~light of the world~

Friday, August 22, 2008

I forgot to post about something. Remember I was studying with Sheryl on Thursday right? SHE GOT MICHAEL PHELPS' AUTOGRAPH!

Apparently she went to her club, where they were swimming (I didn't even KNOW that they were in Singapore), and asked for Ryan Lochte's signature. Then he asked her whether she wanted Michael Phelps' signature, and she went, "Oh, ok."

WHAT ON EARTH. If I had the chance I'd take a photo of him! Or a photo with him. How often do you get to see an Olympic athlete aiming for 8 gold medals? WHY am I never so fortunate? While she was there she ought to have looked for Dara Torres, Aaron Peirsol, Ian Thorpe and Jason Lezak too. Bah.

It's like meeting Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, only more awesome! But the gymnasts are super cool as well. Those two on the beam are amazing. And He Kexin on the uneven bars, even though I think she's underaged?

I saw Yang Wei on the rings or something, and his muscles are scary. As he received his gold medal, he reached out for it and the muscle bulged, looked like a tumour! Scary...

I also think it's a pity Liu Xiang pulled out of his event due to his injury. It's great to have an Oriental representative at the running events. Otherwise people might think that yellow-skinned people can't run.

And I found the story of one of the gold medal winners in weightlifting very touching, the guy whose wife died some time while he was preparing for the Olympics here. He lifted some total 461 kg.

And I never got to watch Usain Bolt run, because of exams. Isn't it apt that his surname is Bolt? It's like one of the gymnasts is called Justin Spring. So he must be springy.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be studying math now. If I study all day today and tomorrow afternoon, then I can watch the Olympics closing ceremony!

Labels: olympics, school

xuan blogged at 9:11 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Thursday, August 21, 2008

I KNOW I'm supposed to be studying Bio right now, or even Lit Paper 1, but I want to indulge myself rambling a while before I lose the thought.

Today after the Chem paper I was studying Bio with Sheryl in the canteen and I recounted what I said to YJ on Tuesday.

Me: How did you get it (RJ Econs Prelim Paper 07)?
YJ: From my friend in RJ lor.
Me: Eh... I think I have no friends...
YJ: ???
Me: They all went to AC. (Except those in NJ, Odelia in RJ, a minority elsewhere)

And then I said to Sheryl, "I miss my MGS friends. Why couldn't some of them have come here?"

This is not to say I don't love my NJC friends, because I do, but one of the reasons I didn't want to come here at Sec 2 was because I wouldn't get to see my friends. Some of them have been in my same class for umpteen years.

And Sarah really is much better at keeping in touch with them, I think. She even went for the 2006 Founders Day Dinner if I'm not wrong. I only went back on the occasional school holiday celebration like National Day or something.

We used to have so much fun in school. Get ready for a LONG list of random memories.

In Pri 6 we took turns 'shooting' the pen refills at the Sharity Elephant rulers that everyone received. I shot one at a poster and it stuck!

Oriana and I used to stay in class during recess to either do homework or talk about the silliest things, calling each other ridiculous names. Natalie was my seating partner. I recently saw her at the PSC scholarships and careers fair. I think I saw Rachel Ng there too in school uniform, but she wouldn't remember me. We were only classmates in Pri 2 I think.

Mrs Goy would mock our changing back to the pinafore, sometimes claim to be like an erupting volcano, especially whenever she wore red, or got annoyed at Sam.

From Pri 3-6 I was good friends with Shernise, Ariel, Vivian and Lillian. We did a project on sea stuff after a CIP at the beach, and I wrote a fish poem. I remember Ariel's house being very big and nice. The twins were brilliant at gymnastics.

In Sec 1 we had to give sort-of introductory speeches - to test our presentation skills, no doubt. I did pretty well because I felt quite comfortable in front of the class, even teasing Su Yee in the middle of my speech. She returned the favour later.

We also had a spelling bee, where I spelt 'unnecessary' and 'beret' wrongly. We recommended giving a dictionary as a prize to the person with the highest score!

I recently was reminded of Shernise and Jia Hui making up some silly story or song involving a parody of our chinese teacher. I believe it included random chinese phrases and slapping.

We used to listen out for the Christ the Lord is Risen Today to start playing before making our way down to the quadrangle for assembly. I could sing the alto part at that time!

I remember my Sec 2 PW group was me, Amanda, Su Yee and Bridget! Doing my all-time favourite topic, Education. Was a good year for it too. Many newspaper articles on the subject.

Sara Chong used to speak either English or funny Chinese in class to Qian Lao Shi. One day we tried to trick him into thinking something was stuck on the ceiling by everyone looking at one spot, but it didn't work!

Once I was absolutely delighted to get an 87 or 84 or 80-something score for a Chinese paper, because I normally got about 70. And then Shauntel, my seating partner, got 95. I bet Judith and Melody got 90+ as well. How depressing!

Pei Shan and Sze Min sat behind us. Or was it Melissa Chu? Pei Shan had the loveliest ponytail ever. Like her hair was really smooth. I think Sze Min went to NUS High. Melissa Chu was in GB with me! And turned out to produce one of the best O Level scores in the school!

I had a sty in my eye, and after the doctor removed the liquid I had to wear a patch-bandage thingy over the eye. Amanda called me 'Xuan the Pirate'.

Su Yee was a hygiene/neat freak, to be impolite. She was mad once when I passed down a worksheet that had a slightly folded corner. I think for a time she and Odelia weren't talking to each other, and I was desperately trying to get them to make up. She used to be 'enemies' with Tann-Ting as well. LOL.

We watched the movie Never Been Kissed, and Clarissa changed her interest from Orlando Bloom to Michael Vartan! And Hidayah was a fan of Tom Felton.

Our form teacher was pregnant for the first 2 months, and gave birth on the same day as Melissa Koh's birthday, March 7. Our relief teacher was a J3, who made us write an essay about beetroots with a lot of idioms.

I think I remember in Sec 2 after exams, where everyone was just mooching around in class doing goodness knows what. I think a few of us sat under the whiteboard, with an arrow pointing at us, labelled IMH.

One day when with choir people in KAP I met Valerie! She whose birthday is on Valentine's Day. Good for her - she went to Hwa Chong. True blue Nanyang Pri girl. She and Janice were in synchronised swimming, I believe. I saw Janice in the ACS(I) choir! Along with Judith. And Maria Kang. Whom I saw on the bus one day, but she was only in my class once, I think.

I like this stream of consciousness thing. Please don't tell me it's 3rd person interior monologue. I shall try to think of more to post. I really do miss my friends.

Labels: MGS, school

xuan blogged at 11:04 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Today's post is also mostly due to the date looking so nice and all.

I made sure to write it that way on my GP paper. Which went horribly, by the way. The GP paper 1, not the writing of the date.

And for my thought of the day, actually I meant to post it some time ago, but it slipped my mind. The next time you want to tell someone to shut up, as in saying "Shut up", DON'T. I don't think there's any nice way of saying "Shut up", because the phrase itself is jolly rude.

Tell the person to keep quiet, or shush, or "you'd better stop talking now", which actually isn't very nice either, but it's better than telling them to shut up. I've decided that even when people say it, no matter to what degree of annoyance, I think it hurts to be told to shut up. They may not really mean it in a rude or angry way, but it's simply not nice.

Another word I've decided to try and remove from my everyday speech is "Nonsense". It's so easy to say "nonsense" in response to something that's wrong. However, calling it nonsense suggests that the person who said it is saying something totally unfounded, unreasonable and illogical.

Surely the person has sense, though may be misinformed or less quick at evaluating something. It's very rude to just brush something away as nonsense. Of course, if it's just joking between friends then it's not so bad lah. For example,

Sixuan: I dunno how to do the chem question.
Person A: Huh? But you're H3!
Sixuan: Nonsense.

Actually, while you're at it, try your best to remove all foul language and expletives as far as possible. All those incriminating four letter words. Each time you want to express your dismay, how about saying "OH NO" or "BOTHER IT ALL" or "WHY MUST THIS HAPPEN TO ME?"

And when in shock, please refrain from saying "Oh my God", because it's disrespectful to Him, and to Christians. You don't see us saying "Oh my Buddha". Most likely if you're saying it, He hasn't become your God anyway. And if He has, then shame on you for uttering such a phrase.

And to end off, with the words of the last hymn we sang during our church anniversary service on Sunday!

The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord
She is His new creation by water and the word
From Heav'n He came and sought her to be His holy bride
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.

Elect from every nation, yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food;
And to one hope she presses, With every grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed
Yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song!

'Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.

Labels: church, school

xuan blogged at 6:35 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Friday, August 15, 2008

Today I went to school for an extra GP lesson, and then studied with Tse Mei in the canteen until about 2.30 or so. In the morning, Sheena gave me two presents, one a souvenir from Cambodia, and one a 'belated' birthday present - it really was belated, but she already gave me my cow! Thanks so much!!

Anyway, I went home earlier with the intention of watching the artistic all-around gymnastics to see who would win, understanding it to be at 5.30pm. Actually the live event was at 11 in the morning or so, and the one I watched was a repeat telecast.

Hence, I got home in time to see Li Jiawei playing against her South Korean opponent Kim Kyung Ah. On a side note, I wonder what it's like having the name Kyung Ah, since Korean people generally add an -ah or -ii to the end of a name as an honorific for friends, kind of like -san or -kun in Japanese, I think. Her name makes it kinda hard.

Anyway, it was gut-wrenchingly painful to watch the match, because I think they were rather evenly matched, even though Ms Kim won in the end. Poor Li Jiawei. At least I think the doubles match went excellently.

Then watching Wang Yuegu against her opponent was SCARY, because her opponent Dang Ye-Seo plays really hard and fast. Really sad to see her lose. Then it was the final match between Feng Tianwei and Park Mi-Young. Ms Park was really amazing with her defense against Feng Tianwei's attacks that reached out far beyond the tennis table.

In the end I didn't dare to watch the outcome because it was really nerve-wracking. Until my younger sisters suddenly called out something about too little time, and finishing the game by seeing who got 2 points more than the other. At that point Feng Tianwei had already won 2 games to Ms Park's 1 game. So Feng Tianwei managed to win and make it 3-1, so Singapore can be assured of at least an Olympic silver medal when meeting China.

What I don't understand is why South Korea doesn't automatically just play against Hong Kong for bronze, but plays USA, while Hong Kong plays against Japan. Oh well.

It's nice to have the assurance of an Olympic medal after 48 years!

Labels: olympics, school

xuan blogged at 11:09 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Yes, the once-in-a-year blood donation exercise in school, as expected, was held today.

This year, I thought, since I'm 18 already, I don't need parental consent. So unlike last year when I forgot to get the form signed by my parents, it won't matter.

I was a bit worried that my blood pressure might be deemed too low by the doctor like in 2006 when I first tried to donate blood at school. However, my doctor told me some time later that it's okay to have such a blood pressure (55/85 or something like that) since I'm still young.

Hence, I hoped that all would go well today. When Eesha, Melody and I went to the hall and were filling out the forms, a blood-taker lady asked us who was going for the first time, which was Mel and I.

Then she dragged us off to see if our veins were prominent enough to draw blood from, or something like that. She started with Mel, by using the blood pressure gauge thing around the upper arm, asking her to repeatedly squeeze this squishy thing, while doing something to her arm.

And suddenly her veins were really obvious! And I think it worked for both arms. At the point when we'd been hauled off I felt a sense of 'doom', as if I knew it was going to screw up at this point.

And sure enough, when they lady tried to find mine, somehow she couldn't really see the vein? She even asked another lady to try, and they mentioned something about "to the side", "near the tendon", "too short" and goodness knows what else.

So, the lady told me to go do some weightlifting which would apparently solve the problem, and to come again to donate. Sigh. My final year in NJC and my second attempt to donate blood was thwarted by my own stupid veins.

It's as if some cosmic force is preventing me from donating because I secretly have some rare unknown blood disease or something. Gah.

Labels: school

xuan blogged at 10:21 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Monday, August 11, 2008

So on Friday, my family and I went to Pulai Springs in Malaysia for some family bonding time, though unfortunately Prelims were, and still are impending, so I brought work with me.

This holiday, it seems, saw a lot of time spent sitting in front of the TV together.

We managed to watch some of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, because the place where we ate our dinner had two TVs both screening it. It's the first Olympics opening I've ever seen, and to my untrained eye, it was spectacular!

Even though my sister complained that they spent more on it than on the Sichuan earthquake victims, this is an international event to be outdone each time by the next country, I suppose. I'm more concerned that the burning of the torch will probably produce a lot of carbon dioxide.

My sister, brother and I stayed up watching the parade of nations, holding out until Singapore finally came in. Since the nations came in order of number of strokes in the first Chinese word of each name, and Singapore's has 13 strokes, we had to wait really long!

The next morning we continuued by watching the gymnastics qualifications for men, and it's really cool to watch all the somersaults and stuff.

At 5.45 pm, we faithfully went to watch the National Day Parade, and I felt really sorry for the poor audience and performers in the rain. We looked out for Tan Whenn (supposedly a sunflower in the first Act) but the camera didn't capture him. I personally liked the uniformed groups, precision drill, statues, and songs!

After that we watched the pilot episodes of the new serials Calefare and First Class. It's quite entertaining, really.

The next day we managed to see some of the gymnastics done by the girls teams, and I think it's so much nicer to watch than the guys, because their floor exercise is more dance-like, and they have the uneven bars event.

We also played rousing games of Taboo and Pictionary. I was previously doing work while they were playing Taboo, so I joined them near the end. To declare the winner, a tie-breaker was intiated, where I would hold the cards, and whichever team guessed first got to keep it, so no stress for me!

The best one was when the word was 'Exhaust'. When not allowed to use words like tired, car, pipe etc. I remembered the car joke I told my brother and two younger sisters the other day.

So I said: Remember that day I told you this joke-

Yan: EXHAUSTED!

I was stunned, because how could she remember the joke, and then get the right word in half a second?!?!?! We must have a PSYCHIC CONNECTION.

I confess I was biased towards the Papa, JieJie and Yan team, because I joined them for 2 rounds of guessing prior to the tie-breaker. But in our defense, Mummy distracted Papa by asking him about what word he'd used to describe the taboo word, thus cutting from our guessing time!

On the way home, we stopped over to buy durians and fill up on petrol before reaching Singapore. Upon reaching home, after keeping our stuff we promptly went to watch the synchronised diving finals for women, and it was won by a far margin by the China team.

Even though we're unable to see how they were much better than the other teams, or why the Great Britain team got low marks for more complicated-looking twists, I suppose the judges must see things that the normal unspecialised audience doesn't.

THE OLYMPICS ARE AWESOME.

Labels: family, olympics

xuan blogged at 2:26 PM

Here are some of the pictures I took! Please click on them to see as full-sized.

Some of the altos at morning singing: Jia Wen, Chantik, Xuemin,

Wanyun, Tiffany, Chyi Wei, Jocelyn, Eunice Yeap!

After the celebrations: Rachel, Elizabeth, Liu Xuan,

Xiao Wen, Kai Xin, Sheryl and me!

Jessie, Sarah, Melody, Jessica and me. I love Jessie's expression!

Eugenia, Ann and me. I went home after that.

Labels: school

xuan blogged at 9:41 AM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Friday, August 8, 2008

The main reason why I'm posting today is because of the date - 08.08.08. I mean, dates like these are quite pretty. Plus the Beijing Olympics have started, right?

Also, to comment on my school's National Day celebrations today, it was quite okay, as in the presentations by the houses were mostly good, and the songs sung were nice too. Especially We Are Singapore, Home, and Where I Belong.

It's really quite inspiring when you see many people in the parade square standing up and singing these familiar words that we all know and remember. And they're really singing - during the last song, after the first verse, half the crowd automatically started "... Where I be-" when the recording continued to the second verse and they all laughed!

Pity that Aqua didn't manage to win this year's NE Cup - though we did win for the past 3 years. Oh well.

I think this year's NDP song is quite boring, but I do like the songs of the previous years, like Together We Make A Difference.

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY in advance!

Labels: school

xuan blogged at 12:09 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Yesterday was class phototaking day - and I wish to complain that the whole spirit of phototaking day has been ruined by this new bunch of photographers the school hired. Not just them, but mostly.

Firstly, I somehow became 4th shortest. I was deeply convicted that I wasn't truly so, or at least I didn't use to be. I was in the second row last time!

And even though I feel that logically, the guys should sit in front, the tall girls should stand, and the shorter girls stand on the bench, somehow it was reversed. This is not aesthetically pleasing, because there's a large gap between each row. Plus guys can sit in front better because they don't wear skirts.

Secondly, during the curved candid shot so many people blinked, but they didn't even do a second shot. Would it hurt to take one more?

Thirdly, the photographer guy just asked the guys to come down, some girls to go on the bench, and then took the photo, and told us it was done! I didn't even know this was our informal shot! Previous years, they've always asked us to come up with some interesting pose or what, and this time it's like time is more important than the feeling in the photo.

Fourthly, Terence and Melody were missing. Not to be harsh, but of all days to oversleep, why on phototaking day? Whatever, we can take better photos by ourselves. Don't need to hire those people.

Today, a STRANGE PHENOMENON, the likes of which have probably never been witnessed before, occured in the afternoon. Sarah, Tse Mei and I were studying bio in the canteen at the round tables, when suddenly I saw this bridal couple, gown, suit and photographers in tow, coming through the linkway.

I KID YOU NOT. Then they proceeded to take some photos at a round table some way behind me, after which they went to the grandstand, and then the track to take more photos. I was bemoaning how the bride-to-be's pretty dress was trailing on the not-so-clean canteen floor. I confess I secretly took a picture of them in my phone, but I won't post it, since it's a bit rude.

And again, no offense to the happy couple, but why on earth would they want to take their wedding photos in NJC of all places? Obviously they must be old students, but still, it's WEIRD. And not a particularly nice background to look at. I understand if they took it at the pond, but... the canteen round tables?

Later on we had our bio mock paper in LT5 - which is biased against left-handers due to the miniscule tables on the right of each chair. But it was jolly comfortable, and the aircon was good. Funnily, halfway through the last part of the answers we heard some tenors singing some high note outside, and I swear the whole LT5 heard it and stopped talking. Before snickering two seconds later.

I had to go home by myself - and it was humid, because it had rained earlier on. Many thanks to Yue for walking home with me!

Labels: school

xuan blogged at 9:12 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...

Saturday, August 2, 2008

This was a lame attempt at being artistic. It looked nicer on the phone.

The busy students at the oasis.

One lone GC on a set of organic chemistry.

Years later we may return to find things changed.
"What did it use to look like?"

As the sun sets on yet another busy day.
The once-bustling canteen is empty now.

Labels: school

xuan blogged at 12:51 AM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...