Burnout weekend

I had the most jam-packed weekend ever.


For one, it was picking my dad up from the airport yesterday. I shall not say how fast I was going at (for fear of disciplinary action from both governmental and personal agencies), but I made it there in... 20 minutes? The plane was early, but my dad got caught up at the wine corner, picking out a moscato for me. I almost died of a heart attack when I heard the price.



And Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town at Tampines 1 is seriously overrated. Seriously. It was like paying for overpriced Japanese food (it's not even gourmet food) in a food court setting. The ambience is bad, the food is *rolls eyes*, the waiting time was horrid, the layout was like some messy town, the concept is bad (my mom and sister had to pay for their cards before they were allowed to exit for the toilet)... Only the decoration and the service staff who cleared our tables saved what little grace that was left.

"Thy shall hold thy tongue."

Ya I know. It looks good. LOOKS. It was probably second from the bottom of all my food encounters. The last was , conincidentally, also omu rice. The only amazing thing was watching the chefs toss around the rice on a flat pan, with minimal spillage. I stared.


So today, I decided to take matters into my own hands today.

I know I'm always cooking curry rice, but that's only because that's the only thing my mum's ever asked me to cook. She craves for it, to an extent that is beyond my understanding.


Of course, cooking with my dad was always the eye-opener to my narrow understanding of culinary skills. Yes, my dad's a superb cook, and my mum's grateful for that fact. Haha. What was more important was the kind of bonding I had with my dad that none of my sisters had. It's probably favouritism, I speculate, but my dad's probably the other person (other than Jack, which is why I seldom bear to tear myself from him) than I can talk about anything under the world with. Cars, soccer, food, school, work... And I don't even tell my mum such stuff. He's probably the best dad in the world. Yes he is.



Yes, and I got bbq-ed by the afternoon sun.

Of sweet little nothings, results and drumming!

Just something amusing but sweet to share.

If you guys haven't already know, I'm dabbling in Twitter and Plurk, two social networking platforms, which look like stripped down versions of Facebook's 'What are you doing now?' The concepts for both are pretty much similar, it's just that I'm pretty in love with Plurk's customization option, in which you can very much decide you wish to have your Plurk page look like. Plus, its timeline feature is waaaay cool. As for Twitter, it's just playing keep-up-with-the-Jones, since my 2216 lecturer was basically imploring us to use it last semester. The boyfriend, on the other hand, wouldn't have much interest in Twitter; he basically hates everything which starts with the twi- syllable, and has a very bad name for that.

Oh and to the results. I spent all of 10 seconds worrying about it, unlike Jack, who was basically sleepless the previous night. I just thought it wouldn't make much sense worrying about things that have been cast in stone, unlike things you could change at that moment of contemplation. Results were okay, but I'm still missing my long-term target by that inch. I know I could have slapped myself real hard and condemn all the wrong footing, but the real deal is about pondering about the potholes and taking it in my stride. There were alot of factors which contributed to the results, but to simply point the accusing finger towards them would be ultimately childish. We are masters of our own worlds, aren't we? So like what I always say at the end of everything, it's time to work even harder next semester!

Drums workshop! We were lucky to have Sean as our FOC instructor, because I believe he does drums lessons outside for a fee. But to teach a left-hand-impaired, coordination idiot like me drumming was probably worth double the fees outside. Jack had taught me a simple variation before, but this lesson opened my eyes to the world of drumming. And it was when I realised that my left wrist is totally retarded, especially when it comes to the fill-ins. Plus I realised how bad the electronic drums were; the recoil of the bass is bad!!! But Sean was extremely patient with us, and was always around to rectify our mistakes. The best thing? He even prepared notes for us! Kudos to drumming and Sean! Pictures up soon! (As soon as I kop them from the President. Haha. It's good to have a change.)

Of tears and promises

And I thought we had to spend our 15th month apart, inevitably. Me and my throbbing head, leaky nose and nausea attacks. You and your obligation as a filial son. But you had to prove me wrong.

Something hit a raw nerve, and made me want to cry like a lovelorn swallow.

我每次嫌棄自己有點矮時

你總會生我氣

因爲你不喜歡我這麽看不起自己

每次我朋友嘲笑我時 你總會生氣

因爲你不喜歡看到我被欺負

不過你總是爲了我，忍氣吞聲

你就是那麽愛我，那麽愛著我

And I still, and will always be that little girl, always armed with her bad tempers and complaints, and always ready to paw at you for what little attention you can afford. And like that angsty little boy with the foul mouth, I'll always be there to pat your back and be your comfort zone whenever you need me.

Happy 15th month. (or 456 days, as translated by you.)

She will be loved

I felt like life was hanging by a moment when I got home yesterday. Seriously. I never had hands trembling as I waited for the recipient to pick up the call. I’ve never found myself more in need of a pat on the shoulder than yesterday. I’m just so sorry that things had to turn out this way for you and that meddlesome me, whilst being nosey and bothersome, will always be there for you. Hang in there, girl.

The past week flew past, partially because of the short vacation I had, well away from prying eyes and nosey people. Despite the various setbacks during the entire period of the holiday, it just further gave me the kind of assurance that I’m never going to spend my life without you. To bicker over barbeque, to sit under the setting sun and drink up, to talk about life, to cuddle up together and watch television like we’ll do in few years to come, and to curl up in those comforting arms of yours. I’m simply looking forward to the next time we disappear into anonymity again.

Lack of caffeine

I traced my extreme lethargy to the lack of caffeine. Yes, I skipped my usual dose of coffee and went for low fat milk instead, which gave me a bad stomachache and nausea after lunch and during boardgames. What a stupid thing to do, I thought to myself, even more so when we headed to SMU Settlers' Cafe for boardgames. And I lost in my favourite games, Alhambra and Caylus. I'm not supposed to lose, especially when it came to Caylus. It was all a matter of bad calculations and hypotheses. Modern Art was still bad, and I crashed out of the game. Oh well. And the Wasabi game's full of loopholes. At the end of our session (which lasted from 2.30 to 8), Jack and I were dizzy from hunger and lethargy.

And the 4 of us popped by an Italian eatery at Liang Court, and the food there was surprisingly good for that kind of price.I had a relatively harmless Mushroom and Cream Pasta, which smelt strangely like Settlers' version, but much more palatable. We talked alot over dinner, probably much more than our usual conversations, and making plans for an overseas vacation. But the first thing I'll have to set out to do is to convince my mum that I, at 20 years old, will not get lost or get abducted or get cheated or robbed or anything else like that. Which is alot of work to do. Oh well.




I better go crash. Vacation tomorrow!

Star Trek 2009

I am not a trekkie.

For the record, I actually liked a movie which we decided to watch on the spur of the moment, and it wasn't as expensive as the other movies we watched (I just got my card statement - we spent $55 on movies last month. I gagged.). The storyline was intriguing (for a start), though the back-and-forth timeline was rather confusing. Oh, and I thought Zachary Quinto and Zoë Saldana made a cute couple. The lovey-dovey stuff was almost devoid of in this movie, which was a smart choice. Haha. And I've debunked the myth that this movie's only for trekkies; Jack and I liked it! The former didn't want to watch it very much, and we didn't have the luxury of GVMax, but the couple seats we 'stole' were comfy enough to get us by. Haha.

May-hem

Since I was relatively unoccupied this afternoon, I decided to help check out my aunt’s phone, which she had called me about while I was having lunch; it was overheating, and probably on the verge of exploding if I hadn’t advised her to bring it to the phone shop and have the guy there dismantle it. Why I couldn’t do the dismantling boiled down to a very simple reason; it was a Sony Ericsson W850i. So it had these locks at the side where you slide them up in order to pop the back cover open, unlike the conventional method of sliding the battery cover directly off. I totally rolled my eyes when the guy at the shop did that and drew out the battery. Sony Ericsson designers should take NM2216 Introduction to Interactive Design.

Previously, I’ve helped do some marking for Secondary level examination papers from a relatively prestigious school, and going back to doing marking for another school totally set these two schools apart. For one, it was interesting to listen to my aunt lament the lackadaisical attitudes of the students in her current school, as compared to her previous school, which was of a higher standard than her present one. The students’ and schools’ attitudes towards learning were a chasm apart. One was disciplined and serious; the other had girls who checked themselves in pocket mirrors and people who took out their novels to read in the midst of an exam. One had students who made the effort to complete simple tasks like filing and sharing class-owned stationery; the other had to coerce students to do their filing when it’s time for the department to do checking. I can never fully empathize with what all teachers are going through, but I’ve been one myself and, frankly speaking, parents who are non-teachers will only see one side of the coin. Singaporean parents need to wake up their idea. Most, if not all, have absolutely no idea what their children are up to in school, be it skipping classes, feigning illness to get MCs, talking back to their teachers, copy each other’s homework before flag-raising, hiding in the toilets to escape their discipline teachers… If parents were shown CCTV footage of their kids in class, half of them will faint. I’m saying so simply because I’ve been a student myself, and I’m sick of having our junior generation deteriorating.

Thursday muse

I'm bored, ain't I? Cookout today! Lunchtime menu for today was creamy veggie penne, mixed berry yoghurt for dessert and fruit jelly for post-dinner wash-down. I was too stingy with the salt, but it was... palatable.

And we had those unbelievably long conversations on money matters, teen idol drama and life. About paying back our university fees back to our parents when we start working, on financial over-dependence on one's other half, on our common teeny-bopper behaviour of splurging mindlessly on idol merchandize, on the idol drama trends and what makes them potent concoctions to captivate the hearts of the Asian audience and beyond, on wedding expenses. Don't asking me how we got to the last one; we simply got carried off from the uni fees part. But I like the fact that we both have something in mind when it comes to appropriating our finances when we start to earn our own paychecks.

And as always, you'll always be the one to steer me back on course. I know I sound kind of dumb and irrational whenever we have our little debates over certain issues, and I always end up feeling all grouchy on the outside, but agreeing with you on the inside. Sometimes it scares me a little, because I don't know if there will be anyone else to kick me back in line if I didn't have you. I've been a deviant for long, but you came and showed me who's boss, and I'm grateful.

Counting down 6 days to my vacation!

Food for the soul

Yawn. It's nice to sleep in, and wake up feeling the sun on you. I was half-contemplating to purchase a sun chair for the balcony, when it hit me that my sis had spoilt the last one by... oh well.

Jack's attempt to revive his rice-frying skills for yesterday's lunch, or so he deemed. It turned out to be a piece of colourful collage, with garden vegetables and chicken chunks, and I didn't need to adjust the brightness/ contrast of the photo because it was just too crowding for the eyes. Yum.

Post-lunch entertainment was the videography by Jack of his cousin's ROM about a month ago. I swear it was the sweetest thing I've ever seen; I don't know about his cousin very well, but Jack speaks alot about him and how he's an exemplary model for him to follow, so I kind of hold him in great respect. And to watch that guy smile bashfully as he heard his beautiful bride say 'I will' drew tears to my eyes. I've seen many couples say their 'I do's, and every single time was memorably blissful. It would be no doubt that the moment the bride and groom are handed their signed marriage certificate would be the moment both parties are waiting for, because I had to look away to stop myself from making a crying fool of myself. Sweet.
And I'll be waiting for that day as well.

Today marks the start of my second week of rotting. No income, no job, but still surviving against the odds. Haha.




Mothers' Day this year was a subtle affair, considering the fact that Daddy's overseas. We never really had the chance to pamper our mum, so I decided to drive her out for a good lunch, and bought her the things she really wanted. I know I'm going broke, but to see my mum break into a smile when I swiped my card was priceless. Of course, nothing beats homecooked food for the matriarch, so I decided to put my culinary skills to the test on this special day.

She's been getting upset these days over work, my sis, the delay of my dad's return, domestic matters, and all she needs is good food served with love.

And after suffering in silence with a sharp pain in my spine for the past 2 weeks or so, I finally got dragged to a doctor by Jack. Okay, he didn't drag me. He brought me to his mum's doctor, Dr. Lai, who has a clinic at Bedok, and at the end of the day I'm just glad it wasn't something serious like a slipped disk or some dislocation, or else my little vacation would be going down the drain. Yes, a small vacation, in which I'll be kidnapped for a few days. Don't try to find me, but I promise I'm in good hands. I just need to be anonymous for a while.

And please stop saying you suck. Because if you did, then I would be a bigger sucker than you are, because I chose to be yours. On the contrary, you're one of the best happenings in my life.

Of ugly acts

Before I go to anything else, I would like to say that your act was nothing short of being immature, even at the age of 21, and that nothing is going to get me to talk to you or even see your face, unless you actually go wash your brains out and learn to think. It's Mothers' Day, so please love your mum more than mahjong.

Sometimes I really wished technology could be more primitive, especially when people are armed with camera phones and the impulsiveness to snap anything they didn't like. STOMP, the online portal of ST, is basically a congregation of trigger-happy people who have absolutely no qualms about violating the personal space and rights of others. Jack was showing me some of the photos that were posted on the "Caught in the Act" section of the website, where people actually took snapshots of sleeping/eating commuters on trains and buses, students behaving indecently by their definition, PDA, and basically everything which annoyed them at that moment that will generate literary wars on the comment box. But what can you really lock in a frame? Is it a moment of truth, or malice? A picture speaks a thousand words, but only one interpretation is accurate, so what happens to the other 999? What if the uniform-clad army officers were off-duty, and your photo resulted in their suspension? What if the teen couple on the escalator were simply talking to each other face to face or giving each other a sweet little peck? How many people would have been implicated by then? And how can you salvage the situation? NO WAY! Now, why not imagine that you've done something which annoyed someone and he took a photo of YOU?! I'll just laugh my ass off.

Time and tuition

If we could throw all the skeptics out of this world and lived life like it existed solely for us, I would make time cease and live every moment through and through with you.



Cook-out! We made simple lunch of udon and mushroom soup yesterday, so today it was back to base with Jack whipping up a storm in the kitchen. While I'm still coming into terms with the earthy mushroom soup (which I have been having so many times and still not feel comfortable about the mushroom-y smell), everything else was lovely. My darling cooks, and that's the best news in the world to me. More to come! Plus watching that guy busily shuffling around in the kitchen in under the blazing noon heat, was... *bleep*. Haha.


And while I'm busy burning my holiday, I'm looking forward to returning to giving tuition, but on a private basis this time round. Class tuitions have given me the BMT treatment I need to handle kids, so now it's onto the battlefield. Jack warned that it isn't going to be easy, but I'm willing to give it a shot and see how it goes. Starting with Primary school first, and I think Secondary School languages shouldn't pose a problem. Tuition teacher up for grabs here!

Obstinence

It hurts the most when you lose the most important thing in your life without even realising that it's the most important thing in your life.

Caught Wolverine on Monday, and I'm pretty impressed with the kind of connection they can actually draw to make X-Men whole. Great movie to catch, but I was kind of disappointed that the love story between Logan and his wife wasn't fully captured in the movie. It felt like some "I had to do this because I had to do this" plot.

Went photog-ing with NX at Sembawang area today. Lovely, relatively undisturbed place. It's only when you're so far away from civilization that you actually have the mental capacity to take in such scenery. I could only get so far with my lousy cam, so I'm actually dying to get some cash in my pocket soon. One for my big birthday present to myself.

And I wonder if making someone happy would equivalate to being happy myself.

Post-exam boredom

You have no idea. What an irony it is, because I'm done with my exams relatively earlier than my peers, and here I am complaining about being devoid of anything to do. Bleah.

Should I lament?





And of course, at every end there spells a beginning. I will probably be loading myself with things to occupy myself with while waiting for Jack to get his dreaded Geog paper over and done with. I'm perpetually bored.

Had no intention of waking up yesterday morning, but I knew I had to gain a proper closure to this semester, so what better way to do that apart from wrapping it all up with Alfred's 3204 paper? And turns out it was a fantastically bad paper to start with, with plenty of typos and ambiguous questions. I even started to question the vetting quality of the paper at the halfway mark of the exam. Oh well, it's all over and done with, and the only regret for this module is deciding to take it in the first place.

And as I come to the end of my second year in NUS CNM, there were just a few things to ponder over.

I realised that sometimes I have to go beyond those boundaries of friendship, and be meritocratic when it comes to academic stuff. Being friends with me doesn't grant you the passport to being lackadaisical or skimpy with your contribution to the project. I've learnt my lesson the hard way for the past few semesters, often getting chewed on by leveraging group mates who refuse to lift a finger. And being busy with your other modules is clearly not sufficient enough to bail you out. Are you trying to say that I'm having an easy life, or that you have bad time management skills?

And on the flipside, there were some people I just couldn't say no to, and that has given me a hard time trying to push myself beyond limits and failing miserably. I knew I was being soft-hearted.

But at the same time, this semester opened the doors to many opportunities and experiences that I will treasure. For one, Geyao's FBH was a break-through for the entire team behind the project. I got to see alot of people working really hard to make this project a success, and reinforced my belief that I'm in the correct CCA. NM3215 Advertising Strategies was another eye-opener, because I haven't been a great fan of advertising (I was a cynic instead). Working and meeting people in the industry and listening to them share their experience brought alot wows, and this broke through my stereotypical image of the advertising industry. NM2208 was a killer, because I spent so much time trying to figure out design software, plucking inspiration for weekly assignments out of thin air and rushing into the dead of the night for the next day's presentation. I loved the module, but I don't see myself doing another design module unless I'm bent on killing my sleep. and brain cells. JS2228 was probably one of my love-hate modules, because it was about Japan, but it became sick when Dr. Nakano came in with her politics. Lovely groupmates, probably one of the best I had after my 2219 groups last sem. And last but not least, hitting the one-year mark on the timeline wasn't an easy path, but I guess we actually had it better than some other couples who can't stop quarrelling. Our small bickers were annoying, but it made us learn so much more about each other.

Oh, and I shall not mention the ugly (it was mentioned up there, so I shall not harp on inauspicious stuff). I'm just glad some things are over. I just hope I don't have to meet such dreadful people in my uni life.

Okay, back to Restaurant City.