Sunday Chatting

[Sunday, 2 May, 2010]

I was almost ready to upload the photos taken during the camp but my elder brother suggested to go to Maxwell Food Centre for lunch. My mum was at my aunt’s place and thus only the three of us went. I took the fishball noodle and it was very filling after taking a bun before we set off.

A new student added me in Facebook and she was very chatty while I was lazing around in the warm weather, lying on the bed at intervals. I got to chat with Evangeline, one of my favourite OGLs, and I hardly could do any work for the day.

At night, my brother and I went down to get food from the Burger King at Amara hotel. The new meal was at a reasonable price. We ordered three sets which the four of us shared and it was a great dinner except that I knew my throat would not be able to take it anymore.

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Great Family Day at Queensway and Chinatown

[Saturday, 1 May, 2010]

I tried to sort out the photos taken during the camp but got too tired and I gave up after 2am upon finishing my blogging.

It was a long sleep and I woke up at 1pm. before I could do much work, my elder brother suggested to go to Anchor Point with his girlfriend. We went to the Hong Kong Café while waiting for my mum to come. Then, we changed our minds and decided to dine at IKEA instead. It was a good meal.

My brother went to the pet shop nearby to get the birds’ food while the three of us walked around to wait for him. I saw my favourite chairs but did not get any of them for I was not sure if the price was worth it a not. We went back to Anchor Point where we got cheap yoga before moving to Chinatown.

We went to see the chair my brother recommended but the backrest was simply strings which I did not like even though it had the hollowness in between for air ventilation. Even though it had wheels, which the ones I saw in IKEA did not have, I thought I would need a good back support as well.

We went shopping for a while at the CK departmental store before we went to Chinatown Complex to get some fruit juice and also satays despite I was feeling bad on my throat. It was quite a good family even though I had missed out a lot of work.

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ITE Orientation Camp April Intake Day 2

[Friday, 30 April, 2010]

The first second of the day was the continuation of Hirman’s reflection session. He could assign everything to his emcees but definitely not this task. His enthusiasm, warm-heartedness and firmness clearly stated the importance of the camp. He wanted the students to learn in the midst of enjoyment to see beyond themselves and spare thoughts for others, and to persist on no matter how tough their future would be. I supposed not everyone bothered to listen but those who had listened were people who were more likely to succeed in future.

I did not feel like sleeping afterwards for I was quite worried about the students. I tried to tidy up the photos inside my laptop but I was disturbed by a sudden alert that a student was falling sick. I woke Hirman up and it turned up that that girl did not have a fever. Later on, I went to accompany Aaron for his guard duty but I did not talk much. Upon returning, I was told that Hirman and George were back to settle the problem of the sick student. I went to take my bath before continuing with my work but I did not last till daylight.

Mrs Grace Cheong highlighted to me that by sleeping in front of the door with my head facing it would cause me to have nightmare. I was very glad to hear her advice for I felt protected somehow. The breakfast was nasi lemak and later on, some of my ex-colleagues decided to go for movie and I felt I should be ready for in case anything happened. I dozed off until noon time when I had a shock that I had missed out a few hours of photography. However, it seemed that the activities were not as fun as the previous camp.

I joined Iylia for lunch before we set off to capture all the precious moments. It seemed that she preferred to stick together but that would cause us to miss out some interesting events happening at other parts of the Singapore Discovery Centre. Anyway, I was quite disappointed that everything came to an end soon and dinner was served early so that they could prepare for the performance at night. I helped Iylia with the phototaking of all the classes.

The approaching of the night placed my photography skill into great challenges. I borrowed Diana’s new Nikon camera but it was not as good as what I had expected for a costly new digital camera. Hirman got me to go into the theatre to take photos and during Kelvin’s speech, I knocked out completely since I did not have enough sleep for the past three or more nights. By the time I woke up, the event was about to end. I went to the main area and my shagginess dragged me to the Hospitality Suite to rest.

When everything was over, I stayed with my two ex bosses and Mr Neo to clear up some of the mess. Hirman went off without me after he loaded up the equipments and my bag was inside his car. Mr Neo gave me a lift back to Clementi campus and we were earlier than Hirman. During the journey, I was very impressed with the ultra big moon.

I reached the lobby to see volleyball game going on. There was not enough time for me to go in to greet Mr Peh and uncle Jiaming. I left with Hirman in sorrow somehow. I followed Hirman to Bar Stop to meet up with Jenne and Joei. I had a glass of beer and a plate of chicken pizza. The earlier hunger had caused a lost in appetite and that we left too early for me to finish up my stuff. I felt very lousy for the first time for the little amount of beer I took caused me a bit of drowsiness.

Jenne insisted not to collect money from me. She sent me home before driving off with Joei. I was quite worried for Hirman for he might doze off anytime on the way home but I did not want to distract him by SMSing him to check him up.

It was nearly 11pm when I reached home.

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ITE Orientation Camp April Intake Day 1

[Thursday, 29 April, 2010]

For as hard as I tried to sleep at 2am, the month of bad habit refused to my determination. I took more than an hour to doze off.

I woke up before 6am and the dark cloud cooled my enthusiasm down. Nevertheless, I began preparing for the camp. I was welcomed by the good weather when I stepped out of my house at around 7am. I stood all the way in the train from my place to Joo Koon. Seeing smokers in school uniforms on the way was demoralizing.

A stage was set up near the lake. Hirman was not the emcee like the previous time and I could see a big difference in the crowd’s response. On the other hand, everything was run more smoothly than the previous time, which Hirman claimed “auto run”.

I started my job soon but was never confident because the Sony camera was not with me. Using the old Olympus D-750, I was not able to capture moving objects easily especially when the light was slightly dim. However, there was this great advantage of being able to zoom ten times into my target, which most cameras could not do it. I missed out quite a number of precious moments.

I was impressed with the lunch set for it was a hundred times better than the previous camp’s food. With my laptop and the wonderful wireless internet access at Singapore Discovery Centre, I was able to go online as when I liked. Nevertheless, the purpose of my laptop was more for transferring files from my old camera. I faced quite tough situations when I was asked to help look after some equipment inside the room while using the laptop, such that I was not able to go out to continue with photography.

A late announcement of students having to go home caught me extra busy for a moment. I was asked to walk them to the MRT station together with Farahi. One of the girls was too afraid to highlight that her parents were on the way to pick her up and she walked slowly until I questioned her. I suggested her to get her parents to meet us at Joo Koon MRT station instead but they were already approaching. Therefore, I signalled Farahi to continue the walk while I stayed behind near the bus-stop. The parents arrived soon and I raced my feet towards the MRT station to meet up with the rest to stun them with my speed. I had a great chat with Farahi on the way back.

The darkness of the night restricted phototaking badly with the cameras on my hands. I spent the last few hours preparing the video for Hirman to broadcast to the students.

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Borrowing Gilbert’s Camera, Returning Graduation Gown and Working with Irwin

[Wednesday, 28 April, 2010]

My brother invited me to a game of Command and Conquer Generals. It was the second time I moved my laptop to sit beside him to battle against the computers in the three-against-five war. I started blogging and knocked off at 5am.

In the morning, I went to meet Gilbert to borrow his camera just below his office. He took some time to explain to me regarding the functions. I felt quite bad for he had an outing on Saturday morning and he would not be able to use his camera then. Next, I went to Potong Pasir to return my graduation gown to the Serangoon Broadway photo studio. I could not recognise myself in the photo which I was having a handshake with the presiding officer, Professor Joe Chicharo, taken by them. They were good in selling products for they wanted me to get a larger version of the photo with frame at the price of $45, which I immediately rejected them.

I went to Vivocity to meet up with Irwin. I only got to see a quite pretty girl while waiting for him at the seat at level one. We proceeded to Starbucks and the golden area I sat when meeting Hoay Min previously was available and we started camping there for the entire afternoon. There were some distractions, especially from a couple. The girl sounded like a slut, raising her voice while flirting with the guy. Then, she repeatedly called “bitch” for very long that both Irwin and I felt like going over to give her a slap. An ang moh sitting behind the guy and besides our table seemed to be irritated by them and left.

It was not a very good afternoon for me for I had designer’s block. At least, I got to read through one edition of the Home Décor magazine, and some of the designs impressed me a lot.

We left in the early evening and had ultra late lunch at Long John’s Silver. We went to Daiso where I got myself another belt to replace the current one. After that, we played a round of basketball at the arcade. I tested Gilbert’s camera and the battery bar dropped very soon.

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We Worked and We Ate

[Tuesday, 27 April, 2010]

I played LANs game with my brother and we caught the shows on Discovery Channel together. In the end, I slept at 5am, which was earlier than the days before.

Meeting Irwin at Orchard MRT made me proud for my time estimation was excellence that I arrived just around five minutes earlier. However, he took the wrong direction’s train and thus I had to wait at the platform for half an hour.

He brought me to Shaw House and we started having Mosburger after U-turn from the MacDonald’s since he did not like Mac breakfast. We started working at the open air MacCafe after breakfast. It was a good place to work at only if it came without the presence of the smokers. I could feel that my entire body stink and I was so uncomfortable throughout. Our late lunch was takeaway MacDonald’s from the nearby outlet.

In the evening, we went to Far East Plaza, followed by ION where we took second round of dinner in such short time interval from the previous meal. The Go Go Curry claimed to be the best curry in the world. My stomach was bloated even though I took only one quarter of the big portion of food shared.

We decided to walk to my house in order to digest the food and the sudden heavy rainfall welcomed us for a few minutes. We proceeded on and stopped by Liang’s Court for toilet break before resting by the side of the river next to The Central. Irwin wanted to continue with work but the MacDonald’s at Funnan Centre did not have power supply and the TCC was going to close in an hour’s time. After walking to Clarke Quay, we took a cab and Irwin dropped me at my place.

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Mum’s Birthday and Setting up Tze Khit’s New Gym

[Sunday, 25 April, 2010]

I reached home at around 4am after Weiye dropped me near my house. I went to withdraw money and three Malay guys approached me to transfer two bucks over to one of their bank accounts because he did not have enough money inside his account to withdraw the minimal amount. After the guy passed me the two dollars worth of coins, I felt quite unsafe. It was in fact very dangerous to do it since they would get to know my account number.

After reaching home, I got my mum to search for her birthday present which I placed on my younger brother’s table. After that, I gave her a hundred bucks. She was pleased with both the present and cash. I was satisfied with myself for the first time for getting a present which she liked. I was, however, still quite frustrated over getting Jingkun’s present since the volleyball group knew what they needed and would get everything by themselves; moreover, I had much different taste from them somehow.

I had late lunch with my brother and his girlfriend at Subway at Amara hotel. After that, we went up to the newly opened Sportslink shop at level three. We were not very satisfied with the prices of the stuffs even though they claimed everything was on sales. After that, I went to Tze Khit’s new gym to pay him a visit but he was not around. His colleagues and friends did not question me even though I stood inside for quite long before Tze Khit returned. Since my family was having early dinner, I did not stay there for long.

The couple and I went to Kampong Bahru Road. We decided on the coffee shop there so that my aunt would join us for the dinner since it was near her place. My mum came over with my aunt and we started ordering from the seafood stall. I knew I would be using quite a bit of strength at night and somehow my appetite was better than usual. The entire meal including the drinks cost me over forty bucks.

After reaching home, I cleared my email before going down to join Tze Khit at his gym. My first task was to get the six strong men dinner inclusive of twelve drinks. They suggested chicken rice but later, told me I could get them anything. It was already nine o’clock. I rushed over to Maxwell food centre and as I had expected, nothing there could really fill the six guys’ stomachs. I went to Chinatown Complex food centre but the chicken rice stall was closed. In the end, I went across the street to the shophouse to get the chicken rice. While waiting, I went to CK departmental store to get six cans of coke. I collected the food before going to Maxwell food centre to get six cans of cold drinks from the drinks stall. The uncle gave me a small packet of ice.

I realised I made a blunder in getting the food as I did not insist on getting breast meat. In the end, there were bones and Tze Khit hated the chicken wings. I remembered that the shop’s name consisted of “boneless” and thus I was too comfortable with them. At least, I was quite satisfied in myself for saving some bucks for Tze Khit by getting cheaper drinks. The rush to get the stuffs back fast weakened me quite a lot.

Tze Khit went home after having his dinner to get some stuff. I stayed behind to help fix up some of the gym machines. It was tedious to tighten up the screws. I almost thought the gym machines came in one piece until I went over to help out.

Some people would probably think I was stupid to spend my time helping others while I could at least spend the time playing game to relax myself even if I did not start looking for jobs. I thought the culture of helping one another should be spread because nobody knew he would need helps as well in future. Helping others did bring myself happiness.

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Virgin Visit to St. James

[Saturday, 24 April, 2010]

I had supper at Maxwell food centre with my family. The noodle was at quite reasonable price at two bucks each bowl. The iced lemon teas from both drinks stall were disappointing. The night was still young, or rather, the morning was too early.

I met up with Irwin in the afternoon at Vivocity. We went to Burger King where Irwin took his early dinner. I got a birthday present for my mum, which was a moving display plant, ran by solar energy. I was almost trapped at the Cannon shop, dwelling on the cool cameras, which I needed quite badly. Eugene joined us at White Dog Café and Irwin took his second dinner. I did not enjoy the fish and chips as much as previous time.

Next, we went to St. James. We tried the Smoke Lounge but only to sit around the bar since we had to open a bottle in order to get a table. We waited patiently for the live band while Irwin treated me to a glass of Singapore Sling. I did not really enjoy alcoholic drinks including cocktail. I tried to slip as much as I could but I could never catch up with Irwin’s speed.

During the band’s performance, an uncle in his white hair and polo tee stood right in front of the low platform to harass the sexily dressed Latin singers. I thought it was a good interaction until the second song started, the man went back to do the same disgusting actions of pointing to the girls and pinching his index finger and thumb together to form a hole. Irwin got very disgusted and ordered us to leave. Since I wanted to stay conscious, I did not bottom up the remaining of my drinks before leaving, wasting more than one-third of the drinks.

After that, we met up with Huiling and her boyfriend back at Vivocity. We went to one of the bars to chill while waiting for Weiye. He reminded me of Kachua’s happy-go-luckiness and I was so glad to see him after so many years since we graduated from secondary school. The couple left while the remaining four of us went to Party World to battle against each other. It was one of the few times I would heck care about my out-of-tone singing.

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Graduation Ceremony

[Friday, 23 April, 2010]

It was the day of my long awaited graduation ceremony. I tried to sleep at 3am but it took way long for me to doze off, not because I was excited, but due to the fact that I had been sleeping during daylight.

My aunt came over to my house in the morning. I was not very interested in attending the graduation ceremony since I would get my certificate no matter what; however, Josephine replied to my Facebook status that it was for my parents. My mum finally decided to iron my graduation robe and she complained it was a very tedious job. I wanted to help her but decided it would be better for her to do it.

We set off at 11.30am. The waiting for bus 75 was very long but I had the time planned well. Registering at the counter right after reaching SIM, the ladies apologised badly for not able to issue my certificate on that day. I went to the dressing room and there were quite a number of staffs, probably from the photo studio, helping all the graduates to dress up. I finally put on the graduation robe properly. I felt like as if I was filming in the Harry Potter movies.

I had another long wait, sitting on the chair inside the hall where the speakers dragged the time though they looked smart and did speak well. The only focus I had in mind was to present myself smartly on the stage where video cameras were pointing and close-up would be projected on the two screens instantly. It was finally something exciting to me. On the stage, after trying hard to act cool for a while, I almost turned blank. After receiving the certificate of attendance, I went back to the same seat and there were speeches after the top graduate made his words.

We finally had our sixteen bucks per pax buffet and both my mum and aunt tried hard to make sure the money was worth it, which could never be. I had phototaking with my classmates outside the library. Phototaking with my family was never complete without my younger brother, which was one of the greatest reasons I did not really feel so excited for the day.

I went to Singapore Polytechnic straight away to meet up with my ex-colleagues. I was quite puzzled why Alvin was giving the treat and later he told me he finally got promoted to the senior lecturer post after taking the role for so long. Since Joy, Weitat, Afni and KK were not going, I was quite stunned. Luckily, Hirman joined in to create lots of fun. Diana took the seat beside me after my persuasion to add more delight to the evening.

Weiming sent me to Commonwealth MRT station where I took the train home, feeling guilty that I could not accompany my family for dinner.

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