It Certainly feels Good!

There's no more o'levels to contend with, and there's time to do everything I want. I've the feeling this is going to be the best holiday I've ever had so far. Well, I suppose thats because I've worked really hard for O'levels, and there's a feeling of satisfaction upon completion.

Amazingly, time seemed to pass so slowly during the O'levels, but now, on hindsight, it was actually so fast. How true it is. The speed of time is based on one's perspective.

I won't worry about my results. I've tried my best, and there's really no point thinking about what I should have done, or not done. I'll just pray for God's guidance and make best use of holidays.

Holidays are packed, but with things I really want to do. HK, Kuching, Kayaking, Class Grad Night etc. WOO HOO! Then there's reading those books I tried my best not to start, quite successfully, during the O'levels. Then there's christmas...

Cheers to freedom of time.

Graduation Day 2006 Rocked. Seriously. It was both touching and fun, especially the post-ceremony outing to Carl's Junior. Lamed around as usual. I had better scaled down my lameness or one day someone's finally going to kill me because of it. No, I think I'll just totally stop it. Or at least try. Yes, thats exactly what I'll do. This post will mark the start of me making the conscious effort to stop laming.

I just can't wait for the 433 graduation. 24th November. Remember the date.

Went running today at the Clarke Quay. Don't ask me why that location was chosen, but my father thought the view there would be good. And it was. Picturesque. Guess it gave us some incentive to continue running. Now I feel quite healthy. Don't know if I'm trying to deceive myself. But it really just feels good.

I received my prelim results about a week ago. I'm quite happy with it, but I've to work even harder for my O' Levels. This might probably be the last time I post before my Os. To everyone taking Os, good luck and study hard! Perseverence.

The haze is really irritating. PSI hit 150 yesterday! Lucky for us it subsided today. Hope it stays away from Singapore.

Yes, before I forget, Happy Birthday Fish! (Although it was yesterday) [and although you probably won't read this blog]

Here ends the post. Need to sleep.

Prelims are over. I just wish that the results I receive will be what I was aiming for. Well, the wait won't be that long. It's just about 10 days away. Before that I'll have the graduation day to look forward to. It'll mark the end of our 4 years in SJI. It's sad to end this part of my life and move on. But I guess it'll also be a celebration of everything we have enjoyed over the past 4 years; the wonderful experience of being a josephian.

Actually, I have many things to look forward to. For one, the kuching trip at the end of the year. Then there's the 433 class graduation party after the O levels. I want to thank the organisers for taking the time to plan it. And there is Legion chalet. And the hong kong trip with my family. And being free from textbooks to pursue other out-of-syllabus courses. (At least for a while).

But for now I'd just have to study real hard for my O'levels.

Before I sleep, I just want to show my support for the decision to deny several activists with a history of violence entry into Singapore. Well, many critics have argued that it is these people's right to come into Singapore and protest against the IMF/World Bank. Yes, I agree with them, of course protests and free speech should be encouraged, but isn't it also our right as Singaporeans to want to protect our infrastructure, properties and ourselves? It is our safety at stake here. We are not denying entry to just anyone, not all the activists, but just those few, a fraction of them, with a record, concrete evidence of them causing damage and a threat to law and order in other countries. I guess there will always be people on both sides of the fence, but think about it, are we being unreasonable in claiming our right to protecting ourselves?

Looking forward to RME retreat tomorrow!
And my sleep.

September Holidays
I mean Studying Break.

Well, its Teachers' Day today, so yes, to all my teachers, Happy Teacher's Day!

Since the last time I've blogged, which was quite a long time ago, I've realised a lot of stuff about myself. I won't spell them out here. But there were there friends going through some problems, and while I was helping them out, I kind of realised a lot about myself at the same time. Well, two of you, thanks for giving me the chance to give you advice, I hope I managed to help. I know anyway, that one of you might read my blog and the other definitely doesn't read blogs. Thanks anyways. It'll all work out in the end!

I'll start blogging about everything I experienced since my last blog, trust me, I want to, but I'll be taking too much time from my studies. Haha yes. Studies. It sounds boring, but has to be done.

I'll take this chance to advertise for the Youth Rally on Monday night at Novena. Sms me if you want more details. For all those still pondering, go for the rally! It is once a year!

Well, back to studying! And boredom!

St. Mary's Food & Fun Fair
More Like Love Outing

Went for mass in the morning, and coincidentally, the priest kept mentioning the importance of faith, hope and LOVE. He also mentioned perseverence and gratitude. After mass, met tim, john, val, mikel and gen outside at the piazza, and went straight to the dunking area. Ryan agreed to get dunked if we managed to gather at least 15 of the confirmants. So we started a frantic call of everyone who we had seen and asked them to come. Well, finally we managed to, and randall, at the third ball, dunked ryan. Jolanta arrived at this point. Then later ryan asked amanda to be dunked too, since she was wearing shorts. Obviously she got wet too. I wonder how she managed to go for mass later on. Lucky I decided to wear jeans... Okay. Fast Forward. Have to study now... Yes later, later, we took a bus to civil service club, and went bowling. Whoa tim is pro man. Well a famous quote helped mikel to strike: "the aim of the game is not to go for the gutter, but the center". And he managed to strike. Amazing. I think val and I make a good tack team. I was left with one pin in my lane, so she helped me spare, and I helped her.. erm.. knock seven pins down. Well, teamwork is important.

While going for lunch at west mall, met this guy along the way who said his wife was at kk hospital, needed money for taxi down cause he only had 20 cents. And I believed him. I think tim did also, and we were about to take our wallets out. Lucky gen said she met him before and he had said exactly the same thing, just that it was his mother and his father who was in hosp or something like that, so we just walked off. What a cheat. He sounded convincing.

Ate at Sakae. I told erm, a lame joke and almost got beaten up... By mikel. Well, there was nothing better to do at while waiting for our table right? At lunch, tim splashed some sauce on his shirt. Later on that happened to john as well. Deja vu! john needed to leave early, so we quickly got the waiter to help us take a group photo.

Then we walked to the bus interchange, and yes, obviously, took bus home. Oh yes, and gen was very interested to know more about some fallen tree near church, don't know why.

Took bus. Reached home. Feeling like I should have stayed longer.

Now, homework beckons, study calls, and I still have my LLTC journal to complete.

Thanks everyone for all the fun today! Back to school now!

Love rocks!

Accident

I woke up late yesterday. Went to taka to study and have lunch at the kfc with jason, then took a bus down to school for curia. And curia was super crowded, for once. After curia, as we were going to the canteen, we suddenly saw this band person, who was having band camp, jumping from a ledge, knocking his head on the ceiling, accidentally, and falling down in pain. I think he was playing. The band people seemed to be at a lost at what to do, because there were no teachers there and they were like sec 3s, so the two sjab ppl from legion, matthias and james, went to attend to him. His head was like bleeding profusely, so I decided to called an ambulance. They rested his head on some towel, and applied pressure on his wound. Then shortly after the band teacher came, then told me I must wait behind cause I'm the one who called the ambulance. Went outside school, flagged the ambulance and directed it into school. They bandaged the guy's head, then brought the guy away. Lucky he was still conscious and didn't seem to feel any pain. I think he was suffering from shock. Then shortly later the police came, and took down my name, contact details for report purposes. They also took down the injured guy's name and class. Then they left.

Okay this is another lag post.
Confirmation

I felt a sense of overwhelming happiness when I was confirmed. Don't ask me where that came from. And I also felt this resolve to do something to contribute to the church. Yes, so I've decided that I want to be a catechist.

I think for me, confirmation was a very beautiful experience. It was the friendship that I experienced. I mean. Legion came to support, classmates came to congratulate us... There were many whom I didn't expect to come, but came. Thanks guys. Even after the confirmation, everyone (the confirmants) wanted to take photos of each other. The corridor outside the classrooms became a makeshift marketplace, with everyone screaming at the top of their heads. For which I had no idea why. But I participated. Well, it did liven up the atmostphere.

After confirmation, went with my family, and the legion to pizza hut at bukit timah plaza. Lucky I booked, otherwise there wouldn't have been space for the 30 of us. And throughout the dinner, I was laming. And once we laughed so loud the pizza hut waiter asked us to lower our volume. And we over-ordered. Our estimation was not too accurate. So we ate till we felt like even air couldn't enter our body anymore. Okay maybe thats exaggeration, but you get the point...

Well, this is the day that I'll always remember... So many wonderful things happened that I could do microwriting of every incident, and it'll take a few days to complete. and I don't have that time. so I'll just suffice with this very brief account of the day.

One week after confirmation, I feel that the holy spirit works wonders. It does not come in a very flashy, or noticeable, or obvious form, but instead it comes as a subconsious guide. For me, it helps me to make the right decisions, I believe, and I would not realise that until only after the decision making process. Well that said, lets not take the holy spirit for granted, but make a conscious effort to keep it in our lives.

Ora et Labora

I know this post is lag, but I really had no time the past 2 weeks...
Confirmation Camp

Love! That was the group I was in. Best Group there.

Well, frankly, I did go to the camp half-heartedly, inititally not intending to go at all. I mean, judging from catechism classes and everything, it didn't really seem like it was going to be fun at all. But it was confirmation camp after all, and I decided to go since it was going to be the last camp before catechism ended.

And I'm glad I went! It was totally unexpected. The camp was fun, meaningful and enjoyable. Yeah, by the time the camp ended on the second day, everyone, I'm sure, was wishing that it were longer. It was like we couldn't get enough of the camp. Total change.

The camp started off with introductions, then the designing and penning of the goals and aims of the camp. For love, that was the part where we started participating. John was being lame. He wrote this upside down, "To turn this over". Well, I guess after everyone had written something, there was really little 'original' left to write. And then after everyone had penned their aims, we started decorating it. If you can call it decorating. Everyone was just holding on to a crayon or marker, and filling up every white space left on the paper. Started drawing wierd objects like houses, stick figures and the sun! Well, that laid the groundwork for tim's lame introduction story later on I guess. I remember we left a blank space for audrey who was supposed to join us later in the day, but who never turned up.

Later on, there was sessions. Paul had his powerpoint presentation, and was inviting us to enter into reflection, then writing a letter to Jesus about our burdens, which he would help us let go of.

After that there was raft building. Three scouts in our group and many enthusiastic people ready to learn how to tie. One word for the raft built. Successful. I guess the process was as important as the result. Everyone worked together and everything. Haha. I somehow I ended up testing the raft together with tim and val. I was glad the knots were tight.

Mud swim. If that is the term for it. We were the last group doing this activity, and as we were walking through this forested area to the place, we saw these mud people walking out from it. The only places not covered by mud were their eyes. Scary, especially when we anticipated what we were going to go through. Well, it ended up okay. Once we got used to the mud, we started throwing it at each other...By the way, somehow the mud we got was black, and the other groups had brown. Not fair. At least brown looks like milo.

The Q and A session by JP was great. Somehow many people were curious about the supernatural. Later on, was the talk and survey by keenan. I was more than happy to make myself a contribution, so I put a tick for like everything youth related. Then confession. I won't elaborate on this... obvious reasons.

After that was campfire. Hmmm. About the same as the 10 plus I have attended over the past two years. The songs were like, nothing new. But the dance competition was entertaining. Randall looked funny. And Limbo. Gosh. Those people were really pro. Especially nat! Yeah. Go Love!

Nightwalk. What can I say, it was too short. I know we were a little evil, but John and I decided to tell marcus past ghost stories of the area that we had come across in scouts. I guess that made him scared. Shhh. Don't tell him it was on purpose. Right. Like it wasn't obvious. Well, we had our fun!

After everything, well, john and I took our homework to the canteen to do. It was a good effort. But we ended up playing cards with jolenta and val. Bridge was fun.

Next day passed very quickly. Played cards again in the morning, breakfast, then packing up, cleaning the toilets. Yeah and we tried to play murderer. But everytime we sat down, there would suddenly be something else to do. Later on went to macs with John, Jolanta, Gen, benedict, nathaniel. I found out that gen actually saw me at crescent council investiture, but me being blur, didn't see her. In fact prior to this I didn't even know she was from crescent. Haha sorry! So ya we technically didn't meet. Wierd.

Then I went home. That marked the end of our 2-day, 1 night, super short confirmation camp.

First Day of the Third Term!

I went back to school really, really burnt. Sun burnt from the Kayaking course. And I'm now a certified 2 star kayaker!

Well, as usual, had a lot of administrative stuff to settle in school... Teacher's, as usual too, went straight back to teaching like there had been no holidays... And I was reminded that I will have 2 concerts to attend soon. Kindred Spirits this friday and The Taming Game next friday. Truly arts week.

And I just realised next monday is Youth Day holiday. A good chance to catch up with my uncompleted work.

Just airing my viewpoint. Read in the papers about Singaporeans being ranked 30th out of 35 in terms of courtesy. Some of the examples are commuters not giving up seats to those who need it more, students sitting on the MRT floor, people leaning on the grab poles, depriving others of the chance to hold it... and so on. Is courtesy taught or common sense? I wonder. Is it the responsibility of schools, and parents, to inculcate courtesy into Singaporeans, or is it assumed that everyone naturally should know what is the right thing to do and what is wrong?

Food for thought.

Kayaking Course 1st Day from 10.00am to 5.00pm: Located all the way at Changi, it took a quite a long time to go there. Recapped all the skills we had learnt in the 1 star kayaking course (jaw stroke and everything) and we learnt a new method of recovery without the need of coming out of the kayak. Tomorrow for the course we are going for an expedition from changi to pasir ris in our kayaks (obviously) and we would have to pack and bring our own food rations and water along. Should be quite an experience... I don't know why my language now sounds very informative... guess I'm not in the mood to blog... very tired, but just feel like posting before I go and sleep.

At night, 8 - 10 pm, we received our hike results, and I was quite disappointed to learn that I had failed. Well, a slight consolation was that of the 20 people who could make it to that stage, only 7 passed, and I'm part of the, like, 13. And of those who passed, some were already at their, like, 4th or 5th attempt, I'm not sure. I admire their perseverence. Well, at least it is my first attempt on the actual hike itself. I think the main reasons for failing was the shift in the requirements of the logs - it has become stricter and more requirements have been added. Very different from previous years, according to our TYS =). So we were quite unsure of what was truly expected of us in our logs. On hindsight, this hike will not have been a waste of time. It was an experience with its learning points, and now that we know what are the new expectations of both the preliminary hike log and the post-hike report, it is important that we pass it down. Our juniors would attempt the hike in the near future, and we have to tell them everything we've learnt so that they do not become like us, learning what is expected only after we have attempted the hike. We must make sure they know everything they need to know beforehand.

Yes, thats that. I'm going to enjoy myself tomorrow in the kayak in the sun!

Arrgh... Rushing through my holiday homework now!
There is like a lot to do, so litte time. The only reason i'm blogging now is that I'm sick of doing homework...
Tomorrow would be the kayaking course, and that would mean the last 3 days of holidays used up... at Sea Sports Club in Changi... and tmr night, I'll be receiving the results of the hike... at Scout Headquarters... Have I passed? Or failed? I'll know tmr... After all the time and effort put in... I'm getting nervous...

4 More days to school term! A really really really hectic one!

Lets see now... 4 months since I last blogged? I think everyone who used to read this blog has given up checking it.

Well, I don't exactly see the point of blogging on a daily basis, or almost daily for that matter, simply ranting about some common encounter or usual daily experience. That is quite boring and a total waste of time. I mean, I've come across a random blog that was telling me a personal recount of how this person's pimple located on this person's nose decided to burst. Wow. I needed to know that.

The past 4 months have been extremely hectic, and I guess there were more important tasks to do than for me to blog. Well, my march holidays was totally used up with preparation for our scouts campfire. Then there was jobweek, midyear exams, homework, ok, i am just typing everything that comes to mind now. Oh yes, and there was the Cedar Campfire, which we put up a dance, and won the best item! There was the preparation for chinese o'levels, which went quite well, I guess, and the preparation for the Chief Commisioner's Award Hike.

My holidays: First week was chinese o'levels, followed by Scouts PLTC and UTC, then followed by the actual CCA Hike itself. Wow, slept at Sembawang Park, just opposite Johor. Had never been there before. Ya, and that took up 2 weeks of holidays. After that was my family chalet, and then Legion Chalet. Had fun, and kept myself real busy. Now started rushing through holiday assignments.

I must say this year is quite an eventful year for Singaporeans. What with the elections, and the Fifa World Cup, which will definitely be a source of distraction to many. Then there was Sands, winning the bid for the IR at Marina Bay.

I don't want to sound cynic or anything like that, but I really think friendster is increasingly defeating its purpose. Both testimonials and adding friends have become merely a means of showing off and a joke. That said, maybe thats why it is becoming more attractive.

Well I'd better get on with my homework.

Looking forward to the 2 star kayaking course this weekend!

Ok, will make this quick.
Chinese New Year was really enjoyable.

On Friday night there was the 6e BBQ... had fun. I'm glad that so many people managed to make it for the BBQ. Well, having not met each other for like a really long time, it helped us, or me at least, to find out more about each other. How we have changed and gone on to different paths. But i will always remember 6e! Many thanks to the graduating class 6e of 2002!

On Saturday there was the reunion dinner, which was as usual steamboat. Ate till I was bloated. :) But for me everyday is almost like reunion dinner, the whole family sits down to eat together almost daily, so the reunion dinner was more of a custom.

On Sunday, supposed to visit my father's side of the family, grandparents, relatives, but they are all not in Singapore, so we could not do so. Hence, we had free time and we went to watch the Memoirs of the Gei-Sha. I think it was not bad, quite a touching show. But rather long and draggy. The book is still better I guess...

On Monday, well, visited my mother's side of the family, grandparents, relatives (a lot) and cousins (a lot). Had lunch, then played cards, bridge. Then went to watch I not Stupid Too at Lot 1 with brian, kieth, sam, ernie, estella, emily, nat, may, HP, HM...

Very nice show. I wouldn't mind watching again. I would recommend everyone to watch. It's really wierd to describe the show... well... it is supposed to be a comedy, it is funny, but sometimes it is sad too, touching. And then it really shows how academic streaming in schools have affected Singaporean students, and how some parents can't communicate with their children because of lack of time, or they don't know how to... ok won't reveal too much... but basically the show can make you laugh and laugh, then cry. I did feel very sad at one part. and felt a bit of tears. (can also call that crying:)) then after crying can laugh again... wierd show la, really.... but really really worth watching... when I say wierd I mean that it is unusual...

So if anyone has time, must watch I not Stupid Too :) you will not regret.

On Tuesday, it is homework rushing day! rush and rush, then went to swim, then rush, then sleep.

Ok, I was supposed to keep it short.

Now, Homework Beckons...Again...

NEW POST!
NEW YEAR!
2006!

Wow! It has been one whole year since I went through streaming! And now is the O'levels!

Time passes quickly. Well, at least for me, when I'm enjoying life, although a busy and hectic one, time zooms past! Last year was more fun!

This year will be more work! But doesn't matter. Whoever said more work doesn't mean fun?

Long time since I actually blogged. Actually almost one month I think. Had a really busy holiday. Full of stuff. From tuitions to overseas to scouts to old folks home visits to christmas party to new year's eve party! and more (no time to name all anyways). That's why I didn't blog at all! NO TIME!

And now that I'm blogging, I am guessing that this will be the first blog in many weeks to come! I mean, as in the only post in many weeks to come! Studying and homework from school has never been more heavy; and there is still lots of stuff to help plan for. Fun stuff, though, so I'm not complaining. Like scouts and orientation and legion camps, like scouts and orientation campfires, like the scout orientation day for secondary ones... scouts meetings ...etc... cannot remember all now. oh yes, LLTC. and still etc... so not so much time left, is there?

O'levels are here too!

So I'm going end off (out of time again) with a motto I've heard and said many times but want to type it out!

To Do My BEST!