this is the combination of LIOnel and LAura's name --> LIOLA haha or some my mum thinks


















this is taken at one of our favourite places to eat. pizza place haha. my dad loves the little bread. show u some pictures later.

















this is the little nursery below my apt. they are directly below and the kids are forever crying every morning. but it is really cute. find wally! see if u can find those little toddlers!














this is my messy room. only 3 days and itr is messy. i could live with that. i m not gonna decorate it. no space! haha it is nice and windy, as u can see















and this picture was taken in front of the bul fighting theatre. we din watch it in the end. we went to check out the place. it is highly secure. think they are worried abt bulls ramming in the walls. there is one section of it where the smell of cattle is very strong and the are flies. presume the cows are there. barcelona istrying to abolish bull fighting. as bulls are killed after every show. and that is why we din want to contribute to this cruel activity.

Wednesday 19 September 2007

Today was a pretty exciting thing. My taiwanese roommate had invited me to meet her fren for breakfast. this fren is a spaniard, who is studying english and mandarin. so we spoke quite a bit of chinese. and she is only 20 years old, and is leaving for england this saturday. to me england is so far away, but since i m in barcelona, england is probably a 3 hours flight away?

then both of us went to supermarket. after watching her cook yesterday, i was quite tempted to cook as well. haha i fried some eggs with mushrooms, and a sausage, and ate with my bread. i m trying to finish off my bread, and after trying so hard, i still have half a loaf. argh. i m gotta try french toast tmr, as i have put the bread into the fridge. any idea what to do with cold bread besides toast and french toast?

after that, i skyped with mama and grandma and hazal and melissa and family. it was really fun and nice to see everyone. miracle of technology. then i had asked my danish roommate out for dinner. she is a marvellous girl, who is able to make frens with other ppl. we walked ard for an hour before finding somewhere to eat. and we walked back and talked a lot. she is a very "on-the-ball" kinda person. in copenhagen, apparently everything is more expensive than in europe. she has so many plans.

it is nice meeting new people, because u see how big the world is. like everyone is talking abt their masters, and taking a year or 2 off to travel or work. in singapore, everyone follows the routine of finishing university, clearing credits and getting to work. few ppl have time and luxury to learn a new language in depth, or take some time off to work, travel, do something u like. and although this exchange may push back my graduation by half a year, i think it is great making new frens. although i may not keep in contact with them in future, it is good to see how ppl think, how the world outside works, and see that there are other options out there, than being an accountant, a banker, or something that is so lucrative but u will never feel the salary is enough for yourself.

if u don't get what i m saying, just think that i will still fall back on the mundane life when i get back. and yes my danish roommate has a dog just like speedy. a shetland sheepdog. we had a good time talking abt them. how they are so clever and intelligent.

i will put up the picture of what i cooked today. certainly not a pleasant sight. and nothing difficult haha.

and yes folks in america, try skype-ing with grandmother :) she is really amazed when she sees herself in the computer and wonders when she had teleported into the computer. u can skype with my mum too. they bluff our grandmother that this is a picture of her which they took in christmas :)

Buenas noches and hasta luego!

new vocab:
sumo de naranja - jucie de orange aka orange juice
and no one in barcelona drinks teh-co-leche (tea with milk) only cafe-co-leche

remember i was telling you abt my first time using washing machine? my mum says using washing machine will damage your clothes, because washing by hand, the force is not as great as washing by machine. and i do believe it now, after my first time using the washing machine. the collar of one of my favourite shirts is becoming more out of shape. argh

tmr my taiwanese roommate has invited me to meet her fren. wish me luck!

Hola everyone!

Many misses from Barcelona! Today is the second day i am staying in my room. My parents flew back yesterday and they are home already. School starts next tuesday (cos monday is a holiday), so I have one week of nothing to do.

I m renting a room and sharing the apt with 4 other girls - 2 dannish, 1 swedish and 1 taiwanese. I used the washing machine for the first time in my life. and yesterday, I din know what to eat, so I had a banana for lunch and bought a 3.90euros turkey pita for dinner.

barcelona is pretty. low buildings (rarely exceeding 5 storeys) food is ok. my parents think the seafood is smelly - there is a stench and when u smell it, u know someone ordered seafood. they sell suckling pigs and rabbit meat. in the market, u will see them de-skinned and it is quite gross. the weather was really hot when my parents were here. guess my mum brought the sun back. still hot and dry here.

I want mooncakes! and the first thing my dad wanted to eat when he reached Singapore was chicken rice haha food is not readily available here. no hawker centres downstairs. and u know tapas? cos spaniards eat their lunch at 3pm and dinner at 10pm, they need some food in between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. so they eat tapas. and tapas is basically tidbits and can be anything. seafood, pork, mushrooms. and they are quite ex, so not worth it.

as for scenary and pictures, can see below :) i uploaded some. sightseeing was fun. not sitting alone in my room. esp at night, when everyone in sg is soundly asleep.

lola

I hope my parents enjoyed Barcelona. I stayed in my room yesterday, except in the evening, when I wandered out to hunt for dinner. today I wanted to go to IKEA, which is in some ulu place. nothing much to see too. so I decided to go to the Carrefour which my dad frequented and did some grocery shoopping

Bananas
2 packets of salads
1 bread
6 cans of tuna
grapes
cherry tomatoes
= 10euros

hope this lasts my meals for a week or so. budget budget. eat good food when I meet my frens. can eat anything alone.

I really wish I took up the accommodation option with the UCLA girl. It spoils everything, when the person who is supposed to help you spoils your plans. retribution. i can only count on myself.

Hi everyone,
I m leaving for barcelona in 10 days and I am still homeless! I need to find an apt soon. Jayne, Marc and I have been working hard, but things are not working out nicely. Either we have been searching in the wrong areas, or I need some divine help. ARGH. angmohs. just be nice. stop bluffing me u r going to west africa and nigeria and u have a wife and a daughter. why do swindlers want to cheat normal ppl of their money. go find those relaly rich ppl. and i think i m starting to see what being really rich means. it means owning one of those big rascacielos in america, owning multiple holiday homes in bacrcelona and renting them out, or simpy being happy with yourself (which is the hardest, given the temptations ard us). who says an exchange is abt becoming indept? everyone says so, but i think it is to boost the economy.

anyone who happens to drop by this blog, and has a holiday apartment, pls save it for me!

Hi everyone,
in exactly 2 weeks, I shd be at the airport now. I m starting to get a little jittery right now. SJ still has 5 more weeks before he flies. that means mooncake festival is 5 weeks away!

today, i wondered how i would spend my time in barcelona. in the afternoon when i m not in sch, i would probably be lying and bumming at home. but that will be o ah neh to disturb. and when i come back for dinner, my dad won't be in barcelona for dinner with me. and my mum wont be there when i wake up. oh no.

been bumming ard these few days. been sleeping off these days as well. msg dear lindy. she has bronchitis!!! cough too much. my bro's exams oming up soon. uncle dell sms-ed me randomly one day haha. i m so gonna miss everyone when i m in barcelona! ppl won't be ard at the snap of my fingertips! gege goo goo gah gah

Uncle Dell,

u shd watch the parade with zeze! how often do u see fireworks in singapore? haha mb once during chinese new year, but definitely during ndp. and u might just see my mum waving her light sticks and all those funky stuff in the backpack. i just saw the tickets. we are in the blue sector. let's hope we get good seats!

it is a public holiday in singapore! no one can be happier than ppl who took leave on friday to get a long weekend. thursday till sunday! wheet!

Lionel has a report due tmr and he has been working hard at it. i wish he would start earlier on his projects next time, but he always does things last minute. Sj's sis is going for a heart surgery tmr(Fri) she has been hospitalised for a week. let's hope everything improves from here and hope she has a Speedy (no pun intended) recovery!

Uncle Dell and Zeze, how are speedy and mona lisa? good? nowadays, i havebeen seeing so many dogs in the neighbourhoods. I jogged to bishan park one day and there is this big dog pen with many dogs on sunday. they were really excited jumping ard and getting through the obstacle course. shelties here r not as beautiful as speedy. my fren got a golden retriever and chasedus around the sofa. and he tried to bite my hand (in a friendly manner). it is only 6 months old but requires quite an effort to carry it. and it needs to be toilet trained. whenever it pees around, it gets confined.argh.

and my visa has been approved! goingt o collect it tmr. I will be leaving for Barcelona in less than a week!not much done yet. i bought my travel insurance. i m still looking for accommodation. anyone has job vacancies for a month, between August to September? 

hi everyone,
it has almost been a month since my last post! and within this month, many things have happened!

my internship is finally over! during the second last week of my internship, i worked till 12am almost everyday (there was one day when it was 4am) to rush the report together with the team. Luckily, my managers allowed me to go home on time on Friday and did not make me come back on weekend. However, the permenent staff had to work till late on friday and worked overnight on saturday and even came back on sunday!

winglam has been to hong kong and back! during one of the days when i worked till midnight, i was supposed to meet winglam and huiyi. I could not make it, and both of them came to find me at pwc building with chocolates for me! really sweet of them!

today's date is 8/8/07. next year this time, probably many couples will get married or give birth or buy lottery! HUAT AH!

tmr is national day. and i m highly likely going to watch national day parade with my mum and songjie. I had watched the preview earlier, courtesy of thomas koko's preview tickets. I must tell you, the parade was beautiful. this is the first time the parade is held near the waters. usually it is held on land at the kallang stadium. unfortunately, the stadium was torn down this june to make way for a grand sports hub in singapore. so we are having tens of thousands of singaporeans, viewers and performers alike, on a floating platform this time. how cool can that get? they deployed plenty of stunts involving water. i shan't spill the details. if u r overseas and reading this, pls log on to ndp.org.sg to see live ndp 2007 hrough 12 different views from 12 different cameras!

and today in the papers, one of our ministers mentioned something abt fireworks. i think the gist of his msg was that fireworks last for a while. and the cost of it is not cheap. could have built hdb flats with it. but our singaporeans like it. so we move ahead with times and have fireworks! yay!

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Wouldn't it be good if we did not have mobile phones? Now I truly (ok mb not) understand why GP essays require us to write abt communication and telephones. Tracks u down everywhere. i feel like throwing my phone away, except that it is an expensive and good phone, when placed in use the way I like it.

Hi eveyrone,
I m very excited over the upcoming weekend! My brother has done a lot for me, from inviting our family and friends, to helping me settle decoration. Siu siu and her khakis, kakis i mean, cj, kc, sj, liang yuan, for decorating! this is so exciting!

my mum has been relaly generous too. my dad too. feel kinda bad abt indulging myself. but i hope everyone has a good time, including my parents too.

i really din plan much for this party. so i m glad i m a group of friends (and my brother and mother) to plan for me.

c u tmr!

Hi everyone
sorry to keep you waiting. I don't visit my own blog often because I nvr post anything! but I decided to post today because today is monday! haha. why m i so excited over a monday?

read my last post. it was week 6 then. guess what, today marks the start of week 10 of internship! if mine was a 10 week internship, this would be my last week. but too bad, i signed up for a 15 week one. so there goes. I wish I could stop after my tenth week. any ideas?

and to all who tagged, thanks! nice to see ppl coming to my blog :)

the past month has been ok. I m now working at upper serangoon shopping centre at my client's place. my colleague picks me to work, so i can slp in later.

i just spoke to a korean guy on the phone. directed him to my manager. usually ppl who call my client are angry ppl chasing for payment. luckily this guy was not one angry man haha

6 more weeks to the end of internship. and i haven't prepared anything for my spain triP! i wish the timeline could be less contradicting. i want to travel in europe till feb, but koko is getting married on jan 27. how how? i could come back 1 week later and travel europe with sj. or i could come back 1 week earlier and attend his wedding. but i shd be back for cny. can see uncle dell and joan?

koko, can get married later anot? haha i can tell mama change booking for u :)

k so during work, i m usually on msn with siu, from morning till evening. wonder how come we have so much to talk? i also dunno how come

winglam has started and ended her intership with watsons, but i m barely near the end! gah gah. she is now temping at american club, preparing for GST hike! haha my mum is like " hurry up go buy ur stuff, it is great singapore sale. and buy before gst hike!" that is quite true actually. k i shall go shopping again some weekend before GSS officially closes.

This saturday is my birthday party. Pls sms or email me for details. I m pretty excited abt it. and I m very fortunate to have a generous mum, a helpful brother, and an enthusiastic dad, and my suportive relatives and frens. thank you in advance! and i got my first birthday present last night. let me be the queen till july comes alright?

hang in there everyone. Monday is almost over.
lola banana

6 weeks of my internship down. 9 more weeks to go

i will be starting my spanish class soon. before that, will have a meal with lindy and gang. not everyone gets a second chance, and i m glad some are willing to grant me this opportunity.

i haven't prepared anything for my spanish trip yet. besides visa, accomodation and air tickets, what else do i need? the sch over at the other side has yet to contact us. i m waiting to find out when does sch start so i can decide on a definite date i will be reaching there and fill in the exact date on my visa application and book my ticket.

to all who are having internship, i hope u r surviving well. to my best frens, not bad, we have survived 6 weeks. 9 more to go! Whippee!!

to all who are having holidays, enjoy your holidays. even though uni life the summer break is longer, next time when we start working, it is a long stretch of 40 years. no holidays to look forward to unless u take the time out to plan.

to all who are in camp ehi-passiko, jiayou and i hope more ppl will have fun. forgot to say 2 sundays again, best frens and i went for a jap buffet and one of the waitresses recognised me. she remembered me from sbm haha. k have fun and hope u can create more fun for participants!

k week 7, here we come!

hi everyone

i have been working OT over the past few days. and today i m glad to be able to come home on time (slightly later) and have dinner at home. this case is really interesting and prob memorable. haha my dad is forever listening to me complain, while my mum only gets to see me on weekends now. i m now nearing the end of my 5th week of internship. 1/3 way down, 2/3s to go :)

so how has everyone been? i dunno who still reads my blog, but these entries are meant for my loyal avid readers. i have been reading abt gg to spain, abt spanish classes, abt applying for visas. many things to do man. i hope i can take unpaid leave to settle all these. embassies work from like 9 to 1pm?!? i want to be an ambassador as well!!! haha

my bro is playing wii next to me now. his exams are coming soon. he got his continuous assessment. not too bad, can be improved. let's hope he works hard for his exams to pull his grades.

hi guys
today i was posted to changi. the feeling of being posted out is quite exciting. but u know when u get used to there, the novelty wears off and u start reverting back to your old self. worse is have to work OT in office after being chased out of the offices premises.

hope i don't have to work OT. pls. but today, after returning to office at 7.15pm, i realise that the office was probably livelier than at 830 in the morning. everyone works OT! and i took tazi back with one of the IT busienss solutions person. he worked in san francisco before. and i think he prefers there. uncle dell, if my company posts me overseas next time, can i request for san francisco and stay at your place?

k tmr another day at changi. at least till thursday. think it can last me till next week? even after next week is gone, i would only have survived 6 weeks of internship. not even halfway of my 15 weeks internship. but hey, if time passes fast, why not?

at the request of my ardent fren, as well as my most reliable companion in such times, i have decided to blog. tmr, friday, marks the end of the fourth week of my internship. and i would not have come so far without the support of all my family and friends. many many things to update about.

WORK
i dunno if these 4 weeks have passed slowly or quickly. but i do know i have another 11 weeks to go. why on earth did i go for 15 weeks internship when i need to satisfy only 10? i wish they would fire me after 10 weeks. give me time to plan for my exchange and learn my spanish, book my tickets, apply for visa etc

and i really would not have got through all these times without andy, who is my co-slacker at work, without siu, who is ever-ready to chat with me, because i have no one to chat with in the office except my online siu, without kc, who was there to listen to me banter even though he ends work at like 1 or 2 am - uncle, u r only an intern!!! and of cos without sj, having to rush to everywhere from the outskirts mandai


EXCHANGE
i will most probably be going to spain for the next half of the year for my exchange program. have to stop my piano class, pick up spanish classes. sj is gg to france. it is pretty exciting, having to search up the airlines, accomodation, plans to travel within europe, SOCCER! but yesterday i started having those home-sick kinda feelings. my brother won't be there for me to scold. my mum would want her to call her every night. my father won't be there to eat dinner with me. my grandmother won't be up in the morning to send me to work. do u know every morning when i go to work, my grandma is always sitting in the living room, asking if i took my water bottle, umbrella, keys, phone, wallet etc haha she is real solid.

END OF MAY
end of may is coming. plenty of things planned with my best frens. everyone has been hard at internship. and it is good experience i guess. we can't depend on each other forever. we can share our experiences when we meet. and see the world. if our world is confined to the offices in shenton way. i think i m a restless kid. i can't sit still in office. i shd be a california fitness trainer. those who get paid for spending lunches with office ladies doing aerobics.

today my colleague said she was going on study leave and i told her to enjoy studying as it is more fun than work. that sentence of mine sparked off a conversation between us. let me give u a brief background first. my fept moved down from the 16th floor to the 10th floor on wed. my new desk now faces out of the manager's building, so it is not that dark and gloomy. today i saw the torrential rain. next time, i want a little window on the roof where i can see stars and watch the rain drop. anyway, before we moved down, this colleague shared a table with me. we were pretty hostile, but she started offering me tidbits. think we got to know each other as i had to help her.

so now we moved down and she is sitting far away from me. but we started chatting and she was advising me on what my first job shd be. she is studying for her cpa right now. more importantly, she said to do sth we enjoy. i feel like saying, but i dunno what i enjoy doing! she was like, when young, don't confine your choices to big 4 (simply because u r an accountancy student) i think it is very true. we always work hard to get into a dream firm. but the job turns out to be less than ideal.

lastly, uncle dell! these is an american in my dept. and he reminds me so much like you!!! he talks candidly. he acknowledges my presence (and not ill-treat interns like me) no i m not saying i m ill-treated. i have the privilege of leaving ON TIME. and he is forever disturbing us at work. haha he will come and steal food. and he is just really nice la. he is going back to new york soon i think. think he is based in washington, but he has spent his years in many places. cool right? just like u,uncle dell!

hello everyone
2 weeks of internship have passed and 13 more to go. everyone tells me not to start counting down so soon, but since i have started counting down, might as well stick with it.

work is not bad. i just wish they would give me more work to do. time passes much faster. but i m worried if i keep asking for work, they will find me irritating. already loads of work to clear and there is this bugger pestering for more work. need to explain, cos this bugger probably knows nothing abt what to do. i don't mind doing sai kang, data entry, anything. maybe i m doing that right now and not enjoying it, but i don't realise it is sai kang.

anyway i have an action packed week coming up. this week is mother's day and my daddy's birthday. and my best frens and i have embarked on a journey to keep fit by visiting the gym. thanks everyone, from coming from wherever u r to the gym. i think i m having this internship pretty slack. pls don't give me ot, but give me sufficient work to do, for time to pass faster.

kc's birthday coming up as well. so if u r reading this, remember to ask when his birthday is and give him a tau pok. haha.

later today, i think i m going to tell my piano teacher i want to stop my classes. i havebeen procrastinating. i look forward to work and travel usa and other overseas travel.

k till then byebye

alright. i m very sian now. i still have 14 weeks of internship to go. and my results aren't fantastic this year. crap. that makes me feel realy guilty. i may take my results really harshly, but i guess that is the way i was brought up. the emphasis placed on grades especially when others have expectations of u and u expect urself to meet expectations. and when u don't, u end up like me. i may not be facing pressure from studies, but maybe i impose on myself. crap.

i need a more positive mindset to survive through the internship.

first week of internship. i do have work to do. and i have andy and victoria. i hope i will be occupied, so time will pass faster. i hope the office of the future allows us to bring work home. more importantly, i need to buck up on my studies. maybe i shd revert back to the selfish me. and spend my days studying away. next semester i m taking is probably modified term. have to work doubly hard for the modified term.

today is my first day of my internship at pwc. counting down 15 weeks. sj, kc and siu started today. 15 weeks. 102 days to the end. we had a full day of orientation. then i went to my dept - advisory (crisis management). probably start proper work tmr. luckily i have andy in the same dept as me. and i miss all my best frens and sj. i think siu has plenty to tell me abt her work cos she wants to meet for dinner tmr (we are doing gym tmr) and tell me abt it. sj has free lunch. i have t fight the crowds during lunch hours. i don't mind having lunch at 2. beat the queue. come back at 3, work for another 2.5 hours. after lunch is always so difficult to stay awake

k just a short post. tmr gym with my best frens!

Hi everyone,

this week has been a really enjoyable and relaxing week, after the exams :) hang in there, for those who still have exams! I am starting my internship like on monday, so that is not much thought for comfort.

before i begin, i just want to wish pui san and kenny a happy happy 21st birthday!

so saturday: corp paper - literally stick our necks out to be chopped by prof. his final words before the exam started were "GOOD LUCK". ironic. after which, we kinda hung ard in sch, my bro met us in sch, went to genting to book our "best frens" trip and went to peach garden to eat dinner with my EF group.

sunday: hang ard at home, piano, hang ard.

monday and tuesday: more hanging ard

wed - friday: went to genting! whee! the photos u see are our genting photos. i laughed and gulped so much air i think i was super tired that night after visiting the amusement park. so fun!

saturday: hang ard. i went to recee pwc, collect my FT assignments, met sj and lion, then went for kenny's 21st birthday party. it has been a long while since i met my jc class mates. and boy was i glad to meet them. trust me, the best days of my life, the best frens i can ever get. i don't have to put on a facade in front of them. and it takes so quickly to warm up to them and start talking to them. when i arrived, i was the only gal, so i sat away from the rest. but my classmates started settling around me and i really felt the warmth and the friendships with them that they probably cherish a lot. many of us are flying off. matthew wants to do dentistry and has arranged to study spanish with me, kenny is flying to uk (and has invited me to visit), donald's hair is fast becoming like jay chou's, sam is gg japan for exchange, meng qi brought her russian phd bf, zhengxian is going to caltech, mr alvin loke is gg to upenn, liyang and mq gg to nus. all are born to do big stuff man

went with my mama to the tailor after that. she is hardworking, patient, but i believe she charges exorbitant prices for her workmanship :) i think i m getting lots of clothes after today.

night night!

Hello everyone. today is friday the 13. wow. tmr afternoon paper, and in sj's words, no more studying for the next 8 months! i decided to blog cos i don't see new posts on the blogs i usually visit. break from corp reporting anyway.

tmr's paper is corp reporting. tells u how to report ur financial statements. it is kinda complex, like all the info can be strewn at you everywhere and it is up to u to sieve out the info, decide what to do. anyway, i think most financial statements are wrong anyway. i m sure someone used the wrong numbers or applied the wrong method somewhere. anywhere, my friends have named the subject as corp-se reporting. haha

m at home today. rare, so i think my grandmama is happy. she is really cute. my mum says my grandmama is getting fatter. that is good, if u can get fat in ur old age. instead of skinny and frail and getting osteoporosis.

speaking of frail and skinny, that day i went to the market and saw a dog. think he is a babay dog akak a puppy. but he is so skinny he looks genetically wrong. like u r worried the baby stroller will run over his skinny paws.

ok back to corpse. i m looking forward to post-exam. in 25 hours time. i have a list of to-do things. but i think i won't have time to finish them. internship starts after 1 week of break. we have all sold our souls for this summer for a miserly $600 a month. but that could be the pay some of our aunties and uncles in sch get! i shd stop complaining. but i would prefer to have some time in my summer. to learn to wash and iron my clothes and to cook.

Hi guys, 1 paper down, 1 more to go. sj has 2 more. siu has 3 more. think kc has 2 more. jiayou jiayou hang in there.

hwee dreamt i was piloting a F15 fighter plane. i think that is really cool. me driving an aeroplane. the panoramic view must have been fantastic.

anyway, my eyes have these veins. think have eye infection. i think the library is a reeding place for germs. everyone sneezes into the air + the library is now open 24/7 means no time for library to ventilate etc. plus i m starting to cough. haha need to get out into the sun? u bet. everyone shd just switch off the air con man.

anyway, i think i have been pretty nasty this semester. and i think i want to think happy positive thoughts from now on. I hope i won't be petty over 2 marks, though that is tough for a miserly accountant like me.

ok update: i m starting internship at pwc, sj at the zoo (relaxing ah - i want free ticket to the zoo and close up with the elephant), siu at foo kon tan-grant thorton, kc at d&t (all my lunch buddies), viny with me at pwc. internship does not sound really exciting. neither does work. anything interesting/exciting job? like i don't know. bus driver, postman, politician? good pay anyway. but i can't speak well. mb civil servent like koko haha

kk apparently there is some nice soccer tonight. but i m not watching that. i m watchin date with a vampire with my brother. cool right? haha somehow, that is one of my fav shows :) all-time fav.

Tmr is FT dineout. I will probably fail, because I am too sick to bother about how to hold the fork and knife.

Thurs is video interview. I m not in the mood to answer questions about my future and what I intend to do, when it is all so hazy (to me) right now.

I am sick.
My throat is sore, i keep sneezing, my ears are blocked. I think I am heaty and I have a lot of 'wind'. My bones are aching. I am old. I am going to visit the doctor in school today and see what he can give me.

My hair is long.
either tie it up for FT or cut it (no).

I wish my body was in a better condition for me to study better for my exams. I am having restless sleep and dreams every night.

hi everyone
this week is kinda stress week. but not exactly like last week. time to start preparing for exams.

got back corp results last week. disappointing. although i keep saying it is 8%. and 8% of one of the 40 modules i have to take in smu. makes it sound so much better. so friends, if u r upset over corp, just take the analogy i used above. 0.08/42=negligible. don't let it pull us down and let's study even harder for final exams

ef exam this friday. met lucas yesterday. he is a funny guy la. just don't get too formal or serious with him. my TAs this semester have helped me quite a bit. from andri to lucas. the CAt TA also help a bit. haven't seen felicia.

my brother has gone vegetarian. and he has grown skinnier. i don't have his determination and i admire him for it. when he says he will go veg for 2 months, he will do it. he is starting school this friday. i feel excited for him :)

hi everyone,
welcome to a bright sunday morning. this sunday morning feels different, probably because my brother is not around. i know we kinda miss him in his absence. bet he will be exhausted when he returns home from his retreat in malacca later this evening.

daddy is sick. mama is real nice. grandma is sick.

somehow i managed to survive last week. final week of school, with a major exam at the end of the week. things just happen don't they? although i would do better if i had taken portfolio management before ef, let's hope ef will make portfolio management a whole lot easier.

was back to the sch library on a saturday afternoon. saturday afternoons are nice. and i think what i wear affects my mood. or does my mood affect what i wear? generally bright colours make u feel happy. and bright colours make ppl who are looking at u happy too. i m going to get more bright colour clothes :)

then having piano lesson this evening. i wish piano would be the relaxing activity it used to be. it still is, just that i m rarely at home to open the piano without delaying my grandma's sleeptime.

i realise every afternoon i m usually in the aircon room or in the aircon library. so when i m at home w/o aircon, i have headache/ i need to start running and sweat and get used to the heat.

and 14 weeks of internship looming. not looking forward to that. u know when i was admitted into jc, wing lam and i actually took a day in the holidays to learn how to get to our school from bus and mrt. it was really funny but fun. it is one of those memorable activities we did :) mb i shd take a day off my one week break to learn how to get to my workplace, though i think it is close to my previous workplace.

and exchange results out this friday. do or die. ef exams this friday too. piano lesson this friday. busy friday.

i just watched ninja turtle. and i enjoyed the show, although it is no longer the childish cartoon we used to watch on the box called tv. and one moment that impacted me was when splinter was talking to raphael. Warning: if u do not want me to spoil the movie for you, pls skip the next few paragraphs.

Splinter told Raphael that he liked to take the whole world upon himself. he was enforcing law and order for new york city when splinter forbade the 4 ninjas to fight crimes individually. this sort of struck me as i felt i could identify with raphael. sometimes, expectations of us are not quite high as we would like ourselves to think or to take on.

this thing about expectations. is it good to have high expectations? of what? i used to think i have high expectations. so i tell myself not to have expectations. not to compare as that will only lead to more misery. when i subconsciously expected something and my expectation was not met, i just try to forget it and tell myself i will not remember it soon after and move on. To me, even if people don't tell me explicitly their expectations, i think i would still try to meet expectations i think that exist.

sometimes when i think i have done enough, i end up feeling i could do so much more. m i such a useless bum? or is it unreasonable to expect so much of one person? when i look around and see so many ppl who are probably 1000 times busier than i m, i start seeing how insignificant i m. this feeling is unbearable, when u have been told u can do great things (everyone one of us can do great things) and u start forming expectations. then u try to lower ur expectations and u realise it is still not enough. tell me what to do man.

i think everyone is tired out by exams, stress, unreasonable ppl like me. i would like to think that having no expectations of someone would mean that that person does not really matter to you. anyhow is good enough. but when u expect ur friends to be loyal to you, when u expect ur family to support u, when u expect to be able to convince ur family before you set out to convince ur friends and then strangers.

i haven't hugged my mum in a long time. somehow, ppl get detached from one another, both emotionally and physically. i m glad i still hug at least one person in sch - siu2. i used to hug my school mates in jc. and life tends to be so much simpler when u r younger.

i m like a big baby. i doubt i will ever grow up. i think i will continue to be sheltered and when i experience some realities of life, i will retract and return to my shelter. did i mention i m like a mimosa, retracting very easily? think raphael and mimosa - maybe i will make a pink ninja turtle.

profs sure like to spring presentations upon us nowadays. just when i thought i could have one presentation each on the next 2 weeks, suddenly i have 2 presentations lined up for me this coming week! and now i m still in my presentation clothes from this morning. grr. stress.

and here i m, in the library, trying to figure out how the financial numbers in the annual reports add up. exciting huh? ppl do this in 6 hours. we r doing this in 6 weeks.
grrr

Hello everyone, today's post is regarding my meeting with prof menkhoff this afternoon. I did not have class today, but I went back to finish my CAT assignment and meet prof. of course, i am always apprehensive abt meeting profs. but i guess the first time is always the hardest.

we kinda talked abt what i had learnt through LTM. let me tell everyone now. I learnt more about myself and about leadership. maybe not so much from theory, but from the experiences we had.

i had the privilege of working with a very ambitious and fun group. They decided to hold a photo exhibition on migrant workers in singapore and brought arts into the heartlands. they were fortunate to have a minister to come visit our exhibition. this had brought along media and we are allproud of them :)

more importantly, i guess i saw how the group had transferred, from a group of individuals to a team whose team members are knitted and dependent on one another. no one can work alone, though some of do work better alone.

as for my personal development, when i was enrolled in LTB, i guess everyone was fighting for air time to speak up and be the leader. but now that u r a "mentor", i decided to take a step back. i tend to be domineering at times - ppl ard me would know me well. but i don't always know what i want. i don't have the end picture in mind. just go with the flow i tell myself.

another thing is i m too task-oriented. guess such experiences are good for us to reflect and identify such flaws in us. otherwise, we always tink we are perfect and think positively of ourselves. this is not a pessimistic post. just some reflections after the LTM course is over.

what is more pessisimistic is the corp reporting project. my team mates are really co-operative and hardworking i must say. i jsut want to move along and finish the project and present and get it over and done with.

as for CAT. my best friend came to my help today when i totally needed it. i was quite upset this morning when i tried but i was at my wits' end. assignment was due at 5pm and at 9am i was still doodling. thankfully, mr. she came to my aid. best friends come to your help when u need them most, and not dump u aside. thanks kc!

and i m presenting EF presentation today. I must thank the group of 4 year 4s who adopted sj and me into their group. this module is kinda like an advanced finance course. and sj and i are not quite done with our basic finance! haha. but it is an interesting module - entreprenuerial finance - kinda differ from normal finance. the project is pretty tedious but i m thankful for my group. i will have to pay this forward when i reach year 4

back to the meeting with prof. we did not talk much abt work. like he said, he is supposed to mentor me when he does not know much abt me! so he asked me about my family. and we started talking abt going to spain. he was saying about 1 of these 3 off-shore islands in the mediterainian (can't spell) sea that used to be occupied by germans. really interesting. and he offered to be my referee if i need any. i really appreciate profs like him ard, who are people oriented. there is plenty of me to learn, not just from books, but from the way one behaves.

This post is dedicated to my brother. Here it goes...

Dear brother,
We are all really proud of you to be able to further ur studies in SIM. This is not an easy chance to come by, and we are glad you managed to get onto this path. We all hope you will seize this opportunity (by the neck) and enjoy your pre-U life thoroughly. Promise you it will be fun. and you will learn plenty of things to be on your way to becoming the top ten billionaires in the world.

Alright, so my brother got into SIM to study business management! Yay! I believe it will be un, learning more hands-on, real life business stuff. you see how poly students are setting up their business and stuff. Of course, we hope that after your diploma, you will go do ur NS, go into a university and get your degree before coming out to work.

alright and melissa also is deliberating her uni choices. just like me last time. and i m stilll proud to say i don't regret coming to smu. when i first raised the idea of goign to SMU to my mum, she violently objected to it outright. But when I brought the issue up today, she defended herself by saying SMU was pretty young at that time. sometimes, when you don't think so much and just do and accept things as they come, you realise things are not as bad as they seem :)

next week and the week after are hell weeks. pls see below:

Mon: Corp Reporting Project - due in a week's time
Tue: CAT Assignment 3 due + EF slides
Wed: CAT mid term
Thu: Audit
Fri: EF Presentation

Mon: Corp Reporting Project due

Need to study for EF Exam! Most siong one. how can anyone spend their whole lives valuing start up companies using excel???

and sj also has his hell week coming up. so do many ppl. gambatte!!!

stress stress stress. everyone is stressed up now.

Brother, I wish you all the best in furthering your studies.

many deadlines to meet this week and next week.

i just visited my LTM group's exhibition. It is about appreciating migrant workers in singapore. I m really proud of my group. I believe they had never expected the project to grow so big, with a minister, president of SMu, press from SPH, Zao Bao, Today paper etc, camera crew from channel news asia visiting the exhibition. and the group was really prepared and organised. good job guys!

u win some, u lose some. oh well.

if i were to walk alone at night in the past, i would enjoy the walk, look up at the stars and think about my future. now, my head is hung down, as i shuffle my feet to hurry home to rest my shoulders. what is wrong? haha old age. but i m not that old right?

maybe i m really not as good as i think i am. i m selfish, obnoxious, greedy, jealous, evil, domineering, lazy and all. does that make me feel any better? No.

oh well, another one-of-those-times in a semester.

Hello everyone, this will be a mega update on my life.

Chinese New Year
CNY was really good. It was the time right after mid-terms (I had 3 mid terms prior to CNY). And I did not have any midterms to study for after CNY break. In addition, the school mid term break fell on the CNY week. which means I had a CNY week- long break.

Uncle Dell was in Singapore with Zeze to spend the fextival with us. He is now back home in Rocklin ( I suppose), waiting for my brother to join him and go to Disneyland - Brother, when r u going over?

Internship
I have landed an internship at an accounting firm. I m not particularly fond of it. Heard have to work till 3am. forget the overtime pay - i would prefer my beauty sleep. luckily i have one friend accompanying me.

Friends
friends are so far so good. siu and kc are doing CAT project with me, and siu is also doing Corp reporting project. and fortunately, Sj and i have a pretty good EF project group as well.

School work
- Projects & Tests
Projects are piling up. Assignments are due. no time at all. i only revved up my engine 3 days ago and i m already exhausted. i have another month to go before exams. most important right now is probably the next EF quiz. ARGH

Toilet Aunties
here is a personal appeal to everyone in smu to use the school toilets responsibly. today, i saw this auntie collecting the toilet paper left on the existing roll onto a new roll so that she can load the new roll. that s really nice of her. while she is conserving sch property, we are all wasting school property. throw toilet paper on the floor, leave litter in rooms. spill coffee all over. come on! we are all responsible 20 year olds! grr. and these aunties already have unforgiving working hours from 6am till 4pm. and they are often aching while pushing their carts ard and bending down to clean up after us. let's be a little conscious of our behaviour and how it affects others alright?

Thank you everyone. till the next time.

Uncle Dell is in Singapore! finally! although I just saw you half a year ago. He has been in SIngapore for barely 2 days, and he has had his laksa, bak kwa. short of satays and black jack. Did you know he printed a deck of cards with the picture of him and joan zeze? haha still, that is not going to help u win money!

and today is the 30th of the month. last night, my mum was baking cake, tidying up the house (the house never seems tidy even with so much tidying up), went to ntuc to buy our new year goodies, came home and decorated the house somemore, waited for the cake to be baked (3 hours!) and went to sleep at 230. cny is no joke man!

then woke up at 7 this morning for piano class. not enough sleep plus prolonged wearing of contact lens = red eyes. lesson was bad cos i din practise and i was sleepy. after that, went to shaun's house for annual cny lunch. went to chinatown with uncle dell. finally had a chance to come home in the afternoon. uncle dell is now more tolerant of the heat and the walking i believe, which is good training!

alright my house is hosting the international relatives meeting. my cousin had flown in from china and uncle dell from usa. makes cny all the more exciting!

not to foget audit indiv assignment, corp reporting, EF and CAT project!!!

Happy CNY!!

Last year yesterday, I spent it eating steamboat with 4 girls and doing all the stuff girls do - taking nonsensical and fun pictures. this year, i spent it with a CAT mid term and an audit book. nonetheless it was still a good day. i had a stranger knocking on my door. i was out of the mushy smu long before ppl started offering me free almost withered roses. I got my nice fragant lilies from dkny. thank you very much and i truly appreciate it.

and uncle dell is probably in san francisco waiting to board his plane now. and poor speedy and mona lisa will have to spend 10 days with the vet. let's hope speedy is not overweight.

we celebrated siu's 21st birthday early in advance, taking into account everyone's hectic schedules and mid terms. it was my first successful birthday. sometimes, u feel that it is worth the effort for someone.

chinese new year is coming. i hope everyone who are overseas can catch a whiff of what is going on here. chinatown, bak kwa, god of fortune. i will try to post some pictures. meanwhile, more projects. before that 2 more mid-terms.

and puee, i hope ur good luck is replenishing!

Hello everyone! welcome to february 2007.
next week this time, uncle dell and joan will be here. and we will all be gearing up for chinese new year!
but before that, I have to clear 3 mid-term tests. Wed, Thurs and Fri back-to-back. Isn't that great?
and i have been overeating the past few days, probably causing my diarrhoea. Busy today again. I gotta be in sch and go give tuition. hmmm. CNY: pls arrive earlier and faster and leaver later!

and siu, glad u like the moon orchid. the actual long name for it is Phalaenopsis Orchid. keep it in bright and cool place. air com also can :)

and happy birthdays to my mum, uncle dell, matthew, ue, lam, terence. so many feb babies!
and upcoming birthdays: Siu, Jia hui. tadah

good news everyone.

my one and only thumb drive, which stores all my vital data, is officially spoilt. why? i just stuck it in the home com and wet for a 2 hour nap - do u still call a 2 hr nap nap? anyway, when i woke up and returned to the com, it was bent. presumably, someone accidentally forcefully bent it. ARGH. why has all my info gone?!?

haiz. my one and only thumbdrive.

all the info how???

my brother says i shd have backed up. oh well. i think back up is very troublesome!

don't blame me if i don't donate to charities anymore. following the NKF saga, we now have the Youth Challenge mystery. Seems like a cycle, where every few years, a few of these cases will all pop up at once. Who will be next? all the charities had better tighten their control.

how can the CEO of a charity earn an annual salary that amounts to 56% of the total income of the charity? Ridiculous. and he drives in a sports car, lives an a terrace house. and he bypasses all the necessary procedures required to withdraw money and stuff. Who will dare to donate to charities? or volunteer to charities anymore?

let's keep the volunteerism spirit up. These are probably the black sheep that have finally been uncovered. there are still truly needy ppl out there who needs just a little warmth in their lives. sounds cliched, but i think we cannot imagine what they go through and can only help in the best way we could.

and i m looking forward to the end of the week. i m rushing to get all my errands done and spend some time with family and friends before cny comes. before mid terms come. cny is another time to spend with loved ones, after which, is the due dates for projects and presentations. the 2nd semester of the academic year is always the more tensed one as we let loose our guard with cny festivities in the air.

uncle dell is coming in T-H-R-E-E weeks. :)

and my LTM class, for which i am a teaching assistant, has been a delight to me thus far. I m enjoying myself, and siu is enjoying listening to me telling her all about my LTM lessons. and so far, i have learnt a lot from my group (lol-lings or little-lings). plenty of work to do still!!!

went shopping with mama and brother today. very very very rare we get to go out together and just enjoy cruising in the car. my mum is stressed and has slimmed down quitue a bit. she has been working till 2-3am. any cucumbers for her eye bags? what i learn from her is her passion in her work. and i guess that is what keeps her goign and fuels her energy. we shd all live passionately once.

alright. back to audit. auditors are more often than not, stingy, particular, picky and i-dunno-what. i dunno to become like that. argh.

it is too hot in australia and too cold in the U.S.

every morning I wake up early for my morning class, I love the morning sun. I love to smell the grass. It reminds me of my good olf secondary and jc days. when we were sweating in the parade square singing the national anthem, listening to strings of announcements and appeals for students to own up if they had eaten on the mrt or jay-walked.

good old days don't last long. Just like we can't remain in schools for long. It is only week 3 of the new school term and I feel the pressure. 3 more months till the end man. and this will be a tough long 3 months. oh man.

did u read a health survey, on how if u keep thinking abt "living everyday as if it is your last", u will generally live a shorter life? would you put 100% into everyday?

similarly, if u keep thinking that your efforts will not be recognised at the end of the journey, that everything will end up in naught, would you still put in 100% and enjoy the process? i think i won't, because i worry too much. so i don't even bother thinking abt the end. maybe when the final moment come, i will just leave in shock and that is not the best way to leave.

Hell0o everyone
I was at home for the most of today. despite that, it was probably one of the most traumatic days. haha no i m not goign to commit suicide. I m goign to count my blessings, in wing lam's words.

today, i decided to go through all the cards and post cards i have received all this while. there were birthday cards, christmas cards, new year cards, cards from long lost frens. do u believe in karma and affinity? i do. probably in the most superficial sense.

winglam, mei yin and hui yi will never miss my birthday cards. christmas, new year once in a while haha. but i m really thankful for your friendships. whether you are reading this or not.

and there are those really funny cards from siu siu. siu, remember my 20th birthday birthday card? i opened it and i jus burst out laughing. u drew a big smiley face. and sometimes that is all one needs to break into a smile.

had a good time with siu and kc yesterday. somehow we are all growing up too fast. omg. sound so cliched ay? if only we had known one another since 5 years old. then again, believe in affinity?

then there were all the love letters from the sariputta girls. thank you girls. lindy, i must say you are really sensible and mature, opposite of me. i m jus wilful and naggy. jiayi, thanks for your pen. sel and mich, 3 of us being the oldest, thanks for showering care and concern among 5 of us.

and there are those really precious postcards from all over the world from tim, puee and john. i really respect you guys and thank you for remembering me no matter which corner of the world u r at. i have cards from pisa, french alps, amsterdam. could one of u pass me an address so i could send u some merlion cards as well? haha.

and there are cards from songjie as well. the stylo birthday card and all the cards with funny photos of you.

and these is this card from qiantai. think after we graduated from JC.
and this card from ying zi. my long lost primary sch, ex-neighbour, who has moved to sengkang.

i really liked the birthday card from USA. it has TLTH, joan, uncle dell, speedy, kima and kipa's signatures and well wishes.

oh yes, uncle dell, i have the card that came with elmo. ur handwriting is real big and cursive :)
elmo has a new partner btw, jus like speedy sir stamford raffles has merlion mona lisa. elmo's partner is stitch the elvis. show u when u get back online from ur road travels or when u get to nice and cool sg.

btw, sg has been flooded and raining to the extent that thomson road outside my house is flooded. perfect for u!

and there is this card from hong li and kaiyi for being a GL in their camp. really sweet of them.

these are all memories. i want to get a box and store them and look at them every month and count my blessings on my blog everytime i read them.

i have gotten to be really snap at ppl. snap at my frens, my parents. i finally got a taste of my medicine when my mum reprimanded me. i guess there is nothing to be shameful abt. i may have been right. but the way i talked to my mum was disrespectful. and i guess i m still a 6-year old inside. i need to grow up quick.

i apologise if i always thank the same few ppl. these are the ppl who have stood by me all these while. with so many ppl behind me in whatever i do, why do i keep wanting more? I used to think that i will be happy once i get something. when i do get it, i start being unhappy again. i gues buddhism is right. sometimes, getting what u want may bring u more challenges than happiness. i m worried and scared that i will just get caught up in the rat race. and i start seeing this in myself. i ask myself why can't i just think of everyone as being nice and all, even if i know they are not. why can't i just be as enthusiastic abt everything as i used to be? i just see this sloppy self in front of me.

SO. i have to snap out of everything i m in now. and try to be more upbeat abt everything. i believe everything starts from me. i choose to procrastinate. let's hope this starts in everyone and there will be spill over effect and spill over to me.

and accourding to a health report, certain activities will prolong ur life while others will shorten ur life. one of the latter is when u think and live everyday like it is ur last. this is most damaging on ur life.

and HAPPY 21st birthday to Ying Zhi, Yi Han, Qian Tai, Renji. Matthew, urs is coming up next!

alright.
down with second week of sch
my more or less finalised time table

mon 830-1145 Lendership and Teambuilding Mentoring
12 - 315 Corporate Reporting

wed 830-1145 Computer as an Analysis Tool
12-315 Finishing Touch

thur 830-1145 Audit

fri 12-315 Entrepreneurial Finance

ANYONE WANTS TO TAKE EMTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE WITH ME?
it is a pretty interesting module. Prof is Winston Koh. young prof with 2 daughters. flies in in the morning and goes straight to sch to teach.

lesson is about venture capital and stuff. project is writing up a business plan.

7 vacancies. come come and write business plan with me!!!

plenty of readings to do. going top tuition gordon tonight. hope all goes well.

hi everyone.
i m in leadership and team building lesson now. basically, no laptop for the next 3 hours for the next 15 weeks! monday blues!
ARGH!
haha. cheers! good morning everyone. i m just going to type nonsense until my members start streaming in. woot!
bleagh. 6 weeks to CNY. how many weeks to uncle dell coming back?

and yup i saw the tags:
jacq, hope u had a happy new year!
uncle dell, hope u had a happy new year in US too. with speedy? or away from home?
puee, happy new year! hope skiing was fun. and thomson clu not bishan club-typo.
and happy 21st birthday john! thanks for the card from the french alps!

Happy new year 2007 everyone!

2-007 must be james bond's year man :P lame

anyway, i managed to meet up with liang si, liang yuan and yihan before sch started, which is good. bishan club meeting up once in a while :) yihan is back from NYU and liang si is back from france. their faraway tales make me want to go see and experience all that for myself.

and yes, thanks to liang yuan, who was late because he was watching one tree hill, you could go to alluc.org to check out serials for free.

sch started. hectic. scary. more heavy, dry boring accouting modules. and bidding for such modules is giving me a headache. since we are paying the same fees whatever prof we get, whatever grades we get, why can't everyone just have the good profs? why can't all the profs give good grades? life is never fair. just like how keira knightley is in harvard(i believe) despite being so gorgeous and successful. merit deposit bank eh?

mel, lion and shaun came to visit me at smu today. cool. think it is good for mel to go ard the unis and decide where she wants to go to.

we watched blood diamond today. it is a good movie. not a brainless action flick, but one with so many people's lifes entqined within. leonardo dicaprio is acting all these emotional movies.

and straits times did a write up on leo. saying he is an A list movie without the stuck-ups and arrogance. i think he may just be my next idol.

44 days to CNY and counting. time for new clothes and more food. but before, let's hope i exercise. and yes, wing lam is still in hong kong. argh.

siu, thanks for the nice pair of earrings, the sweet shirt and all the chocolates! :) yum yum!

did i mention, i received a card from Pui san, Winglam, joan and uncle dell, and a surprise card today from Tim? puee and tim r studying in UK, wing lam is not freezing in hong kong and uncle dell and joan probably just returned to their rocklin home with a christmas tree in tow. really thankful for your cards :) this year, i have spared the ritual of writing cards. mb new year alright?

and today was camp reunion. sariputta gals all wore the Same Same But different shirt. and xiong was trying hard to convince us that only ah bengs wear that shirt. oh well. we shall revolutionise the wearer of this shirt.

camp reunion was alright. video was funny. plenty of left-over food.

then christmas party at terence's place. woah. food food and more bbq food. his dog is pretty noisy, but probably she is not used to so many strangers in the house and is still a young dog - 1year and 1month.

tmr is time to paint the house. i m in charge of shifting the furniture for my dad and brother to paint. it will be a tough christmas eve tmr.

HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY MR. Yeo SONGJIE!

Merry Christmas everyone!
thanks to Winglam, Pui San, Joan and Uncle Dell for your Christmas cards :)

Was in Bintan from Monday to Wednesday. My dad was right. Monsoon season. Out of the 3 days we were there, it rained 2 days. only on the last day was there any sun. got sun burnt on my shoulder. i want to go swimming again. ms chay, we need to go swimming and get our tan :) don't worry. promise no JAWS in the pool.

tmr, sat, will be our camp reunion at Manjusri at 845.

hazel has topped her school for n levels. i also don't know how she does it. congratulations!

hi everyone,
so much to blog abt. let me pick from my random thoughts

1. uncle dell and joan, do you remember the Build-A-Bear shop where we built our blue and red bears and printed their certificates? it is now in Singapore, in this big shopping centre called Vivo City. We got to go there when u come by. it is this humongous new shopping centre near Sentosa (not quite near, will have to explain to u verbally)

2. i met up with siu and kc today. we talked a lot as usual. siu is flying off again. can tell all 3 of us are enjoying our hols :)

3. seeing more of my sariputta gals. and we are getting along all too good. jiayi is in korea. been talking to mich, dumble-DEE and sel. we are looking forward to many good and new stuff coming up!

4. i have 9 new goldfishes, after my unfateful encounter with 100 ikan billis.

5. i have grown the fattest in 8 years.

6. merry christmas!

Reflections for camp ehi-passiko 2006 Sequel

Alright. i m back from camp. from day 0 to day 4 today. it has been yet another experience for me. my very first camp was last june, when i was a camper, dec when i was a group leader, this june when i was in the games team and this time round, i was vice camp mistress.

i must say each experience has been an enriching experience and gave me an opportunity to see the running of the camp. each role gives me a further insight into how everyone works together.

being an organisor means taking the big picture in sight, and not burrowing into details. means giving instructions and not taking instructions. means knowingwhat you want and having an idea in your mind, instead of working out your final destination as you work on the process. means visualising what you want.

firstly, i want to thank the campers. without their participation and enthusiasm, there would be no camp. without their understanding, patience and co-operation, we would have had a tougher time. seeing them enjoy the games and the cmpafire truly made me realise again what i was doing all these for.

secondly, i would like to thank Mrs. Cheng, teacher-in-charge who worked with us. she could have chose to wash her hands off a lot of things. but she was really dedicated and was always ready to help us and go through all the trouble for us. and i really enjoyed talking to her. seeing how happy she was, looking at the campers enjoying the camp, further made me realise again what we were doing all these for.

thirdly, i would like to thank all the group leaders this time round. having to get the keys from me each time you want to visit your bunk, being really responsible and at the same time enthusiastic to provide such a wonderful camp for everyone.

next, i have to thank the 4 heavenly kings, the 5 tiger generals, the logistics team, the realms , the messing group and everyone. without your company, this camp would not have been so enjoyable. without your help, the camp could not have run on smoothly. without your witty ideas and thinking on your feet, the camp could not have been less trouble-free.

i would say the toughest part of the camp would be enduring little sleep ad maximum fatigue. but i believe the group leaders, logistics team, messing team, and everyone else were more tired than i was.

lastly, i just want to thank our camp mistress, kaiyi. she has been really nice and understanding towards me and i enjoyed working with her. she has taught me many things in running a camp, or a project in general, which i had overlooked. she has been really patient with me and i just want to give her a big THANK YOU.

and to all of you reading this, i would not have been able to participate in such a camp without your support and understanding throughout this whole time. thank you very much.

time to bathe and rest! Sadhu sadhu sadhu!

last paper! TWC. technology and world change. on a saturday afternoon.
c u in a while!

dear all,
it is wednesday and i m down with my three big papers. biggest coming up. this exam period is passing so slowly. argh. why why why? exams used to pass so quickly. like -Flash!- and ya i did not use to read my notes. but now, i can't get down to reading my textbook and have read my notes. think it is always good to prepare notes so days like these.

and thanks to mr yeo, i realise i have 2 mistakes in my finance paper already. oh well. probably more. up to the profs to mark my ugly handwriting.

oh how am i goign to study for Accounting Info System? the previous years AIS exams were Multiple choice questions. but with our new prof, it is 4 long questions, each 25 marks, over total of 3 hours. oh man. so many things to read and study. promise no more than 3 exams a semester from now on. 4 is stressing yourself out. 5 is insane.

sun, mon, tues, wed, thurs, fri, sat.

holidays start after AIS on fri noon. 20% AIS on sat? take it as it comes.

that leaves me with - 5 days to studies, 7 days to my real holidays.

11 days to CEP

12 days to mama's opening.

all happening within the next 2 weeks. and yet this week and next week will probably be the longest and most tragic and tough-to-endure weeks. and the holidays will zoom past, as usual.
haha taking a levels every 6 months.

this morning i woke up with the feeling that i don't like university life. i like the people, but the education regime is very different from government schooling. this probably arose after talking to wing lam on the phone last night. things keep changing. no ten year series (haha ironic) i guess i don't like it cos i have to apply what i learn, which we have not been doing for the past decade of schooling. ironic.

on the other hand, university is where i have more/less time to myself. meet people.

let me share with u a story abt a lonely fish. once upon a time, he shared a fishtank with 8 other parrot fishes.he bullied, bit, head-butted all the other fishes. poor fishes were bruised. there was one who dutifullly ignore him by shovelling sand from one end of the tank to the other, but this fish chose to injure him. one by one (or even three by three), these fishes passed away. guess what? this fish was all lonely.
and now, when it passed away, it ended up in a lonely death.

yup. my last parrot fish died. in clear view of everyone at home. he was old and fat and lonely. but he was ferocious as well. my maid is sad over its death. my dad switched off all the filters and stuff. sounds like plugging someone off a life machine.

think tmr, if i m going to go to the market (a very big IF), i m going to get (i) fishes to take up my fish tank and (ii) flowers to put in vase at home - this was an efficient way to destress during a levels. hope this still works.

and after tmr, i m goign to live day by day. first is income tax. then when income tax is over, i will worry abt company law. not too much time to worry over company law. then finance. breather before AIS. then slight holiday. and TWC. and hols. whee. can't wait.

itinery:
Camp Ehi-Passiko
buying christmas cards with wing lam
goign cycling with her (both of us are getting fat)
eating buffets
going to sentosa, east coast
running, swimming

seems like a lot of time? i doubt half the list will be fulfilled haha.

tata. till we meet again - everyone float and stay alive!

mid exam crisis time!
time passes real slow this week
updates:
ms chay has busted her knee. oh no. i hope not serious. but i doubt it. pls update me.
besides that, nothing fantastic is happening in my life.

psle. haha my mum is still an avid supporter of my primary sch. top scorer 281 from raffles girls primary. i can just guess where she is going next.

highest scorer for ai tong sch is 280. congrats boy/girl. welcome to this world man. life starts with getting ur psle.

and my mum has reservations at her restaurant by ai tong sch and st nics for the teachers to celebrate psle results. or maybe, to celebrate yet another batch of faceless graduating students, who are on to better (or worse?) things in life :)

look ahead. look far far ahead. my gp tutor says it is better where she is teaching, than where she taught me. cos students like me don't appreciate her. after we graduate, we forget all these ppl who have been such great influences in our lives.

humans have such forgetful memories. or is it just me?

no more classes. exams now! bring it on!

was studying today. and day dreaming. abt many many things.

this semester has been a relatively ok one. no levine. company law was not as bad as i had expected after business law. income tax was scary though. finance was slack. AIS? din know what has been goign on since week 1. twc was intense. and interesting. a lot of readings!

and uncle dell is coming to singapore! but that is like 3 months away. nonetheless, it is something we can all look forward to. uncle dell, do u know many of my friends have heard of u, after elmo and reading on the blog. haha u r a "celebrity". of course they know abt speedy too. i need to publicise joan and mona lisa more haha

exams - what will come out? somehow, a lot of readings. and calculations wise, i m not very confident either. i need a break man. hang out with wing lam and my cousins. chalet. sbm. camp.

today was reading the newspapers. and there was a feature on teenagers. guess what they hope to do during their holidays?

"shopping"
"go zouk with their friends" mind u, this gal was only 15 and the legal age limit is 18

and these were the excuses ven mahinda mentioned before. new year resolutions of "becoming a millionaire" in the next year. frivolous. yet we are doing it. i see myself doing it. and i feel wierd saying i need a break by going shopping. the thought of it, whether i go on it or not, always makes me wonder what i m actually thinking.

and my AIS prof, on the last lesson, mentioned 2 important things

1. do u know what google can do to u? google has always been viewed as a good thing to me. and still is. convenient. returns relevant results to me. but for technology and world change module, we actually did a case study on google business model. sounds cool right? i din expect so much study on something that is so easily accessible to so many people.

2. why blog? if thoughts are meant to be private? why blog? when search engines can sieve through your blogs and show ur private thoughts to so many people whom u may not know. oh well, guess there is this innate thing inside us who wants to show.

and of course. GST is up to 7%. whee. inspired by ryan's blog. oh well. ultimate consumers bear the brunt while corporations who earn our money pay less taxes. who suffer? we do. i shall start a corporation soon and stop existing as an individual.

USA President Mr. George Bush is in Singapore. and he was hanging ard my sch all the time yesterday. mb that explains the traffic jams.

I was contemplating whether to come for class today. Basically it would be a waste of time. But heck. Here I m. and guess what made my day?

The security guard at school of business. I actually did not really see him. But when he saw me, he kinda expected me to greet him. Which I did. My face kinda broke into a smile. And I realize I was not smiling. Hmph.

And I finished listening to the wonder car of the future. Now I m listening to the wonder disposable cup.

This is the last week of school. I doubt I can finish studying for exams. Argh. And CEP is coming. Exciting.

And after that, I only have 0.5 day to myself J

Then Chinese new year! Haha I am going crazy. Again. I haven’t been out of my house for 1.5 days.

monday morning

i m in smu library. printing my income tax report. now i m in the last stage of my cold - persistent coughing. haha.

last AIS lesson. then dinner. whee. haha

siu needs to get a wireless modem. i know nuts abt internet.

I just finished my finance presentation! after listening to all the horror stories, which tally with one another, we actually had a smooth presentation. haha. pfizer. make or break.

tmr is income tax test. i dunno how i m going to sit for the paper. imagine seeing the paper and getting a headache. thinking of taking the paper on tuesday. but, that means i will have to study for another few days, including over the weekend. 10%. hmmm. trade-off.

shd i study income tax tonight? argh. i forgot everything i did on mon and tues. hmph.

Uncle Dell,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ELMO! it is now the rage in shunfu road. Lionel waited for me to come home before unwrapping. he took utmost care to remove the tape and open the box. and when we switched it on, lionel and i just sat on the floor and laughed. literally head over heels. wish i could start rolling on the floor too. I m going to bring to sch and show to all my frens. hope this will make everyone join the SF laughter club. i can be the president with Elmo :)

and thanks puee, for the email. i hope u get ur internet soon.

little things that warm your heart :)

On to finance presentation!

hi everyone :)
i had two of the best breakfasts yesterday and the day before :) little things that warm your heart when the going gets tough.

this coming monday will spell the winding down of this semester. whee. so soon. less than 3 months and a semester has passed. time to look back and look at what i have learnt - revise for exams! :)

was at the national library yesterday to do income ta research. now my life is full of income tax. i culd drown in it. i wish i could compute income tax for my parents. if u want me to compute ur income tax, beware the taxman. i may omit certain tax reliefs/ rebates u r entitled to, or omit some taxable income you have to be taxed on. haha, and there is group relief :)

finance presentation tmr. can't wait for it to be over. i enjoyed working with my finance group. but i think i have had enough of the financial ratios of pfizer :) viagra anyone?

did u know viagra was manufactured to treat cardiovascular diseases?

check out dogs' mutiliation caused by animal testing of viagra on these dogs by pfizer.

and good luck my brother, for ur o levels.

it is that time of the year. when i suddenly realise how impt gpa-s are. and start worrying abt my gpa.

i want to go for internship with merrill lynch to hong kong. i wish my birthday was not in july. then again, i wish for my birthday to be in july.

i have been trying to change my mindset saying results are not everything. haha my dad asks me to do a good report when i told him i had a report due at 12 midnight last night (sunday night).

i m just grumbling. it is AIS class now.

Singapore has an ageing population. This evening, when I came home from Piano lesson, there were so many elderly folks hanging ard the mama shop, probably because of the funeral downstairs. At least more than 10 old ppl.

and i reaffirm my support for chelsea. why? cos i like drogba. why? i also dunno why. i only ermember seeing him in a clown/joker's cap when chelsea won last season.

and finance report is more or less done. in 2 hours' time. now to start on income tax report and income tax test on friday. i don't want to lead this kind of life when i go to work.

overall, this has been a sad weekend. i don't look forward to the upcoming week.

Siu, congrats on passing ur driving test! now u can zoom ard in ur lexus and drive ur sis to sch and drive me ard :)

alright. income tax project and finance presentation left. income tax workshop and test. argh.

oh yes. and twc write-up. thank goodness we did case study instead of business plan. woot

been a busy/ok week. going to start biding for next year's classes again. how fast time passes. and all u o levels and a levels, it will be over soon. and just do ur best. the initial euphoria after ur exams shd be enough to sustain u till u reach university haha. i dunno what i m saying again. :)

and yes, my jc class having gathering tonight. can't go. tmr morning have class. and it is the sat i told myself last week i wanted to go swimming. grrr.

and i missed yesterday's shanghai trip gathering as well. oh well.

good luck rachel, when u reach SF. SF is a nice place :)