It's always like this - all the tough work first, then the actual thing just breezes us through like nobody's business. This performance is the last of us Secondary 4s under the name of Anglican High School Guitar Ensemble, which is kinda significant to us. Call it a farewell gift to the school - we helped our school raise some funds for the new indoor stadium.
Anyways, I reached school at 8-plus. It was such a bore at first, with only the few of us waiting for the rest of the Secondary 4 group. The usual stuff - get your stuff ready to go to Victoria Junior College to last yourselves one whole day until dismissal at 10pm.
Crapping around and talking nonsense among the juniors was common, and it always happens whenever there's events that we participate. This bus trip from Anglican High to Victoria Junior College was no exception. I guess by the time we reached VJC everyone had a common topic to talk about - we were put inside Lecture Theatre 4, and boy, the entrance stank like rotten cheese left there for years!
There we stayed, there we crapped, until the dry run session. Sean and Jiayu was performing a guitar solo and dance duet - something that probably those Renaissance art enthusiasts would consider "class". Meanwhile the rest of us Sec 4s were preparing for Lovers' Theme and El Vito, as well as Walk in the Woods by the whole ensemble as one. After the dry run, lunchtime was what all of us were waiting for.
Due to Wei Jie's stature, he was nicknamed Marcus Khoo, after one of the teachers in Anglican High, who is both fat and knows how to play guitar. He soon became the centre of our attention, being made fun of by us during lunchtime and throughout the rest of the waiting period before the performance, though of course, there were no hard feelings at the end of the day.
Thanks to the air con valve blowing directly down from one end of the elevated lecture theatre to the bottom end, I managed to turn my hair into a semi-permanent mess with the help of some hair wax to bring my fringe up. Finally, after years of hair length control by the school, I can finally whip up a presentable hairdo while still leaving my hair long and heaped at the top! At least now, the school authorities have less power over what we do to our hair, as long as we give them what they wish for.
Despite rehearsals and dry runs, and endless practices, we still messed up at some point in our limelight. Lovers' Theme was alright, and the beginning of El Vito was okay too, but at the transition part of the song to the second half, some of us were playing too fast and the rest, too slow to catch up. Luckily for us, there was another pause within the music score, so we managed to come back as one again at the ending, and with a "Ooh!" and multiple hand-poses we caught the audiences' attention and received roaring applause, despite the fact that most of the top-deck seats are empty and that most of the audience are at the bottom deck.
After the performance, I got my bird whistle from the backstage, saw Sean, and gave him well-wishes before his duet, then went back to the stinkin' Lecture Theatre 4 to start boring myself until the interval was up. Meanwhile I was telling about Jacob and Benedict of our screw-up on stage and they were like, "Whalau, you guys suck lah. Look at us, we only Sec 3 nia, can perform much better than you guys leh. Summore, we Lambada people go first leh."
Well, okay... Wait till one day you screw up, and tell that to your juniors. Most likely you guys'd probably get a similar answer.
After the whole performance, we went back to the Lecture Theatre 4, only to find more of our seniors coming back as alumni members of Anglican High! People like Song Han, Wan Ling, Xin Lin, Xinyi, Si Hui, etc etc... Heartwarming sight, to have people who were once part of us coming back for moral support and chatting about life after Anglican High graduation. Thanks, guys!
Of course, good stuff always has to end at some point in time, and so we parted ways at Victoria JC. Some of us went back home by public transport, while some of us came back to Anglican High in order not to waste the money paid for 2 chartered coaches to bring us back to school.
To keep things short, Harmony 2008 Concert was a blast!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Full-dress rehearsal
Nowadays, the big thing is about the guitar performance, so naturally this is what I'm gonna blog for during these few days. It seems that you're gonna see more entries about what's going on in my life during the holidays, since I'm having much more free time than ever to burn at my own sweet time...
First things first, the guitar playing has been going on smoothly for now, at least for the rhythm guitar part. At first, I thought El Vito was quite a tough piece to play, but it ended up being easier that I thought. Thank God for all this, man. And to make things better, I finally managed to sell 2 tickets off to Uncles Kelvin and Steven!
The whole full-dress rehearsal started at around 9-plus in the morning, so we went to school early. In fact, I reckon I was the earliest - I reached school at around 7.10am and there wasn't a single ghost around until Shi Yong from Harmonica came 10 minutes later. Meanwhile, I was burning my time away until we decided to go to Market 85 for breakfast, since the canteen isn't open, and Market 85 was just within the vicinity of Anglican High anyway.
As always, many complaints and things left locked inside the Guitar Room meant that there was a lot of inconvenience for everyone. Still, the whole programme and rehearsal went on smoothly, and we were dismissed at 12-plus at noon. Being always with Sean, Hsuan Tien and company, we went to lunch after getting ties for us boys and waiting for the girls to get their stuff ready. By the time we reached Market 85 for lunch, it was already 1-plus.
As we were walking down the side gate towards the market, I looked back only to notice that Jiayu, the dancer who was with us, was lagging behind and I wondered why. Thinking back from her saying that she's fatigued, I understood why and went ahead. But how was I to know that she'd just up and fell down onto the floor without any rhyme or reason?
At first, I thought she was just playing possum on the dirty outdoor concrete. But, something was amiss - it seemed she was on the floor for real. Later on I was told that she had hypotension - low blood pressure - and to make matters worse, she didn't even have a proper meal during our lunchtime at Market 85, just ate an apple whilst we were already eating heartily to our hearts' content.
In any case, we went on to carry her aside and made her sit, rest and recover. Just then there was a passer-by uncle who saw what was happening, and passed me some medicated oil. Somewhere along the conversation I heard that uncle say "That one your wife, ah?" Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there, uncle. I've barely finished my last year in Anglican High, and I didn't even mess around outside, man! I mean, can't you differentiate us students from working adults?
...Or, maybe not. Both Sean and I were still wearing the full-black attire that looked kinda like office wear, so probably that's why that senile old guy made such a big mistake. Worst thing is, Mr Poh was also there among us who were out there helping her get up and rest, so yeah, go figure. He was laughing his way back home, or school, I guess.
Lucky gal, that Jiayu. If she didn't travel with friends around as a group, God knows what might happen if she were alone and feeling weak all of a sudden.
First things first, the guitar playing has been going on smoothly for now, at least for the rhythm guitar part. At first, I thought El Vito was quite a tough piece to play, but it ended up being easier that I thought. Thank God for all this, man. And to make things better, I finally managed to sell 2 tickets off to Uncles Kelvin and Steven!
The whole full-dress rehearsal started at around 9-plus in the morning, so we went to school early. In fact, I reckon I was the earliest - I reached school at around 7.10am and there wasn't a single ghost around until Shi Yong from Harmonica came 10 minutes later. Meanwhile, I was burning my time away until we decided to go to Market 85 for breakfast, since the canteen isn't open, and Market 85 was just within the vicinity of Anglican High anyway.
As always, many complaints and things left locked inside the Guitar Room meant that there was a lot of inconvenience for everyone. Still, the whole programme and rehearsal went on smoothly, and we were dismissed at 12-plus at noon. Being always with Sean, Hsuan Tien and company, we went to lunch after getting ties for us boys and waiting for the girls to get their stuff ready. By the time we reached Market 85 for lunch, it was already 1-plus.
As we were walking down the side gate towards the market, I looked back only to notice that Jiayu, the dancer who was with us, was lagging behind and I wondered why. Thinking back from her saying that she's fatigued, I understood why and went ahead. But how was I to know that she'd just up and fell down onto the floor without any rhyme or reason?
At first, I thought she was just playing possum on the dirty outdoor concrete. But, something was amiss - it seemed she was on the floor for real. Later on I was told that she had hypotension - low blood pressure - and to make matters worse, she didn't even have a proper meal during our lunchtime at Market 85, just ate an apple whilst we were already eating heartily to our hearts' content.
In any case, we went on to carry her aside and made her sit, rest and recover. Just then there was a passer-by uncle who saw what was happening, and passed me some medicated oil. Somewhere along the conversation I heard that uncle say "That one your wife, ah?" Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there, uncle. I've barely finished my last year in Anglican High, and I didn't even mess around outside, man! I mean, can't you differentiate us students from working adults?
...Or, maybe not. Both Sean and I were still wearing the full-black attire that looked kinda like office wear, so probably that's why that senile old guy made such a big mistake. Worst thing is, Mr Poh was also there among us who were out there helping her get up and rest, so yeah, go figure. He was laughing his way back home, or school, I guess.
Lucky gal, that Jiayu. If she didn't travel with friends around as a group, God knows what might happen if she were alone and feeling weak all of a sudden.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Bored stiff - still can't really get to do anything of substance
These days, I'm just bored stiff - sorry for all that droning about having nothing to do during the holidays after the O levels.
It seems that all the while, I never actually get to do something fun or anything engaging during this holidays, besides slack and talk during guitar practice after learning how to play the assigned parts of the song for the upcoming Guitar Harmony concert on 28th November 2008. One word to sum it up - the PSP I borrowed off Shang Bo became indeed a true friend in times of need, just like the owner himself, during the long periods of boredom. Thanks, Shang Bo!
That being said, tomorrow's the full dress rehearsal, so it's the usual Men-in-Black guitar costume - black shirt, black pants, black socks and black shoes. Of course, being part of the guitar ensemble there's no need for sunglasses on stage, duh!
To be honest, it's quite a messy schedule, having to cope with inerrant Christmas Nite dance practices and guitar rehearsals. In fact, it's just so messy that I can't even tell whether I'm free to do what I like or too busy to do anything. Sure, I already have plans to look for a holiday job, but the thing is, who'd be offering people part-time jobs for people who can only work for 2 months...?
I've read the newspapers, used the Internet, used everything I know to search for part-time jobs, but there's just too few jobs who offer short-term work. Sigh, I guess probably it's due to the economic recession crisis. So, yeah, go figure.
It seems that all the while, I never actually get to do something fun or anything engaging during this holidays, besides slack and talk during guitar practice after learning how to play the assigned parts of the song for the upcoming Guitar Harmony concert on 28th November 2008. One word to sum it up - the PSP I borrowed off Shang Bo became indeed a true friend in times of need, just like the owner himself, during the long periods of boredom. Thanks, Shang Bo!
That being said, tomorrow's the full dress rehearsal, so it's the usual Men-in-Black guitar costume - black shirt, black pants, black socks and black shoes. Of course, being part of the guitar ensemble there's no need for sunglasses on stage, duh!
To be honest, it's quite a messy schedule, having to cope with inerrant Christmas Nite dance practices and guitar rehearsals. In fact, it's just so messy that I can't even tell whether I'm free to do what I like or too busy to do anything. Sure, I already have plans to look for a holiday job, but the thing is, who'd be offering people part-time jobs for people who can only work for 2 months...?
I've read the newspapers, used the Internet, used everything I know to search for part-time jobs, but there's just too few jobs who offer short-term work. Sigh, I guess probably it's due to the economic recession crisis. So, yeah, go figure.
Friday, November 21, 2008
SWATting flies - Slackers' Work At Trial
Well, well, well... So I've just jumped across another hurdle of my life, finishing my GCE "O" Level Examinations, and now I am bored stiff over what to do, other than to practice my guitar for the upcoming Guitar Harmony concert, or to practice hip-hop moves that I was taught earlier for another upcoming Christmas Nite '08 performance item.
Currently, I can't find a job during this period of time, thanks to the guitar practice taking up most of whatever time I have right now. Whoa, so that means I don't really get a chance to earn my own keep. Well yeah, sure, I can live off my family, with hardly any problems about spending money as long as I don't go for extravagance, but I personally feel that it's really high time I should take ownership of my own income and earn my keep, yeah?
Currently, I can't find a job during this period of time, thanks to the guitar practice taking up most of whatever time I have right now. Whoa, so that means I don't really get a chance to earn my own keep. Well yeah, sure, I can live off my family, with hardly any problems about spending money as long as I don't go for extravagance, but I personally feel that it's really high time I should take ownership of my own income and earn my keep, yeah?
4B Class Chalet 2008 - Epilogue
Well, I couldn't very well leave my string of posts about what's going on at the end of the class chalet hanging in the air, right? So here's basically what happened...
At morning, 7.30am, Uncle Teck rang up to ask me where are the guys who stayed overnight at the second day, because he couldn't find them at the reception counter. In the end, he decided to go up to the chalet suite where Kevin and the others were staying overnight at instead, feeling insecure waiting at the reception counter like some donkey waiting for grass to fall from the sky.
Because I was to go back to school for guitar practice for 28 November '08's Guitar Harmony public performance, I couldn't be at the chalet back then, so in the end I called up Jin Meng to settle the stuff with Uncle Teck, since he's the main character that helped us start and to end the chalet by helping us check out.
Later on at around 8-plus in the morning, both Jin Meng and Uncle Teck called up to say that the fella, who told us that the earliest time to check out was 7.30am the day before, gave us the wrong info and that they could only check out between 9am and 10am. So, things got screwed up once again. I don't know how they did it, but they finally got the entire check-out thingie solved at around 12pm in the afternoon, or so, I think...
So, that's pretty much the end of this year's 4B class chalet. Bad start, bad planning, bad end. Despite all of these things we still pretty much enjoyed ourselves in this chalet, though. Praise God for this!
At morning, 7.30am, Uncle Teck rang up to ask me where are the guys who stayed overnight at the second day, because he couldn't find them at the reception counter. In the end, he decided to go up to the chalet suite where Kevin and the others were staying overnight at instead, feeling insecure waiting at the reception counter like some donkey waiting for grass to fall from the sky.
Because I was to go back to school for guitar practice for 28 November '08's Guitar Harmony public performance, I couldn't be at the chalet back then, so in the end I called up Jin Meng to settle the stuff with Uncle Teck, since he's the main character that helped us start and to end the chalet by helping us check out.
Later on at around 8-plus in the morning, both Jin Meng and Uncle Teck called up to say that the fella, who told us that the earliest time to check out was 7.30am the day before, gave us the wrong info and that they could only check out between 9am and 10am. So, things got screwed up once again. I don't know how they did it, but they finally got the entire check-out thingie solved at around 12pm in the afternoon, or so, I think...
So, that's pretty much the end of this year's 4B class chalet. Bad start, bad planning, bad end. Despite all of these things we still pretty much enjoyed ourselves in this chalet, though. Praise God for this!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
4B Class Chalet 2008 - Day 2
It wasn't as fun as expected, and some even called this chalet a failure altogether.
I was already at the bus 17 when I realised that oops! I forgot to bring enough money to spend downtown, nearby the chalet. Only 20-odd dollars in my wallet left - how was I to survive the next 15 hours out there with just that little money? Nevermind that, I still managed to survive with that little money - it just takes a little discipline to maximise the use of the cold hard cash.
Let's start from this morning. I got there by 9.30am, hoping to catch up with my classmates so that we can go for a McDonalds breakfast together when they told me they already had their breakfast without me. Oh thanks, "friends", for that empty stomach just to rush there to be with you guys...
Well, I can't blame you guys either - I didn't tell you guys beforehand. Whoops!
So, I survived the morning with just two sticks of Time-Out chocolate, which I bought on the way to Pasir Ris Park to cycle. $8 for two hours, $5 for one hour - which was more worth it? Of course, we aren't stupid people - we rented bicycles for two hours, every man for himself. Trouble is, the bicycle kiosk people didn't have enough two-dollar notes for change for everyone, so they simply gave Leon a $10 note for us to split among ourselves, while they gave away the rest of the $2 notes to the lucky girls. Wanting to save the trouble, I decided to collect the money from Leon later, which actually saved my own butt later on in the day. Thank you, Jesus!
Another trouble came up - the eleven of us were split into two groups, Vanessa, Yu Kwan, Leon and Roy in one group, and Jin Meng, Kevin, Clara, Sue-Ean, Sophia, Shi En and me in another group. Vanessa's group returned the bikes earlier at around 11.40am, with us still cycling aimlessly in the park for fun after peace and joy. After we returned our bikes they told us that Vanessa's group still hadn't returned the bikes and I couldn't get back my IC until they did. What now? We rang Vanessa up, and went back to the bicycle kiosk to notify them and finally getting my pink IC back. Phew.
Lunchtime - I am now left with approximately $12 for both lunch and dinner. Solution? Eat mixed vegetable rice - which is just another name for rice with meat and vegetables which you can mix and match for yourselves. I'm down to nine dollars left. After lunch we headed back to the chalet to rest and recover... but not for long.
By three-plus, we were already good to go for soccer and Captain's Ball. Thanks, Clara, for hitting my spectacles so that it bent sideways at the right side, just at the nose prop, while I was looking at the other direction - that's two hits in my face consecutively during these two days I've been in the class chalet! Well, though this was totally uncalled for, I guess it's about high time that I got a replacement for my spectacles before it becomes too workhardened that it breaks at the joints!
By 5pm everyone seems to be exhausted from all that playing, passing around and shooting, so we headed back to the chalet. On the way, Kevin and I decided to get ourselves some drinks, and it was only then that I was finally found to be completely bankrupt - I bought 3 1.5litre bottles of H-Two-O, Iced Lemon Tea and mineral water, plus my ginger beer, with the last of my money... Luckily Kevin returned me some money for the drinks he asked me to pay for earlier, so I'm not that financially deprived at that moment till dinnertime.
Headed back to the chalet, but by now, the suite was such that there was very little people left hanging around, if any at all... In the end people like Ming Yue, Lavinia and Joan decided to leave as well. No Cheryl, no Sue-Ean, and no Clara too, not to mention no barbecue, apart from the one that we had yesterday? No kick! What happened to what was supposed to be called the class chalet? Why do things until so susak(troublesome), then ending up having kosong orang(literally, "zero human", ie. completely nobody) in the chalet suite?
At least there wasn't without complete hopelessness for the chalet after all, since finally, Ashley managed to show up out of nowhere and join the gang of 4B classmates just as we were about to be demoralised by pure boredom. Finally, things such as suggestions to go for bowling at the E!Hub at Downtown East are coming real fast.
Still worrying about money matters, a supposedly unlikely thing to worry about in a class chalet, we went for dinner at Burger King, and it was just then that I remembered that my $2 was still with Leon! Thank God! Now I have $6+ to spend on dinner. Though it was still fun having all the enthusiastic classmates who DO care two hoots about what's going on in the class, it is so ironic, just 8 of us out here for dinner at Burger King, and whatever happened to the rest of the 32 people who make up class 4B?
According to them, the class chalet last year was a total flop - hardly anyone participated positively in the class chalet past the first day, when the barbecue was in. And it seems that from what Jin Meng was ranting about, it seems that someone within our class has got a lot of money issues yet to be resolved with the class treasurers and Jin Meng being the ultimate monetary victim, whose name I will not disclose, to protect the involved parties' reputation.
"What a flop this is. It's like, nobody's coming because nobody seems to bother wanting to come for this chalet, perhaps?"
"Yeah. Probably the big thing is because of the sheer imbalance of boys and girls in the class.(we have 10 boys and 30 girls in our class)"
"But then I always thought that the girls in our class seemed to be very united one, leh..." I joined in the conversation, still unwilling to believe that this was what's become of class 4B.
"Ha, you've only seen the outside of the girls. Who knows what's between themselves."
"Ah, must be girls' politics again. Gah." I spoke in disgust.
Finishing our junk food dinner, Ashley spoke of going to the bowling alley, and we went there, with Sheng Chao and me coming out of it to go back to the chalet room, since we were bored stiff and unwilling to bowl with them. If it weren't for my super-tight budget, I would've gone to join them in bowling. Even so, would I be embarrassing myself if I couldn't hit any pins down at all if I joined in the fun?
Bored stiff, we just lingered around the place, with Sheng Chao using this same laptop which I use to blog now to play Counter-Strike, while I was out there watching TV and, though down to my last penny, still deriving some satisfaction from drinking ginger beer at the comfort of the sofa and strong air-con. Maybe if I had more money, peanuts would go well with that soft drink while watching TV in such a spacious Executive Suite at Aranda Country Club.
They later came back from bowling, but in the end, nobody played mahjong at all, which obviously didn't do any justice to the mess we created from the tiles, dice and plastic chips for "money", at all. All the girls had went back home, so at the chalet, it's just down to Kevin, Leon and Sheng Chao to stay overnight. Wow, it finally seems that the 4B class chalet became a 4B-boys class chalet overnight...
I was already at the bus 17 when I realised that oops! I forgot to bring enough money to spend downtown, nearby the chalet. Only 20-odd dollars in my wallet left - how was I to survive the next 15 hours out there with just that little money? Nevermind that, I still managed to survive with that little money - it just takes a little discipline to maximise the use of the cold hard cash.
Let's start from this morning. I got there by 9.30am, hoping to catch up with my classmates so that we can go for a McDonalds breakfast together when they told me they already had their breakfast without me. Oh thanks, "friends", for that empty stomach just to rush there to be with you guys...
Well, I can't blame you guys either - I didn't tell you guys beforehand. Whoops!
So, I survived the morning with just two sticks of Time-Out chocolate, which I bought on the way to Pasir Ris Park to cycle. $8 for two hours, $5 for one hour - which was more worth it? Of course, we aren't stupid people - we rented bicycles for two hours, every man for himself. Trouble is, the bicycle kiosk people didn't have enough two-dollar notes for change for everyone, so they simply gave Leon a $10 note for us to split among ourselves, while they gave away the rest of the $2 notes to the lucky girls. Wanting to save the trouble, I decided to collect the money from Leon later, which actually saved my own butt later on in the day. Thank you, Jesus!
Another trouble came up - the eleven of us were split into two groups, Vanessa, Yu Kwan, Leon and Roy in one group, and Jin Meng, Kevin, Clara, Sue-Ean, Sophia, Shi En and me in another group. Vanessa's group returned the bikes earlier at around 11.40am, with us still cycling aimlessly in the park for fun after peace and joy. After we returned our bikes they told us that Vanessa's group still hadn't returned the bikes and I couldn't get back my IC until they did. What now? We rang Vanessa up, and went back to the bicycle kiosk to notify them and finally getting my pink IC back. Phew.
Lunchtime - I am now left with approximately $12 for both lunch and dinner. Solution? Eat mixed vegetable rice - which is just another name for rice with meat and vegetables which you can mix and match for yourselves. I'm down to nine dollars left. After lunch we headed back to the chalet to rest and recover... but not for long.
By three-plus, we were already good to go for soccer and Captain's Ball. Thanks, Clara, for hitting my spectacles so that it bent sideways at the right side, just at the nose prop, while I was looking at the other direction - that's two hits in my face consecutively during these two days I've been in the class chalet! Well, though this was totally uncalled for, I guess it's about high time that I got a replacement for my spectacles before it becomes too workhardened that it breaks at the joints!
By 5pm everyone seems to be exhausted from all that playing, passing around and shooting, so we headed back to the chalet. On the way, Kevin and I decided to get ourselves some drinks, and it was only then that I was finally found to be completely bankrupt - I bought 3 1.5litre bottles of H-Two-O, Iced Lemon Tea and mineral water, plus my ginger beer, with the last of my money... Luckily Kevin returned me some money for the drinks he asked me to pay for earlier, so I'm not that financially deprived at that moment till dinnertime.
Headed back to the chalet, but by now, the suite was such that there was very little people left hanging around, if any at all... In the end people like Ming Yue, Lavinia and Joan decided to leave as well. No Cheryl, no Sue-Ean, and no Clara too, not to mention no barbecue, apart from the one that we had yesterday? No kick! What happened to what was supposed to be called the class chalet? Why do things until so susak(troublesome), then ending up having kosong orang(literally, "zero human", ie. completely nobody) in the chalet suite?
At least there wasn't without complete hopelessness for the chalet after all, since finally, Ashley managed to show up out of nowhere and join the gang of 4B classmates just as we were about to be demoralised by pure boredom. Finally, things such as suggestions to go for bowling at the E!Hub at Downtown East are coming real fast.
Still worrying about money matters, a supposedly unlikely thing to worry about in a class chalet, we went for dinner at Burger King, and it was just then that I remembered that my $2 was still with Leon! Thank God! Now I have $6+ to spend on dinner. Though it was still fun having all the enthusiastic classmates who DO care two hoots about what's going on in the class, it is so ironic, just 8 of us out here for dinner at Burger King, and whatever happened to the rest of the 32 people who make up class 4B?
According to them, the class chalet last year was a total flop - hardly anyone participated positively in the class chalet past the first day, when the barbecue was in. And it seems that from what Jin Meng was ranting about, it seems that someone within our class has got a lot of money issues yet to be resolved with the class treasurers and Jin Meng being the ultimate monetary victim, whose name I will not disclose, to protect the involved parties' reputation.
"What a flop this is. It's like, nobody's coming because nobody seems to bother wanting to come for this chalet, perhaps?"
"Yeah. Probably the big thing is because of the sheer imbalance of boys and girls in the class.(we have 10 boys and 30 girls in our class)"
"But then I always thought that the girls in our class seemed to be very united one, leh..." I joined in the conversation, still unwilling to believe that this was what's become of class 4B.
"Ha, you've only seen the outside of the girls. Who knows what's between themselves."
"Ah, must be girls' politics again. Gah." I spoke in disgust.
Finishing our junk food dinner, Ashley spoke of going to the bowling alley, and we went there, with Sheng Chao and me coming out of it to go back to the chalet room, since we were bored stiff and unwilling to bowl with them. If it weren't for my super-tight budget, I would've gone to join them in bowling. Even so, would I be embarrassing myself if I couldn't hit any pins down at all if I joined in the fun?
Bored stiff, we just lingered around the place, with Sheng Chao using this same laptop which I use to blog now to play Counter-Strike, while I was out there watching TV and, though down to my last penny, still deriving some satisfaction from drinking ginger beer at the comfort of the sofa and strong air-con. Maybe if I had more money, peanuts would go well with that soft drink while watching TV in such a spacious Executive Suite at Aranda Country Club.
They later came back from bowling, but in the end, nobody played mahjong at all, which obviously didn't do any justice to the mess we created from the tiles, dice and plastic chips for "money", at all. All the girls had went back home, so at the chalet, it's just down to Kevin, Leon and Sheng Chao to stay overnight. Wow, it finally seems that the 4B class chalet became a 4B-boys class chalet overnight...
Monday, November 17, 2008
4B Class Chalet 2008 - Day 1
Went to enjoy myself there today, but it wasn't that interesting as I expected, because I couldn't stay overnight out there at Aranda Country Club.
For one, they couldn't get anybody to check in for us because there wasn't anyone among us who is above 18 years of age, so Jin Meng and Sue-Ean were like, "What to do now?" Things just couldn't be this way, and it was then that I thought of Uncle Teck!
"If there's anything you need just gimme a buzz..." was the last thing I remembered that Uncle Teck told me like, two years back. So I put it into use - "Hello Uncle Teck?" I rang him up.
"Ah, Jing Yuan, what's up?" he replied.
So I told him everything about our problems with getting someone to check in, and whether he'd be free and able to help us stand in and check in for us. I'll admit, yeah. It's hard on him to do all these for our class while he's still in the middle of his worktime and risking having his pay docked and everything. Thanks man Uncle Teck, I don't know how to thank you for this, man.
So everything went a little better after being able to check in. The next problem came - the barbecue. All the food has been bought, and the charcoal and firestarters were bought too. We played Uno with the girls, and after Leon and the others were done in the kitchen, we were just about to go downstairs with all the barbecue equipment, when suddenly there came yet another problem which I came to solve:
It wasn't much, but someone apparently thought that someone else was going to bring a lighter to start the fire. Also, though the butter was bought, there was no butter brush! So, what are we going to do with the chicken franks without any satay sticks to skewer them with?
Of course, the unlikely fella came to save everyone's butt - I went to buy all those stuff with Sheng Chao. The barbecue came smoothly and of course, butter-lady Cheryl was enjoying the food while applying the butter, but some became so oily that we were at risk for coronary heart disease. Oh well, you can't expect good food without oily deposits in the body anyway, haha!
It's a good thing that the butter I bought was low-fat. Whew.
So there I was, barbecuing the satay while the others made off with all of the chicken wings and chicken franks(most people just simply call them sausages) and other things like marshmallows. In the end, I only ate two pathetic chicken satay sticks, tested some half-cooked mutton satay, and drank only 100-Plus.
Though, yea, I'm a bit starving, I don't have the appetite to eat anything in the middle of the night. Damn.
After the barbecue, yep. I was called upon to send Cheryl to the front gate. Apparently, I didn't, of course. What about the rest of the food still in the barbecue? Why me, when she's going off with two others in a group anyway? Maybe I should've gone escorting her instead of trying to save face instead, or should I?
Anyways, the barbecue ended with only Jin Meng, Bernard, Kevin, Fang Hui, Clara and me. We settled down, cleared up the mess that they made before they left, and sat down, sharing some juicy gossip, inside jokes and of course, some stuff that we didn't know until we shared among ourselves.
They went on to watch Madagascar 2, despite my attempts to persuade them to watch it tomorrow instead, because I had to go at 10.30pm, and it was already 10.20pm when they already decided to do so. Great... just as I was about to start having fun hanging around with 4B classmates, it was time to go.
Well at least I've got all these recorded down, for the benefit for those 4B classmates who wanted to know what went on during this chalet but couldn't make it. But even then there's free Wi-Fi that I could've used for blogging this entry there, on the fly, instead of doing this at the comfort of my own bedroom...
Sigh, you just cannot have everything good at once, I guess.
For one, they couldn't get anybody to check in for us because there wasn't anyone among us who is above 18 years of age, so Jin Meng and Sue-Ean were like, "What to do now?" Things just couldn't be this way, and it was then that I thought of Uncle Teck!
"If there's anything you need just gimme a buzz..." was the last thing I remembered that Uncle Teck told me like, two years back. So I put it into use - "Hello Uncle Teck?" I rang him up.
"Ah, Jing Yuan, what's up?" he replied.
So I told him everything about our problems with getting someone to check in, and whether he'd be free and able to help us stand in and check in for us. I'll admit, yeah. It's hard on him to do all these for our class while he's still in the middle of his worktime and risking having his pay docked and everything. Thanks man Uncle Teck, I don't know how to thank you for this, man.
So everything went a little better after being able to check in. The next problem came - the barbecue. All the food has been bought, and the charcoal and firestarters were bought too. We played Uno with the girls, and after Leon and the others were done in the kitchen, we were just about to go downstairs with all the barbecue equipment, when suddenly there came yet another problem which I came to solve:
It wasn't much, but someone apparently thought that someone else was going to bring a lighter to start the fire. Also, though the butter was bought, there was no butter brush! So, what are we going to do with the chicken franks without any satay sticks to skewer them with?
Of course, the unlikely fella came to save everyone's butt - I went to buy all those stuff with Sheng Chao. The barbecue came smoothly and of course, butter-lady Cheryl was enjoying the food while applying the butter, but some became so oily that we were at risk for coronary heart disease. Oh well, you can't expect good food without oily deposits in the body anyway, haha!
It's a good thing that the butter I bought was low-fat. Whew.
So there I was, barbecuing the satay while the others made off with all of the chicken wings and chicken franks(most people just simply call them sausages) and other things like marshmallows. In the end, I only ate two pathetic chicken satay sticks, tested some half-cooked mutton satay, and drank only 100-Plus.
Though, yea, I'm a bit starving, I don't have the appetite to eat anything in the middle of the night. Damn.
After the barbecue, yep. I was called upon to send Cheryl to the front gate. Apparently, I didn't, of course. What about the rest of the food still in the barbecue? Why me, when she's going off with two others in a group anyway? Maybe I should've gone escorting her instead of trying to save face instead, or should I?
Anyways, the barbecue ended with only Jin Meng, Bernard, Kevin, Fang Hui, Clara and me. We settled down, cleared up the mess that they made before they left, and sat down, sharing some juicy gossip, inside jokes and of course, some stuff that we didn't know until we shared among ourselves.
They went on to watch Madagascar 2, despite my attempts to persuade them to watch it tomorrow instead, because I had to go at 10.30pm, and it was already 10.20pm when they already decided to do so. Great... just as I was about to start having fun hanging around with 4B classmates, it was time to go.
Well at least I've got all these recorded down, for the benefit for those 4B classmates who wanted to know what went on during this chalet but couldn't make it. But even then there's free Wi-Fi that I could've used for blogging this entry there, on the fly, instead of doing this at the comfort of my own bedroom...
Sigh, you just cannot have everything good at once, I guess.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Quantum of Solace movie review
Caught a movie just the other day with my friends, Kevin, Jin Meng, Bernard and Yuan Zhi, just the other day. As usual, I was the laughing stock for the day - how was I to know that fella was pushing the glass panel towards me when I was looking at the other direction? In the end I embarrassed myself by hitting myself unintentionally against the glass panel in public.
Disclaimer: Hey guys... Don't blame me for being so excited over VivoCity, man. It's my first time there, so I'm going to describe VivoCity as much as I can.
Nevermind that, I am willing to be a fool for Christ, for He who is above the world is far greater than he who is in this world. Anyways, we got the tickets we went for lunch at the food court located at the top floor. And it was the worst place possible to eat cheaply - the food court was designed and embellished so that it looks like a typical Chinese eatery in the middle of the night. With all that engineering feat it was easy to drag us into eating stuff we normally wouldn't pay such extravagant prices for... Thanks Bernard, for leading us into partial bankruptcy on-the-go...
and we went into Golden Village VivoCity. Along the way, we saw a separate corner specially for Gold class seats only. Whoo, looks posh, but definitely costs the customer a bomb, according to Jin Meng. Being the rich fella among us, of course he was being made fun of as the "Big Boss" able to afford such stuff for his 'family' - an internal joke that I'd share someday at the expense of his Internet-ional ridicule, which I just hadn't the heart to.
We went on to the cinema. Quantum of Solace was pretty cool, with all the special effects and stunts. No spoilers for you guys, so here's basically what I like about the movie: It's just stuntful, going around and shooting people like nobody's business, apart from the storyline, and it's a good show to go, if you aren't fundamentalist enough to follow the Bible strictly, verbatim.
However, from a Christian point of view I notice that most of the good movies in the cinemas nowadays either include lots of violence and sex - which explains the high popularity of M18 shows like Kill Bill and 300 - or the ones that are rated NC16 like Rule #1 and Resident Evil movie series. From all this I see sublimal messaging though - people these days are strongly influenced by things that they see in the cinema, so maybe that could be one of the reasons that you see those bad things going on in society - I won't say what.
That being said though, I don't object to watching these stuff - just be watchful of what you're watching and you should be safe - don't let violence from such movies influence you to be violent or stuff like that.
Disclaimer: Hey guys... Don't blame me for being so excited over VivoCity, man. It's my first time there, so I'm going to describe VivoCity as much as I can.
Nevermind that, I am willing to be a fool for Christ, for He who is above the world is far greater than he who is in this world. Anyways, we got the tickets we went for lunch at the food court located at the top floor. And it was the worst place possible to eat cheaply - the food court was designed and embellished so that it looks like a typical Chinese eatery in the middle of the night. With all that engineering feat it was easy to drag us into eating stuff we normally wouldn't pay such extravagant prices for... Thanks Bernard, for leading us into partial bankruptcy on-the-go...
and we went into Golden Village VivoCity. Along the way, we saw a separate corner specially for Gold class seats only. Whoo, looks posh, but definitely costs the customer a bomb, according to Jin Meng. Being the rich fella among us, of course he was being made fun of as the "Big Boss" able to afford such stuff for his 'family' - an internal joke that I'd share someday at the expense of his Internet-ional ridicule, which I just hadn't the heart to.
We went on to the cinema. Quantum of Solace was pretty cool, with all the special effects and stunts. No spoilers for you guys, so here's basically what I like about the movie: It's just stuntful, going around and shooting people like nobody's business, apart from the storyline, and it's a good show to go, if you aren't fundamentalist enough to follow the Bible strictly, verbatim.
However, from a Christian point of view I notice that most of the good movies in the cinemas nowadays either include lots of violence and sex - which explains the high popularity of M18 shows like Kill Bill and 300 - or the ones that are rated NC16 like Rule #1 and Resident Evil movie series. From all this I see sublimal messaging though - people these days are strongly influenced by things that they see in the cinema, so maybe that could be one of the reasons that you see those bad things going on in society - I won't say what.
That being said though, I don't object to watching these stuff - just be watchful of what you're watching and you should be safe - don't let violence from such movies influence you to be violent or stuff like that.
Friday, November 14, 2008
O Level Crisis - Week 4: Feeling like a half-filled cup of water
Ok, the papers are gone. Finally, no more studying for me until next year! Thank you Jesus! Unfortunately, I still feel a bit empty, having to adapt with suddenly having no more school and no more examinations and tests, and most importantly, not being able to be with my good old chums...
O Level Physics Paper 1, 10/11/08, 8.00am
Studied until 12am the previous night, so I wasn't in my best condition to sit for the examination that day. Still made it through, though not without a few careless mistakes. Finished this paper within half an hour, with another half an hour left to burn.
O Level Chemistry Paper 1, 12/11/08, 8.00am
Studied my guts out with everything I had, and threw in everything I had. Finished this paper within 45 minutes, because of chemical equations that had to be intepreted properly. By the time this paper was over, I was already halfway dead when the Physics-Chemistry Double Science students were out to celebrate already...
Nevermind that, just one more day to freedom and I'm outta this O level cage. Must bear, must bear, must bear...
O Level Biology Paper 1, 13/11/08, 8.00am
Threw in every last bit of my strength into this day. Threw in everything I've got, my guts, my brains, my intestines(I made up the intestines part myself), and guess what happened...
...I finished it in 25 minutes. Overdrive mode - Must put in my best, must put in all I've got, must let this be over in the fastest possible time....
...and dozed off for the next 15 minutes until the examiner woke me up. What to do? I checked the answers again for careless mistakes. It was a drag - the next 20 minutes was decades to me, right smack at that particular seat at the examination hall. Air-conditioned hell.
"Time's up!"
My heart rose.
"...and the boys will move the tables to the second level, and the girls will stack up the chairs and put them at the side of the hall..."
My heart sank. Thanks, teachers, for fully utilising the manpower at the expense of our absence from the school for the rest of our lives now...(open sarcasm)
Watched Quantum of Solace with Kevin and the others, then proceeded to hang around in VivoCity for a while before going back to Tampines Sports Hall for badminton. By night-time I was back in action, practicing for the December 13 Christmas Dinner performance item.
Finally, Aaron Goh is back in action!
O Level Physics Paper 1, 10/11/08, 8.00am
Studied until 12am the previous night, so I wasn't in my best condition to sit for the examination that day. Still made it through, though not without a few careless mistakes. Finished this paper within half an hour, with another half an hour left to burn.
O Level Chemistry Paper 1, 12/11/08, 8.00am
Studied my guts out with everything I had, and threw in everything I had. Finished this paper within 45 minutes, because of chemical equations that had to be intepreted properly. By the time this paper was over, I was already halfway dead when the Physics-Chemistry Double Science students were out to celebrate already...
Nevermind that, just one more day to freedom and I'm outta this O level cage. Must bear, must bear, must bear...
O Level Biology Paper 1, 13/11/08, 8.00am
Threw in every last bit of my strength into this day. Threw in everything I've got, my guts, my brains, my intestines(I made up the intestines part myself), and guess what happened...
...I finished it in 25 minutes. Overdrive mode - Must put in my best, must put in all I've got, must let this be over in the fastest possible time....
...and dozed off for the next 15 minutes until the examiner woke me up. What to do? I checked the answers again for careless mistakes. It was a drag - the next 20 minutes was decades to me, right smack at that particular seat at the examination hall. Air-conditioned hell.
"Time's up!"
My heart rose.
"...and the boys will move the tables to the second level, and the girls will stack up the chairs and put them at the side of the hall..."
My heart sank. Thanks, teachers, for fully utilising the manpower at the expense of our absence from the school for the rest of our lives now...(open sarcasm)
Watched Quantum of Solace with Kevin and the others, then proceeded to hang around in VivoCity for a while before going back to Tampines Sports Hall for badminton. By night-time I was back in action, practicing for the December 13 Christmas Dinner performance item.
Finally, Aaron Goh is back in action!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
O Level Crisis - Week 3: Waste of time
Hi, back to what's going on in the GCE O Levels for me, continued from previous posts...
O Level Combined Humanities(Social Studies), 3/11/08, 2.oopm
This paper wasn't as hard as I thought - I was well prepared already when I sat for the paper. It isn't often that you get to sit for a paper so confident in a major examination that determines your future, you know. I chose question (4) as I thought it was much easier as compared to the other questions, namely (2) and (3).
After the paper, I asked around and to my surprise, most of my classmates chose question (3), on Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. First reaction was "What?" Such a difficult topic to write on, yet so many people chose that? From what I think it looks like, I think everyone else's outta their minds to do something that is going to cost them marks when they could avoid that question altogether and do another.
No offence, but I think I'm saying this because I got stuck halfway while trying to attempt question (3) and cancelled off the whole question because I wrote crap, ending up doing question (4) instead, which was far much easier.
O Level Chinese Papers I and II, 5/11/08, 8.00am and 10.45am
Something happened halfway during Paper I, which is too embarrassing and humiliating to mention. Skip that.
The papers were not as difficult as I thought - I managed to do it with ease, and managed to survive the whole ordeal with a chronic stomachache throughout the examination. Tough luck, eh? Anyways, I did manage to finally finish Paper I, making up for the unfinished Paper I in the Mid-Year Chinese GCE O Level. Paper II was easier too - all the comprehension passages span only about three-quarters of a page!
The remaining days - guess what did I do? Yes, play! But of course there's some discipline involved - with great amounts of play-time also means great amounts of study-time as well. I studied throughout the nights till at least 3am the next day. Today's no different too.
O Level Combined Humanities(Social Studies), 3/11/08, 2.oopm
This paper wasn't as hard as I thought - I was well prepared already when I sat for the paper. It isn't often that you get to sit for a paper so confident in a major examination that determines your future, you know. I chose question (4) as I thought it was much easier as compared to the other questions, namely (2) and (3).
After the paper, I asked around and to my surprise, most of my classmates chose question (3), on Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. First reaction was "What?" Such a difficult topic to write on, yet so many people chose that? From what I think it looks like, I think everyone else's outta their minds to do something that is going to cost them marks when they could avoid that question altogether and do another.
No offence, but I think I'm saying this because I got stuck halfway while trying to attempt question (3) and cancelled off the whole question because I wrote crap, ending up doing question (4) instead, which was far much easier.
O Level Chinese Papers I and II, 5/11/08, 8.00am and 10.45am
Something happened halfway during Paper I, which is too embarrassing and humiliating to mention. Skip that.
The papers were not as difficult as I thought - I managed to do it with ease, and managed to survive the whole ordeal with a chronic stomachache throughout the examination. Tough luck, eh? Anyways, I did manage to finally finish Paper I, making up for the unfinished Paper I in the Mid-Year Chinese GCE O Level. Paper II was easier too - all the comprehension passages span only about three-quarters of a page!
The remaining days - guess what did I do? Yes, play! But of course there's some discipline involved - with great amounts of play-time also means great amounts of study-time as well. I studied throughout the nights till at least 3am the next day. Today's no different too.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Bad state of the bedroom
Messy, eh? This is the conditions where I live in - always.
Nevertheless it's still rather comfy - and the messier it gets, the more inspiration I draw from the surroundings for stuff. And of course, it has always been that way since last year's Final Term examination period, and hasn't changed since then, even till the Secondary 4 Preliminary Examinations and this current GCE O Level period.
If you're saying it's humiliating to show the state of the bedroom in this mess, it's a big mistake. I'm proud of this room, because that's where I spend most of my time in. After all, what better place than to be in your room doing all that nonsense and serious stuff in the same place?
Coming up with a song - finally!
After hearing so many good songs of worship dedicated to praising God for His presence and power, I thought, maybe it's time for me to compose a song for Him as well. And what better way than to do it on the guitar as well!
Actually, I have been struggling with coming up with something called a "song" for quite some time, when the inspiration just came up from nowhere in the middle of the night. The next day I immediately penned down the song and got my guitar going, without even allowing some time for myself to brush up(eew, that's gonna stink).
It's been written down already for quite some time, but I just thought I wanna share the song with you people:
Actually, I have been struggling with coming up with something called a "song" for quite some time, when the inspiration just came up from nowhere in the middle of the night. The next day I immediately penned down the song and got my guitar going, without even allowing some time for myself to brush up(eew, that's gonna stink).
It's been written down already for quite some time, but I just thought I wanna share the song with you people:
By the way, I usually never write songs and this is my first, so if the lyrics don't sound right, please offer some suggestions. Thanks, people!Title: What a blessing it is to be with You
By: me
*Chords and rhythm are to be released later, when feedback is received about the lyrics
This day I proclaim that You are King
You are Lord and Saviour of my life
You alone are worthy of my praise
Because You are the truth, the life, the way
Who can ever match your lovingkindness
Your grace, Your love and Your peace?
The cross before me, the world behind me
You are the One I long to worship all my life
Chorus:
Oh what a blessing it is to be with You
In all my fears and worries, I turn to You
Jesus, the foundation on whom I stand
I commit my life into your hands
Saturday, November 1, 2008
O Level Crisis - Week 2: Justification of Study
Well yep. The second week is past - 4 more weeks to go! I say 4 weeks, because there's another two more weeks to the end of the O Levels, and immediately after the GCE "O" Levels, we Secondary Fours are called to practice for 2 more weeks as the cream of the crop in Anglican High Guitar Ensemble... Who said that we were very good at guitar anyway, now that all that full-time studying has turned our skills a bit rusty?
Somehow, I don't think it makes sense for us Secondary Fours to go back there to practice full-time in school anymore - surely a longer holiday break is well-deserved for us after all the hell at Muggers' Paradise*? Unfortunately it seems to be a big NO - we are enlisted to perform exactly one month later, at Victoria JC Auditorium, 7pm on 28th November! The O level break isn't justified - we won't get any fun out of it, neither would we have time to search for holiday jobs, FTW(for the win)!
If I can help it, I'd skip any guitar practices, since I already have my credit for the stuff I've done for Guitar Ensemble. But if I do that, all becomes very political. If I remember right, I remember Mrs NC Koh saying that we Secondary Fours promised her to perform for this public performance. Yeah, tell me more about promises - I don't remember ME making any such promise from the start, though I don't know about the others.
Enough for all that ranting - time for some serious business with GCE "O" Levels?
O Level Combined Humanities(History Elective), 28/10/08, 2.00pm
This one's a tough nut to crack, but it was yet another morale booster for the rest of the examinations that came later on. Ah finally, though the League of Nation's appeasement policy wasn't justified because it accelerated World War II when it was supposed to prevent war in the first place, my midnight oil certainly was justified. Hell, something that I studied for until 4am the next day past midnight surely must have been justified - the stuff just became second nature at the exam hall, so I just wrote and wrote: 3 pages for Source-Based Questions, and 1 1/2 pages for each of the 2 Structured Essay Questions.
O Level Physics Paper II, 29/10/08, 2.00pm
The moment I finished the paper, I thought - drats. How on earth did such unexpected questions come out on the paper? The size of an atom - the fundamentals - I forgot Chapter 1, of all things! A couple of mistakes could've been avoided easily, had I been more on my toes for Physics paper. So, for those future O Level candidate wannabes, better watch out - I've been there down and dirty on that paper and now, there goes my A1 for this paper...
...unless I work really hard this time round for Paper 1?
O Level Elementary Mathematics Paper II, 30/10/08, 8.00am
Morning paper. That's one thing you've gotta be thankful for whenever you sit for any paper - one thinks most clearly in the morning than in the other times of the day! In my opinion, this paper can be better utilised when sent to primary schools to raise their standard by a little, in my opinion, as compared to putting it in front of our desks in the O Level exam hall. Or better yet - use the question booklet as rough paper to fold paper aeroplanes.
O Level Biology Paper II, 31/10/08, 2.30pm
Just thank the Lord they gave me this paper! Having aims to become a doctor, this paper is fundamental to my ambitions - so this is the most dangerous one of all the papers, in a sense that if this paper goes wrong, my ambitions and future can be jeopardised at any moment during the exam period...
Just thank the Lord that these stuff didn't come out for this paper:
- Mitosis and meiosis
- Excretion(includes kidney and functions, as well as dialysis machine function)
- Enzymes
- Genetic diagrams
- The heart and cardiac cycle
- Genetic engineering
- Down syndrome(trisomy 21)
- Nervous system and reflex actions
- Impact on Ecosystems(eutrophication and bioaccumulation)
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good - His love endures forever!
However I, too, must still be on my toes - who knows, they might just test us on this very topics that Paper II failed to test us on. Another great morale booster - I'm one step closer to helping God spread His gospel through getting nearer and nearer to studying medicine!
Granted that I shouldn't start getting complacent, I have to hit the books again, so stay tuned for next week's post - O Level Crisis - Week 3!
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