Post Xmas
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Quite a lot has happened since the last time I updated. The unsuccessful appeal, the 6/2 reunion, the Christmas Eve spent at a family friend's place, the Christmas gathering at my place that was followed by a Japanese horror movie. Therefore: Long post.
The reunion was a lot better than the previous one (which was just....pathetic) Almost half the class met up to get some steamboat at Marina. Not that it was like typical reunions where everyone reconnected with everyone and promised to stay in touch forever and ever and ever more. Just...a chance to meet up with the friends we had, to find out who is going where, to enjoy good food and to have fun. We all stayed in our own little cliques. A little friendly banter with the rest. Oh. The people who ran that steamboat place are frigging smart. They waited outside the Marina Bay MRT station and grabbed customers there. Even provided transport through a minivan. The steamboat was a pretty novel experience for me. Never had teppanyaki through the aluminum foil--trying to avoid the oil that was spurting and gobbling the half-cooked meat was a lot of chaotic fun. After we finished eating (The guys took a century to finish. They even took our prawns. How utterly unsurprising.) we walked to the pool/bowling center. Which incidentally was the place where we waited for hours during NDP'05. Watched most of them play for a while, grew tired of watching and went bowling with Cheryl, Marjorie, Zhen Luan and Siew Hwee. I pretty much sucked in the first half but I got into "mah-grooooove" after the 6th turn.
006. Licensed to kill.
After that, we (Cheryl, Marjorie, Moi) went to the arcade. Originally, we wanted to play Bishi Bashi but that was taken over by a whole bunch of girls so we switched to Panic Park which I'd never tried before. Gosh, t' was so much fun. I looked terrible in most of the photos though, so purely out of vanity *smirk* I'm not gonna post any here.
Christmas Eve/Day were a little lackluster to me. Boring, in fact. The Christmas mood was just not in me and I got a grand total of 3 presents since my family doesn't really celebrate it. But there was a lady who was present at the family friend's party and tragedy struck. She left early to go to the Esplanade to watch a show, took a bad fall..and died. I don't really know that auntie but to think that I'd seen her a mere few hours before her death...well my jaw dropped when my mum told me of the news yesterday. Life is so fleeting, so fragile. The suddenness of her demise only served to emphasize that fact. Carpe diem indeed.
The Christmas gathering was just that: a gathering. With really good food but little else. After that a whole bunch of us went to Geylang for supper. Caught glimpses of leering men and ladies of the night. Also rented this horror movie called Reincarnation. Fantastic plot (which is rare in Japanese horror movies which tend to be rather random) that set my pulse racing.
Took another trip to Sim Lim Square yesterday trying to find a decent Core 2 Duo Laptop that would fit the budget (1.5K) my dad set. Actually managed to find one in the Samsung X11. Did more research on it. It should fit my purposes nicely. But this morning, something rather amusing happened when I told my dad of my findings. He said something like "I was going to make you an offer. If you can lose 5 kg by Chinese New Year, I will increase the budget by 500. So 1 kg 100 dollars." Arghhhh. I finally found one that I liked and then he had to go offer me that. I'd rather he hand me the money instead. Lol. FAT chance of that ever happening.
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aureliaz out
@ |7:47 PM|
A day of first experiences
Saturday, December 16, 2006
I got posted to TPJC. Did have a gut feeling that's where I'd be ending up. Trying to appeal into SA though. Can only hope it goes through.
Had a heck of an outing with Cass and Aunty Eileen[AE] yesterday. Originally, I'd planned to bring them to Sakuraya in Parkway [the Japanese store/restaurant] for lunch but that plan got thrown straight out the window when AE asked whether we wanted to go to Vivocity [for the first time]. So off we went. Vivo. Is. Friggin. Huge. Went to Swensen's [for the first time as well] for lunch. Got the black pepper steak. Medium. Like I told Cass and AE: I always feel like a barbarian when I tuck into a good steak. *points* "
You juicy. Me likey." *insert tribal chant*
Oh and there's a Japanese store that sells everything for $2, Daiso, and I mean it sells
everything. Watched Eragon in the cinema while AE went shopping--I had to keep reminding myself to think of the novel and movie as separate entities because I think the movie had only about 5-10% in common with the novel. I wasn't the only one who got pissed by the movie...lots of people were complaining as well lol..Of course those who hadn't read the novel found the movie fine [Cass] so when we got to Parkway I bought her the book as an early birthday gift. Was hunting high and low for the bloody book and when I finally asked one of the workers there she told me it was at the entrance *sweatdrops* I was looking for the original blue cover with Saphira's picture on it...
After going round PP for a while, we headed over to KBOX for some singing and dinner. The people who run it are freaking smart. They say it's 26 bucks per person and they pile 15% more for services[what serving us the bill?] and GST. At least the dinner buffet was good.
English is the language I share an affinity with so I've always thought of myself as a 'kentang'. But I was bored when I got home so I did a little list of the songs I sang. Number of English songs I sang : 7. Number of Mandarin songs I sang : 15. Oh dearie me. Strange though, I have a feeling that I sound nicer when I sing in Chinese.
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aureliaz out
@ |10:33 PM|
Fraction
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
I wrote something as a spur of the moment thing. It did happen and although I think it [essay/snippet/whatchamacallit] is pretty nonsensical, what the heck.
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Fraction of a second
I was sitted comfortably in the taxi, enjoying the blasts from the air-con as I chattered aimlessly with the driver. He was crouching at the back of a truck, exposed to the sweltering heat and humidity. We were at a junction waiting..waiting for that red to dissipate and for that green to appear. Just like magic. My thoughts wandered as I took a quick glance at my surroundings.
Our eyes met for a fraction of a second. Almost instinctively, I turned and looked away. Who was he to me? Noone significant. We had nothing in common at all: I, the Singaporean student; Him, the Bangladeshi foreign worker.
Our eyes met for that fraction of a second. But I looked away without a smile or second thought for he is invisible. The foreign workers are the invisible people. Their invisibility is caused by the ruthless efficiency Singapore demands. A standard of efficiency that in an ironic twist of events, they had helped to create.
Our eyes only met for a fraction of a second. But he is not a nobody. He is a somebody. Somebody who has dreams and ambitions he gave up to travel to a foreign country alone in the hopes of having a better life. If we were born under different stars, under different circumstances or in different countries, I could easily be him and he could easily be me in return.
We couldn't be anymore different, we couldn't be anymore the same.
Our eyes met for all of that fraction of a second. A single wisp of thread woven into the Tapestry of Time for all eternity. I had looked away but when the brunt of the situation and the extent of my indulgent selfishness hit me, I wanted to look back at him. Those eyes that had connected with mine for that one moment. But the magic occurred. Red turned to green in a split second and all the vehicles were moving. I tried to turn, to look at him, but the truck was gone. The truck was gone but my shame lingered for I looked away after that fraction of a second.
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aureliaz out
@ |1:57 PM|
Lost
Sunday, December 03, 2006
As they say. "When the cat's away, the mice come out to play."
Without my parents here in Singapore, more drama is happening between me and my brother--I can honestly say that I wasn't the one who started it and that my conscience is clear. I just feel that he is really turning into a carbon copy of my dad. Anyway the drama is one of a rather cold nature. Basically we're screwing with each other's computer+computer accessories. So, I'm actually typing this from an internet cafe in Katong Shopping Centre.
I went to Sim Lim Square today. To try and get some of the missing stuff I need. Bloody hell, I had to ask bus driver after bus driver whether it was on their route and they all gave me wrong answers. Every single one of them recommended another bus I had already approached. In the end, I got fed up and took 14 to Suntec City, and cabbed the rest of the way.
So after leaving Sim Lim, I had nooooo idea where/how to get home. That led to me walking and walking and walking around for a bus stop that had a bus I actually knew. Finally [AND I MEAN FINALLY] managed to find 56 to take back to Suntec, and took 10 from there. It was a bloody adventure and a half, looking for bus stops.
The past few days have been spent at the Red Camp at Ngee Ann Poly. Damn fun even though I missed the 2nd day because 1) I wasn't feeling too good 2) I overslept. The tour of the school for film and media studies was a disappointment and truth be told, a pain in the arse. 1) The ambassadors were late 2) We only managed to see the live TV recording 3) Unlike the other teams, we didn't get to tour the sound and recording studios etc. The emcees and SLs were so great..lame but really great. OH. The Lapdance. Oh man. It'll probably be on Youtube soon. The images have been seared into my eyeballs. *Coughs* A few of the emcees were pretty cute. *Points at Bhav [TIMOTHY]* Bhav, you are hereby dubbed the Indian equivalent to Olivia. Olivia took a few minutes, but you took 2 days. Not too bad lar. Haven't wrangled the pictures from Bhav so when I do, I'll post 'em here.
GREEN TEAM ROCKS. [even though we had a particularly dismal showing in the lucky draw.]
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aureliaz out
@ |9:19 PM|
