-the musical words

Death

2011-03-20T23:00:00.002+08:00

The passing of a relative this very afternoon made me realise something: I cannot accept or face up to death when it comes to people who matters very much to me.

As I watched her lying on the hospital bed, surrounded by family, family who are teary-eyed and clasping her hands and stroking her face and hair, family who neglected lunch just to spend every possible moment by her side, to have every single second possible to memorise her looks, to touch her for the very last time.

She was the same age as my grandmother. As I saw my grandmother broke down and cry as she saw her lying on the bed with tubes going into her body, I thought, "What if this was my own grandmother lying in that bed?". And my mind could not accept that notion. Rejected. Pushed away. Out of the question.

Although I know that we will all die someday, but the thought that one day, not everyone is going to be around, seems absolutely absurd to me. And my mind refuses to wrap around it nor comprehend it at this moment. My entire being absolutely balks at the notion of losing a loved one. And quite honestly, I never want that moment to arrive. Ever.

The Berliner Phiharmoniker Concert

2010-11-24T00:10:00.000+08:00

I know I am firmly in the midst of a fierce battle otherwise known as my final exams, but this is one concert I could not say "no" to. It's the BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER!! One of the finest orchestras in the world and most definitely, my favourite. And it is their first time in Singapore.

I'd first learnt of their performance here even before I left for L.A. more than half a year ago. Alas, the affordable tickets were all SOLD OUT by then. I was absolutely flabbergasted and most upset. So when Marcus called me last week and told me he managed to get tickets, I simply pounced.

Words probably could not do this concert justice, but I shall give it my best shot anyway. I could not keep all these inside anymore or I shall simply explode.

The concert was opened with Haydn's Symphony No. 99 in E-flat Major. When the first strains of the violins floated out, my heart simply clutched and my breath hitched in my throat.

Ohhh.

It was so beautiful. Many a times, I'd watched their concerts on Youtube, but nothing, nothing, could ever compare to listening to them live. And I quite simply, fell in love with them all over again.

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the most dynamic orchestras I've ever seen. The musicians really move to the music. I thought the violist looked like he was about to fall off his chair if he moved any more vigorously. I could not help but smile at the sight. But everyone moved together. It was so beautiful. I was absolutely riveted.

Their coordination, synchrony and control were impeccable. Every single pizzicato, every single stroke of the bow, even right down to the portion of the bow used were all in coordination. The dynamics were perfectly executed. Pianissimos, fortissimos, crescendos and decrescendos. It was truly splendid.

And I never knew brasses could sound so loud. And there were not many brasses. The tubist was most impressive. He was the only tubist, yet I could still hear him oh-so clearly.

The second piece was "Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6" by Alban Berg. Now that was a really interesting piece of music with the use of a lot of percussion instruments. There was even a use of this hammer which made the most explosive thunderous sound ever. And the third piece concluded with such a resonating, booming and impactful BANG.

The concert closed with Brahms's Symphony No. 2 in D Major Op. 73. I'd never heard of his second symphony before, but I'm not unfamiliar with his first. Although the second wasn't as depressing as the first, I could not help but be reminded of it, for the 1st movement was still very sad. The 3rd movement, however, was most delightfully joyous. And I could not help but move to the cheerful pizzicato by the cellos.

The finale was most impressive and concluded with much grandeur that had the audience on their feet, exploding with great applause and yelling "BRAVO!!". This is the first time I've ever seen a standing ovation in Esplanade Concert Hall. It is most definitely the first time yours truly has ever actually stood up while applauding madly. Oh, and it's also the first time I've ever actually heard someone yell "Bravo!!" in a concert hall. Sure, I've seen it on TV, but never in real life. But it was all well-deserved, for the Berliner Philharmoniker were nothing short of impressive.

For the encore (we simply could not get enough of them), they played a part of "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky. Oh gosh, when the cellos came in, I simply melted into a puddle of human goo. The tone, their movements. It was indescribable.

In the words of Marcus, this concert was, to put it simply, an eargasm. An out-of-the-world experience.

Vienna Boys' Choir

2010-10-12T13:51:00.003+08:00

Last Friday, Sabrina and I went for the Vienna Boys' Choir concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall. And it BLEW OUR MINDS!! For the first half of the concert, they had an Asian repertoire with Arabic, Indian, Chinese and many other songs in various languages. And it was like a play because they acted out the scenes, albeit in German (we didn't understand a word of what they were saying, but still, they were extremely adorable!). The second half of the concert was more western, with music by Schubert and Strauss and a couple of more modern songs. The boys were dressed in their traditional sailor's outfit and looked way too cute!

Their voices were simply amazing. Pure and angelic. Projection was fantastic. They were really loud. The tone was so good. It made me melt. I was a boneless puddle of mess in my seat. And we, the audience, simply could not get enough of them. We requested for an encore. And they sang "Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight", a popular song from the 1950s. And it was so SWEET it killed me (I picked up this phrase from James. LOL.) It was just about the most adorable song I've heard them sing! And they were snapping their fingers away whilst singing that song.

Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it's time to go,
Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it's time to go,
I hate to leave you, but I really must say,
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight.

How adorable is that?!?!! I just about imploded in my seat. When we exited the concert hall, they were selling their CDs just outside. Sabby and I bought them and had the boys autograph it. *squeals*. This is the first time I've ever obtained any autographs! Sabby and I were insanely high that night and we were singing random songs as we made our way back home. It's been too long since we last sang together!

We gotta meet up soon for an insane singing session, Sabby! :D

And now, it's back to my Statistics notes... *sighs*

Leukocytes

2010-09-26T17:20:00.002+08:00

There is something not quite right with yours truly at the moment, for she is feeling a mite bit too emotional whilst reading her Cardio textbook. I mean honestly, when you read stuff like "it survives for another 3 to 4 days unless it dies sooner in the line of duty..." and then you read stuff like "a phagocytic cell can ingest only a limited amount of foreign material before it succumbs."

Doesn't it just make you feel so... SAD?! Like those leukocytes are some heroes that protect our dear body from invading pathogens. Not to mention especially when I've been horrifying sick for the past week. It makes me sad thinking about just what I've put my poor leukocytes through.

Sigh.

Sick

2010-09-21T19:02:00.002+08:00

It has been a long time since I last felt quite so incapacitated, even in my own home. Certainly, it has been a long time since I last fell quite so ill. For the past 5 days, I've been stuck at home (half the time in bed), battling a serious throat inflammation, which brought about a fever, a hacking cough, body aches and a runny nose.

Even now as I lay on the couch, my laptop is propped up on a cushion atop my tummy. I'm too drained to even feel like sitting upright. I feel like a miserable wreck, who can't stop coughing. I can only pray that the antibiotics I obtained from the doctor yesterday are doing their job well.

Supper

2010-09-08T23:01:00.005+08:00

For the first time in 2 years, I went out for supper with my friends from junior college. And it was really nice. I mean, I'm the kind of person who'd stay at home at night and read away like mad, enclosed in my little world of happiness. But last night, I overcame much inertia and left my house for supper!

So the 5 of us (Jon, De Sheng, ZQ, XX and I) headed off to Changi Village for supper. Jon drove us and I thought it was funny that all 5 of us are in possession of a driver's license. There was much joking and laughter during the drive there and for a moment, I felt like I had a social life back, like a college student enjoying a night out with friends.

Anyway, I had dessert, aloe vera and longan. Really yummy. It's been a while since I've had iced desserts like that. XX and ZQ had ice kachang, while Jon ate nasi lemak (late at night!!) and De Sheng had roti john (I think). And we all shared a plate of chili stingray. Ahhh, the joys of local food! I've still yet to have my fill of local food since my return from the U.S. and I was craving for sugar cane drink last night. Unfortunately all the sugar cane drink stalls were already closed. Bummer.

Anyway, to my utmost horror, I'd just discovered that I have a Pharmacology test next week. So, my lecture notes beckon. Au revoir~

Oh and before I go, I came across something on my friend, Elvin's blog, that totally cracked me up.

"The Beginning of Life

Whoever who always wondered why life is so fucked up, probably forgot that the creation of his life started with an orgasm.

O, the reality of life.
HAHAHAHAHA"

*falls off chair laughing* I certainly have a few opinions on that, but for now, I shall just keep them to myself.

Reminisce

2010-08-15T11:16:00.003+08:00

It's been nearly a week since I've arrived back home in Singapore. It amazes me how 7 weeks can allow one to form such attachments to a foreign country. I miss the cooling weather in L.A.. I miss walking to classes in UCLA and looking at all the beautiful buildings on the way. I miss grocery shopping at Ralphs and having a chat with the funny guy there who last peeked into my shopping basket and asked what I was going to cook that night. I miss my room back in Saxon Suites which I shared with 4 other room mates. I miss those times where Emma and I would lounge in our living room and listen to songs together. I miss those music sessions we'd had - playing music in Rieber Hall's music room with James, Hideto, Emma and Sandy, and learning how to play the drums from Hideto. This list could go on and on.

I wish I had more time in L.A. I wish I could have watched one more concert at the Hollywood Bowl. There're so many things I've yet to do in L.A. And someday, hopefully, I'll get to go back there again.

And this is me, being all emotional on a rainy morning. I think it's the rain. It makes me emo. Lol.

Dog-friendly

2010-07-26T12:19:00.004+08:00

I realised that America is a very dog-friendly country. There're dogs everywhere!! So I was on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with my friends and one of them wanted to go into Chanel. So we went into Chanel and kinda browsed around and then this lady walked into Chanel, WITH HER DOG!! Wow! So amazing. I had a shock the first time this happened, seeing dogs in shops. And you know, I went to this park in San Francisco, I forgot the name of the park, but I saw this drinking fountain and we were all eager to fill up our water bottles. Then I looked down and saw a drinking fountain that was really close to the ground, then I realised it was for DOGS! LOLLL. Isn't that amazing? Such a dog-friendly country!

Hollywood Bowl

2010-07-21T15:49:00.003+08:00

So right now, it's about 12.49am, July 21 2010. And tonight (after I sleep and awake, that is), I'll be going to the... HOLLYWOOD BOWL for a jazz concert!! I am so excited I would be bouncing off the walls of my room if I could!!! And thank God for James, my new American friend, who volunteered to drive Emma and I to the Bowl :D Yayys! I feel like a kid who's just been told Christmas is coming early! I've always wanted to watch a concert at the Hollywood Bowl ever since hearing about it several years ago, and now I'd really get to! :D

Yayy :D I feel like a bumbling, incoherent, idiotic but extremely happy fool.

Greetings from the City of Angels

2010-07-12T10:38:00.002+08:00

I know I know, I told myself that I would blog during my time in Los Angeles and it's already been THREE WEEKS since I got here! So today is Sunday of the 3rd week. I'd just had dinner at Hedrick Dining Hall and am feeling really bloated at the moment. I really ought to start from the beginning.

So Mildred, Gail (my roommates) and I took the extremely long and tedious flight from Singapore to Los Angeles, with a 2 hours transit in Hong Kong. As usual, I spent my time on the plane watching movies like mad. Sherlock Holmes and The Lovely Bones was really really good. Upon our arrival in LA, we were pretty excited even though it was really really late at night. By the time we got out of the airport to wait for the hotel shuttle, it was about 11pm. The moment we stepped out of the airport, the wind blew and WHEW was it cold!! It was about 16-18 degree celsius then, if my memory serves me correct. Having come from our extremely hot and sunny island of Singapore, the cooling weather was a very much welcomed change.

The next day, we grabbed some breakfast at the hotel and slacked in our room for a few hours. Before Gail and Mildred turned on the TV to watch the World Cup. During half-time, we decided to go to the nearby McDonald's to get some take-away. And my my, was it an experience! Firstly, in America, they don't say "take-away", they say "to go", which is really weird for us cos we're so used to saying "take-away". Then, the drinks are FREE FLOW. Oh my goodness. And there is also no chili sauce available. Lastly, their portions are HUGE D: Thank goodness we shared.

In the afternoon, Samuel, a good friend of my friend, was so nice to pick us up from our hotel and drive us to UCLA. But we still had some time, so we stopped by Santa Monica en route to UCLA. Then he brought us to Third Street Promenade and we kinda walked around a bit. Then we had to go UCLA to check-in to our residential suite.

So anyway, the campus is really huge. Like really, huge. AND it's gorgeous!! The buildings are so beautiful!! Our residential suite is pretty nice too, Saxon Suites. We have two bedrooms, a toilet, a shower and a living room in our suite. Gail, Mildred and I are sharing 1 bedroom and our other roommates are Emma and Okio (I'm sorry I forgot how to spell her name) are sharing the other room. They're from Taiwan and Turkey respectively.

Classes have been very interesting. I'm taking two modules, Understanding Relationships and Introductory Psychobiology. Understanding Relationships is really different because it's a module that you'd probably never get in Singapore. Like seriously, a module that teaches you about intimate relationships and BGR? Lol, not likely! But it's a communication studies module over here. And many NUS students are taking it too. Classes are really different over here. For my Understanding R/S module, there are no notes uploaded, I just went for lecture with my pencil case and a notebook. For the next two hours, I scribbled and scrawled away on my notebook as I never had before. The professor just talked and talked and occasionally scribbled some words on the chalkboard. YES, chalkboard. LOL, I have not seen a chalkboard since I was... 11 or 12?

Introductory Psychobiology is a bit more like the lectures back in NUS, with powerpoint slides and all that. But classes here are really small though. So it's quite embarrassing to be late. Oh yes and the students here have really no qualms about speaking out in class or just raising your hand to ask a question. No hesitation at all. Oh my. Culture shock. Hahaha. It is SO RARE for anyone to even raise a hand and ask a question in lecture. Equally rare for anyone to actually answer a professor's question either!! But over here, you can even get like 2-3 hands raised at the same time. They're just not afraid to speak up at all. Or maybe we just can't be bothered. Although we do like to bombard our lecturers AFTER the lecture. I suppose that's more like our style.

And oh yes, I am really grateful to have shuttle busses in NUS. Because there isn't any in UCLA! Or well, there is one, but it kinda only goes around the outskirts of campus. So to get to class, I have to WALK. For about... 15-20 minutes. Initially it took half an hour, cos we were all feeling so lost and we had to keep checking the campus map every few minutes. But now that we're more familiar with the campus and having found a couple of short-cuts, it takes a shorter time for us to get to class now.

Initially I was taking another module called Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Studies. And it was really interesting!! But the workload was a little too heavy and I was at a rather large disadvantage, not knowing much about American history or culture. So I decided to drop it and take Psychobiology instead.

Anyway, textbooks are INSANELY expensive over here!! I spent a grand total of USD 281.08 on just THREE textbooks!! It's crazy! My heart just about died at the hefty sum of money I had to spend on textbooks. Arghhh. And I could have gotten the very same Psychobiology textbook back in Singapore for just SGD 64!! Gahhhh.

Enough about the textbooks. It's a sore subject to bring up D: Thus far, I've been to Universal Studios, Disney's California Adventure Park and San Francisco. I'll blog about them another time as I've unfortunately fallen ill and am feeling a miserable wreck right now. I just hope it doesn't exacerbate and develop into a full-fledge flu.

Home

2010-06-19T02:57:00.002+08:00

So much for my wanting to move overseas for like a year or so to experience life outside of Singapore. It is now 2.58am in the morning and at 6.15pm, I'll be flying off to LA for a 7 weeks study trip in UCLA. But right now, as I sit in front of my laptop, I feel very... restless. I feel yes excited about the trip, but at the same time I also feel like I don't want to leave. Because now is the time for goodbyes, for bon voyages and farewells. And I don't want to bid anyone adieu. It makes me sad. And tonight is my last night here in Singapore. Somehow it seems rather wasted to spend it asleep. Although yes, I have the most awesomely soft bed ever and I likely will miss it too.

And you know what? I'm being horrifyingly melodramatic. LOL. It's only for 7 weeks. Just a week shy of 2 months and I'm being all mopey and emotional about it.

But still, every time prior to a departure from our sunny little island, I'd always look around as I go about my days looking around at the familiar landscapes. Those roads, those buildings, those TREES. Yes well, we have an awful lot of trees here, which is a good thing really.

To sum it all up, this is, quite simply, home.

And there's nowhere else like home.

Talk about Mortification...

2010-06-17T18:34:00.003+08:00

So one of the most embarrassing thing happened to the ever bumbling, idiotically blur me today. I was supposed to meet my friend, Ben, at the McDonald's at White Sands this afternoon for lunch. So I arrived at McDonald's slightly late, and walked up to the second level, where Ben told me he was at. I kinda scanned around and tried to look for him and there he is!! His back was to me and I kinda sneaked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up.

I stared at his face for a few moments while my brain seemed to go "That doesn't really look like Ben... Is that really Ben? He looks different somehow... Oh no! He doesn't really look like the Ben I remembered!" So the seemingly-Ben-lookalike stared at me and I stared back at him. And this staring went on for quite a few moments. AND THEN. The REAL Ben looked up at me from where he was seated, behind not-quite-Ben. My brain freaked out and shrieked at me "OMG HE REALLY ISN'T BEN!!!" before shutting down.

And then I bolted.

Quite literally. I flew the few steps over to Ben and sat down opposite him. I was SO mortified I wished the floor would open up and swallow me whole. And then I said to Ben, "That has got to be the most mortifying thing EVER!". I snuck a look over at not-quite-Ben and saw him kinda chuckling. I wanted to bang my head against the wall.

After Ben went to order his food, the overwhelming feel of how rude I'd been to just simply bolt like that galvnanised me into offering an apology to not-quite-Ben. So I took a deep breath, gathered my courage and walked over. I tapped him on the shoulder (again) and said "I'm so sorry for mistaking you as my friend earlier!". He laughed and said it was all right. I smiled sheepishly and went back to my table, which was actually just beside his. LOL.

The Lady

2010-05-17T17:58:00.003+08:00

First and foremost, HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY MARCUS!! You are now officially and legally an adult. Blessed birthday to you!

As Marcus's mum has decided to buy him a new violin for his 21st birthday, I brought him back to AmberCraft Violins, where he first fell in love with The Old German (p.s. these violin names are thought up by Marcus and I. We have a knack of giving names to violins, be it good or bad) So we decided to go back and see if The Old German is still around. After booking an appointment with Ming Xi (violin luthier) we headed down to his shop with our violins. His, for comparison with the new violins and mine, for a maintenance check.

As usual, I'm always very happy to visit MX's shop, cos his violins are simply exquisite. And it's the only time I get to try out violins that are really really really expensive. Furthermore, I always learn something new about violins each time I talk to him. And as usual, every time I visit his shop, I fall in love with a new violin. Today, I fell in love with The Lady.

The Lady (again, self-named =P) is aptly named for its incredibly sweet tone. It is not too bright and as MX said, very kind to the ears. It is a rich dark brown colour. It looks very old, very exquisite and reminds me of a very sweet, prim and proper Victorian lady. It was the 3rd violin that Marcus tried out. After he tried it out, I had my turn. When my bow struck the first note, I felt like I was going to melt. I played out the D major scale, and then I was in love. Such sweet lovely tones.

So anyway, Marcus tried out quite a couple of violins, finally narrowing it down to 2. At the same time I had my violin checked out too. And MX asked if I wanted to raise my fingerboard. Indeed, a few years ago I had approached him about the problem, only that I asked if he could lower the bridge instead. Haha. But apparently, one ought to raise the fingerboard instead of lowering the bridge. So hmm, should I?

British English

2010-05-14T03:55:00.002+08:00

After years of tolerating those squiggly red lines, I finally set the language of my Microsoft Word to British English.

No more squiggly red lines!

Carpe Diem

2010-05-13T01:09:00.001+08:00

Being the 'sua gu' that I sometimes can be, I'd just discovered last night that aside from audio CDs, one can borrow DVDs from the Esplanade Library as well. Ecstatic and quite overcome with excitement, I'd proceeded to their vast collection of DVDs with Xiu Xian (XX) and Jon. After awhile, I picked out 2 movies, "Dead Poets Society" and "Music and Lyrics".

Why did I choose those two movies? Well, while reading fanfiction one fine day, I'd came across the phrase "Carpe diem", and a fellow reviewer asked if the author got it from "Dead Poets Society". A lover of poetry, I was intrigued by the title and it also kinda rang a bell in my head. So I googled it and thought it seemed like a really good movie. So I wanted to watch it. And as for "Music and Lyrics", I'd always wanted to watch it ever since I heard the song "Way Back Into Love".

"Music and Lyrics" was all right. It was an enjoyable light-hearted sort of movie, but nothing very impressionable or impactful. Except that I absolutely adore Hugh Grant's British accent!

Okay Hugh Grant and British accents aside, I went on to watch "Dead Poets Society". It is about an English Teacher, Mr John Keating, who has rather unorthodox teaching methods, at this really prestigious, conservative and expensive prep school for boys, Welton Academy. So through his very interesting teaching methods, Mr Keating strives to bring across the message to break out of a life of rigid conformity. And indeed, he does change the lives of his students. The final scene of the movie was so poignant it brought tears to my eyes. I re-winded and re-watched the scene no less than 5 times. After which I decided to climb atop my coffee table and take a look around my living room (um, only those who've watched the movie would actually understand this). It was a really really touching movie. Not to mention Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke were extremely cute!

"Oh Captain, my Captain!"

I had a lot of fun listening to the boys recite poetry. There was a scene where one of the boys was trying to impress girls with Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, when he turned to another girl and was about to start off with another poem, somehow, I'd guessed that he was gonna recite Lord Byron's "She Walks In Beauty". AND I WAS RIGHT! For the next words out of his mouth were "She walks in beauty like the night, of cloudless climes and starry skies".

Needless to say, I had a VERY satisfying and rather insane couch-pounding moment. *laughs*

Well, CARPE DIEM!!

The Clinic

2010-05-08T23:59:00.002+08:00

It was with great anticipation that the 5 of us (Poh, Philip, Ying Hui, Xiu Xian and I) met today at Clarke Quay for dinner and the insanity that we had planned for our drinking session afterwards. A friend of XX's had recommended this ramen restaurant at The Central @ Clarke Quay called Marutama Ramen, so we decided to give it a shot.

When our ramen arrived and we all started to take our first bite, you could hear the swift intake of breath as you watch the expression change on your friend's face. It was... an out-of-the-world ramen experience!! It was truly the BEST ramen I'd ever tasted!! The soup was absolutely delicious!! And the noodles were great too! There was a piece of char siew in my bowl of ramen and it totally MELTS in your mouth! There's also their famous egg. It looks like an ordinary hard boiled egg, but the moment you bit into it... lOLLL. Suffice to say Poh's reaction was totally hilarious cos he couldn't believe it tasted SO GOOD. The outermost layer of the egg is hard boiled. As you bite in, the middle layer is slightly softer and right in the middle where the yolk is, is the softest part of the egg. I honestly have no idea how they managed to cook the egg like that! So yes, hands down, best ramen I'd ever tasted in Singapore.

After dinner, we walked over to The Clinic! The Clinic is this open-air pub/bar that has a hospital/clinic-like setting. Some of the tables had wheelchairs as chairs and there were other tables that resembled gigantic pills. Some of their specialty drinks include Sex on a Drip, which is an alcoholic beverage served in an IV bag connected to a drip. Yes, you drink from the drip. There are also shots served in syringes and the likes. The waiters and waitresses who serve your drinks are also clad in scrubs. Some even have a stethoscope hanging around their necks. So, being science students, we thought it was REALLY COOL, and we decided to play along by wearing our lab coats.

Honestly, I think this is one of the craziest things I've ever done in my life thus far. I mean when we were dressed in our lab coats and sitting there, sipping at our rum and vodka, people walking by were literally staring. LOLLL. Some even took photographs of us! It was a little embarrassing. Oh gosh. But we didn't wear our lab coats for long. It was way too warm. We took it off after we took our photos. And I can't believe the 5 of us actually nearly finished drinking FOUR JUGS of vodka and rum. FOUR jugs. Four JUGS. It is quite unfathomable. And those jugs weren't small. We played a LOT of drinking games, laughed a lot and discovered many dirty secrets about each other. Poor XX vomited after that though. I think she went over her alcohol tolerance limit. We all started discussing about enzymes and alcohol dehydrogenase and lactate and chemical formulas of Ethanol after that. Until Poh went all "No more enzymes!! No more chemical formulas!! School is OVER!!". So we shut up. Hahahahaha. But oh boy, what a night!

Life-changing moment?

2010-05-06T03:27:00.003+08:00

At long last, the dreaded exams are over (which explains my presence on the Internet at such an unearthly hour. Actually not really, I sleep at unearthly hours all the time, exams or no exams. Okay, that's besides the point). My last paper ended on Tuesday, 7pm. Before that I had wanted the exams to be over so much that I thought when the exam invigilator said "stop writing", it would be a life-changing moment.

That life-changing moment didn't come.

Sure I'd felt relief and all, because honestly, it was a rather awful paper. I finished it in about an hour (the paper was supposed to be 2 hours), not because it was fantastically easy, but because I didn't know how to answer some of the questions and was reduced to making intelligent guesses. So I sat there, freezing all my body parts off in the frigid exam hall (Are they trying to give us brain freeze? Honestly, I was turning blue, literally (my fingernails were becoming a most alarming shade of blue), and shivering like a lump of jelly in my seat, chattering teeth and all).

No, that moment wasn't life-changing. But it was simply plain old relief accompanied by a sigh.

After which, we (Poh, Marilyn, Ying Hui, Philip and I) proceeded to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant at Dhoby Ghout, which was delicious, except for the ramen I ordered, which well, wasn't all that delicious. But I was famished. So I ate it.

After dinner, it was about 9.30pm, so we decided to go Minds Cafe to play board games. Besides, it was Ladies' Night. We all had a lot of fun playing Big Taboo, some hand-sign reaction game and Ugly Dolls. My my, I had a fine time screaming. And I found out just how lousy I am at reaction games. Haha.

The Bus Stop

2010-04-28T23:18:00.002+08:00

I was on my way to school this afternoon, lugging my extremely heavy and extremely thick and extremely huge Molecular Biology of the Cell textbook, striding down the pavement to the bus stop to take the bus to school. The bus was nowhere in sight, so I shuffled impatiently from foot to foot, shifted my textbook from my right arm to the left and back again (it's really heavy!) and I was drifting off and woolgathering when suddenly a masculine voice broke through my train of thoughts.

"Excuse me, are you going to NUS?"

Perhaps the horrifyingly thick textbook I was hugging screamed "NUS student". I turned around and was met with the sight of a casually dressed guy who looked to be around my age. I nodded and answered in the affirmative.

"Do you know which bus to take that would get me the closest to PGP?"

Ahh, I see. Well, there aren't any public buses that go to PGP itself, so I started to explain to him that it would be better to take a bus to the Science faculty then hop onto a NUS shuttle bus which would bring him straight to PGP. Then he asked approximately how many stops would it be to the Science faculty. So I told him that I'm going there as well and that he could just follow me. He agreed and just then bus 198 came and we boarded it.

"So, are you an NUS student?"

"Well, no, actually I'm meeting a friend..."

And that broke the ice and we proceeded to chat the entire way to school. Making new friends, I find, is always a most enjoyable experience :)

The temporary crack in my facade

2010-04-28T01:21:00.007+08:00

So it's now 1.22am and I'm not asleep even though I'm supposed to go to school to study for my exams tomorrow (well, technically, today). And oh gosh, I think this is going to be one of those really rare angsty post when I feel like screaming my lungs out, hurl something or just break down and cry. Oh gosh, I'm even admitting that I feel like crying. My pride has all shriveled up and my facade cracked. Well just for now... Just this tiny little moment...

Life is getting a tad bit too overwhelming right now with a plethora (yes, plethora) of problems that plague me so. Oh woe to me (sarcastically)! Why is that when misfortune strikes, it comes in the hordes? A series of unfortunate events may be an apt enough description, but perhaps not precisely unfortunate. It is too mild a word to describe the plethora of problems, because everything appears to be just so freaking screwed up right now.

*takes a deep breath*

All right. I think I've calmed down enough. I'm strong enough to handle all of this, after all my name isn't "Valerie" for nothing. Herein concludes my rant. And come to think of it, it sounds rather like a childish, angsty, brooding adolescent. *grimace*

If music be the food of love, play on

2010-04-25T01:12:00.002+08:00

"A third guest approached her, crisp as day. Music, He was called. He meandered through the lifeless, faceless characters, like a fallen leaf on a mountain stream, finally pausing gently before tipping all His richness into Tiffany's heart."
-Talz
"Tiffany and the Flutist: Of Flutes and Roses"

And that was shamelessly borrowed from a story written by one of my dearest friends, Talz. And indeed did music brighten up my day (or shall I say, night) and tipped his richness into my heart. I am so HAPPY! All because I heard Jon McLaughlin's "So Close".

I don't know why, but that song just has that effect on me. From the first soft tinkling of the chimes, joined by the piano to the moment where the strings float gently in. Jon McLaughlin has a really smooth and velvety voice that just makes you wanna MELT when he starts singing.

And the scene in "Enchanted" where he sang the song didn't help either! It was a BALL! Period ball with gowns and tail coats and cravats and WALTZES.

I can't help myself. I just had to grab dear Russell (one of my teddy bears) and twirl around the room with him as I sing along. Ohhh, my heart...

All right, I have returned to Earth. Another paper tomorrow D: Study study study!

An eye-opening experience

2010-04-21T03:17:00.002+08:00

Indeed, that would be one of the most apt phrases to describe the happenings of today, the details of which I shall not disclose to you, my dear readers, for it truly is too crude to be written here.

As any ordinary day (with no school), I awoke in bed at a rather unearthly hour of 12.30pm (Ahem, I slept really late). And after performing my morning, or rather afternoon, ablutions, I left for school. I’d planned to meet Muffin at the School of Computing to study for our final exams, and I was most certainly late. After indulging in the most delicious yong tau foo from the Arts canteen, I dashed off to COM1 to find Muffin, who was seated at a bench outside the Computing Club Room. Naturally, many of her computing friends were around, and I was feeling a bit awkward cos well, I’m not from computing. I’m a Life Science student! But they were all friendly. I remember as we were studying, one of her friends, Chris, came and sat down on the bench with us and started talking to her. Soon, I began to join in the conversation as well. And oh my heavens. The things that we conversed about!! Yep, that’s the waaay-too-crude part. It blows my mind. The fact that we were able to converse like that, having just been acquainted to each other for a mere couple of minutes.

The next astonishing thing that happened in the day was during dinner time. At about 7pm or so, Muffin and I left for dinner with 3 of her friends, Steve, Chris and Gareth. We hadn’t yet decided on a place to eat and were talking as we walked to the carpark. Yes, carpark. Gareth was gonna drive us to our destination for dinner. It was mind-boggling, because eventually we decided to have dinner at Science canteen. So yes, we drove (or rather Gareth drove) from Computing to Science.

Apparently, this is a normal and rather common occurrence for Muffin and friends. But it is mind-boggling to me. Because none of my friends drive. So I’ve never travelled within the campus in car before. Yes I have travelled INTO the campus and OUT of the campus in cars before, but not WITHIN. Besides, there’s the NUS shuttle buses, which admittedly isn’t exactly very frequent now that it’s the Reading Week (or is it still?). But still, wow. Like wow. It was a novel experience. Call me childish or whatever if you will, but it is rather cool to drive around in campus! And definitely less time-consuming as compared to waiting for the buses.

Tagboard

2010-04-20T02:20:00.002+08:00

Look! I've got a new tagboard! And it's all thanks to my dearest Muffin who helped me fixed the dimensions of it. I got the cbox last night (or rather in the wee hours of yesterday morning) and when I pasted it into my template, it was too fat and wouldn't fit properly into the side bar. So after fussing around with the HTML codes for a very long time (I slept at 5am!!), I eventually gave up and decided to consult my dearest Muffin, who also happens to be a Computing student :D

So here we are, with a nice, fitting cbox and a cursive blog title.

I am happy.

Comeback

2010-04-19T03:13:00.000+08:00

Well, after months and months of near abandonment, I've decided to return to the world of blogging. Honestly, I don't think anyone even visits this derelict little thing anymore. But anyhow, here goes...

It is now an unearthly hour of 3.14am. I fear I've become quite nocturnal. My final exams begin this coming Saturday and all I can think of are the things that I wanna do post-exam. Life has been... stretching. Yes, I believe that's the word. I certainly do feel stretched, but I shan't launch into a miserable tirade of just how stretching it has been. Anyway, it is getting late (or rather, horrifying early). Thus herein shall mark the end of my first post, in a very long time.

Au revoir.

And bonne nuit *smiles*

2009-11-28T15:43:00.005+08:00

Decker's book is out!! With Tiny's one coming out end Dec/early Jan!! *screams*

I know this is just total randomness, but I was sick of looking at my Bioinformatics lecture notes and a visit to one of my favourite author's website had me in a tizzy. And all this energy and excitement just HAD to go somewhere or I'd start bouncing off my bedroom walls.

And I know this is even more absurd randomness when I haven't posted anything in this near derelict blog for eons! But again yes the energy and the outlet thing. Oooh, I just want to fly down to Kinokuniya right this moment and get my precious books!

BUT I CAN'T!!

At least, not for another 4 days. FOUR DAYS! Oh the pain!

Damn you exams!

(I realised that probably no one but Marcus would understand what on earth I'm raving about in this post. Hahahaha. My apologies to whomever may still be reading this near-abandoned old thing)

Well, back to Bioinformatics.

2009-03-14T01:04:00.000+08:00

Happiness

Valerie is feeling happy :)

2008-12-14T22:48:00.002+08:00

The Holidays

Hey, it's been awhile. Or shall I say, a very long while. Whoever said that university life is a bed of roses ought to be shot, for it certainly was the exact opposite. The finals are over, I'm about halfway through my holidays and enjoying it thus far.

The holidays give one an ample amount of free time that never was before found during term time (like DUH, what am I talking about). But anyway, this ample amount of free time allows one the opportunity to explore things that have been previously undone, or in very small amounts. The holidays have made me strangely domestic. Or maybe it's just today and my oddly melancholic mood.

I went to the Esplanade this late afternoon to meet up with Kenneth, Marcus, Em and Florence. And I managed to catch SMU Chamber Choir's performance at the Concourse. Christmas carols. It was wonderful.

Then I went home after awhile, but not before dropping by the supermarket. There was no one at home, meaning there's no dinner at home. And today, I had the oddest urge to cook. Yes, oddest urge because I do not cook. I find cooking a hassle and a big waste of time. Many hours of preparation put into cooking just that meal. But, like I said, it's the holidays and I have lots of time on my hands. So I went to the supermarket and bought a dory fish fillet, and two tubs of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I was feeling melancholic, needed comfort food and Ben & Jerry's is definitely great comfort food =)

So I got home, put on some Christmas music, blasted it through the living room and got busy in the kitchen with my dinner preparation. I absolutely love to stay at home when there's no one around. It's all peace and quiet and very serene.

After I cooked my fish, I settled down in front of the television and began to watch "City of Angels". I'd purchased its DVD yesterday. By the way, it's an awesome movie, go watch it if you can.

And, Christmas is coming =)

2008-11-05T22:09:00.005+08:00

Thanksgiving

Amidst the insanity and busy-ness of university life, going for LM (Life Meeting) has never failed to make me feel better. Today was the last LM for this semester, aptly titled 'Thanksgiving', where we all come together to give our thanks to God as our final exams roll near and the semester comes to a close.

Today, as all the different people in Campus Crusade for Christ step up to give their testimonies and personal thanks to God, I felt very encouraged. I had stepped into university with all the comforting tales about how life is going to be much smoother than the mad rush in Junior College. But I couldn't be more wrong. If anything, life in university is a madder rush than that in JC. But I shall not elaborate on that. Today, is about thanksgiving.

I want to thank God for all the wonderful testimonies shared by our friends today because they gave me hope when life seemed so bleak. I have been failing my CAs left, right, centre, up and down, and unlike JC, everything in uni counts towards your CAP (Cumulative Average Point). So it's like a little 10% here, a little 20% there, but if you keep failing these little 10-20%, you will get a grand total of... not very much. And it doesn't help much that everyone else seems to be doing so much more better than yourself. There were days when even smiling seemed like such a chore. I just couldn't find a reason to smile and there was really nothing to be happy about. And naturally, I didn't feel like talking very much. There was nothing to say anyway. So, sorry to my friends if I'd seem very fierce or moody these past few days.

I want to thank God for the new friend I made today and knowing that I'm not alone. And also to all my friends who have been encouraging me, thanks.

Thank you God, for reminding me once again, that You are in control of everything. I'm just gonna do my part and study hard. Keep up my faith and trust in You. Finals are in less than 3 weeks.

Bah, talking about my grades makes me feel all depressed again -.- shoot.

But, I will not give up trusting in God, for He promises that He will make all things beautiful in His time.
~Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will make your paths straight.~
-Proverbs 3:5-6

2008-10-21T22:09:00.002+08:00

Time doesn't devour memories: It just slowly, painfully converts it into fragments of a dream. Occasionally, something will spark the wrath of the dream, and the dream will alter into a memory again.

-Low Kay Hwa

2008-10-16T14:18:00.005+08:00

Random Segregation- I mean- Random Musings

Science is messing up with my head. I was pretty stunned that the first thing that came into my head when I was talking to a friend about certain issues when she said "I think it's U" was that U = uracil. And that fact that when my friends and I wanna change our seats in the LT, we go like "Heyy, please move one codon downstream, thank you!". Uh huh, and we must be the weirdest looking ribosomes on earth. Science is messing up with my head all right.

On a brighter note, tomorrow is a... FRIDAY!! And I absolutely adore Friday to bits! (Nono, not the Friday from Robinson Crusoe, and certainly not the Friday in my EC1301 lecture notes. Oh no, no more fish and coconuts please) Even though I start school at 10am tomorrow and only end at 7pm *grumbles*... It's still a FRIDAY! And Friday ushers in the weekends. And weekends are what I live for man. My little bit of sanity in this whole week of insanity.

Then again, maybe not, seeing as to how I have 2 upcoming tests and a report due. Sigh.

So anyway, last Saturday (11 Oct 2008) was 06S305 class gathering! It was good to see all of them again. And Sharaf, looking stylish as ever! Here are some photos:

2008-09-16T15:22:00.005+08:00

The War of E. Coli, Agar Plates and Pipette Tips

Nope, World War III did not occur in my Life Sciences Lab. LOL. But we certainly had a good laugh yesterday. And the perpetuator of it all: Xiu Xian!

After Organic Chemistry lecture, we (Xiu Xian, Chen En, Philip, Poh and I) all trooped to the Frontier (Science Canteen) to have lunch. Philip then had to leave first cos he has Chem tutorial at 1pm, so he left his empty plate on the table and we would clear it for him later. When the rest of us has finally finished eating and all, we stood to return our trays to the collection point. Then Xiu Xian looked at Philip's plate and saw this mass of coagulated rice cos Philip had been playing with the leftover remnants of his chicken rice -.- So it was like, ewww and Xiu Xian was so grossed out she went "Why he leave this kind of thing here?! I'll throw AGAR PLATES at him later!!"

(Note: Agar plates are used to grow bacteria in labs)

The rest of us were so stunned by her statement that for a split-second there was pure silence, before all hell broke loose and we proceeded to laugh ourselves to death. OH MAN! It was SO HILARIOUS!! I was doubled over in my seat, wiping at the tears in my eyes as I laughed and laughed!! And Poh's laughter was seriously FUNNY! And I started laughing at his laughter as well!

Then I began thinking how we could have other types of 'weapons' as well in the lab, like maybe pipettes or something. And Poh said "Yeah! We could shoot pipette tips!" The absurdity of that idea sank into my head and all hell broke loose for the second time as we all cracked up in laughter again. Shoot pipette tips?!?! HAHAHAHA!!

(Note: Micropipettes are commonly used in science labs to draw up a very tiny amount of substance, usually in microlitres. And after use, you need to eject the pipette tip and throw it away)

Needless to mention, Lab that day was absolutely hilarious. It was like we all lost our minds or something. Poh and I just kept referring to pipette tips as 'ammunition' now and we just kept laughing and going HIGH. It was crazy. And here are some pictures of lab!

2008-09-11T23:50:00.002+08:00

Death

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
the carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
-First stanza, The Chariot by Emily Dickinson

The concept of death is so foreign to many of us. Even right at this moment, my mind cannot seem to grasp the idea of Death occuring to any of my loved ones. I was devastated when my great-grandmother passed away earlier this year and I remember clearly, how I stood by her coffin on the last day of the ceremony and I tried to the best of my ability to memorise her face, her looks, before they took her away to be cremated.

I was just reading the blog of a girl, whose loved one was taken away by Death. And her words hit me. They hit me hard. I was in tears in mere minutes. And it made me think. Like I said, I am unable to accept the fact that one fine day, Death will come and take my loved ones away. So I started thinking. What if, one day, the person lying in the coffin were my grandparents...? And one day, what if, the person lying in the coffin were my parents...?

And I find that I still am unable to accept it.

Unfortunately, Death is all too real.

And Death will come, one fine day, whether you like it or not. Death will come.

For a very long time, I pushed all these thoughts away. I kept thinking "Aiya, let's not think about it now... They're all still well and alive..." But of course, there's nothing we can do to stop death. Sure, science, technology and medicine has certainly prolonged our lives, but death is still our inevitable end.

So. What's the gist of this all?

Treasure your loved ones now: your family, your relatives, your friends.
And never take them for granted.
Never let Death be the one to make you realise the value of what you have just lost.

2008-09-01T20:49:00.004+08:00

A Series of Unfortunate Events... Part 3

Disaster loves me.

So it was an ordinary Monday accompanied with its usual Monday Blues as I travelled from home to the other end of the country to get to my University. As I alighted at Buona Vista, I saw Chen En semi-glaring at me. "Why didn't you turn on your handphone?!"

Huh? My cell phone IS turned on. I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her. Okaaay, strange. So I asked her to call me again. And she was right. My cell phone did not ring and she got the "Please leave a message" line. So I thought that something could be wrong with my cell phone and decided to turn it off before switching it on again. To my utmost horror, it went off and never came back again. It simply dieded. There goes my phone. So I became uncontactable as of 9.20am in the morning. Great.

So we had a 2 hours lecture on Organic Chemistry after which I went back to my hostel in an attempt to ressurect my dead cell phone with the charger in my room. Xiu Xian came along cos we both have Lab at 3pm. On the way back to my room, I started digging around in my bag for my room key. Strange, I couldn't find it. So we stopped halfway and I practically emptied the contents of my bag onto a ledge (don't worry, no danger of anything falling off). No room key. I wanted to kill myself for the sheer stupidity of the situation I'd landed myself into. I figured I'd probably absent-mindedly left my room key at home. So Xiu Xian and I decided to just go have lunch at the Gourmet Cafe nearby.

Then the Heavens opened up and rain poured down.

There was no shelter to the cafe.

So we ran lor.

Lunch was lovely. I had fish & chips and XX had a tortilla wrap. The cafe had a really nice atmosphere so the both of us just basked in it and talked to our hearts' content. And then... it happened...

Arrival of the monthly horror/woes/suffering. Of all days and time. Today. Accompanied with it, is an onslaught of the deadly cramps. So I was half-dead by the time I got to the Science Faculty from my hostel. If I had paracetamol with me, I might have very nearly succumbed to it. But I didn't, so the conventional way. I went to buy myself a cup of hot water and drank it bit by bit.

I don't know why, but it felt like the more I drank, the more I started to feel nauseous and I started to break out in cold sweat. But the cramps were killing me, so to hell with it. I drank a few more sips. And then my stomach balked.

I dashed into the nearest toilet, only to find that all 3 cubicles were occupied. There was only one thing left to do: I simply emptied the contents of my stomach into the nearest sink. I vomitted out all the water I drank as well as my entire lunch. There goes my fish & chips. Second glorious appearance in the world. As quoted from Xiu Xian, "I saw your fish & chips. Before and after." Lol. Yeah, before it went into my stomach and after it came out.

After emptying my stomach in the toilet, I was late for lab. So Xiu Xian and I stumbled to the Lab, with me looking as white as a sheet. It was like somebody drained my face of colour (as quoted from Poh, my lab partner who was totally shocked at how pale I looked). But honestly, I felt SO BAD I just wanted to crawl into any nearest bed and like die in peace there or something. But there was no make-up lab session. XX helped me tell the lecturer and he was really nice. Dr Wu told me to go home and rest and to simply write down my name, TA and bench number and to come for a make-up with Group 2 next monday.

But it's like, okay, since I'm already here, might as well try to make it through the next 3 hours or so. Thus, I decided to stay on, plonking my bag and file onto the rack and donning my lab coat, before grabbing my pencil case and stumbling over to my bench.

The pain never abated for quite a long time. I was nearly oblivious to the TA (teaching assistant) as she rambled on about bacteria and their DNA and what not. I leaned over and told Poh "If I die halfway here, you're on your own... And I'm not paying attention right now, so just tell me what to do later..." And he was like geez "I'm more worried about you man, you look like very very pale." And I just managed a weak smile back. For the first time, I actually felt that the lab was cold, even with my long-sleeved lab coat on. And for the first time again, I actually came darn close to fainting.

I was gonna pour E. Coli from the big tube to the smaller tube and I got up to walk over to the sink. All of sudden, the world just tilted. Like WHOAAA. I swayed back but I swiftly just grabbed onto the table. Like OMG. What on EARTH just happened?!

It was only after 2 hours later, that I finally felt kind of like a human again. Then I travelled home all the way back to the other end of the country with XX and Poh. And it was finally home sweet home.

Yep, disaster loves me all right.

2008-08-23T17:45:00.002+08:00

Embarrassing Moment of the Century... Part 2

As one can surmise from the few rather animated tags on my tagboard by my beloved friends, who have been laughing their heads off about my recent mishap in school, especially dear Pris, who guffawed so hard I fear for the safety of her blood vessels =X

You must be wondering what sparked off such hilarity? Well, let's just say that the title of today's entry explains it all.

Two days ago, on Thursday, I had a rather long day in school. I had my first lecture at 10am and it lasted for 2 hours. The night before I slept at about 2am in the morning and I could barely crawl out of bed when my alarm clock rang. Then from 12-2pm I went for Campus Crusade's Discipleship Group, before going for lunch with one of my lab partner, Chin Poh, from 2-3pm. Starting from 3pm, Poh and I got to work on our lab report, which was due the following day, before 12pm. Our other lab partner, Matthew, would be joining us later at 4pm, after his class.

I don't know why, but I was really exhausted that day. I nearly fell asleep while trying to think about pH and buffers and what not. I struggled to make sense of the questions on our lab report. Matthew joined us with his laptop at 4pm and we proceeded to type out our answers.

It's rather unthinkable that a lab report would take so long, but we spent nearly 4 hours on it. Upon completion of the report, we trooped over to the Medical/Science Library to print it out. I reached into my bag to retrieve my cardholder so that we could pay for our printout with my cashcard. To my utmost horror, I discovered that the yoghurt drink I'd been drinking earlier on that day had spilled onto my cardholder in my bag. I was so tired and I just wanted to get the lab report over and done with and now my cardholder is covered in sticky strawberry yoghurt drink. Excusing myself, I stumbled to the nearest toilet, went straight to the sink and proceeded to wash, scrub and clean the sticky entirely-too-sweet-smelling yoghurt off my cardholder.

It was then when I looked up into the mirror and suddenly noticed a girl staring strangely at me from the toilet opposite mine. I paused. Something was wrong. Why is there a GIRL in the OPPOSITE toilet?! You mean...?!

I whipped around to stare at the sign on the door of the toilet I had unthinkingly stepped into. And staring back at me was the international sign for a MALE toilet.

To say that I nearly DIED of mortification would be an understatement. I couldn't believe it. I had stepped into the toilet of the opposite gender and I didn't even realise it until a girl stared at me through the mirror. I was SO fixated on cleaning my cardholder that all I saw were my cardholder, the sink and the tap. I didn't even realised that anything was WRONG with the toilet. I didn't see the urinals, I didn't see anything else. And thank God there were no guys in the toilet at that point of time! A hole opening up in the ground to swallow me up then would be just about right. I flew out of the toilet burning red with embarrassment.

Talk about insanity.

2008-08-11T20:22:00.002+08:00

A Series of Unfortunate Events... Yet Again...

Today marks the first day of the commencement of official lessons in my new school of the next few years: NUS.

I'm a university student now! Call it nerves, anxiety, apprehension, what have you, but sleep simply eluded me last night. Try as hard as I might, I could not, for the life of me, fall asleep. So I tossed and turned and stared at the clock as the hour hand moved from digit to digit. I counted sheeps until it was time to wake up.

Like... what the hell?!

So I didn't get any sleep. At all. And I was afraid I was gonna fall asleep in my Organic Chemistry lecture. So I dropped by 7-11 outside the MRT station and guzzled down an entire bottle of freezing cold Starbucks Mocha. On an empty stomach.

WRONG MOVE. Like, totally.

Never, EVER, down an entire bottle of ice cold coffee on an empty stomach early in the morning. Because I simply regurgitated it out on the train later on. Thank God I had a plastic bag with me.

And that was like totally the most embarrassing moment of the CENTURY! Barfing on a TRAIN. A PACKED train full of people squished like sardines in a can during the morning rush hour. I fought my way out of the suffocating crowd to alight at the next stop and barely staggered my way to the toilet to see if anymore coffee and Hydrochloric acid would like to make its glorious second reappearance in this world. And I did a double take when I saw myself in the mirror: I looked like a ghost. It was really quite some time later that colour finally returned to me.

So this pretty much sums up my pathetic first day of school.

Welcome to Semester 1.

2008-07-17T22:36:00.003+08:00

Happy Birthday to ME!

I'm 19!! I can't imagine, time flies so fast, I'm gonna turn the big two-oh next year! It's like I'm hurtling towards adulthood man.

I thought my birthday was gonna be a pretty bland event this year with no school, Talz in US, most of my friends working and et cetera. You get the drift. But I was wrong.

First of all, thank you to Kenneth and Hengky for the um, decorative stand with the less-than-desirable words on it. Hahaha, just kidding! Thank you to HR for the sinfully delectable chocolate cake yesterday! Thank you Talz for the E-card! I know you're in Canada now. Thank you Jin Jia for the portrait and the guitar piece! Yup, you're right, it was very unexpected but lovely nonetheless. Thank you to Marcus (Loh), Yew Ying, Jin Yao and Eric for the Burberry perfume!! Oh my gosh, stunned tio man. Hahaha. But gee, was it beautiful. Thank you guys! Thank you YY for the necklace (: and MARCUS (Low)!! You idiot, lOLLL I was aboslutely floored. THANK YOU for Thomas's book and the 2 year Kinokuniya Membership card.

Yep, there you have it, I was absolutely flabbergasted and blown away by the sheer... You know what, I can't find the word for it. LoLLL, but really my gosh, the gifts are all so totally unexpected this year! In a good way!

Thank you to everyone else who remembered my special day!

Thank you so much everyone!! =D Love you guys!

2008-06-20T21:41:00.004+08:00

Laughter's the Best Medicine

It's been awhile. I recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong on Monday. But I shall leave that for another post when I upload the photos into my computer.

Life's been rather routine, mundune and monotonous. Eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work. You get the drift. But it wasn't all that bad. I've got really great colleagues at work, both perm staff and temp staff.

Last Tuesday, 10 Jun 2008, we had our second temp staff outing after work. The whole bunch of us (Shaun, Marcus, Jun Hua, Eric, Jing Hao, Jin Yao, Yew Ying, Aiysha and I) had dinner at Central in Clarke Quay. I'd forgotten how beautiful Clarke Quay is at night. Then we walked down to Boat Quay to Minds Cafe!

Suffice to say, I nearly busted a gut guffawing. We weren't merely laughing, we were guffawing and falling off our seats in outrageous shouts of pure uninhibited laughter. We played Taboo first and the person who guessed the least number of words had to do a forfeit. Poor Eric. LOLLL but boy, was it hilarious! Then we played Quelf, which was much worse than Taboo cos we had to do the MOST embarrassing, ridiculous and ludicrous stuff. I shan't mention them to spoil the fun. But yes, I lost half my voice just from laughing.

2008-06-06T23:45:00.003+08:00

Ramblings of a currently Hyperglycaemic girl

I know I know, I haven't updated in ages. So shoot me. Okay wait, no, don't shoot me. Cos I'm blogging now! Am I making any sense? All right, nevermind, I'm on sugar highhhhh~

I've just returned home from the most awesome, wonderful, amazing concert I have ever attended in 18 years and a few months of my life - The Lord of the Rings Symphony, Six Movements for Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and Soloists. It was worth every single cent of the $34.50 I paid for the ticket. Oh come on, it's Howard Shore! I entered the concert hall at Esplanade with much anticipation. Talz was going all "Howard Shore! Howard Shore!" and Marc was simply rolling his eyes. Then soon, the orchestra members started filing onto the stage. And oh gosh! The concert master was Chan Yoong Han! I had a Violin Masterclass with him before! LOLLL. So anyway, it was a really huge orchestra (Singapore Festival Orchestra) and the stage had to be extended. There were EIGHT double basses, a heck lot of violins, TWO harps, a grand piano AND an upright, TWO guitars and even a yang qin! There was even a celesta and oh gosh, I couldn't even begin to describe how absolutely bone-melting the Irish Whistle was. So along with the Singapore Festival Orchestra, there were THREE choirs! Imagine the crowd on the stage man.

As the lights dimmed and the Concert Master walked out, everyone applauded loudly. He commenced the customary tuning. And then, the conductor walked out. Woo~ After all the applause, handshakes, bowing and what not, he raised his baton and the concert began.

Movement One and Two are from The Fellowship of the Ring. The very first part of Movement One was The Prohecy. The orchestra played and then the choir sang, and I was absolutely blown away.

It was SO GOOD I could feel goosebumps forming on my arms, I could feel my hair standing, I was sitting stunned in my comfy seat. Just imagine, one big orchestra and three strong choirs. Oh my lard.

Nothing, absolutely NOTIHNG beats watching an orchestra play LIVE. The Irish Whistle solo for Concerning Hobbits was SO BEAUTIFUL I could only just sit in my chair and listen, enraptured as the mellow tones wash over me.

Captivated, enchanted, moved, say whatever you will, it was absolutely a mind-blowing concert. Words aren't enough to describe it!

All right, enough about the concert or I'd never finish ranting about it. Something REALLY freaky AND thorougly traumatising happened this week. On wednesday, I bumped into a frickin' flasher!

I was on my way back to the office from lunch. Two of my female colleagues and I were just walking along the sheltered pathway along Outram MRT station when suddenly we heard a whistle-like sound. Instinctively you'd turn around, right? So we did and to our utmost horror, were greeted with the most traumatising sight in my entire life. A man standing in the bushes, with his pants undone and his... thingy... exposed and well, I shall spare you other gross details. And I tell you, it really is amazing how much your vision can take in, in just a split second. Cos I turned around for a split second, saw that horrifying sight and immediately turned away and hastily walked off. I SERIOUSLY did not need a full view of the male anatomy RIGHT AFTER LUNCH!! Man, I wanted to hurl and make my lunch re-appear in this world again. I was so grossed out and horrified I called the police later. And that's another first - calling the police. What a day I tell you. Honestly.

And waaay waaay back, on 24 May, I went out with my JC clique, in our uniforms! We had so much fun, it was insane! I mean seriously, cavorting around City Hall in our uniforms? LOLLL. And it really felt as if we just finished school and were going out to play, you know? We did a lot of insane stuff and snapped a heck lot of retarded spastic photos. Gee, I miss you guys loads man!

2008-05-17T10:38:00.006+08:00

Indescribable Joy

Before I explain what the whole 'indescribable joy' is about, I'd like to say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCUS"!! See? I'm celebrating your ageing process xD

Now about the 'indescribable joy'...

Last night was undoubtly one of the most incredible night of my life. (Get your mind of the gutter please)

I was at Bugis with Muffin, to celebrate her entry into this frickin' prestigious programme in NUS School of Computing. She'd just gotten her letter on Thursday night and she called me up immediately and we proceeeded to scream our merry lungs out over the phone.

She had wanted to get her Fie Japan bag, so we went to Bugis. While walking around, my cell phone rang. Pulling it out of my jeans pocket, it says "Mum calling...". Thinking that she probably called to ask where I currently am, I nonchalently answered the call.

"Hello?"
"There's a letter!! NUS letter! I haven't opened it!!"

My heart stopped.

For a split second that is. Then it went into overdrive.

"Open it." I was surprised at the calmness I managed to inject into this simple two words.

The next few seconds were probably the longest seconds of my life. As time seemingly hung suspended and I waited. I waited with hope, apprehension and trepidation, all battling each other.

On 3 May 2008, I had gone for an interview at NUS. I prepared so hard for the interview. But I got so nervous sitting in front of the panel of interviewers that some of the stuff I had prepared for flew clear out of my mind. I didn't really have a good feeling about it as it ended and I left NUS in a flurry of tears.

"Okay, it says..."
"What is it? What is it? What course is it?" I hastily interjected.
"Congratulations! I am pleased to offer you admission to the NUS ... ... ... for a course of study in: Science."

My heart stopped again.

"WHAT?! SCIENCE?! ARE YOU SURE?! IT'S SCIENCE??!!! NOT ANYTHING ELSE?!"
"Yes, Science. That's all it says. Simply Science."

After I hung up the phone. Muffin and I stared at each other. And then...

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

We screamed our merry lungs out again for the 2nd time within 2 days and proceeded to hug each other and twirl happily around on the 2nd level of Parco, Bugis.

It was INSANE!! I was INSANE! But I didn't care!! Who cares?! Oh my gosh! I GOT INTO NUS SCIENCE!! The security guard and everyone else was staring at us oddly. But who cares?! My goshhhh. I wanted to weep tears of happiness! I could simply burst into song and dance in Parco and everyone can stare for all I care!

I got it!!! I was so scared I wouldn't get it! But I did!!

Thank you God!! Thank you so much!! Praise the Lord~!

Thank you also to everyone who has ever encouraged me. Thank you to all the people whom I've bugged when I was a pesky little paranoid creature before my interview! Thank you to Marc, Talz, Wiwi, Joshua, Cindy, Sushi-sama, Pigu, Jin Jia and my MJ friends, Pris, Doris, Sabby and Danson, who've been telling me not to lose faith! Big big thank you to MX! I know I owe you a treat. Big big thank you to Muffin, who's been with me through thick and thin during this period. We mugged for the interviews together, yours and mine. Thank you to my CT, Mr Conrad who helped me with my interview preparation process by giving me a mock interview. Thank you to my ex-CT in TPJC, Mr Kevin Ng! Thank you to Eric, my violin teacher! Thank you Rodney too!! Thank you to my colleague at work, Yew Ying for the encouragement! Thank you to my manager too! Of course, I can't miss out my uncle, Siyang!! Thank you for putting up with my bombardment of questions even though you were preparing for your Honours exam!

My gosh, there're too many people to thank! If I've missed anyone out, I'm sorry. But know that I truly am very very grateful to all of you guys for everything!! I wouldn't be standing here today, holding this letter of acceptance, without all of your help, in one way or another.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much everyone.

2008-04-28T20:33:00.003+08:00

Love At First Sight

I have never believed in love at first sight. Until yesterday afternoon.

I was at Takashimaya's Kinokuniya. I'd just made my latest purchase of Nodame Cantabile volume 20. I was on my way out of the shop, when I saw it.

It was sitting quaintly on the shelf. With a white-ish grey cover that reminds me so of the olden english days. "Sundays at Tiffany's" by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet, the cover read. I halted in my steps. Automatically, my hand shot out and grabbed it off the shelf. The minute I finished reading the synopsis, I knew I was gone.

I was ensnared. Completely.

I looked at the price tag and gulped. Reluctantly, I put it gently back onto the shelf. That night, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I want it, I want it, I want it...

After work today, I could stand it no longer. I dropped by Kino at Bugis and there I saw it again. I picked it up gently and gazed at it with longing eyes.

Until Muffin could stand it no longer and screamed at me to just buy the frickin' novel. LOLLL!!

So. I bought it.

And I am absolutely delighted, wonderfully elated and joyfully ecstatic.

Oh, and by the way? I still don't believe in love at first sight (unless it's with regards to books or music). Call me a skeptic if you wish, but such is reality, no? x)

2008-04-20T14:47:00.004+08:00

Comeback

Hellooo people! Yes, I'm still very much alive. Yesterday morning I went to Sentosa with my colleagues and we played football with my colleague's 4-year-old son. I haven't been to Sentosa since MMM during Orientation in Meridian JC about 2 years ago. It was nice to be walking on the sand and to enjoy the sea breeze for a change. I'm not really an outdoors person, but yeah it was a relaxing trip. I left at about 1pm cos I had to go home and change for a concert that night. Of course I couldn't resist dropping by Candy Empire in Vivo City and splurged on unhealthy, fattening but soul-satisfying, therapeulistic junk food and chocolates.

Last night was the annual East Zone JC Chinese Orchestra Concert. Went there with my EXCO members, Si Han, Elvia and Geraldyne to support MJCO. I really do miss MJC a lot. Work is no fun. I'd rather much be studying in MJC right now. I even miss wearing uniform to school. Sad to think that I'd never be wearing a school uniform ever again. I was a kinda late (as usual) and took a cab down to VJC. MJCO's holding room was the same, so I just walked right in. LOL. Saw my section and my juniors and I am so surprised to see my once-female dominated section turn into an all-boys section. o.O Wow.

The concert programme was all right. I liked the dazu songs and they were mostly familiar pieces that I'd either played before or heard of. VJCO played Ju Hua Tai!! Love that song! I still remember those times during CO practice breaks where Jin Jia, Felix and I sat by the side of the hall and played Ju Hua Tai. LOL. And omg, the cello solo at the beginning was bone-melting. It was SO NICE!! Whoa the tone. My goodness. My hair stood man.

After the concert, Xiao Sian, Yiting and I took the bus back to MJC with the CO members xP. Hahaha. Ah, I was flooded with such feelings of nostalgia as I strode through the corridors of MJC once more. And dang, how come there wasn't a pool table outside Perk Cafe during our times?! Lol, no fair.

After they kept all their instruments and all, we went for a section dinner. Jian Yao, Felix, Bryan, Xiong An, Xiao Sian, Yiting and I. Although Xiong An isn't from Xian Yue, but he's mostly always joined us for dinner anyway xP Haha. And they all REFUSED to go white sands for dinner. Sheesh. White Sands isn't all THAT bad lor... We ended up going Airport. LOL. And we waited a heck long of a time for us to get a seat at Fish & Co. and an another heck long of a waiting time for our food to arrive. Haha. But it was nice catching up with them again. Section dinners have always been insanely filled with laughter, joy and all that ridiculously funny stuff. And I really take my hat off to Felix man. How on earth he finished the entire platter of swordfish thingy was beyond me man. Lol! And thanks a lot for spraying me with lemon juice -.- LOL.

The group of us, minus Bryan, who'd to leave early.

My 3 juniors. Lol. From left to right: Jian Yao, Felix and Xiong An

Xian Yue rules! Strings rules! xP
Music makes the world go round~~

2008-03-25T21:33:00.005+08:00

Food for Thought

Working is draining and exhausting. When I get home after work, all I wanna do is collaspe in bed and sleep.

I am stressed. Work is stressful. When I am stressed, I start eating. I eat breakfast, I eat lunch, and I eat dinner. And in between, I keep munching on whatever is in my current stash of food in the office.

Valerie Koh, stop eating stop eating STOP EATING!!!!!

And to top it all off, I'm falling sick. Lovely, really.

2008-03-19T21:51:00.002+08:00

That's Life, that's what all the people say...

All right all right, my junior has threatened to press the big red button of doom should I not update my blog. So here I am. But frankly, what the big red button of doom is, I have no idea. LOL.

So what's been going on in my life...? Well, I got my A' levels results, but please don't ask me about them if you don't know it already. It's depressing really.

Last Sunday was TMSCO's combined concert with Keat Hwa High School. It was fun, to be performing again. I miss the thrill, the adrenaline rush, the attack of nerves when you line up and stand behind the stage doors. Then as the backstage crew open the door and signal you to step out, gosh, it was exciting, fun and everything all at once. Then all you hear is the rush of applause from the audience and the light click of your court shoes on the parquet stage as you walk to your seat. As usual, we performed in Singapore Conference Hall. It was the biggest orchestra I've ever performed in, with 58 members in the strings section alone. The first two rows of seats had to be removed to extend the stage. I think we had more than 150 people on stage. I don't know, I didn't count. Lol.

A big thank you to all my friends who turned up for the concert! An even bigger thank you to Talz, Marc, Mingxun, Li Zhen and Shu Qi for the flowers! Even though I didn't stay long enough in the concert hall to receive the flowers from Li Zhen and Shu Qi, but thanks for the thought and gesture =D

Life's been pretty fixed and routine nowadays. Wake up, work, eat, work, go home, eat, sleep and the whole cycle repeats itself again. The thing about working in an office and having this little stash of junk food at the corner of your desk... Well, let's just say I've been just eating and working and eating and working. I'm gonna get fat. In fact, I was so worried about that, that it galvanised me into action yesterday. I went to the gym and ran for half an hour. But the price I paid? Geez, my muscles are totally screaming their protests today. Ow ow ow...

2008-03-03T22:13:00.003+08:00

It's Here... *plays ominous music in background*

It's out and official: The release of the GCE A' Levels results will be on this Friday, 2.30pm.

When I first got this news from my friend, I was at work. And then I freaked out.

And then the smses started flooding in. Everyone was telling everyone else about the big news.

I've been in denial for the past week cos the release date wasn't confirmed. But now it is.

Frankly I don't know what kind of results I'd get. I've got friends who are excited about the big day. Friends who've been consistently getting good grades. But I haven't, and I must admit, I'm scared to death.

Even though at work, I was typing out an interview schedule, my entire mind was screaming "Ahhhhh RESULTS AHHHHH!!!" Looking back now, I always think, that I could have done more. There're always "If only"s. If only I had studied harder. If only I had woken up earlier to study. If only I had paid more attention in math lectures. If only... If only...

But all that kind of thinking is useless at this point of time. The results are out. It's fixed. No amount of thinking or worrying can change that. But despite it all, I'm still terrified. What if I can't get into the course I want? And worse still, what if I can't even get into a local university?

But it's all over now. And like Pris said, I can only ask God's grace to be with me now. It's all in God's hands.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own
understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and He will make your paths straight.
-Proverbs 3:5-6

2008-02-15T22:41:00.003+08:00

The Wrong Affinity

I seem to have an affinity with floors. The wrong kind of affinity. Wet market floors and high-heeled shoes are not to be tampered with. Ouch... T_T

It's only the 2nd month of 2008 and this is second time I've slipped and fallen ungraciously. What a year.

And YES people! Yours truly has passed her Basic Driving Theory test!! :D

2008-02-14T21:42:00.006+08:00

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Val's Day to everyone out there! Yes, Val's Day. MY day. Muahahaha. Well, my sad date-less day spent freezing in the office with hearts and chocolates (heart-shaped doughtnut and a cup of chocolate drink). Then after work I was squashed and jostled around on the waaay-too-packed train. Seriously, the phrase "packed like sardines in a can" was never more apt. The train was SO packed that there's probably no way for anyone to fall down, because there simply isn't any SPACE for anyone to fall down. Oh and I met Elga! Hahaha, so we talked a bit on the waaay-too-packed train until she got off at City Hall while I remained in my tormented state on the waaay-too-packed train. Now I know how stuffings in a sandwich feel.

Oh and just when I thought it was gonna be a sad miserable Valentine's Day, Marc, thanks for the rose and the card, oh and the cookies!

To end off my now-not-so-sad Valentine's Day, I'm gonna have to mug for my Basic Theory Test, which is to commence tomorrow. Wish me all the best man! Hahaha.

Once again, Happy Val's Day!! ~<3 May our dear cupid strike the right people! XD

Oh wait.

Small Advertisement:
Temasek Secondary Chinese Orchestra will be holding a concert on 16 March, Sunday, 7.30pm, at the Singapore Conference Hall. Tickets are on sale at $14. It's a combined concert with another orchestra from Malaysia in an exchange programme, and they're good! Those interested please inform me and I'll obtain a ticket for you :D
(Come lei... I'm performing with the Alumni... XD)

2008-02-09T15:44:00.000+08:00

Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me...

Last night, my great grandma passed away. For the first time in my life, I attended a funeral during Chinese New Year. Last year I attended 3 funerals. Everytime I see someone lying in the coffin, I get this surreal feeling. Cos somehow it doesn't seem real, and yet there they are lying in the coffin, dressed in nice clothes and make-up. And as I look down, somehow I get this weird thought, 'what if she suddenly opens her eyes?' I don't know, maybe it's just me and my weird and over-active imagination.

Rest in peace, great grandma.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality
- The Chariot
by Emily Dickinson

2008-02-07T12:26:00.000+08:00

Will it never end?

First and foremost, I would like to wish everyone out there a Happy Chinese New Year!!

Though I've got lots to say about my 'happy' chinese new year. For the first time in my life, I didn't go bai nian on the first day of new year. My great grandma got hospitalised and shortly after that, my sister got hospitalised as well, for pneumonia. Then I caught a viral infection and got fever, sore throat, cough and flu -.-

So yours truly is currently stuck at home with her books, violin and computer for companion, while staring wistfully at the new year goodies and wishing I could eat them. But nooo, the dreaded flu refuses to go away.

It feels downright miserable, knowing that its new year and yet I'm unable to do anything but stay home and try to recover.

2008-01-29T14:17:00.000+08:00

Just My Luck

Is it just me or has lady luck been simply frowning down on me. For my first ever job interview, I travelled to the mrt station only to discover, to my utmost horror, that the train service has broken down from Pasir Ris to Tanah Merah. So I hopped onto the shuttle bus provided. But after rumbling along the road for 15 minutes, I hadn't even reached Tampines mrt station, when in that 15 minutes I could have reached Tanah Merah if I were on board the train. Finally the bus came to a standstill at Tampines. Frustrated and about to be late for the interview, I hopped off the bus and attempted to flag a cab down. BUT they were all occupied!! I finally dialed for a cab but still ended up late anyway. Stupid stupid stupid.

Then I fell horribly sick and came down with flu, sore throat and cough. But the worst part was that I started losing my voice a few days later. I went for my second interview with half a voice.

Come Saturday, after talking too much during alumni CO practice, I lost it completely. After waking up from a short afternoon nap at home, I was reduced to whispering to my family members. Then I went to the doctor (finally) and he said it was pretty serious. Gave me strong antibiotics and all the other necessary medicine.

I whispered through my third interview on Monday (yes I did explain that it was a sore throat and that I'm not really actually mute). But on my way to the interview, the ground was wet from a slight drizzle and I lost my footing on the bridge on my way out of my condo. The next moment I was kissing the ground. I landed, not on my butt, but on my left knee, which bore the full impact of the fall. Of all body parts to land on I had to land on my old accident injuries! Crap, the pain that shot through my leg. Ugh. But it was such an embarrassing scene that I immediately picked myself up from the ground and limped off as if nothing had happened.

I don't know how, but I managed to survive through the whole interview and get home before checking my injury. My knee hasn't looked this colourful since the accident nearly 2 years ago. It's now sporting this wonderful hue of purple, green and blue.

So there you have it. My very own, series of unfortunate events.

2008-01-25T12:55:00.000+08:00

Croak

I have lost my voice. I sound like a toad. Croak.

My throat feels thoroughly abused and Sab, I can't sing anymore!!

Or at least, until that croaky voice goes away.

Croak.

2008-01-19T23:24:00.000+08:00

Back to Temasek, Back to the Orchestra, Back to my Gaohu...

First Alumni CO practice!! Haha, I'm just pretty thankful that most of the songs we're playing are old, familiar songs. But still, I've got 3 new pieces to learn.

Travelling to Temasek secondary this morning just brings back so many memories - of being squashed in the bus, of all the familiar scenery flashing by the windows, of alighting at that same old stop. I strode into the school via the side gate (oh, the few times I went running by that gate to find my class just in time for morning assembly) and then signed in at the security desk. I walked on, past the gazebo (all the times spent studying and laughing there with my friends) and then the fountain, across those stone slabs and up the stairway towards the Artroom (it's sad really, that CO doesn't have their own room, but oh well).

Then I met up with some of my section mates. And quite a few of the alumni members were already inside. Caught up on old times a little. Then the scores were distributed and everyone started hunting for their old instruments that they once used. I found my old gaohu, but it sounded like it was having a flu, even after I changed both the strings (they were rusty man!). So I dug around the cupboard for another gaohu and found a relatively new one. I don't think anyone's using it. So muahaha, it's mine for the next few months till the day of the concert in March.

So we had sectionals first, lazing around a bit, experimenting with some of the new scores, trying to recall the old pieces like Chang Cheng and Xing Kong. Man I love these two songs. Haha. Then somehow, everyone started to gather in the plucked-strings section classroom and a mini orchestra was formed. And then they all started playing Yu Diao. Haha, that's a new song for me, so I just sat there, listened and look at my scores. By noon, Ke Chen came over and he conducted Chang Cheng! And, gosh, although we don't sound all that awesome yet (first practice afterall), but it felt absolutely wonderful to be playing in an orchestra again. And I love Chang Cheng. Hahahahaha. I went a bit siao and played so hard that the stupid bow cut into my finger and hand again. I really ought to tape up the thing. But it's okay, no blisters yet. Just the usual red, raw and painful feel. The feel of playing my gaohu enthusiastically. Haha. Then we ran through Xing Kong... and Feng Nian Ji. And yep, that's about it for practice today.

I'm really tired now, so I'll be going off to bed soon. Good night!

2008-01-14T03:03:00.000+08:00

竟然在沙发上睡着了。真的是累坏了。。但突然在凌晨一点多的时候醒来，回到了自己的床。可是在床上躺了一阵子，却发现到自己睡不着。

好久没接触到华文了，突然读了彬芳的blog，使我想要用华文来表达自己的思想。可是已经很久没碰华文了，有点生锈，所以如果有错字或表达得不够好的话，请别嘲笑我哦！

最近过的还蛮好的，只是还没找到一份工作，有点烦恼。虽然现在生活过得很轻松，但是考试成绩公布的那一天已经慢慢的接近了。有点希望那天不会来临，但自己也好奇到底考的怎麽样。

好了，已经凌晨三点半了。觉得写的有点烂，哈哈，可是无所谓，可以在进步的吧！我也该去睡了。晚安。

2008-01-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

If music be the food of love...

I think I overpractised last night. I don't know why but recently I really got into the mood of playing my violin and I just kept playing it. And I finally stopped after my arms started screaming "Yo! We're aching down here!" and my neck started to feel like it was going into rigor mortis.

Yeah, I think I kinda overpractised cos something rather alarming yet hilarious happened during this morning's violin lesson. I was playing an etude from Mazas, doing an upbow staccato. All was fine and well initially. Until the 4th line. I suddenly got stuck. Like my bow wouldn't move. I tried to do the upbow slurred staccato and my bow creaked along the E-string for a bit and then, yeah. Stuck. I got stuck. I looked at my teacher and went "I think I'm stuck" and he was like "Try the open string" So I released my fingers from the string and tried. It was SLIGHTLY better. Then I placed my fingers back onto the strings and it kinda got stuck again. And he was like "Yeah, I think you are stuck." Then we just LAUGHED -.- But yeah, after awhile it returned to normal. Nearly. Haha.

Yep, I'm blogging I'm blogging. Haha. All the incessant buggings... =X haha. So here's a long post for you guys! (:

So, life's been all right. I'm classified as what you would call a 'slacker' since I am currently as of 12 Jan 2008, 0041 hours, a jobless girl. But then again, my schedule's pretty packed as well. Tomorrow, I'm gonna take my first driving practical lesson, wish me luck and pray that I don't run anything down.

Alumni CO's gonna start next Sat! Frankly, I'm pretty looking forward to playing all those old songs again. Of course I think there're gonna be some new pieces, but geez, apprehension. I haven't touched my gaohu in like eons. And the concert is in March... That's not really much time to practice, but oh well.

My violin teacher asked if I wanted to perform in his church next Sunday. My heart soared. I miss performing. I miss walking onto stage with my instrument and making music. Yep, my heart soared. Until he said "but you gotta sight-read". Then it deflated. I cannot sight-read to save my life -.-

So I shall just try out the rehearsal. I doubt I'd be performing, I really can't sight-read.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll save my ranting about Itzhak Perlman, John Williams and Leonard Bernstein for next time! Till then, cya! (:

2008-01-01T00:03:00.000+08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Omg, it's 2008!! Feels so surreal! What a peaceful transition to the new year cos I was lazing around at home with a glass of wine and a novel. Heh.

Happy 2008 everyone!! Have an awesome year ahead! =D

2007-12-25T00:29:00.000+08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! :D

2007-12-22T00:31:00.000+08:00

Mesmerised

Mesmerised. I am so mesmerised by Herbert von Karajan's conducting. He conducted all of Beethoven's nine symphonies. And it was absolutely amazing. His movements and signals were crystal clear and he made the music flow man. It was enthralling. From his hand movements, I could tell what was coming next, loud or soft, and the way he moved his hands was really, my goodness, I think it made the music really really flowy and smooth. And the orchestra responded really well, piano and forte at the right places and their dynamics were really good.

I absolutely love Symphony No. 7 and 5. He conducted Symphony No. 7 with his eyes closed!! Superb man. Berlin Philharmoniker and Karajan? For a loss of a better word I can only say 'absolutely divine'. The Berlin Philharmoniker is one of my favourite orchestras because they are so dynamic! Absolutely full of live and their music can be caressingly beautiful yet as lively as a dance. Gahhh, I feel like I'm gonna die of an overdose of Karajan and the Berlin Philharmoniker. The music is so beautiful I feel my heart soar.

Unfortunately, Karajan's dead :( He died one day before I was born.

On to non-musical stuff. I just recently returned from my vacation in thailand. It was really awesome. I went to the beach in Pattaya and had A LOT of fun parachuting in the air and getting dragged around by a speedboat. Then I walked around on the seabed, fed the fishes, touch a sea cucumber, sea urchin, clams and a crab. After that we lazed around on the sandy shore and my sisters, dad and I went for a dip in the sea. I just drifted lazily around on a rented float, letting the the waves push me around. Then we moved on to a firing range and I actually got a fire a real pistol, as well as a revolver. It was darn frickin' loud even with the ear muffs on. Every shot fired sounded like an explosion. And I found out that it's really hard to fire a gun accurately cos there's like recoil and all. But it was an eye-opener and guns aren't light -.-

And I got sun-burnt. Haha

We visited the floating market, went elephant trekking (it was seriously bumpy) and visited the Death Railway. Aside from those, it was shopping all the way~~! Haha. Books are slightly cheaper there so I went on a buying spree. I walked out of the bookstore with 5 novels.

That's about my holiday thus far. I've been having quite a bit of fun and all. Christmas is coming! :D Went trekking around our sunny island with Daniel today to Gramercy and Music Essentials in search for scores. Dropped by Kino and bought a book there as well. Then I met up with Talz before going to Plaza Sing to find Doris. Doris and I had dinner together and it was really nice cos I haven't seen that girl in eons! I miss her so much. When we were parting at the mrt station, we were waving non-stop at each other through the glass doors with me in the train and her standing on the platform. Dramatic I know but somehow I felt like tearing then cos it was such an emotional moment. Lol X)

Gosh it's nearly 1am! I'd better be off to bed soon, gotta help my mum out at her office tomorrow. Good night people! :)

2007-12-02T02:05:00.000+08:00

Classical Bubble

Yes yes yes!!! Finally!! I got the score for Elgar's Salut D'amour!! XD Hear my scream of pure unadulterated joy from miles away. Okay I was just kidding. But my goodness! At long last! Haha!

I am grinning, I am grinning and I am happily grinning away. And my lovely junior, WiWi, found the song for me too! Nevermind that it's cello with piano. Thank you WiWi!! For both the songs and the scores!! :D

And yours truly has officially taken up violin lessons again. And guess what? Of all songs, my teacher had to choose Beethoven's Violin Sonata in D Major. And of course, since yours truly can barely sight-read to save her life, I totally fumbled, inevitably stumbled and absolutely crumbled the first time I tried to play it. Imagine an Allegro piece being played at Grave. I know, my teacher was disturbing me about it when I ran out of bow.

But I have got to practice like nuts to do well for my exam next year. *stress stress stress...* To learn 5 grades worth of theory in 5 months? >.< All right, finally got a recording of Beethoven's Violin Sonata in D Major from WiWi. Shall familiarize myself with it!

To all fans of classical music, try watching Nodame Cantabile. I floated around in my little classical bubble for the next few weeks after that :D

2007-11-22T21:34:00.000+08:00

"From this moment, life has begun..."

Aptly described with a line from Shania Twain's "From This Moment On"... ...
...
...
...
...
...
THE A' LEVELS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the last paper, Biology Paper 1. Just imagine the rush of emotions when the chief examiner said "Time's up, pens down." My goodness. I felt like screaming XD

After the paper, I went to watch "Enchanted" with Sabby, Sharaf, Edison, Geok Yan and Diana. The movie was awesome! It was really resfreshing and not to mention hilarious. And of course, there was Patrick Dempsey... XD

After the movie, the rest of them went home while Sab and I went on to Esplanade library. Scores!! I wanted, needed scores! After scouring through shelves after shelves I finally found Schubert's Ave Maria. But I still couldn't find Elgar's Salut D'Amour. If anyone has this score, pleaseee... :D

A reeeally late lunch was at 4pm at Mos Burger. Gosh, I haven't eaten at Mos Burger in ages! And it was really fun cos we were talking non-stop about music and all!

Man, feels good to be finally doing the things that I enjoy doing without this nagging little voice at the back of my head going "shouldn't you be studying...?" Now I am so gonna indulge in some good music. Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 was mind-blowing :D

Tomorrow's a day of practice! Now that acadamics mugging is over. It's time for some violin mugging. Cya! (:

2007-10-12T11:57:00.000+08:00

Farewell Assembly 2007

10th Oct 2007, Wednesday was the last official day of school.

This will be the last time our class ever sat together like this again. Talk about nostalgia.

Class lunch at IKEA! Courtesy of Mr. Conrad (:

Well, this is it, no more school. No more lectures in all the LTs, no more tutorials in E4-1, our homeroom. We're all on our own now. It's a frightening thought. The A' levels are less than a month away now. >.<

My life is JC has been an awesome one, though the toughest and most difficult times of my 18 years thus far. All the studying, cramming and mugging. All the failings, red marks and disappointments. But Pris is right, never once did I dread going to school. I wake up at 6.35am every morning knowing that no matter what kind of shit life is gonna throw me in school that day, I'll always have my wonderful friends by my side. I couldn't have survived this two years without my friends and my awesome class, 06S305. I'm gonna miss all the wonderful times we've spent together. I'm gonna miss guffawing like hysteria struck me with Sabby. I'm gonna miss 'bullying' Doris and making fun of Pris. I'm gonna miss hanging out with my clique. I'm gonna miss running for yong tau foo with my partner, Chen En! XD Hahaha. I'm gonna miss talking about shuai ges with Kia Ming. Heck, I'm even gonna miss all the lectures and tutorials. I'm gonna miss having lunch with my class in the canteen and listening to Edison's funny jokes. I'm gonna miss rambling about "Grey's Anatony" with Sharaf. I have never laughed as much as I did in MJ, guffawed till tears came to my eyes, collasped on the chair or floor even, in pure mirth, until everyone starts staring at me.

I am really gonna miss all these.

Okay, stop. Before I get too emotional. Hahaha. The list of things I'm gonna miss about my class will probably never end. There's just too many things. And just one big 'Thank You!' to all our amazing tutors. They have been one of the best tutors I've ever met in my life. Dedicated, hardworking and caring.

Ah darn, I'm really gonna just miss everything in MJ.

Okay, now I really gotta stop before I get really emo about this. Haha, all right, the pictures are up, of course there're more, I can't possibly post them all up here. Get the rest of the photos from me personally if you want them. Study hard everyone!! (:

2007-09-29T23:51:00.001+08:00

Romantic Rendezvous

It was a beautiful night. We were walking from Esplanade to Clarke Quay. Crossing the bridge between Fullerton Hotel and VCH, we decided to stop, sit on the bridge and gaze at the darkening sky as the last hues of daylight give way to the endless expanse of the night sky. We were listening to my iPod and slowly began to sing along to Aladdin's "A Whole New World". We sounded pretty nice together (haha, ego ego =P)

By 7.40pm, we decided to take a stroll along the Singapore River and walk around Clarke Quay. It was really romantic walking by the river, enjoying the city lights and the sights and sounds coming from the restaurants and bars that line the river.

Then we decided to have our little 'couple' dinner at Fish & Co. in Bugis. Pity their menu was changing and there were no alcoholic drinks available. Geez, the disappointment. But oh well, I totally busted my wallet on this extravagant dinner, in which my fish and chips serving was SO HUGE I couldn't finish it. By nearly 10pm I was still struggling to finish my fish, then I just couldn't stuff another morsel of food down my oesophagus anymore.

What a romantic night, ain't it? Thanks a lot for spending this night with me, Sabrina.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!! Who did you think it was? XD Oh, by the way, we're straight okay!

Today's Kia Ming's birthday! So my clique (Sabrina, Pris, Kia Ming and I) went to Secret Recipe at Marina Square to celebrate it. Doris couldn't make it cos she was feeling unwell. Both the marble cheesecake and apple crumble cheesecake were simply divine. Then we went BK to attempt to study a little. Made a feeble attempt at memorising my chem definitions before succumbing to music. Yes, Sab and I began to sing "A Whole New World" again as well as a whole array of other songs on my iPod. Then Pris whipped out her camera and everyone just began to take spastic and retarded shots. It was absolutely HILARIOUS! I guffawed so hard tears came to my eyes and I was clutching my stomach in pure, unadulterated mirth.

After BK, we walked around Esplanade, watched a dance performance before Pris and Kia Ming had to head home. Reluctant to go home this early, Sab and I decided to stay out longer and that's where our little "romantic rendezvous" began.

Ah well, it was an awesome day. Although I memorised only a few chemistry definitions, I hadn't had so much fun in a very long time. Well, it's time to get settled down to studying again. All the best to all those taking the A' levels this year! :D

2007-09-27T20:39:00.000+08:00

The Final Lap

The preliminary exams have just ended last week and we've already gotten back all our results. Don't ask. It was a catastrophe. For me at least. But thank God for all the little improvements here and there.

There's about a month left to the actual A' levels. I probably won't be blogging much more (not that I've been writing much lately anyway, haha)

Well, it's time to pick my demoralised self up and study like there's no tomorrow.

One month left.

2007-09-22T23:53:00.000+08:00

Random Musings

Lol, all right, Sabby's bugging me to blog, so here I am!

The preliminary exams are finally over. The last paper was on Thur and after that I went walking around Bugis with Sabby and Pris. It was fun, but I didn't buy anything, all I brought home was a James Patterson novel which I borrowed from the National Library.

I dragged the both of them to the library anyway =x Lol. I wanted to read the last 3 chapters of this novel called "I Believe You" which apparantly can only be found in the Lee Kong Chian Reference library since the other copies in all other nearby libraries are all loaned out. The LKC Ref library is awesome. Strolling through the double glass doors, it was totally love at first sight. All the shelves and books and yeah, you get what I mean. Then Sabby dug out this suuuper hilarious book that nearly had me guffawing loudly. But the reference lib was sooo frickin' quiet I couldn't make any noise. So I had to restrain and content myself with just shaking silently in laughter there, trying not to make any noise. Believe me, it wasn't easy. I had to ask Sab to read the darn book 5 feet away from me or I'd start laughing again. Can you imagine if I'd snorted? Oh, the mortification.

I'm really relaxing quite a bit now that the prelims are over, I only revised two hours of Hypothesis testing yesterday. And did two functions questions today -.- Okay that was seriously pathetic. But that's the thing that happens when I'm out supposedly studying with Marc and Talz. Haha. But Talz's having her H3 Chemistry paper on monday. So yeah, she really gotta study. But we had a great time catching up on old times and all.

I went to Synwin with Marc today! The shop was awesome man! I walked in and was greeted with the sight of what- about a hundred violins and violas hanging down from the ceiling. It was a beautiful sight. I could just stand there and stare at them the whole day. And there were 3 harps and 2 harpsichords there too. Harpsichords! I've never seen one before! It was beautiful. I bought a violin polishing cloth and Marc got his tuner/metronome. I was tempted to get a new rosin. But oh well, I've not finished using my old one yet. Haha.

I feel like writing something. But what? Somehow I don't really feel like finishing "Mademoiselle, Are You Lost?" Anyhow, it's only about a month left to the actual A' levels, so I suppose I should be getting back to mugging mode soon.

It's been a great day! Now I'm absolutely exhausted. I feel drained. -.- Gahhh. Guess I shall be off to bed soon! Or maybe not. I've got books to read! :D

2007-09-09T17:47:00.000+08:00

A Blast of Euphoria

This morning I went for a church service held at Meritus Mandarin Hotel. City Missions Church. The service was awesome but it was in Chinese, so there were certain references to Biblical terms that I couldn't quite catch and I think the impact might have been stronger if it were in English. Cos well, English is afterall, my better language. But still, many people shared their stories and the miracles God has done. Amen to that and praise the Lord~!

After the service, I left the room cos Shu Qi wanted to use the washroom, and then I saw it.

A grand piano.

I began walking towards it and I even increased my pace. I pulled out the piano stool and sat down. Slowly, I lifted the lid and then I saw it. And I nearly fainted.

It was a Steinway & Sons baby grand piano.

I PLAYED ON A STEINWAY & SONS PIANO!! I was sooooo happy I nearly fainted with joy as I placed my fingers on the ivory keys.

I touched a Steinway & Sons baby grand... I touched a Steinway & Sons baby grand... I touched a Steinway & Sons baby grand... Now it's down to touching a Strad... XD

2007-09-03T01:51:00.000+08:00

Journey

Walking, is therapeutic. I left my house in a flurry of clothes, lecture notes and tears this afternoon and walked from my house all the way to bus 15 bus stop. Let's just say, life's kinda rocky at home right now.

Studied in the library all day, then went to Macs after the library closed. Left Macs at 11pm and walked all the way home with Cindy. Like I said, walking is therapeutic.

Something Marc said recently kinda hit me. It's like, I'm standing on this platform. And I'm admiring and watching the train, but I'm not boarding it. The train ride itself would be pleasant, but the destination is nowhere at the moment. So now do I board the train, or leave the platform altogether?

Or perhaps I will only find out about the destination after I've boarded the train? I am tempted to board the train, but at the same time, I fear boarding the train. Fear of taking those few little steps onto the train that leads to an unknown place or perhaps even nowhere at the moment. Reality, practicality and fear holds me back from boarding the train.

So here I am. Stuck. I'm stuck on the platform.

God, what should I do?

2007-09-01T11:19:00.000+08:00

Happy Teachers' Day 2007

"Happiest" class of MJC. LOL.

Mr. Conrad was like "Let's all look GLUM!" So there you have it. Glum. Hahaha. Hilarious man.

Teachers' Day Celebration was pretty fun this year. After presenting Mr. Conrad with the sash, notebook and coasters we got him, everyone decided to spam Mr. Yeow's cell phone. Everyone typed out a message and Sharaf was like "3... 2... 1... GOOOoooo!"

After that the whole class sat in a circle and played "I Never" and Indian Poker. LOL! It was pretty enjoyable and really quite hilarious. Especially the forfeits for Indian Poker. I nearly collasped laughing man. Sunny was the first person to kenna the forfeit - Truth or Dare. He chose 'dare' and was made to go to every occupied classroom along the corridor, do a star-jump and shout "I'm Sunny!" which was so funnily retarded la! Then Diana was the next to kenna forfeit, but she chose 'truth'. Last to kenna forfeit was Sharaf and he chose 'dare'. Oh man, he was made to go into Miss Vina Ng's classroom and do a one minute dance with his own music. It was SUPER HILARIOUS because he did this darn hot sexy dance and he even climbed onto the teacher's table!! I was clutching onto the doorframe for support man cos I was practically guffawing by the door.

After that was the Teachers' Day Concert. The decorations are so pretty!! Especially the star balloons! It was so cool man. But dang, I didn't get to finish watching the whole thing cos the CG Chairperson had to go down and prepare to carry the cake for the Grand Finale -.-"

BUT, the Grand Finale was darn fun becos we all decided to play with the cake and cream. And this was all instigated by... *cough* yours truly. By the end of it all, I looked like some hideous creature with white and chocolate cream smeared all over my face, neck, hair and sheesh, even my shirt!

2007-08-26T21:23:00.000+08:00

They say "a picture paints a thousand words"...

Presenting my beloved class, 06S305! XD

College Road Race 2007

Lol, I have no idea what to blog about nowadays. I could ramble incessantly about the awesome video I saw of the Berlin Philharmonika last night, I could drone on and on about the amount of stress a typical JC2 student faces at this time of the year with the impending A' levels, heck, I could even talk about the very tasteless mee suah I'm consuming at this very moment. Haha. But I choose not to. For a very simple reason - cos I'm feeling very lazy nowadays... =.=

My piano got shifted over to the condo from my old house. Now my violin, my piano and my gaohu are all with me. They carted all my books over as well. 15 boxes of them. Yours truly is a very happy person. =D Hahaha.

2007-08-18T23:46:00.000+08:00

Lost

Here I am, sitting front of my computer, a million thoughts whirring away in my mind. Life's taken a bad turn and I know not what to do. Oh Lord, please tell me, what should I do? I really yearn to hear His voice again. Oh please Lord, will You speak to me...?

I realised how deaf I'd become to His words. Recently, Sushi showed me this blog and I read this phrase that kinda struck me : "Today if you want to know God's voice in a new way, simply OBEY his gentle voice and you will begin to see the reality of His presence in your life!"

Obey His gentle voice.

I need to become 'undeafened'. I want, I need, to hear His voice again. Help me, Lord.

A close friend of mine just said this to me: "A person who keeps God in her mind daily, would also be in God's mind". So please God, I pray not to drift away from You, for I cannot imagine my world without You. Sushi's right, without God, I'd be a living corpse living life as it is thrown to me.

Lord, you're absolutely the best! Amen.

2007-08-08T01:25:00.000+08:00

The Return

My dear blog, I offer my apologies for having abandoned you for so long. So here I am now! And it hasn't yet fallen into disrepair. It's 1.30am on a Wednesday morning. Thank goodness it's National Day celebrations tomorrow and there are no lessons, if not I shall resemble something very much like a zombie in school. Many things have happened since I'd last blogged, it's just too many to list down here.

So why in the world am I still awake and typing furiously away into my laptop at 1.30am in the morning? I don't know, I just don't feel like sleeping. It's been awhile since I'd stayed awake till such an unearthly time. The A' levels are drawing nearer each second the clock ticks away. Somehow I feel stuck in time.

Oh dear, I'm starting to get very emo. Haha. I just had a total of four tests today and there was Economics make-up lecture from 5pm to 7pm. I walked out of the LT feeling like my brain just got blown apart to smitherins.

Okay, now I feel sleepy. *yawns* This entry is so random and full of rather nonsensical musings. I shall be back with a more substantial content the next time. Till then, au revoir!

2007-07-17T22:00:00.000+08:00

Another Year Older...

On the 17th of July, (which is today actually), yours truly turned yet another year older. I'm 18!! Man, I feel old. But first of all, there're many people I must thank.

First and foremost, my parents, thanks mum and dad for the lovely chocolates and novels. Then there's my youngest kid sister for the birthday card. And of course, all my wonderful fabulous friends!!

Presents!! I'd like to say a big thank to all my wonderful classmates!! :D Sunny, Danson, Chris, Geri, Ben and all the rest whom have contributed to making my birthday a wonderful day!

And here's the big shocker of the day. Last Sunday, while studying in the library, Sabrina casually asked me what I wanted for my birthday. So I jestingly said "A car". And guess what? I had the biggest shock of my life when I unwrapped their gift to see this...

And this. Is a remote-controlled toy car.

O.o Stunned tio. Hahaha.

But really guys, it's been an awesome birthday! I love you all!! XD Thanks for the cake during break time! It was a pleasant surprise.

Many thanks to my clique! XD Thanks Sab, Doris, Pris and Kia Ming =D

Tonight I had the customary birthday dinner at Jack's Place with my family. And I could officially and legally drink!! Then I got another birthday cake from my parents but I was too full to stuff another morsel of food down my oesophagus.

I'd just like to say a very very big THANK YOU to everyone whom has made today a most memorable day for me (:

2007-07-07T23:15:00.000+08:00

A Shooting Affair

It was a dark and gloomy morning that greeted my hazy, sleep-filled vision as I slapped the button of my annoying alarm off. It was 6.35am on a Saturday morning. And I was going to have my very first Archery lesson that very morning. This very morning.

Then the skies opened up and rain fell upon the earth in harsh, unmerciful torrents.

By the time I got to school, I was soaked to the skin - shoes, bag and all, and looking pretty much like a luo tang ji. My mood was like starting to turn grey like the clouds above. And then while eating my breakfast in school (a peach tart), my peach slid off the custard and landed in a puddle of water. I think my agonised scream echoed around the atrium. No, I was just jesting, but seriously. My PEEEACH!!!

Oh and I realised I haven't even grazed the surface of the main topic of today's post. All right, so the whole bunch of us who signed up for Archery as our PE Games Elective were gathered in school this rainy morning, waiting for the bus to transport us to Yishun for our Archery lesson.

The first thought that zipped into my mind upon my first glance at the bow was "Oh, my gosh". Having watched Legolas and all the elves shoot arrows in Lord of the Rings, it never really occured to me that the actual bow used and seen in real life would be, well, so HUMONGOUS!!

Geez, the friggin' bow is nearly the same height as me!! I think it IS the same height as me. Omg, it's so HUGE la! I was like gaping at it. Then the instructors taught us the different components of a basic Recurve bow and how to hold it, load the arrow and blah blah blah. Finally it was time to try it out ourselves!

I slipped on the arm guard, picked up the bow (it's pretty heavy!), held it up and nocked the arrow on the bowstring. I rested three fingers on the bowstring and raised my bow to aim at the target board. Then I drew the string back (tension tension tension) and then released it. My arrow flew through the air, hit the target board and to my utmost horror, rebounded off the board, spun in the air and landed on the ground. My third arrow finally hit the board and stuck there with a satisfying THUD.

I must say, archery was an interesting experience. It's pretty fun and definitely very challenging, because... it's DAMN HARD to hit bull's eye. Sad to say, I was unable to hit a bull's eye after those 4 hours of lesson. But it was still enjoyable nevertheless.

My very first taste of archery on the 7th of July, 2007 (07/07/07) Haha, coolness. XD

2007-06-30T23:39:00.000+08:00

You may have been wondering, who exactly is this Tamaki guy I've been raving and ranting about in my tagboard... Well, wonder no more.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you... Tamaki Suou of the Ouran High School Host Club!!

Oh my Gosh, isn't he just absolutely dashing? My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw this picture. ^_^ (Can you see the hearts blooming around my head now?)

Well, looks like my anime craze has made a full comeback.

Yes yes Muffin, like how your heart skipped a beat when you saw some Kirito's pictures or something. I take back my 'old man' comments. Hahaha.

Ah, oh-lovely weekends, you are absolutely the light of my life... *Cough!* Ahem, I think uh, having too many papers and studying so intensively for long periods non-stop does funny things to your mind. I mean honestly, there is seriously something very wrong when you see your boiling soup bubbling in the pot and you start to imagine those intermolecular bonds breaking up...

And I'm gonna fail my mid-year examinations. *runs off to the Corner of Woe to wail* Oh, my heart will absolutely shatter to a million pieces when my teachers return my papers after grading. *picks up a piece of chordae tendinae and tries to fix it back to the bicuspid valve*

Sigh, enough of the drama... I'm so tired, and I've still got two more papers left to study for on tuesday. Chemistry Paper 1&2 and Biology Paper 3.

Muffin: I've finished my paper on thursday!! ^_^V

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo........................

Hear my agonised scream from miles away and feel the ground shake with its volume and intensity.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

And I'd still screwed up my mid-year exams. T_T

2007-06-19T22:31:00.000+08:00

My June holidays seem to be rather attached to hospitals lately. Last year, I spent a part of my June holidays lying in the hospital from a road traffic accident. This year, I'm once again spending this last week of my holidays by my mum's bed in the hospital. Talk about life's odd quirks. I just hope she'd get well soon.

The Mid-Year Examinations loom ominously ahead. Just 5 more days and it's off to the battle grounds and yet, my armour is full of kinks and my weapons are only halfway forged. Nevertheless, I will hack my way through this and pray to emerge relatively unscathed. All right, I gotta return my attention to those chemistry lecture notes lying in front of me. Jia you to all those mugging as well!

当对的人
等不到对的时间
就在放开双手的瞬间
爱撕成两边
-北极星的眼泪

2007-06-18T01:16:00.000+08:00

都已经凌晨一点多了，不睡觉，还在这里发白日梦。真是的。刚看完了爱情偶像剧，哈哈。我真是该死，考试都快到了还看什么偶像剧啦。可是实在是太好看了嘛。。。真让我希望。。。

希望。。。有一天。。。

能够。。。

美梦成真！

好了啦，很迟了哦，我要去睡觉了！至于我的愿望是什么嘛。。。那是我的秘密！：）大家晚安咯！

2007-06-14T15:06:00.000+08:00

The Last Piece

Haha, it's really funny when a bunch of friends share a plate of food and when it comes down to the last piece, everyone stares at it and goes like "Hey, you take lah..." Haha.

On Tuesday, we went out for a class movie outing with Mr. Yeow, our biology tutor. We watched Oceans 13 at the Orchard Cathay. Haha, the show was really brilliant and hilarious at times. Great movie, great actors. XD We had lunch in LJS, which was pretty uneventful except for the Last Piece incident and Sabby trying to fool around with my camera by her random shots. Lol. Unfortunately, Mr. Yeow had to leave after lunch, so the remaining bunch of us decided to play pool. Lol. With about half the class streaming into the pool place, we opened THREE tables and began merrily playing. Gosh, it's been ages since I last played pool. Hahaha, but it was fun!

We played pool for nearly 2 hours. Then Chris, Danson and I left for Queenstown to collect our Class t-shirt. And the rest probably went home or something. Well, it was a pretty great day~! (:

2007-06-08T03:20:00.000+08:00

Life sucks. Sometimes. Don't ask. Just let me rant.

I hate...
I hate...
I hate...

2007-06-07T14:54:00.000+08:00

Flames Ignited

It's been a while, and I've been drifting all these time. Yesterday, I was blog-hopping and I went to Shu Qi's blog, which I have not visited for quite sometime. She'd changed her blogskin and there was a song there that caught my attention as well. Her blogskin was "I'll Worship YOU" and the song was "Here I Am To Worship". And it really struck me hard. What have I been doing all this while?

"God loves us and wants to spend time with us. Slow down and seek His face. Do not worry, for if He can feed the ravens, He can feed us too. When the lilies who have short lifespans are dressed in such beauty, He can clothe us too.

World's most wonderful love story:
The Shepherd is willing to die for His sheep, and He did."

That was taken from Shu Qi's blog. And it was totally "Hey! What have I been doing?" When am I gonna take that step out of my comfort zone? It hit me hard, that I really do wanna hear from God again.

Here I am to worship,
Here I am to bow down,
Here I am to say that your my God...

2007-06-04T22:40:00.000+08:00

The Speed of Time

Gee, it's been awhile. Does time ever fly. We have now descended into a period of time much revered by students of all ages - the June holidays. Well, much revered by me, at least. Haha. And in the mere blink of an eye, the first week of my precious holiday is gone. Indeed, time flies during the holidays.

But I've had my share of fun and enjoyment. The SYCO concert last saturday was great! Brings back a wave of nostalgia. I miss CO. I miss playing in an orchestra.
We've finally placed orders for the class t-shirt. It's coming soon, don't worry. Haha.

On Sunday, I finally got my lazy bum off the seat in front of my computer and got down to some studying. It was high time I did that, but somehow I just couldn't find the motivation, will and drive to do so. The A' levels are looming closer with the ticking of each second. That prospect alone scares me. It ought to galvanise me into action. But I feel sluggish. Sigh, time for some self-discipline to come into play. So I'd be off for a rendezvous with my Chem Bonding lecture notes now. Haha.

2007-05-21T23:05:00.000+08:00

It's been eons since I last wrote a poem, but here goes...

Ghost of the Past

Stay back, I say
Take not a single step closer.
The door's wedged tightly shut
Oh, can't you simply see?
You're not welcomed here.

Go home, I say
'tis no place for a ghost,
'tis a place of the present living.
So turn around now and hasten your steps
Return to where you should belong.

Quit it, I say
Stop fanning the flames, cease everything.
Oh, ghost of the past,
let go of me and leave me be
Just leave me be...

-Le Vaire

I was working on my math assignment halfway when I found myself stuck at a question. I stared at my paper for awhile, but my mind soon wandered off. My gaze flickered to the computer screen and lingered there for a few moments. Unconsciously my thoughts drifted to where I'd shoved and dumped all unpleasant memories, and well, I just had to pen something down. Oh, ghost of the past, when will you finally leave me be...?

2007-05-20T20:31:00.000+08:00

Awed

I am absolutely amazed at how Marc and Talz could go on at the Rubik's cube for hours and hours non-stop. Lol!

Today, Talz, Marc and I met up to celebrate his belated birthday. Our customary celebration. Marc and I had lunch at Yoshinoya first before meeting Talz at Suntec, Starbucks cafe. Anton came along too! Haha, we saw Talz seated right at the back of the cafe and sitting quaintly atop the table were two small cakes. Then we sang Marc the Happy Birthday song. After which we promptly made him consume his cakes after unwrapping our presents, without using his hands. It was a pretty hilarious sight. Talz video-recorded it in her cellphone. We kinda played with the cakes a little, dabbing cream and all that messy stuff.

After which Anton left for the arcade and Marc began rumaging around in his bag for his latest craze, which he proudly brandished - the Rubik's cube. =.= Hahs. Then he proceeded to teach Talz how to solve the Rubik's cube. I was too lazy to exercise my brain and think, so I flipped out my Electrochemistry lecture notes and began studying for tomorrow's test. But the both of them were at it for sooooooooooooo long that I actually read through my lecture notes once, and browsed through THREE National Geographics magazines.

Haha, my brain feels fogged now. I'm so exhausted. But I shall nevertheless seek to triumph over the Z-monster and resume my date with my oh-so-lovely Electrochemistry lecture notes. I'd be off now. Ciao.

2007-05-17T19:13:00.000+08:00

Happy birthday to you!!
Happy birthday to you!!
Happy birthday to Marcus!!
Happy birthday to you!! XD

2007-05-14T18:51:00.000+08:00

SYF 2007

Presenting my beloved section --> Xian Yue [Bowed-string section] But sadly, Lynn and Jenny are missing from the photo cos they weren't with us for lunch. That was taken on our way to lunch on our SYF day, May 10, Thursday.

Another picture of my section (:

We got a Silver for SYF this year. I shan't say more about it. But the one thing that I'm glad came out of all those practices we had was the bondship that had developed between the Xian Yue members. All those lunches and dinners we had together, especially in Mac, and all the extra practices and sectionals and what not. Haha. I'm already starting to miss everyone, and I haven't even stepped down. Can't imagine when I do. But no matter what...

XIAN YUE RULES!! :D

The journey to SYF, though tough, was a wonderful one. I can only say that I'm really glad to have walked this journey with such wonderful people. We may not have gotten Gold, but the friendship and bondship we have forged is many times more valuable. I'm sorry if I haven't been a good enough SL, I know my short comings in many aspects, but you guys have been a really great section and I have honestly very much enjoyed the time spent with you all. Thank you for putting up with my lousy conducting (or was it even conducting at all?). Now the SYF journey has come to an end. I'm really proud of everyone for all the hardwork and effort we've put in, all the late nights spent staying back and that early morning spent practising, all the blisters, sore fingers and peeling skin. Thanks everyone, I really love you all! =D Haha.

2007-05-07T21:40:00.000+08:00

Woo~ Get High!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIN JIA!! XD

Although we got reprimanded by the conductor today, CO practice was still AWESOME!! I had SO much fun! Especially during the extra self-practice after full orchestra. I was out at the gallery teaching Shu Xian when Jin Jia came along. Then we both helped her and taught her. Then after that, Bryan came along! With his ping pong ball =.= Lolx! There were lots of jokes and laughter throughout practice. I really enjoyed myself thoroughly. It gives me this really heartwarming feeling that lightens up my heart. I felt like I could practice forever just now. We left the school at nearly 9pm. Hahaha. I actually really really look forward to practices again! That feeling is finally back!

But SYF is just 2 days away. After that, us J2s are gonna be stepping down soon. Sigh, just that mere thought is enough to bring on a wave of melancholy. I actually don't want to step down! I'm gonna miss everyone so much! It's really sad :(

But nevertheless... XIAN YUE ROCKS~!! XD

And you know what? We had dancing lessons during PE today!! And what did we dance? We... WALTZED!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! OH MY GOSH!! I nearly like self-combusted spontaneously. It's always been one of my dreams to waltz in a ballroom with like perhaps the man of my dreams or something. Hahaha. But since our PE class is divided by gender, girls had to dance with girls, with the taller girl assuming the guy's role. Me, being so short, obviously danced the girl's part. And it was sooo beautiful. The music was awesome, the moves were awesome and it was utterly completely absolutely SO ROMANTIC!! Well, except that I'm dancing with another girl. But while Ms Choy played us the different waltz music, Sabby and I were sweeping around the room. It was sooo... gosh *starry-eyed* Now if only I could dance it with a guy... Lol. And Sab was wholeheartedly agreeing "They should get the guys to learn this!!" Hahaha.

All in all, today was a great day! If you would just minus off that pile of homework sitting rather quite quaintly atop my desk...

2007-05-01T23:30:00.000+08:00

Panic Attack!!

I've got a Chemistry and Math test tomorrow!! And NOTHING is going into my head!! I'm hitting a dead end down here! Omg, I'm feeling extremely pek chek now. Crap crap crap, what if I fail badly?! AHHHHH!!

2007-04-30T21:36:00.000+08:00

The Odd Fluctuating Moods of a Cancerian Girl

This is record breaking man. I was in school from 7.30am to 7.30pm. And I attended not a single lesson. So what in the friggin' world was I doing in school? Muahahaha... CO PRACTICE!!

Everyone in CO was excused from classes today cos we were going to SCH to rehearse for SYF. I was super elated and darn hyper at first, singing random Chinese songs and discussing Thermochemistry with Doris on the bus. Then we got to SCH with me still feeling happy. When we got on stage and was ready to play our pieces, I realised that one of my markings disappeared. And I went horribly off tune. Then I felt quite pek chek. So nvm, I took a bit of the rosin powder that rubbed off my bow and dabbed a temporary marking there. Problem solved, thanks to Lin laoshi. But somehow, I didn't play well today. Maybe it's just the strange feel of being on stage. Bar 74 for Feng Nian Ji was especially bad.

After the rehearsal, something else happened that made me feel totally down in the dumps. I just felt so zi bei and demoralised. I was just standing alone and staring into space when usually I'd be crapping around with my section. And I think some of them kinda noticed it and walked over to me and started talking about Ming Dao and Gu Ju Ji. Hahaha. Thanks guys. But I couldn't shake off that awful feeling. Then Doris was talking to me and asking if I were okay and all and I don't know why!! But I felt the beginning strains of wetness in my eyes. I was horrified man. But I managed to hold them at bay.

When we boarded the bus I sat with Doris and we started talking. And I just couldn't help myself. Never in my entire life have I cried during CO or cried over CO. But today I did. I felt like a total utter failure. I felt like I've just too many shortcomings, not just in my playing but also as an SL and as the concert master. I shan't delve into the details.

By the time the bus arrived back in school, my tears had dried up, leaving behind slightly swollen eyes and a red nose. Jun Wei was like asking me "Why is your nose red?!" I just chuckled softly. I felt better after lunch though. And as afternoon practice resumed, I was nearly back to my nomal state. By break time, I was my happy self and was playing Ju Hua Tai on my gaohu with Jin Jia and Felix by the side of the hall. When practice ended, I'd gone insane and was laughing like some lunatic who'd gone off his rocker. Well, hers, in my case. Then I saw this stack of chairs that was taller than me by a lot. There had to be about 8 chairs stacked together. And I had this sudden strong impulsive urge to shift that monstrous pile of chairs back to the storeroom. And so I did.

I heaved and pulled and dragged the tower of chairs. You couldn't see me at all, literally. All one can see is a tower of chairs seemingly moving on its very own. Ya la, I'm short okay? And some of the guys began running over to help me, but I fended them off and insisted on pulling the whole load by myself. Wen Yuan was like "Ni bu yao chong dong!!" Hahaha. But hey, I did it!! Haha. Some insanity. Sigh.

Nearly 12 hours of CO practice today. The skin on my hand has peeled off. I conclude that many string players have rough hands. All those calluses and what nots. I've missed an entire day's worth of lessons. Tell me about catching up with my fellow classmates man. I'm absolutely exhausted now. I'm so tired I don't even have appetite for dinner. Haha. Should help in losing weight then. (Don't kill me) XP

2007-04-25T19:27:00.001+08:00

Sigh.

2007-04-07T11:57:00.000+08:00

Sated with Music

Full orchestra practice was AWESOME today!! Zhen Cao Ji laoshi conducted us today. Like, oh my Gosh. And is he good! Today was like the best full orchestra practice I'd ever had. Fruitful and thoroughly enjoyable. Even though it was kind of scary cos he's such a... living legend? I don't know, he's just superbly good! And seated right in front of him, I was totally freaking out when he walked over and took over the conducting. My heart was beating erratically and I was so stressed and nervous. It was like "Oh no! What if I play wrongly? What if my rhythm goes off? What if I went accidentally sharp or flat? What if, what if, what if..."

But whew! He went into such minor and specific details that for the first time, I am hearing the set piece differently. The erhu part sounded SO nice! The crescendo and rapid decrescendo, before following a crescendo again totally portrayed like a whole wave of emotions. I felt swept away by that wave. Like, whoa.

After CO practice today, I went for Qin Li-Wei's concert with the Conservatory Orchestra at the Esplanade Concert Hall. I met up with Marcus for dinner before that though. He'd wanted to go as well, but the tickets were all sold out. So while I went for the concert, he was scouring for the music score of "Across the Stars" for me in the Esplanade Library. Heh.

The concert was mind-blowing. The first piece was Bloch's Concerto Grosso No. 1 for String Orchestra with Piano. There were 4 movements altogether and my favourite is no doubt the 2nd movement, Dirge (Andante moderato). Then it was Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33. And this is where Qin Li-Wei comes in for a cello solo.

It was absolutely wonderful. And he did a spiccato with 5 notes. And the spiccato was perfect. I was leaning forward in my seat. Hahaha. He played with such gusto and emotions that he lifted off his seat. It was amazing. He was amazing. The crowd wouldn't stop applauding. My hands were aching from applauding non-stop. One guy even stood up. There were shouts of "Bravo!" And it was indeed a fantastic performance.

Then it was a 20 minutes intermission and after that was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites No. 1 Op. 64a & No. 2 Op. 64b. There were 7 parts altogether and I like "The Montagues and the Capulets" and "Romeo & Juliet - The balcony scene, Romeo's variation, Love's duet". The ending piece was good too, "Romeo at Juliet's grave, Death of Juliet, End". Everything was wonderfully portrayed and brought across. The love, the sadness, the sorrow, the conflict between the two families, the fighting scenes. It was enthralling. And the audience was good. No one clapped in between movements, which is how it should be. You're not supposed to applaud in between movements.

Of course there was an encore and it was one of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Number 4 actually, according to Marcus after I'd hummed it to him after the concert. And of course, it was enchanting. I am totally charmed.

So after the mind-blowing concert, I went to meet the nearly-dead-from-boredom Marcus, whom was reading some Galaxy Hitchhiker don't-know-what novel in the foyer area. Then we had supper in Gelare at City Link Mall. Hot fudge chocolate sundae!! How sinful, I'm so gonna get fat. Then we talked about music all the way home.

Awesome day! :)

(Long enough post for you, Marc?)

2007-04-06T23:54:00.000+08:00

Buggity Buggity Bug

Due to a certain (*COUGH*marcus*COUGH*) person's incessant naggings and buggings and rantings for the past half an hour, I have been verbally prodded into blogging. *mutters inaudibly and shakes a fist (No, it's not all that tiny and ineffectual. All right, maybe it is kind of small, but not that ineffectual, really.)*

All right, so what shall I talk about today? Ah yes, Doris and I had our own version of a Movie Marathorn at my house where we watched Korea Dramas and the whole of Grey's Anatomy Season One. I should be lamenting over the loss of precious time that could be spent doing my homework or revising. Well, the keyword is "should be".

And I did try to read up that 11 pages long article about how Gene Therapy can help people with Haemophilia.

Inner voice: But you only read a frickin' paragraph!
*Cringe* Guilty as charged.

You know what? I don't really know what to write in this blog post. And I really want to cut my hair. That was so random, but whatever. And well, I'm pooped and I need my sleep.

(No, this is not a very short post, Marc. Haha.)

2007-04-03T23:28:00.000+08:00

Intoxicated

Cruising on waves upon waves of pure, unadulterated emotions. I think I may just drown soon. I am blown away, blown so far away by the video of the orchestra performing Ennio Morricone's Gabriel's Oboe on Youtube. The oboe soloist was... my gosh. I find myself temporarily robbed of the ability of speech. His tone was SO good, so clear and so steady. Awesome vibrato too. The strings in the background made just the right back-up for the soloist.

I also happen to stumble across an interview of Sarah Chang and Julian Lloyd Webber while they were recording Phantasia, and there were snippets of scenes showing their recording in the studio and they were playing "All I Ask of You". It was simply enthralling, astounding and absolutely enchanting. It was so beautiful tears threatened to well up in my eyes.

April Fool's Day fell on a Sunday this year. In fact, I had forgotten all about it until I woke up that Sunday morning and got neatly tricked by Talz's message. And as far as Sundays go, it is our homework-chionging day. So I was slaving away on my Economics essay on a plush green couch in Starbucks with a cup of Chocolate Frappucino that very afternoon with Marcus, who was reading the novels he just loaned out from the library, when I got kind of bored. So I picked up my cellphone and decided to trick my groups of close friends. Afterall, what's April Fool's Day without playing a few tricks? Heh.

And my tricks were not without their desired results. I laughed so hard in Starbucks, my Economics essay lay sprawled atop my file, nearly forgotten as I chuckled in glee at the contents of the messages that were flooding back to my cellphone. Oh boy, I've never mass tricked so many people during April Fool's before.

And TMSCO got Gold!! Yayness to that! XD

2007-03-28T20:02:00.000+08:00

Queer Melancholy

:(

2007-03-21T15:52:00.000+08:00

Hate integration hate graphs hate functions hate inequalities hate partial fractions hate binomial expansions, hate logarithms hate APGP hate trigonometrical functions hate differentiation hate integration hate maclaurin's series hate vectors hate mathematical induction hate differential equations hate probability

Hate math Hate Math HATE MATH!

Pardon me, I'm losing it. Tomorrow's my Math paper and I'm staring (yes, STARING) at my lectures notes with such an intensity that perhaps it might go up in flames. Burn baby, BUUURN...

All right, that's it, I've gone nuts. But I should be all right soon. I think.

2007-03-20T17:10:00.000+08:00

Oh, the horror...

Today, I have survived a very draining and exhausting and trying event. I clawed and fought my way through and trudged on with all my might. And now, I have emerged, not totally unscathed (I'm pooped), but alive. I have survived... FIVE HOURS of EXAMS.

Hahaha, all right, that was quite an exaggeration. But you try having 5 hours of exams in one day. I had a 2 hours Economics paper in the morning, followed by a 3 hours Biology paper in the afternoon. Suffice to say, I was fighting the big Z monster during my Biology paper.

Sigh, my mind has been blown to bits. But alas, I have a Chemistry paper tomorrow morning. Speaking of which, I had better get going with my revision soon. *grumbles unintelligibly*

2007-03-14T11:59:00.000+08:00

Home Alone

This is it, I'm all home alone with my sister, maid and aunt. Dad went overseas to play golf, Mum went on a vacation with my youngest sis and grandpa. And I am stuck at home. Why? Cos of this evil little (okay maybe not little) nasty impending event called the JC2 March Block Tests. And I am so screwed because I can't seem to find the motivation or drive or will to mug my brains out. Somebody shoot me.

Last Saturday, I went to NUS Open House with Doris and Sabrina. It was interesting. University life is so much more different from that of JC life. It seemed kind of hard to believe that I'd be entering a university in just like sometime during next year (assuming that of course, I'd done sufficiently well for my A' level examinations). Was it already nearly 2 years ago that I was sitting for my O' level exams? How time flies. There's just this odd mix of anticipation and yet apprehension about moving on into the next phrase, next chapter of my life - University.

Growing up can be a scary thing.

Last Sunday, I attended Shi Yun's grandfather's wake at her grandma's house void deck, with Li Zhen. It has been eons since the 3 of us met up like this. Just the 3 of us, sitting down and talking together. We've stuck through thick and thin throughout our first two years in secondary school. That day, we did a lot of catching up. Shi Yun talked a lot about her Poly life. Haha. Gee, I miss those two.

Alas, I should be going off to study soon. See you. Have a good day ahead (:

2007-03-09T21:15:00.000+08:00

Paris... is for throwing open the windows and letting in... letting in La Vie En Rose...

I was feeling emotional today, kinda depressed and weirdly sad, for reasons I am unable to fathom, but all I felt like doing was to haul my golf set to the nearest driving range, press a 120 golf balls from the machine and hit them all till my heart's content. Perhaps my sadness may fly off with the golf ball and be blown away by the wind. But alas, I seem to have misplaced my golf set. Gotta unearth them soon and you must be amazed by how disorganized my life is to be able to misplace something as gigantic as an entire golf set. But in the meantime...

What a day! A day spent alone to bask in the comforting solace that solitude offers, with my ever faithful companions - music and books. I went to Bras Basah, walked around and bought a book by Sandra Brown. Then I went to the National Library and studied my Chemistry notes for a while, until I decided that nothing was going into my head. I was oddly restless today. Then I walked around in Bugis Junction for a very short while before taking the train to head home.

Having missed lunch, I whipped up some noodles and settled in front of the television with Tallie's "Sabrina" DVD. And my gosh, it turned out to be such a wonderful movie! It was the original one by the way, starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden and it was all in black and white. And it was absolutely wonderful. I was completely captivated, enthralled, enchanted and tickled pink with laughter and love. It's a romance/comedy and an absolutely stunning one at that.

Indeed, Paris is for throwing open the windows and letting in... letting in La Vie En Rose.
-Sabrina Fairchild,
Sabrina

2007-03-02T17:09:00.000+08:00

And the rain fell harder...

Every human being has a limit to nearly everything. A limit to the level of tolerance, a limit to the amount of patience, a limit... When too many disturbing events occur in too short a time span, that limit is rapidly reached.

She was walking along the road. But she wasn't heading for home. Too many things had happened, and had happened too suddenly. Her thoughts were in a mess. Her cellphone rang. Dazzedly, she clicked it off. Excusing herself from a group of people, she took off for the solace of solitude. The tears were coming in earnest now. She finally sat by the road, clutching her bag to her chest. Why is this happening? The sky was swifty darkening. Grey clouds swarmed above in the skies. Good, the mood fits. Within minutes, rain began to fall from the heavens above. She continued to sit, unmoving, by the side of the road. With a punishing intensity, the rain fell harder...

2007-02-28T21:50:00.000+08:00

The most ridiculous and hilarious thing just happened to me a mere scant few hours ago. After CO practice, Doris and I stayed back in school to get some homework done and to obtain the notes I had missed for yesterday's lectures cos I wasn't feeling well and went to the doctor. So we were 'merrily' doing our homework, the hour grew late, the sky darkened... until we realised that we were the only ones left in school. There wasn't another soul around save for the security guard. It started to feel a little creepy and we were like "All right, let's go home." But Doris wanted to use the washroom first, so we went to the toilet at the atrium.

We were washing our hands when Doris suddenly said "Do you know about the images of a parallel mirror..." I KNEW what it was, and it was absolutely the wrong thing to say late at night, when the atmosphere felt so creepy. So I said "Stop!! Don't say it!" and flung out an arm to stop her. Startled by my sudden movement, she screamed. Startled by her scream, I screamed too!! Then we ran out of the toilet and out of school, laughing at our silliness all the way.

Then as usual, we walked from the school bus stop down to the other bus stop beside the gas station. Walking along the streets, the school fence with all its protruding leaves suddenly seemed kind of scary. They look like claws reaching out to grab an unsuspecting victim. So I huddled closer to Doris. Then she began talking about banana trees and not stepping on trees' shadows and what-not. It was really quiet and dark and my heart began beating faster. I began to stare at the shadows on the ground intently. And suddenly, in the stillness and quietness of the night... SCREECH!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Doris and I nearly jumped out of our skins and screamed bloody murder. It turned out to be a bicycle with a really loud, screechy brake. But it came so suddenly and from behind us too. We screamed so loudly our screams echoed off the HDB blocks. I think the guy on the bicycle got startled too and then he apologized. LOL!! I think he somehow surmised that he just scared the living daylights out of us.

My gosh. That was the most ridiculous thing that's ever happened to me this year. Scaring ourselves silly and screaming like that. My goodness. After we recovered from our shock, we proceeded to laugh ourselves insane. We literally roared with laughter, guffawing so madly, Doris nearly ended up on the ground, shaking with laughter. And I was bent and doubled over in uncontrollable mirth. My cheeks hurt, my stomach hurt. Oh gosh. That was some insanity and adrenaline rush.

Boy, it was actually kind of fun, come to think of it. Hahaha.

2007-02-25T00:34:00.000+08:00

Floating, falling, sweet intoxication...

Indeed, Alessandro Safina's rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night" totally, completely and utterly swept me off my feet. Sure, certain parts of it may not be superbly perfect, but his high notes, boy, my heart nearly ceased beating. He's an Italian tenor by the way. Powerful, magnificent voice. I'm ensnared.

Today I went to Esplanade with Marcus. We spent over an hour in the library pouring over scores and scores and more scores. I found Jules Massanet's Meditation from Thais. At long last! Haha, but it's not easy to play ): I kept playing the first 11 bars over and over again. After a one week hiatus, my tone has deteriorated beyond belief. Yuck.

What a musical day. I spent my day blasting music while doing homework, singing along to the lyrics. Humming too, in the case of instrumental songs. Haha. I met Marcus at Tanah Merah at nearly 5pm. And we talked about music all the way, all the different musicians, composers, their style and what-not. Halfway during the train ride to City Hall, Paganini's Caprice No. 24 came on on Symphony 92.4 FM. Yeah, I was listening to the radio on my cellphone cos my mp3 died on me. I never cease to be amazed everytime I listen to that piece of music. Both composer and player are disgustingly awesome. It is such a versatile piece, changing swiftly from bowing to pizzicato, from single notes to chords and what-not. There's even left-hand pizzicato!

On the way home, we talked more about music. I studied the new scores I'd just gotten while Marcus whipped out his manuscript book and began scribbling random pieces of his own compositions on it. Awesome really. I don't think I could ever compose anything on the spot just like that. Haha.

The funny thing about us musicians I realise is that our fingers or hand never seem to stop moving. While walking along CityLink Mall, Marc was moving his right hand very slightly in a bowing manner to some silent piece playing in his head. And my own fingers were moving in accordance to the fingerings of random pieces floating around in my mind.

Ah, music. My life shall be incomplete without it. A void, unable to be filled by anything else. Oh dear, it's nearly 1am. The hour grows late. Or rather, I should say, early. I shall be off to bed now. Good night everyone. Pleasant dreams (:

2007-02-19T23:34:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year Extravaganza

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to all!! :D I'd just returned home from the most extravagant Chinese New Year I've ever had so far in 17 years and a few months of my life. Two days before chu yi (first day of CNY), I had a family dinner at a Japanese restaurant along East Coast road. We got the VIP room ^^. The room was really cosy and cool and we had to take our shoes off. Dinner was fabulous, I could barely walk back to the car after that. I was SO full!

On the morning of chu yi, I woke up at 7.15am to go bai nian (visiting). After going to 5 houses, we left for Swissotel, The Stamford. My dad booked two rooms and we're gonna spend the night there! Then for lunch, I had french crepe with peking duck and prawns inside. Super nice! Ate till bursting point too. Dinner was sliced beef on a hot plate. Then we took a walk around River Hongbao to digest our food. It was SO crowded!

(Lovely view from the hotel room balcony. I look kinda spastic... =/ Yuck..)

I slept in late the next morning and woke up in time for lunch =X which I had in Mos Burger with my sister. After which we slacked around before going for high tea in the hotel. Had hot chocolate with sandwiches, tarts and puffs. And then... I bought TWO books!! Oh joy!! I was SO grateful that MPH remained open during this festive occasion XD Then I met up with my clique from MJ - Doris, Pris and Sabby.

We then proceeded to have dinner at... New York New York!! I'd always wanted to eat there! And it's my first time dining at a restaurant with friends!!

Group picture!! We chose a nice little cosy alcove for our seats!

Candy Floss!!! =D

Sabby studying the menu most intently.

Here's our food!! And that's my London Fish 'n Chips there!

More candy floss!!

Fireworks!! Beautiful aren't they?

More fireworks!!

Acting spastic and ridiculous in such a romantic place! Esplanade Waterfront. Lolx!

Say "Cheese!" =D
And this marks the end of our insane, fun-filled wacky CNY celebration for today!! Tomorrow I gotta get up for another round of visiting, THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' DAY until night time, where I'd be having seafood dinner at East Coast with my dad's company.

My homework. Oh the horror, I haven't done a single bit of homework. Empty parchments! I mean foolscap paper. But all empty nonetheless!! I am so screwed :(

2007-02-17T18:29:00.000+08:00

Death by Good Music

I hereby proclaim that I am on the verge of death by music.

Sheer good, wonderful, mind-blasting, fabulous, awesome music!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Oh my GOSH! I fell SO totally in LOVE with Patrick Fiori's voice!! Omg, his HIGH notes!! So smooth, so tender, so NICE!! And usually guys can't do high notes very well, but omg, his high notes totally swept me off my feet!! And Talz, get this, he's a FRENCH singer!! *dies!!*

French language is THE sexy! Afterall, why else did I sign up for that French langauge course at 1.35 friggin' am in the morning. French is such a sensual, sexy and awesome language. *smiles dreamily*

Moving on from the singing aspect of music to the playing aspect.

CO held 3 performances yesterday for Chinese New Year. One at MJC, two at the Cerebal Palsy centre. We performed twice there for both morning and afternoon sessions. In between performances, I was well, trying to complete my Evolution & Diversity mindmap but I soon gave up on it. Haha, and then I ran off to try my hands at a cello. And I found out that a cello's fingering is about TWICE as wide as that of a violin. BUT. I managed to play the first few bars of Canon on Jian Rong's cello!! Omg, achievement!! But my fingers and arm promptly died after that. Pain ):

After all that performing, I dashed off to meet Marcus and Tallie at Tampines Mall. I already looking forward to the next Chamberesque practice. And if we're really gonna perform for July's concert... Gosh, I'm worried!! I need violin lessons! And for the past few days, I've been itching to go to Esplanade Library to get more scores =x I think I'd need a score cupboard very soon. We had an entertaining time during lunch listening to the interesting tales of school life in VJ, MJ and TP.

After lunch, Talz had to go home. So Marc and I went home too, to practice our violins. I played a little like a madman yesterday. Well, madwoman. Hahaha. I practiced nearly non-stop for slightly more than an hour. My neck nearly cramped. =.= But yeah, stupid sucky tone. And stupid tuning pegs. Hahaha.

And I shall be off to practice again now! Au revoir! (Good bye) A bientôt! (See you) =D

2007-02-14T19:53:00.000+08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Soft candlelight, romantic strains of the violin playing, red roses, a box of delicious chocolates and a bottle of sweet wine. Oh my Gosh, 'tis the epitome of class, elegance and enjoyment!!

All right, quit day-dreaming. But today was a great day!! Never has Valentine's Day been such a big hoo-hah. Flowers, balloons, chocolates, candies, bears, gifts and little notes EVERYWHERE! The school was bursting with them. Great atmosphere, I got so high I couldn't stop laughing and blubbering nonsensical, well, nonsense.

So I began this great day by lugging a whole bag full of chocolates and notes to school! And lo and behold! I left my cellphone at home. Of all the days!! But anyway, I got to school, and everyone started going all nuts, giving out chocolates, candies and notes and going all "Happy Valentine's Day!!"

I got 9 roses!! NINE!! *dies of happiness* Oh my Gosh. And one fake rose. You know those kind from Toys 'R Us? The really cute furry toy one! Hahaha. And on top of that, I got a helium-filled heart shaped balloon!! I feel so overwhelmed. I feel SO LOVED!! And I got so many chocolates and candies that it nearly filled my entire paper bag to the brim! I'm so friggin' HAPPY!! Well, it is afterall, Val's Day. HAHAHA. Okay, I couldn't resist that pun.

Thank you SO MUCH everyone!! Tallie, Kenneth, Cuzzen, Hengky, Wei Qiang, Zhi Qian, Jenny, thank you for all the roses!! Hengky, thanks for the balloon and chocolates too! Hahaha. My clique, thanks for all the chocolates and candies and notes!! Doris, thanks for the huge slab of Cadbury chocolate! XD To my juniors and fellow CO mates, thanks for all the chocolates and candies! To my fellow classmates from 06S305, thank you for all the lovely goodies which now fills my bag. Lol. Hmm, have I missed out anyone else? If I did, my apologies and thank you!! :D

This is no doubt one of the best, if not the best, Valentine's Day I've ever had thus far. I love you all my dear friends!! :D And Happy Valentine's Day to all out there!!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAREN!! *lucky boy, born on Valentine's Day*

*And now I gotta spend my Valentine's night dating my Biology SPA notes :( grumbles..*

2007-02-10T23:04:00.000+08:00

Chamberesque

Finally, the day I've long awaited for - Chamberesque Practice!! Man, I feel so deprived of music practice with my good friends! Haha.

And oh my Heavens! Marcus improved like siao!! Marc, you sick boy! Ahhhhhh, he's catching up!! I feel propelled to take up lessons again. I think I really should. I'm worried. And if I have to audition to enter Uni orchestras. Oh man! I really need the lessons. Hahaha.

And this is me. I think I look kind of odd. =/

Here's another one! Heh.

Tallie and I!

Marcus choking me!! *cough cough gasp!* Ahaha. Fooling around with our violins.

Me holding Kenneth at gun- I mean- bow-point. Hahaha.

And there's me grinning widely. Tallie looking all prim and proper. And Marcus looking sooo serious and sombre. Hahaha.

Marcus and I playing Gabriel's Oboe. Don't we look pro? HAHAHA! *Ego ego*

And check this out!! Kenneth attempting the famous Paganini pose with my violin! LOL!

Marcus and I with our bows crossed in front of Kenneth, who's fooling around with Tallie's crutches. Poor girl sprained her ankle.

And here's the four of us! Group shot! And that's Tallie's mum behind us. LOL! :D

Gosh! Today was SO much fun! I can't wait for the next practice! July's concert is drawing near! And we haven't even gotten our repertoire set! Ahhhhh!

Oh, and after practice, I rushed down to Chinatown to meet my mum and sis to buy my New Year clothes. Haha, I bought a pink qipao and two chinese blouses. Chinatown is SO crowded, my goodness. But the atmosphere there is really great! :D

2007-02-03T23:14:00.000+08:00

06S305 Outing

Today we had our College Road Race in Pasir Ris Park. It was the usual thing. But we played "I Never"!! It was hilarious and a shocking revelation in some cases! Who'd have known that Sabby had NEVER eaten Laksa before?! My gosh. And most of my friends thought I was a guai kia (crudely translated: good kid).

After the Road Race, we had a class outing!! Organized by... yours truly!! (: *clap clap clap* All right, that was some serious case of self-praise. Hahaha! Of course we'd all returned home to shower, change and all first. About half the class turned up, 12 people and we went to Cineleisure in Orchard.

I played Pool for the very first time in my life!! And ONE ball WENT IN!! Achievement! Yayness. Oh man, I'm like on sugar-high now. And I've discovered that pool is VERY FUN! After playing pool, we went to watched "Pan's Labyrinth", my second NC-16 movie thus far. Its genre is fantasy/horror. But it turned out to be extremely gory!! I couldn't take all that gore. I shut my eyes, I shut my ears, my jacket was over my head and I'd already sunk down low into the plush cushion of my seat. Just imagine: a horrible, evil, Voldemort-lookalike monster with no eyes and pale webbed skin grabbing a tiny fairy in its hand. Then it put the fairy's head into its mouth, chew down on it, and then pull the fairy's body away, detaching the head. Blood spilled over, dripped down its chin and all the while the poor fairy was kicking, squirming and screaming.

I am bloody traumatised.

As I walked out of the movie theatre, my heart was still thumping wildly in my chest.

And this is 06S305 (well, half of it) waiting for the lift to arrive at Cineleisure (:

Riding the escalator up!

Strolling along the streets of Orchard Road!

Us walking out from the MRT Station to Cineleisure!

Ta-dah~! Us again!

Man, I am hyper already! And you know what? I've got an uber NICE Angel!! I received an email from him/her! The email account was created just for this purpose man! I am SO touched!! Oh my Gosh. After reading the email, I couldn't stop grinning la. So happy you know! Hengky thought I'd gone mad. Hahaha!

All right, tomorrow's Sunday ): Homework chionging day. I'd better get some rest soon. It's midnight now. Good night everyone! Au revoir! (: