Ye Qu

One more song from Jay Chou.

Key: F minor (+1)

Pics from stunts

Some pictures, courtesy of cheuk fung:

The "hey baby":

















swing in,

















and use the momentum to lift her up!

















The "shoulder lift"

















hands on her waist, down, up! and you bring her to sit on your shoulders!






















the spin! first stunt we learnt.
right hand clutching her upper abdomen, left hand her calves:

















using the R hand as a fulcrum, turn the girl over to the upright position with the left hand.

















ok this is not officially a stunt but i dunno why the gals like to do it too!

Science of Music

Hey edwin Science of Musik is under programme account, i realised it on the 27th itself... haha... thats why i put "eh dudes u can bid for sci of music and ec1301" besides my nick...

anyway.. woke up today extra early to check... YEAH!!! gotcha.

Dear TAN YONGQIANG,Please find your bidding result for Acad Yr 2005/2006, Semester 2 as follows:

------------------------------------------
Allocated Modules
------------------------------------------

Module Code : PC1327
Module Title: SCIENCE OF MUSIC

woo hoo!!!

think it took away about 200-300 pts from prog account. considered cheap liao.

anyway, hope i can do well in this... its time to compose midi!!

---

ps btw jingwen haha dun feel too sad la....

erm you're not very heavy as in you really dun exert any force on my knee.. but should try... to improve your technique!! haha...

please dun slap me with a 1k-down... that's insane

Yi Fu Zhi Ming

A second-generation Jay Chou song...

Ok jing wen rapped this in kbox!! muz not lose out to her... haha

nice storyline... reminds me of the 50s movie The Godfather. about some italian mafia.

It's Showtime!

Friday, 30th December

7am: woke up. bathed. asked dad to fetch me to SH. forgotten my blue jumpers so had to detour.. shit~

8am: reached SH. delay for a while, then took bus to People's Association (PA) headquarters.

9am-noon: examined the float. still looks magnificent as it was on rag day, thanks to engineers from PA. the bell, which i had helped to lift (damn freaking heavy!!) on rag day, was not there.

Was extremely relieved that i did not have to do positioning in place for aaron, i would have sucked terribly. Instead we would be doing the finale dance only. Did the dance a few times (about 3,4 ?) whilst on the last try the cameraman writhed his way around the dancers.

damn, i'm sure i was NOT smiling when his cam focused POINT-BLANK on me.
if Channel Newsasia (CNA) shows SCD, please pretend u didn't see me on screen. thanks.

rested in the shade for about an hour. lost my water-bottle hence when i forgot to take it later with me. darn.

then i think the photographer from lianhe zaobao required us to pose with the float, so we climbed up on top of the contraception and stuck our magnificent poses. wasn't too bad. the cameraman was quite zai - he just lifted the camera to a spot above his head and then snapped!

12pm-2:30pm: went to Old Airport Road for lunch, tried the lor mee on Flynn's request. It was good, it had fish in it and it was enormous. Took 30 back to SH and slacked in block C lounge until about 2:15pm. found out that cheuk fung was an enormous x-japan fan like shunji. Man, what are they doing in chem eng and dunno each other??

2:30pm-3:30pm: some more practice, then slack.

3:30pm-5pm: the BIG SHOW. ok i was DAMN NERVOUS, and i'm sure i put up an extremely lacklustre performance, it was very "dirty" by cleaning standards. think it got more dirty. forgot this, did that wrongly.

Didn't SMILE.

think jingwen would probably slap me with a "smile 400 times per day" order again to get my zygomatic muscles working.

tried it without my specs on as they kept slipping in slimy sweat. last thing i want is for anyone to crush it afoot during the dance.
think i'll have to get contacts sooner or later.

hopefully they didn't take notice of me. think we passed (whew). anyway the PA rep (some patriotic old lady) gave us a intro to chingay:

Chingay was introduced in 1972 because during chinese new year, some fella played with firecrackers and
blew himself up with others. So then-PM Lee Kuan Yew banned firecrackers (it is still a lame weapon in Liero.) in 1973. As a replacement, he got chinese dancers to make the people happy (something lidat). so chingay has evolved over the next 33 years blah.

And 2006 is the year that NUS is joining the dance, all thanks to Master (who was probably aum chioing away haha). So this is a milestone, all that stuff. Wow makes us feel so great haha. creating history or something.

anyway after that... something incredible actually happened!! i managed to do a "shoulder-sit" with jingwen!! MUHAHAHHAHAHAHA.... i'm feeling good!!
considering jingwen to be the "upper limit" of the gals, i think that is a very good result...

ah, say i cannot do a stunt somemore....

initially think she can't climb up properly and was quite wobbly... almost broke my neck la that #$%^& gal when her CG moved forward and provided her with a forward moment... thank god someone was there to give her a backward force... otherwise...
can't do the "PA" stunt with her becos she can't stand up properly on my knee... haha

then tried to get linqun to do the PA stunt and the "shoulder-sit". feeling damn confident. smirk.
think due to previous experience.. poor gal was too scared to climb on top of people's shoulders.
Arrrgghhhhhhhhhh!!!! Still can't flip her though. oh no, not an excuse to give me 200....

left for home for that well-deserved rest at about 5pm.

The last week of 2005

The last week of the year 2005 just rushed by...

Tuesday: had SCD practice (5pm-8pm). was still struggling to perfect the chingay dance moves and keep getting scolded by fang xi and jingwen, whilst meeting the SMG (sheares motion graphics) people for a meeting at 7pm.

was trying to promote my idea of having an "MTV" showing the chingay dancers in various locations around sheares hall doing parts of the dance, it went through because no one had any other idea.. haha. took 183 with cheuk fung and lin qun.

Wednesday:
10am-12pm: volunteering at children's clinic at NUH. 3rd time already. this time we told them to make "gloves" or mittens in addition with the balloons and icecream-stick-bookmarks.

12pm-2:30pm: had lunch with jingwen and yuantai. yuantai wanted to see the SCD practice. jingwen.. probably can't find anyone for lunch. haha. muz collect fee for my "escort" service. haha...

2:30pm-7pm (yes we ended 1hr late!): SCD. more cleaning, even more mistakes.
BUT - i managed to do stunts!! yay i'm so proud of myself haha. Managed to flip evelyn (from my block) as well as do the "hey-baby" on her. haha. i'm sure jingwen was impressed. stupid man still inflicted 100 on me when i failed to flip edlina in an earlier attempt... no pictures though. later on, got assigned to do the "PA stand" with a gal from block D, karen.

7pm-11pm: rushed to city hall and met up with zhiwei and together we took 36 to ECP for pharmacy bbq! must say it was an insane decision, cos by the time we reached vjc it was about 8:30pm. walked all the way to the bbq area, reached at 9pm, only to see most of the seniors off - there were only a few yr2s (gals) left there, bingxun, the mayi gang (mayi, xinyi, xiu ting and dilys), and yuantai at the fire. muz say the satay he cooked is damn good.

ate my fill of meat and carbon there... played a few rounds of bridge and that's it... packed and left home.

was damn shack by the time i got home... still got hogged by SMG team on the way back alone on a bus 197, wa discussed one day ago expect me to come up with the plot and actors and everything. crazy.

Thursday:
9am-12pm: Woke up at an early 9am. Early cos i slept at about 2-3am.... first thing to do was to switch on the computer and see what can i bid...

amazingly, science of music was available, and it's under Programme account!! which has the bulk of my bidding currency. so dumped 1k points into SoM. hope will get it.

12pm-5pm: jingwen wanted to sing k lunch. Couldn't get lin qun along cos she wanna cut her hair... so got bingxun and tiong phew along.. haha 3 guys versus one gal. met 12pm at clementi, but bx left halfway.

took a vid of jingwen rapping jay chou's yi fu zhi ming with tiongphew!! dunno how to post it here though haha... okok cannot lose out to her. must learn how to rap that cool song. its about some mafia thingy which is damn cool... reminds me of The Godfather.

went back to hall and helped jingwen settle the air con for the hall. for PA people.

5pm-9pm: SCD again... what happened.. i dunno. this week. it seems that my life revolves around SCD... everytime we clean, get screamed, do the same things over and over again, until i sometimes dunno what's going on, or i seh diao. i think the final touchups were done. oh year and i got to sub aaron for tomorrow's Channel newsasia performance. which drove me half nuts cos i have to learn his positioning in the dance over a single day. i learnt mine over 2-3 weeks, btw.

9pm-10pm: took 183 with linqun and cheuk fung to je and had dinner. went back and concussed.

Results out (3)

Somethings about CAP:

lets say u get a CAP of x this sem.

to increase your CAP to x + 0.1, you'll need to score x + 0.2 next sem.
to decrease your CAP, simply score less than x next sem.

ok. lets take a hypothetical situation and say you have a overall CAP of 3.5 for first sem, and u plan to have

2nd sem - overall of 3.6
3rd sem - 3.7
4th sem - 3.8
...
8th sem - 4.2.

you will need to score:

2nd sem - 3.7
3rd sem - 3.9 (assuming u score 3.7 for second sem)
4th sem - 4.1 (assuming u score 3.9 for 3rd sem)
5th sem - 4.3 (assuming u score 4.1 for 4th sem)
...
8th sem - 4.9 (assuming u score 4.7 for 7th sem) - in order to get overall CAP of 4.2.

haiz. crazy.

Conclusion: your CAP in the first sem will probably be the overall CAP for the entire year. unless drastic changes happen, e.g. u get a 2.0 for first sem and get a 5.0 for second sem, which gives u a shitty grade like 3.5 for your efforts.

This is substantiated by the fact that most people would only maintain their CAP (if u don't get a drastic change).

If you want the CAP to increase, you gotta work doubly hard for the same amount of increase. i.e. if u want your CAP to jump by 0.2, target a 0.4 increase.

Boxing Day

Pissed am I!!! arrgghh..

saw one of my secondary school friends' nicks as "to all CSS 4S1 people cya on 26 dec 7pm @ suntec marche"

grrr... no one told me.. damn damn damn damn

ok truth is i dun really hang out with their clique that well, and i never kept in touch, last time we talked was about few years ago.

Arggghhh!! WhO CARES ANYWAY!!! damn.

---

no where to go out.. maybe going to funan with Wang again... haiz i realised that i really have very little friends... its like other than the pharm ppl, all the other friends have vanished into the shadows.

JC - leo and ws are perpetually busy. can't blame them, they are studying like hell even in the hols. taking medicine and dentistry.

Sec - yanzhang and bryan are in army, will see them for only 2 out of 7 days. andy and hans - well should call on them one of these days. rx - requires advance booking, wtf.

hall - ???

---

ccas are horrible too. one good example is sheares chingay dance - first cut is 30th, this friday. excited, i won't say so, i'll leave that for jing wen and fang xi. i just wanna get on and over with it. before the mood gets too tense.

short film - ever since i didn't attend that meeting, no other news. i dunno whether they still want me or not.

motion graphics - my sub-boss has been urging me to attend one of his meetings, to the point that i think he's trying to force it.

eml - guess no song from me this year. no inspiration, no studio ready. sucks, man. this activity promises the most fun, and it's the most interesting of all, yet i chose to dedicate it to something else. wtf.

sometimes i think that i just have a lot of ideas, but when it comes down to doing it, it is a totally different matter altogether... like i wanna make an mtv based on many shots of the pharm ppl smiling away and then insert the "ni de wei xiao" song from F.I.R. hoped to do that with motion graphics but the idea is now kinda sien...

Xmas... few hours later

Can't believe i spent my whole xmas looking at computer screens... unbelivable.

woke up at 1pm and chatted on msn until 3pm.. haiz sien... then played computer games until 5pm. until i seh diao, i didn't even know who was in the house. bad, man. feeling damn seh so took medicine and went to sleep.

Slept from 5pm to 8pm and woke up. then rearranged the final touch to my timetable. blogged.

then watched princess' diaries in the meantime... (incredible huh!! a GUY watching that...) found it rather amusing haha. no other good shows liao. sien.

what a way to spend christmas.... wanna get wang out but thought, i got him out on fri, better let him rest haha. quite sick of seeing him too.

feel like going out on my own. but thought better of it.. the crowds of orchard are too intimidating... i'm damn scared of crowds, they threaten to suffocate people and produce alot of CO2... too much CO2 makes me feel dizzy... proven in crowded MRT trains.

thought of going to the ice-skating rink and sitting there like an absolute loser while watching happy kids skate around the few square meters and teenage couples of 13-18, all damn young, so much younger than me, holding hands and whispering sweet nothings to each other.. sian diao

so i stay at home and get sian. haiz.

p.s. does anyone knows any successor to www.baidu.com??

Xmas

haha didn't go anywhere. sian.no one wanna go out.. i dun fancy asking any of the gals out either.. wait they think i'm crazy haha... or goddamn despo

'tis the season to be jolly!! why am i still so worried about my modules??

just talked to meiqi the little star, via msn... thing is she's holidaying in some faraway land.. haha the wonders of msn. love it. discussed alot about next sem's modules and i'm actually surprised that so many ppl wanna take science of music! haha maybe its the lure of the "no exam" and that they might actually have an unused S/U waiting... haha...

so there:
round 2a: bid for science of music and SS.

worried i wun get both science of music and intro to psycho as she said they are damn popular and the @#$%^&^%$#@ seniors will LAVISH thousands of points... making this poor sod whose general account is so poorly seem so little.

ok round 2a, if i dun get science of music, bid for psych in round 2b. muz get my SS!!

sien. dunno what to do later.

A torn page from the "Teenage Workbook"

found this somewhere in some toilet outside LT20.

--

My dream girl

by (the ink had blotted).

Height (5 cm range): 158-163 cm
Can she be taller than you: nope. i prefer short gals.

Weight (3 kg range): anything is fine with me.. not exceeding 60-65 kg haha
Can she be fatter than you: nope!!! u know how much i weigh??

Age: about plus minus 3 years old is quite ok.

The 3 most important physical qualities she should have are:
1. nice smile
2. nice eyes
3. healthy body

The 3 most important character qualities she should have are:
1. kind, caring and loving
2. full of fighter spirit
3. being able to accept me for who i am

The 3 things i don't want her to have are:
1. too great a figure
2. a beard (haha)
3. should be all right from here

The 3 things my dream girl should never do are:
1. ignore me
2. call me an MCP
3. be unfilial

Have i found anyone who matches up to these standards yet??

Christmas songs!

One of the songs you find playing admist the christmas decorations in any departmental store in Orchard Road.
(Incidentally, i first heard this song when i was holidaying in korea. weird.)

Last Christmas by Wham!

Chorus:
Last christmas, i gave u my heart
But the very next day, u gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to somebody special
Last christmas, i gave u my heart
But the very next day, u gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to somebody special

Once bitten, twice shy
I keep my distance but u still catch my eye
Tell me baby, do u recognise mi?
Well it's been a year, it doesn't surprise me

(Merry Christmas) I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying "I love you" and i meant it
Now i know, what a fool i've been
But if u kissed me now i know you'll fool me again

Repeat Chorus

Crowded room, friends with tired eyes
I'm hiding from u and ur soul of ice
My god, i thought u were someone to rely on
Me, i guess i was just a shoulder to cry on

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover but u tore me apart
Now i've found a real love
Oooh... Now i've found a real love

Repeat Chorus, ad lib, fade.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

(I love this one! wonder has anyone calculated how much stuff the lover gave the singer?? :P)

On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
A partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the third day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the fourth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Eight maids a milking,
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a milking,
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Ten lords a leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a milking,
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a milking,
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a milking,
Seven swans a swimming,
Six geese a laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French Hens,
Two turtle doves
And a Partridge in a pear tree.

Results out (2)

ok, after asking around within pharmacy and other faculties, i've noted a very alarming trend.

the lowest score i've ever noted for any pharmacy dude i known was a high 3.5!

hmm. makes my 4.1 looks "ok".
ok i know i'm gonna get bashed for some of this "sensitive" statement and some other more statements below. i know of some pharmacists who got more than me, in fact most of the people i asked all got more than me, alarming man.

someone who watched naruto during exams and slacked away while i mugged my arse out actually got higher than me!! **jealous**
yes, you. haha. don't run away, i'm talking about you. haha just joking.

ahha. ok. anyway i'm quite satisfied, this calls for a sakae sushi whacking!! whos interested to bleed them dry??

to those who got higher than me, congratulations on a job well done!

to those who didn't get the results they expected, dun feel too sad, know your mistakes (e.g. i shall not play too much civilisation IV next sem) and correct them... then give it your all in the next sem!!

btw, who wanna take SS and science of music?? i'm getting no replies... haiz sien.

Results out!

AY1104
ANATOMY
B+

GEK1534
MICROBES WHICH CHANGED HUMAN HISTORY
A-

PR1101
PHYSICOCHEMICAL PRINC. OF DRUG ACTION
B+

PR1102
PHYSICAL PHARMACY
B+

PY1105
PHYSIOLOGY I
B+

CAP: 4.1

woo hoo!!!

Dong Zhi

Went for chingay dance practice again. I told cailin (choir ic) that i would not be attending all of the remainding dance practices. till now, she has not replied. its quite rude to abandon the choir now. but...

anyway dance practice ended at 6:30pm today. choreo was quite fun. thank god i haven't had to carry any gal anymore!!! yay so jingwen don't force any pushups on me haha. though the warmup session was something damn tiring. crunches for a full 10 mins!!! really make you sweat man. legs hurt, neck hurt, abdomen hurt.
ok i'm fat with a severe 1-pack protruding from the epigastric-umbilical region.

still feeling damn sien during the dance prac, think haven't got over it from yesterday. touched the piano in the music room today with my ultra-itchy hands. ever since my electone spoiled i haven't had a chance to touch anything that looks like a keyboard. shall strive to do so haha. anyway got a bit more cheerful with people cracking jokes and whatever. as fang xi said, we are a more "reserved" group so its less fun. haha.

moves are still flying all over the place. i never knew that the (muscle name) could be adducted/abducted/ extended/flexed/circumdicted. anyway i looked like a clown, but anyway isn't that what they wanted me to be? haha.

think the heat is on for the first group, i.e. the group facing President Nathan. (we are split into two groups and the more zai dancers are in this group). haha i don't feel any heat at all. after all we have three minutes to display what we learnt in 3 months. one shot, one run through, after that, don't think about, "oh i should have arched my back 45 degs more, oh i should have" bla. think no one will know that we are wrong anyway, except maybe fang xi who might be screaming her lungs out at home. haha.

went to sing party world ktv with my two lovely fellow pharmacists-cum dancers, lin qun and jingwen. again. bill came to about $45 for 4h. (last time was $41 for 2h, damn.) sang until my throat gave way and my eyes wanted to close. haha brought the two modernised girls through a collection of my songs, including the evergreen "One night in beijing" and many other songs of the "Four Heavenly Kings". all the songs i heard in pre-primary school, primary school, sec, JC and now. haha. Jingwen and lin qun kept saying that those songs belonged to their father mother grandfather grandmother great-grandfather etc's age but dunno why they still know how to sing. Maybe it's in their genes, ha. Tried some of the hokkien songs but just gave a substandard delivery of "ai pia zia eh yia (ai ping cai hui ying in chinese)". Tried my Beyond's hai kuo tian kong as well as zhang zhen yue's "zi you" and "ai de chu ti yan". haha very very fun. though i wished more people would come, i was hogging the mike almost every other song. haha mui fong went back to eat her nice tang yuan.

and today is dong zhi! was actually CAA when i blogged. dun care much about chinese festivals, only knew mum had made delicious tang yuan waiting for me, and the two gals' probably (had their mums making tang yuan for them) too. so was quite hard to persuade them to come out initially haha but guess lin qun relented in the end! haha. will eat tang yuan after i blog finish.

which is now. oh yeah.. feeling like going for another round of NUH volunteering... maybe like mobile library or adult ward? or another session with the kids... haha they are just so fun, i don't mind going everyday only if i dun get sien... haha

Sem 1 results coming out TOMORROW!!! please please please don't let me fail any thing...

The NKF Saga.. again (General affairs)

Now that the auditors have finally came to a conclusion on what is going on in the now-defunct association called the NKF (it is now currently called the New NKF), it is ghastly horrific to know how much money changed in the wrong hands. Read the newspapers for figures.

Before the NKF saga, the people at NKF were regarded as good samaritans, workers of charity. People put trust in them, even more so with kidney patients, who entrusted their savings to them in exchange for dialysis services. All this for no profit. Or so we thought.

I do not slam the NKF's ground workers - any visit to any NKF dialysis center would show that the nurses and volunteers there are indeed giving their all to help the patients there recover and get on with their lives, despite the gruelling and painful daily dialysis routine they have to endure. As what top NKF management had said, in their many shows, during the many advertisements about their patients and clinics in order to tug at our heartstrings and pursestrings.

But what they did not reveal was the cheating and underhand schemes that were going on. And that top brass lived a lap of luxury while still asking the public to donate and the patients to pay for their live of luxury. This is not acceptable.

I myself am a patient of a chronic disease, and i understand how it is to receive medical treatment daily. The constant worry that, "without the medication or treatment, something will happen to me" is under fire daily, at any moment. More even for the poor patients - my grandfather is one of them - whom most are often in the middle-age or older age group - who dare not protest against any thing for fear of being singled out and just quietly accept the inflated charges, just to live. It would be cruel to take advantage of such a patient - let alone thousands of them.

Now the public is wary about anything of the NKF. Volunteers helping out to solicit for donations will probably return with near-empty tins, despite one full day of sweat and toil in bright sunny afternoons. Ultimately the 1800-strong patients who are on the receiving end of the money will suffer due to insufficient funding. Everyone is now so cautious and wary of all the volunteers, who have nothing but pure hearts - for they do this for no monetary reward - that the charity scene in Singapore may become "paranoid" and "volunteers are treated as potential crooks", according to Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan.

This is extremely sad, as there are and there will still be people who are in need of help, such as kidney patients. Kidney failure ranks among the few most common killers in Singapore (I think). Volunteers must be present, first to help and secondly, to spread the word and assure that there is always care and concern around for people around you. I think that would be the right way to live and that i would not think of declaring as my country a place where everyone suspects each other of cheating each other.

Yet this is the present truth and situation, what i think the current Ministry of Health should do is to restore faith in the volunteers and NKF, make sure the NKF management doesn't screw up again, and hope the NKF or whatever can be restored to its former glory of providing patients with the utmost care.

Oh, and jail that fella Durai. For very long.

troubled soul

woke up today reluctantly after sleeping for a mere 6h. packed my bag for the day: singlet + shorts for dance and one extra black singlet. took No. 3 shoes. waterbottle and mp3 player. scramed for the bus.

Objective #1: pack bag. completed.

wore: yellow t-shirt (maui and sons), black (smooth feel) pants, sports shoes. damn fugly.

went to play with the children at NUH's Children Clinic from 10am-12pm. Damn fun. We were enjoying ourselves, the volunteers and the children. Brings me back to when i was a kid. I am still a kid, anyway.. haha. 2 new volunteers, xiuting (yr 1 pharm) and ??? (???). whoops. forgot name. also one of the 07 male seniors were there too (think it was guoping. yay remembered name).

Objective #2: volunteer. completed. left 1240 from NUH.

took 197 to je library and asked mum to fetch me to imm where i bought 2 black shirts for $70, the only item that i didn't have in my mobile wardrobe (i.e. my bag) for today, for the coming choir carolling. lunch was two double cheeseburgers, then i rushed to sheares hall for SCD prac. heng didn't late. stupid rule set by jingwen.

Objective #3: buy shirts. completed.

the 80kg mastodon stomps around like a tauren chieftain, stunning the crap of all the nearby dancers of one radius. ok. enough crap. i feel that my muscles don't obey much. damn impressed with fang xi and the other more accomplished dancers while taking a dig at myself. wanna play the piano in the dance room...

Objective #4: SCD. completed.

feeling tired and.. more tired after stepping out of the multipurpose hall by 1830 hours. half an hour to... let me see. tiong bahru plaza? called dad to fetch me there. but then.. haiz dunno alot of things went through my head then.. didn't even bother to change to all-black uniform for choir carolling. or whether was it even worth the trouble, i mean i could take a taxi straight to TB plaza, it's not very far from SH. but whether will there be wonderful crowd of welcoming fellow choir members waiting there, or a crowd of people obvlious to my presence, that is something i am uncertain. or certain? will there be a silver tie for me like for everyone else?

i am a lousy singer, that is one thing i admit, i really suck. joined the choir just because no other cultural group would accept me, yes. got assigned to tenor but can't hit the high notes, more comfortable with bass singing though but can't hit the low notes. during practice, the tenors keep coming and changing, and they all give me that "unfriendly" presence. maybe it's because i echo it back, but the end result is that not much talking was done except in the area of work. every choir practice i would just be my own loner, singing just to lend support to the melody, then pulling out asap once the whole thing was over, like a carefully planned military operation.

i am just one voice, a silent voice in a sea of unknowns. and i feel damn tired of the masks that i'm wearing.

ah wad da fug. no silver tie for me.

my dad arrived and i told him to drive me home, i am too tired.

Objective #5: christmas carolling @ tiong bahru plaza: aborted.

Friends

Just recently a friend of mine said that he was so lonely cos his buddy was going to somewhere to study and she felt a bit lonely.. made me think a bit.

Made me recall the time when i just entered uni... army... JC... sec sch... you tend to ask, where are your friends from the previous institution... after a few years with these people i feel that some bonds have formed between us.. and with a change of place and environment they just "poofed" and went on to lead their separate lives.

I came into new locations almost alone. Well entering uni i had edwin as my only classmate from JC, entering JC... no one for the first three months then 2 girls ruoyun and bengli in the same class (though we didn't really talk much)... entering army... no one at all (whos pes e anyway??) and secondary school... two guys walter and wei ting. So as you see, i sort of "shed" off all my previously formed relationships after i leave for a new place to study / work. It is not a very good choice, but i've got no options.. its kinda forced on me.

It's like a sustainable relationship can still be maintained for the first 3 months or so, but then we really go separate ways.

The jokes don't seem as funny.

We no longer laugh and smile at each other as we previously did. Sad... :(

Especially army... when the gals when on to university and lead totally different lives... when the greatest priority is getting a boyfriend, getting a good CAP, and partying and leading the best of their lives, the only thing we have on our army boys' minds is stuff like when is the next parade, when is my POP, when do i ORD. and of course, when is the next off that i can take, and when the freak are the weekends.

I really lost contact with alot of my JC friends when they went to army... leo went to OCS, ws went to sispec and stayed in tekong for the rest of his army life. Culture was so different, every time we went out we would talk non-stop about GPMGs, military competence tests, IPPTs, etc. basically a slew of other acronyms that left me guessing non-stop.

The gals experienced a more drastic change, from initially being able to withstand a few lines of our crap on msn to... being totally unresponsive. Yes, you girls are that 'orrible. One reason i can think of: you lavish all your time on your new-found boyfriends. Anyway, you don't know what we're talking about, you dunno what's a SIT (?) test, you don't have to take IPPT, your weekends are never burnt. And we dunno what the hell is CAP, which profs to make fun of, or which hunks are there in town to admire at.

Yes. we live in two different worlds. Sad. I guess sometimes that's why they say it's hard to maintain a relationship with someone who is an NSF. Seen it, heard of it. Tried, cried.

Sometimes, i'd wish to salvage all these long-lost relationships. Friendster? lame way... i'd wish we can just get together with all the people i know and maybe say hi or talk a few lines and find out what they are doing now, be they from primary sch, sec sch, JC, army.

Something tells me that that would not be so readily done... some things are like the pages of history, once turned it can never be turned back.

The day no sound came out from my electone

Was chatting away with yt when i decided to play something on the electone.
Switched it on, instead of the regular melodies that come from it as directed by my hand, no sound came out.
Checked the headphone jack. No headphones....

Only one conculsion - speakers were dead.

Oh man... The EL87, when i first bought it was still in its prime, marketed as one of the best electones around, along with the EL90, a cousin model. It was purchased at a sum of about fifteen thousand dollars, hell expensive, i dunno how mum coughed up the money to buy it. Compared with the other electones around, marketed by Yamaha or other brands, it was the flagship model. It had the ability to read information from 3 1/2" floppy disks (those small floppy disks used in the 90s) and produce sounds that are in sequence (i.e. 1st part of the music the instrument produces a strings sound, the 2nd part produces a trumpet sound etc), complete with percussion effects.

Hence with the correct score, the electone could be used to basically perform a piece worthy of being on radio or being recorded.

It accompanied me throughout my secondary school years, where it was the envy of my classmates, throughout JC, and the tough days of army where i would come home to listen to its melodies. It was the instrument of choice for composing due to its sequencer function, for two projects and many other potential ones, my very first one in 1998 and the second with Ken Rhee in 2001.

During the removal of my brain tumour in 1999, the first thing that i did after coming back after two weeks of being incarceated in the hospital was to play "Titanic" on the electone. Despite being advised not to do so. Also used to play it at 6am, sometimes without headphones, to the utmost annoyance of the neighbours living downstairs, before i left for school. It became an addiction.

Can't blame it that it died... it its prime i would almost play with it everyday. When i've got nothing to do, just hit the "start" button and electricity fills up its veins in a second or so, then it's ready to play. Perfect for killing small periods of time.

For so long i've treated as a honoured friend in my home, always there to listen to what i have to say, all my troubles at school, in army or elsewhere, or when i'm happy, to share my joy together. It would always be patient, listening to endless playings of Pachebel's canon in D, to all my silly mistakes.

Deep sigh.

I guess i would call someone to replace the speakers. Thing is, they're inbuilt, and probably no one knows how to do it, it's quite obsolete by now, every since the rise of more sophisticated models after it. Sigh.

Electones. Not many people really play them now. Some pharmacists i know were also hit by the "electone" craze - actually i believe their parents were hit by it, then they wanted their children to play it as a substitute for the piano - Jan, Candice, Jingwen. There's also Jason from sheares hall in my block, which is rather surprising. I'd wish i'd just learn to play the piano.

I think i'd always taken the ability of playing music for granted. When i wanted a middle C, i get one, when i wanted a D7 chord, i get one. Now when i want some music, i go to the computer and play an mp3 file, i have to figure out the chords myself, which is not satisfying. I can't get the sad, lonely feeling of a C Major 7 nor a sharp concluding feeling of a C7. maybe on guitar, maybe.

Maybe now, the house will get a little quieter.

Love

Love is like a tub of ice cream - it's sweet, but it melts easily. Eat too much of it and u kena diabetes.
-anon

haha just came from a session of msn.. mass chat again

xuanwei and zhi wei were trying to "unlock the safe".. but failed as many before her did. muhahhaha... as long as i'm sane or sober the safe's safe.. haha

yep keep asking me who she is, who i like, that kinda stuff.. i mean why do people wanna know? maybe if i say she's from pharm. haha

the awful truth: there is nothing inside the safe.. truth is, i dun know myself. "who do i like? i dunno."
this thing is like falling down a snowy mountain slope in a james bond movie: you dunno whether you will be ok, which cliff will you land on, which route will you take. totally unpredictable.

but isn't that part and parcel of life...? its unpredictability...

you can like someone, but someone doesn't like you. or you don't like someone, but someone likes you.
and how on earth do you know that that someone likes you?
its very likely that you like someone, but that someone is not gonna sit around, as normal gals probably should have someone in mind, and that someone is not probably gonna be you.

so like what zhiwei said, how u know that she likes you at all? or treats you as a friend? and how do you know in the shortest possible time so you can forget about it and move on?

haiz. sometimes i really ask, how much am i in control of myself. or how much am i in control of my feelings.

Lazy Saturday

Haiz. Next week is gonna be siong:

19th, Monday
Maybe cycling trip to east coast park or carolling practice in sheares hall in the afternoon.

20th, Tuesday
Sheares Chingay Dance (SCD) at 5pm-9pm. Actually i'm still free but thought of making it back to SH in the evening really turns people off.. unless its a morning outing.

21st, Wednesday
Children's Clinic in the morning. Yay! gonna have more fun again. Must know the girls' names. They all know my name (cos i'm the only guy there) but i dun know theirs, how embarrassing.
SCD in the afternoon, 2:30 - 6:30pm. Gonna leave halfway and prep for:
Carolling at Tiong Bahru Plaza, 7pm - ?. First of three sessions.

22nd, Thursday
SCD in the afternoon again followed by carolling at White Sands Plaza in the evening.

23rd, Friday
SCD in the afternoon at 2:30 pm again, followed by more carolling at Hougang Mall at 4pm.

On top of that... i still have one song to compose for EML, one script for Short Film and one idea for Sheares Motion Graphics (which is to be due by Mon, they told me on Fri, excellent.)

Wonder why i psychoed myself to join so many activities... some of them like choir i dun really enjoy that much, but i still went... anyway choir is easy, i thought it was a free kill during the time we auditoned for hall ccas. just read the score and picture the pitch of the note in your head, then sing it. if u know how to read scores or have had some musical training then singing isn't really too hard.

short film and motion graphics.. i've always had an idea in making visuals. but no equipment (cameras, video cameras are hell expensive!!) however i was always thinking of making parodies, as inspired by the antics of Weird Al Yankovic (haha) and the other spoofs found on the net. another idea was to make MTVs together with music.. haha

as for chingay dance... well it's a chance to be on national tv for once... and it's something nice to dance to, after i've seen what the (previous groups of ) dancers have put up for rag. after all they won 4 awards for it, hence it got nominated for national tv. feels kinda intimidating though, i've never danced anything before in my life, perhaps my own version of "flashdance" (haha), and they said i improved alot (which means that before the improvement i really suck.) give some face to jingwen too la. pity man, not easy managing a motley troupe of 30 dancers and attempting to make this feasible for the nation's eyes.

i wanna play civilisation 4... went to wang's house yesterday (and ponned choir prac). great game.

i dun wanna create anything... no inspiration.. no inspiration...

NUH Volunteer Visit

Yesterday was quite a busy day... Woke up at 8:40 am feeling extremely sleepy, but nevertheless had to drag myself to the washroom and get ready for the day.

Today's agenda was a voluntary visit to NUH at 10am sharp, but before then Mum drove me to the neighbourhood temple for some quick blessings. Reached NUH at about 10:00am, met up with stephanie, poh leng, lay nee, xue fen, and hui lin in the volunteer room at NUH's MSW (medical social work) department. i must say it's quite intimidating to meet about 5 gals when you're the only guy there.

Job today: to entertain people in Clinic A, Children's specialist clinic, for approximately 2 hours. We will teach them to make balloons and bookmarks. Well, i've been to clinic A on a regular basis for seeing a doctor there about my epilepsy, and according to jingwen who did the job on monday it didn't seem to be very hard.

So we went. There is a side room (a creche?) where all the kiddy toys were there (chairs, tables etc) enough to sit a group of nice toddlers, next to the main waiting area. there were two kids there and they were colouring some drawing but we forcefully evicted them from their tasks and forced them to PLAY WITH US!! haha. no la. just kidding. anyway myself and xuefen got the balloon pumps working (darn those pumps, they're darn inefficient, i had to expand almost half of my energy to get one up), while the other more enthusiasic and loquacious gals began to chat the kids up.

we got them to draw a face on the balloon (about 10cm in diameter), i.e. eyes, nose, smiley, some ears, then we tore strips of construction paper and stuck it (with glue) on the "head", i.e. the balloon to create the hair. Sounds easy enough. Then to make it even nicer the gals (fellow pharmacists) have came up with stickers to paste on the balloon's "cheeks", forehead etc. The kids also weaved a few nice ideas, for example sticking shirts and dresses on the bottom of the balloon (which i would have never thinked of).

then inspiration hit me and then i blew up a blue balloon and attached a mohawk-like hairstyle to a menacing face... haha like some skinhead. very easy. just take a rectangular piece of paper, fold along the length, then give a few spaced-out cuts along one side. not bad.

the gals also gave the kids some alphabet macaroni (i.e. macaroni shaped in the form of letters.) to stick onto coloured ice-cream sticks and then attach a paper clip onto it as a bookmark. sounds easy too, but finding the required letters was a matter of quick scanning... haiz. didn't take some pictures back... only took one picture of our "last customer" haha. sorry cannot reveal any thing about what the kids said or the nature of their illnesses.

Intermezzo

then when i finished, jingwen called me if karaoke (k-lunch) was still on the agenda. well although choir practice was just yesterday, i was quite sick of singing all those christmas songs, like every song got christ or jesus or he is born. And i sang tenor so i was using falsetto very often.

But, the temptation to sing again in k-box is too much for me to bear... and so i rushed over to clementi where the poor gal was waiting all by herself and sung k-box with her. never been to the clementi branch of k-box so it was quite an eye-opener... heartland singing.

performed a nice rendition of zhang zhen yue's (yes, that bald rocker) zi you (freedom). not much of a time, although cos we only had two hours to sing. But who cares, its goddamn cheap!!! only about 7.50 per person. and now i sound like a spendthrift.

SCD...

again rushed back to sheares hall just in time to begin dance practice. i dunno why i actually can do the whole set (well, not perfect moves), like i could actually catch the timing for the entire finale dance. so happy for myself haha. well that took some of the stress away i guess. then fang xi (dance instructor) taught us the WHOLE THING, i.e. from the start of the music to the end. whew, it's gonna be hard memorizing those sequence of steps. and i'm not lifting lin qun but a (relatively lighter) girl called felicia (?) whom i have no prior contact with.

ok, the worst thing about the first part is that i have to SPIN felicia in 2 counts (i.e. about 1 second), then in the time of 1.25-1.5 seconds run over to another group and muster enough strength to lift puay san together with another guy called yiming, carry her for about 2 seconds and carry on with the dance! arrrgggghhhhh!!!!! what the hell!! so shack man. soooo shackk...

the whole thing took longer than i expected, the entire four hours from 2:30 to 6:30. i've never felt so drained before, but i've never danced until this standard before too so i guess it balances out.. went down for dinner by uncle vincent (friendly hall caterer), FOC. food was great, but i think i felt a bit sick already... haha... danced too much. made my way back to home about 8pm and fell asleep promptly.

Sem 2's Modules

Just received a message from a friend today that Semester 2's modules are out!!! So went to check.

This sem, i will be taking:
1) Pharmacy Practice I (PR1103)
2) Physiology II (PY1106)
3) Fundamentals of Biochemistry (LSM 1401)

as compulsory modules. I'm thinking of taking:

4) One SS, either it be
Singapore Society (SSA 1201)
Evolution of a global city state (SSA 2211)
Employee Management in Singapore (SSB 2216)

depending on the recommendations of other people, the workload and the number of known people going (haha, but very important). No Political science or geography modules for me, will die one. S/U ing of this module is highly likely.

5) One extra module (should be a breadth)
Introduction to Psychology (PL1101E)
Introduction to Social Work (SW 1101E)
Introduction to Computing (IT1001)
or any other module that anyone is taking in high number (maybe a language?)

and lastly, i think i'm acclerating!

6) Science of Music (GEK 1519 / PC 1327)
a module which i have been aiming at since before i entered NUS, and of which i am confident i will score at least a B (wah, damn confident huh!!)

haha... that is to say if i dun fail any thing la. sighz.

The most stressful two weeks in any holiday life

today, the 14th of December, seems a peaceful day... i've got my first session of children's clinic (yay i hope it's fun) and the now-almost-daily chingay dance (SCD) performance.

Two things that lie deeply on the agenda:

1) Chingay Dance. whatever crap i have to grunt in disapproval for this item, i've already said my two cents' worth. However the main thing is that the first cut (i.e. the first time we show this thing to the authorities) is at 31 Dec!! which is about 2 wks away. and i still have to perform, let alone perfect, some stunts like throwing people around. the finale moves are extremely shaky and comes from a man whose energy seems to have been sapped...

haiz. not that i dun wanna practice but my muscles are spent.. guess i'm not meant to be a dancer. in one month's time, no matter how much the mo gui (demon) style training.

2) EML: time to compose some stuff! theme: outer space. time: 2 weeks. inspiration: nil. shit man. hope i dun have to tell the guys in 2 wks time, hey, i'm out of brain juice, so i'll sell your cds for ya?

other issues:

3) sheares choir: guess i'll have to do a substandard job, cos i'll only attend 1 (ok, maybe 2) rehearsals before i'm subjected to an onslaught of 3 carolling sessions, 5 songs. hell. keep hearing the alto singers' melodies cos they're just a third above what i'm supposed to sing or my voice goes and i find myself singing bass. lets just get it over and done with.

4) short film: got plot, no script. nothing to say.

5) volunteering: nothing to say...

6) fable: ...

man, suddenly going back to school doesn't seem so bad after all.

Change of the Guard

... the song rather.

Previously playing: suteki da ne from Final Fantasy 10 (you can find it from FF shrines. google it.)

Now playing: tears by X-Japan (huh? X- what??) ok just scroll down a few entries below and you can find the lyrics. Its a very moving song, one of the few that can have a man in tears (me). i got the .wav file for this, no more midi!

come listen a bit when u feel abit :(
it helps (if u are receptive..?)

enjoy all.

more stuff to do

whew.
today got SCD and EML practice.

SCD took the practice to a higher level. must get from jingwen the dance track. this time we tackled the cresendo part (the start) to somewhere near the arabic part of the song and discovered how the first stunt would be used...

regretfully.. all must do the stunt... looks like that is the case. the stunt involves flipping my partner (lin qun??) about 360 degs about a plane. hope lin qun doesn't get any abrasions, sprains or strains (oops think i strained her neck today, i'm so sorry man... so sorry so sorry so sorry so sorry so sorry so sorry)

no strength man. still no strength. sien. aching all over. no endorphins like tuesday. sien.

the new moves are pretty dastardly too. horrible, given that i can't even manage the first set (finale dance) they taught. too slow!! no smile!! no precision!!!

then after that, got EML. a 2 hour meeting, i almost died. basically:

have to help out with the EML concert (logs).
have to compose a piece by dunno when.

the theme for this year's (2006) concert is Outer Space. Sounds weird. guess we'll have to play with SE (sound effects), frequency filters, etc. pretty technical stuff. well which is what the regulars are completely capable of doing.

i'm thinking of using samples which depict the launching of a space shuttle (rem Apollo 13?) stuff like metallic voiceovers (10...9...8... etc) with rocket launching and fuel burning effects.. something like To The Moon and Back by Savage Garden.

see first..

thought of

Pictures from my 21st birthday

ok, decided that uploading the pics on the other entry was too much for Blogger.

darn blogger, can only upload max of 5 pics.













pharmacy friends
back row: choon han, jevin, tiong phew, weida
front row: yuantai, yi jiang, myself, edwin, bingxun. no gals.. sad.












jc friends
from left to right: leonard, yew sen, shunji, myself, edwin, waiseng, boonwee, lay teng.












secondary school friends
left to right: yanzhang (ah pek), wang (wang), myself (tan), han yi (hans), bryan, andy, youli, runxin.













my best female friend (in her own words) ... i present to you... runxin











my mum couldn't get a cake shaped in the form of an electone, so she got a guitar-shaped cake instead.

The Chingay Dance Song

whew. 6 entries in one day. guess i must have nothing really to do.
well what can you do with an aching body like mine?

---

Sheares Chingay Dance Song
Basement Jaxx - Do Your Thing

(each line is 8 beats unless otherwise stated)

I don't need no TV, I don't need no news
All I need is a bumping beat, to bump away my blue-ue-ues

(16 beats)

I don't give a damn what the people say (4 beats)
I'm gonna do it my way, gonna do it my way, boom boom b'boom, a bang bang bang

I gotta let it all out, do my thing, boom boom boom and a bang bang bang
Boom bang, boom b'bang bang, boom bang, boom bang bang

Chorus:
Do your thing, yeah (4 counts)
Do your thing, make my body sing
Do your thing, yeah (4 counts)
Do your thing, your thing, my thing, oh oh oh oh
Let me see you do your thing now (4x)

(the choreography ends here. frankly, it is enough. although only 1:05 has elasped on the clock.)

Say shut your mouth!
You're in a fatal tizz..
Free the mayhem in your mind, release the need inside of you
You're going to suffer!
Because the crowd's so far!
Do your thing, Do your Thing

boom boom b'boom, a bang bang bang

I gotta let it all out, do my thing, boom boom boom and a bang bang bang
Boom bang, boom b'bang bang, boom bang, boom bang bang

Repeat chorus

Pie Chart Quiz

http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quiz.php?id=57

Kindness Kindness is most important in a boyfriend/girlfriend. You want someone who will go through everything with you - the best moments and the worst, and all of those other moments in between. You love to be able to say anything to your partner, and have them say anything to you. You are able to be extremely close with your partner for that reason.

Dispute

So shocked to hear that, during the chalet, people actually quarrelled..

Pity.

The motive of organising a chalet is to seek fun, mend gaps and make friends.

Not otherwise.

Hoarse

whew, can't believe i went to sing karaoke twice this week. almost went three times.

first visit was on tuesday after SCD practice. went with two beautiful (haha) ladies, lin qun and jingwen. jingwen said she got some membership card so i thought, hmm why not? and i haven't sang anything since the end of the Sem 1 exams.

hence about 11pm the three of us went down to Clementi's Party World KTV. at that time, i didn't know that singing at such an hour was a big mistake. it is freaking expensive!!! the original price was $79 for 3 pax. hell ex!! as we were about to leave, the owner offered us a package of $41 for 2 hours. Still not very good, but what the hell, we just took it..

man, the girls' voices are definitely soprano (well they are girls after all, and i love to hear feminine voices, haha). and they were good, whereas my voice was at least two octaves lower than them.

after that sent the gals back to hall. got stuck in hall cos the stupid taxi driver pressed the meter once the girls alighted (before i could say i wanted to go to jurong east). spend a night in sheares hall, block a, lounge. probably the only chance i could have.

Total expenditure: estimated at about $15 for the karaoke and $0 for the taxi fare. Oops still have to return jingwen her $3.70.

---

then the second visit came on thursday with the guys and... muifong. originally our female singers included the reknowned xuanwei and xin ran, but due to... last minute arrangements they had to back out from the day's singing. shunji was there too. thank god that muifong was in a good mood or something (haha i've never seen her in a bad mood anyway), she sang to her heart's content and boy, she was good. Well guess could expect nothing less from a choir gal.

shunji was especially roaring with his Beyond songs, most of which i tried to sing along but it was in cantonese, and the rest just listened. i loved the renditions of "Paradise" and "hai kuo tian kong" (of which i performed in cantonese, surprisingly) which was performed with great gusto.

of special mention was yijiang. he sangs a big portion of the songs at the end, even some songs i dunno... if it wasn't for this visit probably no one knew he had such talent.. haha

Day 2

Woke up at 5am, by someone laughing in the room outside (guess was tracy. Dunno why she became quite hysterical.. haha, must be the bridge). Found jevin, Edwin, tracy and Chelsea playing bridge. Can’t sleep afterwards. The dudes were then playing mahjong downstairs and I thought that was more interesting, so I went down to have a look.. till about 7-8 am.

While I was looking at their antics, in the hope that this would make me tired and rest, it was to no avail. I was still fully awake at 10am – by that time most of the guys had woken up and Jevin mobilized them to return the bikes to east coast – about 17 of them.

Amazingly, this included everyone in the chalet except me… ha. Perfect, I closed all the doors and everything, drew the curtains, set the aircon to full blast, and slept away in the living room on a 3-seater couch. Best sleep I’ve ever had.

Someone woke me up at about 1:30 pm (think it was xuanwei’s message). The next hour was spent on logistics about the barbecue and on getting people who had not yet arrived to the chalet. Amazingly, one of the earlier guests which arrived was Prof Bernard, yes, in his trademark blue shirt and working pants and windbreaker.

The people who went to buy stuff all came back at 3:30 pm, some of them went bowling, some went to the beach, some in the guest rooms upstairs, knocked out. Some of the people who just came immersed themselves in the mahjong table who was sitting there seductively looking at us (that includes myself), or helped out with the barbecue, setting the fire and marinating the food.

Guess all I wanted then was a break… din’t mind the sedentary lifestyle and soon it was about evening time, about 6-7pm, and more people were arriving on top of the more people. A whole lot more people than me and yuantai were expecting. Very shockng indeed. Some of them i din't really know.

Ok, actually i forgotten what happened during the evening from 6pm to 9pm.. remembered mahjong, playing the laptop with all the retro songs until niron took over with his hip-hop, some tv, not much food, and drinking with niron, farveez, parry, zhong hao and choon han. The beer turned into ice, same for whatever drinks we put in the cooler (by now we called it a freezer), after some clever defrosting by weida, it tasted a bit "off" as what the guys put it, but still drinkable. I felt that it tasted the same - bitter.

Along the dialogue, Prof B mentioned that he was about to leave for Aust to study what he had originally hoped: medicine. Well done, man. Suddenly i felt a sense of loss - an undescribable feeling that perhaps could only be identified as a sense of loss. Bernard was an interesting man, no doubt, one of superior intelligence, and perhaps most of the class pitted their academic abilities against his own, took him to be a benchmark for greater improvement. But what made him shine in my eyes was that he was a outgoing person, going for every outing that the guys organised - and taking a main role in it, rather than be someone who coops up in his hostel room and mugs the night away when the chance comes. Maybe he's just smart enough.

When he paid his $10 for the chalet, i was expecting him to give me $10 straight, but instead he took out a pack of cards and bidded me to choose a number, i chose "7", then he told me to pick the 7th card. It was a "10" of diamonds, and then from himself he gave me a nicely folded $10 note in a diamond shape.
Interesting way. Wish i'd got to know the person more.

The bulk of the guests started filing out at around 9:30 or so, the last of them went back at 10:30, whoever was left behind would be the "campers".

Retribution

Whew, can't believe i went through a grand total of 04 sessions of Sheares Chingay Dance (SCD) prac. Only.

And i'm feeling like shit now.. muscles are spiralling out of control. This is the price to pay for slacking for 3 years? 5 years? without any physical tests of sorts. And now i have it.

And jing wen expects me to get in shape within 2 months.. every day do 200 pushups for the dance.. wah lau... impossible la.. maybe ladies version can... in order to lift gals up.

Woo.. at least my dance partner is lin qun from pharmacy as well.. at least we can talk to each other, rather than giving me a complete stranger from ???. Feels absolutely weird then. haiz. She's not as heavy as she claims to be, haha, at least i can lift her in the air for about 1-2 seconds. That was wednesday when my muscles were'nt so fatigued. Thing is, whether anyone can sit on my shoulders without my entire self crumbling is another thing...

The choreography is driving me nuts too. The song itself is at a sizzling speed of 129.5 bpm (beats per minute), meaning that i'm usually out of breath and my actions totally go haywire by half the dance.

Haiz. wish i was 10 kg lighter or something.

I CAN DO IT!!!

I CAN LIFT LIN QUN UP!!! urgh. wish i was dead.

Sheares Hall Dance

Can't believe I exercised for two hours, it was the longest period of time i had ever exercised since... i dunno when. Even JC's PE lessons wasn't that long.

Whew. Must consolidate consolidate consolidate... I know i can memorise the steps... but can i tahan the physical exhaustion?? This freaking dance is about 130-140 bpm, perhaps even faster. My joints are so inflexible....

Plus point: can rejoin the block A guys in the dance (at least i have some company, half the dancers are A'cers) and can do something for the hall and myself.. haha it will be some acheievement.
Also, can slim down (hopefully). I dun mind repeating it 10 times, better than jogging anyway.

OK gotta scram for dance training again before jingwen or who else starts to niao me again....

Chalet (Day 1)

Woo after the long stretch of events i've finally had a chacne to catch a breather... and blog about the pharm chalet
A total of 49 people came, which is a result that guess would wow any pharm batch.. haha. think the seniors are rite, this batch is certainly more fun-loving than others.. though i've never seen the rest of the batch though.

my account of the two days:

woke up around 10am after a long night at wang's place ( i returned home first). washed up, then about 11:00 am waited for dad to come and partially clear my room at SH. Got the speakers, my toiletries, some clothes, that's about it. Bought the beer from Giant, 24 cans of Carls at about $60. dad had a emergency meeting at serangoon, so we left all the stuff in the car and he drove to his meeting, leaving me at clementi.

Glitch #1: then, i discovered my HP was almost dead: only one batt left... shit. And i posted on the yahoo groups that everyone going to the chalet was to call me... haiz

Glitch #2: found out that i had left my Bailey's at home. frantic, called jevin to pick it up from my house but no one's at home. so i had to ask him to bring his bottles instead. rushed off from clementi to tanah merah with mp3 music blasting in my veins on the MRT.
cool. was the first to reach there.. dots... began a 1.5 hour long sojourn as the early birds - seven of them - came. They left on the first shuttle bus to the resort at 2:30, whereas i deliberated for another hour and left tanah merah station at about 3:30 pm with the last arriving member, jevin. (didn't know i could charge my hp at mrt stations, ha...)

meanwhile the other group slacked away in the deck:

















reached chalet at about 4pm, checked in at bungalow 09. Paid about $298 for the chalet (cheap huh? see later.)
think the hp reception there is terrible, can't contact bingxun's group (later i heard they went to the deck and enjoyed the golfing scenery). anyway me and jevin "warmed" the house a bit, followed later by edwin and... more guys, i can't remember the sequence. we hung around the place sampling the essence of the chalet till about 5:30 pm...

Glitch #3: i forgot my remote control for the speakers (without it the speakers can't work). getting abit stressed liao.

the decision was made to retrieve the RC which was left behind at hall. so i called dad (which was fortunately in the area after dropping my stuff off at the chalet)... left behind my group of chalet people (about 10 people) and went back to NUS. Had dinner with dad at a certain coffeeshop eatery in Clementi before he dropped me off at Clementi station, with RC in hand (and some bananas which i salvaged from the car)...
again. that deja vu feeling. Jevin and co told me that they were going to ECP (east coast park) to get bikes. ok, no problem, guess i would meet them at about 7:30pm or so at ECP.

Glitch #4: when i left the chalet, i forgot to take my mp3 player. Hence took MRT from Clementi to City Hall. Without music blasting in my veins. Sien.

Arrived at City Hall about 7pm, damn crowded. Never realised that the 4 escalators up to the ground level (Raffles City) was so nice at night.. anyway scouted the area for "that bus" that would somehow take me to ECP. Managed to make it to "that bus stop" at "somewhere near CHIJMES".
Saw the bus list, hmm no ECP so what road would take me there? Remembered something like "16". Or was it "36"? looked down the list. Saw "Marine Parade Road" with both 16 and 36, so jumped upon the first 16 that was heading this way.

Glitch #5: the correct bus to take was 36. it 's faster. i din't take my bus guide nor street directory with me...

16 took me somewhere, i don't really know. along the way i saw signboards like "kallang" and something like "stadium boulevard", it went through some place where construction of the Circle Line was taking place, and turned into a Geylang-like street, complete with shophouses, coffeeshops and... one-way roads. When i saw this, plus the bus was damn packed with working people dressed in their best, got damn stressed again. Then the bus turned into Joo Chiat. I tot, where the hell is Joo Chiat man, sounds like somewhere near Geylang. SHIT. muz have overshot. then i asked the bus uncle is Marine Parade road nearby, he said no... dots.
Contemplated taking the bus to the end to hopefully an interchange with an MRT. i dun wanna get down here and end up taking 240 back. Frantically, called Jevin and asked for directions. i wish mui fong was still in singapore... then could at least tell me the GPS coordinates of this place, or else, the nearest route to ECP.

THEN, the bus turned into something with the words "Marine Parade CC" or something like that, and i breathed a sigh of relief. Whew. Got down the first stop after that, i was so relieved, i skipped down the steps when alighting and banged my head on the ceiling. ha.
Then, to my horror, i found out that this was the wrong area of Marine Parade...
I didn’t alight at the bus stop “outside Blk 49”, near some Police building or something. Remembered that place cos I bought some antiseptic spray there during a cycling trip at ECP and bruised my knee cap (that’s another story…)
First thing I saw across the road was a police post. Gingerly stepped in and asked for directions.. haha the sergeant inside must be quite surprised to see a guy with a plastic bag of stuff and a bunch of bananas.

Ok, received his instructions and got to the underpass, crossed the expressway. On the other side I found myself in totally unfamiliar terrain, plus the dark sky didn’t help to identify much of the leafy foliage. Called Jevin again, “where the hell are u now?” he said.
“dunno” I replied
“any landmarks”
“erm… trees”… haha

Oh my. Not much of a help there. Then asked some fellas around this barbecue area “BBQ Pit 18” and found out the general direction of Mcdonalds (that was the RP). Walked about half a km and when I got to Macs…

No one there. I was the earliest… again. Haiz. Haha. Sienz. The main party was still walking from Victoria JC. Wonder where that is.

Anyway, they arrived like about 20 mins later around 8:20 pm and we went to this funny Indian eatery. The party had expanded greatly to include people like Chelsea, melody, farveez, victor, zhiwei etc. Funny thing about the restaurant is that its modeled on a fast food theme, which is ridiculous. Here are some of the things the guys ordered:

(pictures)

I ordered a “Sweet Lassi Drink”. It made me feel like I was in one of those Final Fantasy RPGs. It was actually disguised yogurt and it SUCKED. I wonder what the sour version tastes like… yeck
Felt a bit nauseous after the meal.

Glitch #6: never order the… whatever jevin ordered. Its hollow and it tastes bland… never ever order the lassi drink also… it costs $2.50 even though the price says $2.40.. shit

Next stop, the bike rental. Ordered about 15-20 bikes I guess. Tot everything was ok, then I and zhiwei whacked the pedals, high speed. I didn’t really care about the rest cos I couldn’t afford to slow down… haha weird cycling patterns dictate that I travel at fast speeds to keep my momentum.

The next thing we knew, we were at Bedok Jetty. Luckily zhiwei was with me, cos my HP had died out by then. We waited there for an hour for people to arrive but no one… only to call back the shop and find the rest of the main party there.

“we haven’t settled the bikes and we’re waiting for Jason and jingwen…” whoops, big blunder. So I and zhiwei talked a little at the jetty while watching planes fly past.. Hmm.. would be great if zhiwei was replaced by someone.. :P haha.. I think zhiwei muz have felt the same too.

Got tired of waiting and by 9:45 pm we cycled back to the bike rental shop, thinking “there is only one road, if the main party’s coming we will meet them anyway” And we did, about I think 10pm sharp when we almost reached the rental shop, we saw Victor and the rest of the cyclists. Then was it yijiang who told me, “your rear light’s not switched on!”

Giltch #7: always check whether your rear light is on. Or risk getting kissed or caught by the police.

Then we cycled, the advance party to Bedok jetty while we waited for them to catch up. Heard from the others that Edwin had gave up his rear seat on the double bike and decided to learn how to cycle on his own, albeit being extremely impromptu! Anyway, it was quite a long wait and at the trees facing bedok jetty Jason decided to take a leak… amongst the bushes, almost in full view of the girls who were there too (but they turned away.) Hmm. Didn’t take a pic of it. haha

Finally Jevin (who had one key to the chalet) and Edwin (who had the other key) showed up. Must really hand it to Ed, he is now cycling well, damn fast he learns. Thing is, there are people who have been waiting for us to come back to the chalet, and are at the doorstep of bungalow 09…

The rest of us then pedaled back at full… esp Alvin who took one of the keys and zoomed back, totally at the mercy of his “lower digestive system”. The last part of the way to the chalet at NSRCC was a long, desolate stretch of road WITH NO LIGHTS.

Glitch #8: Chelsea or who then told me, “yongqiang you didn’t on your lights”. Oh shit.

Anyway the last leg of the journey was damn creepy but fun.. I paced and overtook tracy, chelsea, couldn’t catch melody or who though. Felt a bit scared cycling by myself along that road, there was nothing around I can see, except the light. Thanks god I was still able to see among the darkened paths.

Anyway reached the chalet about 11;30 pm, Took care not to get slammed by the vehicular barriers when I cycled into the chalet (haha Edwin got into a very funny and unfortunate mishap). Rested for about 1h or so, whilst the others gathered to resume their journey to Changi beach. Not for me, I was too shagged out.

Played mahjong with Shannon, Monika, Pearlyn, Jia En and two more people until 3am at the request of Alvin, who was suffering from a bad stomach (poor guy went to eat buffet prior to the cycling). Realised I have developed a penchant for mahjong and bridge these days. And finally realized who can match our class rep, junice, in laughter.. haha
Took a shower at 3am, then slept upstairs in the bed room, while the people cycling to Changi returned. No nasi lemak for me though. Haha

Schedule for Dec Hols

'tupid blogger, why the last few entries all cannot upload.

Haiz. just sunday nite i was complaining of nothing better to do in Dec Hols.

Now i got hell lot of stuff coming up:

1) Chingay Dance: why the hell did i become so big-mouth and sign up for this one?? haiz. stupid jingwen, tricked me into this kinda situations. even after i rejected her during term time, @#@$%^@&....

hope i can at least carry some equipment up, since i can't carry any of the girls there. Time to go and get into shape or the whole nation can see my adipose tissues jumping up and down "LIVE" on tv. (think you can see it on Feb). I mean, it's fun to be on a nationwide event, BUT...

2) Pharm Volunteers: Yay finally a chance to give back to NUH.. After staying there as a patient in '99, finally got a chance to help out on the other side, but as a non-medical personnel: volunteer. Dunno what i will be doing, just signed up for all the activities and let them decide where to delegate me to. I'd like the psychiatric wards though, should be interesting, or the teenagers / children with chronic diseases, reminds me of myself.
Today was the introductory workshop, and my group had to present this situation of a 15yo gal with diabetes and what she was thinking. Made me think of my own stay in hospital - 2 whole weeks.

3) Fable: finally a computer game worth playing, Fable is a rpg that is... wow. OK compared to the rest of the RPGs out there, but when the only game on my desktop worth playing is Warhammer 40000 and i'm stuck at this particular stage, anything is worth playing. Think any spare time will be occupied by this one.

4) Sheares Short Film: though i'm officially not staying in Sheares Hall anymore (officially? dunno man, haven't informed the admin yet), the Boss has agreed to let me stay on, and the first project is coming soon. Meeting on wed 1000 to discuss the roles perhaps.

5) Sheares Choir: am i still in? i dunno. if i am, maybe i'll have to rehearse for Christmas Carolling...

6) EML: no news yet, but i feel compelled to do something... like composing my own music.

other miscellaneous stuff:
recreational, like go k-box, lan, pool, swimming,
health-wise: running and situps,
create that piece of music,
design t-shirt for my friend,

Some speech i wanted to say for my 21st birthday but i didn't

Firstly, i wish to thank all the people who came for the 21st birthday celebrations. And for the wonderful gifts, whose material value may not be much, but i will hold dear.

Secondly, i wish to thank my parents (and maternal grandparents) for raising me up for 21 years. It is by no means an easy feat, especially during the early years, when i was still a brat, during the teenager years when my wiles had to be curbed, and during adolescence when i was discovering and rediscovering my identity.

Lastly, i wish to thank whoever is up there, for letting me live a fruitful life this way long. I could have gone at 15, but i think that i survived for a reason. And i will fulfill the promise by helping others through my profession.

21st Birthday Bash

Whew...
3am in the morning, and i still don't feel sleepy.
Still reeling from the adrenaline from the chalet.. but

First to come into the house were relatives: paternal grandparents, my 3rd aunt and her son (my cousin), and my maternal grandfather with accompanying maid, my fourth uncle, my sixth uncle and his children.

JC classmates leo, ws, yew sen, edwin, boonwee, shunji, lay teng arrived soon after at 7pm.. as usual, leo, ws and yew sen were on the dot, good soldiers, despite them running for SCM (standard chartered marathon) tomorrow. they gave me some cool earphones from Sony, complete with an awesome bag!

I'm still surviving on a set of earphones.. looks awesome man.. radical.

Next was the sec sch classmates: wang, bryan, yanzhang, hans, andy, youli, runxin. the guys pooled their cash together and gave me... yeah. a set of headphones

dots. haha.

runxin gave me a T-shirt wrapped in some brown paper (those kind u use to wrap up exam papers in NUS) with a fanciful-looking ribbon, two, in fact with some near-invisible cellophane tape running along the spine of the present. and to complete the present, she handed the present to me a purple plastic bag.

haha... homemade presents again with that extra personal touch. OK, only the wrapping was her effort. haha. whatever.

then came the classmates from pharmacy: bingxun, jevin, yijiang, weida, tiong phew, yuantai, choon han. and they gave me what i have almost always coveted: a blue leather jacket!

coupled with my everyday (yes!!! i wore jeans to school everyday for the first sem!! can't believe it!!!) outfit of jeans and T-shirt, it looks great, well i dun have any fashion sense, so at least it looks matching. acts as a synergist i would say.

though, it is a bit small, heh. gives me some incentive to lose weight, ha. but i think i'll get the tailor.

haha.

and now on a more serious note.
i'm thankful that as an epileptic, i can still have so many people that bother to treat me as a friend, who mutually honours and respects one another.
some people that have the same infliction may not be so lucky, they have missed out on so many things in life, so many happy occasions, including their 21st birthday, instead only to live out a life of suffering.
my heart goes out to them.

to all my friends: my help is yours if you should call upon it.

Tears - X-Japan

During the chalet, Jason and Hooi-ching rekindled my interest in this song (by playing it.)

OST for "Windstruck". Wonder what that was. Prob an anime.

Was originally introduced by Shunji. (He loves underground? rock bands with lotsa guitar and instrumental parts.)

Really meant for those really sad situations, used i think with anime scenes as background music, in a scene with fallen comrades and the main character goes on to say, "Shinji, why did you die?" or some crap in their quick-paced Japanese chatter.

I love how they use the strings and piano with this one. Enjoy.

---

doko ni yukebaii
anata to hanarete
ima wa sugisatta
toki ni toikakete

nagasugita yoru ni
tabidachi wo yume mita
ikoku no sora mitsumete
kodokuwo dakishimete

nanagareru namida wo
toki no kaze ni kasanete
owaranai anata no
toiki wo kanjite

dry your tears with love (x2)

Loneliness, your silent whisper
Fills a river of tears through the night
Memory, you never let me cry
And you, you never said goodbye

Sometimes our tears blinded the love
We lost our dreams along the way
But I'd never thought you'd trade your soul to the fates
Never thought you'd leave me alone

Time through the rain has set me free
Sands of time will keep your memory
Love everlasting, fades away
Alive within your beatless heart

dry your tears with love (x2)

nanagareru namida wo
toki no kaze ni kasanete
owaranai anata no
aoi bara ni kaete

dry your tears with love (x2)

nanagareru namida wo
toki no kaze ni kasanete
owaranai anata no
toiki wo kanjite

dry your tears with love (x4)

Pharm chalet

Shagged. Shitted. Cheated.

Too tired to blog now.

Quite fun, the turnout was higher than i expected.

Sighs. Tmr birthday bash preps.

Blog later.