my first table in three years 

i wonder if it'll still look like this one month on 

i did this!....well at least i designed it 

nus

Well matriculation was quite a terrible experience. Had to wake up early to get ready for the carpenters to do up my room so I was already pretty knackered before matriculation at 2. To top it off, had to make a bloody long and tiring trip to the Panasonic service centre to get back my camera. Ugh. 136 bucks just to change the shutter.
At least lunch was good. The Arts canteen sells humongous bowls of ba chor mee for $1.80!!! You can give the auntie a lavender Yusof Ishak and still back 20 cents change!!! And the ba chro meee is like frikkin nice. She had to keep myself from gaping while she scooped this huge amount of ba chor into my noodles. And teh ping costs 50cents! Well if there's anything I don't like about NUS its definitely not the food part.
Anyway, had to join this loooooong snaking queue to get registered for matric. You'd think they were queuing for one of those Macdonald's 'sell-em-useless-shit' campaigns. Hot. Sweating. Tiring. After finally making it inside the air conditioned hall to get myself registered, there's a moment of peace, where you can calmly go around looking at the road shows and deciding on your laptop without tiresome salesman-like flies buzzing around you. Should've known that wouldn't last.
Half dead by the time I got to the CCA fair and brochures started flying all over the place like in those gong fu movies when the hero meets his nemesis one on one in some deserted street. Ended up with a trolley load of multi-couloured, multi-sized paper and at least 4 kg of freebies. Whoop de doo day. I'm an NUS student today.
Well at least I have a same old brand new spanking cool room now!

There’s something about sitting on the toilet early in the morning after a 10km run with a good book in hand and Lush 99.5 softly in the background. Oh and a ceiling fan overhead languidly making its rounds. Went down to Sentosa for one of the New Balance Real Run trainings Sunday morning and boy was it good. Havn't felt like this in a while. Shagged out, but a good kind of shagged out. The kind that gets you going all day. Frikkin good way to end a really really tiring week. Too bad, I was absent minded enough to forget to bring an extra shirt and had no choice but to head home or go to church wearing my sweaty and not exactly pleasant smelling running attire.
Went down to Cheryl's house after for some culinary exploits. Stole the recipe for my workplace's juicy carrot muffins with the help of one of the assistant chefs. Bloody James Bond type operation. Head Chef buggers off for a bit and I head into the kitchen with an empty water jug, making like i'm there to fill er up. Assistant pulls out recipe book, I hurriedly scribble it down and we're done in two minutes. Can I volunteer to be Sidney Bristow's partner now?
But anyway, the first batch came out moist and soft and fluffy. And tasting like someone had dumped the whole a bucket of salt into the batter. The second batche. Now that was a work of art. Mmmm, juicy carrot muffins. Too bad my camera was on the blink. Must capture these triumphs in the kitchen.
Feels good to be in training again. Feeling my body starting to condition itself again. Hope those slopes in Sentosa don't kill me.

london

Who wagers the French did it?

magic in the air

Sometimes people just need to learn how to relax and see the magic in the world around us. There's so much wonder around us. We just have to learn to see it.

There's the astounding way money vanishes from our wallets into thin air. Or the mind-boggling way you leave your wallet and ez-link card inside the house and lock yourself out just as you're rushing for an important appointment. And who can explain how the pavement grows and slips under your wheel on your driving test. How many times have you looked forward to a soccer match all week and then gaped in amazement as heavenly floodgates open and changes the game to pushball.

What a wonderful world.

wtf

People at work take things far too seriously. Reported for work this morning to see a big square paper place mat on the table in the staff restroom that said

The 'Style' magazine placed here is for everyone's enjoyment and NOT for taking home.

and signed off by one of the waitresses who seems to just love getting her kicks bossing people around. The tone of the note just seemed so frikkin haughty and condescending I just had to come up with some retort. So I scribbled down 'WTF! This kinda bullshit also want to write.'

To cut a long story short, she took it the wrong way and went bitchign to management. One of the managers took one look and recognised the way I write my 'a's. Bloody hell. Looks like I won't be making a career out of writing ransom notes. At least he undertood it was meant to be a joke and nothing more. The way she was going on about it, you'd think I'd kidnapped her dog and stapled a pig's head on her door.

Whats wrong with these people?

b-b-b-baybeats!

Baybeats has gotten me feeling far more patriotic than any NDP ever could.

Met Audrey at Baybeats and got talking to one of her friends, this 21 year old Yankee from Texas over here on a working exchange programme that seems more like sheer exploitation. But then I digress. We were sipping sugar cane juice at Glutton's Bay and he was digging into a plate of satay with gusto, when all of a sudden, Electrico started rocking the house.

What is that a local band?

Yup, Julie, Julie in another day, you know it really isn't far away....bup bup bup

How come you guys all know the words? Where'd you hear these songs? They're on radio? Woah where can I get their album? They're local bands?

Now that realy made me swell up with pride. Yeah yeah I know I ain't no rockstar, but damn, our local bands can give any foreign ones a run for their money.

Ain't made in the USA!!!

cock up

Crap, for some reason or another I started work blur like fuck today. This woman asked for an order of coffee and for some reason, all I could think of was orange juice. Orange juice. Orange juice. mmmmm orange juice. And so I wrote orange juice. Which of course nearly gave the manager a heart attack when she found out.
Then some guy ordered hot chocolate with marshmallows and lo and behold I could've sworn he said with ice cream. Somehow it never occured to me that people don't have ice cream for breakfast. The look on his face when he got the drink. I wished they were making an MRT line outside so the hole would be big enough for me to hide in.

I'm just glad not everyday goes like this.

hey, you've got to hide your love away

Never knew that there was a whole bunch of small bars just off Boat Quay, near Upper Circular Road. Was supposed to head down to Crazy Elephant with Bryan and company but somehow, not least due to the persuadings of his friend Audrey, we ended up at this place called the Hideout to go see her friend and his band play a set. Not that I minded of course. Hideout turned out to be a pretty nice place and the band was pretty good, even if all they sang were original compositions so I was denied my pet activity of singing along. No matter though, those were probably the best Singaporean compositions I've heard since Electrico. Got talking with the bar keep too, who happened to be working for the UN and about to leave for Congo to work at the UN office there. Had a good long talk with him about the state of affairs of the world these days and how these days the UN seems to be the proverbial white elephant. His explanations and answers really opened my eyes about how the United Nations work. It might not have changed some of my standpoints but its broadened my horizons. Its also opened a new avenue I might consifer after graduating. Working for the UN. Hmmm... maybe.

missionary, missiona-scary

The speaker at the pulpit on Sunday, a Canadian by the name of Don Richardson, told the most amazing stories of his time living with cannibalistic natives in the jungles of New Guinea.
He went there with not even an inkling as to how he was going to reach out to the people living there. Not even sure he and his family weren't about to become the specials of the day. All he had was a faith in the Lord so strong it defied every protest his mind could come up with. Him, his wife and his little son not even a year old.
The initial times were the hardest. He couldn't speak a word of their language and none of the Tsawi people in the village could speak his. They all regarded him as a Tu-ong, a great white blessing who'd come to their village bringing medicine and a 24 hour on-going sideshow. They considered the sight of a fair skinned person who turned blisteringly red in the jungle heat, an astounding, and not unfunny, sight, and so were not adverse to welcoming him. But getting them to welcome him and his family was one thing. Getting them to understand him and the message he eventually intended to share was another. So he desperately went about trying to learn their language, starting from the bare bones method of pointing at objects and people and hoping they would understand and give him a word for whatever it was he was pointing at.
Eventually he learnt enough of their language and lifestyles to believe himself ready to start sharing some of the gospel with them. So he proceeded to one of the longhouses where only men were allowed and his wife went off vice versa. He started telling them about Jesus and the way He lived His life. The way His love affected the people around Him. By and by he came to the story about Judas betraying Jesus, telling them how Judas betrayed his Lord and friend with a kiss, expecting them to tkae the logical path and view Judas as a villain. Lo and behold, the Tsawi started cheering and chanting Judas' name and hailing him as a hero. Utterly confused, Don later learned that, in Tsawi culture, the man who makes his enemy his friend and then stabs him in the back is a man indeed. To his despair he learnt that theirs was a culture that revered treachery and cunning and considered them to be the best virtues a man could posses. Quite undertandably, he was very distressed and cried out to God to help him change their mindsets and bring His true message to them.
War soon broke out between the particular Tsawi tribe he was staying with and another. Men were being injured and dying more from the filthy, crude wounds that their primitive jungle weapons caused. Don and his family were using up their valuable supply of Pennicillin far more than they could and found themselves not being able to treat non-combatants who'd simply gotten sick. Don prayed hard for an end to the war and pleaded with the tribal elders to make peace. But what with a culture steeped in adoration of treachery, a call for peace was never easy, if at all possible. One side never trusted the intentions of the other and more often than not that distrust was well placed. The only way to make peace was for one side to show an act of absolute sincerity, one no one could ever refute, a sacrifice no one would make short of complete sincerity. If a father from a tribe were to offer one of his sons to a father from the warring rival as a peace child, then the act of peace would be complete and the war would stop.
The war raged on for a long time until finally, six months after it had started, one of the Tsawi in the village Don was living in decided he'd had enough and he wanted to honour the wishes of the Tu-ong and so he took his only son, his one and only child, and ran off to the other tribe amid the wails of his devastated wife. He ran and ran and on reaching the enemy lines he cried out 'I offer this child as a peace child that there may be peace so long as this child is alive in your longhouse!'. The warriors of the rival tribe, on seeing his offer, and knowing that he had but one child to give and yet gave him, were moved beyong words and one by one walked up to touch the child and cry out, 'I accept this child as a basis for peace!' And so the dying stopped that day.
Don watched all this from the sidelines and was suddenly struck by the fact that right here, God had given him the opportunity to introduce Jesus as the peace child that God had given to mankind to reconcile us with Him, to bring the people He loved back to His side. That God was utterly sincere because He was willing to make the supreme sacrifice and give His one and only begotten son.
And so he told them even as they were celebrating, how a child had been born a long time ago in a little stable in a place called Bethlehem, how that child was God's gift to a people who'd fallen away from Him and yet He loved so much that He was willing to pay any price to get them back. All of a sudden the people of the village started getting angry and on inquiring, Don found out that they were angry with Judas and his actions. Confused, he put forth that before, they'd hailed Judas as a hero for his cunning and deception, whereupon they replied, ' But you didn't tell us that Judas betrayed a peace child. That is, in our view, the most despicable act a man can commit.'
Don was amazed at what a little faith and prayer could do. He lived among the Tsawi for a time and brought the gospel to them, translating the New Testament for them. Eventually, this little village was saved and started sending the Good News to surrounding villages. Today that little gaggle of Tsawi villages in the jungles of New Guinea are dotted with churches and people celebrating the life our Saviour has brought.
I was completely blown away when I heard this story. Its amazing the way God brings His salvation to people. Through the most unbelievable of paths, to the most unexpected of places.

singapore drivers suck shit

Bloody hell yesterday was an awful day. Well at least the second half of it was.

Cycled down to Sentosa to spend the day with my Sports Camp OG so that was pretty fun. Played volleyball till I forgot to eat lunch and was faced with the prospect of making the long trip home without any replacement energy. But shouldn't be a problem. Downed one milo and one super disgusting fizzy apple flavoured H-two-O drink. Fucking hell why'd they change it to this dog piss. The original was so much better.

Anyway, halfway back along West Coast Highway, I see a turnoff that looks a frikkin helluva lot like the one I'm supposed to be looking out for and so I back track all the way back to check it out and of course its gotta turn out to be wrong. So I turn back yet again and by now my quads are starting to cramp up so I stop at the pavement and stretch. Stretch over and everything seems fine and dandy and I ease my bike off the pavement and lo and behold this frikkin orange Vios makes a turn without looking and sideswipes me and the only reason I didn't end up underneath was cuz I managed to grab on to the car's body before it took me in. Well at least I did more damage to him than the other way round. No injuries to me or my bike. One times wicked looking scratch on the side of his car. I let him off.
But of course, the day's not done with me yet and about 15 mins later, both my quads cramp up so bad its all I can do to make it to a bus stop and pull my bike off the road before collapsing on the grass verge just beside. So there I am, collapsed on the grass and struggling to stretch and relax my quads, and what do the people at the bus stop do? They find themselves treated to a pretty interesting show to pass the time. Its at least 15 min before some guy decides to come and see whats wrong. Ah wonderful lovely fucking Singapore.
Thats the second accident in three weeks. Couple of weeks before some TIBS bus chionging a red light forced me off the road. Now I have a huge scrape on my left knee thats gonna leave a scar. What the hell are we all rushing off to anyway?

run run run

Gotta get back in shape. I heard the NUS biathlon team wakes up every morning for runs. Those slopes in the campus grounds aren't exatly the tiniest of molehills. Its time.
Got a few races lined up.

NUS Triathlon - 14th August
New Balance Real Run - 28th August
New Balance Aquathlon - 3rd september

The aim here is not to come in last. Or dead.

wireless?

I swear the computers in my home have something against my entire family. Or maybe just against me.
One of my old 5th coy guys, Bak Kwa, kindly agreed to come over and help me finally get the router working right and fix up my dad's virtual private network so everybody would finally stop getting pissed at each other for hogging the net all the time.
So the thing is, he's done this sorta thing a dozen times before and at first it seems to be going smoothly. The main desktop responds well to the router and lo and behold, we have the internet. Things are falling into place, my sister's com detects the network! Whoop-dee-doo-day! So we tinker around a bit and now all we gotta do is restart the computer to activate the new settings. Things are looking up.

Windows is restarting.

Please enter user name and password.

******

Sorry, unauthorised user name and password, please enter again.

SMLJ!!!!

WTF!!!

Try again, try again.

KNNB CCB!!!

Oh shit. My sis is gonna kill me. Worse, she spout her lawyer shit about whos to blame and then she'll kill me.

So we spent the whole night trying to find a way to reaccess the computer but got to a state where we started entering nonsense key words like 'please', 'prettyplease' and 'fuckyouyouassholeletmein'. To absolutely no avail. Bak Kwa had to bring the thing home and to a repair shop he knew.

My sister screamed. We paid 50 bucks. The lappie got fixed. Nobody dares do anything funny with any of the comps now.

And we say computers havn't taken over our lives.

some of the girls took the outfield thing too far 

you gotta have attitude 

oh my lordy lord, is that illegal? 

you happy now uncle lee? 

eat your heart out superman 

sticky situations 

now thats what i call sunny side up 

any wonder its sponsored by SDU? 

give it up for puay cher!! 

say hi to the OGLs 

i really wish i could say i did that 

look ma, no...err...shirt 

hanky-panky-spanky 

it goes on

Its been a while since i've posted anything. Somehow I can't bring myself to write anything these days.

Anyway, Sports Camp 05 was an absolute blast. Dragon boating, windsurfing, ultimate frisbee, scuba diving, canoeing, canoe polo, floorball, netball and cycling and so many many games! All those hours in the sun and now I look like one of those Jap whore ganguro girls. You know those jap school girls who give themselves a god-awful tan and then smear white lipstick on. You know you're burnt when your ears start peeling.
One thing they organising commitee didn't factor into consideration though was how tired the campers were going to be after five days of almost non stop activity and very little sleep. Just about everybody walked out of the bash at Rouge on Friday night. Everyone was too tired to pay attention to the goings on and then when the music finally started, it was bloody bad house. Rouge had a pretty quiet night.

I honestly can't wait for school to start.