I wish this would stop...

All of us were at the court preparing for a court game with the Juniors who were at least 4-5 years younger than us. The seniors thrashed them, of course but we almost lost to them cos we had a disadvantage due to the lack of a Goal Defence (Ai Ping). Jiao Lian kept shouting at me and asking me to cover ALL positions in the defence area but although the mind was willing to do it, the flesh was weak. Moreover, I have not been exercising for almost a year. Jiao Lian was clearly unhappy with me and I don't know why but she seemed to overlook the fact that there was no GD to help with the defence around the central court.

Anyway, the girls were so hot and exhausted that they decided to be topless to cool down [in front of the volleyball court of all places!] I don't know why but suddenly I found myself topless too so I covered my bare essentials with my Adidas Bag and clothed myself.


Suddenly, Faisal came [out of nowhere] and we went up to the highest storey of a HDB block nearby to have a bird's eye view of the girls who were now playing [fully dressed by now]. We talked for quite some time until I saw G and M crouching nearby so I beckoned to Faisal to head to the lift and go down cos I don't wanna see them at all but it was too late. They tried to pry open the lift door but thankfully we were faster than them in escaping.
When we reached ground level, I had a bad feeling that something was not right and the moment we stepped out of the lift, a SWAT-looking police officer used a gun and shot a flying needle at me. I was stunned and Faisal realised that there was a countrywide curfew at this time and there would be SWAT teams going around shooting ANYONE they found loitering outside.

As we were not near our homes, we tried to ask residents nearby to be led into their homes temporarily but suddenly the police were hot on our heels after being alerted by G and M about our whereabouts and so we dispersed in different directions. I was finally able to take refuge in a house but it was no different from outside cos the mother of the house suddenly pointed some Red-Indian looking pipe at me and blew a needle, which was previously dipped in some hot liquid at me. I winced from the pain and made my way to another house but the SWAT team saw me and surrounded me.

It was at this time that I woke up and realise that it was another nightmare. This was the third one I had in three consecutive nights. [First one was the one with Sam and the Gnomes]


The previous night was about my Boss pretending to be wheelchair-bound so that people would not suspect that he was gonna intercept some NASA satellite signal from space and burn Central Mall down but I caught him in time when Louis and I were still deciding on where to go for dinner cos his accomplice was standing at some conspicuous staircase and was lighting a match to throw on the alcohol-doused staircase.
So I thought that in order to catch him, I could take a photo with him and his sidekicks so that I could show to the police later on. [It was quite funny cos all of them were making funny poses and flashing peace signs at the camera] But one of his baddies, was smart enough to realise my plan and so he stuffed his hanky into the camera viewer part so that the photo would not be captured but when I requested to see how the photo looked like [in order to make sure the photo was taken], it was there.

Then suddenly, I don't know why but Louis and I were helping my boss to escape from us [quite stupid but it was a dream so anything can happen]. We were lifting his wheelchair down 20 over storeys to ground level from another flight of staircase cos everywhere else in Central Mall was burning and because he was quite heavy, we employed a maid to help us [don't know how on earth she got there but she did] and it was so much faster.

When he reached ground level, he ran away and we were beating our heads and banging walls with our fists cos we were quite stupid to help him escape.


What a stupid nightmare. I wish this would stop....

All in a day's work

Ever since I stopped working, I've been trying to occupy my time with things that I always wanted to do when I'm free as I may not have that much time when Uni starts and I'm quite happy that I got to finish a cross stitch in 3 days [a record for me!], read through my whole bunch of Time magazines and did some housework [not that it was something I always wanted to do but I thought I should do something more productive for the family].



Tried out some recipes from Mum's cookbook too and I have to say that 95% of it was a success. The Macaroni Bake was not bad and the Minestrone Soup [not those canned versions,mind you!] was OK but the Sacher Torte, some kind of Chocolate Layered Cake which was on the cover page of the "100 favourite cakes" book looked too good to resist so I set out on my adventurous journey to make it. The recipe was more complicated than the others and I took almost 2 hours for everything to be done and I have to say the end result was a little different than the one on the cover, like this:

The black patches are supposed to be the icing but because I didn't have enough chocolate, it became like that and before you come to any conclusion about my cake-making abilities, let me tell you the challenges I faced:

1. I didn't have an electric mixer so I had to manually whisk the mixture to "perfection."

2. The turntable in my microwave oven did not live up to its function.

3. Some of the ingredients were improvised, like the jam which was actually a substitute for red currant jelly, for the layering of the cake.

So, if you wanna make a chocolate layer cake in the future, make sure:

1. you plan what you are gonna do and have sufficient ingredients.

2. you have an electric mixer.

3. that the turntable in your convectional microwave is working (!!) I had to open the oven door and turn it from time to time so that the mixture would be cooked evenly.

4. that you grease the baking tin well so that the cake would not stick to the tin when you take it out to do layering.

Anyway, I acquired new books cos Times Bookshop was having a 30% discount for members and I am done with "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." It's quite interesting cos Christopher [the narrator] gives a lot of fresh insights on things which we tend to overlook/simplify and we get to be in his shoes and how he thinks and stuff. Sometimes I don't really agree with how he thinks. For example, when he decides to head to London for his mother's place after he discovers that his dad lied to him about his mum being dead and also cos his dad killed Wellington, the dog. But his dad had a reason for doing all this cos his mum committed adultery and decided that she was not capable of handling Christopher cos of his disability. But then again Christopher's still quite young so he doesn't see the real picture:he only chooses to focus on the part where his dad lied to him and killed Wellington so, we can't really blame him.

Anyway, it's both a good thing and a bad thing that he can be so logical and sometimes, devoid of emotion at times cos it ensures his sustainability [he would not be so worked up that he starts screaming and being sick] but it might not enable him to understand why his dad is behaving that way and such.

Anyway, the world is so complicated and if only families would stay together, even through tough times, I'm sure people like Christopher wouldn't have to have it that hard.

"I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!"

I always had doubts about Samantha's belief that there were garden Gnomes around her estate until that day. Yen Ming, Sam and I were making our way cautiously to Sam's brother's car which was quite a distance from Sam's workplace.

On that day, Sam wanted me to check out where she worked cos I was considering a career switch due to bad job prospects. She was working with children of low IQ at an old, ramshackled schoolhouse near her estate. Sam was one of the teacher mentors there. The children were quite rowdy but obedient when Sam gave them instructions. Unlike normal schools, the classrooms that the children had were dimly lit with one orange incandescent light bulb that swayed whenever the wind blows.
Classes were held in super-tight container spaces which were as small as a mini bus but the children made the most of it. Sam said that I could get a better view of the class if I sat at the back so I pushed my way through the children as there was barely enough walking space and it was there that I met Yen Ming. He was a teacher-in-training who was assigned to sit in and observe the teachers before he could start teaching proper.

When the day finally ended, Sam offered to fetch Yen Ming and I home but we refused. She insisted and told us that it was not safe at this time to go back alone as this was the time in which the garden Gnomes came out in full force. Both of us agreed as she was so full of conviction when she said it so the three of us made our way hastily to Sam's brother's car.

Sam was right. The atmosphere around us had a different feel: It was heavy with tension but it was very still. All of a sudden, Sam gave a little screech under her breath. We looked in her direction and saw a parked car but it was not the car that mattered. We saw a figure crouched on the other side of the car and it was tapping its feet, waiting patiently: a Gnome.


Sensing that something was amidst, the Gnome pounced up from behind the car and lumbered towards us, as quick as his massive legs could take him. We ran towards Sam's brother's sports convertible. As its hood was down, Yen Ming and I jumped into the back whilst Sam clambered to the front and Kelvin (Sam's brother) whisked us away from the lumbering Gnome.


Prior to my imagination, I thought Gnomes were small, elvish-looking creatures that had pointed hats and shoes but this Gnome looked like any ordinary human being except that it was a little bigger than usual and its facial features were slightly different -you could say a little elvish.


Anyway, Kelvin drove us to their house. It wasn't like Sam's real house at Simei but it looked like a place fit for Richie Rich to stay in, complete with manicured gardens and sprinkling fountains. I remembered Kelvin saying that it was getting more dangerous nowadays and he feared for the safety of his girlfriend as the Gnomes these days were getting smarter.


Anyway, to cut the story short, a few days later, the 3 of us [excluding Yen Ming] met another guy who was victimised by the Gnomes so we took him out for a night of fun, only to find out that he was a Gnome. So we threw him out of the car and he followed us all the way to Sam's uber-rich house and I don't know why but Kelvin decided to go easy on the car engine and that means that the "victimised Gnome" was very close to the car that I almost freaked out cos I was the only one at the backseat and Kelvin HAD THE HOOD OF THE CONVERTIBLE DOWN. So after a painful, nightmarish journey, we reached Sam's place again and I don't know why but we suddenly possessed the ability of werewolves and the car flew up into the night sky and into her well-kept gardens [no use for the door anymore except to keep out Gnomes]. And Sam's family decided to reinforce their doors to become bullet-proof and Gnome-proof. Such a weird dream right? I was really scared ok...this was supposed to be a nightmare and I think it came about due to me watching "Van Helsing" the previous night.

Speaking of "Van Helsing", I didn't know that it was such a good movie until now. The special effects were really good although I was a little disturbed by the fact that Dracula had an aunty-looking hairclip on his hair which made him look a little less scary and more laughable.

swansong...

Tpjchoir concert last Monday felt different. Different in a sense that Nelson was not conducting anymore and that it was the first time that Plasir de Chanson was held at the Esplanade. Moreover, it was quite rushed cos the Alumni only had a grand total of about 6 practices to polish "Ave Verum Corpus", "Wak Wak Gung" and 2 other new songs: "Roads" and "Good Morrow."


Somehow it felt different without Nelson. For me, it just felt like we were going through the whole repertoire without emotion except for "Wak Wak Gung." Even "Ave Verum Corpus" lacked the "oomph" we used to feel during the Czech Republic trip. However, the songs sounded much better during the concert and that was more important.


Anyway, it was great to see everyone again singing and having fun together.

The juniors were seriously brave to continue the show without Nelson and even though this concert didn't seem as fulfilling as those we had in the last 2 years, I felt that the juniors worked really hard to make it a successful one [Their overall sound was already quite good during the full-run at LT1].

Maib and her choir friends got a chance to see us perform for free cos her school paid for the full cost of the tickets. She told me that her friends and her liked "Roads" a lot. I'm not surprised...haha...

"conflicted with no structure"

Recently, many things have been going through my mind and I've been thinking about a lot of stuff lately. It's usually not my habit to discuss very personal stuff here simply because you wouldn't know who's reading your blog and it's just not right to air your dirty linen to everyone but I seriously need an outlet right now.

It's nice to have the house to yourself even for a morning [siblings will be at school!] and not to wake up early and join the rush hour crowd. Gives me more time for myself, which I SERIOUSLY hunger for after hanging out with friends almost everyday [not that I'm a loner but everyone needs their breathing space once in awhile]


It's just so stupid, must be this stupid emotional phase I'm going through now which I really hate 'cos it makes me unproductive. Sometimes, I wish I could be more pragmatic, less emotional, just like Mum or even Er Yi....

Recent events got me thinking about values and expectations. Are we ever free to live life the way we want it to be? It's just so hard sometimes, to live a life that God wants you to live and it's seriously a good test of faith. AND honestly, it's really hard to have a good balance between having fun without compromising on His word and how He wants us to live our lives.

Truth be told, sometimes it's hard to draw the line between being nice to the people you're with and being nice to the people whom are blacklisted by the people you're with [got that?]. Generally, I'm quite tolerant of people and it's not really in my nature to say mean things about people unless they irritate me or make me angry 'cos I don't think I'm that perfect to judge the flaws of others. This might be good or bad, depending on how you see it, cos most of the time I'll only see people for their good traits [unless everything about them screams bad].

Sometimes I really feel like a hypocrite until it reaches a point where it's best to remain silent [hmm,seems like this silent attitude of mine is gonna persist for quite some time...]

Cui and I went to Arab Street last week and we chanced upon this gourmet chocolate place. We chatted with the Uncle for about an hour and one of the things he said that left an impression was that he yearned for his childhood days: those days where everything was simple and you had good, clean fun.

From what I observe, to have fun these days would mean doing things:

(1) that would give people the impression that you're cool and all-grown up and mature when actually you're not.

(2) that would make you feel more accepted in your group of friends.

Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone but in general, this seems to be the trend.

My mum has being constantly advising me to be careful when it comes to choosing my life partner and I told her that it's getting harder these days to find someone who fits the bill, considering the world we are living in now where materialism, instant gratification and superficiality is everywhere.


School would be starting in 3 months' time. Lord, you know what I'm most worried about and I pray that you will intervene and guide me.


Sometimes I think I'm born in the wrong era.

Brad Paisley- Whiskey Lullaby

This song reminds me of those simple days when our parents were once teenagers.

When I listened to the Mp3 of this song, I thought that the female singer,Alison Kraus,was Billy Gilman until I saw this!

"God's method is a man, Kim's method is a temp."

Finally! I contributed to my company's high turnover rate yesterday. Actually, I was supposed to leave last Friday but my boss wanted me to stay a few days more to teach the new staff taking over me [when in fact, he hasn't interviewed the new staff yet!]

When I re-negotiated with him on Monday, I told him that I will be working until Wednesday on the condition that I come back when he gets the new staff, which would probably be another temp again. Of course, I will miss the people there who made my work experience there more tolerable like Wendy, Emma, Sarah, Yi Si, Grace, Juliana, Elaine, Joyce,Raymond, Aaron, Candy, Roger, Ya Sin and Evelyn but staying there long-term would be detrimental to my emotional and physical health [I really felt that I was losing hair every minute I spent there!].

Anyway, I'm enjoying my new-found freedom slacking at home for the moment!

Recently, Mum has not been very encouraging of me spending time outdoors with friends and so on, and I'm seriously gonna try to cut down even though it's hard to. Nevertheless, my days have been rather packed...

Surprised Mimi on her birthday last Thursday with Charlie Brown, Arron,Matthew, Ai Ping and Jerome. As we were supposed to meet her at Bedok for movie marathon, the rest of us went to her void deck ahead of the time to surprise her with her presents and her "Deathnote" outside her house but when we called her, she was already outside! So we had to lure her back to her house and carry out the plan. To cut the story short, Charlie Brown got spotted by her mum on the third time when we were going to leave the Deathnote outside her house after knocking on her door and running away! [The first 2 attempts were successful though...]

Matt and Arron came later with their huge fake sunflower and the cake. So, we carried on with the Deathnote marathon until evening where we met Olivia for "Harold & Kumar." IT WAS SUPER HILARIOUS MANNN!!! [except for those typical bare-all, provocative parts] Had Fondue at Haagen Dazs after that, which left a gaping hole in everyone's pockets but it was good to catch up again.

Dinner with Rhyss and Louis last Saturday at a Japanese Restaurant at Lido before we began our long walk from Orchard to City Hall. Reminisced about college days and talked about the future. Pictures from Rhyss :)

Went for RJChoir Concert at The Esplanade with Midori and Ethan after work last Tuesday to support Joelle. They sang Pok Pok Alimpako and Kucinta! Their choreo for the latter was almost similar to AJChoir's. There was this guy in the choir who went through the whole routine on crutches, simply amazing....but when the choreo parts came, he looked a bit awkward....

Our creative spray of flowers [at a budgeted price!]

Celebrated Michelle and Midori's birthday at G12 last night too...Happy Birthday to you both! :)

Hmmm...seems like my life these days have been about birthdays so far...anyway, I've got happy news! Duc is back from Vietnam and Dhab is flying back from Melbourne in December! :D