the best way to growing fat? eating and sleeping. that is literally wad i have been doing for the past so many days.

been a good weekend. went to ubin chalet. came back to mainland yesterday and went to da bei. it is a nice big temple/admin building, with a big hall, within minutes of walk from lavender mrt. me and mich talked to ven yong jie. she taught us a little abt organising talks at her place, like manpower to usher in the hal and outside, limited car park, how to settle our dinner plans, setting up of chairs etc. then met ming ming to talk abt the whole program. like advertising/publicity, sponsorship, printing of flyers and posters. seriously, i have nvr thought so far to all these details. think either i m shortsighted, plan or plain lazy. and i think this is a good opportunity for me and for mich. think we talk more over the phone over this big event haha. sorry mich if i keep bothering u for so much stuff.

ubin chalet was fun. played volleyball, flied kite. sorry guys i don't cycle. i don't sing too. neither do i play bball. haha i sound like a spoilsport. i like sun tanning tho. but i din get a tan. the weather over teh weekend was good. luckily it din rain. it rained yesterday (sun) and today. hmph. it was a nice chalet too. nice toilets. nice beds - if only someone din jump on the bed and got sand in the bedsheets.

i had a dream on sat night. and my heart sank when i woke up and found myself on the bed in ubin. my heart has probably sank only 2-3 times before. why does y heart (or anyone's hearts) sink? hmmm.

woke up this morning and did some stuff. then eat and sleep. se? my life. sounds like a dog's life.

read abt the read up on selena tan. she is a rgs gal too. there was a line saying that some of her frens feel used by her. she explains perhaps she moves on with things really quickly. i had some thoughts abt taht line. but i think i will reservce my comments for later.
woke up this morning to

after my run, shower, breakfast, went to thomson plaza. then went to bras basah to repair my specs. yet again. must find out teh culprit one day. before taht, went to smu to retrieve my ltb text book from my fren. today was asoc camp. so there were all these accountancy studnets crossing the road from admin block to soa. and soa was packed. think it will be packed for teh next 2 days when u visit smu. haha time flies man. and i have no more energy to get myself mentally and emotionally involved in such rara activities, orientation anymore.

then went to sbm for meeting with ming ming, xiong xiong and shaun. think it was a good session. abt starting grps from scratch. then rushed home to get dinner for yihan, puee, my bro and dad. ba chor mee :D

puee and yihan came over to my place to watch Glory Road. think the show was kinda like Coach Carter. nonetheless a good show, considering i missed out what yihan said was the best part, and i fell asleep somewhere in the middle. the basketball scenes were cool. think the coach is really brave. while the players only focussed on winning the championship, the coach had to deal with his own fears, as well as his players fears, of racial discrimination. complicated story. i m tired, so i shall not elaborate further.

then 3 of us went to meet qt for ice cream.and we jus sat and talked till they dimmed the lights and it was time to come home. haven't sat at a bus stop, waiting for bus with yihan in a long while. those were the days man.

hwee called me. i called mich and ming ming. got some stuff to settle. gear 2 now :)

to sariputta gals and ananda leaders:
sorry i could not meet u guys after ur movie. i thot it was yesterday! hope u enjoyed teh show. i thot it was quite a funny show :)

woah it is thursday already!

tuesday. can't remember wat i did. oh i remember! we went to ikea and queensway. and ate hotdogs and meatballs. always wanted to eat at the ikea restaurant but nvr had a chance too. went to queesnsway. saw a pair of shoes. but shall wait till my atm gets to queensway :)

then watched xing yuan and my sassy gal at my house. i must say both movies were touching, tho they did not move me to tears. money-back guarantee? i think it was really sad when richie ren had to part with cecelia chung at the end. when she knew she had to let go of him, yet he was right in front of him and she could do nothing to keep him grounded.

haha and my sassy gal is one of rean's favourite. we say the male lead looks like andy. and that lum looked like su yong kang in xing yuan. haha. we have a lot of super star frens man.

watched till 230am. think inviting my frens over to watch movies is a good way of me beating my dad's curfew. what m i thinking of man. beating my dad's curfew haha. puee coming over this evening to watch goal. will tabao food for her.

then wed we went to gym at noon. then went to donate blood. sadly, out of 6 ppl who went, the 3 gals could not donate blood, whereas all teh guys donated 450cc. jacq was dehydrated, siu had low blood pressure. and i jus had my hep a vaccination.

did i mention we met xiong and alvin at queensway? that 2 greedy pigs haha. they were shopping for their hostel stuff - 50c mug, alarm clock, picture frames, lamps.... i m guessng they are really excited abt moving into hostel. i wanna visit ur hostel! quick send me an invite to ur hostel open house!

after blood donation, went to national library to borrow books for lum. haha we were carrying so many boks ard. doubt i will ever read so many books in 1 day man.jus skimmed thru everything. all on leadership - six sigma, dunno wad... could not find anythign on military law or military ethics. anyone can help pls lemme know. thanks.

went to ntu to help read thru the books. 9 ppl trying to lookthru 20+ books looking for keywords. it was really funny how everyone was jus joking and trying to squint at teh minute words. it was fun. and i hope lum finsihes his work successfully soon. do our best. think we are almost 50% done with the words.

thursday
woke up early today. 630am. my bro was not awake yet. but my mum woke me up to write him an excuse letter for his absence last week. then i realised my specs were bent again for teh third time. since my bro was asleep and my mum usually does not come into my room, i seriously think it is my dad. but no point trying to find out who. cos it will lead to unpleasant exchanges. so i have learnt to jus go get my specs repaired instead of argueing who spoiled it cos it will not help expedite teh repairment of my specs. but my bro was really sweet to offer to help me send my specs to teh optician.

my mum just left for a 1 day trip to kl for food tasting,. 8 of them goign up on a mini bus. i wanted to go too. but i realised that i have a lot of things to do today.

1. optician's
2. get ltb book from clara at smu
3. go sbm to meet xiong
4. watch glory with puee
5. look for more military and leadership jargon in my ltb and bgs textbooks.

and i decided that since my mum was not going to be ard, i had to be ard in case my bro or my granny needs me when my mum is not ard. haha at least that was the reason i gave my mum. i would have loved to go. tho i think teh 4 hour bus jouirney to and fro wiill be boring. and she will be talking business with her colleagues on board the bus. it will be good time spent with her tho.

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Jungle Trekking
Donkey rides/trekking
Diving
Snorkeling
Waterfall exploration
Karaoke
Morning/Afternoon/Night Fishing
Beach volleyball/soccer
Suntanning
Watersports ie Jetskiing, kayaking etc

monday
went to meet sj for lunch. then gym. bought my income tax book, which i think i will keep. the other books can buy from second hand.

if i keep running 2.4km 2-3 times a week, think i can go join the great eastern 5k fun run/walk/crawl? i would love to join teh 10km one, tho i think i won't make it till the end. given that 29 oct is smack in the middle of the sch term ie not much time to train. this will be fun. any interested applicants? siu and sariputta gals? wing lam and huiyi and meiyin? this will be fun if we can do together :) sorry this is open to ladies only. The men don't get it.

went for rochor tau huay again. walked to little india. came home. kinda tired. not shagged mind you.

exciting tuesday coming up. it is the first day of teh lunar/chinese seventh month. dad reminds me not to come home before 12 midnight. hmmm.

sunday was spent sweating under the sweltering hot sun. it was too hot to sleep. too hot to do anything. so i switched on the aircon and hid in my room reading my book.
i have never really sat down and read my book before. and this hols i have been reading books.

in chronological order:

1. The Juror by JOhn Grisham
2. Opening The Door of yoru Heart by Ajahn Brahm
3. Karma 101
4. Freakonomics (in process)
5. Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

i wanna buy Opening The Door of your Heart by Ajahn Brahm. awareness place? kino?
freakonomics is interesting too. from an economic pov.

i have many books from overseas. hopefully slowly clear them before sch starts and no time to read!

saturday
whee! went for picnic at botanical gardens. there was plenty of food. and 2 'old' men were playing chess, even though ue kept winning. thankfully, the weather was not too hot/sunny, otherwise we would all have been roasted to death.

we played frisbee. too bad the kites could not fly. it was a much livelier sight than teh last 2 times i came. plus i saw the relocated taman serasi hawker. they serve nice satay and soursop drinks. shd go back there to eat one of these days. there were swans, plenty of ppl and dogs.

had to leave early. went to rj to meet the councillors, who have flown back from all over the world - uk, us, taiwan, spain, france... nice seeing everyone once again. still think the new rj is too big. not like cosy old rj. and i miss all the ppl , the sights and sounds of ghim moh/ mt sinai.

we went to play bball. last time, we used to play bball everyday after sch everyday. now, we can only play bball once a year when everyone flies back. and as we grow older, the inertia not to play bball will be greater. sometimes i wish i could turn back time. i din enjoy primary sch or sec sch as much as i enjoy my jc life. and i m really gald i really enjoyed my 2 years of jc.

had to leave early again. to eat mcdonalds dinner with my dad. guess my dad and my bro weren't as excited as i was abt havign mcdonald's dinner. think i haven't been having dinner with my dad often recently, so he suggested mcdonald's. the macs at sin ming/upper thomson is closing down le, so guess we caught it in the nick of time. next time we are eating out, we are having zhi cha for dinner :)

came home, went to watch lu4 ding3 ji4 at weixin's house. when we drove past rj, my frens wre still sitting/standing ard the bball courts.

staying home today till piano lessons sundays are pretty boring. clearning my credits now :)

thursday

was at home waiting for aircon man to come and change my aircon. my house has been super hot the past few nights w/o aircon.
must say the aircon uncles were quite efficient. think they spent a lot of efforts whacking the old aircons out. they showed me the rusty nails. the other uncle had to climb out of the window to remove teh compressor. he had those harness u wear when u go rock climbing on. they were nice too.

realised last time when my house was under renovation, my mum used to buy packet drinks for the workers. so i kinda picked up this habit and also went to buy packet drinks for teh aircon uncles.

then the boss talked to me while we waited for mama to come home and settle the bill. we were talking abt global warming, plasma tv, grandmothers, daikin v panasonic etc. guess it is in their line to do lots of talking. but he was really nice too.

then i went to meet ryan melon, ernest, zhen lin, mich, sel, dee at city hall. our original plans to eat carl's junior took a turn for thr better - we went to nydc! haha the food wasn't fantastic, but i believe all of us enjoyed teh desserts! we had THAT BONEY CAKE, whch is one of selina's favourites, and JEDI MUDSTER. both were equally good, tho i believe meln loved the boney cake so much he entered nirvana for a moment. haha

we took loads of nonsense photos as well, which are mostly on ernest's cam. melon was really paiseh cos manay ppl were looking at us haha. well well. upali and sariputta have signed a treaty le!

after which, we went to eat more auntie annie's. think my cinnamon sugar was better than melon's sour cream. :P then we went to koi pond to take pictures. we were all blinded for a moment. ernest only saw orange blinding lights for a while, due to the flash haha. guess it was overall a fun night for all of us. and for melon, his last night on earth before checkinginto hotel tekong.

friday

went to choa chu kang to meet wing lam and huiyi for sushi buffet. why do we pay to suffer? teh sushi was not bad la. but we really stuffed ourselves silly. went to shop for a while. bought kites!

went to sch to gym. had to call so many ppl - selina, michelle, sj, uncle audrick. time to get busy! gym was crowded. only ran. din do much.

after which we trodded down to PS to buy green tea from carrefour. then walked all teh way back to rochor for tau huay. somehow i have this craving for tau huay recently. probably due to the newspaper report on sunday. this is my second time eating tau huay this week :)

sorry sariputta gals, i can't make it for sharing tmr as i will be attending my jc reunion. this is the summer hols and my frens have flown back from all over teh world. understand tmr is our house's presentation on sariputa. i have complete trust in our leaders to deliver a gd presentation on sariputta. also, i hope all of u will learn more abt Sariputta, one of the two chief disciples of the Buddha.

gotta visit Da Bei with siu and mich one day next week. mb we can hook up with their elderly home and perform comm service there.

even before sch has started, i m starting to feel more pressure on myself and on my frens too. mb it is the inertia, not wanting to go back to sch. sometimes we don't understand why are we feelign like this. or why we are goign thru this. sometimes, we just don't have the answers to everything. if we can find out teh source of our problems, good. finish it off. what is more impt, when we can't find the root of the problem, is to simply let it go.

letting go is not as easy. even as we think we have let go, we may be clinging on more tightly than ever. personal feelings. as most of u know, i can't get into medical sch. initially i told myself, i have to let go. mb i will have more fun at smu, study less in accountancy than in medicine, climb the corporate ladder. yet when uni started, i realised i still secretly harboured the regret of not appealing.

but now, i can tell u i m having fun in smu. i have many frens, frens who have shown me the world, frens who have cared for each other, frens who have stood by each other, frens who jus crap with each other. i also remember saying that the number of trips i have gone this summer has more than made up teh bulk of teh reasons why i m in smu. i have more time for other activities aka SBM. i have oppotunities at organising talks, organising functions, working with many other organisations. i believe i m leading a more fruitful life than if i were to study my life off in medicine school. have i truly let go of wanting to go to medical school? probably. after all, 100 years later, no one will remember whether laura foo went to study medicine or accountancy.

speaking of which, i don't like to call ppl up. why? i also dunno why. i don't like to call cos i dunno what to say over the phone. i don't like to call up strangers as well too. always gives me butterflies in my stomach. however, i realise i have had to call up more organisations these past week than in my whole life. i also called up some sariputtians. jus had a nice talk with mich. think talking over teh phone can be fun too. and i think i m overcoming my 'fear' of calling strangers too. it is just like how u used to be araid of sth, like making mistakes. but once u make enough mistakes, u will no longer feel hurt or embarrassed when making the mistake. jus take it in our stride, be more confident before and keep up the good work! =)

P.S. hope melon is doing wel first night at tekong

P.P.S hope puee is doing well w/o mr wisdom tooth

Buddhist Youths Workshop

Wednesday
went to bukit batok to have lunch with wing lam and huiyi. been a long time since we met up. huiyi has had a series of unfortunate incidents while in taiwan. i hope u and ur family will get better :)

then went to city hall to meet puee. it was kinda awkward meeting rgs gals in city link, in case puee taught them pe. haha we used to think that pe teachers shd not be seen outside of sch. oh well

had a nice long walk and a nice long talk with puee. this is wat i miss most hanging ard with puee. we don't complain abt teh distance. we nvr run out of topics to talk abt. and we always buy junk food and share :)

went to eat rochor beancurd with mr gym. guess wad? teh sunset there is quite nice. sat ard. talked. walked to little india and took a bus home.

to puee: good luck saying goodbye to mr wisdom tooth. i hope it will be an uncomplicated case for u - no bleeding on saturday

forgot to mention, last night came home alone late at night. i was kinda jumpy at every single movement or noise behind me. when i had enough sense to calm down, i realised taht i used to come back at these times when i was in jc. but i was not afraid. so wad had happened to me? then i looked ard my surroundings and realised how much my neighbourhood had changed. the covered walkways, the orange lights, teh playground that is no longer there.

sometimes, takign a nice slow walk through my neighbourhood is interesting. there was once i heard an indian man scolding his indian wife on the second storey. was kinda alarmed. but i guess he was not beating her up so i could not meddle in their domestic affairs.

and my place is infested with cats. taht day i was scared by an albino cat - white fur and red eyes - taht was guarding teh lift. i din dare to enter the lift.
afraid of a cat? hmm. i think i have changed, and not for the better.

tmr i m goign to spend half teh day at home waiting for the air con man to come and install the air con. then we r ahving a celebratory/farewell dinner for mr ryan melon, who will be goign into NS on friday. whee! best fren! i won't miss u don't worry. remember to give me a treat when u get ur first pay!

to the one person who can surf blog while working: i wanna go walk from macritchie to bukit timah. i wanna watch xing yuan. i wanna donate blood and go zoo! so many things! so little time! haha hope this lightens up ur thursday! almost weekend!
to mr gym: rochor bean curd still nicer?
to my best belly-dancer bwen: i wanna go visit little india! remember remember? mr gym missed us at gym today :)

Tuesday

was out the whole day/ mostly alone till the evening.
never leave laura alone shopping the whole day. i bought quite a bit of stuff.

went to fax some documents. then posted some letters :)
then took an arduous journey down to tiong bahru via mrt from novena.
1st shopping stop: novena Mall
buy: photo album

by the time i reached the clinic, it was 1pm and the doc comes only at 2pm. i was third in line.
2nd shopping stop: tiong bahru
buy: nothing
pretty nice place for food though :)

saw my doctor. he is a pretty sociable guy, who talks a lot, which is why patients like me are often stranded out side waiting for him. then again, he is wiling to spend some time with the patient and respect the patient he is with at that moment. it is like living in the moment. who cares who has been sitting outside waiting for u? every patient gets their chance to speak and gets your full attention sooner or later.

similarly, when we are out with frens, learn to appreciate teh moment we have. learn to appreciate the ppl we are with now. try not to keep that nagging feeling at the back of our heads saying we have to be home, we have to do this, we have to do that. live in teh moment man.

went to collect my contact lens. simple affair. then bought my karma book! whee!went to shop ard raffles city and centrepoint. khakis are in! linen and denim are going out! i m so goona stock up on khakis haha

met sj at cine. haha ue and jacq are ambassadors for spca? congrats! tho it is a bit hard to think of ue being caring to animals haha. loking forward to seeing both of u on tv.

xiong, if u r reading this, weixin says u r real funny and handsome. haha how, pretty face? and taht elaine u were telling me is my year one la.

watched pirates of teh carribean. funny show. really laughed haha. though it was a little too long and we sat thru the whole credits to watch a small snippet.
btw, orlando bloom is more shuai4 here than in lord of teh rings. all hail aragorn!

Monday
just came back from a fish and co dinner with siu, sj and sq. second time eating fish and co. first time in teh glass house. the band was noisy and drowning out everyone's voices, so not very conducive to talk.

then we went to PS. i went to marks and spencers to get my usual fix of tidbits. tehy still don't carry the strawberry cereals. i suspect the salesperson was bluffing me when she said it was out of stock. how to be out of stock when they don't ship it in in the first place?

metmany ppl at PS. met the samba ppl. they looked like they had a photo shoot, with the elaborate hair and the extensive makeup. a lil gothic. then met sam and preetie. long time no see, my rgs classmates :)

wanted to walk down to orchard after bidding goodbye, but saving it for tmr. a nice walk is often rejuvernating for me, as i think abt anythings and everything in the world. i remember the first time i started having regular walks was in sec 4, when i would take long weekly walks after my physics tuition class, from the tuition centre to the bus stop. i would walk nice and slow, and take all teh time to think, abt how i was gonna lead my life, how i was goign to organise my upcoming week. with each walk, i would tell myself i am 1 week closer to prelims and o levels.

then i started walking along orchard road and along the city hall/marina area. sometimes my frens will accompany me. other times, i will jus gaze at the SIngapore river and think. i always think the seas/rivers/ waters look nice from far but not that nice when u come closer to it. my cloud castle is still the best :)

of cos, a day at sbm hanging out with my sbm peeps is rejuvernating as well. so is hanging out with all my good frens and buddies. somehow, all of u give me a purpose in life. mb i need to seek out other purposes in life.

hwee left for msia today. remember he taught me to stop leaving things to the future. get it done now and now. must always bear in mind that today could be our last day. be happy when we wake up the next day. this is not being pessimistic. it helps us to treasure the time we have. i wish i treasure more the time i have with my family. don't procrastinate or sit on something for too long. the longer u sit on it, the more u think abt it. and the more u think abt it, the more distorted the whole idea gets. not thinking abt it saves u a lot of unnecessary worries.

tmr will be an exciting long day. i look forward to getting some things done tmr, instead of slacking it away. and i look forward to an exciting this week. and next week :)

mr melon ryan is going to army this friday. to one of my best fren, good luck my fren. i hope u become what u aspire to become :)

to jiayi, coburn, sou kuin and daryl, whom i called today, nice to know all of u are getting on well with studies and projects and sports. remember to always have some time to yourself each day. i can tell u from personal experience how i studied day and night. but i had some personal time every week, when i walked back from my tuition class. after studying hard for so many years, i have finally learnt to have some fun in my life. like i was nvr in a youth grp till now. i nvr really hung out with my frens, except my best frens of 8 years, until now. basically i din have much of a life, probably until i reached jc. if u think u can cope with many things on ur hands, by all means, go ahead. do learn to prioritise.

remember my walk down orchard road tmr! Tuesday is gelare day!

Sunday
woke up at 830. went for breakfast with my dad. haven't had a Singaporean breakfast in a long time. then we went to sheng siong supermarket for grocery shopping. my dad may be thrifty, but when it comes to grocery shopping, he asks me to take whatever i want. so ya i end up buying junk.

went down to sbm. today's sharing topic was LOVE. not jus BGR love. but real love, pure love, parental love, love for animals... it is interesting to talk abt love during our sharing session. when we talk abt such things, we tend to share away. but yesterday, we just laughed our heads off.

Q1. What is love?
Ans: love is selFISHness - upali
haha he meant selfLESSness. no offence. but as ajahn brahm's book goes, it does not hurt to laugh together WITH others.

Q2. What is true love?
Q3 what is sexual misconduct (one of the five precepts)?
Q4. what is the ideal age to have a gal fren or boy fren? waa are teh ingredients necessary in sustaining a relationship?

so in our groups, we were tryign to talk abt love to a 13 year old and an 11 year old. however, us older ones tend to give model ten year series answers, whereas the younger ones tend to give eral, true, pure answers, which they really feel for at their tender age. which is why i enjoy discussing issues like friends and love with them.

BOSS results are out! got all my modules this time round finally. though i think we over bidded for finance haha

Saturday
woah. whirlwind saturday.
woke up at 830. 5 missed calls. luckily only 1 morning call.
went to meet siu, kc and sq at 10 at dhoby ghaut. guess wat? we have finally gotten used to the concept of being late. went to macdonalds to wait for siu and kc, after which we had macdonalds breakfast. sinful.

went to smu gym. not very crowded for a sat morning. guess wat? mr sq was 1.5 hrs late. overslept. grrr. luckily he came. we did gym for abt an hour, then went to bathe and lunch before goign down to pks for buddhist youth workshop.

workshop was interesting. i was in the red group and i got to meet ppl from various organisations. like mr nick shen from buddhist fellowship. members of nusbs and ntubs, terence, vily, qinghan. was talkign to mr terence abt their camp nirvana. and i think we kinda introduced smubs as an established society to everybody.

we talked abt our motivation in becoming a buddhist youth leader. my answer was FREINDSHIPS. frens in sbm who have stood by me and given me the motivation in SBM. frens in smu who have stood by me and helped me with smubs. thank you very much.

then we learnt abt the maggi mee mentality. abt not stressing up easily over small stuff. and learn to be happy. and my 3 best frens in smu have been relentless in exposing my biggest secret. haha. thanks guys.

i thot it was a good workshop. talks more abt the down-to-earth stuff. abt real life situations. siu, kc, ryan and i are interested in attending the heart sutta workshop. think it is good exposure for all of us :)

haha spent my day at home again. but it has been an exciting day :)
my grand niece and nephew ( yes GRAND) came to visit me. one is coming to 3 years old and the other is coming to 1. so cute! the elder sister was helping me fold clothes. she wanted to play the piano and the computer. and she eats a lot. eats anything we give her - tau sa pia, durain. but i always ask her to drink more water before i feed her more food :)

the younger brother jus slept. when he wakes up, he just brawls. think he is unfamiliar with the surroundings la. normally he is really cute and does not cry. think he was hungry. he looks like a little monk, with big heads, bald and chubby.

haven't seen them in 3-4 months. they have definitely grown bigger.

tmr will be a long day. not hectic. just long. hopefully get to see mr SHE, whose last day of NS is today, not minusing off his leave yet. haven't seen him in a month man.

more updates later!

friday! end of another week!

last week this time, we were at genting, probably jus started the rides at the theme park. time really flies.

today will be spent at home.

yesterday went for bk breakfast, then went to smu to visit ryan at matriculation, then went to gym, before coming to my house to eat ice cream and visit macritchie. we chilled at the ice cream parlour and started doign silly stuff on our handphones, like taking silly pictures and recording our voices. remind me to let u hear my curent ringtone.

macritchie is nice if u visit with a few frens. nice refreshing wind/air/water. took some pics

came home and proceeded with application of venues, sponsorship and permits. i think my way of working is inefficient. i hope to get it done by this sunday.

watched 6 min of saw, half of final destination 3 and click. click is kinda like "The Scrooge", the one where teh scrooge meets the ghost of the past, the present and the future during christmas. shall not spoil teh show, since it is supposed to be a new movie.

oh and i have lake house - who wanna watch?

Wednesday
alright. spent the first half of the day at home again.
woke up to the darned drillign sound at my house downstairs. giving me a headache. wonder how my bro studies with all these sounds. he says he studies. so ya.
later when i meet my gals and hwee for dinner, i shall seek their guidance in filling up the form.
emailed osl and our members. got more stuff to do. argh. and i thot i did quite a bit of stuff today.
if only sg websites load faster. save my tiem and effort. keeps logging me out.

Monday
was home half the day. trying to catch up on sleep lost over World CUp finals. argh. head butt
went to sbm as today was a full moon. and hwee's birthday. dee made a cheesecake. can teach me how to make? it was nice. love the cheese. and the crust.

Tuesday
packed day

called up ngee ann kongsi. will apply tmr morning.

met siu and went down to ROS to pay $400. finally.SMUBS has been approved. now have to wait for it to be printed in the government gazette. we have to purchase a copy of the gazette. gotta email Office of student life as well.

went to optician to fix my 2 pairs of specs and order contacts. guess wat? first time no customers and i could chat with all the opticians :)

then went for BOSS bidding lunch with sj, siu, jacq, ue and ying2. haha bidding is getting tedious. anyway good lunch at burger king haha

went to bugis with siu. jus walked ard. nothing much. came home.

went to visit my primary sch tutor at the tuition centre. haven't seen them in 7 years. they still remember me! only cos my mum keeps in contact with them. had a nice talk. then went to popular to buy stationery and tys. bought photo albums to house my photos too, so i can show them to all of you :)

came back. had dinner at home in a long while. then went for ice cream party with 2 of my good frens :)

to VICTOR GAN and PUEE: let's go cosy bay! and remember bbq at your house puee. and chek jawa on 1 august. gan, don't let me discredit ur effort in protecting our country!

to wing lam, huiyi and meiyin: when r u coming over to watch garfield?

to sel, mich, dee, jiayi: when r u coming over for forest gump?

to siu, sj & sq: LOTR? we can always watch final destination 3 =D

plenty of things to do. many frens to catch up with. tmr having dinner with gals again =) tmr gotta email OSL and apply for ngee ann kong si. yes this is my plan for tmr.

and big ryan, thanks for talking to me over the last 2 days. haven't seen u in a month man! hope ur toe gets well :)

who wanna see my photos? -beams-

Happy Birthday to The HWEE and to Lindy Ang!

just came back from a 4 day 3 nights trip to genting/KL. It was a fun trip. Really enjoyed the rides at the outdoor amusement park at genting, even though the weather was really cold and it was so cloudy we could not see 5m in front of us. Nonetheless, all of us were sporting enough to take the Free Fall ride, the Cockscrew, the roller coaster, the ghost train (which me and siu screamed ourselves crazy at nothing, the super high Ferris Wheel, which we screamed at nothing too. Took the roller coaster till i had back ache haha.

Din do much shopping. so din carry much back also. just go there and take a look at everything. KL is probably the same as Singapore, in terms of prices, traffic etc. but the roads are really messy. the taxis were fighting each other.

on the last night, we watched germany v portugal together. good match there!
in between the ghost documentary on discovery channel and the match, we played charades. really funny. then watched the match in the comfort of our own bed, while fallin asleep once in a while.

had a good breakfast the next day. in first world genting hotel, aka genting budget hotel, they din provide breakfast. hmph. then went to chinatown.

left KL at 4pm. reached home only at midnight. then watched france v italy. very sad that france lost. wonder why zidane 'headed' that fella. and the price of that headbutt is the world cup title. haha would zidane know how many ppl were sad for him when he was given the red card? well, probably his bigest regret in his career. but his penalty was really beautiful. if only he had gotten the second shot in. argh. that italian goalie.

woke up this morning to lawrence's morning call. then hung ard my co, checked my bidding results - i only bidded successfully for 3 out of the 5 modules i bidded. which means a big headache for me. tmr meeting my kakis to discuss and strategise.

just screamed at my mum. think she is pretty upset. and i happen to be a selfish person. think i always let little little things get to me. and i always let my brother's studies get to me. i wish he would study. and i hope he studies. think i have been away for too long. and he really enjoyed himself this one month w/o me naggin at him. now have to push him. haven't been supportive of him. haven't been pushing him. mb it is jus my responsibility. and if he does not meet his potential, it will really be my fault.

as i try to get used back to real life, my mood swings like a pendulum. and there is nothing that shopping cannot cure, though i din go shopping today.

morning woke up to teh sound of the horrible construction drilling sounds in my neighbourhood. looked thru the photos i developed and shared them with my grandma. going to get photo albums to protect these memories.

went for lunch with sj and ying. even at 2pm, cine is -oh-so-dead-. then went to meet darling mich. she kinda gave me a brief update of everything i need to know that has happened over the past 3 weeks.

remember i was apprehensive abt my shanghai trip? thefirst reason was cos i was unsure of what i m goign to do there. another reason was that my routine life will be disrupted. and my worries have manifested.

then again, worries are often created by ourselved. and we tend to magnify our own problems and minimise other's problems. what are our problems compared to people suffering in poverty and war?

bought a book from awareness place today titled "Buddha and his Disciples". it is a comic for kids kind. A phrase that stuck out:
"If you fill your heart with love, you will never have anything to fear." - Lord Buddha.
it was from the story of devadatta and the elephant nalagiri. often we fear this fear that. and then regret later.

speaking of which, on my way home just now, i had another random thought. i think if i were to die now, i would probably die -touch wood- with no regrets. all my frens are back in s'pore fr uk, us, france, china, etc. i have a wonderful and loving family (not without its normal grouses), a great youth group, even more frens. i m not caught up in the rat race yet. i think if i were to die when i get caught up in the rat race, i will probably regret not having earned more $$$, not havign climbed up the corporate ladder even further. so while i m still young and innocent, shd just enjoy al the attention and love haha. i m goign crazy.

i m going to go to pks tmr to go get the book on karma. remember there was a phrase saying we shd give hugs freely. ya! we shd give hugs more freely. angmohs always hug anyway, why can't we hug too? and i realise i used to give more hugs in 1 year of jc then in the past 2 years. do we give lesser hugs as we grow older? after readign the above phrase, i showed mich and jus gave her a hug on the spot haha. me goign crazy again.

met john chen and laura at bugis today. somehow it seemed like we knew everyone when we were in jc. jon chen looked even slimmer now than when he was a sprinter in sch. we used to joke abt how he was a prefect in charge of hair style when his hair was bad enough. and laura jus came back for summer hols from teh states. see? all my frens r back!

just a random thought. after my birthday last year, i actually drew up a list of people i want to invite to eat at my next/this birthday. initially thought that i will not be able to invite most of the ppl. but today's lunch was made up of ppl who were on teh list. cool. shd set yearly targets like this. like how this class arranged to meet 10 years after they graduate from jc ie in year 2014, to go to paris. cool. but i m too impatient for a 10 year target. 1 year target is long enough. so many things to plan and so many targets to set.

today had lunch with my long lost rj frens. haha miss u guys. 7 of uslive along thomson road, yet we meet each other probably once every half a year now, since 1 is in france, 1 is in UK, 1 is in NY, 2 in army and 1 in business library though he studies medicine.

we ate so much food, no thanks to my mum's generousity and my greed. thankfully yihan was a good eater :) ate prob 3/4 of a duck haha. proceeded to liang si's house to watch our rj 204 batch video. realise we have aged to the extent that we are looking back at batch video and discussing what each rafflesian is doing in uni/army right now. all of us really came from all walks of life and have embarked on our different journeys in life.yet something still keeps us bound together. mb it is our identity. or the memories we share. the frens we have made. the old campus still brings back fond and cosy memories haha.

after that went to meet my best fren. during sat's sharing on freindship, i shared with my house members the qualities of my best fren. I have known her for 8 years thus far. and somehow we know what is going on in each other's life, we enjoy goign shopping togetehr, doign stupid things together, understanging each other's silly jokes, putting up with each other's nonsense. very importantly, mybest fren is very understand and tolerant of me. sometimes i can be late when meeting her. but she does not scold me. kinda makes me feel guilty so i have been on time in recent years. my best fren also encourages me. she is there with me in every impt stage of my life. and she will write me a sweet note telling me how i have transcended to thenext stage of my life. ( think i m at stage 50 le hehe) E.g. she came down from jurong to changi to pass me a farewell note and stayed for a few minutes before leaving and could not send me off. really appreciate it.

came home. today developed 400 + pics. need to sort them out and put them into photo albums. everyone's welcome to take a look! :) nice pics from all over the world!

1st july 2006 saturday

slept at 530. woke up at 730 jet lag. many well wishes from all my frens. thank you very much :)

started unpacking my luggage. really nice to see my grandmother again after 3 weeks.
koko, kima and kipa came over early in the morning with nice breakfast. the house was in a frenzy as my mum and my brother was awakened by the 4 of us (me, koko, kima and kipa, who are still suffering from jet lag). although my bro could not go to SF, he prob got the most presents.

my mum wanted to see my cousin's new car, which apparently is small and cute. so both of them went down. then -surprise- my mum came back up with a nice big choc cake no.1 from lana cake shop. had a simple celebration then ate the cake.

showed my mum the photos from sf. really pretty. gotta go develop them tmr.

then went to watch superman with my bro, cousin and kipa. it is a nice show - the visual effects are real cool. definitely worth the $9 i think.

then went to sbm. haven't been to sbm for real long. for the benefit for Zeze in sf who does not understand the acronym
SBM - Singapore Buddhist Mission
SMU - Singapore Management University
any other acronyms?

thanks to my darlings gals, who really prepared everything and pampered me. thanks for the flowers, the choc cake no. 2 from Awfully Chocolate. really missed u gals (u all know that)
thanks mich for holding on these past few weeks
thanks dee for coming out despite the headache. remember to learn to let go sometimes and not take things too harsh upon urself :)
thanks jiayi for rushing down after ur dance :)
and thanks sel for sending me ur well wishes from m'sia!
thanks hwee too. for everything. enuff said

then 5 of us went to whatever cafe for dinner
it is called Whatever cafe. interesting place that sells organic food.and we sat there and talked till the cows came home. and choc cakes no. 3.

after that, went to watch horrible match between england and portugal with mostly England supporters and 2 portugal supporters. there were portugese egg tarts. wish we brewed som english tea too. anyway during halftime, we had choc cake no. 4. see above pic :)

thanks siu, kc, ryan, sq and sj for ur present and cake and card and car rides and for ur friendships.
thanks to the marist gang too. it was fun watching the match - esp the penalty kick part.

of cos not forgetting all of u reading my blog once again -
if u msg me to wish me a happy birthday, thank you very much.
if u did not msg me because u were blur like a sotong or like blur queen tan jia hui, thank you very much too :)

and thanks to my godmother, who delivered her annual bouquet of roses. happy birthday to u too.
thanks to ms chu, for a bookmark from the new york musem.
thanks to sbm exco, thanks to mr bear and mr zf.
thanks to skye in advance, for a waffle with ice cream

more pics coming up!

going to meet my jc frens tmr. we form the TBA - thomson basketball association, cos we used to watch nba together. and we kinda all live along thomson road haha. been meeting up to eat every hols ppl from US and UK are back. my mum is looking forward to seeing all of u again too :)

Greetings from San Francisco!
Finally back home. posted some pics below. Essence of our 1 week family trip.

To Uncle Dell and Joan:
Thanks for a great time and all the effort (& $$$) in arranging our lodgings, transportation, sightseeing... Love your house, love your dog, love your cars. weather was either too cold or too hot tho. and the plane rides are still making me dizzy...

To Lionel, Mum and Dad:
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to go to the States. Enjoyed myself. Wish you were there too.

To Koko, Kima and Kipa:
Thanks for making this trip possible. Would probably have missed my flight umpteen times if I had to go alone haha.

To Uncle Mark and Uncle Gerry:
Really glad to see both of u in san francisco! and thanks for bringing adam out too :) and thanks for the roses as well. we have named them Rosey the Rose and Flora the flower :)

To Siu, SJ, SQ & Marist gang:
Thanks for turning up full force at the airport today. Nice pratas and nice seeing everyone once again.

To Sariputtians:
Missed so much, especially the gathering at Coburn's house! Wil see u ppl tmr at sharing :)

To all of you who are reading this:
Thanks for ur well wishes and SMS-es over the last three weeks. Looking back, time seems to pass so fast now.

P.S.
captions for pics:
1. Me and Speedy
2. my cousin's car
3. this is Adam - adam and speedy are half-brothers - tehy are pedigree which shared teh same father. Speedy is uncle dell's and zeze's dog. Adam is uncles Mark and Gerry's dog.
4. i found myself a job at siu's krispy kreme
5. jelly bellies anyone?
6. super steep slope at japanese tea garden which uncle dell asked me to climb up haha
7. jet lag......
8. meet sam the sailor guarding golden gate bridge
9. that is golden gate bridge behind.
10. charles the frog - my first fren in chinatown
11. us registering our newly minted bears - Beatrice and Harley.