Happy Fathers' Day

Today's Fathers' Day, and I bought a calculator for my dad. I don't like his current calculator though he has been using it for some time already. It's a bit hard to press and doesn't look cool. Muaha. Got it at Action City Marina Square (I forgot to look at Ann Gee's wall at GV) with Nick and Hui Shan and Khee Nguen after Play! yesterday. Hui Shan got a USB mug warmer (Daniel got it on Friday) and Nick got the same calculator but of a different colour. I like the calculator.


And it's red! Auspicious.

One thing I didn't mention was the size of the calculator.


It's A4-sized actually. And I wrote a card to go with it.


'Big Bean' because I address my dad as 'Ah Dou', also Ah Bean in English.

I left it in his drawer but I doubt he'll see it today, since it's an off day. Never mind!

I hate that brat.

Argh. Extremely pissed.

I was very delighted when Kien Wee got back Shiroi Koibito chocolates from Hokkaido and I got three pieces of that precious chocolate from him. I'm not really pro-chocolate, but I really love those Hokkaido chocolates!

I got them on Thursday, so I happily ate one piece and kept the other two pieces and saving them for another day.

Went to the library to get travel books this afternoon when my aunt and cousin are around.

When I came back I had a craving for Shiroi Koibito. And when I opened the fridge, my chocolates were missing. And I asked my dad where my chocolate was. He said he dunno, he didn't see.

My aunt was wrapping dumplings with my mum in the kitchen, and she asked 'Is it XX XX???' Where XX XX is the cousin's name. I said 'Noooo laaa no laaaa!' because I didn't think the boy will open our fridges without permission. He's about Primary 3 I think, and he's damn spoilt because he's the youngest of two children and his elder brother is 12 years older than him. So everyone at home will dote on him.

My dad said maybe my brother ate it. So I SMS-ed my brother, oh-so-determined to find out the culprit. Then my dad said about five minutes before I returned from the library, XX XX ate something from the fridge.

!

I opened the rubbish bin and saw two blue-green wrappers on the top of the pile.

I was soooo freaking angry. I couldn't shout at the kid because it may strain my relationship with my aunt. And I couldn't even give him a scolding.

Two pieces of expensive and lovely chocolate stolen by a brat who doesn't appreciate the chocolate. I SMS-ed my brother telling him, 'Never mind. I caught the thief.'

I know, I'm older and should just forget about it and let him have it. So what? Why do I have to give up something I treasure so much for this stupid brat who plays games all day, doesn't study, and is extremely disrespectful? I couldn't complain to my parents, my brother was away at CO pract, so I had to go to my room, close the door, and called my sister and cry over the phone. And I cried somemore to myself after we hung up. So pissed.

After that I purposely made things difficult for the kid.

By the way, he happily farted when he was standing beside me and it stinks like shit. Well, of course it stinks like shit. But imagine you were at the centre of the explosion.

While he was playing games, he made a lot of noise and kept saying 'F*** you laaa!'. He's damn ill-mannered la.

My aunt wanted to watch the TV, and there are two TV sets in my living room but she bluffed him that the other set was not working. So he had to stop playing his game. He turned to me and asked if he could use the PC which I was using to round up my Berlin trip.

XX XX: 'Let me use lehhhh. You going to use until what time?'
Me: 'Until you go home.'
XX XX: 'Don't so petty lehhh. I wanna use laaa.'
Me: 'I need to use also what.'

The thing is, there are two laptops and one PC at home. Before he came, I closed the doors of my room and my brother's so that he won't have access to the laptops. My laptop can't be used anyway, caught a virus and after that the browsers can't be used already.

At dinner, my aunt asked XX XX to be good and say 'Uncle, Auntie, Korkor, Jiejie, eat!' to all of us. He was reluctant. We had to say this at dinner with relatives for manners' sake. If you don't, it's like a Japanese not saying 'Itadakimasu'(sp) before a meal.

My dad: 'If you don't say then you cannot have dinner ah.'
XX XX: 'Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
(My mum cooked very good claypot noodles for dinner.)
Me: 'If you don't say then everyone cannot eat.' (Of course I'm not going to care and sacrifice a scrumptious dinner because of him.)
XX XX: 'WAAH LAOOO EHHHHHHH!!'
My dad: 'OK la OK la eat la.'

And I gave my dad the look and started eating.

It is so hard not to flare up at him when my aunt isn't around. And if I flare up at him when my aunt isn't around, it'll be like I'm those kind of people who bully kids when their mums aren't there. I'm not those kind. I just wanna pick on the kid.

Because I've tolerated him for almost ten years already. I'm going to heck care about him la. May even start spanking if he misbehaves at my house again.

My chocolates. =(

Waaaa! I'm damn sad! How often do you have friends going to Hokkaido? How often do you have friends going to Hokkaido and getting that chocolate back from you?

The chocolate that Kien Wee gave was eaten by a brat who doesn't even know how to appreciate.

Wa, wanna cry again. Hmmph.

The rock melon Kitkat and the Shiroi Koibito that Kien Wee took back from Hokkaido

Doraemon fruit drops that Hwee Lee got for me from China. Damn cute la.

Pluck!

The Specialists!

Just came back from Pluck! at the Esplanade Recital Studio. It was hilarious la! I give the show four stars out of five. The one star remaining went to the fact that it was quite hard to understand their British accent. Haha.

Damn tired now and there's drill in the morning. I'm freaking tired.

Haven't checked out transport costs for Berlin, and haven't memorised my pieces. Damn. I wanna sleep.

I don't think I'll memorise though.

Sleep liao. Nights.

Dari kanan, cepat jaaaaalan!

Muaha. The agenda of today's sectionals was focused on marching.





A few of the videos that Hui Shan the string bassist took.

ARGH

Wasted so much time and money. And not only my own.

I happily thought that my Basic Theory Test is on Tuesday. Requested half day, and my dad purposely came down from Tekka to drive me to Ubi. In the end in my dad's cab, he said, 'I thought your BTT is supposed to be tomorrow.'

And it turned out that he's right.

Rushed back to YPS and continued working. -_- The bad part about making too many acquaintances in school is that the only question they'll surely ask is 'Going for lunch ah?' 'Where you going now?' 'How are you going home?' etc. So on the way back I had to explain to a number of people that the BTT is supposed to be today.

And I went to CDC today, and passed the trial. And I flunked the actual test.

T_T

Never mind. My mum said, '失败不用紧，你看，连李光要（音）都会失败！'

Ya lo.

But I still think that the L-plate should be placed on my forehead instead of the front and back of the car. (I hope you people get what I actually mean)

I didn't study hard enough I guess. I did read the book but didn't really digest. But the thing is...I was unsure of four questions. And in the end I got more questions wrong.

And the next time I'll get to do BTT again, it'll be in September already. If I still flunk it, I'll be realllly reaaaaaaaaaly very sad. I'm already very sad.

Hope I'll get to own my own car before I turn 40. Hmm.

Driving, cycling, driving, cycling, driving, cycling, driving, cycling. My oh my.

Wasted money, happied me

I paid $5 for 120 stickers which I really love. Muaha.

The end of the blogging spree.

The Singapore Flyer

As most of you know, they're building a huge ferris wheel at Marina South to attract tourists. But I am attracted too, for I am keeping track of the construction's progress. For some reason I didn't take note of the construction earlier on, noticing it only from February.

February 21, 2007

March 10, 2007

March 17, 2007

March 24, 2007
Stupid lorry...

I couldn't stay still and take a picture of the construction simply because I was in either a car or a bus in the middle of the expressway.

March 30, 2007
Was in a speeding bus -_-

April 14, 2007
Last section done

April 21, 2007
No visible improvements

May 18, 2007

May 24, 2007
Credits to my dad for the above two photos. He took them when he was driving along ECP in his cab -_-

June 3, 2007
Looks cleaner as supporting structures were removed

Lack of updates because I haven't been taking buses to hall anymore. So got this picture while passing by by chance.

Behind Wooden Bars

Went for PhilWinds concert yesterday.

Kevin Bobo is damn pro. He was the soloist on marimba for Goh Toh Chai's Concerto for marimba and wind ensemble. His speed is ultra fast. However, the piece was too abstract for my liking. I wonder if it was supposed to make any sense. So I just watched Bobo striking the marimba and nearly-dancing at the same time.

His encore was Bicycle, a piece he composed. First movement was Upslope, second movement was Downslope. Quite a cute piece, and I preferred the Upslope as it has two parts, whereas Downslope was more of a melody by itself. After Bicycle, he played a piece entitled 'June 9th 2007' on the snare. The techniques of the piece was immortal. Haha. One thing for sure, this piece won't be performed again because it was some random rhythms he composed on the spot.

John Boyd happily informed the audience the tuba soloist in a symphony arranged from Sousa's marches was Aaron instead of Daniel Kiang. Daniel Kiang's solo was not bad.

There was a Japanese piece at the concert, complemented by Japanese drums. There was a Japanese lady in the percussion section, and when she played the Japanese drums, it was a very pretty sight. Being Japanese, she brought out the entire 日本风味 to the piece. The way she played the drums was really what you see on CNA's Japan Hour. The typical Japanese men hitting the drums.

At first I was supposed to sit alone on the Circle 1 seats 'cos I didn't find company for the concert but wanted to go as it was Aaron's last concert before he enlists. At least that's what he said. Thankfully Mingwei hadn't got his ticket, so he bought a ticket in the same circle and since it wasn't full house, I got Mingwei for company. I don't really like watching concerts alone. Cloud, PK and the rest were sitting in the stalls, and I must say, Circle 1 is best. Heh.

After the concert we hung around Level M since people were looking for the performers, myself included. So spoke to Aaron and the tubists for a while. Aaron is invited to Macau for a performance this week. -_- Bloody envious.

Then went with the NUSWS people to Gluttons' Bay for supper. The char kway teow (not the Apollo one, Felix) was super oily and cost me a hefty $4. But I mustn't deny the taste was not bad. And the teh peng was ultra sweet.

Saw Daniel Kiang, Aaron and Lianwei at the Gluttons' Bay too, but they left way before I did. So when I thought that I shouldn't contact Aaron since Daniel would drive him back, I saw Aaron on the train, but only when we reached Tampines -_- What took them so long was because they took their own sweet time till Aaron decided that he should take the train instead. Met him on the train by coincidence last Wednesday, and by coincidence again he just got my ticket for the concert and I could take it from him then.

This morning when my dad was driving my mum and I to PRP, he saw someone along the road and pointed and said, "This person surely go into the cab and tell the uncle he wanna go to a church." We were on the road near my place and I just got this weird feeling and decided to turn back and look who he was talking about. In the end I saw this lanky guy carrying a huge red thing on his back. -_- Aaron with his tuba. I looked back because we were on the road near Aaron's place. And I told my dad that's my friend but he's no Christian. So I called Aaron and hey, he was going to a church for a performance. Bingo to my dad, the experienced taxi-driver.

Saw Ann Gee on the same train last night too. She's gonna have another art exhibition in July!

BTT on Tuesday.

Cycling trip number 3

Went Pasir Ris Park today for another round of cycling.

Rental was higher than that of East Coast Park, most probably due to the lack of competition. Renting a bike at PRP was $6/hr for a medium-sized bike with suspensions while you get the same for $8 per two hours at ECP. Due to the higher price, I think I'm starting to comtemplate if I should go to ECP again. But the crowds there really turn me off.

Cycling wasn't that good today.

I think I caused a small boy to fall off his little bicycle. The boy is at most 3 years old I think. So you can just imagine how small he is. He was cycling behind his brother who was a few years older. Both were on those 4-wheeled bicycles. We met at one end of a bridge in PRP, and a woman parked her bicycle there on the right and sat there and stared into space. So she became an obstacle that I had to avoid. Just before reaching the bridge, I had to cycle away from other pedestrians and cyclists who were initially blocking me. I wonder why they let their kids hog the middle of the tracks. It's pretty irritating. So I was stuck on the right side of the track.

I continued cycle slowly since I was going upslope upon reaching the bridge. But I didn't know how to stop properly while going upslope because I was afraid I'll lose my footing and roll down backwards instead. =( So I rang the bell continuously hoping that the boys would go out of my way. The brother went out of way, while the boy cycled just right beside me and he looked at me and the next thing I knew, he fell off his bicycle. The woman was still sitting there on the right of the bridge.

And boy wailed and I was like 'Oh my god' and got off my bike. I asked his brother where mummy was and he pointed 'Daddy over there'. I apologised profusely to the boy and his father said 'It's OK' and ignored me totally after that. The small boy miraculously stopped wailing after about 10 seconds. I think he just wanted to attract his parents' attention la.

No injuries except for a few small scratches above his left brow. Thank goodness.

Felt so awful after that that I only cycled for an hour today and trotted off for breakfast. And bought 黑白 to make myself feel better a little bit.



The only good part about cycling today was that there was a part of the cycling track that I can practise my turns without being interrupted by people. There were very little people today.

I need to display a P-plate while cycling.

Work at Yumin

The new job has been fine so far, considering that the jobs that I needed to complete were very straightforward. Supposed to type the kids' worksheets into soft copy and other random jobs.

The structure of the school has been changed through renovation too much that I cannot recognise many of the places already. The classrooms building that I used to use were gone, the previous General Office is now situated at where the staff room was, the canteen looked like a smaller version of MJ's canteen. The dentist's clinic is moved to I-dunno-where. However, the entrances are still the same. The pathway leading to the back gate (now called rear-gate) is still there. I remembered playing games there during recess with my classmates. I got goosebumps when I saw that the old tree at the back gate was still there!!! Soooo memorable! T_T It was a very old and spooky tree. Will definitely take a picture next time.

It's quite a good experience to work in a school. I discovered many many things that I didn't know.

The colleagues there are OK, just that the age gaps were rather hard to fill. I don't see anyone of my age around, so I go for lunch alone. Can't really go back for lunch as the break time is only half an hour. But I'm always late 'cos I eat quite slowly. Hope they never take note.

Used to be in Girls' Brigade, and happily looked forward to hear what they've been doing. In the end, they closed down already. T_T No more lovely blue uniforms, not more hymns, no more drilling. To think that I used to be soooo committed and loved drills! Haha. No more 29th COY. And I even got a Best Girls' Brigader trophy at the school's speech day in Primary 6. Now I think the prized possession looks a bit sad le.

Sooo many new and interesting CCAs!!! So angry! I feel so deprived. There are more musical groups when those we had were choir and maybe angklung. Now they have guzheng ensemble, recorder ensemble etc. The guzheng ensemble is so good that they got a gold medal in their first SYF in 2004. I think at my time no groups in YPS took part in SYF before. Haha. Or at least nothing was won there. Kids can even take violin lessons in school! Of course they've got to pay for the violins and the lessons, however they get to be graded! I'm so envious.

It was very rare for primary schools to be able to go on an overseas trip. Now they go annually. To China and Japan. They've got exchanges there, and HOMESTAY. So the foreign parents look after them. Piangsss! They get to experience a lot of things! The first time I knew about exchanges was only when I got into Hai Sing. Now P4s and 5s can get to go to Japan. I want to go to Hokkaido! T_T

Had fun typing the supplementary worksheets. Especially for science, since I get to draw diagrams! Haha. Of course I followed the hard copy most of the time, but those were really ugly. Muahahhahaha. Shhhhh. =P


Chanced upon this manual but haven't tried the actual programme yet. So I only read a bit of the book to pass time when no work was assigned to me. Some diagrams I drew (and am very proud of whahaha):

I just realised I drew this diagram wrongly. Should be one container instead of four. Gotta change

I think the rock is quite cute =\

My favourite work so far. Can you see what both diagrams are trying to test?

It was fun typing and answering the questions at the same time. The questions that I never can answer till now are the physics questions. Forgot them.

In all, I still prefer to work in corporate administration departments...things are more systematic and I can easily find temps my age. Whaha.

On the fifth day of work, I realised something.

TempRORY? I tempura leh.

I took this pass everyday, and it was only on Friday that I noticed it. Haha.

Lions' new home

Went to Giant hypermart with my parents after cycling. Intended to get a storage box for my lions, and it must be short enough to roll it under the bed.

I saw nothing compatible, but my dad insisted that one of the boxes could fit the bill so I agreed and to my dismay, it was too tall. -_- Waste space and money!

However, I still had fun trying to put my lions into the box. Self-entertainment.

Rule of thumb: To put the medium-sized ones in. Bigger ones will occupy more space, smaller ones should fill the gaps between the medium ones.

The 4-wheeler that was too tall
Attempt 1. Oh no. Half the space's gone
Attempt 2. Looks good
Uh..not really
Attempt 3. Seems better
Aaahh. Good
Looks fitting
Four lions which were obviously denied space
Off we go
The four which didn't get in

Cycling just got better

Yeay yeay.

Cycling has been much easier to get used to.

Went to East Coast Park with my parents last Sunday to practise cycling while they jalk (jog+walk). Renting of bike cost $8 for 2 hours and NO free mineral water.

Big mistake.

There were horribly terribly crowds of people and cyclists and I had a hard time passing through them safely, being an amateur. Extremely stressed when I obviously didn't pass the obstacle course done by Cedric, Daniel and Daniel's scandal the week before.

I almost banged into many many people along the more centralised area of the park, like where the restaurants etc. were. People, for some reason, love to cycle close to each other. T_T I wanted to get away to no avail. Until I cycled far far away to the Lagoon area of the park. Fwah. The slopes and all were exciting. Whahaha. And further down to the Bedok jetty. Couldn't turn so I stopped and turned the bike at the end of the jetty and continued cycling. Whaha. Along the way to the Lagoon area, there was a construction site. And I almost fell into it during one of my laps because I wanted to avoid a post and the site as well. The two obstructions were just a short distance away from each other. I was close to screaming and got pass them nicely. Phew.

The chemical from the bike

The next time I cycle on a Sunday, I will never go to East Coast Park again. Till I get more experienced, that is. Two weeks and a bit left for me to practise before I leave for Italy.

Cousin's baby

Baby Nathalie(sp?) just turned one-month-old last Saturday. She's my paternal cousin's first daughter.

There's an 'influx' of babies this year, because many cousins and cousin-in-laws are pregnant and the babies are due within this year. Last year I attended four weddings. This year I attended one. That quite explains the 'influx'.

My sister is pregnant too. Due September. Adds on to the 'influx'.

I'm gonna be an 阿姨.

First trip to The Mind Cafe

As much as I've heard of buzz about the cafe, I wasn't bothered enough to find out where the place is, much less how to go there. However, I made my first trip there last Friday (this post is more than a week late), as in, on the 1st of June.

Since it was quite a last minute invitation, I had to go home to have dinner first then make my way to Dhoby Ghaut station. Thankfully my dad had to drive my brother to work, so my dad dropped me at Novena station and took the MRT from there. If not I think I won't get to play much. Ha.

The very very insecure me was feeling extremely insecure, because I set off to go to the cafe without finding out where it is situated. Daniel Kang told me it was opposite Paradiz Centre and the first thing I thought was, where on the island is that? Upon reaching DG I stared at the map for quite some time. In the end I couldn't remember where I was supposed to turn, so I just followed the road sign indicating 'Selegie Road'. And happily I reached there. Phew.

The games Dan, Hui Shan, Nick and I played were a bean-farming game and Settlers of Catan. Both were quite interesting, but I think we were too nice to each other during the bean game. Haha. Happily donated beans to each other instead of exchanging or not helping at all.

And we happily played Settlers the wrong way which resulted in my win. Muaha. Hui Shan said it was Beginner's Luck. OK lo. Heh. But I like Settlers. And the next time I play, I'll make sure the settlements are separated by two roads and not one.

This cheesy snack that they ordered was quite nice leh. Piangs, the cheese was cheesy. I ordered this Earl Grey Float. Tried this because I love Earl Grey. However, iced Earl Grey plus sugar is good except for the ice-cream. It was a bit weird.

When we were nearly done with all those playing, Daryl and Alison came to join us. And we walked to Prinsep St (if I'm not wrong) for tauhuay. There were so many patrons on that Friday night that we ended up sitting somewhere we would classify as the gangsters' area. It was in an alley at the back, and the light we got was from this extra large and powerful spotlight a distance away. But I love tauhuay, and was satisfied that I had tauhuay la. And he was soft. Though it's a bit overrated. Can't remember the name of the shop.

The beany game

Concentrated
Ahhhhhhh. Cheeeeeeeeese.
Change of game, but still concentrated
Nick and Dan
Me and Hui Shan

How the game ended and I got the ten pointsPlus Alison and Daryl
Tauhuay
The bright spotlight and the dark alley with several vandalisms

And the full moon

Daryl left to join his friends, and Nick drove the rest of us home. Meaning, he drove from Bugis/Dhoby Ghaut to Jurong to Simei to Tampines and he lives in the north. That's like driving across the island. Tour de Singapour. Since my place is rather ulu, I didn't want him to drop me at my place. So told him to drop my off along the main road. He said he'll drive me in, but it was too late because he should've kept to the rightmost lane to turn in when we were at the leftmost lane. And he happily cut across two lanes in the middle and got on the leftmost lane. First-time experience for me.

And after dropping me, Alison and Nick got lost. -_-

Thanks to Nick that I got home earlier!

Hotaru no Haka

Which means, Grave of the Fireflies.

This name may ring a bell to some of you, especially Studio Ghibli fans. It is actually a very touching story about how a brother and sister struggled to live during WWII.

I hate war. I really really hate it. I hope I won't experience any for the rest of my life.

I can't imagine waving goodbye to someone I love, whether it is my dad, brother, boyfriend, husband, male friends, and knowing there's a very high possibility you may never see them again. Military that goes to war seems to be sent to sacrifice themselves. I can't imagine having to live in fear all the time, afraid of the jets that fly over your heads while you scurry to a shelter for protection. I can't imagine getting sick without prompt and proper medication. I hate war. Though I've never experienced one.

And also war started by stupid people (read: a big ball of leaves) doesn't help in any way.

I watched the anime long time ago, so the details of the movie are rather vague. However, I just finished the live version, i.e. real life actors and actresses. There was much more additional storyline, which I think was able to spice up the show a little.

Go watch it! I saw it on crunchyroll.com.

And..I think I cried more watching this compared to 1 Litre of Tears.

Yesterday

What seemed like a bad day turned out not that bad when I met Daniel, Nick and Hui Shan at The Mind Cafe at Selegie Road.

The day started out quite bad. I am a very on-time person, meaning I don't leave extra time and only aim to reach my destination on time. This leads to me being slightly late almost everyday.

Yesterday, I took the SBS to the pick-up area of the UPS transport. When I alighted and walked towards the pick-up area, I kept a lookout for a Comfort bus, since it was the bus that took us to work everyday. Since there wasn't any Comfort bus, I walked slowly and a while after I reached the area, my colleague SMSed and told me the (bloody) bus just left and she was at Century Square. Meaning the bus really left only a while ago. I didn't get on the bus because yesterday, it wasn't a Comfort bus. Was some white bus. Pissed off.

So I walked towards Tampines MRT Station to get on the train to Simei, hoping I may still catch the bus. When I was on the platform at Simei, my colleague said the bus was at Changkat Changi Sec. Shit. Went to the lift thinking that it'll be much faster, in the end the lift door wouldn't close! ARGGHH. And I went down and obviously the bus was gone.

Had to take a cab to work. Waste of money.

Argh.

When we were packing up to go home that evening, Yu Xin couldn't lock a compartment of a chest of drawers. T_T And we wasted time and had to run for the transport.

Sigh, I couldn't even go pee.

When we reached the door at the lobby Yu Xin said bye to me and Kim Peng followed suit, so I thought Yu Xin had to go to Bedok and the bus which was parked along the road was the Bedok bus. And in the end, it turned out to be the Tampines Bus which Yu Xin was fully aware of, and she thought I was going to Bedok to take the train to meet my friends.

Oh c'mon. This made Kim Peng go up the wrong bus! There was a moment of confusion and the uncle closed the door on me. I had to jump and knock the door to catch his attention. Kim Peng went up the bus thinking that the Bedok bus left already, since it is always earlier than the Tampines bus. When the bus left, the Bedok bus came and parked at the exact spot.

*rolls eyes*

Nevertheless I dropped at Simei and took the long walk home.

A really long walk

What a way to end my last day at UPS. Meei Yuh, the lady in the office in charge of us temps, was very nice and because she was busy yesterday, she SMSed me when I was at Mind Cafe for some well-wishing.

Will blog about the activities pre, during and post Mind Cafe when I get the photos.