Week 10 - CLaSs GatHeRing

Japanese Ice Desserts!

On Sat we had a class gathering. Half the group went to Billy Bombers and half went to Cafe Cartel cos we couldn't decide what to eat. But later we went to some Jap restaurant to eat desserts. It's been a while since we had class gathering and GXin came this time. But I think girls' gathering are a lot more successful, nx time we'll just have girls' gathering.

On Sun I was in sch for MF setup at 9!! Told me to be there at 9 but they came at 9.30! After which we went to Jurong East for Charity Fiesta and I spent the whole day helping to sell gelato ice-cream. Not that I was really needed at the gelato booth but it was like every other booth was filled and the guys were more useful than girls cos they could carry the heavy stuff about. It was just like taking part for the fun of it, just to be part of it. But I thought overall it was quite well organised and the concert was really good. I'm hearing some bad news from the Expo side, heard that they're cancelling the V-Concert. I don't know what's going on there...
We left at abt 10+ . I had about 3 FULL cups of gelato that day cos the boss kept offering. He assured that it's low fat but still I feel that it's going to be a big forfeit. Lol

This morning I couldn't wake up. Had to be in school at 7 but I only reached at 7.30 to help set up the NVAC booth again. Have to be there the nx 2 days.

There's too much going on my mind again, like the MF namelist, don't understand why there are so many changes again. It's so hard to coordinate. And there's module bidding too and everything I want to take clashes. And I hate to be stuck at home with those 2 pple who r quarelling all day. I'm once again sucked into the tornado without warning. I want to fly to America......

Day 20- LaSt Day

Whoosh! I'm full of energy today! Cos boss came in b4 9 today and i finally got to report all my stuff to him. Plus I got an adjustment fr him (really gd, I feel so much relieved). And then my colleagues treated me to Pizza Hut in the office! Nice pple, owe it to them I saved some lunch money. I'm on a mega saving project now, cos I still want to study Chiropractic!! Although Mum and Dad are not exactly in favour of it now because i've been to busy to explain everything to them, I hope I can convince them one day, because this is one of the rare moments that I feel like I've finally found a direction in life and know exactly what my heart desires....

I'll blog again on the cost of this 6 yr course of study...

I feel a bit sad though that once again i'm leaving the company for school. Boss says he hope to see me ard to do his webpage. I hope he really means it because he's been a great inspiration to me so I hope he does think that i can help out and not just to do "sai kang"- a term I learnt recently fr Shirley which means odd jobs/ jobs that nobody elses wld take. Also, I managed to see (a sad looking) Dr A today on my last day. It feels exhilarating to declare that it's your last day. IT'S MY LAST DAY! Hip hip HURRAY!

I also brought HKhai and WQuan along to Poster C. Had to rush back otherwise AhGong wld think I'm irresponsible and "dunno bring HKhai go where"... He was looking out of the window awaiting us when we reached home. I wonder how much of my credibility has been lost.

Day 19

Feeling happy today. Manage to get to work on time.

I'm happy because I sent him and email yest to ask him when he's coming in. And asked for a testimonial and an adjustment. And he said Yes! to all my "wishes". Yes! Yes! I can finally quit with a peace of mind. Better contain my excitement a bit, cos Fiona said I keep smiling since yesterday. And I've waited 3 hours since and still no sign of him. Jo said she doesn't think he'd be coming in. As usual, she's the one rain on my parade... Never mind, still 6 hrs to knock off, so I still have a chance.

Day 18- Majong Shifus

Aye aye, skipped my chalet just so I could see boss and tell him that I want to quit....but he's been avoiding the office. How, leaving soon and haven't seen him. Sobz....

Went for post-camp retreat yesterday evening for bbq. Wil and WEn taught me how to play majong and i stuffed myself with lots of satay and otah. It was a nice relaxing chill out but I was a bit drained on reaching home and I've got to work today.

If I survive this week, i'll be a true survivor!!

Week 9- RoAdShow AfTerMath

I slept like a log yesterday after standing the whole day at the Health & You Roadshow. As usual, the queue was non-stop and I didn't get any rest at all. My feet were so sore and I could feel them giving way already. When I reached home, I immediately hit the sacks and 'snored' (figuratively) all the way till I pulled myself out of bed at 7 this morning. The roadshow experience was fine except nearly losing my voice at some point and getting scolded by 1 or 2 unreasonable customers. But it still felt different at the RS. It feels different working with people you're familiar with and people you're not. The new staff are doing quite a good job as it is now but I rather go back to one year back, working with Carol and Xiaoxuan. And the satisfaction in seeing it a success. My experience yesterday kept reminding me that I was a "temp" staff only. While the older drs tried to catch up a little, the new drs attitude were pretty discourteous. The way they handled the patients were also very patronizing. If I were 'checked' by them I don't think I'd be convinced to sign up.

One dr asked why I wasn't under Chiropractic Care after so long. Well, it just doesn't come across to anyone that I need some help here on my spine... When the whole office went for free X-Rays this "temp" staff was sloughing away in the office.

And this "temp" staff received a sms that day saying that the poster she created was "full of grammatical and syntax errors". Well, the poster only had about 30 words and only 2 slight errors were pointed out 'member' not 'members', 'complimentary' not 'free complimentary' so how can it be "FULL" of errors?! And, it was the boss wrote and approved the message. The sms had to pass through 2 other pple b4 it was fwd to me and I was told "not to let the boss know they fwded the actual msg to me..." Great.

But Saturday was better I guess cos I managed to do some shopping at the Hereen after the very long Econs competion which took up my whole afternoon causing me to miss Huiqi's musical performance!!! *Sigh* The competition made wonder what I was doing the whole of my 2 years in JC. How nice it would be to be selected to rep. your sch at inter-sch acadamic competitions. But most of the time I was trying to break the "C/D" barrier and get into "B/A" group so maybe I should just wish I was one of those brilliantly clever pple who ace exams w/o studying... If I were them then I could rep the sch.....*faraway look in eyes*.... But back to shopping at Heeren, I bought a top and a hairband, lip gloss and some facial masks that day. I'm a firm believer in retail therapy. It really does wonders in lifting spirits...makes you forget (momentariliy) the problems that have been plaguing you the whole day.

Day 17- Temp Staff Status

I'm very overwhelmed by work this week. Been at IP since Thur taking photos of Xrays and downloading them into the computer. Quite a mammoth task, each patient has about 7 or more shots and there are like about 100 patients. And you have to put them up on the lightbox and then take them down again. Such repetitive actions caused me a lot of 'subluxations' in my back and neck. My back was so VERY stiff that in the end I decided to "hou zhe lian bi" and ask the new Dr to adjust me. But that was not before he gave me a talk on adjustments&Xrays. Well, I was quite willing to accomodate his talk (although I can regurgitate everything myself) so long as I get adjusted!! He's quite charming really although he reminds me of another certain Dr..... And yes, he agreed that my back and neck were REALLY stiff, "you've been doing a lot of studying there :D" Not studying la, sloughing more likely. I feel like a workaholic, "tuition queen". I've got tuition on Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun and piano on Fri, on top of working at the clinic where things are quite over the top.... How can my spine be stress-free?? I really want more adjustments but a bit too pai seh to ask afterall my job status is only "Temp Staff". Yeah, I temp staff who worked for >1 year. Still temp??

I'm back at Prosper Hse doing designing stuff. He doesn't want me to go to the other clinics to help scan Xrays although Morrie kindly invited me to PP. I feel quite inclined to say Yes because she's really so friendly and likeable. Like a nanny!! But I dare not disobey boss' orders. It's not too bad at Prosper Hse too, I think they kinda missed me cos they were being real friendly today. Also, I just spoilt his Panasonic digicam and he's in a bad mood today I heard. I don't really like it when pple are in a bad mood, whenever somebody is in a bad mood, I really wish I can do sth to ease the mood but then again my 'powers' are limited.

But I managed to let my hair down a bit last night when we went to celebrate Xuan's birthday. We went to Fish&Co. at Wheelock Place. Girls' night out. But we weren't too happy with the service there: late in serving the food although we asked so many of the waiters..., late in refilling our glasses, so hard to catch their attention even when you actually want to PAY them for the bill, and worst still, they had such a elaborate birthday celebration for the birthday girl at the next table, even did a "rah-rah" cheer and gave her a complimentary cake and balloon. And there we were with Birthday Xuan feeling none too pleased.

Girls' Night Out

Week 8

This weekend, AhMah came to stay. We went with Auntie SHoon to Best at Hougang to shop for a microwave. Wa, cheated my feelings. I was told we were going to Hougang Mall, in the end ended up at some ulu "Hougang Sth Market" and there was almost no shops there except a foodcourt. And....I was expecting to partake in the GSS when....Horror of horror, They had a litenary in mind....Best Denki. The night out was quite a disappointment but at least we got to eat some supper. It sort of made up a little for it (less than half).

Then, on Sunday, I tried driving Papa's car, but the turning in our garden was so difficult. I got the car stuck/wedged diagonally between the gates. We had to carry the car "literally". I know Pa was angry, he had such a straight face, but he didn't flare up or say much. Luckily =p

A recall: Last Friday, boss was angry and shouting over the phone and there was only me alone... I had to pretend nothing was wrong and go on doing my stuff as usual. Luckily my acting skills are quite something Haha. On reflection, I think that i'm quite lucky, after working for so long he hasn't flared up at me yet :D Vio says she thinks boss likes me better than my friends. I can't tell for sure if that's true, maybe it's just I have a knack of evading trouble but if it's true, good for me!!

Day 16- Pirates

"Johnny Depp's antics as the inimitable Captain Jack Sparrow make up for Pirates' convolted plot"

Couldn't agree more. Last night, we went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Enjoyed every minute of it, savouring in the sights of Johhy Depp. Terrific acting again, please let him win an Oscar this time... Even Orlando Bloom who was a "hua ping" the last time was no longer "hua ping" this time. He "bloomed" or "blossomed" to the extent that Captain Jack Sparrow was a bit overshadowed, or rather the script made CJS out to me a bit of a cad. One show, two heroic characters.

There were many hilarious scenes no doubt but the story this time didn't flow as well as the first. It was a bit of a patchwork of scenes the director thought would go down well with the audience? Anyway I still would want to watch the next sequeal, hear more references towards Singapore (heard there'd be more). Even without the 30sec cameo by Geoffery Rush, I still want to see the face-off between CJS and the sea monster (they'd better include it!).

Day 15- When Old Friends Meet

Happened to meet some old friends...

Sherry (a.k.a. Shirley's friend) at Aljunied yesterday. Lo' & behold, she's taking Econs at SMU. Even better, she says it's "funky".... What am I doing in NUS?? If only I've got deeper pockets...

Then this morning, I met Lucas on the bus (or I thought it was him). Just take it that it WAS him, cos I saw a flicker of regconition across his face when I saw him. Which I think disappeared from his face and was passed down to his behaviour. (I wasn't looking at his face no more)

Ahem, his behaviour... suddenly so stiff like he dared not make any noise to startle me and give me a cue that 'You know this guy sitting right beside you, yes?' LOL. And he cleared his throat multiple times... is he trying to catch my attention so I'll be the first one to open my mouth to ask if it's really him? So I played along, we didn't acknowledge each other.

I think it's really amusing, to be sitting beside your primary school classmate and both not talking. This isn't the first time I saw him, think in JC I met him before at VJ Soccer finals. Well, it's probably a problem with young people, lack the courage to even say "Hi" to somebody you know, in case....that isn't the person you think it is.

Next time, I shall make it a point to be the one to break the silence. It can't be that hard....

At Twilight

This is a nicey blog. At Twilight. The owner writes prettily with reflective, piquant wit. Does this come with age and experience? He's many times older than I am. I wish I were half his standard.

Day 14- Chee Koh Peh Uncles

Another uncle was "looking at me for very long" at the coffeeshop. Geesh, can't they be more discreet? I swear I wasn't doing anything provocative...he then smiled at me and said "Thank you"... When he wasn't even the one who took my order, cooked or served up the food. I thought he was some nobody sitting around. Is it so rare to see young pple around? Can more young pple out there reading this frequent coffeeshops more so that we don't "stand out"? Or must I next time send someone to buy my food for me?

Playing mindsweeper in the office. I can finish 10 brochure designs in 1 day. But if your pay is $60/day, I think i'll be spoiling the market if I worked too fast. So I aimed for 1 a day, but still, you can't work like a snail the whole day, and surf the Net for the whole week (you run out of things to surf, can you cannot keep clicking the 'Refresh' button for new mails. Besides, when everyone in the office is so busy or acting busy, it's difficult. I bet the whole office knows I'm doing unorthodox stuff in the office everyday but who cares?? I'm now doing 2+ a day...

Someone in the newspapers classified bloggers as "Civilian journalist". Cool name. Thank you.

Week 7- World Cup Finals

This weekend was supposed to be rejuvenation time, but why do I feel more tired?

Last night, Channel 5 was showing Pirates of the Caribbean. It's the 3rd time I watched it. Loved Johnny Depp's character in particular, the flamboyant Captain Jack Sparrow. Mr Depp has a way of bringing out the personalities of the characters he plays to the 'T', every Johnny Depp movie is worth the money you put in to watch it.

And....World Cup Finals. Italy vs France. I was rooting for France but I knew from the start Italy was going to win, with their track record and stuff. But the French put in such a good game, especially after the 2nd quarter, there was so much action from their side, the Italians paled in comparison. I thought it was such a pity. During penalty shootout, my heart sank when the French guy, don't know what his name hit the X-bar. Goodness! that practically guaranteed the Italians the title. Too bad Zidane was out-of-order (red card) during that time, else could things have been different??

I'm still surviving this morning. But some pple in the office look a bit petered out. I'm trying to guess which ones watched the finals last night, and which ones are due to monday blues...

Day13

My blogs are always on yesterdays. I have no energy to stay up late at night just to blog. So this was how yesterday went....I went to work in the morning and then in the evening I went for driving lessons. Then the instructor sent me home. He's such a funny person always so worried when I go too fast or near to the curb, so many times I want to tell him "Don't worry I know what I'm doing..." Ya, and when he sent me home, he mounted the curb and the whole car jerked violently. Then he said "I didn't see the curb" and laughed. That was how it ended.

My whole evening was spent working on the poster designs samples for expo. I think it came out pretty well, for the first time I experimented with the posterize and fresco funtions in Photoshop and the final results were pretty impressive.

Day12- Piano Exam

Just came back from NVAC-Expo mtg at Suntec Mac. There's write-ups to do and stuff...heralds a busy week. Plus I'm going back to work tmr. I'm kinda hooked onto taking leave now, be it for camp/ driving lessons etc. I don't want to work!! Have caught the lazy bug already.

The examiner today was a beardly, over-sized Caucasian. Quite friendly, reminded my of Santa Claus, there were some slips along the way, but I think should be able to pass. I don't hold very hopes for high pass, just a pass and I'm satisfied. It's been a long journey, time to mark an end...

Because our stupid microwave oven has broken down, plus I was chased out of the house, I had to desperately call up all my Marine Parade friends hoping to borrow a microwave to heat up the hotpack. In the end, I decided to pop by CF clinic to warm it up. Don't feel very good abt it initially cos I thought better "Gong si fen ming", but then it was the only solution cos my Marine Parade friends deserted me! Boohoo...

Oh and this week, I suddenly begin to feel that I have a night-life. It's like 7 days a week I've been hanging out till past midnight. My taxi fares are like record high this week. Today I took 1 to Marine Drive and the cab driver was talking to me about traffic jams/COE/LTA etc. He says that 5 years ago there were 20000 cars, the road has 3 lanes, today there are 50000 or was it 70000 cars and still 3 lanes. In 10 years time, 100000 cars and still 3 lanes? How not to have traffic jam? Ans: ERP....Anyway, taxi drivers have a way of keeping the journey entertaining, he also told me about female taxi drivers being more "hiong" or gutsy than male drivers and charge incredulous amounts to tourists......Ya....

I went to the hawker centre for lunch. There was this drink uncle, keep calling me "mei nu" non-stop, even when I refused to buy a drink from him (fruit juice). Then not only does he keep calling me that, even behind my back, he referred to me to his stall partners the same way.... I think enough is enough, do business you need to sweet-talk pple sometimes but I felt pretty awkward when he didn't know when to stop. When I finally did order watermelon from him, and he served watermelon juice instead, much to my dismay, he still kept calling me that, even when returning my change.... Hai* some pple never see pretty girls before...=p

The weather is sweltering hot these days. I feel like a hippopotamus. I don't know why but I'm reminded that the hippopotamus with their thick skin can get skin cancer under the sun. Can't shake the thought and whenever the weather is hot I'm reminded of the hippos (and they must be powder pink)...

Day 11- Sleuth outing at KBox

Something unfortunate happened during camp. I lost my phone in the girls toilet outside MPSH1 on Day 1. That was just before dinner, after dinner I went back and it was gone! The person who took it sure was fast, switched it off immediately. Esther and LYen tried to call many times, so did I, but all we heard was "there is no response from the subscriber's mobile phone, please try again later"...I'm the unfortunate subscriber....

That left me quite helpless for days. It was first day of camp, how was I going to last for the next few days without my phone? Anyway, yesterday 2nd July I got a new phone! It's a Samsung E730 with capabilities far exceeding my previous Sony Eriksson K300i. Blessing in disguise?

But the lesson I learnt and is going to propagate now is never to use those squatting toilets!! Sure it saves time if there are no other cubicles available but the price to pay is so high... As the always practical me, I just went into the only available cubicle. But....heaven knew what was going to happen....when I was done, the flush splashed on my jeans and my immediate concern was to go out and dry it by the hand-dryer. So I forgot my dear phone hanging behind the door. Usually I'd not be so blur but that unfortunate miserable cubicle made me so flustered that I forgot it. So here I repeat the lesson: The 2nd last cubicle in the girls toilet outside MPSH1 is cursed!! Don't ever use it!! Then there's the irony, at the SP game, my SP guessed my phone was Samsung, but I said Nokia....now i really do have a Samsung, so we shouldn't have gotten booted out. Ha.

-----screened out-----

SiHui was commenting that there were many guys at camp who looked like Ah Bengs. You wouldn't expect them to have such a kind volunteering soul behind that Ah Beng exterior, but they surprise you! Well yeah, there were many at camp and we mustn't judge pple by their appearances. It's like the Prisons Ad on TV, pple who look like ex-convicts can live a decent proper respectable life. They can give to society, be volunteers too! WEn must thank me for this free publicity for YRP....

Ok then there is war ranging at home, or rather a strike. She's in one of those moods again, persuasion does not help. I cannot help by clash with her, it's something inexplicable, she picks on me I feel she does so, she picks on me but thinks I'm picking on her. Sacarcism flies, I have a sharp tongue...there's no way of picking up the pieces. I see no point anyway and no way to do so.

Wooo.....on Sunday Sleuths met up at KBox cinneleisure and sang till the wee hours. We were celebrating Irene's birthday. The enthusiastic group of 10 went to Long John's and ordered 10 combo 1s. Then we went to KBox and sang from 7 to a bit past 12. Had to share cabs home. Can you imagine how enthu we are, meeting so fast after the camp? We really miss each other so much, more bonding sessions are in the pipeline already! I'm really heartened by the group's "On" attitude.

-Jason and Fang Yu. -Taken with new Samsung E730

Week 6- Juxtapose06

This week I got to relive the excitement and fun of being at camp.

Juxtapose 2006, the yearly NVAC camp kickstarted on Sunday Day0. I was counsellor.

We played many ice-breaker games. I'm really amazed at the no. of them. Before that I only knew Wacko....how sad. Now I know so many! It was really fun. And seeing how everybody was so game, even at forfeits, the team spirit was so evident. There was a 'I love cards' game where we were supposed to suck the cards and pass them down a row. My goodness, it was so hilarious, i had to try so hard to stop laughing. Because once you laugh you let go of the air and the card will drop. We tried for some time before we suceeded.

On Day 1 we replayed ice-breakers again. Then there was mini-war games where we played the 'I love cards' game again. The campers had better luck & skill with it. And there was the sandwich game....with forfeit of eating wasabi sandwiches. *Cool* We had this impromptu group cheer "Wasabi sandwiches....Sioh, Nutella sandwiches....Di, Salt sandwiches....Giam, Sleuth.....swee ah!" And then 'Captain's What?' and the candle game at the basketball court. Our team didn't pay attention to the briefing and only when our raffel string got burnt then we realised that was the objective of the game. So dumb, we didn't even defend it was an open goal! But no matter, we resumed our team's fav game 'Murderer'.

My fav part of camp was NightO. We had to go to various stations around the campus to play games. One was the TangYuan game where we got our hands dirty with flour. One was the water bomb game, where the 4 guys had to carry the girls on their shoulders and catch the water bombs thrown by a blindfolded Fangyu. Boy did they complain that their shoulders ache, and we found out who were the strongest and ahem...weakest guys who offered the least sense of security. haha. Another was the numbering game where we had to call out 1-40, and where I got my face painted like a red Indian....Then there was the slidedown game at the track, where we had to climb a slope with soap water generously spilled. And finally we slided down it, getting our pants all wet! But again, it was in the name of fun!! And finally the Nutella/Kaya game, where we passed the Nutella/Kaya down the row using our cheeks to make a sandwich, and then share it! Yew! Next morning all of us were terrified of bread and Kaya. It was the most memorable game....
Then at 11/12 there was Lost movement where campers were thrown off the bus at some distance from the chalet and had to find their way there themselves.

Day 2 morning we set off on Amazing race which brought us to Bugis, Nat'l Lib and Suntec, final stop was Sentosa, Palawan Beach where we played many water games. Everyone got wet in the name of fun. Our team Sleuth played until so late that we were late for Fright Night back at the chalet. It was scary for some, but to me it was ok. I'm the kind who gets kicks from being scared. It was funny seeing pple i know posing as ghosts. 'Fresh Meat' was the tagline for the night and the next morning.

Day 3 morning.......we played some team building games. The colourful flags game which demanded concentration as well as the Charater name game which was pretty interesting because my team was so dead-set on not losing that we named ourselves after PAP MPs. S. Jayaratnam, Tharman Shamugaratnam made it a mouthful to call us....and no, we didn't win that game, first to lose all the subsitutes.

In the afternoon was Spirit of Compassion, SoC, where the campers did well in acting as counsellors! Thumbs up to their performance, I hoped they learnt something from it just as I did at pre-camp when I was in there place. It was followed by Disabiliy Challenge, where the group had to perform some tasks with each member suffering a different disabiliy. Team spirit shone through as we completed our tasks quickly and efficiently. Then there was BBQ and skit where the campers put on a good explanation skit on 'Who killed Anna Suay'.

Day4 i missed the morning because of piano. Went back in the evening for D&D. We had games and fun and our SPs were revealed. It was more like a Chirstmas party again, and we played pass the parcel and walk under the bamboo game, which I hadn't played in ages already!

There was so much camaradie during the camp. I really would want to go again nx yr. I think credits go to the camp com, they did great, although Ken kept insisting that there was a lot of last minute work.

I was glad I made many new friends. Not being in Weien's group was ok, all the people at camp were like old friends although for many it was the first time meeting, but we all hit off. Especially Sleuth group!! Man, 4 days with you guys were great! And we even won most vibrant team! Not to mention ChenKoon and FangYu won Mr & Ms Juxtapose, doing our team proud. Well done =D We all got to know each other quite well. Esp for ChenKoon it was like revealing his true self day by day.... And our team's favourite game....Murderer!!! And our all-time murderer was Allan, who picked the Murderer Ace card 5 times in a row. Was it luck? Fated? Affinity?

My, it was a truely meaningful way to spend the hols! And the excitement hasn't worn off me yet......I'm still in the midst of posting the photos online.....

Group photo on Palawan Beach

Week 5- Siam Kitchen

I realised I didn't post anything last week so this is to make up.

The sunday before we went to Auntie SYen's house warming party. It was very fun, first time I realised she could cook, even if most were finger food. To be honest, I thought she would be a lousy cook. Everyone was fascinated with the Osim UZap she bought, even Mama haha. Then we played with the cousins till very late.

When we went home, we still watched VCD Seoul Raiders with ShuQi and Tony Leung. Whoa, their acting were great. I always like both of their acting.

On Fri I met up with SHui, SYing, XX and HQi at Suntec to celebrate HQi's birthday. We went to Siam kitchen. I think that place has a very nice ambience, clean cut look, the food is served in white pocerline dishes which looks extremely palatable. It's my 2nd time there and I think I'd go back again. Then we took a walk along the Singapore River at the Esplanade. Stayed out so late that by the time my train reached Toa Payoh Interchange, the last bus had left and I had to take a cab home....

Well this is a bit pointless, gushing about TV and food. But it sums up what I did over the weekend.