The End Of Recess Week

Today marks the end of recess week.

What have I accomplished? Nothing much, really.

Sigh.

Hills and plateaus and mountains and HDBs of unfinished business to do.

I'm dreading school.

I've never hated school before actually.

Until I entered uni. Then schoolwork became a mess and I messed up myself and my life as well. I wonder what caused the change in attitude towards school.

Wrong choice of major, maybe. I seem to be disliking almost everything I'm studying.

But there's nothing else I can do. And there's nothing else I would like to do.

Argh.

I forgot how it feels like to be attentive throughout lessons.

Put in more effort, and I'll get out of this mess nicely.

I dread the exams which are coming in less than two months.

Shit. Less than two months!

A headache is creeping into me. T_T

救命啊！

Packed

Sometimes I wonder why do I give myself so many things to do, I don't have time for academic-related stuff!

Sighhhhhhh.

Play catching-up only once in a while. Never complete tutorials. Never do this, never do that, all because I have no time.

When I am busy with my commitments I am a happy person. 'Cos I don't have the time to think of the consequences. When the time comes for me to do homework, then I realise I have a mountain to climb.

=(

My name is Erina. What does it tell you?

What say you?

The Bank Of Secrets
henceforth known as the 'Bank'

Getting started...
It's very easy. Simply create an account!

Deposit policy...
Just speak and everything will be deposited.

To reduce the chances of withdrawals, speak as fast as possible to challenge the slow processing rate of the Bank. This is so that the Bank will be unable to deposit everything and probably nothing will be withdrawn.

Once deposited, always deposited.

Withdrawal policy...
Warning: Existence of withdrawal without customer's permission.

Customer cannot choose to withdraw secrets that he/she has deposited.

Withdrawal takes place under pressure and interest.

Other forms of withdrawal takes place when the Bank overflows and older deposits are erased by accident.

Loan policy...
The Bank is unable to complement.

Closure of account...
You think it's easy to close?



This is awfully random.

Badminton

After years of not playing badminton, I finally found the time and opportunity to give a good swing.

Went to Tampines Sports Hall with seven other Mermaids yesterday and I think I played almost non-stop for three hours plus. Just on and on and on and on with short breaks in between.

Good games.

And now, I woke up with aching muscles and I can't walk properly. Man, even my ass muscles hurt. I think I worked too hard yesterday.

But anyway, I like my new racket (though YX dropped it before I even used it for a game =P) and I like my new New Balance shoes. The racket didn't give me any problems, and my shoes were as comfortable as stepping on a sponge. Yea right, no la, it was just nicely comfortable. Money well-spent. I can keep them for some time longer.

Hairspray

This time I'm still blogging about Hairspray. Not because I wanna grumble that I couldn't watch it, but because,

I'VE WATCHED IT!!!!!

Whahahaha!

Thanks to you who caught it with me =D

The songs were quite good, and you'll just smile throughout the entire show.

Goooood Morning Baaaaaaltimoooreee~

The past week

I haven't blogged the last week. It was a hectic week for me, with a test, two assignments, repairman coming down, etc etc.

And the hectic week leaves and another is coming. Though we call it the recess week.

Saturday (i.e. yesterday) had HSC alumni practice in the morning, went home, and out again to Botanic Gardens for an evening walk.

I got to know you better, thanks =)

And after the long walk around Botanic Gardens - oh walked to NUS Bukit Timah Campus as well, my first time there - was walking to Orchard. Wa, our legs were rather tired and someone didn't have dinner. =\

Sunday (today) went yum cha with Christopher, Daniel and Hui Shan at Red Star Restaurant. The food is not bad but expensive. Then went home, bathed, read the papers, came out again for Philharmonic Winds meets Boston Brass concert.

Monday (tmr) I feel like getting a pair of good running shoes and a badminton racket! I need to get a racket because mine is damn old and the strings aren't sturdy anymore. And I threw away my old pair of shoes because it really cannot make it any longer. So probably I'll be doing some shopping in the day. In the evening I have sectionals at CFA.

Tuesday morning I am going for badminton with the Mermaids at Tampines Sports Hall. That's why I need shoes and racket. I can't possibly wear my sneakers for badminton =\. From 8-12. I foresee a lunch together. And there's NUSWS comm meeting in the late afternoon. I'm going out at night.

Wednesday there's sectionals.

Thursday there's band practice.

I think I should be going down to one of the band stores to collect the stuff that I ordered for NUSWS. So my Wednesday is somehow gone as well.

And we have to discuss Basic Translation this week.

When do I study? =( I feel so lousy.

I need to squeeze out time to practise the tuba as well.

Please please let me keep my days as free as possible.

Golden Village Movie Club

Go join this, I'm sure you'll need it in some way or the other.

As far as I'm looking at this, no strings attached.

A joke and a belated one

I shall do the 'belated' joke first.

Uh, this has got to do with 我报 again. -_-

I mean, what's so wrong with a non-Chinese reading Chinese paper? They may very well be able to read it as well as you, or even better!

This time it was another auntie. I walked to her, held up my hand again, and she was contemplating whether to give me until I said '谢谢' then she released the papers from her grip. Why why why?

And the new joke for today.

Ching Wen laughed till there were tears in her eyes because of this. Here goes.

YX and I finally got seats, while CW continued standing. Not long after that, a group of elderly folk walked in and obviously we gave up our seats. Then CW started laughing, I thought it was due to another matter. It turned out that the ah pek that I gave my seat to said 'terima kasih' in appreciation.

Nice.

The problem is, it doesn't matter if Chinese mistake me for being Malay or any other race, but Malays can't make out as well. I don't know if I really look that Malay in the first place. =\

Why I say this was because after the MRT ride mentioned above, YX and I walked past Eastlink Mall. And there was a group of Muslim girls holding on to tickets that they'll ask people to donate. And because it was a Muslim associated donation drive, it'd be easier to convince fellow Muslims to donate. Ta-daa I was one of the fellow Muslims that they approached.

Mugging time. Won't be able to study much tomorrow 'cos I need to return to CFA, and there's sectionals on Wednesday, and Thursday's the ST1131 test. =( And I have three tutorials to complete by Wednesday and Thursday. One homework to complete by Thursday, and another by Friday. Great.

21st birthday

The most important birthdays of most people are their 1st and 21st birthdays. As to why, I have absolutely no idea.

I find it quite sad when I get to know people and they're past their 21st birthday already. 'Cos I have no chance to spend with them. But neverrrrr mind la.

Most like to celebrate their 21st birthday. Have some kind of parties and the like.

I don't know if I want one. I'll want one because I didn't get to plan my 1st birthday party (did I even have one?) and I am sane (not that I was insane when I was a year old) enough to organise one.

But what can I do? Plan chalet, everyone comes and sings birthday song and cut cake and give presents. A bit......too normal =P

I can't think of anything outstanding to do, so I'll shelf this celebration idea for now. Doesn't matter if I don't blow up the importance of the birthday. I've never really celebrated my birthday properly anyway, as in, the kind where I'll do all the preparations and invite people to come over and sing for me. (But all the lovely celebrations you guys did, thanks so much =D)

However I wanna request for a birthday present this time. Muahahaa. It just came into my mind all of a sudden when I was having dinner.

I want a real oven. A big one. The kind where you have in your kitchen under the stove.

Because I haven't baked for real. I used the microwave oven and it's so bu shuang. Just so odd to see the cookies spinning inside the microwave and...maybe getting treated radially in the wrong way.

I want to bake. Pies, lasagna, tarts, cookies, maybe cakes (but I don't really like cakes, so), and experiment. And bake chicken, fish, etc. Ooh-la-la! Even if the taste don't come out well I have something to practise with. 'Cos I'm sick of steam, fry, pan-fry, reheat, whatsoever. No kick.

I'm sooo going to request this to my parents. Even if they don't want to pay I'll pay for myself but I'll always need permission regarding the space. My dad is the 'everything-at-home-is-my-property' kind of guy (which I'll always rebut that he's free to take my pads) so I have to get his permission first.

But getting such an oven will mean overhauling the entire stove. Which is costly. And I like the present stove. Easy to control. How now brown cow?

I want an oven!

Hairspray

I'm writing this post titled 'Hairspray' not because I watched the movie and am going to talk about it, I'm writing this post because I CAN'T watch it. T_T

I had four chances to watch this long-waited movie, of which I tried to plan three.

1. Jio-ed Annie to watch with me. But another group of friends wanted to watch Ratatouille, blah blah blah, we watched Ratatouille that weekend instead.

2. Maria asked me to watch Hairspray yesterday. It'd be her second time watching the show. But I chose to go home 'cos I wanted to call Accent to settle the quotations asap, so that I won't wait till the night to call and they would've closed by then.

3. Supposed to watch Hairspray tonight. In the end there were too little shows and can't fit my friend's schedule.

4. Almost immediately after the cancellation of item 3, I asked Felix & Co. if they wanna watch and we were so damn close to booking the tickets and the next thing I knew, I can't make it. 'Cos a member in my CL2280 group can only make it for discussion after 3 p.m. The ONLY show at GV TM tomorrow is at 1615. Then I cannot go also.

Then when? Hairspray going to close liao.

Baik

Do you know that sense of accomplishment when you finally got something you've been pressurised to search for?

I seriously understand that feeling.

When I received the email from the NTUSB QM, I was overwhelmed with joy and gratefulness.

Whahahhahaha. Big deal!

But they're loaning us quite a bulk of instruments! So gan dong.

And it's like, half of the list of instruments I have to source is cleared.

Muahaha.

But there's still a mountain of things I have to do T_T

Call the repairman tmr morning. Anyone wants to come NTU with me on Wednesday? (Don't worry, I'll get human resource haha)

Remembering MJC

There were some talks about the NUSWS members going down to their JCs to promote Da Capo 2007.

Then I just felt like I want to take a look at MJC's website, like how much it's changed.

And I was soooooooooooooo shocked when I saw the website.

Like, fwah. What good marketing powers. I mean, if you're a secondary 4 student and you see such cool website of a college, you'll be tempted to register for the college right? It's much more attractive in that sense.

I'm feeling proud that I came from MJC, but envious yet at the same time because I didn't get to enjoy such cool stuff when I was there. The previous web layout was good also, interactive and the like, but I think this time the website is so much nicer.

Meridian, yes we will be the best!

Feel the flame of our dreams
Burn forever

Taken from the Meridian Junior College anthem

New video

Osama bin Laden (it's been a while since we last heard his name) has reappeared in a video recently. I read a news clip about it, and the first paragraph said this:

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a video on Friday released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.

-_-

Weirdo!

A tenor like no other

Luciano Pavarotti passed away yesterday.

I was very shocked when I learnt of the news.

I felt a kind of heartache that a great man who brought opera to the masses has gone away, never coming back. Though I didn't concentrate on his music while he was alive, he was well-known and well-received and...sigh. =(

I saw a clip regarding his funeral and while the pallbearers were carrying his casket into a church in Modena, the crowd clapped as a form of respect. How much people love him.

I'll want to visit Modena, Italy and the church and pay my respects to this legendary opera singer.

Addio Maestro.

Joke of the Day

To throw away a solemn mood in my blog these days, I shall tell you a funny story. It's really worth a listen.

Here goes.

This morning when I was walking towards Tampines MRT Station to go to school, there were two people giving out mypaper, also known as 我报, the free circular in Singapore. I like to read mypaper more than Today, so of course I went up to this auntie to grab one.

I raised my hand to get the papers from her.

She immediately put the papers in my hands - not! She then motioned the papers away from me and said, 'This is Chinese paper!'

I replied, '啊我知道。' Following that, I grabbed the papers from her hand (as in, I really did that. Either that or I snatched it) and walked off.

Alrights, alrights, stop laughing.

-_-

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.