Saturday, July 26, 2008
Being NUS-ified

Went to school for my matriculation fair. It was a whole day full of event. We met the SDE foyer, paying up for the $20 Orientation package, half of which I am preparing to skip. We were once again split into groups, so what was Starck was split into 2. I am currently in "Quillfish" with Xin Miao and Eunice. Our OGL is June, Year 2 from Real Estate. This time round, there was a complete mix of RE, PFM and AKI. Sadly, I was THE only Industrial Design student among the group, but its okay, because I am starting to accept that Industrial Design students are indeed a highly endangered and vulnerable species. Shortly after I have made payment to for my orientation package, we were guided to LT 7A in the Engineering Block for a series of talks, such as Bidding, IVLE and Nexus.

Bored the crap out of me.. Especially the later 2 talks.

By the time it was over, the temple of God was rumbling at earthquake magnitude 6.3. June brought us to the Yusof Ishak House(YIH) for Subway. Technically, since registration was around the SRC blocks, chances of people grabbing a sandwich at Subway was very high, especially when it was 1pm. Our suspicions were clear when we saw a long snake of a queue. Not wanting to go with a empty stomach (magnitude increased to 7), I decided to go to the FASS canteen, thinking it is short way there.

I was dead wrong.

Okay, distance wise was okay. The killer was when I had to climb up the flight of stairs of Kent Ridge. It was about halfway when I could feel the initial parts of perspiration flowing out, but I told myself, since I am halfway there.. why give up? That was when I was walking down the aisles of FASS towards the faithful canteen when I bumped into.. Long-time-no-see Benjamin Lo! Okay, I knew Ben Lo when we were in Students Council back in AJC. Still remember elect camps? We teamed up together as 2nd runners up for "MOST SADISTIC" trainers. haha. Anyway, he left for the states to further his studies, majoring in economic, and now he is back doing a research. The funny thing was that we would have never met if I didnt take the "alternative lunch venue", and he was flying off back to the States today. What a coincidence.

By the time I reached back to YIH, the earthquake was at a super dangerous magnitude of 8.0.
Nevertheless, Jap food at FASS was fantastic and cheap.

Matri fair started late for us at about 3.00pm. We were playing lame orientation games till we could finally go in. Apparently, the whole multi-purpose hall became a registration centre and somewhat similar to ICA layout. There was a laptop fair and CCA fair as well. It was a pity that HP and Dell was not one of the patents there, else I would have bought a laptop. I spent the remaining time walking around, thinking of the CCAs and activities which I can join so as to secure a place of accommodation in NUS in Year 2. This is a list of the things I may be interested in,
1. Student Exchange Programme
2. Navigators, Campus Crusade, Varisity for Christ (either one)
3. Photography society
4. Kayaking Subclub
5. Rockclimbing Subclub
6. Maybe help out in a NUSSU event (Like Orientation or Open house or e next matri fair?)
7. Ushering
8. too bad no cycling club

With so much in mind, I have no idea whether if I can juggle my studies and CCAs together. Only time and God can tell.

Thursday, July 24, 2008
Mr Smilie done by Zhihong:D

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Bookshelves and Red Cliff

Ignore the conversation we had :X

Went to Pastor Goh library to pack his books cause the place is going to be rented out. I must say that he has an intensive collection of book, easily filling up 9 rows of cupboards. We spent a whole day packing the books into books, bumping into books that dated back in the 19th century, and quirky books such as Yoga, Mormons and Operation Management.
Later in the evening, we had Carl's Juniors for dinner before watching the famous Romance of the 3 kingdom story : The Red Cliff at Cathay in Dhoby Ghaut. Overall, the movie was pretty good, with a good mix of action, humour and plot. There was plenty of well-known actors and heroes among the cast. I happen to like GuanYu the best, somehow reminding me of Dynasty warrior 4 when heroes can never die that easily. This being said, the ending was VERY disappointing, as it catches you to the edge of the seat and then flashed a "to be continued" to all of us.

Till the next movie we will meet, Red Cliff..

Saturday, July 19, 2008
Half Dinner and Half Party

After YF, i went down to St. Gabriel's Secondary School for their 50th Anniversary Dinner. Although I had the intention of going to Zoe's party at 6.30pm, somehow due to friday's poor response from my friend, my mum "punished" me for dragging my auntie's families for the dinner, by having to entertain them till 8.30pm. However, I saw some light in the matter. St. Gabriel's, being my old secondary school, hold some significant value in me, and visiting some of my old teachers wouldnt do much harm as well.

The dinner started at about 7.30pm. Not with food, but with a length of speeches from the old boring people from high above, like some Fathers, Chairmans and the minister from our rival brother school, Mr Lim Boon Yeng. A bit of a present ceremony, a prayer for our food, and off we go with dinner. While my table was busy eating their dinner, I took a nibble before trying to find the old teachers of the school. As usual, the common tagline was "Oh Darren, you looked so different now!" I do believe they couldnt even remember my face, but oh well, it feels good hearing them talk about how I have changed. I saw Miss Teo, Mrs Jean Koh and Mr Nick Chow at the table, with Miss Toh Hui Yuan and Mr Chan Siew Fook completely forgetting who I am. Somehow, my other teachers, Mr Jeffery Chan and Mr Stanley Tan were no longer around.

Once again, the gamesmaster in me had to work. My plan on getting Fel or Bdique didnt work, as there wasnt the "right atmosphere" that created the opportunity of the game. I wanted to believe that too, but after seeing Zoe's YioChuKang auntie carrying the heavy duty video camera, I know it has to be done.. After drinking a sip of red wine, and a stroke of a metal tongs onto a glass bottle, i started the games with 2 "beach games" to commemorate the theme of the party "Jamaican Sunset".

It was a fun party and a pleasant dinner, but certainly a tiring one. Boy was I glad that the day was over. :)

Alexandra Hortpark :)

Singapore Alexandra Hortpark

View Larger Map

What a surprise the both of us had when we visited the Alexandra area. We were intending to go to Labrador Park when we chanced upon the Alexandra Arch (the white cool looking bridge down Alexandra Road). It was when I made a rash decision of trying out what was it all about. Interestingly, we tried to travel by car into Gillman village, thinking that the start of the bridge was there. We soon realised that it was at the opposite end of the Alexandra road, at a place called "Hort Park"

Horticulture - http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=horticulture which in short is called hort park was a great eye opener to me. It was one of the most beautiful man-made attraction I have ever seen, so much so it was better than Desaru Fruit Farm. And the best part was that viewing is free (other than the parking fees which was @ $2.22) However, we only got to know more about the park at the later part of our journey. For the start, we decided to attempt the Alexandra Arch and see where it would lead us to.

The Alexandra Arch was none other than a fanciful overhead bridge, but the architectural detailing of the bridge deserves credit. Unlike many bridges, this bridge draws an appearance that it is hanging on a single beam, which make it look very unique from its other older brothers. As we were walking over the bridge, it was noticeable that Singapore is starting to notice the area from Alexandra, with tour groups guiding people around the place.

As we walked past the Alexandra Arch, we were greeted with the Forest walk to Telok Blangah Hill. Towering over the trees and vegetation around the area, the forest walk has two pathways; one on ground level and the other above metal girders and platform. It was a Treetop walk at Macritchie brought to a bigger scale. The walk was simply refreshing. There were many guides introducing the different trees around the area, and photo opportunities of paranomic views. Although the walk was short, we took about an hour before reaching to the top, partly due to us being camera whores.

Upon reaching the top of Telok Blangah Hill, we went exploring around the bends of the road, trying to reach yet another bridge known as the Henderson Wave. As we were walking, we noticed a small little entrance tucked nicely under a slope. Based on our curiosities, we climbed up the stairs that looked so much like the Narnia we watched in the cinema. And it was a matter of seconds before we were greeted by many bushes of Bougainvillea. Upon reaching the top of the knoll, we could see the whole stretch of the south of Singapore. From Pasir Panjang Port to Sentosa and Mount Faber, its sister knoll.

It took us 15 minutes before we finally found the Henderson Wave. Yet another Architectural marvel, this bridge was different from the Alexandra Arch. While the latter had a footpath of mainly concrete, the former had its footpath in wood. Over at the end of the bridge, you could see the waves curling up and down in a simple harmonic motion. At every wave, there was a little shelter where the elderly would take a break and feel the cool sea breeze from above. It was one of the most refreshing views throughout this trip. As we stayed on, we overheard the conversation of 3 elderly uncles

"Hey, if you ever walk around here, it is best not for you to drive, cause you will have to go back take your car."

Sigh, he was so right..

We had time to explore part of the Hort Park. As we walked into the main compound of the place, interior design and architectural layout were once again screaming out attention to the public. I must really take my hat off the directors of the park for putting up a lovely environment for the general public to view. From interior furnishing which blends with a natural environment, to exhibits of garden with different themes, it is truly a haven for both the botanist and the architect.

If I were ever to come back here again, I'll make sure I would bring my 5 mega pixel camera with me. Till then, I would rate this trip 10/10! Kudos!

Friday, July 18, 2008
What a disappointing day!

1. QET didnt go well for me because the topic was something which I had not studied on; Biotech. I mean, I study Design and have been reading the news and keeping myself updated for the past 1 week. When I saw bio-tech popped out, I was stunned, thinking that maybe the Science students will be scoring for this paper.

2. Shortly after the test, I tried calling the travel agency to changed my accomodation venue. Spent quite some time talking over the phone, handling 3 different people with different perspective on the matter. We ended at 4pm with the conclusion of staying at Lagos MTR, which is nearer to the station. Although will be more cramped, we decided that conveniences come 1st. Tired from entertaining 3 different people.

3. I received a few texts in the evening. Earlier I have placed confirmation with my friend on the Gabriellite Anniversary Dinner. Even though they made commitments, THEY LATER PANGSEI ME BY SAYING THEY DO NOT WANT TO GO. My mum had to find a replacement quickly. In the end, my auntie and her family agreed to join my family for dinner, so as not to waste the table. This being said, I was being "punished" for not helping in the situation, by attending the dinner in the midst of Zoe's 21st Birthday celebration. There was no way of arguing my way out of the situation; I was compelled to go.

4. At the same time, Gideon was having his bday celebration as dinner. Talk about 3 in 1 conflicting events. I had to find a way to tell the bday boy that I cannot make it cause Zoe's party came first based on invitation.

5. The greatest blow of the whole day was when YongTeng called me in the middle of the night, saying that he cannot go for the Hong Kong Trip due to some Leave Application failure from MOE. And if he is not going, Yap most probably wouldnt go. What disappointed me was that I made the rash decision of going to HongKong and dragging them into it.

Arrgh.. what a bad day

Saturday, July 12, 2008
Upper and Lower Pierce Adventure Walk

Decided to move the lazy butt of mine and do some exercising. So together with Plin, we decided to try out Lower Pierce Reservoir. I haven really been to Lower Pierce Reservoir for a very long time, so whatever memory I have of the place is all fuzzy.

We reached the place at around 9am.. The setting was somewhat similar to that of Mac-ritchie; a body of water stretching out with benches and pavement hugging around it. We decided to begin the day by taking the trails around the reservoir. Unlike the planked footpaths along Mac-ritchie, the ones at Lower Pierce were quite narrow and difficult for 2 people to pass through. There were a significant number of OLDER people who joined us in the walk. Perhaps the YOUNGER people would prefer doing their walks down Orchard Road instead of the natural beauty of parks. This being said, perhaps the other reason why younger people dont go to Lower Pierce is because there wasnt much to expect out of it. In less than 1/2 hour, we have covered the whole walking trail of Lower Pierce.

Not wanting to end so early, we decided to attempt Upper Pierce. Well, since Upper Pierce was just above Lower Pierce, surely the distance between the both of them should be relatively near? Relative is a very subjective term to be used. After 20 minutes of walking along the road, we had only reached the entrance of the entrance of Upper Pierce, being hot and sweaty. Hoping that the reservoir itself would just be in front of us, we were treated a long hilly passage into the reservoir. It was truly a good work-out in order to get to Upper Pierce.

For those who persist to the end, the rewards given to you will be great (Something biblical here.. haha) It was indeed a spectacular view. If Lower Pierce is a beauty, then Upper Pierce is a perfect haven. Completely isolated away from the noise of cars and pollution, Upper Pierce reminded me of villas from fantasy novels. And even though my parents claim that I have been to Upper Pierce before, it must be ancients ago, because I can never place an image of it in my childhood days. Plin was equally amazed and relieved to be there as well. We spent some time taking photos and resting ourselves before the trip back to Lower Pierce Reservoir... On foot... hahahaa

Friday, July 11, 2008
Lunch, Shopping, Dinner and Movie

Today must have been an expensive day!

Joined Pearlyn for Lunch at SGH as her colleague was on MC today, so she didnt have anyone to eat with. We ate the Kopitiam located at Block 4, 1st floor. It was quite disappointing to find that the portions werent very big, and they were quite expensive.

Later joined Leon and Bryan to do some shopping for our Uni life. It was great catching up with the both of them. We conquered most of Taka and Wisma, finishing up half of Paragon towards the end. They were many shops we have finished. Each of us had an agenda in mind; Leon was looking for a pair of grey jeans but settled for a thin striped polo tee from Celio. Bryan didnt really get much, other than a strap for his badminton racket and other small barang. Ive gotten myself a Le Coq Slip-ons cum shoes, which Bryan commented as a pair of comfortable shoes suited for uni life. I couldnt agree more. I also nearly bought a pull-and-bear t-shirt.. but it didnt have the size...

We met the rest(Minting and BF and Jeanette) for dinner @ MOF, Marina Square. With a japanese setting, the food was better than average. I had a tonkutsu ramen and a shika kurian(ice-cream). Preferred the dessert more than the main course. It was quite sad that the number of 05/04 classmates is dwindling. Hopefully we could meet up again soon..


Lastly, I joined long lost pacar Gecko and friends to a movie at 9.40pm. We watched the debut movie of the week, Hell Boy 2: the Golden Army. It was an awesome show of action and humour. Total respect for the director who was able to recreate fantasy and the real world so perfectly. Kudos to him!

Managed to catch the very last train to Hougang, but had to flag a taxi back home. It was certainly a costly ride home. And certainly a long day too...

Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Isaiah 1:18

“ Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,

“ Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."

its ok to feel elmo

:(

Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Remember July 8

:D

Friday, July 04, 2008
PGP

I GOT INTO PRINCE GEORGE PARK!!

This was a real surprise cause none of my OG mates got into any of the hostel they have placed. It was a tactical move to put residences as 1st choice, since many prefer to go to hostel over residence, hence the demand for hostel is higher than residence. But this works to my advantage as I do not like hall-life with all of its troublesome activities.

So now, its all about moving in to my room with the furniture, and cleaning the mess up from there. :)

Goodbye to the long hours of travelling and inconveniences of home. Hello Residence Life!

Thursday, July 03, 2008
AKID FOC 08

I had much to expect for the upcoming AKID FOC 08 camp. It was my 1st university camp and I had many good reviews about it being a fun and wild camp.

By the time I reached SDE, the place was already filled with people, both participants and OGLs. I was allocated to the "Starck" group. Phillip Starck, being an industrial designer from France, was by far the only ID group among the other 8 groups. He became famous from his out of the world design, the Juice Salif, it looking like a spider or a face-hugger from Aliens. It was nice seeing a familiar face in my OG; Leon, being my secondary school classmate. There were other people with unique backgrounds; A thai guy who is 2 years younger, Myammar born guy, a guy who is pursuing a degree even though he is in his thirties.. and a significant bunch of girls~ Our OGLs were very friendly with us. They were filled with energy, trying to spur the team on with cheers and games.

The 1st day started out with station games in the afternoon. It was your pretty standard stuff for a normal orientation. We were pretty much losing almost every game. so much so we started calling ourselves "L*ser" (losers) It was good humour involved and we were enjoying the company, even though we were still losing~ We later played a game called "chicken". I must say, it was one of the most violent games I have ever played. It was a game that showed the real barbarians in some of the girls, pushing, scratching and launching their chest over to the guys, only to shout "molest" in attempt to make us stop defending our chicken. By the end of the game, many people were so called "violated", the chicken being the main casualty from all of the rapes happening around. I had my share of crazy girls coming after me. It was little wonder why the shagness of the game overhauled into the night when we were planning for our Fort Construction(Building of a fort and being able to withstand water bombs). It got worse when we weren't allowed to bathe. For some reason, we were not allowed to be in the school premises. So off we went to Fong Seng, the nearby coffee-shop to eat our fair share of oily food. After eating, as we continued to wait, the OG decided to sit by the side of the road to play games to entertain themselves. I resorted to another means of entertainment.. (Thank you! :D) We finally bathed at close to 1am.

Day 2 was a little more exciting. We had our fort construction, and it was the time when my scouting skills came into play. With all the knowledge of lashing flowing back into my veins, I whipped out a sturdy tripod, standing the tallest among all the other structure. Its supports consisted of metal bars and there is a water-proof wrapping around its whole body. It looked like a crossbreed between a lighthouse, a black widow and a lady. It was ugly. We managed to smoke through the whole presentation ( thanks to Simon and his incredible skills of smoking) and off we went to try out the toughness of the tower. Water bombs flew in all directions, but none managed to penetrate the impregnable fort, as it remained standing throughout the whole water bomb war. It was the largest scale waterbomb war i have ever since, numbers staggering to up to 500 water bombs. Once again.. the crazy games from arch-rivals Pei showed up and gave me showers of blessings, leaving me soaked to the bones. Imagine 5-6 girls chasing a poor innocent soul down the court with all their waterbombs.. Hmmmmm.....
I had left earlier to catch Esther's performance, but upon arrival, i was immediately dragged into the initiation of the secret pal meeting. This is a dark ritual that every NUS student who is attending a camp will have to face. Apparently, SDU is leaving up to the name of graduate falling in love with a graduate, so by sponsoring for camps, Camp committee must inject a bit of "love" into their activities. I was blindfolded and led into the studio and made to sit on the chair. Behind me was a black cloth, where my secret pal hides beyond it. Given the secret name of "John Lennon", my secret pal's name was " Yoko Ono". When you are stuck in the situation like this, you make the best out of the situation. I started talking everything under the sun. About school, about CCAs, about where she stayed. You name it! It was good that she was rather conversational too, making the whole affair less awkward. We were treated to a session of mass dancing after the secret pal meeting, finally sleeping at about 2am.

3rd morning just got weirder. We were greeted with the blindfolds again. This time, John Lennon had to feed Yoko-Ono breakfast, consisting of a slice of peanut butter bread, a slice of of Nutella bread, 2 bananas and 2 bunches of grapes. We took some times groping at the food, launching it at each of our faces, and attempting to chew each other's fingers off, but to me, it was great fun to find ourselves in such a situation. The conversation continued on, this time about travel and a bit on my army life. And apparently, a couple was smearing the bread spread over each other's faces. Day 3 was dedicated for the water games, but due to some problems, they were conducted in school, in a "safe" manner. Once again, the games revolted back to the JC orientation style of playing it, with a few humours here and there, like how Htin Aung would eat a banana like a real monkey, and how Joanne was scary with her diao look, and how Simon was able to dodge all waterbombs coming at him blindfolded. There were talks in the evening, many of them directing towards the Aki people. As for us ID people, we were introduced by our seniors. No regrets though, she was super humourous and animated. Being in a rather small family, having friends within ur course is very important. At times, it also felt like ID is inferior over to Aki. I try not to influence myself too much with such thoughts, and focus on what I like doing best. We had our little MTV discussion before calling it a night at 1.00am.

Out of all the days of the FOC, I must admit that the last day was the most fun out of everything. We started the day by travelling down to Sentosa. It was a splendid day for a great tan with the sun shining bright. We were joined with the PRRE Campers from the other side. Personally speaking, they were a lot more enthu than the Starck people, and there was a certain drive in being the best OG in their camp. We started by exchanging cheers. They had a whole mouthful of it. Ours came in spits. But things slowly warmed up, as I predicted, when our guys started playing the games. The games were amazingly fun. There was Human Pyramids in the sea, Food relay around coconut trees, Dog and bone while piggybacking a girl in the sea, Water-bomb volleyball with someone's shirt, sand sculpturing, Mua ji in a fun way (always regarded as an army punishment). I hated the pingpong ball though. it requires much arm strength and a certain technique which trembling limbs cannot master. Nevertheless, we had our fun and laughter all throughout the day, only coming back to school by 3.30pm. At 5pm, we were asked to perform our MTV skit(A skit which consists of a MTV song and dance/skit) It was interesting to note that out of all the 8 groups, 7 were consisting of cross-dressing guys with their fake boobs and sex of all sorts (gay kinds, prostitutes, adultery) We had our S Club 7 "Don't Stop", it being the cleanest out of all of the skits, making us the winners of the whole skit competition. Credit goes to Wei Chin and Raj, who could act the pure and innocent couple out really good.

As the orientation camps draws towards a closure, we were finally able to reveal our secret pals. Dressed in our formal wear, we were supposed to head down to the Butter Factory, but due to the unsafe conditions, the seniors had to revamp the examination halls as the dinner venues. Candlelights were placed on the 50 or so tables within the room. Rose Petals were scattered on the floor. On the table was a stalk of rose and a pair of ear-rings as gifts for the female secret pal. It was noticeable that the seniors did put in a lot of effort to make this come true. And then, for the 1st time in the FOC, i finally get to meet my secret pal. Her name is Alyssa from the group Mies. I had no idea how she looked throughout those 4 days; didnt bother guessing so as not to spoil the hours. After exchanging gifts with each other (Coincidentally Alyssa has given me a frog fun. We had a good time sharing at the table while dinner was served. It lasted for close to 1 1/2coinbox), we were treated to a Clubbing event at the studio. Yet another elaborated effort from the seniors, attempts to reenact the clubbing scene was successful. There were bars with fake alcoholic drinks, pop-corns and donuts. An aisle with spotlights and a cool lion banner at the end of it. And walls for you to vandalise on. It was a homely place and everyone was comfortable with each other. We were even coaxed into a SDE mass dance towards the end of the day. My experience for AKI FOC 08 ended at 12am.

Overall.. it was a great camp. Made new friends. Played games I would never dare dream of playing. Had a better picture of where/What Im heading too. The future looks less uncertain now.