This is an advance post.

I'm posting this on the 29th of December, really, but I'm doing so coz I'll be away at the Arts Club's MC chalet from later today till the 31st, so I won't have access to a computer then.

I'm posting this under the 30th of December because of the two closest friends whom I've had the greatest pleasure of meeting and knowing in my life, and coincidentally, both their birthdays are on the 30th of December, albeit there's really three years age difference between them.


Firstly, Pamela.

Even though Singapore's a small country, how many people can actually claim to have gone through almost your entire schooling life, in the same schools as one other person? And how many people in the world have truly wonderful friendships that can last this long?

People in uni sometimes ask me if Pam and I were from the same JC, and my answer to that is, with a grin: "Same JC, same secondary school, same primary school."

We've known each other since we were 10, which means that we've known each other for nearly half our lives, and the thing that I'm most thankful for is that as we go up the academic ladder and our schedules both become more and more packed, and even though we may not be in all each other's classes, there's no love lost there.

Each time we meet, even though we haven't seen each other for a long time, it's like picking up where we left off, and it's this degree of comfort with each other which I really appreciate. I love that we can go on talking and jabbering about complete nonsense and that no one would actually understand but the two of us. I love that we can be talking about the same thing, yet seem like we're on different tracks, and sometimes not even finish our own sentences, but we still understand what we're both getting at. I love that around her, I can be as bitchy as I like and I can complain all I want, and she'll let me, even if she doesn't completely understand, and she might even join in and we'll end up a pile of giggles after that.

I love all this and so much more; this is probably one of the few things in my life which I will never be able to fully put into words, and I'm glad to let it remain that way. Being able to completely reduce something to words takes something away from the whole experience, somehow.


Secondly, Ivan.

Yes, so I've only known Ivan for about two months, as compared to the ten years that I've shared with Pam.

Still, the "connectivity" (in Kenny's words) we have is both amazing and disarming to many people around us; the things which we have in common and the way we behave around each other, completely at ease-- which people find rather "suspicious" given that the two of us are of opposite sexes-- never ceases to make me always want to stop and wonder how it all happened.

The very first time I met Ivan was during the O Week Councillors' pre-camp, when I was sitting with Pam and Greg and him while their OG were making their mascot. At that time, we were no more than acquaintances; I probably thought of him as one of those people whom you'll meet during things like this, orientation and stuff, but whom you'll probably never see again for about a year or so.

That turned out to be wrong, I guess, and I'm very happy that it turned out to be so. :D

I remember later, when school had started, when he and Greg and I were hanging around the clubroom one day, making up our own silly "jepalang" civilisation as ideas came into our heads and laughing ourselves silly; I think that by that time, I'd forgotten his name. :P

And then finally, when he was stuck with having to back up his laptop, we just hit it off and got along like a house on fire. :D

For some strange reason, I've never really felt like I have to hold back anything around Ivan, in much the same way as I do with Pam; right from the start, I don't remember ever feeling uncomfortable around Ivan, unlike how I usually get around strangers.

And what am I thankful for here?

I'm thankful for the fact that we have so much in common in the way of our twisted thinking (albeit that he's more twisted than me), I'm thankful that he indulges my childishness, I'm thankful that he listens when it's needed, and I'm thankful that he made me his godsister, giving me three things at one shot: a brother, a godsibling and an older sibling all at one go!


Pam told me once when we were in J2 and when she was really into the astrological stuff, that if you arranged all the twelve signs of the zodiac in a circle, each sign was supposed to get along best with the sign that was directly opposite it.

For me, a Cancer, that sign is Capricorn. And I bet you're not surprised by now; 30th December falls nicely under the influence of Capricorn.

I've never believed that the zodiac and all the stuff which people write about it is completely true, but in this case, I think I've just got really lucky. :D


So, my dear Pam and my dear kor, here's something that I wrote for your birthdays this year. :D


Capricorn
For Pamela and Ivan,
on their 19th and 22nd birthdays respectively,
this 30th of December 2004

I think I've made my wishes
Set them free
With all the birds and the fishes
But only two ever came home to me

I think I wished for love
And I think I wished for kinship;
Two halves of a pair of turtle-doves;
Friendship like this

Shall sweep me off my feet
More often than anything else.
So let this be for what let us meet
And the higher powers

All claim their own glory;
I will simply wake each morning--
From sleep stolen I shall be sorry
But ever your companionship
Shall raise my spirit.

So wrap it in its trappings
Friendship and the misgivings
Imbued on it by the world
I will show you the exception
That proves the norm

And bound in the tape of friendship
Sealed in the love of happiness
And laughter and tears
I will tell you
That being free must be something like this.


I think I wished for love
I think I wished for kinship
And I think I'd never known that friendship
Could be love like this.

Seems like most everyone whom I know is talking about exam results and posting those results on their blogs.

You're not going to see that here.

I'm very disappointed with the results that I got, but there's nothing for it now. Will just have to work harder next sem or work differently; must be more consistent, and must not pick crappy modules.

Seems like there's someone out there who just doesn't want me to be happy; the papers seemed pretty all right when I did them, but I guess everyone else who was taking those papers was better than me.

But I'm gonna have to find a way to beat this.

I am not yet so weak of will that I will not stand where I have fallen; my legs have strength yet left in them that they can carry me for many more miles; the faith of those who love me will help me lift my head high.

It's not over and I'm not out of the fight yet; this is where I turn the other cheek, this is where I say that I'm back for more, and this is where I say, "Bitch, you ain't seen nothing yet."

Oh my God, oh my God, so excited!!!! :D :D :D

Sorry. Haha. Just had to blog after seeing this: the trailer for "Kingdom of Heaven", starring.. ahem, Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Edward Norton, Marton Csokas and Brendan Gleeson!!

Okay, so I don't really care for the last two so much, but they're familiar names, so I just had to add them in, haha.

Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons don't need much speaking for; I loved Jeremy Irons' performance in "Man In The Iron Mask", anyway; he looked very French with that trimmed moustache that he sported for the film.

Edward Norton; the first time I ever saw him was in "Primal Fear", and I just loved him in that film. Since then, I've always made a minor fuss about anything with Edward Norton in it. :D :P

And if the names Marton Csokas and Brendan Gleeson don't ring a bell, well, here's something that should help:

Marton Csokas played Celeborn in the LOTR movies; Galadriel's husband, for those of you heathens who didn't read the books. :P

Brendan Gleeson played Menelaus in "Troy". And by the way, it's pronounced "ME-ne-LAY-us", not "ME-ne-LAOS" as in the movie. The movie is filled with a LOT of gross discrepancies, anyway, but I won't go into that; I'd go on rambling forever otherwise. In short, the story just isn't the same when you exclude all the Olympian gods and the parts that they played in the Trojan War. But I can sympathise; a story of that magnitude just wouldn't be able to fit on the big screen otherwise, let alone draw large crowds.

As for Orlando Bloom, well, surprise, surprise. I think he's finally "blooming", so to speak. :D

From what I've seen in the trailer, his acting is LOADS better than it was in "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Troy"; it's no longer as "cringy" at certain parts and seems more natural, less rehearsed-- in the way that musicals and Broadway plays always seem rehearsed and over-dramatised, but the difference is that with the latter two, they're supposed to be that way. :D With screen, it needs to flow, and although I'm a fan, I do realise that he hasn't really hit that mark yet in his previous movies, so really, I do actually wonder why all those directors are raving about him. :P

The soundtrack featured in the trailer is lovely as well; and Orlando Bloom gets to do a "Hector"; that is, he gets to do things like raise his sword and yell really loudly and charge and spur others into battle. Haha.

And there are a few moments in the film where the scenes are dead ringers for scenes in either "Troy" or the "Lord of the Rings" movies, but really, it still looks really good! Can't wait!!

But it looks like I'll have to. Sigh. 6th of May 2005. Sob.

Oh well. Anyway, here's the trailer for you folks, so that you can finally see what I've been ranting on about for the last 15 minutes. :D

Kingdom of Heaven (QuickTime required)

Woohoo!! The whole Guinness World Record-breaking event is over and done with, so here goes: the events of the 21st, 22nd and 23rd December 2004, as experienced and brought to you by yours truly. :D


21st December 2004

Arrived at Expo at about noon; went to Hall 2A where they were setting up everything, and our work was more or less divided into two kinds of things.

There were the people who were cleaning the sand off the candles in one corner, and there were a few people who were sticking mounting tape on marked out "lanes" to hold the candles later.

The "lanes" were these long, wide, black strips of tape that they'd stuck on the ground in a pattern of eight concentric circles and divided into three sectors. Engineers had been there the night before or so, and they'd already calculated and stipulated how many candles/squares of mounting tape should go in each lane. The candles were supposed to be arranged in three rows on each "lane", following the curvature of the strips of tape, of course.

So the difficulty here is that, it's already been clearly stated that the little squares of mounting tape have to be spaced approximately three fingers apart, and the number of candles in each row has also been set.

Which means that, if while you're approaching the end of the lane, and you find that, oh sweet lord in heaven, there's FAR too much space left for just three candles, OR too LITTLE space left for another twenty candles, well, you're just going to have to go back and remove and re-space out the pieces of mounting tape all over again. And if cutting the mounting tape isn't difficult enough most of the time, removing it is. It's really sticky.

We had a break for lunch, during which I found out that Ivan hadn't slept at all last night, and had instead been up doing inane things on the net. -_- As a result, he was, apparently, falling asleep while cutting and sticking the mounting tape before lunch. I don't think he'll ever learn. :P

After lunch, we finished sticking all that mounting tape; 10,000 candles means 10,000 little squares of mounting tape. Ivan and I were working on Lane 7 together, and anyone who knows the two of us or have seen the two of us around each other, will know that some silliness was bound to ensue.

How right you are. :D :P

To help ourselves keep track of the number of tape that we'd stuck, every ten pieces of tape or so, we'd used markers to number one of the pieces of tape. Ivan and I went one step further; we marked the pieces of tape at intervals of ten, and then, we (mostly he) would draw something silly on the black "lane" with the chalk that Pei Pei brought after lunch.

He started with a simple piece of a small tortoise at the number ten mark, then it started to get more elaborate from there, with me adding little stick figures and extra wordings and subtitles to some of them. There was a sauropod wading through water with a a stick figure riding on its back, and I added a wakeboard to the little stick figure that was clinging onto its tail. Next was a giant cockroach, next to which I wrote "Prehistoric ka-zhua". Next was a graphical representation of the life cycle of a butterfly, followed by a picture of Godzilla and King Kong combining forces and destroying some unnamed city.

In the middle of the lane, around piece-of-tape-number-190, I wrote "Lane 7 Art brought to you by Ivan (and Gerri)", and then the drawing picked up again. I drew a most adorable cartoon-ish spider, and Ivan followed that with a drawing of PacMan on the verge of eating a "ghost"; then there was my drawing of a crab, followed by Ivan's drawing of the twelve individual animals of the Chinese zodiac.

In short, Lane 7 turned out to be quite the zoo (and source of amusement to all present). :P

With what little manpower we had, I was actually quite surprised that we managed to finish sticking all that tape before dinner (which was at around 7). After that, it was time to stick the candles on, and around 11 pm, I got slightly hysterical.

I was tired, it was late (and so it was just about time for my usual late-night silliness) and I'd had two cans of Coke in the last 8 hours. I was jabbling away to myself merrily while sticking candles to the tape, working with Ivan and Denise, and pretty soon, I was giggling at almost anything, and finally, when someone (I can't remember who it was) who was working on the lane in front of ours stood up and accidentally knocked over a candle, I let out a panicky, semi-anguished "ARGH!!", after which I dissolved into giggles at my own overreaction.

Ivan promptly grabbed hold of me and told me to "get a grip". :P

After which I only giggled some more and went on sticking candles. Even thinking about it right now is setting me off. Heehee. :D :P

Anyway, Ivan left a little after 11 pm (so sad...) and we only finished sticking all the candles at around 4 am, after which we took turns to bathe with the one shower available (it was quite a homely bathroom, though) and then we all fell asleep.

22nd December 2004

I woke up at 6.15 am and wandered outside, where it was still rather dark and really windy (read: chilly); watched the sky get light, and then wandered back indoors; fell asleep again, and only woke up at about 9, whereupon we did a brief check on the candles, and then the few of us who were awake decided to go see if we could get anything in the way of breakfast. Some of the girls (Denise, Diana, June and Si Ning, I think) had gone to Diana's house to wash up, so other than Steven, the only ones who were awake were Beng Chong, Swee Giang, Chee Khiong (from NTU, but I think one of the Arts Club people had asked him down to help) and me.

We strolled down to the food court, and then strolled back when Diana called to tell Swee Giang that she was bringing breakfast, and when we were nearing Hall 2A, I heard VERY familiar music blasting out into the corridor.

Fantasy Project's "Crazy Baby".

Someone had actually put one of Ivan's techno CDs into the console and was actually playing it. I couldn't believe it, and when I entered the hall, I found Chong Han and Xuzi fiddling away with the console. Alvin made a call to Ivan ten minutes later when I told some of them that Ivan had still been asleep when I gave him a wake-up call at 10.30, and then I asked him to pass me the phone.

At that time, "Rave Heaven" was playing.

Me: Kor, can you hear what's in the background??
Ivan: No.

Well, I was out in the corridor at the time, but the music was pretty loud and I was surprised that he couldn't hear it. Anyway, I walked further into the hall, and just as I did so, the "main" part of the song came on, the part with all the electronic beats.

Me: Can you hear that now?? *grinning away madly*
Ivan: *short pause* Hey. That's my CD!
Me: *Laughs* Yeah, someone actually played your techno!!

Someone then came to brief us on the days proceedings, after which I fell asleep again, being rather bored. Only woke up at about 11.30, and wandered outside again, where a group of us were sitting and chatting idly. Ivan was there, and Si Ning remarked (rather pointedly) that it was very coincidental that I woke up when he arrived. "Telepathy", Diana supplied.

*Rolls eyes* Whatever.

Just remembered that I shouldn't say "whatever" so much. Hanging around Ivan is shrinking my vocabulary, ironically enough, considering that he's an English Language major. I suppose he's not anymore, though; he did say that he'd be switching majors.

Had a dry run of the ceremony, during which we all kept making fun of the phrase "dry run" and after it, Hock asked if we were going to have a "wet run", hahaha...

Ivan brought his camera; entertained myself with it for a while after our "dry run", looking through the pictures that were stored in there. It's scary how alike he and his sister look. I mean, I know siblings are supposed to look alike, but I figured that as the two of them are of different sexes, there should be... less similarity? But no, there isn't. Seriously, I think that if Ivan left his hair really long and removed his glasses, he'd look almost exactly like his sister; if not, then just a rather ugly girl. :P

Otherwise, the two of us spent a good deal of the unimportant moments of the briefing making jibes at Ivan's job as a banquet waiter. :P Well, he was the one who kept telling me that everything was reminding him of work; from the way the reception for the media and volunteers and performers was set up, to the way that we had to walk in in an orderly file and light the candles.

Then, when Steven mentioned that we might need to show the VIPs to their places to start lighting the outermost lane of candles by saying "'Excuse me sir, this way, please' or something like that", that just set me off. :P

Me: (pointedly to Ivan) "Sir, this way", "Sir, would you like a drink?", "Sir, would you like me to change your plate?"
Ivan: Shut up, lah...

Heehee.

Things went pretty fast after that; lunch, followed by yet another short briefing for us, then about 10 of us sat down behind the raised platforms for the audience's seats and we all played Indian poker for a bit as the other performers for the event were briefed on their parts.

When things finally got started, we all milled around for a bit, watching the performances, and cringing at some of them; imagine things like a little five-year-old girl singing "It's A Small World" in her high-pitched, little-girl voice. *hair stands*

And then there were those same little girls doing (supposedly) provocative dances to things like Tom Jones' "She's A Lady". Ivan and I agreed that it was something akin to exploitation of children.

It's quite bizarre and unsettling to see mothers dolling their five-year-old daughters up to look like porcelain dolls, caking them in make-up and dressing them in costumes that reveal more than they cover, and then making them dance to music that they most probably don't even understand; especially when the dance contains elements of things that they probably shouldn't understand for another ten years or so.

Anyway, the emcee finally got around to us, talking about how we'd been selling the candles for the past three weeks and arranging the candles and such, and how the whole thing wouldn't be possible without us (you're very welcome, by the way, haha); we all did a loud whooping cheer, then quickly became more sedate as we filed out and went to our positions.

Then, when we were lighting the candles, we found out that there was a problem. The wicks of most of the candles were much too short! So we had to spend quite some time (and flame and lighter fluid) on each candles, melting away some of the wax near the tip to get a longer wick to light. The lighter fluid in my lighter ran out shockingly fast; I'd only finished lighting one row in my lane when I looked at the level of lighter fluid and found that it was almost completely depleted!

We started lighting using the already lit candles, and when it was becoming clear that we were gonna take longer than expected (the performances that were meant to distract the audience's attention from us seemed to be over way too soon), it was admirable how the emcee improvised and changed the routine, asking the audience and the VIPs to come down and help us light the candles, and according to Steven, people in the audience actually did come down and help. :)

When the candles were finally done, we all gathered together and cheered and screamed our lungs out, and sang along to Michael Jackson's "Heal The World", which they were playing over the speakers; then, when we were assured that the Record was safely down, there ensued a mad rush to start blowing out the candles.

Everyone started making wishes and blowing out the candles, things like "Good CAP score!", "CAP 5.0!", and from Yuimin: "TEN sugar daddies!!"

In answer, Tim blew out a candle and shouted, "Sugar MUMMY!" :D :D

Then Steven wondered out loud if perhaps the last candle would be especially effective in granting wishes...

The whole lot of them then scrambled over to the last little candle, and there were a lot of whining noises from those who didn't get it, but then I noticed that Ivan and Steven were both insisting that they'd each got it first. :P

We didn't do much in the way of clean-up; the cleaning staff at Expo took care of that. All we did was kick over those candles which were less than half-burnt-down, and then pack them in boxes for the organisers to give to the less-fortunate, poor families in less-developed countries.

It never ceases to amaze me that destroying something will always be so much easier than putting it together in the beginning. Logically, that makes sense, since you're just knocking over everything that you've built, but I just keep thinking that.. there must be some way to.. explain why it's so, you know what I mean?

So, anyway, we left pretty soon after that, Steven, Si Ning, Alvin, Ivan and myself were the last to leave, and when we left, the Expo staff were almost done clearing up all the candles; what they did was they ripped the black tape for the "lanes" right off the floor, taking the candles and mounting tape and most of the dripped wax with it. Very efficient, they were. And also quite sad to note that while we'd spent more than 12 hours setting up the whole thing, it was gone in under an hour.

Oh well.

Got home that night and saw a 5-minute segment on our record-breaking attempt on the Channel 5 news at 9.30; sadly, no mention of NUS or the Arts and Social Sciences Club anywhere; I saw myself, I think-- my back was towards the camera at the time. Ivan said that the Channel I news had nothing, and neither did the Channel 8 news.

23rd December 2001

Ivan sent me a message at 8.41 am, which ran along the lines of: "WTF??!! Have you seen today's Straits Times yet? One picture taken from far away and about 5 or 6 lines of comment, and NO MENTION OF ARTS CLUB AT ALL!! WTF?!?"

Yes. You get the idea. :P

But really, upon looking at the picture, I found it wasn't so bad.. aside from the issue of zilch mention of Arts Club. The picture itself was quite nice; if you look closely enough, you can even make out exactly who's who.

Borrowed four DVDs from the Video Ezy rental store; "Troy" (yay!), "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King", "Black Hawk Down" again (coz I miss it :P), and borrowed one of those boring, plot-less, dance and R&B and hip-hop movies for my sister.

Met Olinda Cho at the Cold Storage Gourmet just across the street from the Video Ezy as well; my youngest sister and I were just coming out of the aisle for crisps and tidbits and such when came by, pushing her trolley; she stopped to let us go first, and I think I recognised the outfit that she was wearing as something that she'd worn on Singapore Idol before. Black jacket and track pants with her black visor cap pulled to one side.

My aunties and my cousin arrived at about 9 pm; things got slightly amusing for me then. See, on my mother's side, I only have two first cousins, and they're both guys; they're brothers, and they're five and four years older than me-- the one visiting right now is the older one.

Thing is, I've been brought up to address them as "kor", but given how I've been calling Ivan "kor" for the past one-and-a-half months... well, this is just causing me no small amount of amusement, I assure you that. :D :D

Sigh... Christmas prezzies.. need to finish my Christmas shopping soon. Good thing I'm not getting presents for many people; one of the many pluses of maintaining a small but close circle of friends! :D Oh, and I almost forgot Christmas cards!!

*Smacks forehead and rushes off to find cards*

Was helping out at my jie's concert last night; we (myself, kor, and two of jie's other friends, Kenny and Ashra) were supposed to be paid $5 an hour for it- ushering work, that is- but it didn't really feel like work since the UCC ushers did most of the ushering, haha. All the four of us did was ticketing and give out programmes. Ivan and I were the ones giving out programmes, haha.

So Ivan and I spent all our time (in between surges of crowds) talking about random nonsense, poking fun at some of the people that we saw and badmouthing/jinxing some which annoyed us.

One such person who was the object of our pointless discussion was, in Ivan's own words, a "very outstanding" young lady. Ahem. People who know my kor well enough will understand that statement very quickly. :P While we were standing around waiting for the theatre doors to open, Ivan pointed her out to me, and well, the way she was standing, with the pamphlet that she was reading, she wasn't really.. um. Visible, shall we say; so I couldn't... er, see.. her.. very well. :P

So later, when she *did* walk past us to get into the theatre, I "took notice" and when I looked up, Ivan was giving me his "see what I mean??" look, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Then at about 7.20 pm, while we were waiting for stragglers, there was a lull in the traffic after the UCC ushers had just let in the recent crowd of latecomers. At that time, the only people out in the foyer were the ushers, the few staff on duty at Dome Cafe, and three people seated on one of the benches, eating McDonalds.

Ivan and I were talking and making our usual care-less, off-handed jibes at one another, and when he made one particularly twisted statement, I moved to smack him with the programmes that I was holding, but it was the kind of thing where I raised my hand, followed through with the motion, but stopped just short of actually hitting him.

I'd actually done that quite a few times over the course of the evening, along with a few times when I *did* actually smack him. :P Anyway, at that point in time, I happened to look up, and I saw the three people over at the bench break out in quiet laughter while looking over at the two of us.

That pissed me off. I told Ivan so, and he made some non-committal comment, but later, when they'd polished off their McDonalds and proceeded into the theatre, then we laid right into them with our little bitchfest. :D :P

Me: Laugh at us some more; I refuse to give any of you a programme! (which was true; Ivan handed them their programmes)
Ivan: You make it sound like their receiving a programme is a life-and-death situation.
Me: Well, why not. *silly grin* Without it, they'll be completely lost! They won't know what the titles of the pieces are!
Ivan: Yeah, I suppose if they didn't know the titles, they'd probably drive themselves crazy trying to find out, and then they'd resort to downloading.
Me: Yeah, and then they'd get caught, and when they're caught, the stupid sodding buggers will already have about 2000 odd other songs in their collection so they'll all be jailed for 10 years or something--
Ivan: (cutting me off) Gerri, don't jinx me.

Ivan has A LOT of songs in his collection, you see. And even saying that he has A LOT is an understatement. And also, the two of us have discovered that we both possess a similar "talent" for jinxing. Not actual voodoo or anything, mind you; it's just that many of the bad things which we anticipate will happen, will, uncannily enough, actually happen.

We missed the first half of the concert; the part before the intermission, and sadly, we missed "The Seventh Night of July", which was the last song before the intermission.

After the intermission though, we went in, and we caught the brass quintet and percussion ensemble bits; the brass quintet's "Amazing Grace" was nice, but I prefer "Amazing Grace" to sound more slow and weepy, and less like the jazzy version that they were playing. Percussion ensemble's "Instant Carmen" was also lovely; Rachel's snare drum roll was amazing-- one of these days I'm gonna have to figure out exactly how percussion players do it. :P

Then the rest of the band came back, and I particularly liked the first movement of the "English Folk Song Suite"; had a very fast Irish feel to it, with a lot of clarinet and flute and other upper winds voices dominating. I love traditional Irish and Scottish dance music; it's the kind that makes you want to get up and dance a merry little jig along, haha.

After that, we helped move some of the band instruments back to their practice room (timpanis! I haven't helped move timpanis for ages!), then waited for Rachel a bit, then she treated us to supper; Fong Seng prata. I know I said I was boycotting the prata at Fong Seng coz it's ridiculously overpriced, but Rachel's friend, Nicole, studies overseas and she was back in town for her concert, so she wanted to try the prata, so that's what we did.

Jie gave most of us a life home after that; only Ivan still had to take public transport-- best she could do was drop him at Clementi since he lives all the way in Tampines.

When she dropped me off near my place, she mentioned that she'd write the cheque for me, and then I suddenly remembered that everything that I'd been doing tonight was supposed to be for work! Funny thing is, it didn't feel like work at all! Haha...!


Now for today's archery training: 150 arrows; my upper arm and back muscles are terribly sore. It's going to be even worse tomorrow, I tell you.

My later ends were much better than the first few; however, if this continues, then it means I'll need a long time to warm up before shooting. Not good. Maybe if I train more, the amount of "warm up" I need will lessen.

There was one end in particular where I kinda shocked myself, haha. It was only after I'd shot the fourth arrow of that end that I realised that all my arrows had formed one lovely clump of orange and white (my fletches are orange and white) in the middle of the board. And I realised then that every arrow that had landed in the board, you could hear a metallic sound, the sound of metal hitting metal, which means that the arrows were hitting against each other when they landed in the board.

My fifth arrow went off, but my sixth and last arrow hit with a metallic sound again. When we went to retrieve our arrows, the five that had landed all grouped together all had varying angles of entry, and I thought that was bad, until Nicholas pointed out that if the arrows were aiming to land in the same spot, obviously a preceding arrow would be crowded out of that spot by an arrow that was already there, so it'd settle into the spot above it, and probably at a weird angle, due to the "deflection".

Returned to the Archery Lounge after my shooting to find them playing bridge... oh, I forgot to mention that some of the guys finally taught me how to play bridge on Friday! Haha... I finally know how to play; it's quite simple, but requires a lot of brain work and memory work, and I don't have much in the way of either. :P But it was fun though. :D

Anyway, bridge seems to be gaining popularity amongst the archery people; I hope the Lounge doesn't turn into another "Arts Club Room" where the only thing anyone does in their free time besides sleep is play bridge or mahjong. At least in the Lounge, people actually read or do something productive or destressing on their lappies in their free time.

But, as I was saying before I digressed (again), bridge. That there is a complete (and new) pack of cards in the Lounge is, in itself, a rare occurrence.

See, the seniors are in the habit of playing poker with any playing cards that we have, and they usually play it at the range itself. When I say "playing poker at the range" I don't mean that they sit down to one side of the shooting line and play poker; I mean that they tack up the cards on the board, stand at the shooting line, and shoot the cards.

So yes, you can see why each deck would have a few cards missing.

The cards either become too full of holes to be actually usable anymore, or they drop off the board and go missing, or.. whatever else. Sometimes, when they're too lazy to take down the cards, they even leave it there for us to practice no-target shooting. Which just results in further damage to the cards, and eventually, their disposal. :D

Well, have to go pack now. Going to be staying overnight at Singapore Expo tomorrow to help them prepare for the record-breaking thing on the 22nd. Ivan and Denise are coming too, so YAY!! I have people that I can talk crap with! Hahaha...

I'm probably going to blabber their ears off when it gets really late at night, and then kor will probably start smacking me on the head with whatever's on hand, but hell. Oh, I hope they're both staying over. And I hope kor brings his lappie. Then we can play stuff on it; music or maybe whatever games he has. But shockingly enough, Singapore Expo doesn't have wireless connectivity. :( Which is odd, since you'd figure that a supposedly "world-class" exhibition venue should have wireless connectivity. *shrugs* Oh well.

Listening to Yanni's "In the Morning Light" and "Nightingale" right now; the latter is lovely-- features a Chinese flute and manages to strike this very delicate balance between sounding Eastern and Western at the same time. Maybe I'll change my blog music soon and let you all hear it. :D

Toodles, oh, and do drop by the Singapore Expo on the 22nd if you have the time... just to see the all-important event take place, if nothing else! :D

Ladies and gentlemen, Team NUS Archery now has its first compound archer! Haha.

Nicholas' friend from RH came yesterday to shoot with us, and I think he'll be representing NUS for the competition in January. Speaking of which... I'm still not really sure what that competition is. :P

I think they said earlier that it was IVP, but then I heard that they changed the institutional shoot standards coz it wasn't fair for the polytechnics, seeing as how the uni students are older than them. Well, mostly. :P So I think the January competition is now called the NTU institutional shoot, according to Rayner's blog, and I trust Rayner's info coz he's in training cell, haha. I mean, training cell people know these things, what... and perhaps maybe secretarial cell as well, since they'll have to help us register and whatnot.

Was busy for the whole day again; did my last candle-selling shift at Expo (sold 53 candles between June and myself, despite the fact that we were both feeling really tired and lazy, haha), then rushed off for alumni band and about 4 pm, coz Expo is really damn far from anywhere, not to mention that CJ's in the west.

Well, okay, according to the land usage in Singapore, CJ is in the central area, but technically, Singapore's "central" area is in the west. So me travelling to the east so often in the past week (candle-selling on the 13th and 14th, rag bbq at downtown east on 15th, and candle-selling again today) is really straining my EZ Link card and my patience. Yes, I'm finding it quite annoying. And tiring. Strange, isn't it, that even if you were sitting down or sleeping all the way on the public transport, you'd still feel tired.

Argh. East is like a damn ulu place; when Denise and I were on the train heading towards Pasir Ris for the raggers' bbq, and we were approaching Tampines station, she pointed out that the housing estates in Tampines have a LOT of open space, as compared to Jurong, where she lives. She was making comparisons coz she used to live in Tampines, see.

And then when the train stopped at Tampines, about three-quarters of the passengers on board disembarked. O_O Seriously, the train went from "almost full" to "less than half empty". So apparently, a large proportion of Singaporeans live in the east.

Anyway. I think I digressed from my main point.

*Scrolls up to see what she was supposed to be talking/ typing about*

Ah. Alumni band practice. Right. :P

SP alumni came over today, so we had our first (and only, if I'm not wrong) combined practice, and it was good! Sounded so different and so much better with more people, and you could kinda see the difference between the CJ people and the SP people.

The CJ people were a more... fun bunch, I'd say. The SP people didn't seem as close a group as we were, and the SP clarinetist on 3rd with Chee Khiong and me seemed really serious and everything. She didn't talk much, but she was messaging loads, though.

Oh, and the wonderful thing about the new arrangement now that the SP people are here, is that 3rd clarinets are now in the second row! Hahaha.... That means that we're further away from Alvin, and he won't be able to hear all our mistakes, haha. Although I suppose he'll still be able to hear if we don't play. :P

Only downside to this is that the attention-seeking bugger in me is screaming in absolute outrage that I'm not in the first row anymore and that people won't be able to see me. But hell. I'm rather happy where I am, thank you very much, haha. I'll even be able to hide behind the first row if I get lost and then the audience won't be able to see the absolute confusion on my face if that happens, haha.

Sometime before practice started, I looked over at Pam, and was struck by the irony; see, in CJ band, clarinets and oboes (if there're any) take up the first row and the flutes are in the second row, on the conductor's left.

Now, the new arrangement is such that flutes and first clarinets are in the first row, while second and third clarinets are in the second row, on the conductor's right. So when I looked at Pam, I realised that she was seated where I normally would be, and vice versa, haha!

Speaking of practice, time for some shameless plugging. :D

This practice is in preparation for a joint concert by the CJC and SP Alumni Bands, which will be held on 19th March 2005, at VCH, I think, if they've finally decided on a venue.

All are most welcome. :D I'm "booking" you all really far in advance, haha, so if you fear that you shall forget this all-important date by February or March (or even January) next year, don't fret; I shall be on hand to remind you when the time draws near! Haha. :P

Oh, and while we're at it: plugging for Arts Bash 1!

21st January 2005 at Rouge. I was told that it's opposite Somerset MRT, but I think it's more specific to say that it's opposite Specialists' Shopping Centre, since Somerset MRT station has two exits, I think. Tickets are $14, there's 1-for-1 throughout the night, and vodka shots at $5 till midnight. Most importantly, if you want tickets, get them from me!

I have to sell 20 tickets, so yes; I'm sure you understand. :D

I have "booked" my kor, haha. And jie, if you're reading this, feel free to ask me for tickets too if your friends want any, haha. Also people like Wai Lun and Wei Jian, the lot of you who're suddenly obsessed with clubbing ever since you stepped into NS (which I think must be a damn sad time to suddenly become obsessed with it, since you won't be free most of the time then!).

Okay, shameless plugging is over. :P And for that matter, so is this post. :D

Random thought: How can something be both "new and improved" at the same time?? I mean, if it's "new" then that means that nothing of its kind has ever existed before, right, so it can't have been "improved". And if it's "improved", then that means that there's an older version of it, so it's not "new" anymore then, is it?? *Rolls eyes* Advertising gimmicks.


Raggers' BBQ last night!! Haha... was fun as usual, with people like Shaun around, there's never a lack of food or a lack of variety of food. He's like our own Jamie Oliver, seriously. Probably minus the fact that he doesn't talk as much as Jamie Oliver does. Unless he's busy mumbling to himself, but he's quite endearing when he does that, hahaha.

Have noticed that BBQs are generally unhealthy affairs. Below are my reasons for thinking so.

1. Food is sometimes half-cooked.
2. Food is sometimes not cooked.
3. Food is almost always oily stuff.
4. Food is always experimented with, sometimes resulting in.. odd, combinations.

Like at the last Rag BBQ that we had, Shaun introduced us to cheese shrimps, which basically consisted of covering shrimps with slices of cheese and then wrapping the whole thing up in aluminium foil and setting it on the grill to cook. When you open up the foil after the shrimp is cooked, the cheese will have melted all over it, so you get lovely cheesy shrimp!

At our last BBQ, the aluminium foil was too small, so when the cheese melted, it bubbled out of the opening in the foil and spilled over onto the crabsticks on the grill next to it; that gave us the idea of cheesy crabsticks, haha.

So we had cheesy shrimp again (can I name it "chrimp"?? :D), crabsticks with honey, sausages with honey, sotong balls (does anyone EVER realise how wrong "fishballs" and "sotong balls" sounds?? o_O) with butter or honey or char siew sauce or a very strange combination of all three, or two of the three, and there was roast chicken, curry chicken with potatoes that Jasmine's dad made for us, and chicken with garlic butter that Shaun made, and beef patties with onions that Shaun made too. Oh, and for dessert, banana with chocolate. Whole banana with chocolate cubes; wrapped in foil, of course, then you set it on the grill for a while and when you open it up, the banana's all soft and covered in chocolate. Yummy. :D

I'm making myself hungry all over again. :P

And of course, there was alcohol. Vodka. Smirnoff's in two flavours: Raspberry and Green Apple Twist. Smirnoff's must be the alcoholic beverage with the highest concentration of alcohol that I've ever drunk. 37.5% alcohol.

When I found out, I'd already drunk half a cup, and I was like, "Whoa. No wonder." Haha. Seriously, when you smell it, you can smell the green apple, but when you drink it, you can't even taste the alcohol, but I guarantee that you'll feel it. The minute the thing touches your tongue, the sharpness of it wakes you right up, and upon swallowing the drink, you get that burn that one usually associates with alcohol, only it goes two ways: it shoots right down to your gut and up to your brain at the same time, and the feeling kinda stays there for about five minutes.

That's for the green apple flavoured one, though. The raspberry one tasted milder; probably because on its own, green apple is a sour fruit, after all.

So I drank about a cup of the green apple twist, and I only diluted the last half of it with Coke; even then, it was still damn potent.

I got pretty damn high after that, making random silly comments and giggling about my own and others' funny comments for much longer than a sane person would/should.

Denise kept saying I was drunk. I resent that. I was not drunk, and there is a difference between being completely wasted and drunk and just being high. Also, I have better control of myself than some other people at that BBQ.

Anyway. Moving on.

So I had alcohol, sugar and caffeine (from the Coke and chocolate), and good company. PLENTY of reason for me to be damn high, haha. Our rag BBQs are always the best BBQs that I've ever been to; including the Rag steamboat that we had in school halfway through Rag; at that time, the bunch of us were already becoming VERY familiar with the school, despite the fact that we weren't even matriculated yet then, haha... :D

My sis just came out of my parents' bedroom, announcing that Season One of "The OC" has now officially ended in Singapore.

It reminds me of how crazy over it I was when it first started airing here, and how I proclaimed that it was gonna be my weekly dose of teenage angst. That kinda faded off after a while when for some reason (Singapore Idol, I think) the show went on hiatus for a LONG time, and when it started up again, I was much more busy with other things, like schoolwork.

Well, there goes another good show. I find myself missing Buffy from time to time, despite the fact that I'm not a hardcore fan or anything. The last season was especially enjoyable coz I liked the change in Spike; yes, so I have a thing for tortured, dark characters with attitude problems. Bite me. :P

The ending, the last episode, that is, was slightly predictable, however. That Spike and Anya would die was just something that I saw coming from a mile off. They're a vampire and a vengeance demon respectively, so them helping out on the side of good is just something that isn't supposed to be done. So it makes sense that in the end, in helping the good guys fight the evil that are really their kind, they'd die in the end. It's like coming full circle, after all. If all the evil in the world has to go, then I guess they'd have to go along with it; it is their nature, after all, no matter how much they've changed for the better.

And under that, I suppose there's also an undercurrent as to how opposing your nature never comes to any good end? Something like the "nature vs nurture" argument, I guess.

People can change, I suppose, but how much can they possibly change? And supposing it's all down to nature; then that makes the effort to change obsolete, doesn't it? Or perhaps, making an effort to change what is in one's nature would only be like winding up a toy in a different way.

But what if you wound it up the wrong way? Would that only make it worse? And if you wound it up the wrong way, would it just break completely and become utterly beyond repair, or would it just stop and not go anymore?

Questions, questions, questions. I always have too many of them, and they're mostly useless. In the sense that they don't really have a lot of practical application, that is.

Archery training again tomorrow. Woot. Hope there're seniors! Haha.. Jennifer's really funny, though. Oh, but tomorrow's supposed to be full FITA shoot standard... 50 ends. Meep. 150 arrows. Arm is gonna be so sore. *Shrugs* Oh well.

So I shall leave you here, with an amusing quiz for you to do. :D Isn't the little yellow penguin cute. >_<


What color is your inner penguin?
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