memories

2011-11-18T23:59:00.005+08:00

my mum told me that i overshot my sms limit by a bit in the month of september! the third time i overshot my sms limit! my mum also told me that she could not claim child relief for me this year cause i had an annual income exceeding $4000 last year. if i had known earlier, i would have worked a month less and relaxed a month more last year!

today, i fell down just when i started my run with my dad. =/ my left knee wound is not as deep as last year's wound, but it has more surface area. the area with a few scratches below my knee is swollen. i am not going to run for the next few days to weeks. this is bad news cause stanchart half marathon is about 2 weeks away from now! i will not be able to continue training for it! blame it on my carelessness yet again! =(

anyway, i have better things to worry about. hc204 and in9004 on 21 nov, hc211 on 22 nov, in9000 on 29 nov, hc260 on 1 dec, hc151 on 2 dec. there is a week gap in between papers, so it is easier for me to plan when to study what.

my wound must heal as soon as possible, latest by race day!

2011-11-11T20:56:00.004+08:00

i bought redondo strawberry and cream! =) i simply love redondo luxury cream wafers! i tried all the flavours, expect for cookies and cream. i will get that flavour next time! food is a good motivation in preparation for exams. =)

whenever the sem has ended and the exams are around the corner, i will start to think and plan what to do after exams. =) i made a list of things to do during the upcoming 1 month break!

recently, i heard that hu lao shi is leaving after this sem! this news gave me a shock! after only 1 year in ntu, he is leaving?! even though at the beginning, i did not like his teaching style last sem, but along the way, he was willing to listen to the students' feedback and improved tremendously. when i see him around at school now, i felt really sad for him. i do not like china history, but he did tried his best to make hc205 interesting. some of my coursemates think that he is requested to leave due to the negative feedback from students in the teacher evaluation form. =/ i heard that the hc232 students are petitioning for him to stay in ntu. i hope it works!

time for revision starting next week!

2011-11-04T20:43:00.005+08:00

last saturday, my mum, sis and i tried ice-cream at anchorpoint's ci gusta. we had dark chocolate crunch and forever berries flavours. =) whenever i read ice-cream outlets reviews on 8 days or pass by an ice-cream outlet, i will have the urge to buy ice-cream. i feel that ice-cream has the magical ability to make one happy. =) my mum used to buy tubs of ice-cream. nowadays, i get my ice-cream fix at macs and at any place selling ice-cream. =)

apart from watching last exile: fam the silver wing online, my other source of entertainment is the great queen seondeok which is showing on weekdays. it is another great korean drama after previous shows on the same timeslot, brillant legacy and dong yi jewel in the palace. =) what do all 3 shows have in common? the main character is a female and her enemy is also a female. they are protrayed as having strong personalities and it is a battle of wits. the ending is obvious, good prevail over evil, but it is the process of winning that makes me want to keep knowing what happens next after every episode. =)

in9000 group report and posters due next tues! hc260 presentation is on next wed and report is due next sat!

2011-10-28T23:44:00.010+08:00

last saturday, kino had 20% discount for members, so i went there to buy vampire knight #15! as usual, i am only going to read it after exams. i am pressing for time right now!

last wednesday, while watching million dollar money drop, my dad and i were shocked to find out that a pair of contestants actually did not know or were not sure of the answer to their first question. in singapore, which member of parliament holds the power of emeritus senior minister? my dad and i knew it was a give-away question and thought that they would know the answer! it is general singapore knowledge! i know that it is goh chok tong cause i read mypaper. =)

recently, my dad has placed more trust in me as he leaves me to do most of the cooking alone. due to my timetable, i hardly have the time to prepare the ingredients. i need to learn some of the pre-cooking stuff after exams. i also want to learn how to cook barley water. =) my dad also prepared sesame tang yuan with barley, water chestnut and lotus root seeds. i must ask my dad to teach me how to prepare this dessert. =)

this is indeed the rainy season. it has been raining almost everyday.

2011-10-21T23:52:00.013+08:00

it rained for 4 consecutive days! the weather can be strange at times.

on tuesday, i watched the 红楼梦电影版 during hc204 lecture. i liked the movie! i remembered i fell alseep during the 戏剧版 of 长生殿 and 西厢记. 戏剧版 made the story boring cause everything was happening at a slow pace with the people singing so slowly. 电影版 was more enjoyable cause it had some hilarious parts and the people were singing at a normal speed.

i refer to today's my paper article, "the early bird may catch heart disease". a study in japan shows that waking up early may increase your risk of heart attack and stroke! it shows links between vascular dysfunction and waking up before 5am! earlier bedtimes and wake-up times have a larger influence on vascular condition than sleep duration! however, the summary of the study did not specify the participants' sleeping times and duration. luckily for me, i have late bedtimes and early/late wake-up times. it is good to know that sleeping late is okay. =)

in9004 group report due next tues!

2011-10-14T23:52:00.007+08:00

my mum told me that since iphone 4S came out, the price for iphone 4 will drop! maybe i can get an iphone at the end of the year!

i find myself speaking chinese more often now. however, i tend to mix english with chinese. =/ this happens when i am stuck, unable to think of the chinese words, want to save time and bring my point across faster. i definitely need to continue brushing up on my chinese speaking skill.

i have been busy for a month now. i hardly go on msn and even when i am on facebook, i am usually doing my work. it does seem that i do not have much time to talk to my friends. i miss talking to them, yet i know that i have to do my work. when i am not doing my work, i need to study. even though i am busy, i secretly wish that someone, anyone, can just sms, call, facebook chat with me, to let me know that i need to take breaks. if not, i will keep doing my work/study, which is actually a good thing. i know none of my friends really talk to me now cause maybe they are busy as well. i feel so drained on weekdays especially, that once i lie down on my bed, i immediately fall asleep. i will continue to be busy till the end of exams.

2011-10-07T23:44:00.006+08:00

last sunday, my sis and i shared a crepe which has ice-cream, marshmallows, biscuits, chocolate. it was my first time eating a crepe. i feel like going back there for more. =)

Steve Jobs, the Apple guy, died last wednesday! today's mypaper featured his famous 2005 commencement address at Stanfort University. i remembered watching the video once. his speech was inspiring and had many good points which later became quotes. =) on a side note, he died before i could get my hands on an iphone! i thought iPhone 5 would come out this year, but instead, iphone 4S came out. maybe i should wait for iphone 5, or i should get the samsung galaxy S2. but all these are wants and not needs. so maybe i will just get yet another $0 phone.

this week has been a rainy week! has the rainy season arrived? =( it has affected my running schedule.

i find it hard to focus during running sometimes. =( is this a sign that i need more hours of sleep?

in9000 online presentation due next mon!

2011-10-01T00:23:00.017+08:00

for the past week, i have been thinking a lot. this happens when i spend too much time rushing schoolwork. sometimes, i question myself, "why am i studying what i am studying?". i know i am studying what i do not like and i do not share the same passion for this course as others. i do not even know if i want to be a teacher. the fact is that i never liked humanes. in sec school, i do not like lit and hist, but i love geog. i have always liked science, so i chose the science stream in jc. however, this is not the case in uni. i am taking a purely humanes course. lit, culture, thought, hist, lingustics. lingustics is the most interesting yet it is the hardest. ever since year 1 sem 1, whenever i am stressed over schoolwork and exams, i end up crying. i even have a best time to cry, which is lying down on my bed and spending 5 to 10 mins, before i tell myself to sleep. this is a secret that no one probably knows cause i do not remember telling it to anyone! sigh. i am tired. at school, i do not show it cause i have grown used to displaying the usual smile on my face. i guess no one is able to detect it. when i wake up everyday, i tell myself that i need to be a strong girl. studies is important, so i do not want to disappoint my family and friends. i want to show them that i can do it. this course is another obstacle in my life that i will have to conquer it. however, i do not know if i am able to hold on for any longer...

2011-09-30T23:51:00.019+08:00

last saturday, elsa, belle, von, wei, rach and i celebrated elo's birthday. we went to chili's at tanglin mall. after dinner, i followed belle and elo to orchard. i tried a sip of the 8.5% pirates beer that they bought and it tasted horribly bittle. =/

last monday, eunice and i went to orchard. we walked from 313 to cine to taka to wisma to wheelock to far east. we went to h&m! we tried the seasalt caramel flavour ice-cream from cedele and it was delicious! =) we will try the blueberry cheesecake flavour next time. we took neoprints to relieve our childhood. =)

last wednesday, i ran at a comfortable pace for 20k. during the unplanned run, i saw a middle-aged guy running at the same pace as me, so i decided to follow him. when we parted ways, he said "wow, you have good stamina!". i was shocked at his comment! i replied "thanks!" and gave him a thumbs up. =)

today, i joined my ex-cell for pool at ang mo kio. it has been more than a year since i last played pool. my skills are still as bad as ever. =/

hc211 ppt on thurs!

2011-09-23T23:17:00.020+08:00

last sunday, i treated my sis to horlicks crunch mcflurry due to the 1 for 1 deal at macdonalds. =)

last tuesday, my hc151 professor called my name to answer the tutorial question. i was about to answer when he announced that there are 3 李慧仪 in my course, all are in different years and are taking the same module! i know the 大四 girl since last year. now i know there is a 大三 girl. i wonder if there is a 大一 girl. even if there is, my professor will not know. in the end, he wanted the 大二 girl to answer the question. my chinese name is no longer unique. =(

yesterday, i went for the public service career exhibition, partly to get the free garrett popcorn. the sad thing is that my degree is too specialised, so there are not many career options. the happy thing is that for chinese degree holders, you only need to teach 1 subject which is chinese! you do not need to teach 2 subjects! teaching is worth considering, but i am open to any other options available that may or may not be related to my degree. =)

my right foot still hurts sometimes, but i am gradually getting used to the pain. =/ anyway, recess week! time to relax a little and do work.

2011-09-16T20:42:00.012+08:00

last wednesday, i celebrated eunice's birthday! it is my first time celebrating a friend's birthday in a school setting and as a soloist. =) cedele's blueberry crumble muffin was her birthday cake, which was completed with a big birthday candle and a 'happy birthday' plastic stand that i took from my kitchen drawer. i also bought a blueberry crumble muffin for my family. i will be going back there for more muffins. =) that day also marks the 1 for 1 subway deal! eunice and i bought a large drink and 2 6-inch subway melt for our lunch. we only had to wait in the queue for 20 minutes.

part of my right foot hurts more when i walk than when i run. X_X sigh. i am not sure the exact reason(s) as to why it hurts. maybe it is a sign that i have increased my running distance and speed too fast. maybe the pair of shoes is not suited for my foot. i have been using this comfort massager in my free time. my mum bought it for me when i experienced a different kind of foot pain on my right foot many years ago. anyway, i still managed to complete my 50k mileage per week. with some rest, i hope it recovers soon.

hc211 mid-term paper on tues and hc204 mid-term paper on wed!

2011-09-10T22:36:00.007+08:00

today, i saw people carrying lanterns at my neighbourhood. i used to enjoy carrying it during my childhood days. =) the mooncake flavours are getting more and more interesting with each year! i feel like trying chocolate, especially alcoholic chocolate, purple sweet potato, pumpkin, passionfruit, blueberry cheesecake etc. this year, i only got to eat yam snowskin mooncakes and lotus traditional mooncakes. my mum did not buy the usual mango, pandan and green tea snowskin mooncakes. =(

speaking of mooncake festival, i came across a mypaper article with the title "你了解中秋习俗？" yesterday. it says that more and more people are forgetting the traditional meaning behind the mooncake festival. it states that the traditional mooncake festival is a time where "人们赏月、听嫦娥奔月的故事、对月高歌把酒等。" this reminds me of a 宋词 that i had to memorise for last sem's final exam. 苏轼《水调歌头》，词前小序："丙辰中秋，欢饮达旦，大醉，作此篇，兼怀子曲。" the 名句 is "但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。" it means i wish for the people whom i miss to be healthy, even though we are far apart, but we are viewing the same moon. 月亮 also represents 思念. in today's context, it is a general way of expression to mean that you miss your family, friends and relatives, and your blessings to them.

2011-09-10T22:09:00.007+08:00

last sunday, i walked past h&m and saw the long queue outside the shop. expecting that the changing rooms will have another queue, i have decided to step into the shop at a later date. i am thinking of going on a weekday morning, where there will not be a crowd and i can take my time to view the stuff. but my recess week will only be at the end of the month. =( if i can find someone to accompany me or if i can tag along with someone, maybe i will get to go there earlier than planned. i checked out their catalogue online and saw that some of their stuff are affordable. my mum and sis who went there on saturday night without notifying me, told me that the shop has more stuff than what was shown on the online catalogue. i really want to step into the shop as soon as possible. =/

last thursday, eunice and i had 3 shared pastries at the ntu pitchstop cafe. we had apple crumble, blueberry cheesecake and espresso cheesecake. the apple crumble was the best of all! =)

yesterday, my ex-cell went for joshua's 21st birthday party. it was held at a condo's function room at paya lebar. the theme was masquerade, so we got to wear masks. =) we got him a watch for his birthday present.

2011-09-04T22:17:00.008+08:00

i made changes to my running schedule. time: morning 7.30-9 or evening 5.30-7. distance: about 10k per day. i have decided to be consistent and slowly increase the mileage. i have about 3 months left to train for 21.1k. route: 2 loops at my house area. time taken: i try not to run faster than 1 hour and 5 minutes, cause i know i run often and i am afraid of getting unnecessary injuries.

my mum used to think that i am crazy and asked me, "why do you run so much?". now, she asks me, "did you run today?". recently, i told her that i was going to sleep at 11.30pm, and she asked me, "are you going to run tomorrow morning?". >< my dad has always been supportive of my running. a friend asked me about a month ago, "how do you become so disciplined?". i could not give him a proper answer back then. i guess it has something to do with my background. netball in pri and sec school, odac in jc. after a levels, i decided to get back to running. it does seem that running has been part of my life. there are times when i do not feel like running, but i tell myself, "do not be lazy" and off i go. =)

hc204 presentation on wed! i want to go to h&m soon!

2011-08-28T18:04:00.012+08:00

today, i went to east coast park and caught a triathlon 'live' for the first time! =) i have always wanted to watch a triathlon and i finally found the chance and reason to do so. i was there to support kenley for his first olympic distance triathlon. =) i feel that it is more meaningful to watch a triathlon when you know you have a close friend who is taking part in it.

the triathlon was an eye-opener for me. it looks fun simply by watching the entire process, from the swimming, to the cycling, to the running. it gives you the urge to want to be part of the triathlon too! but fun comes with a cost. you need 'funds' to get the stuff that you need for the triathlon, unless you can get 'sponsors' from your parents. also, you need to 'get pass' your parents in order to take part in triathlons, cause they hold the credit cards which is your key to paying the registration fees. not to mention, registration fees are expensive for triathlons too.

i feel that for a girl, it is not easy to get parents' support when it comes to such events. for now, i can only say that i will focus on running. once i start working and i have my own income, i will have more freedom. =) hence, i shall just leave it as, triathlons are cool. =)

2011-08-28T17:44:00.005+08:00

yesterday, elsa, elo, belle, wei and i celebrated von and ona belated birthday! we got 2 slices of cake from andersen's ice cream shop at marina square. i have never tried before andersen's ice cream, but since their cake is already awesome, i am sure their ice cream is awesome too. we had dinner at waraku restaurant and went to esplanade on the waterfront. in our last clique outing, we went to the same places. the only difference was that we had ice-cream at macs previously. i am happy that the attendance for this clique outing was good. =)

for the presidential elections (pe), it was expected that tony tan will win it. i expected a close fight between him and tan cheng bock, but i did not expect the fight to be that close. there was a recount due to the close margin of less than 2%. in the end, the margin was revealed to be 0.34%. i did not stay up to watch the entire pe cause i feel that the pe is not as exciting asthe ge. i just read the news on the internet.

2011-08-26T21:13:00.006+08:00

my dad has been buying cranberry buns from the rolling pin near bukit batok mrt station for my sis and i to bring to school. =) though it is $0.10 more expensive than those from four leaves, i prefer the cranberry buns from the rolling pin to those from four leaves. on days when my dad does not buy the cranberry buns, i will either buy their bread or buy bread from cake history at boon lay mrt station. 1 bread costs $1 at cake history and i buy 1 for breakfast.

14k, 10k, 10k, 10k, 10k. =) i get to run in the evenings more often as i get to return home from school at 5+. when i want to make a decision to run, i will consider factors such as the weather and my mood, but most importantly, the condition of my legs and the extent of the muscle aches. =) while running, i look at the scenery, play random songs in my head, think about stuff. =) i have a few motivations to keep me running. 1. i want to keep fit. 2. i want to lead an active lifestyle. 3. i need to train for the half marathon. i have a few people who inspire and/or support me. 1. my dad who runs with me occassionally. he also "sponsors" my running shoes and half marathon registration fees. 2. kenley who runs long distances and post them on fb using trainingpeaks. 3. germs who runs actively and post them on fb as statuses.

2011-08-20T22:25:00.008+08:00

from the moment i slipped my feet into my new running shoes, i knew it was much lighter than my old running shoes. when i first ran in it, i was not used to it. but after a few times, the feeling i get from it is just awesome. =)

i finally tried garrett popcorn and koi! i got a free container of cheesecorn and caramel garette popcorn at the ntu bazaar/cca fair. i did not really like the cheesecorn flavour, but the caramel flavour was nice. i spent 15 minutes queuing up for koi at clementi. i tried cacao barry which was quite good. i heard the ice cream latte is nice!

yesterday, i met up with josh for lunch. we went to mad for garlic at suntec cause he had the 1-for-1 pizza/pasta coupon from ndp. we ordered meaty lovers cream pizza and gorgonzola pizza. the gorgonzola pizza was awesome! cheesy pizza with honey dipping sauce! i feel like going back for more. =) we also ordered honey yujaade, which is a mix of honey, citrons and sprite. =) we went to check out the club21 bazaar at f1 pit. he really knows his way well, like a tour guide. =) the other time which was last year, he was also my tour guide. the only thing i had to do was to follow him as he led the way. =)

2011-08-14T20:53:00.004+08:00

last friday, i went for class outing. part 1 was dinner at plaza singapura and part 2 was chillax at serangoon gardens. i wanted to go for part 2, but i am not really allowed to hang out too late, especially if the location is too far from my home. =( this is the disadvantage of living in the west. however, the advantage of living in the west is that it is near ntu.

yesterday, ntu cell held a cell party for the graduates. i was in the events committee and i am glad it went well. =) i finally got to try sarpino's pizza. i feel that it is nicer than pizza hut's pizza. i hope i have a chance to try domino and rites.

today, my dad bought me a new pair of running shoes at queensway shopping centre. =) we went to the usual shop and i went to the usual section. i was thinking between adizero ace, mana and eagle, with eagle being the most expensive and ace being the cheapest. sadly, my size for ace was sold out, so i had to settle with mana. the full name of the running shoes is adizero mana 5W. actually, i have no idea what the difference between the 3 different types of running shoes is. i only know that addidas zero is good and i need a new pair of running shoes. =)

2011-08-12T15:45:00.005+08:00

last monday, joanne, wen hao and i went out for lunch. it feels good to chillax with them. =) last tuesday, my mum, sis and i had nice seafood claypot for lunch, followed by shopping at city plaza. =) last wednesday, i tried the strawberry soya ice cream from mrbean at school. it has a refreshing taste. =)

during stars add/drop period, i managed to add mpes hc151: modern chinese and hc211: tang poetry. i changed my hc204 tut slot to be in the same class as eunice. i also added the same sts gerpes info to new media and the printed word in the digitial world as her. i have no lessons on fridays! =) with 6 modules and 6 exams, i better manage my time well and work harder!

last wednesday, i ran 10km and the route was home-dairy farm road-petir road-pending road-bukit panjang ring road-jelebur road-petir road-dairy farm road-home. today, i ran 12km and the route was home-upper bukit timah road-choa chu kang road-choa chu kang way-choa chu kang avenue 3-brickland road-bukit batok west avenue 5-bukit batok east avenue 5-hillview park connector-home. i managed to cover most of the lrt lines/stations and saw lake guilin! from next week onwards, i have to discipline myself to run long distances! =)

2011-08-07T21:12:00.006+08:00

last thursday's mind your body article: are you just a facebook friend? the Greek philosopher Aristotle said friendships come in three varieties: friendships of utility, friendships of pleasure and prefect friendships. prefect friendship is Aristotle's label for true and lasting friendships based on mutual affection and regard. in perfect friendships, people value others not merely because they are useful or pleasant, but because of their characters and because of who they are. perfect friendship, or friendship in its truest form, can develop only between people whose loyalty and good intentions towards one another have been proven over time. true and deep friendships need to be grounded in the real world rather than the virtual world. we cannot truly love someone unless we know them and we cannot truly know them unless we spend time with them, face to face.

i feel that the advance in technology has somewhat destroyed face to face interaction as people may tend to feel lazy to arrange meetups, due to the convenience of keeping in touch with one another via sms, msn, facebook chat etc. i appreciate the existence of such tools, but i still enjoy meeting people rather than meeting them online. it brings me joy and excitement to meetup with them. =)

2011-08-05T21:33:00.017+08:00

today marks the end of my second time temping experience at nacli. last wednesday, my colleagues brought joanne and i to the nearby zhi char place for the combined farewell lunch. i did not get to make my farewell speech last year, so this year when i made my farewell speech, i cried. it was emotional for me cause i really enjoyed working with them and could not bear to leave them.

my second time temping experience is more special than the first one. stronger friendships with the perm staff were built and new friendships with the temp staff/intern were built. they gave me valuable life advices. ever since wen hao joined, there was endless teasing. i think i am used to getting teased, so i just gladly played along with it. it was interesting to hear their epic comments.

for the last 2 days, i tried my best to teach the new temp staff who will be taking over me. i taught her the general and basic stuff and i almost lost my voice in the process. i learnt patience from the short-term teaching experience.

i gave farewell gifts to them. it is indeed sad to bid them farewell again. i will miss them. =(

2011-07-31T21:20:00.009+08:00

yesterday, i went to hougang cc to attend the practical mandarin level 1 course for grassroots leaders. my fav trainer at NACLI, mr tay, invited me to observe how he conduct the class. i am surprised that malays and indians know hokkien, yet me being a chinese, does not even know hokkien! =/

my dad accompanied me to walk the railway track. we walked from our house to the ktm bukit timah railway station. when the entire railway track has been removed, i hope that the government will convert it into a running trail! =) when it is open to public in december, i intend to walk the 26km trail, preferably not alone.

today, i ran from my house to the end of rifle range road and back, which is about 14km. i saw cyclists at rifle range road. seeing them cycling makes me want to cycle too, instead of running. when running long distance, at some point of time, i will tell myself, i want to give up. but in the end, i will still continue cause i want to finish what i set out to do. when i complete my run, i will tell myself, good job!

i really want to get a new pair of running shoes! i should hint to my dad soon!

2011-07-28T22:20:00.009+08:00

i registered for the standard chartered half marathon last week! i will be joining some of my friends. =) it is the first time that i had to register online for an event. i made a typo error in my email address! i panicked for a few days, but thanks to the prompt action of the organiser, i feel relieved when they settled the issue. i have found the ultimate reason and motivation to run long distances! =)

last tuesday, i did transcript for the first time! i listened to a video clip of Dr Maliki's presentation. it was tiring and straining on the ears. i kept pausing and replaying the video to record down everything that he said, word for word. he is a good speaker, though there was significant use of singlish. =P

yesterday, i watched harry potter: the deathly hallows part 2 with my colleagues aka friends. after work, we had dinner at the hawker centre near vivocity. we munched on popcorn at gv max. there was so much room for the legs and the seats were super comfortable! i feel that the movie was a nice finish to the long series. now that i have finished watching all the movies, i feel like reading the novels!

next week marks the last week of work and break!

2011-07-25T21:24:00.006+08:00

i was feeling down over the past few days. now that i think back, it was over something stupid. i could not find a friend to watch harry potter with me. my mum knew that i cried, so she teased me by asking me to watch it with my "boyfriend". my dad suggested watching it with him. i think my parents are cute. =) i feel bad for having to "force" my dad to watch it with me, so i put it up on facebook as my status, with hopes of getting someone to watch it with me or to get some form of advice. my colleague encouraged me to watch it with another colleague who is of the same age group as me. the convo was a bit epic. in the end, i think i am going to watch it with that colleague and along with a few other colleagues. =)

the 2 month long gss is over! the great discounts gave me a reason to step into those branded/high-end fashion shops. this is probably the first time i took advantage of the gss to shop cause i needed to stock up on my wardrobe for a new year in school! therefore, the things that i bought are the things that are meant for school wear, which is casual wear. =)

sigh... this reminds me... 2 more weeks of school break left... =(

2011-07-23T11:39:00.011+08:00

last thursday, i met up with germaine and kenneth at river valley. we had dinner at spize and ice-cream at ice-cream gallery. their ice-cream is a local brand and i like their durian ice-cream.

i was supposed to watch the last harry potter movie with my sis yesterday. we arranged to watch it last week, but she told me in the morning that she was watching it with her friend. i asked a few friends whom i know will watch it, but they either watched it already or planning to watch it with their friends. it seems that i may have to watch it alone.

this makes me think, so do i really lead a rather lonely life? hardly anyone sms me, call me or chat with me online. usually when they do so, it is about arranging gatherings, outings, meetings or talking about their life. i feel like no one really wants to know about my life. i also feel like i am appearing online for the sake of appearing online. but what to do? if they do not find me, does this mean that i have to find them? i am tired of finding them. sigh. life still goes on. actually, the fact that i still keep this blog already probably proves that i have no one that i can share my life stories with. i wonder why do i even bother to blog.

2011-07-18T21:47:00.014+08:00

for the first time, i met up with both my secondary school friends and my jc friends in a weekend! =) on saturday, elsa, elo and i celebrated belle's birthday at marina square. i took the oppurtunity to view the beautiful fireworks from the foodcourt. =) after having elsa's shepherd's pie for dinner, we headed to the 'esplanade presents on the waterfront' area and enjoyed the live performance of gabriel lynch. we managed to squeeze in 2 rounds of bridge. =) yesterday, i met up with kenley, joshua and benjamin at ion. we ate at the soup spoon. the first time i ate at the soup spoon was with them. our outing involved random walking and talking, though i listen more than i talk. i wonder why i find myself being quiet most of the time. =/

do you know why i love the weekends? yes, i get to run away from work. but more importantly, it is the time i get to talk to my friends. on weekdays, hardly anyone talks to me. i always think i lead a loner life. the number of smses i used in a month and how often i go out, are proof that i am a loner. there are many things i want to do, such as walking the railway track near my house, buying a new pair of running shoes, tasting sweet food which i have never tried before like crepes and macarons... but there is no one to accompany me... or could it be that i never try asking... =X

2011-07-16T11:32:00.011+08:00

my second attempt to make agar agar on sunday failed again. it turned out to be too soft. =( the sugar level was okay cause i used 10 packets of macs sugar. i think i will need to decrease the amount of water used by half. i hope my third attempt will be a success!

today, i ran for about 2 hours at macritchie. =) after the 10km run which took me about 1 hour and 5 minutes, i decided to run more. i wanted to test whether the right side of my left knee can handle longer distances. my unplanned random distance of own time own target made me really shagged. the route was zig-zag bridge-reservoir road-lornie road-lornie trail-zig-zag bridge-lornie trail-zig-zag bridge. in total, i think i covered between 16km and 18km. =) i bumped intp kenley thrice. i thought he would run the same route as me and overtake me from behind eventually, which was why i was really surprised when i bumped into him the first time. strangely, when i am there, i feel motivated and disciplined to run.

i have developed a habit of checking the time whenever i wake up in the middle of the night. i will tell myself how much time i have left to sleep. this is a sign that i treasure my sleeping time. =)

2011-07-09T20:37:00.022+08:00

my new running schedule is 6km on weekdays, 10km on saturday, rest on sunday. i will slowly increase the distance and/or pace. =)

today, i went to macritchie reservoir. i finally managed to pull myself out of the bed at 6.10. i intended to wake up at 6 though. i left my house at 6.30, took bus 970 at 6.45, took bus 52 at 7.05, reached there at 7.20, started run at 7.50, ended run at 9, left there at 9.50, reached home at 10.30. i like the feeling of seeing people running along the same route in same/opposite directions and i like the shade that the trees provide. though i do not quite like the hilly and rocky terrain, but i am going back there for more runs. =)

i gain bits and pieces of knowledge just by hearing kenley talk about his running life. =) he knows a lot about running partly cause he reads many related articles. he said the following words which i feel makes sense. "the only time worth paying for an event is when you have put in effort in the training and running for a pb, not just to finish it. what is the point of running 21k again and again if you do not train for it, and keep getting the same time over and over again, just paying to finish a run with a gianormous crowd" the bottom line? training is important and one should constantly aim for pb. =)

2011-07-08T20:18:00.000+08:00

last friday was stars wars! i used the office internet with permission to register my modules for next sem. the internet speed is slightly faster than my house internet speed. surprisingly, i managed to add mpe hc260: chinese education in southeast asia, but i did not get the slot i wanted for core hc204: literature of yuan, ming and qing.

today, we had farewell lunch at fig&olive for a temp. the reason we went there was for the 1-for-1 lunch promotion. while at vivocity, i went to buy gong cha! i finally tried gong cha! i bought milk melon tea, but the milk is too rich for my liking. i am still waiting for a chance to try koi.

my supervisor told me that as a university student, i am also an adult now. he encourages me to be more independent. compared to last year, my work scope has broadened. to put it nicely, i feel that i play a bigger role in the department. but to put it in the not-so-nice term, they "throw" me work to do. >< they give me whatever work that they feel i can handle. it does sound like they are "bullying" me, but i believe they feel that i am up for it, thus they entrust me with it and place the responsibility to handle it well in my hands. =) though i am busy most of the time, i still try to slack a little. =)

2011-06-25T15:06:00.006+08:00

yesterday, i was reading the magazine 'pioneer' during lunch hour. i saw this comment made by a reader, "motherhood to women is the same as national service to men". i can never fully understand the impact of ns to guys. i can only hear interesting stories, though half of the time, i may not know what they are talking about, but i just smile and listen. =)

i am the contact person for the induction programme for new community leaders aka grassroots leaders. it is a coincidence that the upcoming run is in chinese. my chinese name is used with a miss as the salutation, 李慧仪小姐, and my designation is business development group, 业务拓展组. my colleagues remember that i am in chinese course and keep repeating that my chinese is good. my chinese is not as pro as they think. >< i expect many chinese-speaking grls to call my office no. or email me from next week onwards. i will be prepared to communicate in chinese, read emails in chinese and reply emails in chinese. i hope they will address me as 慧仪 and not 李小姐. 李小姐 makes me sound old. =) i believe they will address me by the latter since it is a more appropriate and polite 称呼. if they address me by the latter, i think i will laugh. =)

2011-06-20T21:42:00.004+08:00

last wednesday, my colleagues went to earl's swensens at vivocity for an intern's farewell lunch. it reminds me of the time when i had my farewell lunch there about 10 months ago. life back then was great cause i did not have to worry about education. sigh. i have trouble deciding what modules to take for next sem. =/

on my scheduled running planning, it was a struggle to wake up early to run. after running, i feel good. after bathing, i feel refreshed to start the day. during work, i feel tired sometimes. at the end of the day, i feel sleepy.

on work, i do everything and anything that i am asked to do by my colleagues. admin work is never ending. it keeps me busy and prevents me from falling asleep, though i get bored sometimes.

i failed on my first attempt in making agar-agar. =( it was not soft and sweet enough. i need to add more sugar and stir the mixture longer. agar-agar holds a special meaning to me. my late grandma made it often for my family. she also made it during chinese new year. i like agar-agar and i miss the taste, that is why i have decided to make agar-agar. =)

2011-06-13T20:57:00.008+08:00

on weekdays, i try to wake up by 6, run 5k, bathe, leave for work by 7.30, breakfast, start work at 8.30, lunch, end work at 5.30/6, reach home by 7, bathe, free time, sleep by 11. on weekends, run 7.5k and rest. i will do my best to stick to this plan for now, even though i dread waking up early. i suddenly miss activities such as netball, basketball, badminton, cycling.

last saturday, i bought vampire knight #13, kobato #5, d.n.angel #12 and #13 at kinokuniya due to the 20% member discount. i finally tried bamkuchen! =) belle, elo, von, ona and i had dinner at waraku casual dining restaurant. belle and i chose marina square, a location other than orchard, for a change. we had a fun time brainstorming ideas and discussing plans for our next clique outing. =)

yesterday, i had lunch with the old bigkids at redhill. we went to hui jun's house to play monopoly deal and charge our handphones. we had dinner at sunset grill which is near seletar camp. sengkang looks like pasir ris and the area around seletar camp is such a ulu place. we tried the level 3 spicy buffalo wings. i spammed the tartar sauce and tomato sauce. it is the spiciest food i have ever tried and i do not think i will go back there again!

2011-06-09T21:16:00.012+08:00

the right side of my left knee still aches. i give up. i shall let it continue to ache. strangely, it does not ache when i run, but it aches when i walk.

i saw my results at 12.12am. i got B for hc203 and hc205, b- for hc230, c+ for hmj1 and c for hc160. i should have s/u-ed jap! my grades are just simply bad. i want to talk to elsa now, but she is in europe. =( on a side note, i want to go to europe too!

with the release of sem 2 results, i declare sem 2 as officially over. year 1 has ended, now on to year 2. i have to start planning my timetable on stars planner soon. i took jap with an interest for the language, but i did badly. if possible, i think it is wiser for me to take mods which i have prior background knowledge in.

i like a few of the stickers on the floor at NACLI. the stickers are in the form of bubble quotes. my favourite quote is "are you doing what you believe in?". it always make me ponder upon it whenever i pass by the area.

i have to tell myself to keep on going.

2011-06-03T20:25:00.007+08:00

i am currently working at NACLI! =) i called my ex-agency last friday and they called me on monday to offer me an admin job at my ex-workplace. on tuesday, they called me to inform me on the confirmation of the job and i went to the agency at parklane mall to sign the document.

on wednesday, i reported for work at the business development office. it feels good to be able to work alongside my ex-colleagues. the familiarity of everything is simply an awesome feeling. i remembered most of the stuff. other than the same jobscope, same working location and same pay, the only difference is the working hours. i used to work 3 days a week, but now i work 5 days a week, which means that i am not free to go out on weekdays. luckily, i am only going to work for 2 months. =) oh, i have trouble waking up at 6.30 though, cause sleeping 6-7 hours is not enough! i miss my beauty sleep of 8-12 hours. =(

i rested for a few more days. my knee still aches and i really have difficulty telling if it has worsened or is slowly recovering, cause it feels the same to me. =( anyway, i reach home at about 7, which means that i cannot run after work, so i need to think of a plan.

2011-05-30T20:32:00.014+08:00

last friday, i watched pirates of the caribbean with my sis at westmall. i am thinking whether to watch kungfu panda 2 since i watched kungfu panda before, and it has been long since i watched an animated movie.

i have been thinking for the past few days and i realised today that i was foolish enough to have thought about such things. =X i thought about the past, the present, the future. i simply think too much and that is my bad habit. i shall just let nature take its course. =) i must have more confidence in myself too. =)

today, i played squash with elsa for 1 and a half hours. i had major muscle aches on my legs and arms, but after a few days of rest, the muscle aches have drastically lessen. however, i realised that my left knee, specifically the right side of my left knee, still aches. actually, when i woke up last monday morning, it was aching, but i chose to ignore it, thinking that it is not serious since muscle aches are common to me. i fear that it may be something serious. =/ if i really bend my left knee, for example, when i stand up and sit down, i can feel the ache. i should put it in observation for 1 more week.

2011-05-27T12:43:00.000+08:00

在夜深人静的时候
忧心忡忡的我
独自在房间里
开始想一些事

想着想着
越想越久
越想越深
越想越投入
在不知不觉中
眼泪一珠一株地往下流

有些事
我不敢明确地跟别人说
也只好把它隐藏在心中的某处
就有如心被装上了锁
若别人想解开它也很难
除非找到钥匙
或者等到恰当的时机
也许心中的锁会被解开
但也许永远也不会被解开

2011-05-26T22:31:00.007+08:00

yesterday, i went to elsa's house. we shared lunch, went to bukit panjang plaza to get the macs raspberry ice-cream, and explored the new petir park. she taught me how to play the titanic song, 'my heart will go on' on the piano. though the chords are easy, but my piano skills are rusty. =/ we played squash for 1 hour and she is a patient squash coach. =)

today, belle and i went to elsa's house. we played squash for 1 hour. after a bath, we went to plaza singapura for lunch and bought bubbletea at eskimo. elsa's milky tea contained 100% sugar while belle's super milky tea contained 50% sugar. i preferred 50% sugar cause 100% sugar was way too sweet for me. i have never tried koi and gong cha, yet i tried eskimo. rach came to watch us play pool for 2 hours at monstercue.

squash and pool are fun activities. what makes these activities more fun is that i get to play it with my friends. unlike running and swimming, whereby i do these activities alone. but i guess that is cause running and swimming are solo activities since squash and pool require a group of people to run the activities. anyway, be it alone or with friends, as long as i am exercising, i guess it does not matter. =)

2011-05-22T21:48:00.018+08:00

last wednesday, i met up with elsa, belle and elo. we played monopoly deal at the foodcourt before having brunch at fish and co. =) i borrowed more books at the library. besides tamora pierce, elsa introduced to me kristin cashore and robin mckinley.

last friday, i had cell dinner. we played taboo and saboteur. we had spagetti, potato salad, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate mousse and chocolate ice cream cake.

yesterday, i met up with my t30 class. we had dinner at fish and co and walked around suntec. as expected, more teasing as more people found out about comms ball. it was 8 against 1 cause the other 1 was not there to help me. he missed out on the fun and entertainment though. i had a good laugh at the funny and weird things that they said. =) now it seems even my mum tease me at home!

today, i had lunch with the bigkids at plaza singapura. we played monopoly deal at the dessert shop. eunice and i shared this mango and passionfruit ice-cream with some toppings around it.

the bad thing is that i ate too much this week. the good thing is that i met up with the different groups of friends. anyway, i am currently running my 5k and recently 7.5k routes near my house area. i am going to explore new routes perhaps. =)

2011-05-16T21:29:00.001+08:00

my sem 2 exams are officially over! history of general china paper was bad cause i could not remember many things. japanese language paper was okay, but i made some mistakes. literature of tang and song was okay, but a pity i did not manage to spot 1 person correctly. i think many also managed to spot 4 out of 5 people correctly. history of singapore and malaysiam chinese was okay. pre-qin thought was quite bad cause it was quite chim. oh well, i will enjoy my 2 and a half months break and worry about my gpa when the sem 2 exam results are out.

last saturday, i went to the new uniqlo outlet at causeway point. finally, a uniqlo outlet that is quite near my house, so i do not have to travel all the way to somerset to check out new arrivals. today, i went to the clementi library at the new clementi mall to borrow tamora pierce's books! =) i also packed my table and transferred all my notes to the drawer.

besides slacking at home and going out with friends, i plan to dedicate more time to running and run longer distances. =) if life gets too boring, maybe i will find a job.

2011-05-12T23:20:00.000+08:00

a fast update before i head back to study for my last paper. =) last last monday, i watched the short coverage of the royal wedding of prince william and kate middleton, now known as the duke and duchess of cambridge. the gown was so beautiful amd the wedding was so grand! i also want to sit on the carriage! it was a fairytale-like wedding indeed. =)

last saturday to sunday, i watched the general elections results from 9.30pm to 3am. i managed to stay up cause i was constantly checking updates on the temasek review via facebook, and watching the television programme whenever the returning officer, yam ah mee, appear on the tv screen with the results. as expected, wp won aljunied grc. it made history for being the first opposition party to win a grc. sadly, george yeo cannot be a cabinet minister. =( wp also won hougang smc again. pap managed to win back potong pasir smc from spp. anyway, this was the first time i was so interested in the general elections. i think the next general elections will be more happening and i hope to be able to vote in it. =)

i will talk about exams once all the papers are completed. i am looking forward to next monday!

2011-04-29T23:02:00.018+08:00

this is the first time that i am interested in the general elections. i think it is more exciting this year! i am informed about the latest news on the general elections mainly from hearing people talk about it in school and seeing their posts on facbook. i am too lazy to read the many pages of coverage daily in the newspaper. it seems that nicole seah is popular. it is also interesting to hear them talk more about the opposition parties than the pap.

jap listening was hard. the people in the recording spoke so fast, so it was hard to catch what they said at times. =/ the oral was easier, cause it was question-answer based, but i made a few mistakes.

no blogging for the next 2+ weeks! for this semester exams, i am more worried cause i have 4 chinese papers and 1 japanese paper, no english papers at all! hc205 general of china history on 7 may, hmj1 jap language level 1 on 9 may, hc203 literature of tang and song on 10 may, hc160 history of singapore and malaysian chinese on 12 may, hc230 pre-qin thought on 16 may. i am going to take a few risks, try to spot questions using the hints given and pray that i memorise the correct/important things.

2011-04-22T22:28:00.011+08:00

this week has been entertaining. =) my jc classmates held an exciting teasing session via fb. i expected something like that to happen when pictures from the comms ball surfaced on fb, but i did not expect it to turn out to be an epic topic for discussion. =) the comments were funny and provided a form of stress relief for me. it felt like a mini class gathering though it was conducted online. i thought it will die down after we graduated from jc, but it seems that it has not died down yet. oh well, for the sake of entertainment, i guess i do not mind. =) i used to be serious about it, but now i realised that the best way to deal with it, is to remain calm, play along and enjoy the fun. =) they think that we looked cute and nice together in the picture taken at the photo booth, and i got to admit that i think that was the best picture taken at the comms ball. =)

on a serious note, exams are around the corner, so it is time to enter the revision season! =/

jap oral and listening next week!

2011-04-17T22:01:00.003+08:00

last tuesday, elsa and i went to cathay for ben and jerry's free cone day! it is my second time attending this once in a year event. i tried this phish flavour which was chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and caramel. =)

yesterday, i attended a faocc commissioning ball at shangri la hotel orchard. the theme was sunrise sunset. thanks kenley for inviting me! =) thanks elsa and my mum for helping me. =) it was indeed fun. it was also a good time for me to relieve stress from my studies. we took photos with props at the photoshoot area. i liked the activities and entertainment. the food was great. initially, i was nervous, but after the introductions and talking to a few people, i began to soak in the atmosphere, relax and enjoy myself. =)

i do not know what is wrong with me, but i have been having bad/weird dreams lately. is it cause i often think about people/events in the day, that it ends up in my dreams at nite? i like to decode the hidden messages behind the dreams, cause i believe there may be a link between what i dreamt and what is happening in reality. i always wonder how do dreams even come about.

2011-04-08T23:55:00.009+08:00

yesterday, aud, sher, hui jun, eunice, josh, branden and i, met eleena for the long awaited gathering. i have not been in contact with her for 2-3 years and the first piece of news i heard from her, was that she is getting married at the end of the year!

after gathering advices from my close friends, i made my decision and i believe it is the best decision. =) when i say it is over, it is over. i am no longer in a clique in uni, so i have more time to interact with my coursemates. on one hand, i feel lonelier at times and i miss my close friends. on the other hand, i feel happier and more relaxed, cause i have the freedom to choose who i want to talk to, where i want to go to, what i want to do, when i am at sch. i have moved on, so i hope the others have truly moved on as well.

i treasure friendship and i know who my true friends are. i never had major friendship problems until i went to uni. after all that has happened, i have to be more observant now.

1 report and 1 op left!

when facing adversities, you need to face it, accept it, forget it.

2011-04-01T23:49:00.002+08:00

many events took place this week. i let my emotions got the better of me and made unwise statements. i apologise for causing unnecessary hurt to the concerned parties. i guess this was a life lesson for me, a trial that was placed in my life at uni, to make me stumble and realise some things. i also got to learn more about myself. i discovered more character weaknesses/flaws in me. what is said, is said. the harm that is caused, is caused. i will not deny the fact that i had a part in it all. sometimes, i do not know whether i am the root cause of it all, the victim of it all or both. from now on, i think i have to learn to be independent. i know i will never be alone.

my only regret was that i was not present at that very day, at that very time, at that very place. i could only rely on 1 side of the story and make decisions based on it. later on, the other side approached me and told me their side of the story. when i heard both sides of the stories, i found out that they were contradicting/conflicting. despite knowing so, i chose to ignore it and do what i deemed is right. now that i think about it, maybe the main problem lies with me after all.

2011-03-25T23:22:00.012+08:00

happy birthday to me! it has been an awesome week! thanks for the birthday wishes via sms, call, fb wall. thanks for the special birthday presents and cakes. =)

last sunday, elsa, belle, elo, von and rach celebrated my birthday. elsa and elo gave me a new nice haircut. belle gave me a 6.8% v/v pineapple cocktail drink which tasted bitter. =X i was not told of the % initially, so i was surprised to find out that it contained such a high %! it was my first time drinking an alcoholic drink and it was a horrible experience. von gave me a handmade birthday card. yesterday, bao qi, xin yan and yun yi celebrated my birthday. they gave me a collection of winnie the pooh items which consists of a file, a highlighter, a water bottle and a soft toy. today, hui min gave me a handmade birthday card. she shares the same birthday as me and we are of the same age. =)

today, i went to watch suckerpunch with my sis. i liked the graphics for the fighting scenes, but i dislike the ending.

2 more reports, 1 assignment and 1 op left!

2011-03-18T23:50:00.010+08:00

last saturday, i went to ntu open house with josh. i missed last year's open house, so i decided to tag along. we visited the booths at nanyang audi and sbs. we joined the campus and hall tour cause we wanted to visit the hall. hall 3 is the nicest hall i have visited! i showed him around ntu. we walked from north spine to south spine and back to north spine. i showed him the tut rooms and he also felt that the setting makes you feel like you are in a hospital. =) today, bao qi, xin yan and i went to party world ktv at civic centre for 4 hours of k-boxing. it was my first time k-boxing and the experience was great. =)

i realised that my writing is actually worse than i thought, and writing in chinese worsens the fact. =/ i know i do not have the talent in an arts course, in lit, in hist, in writing, but i tell myself to work hard. quote: "what i lose out in talent, i earn back by hard work". i have to put in my best effort in my studies and learn from my mistakes. i need to take small steps and slowly but surely make improvements. quote: "though the steps may be small, but still they are no doubt steps". thanks kenley for the 2 meaningful quotes! =)

recess week is almost coming to an end! =(

2011-03-11T23:56:00.007+08:00

this week was hectic! for hc203 mid-terms, 4 out of 5 qns were predictable. a pity i only had time to study the day before. i am now way behind revision. for this recess week, i will catch up on work and start working on the 3 reports. actually, it is a good thing to finish all the 4 ppts as early as possible cause it is always good to start the reports early. this recess week is my main source of motivation cause i know that i would have cleared all my chinese ppts by then. =)

i am thankful to my 4 different partners though they have different working styles. =) i have gained valuable experience and tips for ppts.
1) you have to check that the ppt slides have no chinese typo errors.
2) you must know how to read all the words for your points, especially if the same word has 2 meanings and hence different pronouciations.
3) you must understand your points. if you do not understand, you will not be able to present your points well.
4) even though you are presenting part of the ppt, you still need to know what the others are presenting, meaning you need to know the content of the entire ppt.
5) when the teacher or audience ask you qns, you need to "fight" for your points and ans the qns, so that marks will not be deducted.

2011-03-04T23:56:00.011+08:00

today, belle, elo, von, wei and i celebrated elsa's birthday in advance! we went to de coder's cafe which is a board game cafe at clementi. we played a few games, but the game that i liked most was this cool game which i forgot the name. =/ you roll the dice and you get to either speak/draw/charade. you pick up an emotion card and decide whether to draw/charade. if you do not want to do either of the actions, you pick up a card with words. the way you say the words needs to express the required emotion. the difficulty is in when the true expression of the words contradict the required emotion. the "hot" emotions were flirtatious, infatuated and sleazy. =) after the birthday song was played, the staff presented us with the birthday cake for elsa. i bought elsa a book, legacies by mercedes lackey and rosemary edghill. =)

the stressful-ness and tiring-ness of uni life makes me miss my old sec sch days. back then, it was more carefree. i also miss my jc days, though i will definitely not want to go through a levels again. i find it harder to maintain my cheerful mood when i am tired.

hc203 midterms, hc203 ppt and hc160 ppt on wed, hc230 ppt on fri!

2011-02-25T23:41:00.003+08:00

on tuesday, my dad and i collected our new passports. coincidentally, our expiry dates for our old passports are about 1 week apart, so we applied for new passports together. =)

i was thinking whether i should blog about this cause it has been on my mind since the start of the week. after hearing nicole's story, i decided to blog about it. i can understand her phlight. we were shocked to find that gossipy/b****y/backstabbers exist in uni. we had no problems in pri sch, sec sch, jc. it was only when something happened and we got to see the true colours, that we were re-assured that our decision to change cliques became more justified.

my purpose of blogging this is not to target anyone. if you think that i am targeting you, it means you are guilty and i have nothing to say. i try my best to stop people from gossiping/b****ing/talking behind people's back. if they do not wish to listen, i also have nothing to say. i know it is human nature to gossip, but there is a limit to it and one must know the limit. i am just expressing my viewpoint on this issue cause sometimes, i really cannot take it, yet i hide my true feelings.

2 more weeks to recess week! i am feeling so tired by working on ppts.

2011-02-18T23:36:00.011+08:00

last saturday, bao qi, meng how and i went to xin yan's house. we played monopoly deal, blackjack and uno. each of us took turns to be the banker. i got to play blackjack with real money for once! we placed small bets like 10, 20 cents. i had a nice homecooked dinner prepared by her mum. =) last tuesday, xin yan, yun yi, meng how and i went to bao qi's house. we had steamboat for dinner. in conjunction with valentine's day, we had our gift exchange which was based on drawing lots. the gift i prepared that represented me was a blue winnie the pooh memo pad and a bottle with a letter inside it. i received meng how's gift which was a《玉女心经》notebook and a cute pink rabbit black pen. there were 2 poems in the notebook,《硕情之燕》and《插骚包》, along wth a message. =)

i know who visits my blog. i also know that by putting my blog link on my facebook profile page means that there are friends out there who visit my blog without my knowledge. i will only know who these friends are when they quote stuff from my blog entries. i am happy if they read cause they want to find out about my life. however, i think it is scary if they read cause they want to "stalk" me. =)

hc205 ppt on monday!

2011-02-11T23:58:00.011+08:00

today, i went to watch the movie, black swan with my sis at westmall. i used my jc ezlink card and uni ezlink care to get 2 tickets at student prize, without my sis around. that was not the first time i did it, but it was more risky cause the movie was m18. =) the show was scary, but natalie portman did a great job as swan queen.

i guess i was living in my own world all along, oblivious to what was happening or where things were headed to. after the story, i think i have heard too many things, that i start to have mixed feelings about everything. i find it harder to trust people now. however, i am still going to treat everyone nicely. i think i will be happier this way if i do not think too much.

things to do before recess week: hc160 presentation, hc203 presentation, hc205 presentation, hc230 presentation, hc203 mid-terms, jap work , hw111c assignment 1. you can say i just killed myself with 4 presentations. worst is: 9 march - hc203 midterms + hc203 presentation + hc160 presentation, 10 march - hw111c assignment 1, 11 march - hc230 presentation. =/ time for proper time management!

i learnt about the not-so-nice side of the world...

2011-02-06T23:28:00.015+08:00

i had an awesome 4 days of cny visitings/meetups. =)

on wednesday, i had reunion dinner at my maternal grandma's house. on thursday, i had lunch at my maternal grandma's house. on friday, i had lunch at my paternal grandpa's house and visited their neighbour. yesterday, i had lunch at gideon's house with my church friends. we played the cranium board game which was fun and monopoly deal. today, i met up with my jc classmates and stc clique. i had lunch and dinner at bugis's nando. my jc classmates held a farewell lunch for nicole and joshua bought the class gift for her. elsa, elo, belle, ona and i played monopoly deal at macs after dinner.

i shared the story of my uni life to my clique. i received useful comments and advices. i was actually partially at fault too, for being too nice, too innocent, too blur, too stupid, but i get to learn about the truth now. the truth to me, is what i perceive as the truth and what i observe based on what others tell me. anyway, the story is not something pleasant that i would like to talk about. if you want to know the story, you can ask me personally.

i can only pray that things will proceed smoothly from now on...

2011-02-02T23:38:00.017+08:00

today, i sat with bao qi, xin yan and meng how for the first time during lect. i was initially scared to attend lect, but i was reminded that i was not at fault. we are the victims, yet they made themselves looked like they are the victims instead, by saying childish stuff. enough is enough. the matter only involves the 6 of us, so do not bring in other parties. if another confrontation is what they are looking/asking for, bring it on and make sure that i am included this time. i dare them to say what they post on their facebook, twitter and smses in my face. we want a closure to this matter. even if they are not tired, we are tired. can they just give us a break? i really want to let the matter rest and get on with uni life.

though we know clearly that they do not seem willing to let us off for now, but as long as we have a clear conscience, i know that nothing they say will be true. the matter has shown me who my true friends are. i am glad our friendship has became stronger due to that matter. we will continue to enjoy our awesome friendship cause nothing can break that bond. the days are long and i am hoping that there will be better days ahead. =)

new beginnings, be brave, let go, move on...

2011-02-01T12:36:00.022+08:00

i had a cold last friday. it maybe partly due to the relatively cold rainy season. i recovered from it on sunday after taking tablets. i like to delay medication cause i firmly believe that my body will be able to fight all illnesses. but for the sake of studies, i cannot afford to do so, or rather i cannot afford to fall sick. =)

history repeats itself yesterday and i was more hurt than before. my limit and tolerance have been reached. they have crossed the line. i am out of there and will be joining the other group. that is the place i truly belong and i know i will be happier there. i cannot believe that i trusted them. i sensed something was wrong yesterday and my suspicions proved me rite. i am the main character no. 2 and did not expect them to confront the main character no. 1. i knew that we would be at the centre of discussion as usual. if they want to talk it out, they should have included me in it. i am glad he stood up for me and said the rite things. if i was present at that time, i might have been at a loss of words and cried. i felt like i was backstabbed and wronged. they owe us an apology, but we are not expecting it. luckily, i still have my knight and guardian angels who will always be there to protect and help me. thanks. =) i learnt it the hard way and it is a blessing in disguise. i have to be more careful and firm. =)

2011-01-28T23:56:00.008+08:00

i spent many hours camping for hc160 from monday to thursday. i went to appeal on wednesday and got it on thursday! they added it for me without notifying me. luckily, i went to check stars. i managed to change 1 tut timeslot from tuesday to wednesday, so i officially have a 4-day week this sem.

i am taking 6 mods, but it is more demanding this time. sem 2 vs sem 1:
1. 4 chinese mods vs 3 chinese mods.
2. 2 lit, 1 ling vs 1 lit, 2 hist, 1 thought.
3. jap (minimal knowledge) vs genes r us (a lvl bio) & hr (big hints)
i got to spend more time studying for this sem!

the mods that i am taking this sem are hc160 (history of singapore and malaysian chinese - mpe), hc203 (literature of tang and song - core), hc205 (general history of china - core, predict this is going to be the toughest mod), hc230 (pre-qin thought - mpe, hope it is not too chim), hmj1 (japanese language level 1 - ue) and hw111c (mastering communication - gerpe core, non-examinable).

i hope i made the right choices! i intend to keep these 6 mods!

2011-01-23T23:04:00.008+08:00

xin yan asked me to post something similar to her blog entry, with the theme: knowing me. i have decided to reveal 10 things that you may not know about me. =)

1. likes to reflect and think about life.
2. nags at people out of habit.
3. likes to daydream.
4. appears happy smiley cheerful sometimes to mask my true feelings, eg. anxiety/worry/sadness. commonly used: before tests/exams.
5. "stalks" people on facebook and blogs.
6. does skipping sometimes, hoping that one day i can hit 1.7m.
7. likes to rub blueblack cause of the pain.
8. monopoly deal card game and bridge are my greatest addictions.
9. still watches pokemon cause it is the only on-going cartoon showing on tv.
10. keeps all letters and cards that i have received since sec 1.

chinese new year is in 2 weeks' time! my mum bought chinese new year goodies. i just bought new clothes and shoes. =)

sem 2 officially starts tomorrow! time to get down to serious business!

2011-01-21T23:45:00.021+08:00

i realised that my gpa is actually not good enough. belle reminded me that non-academic stuff are important too. maybe one day, i would take part in non-academic stuff. i need to be more disciplined. no more last minute studying. i spent much time studying for human resource management and got an A-. in contrast, i took the risk of studying on the day itself for genes r us and got a B+. however, it is a good sacrifice cause i am satisfied with my 3 chinese cores. i got Bs for the 2 literature modules and a B- for the lingustic module. however, i know that is not enough. i need to do better. i will continue to jia you. =)

i need to try my luck at getting good electives for next sem during the add drop period. so far, i have a japanese ue and a random science gerpe. i want to drop the random science gerpe and hope to get another chinese pe. i need to change the tut timeslots. it is camping time next week!

today, my ex-cell went to dawn's 21st birthday party. it was held at a condo's function room at kovan. the theme was back to childhood. =) we got her a bag for her birthday present.

2011-01-18T22:36:00.000+08:00

在凌晨十二点钟
cinderella 面对了现实

stepmother 和 stepsisters
是她心中的恶魔
但已被打倒了

fairy godmother
是她的朋友
给予她帮助

prince
是她的目标
是她勇往直前的根源

glass slipper
是她的希望
让她相信最终
自己能得到
有如童话般
圆满的结局

2011-01-18T22:17:00.000+08:00

on saturday, i went to the polyclinic in the morning. i had sore thoat, so i was given lozenges and gargle. i went to cut my hair at qb house express in the afternoon. it was my first time trying out their service and it was quite good. =)

yesterday, i met up with bao qi and xin yan at yishun northpoint. we had lunch at mayim. i ordered my fav barley and mashed carrot congee. i simply love carrot porridge! =) we played monopoly deal card game at macs. i taught xin yan how to play and refreshed bao qi's memory of the game.

today at 12am, the exam results for sem 1 were released! i only knew that it would be released at that time from my friends. it was a really weird timing to release the exam results! what if i was too sad with my results that i could not sleep? just like others, i wanted to know my results as early as possible even if i was scared of knowing. =) luckily, i was okay with my results. to me, sem 1 results are proof that i can do it! everything worked out better than i expected. =)

i hope i get good modules during add drop period next week!

2011-01-14T20:24:00.008+08:00

on monday, i had lunch with eunice at nus fos canteen. she brought me around fos and the central library. in the evening, we went for gideon's surprise birthday party at church. we had pizza again! i like the mo qi game that shereen planned for gideon. i also like the video that shereen made.

yesterday, i had lunch with elsa and von at nus fass canteen. elsa brought me around fass. nus is a lot bigger than ntu! there are places left unexplored, so i want to go back there in the future. =)

today, i had lunch with ona at np canteen. i found out that sim and np are linked! she brought me around sim. sim looks so new. there are tv monitors that show the venues and timings for the lectures.

i watched magical girl lyrical nanoha strikerS and mai hime. i like to watch magical girl genre animes. =)

last week of holidays!

2011-01-09T23:00:00.008+08:00

i now own 3 pair of specs and each specs has its own purpose of existence in my life! my first specs, the frame specs, is for homewear. my second specs, the half frame/frameless specs, serves as spare specs. my third and new specs, the frameless specs, is for general outside wear. my mum encouraged me to try frameless specs. i am still not used to wearing frameless specs. i hope to get used to it by the end of holidays, so that my eyes would not feel tired when i wear it to school.

i met up with belle and elo at westmall yesterday. belle and i played the romance of the 3 kingdom game and the basketball game at the arcade while waiting for elo. after lunch, we played monopoly deal card game. i am addicted to the game. i bring the cards along with me whenever i know that there is a chance i can play with my friends. =) comparing it with bridge, monopoly deal can be played between 2 to 6 players, whereas bridge needs 4 players. actually, both are fun in their own ways. monopoly deal is fun cause each move has its own outcome and you get to be mean to your friends. bridge is fun cause you try to figure out who is your partner. both are intellectual games that require thinking. =)

2011-01-07T16:53:00.009+08:00

在人生的道路上
不是每一件事
都能如你所愿

别人拿到我想要的科目
但我却拿不到
心里有点难过

在人生的道路上
不是每一件事
都是公平的

一年级的我们
在选科目时
排名最后

我能拿到我想要的科目吗？
我好想拿到别的选修科目

但即使拿不到
也没关系吧？

2011-01-07T16:35:00.001+08:00

i stayed at home most of the time this week. i finished packing my room. i cleared my drawers, abandoned most of my o lvl stuff and some of my a lvl stuff, so that there will be enough space for 4 years worth of notes.

i spent some time planning for the courses to take for sem 2, but in the end, all the planning was useless. i did not get any of the major pe ( major prescribed electives), so i added 1 pe which i did not really want to take. apparently, 3 of my coursemates chose that same pe too. i am going to look out for the pes that i wanted during the add/drop period. i hope i get the gerpe stc and ue (unrestricted electives) that i placed under the waiting list. i highly suspect that my internet speed is slower than others, which is why i did not manage to get those pes fast enough! =X

dream high, a k-drama with an idol cast, started showing at korea this week. =) i also watched detective conan animated movies. i am bored staying at home, so i am looking forward to going out in the following 2 weeks.

you cannot always get what you want... =(

2011-01-03T00:05:00.008+08:00

time for me to reflect on year 2010!

i had my fair share of ups and downs.

i spent 7 months doing admin work at nacli. i immersed myself in the culture of an office environment. i am lucky to have caring colleagues who guided me in my work and shed light on the working world. i did paperwork, filing, preparation of letters, handling of emails, handling phonecalls etc. it was an enriching first job experience. =)

i spent about 3 and a half months at ntu. it took me quite a while to adjust to the whole uni system, which is a far cry from the jc system. many knew that chinese was not my first choice, so i was trying my luck by taking this course. it did not work out well initially and i was struggling. fortunately, i have good uni friends who helped me, encouraged me and supported me. i am almost sure that i made the right choice to accept the course back then. i am praying for results that will make me want to stay on.

i commit everything into your hands... year 2011, here i come!

2011-01-02T19:45:00.003+08:00

bao qi 和 xin yan
曾告诉我
爱情终究会来的

爱情有如德士车
需要点缘分

到了德士车站
可能有德士车在等你
可能等了半天
都没有德士车
看到眼前有德士车
可以选择去追它
也可以选择让它离去

对的人
并不容易遇上

但我坚决地相信
总有一天
我能遇上他

2011-01-02T19:15:00.006+08:00

i spent the 1st day of the new year with my sec sch clique! elsa, belle, elo, von, wei, ona and i were supposed to have a bbq party at belle's aunt's house, but the rain foiled our plans. we went to belle's house and the food meant to be bbq-ed became homecooked food. after dinner, we had our annual random gift exchange. i was lucky to get belle's gift. her gift is really cool and her secret note is beautifully written. i love the rainbow and cloud metaphors. =) we played monopoly deal and pictionary. i bought the monopoly deal and elo bought the pictionary. we had so much fun playing pictionary cause it requires skills like speed and the ability to think randomly! =)

i spent the 2nd day of the new year with the big kids cell! i am officially no longer in their cell anymore, which is a sad thing. anyway, we played monopoly deal and pictureka. pictureka is another fun game. it seems that card games are gaining popularity!

my friends told me that since i own this blog, i have the rights to choose whether i want to blog in english or chinese. i have decided to stick to my current blog and blog in english/chinese whenever i feel like doing so. it is hard to manage 2 blogs afterall. thanks for the reminders and support, friends!

2011-01-01T12:12:00.002+08:00

happy new year to all! i had an awesome trip with my family and a good tour guide! we went to taipei, gao xiong and hua lian.

i started the day with new year cleaning! i abandoned my old clothes and shoes, in order to make space for new ones that i bought from taiwan. i bought new accessories from taiwan too. time to dress up a little for school. =) the stuff at taiwan are nicer and cheaper than those at hong kong. i want to go back there again! not during winter, but summer or spring!

taiwan trip details:

day 1
- took the high speed railway train and mrt train.
- went to xi men ding nite market.

day 2
- went to ye liu geopark to see the natural rock formations.
- went to hotspring.
- went to feng jia nite market.
- had dinner at the cool 5 cent driftwood house.

day 3
- went to sun moon lake.
- went to 85 building and saw the view from the 74th floor.
- went to dream mall.
- took the boat at love river.
- went to new chueh chiang nite market.

day 4
- went to mei non hakka village.
- saw a performance at the ami aboriginal village.

day 5
- went to taroko gorge.
- went to dan shui old street.
- went to qing ren qiao. (couple bridge)
- went to shi lin nite market.

day 6
- went to national palace musem.
- went to wu fen bu nite market.

day 7
- free and easy.
- went to bookstore near 101 shopping mall.

3 more weeks of break. i am going to meet up with certain groups of people! =) i also need to plan my modules for next sem this week.

my new year wishes are to be more confident in myself and continue to keep the faith. =)

2010-12-24T23:46:00.001+08:00

last wednesday, i went to my maternal grandma's house to make tang yuan! it is an annual tradition for my sis and i as we enjoy making tang yuan. =) this year, we used orange and brown sugar for the fillings. the soup was sweet as ever.

i started packing my table. i dunnoe where to keep my notes! i have 6 stacks of notes! i think i am going to have to clear my jc stuff in my drawers, in order to make space for 4 years worth of notes!

i realised the need to improve my chinese writting skills. should i create another blog such that this blog is solely for english entries and the new blog is solely for chinese entries? or should i stick to my current blog and type in english or chinese whenever i want? i shall take time to think about this. meanwhile, i shall gather opinions from my friends.

anyway, i am going to taiwan with my family from 25 to 31 dec! this will be the first time i am going overseas during the christmas season. =)

2010-12-22T22:39:00.000+08:00

exams are finally over! it has been a really stressful 2 and a half weeks of serious studying! i should have started earlier though. =/

1. hp805
the 4 chapters that the lecturer "hinted" did really came out!

2. hc102
it was really difficult! i cried after the paper cause i knew i made many mistakes. it was my 1st time crying after a paper! =( i have this bad feeling that i would fail this module, but i pray that i would at least get a pass for it.

3. bs801
i only studied on the day of the exam. my jc bio knowledge did came in handy, but some info can only be found from the notes. it could have been better if i had studied earlier. =)

4. hc101
the texts that came out were pretty predictable.

5. hc201
it was better than i expected it to be! i was so scared the night before cause i could not finish studying it! i studied almost of all qu's part. i only studied pu's part on the day of the exam! in the end, i wrote crap for pu's part which was worth 30%! but at least i knew how to more or less do qu's part which was worth 70%!

i have to thank my awesome og uni friends for the encouragements, help and luck that they have given me for this sem! also, all the other friends who cheered me on during exams. i really hope the bellcurve works wonders to my grades. though i only wish for a pass for all the modules, but i do secretly wish for decent grades. =)

1 month of holidays!

2010-12-10T23:59:00.010+08:00

today, i went to watch narnia: the voyage of the dawn treader with my sis at westmall. i simply love narnia movies, cause the genre is adventure! i feel like escaping to narnia and not sit for the exams!

typical things to do on a weekday now that i am at home most of the time: studying in my room, having meals in the living room, snacking, reading newspaper, running, facebooking, watching youtube videos.

chinese lit is actually interesting, but there is just so much memory work! =/ memorising chinese words, lit to be specific, is hard, but i am not going to give up (studying) without a fight (exams)! my uni friends and i are in this together since it is our first major uni exams. they are encouraging yet stressed at the same time. i am cramping too many info into my brain. =X i know i got to stop thinking so much and just focus what is at hand.

i am going to stop blogging till exams are over aka not blogging next week. i have reduced my time online and will continue to do so till the end of exams. my exams are from 16 to 22 dec. 16, 18, 20, 21, 22 dec, 5 papers within a week!

2010-12-03T20:31:00.019+08:00

this was the last week of the sem. next week is study week. the following 2 weeks are exams! it has been 3 months since the sem started. reflecting on this sem, i think i slacked a lot, studying only when there were tests or mid-term exam, spending most of the time doing assignments.

i realised that there is a lot of content to cover for all the modules. from the most to the least things to study: hc201 literature of pre-qin, han, wei and jin dynasty, hc102 introduction to chinese language, hc101 introduction to chinese literature, hp805 introduction to human resource management, bs801 genes r us. i am going to spend more time studying for my chinese core modules than my electives.

cherilyn, desiree, hui xin, hui min and i played monopoly deal during our breaks on tuesday! it is a really fun game! =)

meng how, peikee and xin yan are feeling unwell now. i hope they would get well soon!

shall stop leaving in the shadow of my past, shall not betray your trust, shall keep to our promise, lets jia you for our exams

2010-11-26T20:01:00.010+08:00

last saturday, some of my chinese og mates went to support hui xin, our fellow og mate, in her dance recital! she is part of the celine jessandra crew. i heard familiar k-pop songs. we cheered for hui xin and brought lightsticks, so that she could spot us from the stage. =) before the recital, i met hui min, cherilyn, desiree, peikee and xin yan for dinner at clementi. i tried the new okonomiyaki burger at mos burger. =) we went to singapore polytechnic convention centre for the recital. i picked meng how up from dover mrt station. the recital was 3 hours along. i bonded with my fellow og mates. our first og outing was a success! =)

last friday, my sis helped me to buy vampire knight #12 cause kino had a storewide 20% discount. i am only going to read it after the exams. today, i went to watch harry potter and the deathly hallows part 1 with her at westmall. it was a dark, scary and nice movie. i am looking forward to part 2!

hc102 test 2 was hard and i made many small mistakes. =X sigh. hc101 assignment (30%) is due next mon. i have to analyse a text and write an essay on it with 2000 words being the limit.

2010-11-19T23:59:00.016+08:00

after talking to my close friends and my mum, sharing with them what my uni friends thought of me, i realised that all along, they know those characteristics. they did not really directly tell me or talk to me about it, cause maybe they do not see it as a major problem yet. now i know. i dunnoe whether i should change. i guess for now, i shall just stick to it and slowly make minor changes.

for hp805 ca2, i got a higher mark than ca1. i only studied for it the day before! this time, we wrote our answers on a piece of paper and our lecturer went through them.

hc102 test 2 (5%) is on next wed. hw101c essay 3 (35%) is due next wed. i need to write on an experience or event that i went through and relate that to helping me understand a concept, approach or theme in my discipline. my discipline is chinese and i learn stuff in chinese, meaning we got to translate what we learn from chinese and explain the theory in english? =/

my friend reminded me that we are nearing the end of this sem, which means the year-end exams are approaching! =(

2010-11-12T23:58:00.014+08:00

on monday, i went to tiong bahru plaza. big kids cell celebrated branden and eunice birthday at eighteen cafe. i love their mix and match style. it is my second time having cheese baked rice with japanese curry and sausages. =) on tue, for the first time, i dropped a jar. for the first time, i had to clean up the mess. for that day, i had no kaya bread for breakfast and lunch. =(

my teacher spoke to me. i thought i did really bad for the hc201 mid-term exam. he said that i did all right, though the definition of "all right" for a teacher and a student differs. i got back my hc102 test results and i expected the grade.

my uni friends think i am living in my la la land. they think that my thinking is too pure and innocent for this world. they want me to get out of my la la land and see more of the real world. =)

i just read online that s/mileage challenges snsd!? =O they are both my fav idol groups!

hc102 assignment (15%) is due next mon. hp805 ca2 (20%) is on next tues. i heard it is going to be tougher than ca1. =/

2010-11-04T21:04:00.010+08:00

nov is going to be a busy month. many assignments and tests. =/

lately, i have been hearing my coursemate talking about her poly friends during girls talk sessions. girl talk sessions are before lects and during lunch breaks. her friends' stories put guys in the bad light. not that i am saying that girls are not at fault, but it is usually the guys who initiate stuff. new terms surfaced which i cannot remember, or rather, they are too scary to remember. i know it is stereotypical cause there are good guys and normal girls in my social circle. i just feel sad for those girls' plight. i told them that it will never happen to me and she told me that love is blind. she asked this question, "is this adult life?". i guess so. we are young adults after all, so we do hear and encounter more complicated stuff. i still feel that i am a child though. or maybe i am just not as knowledgable as others. =)

hc101 assignment 2 (10%) is due next mon. the question was released today. we have to analyse a pop song and a modern poem, and write an essay with 600-800 chinese characters as the word limit. this is harder than assignment 1. but the horror is yet to come. the answer lies in the final big assignment.

2010-10-29T23:54:00.014+08:00

i received my hp805 ca1 mark and it was bad, considering that my score was below the median/average. =( hc102 test 1 was not easy. sigh. i guess i got to just do better next time! hw101c essay 2 (30%) pair work is due next wed.

something weird happened yesterday. the parties involved are my coursemates and i. it was actually some sort of a childish thing between 2 main parties. it started and ended within a day! i am kinda disturbed. the power of jokes cannot be undermined. from how i saw it, the jokes seemed to be taken seriously. anyway, they told me that everything is resolved. so now, everything seems fine, but there maybe more than meets the eye. maybe, i am just thinking too much. there are just many interpretations to it. everything is too early to tell, considering that uni life started just 2 months ago. maybe, i am imagining things. everything just happened so suddenly that it caught me by surprise! i think i was just an implicated party. =)

i love snsd's new mv, hoot! =) i liked this week actually. =) it felt like many things had happened. happy things. sad things. confusing things. it was an interesting week indeed.

2010-10-22T23:53:00.013+08:00

i met elsa for lunch at subway yesterday. she had a 3 hour break. elsa, cheer up and press on. =) i had my hc201 mid-term exam today. i was stunned at some of the questions. well, i shall take this as a learning experience. at least i know what they are looking for now and i need to change my studying technique for chinese literature.

i met joshua at bugis junction after my exam. he went to the ocbc bank to talk to his ex-colleagues. our route: bugis junction-suntec city-marina bay sands-suntec city-promenade-esplanade-raffles place-cityhall mrt station. it was a great talking session and not to mention, walking exercise. while walking on the double helix bridge, joshua asked why there were at and gc on the bridge. suddenly, the thought of at and gc, linking to bio, came to my mind. that was when we realised that we were on the double helix bridge. dna is a double helix. =) we walked past high class stores at marina bay sands. i saw the high class hotel and had a peak at the casino. i visited many new places in 1 day! thanks for being my tour guide. =)

recess week is over! hc102 test 1 (5%) is on next wed. i read this somewhere. while we like to have all "good" days, emotional "rain" can also helps flowers to grow.

2010-10-15T23:54:00.011+08:00

2 of my friends are each experiencing the loss of a loved one. i pray that they will be strong during this period. btw, i chose the topic on death and wrote about my grandma for my hw101c essay. it has been 1 year, 1 month and 1 week. last tuesday, i met kenneth after my hp805 lect. we went to swensens at holland village. i learnt that swensens has student offer. 2 sundaes for $9.90 only! =)

i am glad to have great friends in my course. some of them introduce me to k-pop, while another impersonates my lecturers' mannerisms and way of speaking. we also have breakfast, lunch and dinner on certain days. they also encourage and stress me.

it is finally recess week! a time for revision. but firstly, i need to study for hc201 mid-term exam (30%) which is conveniently held next fri. sigh. =( why make us go back to school during our recess week? well, at least we get a 1 week "break". i am going to "immerse" myself in chinese. sometimes, i feel tired and busy to think about anything else other than studies. maybe it is a good thing. i shall focus on leading a normal uni life. anything else can come later.

2010-10-08T23:56:00.010+08:00

i had my first ever uni exam. i think the lecturer purposely repeat a question. so for the same 2 questions, i put false and true. hw101c essay 1 (20%) is due next mon and hc201 presentation (20%) is next tues.

i have nothing much to type in this blogpost, so i shall tell you the story of a girl.

she does not have a best friend, but she has close friends. she secretly hopes that they can randomly message, call or even msn her. she needs constant encouragement. chinese literature is really hard. english literature at seconday school is already tough. taking literature in chinese just make her dislike literature even more. she does not even know if she is in the right course. how she wish she could turn back time and do slightly better for her a levels. her friends think that she is going to be a chinese teacher. on the surface, she smiles. beneath the surface, she sighs. what appears on the outside may not be what it seems on the inside. she hides her true emotions. she pretends that everything is all right when it may not be so. she nees to be more positive.

2010-10-01T23:59:00.015+08:00

last sunday, big kids cell helped out at the children's day event which is held at g2. we were involved in the event as stage helpers for the games. last monday, elsa, belle, von, rach, ona and i celebrated elo's birthday at imm. we ate at fish and co, took polariods and "surprised" elo with the mango chocolate cake that belle bought from jurong point. last friday, belle, von and i went to ikea to shop for elo's present. we wanted to get her a bean bag, but ikea doesn't have bean bags! we got her a white table lamp which von brought home to decorate, and the film lookalike thing which belle brought home to slot in our clique photos. elo, i hope to see those 2 things somewhere in your new house when we go visiting next year!

hc101 assignment 1 (10%) due this monday when the question was only released yesterday?! we are supposed to do an analysis on the literary text and the limit is 500 chinese characters. hc201 presentation (20%) with my partner is in 2 weeks' time, but we need to prepare the ppt slides by the end of next week. this means that i have to do my research this weekend. hp805 (introduction to human resource management) (20%) ca1 is this tuesday. the lecturer only informed us of the change of ca timing last tuesday. though the format is true/false, but it is still important and there are 4 chapters.

i am starting to feel the stress with the upcoming graded assignments, presentation, ca and exam. i am also way behind my readings. =O

2010-09-24T23:57:00.008+08:00

there is nothing much for me to blog about, except about my uni life. i like hc101 (introduction to chinese literature and culture)and hc102 (introduction to chinese language) lectures. hc201 (literature of pre-qin, han, wei and jin) lecture is quite scary. many, if not all, fear the male lecturer cause he randomly calls people from the list of names to recite poems. i was unlucky to be called to read something cause i was the person sitted at the end of the forth row. it was embarrassing cause i was stuck for quite a while at a word and he asked if it was an unfamiliar word. =/ the female lecturer is too nice in my opinion. i think i need to memorise poems or know how to read them fluently aka write the han yu pin ying for hard words.

being surrounded by my coursemates who are k-pop fans, i think i am being influenced by them. i like listening to snsd, miss a and boa songs. i don't think i will have time to listen to the korean boy band songs cause there are far too many of them.

joke of the week: the lecturer for bs801 (genes r us) used you tiao to represent chromatids on the topic of mitosis. he used it to show the pmat stages.

2010-09-17T23:47:00.007+08:00

tutorial assignments are pouring in. some are more important tuts as the marks affect the grades, while some are more of a pre-tut work that is to be discussed during tuts. i am glad to have coursemates who converse in english rather than chinese. =) i am thinking of blogging in chinese? it is just a consideration. typing in chinese would definitely slow down my normal typing speed, so i think i would stick to blogging in english.

google translation and chinese dictionary are useful tools for my tuts. they are my non-human friends. =) during the craft of writing lect, the lecturer put up the following slides in relation to the point on punctuation. a teacher told the class to put punctuation marks for the sentence below. woman without her man is nothing. males: woman, without her man, is nothing. females: woman! without her, man is nothing.

i am starting to develope an interest in chinese. everything seems interesting to me cause everything is new to me. the best part is that i no longer sleep during lects and tuts! =) i check the ntu email account as well as the ntu portal for lect and tut notes daily. that gives me the "valid" reason to use the computer daily. =)

2010-09-13T22:13:00.006+08:00

last week was the first official week of school. i have 3 pre-registered chinese core courses. introduction to chinese literature and culture, introduction to chinese language and literature of pre-qin, han, wei and jin. many new terms to know. my literature in english is already bad, so i hope i can do literature in chinese. =X chinese lingustics is really hard. =X i thought there were less than 100 people in my course, but it turns out that there are about 150 people. with no chinese literature/higher chinese background, almost everything is new to me. i am not sure if i can do well, but i will try. sigh. to be honest, i do not even know whether i can make it through. =/ i should be able to do fine for my electives.

last wednesday, big kids cell held a birthday party for florence, hui jun and joshua. we had canadian pizza, apple crumb cake, salad and birthday cake. after that, there was the usual birthday presents presentation.

i have a new laserjet printer now cause my old printer ceased to function properly. though the printing speed is faster, but i still have to feed the paper manually cause there is no duplex function and i prefer my notes to be printed double-sided.

2010-09-04T22:09:00.003+08:00

on thursday, i went for the ntu freshmen orientation ceremony. i received many miscellaneous stuff, such as ntu jacket, notebooks, campus guidebook etc. i was with my og mates the entire day. i tried out the food at the hss canteen. it was nice and cheap, actually about the same price as jc. =) my timetable is finalised, with a few swopping of tutorial slots to make it look better.

yesterday, i met up with chang yong. we had lunch at popeyes at the singapore flyer. we tried out the taiko drum game and played bishibashi at the arcade at suntec city. we also went to watch 'grown ups' which was a comedy movie.

this week marked the transition from working life to back-to-school life, as well as from jc life to uni life. i miss the jc days, slacking days and working days. i was shocked to see people leaving the lecture theatres as and when they like, with some never coming back during lectures. there were others who constantly sms, msn, facebook and talking. so many distractions. well, i would just have to get used to it. i need to familarise with the ntu surroundings, especially the many lecture theatres and tutorial rooms. i have to cast aside my fear of chinese being difficult to study.

2010-09-01T23:07:00.009+08:00

on sunday, i went for the chinese orientation. the orientation title was school of magic and the groups were named after harry potter stuff eg. firebolt (my group), invisible cloak, sorting hat, dobby etc. i made friends and enjoyed the orientation. i found someone who is of the same age as me and have the same birthday as me through 1 of the games. =)

monday was the last day of my work! my colleagues treated me to a farewell lunch at earle's swensen. nice salad, nice ice-cream, nice food, nice company. i gave farewell gifts to them. now, i miss them and my work.

after camping for 3 and a half hours at stars planner, i managed to get my electives under general education requirements (ger) - prescribed electives (pe). gerpe component requires us to take 1 arts, humanities and social sciences (ahss) course, 3 science, technology and society (stc) course and 1 business and management (bm) course. i am taking introduction to human resource management (ahss) and genes r us (stc). introduction to human resource management is dry, but easy to follow. genes r us is similar to taking bio all over again.

2010-08-27T23:37:00.010+08:00

last sunday, elo and i went to nus ucc theatre for abigail sin's solo piano recital titled "amazing grace". it was my first time watching a piano recital. she is so talented at such a young age. =) since the youth tickets were sold at a buy 1 get 1 free rate, we invited von. i saw joel and hong taa there. elsa was too busy doing backstage that she only had a few minutes to talk to us.

i caught more yog action this week, in particular, boxing. boxing is not as violent as i thought it would be. =) i saw 3 matches. the first match ended with a disqualification, the second match ended with a walk-over and the last match was exciting.

i am using my mum's cpf for my school fees. matriculation started last tuesday at 10am. i waited 2 hours for my turn to matriculate online cause the server was busy. =( i received my timetable for 4 pre-registered courses, with 3 from the major core (compulsory) subjects and 1 from the general education requirments-core. i have to register for 1 or 2 more major prescribed elective courses. there are so many electives that i do not know which to choose. =X

2010-08-20T22:49:00.011+08:00

it has been raining throughout the week. i caught the yog swimming action every evening. =) i also managed to catch 1 taekwondo match. i received an email from hss, division of chinese regarding the hss freshmen welcome day. i counted the email addresses and concluded that there are 97 people including me taking the course. =)

today, i was bored at home, so i decided to pack my room. i packed my wardrobe, table and cabinet. i hanged/folded my clothes properly. i cleared those uni letters to do with open houses and applications on my table, and placed stuff like grad cert, books, uni booklets into my cabinet. i am going to stock up on my stationery supply during this weekend cause popular will be having a 20% discount. i printed out the course modules with the description. it was my second time reading it. after reading it more carefully this time, i found out that i am about to embark on a really tough journey. =)

i am no longer using waterproof dressing for my wound. =) i think i need 1 more week before i can get back to running. i should be happy that next week is my last week of work, but i feel sad to leave my second home after staying for many months.

2010-08-15T23:55:00.005+08:00

on friday, i went to visit my maternal grandma's house. i bought mini traditional mooncakes for them. on my special request, my grandma taught me how to make my childhood fav food which looks like prata. it is made out of flour, water, egg and oats. all you have to do is stir everything and then fry it. i met belle at her house's bus-stop and we went to nus to meet elsa first. belle met her friend for lunch while i had lunch with elsa. this is my second time going to nus, with the first being stc prom.

today, elsa, belle, elo, von and i went to popeyes at singapore flyer for dinner. it was my first time dining at popeyes. i love the chicken, fries and biscuit. =) i would love to go popeyes again. the helix bridge looks cool from afar. i wanted to walk on the helix bridge, but it was late. i will go there once it is fully complete. =)

2 more weeks of work, followed by 1 orientation week and it is back to school! after working for so long, i do feel a little lazy to go back to school and study, especially since my course is chinese and everything will be in chinese. 3 more weeks of enjoyment! i better do what i want to do with the remaining time left.

2010-08-09T21:38:00.006+08:00

on saturday, i watched inception with belle and elo. =) i finally got to watch it. i have been wanting to watch it ever since hearing from people and reading their facebook comments, that the show was awesome. true enough, it was awesome! due to the wound on my left knee, belle and elo decided to watch it with me at west mall. thanks to the both of you. =) we played arcade using elo's timezone card, had dinner and bought popcorn. i like the concept of the movie. dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. 4 levels in total. 1 of the best movies to date. =)

today is national day! as usual, i watched the national day parade on tv. for me, the highlight of the show has always been the fireworks. i tried to spot ivan during act 3 scene 2, but it was impossible cause they were wearing helmets. i think the costume looks like a mix of both a cockroach and a lobster.

i am touched by the concern of my family and friends over the wound on my left knee. i can walk better now. i hope it gets better soon. =)

2010-08-06T23:22:00.005+08:00

i was requested to work yesterday, which means i worked for 4 days instead of the usual 3 days. i found out that the 3 working days which my contract stated, was actually just a guideline. the same happened to me in june, in which i had to work 10 days instead of 6 days to cover up my colleague's work in her absence.

while running with my dad yesterday, i fell down. i was diverting my path from 2 people and somehow fell onto the grass beside the path. unfortunately, my left knee hit the edge of the path. i got an open wound on my left knee, minor scratches on my left palm, right elbow and right knee. while waiting for my dad to get tissue from the people at the nearby bus-stop, someone who was running stopped to offer help. i told him that my dad was helping me. before he left, he spotted the cj flame on my cj orientation shirt and seemed surprised. i told him that i graduated last year and he revealed that he is the vice principal. i am guessing that he is a new vice principal cause i don't remember seeing him? it was a cool encounter.

today, i went to the polyclinic. i chose not to stitch it yesterday, so now it is covered with a waterproof dressing. kino is having a 20% discount for members, so i went there to buy the last volume of the tsubasa reservoir chronicle series. =)

sigh. i can't run for a while. my walking is hampered too. =(

2010-07-30T21:45:00.006+08:00

i went to get a haircut last saturday. =) i have been running about 5km each time with my dad. hillview park connector-old jurong road-upper bukit timah road-hillview avenue. yesterday, i went for a 1 hour jog with my dad. he brought me to the wallace education centre which used to be the old dairy farm and the singapore quarry. i met deborah along the way. =)

today, i went for the farewell lunch which was held specially for the 2 interns in my department. i will definitely miss them. =( we went to bbq chicken at west coast plaza. it was my first time eating there. my colleagues commented that i looked different, nicer, more like my age, cause it was the first time that they saw me in my non-office attire aka more casual attire. 1 even jokingly said, " you don't look like judith and you are judith's sister, tudith." lol.

this brings me to the main reason why i choose to extend my contract. i like my colleagues. they guide me along and make sure that i learn as much as i can during my stay. my turn to bid farewell to them will be the week before 30 august. this means that i have exactly 1 more month till the start of uni!

2010-07-23T23:24:00.007+08:00

yesterday, i went out with von. =) we went to suntec city to look at the sports apparels. i like shoes from addidas and i feel like getting a pair. =) we had baked rice at swensens cause of the 1-for-1 lunch special. we waited for so long that we were given complimentary soup-of-the-day. we also went to bugis street to look around. we went to the library and i borrowed the pictorial rendition of romance of the 3 kingdoms in english. =) i am attempting to read a few chinese classics. i am kinda preparing myself for the chinese course. i found out that the battle of the red cliff is an event that took place in romance of the 3 kingdoms.

today, i went to hang out at elsa's house. she keeps recommending nice videos to me and i got to play her itouch games. i watched despicable me with my sis. we got the last 2 seats in the hall at cine, so it was the first time we were separated during a movie. =( the minions were cute, but agnes was cuter. =)

2010-07-18T22:06:00.010+08:00

yesterday, the big kids held a farewell party for the 4 graduates, which are elo, eunice, yu hui and me at audrey's house. shereen was the overall organiser. we played taboo, followed by an mcq, saq and open ended questions session. some of the questions required certain pre-requisites in order to successfully answer, eg. fastest to finish eating a chicken wing with a fork, fastest pair to finish eating an egg mayo sandwich each, do random poses.

i really like the farewell video. i love the customised light blue hp keychain with my name in dark blue and the white cross beside my name. thanks shereen for the wonderful planning and preparation. thanks big kids for being an awesome cell. =) having been in the cell for 2 and a half years, i am going to miss being a part of it. i am not sure as to which cell and service i am going to attend in the near future. the uncertainty. there are decisions to be made. =/

2010-07-16T23:59:00.010+08:00

happy birthday belle! =) i know you had a great time with us today. =) elsa, elo, von, wei, ona and i celebrated belle's birthday. the wet weather ruined our initial plan of having a picnic at botanical gardens, so we had it over at belle's house. we had egg sandwiches, sausages, pizza, snacks and drinks. we also bought a slice of cake for belle. yesterday, some of us went to orchard to shop for belle's present. we got her a cute mini pool table game, tigger towel, spiderman water bottle and alcoholic chocolates. the 8.5% whiskey in the chocolate was bitter. =/

yesterday, while shopping for belle's present, we also walked around orchard. our route: ion-wisma-313-taka. i love sakura hokkaido ice cream and uniqlo jeans. =) we tried every flavour of popcorn at cornery at ion. we each got popcorn for our own and 3 flavours of popcorn for belle. today, we walked around orchard again, this time to far east and ion. i bumped into mr teo at far east.

i ran with my dad for the first time last monday. i will be running with him whenever i can. =) i am glad i could keep up with my dad. i am watching k-on!! now. i like k-on and glee songs. =)

2010-07-09T22:19:00.014+08:00

i went for the ntu medical checkup last last thursday at 9.04. the checkup consists of height and weight, eye test, doctor checkup, urine test, x-ray. i made a friend at the ntu medical centre. =)

last tues was an exciting day spent with my jc classmates. =) we crashed morning assembly in our sch uniform. we went to collect our sgc and a lvl cert. we met mr sun and mr teo. mr lim gave us the task of carrying a girl on a stretcher from the outside of the pe office to the general office. after lunch, we went to suntec city. i took the circle line train for the first time. later on, we went to cine and watched shanghai, then checked out *scape and the cool red bull art of can exhibition. after dinner, we went to play pool at cine.

today, i went to watch eclipse with my sis. the twilight saga is down to the last movie which is going to be shown in 2 parts. the same goes for harry potter. why havent i heard any news from narnia? i received the ntu hss freshmen orientation camp invitation. i am considering whether to go for it.

many things happen in life, but we have a choice to be positive or negative about it.

2010-07-07T21:45:00.009+08:00

penang trip with clique was awesome!

day 1: we waited for ona's uncle to pick us up from the airport and drive us to the hotel. the tricky part was that ona never met his uncle before, so she didn't know how he looked like. luckily, we managed to meet him. belle's ingenious idea of determining the room-mates worked. our cards were mixed and we picked a card. we had to go to different levels to see which pair of cards could "unlock" the room. wei ended up as my room-mate.

we took a van for days 2 and 3. the games we played during the 4 days in the hotel rooms were bridge, ti-tee, cheat, heart attack. i played pool with belle and elo.

day 2: we went to the penang toy museum. we also went to the cocoa boutique, the tau sa piah place, and the chocolate and coffee centre. we took a jeep up the penang hill and the view on top of the hill was amazing. i was supposed to stay up to watch brazil vs netherlands, but i fell asleep.

day 3: we went to batu ferringhi beach to relax and play frisbee. we also went to visit the peranakan mansion. i watched my first ever world cup match which was germany vs argentina. we had heart to heart talk. i was supposed to stay up to watch spain vs paraguay, but i fell asleep.

day 4: we went to gurney plaza for shopping. ona's uncle drove us to the airport.

our first overseas trip was a success. i hope we get to go on another trip together, though i dunnoe when that will be. =)

2010-06-27T17:00:00.017+08:00

yesterday, i went for class outing. i met them at the indulge, went to tcc for dinner, then monstercue. i didn't play pool. i just watched them play. i actually wanted to play, but dunnoe why i did not say ok to playing when asked. the time i reach home after an outing is getting later. i took a cab at about 1am and reached home at 1.15am. i took a bath and went online while waiting for my hair to dry. i ended up sleeping at 3am.

the feeling that i felt way back came back. i thought it was long forgotten. though this time the feeling was the same, but the situation was different. maybe that was why i did not feel sleepy. maybe cause all this while, i was too comfortable and happy with how things are going.

i have already made my decision back then, so why am i wavering?

anyway, penang holiday with clique is coming in a few days' time. =) thanks belle and elo for the itinerary. i should just stop thinking about it. i may think about it just before uni, that is if i remember. =)

but then again, i like the way things are.

2010-06-25T22:06:00.015+08:00

last weekend, i settled some parts of the ntu application process. i obtained the matriculation number, did the online declaration, photo submission and booked the medical examination appointment. today, i received the letter stating that my appeal for change of course from chinese to biological sciences was unsuccessful. i kinda expected this outcome. =) so, i'm going to be stuck with the chinese course.

meanwhile, i am still working. my contract is supposed to end on 30 june, but i am given the choice to extend it till before i enter uni. initially, my job recruitment agency wanted to transfer me to professional development. but after much discussion, my colleagues think it is better for me to stay in business development. i am thinking of continuing work and sticking with what i am familiar with, which is admin. it is also not wise to find another job to work for 1-2 months.

i am no longer looking forward to 30 june, but i am more excited for 1 july. the hotel was changed from hotel royal penang to evergreen hotel cause evergreen hotel is a better location, nearer to food places and shopping centres. our itinerary is not fixed, but we know what we want to do. =)