Friday, February 29, 2008

and this is *drrrrrummmmrollllllll* post no. 1000... after over 4.5 years, i finally hit 1000 posts.

once upon a time, this blog was set up as part of a deal amongst 3 friends, who wanted to see who can sustain a blog for the longest time. the early entries of this blog were mainly documentations of my daily life - what i did and who i did things with. entries were long and somewhat mundane (thou i didn't feel that way then!), and special mention was given when a day was particularly sucky.

then as i enter uni, the entries were about exciting new beginnings and new friends made. well, in yr 1 at least. then a lot of attention was given to BE and sch events in yr 2 and yr 3. then a lapse in the later part of yr 3 and internship.

then as part travel blog, part life blog as i went on exchange in france.. a period of time which i thought there will be plenty of posts with all the travelling and new experiences, but in the end, there weren't a lot of posts simply because i didn't have a good internet connection and not much time to blog.

and now, into the final semester of my uni life.


so... let's see what i did on this day where i wrote my 1000th post-
for starters, i finally went to alliance francaise to register for E3 classes and to collect my 6-month old certificate. i did well i think. haha.
then i went to kino to hunt for a specific screw extension for an art book.. and i finally found it. i'm happy now.
then met bain n yv for dinner at han's.
wasn't too bad after all.
i suppose next week will be more productive than this week, with french classes restarting and all.


and so i write my 1000th post the same way i started this blog - a documentation of my life. but now, it's much less wordy and more tired-sounding.

3 friends started a deal to each keep a blog. 1 blog gets updated once in a while, another blog has since shifted quite a number of locations, and the last blog is still here, faithfully logging once in a while. guess which is which.


it's come a long way huh. hopefully, it can go on for a little bit more, sharing the ride with me for a little longer.


------ Monday, February 25, 2008

post no. 999 - today marks the first day of school for me: advanced financial accounting at 12pm.. i guess reality starts setting in now.

actually i had some thoughts that i wanted to put down in words but somehow inexplicably, i lost my train of thought. now i can't even remember what was it that i wanted to say.


on another note, i finally went to catch ps i love u with kel (who is happily holidaying in taiwan now) and oh man, i can't control the tears that just keep on cascading down my face. i hold my breath, i stay still, i exhale slowly, i fidget, i look upwards... it doesn't matter what i do, the tears have a life of their own.. i wanna read the book, anyone has it?

mid term break for the normal people is here.. there was a time when mid term break means mambo nights at zouk but i guess we've all grown up now. i'd very much rather take a chill out at villa bali or even icb than a louder-than-thou, stuffy-like-chiken-pie, packed-like-hell phuture anytime.
now serve me my mojita.


------ Thursday, February 21, 2008

witnessed at a dinner table:

the setting: a round table at victoria street food market
those present: yvonne, huiying, kok leong, ln, edmund, john and me
the topic: hokkien phrases and haiku

the story so far:

we were talking about hokkien "idioms" as introduced by ln. for eg, swee swee bo zhao zui - literally means something is done/made so well, so solid that it can hold water, figuritively it means something is perfect. pattern zuay guay badminton - we all know that there are a lot of different strokes in badminton liek the lob, the forehand and backhand smash, the lift, the drop etc etc so if someone pattern zuay guay badminton, he/she has even more patterns than a badminton match. meaning, he/she has plenty of tricks up his/her sleeve.

suddenly in the midst of our cultured talk about hokkien phrases, john popped up with the subject of haiku, a kind of japanese poetry. and so it goes (something like this)........


john: eh like haiku, is count by syllabus rite?
LN: yeah, think it's like 5-7-5
someone: ehhh like pattern zuay guay badminton is 7 syllabus!
jiahui: ya ya, so it can be like the middle sentence of a haiku.
(someone started counting)
john: eh ya hor! got 5 syllabus one or not?
jiahui: got... swee swee bo zhao zui!!
john: ya hor! somemore somemore?
ln: ok.. swee swee bo zhao zui, pattern zuay guay badminton..... song song gao jurong!!
ln: HAIKU!!

whole table erupts in laughter.. so there we have it my friends - haiku, hokkien style:

swee swee bo zhao zui
pattern zuay guay badminton
song song gao jurong

for the hokkien-uninclined, here's a literal translation:
nice nice no leak water
pattern more than badminton
happy happy reach jurong

not much sense, is there? well i believe we call it abstract, which is exactly what a haiku embodies. HAHA!!


------ Monday, February 18, 2008


postsecret

this just strikes a chord with me.. it's like, have u ever been in a situation where u did something that you wouldn't normally do, something that u might not necessarily like, or maybe something u want to do but it's probably not a good idea to do it, but yet you do it anyway? it might be for personal gain, to satisfy a curiosity or maybe to fulfill a desire. well u got what u wanted, but now u've got to live with it.

it's.... not a very good feeling i suppose.



anyways. had a pretty decent dinner on feb the 14th with my darlings kel, hongyi and yv, plus ed, jem and jem's friend. i love the girls, they never fail to brighten up any day.
met shane and jem for coffee at tcc on fri, finally utilised the $40 voucher that we won in an mpw class last year (right about nearly 1 year ago)! was nice catching up with shane i must say.
met janet for brunch today, finally have a chance to talk to her. she invited me to sit in on her E4 class at alliance francaise next sat, which i definitely will, so yeps, i'm really kinda looking forward to that actually.

and i started on my scrapbook project. went the whole way and even did my own fonts. i pretty much spent the whole of yesterday and today cutting hundreds of alphabets for all the cities that i've been to. my forearm is aching and my fingers are numb, i swear.

other than that, it's one last week of nuaing and freedom before mod term starts. merde.


------ Wednesday, February 13, 2008

i think... going overseas changes your perspectives on things. of course, i'm referring to going overseas for an extended period of time, not just for a one-week getaway. u may not be able to pinpoint exactly what it is that has changed, but u know it, u have changed. how can u not have changed? u are exposed to another culture, a whole new approach and perspective to life, u become much more independent. u form your own opinions, your own expectations and your standards.

i may not have coped brilliantly while i was away, but nevertheless, i guess it was what i could do at the moment. i come back changed, different in my point of views and my threshold levels. my perspectives shift.

but it's a whole new matter trying to adopt your new perspectives and your new expectations back to your old home. u can say whatever till the cows come home, but it's just so easy to slip back into the old routine. it gets difficult trying to explain your new perspectives to others, especially those who have been here all their lives.

because being overseas opened your eye, your heart and your mind to so many things. and it's difficult for those who haven't been there to understand.


------

been in a state of vegetation this past week whenever i'm at home. the cny period was pretty well spent, i think. apart from the customary house visiting (not too much of that, thankfully), i went out for a movie with my cousins. like how long haven't we done that man.. the eldest cousin (who won some money in the stock markets i think) treated us to a gold class screening of that jay chou show, kungfu slam dunk or something like that. can u imagine, $30 for a jay chou movie?? my cousin is rich and generous, that's all i can say. it was my first time in gold class thou, the manager tended to our every need, the seats are like SQ business class (reclining with foot rest, comes complete with a blanket), they serve food right to your seat. gold class indeed.

chu 2, went to yv's place for mahjong with her, ed and jem.. it was a real good game i think. all of us took our turn to zi mo 5 tai hahah.. after which we went to watch the stephen chow show, cj7, at 3.40am.. yv and i thought the show was pretty alright, but evidently the guys thought so otherwise. and yeah, who can forget sitting at macs at 6am chowing mac's breakfast on chu 3..

chu 3 nite finally met my darlings bain, kel and hongyi.. it was a girls' nite in at hongyi's place. gosh i miss the girls so much. so nice to talk to them again.. we just spent the whole nite talking, watching a dvd, then playing gin rummy and this hilariously ridiculous card game called homojalay. we were screaming and breaking out in loud laughter at 4am..

chu 4 nite met anna, ln, ray n ed for dinner at 85.. gd to see them as usual.. think reality is setting in for all of us.. 1 is working, 1 on internship, 3 are in our last sems. the 5 of us have come a long way i think.. from carefree freshies in yr 1, taking a vacation together in chengdu, doing projects together, all the way till now oldies in year 4.. but what ln say is definitely true, that no matter what happens, we will always be that bunch of zhu peng gou yous to each other, catching up over soome good food.. sigh time flies.


today i took the alliance francaise online placement test.. i could answer all but 3 of the questions in the elementary test, but not a single one in the intermediate test unless i guess. so where does that leave me? i nearly submitted it but then i remembered i'll be meeting janet on sunday so i guess i'll wait till i've spoken to her then..


------ Tuesday, February 05, 2008

u know it's chinese new year when.....

1) u start to desperately look for clothes that are of brighter colours than your favourite black, white, grey and brown.

2) the chinese channels on tv start showing programmes where contestants run around supermarkets looking for cans of abalone and the prize money comes in red packets.

3) u see project superstar/ campus superstar/ superband winners singing cny songs to be used as tv fillers.

4) u see new year decorations sprouting up all over your house.

5) ur mum starts asking u "how much did aunt XX give u last year ah, do u remember?"

6) ur dad starts to buy more maggi mee than your drawer can handle cos "no food stalls open on cny mah.. just in case lor."

7) ur brother finally starts to bring his mountain of dirty laundry out to wash.

8) u finally realise your room is kinda messy after all.

9) u start helping your dad to wrap ngoh hiangs and wantans for the reunion dinner

10) your dad bursts out in a highly enthusiastic rendition of "cai shen dao" while wrapping the ngoh hiangs.


cny is here alright.


财神到 财神到
财神到我家的大门口
迎财神 接财神
把财神接到我家里头
从此我交好运 财元滚滚来
做生意它一本万利
买马票它得心应手
万事东成西就
财神到 财神到
大家迎接财神到

oh for good measure HAHAHA


------ Sunday, February 03, 2008

been idling around for quite a few days now, the only times i ventured out are to singtel to continue my line and get a new phone (which went to my mum, i'm still using my good ol' samsung cos no budget for new phone) and for prata supper with jeremy, edmund and keith near jem's place. that's about it.

let's see.. the rest of my time, i spent them calling singtel, calling starhub, calling cit, going to the doc's, uploading photos and downloading drama serials. oh, and washing clothes. wash until i can die man, cos all the winter clothes must hand wash (i didn't wanna risk throwing wool into the washing machine). and i just realised grey's anatomy season 4 only has 11 episodes? and lost season 4 has finally started. and gosh there're so many dramas to download - heroes, desperate housewives, house, prison break.. oh my.

and on food - i've been back for about 5 days, and i'm making good progress on eating local food. here's a list:
- mee goreng
- horfun
- chicken rice
- egg prata
- duck rice
- cereal prawns
- bak kut teh
not bad, i say..

and my parents revamped my room while i was away, they took away 1 study table, added in a couch, repainted the walls and packed away a lot of junk lying around in my room. when i went in though, it looks the same haha. cos they put the couch in the place where the old table was, and my dad repainted the wall with the same colour. and the neat room that i came back to....... became untidy again 2 days later when i start to unpack the past 6 months of my life into my room. HAHAHA.


anyway, returning home is nice, albeit a teeny bit strange. the familiar things:
- watching ch8 dramas (not nice thou) with my parents at 7pm and 9pm
- not having to always think of what to cook and eat for the next meal
- having a washing machine!
- my nice comfortable bed that comes with a pillow and a bolster
- wearing just tshirt and shorts at home
- not needing to wear a jacket even when going out at nite
- wearing slippers out!
- finally having english soccer on tv!

the unfamiliar things though, can be a little annoying at times. well it's not that they are unfamiliar, but more like i was just getting used to another way of life and now that i'm back, these things just serve to remind me that i'm really back in singapore:
- the heat and especially the humidity of cos
- hearing a smattering of languages at the hawker centre
- everyone wearing tshirt, shorts and slippers EVERYWHERE
- going to NTUC instead of carrefour
- not being able to find the following foodstuffs at NTUC: salad vegetables, cream, wide selection of yogurt, cereals, biscuits, chocolates and bread
- cheap vegetables, fruits, eggs
- instant coffee and mountains of instant noodles
- not having to bring my own shopping bag to the supermarket. instead, the cashier at NTUC packed all my groceries nicely into plastic bags for me, and being very generous with the plastic bags at that
- some truly truly horrible english

so yeps, i'm back home. home sweet home.


now i just have to get something bright for cny. i realised all the clothes i bought in europe are in european colours - black, white, grey, brown. which of cos, are my favourite colours... but like that how to wear them for cny?? jialat jialat..


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