Happy Birthday Ronald

Happy birthday to my favourite little brother. :)

We celebrated by having dinner last night at Hanabi Restaurant along Bukit Timah Rd, which is an all-you-can-eat Japanese place. It was worth it, at least for me, since I definitely ate about $30 worth of food... something which I now slightly regret. I won't be eating Japanese food for at least another month now. o_O Which is in itself a pity, because a new Japanese restaurant just opened across the street - replacing (gasp) the Jalan Kayu roti prata branch. I guess Roti Prata House is better after all... never could tell the difference, personally.

They must have spiked the salmon or something last night. I came home all fuzzy-headed and sleepy, then when I woke up I was still really blur and disoriented. Hm. I'm not complaining though, it was good salmon.

Mmmmm... salmon...

That's my current idea of heaven - a room full of salmon, all sliced into wonderful glistening orange pieces. Unfortunately this is not the picture painted by the Bible at all... what a bummer. I wonder what could possibly be better than salmon.

Believe it or not, I have not quite gotten around to cleaning my room. Sigh.

PES D

The good news is that my bilateral slipping ulnar nerves probably won't have any adverse long-term effects, especially since I don't have any symptoms e.g. pain and numbness.

The bad news is that it cost us $50 to find this out, and I have been temporarily downgraded to PES D. Hmph.

I have to go back to CMPB on Sept. 7th for a specialist consultation. Hopefully I get regraded to PES B. At least that consultation will be free, I think.

I now resolve to go clean up my room. Yes.

Piano Exam

Just came back from my Grade 7 exam at Cristofori Funan S3... the examiner was very friendly, we joked about how the water in my bottle looked like alcohol and thus was affecting my coordination.

Obviously, since we were joking about my coordination, it didn't go all that well... did ok in scales but messed up the F# contrary chromatic scale (he asked for staccato! how cruel) and had to try it again. My first piece I did ok, but my fingers were stiff and cold so the rhythm was a bit off for the whole first part and I botched the last bar - second part was alright though. My second and third pieces were better, but I accidentally held a G# instead of F# for two whole bars in the third piece (the contemporary one)... held it intentionally of course, to cover my mistake. ;) Hopefully the rest of the piece was cacophonous and abstract enough for him to miss that error, although I highly doubt it.

Sight-reading went better than I had hoped, but my attention to dynamics were sorely lacking and this was made obvious when I played the last bar as "pp" instead of "ff" as it was written. I maintain nonetheless that it sounded much better as "pp," but I don't think he really would have cared about that. Hmph.

Aural was a disaster. Especially the modulation, cadences, and clapping-the-rhythm... he didn't really play a very loud bass line for the first two and the last one - well, there's really no excuse for messing that one up. Curses. At least I think I got the period right for test D, romantic.

Provided I get a decent score on the scales and exam pieces, and an average sight-reading mark, those should save my aural score and give me a pass. But they do say friendly examiners are the harshest markers, so I'm not particularly optimistic. :( Oh well.

Dropped by Borders after my exam and bumped into Arjun there - he's leaving for St. Bart's at the end of the month. Also saw Giri. Walked past Olinda Cho as she was heading out of Borders with two friends? bodyguards? o_O ... she's surprisingly short.

Armaan's Birthday

I really should be practicing for my piano exam tomorrow, but I've just spent 45 minutes on scales which has left me in a kind of glazed-eyes, zombie-like state of existence. Might as well use the downtime to post some pictures.

Happy early birthday Armaan! (should have said that two days ago, but oh well) Thanks for the fun, the heated swimming pool, and the food. Especially the food. Mmmmm... strange starchy balls with sweet-syrup covering... mmmmm...

Met with Armaan and Jasmin at Eastpoint Mall... arrived before they did so I strolled around and happened upon this Miss Singapore World 2005 competition (it was pretty hard to miss). I wonder why they'd hold a competition like that somewhere like... well, let's be diplomatic... somewhere "away" from the city. :P



We bought a fruit cake from a shop near the mall and also a bag of those wonderful small/round biscuits with coloured sugar blobs on top... dunno what they're called. But Armaan hadn't tried them before, which was utterly criminal and had to be rectified.

Had a swim with Armaan and Teri - the pool was neat, heated and everything. Funny that the deep "end" was in the middle though. Anyway, after our swim it registered that Yee Ling/Jun/Jasmin had taken our bags with them to look at the showflat next door. Not so much of a problem for me since I had my clothes with me, but my wallet! My cellphone! My IC! o_O

Jun crowning Armaan:



Armaan blowing out the (single) candle:







It's quite obvious the middle picture isn't from the same candle-blowing as the other two... unless Teri has some phasing ability she hasn't told us about. Funny how we kept making Armaan light and blow out the candle so we could get the perfect picture. Mwahaha.

Saw Aafsheen (that is how you spell it right?), cute girl. Has Armaan's curly hair. We had a staring contest but I lost. :(

In other news, I still haven't seen the cat. Sigh.

NAPFA

I took the NAPFA this morning. Here's my breakdown in the order of tests I took:

Sit-and-reach (B). (I was petrified when they just led us immediately to the sit-and-reach station... sort of thinking... waitwaitwait don't we have time to stretch?!) Anyway I got 45cm, much better than I expected.

Sit-ups (B). 42 sit-ups. I actually thought I'd done 43, which would have been an A, but they didn't count the first one. :(

Pull-ups (C). I did 6 of these. Actually after the first one they said to straighten my arms more, which I did... thankfully they still counted it. How nice of them. :)

4x10m shuttle run (A). 10.8 seconds on my first try, which would have failed me, but that was because we were starting from the wrong line and I dropped the block on my first run back. Anyway they gave us all a second go, and I got 10.1 seconds.

Standing broad jump (B). I thought this would be the one to fail me, since I jump only 210cm on average, i.e. 10cm short of the requirement. Somehow, I managed to jump 245cm. Someone up there must have put wings on my feet. ;)

2.4km (C). I haven't really ever gone much faster than 13 minutes on this. Which was why it was a shocker that I ran it in 11 minutes 4 seconds. Still don't understand how I did it... maybe if you're running with more people you get a greater feeling of competitiveness? Anyway, this one guy overtook me on the final lap. I kind of went... grrrr... sprinted past him down the stretch and beat him to the finish line. Mwahahaha. Yep, more competitive I guess.

So that's 23 points and a gold. Whoa. Did not expect that. I suppose saying a little prayer before each test helped a bit, heh. I did jump a 'supernaturally' long standing broad jump after all. o_O

Apparently CMPB has already shifted my enlistment date to October... I guess they don't want to waste money catering for my food and bedding in PTP. Not much of a choice for me, hmph. But this means I'll be going into BMT with these uber-fit people (e.g. Nick Keong(?) the footballer, who was taking the test in my group)... frightening. I know I am actually nowhere near their fitness level.

Thanks Julian for coming, your support and Red Bull were very much appreciated. :D I spilled some Red Bull on my 019 tag... next person may have a difficult time unsticking it from their clothes. Heh. ^^

I seem to spill a lot of drinks.

Back to UWC

Went back to UWC today after Chinese class with Yee Ling, mostly to laugh at the poor new students scurrying frantically around... but I had some practical things to do too. We only got there at around 2.30pm, so unfortunately we didn't have much time to smirk at the students.

First we went up to the admissions office to visit Sandra but she was about to show some people around so we told her we'd be back in 45 minutes. Then we walked down to the examinations office to ask Mary Toh about our IB diplomas - apparently the school doesn't even have them yet and we're not likely to get them till the end of this month. o_O Hmph. As we were leaving the office she called me back and asked for my name, so I told her and then she congratulated me on my IB.

Nice to know I'm appreciated. ^_^ Although it was kinda shocking that she recognized me after seeing me for all of 5 minutes last year.

Anyway, we stopped by USC. Carol wasn't there since her baby has been hospitalized, so we talked with Geraldine and Ms. Smart. I made "Certified True Copies" of my passport and IB results - one for the Cambridge CRB disclosure and the other for MINDEF. It's really the second-best option since I probably won't be getting my diploma until after I enter NS.

Ms. Niedermeyer was in USC looking through the 2005 IB results. We haven't broken the trend... average is up to 36 this year (Ms. Smart hence vindicated and triumphantly announcing that we didn't break the trend despite that whole Head of College ordeal); 5 people got 45, 5 got 44, 3 got 43, and only 1 person failed. Apparently 23% of the grade scored 40 and above. Not bad.

Strangely, Ms. Niedermeyer knew my name too. This is puzzling since I was only in PAW for 6 months in FIB, but I'm really not complaining.

Left USC when the 2.55pm bell rang to try and visit Maslam. On the way we discovered that they've redone the science labs - they're all white and clean and elegant now. Finally they did something right although I kind of wish they'd used our money while we were still there. Hmph.

Maslam wasn't in the bio-tech room so Yee Ling left him a note: "Dear Maslam, we came to visit you. But you went to jalan-jalan. :( Yee Ling and Ray." Talked a bit about the new science labs with Ms. Hunt-Towle, who was much nicer to us than she was to me when I was in FIB and she chased me out of her science lab. They did away with the partition in our old bio room, 2S8, so now it's very nice and spacious. :D

We then went back to USC (took a detour so Yee Ling could look for Ishikawa-san but no such luck), where I talked to Mrs. Elliott for awhile about my Extended Essay and NS. Also bumped into Mr. Hanley who said he was moving to Melbourne next year... Yee Ling was behind me so I couldn't see her face but I imagine her heart was sinking like a rock. :P

Then we went back to look for Maslam (did a lot of walking). He wasn't there but the note was gone!!! I hope he didn't throw it away and has kept it as a sentimental kind of gift.

We went back up to admissions to look for Sandra. Had a long talk with her and she demanded some Chinese translations for things like "forms," "email," "website" etc. She also wanted my collection of cartoon dinosaurs. Sigh.

Finally we went to look for Maslam for the third time (one of us really wanted to see him). But he wasn't there. It was already about 4.30pm so we decided to head home. On the way out we stopped at a new vending machine next to the new vegetarian-bar "Nourish," which is opposite Toscana. Paid 50c for some Teh Tarik but spilled it :( Ah well. Maybe next time. Still need to give Sandra the translations and dinosaurs.

In other news, I went to CMPB this morning to confirm my enlistment date on September 8th. Scary. I'll be going for the NAPFA tomorrow at Toa Payoh Stadium although I do not expect to pass.

Le Cauchemar

This isn't a sustainable lifestyle.

I think I caught his cough and runny nose. Was climbed over and salivated upon. Je suis vraiment fatigué. Ils sont des maladies, littéralement.

I feel bad typing this, they're quite innocent. But I need the release.

Starting last Saturday.

I have tragically left uncovered the three busiest days I have experienced since the summer vacation started. So now that I've got a spot of free time, I might as well post about them so as to preserve these memories for posterity. I don't want to look back in 10 years' time and go, "Oh no! Whatever did I do from Saturday, August 6th, 2005, to Monday, August 8th, 2005? Ack! I simply cannot remember! Quelle horreur!" o_O

On Saturday I took my written handicap test for golf (my practical is scheduled for the 5th of next month, presumably before I enter NS... where is my enlistment letter?!). It started at 2pm at Seletar Base Golf Club - they showed us 2 videos and took us down to the practice green where the instructors explained the various rules of golf and their applications in different scenarios. I lost track about halfway, it was all very confusing, especially since one of the instructors couldn't speak very good English and all of them were wearing distracting bright pink shirts. I didn't know touching the sand in a bunker carries a TWO-stroke penalty... that's harsh. It's also one of the two questions I got wrong. But anyway 8/10 multiple choice questions were good enough to pass me.

I finished at about 4.30 at which point my dad msgd me to say he'd be there at 5.45. I figured since I had an hour to kill I could just hop over to Seletar Country Club and play a bit of pool - I thought if I walked it'd take maybe 10 minutes. Stupidest idea I have ever had, ever. I ended up walking for 30 minutes in the blazing hot sun... it definitely looks like a much shorter distance from inside a car. Moral of the story is, take a bus next time. Anyway I did eventually play two games of pool so that was somewhat rewarding.

Saturday night was my brother's ACS(I) band concert as a part of their "Festival of Arts." Sophisticated name for an arts festival. -_____- Oh, and thanks Marian for coming... your support was much appreciated :) Have I mentioned my brother made band major for next year? Such a smart boy. :D

Anyway, I heard "Vesuvius" for the third time this year (twice previously at the Esplanade)... but it has gotten better each time so that's ok. It's obvious how they won SYF 'Gold with Honours' on that piece. Also liked the themes from "Lion King" and "Phantom of the Opera," as well as that one anime piece which they'd also played at the Esplanade before and my brother claims to have a solo in... but I must not have been paying hard enough attention, heh. The emcee's were fun, they looked entirely serious while saying scripted lines like:

A: Well, Joshua! That was a fine piece, was it not?
B: Indeed, Jonathan! Most rousing! It truly set my heart ablaze with emotion!
A: And my heart resonating vibrantly! An excellent offering by our band tonight.

Performance was made very much more exciting by Samy and Reuben who kept poking me in the back at random times. Kept me alert.

On Sunday we had worship practice after service for this week's Celebration Sunday... tiring. Then met up with Adrian and co. for his goodbye party at Marina South. Apparently I am better off without my mustache. Hmph. *simmers in resentment* We met up at Marina Bay MRT and took a bus to Marina South (although there was a bit of confusion caused by the public transport changes as a result of National Day preparations). We ended up having to walk a long way to get to the right place. Nonetheless, had a nice BBQ/steamboat dinner with live prawns of dubious quality and copious amounts of satay-flavoured chicken. Thanks Adrian for bringing us... I dunno if I'd ever go back there though, it's almost not worth the trouble. :P

We headed up to Victor's Superbowl to, um, bowl a bit. Failed to break 100 twice, which was disappointing, but I got close with 99 pinfalls. On the way back to the MRT station we passed the arena where they'd be holding the Marina South National Day celebrations... Adrian and Jun sneaked in to take pictures of the stage. I just hung outside next to the vending machine agonizing over whether it would be wise to add to my sugar intake of the day.

Monday was EBC youth steamboat day. I woke up at a cruel and inhuman hour so as to be able to reach Esther's place by 8am to do grocery-shopping. As it turned out, it was a bad, BAD idea to take the bus on that day. I took a non-aircon 74 from my place and ended up being squished against all these sweaty, smelly, rain-drenched people (this also made it difficult to fold my umbrella). Plus there was a huge traffic jam, so I ended up reaching the NTUC at Clementi at about 8.45. Anyway, we finished most of the groceries by 9.30 (staying well within budget), and by the time we'd carried them over to Esther's place it was nearly 10am. So I ended up being about 40 minutes late for Chinese class, but that was ok since they'd only been reading newspapers for that whole time.

Went to Colin's place (via Esther's flat) after class. We did the steamboat prep and then went to Dover MRT station at 5pm to wait for everyone to arrive. At about this time I concluded that Esther knows far too many Russell Peters routines for her own good.

The steamboat was fun (prawns were definitely fresh this time). I played Cluedo 3 times, 2 of which I won, happily enough. One of them was on a fluke guess after we gave up a game to let someone else join - we knew it was the lead pipe, and then I just guessed "Miss Scarlet" and "Hall" and blimey, I got it right. It's a gift. :D

It so happens that the second win was also on a guess. We knew it was Mrs. White with the candlestick but it was getting late and everyone had to go, so we all guessed a room. Turns out it was the Billiard Room, which I had guessed due to a feeling of affinity, heh. Like I said, it's a gift. ;)

Unfortunately I turned out to be equally poor at the answer-the-lame-joke game. How was I supposed to know that Happy's last name is Lee, or that the ocean "waves" to the beach when it sees it. -____- Anyway, thanks Esther/Eunice for organizing those games, it was loads of fun.

I slept in on National Day. That really accounts for four days, but school's been out for months so I'm permitting small mistakes like these.

Limericks and Alphard

I found some limericks that were actually funny on Wikipedia the other day.

There was a young bard from Japan,
Whose limericks never would scan.
When asked why this was,
He said, "It's because
I always try to get as many words into the last line as I possibly can."

And:

A limerick fan from Australia
Regarded his work as a failure:
His verses were fine
Until the fourth line.

If enough people don't find the above funny I will concede that I have a weird sense of humour. Although I tend to prefer "highly sophisticated" to "weird."

Anyway I was jealous that Yee Ling had a hamster, so I got a llama. His name is Alphard. I've tried to get him to spit, like a normal llama should, but it's not working out. Hmph.

Happy national day (for yesterday).

My Mustache: An Ode

Today, at eight thirty-four in the morning,
A tragedy happened beyond all compare.
Sharp metal blades sliced at a black-canvassed awning
Inflicting clean damage beyond all repair.

Oh, what is the meaning of such a disaster?
That dear fuzzy growth of a year and a half
Fell limp to the hand of its once-loyal master,
Its reward only darkness, and one nervous laugh.

What could lessen the pain of such cruel betrayal?
Or punishment as it was flushed down the drain?
As naught but a victim to vivid portrayal:
The fall of great hubris to utter disdain.

Before now there had occurred nothing abnormal,
Before now there had been no pitying hint.
And yet in an instant, both blithe and informal,
It was warned of its doom by a three-bladed glint.

How many times had it revealed its great function?
Enhancing a smile, maturing a face?
But it turned into only a sharp razor's luncheon;
Its glory demolished in shame and disgrace.

"But why now? And what for?" - it asked sadly of me,
And my answer could only be this, "I regret
To say that despite any past guarantee,
I'm losing you to win a five-dollar bet."

Books

Alright, I'll do it. I'm that bored. :P

Total number of books owned:

163. o_O For some reason people like to give me books for my birthday.

Last book I bought:

"The Right Hand of God," Russell Kirkpatrick.

Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. The Bible.
2. "Lord of the Rings," J.R.R. Tolkien.
3. "Memoirs of a Geisha," Arthur Golden.
4. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," Mark Haddon.
5. "The Giver," Lois Lowry.

I won't suffer five people to become the next victims. This is almost as bad as chain-mail. -___- Take that Marian. :P

I saw two people I didn't expect to see as I was coming home from Chinese class today (I am now officially in level 3! Woohoo! 3 more weeks to go...)

The first was the Club Rainbow Singapore woman from Newton MRT last week. She was standing at the bus stop near City Hall MRT doing her charity pitch. I admire her tenacity. She tried to approach me again but I told her she'd already talked to me a week ago. She didn't remember me. :(

The second was Nick Shen (the actor... I think that's his name?). I saw him interviewing this old guy as I was coming out of Funan Mall - must be for some new Channel 8 variety show. I walked away quickly to avoid being interviewed too and subsequently exposed for my bad Mandarin. *hangs head in shame*