Jolin Tsai David Tao Jing Tian Ni Yao Jia Gei Wo

cute song

Proud

We took part in the Rotaract Club futsal competition on Saturday. We had expected the opposition to be tough and our fears were confirmed when we saw the other teams playing in the first phase of the group stage. Most of the other teams had good players who looked like they played for school teams. Naturally, we were overawed as we are a bunch of amateur players playing only for fun. We started worrying about how many trashings we will get. Our tactic was to soak and strike, a negative tactic designed to stifle our opponents. For our first match, we drew 0-0 but dominated the game. It was a great morale booster and made us believe that we could more than match our opponents. Our second opponents were supposedly the best team in the group but we lost only 1-0 and the goal was a lucky goal. We restricted them to a few chances and matched them stride for stride. We could have easily gotten a draw. Our third match ended in a 3-1 defeat. There was nothing much we could do about the result as the opponents were clearly better than us. We were left chasing shadows most of the time. Overall, even though results did not go our way, I was proud of our perfromances. Everyone did what they were supposed to do and nobody made any mistakes. I felt that everybody played above themselves and I couldn't ask for more from anyone. We defended well as a team and stuck together. There was plenty of encouragement for each other, both on and off the pitch. It was a great show of team spirit and a good experience. We showed that we are no longer the whipping boys. We will be back next year.

This is funny. I look more like a girl than a guy. I also look like Wang Lee Hom, Andy Lau and Tony Leung, which is a compliment. And I look like Junichiro Koizumi, not Goh Chok Tong

So this is what you call heaven

• When I wake up and found that my breakfast is already on the table
• When I get to sleep and wake up late during weekends
• When I get to play with my cousins in the playground without a care in the world
• When I get to the bus stop and the bus just arrives with plenty of seats available
• When I'm watching the news with my dad and Lee Hsien Loong appears on the screen
• When I go to JB
• When I eat durians with my Tebrau brothers
• When I watch Man Utd win with the Man Utd fan club
• When I play soccer with Qinyao around
• When I watch dumb Tv shows in camp with my bunkmates
• When I finally did something I always wanted to do

This is my list. And there are more that I can think of. When you are down and out, you can try to make out a list and make yourself feel better. Heaven is a state of mind.

Wedding crashers

Saturday was Ho Teck's sister's wedding. I do not know his sister even though I'm a frequent visitor to his house. So it came as a surprise that I was invited to both the wedding ceremony in the morning and the wedding dinner at night. The morning reception was held at his house and it was a little crowded. Surprisingly, Ho Teck's friends (meaning Wee siang, Jie sheng, the people from Sylvester and the people from his Scamp Og) outnumbered his relatives. It was weird being at the ceremony with his relatives, the majority which I do not know. We were invited to liven up the atmosphere but, to me at least, it felt a little artificial. The ceremony ended pretty early at around 11. I went back home and initially made plans to study before I go for the dinner at night. In the end, as with all plans, my plan didn't materialise. The bed proved too tempting although I did manage to cover one chapter. I dressed as formally as I could for the wedding dinner at night and met up with the VS people who were also invited. The dinner was held at Swissotel. Our table was situated at the far corner and rightly so because we were making a fool out of ourselves. As usual, the jokes were all on Qinyao and Kok Wai was the main instigator. And as usual,with Kok Wai around, there was no shortage of alcohol. We kept on ordering glasses of red wine and beer. Soon, everyone was getting high on alcohol and our table became even noisier. We were attracting too much attention and Ho Teck and Ziyong were arrowed to take part in a game in which they had to burst balloons using their butts. They had to wear masks of Reagan and Lenin respectively. The whole dinner had the atmosphere of a carnival with the MC lightening the atmosphere with games. By the end of the dinner, I estimate that each of us had about 7 glasses of wine. I had also drunk 2 or 3 glasses of beer and was feeling giddy at the end. I was a little disoriented and couldn't stop laughing. I felt as though I was walking on air. I was intoxicated but thankfully not drunk. I made my way home and after washing up and watching a little soccer, collapsed in my bed. It was the most fun wedding dinner I had because it was the most uninhibited one. There won't be another one in the near future unless,of course, one of us suddenly gets married.

Uniquely Singapore!

All the nonsense they are showing to foreigners

Uniquely Singapore! - 2

Uniquely Singapore! - 3

Uniquely Singapore! - 4

Hazy days

The haze is getting on my nerves. It has got so bad that I can smell the burning smell in my own house. My eyes are feeling a little itchy as well. Visibility is low as well and from where I looked, Singapore seems to be shrouded in a mist. It seems almost as though we are a highland city set upon the mountaintops. It looks strangely beautiful at night as the haze takes on a reddish tone. But however beautiful it may look, I would want it to go away as soon as possible. It's affecting my health and I can't go running. Beauty can kill.

Tian Tang--Guang Liang

It's the guang liang season

Tests

I haven't blogged for a while because I was preparing for my tests. I was busy preparing for my Biochemistry test. My preparation was hampered yesterday when i found out the results from my General Physiology test. I didn't do too well for the test. Actually, I did pretty decently for the test, it's just that the rest did even better. I got 19 out of 25 which is 76%. And I was below the average which was 80%. It's pretty baffling that an A1 grade can be graded as below average. It was pretty demoralising, especially when I thought I only had 2 or 3 questions wrong. I will have to put in more effort for the module. The Biochemistry test today went pretty smoothly although I had to do some guesswork on the MCQs. From the results discussion, I should be able to do quite well in it. It will go some way towards restoring my morale. Next up will be my molecular genetics test next week. I haven't been listening to the recent lectures as the lecturer is from the People's Republic of China. I am going to have to do some serious self studying in order to do well. But it should be easy compared to the Mother of All Tests, the organic chemistry test at the end of the month. I have been lost since day one of the module. There are so many reaction mechanisms to remember, I wonder whether I will be sane after memorising them. The electrons just seem to be able to fly all over the place and atoms can shift around as though the bonds never existed. It doesn't help that the lecturer is a lazy Scottish guy who doesn't give notes and doesn't give enough time for notes to be copied. He has a weird sense of humour that only people north of England can understand and he likes to pick on handsome guys and people wearing bright coloured shirts. It makes me question the wisdom of hiring foreign lecturers when I'm sure my JC lecturers can do a better job. The tests are coming thick and fast and it's scary because not only do I have to score well, I have to do better than the rest. An A just isn't good enough sometimes.

Blood giving

I went for my first blood donation on Tuesday. The main reason I went is because I wanted to see what it is like to donate blood. I had undergone many IV infusions in the army and had lost some blood in the process but it is nowhere near the amount that will be sucked out during the donation. So it is for the experience that I agreed to meet Ho Teck at 1 to donate our blood. I reached there half an hour late due to my poor estimation of time. When I reached, he was already on the inclined chair with the infusion tube connected. I had a lecture at 2 and I thought I could breeze through the registration. But it turned out to be a half an hour wait. After the registration, I had to go for blood testing. I had always been afraid of the finger prick. I am more afraid of it than a 16G needle. Perhaps it's the uncertainty of not knowing when the needle is going to prick my finger. The finger prick test went about without much fuss although I was quite shocked at how much blood they sucked out from my finger. Luckily, I didn't feel faint unlike the last time I did it. After the blood test, I proceeded to the actual donation after a short wait. 2 helpers attended to me as I waited in anticipation for the donation to begin. They were all very friendly and thanked me for coming. They attached the equipment and then left and I was left wondering who will be the one poking the catheter into me. In the end, a plump chinese lady did the job. She was very friendly as well. Using the blood pressure gauge, she located my vein which wasn't very visible. Memories of nervous buddies topoing their way up down left right through my veins ran through my mind. But I need not have worried. After applying a gel onto my arm and rubbing it so hard that my skin turned red, she injected anaesthetic onto the area to be shot. I asked her how many G the needle was and she told me it was 16G. I was relieved as I had thought it would be 14G. And I thought to myself that even if she missed, the topoing would be bearable as I had experienced it before. But I need not have worried as she expertly eased the catheter into my vein. She could have done it without anaesthetic and it would still be relatively painless. I watched the tube and was wondering why there wasn't any blood flowing. I later then realised that the brown tube is actually the dirty yellow tube containing my blood inside. I was told to squeeze the stress ball in order to let the blood flow faster. It was tiring to squeeze the ball and after seeing that there wasn't much difference in the flow rate, I decided to stop squeezing. I didn't expect one of the helper to come over and ask me whether I was ok. Maybe it's the ' I'm a first time donor Please be gentle with me' sticker that I had on my T-shirt. My pack was filled with blood after 10 mins and it looked full, ready to burst anytime. I had this crazy idea of poking it with a needle but it was quickly extinguished when it was taken away by the helper. I was given a while to rest but I felt fine. I had thought that I would feel giddy after donating 500ml of my blood but I felt like I could donate another pack. It was surprising given that I had felt giddy before after giving a blood sample of 10ml for the Hep B test. I proceeded to the refreshment area after my rest. I scanned for the Milo packets that I zoomed in on the moment I stepped into the hall but they were gone so I had to settle for orange juice. I was stunned when one of the helpers gave me 2 certificates, one was a cert of appreciation and one was a no chicken award for being a first time donor. The helpers made me feel like a hero. And I feel guilty because all that I have done is to experience something for the first time.