Photo Marathon @ Jericho today! Had to drag myself out of bed just to make it in time. I was grouped together with Darren and Cedric, the first theme was "My World". Haha, it sounds dubiously like the theme that Kat participated last year... Anyway, my group, together with Jeremy and Felix, decided to go town to see if we can get any nice pictures. Went for breakfast first, then we went to see the Yann Arthus Bertrand photo exhibitions which lined up the side of Orchard Road. Then we went to Toys'R'Us to horse around with masks, pogo sticks and whatever kiddy stuff.

Left them at around 12 noon, went down to GVN office to pick up elephant photos from Grace. Close to 2pm I walked from Duxton Road to Cecil Street which took 10 minutes. Dale Carnegie today, it was kinda "errr... okieeee...", cos we had to jump through (literally) our breakthroughs, then we shared about our achievements and I talked about getting the Green Lotus. Then we shouted out some war declaration to make us more confident...

Walked with Wei Jin, Benedict and Amsyar to Raffles Place MRT after the course, then I turned back and walked back to Tanjong Pagar MRT, so effectively I travelled the entire Cecil Street twice today. Met Ken at Tanjong Pagar MRT, but he shooed me away cos he was waiting for someone. Went back to GVN office again to talk to Grant, bummed around listening to Grant's stories, then Ken and Pei Ling appeared at office TOGETHER. Haha, we chatted a bit, then left together.

I rushed out to meet Eleanor at Toa Payoh MRT, cos she wanted to give me my belated birthday presents. Turned out to be slippers, just the thing I need! Haha I broke my sandals a few days ago. But the thing is, silly Eleanor got me shoe size 6 when I think I'm a 8 or 9, so I've got to meet her again to exchange the slippers into a bigger size.

Went down to Junction 8 to get cheese fries from KFC, then took a bus to Jericho to be just in time for the judging of the Photo Marathon. I'm one of the judges!! And I'm totally unbiased, no matter what Biru may say... The photos submitted were quite good! And we had a double category winner in Amelia, Cheryn and Tammy.

Then played table soccer with Yurong. Got whooped 9-3. I demanded a rematch, and I still got whipped with the same result. How long since I last touched a soccer table?? Then I tried table tennis with Shermin and Yurong, it felt weird cos the last time I played table tennis was 4 years ago. Haha...

I'm tired right now. But it's a day well spent. Or at least I think... Haha...

Well, early morning I had to travel all the way to King Albert Park McDonald's for yet another Geography meeting with my lovely group mates Kai Jie and Rhoda. I wonder why they call it King Albert Park. Who the hell is King Albert? Albert is a horrible name. And there was a bad traffic at Lornie Road, so I was 20 minutes late. And we met up just to tell each other we're alive, cos there wasn't much constructive work to be done. After that I was debating whether to go somewhere else or go home. Called Jaslyn, Biru, Atiqah, Yurong... All of them weren't free to go out with me, so I went home.

And I stayed inactive at home till about 1.30pm? Then it hit me that I had leadership course today, so I rushed out of house, reached Tanjong Pagar at 2.30pm, so for the second time today, I was late, this time by 30 minutes. Didn't do much today. We had to present our childhood memories that taught us a lesson, and strengthening relationships with one of our friends. The room was awfully cold.

I feel courteous and helpful today. In the morning it was raining slightly, so at the bus stop I sheltered this young guy (who looks my age) with my pink umbrella, all the way to KAP Mac's... He commented on my choice of a pink umbrella! He offered me a Fisherman's Friend... APPLE & CINNAMON! Haha my favourite... And in the evening, I was at Bishan bus terminal on my way home, boarded bus 410. As you might know, once any bus reaches Prime Supermart, the whole bus practically empties itself of people. So all that was left on the bus was me, this girl (slightly younger than me, I think... ) and some other people left behind. And the girl just asked me randomly if I knew how to get to Thomson Plaza, and whether she was on the correct bus. Oh okie I said yes, and offered to accompany her all the way to Thomson P even though my bus stop will be earlier than that. Haha she was cute and rather good-looking!! So in her seat she sat, before she started hugging her shoe box, looking around so frantically as if I was out to mislead her, peered at me from the corner of her eye, pretending to watch TV Mobile while she's actually not (Jamie Oliver was on), messaged on her phone, shuffle her feet etc etc... Even though Thomson P was only 6 or 7 stops away?? Gosh I've never met a more fidgety girl. And once the bus pulled into the bus stop, she stood up, shuffled her legs again, hugged her shoe box, said a cheerful "thanks!" and sprinted over the overhead bridge in extreme hurry...

Ben did a Bible study on Revelations at cell group today. It was good! But Revelations is scary and a bit too information-overloaded. Too many things going on in chronological order, so it sounded like a History timeline.

There's a Jericho stayover meeting now. It's over MSN, so that's it for now... HAPPY BIRTHDAY YURONG!! Lazy to type out an entry for you... =P

OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!! SOMEONE PINCH ME TO MAKE SURE THIS IS REAL!! OH BOY OH BOY!! WHEE HEE!!! THIS IS EXCELLENT!!! SUPERB AND SPLENDID!! YIPPEEE!!!

Anyway, here's the news that I just received: NATIONAL JUNIOR COLLEGE HAS JUST BEEN AWARDED THE GREEN LOTUS AWARD FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING!! And what has that got to do with me? COS I'M IN GREEN LINK AND WE'RE THE PEOPLE HELPING THE SCHOOL ATTAIN THIS AWARD!! This is just awesome!! Oh sorry you're likely going to see a lot of BLOCK LETTERS in this entry, cos my Caps Lock button is firmly locked on.

GREEN LOTUS!! GREEN LOTUS!! That means NJ has received the highest form of recognition for being an environmentally-aware college!! That means too that NJ Green Link is among the most green and most active clubs of all the green clubs in Singapore!! AH HA!

I'M SO PROUD OF MY GREEN LINK EXCO AND MEMBERS!! You guys are totally awesome! Being president is one thing, but this couldn't have been achieved without all your contributions. And it qualifies all the female toilet trips during the Green Audit... Hee hee!! =P

I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE IT. CANNOT CANNOT BELIEVE IT. GREEN LINK RAWKS!!

Oh another thing. I got a new guitar!! FINALLY... After the last one had its neck snapped off. Went out with Biru, Ming Hui, Charmaine and Amelia Soh to Bras Basah to get the guitar...

I'm absolutely jubilant now. Nothing's going to upset me or ruffle my hair.

It's going to be a great weekend... WHEE HEE!! =D

I'm in a Good Mood Day today! Yep I realise my Good Mood Days are kinda limited and rarefied now. The norm for me is to drag my feet, be pragmatic and uncompromising. But if it's a Good Mood Day, I can be totally shuffle without any inhibitions, be rubbishy, lame and trashy... So it's a Good Mood Day today! Let's hope it lasts till tomorrow.

Anyway today at Dale Carnegie was slightly better. My sandals gave way on me! I was walking to the bus-stop when the strap broke, so I had to return home to change to my shoes. And at Bishan MRT, I bumped into Benedict! He's this guy I met on Monday at DC, two years younger than me, but way taller... So we travelled together to the DC office, couldn't remember which storey it was on, but we managed to guess it correctly. And first thing we did today was play Blow Wind Blow!! I didn't get to blow people at all! All the kids were running everywhere and I'm just crossing from one end to the other effortlessly... Oh and I finally talked to the rest of the youths from the other Salvation Army Corps! There's Luke from Balestier Corps, Yvonne and Chengli from William Booth Corps and Joshua from Changi Corps... Came back to Bishan with Joshua and Yvonne, then met some more SA people, before I headed to Jericho to catch a bit of Kungfu Hustle (it was movie marathon today).

OH OH I met Joanne today! Was with Joshua and Yvonne at Junction 8, then suddenly outside the Giordano shop I heard someone called out "Guan You!", so I turned, and there she was!! Gosh I think I last saw her during Christmas two years ago?? And the first thing she said to me was "I bet you forgot who I am already!!" BAHH!! I never ever forget people that I meet! It's just a matter of whether I can remember names or not. (Anyway I learnt at DC today that "a person's name is the sweetest and the most important sound in any language to the person") And yup, I grabbed her number so I can catch up with her some other time. And she was rushing off for prom night, so she's all dolled up in some pink gown with make-up... =D

Okie Sara! Since you had the honour of giving me my first birthday greeting this year, well here's one entry for you... It's 40 minutes into your 17th VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You should stop being so prim and proper! And you should stop asking so many questions! And you should stop being so horribly punctual! And you should stop saying "I think we should go"! And you should wear your contacts more cos you're more weird-looking that way! And you should stop questioning my every action, including my hee hee hees!! And you should...... Bahh I've ran out of things to say. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! =P

Ah ha! I'm 17 now anyone that's younger than me will automatically qualify as a kiddo. MUAHA.

Anyway, yesterday was quite a peaceful day... As in no crazy celebrations, no let-your-hair-down parties. Morning I met Rhoda and Kai Jie to meet Ms Ting for our river management proposal. I wanted to drop her the bombshell that it was my birthday, but nahh, it was a rainy day and I felt like being discreet. So after that, I met Sarah, Adriel, Biru and Yurong at Junction 8 for lunch, we went to eat Swensens. And after we ordered the ice creams and they were singing Happy Birthday, then the waitress came and told us that birthday person gets a free Firehouse Birthday Special!! Sheesh so we had too much ice cream to spare...

After that we went to see some Superstar auditions, for students only. Some of them can't sing to even sound like noise la! But there were a few good students who sang well... Then I rushed off to Tanjong Pagar for my first lesson of the leadership course. Oh well I'm more inclined to think it's for ages 12-15. And I didn't tell anyone there that it was my birthday, cos I wanted to be discreet and mysterious. But the only other people who were as old as me were this guy who was also from NJ, don't know what's his name, and Luke Ong from Salvation Army also, but different Corps. Oh well I hung out together with Roshin (secondary one) and Wei Jin (secondary four). The rest of the class were secondary school KIDS!! Yesh Sarah you're a qualified KID too!! The course was okay I guess, except it was kinda Adam Khoo-styled motivation, and it was probably too young/irrelevant for me. Ahh, but that's just my initial impression. I still got 5 more sessions to go, and it costed $950 to sponsor me there! I better take something useful out of it... HAHA!

Today, I spent my time at National Library, it was freezing! I was at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, stuck somewhere on the Literature and Geography section. I can't find the books I wanted!! Oh well, then I headed down to Jericho to meet Uncle Vince and the people from Settler's Cafe. Then at night me and Yurong were debating whether we should go for prayer meeting, well we went eventually. And we ended later than usual, and now I'm sitting here freezing in the cold...

OH OH thanks to Peiying and Ming Hui for writing fabulous entries for me in their blogs!! They're the only 2 people (I wonder why... hee hee!) who wrote birthday entries for me!! THANKS!! I'm super uber sexy and cute!! And 17's not that old. And thanks too to all the people who sent me birthday messages, and Linus for the birthday email, and Shuffle for the birthday e-card, and all those people who tagged on the tagboard! And thanks too for all the birthday presents! Bahh I haven't even got to open them yet so I shall not go into detail... =D

Yep, 21 November 2005 has finally arrived. I'm officially 17 now.

It crept past me. At 11.52pm I was telling myself that once 12 midnight reached, I'll give myself a pat on the back and say a prayer of thanksgiving to God. But no... Was talking to Sara on MSN, and it was her who announced the first HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me at exactly 12 midnight. I forgot to keep track of the time.

And that was that. My birthday has arrived. Just like that. I didn't even notice that I'm 17.

Next year I'm having fireworks and sparklers to announce my coming of age.

After that, Yurong asked if I felt any different now that I'm 17. What can I say? I've got more dead skin cells, my teeth are tougher, my mind slightly more laggy...

And then came the slew of messages. Peiying was first at 12.08am, and shortly after I replied her I had two more messages, then another and another... So I've got 8 or 9 messages by now, about half an hour after the first greeting has passed.

Prayer of thanksgiving came at 12.23am. Thank God for my maturity in His guidance, for my faith and trust in Him, for allowing my bones to grow for 17 years (though I don't seem to be growing any taller)... And a year older means I've gotta be more worldly-wiser, taking on more responsibilities and assuming more authority. But that doesn't mean I can't be lame! (Atiqah this is for you. THBBPPT!!)

Birthday wishes to Luke, Mark, Jun Hao and Royston too, all happy babies borned on the exact same day and year as me.

I've got 24 hours to accomplish all my mischiefs, and people can't complain because I'M THE BIRTHDAY BOY.

Maybe I'll go do something wild tomorrow to celebrate.

Should I irritate Ms Ting tomorrow? HAHA, well I could. Or maybe I'll make a horrible first impression at the leadership course.

Meeting Rhoda, Kai Jie and Ms Ting at 9am tomorrow, then Yurong and Biru at 11am for lunch, then be down at Cecil Street for the course.

What a day.

What a birthday.

=)

Just finished watching I Am Sam on television... I don't know why I watched it. I mean, I don't usually watch TV anyway, but somehow this show just tugged at my heart. The movie focused on the relationship between a mentally retarded father with the intelligence of a 7-year-old, and his daughter who was just turning seven. So being typical American-ish, the social workers felt that Lucy (the daughter) was deliberately holding back her intelligence so as not to appear smarter than her father, and that he was unable to provide her the parental support that she'll need in future. So father and daughter were separated, with Lucy sent to a foster home for adoption. And along came this female lawyer, with her own family/child problems as well, took on this case pro bono and after long court-room dramas, the strong bond shared between Lucy and her father eventually prevailed, and they lived happily ever after and blah blah... Well I liked the raw and tender love that was portrayed, and the scenes where father and daughter were reading bedtime stories to each other; reunited during foster visits; well, they were exceptional (that Green Eggs and Ham scene was very very good). But what I thought would be more appropriate, is to showcase the true difficulties of the father raising the kid alone, such as make them go through intellectual stumbling blocks or discussing puberty and menstrual cycles... Haha, something like that, but too bad Lucy's too young for puberty... But instead they focused more on the adults facing troubles from parenting. And Lucy is given so little airtime! Yup it's Dakota Fanning, and everytime she appears onscreen she goes cutesy.

Yar I know most of my other friends are providing Harry Potter criticisms on their blog, and Jaslyn's got Zathura analysis on her blog. Bahh... I've got no money at all to watch movies, cos I just spent all my money printing the RJ Small books for my Geography class ($132 in total!!) and I'm waiting for them to pay me back. Ah well, I shall just stick to TVs and DVDs for this holiday... I wanna watch Chicken Little though!

Ms Teo showed us King Lear, video-version, on Thursday. I thought the intepretation was good! I liked the love test and the Dover cliffs scene. The Fool was good-looking! But King Lear should have appeared more authoritative and stubborn, Cordelia should be more pretty and I'm still highly dissatisfied with Goneril (WHY KILL HERSELF??) and Edgar (WHAT'S WITH THE DISGUISES?).

OGL briefing was quite okay too, fighting over mass dance songs and a draggy storyline, but the house session was kinda redeeming cos we were quite enthu-ed, even though I felt a bit out of place. I'm in Logistics, and I've got Rhoda, Ruth and Joel in my OG. Yep Joel Chan who used to be in Catholic High too, or better known as Jordan from Living with Lydia...

Last night at cell group I was trying to learn all of their Chinese names! Charmaine and Rachel Tan refuses to believe that I'm sexy. And Biru's friend Shuyu joined us.

I'm turning 17 in another 23 hours! Gosh I feel old and young at the same time, cos I just realised that even Erica is turning 18 next January, while I'm still 16. And Rhoda gave me my first birthday present for the year: a little chick (that looks like a duck) that can hop around!! YAY! Thankew!! =P

We finally finished King Lear today!! HOORAY! Ms Teo was like dragging the last 50 lines of the last act of the last scene by doing a word-by-word analysis, but I switched off already. I did Practical Criticism myself, closed the book and covered my ears and refused to listen to her. After Literature, Cheryl, Siew Peng and me went down to Black Canyon Coffee for lunch. And we had a hearty-heartfelt talk... Cheryl went to her church, Siew went town while I took the same bus with her to Suntec City. And yep, I helped out at the School's Carnival for the rest of the afternoon. AND I MET NEW FRIENDS AGAIN! Okay Lynn and Zan were there at the GVN booth, Zhen Rong stopped by. There's Siti from Meridien Junior College, Khairul from GVN... loads more I just can't remember their names (and soon, their faces). I met my Catholic High Primary school science teacher (Mrs Goh) too! Gosh I really am meeting all kinds of people this whole month. Shu Fen dropped by, so we went to see her juniors (Nanyang Girls'), then I saw the Naval Base Secondary girl at her booth again, and she recognised me! Haha... Back at GVN booth, sales was very very good. We sold $200 worth of merchandise, including TWO BIOLOGIC DVDS!! I thought no one would buy them... Zan scooted off first, then Lynn ran off, then Siti disappeared as well. So there's me, Joe, Eric and Leonard who helped bring stuff back to GVN office, with the help of Khairul's pick-up.

Everybody's finding work to earn some cash. I want to go work as well!! But I've got no time for that. Maybe for tuition only... ANYBODY NEEDS TUITION?? Oh well I'm having leadership courses next 2 weeks, and first week of December I'll be at Endau Rompin (Malaysia), not to mention all the GVN volunteer tasks... I suppose my holidays won't be like my friends who are working, but at least I'm volunteering!! HEH... 21 November 2005 looms... =P =P =P

And it's Literature lessons for the whole week! From 8.30am all the way to 1pm in the afternoon each day, packed full of Ms Teo's comments on Shakespeare and King Lear!! AARGH it's not as if it's agony, but it's not exactly enjoyable either... Normally I'll be most attentive and alert in the first hour, but as the time drags on, my scribbled notes become more and more incoherent. Haha and I got to read Edgar today, and I realised that Ms Teo didn't know my name! She called me Terence la! Then she went on her rubbishy "How come I've never got to know that cute guy's name for so long?" HAHA!! I'm cute I'm cute!! WHEEEEE!!

Anyway, I went Suntec Convention Hall with Kai Jie and Janvin after Lit today. Yup, for the Clean & Green Week School's Carnival... I had to persuade Kai Jie to go with me, then after I succeeded we saw Janvin walking out of the school gate so we dragged him along. And we squeezed into bus 171 which was packed full of Methodist Girls' School girls. They were on a student leaders camp, and the whole bus was just MGS territory. When we reached Suntec, I regreted reading Student's Sketchpad... Bahh... Anyway, I gave permission to Kai Jie and Janvin to act as if they were from Greenlink, cos our initial idea was to go to the carnival and try and make friends with other schools' students. But then the two of them backed out! And I was left alone trying to strike conversations with this Naval Base Secondary School girl... I was quite impressed with her delivery skills, then later Janvin said I was flirting with her. OH GOSH!! So we went around trying to look for interesting booths, then I told them that if they saw any cute girls, they can pretend to be Greenlink members and try and chat with the people there... BUT THEY DIDN'T!! And in the end it was me scooting around from booth to booth trying to find out if that booth's school had any green clubs which we can collaborate with. EEKS.

Then we went window shopping around Suntec, but I had to go back to the exhibitions to help out. Saw Lynn at the GVN booth, hung around there talking to Grace and Grant, then I met my primary school Chinese teacher!! Yup Catholic High Primary had a booth, and she was there supervising the boys. So we chatted, and I realised I can't construct a proper sentence in Chinese without struggling. Gosh it's one full year since I last attended a Chinese lesson. Anyway, I brought her to the GVN booth to talk about our elephants (she loves elephants), then we talked about future prospects of setting up a green club in Catholic High, or some green camp or something... And eventually we talked about can tabs, and she said that she had three 1.5l bottles full of can tabs! GOSH!! So I travelled back to Cat High with them, and true enough, there were two bottles full of can tabs. Estimate them to be 3000 can tabs in total... WHOO! And I met Mrs Chaillan and Mr Wang at Kopitiam while walking back...

I'm turning 17 soon!! Was talking to Chiew Yee, and she said she's turning 18 soon... Her birthday's in January, so she's got 2 more months till 18. And I can't believe that I'm not even 17 yet!! Still stuck at "sweet" 16!! Actually it's not too bad I guess. Yurong says she doesn't want to get older, and I think I don't want to either...

My weekend for this week was spent fully at Bishan Park. Yup, it's Clean & Green Week, and the administrative has decided to set up a green fair at Bishan Park and Bedok and some other places as well. So I was at Bishan Park to help out with the SEC/GVN booth there... Quite a nice working place actually, cos it's so darn near my house!! Haha... Mubin volunteered too, he's Jun Ying's classmate and my fellow Literature student, and Shufen came down today.

Working hours sooo flexible there! Anyone can come and go at anytime, and I got to know more GVN volunteers/personnel! I met Waye today, have no idea who she is even though she looks sooo familiar! Anyway she's with SEC. Then I met Mindy and Jerrald again, last I saw them was K3 camp. And Grace and Grant too... I think Grant's cute! HAHA!! My new friends include Zhen Rong, he's at National Technological University Earth Link, and he's vice-president there; Wei Jian, 2 years my senior who was also from NJC Green Link, he's now serving the nation; Priscilla and Lynn from Cedar Girls', they're GVN volunteers; Zan and Dion, who are sisters and Zan is in Raffles Girls' while Dion is very very shuffle... Haha they've got quite unique names! Oh I met some people from the Bhavan's Indian International School, but I can't remember their names (or I wasn't told what their names were). The most ironic thing was there was this stall selling SHARK'S FIN SOUP for $2 at a stall opposite us. AND THIS IS A ENVIRONMENTALLY GREEN FAIR. Highly dumb. Oh I'm most probably going to see Zan and Dion and Jerrald and Mindy and all the gang again this week at Suntec City. CGW School's Carnival, 15th and 16th November, Suntec City Conventionm, whole day event.

I went for Captain's Ball yesterday... After that me, Clarissa and Yurong sat under the void deck and talked a lot... Then we walked to Junction 8 and me and Yurong ate there. And today, I ordered KFC Delivery for lunch. My family will be back tomorrow, so that means no more cooking on my own and settling dinner outside...

And SHUFFLE!! YOU'RE SUPER UBER SWEET LA!! Gosh your entry was long, while mine only lasted 3 lines! Yup yup thanks for the long long entry... And I didn't realise so much events happened in our friendship. I think it's because you're too shuffle. Everything is so shuffle that even shuffles can't keep track of the shuffle-ness... Yep I remember when we went to get the tree to replace the one that Mrs V Cheng 'killed'. And we've got our secret code which I had to decipher your messages and I had trouble forming those messages. And we'll always argue whose side of the canteen is nicer. And blackmailing each other. And all those late-night MSN chats. And the president-secretary working relationship. And the Rooftop Rendezvous! HAHA hiding from your classmates even though we were supposed to be scandalous (by feeding Shufen with juicy news), shouting "SHUFFLE" even when you're so far away... THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!! =P

All of a sudden my mind is never clearer than before. My time and commitments, I just realised that God unclogged my brain and now I see things in such a fresh perspective. So fresh, you can almost taste it...

Okie this is slightly laggy, but anyway, PROJECT WORK IS OFFICIALLY OVER!! Hooray!! My Oral Presentation was on yesterday, and boy am I glad that PW is all over!! This whole week, I've been going to school for OP rehearsals at 8.30am in the morning, and we'll drag all the way to 3pm. We've made the discussion room in the library our official OP rehearsal venue, and I think out of all the many meetings that we had, the last two or three PW meetings were among the most fruitful. Bahh, actual OP was bad. I got a nervous fit at the worst time possible, so my hands trembled for most of the time, my voice quivering. And everytime I make it a point to make eye contact with the assessors, they're writing something. Then when I'm looking at my cue card, they decide to look at me. BLOOIEE. Q&A was slightly better, but worse. Better because I was more confident, worse because I rambled total nonsense. I talked about interviewing juvenile delinquents when we didn't!

But what the heck, PW is over! NO MORE NO MORE!! My beloved PW group went out after OP to town for lunch. And since OP is over, we ordered all the spicy food at some Thai restaurant. And we took neoprints! Hmm I think I'm beginning to miss working on PW with my wonderful PW group... NJ002!! -Burns the working file-

Post-PW: LOADS OF GREENLINK STUFF!! Today I was at EnviroAsia exhibition at Expo with some of my Greenlink members. But it was quite boring cos it was all corporate companies promoting products, so we went to the adjacent Food exhibition, then to some Asian Children festival. After that, all of us went down to Tampines Mall to meet NJ Student Council president Shawn for a meeting on can tabs world record. Nice working with them...

Post-PW: LOADS OF CHURCH/JERICHO COMMITMENTS!! I think there's probably a threshold point somewhere, but I'm either ignoring it or I'm not there yet. Too many too many commitments, even though I've tried to cut back on a lot. Yesh, I want to do a lot of things, and I want to be involved in so many things, but commitment levels permit. Time is not on my side, and studies is important too. BAHH... God give me the strength to persevere, to learn to let go, and to know what to pick up...

And my whole family went Hong Kong already, so I'm alone at home for the next 3 days. And a cat just ran into my house!! HAHA the door wasn't closed, and the cat walked all the way into my room and stared at me for 3 seconds before running out when I was about to go say hello to it.

Shuffle: Here's one entry for you! You shuffle waffle. I promise you after the BIG FIGHT, we'll go for ice-cream yar? And let's market our shuffle products and sell them and corner the market! Curly hair girls! Blur pok! Burst bubbles!

Jia Mein: YOU SCREAMED FIRST!! When you saw me that night, you opened your mouth and "AAAHHHHHH!!" for a good 5 seconds and I was just playing along by screaming together with you. I bet you'd really missed me!!

Amy: Let's hide in our email world and email here and there and forever!!

Chiew Yee: You owe me one, not the other way round!! I ditched my all-important meeting just to protect you! And I let you whack my head so many times (GREEN TREE!!) and I didn't even retaliate!! Worse still, I'm your fairy godmother and I don't even get paid!!

Biru: HEE HEE I WALKED YOU HOME FOR THE FIRST TIME!! After 11+ years of knowing you... And co-cell leader, you're doing lesson forever!! And buying all the birthday presents and cakes and Christmas presents!!

Just finished reading my classmates' blogs, and most of them posted entries about last night's band performance. No doubt, the class spirit was strengthened and friendships grew stronger. I've got my own things to say too, and I know repeating their sentiments will sound cliched, but the truth must be told. I THINK I'M IN THE BEST CLASS IN NJ. Nahh 05A02 is cool too, but A01 is better. Ha! =D

I think the song item made me appreciate some of my classmates even more... People like DOra Tan! Haha at the start of this year I didn't even dare to talk to her cos I thought that she had this hostile face and she's bound to hate me. NAHH!! She's part of the 3 guitarists too, and 2 days before the actual night we even went to Thomson Plaza to get guitar strings! Nope she's not as hostile as I thought her to be...

Face it: 2 weeks worth of practice only, yet we managed to put up a convincing enough, technically good, crowd-warming performance. Somehow there's just something magical about yesterday's night. Right when the curtains were drawn people started shouting our names (I heard "Taufik!" and "A01 is hot!" and "Guan Youuuuuu") and for 3 seconds I had a snap of celebrity fame. And the rest of the performance was just great! I could only remember us playing our instruments and singing way better than during our practices. I think after the performance I left the stage in a state of euphoria. PIBROCH YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!

And my Project Work group mates, I think we get closer and closer with each meeting! Ehrr! We are totally unprepared for our Oral Presentation la, but who cares? I love you guys just the way you are! Okie Chiew Yee is making noises that I should write a better testimonial for her... Fussy woman, well here's the revised one. Khairi:~ I think PW brought us closer... Haha thanks for enduring us when we all start to speak in Chinese. Nice butt you've got there! Ruth:~ GUANCHAPATI!! Oh gosh who would've thought of such a name?? Loofe your wacky ideas and your crazy innocence! I think we'll be super dull without you... Jin Jen:~ Don't think you won 4 awards then you can lord over all of us eh! Haha you still refuse to laugh at our lame jokes la! But we laugh at your lame jokes, so that's unfair!! Chiew Yee:~ STILL whacking my head, STILL impossibly impossible. Your mood swings like a pendulum, and I'm your fairy godmother!!

Oh pictures of the performance night! Amy sent them to me, but I'm going to be selective and pick those with the whole group only. The rest of the photos, visit Qiling's or Jaslyn's blog...


=> On stage... Band-it!


=> Before the performance, PIBROCH THE RAWK BAND!!


=> After the performance, with Ginny and Terence...

WHAT A LONG LONG LONG DAY. Had to be in school by 0830h for King Lear criticism lecture, but it got delayed till 0900h. Darn. It was raining and the conditions were perfect for sleeping! But stupid King Lear got me out of bed. I ended fidgeting too much during the lecture, so I sneaked out to CA6 duriong the break. Then sat in as audience for Janvin's group Oral Presentation dry run.

At 1230h, I rushed for my first meeting for the day. Well, second actually, cos first was King Lear. A01 rock band met at band room for a final rehearsal before our performance, and I think it was one of the best sessions that we had. At 1400h, I rushed out of school for my third meeting of the day with Luke and Yicheng. We hung around at J8, then walked over back to Catholic High to visit our school/teachers. OH GOSH the school changed a lot! There's a new rock-wall, ponds, study corners, giant marbles, statues... No no the most interesting was the scoreboard that says "Zero latecomer days". Mr Lee HB is indeed ingenious! The primary side was even better. They have their own spice/herb garden, ponds, aquariums... Why do all the good facilities come in after we leave the school?? Gosh I want to be a CHS boy again.

At 1600h I rushed to Jericho for a meeting to discuss the Jericho activities, I scooted after half an hour, went home to bathe, then rushed back to school to report for final preparations for the NJ Symphonic Band concert. My class was appointed ushering duties. Guest performers include Kexin and Steph who were part of a 5-girl-dance-group called Funk'd, our A01 rock band was named Pibroch, Western Dance people, and Roman & Christine as lead singers for two of the Band's songs. Kexin had gravity-defying hair!! And they were so hot on stage that I think they sizzled. Roman & Christine were absolutely stunning!! Roman has superb voice tones while Christine sang fantastic. When it was our turn to perform, we were trying to do group hugs and taking photos and cheering and screaming... AND THE PERFORMANCE WAS AWESOME!! I don't think we ever achieved such standards in our practices. And Cheryl and Khairi (our lead vocals) did such a wonderful job with "Last Thing on My Mind", Annie looked like a rock star, Shu-zie was great on the drums, Siew's keyboard dazzled... The only bad point was the audience didn't hear our band name clearly, like some thought Igloo and some thought Workshop. HA!

I LOVE A01. Both the current one and the old one. The unity and happiness that resulted from this song performance really strengthened all of us. We totally blew the audience away! Okay maybe not... But I felt like we did. And I just thank God for such wonderful people in the class. JIA MEIN AND EDWIN CAME FOR THE CONCERT TOO!! Oh my when I saw Jia Mein both of us just screamed for a good five seconds!! And everyone was staring at us haha! Then Weng Yin gave me a pink rose at the end of the concert!! THANKS! I think it's the first time that I've received a pink flower from someone... And I got 5 hugs from different people and 20 "you rawk!" (Yea I counted... Haha!)

After that I rushed down to corps for the remainder of cell group time... By then I'm totally zonked, but they still had energy to think up of a cell group name... Gellenuanua!! I think it's spelt like that I'm not sure...

Sometimes I think guys have it going for us. Look, we guys don't have to go through periods and cramps each month. Heck, even when I get a small cut, I'm unsettled by the loss of blood and worried whether my cut would clot and whatever. Can you imagine losing blood on a monthly basis?? The last time the blood bank came to my school, I really wanted to donate blood but they had stupid protocols and paperwork that required parent's signature and I didn't have that.

Ugh that's not the point. What I've got to mention is something else. This past week has been kinda "bloody" for most girls that I know of. Pardon my language, I can't speak in euphemisms like Rhoda does... Anyway, I made the stupid mistake of asking two girls (I'm not naming anyone) something that I shouldn't have asked. They were whining and complaining that they've got horrible pimples on their face, so being considerate I asked them why. And their answer? "I'm having my MENSES!! I've got BLOOD GUSHING OUT OF ME!!" Sheesh. I don't need to know that.

And all of a sudden a lot of girls are warning me that if they get moody or angry or upset, it's due to PMS and mood swings. Oh yea I still can understand this. Mood swings are okay. Pre-empting me of your mood swings are good too, cos I have mood swings sometimes too. The worst is when you're stuck in a meeting with 5 other girls and you're the only guy. Yep, me and a group of girls are planning a overnight camp, and while we were deciding which day to put the camp on, all of them started going about their periods clashing with the dates of the camp... And the subject remained on their periods for the next five minutes?? Gosh what can I say, I just sat there and stared into the fascinating wall. Don't get me involved. Don't.

Two months ago I was caught in this conversation with two girls, and invariably the subject twisted to whether they preferred tampons or sanitary pads. And they started discussing which brand was good and whatever details that goes into choosing a good sanitary pad. AARGGH...

No don't get me wrong. The next time I see a pale girl suffering from menstrual cramps, I'm going to give her a nice pat on the head and tell her to get better soon.

Aahh... I'm in one of my happiest moods for this week so far! Erm it's not as if I was sad for the past few weeks, it's just something noteworthy to mention. I got tonnes to say!! Okie okie one at a time...

I absolutely adore my Project Work group! It really amazes me how all my group mates can be so fun-loving and so hardworking at the same time, even though we're all stuck in this trashy PW grading system. I think PW is the worst form of group work assessment, but you guys are the ones that made my day each time we meet... Thanks Ruth for your ever-bubbly optimism and your shuffle outbursts; Chiew Yee for all those whacks that you whacked on my head and being so impossible sometimes; Jin Jen for your tenacity and your cynical wit; and Khairi for those snorts and the high level of enthusiasm... NJ002 is the best PW group in all of Singapore's PW groups! Okie maybe not, but you people absolutely are to me. Let's all clear our Oral Presentation and wipe that smirk off Mr Leong's face!!

And I love my class too! I know some people have said that our class lacks spirit, but that's so passe now... The A01 today is so hip and vibrant and lovely! A few of us got together to form a band to perform for NJ Symphonic Band's fund-raising concert, and our first jamming session on Monday was quite good! And today, we ditched our PW discussions totally to play some really silly, Orientation-style games. Picture this: Standing in a circle, all of us tangled our arms and reached for random hands, then weaving our way in and out, up and down, we managed to untangle ourselves and form a complete circle. And we didn't just do it once, but 5 or 6 times! Perhaps the claps and cheers at the end best signify the enthusiasm and unity that's present in the class... All of us are one big family, and no one should feel left out!! And we're all promoted, so let's continue to strut our stuff next year!!

Had Oral Presentation dry run yesterday. I think my PW group did a fairly convincing job!! Seriously, I think it was a high ME (Meeting Expectations), if not a EE (Exceeding Expectations). I think Mr Leong is blind/deaf in giving us a mere low ME. He wasn't even looking at our moving diagrams! And that horrible, nonchalant, bored-to-death look on his face... UGH. Oh well, at least he did praise us a bit. Yea, a bit... And immediately after dry run, I had to rush off to OGL interviews. Kinda tired of being interrogated, first by Mr Leong and then by the Council, back-to-back!! Oh well but it was kinda okay I guess, was together with Weng Yin and Wei Na, and we came up with a silly water-break cheer... NEWater or mineral water?? Hee hee!!

I think I've engaged myself in too many commitments. I need a break (Khairi says "I'll buy you a Kit-Kat). Maybe I should let other people take charge of certain stuff and just be a follower for a change.

Maybe there's more to this life than it meets the eye... Remember Mr Lee Hak Boon always said to "live not for the sake of existing only, but live to live"? There's a much more meaningful purpose for me to be on this earth. And I wish not to exist, but to live. Live for Christ. Father God help me to focus on You, to know that I'm living for You and I'm loving You, for in the end, it's all for You...

Whoo! Loads to write, but I'm kinda lazy. I shall blog selectively then... Haha... Let's see, submitted our final final FINAL copy of Written Reporton Wednesday, but not without some nasty scares. Tried to open the WR document in school, but the document was in .wps instead of the usual .doc, so me, Ruth and Chiew Yee had to sneak out of school and travel all the way down to my home just to change the document settings (because only I had the finalised soft copy). That's done, then photo-taking was a blast. Got back all my results, I've got DDEE and B4 for General Paper. Okay I get to retain my four A'Level subjects, but I want to drop Economics. I'm satisfied with my results I guess... I can't say phenomenal... (=

Went to Raffles Junior College open house on Friday with Sarah. What, 3 different people asked if the two of us were together!! Aargh must everyone assume that just because a guy is with a girl and that means they're a couple together? EEKS. Anyway, RJC is HUGE!! So huge that it took us an hour just to tour 3 blocks (they had 6 or 7 blocks in total I think). And the facilities are spanking new and nice. Met Nicholas and Clement too...

Yesterday was the Digital Life Canon Photo Marathon III 2005. I went with Kat, Adriel and Yurong, though I was horribly late, so I didn't get to register. Central venue was ACS Barker Road, so after every 4 hours they'll issue a new theme and we have to upload a photo in relevance to the theme. This year first theme was World in Motion, then Child's Play and lastly Fashion in Action. So the four of us went around taking photos; first we went Suntec City, then Little India and the Bugis area for the second theme and we went to Corps and Junction 8 for the last. The shortlisted photos for top 10 weren't exactly outstanding either, but they were pretty good. And NAHH, us amateurs didn't win anything. Reached home at 2330 hours last night...

Went to Ruth's today after Sunday service for Project Work. As usual, we were talking nonsense and playing, then we tried to find our homes with Google Earth, disturbed Kai Jie and Annie online... After that I went down to town cos Apri said they were having an old A01 outing. But it turned out to be 4 A01 souls only, all from NJ and none from the other colleges. Waited for Linus to turn up but I had to rush home, so didn't get to see him.

I've been meeting new friends all week. Met Greg's friend Damon on Tuesday, then there was these two girls at RJC that I met but don't know their names. And there are newcomers at Friday youth service Jeanne and Eileen and Reginald; well I sent messages to them as a form of follow-up, Eileen and Jeanne are from CHIJ St Nicholas, Reginald from SMU. And not forgetting Erica, who comes for Sunday services and I'm just following up with her... Met her in person today and she turned out to be Edwin's and Benny's classmate back at Nan Hua Secondary! Small small world. Yesh my social circle expanded slightly... =P

LONG LONG WEEK... I'm tired. And sleepy.

Monday: GamesFest. I'm in Aerius Captain's Ball team, sprained my finger. Oh wait I blogged about this already. Look at previous entry. Slept: 2 hours.

Tuesday: Project Work Day. The whole day was PW meetings, briefing, then an Oral Presentation Workshop after that. At night I had to rush the Written Report draft. Slept: 2 hours.

Wednesday: S-Cube Seminar. I skipped that. Stayed at home to slack, while Qiling the ring leader got some of the girls over to her house to swim and sauna. So in the end less than 10 people went to school. However, I did go school in the afternoon for NJ Open Day briefing, then did Greenlink banners. Then travelled down to Jalan Sultan with Junying to settle the Greenlink shirts. Still doing Written Report. Slept: 5 hours.

Thursday: Marking Day. Technically, no school as the teachers are marking our Promos papers. But most of us still went back to school to prepare for Open Day. I stayed in school from 8am~6pm. Rushing Written Report submission. Slept: 4 hours.

Friday: Normal lessons. Got back Economics MCQ, I got 14/30. Sickening. More preparation with Greenlink and ushering duties. Youth service at night was great. Slept: 6 hours.

Saturday [today]: NJ Open Day. Okay I'm going to talk more about this. I'm parent ushering and there's a Greenlink booth to attend to. Met in school at 7.30am, meddled with Greenlink booth, then went for usher briefing. Student's Council, they're as inefficient as they can be. The 4 routes are disgusting. Anyway, after briefing I went back to help out with Greenlink cos I couldn't be bothered with the Council. Blown balloons, had my hair sprayed with red. I first ushered this parent with his son from St Joseph's Institute, then later two more parents with their sons from SJI joined us too. Walked from library to hall to Sigma labs, then led them to LT5 for Principal's talk at 11.30pm. Hmm somehow I felt more confident in ushering after that? The irritating thing is I have to constantly be polite, engaging, informative, and being gentleman-ly by letting them walk first. Then I bumped into this two girls from Kranji Secondary, Jocelyn and Kee Wei? Think their names were something like that. Offered them a tour around the school. Oh Jocelyn is Yuxuan's cousin... Small small world. Led them around everywhere, sneaked into classrooms, seen the performing arts CCA concerts, rifle shooting, talking rubbish with them etc etc. They're great! Haha, then left them somewhere and went back to Greenlink. After a while Joel came over to NJ, together with Sarah, Yurong and her friend. So I toured them around this time, Yurong wanted all the Bag-Me goodies. After Open Day ended, cleared up at the library, "marvelled" at the Council's stupidity again. (Especially the part when they think their organising skills were excellent. How self-deluding.) Went for dinner with Yurong and Sarah at Pastamania J8, got loads of stares from every stranger. Later I realised that my hair was still red. Haha. Then went home tired and sleepy. Hope to sleep: 8 hours.

It was GamesFest today... C'mon la if NJ really don't want to do anything for the day then at least let us stay at home?? Hee hee but it was fun! I joined the Aerius Captain's Ball team, we won our opening match (9-3) and lost the rest of the 3 games, so Aerius was in 4th position. Haha that's morbid but we had fun and met new friends who were in Aerius house too. Even more fun when more than half the people playing were from my class, and the last game which was 3rd/4th placing, it was 05A01 vs Terra house. Hee! My class is waaayy cool!!

I sprained my finger. Fourth finger on the right. Darn I can't straighten my finger without feeling the sprain, and it's all swollen.

Getting busy soon with Greenlink and Open Day, as well as Project Work. This afternoon after school, met Yurong at Jericho to discuss changes to the Friday youth service, the jobs of the Fellowship committee etc etc. I realised I'm overstretched. I need more blood in Fellowship comm (=

Whoa... Today's a long long day. And since it's a long long day, this entry shall be one long long paragraph. No spaces, no pressing of the "Enter" button, just one big chunk. Okay I shall start from the very beginning and maybe my brain will be active enough to relate all the happenings today. Whee! Morning I woke up at 7am, bathed, ate instant noodles cos there was nothing else for breakfast. Then I took a long bus ride to Pasir Ris Park to meet the rest of my Greenlink excos for river keeping. 6 of us; we were without Shufen and Kevin. Haha they must be out having their own rendezvous... Anyway it was drizzling slightly, but we still put on the gloves and picked litter for the next hour. Got about 10 bags of thrash? Then we had a meeting over lunch regarding what we plan to do for NJ Open Day. Left for home after that to rest for a while before getting out to meet Yurong at Orchard MRT to go to FCBC Marine Parade, partly to go see Luke-y whom I last saw during Teacher's Day, partly bacause Chris Ngoh invited me too. [Oh deviation: Last night's youth service Ngoh came over, we watched VeggieTales] Well me and Yurong agreed to meet at 4pm, but we were both late and we couldn't find the bus-stop and we tried hijacking taxis and hitchhikings in the end we managed to grab a taxi and blew $9 off the cab fare. Yup worship was great! Somehow worship sessions in big crowds is not inhibitive at all. It's like, we sang the song "One Way" last night during youth service, and they sung it at FCBC too, but the experience is totally different. Bahh my rubbish rantings. The sermon was about the heart and how the attitudes of the heart should be towards God. Then caught up with Luke, met a few new friends mainly from Ngoh's cell, and went for dinner with them. And guess what? I met this guy called Winston who happened to be our Greenlink t-shirt supplier! All along I've been operating through Adrian to do our shirts, and what a small world to bump into Winston proper... HAHA. Uh huh he offered me a ride home, along with Caleb and three new friends (Jinyi, Justin and Karen). Here's the really interesting part~ While Winston (he's 21 by the way, the rest of us are J1s) was driving out of Parkway Parade carpark, this red car appeared and tried to cut our lane, and Winston tried to close the gap but the red car managed to squeeze in. That's not all. 3 minutes down the cramped carpark exit, the red car again tried to cut into the lane. But this time round we were on a single lane with space for only one car, but the red car kept pushing in and in the end Winston just zoomed ahead, scrapping the red car's left windscreen mirror. Well the mirror was merely twisted out of shape the wrong way; it didn't drop off. But the red car and it's occupants were as angry as red. The 3 occupants drove ahead, blocked the lane got off their car and demanded Winston to get down the car. But stubborn him claimed he was in the right of way, so our 2 parked cars caused a massive jam by the one-lane exit. Yup it was chaotic... And the three of them were scary. There was a middle-aged man and woman, together with a younger lady. They stood in front of our car, preventing us to drive anywhere. But the stupid thing was, there was a massive jam at the back, and they yelled at us to shift to the side, but how is that possible if they're standing in front of the car and the car was stopped diagonally across the lane? If we shifted back we'll knock the wall; but if we shift front we'll knock those buggers. And they started brandishing out their handphones to call people, for a while we thought they were calling the police, so Winston cleverly decided to stay put in the car with the windows and windscreen windows shut. Boy, did that angered the man and the woman. And the young lady kept talking on the phone, but it turned out that they were calling their own family here, cos soon another car stopped behind us. And out came 5 more people, so there were a total of 8 people surrounding our car, with 5 seventeen-year-olds and Winston. Gosh it was tense. The cars caught in the jam had to redirect into the opposite lane, and as they drove by one-by-one, us in the car could see their curious faces. The stupid woman was shouting at us from outside the car (remember we're locked and shut inside), and then shouting at the other cars trickling by who were curious to find out what happened. Eventually when we realised that they hadn't called the police, Winston called the police himself. At one point the man got so pissed that he almost wanted to break the windows, cos he was just standing in front of our car but Winston wanted to shift the position so as to not block the traffic, but in doing so he had to drive forward, and the man thought we wanted to knock him down and escape. ON TOP OF THAT, us in the car started talking nonsense and rubbish and laughing and joking!! We even got out a pen and paper and wrote "Move away, we need to go home and study" and Caleb showed it to the 8 people outside our car! HAHA! Can you imagine what it was like? The 8 people outside, pissed and angry, then us inside the car laughing and joking and playing tic-tac-toe... They must be thinking that we're mocking them... then one of the guy offered Caleb his IC in exchange for us winding down the windows and negotiating with them, (what the hell... no link la!!) then another started kicking our car! Well the carpark authorities came soon after, then Jinyi got so scared that she started crying, and the police came too and finally Winston got down from the car. Whoa the man was staring daggers at him... The police didn't do much either. They just took down their particulars and ascertained that it was an accident. But the stupid thing was, the stupid woman asked us why we refused to get down the car, we told her we were scared (which was true), and she started "I'm 60 years old and there's only 3 of us, and you youngsters are afraid of an old man and old woman like us??" CRAP!! You buggers eventually had 8 people surrounding our car. Well, the police let us go first cos they sort of deduced that we weren't in the wrong, but their entire family stayed behind to talk to the police... Don't know what they were asking, didn't care either. Winston said he wants to call the New Paper reporters and predicted the headline to be "Malaysians bully Singaporeans"... HEE HEE, oh their family didn't look local. Winston drove all of us home after that. 45 minutes trapped in that tense carpark, by a bugger chicken nugget family. Yup this entry is long. I've never got a brush with the police before so of course it's frightening to me. Whee. (=