here comes the end of 2006.. welcome 2007..

i must say this year has gone by in a flash.. i guess it felt faster than ever cos i spent a good part of it overseas and time spent overseas juz feels like a dream now.. unreal..

and as usual i like to do those customary recaps at the end of the year.. what have i done? what have i learnt? what resolutions?

well, the greatest 'achievement' this year would definitely be going away for exchange in Taipei.. 5 whole months away from home.. Taiwan is like familiar, yet unfamiliar place.. we see so much of it on TV but still i dunno much abt the country beyond that..

but thru the exchange, i've definitely learnt more about myself, know what is truly independent (can't even go home for the weekends u know..), appreciate my friends, family and country more, tried many new things, got to know frens from HK and Taiwan, improved my Mandarin, travelled a good portion of Taiwan, understand Taiwan better, understand the importance of having a global outlook and many many more... it's quite a self-discovery process that I went thru and it was really an awesome experience.. of cos it was not 100% smooth-sailing and there were the down moments but I would still go for it again.. so i really really recommend anyone who has the chance to go out and see the world and Singapore from another angle..

other than the exchange, everything else that i did pales in comparison.. after settling into life back in Singapore, my life feels very much routinised.. going to school on weekdays, going to work on weekends.. it's so fun to be able to plan weekend getaways and round-the-island trips.. i simply adore planning my own trip cos the sense of satisfaction is so much better and also i would truly look forward to going on those trips.. there's always so much to do in Singapore that trips would get postponed and in the end cancelled.. argh!

life in yr 3 as an ebm-er has been pretty good so far.. i'm actually enjoying it.. but then u also know the importance of having good group mates, and learn to appreciate them when you actually find them... and also getting to know a lot of ppl that i hardly interact with before this.. CS is so small and yet i must say there are still a lot of ppl that i dun really know.. and now that we are divided into out divisions, it's quite hard to get to knoe those outside EBM liaoz..
then taking audio and video together is not as bad as i thought it would be.. i survived it and thought that my results are not too bad either.. next up is internship at mediacorp 958 and i pray hard that i'll be enjoying my time there..

2006 is indeed a fruitful year.. a year that is really relaxing for the first part and really busy for the second part.. i still can't believe that it's already the 31st and i'm going to start work in 3 days! bye 2006!

明けましておめでとうございます！　良い２００７年を！
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND HAVE A GOOD 2007 AHEAD!

被骗

我被邮局骗了。

原来六毛钱的邮票是足够我寄卡片到台湾的，而且只需五天就可以收到。

希望香港和英国的朋友也可以顺利收到卡片。

可能寄到日本其实也不需要一元一角那么多。

总是被邮局骗。

postage charges

i knoe the postal charges increased but din know it increased that much..

now it costs 65cents to send to taiwan and hong kong.. and $1.10 to send to japan and europe.. god.. and cos i lazy to go out early before the post offices closed today and also not knowing that SAM machines no longer haf the weigh mail function, i had to guess the postage which resulted in my underestimation.. looks like my mails are going to reach my frens via sea instead then..

so Siok, Christine, Iris, 思惟 and 婉瑜... you all will have to wait for a while before my Christmas cards are going to reach you!! so sorry..

and thanks Siok, Christine and Iris-> I received your Christmas cards!
Christine-> god your card is noisy.. haha but i like..

to everyone else out there..

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

somehow i've always liked christmas cos it;s the season of giving.. and i guess also cos my bro's birthday falls on christmas and we'll always have some family gathering which i always love! and of cos there are the presents (tho i do get less of them as i grow older..) still the christmas mood is joyous and ppl are generally kinder during this time of the year you see.. so ppl get out and enjoy this season of joy!

________

yesterday was my last official day working at IRO and all of us were treated to an organic lunch at this place called Bollywood Veggies.. it's an organic farm and it's a pretty cool place.. the IRO director drove us there and the ride there felt so surreal.. like we were travelling out of Singapore and we even saw a couple stopping in the middle of the highway to take wedding photos.. But it would be hard to get there without a car cos it's located in ulu Lim Chu Kang.. where the army camps and cemetaries are.. but i do think that there's a shuttle bus there every hour.. will definitely wanna go back there for a little tour of the farm.. feels like kampong with good fresh air..

anyway also like to say that the staff at IRO have been really great to us.. only discovered the wild side to them over lunch that day.. the pranks they do in uni, the things they say are so hilarious.. even tho the work can get monotaneous at times.. at least the ppl there are nice which made it a lot better..

36 christmas cum farewell party!

after the gruelling competition and now that i'm officially off work.. time to do some back tracking.. i was so tired yesterday at work that i was falling asleep and my head was hurting me.. din realise playing darts could be so draining..

anyway.. 36 had our annual christmas party on the 20th.. it was also meant as a farewell for those leaving the hall for GIP/overseas attachment/internship/just moving out... tho not everyone was around but most ppl where there and there was a lot.. and i mean A LOT of food.. jason n joanne do know how to cook.. very good dinner and many drinks later.. we are as usual fooling around..

click here for pix (and videos.. :P)

i guess it's really fate that brought this group of ppl together under the same roof of 36.. there were those that loved our spirits and joined the 36 family later but still we live in lotsa fun and laughter and sometimes a lot of noise too.. it's a pity that this past semester we din get together as much.. cos there's no more can 3 that we can go to together for our mass dinner.. and also cos everyone is busy with their own stuff.. still it's nice to know that there are so many frens around and that no one can qi1 fu4 us.. hahaha..

it's sad that so many of us are moving out next sem and after that many of them are also graduating already.. time passes, things change, ppl move on.. but we muz let the spirit live on ok? muz meet up often, do the usual crappy, crazy stuff we do and juz haf fun! even if i move back to 36 after my PI, i guess everything will be different.. i will def miss all of you.. every single one!

dart IH SILVER!!!

yeah!!! my first (and prob last) IH medal.. hmm act i think i had a swimming silver in yr1.. but somehow it just doesn't feel as good as this... haha..

it might be a silver, but i think it's already as good as GOLD for me.. went there with no expectations, so the happiness is even more... guess we are an experienced team so it's no doubt that we are among the tops.. i've believed at the bottom of my heart that we cn definitely reach semis.. finals was a PLUS! of course it's good that we won SILVER while i was the captain (but i must say that i did not really fulfill all the responsibilities of being a captain... do feel very sorry about it) must really thank the team cos i think they are really really great.. i am prob the weakest player so they are the ones that made it possible -> Shawn, Dickson,Alvin n Angeline..

there's also special special thanks to the official sponsor of hall 7 darts IH-> bob. he's like the greatest manager you can ever get and he sponsored 2 dozen cans of beer for the guys.. that must have done it to put them in good form for us to progress so far.. haha.. and also he's the one that sets up the boards everyday for training and basically i think he's the pillar behind the team this time! he chose the gold coloured team flights, so either way hall 7 darts team already had gold in us.. haha! BIG THANKS!

act before this, i was really looking forward to the end of darts IH.. cos it was getting bothersome to go for training and also the title of captain was really putting strains on me cos i really dunno wat is expected of me and wat i should do.. i know i had to do sth but i juz dunno wat.. so i juz kinda feel bad abt it.. i did not set any goal for the team cos i know that they are all senior and experienced enough to just be left to do their own thing.. and perhaps it's this that act worked for us.. not trying too hard just do our best and no stress.. hope at the end of it everyone enjoyed the IH experience.. as much as it's a chore going down to training sometimes, once i get started it's act fun to be playing those games with the guys (esp when i get to beat them.. haha).. also ultimately at IH knowing that my trainings had paid off.. tian1-ing ppl, beating ppl by 3-0, checking out my double ones and having 1 dart check-outs.. of cos i also got beaten 3-0 but luckily i nv get tian-ed.. haha..

IH is definitely an integral part of hall life i guess.. i dun think you can say that u've experienced hall life until u trained and took part in an IH game.. i'm glad i took up darts, i'm glad i represented my hall, i'm glad i left hall with a silver medal to my name.. thanks darts team 2007 for all the memories!

Sneak peak...

The winning team! (shawn, alvin, angeline, me and dickson) Yeah! *peace*

group b's score.. hall 7 was top of the group and moved on to the semis.. and then finals! (this is a confusing chart to follow, really)

The stressful playing arena.. games in progress.. *check-in* *check-out*

Celebrations at Sakae Sushi.. Look at the sizes of the guys and you know why we can clear so many dishes.. Ha!

Formula to success: Golden dart flights and lots of beer!

More photos here.

stomach pain pain

greedy me must have eaten too much at the buffet just now and am suffering from stomachache right now.. tho i must say that Sakura buffet is not exactly the most delicious buffet around..hmm.. but it was well earned dinner i guess and a treat from the lao shis at hui guan for the birthday video that i did.. i'm really really glad that everyone liked the video cos i really did put in quite a bit of effort, spending every night after work for a whole week to do that video.. and strictly speaking that is really a video i can call my own cos i made all the editing decisions myself, without anyone's help (well other than the shooting of the footages lah..), so i'm really proud of that too.. :P

ok enough bragging.. i guess there's a lot to update cos it's really been some time since i last blogged.. turn out that holidays (as always) is not exactly much slacker than school days.. my typical day goes like this the past week..

wake up.work.lunch.work.off work.nap.watch goong.dinner.watch tv.darts training.watch goong.sleep

and with this routine, i managed to finally finish Goong! Yeah it's a good show... cos i really feel irritated at what's happening to the characters, wanna kill someone in the show and loved the OST. See, Korean dramas have interesting plots (actually it's juz the usual 4-way relationship and a evil/irritating female character), beautiful sets and costumes and also a great sound track to go with it.. and not forgetting chio and yan dao casts... no wonder they can succeed internationally.. when can Singapore's drama ever make it? i'm really hoping for that day.. tho i do believe that sg's shows are pretty favoured by chinese in malaysia..

next thing.. Diya made it to the next round of Superstar!!! really happy for her.. but i can really see the discrepancy in standard between the male and female contestants.. the overall standard for the males are really a notch better than the females.. so it looks like it's going to be more trips to Mediacorp and more calls to make.. tho i'm going to commute to Mediacorp everyday from Jan next year anyway.. hmm.. kinda looking forward to that actually.. just wan a change of environment.. and really pray that i'm going to like it.. i realised that i do get bored easily doing repetitive things and just sitting around.. like my current job.. i mean the people there are really really nice and all but me having to stay put in that chair staring at the computer all the time actually kinda bored me out.. tat's why i'm actually glad that it's going to end soon.. and i'm positive i'll die doing an office job..

looking at my schedule, i'm not really going to get any long breaks before I start work next Jan. My trip will nv materialize liao... sigh.. i actually really really wanna go on a holiday to somewhere.. anywhere.. but things just keeps popping up and I just have the habit of taking many things up as long as ppl ask I'll prob say yes to it.. so schedule for next 2 weeks looks like this..

1. last 3 days of work at IRO
2. Darts IHRG
3. blk 36 christmas cum farewell party for those leaving (for exchange, internship or just moving out)
4. maybe meet up JC frens
5. do recording for iGlobal07 after Christmas
6. go on shoot for documentary on last painter of Haw Par Villa

and i still need to pack and move out of hall.. that's like a lot of things to be done.. there's so much things going on sometimes i think that i;m doing everything with only half my heart.. i must learn to put my whole heart into what i'm doing.. cos i'm just going to regret it afterwards if it's half-hearted work cos I'll know that I won't be proud of it in the end...

ok i'm just babbling.. on and on..

7th Dec 2006

8:10 am	Wake up (tho most unwillingly)
9:00 am	Report for work
1:30pm	Break for lunch
2:30pm	Return to office to continue work
5:50pm	Leave office
6:10pm	Reach hall. Start to clean up room - clean ceiling fan, change bedsheets, wash laundry
6:40pm	Start to edit video
7:30pm	Have dinner in Comm Hall
8:00pm	Rush back to watch Superstar (meanwhile continue to do editing)
9:00pm	Go for darts training
10:00pm	Return to watch pilot show (still editing)
11:00pm	Go back to darts training
12:30am	Return from training. Continue to edit video
1:45am	Bathe
NOW	Still editing...

It amazes me how packed my day is... And it's the holidays...