It's that time of the year, the end, actually. At this point I guess people normally review how the year has been, things you're happy about, things you regret, things you know you don't want to forget, etc.

This was definitely an interesting year for me at least. Regarding school, I had the most major and important set of exams of my life, though that's obvious, since I don't imagine anyone would continue their education and blog at the end of the year that their exam wasn't the most major one yet.

The period of studying for A Levels was the most intense I've ever had before. Granted, the only O Level paper I took was for Higher Chinese, so I haven't had much experience in this all-out mugging mode. It was terrible and fulfilling at the same time, to see the culmination of the past two years of learning in NJC.

Regarding choir, we went to Italy this year, and it was the last lap of being in the NJChoir after three and a half years. Going to Italy was undoubtedly enjoyable and meaningful, a lot of unexpected things happened, we faced disappointments, but at least we grew up there.

It was also my first time caroling with the Alumni choir. It's a different type of experience, though I won't say now whether it's for the better or worse. Oh yeah, I took part in Talentime for the first time this year as well. Acapella was fun, tiring, disappointing results, but a worthy experience nonetheless.

In this year, I finally officially graduated from NJC. Despite all the typical complaints by NJCians about the school, whether about rules, money (or lack thereof), staff or syllabus, I do like my school. I like the people I've met there, I like most of the teachers I've had, I like the CCA I joined, and after a while, even the uniform isn't so bad.

As for the Prom at the end of the year, it did not meet my expectations (through no fault of the organisers), but it still was interesting. It reminded me how troublesome shopping is, why I dislike dresses, how I'll probably never see some of the people again, and that makeup is an unnecessary device invented to stimulate the economy. And to always charge your camera just in case.

The Olympic Games deserves a mention, since it was the first time I ever watched it and the events before, and I guess since Singapore actually won a medal!

This year I began following DBSK and Super Junior, and all those Korean pop culture things, inclusive of watching many shows, dramas, comedies, also from Japan and Taiwan.

As for family, my sister and brother-in-law left for another country this year, which is something I'm absolutely not happy about, but am powerless to affect. At least I'm sure they're having a good time there. Also, though it's not particularly important, we got our family pictures done. These pictures mark the passage of time for our family.

As for schoolmates, as I've already said, I appreciate them extremely, and they've made school a much more enjoyable place to be in. If I were to go back to when I was in Sec 2, to choose freely for myself whether to come to NJC IP, I still would. Mostly for the friends there.

For church, I stepped down as chairperson of Juniors early in the year, so my responsibilities immediately decreased. I like being a group leader, though my group is rather quiet, so they ought to speak up more! I spent this year's retreat as an adult, in the sense that there was no youth session for the first time. I played more board games than bridge there too!

I'm very thankful for my Sunday School teachers, who have been very conscientious teachers who never fail to engage the interest of the students with thought-provoking questions. I have been blessed by them.

Thank you God for this year, and may there be many more like it in the future, even as we welcome 2009 tomorrow.

Labels: acapella, choir, church, dbsg, family, friends, korea, olympics, school, suju

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

Yep, so as the title says, I had my first driving lesson today. Sadly, my driving instructor speaks Chinese, but I'll get by.

It comprised a quick run-through of the parts of the car, including lights and mirror adjustments and stuff. I was really scared to get into the driver's seat. When you've sat WITH the driver your entire life, sitting in that seat is terrible.

Then for a while I practised going forward in first gear, braking, then reversing, braking, and repeat. I hate the clutch. I can't find the in between part for clutch and accelerator, and I can't put the right pressure on the accelerator to maintain the speed I want!

After that, he let me try turning round the carpark, turning left, that is. The carpark was more like a bus/big vehicle-park, mostly empty, with about two other learner cars. I had the bad habit of letting the wheel slide back, like my father does, but apparently you can't do that. I also tend to lock my arms crisscross, instead of shifting the hands.

I had bad problems trying to turn and not unconsciously increase the pressure on the accelerator at the same time. So thankfully he went into 2nd gear, so I didn't need to depress it anymore. I then stupidly asked to try turning right. I didn't realise that turning right requires a larger turn than turning left does, in that carpark. So it became harder, and I did it badly! Oh no!

Bah. And I want to point out that the argument by my father that driving has to be easier than A levels is void. I have never driven in my life, as opposed to the approximate 12 years of education preparing me for my A levels.

I've got another lesson tomorrow. I hope I don't crash.

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

Yesterday, on the 27th Dec, we had our Juniors Christmas Dinner! Actually we had to come earlier, at about 3.30 to practice our Christmas skit one last time (having rehearsed on Friday already), this time with Yiwen and Emily who hadn't been there on Friday.

I subbed Michelle Foo (who wasn't there yet) as narrator for a while, but we skipped through the songs, so Yan didn't get to play as much. There were many people making delicious soup and mashed potatoes in the kitchen, as well as others trying to move the red cushiony things into the mini-chapel.

Some people brought friends, Tan Whenn, Selena, Amos (with the outrageous hair) and Neoyun, I think. We started off at about 5.30 with games led by Leroy and Nicholas. I liked the first game, but it was kind of messy.

People stand in pairs, and there's a runner and catcher. The catcher chases the runner. The runner can attach himself to one side of a pair, and the person on the other side has to be the next runner, and so on until the catcher catches him, and the roles then reverse. Since we were standing in a circle, with two sets of running people, it was confusing!

We also played animal Concentration, and the losers Nicholas, Rachel Ng and Elaine had to do the chicken dance as a forfeit. Our group had Nicholas, me, Elaine, Serene, Michelle Ng, Joel Leow (who didn't play), Selena and her two friends, Rachel Ng and Jeslin.

At 6.30, it was time for our skit. We actually had a fast run-through with baby Daniel as baby Jesus, but when it was the actual skit he didn't cooperate well, and had to stay with his mummy Melissa.

I was the one clicking the slides with the lyrics, so I couldn't really see the performance, not to mention I wasn't facing them, but behind them. But I think the overall reaction to the skit was that it was pretty well done!

Cast
Joseph: Christopher
Mary: Selena
Gabriel: Joshua
Angels: Yiwen, Deborah
Shepherds: Emily, Benedict, Yue

Thanks for the hard work put in to the skit! I'm sure Ying Xuan enjoyed organising it as much as I did.

The food was great. There was chicken chop, and I really liked the mashed potatoes! The soup was nice, I like the tomato flavour, not so much the kidney beans... Yiwen and I both reached the table for second helpings of potatoes, and when it looked like a struggle might break out, Sara came to say that Hannah and Melody hadn't had any, so we all shared.

In the end we didn't sing carols, so I'm a bit regretful over it. There was quite a bit of bridge playing, and I was playing with Chris, Ian and Josiah. My cards were used by Hongyu, Amos and his two friends.

At 9, Deborah and Jodie, Ian, Rachel and Andrea, and the four of us siblings left to go to Uncle Melvin's house where our parents were. We were mistaken about which bus we could take, so we ended up waiting longer, and then while crossing the bridge, we saw the only bus we could take drive away before our eyes.

I felt we must have seemed a strange group of young people to be going somewhere together. We made it to the house by about 10pm, but had to leave soon after.

Today, we had our church's annual year-end dinner, this year's one organised by the C.S. There was much confusion about the seating, because there were more people than allocated seats. My brother got pushed to the Juniors tables because of some mess-up with his cellgroup, and a few of the Juniors hadn't given Delia their names.

Anyway our table ended up having the normal 10 people: me, Melody, Selena, Michelle & Melissa, Emily, Elaine, Deborah, Camilla and Yue. The table next to us was mostly guys + Rachel Wong, and they kept playing Zhong Ji Mi Ma, and somehow most of their forfeits involved people at our table or other tables.

Ian seems to have been the lucky winner of the night. He had to take a photo with Michelle Ng and Elaine, peel prawns for some of those at our table, massage dunno-who's shoulders etc. At some point, we started playing too, but our forfeits were mostly eating things. This helped in finishing the food!

We may have eaten for free, but the youths helped to clear up, mostly by carrying all the chairs out of the hall. I myself can probably only carry 5 at once, but Tan Whenn carried 10!

Labels: church

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

Currently it's about 12:03, so it's officially Christmas Day in Singapore.

I'm not feeling particularly excited or anything about Christmas this year, I wonder why. I was disappointed today because I thought I'd get to see a natural delivery, but it was impossible in the end.

Anyway, perhaps if you're Christian, and you know that Christmas is all about how Jesus Christ came down to earth as a baby human in order that He might be fully man and God at the same time, then you don't really need a specific day to celebrate it.

It may be somewhat unrealistic, but the Christmas story lives in us all year round, just perhaps more emphasized in December. I occasionally get annoyed at the Santa Clauses and incessant repetitions of Jingle Bells, but you can't have everything your way!

Caroling this year was quite fun, except having to wear the dress, of course. The new songs were nice to learn, though it's a pity we had to abandon O Holy Night.

We're organising our Juniors Christmas Dinner on the 27th, but I realise our carol/skit is not prepared well. Hence the scheduled practice on Friday. I look forward to singing all our lovely Christmas songs and carols in church!

Little bit of trivia: the word Christmas originates from Cristes Maesse, i.e. the Mass of Christ. And Noël is French for Christmas! We celebrate to remember!

P.S. Happy belated birthday to Rachel Ong - 20th Dec. My sister's birthday is on the 21st, but we wished her early because she called before we went to church, but our mailed card hadn't arrived yet. And, I suppose, a happy birthday in advance to that baby who'll probably be born in an hour or so without me to observe.

Labels: choir, church, family, friends

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

Today at the clinic, Ling was on leave, and she'll still be on leave tomorrow, so my uncle told me to go sit at the counter to see how things are done. To his credit, he said if I was bored I could go back in to listen.

So Winnie kindly showed me what she does, including taking the patient's card, slotting it in with their case notes, writing their time of arrival, checking the urine test strip thing for extra glucose/protein, writing their names in the list of patients, writing the number of arrival on the small slip of paper attached to every set of case notes.

I also saw where they keep all their patients' case notes in drawers arranged by register number. About three new patients came today, so we also used the new sheets.

One really cool thing in my opinion is the typewriter that Winnie uses to type out letters and patients' information. Because obviously all the other standard stuff is already printed out, so she inserts it in the machine, and adjusts where she types according to the lines on the paper, so it comes out in type.

I felt rather helpless and useless at first when patients look at me and ask something I can't reply, so I have to wave frantically at either Sister Lam or Winnie to get them to answer. Plus they're constantly answering the phone as well!

I think there may be some problems with the patient viewing system. There are those who make appointments and those who don't. However, since even though consultations are booked in 15 minute slots, there are those who talk for up to half an hour.

There was a patient who came right on the dot for her appointment, but there were still about one or two patients who were there before her. However, one of them hadn't made an appointment. Perhaps then the one with the appointment ought to be seen first. If you don't make an appointment, maybe you ought to wait longer.

That's just my opinion though, I don't own the clinic!

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

This is just going to be a short post about my bus ride home. Interestingly, I met my aunt while on the way to Far East where the overhead bridge to the bus stop is, so I guess she was returning to the clinic or something.

Anyway, after waiting rather long for the 171 to come, I boarded it, and it wasn't particularly full, though of course there was no space for me to sit.

About 2 bus stops later, I noticed that this mother with a little girl and a littler boy, sharing two seats among them, were Japanese. Or at least they were speaking Japanese. I only noticed because the mum said something to the kids.

I confess I secretly tried to look at what she was typing in her phone, to see if it was in Japanese or something. She was typing really slowly though, so maybe it was in English.

After that, I noticed that these two guys sitting near the exit door were Korean. At first glance I could tell that they weren't local Chinese. As in, roughly we Oriental Asians look alike, but you could just tell they aren't quite Singaporean.

The fellow beside the window started talking a bit loudly on his handphone, which is when I heard the Korean come out. Later on nearer my stop the other guy started talking on his handphone, though much softer, still in Korean.

Lastly, somewhere along Bukit Timah Road just after Newton MRT, I saw a girl board the bus, I'm positive that it was Lydia Hang from my squad in MGS GB 1st Coy. When she got on she was far away from me, because the bus was crowded, but I saw her anyway.

Alas, I didn't have the gumption to actually call her when she moved nearer the middle where I was, eventually standing right beside me, facing another direction. I was actually planning in my head to call her at the bus stop one before mine, so that any awkwardness would be minimised.

I even had an ideal set of sentences in mind, along the lines of, "Hey, you're Lydia, right? Lydia Hang. I'm Sixuan, from MGS, GB, your squad, you were my squad leader..." etc etc.

Unfortunately she got off at the NUS Law campus bus stop, so that idea went down the drain. Bah. The Japanese mum and kids got off one stop before mine.

And that's it for my ride home!

Edit: I realise I DID post on the 15th of December, so I shall just make a note here. Happy Birthday to Junsu from DBSK! And to his twin as well, of course. I really didn't notice the date until it was too late. I hope he had a good celebration!

Labels: dbsg, korea, MGS

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

Today was my first caroling practice. The one on Thursday doesn't count, it was more for me to sing the new songs with the few people who were there: Ann, CJ, CK, CL, XT, XQ, Yuting, me.

I thought I was going to be late, and the first two buses that appeared at the stop were exactly the only ones I cannot take to school, i.e. 77 and 970! Just as I was walking in, secretly looking out for cars to see if any of them were driving in, the car that turned in actually slowed down.

I couldn't see well through the tinted windows, but I finally saw Michelle Koh inside, beckoning to me! After I got in, I saw that she'd picked up Shamini as well. And then we zoomed past Shermaine who had been some distance in front of me!

When we reached the alumni room, it was closed, and outside it waiting were Ann, Amanda, Beng Hee, Eunice and Sonia. After discussing respective heights, Xiang Ting arrived with the key, yay. As well as Jia Yun, Yun Tian and Shermaine.

We sat in our sections, and us hardworking Altos pulled out our scores and began singing the new ones to familiarize ourselves, at which point the Sops joined in. This happened for a few songs, till CK and CL arrived, and then XQ and Gabriel, and we started, soon joined by ZR. More people came, like this senior sop I don't know, Lay Wang, Bi Fang, Benjamin, Prashanth.

CK was mean! Kidding, but he made us memorise Adeste Fideles on the spot. It's only my second time singing it, if you count Thursday as the first, and I don't even know the Latin words, for goodness sake. So I sort of bluffed my way through. Thank goodness I already knew the rest of the carols we sang today.

After it ended, we sang Mamoru and Lay a Garland. Then Prashanth fetched Lay Wang, Bi Fang, Jia Yun, me and Benjamin out in a Mercedes! The window had had a dragonfly eating another dragonfly on it, but I suppose they got blown off the moment he started driving.

Jia Yun was so nice, she took the same bus as me and showed me how to get to the food court in Raffles City. I ate lunch there with Elizabeth, Kai Xin, Sheryl, Rachel and Xiao Wen. It's kind of expensive, but it's expected of Raffles City, plus the design of the place is really nice, and the cleaning aunty was super efficient.

I ate Pepper Lunch again, partially to let XW try it out, and partially because I thought their prices are fixed anyway. I was happy until Sheryl pointed out that they would just probably reduce the amount they give me, and indeed I think there was less beef! Rachel ate bibimbap, Eliz had this potato salad that was nice, XW got her bobo chacha and I couldn't see what the others ate.

We six ate like three bowls of ice kacang. KX and Eliz's one had the brown colour sauce, probably gula melaka. Sheryl's one which she shared with me and XW was a typical one with less of the stuff below. I went to get another one, with durian, added condensed milk, and kosong, i.e. no red bean jelly stuffs, and shared it with the two of them, while Rachel ate some ice cream thing.

We just sat there and talked about stuff for like two and a half hours, though Eliz had to leave early. I tried to promote the comedy series I'm currently watching: The Big Bang Theory. It's really funny, and I highly recommend it! Then we started to walk around the place, and in the end Kai Xin left early because she had a sore throat, and possibly still needs to pack for her Japan trip.

We deicded to walk to Suntec, and again walked around pretty much aimlessly. Sheryl's sister met us at the carrefour where they bought some drinks/food. I thought we were going to eat dinner, but Rachel and XW were going on about no money and feet hurting, so we went home, while Sheryl and Carol (Ann) went to eat their own dinner.

It was fun, and I hope we can have another outing like this. Feels good to talk about anything!

Labels: choir, friends

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

This afternoon/evening, I took my Basic Theory Test at the Bukit Batok Driving Centre, and I PASSED. Thank God!

I went early to the hospital to see a LSCS, then observed my uncle as usual, and then I left at about 3.30pm to go to the BBDC. I actually estimated that the total travel time would be about 1 hour 15 minutes?

I had planned to go by bus, but since I didn't know the route, I decided to be lazy and take the MRT about 16 stops to Bukit Gombak. Not by the Woodlands direction, but I changed twice, to the green line, then back to the red line!

I didn't realise how fast the MRT goes, since I never take it. I reached the BG station at about 4.30, and my test was supposed to be at 5.40, participants to be there 15 minutes beforehand. So I was early, but because it's rather far from the MRT, and there's no straight bus to the driving centre down that straight road (can you believe it), I took the 945 and walked.

I spent some nervous 30 minutes or so last-minute mugging at Level 1, before going up to Level 2. These few days I've been mugging the theory book at home, on the bus, MRT, during lunch break, etc.

As usual, my stomach felt terrible, like it does before any test or stressful thing, so I had a teeny bit of diarrhoea :( I prayed, and it became better, and we entered the computer room. There were so many foreigners taking the test, and so few Chinese people! Surprising, considering the population demographics.

I want to complain about their system. Before the test, after confirming everyone's ID, they screened a video with instructions on steps to take. By the time they reached the end of the video, I forgot the first part about starting the test. Plus, the screens didn't all come on at the same time!

So I was at the password screen wondering why the screens were different, another person two rows down was at the questions, while the person two computers down didn't even have the password screen.

They also say not to poke the touch-screen with anything sharp. I had to press like mad with the pad of my thumb, before seeing the fellow next to me poking the screen with his nail. After which I began to poke as well!

Anyhow, out of 50 questions you can only get a maximum of 5 wrong, and I guessed about 7 questions that I wasn't sure of, so I thought I'd fail, and I was praying really hard, looking through the MCQ options thrice, and then I finally pressed the 'End Test' button!

I was so relieved when the green rectangle with the word 'Passed' appeared on the screen!

I think this day 12th Dec seems to have many things going on. I took my BTT, my father returned from Israel (with presents in tow), probably many babies were born due to the nice date, Yihui is flying off to America for 2 months, and Ling Chung has been enlisted into the army!

What a day.

Labels: family, friends

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

Wow, I've apparently reached the 100th post!

I was able to observe a few operations today, including the delivery of babies by C-section. It was really kind of miraculous, to see at first all the cutting up, and suddenly they pull out the baby's head!

Plus the baby was cute, even when he first came out, and I've heard they're supposed to be ugly at that point. I was really touched somehow, by this creation of new life, bringing the baby into the world.

Other than that it was mostly the same as yesterday. I ate a chicken foldover meal for lunch, yum!

I went home by myself today. I saw the 171 while on the overhead bridge, and I was walking slowly because I thought I wouldn't catch it anyway. When I saw that it was still taking passengers, I gradually hurried, increasing speed though I thought it would leave. Until I was on the escalator down I was really anxious to get it. In the end it was too crammed with people. Oh well.

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

Today I went to my uncle's clinic at Mount Elizabeth Hospital Medical Centre to observe him at work. Nothing so exciting as major surgery of any kind; it was more of seeing him see his patients.

I was actually worried that I wouldn't be able to find his clinic. Thank goodness they have a sensible chart at the first level arranged according to specialisation, so I could find out that his clinic is on the 10th floor. It's actually the first clinic to be seen after coming out from the elevator.

He's a gynaecologist/obsetrician, so obviously all his patients were women, though not all were pregnant or trying to get pregnant, as I had thought they might be. Some have had menopause, others with menstrual problems, etc.

I think everyone who walked in wondered for about 5 seconds why there's this weird girl sitting beside the doctor and not doing anything but listening. There was actually a lady who looked like she worked there or something, since she had some sort of nametag/pass card on her; and she looked more at me than at my uncle when she entered, so I felt a little uncomfortable?

It wasn't that she was antagonistic or anything. At the beginning she said she wanted to ask him something in private. Just as well, after he did the checkup first, I asked him if I could be excused to the toilet, so he told me to go and only re-enter the room when he called me.

I had to go for lunch all by my lonely self. At first I confess I imagined I'd be eating in the hospital, but instead I was directed to Lucky Plaza. It was really crowded, since it's the lunch hour, but thankfully I was able to find a seat and eat my chicken rice :D

For two of the patients, I was allowed to write names on the glass slides with the pap smears! I know it sounds like a cheap thrill, but at least I got to do it, okay.

I learned a bit of how they estimate the foetus' weight by measuring the head, abdomen and leg, and a bit about how fat people have it better for osteoporosis, and that it takes about 5 months to know the baby's sex, I think.

Mummy was able to fetch me home after picking Yan up from her violin lesson. I was waiting at the bus stop, and behind me were two girls talking in Korean, from what I heard. Then they came up to me and asked, "Excuse me, do you speak Chinese?"

I think I just stared at them, and wondered if I'd heard wrongly. They said they wanted to interview me for their mission for school, in Chinese. The moment she spoke Chinese I understood that they must be Korean students practicing their Chinese in Singapore, and it must be some assignment of theirs.

They were really simple Chinese questions, like "How old are you this year?", "Where are you going now?" After the few questions, I said, "You're Korean, right?" And they affirmed it. I realised only too late that I should have asked if they know DBSK or Super Junior. Just to see if they're fans!

Labels: family, korea

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

I recently came back from the choir BBQ at CJ's condo. It was quite fun, possibly because I wasn't the one putting in effort to barbeque anything. All I did was wrap some potatoes in foil, and later on shine the torch on the pit.

That sounds weird, but the lighting wasn't very good, so we couldn't even see whether the chicken wings were chaotah or not. The cheese sausages were good! The potato salad that CJ made had somewhat undercooked potatoes. Allegedly, he overcooked them previously, so he tried to minimise it, and did too good a job!

Sheena and I thought we'd be late, but when we reached, there was CJ, Beng Hui, Elvin, Ann, CK, ZR and Amanda. Oh, and CJ's younger brother, who looks like him! Haha.

More people came along, like Xiang, Louis, YT, Bryan, Shermaine, XQ, Linus, JH, Yueh Hsin, Rhoda, Charmaine, Sophie, Royston, Cheng Luan, Eunice Yeap, Siew Peng, Prashanth, Beng Hee etc.

Hence, there were very few of the choristers still in NJChoir, i.e. people of Sheena's age and below. I don't blame them if they didn't want to come, because they don't really know the seniors unless they're from IP.

Our seniors are friendly and nice people, but they naturally will talk among themselves, so if the juniors aren't as sociable, it's not as easy to mix around, perhaps. Honestly, when I was IP1 I thought the JC2s weren't particularly friendly.

Of course the altos were okay, being in the same section, but when you're 3 years younger, smaller, less verbal and not very sociable, while those from other sections don't talk to you at all, it just isn't as friendly.

The J1s at that time were more friendly and approachable, perhaps partly because they're closer in age. But they have those people like Louis who are like super friendly too!

Before coming, I was thinking of attempting potato salad, but I forgot about the time and my mum took us to eat the buffet at Sakae Sushi at J8 until about 4.00pm. Best of all, during our lunch, they were playing DBSK's Japanese songs from the Five in the Black album!! SO COOL!!

Another good thing is that CK photocopied the new scores for us, and I got them today! So I have to go learn them by Thursday. Apparently they still haven't decided on the dress code for the performances.

Actually I remember Xiang and Ann mentioning it yesterday at Ms Yang's wedding. Speaking of which, I was surprised there weren't more people singing the song, and there were only 2 Altos, so Ann had to sing Alto as well.

Our table had CJ, XT, BH, Ann, LC, YJ, JA, Eugenia, me, YT didn't make it, and these 2 HC people. The food was quite nice as well, and Ms Yang looked SUPER PRETTY AND CUTE in the wedding photoshoot pictures and in present as well! Congrats!

Labels: choir, dbsg, friends

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

Today I went out for lunch with Sheena, Xuemin, Yong Jian and Jing An at Seoul Garden in Ngee Ann City.

It's my first time there, so I was quite a noob, not knowing what the buffet actually provided. For anyone who may wish to know, it amounts to about $14 per person, from $11.99 plus 10$ service charge plus 7% GST.

It's quite fun to barbeque your own meat and such, but one drawback is how the oil keeps spattering, and you'll see us suddenly withdrawing our hands very quickly with a small hiss of pain. They also have pasta, vegetables, ice kacang and ice cream, different kinds of pau, and free flow drinks.

Afterwards, we went to Cineleisure to watch a movie. Actually we couldn't decide which movie. Jing An and I were more inclined towards City of Ember, while Xuemin wanted to watch Wild Child, and Sheena was still a bit disappointed that Bolt wasn't showing yet. In the end we chose City of Ember, and I think it's quite a nice movie.

It's about a post-apocalyptic city built entirely underground, functioning on power by some generator to provide light, meant to last for 200 years before the people are supposed to venture back up to the surface.

But the vital box with the information gets lost, so the people continue living, but supplies are running out and the blackouts are getting longer. The main characters are Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, teenagers who are assigned their jobs at graduation, as pipeworker and messenger respectively, but they swap.

It goes on to show how Lina finds the box, and with Doon's help, they figure out how the greedy mayor keeps his stash of luxury food, and finally, the way out of the city. And since they are wanted for accusing the mayor, they only have time to grab her cute little sister away with them, and go on a boat through a long water ride, before climbing out.

The problem that I had with this movie is that it felt like a lot of scenes were somehow missing, and the entire story was too compressed and short. In my opinion, they should have included more about the characters and the concept of the city, and shown a longer process of analysing the map.

I understand that the film being too short could be due to budget restraints or perhaps the producer was made to keep it to about 90 minutes only. Surely the book was longer, but movies have time limits. I was secretly waiting for some form of romance between the two of them, but it never happened.

Anyway, it was fun going out with the four of them, and we followed Xuemin to get her blue hair extension. I think one piece isn't enough, go do more! Maybe a dark red one if you can find it!

Labels: choir, friends

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

It's 1am now, and I came back about an hour ago from our Grad Night, a.k.a Prom.

I managed to get my hair done and reach the hotel (Swissotel the Stamford) by 5.45, even though I thought I'd be late. However, in my hurry to get my hair done, since I stupidly didn't prepare beforehand in the morning, I took the wrong necklace, and didn't really think about my shoes.

Worst of all, I didn't bother to charge the camera that I borrowed from Nicole, so it died on me before we entered the dining hall. It was so annoying, because I couldn't take all the photos that I wanted to, and had to depend on other people for photos.

When I reached, I saw Jie Ning outside, who was waiting for Elizabeth, and some time after we went in, we saw Rachel. There were some of the 02 people in the lobby as well, such as Bingxin, Fang Yu, Yee Lin, etc. Then we found our way to the actually ballroom, where Kai Xin, Xiaowen and Liu Xuan were waiting, and more people, like Silvia, arrived as well.

Eugenia's class was there, with Quang Son dressed as a mummy, and two of their friends as pirates. Everybody gets a mini goodie bag with vouchers and stuff when you register with your ticket. So we went in and took more photos!

Just as we decided to go into the room, the camera died. So we went in to find our table No. 25, and were joined by Jessie, Jessica, Xin Yuan and Sarah. I absolutely LOVE Jessica's dress, because it looks like she stepped out of a Grecian movie!

There were so many different dresses, in black, blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, magenta, white...... The makeup on most girls was quite similar, but everybody looked so pretty and glamorous! It's really amazing how lovely they all looked, with the makeup, dresses, shoes etc!

The MC was a bit annoying, but he was just doing his job, and it's not his fault the sound system was SO LOUD. We had to yell to be heard, and I covered my ears whenever any music played. He came up with a points system where each side gets 1000 points for standing up and waving the napkin every time La Bamba plays.

They had various items, such as singing and dancing performances, and contests such as Best Dressed (Trent, Sophia), Mr and Ms Congeniality (Gerard, Hashvinia?), Sweetest Couple, the Lucky Draw with the final musical chairs, and Prom King and Queen (Trent).

The dance item performed by Mel Tee, Tisiana, Louisa, Terence, Jem, Gerard, Joel, Johnson, Wei Liang and Zhi Rong, choreographed by Ying Ting, was really entertaining!

Xiaowen actually got picked for the top 7 in the Lucky Draw, but she got eliminated in the first round since the boy pushed her and got the chair instead, so she won $80 Takashimaya Department Store vouchers.

The 1st prize was a IPOD nano, and the 2nd was a Digicam, both possibly equally attractive. The guy who won is from Yong Jian's class, the one who lives beside my sister's previous house in Marymount. Possibly he negotiated with the 2nd winner as to who wanted which prize more.

The food was okay, though I couldn't take the spicy and sour soup, and I was too full to eat my noodles, so I gave mine to Xiaowen. I took lots of photos with people and more photos for people. The worst part is when you want to take a photo with someone else how doesn't have a camera, and unless you have another friend around, you can't do a thing.

At the end, we took an IP photo, as well as a class photo. But it was so hard just to gather everybody, due to all the noise. For example, for the IP photo, we'd taken quite a few, before some of the 01 girls came running over and we realised not everyone was there.

I regret that I wasn't able to get my choir group photo in the end, because the microphone system had already been disconnected,so I couldn't call them, and it was impossible to find all of them in the crowd. At least I got different photos with Conan, Yun Tian, Jing An, Yong Jian, Michelle, Jaime, Sara, and Eugenia.

One might ask what the point of prom is. You typically pay a lot of money for your clothes, shoes, hair, makeup, occasionally, as well as for the dinner itself. Is it actually worth it to have the trouble of dressing up and going to some hotel to take lots of pictures and barely eat half the food?

The people may look nice, but it's not how you'd remember them anyway.

You remember them in school, in full or half grey, studying in the library, sleeping during lessons, eating in the canteen, telling stupid jokes, recounting anectdotes, having CCA, standing for assembly, preparing for projects, running around the track, sitting in the LTs, presenting in class, walking up the multitudinous stairs, meeting with teachers, crowding the photocopy shop, and sitting for the A Levels.

You remember them as down to earth students, whom you eat, walk, sit, stand, loiter, run, wait, talk, laugh, joke, work and mug with. Not so much as the well-dressed beautiful people more concerned about their appearance on that one night in a dimly lit room with expensive food, colourful strobe lights and blasting sound everywhere.

Perhaps we take the everyday routine of school for granted. You don't see people whipping out cameras to take pictures of people studying in the oasis. No, we wait until the last week of school before realising that we wish we had pictures to maintain memories of our typical school life.

Perhaps that ought to change.

Labels: choir, friends, school

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