hols!

thanks heavens, the holidays are here. how i wished they had come a bit later, but they're here already, so stop complaining.


apologise for the lack of updates so far. been busy with exams and the like. so many people have been asking me to update, so i shall. it's been hectic, to say the least. exams came and went just like that, but it was hell while it lasted. i have never been so stressed out or hardworking ever before. i just hope all that hard work pays off if not i'm in deep shit, and my results will be in deep shit, and i can just go transfer to nursing instead.


found a job as a stocktaker for Popular. pay's kinda cool, with enough cash to get me a new MP3 player. not a harddisk-based one, but flash memory instead. i've never been an advocate of harddisk players. true, they store heckuva lot more songs (who listens to 10,000 songs?!), but they have reliability issues. as much protection as the manufacturers say they have incorporated, the majority of harddisk players don't have adequate protective measures in place. as a result the read-write head on the disk surface keeps scratching it and damaging it hence. don't forget, the majority of MP3 player users just don't give a damn about babying the player. as long as it works, fine. as a result you can see people who just bought a 60gb iPod scream 3 months later because it went to MP3 player heaven because they used it as a tennis ball. truth is, the harddisk-based players require much more care than flash-based ones, but people don't know this fact and don't care too. Flash memory is the only way to go. whoopee.


oh yes! got my new electone. how cool is that. it looks really neat. much higher than my older one, naturally, it gives one a more vantage, dominating position over the keyboard. love the feeling so much. and my songs come out much more realistically now, which is testament to the power of the instrumentation. even the guitar sounds real. on my old electone, it sounded about as real as plucking a stretched string over an empty tissue box. totally out of it. i got it from my teacher that i can order books online, but, wait for it, the cost of each book is S$60. and that's not all. i have to order in groups of 3 books. so it will total up to S$180. my dad is so going to kill me.


having some issues now that i didn't in the past. it's coming back now, and i don't like the feeling. it's a bad feeling, and it's dragging me down.

Ich habe Prufung

Tests, tests and more tests. the whole of my next 2 weeks is filled with tests. and more tests.


sorry guys for not blogging so often as before. really starting to feel the stress and strain that comes with tertiary education. it isn't fun. so, for those of you who are still in secondary school, really, do treasure your time, because i guarantee you JC and poly life is helluva lot more stressful. never mind those people who told you otherwise. it really is a sweatshop.


in the midst of all this nonsense, however, i do have some good news. i found my old sony 2.1MP camera and i'm gonna find the charger and recharge the batts i have. then, i'm gonna use it. haha. it's got a lens to die for, i tell you. one of the longest i've seen. going make people think i'm toting some enormous 10MP camera when it's actually a dinky 2.1MP. haha. shutterbugs beware.


I'm gonna get my new Electone Stagea too! wonderful stuff. it's costing a bomb, but i assured the folks that they'll see returns. when i get it i'm planning to have Gilbert over with his pocket amp and guitar so we can jam. i'm so looking forward to that time. however, that will have to wait till after my exams because i can't afford to have so many things going on now. planning too, to grab all the electone scores i can find and have some sort of mini performance at home. tickets are free (cos there are none). if you guys out there have any recommendable pieces you'd like to hear being played, drop me a note.


what else, what else...oh yeah. saw joanne for the first time after 9 months at the fireworks on the 11th. she looked about the same as i remembered her (and that's a compliment!). besides that, some things of her indeed have changed but i shan't delve into details here. it was great to have her as company, although i admit i did feel a slight tinge of nostalgia with her around, it is best that i don't feel such things now. it is a new beginning, possibly a great new friendship with this unique person and i'm not inclined to tote old baggage around with me. those times are better left forgotten. as i always have believed: forgive, forget and move on. winston churchill once said: I have never developed indigestion from eating my words. so true.


my german test was terribly done. 66% only. and those people whom i thought possessed a lower level of proficiency than me did better! couldn't believe my eyes. but i think my reading part pulled me down. only 13/25. the other portions of the test i did very well. darned. i'm taking A2.1a now, which means i'm actually quite proficient in the german language now but who cares. i still have a lot of catching up to do. there's this fella who's sitting beside me in class. he's a south african, and he speaks german plenty well. and i'm literally afraid to sit beside him. he's making me look like a stupid Frenchman.

well, close enough, anyway.

neu Tag

just got introduced to audrey's husband, laogong, hubby eunice. sounds a nice girl indeed although we have much more to know about each other. it's odd: i'm getting to know so many of audrey's friends, while she only knows that Jerrick. Jerrick if you're reading this, please don't kill me.

Ludo has been going places, and i SERIOUSLY mean going places. he's been to little india, chinatown, bugis, SP, Jurong BirdPark, Night Safari, Ducktours. it's like a crash course in sunny Singapore. me? i've never been to bugis. i think by the end of his visit i'll be swearing like a sailor. italians love to swear. it's practically PROGRAMMED into them to swear. whenever he encounters something bad or wrong he just swears like it was the world's most perfectly normal thing to do, while i just stood there and gaped like a damned goldfish. i must learn italian swear words. i hear they're the most powerful in the world.


joanne called today while i was at my uncle's place. talked for about 46 mins before i had to go because a) my dad was becoming suspicious and b) my battery was going to draw its last breath in another 15 mins. i think if i had talked further both a) and b) would be true. but i hate my phone. you have to keep switching ears to listen because the stupid edge of the phone is so hard, my ear hurts after barely 5 mins of pressing on it. silly stupid thing. NEW PHONE!


went to east coast park to cycle with Ludo and my dad and mum. saw plenty of sun-kissed babes there. man, if you want to have a chick-fest, go traipse down to east coast park and take a look at the girls on a sunday. you won't BELIEVE the number of them there. i didn't know Singapore's girls all congregated at east coast on a sunday. Ooo boy. there were so many you couldn't keep count. AND that's not counting those in their swimsuits. i could have been watching Miss Universe multiplied by a hundred.


now that's what i call the FEMALE form.


haven't filled in my NS form yet, need to do it soon. Wish me luck, fellas.

today and the day before it

did i mention that i am a tour guide? well, now you know.


Ludo my italian pal has been my most daily committment to date. yesterday i wasn't with him because i had that disgusting day called tuesday, which is the longest of all my days. today - wednesday - wasn't that bad because i had the whole day free. spent 1300-1500 in school for math remedial, and dumped him in my school library. he ended up taking a walk around the school himself. what a pity, it wasn't the usual teacher Mr Henry Something for remedial. it turned out to be some old woman. but surprisingly she was good. yiming, wai siong and myself wanted to leave after an hour, but decided to stay on.

wait sorry, haven't talked about yesterday yet. had my german test. audrey and isam wished me luck - thanks fellas. was super nervous when i walked into the room. the written and hearing test wasn't that bad, but the worst part came at the oral. my hands were shaking so badly i had to hide them. and the worst part was, i got the worst card. on it was the word "Meer", which means "sea" and the theme was "Urlaub", or "vacation". and i was supposed to form a sentence. it sucked.

but i saved the best for last. in another section of the test, we got picture cards, and were supposed to formulate requests based on those cards. i got a card with a pic with the word Rechnung. foolishly thinking it was a newspaper, i blared out "ich möchte lesen die Rechnung. Bitte Sie bringen mir die Rechnung?". at that moment the two examiners looked at each other. with a puzzled expression, one examiner asked me: "Kennen Sie das wort Rechnung?", which translates to "Do you know the word Rechnung?" i shook my head. "it is bill", she said. like, meal bill?

so holy shit. what i had said translated to "I like to read the bill. Please can you bring me the bill." WHO THE BLOODY DEVIL LIKES TO READ A BILL?! i couldn't believe it. i think inside they were laughing so hard they could explode. never mind.

pui wia treated mavarick and me to a ramen dinner near hotel grand central. wonderful stuff. even more wonderful, i shared a cab with her back home. i'm so gonna miss her, cos she's not going to carry on the next term of german.