Leaving for class chalet tomorrow.

Received two letters today. One was to notify me that I was eligible for an Edusave Scholarship award. Another was to notify me about the registration of my NRIC card.

That means I'm growing.

Went out with a few other ELDDS friends to Queensway Shopping Centre to order ELDDS T-shirts. Unfortunately, we arrived extremely early (9 in the morning), and almost all the stalls (including the one that offers printing designs on T-shirts) were closed. When it still didn't open at 12.20pm, we decided to head to Jurong Point to order our ELDDS T-shirts.

While on our way to Jurong Point on 198, we passed by the area where I used to live. Many memories flooded me; I felt like going back in time to relive those memories (the good ones of course).

We ordered our T-shirts and I went home first, amidst heavy rain.

Basically spent the day playing Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire.

Went back to school this afternoon to laminate the rest of the class tags.

To all Muslims, Selamat Hari Raya Adilfitri! (er...is that how you spell it? Hope it's right; I'm spelling according to how it's pronounced...)

I went to school this afternoon to laminate class tags for classes of this year (for Symbolic Move) and next year. At the end of the day, I believe I have mastered the skill of laminating (using the laminating machine our school had). In one day, can you believe it!

Okay, today isn't as boring as other Sundays, because I'm addicted to Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire. Play and play and play and play and play...

It's another boring Saturday.

Today was probably the most occupied day I had.

At 8am in the morning, I got to the bus stop outside Clementi MRT station to meet 5 other people and Mrs. Wong. We were going to Ngee Ann Polytechnic for Round 2 of the Maths Carnival as we were the top 3 students from our school from the E. Maths and A. Maths category (3 from each). We took a public bus to the venue and realized we were early (thanks to smooth traffic). Once again, we were in a computer lab (a different computer lab though). When the lab was almost filled, we began the online test. When the test was over (10 minutes shorter than Round 1) I realized I was slow; I did not reach any questions on trigonometry, but my friends encountered quite a few. However, after a very long wait for the others in the A. Maths category to finish, I found myself in Top 5. That meant I would proceed on to the stage quiz later to compete in front of an audience. Another student from our school, You Jin, also got into the Top 5 for the E. Maths category. He kept telling me how he will freak out on the stage.

Guess what? In the end, he was the champion of the stage quiz for the E. Maths category. Me? I got consolation (to be exact, fourth). I realized I was only nervous on the stage if I'm on the stage for a competition (acting, not at all nervous). Maybe it's just my preference for freedom on the stage.

Once the prize-presentation ceremony was over, and we had taken a photo together, I rushed back to school for the second half of the Councillor ROD (Relief of Duties). I arrived at the Canteen, a bit wet due to the drizzle, and found out, to my relief, that the Councillors were still playing games, and the teachers and Guest-of-Honour have not arrived yet. They came soon, and we began the more formal part of the ceremony. After some talk here, some talk there, and the presentation of plaques and certificates to the graduating Councillors and bookmarks to the Sec 1 Councillors, it was time to EAT!

Then there was more talk until I realized it was 1.50pm, 50 minutes past the scheduled time to end. I told Shifang to meet me at Chua Chu Kang MRT station at 1.45pm so that we can book our class chalet. Kegan told me to go off first, and I did. I arrived at CCK MRT station at around 2.30pm, found him, and went off into Lot 1 Shopping Mall, onto the 4th storey, and into the chalet booking centre. It didn't take long, and we were out, with 20 minutes for me to spare. After changing into my Council T-shirt I sped off to The Chevrons to help in the decoration of the Multi-Purpose Hall for the Graduation Nite later on.

I arrived at The Chevrons just as the non-EXCO Councillors arrived. We went to the Multi-Purpose Hall to find tables and chairs set up, as if it was somebody's wedding. Ms Wassan and Mr. Chia arrived later, and we waited for the balloons and the pumps to arrive. The EXCO members arrived later and we started pumping balloons with helium gas. Since it was helium gas, we had to be extremely careful (the ceiling was high). We grouped the black and white balloons into bundles of 5 according to colour (since the theme for the night was Black and White), and when Mr. Tan (former student of NHSS who took over Mrs. Lim's Art lessons last year when she had to go off for a course) arrived, we began to tie the balloons together as a column. Occasional balloons flew to the ceiling, so our smart brains (...) began working. We got a big bundle of balloons, tied the strings to a yarn long enough to reach the ceiling, and released the balloons onto the ceiling, trying to use static to bring the balloons down. That bundle of balloons became the saviour for most balloons that flew to the ceiling.

As 7pm approached, graduating students began turning up. They were no longer in their uniforms, but in black and white (most anyway) and with the girls sporting make-up, something they couldn't do in school (unless it's a performance of course). It was mostly the girls who dressed well, but I did spot a Sec 5 guy who dressed well.

Sec 3 Councillors were entitled to stay throughout the Graduation Nite, but I didn't, because I didn't want to miss Survivor at 10pm, so I went home.

Phew.

Until yesterday, there were no such thing as "3 hours of Chemistry this morning", but today's Chemistry lesson was only announced yesterday. Sigh...

After the lesson, I collected my order for new books next year at the bookshop. Then I had lunch and went off for the EXCO meeting.

A. Maths lesson in the morning, followed by a 1-hour session to discuss next year's Supervised Reading Programme, and 1 and a half hours of Physics (we were dismissed rather early).

A. Maths lesson this morning. A. Maths competition (sort of) this afternoon. This afternoon's Maths Proficiency Test was Round 1 in the Mathematics Carnival held at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I was in the A. Maths category along with 19 other classmates, and 20 other students from 3/2 took part in the E. Maths category. Quan Ming, Tania and I ended up at the top 3 scorers for our class that day and can move on to Round 2 on Friday. The top 3 scorers from 3/2 also got into Round 2. After refreshments and a rather happy games session, we went back to school and subsequently home.

A. Maths lesson was on this morning. We finished Combination first and then moved on to Binomial Theorem, which was a total disaster.

Immediately after the lesson I rushed to the polyclinic for my dressing appointment. I managed to get there in time, but had a long wait for my turn to arrive. And it wasn't crowded. Once I was done I returned to school with around 30 minutes to spare. I had lunch and rushed off for Physics lesson.

Sunday.

Quite a boring Saturday.

This morning there were Social Studies and A. Maths extra lessons for 3/1. Yea, well, nobody said holidays were all about playing.

A. Maths extra lesson this morning. We finished Matrices and moved on to Permutation and Combination, learning the 2 basic counting principles.

I have confirmed the class chalet to be from December 1 to December 3 at Costa Sands East Coast. We have not booked our chalet, though...Still looking for someone to help us book (he/she must be above 18; Mr. Pandian and Ms Ang won't be around for our class chalet).

On Day 2 of the workshop, we continued with our quest to find out if our patient sample contained the LaLa virus by going through gel electrophoresis. After the lunch break the biology lesson became some sort of a Social Studies lesson, where we had a "government" group who didn't want to acknowledge the fact that there is a LaLa virus outbreak, and the "doctor" group, the "parent" group and the "media" group (the group I was in) objected to the government's policy.

After this I went to the polyclinic for dressing appointment. My wound was extremely itchy, like last night. Right now, as I'm typing this, I felt as if there was a big worm on my wound, crawling around my head. Creepy...but more of itchy.

Today was Day 1 of the Life Science workshop for Biology students. The following paragraph is directly quoted from the letter to our parents informing this workshop:

"In this workshop, students will learn how to appreciate the work of epidemiologists in profiling an infectious disease and how to fight against it. They will also learn various microbiological skills like polymerase chain reaction, reverse transcription and gel electrophoresis method. Please be informed that this is a simulation exercise; no real virus will be used."

In today's lesson, we learnt that a LaLa virus (fake, of course, with inspiration drawn from the Sars virus) had killed many people. We went on to learn how to hold and use a micropipette properly, about polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcription. We also used these methods in our quest to find out if the patient sample we received (there were 10 groups in the class, and each group received one patient sample and one positive/negative control) had the LaLa virus or not.

After the workshop I asked the class about their decision for the date and venue of our class chalet. The date (December 1 - December 3) was okay, but the choice for the venue (Costa Sands East Coast Duplex chalet) wasn't that good - it was the most expensive among the lot, though big. Oh well...

Went to the polyclinic this morning to have my bandage removed. My hair is now standing on its own.

Then I had ELDDS. We were supposed to come up with skits (in groups) to promote ELDDS during next year's CCA Extravaganza. Unfortunately, our group's performance wasn't that good. (The script wasn't written by me, anyway.)

Back to slacking. Oh, no, I can't, because there's still homework to be handed in on Thursday...

Today is Part 2 of the Councillor Day Camp. I arrived at school at 7am and found the EXCO members, who seemed to have just woken from a sleep lasting 3 to 4 hours. I helped them to pack the things and bring what is needed to the AVA Room, where the first part of the day was going to be happening. By the time I got up there it was already 7.40am.

The first item on the programme was the monthly meeting. It was incorporated into the camp programme. The Councillors received the Calendar of Events, the grouping list and the telephone relay system. After that was the Role Playing Game session (RPG) where we came up with 3 rules we wanted to change, 2 reasons for changing each rule and 1 presentation of the group's work. In the end two teachers dominated the session and caused us to lose valuable time.

Mr. Loh and Mr. Lam came to the AVA Room after the RPG session for a dialogue session, where we touched on topics raised during the RPG session. When it ended, we were very behind schedule, and Mrs Lim told us that because of threatening weather, we were going to play our games in school and not at West Coast Park, as we had originally planned.

After lunch in Canteen 2, the Councillors headed to AVA Room 2 for a session by Kegan, Xin Jie and me, the main EXCO members planning day 2 of the camp. The lesson was on stress management, and we had a - well, okay time. The final programme was the games session. The Councillors (excluding me because of my injury and some others for no particular reason) played Caterpillar (a game where a team has to form a straight line, lock their legs around the waists of the people in front and race to the finish line) and Shoe Hockey (a similar game to Dog & Bone, except players used their shoes to hit the item to their goals to score). I believe they had more fun in the second game. A few group photos later, we were dismissed.

Today is the day. The O Level Chinese Exam.

I arrived in school at 7am. At around 7.30am we made our way to our respective examination rooms. Mine was Room 4-3, which was occupied by 29 other 3/1 students. Our first paper for the day, Paper 1 (Compositions) started at 8am. It wasn't too difficult for me, just standard. And oh, may I comment that our invigilator was young and beautiful.

Once the paper was over it was a four and a half hour wait to the next paper. Some of us went out to eat, while some stayed to study for Paper 2. I had lunch with Xianglong and Fang You at around 11am. When I was returning to the examination room, I saw Mdm Yip, who wanted me to go to Nan Hua Primary School tomorrow with some Secondary 1s to help promote our school. I agreed half-heartedly, then went to borrow the blazer with my juniors.

Paper 2 began at 2.30pm. It wasn't too difficult either, and the invigilator was as beautiful as before (she was the same one as the one we had for Paper 1). Even Quan Ming and XL found her attractive...However, there were quite a number of candidates in the level who didn't read the instructions for one section correctly and wrote the numbers instead of the corresponding words. If the markers are strict, the candidates would have lost 10 marks straight.

After that Jane and I met Mdm Yong regarding the planning of the Sec 1 Registration Exercise. By the time we were done the first part of the Councillor Day Camp today was over. The whole EXCO was staying overnight tonight for planning, except me, who will be going home to rest (supposedly). While packing the things for the others to stay overnight, Mrs Lim told me not to go for tomorrow's promotion thing and called Mdm Yip to inform her. With my wound and bandage, there might be some problems.

Took the bus with the other EXCO members to Clementi Central, then left them to have dinner while I headed home.

Went to the polyclinic today to change the bandage on my head. The nurse who removed my old bandage and replaced it with a lighter one said that if the wound is dry when I go back to the polyclinic either on Saturday or Monday, the bandage can be removed. Definitely waiting for that moment, I don't know how much my hair smells now.

Quite a number of my friends visited me at my house today. The first group who visited me actually did that yesterday evening (Juliet, Yan Chen and Kegan). The first group today were made up of 2 classmates (Zhi Yuan and Delia) and 4 ex-classmates from 2/4 '02. The second group to come was my ELDDS teacher-in-charge Ms Ong and Wilson, a Sec 1 ELDDS member. Ms Ong brought fruits and a card from ELDDS. The third group to come were all classmates: Brenda, Michelle, Chii Yeh and Clarence. They brought me a hippopotamus soft toy (cute) and chocolate (yum), which I shared with them. We were trying to find some topic to talk about, but we ended up studying Chinese. The last person to come was Eileen, another ELDDS member, who promised Ms Ong she'll visit me. She brought me a bun from a store with "Cinnamon" in the name and a card. To all who visited me: Thanks for the concern.

Life of a patient. Not recommended for all who are well. In other words: be safe.

Anyway, I watched the Japanese version of The Ring tonight. I finally understood the ending of the movie (I wasn't able to when I watched the US version). Not gonna reveal the ending here.

Today was hell for me.

I went to Clementi Central's Bengawan Solo Cake Shop at around 9.45 am. I was a tad early. I've asked Sharlene to meet me there once her A Maths lessons were over to buy a birthday cake for Ms Ong, the ELDDS teacher. When she arrived, it was already 10.20 am, 10 minutes before the ELDDS session was to begin today. We quickly bought a chocolate cake and took the bus back to school.

We were late all right, but Ms Ong wasn't even there yet. We told all the ELDDS members to hide. We were going to give Ms Ong a surprise. Surprise we did give, and the birthday song we sang. Later, I ran out of the room to get my bag from the canteen. I was running so fast that when I reached a turn, I couldn't stop in time.

Then hell began.

I skidded along the slippery floor (there wasn't any water) and fell, hitting my head on the corner of the pillar. I was bleeding like I never had for years. A teacher came along, and a few seconds later there were like 3 to 4 teachers around me. I pressed a cloth (don't know what you call that) to the right side of my head, which was where the blood was coming from. The ambulance came after my wound stopped bleeding, and I was sent to the hospital.

Apparently I had a 1.5 cm laceration on my right parietal scalp (in medical terms). The moment we reached the hospital, my father was waiting at the entrance already. Coincidentally, my parents were at NUH because my mother had an appointment for a check-up at the hospital. I was wheelchaired to the Children's Department or something like that (because I was under 16 years old). The only injured part of me was my head; the rest of my body was still functioning properly.

The doctor, Dr. Wong, sewed up the laceration with 4 stitches. I was told that there will be a permanent scar on my scalp. After that, I had to stay at the place for a few more minutes before being given the approval to leave.

I felt so guilty (no, not that Blue single) for making so many people worried...so guilty...

Went to school early this morning for a few things:

1. To pass Lendl consent forms for the ELDDS Holiday Sessions. He didn't come to get it from me.
   
2. To get last Thursday's meeting minutes from Wei Loong so that I can write out the programme for the Councillor Camp. Unfortunately, he didn't come too. I was told later that he had to go directly to a cluster sharing event he was involved in today, and so could not pass it to me.
   
3. To get the consent form for EXCO Planning Camp (overnight) from Kegan. While we were at it, we approached the canteen vendor selling "Western food" regarding the Councillor Camp's lunch.
   

Sunday. Sigh...

ELDDS meeting this morning. We talked about the CCA Extravaganza next year and about the ELDDS holiday schedule. After the meeting Sharlene, Sihui and I waited until 12.30 pm for Mr. Foo, our school's second vice-principal, to return from his viewing of the New Campus. We had to see him regarding our proposal to allow ELDDS girls to keep long hair and also to discuss about the "unfair treatment" of ELDDS. At the end of the discussion, he said that he would consider the point about ELDDS not getting recognition for the contributions to the school.

After lunch I headed to Campus 1 for an interview to be a radio DJ for our school's upcoming online radio. It was organised by the proposed CCA "INmagine Community", which is definitely BIG. In the meeting that followed the interview (which was short and sweet), the chairmen of the CCA told us that they had deals with organisations like Motorola and NUS. This is very BIG. After all, INmagine Community's aim is to promote entrepeneurship among students.