Hey Maria !!!

The ticket !!!

Indoor Stadium with the 4 giant screens, like what you will see in other professional WTA tournaments around the world

Maria Sharapova serves...

Anna Chakvetadze serves...

Anna on the left and Maria on the right

Maria does her characteristic victory wave to the crowd...enigmatic!

Prize Presentation @ the end with Ministers Vivian Balakrishnan n Teo Ser Luck...

Many thanks to my cousin who invited me to watch Maria Sharapove Live in Singapore on Dec 30. His church friend's dad happens to be the boss of Pastamania and I suspect the latter was one of the co-sponsors of this event. Hence, the free corporate tickets.

Much hype was played in the media and indeed it lived up to expectations. Everybody knows about Maria Sharapova...those who dun ought to face the firing squad! What about Maria's opponent, Anna Chakvetadze?

Anna Chakvetadze is another russian prodigy who came of age this year with her stunning performance in the US Open where she reached the semis and captured 4 singles titles. (The organizers should give out free tix to those who can pronounce Anna's sirname properly. It's Chad-ver-tads-cee...)

I was like 50m away from Maria! That's abt as close as I will ever get to her...haha...unless i strike it rich in future and pay her to play a match for me on my 60th birthday...Wait...she'll be 57 by then....and wrinkled... Now, that's not gg to be a pleasant sight with her in a mini-skirt and her 'breath-taking' grunts.

Maria was by all account, fantastic! So was Anna in the 2nd set. Anna was obliterated by Maria in the first set 6-0 in under 30min. 2nd set was more of a contest with Maria prevailing 7-6(12-10). I paid a grand total of $0!haha...not complaining here... With a crowd of 9300, I guess the event can be considered a success. When asked about Singapore's potential of holding a WTA (Women Tennis Association) tournament, Maria gave her endorsement! Wala...(mind you, Maria was paid USD1million to play in this exhibition match)

Doing some simple maths, the event was not profitable! 9300tix @ SGD80-SGD1800, the revenue will be ard SGD1.3-SGD1.5million. Maria's fees alone would have wiped that out. What abt Anna's fees? USD100k-USD200k? 1st class air tickets? Presidential accommodation @ Fullerton Hotel? Security and logistics?

Judging by what was observed last night, the Singapore crowd is very new to tennis and its court ethics. Flash photography and handphones going off in between points with the occasional baby wails. Let's not get me started on the linemen and ball people! They were untrained and clueless at times. It can be very annoying to the players and it reflects very badly on the organizers. This is one area that deserves more planning and improvement in future if a WTA is to be held in Singapore.

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova, the glamor girl of tennis makes her maiden visit to Singapore. Gasp! She is so hot she will blaze the cruel Russian winter. okie...my attempt at poetry is horrible and distasteful at best. Standing at a striking height of 1.88m, she makes men in Singapore look like dwarfs...this cannot be more emphasized on me...haha

Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)

Benazir Bhutto, two-time former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated during a political rally of the Pakistan Peoples Party in Liaquat National Bagh in Rawalpindi yesterday, 27 December 2007.

Ms Bhutto is my political idol. Her intellect, courage, dedication and unflinching push for democracy in Pakistan has earned my respect of the highest level. She was the first female leader of a Muslim nation in 1988 at a tender age of 35. She was a beacon of light for secular citizens in Pakistan who wanted a democratic society. She did not quiver despite threats from Islamic extremists and knew what she wanted to accomplish.

She once told reporters that she understood and recognized the very real possibilities of assassination but vowed not to bow to these threats and will continue to push forth reforms for Pakistan. "I am prepared to take the risk". "One should stand up for the principles you believe in and I believe in the principle of democracy..."

Also, despite the adversaries faced by her family ( Dad hanged in 1979, 2 of her brothers killed in mysterious circumstances ), she remained resolute to the end. She was determined to change the lives of her countrymen and put in place a stable political system in Pakistan. She put her country before herself and was prepared to die for the cause.

Died she did, but her legacy will live on. To commoners like us, we can drawn strength from her courage and her work. Bhutto may have died, but her death will encourage many more to continue her work. I sincerely salute this great leader of modern time.

Merry Christmas

~MERRY CHRISTMAS~

I am a Legend

If you are looking for a good movie to watch this Christmas, may I suggest you avoid I am Legend. The movie is a flop of epic proportion!

The start seems promising. As the story unfolds, it just implodes. A virus was discovered to cure cancer. Hooray...*heaves a sign of relief. However, the virus mutated, became airborne and infected everybody, causing them to turn into vampires or scary creatures of some sort, except, of course, the protagonist, Robert Neville (Will Smith), a scientist and his canine friend, Samantha. The vampires evolved, became smarter and tracked Neville down. He met fellow survivors after 3 years and sought to find a remedy for the virus....yardar yardar yardar

Flashbacks were badly littered to create more confusion. There were moments in the movie that made Days Of Our Life seemed like a thriller. The most exciting part of the movie is the credits, that is if you haven't already left the cinema.

Now, everything should have a redeeming factor, right? No! I am Legend is an exception. The only thing redeeming about this movie is it actually ends (albeit abruptly)!

No 88th Bday

ah ma and i @ jumbo restaurant in 2001 mother's day...

Dance Production 2006...don't ask me why i looked like a drag queen

mum n dad seeing us off ...to Vietnam...

all smiles for the red packets tt i m abt to 'savor'...

putting out the candles with ah ma looking on...

wishing for good results.....(but apparently to no avail)

Above: Some random pics and pics from my 23rd bday...

Today is what would have been my ah ma's 88th birthday. Sadly, she left us for a better place. That better place is a container commonly referred to as urn, she 'sits' beside my grandpa and 2 other ah mas. My grandpa was a very charming lad, with girls swooning over him. haha. (I haf 4 ah mas in all from both sides of the family)

Morbid and disrespectful jokes aside, she was a wonderful woman, of class, elegance, wisdom and strength. Shortly before her departure, she managed to prepare a bottle of brand's chicken essence for me during my examinations in May, despite her condition(with feeding tube and walking difficulties). I felt very bad coz I could not do more for her. She was my fav as was I to her.

I was like everything to her in her later years. She doted on me, sometimes spoiling me. Did i mention i resembled my grandpa alot (not the charming part though)? ha! I was unreasonable to her and had cold wars wif her whenever we quarreled but she was always the first to relent. Now that I m older and more mature, I cannot do more to repay her love and kindness.

I have since taken over her room and left the drudgery of sharing a room with my bro. However, i have kept her things exactly the way she had left them hoping against realism that she might come back one day. I am willing to trade everything I possess to see her even just briefly and tell her how much i missed her.

Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps

Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps...perhaps I am too bored. Ha! The song is groooovvvvy. Naughty and playful lyrics...Put on your dancing shoes and shake your booty now! Perhaps NOT?

For Myself

Recently, it has come to my realization that I don't trust people as much as I used to. There have been a few incidents which made me lose faith and trust in people. Without going into details, lets just leave it at some analogies.

There is this friend, A, who never fails to 'impress' me with his planning ethics. Whenever we say, do sports, it has to perpetually revolve around his schedule. There is hardly any compromise on his part. However, he has this remarkable way of manifesting his true agenda by convincing you that whatever plan he comes up with is to your benefit by omitting full details. I have since distant myself from that person because friends like him are not worth keeping since the friendship is based on benefits.

Even those closest to you can behave in ways that are disconcerting. The media has reported cases where families fell apart because of inheritance disputes. Greed can make people do things to their loved ones one can only see in reel life.

Haiz...living in the real world can be very daunting. Every man for himself. Survival of the fittest. So watch out and be very wary of the next person who suddenly becomes very nice to you. He/She may have a hidden agenda. You have been warned!

The Instructor

There is an unexplainable relation between driving instructors and screaming. The former seems to turn into a screaming machine when he's on the job.You seem to be a dormant carrier of the mad-dog or mad-cow disease because they contract the disease while sitting alongside you and suddenly recovers and become benevolent when you pay them the fees.

My driving instructors ( civilian and military ) are very similar in terms of their teaching styles and attitudes. Their temperaments are paper-thin and they possess Shaparova-loud screams. Nobody really mind Sharapova screaming, those who do, are just jealous of her success. Well, when those screams come from balding, road-mapped-face uncles who made lewd comments with their equally dubious peers, it can make the calmest of minds go berserk.

Sometimes, I feel like giving him a nose-job and rearrange his face so that at least when he screams, it will be muffled! (I was figuratively making a hypothetical who-would-i-do rhetoric.) Come on, it does not make sense to scream at a newbie at the helm of the vehicle especially when he has just made a mistake. You will just f-up his thoughts even more by hollering!

That being said, the insane barks will suddenly disappear, giving way to angelic politeness when he collects your fees. You will observe a glittering glow and heck, a halo actually forms above his head when he collects your fees with a gleeful smile. Disgusting! *sneers

It's a boy girl thing

It's a boygirl thing though seemingly an off-the-mill romantic-comedy, is still worth the bucks. Especially so if your companion is a romancer. Starring sweet schoolgirl-like Samaire Armstrong and pretty boy Kevin Zegers, both genders are served with an overdose of eye-candies.

Woody Deane ( Zegers ), a high-school jock, also a quarterback in the football team with forgettable academic results swapped body with goody two-toes Yale-aspiring Nell Bedworth ( Armstrong) after a strange visit to the museum. They learned about each other lives and hated the change at first.

After some struggle, they realized they liked each other but refused to admit it. Deane went for Nell's interview for a place at Yale while Nell played an important football match for Woody.

Now, it's no fun if everything is revealed here. The movie premieres next year in Singapore. Go catch it! Plot though predictable and clinche appeals to the young and young at heart who love to love and yearn to plunge into a fairy tale relationship with prince charming or princess pretty.

What Have I been doing?

For starters, studying is out of the window. Self-improvement is remotely possible if I even wanted to lie to myself. Being able to sleep early seems elusive given how badly tuned my body is to the late-nights.

Prison Break 3 is a midnight staple, with interjections of Hitman, Hostel and Good Luck Chuck. Boston Legal a decent PB3 substitute with its bawdy humor and witty exchanges. PB3's standard is descending with it's almost too predictable plot. Scoffield's back in prison, attempting to breakout again. Yardar yardar...

Hostel is plain sick and gory. Period. I suspect the producer and scriptwriter desperate ditch attempt at even a C flick is colossally terrible. It has to be one of the most perverse and disturbing movies I have ever watched.

Hitman is kinda tacky, but no less thrilling. 1 guy taking out the entire swap team seems like a fallacy. Besides that, plot is relatively good. Good Luck Chuck is a winner. Highly recommended! Beautiful cast!

R and R

My eyes hurt like (expletives) today! It's always my right eye. Whenever I wear contacts, it will get very irritated after a while. I have a friend who claims to have worn his contacts for 2 weeks without removing them. Unbelievable!

And my glasses broke into 2. Double whammy! Fortunately, my exams have ended. Went out to marche to dine, the whole time in pain!!! Throat is also acting up. Never felt so lousy all at once.

Things to do: play tennis, get a tan, buy winter clothings, read a novel, play more tennis, train for IPPT, watch some movies, watch Hero, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, Tian Tang Niao.

Sammi 鄭秀文 - 終身美麗

One of my favorite songs when I was in college. Beautiful song sang by a beautiful lady. How befitting.

Goodbye 5 fine gentlemen

Unless you have been living in Mars, you will probably be aware that the lost of 5 fine gentlemen last week has literally brought Singaporeans to a state of mourning. Although I knew neither of them, from what I read from the media and tributes by their friends, they were very popular with their peers, teachers and even acquaintances.

What got me interested is that they are about my age and had so much to offer in life, so much to look forward to. Like what my grandmother always tell me, I am at the dawn of my life while she is already in her twilight.

To them, their dawns have abruptly and selfishly been drawn to a close. Youth, vigor, strength, love for life are what these super sporty people stand for. In an instant, everything just implodes into nothingness and abject misery for their family members ... Seeing their mothers crying their hearts out brought a few wet spots in my eyes. Nobody deserves to die like that. And nobody deserves to bury their children...

What an understatement it is to mention "Life is so fragile". Somebody upstairs must have made a big big mistake. There are so many terrorists out there who deserves so many death sentences over and yet they are alive and kicking, scheming to hurt more innocent people.

People say things happen for a reason, I tell them to stick it up their rears. Things like that baffle logic and reason. Just hope that time will heal the scars in their parents' hearts.

Taxis

I was on my way to a friend's place last nite. As I was late, I decided to take a cab. At my usual cab-waiting place, I tried to flag one. I saw one across the road, it was empty and it had the green lights on at the top. I was elated! As I caught the driver's attention, he did not stop! Instead, he switched the lights to red, indicating he was busy! Phenomenal! I guess he's changing shifts.

Recently, much has been discussed about errant taxi-drivers, who choose customers and tout. Shameless! So many cab operators have sprung up in recent memory and yet it remains a daunting task trying to flag a cab in the town area. Now, we even have someone in authority who suggested implementing surcharges in the CBD and Orchard Road and major tourist attractions to entice cabbies to return to town after dropping passengers at the heartland. Ridiculous.

As an authoritative figure, why is he still raising the cost of living when it is within our control? Rising wheat prices, fuel prices...these are understandably beyond our control. Anyway, instead, cab operators should reduce the rents of taxis. Anyway, cabbies are the ones who pay for fuel. They pretty much just collect rents! Also, authorities who in future make ridiculous comments concerning this issue should be fined their salaries to subsidize cab fares. Eg: Authority for Town A gets fined. Residents for Town A will have a 20cent rebate per cab trip. In this way, we can encourage intellectual and constructive debate when certain important meeting is in session and warrant disincentive for verbal diarrhea.

Some cabbies' rear are itching for some pain. I think some are really spoiling the market. Some cabbies chose this profession to pass time whilst others genuinely need the job. More rigorous screening shld be put in place to filter out would-be erroneous cabbies. Then again, cab operators like other businesses are profit-driven. Who gives a damn abt social welfare and the greater good when neither can buy u a cup of coffee?

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday was a better day, at least you know what happened yesterday. Today is going to be a mystery and tomorrow and beyond are even bigger mysteries.

For me at least, I know what is gg to happen tomorrow and beyond because every today(s), I am preparing for tomorrow and beyond. Yesterday becomes irrelevant because it just adds on to my misery that I no longer have today and I don't want to know what I did not do yesterday. And tomorrow, it's another compounded yesterdays' worth of miseries. Today, I think, I did nothing much and tomorrow, I am gg to be miserable because yesterday's worth of misery is gg to haunt my tomorrow.

Life's a misery. In fact, "Life" has been liken to many things; box of chocolate, train, wind, sun, moon, animals... People are really creative! They can come up with almost anything to compare life with and get all philosophical and get you nodding in agreement. Puzzling is people like to fluff things out of nothing!

PS: Exams can make some people incoherent and delusional.

Design I

For chemical engineers, this should look all too familiar. This is what my group has come up with. Rather, it should look liddat for most of the groups, just that the dimensions are somewhat different. Credit goes to Eng Huat for helping me to come up with the design using Solidworks.

This is a column for separating 2 product streams of different phases. Feed is the given substance while the outlets are where the product streams leave the column. Manhole is for maintenance assess. Skirt is generally referred to as support for the column.

Drying

The last few weeks have been a drying experience. That is squeezing me dry. It is a hectic last 2 months....Projects after projects after assignments after homework after presentations after vivas after lab reports after....almost never-ending.

The date has been set at 24th Jan 2008. Flying off to Denmark. What better to fly to Copenhagen than SIA ( the flagship carrier of Singapore, the first airline to fly Airbus 380 ). Unfortunately, the plane tt I will be flying in is a Boeing 777 (a long-haul plane). The distance according to "time and date.com" between Singapore and Copenhagen is 9957km.

Below is general flight path...

Heading from Singapore

Latitude:	1° 22'	North
Longitude:	103° 45'	East
Initial heading:	325.7°	Northwest by north
Final heading:	268.3°	West

Ticket to New Experience

The ticket to new experience has finally arrived. The internal turmoil of deciding between IA and SEP has finally ended. SEP won the battle. One is money-making, the other is money-spending. I chose the latter. There is a lot to be done from hereon. Visas, residence permit, shopping etc etc.
But first, examinations is the biggest challenge.

Not all are happy abt my deicision though. Who cares? Right? It's my life and I choose my direction. Nobody can really dictate one's journey in life. If it is abt sacrifices, well, the ppl concerned don't really need me in S'pore and to a certain extent, don't really deserve my sacrifices. Time and again, they have disappointed through their wrong actions, lack of actions, verbal diarrhoea, discouragement and anything worst possible, worst imaginable. They claim they are concerned and blahblahblah, yes, i understand their standpoints, but I have alr explicitly and repeatedly mentioned that their operandi moduli are wrong or rather, not what i want.

The person who can really influence my decision is not around, and recently, I have found another...but it's still too early to say if tt person is really the one. Should I take the plunge? Time will tell...clinche but apt.

Out Of tOwn

Parents are out of town this week. Yay! No nags and yardars yardars. The home feels exceptionally quiet and messy...Clothes strewn around, dishes unwashed, meals unconsumed or unpurchased, snacks overbought. Just a week, bear with the mess... And how to operate the washing machine again? opps...i deserve to stink...don't I??

Sleepy

The lights flickering....the pillow felt cold with touch and the music seemed so foreign even though I haf listened to it a hundred times over.... The nite is silent lest for the occasional car that appear and disappear in a flash. Air is cold...still fresh.....

SEP

Yup, the decision has been made and SEP it is. Will be flying off at the end of Jan 08 and returning at the end of June 08. For the first in my life, I will be going to Europe!!! Yay....Gonna watch Wimbledon! It starts at the end of June...just nice...last spot to visit be4 flying back home. Yay...


Bon Voyuer ? hahahhahaha Bon Voyage!

Work of Art

The shop that sold memories.

It’s a strange sight. One that I’m getting more used to though. Your face is marred with emotion, your eyes slightly wild and unrecognisable. I know those eyes, I tell myself, I once used to look in them, and notice the dark brown flecks dancing with some hidden joke that you never shared. I can’t see them now. You’re standing on the stairs a few steps up and the angle’s wrong, all I can see is the set of your chin. Your left earring is missing. I’d been meaning to buy you one more to replace it but I just hadn’t got around to it. The other one swings from your ear with the force of your voice, pale against the flush of your neck.

This must be quite a tableau – me, at the foot of the stairs, my bag forgotten and limp against the bottom step, the laces of my shoes undone but the shoes still on, you, one hand clenched tight on the stair-rail and the other pointing, stabbing, accusing. You’re yelling something but I can’t hear it, the sound of the rain pounding against the window is too loud. Actually, no, it isn’t too loud, I’m just not listening I think. We’ve been here before, this has happened before, and I’m guessing it will again.

My eyes flicker to the wall. There’s a slight crack where you once tried to hang the painting that we’d bought from the second-hand store down the road. You loved that shop, it was old and held the memories of a hundred different strangers, you said. I remember thinking then that was quite a smart thing to say.

You’ve given up I see, and you turn and tear your way upstairs. I try to call your name, but my throat’s dry from not talking. I swallow once and try again, but then a sudden crazy realisation skims quickly through my head – I’ve forgotten your name. It comes to me almost immediately of course, but the frisson through my spine doesn’t leave quite as quickly. Kicking off my shoes, I walk up after you. My bag’s on the floor, ignored or forgotten, I don’t quite care. The railing’s still warm from where you were gripping it, and I linger there for a second, feeling the once-familiar warmth of your hand, before I continue on. There’s a crash from upstairs as the door slams. I pause, sigh, turn and walk back out.

The papers arrive in the mailbox of my rented apartment the week after.

The plain brown envelope is slightly stained with water. Tears, I tell myself, but the rain belies my little fantasy. You don’t cry for me anymore.

Somewhere, in a shop at the corner of a quiet street, in a little cardboard box labelled “Collectibles” is a photograph of two people, laughing. It’s cold there, and they’re holding each other tightly. The trees behind them are turning golden and brown and there’s a bird perched on one of their branches, beak open and its song forever frozen in time. A hand lifts through the photographs slowly, pausing here, and then moves on.

Beautiful abstract, which I plagiarized from someone's blog. A big fan of his style and writing. So free-flowing, vivid and emotional. A work of art indeed.

Backdate

Haven't updating much due to the extreemeeely heavy workload. Fortuately, I made it a point to go out to get a breather....and celebrated my dad's over sixty sth bday. Yesh....he's tt oollllddd....i m no spring chicken myself too....the other day when i was climbing up a flight of stairs, i can feel myself panting after tt...oh gosh...how unfit

Yesh....what happened yesterday morning was hilarious and embarrassing.....I was disturbing my fwen abt a cute guy she loves to ogle at during lecture. She played along and we were so engrossed in our conversation that a guy sitting in front of us overheard us. Fortunately, our conversation was nothing randy or lewd

To all Muslims, hope you peeps haf a wonder Hari Raya

Relief before stress

What seemed like eternity has finally ended. That is the mid-term tests and 2 projects... Project was bad...had to sleep at 4am+++ to get it done. Sch's giving students premature eyebags n crowfeet.

After conquering these few hills, there is yet another mountain to scale. Hysys! In moutaineering context, my group is still at the base camp, equipment's ready but we are still resting in our nice and comfortable tents. Well.....avalanche is going to bury us deep and hard on the 23rd this month...

Rough Paper

Interestingly, amidst the craze and tensed period of tests and examinations, there are little things ard us that make us smile albeit in a silly way. I dun think the lecturers meant for bringing our attention to the plain sheets of paper as insulting our intelligent, rather to pre-empt questions like if we had to do our workings on these plain paper n so on. Nonetheless "This is rough paper" is like warning labels which state obvious observations but required, to prevent potential liability suits.

3 mid-term tests are finally over.....outcome is forseeably dismal if not atrocious. 2 more DEADlines for projects due next week. haiz... leading a donkey's life.

Children's Day

HaPpY ChILDrEn's DaE !!!

YAY! It's the happiest day of my life....rather it used to be....no longer a child now. Nway, to all the children out there, Happy Children's Day!!!...Also, if you are reading this....you are too young to be surfing the net; at least reading blogs!

Religion

Politics and Religion cannot mix! More specifically; monks and generals cannot mix. When you mix them, saffrons will suffocate and varnish without a blip. Generals will roll out their big guns and intimidating tanks while monks will roll out their prayers? Why must there be something bad happening when the STI is starting to show positive sign?

Relationship and Religion cannot mix as well...Religion and common sense cannot mix too.... Religion and Religion cannot mix as well....Well, looks like religion cannot coexist with many things....it should be carted off and left one side. Well, I m not exactly the holiest mortal around, not even near by any stretch of the imagination. I think religion should be practised during our leisure time....or when we dying coz we need to have a particular 'type' of funeral. Don't go around talking abt ur religion, it irks sometimes. Don't use God's name in vain!

To Yous

to you...where haf you been after we last spoke on sat? to you....thx for wanting to help me with the irritable sch work.....to you...thx for sharing some of my tots and perhaps secrets......to you....NO thx for making my revision so difficult.....to you....u are still the same; always being self-serving......to you....i think u r are even cuter after ur hair-cut....to you and you....i m glad that i can do sth meaningful for you 2 since i can no longer do things for ur sis....to you.....i wished i can help u but there's nth anyone can do unless there's a miracle...

Thoughts

Look at this old lady. Is this where our social safeguard is heading? I have seen her ard my neighbourhood since my JC days. Nothing has changed much; she remains forlorn and continues to collect cans and newspapers from dustbins. What has changed is her walking aid. Back then, she din need one. She appears to be in her eighties.

After snapping this pic, I observed her for a while. She went abt her routine and collected cans and cardboards. It really pains me to see someone her age to be doing such tedious work. Then again, she may be doing this to kill time rather than the need to.

Sitting in school...participating in himboic conservations like who is the prettiest...who dresses the nicest and what to eat for lunch seemed so irrevelant when one actualli sits down n just observe the world ard them beyond their own needs and wants.

Pesty Vandors

My neighbour has been pestered by loansharks of late. They belong to classic case of a dysfunctional family unit. Couple is divorced with three children. The husband has since moved out leaving the house to his wife and 3 schooling kids.

Apparently, they ran into some financial problems and turned to the loansharks. No thanks to them, my family will open our door to artistic drawing and abstract symbols-writing akin to the Egyptians. However, these loansharks lacked depth in their symbols-writing coz most of them were repetitive. An example would be O$P$? Looks like an encryption of some sort.

What is infuriating is that these pesty loansharks have taken their talent display to the walls of neighbours 2 levels down. They have the audacity to throw paint on the doors of these innocent folks. Fortunately, they managed to keep their paint brushes off my walls but I suspect it's only a matter of time before we are victimised.

New Boss

Let me introduce Eusoff Hall's very own IHG (Inter-Hall Games) tennis captain, Dinidu Das. He's from Sri Lanka. He's a doubles specialist and possesses volleying skills even Todd Woodbridge or Mark Woodforde would be proud of. Yup. He refuses to let me play doubles coz he thinks my volleying sux major BIG time ( which is true lar ). Now that he is officially my new boss, I think it's goodbye to playing doubles for real le... Sad...

Misery

Laptop crashed! Haiz...Horrific experience and what a torment not to have easy access to the virtual world...sorrows aplenty...

Random

Sometimes, things can be very predictable. People can also be predictable, and it's not just sometimes! It's almost always. That's life! Sometimes, we can complain and get all flustered over things but tt's the way life is. Take it in our stride because life still goes on nonetheless. There are two ways that life goes on; either happily or unhappily. The choice is ours to make. So make urs today...wisely.

And yes, September 11. Keep your eyes peeled for any eventualities and what not. Stay safe and drink lots of water......

CheSS Dinner and Dance

Zhan Sheng (DL)

Fearsome Vampire

Classmate Selina

SHINE new face Peiyi

Christine

Oriental Beauty Tiffanie

Table 17; the lovely babes n hunks of CEng 09

Xiao Hua; 2nd...baby-face

Zheng Biao; Man's winner

Yay! Melissa;1st runner-up

CheSS DnD; Shades of the Orient. An intelligent theme and even more creative program. Vampires, gangsters, emperors and classic beauties turned up. Tough to describe...let the pictures do the talking...

byebye

1919-2007

Today marks the 100th day since the passing of my grandmother...The pain lingers...Wherever you are, I hope you are happy becoz you are no longer suffering...Goodbye and I miss you alot...

Busy Bumble Bee

31st Aug - Montfort Teachers' Day
1st Sept - CheSS DnD 2007
2nd Sept - Tuition + Sch
3rd Sept - Tuition + Sch
4th Sept - Dreadful Laboratory

Time is so limited. I need 30hrs a day! Anyway, last weekend was a blast. Two sumptuous dinners in a row. One sponsored, the other dutch! The former was buffet at Furama City Centre, the latter at Mandarin Hotel @ Orchard. Shall upload the pictures over the weekend...

Arts Canteen

The arts canteen deserves two thumbs up for its new design. It is as spacious as it is airy. Because of the extremely high ceiling, ventilation is no longer an issue. Food is good although my trying of two stores is not a good representation of the quality of food for the rest. The Laska is great, the omph is there and it is very spicy! Oh...did I mention Burger King? Gone are the days of suffocating, butts-brushing, perspiration-inducing dining experience at the canteen.

With so many changes, what remains essentially the same is people-watching! Arts canteen is where you find inspiration to your next day's dressing. Make-up, eye-shadows, lipsticks, the chic expensive-looking oversized hangbags are must-haves for the ladies; almost a criteria for eating at the arts canteen. Anything less will be scorned at and visually berated. For guys, well, anything goes! Who really cares what the guys wear?

No Money!!!

Went queensway to get my rackets restrung just only. Bought a dampener and went back hall to play tennis... It seems that besides school, my life revolves ard tennis and tuition. The usual suspects from hall plus Joofee and Alex and two unknowns who happened to be using the court before us played. Got to say it was not much fanfare for today's session although Alex and I partnered to edge out a 6-3 win over the 2 unknowns. Not my credit but Alex's since his serve was on form.

Strange that my life no longer revolves ard my family. Even if I weren't in hall, I hardly get to see my parents and brother. Not that I really have to see them, but it's no longer the same. Anyway, had a simple dinner to celebrate my mum's close-to-sixtieth birthday earlier in the week. Ate at Guan Seng restaurant at Potong Pasir at some ulu void deck. Recommendation? Nah...normal lar...though it was featured as S'pore's top 50 restaurants by some internet food something something which I cannot recall. And tt reminds me tt I haf to pay my bro for the meal...damnit! Really broke...

To add on to my misery, I still hafven thought of what to wear to CheSS DnD which is on 1st Sept. It's abt a week away...taking away the obscenely amount of time spent preparing for lessons, it's more or less no time....plus.....more money to be spent.... somebody pls dial 1800-save-JL to donate...

Food for the soul

Scallops Galore

Everything Pork and Chicken

Muddy Mud Pie, Ben & Jerry

Met up with Tab, Dickson, Dawn and Ket last friday for Dickson's farewell dinner. We indulged ourselves at the Imperial Treasure Teochew Restaurant at Taka Level 4. Setting and ambience were not bad except for the pesty waitress who kept hurrying us for our orders. Food was great albeit too oily. $30 per person was considerably reasonable. After dinner, we adjourned to Ben and Jerry's at Paragon to chill out. My muddy mud pie was a tad too muddy for my likely. Guanting joined us at B&J. A simple get-together is a good way to end the school week.

Poor Poorer Poorerer Poorererer

$4000 and counting....lost....at least paper lost...heartache...but it is part and parcel of taking risk...

Losing Money

Wow lao! These 2 weeks the stock market is totally crap! America's mortage loan crisis has spilled over to the rest of the world. It's making me lose money like nobody's business lar. Hopefully, recession has not arrived earlier than expected. It has been forecasted to be in 2009. Is it the start of something terrible? Hope not...

Anyway, it's been a week since school started. Lessons are alrite so far...quite slack in fact. Alot of bizaars...n milo trucks! yay..shiokadiasy..
Lab is stupid lar...the TA don't even know what we are doing...confused us even more and he just pretended to know when he obviously don't and his smoking skills are terrible. He keeps insisting that we do it next week becoz by then, another TA would have taken over...Slacker!

SomeBody's 21st !

Happy Birthday SomeBody

DKNY copper-brown; a watch of elegance and grandeur

ShanBing turns 21 today, so did Adeline some 4months back. Sherly also turned 21 on the 13th. A significant milestone for all. But why 21? One wonders... So what does turning 21 mean? The transition from adolescence into adulthood. The right to vote in our almost ceremonial elections. The entry into the adult movie industry( i mean as audience and not participant).

LoO00ooOoOoo00oOOoooOOooO00ooOOo0oking back ...

Was outing shopping for SomeBody's birthday prezzie yesterdae with Yimin and Adeline. Bingxiang was supposed to join us but could only join us later as he had something to do. Anyway, we went ahead to pry each and every watch shops around Orchard. There were some restrictions like budget and design.

Being the self-proclaimed 'good-taste' person, I had to QC what the 2 girls chose. Some watches were nice but 'below' budget. While we had to work within our budget, we also did not want to appear han suan. Finally, after combing every watch shops in Orchard, a copper-brown classic-looking watch caught my attention. It sat inconspicuously between 2 loud time-tellers. I knew immediately that we looked no further. THAT was the one! The sales lady placed it next to our previous shortlisted watches and we did not hesitate to eliminate all the rest.

Yimin and Adeline were dumbfounded by the style and uniqueness exuding from the watch. I could tell that they wanted one themselves but were too shy to admit. However, hips don't lie....so they started to shake their hips ala Ricky Martin's Shake your Bon Bon, strongly betraying their desires. hahaha---> all these weren't true lar.

What really happened was that they too agreed that it was the most beautiful and suitable watch that we have came across. We waited for Bingxiang to pick up the tab of $8752 before splitting.