Merry X'mas!

Yay! My first ever Christmas celebration! Lunch with SE people at Pizza Walker in Wisma. The crust is thin and crispy, but I still cannot understand why pizza are expensive!! Just some cheapo dough, and sprinkle toppings. It’s minimum effort and toppings are sparse! So why the price?! So I only enjoy pizzas during Pizza Hut’s pizza buffet! Hehe! After that, there was cutting of a nice hazelnut log cake! But the manager forbid us to eat it inside his restaurant! What the heck? I’ve never met this kind of crap before! They said it’s to prevent complications should there be any cases of food poisoning. So in the end, we stood outside the restaurant munching on the log cake. It was a very nice piece of hazelnut log cake! Delicious!


At Pizza Walker

Crowd crowd crowd! Everywhere is people! Made worse with the rain. Luckily it stopped or else the crowd would be worse. We headed to Lido to catch King Kong at 550pm. It was an ok show. I won’t say it’s fantastic. The audience are so noisy! Even during the show, it’s a bit noisy. After the 3 hour plus show, we went to the basement to have Mac dinner and sat there for more than half an hour for YT to walk from Heeren to Lido! Ok, crowd crowd crowd!

We took the escalator down and 5 teenagers are playing violin and violas! Though they are not pros, but I think they make a good effort! Hehe.

We walked over to Orchard Bolevard to take a cab to Mohd Sultan. Cars cars cars! KY even scolded a taxi driver for choosing his passengers. I was shocked by that move. Eventually, we hopped onto a taxi and the taxi driver was quite hostile-looking. Maybe of the bad traffic. We reached our destination and went into En Lounge. Nice place. Nicest music I’ve heard in the pubs I’ve went to. I had Lust cocktail, 3 tequila shots and a little Calsberg beer. And Khan Horng treated us the drinks. Feel very bad cos’ they’re not cheap. Was quite dizzy after the 3 tequila shots, but felt better after a while. I wonder why I always lose in these kind of games. Grrr… But YT and KY had their fair share of losing too. HAHA! KH drank the least. He kept winning. Just before the pub closed, KH found 2 bottles of snow spray! Haha, the fun followed. And I think the snow is very good, cos’ it is not sticky and doesn’t leave anything on your skin after it evaporates. But there’s a smell that is quite irritating after a while.










After all the drinks, we look like this... RED!

We left the place for tao huey in Geylang after the pub closed at 3am. Reached home about 4am, and slept at 5am. Gosh, woke up at 10am! Cos’ parents are at home and can’t sleep later than 10am. Sigh. Yawn!

Is this the end?

Last netball duty of my life, hopefully. I told the girls that I am leaving the school, and they went, “Huh? Cher, how come didn’t tell us earlier? We could have bought many gifts for u! Cher, where u stay? We deliver the gifts to u!”

So sweet right? But I didn’t tell them la. But they say they will knock every door on my block. Ya right, I don’t believe they will do that.

Here are the pictures of the staff room. And my cosy workstation.


The main staff room.


Inside the pantry.


Turn left upon entering the pantry are our seats.


My seat. Corner by the wall. Sleep also nobody can see! HAHA!

Then I went to Dhoby Ghaut to meet my friend. He treated me Fish and Co. and movie because I introduced a tuition kid to him. Surprisingly, the fish and chips were not bad, cos’ I don’t really have a good impression of Fish and Co. We watched Perhaps Love at PS. It had been a really long time since we last seen each other, think more than one and a half year. He is the same guy mentioned in the blog entry - A Happy Day Dated 23rd April 2001.

Stupid Bus!

The bus didn’t come to fetch the netball girls today at 650am! I tried calling the teacher-in-charge but her hp wasn’t on! Having to reach Kallang Netball Court by 730am, I made the decision and asked the girls to take cab down and take receipts. I will claim from the transport company! What the heck!

The friendly matches ended at 1115am. The bus is supposed to come at 12 noon to pick us up. But it wasn’t there again!!!!! In the end, we all took buses back.

Called up the transport company a few days later and luckily they let me make the claims without asking much. Must be they felt it was their fault!

First Bonus!!

Bonus day! I’ve got roughly 0.77 month salary bonus! Yeah! More money added to my bank account!

Met up with David and Yuhua at Sakae, Wheelock’s Place to celebrate their birthdays. While waiting for Yuhua to arrive, and to break the usual silence, I just casually asked David what he does during weekends. He said nothing much. So I asked, “Then what did you do yesterday? (It was a Sat yesterday)”
“Go out loh.”
“Go out with girlfriend ar?” I quipped.
“Ya….” He replied without thinking. Then can see him start to sweat.
“WHAT? DUN LIE LA, SAY THE TRUTH!”
“REALLY…”
I just can’t believe my ears! David is attached! And the girl is from SME! OMG! I just can’t believed it! No stories will be posted here. Yuhua came 15 minutes later into the “finding out” of this status. We all had a good time teasing him. HEHE! David, wish you happiness!!!

Finally packed up all my Uni lecture notes and tutorials. Finally decided to sell them all to the karang guni man. He only gave $2 for this stack. Guess the 3-year bond with MOE doesn’t require those notes right? Thus hence the decision to clear them. Mum had been nagging for very long about the notes in my room.



Bye... Electric Circuits, Engineering Chemistry, Engineering Graphics, Biomaterials, Advanced Materials Science, Advanced Materials Characterization, IA log book, FYP drafts, Nanomaterials...etc...

Genting Trip: 5th - 9th Dec 05

Followed the school band to Genting Highlands for an international band competition. The bus journey started at 7am and was quite ok. Just a mere 8 hours and we were up there on the highland. Unlike the torturous 11hr jouney to Redang! The weather was cooling! Been so many years since I’ve been to Genting, and I must say, it had quite a number of major changes. One biggest change is that the roads up and down Genting are like 3-lane wide each! Imagine the buses don’t need to slow down to make the acute 180 degrees turn!

I shared room with the band conductor. She’s quite a nice lady. The room was super small. I thought it would be bigger. The conductor and I didn’t really communicate much. She woke up earlier than me and came back after I slept.





Food was the same daily and meal-ly. After the second day, we ate out. Tried out “Ah Yi Bao Yu” dim sum. It was ok only. Not very nice la, but I must comment that they use real prawns in Har Gao and Siew Mai! Many dim sum usually fill in more pork than prawns! We also tried the small eateries on the first level. And on the last day, we actually found another place directly under the hotel café selling nicer and cheaper food!!! And more variety somemore!! ARRRR!!! Basically the things there weren’t cheap. It’s like the price in Singapore. So not really worth buying and carrying them back to Sg. But I made a keychain there for RM$30. It’s actually a 2-sided stainless steel surfaces imprinted with my photo and of course…... Hacken’s photo! HAHA!

The trip there was relaxing. The kids are very nice and obedient. They didn’t create trouble nor gave any nonsense. And the teachers us, had quite a lot of free time. So I practically walked every inch of the shopping mall! But dunno why still can miss out the food court!!! And no, I didn’t go to the theme park. I’m scared of heights! Haha!

These pictures are taken in the shopping mall.







The competition had quite prestigious judges from Thailand, Japan and Singapore. But the teams that came, were only from Singapore and Malaysia. Somemore the good teams didn’t join this competition. And I think it’s ironic to call it an international competition. The band got a Gold Award eventually. But I don’t really see the competition as good as SYF.

Packed up the feelings and came back to SG. A teacher came running to me literally once I got off the bus. Are you thinking she’s missing me? Yes! Missing me because I can now cover duties for her! Sigh. I haven’t even settled down with the kids and all the bags are still in a mess. In the end, I covered her duty. She should feel glad.

Will be away...

Yesterday was the first string practise after about 2 months of break. But not many people turned up, and there wasn't electricity at Nanyang House, plus we were practising at the lounge. It was so noisy because the band people were there. Grrr... how many rooms do they need? First they occupy the music room, now they occupy the function room and the music room. What are they thinking?

First thing after I sat at the usual seat, the conductor asked,"Still not willing to change your violin?"

!!!!!!!!

"No money la!" I replied. He only smiled back. Then I continued,"My violin really that bad meh?"

"A bit loh!"

SIGH. Means I won't be able to improve with my current violin. But where got money to buy violin? Unless I sell away my piano?! NoOOoooo! I was a bit disheartened upon hearing this. I was the only Violin I there. It was a good thing I practised before going. Managed to do the parts quite ok. Phew.

Going Genting tomorrow and will only be back on Friday. No, not on a holiday trip. It's a school trip with the band kids. I hope nothing bad will happen during the trip.

A Happy Day Dated 23rd April 2001

I was packing through some stuff today and found this printed-out email when I was working at I Bee Am. I was sharing the story with a few colleagues there while temping. A very happy day that day cos' of a guy. Here's to share that email with you before I throw it away. Hopefully Blogspot doesn't shut down. My previous blog was terminated after the trial period, and I didn't have a backup for that. SIGH. Here's the email (typed out exactly as in the email):

Hahaah...it's Tale-Time!
Yesterday, I went to have dinner with him, as well as to see him off. Hehehhe..
The story goes like this:
- Saturday night, 21st April 2001, he SMS me asking whether I want to go along with him to buy his army stuff - bath powder
- Sunday morning, 22nd April 2001, 7+ am he SMS me, saying he fell asleep last night so didn't reply me. So I asked what time he wanted to go and buy. He said ASAP. But he didn't know what type of powder and don't know where sell. So he said he go ask around. Thought he would msg back, but waited till 11+ am, no reply. Coincidentally, my friend called, so shun bian ask her what type of powder that was. Then I sms him to tell him.
- He said he know liao. So I asked whether still need me to go with him. He said no need. His house there got supermarket. So instead he asked,"But do you want to see me off?"
- So I replied,"You want to see me is it? ... etc" But he didn't reply to this question. So in the end, I met him at Pasir Ris White Sands foodcourt for dinner.
- So met him, he told me about his life inside the army, his whole body aching la, bla bla... u know what? Oh ya, the significant part was he actually told me that he wouldn't be bringing his handphone to the 6-day field camp. So kind of hinted me that he wouldn't be messaging me for the rest of the week. Then he said if he msg me on Wed, meant that he had got hurt, bitten by scorpion!! Hahah!
- After finishing dinner, we went to the interchange to sit and talk. Btw, he suggested that. Hehe..
- Talked about camp, school, work...etc...bla bla...
- Then one of his bunk mates arrives. (He meeting his bunk there, he was earliest there). His name was Federick.
- So the first question Federick asked was, "Ta shi shui? Ni de mei mei? Heng xiang ni leh..."
- He replied,"Bu shi la... wo de fren."
- Federick continued,"Zhen de heng xiang ni leh!!!" He and I were stunned. We are not alike at all loh!! Confused Confused!!
- He then said,"Peng you la!!"
- Federick asked,"Nu peng you?"
- HE answered,"Peng you er yi lah!!"
- Federick turned to asked me,"Ni shi bu shi ta de nu peng you?"
- I answered,"Bu shi lah!!" Wah lao, he real chang qi!
- Federick then mumbled something to him that I can't hear quite clearly. But heard him saying,"...bu yao embarass ni..."
- After Federick finally understood we were just friends, he asked HIM,"Oh... na ge ni mei tian da dian hua de na ge ah?"
- He,"Bu shi la, wo na li you da dian hua? Wo msg er yi la."
- Federick," Shi meh? Msg er yi ah? Na ni mei tian da gei shui?"
- He,"Wo mei you da dian hua la!! Msg er yi!!!" So Federick also realised/noticed HE every night also messaging that someone la? And it was me all the while? Damn happy!! Hahahahah~~~~
- Then he received a call. He was asked to get black trash bags as he was early there. So we walked to NTUC. But along the way, met more of his bunk mates. It was quite a large group by the time we walked to the MRT entrance. They were talking loh... and I was like a bit extra there. So I called him and told him that I go off first, but hor, he turned back and stood real close to me. Then my hand got brush across his arm...those feeling...hmm...u know la! So he said bye bye.
- I bye bye him also la then asked him to xiao xin. Then he said,"Xi wang xia ge xin qi ke yi kan dao ni..."
- I wanted him to repeat... so I said,"Huh?"
- He replied,"Xi wang ni xia ge xin qi kan dao wo de shi hou bu shi zai yi yuan."
- I said "Choy! Bu hui de la! Ni bu hui you shi de!"
- Then the bye bye and the bye bye. Btw, he was standing very close at those last moments.
- Went home, he sms me saying he would be late for book-in. Then I replied.. bla bla.. impt part was I asked him whether I really looked older than him. He replied," No la, you look younger ok?" Not sincere enough....
- Then he sms saying that he would help me scold that guy. And said he knew I feel hurt. Hahah! So I told him don't scold the guy. After some days, I'll forget. But he didn't reply after this.
- At about 11pm, he sms saying,"This is the last time I SMS you for the week. Good night and take care" Hmmmm... so sweet...

Thank you for your time to read this. Pls feel free to voice out comments! =)

****End of Email*****

Wah so long, hehe, sorry for the poor english. At that moment, just wanted to convey the thoughts out, and was typing out very fast. Now I think I want to keep the printed email afterall! Haha. Cos' there are also replies from my colleagues. Sweet right? That was so long ago! After so many years, I believe he liked me that that time. Right now, he's still studying, but we're still in contact. I intro some tuition kids to him, and he wanted to treat me for dinner, but I rejected recently cos I was too busy with my stuff. I also know we won't be a pair, cos' he wants financial stability before getting attached. Somemore, he wants to go overseas to work after he grads. So? Conclusion: A Happy Memory.

Pains and Aches

Went to sign the TTA today. It went successful except the personnel there wasn't too friendly. And saw Nicole and Bryan and perhaps her sis there too! Nicole is going to become a teacher too! She's teaching Maths and CPA! So glad to see her again after a year plus, and glad that Bryan and her are still together!! *Clap clap*

After that, we went Congress in Suntec for our brunch. I had wanton mee. It is SUPER oily. Cost me $3.80. And the taste was ok only. My mum over-rated it. JH and CP had prata. CP said it's quite normal. Over-rated again. Anyway, the wanton mee wasn't filling.

Then we took bus 36 to East Coast Park. There I had my first blading session of 2 hours. After I got into the smelly pair of blades and guards, it started pouring and we had to seek shelter at a nearby tent. Luckily, the rain stopped 15 mins later. We then proceeded to the Newbies' Corner. Haha, there I had my first fall. Then a second. Then a third. We tried the roads during the remaining half hour. CP and JH went ahead of me. But JH said I was not bad already on my first try. Then had countless number of falls, and one of them was especially hard on my butt. I still din manage to cross the humps today. Sigh. Well, there were still a few kind souls that offered to lend a hand upon my falls. HAHA. My back started to ache a bit and I couldn't balance myself at the end, and ended up falling and falling. Sigh. It was quite a relieve after taking off the blades. But cheers, I must say I did quite well! HEHE. We proceeded to Mac for drinks and also to meet up with Von.

She came by cab, and we went cycling. JH continued to blade. We went really far this time, and I must say I'm impressed with JH's blading skills. HAA. But her left leg started not to take her mind's control, and she removed her blades. Then the dark clouds loomed, and all of us had to hurry back to return our bikes. Silly her was afraid to let me "ferry" her back. She wanted to walk the looooong distance back. But the 3 of us force her to take the lift. Haha, she was so afraid she didn't dare to move or speak while I was cycling. The always poor-stamina me began to pant, and CP took over. We were just in time to get into the shelter before rain began to pour.

We managed to get a cab to Marina Square, which was only $5.30, cheaper than to take bus! After washing up, we had dinner at Dian4 Xiao3 Er4. Long queue even before the shop was opened! We managed to be the first batch of customers to get a table. We had their house speciaties: Shi2 Quan2 Shao1 Ya1 (herbal roast duck), pork ribs and mushroom broccoli. $12 per person. The service was good, food was not bad, but the portion was a bit small.

Then we had coffee at Pacific Coffee cos' GV only left the first 2 rows of seats for Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Sat there till 9pm and went home. We were all tired.

A fruitful day, but filled with pain. Think tom will be worse. Hehe.

The Sun is UP, yet I'm not.

It has been raining hard for the past few days. Gloomy skies and wet roads. But LOOK at today! SUNNY AND BRIGHT AND DRY! Ah, the beautiful sun!



However, I was out at Orchard with Jiehui and Yvonne on Tuesday although it was raining. JH and I met first and went shopping at Wisma. Then we had Sakae at Heeren. I found the restaurant manager very familiar and told JH he might be from the West Mall branch. Before we left to pay at the counter, I actually asked a waitress if he was transferred. And BINGO! He was! JH was stunned by what I did. Then we went to Paragon to look for presents. And guess what we saw:







They are actually earrings! And there's a mini switch behind the earrings to turn on/off the blinking lights! HAHA, what a creative design that adds to the lively mood of Christmas!

Then Yvonne came and met us at Starbucks, B1 of Paragon. She picked up a 50000 dollar note!!! But.... in Rupiah la. Haha! There was a money changer there and they were buying rupiah at 16.2. 2 grads and an undergrad could not figure out how to convert 50k rupiah to S$. OMG! We calculated from S$8100 to S$810. It turned out to be only S$8.10. HAHAHAHA! At Starbucks, we bought her a slice of warm chocolate cake cos' it was her birthday. But she was too full from her dinner at Crystal Jade and end up sharing it with us. We sat there till about 1045pm before we decided to go home as we were all very tired.

Staff dinner was held at Singapore Island Country Club (Adam Road) yesterday. They did not wear very formally. I was considered the better-dressed there. OMG, some came in jeans, tee-shirts, some even tattered. No standard karaoke competition, kelong judges for table performance item and best-dressed. Food was a disappointment. We had 12 people to a table, so squeezy. Food wasn't enough for the table.

Menu (in order):
1. Salad and fruits lobster (can't see lobster)
2. Shark's fin with fish maw (no shark's fin detected)
3. Roast Chicken (quite good with crispy skin)
4. Steamed Promfet (fishy but I like)
5. Stir-fried prawns (small ones)
7. Sea cucumber with broccoli and mushrooms (small mushrooms with small light brown sea cucumbers, a bit like fake ones)
8. E-fu noodles (half a small bowl each)
9. Yam lotus paste (yu ni) (a small scope each)

Sigh, what a let-down! I was hoping for more! And I thought people will come in pretty dresses and shiny shoes, and many people taking photograhs, but none. I expected too much. There wasn't even a lucky draw. SIGH!

The letter came. HAHA! I'll be going into NIE 3rd Jan 06! Dunno if it's a good thing or not. I'll be signing the 3-year contract this Saturday and found my 2 sureties - JH and CP. Sigh, what to do without them! So many guidelines regarding choosing of sureties.

I went back NTU a few days ago and got Chronicle. There's this article which is quite interesting: Dummy's Guide to Responsible Blogging

1. Be politically correct - Respect for others. Get your facts right about other people. This is to avoid being sued for slander. Also never say anything that would lower another person's reputation.

2. Master the art of abbreviations - Don't use names of places, schools, people on your blog that others can easily detect through search engines.
Example: Dear Diary, my name is E****** and I study in End Tee Yew. My teacher, Ms H, is so motivationally-deficient, she failed to turn up for lecture again.

3. Use a lock - some blog host requires a visitor to key in a password before the blog can be viewed.

4. Avoid taboo topics - Avoid topics on race, religion, politics and the Internal Security Act. Don't promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.

5. Make friends with an NUS law student - This is when you don't have the money to hire a lawyer.

*Adapted from The Nanyang Chronicle - October 17, 2005, Volume 12 No. 5.*

Sigh, so much to consider when writing a blog entry. Can't let out all the frustrations, sharing of happiness and sadness!!! Sigh, what can I write then? How sad.

Hiss Hiss

Went for a concert by myself on Tuesday - Camerata de Lausanne at VCH for $18.There were 13 of them - 3 1st violins, 3 2nd violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos and 1 double bass. What attracted me was that they are chamber ensemble and their repertoire. Their repertoire:

1. Mozart - Divertimento in D Major, K 136
2. Bach - Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra in D Minor, BMV1043
3. Shostakovich - Prelude and Scherzo Op 11
4. Balissat - Traumerei (Dreams) for String Orchestra
5. Dvorak - Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major Op 22

They were very cool! Listened very carefully especially to the first 2 pieces because they are familar pieces to my string orchestra. A very pleasant concert. I just love Classical pieces! Don't mind Romantic too!

School closed yesterday with their Open House. It seems like its the in-thing now for schools to have open house. It dragged from 230pm to 730pm. How torturing it is. Cos there is nothing much to do. Time past more slowly when there's nothing to do. Things that happened in school for the past 2 weeks are so unclear to the new teachers, and I got a bit frustrated with the management. And had been eating out everyday, cos' the canteen was either closed or half-opened or food was becoming yucky. Sigh, it's a bit tough on the wallet. Not to mention, CCA was horrible, total a waste of time. Hate CCA duties! *too much cannot be mentioned here*

Invigilation for the 'O's will be starting coming Monday at another posted school. Those days not on invigilation duties will have to go back to school, working hours 830am to 1230pm. Well, some work needs to be started soon. Need to rearrange some 30 over schools' papers into topical revisions!!

Went for dim sum buffet lunch last Sat. It was on JH's treat. We went to Harbourfront's Dragon Gate Restaurant. Heard good reviews about it. But personally, I think it wasn't comparable to the one we had in HK!

Today, was CP's turn. We went to Mushroom Pot at Orchard Point. The soup was not bad. A simple, light and soupy meal. And full too! After dinner today, we went to TCC near Hotel Rendezvous for desserts. That was on JH's treat. Woo... It was so generous of her! $55 leh! Recommendation there is their Hotlava chocolate cake. NICE! But the portion is small and ex! After tat, we walked back to PS to get home from there.

On the way from Orchard Point to TCC, outside PS, JH told me Mr Poh actually walked past us. He was with a guy. I turned back immediately to see. But he was about 10 metres away le. She said he looked in my direction. But I was wondering if he saw me, he would have stopped me and talked to me, right? Sigh, I should look at people when they walk. I always miss people out. He still looked the same, well-built as before. He was with a guy. I miss him quite a lot actually. =~(

Went shopping with JH in Shaw Centre Isetan. Had to buy a bag for short travels and some working clothes and shoes. Got a $200 voucher from my Dad, cos' he has got around $1000 Isetan vouchers redeemed from one of his credit cards rewards. Bought this Billabong bag:



Wanted to get the black one, but no more new one le. So got this Navy blue one instead.

Other that the bag, got a skirt! Very nice checked skirt from Iora. And a cute top from the same shop. And another skirt from BYSI. Total cost was $164.90. So left $40 worth of vouchers. Will get shoes from the TM Isetan next time. Ran out of time today cos' needed to meet CP for dinner at 6pm.

I suspected one student of mine to be the younger sister of my secondary school mate. Same surname, same built and same facial features. And she addded me in her Friendster recently. Should be her, no doubt. Too bad, I won't be teaching them again. I will miss some of them.

Finally registered for my Grade 8 theory exam for next March. Gonna work hard ya? And try to get a Distinction this time!