connecting the dOts in life: August 2007

Thursday, 30 August 2007

Went to watch Bourne today with my loves. We ended up at this HK cafe at Cine. Chieh and I ate Maggi Mee! haha, surprisingly it tasted better than usual! Bourne was not bad, though I was a lil lost coz I didnt watch the first movie. I think the effects were good, but I wasn't really concentration during the fighting shots coz I always end up cringing..Really looking forward to Ratatouille! (:

Wednesday, 29 August 2007

I'm currently learning this song on the guitar! I don't care if it's too ambitious for a novice!

The small people I love

Little Andrew, 3 Days old when I took this. My head seriously looks oversized here. haha.

Baby Eunice. Apparently she's a splitting image of baby huixuan. So fat, but cute :p

This guy. shucks I suddenly can't recall his name. Definitely a sign of ageing :/

Jay, always so charming.

Josephine, Eunice's sister, playing with the Giraffe I bought for her last year!

It's great to come from a big family sometimes, the reproduction's pretty rapid. Feels old to be called "auntie" by these small people but they certainly add lots of joy to our lives :)

Tuesday, 28 August 2007

Got back from UCL camp and slept 5 hrs in the afternoon! haha silly thing to do coz now I'm wide awake while everyone is in dreamland. The camp was great, I'm glad I decided to go coz after meeting the people there, I'm certainly more comforted and looking forward to london!

The seniors split us up into 4 groups and I was part of Troy. hah, really enjoyed the group dynamics though we could tell that the girls sort of enjoyed power over the guys in some ways haha. Some of the games we played really reminded me of council camp, coz they had pple blindfolded and muted. :x

I actually think we spent more time mingling and talking than playing games, which is good in a sense. Though I'm the kind that can fall asleep in the midst of talking to people if I'm that tired. haha, that explains why I couldnt keep awake on the last night for the late night chats and Macs at 4am! Guess there'll be other opportunities to do so, hopefully!

On the last night, we had to play this game called pub quiz. So there was drinking involved and all but thankfully i was spared!I did try this liquor shot thing but it tasted qt gross, like cough syrup! That's why I don't understand why people enjoy drinking those stuff. I like milk more :p

It's 1.20 am and it feels like 11 am in the morning. Have lots of time but still,I'm not the kind that can blog laboriously long, meticulously detailed entries. Was hoping I would get some photos of the camp. Afterall, a picture does say a thousand word doesnt it?

So the gist is, I had a great time and feel very relieved actually. Now it's getting down to actual packing. This will mark the official start of my emo journey till the 17th. haha.

Saturday, 25 August 2007

As part of my saturday morning routine, I went to the market with mummy this morning. As much as I find it uber difficult to crawl out of bed so early in the morning, trips to the market always leave me with something to think about. Maybe it's just the environment. Ok, it's not the most comfotable place to be at, but the people there always inspire me in little ways. And I like it because the people there just seem happy and contented. I'll miss saying hi to the kakak at the first vegetable stall, and the brothers who always make fun of my mum and I. ( Still remember the silly jokes they cracked haha)

So as we made our way to our final stop at the market, which is usually the vegetable stall, the guy handed me our purchase and said in chinese, " ni hen xiao shun hor, mei chi pei ni de mummy lai pa sha". Instantaneously, I felt sad as it suddenly dawned on me that I'll be left with 3 more times before the cruel gap of a year to do what we always do on saturdays.

In the afternoon, my parents decided that I will probably won't get any chance to have Kerala food in London so they brought me to our favourite Kerala restaurant. Ate so much as usual haha. Halfway through the meal, I found myself taking mental photographs as my brothers and parents ate. We had many happy meals at that restaurant. My mind just went click click click . I wanted to remember these moments, every single second.

At night, my family, uncle, aunt and grandma went to celebrate my brother's birthday. During the dinner, my relatives kept saying " hx, eat more of this, eat more of that, you may miss this over there". And I found my plate piled with so much food. I can't describe my feelings during that dinner. It was almost bittersweet.

I'm counting down, almost every single day. Don't wanna be emo, but there's truly so many people and things I'll miss.

These pictures I took, playing slowly in my mind like a silent movie.

Thursday, 23 August 2007

On thursday, I met the two people whom I had the pleasure of sharing a puny room in Hk with- dearest shiru and Cihan!

Cihan taking a close up shot of Shiru. Sony Ericsson phones are wierd, they have functions to distort people's faces! Had a very good laugh looking at our deformed faces though haha!

At Sakae, I'm starting to love the hues of sepia!

After that, I went to meet my ex collegues from the polyclinic! Lindy insisted on treating us to dinner, so she brought us, at 5pm, to a pretty unique place for our meals. It was probably the healthiest dinner I've ever taken! ORGANIC VEGETARIAN FOOD!

Look at their sushi roll, bursting with raw vegetables. I seriously don't recommend this to carnivorous people out there, especially those who go will go through all that trouble just to pick out a few strands of beansprout from their soup. This dish has an overwhelming taste of those sprouts, which I managed to endure. haha!

Three of us and our happy healthy dishes. Never thought I'll meet such nice people during the short time I was at work. They teach me alot, I feel like a little meimei when I'm with them!

On Friday, Shiru and I went to NUS to visit shimin the stick. Her room mate's such a piggy and refused to get up from bed even till 3pm!!! So we had to settle with the TV lounge. Played twister ( I have no idea why) there and attracted a few odd stares from people who passed by. haha.

Were too bored, thus we decided to dedicate a photo to kaiqian!! :) what a classic pose.

And passer-bys were probably wondering, "why on earth are these unknown people in the lounge doing spastic poses? "

After that, we met Kq for some pizza and then we headed down to town to grab some stuff. Shiru bought very sweet stuff for her sweetie. haha. must leave some for the rest of us ok! Why did you think we asked you to get the bigger box! :D

Camp's around the corner. This will probably be the first 3 day camp I'm going whereby I dun really know anyone. grrr. Nevertheless, I'm trying to keep the excitement level up! Happy weekend!

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

Taking Loathesome to a brand new level.

The most horrific, disgusting thing just happened to me. While at the loo just now, something dropped out of my shorts. It was brown, soft, flat, dead (thankfully) if not I would have fainted seriously.

It was a freaking #%^&#! LIZARD!

WHAT! I literally came out of the bathroom shaking, and screaming. How did that STUPID THING get into my shorts???!!!!!

Don't ask me how I could not feel it. The touch of my deadly foe's cold bloodless amphibian skin against mine. DONT ASK. coz I thought I felt something while teaching my brother math just a while ago. And AGAIN while blogging just now. Not moving, but something wasnt right down there.

Thankfully it didnt move. Or I would have seriously pulled my pants down in front of my lil sibling.

My mum was very understanding though. When I ran out of the bathroom and ran to her screaming, she said " haha, go and wash yourself, hopefully the tail's not stuck somewhere in your butt crack"

Thanks mum. I was so super scared I'll see some outline of that creature on my body, like what we see at a CSI crime scene.. tattooed on my body eternally. AHHHH! But i know it was qt impossible, coz it was just in my pants, that's all, that layer. Still, I washed myself like a million times with dettol. I HAD TO get rid of every cell of that hideous thing that possibly got in contact with me.

My Dad was more positive. " Your foe was so near you. Not scared of it anymore right? "

I think my negative vibes towards those eeky stuff will never cease. Negative vibe is such a mild word. I hate them to the core! Don't ask me why I just did ever since I was born. Some poeple say they help to eat mosquitoes and are supposedly good for the environment. What crap. Times have changed. I walk into the kitchen in the morning and what do I see? A lizard savouring pathetic drops of leftover fruit juice on the table!

And they have even evolved into creatures who reside in people's garments! Nevermind. I will get over this. Shall consider myself a hero for successfully squashing a lizard to death under the mighty weight of my gluteous maximus.

HURRAY!

Random thoughts

Was at the optician today when I came across something interesting on the shelf. Amongst rows of contact lens solution, there was one particular brand which stood out as it had a red sticker stuck across the front. It read " NON-HALAL".

Curious, I took that box and started reading the fine prints to see what so non-halal about it. Funny how I'm usually rather interested about this kinda stuff. The last time I saw the word "non-halal" used in a context that's not related to oral consumption was at Marks and Spencer, where there was a row of shoes that were lined with pig's skin. I can still vividly remember that scene very well. I was resting on the seats which people sat to try on shoes, waiting for my mum one day. Then, I saw a malay family walking past the non-halal row. The two adults in front saw that sign and immediately exchanged cautious looks. They turned around, only to see one of the boys holding the shoe up in the air, seemingly admiring it. I held by breath in anticipation of what's to happen next. The lady's face screwed up in mild horror as she shieked "JAGAN!! (don't)"

As a half Singaporean living in a so called muslim country, I get to witness very varied reactions and practices of muslims from both neighbouring countries. Of course, I respect the muslim religion of not coming into contact with pork. But I think it's the perception of what "contact" means that baffles me sometimes. In M, I hear stories of how some malays will even hold their breath when they pass by a bak ku teh stall. Or how cashiers will use an external object to hold up metal cans containing preserved pork to place them in plastic bags. I wonder whether these scenes can be seen in S. Probably I don't know enough malays in S to witness how things are there, but in M, it gets a little extreme, even to some malays. They claim that such things didnt happen in the past, so why are we witnessing these only now? hmmm. I guess it's just different perceptions, different intepretations. On a more macro level, that's precisely what's causing so much turmoil in the world today. Destruction caused by misjudgement and by several pockets of people misleading others into commiting crimes in their seemingly pursuit of religious martyrdom.

Gosh, that seems to be the only passage that's anything close to a GP answer I've written in almost 9 months! I don't even know how I managed to relate the lens solution to terrorism. Ms Chua would have called it "severe straying" or " Out of point" or she'll probably just draw one think red line across my paper. haha. But yea, it's one of the sad things in today's world. How religious misinterpretation can be so powerfully catastrophic.

Anyway, the lens solution contained Porcine Pancreatic Enzymes. Yucks!

Sunday, 19 August 2007

Of Dreams and Religious Degression

I must have been in a really deep sleep last night, coz I was dreaming like mad throughout! Amazingly, I could still vividly remember the dreams when I woke up. Maybe it's because most of them were wierd, as most dreams are. But more apparently for mine, they're usually violent!

Maybe it's my other half displaying my violent tendencies. Someone who studies dream patterns please tell me why! For example, some of my dreams involve my brother getting kidnapped and slashed, me posing as a terrorist attempting to attack a hypermart and just yesterday, my dream went like that:

My mum rounded us up to catch this particular rabbit. So be grabbed our tools (forgot what I had in my hand, probably a metal rod :/) That rabbit must have been an evil one coz we were all bent on catching it (or maybe we're the sick ones). When the rabbit appeared and raced around at superspeed, suddenly everyone else disappeared, leaving me to face the rabbit myself! Ok, so I was brave and started to hunt that creature. Suddenly, out of nowhere, that thing appeared from behind a car seat and jammed a screw driver on my foot!!! I think I probably fainted coz the next thing I knew my mum was taking a look at my foot and wow, I was losing alot of blood because that evil thing severed my toe.Ugh.

And what was my dad and brothers doing while I was fighting that rabbit? Reading newspapers. hmm. Interesting.

Then I woke up, feeling slight pain on my left foot. But after a few moments I realised it was the feeling of my imminently bursting bladder that woke me. So I went to the loo and got in to bed, and the dreams continued. Thankfully evil rabbit didnt reappear, I must have killed it.

Just to clear my name, to animal lovers out there, I'm not some psycho animal killer. Its just that annoying creatures keep appearing in my dreams!

To digress a little, something amusing I read from a particular Malaysian newspaper today:

Gwen stefani's due to perform at KL after her HK tour. Muslim Youth Students are pressing the courts to rule that she must wear MALAY TRADITIONAL COSTUMES WHILE performing there, as her usual wordrobe is too revealing to be accepted.

Tsk. I can almost imagine her singing " Wind it up" in her Kebaya, dancing against a kampong backdrop.

How refreshing!

Sigh this country is moving backwards.

Friday, 17 August 2007

I had a really interesting dinner last night. Previously when I recieved the letter and scanned through the invitation list, I remember myself thinking "Oh man, this is going to be one odd night! " However, as usual, things didn't turn out the way I thought it'll be.

In fact, I had quite alot of fun talking to the people from diverse backgrounds and occupations. At my table itself, there was a physics prof, a Cancer researcher, a nonagenarian, the lck coordinator, a pediatrician, a student studying English at Cambridge, a marine biology student, a math student and me! Really cool.

Hmmm found myself in some unlikely conversation topics. Like:

-How blackholes are formed (Thanks to prof E who's so friendly and amusing)

-Why violins are unforgiving instruments ( Doc P had an unusual way of analysing things)

-Wildlife species yet to be discovered in Singapore ( I've never seen a teen so passionate about such stuff!)

I guess it's nice to see people so zealous about what they do (:

Of course, we talked about everyday things like uni and family stuff. Thank goodness if not it would have been pretty unnatural!

It was nice to see prof LT again after the interview, whose first sentence to me last night was " Hi hx, so, you're coming back to serve in Singapore after you graduate right? "

How could I say no?

haha. I was cursing myself after the dinner for forgetting to take photos! so I forced my Dad to take one with me, to remember that night.

Thank you daddy for waiting so long for me, till the dinner was over! :D

Tuesday, 14 August 2007

Had the opportunity to observe the speech therapists at a particular hospital at Clementi today! It was great as I finally got to observe adult patients who suffer from Dysphagia or swallowing difficulties. It was eye opening, though we could only look from behind a glass panel when the therapist performed Video Flouroscopy on the stroke patients. Pretty interesting to see how they Xrays looked when they were made to swallow specimens of different consistencies mixed with Barium Sulphide! The patients looked like they were in pain though, which is heart wrenching considering that eating itself is so difficult.Met three other people who were there to observe as well, very nice people who were super easy to talk to!

Overall it was really fun. Although there was this moment when one of the therapists went " just curious, why UCL? I have a friend who regreted going there". And I got a little worried. But I think it's pretty subjective, and there's no turning back now anyway!

Things are finally more concrete now,yay (:

Monday, 13 August 2007

Single room, with en-suite bathroom!!! I can't believe it, I'm SO HAPPY!!

But I'll have to endure 20 min- long morning walks to school everyday.

Trying to neglect that aspect of it. heh.

Hopefully more good news will come my way! :D

Sunday, 12 August 2007

On saturday, Hz, Ch and I went to the Pre-departure session at Suntec. Can't say it was a waste of time, coz we did get to sign up and get to know more about some stuff like insurance etc. Went to the UCL booth and found out that there is indeed a camp from 26th to 28th!hmm, somehow I wasnt that excited about the camp, total contradiction to what I felt when I was speculating whether there would be one. I think I'm wierd, or maybe it's just that I don't really these kinda get-to-know each other sessions :/ (kq I know you will agree haha).

Starting to get to know more people heading to the same school as me. At least I've seen some of their faces, so it's comforting in a way :) And I heard from the senior at the booth that there are two other people under MOH doing the same course as me! And I thought I would be the only international student in the small class of 60. Phew!

Later, hz ch and I headed to some Jap place for a very late lunch! Enjoyed this part of the day much more, needless to say, coz of the great company! (:

Anw, hz and I were extremely terrified by Ch's warped logic about how, if a person treats you very much nicer than how he treats others, one should just accept the person as Mr Nice guy, which means, neglect the other side of him.

We were stunned for quite some time. When will ch ever understand that BAD PEOPLE exist in this world and there's such a thing called MOTIVE! haha.

Now that I think of it, it's coz Ch always sees the good in people. It can be good and bad I guess.

We just hope she meets good people all her life :D

Thursday, 9 August 2007

What I did on 8/8/07

Finally got my laptop! haha, actually I'm not exactly feeling euphoric now, coz I sort of qualify as an IT idiot and thus, apart from installing microsoft 07, my laptop is happily rotting at a corner of my room (for now). Shall find some time to understand my laptop better and to save all my music and photos! Anw, I went to collect it with Kq and Shiru yesterday. Luckily I didnt go alone (I couldnt anw haha!) I think the Fujitsu guy at the booth was pretty inundated by our endless list of questions. Then, Shimin appeared with her butler! 4 of us decided to head to Holland V for lunch!

Thanks to my 3 babes for helping me now and then with that huge box!:D

After that, I went to Queensway's Ikea to surprise Minnie! haha. ok, I was supposed to surprise her, but she ended up giving me a shock instead! coz Weishyuan told me that Minnie works at Ikea and asked me to wait outside the florist shop instead. While waiting for Weishyuan to show up, I wondered into the shop and suddenly..

A voice: " HUIXUAN???"
Me: "AHHH MINYUAN! what are you doing here?"
Minnie: "Working? Weishyuan's coming later, so coincidental!"
Me:"omg that goon didnt tell me you're working as a florist! She even asked me to wait outside the shop!"
Minyuan: "Oh so YOU'RE the surprise Weishyuan was talking about!"
Me: yea, SURPRISE!!!:D

Later...
Weishyuan: I didnt ask you to GO IN the shop what!!!

haha anw, we fooled around the shop, although there was a camera installed right above us by Minnie's boss. haha.

Weishyuan happily squeezing chilli sauce onto her hot dog :D Happy birthday girl!

While Minnie's colleague was at the loo..

Haha, really miss the times during OM. WEISHUNICASHYUANQIKI! ok I dun think anyone will understand that apart from us! :D

Anw, both of them were super amusing as usual. Another random incident at the shop:

Customer: (holding a bunch of flowers) May I know what flower is this?

Minnie: Er, dried flowers?

Surprisingly, the customer happily accepted her answer, as I let out a shriek of uncontrollable laughter.

Anw, HAPPY NATIONAL DAY !

Monday, 6 August 2007

CHEESE!! haha that was what my cousin's son shrieked when I took this photo. Haha, cannot stand it, he's so cute!!:D haha, although he defiantly chose a banana over a Pooh bear drink bottle I bought for him from HK disneyland:/

Went for lunch, bowling and Pool with the cycling gang! haha, 2 members missing from this photo, still waiting for more from mak!

Chieh's head looks so puny! Apart from several strikes by tiff and (surprisingly) melvin :p, our scores were 100 plus!! Not bad huh! Our cumulative scores, I mean:D

Chieh getting ready to trash melvin (:

Today, I went for my pre-departure medical checkup! Very glad that I managed to get everything done in a day! Was pretty surprised that the JB hospitals were actually much more efficient that Spore's polyclinics as I got my Xray done and collected the film in less than 10 min! hha. My family doctor was very swift too, only hesitating when he came to questions " Is she pregnant" and "Does she have a history of mental illness?":/ Anw the blood test was painful man. So painful that my left hand was immobolised for pretty long. And 5 min later I was feeling super weak and my right ear went deaf. Took half an hr of rest, a cup of milo and 3 cookies to get me back in shape. Ah better exercise more, too much slacking is taking a toll on my health!

Hmmm, my chest. And extra organ :o

Friday, 3 August 2007

Cooking a feast!

Lunch today was SUPER! Mainly coz Shiru, Hongli, Kaiqian and I whipped up our own pasta meal! haha. Had loads of fun, doing silly stuff :p haha like how we kept screaming, for funny reasons (like when Shiru whacked the Whole bottle of tomato sauce in. IT WAS HUGE! )

Proud mamas presenting their Crabstick with Chaoda garlic! (Don't trust kq to cook, especially!)

Thick gravy with butter mushrooms, sausages, onions swimming in it. YUM!

Time to eat, Finally!!

I HAD to upload this picture. For those of you who call kq a duck. STOP IT. She's actually. A snake.

Met Huiwen and Pamela on the way to queensway! haha. Huiwen tortured us the whole journey with her list of sports camp hunks, haha!

Ahh, I like these pictures. They look as though they were taken in a really blissful moment in time! (:

Wednesday, 1 August 2007

Advertising for Gopifish:

Anyone willing to adopt rabbits? No smell, good bowel systems, furry, cuddly, hoppy and everything that tells you they're rabbits! ( The smell part is disputable haha) Let me know!

An update on Birdie and Birdie Jr:

Both are doing well, Birdie Jr hatched out of its egg abt 1 week ago and is currently still a hairless naked little pink figure. I pity him, the weather has been so cold recently, must be shivering in that nest. At least his mum is back in the nest at night to give him some warmth, from her butt I think. (the nest is pretty small I think she sits on him :/)

Gotta keep a look out though..those big fat cats my maid's secretly feeding behind my father's back seem to be prowling surreptitiously around the nest. A few weeks ago the carcass of a frog was found by my maid at the garden. Carnivorous creatures, never thought they were nice.

heh sorry I just can't click with those catty creatures.