28 - 31 March'06
28th
Last day of work at RP. Came kinda sudden, cause initially Robin was suppose to be on leave on Wed, me on Thur and both be back on fri. So we packed the Store rooms faster than usual. Before we know it, we are done! Thus Lisz said that since there is nothing for us to do in the meantime, we are 'fired'. But she may recall us if there is more to be done. We'll see.
Went for Calvary's Prayer Meeting for the first time. Way different from A.O.G's. Guess I can get use to it, after all its a Prayer Meeting. Before Prayer Meeting started, i stumbled upon a book on Mormoons, kinda interesting, but doubt I will buy it. Perhaps i shall return to it and slowly finish it.
30th-31th
Was Suppose to be ice skating on Thur, but HJ had to work. But a fabulous news awaits me! And it was all that I need. I am accepted into NUS Mech Eng. Given my poor poor grades, I really thank God for giving me the place. *Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow*
Celebrated with Oliver at Crystal Jade Holland V. We were at Holland V from 2300 - 0600. At the bus stop when we saw a junior Assumption Knight, we decided to make a trip back to Assumption at 0615! Somehow we manage to convice the security to let us in. Met Mrs Norman, Kit Lee, Lee Wei Ming. Feels kinda weird to be back after 4 years. Lee and Kit Lee wanted us to give the Sec 4s pep talks. -.-
Only reached home at 1000. Took a nap before meeting Chris for RENT. Dianne said that I will definitely like it. True enough, I did. It was AWESOME! Its a splendid musical extravaganza. Rated M18 due to its homosexual content. Sadly, it is only shown at The Cathy on fri and wkends. If you are interested, do catch it fast, cause i don't think it will be here for long. Kinda dun mind watching it again. HaHaHa.
After RENT, it was drizzling lightly and we made our way to PS for dinner. And we had crystal Jade, De Ja Vu, before heading home. Poor Chris, been overwhelmed with work. Huge eyebags happily resides beneath her eyes. Take care ya.
Anyway, Vivan from Recruit Express (WEST) manage to secure an interview with Nestle on Monday at 0930.
Jap food
Whats with Jap food and me? Somehow i just don't like eating them. Except for the standard tuna or crabstick sushi, I hardly eat Jap. Just can't stand putting a raw piece of fish into my mouth. Yuck, not to mention anything more exotic or adventurous.
But on 22th, somehow it changed. Met up with Clarice for dinner. Since she travelled all the way to causeway point from work, I let her chose what she wanted to eat for dinner, for some reason or another, I mentioned Jap food included. Big mistake? Maybe, maybe not. After lottering arond for awhile, we came by Ichiban Jap and decided to dine there. As i stepped in, i thought, what have I got myself into. For the first time, i ate slower than usual. So much so that Clarice finished her meal way before I did.
Mine is on top, hers is beneath. She reckon that the fish should be accompanied by soya sauce. I did and guess I put too much cause it ended up tasting like soya sauce fish instead. But it still tasted pretty good. Yea well, at least now I won't mind eating Jap. But still, doubt I will ever crave for it.
24 March'06
Interesting day it was. 2 events. Results and NHC medical appointment. The night before I had a dream about me checking my results in a Mac hse! What a joke. Somehow I had this gut feeling that I will get an AD this time round, for SDC. But i guess my common test grades deprived me of it.
Results were a total disappointment. Though the only consolation was I manage to grad from NP with an AD, my first and last. And it came from WISP, Lawrence Lai class instead of SDC which i got only an A+. Guess I would not have been able to have done it without Joseph's uncle, who provided us with the information on the Israel-Arab conflict. So thanks ya. Probably the reflection report which I wrote about the Racism of the Africans in Singapore also played a role. Thank God for the insight.
NHC medical went well. NOTHING wrong with my heart as according to the test results. So thank God for that too. So I guess my pes status should and hopfully be C1L3. *fingers crossed*
Temp Packing at RP
On the 15 of March, while in the midst of packing my stuff, I received a phone call from Recruit Express (RE) at 1600, informing me that Republic Poly (RP) is hiring temp packers and asked if I was interested. Naturally I said yes. 1630, RE called again telling me that I got the job. They even wanted me to go down immediately to sign the contract! My first reaction was, are you nut?! Since I was expected to start working the very next day, I hasten my way down. Initially, I thought with the new semester coming up, perhaps all I was required to do was to pack orientation bags. But NO. RP has just shifited to their new campus at woodlands and many of the stuff are still in boxes dumped in store rooms. So they required man power to unload them and pack them onto the shelves, in other words, hard manual labour. I signed a contract for the assignment lasting from 16th to the 24th, 5 day week, 0900-1800, $6/hr.
My department was OCC, can't be bothered what that stands for, but they are incharge of admin stuff and domestic events. OCC consists of Lisa, Catherene (Cat), Veronica (Ron), Vivven Ang/Oh, Erushi , Rebekah, myself and Robin (another temp packer).
My 'supervisior' or contact person is Lisz, a 24 year old NTU Mechanical Engineering Grad with Merit. Formely a VJ and RGS student, I guess she kinda regretted taking up Mech Eng. According to her, the A levels result for her batch were extremely good and she couldn't get into NTU's Accountancy. She could have waited another year or apply to SMU. But somehow she didn't and went ahead with ME.
Cat didn't exactly give me a good first impression. Somehow I feel that she behaves like a snobish brat, giving unnecessary comments, which kinda reminds me of a secondary school classmate. Gradually, I guess I got use to her way of doing things and presenting herself. She only started work at RP for 2 months after graduating from NUS biotechnology. But she could not secure herself an honours, thus unable to help out with the profs as a postgrad who only wanted honours or masters grads. She also has a brother from 86, in SP awaiting enlistment. De Ja Vu.
Erushi is a 21 year old from Sri Lanka, one of the first batch of students who has graduated from RP. All she needs is to work 3 years in Spore before she can return home which she intends to.
Robin, an ORD personnel who gradutaed from NJ, now awaiting entry into NTU's Accountancy.
On the 22th of March, we had about 50 RGS gals who came to RP to experience its unqiue Problem Base Learning Technique. Because of them, the entire OCC, had to be at RP at 7am! But thankfully the event went well much to the stupid, panicky, unorganised, poor leadership boss's delight. Eeeel.
Today was another 7am affair as Lisz was incharge of a Parent OutReach Senimar, aimed at giving the parents an insight to the RP PBL system. The whole event went pretty smooth, response from the parents were spontaneous. So guess the boss will be off all our backs esp Lisz's for now.
Though I was contracted till yesterady, however, since the stores were not packed yet, Rob and I will carry on till next wk. But highly unlikely the entire, most probably till Wed or sth.
Floaters...
Had my eye examination at Alexander Hopsital today. Thank God everything turned out fine, though i have to go for a checkup every 6 months just to ensure that everything is in order. Reason for my initial visit was because of floaters. Floaters are only experienced by people with high myopia. They can be seen as 'black dots' floating around your vision. For my case, they are numbered in the thousands and they are everywhere! And I also experince a 'flash' incident. Meaning, out of no where, you feel that someone took a photograph with flash at you. That means that your retina has actually sorta like 'moved'. Dangerous..
Thankfully, I only experienced it once and the doc said that I am fine, for now.
Well, being trying to hunt for a piano teacher. Had tried the choir's conductress, but she is not taking in any more. Christine's mum is not keen on teaching her daughter's friends. So for now, I have HJ teaching me... So first lesson was on Majors and flats. Playing and remembering the E major scale is even harder than hitting a backhand smash! Ok, I am not musically incline I know..
First Love
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” [1 Corinthians 13:4-7]
Love suffers long – to bear long and patiently enduring with people who exasperates you;
Love is kind – It is good natured, gentle, tender, and mild. It desires to do good to others and desires the happiness of others.
Love envies not – Love would not diminish the success beauty and blessing and happiness, welfare, delights, possessions, enjoyment of others.
Love vaunteth not itself – Love is not boastful. He will not brag of his own excellence. He does not have a spirit of superiority over others. There is no feeling of contempt and disregard for others.
Love is not puffed up – Love is to blow or puff up. He is inflated with pride and vanity and full of self-esteem. To “vaunt” is to EXPRESS the feeling of pride and others can see it clearly. Here the word “puff up” refers to the “FEELING” of pride itself which is not visible to the eyes.
Love does not behave itself unseemly – Love is not a disgraceful conduct in a manner which deserves reproach. He is not disrespectful to superiors and the opinion of others. He has a proper and balanced regard for inferiors as well as not despising their rank, poverty, dressing, dwelling, and pleasures. He has a balance and healthy respect of all relations of life. His speech is seasoned with salt. His yea is yea and nay, is nay. He uses no vulgarity, and avoids profane and coarse language, improper allusions, double meanings and innuendoes, vulgar expressions. The reason is that these things hurt the ears and offend the heart of purity and graciousness.
Love seeketh not her own – Love is not selfish. He seeks not his own happiness but the happiness of others. He promotes others and accepts self-denials and practices personal sacrifices and toil. Her lives to do good to others as a child of God.
Love is not easily provoked – The word “easily provoked” literally means “to sharpen a knife or sword.” The Christian with this love is not easily roused to anger. He is not prone to violent anger or exasperation. He is calm, serious and patient. He looks soberly at things. He may be injured by someone but he governs his passions, restrains his temper and subdues his feelings. He does not give way to sudden burst of anger.
Love thinks no evil – Love enables the Christian to put on the best possible construction on the motives and conduct of others. He who loves is not malicious, censorious, and disposed to find fault and impute improper motives to others. True love prompts charitable judging.
Love rejoices not in iniquity – Love finds no joy or delight in the sin of others. There is no joy in hearing that our enemy has fallen in hard times and sin. Evil men find pleasures in the fall and sin of others (cf. Rom. 1:32), but not the believer who has the agape love of God.
Love rejoices in truth – The contrast of the evil man who delights in sin and evil is that the believer rejoices in truth. Truth to him is paramount. The Word of God is Truth. He up holds the Word of God and evaluates all circumstances and events and persons against the Word of God.
Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things – With this agape love the believer is able to bears, believe in, hope and endure ALL THINGS. There is nothing in this life and this world that the Christian is not able to deal with victoriously with God’s agape love in his heart.
Job Hunting
Sundays. Most jobs requires one to work on sundays, and that is one thing I will never be able to comply to. Applied to starbucks at borders and suntec, Kino, G2000 and Lacose. Kino has a cashering job, but the catch is still must be able to work on Sundays, thus the only thing left for me is some logistic assistant which they are keeping in view. For all my application, I strucked out Sunday as a workday. Hopefully that wont affect much. *fingers crossed*
After a long day of job hunting, nothing seems to be promising, though i got an interview with Recruit Express just to clarify my resume -.- Oh well, let Proverbs 3:5-6 guide me than. Guess the only fun thing for the day was meeting up with Christine for dinner. Since I was in town, so no harm meeting up with her. As usual, we had no idea where to go, thus we ended up at Wheellock NYDC where Shen is working. Feeling kinda weird being served by her. Though didnt get the chance to say goodbye as she had finished her shift. Lottered around for awhile before accompany Chris to Tanjong Pagar where she had bible study class.
After which was to meet my brother at suntec for the IT fair. By the time I am done with my job hunting at suntec, i was barred from entering the fair as they were closing. -.- Oh well, doubt there is anything interesting to look at anyway. Looks like its gonna be an interesting month, with results releasing next friday. *fingers crossed - again*
Alvin = SickBoy
What can I say? I am genetically cursed. What can I do? Nothing. Oh well, at least I can bid NHC goodbye for now till 24th. Initially thought of snapping a shot of Felicia to put on the blog but kinda hard, duh she is working. Oh well, doesn't matter.
So after NHC, I made my way to BB polyclinic to get a referal letter to a hospital for eye examination. For those of you who do not know, I am a blind bat with myopia of 1025 in my left and 1075 in my right, not to mention a 200 astigmatism in both. Until I was told, I didn't know that our vision wasn't suppose to consist of black dots, aka floaters. To me it was like a norm. Instead of a few of them, mine can be measured in the number of thousands? So guess its safer to have it checked up. *fingers crossed*
Of all hospitals, I was refered to Alexander. The kinda old hospital. Should have ask for like NUH or SGH or sth. Haiz. But oh well, Alexander is the only one that has a slot within the next 7 days, so oh well. Hopfully, things will go well.
Well, guess its time to look for a job. Westside story is in April, better start saving up for the tickets. Starbucks anyone?
NHC Medical
I am now a freak - again. After wearing the blood pressure measuring box for 24 hours, i thought that will be the last time I will ever do that. But proven wrong I am. This time round, its an ECG mearsuring device. Its to monitor my heart condition for 24 hours. On the bright side, at least its better than the blood pressure one as no pumping is required. But my whole chest front is practically being tapped up inorder to prevent the sensors from falling. Look kinda like a sucide bomber or even Darth Vader!
I had to go through 3 test at NHC excluding a blood test. During the blood test, the moment the doctor took out the needle, my first thought was 'Blood, needles and me don't go together,' as mentioned by Christine the evening before. Kinda hilarious.
I was forced to skip the threadmill test as I was under 21 and no adult was with me. Like I am suppose to know that I needed parental consent when no one informed me. Stupid NHC. Got me into unnecessary worries. But I guess thank God that it happened, because imagine being sweaty and all yet unable to shower while wearing the ECG device.
So I did the echo test. First time seeing an ultra-sonic scan of my heart.
Going through this kind of tests makes me feel like I am such a sick boy. Haiz.
The hooking up of the ECG device was kinda fun, as I was served by this 23 year old TP Biomedical grad .HaHa. Briefly talked about the kind of qualification that is required to be a nurse at NHC. And all one need is a diploma in ANY field. Weird huh. She said that she had collegues with building and estate diploma. Hilarious. She is Felicia by the way for those of you who are curious.
So here am I now, trying to make time fly faster! So that I can remove this crap and go shower. Eeeel.
5 March'06 - Hanjie
All it took was a simple 'hello' to spark off a new found friendship. I had seen her around before, only to know that she is Clarice's friend. Never really did get the chance to talk to her, as most of the time she will be either with her friends or clarice. So on sat after YF, I spotted her waiting for the bus by herself, since it will be seriously rude not to say hi, I greeted her. Instantaneously, I was completely thrown off by her hidden extrovertish self. Not long, we were engaged in hilarious conversations till she alighted from the bus.
Since I could be excuse from choir, I psychoed her to go out for lunch. Probably just to shut me up, she relented. From JEC to westmall and to finally Jurong Point, all we did was chat and laugh non-stop. Though at JEC we almost ended up ice-skating, we didn't as the queue was too long. At Jurong Point, we settled down at coffee bean, right infront of the door. To my utmost annoyance, those who came through that door never bothered to close it, causing me to get up from my seat every 10min just to shut it. Since she is well verse in music, I had a free sight reading lesson, though she can't stop laughing about me not being able to make out the sound of the note outright. Thus we spend our time there going through the choir pieces. Lotsa fun.
At least now I am able to make out flats and sharps in the C Major Scale. HaHa.
It finally sunk in..
When I woke up this morning, I stared at the ceiling wondering whats the agenda for the day. Than I realised, there is none! No projects or assignments to rush, no test or exams to study for etc. Its just me and whatever I feel like doing!
So i quickly planned my day and went about it. First stop was to Funan to fix my annoying printer which cant print black ink. Turns out that the print head and nozzle control unit was spoiled. 109 was the amount required to fix it. Nah... throw in another 100 buck, I can get a brand new one, not to mention the IT fair is cmoing up.
So i stopped by the Royal Sporting house to pick up a Wilson TL Gel Replacement grip. But i walked out with 3 items instead of 1. First 'extra' was an Australia Open Damper. It was the Australia Open Logo. Looks kinda nice, though it was kinda ex, but i couldnt resist the temptation of getting it. Next one was a small white ncode Wilson pouch. It looked pretty cool, so yea.
All of a sudden, I am on a mini shopping spree.
Arranged with Alim to meet up at city hall to go for the career fair at suntec. Since I was early, i walked towards the Esplanade via citylink. Walked past MPH, bought my monthly dose of the Tennis Magazine and being curious, I walked into the Adidas Concept Store and enquired about the Safin's Barricade 4. To my surprise, it wasn't even for sale. That is a customised shoe just for him. Anyone can also enjoy such privileges for 269! You will get your feet measured, find out your weight distribution, chosing your own colour etc. Well, that will make such a cool gift. *hint hint* LoL
Anyway, I wanted to find out more about the West Side Story Musical at the Esplanade, so I made my way there, met Guo Xiong who is teaching roller blading with a friend to kids, but couldn't find anything about the musical.
Somehow I guess I am attracted to colours. Just like the 2 pictures Dianne send me, these look pretty good too.
The career fair was crowded, as usual. Spent about 2 hours odd walking around. Nothing much on the aviation industry except for 3 booths. Enquired about the German and Swedish Unis. Like Germany till 2007, Sweden offers FOC tuition fees as well. Just that all classes will be conducted in Swedish. De ja vu huh.
Was pretty tired after the fair, so when to Carl Jr for a 'light' snack. Well, at least it gave me a good nap on 106 back to BB.
First time attending YF since my debut last year. Only reached at about 630. Kinda miss the whole message. Oh well, somehow there is this thing about me going to the YF on Sat. I like my sat to myself, be in be going out with friends or just spending time with my family. Haiz.. Oh well, may God continue to plant the desire for his word into my heart.
And its over...
Was suppose to end on a high note. Instead, i walked out feeling that another A has flown away. Somehow the APS paper felt harder than the AFPS one. Stupid mistakes i made, not to mention careless ones. Really felt like kicking myself. Plus, i had this bad bad flu, so was trying my very best to focus on the paper. Guess it didnt work out...
On the bright side, i did buy my barricade 4. Another 125 from my pocket. Well, my tennis shoe is spoiled, the soles r gone not to mention the cushioning. After my game with david on wed, my feet kinda hurt, so guess its time for barricade 3 to go making way for 4!
Ironically, 4 felt heavier. Weird huh.....
