A passing

Two weekends ago in a certain post (scroll down), I mentioned that there was a relative in ICU. It's my god-uncle. Though not blood-related, he was like a real brother to my uncles and aunties.

Just now, my eldest aunt called and told my dad to go to the hospital immediately, to stay by my god-uncle's side. My brother tagged along with my dad, and my dad told me to stay at home and not go.

My brother SMSed me a while ago, 'Han Zi Pek passed away liao,'

We called him Han Zi Pek, or 番薯伯 in Hokkien all along.

I don't know what to do now, I don't know what's the situation like over at the hospital.

I'm not close to Han Zi Pek, he was more like an acquaintance to me. However this entire episode happened a bit too quickly. I saw Han Zi Pek during a birthday celebration in June, like about two to three months ago. He was still the same, and he didn't look like he had any health problems. But his health deteriorated earlier this month, all the hospital stays, etc. Four tumours on his liver. Probably the cancer cells spread, leading to multiple organ failure.

Sigh.

I don't know what to do, I'm feeling odd, but I know he'll always be remembered. My grandmother adopted him when he was young, and looked after him like her own. That's why he was like a real brother to my dad and his siblings.

I hope we'll be able to help his family tide through this ordeal. His wife and two adult sons.

I don't know if I'm feeling sad or anything, I'm just feeling...odd. Some kind of speechlessness when someone dies and you don't know what to do or say.

Miracle

Sometimes when you really wish for something to happen, like you really really wish, they don't happen. Not at all.

I've wished for a lot of things. And I never was satisfied with what I got ultimately.

However, I think I was sincere enough yesterday that the guy-up-there granted me a tiny little wish.

And I was a little more delighted than usual yesterday. =D

Though I'm pretty sure this won't happen again, but, enough already. Heh.

What happened?

I'm sooo not gonna tell.

Whahahahahaha.

Interesting

Found this interesting piece of news on Yahoo!.

I'm in the 9,999 of the 10,000 people.

Load this video, look at art.

好感动！

Supposed to be meeting Amy, Ai Lin and Juli at Big O, Wheelock Place on Saturday.

I was rather late because I overslept, and Ai Lin SMSed me and told me that Amy couldn't turn up. =( Alrights, never mind, because we'll still go ahead with the dinner.

Then when I reached Orchard MRT, I saw AL's SMS which said that Juli had something on last minute, can't make it too. I almost fainted at the station. Haha, no la. Exaggeration.

So two down, AL to go! Haha.

Trotted to Wheelock Place and searched for Big O. By instinct. Haha. I had completely no idea where the restaurant is and for some reason I was too lazy to call AL to ask. Knowing that Big O and NYDC are related, I went to NYDC to 'investigate'. I almost walked past NYDC as I was looking on the left side. Till I looked to the right a bit and I saw Big O's sign staring back at me and O I'm at Big O! Went in, tried to find a lonely AL, and in the end Juli was there la. They bluffed me. Haha. (I was so glad I still managed to find the place because I haven't been to Orchard for a very long time)

And I thought I saw Juli reading this huge menu. Till she passed that big board to me.


I was and still am very touched!

It's like, I knew the three girls for slightly over a year, and I have something like that from them! I felt a bit bad, because I didn't prepare Juli any birthday gift. =P Wanted to get some pig cushion thingy, but I felt that it wasn't really suitable and decided to carry on finding...till now. Haha.

So there I got, my belated birthday present.

And then I remembered I haven't got the photos of my birthday celebration at CFA from Xian Wei yet. Oh I hope the photos are still around.

Maybe I was too busy, I didn't blog about my birthday. Not that there is a need to, but there are people to thank and photos to upload. Ahh...

Another time! =P Hopefully I can find the time and stop procrastinating about everything.

Sorry!

People have been asking me to meet up with them, I have been wanting to meet up with people, but I never found the time to do so. I am too busy with my life. Not that I really want to, things just come my way and I pick them up. Voluntarily. I've been neglecting my family and friends, and still happily carry on doing things I wanna do as well. Sigh. I need to strike a balance.

~~~~~

Ah, speaking of balance. Digression. The other time I allowed my body statistics to be measured by this supposed-to-be very smart machine. Some nutrition organisation came down to give a talk during the Science Orientation Week. Anyway, the machine could calculate my weight, fat mass, bone mass, muscle mass etc. Well obviously I was way overweight. And the organisation called me up today, telling me that they are coming down later this week for a roadshow. And I'm selected along with 19 others to receive this free shake (read: diet) from Wednesday to Friday, once daily. The amusing part is, we're all in this competition where we compete who loses the most weight within the three days. The winner gets a prize! *faint*

Hahaha, I kept chuckling on the bus when I heard that. Heh.

Alrights, I have free shake everyday from Wednesday to Fridayyyy.

Hey, I can tell you openly about my weight, but doesn't mean you can laugh at me alright!

Whahaha.

But I'm still pretty amused by this entire episode. As they'll be part of a bazaar (I think), there'll be a lot of people around as well. Hope no one comes around to look at the weighing machine when I'm on top of it. I'm very shy, don't you know?

=P

~~~~~

I wanted to give Amy this photo of a frog prince, like hoping she'll find her prince soon, and in the end she doesn't need this already laaaaa!!! Hahaha, happy girl. When I got to know about it yesterday, I was sooo excited. Like, woah, finally!! Throughout yesterday I kept smiling to myself. Because I was too happy already. I don't know how to tell you, but it's like, aaah, finally! Haha. The both of them are so compatible from the start, and I've always hoped that something will happen. And finally it did! Great things are coming your way, Goh Ping Ping =D And may the both of you be HAPPY! all the time.

Ah, so cheesy. Whatever. Haha.

Now now now, while I was having dinner with AL and Juli, they were talking about their boyfriends and marriage!!! *faint* So I felt a bit awkward that they were talking about such stuff, because it means that my friends have plans to get married, and it implies that I should get my ass moving. But I don't need/want one for now! Haha. Of course I want to settle down and so on, however considering the free time I have for myself...tutorials are my Man Friends. Free time? Do tutorial. Free time? Do PM stuff. Free time? Look at scores. Free time? If I really have that much free time, I'll be hanging around at home, cooking, eating (ah bad idea), or inviting friends over, so on so forth.

I was still hoping that Amy would be around at the restaurant, so that I'll have another single and available lady with me. In the end. I AM THE ONLY SINGLE NOW. Hahahahahhahahaa.

Seriously.

Maybe I'll start opening my eyes and give myself some choices per se, but I really don't have the mood to even talk to suitors. Haha. Family. Friends. Family. Friends. Family. Friends.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll have a stable relationship to start with.

Choy choy choy. Will have one. So I'll just wait for that perfect Man Friend to come around and everything will be fine. No la, if I really am interested, then we'll talk more about it.

I'm thinking too much for my own good already. Hahaha. Studies!!!

And AL, Juli, Amy, get me to be your 姐妹 at your weddings k! =D

Phew

Elections' over, writer's block is still around, I am dead tired, school is still ongoing in the morning.

I think I made a fool of myself during elections, after some own-time reflection.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a disturbing book. I can be reading gory content unexpectedly. The expression on my face when I read it on the train.

And there are plans to change the sectionals day to another day in the week except for Wednesday. When it was supposed to be my free day. And I happily allocated tutorials to that day, thinking that I'll have to go to school anyway.

I'm now hoping that WP can make it on Wednesdays!!! =( But I think the chances are rather low.

And I bought the $97 concession already. Good for five-day week. Even better if I go for Mus'Art. Money well spent.

Ahhhh. At first I was damn sian that Wed was my free day without lectures and I will still be having sectionals. Argh! So obligingly put tutorials on that day already, like I said. Won't be able to change one of the tutorials there. =(

How come all these stuff never go my way?

I pray for myself to be 顺顺利利 with the new post in hand. Can't let such matters interrupt me.

Cedric Tan gave me my first task already. Getting contrabassoon reeds. What size? I dunno. Shit, I dunno much about reeds. Will be talking to Cedric about this soon.

Just did a bit of research. Wanted to find what I can do about the 'kiang-kiang-kiang-ing' of the tubas (well, I got to start from something that's closest to me, no biasness involved) due to the faulty rotary valves. The soft pad that dampens the noise wore out looong ago. So when the tubas were handling fast running notes, you hear the clanging of the rotary valve instead of the tuba sound.

But I can't really find much articles regarding what can be done.

Oh mannn.

I'm looking forward to do more stuff.

I must be really mad.

And looking forward to find time to do tutorials.

First and foremost, I need more sleep.

Elections

Argh.

Am preparing a writeup for the upcoming NUSWS elections. And I can't really do it well.

I find it weird. Awkward. That I have to write something that will convince people to vote for me. Oh man. Save me, somebody.

'Come, come! Vote for me!'

It's so..........

I don't know how to put it. But I'm terrible at convincing people.

Sigh.

Andy is running for a post in the SCMC, and he gotta give a speech as well. He said he'll do an impromptu one. Just say what he wants to say on the spot.

That'll be terrible for me. I can't say serious stuff without much thought. I'll just say the wrong things.

ARGH!

This is so gross. =\

I know I'll do quite a good job if I get the post, but how to convince the band that I really can do it, when I can't put the proper words together?

How to say that I want to do something for the band, but not use words like 'serve', 'committed', etc.?

*yells*

T_T

Weekend

Now for recording what happened during the last weekend.

Friday
Lectures ended at 2 p.m. on Friday, and after that I followed Wilson and Daniel Liu to The Deck for my first ever new-arts-canteen meal. I ordered seafood hor fun from the Claypot stall and my, it tasted good. Just a bit burnt at the bottom. Next time I wanna try my long-missed yong tau foo. Wilson and Daniel ordered stuff from the Sichuan stall and I can see that their meals were quite bad. They didn't enjoy at all! So even though I haven't tried anything from the Sichuan stall, I'm never going to. Haha. Oh after yong tau foo I wanna have the Japanese Cuisine.

Wanted to crash the geometry lecture, since from the way Wilson described, I should really make my way down and take a look at the weird lecturer. Haha. But then I was meeting Daniel Kang (arghh, two Daniels in one post) at 1730 at Buona Vista MRT, I can't possibly leave the no-break lecture in the middle. So weird, plus my friends taking that module sit in the first row -_-. So quite sad that I can't join in the lecture. I need to see how the module is like as well, could be taking it. Could. But I don't know if it is of use to me in my career path.

Anyway, met DanK (who was late) and Hui Shan at BV MRT, and we made our way to Marina Square to meet Nick, Christopher, Zi-Xian and Rui Xiang for dinner. At Pasta De Waraku. The food there is quite good! I was very attracted by the restaurant's display. We also shared two pizzas, which were realll good. The crust is like.....just a thin piece of crispy paper! I love this. And the pizza was very cheesy. Because of this, we had difficulty keeping the prawns and scallops and so on on top of the pizza. DanK had his prawn or something flowing off the pizza with the slimy cheese. Haha. In simple terms, just good. Do try it if you ever enter the restaurant.

There were many many plates of faux pasta they displayed at the window. Those models showed you clearly how the different pasta look like, and you can actually choose what you want from there. They just make you wanna go in and try.

The display along the corridor
And the fake desserts!! My so heavenly
Lobster pasta, anyone?
What I'm holding on to is a piece of pizza. Look at how thin the crust is!

The pasta that I ordered. Seafood (I just had seafood hor fun at the Deck -_-). And I hate mussels and I forced the three mussels down my throat, because I think I ought to start eating things that I don't like. (I'm adjusting pretty well to tomatoes) And the mussels still tasted gross to me. Haha.

And then it was dessert! Hui Shan and I shared a Tiramisu Parfait. And it tasted not bad, and looked pretty! Haha. The tiramisu was very soft.

Don't envy us! =D
Tiramisu Parfait - close-up

This Aladdin lamp held the curry for Rui Xiang's rice. You can see Nick, myself and Hui Shan in the reflection haha
Optical illusion (yea right =D). Nick feeding Christopher water

To me my pasta was quite alright la. But Nick loved the pasta he ordered.

And some advice: prepare more cash and go in small groups.

I spent $27 plus on myself. =(

Just waiting for a table for six on a Friday night took us from 1830 (the guy told us to come back at 1900) to about 1945 before we finally manage to get our seats. Whereas those people who came in pairs got their tables after a bit of waiting time. It's logical.

~~~~~

Saturday
Went for HSC alumni practice in the morning. The turn out was pretty alright for a first practice, and there was this really looong ago senior who came back and played as well. Practice was alright. And I must say, the tuba section with DanK, Chiaw Hong and me, was is damn zai. =P We sounded good.

After practice I went to eat at Downtown East, had nice Chicken Rice from Mr. Chicken Nice, and finally had the Mr. Bean's ice-cream.

Went to replace my NUS ezlink. While I was queuing there was this teen girl in front of me, accompanied by her guy friend. They were playing songs out of his W800i, and singing along. For some reason the guy commented, 'I'm tenor'. And unexpectedly the girl raised both her arms and showed the guy. I didn't get what the girl was doing at first, till the guy said 'I'm tenor, do you know what's tenor?' And the girl shook her head. Then I realised that she thought the guy said he was 'tanner'. *faint* Haha. Never mind.

Went home, bummed around, and my dad asked me to accompany him to CGH to visit my relative. But he didn't say the relative is in the ICU.

And the experience at the ICU was very very horrible.

Sigh.

I'm not going to talk about that again.

~~~~~

Sunday
Woke up and left for Mus'art. Almost fainted when I read the score. Internal Combustion. Argh. Kept coming in at the wrong time, and felt damn lousy. I don't know why I hardly feel this way in NUSWS. =\

I need to get a nice, red (because I like) umbrella. And hopefully quite light. I haven't got an umbrella of my own ever since I threw one away in Berlin. It has been raining quite often lately, and on Sunday I couldn't leave the community centre because I had no umbrella! It was raining very heavily when practice ended.

I tried Yin Xuan's new second-hand Perantucci tuba. Piangs! Sounded damn good, damn smooth and my notes flowed nicely! No wonder Yin Xuan sounded better this practice, I thought he improved so much after 6 months of not hearing him! Cheyyy. Hahaha. But he said C tubas usually sound better than Bb tubas. I dunno. One day I'll try the C tuba in MJ.

Thank goodness my dad was driving my sister home to Choa Chu Kang and they could make a trip down to Jurong as well. Phew. But I waited for about an hour for them to come. We went for dinner, then my mum was mumbling something about the movie 881. And then came the last minute decision of going to watch the movie. So on, my parents. But we went home to bathe and booked the tickets first. Haha. The movie was quite alright, but I must admit, the effects were extremely lame. I don't know why Royston Tan could allow/come up with something like that, but well, solely for entertainment purposes. I rolled my eyes at some parts of the movie. Haha, too corny. =P But the songs were good! I loved like every one of them.

What's a good movie without good snacks? A fan of this since I was J1
My parents flashing the victory sign in the cinema

The end.

CL2280 Basic Translation 基础翻译

Whaha, I think I always take killer modules which explains my CAPS. However, I enjoy those killer modules. Just that I don't score well for them. Not at all.

Saya berfikir, saya tak akan guna Bahasa Melayu menulis blog saya. Kerana sekarang saya ambil modul Penterjemahan yang dasar, modul ini guna Bahasa Cina dan Bahasa Inggeris. Jadi, saya mesti guna lebih Bahasa Cina dan Inggeris. Awak tahu saya guna kamus untuk perenggan ini. (I think I will not use Malay to write my blog (for now), because I'm currently taking the Basic Translation module which uses Chinese and English. Therefore I must use more Chinese and English. You know I was using a dictionary to write this paragraph. Heh)


Doing the CL2280 homework is quite a hurricane (not a breeze) and sometimes I laugh at myself, like how I laugh when I wrote my Malay essays. There are a few questions that I just completed and must talk to you about.

Success is often just an idea away.
译：成功往往只需一个主意。

I should just not do the question. Haha. My answer is soooo weird.

His wife kept dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness and the ruin he brought on his family.
他整天游手好闲，常常粗心大意，又给全家带来惨祸。这是妻子不停地在他耳边唠叨。

HAHA.

Oh but there's one here I think I wrote quite a good translation of, without any help at all.

The preparations for the celebration are being made.
庆祝活动的准备工作正在进行。

Yeah, I think it sounded not bad! In the first place, the English sentence that was given was already a bit weird.

There's this killer among the 16 questions:

Modesty helps one go forward whereas conceit makes one lag behind.

How will you want to translate it??

I did this: 谦虚使人更上一层楼，幻想则是人落后．

Haha, sounds so amateur.

I shall not go until he comes.

This, I thought, was easy. 他不来我不去！

Whahahaha, of course I didn't put that though I thought it makes sense too. So I did 他不来，我就不走！

I'm sure there're more absurd ones to come. Difficult but interesting and engaging homework.

洁莹，不要笑我了．

EDIT
These are the suggested answers for the "Modesty helps one go forward whereas conceit makes one lag behind."

人因虚心而进步，因骄傲而落后。
虚心则进步，骄傲则落后。
满招损、谦受益。

Why you all so pro one? =(

Hmmph

There is something wrong with Friendster and I can't view my own profile. Damn. I think my account has been hacked.

Anyway, today is a free day! I'll only be able to enjoy Wednesdays free-of-school for this week and next week, and when tutorials start, I should be having tutorials on Wednesday afternoons. Why? 'Cos there are sectionals on Wednesdays and I have to go to school ultimately!

School has been quite alright actually. Been through all the five lectures for the five modules that I got. Namely,

• MA2101 - Linear Algebra II (core)
  
• MA2108 - Mathematical Analysis I (core)
  
• MA2216 - Probability (core)
  
• ST1131 - Introduction to Statistics (U/E)
• CL2280 - Basic Translation (U/E or breadth)

By far the most horrible lecture was the ST1131 one. Next time if you want to clear your throat, do it properly! Ahem-ing with a high-pitched and gentle sound won't help you clear your throat!

The MA2101 lecture was pretty good! The lecture was very clear.

MA2108 was...hahaha. Some of my friends took the module last semester with the same lecturer, and he was exactly how they described. Two cans of Pokka Green Tea, slurping his saliva while he speaks, etc. But I think the 2108 lecturer is pretty innovative. He tied a knot to the wire of the microphone so that the mic will stand by itself, and he put the wire part into his breast pocket and ta-daa the mic was upright and he could speak into it. Impressive. Because the mic has no clip that he can attach to his shirt.

MA2216 was a bit boring and dry. And LT27 was cranky, I got a bit irritated.

CL2280 was scary!!! Hahaa. The module seems to be quite tough actually, but I insist on taking it because so far (only one lecture though) I feel that it'll be very enriching. But it really is tough! I got it for only 1 point in Round 3A, thank goodness I did some research of previous years and was rather assured of waiting till 3A to bid for it.

I tried writing a poem for the Science Orientation Week but I stopped halfway because I had no more inspiration to continue. =( It somehow also serves as a thank-you message I have for the freshies and the seniors, but I really can't continue anymore!!! Argh it must have been the interruption of school.

Alrights, gotta pack up my room and all now. And listen to more of Star Wars Trilogy before I go for sectionals. But I think I still can't triple tongue well. Going to make a mess out of the mouthpiece later on. =P

Year 2, Semester 1, Day 1

Seeing the freshies come in, I feel soooo old.

=(

This semester's modules are another roller-coaster for me, because until now, I am still bidding. -_- This seems to happen to me every semester. I hope I can get CL2280, quite an interesting module to read.

I am just a bit troubled that I can't read any GEM modules this semester. Wanted to read Southeast Asia: A changing region, but Cedric Lee said his friend found it difficult to score. Moreover, I can't bid that module. Too much competition and I am not only poor with money, I'm poor with NUS bid points too.

Today's the first day of school, and it started at 8 a.m. I woke up at 5 a.m. plus for school. Sigh...I miss hall life. T_T (in fact, I think I only miss my hall friends and the convenience that hall can give. Nothing else =P) And I had to squeeze with many other people in the train, etc., sian.

The first lecture I had today, ST1131, was shitty. The lecture theatre was so stuffy and the lecturer was so... never mind.

Won't be posting anything deep (have I ever?) these days, no time!

I need to get more clothes.

And I hope this semester will go good for me.

Do sign

While I'm not necessarily in the mood, please please sign this. I don't know if it can help at all, but they need more signatures.

This is a petition to rescue the South Korean hostages. Signing the petition is just less than a minute.

If you're unwilling to do this, think of how much time you have already spent doing something for others!

Down

I feel like crying.

Everything isn't right today. Almost, at least.

I'm feeling damn down, feeling so cold. And feeling odd.

I didn't expect this to happen earlier on actually.

I feel so discouraged, so demoralised. Feel like I can't do anything to make me feel proud of myself.

I feel oh damn lousy.

Kept telling myself to look on the brighter side and forget about everything and just laugh them off.

But I can't.

T_T

Sigh...

Things do happen. Yea, they do.

Moreover I'm rather tired.

Very tired.

I haven't felt this ache in quite some time.

Time for a smile, and forget about everything.

Because I need to forget. And move on. =\

Enjoyed the past week

Hello hello hello!

How have you all been?

Haha, it was Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights out of home. And I am beat.

More orientation programmes next week, I'm looking forward to them!

So interesting.

Will blog more and more and more. I hope =P

Not even done with the Europe trip.

Camping

Hello, I'm in NUS now for Science Orientation Week. Sooo tiring. But quite fun la. And the freshies are cute.

But they're not enthu when he comes to SP leh. Like they give very obvious clues to who they are.

And I accidentally let out a bit to someone. I should just kill myself.

The kind when you say something and then you'll oh-shit why did I say that?

Haha.

But looking at them communicate with their SPs was the entertaining part.

So tired, and so many modules I'm interested in clashes with my core modules, I can't take much now. I still can't find any back up modules. And there are some but I'm not interested.

Sighhh.

Going off. Hope I can bid the modules I really wanna get.