这是给 Yeo Mei 小姐 =）

祝你生日快乐
祝你生日快乐
祝你生日快乐
祝你生日快乐！！！


亲爱地朋友，你感动吗？=P


有些东西是逃避不了的，要一辈子躲起来也没用，最好是勇敢地站起来面对它。 你说对吗？我为了这件是无法睡个好觉，晚上在床上转来转去，好难受啊。（我正在撒谎。其实，我能像婴儿一样睡， 只是为这件事有点儿担心。）

我知道你不喜欢读华文，因为我自己也不太喜欢。但我还是故意要在博客里打华文字，难道不行吗？你，对，就是你那个失踪几天的人，不要叫我再换成英语来打博客。 因为你可以对我的手说话。我老是每次用英语来说，“Talk to my hand."

还有， 我是故意把字放大的，要不然你们读者会吵着说这里的字太小，什么都读不到。哈，哈。

天下最要命的是假期功课。气死我了。

昨天，我和照片里的“姑娘”到荷兰村的Swensen's去吃午餐。这个人真令人讨厌，她说她已经5年没叫个waitor了，就是不想打破自己的纪录！！ 我们俩坐在那里，推来推去，我就是要她这家伙叫waitor来点菜，但是后果不堪设想。 总之，千万不要和他以乞讨餐厅去吃，因为她死也不要叫这些服务人来。真是的。



Well seriously... you have no freaking idea. None at all.
You don't get it? It's alright, you're not supposed to.

I woke up at 2.30pm this afternoon, spent the day stoning and filing up my Chinese materials, playing the piano, and finally going to Macs to mug with XiYing. We are now their resident muggers there. It's always me with XYing or Horse. Haha. (See, DLow, this is what I mean by 'I am a no-lifer'..if you're reading this at all.)

It's a good thing that we went to Macs because when we left for home at approximately 12.40am, guess what I saw on the floor. An ezlink card. Smarties' card, to be exact. It's in my possession now and I can choose to be mean and scan it so everyone here can see his cute face but no, I shall be nice....

My phone cable and camera charger are still MIA-ing, sleeping somewhere. BUT I found my long-lost CARD READER AND MINI SD ADAPTER!!!!

Time now is 0204, not 2359

ACCO Camp 2008

Goodness, my entire geog lecture group (201, 202 and 203.. those who went for Tuesday's lecture) knows there was a CO camp -.- It's all because Mr L checked the attendance sheet and picked some of us out to question why we came today and were absent yesterday. Tong got picked on, and so did I... I told sir there was CO camp and he gave me the 'huh' face. So I said slowly, "Chinese orchestra... camp". He paused and then asked "Chinese orchestra also have camp?? I thought only sports group need to have camp??? .... ... What do y'all do during the camp?" Then Matthieu and Jarron were at the front row and Matt spoke up for me (I was a few rows behind him).. sir even said Matt doesn't look like the CO type -_- AI think sir has something against CO, he said his favourite CCA is now CO -___- and if we fail the term exam "(he'll) make (us) join CO". He just kept mentioning the two letters "C" and "O" throughout the 2nd half of the lecture together with something lame which made everyone laugh. WTH right. Haha. But that's free publicity for CO =)
ANYWAY yea Ang Ren, who was sitting in between Tong and I, didn't come for yesterday's lecture as well and he managed to escape from being questioned by sir in front of the whole lecture group. I think that's just not fair man!!


Monday (26/5) marked the first day of our CCA camp, it was mostly planned and executed by 4 key J1s, namely Fu En, Pei Yan, Irvin and Lukas. They deserve a pat on their shoulders =)

Below: Peiyan! and 'gambling den'
One thing I don't understand, though, is why they made me the major group leader for 1 out of the 4 groups (otherwise known as 'whole group leader'. Each 'whole group' is further divided into 2 groups). I was at a loss during ice breakers and just threw out any game I could think of (THANKS SO MUCH TO BFC HAHAH but we didn't play bob).

The games in the afternoon were good.. They included an extremely modified '"dog and bone" which had items like grapes sweets pingpongballs BOTTLECAP cardboard oranges detergent starch and whatnot; captain's ball using water bombs (my idea, tyty LOL); and ultimate frisbee (i was super ON for this at first then got tired and just stood around, haha). But the whole thing was draining cos' there was a lot of running around.

Celebrated birthdays during break

As for the section dinner, I think the whole CO ended up going to Holland V? We kinda owned the bus. Xuanyue and percussion (w/o peiyan) was at Crystal Jade where the 16 of us were separated into J1s and J2s, with the exception of Michael who was with the j2 table and Meiqi at the J1 table. Talk about bonding.

Night trail was when we had to get ourselves blindfolded and one of the key camp planners would lead us around... My group got Fu En and gosh this guy is terrible. Halfway through the game he separated all of us and led us one by one to different parts of the canteen to stone there, blindfolded, for what seemed like forever. I was at this ulu part of the canteen but I could hear everyone talking loudly (still blindfolded) or knocking into tables and chairs o.O. The noise faded and I guessed I was LEFT BEHIND so I just removed the damn blindfold and yes I was right. FuEn was leading the group AWAY from the canteen, he didn't realise he forgot me until I walked towards him and the blind mice. To cut the long story short, I ended up being with Lukas' group and leading them (first was Ianthe, then Alyssa) to the last 'station'. Peiyan was like "ehh, how come you're leading???" Haha FuEn left me behind whattt.

My legs were breaking and I had to drag myself home, standing throughout the 1-hour journey.

Today I missed part of the so-called Amazing race because I went for geog lecture, as you'd probably know by now. After the lecture Matthieu and Jarron (same lecture group) went to the GYM -.- but I went to look for the rest and met up with my group at SCH, then joined them for the rest of the activity where we went to the library@esplanade, Rocher Centre, and Chinatown Point. We decided not to go to Bras Basah. Fuen was leading the group again. Lay Cheng and I were saying that guys walk SUPER fast, their normal speed is like our jogging speed? Most of the time it was Shern^2, Xuan Han, Fu En and Michael walking at the front, Cheng and I some distance away, then Shun Qi and Elliot even further back.

Thankfully, we didn't break camp at NIGHT. I could go for my piano lesson which starts at 6pm at Kovan.
Oh and yes I managed to hammer JunY and the other guy who claimed to be Alyssa's brother.

Just wanna thank everyone who contributed to this camp (uhh..not exactly a camp actually) in one way or another to make it a success.


I think I haven't mentioned this.
My form teacher made me the class treasurer and coincidentally, I MISS DOING POA so I shall start using T-accounts, the accounting for clubs and societies way of accounting for the class. Current class fund is zero. Oh man.
And being maths rep isn't exactly easy since my math class is made up of people from 7 different classes, which makes distribution of notes and collecting of money difficult. What's worse now is that the class doesn't have chapter 6 notes, the printing auntie doesn't have chapter 6 notes, it's the holidays and the photocopy shop is closed (duh), and I can't get sir to lend me an empty copy of the chapter 6 notes so that I can get it copied somewhere else. I wasn't even aware that I had to collect that set of notes since we're still lagging at chapter 5. zzzz

(I'm going for SP open house with Shung, yay!)

Reflections

Funny..
How at times we only turn to God when we get desperate.
How we say "hold on" and "wait" all the time when He calls us ever so gently, when all He wants is a little bit of our time.
How we want our requests to be processed immediately when we ourselves do not even give the King what He rightfully deserves.

No, not "we". It's "I", it's "me".
I am determined not to turn out as described.

I express myself through songs a lot. Maybe that's why I fell I belong to the worship team though I've already stepped down... Anyway for Youth Ablaze yesterday I kinda sung this song to the Lord, silently, in my heart. It was the first song that came to mind in response to the service. (the service which coincidentally featured Pastor Glenn yet again with the same stories and verses used when preaching in our chapel)

All that I am
All that I have
I lay them down before You, O Lord
All my regrets
All my acclaim
The joy and the pain
I'm making them Yours

Lord I offer my life to You
Everything I've been through
Use it for Your glory
Lord, I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You
As a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer You my life

Things in the past
Things yet unseen
Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true
All of my hopes
All of my plans
My heart and my hands are lifted to You


My mum wanted to go for some Popular sale at Expo today.. So my whole family went there and wow it was like no other. Typical Singaporean, getting so excited over a sale -.- There was food expo just next door and a Robinson's sale not very far away. But darn it, due to time constraints, we were not able to roam to the other halls =( I feel like going back there again to get the $12.90 earphones (buy one get one free. I lost my Creative ones) and the 4GB Imation thumbdrive (though only 1000 sets available) and more stationery to facilitate my studying!!

All I need is money. Haha. By the way, the cup corn there rocks.


Tell me about it. Tell me why. Tell me why I miss you so much. (I think the reason is obvious... without you, my dear charger, I wont be able to charge my camera battery and I cant camwhore!! Ok, I'm kidding, I am. It's not a just black electrical appliance I'm missing.)

enCOre 2008

My possessions are mysteriously growing legs and running away from me, I can't account for their sudden disappearance...

My camera charger is nowhere to be found. I last used it the night before Fun-O-Rama.
--> I can't charge my camera battery
My phone cables (from both N73 and 6somethingsomething) have vanished.
--> I can't upload photos
Melody's letter is, oddly, seeking refuge somewhere in the house for fear of seeing me.
--> Sorry my dear friend that means I can't type the poem out for you!!!


It seems like I always forgo my sleep in attempt to complete assignments. At least one sleepless night (more like morning) per week.. It's becoming the norm now. Yet I miraculously manage to stay awake and pay attention in school.


Last Friday or Thursday after CO, I reached the platform of BV station... I turned right and guess who I saw. Our DM, LOL. Who happens to be my physical geog tutor.. I'm not sure if he saw me heading towards the opposite direction upon realisation that he's there. (scared get caught for skirt or something) Anyway I'm glad I walked the other way cos' JunYuan and his friend was there, and omg they're such nice people to talk to... Well at least I had company till Chinatown station that night.

Went to support the netball finals against our green friends on Friday... It was then that I made Natalie (classmate) my new idol. Haha. She's a fantastic goal-shooter.. We were going to win. AC was going to win. Until the last minute. We lost to them by a mere goal, so it was 50-51.. Nig told me that the spectators at his side were all hurling vulgarities at the umpire (tsk). As for me, it was more of tears.. A very emotional moment for both the AC netballers and some, if not most of us, in blue and white uniform. Anyway I'm glad I went there to support Nat.
After that Ian Yang, Sheena, Nigel and I cabbed back to school.


Who can forget enCOre?? I'm so grateful for the support from the OLM-ers Fiona, Hilary, Jia Yan, Xi Ying, ISTIMEWAs Beatrice, Joe, Jacelyn, Wan Hui, Joshua, and of course the AC friends Claire, Pei Hoon and Matthew. I know that they didn't just come for the music.. and omg the bouquet from Jace and the OLM-ers was utterly sweet okay, my heart melted before Matthew's chocolates did.

I met Janet in the morning to go have brunch at Holland Drive, then got fed up waiting for bus so we cabbed to school ($3).. only to find the bus right behind the cab -_- Wth right.
Basically the entire day was spent backstage, that narrow passageway behind the stage. I was trotting there around during our free time (i.e. when we were not rehearsing...). They didn't get a practice room booked for us like PL did for Symphony of Praise in 2006.
I got blisters from the court shoes -.- Janet's gave her problems too.

The actual performance was not bad =) Well at least I thought it was fine. The MEP students will have a lot to complaining about, especially for Claire who keeps criticising the pitching.
Apart from a few obvious errors (dizi solo was absent for yaozu; for xishuangbanna, the harp's glissando didn't end properly + conductor gave unclear signal = messed up and disrupted orchestral entrance to the first part of the first movement; can't remember which piece.. the harp's arpeggios was about 1 bar slow; everyone pretty much played the last encore piece lightheartedly. timpani had missing beats, xuanye's bowings were all over the place, etc), I think the audience enjoyed the concert? Conductor was being funny during the encore la.. the way he tried to 'conduct' the audience, getting them to clap loudly during the forte parts and softly during the piano parts -.- I was trying to hold back my laughter for the 2 encore pieces cos' well, it was both funny and fun!

I will miss the J2s though we didn't exactly bond as much as the other sections did...

Of course, this performance is nothing like the handbell ones..
I can't back my statement up with a relevant explanation. After all, I'm an ISFJ. It's just the PL spirit that's etched inside me. SCH without the bells this year gave me an odd and empty feeling.


Movie, anyone? Got a craving for salted popcorn -.-

Claire said...

clairetan™ // a shining light ♪// says:
i cant get in
clairetan™ // a shining light ♪// says:
keeps rejecting my password
joyce says:
i'm staying awake by eatning prawn crackers
joyce says:
wasabi-flavoured
joyce says:
Userid : acjc
Password : (censored for obvious reasons)
joyce says:
why ah
clairetan™ // a shining light ♪// says:
dunno
clairetan™ // a shining light ♪// says:
wth wasabi-flavoured
clairetan™ // a shining light ♪// says:
u eating again
joyce says:
(L)
joyce says:
what "again"

Do I eat THAT much?

Maths test

Yay! My H1 maths class got back test results today.. and I got 18/25 which means it's 72% which also means it's an A!!! I think I can get promoted at the end of the year.. just have to focus more on my H2s now or prepare to retain.

To God be the glory,
THE BEST IS YET TO BE :D

------
This is Derek's line, damn cute

My eyelids are talking to me:
"Please sleep! We buay tahan already."

Counting down to enCOre

Happy birthdays..
20th to Simon,
17th to Sophia and Jessica =)

Instead of constantly lamenting about how there's so much work to be done, I decided to just shut up, stop complaining and hurry up and get started on my work. That includes planning my ever-so-tight schedule (study for this, study for that, work on project, ....). Next week is going to be a real hectic week, especially for the CO.

We're having practice every day, 7 days a week, you see.

On top of that, there's Chinese oral (class test) tomorrow, econs test on Tues, GP package test on Thurs, GP independent learning assignment/project due on Fri.. My weekend will be dedicated solely to CO, which means there's totally no time to do the recording for 10 Chinese oral passages and the lame ecconect (some econs thing) economic analysis and summaries which are both due on Monday and Tues respectively (week after enCOre).

Oh man I can't imagine life without the J2s in CO... I know they don't want to step down, but I don't think they have a choice on this.


I ran for my 2.4 on Thursday.. and I'm so gonna re-run it. It was most unfortunate that that day had to mark the start of yet another cycle. I did not meet my personal target =(

The whole of 1AA3 is so gonna get into deep shit tomorrow. Long story man. If I get another DC, it'll mean 1 demerit point for me.

keep those tags coming in. haha

Randomities

Remember I said I had geog test? I got the dates mixed up. The test is this Friday. Have I studied? No. What did I do today?

Prayed silently that lao shi won't make me present during Chinese,
got lost during bio lecture on cell division (no idea what sir is talking about),
ate mamee during maths tutorial, was surprised that I actually could do functions,
slept on 3 chairs during PW (everyone else was slacking),
reminisced The PL Times with Rachel J during GP, talked and talked with some other classmates like there was no tomorrow during GP (sir wasn't in class),
helped Claire pay for her maths TYS (need to chase her for money soon. i need cash)
bought PE shirt from the gym,
took the train back to Kovan (Ang Ren was supposed to train back with me since he lives in Punggol, but this boy PS-ed me at 4.09pm. I said it's alright but I didn't mean it hahah wth i 口是心非),
went to Popular to get a notebook for piano lesson, saw Sheevonne there and chatted for awhile (then found out her CT is Ms Jean Woo -- my CT for PAE -- and she's taking the exact same combi as me, so is Priya, and they are classmates),
rushed home, KO-ed for 10 minutes, took my piano stuff and rushed off for lesson till 7pm (wasn't really absorbing the music theory Ms Thanh taught),
went to NTUC (fairprice) to hunt for snacks (bought 2 cans of coffee, peanuts and prawn crackers. unhealthy. I wonder how I survived O level period without canned coffee just because Ken made me refrain from drinking it),
went to get bubble tea, got reminded of Char Seow (we met up some time ago, went to SweetTalk near the Dover market. that's when i knocked over the whole container of straws and apologised frantically and even offered to pay for the straws but the woman said never mind, I think she was lying. she obviously minded.),
rejected some weirdo guy who tried asking for donation (it was not licensed, i lied and said i've just spent all my money. wanted to say "i only have ezlink card" but didn't),
walked home, had dinner, did a soduku puzzle on the Today paper while in the toilet, found out about the 2 teams competing for some ultra-fast wired network thing (omg no.. econs again),
went for tuition at Joey's house (we were giving blank looks. cause: fatigue. i had a hard time trying to concentrate),
went home to try the PE shirt, took a bath (at 11pm?),
tuned erhu and started practicing till either 1230 or 1am, fell asleep -.-, got up to keep the instrument, went downstairs to pack my bag and now I'm here doing redundant stuff like blogging about what I've been up to -___- I wanna study geog but I can't, there's 2.4km run and I need the sleep. zzz I'll just study in the train then. Or fall asleep standing up.

Speaking of train.
This morning when the train stopped at Buona Vista, the train door at the carriage I was at did not open. Okay it did open but only a by a few centimeters. We couldn't possibly pry it open right. There were about 5 other acsians and we had to walk to another door, which almost closed on me since I was the last one to get out.

I think I'll reply the tags tomorrow. I'm off to brush my teeth =) HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOHPIA !!!!!!!!

"Memories' closet"

Congratulations to Xi Ying for making it into the SR SC!!
Congrats to Man Ling too, for getting through the interviews for the BA thing!

I was sending Claire some photos from last year's Japan trip, since she was in MG strings and she was there as well. WE WERE SO NEAR, YET SO FAR. lol. So anyway as I was browsing through the photos, almost everything from the photos from the barker camera to my own camera, there came the influx of memories... again. I miss the trip so much =( I miss the fun times with my juniors and own batch mates, everything from SYF to Kaleidescope to Japan trip to the last minute Toastmasters.. I miss the ringing handbells. I miss Mr Fong and Mrs Wong. I miss being the real me, fooling around and being unglam without bothering about who's looking, being put through the stress of "performance is just around the corner and we haven't even master the pieces yet", etc....
In short, I miss being in PL. 4c2 2007, clique, handbell choir, o level music class of 2007, peer lites of 2006.. Sheesh.

KHOO XI YING, I STILL ADMIRE YOU!! YOU ARE DAMN STRONG, SERIOUSLY. HAHA
And no, I don't own any banana (somehow this sounds wrong), but there's a banana tree planted outside my house with large bananas growing there :D

Weeeee I just completed my econs summaries and economic analysis (which is crap) of 2 newspaper articles... AND a 300-word letter of explanation for my late submission -_- waste 5 pages of paper and ink.

ACJC Chinese Orchestra presents...

enCOre
18 May, Sunday
(next day is vesak day)
7.30pm
Singapore Conference Hall
$12

It's cheap for an AC-based concert ok. If you fall asleep, it's because 1) you dunno how to appreciate Chinese music, or 2) the music is SO nice that it makes you sleep. Tickets available from any CO member. i.e. me. Your support is very much appreciated.
I will not be performing for the ensemble item. Only for the pieces with the main orchestra.

tag replies
WH and jace YEAH MAN I CAN TALK :D
Daniel; ya, love GP when I know I'm screwed for this term's CA?? no way man!
Fee; studying has never been fun, except when OLM is together at bishan library!!
xiying; OK I'LL SLEEP BY 3AM TONIGHT =)
sop; next time someone does that, you try holding the top of the pole, above the person's head. can air your armpits - free smells for that person ;)

The train experience

Check out the time... no, I didn't wake up at 5am, fact is I didn't sleep at all.
I don't intend to sleep either. I completed my GP essay on education, and I'm reading some article for econs which I'm supposed to summarise but I think I can't do it on time.. I'll just face the shit from Mdm. Aaahhhhhh. I didn't even study for my geog test. I'm so screwed.

Can't sleep because there'll be the super-zombie effect when I wake up after an hour or so. Jia Yan will know what I'm talking about =) Xi Ying will know too, I think.

Since I'm awake, I'll talk about what I've been planning to talk about. Type, to be exact. It's the MRT experience.

Being a commuter on trains run by companies SMRT and SBS Transit, I wanna comment on the comfort level of the trains. Trains on the NEL (by SBS) have wider seats allow for more personal space. That's good. HOWEVER, when it comes to ventilation, SMRT trains win hands-down. Sitting in an NEL train is fine, one can still feel the cool air. But standing wise, it's quite terrible. It can get warm unless you're standing in between two carriages where the ground isn't 100% flat. After a long walk past the construction site towards the station near the school under the glaring heat of the sun, I'm likely to start perspiring. Climate change is pushing temperatures up so it's getting worse. What I'd like after the daunting walk would be some air-con right? Yes, I get that when I board the train, the SMRT train. Something which is lacking in SBS trains.

Having to stand daily for a total of more than an hour on trains has enabled me to compare the ventilation level of the two trains. (What a thing to do.. ) During peak hours (I happen to always travel during peak hours), the train can get really packed and it's like the mass and rapid transit of people, a train full of sardines... literally. SMELLING like sardines, some people. I do get unlucky sometimes and stand behind or near people with terrible body odour, or they just seem to have this unpleasant smell which leaves me gasping for fresh air especially when travelling on SBS trains. My point is that SBS trains could improve on the ventilation level for standing commuters. Not just the ones sitting.

One other annoying thing which happens on trains is when people lean on the poles when it's crowded. It's crowded, so there are a lot of people standing around, most will want to hold on to the pole or the handle thing right? Some pest just has to lean on the pole so the rest standing around the pole cannot hold on to it. That really gets me frowning. I tend to lose my balance when traveling on SMRT trains. There's something about their tracks that makes the whole ride bumpy. So I'd usually hold the metal bars unless I'm nowhere near it, or an inconsiderate person (who is probably unaware of the inconvenience caused by his/her action) is leaning on it.

Since I spend so much time traveling by train daily, I've more or less gotten used to the shakiness and learned how to balance properly. One method which has aided my balance is to read something and have my eyes glued to the paper while standing in the train. It helps divert my attention to whatever I'm reading, instead of thinking that I'm gonna fall.

Regarding the frequency of trains during peak hours, well.. SMRT should increase it in the morning. Evenings and late afternoons are fine. SBS should just increase their frequencies both in the morning and and evening. And late afternoon. The crowd is badddd, with most people boarding at Outram Park and Dhoby Ghaut. It takes between 5 to 8 minutes for a train to come and on some mornings I miss it by a few seconds which kinda means GG for me. I can say hello to DC or run from Buona Vista MRT station and end up sweating buckets.

There's this video thing which is being played on repeat mode on trains.. I've watched it so many times, I'm sick of it. Now I refuse to look at it. It's about the big black bag being the bomb and all of them evacuating the train because the lady informed the staff about the bag... -.-

I better go pack my bag and prepare for school now. Wish me luck.

update

This will be a quick update... i'm BUSY BUSY BUSY with school work

I can talk like a normal person now =D I can also eat whatever I like. Praise God man or I'll still be complaining of sore throat now.

I now have 2 DCs in my record. One more, and I'll get a demerit point -.- I was late on Monday, you see. So that's another DC. Was ALMOST late on Wednesday, I stepped into the school hall at 7.29am. That morning I prayed for energy to run to school from the MRT station, I didn't want to have my 2nd DC for the week. And yes God did help me reach on time. Although I ended up sweating like a pig.

I lost my arts faculty shirt in school after PE... pity the person who picked it up.

I took my NAPFA 5-items test on Wednesday. I was having mild stomach cramps, an improvement from Tuesday (severe cramps). Usually I'd aim for a gold, this year I just aimed for a silver though I very much want a gold. And darn it I really can say bye to my gold because I got a D for sit-and-reach. The rest are Cs and a B. 2.4km run better get A.

one last thing..
I DISLIKE GP!!