Trilogy

It's Saturday again!!! Not the usual Saturday though...


Part 1 - Mr Ting & his icy lair

I hate attending lesson on Saturday - this is supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation! Anyway, it's back to school for Econs again. I slept quite a bit on Friday afternoon, so for once, I wasn't fighting the Zzz monster in Econs class. BUT, it just have to happen. I've managed to avoid it for quite some time, but today, it was back with a vengeance. Behold - the return of the freezing air!!!

Actually the overall temperature was okay for me, but somehow, it was giving my doze nots of rouble...ops...let me clear my doze. What I meant to say was that the draught from the air vent above me was causing my nose to run. My nose hasn't been that fast for quite some time (okay this is rather corny...lol...runny nose, get it?) Apart from having an uncomfortable time, I also had to contend with quite a few irritated stares. Hiaz...Thankfully, the ordeal ended just when I had fully-utilised the two sheets of tissue paper left in the pack that Mars gave to me. Thanks girl!And then the mad rush to Suntec...


Part 2 - The unexpected

Frankly, it was quite crazy. My lesson ends at 12:30pm and I was supposed to reach the NUSS Guild House at Suntec by 1pm for a volunteer appreciation tea. That's almost impossible. Even so, there's no way I was going to go by taxi.I was quite lucky though. My waiting time during transfers were pretty short, and with rapid leg movements, I was able to reach Suntec at around 1:10pm. Pretty incredible, I thought. Then I got held up for about 5mins because I was approached by this female surveyor who asked a few additional questions apart from those in the survey. Then I spotted Shanny sitting at a table not far away. So it's a Prudential roadshow again. Hmmm...somehow I keep running into their roadshows - seven since May - an average of once per month. It's almost like a menstrual cycle. I wonder if other people have similar experience...

I reached the Guild House with a few minutes to 1:30pm. Turns out all the others from my Hougang SCS-RWM group, who are supposed to turn up, have arrived, with the exception of Sebas. Yilin had SMS-ed me earlier saying that he had a competition today and would not be able to turn up. That's okay. What's not alright was that he wrongly accused me of telling him that the event was scheduled for Sunday! What nonsense! Anyway, he received the invitation letter too, so he ought to know the date. Don't try to push the blame to me you moron! LOL!The event was totally different from what I'd expected. Instead of a speech from a guest-of-honour in a hall, followed by interaction and reception, I was greeted by the sound of percussion instruments when I stepped into the Guild House. A group of people sat on chairs in a circle in the middle of a function room (not the hall I'd expected), cocooned in an atmosphere of raccous...erm...sounds. It's not exactly noise, but I would not call it music because the medley of sounds emanating from the drums, sticks, tambourines, and what-not in everyone's hands was not always coherent. I sat down beside Hui Min and soon enough, was joining in the fun with my two wooden sticks(there were instruments placed on every seat). Halfway through, there was a short introduction of names, before the place roared into life again. In the end, though we did not manage to achieve synchrony throughout, almost everyone appeared to have much fun (a few appeared bored) despite the slight pain in the hands from the repeated striking. It was already around 2:15pm by then, and we proceded to have lunch.

The lunch was followed by a lucky draw. A funny one. Apparently, the emcee had too much belief in her ability to deduce a person's gender from the spelling of the name - which is not always easy when dealing with Chinese names. She proceded to have fun calling out the names of those who won prizes in a round-about way. For instance, she called Yilin "a girl with the number 10 in her name", and Jane was "the girlfriend of Tarzan". As for me? Well, apparently my name appears feminine to her. So she described me as "a beautiful girl, yao2 tiao2 shu1 nu3" and proceded to call me "yao2 hui4". Everyone was laughing their heads off when I went up to receive the prize. LOL. Then I realised my prize was some sort of foldable bag that resembles an accordion. It is made of clear plastic with light pink and green prints. :-(

In the end, it turns out that there were only four people who did not receive any prize - PH, Hui Min, Jia Hui, and this guy from another group called Wen3 De2. We thus had our second laugh fest of the day when Wen De, who is 19, was asked to make three different mock wedding proposals to the three ladies, all of whom were at least 2 years older than him. He perform credibly though - that boy has got some great ideas. They were each rewarded with one bottle of the sparkling grape juice that was left.After the event, I decided to shop around in Suntec with Jia Hui, Jane and Xin Hui since it was still early. I even took a photo of a penguin from a standee of Happy Feet in Toy R 'Us and used it as my wallpaper. Irresitibly cute!


Part 3 - Yong Sheng's birthday party!

Finally, for the finale! Fabian had arranged to meet Ming Liang at Pasir Ris Interchange at 5pm but the latter only reached at 6. I could have joined them, but Fabian SMS-ed me at 6:05pm saying that he was tired of waiting for me, and that they were going to leave first. No harm. I decided to walk there. Imagine my surprised when I stepped out of Downtown East to find them alighting from the bus, together with Snoopy. They actually took longer than me! LOL! Turns out the bus had faulty doors. Haha! We walked to Yong Sheng's chalet through this short-cut that I never knew existed. Damn!

We reached to find ourselves one of the earliest from the platoon - only Ken, Kok Wee and Wei Xuan were earlier. I did not like the place. It was small and poorly-lit. And Yong Sheng did not stock up on cards or mahjong! As such, we could only talk and watch TV shows... The rest of the platoon arrived at various intervals. The total turnout was pretty small, but at least it was bigger than what Wei Xuan managed to get. LOL! Of the 15(compared to 10 for Wei Xuan), there were some unexpected faces(at least I didn't expect them) - Lian Chang, Teck Hong, Ivan(from Candace), Chong Ming and Ming Qiang.The main fun of a birthday party, especially when army friends are involved, is to give the birthday boy some 'special treatment'. With the gamely approval of his mum, Yong Sheng was dunked into the swimming pool. As a mere spectator though, I was spared from his revenge. But frankly, I thought his 'treatment' was pretty mild. The cake never even reach his face!

Before leaving, I helped Ken to clean up the chocolate fountain. Okay, actually I didn't help much. I merely gave some advice on removing the chocolate and helped to hold the base of the fountain while he remove the removable pieces. For my meagre efforts, I got some chocolate on my WHITE shirt and my right ear. Oh well...no big deal. Overall, the event was quite boring because of the small crowd and the lack of entertainment. Hope the next birthday gathering will be better!


Some last words...

I went home to find that the wine glass that was part of the door gift from the appreciation tea was broken at the stem. Not that I need it, but I think it's a pity that the glass did not get to serve it's function.

The day of the cold, the unexpected, the boring and the unfulfilled potential - A series of unfortunate (and other) events...

Shopping!!!

Don't let the title fool you - I'm not enthusiastic about shopping...

Anyway, yesterday went to Orchard with Fabian, Ken and Snoopy to shop for presents for Yong Sheng's 21st birthday. Ken and Snoopy was there before me. First thing they did when they saw me was to comment on my attire.

Ken: Aiyo! Why you tuck in?!?
Snoopy: Yalor!
Ken: Do you watch Sesame Street? Your shirt reminds me of Ernie!

Hiaz... Do I look that bad? Anyway, I was wearing one of my favourite shirts, which is a vermillion and blue, horizontal striped shirt. Yong Sheng once commented that I looked gay in that shirt. :-( Am I the only one who thinks that shirt is nice? In any case, I liked the mix of colours and it's very comfortable, so I shall not stop wearing the shirt. :-) Oh, I almost forgot to clarify. I didn't tuck in my shirt - at least not fully. I only tucked in the front because it was quite long. In the end, Ken suggested I tucked it in at one side and leave the other side hanging out. Looks better to me too!

My 'problems' has not ended though. As both of them were wearing black shirts, I stood out like a sore thumb beside them. The moment we stepped out of the MRT station, I was approached by this girl purportedly from a certain modelling agency with the usual praises about my looks and potential... So now I'm supposed to be some hunk who's tall, dark and handsome? Tall and dark maybe, but definitely not handsome... Well, she tried her utmost to convince me that I have perhaps the looks of Andy Lau and I should leave her my name and contact numbers. NO WAY! I rejected her all the way. Needless to say, my friends were very amused by the situation. That shirt has made me the centre of attraction...

If you think that's it, then you are wrong. Turns out Fabian decided to wear a very dark blue shirt, darker than navy blue. So now I REALLY am very prominent beside them... Hiaz...

Thankfully, that's the end of my little side story. *Phew* Now for the task. We had earlier thought of getting a Raoul shirt (Fabian's suggestion), but they all seemed too formal. We couldn't find any one we liked in the other shops as well, so we decided to brainstorm for something else. Then we chance upon them - little bottles of scented water aka eau de toilette. Alright! Now we got something! It was funny how the sales girl used 3 different plastic bags for our purchase - simply redundant and shows her lag of thought...

Next, it was shopping for chocolate powder. Ken is going to bring a chocolate fountain to Yong Sheng's birthday party, and we shall be dipping marshmallows into melted chocolate. I can't wait for that... Unlike what happened earlier, this sales girl realised that the four bags of chocolates will require a big bag, but we never expected the HUGE bag that we were given. I can almost drag the bag along! HaHa!!

Finally our shopping is done! The last task of the day is to walk to Plaza Singapura where Snoopy can can a replacement SIM card. Along the way, we stopped at Cineleisure. Here, I encountered a group of 4 or 5 girls who demonstrated ugly, ungraceful behaviour. I was holding on to a heavy glass door while my friends entered the building. As I was following them in, the girls came up behind me and tried to follow me through, none of them making any attempt to help with the door. Since they were right up behind me, the only thing I can do was to proceed forward. As I'm not blessed with extendable limbs like those of Mr Fantastic, you can imagine what happened as I moved forward and released my grip on the door handle. The last two girls screamed as the door crashed into them. It probably wasn't too bad since the door wasn't exactly swingly freely, but there's probably enough weight on the door to push them through. If only they had some sense to hold on to the door, or if they weren't so close behind me, I could have held the door open for them! Hiaz...

What an eventful trip!

3 'M's

Maddening weather

It's the rainy season again. The hot afternoons and wet evenings conspire to drive me into depression... Ok, maybe not that bad, but enough to cause some discomfort and inconveniences. Give me back my clear skies!!!


Missing Kelly

Wonder where that girl is right now. Said that she will be back on the 18th, but haven't heard from her at all. Sylvia couldn't reach her on her original HP number, and I haven't been able to meet her on MSN. Houdini would be proud of her...


Mixed languages?!?

It seems English has impinge into the speech of Chinese in China. Mr Colin Goh gave a brief review of the use of Chinglish in his column in The Sunday Times on 19 Nov. Perhaps in the near future, the Chinese government will be brainstorming for ways to preserve the Chinese language, the same way the Singapore government is trying to promote the use of the Mother Tongue. Well... the cross-pollination of languages is an inevitable product of globalisation; I guess everyone will just have to accept it. Regardless of the measures and campaigns in place, there will always be purists who hold on to the notion of a single language in speech, and there will be people who prefer a 'rojak' language - whether by choice or circumstance. Elsewhere, people around the world are busy picking up Mandarin with the aim of establishing business ties with the Eastern dragon...

One hot Sunday...Remembering Parry...

Hiaz... Just spent a frustrating half an hour trying to log in to my blogger account. There seems to be some problem with my account. When I try to log in from the Blogger home page, my username was claimed to be non-existent! Well, my first post yesterday certainly didn't appear there by itself! In the mean time, I can only log in through my Google account... I suppose the detour is unavoidable for a computer idiot like me. :-(

Parry held its Closing Gala Dinner yesterday night. Wanted to go but found out too late. Jin Xi told me about the website only on the day before the closing date, and I only accessed the website on the night of the closing date... Haiz... Turns out Jun Jie and Xiao Wei didn't even know that Parry will be merging with Xing Hua wef next year - and I thought the news has already spread to all former students with at least some link to the Internet.

It's a pity that Parry will cease to exist in the near future. It seem not long ago when I first stepped into the school. I could vividly remember the sprawling field (it appeared in a television commercial for a rice company, starring Kit Chan), the tiny annex building which pales in comparison with the modern school halls (we often have to borrow the hall of the neighbouring Rosyth School for bigger events) and the numerous dilapidated buildings at a secluded corner of the compound. I also have fond memories for the rabbits and chickens kept in the coop behind the Teachers' Room, and the Science Garden, with its myriad of plants and a pond community. My school certainly would not look out of place on Ubin.

I loved that the school was situated in a quiet environment, away from incessant traffic noises. Surrounded by landed houses, it seemed to be shielded from the negative influences that permeates the world - relative isolation with only Rosyth as company. I could run around the field without having to endure car exhaust seeping into my nose, and attend classes unaffected by car horns and rumbling engines. It's a very different environment from modern, newer schools built in or near to housing estates due to space constraints. It results in noise and air pollution for both students and residents. An aunt of my who lives in Bishan, complains that the singing of the national anthem and school song in Catholic High (which happens to be my secondary school) wakes up her baby every morning. Well...perhaps I'm exaggerating the noise, and especially air pollution...

In any case, the school will not exist for much longer. Neither will the wide expanse of grass that is unrivalled in size by most schools in Singapore. It is perhaps ironic that the location, while drawing me to the school, is also the reason it has become redundant. Its sequestered nature has resulted in dwindling enrolment. Even Rosyth has moved out a couple of years ago. Unlike Rosyth, which is a 'branded' school, Parry is hardly known by anyone with no links to the school and is not living in that estate, and hence lack the drawing power. In fact, when Rosyth was still located there, many Parry students were failed applicants to Rosyth! It didn't help that Parry did not produce fantastic students who grap headlines and public attention. Last year's enrolment, I heard, was less than 100...

I'll always remember Parry. The same, it applies, I'm sure, for those men who frequent Parry field for a game of soccer during evenings...

The Beginning...

effulgence • \ih-FULL-junss\ • noun : radiant splendor : brilliance

'Effulgence' is my favourite word, and has been so ever since I came to know of it. I like the way it sounds, and its meaning matches my desire to be the light of hope to my friends during times of darkness.

I've been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time, but laziness combined with a certain sense of uncertainty has resulted in the overdue birth of this blog. I wasn't sure this was what I wanted to do; whether I will persevere with the blogging or give up after some time; whether there is any point to doing this. In the end, I decided that it would be good to have some records of my life for future reference and reminiscence. In any case, it would be much easier than to keep a written diary. *chuckles*

I believe I'll be able to keep this blog regularly updated. Hope you enjoy reading it!

To find out more about me, check out my friendster profile at http://www.friendster.com/2786825.