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Hiaz... One weekend in Gentings and I chalked up an excess $25 in my phone bill. What really surprised me though, was how I had to pay more for the incoming calls. Since mum kept calling me to ask about JY, who's almost always ignorant of her calls, I ended up with the biggest bill in the house, even though my usage was the least...
Just found out yesterday that Cher is on holidays in Hong Kong and parts of China. Through SMS. I wonder how much the 4 SMS (2 sent, 2 received) will cost me. Or my dad, rather.
Recent news mentioned the use of dry walls in the wake of Indonesia's sand ban and the resulting sand crisis. Apparently, the walls can resist fire for an hour and every point of the wall can withstand 25kg of pressure. Wonder how the walls perform with 25kg of pressure at a point in a fire...Then there's Mr 'Newsoil', who found a way to build roads using soil with special chemicals added. I thought that was pretty cool!There's also the Bring Your Own Bag Day (BYOBD), which has seen total participation from Ikea from Earth Day onwards, as opposed to having it only on the 1st Wednesday of every month. I was intrigued by the oxo-biodegradable plastic bags they use. Apparently they biodegrade under room condition, which I suppose, means that they biodegrade in air. I wonder what they biodegrade into...Exams are round the corner - literally. Econs paper falls on next Wednesday! Excited at the prospect of having my exams at Expo (a totally new experience!), yet nervous about my 1st actual exam in a long time...Hope I do well.
Today, I would like to give a little illustration of the presence of Murphy’s Law in my life. From my observations, you should be able to sense my frustrations at the unwelcome coincidences. I will add more case studies should I come across them.
Case 1
Background:
Whenever I take bus 74 home from school, there are two bus stops which I may alight from, to transfer to a feeder bus to get home. The first stop requires me to cross a short stretch of road, whereas the second stop necessitates the crossing of an overhead bridge. However, there are two buses that I can transfer to at the second stop(119 and 136), compared to only one(119) at the first stop.
Murphy’s Law comes into play…
Often, when I alight at the first stop, 119 take ages to arrive (typically 15mins and above). On the other hand, if I decide to alight at the second stop, 119 will appear just after my bus leaves the first stop. I will then end up watching the sun go down while waiting for 15mins or more at the second stop. On a few occasions, I watched 119 go pass as my bus leaves the first stop, only to wait for 20mins before boarding 119 at the second stop. The 136 driver probably had to make a detour to the toilet on those occasions.
Case 2
Background:
There is this road that I have to cross whenever I have to go to the mall near my house. I almost always cross at the traffic junction (because I am a law-abiding citizen. Haha!).
Murphy’s Law comes into play…
From my experience, the pedestrian lights are only in my favour on three occasions out of every 10 trips I make. (I include favourable light changes within ten seconds of arrival)
I probably lost 5 years of my life from all that smoke inhaled. But I’ll come back to that later.
I travelled to Genting Highlands over the Good Friday weekend via coach. By Five Stars Tours Pte Ltd. On a 1st Class coach.
It was a truly enjoyable ride. My seat seemed to be able to accommodate two of me, and there was a wide choice of (Nintendo-typed)games and videos to choose from. And since we traveled on Thursday night, it was nice to be able to catch forty winks on a reclining seat that opens to 150 degrees (I think). Pity the thigh massager in my seat wasn’t functioning, otherwise I could have a complete massage. I never thought I would be able to enjoy such VIP treatment (though apparently, they offer all the above, complemented by in-bus stewardess to provide refreshments; ironically, their VIP coaches are one rung below the 1st Class coaches).
We had a very fast and efficient driver who got us to First World Hotel in less than four hours, excluding a half hour stop in Yong Peng for toilet break and refreshments. It was surprising to learn that the hotel holds the Guiness World Record for the most number of hotel rooms. Another surprise was meeting Meng Keong at the lobby. The poor guy had to wait in queue for his room while I was able to check in straight away, having paid a little more in booking fees.
The hotel is pretty huge, and it takes quite a while to orientate myself around the myriad of shops. There is a good mix of retail, F&B, and entertainment outlets around, on top of the usual outdoor theme park, but there is a dearth of signage and directories. I missed out on some indoor rides, as I was not able to locate them on the first day, when I got a day pass for unlimited rides. I was also disappointed with the exorbitant fees for the LAN shops. 12RM an hour would have provided me with six times as much entertainment in Singapore! The pool/billiard and bowling are set at decent prices though, at 12RM per hour and 6RM per game respectively. Watching a movie costs only 10RM, but tickets to Mr Bean’s Holiday were sold out when I wanted to watch it.
The trip was generally fun, but it would have been better if smoking were not allowed in the hotel. I had thought the casino would be the only haven for smokers – how wrong I was to be. Whether one is in the toilet, in the lift, queuing for tickets or taking photos with the mock Statue of Liberty, there’s just no escaping the smoke. Even in the few areas where smoking is banned, regulation is lax. The no-smoking signs did not stop smokers in the billiard shop; neither did the counter girl, who probably has eyes on her feet, and nose in her hair. Similarly, signs that restrict smoking in the hotel passageways were ignored. I was not surprised though; nobody would be. Not when you provide rubbish bins with ashtrays on the lift landings of every floor! So what if you have an anti-smoking sign above the bin?
I’m glad Singapore is largely smoke-free.
Another surprise was the great disparity in cigarette prices compared to Singapore. While cigarettes in Singapore typically cost S$10 – S$11 per pack, in Malaysia, they only cost around RM$7! I know our cigarette tax is huge, but it is only now that I realise how significant it is.
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!
