Can you meet me halfway.

Hello! Sorry for the lack of updates. Been very busy after CNY with school, dates and all.

Also had some Soka University of Japan (SUJ) students meeting last Saturday. Will blog more about it after I get the pictures. It’s my first time interacting with Japanese Soka members and it was cool, fun and I enjoyed it a lot

Anyway, recently found out that another friend (Kai Wei) is an SSA member. Whoa. It’s like my mission or something (I think).

Please pray hard for the earthquake victims at Chile.

Chinese New Year 2010.

Eve

Woke up to a stressed Mother who was super stressed up (I don’t know why and what). Anyway, went to the library in a bid to escape for a while and then helped mum buy red onions. I learnt that there are red and yellow onions.

So I went home and had CNY reunion lunch.

Not photoshopped. From my sis camera

Mucked around for a while and also watched Mika on tv! Super cool la.

Anyway, at night we took the bus to Cousin Wendy’s place which was like next to Katong Mall and I realised that we passed by many times whenever Elves Lab has lunch at the Katong Laksa place. Lol

Loads of food!

Had yusheng from Tung Lok.

Food prepared by GuMa and Wendy

Also had “Pen2 Cai4″ but I forgot to take a pic of it

Had loads of fun trying to listen and understand Cantonese but still quite CMI. Anyway, it was great to see everyone again! Wished Mun Mun Jie was there too. I haven’t seen her since 2008 coz she’s staying in UK now. Quite happy to finally see cousin Jason after not seeing him for about 4 years already.

Everyone

CNY Day 1
Woke up quite late. Went to Soka Tampines and was feeling pretty lousy. Nose horrible and all. Had to take medicine and got pretty drowsy and sleepy so had a cuppa coffee at the cafe after our prayers.

Taken by my sis

Taken by me

Then we took a bus, train and bus again to Grandma’s. By then everyone had left Spent my time there talking to Janning and also ate quite a lot of stuff. Lol.

Drank Vodka at home. Turned purple maybe coz I wasn’t feeling well. Haha. Not drunk but decided to sleep early.

CNY Day 2
Woke up late again. Anyway, went to Aunt Evelyn’s place as usual, this time bringing Huzz with me (coz Aunt Evelyn invited him).

We were like the first to arrive. Intro’d Huzz to everyone (Aunt, Uncle Lum and Donny; didn’t see Danny at all).

Charmelon and her family arrived not long after, 2nd round of introductions. And then Janning, Jovenne and Jesslyn along with Aunt Judy and Uncle Jonathan.

Anyway, they started their excessive Karaoke-ing and us all decided to run to the room to watch TV.

The steamboat decided to screw up and we ended up having pot soup for dinner instead of steamboat.

Pictures!

Me and Wei Wen

First round of dinner

Actually there were more pics but I didn’t photoshop all of them so.. Yea.

CNY Day 3
Went to Huzz’s house. His dad was still using crutches. Played with the little princess who wanted to paint instead of eat. Huzz’s sister was in a dilemma. But then, seeing her made me wish I’d got to meet Ashley and Emmanuel (my niece and nephew respectively). Hai ya so sad.

Anyway, we’re kinda organising a cousin’s gathering soon! Can’t wait! Too many cousins actually. I hope about 80% of them will turn up!

SD Kenshu 2010 (30-31 Jan).

NUSSD on the 2nd day of kenshu

Meant to blog this last week but I was just too busy! Life has been interesting lately.

Kenshu, or 研修 basically means training in Bahasa Japanese (hahaha). Every year I believe SD has a kenshu for all members and friends to participate and learn.

So this year, I agreed to go for kenshu but didn’t take the exam. Basically, throughout the lessons, I was OT-ing. I went for the first lesson (learnt about SSA’s SD history for that one) and the subsequent ones I couldn’t make it.

So on the morning of the first day, I was feeling a little freaked out as I didn’t really know what to bring and pack. After packing, I realised that I had to bring a lot of stuff and was wondering why (it was a 2D 1N thing). Haha.

Then, on my way there, my shirt had this string that decided to unroll from nowhere. I had to break the string using my hands on the train and it looked pretty awful. All these bad demons attacking me huh?

By the time I reached CCK LRT (the kenshu was at Senja Soka Centre) I was freaking out, wondering if my outfit was ok as they said we have to wear at least 3/4 pants. I was wearing a pants that reached my knees.

Regress a bit, I know I’m a bit paranoid but I’m scared not knowing what the 2 days was going to be like. I think I’m kinda weird in some way. Wonder if there’s a syndrome for it. If I don’t know the schedule for a meeting or stuff, I’ll just freak out. My day has to be planned out if I’m out with others. Only with family and myself then I won’t be scared.

So I reached there and was greeted by Evelyn who handed me my SD T-shirt (after I paid) and the booklet for Kenshu. Saw Wang Lee as well. Evelyn then brought me upstairs and looked for Jingsi who I knew from NYPSD. She couldn’t recognize me at first until she stared at me for 1 second. haha. She was like “I recognise you from your eyes!” I have big eyes. Lol.

We started updating on what we were doing and all, and Evelyn brought a girl, Jia Neng and joined us. Jia Neng’s major is Medicine. When she told us, we were like “Whoa!!” and she looked a bit paiseh. haha. She’s nice and end for the next 2 days I hung out with her.

I realised that there were some people whom I’d never seen in any of the NUSSD meetings (Jia Neng included) and they told me that they seldom attended. But I’m quite glad that they came for kenshu!

For the 2 days, we had sharings, study, testimonials, games and an 80 sec to fame thing.

Which reminds me. I saw Boon Han and he didn’t recognise me at all. He even asked if I’m “Candy or Jasmine”. Was totally annoyed then but not now. My sis told me, “Well done, your friend of so many years don’t recognise you.” Haha

Didn’t really sleep well at night coz it was pretty noisy and people kept walking in and out of the room. Plus, the door hinge was super squeeky and it just wake me up everytime. NUSSD was placed near the door btw. Shirley (Lam) was pretty funny. She lay down on the floor and was like “Huh!! The floor is so hard!!” then she covered her head using her sleeping bag and said “Wah my sleeping bag is smelly!!” Lol.

Had loads of fun at the morning exercise thingy at the 2nd day. There was this lady who taught us some aerobics exercise and the SD guys made lots of sound effects for it. It made the mood more fun and reminded me a lot about YCF 2001! A table where the trainers will stand on top to teach us moves, exercises, and also the mass exercises and loads of people doing the same moves, etc.

The picture above was taken after the exercise and games on the 2nd day.

Oh ya, we had Lee Wee Bros beehoon breakfast on the 2nd day!! I was super excited when I saw the van driving into Senja Soka Centre. HAHA. Love their Otah! And the chilli that came with the beehoon and otah was excellent! It wasn’t too spicy (or maybe it’s me) but it was pretty sweet and complemented the beehoon nicely!

Didn’t think of taking pictures throughout the 2 days. So the above was taken from Qiuyi’s facebook.

Learnt a lot throughout the camp and I just wondered why I didn’t strive as hard for SSA/SGI/Sensei before. Must jia you!

Man spewed vulgarities at me.

This morning, I was a victim of a mentally unstable guy (what I make out the man to be).

I was sitting on the bus (Service 30, SBS 9018S, on the seats that face the side of a packed bus instead of the front or back, when this Indian man got up the bus and started coughing away.

It may seem to be an innocent gesture from him but do take note of 2 things:
1. He was coughing loudly and rather long (10secs at least)
2. He was coughing at my face.

Tell me, what would you do in your case? Automatically I shielded my face from his cough which thankfully didn’t have saliva. And I also gave him a look. Because I wondered if it was on purpose or accident and because I wanted to see who he was (so rude).

What happened after that was not common among people of the right/sound mind. He continued coughing and was glaring at me the whole time while doing so. And then, he started spewing vulgarities softly while looking at me. The “f” word, “KNNCCB” and all the works repeatedly.

Some people standing around him looked at him and saw him glaring at me and they looked at me as well. I gave them pleading looks but they turned away. The most unfortunate for me. What did I do? What could I do?

I didn’t look at him after that first glance but I could feel him staring at me and saw him (at the corner of my eye).

Just at this point in time, I remembered this story that I’d read somewhere about this man in UK/US that met some punks on an empty train who were drunk or something. Then he started chanting in his heart and they decided to ignore him.

So I started chanting in my heart.

It just happened so that there’s this Malay lady (who was wearing pink) who stood in front of me (the Indian man was slightly to her right, my left) and she looked at me, and stood there right in front of me, despite having a little space to move away. She could move if she wanted and she didn’t.

The vulgarities continued for at least 5 minutes.

Afterwards, the man, who was gripping on to the handlebars above tried to elbow me as the bus was turning. -.-! I turned my face away to avoid the elbow but he was rather unsuccessful. The woman stood there and if she didn’t move, he couldn’t do anything.

2 elbows and he decided to squeeze to the upper deck of the bus.

I would like to thank this Malay aunty who helped me, whether intentionally or not. I am sure that she knew what was happening as that guy who was spewing vulgarities was rather obvious in his words (people around him could hear him and they stopped talking for about 3 seconds).
And also that faith really works wonders.

(I smsed my mum, sis, Huzz and then to plurk-twitter as well after he walked away. I then updated fb using my phone after my mum told me to. I thought that if something happens to me, at least I knew of the approximate time so that I am able to tell the police or something.)

What happened of the man? He alighted at the SYC stop and while waiting for the bus to stop, I saw his mouth mumbling stuff and still staring at me while waiting at the staircase to alight. Thankfully he didn’t do anything.

What would you do in your case?

If he really hit me or elbowed my face, what I would definitely do is stand up and shout at him. Not sure if this is the wisest thing to do, but at least there are CCTVs in the bus to record the whole thing.

It would be great if people would stand up for me as well.

Thoughts about falling in love.

Okay very affected with one of the scenes for the above drama – Bull Fighting 斗牛。要不要 Not exactly the scene above, but the characters above. I just have to blog about it. It has nothing to do with my personal life. Haha.

Anyway, it’s like the above 2 are actually enemies, but then the guy sort of sacrificed himself to save the girl.

It just reminded me of this saying that actually, people fall in love with not the other person but the things people do to be with the other party.

But then, how about, the things that the person did is a reflection of what the person’s character is? Or at least, that person is determined to be with the other party so he/she will do certain things to be with the other party.

7 things people stereotype/generally think about me.

Since yesterday’s MNO class, I’ve been thinking of doing this entry. The class had a discussion about how in general, students sitting at the back of the classroom are usually introverts and wouldn’t participate in discussions (I was sitting at the back of the classroom -.-).

Ever since entering NUS, for some reason or another, or maybe because NUS is a super international university, I get several questions asking about me, which I found out from my friends, is because of my looks, dressings, accessories, etc.

So here they are:

7. Because I wear pants/jeans most of the time to school (vs wearing skirt/shorts), I am not Singaporean.
I really don’t understand this logic. Why can’t I wear pants/jeans because it’s cold?

6. Because of my looks, I’m mixed blood.

Kinda love this one.
Missed out the number of times at which people asked me where I’m from. Haha.
Once, when I was with my mum and she met a friend outside. Her friend saw me and asked my mum if my dad was Caucasian. Haha. And a few times, there were random people who asked me if I’m from the Philippines, Vietnam or Malaysia.

The best one was that my secondary school friend once confessed that because of my good command of English (then ) they thought I’d stayed in Britain for a few years before.

This one I understand but…

5. Because I carry a backpack, I am not Singaporean.
This one I seriously don’t understand. Thankyouverymuch.

4. Because I don’t wear/use branded clothes/shoes/accessories, I am not Singaporean.
I personally think Converse is a brand and so is Esprit. I admit I am not materialistic and those items were bought at a discount, PLUS plus plus, as compared to stuff like LV, Prada, those aren’t considered as branded (who cares seriously?)

Worst is that they usually ask me if I’m from Country A. It’s not only annoying me, but kind of insulting the country’s people leh. My pov that is.

I consider this as a compliment, but I still don’t like how people over generalise things.

3. Because I’m from School of Computing/School of IT, I know everything about computers, hardware, software IT…
Sad to say, I’m not good at everything relating to IT. Despite the fact that I love reading about IT or computer related stuff, but I don’t really know everything about it. Don’t ask me about encodings. I have limited knowledge about it. Don’t ask me what type of RAM is good. I don’t really know much. Don’t ask me what graphics card I’m using. I don’t remember.

2. Because (of some reason or another), I wear make-up.
Nope, I don’t wear make-up. Because I don’t really feel the need to put on make-up. And I fear that it’ll ruin my skin. So I drink plenty of water and don’t put make up.

Once, a colleague commented on my face and asked if I’d put powder or make-up and was stunned that I didn’t.

1. Because my bf is of Indonesian-Chinese heritage, I learn Bahasa Indonesia to communicate with him.
Wrong! Haha. My bf doesn’t speak much Bahasa (though he can understand a bit like 10%).

Actually, I learnt it coz it sounded quite nice when I heard his parents and relatives speak Bahasa. Plus I realised that many of my friends are of Indonesian heritage and hence thought it’ll be cool to learn it.

My first SNCO Practice of 2010

It’s been almost 7 years since I first stepped into an SWE (now SNCO) practice back when we were still at Tampines. Time flies, and I have been pondering about certain events recently (regarding SNCO).

Anyway, I thought I’d managed to get Kat and Audrey to practice with me yesterday but unfortunately I was wrong. Both of them got me to ‘morning call’ them but in the end, both of them didn’t pick up and both of them didn’t go.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m not pissed, not annoyed, not angry. I’m like totally neutral about it. For some reason, if my life weren’t filled with stuff like that, I would have been mad and freaked out. But this is life. There are people who will do that.

I’m not writing this to scold them or what. But just my thoughts.

Anyway, I’m glad that I went. Coz I was like the earliest and I got to do like 51mins of daimoku before practice! Haha. Awesome! And, Jun Hong came back! Double awesome! He’s like one of the big brothers I have in SNCO. Haven’t seen him in ages and he said he haven’t played his trombone for a year and Eddie got him to come back

Speaking of which, we did percussion ensemble yesterday. haha. Puts music theory to good use coz Percussion scores were scary huh? Haha.

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Went to Huzz’s place after that and my lunch was rice fried by him. I think Huzz is kinda sore that I didn’t take a pic of it. >.< Very sorry! Btw, the rice was quite nice. Never eaten rice fried with cucumbers actually.

He's going to cook a meal for me every weekend! Yay!

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Oh and I got back my B&W pics. Thought of the day: Don't take B&W pics of places. It's just boring. I should either take people or... I don't know. Gotta do some research on flickr I guess

NUS CORS system. Fair?

Remember this?

Now this:

I know life isn’t fair but it isn’t like I didn’t try. And how about giving us a module that isn’t going to be offered in the upcoming module?

Marina Barrage (9 Jan 10) 8am + some bits on bowling.

On the way home on Friday, Jmin and I were discussing whether I would like to accompany Jmin to Marina Barrage for a photowalk (let’s put it that way). Faizal was unconvinced that I should go. In the end, after I did some research and found out that Marina Barrage has wireless, I decided to go. In case you were wondering why I need wireless, it’s because of module bidding. )*@&#()*@&*

Woke up at 6am on Saturday (9 Jan 10), left the house at 6.45am and took bus service 72. On the way, there was this old man who boarded the bus, and then when he wanted to alight, the bus captain (this driver who was featured in many SBS Transit posters) guided him to the front door exit, and then (you won’t believe it), helped the old man cross the road. WOW. He held on his arm, and then watched out for vehicles and all. It was until the old man sat on the opposite bus stop seat then he cross back and sat down on one of the seats before he came back to the bus and continued the journey. Really heart warming scene.

Waited for Jmin for a while, before she reached and then we took a cab down to Marina Barrage. Luckily for us, the driver knew how to go to Marina Barrage (took the KPE) and we reached within 30 minutes.

(Funny part) Both of us went to the highest level at Marina Barrage and started taking pictures of the place since it was empty and quiet. What happened was, we noticed another guy at the opposite end of the place taking his camera out and then setting up the tripod.

What we didn’t notice was that that guy was actually boss. hahaha. So funny.

Faizal joined us afterwards after he woke up and Melvin told us through msn that his spirit will be flying towards us and so we felt his spirit. haha

Anyway, the 4 of us were pretty excited when they announced that they will be opening the floodgates in “5 minutes” but we waited for about 15 minutes and nothing happened -.-! Disappointing. But the sun was so good that I didn’t feel upset at all!

Pictures that I took that I like!

Spot boss

Afterwards, we went to Marina Square for our lunch, and Faizal fetched Jmin and I back to Hougang where I rushed off to bowling with Jessie, her bf and Huzz.

Lunch:

Didn’t take pics there, but I scored the most CMI score ever (44). However, by the end of the game I realised what I was doing wrong and now I know how to bowl! Must go often. haha. It’s something that I like but I can’t do well, so I want to do well!

I conclude that my digital cam is good for outdoor/landscape shots but not indoor. But I must learn how to control the settings well.

Had so much fun this holiday. Thanks to all who made it happen (especially Huzz and all at Elveslab).

School starts tomorrow. Hope I’ll get the last module through appeal.

And the Jay-Z song was on.

We are nuts.

This morning, was about to go out (wanted to be earlier ) when I received a phone call from Faizal. So like yesterday, went to the bus stop and waited a while for him. Then he went over to Jmin’s place to fetch her (first time I saw where she lives).

Thennn…. we got lost. Haha. Super funny and fun. Faizal drove around Punggol, then used his GPS (which was in Bahasa. Haha very cool) and for some reason he missed like a few turns and we ended up at Orchard Road. Hahahaha! We kept laughing la. Like super funny. Ended up further and further. And the GPS got a bit annoyed by Faizal missing those turns it gave him the bird’s eye view of the directions instead. HAHA.

So in the end, he finally figured out where the GPS wants him to head to and we reached office! And we weren’t late too!

Had lunch at Katong Laksa again. Spammed water into my body after that so that I won’t be sick. Laksa is just so freaking awesome and delicious that it is just horribly sinful (calories, heatiness, etc).

So this ends another work term for me. Hope I’ll be back.

Settled all my stuff today. But unfortunately my modules bidding was unsuccessful like nuts. Argh.

Will be accompanying Jmin to Marina Barrage tomorrow morning instead of BTT registration coz boss requested Jmin to do so (he will be there too). Then will be bowling with Jessie and her bf (along with Huzz of course).

Would like to add that those people who robs taxi drivers or even cheat their money, will garner loads of negative karma and let’s see how your life goes in the next few years.