December updates (1)

Right, now where was I..

Oh yeah, some updates.
I now find blogging a chore, it's rather tiring. Unless I feel I have something that I can't contain, and I decide to blog it here rather than in lj. Haha.

Yet another long post. Means fewer people will read (:

National Chinese Music Competition 2008

I went to support Jake and Brian on their pipa for the pipa youth category, with Lukas and Irvin. Peiyan was there with her other friends. She seems to know everyone in the Chinese music community O_O I remember heading to Marina Square's food court with Lukas and Pei Yan after that, spending a lot of time talking till the place was half empty.

Well basically all the participants sounded good to me. Haha. Apart from a few which really could have been better. There were different arrangements of that dragon boat piece they had to play... and I prefer Brian and Jake's, may be because I've heard it so many times before, other arrangements did not sound as good. Ahhh whatever.

Really thought Brian could have gotten into the finals, but he didn't. He spent a week going into depression because of that -.- Jake did get into the finals though. He didn't get top 3. Still, both worked very hard, and they're winners. To me, that is. awww.

I also went for the ensemble finals. This time with the rest of the CO. The only person I knew who was in one of the ensembles was Chun Yang. I recognise another guy as well, but will not say who. The finals for this fell on a Saturday afternoon, and Pei Yan managed to convince Ms Too to cancel sectionals so we can go watch the ensembles, said it's a good learning experience.

It definitely was!

They were so good, I kept drifting off to sleep every now and then. I look at their xianyues, and then ACCO's, and I shudder. There's still time, there's still time. We can have a prayer meeting for the Christians in ACCO... pray for the recruitment, SYF, people, ... there's so much! Good idea, but whether it will be carried out or not, I have no idea. Lol.

I was more awake when the 3 percussion ensembles played. It was more entertaining, all their rhythmic stuff. I thought Chun Yang's group did fabulous but I was wrong. They got 3rd :(

Handbell Gathering for the Class of 2007

I went there after the percussion finals. Was VERY early, went to meet Ling Ying and Man Ling first. I don't like walking around Orchard Road alone okay, I'm afraid of losing my way. I did lose my way that day, I couldn't find Cineleisure -.- call me noob. Go ahead.

Basically everyone was there, all but Preethi :( She couldn't make it at the last minute!! We went to Pasta Mania for dinner, where LY and Hui Ling were constantly looking out for 'cute guys' or something like that. Oh my goodness. Ling Ying was messing up her food and being unglam. NO change after all these years, TSK TSK. Ethel went to Plaza Sing instead of Cine, and we were all laughing at her when she arrived LOL.

The plan was to catch a movie after dinner. I wanted to catch Twilight real badly!! It was sneak previews then. And all the seats were sold out. We were debating whether to watch a movie or go play pool. Since time was not on our side, went for pool... had to borrow Ethel's Elmo sweater cos I was in school attire. College skirt and collegiete with ACJC printed across my uh, chest. Christabel had to go first, she had to leave Sg early for Malaysia (hey, me too, man!).

I didn't play, I just watched the rest play. Theodora was watching with me. The 3 Lings and Ethel took so long to clear one game. tsk. I went on observing them and people from other tables.
Then Theodora left too :( but I stayed though I knew my luggage was not even half-packed. hahah, cos' I don't get to see them very often, so just stay longer lor. We started cam-whoring after that -.-

(Finally, some pictures, not paragraph after paragraph of text. Be glad.)Don't know exactly what time I got home, all I remember is that my dad was nagging at me to pack my luggage and get to bed.

Penang trip

For this trip, my family went with Uncle David Chan's family. That meant Jia Yan too! I was pretty excited for the food and shopping, but shopping was a disappointment. I mean, their clothes aren't something you'd want to wear. It's just me, maybe. I'm particularly choosy when it comes to clothes and Singapore still wins hands-down when it comes to style! All I bought was white jacket which I like(d) very much though it was a little more expensive.

Day 1.

The journey there was like, >.< . We set off while the sky was still dark. Dropped by KL because my dad had to pass some stuff to his staff in the KL office. So since we were there, my dad suggested we go for the "best bak kut teh" in Malaysia. Yeah, it was really good. The soup was tasty. I'm not very concerned about all that meat. HAHA. I just eat what I can and enjoy the soup (: Caleb (Jiayan's youngest bro) spilled his drink at my family's table -.- Hyperactive, I'd say. Lawl. Group photo below. (M'sia photos from facebook)
Then we kidnda got lost in KL and my dad had to get another one of his staff to come and guide us out -___- Wasted a lot of time! We reached Penang in the evening. Uncle David got lost.. somehow the walkie talkies didn't work properly and he made a wrong turn. Took him a long time to finally drive to the hotel, Krystal Suites.

Loved the rooms! Apart from the small bathroom and the bedsheets which didn't smell very nice.
Dinner that night was at a hawker centre where they sold super cheap + good food. The fried kuay teow, the oyster ommelette, ...!!!!

Of course that came with a price. I had a slight stomachache the next day and had to make frequent trips to the restroom while shopping. I kept farting too. I ate less than half my dinner that evening. Totally no appetite! Had to swallow 1.5 tubes of po chai pills too to ease the discomfort.

Thankfully, the pain didn't disturb me too much while we watched Bolt at the cinema after dinner. That movie's SO cute!! The best thing was that tickets were cheap cheap cheaper than Singapore's. Their cinema seemed very normal too, so I'd say it's more worth your money to watch movies in Malaysia than here in Sg.

Day 2's breakfast was at a prata shop near the hotel, which my dad claimed had the "best prata in Penang". Lunch was at that mall (can't remember the name), Pizza Hut! Again, food's cheaper there, slightly over RM100 for ELEVEN people. It's considered cheap okay!


Day 3.

Checked into some beach resort.

I'm sleepy, I wanna sleep soon, after QT. Outrageous, check out the time. I'm turning into a second Sophia! Sorry will reply all your tags in the next post (:

Dear God,
thank You for loving me. I know that I'm created to be somebody, not a nobody.
Thank You for putting so many people in my life - friends, family, teachers, leaders - without them, without YOU Lord, I would not be where I am today.
Thank You for sending Jesus to die for my sins so that I may have eternal life, not death.
Did I mention.. thank You for loving me? Cos' that's the whole point of this post.

My Hope Sg

I missed the My Hope party with BFC. Never mind, cos' there's one being held at home right now. My family's playing host, everyone's in the living room and I'm here blogging in the dining room.

Some BFC peeps came over for awhile just now..

Honestly, I was a little nervous for my dad when he started sharing about his life, his own testimony. I thought it was a little awkward for him to share in front of his ex-classmates and their wives cos' they were all looking at him with "why are you doing this" written across their faces. But he managed to do it anyway and...I must say I'm proud of my daddy for mustering that courage to share.

Of course, my mum shared too. Then this other uncle and auntie who're Christians shared their own testimonies. Then the adults started talking and discussing about Christianity, about people and why they wanna become Christians, why they don't, about temples and how guanyin was actually an Indian man and then somehow he became a she, etc. It was really quite interesting.

I never knew this part of my parents' story whereby my mum wanted to go to the medium/temple to pray but my dad refused, and she was upset when her grandmother died and my dad refused to even hold the joss sticks.

Cool.

I don't even know what my story is. I only remember singing a song in church camp during the childrens' programme when I was in P2 or P3, it goes like,

Into my heart
Into my heart
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus
Come in today, come in to stay
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus

Then I just started crying and I didn't even know why I was crying. Nobody else knew about it, no one but myself. Cool huh. God touches the little children too.

Ok, I have to blog about my Penang trip and the handbell outing and the NAC competition thingy. Lol.

Yesterday, Beetsma, Amelia, Sheena, Claire and myself went to Fish & Co. for lunch. Sort of like Amelia and Beetsy's birthday lunch. But we didn't tell the waitress about the birthday thing! What a waste!! I so wanted to see how it's like when they stand on the chair and all that. Tsk.

The town area as covered in a blanked of cool air from the rain.. which clearly has its advantages and disadvantages. Haha! We took a 2-stop train ride to Orchard from Dhoby Ghaut and walked around Far East, then had dinner there. $$$$$$

Nothing beats a girls' day out (:

I was so preoccupied with being with my girlfriends that I forgot D's birthday even though I made it a point to remember it. Ouch >.<


I want the green/grey dress from This Fashion! :(

It all happened so fast. A day barely passed and arrangements were already being made for a gig which got me involved O_O Pressure, pressure.

Lets Go Academy

This year's youth camp was held from 6-8 Dec.

I could only go after the CO combined practice.. even so, I left the school later than intended because of some score matters... which explained why I only arrived in church at 4 plus, in the midst of worship. That was session 2.

I didn't have to wait till Holy Spirit Night to see God move mightily among the youths.
I stepped into the L4 auditorium and I could feel God's presence, almost immediately. I was just singing and the tears were making their way out of my eyes... It was very different from any other service. I knew at once that this camp was gonna be unique.

It was.

Unique, because the first night's accommodation was not in church. All the campers were split into groups then further split by gender into homes of various church members in Hougang. Others stayed at what they call the church's 'satellite centres'. The 17- and 18-year-old girls slept at the centre with the gym and cafe (forgot which block) which was, according to our youth pastor, one of the best and most comfortable. (: Sophia and I were the last to sleep.

Unique, because the next day we did not go for main service or have another session with a pastor/young adult leader standing in front of us with a mic, but we watched a video with Pastor Daniel telling us the story of how we acquired the different void deck spaces and shophouses. Here's a summary: each time a door closes, another one is opened for us. Each time something impossible bothers us, God changes that to make it possible. I'm sure we all remember the MCYS part. Haha, it's like He sends the grant to us through them.

Unique, because the groupings this time was not like putting random people of all age groups together. My group was my cell group (: and we had Doreen and Joe as leaders. They're awesme(:

Unique, because this camp focused on community penetration (CP). Each group came out with a project of their own and was given $50 to aid the carrying out of the project.
To do CP we need a soft heart, one full of compassion for the lost souls out there. (Which brings me to something that bothered me a little. I wouldn't refer to the residents as 'poor' because I live within the CP area as well and a lot of families here definitely do not fall into the 'poor' category. So that word stirred up some form of uneasiness.)

Unique, because how often do you see community work being incorporated into a camp?



In view of that decision, that promise to try to be nicer to some friends, I had to ask God to take away the pride and prejudice (lol Austen) I had in me. Start small, though in this case small is challenging. So imagine my surprise at how during the week I actually found myself defending the name of someone who wasn't around physically, someone people preferred to shun. It wasn't that difficult. I can do this. I can sit out of gossips too. I can I can I can.

I will accept people the way they are, and remind myself that everyone has a place in God's kingdom. They don't deserve hostility from us no matter what kind of impression they may leave on us, no matter what kind of explosive reactions they may trigger.

I'm going to display the right level of enthusiasm for the new J1 recruitment next year. Suddenly it feels as if I'm made to contact all those who're interested and ra-ra them into joining CO. Instead of becoming weary, I shall turn it around.. I'm not doing this simply because it's a duty, I'm doing this out of love. I'm helping whoever I can, even the new girl who's about to join my section.. suddenly I feel like a senior all over again, giving advice and sharing my experiences. Oh wait I will be one in less than a month.


I thank Joe and one other female leader for praying for me.. it's always nice to have someone pray for you, something I can't really describe...

BFC was very very very united in all aspects (spiritual included), which made it so touching I wanted to cry. We have to be on our guards now, because the stronger we are, the more likely it is for the evil one to make us a target.

Messed up world

The world is in chaos.

I'm getting dizzy from all the reports in the papers.
(need more Twilight news! hahaha)

The End is drawing nearer? Perhaps.

Jia Yan's birthday; Standard Chartered; Hilary's choir concert; Xi Ying's concert

My parents made plans to go to Penang, Malaysia, 2 weeks from now. Uncle David's family will be going with us too! That measns Jia Yan too, yay!! I'll have a shopping partner for the trip (: And maybe we'll catch Twilight there too!

I bet a small portion of the total revenue earned from Twilight (the movie) tickets in Malaysia actually come from Singaporeans who simply cannot wait till 18 December. Just wonder if this will affect Singapore's (weekend) box office?

I got the soundtrack today(: am pleased with myself!

Now for last week's activities - ugh no, I haven't been studying. The guilt is starting to settle.

Tuesday night, 25 Nov, Jia Yan's birthday BBQ

Haha, it was that girl's turn to hit 17. Fellow OLM/BLG friend (:
BLG was at her house for a barbecue, so were her ex-classmates Alynn LinYi Lizzie Joanne, her ahem ahem Shawn, her cell mate Derrick, and her current school friends whose names I don't know. It was a little weird to have the different groups of people together at the same time because we weren't very sociable or approchable.

Ok, we PL lites did talk a bit among ourselves. The guys talked among themselves too. Derrick felt a little out of place but was at ease with the guys and OLM I guess. I think the birthday girl enjoyed herself (: But it was a pity that nobody stayed over at her house.. she had intended it to be a sleepover. I would have if I could!

There was a lot of cam-whoring. Typical PLite.

Wednesday/Thursday 26/27 Nov, Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon Race Kit Packing

That was my first time doing such a thing, and boy, it was tiring!

Claire and I went to expo hall 7 to do this with other youths and a few aunties and one old uncle. The first day was HOT as in WARM and well, like madness. We took about 5 hours to pack 300 packs each. Absurd. Then for the next 150 sets we were rushing them through like mad, like it was some kinda competition. After that it was labour work, transferring stuff into the drawers, carrying them to be slotted into the drawer frames and then recording the number of the first and last bibs on the drawer. I perspired. Yucks. That was a long day, but we got $20.

Then we went to walk around hall 4 with the John Little sale, took a really long time exploring that place. And to the airport for dinner.

The second day was pretty much the same, just that we did things a lot faster and got more packs packed. Again, we went to to hall 4, then to Bedok's macs for dinner. Yay. Another $20.

That's two full days with Claire. OME. (oh my Edward ;)

Friday, 28 Nov, TJC/SAJC/SASS Choir Concert

Xi Ying and I went to support Hilary by turning up at TJC. Fiona was supposed to come, but she didn't go in the end!

I think the concert was like, okayyyyyyyy, nothing much. Sorry! Maybe it would have brought out a different kind of effect and feeling if it was held in another location, like a proper concert hall. It's like how we refused to have Spirito in LT4. I think I was too busy observing the choir members than paying attention to the pieces they were singing! I didn't understand what they were singing--apart from Amen, Yesus, and the christmas carols.

Hilary was being SO Hil. So not feminine enough.

I saw Marcus there! My classmate, who looked like he had makeup on with his black shirt-and-berms ensemble.

We went to the Bedok hawker centre for dinner/supper.. I'm determined to go back there again, the food is so good!!

Saturday, 29 Nov, CO Practice and Xi Ying's Concert

The attendance that day was pathetic to the max, really, I wanted to go up to Ms Too and beg her to cancel the practice. Tanbo - 2; Xianyue - 4; Percussion/Yangqin - 3; Guanyue - 5; Cello/Bass - 0. So there you go, 14 ppl for combined prac. Fantastic.

It was more of a chit-chat session with the conductor, then he ranted about how awful Scenic Jiangnan is, we laughed a lot at Ken, and.. surprisingly, we could play luanyunfei with a CO that small.

Serene, Janet and I stayed behind till 5.30, sort of doing stock check for scores. We took out the 3 drawers full of scores, but couldn't put them back -.- Thankfully, the guys Lukas Irvin and Michael were there (finally BEING guys), so Luke and Mike were at the forefront of the Battle of the Drawers.

Then I made my way down to City Hall MRT to meet Alexia and Joyce Lee, where we proceeded to VCH and met Fiona and CS there. Helped Xi Ying with her makeup (:

That concert is an annual one put up by Edvox Musix School.
Unlike normal concerts, this one does admit children below 6 so it didn't feel like concert because the kids' short attention span leading to the whining they made which pretty much interrupted the concert. The kids on stage were really cute, prancing and fidgeting about..

Of course, Xi Ying was great! Her first piano solo! So proud of her (: The rest of us who were sitting in the audience were too. Haha, Joyce (Lee) got so excited she tried to take pictures when it wasn't allowed.

The concert ended on a high note with their orchestra (purely strings + a bit of percussion), which was interesting. I personally liked the cello's Minuet in G (if i remember correctly) and, gaah, basically all the classical pieces that night.

It was dinner/supper again, this time at Macs!
Got home at 11 plus. Yawns.

Sunday, 30 Nov, Expo with XY and Jace

Yeah, we 'shopped' at the John Little sale.. Spent the most time lingering at the lingerie section, followed by the women's clothing. Wooooh. They really SHOULD have fitting rooms!
All of us bought something in the end, queuing at the killer queues at the cashier.

Dinner/supper was at Subway. I'm craving for it now. Mmmm.

Leadership Opportunities in ACJC

I've thought about this a few times before, but never actually got down to blogging it.

I've been really busy ever since I entered ACJC, I guess that's good and bad. Back in PL, I was never a leader. I was a peer lite in sec 2 (useless, really) and then in sec 3 where we'd conduct PC lessons for the sec 1s for a term. I've never been in the class committee, neither did I hold any significant position in my CCA. Just subject representative in secondary school, nothing else.

Then I came into AC. They weren't kidding when they talked about all-roundedness.
For the leadership part, which was something new to me since I never exactly got the chance before. This year, I was subject rep (for math.. i got sabo-ed), in the class comm (treasurer - chased for sports complex fees), in the CO comm (score librarian). Being in this CCA was like an express promotion in terms of CCA post/position.
(like, level rep in sec 4 (who really had NOTHING to do, that title was just there to make it sound like SOMETHING - come on start rolling your eyes), to part of the committee in JC (they even made me do much more than manage people's scores, no kidding).)

I guess this is sort of like a blessing in disguise.. leadership's never my thing, but God provided the opportunities here in my current school. I didn't have to volunteer for anything like I had to for the peer lite thing, they just came looking for me.

Just need a heart of gold, and guidance from above as I continue to serve now...

Spirito - ACCO year-end concert

(warning: long post ahead, for memories' sake)
Photos courtesy of Yeo Mei and myself (:

The turnout for Spirito wasn't very pleasant.. the circle seats were almost empty, I could see a row of seniors there plus some other people. Ms Too's words are echoing in my head right now.

"We need to sell enough tickets to cover the costs of production you know...
The concert is running at a loss...
Joyce, as head of ticketing, what do you think we should do?...
Joyce ah, you must check with the SLs and find out how many tickets the sections have sold..."

Then I can hear Brian and his questions with a burning enthusiasm masked by his small frame

"Joyce, the tickets how?...
what do you think about the programme booklet?...
Joyce, is this poster ok?..."

Anyway it's over now, I wonder how they're going to make up for the losses.

.

The hiccups during the concert very nearly put me through panic attacks.

1) We were about to go up for our erhu ensemble item, when Michael noted that Serene (our pianist) was missing. We went "oh shit shit shit where is she!!!", turned out that she was tuning her liuqin in the changing room further backstage when Janet went to get her. There was a long pause after the emcees announced for us to go up, but there was nothing we could do about it, not at least until Serene was back. Then finally we had to smoothen our faces and remove all traces of anxiety before going up to play the emo piece.

2) For Guang Wei's solo, Xuan Han actually went up there only to discover that he didn't have a yangqin sticks with him. He disappeared to the side of the stage to get them and returned back to his yangqin, gesturing apologetically to the audience with his hands. There was some miscommunication there, he thought someone was supposed to bring his sticks out for him. For the rehearsal, this guy was supposed to bring the piano chair out when some of us pointed out that he was sitting on it -.-

3) Pei Yan's solo - all the stage lights were supposed to be on. However, the spotlight was on her, which made it difficult to see her strings on her yangqin. It was like this during the rehearsal too, where I could hear some wrong notes (peiyan doesn't make mistakes!) cos her sight was limited. Thankfully, it turned out fine during the actual thing.

4) I was supposed to help Pei Yan change out of her long-sleeved shirt into her sleeveless blouse right after san liu and before her Ballade pour Adeline, but I happened to be further downstairs backstage with Janet, having lost track of time! Sheesh... By the time I returned, she was already changing halfway in that piano room, I could only help smoothen the back of her blouse just before she walked on stage and then adjust her Spirito attire when she changed back. Some personal assistant! >.< Lesson learnt.

Lan se de si nian was one piece we practiced for nearly half a year, no doubt the main feature of our concert. Somehow that didn't go too well... but as far as I'm aware, people in the audience weren't aware of that so, =D

Shui lian drew differing comments from people, from 'soothing' to 'boring'. Hmm. All those self-sectionals we had in the hall with Serene made us sweat, literally. I could see my fellow section mates putting in a lot of effort to make the piece sound coordinated, trying to bring out the desired effect... there were several awkward moments during the practices where we'd just stop there, expressionless, without any idea how to proceed. Then all the pressure would be upon our SL to hype things up. Well we pulled through (: We will conquer and not remain status quo with our SYF piece which is technically very much more demanding especially on our side.

I don't know why we had this concert in the first place. Other ACCO batches never had concerts with only half the orchestra before. My guess is that the teachers and instructors want to strengthen us both in the social emotional and musical aspect and prepare us for the big event in 2009. Irvin's confident of a GwH. I know that's not a problem for PLHB, but for us... I guess we just have to pray and practice hard now.

I second the acknowledgments in the programme booklet. Thank God, of course, that our batch managed to run a concert (seriously, i've gotta have more faith). Then for all the people who have worked hard to make this possible -- teachers, instructors, committee (especially Brian as I/C), helpers (our very own members with Nigel I/C, seniors, Brian's photographer friend), the J1 CO members and Of course, for the audience...

My parents were there, Claire and Amelia were there, (this photo looks crowded) I saw some other people I recognised (like Farhana Ryann Rae YenChai SiWei JunYan KeRong...)
and the loud ones who no doubt made their presence known, my cell group -- I've never had people shout this loud for me before, and I'm not even a soloist or anything! Haha. It was all very flattering, honestly, this reception I didn't deserve.
Then there are those who've been giving in to all my nonsense from PL (Food & Fun Fair, Kaleidoscope) all the way to AC (FunORama, enCOre, Spirito). They know who they are. I really dunno what to do without them =/

Sorry BFC, if I seemed a little dead on Sat night during your dinner and throughout the journey back to the north-east. My body was there but my mind was elsewhere. On my bed, I suppose. Or some other part of Singapore. Up to you to guess. (:

Oh, I'm staring at that lone rose right now. Its pink petals are falling apart.
I've eaten almost all the chocolates, finished the president's cookies, only Jake's sweets are still left somewhere in my bag. Clearly, nothing lasts forever. However sweet or bitter they may be, everything will come to an end.

I'm not ready for 2009. Neither am I ready to let go of 2008. One month, that's all that's left.
This post is like some reflection post -.-

Random: I had my retainers on the whole time. Makes smiling unnatural but who cares.
Random: Thanks for the invitation, guys, but now I've got 3 things (or rather, events) running on that day, and I can only attend to one!

A word of thanks

(the 'you' in this post differs from the 'you' in the previous post earlier today)

Thank you for making my day today, it's a nice change (: That put more life into me, such that I feel less like a zombie. Thanks for being... a Jacob Black? Uh uh. That's not what I want. But thanks for your company anyway, so this becomes more than 'just another day'.

Actually, I don't mind going with you.

Steph Meyer; AC infamous

The front part of New Moon brought a sense of familiarity as I read it... It reminded me of how I was like some time back, how I became zombie-like (though it wasn't as extreme as Bella's) and lived life as a mere routine. It's really depressing! I tried to find ways to distract myself, just like how Jacob Black was Bella's happy pill, her substitute her favourite vampire. Of course, no one could really replace the original, and the hole in the heart gets bigger as time passes. I am, not surprisingly, able to identify with Bella here.

Stephenie Meyer is awesome.

Can't wait for Twilight to hit Singapore's theatres!
Can't wait for Meyer to publish Midnight Sun... No--I should make an amendment to that--I hope it's only published after my A levels. That will prevent an unnecessary addiction to a book other than textbooks which is likely to take a toll on my studies.


There's a funny cheese smell lingering around the house. I wonder why. I may like cheese, but smelling too much of it makes me sick.


I don't see the need to paragraph my next subject - I'd rather people not read it. I'll still go on with the typing anyway, very briefly now.
Okay, as a student of AC, I feel I need to make my stand known regarding the uproar caused by that video that was posted online. Actually, I do not have a stand. I'm Switzerland, in that sense. I know that this birthday prank has gotten a little too far, crossed boundaries, made things difficult for the witnesses to the prank (assuming that the subject was perfectly fine with it). I also know, that none of the students involved had expected such a video to be posted on the net, which is where the true humiliation starts. It really IS the norm, for birthday pranks similar to this one to be carried out. I have seen some of them myself, where a lot of attention would be brought to the group and someone would be carried into the bin somewhere. Saying it gets "out of hand" is subjective, really. I do believe (you may want to view this as a statement with sarcasm, it's up to you) that even as youths of the 21st century where everything is anything (life with a pinch of salt), conscience is embedded deep within us, we don't throw them into the bin along with the 'victim' concerned. We are cautious with our actions, making sure that the incident does not turn out to be a bullying case, at least that's what happens among youths with morals. Like I said, it's subjective. There are Singaporeans who think what's defined as 'fun' actually is 'harm', then there are those who accept 'fun' the way it is. The public is really making too much of a fuss over this issue. That SAJC video with the toothpaste guy is worthy of just as much--if not more--attention from the public. I look forward to hearing and reading about what the general public has to say about that.

short-handed

It's only in times like this that I realise the significance of E-V-E-R-Y S-I-N-G-L-E member of the group.

How all of us must perform to the best of our abilities and wake up from our slumber.

Hello to the visitors on my tagboard. I've noticed that most are PL lites! From the class of 2007. GO FOR MY CO CONCERT KAY.

Details are as follows

Spirito - by ACCO
Anglo-Chinese Junior College
Faith Centre for Performing Arts
Mrs Lee Choon Guan Theatre
22 November '08, Saturday
7.30pm
$8 per ticket

I designed the tickets. I know, it looks hideous, together with the type of paper we used to print them. Cutting costs, you see. How else can we price the tickets at a mere $8??!


Last afternoon I gave my piano lesson a skip.. I suddenly felt nauseous, like I was on fire, a weird sensation spread throughout my whole body and numbed me as I was sitting in the toilet. Cold sweat? I couldn't move at all, being paralyzed there.. When I finally summoned whatever energy I had left to move myself away and out of the toilet, my vision was obstructed by millions of stars. I could have fainted there and then, but no, I forced myself to move to one of the bedrooms and just lay under the ceiling fan, cooling down for I was sweating buckets. Then I felt too weak, much too weak to go for lesson.

I still have no idea what that was all about. But I guess I'm ok now? There's CCA later.

The Twilight Saga-- the alpha

I got my paws hands on Twilight and New Moon, spent what, $28 on them? And now I'm itching for Eclipse. It's only a matter of time before I find myself handing money to some cashier in exchange for New Moon.

Either that, or I borrow. Heh.

I don't mind keeping the books though. My collection of fiction books isn't fantastic...
I have the last two books from the Harry Potter Series, 3 of Dan Brown's books, now 2 of Stephanie Meyer's works. WOW, is that all??? I don't believe it! I'm going into my room to check this instant.

Right. Phantom of the Opera, Sing to the Dawn, a couple of Russell Lee books, the complete Chronicles of Narnia.

Maybe it's not a bad idea to go hunting for Eclipse and New Moon after all. Not like I won't read them again rightttt. Hmmm.
_____

Imagine my joy when it hit me hard that PW was over. Once and for all.
I strolled out of the school's main building with some classmates, only to be greeted by students sprawling all over the concourse with their laptops. A huge grin spread over my face, like how butter was spread on a slice of bread.
It didn't matter that we had less time to prepare for this presentation. Ours ended earlier, and that made me feel like we were at the top of the world.

It's quite stupid, really, when I put "preparation time" into the context of my own group. I look back at the past 9-10 months, and I think it's a miracle that AC012 even made it this far. We were experts when it came to last-minute work, no doubt. We didn't have PW group meetings as the other groups had. It was a LOT of anger, frustration, tension, even tears and resentment. It's only by God's grace that we've survived together as a group for so many months. I'd never forget all that agony.
_____

Victoria Claire Amelia and myself - we went for the opening of the Marina Barrage. With many senior citizens and 6 NP students and this coordinator from Dover CC.

Oh gosh, Dover CC! I don't wanna talk about it. Victore, where are the pictures??!

And then there was CIP with kids from Agape-Little Uni, they were holding a graduation concert in our CPA. I can't help but miss the kids... Active? Yes. Wild? Definitely. Some can make you lose your patience with them. Haha. But they sure are cute. I'm missing them already, the kids and their teachers. Funny, what hours of being cooped up with them can do to me. I have the urge to want to help out at LSK's concert.
_____

Nope, even though I'm still swimming in the world of Edward and Bella right now, I still don't believe that vampires exist.

CO trauma

To the one(s) affected by last Saturday's very unfortunate incident, I just want to say this - you're SO not alone.

That happens in my section too, and it's quite obvious that Sheena and I get stabbed the hardest here. (I am quite embarrassed to say that even) Irvin once saw my eyes red from all that - urgh - mess, but hey, we're all in this together alright? I understand how you feel, cus' sometimes it's not that we don't want to, we simply can't. If practice alone could solve the problem then I'm sure we'd have the sense to put an end to it. You with me on this? We're all in this together. You, me, and everyone else. Okay maybe not everyone else but to those this may concern...

One day, they'll see that they shouldn't be so hard on us.

GOODBYE PROJECT WORK! =D

Post- A level Chinese; Pre- A level Project Work

This is going to be somewhat like a nonsensical post. I see it coming.

A levels

I may have to retake my Chinese next year, I don't know. I dare not think of the mistakes I made. It's over anyway, no point harping on it. I will still keep my Chinese resources though.

Project work. We whine and babble about how useless a subject it is. We all do, don't we, J1s?
It's really the last lap now. I hate putting up a front all the time, acting cool and calm however furious I may be. I feel like a hypocrite. We can't choose who we want to work with, that's when all the inequalities among individuals come in. It has its pros and cons. We all get fed up with a certain someone(s) in the group at some point in time. Does this divide the group, or unite it? I don't know. I don't want to end up revealing too much about the status of my own group and generate unwanted comments, online or otherwise.

I just want to get it over and done with.

The Pre-U students say, abolish PW, it's too time-consuming.
I say we continue with it. I don't see why we (our seniors included) should go through all these PIs, GPPs, EoMs, I&Rs, WRs and OPs while the future pre-U students' don't. They wanna take A levels in Singapore, they'd jolly well suffer as their seniors did.

Hahahah I sound really pissed.


Television

Not too long ago I watched the making of Changi Airport's Terminal 3 on Man Made Marvels on Discovery Channel. Makes me feel proud of this Garden City. Also, I discovered how much I can discover from watching Discovery Channel, this makes things so discoverable and serves as a reminder of how much remains undiscovered and how I need to discover the things already discovered or I will be discovered as an ancient fellow who cannot catch up. LOL.

Today, I discovered the joy of watching television programs. Documentaries, in particular.

Main Service

Pastor Daniel's sermon on servanthood and being platinum Christians was really powerful. Some of his points slapped me hard in the face.. Stuff like we need to serve more than the church needs us. This triggered the 'on' switch which lighted the light bulb within me. I'm not perfect, nobody is. None of us are really "good enough" or fit to serve the all-powerful King who has been living since God-knows-when. I know, I cannot keep takinging and receiving, there are two ends to it - giving and taking. I have to give too. Teaches me to be more humble, leaves less or no room for pride to take residence in myself.



I'll go apologise to her, I think God's speaking to me... That small dispute has been tugging at my heart and I got a little impatient with her a few hours ago.
They are, ultimately, still my friends and I will still see them at least until the end of A levels.

Finally done with a compo

她脸上露出了笑容，啊，终于写完了一篇作文，心里丝毫满足感。她答应自己，今晚不把该做的事做完，就不许睡觉。幸好有哪贯咖啡，要不然，这些作业就永远是空着的了。

加油，加油， 才剩下三份作业！多三个小时应该能完成任务吧？ 也许她应该先去休息一下。。

不，不能这样做。她知道一放松的话，待会儿在学校就完蛋了。她决定持之以恒，集中精神，乖乖地继续拼下去。。。

上帝就在她身边，给她无微不至的爱，给她它须要力量，让她有能力去专心。



*不好意思哦，这几天就用华文来打博客。没办法啦，我这样才能练习。当然，我也知道这里的读者会大大减少，但我不管，少也好！

救命！救命！

这是一个竞争激烈的社会。它不断地向前走。追不上的人就非常吃亏，不知几时才会追上来。

作者梁文福有说过，“潮流，是已股抗拒不了的力量”。 他说得一点也没错。

救命啊，我快要爆炸了。
我好想逃避，但我能逃到哪儿去呢？ 现在的烦恼简直是太多，太可怕了。我想一步一步来，漫漫的像婴儿一样爬起来，可是时间不能为我而停下，它一直在走，在走。
我想自暴自弃，但我不要后悔，不要浪费这最后一次的机会，考了它们后，我反而永远都不再去碰到它们了。（这指的是考试）

还是抓警时间来竟快地逼自己做事吧。我不是在自找压力，我是在面对事实。算我活该，小时候没把华文学好。现在别人都在大大地进步，向前走，我却被留在后面默默地跟烦恼挣扎。

等等我啊，我正在追上。。。

600th post

This is my 600th post, and it's about a series of unfortunate events which happened yesterday.

I woke up late, at 8am. CO starts at 8.30am.

Instructor shouted at Sheena and I, and all the pressure was on me.. It was hell. I don't hear any melody in the piece, all I was playing was notes, notes and more notes. I was sight reading all the way. Those who know me know how bad my sight reading is. Doesn't help that the rhythm was so complicated and I didn't play through that piece prior to the practice...

I wasn't myself after sectionals. I was still traumatised by the instructor. I walked right into the sloped low ceiling of the CO (store)room, hit my head real HARD against it, and fell backwards on the floor, knocking down the instruments beside me. I couldn't do anything else but remain at that spot for the next few minutes. There's a lump on my head now, I can feel it. The pain's worse when I wash my hair, comb it, or tie it up.

The left side of my contact lens came out halfway during the movie with BFC. I spent such a long time trying to put it back, I didn't exactly pay attention to whatever was being screened. I went home with a half-clear-half-blurred vision.


My head still hurts :( Damn the CO room.

This is my display picture on MSN

Source: Beautiful Feet Cell: Rom 10:14,15

Well I guess I spent a bomb on a meal again =/ This time with Victoria, Beetsma, Sheena and the two clowns I was out with last night. We were at Woodlands, and it took me less than an hour to get home! Amazing!

Open House

College open house today, Wednesday, and the turnout was.... haha.. .

It's probably due to the bad timing. I mean, open house on a weekday afternoon? At this time of the year when some O levelers are still having exams? hmmm.
I didn't see many PL lites =(
Last year's was on a Saturday, and it started in the morning, if I'm not wrong.

The day passed quickly, and the orchestra performed only twice at the lobby. Some from our CO also played an ensemble piece. So that's that. We kept shifting instruments, chairs and music stands around. I remember tripping over my own instrument and I realised it went way out of tune just before the conductor stood in front of us, but (phew) I managed to get it tuned with minimal noise. Audience was uh.. small, I guess.

I made it a little too obvious today. Oops. I had to. Things get out of hand sometimes, and it irritates.

I bet all the J1s were all half-dead from today. Though the crowd was only this big, the energy level was almost at its optimum. The singles' club (hahaha) still went to Ikea for meatballs =D Amelia acts like anywhere can be her home. Press the "doorbell" when we were in the bus. Seriously, !!!

I reached home at 11pm.

This post is garbage. Joyce is sleepy, you see.

End of Promos

joyce says:
your action was cute
joyce says:
not you
joyce says:
LOL
Andrew says:
hahahah
Andrew says:
the action belongs to me
Andrew says:
so im cute
joyce says:
i think i'm cuter (:
Andrew says:
ya la
Andrew says:
of course


HAHA, I know I'm cute =)

Yes promos are over... and it ended horribly.

Many would agree with me about the bio SPA skill BC. (hold your breath-cos tonight will be the night that i will fall for you this is a post-review review on the experiment's anomalies)
I knocked over my pectinase 0.5% and 0.25% solutions and had to make new ones with whatever little 1% pectinase i hade left, I knocked over the test tube labels so they were all over the floor but I didn't bother to pick them up, I didn't know how to weigh the apple puree (whether to put the boiling tube in the beaker in the electronic balance and tare it, THEN put the apple puree in, or what), I told the teacher I didn't have a syringe when it was less than 30cm away from me on the bench, I didn't even mix the different concentrations of pectinase with the apple puree, let alone put it in water at 40degrees or filter it, I faked my own results, I didn't know the exact function of pectinase, and I didn't include the mass of the apple puree in my table.

In short, skill BC was a nightmare an afternoon-mare, my worst spa yet.
(FYI spa = science practical assessment)

IT'S OVER. I should stop dwelling on it right? yeah. Look ahead. What do I see? Open house. CO. CO. CO. OP. OP. CL. OP. CL. CL. OP. CO. CL. OP. Oh dear..


Okay, I shall sleep early tonight!
LOL I should have done that during the exam period eh! Haha ohwells. Performers have to turn in early when there's a performance the next day. Now I wouldn't call this a performance. Still... g'night!


Actually, I feel like eating something. I shall read the papers and snack on a snack. Hehe (:

One more paper to the end of promos

(don't expect you to read. long post ahead. blogged for memories' sake.)

God has been very real to me during the promos, especially for the econs and Chinese papers...

I asked for peace, and He gave.
Usually, I'll get really anxious before papers. This time, however, I was so relaxed till it got to the point where I'd start to worry about why I was so calm -.- Haha, you get the point.

Last Sunday, I spent the entire afternoon and early evening revising bio. I only started on econs at around 9.30pm. It was hard to focus, especially since a friend of mine suddenly came into macs (I was studying there) looking troubled. Yes, I was concerned, but I had to fix my mind on econs as well. So I prayed... prayed for wisdom, to study the right thing and to make full use of whatever time I had left.

That night I kept staring at the back portion of my market failure notes. I just felt that I had to read through them. PLUS it was the first time I was reading that part of the notes. I made my own notes by summarising whatever I read onto a piece of paper. Tradable permits, Kyoto Protocol, controls of monopoly... I got some doubts (natural monopoly and government-controlled private monopoly - wait a min. it sounds odd) clarified with my friends who were there. I recalled the hints that my econs teacher gave during tutorials, and decided that demand and supply wouldn't come up as an essay question alone, it's meant to be applied. I read up a lil' on market structure, since I didn't exactly go through that topic at all.

The econs paper was almost a breeze. Cos' everything I covered slightly more than twelve hours before the paper was being tested. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I did the market failure essay question.. It was as if God Himself was telling me specifically what was going to be tested for the promos! Amazing? Definitely!


As for the Chinese paper...
I'm proud to say that it was the FIRST TIME

- I understood whatever I was reading (ok, almost everything. there were still parts that put question marks floating above my head)

- I completed the entire 3-hour plus paper without excessive rushing.
Usually, I'll scribble my way through the last compre passage. This time I had better time management..

- I was actually so awake for a CHINESE paper!
I mean, the tests are usually during curriculum time or after school.. as in the case of the mock exam... and I always find myself either nodding off or reading a blurred mass of characters.

I know for sure that this supernatural strength (which I had requested for) is definitely from God. It was not from myself. I mean, look at what time I sleep..... people say, you don't sleep early, you won't have the energy to do the paper. I know it's true. How then would you explain that energy boost (esp for this paper) even though I have less than 5 hours of sleep everyday?

On Monday, the day before the Chinese paper, I zzz-ed right after I got home. It was a refreshing nap, I'd say. I went to some nearby void deck to TRY to study. I say TRY because there were 3 guys at another table, and man, they were vulgar! Then duh, I got very disturbed. I tried listening to the radio and was unable to do any productive studying for the rest of the night. lol. I only read one 课文，这里真安静， and one page of 爸爸的花儿落了。What came out for the paper was from zhelizhenanjing, the passage which I glossed through during the unproductive revision. Well, at least it was from that 课文！

I'll prove the laoshi wrong. You wait.

I speak of how smoothly some papers went. They did indeed, but whether or not I answered them correctly...
is another thing altogether...

From Philippians 4:13; 4:6-7 respectively (NIV):

I can do everything through him who gives me strength

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Tell me, how true is that? =)
_____

I speak as if it's the end of promos.
After the Chinese paper, Claire Amelia and myself went to Tiong Bahru to lunch, walk around, look for more food, ... we acted as though it was the end of promos.

Fact is, it isn't. I still have bio science practical assessment (SPA) the coming Monday.

While there are people around me who rejoice over the end of their promos, I sulk am reminded that this isn't the end for me. Yet. I'm not losing the momentum, I'm not! It's so tempting to loosen the strings now that there's just one 'paper' left.

I've come a long way. So have others.
I don't want to regret for the rest of 2009. I need the SPA marks badly.

If there's something else I can dance about, it's the fact that this college made us submit our final EoMs and WRs long before the promos (as in the case for the former). We have one less thing to fret over =)

Seriously, now that I think of it, there's no such thing as "it's over", or "the end". If I think short-term, there's college open house right after promos, I have to finalise the concert ticketing stuff, there's Chinese A's, oral presentation for PW, preparations for the year-end concert and next year's SYF, then a whole year starts again right till A levels. (if i promote) If I think long-term, then it'll be university matters (if my A level grades are good enough), uni itself (if i make it) and on to the working world. Then I'll be faced with the responsibilities of a young adult. and so on.
_____

After geog today (yesterday, rather) I went to BK at Holland V for lunch with Ang Ren and Tong, followed by Macs ad S'pore Poly before returning to school for the math paper.

I managed to do some math questions, yes... but still felt that the time could have been used more wisely by remaining in school instead of going out! Goodness. What have I done. They're the ones who don't need the revision, I do!

2 down, 6 to go

[edited 30 sept, 1.32am]

4 down. 4 to go.

[/edit]

Yes. 2 down, 6 to go.

Persevere, my fellow acsians!! We will conquer the promos! "Retain" is not in our dictionary, understand?!

(God, help me... for there's only so much that I can do... I really need a crystal clear mind, one that's organised and not congested with information.. congestion is an external cost - the lost of manhours? it can't be compensated.)

I will sleep by 2am. I WILL. I have 2 H2 papers (econs and bio) later.

To my dear friends who really mug(ged) with me during this grueling period - Xi Ying, Amelia, Claire, Jerome, Jess, mama's boy?, Kenneth - Thanks a lot yeah (: For putting up with my odd habits like having the tendency to read out my notes...
_____

I was truly, deeply touched by the CPS9 anointing service.
Next time I see that auntie at her 'throne', I'll tell her the time without her having to ask (:
(hehe, you know what I mean right...)
_____

I just viewed the new PLHB blog, and the symposium video. I am proud to be part of the handbell alumni. I'm super proud of my juniors (: =) :) I wanna go back to visit them, but time does not permit... I don't even have the time to go home - for home is like my hotel - let alone go back to PL.

Which reminds me.. I need to collect some cert from PL's general office! think it's the class rep thing for alumni activities...
_____

With God all things are possible, and nothing ever stays the same

crap crap crap it's 2:11!! good morning, world!

God is good, He always is (:

They've been telling me, time and again, but I somehow I never did it.

For the first time after all these years at chapel, I actually cried during chapel. Worship was simple, with just a guitar and two main voices.. but worship is never about the music, it's about God. I felt that the worship leader's words were directed at me.. we sang Still, which totally described what I should and wanted to do-

Hide me now
Under Your wings
Cover me
Within Your mighty hand


When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You above the storm
Father, You are King over the flood
I will be still, know You are God


Find rest my soul
In Christ alone
Know His power
In quietness and trust

I just needed to trust Him with my situation. I thought nobody understands me, but I was wrong. I forgot that there is a King who knows me inside out, He's just waiting for me to turn to Him instead of struggling with the load alone. Boy, I was right.

Prayer is the key (:

I trusted Him, as stated in Proverbs 3:5-6... and I survived yesterday and today without Nescafe in school.

The speaker for chapel spoke about forgiveness, just as Yeo Mei had shared her devotion on Saturday. Maybe that was for me, for I realised today that there are people I need to forgive. Those who have caused pain in ways unimaginable. It's him, and her.. (they're not teens btw)

Many thanks to my wonderful friends who were there with me yesterday when I was all teary (: Love y'all always.


Even Ang Ren said I cry a lot... or is it only during this period? 

Random bits of info

I think Thursday's DC session broke some school or national record.

According to my classmates who were there,
223 people were down for DC. Can you believe it?!?!
223 students in the second floor of the library having detention class??
Some people got double DCs cos' they were late for DC so they got issued with another one on the spot -.-

I went to collect my retainers today.. That's when I saw that I'm taller than my orthodontist!! He's been doing my braces for me for so long, yet I only noticed it now. And what's disturbing is, he looks like Mr Soh, my cca teacher-in-charge -___-

First I had lots of metal in my mouth. Now it's plastic. Wonder what's next!

CIP at HortPark

Happy 17th birthday to the other pos. :)

_____

Saturday's CIP was at HortPark. The turnout from our school was rather disappointing.. but we can't blame them. There was a miscommunication between the teacher-in-charge and the organisers, so the whole lot of us actually went on the wrong date -.- after which the teacher smsed all of us to apologise and say that we're not obliged to go for the actual thing.

-

In the end, only six of us turned up - the others decided to drop the CIP opportunity. 6 of us.. 4 guys whose names I didn't catch, Amelia, and myself. The most annoying thing was that ALL of them wore the red collegiate and I was wearing another colour -.- so I looked out of place.

-

ANYWAY.

Joe aka Shepherd and Daryl will LOVE HortPark. If they haven't already been there, that is. It's a gardening hub.

We thought the CIP was some 1.6km lantern walk thing, but no, it was nothing of that sort! We were there stringing and decorating "lanterns" made from plastic bottles together with students from another school. Gosh. Amelia and I were socialising with the aunties and old folks and kids when the crowd got larger and people were observing our work.

-

I'll cut down on the words now. ("let the pictures do the talking" is so, so cliche.)

_____

-

I must stop leaving my things around the school! Last term, my foolscap paper went missing. I happened to meet Lukas in between lessons and it turned out that he saw it in some classroom, so he helped me keep it. Then early this term I left my beloved PL jacket under the desk of another classroom, only to get it back a week later. Not long after, I left my bio notes and water bottle in a classroom. It was Daryl who told me that he saw my stuff, and then brought them along with him so that he could pass them to me after school.

-

Tsk. I may not be so lucky the next time.

_____

The J2s' prelim results were released last Friday.

This was what we saw after GP lesson on that day, while we were walking back to the main building from the NLs.

Apparently, the teachers were supposed to return the prelim scripts earlier, but were late. So the J2s were all gathering there and throwing things down -.-

_____

Yesterday, Santi, Victoria, Jenisse and I went to the library during our free periods. Santi suggested that we pray together since the promos were so near and our plates were full. So she did, and well...I broke down as she was praying. (I think they got a shock) I really needed that prayer. I needed to let go and let God. My own strength, so meagre, was obviously insufficient.

-

Argh.. it's very personal, this matter...

-

McDonald's, here I come.

Oh and the Mochaholic rocks :)

_

To one:

You can't feel it now, can you?

The gap is widening by the day.

The hiatus is very much unbearable.

But bear with it, I will.

So trivial, ha ha, so trivial.

And to another:

I now know, they're the reason why you're behaving like this.

I feel really bad about this.. missing church because of school, school, school!
I'm working on the written report for project work now... and I had a bad headache for the whole of yesterday. I proceeded with CIP anyway. Photos will be up soon.

Happy birthday to the POS.! :)


[edited, 8.15PM]

Our WR is finally out of ICU :) Thank You Jesus!

Now I've gotta rescue the Spirito ticket design so I can send them over to the teachers-in-charge... and then finally, start on my revision.. It's really late, I know.

Gonna meet my SR OGL again at macs to do work.

reflections on the switch in CCA (bells to CO)

I clicked the 'pictures' folder of my laptop, and this was what I saw

My gosh!!! Anyway, they were playing with my 0.5MP webcam and you have just seen the results...


CCA
When I was still with the handbell ensemble in secondary school, I must admit that there was a certain level of pride in me... proud of the ensemble, definitely, but add a little more and you may just get what I mean.

The Gold with Honours award last year went to three schools. That's 3/8, which is freaking !@*$U#$YD#. Sure, our alumni ringers were unhappy, we were unhappy.. We wanted to be the only school with the award. We wanted to pwn all the other schools. A hint of complacency, perhaps?

Naturally, that award made us one of the more favored performing arts group in the school. It was evident - we had many opportunities to perform for internal events, we were always being praised by students and teachers alike. Maybe it really was the quality of our music, maybe it has been a tradition of the school, for handbells to be so active in performing...

Imagine the change when I switched over to the Chinese orchestra when I joined this college.

ACCO, in my opinion, takes the backseat in the performing arts scene in the college. The reason's quite obvious, what with other performing giants like the choir and band, both having gone international and clinched top awards. (I'm not saying that they don't deserve the attention. they do)

We rarely perform internally, what more externally? This is a drastic change for me, from being so occupied with preparing for performances and the performances themselves, to almost nothing. I mean, apart from the CNY concert (what's CNY like without Chinese music?), our own concert and CIP performances (it's rare), do we actually get other chances to perform? I don't think so.

Being in this CCA has taught me to erode pride and instead, to tone down and be humble... From being in the frontline to being chucked away at the back, I know that things don't always go the way I want. Someone or some group has to make the sacrifice eventually, and it has to be our orchestra.

This is one (hard) lesson on humility.

August Birthdays w BFC

Thank you BFC! The cake was one of the best I have ever tasted :D Thanks for the card too :)

Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
its ok..
joyce says:
i'm nice
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
i dun need the credit..
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
if u wan repay me.. u can always gimme a kiss..
joyce says:
there u go again
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
lol.. becos i know u wouldn't ma..
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
smart rite?
joyce says:
yea yea
joyce says:
so smart then better get all As and Bs for a levels ah
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
er...
joyce says:
must put pressure on u
joyce says:
if u really get that then i'll kiss you
joyce says:
not saying u cant do it
joyce says:
hahaha
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
lol.. sure anot?
joyce says:
dunno!
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
lol.. now talk only.. later i get As.. dun pretend nvr say hor..
joyce says:
OK
joyce says:
haha
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
lol.. i save the conversation le.. WOO HOO! u better buy lotsa lip gloss..
joyce says:
OMG WTH
joyce says:
LOL
joyce says:
maybe by that time i'll change email and hp no
joyce says:
make myself uncontactable
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
lol..
Jerome[6] new WHITE shoes.. says:
i know where u live?

Nonsense, really.

I think I'm just too sleepy.. from working on homework and attempting to find some info on this sex determination thing, when there's a presence of a Y chromosome or absence of a second X chromosome, stuff I'm supposed to do for bio case study.

updates

There's so much you don't know
so much you ought to know
so much, yet I don't want you to know
it spells d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r if you do know
_____

I (L) BFC

But, unfortunately, this Sat's CO prac is from 2.30 to 5.30pm, and I'm leaving halfway at 4pm for a CIP which will last till 9pm. Read: I can't join you guys in church :( Will still seeya on Sunday though :)

I second Daryl's thank you list in the cell blog.. Many thanks especially to Smarties who organised the bonding (look at the number of PIOs and cell blog posts by him) and Shepherd for providing us with a place to spend the night at. I'm sure all of us enjoyed ourselves tremendously :) didn't we?

Cell shirts were awesome, cheap and good! Headed by Yeo Mei and Kai Wei, the shirt committee (which is like the whole cell) worked to produce home-made shirts, literally. Lets wear it for the youth camp at the end of the year. We'll wear it for next year's national day too.

The badminton session was a time for us to chill out (the opposite) and display our skills.... We all know who the freaking pro players are! We even had a coach within our midst *winks at Smart and Josh* Lol, wanted to ask Sophia to invite the family at the court to go to church, since she played with the boy.. good chance right! But didn't la. awww.
Glad to know we'll be having more of such sessions in the future! :) I like. But muscles ache!

Iris' laughter rocks. Nothing new! Her laughter can brighten up anyone's day!

Don't say that I'm always studying because I'm not. I had to do some work during the bonding because I don't have enough time to complete everything AND start studying for promos.. I still have a ton of work left, there's no way I can start revision this week. :(
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McDonald's is my new second home.
(Kovan - mug with XiYing/Joey/Hilary/myself
KAP - Claire)
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I'd rather you not know

It's the September holidays, but it feels nothing like a holiday.
I don't know how I'm going to handle all these shit...
(Not by might, not by power, but by the spirit of God)

Will blog about cell bonding when I feel more calm.

Wasted day, T day celebration

Thanks for your essay tags Xi Ying. Hahaha :)

Today. Teachers' day celebration across schools in Singapore. Good for me, I walked into the hall at 7.29am without having to stand outside the hall and LT1 with other latecomers, all because the teachers weren't there to stop us and the student council wasn't around to shout "X more minutes!" :)

1aa3 sat right behind the teachers. O_O An honour, perhaps?

The whole celebration was so-so only.. I'm sure PL's would have been more entertaining! The band's performance got everyone lauhing and going "so cute!!!" because of David, my Chinese classmate, MEP student, student conductor for the AC band. It was really brave of him to do all those funny actions in front of the whole school! Those present today would know ;)
Then there was an appreciation thing for Mr Loo, our vice-principal who has been teaching and working in the college for 10 years. It was an emotional moment for all of us, the teachers and the students.. I could feel the whole we-weill-miss-you atmosphere. Well. We REALLY will, sir!

Didn't go back to PL cus' I thought by the time I reach, most of the teachers would already have left the school compound.

Omg then I spent the entire afternoon slacking at Claire's house - eating fried rice (thanks!), touching her Yamaha baby grand, sleeping on her bed, being pulled out of her bed by my legs (poor me), abusing her stuffed animals, messing up her room, looking at her sch mag, looking at photos of young-and-cute-Claire (what happend to her now?!), sleeping on her bed again, and FINALLY moving out of the house and to KAP. We were supposed to be at KAP for the entire afternoon, not at her house wts -.-

Funny... someone's getting braces and I'm removing mine.

我要把今天忘掉，把它丢到一个孤独的角落去。总是太难受了...

The killer math test, the human and physical geog tests, the bio mock spa, the humiliation suffered in between math and geog (not forgetting the unindended tears shed)...

今天，我在地铁上站着睡，其实这已经变成一个很正常的事了。我站在那里睡得好好的，但突然听到附近的一位女人说到一个令我气愤的句子 。


“信耶稣啊？没用的啦！”

那时刻，我心里的那座‘火山’默默无声地爆发了。我脸上的眉毛弯道中间去，冷漠地瞪着她。

信耶稣，真的那么“没用”吗？是吗？她这样做不但深深地把我的心拆伤（我好像感觉了耶稣会感到的 -- 失望），也使我对这种妇女的映像失落了好几步。那可是个公共地方，请你对周围的人敏感一点儿，而不要乱得罪别人的宗教！


总之，今天所发生的不同的事情--尤其是早上的那个不幸和尴尬的事--都不值得我的记忆。再见，我不想再看到你们！

You are my strength when I am weak

I'm talking about now.

last week

Zonal bonding was fun fun fun fun fun I think it would have been more fun if the other cell groups stayed over in church too. We played blind mice for hours, zonked out after 4am, ... but I'm not too sure of whether the bonding session met its objectives -- to bond the 17-yr-olds together as a zone. BFC did bond though, since ours was the only cell staying overnight. Cool right.

CP on Friday 22/8 was for us to observe the young adults as they go door-knocking. CP stands for community penetration. As the name suggests, it's for us church members to engage with the community.. my cell group got split up so each of us got assigned to a pair of young adults. When I told my parents that I followed Melvin and Wendy Gan, she went on to talk as if it was a privilege -.- Well, it is. They're elders (leh)! Wendy can really interact with the residents, given her personality and warmth that radiates outta her....

Busy, busy week ahead.
Busy Tuesday, so be exact. 4 consecutive tests.

my 17th birthday

180808


Nice number right! haha, just thought I should blog before the day ends...

If you read today's papers, you'd have seen the smiles of our table tennis women's team with their silver medals. While the nation celebrates this victory, my family and some of my beloved friends celebrated something much smaller, many times more insignificant.

My birthday. Lol.

I wanna acknowledge and thank the following for their verbal and non-verbal (direct and indirect) birthday greetings ..

ACJC - 1AA3: MdmRahimah Beetsma Victoria Claire Amelia Sheena Matthew Eugenia Marcus Adam

ACJC - ACCO: Pei Yan Sheena(again) Lay Cheng Serene Shuqiao Irvin Janet Amanda Nigel

LSBC: WanHui Daryl Joshua Sophia Jacelyn Smarties YeoMei LingJia KengLing

PLMGS class of 07: ManLing HuiLing Persie Joey EnMei Hillary JiaYan 

SRJC (PAE): Wayne Jerome

Others: Daniel Ryan Duncan

Today was kinda crazy. I found this in my bag after assembly and chapel 

I had Chinese consultation :(

I found Amelia stapling my photo (A4-sized some more) to my geog notes O_O

I had two POSses giving me the craziest things one could ever receive for, uhm, a birthday.. check it out. It's so retarded, it deserves to be photographed and put up here.

Liuyan(Claire), I understand... it's quite normal. But PEIYAN? MOE MEP SCHOLAR? ACCO VICE-PRES? My gosh! What has AC done to her!

I almost had a slice of cake smashed into my face by Beetsma and Sheena. 

I had cream on my face, fringe and uniform.

I had a hard time washing it off. I had to wet my shirt in an attempt to get rid of the brown stain...but it became a little too transparent.

I made sure the others got dirty too - Claire PeiYan Sheena Beetsma and even YenChai got creamed by my cake. WAHAHAH.

I had a Swensen's dinner with my family. 

I have not done any homework!! 

Passing of a busy week

The Olympic fever, ah... all the hustle and bustle in the local media, among its netizens and citizens alike.

Our 48-year medal drought has finally ended. This time, we've secured at least a silver medal. Not bronze, but silver. Our table tennis (women's) team will be playing in the finals against China. We all know what that means, don't we?

I was listening to the match on 89.3FM. For the lost souls out there, this station is 'audio mobile' - the audio version of TV mobile - though I could not watch the match, I could still listen to it... or so I thought. Until the train I was in went underground. zzzzz. No reception, just when the final set (Feng Tianwei's) was going on.

Today, Singapore rejoices with its athletes as they create for themselves an event most worthy of rememberance, in the nation's olympic history. God is good (:


The Games aims to unite the world in sports. It makes me wonder -- how? Is this still true in today's context? Why does it seem like this global sporting event is dividing the world instead of uniting it?

Look at China now, it's dominating almost every sector within its power.
Look at how it has surpassed the USA in gold medal counts as well as overall medal counts. Look at how it 'trains' its young in gruelling and harsh conditions. These kids share a common dream of winning gold medals in the Games when they grow up. Investment? At such a young age? Just to make sure it possesses every gold medal it can get its paws on? I can hear the US president calling for human rights already (kudos for his calling for religious freedom in a Chinese church).

I could go on, but I don't exactly want to write an essay at this time of the morning...
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Week has been tough, and it's going to get tougher. Claire (bong) did not sleep for three nights in a row, which is outrageous. There was the >3 hr-long Chinese mock exam paper (I forsee a U or S); the dreaded econs case study test which I did not study for having fell asleep early the night before; the submission of the 'final draft' of our written reports for PW (triggers nightmares and daymares, all the time); the Econnect II submission, causing every econs student (in AC) to frown; the physical geography mile-long tutorial which took up two whole nights for me to complete, in point form. The. List. Goes. On.