it's about beating yourself...

Climb On 2011

2011-10-18T11:24:00.005+08:00

I had a really good time at Climb On! this year. Managed to complete much more routes than last year! and with less pump too. :) guess the PT trainings have been rather useful! Our team, comprising Boon, Yijie, Darren and me, came in 5th for Open Enduro Team. No prize though, but nonetheless, I felt we did well! Got really psyched near the end when they were about to close the system for the collecting of points. Went around chionging all the crazy routes. lol. Didn't stay for the campus finals though. It sure looked fun from the photos, with neon tiles and paints and all. :)

Went back early the next morning to guide our very own Acrobatics kids on their routes! Alina and Cameron were put under my care. :) Alina was really strong. When I had to leave around 130pm, Alina was 1st in the lead in the Under-12 category with the 2nd placed girl just 300 points behind her. So exciting! Wished I could have stayed to guide her through the comp but I couldn't. :( really proud of them though! just saw the results:

from Acrobatics,
for Under-12 girls: 1st-Alina, 3rd-Anika, 4th- Ava
Team 1st place: Team Acrobabies- comprising Cameron, Leo, Alina and Ava
(their team managed to win with Cameron going off halfway to fly kites with his dad. haha imagine how strong they were! )

felt a sense of satisfaction after their climbs that day. I see a lot of potential for development in these young kids! :)

Been checking up some of the various exchange universities that I can consider applying for. Kind of feel like going for GIP in year 3 sem 1! anyone interested in going to the States? :) that would mean one sem without climbing, without the acrobatics kids, and without my mum's cooking. lol.

the story of two lovebirds

My pet yellow lovebird just died yesterday, without me getting to see it for the last time. :( It had been a good bird. It flew into our house one day, and my dad took it in and we went to buy a cage and another green lovebird as a companion. They were a loving pair, and we kept them for I think almost or slightly more than 2 years already. It was tame too. Every time the green bird tried to bite our fingers when we stuck them into the side of their cage, the yellow bird would lightly peck at its feet to stop it from biting. Last month, on September 24th, the green bird died. We went to buy another white bird to keep the yellow bird company. but it didn't welcome the white bird into its cage very much; it often tried to peck at the white bird and didn't let it go into its house (a wooden shelter in the cage). I guess it felt lonely, pining for its partner every day for the past 23 days. Maybe it wasn't eating well too, we couldn't have known. Perhaps we were a bit mean to it in its final days because it started to get a bit rebellious with a new bird being put into its cage; it sometimes bit us when we tried taking it out to play. We may have neglected it more since the white bird was bought, coz the white bird was more tame and easier to take out to play with. I hope it didn't feel that way.

Anyway, I'd like to think that it felt lonely pining for its partner and so it decided to go join it in its faraway land. My mum placed it in a tupperware with some sunflower seeds, as a farewell for the bird. What a love story of two lovebirds.

take good care of your pets guys. they have feelings too.

rest in peace, birdie. :)

BLOOP!

2011-10-01T03:20:00.001+08:00

haha even though I will need to wake up in like 5 and a half hours time to go out, I decided that I must still post this entry while it is still fresh in my mind. really enjoyed myself just now with all the tjccc peeps celebrating bel's and shalynn's birthday! had dinner at Billy Bombers Cathay, where we saw JJ Lim (seriously!) walking up the escalator wearing a cap. shalynn almost went crazy! (:

then after that headed to the Little Red Dot pub at Clarke Quay for some drinks! we took a while to soak in the atmosphere but after a few drinks everyone was nice and high! it felt really good catching up with everyone else despite their busy schedule and just unwinding and not thinking about anything else. (temporarily! although we all had work waiting for us at home) The singer at the pub looked really familiar to me too, and after we googled we found out it was Charlene Torres-Tan, one of the top 24 contestants in Singapore Idol 2009! guess the competition did do her good. she had quite a nice voice too!

once again, thank you all for today! I had a lot of fun, really. :):) hope you guys did too!

bouldermania 2011

2011-08-30T00:13:00.000+08:00

what a crazy past few nights for all of the crew at bouldermania.. route setting and testing till 4+ 5 in the morning, carrying plywood and scaffolding poles like bangalas do, wall painting, competing, route judging, wall crew etc, you name it, we did it! super tiring, especially on the last night where we tested the routes till like 4 plus, went back and slept for 2 and a half hours, then went back to the event place at 815. steam.

it was fun trying out the open men's routes. 2 bonuses out of 6 routes with no tops. haha. Opens cat is all about power endurance, I realised. Even after a few powerful routes, you still need to find a way to rest quickly in between routes and generate just as much power for the next route. not easy, definitely. Ron is really a sick monster! his signature move is to heel hook on nothing at all- the side wall. lol. congrats to weiling and uyanga for winning. pity we couldn't get better sponsors. haha. we had fun last night using the mic and sound system to sing songs at the TCT pavilion area after dinner while waiting for the lorry to transport more stores. doubt we'll ever get more chances like that to sing there again in future. haha. yijie has amazing talent! excellent harmonization skills too. :)

my hall room has now become a temporary storeroom for the bm stores. aching all over, felt like I just got hit by a car or something. lol. need to catch up on work now!

2011-06-27T12:17:00.002+08:00

here are some pictures of our newly painted wall. :D hard work okay!

took the ippt at Bedok Camp with the guys that day.. out of the five of us, only Limzy emerged with a silver. Junyu passed while the rest of us failed, mainly at running. joke! haha. my timing was 14.04 min, 1 min 34 s from pass. Never in my whole life/ army life did I run that kind of timing before.. lol.. looks like I need to attempt it again! :)

after the ippt we went to Park Royal Hotel at Bugis to try their buffet dinner.. it was not bad! :) around $40 per pax after paying with UOB debit to get 20% discount. There was sashimi, oysters, soft shell crabs, prata, roast duck/pork, chilli crabs, cheese, salad, various local dishes, fresh mussels and prawns, and a huge selection of delicious yummy desserts like mousse and fudge cakes and brownies and fondue. imba! :D we really ate our fill. haha.

sashimi and oysters!

fresh seafood selection

Rockmaster was much better this time for me. Managed to control my nerves and planned my time and routes better so I didn't get as pumped. Flashed three out of five routes in the qualifiers! felt proud of myself. :D first finals spot for me! but the finals was far from good.. haha.. yes the routes were difficult but I made some mistakes that I normally wouldn't have made. Too nervous or too relaxed? I don't really know. haha will aim to get into the finals again next time! it was a refreshing change from the flash format. but three and a half minutes is really quite fast! just some planning, one good attempt, and boom, one minute left. lol. a different experience, I must say. :) a job well done for Joel! came in first despite not climbing in competitions for so long. the NUS climb team will be proud to welcome the new addition to the team haha.

qualifiers results

finals results

pumpfest, genting, tilewashing

2011-06-10T00:18:00.007+08:00

what an eventful past week! helped out at Pumpfest for the whole of last weekend.. it was a tiring but pleasant experience for me... learnt a lot doing route judging and other stuff. Millenia Walk was kind of a little too high class, with not much entertainment /foodcourts in the area. thankfully Marina Square was just nearby. :) I didn't manage to qualify this time again, endurance was really bad! and bad route planning too. lol. tried some of the Opens qualifying routes and they were really sick. there is really a big difference between the Intermediate Mens routes and the Open Mens routes. it's like a whole new level really. haha.

it was a pretty scary experience being the route judge for the Open Men's category too! thank you boonsheng and winson for letting me overcome my fear. okay this was what happened. I made a little mistake in judging a false start on a Novice Men's route earlier on, but luckily boonsheng spotted the mistake and pointed it out to me that it wasn't a false start. so we edited the guys climbing slip and counted it as one less attempt. from then I was a little paranoid that I would make the same mistake again so was kind of hesitant about judging Opens. but boonsheng and winson wanted me to learn something so they asked me to judge Opens, and it was really scary with 300 plus people standing around watching. lol. Ponti held an illegal tile and had this killer look on his face when I had to ask him to come down. like some Maori tribe warrior. haha.

after that it was a 4+ hour sleep and then off I went to tampines one at 4.30am to meet lew and company for breakfast at macs before our bus ride to Genting at 5.45am! the bus was pretty comfortable. :) hotel room was not as fantastic as the previous one at Resort Hotel though.. this time we stayed at First World Hotel.. kenghao wasn't feeling too well so we did not go to the theme park.. spent most of our time at the casino, like a true blue AHS-ian. :D haha!
bought some snacks for the family from the local produce shop at the foot of Genting. kenghao bought RM60 worth of otah! lol.

comfortable bus seat

Kenny Rogers. the macaroni and cheese was nothing compared to Singapore's!

our shanghainese dinner, courtesy of the big winners. thanks again! :)

and then we worked as bangalas for the almost the whole of yesterday... went back to NTU to paint the walls and wash tiles. thanks to my mum for allowing me to borrow the car! here's an appetiser. forgot to take a photo of the final wall! anyway, minor touches still to be done. lol.

:D

2011-05-16T16:18:00.003+08:00

ORD lo... soon! not yet. lol. many things to do from the 18th of May! or rather, I will FIND many things to do. hahaha. :D

it's been a long time since I last climbed... how will be be able to get back into form for Pumpfest? hope the Camp 5 trip will be good for recovery.

allez.

full steam ahead

2011-05-02T01:54:00.000+08:00

Five years ago, I was only 16 and didn't have a care in the world, definitely not for rallies, at least. Now that we've entered university and some issues and problems that exist become or seem more relevant to me, I start to take some interest in these issues and find politics actually quite interesting. Five years ago, I wouldn't have known what a "seat in parliament" or a "rally" was. I think I even thought a rally was like an auction that sold stuff. lol.

I think it'd be rather interesting to attend one of the rallies these few days but I really do not have the time, with 5 papers in 4 days coming up the following week. Power-packed right! :D

I LOVE STUDYING!

allez

2011-04-29T23:40:00.001+08:00

Back in secondary school and JC, I would always feel a little emotional on last days of school. Not as in emo or sad kind of emotional, but as in the 'make me think about stuff' kind of emotional. I would think about the past school year and the fun stuff we used to do as a class together. I would think of the plans for the holidays. The mood would generally be quite a happy and light-hearted one because we would normally get back our report books on the last day, which was always a happy occasion because we would have fun comparing with our friends and also looking and how we have improved or deproved over the last year.

This year, things are a little different. The last day of school seems especially empty, with many people self-declaring a day off. The mood is a little tense as the exams are just around the corner. People dabao back into their hostel rooms instead of sitting down at the canteen for their meals.

9 days to the first paper. I wonder how I will fare this time round. The semester has been generally better than the last one, but this is the crucial and final lap of the race. We can do this, right? We've been here before. See you guys at the finish.

iron man

2011-03-04T22:49:00.001+08:00

first time donating blood today! sort of overcame the fear for the thick needle. It wasn't that painful after all. accumulated good karma! :D I will need lots of it. haha. the nurse said my blood was high in iron! the maximum level was 18.5 and my blood was 17.8. :):) I am Iron Man. hahaha.

I really could use some breathing space. the recess week will be most welcome indeed.. the past six weeks has flown by just like that. come to think of it, people keep talking about what they are going to do next year (the academic year), which makes it seem so far away.. but itactually isn't too long away from now. lol.

thinking whether I should go for the industrial attachment in year 3 which takes up one sem but allows me to clear 10 AUs(academic units) or whether I should go for the industrial orientation, which is 4 AUs only, but which also means I will have one more sem to spread out my other cores and clear 6 additional AUs.. After all, we can't be certain that in future we'll be working at the company where we did our attachment also right? hmmm..

lots of stuff to think about. I need a plan.

pearly whiteeee

2011-02-25T17:13:00.000+08:00

Dentists make good money!

I just visited the NTU Dental Centre this afternoon to get two fillings done.. been feeling some pain recently on the back teeth.. I was amazed at the amount of decay at the back tooth area despite brushing my teeth everyday! But it's true that the toothbrush has a lot of difficulty in reaching into the little crevices on the back molars. anyway, that ten minute session with the dentist cost me $80! so people, take care of your teeth! :D

shopping spree

2011-02-13T18:57:00.003+08:00

Why is Sunkist more expensive than Peel Fresh orange juice and yet more sour? haha maybe because no sugar added. lol.. gave myself a treat today.. went to NTUC and bought lots of yummy stuff for school and hall. Kraft cheese wedges, yoghurt, Sunkist orange juice, Aik Cheong white coffee, Lipton's Black Kiss milk tea, White Rabbit milk candy, Yupi apple gummies, Dole bananas, and Kinder Chocolate! :D shopping spree.

got my first taste of the game In Between- the ultimate test of one's luck, or suayness. haha.. interesting! you can never be too sure even when you have an Ace and a King and two Aces and one King has come out. seriously much more scarier than blackjack. loll.

Japanese food at canteen one is the bomb! haha.. I've been eating it every week since school started.. sometimes with kaya butter toast from the drinks stall to top it off! whack only. haha.

Climbing training begins intensive next monday onwards.. 6 weeks to Boulderactive with the Japanese guy being the chief route-setter plus the venue is Marina Square! can't wait. :D

allez.

reflections

2011-01-01T17:00:00.006+08:00

what a year 2010 has been! one of the most eventful so far I guess.

Let's see..

1. I finally ORD-ed after serving the nation for 22 months.
2. I slacked for like 2 months after I ORD-ed to enjoy the post-ORD feeling and CNY etc.
3. I took up a part-time job at Marina Bay Sands where I got to enjoy hotel food everyday and even got to catch a glimpse of the inside of the casino! :)
4. I applied for Monash University after a long thinking process. I got in, and even booked the student accomodation and air ticket to leave on the 4th of July for Melbourne.
5. 13th May 2010: NTU sent me an email asking me to go down for an interview.
20th May 2010: I went down to NTU for the interview.
26th May 2010: NTU sent me the offer letter.
6. That was the turning point. I cancelled the flight, accomodation and sent a withdrawal letter to Monash, and accepted NTU's offer.
7. I went to Kbox/ Tio Heng for the first time! with the climbers :) and we've been addicted since then. HAHA.
8. Attended Hall Camp and Engine Camp. something new, I suppose.. as compared to previous camps in secondary school. lol.
9. Began my first semester at uni! one mega bullet train ride I tell you.
10. Had exams on my birthday for the first time in my life. Spent the whole birthday studying in hall! but it was heartwarming to receive so many well wishes from everyone. my family also came to meet me for dinner at New York New York. :) thank you all!

I was hoping we could all climb together again like how we used to.. but I guess it's not that easy. Well, its okay, to think on the bright side, at least climbing helped us form this really strong and unique bond between us which I am thankful for. :)

let's hope 2011 will be better than 2010! HUAT AHHHH.

Happy New Year!

off to KL tomorrow...

gg-fied

2010-12-14T17:15:00.001+08:00

Lesson learnt: insufficient practice + thinking I already knew certain concepts, hence failing to properly review them at the crucial last lap of the race.

I promise to study harder for Physics 1 next sem.

Please don't let me dabao. it will be pretty demoralising. :(

many thanks!

2010-12-13T14:22:00.009+08:00

the birthday wishes!

many thanks to all who wished me for my birthday! how ironic... one of the most quiet birthdays I've had so far, studying in hall and all, but yet one of the warmest I've felt with the numerous facebook messages and smses. :) thank you all...! :D

just had a random thought about our childhood.. I think our generation of children (as in the generation I was born in) can be considered quite fortunate as compared to those born in the early 1980s or later parts of the 1990s.. I think we are sort of like born in the transition period of the two. well for my generation we still played fun games like marbles, crocodile, catching and ice & water during primary school, had cartoons like the Lion King, Captain Planet and X-Men to watch, and we didn't get handphones until we were in secondary school or something so I think we are able to appreciate them better.. look at the kids nowadays.. getting I-Phones when they are only in primary school. Their parents are really spoiling them.. lol. and the cartoons nowadays like cannot make it. or maybe it's because I've passed that phase so I can't really enjoy the cartoons as much as last time. haha. anyway..

two down and three more to go! allezzzz..

I'm 21 already! cannot believe it myself. haha. can go Genting casino LOL. need Ms Ho Ee Lin the pro to bring us around some day. :D

brings back memories listening to this song! one of my favourite cartoon movies of all-time: The Lion King. :)

The Circle of LIFE

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to be seen than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done

Some say eat or be eaten
Some say live and let live
But all are agreed as they join the stampede
You should never take more than you give
 
In the Circle of Life
It's the wheel of fortune
It's the leap of faith
It's the band of hope
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle, the Circle of Life
 
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars

There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps the great and small on the endless round

(Chorus repeats)

On the path unwinding
In the Circle, the Circle of Life.

lol

2010-12-11T00:00:00.000+08:00

haha okay my bro just told me thats why they ask us to write the seat number as well. and the scripts are collected in sequence so it'd be hard to mix them up! lol.. didn't realise that...

many thanks to my family for coming down to have dinner with me! :)

maths down!

2010-12-10T16:22:00.003+08:00

it's really scary not to write our names on the examination booklet. only our matriculation numbers are written. lol. what if someone writes someone else's number? then okay, probably the student will get zero for his own result but what about the person whose number got written? I wonder.. lol..

"Almost Here" by Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem is a really nice song by the way... :)

yay finally I can file away my maths stuff... I shall pray to the bell curve. lol. once again, complex numbers came back to haunt me.

rain rain rain rain rain

2010-11-30T18:15:00.002+08:00

nice weather!

20 days more...

random pictures

2010-11-03T18:22:00.011+08:00

My lab work! like art lesson. lol. took a photo for souvenir because I'll probably never get it back.

Happy birthday Mel Tan!

the cake was yummy. :D

Here's what the poster says:

"Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest Lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a Lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

cool eh!

It's November already! the heat is on..

allez.

CLIMB ON

2010-10-24T18:52:00.001+08:00

I CAN'T FEEL MY FINGERS AND ARMS!

Climb On was fun. had great fun moving around and trying the different routes and meeting many people I haven't met in a long time. :) pity my endurance wasn't as good.. felt the effects after a few routes that required more power. oh well, joined for fun anyway!

I think Climb On can only really be enjoyed by someone who already has a certain basic level of fitness and climbing technique. For freshies, it's understandably harder to appreciate the difficulty and beauty of certain routes because they aren't exactly familiar with the moves yet and so fall faster. I can still remember the last Climb On that we joined in 2006. I think the enjoyment level wasn't as high as the one today.. probably because we still had a lot to learn back then. And maybe, because we didn't know a lot of people back then too! so I guess we felt more isolated. but the atmosphere today was a warm one. :) I wish I had better endurance to try out many many more routes.. 64 in total! that's really a lot. highest points one being a 9990-point route with sick slopers. saw someone nearly finish!

it's going be a tiring week. fridge arriving tomorrow. yay. :D

now where did my recess week go to.

CLIMB ON!

2010-10-21T21:11:00.005+08:00

It's been four years since our last Climb On. time to re-live the feeling. :)

now there's some 100-move boulder power endurance route in our bouldering area set by the crazy Uyanga. huat ah. I fell at fifty plus.. lol.

quite looking forward to the climbing trip at Batu at the end of the sem, but I think the timing's not very good. Two weeks after the end of exams then go on a natural rock trip? I wonder.

anyway, we'll leave that till later. for now,

let's CLIMB ON. :D

GOLD MINE

2010-10-10T21:00:00.005+08:00

I'm really tempted to eat up my breakfast for tomorrow now! it's right beside me on my desk and the smell of the cheddar cheese is yummy yummy. The bread is called GOLD MINE- bought from Breadtalk for $1.50. haha..

check out the cheese... :D

my hall friend drove in today so he helped me buy KOI- Hazelnut Milk Tea. it was awesome..! tastes even more shiok when consumed in hall. lol.

recess week is almost here! :)

lesson learnt

2010-10-09T00:39:00.004+08:00

today I don't know what came over me. I was going down to dinner with my friend then I was at the second floor of the hall staircase when I looked down. I saw the roof of the sheltered walkway (the one with the tiled roof) just outside, and below there was a little slope. It looked pretty close actually. So my monkey instincts took over me and I decided to try to jump off the roof onto the grass patch below. Seriously it looked near. lol!

I jumped. but there was a slight slope which I failed to judge from the view up there. I landed with quite some impact. There was no real problem immediately but after my dinner and bath it started to feel funny. now I'm walking with a slight limp.

see la. act pro some more. lesson learnt. lol.

happy birthday terence... if you still remember us.. haha. :D

memory loss!

2010-10-01T19:15:00.005+08:00

I think I'm having short term memory!

today in my room I made myself green tea, the teabag kind. I went to the pantry and filled the cup with hot water. Then I left it there and went to the toilet. After coming out of the toilet I went straight back to my room to continue doing my work. It was only when my friend came into the room and I asked him "eh you want a drink?" then I remembered my tea was still in the pantry!

after drinking my tea, I decided to go refill it so I went to the pantry again. I left it on the counter again and went to the toilet after that. And when I came out, I FORGOT THE TEA. AGAIN. joke!

on wednesday outside Climbers Lab, I passed/ loaned a senior one of the 13 harnesses. When I went back to hall, I didn't count the numbers. The next day, when I was supposed to bring the equipment to SRC (sports and recreation centre), I took out the harnesses at the bus stop and started to count. And when there were only 12 I panicked! like a kan jiong spider. lol. I was damn sian, thought sure need to pay. In the end today then another senior reminded me that I loaned out the harness to the guy so actually not lost. lol.

maybe its the content of schoolwork! loading up my brain until I forget little things.. lol.

Happy Birthday, Bel & Shalynn! :D

wake me up when september ends

2010-09-24T21:44:00.004+08:00

Okay I'm now officially the Quartermaster of UMC! time to experience being a Darren. ERR! think I'm gonna have a lot of sai gang coming my way. time to pick up new skills. lol. our cupboard is really pretty small, quite sad. but I think that's not too bad either.. easier to keep tidy. haha..

and I managed to persuade (I shall not use the word psycho) bing bing and zi jie to join competitive climbing... yay.. hopefully more and more ppl will join us and soon we will be back to what we used to be. but better. :)

the days are passing really quickly.. I feel like I'm on the Corkscrew..! okay Flying Coaster would be a better description. now I know what recess week is for. it's for you to CATCH UP. But it seems pretty far away still. allez allez..!

Hall 16 is really like a condo. the room is slightly bigger than mine too! but I am thankful. :D

what a random chunk of ramblings. luckily we don't have to take GP anymore.

sometimes people make awful comments when they don't really know you well. You think to yourself, its okay. but then again, is it?

lab day

2010-09-21T20:22:00.001+08:00

today when I arrived at the lab, I sat down at the same square table as my friend. Beside my was this ah tiong who already had his notes out. There was a lot of scribblings on it. I was reminded of the Hwa Chong student in my group last week whose notes already had all the supposed answers from his seniors. I signalled to my friend and gestured at the ah tiong, "eh. this one power."

I sat down and took out my stuff. Then I turned to the ah tiong and said, "hi." He said "hello" back, then after that my friend said to him to chinese, "may I have a look at that?" After looking at the notes, he said to the ah tiong and me, "wa power sia." I was about to ask him whether he got his answers from his senior or something. Luckily I didn't!

5 minutes later this ah tiong beside me walked up to the front and said, " Good morning class. I am your tutor for today."

LOL!! what a move. haha. lucky I didn't say anything funny to him. Some of the tutors are really young. I wonder if they are even proper teachers or just hired to teach tutorial/take lab sessions. Some of them just seem to be rushing through the tutorials. Don't know for what. That day the ah tiong chem teacher best, flash the answers then just read out the solutions without really explaining. Then he finished going through the questions within half an hour when the lesson is supposed to take an hour. Then he told the class, "sorry, I cannot let you go yet, need you all to stay with me." lame, might as well spend the time explaining properly right, rush so fast then don't let people leave early. lol.

anyway, ran 5km for climbing pt yesterday! was almost dying. but good la, forces me to run. because I actually pretty much dislike running. this morning no muscle ache though.. guess the muscles are more conditioned now. haha. Uyanga is real crazy. in a good way, I mean. she's really strong! With her taking our PT sessions I think we'll improve in no time. :)

AGM tomorrow, SIM this weekend... busy week!

allez!

2010-09-15T01:18:00.004+08:00

first climbing training! I feel refreshed after the light run. haha. it's been a while! :) I thought the distance we ran was pretty long but I google-mapped it and it turned out to be only 2.8 km. lol. almost had chest pains! hope I get muscle ache tomorrow. ache=good. haha.

managed to test out my Jet-7 shoes on the wall.. glad they didn't hurt anymore.. past week I kept trying to fit into them and it was pretty painful. haha. still remember what the Allsports Equipment uncle said to us when he was selling us the shoe -- "cannot stand the pain then don't climb!" I was thinking of getting half a size bigger actually. lol.

in a dilemma whether to go for the pre-AGM meeting for UMC or attend the freshmen welcome dinner for my hall. after all it's a one-time event right? but don't attend AGM means cannot run for main comm. or so I heard. now now, should I run for main comm??

oh ya. I also tried out two new canteens today! Canteen 4 and canteen 2. wa canteen 4 really cannot make it in terms of waiting time. I think there's only like one zi char stall and one cai fan stall or something. then when we reached there the cai fan finish so only left zi char. like monopoly sia! okay the food was not bad. but we waited almost 45 mins for it. when we placed our order she was just starting to serve number 78 or something. then the numbers we got were like 106! but canteen 2 was really good. cheap and good cai fan. with air con too! :) shall try again next week. haha.

UNION DAY. what in the world is that. only know lessons start at 230. yayy. :D

zz..

2010-09-05T03:23:00.004+08:00

In the past, I used to quietly cheer in my heart whenever I saw people who had their exams fall on their birthdays, like the October/ November period. And I was always thankful that mine was in December. Finally, it is time for others to laugh and quietly cheer in their hearts.. because this year, my birthday week will be the exam week.. how fascinating. :) thanks to? YOG! lol. but its okay, there's always a first time.

by the way, I bought new climbing shoes! Jet 7 by 5.10 since there was no size for the Project and Team 5.10. but anyway, the Team 5.10 has a really wicked arch.. the downturn is pretty extreme and can be pretty painful if not used to it, so I might or might not have gotten it anyway. I tried to break-in the shoes today by wearing it in the house for a while. lol. when I tried it in the shop my left foot felt pain. Now I put it on at home and my right foot feels the pain. strange feet. long time no climb!

get well soon bro, we're all here for you.

Hall X

2010-08-31T22:57:00.005+08:00

I've moved into hall! okay it was a little dusty at the beginning. there was a dead cockroach under the table plus a half eaten yoghurt container left on top of the cupboard, but after the cleaning, it's nice and cosy now. :) here's what it looks like.

nice and blue!

lots of supplies! thanks to my mum. :)

what's missing is a little fridge. LOL~! I can imagine the kind of stuff we'll be buying if there's a fridge. milk, cereal, yoghurt, fruits, chocolates, fruit juice?? anyway, we'll see how it goes.

there were a lot of freebies at the orientation today! jacket, college tee, usb thumbdrive -it's really small actually, about 2MB only.. main purpose was to show us some school content inside- lanyard, water bottle, notepads, shoebag, EZ-link card- no value of course! if only a few weeks earlier.. could have been used for free travel on public transport during the YOG from 14-26 August...- lol.. and most importantly, a MAP. HAHA. :D

saw on the Edventure portal that Kimberly Wang is in my elective course. lol. if you don't remember, she actually acted in some channel 5 and channel 8 shows before.. not those kind of major roles la, but ya. weien my roomie told me her name! so i'm not the stalker here. hahaha.

was a little lazy to come back from NTU today.. it's really really far. plus my favourite quilt is now at hall and not at home. HAHA. thankfully my mum was free after work to fetch me. yayy.

hot hot hot hot that's very hot!

2010-08-29T02:11:00.003+08:00

Hall camp was great. :D the initiation wasn't as bad as engine camp! but still.. it was really disgusting. lol..

had to leave to see the doctor on the 3rd day's morning coz of some cream bread I ate the night before that made my stomach feel funny. I vomitted once at the chalet, which was at NSRCC by the way. nice place! by some luck, the clinic that they brought me too happened to be just across my block. HAHA. slept the night at home and rejoined the guys the next morning. fortunately nothing serious. :)

SP night was on a ship at Marina South Pier. I never knew there was a pier over there before. lol. throughout the dinner we just kept rocking and rocking every time there was a big wave. just so happened that the timing coincided with the closing ceremony of the YOG, so there was fireworks as well..! haha.

Hall life is going to be exciting. :D

My sis treated me bubble tea today, at this new place at Bedok Interchange, near the KFC, called Q Essentials bubble tea.. it's some taiwan kind also. it was nice! can fight with KOI, seriously. actually it's very similar to KOI, can even choose the sugar level. the shop owners from taiwan I think, coz they have the slang. so you can expect authentic taiwan bubble tea. they also quite smart to open there. the human traffic a lot. plus with the craze over KOI + the upcoming Bedok Point nearby, I think they're going to have awesome business.. haha. I shall become a supporter! lol. :D had this drink called Hokkaido Milk Tea.. some kind of coffee-ish/ milk tea drink. go try!

climb at nus

2010-08-21T02:22:00.000+08:00

climbed at NUS gym today.. thanks to rongjun and limzy for inviting! otherwise it would have been 5 weeks without climbing, assuming that we resume climbing on the first week of school,which I also think probably not. played pool in the student lounge while waiting for the gym to open. the Foosball table con money one. saw someone put in $1 but no balls came out! best thing is, there's a laminated sign there: For problems, call 67****** (some numbers which I cant remember). so when the guy called, the number not valid. LOL! saw Fiona there too! what a small world. hor ahem?? hahaha. :D

wanted to go sing K again just now but Tio Heng's earliest slot was at 11pm! and they close at 1am. so, not worth. but we all really damn kian3! loll. can't seem to get enough of K. haha. settled for pool at parkway. KOI-ed again! Hazelnut Milk Tea. :) large some more. haha.. thanks Graham for the lift home! we shall K again soon lol..

Hall camp next week, and then it's time to move into the hall. a new chapter begins! oh and my dad bought me a nice pillow for me to bring to hall. I need to look for a bolster too.. haha.

Guide to ordering economical rice

2010-08-14T17:40:00.005+08:00

I came across this somewhere and found it very true...! :) lol. I'm sure some of us subconsciously employ some of these tactics while ordering cai fan.. except the ones in blue and orange, which I felt might not always work. haha..

Guide to ordering Economical Rice

Visit the stall near the end of lunch/dinner time.

Sure, some of the dishes may be sold out, but there will also be plenty of other dishes still available. Since the stall owner can't keep the dishes until the next lunch/dinner time, it is in his interest to give away larger portions so that he won't need to deal with leftovers later.

Get your guy colleague to order for you.

This only applies to girls. Stall owners tend to give a smaller portion to girls compared to guys. However, they charge the same price for both. So it is more value for money for a guy to place the order on behalf of the girl so as to receive a larger portion.

Ask for 'more rice' instead of 'add rice'.

Most stall owners will interpret 'more rice' as a larger scoop of rice which will result in more rice. This is generally free. However, 'add rice' entails adding a second scoop of rice to the first, and this generally costs additional money.

Make sure the stall owner has space to serve.

In many mixed vege stalls, there are usually two or more people serving dishes as the same time. When you are ordering, make sure to order dishes that are near the person serving you so that he won't have to stretch over his co-worker to reach your dish. If he is stretching to reach your dish, he probably won't give you more than usual serving since it is that much of a hassle.

Order the meat first.

This is to create a good impression with the stall owner. By ordering the meat first, your are signaling to the stall owner that you will not be ordering the cheapest items on the menu. This puts the owner in a better mood, so he may give you a larger serving.

Order 1 dish at a time and wait until he finished serving.

Point to your first dish, then wait until the stall owner finish serving it before pointing to the next dish. Do not rush him. Often, the stall owner needs time to gauge the portion of food to serve. If you give him sufficient time, it is likely that he will give you a larger than standard portion. Hurrying him results in less than standard portions.

Pause in between ordering dishes.

Pretend to ponder in between dishes. This gives more time for the stall owner to serve your previous dish which likely will result in a larger portion. When he is finished and noticed that you are still pondering over your next order, he may feel bored and add a few more slices of your previous dish while waiting for you to make your next choice.

Order the same dish twice.

Use this technique very sparingly. After order a dish, pretend to look distracted and point to the same dish again. The stall owner will likely tell you that he has already served that dish. However, occasionally, he may instinctively go through the motion of serving the dish again and make your portion slightly larger, all for the same price.

Order dishes that are about to run out.

It takes practice to estimate, but it is worth picking dishes that are left with about 1.5 to 2 portions. Chances are, that if there is only about 1.5 to 2 portions of the dish left, the stall owner will think 'what-the-heck' and just give you everything. The good is that you get extra servings, the bad is that sauces right at the bottom of the tray are very salty.

Order vege dishes that contain meat sauces.

Some vege dishes have some meat in it to bring out the additional flavour. But it is sold at the price of vege becos the meat is usually in small amounts and only present in the sauce. Tofu dishes are an example of such. By ordering such dishes, you are getting some serving of meat for the price of vege. Nice.

Do not order meat dishes that contain vegetables.

These dishes count as meat but is usual half served with vegetables. It is very not worthwhile, do not order it. An example is the stir fried venison with leek. Go for fully meat dishes instead.

Ask for curry sauce.

Many a time, when you ask for curry sauce, some other ingredients in the curry sauce will find its way onto your rice, such as small pieces of chicken or potato. Cabbage curry sauce will probably bring you some cabbages and longbeans. And it's free.

Ask for meat sauces.

As mentioned earlier, some sauces are cooked with minced meat. It is near impossible to separate the mince meat from the sauce. So if you ask for meat sauces, you will definitely receive some serving of meat with it. And it's free.

Become a regular customer.

Talk to the stall owner on occasions. With good rapport, the stall owner will recognize you as a regular customer and will naturally give you extra servings the next time you visit.

it's all in the mind

2010-08-07T02:15:00.003+08:00

now that school will be starting in a few weeks, I am seriously hoping I did not make the wrong choice, i.e. staying in Singapore and being close to friends and family with lower school fees compared with going to Melbourne studying something I would like better but paying higher fees. kind of scared!

This post is designed to make myself feel better and also to psycho myself that I made the right choice. lol. so pick what you think is true to read.

1. What makes you think Psychology is easier to study than Engineering? there's huge amounts of readings to do, and if you take months to read a simple book, you might not necessarily be doing better taking up Psychology.

2. An Engineering degree is versatile, you can even work in banks in the future if you have what it takes. Sometimes, life isn't always about doing what you like, sometimes it's also about liking what you do. what were you aiming to do with a Psychology degree, be a teacher or librarian? no offence to anyone, just so happens I had a friend who told me he knew someone who took Psychology and became a librarian.

3. There's so much more hassle living alone. Having to wash your own clothes and decide what to cook for your meals etc is definitely going to be time-consuming. Look at Singapore with our efficient transport system. Shopping malls are minutes away from the MRT stations, unlike in Melbourne where we probably have to wait long for the buses to come to take us to the malls. The buses don't ply the roads as often as they do here.

4. The climbing spirit is so much stronger here. Since J1, or at every competition, haven't you always felt so inspired watching people like Haroz and Ron climb? This is the chance to be a part of that community!

5. Starting pay for an Engineering degree would generally be higher than that for a Psychology degree? hmm... okay it's not always about the money. wait, shhh.. this is supposed to be a pro-Engineering post!

6. Dad sent your brother and sister over because they didn't really have a choice. But if you were offered a place here and still chose to go, would you feel good letting Dad pay so much? We could save up the money instead and go on a good trip to New Zealand again, this time as a whole family. or probably change a new car once the prices are good? and yes speaking of car, there's CAR to drive in Singapore but over in Melbourne NO CAR! lol.

shall think of more reasons to psycho myself.

anyway, I got into Hall 10. According to the map, it's pretty far away from civilisation! hope it's within walking distance of Hall 15. On the map it doesn't really look far but I walked that time from the bus stop outside Hall 2 to the Lee Wee Nam Library stop because I alighted one stop earlier, and it wasn't exactly near!

many many birthdays ahead! geee geee. :)

great view, wonderful music, and awesome company.

2010-08-04T18:00:00.005+08:00

First time trying KOI bubble tea! and 2 cups in 2 hours some more. lol. bought a Oolong Milk Tea while waiting for the guys to arrive then went to join in the fun after dinner and bought another Aiyu Plum Passion Green Tea. lol! $2.40 + $3.50 = like a cheap. haha.

at pool, Darren bet $10 that Eleanor wouldn't be able to make the black ball go in by hitting the white against the cushion and rebounding to hit the black. the conventional method would be to make the white hit the black directly, black rebounds against the cushion then enter the hole. but Eleanor with her unstoppable luck, performed some magic. She hit the white ball, which missed the black ball. the white ball hit the cushion, rebounded and hit the black and such a precise angle that the black rolled and rolled and just managed to squeeze in the corner hole. IMBA. which normal person bets against Eleanor? :) hahaha.

we are just so awesome, really.

All it took after supper was for Chick to say, "eh... my car got groundsheet." and one hour later, there we were, at Marina Barrage, soaking in the night views with some Absolut Pears and great music, courtesy of Junyu.

many thanks to Chicken and Darren for sending us home! :D

sometimes you just want to keep the friendship.

SWENSENS!

2010-08-01T02:51:00.008+08:00

I was just reading Junyu's blog when I saw the last line and felt I should also give a big thank you and acknowledgement to MR LOW RONG JUN for his yummy SWENSENS TREAT! (although I already thanked him verbally that day.) haha. first time so far that I have eaten two of the best desserts at Swensens at the same time! namely the Apple Crumble, the White Chocolate Blondie (was it white choc? can't remember) and the Giant Earthquake. okay that's three. I think apple was not bad but banana might have been nicer? :) lol. we'll find out next time!

THANK YOU RONGJUN! LET'S CLIMB OVERHANG TOGETHER SOONNNNN :D

I felt quite happy that day, seeing so many of the climbers from our batch come back to school to climb. everything seemed just like the good old days, like we were Year Twos on a normal wednesday training. only difference was that we were given more freedom. no coach to scold when we lay down on the mats, no one to nag us when we didn't warm up properly etc. don't get me wrong, I still think it's good to have a coach! :) Philip taught us well. I really appreciate all the little little techniques we learnt from him, helps us save strength on the wall. I hope all of us will continue to climb together, wherever and whenever we can.

Anyone interested in buying new climbing shoes? :D

Gentinggggggg

2010-07-26T03:23:00.004+08:00

GENTING!!! though we were only sort of in Genting for 34 hours (coz we arrived at 5am and left around 3pm), it was fun. :D

kicked off the day with a Dim Sum spread at some chinese restaurant called 好友记 but Rongjun read it as 记友好 because that's how it looked on the signboard lol. we were wandering around like hungry ghosts before that because they didn't open till 7am or so. all the shops were closed, so we ended up playing Indian Poker and some other hand-tapping game outside the restaurant.. from which our dear Ee Lin, being deprived of food and sleep and hence brain a bit slow, managed to earn her chou yi, chou er and then a forfeit! which was to tell the waiter we didn't have enough money to pay for our food. haha.. the waiter also like half seh.. just stun there dunno what to do. lol..

then we headed for the theme park, which was still foggy early in the morning. high adrenaline rides like the Corkscrew and Cyclone were not yet open, so we ended bumping each other with bumper boats! hahaha. something like this.

My top 5 rides- in order of level of enjoyment/ thrill

1. Space Shot
2. Corkscrew
3. Flying Coaster
4. Pirate Ship
5. Cyclone

we spent quite a bit at the carnival games too! played this fish-the-duck game which was basically to fish out ducks with numbers written below. 0 for no prize and 3 for the large prize. Ee lin was lucky! :) got a number 2 on her first try so she won some white bear that was like half balding. lol. lucky managed to change it to a brown one.

lunch was damn gayy.. went to this sort of cai fan place.. basically just pick the dishes and then proceed to pay. only thing is, you decide on the amount you want to take. So if the Indian cashier guy happy, he'll count as you take one serving. if he not happy, he'll count it as two servings. you also lan lan. LOL. so my plate had nasi briyani rice, sardines, and ginger chicken (which he counted as two servings). oh yes plus one coconut. how much did it cost? very cheap, only RM 38! most expensive cai fan I've ever eaten lol. they also quite sneaky, never really put the price beside the dish/ drink menu. though it's written up on the wall, it's quite small and troublesome for people to look while taking their food so no one really bothered. tio con...! but it's okay, we learn. :)

the turning point was probably the Java Chip we had at Starbucks after that.. my voice started to go, also probably because of the shouting on the rollercoasters and the lack of sleep as well. damn wasted I couldn't join in the singing that evening at Be-a-Star karaoke. lol! but I had fun watching Ee lin, Shalynn and Bel give Rongjun singing lessons! allez rj, there's improvement! :D quite reasonably priced as well. about $17 our money per person? plus a bottle of vodka and mixers and 3+ hours of karaoke. :) Bel had fun belting out super high songs as well! imba.

the hotel room was quite comfortable.. only joke was that you could enter the toilet through the sliding cupboard even when the toilet door is locked! I wonder if they only realised it after they built the hotel or it was meant to be that way. lol. everyone basically KO-ed last night. all the way from 3 to 11 plus in the morning. we ended up not having enough time to go try that skydiving thing, but we had some yummy buffet lunch! RM 59 per person but I happily paid the money, unlike that RM 38 lunch the day before. haha. we practically spammed the salmon! think the chef also smiling. lol. :)

if we had more time.. or if there's a next time...

1. skydiving thing!
2. casino!
3. bowling
4. rock-climb for fun
5. movie

haha. once again, thanks to all those who helped make this trip a success and a hell lot of fun. Eelin, Shalynn, Siying, Bel, Junyu, Rongjun, and Graham! for those who couldn't make it, I'm sure there'll be a next time! :D

:D

2010-07-22T18:17:00.004+08:00

here's something that might brighten up your day. :D

A woman went up to the bar in a quiet rural pub. She gestured alluringly to the bartender who approached her immediately.

She seductively signaled that he should bring his face closer to hers. As he did, she gently caressed his full beard.

"Are you the manager?" she asked, softly stroking his face with both hands.

"Actually, no," he replied.

"Can you get him for me? I need to speak to him," she said, running her hands beyond his beard and into his hair.

"I'm afraid I can't," breathed the bartender... "Is there anything I can do?"

"Yes. I need you to give him a message," she continued, running her forefinger across the bartender's lip and slyly popping a couple of her fingers into his mouth and allowing him to suck them and lick them gently.

"What should I tell him?" the bartender barely managed to say.

"Tell him," she whispered, "there's no toilet paper, hand soap, or paper towels in the ladies room."

LOL!

Insinyur!

2010-07-19T23:08:00.000+08:00

Insinyur was a blast! :) I shall not talk much about the activities here, in case I spoil the fun for ppl going to camps in the next few weeks! I made many new friends.. though not exactly many in CEE Year 1.. most of them were either in mechanical or aerospace.. those in CEE I met were either seniors in CEE or direct entry to Year 2. nevertheless.. we had fun. :D

Initially, I signed up for Union Camp, which was from 26th to 30th July. After that, I saw many of the climbers sign up for Sports Camp (which was from 2nd to 8th August) so I felt a little tempted to sign up for it as well. I signed up for it anyway in the end. A few days before Camp Insinyur, someone for the Union Camp Committee called me and said I got accepted into Union Camp, and asked if I was still going. In my mind I was sort of thinking and hoping to get into Sports Camp, then I didn't mind not going for Union Camp, because after all the camps are sort of back-to-back with little time for rest in between. So I told the person I won't be going for Union Camp anymore. quite a wrong move right.. in the end I received a sms from Jingwen saying they told him I most likely won't get into Sports Camp coz I had no sports background in secondary school. lol! so in the end both also didn't get. JOKE! but it's okay! still have Hall Camp. :) actually I'm more looking forward to the friends I'll make in the camp rather than the activities, coz I heard they're more or less the same.. then if like within the span of two weeks go through another Amazing Race (oops!) or something like that then it won't be as happening as when we first experienced it, right? :)

yayy heading down to Genting with the climbers this weekend! although it will be quite short, I think it'll be lots of fun! it's been ages since I last went to Genting, can't even remember whether it was primary or secondary school. hahaha. with Ee lin the Genting expert to bring us around, I'm sure we won't run out of activities to do. :D haha. NO RAIN PLS!

wa today went to watch free movie at Cathay @ E-Hub. Karate Kid! :) yup I haven't watched that movie, surprised ehh. think they were celebrating some anniversary or something. free small popcorn and drink! okay although not very big but still very shiok to watch free movie. lol! thanks to junyu for the lobang. hahaha.

Kbox!

2010-07-09T01:10:00.000+08:00

K-box was fun! first time for me at kbox believe it or not. :) lol. many thanks to HO EE LIN for organising! next time go again okay!

shalynn's singing is pro. haha. shalynn the imba choir girl! :D ee lin so bad keep laughing at rongjun and snatching the mic away from him. haha.. we should all really go again soon.. great way to bond I felt. I had a great time!

PAUL THE IMBA PRO OCTOPUS. actually correctly predicted Spain to beat Germany! hope the poor animal doesn't get fried by the Germans. lol.

aunt and uncle here from malacca to stay for 2 days. hope I don't need to be tour guide. haha.

gee gee

2010-06-30T15:19:00.001+08:00

noooooooooooooo my Portugal......! knocked out of the world cup by spain... what a pity! they had such a talented player like ronaldo but they didn't really provide enough support for him.. so he didn't really get the chance to shine too... sadly. but I must say Spain's passing is really good. now that Portugal is out, I think I shall support Spain!

sian. lost my camera case at Marina Barrage that day.. now I need to go search for another one...

allez

2010-06-24T01:44:00.001+08:00

predictions! just for fun. lol. just to see how many I guess wrong/right.

uruguay to beat south korea, ghana to beat USA, for a uruguay-ghana quarter final #1.

holland to beat italy, brazil to beat chile, for a holland-brazil quarter final #2.

argentina to beat mexico, germany to beat england for an argentina-germany quarter final #3.

paraguay to beat denmark, portugal to beat spain, for a paraguay-portugal quarter final #4.

then uruguay wins quarter final #1, brazil wins quarter final #2 for a uruguay-brazil semi final #1.

and on the other side, argentina beat germany and portugal beat spain for an argentina-portugal semi-final #2.

FINAL: brazil vs portugal again?? :)

HAHA. just a random prediction. not my fault if you bet on it and lose! lol. as if got so zhun. so zhun I strike 4D already. lol! :D

holy imba mj day

2010-06-20T22:38:00.002+08:00

EPIC MAHJONG DAY! I better record here what happened before I forget! lol. today is the first time in all my past experiences of playing mahjong that some strange and spectacular combinations were seen! and the best thing is all in the same day. IMBA!

spectacular #1: I started one hand with four flowers and along the way kept taking until it became 7 flowers! 7 flowers = 5 tai straight away, regardless of the combination of the remaining cards. that round ended with chick throwing for me to game. so exciting! if anyone took the last flower it would have been 5 tai also but plus bao. no one drew the last flower. it was near the back. lol!

spectacular #2: sinkiat pong-ed hong zhong. not sensing anything was amiss, we continued playing our game like normal. Until suddenly I decided to throw qing fa. GEE GEE! sinkiat had three bai ban and 2 qing fa inside and he straightaway won. DA SAN YUAN! luckily chicken didn't throw his bai ban for sin kiat to pong or I would have bao-ed if I threw the fa cai! but then again I most probably wouldn't have thrown if I saw him having hong zhong and bai ban outside already. haha. good play by sinkiat!

spectacular #3: the most spectacular of all! sinkiat managed to gang three sets of cards. so we all paid quite a bit of money already. just so happens that I also pong-ed two sets of tong zi and one set of xi outside already. plus two animals! so also very big. my remaining four tiles were, 3 7 7 8 of tong zi. suddenly, I drew in a nan feng! some more no nan feng outside so I was afraid sinkiat might want. So I threw the 3-tong. and he gang-ed again! so in total he 4 gang already, if he win will be Shi Ba Luo Han! so after throwing the 3 tong, my remaining cards was nan, 7 7 8 tong. suddenly I drew in another nan feng! so the four tiles I had was nan nan 7 7 tong, waiting for nan feng and 7-tong. sinkiat only left the last tile to complete his Shi Ba Luo Han. suddenly chick threw 8-wan and sinkiat WON! IMBAAAA! worst thing of all is, next tile would have been 7 tong! and sinkiat said he would have thrown 7 tong also. which means I would have won. lol. also 5 tai. gee gee! although that particular round we paid a lot, it was worth it coz I have never seen Shi Ba Luo Han before. haha!

what an epic day! :D

rockmaster

2010-06-19T23:36:00.003+08:00

I am happy today! :D

before the competition today, I told myself my main purpose in joining Rockmaster was to improve my ranking and gain exposure for future comps. In Boulderactive, I had two bonuses no tops. In Pumpfest, I had three bonuses no tops. So I told myself I wanted to at least top one route today. And yet, after I flashed the first route, I had a genuine sense of hope that I might, might just be able to qualify for the finals. although I didn't, the final ranking I got was.... 10th! :D wasted. two more points to qualify!!

okay la a bit disappointed but quite happy also.. didn't really expect it anyway.. thanks to Limzy for coming down to support! the lighting was pretty bad over there so we didn't manage to get many decent photos. banana and red bull really helps, I tell you. really. I honestly believe it helps to release energy and improve performance. next time I will bring bananas again! loll.

better luck next time.

see you in 2011, Gravical.. up next.. :)

camps!

2010-06-16T23:07:00.001+08:00

just received the camps package from NTU. wow so many camps!

campfire's burning... campfire's burning... draw nearer... draw nearer... in the glooming... in the glooming... come sing and be merry...! :D

Sports Unlimited 17 2nd-8th August, Camp INCURSIO 26th-30th July, Union Orientation Camp 26-30th July , and Freshmen Overseas Orientation Trip 19th -24th July. lol. who's interested in which??

Rockmaster in 3 days and I have only climbed one other time in between pumpfest and rockmaster... I sense another gee gee.. :(

anyone want to buy 5.10 climbing shoes standby for early to mid july! the guy at Allsports Equipment Ubi said the shipment should arrive then. Now a lot of common sizes no stock. haha.

NTU peeps don't forget to submit the online passport photo for the matriculation card and make the declaration online by 20th JUNE okayyy!

what a move

2010-06-09T00:41:00.001+08:00

Dear KELVIN TAN YIK KEONG (ALA/2010/08219419)

I wish to acknowledge your appeal received on 22 MAY 2010.

I have given your application another look and a full assessment. I regret to inform you that your appeal has not been successful. I know you will be disappointed but I hope you will understand that there is a limit to the number of students we could admit.

Thank you for your interest in SMU. I wish you the best in your future endeavours.

Best regards.

Alan Goh
Director
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Singapore Management University

sian 1/2.

random thought

2010-06-05T23:51:00.006+08:00

hmmm I came across this and found it pretty meaningful! :)

over the past few years I've seen several close as well as not-so-close friends get together and then one fine day, break up... even though things may have appeared to be going so smoothly for them. It gets you thinking, really. What is it that keeps people happy in a relationship? hmmm..

anyone want to buy climbing shoe?? :)

Pumpfest!

2010-05-31T23:55:00.004+08:00

Pumpfest was whoa! many thanks to eelin elmo chicken bel junyu rongjun and darren for coming to support limzy and me! okay I guess I performed slightly better than boulderactive? 2 bonuses the last time and 3 this time. but still no tops. sad! my last route I should have made it count.. lol wasted. the red volume was damn nice la. its okay, better luck for rockmaster! hopefully weicheng can join together with me.. :)

Inter Men Qualifiers Route Two

couldn't end! puzzling route. lol.

Inter Men Qualifiers Route 5!

wasted I nearly finished!

going for the last move with about 20 seconds to spare on the clock.. maybe I was too hasty!

Ponti is really the climbing god! the way he finished the three routes for the finals was just amazingggg. :D I will aspire to be as stable as him on the wall... haha.

so from the way things are looking right now it seems like I'll be heading to NTU! what an uncertain period it has been for me.. especially April and May.. because I was awaiting replies from the universities and so didn't dare to go ahead and book my student visa for Monash coz it costs A$540 and non-refundable.. then also unsure whether to buy stuff for Monash like a bigger suitcase or some winter wear and stuff so all my preparations were put on hold. I still remember what the NTU professor told me towards the end of the interview: "you didn't do so well for your A levels, but you did very well for your O levels. Come to university and show your true potential." lol. he also a bit joker. told him I was from TJC then he told the other professor there the rojak very nice.. one day bring him try.. haha.. then he also said he always sends his daughter there for tuition.. ERR! so I'll just wait and see what NUS and SMU say.. :)

Nandos on thursday!

interview

2010-05-20T22:41:00.000+08:00

Oh well I think I did okay for the interview.. many thanks to elmo and shalynn for directions! but the joke of the day is that I alighted at the wrong stop. one stop earlier. I thought of waiting for the next bus, and then I thought 'ehh it's only one stop might as well walk", since it looked so near on the map. So I started walking and it wasn't exactly near! okay maybe it wasn't that far but it was upslope and all so I started to sweat and felt kind of sian. lol. NTU is HUGE.

one and a half hour travelling time from my house! what a move.

1 week to pumpfest!

CHOCO-MONKEY

2010-05-16T01:06:00.003+08:00

Ben & Jerry's CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA and CHUNKY MONKEY is yummy! would definitely recommend it to all ice-cream lovers out there.. :D

Chocolate Macadamia actually contains chocolate-coated macadamia nuts that have a slightly saltish taste so when eaten together with the chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, it gives a taste that is quite unique.. :)

Chunky Monkey is banana ice-cream that contains chocolate fudge chunks and walnuts.. it's quite light and refreshing.. there's quite a lot of chocolate chunks in there too! some sort of like dark chocolate.

go try them! :D

MOLLA OTTOKE OTTOKE

2010-05-13T16:56:00.003+08:00

Dear Kelvin,

You are being considered for admission to our B.Eng. (Civil) program. We would like to conduct an interview as part of the admission process. Below is the date for the interview.

Date: Thursday, 20 May 2010

Time: Afternoon

Venue: Associate Chair (Academic)’s Office (N1-1a-03)

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Nanyang Technological University

Blk N1, 50 Nanyang Avenue

Singapore 639798

(Location Map)

Please call 6790 5279 to confirm your attendance and for the interview time by 12 noon on Monday, 17 May 2010.

If you have submitted any supporting documents when applying for admission (e.g. A Level transcripts, CCA records etc.), please bring along a copy for our reference.

Thank you.

SCREW THIS!

I don't wanna make a wrong choice and regret it forever.

now what.

hot hot hot hot hot

2010-05-06T16:45:00.000+08:00

the weather is so damn HOTTTTTT!!! wonder how are we all going to survive in Singapore in like 5 years time. 24 hours switch on air-con??? then we're going to contribute more to global warming and we're going to switch on more air-con again and the cycle continues... what a sad fate.

I could think of a few reasons why I'd want to leave for Australia and a few other reasons why I don't. Let's see..

Want to go:
- the weather is killing me! I'd love to experience the four seasons over there
- school is supposedly less stressful I heard. It may be easier to score over there
- there are fruits over there that sell cheap like strawberries and nectarines and they happen to be my favourites so can just whack. lol.
- good to experience living alone and learning to cook and stuff. hopefully I'll become more independent!

Don't want to go:
- I'll miss all the climbing fever over here! like all the climbing with friends or climbing comps.
- I'll miss my mum's home-cooked food. lol. I'll have to survive like a refugee over there.
- I will miss the friends!
- school fees are more expensive over there. plus the living expenses. but not a big deciding factor I guess.

sometimes, it's not always good when we have too many choices..

let it flowwww

2010-05-05T00:48:00.003+08:00

the ice in Jakarta is really dirty! or rather their tap water. their ice is probably made from tap water. All I had was a cup of cold beverage with ice and I've been coughing for about a week. Since young I've always had this problem whenever I drank the ice in Malaysia as well. Think I'm sensitive or allergic or something. I've no problem with Singapore's though! even if I sometimes drink the tap water here I don't get cough. their water must be really dirty or I must be very weak. lol.

My dad brought us to some buffet place in Jakarta which was one of the best buffets I've ever eaten. There was such a wide variety of food to choose from, from pasta to sashimi to oysters and cockles to teppanyaki to cheese -okay I didn't try these because the last time I went near one type of cheese known as blue cheese, I nearly vomited! smells just like rotten eggs. There was also dessert! the dessert was really really good. Chocolate fondue, creme brulee, and tiramisu just to name a few. And there's also sliced fruits- ok this is nothing special but the fruits are sliced so nicely and placed in a nice little bowl so it looks really pretty. and the best of the lot, to me at least, FROZEN YOGHURT! imagine going for a BUFFET of frozen yoghurt! the amount of toppings there available for you to choose was imba. chopped strawberries, kiwis, peaches, mangoes, colored rice/ sprinkles, corn flakes, chopped almonds, walnuts, puffed chocolate rice, and many many more... :DD over here in Singapore it's like $5 for a medium sized cup plus ONE topping. the portion they served per serving was more than our medium cup over here, plus I got to spam all of my favourite toppings. I was just really happy. kept eating and eating! I ended up going for 3 rounds of frozen yoghurt. pity I forgot to bring my camera that day! or I could have taken a picture of the delectable dessert section. :D price of the buffet? around $38 equivalent in Singapore dollars. very worth it! The place is called Hotel Mulia, located in Jakarta, for interested peeps. lol.

fly away

2010-04-28T01:13:00.001+08:00

off to Jakarta tomorrow! back on sunday. :D hope liverpool will beat chelsea!

9-day work week

2010-04-23T23:40:00.002+08:00

the weekend is here! a little happy but yet feels kind of weird because......... I'M WORKING TOMORROW! and sunday as well. think the hotel rushing for deadline or something. what a move. lol. good thing is there will be 3 days off next week, just nice for me to use for my Jakarta trip... but I'll rather have 2 days of weekends off than 3 days of weekdays off! so many more things I can do with a saturday.. nvm climbing tomorrow evening haha. :D thanks guys for accomodating!

so I have worked since monday. Including this weekend and all the way till Tuesday, it will be a 9-day work week. lol! things I can look forward to after work this weekend would be:

- climbing on saturday evening
- Man Utd- Tottenham match which I will miss but its okay, if I don't climb it'll be a while before I climb again!
-Arsenal- Man City match, exciting!
- Star Awards on Sunday evening

what a move!

2010-04-20T23:53:00.003+08:00

joke of the day!

I was curious to check out what the upper floors of the hotel looked like today... so I took a lift up to the 48th storey with my colleague. The lift was kind of scary though. It looked half-completed coz there was quite a big gap between the door and the lift frame- we could see the outside floors zooming past us! and it had no light! yes it was pretty scary. When we got out on the 48th floor we checked out the hotel rooms and it was damn nice! with a nice bathtub and a nice bed and a nice view... haha.. we went back out to the lift but there was no button to press for the lift because the contractors were not really done with the installation yet. Fortunately, there was the service lift that worked, so we pressed for the lift and went back down to do our stuff.

that's NOT the joke yet.. in case you were thinking it was. haha.

after we were almost done, we had some time to spare before going home so we thought maybe we could just zoom up in the lift to one of the higher floors and just check out the view again from one of the hotel rooms. So we went up to the 35th storey this time. on the way down we pressed for the service lift again but it was closed for servicing or maintenance or whatever, so... GG! we ended up walking down the stairs from the 35th storey. LOL! what a move.

scenario

2010-04-17T00:26:00.004+08:00

sick! must be because of all the dust in the hotel lobby.. or maybe it's the rain.. or maybe it was passed on to me from one of my colleagues. lol. I wore a mask at work today and looked like a dentist!

eventless saturday tomorrow, apart from Ai at 7pm (lol am I the only one who watches Ai??? haha!) and man city-man utd match after... any tips? lol. climbing on sunday, but I hope I don't get called back to work! or it will be doubly sad.. no climbing on my free day then when I'm supposed to go climbing I get called back. fingers crossed.

anyone with any news from the universities?? no news is BAD NEWS. lol. it's so difficult to plan... maybe I should just go ahead with the booking of the australian accomodation first... have this bad feeling that it's gonna be rejection the first round then I probably might try to appeal but then I probably won't have enough time to wait for the appeal result and yet not prepare for australia so in the end I might just start packing and everything and off I go. wow that's a long one. anyone with any idea when the appeal results might come out?? :)

birthday wishes

2010-04-11T23:53:00.004+08:00

why do I readily decide to buy frozen yoghurt which costs like $5.10 or $5.60 but yet I hesitate when it's something else like Anderson's ice-cream which costs $4 plus (which I also like!) ? LOL.. I shall figure out what it is about frozen yoghurt that I am attracted to.. the original flavour is just as good as the flavoured one! :) I must be influenced by rongjun after seeing him buy it so often. haha.

many thanks to FELICIA for inviting us to your birthday chalet! happy birthday in advance! :)) hope you had a great time, you certainly seemed like a busy bumblebee last night. lol. and enjoy the tequila too. :D haha. zhao couldn't make it because they missed their flight from hongkong and I heard from sinkiat they had to book another one on the spot! so they had to wait like 6 or 7 hours.. and the money they paid for their previous ticket was forfeited. poor souls! according to sinkiat, they reached the airport with quite a lot of time left or something, but they had to take a train and change and walk or something so they ended up missing their flight. aren't we all glad that we've got the best airport in the world? :)

karung guni job

2010-04-07T23:42:00.001+08:00

okayy I realised I was employed not just to do POS terminals!! turns out I'm "thrown" anywhere to do any sort of manual/technical work, from assembling printers to unpacking monitors and CPUs to copying down IP addresses.. like a karung guni! everything also take. LOL. its okay la, the experience is pretty fun. :)

and the lunch! I look forward to lunch every day. haha. never eaten so much salad in a span of a few days before.. nice and healthy... :D unlike the cereal prawns (unhealthy but nice!) we had that day at our dinner gathering.. speaking of which, thanks a lot Jingwen for helping to organise the dinner that day! :D wow I was quite surprised so many of us turned up- jingwen rongjun chick junyu limzy bel graham and darren.. although we had to "hike" to our dinner location, the food turned out to be worth the wait. :) haha.

one month ago, saturdays and sundays did not seem as precious... lol don't take them for granted! :D

you know how sometimes you remember someone's birthday but then you hesitate whether to drop the person a msg or maybe because you're feeling lazy at the time you decide not to and the person ends up not knowing you remembered? on the other hand, supposing you did drop the person a msg, I think the person would be pretty happy and touched, especially if you haven't met in ages. at least that's how I would feel. okayy I'm rambling.. I shall stop. lol.

2 days to Friday!

new job

2010-04-01T20:27:00.001+08:00

wow today was my first day of work.. guess where? lol. at the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. :) it was pretty fun! it's kind of cool thinking that I get the chance to see what the IR looks like before most Singaporeans do. haha. it's kind of meaningful too if like one day you think back and go, 'oh hey I had a part to play in contributing to what the IR is today.' lol! okay although it might be just that teeny weeny much.

the job so far has been pretty basic: basically it's helping to unpack POS terminals (army guys will probably know what's this- the touch screen thing to record who comes for meals etc, in the case of the restaurants I think they'll probably use it to view availability of seats or take orders) and doing some basic settings and checks before packing them back into the boxes again to be deployed to the restaurants and cafes I guess. So far haven't got a chance to go check out those places, but I think soon I'll get the chance to check out the casino! if we're deployed there haha. no need to pay $100 lol.

and wow the construction of this IR really created a lot a lot of jobs, as the government promised. there's so many people working there in all sorts of positions, from chefs to construction to safety to security to housekeeping to planning and so many more I'm sure. haha. the housekeeping side was mainly all ah tiongs! LOL. the IR really takes good care of its workers. the lunch is really good with lots of variety plus in air-con, from muslim to western to indian to salads etc. but I heard from another temp guy working together with me that a small portion of their salary goes into paying for the lunch. not sure how true, but anyway it was free for us coz one of the permstaff used his pass. :D and the amount of food the china people take at the canteen is like... oh my. like they haven't eaten in days! there was this china woman who piled a mountain of rice onto her plate. I have never seen a woman eat that much rice before. And it's not like she was plump or anything! just average built. amazing huh. then there were other china men who piled huge mountains of lettuce and greens onto their plates.

quite fortunate I got this job coz Kokyi recommended. no need interview some more, plus no need wear working attire. previously sent out several resumes but only recruit express replied, so was quite sian already. haha. hopefully I enjoy this job! gonna be pretty short term though... they're rushing for the opening of the IR which is on April 27th... I wonder if they'll make it.. haha. see how it goes! :D

Frolick

2010-03-28T18:00:00.001+08:00

today was the first time I bought frozen yoghurt! haha. bought it from Tampines One's Frolick and ordered Koko Krunch as the topping. and it's nice :) no wonder Rongjun's addicted to it. lol the 5 dollars he just spam only! I think it's as nice as ice-cream, as in both would make a good dessert/snack. but frozen yoghurt gives you a refreshing feeling during and after eating it. It doesn't make you feel thirsty as compared to ice-cream, especially if the ice-cream flavour is really chocolatey and creamy. but I still feel it's kind of expensive. for 5 dollars I could probably get a bubble tea, one subway cookie and an Aunty Anne's pretzel! lol.

The curious case of benjamin button

2010-03-24T15:03:00.009+08:00

"For what it's worth,
it's never too late...
to be whoever you want to be...

There's no time limit.
Start whenever you want.

You can change or stay the same.
There are no rules to this thing.

We can make the best or the worst of it.
And I hope you make the best of it.

I hope you see things that startle you.
I hope you feel things you never felt before.

I hope you meet people with a different point of view.
I hope you live a life you're proud of.

And if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength...

...to start all over again."

what a simple yet beautiful movie...

have YOU watched it? :)

lol. Ben & Jerry's free cone day yesterday was shiokadoo! first time I have ever eaten 4 scoops of Ben & Jerry's in a day. 3 cones and one cup. nice flavours too! all pretty new I think. tried 4 flavours- Chocolate Macademia, A Cookie Affair, Sweet Cream & Cookies and Mango Sherbet. Chocolate Macademia was Junyu's and my favourite, the salty taste of the macademia nut is a nice combi with the sweet taste of the chocolate ice-cream. yum yum. :D and the queue at Orchard Central was much shorter than the one at the Cathay.. think we could have eaten 4 scoops at OC with the time taken to queue for 2 at the Cathay. haha.

fire fire fire!

2010-03-22T18:50:00.003+08:00

I nearly started a fire in the kitchen today!

here's what happened. I filled the kettle with water then put it on the stove to boil. I told myself that I would go and change the bulb for the toilet in my mum's room first then go do a quick vacuum of my room floor before coming down to turn off the fire again. the bulb didn't take very long, but I ended up vacuuming for quite a while because I ended vacuuming under the beds and behind the bedside table as well. there was also a ball of dust/hair stuck in the vacuum tube so I spent some time getting that out too. After I was done, it was some time later and I totally forgot about the boiling water.

I went to use the computer, then after quite a long time (like really long! at least one and a half hours) I started to smell a faint burning smell(because I was upstairs). I looked around upstairs curiously, having not the slightest memory that I had put the water to boil. Finally I went down to check out the kitchen and WHOA! the kettle was still on the stove, the water was all dried up, the base and some parts of the kettle was brown/burnt, and the lid cover which was made of plastic was half-melted and shrivelled like a raisin. I lifted up the lid and the knob literally just detached itself from the lid because it was kind of molten.

what a careless mistake! but thankfully, nothing else was burnt. It could have been much worse. Imagine what if I smelt the smell of the burning kitchen instead of the burnt kettle. That would have been really bad. thank goodness. :)

time for a new kettle. lol.

aching hamstring

2010-03-18T18:08:00.004+08:00

wow there were so many people at Climb Asia yesterday! I think its usually like this right after a competition, like everyone's so high on the adrenaline and stuff after watching the open climbers do their stuff that they just wanna go all out to climb. I think I remember Philip telling us this before.. like although you may be very motivated to climb hard right after a comp, it's always important to know the limit of your body and muscles.. no point over-straining them and risking an injury. :)

there was this heel hook that I did on the green volume on the first route of the Inter Men qualifiers.. when I fell I kind of felt a little tension in my left hamstring coz it was probably too cramped. I did stretch a little, as well as over the next few days, but it still hurts a little. okay if I don't focus on the area and walk normally I don't feel anything, but when I concentrate on stretching that particular muscle then it feels a little pain. Not sure if I should continue to stretch it or just let it heal naturally. doesn't feel like the usual ache that I get from a day of climbing. lol.

things are a little complicated now. I can't really go ahead to look for a 3-month contract job kind of thing because if I leave in june then there won't be enough time. I also can't exactly go ahead and book the accomodation and flight because if I do I'm not sure if there's a refund or administrative fee for cancelling. but then what are the chances. lol. the best would be those short-term kind of jobs. should be enough to supplement my expenses for these few months. :) but most of the jobs are 3-month contracts. that's the tricky part. hmmm.

FEEDING TIME

2010-03-13T01:57:00.003+08:00

wow, nice feed at Boulderactive today! 5 routes in total, quite pumpy! what a waste on my first route... nearly could finish it.. touched the last tile but couldn't match and end. I should have "make it count!" like Chicken shouted when I was climbing. I heard ok! :) I always believe that the climber on the wall can hear every little cheer that people shout when they are climbing. Okay he or she may not appear to have any response, but I think can hear one, even if they are focused on the route.

2 bonuses, 5 attempts, no tops. disappointing? maybe. I felt the second and fourth routes was really wasted. 2nd route, I didn't dare to be more dynamic to jump to the two-tile bonus. Instead I tried to hook the starting tile and static up. what a move! then fourth route, after getting the bonus I couldn't reach back to the wall to step back the foothold, so I ended up hanging there for quite a while and wasting strength. dui or not? it's okay, I'll take it as a learning experience. Weicheng did quite well! wasted man he managed to get his third top, which would have qualified him for the finals, only two seconds after the whistle had gone. wasted! better luck at Pumpfest!

poor shuhui, she already qualified for the finals with her excellent performance of 4 out of 5 tops, in 5 attempts, but after finishing the last route, she fell quite badly and had to withdraw. feel kind of sorry for her, she really did well today. it's okay pumpfest will be your moment to shine shu! good luck siying for sunday!

LESSONS LEARNT FROM BOULDERACTIVE:

1. Be more dynamic if the move requires it, especially to compensate for lack of height!
2. It's not always necessary to rush to end the route when you are on the second-last tile. Instead, if you are not pump yet, take your time to think and end properly. It won't rank you any higher than someone who only got the bonus even if you fall at the last tile!
3. Don't hop at the starting tile! wow I don't know how many attempts the route judge counted because I hopped. Not that I'd wanted to! the tile was quite a steamy one.
4. It's time to up the level and start climbing out of our comfort zone. If not we are nowhere near Intermediate standard. A lot of the tiles today were hardly any nice to hold. a lot of them gave me the 'want to fall but yet maybe can stick' kind of feeling. DICEY! yes that is the word. time to start climbing with shitty tiles. haha.

more climbing to watch tomorrow. exciting! PONTI. OH MYYY. :D

IT fair

2010-03-11T18:25:00.000+08:00

WOW it was really packed at the IT Fair! and to think that it's a thursday today. don't people need to work? lol. :) saw many brands of laptops there and I'm currently pretty attracted to 2 models:

1. ASUS A42Jr -which costs $1528
Intel Core i5-430M Processor (2.26GHZ Turbo up to 2.53 GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 with 1GB dedicated DDR3 VRAM
Built-in WLAN 802.11b/g/n & Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
14.0 " HD (1366 x 768) Colorshine and Crystalshine LCD, 16:9 aspect ratio
4GB DDR3 RAM & 500 GB SATA HDD
DVD SuperMulti Double Layer Drive
Built-in web camera & card reader

2. ASUS N61Jq- which costs $2098
Intel Core i7-720QM processor (1.6GHz Turbo up to 2.8GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 with 1GB dedicated DDR3 VRAM
Built-in WLAN 802.11b/g/n & Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
16.0 " HD (1366 x 768) Colorshine & Crystalshine LCD with LED Backlit, 16:9 aspect ratio
4GB DDR3 RAM (After free upgrade)
640 GB SATA HDD
Blu-Ray DVD Combo Drive
Built-in 2.0 Mega Pixels web-camera & card reader

by the way, ASUS comes with a two-year international warranty, but you may choose to upgrade to a three-year warranty by paying $99 more. haha. okay basically I don't really understand most of the computer language like GHz and the DDR3 and stuff but I know that the i7 processor is supposedly better than the i5. it also comes with a bigger hard drive and a larger screen. is it worth it? :) considering I already decided not to go to Taiwan and I originally planned to set aside 2k to buy a laptop. should I? it seems like a good buy. Although the $1528 one is cheaper, I felt that I should get a better one so that at least it may last longer, coz I notice most computers gradually slow down over time, or maybe because there's too much photos/files inside? (lol does this affect the computer's speed? I am not sure. haha.) so well, yup. decision making. oh yes by the way the $2098 one comes with a free Fujifilm FinePix A220 12.2 mega-pixel camera. not that I'm really interested in getting the camera though coz I already have one, but yup it's free. so hmmmm...

I came across some display picture of some random guy that is really funny! maths fanatics this is for you. :D

NO STUDY = FAIL
STUDY = NO FAIL
____________________________________

NO STUDY + STUDY = FAIL + NO FAIL

this implies that:
(NO + 1) STUDY = (NO + 1) FAIL

THEREFORE,

STUDY = FAIL
_____________________________________

I was like "lol?! " after I saw it. Interesting use of maths there! hahaha.

thanks guys for the msgs and good luck wishes for tomorrow. I will do my best not to disappoint! fun climbing, no pressure! :)

CLIMB ON.

Gravical 2010

2010-03-08T01:20:00.002+08:00

wow Gravical 2010 was great. haha. congratulations to all our winners like gary siying and audrey! and to those that were just that little bit unlucky, we're still proud of you. :D better luck next week! don't despair. haha.

the Open Men's finals, as usual, was just simply breathtaking. that indonesian climber Ponti was just.. what can I say... OH MYYY. lol. me and rongjun become his fans already! haha. his control on the route is just sick. he easily made a controlled move to the bonus tile without any bun-door swing.. something that not many of the climbers managed to achieve tonight. and his second route.. sick! hanging almost horizontal already, on one hand, still got energy to search for the last tile and end! we were speechless. hahaha. the route judge was a little too picky I felt. On ponti's last route, he accidentally crossed over the boundary to the next wall. okay maybe he did touch by accident- which means his leg may have got some help- which is a valid reason to make his come down and re-climb. but in the dying seconds, he wanted to go again for one final attempt but the whistle just nice went.. aiya, the judge should have just let him try, since he spent quite some time telling him about his foul. I'm pretty sure the crowd would have wanted that la. it will be like finishing the comp with a big bang. haha. it's ok i'm pretty sure we'll see him next week in the finals again!

and another beauty about the open climbers is that sometimes all they care about is finishing the route instead of thinking of stuff like 'oh okay i need to go for the bonus first so that in case I fall I'll at least have the bonus', which is what we normal climbers usually will think. I really salute some of them for their bravery, like sometimes daring to try out some alternative style, which either means they will complete the route without getting the bonus at all or it means that they may end up with absolutely nothing on their score for that route if they don't complete the route, like not even the bonus. I think once they climb at their sort of level, all these little details don't matter anymore. you can really feel their passion for the sport. it's that amazing. :)

wow these three days been spending a lot man. subway dinner then pool then cartel lunch the next day then pool again then JustAcia dinner then foodcourt (okay this one still ok lol) lunch the next day then Ajisen dinner! not to mention the amount of drinks that we bought, like bubble tea here and there or bottled drinks from the supermarket or canned drinks from the pool place. haha. SMU should have opened a little drinks stall there or something! sure make money one. lol. the weather was just crazy also. but at least it's better than rain!

this friday. I'll need all the luck I can get! where is eleanor I need her imba luck. hahaha. :D

OOOHH!

2010-03-05T00:40:00.000+08:00

get psyched...! to climb... at your absolute limit. OOOHH!

lol need graham to act out that one man. Gravical and Boulderactive is here... climbing fever in the air! :) haha.

today i went into a lift then I was standing somewhere near the back. then there was lady in front of me standing near the buttons. then just as the door was closing there was a lady that stood outside but her hands were full. so she was like indicating she wanted to come in but the door was already closing. then the lady in front of the buttons just act blur! like she obviously saw her already but then she just act blur, didn't even try to press. I was like, LOL!? it seemed really funny at the time, although it was quite bad of the lady also to not press the button to open. Have you ever seen such people who act blur when you are trying to enter lifts?? or are we subconsciously one of those people. haha. hmmm.

$10 million angbao draw

2010-02-27T18:50:00.003+08:00

wow yesterday $10 million draw! lol no luck my system roll! only managed to get 1 number and 1 additional number and 1 R. lol still short one. haha nvm better luck next time. and the boss of the singapore pools outlet was so nice, gave me a $20 angbao! :)

I bumped into Fiona on my way home! with a guy (boyfriend??). hahaha. she so cute, asked me where I came from then I said I was promoting the $10 angbao packet for Singapore Pools. then I told her about the $10 million draw and that she still can buy if she wants because there was still time.. then she was like "really!? let's go buy!" then they rushed off to buy. lol.

climbing tmr. HUAT AH. :D

HUAT AH

2010-02-26T00:05:00.000+08:00

wow today i did some part-time promoter job for Singapore Pools promoting the $10 Million Toto $10 angbao packet. inside, there are two rows of System 7 and 1 Big Sweep. No joke! stood for nearly the whole day from 11-8, minus the half hour I went for break. Feels like back in camp when we are standing gate at the sentry post! LOL. lucky last time RP, so got some training. haha. but still kind of steam man. heng only 2 days!

there was this uncle who did something that was pretty heartwarming. :) I sold him a packet, then after walking away he suddenly came back with a pen and told me, "can you write your handphone number and name? if I strike I want to share some with you." wow I was really surprised, and pretty touched. he said there was once when he bought one of such packets from one guy who was promoting them as well, then he won, and he gave that guy a call and that guy was surprised. lol. okay it's the thought that counts right.. :D haha. got some ppl, buy already then say "if I win I give you a treat." I was thinking 'yeah as if.' haha. like I'll be at the outlet everyday like that. okay not I greedy for their treat or what, but it's the sincerity that counts man. Even if someone offers to treat if he wins then just take down handphone number but after winning he doesn't call at all, who would know man? at least, the thought was there. haha. quite glad to know that Singaporeans are still pretty nice. okay although there were quite a few that literally just dao you. Sales is not easy man. lucky not commission based. :)

another long day tomorrow!

to be or not to be..

2010-02-17T23:07:00.001+08:00

i FEEL like joining boulderactive for fun. just for fun, joy and laughter and collect shirt. anyone steady?? haha. my mind FEELS like joining but my body does not give me that FEELING. how? :)

2010-02-14T22:54:00.000+08:00

wow this morning went to watch Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief at Vivocity with my sis, courtesy of free tickets from my bro. GOLD CLASS! :) wa damn shiok man! the chair was reclinable and HUGE. and plus it had the button in the centre to call the cinema staff for assistance, like those in aeroplanes. oh yes and complimentary nuts upon entering the lounge, where you can order food which they will bring into the cinema during your movie. Okay although we could have not spent any money by not ordering anything, we just had to! to complete the Gold Class experience, haha. two fruit juices ($5 each) plus a popcorn ($6) plus service charge ($3). ok that's about the same price as a normal ticket. lol. but the experience was great. go try it someday! the ticket costs $32! imba price. most of the people in there were foreigners. really too much money dunno where to spend! haha. they probably stay at Sentosa Cove or something. LOL.

New year visiting was pretty fun, normally we'd wait at home for ppl to come visit but this year we went visiting ppl! haha. wow the PIE in the evening on the way to Tuas direction was literally packed! the traffic was really crawling or not moving at all. luckily we were going in the other direction! :)

it's the season for huatting. HUAT ah! okay although we usually huat the whole year through.. so not much difference. LOL.

happy new year!

2010-02-13T23:52:00.000+08:00

played soccer with the scouts and mao and dodo they all in the day.. at 1pm! crazy sick weather. really drains energy man. but quite fun, so long never play soccer already. thanks to joonyou for organizing! :)

after that was the completing of the spring cleaning of the house.. everything feels so cleaaannn now. lol. happy chinese new year to everyone! enjoy huatting and drinking and eating bak kwa and pineapple tarts. haha. :D

somehow the excitement about Valentine's Day seems to be less this year because the date coincides with CNY. how interesting.

The Sweet Escape!

2010-02-08T03:50:00.007+08:00

surprise party for Joyce that night was kinda fun! so nice catching up with the 4F darlings.. after so long. lol. the expression on her face was just priceless. Happy birthday once again Joyce! tor was really nice, offering to send zhao home even though he stays near Jalan Kayu. although zhao finally decided to spend the night at mao's house, it was the gesture that counted right! :D

what a pretty piece of art!

went to Escape yesterday with Jingwen Rongjun and Limzy. it has changed so much.. quite a pity actually. I think if not for the free tickets from Jingwen the price certainly wouldn't be worth it. $17 plus! there used to be so many fun rides like the Pepsi, Cadbury Inverter and the Panasonic Indoor roller-coaster but now all one by one close down coz probably someone died there or something. the only thrilling ride left was the Viking.. finally conquered my fear of sitting at the ends! I never dared to sit at the ends when I was much younger. joining climbing probably helped me curb that fear. After free-falling for like 3 to 4 seconds (AND GETTING ROPE BURNT!) on Two Drops at Batu Caves, that split second on the Viking seemed like nothing much. haha. when it reaches the maximum point in the air before it changes direction, you literally feel as if your hands are glued to the bar. I didn't dare lift them off coz you really feel as if you could just fly out any second. lol really! okay maybe I'm just noob. haha. :)

finally, the time has come for me to ORD. finally. shiokadoo!

OH YES. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOE! :D

IPPT

2010-01-27T22:20:00.001+08:00

20 seconds! that's the difference between a hundred bucks and no hundred bucks. lol! considering to retake next week.. well I did pretty okay for the other stations but as usual it's always the 2.4... what a move! I need to break that mental barrier. but.. where got time...? ORD lo! lol. :D can la I probably can retake next week. really will be the last time. if not no $100. :(

some people can be really scheming to cheat guys of their money, just have to tell the guy they're pregnant when they actually are not. I'm actually talking about someone I know in camp- the guy I mean. Apparently, the girl in question is actually a student at a pretty good uni's business school, no names here! poor thing the guy. think she managed to get at least 2k from him. she think he ITE easy cheat? I feel so indignant for the guy. and I'm not looking down on ITE people here by the way.

Darren's birthday

2010-01-25T15:30:00.001+08:00

happy birthday darren! thanks for inviting us to your party, hope you enjoyed your cake facial! :) LOL. what a waste, you became a red lobster after your deadly alcohol mixture.. I wonder what they made you drink.

and by the way, shalynn is a good mixologist! crystal and siying loved them. the drinks, that is. Sorry to whoever's Baileys that was, but I think I poured a little too much.. haha. well, first I put in a few ice cubes, then started pouring a bit, but it seemed a little too little to me because there was ice in there as well, so I poured a little more. and when I passed the cups to crystal and siying and limzy they were like "wa.. so much!" lol. I think it almost reached half mug level, with the ice, that is. and the ice cubes are really huge so it's quite deceiving! but it was still pretty a lot. haha. don't worry we didn't waste any! we drank and passed it around but we finished it in the end. :D

I was quite surprised Ren Ci's charity show managed to raise $7 million! how is that possible. I never knew we were so generous. haha.

:D

2010-01-21T23:55:00.005+08:00

yesterday was a happy day.

for more than one reason. :D

thanks jingwen for inviting us all to your birthday party. many familiar faces! and something new to suan limzy has emerged, out of nowhere. lol. many thanks too to Weicheng and his imba camera, really like some full-time photographer. the polaroid camera especially was damn cool la. classic!

Chick was damn zai, need to leave to take the ferry at 0630, still can play poker with us until two plus three, next day still got lessons and stuff in camp, like a pro! :)

Darren, tomorrow will be your doomsday. be prepared! hahahaha.

Can you hear me?? :)

2010-01-19T17:20:00.001+08:00

damn rongjun! intro-ed me the Tae Yeon--Can You Hear Me song, now I'm addicted! lol. :D

Korean fever has hit the town. haha.

went to run in camp that day. timing was 12.25! not good enough for my $100 man. there's still time.. hope I can make it! need to cut down more.. but it's chalet and birthday season.. hope I still can run. see la darren all your fault. lol. I really salute those short people who can get gold. With such short legspans, it only means that their legs shuffle even harder and faster to run for gold. gay man.

Uniqlo actually sells pretty decent stuff! :) I didn't realise that before. haha.

Ugly Singaporeans

2010-01-14T23:46:00.004+08:00

I hate people who do not move into the inner seat, especially when the bus is like packed. Some people have really thick skin, even when people are like packed so tightly together on the bus they can still pretend to do their own stuff and not move in. Best thing is, some people pretend to sleep. What happened to our social etiquette eh. lol.

ORD SEASON

2010-01-13T23:23:00.000+08:00

it's the season for birthday parties! =D

Well, with the dawning of a new year, it's time to set your resolve, look forward, and leave no regrets, right LIMZY?

camp has been crap, especially this last stretch, because of the changing of some policies and arrangements.. new problems popping up here and there.. I'm just so glad I ORD before the Chinese New Year. lol. just 4 days before, shiokadoo.. going to have to look for a job soon.. anyone with any recommendations? 12 more working days! :)

need to take IPPT soon. It'll be quite a miracle if I can get silver, that $100 will be welcomed with open arms man. haha. but it's gonna be pretty challenging, especially the run. haven't been running in such a long time, that day went to run, timing was really gg. going to try to cut off some time. chiong ah!

GEE!

2010-01-11T23:20:00.001+08:00

LOL the Korean GEE song is so catchy and addictive! :) now I know why chick like already. hahaha. and their dancing is damn pro man. niceeee. lol!

chick next time must send me ah haha. :D

Melbourne trip and random stuff

2010-01-09T23:19:00.000+08:00

I realised how comical people look when they speak loudly on airplanes because they are wearing earphones. I'm pretty sure the air stewardesses get a lot of this, it must be really hilarious. haha.

When I was in Melbourne I received a random sms from some random number in Singapore, probably sent wrongly. Here's what it read:

"you think I cannot make you happy?"

what a move. when I read it I was like... wth??! felt like replying though, but I probably would have caused a breakup, so I didn't. but it was still really funny. :)

the Airbus A380 is really cool. it's so majestic it just seems like a gigantic bird in the sky. it's more spacious too, especially when you're seated at the window, because probably the body of the plane is more circular. you should try it one day! oh yes I walked up to have a look at the business class too. It was like.. WHOA. haha.

Melbourne was nice. the people there are friendly, and the drivers are courteous. They give way and stuff like that, unlike some Singaporeans who purposely speed up when they see you're trying to change lane/filter out. We visited the Twelve Apostles (a stack of rocks in the ocean) and took a drive along the world-famous Great Ocean Road. The views were just breathtaking. The stuff there were pretty expensive. oh yes and there's just so much land that almost everyone has a decent house/ bungalow.

We also visited Philip Island, where we saw how the Little Penguins waded in from the ocean at sunset to return to their burrows. so cute. pity we weren't allowed to take pictures. haha.. :D it's just amazing how they are able to find their way back home after hunting in the big ocean for the entire day. smart penguins, maybe they got GPS. lol.

yay. ORD soon. but that only means that I'll need to find another source of income! anyone with any job to recommend? :) haha. wa yesterday I went on a real adventure man. Here's the story:

ok I was supposed to fetch the car from my mum's office in Toa Payoh after camp because she had to attend some meeting at some place where she wasn't allowed to park. So I went there after work to fetch the car.

On the way home, I was supposed to take this ramp up Toa Payoh North Flyover which will then bring me to Braddell Road then I was supposed to drive along Braddell Road to Bartley Road then to my sister's office to pick her from work. BUT, by the time I realised I was supposed to keep right to go up the ramp it was already too late. So I had no choice but to turn left. it was still Braddell Road, but in the opposite and there was NO U-TURN for dunno how long.

I quickly turned into the petrol station to check the map. So the backup plan was to go along Braddell Road in the opposite direction until I came to the PIE then exit at Toa Payoh so I can go up the ramp to the flyover again. So I drove on and on until I saw a sign--PIE (Changi Airport). I thought I was supposed to take the PIE towards Tuas direction instead of the one towards Changi Airport. So I didn't exit. I exited at the next one instead- PIE-Tuas. GG! By the time I realised I was in the wrong direction I almost drove until Clementi! near the exit to SIM. what a move man.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Drive slowly near the exits!

haha.

:)

2009-10-28T23:48:00.011+08:00

FATHER FORGETS
W. Livingston Larned

Listen, son: I am saying this to you as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, "Goodbye, Daddy!" and I frowned, and said in reply, "Hold your shoulders back!"

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive- and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father!

Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. "What is it you want?" I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding- this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me goodnight. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed!

It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: "He is nothing but a boy- a little boy!"

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much.

Don't criticize, condemn or complain.

cockroach

2009-09-23T16:50:00.003+08:00

Oh my. yesterday morning while I was about to leave for camp, I sat down on the floor and started to put on my boots. Usually my boots will be placed right beside the shoe cabinet, above which sits the bird cage that contains my two little cute peach-faced lovebirds.

here they are!

cute, aren't they! :)

anyway, back to the story. As I was slipping my right foot into the boot I felt something inside, so I immediately thought it was a sunflower seed that might have dropped from the bird cage above. So I overturned the boot. Nothing came out, so I put my foot in again. This time I felt something again. I overturned the boot, and I was greeted with the most disgusting sight. A COCKROACH! it was damn gross. It was still alive! After I stepped on it twice can you imagine. It started running away, but thankfully mum was there to catch it and it was squashed on the spot. lol. when it fell out of the boot some liquid was oozing out of it oh my I shall stop here.

Remember to check before putting on your boots!

can go buy 4D man. lol.

:)

2009-09-08T00:11:00.011+08:00

Psychologically "healthy" people show

1. An objective perception of reality
2. Acceptance of their own natures
3. A commitment and dedication to some type of work
4. Naturalness, simplicity in behaviour, and spontaneity
5. Independence; a need for autonomy and privacy
6. Intense mystical/ peak experiences
7. Empathy with, and affection for, all humanity-- including strong social interests
8. Resistance to conformity
9. Democratic characteristics
10. Keenness to be creative

So, are YOU psychologically healthy??

think about it! :)

haha.

Up!

2009-08-16T22:04:00.000+08:00

I watched Up yesterday with my sis. nice show! I felt it was really heartwarming. One of the best animation shows I've watched so far... haha. ok la actually I haven't really watched a lot of this kind of cartoon shows.. only remember watching Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Monsters Inc, Shark's Tale, Horton and ya I can't remember what else. but this is the best so far. :D go catch it!

And I also bought a digital camera! 12.2 mega pixels. haha. very clear! :D it was such a good deal, from original price $360+ on sale become $199. plus it comes with a free 4gb memory card, memory card reader, camera stand, screen protector and a little magazine on photography techniques. great buy! actually I wasn't in a real rush to get one, but I guess it'll probably come in handy very soon. haha. it's at Harvey Norman by the way. promotion probably still on. can consider!

EPL officially starts this weekend. yay.

Playing to Win

2009-07-28T22:00:00.005+08:00

Playing to Win

Playing to win requires a commitment to yourself that even if you fail, you will never give up and never let your goals and dreams die. Those who play to win know that success is not given to us. It is pursued with all the energy and sweat we can muster. Obstacles and struggles are part of life and only serve to make us appreciate our success. If everything came easy, we wouldn't know what it felt like to truly succeed. Obstacles are meant to be overcome. Fear is meant to be conquered. Success is meant to be achieved. They are all part of the game of life and the people who succeed are the ones who play to win, trust, and never give up until the game is over.

--The No Complaining Rule--

Jon Gordon

LOBSTER!

2009-07-06T23:13:00.006+08:00

check out this GIANT lobster i saw in the tank of one italian restaurant we went to in Jakarta. It was really HUGE! poor thing, just lying there waiting for someone to order and cook it. For a lobster that size it would have cost about the equivalent of 70 or 80 Singapore dollars.. can you believe it.. gay lobster! lol.

didn't take much pictures over there in Jakarta. in fact, this was the only picture I took! haha. it was pretty much shopping eating and watching dvds over there.. the pirated dvds were of really good quality! only cost about one singapore dollar. watched a few shows like He's Just Not That Into You, Yes Man, Passengers (Anne Hathaway! lol..), Transformers 2, Eagle Eye and Prison Break- The Final Break. (this was really good! something like the final instalment after Season 4 I think.)

overall it was a good trip. :) a nice little break from everything. and the air ticket cost only $140. lol. not the cheapest though! So remember, like the airline said, for the lowest fares, always log on to www.tigerairways.com. hahaha. :D

LOL!

2009-06-29T12:33:00.003+08:00

A priest was driving along and saw a nun on the side of the road, he stopped and offered her a lift which she gladly accepted. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to open and reveal a lovely leg. The priest had a look and nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun looked at him and immediately said, “Father, remember psalm 129?” The priest was flustered and apologized profusely. He forced himself to remove his hand. However, he was unable to remove his eyes from her leg. Further on, while changing gear, he let his hand slide up leg again. The nun once again said, “Father, remember psalm 129?” Once again the priest apologized. “Sorry sister, but the mind is weak.” Arriving at the convent, the nun got out, gave him a meaningful glance and went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to retrieve a bible and looked up psalm 129. It said, “Go forth and seek; further up, and you will find glory.”

The moral of the story?

Always be well informed in your job; Or you might miss a great opportunity.

LOL!

Anyway, I'll be away in Jakarta till the 5th to visit my dad, leaving this evening. so, sorry if I don't reply okay! :)

hope I don't come back with H1N1. or maybe by next week it would have become so bad that need to quarantine. OH MY.

ta-ta! :D

An old woman and a taxi driver

2009-06-24T12:51:00.007+08:00

An old woman and a taxi driver

I arrived at the address where someone had requested a very early morning taxi.. I honked but no one came out. I honked again; nothing. So i walked to the door and knocked. 'Just a minute", answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clock on the walls, no knick-knacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bad out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, and then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.

'Oh, you're such a good boy', she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, and then asked,' Could you drive through downtown?'

It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly.

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice'.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued. 'The doctor says I don't have very long.'

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. 'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighbourhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds.

She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now.'

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman had already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' she asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said.

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said.

'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut, It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly loss in thought. For the rest of the day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one was impatient to end his shift?

What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, and then driven away? In retrospect, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware - beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

Thank you, my friend.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here, we might as well dance.

P-PLATE

2009-06-05T17:54:00.001+08:00

oh yes. did I mention I passed my driving? =D

lol.

YAY!

pump or no pump?

2009-05-21T01:08:00.001+08:00

Well, Pumpfest was...... ahh what can I say. Inspirational. I always get this same feeling every time after watching a competition. like it just gives me the sudden urge to jump right back onto the walls, and yet deep down I know that I will eventually have to face the reality of us being almost back to square one in terms of climbing fitness and strength. I actually lost 4 kg as compared to my regular weight last time, can you believe it. probably muscle mass since I wasn't even fat to begin with. it just seems so discouraging every time we try to climb again. at most maybe last a few routes and then boom. that's it. pump. pack up go eat. Sometimes I really miss trainings with Philip. hopefully can get back the motivation and momentum to climb again. haha. :)

like Rongjun said, there really is a difference between Opens Men and the other categories. you can really see their level of composure. and like they are in no hurry to make any particular move because they know they can do it. it can only be a distant goal for now. lol.

driving test end of the month! wish me luck. :D

the stresses of Army

2009-03-25T17:40:00.000+08:00

hmmm. army life isn't exactly stress-free, just in case some of you are thinking life must be damn slack for us now. Well, it has its own share of problems too. lol. sometimes I do wonder why I opted for command school. Was it the pay? Or was it the power? Maybe I didn't think so much at the time about the heavier responsibilities that we would have to shoulder. For us, the lower ones at the bottom of the food chain, army is all about doing what is expected of you and knowing how to answer to your superiors to stay away from trouble isn't it. Well, ORD isn't that far away I guess. This just happens to be a phase of our life that we all have to go through to come out stronger, both mentally and physically. So let's just... suck it up! :)

Today I took a little nap after coming back from camp before going for driving. The lesson was to start at 1435. I started napping at like 1100, and set the alarm for 1300. Guess what I totally didn't hear a single thing. And what time did I wake up? 1430! Lucky my neighbour was practising some tune on his flute so that sort of woke me up. I chionged man, got changed and rushed downstairs for the cab. Reached like two fifty plus. what a joke man, the instructor was already preparing to leave to go rest when just nice I reach. haha. thanks to my neighbour for playing that not so nice tune that woke me up, or the money really go down the drain. =D

Gravical 2009 @ SMU!

2009-03-08T02:20:00.002+08:00

Gravical 09 @ SMU! special thanks to Ee Lin for asking us down. :) lol. not bad la quite fun haha got a chance to check out the campus. I guess Rongjun's right, the environment's kind of different, like more working world rather than school kind of environment, partly also because of the fact that it's located right in the middle of all the office buildings. haha. oh yes. though I'm not exactly a gym fan, I think SMU has a beautiful gym!

well I was spotter for Inter Men and whistle-blower for Open Women. haha quite redundant actually the spotter coz all of them so pro already so didn't really have anyone fall. even if have also they should be know how to fall one la haha so we there for wayang only. LOL. crazy weather. one moment it was scorching and the next moment the whole place like wet market. surprised Beatrice didn't participate though, would have been a breeeeeze. haha.

anyway, it was nice catching up with the rest at the food court and Cartel. the tom yam soup was damn imba. super sour and spicy till we had to play zhong ji mi ma. I drank 3 spoons and my stomach already had the hot and spicy feeling. poor Darren, drank almost half a bowl. LOL. the brownie at Cartel was yummy too, but wasted no more cakes already if not got half price haha.

had a little heart-to-heart talk with Rongjun too, thanks bro. :D

luckily we left just in time, one minute later we woud have missed the last train to Marina Bay. steam sia we had to literally sprint all the way from the NEL exit to the other North-South line. but fun leh, first time I ever ran for the last train. haha. and Graham was cursing and swearing at this botak in front of us who didn't bother to keep to the left on the escalator since he was taking the train going towards Jurong East. haha damn funny, kept calling him chao recruit. Rongjun said, "eh not everyone who is botak is a recruit." LOL. joke sia. :)

*can't think of one!

2009-02-09T23:11:00.002+08:00

what a really small world. that day go watch movie with wei kian then bump into so many people at tm. Edmund from ncc, Shiqi from guides, Gwen from climbing (twice!), and one of the guides senior dunno what name lol. then today at the driving centre I bumped into Gwen again! she just passed her basic theory. Congratulations Gwen haha.

oh ya. then the instructor today said taller people got advantage when driving, coz can see the front and sides of the car easier.. shorter ppl like me must sit up straight then can see. then he made me adjust my seat and for almost the whole lesson I was sitting upright lol it was rather uncomfortable. haha then when I told him he said, "you want comfortable or you want pass?" lol. quite true. :)

when the results come out, I will need to start applying again. but I still haven't made up my mind after so many many months. hmm how how how.

oh ya, been looking for portable speakers recently, for my ipod. lol. my brother left me quite a few nice songs. thanks kenny :D I wanted to go to Challenger at tampines to see coz I thought there might have but I realised that it wasn't there anymore. gosh I wonder how long I never go tampines already. haha.

for now it's just driving and driving and more driving.

I need some inspiration.

new year, new hopes

2009-01-06T12:01:00.001+08:00

new year wishes for the new year 2009:

:) hope I'll be able to climb more often! climbing form has seen a significant dip I'm not kidding
:) pass my driving ASAP and on first attempt! lol.
:) TRY to save more? haha.
:) to slowly change my wardrobe-- ie new clothes lol.
:) to maintain some of my fitness so I don't become too nua in camp. LOL. IPPT coming!

yep, that's all for now. now it's time to look forward to Chinese New Year and the yummy bak kwa and pineapple tarts and angbaos LOL. :D

thank-youzz :D

2008-12-14T11:35:00.001+08:00

firstly, let me say a big thank you to all those that wished me.. it was really heartwarming. :)

well I was fortunately to have my birthday spent out of camp. had lunch at Kuishin-bo with Limzy! lol. it was some Japanese buffet place.. had sushi sashimi teppanyaki tempura etc.. and lots of yummy desserts too.. not bad la there was this offer -if you could finish eating within one hour it would be $20.90++ instead of the original $26.90++. Actually just wanted to take our time eat one so never chiong. But after we took our time to eat and when we were paying then we realised we took exactly one hour.. haha so she charged us for the one hour offer. :D lol.

had dinner at Jack's Place with my family. believe it or not it was my first time eating there.. haha the ambience not bad la quite nice and quiet.. There was a bacon-potato thing that was quite yummy.. something like a potato then put some sauce (think it's sour cream) and bacon bits on top. can make it myself one day too lol. :)

Congratulations to all our newly commissioned officers! you are the pride of our nation. right rongjun weicheng jingwen graham? have fun in your new unit! and let's count down the days together to our much-awaited ORD. :D

Air Force School

2008-11-23T13:21:00.002+08:00

Yet another new posting. Air Force School. As what? Guardroom spec. lol. I got quite a shock when I got the news that I'll be posted out, because quite a few people told me that I'll probably be staying. I also expressed interest to stay, actually. When my sergeant major was announcing our postings he split all of us into groups then told us stuff like 'ok this group you all will be posted to Tengah/ Sembawang/ Changi' etc but I was the only one not in any group. Then he told me 'ok Kelvin for the moment just take it that you are Paya Lebar first, your posting is not out yet.'

Five minutes later, during lunch while we were all mingling and saying our goodbyes, my sergeant major called me to him and told me to report to Gombak Base, MINDEF the next day 8am. Some more tell me to bring all my stuff there, which I found puzzling because I never knew MINDEF was stay-in. Those posted out were allowed to book out that day. haha. shiokadoo.. :)

Next morning, I took a cab to MINDEF which was located all the way at Dairy Farm Road, near Bukit Timah. damn far sia, the cab cost me $24. lol. some more the camp all the way on a hill, lucky got the cab to send me up. Quite a few people gave me strange looks because apparently I was the only one with a duffel bag and another huge civilian bag which was also like a duffel bag. The rest of the office people at most only had a small handbag or haversack. The people got quite a shock when I reported there because my name wasn't in any list to report or whatever. So I sat there for about an hour or so while the clerk desperately scanned through all his emails to find my name and what my posting was supposed to be. After an hour or so then he told me "oh, you're supposed to report to Air Force School instead." I was thinking like 'what..!?!', because it meant that I just wasted $24 on my cab and my wallet had no more cash to take another cab back to Air Force School. Lucky my mum and sis were free so they came to give me a lift. :D

heng ah. I thought my permanent posting was going to be MINDEF as some clerk or something. If yes then I die sia, all the computer stuff so chim to me.. some more I stay so far away lol if 8 to 5 also damn jia lat every morning climb up the steep hill. lol.

So that is how I ended up in Air Force School. lol. it's not 8 to 5, by the way just in case you were thinking it is. haha. but it's quite relaxed as compared to PLAB. It's just next to PLAB too, so hopefully I get to bump into some of them sometimes. haha. The duties operate on a shift system as well. One day work one day off, but FRI+SAT counts as one day and SUN+MON counts as one day. So a typical week will go something like, tue work, wed off, thurs work, fri + sat off, sun + mon work, tue off, wed work, thurs off, fri + sat work etc. not bad hor. =D hopefully I will be able to go learn driving haha. The trainees in Air Force School damn shiok sia, because there is a mess inside that sells food and also have pool tables lol. The thing is that even trainees are given these privileges, unlike us in PLAB lol. machiam chalet. :) oh yes I bumped into Jingwen and Yu Quan too!

I shall update more about my adventures next time.. lol till then!

CHRISTMAS is coming! :D

INDIA!

2008-11-12T23:40:00.003+08:00

heard that the juniors are going on a trip to India or something like that to CLIMB and I felt really envious! lol how cool is that!? fly until so far away to climb.. the experience must be wonderful.. just a year ago we were on our way to Chiang Mai to climb too. =D I had loads of fun there seriously.

I can still remember us waking up every morning to enjoy the very yummy breakfast sets made by the American gay couple- lol they can seriously make good food.

I remember how Siying got drunk and started speaking in her high-pitched voice and her "I'm crossing!" line I will never forget.

I remember many of us going out in the middle of the night to the burger joint where we had Heineken beer and nice warm burgers.

I remember how Bel saw this fake whole chicken in the shopping centre and he gave us all a shock when he tried to throw it at us and we thought it was real.

I remember attempting my first 6C route named Blood, Love and Steel which I did not manage to redpoint I think, but it was a wonderful experience. Making a dynamic move to a flat surface was something new to me. Really scary yet thrilling. Graham was great, he managed to flash the route. :D

I remember how Siying enjoyed her Stinger so much that I decided to buy her another one even though she was getting drunk. LOL.

I remember having that wonderful dinner at the vegetarian restaurant to celebrate Yuxin's birthday and it was also where she got a pleasant surprise. :) We camwhored with so many different cameras and it was really fun.

I remember how I tried to jump, or rather, jumped over a motorcycle after drinking like not even a full can of Heineken? LOL. It was really funny. After that on the way back to the inn I think I saw a can or yakult or something like that lying on the ground and I picked it up and threw it into somebody's house. Under the influence of alcohol! haha. thinking back it was quite mean. :D

I can probably think of a few more 'I remembers'.. for now I'm glad I refreshed the Chiang Mai trip again in my mind.. haha guess it will probably be some time before I'm leaving the country again!

till then.. :)

POP lo :D

2008-11-09T13:13:00.001+08:00

last last Friday, 311008, was finally the day when we all could shout "POP lo...!" The feeling was pretty good. there wasn't any parade thankfully, just a mini ceremony with some refreshments and very yummy honeydew sago. HAHA. tomorrow, we'll finally know our posting.. the last posting until we ORD. yay. there's always that feeling of anticipation before every posting... quite scary and yet quite fun at the same time... hopefully I'll get to stay at PLAB.. :)

IPSC at Clementi Camp was great. haha it really makes a difference when there are high ranking people attending the same course. We're treated much nicer and given more respect. sadly, it ended as quickly as it begun.

next phase: OJT!

My sis showed me a website of funny exam answers that students came up with. it was seriously hilarious. haha I really laughed out loud.

-------------------

B is the new C.

His professor sent him an e-mail the following day:

Dear Michael,
Every year I attempt to boost my students’ final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material. For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points. There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It’s as if you didn’t look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!

May God have mercy on your soul.

Sincerely,

Professor William Turner

P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on.

B is the new C

--------------------

Pro vs noob.

--------------------

Where is the x?

--------------------

Expand the equation.

--------------------

---Courtesy of http://funnyexamanswers.com--- :)

STEELWALL!

2008-10-18T14:25:00.002+08:00

ok basically we've just finished two field camps, Exercise EBUA and Exercise Steelwall, in the past two weeks and I think I can say we've reached the climax of the course so far... one more field camp to go, Exercise Topspade. after two more weeks we'll finally become sergeants.. like finally. :) lol. ALSO, I've finished my three confinements! so happy. haha.

went back to school that time to climb with the rest.. and the walls were painted a very nice blue. :) felt peaceful and good to be sitting in the bouldering area.. hadn't seen it in quite some time.. hope to climb again with the guys soon..! =D

Chicken, I think you must be in Taiwan right now.. I hope you're having fun! don't go there own the Taiwan people in their Taiwan mahjong LOL.

and Limzy, I really hope I'm posted to the same shift as you.. hahaha. see you sooooooonn... :)

happy birthday Kenny!

2008-09-20T22:42:00.007+08:00

It's my brother's 24th birthday today... happy birthday Kenny! hope you're having fun in Melbourne, and see you soon...! :D

didn't get confined this weekend because the rest of the platoon booked out today as well, so I finally got to be out on a Saturday after so long. shiokadoo. :) suddenly just felt lost, like totally didn't know where to go or what to do, so ended up staying at home changing the water of the fish tank, sweeping the floor (I didn't know it was so dusty/dirty, trust me, even the bunks are cleaner), treating myself to some chocolate downstairs, paying my phone bill, and watching my neighbour play a bit of mahjong. LOL. walked along East Coast beach with my mum for a while in the evening.. felt so peaceful and relaxed when I looked at the sea and the little children playing with the sand and families sitting around on mats having their little picnics.. haha. after that we headed to Subway for dinner.. Subway Melt was yummy... :D

booking in tomorrow evening, then booking out on Monday evening again after platoon live firing, coz over the next two weeks we'll be having some stay-out RP course at Clementi Camp. far sia. lol. but never mind, coz I really needed this little break. :) wasted, cannot catch the Chelsea- ManU match tomorrow night... :( last week also miss the Liverpool-ManU one. what a move.

I miss you guys...