I went to school today to sit in the first meeting of the 12th Exco in the Councillor's room. I arrived about 15 minutes to 9 and Mrs. Lim arrived a few minutes later. Only half of the Exco (there are 8 members in the 12th Exco) - Clovis, the new President of the Council, Joyce, the Vice-President, Eng Ping, the Head of Student Welfare, and Xian Yin, the Head of Publicity - were present, while the other half either had some other business on or were sick. Kegan came in a few minutes after 9 while Mrs. Lim began the meeting earlier, speaking to the Exco about the agenda for the day and all those stuff.

Eng Ping had to go off at 9.45am, while Xian Yin had to go off for ELDDS which began at 10am (according to her, they are starting on their SYF project for next year with someone from TheatreWorks). Shao Ming came in later and, including Clovis, Joyce and me, tidied up the room while Mrs. Lim and Kegan went off to print documents from previous projects we've handled to be given to the 12th Exco. By the way, the Councillor's Room will most probably be turned into a storeroom for the Council next year while the Councillors and the other student leaders get new air-conditioned rooms on the third level beside the AVA Rooms.

I was originally told to do the stockchecking of the blazers with Mdm Normah, but she wasn't around, so I helped out in the tidying of the room later. Kegan came back after we were done with the documents printed and ready to be passed on the 'next generation'. Miraculously, Xin Jie also turned up later, but for a different purpose. She wanted to give away her old textbooks to anybody who needed them.

So the President and Vice-President of the 11th Exco spoke to the President and Vice-President of the 12th Exco until we decided it was time for lunch. After lunch we went back to the Councillor's Room and turned on the new hi-fi set which the 11th Exco bought for the next Council while the 4 ex-Exco members helped Mrs. Lim to sort out some of her documents ('some' is a lot) into three categories and filing them into the ring files given. As some of the documents were confidential stuff which Clovis and Joyce cannot see just yet, we also had to prevent Clovis and Joyce (more of Clovis) from sneaking in. (Why didn't we think of giving Clovis a soccer ball?)

After we were done filing, Mrs. Lim called to tell us that it had to be in chronological order. Argh!! Never mind, we rearranged the stuff in the files until the most recent documents were on top. By then it was evening and it was time to lock up the Councillor's Room and go home. (By then Shao Ming had gone home already.) When we saw Mrs. Lim later she asked if we could arrange them into further subcategories. ARGH!!!!! Okay, we went into the Staff Lounge upstairs to file those stuff. Kegan had to leave early for the hospital, so I stayed till 7pm to rearrange all the stuff to the best of my ability.

Service to the school...

The last time I went for the Kuantan trip, the guy at the customs told me I needed to change the photo in my passport before I go abroad the next time. Since I'm going to Malacca with my parents, I went to the ICA Building today to change my photo. My father accompanied me as I have not passed my 16th birthday. On the way there and back, my father treated me like an invisible person, always walking 10 feet ahead of me as if he's the only one who came out today. Nevertheless, the changing of the photo was pretty quick; faster than I expected anyway, since the website had said that processing would take about 30 minutes, but all the lady at the counter did was to paste the photo in the passport and stamp a note regarding the renewal of photo and we were off.

On the way back, while my father met up with my mother at Bukit Batok MRT station to go to NTUC Fairprice together, I got some money from my mother to buy the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (POA) VCD. I bought it for $15.90, $4 cheaper than the usual price, from a CD store in a neighbourhood across the road from where I lived. At first I wasn't sure if I liked the movie (information seemed to be cut in abruptly at times), but I must commend on the maturity of the shooting style of the movie. Maybe I'll take a better liking to it the next time I watch it. And, by the way, the credits rock!

Nothing much again.

Suddenly the holiday feeling is back. A.k.a. boredom. Practically spent the whole day on the computer.

Today's evening was to be spent at the solemnisation ceremony of Ms Wong, 4o1's Biology teacher, and her fiancé, Scottz Lip (yeap, Scottz with a 'z'). The 4o1ers going to the ceremony met at Clementi MRT Station by 4.45pm and we walked to a nearby carpark where shuttle buses would take us to Sentosa's Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort Singapore, the venue of the ceremony. Looking at the attire of everybody, I almost felt like this was another Graduation High Tea.

We arrived at the hotel well ahead of the start of the ceremony. After signing a guestbook, we walked onto a field overlooking the horizon. Coincidentally, the field faced the west, so that the ceremony would be held with the sunset and the ships on the sea as the lovely backdrop. While waiting for the bride and groom to arrive, we snapped pictures (some with the flower girls and a little boy named Glenn [I think]) and took drinks and snacks served by waiters and waitresses.

The masters of ceremony invited all guests around to the spot where the solemnisation would take place. The bride, Ms Wong, beautifully dressed, appeared at around 6.30pm. Together, Scottz and Ms Wong walked to the table in front. The solemnisation then took place, blah blah blah. And then it was over; Ms Wong was now officially Mrs. Scottz Lip. The photo-taking session came next. The 4o1ers took their photos with Mrs. Lip after 4o2er's turn, and it wasn't exactly easy; there were at least 5 cameras and everybody were probably looking at different cameras when photos were taken.

We stayed around for a while after our photos were taken. Finger food were served around by the waiters and waitresses to the guests. I had some before we left on the shuttle bus service of the hotel back to mainland Singapore. We had our dinner at the Seah Im Food Centre, after which we went for a walk in the HarbourFront Centre and sat down on the floor in a quiet corner of the mall and played Truth or Dare. Miraculously, Quan Ming wasn't hit thoughout the game, and Amanda was probably the unluckiest person that day. We played the Truth part with the first few victims, after which the dare for the last three persons were to call another 4o1er and play pranks on them. We ended at about 9.30pm and headed back home.

NHSS Open House 2004

First day as an official ex-Nan Huarian, and the first activity is the NHSS Open House 2004 held for Primary 6 students who had just received their PSLE results and have to choose the secondary schools they want to be in.

The thing was scheduled to begin at 9am, so I arrived at school at around 8.30am to get ready. I made my first stop at the Councillor's Room, where the Sec 1 and 2 Councillors (in school uniform, which surprised me as Mrs. Lim had told me and the other Sec 4 Councillors that the attire was Council T-shirt) were blowing up black and white balloons, a small reminder of yesterday's Graduation High T. I helped out a bit here, after which they brought the balloons out to the walkway to hang. Along the way, I saw the ELDDS members at their booth on the corridor outside Mr. Foo's office. I dumped my bag there (easier access to it as the Councillor's Room may be locked during the Open House) and then went to help the Councillors hang the balloons.

After a while I had told them I would be going back to my bag to get more scissors, but in the end I helped the ELDDS bring down the banner which they had initially hung in front of their booth on the metal grilles above but was found to be blocking them. In the end the banner laid "forgotten" on the stone bench outside the corridor.

After spending a bit more time at the ELDDS booth, I started my patrolling duty around the school as a Councillor - or rather, an ex-Councillor. The main objectives were to direct parents around the school if they needed help and make sure they keep to the ground floor and the hall on the second level and keep away from the classroom block. After that my time was spent alternating between patrolling and helping out at the ELDDS booth. I knocked off at about 1pm eventually.

The Finale: Graduation High T 2004

I had a bath in the morning and went out at around 11am wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt, black jeans and black shoes. It's the Graduation High T at Hilton!

I arrived at Orchard MRT a few minutes before 11.45am, the meeting time for Abraham, Kegan and I who initially intended to take a taxi from there to Hilton but later decided to walk instead. Waiting at the MRT station were Abraham and other Nan Huarians waiting for their friends and, for girls, decked out in great clothes. I was probably a little surprised when I saw XL wearing exactly the same colours as me (i.e. blue shirt and black pants). Kegan arrived later, and the three of us walked to Hilton.

Once in Hilton, we took the lift to the third level where the Grand Ballroom, the venue for the event, was. We were way ahead of the registration time and so we sat around the area as other people started to come in. Mdm Poon came later and instructed me to give out the NHSS Alumni Student Membership cards to my classmates and get them to write their email addresses on some orange-coloured papers. Giving out the cards worked like marking attendance, and by the time we could enter the ballroom, only Yvonne and Ng Min's cards were left in my hands.

4o1 occupied tables 1 to 4 which were close to one of two huge white screens. A keyboard (some sort of logo for this Fond Farewell) served as the backdrop of the stage. I sat at table 4 with some of the guys and we started off drinking Pepsi and other drinks. The emcee, an ex-Nan Huarian, then started the show by inviting Ms Wassan to say a few words and directing us to the screens to watch a special graduation video made for us.

The next programme was Part 1 of the games session headed by the emcee. The two games played didn't exactly click with the rest as he separated the ballroom into two teams (Ah Nan and Ah Hua; I was in the latter) and tried to get everybody interested and enthusiastic. Eventually the people got more interested as it was time for eating. There were cakes, satay, laksa (I heard), popiah and others. By the time the second part of the games began all of us were more enthusiastic. We even got into human chains and all sorts of crazy stuff.

The highlight of the afternoon had definitely got to be the Boogie (dance). The whole stage and dancefloor were practically filled with students dancing their hearts out to popular disco tracks. Even I, with my two left feet in dancing, got onto the stage with everybody else and danced (if you could call that 'dancing').

At the end, table 1 received Nan Hua bears as prizes for a lucky draw and XL got a bear too for being "Mr. Nan Hua Graduation High T" (he himself was clueless as to what he did to earn the title). We ended off the event singing Auld Lang Syne, with 4o1 spearheading the singing of the song by forming a circle on the dancefloor and waving and singing to the song. The time spent here wasn't wasted after all. As we left the ballroom (there was a wedding to be held in that ballroom that night), hugs and gifts were exchanged and moments were captured on cameras. The whole hotel was swarming with Nan Huarians. While the other 4o1ers went out to eat, I had to go home (to avoid my mother screaming at me again for wasting money).

It didn't feel like the end. It felt like a new day has come...

The Finale: 4o1 Closure & Council ROD

I reached school at 8am to meet with the rest of the 11th Exco to prepare something for the 12th Exco's President. If you recall last year, Bernice (10th Exco President) made a sign for Kegan to hang around his neck. This year, we upsized the sign and drew "WANTED: PRESIDENT of 12TH STUDENT COUNCIL". By the time we finished we were just in time for a briefing by Miss Wassan at 10am. The briefing was for the Provisional Admission Exercise 2004 (PAE), the exercise that admits graduating Sec 4 students to JCs for the first 3 months the following year. At the end of the briefing Miss Wassan also reminded us about the Graduation High T tomorrow, which she is an organiser of.

After the briefing we had to head back to our classrooms (for the last time as official Nan Huarians) to receive our Form A's and a whole lot of other stuff. It took some time for me to go down to the General Office and ask for someone to help us open the doors to our classrooms, but once we were in the classroom it felt like back in school, only there were no textbooks, there were no harsh words from Mdm Sia and all of us were happy (not for long).

After receiving lots of stuff (which included the Graduation book, Yearbook, Information Booklet on the PAE, Form A and our testimonials), we pushed all the tables to the side to play a game (part of me was asking why we are playing games at this time of the year). We were supposed to throw a roll of raffia string around a circle to different people while holding on to a part of the string and the thrower will have to give a compliment about the other. Mdm Sia got the ball rolling (literally) and the game then continued. Samuel was the one who passed to me ("Thanks for all the help with my A. Maths" was what he said) and I passed the ball to Kuan Yee for beating me all the time at Solitaire Showdown. (To Yvonne, who received the ball last: Hope you don't feel sad, you're still a 4oner!)

By the time the game ended it was past noon and the councillors from our class were already late for the Council ROD which was scheduled to begin at 12 noon. Yet the class insisted to watch the special class video Quan Ming made (and which he showed during the chalet too). By the end of the video I was almost about to cry out, not only because of the atmosphere of the class but also how late we were going to be for the ROD. Eventually we were able to wiggle out from the class and rush down to the Hall where everybody was waiting for us.

The ROD started and we were treated to yet another video of 4 years of memories. After all the presentation of certificates, plaques, CDs containing the videos and what not and the introduction of the members of the 12th Exco, we were invited to the canteen for food. The video was tear-jerking, but the buffet was more relaxing and the mood was lighter. After the meal some of the 11th Exco and Wei Zhe went to West Bowl to bowl. Though eventually we had to go home in the heavy rain, but everything that had happened pointed to the real finale: the last day as an official Nan Huarian, which is tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

The Finale: 4o1 Chalet (Day 3)

When midnight came and most of the girls went up to the bedroom to sleep, Quan Ming decided to stack the mahjong tiles on the table against the wall to make the words "NHSS". Thanks to the reflective nature of the table, pictures of the tiles looked like the "NHSS" was on the horizon, reflected in the water. After a while, Kegan and I took them down and we played mahjong till late.

Eventually the people on the ground floor decided to sleep too, switching off the lights. I took up a spot at the base of the stairs where I could lean back against the wall and cuddle up with my bag. It took some time for me, but as what happened last year, I fell asleep soon.

I woke up at around 5am. The lights were on and people were walking around packing stuff. The original plan was to go to Wild Wild Wet on Day 3, but most of the people decided to go home early in the morning of Day 3. At around 8am, Kegan, Yan Chen, Delia, Aileen, Kuan Yee and me went out to Downtown East's Old Day Kopitiam to have breakfast (chicken porridge and Milo for me). After that, we lazed around Downtown East as WWW only opened at 10am. We went back to the chalet when Yan Chen said she had to go back too, and after she left Kegan, Aileen and Delia went up to the bedroom to sleep while Kuan Yee and I stayed awake watching a show on TCM on the ground floor.

At five minutes to ten I called those sleeping awake. After gathering our stuff, the five of us walked out to WWW. I took some time gathering enough money to store in the complimentary Funkey card I got on check-in and we admitted into the theme park later. The fun began after we got changed and stuffed our belongings into two lockers.

We warmed up in the Shiok River first. After one round, we got out and went to the top of the tallest tower to take the family water slide, Ular-lah. That was in itself a prelude to Slide Up, easily the most challenging ride in the theme park, where two guests at a time slide down a steep slope and up another slope on the other side and continue until there is no more momentum (just like a Viking ship). I took the ride with Aileen and I felt like either flying out or burning a hole into the spot of the float I was on. Later I had to go up again and take another ride with a boy who was below 12 years of age. This time I was more well prepared, and I actually enjoyed it.

After that challenging ride, Kegan and I volunteered to try out the Waterworks, two water slides. I volunteered to ride the covered one, while Kegan tried the uncovered. The covered purple tube was really dark inside and you could not see anything in there until you're reaching the exit. After this one I took the open one and found it as fun as the closed one. All in all, I loved both, but more for the closed tube.

After another go at Ular-lah, we went to the Children's Playground (not outside the theme park, but in the theme park) and had lots of fun. We also headed to the Tsunami, a man-made wave pool, where we had fun playing with the powerful waves and trying to block them with every part of our bodies (including our behinds - that's unhygienic, but who cares?). After renting a float, we had more rounds of fun (literally) when each of us took a ride on the float along the Shiok River (and me getting overturned at the end by Kegan).

Soon it was past 1, and Delia announced that she had to return to school for a camp she was in charge of (or something to that effect). We took out our stuff from the lockers and got ourselves lunch from the KFC in the theme park after taking a few pictures on Delia's camera. My Zinger burger took a long time to be ready, but after the meal it was back to our usual selves...not immediately though. I went three rounds along the Shiok River while the other three suntanned on the deck chairs. On the first round I said hello to each of them; on the second round they all seemed to be sleeping; on the third round they were gone with our belongings still lying on the deck chairs. I figured they either went into the Children's Playground or into the Shiok River behind me. I took the float with me up onto shore and did not wait long on the deck chairs when the three of them appeared, and I passed the float to them.

I joined them later (our belongings were in a way looked after by the lifeguard standing directly opposite them) and we had even more fun in the river. The grand finale to the day was another ride down the Waterworks before we returned the float, returned to the chalet to bathe and officially checked out of the chalet. Compared to last year, we left more stuff behind this time, some of which were uncooked potatoes, a tub of margarine which was almost full, the radio Wee Cheng got at the NJC Open House, a roll of kitchen towels and some towels. It was a feeling I couldn't describe as I left the chalet. We were all tired, but we had lots of fun (and those who didn't come to WWW should feel regretful).

On the MRT ride home I had a problem of leaking plastic bags which created a pool of water on the MRT floor and got some attention. It was only almost when I alighted at Jurong East Interchange to transfer to another train that I realised I brought back the extra garbage bags from the chalet.

Happy things aside, I was most unpleased to come back home to face the same situation as last year: coming home to hear my parents' queries about my money and then raising their voices about my money. I know it's hard to earn money, but why couldn't they let me take a break? Brrr....

The Finale: 4o1 Chalet (Day 2)

The movie-going group came back at around 2am in the morning. The bunch who watched The Incredibles came back first and were treated to a narration of the story of Shutter by Wee Cheng who had watched it before. Later the Shutter people came back too after Ming Hwee woke up. I actually managed to scare Amanda (a bit accidentally) by telling her, when she was about to go up to the empty bedroom to sleep, that she won't be alone. I meant that as a joke, but she freaked out and rushed down immediately.

For the rest of the night some guys continued to play the PS2 while some played mahjong. I just left my eyes open and sat around looking at the others. Occasionally I took Fang You's pack of cards and played Solitaire. At 5am the guys perked up to watch a seemingly important soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. By the time the game ended the sky had begun to lighten.

When morning came, the girls and some guys went to the shower at the swimming pool to bathe while some of us went out to breakfast. I went out to NTUC Foodfare with Ming Hwee where the streets were quiet and we ate toast (eggs too for Ming Hwee) and drank tea. We then went for a short walk around Pasir Ris Park before going back to the chalet. I also returned the BBQ pit at a few minutes past 9.

Some time later, a group of us (around 10) decided to head out to Pasir Ris Park to play Captain's Ball. I wondered if I was a little bit too enthusiastic, because two times I slid on the grass across paths of players from the opposite team to intercept the ball, making my pants wet. In the middle of the first game the ball accidentally hit my last finger on my left hand and it felt like the bones shifted positions. Nursing a painful finger, we walked back to the chalet after the second game where a few more girls joined us.

On the advice of some of them, I took ice from the fridge and placed it on my finger. About thirty minutes later the finger began to swell and look purplish at the joints. Looked like blood clot to me. Too bad, better don't push it too hard for at least the next few hours. What I could do was play more Solitaire. After having lunch on my own at Bibik Caterers (nasi lemak), I went back to the chalet and played Solitaire Showdown with Kuan Yee. Elsewhere in the chalet, the people were either playing mahjong or PS2.

I took a short nap at around 3pm when Cai Ying called me to inform me about the Council ROD. After that, time crawled slowly till evening when the girls decided to go out to eat dinner and the rest of us went to Bibik Caterers for dinner (I had fried rice with fried fish). After dinner, it was almost going to be another long night, but I did begin to pick up the PS2 console to play some racing game which was quite fun. Time dragged till midnight...

To be continued

The Finale: 4o1 Chalet (Day 1)

The day started at around noon for me. I went out to the neighbourhood coffee shop to have lunch before setting out to IMM Giant Hypermarket to buy the stuff for BBQ. This year, Mr. Fok (our relief Chemistry teacher for two weeks in July) has stepped out to help us pay for our BBQ food and equipment (except for the pit and wire mesh, which will be paid with leftover from collecting the chalet money, and charcoal, which will be provided by Veronica). Coming along to IMM Giant are Kuan Yee, who happen to stay near Mr. Fok, and Quan Ming, who volunteered a bit reluctantly because he would have to travel west, away from the chalet.

I arrived very much early at IMM Giant. Just as well, I went around to look for the equipment and food. Most of the items' costs have risen as compared to last year. We met up at 2pm (a bit later for Quan Ming, since he didn't know the area well) and went around the supermarket getting the stuff. When we checked out, I worried that the stuff would exceed Mr. Fok's $100 budget, but miraculously everything added up to around $84, including the Listerine which Mr. Fok bought for himself.

We pushed the trolley of stuff into the lift to level 3, where Mr. Fok had his car parked. He didn't know his way to the chalet (considering he drove the car only to NUS), but I had done my homework long ago when he sent that email saying he didn't know the way. So I ended up next to the driver's seat and giving directions, which wasn't tough; I chose the most direct way of the PIE. During the ride, Mr. Fok told us a few storied about NHSS like one of its former Physics teacher and haunted stuff of the old school campus.

We eventually arrived at the chalet at about 4pm, way past the 3.30pm which I planned, but nobody else had arrived anyway. I had Mr. Fok help us check in, and after we had parked the car near our chalet room, we brought the stuff to the room, C-01. Having knocked on the door ("It's customary," Mr. Fok said), we entered and dumped the food into the fridge. I checked the bedroom and was a little shocked to discover it was probably a bit smaller than the one last year. Nevertheless, the chalet was much cleaner and closer to amenities than East Coast. While I headed to Bibik Caterers with Kuan Yee to rent the BBQ pit, the other two took a break while waiting for the rest to arrive, especially Veronica and her charcoal.

Once 2 whole gangs of people (Veron's gang and Toilet Gang) and some other people arrived at the chalet with a little directions from me, they took no time in warming up to the chalet. By then it was already 5pm and I decided to begin starting the fire in the BBQ pit. XL, Fang You and Quan Ming came out to help me (considering I'm not an expert in BBQ-ing and starting BBQ fires) and we played cards outside while the fire burned the charcoal. Later, I accompanied a few girls out to Cheers at NTUC Downtown East to get instant noodles in case the BBQ couldn't fill their stomachs well.

When we went back to the chalet the sky was darkening but the charcoal hadn't burned up well. Veronica and gang were now at it, and in a few minutes we were ready to begin cooking. The sausages came first, then the bacon. However, the guys who were cooking the stuff (me included) didn't add more charcoal while cooking, and the charcoal soon died out. This started off another round of starting the fire while the rest went back in, some to play cards and mahjong (courtesy of Chii Yeh) in the bedroom and some to play the Playstation 2 XL brought again. We started cooking the food again once it was hot again.

Overall Veronica and gang and Siang Yong were the big savers of the night for the BBQ pit's fire. Following the 'great save', we continued to cook the chicken franks, bacon, cocktail chicken and later otah-otah and the chicken wings. Eventually though not all the food were cooked. And I initially thought we didn't buy enough food.

Soon after the BBQ, most of the people went out to Tampines Mall to watch late-night movies; some wanted to watch the horror movie Shutter and some wanted to watch The Incredibles, something more light-hearted. In the end only Kegan, Ming Hwee, Wee Cheng and I were left in the chalet. One good thing about this was that we got the entire room to ourselves for at least 2 hours. Each of us got one whole bed to ourselves (Ming Hwee volunteered to sleep on the floor) and we slept through from midnight till 1am for Kegan, 2am for me and much later for Ming Hwee.

To be continued

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Papers: 5068/01 & 5068/02 Chemistry

Since we started the October/November 2004 O-Level exam season with Chemistry (the English oral is so easy to ignore), it only seems appropriate to end the exam period (for me and most other people anyway) with Chemistry. Our examination room got an invigilator who looked like some Chinese DJ to me, especially when she smiled (which she did quite often).

Anyway, I thought the papers were a little bit more difficult than Physics (then again, I didn't study well enough for Chemistry), but who cares, the exams are over!

From tomorrow all the way till next Friday I'll be involved in things, so keep it right here in this blog...oops, watched too much Singapore Idol. And poor Olinda is out. She must be crying buckets now...

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 4018/02 Additional Mathematics

The A. Maths paper today was much tougher than Paper 1 in my opinion. Or maybe it was because I only slept at 12am this morning. Can't help it; I love The Amazing Race. It's Iceland, baby! Oops...anyway, lost 7 marks straight in one of the questions about relative velocity because I assumed what the question didn't want me to assume. Sigh...

Spent the afternoon watching 天才GOGOGO, a Taiwan gameshow testing wits and intelligence. I actually managed to memorise the full set of 10 numbers and repeat them backwards in one of the rounds in the final stage of the game. If Singapore has such a game show, I want to join. ;)

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Papers: 2190/02 Combined Humanities, 5052/01 & 5052/02 Physics

The Geography Elective paper was in the morning and in the same classroom as the one we used last Wednesday. I chose to do the question on Changes in Manufacturing for Section A and Tourism in Section B. Most of them were regurgitating questions; the real question is how much we memorised.

Later it was a long wait to the Physics paper in the afternoon. During the time I played Hearts with a few friends and studied Physics at the same time. Well, tried to.

Physics wasn't too difficult. Probably this was what Mr. Pandian meant when he told us last time why NHSS students tend to do much better for O-Level Physics than Prelim Physics: because we are so used to doing difficult questions that when we come across easier (but not necessarily easy) questions we see it as very easy.

I'm staying up tonight to watch The Amazing Race 6, which premieres tonight with a 2-hour episode.

Started reading Geography for tomorrow.

Slacked again.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! (Correct spelling? I keep thinking I can never spell it right.)

Slacked.

Spent the day trying very hard to work out an online riddle. I learned about the existence of this riddle two days ago and it seems to have driven lots of people nuts (including me almost). In the end I decided to find a walkthrough and "walk through" the way till Level 23, what seems to be the furthest anyone has gone to. If you want to be driven nuts, click here to play the game.

It's Deepavali today, so I spent the day at home watching TV.

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Papers: 5093/01 & 5093/02 Biology

Today's papers are in the afternoon, and my trip to school was a replay of the trip to school for the Chemistry O-Level Practical Exam, though the rain was not as heavy this time. The examination room I was in had also been changed to 2 storeys below, something my classmates didn't realise at first.

The MCQ wasn't too bad, but Paper 2 was the killer. After the exam most of us went into discussions about whether there was a mistake in question 2 of Paper 2. Sigh...I don't think I'd be looking at a distinction for Biology.

Spent the day slacking again. I only started on Biology at night. :p

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 4017/02 Mathematics

Not too bad for me. After this it's a day's break for me. Er...no, wait, Wednesday is Biology. Oops...

Slacked through the day and watched The Touch at night. It's only Maths tomorrow anyway. (Oops...hope that didn't sound arrogant...)

I went swimming at Bukit Batok Swimming Complex this morning at about 8 plus at huge risks to my future; if I get injured I don't know what will happen to my O-Levels. Fortunately, nothing serious happened. I did get accidentally kicked in the groin (oof!) by a little kid halfway down the length of the Competition Pool. While it hurt a little at first (I think those playing soccer had worse experiences), I'm sure it's still working as usual.

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 4018/01 Additional Mathematics

The paper was probably as easy as yesterday's Maths paper. Feels great for the week's examination to end this way.

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 4017/01 Mathematics

With the exception of one or two questions, the paper was quite easy. :p

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Papers: 1127/01 & 1127/02 English Language (Revised)

Paper 1 wasn't too difficult, but like Monday, I kept worrying after the paper whether I had written according to the topic. Paper 2 was also okay. Getting an A2 for this will be enough for me.

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Paper: 2190/01 Combined Humanities

The whole paper was basically like a Sec 3 End-of-Year Examination paper; all the topics tested were from the Secondary 3 syllabus. The structured-essay question was okay (I chose Harmony & Unity in Switzerland), but the source-based questions weren't easy. One thing that probably brought spirits up was a clueless penguin in Source A, a cartoon, of Section A.

GCE O-Level Examination 2004
Papers: 1111/01 & 1111/02 Higher Chinese

The moment I reached school, I checked the noticeboard outside the General Office to find out which room I would be taking the examination in, which is the former classroom of class 4/9. The first paper, 1111/01, started at 8.04am for the room I was in. The composition questions weren't too difficult, even though there were no narratives in Section B.

After the paper waited it was another long wait (like last year) to Paper 2. I spent most of the morning with Ming Hwee in the 4/9 classroom and most of the afternoon in examination room 1, where most of the 4/1ers were. Paper 2's later sections weren't too difficult. Went home after the papers, preparing to speed-read through Social Studies.