Object of the day:
cough drops: drowsy
YAWN!
tired for most of the day, deprived of my teh peng, and what have you... but at least i could eat breakfast at about 8.30am in the morning.
but it has been a rather good HL subject day, finished by Ludlam book, seen many IOP presentations (and by the way the standard is still quite high at this current point), laughed at the sometimes sheer stupidity of Private Bollocks, and the magnitude of the humour.
Recesses were basically spent playing CS and about 3 rounds of bridge, rather exciting day for all of us playing.
Photog installation, and I now have a shiny (but scratched badge) announcing "PHOTOGRAPHER". O well. quite nice. buffet was good, and food snapped up in about 20 minutes flat. Sandwiches were nice.. but I fear I am eating a bit too much.
I have been sleeping for quite some time since I came home.. but at least point form analysis on the Naturalist thing is done already.. so goodnight.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Viagra: Full of vitality
Indian diet: FAT
Man's strap: Breasts
yeah well... i am feeling pretty weird now. what i did was i just tried doing History EE research, which just drove me crazy, and i am starting to realise that all these words above potentially describe me..
So the day began with music, like not much, and while others were suffering (muahahaha!!), we were just enjoying ourselves with (something that resembles) a free period, which means sitting down doing nothing. And what did I do? sit down and translate some stuff from english to chinese which is virtually difficult since some words cannot be reflected in Chinese easily. well, suffer then.
Finish it within one hour, thankfully, at least i would not need to spend my recess trying to dissect information into small pieces, then i try to enjoy myself with some Pro Evo soccer (which I know Fab is pretty hung up on now) and with a laggy commentary that gets rather irritating after a while (all you might just use that to describe me.. o well..) but revert to CS after like 20 minutes, com lag, restart. O well, the mouse has been unused for quite some time, no wonder it is in that sort of state.
At least after one week of holiday, we have some sort of enjoyment for ourselves, prevents me from going insane at times. TOK lecture was good, although i did spend some time drawing my fantasy car (which i know is pretty childish and even more ironic since it is just a vintage car) but well, TOK lecture makes a lot of sense, just that i think it is more of a history lecture than of a TOK one... but jolly good anyway.
Chem and well... what can i say.
Chinese.. miss group presentation by 15 minutes, and i think it was rather unexpected of that to happen. though the Q and A session was getting a bit idiotic after a while. nearly found myself falling asleep, still trying to wrap up my own preparations.
Recess and another round of CS, and the CS pple flex their muscles in the game, leaving me sometimes in awe, and well, thanks to the comhoggers (I mean in a goodway), I managed to play some bridge (kill Gareth please). 1 spades and 4 diamonds. well that was fun. There was no way Gareth could win when I had about 9 diamonds in my hand. So recess ends on a high note for me, especially since i havent played bridge for 1 week and yes, bridge withdrawal syptoms
Tired, especially since it is the end of the day, drag myself to the other end of the building for EE. Was a rather productive session, and I meet 2 of my EE teachers in 30 minutes and the question is still in the making, although i fear my potential question is already overdone/overdeon (no just kidding) but well.. at least its something to work on for the next erm... 7 months?
losing consciousness now so i bet its time to sleep. can hear my brain snore and make funny dreams.. just like last night
(man utd academic scholarships for the win.:)
Indian diet: FAT
Man's strap: Breasts
yeah well... i am feeling pretty weird now. what i did was i just tried doing History EE research, which just drove me crazy, and i am starting to realise that all these words above potentially describe me..
So the day began with music, like not much, and while others were suffering (muahahaha!!), we were just enjoying ourselves with (something that resembles) a free period, which means sitting down doing nothing. And what did I do? sit down and translate some stuff from english to chinese which is virtually difficult since some words cannot be reflected in Chinese easily. well, suffer then.
Finish it within one hour, thankfully, at least i would not need to spend my recess trying to dissect information into small pieces, then i try to enjoy myself with some Pro Evo soccer (which I know Fab is pretty hung up on now) and with a laggy commentary that gets rather irritating after a while (all you might just use that to describe me.. o well..) but revert to CS after like 20 minutes, com lag, restart. O well, the mouse has been unused for quite some time, no wonder it is in that sort of state.
At least after one week of holiday, we have some sort of enjoyment for ourselves, prevents me from going insane at times. TOK lecture was good, although i did spend some time drawing my fantasy car (which i know is pretty childish and even more ironic since it is just a vintage car) but well, TOK lecture makes a lot of sense, just that i think it is more of a history lecture than of a TOK one... but jolly good anyway.
Chem and well... what can i say.
Chinese.. miss group presentation by 15 minutes, and i think it was rather unexpected of that to happen. though the Q and A session was getting a bit idiotic after a while. nearly found myself falling asleep, still trying to wrap up my own preparations.
Recess and another round of CS, and the CS pple flex their muscles in the game, leaving me sometimes in awe, and well, thanks to the comhoggers (I mean in a goodway), I managed to play some bridge (kill Gareth please). 1 spades and 4 diamonds. well that was fun. There was no way Gareth could win when I had about 9 diamonds in my hand. So recess ends on a high note for me, especially since i havent played bridge for 1 week and yes, bridge withdrawal syptoms
Tired, especially since it is the end of the day, drag myself to the other end of the building for EE. Was a rather productive session, and I meet 2 of my EE teachers in 30 minutes and the question is still in the making, although i fear my potential question is already overdone/overdeon (no just kidding) but well.. at least its something to work on for the next erm... 7 months?
losing consciousness now so i bet its time to sleep. can hear my brain snore and make funny dreams.. just like last night
(man utd academic scholarships for the win.:)
Friday, August 10, 2007
anyway my post got deleted again so here is the repeat telecast.
This year's parade was fascinating. better than the previous years editions. simply because the organisers had more stuff to work with, had a nice backdrop and could pull off special stunts. simply mesmerizing.
so the day was spent trying to unsuccessfully do prose and poetry because i had no clue how to approach it, then played baseball soccer and soccer before watching the parade. kind of unproductive. went over to my neighbour's house for steamboat, breaking years of tradition of remaining at home.
this years national day celebrations at Queenstown makes me realise something. Children are one loyal bunch. No matter what house or school or team you make them support, they will remain loyal to it. so who had the loudest house cheers at the One ACS event? the kids. The statement is 2 fold
1) Children are loyal
2) Children hardly question your authority
So then again, no wonder Fascists regimes of
of course arguments evolve over time. this is probably almost irrelevant to our society and others, since we are in peacetime, but there is no doubt that children make good soldiers.
goodbye to an unproductive hol...
(you are finally seeing the unmicrosoft word version of this:)
Sunday, August 05, 2007
And so a weekend passes by just like that and many people ask.. So what happened to the weekend.
Today was pretty simple. I woke up late to compensate for the sleep lost on Saturday. Did my chem prac 11 that I supposedly owed Dalbot (and by the way, he is really pissing me off big time). My brother intends to buy a piece of property soon, so we went to La Casa to look at the layouts. I was throughly impressed, and if you look at the layout of each of the flats, it is really very nice. Coupled with the beautiful Karaoke room with steam jaccuzis and nice pools, a $600 K condo is really worth it, with a monthly maintainence fee of $200. I suppose I do miss condo facilities, afterall, I am staying in a landed property with no KTV room. If my brother ever buys it, I will be the first to exploit these properties. I swear.
But anyway, FOP on Friday was good. Not fantastic, but good. Where on earth in SIngapore can you get a solid 2 hours of praise and worship broken into 2 installments. Atmosphere was good for a Friday night, but the only thing worth considering was the neighbourhood that the SIS is located in. At night, the neighbourhood is swarmed with prostitutes and what have you, showing off rather shamelessly. Yea kill me please.
Tonight is the big showdown between Man Utd and Chelsea. My gut feeling tells me Man Utd to win, and this does not usually fail me. Going for a 2-0 win over Chelsea. A slight disappointment with F1 today, with Raikkonen taking 2nd only, Felipe Massa on 14th. I believe it was the wrong strategy for Massa, as his car was overly loaded with petrol that slowed him down too much,
Kick of beckons now.
Today was pretty simple. I woke up late to compensate for the sleep lost on Saturday. Did my chem prac 11 that I supposedly owed Dalbot (and by the way, he is really pissing me off big time). My brother intends to buy a piece of property soon, so we went to La Casa to look at the layouts. I was throughly impressed, and if you look at the layout of each of the flats, it is really very nice. Coupled with the beautiful Karaoke room with steam jaccuzis and nice pools, a $600 K condo is really worth it, with a monthly maintainence fee of $200. I suppose I do miss condo facilities, afterall, I am staying in a landed property with no KTV room. If my brother ever buys it, I will be the first to exploit these properties. I swear.
But anyway, FOP on Friday was good. Not fantastic, but good. Where on earth in SIngapore can you get a solid 2 hours of praise and worship broken into 2 installments. Atmosphere was good for a Friday night, but the only thing worth considering was the neighbourhood that the SIS is located in. At night, the neighbourhood is swarmed with prostitutes and what have you, showing off rather shamelessly. Yea kill me please.
Tonight is the big showdown between Man Utd and Chelsea. My gut feeling tells me Man Utd to win, and this does not usually fail me. Going for a 2-0 win over Chelsea. A slight disappointment with F1 today, with Raikkonen taking 2nd only, Felipe Massa on 14th. I believe it was the wrong strategy for Massa, as his car was overly loaded with petrol that slowed him down too much,
Kick of beckons now.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday was fun, and we had the luxury of laughing at an announcement made during chapel about travel plans. If you guys are going to "poetry farms" (poultry farms)... then everyone bursts out laughing. I bet DP 3 did not even realise it.
But well I have the luxury of blogging now since I have finished my IOP. And well, chem test, was ah.. not bad. the only problem was the enthalpy change, which i mixed up the order of finding the final enthalpy, though I knew how to do the question. Today must have passed quite fast for me, as history was a period spent on doing admin stuff and what have you... Music can be considered a free period, though at times the scratchy music played by the string quartet (and especially Ying Hao) was irritating at times.. but otherwise ok
And so Leon ends a day on another high note, but wondering whether to worry for tomorrow's IOP after massively changing the title of my presentation at least 3 times today. So thats about it for today. Stick around for tomorrow. I can assure you that there will be no lame jokes lest i really become unable to walk.
But well I have the luxury of blogging now since I have finished my IOP. And well, chem test, was ah.. not bad. the only problem was the enthalpy change, which i mixed up the order of finding the final enthalpy, though I knew how to do the question. Today must have passed quite fast for me, as history was a period spent on doing admin stuff and what have you... Music can be considered a free period, though at times the scratchy music played by the string quartet (and especially Ying Hao) was irritating at times.. but otherwise ok
And so Leon ends a day on another high note, but wondering whether to worry for tomorrow's IOP after massively changing the title of my presentation at least 3 times today. So thats about it for today. Stick around for tomorrow. I can assure you that there will be no lame jokes lest i really become unable to walk.
Friday, July 27, 2007
I suppose PE yesterday was real fun...
I really wanted to play badminton at first, out of somewhat desperation and the need to further to improve my skills. But we almost landed up playing Ultinate Frisbee once more for 3 weeks in a row. I was about to protest this move when suddenly they decided to change the game to floorball. Now I did not know what floorball was, nor did I have any interest in the game when I first heard of it. All I wanted to do was to go and play badminton. But nevertheless I stayed behind because I might pick up something new if I stayed behind and had a chance to learn something.
I somewhat realised that by the end of the PE lessons I really had no regrets staying behind. Floorball was really fun and trying to stop all those mad shots were fun. Made some decent saves along the way but grazed my knee after diving a bit too much to stop the balls from going in. But really, I was nervous when I saw the ball approaching the football goalpost line. It was really scary.
Kiran's lesson after that... and I really felt.. well... bored...
I nearly slept but thankfully, a music free period and we can watch all those gay homosexual stuff during PC, homosexual referring to 12 Night, where God! all the characters are gay I swear.
But that rounded off a pretty good day. Badminton at 6.30 with my neighbour and I feel a bit more prepared for the weekend ahead. Joy.
I really wanted to play badminton at first, out of somewhat desperation and the need to further to improve my skills. But we almost landed up playing Ultinate Frisbee once more for 3 weeks in a row. I was about to protest this move when suddenly they decided to change the game to floorball. Now I did not know what floorball was, nor did I have any interest in the game when I first heard of it. All I wanted to do was to go and play badminton. But nevertheless I stayed behind because I might pick up something new if I stayed behind and had a chance to learn something.
I somewhat realised that by the end of the PE lessons I really had no regrets staying behind. Floorball was really fun and trying to stop all those mad shots were fun. Made some decent saves along the way but grazed my knee after diving a bit too much to stop the balls from going in. But really, I was nervous when I saw the ball approaching the football goalpost line. It was really scary.
Kiran's lesson after that... and I really felt.. well... bored...
I nearly slept but thankfully, a music free period and we can watch all those gay homosexual stuff during PC, homosexual referring to 12 Night, where God! all the characters are gay I swear.
But that rounded off a pretty good day. Badminton at 6.30 with my neighbour and I feel a bit more prepared for the weekend ahead. Joy.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
feeling rather sad now because considering my number of points, it's quite pathetic really.
should have got at least another 3 more points. 2 for music and 1 for math.
Sickening. i miss math 6 points by one mark out of 90.
chem.. irritating subject. shld have got at least another point.
29 is pathetic. can do better than that. but better than last year at least.
should have got at least another 3 more points. 2 for music and 1 for math.
Sickening. i miss math 6 points by one mark out of 90.
chem.. irritating subject. shld have got at least another point.
29 is pathetic. can do better than that. but better than last year at least.
Friday, July 13, 2007
What a horrid day... i mean like we had a hell a lot of CAS and AEF forms to submit as well as proposal forms.
And Chemistry file. ARgh! Chemistry was as usual, a boring lesson over and over again. Dalbot did not explicitly want my file, so I left it under my table.
Then math. Fraser leaves for the Math Studies class, and I feel kind of sad as our class is down by one. Dalbot, the ******* comes in and asks whether he could see me for a bit. Probably hunting me down for my chem file which took me 30 minutes in the morning to file. So I give it to him, followed by him asking me a few questions about my prac file and where chem prac 1 was and blah blah. Then he tells me that he called my mother to bring the file in just because I did not give it to him in the morning. What an idiot.
Recess follows, and I had to go to the library to print out all the CAS forms. At the same time, I pay my library funds, only to find out that $2.50 had lumped to $4.20. I was partially broke by the end of the day.
By God's grace I pull through HL 3, English, 12th Night. Struggling to understand the book and I really must read it soon. Paper review and I listen to what the prose was about and how to get a higher mark possibly for the paper, but mine was really the poem. Find out that my points were not really too different from the marker, and it was probably organisational failure that resulted in my 60% which of course would leave me quite disappointed at the end as the points were really a repetition.
And Chemistry file. ARgh! Chemistry was as usual, a boring lesson over and over again. Dalbot did not explicitly want my file, so I left it under my table.
Then math. Fraser leaves for the Math Studies class, and I feel kind of sad as our class is down by one. Dalbot, the ******* comes in and asks whether he could see me for a bit. Probably hunting me down for my chem file which took me 30 minutes in the morning to file. So I give it to him, followed by him asking me a few questions about my prac file and where chem prac 1 was and blah blah. Then he tells me that he called my mother to bring the file in just because I did not give it to him in the morning. What an idiot.
Recess follows, and I had to go to the library to print out all the CAS forms. At the same time, I pay my library funds, only to find out that $2.50 had lumped to $4.20. I was partially broke by the end of the day.
By God's grace I pull through HL 3, English, 12th Night. Struggling to understand the book and I really must read it soon. Paper review and I listen to what the prose was about and how to get a higher mark possibly for the paper, but mine was really the poem. Find out that my points were not really too different from the marker, and it was probably organisational failure that resulted in my 60% which of course would leave me quite disappointed at the end as the points were really a repetition.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Mingle2 - Online Dating
Funny dream 2 nights ago. Fab on a motorcycle, Yang Jian wearing a black shirt. I take a lift down to Nirvana, then press on a speaker button and insist that i go back to earth...
Lol.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
07.07.07
Live Earth Day! CLU13 moves to Sentosa!
As a matter of fact, I think most of us enjoyed ourselves quite a lot today. Even with the amount of work piling up back home, we managed to put all of these behind us and enjoy ourselves for some time at least.
Beginning with my tutor giving me a lift to Botanic at like 2.30. I was the first to arrive there and was quite sian to find that the toilets were nowhere near me. So take a walk down to Gleaneagles Hospital to take a leak and at the same time, find some food. I lugged the 3kg worth of soft drinks down to the Gardens, hoping that at least someone brought cups and ice so at least we would have some mode to drink in.
At about 3 I see Mich and Yang Jian slowly streaming in, by then I had been waiting rather pointlessly under the hot sun. The Chicken pies were good (and cheap considering Delifrance overprices their food and I bought one for $1.35), but couldnt satisfy my hunger, so I bought some ice cream. You know like Botannic is the best place to jaywalk, and sometimes i cant help but to beat the red light.
As I would have foreseen, almost no one wore green, and Han An came in that silly Jesus shirt again, not that I am anti-Christ, but he wears it a bit to often, since Sec One. Taking bets really works. And as we find a place to settle down, we debate, finally settling for a spot under the tree.
The day revolves pretty much around food, bridge and soccer. Playing just left me a bit too tired and the food was just so good. By dinner I was quite full. But the whole time we were there it was just bridge, and more bridge, with my previous hopes of winning 4 and above coming to pass, considering my past win loss record. It's much better now except for the occasional mistake now and then.
Dinner was a quick affair and I really did not feel like eating. Debate between Masala and Char Siew for me. Char Siew wins. Masala too ex. but portion rather big. Rather filling, and Han An asks everyone whether they want soup. lotus soup. pretty decent, but hard to eat.
Going home was a sad affair. After such a nice day, we had to break off to our own homeworks and what have you. Chris, Fab, Han An and I start making our way to the MRT station by taking a bus. Quite a fun affair, singing all the way to MRT station. Was even more sad when Fab was taking the other line, Chris dropping at Bishan, Han An dropping at Yio Chu Kang.
So it was back to work. And once again, CLU13 prevails. Always.
Live Earth Day! CLU13 moves to Sentosa!
As a matter of fact, I think most of us enjoyed ourselves quite a lot today. Even with the amount of work piling up back home, we managed to put all of these behind us and enjoy ourselves for some time at least.
Beginning with my tutor giving me a lift to Botanic at like 2.30. I was the first to arrive there and was quite sian to find that the toilets were nowhere near me. So take a walk down to Gleaneagles Hospital to take a leak and at the same time, find some food. I lugged the 3kg worth of soft drinks down to the Gardens, hoping that at least someone brought cups and ice so at least we would have some mode to drink in.
At about 3 I see Mich and Yang Jian slowly streaming in, by then I had been waiting rather pointlessly under the hot sun. The Chicken pies were good (and cheap considering Delifrance overprices their food and I bought one for $1.35), but couldnt satisfy my hunger, so I bought some ice cream. You know like Botannic is the best place to jaywalk, and sometimes i cant help but to beat the red light.
As I would have foreseen, almost no one wore green, and Han An came in that silly Jesus shirt again, not that I am anti-Christ, but he wears it a bit to often, since Sec One. Taking bets really works. And as we find a place to settle down, we debate, finally settling for a spot under the tree.
The day revolves pretty much around food, bridge and soccer. Playing just left me a bit too tired and the food was just so good. By dinner I was quite full. But the whole time we were there it was just bridge, and more bridge, with my previous hopes of winning 4 and above coming to pass, considering my past win loss record. It's much better now except for the occasional mistake now and then.
Dinner was a quick affair and I really did not feel like eating. Debate between Masala and Char Siew for me. Char Siew wins. Masala too ex. but portion rather big. Rather filling, and Han An asks everyone whether they want soup. lotus soup. pretty decent, but hard to eat.
Going home was a sad affair. After such a nice day, we had to break off to our own homeworks and what have you. Chris, Fab, Han An and I start making our way to the MRT station by taking a bus. Quite a fun affair, singing all the way to MRT station. Was even more sad when Fab was taking the other line, Chris dropping at Bishan, Han An dropping at Yio Chu Kang.
So it was back to work. And once again, CLU13 prevails. Always.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
freedom comes at a price.
for which you pay.
8 hours a day
Market price $48
1 hour $6
but come again knowledge is priceless
FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, there's Mastercard.
lol... i am being lame...
but anyways, Tok catches up with me, all the undone homework back to haunt me. So Fab, stop asking for pics a while would you? i still need to change the blog design...
for which you pay.
8 hours a day
Market price $48
1 hour $6
but come again knowledge is priceless
FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, there's Mastercard.
lol... i am being lame...
but anyways, Tok catches up with me, all the undone homework back to haunt me. So Fab, stop asking for pics a while would you? i still need to change the blog design...
Monday, July 02, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
1 month since we have come back from Chiangmai. Still remember the good times that all of us had, and the uncommon friendship displayed by many just fills my heart with joy.
It has been one month. Since then, a lot of things have changed.
1) Exam period.
Who would have known that when school reopens, we would have a test
2) More Work.
As much as we want to live in a fantasy world of Chiangmai, we cannot. We have to live on.
Good memories will forever be with me as far as this trip was concerned.
It has been one month. Since then, a lot of things have changed.
1) Exam period.
Who would have known that when school reopens, we would have a test
2) More Work.
As much as we want to live in a fantasy world of Chiangmai, we cannot. We have to live on.
Good memories will forever be with me as far as this trip was concerned.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Ho says:
you have a very interesting perspective
tPL #18
yea
Ho says:
i guess photography lets you see through another's priorities
(nature on modern backdrop)
photography has been forcing me to look at something from nothing... where not possible... look through the pin-hole of the camera and you would probably find some inspiration. i guess that's the most interesting thing about having a dSLR, looking through its lens, and well.... it's just fun.
so what did I do today?
nothing.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
LINKS FOR PICS UP!!!
i'll be moving my diary of Thailand to www.lionleon.blogspot.com soon to facilitate easier reading and edits possibly...
i'll be moving my diary of Thailand to www.lionleon.blogspot.com soon to facilitate easier reading and edits possibly...
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Day 4 to 6 here
Day 4:
Woke up early as usual, chicken fried rice for breakfast, problems waking up earlier, since the previous night we slept quite late, and there were people making a hell a lot of noise on the 5th floor. So we left early, started the 1 hour plus journey to the elephant conservation centre. I managed to sleep for the journey, but after a while, Vicks and Yang Jian started taking pics of me sleeping. Yeah so i was awaken, and for the revenge, started taking pics of Vicks with flash and without flash, and her sleep was disrupted, much to my pleasure. The mountain scenery was rather similar to that of the Malaysian highway. When we arrived, I used the toilet first, pretty revolting experience, and we took a shuttle bus for our elephant ride. It was nice ad bumpy. Elephants are rather scary when they climb up a semi hill and it was scary. Yang Jian and Fab wanted to film some funny documentary on the elephants, pretty funny, but never materialised. Time for the elephants to shower and we saw many apprentices getting the elephants to shower. The elephants were rather cute, blowing water all over the place and seeing the daughter helping her mother to bathe was an amusing sight. It was the elephant show next and it pained me to see the elephants like primary school kids, trunks to tails and in chains. But it was nice to see the elephant beating the drums using its trunk. During the show I bought an ice cream, and of course, the sawadee-kaaaaaaaaaaaaa (with a sexual tone) started from here. But I must say the elephants are rather talented artists and can really draw. We then left to see the young elephant and her mother at the hospital. Saw a infant naked baby girl. Not a pretty sight. I managed to acquire a glass sprite bottle, but broke it before it could even get to Singapore. Lunch at a restaurant run by a Singaporean, remarking to me that the black sauce in Singapore was much better than the 5 star black sauce in Thailand. He bought it from Ang Moh, a big mart that my family goes to every weekend. Mr Tham was saying that he ate there once a week because he missed Singapore food. Well then we went shopping at the Airport mall, everything overpriced, and nothing much. For a while, a group of us were considering to watch Pirates at the cinema, but wth, lack of response, so we went to the arcade where I played Pro Evo with Fab. Super boring place, so we just walked around, bought some cheap ice-cream from Dairy Cream, (and i managed to get my brother a Tasmanian Devil)then to KFC. Stupid dinner, not nice la... we were all full already. At night it was the Sunday Cultural Walk. Many stuff to buy. I was looking at some nice canvas pics but it was a bit too expensive for me at 500 Baht. But I managed to buy a model fender guitar and 2 nice fans. There were a lot of stuff to buy but did not have enough time to walk through, thanks to the people who said shop for 1 hour only... So then we went back to the hostel with all our buys... Zhang bought a canvas painting, then we went back to the hostel. It was really amusing to see Zhang pack. really. I broke that dammed Sprite bottle in the Hostel and I really loved it so much but... ohohoh!!!
Day 5:
So the not so enjoyable part comes, checking out of our comfortable ho(s)tel to the not-so-known log cabins. Like would it have a mama shop with nice toilets and mini-bar? For the 1st time in 5 days i am glad I brought my towel. I think I was one of the last to check out and I was stressed since I had 3 plastic bags in addition to all those to my 3 other bags to carry. Made it down 5 mins late for breakfast and realised that a lot of people had not come down just yet. After breakfast, more bridge, and it ended up with me winning some sets and losing a lot. Went to Wavee coffee to get some Kiwi ice boom, but arghhh@#$%!$$$!!! got wind in the stomach after that and for the first time in a long time, I was car/van sick. By the time we got to Freedom Wheelchairs, I severly regretted my decision to even try that dammed juice. We adjourn to a stuffy, hot upper level and that was not really helping. Thanks to Chong Wee for giving me the Poh Chai Yun, the pill to help stomache. And yes, I was still well enough to emphatise with those disabled people, and how it was a sort of social stigma around them. The wheelchair designer was really talented, and how he could make his own motorcycle to take him around wherever he needed to go. Then the staff showed us more about how to make a wheelchair, and sometimes we do not realise how poor some of these people are and they cannot even afford a wheelchair, so I was thankful that at least a portion of the funds could help the foundation to make more wheelchairs. Some of us then tried to sit in a wheelchair and move ourselves around. Quite fun. But I suppose your hands would ache after a while. Freedom of movement is not really an option in Chiangmai, with hardly any pedestrian crossings for the disabled or toilets or lifts. We then go for lunch, and I am glad that I was feeling much better since I had tried to stay in the shade for a while until I felt better and it was going to be a good lunch. Green curry with tang hoon all and a menu that varies no better where we go. Some of us sit in the swing next to the restaurant after lunch, and I attempt to play chess with Daryl, but times up, as I try to set up the pieces, it's goodbye. The mango with sticky rice was fantastic and so was the green curry, so I brought 3 packets of green curry home. We go back to the hostel for the very last time to load up our luggages, and using this last chance, I buy more potato chips and chewing gum. After loading up, we leave for the highlands. Try to get some sleep during this time but it was disrupted when we stopped by the Queen's shopping arena. Many were like @#$%@ (add your swear here) like so many stops. So i grab one strawberry ice cream and very tempted to buy tea leaves but I say, forget it. Like why would I want to get tea leaves. We then move on again, expecting to wake up only when we reach the destination. Crap. We stop at a waterfall and more swearing again, Wesely making his point about stupid Mike Hock and why we have to stop here but by the end I think most of us were converted as the waterfall was rather peaceful and it was nice for me to have a quick dip in water to bring back my sanity. I was still thinking about my sprite bottle and yeah, I tried rather stupidly to bring one back. But no. 10 baht does not include the bottle and so for the 3rd time this day, I was going @#$$%%#$$%%%%!!!!! Also caused everyone to wait for me, so I am really sorry, but please blame it on @#$%%$$##@#@!!! sprite bottle. So we make our move up the mountains and a rather bumpy journey. Everyone trying to get more sleep as a result of those interrupted sleep previously and I managed to get some before we arrived at the top. I see some very nice log cabins and pray that those would be the places that we would be sleeping in for the next 2 nights. Da chuo te chuo (big mistake special mistake) when literally translated. Girls sleeping 5 in a room then I am like going heng ah... until Mr Chiam says 19 boys in a room then I really freak out. Because first, people snore. Because 2nd, privacy is an issue. Move your own mattress + pillow. So stained I can really freak out. But the aunties there are understanding and as we sleep, the aunties help us to add bedspreads and pillow covers to lessen the shock of "Columbus- discovering- dirty- pillows" discovery. Thanks to them, I had 2 good sleeps during the time that we were there. Then we discovered the toilet, like "Columbus discovering dirty fly infested toilet". 1 shower hose. 3 standing cubicles. Nasty. So we thank the girls for generously sharing their toilet, like " Queen Isabella sharing her ******* with Columbus". Thanks to them, we live another day. And in the mean time, I play bridge with Mich and Yang Jian and the last person who I hopelessly forgot. 1 Club rules the day man!!! Like 1 Club! 7 sets only. Peanuts. The joke continues and we win like hands down because Yang Jian had the Ace and I had the King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8 5, and 2. It was a real joke. Never had such a low bid before. But anyway, we adjorun for dinner and guess what, Mountain food is really good like you have kapao with egg and seaweed soup. Nice. Kapao rather hot and everyone cries like a slain goliath. Wonder why I am still pretty much ok? Start singing some parody songs about myself using hymms. Like Beethoven's 8th symphony glory glory we adore thee. And that night we start singing practice and I am playing with my fan a bit too often, saying something about boys replacing girls, and so Michelle my mother decides to hit me real hard using my fan and I start laughing like a retarded person. I dont think I slept too early that night since other people were still playing cards and I was really tired. So I slept with Jammies and short pants, new fashion which everyone stares at me and thinks I am a weirdo. Yes I am one. Sleep with a blindfold on as there is still light and I cant sleep with lights on... And i hug my jackets to sleep, without pulling up the blanket. So I wake up in the middle of the night, freezing cold, but still , just pulled up the blanket and everything was ok! Good sleep. No one snoring. Glad.
Day 6:
Second last day before we leave on Wednesday. I was quite sure that when we left the country, it would be a matter of hours before we missed the experience altogether. So I woke up, wanting to take a shower. Taking a shower with cold water in a cold morning in the girl's toilet was excruciating. Can't believe that I had to pour water from a bucket to bathe. So then we dress up and head over for a mountain breakfast, probably the first and the last we would have on this mountain. Mountain breakfast is really cool man. Like unlimited toast with sunny side up eggs with fruits and milo and coffee blah blah blah. We leave for the English camp soon later. I slept in the van and when I woke up, I realised the driver had dropped us in the wrong side of the school, the primary school side instead of the high school side. But we finally get our bearings right and we are dropped at a school that looks pretty much like any other school in Singapore, but the facilities not so modern. Students stare on as we make our entry into the lecture theatre of Prince's Royal College. It's just different in the way that we had to take our shoes out in the school building and I guess that many of us were not familiar with this, since we walk around our ACS campus with our shoes on. We await the arrival of the Thai students and at about 9 plus 10, they had all arrived, with the majority wearing track pants and only the PRC students wearing their full PRC uniform. We then start the briefing on the day's activity for the English camp with Daryl giving a rather short (the shortest I should say) speech for the activity, as I/C of the day. Intro speech by an ang moh, saying English is important because 90% of the world's knowledge is in English. I cannot help wondering what would have happened if the Cultural Revolution had not occurred and books not burnt or Cao Cao not burning medical books. Groups are defined according to their rows and Me, Kia and Fab took Group 5, a rather quiet group at first, but after we talked to them, starting talking more and more. We were glad and of course, for a group that we had met for just 10 minutes, this was a good sign for the hours to come. A group photo came first and we spent about 15 minutes to take a huge and large group picture. Tea time, and wth lah! Tea after like 20 minutes of briefing and what have you? or is this just a way for us to interact over a cup of red and green drink and pastries? Then we go to the IT lab in the school for our next activity, finding the answers to 14 questions on Singapore that we pose to them. The school IT lab is really like ours, with websites blocking my access to games online, leaving me cursing and swearing at the power of the firewall. It was really cool looking at Thai students trying to find out the answers to "Who is the first president of Singapore" with weird answers like "Zubir Said" or Ong Teng Cheong... blah blah blah. Then the Singapore netball team name? Weird answers. Then Rekha claims mooncake is our national food, and I really can't help but burst out laughing. No. Really. Next game is Oral Charades, and I leave the beautiful comfort of the freezing cold IT lab that ah... is really nice and spacious. Back to that @#$%%@!@% LT that is more like an aircon playroom for kids than an LT with tables blah. Oral charades (or Taboo as many of us would know it as) was pretty dammed fun since most of the Thai students could guess our words without using nouns or Thai blah and they found the words pretty easily. On to round 2. Much harder words like urinal and journalist and detergent that the students are stumped. Cannot answer. So my group gets 15 points, 1 point deducted for using Thai, and out of a total of 22 points, I think that was a rather decent score. blah. blah blah. Stupid free round of 5 points for spontaneous guessing of words, and my group loses the lead like Salmons getting lost in the water. @#$%@#$! Afterall my group was dammed good and the PRC students were quite pro in their English. Andrew! how the @#$%@ did that look like an astronaut???!!! but the Thai students too pro, can guess the correct answer. So like blah, we go down for lunch, and I try to encourage the group with cries of "We can do better!" Lunch with a kway teow frier and fried rice is a new experience. Sitting on rattan mats and eating is a funny experience. The School must have some fascination for feet without shoes, as we are required to take of our shoes while sitting on the mat. Wesely encourages us not to sit on the mats and look pretty (though we are and the PRC students in the classroom are staring at us as we eat lunch like wow we definitely must be pretty when we eat) and interact with the Thai students instead. So I find a table with Yang Jian and the students are so hospitable that they bring us a plate of fruit with the special salt and ask us to share the fruits. We finish eating and go back to the !@#$#@! LT. In the mean time, I break my fan by tossing it around. The demise was soon to come. Chong Wee tells me that this fan is held together by a string of super glue and the impact must have broke it. I was like "are you sure it's super glue" and he then changes his mind saying "forget what I just said" like lololololol!!! You know I love ice-cream and I could not resist going to the local canteen to search for colourful food. And I find ice-cream. I get some toffee flavour with choco chips and lime ice. 10 Baht! 50 cents! Scrabble is the next game and with the points available to them after the last round of games, they are supposed to form words using the points that they already have. 1 point for consonant and 2 for vowels. Along the way, the rule changes and it gets so complicated my group is lost. They form funny words like freezing, physics, lyrics, procrastinate and what have you. So the twist is that they have to form a story with the words they have and significantly, it was going to be hard. But my group really gave its best, and we as group leaders have to be proud. Tham with a good job acting as the boyfriend. Other groups put up funny performances, Andrew's group with some sort of funny spiderman performance and rescuing girls but even though there was a winner, everyone had done well. So the camp ends. Prize presentation and certificates, with Mr Mike Hock saying that the attendees could use these certificates to register for a lesson with them free, but they would have to go through a placement test first... so.... i hate tests. Mr Chiam somewhat a guest of honour, gets the honour of presenting the certificates to them. Bookshare and we give out our books to the Thai students, a moment to remember. Then follows the pin-share and I swap badges with Tham, surely one of the names that I would never forget, since Tong has that same name too. Performance and after almost one month of work, we could present our mass dance and our vocals to them following a performance. Han An's solo with Vic was really good, with Han An claiming before the performance that he forgot the moves. Yah right. I then swap badges with another Thai friend for a different looking badge, she looks apprehensive without an ACS badge, but I change with her and she definitely looked happier. Photo taking and where the hell is my group?! Everyone disappeared! But with the remainder, we attempt to register our emails to register a long-lasting friendship that I am sure everyone would remember. Try to interact with the remainder of the students, saying "I hope you enjoyed yourself" and flashing a nice smile. But I am glad that all of them had enjoyed themselves as they had answered yes, to the director's question of "Did you enjoy yourself today?" University introduction for us and the senior Y6 Thai students and Morgan and what's her name introduced where they studied and what they were doing. Fraser is not convinced by US universities superior to UK universities and starts questioning Mike on all sorts of universities. Mike says he would discuss over dinner, which of course, he never managed to do since there was a shortage of time. Thai PRC students give us copies of their newspaper and we admire it, since it's much better than Ink! which is full/foo of crap. Career opportunities test and I try to find a better name for it, as a result of my considerable distaste for something called tests. Quiz and we go down to the IT lab once again. Handed out pieces of paper that can fly away easily and I struggle to differentiate between a zero and an "O" on the piece of paper. Thai students also struggling. Quiz is like bullshit la... if someone makes up his mind what he wants for his future, then surely the test is biased beyond comparison. Daryl makes funny comments about politics and how his potential job might lead him to an ISD cell. Finish that 240 plus question quiz and then play games on the computer. I land up playing hearts and trying to fish for online games, which the server blocked. Get out of the IT lab for the Farewell Dinner, which I was sure was going to be unforgettable for many of us. That night we sang songs like never before, Chen Fye goes crazy when he sings Bohemian Rhapsody and starts dropping the hotel roses all over the place... and karaoke session. Mike stops the party and tells us that it was late. Singing all the way back to the cabins where most of us attempt to stay up late, but many fail terribly. I comment that it is not long before we go back to Singapore, and Daryl says that at least there are a few more hours. I learnt that trying to take a shower at 12 am in the morning is not a good idea. Eat cup noodles, last minute photos and bridge games... and finally, fall asleep. A very deep and good sleep that I have been deprived of for months.
Day 7:
Guess what, we never thought we would leave this beautiful place. But well, even the longest feast on earth comes to an end, so with farewells and more last minute photos and email collections, we leave. Customs officer comes just as we check in. Must be the first flight we are on. Airport security is bloody lax. Buy some iced chocolate from a boutigue coffee store and some of us check out the duty free shopping before our time was up. First time we met the other Thailand group in a week. They really look like dead people. Flight leaves for Bangkok, take more last minute photos, and we are off. Bangkok airport, 2 hours transit time, 1020 hours check in. Shop around, look for stuff to buy and I was convinced the only thing worth buying was choco and bananas, 3 times the price here in Bangkok airport. People buying stuff, and I check out a book called Thailand's last executioner. Andrew tries to buy stuff for his mom, enlists the help of Debs and Jia. So well.... I was broke, and did not buy anything. Debs tries to get a present for our generous donor of $3000 and struggles. I really cannot help.. Time to check in and we take some last pics with my Tasmaninan Devil and Vick(s) reindeer that Han An so generously bought for him. On board the plane, Han An really pisses me off telling me that I shouldn't buy that devil and I lash out really bad... He answers in a pretty stupid manner, making me even angrier. Lunch on board the plane was good. Plane was nice, Satay rice for lunch. Good service, free 2 packs of cards. Satay rice runs out and a few lucky guys get to eat business class food. Beef and potatoes. wow. Changi Airport, fast clearance and we are back on Singapore soil with Starhub reception. Family members waiting at the airport makes us feel unforgotten. It has been a fun 7 days. Really.
Day 4:
Woke up early as usual, chicken fried rice for breakfast, problems waking up earlier, since the previous night we slept quite late, and there were people making a hell a lot of noise on the 5th floor. So we left early, started the 1 hour plus journey to the elephant conservation centre. I managed to sleep for the journey, but after a while, Vicks and Yang Jian started taking pics of me sleeping. Yeah so i was awaken, and for the revenge, started taking pics of Vicks with flash and without flash, and her sleep was disrupted, much to my pleasure. The mountain scenery was rather similar to that of the Malaysian highway. When we arrived, I used the toilet first, pretty revolting experience, and we took a shuttle bus for our elephant ride. It was nice ad bumpy. Elephants are rather scary when they climb up a semi hill and it was scary. Yang Jian and Fab wanted to film some funny documentary on the elephants, pretty funny, but never materialised. Time for the elephants to shower and we saw many apprentices getting the elephants to shower. The elephants were rather cute, blowing water all over the place and seeing the daughter helping her mother to bathe was an amusing sight. It was the elephant show next and it pained me to see the elephants like primary school kids, trunks to tails and in chains. But it was nice to see the elephant beating the drums using its trunk. During the show I bought an ice cream, and of course, the sawadee-kaaaaaaaaaaaaa (with a sexual tone) started from here. But I must say the elephants are rather talented artists and can really draw. We then left to see the young elephant and her mother at the hospital. Saw a infant naked baby girl. Not a pretty sight. I managed to acquire a glass sprite bottle, but broke it before it could even get to Singapore. Lunch at a restaurant run by a Singaporean, remarking to me that the black sauce in Singapore was much better than the 5 star black sauce in Thailand. He bought it from Ang Moh, a big mart that my family goes to every weekend. Mr Tham was saying that he ate there once a week because he missed Singapore food. Well then we went shopping at the Airport mall, everything overpriced, and nothing much. For a while, a group of us were considering to watch Pirates at the cinema, but wth, lack of response, so we went to the arcade where I played Pro Evo with Fab. Super boring place, so we just walked around, bought some cheap ice-cream from Dairy Cream, (and i managed to get my brother a Tasmanian Devil)then to KFC. Stupid dinner, not nice la... we were all full already. At night it was the Sunday Cultural Walk. Many stuff to buy. I was looking at some nice canvas pics but it was a bit too expensive for me at 500 Baht. But I managed to buy a model fender guitar and 2 nice fans. There were a lot of stuff to buy but did not have enough time to walk through, thanks to the people who said shop for 1 hour only... So then we went back to the hostel with all our buys... Zhang bought a canvas painting, then we went back to the hostel. It was really amusing to see Zhang pack. really. I broke that dammed Sprite bottle in the Hostel and I really loved it so much but... ohohoh!!!
Day 5:
So the not so enjoyable part comes, checking out of our comfortable ho(s)tel to the not-so-known log cabins. Like would it have a mama shop with nice toilets and mini-bar? For the 1st time in 5 days i am glad I brought my towel. I think I was one of the last to check out and I was stressed since I had 3 plastic bags in addition to all those to my 3 other bags to carry. Made it down 5 mins late for breakfast and realised that a lot of people had not come down just yet. After breakfast, more bridge, and it ended up with me winning some sets and losing a lot. Went to Wavee coffee to get some Kiwi ice boom, but arghhh@#$%!$$$!!! got wind in the stomach after that and for the first time in a long time, I was car/van sick. By the time we got to Freedom Wheelchairs, I severly regretted my decision to even try that dammed juice. We adjourn to a stuffy, hot upper level and that was not really helping. Thanks to Chong Wee for giving me the Poh Chai Yun, the pill to help stomache. And yes, I was still well enough to emphatise with those disabled people, and how it was a sort of social stigma around them. The wheelchair designer was really talented, and how he could make his own motorcycle to take him around wherever he needed to go. Then the staff showed us more about how to make a wheelchair, and sometimes we do not realise how poor some of these people are and they cannot even afford a wheelchair, so I was thankful that at least a portion of the funds could help the foundation to make more wheelchairs. Some of us then tried to sit in a wheelchair and move ourselves around. Quite fun. But I suppose your hands would ache after a while. Freedom of movement is not really an option in Chiangmai, with hardly any pedestrian crossings for the disabled or toilets or lifts. We then go for lunch, and I am glad that I was feeling much better since I had tried to stay in the shade for a while until I felt better and it was going to be a good lunch. Green curry with tang hoon all and a menu that varies no better where we go. Some of us sit in the swing next to the restaurant after lunch, and I attempt to play chess with Daryl, but times up, as I try to set up the pieces, it's goodbye. The mango with sticky rice was fantastic and so was the green curry, so I brought 3 packets of green curry home. We go back to the hostel for the very last time to load up our luggages, and using this last chance, I buy more potato chips and chewing gum. After loading up, we leave for the highlands. Try to get some sleep during this time but it was disrupted when we stopped by the Queen's shopping arena. Many were like @#$%@ (add your swear here) like so many stops. So i grab one strawberry ice cream and very tempted to buy tea leaves but I say, forget it. Like why would I want to get tea leaves. We then move on again, expecting to wake up only when we reach the destination. Crap. We stop at a waterfall and more swearing again, Wesely making his point about stupid Mike Hock and why we have to stop here but by the end I think most of us were converted as the waterfall was rather peaceful and it was nice for me to have a quick dip in water to bring back my sanity. I was still thinking about my sprite bottle and yeah, I tried rather stupidly to bring one back. But no. 10 baht does not include the bottle and so for the 3rd time this day, I was going @#$$%%#$$%%%%!!!!! Also caused everyone to wait for me, so I am really sorry, but please blame it on @#$%%$$##@#@!!! sprite bottle. So we make our move up the mountains and a rather bumpy journey. Everyone trying to get more sleep as a result of those interrupted sleep previously and I managed to get some before we arrived at the top. I see some very nice log cabins and pray that those would be the places that we would be sleeping in for the next 2 nights. Da chuo te chuo (big mistake special mistake) when literally translated. Girls sleeping 5 in a room then I am like going heng ah... until Mr Chiam says 19 boys in a room then I really freak out. Because first, people snore. Because 2nd, privacy is an issue. Move your own mattress + pillow. So stained I can really freak out. But the aunties there are understanding and as we sleep, the aunties help us to add bedspreads and pillow covers to lessen the shock of "Columbus- discovering- dirty- pillows" discovery. Thanks to them, I had 2 good sleeps during the time that we were there. Then we discovered the toilet, like "Columbus discovering dirty fly infested toilet". 1 shower hose. 3 standing cubicles. Nasty. So we thank the girls for generously sharing their toilet, like " Queen Isabella sharing her ******* with Columbus". Thanks to them, we live another day. And in the mean time, I play bridge with Mich and Yang Jian and the last person who I hopelessly forgot. 1 Club rules the day man!!! Like 1 Club! 7 sets only. Peanuts. The joke continues and we win like hands down because Yang Jian had the Ace and I had the King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8 5, and 2. It was a real joke. Never had such a low bid before. But anyway, we adjorun for dinner and guess what, Mountain food is really good like you have kapao with egg and seaweed soup. Nice. Kapao rather hot and everyone cries like a slain goliath. Wonder why I am still pretty much ok? Start singing some parody songs about myself using hymms. Like Beethoven's 8th symphony glory glory we adore thee. And that night we start singing practice and I am playing with my fan a bit too often, saying something about boys replacing girls, and so Michelle my mother decides to hit me real hard using my fan and I start laughing like a retarded person. I dont think I slept too early that night since other people were still playing cards and I was really tired. So I slept with Jammies and short pants, new fashion which everyone stares at me and thinks I am a weirdo. Yes I am one. Sleep with a blindfold on as there is still light and I cant sleep with lights on... And i hug my jackets to sleep, without pulling up the blanket. So I wake up in the middle of the night, freezing cold, but still , just pulled up the blanket and everything was ok! Good sleep. No one snoring. Glad.
Day 6:
Second last day before we leave on Wednesday. I was quite sure that when we left the country, it would be a matter of hours before we missed the experience altogether. So I woke up, wanting to take a shower. Taking a shower with cold water in a cold morning in the girl's toilet was excruciating. Can't believe that I had to pour water from a bucket to bathe. So then we dress up and head over for a mountain breakfast, probably the first and the last we would have on this mountain. Mountain breakfast is really cool man. Like unlimited toast with sunny side up eggs with fruits and milo and coffee blah blah blah. We leave for the English camp soon later. I slept in the van and when I woke up, I realised the driver had dropped us in the wrong side of the school, the primary school side instead of the high school side. But we finally get our bearings right and we are dropped at a school that looks pretty much like any other school in Singapore, but the facilities not so modern. Students stare on as we make our entry into the lecture theatre of Prince's Royal College. It's just different in the way that we had to take our shoes out in the school building and I guess that many of us were not familiar with this, since we walk around our ACS campus with our shoes on. We await the arrival of the Thai students and at about 9 plus 10, they had all arrived, with the majority wearing track pants and only the PRC students wearing their full PRC uniform. We then start the briefing on the day's activity for the English camp with Daryl giving a rather short (the shortest I should say) speech for the activity, as I/C of the day. Intro speech by an ang moh, saying English is important because 90% of the world's knowledge is in English. I cannot help wondering what would have happened if the Cultural Revolution had not occurred and books not burnt or Cao Cao not burning medical books. Groups are defined according to their rows and Me, Kia and Fab took Group 5, a rather quiet group at first, but after we talked to them, starting talking more and more. We were glad and of course, for a group that we had met for just 10 minutes, this was a good sign for the hours to come. A group photo came first and we spent about 15 minutes to take a huge and large group picture. Tea time, and wth lah! Tea after like 20 minutes of briefing and what have you? or is this just a way for us to interact over a cup of red and green drink and pastries? Then we go to the IT lab in the school for our next activity, finding the answers to 14 questions on Singapore that we pose to them. The school IT lab is really like ours, with websites blocking my access to games online, leaving me cursing and swearing at the power of the firewall. It was really cool looking at Thai students trying to find out the answers to "Who is the first president of Singapore" with weird answers like "Zubir Said" or Ong Teng Cheong... blah blah blah. Then the Singapore netball team name? Weird answers. Then Rekha claims mooncake is our national food, and I really can't help but burst out laughing. No. Really. Next game is Oral Charades, and I leave the beautiful comfort of the freezing cold IT lab that ah... is really nice and spacious. Back to that @#$%%@!@% LT that is more like an aircon playroom for kids than an LT with tables blah. Oral charades (or Taboo as many of us would know it as) was pretty dammed fun since most of the Thai students could guess our words without using nouns or Thai blah and they found the words pretty easily. On to round 2. Much harder words like urinal and journalist and detergent that the students are stumped. Cannot answer. So my group gets 15 points, 1 point deducted for using Thai, and out of a total of 22 points, I think that was a rather decent score. blah. blah blah. Stupid free round of 5 points for spontaneous guessing of words, and my group loses the lead like Salmons getting lost in the water. @#$%@#$! Afterall my group was dammed good and the PRC students were quite pro in their English. Andrew! how the @#$%@ did that look like an astronaut???!!! but the Thai students too pro, can guess the correct answer. So like blah, we go down for lunch, and I try to encourage the group with cries of "We can do better!" Lunch with a kway teow frier and fried rice is a new experience. Sitting on rattan mats and eating is a funny experience. The School must have some fascination for feet without shoes, as we are required to take of our shoes while sitting on the mat. Wesely encourages us not to sit on the mats and look pretty (though we are and the PRC students in the classroom are staring at us as we eat lunch like wow we definitely must be pretty when we eat) and interact with the Thai students instead. So I find a table with Yang Jian and the students are so hospitable that they bring us a plate of fruit with the special salt and ask us to share the fruits. We finish eating and go back to the !@#$#@! LT. In the mean time, I break my fan by tossing it around. The demise was soon to come. Chong Wee tells me that this fan is held together by a string of super glue and the impact must have broke it. I was like "are you sure it's super glue" and he then changes his mind saying "forget what I just said" like lololololol!!! You know I love ice-cream and I could not resist going to the local canteen to search for colourful food. And I find ice-cream. I get some toffee flavour with choco chips and lime ice. 10 Baht! 50 cents! Scrabble is the next game and with the points available to them after the last round of games, they are supposed to form words using the points that they already have. 1 point for consonant and 2 for vowels. Along the way, the rule changes and it gets so complicated my group is lost. They form funny words like freezing, physics, lyrics, procrastinate and what have you. So the twist is that they have to form a story with the words they have and significantly, it was going to be hard. But my group really gave its best, and we as group leaders have to be proud. Tham with a good job acting as the boyfriend. Other groups put up funny performances, Andrew's group with some sort of funny spiderman performance and rescuing girls but even though there was a winner, everyone had done well. So the camp ends. Prize presentation and certificates, with Mr Mike Hock saying that the attendees could use these certificates to register for a lesson with them free, but they would have to go through a placement test first... so.... i hate tests. Mr Chiam somewhat a guest of honour, gets the honour of presenting the certificates to them. Bookshare and we give out our books to the Thai students, a moment to remember. Then follows the pin-share and I swap badges with Tham, surely one of the names that I would never forget, since Tong has that same name too. Performance and after almost one month of work, we could present our mass dance and our vocals to them following a performance. Han An's solo with Vic was really good, with Han An claiming before the performance that he forgot the moves. Yah right. I then swap badges with another Thai friend for a different looking badge, she looks apprehensive without an ACS badge, but I change with her and she definitely looked happier. Photo taking and where the hell is my group?! Everyone disappeared! But with the remainder, we attempt to register our emails to register a long-lasting friendship that I am sure everyone would remember. Try to interact with the remainder of the students, saying "I hope you enjoyed yourself" and flashing a nice smile. But I am glad that all of them had enjoyed themselves as they had answered yes, to the director's question of "Did you enjoy yourself today?" University introduction for us and the senior Y6 Thai students and Morgan and what's her name introduced where they studied and what they were doing. Fraser is not convinced by US universities superior to UK universities and starts questioning Mike on all sorts of universities. Mike says he would discuss over dinner, which of course, he never managed to do since there was a shortage of time. Thai PRC students give us copies of their newspaper and we admire it, since it's much better than Ink! which is full/foo of crap. Career opportunities test and I try to find a better name for it, as a result of my considerable distaste for something called tests. Quiz and we go down to the IT lab once again. Handed out pieces of paper that can fly away easily and I struggle to differentiate between a zero and an "O" on the piece of paper. Thai students also struggling. Quiz is like bullshit la... if someone makes up his mind what he wants for his future, then surely the test is biased beyond comparison. Daryl makes funny comments about politics and how his potential job might lead him to an ISD cell. Finish that 240 plus question quiz and then play games on the computer. I land up playing hearts and trying to fish for online games, which the server blocked. Get out of the IT lab for the Farewell Dinner, which I was sure was going to be unforgettable for many of us. That night we sang songs like never before, Chen Fye goes crazy when he sings Bohemian Rhapsody and starts dropping the hotel roses all over the place... and karaoke session. Mike stops the party and tells us that it was late. Singing all the way back to the cabins where most of us attempt to stay up late, but many fail terribly. I comment that it is not long before we go back to Singapore, and Daryl says that at least there are a few more hours. I learnt that trying to take a shower at 12 am in the morning is not a good idea. Eat cup noodles, last minute photos and bridge games... and finally, fall asleep. A very deep and good sleep that I have been deprived of for months.
Day 7:
Guess what, we never thought we would leave this beautiful place. But well, even the longest feast on earth comes to an end, so with farewells and more last minute photos and email collections, we leave. Customs officer comes just as we check in. Must be the first flight we are on. Airport security is bloody lax. Buy some iced chocolate from a boutigue coffee store and some of us check out the duty free shopping before our time was up. First time we met the other Thailand group in a week. They really look like dead people. Flight leaves for Bangkok, take more last minute photos, and we are off. Bangkok airport, 2 hours transit time, 1020 hours check in. Shop around, look for stuff to buy and I was convinced the only thing worth buying was choco and bananas, 3 times the price here in Bangkok airport. People buying stuff, and I check out a book called Thailand's last executioner. Andrew tries to buy stuff for his mom, enlists the help of Debs and Jia. So well.... I was broke, and did not buy anything. Debs tries to get a present for our generous donor of $3000 and struggles. I really cannot help.. Time to check in and we take some last pics with my Tasmaninan Devil and Vick(s) reindeer that Han An so generously bought for him. On board the plane, Han An really pisses me off telling me that I shouldn't buy that devil and I lash out really bad... He answers in a pretty stupid manner, making me even angrier. Lunch on board the plane was good. Plane was nice, Satay rice for lunch. Good service, free 2 packs of cards. Satay rice runs out and a few lucky guys get to eat business class food. Beef and potatoes. wow. Changi Airport, fast clearance and we are back on Singapore soil with Starhub reception. Family members waiting at the airport makes us feel unforgotten. It has been a fun 7 days. Really.
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