Ahh okie I’m back from Kuantan! Left off from Singapore on Saturday morning, and came back at 11pm last night. Yep it’s a Geography field trip with some of the IP3s joining in, so there were 26 of us in total. Okie here’s a recount of my activities in the past 4 days.

Had to be in school by 6.30am on Saturday. Normally I’m in school by 7pm and that’s stupidly early already. And it turned out that I brought along the least number of bags and luggages. Haha I packed all my clothes into a backpack and a shoebag, while someone else like Karen brought along one huge luggage. The bus came and took us all to the customs which had long queues that took so darn long to clear, then we took a 7-hour bus ride all the way into Kuantan. Well okie we stopped for lunch at some restaurant, and we stopped at Yong Peng. Gosh the place used to be my favourite pit stop everytime my family travel to Malaysia by bus, and now they renovated and upgraded the place into a nice foodcourt. Jaslyn was my bus partner for the day. As if seeing each other everyday for all the tutorials and lectures in school isn’t enough...

Reached Swiss-Garden Hotel in Kuantan sometime in the afternoon, then me, Benny and Basil checked into the same room. Basil’s in IP3 now, and he used to be my Catholic High junior! First thing we did after checking in was to hit Batu Hitam beach to go look at the basalt outcrops. The entire beach was really filled with grey basalt rocks that extended in columns down into the earth all over the place. I adopted a pet rock over there! And there was this tabby cat at the beach!

Dinner was at the hotel, and my goodness it really brought out the meaning of ‘sumptuous’! There were so many variety of food stacked out in buffet-style, and the best bit was they have macaroni with cheese!! Desserts was equally amazing; they have cakes available in 4 different flavours and cupcakes and pastry and whatever... Benny ate till he could barely walk.

And they have a live performing band from Philippines in the dining area. Me and Shermin wanted to go sing a song for everyone, but the hotel management didn’t allow us. The singers were funky, especially the 2 female singers. They were dressed in black leather and super short skirts or blouses with a very plunging neckline; caught up with them after their performance to talk to them. Then me, Benny and Shermin went around the hotel to explore. Before we slept, Karen and Kai Jie came over to our room to play cards till late. And Kai Jie looks cute in his pyjamas! Haha.

The next day, breakfast was equally filling. I miss eating cereal and milk for breakfast! This kitten jumped onto my lap and left behind two claw marks while I was eating. My bus partner for the day was Chiew Yee, and our first activity for the day was to visit some old quarry to see the granite rocks. Weathering at work! The rocks were so weathered that they simply crumbled when you just chip at them. Then we took the bus down to Panching Caves, which was a tropical karst with a limestone cave. Had to climb 20 feet of uneven, winding and steep stairs just to reach the caves. And boy the view was simply amazing. I’ve never been in a cave before, so it was great seeing all the stalactites and stalagmites (whichever is which) and bats! Yea the bats were great! And there was a huge Buddha statue right inside the cave. Maybe after trekking all the slippery mud and uneven ground in Malaysia forrests, I think I’m not that afraid of trekking or climbing on harsh terrain anymore, much less stairs.

Anyway, the next activity for the day was river mapping! We got to the other side of the karst, got into the river and we’re supposed to determine the width and depth and cross-section and whatever. My group had Ginny, Jaslyn and Chiew Yee, and we had the longest section of the river with so many bars. But it was fun! After a while all of us got used to all the measurements and intervals, Chiewy’s pencil got lost in the river, and her rotten orange could barely float.

Walked further upwards the river and eventually we saw the waterfall. Atiqah was quite a disaster, cos she slipped so many times while trying to enter the mini pool. The waterfall looked small when compared to the one I saw last year at Taman Negara, and there were so many tourists there that it lost its natural charm. But it was still majestic enough...

Lunch was at some Chinese restaurant somewhere; Basil ate 4 bowls of rice while I got to finish all the onions. Then we had time to go shopping at some Kuantan mall. I bought a Mickey Mouse watch! After shopping, we headed down to Telok Chempedak. It was supposed to be a popular beach thronged with tourists, but it was raining at that time, so all we got were the pasar malam stalls which had so many pairs of sunglasses and shades that the girls just refused to budge. The beach was really white and sandy and there were a bunch of granite rocks again.

Had dinner at some seafood restaurant. When we returned back to the hotel, we had to map out river details with the measurements we took that day. my group laughed and giggled most of the time rather than doing work, cos our data were a bit inconsistent, but when all of the groups combined all the different parts of the river together, almost everything fitted nicely! Karen and Shermin came over to our room to play cards again, and we fell asleep watching some trashy horror movie that just had some monster killing everyone.

The next day, we checked out of the hotel and headed for Kuala Lumpur. My bus partner alternated to Jin Jen! The bus took about 4 hours to reach KL. First thing we did was to get all the way up the KL Communication (Menara) Tower, and we had a 400-metre high view of the city. Petronas Tower is simply magnificent.

Had lunch at Berjaya Times Square at some Harts Chicken restaurant that served mostly chicken dishes. Then it was time for urbanisation study of KL! Ms Koh split us all up to take the KL monorail to different parts of the city to observe the activity in that part of city.

Me and Jin Jen travelled all the way to the outskirts, KL Sentral. Upon alighting from the monorail, there was this crazy fellow that just came up to me and shook hands with me! He kept saying that I was good to not reject him, cos he looked really unkempt and dirty. Haha okie me and JJ eventually did our traffic and pedestrain count, and she kept insisting that the city was dirty even though it was squick clean to me.

We got to shop at Times Square! That place is at least 4 or 5 times larger than Suntec City! Me, Kai Jie and Benny trawled the entire mall for gifts and presents, and there was even an indoor theme park with a roller coaster! I really wanted this cool-looking clock but it was over 300RM. Blah. Had dinner shortly after shopping, then checked into Grand Seasons Hotel for the night.

The hotel had yellow murkey water out of its taps! But it soon cleared out after we made noise about it. And Benny’s hilarious! He lost his voice on the second day, so he couldn’t even laugh at all. But when he saw the hotel beds, he jumped on them for at least ten seconds. And I so badly wanted to steal the painting in the hotel room! But we had a good view of the Petronas and Merana Tower from our room.

At breakfast the next day, me and Basil saw a guy secretly smuggling bread out of the restaurant. Blee it’s really ugly. Anyway, we checked out of the hotel and started our journey out of KL. Stopped for a talk on the rice agriculture in Malaysia, then later we got to visit Tanjong Karang padi fields. The expense of the land available was simply humongous! It was kinda ironic to see all the padi, and then reflect on all the rice we’ve eaten on the trip.

For the rest of the day it was mostly travelling; Jaslyn was my bus partner again. Lunch was at another seafood restaurant, and this time there were crabs!! The crabs were delicious! By night time we were all high, customs took so darn long again, and we didn’t reach school till 10pm. Me and Lina (IP3 girl) were the last ones left at the NJ bus-stop after alighting from the bus. And I met Avalene on the bus on the way home! Haha.

Well okie this was a really long recount. I think on the overall the trip was really great! And I realised that Singapore’s really very small. The Malaysians can afford to turn an area of land thrice as big as Bishan to plant pineapples alone! The natural landscapes was enough to astound me already. And we ate so much food! And it was my first time seeing Ms Ting smiling so happily. And I had a great time with my bus gang!

Photos from Jaslyn.


Basalt outcrops.


At the quarry.


Arts faculty geog students at the cave! I think I was trying to kiss Kai Jie.


River mapping group!


Petronas Tower in the background.


Bus gang! My alternating bus partners.


Padi rice field. I like this photo cos it’s so pastoral.

Haha I watched just finished watching The Stepford Wives! Borrowed it from Siew Peng, who borrowed it from Ms Yap. I don't know my first impression after finishing the show was SO BIMBOTIC! Okie maybe it wasn't, but I just found it that way. I still remember Ms Wan doing the "good wives guide" thingy in GP back in my first three months. "You have no right to question. A good wive always knows her place." Hee hee!

The movie was quite funny, and Nicole Kidman can really act. I like the washing machine dance! And do I really want my wife to be totally subservient, or do I want her domineering and overpowering? Maybe somewhere in between: slightly docile, but not afraid to speak up her mind too. And I wouldn't mind one of those remote controls. If she gets noisy, I'll just shut her up. Whee!

Today was a rather nostalgic day. It was Ms Stella Koh's last tutorial with us, and it was Ms Yap's last GP class with us too. Ms Koh was delighted to see the Hello Panda that Rhoda bought, and I so very wanted to steal it and sneak out to enjoy soma with Khairi. Ms Yap let us watched The Green Mile during her double GP lesson, and when I had to leave early, she gave this really long gaze at me. Gosh why has it got to be both my Green Link teachers that are leaving??

And speaking of which, I'm beginning to get irritated with the association with Green Link. The library people donated a huge stack of books and magazines to us, Shaun's class dumped us bags of empty bottles to recycle, and this morning Ms Teo blamed us for the air-con malfunction. It's got nothing to do with me!! Okie sure at least this proves that we're doing our environmental thing and there's some semblace of awareness in the school. But gosh we're not extreme tree-huggers.

I think for all my environmental nut whatever, I do very little for plastics. I mean, I'll gladly recycle paper and use less electricity and take care of plants and cuddle animals, but I just don't really like plastics. Yea I know that plastics are non-biodegradable and stuff, but I just don't feel the need to do anything with them. The only exception is plastic bags.

Went out for lunch with Atiqah, at one of the Malay eateries opposite Beauty World. Played badminton for PE. Green Link meeting at 4.30pm. (Shu Fen said we should form a Green Link Camp Committee, and the Comm will include everyone in the exco. Brilliant.)

I need to start packing for Kuantan. Everyone else seems to have done so except me.

Somehow or rather I think the world is just out to get me. I don't know why, but I feel as if life is slowly encircling itself around me such that my existence is limited to that of a shell only. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful day today, it's just that I'm feeling as though the world is out to get me.

It was Sports Day in school today. And interestingly, it was Council Investiture in the morning as well. The seniors who used to lead all the cheers and be all enthusiastic gave up their authority to the juniors. First day at work for them. Haha I think one-quarter of the school population probably sneaked out of school, another one-quarter hid somewhere in the college, while the remaining blokes sat stony at the grandstand.

Well okie I did try to be rah-rah by cheering a bit. Or maybe I was more grudging than that, since I didn't want the new house captain to go home and cry about how the Aerius people are all so dead. Oh heck Aerius got last anyway. But Han Dong won his 100m again! And when the mass dance songs came on, Rhoda and me just went nuts even though we can't remember the steps.

I'm going to watch The Stepford Wives later. Siew and me borrowed the DVD from Ms Florence Yap.

No school today cos it was College Day on Saturday. My class actually planned to go on a movie outing, but then I did something really stupid last night. I showed my mum my study timetable for June holidays, thinking that she'll be impressed and proud of my ambitions. Haha well okie she was indeed impressed, but when I told her I wanted to go out this morning, she just reminded me of my study timetable and told me to stay home to study. BLAH. You see, my timetable is really hectic and maybe a bit too ambitious too... Like how I plan to study Brave New World in 6 days flat.

Haiz I think sometimes my plans to make my mum happy just backfires and bites me in my back instead. They're going to watch Da Vindi Code I think. But anyway, I did manage to revise my Geography and do a bit of Maths, and my mum apparently thought I did a lot of work (cos I sort of pretended to look very busy) for the whole morning.

Yurong messaged me at around 3pm? Invitation to go ice-creaming with her and Matthew. My mum said yes, so I went down all the way to Island Creamery just for ice cream. Saw Alicia there. And tried out some new flavours I've never tasted before. After that we headed down to Jericho, I tried to do more Maths, then tuition with Hai Hao.

I watched Sesame Street today! Haha yesh I grew up with the Sesame Street people and Teletubbies and Powerpuff Girls! And now I'm thinking back, incredulous that I was once so fascinated by those puppets. Like today, this group of characters were arguing whose pets were the "best pet in the whole wide world". THEY ARGUED FOR 20 MINUTES. Oh my gosh.

Cookie Monster's still my favourite character. And of course, there's that weird Elmo's World. Yeah I quite like Elmo too, but I think Cookie Monster is much more good-looking. I like watching Mr Noodle clowning about and being all dumb and stupid. I like the little kids that speak all kinds of weird experiences.

AND I LOVE ELMO'S GOLDFISH! It's name is Dorothy. In my whole life so far, I've only known one Dorothy and that's Mdm Dorothy Chua. But don't you think Dorothy is such a nice name? It makes the person sound like a dot, but it's completely lovely! I want my daughter to be named Dorothy! Or maybe I'll flirt with the next Dorothy that I know of!

Okie. I sound like a doofus.

I just watched Singapore Idol on television. The auditions were hilarious! But it becomes repetitive after a while, like you'll start predicting when the judges start getting moody, or some horrible singer comes along or some attention-seeking fool clowning about. But what really got me sitting up was when Paul Twohill's face appeared on the screen. Okie I don't actually know him personally, but he was my Catholic High junior. Think he graduated already, and he grew his hair so long that it looks like a mop on his head. Twohill got through though, and well at least someone I can recognise in the finals.

Had a short leaders' meeting in the afternoon again, debating how we should use the new material. Well at least we could come up with a common approach that almost everyone agreed on. After that meeting, Joel, me, Yurong and Clarissa headed to J8 for lunch to discuss somemore about how we should go about doing the weekly sessions. Bought ice cream back to Jericho to continue with the discussions.

I think it's really difficult for anyone to lead effectively in any committees. Too many viewpoints from different people, disagreements, negativity, skepticism. But when the bright people starts to contribute the finer points, things just brighten up significantly.

I suddenly realised that I have just passed on a significant bit of my life experiences to younger people. I'm getting old. Haha... Just relinquished fellowship committee to Joel, and soon Green Link to the juniors. I mean, this has got to happen sooner or later cos I can't posibly stay in charge forever, but in a sense I'm still reluctant cos I've done memorable stuff in those committees. Planning games, winning awards, campaigns, activities, social interaction etc... Lessons and experiences that I've picked up along the way... Blah. For all my whining that I can't wait to handover to juniors, I realised that another part of me is getting nostalgic as well.

Yurong is truly a disaster. She spilt the drinks in Long John's and the poor guy working at the counter had to mop up the place and get rid of all the liquid everywhere. Then later at Jericho, she overturned another can and sent it to the floor. The link? Both drinks were mine (or hers). Both drinks were Coke/Pepsi (they're the same). Both drinks were spilt near me. Conclusion: she's quite a hazard to me.

And yes, I don't like people who get all sanctimonious on me. And strangely enough, this extends even to literature. I can't stand it when poets or authors just get all didactic and dictate the arguments. I want ambiguity. I want ambivalence. Unless, of course, you are in a position of authority and you've contributed enough to earn that respect.

Is styrofoam more harmful to the environment, or is plastic?

I have no idea why I'm so sleepy this entire week. I haven't got the energy at all to stay up past 11pm each night, and I've been sleeping early this whole week! Yet I'm still so dreary and tired in school, at home, wherever.

Had to sweep the corridors and prepare the tables and clean the glass and shift plants and wipe the floors. All in preparation of Funtasia. Had to stay back in school for 3 hours just to do all these crap. Seriously, common sense will tell you that you can never get rid of dust completely. And wiping the glass till it's sparkling, when no idiot will give it more than a cursory glance, much more scrutinise it for fingerprints. Blah if you really want to impress the guests, why not go spend money freely and restructure the school into a palace? Add in 20 more flower gardens and an ice-cream parlour too. And it's time you install light motion sensors in the toilets to save electricity. While you're at it, plant 200 more trees with every LCD television screen that you buy. Save the earth. The guests will be bowled over.

The last time I did something equally stupid was to clean the entire linkway during Orientation, because the teachers were afraid of small little bits of flour getting stuck in between the bricks. Seriously, big and visible litter can really mar the impression on the school, but small and near invisible specks of dirt??

But hey, the school really brought in loads of flowers and plants just to beautify the school! I went crazy trying to hug them all.

To be honest I couldn't really care less about sweeping corridors, so I just swept the dust into the gutters and drains when Kai Jie or Rhoda or Jaslyn weren't looking. Don't get all environmental on me, cos nothing in my Green Link job criteria says I have to sweep the school corridors, and nothing too that I can't choke the drains.

I hate people who get all sanctimonious on me. Just because I did something wrong once, it doesn't mean that you must constantly refer to it as though I'll commit some heinous crime again. Hell, you still can turn that meek cheek and claim that it was stress that led you to scream at the whole class and that it was unlikely of you to flare up and whatever nonsense you have for us. And quit acting all fuddy-duddy right after you were angry moments before. Ugh.

Led worship for youth service yesterday. I guess maybe with each session that I'm leading, I'm getting less nervous about having to sing onstage in front of the entire youth group. We celebrated Andre's birthday during cell group time, and Biru led lesson for this week. Invariably the subject drifted to ghosts and spirits again, then people screaming and whatever. WHY IS IT THAT ALL OUR CELL GROUP TIME BECOMES A SPOOK-AND-TELL SESSION??

I ate macaroni with cheese last night. Leftovers from the adults from somewhere. It's very cheesy, but it was delicious. Especially the cheese crumbs that melts in your mouth. Way better than pizza, but in my opinion cheese fries is still the best!

And today is NJC's Funtasia! It's just some dumb ol' funfair that's supposed to tie in together with College Day. Was supposed to be in school by 10.30am, but I woke up at 10.20am... So needless to say by the time I got to school it was horribly late. Strolled around the food stalls, then me and Kai Jie and some A02 people decided to go play Laser Quest at the gymnasium. Haha yesh it's just some real-life shooting game with futuristic-looking weapons. I'm on the green team with Shu Fen, Sheryl and Kai Jie, and we won! The other team had Judith, Kurt and Jeff by the way. By the time the game ended, I had 4 or 5 vibrations from the headphones thingy that I had to put on...

Then walked through all the games stalls and couldn't find a single fishing game (me and Yurong's favourite funfair game), then sat in the amphi watching people fighting with oversized clubs. Well I can't use chopsticks to pick up marbles at all, or maybe Huai Ying added too much soap in the water. Bought a tropical milkshake from my junior class, it tasted milky? Haha I declined their slice of cheesecake cos I had too much cheese in the last 12 hours. And I told Christine that she can go Adam Road to buy nasi lemak instead of slogging in order to sell it in school.

Watched the Aerius people spend millions of their money trying to dunk Tran, cos they kept missing the target. Plotted with Kai Jie to sabotage the haunted house. Saw Sera in her Hwa Chong uniform. Met Madeline, since the last time she was frog-hopping at the school gate.

Met Siew Peng at around 3pm cos we made a schedule to discuss Herbert, but we sort of got lazy and decided to go home instead. Siew and me got into another one of our weird arguments on the bus ride back, then giggling at our warped logics. And I was in time to watch Lost!

Gonna sleep now.

Two pieces of literature impacted my life in the last 3 days.

The first one is An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin. The poem was a Lit assignment from Mr Whitby for critical appraisal. To me, it was one of the most impactful poems that I've done so far in my Lit classes. It had so many themes packed into 6 stanzas and gosh it was simply captivating! I love the way how Larkin remains so irritatingly ambivalent and ambiguous throughout. Haha I guess maybe I don't like people telling me what their take on a subject is. I would much rather they present all sides of the arguments and just leave the person to respond. And Larkin infused elements of transcience and permanence so seamlessly that it becomes the engine of the entire poem. Transcience cannot stand up to permanence (that's my take), and indeed: What will survive of us is love. When you can't distinguish between the eternal truths that you believe in, I guess there wouldn't be any purpose in trying to structure that life into an axion by itself.

The second one is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Whimsical, farcical and utterly impossible. The story has no visible structure; Alice just wanders everywhere and meet weird characters. I guess the story really appealed to me cos it has always been my secret fantasy to derail my life into nothing but a set of ridiculous, random rubbish where I'll just do everything and anything that sounds stupid to me. I especially love the chapter on that mad tea-party! Everyone just starts to argue about nonsensical issues and weird ideas... Something like the chaos in King Lear's mock-trial. Hee hee! For all the hype over her, I think Alice is one big irritating prick who's too inquisitive. But I like to picture her going all indignant, cos I'm sure that would be a funny sight! AND THE ENDING IS SO BATHOS. My favourite character is the Mock Turtle!

"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."

On a lighter note, Kai Jie and Benny were remarking how different I was when compared to Jun Ying, and were wondering how in the world did we manage to work together as Green Link presidents in charge. Kai Jie came up with this analogy: "If Ms Ting is asking a question on climate change, Jun Ying will tell you something interesting that you didn't know about climate change, but for Guan You, when Ms Ting is asking the question about climate change, Guan You will ask something else like DO YOU LIKE BUTTERFLIES?"

On another even lighter note, Samuel and Benny and me played with coins today. We were having a free period, and Sam came up with this stupid game that involved us getting our individual coins between 2 other coins, or something like that. And so for half an hour, three 17-year-olds were huddling together at the table flicking at coins. Benny was the overall loser. Samuel was the overall winner.

And below is what I got when I matched my photo on MyHeritage.com. I look like goofy old Einstein. Compliment or sarcastic joke?

OH PUH-LESE. How grossly inaccurate. I don't think they even bother to clarify what they mentioned before they publish their pack of lies. And even if they did, I guess it would make little difference cos you can't resist anything that bloats that inflated head of yours. Sickening, horrible jerk.

Bahh what can I do anyway? You can go on deceiving the world while I'll just sit here and watch your feeble, pathetic attempts.

I should take a leaf out of Janvin's. "I told her the truth! She was the one who ignored me! Well as long as I know I'm right, nothing else matters." Indeed, it takes true humility to give up the plume.

Yea I should.

My cousin came over from Malaysia again! Haha it was her birthday last April, so she's 8 years old now. Anyway I brought her to river-keeping with the Green Link people today. The last time she tagged along for the combined river-keeping with NTU Earthlink and Ngee Ann Poly, so she's experienced! Hee hee! There were only a few of us today; Hong Yi was the only junior, and Jun Ying brought his friends along. Hui Min, me, Liyong, Hong Yi and my cousin ended up slacking more than we picked litter, then amidst lunch we prepared the letters to be sent to all the schools in Singapore for the EnviroFest. Reminiscience of me and Shu Fen's folding letters and sealing envelopes after Bekok last year.

My cousin's blowing up balloons and releasing 5 of them at one go. I've got balloons zooming over my head now.

I fell sick AGAIN on Thursday. I think it's the 4th time this year. And this year is barely half way through. Oh what the hell. I think it's throat infection. And that means fever. Okay I was feverish on Thursday, but am no longer now. It's just a terrible sore throat now.

For disturbing statistics:-

Lost my voice 2 times this year (and soon, 3 times)
~During station games, second week of Orientation 2006.
~The days leading towards Good Friday's worship night.

Fever 3 times this year
~During Orientation.
~Two days before Maths and Geography Common Test (Term 2).
~Last Thursday.

Flu 2 times this year
~Orientation.
~Common Test.

I'm so unhealthy that I'm sickening. UGH.

Aah no school today cos it's Vesak Day! But of all the lousy days, the public holiday has to fall on Friday which happenes to be my most free day in school for the whole week. Not that I'm complaining either... Yesterday's long timetable was replaced with a much shorter Monday's.

I'm spending the next 5 days cramming all of Herbert's poems. Oh I've drawn myself a study plan to lead me through June holidays. Yesterday Siew Peng and me stayed in school till 6pm just to discuss The Reprisal and The Agony.

Please do not mention my "less paper for council elections" comment to me anymore. How did news spread so fast??

I'm into children's literature now. Finished Winnie the Pooh's Treasury Set two weeks ago, read some of Hans Christian Andersen's stories, and now I'm reading Alice in Wonderland. Next up is Moby Dick and the Brothers Grimm.

This week so far has been a strangely tiring, yet eventful one for me. I'm not in the mood for any physical activity, and I lack sleep so much that I'm dozing off everywhere. Oh drats. And these past 3 days has been a revelation to me, cos I realised all of a sudden how things were really the way they are now by virtue of the fact that they are. Erm okay, I'll elaborate later.

Today was the heats for sports day's inter-class relay. My class chose Ginny, Samuel, Shi En and Terence to run the 4X100m, but Ginny was absent so Annie took over. Yep order of running in that order. Haha I was the guys' reserve runner, but there was no need for that so I just stayed in the grandstand to cheer them on. Anyway, they did well to get third for that race, but fell short of a few miliseconds to get into the finals. Terence sprinted like nuts in the last 100m and the baton passing was quite smooth! Last year we didn't even run cos we couldn't be bothered to travel all the way back to school from Toa Payoh. And Annie, you did great, no matter what you may say. (:

Before my classmates ran, our junior class had their relay too. Margaret, Nicol, Chantalle and Jafnie. Nicol took my shoes cos he wasn't in his running pair. Theirs was more dramatic cos Chantelle fell on top of Jafnie when she was passing the baton to him, and Jafnie had to squirm out from the mess to finish the race second last. But hey, you guys have one more year to prepare for next year's...

I think Mrs Nair kinda contradicts herself. She goes on and on about us getting her into trouble for not attending civics, or school, or whatever talks or programmes. But today, she told a few of us to attend this focus group discussion at the Sanctuary, but there was not a single soul there except the cleaner and the 8 of us. There you go, when my absence from a compulsory talk is treated so severely, my presence at a compulsory discussion goes unnoticed. Oh whatever.

Well not that I minded anyway, cos civics was feedback session in LT1. Me and Janvin lazed around trying to pluck the papayas off the tree, then we went to CA6 to enjoy the aircon. But we did eventually go to the LT for feedback session with the Council, after we realised that the focus group discussion was probably just a scam.

And I did something that I would have never envisioned myself doing. They were on the topic of Council elections and campaigning, so I went up to the microphone and commented on the drastic use of paper for posters, and how we should save the paper instead of wasting them on uneffective mediums of campaigining by sticking wood pulp everywhere in school. The environmental concern was like me, but the courage to speak up about something almost trivial like this was unlike me. Okay, maybe during Whitby's lessons only.

Encourage candidates to campaign without the use of paper, in order to showcase their versatility and to be environmentally friendly. Haha, that's a good one. It sounds ridiculous to me now, even though I said that like barely 10 hours ago. I'll remember that one for life.

I ate yong tau foo today for the first time in a long long while. I used to order from that stall like at least 3 times a week, but I haven't been there at all this whole term. The new auntie is so blur. But the serving's larger now.

Oh on a note, the college spent slightly more than $20 thousand to landscape 2 plots of land into a butterfly garden and a spice garden. The constructors are almost finishing on the butterfly garden already, and Green Link's credited with the proposal for it. Nah it's more than just Green Link alone to me... Cos me and Pei Ling were originally the ones in charge of this butterfly garden project, and I still remember inviting Andrew Tay down last year to survey the site and drawing up an initial proposal for it. And on Monday, I finally got the chance to walk through the garden (with Huai Ying and Regina).

Can you imagine the "inception-to-finalisation" concept? Proposing for a garden, deciding the theme for the garden, bugging Andrew for the proposal, meeting the contractor, and now finally the construction of it. Me walking on the stone slabs pathway that I played a small role in proposing for it. Cradle to grave. Ashes to dust.

But seriously speaking, if the college administration has the money to spend on a new garden and on a coloured wall mounting for a LCD television, I don't see why they can't spend more money on fixing roof leaks (echoing Rhoda). Roof leaks are a judging criteria for Green Audit! And yesh I'm finally convinced that there are more roof leaks than I expected.

Oh yesh this is going to be my take on The Da Vinci Code. I re-read it last week, cos I couldn't remember the details of the plot the last time I read it. Oh well, I only found the treasure hunt and all the history bits interesting. Other than that, the book might well just be pieces of bounded pulp. I didn't like the story-telling because Dan Brown can't weave his history bits into the flow of the plot effectively. The flashbacks are so hideously placed in the novel that they stand out for the wrong reason. The descriptives were too jarring. The continuous reference to goddess worship and feminism just dies off halfway through the novel. But hey, this book is meant to be a suspense whodunit only, so you can't really expect Brown to be literary masterful... Haha. Oh, please do refer to actual facts, cos his details are grossly inaccurate.

I'm so tempted to sleep now and forget all about GP and the poem essay. It's almost 3am now.

I'm feeling melancholic. Being stupidly depressed over something that I should have long gotten over. But I'm not letting my emotions run over me. At least I'm still in a relatively happy mood, which is a good thing cos I don't want people to fuss over me.

Youth service last night was STOMP. Ben came up with SalvationArmy Torchbearers Original Music Project. Basically it's just like Stomp; using ordinary stuff and turning it into a percussion performance. Me, Ben and Joel were the judges. My cell group combined with Yurong's cell and became the Red Geellinuanua Cows, so that effectively affiliated all 3 of us judges to that combined cell group. And they won of course! Haha no we weren't biased, it's just that they were the most enthusiastic performance of the night.

I went all the way down to Lavender Street with my mum to extend my passport validity yesterday too. I'm going Kuantan at the end of this month for a Geography learning trip! There were so many people there, had to wait for like one hour, but the extension process only took a mere 2 minutes. And guess what? I was attended to by the same lady who extended my passport last year. I remember her, but she doesn't.

Chanced upon these two pro-Linux, anti-Windows pictures. Hilarious.

My new mousepad is lousy. I replaced the old Mickey Mouse mousepad with this new mousepad with a funky big-headed creature on it. Well it somehow reduced my optical mouse's sensitivity and I can't navigate my cursor smoothly. The movement is too jerky, or the sensor will just go nuts and the cursor will appear somewhere else on the screen.

I love my hamster Nutseed. Even though it's fat and grey and lazy. I love flipping her on her back and watch her fat legs wriggle in the air. I love how she goes wild when I let her out of her cage, but she'll always curl up on my palm at the end of it. I love the way she separates her nuts from her seeds and her vege bits from her corns. I love those beady eyes. I love her neatness that is like an obsession.

Do I really understand the implications of the "unimpassioned mystery"? Am I certain I'm aware of Christ's suffering on the cross for me just to save my sorrowful, sinful life? The magnitude of love that's so great that it is utterly profound. The intensity and the purpose of living my life.

My favourite vegetable for this week is broccoli. I tried stir-frying it with carrots and cauliflowers and onion and a little bit of garlic just now. The broccoli tasted the best. And my memories go back to OG1 outing at Jonathan's house, when both me and Rhoda were so eager to boil the broccoli for dinner, but ended up overcooking it into a watery pulp.

Love and relationships are complex issues. Too much things going on, yet the simplicity of it is everpresent. Mr Whitby's theory of transcience and permanence going on at the same time, presenting an irony because things are constantly changing, yet you can almost be assured of a regular cycle and anticipate the next move.

I'm having one of those feelings again. Hopeless. Helpless. Hapless. Yesh it's those Shannon thoughts again. Of all those memories and suddenly they're coming back like a flash flood, hitting me with a thoughtful impact. Yet there's always that quiet sense of victory that prevails over it all. Well, what can I say? Shannon's the only one that doesn't have to go through what life is without her.

I'm so tired.

I just came home! Haha okay okay actually I normally reach home at around this time three out of five weekdays. But today is special, cos I had my dinner outside with my classmates! Initially wanted to go Curry Wok with Jaslyn, Chiew Yee and Jin Jen, but it was closed on Tuesdays. Ended up at Coronation Plaza for chicken cutlets and fish and chips. Then JJ went home first, while the rest of us went Island Creamery for ice cream dessert! Even though it's just the 4 of us, it's still a great outing, talking and laughing about the silliest things...

On the bus home I saw Yiting and Agnes. I just realised: they look quite alike! I boarded the bus and they started going HARLOW at the same time. Maybe it's the Andersen-lookalike faces.

Yesterday I was at St Andrew's Cathedral for a Da Vinci Code seminar. Went with Adriel, Shermin, Yurong, Tammy and Biru. Well it was quite informative when the speaker started clarifying the inaccurate facts in the book. I'm always intrigued by arts and history, but pity I'm a Geography student now. Saw Dai Xuan there, and Lynn!! Yesh Lynn as in my Green Link senior Lynn. Got to meet some new people as well, although I don't think I caught their names. And their Yada game is not that original, but it's a fresh approach. Haha!

After the seminar we caught up with Sarah and went to Gelaré for ice cream. Eeps yesh so it's 2 consecutive days of ice cream for me. But anyway, we went to Suntec after that cos I wanted to get presents for Rachel Kwan, while Sarah needed to get a black full-length skirt. Think it's not fashionable now, cos we can't seem to find it anywhere and the nice ones are all exorbitant.

Had to rush back for tuition with Hai Hao. Me and Yurong chose to go the long detour just to avoid the rain. And I took a leaf from my mum's bryophyllum plant to let him plant! Haha I just gave him a pot with some soil, then when he reached home his sister poured away the soil! So I had to help him replant it using soil stolen from the slope outside Jericho.

Then I was feeling bored, so I played some hoops game with En Ning. Something like hopscotch, but nowhere near it. I think all kids below the age of 7 are hyperactive. But hell, I managed to convince her that vacuuming the carpetted floor is a game, and playing hide and seek with her involves her hiding and seeking at the same time.

I'm going to sleep soon. Don't really feel like doing work today.