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Maybe it's time to move.
Over the past few weeks, various accessories in my house has started to break down - both metaphorically and literally. Apart from the leather sofa where the split has been widening for two years now, there's also the cranky printer, telephones, washing machine that broke down, the leaking kitchen sink. I've seen all those before, so I wasn't surprised(esp. since we've been here for almost 10 years). What surprised me was the toilet tap which broke! I was the one who broke it by the way, though I'm pretty sure it was not because of any giant strength that I gained.
As a result of the broken tap, I was greatly inconvenienced in my daily teeth-brushing and face-washing. For almost a week in fact - because my dad decided to wait till weekend when he's free to get a new tap. Speaking of taps, I wonder what happend to the golden taps in Durai's ex-office. Are they still there?
Had stats revision lecture today. Got back my prelim exam script - I passed on the dot with 34. Hiaz... Was expecting a little more, but well, at least I passed. The UOL lecturer spoke slowly and gave lots of long breaks. Kind of similar to Raymond Teo. Is that the trademark of stats lecturers? Lecturers for other subjects are always speaking much faster, yet they struggle to complete their lesson on time. The stats lecturers, on the other hand, seem to have the best job in SIM.
Maybe I should become a stats lecturer in SIM when I graduate.
This Chinese New Year will be remembered for the pretty large 'takings' this year, partly due to Aunt Kelly giving a huge ang pow as a make-up present for my 21st birthday(last Nov), which she missed as she was overseas. It will also be remembered for the frequent toilet trips from day 2 to day 4, probably due to incompletely-cooked food during the steamboat dinners. It was really terrible and my legs were totally weak after spending about 2.5-3hrs everyday in the toilet during that period. That was hell!
I went back to Cat High last Thursday with Wei Yan and Wei Cheng. It's been a long time since I last went back and the school was so different! I was finally able to review the result of all those years of fundraising. (As usual, I was not able to enjoy the new facilities which I had contributed to...)
The school was rather quiet when we reached minutes before 2pm. It turned out they had a celebration that day for the fantastice 'O' levels results for the batch of '06. Cai lao shi did not make his way back to school, but we were at least able to meet Mrs Anna Tan, and a couple of other teachers. Mr Edwin Heng and Mrs Angeline Wong had gained weight and looked rather hagard; Mrs Tan, on the other hand, looked the same as the day I left. We were amazed as she told us the results: Mean L1R5 aggregate of 9.5 and 98% distinction for E Maths! All 111 students of hers clinched distinction for E Maths. Wow! Perhaps from this year onwards, Cat High will be able to entrenched itself in Band 1 of the school rankings.
Econs Prelim is coming up this Wednesday, and the remaining papers will follow in April. Hope I will be able to do well. And now, back to my revision!
Hey! Hey! My first blog of February and second (only) of the year... I've been REALLY lazy in the past few weeks and too engrossed with DOTA. Must stop that... Exams are coming...
Anyway, just a brief recap:
1. I finally passed my driving test last Thursday! :-) That was a relief! I've spent so much time and money. I didn't drive well that day though, and was lucky to have a SUPER GOOD tester who gave lots of chances... Maybe the prayers worked this time?
2. Mum started spring cleaning a few weeks ago, the result being piles of books / clothes / dishes / etc on the floor everyday as she cleans one cupboard a day. Actually, not exactly everyday. On some days, certain rooms will be missing the curtains as they too, get a major wash after months of service. I think she's been making good progress, though she keeps saying she doesn't have enough time. I was not idle either; I've been helping out with the folding and ironing of clothes!
3. Xiao Han went to Sweden last Tuesday for an overseas immersion programme. I'm excited to hear about her experiences. Wonder if she will be any different when she comes back half a year later...
4. There's been so much going on in the world. From floods in the Sahara Desert and blooming flowers in winter in USA, to discussions and evaluation of the war against Islamic terrorists and Bush's actions (leading to talks of the enemy at home - Bush - being more dangerous than the enemy of the world - the terrorists: Check out The Enemy At Home (Doubleday), by Dinesh D'Souza, an Indian national now based in the USA), to the execution of Saddam Hussein. Back home, there's that political conflict with Thailand due to the informal meeting with Thaksin, which has resulted in some Thais burning an effigy of DPM Wong Kan Seng outside the Singapore Ambassy in Thailand(Why him?). Then two nights ago, there was that controversial penalty in the 82nd minute against Thailand in the Asean Cup, which resulted in the Thai players leaving the field in protest, before the match was resumed nearly 15mins later. (For the record, Def-midfielder, Mustafic Fadruddin scored the penalty to give Singapore a 2-1 victory) The second leg in Thailand will definitely be exciting and explosive. I just hope the Singapore players and fans will return safely.
Hopefully, from now on, I will be able to convince myself to blog more regularly. Lastly, may the world be blessed with peace!
My first blog of the new year! Hmm... Haven't been bloggin for the past week. This time though, it's not because of the brat, but due to my own laziness. Haha! Anyway, now that the school term has started, there's no way he can monopolise the computer, which is good for everyone, including him. It's especially good this week, since he's away to OBS for five days! So many changes in this new year. Wei Yang and Wei Tong have moved on to secondary education, my 2nd maternal uncle is moving house to Sengkang this Thursday, and of course, Parry has officially merged with Xing Hua. Hopefully, I'll be blessed with positive changes!
Had lunch with Kelly and Stanley at this restaurant in Kovan selling Hong Kong cuisine. Met Jiali there with two of her friends. She said that the food wasn't good. Indeed. I ordered this pork noodles which turned out to be (what looks like) canned pork dices, a fried egg, a slice of cucumber, a slice of tomato, and a stalk of xiao bai cai on a plate of instant noodles! I could have prepared this myself at home for a fraction of the $5.90. Kelly didn't really like her dim sum too. The service was quite poor too. It's hard to get the attention of a waitress when she's busy all the time. They must be short-handed or acting busy. Overall, it was an average eating experience, with mediocre food and service.Played 2 rounds of mahjong with the two of them and Stanley's cousin, Daryl. Played OK this time, winning 40cents. I did not receive the money though, as Kelly lost and I decide not to pursue the small amount. Having skipped dinner, I was pretty eager to get home when we stopped around 11pm. While waiting for 147 at the bus stop, there was this taxi which stopped at the bus stop for a passenger to alight. When my bus came into view around a bend at around 50-100m away, I flagged immediately, with my arm held out for about 2 secs. The driver did not stop the bus. Did it seem like I was flagging the cab, or did he miss me? :-('Thanks' to the driver, I had to wait for the next 147, and I ended back at Hougang at 12:05am. I proceeded to make a fool of myself by mistaking 'estimated arrival time' for 'estimated departure time' on the bus schedule. As a result, I waited for 50 mins at the bus stop to transfer to a bus which was estimated to reach that bus stop at 12:03am, before realising my blunder. (If the driver of the earlier 147 had stopped for me, I would have been able to complete my transfer!!!) Wanting to save money, I walked the rest of the way home. I haven't exercised in quite some time, so it was a good workout, though a the wrong time. I reached home 28 mins later, tired and hungry. Hiaz... Poor me... Kelly was already clean and full by the time I reached home.
Finally met Wei Yan today. Talked about his trip to Vietnam, among other stuff. I was interested to know more about the country, especially after reading his account of his trip in his blog, and seeing some pretty interesting photos. I also learnt about an unpleasant bubble tea experience of his. Aparently, he once bought a cup of bubble tea in Yishun that has a cockroach in it! Fortunately for him, he saw it before he started drinking. As he was in a hurry, and was already some distance away from the shop, he did not pursue the matter. I commented that he should have reported the matter to the authorities (Environment Agency? AHA?). Hopefully none of the other customers of that shop bought bubble tea with extra 'unorthodox ingredients'.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Went to Tiong Bahru Plaza for steamboat dinner with Xin Hui, Jia Hui, Yilin. It was supposed to be a super belated birthday celebration for Xin Hui (what about my birthday celebration?). Sebastian was supposed to be there as well, but he had something on at the last minute (as usual). Jane was only there for a short while to pass Xin Hui the present. We ate at RajahInn where we all ordered individual standard set meals. We thought the serving was a tad too small for the price. Not value-for-money. The broth (I had chicken; they chose Tom Yam) was decent, but certainly not fantastic. Xin Hui decided to give us a treat and refused to accept any payment for the meal. Yilin resorted to tucking money into gaps in her partially-zipped bag. The plan failed though, when Xin Hui saw the money while taking out her wallet to make a purchase at Guardian's. Haha... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Went home to see Jeffrey crowned the winner of Project Runway (Season 3). I thought he was going to be eliminated based on last week trailer showing that he exceeded his budget. I was rooting for Laura and Uli, and I thought Uli's collection for the finals was the best...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was told the keyboard is faulty. Tried it out for myself and realised that it is indeed cranky. One moment it was okay; the next moment, it started malfunctioning - pressing the keys did not produce any response. That the malfunctioning of the keyboard was accompanied by intermittent lag only made the matter worse. Strangely though, the problem only occurs when I am in game. Perhaps it's a coincidence? Honyi thinks the keyboard is spoilt since changin USB port doesn't alleviate the problem. I guess he's probably right since my old keyboard functions well when connected to my current computer. Positive -> Don't need to buy new keyboard.Negative -> Colour of old keyboard doesn't match that of current monitor and CPU. :-(
I was at grandma's house last night with the rest of my extended paternal family members to celebrate Christmas. We have this annual gathering every year, despite it's lack of religious significance to anyone in the family, as it's one of only two gatherings we have every year (the other being Chinese New Year).
I always look forward to the gathering, but the excitement has reduced in recent years. Somehow, the celebration seemed more fun when I was young. Judging by how some of my elder cousins no longer attend the gathering, I suppose I'm not the only one who feels that way. Indeed, watching my younger cousins play with one another reminds me of my own enjoyment years ago. As we grew up, my cousins and I gradually became strangers. Some prefer to sit at a corner with their siblings; others took to fooling around with the younger ones. Weili and Chew Ling, for instance, were classmates in Xinmin Sec, but looking at them now, one would have thought they were really strangers. Under the same roof for about three hours, yet not a single word was exchanged; neither was there a hint of acknowledgement of each other's presence.
I have not been close to either of them myself, but yesterday, I had a pretty long chat with Weili over dinner. And it's all thanks to her boyfriend, Zhao Wei. I find it pretty laughable that someone outside the family have linked us together. Weili and her two sisters (Weiting and Weijia) used to keep to themselves during family gatherings, but yesterday, we were all happily chatting together, along with Zhao Wei and Weiting's boyfriend. Of course, the situation could have been very different if Zhao Wei was not from NY...
Back at home, as I lied in bed preparing to sleep, I thought about how Grandma had sat in the chair she always occupied, watching everyone in their interaction or inactivity. I suddenly realised how lonely she seemed. Occasionally, someone would talk to her, or she would joined in a conversation; most of the time she was alone. Then I thought of my grandfather. Before he passed away, he called me on most Saturday afternoons, asking whether I was going to his house for lunch...
Does one feel more lonely when he is alone on a deserted island or when everyone he knows is avoiding him, such as when a person is down with AIDs? Or perhaps the loneliest person is one who's physically in the company of friends/acquaintances/family, but mentally detached from them because they are all ignoring him? It's time we show more care and concern to the people around us, and not regret when they are gone.
Lonely, lonely christmas...
