Cheated

I ended my lessons at 7 today and feeling hungry, I went down to the Ramly's stall at the foyer outsider LT27. I ordered a chicken burger which was stated at $2. I didn't have a good feeling about it when the auntie grabbed a piece of deep fried fillet which looked like it had been left there all day long and put it into the burger. I had always thought that all Ramly's were supposed to be grilled. The auntie added an assortment of sauces, a piece of cheese and put the burger into the microwave oven before charging me $3. I was stunned momentarily. I told her that I thought the menu wrote that a chicken burger costs only $2. She then told me that the burger was a chicken special. I wanted to ask her what's so special about it but she spoke before I could ask. She said it was special because there was an egg and a cheese. Each costs an additional 50 cents. I thought it was understooded that a Ramly has to come with these extras. I wanted to argue with her but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I reluctantly handed over $3 to her. I felt even more cheated when I realised that there was no egg inside the burger on the way back. So, even if going by her rules, it should cost me only $2.50. The auntie is a conwoman. To all my friends inside Science faculty, please avoid this Ramly's stall. Save your $3 and go buy 5 spring rolls. They taste much better.

Weekend in review

I was expecting a football marathon weekend. Initially, I had plans for playing in a futsal tournament at SMU on Saturday morning followed by a street soccer session at KACC. Then, Sunday morning will be field football for Ziyong cousin's team and then followed by another field match at Marina South for Ziyong's friend's team. In the end, none of these materialised. I spent my Saturday going for a dimsum buffet in the afternoon and then going for science bash at night with my og. The dimsum buffet started a little late because as usual, some people were late. In total, 15 of us went for the buffet which was pretty good considering attendances for previous outings. I guess everyone loves buffets. The 15 of us were divided into 2 tables of 8 and 7. I was in the table of 8, which is made up of all freshies. The other table is made up of some freshies and seniors including the human black hole, our AOGL Peiying. The difference between the 2 tables was apparent. Our table was like the conveyor belt in Sakae Sushi while theirs was like the fried chicken wing section in Seoul Garden. It was a showcase of the difference between barbarism and civilisation. As expected, the winner of the fastest fingers contest was of course Peiying. She was leading the charge on all the siewmais and char siew baos. And to think that she sent all of us an e-mail earlier telling us to stop all the shit about her eating a lot. All hail the Queen of buffets! After the buffet, we walked to Suntec City to play Photo Hunt. It sounds stupid to walk all the way to Suntec City to play Photo Hunt but it was an order from Peiying aka Chen Hao Nam from Young & Dangerous. There was no way we were going to disobey orders from Nam-ge. I had played Photo Hunt countless times in camp before but it seems that Nam-ge had a Photo Hunt machine at home. She seemed to have memorised all the photos and we were only a few thousand points off the top scores. Everyone left after playing Photo Hunt and only me, Daniel and Ho teck decided to stay. We went to my house to relax before going for dinner at Jacks' Place. I have to say that even though I have lived at my house for my whole life, I haven't tried the Jack's Place which was just below my house. I decided on the place to satisfy my curiosity. It was a pretty fun dinner because the staff was friendly. The woman serving us was very friendly to us and we tried to squeeze some benefits out of her by sweettalking her. We managed to get a free piece of bread each. We went for Science bash afterwards at Zouk. Only 7 people went and there were only 2 girls, Huiling and JiaHui. I went for the bash because I wanted to see the pageant but by the time we got there, it was about to finish. I had never liked clubbing and the bash wasn't much fun. I couldn't stand the loud music, the smoke and the blinding lights. I would have preferred to go to a pub where it's much more quieter and we can chat without having to shout. The rest wasn't having much fun either, cheongsters included. The music was quite crappy and the beat was always the same. In the end, we went out for supper but most of the people left quite early. I was one of those that stayed behind because I didn't feel like going home so early. However, the rest wanted to go back to Zouk after supper and I was reluctant to go back to club. So I left and reached home around 1 plus. I spent my Sunday playing street soccer at KACC. It was made possible only be the persistence of several members. There were only 10 of us who went and it was demoralising to see many people giving up on soccer. Nonetheless, we had a lot of fun, more fun than I ever expected. Qinyao was the inspiration behind most of the fun and yes, we did manage to do the Qinyao cheer.Great work, KACC members. We will need to work out some more cheers though. Throughout the game, my team played like Arsenal with one-touch passing and fluid movement. I do not like Arsenal but I do like their way of playing. I had always strived to play quick passing football and was pleased that we managed to play like that. The weekend hasn't gone as planned but life does throw out some pleasant surprises every now and then.

Park ji-sung Charlton clip

Ji sung Ji sung we love you

BenThatchervsPortsmouth

Disgraceful! That's not football, that's wrestling. To think he only got a yellow card while Rooney got a 3 game ban for something far more mild than that

Hongkie farewell 18 Aug 2006

A photo of us at Burger King, where we met up for lunch.

All of us at the departure gate where Kelvin left nonchalantly. Over 50% attendance for our 3rd platoon outing. Not bad at all. From L to R first row: Tox, Tecks, Calow, KJay, FM, Hongkie, Kitty, Del Piero, Garang fool. Second row: Madman, JLiang, Kiasu, Heinz Bean, myself, Thunder, Bullfrog, Piggy, Songs.

The Qinyao cheer

Come on, let's cheer together for Qinyao!

To all KACC guys, please memorise the Qinyao cheer which is given below. We will do this cheer when our beloved chairman scores.

We say Qinyao no.1 you don't believe you very cham

What say you say I say

You say Qinyao no.2 we say you kuku

What say you say I say

You say Qinyao no.3 we kick you up the tree

What say you say I say

Lonely lonely Uni Life

I have started university life for a week and I have made 0 new friends. I find it next to impossible to befriend someone during lectures. I asked around and found that my other friends in other universities have difficulty expanding their social circle as well. I wished that University would be like school where we had a class. At least, by being stuck with the same people for a few years, I could get to know a few more friends. The focus on independent learning in University has made it such that we are expected to do everything by ourselves. The professors are cold and distant, unlike the friendly and approachable teachers in school. They are there to earn their pay and are not concerned at all about how we do. There doesn't seem to be a human touch in their approach and everything is done too professionally. I'm finding it hard to adjust to University life and I long for the days of morning assemblies, scoldings by teachers, P.E lessons etc. University just feels too cold and unfeeling for me.

Go-karting

I was taking a photo of the two of them while we were waiting as I was feeling bored and a little cheated.

The three of us after the race. Feeling high after the adrenaline rush. We were feeling less cheated and Lois was feeling less guilty.

The track. A little run-down but pretty challenging.

I went for a go-karting session on Friday night together with Lois and Ho teck. It was a welcome session into the NUS motoring club. I made my way back to NUS from Changi Airport after seeing Hongkie off. I had promised Lois and Ho Teck that I would go and so travelled for an hour back to NUS. Lois was the organiser of this event and I had thought that there would be quite a number of people going. I was a little surprised when I found out that there were only the 3 of us going. The two of them had even thought of cancelling the event and called me to ask me whether I still wanted to go. At that time when they called, I had already reached Buona Vista and so I told them that there was no way that I wasn't going since I travelled all the way from Changi. Luckily, due to my insistence, we decided to go on with it anyway. We took a shuttle bus down to the go-kart track in Jurong. The place was quite run-down and the track looks small. Lois commented that even the track in Escape theme park was much better. We were all feeling cheated at that point in time. And we were making fun of Lois being a bad organiser and not going for any of the activities she organises. Lois, feeling bad, even suggested that we leave the place before racing. But I reminded her that I had just made an ardous journey there and we had to at least try it, never mind if it was lousy. So we proceeded to take to the tracks, along with 2 other guys. The kart, as the chairman of the club explains, is powered by a single 80cc engine. I thought that the kart would be more like a bumper car than a race car. I was wrong. As soon as I put my foot to the pedal, I felt the power of the car. I wasn't driving the car, it was driving me. I had not driven a kart quite as fast and I felt like an F1 driver. The feeling of turning around corners at high speed and skidding was exhilarating. At such high speeds, I nearly got into a few accidents but luckily, with a combination of technique and luck, I was able to avoid collisions. Ho teck was not so lucky, and banged into Lois' kart. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The 10 mins allocated to us passed too quickly and we got out of our karts feeling great but wanting more. We left straight after the race as we have no intention of staying for the presentation by the club president on how the kart works. We went for dinner in KFC with our hands still trembling and our hearts still in overdrive. Lois was vindicated in her decision to go for the kart session. I have to say that I was wrong and so, if Lois ever asks any of you out, you better agree because there would be lots of fun.

Tribute to Hongkie

One of my platoon mates, Kelvin, is going to America to study tomorrow. He shouldn't be coming back in the near future. So tomorrow might be the last day I will see him. Hongkie, as we affectionately call him, is the cameraman of our platoon. Many of our videos were shot by him. Without his video camera, we would have lost many of our memories. Hongkie also goes by the nicknames of Cockroach( because of the way he walks) and Pharoah(because of the way he sleeps). He is the most tech-savvy guy in our platoon and always has the most advanced equipment. I will never forget how he took his own GPS into the jungle for our Topo exercise while the rest of us were using compasses and maps. I still remembered him saying 'I prefer Science' when he was questioned why he brought the GPS. In a way, that reflected the him that I knew. The someone who was always anti-establishment and willing to go his own way. He was one of the regulars at the medical centre, along with me and some others. He can always be counted upon as well to go for unofficial canteen breaks. There were times when we even sneaked out of camp to eat because we were too bored of the canteen food. He was also known as the Discovery Channel because he seemed to know everything. I was glad that he was my fellow Spec 2 internal as I could consult him on difficult questions. I had a great time working with him during our internal days as we found ways and means to slack. Hongkie will be sorely missed by all of us as he embarks on his own journey of self-fulfillment. He had always known what he wanted to do and I'm sure he would do well in America. Farewell to you, Hongkie, and always remember 8th platoon. Once a trooper, always a trooper. Against all adversity.

SOW

Just ended my Science Orientation Week(SOW) yesterday. I'm going to start school tomorrow and it hasn't sunk in yet. How I wish next week is still orientation week. SOW was fun and I was glad that I had joined. If I hadn't joined, I wouldn't have known so many wonderful freshmen and seniors. There isn't any opportunity to make friends in lecture theatres and I see many people going to lectures alone. University life can be lonely. It's just so much harder to make friends. Anyway, I will attempt to write a summary of my SOW experience. I was assigned to Sylvester, along with Ho Teck. We hadn't arranged to be together and as with case in Scamp, I was stuck with a guy that I knew for a long time. The first few days of SOW weren't much fun. There were a lot of disruptions with bidding for modules and people leaving halfway for personal reasons. Also, the SOW group isn't as enthusiastic as my Scamp group. Which isn't neccesarily a bad thing, since I'm not enthusiastic myself. But it certainly made the atmosphere a little dull. We slept quite a lot during the first few days and the AOGL, Peiying wasn't too happy about it. She expected us to be more enthusiastic and was disappointed when we slept. But we more than made up for that by winning the war games played on Saturday despite having less resources. We broke off after the games and regrouped on Monday. We attended the FIC on Monday with us wearing formal. It was awkward wearing formal after days of wearing casually and people said that I looked like an insurance agent. We had our OG outing at Fish and co but only 7 freshies went. Many left halfway and I myself felt a little disappointed. Only 2 girls went for the outing. The dinner was a touching experience for me because the OG celebrated my birthday for me. I hadn't expected them to remember my birthday and was surprised when I saw the birthday cake. It was great even though my birthday was actually the day after that which was Flag Day. After dinner, we went to PS to buy SP presents. It was the first time where I felt the few of us started to bond. The next day was Flag Day and it was also my birthday. It sounds sad but I didn't feel that way. It was a unique way to celebrate a birthday and I knew I was doing something meaningful. During Flag day, the seniors were really nice to us. They bought drinks and food for us and encouraged us along the way. The SOW seniors were really good to us during the camp. I had expected Alvin and Peiying to push us quite hard but they turned out to be very nice people. The rest of the seniors were very nice as well. Makes me feel a little inspired to be a senior next year even though I can't see myself being enthusiastic 24/7. We broke off for National day and went back on the 10th. We went to Sentosa for games and as was the case with Scamp, it was very fun. We won most of the games and had a lot of fun along the way. The most fun part of it was throwing seniors into the sea at the end of the games. The Sentosa games really bonded the OG together. At night, we helped out with rag reluctantly. Nevertheless, we had fun encouraging Johnson who was hardly motivated at all. The next day, we walked around school like zombies for the amazing race. After that, we had rehearsals for our performance before performing at night. I thought our group performance was pretty good. It had a flow to it unlike some of the others. However, our performance didn't win any prizes. After the performance, the rag director asked for 30 volunteers to help out in rag. Almost all our OG guys volunteered even though we hadn't slept much the night before and we knew we weren't going to sleep at all by volunteering for this job. It was tough moving the float around without much rest and there were a couple of times where I knocked out while pushing the float. And as usual, we tried to have a good time by making jokes. The five of us, Keng Soon, Khee Nguen, Lewis, Ho Teck and me called ourselves the dome boys as we were pushing the dome. And led by our leader, Li Da, we successfully completed our mission. It was tiring but I felt I had at least contributed something to Science rag. Though we eventually lost to Bizad, I still felt a sense of satisfaction as I knew we all had given our best. SOW ended with rag day and as was with Scamp, I felt a tinge of sadness as we broke up and prepared to enter the monotonous routine of lectures and tutorials.

Quick Post

Going for SOW tomorrow. It will be my second and last pre-University camp. I am more ill-prepared for this camp than I was for Scamp. Up till now, I haven't packed my things yet. I haven't got my mind ready yet as well. It's back to Orientation games, mass dances and SPs again. Feeling a little apprehensive about doing all those things again. Hopefully, SOW will be as fun or even more fun than Scamp. My OG is called Sylvester. I thought it was stupid until I heard the names of the other OGs. Names like Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid, Corpse Bride, Tasmanian Devil etc. At least mine is easy to pronounce. Have to wake up early tomorrow for the camp. I will update when I get back.

Invasion of the Red Army

I recently went to NUS for subject talks and I was horrified at the number of PRCs that I saw. There were at least a hundred of them. Most of the lecturers were also PRCs and spoke in an accent I couldn't catch. I thought I could get away from their irritating chatter by going to the canteen but there were many of them there too. Even some of the stallholders were PRCs too. I thought I could find a sanctuary back in my home but there were PRCs selling me some products at the shops below my house. It seems that there is no place without PRCs nowadays. And I fear that their numbers will only keep increasing due to our policy of attracting foreign talent. It is good news for China Girl lovers like some of the people I know but it's generally bad news for the rest of us. I do not wish to stereotype but I haven't met a decent PRC yet. They don't give me a good impression and news about them are generally negative. There was news recently about China students who study in the day, keep their sugar daddies company after school and go look for other suckers in bars at night. Are they the kind of talent that we need?

There's also another section in which readers are supposed to identify China girls from local girls. I got most correct. They got a distinctive look about them. I fear the day when I walk out onto the streets and all the faces I see look PRC. At the rate they are coming, It won't be long before we find that there will be Little Shanghais and Beijings popping up in Singapore. By then, maybe we will be renaming our country as Chingapore. The Esplanade will be known as the Red Theatre. The Istana will be renamed as the Forbidden Palace. The Padang as Tiananmen. The Merlion will be replaced by a Dragon spewing fire. The statue of Sir Stamford Raffles will be replaced by a statue of Mao Zedong. The Singapore River renamed the Yellow River. The Singapore flag becoming all red. The national anthem in Chinese. What a nightmare that would be.