the coach...

Thursday, 31st May 2007 – 7:45pm Singapore time

I am pooped! Yay! ;p

It’s been rather tiring at work and right now, I have taken on another responsibility: coaching a debating team … The National Inter-Pre-University Debating (Malay) tournament kicks off on Saturday and I have been busy working with the team from Al-Ma’arif Institution in their preparation for the preliminary rounds of the tournament... Why the particular team? Well, two of the debaters are my sisters! Haha… My younger twin sisters are in the team and I have offered to help out the whole team since 50% of the team is family… ;p

To be honest, it’s been a while since I last coached a team and the rust shows… My Malay is so bad now la! But at least I can still outline and prepare a debate case… That's the mark of a true ex-national debater! Haha! *shameless* I think we have a good case outlined and with enough practice, will be able to do well in it! Wish my team luck y’all!

To *someone*: What about an evening cable car ride? Then supper after? With all the yummy Singaporean goodies Can ask Hwai Ee to come along also…

Happy Vesak Day! =)

the day when things didn't really go the right way...

Monday, 28th May 2007 – 9:44pm Singapore time

First and foremost, I would like to wish mommy dearest a very happy birthday! Love you lots and always!

Today had been a bad day, even before I woke up… I had this really bad nightmare last night which was, well, nightmarish… I don’t wish to share what it was about, but it made me wake up unhappy…

Things didn’t get better… I couldn’t find my pants in the morning, I had some really rude people on the phone at work, bad internet, miscommunication with some people, incompetent salespeople and insensitive humans… Combination of all of this ==> bad day! I am gonna go to bed early so that the ‘bad-ness’ won’t last too long… Let’s hope no more nightmares this time…

By the way, I brought Lars to the zoo yesterday, without *someone*… Cos *someone* backed out from going with us… So, let’s hope this *someone* won’t back out next time, or even better, organise something for Lars and me… =)

Some points I pondered over during the weekend: if you wanna lead the pack, make sure you’re worthy cos if you suck and you still insist on being at the frontline, you’re just plain pathetic and making yourself an easy target for criticism…

When you’ve been trying to learn a new skill for months and you *still* are unable to master the basics of the skill after so long, it means that:

a) You’re plain stupid

AND

b) You refuse to listen to others’ advice

AND

c) You should just give up and try something else

I simply can’t believe how @#$%-ing shameless and thick-skinned some people are…

read all about it...

Tuesday, 22nd May 2007 – 11:53pm Singapore time

I was in the papers yesterday! Heehee… Well, a very tiny version of me la… It was a picture taken during the Dragon Tug, and it was just before we had our very last face-off with the Ozzies… If you click and enlarge the picture, just look to the left and you can see a very tiny (and distorted) me in a little red rectangle… *grin*

Anyway, work has become a little bit more fun now cos Jamal and Afidah are now in the building! Yay! It’s always been fun to hang out with these crazy kids in school, so I’m sure it’ll be as much fun to do it at work… It’ll be the same kind of madness but with clickety shoes and power lunch meetings… Hehe…

Results coming out on Friday! *gasp*

to aisha angullia...

Happy Birthday.

I Love You. =)

tugging at my strings...

Sunday, 20th May 2007 – 7:45pm Singapore time

I am exhausted! But oh so happy… Lemme tell you why… Today was the UOB’s Ultimate Dragon Tug Challenge… It’s basically tug-of-war on dragonboats… Very interesting concept and it’s the first time ever (in the world) that such an event is being organised… What was more interesting was that they had the tug done using a pulley system so that both teams are attached to the same rope and are going the same direction… I was sceptical about it at first, but the system worked really well and we had so much fun!

End result: The women came in ultimate champions and the two mixed teams came in second and third! The men got their asses whooped but not before they took out the Germans and a team called Merlion which lost to us in a span of 10 seconds! Hehe…

The best race of the day for me would be the one where the two Canadian teams, Canadian 1 and Canadian 2 had to slug it out for the silver placing… The Canadian 1 team is the better team of the two, with stronger and more experienced paddlers… I was in the Canadian 2 team, which was alright cos I am more of a ‘speed’ paddler, less of a ‘strength’ one…

So the horn sounded off and we began the tug… For the first 30 seconds or so, we were neck-and-neck and the tension was so great that my arms started to get numb… But we paddled and paddled and after a while, we got a little bit of a lead… That gave the whole boat a whole new surge of confidence and we started paddling even harder… It was mad and I could feel that everyone used every ounce of energy they had… Our boat started inching forward even more and before we knew it, the whistle was blown and we were declared winners! Hurrah! The feeling was indescribable la! Victory really tastes damn sweet…

Another happy moment would be when my team-mate Pauline emerged as the fastest woman paddler of the day as recorded by the paddle-simulation machine! I am extra proud cos she thanked me for helping her out with the timing when she was trying to set the record! Yay Pauline and yay me! ;p

I am *not* looking forward to work tomorrow… I wanna sleep in la! Sigh… And I think I will lose my voice from all the shouting when I was drumming the men’s boat and from all the cheering… But it has been a good day… I thoroughly enjoyed myself and will definitely take part again next year… =)

to a friend...

Friday, 18th May 2007 – 11:07pm – Singapore time

First and foremost, I would like to offer my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to my friend Serlynna Fong who lost her grandmother today… Serlynna is pregnant with her first child and today is also her 26th birthday… Have a blessed birthday Serlynna, I wish you and your unborn child the best of health… May God be with you in tough times like these…

With that said, I don’t think I wanna say anything else… Have a safe weekend y’all…

on anger and hatred...

When you hate someone soooo much, it doesn’t take much for that person to piss the hell out of you… That person can be passing by, be in the same train or at the same party… Whatever the situation, the sudden jolt of anger and extreme hatred just strikes… It’s like you don’t have control over yourself anymore…

You start thinking of the horrible things this person had done, how your life got ruined, how things will never be as good as they were, and many other really negative thoughts too…

Then, you start thinking of inflicting pain on this person too… A tit for a tat, en eye for an eye… Afterall, if that person managed to ruin your life, it surely means you can do the same… Only when you do it, you make sure the person gets it worse… Cos you want this person to really feel the pain; much more pain than you did…

But of course, when you think about it again, you might start to think on how it is a total waste of time to teach this person a lesson… I mean, why bother with worthless pieces of shit? Wait, shit has its value: it can be used to fertilise the plants… Low-class people don’t… And they will never be able to learn a lesson cos they don’t even have brains to process the lessons which they receive… So forgive them for doing stupid things, if you can…

So perhaps the wise thing to do is to just get on with life and be as normal as you can… And when the time comes for you to have an encounter with the person you hate, relax yourself and let the anger flow through a little… It’s perfectly ok to get angry sometimes…

the short one...

Tuesday, 16th May 2007 – 11:32pm Singapore time

I am *TIRED*!!! It has been a little draining at work cos I have to re-adjust to the morning shift now, which hopefully will be permanent cos I just got transferred to another department! Hurrah! The good thing is, it’s the same department I worked for last year, so it was easier for me to settle in... Also, my hours are more regular, no major disruptions to other commitments and no need to work on Saturday! *booty shake*

Other than that, my life has been pretty uneventful so far… Hwai Ee! Back from Taiwan right? Hope you had loads of fun! Message me ok? I’m trying to organise something with Huiqing, see if it pulls through before her Redang and Melbourne trip… *fingers crossed*

I actually have some funny stories to tell, but too tired to type… Haha… Maybe next time la... ;p

the entry that makes me tired...

Tuesday, 8th May 2007 – 10:20pm Singapore time

First and foremost, Happy Birthday to Nurul and to Kak Noi! God bless you!

Secondly, I wanna apologise to Hajar for not getting back to her sooner than I would like… I was having dinner with a friend when you first SMS-ed and after that was stuck in a meeting for about 1 ½ hours… But I called you immediately after that and still not sure if you’re ok… Get better soon ya?

It was my first day at work today… I hate it cos:

1) Must do shift work; I prefer regular hours!

2) Must work alternate Saturdays! (*shriek!*)

3) Must call people all the time

4) There’s a target set for you every month! Bleah!

But what to do? A boy’s gotta earn his keep! Anyways, I wanna recount a very disconcerting experience today… Someone made this comment to me:

“I’m sorry, but I think people in your (University) course must do their honours.”

Like, what the @#$%??!

Firstly, the person who made this remark is also from NUS and to make things worse, he’s from my faculty! The only difference would be that he’s majoring in a social science while I am a humanities major…

So what makes a social science undergrad more special than a humanities one? Don’t we get a bachelor of arts at the end of three years? And the difference is only highlighted after the honours stage… I can go on bitching about what he said la, but I don’t think I want to… Not worth the effort, seriously…

It just saddens me that such attitudes still prevail in the world of academia: Elitism in the world of ‘elites’… Same faculty leh… Oh well…

Anyways, I got myself new shoes! Very nice, but since the leather is still a little hard, so some little blisters on my feet now… But me likey those shoesies… Haha…

Ok, I think I’ve written too much now… Time to snooze! =)

spread 'em!

Saturday, 5th May 2007 – 1:02am Singapore time

I am home y’all! Hehe… Feels good to be in my room again… I mean the one with air-con…

Dragonboat yesterday was good! Coach got us to *really* focus on our technique and I think he somehow managed to get the whole boat to really paddle their hardest… It was so intense, but it felt so good… And Melvin treated me to dinner after training… He said it was my reward for pulling though with my exams! Yay! Now I feel motivated to go through with my next set of exams… Melvin is so nice la… He’s like the elder brother I never will have… ;)

Anyways, I went for a haircut today… The woman who did my hair seem quite insistent that I go for the spiky look! I don’t want spiky already la! Too old for it… ;p And when I refused, she somehow took it out on me by pulling at my hair extra hard when she wanted to make the cuts… Evoul! And then, she used the texturising scissors all over me! Texturising scissors (the ones where one of the blades look like a comb) can be good for some people but I don’t think it works for my kind of hair la… That’s cos my hair is rather fine (despite its abundance) and, sad to say, the growth is not evenly distributed, meaning some parts of my scalp are more sparsely covered than others… Sigh… But of course, y’all won’t notice it… I *know* how to hide some of my flaws… Hehe…

I managed to do laundry though it’s all still hanging all over my place… Gotta go back there to get it sorted out… Maybe Monday...

Oh, I managed to get a job! Yay!! I have to do shift work and the pay is lower than expected, but who cares?! I shall be fruitfully employed once again… Now, time to look for nice shoes for work… My current pair has been with me since I was 16… So I think it’s fair for me to start looking for new ones…

I feel very calm and relaxed now… Cos I know I get to rest a little before the new sem starts… Also, it feels nice to be at home too… Just got tired of being on my own and suffering for so long…

And to Mr. O: Thanks la… I know you don’t want me to thank you openly, so I do it ‘closely’ ok? Haha… Despite behaving like a grumpy old man (that you are), you always offer me your help and support at the right time… You’ll always be an inspiration to me… Except for when you start drinking… Haha! Here's to more years of 'good' friendship!

To people who want to see me, now’s the perfect time… Ask me out ok? We need to catch up on the good old times… Three months of carefree days with me await you… =)

woo hoo!

Thursday, 3rd May 2007 – 3:58pm Singapore time

It’s *finally* over! O-V-E-R! Over!! Hehe… It is official that one hour ago, I submitted my last ever exam script for the semester hence marking the end of my third year in NUS and this is very significant cos it means that I technically have a Bachelor’s Degree in my hands! *mad dance all over the place* Phew!

This is a big deal for me of course, and I just feel soooo tempted to just file for graduation and start *really* enjoying non-schooling life! But for now, the plan is for me to stay one more year in the dreaded institution and get an Honours degree… Unless something forces me to abandon this plan, I will stick to it…

It had been a very tough exam period for me because the exams lasted way too long and the mental lethargy became almost too much to bear… It was also tough because it’s my first semester after Oslo and I tell you, once you get a taste of heaven, hell becomes twice the torture… In addition to that, I am taking modules of a higher level, modules which require more effort and higher level of thinking… These modules demand the best of the student and push him to the limits… Hence, when all these factors are considered and inter-woven with one another, the result would ultimately be a stressed-out student on the verge of insanity… Haha…

Ok, I am looking forward to the hols of course, but still no call from Income… So it means I might be jobless… *gasp* Time to start looking for other resources…

I am going for dragonboat later to paddle out the remnants of my stress! Yay! Then it’s time to head home and do some spring cleaning and laundry before packing my bags and heading back to my parents’… I do miss being home, especially eating all the good food there… Yum! Really looking forward to coming back actually…

And of course, looking forward to spend time with my beloved friends during the hols… Especially people like Huiqing and Hwai Ee… They’re the best! ;p

Alright, time for a little nap before heading on to do other things! Woo hoo!