timetable for the day into three parts- morning, afternoon and night. I could have tuition in the morning, then rush down for refereeing in the afternoon, and at night, maybe a nice dinner with some friends.

It snowballed when school started and I decided to join the Anti-You basketball trainings. On average, I trained three times a week during competitive season with the Anti-You team, and one more with the external team. Sometimes, the external teammates would play ball on certain evenings, and I would always try my very best to be there. Which means that my day was packed with school and my nights were packed with basketball. On saturdays, there was, and still is, the BBAXN league, where the external team will pit ourselves with mostly Caucasian women. After my game, sometimes, I would stay back to referee the BBAXN Mens' games in the evening. On Sundays, there would always be gatherings of every sort- the junior college gang, the secondary school gang, or maybe a get-together at the coach's house.

Looking back at this horrendously grueling schedule that I put myself through, it's no wonder I have no "me" time at all.

This holiday, it is happening again. Besides having Anti-You trainings three times a week, I am helping out my friend's Hall in the Inter-Hall Games, and I have the Inter-School Games chasing me as well. Plus, because this is the holidays, I need to earn the extra buck too. Which means refereeing on free days. This week, for example, is packed to the brim.

I got to wondering, is everyone as busy, or is it just me?

However, I do admit that no matter how tiring, it works for me. Maybe it's the closet workaholic in me, but I would still pack the whole of my days in advance, filling up every nook and cranny with anything, including short brunches and late night movies.

It's not very healthy though, because I always have no time to stop and appreciate the things that happened. Time go so fast, and before I know it, so many things just whiz pass and hey presto, I'm 21.

I think I have my 2009 new year's resolution already. Which I will, fingers crossed, manage to fufill.

In 2009, I hope that I can wake up, and be able to smell the coffee too.

2008-12-07T20:01:00.002+08:00

The art of writing.

When I was much younger, I loved to do "Written Expression" in school. The teacher would give us a topic to write on, and I would launch into this alternate world where so many adventures happen.

This particular time, she made us write about our future occupations. She had these stickers of teachers, nurses, doctors and so on. I remembered the whole class of 40 clambering for the "teacher" sticker, including me. Funny it didn't occur to the teacher that one viable occupation could be "film director", or I would have punched, kicked and elbowed my way through for that sticker.

Then there was another time, in Primary 4, where we had to write either about a buried treasure or about a pirate ship. Pirates of the Carribean, my story ain't, as I tried to cramp so many elements into my 400 words story. My main protagonist got kidnapped by pirates, then stumbled on an island with a buried treasure chest. When he opened the chest, hey presto, he found a ball with seven stars (thank goodness there are no copyright laws on primary school essays). I wanted to write more, to show off Louise Stevenson's immense influence on me, thanks to my mother's insistance that I buy the hard cover Treasure Island, where the prose was written in confusing old English.

However, the most significant piece that I have written was not my pirate-and-qi long zhu story, nor was it the pseudo-inspired-to-be-a-teacher story, but a story about the mysterious 4-letter word. Yes, when I was a Primary School kid, I tried my hand at writing a love story.

The title? Oh, I get the goosebumps when I think about it. "Being loved."

As ridiculous as this sounds, I wrote the story because of a really good reason- my sister wrote one too. She had written this story called "If I was loved", which she let me read. She was in upper primary then, and I was in lower primary. If you thought about it, it was just about that era where we kids would spend our 7pms and 9pms watching the drama serials on Channel 8. There were plenty of stories on that channel, but boy, there were plenty of love affairs, triangles, angry-neighbours-turned-lovers stories, etc, etc. My sister, especially, would always think that rape will come upon every character she hated. (And she was kinda half-right, which is scary, if you think about it).

Her story was simple. It was about a girl who falls in love with a guy, and he would buy everything she wants for her. They would go out, have romantic strolls, and I seriously forgot how it ended. But I was fascinated. And because the rule of nature states that sisters must copy each other till the very end, I started with my story. I didn't take long to think, instead I delved right into my very own love story. I remembered the plot- it was about a girl who falls in love with a guy, then all the saccharine, diabetic things happen. But, something else happened.

In comes an ex-boyfriend, which all tv serials employ, thereby creating a sad, sad love triangle for the main protagonist. Amazing. I know how to create conflict in stories before I know I have to create conflict in stories to make them interesting. I forgot how the story ended, but I do know that the protagonist had to suffer for a while. The story is now lost forever, in a A5 sized, double-lined exercise book that has been dumped, incinerated, and probably recycled as yet another double-lined exercise book. It's gone for infinity now, but the title still makes me cringe.

I gave the story to my sister to read, hoping, like all little sisters do, that she would clap her hands and shout "Bravo, bravo". The reaction I got, however, was typical behaviour of older sisters. She merely laughed and said "Eeeew, why you go and write such a disgusting story?"

"But you also write what!" I retorted.
"Ya, but my title is like the "what if" sort. Your one is like true story. You are disgusting!" She said.

I went "argh" (equivalant of every other bad word. Kids had limited vocabulary.) when she presented her argument. Back then, her argument made sense, and I thought she had me beaten, and that the love story I wrote was indeed disgusting.

Maybe now that I'm older and wiser, I could have looked back at the story I wrote, and evaluate if it was disgusting or not (I distinctively remembered there were no kissing scenes at all). But perhaps, because of this incident, I became very interested in writing stories. I always hoped that I wrote good stories that could make people laugh and cry. And I did acheive the former. I made my secondary school teacher laugh with a story about a girl who tried to sell her dad's ugly tiki statue.

It is time, to try gunning for the latter now. Or even mix it up. Stories are like roller-coasters. Not everyone may want to sit on it, but those who don't sit on it are still fascinated by it. They can feel every plunge, every turn, every loop as if they are sitting in there, together with the crazy dudes with the deathwish.

And hey, it may sound like a far-off idea, and I'd hate to admit it, but maybe, just maybe, it was the "disgusting love story" that got me here in this point in my life. She who love roller coasters will end up designing roller coasters.

Now, who said sibling rivalry was unhealthy again?

2008-12-06T11:33:00.002+08:00

Happy Birthday, Me.

3rd December marked the day I officially become 21- the age where time starts to zoom past real quick and by the time you know it, you'll be 30 plus and wondering where your life went.

Decided to have a party, for the first time in my life, to celebrate this moment with my family, friends and not forgetting the people from my Dad's company.

Was humbled by the presence of the friends who came when it was mid-week and some having school and work the very next day. Some of the people I invited told me last minute they couldn't make it. At first, a flurry of anxiousness, then bouts of nervousness. It was my first party and I was a nervous wreck. What if nobody showed?

But they did come. The 4Gracians, the JC gang plus a bonus Sivalingam, the basketball and referee people, my Anti-You teammates and of course, the Wkwsci people who were busy all day helping me out with the whole thing.

Even though the night was a blur to me- seriously, planning my own party is really heavy- I was still glad I managed to spend a little time with each of the different people I had met and made an impact in my 21 years of living. Only regret was not being able to spend more time with each of them, as I believe there will still be much to talk about.

Would like to thank these following people:

Parents- For their hard work in raising me and my other three siblings. They may cringe at every "I love you", or fend away potential hugs like plaque, but they still love us all. And for their sponsorship. Hee.

Joyce, Felicia, Cathy- For being my hosts, and racking their brains on the mrt trying to think of the games to play. And also helping me do all the sai-kang in the afternoon. Collecting a 2.5kg cake and 1.5kg cake is seriously no joke. Well, and of course, for calming me down every time I panick and speak nonsense.

Colleen & her dad- For helping out with the catering. Thanks to her & her dad, got a good deal and very good food. And the sai-kang also, like decorating the guest book. Thanks a lot!

Cheeharn, Clara, Apple, Fizzah, Melissa, Aubree- Who came earlier to help out with the decor and other sai kangs, like starting the bbq fire. Thank you!

The guests who came- Thanks for being there for me. I am really happy to have seen each one of you, and all of you really mean something to me. In a way, we kinda grew up together, and your characters, personalities have shaped who I am today as well. So thank you, for being a friend.

The people who text-ed, and called, and wrote on facebook- Thank you for remembering the day. It's a really good and warm feeling to have people tell you "Happy birthday." It may be 2 simple words, but it feels really significant to me.

Alright. Now that the 21 years are up, I'm pumped up to the rest of my life!

(P.s: Thanks for all the lovely presents! Seriously, I feel superly pampered.)

2008-12-02T18:11:00.003+08:00

Tsai Ming-Liang's The Hole.

Ahhh... good memories of the times in Yonsei.

2008-11-30T15:27:00.003+08:00

Fly by night filming, in categorical terms

No. of groupmates- 3, Shannon Lim, Melissa Foo, Aubree Thia and me

No. of hours given to plan, shoot and edit a 5 minute film for this competition- around 30 hours

Time of going to Mustafa Centre to buy mini DV tapes and balloon- 8.00am

Total Balloons blown for 1 scene- about 30 odd or so

No of times trying to describe balloon blowing process, but dismissed by groupmates as trying to say something dirty- All eg. "Eh, My mouth very pain from all the blowing leh", "Wah lau, I blow so much, now my mouth got rubber taste." (Seriously, my groupmates hor, they very jialat.)

No. of mini DV tapes used- 5

Thing done to stop myself from sleeping while driving all, who are snoozing away, to locations- Sing Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" out loud.

Total amount of sleep- 15mins on Shannon's bed (while the rest were shooting cutaways, don't think otherwise hor), 1.5 hours on the carpeted floor of Avid 11 editing suite.

How groupmates know I am really asleep- Don't tell you.

Total amount of time group spent editing- 12 hours. 10pm to 10am.

Amazing fact #1- 3 people can fit in Avid 11's floor, fall asleep while one continues to edit

Fear that final-year project might just be a porn flick seeing intensity of interest groupmates have in making films with sex in it- Very high

Supposed time screening of all 44 teams, including ours and 5 others WKWSCI team's films- Today, 2pm.

Time I said I will be there at- Around 3pm

Time now and location- Home, 3:52pm.

Amount of gratitude to actress, Cathy Chia, who came on short notice- Immense

Amazing Fact #2- Cathy Chia burst all balloons on the set using only her high heel.

Last but not least, amount of fun on this project- Loads.

2008-11-27T01:09:00.002+08:00

Freedom still smells like school.

Exams are over (yay), but I still had to go back to school to re-edit my final project a little and to export it.

Melissa and I got really frustrated and bored midway through, and this is what we got up to. You'll get it if you have watched my final project.

(And through this video, I realised I sound like a duck -_-)

Zao Lor Parody-Part 1

Zao Lor Parody- Part 2

And one NG.

2008-11-26T00:24:00.002+08:00

the 21st birthday Wishlist.

Well, many of my friends have been asking me what I want for my 21st birthday. Seriously speaking, I have nothing I desire desperately, well except for that Macbook Pro that can make me salivate in a second. However, to make things easier for everyone- and I promise I will still have my happy surprise expression in tow when they hand me my present- I present my wishlist for this year.

I really have pratical friends la.

I wish to have...

1) A good pampering session. Think spa, facial or a good rubdown.

2) A wider wardrobe. In other words, I need more clothes. Gimme clothes!

3) Something useful that I can bring to Shanghai, China and will make my life easier in that 6 months. Something like, your photo so I can remember you by? Or hand sanitizer, or 6 months worth of milk! I know I don't drink milk, but I can't resist this line.

4) Korean books. Children's storybooks, a dictionary, anything Korean that I, a Level 2 student who just survived the bloody examination, can understand.

5) you just singing happy birthday to me. I'll be contented and fly to heaven if you would do that for me. Ya, you, my friend.

2008-11-23T23:04:00.002+08:00

My parents went to Bangkok and all I got was a lousy pillow.
(Free one from Changi Airport somemore!)

I think I sound like some ungrateful brat in the above statement, but it's quite funny actually. I told that to my sister, who decided to wrestle the pillow from me because she can "use it in the office".

So we started a snatching battle, in which I cried out, "Nooooo! It's a symbol of my father's love!" while having that tug-o-war.

Oh, am I dramatic or am I dramatic?

I do have my reasons for these outragous fits though. Try memorising over 200 korean words in two days and soon enough, your brain have no space to fit both the korean words and your sanity. And then, there's-

- I interupt this sentance because my dad just came into the room with an "Instant Shark's Fin Soup"product from Thailand and gave it to me. Again, my big sister wants to take a look, but I have shoo-ed her of with a "noooo, you'll eat it!".-

Well, where was I?

Oh. I was just about to describe the agony I am in. It's all flashbacks to the past where we had to memorise all the chinese words from the teeny weeny book "词语手册". Oh the horrors. However, this time, I've had some fun learning my korean words with the aid of one very cute song. It's the Milk Song, by korean kids!

And I have began to terrorise my study mates by singing it a lot a lot a lot. Super cute. In hopes of doing well for Korean tomorrow, not forgetting Narrative as well, I shall microwave my Shark's Fin, eat it and continue to make my korean word bank grow. Here I come, "body parts", "things in house" and "things we wear". I shall be able to write them in Korean by tonight! Muhahahaha.

Then I will sleep with the lousy free pillow after that.

2008-11-20T10:38:00.002+08:00

Rock singer Pink married Corey Hart, motorcycle daredevil in 2005. She had proposed when he was having one of his races, writing and holding up "Will you marry me? Serious." on a sign.

Then in February 2008, they seperated.

Then, she had a song "So What". Lyrics include, "I just lost my husband, I don't know where he went." and "So what, I'm still a rock star".

Corey Hart even has a cameo in the video as she sings the chorus with the floating headlines.

Freaking cool!

2008-11-18T21:10:00.002+08:00

Letting it all out.

I just came home from the 2nd exam paper, and my writing hand hurts.

It had never wrote so much in a while. Well, actually I didn't write a lot as compared to my JC days where speed writing could be a CCA, but since I haven't used the pen in a long, long time, my poor right hand is quietly writhing in pain. There was a point where I felt my thumb going numb, and I was so fascinated that I stopped writing to poke the tip of my thumb- gently of course.

So, two papers down and three more to go.

Thursday is the easy one. We have to write out a story outline in 2 hours. Woohoo! Then it's 2 papers on Monday. One is Narrative, which weighs 20% and (gasp) Korean, which is the module that I hope to score the most.

As with all other semesters, I cross my heart, toes, fingers, and any part of me that's crossable, and pray that I don't get Bees anymore. Of course I don't mean that I'd like to get Cists, which, if I do, I will bang my head on the table until the bruise on my forehead is bigger than my mole. I don't know why, but the stupid Ace keep eluding me. If I were a cheerleader, I'd go "Give me an A! Give me an A!"

Ah well. At least there's still Homer Simpson to keep me company while I go through this agonising period of anxiety and hunger. (I think because I get hungry faster when I really use my brain)

And of course, my birthday to look forward to. It's one week after exams, thus, it is the ultimate way to celebrate the end of exams and school (for 6 months). I ate dinner just now with some of my friends and they were asking me what I want for my birthday, came up with the conclusion that they should get one of those "boyfriend for a day" type on that day. They were contemplating having a Manhunt contest that day. Can you believe it? It's even worse that the idea that Cathy has, where everyone has to stick a pearl on their face and she'll show up at my door as a giant mole. Oh no, what friends do I have?

The thing is, even though my birthday is coming, and I'm pretty excited about it, I seriously have no idea what I want. Well, I do have some stuff I need, but they are far too expensive, which is why I'll rather target my parents (Insert evil laugh). Okay, I really should come up with a wishlist and think really hard what I want this year. If not people will start prying out "Priority Seat" signs and giving me fire extinguishers.

I'll consult my leprechaun later on my wishlist.

So as you can see, I'm pretty much stressed out and going nuts over the examinations-- and my coursemates are too, judging from their suggestions. However, after spending fricking ten plus years in the examination mill, I'm very sure I will still be alive by the time it is over.

Can't say the same for my right hand though. Can't say the same.

2008-11-17T00:39:00.001+08:00

I de-stress by watching my favourite obese yellow man.

2008-11-15T16:58:00.002+08:00

Evidence that Communication students are a bizzarre lot- the SMS story

A few days ago, I messaged some poor people who had their first paper on Wednesday.

Deanna: I, as the only singaporean leprechaun, bestow loads of good luck for your paper tomorrow! Good luck good luck!

On thursday, Rosalinda sent me a message.

Rosalinda: WHY DO I HAVE A FRAGMENT OF SAMSON TAN SHANG JING'S LOVE NOTE TO KATIE CHIA IN MY BAG??

*Samson Tan Shang Jing is Katie Chia's imaginary lover.

Deanna: Ask samson tan! I am innocent! *runs away*

Rosalinda: Hello to all suspects. After some dialogue w each of u, i have concluded Deanna Tan convicted of the Crime. N Cathy wants the note back. Case closed.-tok!-

Deanna: Noooo! I want a retrial! You cant do that to me. I am a victim tooooo *crying emoticon*

Rosalinda: What do u have to say for urself then, miss tan?

Deanna: I want to speak to my lawyer. Can or not.

Rosalinda: Can. The leprechaun is it.

Deanna: Eh how you know. Help me catch leh.

Rosalinda: Siao ah help u catch. If he's tall and strapping i might consider.

Deanna: Er, its a leprechaun, not harry potter.

Rosalinda: I know. Tt's why u catch urself

2008-11-14T10:48:00.003+08:00

Happiness is... being able to travel.

My dad announced the other day that the whole family must go on a trip to Taiwan during Christmas season.

Yes, must.

Because it has been 5 years since the whole family last spent a holiday overseas. So, therefore, I am going to Taiwan, or more specifically, Taipei for the 2nd time in a year.

I wasn't very excited that I was spending the countdown hour in a plane on international time. (It's kinda hard to countdown like this too, isn't it?) And I don't expect much for this 2nd trip because frankly, the first one was really exciting and memorable. Think "riding on the edge" exciting and "9 long blog entries" memorable. How can this family trip, with a tour, be exciting?

Until someone put ideas in my head.

Zi Xiang, who has been living in Taizhong, told me that I should stay a tad longer, so at least I can spend New Year's Eve in Taiwan.

And images of Taipei 101 sprouting out fireworks, Taiwan artistes giving free concerts, Taiwanese people on the street shouting 10 9 8 just come to mind. Oooh, the idea of spending New Year's in a foreign land.

The problem (or in fact a good thing) is that the parents and big sister cannot afford to stay till then due to work commitments. But I can! I can!

So I asked my dad this morning if there's a chance if me and my lil' sis can stay in Taiwan for a while longer before going home. He told me he would check, but I don't know if can anot la. The 3 days would probably be budget travelling, but hey, that's even more exciting!

Starting 2009 in a foreign land really sounds cool!

(but of course, half of 2009 will also be spent on foreign soil la)

Okay, now to snap out of it and study first.

2008-11-11T21:29:00.003+08:00

If I were a character in my story,

I would be a passer-by.

Because dramatic moments in real life are much more ugly, incomprehansible, harder to cope with, not to mention cruel.

So while the main leads grapple with issues to the tune of cinematic loops, I shall just tsk-tsk my way through.

2008-11-09T02:43:00.003+08:00

Many Days of Birthdays.

Birthday #1- Felicia Ng Su Huay's

Note to self: Remember to breathe through nose, not mouth.

Birthday #2- Colleen Chua Jia Ling's

I enjoyed the whole party, all 5 minutes of it.

Birthday #3- Joyce Leong Yen Ling

I had a smashin' good time. Pun very much intended.

Birthday #4- Colce Lua Yea Ling's

Question to Apple and Felicia: Does my hair look like cake to you guys?

Happy birthday, girls! Now that everyone except me is above 21, I expect you guys to shower love and attention to the youngest one, which is me, me and me! Which means loads of food, rice, and kisses. Muahahaha...

Just kidding!

Once again, happy birthday and enjoy your gifts!

2008-11-09T02:29:00.002+08:00

Hot Favourites Manchester United Shot In Chest By Arsenal

Arsene Wenger got the response he wanted as Arsenal bounced back from turmoil to defeat Manchester United 2-1 thanks to a brace from Samir Nasri.

Gunners manager Wenger admitted dressing room morale was low after their 4-4 draw with rivals Tottenham and the defeat at Stoke - but this win at the at the Emirates Stadium breathes life into their campaign and lifts them above United in the Barclays Premier League.

Wenger had Emmanuel Adebayor injured and Robin van Persie suspended but Nasri provided the attacking threat, taking advantage of slack marking in each half to grab his fourth and fifth goals of the season.

Rafael da Silva, on as a substitute, volleyed home a late strike to give Sir Alex Ferguson's men hope - but there was no repeat of the memorable Spurs comeback.

It was Arsenal's first test this season against their traditional top-four rivals - and Wenger's men passed the examination.

This clash between two heavyweights had everything - chances, yellow cards, counter-attacking and also four penalty shouts.

Referee Howard Webb, who was kept busy throughout, turned down appeals when Dimitar Berbatov was bundled over by Denilson, as well as when Gary Neville and Gael Clichy touched the ball with their arms.

Then in the second half, Nasri appeared to be bundled over by Nemanja Vidic.

Between those moments, there was absorbing end-to-end football, with United given an early opportunity following a mix-up involving one of their former players.

Mikael Silvestre clipped a backpass to Manuel Almunia and the goalkeeper picked up the ball. Anderson's free-kick was blocked by team-mate Ji-Sung Park, then Michael Carrick fired the rebound wide from the edge of the area.

Berbatov also had the ball in the net but was ruled offside when he followed up Rooney's shot.
Then it was Arsenal's turn to attack. Nicklas Bendtner headed over from Clichy's cross, before the striker was millimetres away from contact when Nasri swung a ball over.
Abou Diaby had a clear sight of goal when Edwin van der Sar flapped, but his effort was blocked by Carrick.

United took their turn to apply pressure, with Cristiano Ronaldo raiding down the flanks and Carrick creating his angles in midfield.

Wayne Rooney was guilty of wasting their clearest opportunity of the opening period when he flashed a shot over after Ronaldo's intelligent pull-back.

First blood went to Arsenal, with Nasri's opener coming midway through the first half after Patrice Evra fouled Bacary Sagna on the right touchline.

Berbatov headed away the free-kick as far as Nasri, who fizzed a volley at goal that took a deflection off Gary Neville to wrong-foot Van der Sar and fly in.

United almost replied when Clichy only just headed wide of his own goal as he tried to clear a free-kick. William Gallas had been booked for his trip on Evra to lead to the set-piece.

Arsenal, meanwhile, tried to counter-attack and Cesc Fabregas shot just wide of the post with one effort, while Van der Sar stuck out a hand to stop Silvestre stabbing home from a corner.

The intensity, already sky-high, stepped up a level before the break and Evra and Sagna both received yellow cards from Webb.

Nasri's second came three minutes after the restart.

Fabregas wriggled around Neville and spotted Nasri unmarked on the penalty area, with the France youngster given enough space to bide his time and lash past Van der Sar.

Ronaldo was presented with a chance to pull a goal back but his finish, after meeting Park's cross with a first-time volley, went just the wrong side of Almunia's post.

Clichy then clattered into Ronaldo and earned a booking, with the action almost non-stop at this stage.

Rooney had a header saved by Almunia and he was inches from getting on the end of a Ronaldo cross, while Carrick picked up a yellow when he caught Almunia with a boot to the head.

Almunia's injury forced him off and Lukasz Fabianski was required off the bench for the last 12 minutes.

Rafael, on as a substitute, pulled one back with less than a minute left - but Arsenal held on after six minutes of stoppage-time for the win they needed.

(taken from soccernet.com)

A sad game for a Manchester fan. We were lucky not to concede even more goals, as the youngsters of Arsenal kept coming. However, I was very impressed by the attitude of Rafael, who scored the consolation goal for us. He was the one who kept going on. The rest were all lacklustre, especially Ronaldo whose passes were being cut by Arsenal defenders. Well, let's hope that this game will make the team more hungry for the rest of our season!

2008-11-07T00:25:00.002+08:00

Shanghai.

the overseas company from shanghai called and interviewed me today.

and just like that, I think I can safely say, it's confirmed that I'm going over for six months. Will be doing designing for an advertising firm.

But I really do hope Felily and Joyce get their calls as well. So we can go there together!

And that Clara, Fiona, Fizzah and Cathy go to China for GSS, even though Fiona wants to go India and Fizzah wants Vietnam and Cathy wants Korea.

And the Leanne Wong who wanna come over for a few days to stay really come over and stay.

Yay! Everybody come come come China!

(thanks Clara, for being around to calm my nerves during the interview :D)

2008-11-05T23:40:00.006+08:00

“热诚可能不能当饭吃，

但至少

能让每晚睡前有一丝的笑容。。。

那，对我来说

就够了”

2008-11-04T23:42:00.006+08:00

Making of "Zhao Lor"/ Runaway

Production Shoot

Editing

(that's the whole bunch of COM427 coursemates holed up in the Editing Suite at 4am last night; we edited our film from 8pm to 7.30am in the morning.)

Finished Product

A whirlwind 12 days of pre-production, shooting and post production. Miracle, because we didn't even have a script 12 days ago. But it's done now, after much hard work and sweat and fake blood. A film about two hooligans, it tracks their thick sense brotherhood through thick and thin.

Of course, there are things inside which could be done differently, such as sound which turned out terrible because of our neglect. Or even lingering shots, which we forgot about, and hence, there are moments in the film which passed us by too soon.

But, still, am the proudest of this film so far. Here, I would like to thank the following people for their immense help and support:

Firstly, my beloved groupmates Shannon and Melissa. We pulled it off, guys!

Then, the actors, especially the ones I found. Sinting, who very kindly helped out when I was desperately searching for someone to play "Or Gao". And he really fitted the role! Oh, and being subjected to being temporarily tattoo-ed and dying hair green. Pamela, who played the role of Sherry. Thank you, for being there since 1pm. Really sorry to make you wait for so long before it's your turn.

And Mr Zhi Yuan, who shall be called by us as Timothy from now on. For a really good performance and having to be beaten up, we will buy him a new tee shirt so he will stop wearing that blue Crocodile tee he always wears.

To Shannon's Xiao Ming, who became Ah Boon after someone pulled out last minute. He was just the Ah Boon we had imagined in our minds.

To Pedro and Ying Zhao, who provided the tension in the film by being the police. Am especially grateful to Ying Zhao for the police uniforms, and the prop shopping as well. She made Or Gao's green hair possible! Thank you very, very very much!!

And of course the extras, who stopped their mugging to help us in our little project. And and and Zhi Hui, Jolyn and Shi Feng, for agreeing to help me at such last minute notice. So sorry that Zhi Hui and Jolyn made a wasted trip, but hope you guys had fun watching us film!

And Felily, Cathy, Joyce and Colleen who will pop into the Avid Suite from time to time to find and entertain me while I'm editing.

Well, last but not least, the whole bunch of COM427 students! They helped us do sound even when they are super tired, and these people just love to go mad at 4am in the morning!

Yeap, it's been fun. And it reaffirms everything I want.

2008-11-03T01:24:00.002+08:00

What happens when people talk faster than they think.

In Jurong Point carpark, circa 1930 on 1st Nov

Shannon: I don't understand how girls can wear skirts and go for filming.

Melissa: Then what you want them to wear? No girl will wear like you lor, white singlet and burms.

I look down at myself. There I am, wearing my favourite Dragonboat 2007 white singlet with a "ready to paddle?" sentence in front, and basketball jersey shorts.

I tap Melissa on the shoulder.

Melissa: Ooooh.....

2008-10-31T23:24:00.002+08:00

Narrative Strategies.

427. 427. It's the hottest number right now.

Or more specifically, Narrative Film and TV: Applications and Concepts.

Yup, this is the module that is dictating my every mood. It drives me nuts- the grainy dots on black tramautise me everytime- and make me anal- each subtitle must fade in at the precise rhythm, and stay there for the precise length- and make me smile like a fool- when there's a certain shot that's almost perfect-and of course, makes me become a kan chiong spider or an ant on fire almost 24/7 when production starts.

I can't believe it's the last film already. A two minute montage clip, a two minute neorealism clip and taa daa, our ten minute final assignment.

And it's funny how things turn out. I wasn't even supposed to be doing this module because it clashed with Forensic Science.

Well oh well, somehow I'm really quite glad that I gave up bloody Forensic Science for this. Pun intended.

Because who would have known that I would end up with Melissa Foo as my groupmate? The "Foo" in her surname is short for "playing afool".

She single-handedly ignited my "gaydar", as we would do weird, nonsensical stuff during production, such as drawing rock-a-bye babies which looked like Chicken Little, and suggesting we should make out.

(Heaven forbid, if we really do make out, I'll die cringing)

Apt to insert disclaimer at this point in time: We are both straight. We embody the "gay" spirit in terms of our immense level of happiness.

Of course there are the bad times where production hit the low points. Like bad shots, bad locations, bad stories. Thankfully enough, in a magical sort of way, we never really quarrelled about anything. (I may jinx it now that I'm talking about it). The only qualms I have is that she is too weak to carry anything heavy, so she's no good for logistics and transportation. Which, to her, is no major issue because there's still me, strong, healthy and fit.

And now there's an addition to our family. Mr Shannon Lim, who so happily decided to join us, unaware of the level of ki siao-ness we have in our blood. His role is usually of the awkward passer-by, who gawks at us and make us feel just a teeny weeny conscious of our surroundings when we start attempting to make out once again.

(But then again, sometimes he would join in... hmm...)

So now, I have dubbed us "Shameleanna", which sounds like some indian chant. Melissa said it sounded like a disease. Shannon said "Shamel" sounds so much better, but I insisted that Melissa and I came in a package, like "Meleanna", which was our profile name in Avid for our second project.

(I realise I'm now part of the trend of being a pair, like Cafe and Roscol! But considering the timeline, I might have been the pioneer. )

And the three of us shall now do the opposite of fighting crime and saving the world, which is shooting a film about a bunch of vulgarities-spewing Ah Bengs with green and pink hair. Like a Royston Tan but without the too-close-to-reality-for-comfort. Like brotherhood and maybe on a deeper level, something more.

Cheers, to tomorrow, our last shoot for this module. And hello to the Advanced Editing Suite as my bedroom on Monday night. (Melissa's and Shannon's too. Oooh, threesome!)

Then on tuesday, I shall switch off my gaydar in a dramatic twist, never to dig it out again, right after our film is screened during lecture.

And maybe try to plant a *flying kiss as a thank you to this partner of mine. For our 427. In film, we call this closure.

*flying eh, no contact hor.

2008-10-30T16:40:00.002+08:00

Felily said "I have stupid friends".
But we know she'd love us anyway. Hehe.

www.iamfeliciaandwhereismypresenthuh.blogspot.com

2008-10-29T15:39:00.002+08:00

Sai kang warrior #1.

2008-10-25T03:10:00.004+08:00

I believe my life is a sitcom.

The picture below looks like there's nothing special.

Taa daa!

Get this. Not one, but 2 car keys stuck in the boot of my car. Don't ask how it happened, it's just classic.

Papa came to the rescue!

2008-10-23T10:20:00.002+08:00

"Do you know, when we go China, cannot use blogspot leh. Blogger kena ban by China eh."

"Yah, this is the second time you said it already."

"Oh.... Do you know, when we go China, cannot use blogspot leh. Blogger kena ban by China."

"...."

"Do you know...."

"I know! I know! When you go China, cannot use blogspot!"

"Ya. Blogger kena ban by China."

2008-10-23T01:51:00.003+08:00

Sleepless in Singapore Universities.

A trend has been observed among my fellow peers.

1) No one has the desire to go for 401 lectures, except for me and Ros. We have since developed an impeccable speed for writing. I believe I can clock as much as 2 (long) words per second.

2) Attendance for Marketing lectures are also at a new low. I sat there the other day by myself, thankfully with my laptop for some am-still-socially-apt credentials.

3) The above two are highly suspected to be due to lack of sleep among the CS cohort. See below for evidence:

In an article (Chua, 2008), a CS student laments over the amount of sleep (or lack thereof) she has on average, all 4 hours of it.

Another CS student finished his shooting at 6am today morning, and appeared in school as a tired, zombie-fied shell.

Then there are the rest of us, who stay back in school, especially in the Avid Suite, on special occassions. We drive ourself crazy in the room till about 1am, and by that time, I assure you, I will laugh at whatever morsel of a joke you have.

Since the semester is almost coming to an end, it will be worse.

All I hope now is to conjure up that perfect script(s), the most blown-away Marketing presentation, and a tongue transplant donated by a Korean woman.

And some sleep.

2008-10-21T21:46:00.004+08:00

A campus security guard removing a black banner put up at the communication school protesting the censorship of news stories in the campus media.---Photo: Chong Zi Liang

Taken from The Enquirer-->http://enquirer.sg/

It may be old news, but the idea of "protesting" in the Singapore context is still quite sensational. And especially if it's right at the doorstep of the school.

Amidst the hoo and haa of whatever that happened, at least one good thing came out of it-Initiative.

2008-10-21T15:56:00.002+08:00

Burning Question I ask to no one in particular everytime I step into Canteen B

Why buy a nice plasma tv, just to turn it sideways and squash all the images, making it just ugly and a headache to watch?

2008-10-19T01:48:00.006+08:00

How I spent my whole day in the Sports and Recreational Centre, and survived- A photo entry.

So, I signed up for the anti-you Street Challenge for the 3rd year running, but this year was different. Instead of the usual street basketball, I signed up for street netball instead. This was because everyone in the anti-you basketball team wanted to play together, and there was a cap on school players who can play per team. Someone suggested the idea of netball, and hey presto, there I was, jostling to sign up for it.

Turns out, only 5 of us went down for the event.

So I rose bright and early on this saturday morning, looking for my early worm. Below is the list of the 7 teams in the street netball catagory. Guess which is my team's name?

Well, didya guess it right?

Thanks to the bright idea of the anti-you basketball team captain, whose name is the "inspiration" for the team name, our team name was "Pretty Phyllis".

She had scribbled 3 team names, "Pretty Phyllis", "Cute Phyllis" and "Sexy Phyllis".

I was crushed that we weren't called "Sexy Phyllis". Dang!

This are my teammates.

On the left, the ultra skinny vegan, Zhi Hui. On the right, Yu Huan, who is full of rubbish and mistakenly called me "Leana" on the netball court several times.

Don't worry. I corrected her after that.

On the left, Yanyan the act-cool one. She's always trying not to laugh at my joke, but it's always too funny, so she'll chuckle a little bit.

Last but not least, Belicia! Whose picture is waaayy below. ( I biased. Haha.)

Ya, the team's namesake didn't come. She would be sooo happy to hear people calling her "Pretty" all day! But then, her doppelganger came. Someone who looked strikingly similar to her, it was a tad freaky.

We were in Canteen 2, slacking at lunchtime when it was time for our lunchbreak.

See, this was my lunch. A mouthwatering shaven ice creation that serves no purpose in making my stomach full.

Below are two koksters I haven't seen in quite a while. Vanessa and Kirana, whose team swept the street basketball tournament.

Yu Huan left us at 2pm, leaving us with 4people for the street netball challenge. I don't know how, but the four of us managed to play through the rest of the games, and made it to the semi-finals. By then it was already 5pm.

We were so tired, we (or rather I) took a pretty long nap during one super-long interval between games.

While leading 3-2 up to this (quite annoying) team in the semis with 2minutes and 13 seconds to go, the heavenly floodgates opened and rain begain pouring. Hence they postponed the match, and to kill time, this is what we did:

Act sad and take many pictures

(and this act-emo girl is none other than Belicia, who is also captain for this team)

I think Zhi Hui wins hands down for the most emo picture.

Taadaa! At five plus, Yanyan had to go, leaving just the 3 of us. Finally, at 6 plus, the skies cleared. However, Yanyan's departure proved fatal, because the annoying team scored 2 goals to win the game 4-3.

!@#$@%#$^$#%#$%

We wanted to do a walkover for the 3rd-4th position game, but the referee said we could find a replacement. So our shrewd minds picked Jean, who's a basketballer CUM school team netballer. Hehe. It worked.

We're third! Being third is very important to us, because the fourth get no prizes.

At 7pm, I finally left SRC for basketball training at CCAB. Then for some scares at the Night Safari cos it was Halloween night.

See, I really squeezed Saturday, 18th of October dry.

2008-10-17T11:56:00.002+08:00

I should tell Neo, sometimes it's good to be plugged in-
-to Greenday, that is.

Then he can dodge bullets to the tune of "Whatsername".

Okay, it's the influence of Reservoir Dogs. Super violent and disgusting movie by Quentin Taratino, but it works. On a sick, disgusting level.

Watch it.

2008-10-16T17:09:00.003+08:00

I. Miss. This. Place.

2008-10-14T14:43:00.002+08:00

“如果我爱上你的笑容，要怎么收藏要怎么拥有。”
-五月天的知足

听了这首歌，领悟到了许多。
好像为什么有些事会变一个样，
而有些事又会变另一个样。

好像为什么有秃头的现象。。。
（太可怕了！）

有头发的时候就应该珍惜，不然头里开了一个洞，看你怎么办！

哈哈。

昨天收到了上海公司的名单。
有很多公司可以选，所以还满兴奋的。
但是到底还是希望能做我想做的。

加油！

2008-10-13T00:57:00.002+08:00

Motorcycle Cop: Calm down, ma'am.
Kim Lee: I am calm.
Motorcycle Cop: I need to see your registration and insurance.
Kim Lee: Why? Not my fault! It's her fault! She do this!
Ria: [approaching] My fault?
Motorcycle Cop: Ma'am, you really need to wait in your vehicle.
Ria: [appraoching] My fault?
Kim Lee: Stop in the middle of street! Mexicans! No know how to drive! She blake too fast!
Ria: I "blake" too fast? I "blake" too fast? I'm sorry, you no see my "blake lights"?
Motorcycle Cop: [to Ria] Ma'am...
Ria: [to Kim Lee] See, I stop when I see long line of cars stop in front of me. Maybe you see over steering wheel, you "blake" too.
Motorcycle Cop: [to Ria] Ma'am...
Ria: Officer, can you please write down in your report how shocked I am to be hit by an Asian driver?

This film is just, just, just fantastic.

2008-10-13T00:05:00.003+08:00

The Darn Orange Ball.

This is for my marketing presentation. No prizes for which corporation my team is presenting on!

After yet another hectic week, the weekend came and kept my brain academic-free (well only in the day. At night, I'm slogging to do all the endless assignments that the lecturers throw on like flies)

Today I had two friendlies back to back with the team. Tiring, but nonetheless fufilling as there were not much problems with the way we played. For me, seeing that there's this other bunch of people who love the game as much, or if not much much more than me, it is a huge motivation. There they are, these people who just can't get enough. And here I am, wanting to be selfish and say I'm done now. How can I, after looking at how they play?

Then, there's this one crazy person who'd gave up a trip to Macau for this friendly. Seriously decided, on a whim, that this game and these other people meant so much more than a free trip. I'm impressed. For all that it was worth, I am in awe. And again, they really make me want to continue, even as I keep thinking, where am I gonna go?

I should just curse the darn orange ball for giving me such a hard time-- Sometimes, it'd feel like a lousy burden, having to burn my saturdays playing in a league where I'm always injured in one way or another, and not have time for work and friends, like Leanne Wong whom I feel so guilty about for not being there all the time. But then again, it gave me so much "fun, peace, laughter and joy" (oh please don't make me pay copyright) throughout the past 9 years that I really don't know what's the deal with this ball, and also what I'm talking about now.

Hmm, okay, I have major issues to figure out myself I think. Don't worry, I'm not emo-ing, nor moping! Just thinking...

And I think I managed to shed a lil' weekend weight with that workout.
Yes! Cathy Chia will not say I am "chubbier" anymore!

Well, I'm blaming it on the coke (or lackthereof)!

2008-10-09T16:23:00.002+08:00

The Anti-Coke Rebellion

For 2 weeks now, if anybody's counting, I haven't had a drop of Coke in my mouth.

Not that it's something major to the rest of the world, like the American economy sung to the tune of Savage Garden's "Crash and Burn", but to me, and of course, the Coca-cola company, it is quite big news.

Anyone who knows me know that I am as addicted to Coke (the drink, not the drug) like how Robbie William is addicted to... well, sex. For a better example, I like Coke as much as Katie Perry liked kissing a girl.

Okay, these examples downright suck.

But you get my drift.

There are people who have been constantly telling me that it's just plain bad for the body. Plus the scare tactics like the rumours of teeth dissolving in Coke after 24 hours. Thankfully, most of us are sane enough to swallow any drink after 1 or 2 seconds, instead of trying to let it evaporate inside the mouth.

What broke it for me, though, was a simple concern expressed by a parent of a friend. We were sitting in a coffeeshop, enjoying supper together, when I asked my friend to help me buy Coke. On seeing that dreaded red can, the parent pointed and asked "You drink Coke ah?"

Immediately, I knew what she was driving at. After that, we had a simple conversation about the bad points of carbonated drinks. Well, I was still downing Coke a few weeks after that conversation, but that nagging "You drink Coke ah?" was forever installed in the brain. Everytime I ordered a Coke, or even begin to drink one, a thought bubble with the words "You drink Coke ah" just pops out of nowhere and attaches itself above me.

So I decided that I shall stay away from Coke as long as I can. Undergoing cold turkey isn't what I had originally envisioned, but since it's working, I'll take it as a good sign.

AND I think without the sugar rush from Coke, I'm begining to show withdrawal symptoms. Joyce once quipped, "Deanna, why are you so high today?" and I really don't know. The sugar level in my body are becoming imbalanced.

Ros and Melissa can attest to my strange behaviour as well. Currently, I can spontaneously converse in the Indian accent, the Chinaman accent and my hot fave, the Malaysian/Indonesian accent. Also am doing a pretty good job of it, so much so that some people out there wanted to strangle me just so I can stop.

It's the lack of Coke, people!

Guess you'd just have to get used to a healthier, crankier me.

2008-10-06T00:20:00.001+08:00

Be careful, the music may just get into your head!

fly away

接受

最想环游的世界

2008-10-01T23:58:00.002+08:00

The Inner Workings of the Anti-You Basketball Team

Our cheer starts with us putting our hands together, and "whoosh-ing", but there is a significant difference.

Instead of going down, we have to jump, as high as we can, and fling our hands up, up and away!

Belicia is stripped! Oh the horrors.

Coach. He has a nice haircut.

The 2007 batch, now hanging on the SRC wall.

The 2007 January IVP batch, now also on the SRC wall.

Steamboating.

2008 current team! There's a few missing people though... Everyone's doing their jersey numbers.

We were all squashed, inside my red Toyota Rush because...

we wanted to watch how our enemies play!

At the very end of the journey, it closed with a silver medal and FOOD!
(which is very important to an athlete.:D)

2008-09-27T21:40:00.002+08:00

教练和队长的故事。

进南大的第一年，
很想打球。
那时谁都不认识，但什么都不管。

那时的队，
令我感到陌生。
我好像一个过客。
来打一打，就算了。
赢了，也没什么感受。

这个学期，队形变了。
第一，换了教练。
第二，国家队的球员们都不能参加比赛。
（也就是说，队里根本没有一个超厉害的）
突然间，我们都发现了赢球的责任都在大家身上。
也不懂是怎么开始，队长都会召集大家在没有练习的一天一起打球。
她把那丰为“let's-play-basketball-together-session"。
她说，谁讲错，写错就要被罚。
那是她搞笑的方式。

几天前，我们一伙去吃火锅。
那是我三年在南大和队员的第一个聚会。
永远都会记得，火锅，甜品和豆江油条的味道。
不会忘记，为了看荧光碟八个人挤在车里的感觉。

今天是比赛的最后一天。
赢了，就会成冠军。
队长要得冠军，教练也说我们可以的。
我也要的冠军。

我们不再是陌生人了。
队长带我们走了很远，很远。

比赛后，队长哭了。
教练也哭了。

输了六分。

我们就说好，明年更大型的比赛，一定要得冠军。
没事了。这是开始。

晚上，拿了银牌，整队坐在体育场外吃饭。
突然间，教练说“队长，你要不要现在说？”

队长说“这个比赛是我最后一个比赛了。我有健康问题，得动手术。”

原来，对她而言，今天不是开始。

是段落。

此刻，回想起她为这个队做的一切，她说过的无聊废话，她为我们像疯子尖叫的声音，他的一举一动。。。
她让我爱上这个队。

我只能问自己，为什么没有为她拿下冠军，为什么好的东西都不能持久？为什么她没有说？为什么都一直只露出灿烂的笑容，而宁愿把残酷的真相自己吞没？

此刻，全队的心灵都哭了。

2008-09-25T00:22:00.004+08:00

I wrote the following at 2.30am, and realise I'm not the "night" kinda person.

(I actually tried to send this as an email to charlene sivalingam....)

I promise this is the last email of the night, and I shall end this with a pat on my back. *pats own back*.

Yes, as you can see I'm a little woozy. Probably because I was having a group project meeting that was kinda going everywhere, but somehow end up nowhere. (But it's okay, I'm gonna pull it off).

Where was I?

Okay, this is the journal article I found. It's from Harvard Business Review, which is listed in the list of good journals in the tutorial notes.

If I only have 20seconds to tell you what this article is,

Well this article is divided into 2.
1) About a fictional company which have been experiencing some problems, eg. product differentiation, branding...
2) A few experts' take on the situation of the company and suggested operatives.

What's good about this article is that it has a very important element of HUMOUR. really quite funny. Then the experts apply the fake scenarios into real life, and they talk about market strategies to counter and avoid such issues, by using real life examples and phenomenons. (We can critique the article by saying hard to verify the viability of their suggestions blah blah blah)

Just read the first two pages and you'll find it quite interesting... really interesting

Then scroll to the pages behind, where the experts put forth their theories.

Ya, that's all for now. I need my sleep. now. serious.

Okay,Bye and see you tml.

Love,
Deanna

(...but gmail had some glitches and I didn't get to send it in the end)

2008-09-23T19:03:00.002+08:00

信。

我们那几个姐妹都拿到了可以去中国的那封信。
哦！欢喜！
觉得应该用心学习国语，不然明年去那里会死悄悄！
6个月里天天都得用华文沟通。
好大的挑战哦！
所以决定了。。。
有空就用华文字来写布罗格，希望会增加华文程度，不再对这语言有陌生的感觉。
哇。可是真的很费时，因为本姑娘的华文程度也太差了。

不过还是非常兴奋。
又有机会看一看世界了！
能出国是幸福的。不然永远都不知天高地厚，而会用窄小的眼光看待每种事物。
决定了。

一定去！

照片。。。

小弟弟（不懂是谁的）比赛跳。可爱吧!

送给嘉玲的恶作剧字条。

我不懂这个华文叫什么。不是摆家家酒啦。我懂了！野餐！

姐妹们都疯了。

他们也疯了。我们说华语说到这种地步。。。。

改天再聊吧！

2008-09-22T02:19:00.002+08:00

"I don't wanna survive, I want to live!"
- Taken from the movie Wall E

With ambiguity, comes meaning. Weird, absurb meanings that converge together to form a certain kind of truth. And I think that truth won't fail me...

well, maybe not too much.

Oh I love my busy, busy life right now. I really do.

2008-09-20T14:25:00.004+08:00

The scriptwriters' sickness.

There was a little bit of foreshadowing on thursday, where 2 of my friends, Joyce and Colleen, declared that they only had 2 hours of sleep the previous night, and so their eyelids have somehow dropped to their assess. And they had presentations the next day. Joyce had 1 and Colleen had 2, but thankfully they survived without any accidents, and with just 1 comment of "is it me, or is the sun very, very bright today?"

(perhaps this is the reason why uni grads deserve to earn more .)

After their almost sleepless night, it was the bulk of Scriptwriting coursemates who had our turn at it. We had to hand in our 15 page scripts to our tutor on friday.

Melissa, Wendy and I slept at around 4plus am, while Xue Mei didn't sleep a wink but showed up for the 9am class. At 2am in the evening, Bee Hwee msn-ed me, saying she was "f***-ed" because the scriptwriting software she downloaded said "there would be 3 watermarks of the programme on your paper when it is printed."

Maybe the next batch of people to have sleepless nights would be the Comm Research people.

It was an amazing feat, considering I had my Korean test the very next day as well. Thankfully I've already written my script, just that I haven't formatted it right until Thursday night. So I spent the rest of the evening in my world of Hangul Chapter 11 to 15. Melissa wrote her entire script in that one night, with her reason being "must have pressure than will work one, if not will keep getting stuck".

But all's well, ends well, because I ended up sleeping for 20 hours the night after. Without a word, I plonked myself on my bed at 6pm, and didn't regain consciousness till 2am, when my sister bellowed, "eh, you don't want to bathe ah?" Even then, I continued to sleep until this very morning at 9am, where I finally decided that I had enough.

No matter what, it was still a good week, both for me and my NTU teammates. We defeated SMU 60-40 in midweek, and the best part was that every single one of us played a part in the win. SMU drew first blood with a layup in the first few seconds, and within the first five minutes, had led 8-4. What made me happy was that the coach decided to put me in when we were losing, and when I was subsituted out early in the 2nd quarter, we were leading by ten. I had short appearances in the game after that, perhaps only going in for 1 or 2 minutes per quarter, but it was enough.

And that was the end of week 7, Sem 1, Year 3. A week to remember.

2008-09-18T00:56:00.003+08:00

Leanne Wong
Heard birthday gongs
And had so much fun
Cos she just turned 21

"I turned 21 and all I got was this lousy poem"...

...must be what Leanne Wong is thinking right now.

Nevertheless, happy 21st birthday! Here's to many many more crazy adventures, like driving without the stupid triangle, watching R(A) shows, getting into clubs without being checked, meeting in Liang Seah when the next leap year comes, and many many many more!

Love you loads and hope you have an enjoyable day!

2008-09-17T00:45:00.002+08:00

Gone Fishin'

又来了。

星期六，等朋友的当儿，我看到了梁静茹的“今天是亲人节”DVD.

完蛋了。

才刚买了她的旧专辑“亲亲”。那是三，四个星期的事。都还没听够咯！（处了“失意”）

星期五，同事特地打电话给我，兴奋地说她已经买了新专辑。

我就一时冲动，买了下来。然后一夜里把全20多首歌看完。也好啦，自己缺乏的东西，听了可能会比较了解。

“分享的汤，我们两个汤匙一个碗”
“空气中你笑容满面，拍拍我的头，说你好吗？”
“一片空白，脑袋只剩冰块”

说真的，原来我们都唱她的歌！

2008-09-15T00:26:00.005+08:00

Production Time

2 (half) days of shooting,
2 nights of editing, and
hey presto,
we've got ourselves a film!

Melissa's favourite production still.

On Melissa's hand is the baby High Defination camera. Was our first time using HD, and we spent a lot of time trying to focus the shots, because the other groups warned us to.

Editing in this room that never sleeps for 2 conscecutive nights. Just behind our "cubicle" is Xuemei's group, who thinks me and Melissa went crazy editing because...

... we started naming our files according to how we're feeling. This file is entitled "waituntildieliao"...

..and we tried playing Pictionary while waiting for our files to be rendered/ exported. The topic for this was "Nursury Rhyme" and Melissa drew this for me to guess.

I really had no clue what the hell it was. Chicken Little, I thought.

You know what the correct answer was? Rock-a-bye-baby.
Seriously, that "chicken-look-a-like" creature is an actual human baby. Oh gosh.

But we did had a lot of fun during this intensive session. And somehow, that girl never grew bored of the song, no matter how many times we played it.

Gotta thank Hwee Teng and Kenny, for being our actors. Great job guys!
And Denis for the house. I'm really exploiting his house a good deal man. Hurhur.

Next production is coming up pretty soon, can't wait!

2008-09-10T16:52:00.002+08:00

Oh sweet sleep.

Yes. Melissa and I have finally (and successfully) finished our short 2 minute montage assignment and presentation, all in the span of 5 whirlwind days and nights.

For a while we thought we had to camp overnight in the editing suite, but thankfully we left the place at 2am the latest.

The rest of the groups who were in the suite, also panicking over their projects, said that for our next assignment, we should just have a night time steamboat-and-mahjong session. And it's really a good idea, because waiting for all the rendering, exporting etc. takes up such long hours.

Mel and I even resorted to playing Pictionary on the whiteboard for fun. We attempted to draw CS people and make each other guess who we drew. However, her drawing was too horrible so I lost.

Now, a huge rock has been lifted off my shoulders, and frankly, I feel that this film is an improvement from my last one. The acting is very real, thanks to Mel who's in drama, and the actors really gave it all.

However, there is still a need to work harder to catch up with the guys. Their films are really really good!

Shall upload the production pictures soon, and search for some lost sleep. I'm getting tired and cranky, and the temporary braces are kinda getting on my nerves.

I'm just a walking zombie la.

Hope my team will win later. Woohoo!

2008-09-07T02:34:00.002+08:00

fighting tooth and nail for something has taken a whole new HORRIFYING meaning.

2008-09-04T00:20:00.002+08:00

Inspired by De Sica's "Bicycle Thieves", boosting superb cinematography and succeeded in making me not fall asleep in class.

Very beautiful.

2008-09-01T20:55:00.002+08:00

Cough becomes her.

The medicine lied.

It is supposed to be non-drowsy, but right now, I feel like I'm in the land of marshmellows. Oh look, there's a rainbow and a bunny that goes hippoty-hop.

After a long string of coughing fits yesterday and the day before while working at Comex 2008, my mama commanded me to stay home and rest today.

"Don't go to school ah!"She bellowed, after yet another coughing session. I tried to protest, meekly, before my coughs took over.

Wow, and I didn't know I loved school THAT much.

I do know though, that these coughs I have been having has mutated from small, squeaky, barely-there "ahem"-like coughs to full-blown, can-build-stomach-muscles, heavy duty coughing fits.

Just yesterday, I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop when my throat started tickling uncontrollably. The next time I knew, my head was jolting back and forth, back and forth and the auntie who sat beside me was giving me such a dirty stare.

I think she shifted 5cm to her left.

After sleeping almost the whole day (I woke up just now to catch Ink in Superband revival round), I feel even sicker. You know that lazy feeling you get, when you wake up after a nap, you just wanna snuggle right back?

That's what I feel right now, and I see that bunny again. I also have been hearing phantom ring tones, for nobody called. But that mystery has been half solved, since the auntie who comes to clean my house has the exact same ring tone as me.

It does mean I have to change my ring tone though, or be the laughing stock of my sisters, who are begining to mock my choice of ringtone and its association to the cleaning auntie.

School resumes tomorrow, yay. Then I'll be sane enough to stop seeing the stupid bunny and not become Donnie Darko.

2008-08-28T00:30:00.002+08:00

Let's just forget the fact that I'm turning twenty one this year with regards to this post.

I am SO going to Avril Lavigne's Concert next sunday!

If it weren't for the fact that I'm 20, I would be jumping on someone's couch by now, screaming for joy and pulling my hair out.

For I have been an avid fan of hers since I heard the song "Complicated" on my portable radio on the way to school in Secondary Three.

After her "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You" shot to number 1, I scrambled to buy her album.

Then, when I was in Secondary Four, she came down to Heeren HMV one day to sign autographs. 4pm it started. I remembered, because I sat in line since 1pm. (And wrote it very excitedly in my then Diary that very night).

To queue up with crazy caucasians for 3 hours straight is still a memory I keep (but need not necessarily cherish because they were just too damn noisy). And looking at her sign my album was a groupie's dream.

Not to forget, I made her shake hands with me. Made, because I grabbed her hand and literally shook it a few times. I always cringe when I think about it, but then will console myself by saying "I touched Avril Lavigne's hand".

Then she held her concert, and I didn't go.
In 2006, she came and held another concert, but I didn't go too. All I did was to put up a blogskin of her, which, of course is the same one you are looking at now and have been looking at for the past few years. Let's see how long I'll last with this one okay?

So, I've decided, after thinking long and hard, to go for next Saturday's The Best Damn Tour concert!

I believe I will sing along to ALL her songs (I mean it) and scream "I lurve you" as many times as I possibly can. I just hope Zixin would view me as a normal person after the concert.

Whoopee!!

2008-08-26T00:44:00.002+08:00

Joyce and I are attempting to converse in Korean now.

Cooool stuff!

2008-08-25T23:25:00.002+08:00

Where did I hide my instinct?

It was quite a bad friendly match today.

I had no idea what was happening, the ball kept flying past and my hands were not ready to catch it.

Collided head-on with a teammate while dribbling the ball, then watched the ball roll away in slow-motion, and now am nursing a painful spot on the eyebrow.

(why did I dribble the ball in the first place anyway, when I'm a centre?)

Got shut out by the opponent during rebounding, who is smaller in size, and that adds to the frustration.

Drove home in silence, thinking of all the things that went wrong. Think I forgot to put my faith in the right place, hence the lack of strength.

Gotta bring my game back somehow. Shall try to motivate myself through various means. And cheer myself up, at least for the next few days.

Maybe these'll help.

Artwork by Ros, photographed by Col on my lovely hand.

2008-08-24T08:53:00.004+08:00

It's 8.53am.

I have been struggling to wake up just now, but forced myself to because my first referee assignment starts at 10plus. It's been a while since I whistled.

I really need the money.

I remembered once, for a final between two young teams in a tournament, the minister who was invited shook my hand and asked "So do you ref matches volunteerily?"

I wanted to laugh. Oh, how naive.

Other than that question, the only other thing that is fresh in my memory was her hairdo that could stand up, much like Marge Simpson's, but hers was shorter. And I did catch a glimpse of her on television during the National Day Parade. She was in white, waving the candy Flag with the other ministers, and gave a wave as she walked down the aisle with her hair bobbing along.

Mornings arn't too good for blog entries-- I have vague recollection of what I've just typed.

Last night, I came home with more DVDs, and my sister was shocked that I bought "Lost in Translation".

She had bought the exact same DVD the day before.

We really don't have much chemistry, don't we?

Now, my "Lost in Translation" DVD is neatly shrink-wrapped, with the price still pasted on the sleeve. So if anyone would like to buy it for a good price of $14.90, do let me know. It's by Sofia Coppola, stars Scarlett Johansson (hot) and Bill Murray (credible) and the back sleeve says there are some nudity, so if it's Johansson who is naked in the show, it'll be damn worth it, but if it's Murray is the one nude, then let's just hope it's artistic.

If you would like to bargain, I can try to give a better price, but if it's too ridiculous, you know what you'll get for your next birthday.

Alright now, I have to dress up, and go to work now.

2008-08-20T22:32:00.000+08:00

"nerves of steel and temperament of Buddha"

2008-08-17T01:19:00.002+08:00

Chasing Sunset.