Backdated post: 31/12/08

The first day in Ho Chi Minh City has so far been enjoyable. Met a lot of new vietnamese friends who were very friendly. Treated us to dinner, brought us around the Reunification Palace. Can really feel their warmth and hospitality. Considering that we were strangers before today (they were boon kian's friends). I was thinking, was i like them when overseas friends came to visit me in SG?

After touching down and crashing into my bed for about 8 hrs, it was off to meeting up with my dear friends whom i have not been spending time with since sch ended.

First up was with the kachangs girls.... haven't had a full outing since (dunno when)... part of the gathering was also to send ziwei off, who will be spending the next sch term in UK. after a yummy lunch at crystal jade, we headed off to marina 'BRArrage' where we took some absolutely stunning pictures...

After the kachangs girls was DD07! It has been a year since our trip last year and we all missed the good times we had together... It was definitely fun telling them stories of what happened on our trip and remisicing the good old days of DD07. It suddenly just felt like we were on the trip itself, except that this time round, it was at ben's super nice house instead of the villagers' house.

Yesterday evening was spent with the geog soc ppl.. a simple potluck dinner with fru fru licking and climbing onto all of us... fru fru has grown really big... time spent with them is always so enjoyable, catching up with boon kian and of course all the lame jokes frm cliff.

entries about dd08 coming up soon..... maybe after my vietnam trip!

I'm finally back. It has been a long 19 days and it was indeed very very tiring.... shall update more next time round!

and i am so happy with my results this sem! Finally able to pull my CAP up to my desired score. of course, that is after S/U-ing the C+ that i got...

It's a freaking cold morning.....

and i am departing in a few hours time. Unlike last year, there seems to be no excitement for me this year. Perhaps it is because it's my 3rd time to danang and definitely i am much better prepared...

ok... will be back on 26th dec.

I got my SEP! not at hong kong uni, but my 2nd choice, chinese university of hong kong. I would have preferred HKU as it is nearer to central and causeway bay area whereas CUHK seems a bit ulu... Well, it's still hong kong and i guess i am gonna take that. Was initially quite worried that i will be posted to china but now things are more or less settled. and it's a start of a long administrative process before i fly off. 1 more sem to go... It feel good to be able to get out of SG for a while.

and it is just so hard to concentrate on cities for one more day!!!! I am getting so so so distracted here and there!!

3204 is just horrible. Half of the time, i am doubting what i am writing. At least it was a rather clear cut choice on the qns cause the rest of the qns were just ......

at least i have much more confidence in tomorrow's paper.

and it's just one week before we depart for danang and i have the feeling that many things are unsettled... maybe it's just me, or maybe it is really a lot of things unsettled?

I am so happy that i have covered a lot of ground in the whole night not sleeping revision. Not burning the midnight oil but having slept too much in the day, the eyes are wide open at night.

It's really quite, peaceful and cool. Ordered McDelivery when my stomach was growling, it took freaking 1 hr to come. by the time the food came, i wasn't really hungry already. Even the delivery guy asked "studying izit?"

As usual, once i am bored of studying, i went surfing around and i found this.



Though i do know of the existance of the automatic mahjong table, but i always wondered how it worked. Now i know how the thing worked. The video really shows in detail the mechanism of the machine. The guy who invented this thing must be real smart. I guess part of the fun in mahjong is to wash the tiles and then stack it up but for lazy ppl, this table will be damm useful.

Now my fingers are itching. damm!

It's 2.30am now and i can't sleep. Got really sick of all the readings and thus i am here to write more. haha..

Saw this on the news just now. The grand opening of Atlantis The Palm hotel in Dubai. If you think Beijing's firework was extravagant, this is just speechless. Fireworks outlining the whole shape of the palm. Wonder how much money goes into that.



Dubai is really an architect's playground. Just look at the amount of development going on there. Like those who say, they are building an oasis in the middle of the desert. I think of Dubai as playing simcity with cheat code. Building a whole city from scratch without having to worry about money. They are going to have more of such artificual island in the persian gulf, 2 more "the Palm" and "The World". I guess in 5 to 10 yrs time, flying over Dubai will be a damm interesting view. and they are going to build this gigantic airport with 6 runways in addition to the existing airport, which just opened a new terminal extension!

With all these luxury hotels and homes spinning up along the dubai waterfront, i wonder how many people actually can afford these properties? I wonder if the occupancy rates are good. well, people are willing to pay for such luxuries. How about the locals? Concepts of social polarisation and gated communites come into mind (study too much alreadly). actually, there is a lot of studies that can be done in the UAE. come on, bring them into our lectures. haha...

now dubai seems to be another country on my 'to go' list.

It just sucks that there always have to be some form of renovation going on during my exam period. It has happened for the last 2 exams in uni and now it is happening again. A unit down the corridoor. The noise of workers dragging their wheelbarrow in and out of the lift (the lift is just right beside my unit), banging the door in the process, and the noise when the unwanted tiles are being dumped downstairs, it just gets unbearble at times, esp when i want to sleep in a little later. No choice, got to shut my windows tight and turn on the aircon, and my nose just keeps dripping non-stop. At least it was not as bad as this April/May, where there was drilling in the unit up and beside mine and i could practically feel my whole house vibrate. A much nicer environment to mug will be late at night, when all is quiet except for the humming of my celling fan.

Well, I have not accomplished much. I am not panicking yet, perhaps it's because i only have 4 modules and out of which i gonna s/u one and my geog papers only starts on 1st dec, so that gives me quite a bit of time to catch up. Finally finished catching up with all of 2204, so now left with a whole chunk of 3204 readings. And i hate myself for trying to save paper and print 2 pages in one side of an A4 paper. It just makes the reading more irritable, esp when it is not a 'wow' article.

So during the past one week, other than revision, it was catching up with all my tv drama. Finally finished 家好月圆 in 2 days, caught up with other shows. I also put my culinary skills to test by cooking on some days and doing housework voluntarily. The most impt being catching up on sleep (it was really Sleep Not Enough during sch term). I hardly need to sleep 6 hrs a day now to be able to concentrate on my revision. And most impt, also had to finish up all the remaining paper work/money stuff for YEP. really praying that we can get the money in time. lots of stuff not settled yet, but i tell myself i am not going to be bothered/distracted by them. most of my team members finish exam early so i shall let them do the stuff then and not bug them now. Till then, i shall be on a Do Not Disturb Mode and if things don't go well, then so be it, we got to live with it (i am quite pissed at certain things actually).

It seems like i have a lot to write. must be because i have not written anything for a long time. As usual, entertaining myself with silly videos during study breaks.



It just makes me lol and make my day a slightly better one. Mug hard everyone! It really sucks my exam end so damm late!!!!! On the good side, i have more time to study!

While everyone is busy mugging alreadly, i seem to have been slacking a bit. After GE3204 on monday and then Viet 1 test on tue, i seem to be so free, with nothing to do... Decided to pamper myself with a whole night of drama marathon on tue night and apparently it lasted till this morn. Was still catching up on Heroes before heading down for sch. Ok, this friday onwards, i gonna start serious studies. For these few days, just relax a bit. Really, sch term is so much busier than exam period. at least i can ensure that i am getting sufficient sleep during exams..

I am really glad that DD08 stuff are on track, but there's still lots of things here and there not settled. Well, since things might always change when in vietnam, why plan now? but me being me, i will not feel at ease if there is no plan. there's still a shit load of paper work for the trip itself that i haven prepare. maybe tmr evening. no more procrastination.

Vietnamese oral test tmr... well, i don't feel so stressed out compared to the written test. Guess my spoken viet is so much better than written. I shall try to be a joker tmr during the test.. say i wanna be an singer (ca si) next time? say i like to watch violent film but like to listen to classical music?

Meanwhile, i have been keeping myself entertained with http://failblog.org/

After a few weeks of bad things happening to me, something good finally came today! Hope it is not some false hope or something, if not i am going to kill the person who told me about it! HAHA!

Well, just 2 more weeks till sch ends. Now i am left with one more major project. The only thing that is making me uneasy is my viet test and oral exam next week.

If all things go well, i shall treat myself to something good this weekend. Muahaha!

Finally, a public holiday is coming up. But not much rest for me though. loaded with tuition and projects, it's gonna be another hell of a week.

The last week was just plain bad bad bad.. things just didn't went well and all the bad things came together at once. luckily, there are some good things here and there and today, good news sort of came together. I guess these good news sort of made life much more bearable.

Just when i have time to post an entry, my creative juices are just so dried up. well, forget it... shall write more next time..

Wisdom tooth horror + Ubin team retreat!

It's the mid sem break and i am suffering. Not just with school work but with my wisdom tooth extraction. The swelling seems to be still around and i am still surviving on a porridge diet... The extraction itself was rather horrible. First, the dentist injected 3 LA into each side of my gums, and i can feel the needle going deep in. I think the LA doesn't do much to relieve my pain as i can still feel the sharp pain when the dentist starts tugging out my wisdom tooth. What was worse was the pain after the op. I had a terrible headache and it went on for almost 2 hours. The worse thing was i could not sleep with all that pain... Now i am having 2nd thoughts about removing my 2 upper ones. Maybe i should go under GA for that.

me with swollen cheeks

what i have been eating for the past 2 days

Tue to wed was spent with the DD08 members in Ubin. Staying in auntie siew eng's house, kampung style. Well, it is an environment that team members could potentially face when in Vietnam, so it seems to be a chance for all of us to experience kampung lifestyle and bond from this overnight camp. Cooking team did a great job with the yummy dishes whipped out in the kitchen. I'm glad that facilitation sessions were not boring for them (I hope) and most of them were very enthusiastic. Spent the rest of the time cycling, playing orienation games such as zhong ji mi ma(which include eating egg mayo from the dustbin), R.O.C.K rock, MRT game and many many more, including those stupid intellectual game like Fuzzy Wuzzy, what time is it now and stuff. It was really a good time away from Singapore as well as school. and i get to know my team members much better. Found another junior frm RVNP again, winni. last yr was Bel. what coincidence huh...

Sulking when tasked to wash dishes

Facilitation session 1

Facilitation Session 2

head out on bikes (also my first time cycling the tandem bike)

Group pic (slanted because my cam was on the bicycle seat)

Another grp pic

Grp pic with auntie siew eng, who is so nice to us. she lend us some of her pots as well as brought us pig trotters!

Now that all the fun is over, it's back to school again.. 2 tests coming up in the next wk and i have not started. Sh*t. at least i have finished my assignments so i don't have to worry abt them.

p.s.: this is an entry with lots of pics as i am feeling so damm bored at home.... waiting for my grey's anatomy season 5(2 hr premire!!) and ugly betty season 3. I wanna watch them before school starts....

My wisdom teeth has been causing me extreme discomfort for the past 2 days. it all started at grandma's hse after the ubin recce trip. even before dinner, it starts to hurt. kills my appetite for dinner and mooncake (my auntie got some atas mooncake and i never ate it). Finally decide to drag myself to the dentist and get some painkillers. arranged to have 2 of them removed next thu.

argh!! i gonna survive on pain killers for the next few days...

Another busy week has passed. It's alreadly week 5 and time is simply flying by too fast. I realised that this blog entries have been getting less and less in the past few weeks despite so many things happening.

First up, DD08 stuff seems to be getting more on track, which to me is much more of a relief. Right now, the proposal is still bugging me and causing me lots of sleepless nights. But i am really glad that there are really enthusiastic members on our team and i hope the team retreat planned during the mid sem break will be fun and enriching.

Geog soc handover dinner was held at yuna's house and it was really fun to get together with the geog soc ppl. I doubt there will be much chance for us to get together and talk cock and laugh at silly jokes. I guess i gonna miss most of the ppl there. We will only be seeing each other during lectures. some of them don't have same lec as me... and i finally got to see fru fru. he's so adorable and active!

I am not going to study today.. shall wait till tmr.. time to indulge in 溏心风暴II and shows such as Amazing race asia 3. and all my fav US shows are coming in 2 weeks time! S*it!

It has been quite some time since i have updated.

Just had our first DD08 meeting. After months of just planning and 3 members, we finally welcomed another 26 into our team. Definitely excited about this year's trip. Hopefully, work gets done on schedule and everything will go well!

And also, the 42nd geog soc MC has ended their term of office and we have a batch of enthusiastics juniors taking over us. Well, i will still be around to guide them (esp my successor). I feel like joining the next MC, but i figured out i will not have much time to commit to the projects. Shall let the younger ones take over. Will definitely help out in geog soc activities if i am free.

and LAV1201 is hard!!!

A nice afternoon spent at prof chang's house, which is really Banyan Tree. It's really nice of him to host the GC thank you tea at his place and he even took us on a tour of his house! His 3 dogs are also really cute and friendly!

We ended up cam whoring everywhere in his house like we are visiting some tourist attraction.

This is the funny pic.. look at who's in the mirror?

I walked into school this morning and i see so many unfamiliar faces around. I suddenly realised that i am no longer a freshie. I cannot be blur anymore.

The crowded library means that school has started. An irritatingly long queue at the library photocopy room. All because the stupid machine does not accept EZ-link card on Giro. got fed up and walked all the way to AS7 to photocopy. and poor bong lost her matric card....

first lecture starts tmr.

This is my country, This is my Flag,
This is my future, This is my life.
This is my family. These are my friends.
We are Singapore. Singaporeans.

Watching NDP repeat now. Partly because there are no exciting olympics matches on tv. I don't like soccer, and all 3 channels are showing soccer. Yest was watching volleyball and synchronised diving this morning. now i feel having starhub digital cable helps. and these matches are causing me to delay my AGM report. And, the olympics opening was indeed a wow! the way they light the olympic flame is so interesting. Must be tiring for the guy up there.

It was a real busy week. Went to Danang for recce. Met up with the kachang girls, S07 and geog soc. will update more with pics when i am more free.

Thanks to RJ who brought her lappie. with wireless access, i can surf the net in our hotel room.

After like 4 hrs of travelling, with a stopover at the beautiful siem reap airport (looks like a resort), we finally touched down in Danang at 6pm. The Silkair flight was not bad (good service), but was super turbulent. Making it hard for us to eat and i almost spill my orange juice.

We were glad and happy when we saw familiar face, Vinh and Hung, as well as Loan. The vietnamese students were really friendly and we spent quite a while chatting with them in a bar. It feels great to come back here again!

Alright. off to bed now. have to wake up super early tmr to do a recce on the project sites. also excited to meet up with our host families for last year on the 3rd day!

super super sianz!

Didn't check my preclusion for one of my SS modules properly. I only realise this morning that i cannot take cause i have taken another module before!!!!!! Now i have to go hunting for modules... and so paiseh to deguang, have to pang seh him for this mod... what a bad morning to start off a day.

one good thing, my dad is able to drive me to the airport. don't have to take train there!

I'm actually looking forward to my Da Nang Recce trip tmr. It's has been about 8 months since I last went and i am wondering how Da Nang has changed. Also, i will finally be flying a full service carrier with food and drinks. no budget cheapo flights for once.

This trip also marks the start of work for DD08. Recruitment, interviews, team selection, team bonding, pre-trip expedition, planning, fund raising all the way tillt the expedition itself in december. Gonna be a fun filled and yet tiring semester ahead.

DD08 blog is up! Anybody interested??

Some updates

It has been quite a while since i am back in Singapore.

My supposed vietnam trip is postponed and i guess i shall see it in a positive way. at least i get a bit of time to relax myself and to spend some time with friends!

Met up with the DD07 guys, though only 9 of us were able to attend the gathering. A night cycling trip with some freshies n councillors. A mahjong session with my good pals. plus time spent with family.

And of course turning into a couch potato, watching shows like You Are My Destiny and 溏心风暴II家好月圆。

Some interesting pics...

came back on the Snoozer Seat consortium bus. Feels like i am flying business class. with the electronically controlled recline seat, no more front ppl eating into your space. and of course a PTV to keep myself entertained through the 8 hrs journey. I dun mind a bus like this to Perhentian!

National day preview. The 2 fighter jets were doing the HEART shape. Imagine if u tell ur gf/bf that this is for her/him. haha

Night festival at the National Museum. The facade of the building actually changes. i only managed to catch 2 skins out of the many many skins. The inside was freaking crowded and it is quite fun to explore the museum close to midnight when the crowd thinned down. Night at the museum yeah....

And of course busy organizing meeting with different group of friends. And we are trying to get all the S07 ppl together for a gathering! we haven't met as a whole class since like 2005?

Apparently, I sort of became a korea drama fan down here in cameron. Every weekday night at 7.20pm on KBS World on Astro, the show "You are my Destiny" is showing. And since watching once episode, the 3 of us are sort of hooked onto the show...

This series has over 100 episodes!! muahahaha..

More details here. Isn't the main lead actress(the one in pink) sweet? Matt thinks the slutty girl in yellow is chio. Me n November disagree.

There are some interesting sideline story plot too. Like the guy who likes an older lady and the lady's daughter is in love with the same guy.. complicated... tat's how K-drama are.

KL

Back from a short getaway to KL!

It's saturday morning and 3 of us were getting bored in Cameron. So, we thought, why don't we visit KL? We can go catch a movie, go onto the skybridge at Twin Tower and November can go to get her report. So we bought our bus ticket, checked online(Internet was super super super slow) for hotel and off we go.

Set off from Cameron Highlands at about 8.30am on sunday morning and then reached KL Puduraya Bus terminal at about 12 plus. Checked out our first choice hotel but it was under renovation. Got ripped off by a taxi driver on the way to our 2nd choice hotel to realise that it is fully booked. We finally settled for a 2 star hotel which has a bathroom that has a view of the main road outside(there are curtains lah).

So off we go to KLCC. wanting to visit the skybridge. Had lunch at A&W to settle our craving, and then when we got to the skybridge area, we realise that tickets for the bridge have run out. apprently, there are only 1640 tickets per day. duh! so, feeling disappointed, we checked out movie timing for Dark Knight. Settled on a 8.15pm movie. So we have about 4 hrs to kill. What to do? Nov went for another movie, Matt went for church, I headed off alone to Mid Valley Megamall.

Navigating KL is quite easy. Took their MRT and after transferring here and there, i finally reached the mall. The mall is really Ass big. haha.. so started to walk around slowly and found some good deal at FOS. rushed back to KLCC to meet up with the other 2 for dinner. Dark Knight has a really good plot but was a little draggy for me. There are lots of twists and turns here and there and the ending was indeed impactful.

Woke up this morning, took a cab to the National Meteorological Station for some data, then went to buy books, visit the indoor roller coster at Berjaya Time Square(damm. cannot take), then shopping at Bukit Bintang area.

Boarded the bus back to cameron. The bus brought us all the way to Tapah, then we had to transfer to a 'cui' bus up to tanah rata. the journey seems never ending.... and after all the travelling, we are back in cameron.

The spontaneous trip was really fun, despite not being able to go up to the skybridge. We may be heading out to Ipoh this week too.

Pics coming soon. I am not blogging using my lappie. Shall upload pics to Sunny Sees the World soon, or maybe when i get back.

and i have sort of officially called myself Sunny. Nice name rite?

Now i am starting to feel sick. S*it!

Mattress mattress, buy a mattress

something interesting over here ...







This truck actually "followed" us all the way from our apartment to Tringkap.

cabbage with worms

We got free organic vegetables from one of the farms that we visited and it was quite a bad experience for me while cooking it.

For those who know me, i am damm afraid of long and slimy stuff which includes snakes, worms etc. For the cabbage that we have gotten, there are earthworms stuck in between the leaves!!! imagine the horror..... i became so conscious that i have to keep checking all the vege for ka-ka(Tan & Ng, 2008). brocoli and cauliflower are the worse. there are some ka-kas stuck in it and it only comes out when we cut up the stalk into smaller pieces. so we are eating small pieces of brocoli and cauliflower. Ever wonder if the clean organic vege in singapore are really organic?

and it's freezing cold here!!! pics coming up!

Ok. It's the 2nd night in Cameron Highlands. So far, it has been fun visiting the various farms and climbing up slopes, balancing on narrow roads between watercress ponds and looking out for various things.

It is cold cold cold here... Even in the day, i had to wear long pants and jackets. I brought a few pairs of berms and i don't think i will get to use them.

Tanah Rata is just a small town with most facilities available. In fact, i am now at the internet cafe, which is about 10 minutes walk away from our apartment.

Shall update more with more pics in the coming days.

Survivor Batam

It's just 10 days in Cameron Highlands and i am like bringing loads of stuff there. Blame it on the sweater and the laptop. Comparing to Danang last year, i am really bringing more stuff compared to a 21 day trip. Luckily we are not going to backpack and walk all around with out things.

Just came back from Batam yest. It was a really enriching and fun course. Thanks to our instructor Wee Heong, we are able to learn a lot and hopefully apply these skills to our project. Not only do we learn about yep matters, we learnt a lot about human relationships, leadership, conflict management and so on. Of course, the fellow participants were all very proactive and this really made the difference. Another good thing was i got closer to my co leader yuna, as well as other yep leaders in nus. We gonna need each other support and advice i guess.

We reached Batam and were treated to a drink at Batam View Resort. Shortly after, we proceeded by a fishing boat to this island called Pulau Nongsa. It's a small island with a lighthouse on it and there are quarters for the indonesian navy personnals, as well as a small food/drink store on it. As our instructor mentioned, time on the island passes slowly and i really do feel that. Must be the laid back and relaxing environment. Imagine having lessons beside the beach, enjoying the sea breeze and hearing the waves.

the small island on the left is the island we stayed on. Actually, the 2 islands are connected when low tide.

the lighthouse

our sleeping area.

Shipwreck! so survivor rite? Wanted to take a pic in front of this ship but didn't have the time to do so

me and yuna. notice both of us are wearing geog soc shirt? they say our shirts very nice. "GET LOST" and "WHAT ON EARTH?"

the beautiful sunset. Can see the skyline of singapore if you look closely. We watched NDP fireworks from this spot on the 2nd night!

The beautiful sunrise

The ugly funny looking stonefish. If you look closely, you can actually see 2 eyes (actually not eyes) and a sad face. Compare to the smaller ones by the side, we realise that as the fish grows older, the face becomes more sad.

We got a chance to visit a nearby fishing village on the 2nd afternoon. Very kampung, ubin feeling. Ubin is sad cause there are practically no domestic animals roaming around. Down here, we saw lots of chicken, dogs, cats etc...

another view of the village

Yup. tat's about it for the pictures. In fact, i don't feel like heading back after spending 3 days there. Of course, the company play a very huge role in it! I guess most of us are so excited to go on YEP immediately. Like what eugene mentioned, there's like 1 whole sem and 5 exams to go through! argh!!! definitely looking forward to recce.

Ok. Setting off for cameron soon. 8 hrs bus ride... what a torture.

today's weather is just plain bad for me. For certain reason, the rain got bigger when i was out of a shelter and when i am indoors, the sun came out. From morning till night, this happened. talk about climate change huh.. or simply god hates me.

the past 3 days was spent at first aid course. It did help to refresh my memory a tiny bit, but most of the time, i was rather bored actually. Looking across the class, there were people sleeping like nobody business. at least the test today was super slack. it's sure pass one.

ok. off to batam tomorrow. hope it won't rain there or else we are gonna be so freaking miserable...

the past 2 days have been spent at YEP leader's course. It was really an enriching one, though it can get quite boring and draggy at times. learnt a lot of human relations, team bonding, group dynamics and being a YEP leader indeed holds great responsibility. I really do hope i can inspire my team mates and enable them to benefit from the trip. The stories shared by the trainer and fellow course mates are rather interesting too. i am those type who loves insider stories and gossip. haha. looking forward to the batam training. heard we wld be on a small island. so survivor style...

and modules are out. Should be taking cites in transition and cities and regions. sci gem: complimentary medicine and health. SS: Managing singapore built environment. Vietnamese level 1. anyone taking these mods? and also, whether to go on SEP is really bugging me. money prove to be the biggest issue here. sigh...

first aid training from tmr till thu.

What a coincidence. I actually realise today that Sheng Zhi (geog soc 39th MC treasurer) is actually my colleague in my temp job. saw him wearing a geog soc t-shirt and i asked him if he is from geog soc. what a small world it is. I guess coming from the same organisation sort of broke the barrier between us and throughout the day, we got to talk more (actually this is my 3rd day working with him already)

So the job that i am having now is giving me a good tan. Standing under the sun for hours and hiding occasionally into the shade when the athlete are not in action. Pay is ok only, but i would say i got to learn a lot. I was a non-track n field person so i had very little knowledge abt the technical aspects of the races. Through this job, i was lucky to get rotated around often and so i got to learn bits and pieces of the different events.

my final day tmr. and after that i wld be all over the place. Ppl commented it's a jet-setting lifestyle. No it's not. I am not flying all over...

And yup, it was nice meeting up with some of the FIC ppl for dinner at Manhattan yest. Somehow, the conversation just got really RA and it evolved into Jurassic Park. Totally enjoyed the company!

and not to forget to mention my first visit to a museum under NUS matric card, which gave us free access to all the museums in singapore. Went to the peranakan museum with boon kian. the trip was so spontaneous and well, i do learn a bit more abt peranakan culture as well as chinese culture (both culture are very similar). Wanted to visit the Philatelic Museum too, but they don't have free entry for NUS students. I actually asked the counter "Do you have complimentary visits for NUS students?" I avioded using the word 'Free' as it would make me sound damm cheapo. maybe someday i shall start visiting all the other museums. shall learn to be more cultured.

still too full from the super late dinner just now... can't sleep...

I almost got cheated by thismoney changer in Chinatown. Was changing quite a few currency at time same time and when it came to Vietnam Dong, i didn't check with him what is the rate. I just passed him the money and told him Vietnam Dong. He did some calculation and gave me a rate of 1SGD to 7340VND. I was like, WTF? So low? He actually dared to say "Now US Currency strong". Even if the US dollar is strong, 7k plus Dong is seriously way too low. Well, the Dong is alrealdy in my hand and i told him it is not possible to have such a low rate. He just gave me that "not my business" look and then went on to serve another customer. I just walked over to the next changer and he quoted me 1SGD to 12,000VND. I feel so cheated so i went back and demanded that the rate around is 12K. He asked his colleague inside and then mumble some stuff in Tamil, and then asked me for my Dong that i have just exchanged. The guy inside did some recalculation and he gave me the rate of 1 SGD to 12000 VND. He didn't even bother to say sorry or anything. WTH! I will boycott that store from now on. The rate at other stores are about the same anyway. I went there because the queue was short.

So lesson learnt, always ask clearly the rate of the currency that you are changing and if he gives a stuck up attitude, just walk away.

Btw, the lot 1 money changer also has very bad customer service. Thinking abt it just makes my blood boil!

What a quiet afternoon at Changi airport. Now sitting at the terminal 1 viewing gallery. Not much activity on the tarmac except for 2 garuda plane. Going to depart to Jakarta and Bali respectively. Even the usually noisy gallery is exceptionally quiet today, apart from some chit-chatting.

what a way to hang out in the afternoon. and thank god for wireless@SG. can chit chat with someone and view planes at the same time. shall wait for evening peak hour to arrive to witness more action on the tarmac. but that would mean hell when going home.

saw this avid photographer (maybe one from airliners.net) snapping away when a MH plane landed. he must be bored with the limited action today. and now changi doesn't have a decent viewing gallery with a view of the runway. He would be much happier if there is one. Just saw a SQ plane roaring off but he could not get a decent shot of the bird. just some side view of the jet. he has since moved on to other locations. eh.. not much other location also.

GA897 bound for Jakarta has just pushed back and is now taxiing towards the runway. now the garuda jet has gone out of my sight. shall wait for another garuda B737 to depart.

This is what one would do when he is totally bored. What a way to spend a relaxing afternoon alone.

FIC 08

22nd June 2008 (Earth Lab)

Exactly one year ago (22nd June 2007), at the same spot

One year ago, I was still a freshie, still unfamiliar with NUS. Came for the camp, hoping to make new friends so that i won't be lonely on the first day of school. As a freshie, i really had fun at the camp and have met wondeful people. Decided to give the post of FIC P.D. a shot.

One year later, standing in the pic at a Project Director, really happy at the outcome of the camp. Seeing freshies coming to the camp, I feel old alreadly.

First up, Geog Soc Freshmen Immersion Camp (FIC) 2008 was a huge success. First major breakthrough, having 21 freshies! that is seriously a lot considering last year was only 6. Things in camp went smoothly. The freshies had fun. The councillors had fun too!

Organising the camp was indeed a huge tiring, headache affair. What my committee members can give me was just their invididual parts. What i have to do was to piece all these together. Had dunno how many sleepless nights before the camp. so glad that i was still sane during the camp and i came home in one piece.

First of all, thanks to all my freshies who are so enthu and spontaneous. Hope you all have had lots of fun and made lots of new friends during the camp!

Of course, not forgetting my councillors who made this camp possible. Wei wei, Yong Chun, Margaret, Jing Xiong, Puey Ling and Bright. Without you all, the freshies would be all over the school and would not be having fun! Thanks for being so ON!

Not forgetting my fellow 42nd MC geog soc mates:

Yuna: Thanks for helping me with all the admin stuff and please forgive me for all the late night smses.

Deguang, thanks for the help with programs, and the wonderful fright night that all of us had lots of fun!

John, thanks for helping me with the running of the camp and all the late nights settling the next day programme stuff.

Boon Kian, thanks for being our food man, bringing our food to us early morning, and driving me to around on sat!

Matt, thanks for last minute agreeing to help out in log stuff!

Jiaqi, thanks for reinbursing us so quickly and taking care of the money matters as well as logistic matters.

Alex, thanks for all the advice and for dropping by the camp despite ur work commitments. Hope i have not disappointed you as your successor.

Kelly n Ziwei, thanks for the pub poster and the T-shirt. A lot of freshie says the poster is nice! sorry to make ur work so hard!

Beejooks, thanks for helping out as a councillor and bringing lots of laughter to the camp.

Winnie, Jade, Val, thanks for coming on friday night after your work to help out with fright night.

Mel n Jade, thanks for helping me with the sponsors. We got quite a few items that are really good this year. $10 mahahttan voucher.. haha

And to Cliffy who popped by after booking out and almost missed your chance to sleep in your bed for one last time b4 flying off to japan.

And thanks to all for the Birthday Cake! I am someone who is really bad at remembering ppl's bdae (I even forgot my mum's bdae once), so for those of you whom i forgot to wish your happy bdae or wished you all happy bdae late, please forgive me....

The end of FIC also marks the end of my project director role in the 42nd Geog Soc MC. I will certainly miss the days of working together with the committee. Though tiring at times, it is really wonderful to have worked with you all. Of course, i shall not forget all the great friends that i have made through geog soc too. I think next sem will be really different if i were to step down from the committee. I feel like taking on another term, but i want to go to field studies, and with DD08, i am afraid that i am unable to commit. I don't want my school life to be all studies too.. haiz.... so let's all hang out together at our usual spot after class ok???

Realised that i have not updated for quite some time. Have been busy with many many things... Will blog more about some of the events that happened during this period. will also post more pics soon! esp the unglams ones.... haha

I was doing my transcript the whole evening and my ears are going to go deaf soon i guess. Blasting the recording on a headphone so that the speech will be clearer as i type. but for the money, i shall hang on.

Heard this song and radio and i searched for it immediately when i got home. It is 收藏 by 萧敬腾. After 一眼瞬间，now this is his first hit from his upcoming album.

No MV yet. Just a audio rip from radio.

Now all the kiasu ppl like me are all online checking out our results. Well, i am still a little little bit disappointed by this sem results. one word: stagnant. well, at least i did better than expected for methods.

so many things have happened in the past week. time just flies when one is so occupied with many things. at least for the moment, i am able to put down a few things in my head. I'm tired. I need a good break. I am learning to look at life from a new perspective.

Travel Blog

I was totally bored yesterday afternoon and suddenly, this idea came to me.

I shall start maintaining a travel blog. Since I gonna be travelling quite a bit this year, and hopefully in the years to come, why don't I maintain one to share my experiences and thoughts?

So the first Genting post is up here. Do give ur comments!

I am now blogging thru iPhone.i can't make an entry in the space below. Arch!!!!!!

opps. a big boo boo.. what i was playing with was not the iphone but the iPod touch. It looks exactly like the iphone but it does not has mobile phone capability (which was why i thought it was the iphone).

First of all, as with most apple products, the screen is really big and clear. While eliminating the keypad, it allows for the screen to be big without making the whole gadget looking enormously hideous. The wifi function allows one to access the internet in places with wireless network. It has no problems displaying most websites ( i am not too sure about other phones with such capability as i have not used them before) and being able to zoom in and out of the webpages and scrolling through the page by pushing the page around, this function is handy and so cool. Video function is as good as the ipod series.

Downsides of it. The QWERTY keyboard that appears on the screen is not meant for people with large fat fingers. I had so much difficulty logging into blogger.com and then making the above title entry. It would be good if a stylus is provided. Another problem that is present among apple players, no FM radio!


Though it is not the iphone, it does give a little sneak preview to what the iphone ill be like. Most probably I won't be rich enough to get this phone when it is being released in sg later this year. Well, I don't mind holding one such gadget if like say, someone were to give it to me free? I guess I just have to get used to the functions of this phone. My current phone isn't doing very well either. (battery is screwed). I shall wait and see if I should make such an insane investment in the days to come.

So embarassing. I went to tell the whole world that i used an iphone. argh!!!

and i finally got my handphone connected to my PC through bluetooth. haha..

after the fun filled 4D3N msia trip with geog soc, it is back to work work work....

so many things to settle... and i feel i have bad management ... really need to sort things out... manpower issues is bugging me now also.. danang side is still like.. unplanned... everything is still in a mess. argh!!! the urge of not leading is just so strong sometimes...

The tuition session tonight just slipped off my mind.. even though it was written down on my organiser. i feel really really bad now cause the poor kid waited quite a while for me.. then in the end have to cancel it... this is so not me!!!

I was thinking, if i am rich, i will just book a ticket online, then fly off to somewhere.... just disappear from this world for a little while..

sorry i sound so emo.... must be too many emo shots at geog cafe in malacca...

will be updating abt the trip soon..

It's has been a tiring, busy, fun two days after exams!

geog soc hosted students from the national taiwan normal university (NTNU) 國立台灣師範大學. Since my chinese has improved, i shall blog in chinese!

这两天的交流真的非常好玩！我在跟他们聊天非常自在，这或许是应为我常用华语与家人及朋友交谈。不过我讲的华语，算是新加坡式的华语，总参杂着英语。所以在跟台湾的朋友沟通是，我必须一直提醒自己要用纯华语，不然他们会听得莫名其妙。在文化方面，我发现我们与他们非常相像。我们吃的食物，穿的衣服品牌，看的电视节目，消遣活动，几乎都是一样的。所以在一起时有非常多的话题聊。他们跟我说，新加坡的物价比当地的贵很多。若我们到台湾，一定开心死，可以在夜市吃到肚子爆。


由于他们得做个专题作业，我和matthew(顺仁??) 带着我们的小组到了甘榜各南(Kampong Glam) 作实地考查。我们先到了马来文化中心（Malay Heritage Centre), 不过到了才发现他们到了下午三点才开门，于是我们便到附近的小巷逛逛。在这里的这些旧店屋，许多都被改成了非常现代化的商店，甚至有一些与马来文化没关系的商店。在Sultan Mosque 外的那一排商店，卖的几乎都是旅客的纪念品。而我也有机会踏进会教堂看一看里头到底是什么样。


各小组做完实地考查后，我们便到狮城大厦集合。享用晚餐后，我们便带着他们沿着乌节路逛逛。最终我们走到了义安城，在那里拍了许多的照片。我在想若明晚有空的话，可能会再跟他们到处观光。


我今年因该是没时间到台北玩，不然由他们带着我们到处逛，一定非常好玩。希望我能和这一群朋友继续保持联络。我这一次尽地主之义，真的希望他们玩得很开心，并希望他们会回到新加坡！

From left 文暄，智窑，德珊，恺泽，matthew, 山峻，小管

in another 7 hours time, i shall be meeting my dear geog soc mates again. from next monday to sat, i shall be seeing them non stop. so exciting!!

and i almost forgot to mention this. Duck kena bird shit on his head! he actually rather the bird shit on his head than into his ice cream ........ poor duck....

Yeah! It's finally over. I shall not think too much about results. To think godfrey tried to tell me my results today when i met him. He mentioned that "the 2 of ur did ok" when there were 3 of us standing there. I shall assume that i am the ok one. but what does ok mean? A bloody just pass?

today's LRT paper was such an enjoyable one. I enjoyed writing the essay although my hand do hurt from all the writing. Perhaps it is also because the paper is the last paper. a wide grin on my face when the examiner said "Time's up. Stop writing". went for lunch with geog soc ppl at vivo and then a long awaited K session at 10 dollars club in chinatown. It's gonna be my regular haunt in the coming months. $10 to K frm 2 to 7. free flow drinks! cheap!

now i am planning my activity for the holidays. may n june wld be mostly geog soc stuff. then it is on to cameron highlands and saigon. hope all the trips would eventually work out. I dun wanna be stuck in old boring singapore. hopefully, i can get a job for the remaining weeks as well. I like things to be properly planned out. so hopefully, all will go smoothly!

Seriously, i dun feel 'high' today even though my papers have ended. sadz...

I am now studying for LRT instead of SE paper tomorrow. how great this is... I do realise SE qns are all very generic qns and one just needs to know the main idea/concept of that particular topic.

And i hate evening papers!! one will feel shitty for the whole day till 7pm.. argh!!!




what a disaster presentation...

After my paper on wednesday, I have been behaving as if my exams have ended.. Reason? For LRT, i am almost done with it before exams started. for SE, haiz.. something is not good when the thought of "why the hell did i take it in the first place" pops up while revising thru the topic. Reading through the readings and realising that it does not have any link to the lecture content doesn't help much. Though lecture content are something interesting, (Note: is lecture content, not the lecture itself), i am consistently lost throughout the semester.

I am sleeping more than during school term. I cooked my lunch and dinner for my family. I even did household chores on friday. I just finished clearing up my desk and wiping off the dust that has been accumulated on my computer. what can i do now??

2 more to go!

oh crap! i can't sleep despite me waking up at freking 6.45am this morning. alreadly finished studying for methods (doing selective memory work; my brain can't absorb all the things from the course). been browsing through my notes again and again and nothing seems to register into my brain. now i am surfing the net on my lappie on my bed (cheers to wireless) and i hope i can really sleep soon. luckily my paper tomorrow is in the afternoon. If it is a morning paper, then i am totally screwed.

my papers so far? well, RE finance was a total disater. apart from the calculations (which i hope i did not make any mistake cause i was extremely careful), the free response part was just gone case. did not have time to really think and conceptualise the answers. plus panicking made my brain go blank. today urban land use was much better. having 2 hours for 2 essay enabled me to properly plan my essay. even had a essay outline written out. seems like my only hope for A. many agreed that it is an easy paper, so an A may not be guranteed.

and on the good side, Betty is back!! haha! just watched the first episode after the WGA strike. this show is really getting better!




ok.. off to bed.. people online are asking me to sleep!!

Doomsday

I was watching Super Comet: After the impact on discovery channel yesterday as i was truly wowed by the show. I love the way of how they present what would happen to earth if an asteriod were to strike earth. The way these facts are presented are simple and clear and it makes things much easier to understand to non-scientists like us. What was interesting enough was not just telling us all the facts, but they created a storyline behind all these facts. How would the different groups of people react to this catastrophe and what are the difficulties they faced in order to continue surviving. Though the ending was cheesy (the dad n girl meeting back with mum who was separated), the whole show still managed to keep me glued to the tv for 2 hours. It has been shown on discovery channel before but this is the first time i watched the whole episode. I do not know how scientifically true the show is, but the level of distruction to earth and the human race is really huge. Those surviving after the impact will experience extremes of temperature, shortage of food and water. If any were to really survive, it would really be amazing.

This show has sort of aroused my interest in 'Doomsday" and i was surfing around the net. There are actually a few asteriod that came very close to earth. Many religions in the world have prophacies on Judgement day, where human will be wiped out and disappear from the surface of the earth. I have not had time to plough through these different perspective. Doomsday may not necessarily be in the form of asteriod impact, but may be caused by other factors such as spread of diseases, natural catastrophe and many others. there is even a doomsday clock, measuring the degree of nuclear, environmental, and technological threats to human beings. currently, it stands at 5 minutes before midnight.

I doubt i would live to see doomsday, but it would be interesting to just think about what happen if tomorrow is your last day on earth?

Ok. back to mugging.

I am so glad that i did not flunk my personal journals for LRT. This, being an individual piece of graded work, has given me confidence in this module. Now i am motivated to start revision but i am still stuck with readings at the final chapter. Duirng tutorial today, i realise i have forgotten about the content of most of the readings. lazy me did not do summary for the readings and i think i gonna suffer ploughing through the thick stack of words. Lucky i did highlight the important points and i hope this would help. I caught a glimpse of our grp project grade ( i think that shld be the grp grade) and it wasn't as well as i have expected. but it is not bad too...

a bit about our trip to STB. the whole settings looks like it is the 'in' place to work in. too bad they only take in second upper class n above and with my current grade, i doubt it wld be possible to even qualify for entry. The tourism sector is one area which i may considering going into. One main reason being i love to travel. To be able to put what we see in other countries into singapore would be interesting. Reminds me of the concept of world cities being more and more alike . Worldly Tourism Pursuits (Terkeneli, 2002) of transworldment, enworldment, deworldment and unworldment. See, i am doing revision by blogging. haha. Maybe i shld consider blogging down the entire syllabus and it could also benefit my frens who are reading it. Haha. ok, back to career choice. it would be wither tourism, urban, transport or aviation sector for me. Maybe i should still keep my options open and after 4 yrs, then i will seriously consider where i want to go to. Well, there is always the option of a mid-career change but i think that would be seriously challenging to do so.

Due to the constant good meals (NYDC after STB) and me sitting down all day at my desk, i am putting on significant amout of weight. Got quite a shock when i weigh myself. I guess the amt of food i took in during the past few stressful week contributes to it. Ok, i should control what i eat and hopefully get my ass down to jogging.

It is alreadly week 13 and it is going to be an excruiating 2 weeks ahead. After exam would be genting + malacca trip with geog soc ppl. Genting is boring but i am sure with geog sock company, it would not be a bad trip. Maybe i should start building up my luck from now and then gamble in the casino. Taboo includes people tapping me on the shoulder, walking under women's laundry (esp underwear), not touching a book (unless it is revision and i shall call them references (参考资料) instead of book (书). Anything else??

see.. i am being rubbishy (they say i am high) when i am stressed. so can imagine how stressed i am?

travelling woes...

I had a bad morning with transport today. When i reached mrt, i was told that service to jurong east was disrupted. I heard that someone had fell onto the tracks. Futher news reports confirmed this and they mentioned that a man in his 30/40s fell onto the track and died on the scene. The cause of the accident is still not known. Elevated mrt stations should built barricades on the platforms at soon as possible to prevent more of such accidents from happening. Sometimes, the platform is really crowded and one could knock into one another while walking through the crowd down the platform. If someone were to lose his or her balance, he or she could fall onto the tracks. My condolences to the family of the victom.

Luckily, the service resumed shortly after i arrived at the station and i did not have to squeeze on the shuttle bus. CCK turned into a mini CBD, with lots of office workers walking on the streets near the station, trying desperately to hail a cab.

The woes are not over once i arrived at clementi. I was shocked to see the queue for 96 extending all the way out of interchange onto the pedestrain path. I was queueing under the sun for a good 5 minutes. I have heard of such long queues but today is the first time i witnessed one.

The woes of travelling just spoils one's morning.

Have not posted for quite some time as sch work is really killing. glad that most of the heavy projects/assignments are over and done with and now it is time to move on to exam. somehow, i dun think i will do well this semester judging frm the status of my revision.

It was April 1st yesterday, or rather the day before and Aprils' fool day seems to have been just one normal day. I still remember when we were young, we would always play pranks on friends, such as telling him "you never zip up!" , "there's something on your back". We even tricked teachers by switching off the lights in the class to pretend we are not around, or telling the teacher that he or she has some to the wrong class. Back them, it was all these innocent fun that made life so good to reflect on. On to JC and army, somehow such pranks just stopped. I guess all of us grow up. Also, for the past 2 year (if i am not wrong), aprils' fool day fell on a weekend, so we don't have a chance to pull a prank on our friends or colleagues. So for the year 2008, it fell on a tuesday. I didn't try to fool my friend much this time round. Partly because i forgot all about it until at night. Tried playing a prank on yongchun but the outcome was nothing dramatic. It set me thinking, where has all the fun of aprils' fool day gone to?

i do realise that april's fool day is celebrated by many websites around the world. some papers will even have hoax news that are totally absurd and they will try to make you believe that it is true. i think ST did this before, or was it other papers?

this is what students in NUS tried to do..

Great freeze in NUS.

Wasn't much of a big prank, just reminds me of some flash mob thingy... and look at the people around them, they just pretend that nothing happened and they continued eating their food.

haiz.. where has all the fun gone to? if i am a lecturer, i shall play a prank on my students by telling them that i gonna give them a surprise quiz. sure to scare the shit out of some students.

a bit on last weekend. on sat, Prof Chang and Dr Lim treated geog soc to a late lunch/early dinner and games at pitstop cafe. played some really intellectual game which really tests one's general knowledge, as well as those 'boliao' shouting, grabbing violent games. i feel such games are necessary to bring out the fun in all of us. and we can get really violent when it comes to grabbing cards...

my scanner is lousy cause the colour of the photograph turns out to be very very bad.... i have this pic stuck onto my wall. haha.. i guess i gonna decorate this wall with more photos. After pitstop, we proceeded to xin wang cafe at marina sq to feast on more food, and to chit chat talk cock. i haven had such sessions in weeks and it was really a good time to let it all out, enjoy before starting on revision. i am go glad that i joined geog soc and hadthe chance to meet so many wonderful people. without them, life at nus for me would be very lonely, be it during lessons or after sch. more geog soc events coming up! all of us hang in there!

and not to forget ruth's party on fri. it was great to be able to meet up with some dd07 ppl. was a bit sian that not a lot of them came, but for those who were there, we did find ways to have our own fun. drawing and decorating cards like what we did back in danang, listening to abba songs and some old pop music like aqua's barbie girl. and yup, i have more or less decided to go back to dd08 this year. see if usp wants me or not. i was still struggling with the decision on whether i shld take on a project which i am familiar with or take on one which i know my working partners. i guess the experience of dd07 was the main reason why i choose dd08.

with the birthday girl. Happy Birthday Ruth!

ok. i should stop here. if not i can go on and on and on ................

Friday nights in the library are just so condusive for mugging. I guess this being friday, most people have gone out to enjoy themselves. Only poor things like me is struggling to complete my essay on a friday night. I haven had a decent social life for quite some time....

just night during geog major's tea, i had to promote FOC. had to speak in front the whole earth lab, plus lots of professors sitting in front.. so scary... My only time speaking in front of so many ppl was only during a performance in sec 4 (i was justice bao).

time to go home.. the library is closing soon...

was watching some high school musical with val during the GC break. searched for them on youtube and found the songs in different language.

We all in this together


English



Chinese 《1+1=11》



Japanese



Hindi


Breaking Free



Eng


Chinese 另一个自己


Hindi


gonna try to watch high school musical 2 someday...

finally got a break away from work. GC plus LRT project is driving me nuts. looking at other people's LRT project just demoralises me even more. one thing that my grp wins them (we kept to the word count). i was wondering, how the hell are they going to cut down a 2000+ word to 1000??

Last sat was Geog Challenge. Logistics part was not as stressful as the main com, but still, i was scared things might cock up somewhere. was some seating confusion initially in LT11, plus we ran out of foolscap paper. but still, it was an event well run! great job to those all geog soc members and those who came down specially to help us! looking forward to the geo-trail n finals! more work for me!!!

i am rather glad that tuition assignment are coming to me. initially thought of not continuing. then it was just taking one students. and now, i may be taking 3 of them. the gd thing, the students all stay near my house. there's one more coming up which is very very near my house and i really hope i can get it. but tuition means having to think twice for any holidays plan. can''t really dump them for 2 weeks.

reminds me of this: Part time job vs results (must do my survey if i send to you ok?)

When i thought i have alreadly finished my work and could go off to sleep, someone called me on my hp at 12am, telling me i have to submit the altered FOC poster by tonight!!! argh!!! so now, i am waiting for elaine to help me resize it.

the past few days is really crazy. but at least i am glad all my grp projects have started. LRT main stuff are done. now just need to churn out a decent essay under the word limit. for methods, we went to see godfrey and he was offered us very invaluable insights into it (which means more work for us). the research project isn't really as simple as i thought. have started research on RE projects and i realise central lib is a very good place for research after 7pm. i actually stayed till 9.45 on tuesday. they would play this corny music telling you the library is going to close in 15 mins time. and the library is freaking cold!! nus is freaking cold!!! whatever happened to the thermostat being set at 25 degree celcuis??

and on top all the sch work is GC!!! hope everything will run well this sat.. no major cock ups i hope......

the k-session today really helped me to relax and get away from all these for a while!!

I have lots to blog about in the past few days, but was too tied down and drained out to write about anything. Been busy with projects, meeting and geog soc stuff. Similar as last sem, mid sem break is no break at all.

Wed was the career talk organised by the geog dept. Along with it was the geog dept open house for the JC students. It was quite a turn out, but those who considered doing geog was only a handful. Guess most of them was forced to come by their school.

After listening to the talk from the alumni speakers, as well as fellow geog soc mates, i have reaffirmed my faith in geography. Many of the graduates speakers mentioned they choose geog because they love the topic. For me, it was the same too. I love to study about things around me since young, as well as looking at maps and creating them. I was happy when i got to do geog proper in secondary school. The only regret i have was not choosing pure geog and a levels geog back then. I thought sci was the route for me cause i did well in them during o levels, but studying them in jc proved to be a torture. Many of the jc kids choose not to do geog because they are afraid of the jobs prospects in future, which is why for this career talk, we invited alumni who are in the line of job not related to geography. For me, i feel that armed with a uni degree plus the attitude to learn, one need not fear the lack of job. Ultimately for me, it is job satisfaction that i want in future and i do want to go into a job which earns lots of money but i hate it. there is no point in dragging myself to work everyday and dreading every moment of it.

geographers with our alumni speakers!

I love the above mugshot that is going to appear in our geosphere magazine! gonna add in more ppl who are not present for the shoot. Thanks to winnie for putting this mugshot together.

yest was spent in ubin doing fieldwork for our geog project. haven been back there since dunno when. island still looks the same, which i am happy about. We should all fight to preserve this rustic part of singapore

the ubin jetty

where else can you find this in singapore?

chek jawa wetlands.. too bad by the time we reach there, it was alreadly high tide..

because we were interviewing ppl. this group of nice and friendly tourist from holland.

I forgot who i was talking to about this but it goes like this: what are the people from holland called? ans: hollanders. LOL!!

cam-whoring session

we met them countless of times and we even helped to fix their bike. I know how it feels like to be stranded somewhere with a bike that is not working (think bikequest).

managed to capture a shot of this SIA B777 approaching changi.

the fine is so cheap right??

Part of the project requires us to talk to people and it was really a pleasure talking to most of the residents and tourists. There are many things which i only knew about after talking to them and at some points, i feel really inspired to be part of the team that preseves the nature in ubin island. I really like visiting pulau ubin. It is really a good break away from the city. From the bumboat ride to cycling upslope and downslope, all of it is an different experience. those who have never visited ubin must visit ubin!!

Met up with the DesDanang ppl for dinner after ubin. only 14 of us managed to turn up. it was still fun to be able to catch up with them. towards the end of dinner, we were talking about some of the memorable moments in danang. the CCTV spiders, the kids in the house, the fight at village 8, the food that we had (both gd & bad), silly moments that some of us had... Really miss those days....

and finally.. FOC poster is up.. sorry to the publicity team as i kept bugging you gals for stuff.. even late at night and early mornings....