Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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CHINESE NIU YEAR
happy chinese new year one and all! it's been quite smooth sailing for collection wise. though i know this year won't get so much ... but i'm grateful for every hong bao that i receive and collect. it's really a blessing to get in the midst of this economic crisis ... so thank you so much to everyone for being to kind and generous!! like i know of some friends with collection over $1K ... that's alot!
anyways, i've been over to both my grandparents hse to bai nian and collected some hong baos from them and relatives. got to see my nephews and niece ... all but one are so dao! maybe still young (or spoilt maybe ...?) ... but anyways, they're so cute ... haha ... so young and adorable (er-herm ... not speaking abt the OLD MAID though). then for the past 2 days, i've been recuperating and enjoying to the max at the summer palace ...
speaking of which, we went to the railway tracks and midway station where we saw the changeover of "pass bag" - of which, we were told about the story and meaning of it. it was rather meaningful with the old maid entertaining us - singing - on the way. then, we had to personally ask ppl to vote for our video which needed the support of everyone in order to win viewers' choice award.
then dinner was lao yusheng ... we had the crazy sound of "teng teng teng ..." when pouring of the honey sauce thingy. haha ... i almost wanted to burst out into laughter ... but hey, it's dinner time! no time for so many crazy stuff. had a wonderful dinner though ... and we were promised to have murtabak for the next dinner ... part 2 of the lao yusheng on fri!! (arggh .... saat!!! u know what i mean ...)
on wed, gab, saat, kev, ben and i went to acsp/br to visit our old teachers and had a nice chat with mr elkan lim, ms woon, ms diana tay and ms tan bee po.
for mr elkan lim, we had crazy convo many times ... and here goes;
1. Mr Lim "woah oranges ah ... eh, but i like durians better leh"
2. Me "erm ... sir ... don't forget to watch your ... (showed hand action of his waist)"
3. Me "wow sir, u look very PROSPEROUS"
4. Mr Lim "woah ... all of u grow up already"
5. Me "Yeah sir ... you've GROWN too"
6. Mr Lim "I was thinking of taking sabattical leave to study on 2 things; one. baby noises ... and two. food"
7. Me "wo-hoh ... the next time we see you ... we might not recognize you"
8. Me "Since you wanna study food ... u have the chart to look at everyday right ... (points to food chart on pantry wall"
for ms woon, we discussed about floyd and all. then for ms diana tay, we went into her class (6C i think) to talk about acs(i) and all. for ms tan bee po, we just merely chat a little. after the school visit, we + ryan liew went to btp to eat lunch at KFC (haha ... ryan was so against KFC ... all the transfats!!!)
afterwhich, we made it to ben's hse for steamboat. before that we watched van helsing ... and we all laughed when dracula suddenly said "welcome to the summer palace" and also "right gabriel? the left hand of God ..."! for the steamboat, we had a wide selection of things to eat ... including abalone ... but surprisingly, kev, gab and i all don't like it! haha ... so only benedict, ben and saat ate em. and before we left, we received an angbao each! hhahaah ...
then on thu, went over to yaan meng's hse aftersch for the japanese steamboat (shabu shabu!) ... wow ... it was great man ... and the girls couldn't cook! well ... most of em ... talk about hils ... saying the guys cldn't cook ... but hey, our beef turned out very well!!! and we also managed to eat grace's special cake which she baked ... it was so lovely ... everyone loved it! it was 10pm when we left the house and tim's dad kindly drove me home ...
just ytd ... went over to ryan liew's hse after sch and played guitar and learned new skills from him. we also managed to play the piano, table tennis ... o ya! he has a table tennis room on his third floor!! after which, we walked about 200-300m to the summer palace. we had liz's friend over for the lao yusheng ... and ryan liew too ... it was a last minute thing ... but he was invited over ... so hospitable! and oh, did i mention that it was my ninth time at the summer palace?! haha! we watched a little of ocean's eleven and played table soccer too! haha ... whoever paired with the old maid lost!! haha ... but then again, it was a very very close match! when i paired with him, we edged out 9-9 against gab+kev. but still lost by just a point to them!
and i forgot to mention ... it was a really depressing day for many ... but happy for some (very few though). it was the o level posting and many were upset or rudely shocked by the results! many were posted to their 2nd, 3rd or 4th choices. but then again, it's not just this year, but every other year. and cuz i know such thing wld happen, i prayed for many whom i knew. kev made it to acjc, and so did gab!! woah ... thank God ... he made it just by the cut-off! and this is really worth praising the Lord for. but then, other stories aint that merry ... like cliff got into acjc too (3rd choice), sze into acjc (and not ib which cld make it too) and many other ppl too ... sigh ... but i hope the appeals work of them. like sze ... i prayed for her ... and her appeal went through! thank God too!
anyways, aft the summer palace, we headed for the fortress (ben's hse!) for a stayover ... saat and i. and guess what?! it was saat's first stayover at a friend's hse ... how rare eh?! then we woke up this morning ... ben and i went for bb while saat went for his CL tuition!
M!©HæĹ at 11:36 PM
Sunday, January 11, 2009
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OLD MAID!
[wed, 7/1] billy bombers, transporter 3
we (me,saat,gab,kev,ben) went to watch transporter 3 ... actually, cld've borrowed saat's transporter 1 & 2 to watch the last time ... but forgot ... and kinda, didnt really bother - cuz i borrowed some dvds from him alr. anyways, the movie was aight - honestly, it's better than the new james bond movie i watched last year. ben kept laughing through the movie (i think) ... esp the part where the lady said "you don't like me? you gay".
for dinner was at billy bombers. SOMEONE said it was going to be $50 in total for the bill ... but, as usual, his words cldn't really be trusted (sorry, but it's true) ... so the bill shot up close to $100. luckily, he had the $15 voucher ... if not, he wld become a regular guest on the chronicles of floyd (he will get what i mean ...). then shopped around jp ... it was rather huge after the extension opened i must say ... and quite a number of new shops too. however, won't go there unless needed. SOMEONE also pang-sehed us halfway ... leaving us to wonder ... what happened?!
[thurs, 8/1] stayover, "blue ... i hate blue!", OLD MAID
went to HIS house (can't reveal name for now ... haha) just before 2pm and got a call from gab while on the bus ... almost panicked ... cuz i didn't think i cld run to clementi in time. but kept my cool and managed to get to HIS house and then did the 3km run to clementi int.
when the clock struck 1am, everyone (well, except Kev) went crazy! we were playing all sorts of games ... but the one that struck us most would be ... OLD MAID!! ben was the ultimate old maid ... having been 5 times during the game!
[fri, 9/1] HAPPY BIRTHDAY SURPRISE ... x2!
it was just like any other ordinary prayer meetings ... but the size of the meeting raised some suspicion too ... this was by far, the largest group ever! so, after the meeting, we had lunch and we broke off into 2 groups ... the joel grp went for soccer, while the joshua grp went to go according to the birthday plan.
to cut the long story short, we held a surprise birthday celeb for joel. some of us hid in his toilet, while some of us hid in his wadrobe! but when the time came, everyone sprang out and wish him happy birthday. it was indeed a great time! and cuz' of this, i was late for worship practice! but wanli was so kind to say it's alright. ;)
[mon, 12/1] BB DAY! + release of O LEVELs
it was the best bb day ever ... seriously, we had it in the audi! so, abt 95% of us were priviledged to sit on the chairs ... first 10 rows, middle block! and there were some hiccups here and there, but hey ... that was what made the event memorable. and mervyn still pestered zhuo'er with her "diu!" thing. afterwhich, we had our bb meeting at holland v's coffee bean.
then after which, most of us came back to school. it was time for the release of o level results. in short, joel got A1 for chinese after retaking (wow!) ... cliff got 7 points!! (best of all express canoeists this year) ... and the best i know so far still, KEVIN LEE ... man ... barker ... but, still, 6 POINTS! it blew our heads off when he said he got that! still recovering from shock ...
[wed, 14/1] acps/waffletown/summer palace
went back to acps for a visit...surprise one ... but then, we couldn't really see many teachers cuz' of meetings and such. but we had a great lunch at waffletown and the secret of the G.C.e was revealed! haha ... yeah ...then a crazy thing happened ... a trip to the summer palace (for what we believed was the last time) came true! our wildest dreams ...
[thu, 15/1 + fri, 16/1] the kevin retreat/summer palace
it was finally, for the first time ... a trip to kev's house ... and guess who i saw there? haha ... CURRENT canoeing captain, nick ng ... didn't know he lived there. and many secrets unfolded as the clock ticked ... we went crazy as well! haha ... including my altered chicken dance, gab's mad rolling on the floor laughter, ben's sitting on the pool table ... and for what may be the last time (before the holidays are in again) ... we played old maid! and guess what?! ben started the ball rolling by being the old maid once more ... now ... that's 6 for the record!
and we were roped in to have a jc/ib talk ... saying the pros and cons .. but o well, i guess that didnt work much cuz ... we know what decision kev made.
M!©HæĹ at 10:24 PM
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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went out with mr loke yesterday to holland v. (haha, i travelled more than half across the island just to eat lunch!) ... it was a treat for doing the bb tribute video to mr jonathan ng. haha, i guess i deserved it? well ... they saved money on getting a professional crew/camera man ... so they've decided to treat me luh ...
when we were there, i had no preferences ... so mr loke mentioned crystal jade xiao long bao ... never went there before, so i was kinda like excited - adding another restaurant to my limited "collection of restaurants i've been to". and some of my friends will get what i mean when i mention "CRYSTAL JADE" (that is if u are one of them who's reading this) ;)
and so coincidentally, ben said that we should be eating crystal jade (that was the night before) ... and ta-duh ... we really went there! i guess it's one of the more prominent and better places to eat at holland v. the meal was simple, nothing elaborate ... both of us la mian each, one "long" of xiao long bao, 2 glasses of jasmine tea ... yeah and the bill after calculating 117% (yup, always remember that the next time you do ur sums!) ... it shld be around $30.
and we had a long chat about bb, primers, mr ng (haha, yeah!), mr simon lai ... the evolution of christianity over the years and stuff. and i thought to myself ... hey ... it's actually rather interesting speaking to mr loke, finding out more stuff that i've never knew and all. cool guy luh ... and did i forget to mention ... i almost forgot to say grace before we digged in ... then he was like "so michael, would you like to say grace?". before that, i was like .. stirring the noodles in the bowl! how embarrassing come to think of it.
on the way back home, took 95. and let me tell you - the bus driver (a lady) was hilarious. she was asking me and a couple behind me where we were heading for ... cuz i think she was late/behind schedule as there was another 95 just 200 metres behind!! so she sped off to buona mrt bus-stop immediately! and i also gave the bus driver some bag left behind by some passenger (yeah! a good deed indeed).
and now ... for today ... i went to film the ib results for the 2nd batch. it was totally awesome and by God's grace ... the 2nd batch did even better than the 1st batch. Just when everyone thought beating the average of 39 was impossible ... the 2nd batch managed to inch it up to 40.1 points! i was totally awestruck by the results ... and many WESLEY YM and BB seniors. now let's name a few ... xunliang (41 pts), yang jian (39 pts), eugene phoen (42 pts), kenneth lim (42/3 pts). i know some ppl whom im not close to from wesley ym and bb who also made it ... they are ... TIMOTHY LIM DE MIN (45 POINTS!), IAN LIEW (45 POINTS!), gareth lim (42/3 pts) and lots more. can't really remember till i see the video once through again.
hmm ... it seems like after looking through the results .. i'm really gonna compare the 1st and 2nd batch results ... then make a wise decision on which subjects to take. considering outside my boundaries now ... but i have to really wait for the subjects briefing.
well anyways, after the that, we went to ghim moh market to have lunch - bought some bak chor mee ... (yeah, it was good ... with the chilli). and soy bean (which was supposed to be bought from the stall next to it) ... plus, carrot cake ... yeah!! lovely food ... c'mon join the food club!
M!©HæĹ at 4:08 PM
Sunday, January 04, 2009
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he's the man. yeah, that's referring to mr jon ng ... who has just stepped down from captain-cy of acs 12th i ... now mr simon lai takes over ... but like what mr jon ng said - the haunting days and countless nights of nightmares will CONTINUE as he will be going back to basics as an officer like before again!
haha, was great today having the video i spent filming in a day with mr loke + editing in 8 hrs being shown as the video tribute today!! Though I watched it like 5-6 times just to confirm the smooth flow of the 13-min long vid (yup, quite long, but hey ... it's for mr ng ... he's stepping down, obviously gotta make a good one).
then after the long day at bb, preparing for bb day + captain handover ceremony ... plus had prayer meeting with the rest ... i went to ben's church (well, so sad that i missed playing the ridiculous sitting ducks with the rest). well, at first you feel that the church ain't that very welcoming cuz' no icebreakers and stuff ... but after a while, you sort of settle in ... with kenneth (the leader) chatting with you and stuff. plus erm ... the acjc guy ... talking abt ms emily ong (and the duster story). o wells, memories flow back from there.
today, not alone there though ... had gab, ben, kev, saat, ryan together to spend the day with. thank goodness there aint no hymns during service today ... cuz during the bb one, we sang like 4 or so!! arrghh ... like gab, they aren't really my type of songs aka cup of tea. prefer more poppish-anthem songs. we had a really funny mass dance which helped incorporate everyone into the church - cuz' it's a small group - so managed to blend well i guess. had barbeque as a close to the whole entire day where ben shared his ridiculous story ... i guess this is the second or third time i'm hearing it? hhaa ... all the magnificently-crafted hilarious stories - perfect for such gatherings!
well ... anyways, in the coming days and 2 weeks ... wld be busy with all the planning for outings, gatherings, trips. also involved in the bb day rehearsal, mpac planning 09, fireac stuff (arrgh, don't wanna feel pressured into doing this - must go with the right attitude!). well, busy busy - same 'ol same 'ol. and oh, did i forget to mention that mr loke's giving me a treat for doing the bb vid? haha, yay! thx so much mr lok (if ur reading this).
here's a group photo from today;
M!©HæĹ at 12:10 AM