Please note, this essay was written in bits, the first part on 31st December 2008, and the second part on 1st January 2009.

I'm sitting in the living room now, waiting for new year to come. The channel 5 countdown acts by the mediacorp "stars" aren't very nice for they are actress/actors/showhosts. They can't sing. The best act is going on now: Rivermaya! MP too full from dinner to have "party for two". Well, since Lucky is here, it's "party for three" then.

Still not drinking alcohol. It's orange-sugary drink mixed with soda water.

Last night I stayed over at J&S's on impulse. They came over as a family to visit Mama, and

wait. HAPPY NEW YEAR (it's 12.30am now) I'll tell ya what happened later down the entry.

so, i was telling them how bored I was at home with nothing to do, and they too were bored, so on my uncle's suggestion, which I don't think he thought I would take seriously, I packed up and left with them. (Well, that's how I went to visit them in Sydney, no?)

So at night, I showered at their place, found my facial cleanser was still there from the last time I went swimming at their place, and tried to skype a bit but the internet was shaky at both ends, so I only saw MT, didn't see Mummy nor Daddy. Resorted to typing on msn for a bit, because over there, internet is by the minute, and for both internet and home phone, have to buy TOP UP CARDS to use. What?? ok, I realise, it could be because Beijing is developing, and top up card system is an easy way to implement and allow people to cheaply pick up these services.

After which I found my uncle playing PS3 with Sarah and my auntie playing something else and watching him play with his ferrari game. He then put in Sonic Hedgehog to let me try playing the game for it was considered easier and very fun. It was true! Though he uploaded the from the saved game, which means I wasn't starting from the beginning, it was still quite manageable, for someone like me who is more of a PC gamer: up is up, down is down, left, right, space bar, and so on, whereas for Xbox, and PS3 and other consoles which you attach to the TV, it's how far left and how far right.

The high-speed smooth flowing actions, with "absolute" button-pushing instead of agar-ing with the joystick, and periods of pausing to gaze at the action of Sonic, so fun! The stunts, running, jumping, sliding on the speed hoops,pipe, running upside down down a vertical wall, jumping, and ah yes, killing a robot just needs you to press one or two buttons ONCE, and they die. Brilliant! :D

Next day morning, I woke up before 9am, surprisingly. I thought it was already 11am for I heard talking from outside the room for some time already and was wondering why my alarm hadn't rung. So I looked at my handphone then realised.

I had pancake (only one slice, aww...) and jam (first time with pancakes), *second part begins here* and the staple milo for breakfast. After which, slack around for a bit, played a bit of piano, watched TV, and HSM 1 happened to be on disney channel, just after the "American Dragon" we were watching, and because Sarah wanted to watch it for the songs, we watched it. I like some of the pop songs I admit.

After which, we could finally go for a swim. I kept thinking quite often this holidays, on the hot days, "how perfect for a swim", for 2 reasons: 1) the water will cool me off from the heat. 2) I won't feel so cold when I'm in the water. That day, it wasn't raining, but it was a bit cloudy at some points, so it was cold when I was out of the water once I had warmed up by doing laps. I enjoyed the swim, the splashing of water at my cousin, the floating around, and the exercise. I can't do the front crawl (what quite a lot of people call "freestyle") properly because I never learnt it much during the swimming lessons I had when I was young. I remember learning with the board, then tilting the head, but never did it without the board. So only can do the breast stroke aka."frog kick" and a backstroke slowly but end up turning without knowing it if I don't have a point to keep my view at and follow, and I kick it wrongly then. That's why my status is: Can float and move around.

Had a good wash up, found out the floor in the shower cubicle was flooded cos the drain was blocked, and apparently not the first time. Then lunch: fried soba. When I heard that I found it weird, cos I never heard of soba being fried. It was fried with carrots, spring onion, capsicum and bits of chicken. It was delicious. Since there was no more soba left to fill my stomach, I had a red bean potong, something I hadn't had in a long time. yummy. Soba is my favourite japanese noodle, followed by ramen(springiness is key, and so is the sauce, otherwise it's as good as bad wantan mee). Udon I find is a mouthful and therefore can only eat one strand at a time, chew a lot, and end up swallowing a lot of air.

I opened my computer, did some internet then played guitar. I had learned more songs after visiting Marie's house and hearing some songs from her large collection of contemporary Christian music. When my uncle returned, he set up the Wii and Sarah and I played Wii Golf and Wii sports. My right shoulder hurt a bit cos whenever I swung, I tend to swing in big momentum-based actions. I liked the tennis in Wii sports best. Bowling wasn't too bad, it was easier than real life (duh). Golf, let's just say the only experience I have is from actual mini-golf games, and I lost to Sarah in Wii Golf. It was very fun though.

When we were done, we packed up and my uncle dropped me off home along the way to a party the family was going to. Just in time for my dinner, my delicious home-cooked dinner.

MP and I watched TV, channel surfing away from the countdown party when the actors/actresses who can't sing were singing. Less than 5 minutes to midnight, we went up to the balcony, I carried Lucky up. We stayed at the stairwell, listening to the TV for the cue to the countdown, and when they counted 10 seconds, I ran out to MP and Lucky who I sent back to the balcony to admire the surroundings, and counted down 5,4,3,2,1!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!! and gave each other a hug and wished the doggie happy new year, then went down to turn off the TV. MP gathered up her things to wash up and go to rest while I stayed online to talk on skype and msn.

Today, I woke up before 12noon, finally had spaghetti for lunch after a long time. I spent most of my time on the computer and writing my too long and unstructured essay to summarise 2008. I am going to write a better one for my blog. So wu liao. I played Xbox a bit and found out that it had Sonic Unleashed demo inside, so I could play Sonic again, and I did. So fun!

Sec3/Sec4 class reunion coming up! looking forward to it. I do hope everyone replies soon *get the hint?* so can get the plans finalised!