Welcoming the Year of the Dog

Ti's Chinese New Year parties are always wonderful. Good food, good company, good times, and not necessarily in that order. It's almost as much fun helping out in the preparations for the party as much as messing around when everyone arrives. There's always something to do in a household that does not sleep the whole weekend.

When ties are stretched by borders

We were feeling in a particularly argumentative mood last night, and while discussing the fall of another friend to the whims of another Singaporean (no, it's not Tish quite yet), I put forth the theory that Singaporean women are all part of a massive covert operation bent on the ultimate control of Malaysia, which they will achieve by mating with Malaysian men and thereby ruling the whole damn country.

Weng countered by saying that the 2 million or so Malaysian men that may possibly succumb to the siren-like charms of the women across the causeway are actually part of an even bigger movement to annihilate the island republic by joining with their women and then refusing to have babies, thus allowing the country to wallow in the mire of supporting their aging population, whom, I might add were originally Malaysians anyway, and eventually expire. He also went on to claim that those 2.5million sacrificial lambs will be honored in the annals of Malaysian history as martyrs bearing the slogan "prevention is better than cure".

The conversation wasn't that intricately phrased, we were dodging traffic on the way back from the supermarket last night laden with a week's worth of food, so most of it went "Oh yea?! Shaddup, you suck" and "Whatever..." while our frozen synapses struggled to come up with a witty rebuttal before shutting down again, but that was the gist of it.

Um...

It's finally over. One whole week of intense studying for 6 hours of written exams. I'm tired but happy. Man, I've never studied this much, EVER.

My resolution - start studying earlier and don't fall behind.

Lol, I wonder how long that'll last...

Anyhow, I'll just like to announce my return after my self-imposed exile. It's Chinese New Year in a few days and I hope it'll be a nice relaxing weekend before heading back to all the worries of life.

My mind's a big blank right now. I can't seem to form long sentences. It feels strange not to think about stuff like the exchange rate, corporate governance and arrow securities.

Ok I'll stop here. This rambling is getting me or you nowhere =)

My inspiration runs like water in a desert

It's been really dead here.

My brain juice has been spread out between applications and studying and there isn't much left.

My sister is thinking about changing her application for Biomed at IC to Mech Eng. It was gonna get her sooner or later. Hehe.

I can only take comfort in the fact that Rudy's been even less ctive than I have and he's sort of still on holiday, since like last February when his passport got stolen.

ANOTHER post! *gasp*

Study pressures mounting on me, I can feel the growing urgency and fear of next week. It's not helped by the fact that my flatmates are up till the oddest hours of the night and early morning, going in and out of the kitchen, which I am so fortunate of being next to, waking me from my much needed sleep.

On the brighter side of things, the weather's pretty nice today. It's hit double digits and it's not raining, woohoo.

I'm just passing time til I head to town to buy some much needed groceries to feed me for the coming week. I wish there was a supermarket just down the street *sigh*, like a sainsbury or a tesco. That would make life so convenient. You would think that with all the students that live within this hall of residence, some possible-new-locations-for-our-next-supermarket personnels would identify that opening a branch here can but only guarantee a steady income stream. But then again I guess it's only valid for 7 out of the 12 months a year.

Wish there was more time for the things we need to do. Don't you?

Not another one

Deadlines are drawing tighter and tighter like a noose around our necks as we struggle to get in all those applications on time to an acceptable standard amid a flood of other projects, revision, and tests. The carnage is not pretty, ladies and gentlemen.

To date, the number of applications I've completed are 6, with 2 on the way. I had to pause to list all the firms I've applied to, and I fear the list will get longer as I strive to gather all the due dates for Weng and find out that there are actually companies that I have not applied to. Damn my kiasuism.

Unforunately, they've all sort of blurred into one endless nightmare of an application form and question after question of personality and competency tests that no longer make any sense. My cover letters have similarly turned into a mess of words, words that I've reread so many times, they might as well be in another language because I sure as hell cannot tell if they actually mean anything anymore. I even had to spin a wonderful netball story to describe a situation where I "took one for the team". The story actually happened, but my telling it was so bad, Weng had to review it and edit it for me.

On the bright side, after Weng's exams are done, it's Chinese New Year, and we're going to buy him a teddy bear. I've always wanted to go to that teddy bear factory at Hamley's , and since Weng, during his short time here at the start of term, seemed to be developing an extremely peculiar fondness for talking to Pate (pronounced Pah-tay, not "pait"), we've decided he needs his own one to keep him company in Southampton.

I've started reading Neil Gaiman at long long last and that man is a genius.

Back from the wilderness

A certain someone exclaimed why my name is even on this blog as a contributor. Being the avid follower he is, he very carefully and i must say, accurately recalled the frequency of which I post - even to the point that he knows to what lengths my post reaches, literally.

Anyhow, the point is that I'm back in Southampton; in my little room high up in my tower overlooking the most distinct landmark that is my bus stop. All this points to the fact that I will be posting once again. Don't ask me how often. Just the fact that I've gotten this up is good enough for me.

Exams in a week...argh...applications to send by tonight...double argh...average age of the students in the course I'm applying to - 24...my age when I graduate and if I get in '21years less 2months'...omg...how intimidating...

Why is it that everytime I return to my room from an extended period of absence, there is a layer of dust over everything? EVEN with the windows shut tight! The UK is a funny place. My mom would go ballistic over here, she'll be constantly mopping and wiping away at every surface.

This post serves no real purpose except to pass my time and entertain me, and hopefully you.

If you're into Christian alternative music, try listening to air1. That's the only thing keeping the silence from driving me up the wall.

I better stop here. Or else someone will quite animatedly gesture the length to which THIS post reaches.

Hi ho, hi ho

I have all these fantastic ideas for articles that flit through and escape through the spaces between the mess of thoughts and things to do that I keep in my head, so here's another regretful ode to yet another 'great idea' that's completely escaped me.

On a more mundane but equally crucial level, our washing machine's finally been installed. I wash as we speak in the comfort of my own home.

In review

The first week back's been very much straight into the deep end. Battling jetlag, hunger pangs at all odd hours of the day as my body struggles to correct its clock without the aid of sunlight, and finishing a report has proved extremely challenging.

I wasn't rushing my report for the deadline, I just didn't get to read it about a gazillion times over and 'make small changes' as Lester did (our printer stayed very warm in the last couple of days before the deadline), and my supervisor got back to me too late with offer of a scanner so I resorted to the old fashioned way of photocopying, cutting and pasting, and photocopying again. So to be clear, I wasn't rushing my report - just so my mum can't go "Aiyoh, see? I told you."

I didn't really get to wish Cheryl luck, especially since she's sitting her entire physics A level in one shot and up until last Wednesday she thought that dropping ballast would make the hot air balloon accelerate sideways. Anyhow, I'm sure she'll be fine.

Fantasy Football has made the weekend another rollercoaster of emotion. To all those poor sods out there who dropped Henry after two crappy weeks, I'm sorry but relieved because I could never afford him anyway, so I'm glad no one else got him. Hehe.

Oh, we got our new netball uniforms. They're like swimsuits - tight and lycra, with skirts without built in underwear +phew to the lack of built in underwear+. They're dark blue, even with the rather large and embellished old IC crest, so like I said before, I'm so thankful IC has such awesome team colors, otherwise we would look like a bunch of aubergines.

How much are they paying the weatherman?

Beau'iful weather, wot?

Miserable, wet, and freezing, it's everything England's cracked up to be. We've been back for three days and we're still jetlagged - asleep by 9 and up by 6. Weng started me on Civ4 in an attempt to beat it because the last time we came back, we DoTA-d 'til about 2am on the day of our return. It made us adjust really quickly for some reason. It hasn't really worked this time, only succeeding in getting me addicted to the game. I knew it was going to happen.

But it's not all fun and games, I can actually say I've been up at six working on my report. My computer went through a couple of scary moments when it crashed twice this morning, but it seems all fine and dandy now.

The Christmas break was great, and as I get more and more homesick, you'll be sure to find more pictures of home right here, starting with my most favorite of the holiday. My how they've grown.

With reluctance

I finally met up with Sean after like four years and saw Rudy again this holiday, so it's a 2/2 for him so far, which is good. I didn't manage to get a hold of anyone else though, and I'm surprised to say that the only GIS person I've seen his holiday is Vicky.

After exchanging several intercontinental messages with Tish about cab bookings, Weng and I have decided to try our luck on the tube. It's been a while since we've been so ambitious and motivated about attempting this journey with 30+kg bags.

Last night in K.L. I don't really want to go.

King Kong and other stories

I'm getting old, and I can tell because any fast, blurry scenes with lots of movement, or even slow scenes with a lot of movement make me feel horribly ill. I just saw King Kong, it had a lot of first-person type views and now I feel nauseous.

I've also realised I have a thing for continuity in the scenes of a movie or at least a satisfactory transition. If something's set on a densely forrested island with giant bugs and dinosaurs, it should stay on the island. Cutting to a snowy, glitzy New York just threw me off completely and has left me feeling incredibly disturbed for some obscure reason.

We actually wanted to watch Narnia, but there weren't anymore tickets. I'm incredibly disappointed because a) it's been out for like a month, I thought we were the only ones who haven't seen it, and b) the kids are technically back to school so seats should've freed up. But no. I might just have to go back to England and still be the only one who hasn't seen it.

My brother has time managment issues. It would be less stressful for everyone if he told us that he had tuition at 7pm before we decided to go for the movie rather than at 6.50pm after we'd finished watching it. Now my mum is upset for the second time today. The first was Cheryl's fault because she was still awake at 4am, causing my mum to storm into the room hot on her heels while they were having a bit of a shout. It made me wake up all confused and thinking it was time to get up. I should've known it was going to be one of those days.

But there was dimsum and now there's steamboat.

i <3 Japanese Food

I managed to stamp out my craving for Japanese food quite thoroughly last night. We went to a Japanese buffet at Shogun, 1-Utama after I announced my craving and it being New Year's and all that, was virtually the only place we could get a table. As always, I have a lot to say about things so here are my thoughts on it.

The Good: Japanese food. Sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, cawan mushi. Everything was excellent. There was plenty of variety - hot drinks, cold drinks, even Maggi instant mashed potato, and it was cheap.

The Bad: Pickled jelly fish and boiled snails.

The Ugly: There was this one little girl who walked around the desert table and found something she liked just as I was reaching for a piece. She promptly called for her maid, coughed all over my hand in a phlegmy spray, and then stuck her finger in the cream. There were other reports of a little boy licking the icecream scoop. These children need to be controlled better.

And a Happy New Year to you

Midnight slipped by with the monotonous ticking of the clock on the wall, quickly, quietly, and with a pang of disappointment. I didn't get to stand outside with everyone else. I didn't get to see the sky explode with fireworks. I didn't get to wish my most loved ones a Happy New Year the very second 2006 kicked in.

Instead I was huddled in a prayer circle listening. Listening to everyone else's problems, real life problems. They weren't even my problems and it made me miss the countdown and my new year, but in that self-centred moment of bitterness I formed my first resolution of 2006.

I could hold onto the disappointment with clenched fists, regretful that I missed one of my already limited New Years, or I could remember 2005-2006 as the year I sat and listened to someone else about something important to them, being there for someone other than myself.

When I look back on last night, I suppose the only things I really missed were the cans of coloured foam. I got my New Year greetings in, I even got a New Year's kiss, even if it was somewhat chaste, and I got to see a very distant and very late fireworks display.

2006 is a year for growing up, facing up to what adult-hood holds for me, and I think I've already started. So before the first day of the year runs out, I'd like to wish you a fruitful and blessed year filled with love and warm feelings and friends and family. Set out to do what you need to with a positive heart and don't lose sight of your dreams.