Dear Diary and readers,

I've got a job now. I've been working since 12th May. I'm doing admin (actually my job is to help do a survey but in a survey there's a lot of administrative data-ish things to do. So I'm handling data - again. like in my previous job). For the past weeks until yesterday, I was doing data entry. I've finally nearly finished my list of cases to enter and since I've got such a nice boss, she lets me go work in another department to get away from data entry. I ended up peeling stickers, yes, peeling stickers off files that they want me to un-tag. In the morning did a bit of data entry, as well as the night before where I stayed late until 7pm to try to finish as many of the cases as possible and to earn more $$. So after I've completely finished my data entry and sticker peeling and another task, and if a new list of cases does NOT come in, I can go do another job, a runner to deliver things within the very large workplace. Much more preferred than sitting in that office cubicle with chinese pop music playing nearly ALL THE TIME from the neighbouring cubicle. Seriously, the singing is quite bad and the tunes sound quite similar in style, so it sounds nearly all the same and i hear the same songs AGAIN AND AGAIN, and a person from that cubicle comes into work with earphones plugged into her ears. She can't get enough of it is it? I can't focus properly and I don't think I can tolerate it for much longer. Also, the people there don't put their phones on silent so when they are away, the phone rings so loudly over and over again. -_-"""""""". grr. The delivery job is also better than sitting in that tiny storeroom peeling stickers, but fortunately for that room, the door is left open into an adjoining bigger room so it's not claustrophobic, plus, no chinese pop music.

Oh, on the night where I stayed late, since Daddy had to pick MP from school after her night class, Daddy picked me from my workplace. I couldn't meet him at the MRT station in time for I had to go back and retrieve things I dropped from my bag, which was unusally unzipped. I found most of my things but lost the two most important ones, my tissue paper packet that I had kept unopened for several years for I liked it's pretty design not available in stores for it was provided by a caterer, bearing it's logo on the packet, and my teeth, the teeth that the dentist gave me after I had them extracted. I have a lot of sentimental attachment to them and miss them very much. I do wish for them to come back to me.

Daddy brought me to IMM to walk around for MP wasn't released yet. It is what he does to kill time and enjoy himself and unwind from work. We went to Giant and because it was late enough, we bought discounted sushi and sashimi, but obviously the fresher ones. We then went to MOS burger and shared a large packet of fries, but it isn't really large. I didn't want to ruin my dinner or else grandmother would be singing. MOS burger makes the best french fries anywhere and tastes good with their good ketchup. yummy fries. daddy loves them.

Daddy told me that after 9am, the man selling juice on the first floor near the lift would start shouting to sell away watermelon juice for $1. And true enough, when we went by him, he was shouting, "watermelon juice, one dollar one dollar, sugar free no sugar, very fresh" all those phrases over and over again. He's a chinaman but when he shouts and if you close your eyes, it sounds like a european. A hidden secret of IMM.

We enjoyed the Sashimi at home along with my Yong Tau Foo dinner. YUMMY!!! the sushi we ate in the car, i miss the taste of sushi rice. We ate as we watched American Idol Final results show, which started a very short while after we got back, so we didn't miss it. The performances were enjoyable. I don't exactly know why people like Archuleta other than because they want to pinch his cheeks. Apparently his voice is very good but I can't tell, sounds a bit nasal blocked. But he still sings a lot better than some other "singers". I supported David Cook and was suprised that he won for I thought the younger David was more popular, but both Davids were gentlemanly and had great respect and friendship for each other.

Boss is very nice for she shows care for her staff and give me many opportunities to do other things and promises more, but I will complete my tasks first before I do anything else, that's only being responsible. Also, she employed me, knowing I would have to leave early or come into work late because of driving lessons.

Yes, I've begun driving lessons. They are scarily fun. For the third lesson, I felt very demoralised for I was doing very badly, I felt that I was very "slow" to learn and just couldn't get it. Fortunately, finally got my PDL and went onto the road to learn. There's more space on the road; the circuit is so crowded and space-constrained. I've been on the road a few times already since the 4th lesson (after I got my PDL). For the last few lessons, I've got the same instructor (no, I didn't pay the fixed instructor fee), a middle aged malay man with a big belly, like some of the driving instructors there (including females) scarily have. He was a former rugger for SAS. Interesting. For my second lesson, I had a young chinese man who was also a motorbike instructor and hence wore the blue and white suit. Both men were definitely more chatty than the first instructor I had (for the 1st and 3rd lesson) who was silent and maybe imposing. I also had a female instructor for the lesson before the one yesterday. She's ok lah. I'm enjoying my driving lessons overall and getting the hang of it, but I think I will still stick to auto for now for it takes time for me to learn procedures and all that. I am still learning to move off from an incline, I scared to press the accelerator pedal too hard or else damage the lining of the connector for some part of the car, or press to soft and roll back and get an immediate fail. Have to be even more sensitive with the pedal, which already hard to control since I've got long legs and tendency to be rough with things... FTT is coming up next week so I gotta study for it. I just got a Q&A book from a friend, but eli tells me quite a number of questions ask things that are not from the book, but just pick the one that makes most sense. Eli passed her FTT by the way.

On Sunday was the Assisi Home and Hospice funfair, held at SJI International's compound. Mum bought a whole stack of tickets (100 of them) to sell and give away, but she didn't manage to do that so she gave out a lot of tickets to us and I had to help her use it up by buying artificial flowers. -_-" Anyway, the event was very fun, there were many firms that came in to sponsor stalls. Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice set up a stall selling their famous dish and two hotels sold pastries and other foods from their kitchen and also donated dining vouchers as lucky draw prizes. Ben & Jerry's sold ice-cream too. McDonalds also sold 4pc McNuggets (with the different sauces too) and Apple Pie as well as those Happy Meal toys. There was also a jumble sale of donated bags and clothes and other barang barang (some of them branded) and there were stalls selling many things too like real flowers and jewellery and more clothes, and there were games too. The highlight of the event, however, was my ride on a HARLEY!!! SO COOL AND FUN!! The Harley Davidson club does a lot of charity work and set up a stall at the bottom of the hill, selling calendars and offering the chance to take a photo with the harley for $5, or like what MT and I did, $10 only for a pillion ride on the Harleys around the area.

MT, an old lady who wears jeans and t-shirt (i.e. the youthful kind), and I rode pillion, one Harley each along Thomson road then onto the PIE and turned into Toa Payoh at SAFRA, rode along Lorong 6 and 1 past CHIJ and then went up a small road that led us back to Thomson Road at Far East Flora and back to the funfair grounds. I rode on the middle bike, a blue one, and MT rode on a black one at the back that has music playing. I like the sound of the road as we whizzed by and after the Lorong 1 and Lorong 6 junction, where the Lorong 1 ahead was clear, after the traffic light turned green, we accelerated at high-speed and hit 70km/h. :D:D:D:D:D!!!! I was smiling silently all the way, for I was very happy and didn't want to distract the driver, so I kept cheering to a minimum (twice only). The Harleys are quite comfortable, the seats had a little back so as to give some support and there are foot rests for the pillion so that they have somewhere comfortable to put the feet on. MT's driver told her that Harleys are meant for long journeys and that he and his wife (the rider is a malay man if i'm not wrong) rode across USA on the Harley. The ride was so fun and now I can tell people, "I rode a Harley," and see them astounded. Heehee. Riding a Harley was something that I would have loved to do if given a chance, and now I've done it. :D

Since Monday was Vesak Day, a public holiday, it meant I didn't have to wake up so early and go to work to do data entry. yay. So I decided to do some family time. MT, KM, maid and I went to cycle at East Coast while Mum and another maid were attending a talk in Katong about some Japanese healing therapy that uses acupressure points (it's not some airy-fairy-health craze thing, it probably has a similar background as acupuncture from TCM). Anyway, MT and KM rode tandem for KM can't cycle and MT was the only one capable of balancing the tandem bike with the heffalump who can't balance at the back. The maid followed on another bicycle and I had a bike to myself too. I wonder why the shop deliberately gave the female cyclists bikes in metallics light pinkish purple and HOT PINK, and I got the HOT PINK. Oh well, I'm female after all, and I do embrace pink, though not so actively as a bimbo.

So we cycled quite a bit and stopped just after the radio-controlled car racing track. I wanted to tell the 3 of them in front of me to stop at Bedok Jetty but they were too far away. The heffalump, being obviously very heavy, had a lot of inertia which was why they couldn't stop until that point. There was so much inertia and that he couldn't balance that the maid and I had to push them off. KM was tired and so the 3 of them cycled back while I continued going in the direction to Changi Airport. After I heard stories from my friends that at the end of East Coast Park's cycling path was the airport and that they could see the control tower, I've made it a goal in my life to cycle all the way to the end of the path till I saw the control tower.

And so, I cycled a lot and very quickly too as my cycling techinque refined after some time right to the end of ecp, which was where SAFRA was (but I didn't realise that till on my way back) and went onto the Park Connector (PCN) which led me through this path which was sandy and yet had some foliage and was near the sea, which made me imagine that I was cycling on a populated desert island. There were fortunately other cyclists along the way so while the track gave me privacy of being with myself, I was not put in danger as one is when she is alone. I asked people along the way if "this is the way to changi airport" and it was. There was a father who was cycling with his primary school daughter along that route. I heard and saw aeroplanes flying overhead and that got me excited. When I finally made a turn and saw the airport fence and the control tower, I was very elated. I even saw 2 airplanes take off while I continued cycling for a bit more on the PCN. I turned back after a while for there was not much time left for me to return the bike. Looking at the track, I realised that the PCN led to Changi Beach. "Oh I see". Finally get what MP was talking about when her friends wanted to cycle all the way to Changi Beach (and got stranded there due to the rain).

MT called me and told me that KM wanted to eat the McGriddles(-_-: not again.) and that she found out that the shop keeper could extend the time limit for one hour and we pay for that one more hour. Ok, so I didn't have to rush back. That was after I told MT I probably couldn't make it back in time for I was at SAFRA at a certain point in time, and MT felt that she didn't cycle enough. I cycled back quickly and was at the white circular look-out tower much faster than MT or I expected. Then waited for some time for MT to meet me there. We went up the tower and took photos there then rolled down the spiral path on the bikes, which was kinda scary and I had to use the brakes for I feared I would crash into the railings or into one of the little children below, so I loudly went "ah!" or something to let the people below know and the parents moved their children away. heng ah. From there we cycled back to our bike rental shop near McDs where KM and the maid was waiting for us. All in all, I haven't measured on the map yet but I think I cycled 10km or more in 3 hours, nearly non-stop.

We went to Macs to rest in the aircon and since we were hungry (I felt my stomach complaining) while waiting for Mum to take us out for lunch, MT bought the McWings and each of us had one each. Mum told us to go to Jumbo and since we were very hungry, we offered to walk all the way to Jumbo, walk slowly of course, for Mum wasn't done with her talk. We later found out she was referring to Long Beach, and that warni had been dropped off at Macs looking for us. The miscommunication was annoying. Mum picked us up and asked us to walk to the road side, so we found a carpark and she came in no time, and she drove to Jumbo but found out that there was a Long Beach there too and she wanted to eat at Long Beach for she has some sort of discount there.

We ate at the airconditioned room upstairs, sweaty and sunburned (I was sunburned across my nose and cheekbones. I forgot to put sunblock and MT too, we found out later at home that the sunblock was under the chair and probably fell off her table). We had 6 dishes, fried breaded sotong, boiled prawns (oh I miss that taste), spinach with trio egg(salted, century and poached), ketchup crab (so fun to eat and yummy), horfun (isn't very nice) and fried rice (much nicer). A yummy big lunch. :D

2 weeks ago, my reply from NUS finally came in so now I have to decide, where do I go? These are the offers I have, Imperial has offered Chemistry and Geophysics(that in place of physics), rejected Chem Eng and messed up my Civil Eng (they withdrew it "at my request" for "they didn't receive my essay". What the nonsense. I sent it to them. It took me 2 weeks to a month to perfect my essay for I didn't have the time (applying for scholarships) and most importantly, I didn't get a deadline from them. Stupid Imperial. Their MEng is equivalent to Singapore's BEng with Honours, so we're smarter than you lah! btw, I replied to them, telling that "it was very unfortunate for them to lose such an opportunity".)

University College London offered me Chem Eng. I didn't apply for any other course there for only the Chem Eng there in the eng fac is good.

NTU has given me Common Engineering. NUS gave me Civil Engineering.

I don't want to go to UK for the courses I have been offered don't really appeal to me. The ones offered by Imperial are theoretical and I see no application for them in my future career, especially in Singapore other than being a teacher. Chem Engineering isn't that appealing for I don't want to be stuck in a factory to implement ways to make chemical manufacture safer, cheaper and quicker. I want to invent drugs with less side effects and cheaper but that is a small portion of chem eng. So it's NUS vs NTU.

Let the debate begin.

NUS pros: Lots of good visiting professors, more prestigious, easier transportation access, I know of friends going there. has stronger arts and culture, give me room to explore out of science (and business). their civil engineering has a design aspect (i asked a prof). academic, which is fortunately or not, what i'm stronger in than compared to practical, but hey, i can learn slowly and master it for life. civil eng has joint degree with melbourne uni.

NUS cons: very messy system. very messy. The application and bidding for modules thing maybe, the website is difficult to navigate around and hence I can't really get info on why I should choose NUS over NTU and particulary why I should do CivilEng in NUS rather than CivEng in general.

NTU Pros: Very good marketing to the A level students have made a lot of information accessible. (the profs for the course I got accepted into took me and other 3As students to dinner or tea to explain personally certain things and allow us to ask questions we wouldn't (dare) ask in a big group setting.) Previous NUS professors have joined NTU after their bond or contract with NUS finished, including some profs who have industry experience. structured curriculum. 3As students get a trump card of choosing module exemption. practical focus with compulsory industrial attachment(get your foot in the door to your career) It's a younger and growing uni and getting better.

NTU Cons: very very very ulu. have to take a bus from Boon Lay (which daddy says is because the head of the uni isn't influential, compared to Singapore Poly which influenced the plan to have dover station constructed). No link to Imperial College or other really big name ones. NTU also doesn't offer as much flexibility as compared to NUS. Not as prestigious. Their civil engineering isn't good.

I don't know, I want to give NTU a chance, I don't want to wipe them to the side just because they have less prestige, but the travel time is gonna take it's toll if I go there. But they seem quite sincere of taking care of their students, especially the 3As one they are trying to attract.

NUS however gives me a lot of flexibility, though messy, can give me a chance to do what I want, which I may able to handle, but I don't have the support of Professors. Their civil engineering seems to be better than NTU, (it's ironic that NTU's business is better than NUS's and NUS's science and Engineering is better than NTU's) and imagine if an employer sees an NUS cert as compared to NTU's. and, since NUS has a MOU with Imperial, I can do a student exchange there and kick their butts and prove that they lost a gem. (muhahaha) but that's not really important.

As I said earlier, I went for a dinner with the NTU profs. Initially I thought it was one of those tea sessions that you just attend so that you can get your toe in the door to a scholarship kinda thing. Then I got a response that the dinner was held in a jap restaurant (not on campus) and I thought "shoot, now I have to face the profs, can't blend into the wall." I was daunted and felt like withdrawing but I've already promised. YS promised that I can SMS her for convo if I'm bored during the dinner. thanks :) But I never used that offer in the end, for the professors were friendly. It was only 5 of us, and I'm the only female, 2 profs, one current final year student who went on Global Immersion Programme and another A level student like me, but he had accepted the place from NTU. Suprisingly, I found out that he was a hostel mate of XL.

We went for a jap buffet dinner near shenton way, and the college or them paid for what we ate. $52++ eh. But we ate a lot. The prof chose that place for he has eaten there several times. we had ebi tempura, teppanyaki prawn (which wasn't as nice as the tempura), fried makerel (saba), tuna handroll (first time i ate handroll), chawanmushi, kaminabe (paper steamboat), lots of sushi and sashimi, ice cream and fruit. We ordered several rounds of some of the food. The current NTU student shared that the GIP was very worth it. (he's a current MechEng student), he went to the University of Washington in Seattle, which was kindabit like Oxford in that there were old beautiful brick buildings as well as modern ones for the expansion, sprawling grounds with a lake for watersports. The lecturers were very nice for that for the first month or what, they accompanied the students when they settled down for their 6 month stay. On the first day they brought them to buy their pillows and blankets. Before that, the lecturers went to scout for cheap rooms and other sundry shops etc that they would need. That's caring of them, isn't it? The lecturers had their own style of teaching, the topic may be the same but what the lecturers have taught may be different for he had a friend in another class. He had to do a lot of reading up for that subject for that lecturer didn't cover everything for in the beginning he was too slow and in the end he skipped chapters for the exam was approaching. what the. but there were other good lecturers, and they may have had those one to one consultations as part of their learning. He also had to do a lot of self-reading for the other subjects in general, it's expected in US and UK but in Singapore we are spoon-fed a lot.

The professors also explained and removed some of my fear of "management" as part of a job, for it's inevitable that we would have to climb the corporate ladder and there will always be people above and below us. As a manager, you have to make sure that people under you learn and do the work well and if you're higher up, that those under you, like sub-managers, are managing their team well. Added by the final year student, some managers lead teams into completing a project, it's not all politicking.

Oh yes, and the profs explained that they are going to team up with Harley-Mudd uni(USA) on a project where a select group of students from both sides would spend 2 weeks with each other to plan out the project and then continue the work in their own universities, communicating via the technology such as email etc as their final year project. the assignment given to them, would be to find a way to remove Arsenic from the water source in such a way that is affordable for the community (vietnam and cambodia) and that the community can maintain the system on their own (no need to call in the uni to fix it) and that the community can improve on it if they want to. The profs explained about the arsenic problem, which is a real-life one, the arsenic is giving the people skin problems, and this problem exists in bangladesh too. The profs believe in giving their students real-life problems.

we talked about a lot of things too, including the subject of working in china and japan, whether "helping someone" is really helping (meaning that the person who helped didn't consider the situation carefully and created more problems) etc. Us 2 students were also given a bag each that contained quite a lot of info that while available most people don't read it, as well as other freebies, and also explained the trump card of 3As students of module exemption.

It's gonna be a long hard debate.

Oh, a while ago, while I was halfway blogging, YS called to tell that she has been accepted into Medicine! Congratulations!! :D :D