Hallo hallo, I'm back! I finally have my lenovo back so I'm not restricted to a heavy 1.5hr battery life laptop anymore nor the slow desktop daddy bought recently but km is destroying very quickly.

Recess week has just started. I should be doing my work. gah, playing computer fun. MP is playing a nintendo DS she borrowed. Rune Factory. It looks fun and she hasn't stopped playing it for the past 2 hours+.

hmm...where shall I start? let's start from 14th February. I am not blogging about V-day but of the statics quiz that fell on that day. oh my. I couldn't do some of the questions, and at the review lecture, we all saw how easy it was. A lot of students were feeling the way we did: how come didn't we see that? -___-"" then they all "go home and cry, feel moody for the rest of valentine's day". but really, I don't think many people actually did that. haha.

My v-day gift count: 2 hershey kisses from a girl from my JC who is in the same tut group as i, and a rose from MT. The rose is the last one leftover from her roses that she gave out to all the others. it's blackened now but I'm still keeping it. A black withered rose provides emo/silent-themed photograph opportunities, no? heehee, i tried taking today.

Sunday. Daddy and I were wondering what to do the night before. I suggested the museum, and he actually went along with my idea. He had never gone to the National Museum for decades. KM tagged along with us, and he had just visited on Tuesday. KM and I had free entry because of the school tie-ups, and Daddy used the STB's free tickets SMS promotion and redeemed 4 complimentary tickets. We visited the touring exhibition of "Come-in". quite interesting, then we went to the History Gallery, which I think is the best gallery in the National Museum. Daddy quite enjoyed himself there and found out Singapore was built with Indian convicts, like how Australia was built with British convicts. Some of these convicts, when they had served their time, stayed on in Singapore. I got to take a look at the Farquhar paintings of plants and animals. I like those detailed drawings very much.

I did the same stupid thing twice at the independence section: made a hole in my jeans. I think it is the same pair and the hole is at the same location. -___-"" As I wanted to cross over to the other side for the other path, I squeezed through this gap between the frames, and the corner of the frame caught me in that same spot and scratched a hole there. It's fortunately not obvious and neither is it an embarrassing location.

We didn't have enough time to go to the Living gallery as Daddy had to bring Mama to Church.

Tuesday I went fencing. That session, many people ponned so the only rookies present were YH and I. All other year 1 students were senior fencers. So that day I told myself, "Today I will use this opportunity to learn from the seniors. Today is the time to learn."

The small group of people, Joanna, Khai, YJ, YH, I, YL, Jason, ran around the track. (YLng, Maggie, JR and WA came to fencing too but I can't rmb who ran around the track). Just the small group of us, 3 rounds. Jo could even chat to Khai while jogging(u can tell the pace from here). It was a nice feeling. I broke off from the group to give my legs a bit of stretch, to see if I could lengthen my strides and save energy. I still came in last. haha.

I was surprised Jason came down because his exams were next week. He trained YH for a very long time, nearly the whole session, leaving YH exhausted.

I kept making the same mistakes that I usually made, which is disappointing. I must learn and NOT MAKE IT AGAIN! My posture. Don't rush, THINK. Lunge hand come out first. I fenced against Khai for the first time and he kept making me practice my disengage, which I got wrong quite often, either disengaging wrongly or the point missed him. I also got to fence against YLng and maybe WA as well(but here my memory serves me short yet again). I also had a session with coach. I must remember not to step forward when I repose. I must have confidence about my distance and my length. Going too close gets me everytime (duh). My lunge was also better during the session. I could feel it and JR commented it was better. I must transport it from training onto the piste. YJ gave me advice to practise the steps with the blade until I got used to it (i.e. the motions are smooth). One step for every move. eg. If I want to do beat attack lunge, I take one step for the beat, and one step as the lunge.

i have to get a tube soon for the blade. maybe then i would bring the blade home and practise with it.

Supper for the first time with the senior bunch, those from YL's year and maybe older. I never went for suppers last sem, and this sem the times they went for supper they left earlier to other places. Clementi. I found out WA had already graduated too, and he recently got a job. Before that he was serving NS. YL is concerned for his job prospects, but who wouldn't be in his position? So he shared what jobs he was considering. I do hope that he would be able to find a job without too much difficulty, and that the job would be a decent one.

YL sent Khai and I back. I got to hear about their opinions on things and that got me thinking. I didn't know Serangoon Gardens was part of Serangoon - the locations of serangoon and serangoon gardens were seperate in my mind. The architectures and accessibilities(how they were accessed) were different. Then they were talking about the stuckup people who protested against the dormitories. I hope people do recognise they are not "masters of the universe". We should all be loving, and that made me question myself, were my comments loving? I sounded so despising. It is wrong of those stuck up people to be so stuck up. But, I must give a chance to everybody right? If they continue to do bad, I will have to leave them alone unless they start hurting people, now that is different. That is called abuse.

But nevertheless, as with after every supper, I felt happy. I was smiling on the inside. Such a feeling I want to hold onto for the rest of my life. I never want to forget it. It is one of the things I am very thankful for, and if I have the opportunity to write a letter before I die (not by suicide), I hope I remember to include this.

Wednesday I managed to collect back my laptop (I think I collected it on Wednesday). Oh wait, hmm... yah, could be. I had lunch by myself at the business canteen, where the food and atmosphere is much better than the gloomy open air canteen in pgp, and cheaper too since i had the $1.80 yong tau foo which I like. I sat near the edge of the canteen, overlooking the carpark and IMRE building nearby below and next. I thought of a senior, who's doing his FYP inside IMRE. I do wonder what exactly they do for FYP there. And I do hope I won't get a lousy FYP, nor a boring one! The sunlight coming in gently but bright enough for studies(but i didn't study, i only had lunch), and the airiness, I felt that it was a nice spot and I was feeling this quiet contentment that would put that slight smile on one's face when they felt it. I then quickly went back to hall and left for Dr. Chua's.

Wednesday night I spent comfortably at home, and I had my delicious home-cooked dinner. yummmm. Later that night I completed and submitted my critique assignment for EG1413. very happy I finally got it cleared. I then treated myself to playing a bit of computer.

Thursday, full-force on the SSA2211 essay assignment. the question was whether it would be feasible and viable to include Singapore's pre-1819 past as part of the History of Singapore. I had only done the readings and wrote down a few possible points and a vague stand at that point.

After physics tutorial, I rushed down to the arts linkway outside central library. I stayed throughout all the shifts, from 10am to 3pm manning the booth for CAC+US 2009, which is the annual showcase performance for the subclubs of CAC, and hence the biggest event for CAC. It's on 29th March 2009 at The Republic Cultural Centre (TRCC) [UCC was fully-booked], 8pm. Tickets are $12. I am part of the sub-committee of programmes of the planning committee. Please come and support us! Saraswathi would be performing too as a guest performer with her Indian classical music group. I manned the booth together with the others who came down during their shifts. Don't worry, I had my lunch with HQ, us two assigned to man the first shift :). I finally got to know the CAC+US people more, and finally can have some inkling of memory of their names/positions.

While manning the booth, I tried to do my essay and managed to complete my readings and write out the outline of the essay :D . I found out some others took that module before too.

Back at hall, I hammered out the rest of the essay, flipping through all the readings here and there looking for the locations of the supporting evidence I was using in the essay. At 3.19am, I switched off my computer, with the essay done sans the bibliography. very contented though I ate into my sleep time.

The next day, I went to YIH, finished the bibliography, played with the full-version of fb i have been deprived of, and printed out my essays besides submitting onto turnitin. I then submitted the stuff after lunch. I was happy it was over.

In the evening was CAC+US programmes meeting at BK at arts. Yay, got some things settled and now, it's time for the programmes team to step up their work! Yay, we are also updated on some things.

I stayed in hall on friday night for on Saturday, Shelby and I went to volunteer at Kampong Glam CC with Auntie A and Isabelle. Auntie A represented the organisation Asian Medical Foundation which sponsored the health screening for the residents and other members above 40 years old. We 3 girls, and auntie when she could, took the blood pressures of the people with those automatic machines. I used to help my grandparents measure their bp. Now I even more xi guan with this. I even took the bp for the MP, who was surprised to realise it was me and not some unknown volunteer she saw. I was there from 8.30am to 2.45pm and lunch was provided. Daddy picked me up. I thought we were going home, but no, Daddy saw an advertisement in the news and went back to look around harvey norman at millenia walk AGAIN. Oh well, I do like walking around there too. Daddy finally satisfied his wish of getting himself a personal colour laser printer, which he lauds for the photograph printing quality. The salesgirl was so hardworking, xing ku ni la, for she went all the way to the harvey norman at suntec city and carted back the printer and hand-carried the toners(which i carried for myself back to the car and it wasn't easy doing it with one hand), for there was no stock at this outlet.

While daddy was settling the purchase, I redeemed from my sms (sent to me in january) a spectacles screwdriver from optic point, as well as a free eyecheckup. yup, my degree hasn't changed (yet). 175 with astig on the left, 225 on the right. haizz..

Sunday morning us 3 went back to the museum to see the Living gallery. I was disappointed for I thought it was those regularly updated roving galleries, but it wasn't. I got a bit of that "dusty" feeling, but it wasn't too bad i guess. I am trying to get the idea of "tok tok mee". The question is: how does it look and taste like? I know it's called "tok tok" because of the bamboo tok tok sound the man hits the bamboo as he passes by. then they would lower basket from the 2nd floor of the shophouse with the money in it, and when they pull up the basket, the bowl of noodles would be in it. interesting. I also saw the kueh bahulu mould! so damaged. hahaha, mama has one and she used it this year. Mama's kueh bahulu is the best! nothing else satisfies. all the ones sold outside (especially the mass produced ones) are all dry and got preservatives until i can taste the chemicals. yuck. horrible taste and dry itchy mouth. bad bad. whereas, mama's ones are slightly sweet and moist and soft. oooo!

I saw the fashion gallery had quite a number of sleeveless items. Now i question, who's the more conservative one, the people in the past, or i? I don't wear sleeveless outside but many fashions in the past did. even the cheongsams. I saw a bright orange mini dress from that retro era, and it caught my eye. i might wear that with retro tights. hahaha joking joking. the sleeveless bit would be an issue.

and what i find interesting, comparing to today is that many people in the past made their own clothes or tailored them. Today, we buy all our clothes according to sizes. In the past, people would go buy fabrics and either get a tailor to tailor their pants and all that (includes those bell bottoms), or they would do it themselves (especially for the women, who i think were more into this, and maybe cos they changed their clothes fashions more often). My auntie used to make her own clothes, and she's just over 60 now (still quite recent her time). my grandmother obviously made her own clothes too. daddy told me he once tailored pants and that everyone wore platform shoes. heehee, i wore foam platform slippers when i was p5. it was lightweight and one side was the size of a small brick. *duck!* perfect for throwing at people. he pointed out to me the tools they used in tailoring. I had never seen a curved wooden ruler (fits the curve of the waist or other body parts), nor this mini-pizza-cutter like thing used to make markings with the carbon paper onto the next layer below.

i didn't know peranakans adopted the malay tradition of having multiple wives. i know malays could have up to 4 wives and chinese men often kept mistresses. this was at the photography section.

at the film section, daddy pointed out to me how the film projector worked. he says he had operated one before. daddy spoke of the cinema theatres and the ticket stubs showed movie names he said were the blockbusters then.

after looking through all the mini-galleries, i went to take a few photos, then found daddy at the souvenir shop. along the way, i saw through the glass rotunda, KM walking down around it. he never told anyone and left to do his things again. next time if he does so, and we kena leave him behind, too bad. I saw the book "Early Singapore 1300s to 1819", THAT book where some of my readings come from, some of the articles written by my lecturer. cool. and the images are in colour. Daddy satisfied another long-held wish, but this time the wish was held for a very long time. He finally obtained photographs of Singapore's past (those BnW and sepia kinds, of the harbours and places he saw when he grew up or maybe even earlier). He bought this giant heffalump $50 around there plus maybe $54.10 if i am not wrong, of a book, that has SO MANY PHOTOS in it. The book is covers 1819 to 2000, a pictographical dunno-what. He specially went to popular later that day to buy plastic wrapper for the cover. Daddy granted my whims and got me a metal lunchbox with photos of old singapore on the cover. very cute. chic, cool, retro, i donno but i like it.

for lunch, mama cooked this *weird* yam thing. It's a traditional cantonese dish (that i am unaware of). Yam was made into these red-blood-cell-like shapes about 1.5 inches in diameter, with salted veggies and other stuff. It wasn't bad, but i am not a fan of yam i am afraid. Mama loves yam, though.

Church. It was ACS Sunday that day, so the ACS(B) choir sang at all the main services, 8.30am, 10.30am and 5pm. wow, long day. their singing was quite nice, especially for that beautiful song "the prayer". We usually don't have a choir anthem at the end of service but today we did and the boys sang a simple choir song without seperate lines, the only thing was SATB, simple and sweet. 'find your way' was the title i think. there were also 2 other songs in the worship portion i liked and i finally took down the titles to search later on internet.

So I guess, it was a good week. I better get my work done! Goodnight! it's 24th Feb 2009 now, 1.38am. Happy 20th Birthday Zac! and today would've been my grandmother's 74th birthday. :) God bless you all.