Dear Dreams – Page 108

Meihoe’s Birthday Treat

Relieving duties were waste of time somehow when the subject was not my forte, or rather, totally stranger to me.

I managed to draft out something for the following week’s torment at Bukit Batok but the morning spelt anxiety for me.

Weitat went to meet up with his students. Alex and Mdm Seet were asking me out for lunch and I insisted to wait for Jingkun inside the staff room. I did not dare to disturb him during his lesson and thus only ten minutes later, I called him. When he told me he was going out, I was stunned and felt stupid and embarrassed for rejecting my two colleagues earlier on. I went to the canteen to buy the usual mixed vegetable rice back to office but I stopped by to chat with many people along the way. My colleagues returned when I just finished eating and I was very lost to explain what had happened.

I managed to spend some time editing my “Smoke Slayer” game in order to “revise” on my Flash and Action script skill. Every day was learning day. Just when I was so engrossed in the editing, Weitat, Daniel and Meihoe called for me and we proceeded to Avenue 2 for dinner. Mingfa and Mingli joined in the claypot rice feast and the dinner was on Meihoe because it was her birthday. I was quite embarrassed once again since she had told me before her birthday was on January and that I had almost totally forgotten about it even though she did not tell me the date.

Anyway, I was not a claypot rice lover and that my entire body was stunk after the meal and felt so irritated throughout the night. All of them claimed that that stall was not very fantastic.

I made my way down to the bus-stop at around 6.30 PM. Bus 154 came to welcome me and I was glad that it was not as crowded as what I had anticipated. I was early for lesson! However, the lack of sleep acted like drought and almost killed me completely. I was not sure if the module was too boring or the lecturer was just too weird. I was very stressed because Yuanle was far too smart and I was wondering if I was the lousiest in the entire lecture group.

The journey home was unusual for I was busy trying to SMS my contacts about my change of number. Like the previous times, which I had tried, after typing the message and then selecting multiple recipients before sending, the “internet” icon appeared and then failure message appeared. I went to the sent message to try to resend and the message was converted to MMS, which was so dumb for I did not add any video or image at all. My younger brother guessed it was because I had not activated the MMS service on my phone. Everything was so stupid and that I probably would wait until Sunday to start SMSing my contacts on the phone who I did not have their email address.

Anyway, a stylish girl boarded the same bus as me and sat two seats in front. The journey could be much more entertaining if I could get to see her more before she alighted before the big turn towards Great World City.

Stayed Awake for the Lecture

I finally managed to remember to buy some herbal tea for Mrs Wo and Dorothy since they were having sore throat and also for Meihoe who was engaging in tough battles nowadays.

There was a little peace saturating after the marking work was finished.

I abandoned Jingkun, Daniel, Afni and Kevin to have lunch with Benny, Liangquan, Gordon and Chun Leng since I did not want to disappoint them. We had some great laughs before I joined Alex and Mdm Seet for some prowling outside.

My initial plan of leaving early failed and I got home after five to try hard to doze off. Since my mum had forgotten to switch on the cooker, she bought a packet of white rice for me and killed my effort to doze off. My younger brother returned later to wreck my plan totally.

I missed a bus 75 and I was late for lesson for around twenty to twenty five minutes. Surprisingly, I did not doze off despite without taking a nap before the lesson. However, I did not know too many things to understand the lecture, especially all the terms.

After dismissal, I waited for Yuanle for him to ask questions before leaving together. Bus 75 arrived soon. There was no luck for the night and it was boring without any good sightings. My nose was sensitive to unpleasant smell, especially when some workers boarded the bus and sat in front and behind me, and the body odour almost killed me.

A woman who was rushing off at the same stop fell down. I met Kachua who was having dinner with his colleagues at the coffee shop beside Yan Kit Road and had a little chat with him before rushing home to catch the Yi Zhi Mei show on channel U.

Work Dwelled on Me

I was trying to sleep early the day before but while I was setting my alarm clock on the phone, I saw “inactive SIM”. I knew Starhub had cancelled my line when they were supposed to call and inform me first. I quickly got up of my bed and started sending emails to my friends to inform them of the changes. I also mass messaged everyone in my MSN. In the end, I got to sleep at very late hour.

Lacking of sleep caused emotional problems. My brain was still suffocating from the previous day of stress and bloating, and the day simply started off very badly.

Upon reaching the office, I was received by Alex and Mr Baey who told me the urgency of the smoking poster. Alex showed me an email sent over by the top sending his regards for the smoking cases. I felt being arrowed so badly. I did not have a chance to breathe since two week ago and I did not even have the chance to tell them I needed to go to the toilet.

The worst thing was that I was only given a warning letter to get the contents from, and that ideas from both sides were different. Changes made on the contents drove me insane. I was not merely designing a poster but an editor of the contents as well. Luckily, we had some time to get together to discuss finally and confirmed everything.

Even though I was not very fantastic with my output of work, at least I made effort to do my best each time, unless time constraint, I would still produce something more valuable. This time round, I simply put texts and available images on the PowerPoint slide and submitted, which I felt so silly and insincere, though I was plainly following instructions.

I started with marking of test papers finally, which was one of the prime causes of my stress. I took the work into the lab and stayed at the back to focus on them. Instead of going home before my night class started, I stayed behind to continue with the work in my sleepy mood, and I shut down in the air countless time to wake up a second later.

All the workloads reminded me of my previous attempts to leave. I hated it when my studies were affected by my work when I was actually planning to leave so long ago in order not to waste my money away.

The canteen closed early and since I was cooping myself inside the office to do my work, I did not have dinner. I closed my eyes to rest inside the office for fifteen minutes before taking off. I was quite lucky to meet Hasnah at the lobby when she was sending George and Mdm Seet to the MRT, and she gave me a lift as well, such that I could have additional options of taking bus 154 and 184 instead of mainly waiting for the tortoise-like bus 52.

The packed traffic destroyed my plan of grabbing a burger to eat before the lesson. I was in fact early for lesson but decided to stay inside to have a little rest. However, the lecture started with injections of sleeping pills into my body and I could not stay focus even for a little.

During the break, I grabbed myself a “poh pian” to struggle through the night. Surprisingly, I managed to stay awake during the second half of the lecture. The journey home was quite boring even though I did see a few babes at the bus-stop, inclusive of a stylish girl who was unfortunately too over skinny.

Irwin was finally back in Singapore and I made an appointment to catch Red Cliff 2 with him on Saturday evening.

Weird People

There are people who rather instruct people to do things and at the same time, mention that the tasks are simple and fast. If things are really so simple to them, why don’t they just do it on their own?

Mobile Phone Number Changed

I signed up a new Starhub mobile phone line under my mum’s name to enjoy the Hub Club privilege with discounts since we had Maxonline and SCV.

Last week when I called Starhub to cancel the line at night, they told me they would call me at my previous line back within five days to confirm the cancellation. Since I did not want to carry an extra phone with me, I had been waiting for them to call me to confirm it before switching to the new SIM card.

Services had been very bad for the past two days that my friends did not receive some of my SMSes. Just a moment ago when I was about to go to bed, I realised the display on my handset was “Inactive SIM” and immediately I knew what had happened.

What happened to the damn Starhub people when I was using the old SIM just because they bloody hell claimed that they would be calling me at that number to confirm it and now that they had terminated the line before informing me, leaving me no chance of telling my friends.

91829456 is no longer in use.

The Work Stress and Gone Case Lecture

The day started miserably for I was doing poster design instead of going to sleep early. There were stress placed by colleagues even though I could push the load away since I had already told them I was extremely busy with other stuffs and my studies.

I went to sleep after three AM to wake up after eight and quickly washed up for work. I met my problem child female on train and had a nice teasing of her before we boarded bus for two pathetic stops.

The day was quite special since O level results were going to be released at two PM and my posters were going to be distributed. Lessons and duties were affected and I had to cover up duties for Alvin in the afternoon. Before lunch, I saw Aaron talking to Jonathan, he seemed to be doing his usual pinpointing on the poster, and I was stressed up even more for I knew well I had not done my best but that was a last minute work.

I was already stressed up enough for all the design works and my studies but the afternoon drove me to a more desperate end. The sudden bomb set me up with giddiness and brain block.

I set off to school earlier than ever at around five thirty PM but bus 52 kept me waiting while most of the other bus numbers had arrived twice. I met Pui Kuan before the bus arrived. I first approached #2-22 to collect my student pass and they did not have my record even though my pass was already done and thus I stayed quite some time over there.

After calling Venus to check her results and that she finally picked up her phone, I went to the canteen alone for dinner. I had a plate of fish and chips and the hot serving torched my tongue. The fish was crispy outside, which I was neutral about it, but the fresh was soft and quite well done. $3.50 was dirt cheap compared to outside.

I entered the lecture theatre earlier than usual and sat there to rest but it was too short to doze off. The lecturer came in to start speaking without microphone. It was difficult for me to catch his accent and I went blank at some of his words. The lecture was too lengthy at first and I started to wander off soon even though my eyes were fighting hard to look at the slides.

I felt terrible for not understanding the lecture at all and I knew the worst cause of the night was due to the stress earlier on during working hours with all the rush work and last minute disorganisation.

I managed to catch bus 75 after pacing with my shoelace dropping off, in exchange of girls-watching at the bus-stop where many babes were around. Even though I got to catch more than fifteen minutes of the Yi Zhi Mei show, it was not as enjoyable as usual with the mild headache.

Surprised Party for Mingli on her 21st Birthday

Sunday morning was the only day I could get to sleep longer after six nights of insufficient sleep. Since I reached home late and only got to sleep after four AM, I woke up very late in the afternoon; however, I did wake up at around eight plus to interrupt the required continuous sleep.

My entire body was covered with aches from the volleyball game the night before, and the lack of sleep certainly made it worse. The efficiency was low and I managed to finish my blog entry continued from the morning, and then the countless of bed harassing provoked time. Before I could do much designing work, it was time to go out.

Mingli’s ex boyfriend had a surprised party for her at Chevrons. We were supposed to bluff her over for KTV session. Mingfa, Andy and Weitat went rollerblading with her in the afternoon and tried to stall time for the party preparation.

In order to make it seem convincing to go to Chevrons’ KTV, I had to wear jeans. Mingfa called me to pick me up at my house but I was already at Outram Park MRT station. I alighted at Queenstown MRT station to wait for the car.

After reaching the carpark, Mingli’s was so sharp that she spotted her sister-in-law’s car. I made a quick remarks of her running into her relatives wherever she went but I was not sure if her usual statement would ease her suspicious. Anyway, we waited for Jingkun to arrive before walking towards the swimming pool and asking her to knock at the first chalet’s door.

She went in to get see her family members and friends, and soon a choir of birthday song sparkled the evening. Since most of her presented friends were girls and the room was very crowded, we left after taking a group picture with her.

We went to pick Wilson up before going to Choa Chu Kang for dinner. My stomach was still bloated after taking dinner an hour back before leaving the house. Therefore, I took only a piece of serving for each dish we ordered. I had only a very little of the hor fun and a small bowl of fried rice. Each person paid around twelve bucks.

After the dinner, we went to Mustafa. The grand scene of Indians pushing each other near Little Indian MRT station to board the coaches kept my eyes opened wide. The entire street was dark and it seemed like we would be knocking down someone anytime as the Indians dashed across the roads like in foreign country. The upcoming Chinese New Year seemed to have brought live to Little India, except that the colour scheme was directly contrasting.

The brilliant 24 hours operating hypermarket kept us there for some time.

Saturday Lecture, Volleyball, Mingli’s Birthday and Hong Kong Cafe

I was planning to sleep early on Saturday morning but a friend messaged me in MSN and thus, slowed down my blogging speed. I woke up after seven AM for the morning lesson and it was hell sickening having to go back school on Saturday. It did not seem like a weekend at all.

I was lucky enough to catch a bus 75 soon after reaching the bus-stop. At the first sight after boarding the new bus, I was quite stunned to see someone who looked like her.

On the way then I remembered I had forgotten to collect my student card the day before. The worst thing was that I had even forgotten the new room to collect it the next week. I went back to the original photo taking room and I was right that they did place a piece of paper at the door to highlight the place.

I met Professor Willy Susilo on the way to the restroom and I confirmed that he remembered my face; hopefully it was not due to me sitting at the front and nodding during his lecture.

They did not provide us a proper room for lecture. We were placed inside an examination room, which stretched far to the back, and thus, not everyone could really see the screen and whiteboard clearly. This was not what we deserved after paying such high school fee.

Yuanle was late and he joined me at my back’s table. The lecture was full of theories to remember and thus I was trying very hard to keep myself awake. Even though I succeeded like usual, the words did not really get into my brain.

We went to the more high class canteen during the break but the queue was long and thus we switched over to the “normal” one opposite. I met Reuben Tham and then I saw Mr Peh walk past outside.

Back to lecture, I almost wanted to kill myself for the torment to keep my eyes open. The daily less than six hours of sleep was breaking my mental system. When Professor Willy talked about the assignment and examination at the end of the lecture, I was very worried because I was never an outspoken person to debate during the presentation.

We were released very early and I left quickly to get some rest before going for volleyball. Unfortunately, I did not sleep for long and I could not get back to nap again somehow. The duck rice my mum bought was quite filling and that my stomach stitch regained during the journey back to workplace.

Mr Peh advised me of my bachelor degree course, as it was too short to be recognized in government sectors and that graduating at Australia would be a much better choice. The words kept my mind occupied throughout the night.

I missed the first game since we had seven people, excluding Mingfa’s students. I did not get many chances to spike when I got in and I wasted my rare opportunities each time. As I joined in the other games, I started to get back some feeling but I was already too tired on my legs to do much things. I made many attempts of good spiking and felt quite satisfied in the end.

Halfway through the games, Weitat and Mingfa fetched Mingli’s cake over, switched off the light and we started singing her a birthday song.

After the uncles had left, we stayed on to play two on two and I caused Andy to lose two games together with me since I had just trimmed my finger nails, which caused pains when I tried setting the ball. The softness on my legs resulted that I could not dig well without the proper foundation on the ground.

Wilson left to fetch Ruoci while Kok Chiang sent Oliver home and buying a packet of rice for the security guard. The rest of us camped at the car lobby and took off soon upon Kok Chiang came back. We went to Hong Kong café at Cineleisure. We were planning to park the car at the free parking car park opposite Cineleisure but the bird shits scared us away. Jingkun had a frustrated ride with moronic taxi drivers and we were afraid that he might do dangerous things. Mingfa bought new slippers at NewUrbanMale shop first since he lost his entire shoes bag before going for volleyball earlier on.

Weitat and Mingli shared a bowl of curry pork while Mingfa had his share with me. The usual milk tea kept us waiting for long and then we shared a mango sunrise, which was too filling for the five of us.

While we were leaving, we met Kaelyn aka Pauline. I had not seen her for long and we used to chat online last time before we got busy. The excitement lighted me up and I started doing the normal teasing, which kept the rest wondering.

I reached home at nearly three PM.

Fifth Day of School

Friday morning was a terror like usual, having to wake up at six AM. The previous nights of inadequate sleep set my brain to a zero efficiency level. At least I was glad that I was on time for work after the four nights of struggle.

I was quite tempted to go out for lunch with Hasnah, Afni, Bernard and others but Jingkun was sick and that he did not want to lunch out, and thus I accompanied him to the canteen.

I intended to leave office earlier to rest my brain at home before the night class began but bosses were not around and I did not want to bother them by calling or messaging them, and thus I waited until three PM. Many colleagues had left by then and I was surprised that I was slower than them. I waited for Jingkun to finish up his Flash animation before taking his car to Jurong East MRT.

After reaching home, I collapsed very soon. Even though the one hour of nap was still insufficient, it was quite good to keep myself more awake later on. The beginning of the journey to SIM was slow with the traffic jam but I was glad enough that the second half was not that bad.

I was lucky to get to see another babe who boarded the bus after Holland Village. She had slim and nice legs, showing off in her short shorts. It was not about the amount of skin she was showing but the wear she dressed herself up, since I appreciated stylish girls and it told me more about the way they would interact with people.

I was late for around five minutes. Yuan Le was sitting at the fifth row and I joined him. The lecture’s contents were much more boring than the previous days’ but Professor Willy Susilo managed to entertain everyone with his jokes to keep the theatre more alive.

We were dismissed half an hour earlier but I wasted some time waiting for Yuanle to chat with his colleague and then he decided to stay on. I waited very long for bus 75. The bus travelled slower than usual since the road was not very empty and I got home only after 10.30 PM, and I was actually expecting to be at home more than twenty minutes earlier.

I spent the rest of the night in front of the television.

Never a Lone Ranger at SIM Lecture Anymore

New design work arrived and I was not sure if bosses knew about it; I was not sure if I should notify them about it so that others would add in more workload for me when I was already at my throat. It was poster for anti-smoking campaign and thus I was interested in contributing my part but time was pushing me hard.

Canteen was as crowded as the day before. Weitat, Jingkun and I dined out at Clementi at the newly renovated coffee shop at Teck Heng. A lousy plate of nasi lemak without cucumber was very expensive at $2.50, which I could get better quality and quantity at the hawker centre instead. Anyway, the uncle at the Malay stall took my order or nasi patanya and made me wait for nothing as he told me the chicken was not ready yet.

The afternoon was a struggle of battle against time. Designing small icons spilled my brain juice. I decided to go for the splash page first for George but it was difficult to get three logos of different tones to be integrated nicely into a splash page, which was not supposed to be very big sized.

I got some buns and mai gai at the drinks stall at $2.20. Alex suddenly mentioned about introducing girls to me, which was so random. I was glad though, since it was a good progress of friendship since the first few weeks he arrived and sometimes turned a blind eyes to me even when I smiled at him; of course, it was better than Veron’s case and she was actually very friendly ever since we started playing badminton together.

I felt very glad when Jingkun and Weitat told me they wanted to have a bite at Bukit Timah and Jingkun would be sending me over to SIM. The main road was super congressed and Jingkun took a big round by travelling in the opposite direction towards Bukit Batok. I was guessing he could have stick to the same road since the distance was much shorter. Anyway, it was good that I could close and rest my eyes inside his car. Their consideration was very touching.

It was my first visit to the canteen at SIM. It looked unique somehow except that my shirt stunk soon. I went up to level six to get my letter of confirmation as SIM student to submit for deferment of NS from Sara.

I knew exactly well I would be earlier than Professor Willy since I saw him dining at the canteen just before I bid my gang goodbye. I took the second row seat this time and I was a lone ranger like usual. I had a hard time staying attentive. During the break, I stared at the person who looked like Yuan Le and I was glad when he called out my name. Edgar finally replied my SMS and it was too late.

Since Yuan Le had changed his number, he did not reply my SMS in the morning. However, he still held my existing number. I was wondering how many more numbers in my list were ownerless already.

We were dismissed early again. I waited quite long for bus 75 together with many students at the bus stop who were waiting for their buses as well. I took an empty seat behind a trendy girl who was probably from junior college judging from her t-shirt. It was such a pity that she moved nearer to the windows soon that I could only glance at her back. Nevertheless, I had my MP3 to entertain me on the way. She alighted at Great World City and the remaining short journey was more boring than ever.

I managed to catch more than fifteen minutes of Yi Zhi Mei on channel U again. Poor Yuan Le was staying at Bedok and I felt quite fortunate somehow, even though I was wishing so much that I was staying at Clementi.