Went to KAP early in the morning at 7.30am. Managed to stay there alone until 1.30pm in the afternoon! And in that fruitful 6 hours I tore apart 5 scenes out of 7 for Glass Menagerie. So now I'm left with one short scene and the huge Scene 7 to complete my revision for that book! YIPPEE. Blah it's such a boring play. There's no action at all, only quarrels and conversations.

I think my house is cursed with some calculator jinx. My sister has her Maths paper tomorrow, and her calculator just ran out of battery. Haha about 2 weeks ago my calculator died on me in the middle of the night at 2am just before my Maths Prelim! But good thing was she was able to get it fixed in time before that battery/watch shop closes. I think I should get an extra calculator for my actual A's. Just in case.

I've got nothing much to blog about. It's a boring day today. Anybody want a tour of the MacRitchie Treetop Trail??

I LOVE ENID BLYTON!! I think she's a brilliant story-teller. Haha!! I've taken a sudden interest in her books cos I just feel like reading something else other than Brave New World or any of those horribly complex Lit texts. I think everyone should write like her: in simple and straightforward diction with fairies and pixies and gnomes and elves. I want a world where my toys can come alive at night, or I want to go through interesting adventures like catching a robber, or to have some fairy waking me up in the middle of the night asking if she can borrow my torchlight or something!!

Blee. The cutest story I've read so far was about this boy named Willy who asked so many questions that he was known as the "why-boy", cos all he does is annoy everyone with silly questions like "why is water wet" and "why is fire hot". Then he met a group of goblins who teased him of his incessant "why"s and they flew around him chanting "why? why? why?" over and over again, and he learnt his lesson.

LALALALA. I went out with Yurong on Monday to Suntec City and Bras Basah. Both of us didn't have school, Yurong wanted to buy a bedsheet (although she bought a towel in the end) and I wanted Enid Blyton books! Haha. Tecman went through a major revamp! And I want to save up enough money to go stationery shopping. And more Enid Blyton. Later that day, I went back to Cat High with Yao Dong!! It was like 4pm by the time we went, so most of the teachers were gone and we talked mostly to Ms Angelin Wong. I wanted food from the canteen too, but it was so late that there was only one stall left. BLAH. Oh well.

Got back some of those Prelim papers. There's some disastrous ones, there's some that I improved slightly cos I learnt from my mistakes, and there's some that's just LIDDAT LOR. Sigh. I don't really know what to say either. HAHA. But going through essay questions without getting your paper back yet is kinda hopeful. Like Ms Teo went through the King Lear essay that I did, and I'm quite happy cos I mentioned most of what she said! Haha it's like some false notion of happiness, although I know my essay was horribly structured. School is boring too. The new timetable has us going back to school for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only, but given the choice I don't even want to go back. It's such a waste of time.

Stupid. Hady. Won. AARGH. I was sooo wanting Jonathan to win cos I think he has a better charm and charisma. But Hady sang better! Haha they should just merge and form a boyband or something.

Jas hasn't been out of my sight for more than half an hour from 8am this morning till 3pm just now. The whole day is just SATURATED with her. Kai Jie compared my stupidity to his friend who lost his glasses in the sea just because "he wanted to see if his titanium specs would float". Samuel tried to convince me that these two girls sitting in front of us on the bus home were lesbians. And Khairi left me alone in the soyabean gang. Thank God for great company in school.

I want to dye my hair purple. Or green. Or blue.

Oh oh oh!! I must mention this. All of us had to pay $30 for stupid KM fund and money too for class photo orders. I was supposed to pay $39 to Cheryl, so I gave her $50 and she gave me back $21! I didn't realise the additional $10 too until I reached home. Haha then she messaged me "thanks for your honesty" cos I told her about it first. YAY!! But she refused to say that I'm sexy before I return her the money.

Okie. I'm going to read more Blyton before I start on my Glass Menagerie.

Yep yep my cousin came over. You know how my perception of people's ages never change... HAHA! Like I still cannot come to terms with the fact that Rachel Kwan (and Rachel Tan too, for that matter) is Sec 4 now cos in my mind, she always remains at Sec 1 when I first met her. So my cousin remains 4 years old of age even though she's much much more wiser now at 8. Actually I watched her grew up since she was a baby!! I brought her out for my Green Link's river-keeping sessions before too!! HAHAHA.

Oh I watched the Singapore Idol final. Whoo it was awesome! I think they really sang well especially Jonathan! His last song was brilliant. Whatever was the title?? But Hady's "You Gave Me Wings" was much more inspirational. But still, I think there's a conspiracy so I think Jon will win. HEE HEE!


My cousin! NUTS!

LUM DEE DUM. I'm quite happy. No need to study!! Or at least till 2 days later. I went out with my mum and sister to J8 yesterday. It wasn't much, just lunch then walking around aimlessly. But it's great cos I haven't gone shopping with my mum for ages. WHEE.

Worship on Friday night was good. My hand started to cramp up halfway through cos I gripped the mike for too long! And also partly because I've had exams that involved so much writing that I finished one entire pen's gel ink in the space of 2 weeks. And my voice didn't give in to my sore throat. Then we had a meaningful cell group time after that. Talking and chatting about our lives, catching up with one another after all those busy weeks. And I'm all the more convinced that Rachel Kwan is stalking me! I was at Serene Centre then Madjacks last Monday, and she went there hours later. Then I went town on Friday, went to Paragon and Heeren and Taka, and she was there hours later too. SEE. Proof.

Oh oh! I got so bored yesterday that I set Nutseed loose! Yurong thought I really set Nutseed loose in the wild. NOOO. I just let her out from her cage onto my room's floor for half an hour? She crawled everywhere trying to explore everything, then she started panicking cos I think she found it unfamiliar so I gave her some nuts to munch. Then she ran around again for another ten minutes before deciding to POOP AND PEE ON THE FLOOR. Then she got tired and slept under my table. Blee. I simply love her. I think she's the most curious and most adorable hamster! She's the craziest neat freak. She poos and pees a lot. She eats a lot. She's very lazy. She's fat. She's cuddly. She waves her legs in the air like chopsticks. She has her own "hyperactive cycle". AND SHE'S MY HAMSTER.

LALALALALALALALALALALALALALA.

I'm "youtubing" for today. Loads of rubbishy videos up there.

I keep forgetting to blog about this. Okie this refers back to last week where I went to Ben & Jerry's at Cathy for Stinchpenny's gig. I SAW SARAH!! Sarah from Famine Camp. Haha I spotted a familiar face with those bangs, and yesh yesh it was her so I ran out to say hi. HAHA.

Oh and another thing that I forgot to mention was that ATIQAH COOKED FOR ME ON WEDNESDAY!! She was preparing food and tidbits for Beets as a form of belated birthday present, and she decided to be nice and prepare lasagne for me too. YAY I was very very happy, cos I was really hungry after Lit. Went down to corps and shared the lasagne with Yurong and Sarah (a different Sarah. See I know sooo many Sarahs). And they finished half the amount?? But I got to enjoy it la.

I insist that lasagne is pronounced LER-ZAN-YER. Not like LAR-ZARG-NIA which everyone pronounces. Eugh. LER-ZAN-YER sounds so much more classy and nice-sounding. I had a big argument with Khairi over this. Haha!

Yep, today's my final Prelim paper. I resolved to do my best, and I did!! I think I did three of my most coherent essays in my entire 2 weeks of Prelims today. 3 essays in 3 hours. WHOOPEE. I feel good. I don't care if the results come out crap cos I've finally got a grasp of how to structure my often-messy points.

After Prelims, me, Khairi and Jeff went town together. Ate lunch at Lucky Plaza, then hung around at Kino before I decided I was tired and we all went home except Jeff who went to meet his friends.

I think having your own eyecandy is a good thing. They brighten up your day, they make you happy, they make dullness appear more bearable. But the weird thing is they don't know that they have such a positive effect on people. WHEE HEE. MY EYECANDY RAWKS.

I think Jas is very sad cos she lost her Glass Menagerie. I think Qiling is very sad too cos she lost her Ted Hughes. Blooiee.

Okie I'm going to lead worship. WIth a dreadful cough and sore throat. I altered down the keys of 3 songs cos I think I'll probably bleed my throat to death if I try to reach those "virginal" high notes. Haha. Khairi and Jeff and me thinks that the Vienna Boys Choir sounds virginal.

Okiee it's 3.40am in the middle of the night now. Going to have my final Lit Prelims paper in less than 5 hours. I think I slept enough for the night already! Slept from 9pm to 12 midnight just now, then I did about 2 hours worth of Ted Hughes before going to sleep again. And waking up now cos I'm too excited for the paper.

Went to KAP to study with Annie, Jas and Khairi again. Ted Hughes for the whole day is a real mental work-out. I was there for 9 hours! WEH. I seriously want to relax and slack for 2 whole weeks after Prelims end, but A'Levels is looming huge. There's 40 more days left before it begins!! I think I want to throw away all the calendars in my house. I mean, 40 days sound quite far away and long enough, but the calendar sort of diminishes the 40 days, like there's only one month of white boxes left before the A's begin. And knowing myself, I'll probably slack off whatever that is remaining of September and by the time October arrives it's 30 days left and I'll panick like nuts.

GARRGH. GAAARRRGGHH. I'm trying not to be stressed about it but I can't help it. I'm giving myself till Sunday before I start on a new timetable that will lead me to A's.

I think KAP's a good place to people-watch. Maybe one day when I need to destress, I'll sit there with a book and pretend to read while watching the whole world go by. Or I'll be able to eavesdrop on some dysfunctional relationship again. Haha. KAP's kinda crowded with people I know today. Yurong went there to study, in front of a blank wall and 4 humungous pretty faces smiling at her. Then I saw Christiane cos she stays sooo near to KAP and she was there with this Cat High junior of mine named Wilson.

Accompanied Jas back to school to fetch her Glass Menagerie, but it disappeared.

Having a terrible sore-throat now. Loads of phlegm. And I need to lead worship tomorrow. I can't eat practically anything. I want to eat fish and chips, but I think my throat will probably just explode. I want to eat ice-cream!!!

I'm determined to do my best for the Lit paper. Even though my preparation for it is extremely minimal. Haha I just flipped through Glass M, decided that it wasn't worth my time to spend 2 hours on it, so I memorised the 4 big themes (society and individual, past and present, illusion and reality, freedom and entrapment) in 2 minutes and that was it. Brave New World was slightly better... 3 hours on themes alone.

Ted Hughes has a way of growing on you. Seeping insidiously into your mind. Moss.

OH OH. I saw a staghorn's fern today! Just off the road of my house. I mean, all you see are bird nest fern everywhere, so staghorn's a welcoming relief from that.

Okie. Pictures. I know I'm putting large amounts of pics here, but I shall persist.

AARGH!!! Just came back from one of my NUMEROUS Lit papers. Well the Herbert poem was okay cos I studied before. I chose to do essay for King Lear cos I wanted to try it for one last time before I sit for the actual A's. Eh it was quite badly structured, but still okay. Then came the disastrous Silas Marner. It's a set text paper and it's the first time I'm seeing that passage??? HAHAHA. I sort of just wandered away the remaining hour that I had to do for that essay cos I didn't know what to write. It's a prose passage and everything that needs to be explained is there!! What am I supposed to comment?? And I want to kill Samuel. He told me to "just trusten" and "allow Fate to take control" and "let Providence be your guide". He told that to me like before the Prelims began?? And goodness me, I made a mockery out of trusten. Wrote crap, retold the story, dunno what in the world is going on. Trusten indeed.

And I'm quite inspired by Herbert's poems. But they're all drastically repetitive, like if you read 3 of his poems you've basically read the entire of his collection. He writes great about God. Man's relationship with God. Power struggles. Humility. YESH YESH humility.

Was at KAP with Jas, Khairi, Kai Jie and Annie this morning. Last minute mugging. Haha. It was quite productive for me cos it helped me answer two out of three essays that I'm supposed to do.

And King Lear is actually quoted in Pussycat Dolls. My favourite song somemore. BUTTONS. WAHAA. Oh oh, this song is stuck in my head ever since I told Annie about it. Building 429's Glory defined.

And I'll wake up to find Your glory defined
I will finally bow at Your throne
And I'll lift up Your name in honour and praise
When I cross over Jordan
I know that I'll be running home to You.

I'm at corps now! No papers today, so spent the day at KAP studying with Yurong, then had tuition with Hai Hao, then decided to come here and use the com first before I head home. MUAHA. The computer's laggy. Each letter that I type takes 3 seconds to appear.

Anyway, I had Maths and Human Geog yesterday. And the night before I slept from 6pm to 7pm, then studied all the way till 5am and slept for another hour before I went to school. I thought two hours of sleep was sufficient for me! Haha although halfway through Geog I started drooping off. And I thought the Maths paper was quite okay! But everyone started going like they're going to fail and the paper's so difficult and whatever else, so I think maybe I've gotten all my formulae wrong and I'm doing all the wrong things, so that's why it's sooo easy for me. Human Geog was so vague! The grammar and diction was quite ambiguous. Maybe it's because we all take Lit that's why we're reading too much into it. But it was a manageable paper too, cos I did essays instead of the DRQ first, and I had so much more time when compared to my disastrous Physical's.

Oh ho. On the way to KAP today, Rhoda boarded the same bus that I was on! Was at the NJ bus-stop, so I looked out to see if there's any familiar faces. Then I saw a red bag amidst all the grey (Amy's bag) and then I saw Amy, and beside her was Chiew Yee. I think it's quite funny!!

And at KAP, Yurong and me were sitting behind these two JC girls (shall not name what school). Okie one of them was normal enough, but the other one was abnormal. She was talking on her phone, and it was quite loud so we could almost hear everything. She was quarelling with her boyfriend. Okie choice excerpts:

"You take MC! Either you take MC or you don't get to see me for the whole of next week."
"I don't care! That's your own f***ing problem."
"You're going to get it from me tomorrow. I swear I will."
"You want me to slap you issit?"
"Last time I slap you you so fast forgot already?"
"Your parents are so f***ed up."
"I'll two-time you and make you a mockery."
"Louder. I can't hear you. Say again. Cannot hear. You want me to slap you issit?"
"You either see me tomorrow or we break up."

Oh gosh that's super tyrannical! We were like, trying to suppress our laughter and trying to talk softly cos we were afraid they'll hear us too?? Yurong said she overheard her saying she wants to burn down his house and even said "you want to see your house tonight or not?". HAHAHA!! Goodness. You really wonder why the guy still tries to pacify her.

I bought wires, lightbulbs and batteries for tuition with Hai Hao today. He's learning electricity in his Science now, so I thought I can make it more fun for him? Haha he's so afraid he'll get electrocuted! Then we tried testing to see which materials conduct electricity, all that stuff you play with bulbs. My eyes are quite blinded now. Too much light exposure.

Jasmine is out from Singapore Idol! So sad!! Okie I know it's a bit too late, but I still want to comment. I like her singing and I sort of wanted Jonathan and Jasmine in the finals, although Hady does sing better. But I still like her!! Blah.

Lit tomorrow. I'm going to analyse like hell. All three of my Lit teachers told me I'm not analysing enough. GAARGH.

Silas Marner has large brown eyes. Sexy.

Selected pictures from Shi Hui, Stinchpenny playing at Cathy Ben & Jerry's.


The Merlionster ice cream!


Stinchpenny jumping around.


There's Tim Jiow (their teacher) and the band!


Stinchp with Tammy, Shi Hui, and me.


Shi Hui! Seen with Asher's badges-laden cap.


Tammy!


Me with Tim.

Okie I shall blog about yesterday. In the morning I went for breakfast with my mum. Been going for breakfast with her the whole week cos my dad's away to Vietnam for this week. Anyway, I went to Serene Centre to do Maths for the whole morning! Beets, Qiling, Khairi and me sort of agreed to meet there to study before our Lit paper in the afternoon. Annie joined us in the afternoon. Was at Macs the whole morning, then we went to Island Creamery for banana split before going to Mad Jack for lunch.

From Khairi's blog.




So all of us panicked like nuts before the paper began. Well okay except me, cos I studied PC two days ago and it's an unseen paper! You can't really prepare a lot for it. Was planning to do the poem and drama texts. But when I received the question paper and I flipped to the poem, it was a crappy nut. Mr Whitby gave us a John Donne metaphysical poem! AARGH the scary thing was I read somewhere in some commentary that John Donne is one stupid poet because his argument throughout all his poems are all very complex and he never provides a conclusion and a lot of other complicated details. So I did compare and contrast poems instead. Supposed to spend one and a half hours on it, but I exceeded by 15 minutes so my drama essay wasn't concluded properly. And I was quite disturbed by it cos it was all about Hell and damnation and eternal suffering!

After the paper I went down to meet Shi Hui and Tammy at Jericho cos we wanted to go watch Stinchpenny perform at Cathy Ben & Jerry's. We all miss them since their performance at youth service last week, so we decided to go say hi. Ookay so they played most of the same songs that we heard before, but they're still awesome! Was expecting huge throngs of IJTP girls cos they're playing there this whole week, but there were only like about 10 girls there? Haha the three of us waved our "banners" which we drew on the B&J serviettes. I gave the guitarist Tim a serviette note and the blue magnet clip that has John 3:16 on it! Took photos too which are still with Shi Hui.

I think those guys are really cool. Yea, I ran a search on Blog Search just like what Tammy suggested, and gosh there's loads of crazy IJTP girls out there who's going gaga over Stinchpenny. Haha but the lead singer cannot sing. He squeks. And Tammy gave Asher another badge to add to his collection! Tim is still shy. Haha.

Can you believe it? It's in the middle of Prelims and I'm slacking my guts out by going for some band gig. It's a good thing I don't have papers today. Oh oh! This is weird. I'm Bimbo, Shi Hui's Rainbow and Tammy's Mango.

I'm finally having my picture on Island Creamery's wall. Hahaha after like many many visits there with my classmates or with Yurong or whoever. This is my Lit group minus Siew and with Annie!


And I think everyone in the class should have posted these photos on their blogs already, but I'll just put them here all the same.






I showed my mum those pictures and she went like "WAH, you so hip in school one arh??" OH MY GOSH MY MUM THINKS I'M A BORING NERD!! Then she saw the candid one which had me wearing Jas' purple hairband, and she started laughing like nuts. Hee hee I think I look really stupid. And I can't help but really love everybody in A01. Looking at every single classmate of mine, looking at their silly expressions, it really brought a smile to my face.

Oh! I made a point to mention this: A while ago I gave Khairi, Jas and Atiqah each one of those old wooden pencils. Khairi sharpened his pencil and he's using it now. Jas said she couldn't bear to use hers. And guess what Atiqah did with hers?? She used it as a chopstick to bun her long hair up!! HAHAHA I think it's very funny! And one more thing. I thought of this when I couldn't sleep two nights ago. What do the band members of Ronin like to eat? They like to eat MACARONIN. Hahaha it's very funny right??

HEE HEE.

After my tragic malfunctioning-calculator incident at 2am in the morning, I sort of realised of hindsight that my panic-stricken anxiety was kind of unwarranted for. Qiling passed me her extra calculator that she took from Ms Sim before the Maths paper started, which was a huge blessing to me. But you know something? I decided to try using my own calculator to see if it still works, and when I pressed the "on" button, there were numbers appearing!!! Hahaha the battery's dead, but the solar panel was working. And the amazing thing was that it continued working throughout the entire 3 hour paper, so I didn't use Ms Sim's one at all. On top of it all, the paper was quite manageable! Okiee I left some questions blank, but I started ticking off the questions that I could do (Qiling's habit) and I found out that I have quite a lot of ticks within the first 2 pages! So I got really happy midway the exam, as if like it's some confidence booster. Forgot about ticking the questions, but the paper was quite okay la.

Anyway the first thing I did after reaching home yesterday was to go down to that watch shop at the market to get a battery replacement. The auntie was very professional! She unscrewed the screws, replaced the battery and returned me the calculator in less than a minute! And it only costed me $2???

Went to eat at Adam Road again after Maths yesterday. Atiqah, Jeff, Kurt, me, Kai Jie, Khairi and Annie. I finally got to eat my nasi lemak cos I don't have to lead any worship for this week. Khairi's got photos of Kai Jie acting cute!


There's Atiqah, Jeff, Annie and me.


Kai Jie giving some coy look!! My goodness how often do you see him like that?? There's more on Khairi's blog.

And after lunch, I went to KAP to study for a while with Yurong. I did 3 hours of revision on Practical Criticism! Okay actually I was slacking half the time rather than studying. What's there to study for PC?? Just know all your terms and that's about all you can do. I think the Mac's advert which has someone screaming is pretty funky.

Okay I'm going to school to study with Atiqah.

AARGH AARGH AARGH AARGH!! My calculator broke down on me!! And I have like 5 more hours to go before my Maths Prelim begin?? Oh my goodness I think it's the worst thing that can happen to anyone, CALCULATOR NOT FUNCTIONING WHEN YOU NEED IT DESPERATELY!!! Stupid calculator. I was practising binomial theorem when it just went blank. So I thought it was the auto power-off thing but it wasn't! And the solar power panel didn't work either. AARGH!

I'm so hyper-stressed now I'm on the verge of crying. I think it's a tragedy to have your calculator break down when you have Maths in 5 hours! Okay maybe I'm not as stressed as just now. I think I had a super nervous breakdown?? Then I decided to calm down and try and see if I can borrow my sister's calculator, but I think she needs it for some test for tomorrow too cos I've seen her practise Maths like nuts just now. Then I decided to try messaging Chiew Yee cos I know she'll probably still be awake mugging. She's awake, but she didn't have an extra calculator with her! So I started panicking again, until I decided to try messaging Qiling to see if she's still awake too. And I think she replied the most reassuring message I ever got from her!! Hahaha Qiling's got Ms Sim's calculator with her so that means she's got an extra one that I can use. AAHHH.

My goodness. I'm just so stressed and crazy and going nuts over everything. I really need to calm down.

Today was Physical Geog. Went to school in the morning at 8am just to cram in some last minute revision. I wasn't stressed at all at that time, until Jaslyn arrived and started panicking for her unrevised deserts topic. Then I realised how little I knew about that subject, so I desperately tried to memorise every single thing into my puny brain?? I think it got so bad that I tried to sleep it off but I couldn't find a nice comfortable position to sleep, so I went to walk around the canteen with Qiling and went to the Oasis with her to try and calm myself down.

Well the paper wasn't too difficult, but I sort of mis-managed my time really bad. Was left with half an hour before it ends and I have to complete ONE FULL ESSAY AND ONE DRQ??? And the stupidest thing was I had content for the essay question, like I knew what to write or whatever cos Ms Ting sort of scolded me quite badly because I did a similar essay question for practice before. But I had no time to include examples, or even to elaborate at all! I think I was writing an essay outline instead of an essay.

ERG! Okie I shall use this instead of AARGH.

Went to Shunfu Market wanting to buy food. But three-quarters of the stalls were closed, so I walked all the way from there to corps to meet Yurong who was studying there. Then we went Jericho after that. Accompanied Shi Hui to buy her dinner. Then I came home.

I think today is a horrible day. Lack of time to complete my Geog paper. Calculator died. Revision half completed. Panic attacks. What a load of crap. Then I checked my email and I saw this Philippians verse in one of my mails: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I've got devotions and daily Bible verse subscriptions to my email, and that one happened to be yesterday's Bible verse for the day. Then I realised how ironic this entire situation. I'm panicking like an insane duck and I get an email telling me not to be anxious.

Called Chiew Yee just now to whine about my calculator. Then she asked me "what is binomial huh?" Hahaha!! Oh well at least I wasn't half as stressed after talking to her (at like 2.30am in the morning??). Now I'm just praying hard that Qiling remembers to bring the calculator and not lose it on the way to school or something.

Ahh. I had a most interesting evening. I LED WORSHIP AT GRACEHAVEN!! In unfamiliar ground, in front of more than one hundred teens not much younger than me, no practice whatsoever, no pre-coordination with Matt (he played guitar for me), in front of teens who's got into trouble with the law or with family problems, and no idea what the whole praise and worship is going to be like until half an hour before I led. Wow.

Everything just seemed so rushed?!? I collected the acoustic guitar and cable from corps at 6pm, then Uncle Bee drove Matt and me down to Gracehaven, settled the lyrics in his office, and at 7pm, the moment we entered the hall Uncle Bee began to introduce the two of us! Only managed 2 minutes with Matt to run through the first song before the mike was handed to me.

But despite everything, the worship session was really moving. After a while I realised that the teens sang louder than what I could hear myself on the speakers, so I sang along with them and forgot about leading. I had my nervous attack midway, but with 100 voices singing "The Heart of Worship" with me, the anxiety just vanished. The worship started flowing from the heart and it really was all about God and nothing else. Powerful indeed, the moment you start to seek in Spirit and in Truth...

Haha Matt and me left the moment we ended. Pity we can't stay longer cos I've got Prelims tomorrow and I need to study. But I met Zarrah there! Managed to say hello before we left. And along the way Uncle Bee was describing his work there, like how the teens will run away from the home, their family troubles, delinquents, getting locked up in the prison-like time-out room and everything. Yesh I know this sounds cliched, but I realised how fortunate that I turned out the way I am now and not as some whack-ass gangster. I dunno, it's really a humbling experience... The 100 plus kids that I stood in front of didn't look like delinquents to me! If I didn't know anything about them, they'll have looked like ordinary teens just like those on Friday youth service. And I was right in front of the girls' block and some of them look so beautiful and pure and innocent, worshipping with their eyes closed. It's just, incongruous, to think of how they ended up there.

I think singing "Your Grace is Enough" was quite befitting. Yar my corny theory of singing "Your Grace is Enough" at Gracehaven. But it's really meaningful. God's grace is enough.

Yesterday was perhaps the most productive day spent on studying. I managed a total of 11 hours together with my notes!! YAY. The whole day was spent in school with Jin Jen again. Qiling and Dora came to school in the afternoon too, but the amazing thing was I studied Physical Geog from 9am to 6pm! Okay maybe I didn't study all the time, cos I went to talk to SEET Yao Dong for half an hour? He's my best friend in Catholic High when I was in Sec 1 and 2, so I must go keep in contact with him since he's in NJ studying too. Haha but it was solid work completed!

Then after cell group I came home and spent another 2 hours completing my slopes and management and whatever. Which effectively means I completed my rocks and landforms topic in slightly more than 2 days. Well considering that Atiqah took 3 days, so I'm very happy. WHEE.

I think studying Geog is really amazing. You see, the last time when Ms Ting tested us on rocks and landforms was last year's Common Test, and I didn't study granite and limestone. But yesterday I was looking at all the different types of granite landforms and limestone caves and karsts... Goodness I was left in wonder! Yesh yesh JJ said I kept going "oooh!!" when I studied, cos I really was very fascinated with all the inter-linking processes. How could I not have studied that last year??

Anyway, I'm just going to put all my money on rocks and landforms and ignore the rest of the topics, well, except the compulsory deserts. Not enough time to study everything. Now I'm hoping Ms Ting don't screw the question into some incomprehensible phrasing or provide some TOTALLY BLACKENED picture or something.

Yesterday night at youth service was funky. There was this Australian band who came over to lead the entire worship. Haha it was quite refreshing to see different people doing worship and in a different way too. I carried Clarissa cos we were playing some Damsel game. She's heavy!!! Heh... The lead guitarist Tim joined in our our cell group, and we were all thinking that he's 20-something, but he's only 19! My goodness. Haha he seems kinda shy, but we sang songs and talked quite abit with him. I think I sort of went nuts last night, did loads of stupid things and said loads of stupid things to Tim. Oh oh me and Tammy got new steps to the chorus! Then I walked Shermin to the bus-stop.

Had our usual consultation with Whitby this morning, then me, Qiling and Khairi went for lunch at Adam Road.

I'm finally starting on Physical Geog. Was studying with Jin Jen in school canteen again yesterday, though Atiqah paid us a visit in the afternoon, partly to pass us our complete set of answers for the Maths revision book. My best accomplishment was to finish the entire plate tectonics and vulcanicity in 2 hours. I'm still left with rocks and weathering. I changed my mind about doing atmosphere and climate; I'm doing rivers and hydrology instead. And there's still deserts???

You know something? I realised I cannot distinguish between horizontal and vertical easily. Most of the time when I need to use those two words to describe something, I'll just blurt out any of the two and hope I get it right by chance. I don't even bother about thinking before I say; I think AFTER I say. So if I get it right, I'll say "YAR YAR YAR" but if it's wrong I'll say "EH NOO IT'S HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL". Sounds kinda weird right? I really can't do this at all.

Was planning worship for the Gracehaven service this coming Sunday. All of a sudden I feel scared and nervous, like as if I'm leading worship for the first time again. I mean, I've only led during Friday youth services at my corps, not at other places. Somehow there's that sense of trepidation into the unknown, I don't know the people there, I don't know what goes on there. But guess what? I'm singing Chris Tomlin's "Your Grace Is Enough" cos they're Gracehaven. HAHAHAHA!! (Yurong doesn't find this funny. BWEH.)

Which brings me to that point. The time now is 6am, I was planning to go Bishan Macs to study with Biru and Yurong. They said they wanted to overnight study, but I was too tired to join them so I was planning to go have breakfast at 5 or 6am? Haha then I woke up and found a slew of messages that Yurong sent in boredom, and the last one says they're back home already. So now I'm going to go school and study.

Yesh, for those who don't know, common mahang is a plant. One of my favourites, actually. I saw plenty of it on the way up to the Tree-top Trail, which delighted me tremendously. If I guided at my usual Prunus Trail, there's only a few common mahang. I think it's one of the nicest examples of symbiosis! The plant has a special hollow stem and maroon stipules to allow a certain species of ants to house in it. The ants "milk" the food bodies rich in lipids and proteins that the plant produces and feed on it. In return, they protect the plant from fungal pathogens and prevents other insects from laying their eggs on the plant.

I've installed the Hello Kitty game in my computer already!

You know something? Studying Geog makes you realise how small you are when compared to the rest of the world out there. You're just a tiny being trapped in a cosmic entity. Microcosm of the universe. And the most magnificent thing is that the universe has it's own set of laws that govern how the natural world works. I think that's what made me want to teach Geography. Aldous Huxley puts it nicely: "You really know where you are. For the first time in history."

Going to Jericho to study is a bad idea. Haha! I only got as far as volcanoes and earthquakes, before I'm distracted by a million distractants. And to think I was determined to complete the whole of rock and landforms by tonight?? It's ambitious yesh, but it's worth a shot! But there's Tammy listening to "Car Wash" five thousand times. En Ning kept wanting to play. Indulging in those Cheeky Chicken snacks with Shi Hui. Then I got so tired that I went to sleep for a hour! When I woke up, Matthew came along playing the Hello Kitty game, and everyone gravitated to him! The challenge of the game is to fill the entire rectangle with Tetris-like blocks to reveal a Hello Kitty picture WITHOUT USING ONE OF THOSE SINGLE SQUARE BLOCKS. Matt accomplished the feat 2 games consecutively, and I was sore about it cos I was the one who started playing the game first! So I did 4 games consecutively without using any single blocks! Ah ha! And just when I thought I can finally study, Yurong challenged me to table soccer. She said for every game she wins, she'll get one big bite of my Hokkien mee (which Chris Chen went to help us buy). But after a few games (which I won on many numerous occasions) she owed me 2 bites. But when the food came she collaborated with En Ning to kidnap the food! Then Wei Ting, Yurong, Dezmand, Shi Hui and Biru started playing Taboo, so I volunteered to describe all the words. And Tammy came back from tuition, so us bimbo gang went to buy food before coming back to mass dance to "Car Wash".

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME. But I had fun!

Ahh. Okie I've really been studying! Really really really! Last 2 days I went back to school either for consultations or to self-study. Monday was Brave New World with Ms Teo, afternoon was Maths with Ms Sim. Ms Teo said "I think your shaved head is so cute!" And yesterday, I spent the whole morning in the library with Jin Jen, and I completed one unseen Lit essay for Mr Whitby to grade. I'm studying I'm studying whee!!

Eh today was funky too! I went back to Catholic High for nature guiding this morning. Yep Ms Wong disappeared to Penang for holiday, so it was just us guys guiding this group of Malay kids? We went to the Tree-top Trail. It's my first time on the trail, but I was able to improvise and guide effectively, largely cos the plants along the way were all familiar to me. SEE! Green Link has given me MANY MANY experience!! JOIN GREEN LINK.

Guided the "yellow team", they're a weird mix. This boy named Khairul was the team leader and he's super charismatic. And the actual 7-storey suspension bridge is not that fascinating at all! But I'm just happy to do guiding cos it's something that I enjoy, and meeting up with Brandon again is awesome, and the Malay kids are a bonus.

Genevieve Chua recognises me! She was about to ask me "Do you have a brother who's in NJ now?" when I saw her, then she realised that I am the "brother" cos she thought I was same age as all my Cat High juniors. Last time I met her at EnviroFest, she was blur too. Haha.

Went back to Cat High again after the guiding ended, saw my previous Maths teacher Ms Tan! She's still the same old self, Cedar girls almost never change. Haha! And I really really think Priscilla looks a lot like her! Pris is in Cedar too!

Steve Irwin died. When I first heard the news from Ke You, I was like OH MY GOSH. And I sort of grew up watching some of his shows, and there was one point in my childhood when I aspired to be like him! I mean, running after animals and wildlife is my kind of enviro thing right?? But I like plants more than I like animals. Maybe when I'm older I want to die from getting poisoned by plants or something. Crap. But I guess at least he died doing something that he puts his passion in.

Okie I'm going to Jericho to study. I shall try not to touch that Hello Kitty game.

This is what I do when I study too much. (Erm maybe not that much)

A) Pose in front of the camera with PINK bimbotic attention-seeking shades.




B) Write in liquid paper what I want to eat for my next meal.




Crap I'm really really hungry now.

Blah I'm trying very hard to stay focused and study for Prelims! Oookay it's working to some extent. Went down to corps to study on Friday, then I tried to study at home yesterday but ended up watching the reruns of Singapore Idol by evening. I think Joakim doesn't deserve to go out! But then again he's really the weakest vocally la. And today after service, I went to Jericho with the intention to study, but ended up doing other things instead. Well at least I made some progress somewhere!!

Had to go corps in my soldier uniform this morning for service. I'm doing mini-ushering and welcoming at the booth. Haha I think ever since I became a soldier, I only wore my uniform like three or four times?? And Yurong wished me my "happy one year soldiership anniversary" last month. Whee one year just slips by so quickly. Anyway, I had fun doing welcoming, although I'm entrapped within the booth and the wall. Eileen kept giving me "HAHAHA" looks and the whole time people just kept shaking hands with me and talking and I was freezing cos the aircon is blasting directly in front of me!

Oh well. I planned worship today instead of doing my practice essay for Whitby to grade. I sort of realised that I'll be stretched a lot this whole week, cos I promised Ms Angelin Wong to go down to help nature guide at MacRitchie this Wednesday. Then I'm leading worship this Friday and Sunday too at Gracehaven! Gosh. Whatever I've got myself into.

Then me and Shi Hui and Tammy and Yurong started doing our mass dances! Hooked up the speakers in Jericho and blasted music and dancing ridiculously. Oh gosh. Then we spent the rest of the evening planning something (which I reckon I'm not supposed to say). Haha it was funky okay! Sarah says I dance like a PENGUIN. Whee!

And happy birthday to Tammy!! My crazy fellow bimbo whom I run around with in church doing bimbotic actions! And I backup-sing together with her now, so we go nuts doing all the harmonisation and wrecking our vocal chords to reach impossibly high notes.

STUDY.

For some strange reason there's been a lot of file exchanges over MSN the whole day for me. I've received a lot of new songs, mostly of different genres that I don't normally listen to. Haha I found out that hip hop and R&B music actually appealed to me quite a bit. The weird synthesizer music is funky, and the repetitive beats are calming! Well it also gave me a chance to rearrange all my documents in my computer. Gotta compile all the Green Link documents for Hong Yi, and I rearranged my music library too.

I started playing really old songs that I haven't listened to for a long time. Okay, so far so good, till I reached Upside Down by A-Teens. Yep it's this year's Orientation mass dance song. And all of a sudden all those memories just started flooding back. All the fun times we had during Orientation. Me OGL-ing with Ruth, Rhoda and Joel Chan, and we even made the effort to meet up to discuss what we could do with the OG. There's OG1 which bonded everyone really well together, then there's 06A01 for the first three months.

The OG sessions when we played silly get-to-know-you games and all those obscure befuddling games. Station games, mass dance, war games, dance night, OG outings at KAP, OG1 dinner at Jon's house... These happy memories that we all shared together. I dunno how to describe it, it's a sort of feeling that you know you had fun during those games and you wish to relive those happy days again but at the same time you know it's not possible. WEH. I don't know how to describe it. Nostalgia?

I seem to be using the word 'nostalgia' for anything that happened in the past. HAHA.

I think time does funny things to my perspectives. The idea's so Glass Menagerie, looking back in hindsight, evaluating whether you did the right thing at the right time, whether you seemed wise or immature at that time. And it's the most significant memories that will last a lifetime. Well, I guess my past hasn't been that bad, at least I have loads of happy memories shared with people who were close to my heart.

Listening to Ronin's One More Moment. It's meaningful! Qiling finally sent it to me after weeks?? I think it's time I show more appreciation to all my friends. Care for them. I mean, I've been through the pain and anguish of having lost your best friend, that sort of thing. It's not pleasant, but it made me grow up a lot more.

I should go hug everyone I see now. Throw in a kiss too.

EEURGH. It's disgusting. Not to mention that it sounds as if doomsday is approaching.

Lurong thinks this is hilarious: two guys with no hair. Except that Ben's in army and has a valid reason not to have hair, while I don't.