Chasing the ghost of a good thing...

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Touched by a warm fuzzy...

I went for my Fairfield Primary 3G class gathering yesterday night at Breko's in Holland V.

Yeah, you heard right, Primary 3. Everyone's always so amazed and surprised whenever I tell them that yes, I still meet up every once in a while with my primary 3 classmates. (oh yeah. if you're actually wondering why i say primary 3 and not primary 6, then maybe you shouldn't be reading this blog)

Anyway, it was really great to see everyone again, even though it was 13 out of 40 people (hey, c'mon, it's been what, 12 years? people were bound to go MIA), and we'd already met up twice before this year (but different people came each time!). So yeah, it was great. Great to see how much everybody's changed and grown through the years, and how some things never really change at all. Or maybe, we're still the same people we were at primary 3, with just a few extra layers of hardened experience and jadedness, and for one night, we took it all off to be just the kids we were back then again, who made friendships so easily and innocently, just for the sole motive of having a playmate during breaktime and a person to laugh with. Whatever the case, it was refreshing. Especially when we started reminiscing about past primary school experiences, and then you see how people remember the same thing differently. (that and all the crazy things that happened to us back then)

It's really touching to see how, despite the years, despite how life has shaped us since we went our separate paths, we still have that common ground, a feeling of belonging that allows us to just be totally comfortable with each other. I can't describe it, and it's totally unique to this bunch of people, yet it seems all so perfectly natural. I think...it's because something very special happened to all of us back there in primary 3, that in some way shaped us into what we are today. Well, something, or someone rather. I think that if things hadn't happened the way they did back then, I probably wouldn't be where I am today. In fact...sometimes I do wonder what would have happened if I'd stayed my stubborn self and refused to leave. Maybe I'd have ended up in AC instead of RI. Or in poly instead of JC. Or maybe nothing would change. Sometimes...I wonder what leaving did for me. I mean, we travelled along different paths, and still ended up in the same place.

But then, don't they always say it's the journey that matters, and who you travel with, rather than the destination? I'm not sure where life and law school will take me in future. All I know is, this bunch of friends are uniquely special and I hope we'll always somehow manage to stay in touch.

Fairfield Primary 3G '93

wen was dreaming at 2:30 PM

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Wednesday, July 27, 2005

As I walked my way to work today...

I realise that this is turning from a photo display blog, into more of a crap blog. But hey. I've got time on my hands (for now). The mugging and jostling for good grades and *gasp* Dean's listing can come later. Right now, it's time for more crap. Skip this post if you don't want to hear me whine.

So today, it's 10am at work, and I'm grumpy. Why? Because.... i slept super ultra late last night cos i was walking home after dinner with some law pple after going to dump stuff in hall and then on my way home i bumped into some frens from my ocs days who saw me and kidnapped me on the pretext of going to a nearby fren's place to play a spot of mahjong and while i knew that it was gonna be a long late night the prospect of mahjong and possibly earning some spare cash really sweetened the offer although given my current skill level i probably would have lost money but that's not the point because when i got there i realised they already had enough players so since i was there i watched my fren play and got really amused by his antics cos he's really rather funny sometimes when he doesn't realise it or maybe he does but the point remains that i didn't get to play and what's worse i couldn't use internet cos his mom was using his comp and his laptop wireless couldn't be accessed cos his neighbours weren't very friendly people and besides it's illegal so i left his place at about two and walked home then when i reached home really late i remembered i had to pack my stuff for moving into hall the next day so it was even later when i finally slept and that's not taking into account waiting for my hair to dry cos i couldn't use the hairdryer cos my whole family was sleeping already and since my mom was leaving to KL early next morning i had to wake up super early to say bye but of course i was too tired so when i woke up super early i realised my mom woke up even more super early and was gone already and that was rather annoying but that's not all cos after that i realised that the night before i was so tired that i forgot to charge my ipod mini so i had to go to work without music for the first time in like forever and then since i was carrying a big bag for moving into hall i had to wait and wait and wait for trains to pass me by until i spotted a decent space in the early morning mrt which allowed for me and my bag and as anyone who's taken an early morning mrt down to raffles place can attest it's one hell of a squeezy ride and really makes one feel like a sardine and of course the big bag doesn't help any so i was awfully late for work and on my way to work i was waylaid by two prc guys from ntu asking for money for flag day and while i normally would have gladly donated i was grumpy and late and they weren't cute girls plus they were asking for 2 dollars in that hilarious accent which totally reminded me of that russell peters video and sort of served to cheer me up somewhat cos i laughed in their faces but on hindsight that wasn't very nice nor cheerful because i really would rather have had two pretty girls asking me for the 2 dollars donation cos that would have served to make my day so much brighter not that i would have donated of course cos i've never donated 2 dollars to a metal can before unless you can count the time i donated 2 1 dollar coins to 2 separate cute girls on a saturday but then i'm diverging from the topic. and so i went to work, with my day looming long ahead of me.

Alright. For you normal people who won't have the time or patience to wade through that, here's a summation. I'm grumpy cos i'm short of sleep, missed saying bye to my mom, didn't get to play mahjong last night and had to come to work without musical support today. But hey, things can only get better from here right?

I only wish I'd met two cute NTU girls asking for flags on the way to work. Now that would've made my day.

wen was dreaming at 10:10 AM

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Friday, July 22, 2005

Third time's the charm

Let's talk about luck. Namely, mine. Because I think that's the sole reason I passed driving today. I seriously doubt the instructor was charmed by my cute looks, or by my remarkably short skirt, and I'm almost definite that my driving totally failed to impress him. Scare a few years off his life, maybe, but impress? Nah...

So, how did I pass again? Beats me.

After careful consideration and analysis, I've come to the conclusion that it was a combination of factors. Firstly, the stars were all in alignment for me to pass (if I even knew how to read the stars that is...), secondly, it felt like a good day to drive and pass (it's one of those feelings you get in the pit of your stomach, though that could be purely due to the food I ate yesterday), and lastly, it was my third time driving. And you know what they say about third time lucky.

About this mystical number 3. It's associated with luck, as mentioned above. It's associated with witchcraft (think charmed). It's associated with mythology (the Fates in Greek mythos, for one. I'm pretty sure Norse mythology has it too. Just that I forgot their names. But the idea's the same, which just goes to show how much the two cultures thought alike, even though one was freezing half the time and the other was running marathons). There're just so many things that come in threes. Like past, present and future. Or the holy trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was it?). Or that common adage, "heart, mind and soul". Or how the basic nuclear family is made up of two parents and a baby, and that makes THREE!!! Or how I was taught in school that a triangle's the most stable structure around, and a basic building block for most architecture (so we're all made of triangles?? Now someone should make a song out of that. It sounds so much better than Moby's 'We're all Made of Stars'. Definitely more marketable too...)

Anyway, if you're wondering why there's all this crap about 3 today, well. RJ got 3rd (both guys and girls) for canoeing. And I didn't go down to support them cos I went to drive. So I guess I'm feeling a bit guilty. So here's my accolade to my juniors...in a manner. Even though they'll probably never see this.

3's a nice number. And think about it, this is only the second year running! The third time's always the charm.

wen was dreaming at 11:59 PM

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Driving 101

22nd July 2005. The day I watched a 15 minute video which cost me over a thousand bucks and endless hours of wait and worry. Or alternatively, you could also call it the day I finally got my driving license after 2 previous failed attempts. WoohoO!!!

Okay. Now the exhilaration's over, the fact still remains that while I do have a license, I have no car. So yeah. Who cares if I have a license right? But hey, I'm glad it's all over. No more money down the drain. Now I can go diving more!

But I must say. Driving tests are more a matter of luck rather than skill. And of how much the tester likes you. Which, seeing as most, if not all, testers are male, females ultimately perform better during tests. I could've easily failed today. But the tester was in a good mood (or maybe he hadn't met his quota yet). So he let me pass. To which I'm ultimately grateful of course.

I can't begin to explain how long I sat there stunned, after he handed me the slip of paper with the tick next to the pass checkbox. Firstly, I couldn't believe my ears. Secondly, I was dead afraid he was going to change his mind. So, with my carefully contained excitement, I made my way to watch my coveted 15-min-video-which-cost-over-a-thousand-dollars (most of which I didn't hear, being in a daze and all) and quietly made my way to pay for and obtain my driving receipt (like a license, except that it works in the interim before they send the actual license to you), after which, the truth of what happened dawned upon me, and things started seeming a lot brighter. (Okay, so I was pretty much on cloud nine. You try failing two times and see how you feel when you finally pass)

But you know what? I think the photo I gave for my driving license is damn ugly.

wen was dreaming at 11:55 PM

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Friday, July 15, 2005

Dive Camp 2005

Just came back from NUS Dive Camp, from 11th to 15th July....a week spent out on the sunny island of Pulau Aur (Sebukang), with just the sun, sand and the sea (primarily the sea, I don't really care about the rest) and most importantly, no work or handphones! That's the way life should be....

I miss it already. Basically, four words can sum up my entire week. Sleep. Eat. Dive. Mahjong. The perfect life for a beach bum like me.

What was the week like? Well, you already know how it went for me. The rest of them (those who came for Open Water and not leisure) had to sit through boring lectures and pool sessions by the shore while I was playing mahjong, talking with the dive club people, and having a ball of a time....but I'm sure they had fun. Come on, I was all by myself, and my entire OG was together!

Oh, and I had a pretty funky group! It was called Amboyna (whatever that means...I hope I spelled it right). But what made us so funky, was that we spent all our time not playing along with the games, finding loopholes and shortcuts, and playing either Taiti or mahjong, and somehow, we still ended up second place! And got free T-shirts from DiveJunkie as well. So, we rock! (Friendly....friendly!) I can still remember, we had to do a skit, and the whole plot for the skit came about a few hours before we had to perform it. And it was done in between games of Taiti. And we still came in first. I have nothing more to say. ^_^

There were the usual complements of beach games, orientation games, fright night, etc etc, blah blah blah. I only liked frisbee. And suntanning. And stealing a canoe to go ride out in the water. Though I hated the fact that it was fibreglass (I'd totally forgotten how much fibreglass cuts sting!!!) But it was the feeling of totally chilling and lazing out in the sun with nary a care in the world other than avoiding a sunburn.

Right. About the diving. Heh. I can't say much. I think the pictures speak for themselves (when they're uploaded). But to sum it up in simple words, I saw a cuttlefish for the first time. I saw a stingray swimming through the water for the first time. I saw many moray eels. I saw many blue spotted stingrays. I saw turtles, stonefish, big fish, small fish, you get the idea.

The water in Aur's pretty clear. And very beautiful. But the food at Sebukang sucks, especially in comparison to Atlantis Bay Resort. And I hear the water at Redang's especially clear and beautiful. Next dive trip anyone?

Sea slug. With frills.

I can't see anything. Can you?

Pufferfish. Of course I didn't make it puff. I'm nice.

This fish changes colours as it moves through the corals. It's a chameleon-fish! (yah right)

School of bumphead parrotfish. Take into account they're about as long as I am tall.

Isn't it just so cute? I call them puppy-fish eyes.

What a shy fish. (It's a barramandi cod)

This moray doesn't look very friendly. More like hungry...

2 OGs and our lame forfeit (it's a candlelight dinner for two)

Lovely sunset. I took it. I've got more like it.

And last but most of all, my ultra-funky-cool OG Amboyna. Chillll

wen was dreaming at 11:59 PM

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Thursday, July 07, 2005

Fanboy vibes still linger on...

i didn't mean to post anything else on gaiman. HONESTLY. but i couldn't help myself. it's inevitable. i wandered into his site while surfing during work (ok, to defend myself, i was searching for the location and dates of the G7 meeting to be held next year, and ended up being directed to the british council's site, and followed it to neil gaiman's journal, where i got diverted to the new film he's coming up with on Death: The High Cost of Living, which is a comic i really really wanna get, and it went on from there on)

anyway to cut a long story short (i always say that, and then i ramble on) the point is, i stumbled across 2 articles, both mentioning the book signing yesterday, and i thought they should be linked. cos i'm bored you see. and that's just what bored people like me do. find links.

His journal/blog:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp
And something else:
http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/

basically, if you're a lazy bum like me (who bothered to read it, but i know you won't), i'll tell you the gist of it (and it'll span ten pages). essentially, he spent 13 hrs flying to sleep 4 hrs, then went to promote his movie and books at cine. twice. and signed till after midnight. same thing for the next day, where he signed at kino, and talked at orchard library till late. and the ultimate was at borders yesterday, where he signed from borders till comic mart (it was supposed to be from 6-8pm, but he carried on till well after midnight, and had to shift to comic mart cos borders had to close). and i think he signed for over a thousand people that one night. which considering that each person was entitled to 2/3 autographs, one of which was personalised, sounds rather painful.

in short. impressed. he's a dedicated author. i've decided. i'm gonna be an author someday too!

in the meantime, mirrormask (a movie by neil gaiman) is coming out later this year (sept to be exact), so who wants to watch it?

wen was dreaming at 4:05 PM

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Wednesday, July 06, 2005

The day I put my dignity aside to be a fanboy...

today was fun. okay, not in the normal sense of fun 'fun', but it was a unique experience, worthy of note. 2 words. neil gaiman. 2 more. book signing. another 2. at borders. 2 plus 2 plus 2, adds up to me being a complete fool.

the story goes as follows: i didn't plan to go. actually i probably did, but i insist i didn't. after work, i went to meet jared. at borders. and he happened to be with khairil and zhen wei (surprise surprise). expressed my shock at seeing them there (they'd been there since 4, i reached at almost 7). borders, surprisingly, was crowded. think the whole atrium ringed with people, and the line leading all the way out till the end of the road (boulevard thereabouts and beyond), and you get half the picture. in fact, i've never seen it so packed before. maybe when harry potter comes to singapore.

well, today, other than being fanboy no 1, i was also moron no 1. i went for a book signing, but i had no books (no, actually, it was all spontaneous. i meant to get him to sign my shirt, jeans and underwear). so i panicked. and went to kino to buy books to get signed. lucky thing the line was long. and slow. (note: i was at borders. i went to kino to buy a book) anyway, amazingly, kino had run out of almost all their sandman books (note: gaiman was doing his book signing there yesterday). so i grabbed a book i never intended to buy (though now that i've bought and read it, it's rather nice), it's called 'hanging with the dream king', which sounds really cool and all, but isn't written by him, there's not much hanging, and half the time (save for the front and back section) you don't even see him mentioned at all, and i went back to borders. along the way, my parents rang, i enlisted their aid in desperation, and lo and behold, the calvary arrived (with stardust, endless nights and dream hunters in tow) and the line still hadn't shifted an inch.

don't get me wrong, i'm sure mr gaiman was trying his best, but the fangirls were just too cute. (yes, i do believe there were ecstatic girls swooning with joy after getting their autographs and posing for photos...) anyway, he decided to take a break (hey, sitting down and signing stuff is hard work, and the food here's just too good to resist) so we settled down to wait for half an hour (what's 30 minutes if you've already waited 2 hours right? not that i did of course...) and the people ahead and behind me suddenly seemed very interested in the book i was holding (the book i just bought and hadn't read) and wanted to flip through it (i don't even flip through my books that violently!!!) because apparently they'd never seen such a book before (hello, it's a book. it's made of paper. it has pages. and a cover). they had funky editions of sandman as well, but you didn't see me flipping through them did you? mutter.

to cut a long story short, neil gaiman must eat pretty fast, cos he was back within 15 minutes and raring to go (as i said, signing is tough work). this time, since the queue looked neverending, the stern british council people there who were in charge (i call them the dark side) declared that to make everyone happy, they were gonna cut down the number of signed books from 3 to 2, and there wouldn't be any more photos with neil. (of course not, all the cute girls were probably gone home) and i wasn't happy. but who cares about me right. finally reached my turn after a while (i'm seriously not complaining about the wait, i effectively waited only 1 hour at most, thanks to my 2 new best friends) and got my stuff signed (without the picture of course, though i sneaked in a few shots) so i'm happy i guess.

well, that's it for my first book signing. queuing for 2 hours with interesting characters to get 2 scribbles on my books and feel pleased about it. i doubt i'll ever do something so silly again. but it was definitely an interesting experience.

some thoughts and notes. i saw a bunch of ugly Endless. i wish i hadn't. now my pristine image of Death and Dream is tainted for life. some girl brought her laptop to be autographed. how cool. i wish i'd thought of it. if i had a laptop in the first place. i think it'd be pretty cool to be neil gaiman. first off, you get girls swooning over you. secondly, you get to travel all over to sign stuff. thirdly, people come from all over to have you scribble on their clean new books and then wax lyrical over it. is that cool or what? my new ambition is to be a writer. failing that, a comic book artist. if even that falls through, i want to be rich.

so now that i know better...next time, i'll bring my laptop along

This guy...he had the edition of Sandman when it was still single-issue! And it's signed! How cool...

I was THIS close to him (a split second before security grabbed me away...nah, just kidding)

Actually I was standing rather far away. Too bad I'm no cute fangirl, otherwise I bet I could've gotten a posed shot. *laugh*

And this is my current prized possession: worth 4 hours of waiting time!!!

wen was dreaming at 11:59 PM

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Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Once upon a time and bored at work

i love my new template! ok, so i've got no tagboard. my links are virtually nil. i still have no idea how to work the music. the picture's tiny, and everyone reading my blog has to squint. so what? i like the picture. and i was bored. alright. time for lunch. i like work. lots of good food to eat around here. (hint hint. meet the bored boy for lunch)

p.s. btw i'd appreciate some help changing the music. i mean, it's fine as it is, but i'd love to change it. alright. so i suck at html. bite me.

wen was dreaming at 12:22 PM

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Sunday, July 03, 2005

Law Camp 2005

Just finished a week long camp! Law Camp 2005, held at Temasek Hall at NUS, from 27th June to 1st July 2005. Haha, alright, that was quite a mouthful. Seriously, it was tiring. Not the camp, but the fact that the night before, I'd just returned from Tioman, so it was rather intensive. But hey, it was fun. Been a long time since I've done anything so crazy.

Alright, just a brief run through, otherwise this post'll go into the thousands. I was late. VERY. But it's not my fault. Nobody told me school had started, so the buses were all running late. Anyway, I got there eventually, registered, got my group (OG1) and my 'secret name' (which I'm not telling, hey, it's a secret!) but which I didn't know what it was for. (I'll enlighten later) Oh, and btw, I was in the same bus as one of my OG mates, so hey, I wasn't THAT late after all.

I'll skip through the first day, basic orientation stuff, cute games, funny forfeits, you get the general idea. Then we had Night Court after dinner, where we all had to wear something decent. So all the guys wore shirts and berms. Then came the clincher: we all had to tuck our shirts in! I bet we all looked freaking ridiculous. Night court was vaguely interesting, I say interesting only because it was beginning to annoy me before I realised it was a farce. A well planned out one, but still a joke nonetheless. Some legends were made that night, a few noteworthy jokes (ie Teck Wee's Yoda impersonation, and Kai's bailiff, plus the female 'fans') but the most lasting impression one would carry from that night would be good ol' Fabio. (I bet that'll stick throughout law school...) Anyway, it ended late, I went for supper (it was a freaking RJ gathering la) and chilled at Jared's room till late. (clocked 3 hrs of sleep, OG nowhere to be found...ok so I abandoned them. so sue me)

Day Two dawned bright and lovely, a perfect invitation for...what else, more orientation games with more forfeits! (By now, my OG, having lost countless games, were virtually immune to forfeiture) Spent the day doing orienteery stuff around City Hall. Night was shrouded in darkness (Literally. I was blindfolded) and we spent countless hours wandering around Law Fac getting tormented endlessly (ok, about 4 hours or so, most of it spent waiting, and it was just really bored girls doing really lame stuff to blindfolded guys who couldn't fight back) I won't go into details, but from what I heard, there was a group of Powerpuff Girls, some Teletubbies, and other assorted characters stumbling around the area that night. Suffice to say, we slept late, mainly cos I went to play cards after washing up. (4 hrs of sleep, I really love the single room they gave us!)

Water games was the highlight of Day Three, and my group spent most of it performing assorted forfeits. Enjoyable. Night time heralded the end of the camp (although Day Four existed, it was full of slacking and preparations for the Formal Dinner. More on that later!) and it ended spectacularly! (I say so only cos there was a huge water-bomb battle of epic proportions and everybody got drenched) There's nothing like a good dousing to get everyone's spirit up. (Especially when I got to hit Jared back with like 3 or 4 bombs...)

Of blindfolds and SPs: Yep, this warrants its very own section I suppose, cos I really can't think of anywhere else to slot this in (the story wouldn't be complete otherwise!!!). We got a 'secret name' on the first day, which finds its pair in a member of the opposite sex(think Prince Charming & Snow White, Superman and Lois, Winnie and his pot of honey...), and after a series of blindfolded meetings, it culminates in a dinner on the last night of Law Camp (Law really brought a whole new meaning to the term blind date). Needless to say, I was awfully sick of blindfolds by the time the camp neared its end. Haha alright, but I'm not one to complain. I got a pretty nice date who was interesting enough that we didn't lack for conversation during the entire evening. All in all, it was a rather fun evening. (especially when I know some of my friends were bored stiff)

Me with my cute SP Denise

Anyways, after the whole dinner thing (held at Seletar Country Club, which I neglected to mention earlier), my group went to DoubleO to chill. Which was when I learnt that the common myth of Law Fac being the Fac that has all those bashes and crazy clubbers to be...slightly less than true. Half my OG went only (don't ask me where the other half went). But we still managed to have some fun (alcohol does that to you sometimes). Saw a whole bunch of people there, like OGs 3, 4, 7, 8. Bits and pieces, rather, cos I'm pretty sure the other OGs were about the same as us (not everybody went). Oh! Bumped into Liangwei as well, but he was rather out of it. And who told me he was rather drunk then the next day. I forgot the list of drinks he downed, but suffice to say, he was stoned. Reached back woozy at about 5, and slept very little. Next day was checkout, so that's that. Time for the photos then!!! (I wish I had photos of people clubbing to show, but that's just mean. Absolutely funny and hilarious, but still mean. What happens in the club, stays within the club. *grin*)

The OG Guys

OG 1!!!

Jared, Liangwei and me!

Me with Melissa (one of my OG's councillors)

wen was dreaming at 8:53 PM

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Saturday, July 02, 2005

Tioman Dive Trip

Went to Tioman from 24-26th June. 'Twas a good trip, with lots of pple, none of whom I knew. Except for my diving instructor. And now, Mark, who's in NUS doing some really complicated course. Biomedical computing or something thereabouts. And I was the youngest there, which is a new experience, hahaha. The others were like pro divers and over 30. But that's the thing about diving I think, age doesn't matter, just the level of enthusiasm and love of the sport. I mean, diving by itself seems like some adult version of sticker book collection. (seriously. it's like they go down, and compare what fish they see down there. and some even take photos to convert to photostickers and paste into their dive log. which is pretty cool. I even saw a customized dive log like an organiser, with all the pages laminated. now that's dedication)

But divers are cool. No matter how young or inexperienced, they'll just welcome you. Friendly bunch, I tell you. Maybe it's cos the dive community's so small, that everyone knows every other person. (note when i say dive community, i mean the 'siao on' kind who go diving every month or more)

Alright. But honestly, this isn't the time to be musing on such stuff. So, diving rocks, I saw a dolphin, touched a turtle, saw a stonefish, and ate lots of ice cream on this trip! And now that I've got the underwater photos from my friend (I still don't own an underwater camera yet!!!), I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

Nemo's like how cute!!!