31 Dec 2010: tick.tock.

it is that time of the year again.

my top 5 highlights of 2010 (like it concerns you):

5) school: starting school again after a hiatus of nearly 2 years, and making lots of new friends along the way. gotta love meeting new people.

4) merry christmas and happy birthday: the tradition that returned, the tree that finally appeared in my living room, and the little birthday surprise that anna and marc pulled on me. plus a little video message from my youtube idol. *cough* happy birthday to me, indeed. :)

3) Shanghai: it was the first time everyone in my family flew on a plane together after 15 years. yes, fifteen. sure, the flights were filled with turbulences and clogged up toilets, and plane food didn't fascinate me that much anymore, but dammit, we had a whale of a time, alright.

2) Green Day Live in Singapore: okay, possibly one of the best concerts that i had ever been to in my life. for real. Kelly Clarkson's was awesome too, but Green Day killed it for me. killlled it.

1) moved: what else can i say? i love my new crib. :)

so this spells the end of 2010(well technically, there're slightly more than 6 hours to go, but anyway) and i must say it has been a fairly good year for me.

with Michael Buble, Oklahoma(this is the part where Billy Gilman comes in) and graduation coming up, i hope 2011 will be a pretty good year as well. better? sure. who's complaining?

this is me trying to ignore the fact that graduation means having to look for a job which also means ohcrapimintrouble.

happy new year, everybody. :)

25 Dec 2010: tis the season to be jolly!

it's the most wonderful time of the year.

happy holidays. :)

7 Nov 2010: 800 feet above the ground

it has only been a month since we moved into our new place but everyone seems to have quickly adapted to this new house just fine. it may not be the biggest or the most perfect home, but we adore it anyway.

afterall, it is ours. :)

best of all, i finally got a brand new room to put up this brand new(old) poster that i purchased two years ago.



yesssss.

7 Oct 2010: Life.

i was looking through facebook last night and was extremely shocked to find out over someone's status that a teacher from my secondary school had collapsed in school and passed away a couple of days ago.

i can't believe it.

even though i had never been taught by him before, i knew who the man was, and he sure did not look like a person who would leave so suddenly. i spent four years in that school. i knew he taught physics, was in charge of the ncc, and was pretty fit and relatively young. so how did this happen?

i visited the memory page created for this teacher in facebook. he seemed like a man who had a lot of passion for education and life, and the messages written for his two children about what a great man their father was were simply just... heartbreaking.

there really is no other way to say how unpredictable life is. it's so scary how death suddenly finds someone when you least expect it. sigh.

R.I.P, Mr. Joseph Lim.

5 October 2010: so long, farewell, aufwiedersehn, goodnight.

this is it. the time has finally arrived. i am finally moving out of here tomorrowin a few hours.

moving out of tampines was meant to be a bittersweet thing for me...but right now, the sweetness of moving out of this rented craphole that i've lived in for a year is definitely more overwhelming than the bitterness that was meant to come. sweet.

am i going to miss this place? well, i'll miss being able to find almost ANYTHING i want or need just by crossing the road. i'll miss the zha jiang mian stall at one of the coffeeshops around here. incidentally, they moved out a few days ago as well, so i guess i wont feel so bad for not being able to eat their noodles anymore. i'll miss being able to walk to my old school in 5 minutes and eating my extremely economical and sumptuous lunch there. most of all, i'll miss being a tampinesian.

but here's what i will NOT miss.

this house. the color, the stove that looks like it came from 1986, the floor that never seems to be clean no matter how many times you try to wash it, the toilet that had no lock when we first moved in, the neighbors right above us that seem to love to jump or run around at 3plus am in the morning, and the list goes on and on. and stops at the pipe where disgusting stuff leaks out from. so yes, basically, almost everything about this house.

i am kinda proud of what i have done to my room, seeing what it looked like before we moved in here. now packing was a bitch, and unpacking over at the new place is going to be an even bigger bitch (i think i've said this a year ago), but let's just say that i am ready to get out of here anytime.

besides, once a tampinesian, always a tampinesian. if there was even such a word to begin with.

21 july 2010: Cross Country

i don't know why i keep doing this to myself. over and over again.

i knew i creeped myself out when my door creaked at 3am one night, while i was in the middle of Jack and Jill.

i knew i dreamt that i was living with a murderer, in a house where he had murdered his victims, the night i finished Alex Cross's Trial.

i knew that it was late and that school starts again in 11 hours, after a month's break. but that was the least of my concerns.

i was only a few chapters away from the end.

i was about to find out who the one behind it all was. who Tiger was working for. where Alex's family was.



the house was quiet. reeeally quiet. my mother was asleep, and my father and brother were out. my room door was almost closed. almost. i wanted to close it. i looked at it, but then i thought, maybe i shouldn't walk to the door at all. maybe not.

what if someone came out from behind the door? what if someone had been watching me all along? no, no, it's just a book, seige. just a book. yes. that's right.

so...my door was left the way it was. go ahead, laugh.

like i said, i don't know why i keep doing this to myself. i'll probably do it again. once i get my hands on I, Alex Cross.

in the meantime, at least i found out who the bastards behind it all were. yes. case closed. AND my father and brother came back.

phew.

13 August 2010

3 years ago today, i lost a friend.

wow. 3 years. how quickly time flies.

it is a strange feeling. it doesnt feel like a recent thing, but i can remember everything like it was yesterday. it is a memory that i've tried to block out, but that i can never do. never.

still, i have moved on with my life. i think we all have. and i believe that i've learnt to appreciate life a lot more over the past 3 years than i did before.

we only have one life to live, so live it, and live it right.

i still miss her.
i still miss you.

but i'd like to believe that she's happy wherever she is. yes. i'm sure you are. :)

from black to blue.

it's 6.34am and the sky is slowly turning blue. i'm guessing the sun is probably going to rise in 30 minutes or so.

yes, i am still up, but it's okay.

because i finally, FINALLY finished my campaign. FINALLY.

yes. i would like to jump up and down and do a cheer right now, but it's too early in the morning and everyone's still asleep. also, i should really go to bed right about now.

but before that,
TEENAGEMUTANTNIJATURTLESCOWABUNGAIFREAKINGDIDIT.

okay, enough for now. one campaign down, one more to go.
just because i havent K.O.-ed doesnt mean that i am looking forward to this.
but oh well.

round two: fight.

CUC-KOO

it's 3.40am, i'm up and i'm not youtubing. no.way.

school is really starting to take its toll on me. really. doesnt help that i've ran out of the miraculous pimple cream that my friend got me from malaysia. never knew what the brand really was, but never cared, because it got rid of my pimples GOOD.

look at my face now. it's a farm. with chickens.

but as much as i hate the current assignments and feel the urge to turn green and morph into the hulk on many occasions while i'm working on them, i dont hate school. on the contrary, school has been pretty fun for me since it started. maybe it's the teachers. maybe it's the people. maybe it's the course. maybe it is all of them. yes, i think so. it's all of them.

but look, assignment submissions and examinations in 2 weeks? not cool.

yes, i should get back to work now. oh wait, i think i just heard my stomach protesting. YOU'RE GONNA PROTEST NOW? AT THIS HOUR?!

must...resist...urge...to..morph...

the school life.

i'm stressed.
i'm breaking out.
i'm not getting enough sleep, and this time it is not because of youtube.

when i get stressed, i get hungry. and then i eat. alot. you wont believe the amount of junk food i have stuffed down my body over the past week or so. no, you wont believe it. it has also been more than 2 months since i last went jogging. good job, seige. keep doing this to yourself, genius!

school has been fun, really. but deadlines? not so much. i know, i know. when has it ever been?

eating, though, is definitely fun. no...wait, where am i going with this?

yes, i am stressed. oh, "desserts" spelt backwards.

desserts. yummm.

Quote. Unquote.

"Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy."

-Cynthia Nelms

The Godfather

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew

I hope this man lives until I die.

counting down.

one more day.

one more day to my first examination in 2 years.

i am dead nervous.

and yet, strangely excited.

alas.

trumpets and trombones in the afternoons. long, melancholy tunes. that's what i've been hearing every couple of days, for 2 weeks.

trumpets + trombones + long, melancholy tunes= ?

i wondered, no, i really wondered, why there were funeral processions going on every couple of days. are there really that many people dying in singapore recently? so how many have died already?

today, i heard it again.

what a depressing neighbourhood, i thought.

i looked out my window. a carpark away stood a secondary school. i've always known we lived near one for the 6 months that i've lived here, but i never knew we were that close to it.

and then it hit me. ah, yes.
SYF must be coming.

the world is bright again.

life as we know it

"If having things turn out the way you wanted them to is a measure of a successful life, then some would say i'm a failure. The important thing is not to bitter over life's disappointments. Learn to let go of the past, and recognise that everyday won't be sunny. But when you find yourself lost in the darkness of despair, remember, it's only in the black of the night that you can see the stars, and those stars will lead you back home.

So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble and fall, cause most of the time, the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. Maybe you'll get more than you ever could have imagined. Who knows where life will take you.

The road is long, and in the end, the journey is the destination."

- Coach Whitey Durham

no mercy

ants. my mortal enemy.

you disrupted my studies. i destroyed you.

dont come back tomorrow night. i will crush you guys like ants.
oh, that's right. i will crush you, like you. again. with shieldtox. i mean it.

i need to finish this chapter.

ayo.

i've been suckered into the dirty world of media and technology.

i'm not at internet phones yet, and i'm okay with that, but one of my biggest fears now is to wake up one morning only to find out that my computer cannot be turned on.

i've waited for people for more than an hour before, but i have 2% tolerance when it comes to computers.

that's when the anger management program comes in.

my, look how i've fallen.
oh technology, you play dirty.

"When you can make the average great, your dreams can become a reality."

i just had a lovely chat with someone i havent seen or spoken to in quite a while.

a hospitable host.
an amazing chef.
an aspiring actress.
a witty, adorable and fun person to hang out with.
the elder sister i never had.

sweet memories.

i'm really glad to know that she's doing so well and going places in life. it appears that all her dreams are starting to come true and i'm truly happy for her. :)

it's funny how one's happiness can rub off on another, even if it's just via msn. i'm feeling inspired already.

OCU

school starts on the 8th of March.

it's official!

NERVES.

can you read my mind?

i JUST found out that The Killers' concert which was supposed to happen tonight was cancelled about a week back due to unforseen circumstances.

in case you didnt know, i wanted to go to their concert really badly when i first found out about it, but i couldnt find anyone who was interested as well, and by the time i did, the tickets were already sold out. it was Coldplay 2006 all over again! sheer disappointment.

but now that i know that they didnt come at all, i feel sooooo much better. i actually grinned for about 3 minutes when i heard the news. i even told my mom about it, and she had to pretend to be interested (since i whined to her about not being able to attend the concert this afternoon). i know. my poor mom who's probably still wondering why anyone would ever call themselves "The Killers".

i feel really bad for the people who bought the tickets though. i can imagine how sucky they must've felt when they heard the news. i know i would've bitched about it. yikes.

well i'm getting the tickets the next time they come. i shall. :)

Good Riddance

it's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
i hope you had the time of your life.

Green Day's concert last night was absolutely BRILLIANT.


**this was not taken by me

i had the time of my life.

Seoul far, seoul good.

twenty-ten.
time for an update.

2009 ended on a pretty nice note for me. i guess, working the entire year paid off as the trip to Korea was nothing but fun and enjoyable for me. to put it simply, i had a blast.

my toes were frozen on most days, but i still loved the freezing weather despite that fact. it made the perfect excuse for a nice cup of hot cacao from dunkin donuts. plus, the layers of clothes helped to hide whatever extra weight i was putting on from all that chocolate. i know. i was self-convinced.

now i didnt(still dont) exactly know how to speak the Korean language. so i decided to throw in whatever i'd picked up from the variety shows that i had watched before. we started out feeling slightly embarrassed about it, but by the end of day one, we were throwing in words even if they didnt make sense. come on, at least ONE word had to, right? :)

from the beautiful nature on Jeju Island to the bright lights and tall buildings in Seoul city. walking to the macdonalds near our hotel in the evenings for ice cream and fries. entering every supermarket in sight to see what they were selling(even though they pretty much sold the same things). chatting with the grandmothers who were pulling dead grass off the ground. learning to make our very own kimchi and bukkumi. falling down about 16729345 times on the ski mountains and gaining about 6 bruises on my left leg after that. nodding our heads and saying "kamsahamnida" to everyone, everywhere. the discovery of Binggrae banana milk, fish sticks and Lotte throat candy.

the friendly tour group, the honest tour guide and most importantly, the crazy, whacky, fun and awesome companion i got to travel with. :)

i loved them all.

which was pretty much why i suffered from major post-holiday blues for about 2 1/2 weeks after i returned. uh-huh. that long.

well, you just wait for me, Korea. i'm definitely going back!