tobias

May - July Update

2007-07-08T15:20:00.000+08:00

Before I launch into 2 months worth of forgotten updates, I do apologise to anybody who visited this blog for the lack of updates. I also welcome any new people who found my blog, especially my friends from MP Command - you know who you are. ;)

01/05/07
Labour Day was spent at Funan with my parents. We were getting a new desktop PC for my elder brother whose laptop (at least 7 year old) finally got defeated by age. We finally found a nice Acer destop PC with a flatscreen monitor. Am I jealous? Maybe. I'd love a flatscreen monitor. Windows Vista somemore. (Though I have heard negative reviews about Vista. :P)

05/05/07
My first guard duty at Mowbray Camp turned out OK. Missed Culminatio though. (Culminatio is the prelim showcase by the J2 DEP students.)

12/05/07
Another DEP outing. This time it's a picnic at Fort Canning Park as we enjoyed SRT's performance of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Really enjoyed the performance alot, especially with the actors running all around the place.

14/05/07
I decided it was pretty late, so I decided to email MOE regarding a scholarship interview.

Week of 14/05/07
The second last week of the MP Basic Course was filled with a lot of tests. Well, one test a day seemed like a lot. But the most significant pass of it all:

17/05/07
IPPT!!! I passed my first IPPT with 6 chin-ups!

18/05/07
Finally received something from MOE regarding an interview.

19/05/07
Tonight's show was Theasthai, the monologue and duologue showcase by the J1 DEP students. This year's show didn't have any metal frames like last year's; the stage was simply separated into 4 sectors by masking tape. The programme this year was also organised better, with 7 themed movements grouped into 2 acts. I enjoyed the show a lot; some of them did really well too.

22/05/07
MOE scholarship interview confirmed to be on the morning of 29 May. Unfortunately, because that is the last available slot for interviews, I'll have to miss the ATP shoot next week and do it another time.

24/05/07
We have endured 9 weeks of the MP Basic Course, and we're finally going to become MPs officially. Out of the 63 who were posted in at the start, 54 passed out today, and thoughout these 9 weeks, the 54 of us (and also the others before they left) went through a lot. A couple of circumstances resulted in us having a Passing Out Ceremony today instead of a Passing Out Parade tomorrow. So anyway, we're all decked out in our new No. 3 uniforms (though some in need of alteration due to its late arrival) and gathered in the auditorium. Our Best Trainee is Shafie (fellow thespian) and the Best Shot for P226 was Jeremy (fellow ACSian). The video was nicely done, and even though we thought the music was inappropriate (Simple Plan's "Welcome to my Life" and "Untitled"), CPT Jenny later commented that she and other guests found the sounds very meaningful. Talk about perspectives.

The rest of the day was spent ok. There was a TSR test after the ceremony and the photo-taking session (long overdue) for those who were attending the ATP shoot next week (so naturally, I did not have to take it). After lunch, we had an AAR cum dialogue session with CPT Jenny regarding the course in general. After that we got our nights out - perhaps a fitting reward for passing out as MPs.

25/05/07
The highlight of the day was the Cohesion High Tea this afternoon, organised by Shaun and co. The venue was some cool lounge in The Chevrons, where the walls had a space theme going on, what with black lighting and all. The food was nice, but I didn't eat a lot, knowing that our section performance was coming up first. Abel and I did an ok job on our first song, "An Jing", while the rest of the section also sang "Truly Madly Deeply", albeit a little messy. That didn't matter, we got our performance out of the way, and I could truly enjoy the rest of the day. And enjoy I did, singing along to every song I knew and clapping my hands.

I have never enjoyed myself so much back in BMT, and this group of people whom I've spent the past 9 weeks with have just been wonderful. Thanks for all the great memories guys, and I'm sure we'll meet up again another time in the near future.

26/05/07
...Well, maybe not this near. But MP Command's monthly out-camp run was held this morning near the Esplanade. While this was meant to be a NE run, passing through some significant buildings and monuments like the Raffles Landing Site and the Parliament House, it perhaps scored on the NE criteria and failed in the 'run' category. Why, our guides even mixed up some of the memorials and information.

Afternoon - NUS GMS Final interview. I was a little surprised to find Kelvin still waiting for his turn when I arrived about 20 minutes before my interview time. The interview probably wasn't as successful as the one a month back, but again, I was being myself.

Night - Out at SRT again to watch a show with the Madams. This time it's Shakespeare's Macbeth, performed by The Stage Club. Rae and Mr. Barry Woolhead were acting in it too, and from what I could see, they were probably two of the few people on that stage who knew what they were doing. Loved the Witches too.

28/05/07
Spent the morning in MPTS with Aaron while the rest went out for their IMT. I also found out that I've gotten a scholarship from NUS - the NUS Undergraduate (Merit) Scholarship. Hope I have more luck with MOE.

29/05/07
MOE Scholarship interview went ok in the morning, though I was a little clumsy with the stuff in my hands. Slacked the rest of the day in MPTS alone, since CPL Yeo went to Pasir Leba Camp with the rations. The rest of them came back quite late, past 12mn.

30/05/07
Got to spend the afternoon and night with the rest at the range at Pasir Leba Camp, doing sentry duty. Booked out close to 10pm.

01/06/07
1st day in our new posting. For me, it's the Law Enforcement & Ceremonial Company (LECC), and the platoons in this company do stuff like GOH parades, law enforcement, raiding of camps, Silent Precision Drills and guarding the Istana. Nothing much happened today, though we were delivered the bombshell of guard duty tomorrow, which I've been chosen for.

Month of June
Basically, during the weekdays we ("we" being the 21 newly posted MPs to LECC) would be having Orientation Drill lessons with our SAR21 rifles when we don't have any other programme. Passing this phase is a requirement in order to be posted to any of the platoons in LECC and begin really doing the ops. In the meantime, we're treated like so-called "trainees" again, which of course lowered the morale of many and see OD as torture. And it's not easy, especially with the extremely high standards required - MPs are supposedly the benchmark in the SAF when it comes to drills. Somewhere in the second week of June, there was a switch; Desmond & Swee Yan got posted to Gombak (see the big grins on their faces), and Bok and Beng San got posted back to LECC (hear their complaints).

Throughout June, we were also called for SAF Day Parade rehearsals. For the 21 of us, together with some seniors in LECC, we were deployed for security ops, which basically mean that we had to make sure security was present. Though the job may be a little bland, most of us welcomed the opportunity to escape OD every time there was a rehearsal and travel to SAFTI MI for the event.

09/06/07
I was able to get this Saturday free to participate in a photoshoot for ACJC DEP Programme's publicity. The venue was a wasteland at Linden Drive, and because we were in the open, the hot weather got a little unbearable. This was my first photoshoot since the one for The Golden Country, and it was pretty enjoyable.

16/06/07
Another MP Command out-camp run. This time it was at Labrador Park, and the run was literally a run. Even the little NE information related to Labrador Park was all delivered before the run, so that we could concentrate on the run. I had some reservations about this place, especially with memories from young about the huge spiders hanging over the nature trails in the park. Running with Zheng Kang probably took my mind off the spiders. The weather got pretty bad towards the end of the event, though at least we were all back from the run before it began to rain heavily.

22/06/07
Another relief of the tiring OD lessons was the LECC Cohesion, held at Orchid Bowl at Orchid Country Club. We got to leave the camp right after our breakfast, and gathered at the bowling alley in the afternoon. The IC of my lane was MSG Amber, who injured his right arm a few days ago, but he turned in a great game nevertheless. It was nice to get away from work for a while. Great fun.

23/06/07
Went to the Drama Centre Theatre to watch Mabou Mines' DollHouse with the Madams, Jun and Jud. Thoroughly enjoyed myself.

26/06/07
The OD Test. Unfortunately, only Yingquan and I passed.

29/06/07
Zheng Kang's last day in LECC before he disrupts NS to begin his life as a PSC scholar and go to the US for his studies. Here's wishing him all the best. LECC also got the afternoon off, and there was a briefing for our NDP security ops before lunch.

30/06/07
NDP site recce. It was nice to visit the Floating Platform and check out the place. I came back in the afternoon to catch the Combined Rehearsal and I think the show's going to be great. Can't wait to be involved in the NDP.

01/07/07
SAF Day. Apart from the little fiasco in the morning, everything else went quite smoothly.

02/07/07 - 24/07/07
This few weeks, the 20 of us new guys of LECC, plus one LCP from LECC as well, and a few specialists from MPTS, are attached to 6SIR for POI ops. The first 2 days were refresher lessons held back in Mowbray Camp, and on the third day we moved out from Mowbray Camp to Maju Camp. Living in Maju Camp, I was reminded of my BMT days all over again; after all, it has been about three months since the days we had to sing infantry songs while marching and 'heads out' when we're called. The actual ops went ok.

07/07/07
For today only, we reported for security ops at the Floating Platform for this NDP Combined Rehearsal. For 2 hours from 1400h to 1600h, we stood at our spots and checked passes, all to familiarise ourselves with the job, since the next time we'd be doing this is the Preview on 28 July.

21/07/07
The release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" at 7.01am. When I reached Popular @ West Mall at about 6.55am, there was already a queue from the counter to the entrance of the store. I spent the whole day reading the book and I finished it at about 1.45am the next morning. The book was fabulous; an excellent end to a wonderful series that is Harry Potter.

25/07/07
A break from work after our attachment to 6SIR. I also went down to Depot Road to pick up a NDP FunPack which I won from a cyberPioneer contest.

To be continued

April Update

2007-04-07T17:19:00.000+08:00

05/04/07
FireFly said 'No' to my application for the scholarship.

07/04/07
Going to watch ACSian Theatre's West Side Story. I'm glad to hear that most of their shows were sold out, and the rest were almost filled full. I'm going out to watch their last show later.

20/04/07
I had a shortlisting interview for the NUS Global Merit Scholarship (NUS GMS) this afternoon. I booked out with Kelvin Soh (from my section in the platoon) after completing our MP Ops theory test, as it turned out that Kelvin had also applied for this scholarship and was having his interview a few hours after mine. I arrived at Tan Chin Tuan Wing (the venue of the interview) with quite some time to spare and waited for a while in some meeting room before heading up for my interview. My interviewers appeared to be three professors from different faculties of NUS. Somehow I felt this interview turned out quite well, and I thought it was because I didn't rehearse so much for this interview; my aim was to just be myself and be spontaneous. After all, the interviewers are looking for the true personalities of their potential scholars, not actors. (Well...I am one, but not during the interview. :D) I got quite some time outside since the rest got the night off.

23/04/07 - 27/04/07
We're halfway through our MP Basic Course, and this week we're away in Tekong for our outfield exercises. Passing the Tekong Parade Square always brought back memories, be it PT or the POP on 13 March. Day 1 was a "Amazing Race"-style navigation exercise, while Days 3-4 were non-stop missions that offered us little time to rest (well, it was supposed to look that way anyway). I never imagined I'd move over a thousand sandbags in two days, but I did it anyway. Day 5 was great; we got a canteen break on Tekong before heading back to mainland, and booking out after all that hard work was just sweet. Another great news was having guard duty tomorrow postponed to the following week by the SSM; that meant I had the whole weekend to rest.

To top it all off, I opened my inbox when I reached home on Friday to get an email from NUS inviting me to attend the final interview for the NUS GMS. Kelvin got it too; really glad for him. But I'm still waiting for that email from MOE asking me to attend their interview.

An ACSian Theatre Production

2007-03-19T13:42:00.000+08:00

WEST SIDE STORY
04.04.07 - 07.04.07

Ticket prices:
$32 (04 @ 8pm, 05 @ 8pm, 07 @ 2pm)
$52 (06 @ 8pm, 07 @ 8pm)

Venue:
DBS Arts Centre
Home of SRT
20 Merbau Road
Singapore 239035

Get your tickets online: http://www.GATECRASH.com.sg
or call the GATECRASH Hotline at 62225595
Tickets are also available at all SingPost Branches & SAM Kiosks

West Side Story
based on a Conception by Jerome Robbins
Book by ARTHUR LAURENTS . Music by LEONARD BERNSTEIN . Lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM
Entire Original Production Directed & Choreographed by JEROME ROBBINS
Originally Produced on Broadway by Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince
Arrangement by Roger L. Stevens
This musical is presented through special arrangement with New International Musicals Incorporated, 3-3-12, 5th Floor, Ebisuminami, Shubiya-ku, Tokyo 150-0022 Japan

March Update

2007-03-03T21:17:00.000+08:00

1/3/07
Booked out at night for results tomorrow.

2/3/07
I returned to ACJC at about 11-plus am, much earlier than the 2.30pm release as stated in the MOE press release. Most of the people I met all commented about my skin colour and asked about NS. The usual. When results were revealed, I was surprised by my achievement: 7 distinctions. I was more surprised by my A2 grade for GP. Great fun.

4/3/07
CPL Khalif's wedding at Simei. Unfortunately, the 2 hours prior to the event turned out to be one big confusion, what with last-minute changes in meeting time and the question of whether it was necessary to show up. I went in my Smart 4 nevertheless. After that, hung out with other Section 1 guys who went in their Smart 4 as well before booking in to Tekong again.

8/3/07
Game's Day and Recruit's Evening. Easily the best day of the whole BMT experience (apart from getting sunburnt).

11/3/07
Guard duty.

13/3/07
POP!!! ...and a wet one at that. Nevertheless, spirits were high; we're all Privates now! :)

14/3/07-16/3/07
3 days of non-stop scholarship applications. Loke, NUS GMS, MAS and FIREfly.

15/3/07
Platoon BBQ outing at East Coast Park. I was heading to ECP at 3-plus when I saw a couple of Platoon 1 guys kicking away at the street soccer court across the road from ECP. I hung around there until 5 plus when I found out that there were people at the BBQ pits already. For the rest of the night I handled the cooking at Pit 8, a.k.a. the Chill pit (as opposed to Pit 9, a.k.a. the HAPPENING pit). All great fun.

16/3/07
Watched ACSIS's performance of Black Comedy at the new ACS CPA.

23/3/07
ePosting results: I'm going to MP Training School to be a Military Policeman. :D Went to EDB for my FIREfly Scholarship 1st interview, and I was once again battling my own uncertain nerves. After the interview, I met up with the other guys from Section 3 at Marina Bay MRT. Seemed like our section was a OCS-free section: out of 12, 6 are going to SISPEC, 2 going to MP (including me), 1 to RP, 1 to Band, 1 to Medic and 1 to Combat Medic. We had dinner at ThaiExpress in Citilink Mall before heading to the arcade at Marina Square.

24/3/07
2SA1 gathering at Plaza Singapura today. We were originally planning to watch a movie with Mr. Gary Chan, but he couldn't make it at the last minute. Furthermore there was a long queue at the cineplex of PS, so eventually we settled for some sort of high tea at Fish & Co in the Glasshouse. The attendance was not bad: me, June Teng, Jess, Ho Yuen, Beiqin, Arvin and the Back Row minus Robyn, Iris and Jimmy. After the high tea, Barry and Yan Bo left for Red Blue Gold (which I decided in the end not to go, so as to save money) and others left for their other appointments, leaving me, Liz, Beiqin and June Teng in Kopitiam Plaza Singapura for dinner.

25/3/07
ACSian Theatre was the host for a group of girls from Jeppe High School for Girls. They flew in from Johannesburg, South Africa, just the day before, and today I volunteered to go on a civic cum heritage tour around CBD with Mrs C and a couple of J1 Drama members. We first had breakfast at Maxwell Hawker Centre (which was near the hostel where the girls were staying), after which we walked over to the Sri Mariamman Temple to continue our tour. Places visited include Chinatown, Raffles Place (where Yi Jun joined us and became tour guide of the day), Merlion Park, Esplanade and the Civilian War Memorial. In the evening we walked down the Singapore River from the Sir Stamford Raffles Landing Site to Patrick's for dinner - authentic chicken rice. Thanks to Yi Jun, I left the restaurant bloated.

26/3/07
1st day of MP Basic 05/2007 batch.

30/3/07
1st book-out.

February Update

2007-03-03T21:00:00.000+08:00

3/2/07 - 4/2/07
Second book-out. This time I didn't really have much free time to myself. Had to settle quite a lot of stuff: getting a new pair of glasses, getting stuff for the upcoming field camp, and starting afresh with my 5-year-old computer, which has just gotten a new hard drive, since the old hard drive got damaged sometime this past week.

5/2/07
The actual PSC interview, 2.25pm at the Conference Room at National Library. The panel of interviewers did seem a little intimidating, but the interview was surprisingly short and I wasn't asked any current affairs questions. I did have the feeling that I bungled the interview somehow.

11/2/07 - 16/2/07
Field camp. 100% tough. Thankfully we got to book out on Friday night.

17/2/07 - 20/2/07
An extremely long CNY break for us. It was also on Saturday that I found out that I got rejected by PSC. Oh well.

21/2/07 - 23/2/07
Situational test (Sitest). I think it's alright to let on that this test will be administered for leadership batches, and the results will affect one's eligibility for command school. It was twice as tough as field camp, but fortunately our team worked well together.

24/2/07
Next book-out. There was a 4o104 BBQ reunion tonight at Ms Wassan's condo, and the turnout was great - at least half the class showed up. The last people left at about 11pm. Also, some sources have claimed that A Level results will be out next Friday.

26/2/07
Instead of booking in on Sunday, Ulysses booked in this morning with a visit to the Singapore Discovery Centre. I, however, had a medical appointment at Changi General Hospital at roughly the same time as their visit. This is for the nosebleed that I had some time back after one of the strength training sessions. After a long wait and a probe up my nose, the doctor identified the problem as 'thin skin' and applied some chemicals to 'burn away' the blood vessels in the nostril which were very close to the surface. I managed to reach the SAF Ferry Terminal just as the rest of the platoon was going through the security gate.

January Update

2007-01-03T11:53:00.000+08:00

1/1/07
It's 2007. My life is probably going to take a pretty drastic change this year, what with NS, the possibility of going to Oxford to study and being eighteen. For the first day of 2007, I went to Books Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City with my parents and a cousin who has come to Singapore looking for a job. With the vouchers I got from Founder's Day 2006 I got myself "The Da Vinci Code" and a book with over a hundred Mathematics essays. :)

2/1/07
"The Golden Country" rehearsal this afternoon. My ez-link card has started to charge Adult fares for travel, and my status upon entering the school compounds is now "Visitor" instead of "Student".

After rehearsal, I rushed off for a BBQ gathering with Exco11 and Bernice. Mrs Lim also showed up a few minutes after I did. We had quite a bit of fun, and just being able to crap with Exco11 again was fun. :)

3/1/07
First day of school, but not for me. :D Today we also had the last rehearsal for "The Golden Country" before we go into theatre the next day.

4/1/07
Day 1 in the theatre. Putting up the backdrop took longer than expected, but everything worked out eventually.

5/1/07 - 6/1/07
Actual show nights. I guess I'm not totally pleased with my performance (I felt like I went overboard sometimes), despite everybody telling me how much they hated me (which, in this context, is supposed to be a good thing). Generally the shows went pretty well; to think this will be the last play I'm doing with ACSian Theatre before serving NS and hopefully go study at Oxford.

Post-production party was at Rae's house, after we've strike the set and brought the stuff back to school. We watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "The Producers" while gorging ourselves (or attempting to) on the 7 huge plates of food and trying to make ourselves drunk. Pool was something which kept me awake throughout the night, so that I did not sleep at all, and I'm glad I at least won a game against David out of 3 rounds between the two noobs that are us.

Sigh. Will miss the fun.

7/1/07
Left Rae's house in the morning so that I can pick up my Edusave Bursary voucher at BBECC. After that I slept to make up for the lost sleeping time.

8/1/07
Went around settling the T-shirts before I enlist.

9/1/07
Farewell dinner with the Madams, Jun and Rae.

10/1/07
Spending time at home before heading to Tekong the next day.

11/1/07
ENLISTMENT. I was posted to Ulysses Coy in BMTC School 2. Got quite a number of familiar faces among the recruits. Fang You is my bed buddy, Wei Loong is in my section and Yan Bo and Jun Yi are both in Ulysses as well. How coincidental can it get?

18/1/07 - 19/1/07
My first book-out of camp to attend a PSC psychological interview on 19 Jan at Civil Service College. I reached home at night on the 18th, much to the surprise of Ah Bee. She was the only one at home besides my brother since my parents had gone to Genting. The next day I was so rushing for time I took a taxi to CSC. Then I found out that it was a psychological interview which would last 3 to 4 hours, rendering my Off Pass invalid. Oops. Anyway, I called back Coyline and I got back without being punished, so that was something.

26/1/07
First Coy book-out. After enduring 2 weeks worth of hardship, all of us can finally return to the real world, albeit for two days only.

27/1/07
Went back to ACJC to catch the West Side Story rehearsals. I reached quite late, 'cause most of the Drama kids were leaving as I came; it seemed that they had just finished the main rehearsals. I did sit in to watch Dee and Hsien rehearse the balcony scene. At night, I went out with the madams and the DEPers to watch a Chinese opera done in English. True, the translation was horrible, but it was a brave attempt, and the overall flavour of Chinese opera was still maintained.

28/1/07
Book-in. Before that, our section met at White Sands Shopping Centre to eat at McDonald's.

December Update

2006-12-21T23:10:00.000+08:00

2/12/06
PSC Scholarship Tea Session in the morning at the Possibility Room at the National Library Building. It was a pretty small group of students, and lots of PSC personnel to go around. It was also our luck (my parents came with me) to be led around by a PSC-MOE personnel, since I have my eyes set on the Overseas Merit Scholarship (Teaching). The session was useful not so much for me, but for my parents to clear up their doubts and have their queries answered by PSC people. Of course, the tea reception at the end was the highlight for them. :)

5/12/06
ACJC Senior's Night 2006 was held at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Hotel tonight. The theme was "Le Raison D'etre", which was French for "the reason for existence". Wasn't exactly the best prom theme, but the graduates dressed to kill nonetheless. For the guys, there were lots of blazers, a couple of dyed hair (one went blond), a couple of hats and even a musketeer. For the ladies, gowns, hair, make-up; nothing was spared. Myself, I went in a black shirt and black pants with a red tie. And my estimation was that 90% of the ballroom that night had cameras. I don't think a lot of people really cared that dinner was horrendous, 'cause everybody was busy taking photos anyway. Stage performances were okay until the final performance by Ethel and ... who's the guy? Everybody remembers Ethel anyway. And post-prom at DXO must have been great. Post-prom for me was taking a bus home and sleeping. :)

10/12/06
Tapestry dance at Ghim Moh. The event was titled "Noise in the Market" and the stage was set up literally next to the market. Wasn't that bad. Afternoon was spent in the Black Studio doing the Oxford Written Test for Mathematics. The paper was surprisingly easy, but that probably means more emphasis on presentation of solutions. Hope I get it.

11/12/06
The DEP class and a couple of graduation J2s in "The Golden Country" went to catch a performance at the Drama Centre Black Box after "The Golden Country" rehearsals. The show was called "Ibsen Women - Put An Eagle In A Cage", and it presented women monologues from 6 of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's plays. Juni Dahr was so fabulous in delivering the 6 Ibsen women, who had a common theme of "freedom". I suddenly felt like being a woman.

14/12/06
Went for a session of paintball at Crossfire @ Singapore Discovery Centre with the madams, the old comm and the new comm. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the sun was shining while the game went on. We played "Capture The Flag" (CTF) for 3 sets of 2 rounds each, and the new comm team won the last 2 sets completely. To use up all our available rounds of pellets we played a last game of "Last Man Standing", and in a nail-biting showdown between two women Judith and Glory, the latter won. This was some victory for the new comm. Hope they will be able to work better together.

16/12/06
I'm officially of legal drinking age as of today. Had dinner at Patrick's with the madams, Fruit and Jud. The madams fly to USA later in the morning.

18/12/06
One of the best birthday presents yet: conditional offer from Oxford. :)

22/12/06
Massive spring-cleaning of my bedroom today. The hills on my tables are gone. :)

And of course, rehearsals for "The Golden Country" have been going on. Which brings me to...

ACSian Theatre presents
The Golden Country
5th & 6th January 2007 (Friday & Saturday)
8pm
DBS Arts Centre - Home of the Singapore Repertory Theatre
Tickets priced at $15, free seating
Must watch! This is the last play I'll be doing with ACSian Theatre before my hair falls off so that I can sacrifice for my country. Buy tickets from me right now! :)

The year is ending.

November Update

2006-12-02T15:52:00.000+08:00

November 2006 is "A Level" month. Began with GP on 2 Nov and ended with Physics S Paper on 24 Nov. The papers have been generally okay. Er, ya, that's about it for the A Levels really. Next thing is to wait for the results.

In other news...

4/11/06
Caught the ACSian Theatre J1 members' virgin solo performance, Beauty and the Beast. The set was awesome, and the J1s did fairly well. Somehow there were elements which reminded me of A Christmas Carol (everybody appearing in one single colour before the addition of new colours at the end) and The Tempest (Deanna is a servant again). After the show, we sprung a birthday cake on Elina, Yi Jun and Rae (coincidentally, it's Jun's birthday) and Jun and I joined the J1s to strike and return to school.

24/11/06
Last day of A Levels for me. (Poor Judith. She ends the following Wednesday.) Went to catch Bang Wenfu's Late Nite series at the Esplanade Recital Studio and really enjoyed the show.

25/11/06
Ms Dorothea Lim officially becomes Mrs Cheng Chin Koon (I hope I got the surname right). Our class gathered at Dhoby Xchange to sign the card for Ms Lim before heading to Wesley Methodist Church with what felt like the whole ACJC community. (Actually, it's just the councillors, Ms Lim's GP classes and some of the teachers in the GP Department. Of course, there were others in the church.) Here's to Mrs Cheng's future. ;-)

Last 2 weeks of November
ACSian Theatre rehearsals begin once again. The two main productions for the first half of 2007 are going to be The Golden Country and West Side Story. The Golden Country is an alumni play scheduled for January 2007 and I'll be acting in it, but I won't be in West Side Story as I'll be in NS by the time the show goes on stage in April 2007. Anyway, here are details for the alumni play:

ACSian Theatre presents
The Golden Country
5th & 6th January 2007 (Friday & Saturday)
8pm
DBS Arts Centre - Home of the Singapore Repertory Theatre
Tickets priced at $15, free seating
Please contact me ASAP for tickets. :)

October Update

2006-10-11T17:21:00.000+08:00

1/10/06
Encore telecast for the Results show of Singapore Idol: The Final Showdown, which I did not watch because I was studying in school. Taufik Batisah is so gonna be like the Kelly Clarkson of Singapore: the winner of season one makes it big, while others will eventually fade away. I could still remember the stadium's reactions to the announcement of the different artists performing on the Results show, and the cheers for Taufik were the loudest. I believe most Singaporeans are proud of Taufik being our first Singapore Idol. :)

2/10/06
I had been told that Mdm Esther Leow wanted to pay me to photocopy my F. Maths notes. WARNING LIGHT: Copyrights. Better check with Mrs Yeo at least, 'cause all her notes have her name at the bottom (YCF - Your Close Friend). We also had our last Maths S Paper lesson today. I'll miss Maths S Paper.

3/10/06
Last Physics S Paper lesson today. I ... won't miss Physics S Paper as much as Maths S Paper.

4/10/06
Another scholarship tea session; this time it's by the Singapore Armed Forces, for the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship.

5/10/06
Went back to NHHS this morning with Mr. Loo, Mr. Sim and Mrs. Hong for Outreach. The rest of the school were having their last few papers before celebrating Mooncake Festival on Saturday. The Sec 4s are restless as usual, some preferring to have their little conversations in their groups.

6/10/06
Nothing much. Haze is getting worse.

7/10/06
PSI levels exceed 100 and enter the "Unhealthy" range. Really bad today.

8/10/06
Woke up in the morning and was delighted to see that the haze (PSI level reached 150 late last night) was gone, air quality is in the "Good" range and we can breathe fresh air again.

9/10/06
School is ending soon, with baccalaureate on Wednesday. We had our last PCCG period, Chemistry lecture and Chemistry tutorial.

10/10/06
It's as if baccalaureate had started early. Everybody in our class were pretty sentimental today. FM lecture became a sharing session of our two years of studying what would become history in a few months' time (no, history students, you do not need to study FM).

In other news, my parents have gone to China for a 10-day holiday. ;)

11/10/06
It's Baccalaureate Day. The hall had been adourned with balloons in red, blue and gold. Report books were being transported to the hall by people and trolleys. Then the service began and got more emotional as more songs were sung and more people gave speeches. Once we had sung the school anthem, the whole J2 cohort went camera-crazy, shooting photos of everyone as if the world would end in the next 30 minutes. I would know; the moment I returned to my class, everybody swarmed over me to take pictures with me. I had initially no plans that afternoon and was planning to attend the NS talk by Mr. Mak (yes, after the no-show on September 11, Mr. Mak had planned for it to take place at a time when most students will probably be out enjoying quality time together in their classes), but since my class decided to have lunch together, I went with them. (Yes, Jun, I can imagine the look on your face right now.) I mean, considering that one can literally use the fingers on both hands to count the number of times 2SA1 had actually gone out as a class, I could not miss this opportunity for class bonding.

So we went to the newly-opened Vivo City, where there were only three restaurants which were opened. We eventually settled for Carl's Jr, which seemed like a hot favourite with the lunch crowd. (Then again, there were only three restaurants which were open in Vivo City.) We then headed up to the rooftop garden of some sorts (which, of course, was supposed to be out of bounds since it is still work-in-progress, but failed to escape the eyes of the public) and had some quality time together as 2SA1.

It's kinda sad that we only got to bond so well towards the end of our JC life, but it's better than 2SA1 remaining divided. :)

12/10/06
Maths Mock Exam. I think people were in a post-Baccalaureate sort of mood. :)

13/10/06
Had a mock Oxford interview with Mr. Prince this morning. And I found out that my computer has broken down. Grrr.

14/10/06
ACJC Open House 2006. I was around to help out with Drama stuff, considering there were about a hundred things going on for Drama-related stuff: DEP booth in the Hub on Level 1, ACSian Theatre booth in the Hall on Level 2, DEP Lecture in the Black Studio on Level 2, Drama Performance in LT3 on Level 2, and Roving Mime. It has been one busy day indeed. Kudos to the J1 Drama members for their hard work.

15/10/06
It's really a great break from all the studies to actually go out and enjoy myself, considering that it's been mostly school and home these past few months for me. I visited the InnovationNation exhibition at Expo, held by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to celebrate 25 years of infocomm development in Singapore. I was really impressed by the exhibits (especially those high-tech ones - and lights!), but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn't go alone. And, this was an excellent reason to take the MRT to Expo, since I have never touched that part of the MRT system before. :D

16/10/06
Physics Mock Exam for Papers 1 and 2 this afternoon.

17/10/06
GP Mock Exam in the morning and Chemistry Mock Exam Review after that. Then I went to the airport to meet my parents, who are coming home today. Hehe, another reason for taking the MRT, this time to Changi Airport. :D

18/10/06
It's the Oxford Interview today. I arrived very very early at British Council, and I spent quite some time calming my nerves. At 11am, I was ushered into a room with a few other interviewees where we were to read our assigned passages before the interview at 11.30am. I looked down at my sheet to find 8 Math questions, out of which we only had to choose 2 to 4 questions for discussion in the interview. I later confirmed that it was really an academic interview, especially since my interviewer was a Mathematics tutor. There were absolutely no general "why-go-to-Oxford" questions. In fact, I must say I had a great time with the Mathematics questions which my interviewer set.

Then it's back to school for another round of Physics Mock.

19/10/06
F. Maths Mock Exam in the morning.

20/10/06
Physics extra lesson in the morning. Then headed to British Council in the evening for a presentation by the Oxford interviewers.

21/10/06 - 22/10/06
Break days.

Rest of October
Study, study, study... Special stuff include Ms Lim's birthday (26/10/06) and watching Rae perform in A Stoppard Double Bill at Alliance Francaise (28/10/06).

September Update

2006-10-11T15:57:00.000+08:00

1/9/06
Teacher's Day.

2/9/06
Headed to Esplanade earlier that day for The Straits Times "A Part of my Life" event to see if my jigsaw puzzle could win a prize. The few fringe performances were pretty good. The beatboxer was fabulous (Deo would have been pleased), and it was a long time before I realised that the Malay singer in the acapella group which performed was the runner-up of the last Talentime on Channel 5. (I think so, actually; whatever it is, that guy looked very familiar to me.)

Then that afternoon, I attended a PSC Seminar at Orchard Hotel. My father was pleased to help clear the food (which of course went into his stomach), but he also reminded me of the stress of taking up PSC scholarships. At that time I had no intention of choosing PSC, satisfied with applying for a MOE scholarship. Met quite a number of friends, both ACJC and NHHS.

3/9/06
Sunday.

4/9/06
First day of school holidays. (Well, specifically the first weekday of school holidays.) Went back to school for a photoshoot for ACSian Theatre's alumni play next year. Won't reveal too much now; besides, I don't even know if I'll be able to take part in it, thanks to the unpredictability of NS enlistment. I was also encouraged to try for a PSC scholarship because the teachers believe I can get it. Thought about it a lot that night, and spoke with my parents.

5/9/06
Ok, so I'd decided to try for PSC. That means that I have 10 days left to send the Oxford application form to Oxford. Spent the day drafting my personal statement.

6/9/06
Originally was supposed to film the Tapestry dance for Raj, but we spent the day dealing with university application essays and what not. :)

7/9/06
It's the DEP students' examination again; this time it's the group devised piece and the show's titled "Inventio". I volunteered to help out as stage manager, and my first job as crew was to go to The Concourse to get lightsticks. (Woo-hoo!) It was an excellent experience working backstage as stage manager. I was managing stage left, where every group entered from. I had to make sure that they stay silent backstage and that they set their props and get ready for their performance. Generally the DEP students did well, and I enjoyed the performances. The madams, Rae, Fruit and I went out for dinner at Azhang after packing up, and some of us got quite high late into the night. :D

Hehe, one day I'll find a chance to work on lights. Intel lights, yay!

8/9/06
A rest day. The DEPers were in school receiving detailed feedback about their performances last night.

9/9/06
It's a "Have a Break" party organised by the J1 Drama members for mainly the J2s, but also the J1s. After the buffet at 12nn, we headed into the Black Studio to watch "A Christmas Carol" (the college production in November 2005, if you recall) on DVD in its entirety, and snippets of "The Merchant of Venice" and "The Tempest" on DVD as well. It was an excellent get-together party for the Drama members. Kudos to the J1 comm and the other members.

10/9/06
The Sunday before the final term begins. *cue suspense music*

11/9/06
Firstly, the 5th anniversary of September 11. Having worked in "The Guys", I found it a little more meaningful and connected to the incident than I had ever been, as if I was there when it happened. Then again, we did do "The Guys" for 5 months; it's hard not to feel anything for the incident.

In other school-related news, most of us were under the assumption that Prelim results will be out today, but alas! all the results will be released after school on Friday. Speaking of after school, our time tables have been adjusted such that there's no more Mother Tongue, no more PE, and all lessons end by 2.30pm (in 2SA1's case, most of us have days ending at 1.50pm). For most of the rest of the days, the time after school is spent studying in the Black Studio.

There was also supposed to be a dialogue session hosted by Mr. Mak about NS for the guys after chapel this morning, but it didn't happen.

12/9/06
Meeting for Honour's Night awardees. Major discussions about the stringent rules on the uniform code, especially shoes.

13/9/06
There was a briefing by Mr. Prince after school about applying to UK universities using UCAS. Went home after that to watch Singapore Idol. :D

14/9/06
Went out after school to get a banker's draft for my application to Oxford, after which I passed my application form to Ms Lim, who would add in her reference and seal the envelope. In other news, Jonathan and Hady become the Final 2 for Singapore Idol 2. :)

15/9/06
Prelim results: AABC and C5 for GP. Was also informed about me being shortlisted for Principal's Honour Roll, subject to Prelim grades. Haha. Also received my application form from Ms Lim sealed. Sent it using FedEx thanks to madams' help.

16/9/06 - 18/9/06
Don't think much happened. I think I received an email from Oxford acknowledging the receipt of my banker's draft, which means my application was sent successfully.

19/9/06
Rehearsal for Honour's Night. It wasn't exactly smooth-sailing leading up to the rehearsal, thanks to the hard-to-get cream-coloured pants for the No. 1 uniform. The pair I borrowed from Jit's friend (who was from Band) was quite tight, so I had to bear with it throughout the rehearsal.

20/9/06
Attended a talk after school by ex-vice principal Mr. Lenn for all Special Paper students.

21/9/06
Honour's Night. I was initially quite disgruntled when the so-called solemn event turned into regular ACJC fare with your usual screaming gals, but at the end of the day, you can't deny that this was a typical ACJC event, and being friends and all, it's hard not to show your support for your friends. My parents had a great time eating in the Viewing Gallery during the post-ceremony reception, and the Special Awardees also let loose quite a bit there.

So anyway, congrats to all the people on the Principal's Honour Roll: Shaun, Matthew, Wen Jun, Joshua, Kee Wui, Judith, Lim Hui, Clarence, Meixi, Clarissa, Yuan Hao, Yi Jun and myself (lol). Congrats too to all the Drama Service and Outstanding Service recipients: Gwen, Ank, Haz, Nat, Thea, Sabrina, Jo Zhan, LC, Jit, Jia Yi, Jill, Matthew, Jo Koh, Judith, Lindis, Dinesh, Gloria, Kass, Pamy, Darius, Clarissa, Yi Jun, David and Krish.

22/9/06
The Principal's Honour Roll was announced to the school. Suddenly there were so many congratulatory messages from my teachers and peers. I was slightly overwhelmed. Thanks everybody.

23/9/06
Nothing much on.

24/9/06
Singapore Idol: The Final Showdown at the Singapore Indoor Stadium! I had won a pair of tickets for tonight's show, and I came alone again because I couldn't find someone else to come with me. The tickets were for balcony seats, which do not get goodie bags. Boo. But the great intel lights soothed my feelings. Yay! Though I had worn blue to the SIS (in support of Hady), I voted for Jonathan because he probably had a greater chance of promoting Singapore music in general regionally. And the atmosphere was so great I couldn't bear to leave, especially since I did not win any tickets for the next day's Results show.

25/9/06
Maths S Paper lesson, tea session about the Singapore Police Force Overseas Scholarship, and studying in the studio, hence missing the show live on TV. I heard Hady won with about 70% of the votes. Oh well.

26/9/06
Nothing much on.

27/9/06
GP Mock paper after school.

28/9/06
Second day in a row for the absence of Ms Lim. Sounded like she was really sick.

29/9/06
Ms Lim's back. Today also marks another round of classmate birthdays coming one after the another. Today is Jun Yi's birthday; naturally you know what Barry will try to do.

30/9/06
Nothing much except watch the encore telecast of Singapore Idol: The Final Showdown on Channel 5.

2006-09-05T13:46:00.000+08:00

August Update:

Week 1
Preparing the write-ups for our School Graduation Certificates. I finished mine pretty early, thanks to Mrs Creffield's initiative to have us Drama members send her our Drama write-ups even before the school was briefed about the SGC.

Week 2
The National Day week. HAPPY NATIONAL DAY SINGAPORE! This week is also the last week before the Prelims. HORRORS!

Weeks 3 and 4
Majority of our papers for the Prelims span this two weeks. It wasn't all smooth-sailing, but lots of relief when we finished our second-to-last paper (Maths Paper 2) on Thursday of Week 4.

Week 5
Very happening week. Our last paper (1-hour Chemistry MCQ paper) happened on Tuesday. Wednesday was spent bowling and ice-skating with 2SA1 people. Me, ice skating?! It was fun, all in all, not only because I actually set foot on the skating rink, but because this is the first outing in months with lots of people. Thursday was for Teacher's Day Celebrations. Also quite fun. We also polled for the theme for Senior's Night. Went back to NHHS after that to meet the teachers. Really miss them. Got to watch Singapore Idol live that night. Cool or what?

Can't believe August is over. It's time to apply for scholarships!

2006-07-30T16:36:00.000+08:00

July Update:

26/6/06 - 30/6/06
First week of school. No rehearsals yet, 'course the J1s are taking their dreaded Term Exam.

1/7/06
Extra Physics lesson in the morning which only 6 people showed up. Then went for the Singapore Youth Festival Opening Ceremony at the National Stadium.

2/7/06 - 4/7/06
Youth Day, school holiday, Tuesday.

5/7/06
Last day of Term Exam for most of the J1s.

6/7/06
First rehearsal for "The Guys" in almost two months.

7/7/06
MOE ExCEL Fest 2006 Day 1, for teachers. All students in Singapore are released early so that teachers can go for the exhibitions and courses and those conducting the courses and exhibiting their projects can prepare. A bunch of drama people accompanied Mrs Creffield and Ms Wong to facilitate the drama course they were conducting at my alma mater, Nan Hua High School. Doesn't it feel great to be back? (No, I do not have fan clubs in NHHS.)

Then went to DBS Arts Centre at night to watch The Dresser with the DEP class and some seniors. Loved it thoroughly. :)

8/7/06
Second rehearsal for "The Guys" in the morning, followed by Day 2 of the MOE ExCEL Fest for the public. Our lesson was pretty quiet compared to yesterday's lesson. Once the lesson was over, those involved in the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) Welcome Party at NIE rushed back to school to meet up with the rest and tog up in colourful costumes. For close to four hours, we walked around the place filled with delegates from all over the world, doing face-painting, giving away masks and sculpturing balloons. I even learned some from our resident balloon sculpturer Ebel. Would have been totally fun if my nose hadn't bled for no reason halfway through the event. And four straight hours without spectacles. Woo-hoo.

The night lights look dazzling without spectacles.

9/7/06
Sunday.

10/7/06
Photo shoot for the class in the morning. Tapestry auditions after Math S for me. (Tapestry is a street busking activity happening the following Saturday.)

11/7/06
Third rehearsal for "The Guys". Slowly building up to maximum capacity.

12/7/06
Blue slip for "The Guys" begins at 1.10pm today. Technical rehearsal at HCI from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Singapore Idol "Spectaculars" begin tonight.

13/7/06
Came earlier to settle class stuff. "SYF Drama Presentation: A Preview" in the afternoon.

14/7/06
"SYF Drama Presentation" at night. Characterisation was the best ever. In my opinion, the best performance we ever had, minus the clamp issue.

15/7/06
A full day of sagas. Technical rehearsal for SDEA's "Celebrate Drama 2006" early in the morning at the Esplanade Theatre Studio. Never worked there before, and now we need to go on the same day we tech. Bus saga when returning to school. Costume saga with the Mid-Autumn people. Afternoon, performed, and that was it for the last time. Pack away struts, pack away costumes and helmets, freshened up to go to Glory's for dinner.

16/7/06
Sunday.

17/7/06
Nobel Laureate lecture. Tapestry rehearsal.

18/7/06
Tuesday.

19/7/06
Tapestry rehearsal.

20/7/06
Thursday.

21/7/06
"Quality of School Experience" questionnaire. Tapestry rehearsal.

22/7/06
Physics Mock Papers 1 and 2. Comm photo shoot. Tapestry. Irritating belly-dancers. Dinner. Last performance with ACSian Theatre for the year.

23/7/06
Sunday.

24/7/06
Evaluation of the J1 Comm.

25/7/06
Most normal school day I have had since the beginning.

26/7/06
Career Fair organised by the HECG Department.

27/7/06
Australian Mathematics Competition. Gymnastics for PE.

28/7/06
The meeting. J2s step down. Dinner at Azhang with J1 comm.

29/7/06
Physics Mock Paper 3. Scholar's Choice Preview at Suntec Convention Centre in the afternoon. NHSS 4o1o4 gathering in the evening.

30/7/06
Today. Went swimming.

2006-06-25T12:14:00.000+08:00

And now that the holidays are ending...

11/6/06
Exco11 Chalet Day 1 - Me, Jane, Shao Ming, Wee Cheng showed up. Edwin actually thought the BBQ was the next day, so he didn't come. So anyway, we had a BBQ. Jane left just as Wei Loong and Xin Jie came. After the News Shao Ming and Wee Cheng left too, leaving just the three of us to stay in the chalet overnight.

12/6/06
Exco11 Chalet Day 2 - I woke up pretty early, but the three of us only went out for brunch at around 11am. Kegan came around noon, and the four of us hung out until Wei Loong and Xin Jie really had to leave. Edwin came later, but there were so few people we decided not to go to Wild Wild Wet in the end. Instead we rented some X-Box games, played, went out for dinner, came back to watch "So You Think You Can Dance?" and went to bed.

13/6/06
Exco11 Chalet Day 3 - Checked out at about 10.15am. We played a bit in the arcade before heading home. Grrr.

14/6/06-18/6/06
Pretty much rotted at home.

19/6/06
Gone out to Orchard to watch Vik, Krish and Haz busk for charity.

20/6/06
NS Medical Examination. PES A for me. :)

21/6/06
K-Box with Joon Kiat, Ho Yuen, June Teng and Yi Xiong. Wish I hadn't decided to wait for the others to come at 3 plus and gone in earlier with Joon Kiat. Oh well.

22/6/06
Watched "Play On Earth" with the Madams, Yi Jun, Krish and David at 9am.

23/6/06
Home.

24/6/06
GP Mock No. 2. The AQ was a killer.

25/6/06
Today.

2006-06-10T20:58:00.000+08:00

Woo-hoo, it took a friend to remind me that I haven't updated my blog for a fraction of a century. I'm quite lazy to explain the events in detail, can I just list them out? :D

22/5/06
SYF GOLD WITH HONOURS - SCREEEEAAAAMMMMM!

23/5/06
Tennis finals - ACJC Tennis boys beat RJC 3-2.

24/5/06
Inter-House Math Quiz - CKS under-represented. :D

26/5/06
PSC Psychometric Assessment Exercise @ Civil Service College - Apologies for freaking some Arts students out.
"Restless 3: A Book of Days" by ACJC Dance Society - Helped out in FOH. Excellent show. Love intels!

27/5/06
Zoolympix 2006 Training
"Penantian", a Malay drama by AC Perbayu - So good, I felt like joining AC Perbayu and learning Malay right away

29/5/06
GP Mock Paper - Very tough (Grrr...)
First rehearsal for NLB performance - Chinese dance! :D

31/5/06
Singapore Mathematics Olympiad - Aiyoh, quite difficult leh...

1/6/06
Training for Drama Cluster Camp

2/6/06
ACS Idol - Barker boy Yuresh beats ACJC's hot favourites Ethel and Joseph!

3/6/06
"Mid-Autumn" by Tan Hwee Hwee @ Read! Singapore Reading Fiesta - Few bloopers, but overall alright. Chinese dance...LOL!
The Big Studio Painting & Clean-up with the J1 Probationary Comm

5/6/06
Zoolympix 2006 - Girish, Irfan, Tracy and Yifang, we made a great Ele-Fun Memory team! :D

UNSPEAKABLE DATE! Haha, kidding - 6/6/06
Zoolympix 2006 - Irfan (again), Phway and Li-Li, we made another great Ele-Fun Memory team (despite the heavy downpour)! :D

7/6/06
Drama Cluster Camp - The camp went pretty smooth! Blue People Group - Myself, Hannah, Adeline, Dyan, Aaron, Hakim, Liyana & Malcolm. :D

8/6/06-10/6/06
Hehe, have been slacking. Ah, but I played a lot of Killer Sudoku. Er...right.

Will be going off for chalet with my NHSS SC Exco11 tomorrow till Tuesday. See you again!

2006-05-20T23:57:00.000+08:00

Fully packed day. I went to NJC's funfair, Funtasia 2, in the late morning, hoping to see my old secondary school friends. I met Samuel, Fang You, Quan Ming, Zhi Yuan, Sia See, Ai Pheng, Chii Yeh, Shiling, Peiyu, Yen Nee, Ching Li, Wenya, Siang Yong, Yan Ting, Jane, Wei Loong, Zirui, Sihui, Yuntian, Cherrylene, Yew Seng, Eng Ping and a few more. I didn't spend all my $10 though, which was kind of a waste. Oh well.

After that, I walked over to HCI for HCI's Music and Dance Society's inaugural show, "Touch". Benny, Yvonne, Cheng Rong and a whole bunch of other NHSS councillors (which includes Nicholas, Si Aun, Bernice, Desmond, Sui Pheng and Jia Jing) went too. The show was pretty good for an inaugural show. The use of the microphones was kinda unnatural (probably because I have seldom used microphones in the shows I have been in), but then again, HCI Auditorium was HUGE.

After the show and late lunch/early dinner at Bukit Timah Hawker Centre, I headed to the DBS Arts Centre. I was helping out in the DEP students' first public performance as a class (with the second-intakers), Theasthai. Helping out too were Noel (former DEP student who dropped DEP at the second round of subject registration), Joanna Koh and Zhan, Ms Sangeetha, Ms Lin and Audrey Low.

The crowds came at 7 plus, and the place was packed by 7.30pm. There were enough people to fill the stall seats, so there wasn't a need to open the circle seats. The whole show took 3 hours (ah, should have put a warning at the front of house had we known - then again, the students never had a FULL dress rehearsal), but most of the performances were very good.

Finally, we striked set and some of us went back to school to move stuff back. Was past midnight by the time we finished.

SYF (Central Judging) 2006

2006-05-17T21:44:00.000+08:00

5 weeks of rehearsals and physical training sessions prepared us for this afternoon's performance. The first rehearsal, the first PT, the movie watching, constant practising of build-up and strike-down to reduce the building time from 8 minutes in our first try to about 3 minutes in our final run, the training camp, and the final stretch to this day.

2006-04-14T15:09:00.000+08:00

The post-Tempest week have been surprisingly well for me. Other than the usual post-production illness, I found out on Thursday that I could now do at least 3 pull-ups! Also, Project Work results were released on Thursday, and I was one of the six students from 2SA1 who earned a Band 1! :D Praise to the Lord (and coincidentally it's Religious Emphasis Week)!

ACSian Theatre: The Tempest

2006-04-09T09:57:00.000+08:00

This production week has been the best time I've had, and I couldn't believe how optimistic I was about the week. Technical rehearsal on Tuesday was alright, full dress rehearsal on Wednesday was alright, and everything else was pretty smooth-sailing. I totally agreed with what Raj said in the last warmups with him on Saturday: this batch is the most consistent we've ever had. Kudos to everyone for the job well done.

Post-production party at Suraj's house was, as usual, an Indian affair (like, lots of bhangra music). Thanks to my nine remaining toes I was spared heavy partying. Daylight was seen after I slept in the armchair in the living room from 4am. There was a strange sense of nomalcy.

And it'll be back to school tomorrow.

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Back in Singapore

2006-03-19T13:38:00.000+08:00

Yes, it was morning by the time we arrived in Singapore. After checking-out, those who needn't return to school to unload went home first. The bunch of us who stayed (surprisingly alumni and J2s, who have exams the next day) returned to school on the truck. While some went back the moment everything had been moved out of the truck, a few members of the committee stayed to hang out the black and white costumes to air; we're performing on Wednesday again at some HDB event.

Sigh. Miss South Africa already.

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 8

2006-03-18T13:33:00.000+08:00

The morning of Day 8 started with breakfast and the loading of baggage onto the bus. A few minutes' ride later, we were outside the gates of the Bruma Marketworld. The gates had not opened yet, so we visited some of the roadside stalls first. The only things I bought from the market were a necklace and a bottle of mineral water. Most of the other people in the tour group bought many more stuff with their money, for instance wooden giraffes.

I was hands-free for the trip to the airport while the others were busy wrapping their bulky goods with bubble wrap. At the airport, we said our goodbyes to Cecil, Mr. Robinson and the vice-principals of Jeppe High School for Girls, after which we checked-in (the usual laborious business), got onto the plane and headed back to Singapore...

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 7

2006-03-17T23:35:00.000+08:00

The whole of Day 7 was spent at Jeppe High School for Girls. The morning was used for marking positions for The Guys and the dances. We performed at 12.30pm, music first, then dance, then a 10-minute break, then The Guys. After the performance, we didn't have to conduct a workshop; they conducted a workshop for us, teaching the African drums. After the workshop, we took a break before entering the school again for a Concert in the Park which the girls have organised and invited us to come and watch. By the end of the night, all of us were super high and every drama person will tell you that every nerd had been un-nerded.

Of course, the fact that tomorrow's the last day meant that we needed to pack. The committee stayed till 1.30am in Lindis's room to help bubble wrap equipment.

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 6

2006-03-16T23:22:00.000+08:00

Breakfast this morning was at 8am, but I woke up at 6.49am to see the sun already up. When I went down for breakfast at a few minutes past 8, only Hansel was around. Timotheus came in next, and all in all only a few people showed up for breakfast, the rest probably fast asleep in their rooms. Following that the morning was spent at Eastgate for most of the people who needed groceries. I opted to stay in because I was lazy to go out to Eastgate. May have been a good choice to stay in; some reckless behaviour at Eastgate set the mood for the rest of the day.

Our first stop for the tour group was to the Apartheid Museum near Gold Reef City (a theme park cum casino). A few minutes after we arrived, a few girls from Jeppe High School for Girls, their vice-principal and some of their teachers also showed up to accompany us for the day. We entered the museum proper after snack time and interaction between the girls and us. I must say, the exhibition concepts have been very well planned. Unfortunately, the information in the museum about everything to do with apartheid, coupled with the unfortunate events this morning, made the mood rather depressing for me.

After the visit to the museum, we walked to the casino section of the Gold Reef City and waited around for the arrival of Mr. Robinson (the principal of Jeppe High School for Girls, if you've forgotten). When he did finally come, we entered the building not to play in the casino, but to have dinner at Boston BBQ, which was located in the casino. A happy moment was also spent when special cakes came to celebrate the birthdays of Tim and Mrs Oei. I also found a Jeppe girl who loved Math like me and I was in awe when she told me they studied finances in their Add. Math syllabus too. (Hang on, was Nat trying to hook us up?)

The night was spent at the Globe Theatre (also in the casino). Mr. Robinson had paid for all of us to watch African Footprints, a local song and dance production that had toured at least Europe (not sure about other places) and returned to South Africa for a limited period of time. In my opinion and perhaps most of the others who watched, the show was fabulously power-packed. Kass teased about how we need to have a whole new level to dance: mark, half-mark, all out and African Footprints.

And it was also perhaps a relief that the mood lightened up significantly by the end of the night.

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 5

2006-03-15T23:16:00.000+08:00

An early morning again, and this morning we performed to Kensington Secondary School, a government-aided school. Again, we conducted a workshop after our performance today, only this time we only had to tend to a group of about 30, and since it was such a small group, Mrs Creffield led both the AC students and the Kensington students in the workshop.

After Kensington, we made a quick stopover at the hotel before carrying on with sightseeing. Lunch at Wandie's was a particularly noisy event, thanks to Gloria's 'neh-neh' game. Otherwise, the day was dedicated to the history of South Africa. We travelled to the historic town of Soweto and visited the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum. For the uninformed (like me before coming to Soweto), one of the most prominent memories of the apartheid times of South Africa was the picture of the body of Hector Pieterson, a black school boy, carried down the street with his sister running alongside him, shot during the June 1976 uprising. Hector's sister still lives today, occasionally giving tour guides at the museum (we saw her at the museum). After the trip to the museum, we took a short bus ride down to Nelson Mandela's former house in Soweto, a small brick house like all the other houses in the neighbourhood.

Having spent the afternoon basking in the history of South Africa, we made another trip back to the hotel to change into something cool for dinner that night. We were going to a jazz club in downtown Johannesburg called Blues Room. Everybody was decked out in their best and positively excited as we headed down the stairs into the pub cum restaurant. The food was nice, but amazingly slow, so much so that Mrs Oei's and my order for the main course came after everyone else had finished their meals. The performances were also literally ear-deafening; other than the R & B performance which came first, the rest were rock performances.

Needless to say, by the end of the night, most (if not all) of the alumni guys were pretty much drunk. It was still lots of fun. Kind of glad tomorrow's a rest day too.

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 4

2006-03-14T23:00:00.000+08:00

Today is performance day. We're performing at two of the four schools on our itinerary today. 4 people were missing on the bus as they fell sick last night (many more puked last night). The first school, Parktown High School for Girls, was a pretty energetic school. After our performances, we had to conduct workshops for almost the whole school. I conducted a movement workshop for the class I was allocated to, 8O (as in the letter O), in the field. About 15 minutes left to the end of the workshop, it started to drizzle lightly and the class had to be sent back to the classroom. After the workshop and lunch in the school hall, we boarded the bus to head to our next school, most of us napping on the bus.

We arrived at Crawford International School with quite some time to spare. Because of the sick people around, we decided to strike The Guys out from the original programme at Crawford. The Guest-of-Honour at the event tonight was the Singapore High Commissioner in Pretoria, South Africa, so the audience was a relatively older crowd as compared to Parktown. The day ended with McDonald's takeaway for dinner.

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 3

2006-03-13T19:34:00.000+08:00

The morning started at 6am with an early morning game drive to see some lions. With dark clouds looming ahead, our jeep travelled on steep roads to the other side of a range of mountains. We manage to find and observe two lionesses and a male sub-adult (i.e. its mane is starting to grow). Our trip back, however, was plagued by rain (time to put on the ponchos), getting stuck in a difficult part of the mountain road to let another jeep pass, and getting a punctured tyre (thank goodness there were male rangers just behind us). In all these moments of uncertainty though, there's still a little time for humour; LC answered nature's call in the rocks while the guys were replacing the tyre.

By the time we got back to Lakeside, we were freezing cold, slightly wet and halfway into breakfast. Since we were booking out of Entabeni soon, I quickly downed some food and ran back to get my stuff. Thankfully I had already packed my bag before leaving for the morning game drive, so that's time saved. Although the spiders do freak me out, I was a little reluctant to leave the cool nature place. But the tour must go on; a few minutes' ride on the jeep later, we were back at the main gate of Entabeni and boarding the bus to return to our hotel.

Along the way we stopped at Carnivore Restaurant for lunch. This was truly the meat place; after the leek and potato soup, we were offered a choice of at least 10 different types of meat, whether in slices, sausages or meatballs. I think I had chicken, beef, pork, ostrich, vinissent (sorry, can't spell it), ostrich, springbok and crocodile. However, not everyone could take the amount of meat. On the way back from the restaurant to the hotel we stopped over again at a Chinese restaurant to take away our dinner. While Cecil, Suraj, Yi Jun and I waited for the food, Viki vomitted.

We set up equipment to rehearse for our items about 20 minutes after returning to the hotel. The road between blocks 7 and 8 of the hotel compound had been converted into our rehearsal space. We rehearsed the dances first, including reconfiguring the positions as Viki was too sick to dance the next day. We took longer than expected for the dances; we were given a short break to collect our Chinese takeaway from Suraj before heading down to Madam's room to rehearse "The Guys" (which we would be performing at Crawford International School the next day). By the time we ended it was pretty late.

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 2

2006-03-12T14:29:00.000+08:00

The morning started at 5am for me when the morning call came 15 minutes earlier than it should. Perhaps it's the dry weather or my own fault, but my left nostril started to bleed while I was brushing my teeth. Quite freaky, considering the same nostril bled a few weeks ago. Breakfast started at 6am and the group got onto the coach once we were done. We made a trip to the airport to pick Gloria up, who had a piano exam on Saturday which she couldn't postpone, after which it was a 4-hour ride with two stopovers to Entabeni Private Game Reserve.

When the bus driver finally succeeded in navigating the winding paths to the main entrance of the reserve, we got onto the jeeps in our assigned groups (FYI, my group consisted of myself, Viknesh, Matthew, LC, Sabrina, Viki and Nirali; Mr Corbidge and Ms Cheng tagged along with us on the jeep too) and headed to our lodges. There were 4 locations of lodges in the reserve, and we got Lakeside (though it's stated Ravineside in our itinerary). Once we reached Lakeside, we had lunch at the restaurant and headed to our rooms to settle down (and mug for the J2s) until high tea at 3.30pm and the game drive at 4pm. The scary thing wasn't that I shared lodge 091 with Yi Jun, but the fact that it's a long walk from the main hall to lodge 091, and the place is full of falling or dangling SPIDERS.

Anyway, the game drive was really cool; kinda like a real-life simulator ride. Our group was driven around by Liana, a female park ranger, and our group managed to see: ticks, dung beetle, 5 giraffes (far away), white rhinos, antelopes, zebras and a couple of other stuff. We stopped over at some place in the middle of the reserve to take a break and to meet up with the other jeeps. Everybody clamoured to take a photo with the sunset as the backdrop. Once the break was over, we headed over to Ravineside to watch the stars as night fell. A telescope was also placed there for avid watchers. Watching the stars was a very good experience. It's the feeling that the sky was boundless, and the moon lighting up the land at night.

Dinner was taken around a campfire back at Lakeside, with a little African music and dance before food was ready to be served. After the meal and we went back to our lodges, Yi Jun immediately fell asleep while I slept after bathing.

To be continued

ACSian Theatre South Africa Tour 2006 - Day 1

2006-03-11T22:52:00.000+08:00

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Johannesburg, South Africa. The local time now is 6.50am, and the temperature outside is 13 degrees Celcius...," says the friendly SIA head stewardess moments after the jerk of the plane signalled our touch-down on South African soil.

The actual work of transportation of equipment to the airport started almost 17 hours ago at Anglo-Chinese Junior College in Singapore. Thanks to an abundance of helpers, we moved all 32 items owned by the crew onto the waiting truck, and at about 7.40pm on March 10, we set off from the school to Changi International Airport. Upon arriving at Terminal 2, we set to unloading the things. My parents were already there waiting with my luggage. Once we had moved the things to Row 11 for checking-in, I changed out of blacks. After that it was a long wait as people started streaming in with their luggage, and for each of them the procedure is the same: assign a tag number for their check-in luggage, tie another tag stating the owner's address, and sending it off for check-in. When the last person finally arrived a few minutes before check-in time was over, we hung around to say our goodbyes before entering the customs.

Boarding time was 1.05am at gate E4. Between midnight to 1am, we were free to move around the airport. My time was spent eating something, walking around with different groups of people and getting entertained by Disha, Ben and Maggie. (It seemed that Ben was trying to sap his energy out so that he can sleep on the plane.) After a 10-hour flight where Hansel made his surprise appearance on the plane closer to Johannesburg (effectively freaking his sister Deanna out), we have landed in Johannesburg.

While clearing customs and baggage, we somehow lost LC's check-in luggage. A check revealed that the luggage has gotten onto the wrong plane and landed in Brisbane, Australia. It will take one or two days to get the luggage back, so in the meantime LC received R300 to get some necessities for these few days. Once we had loaded everything onto the coach we would be travelling in, we were greeted by our tour guide for South Africa, Cecil. After giving a brief introduction about South Africa, we made our first stop at the school of our hosts, Jeppe High School for Girls. Its principal, Mr. Berry Robinson has prepared a welcome tea for us in a beautiful little park across the road from its main school building. That period of time became a huge photo-taking session by little groups of people around the area.

After receiving gifts from Mr. Robinson, we transferred to our hotel and residence for the next 8 days, Mecure Bedfordview. The usual routine of boys moving equipment followed, after which we were allocated our rooms and given some time to settle down before continuing on our itinerary. This gave time for the madams to take LC and some people to Eastgate (a big shopping complex just across the road) to get his necessities and other people's groceries. My room was 704, a second-storey apartment, and I shared it with Dinesh, Krishmen and Noel. After picking our bedrooms, I went around to each apartment containing ACSian Theatre members to collect US money to change for Rand. Ms Wong was a little overwhelmed by how much money people were changing, but nevertheless she would get more Rand from Mr. Robinson (who's supplying the Rand we will be using in South Africa).

In the afternoon, we set off to Lesedi Cultural Village. According to Raeza, one season of The Amazing Race was filmed there (and I found the page - click here and look under Detour: Tribes). We were supposed to walk around the village on our own, but a few minutes later, Cecil suggested we change the programme a little and we took the change: first we went on a guided tour of the five different tribes in the village; following that we had dinner there; then we joined a big group of Americans in the theatre to watch a video on Africa's cultural history; this was followed by the Americans' guided tour, during which we slacked around. Finally the day at Lesedi Cultural Village ended with an energetic performance in the theatre.

And with that, 1 down, 7 to go.

To be continued

2006-03-10T17:29:00.000+08:00

I've just completed packing my luggage (with the help of my mum) and cut my fingernails. In a few minutes' time I will bathe, shave, have dinner and head on to school to help in the loading of equipment. And in about 9 hours' time, I'll be on the plane to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Yep, the day for ACSian Theatre's South Africa performance tour has come. We'll be there for about 8 days, returning on Sunday morning. The excitement in me is building very slowly though. I'll probably feel the full force when I get on the plane.

Before I leave, I must make another advertisement:

ACSian Theatre presents
THE TEMPEST

Dates and Times: 6, 7 April 2006 - 8pm; 8 April 2006 - 2pm, 8pm
Venue: DBS Arts Centre - Home of Singapore Repertory Theatre
Tickets: $25 (Free seating)

If you haven't seen me in an ACSian Theatre performance before, this is the one to catch. I'm dancing a lot again, and I've got a minor role, but you must still come and watch. Tag my board; I've got tickets.

2006-02-26T10:25:00.000+08:00

It's me again with another update! :)

The week of 13 February had been spent busy preparing for Fun-O-Rama XVIII. The tents went up at the start of the week, the college is buzzing with the sort of energy only a funfair can bring, and coupon sales increased exponentially. Even though Friday was officially set aside for Fun-O-Rama XVIII preparations, many classes (including 2SA1) started on Thursday, having asked to be excused from most classes for that day. By the end of Friday, most of the decorations for the food stall had already gone up. A couple of us stayed overnight at Barry's house, getting ready to wake up in the morning to fry the chicken wings.

I woke up on 18 February at 5.58am on Barry's living room sofa. June Teng and Barry's maid had already begun the job of frying the chicken wings. Since it seemed that June Teng, Beiqin (who arrived in the morning), Barry and his maid could manage the frying by themselves, most of us left the house early to go to school. While Jun Yi's group set to work putting up their tall signpost for the foodstall, I flitted between the dunking booth and the food stall. By 8.15am, it seemed everything was ready for our class at least.

I had to be at the opening ceremony. When that was over, I quickly changed out of my pants into PE shorts and headed down to the dunking booth. My original shift was from 9am to 12nn, but I was having so much fun at the dunking booth that I decided to stay there the whole day. The highlight of the day at the dunking booth was definitely the dunking of Mrs Kelvyna Chan, which raised $2500 for us (would have been more had the guy not hit the target).

The food stall packed up at 2pm after selling EVERYTHING. The rain came while we were desperately raising funds for Mr. Mark Ng's dunking (at about 4 plus). The heavy rain meant we had to stop the dunking booth then. The last hour was spent walking around the college trying to get something to eat and drink. At about 5 plus, we started to clean up our stalls (the food stall was pretty much cleaned up already). We were practically done by 6pm, if not for the late arrival of Uncle Ringo to pick up the dunking machine.

The following Monday was, of course, coupon counting and an early day off. While most of the class headed to Xue Yi's house, I still had lots of drama stuff: heading to DeoSilver's office to pay the outstanding balance for the T-shirts and to submit the design for the next batch of T-shirts, getting our immunization jabs for the South Africa Tour at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (including a free show of hysteria) and rehearsal for one of the dances for the tour. Oh well, makes you want to be a secondary school student again.

The week went on pretty much normally. Founder's Day is creeping up. The uniform check for prize winners on Thursday was the first time I wore a No. 1 uniform, save for the tie (which Yan Bo forgot to bring). Friday was another busy day, with Yi Jun and I rushing to DeoSilver's to check the T-shirt samples and submitting our order, then rushing back to school for Founder's Day rehearsal. We could finally relax at Arts Night 06, albeit with lots of screaming and stuff.

Yesterday after more blocking for The Tempest (wow, we're almost finishing!), we had our first practice for the bhangra performance we're doing in South Africa. The 3.5-hour session was definitely calorie-burning and almost muscle-tearing (my calf muscles were almost gone), and I need to work more on coordination of hands and legs.

Before I end of this particularly long entry (hah, Kegan, beat me! Wait, you already have...), here's another advertisement for a SUPERBLY EXCELLENT rock performance coming up:

RAGE AGAINST THE SERENE
A showcase of the best rock bands in ACJC
Date: 3 March 2006
Day: Friday
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Rooftop Garden @ ACJC
Tickets: $5

Contact me to get your tickets! Hurry, we only have 300 tickets!

2006-02-12T14:39:00.000+08:00

'Ello, it's me again after a period of inactivity! Seriously, am I starting to act like an alternating current?

The Guys had been a pretty good run. We received good feedback about the production which we'd improve on when we take this play to South Africa in March. The J1s had also picked up much theatre experience in this production, which I'm sure they'll help to relay to the other J1s in The Tempest.

The Tempest rehearsals have been ongoing. Dance-wise, we're almost done with the opening dance, and the next dance Raj is teaching is a girl's dance, which means the guys get to slack!!! :D Our first voice session with voice coach Michael Corbidge happened on Tuesday too. It was the first voice session for me, and by the end of the session, I was kinda overwhelmed. I have a lot to learn about voice. Drama-wise, we're on track in our blocking. My fears about handling Shakespeare text had reduced significantly after the drama session yesterday. :)

We also had a briefing for the South Africa Drama Tour on Thursday. Just some important notices and things to do.

As for general school stuff, nothing big academically. First swim PE for the year occurred on Thursday. It was slightly delayed because of heavy rain, but we eventually went in after the amount of rain decreased. And of course, Fun O Rama has been on our minds every day. If you haven't bought your Fun O Rama coupons...

...WHY HAVEN'T YOU???

...Yep, that's it for today's update. :)

2006-01-27T23:45:00.000+08:00

Whoops, hasn't it been a really long time since I updated? Well, school has pretty much resumed its usual pace as last year. Maybe a little quicker and tighter. Still selling Fun-O-Rama coupons (I have 14 left after selling some coupons with other 2SA1 people at Toa Payoh Methodist Church on 22 Jan). Rehearsals for the upcoming experimental showing of our SYF play has been going on rather smoothly. There was one after the Chinese New Year celebrations today, and it was pretty good. I definitely feel that the piece has been slightly polished. Of course, the J1s could learn some more stuff in the performance aspect, but they're learning fast too. Kudos to them. :)

OY! BUY FUN-O-RAMA COUPONS! :)

2006-01-13T22:48:00.000+08:00

Is it really Friday the 13th? For a day when bad things are supposed to happen, it was quite a shock. For the first time in weeks of heavy rain and cloudy skies, we saw SUNLIGHT!!! And it wasn't just sunlight filtering through the clouds, it was a CLEAR SKY!!! And though the weather started to look a little threatening at 5 plus, it didn't rain the whole day. What a spirit lifter.

2006-01-11T22:35:00.000+08:00

The ACSian Theatre's first club meeting of the year was held at 2.30pm today in LT1. Besides the J2s whom we all knew too well from "A Christmas Carol", occupying the majority in the centre block were the brand new J1 prospective members. Mrs Creffield first gave a brief introduction of the club, after which she handed the floor to Suraj and Nat to give the rest of the speech. Though it was unfortunate that the committee couldn't get the Apple notebook to connect properly and display the slideshow, we instead went on straight to the voice auditions for the upcoming productions for the J1s.

This particular audition script required groups of 3 females and 1 male, and owing to the lack of guys, some of the committee guys had to step in to fill the man's role in some groups, and so I did. They were visibly nervous about the audition, but they did fine in the end.

The moment the last group began their audition in the studio, I gathered everybody (J1s and J2s) to the "Hall lobby" to split them into new audition groups for the movement cum dance auditions coming up next. Once that was done, we started warm-ups, which was more of conditioning rather than dancing warm-ups. Halfway in the warm-ups, the learning groups were split into the "more experienced" group (J2s and J1s with dance background) and the "The only dance I've done in my life is the Orientation mass dance" group (i.e. the other J1s). (Okay, it wasn't that bad.) While the former group went into the studio to learn the dance from Raj, I joined the latter group since I was still conducting warm-ups for them.

The learning process was similar to last year's start-of-year audition: the two groups alternate between each other in learning the dance routine. When we were finished learning, I auditioned first with Yi Jun, Nat, Ankita, Angela and another J1 gal (whom I suppose was an experienced dancer). After that, Yi Jun, Angela and I stayed in the studio to help out in the coming auditions should Raj needed us. We stayed all the way till eight plus or nine plus.

2006-01-10T22:30:00.000+08:00

Took this off Judith's Livejournal.

Go to your music player of choice and put it all on shuffle. For every next question, press next. Use the song title as the answer to the question.

01. What do you think of me, Windows Media Player?
Eternal Flame [Juliens]

02. Will I have a happy life?
Where Is The Love? [Black Eyed Peas]

03. What do my friends really think of me?
光芒 (Ray of Light) [FIR]

04. Do people secretly lust after me?
逃亡 (Escape) [Stefanie Sun]

05. How can I make myself happy?
壁虎漫步 (Lizard Strolling} [Wilber Pan]

06. What should I do with my life?
Temple of Muktinath [Prabodhi] (An instrumental piece)

07. Why must life be so full of pain?
Sing Our Wishes [NDP 05 song] (???)

08. Will I ever have children?
Don't Hang Up [Britney Spears]

09. Will I die happy?
Holding Out For A Hero [Fantasia Barrino]

10. Can you give me some advice?
Lose Control [Missy Elliot feat. Ciara]

This quiz is totally random. Hmm, let me try the quiz again, but limiting it to the Chinese songs in my library.

01. What do you think of me, Windows Media Player?
眼神 (The Look In The Eye) [Stefanie Sun]
What about the look in my eye?

02. Will I have a happy life?
分裂 (Split) [Jay Chou]
Oh no, will I be a bachelor all my life?

03. What do my friends really think of me?
马亚金字塔 (Mayan Pyramids) [Ocean Ou]
Hmm...something dead inside me?

04. Do people secretly lust after me?
懦夫 (Weakling) [Jay Chou]
Er...I suppose not

05. How can I make myself happy?
枫 (Maple) [Jay Chou]
Play with maple leaves? I don't mind...Wait, this probably means I need a holiday.

06. What should I do with my life?
随堂测验 (Spring Test) [Stefanie Sun]
Hmm...challenge myself?

07. Why must life be so full of pain?
世界末日 (End of the World [Jay Chou]
Oh no, the end of the world is coming?!

08. Will I ever have children?
天空 (Sky) [Stefanie Sun]
Hahaha, infinite number of children!!!

09. Will I die happy?
浪漫手机 (Romantic Cellphone) [Jay Chou]
That means yes!

10. Can you give me some advice?
我不爱 (I Won't Love) [Stefanie Sun]
What an advice; if you can't find a girlfriend, forget about succeeding.

2006-01-08T21:28:00.000+08:00

Walked to the Bukit Batok East Community Club in the rain at 10.45am to attend the Bukit Batok East Edusave Merit Bursary & Scholarship Presentation Ceremony. Registration was quick for the counter which I had to report to (unlike the first two counters, which were mainly for the primary school students). The ceremony began at 11.30am with the arrival of the Guest-of-Honour, Mdm Halimah Yacob. There were a total of 710 recipients, and photographs were taken for every group of 25, so it was quite some time until my turn. After the ceremony was over and I ordered a group photo at the counter outside, I headed home.

And it basically rained the rest of the day.

Earlier this morning, the terrorist mock attack, codenamed Northstar V, was conducted at 4 MRT stations and Toa Payoh Bus Interchange. I was watching the news about the public's response to the event. I was shocked to hear some people complain about the inconveniences of the event and some suggesting earlier and more obvious warnings before the event so that the public would be better prepared for it. They failed to realise that none of these will happen in the event of a real attack (touch wood). If a real terrorist attacks, would you rather make sure the people around you are safe or complain about the "inconveniences" the terrorist has brought? If a real terrorist attacks, would you know about it beforehand? In fact, I even think that a future mock attack should be held without any initial warnings to truly reflect what may truly happen.

So, all in all, kudos to the SCDF.

2006-01-07T00:28:00.000+08:00

Went back to college at noon today for Drama Committee meeting, followed by cage cleaning and sorting of costumes. From the schedule the madams have told us, it seems like the 2006 Drama Year is going to flash by faster than I can name all the productions we're doing this year. Look out for the first play coming in early February.

ACSperience 2006 - Orientation Campfire

2006-01-06T00:09:00.000+08:00

Tonight was crunch time. The dance and drama people waited under the shelter of the walkway beside the basketball court, the venue for the campfire later. The OGLs hastened around under the threatening sky setting the scene for the campfire. The stage had already been set up. Just as Raj walked down the walkway to meet us, it started to rain.

Since we couldn't mark the stage now, both groups headed back to the Black Studio to rehearse with our costumes. The drama people reached the studio first and changed into our costumes. With the dancers coming into the studio after bringing their stuff from their dance studio, they became the audience for our rehearsal. After that, we switched sides and the dancers strutted their stuff (their dance was the Open House dance).

Once both groups went another round each, it was time to do hair and makeup. As far as drama was concerned, there was little makeup (just foundation and lipstick). Raj styled the hair for all the guys (drama and dance) with wax, glitter glue and hair spray. This was also one of the rare times when I sport styled hair, and I must admit, Raj really knows his stuff.

After a prayer in the studio, we headed out to the basketball court at 7.30pm. We waited in the shadow of the choir's studio at the Sports Complex while waiting for the J1s to settle down. Mrs Chan then gave a short speech, and the campfire was lighted. Just as they had settled down to begin the first game and the drama group have got together once again for a prayer, it started to rain again. All of us had to move to the Sunken Gallery. The J1s then marched up to the Badminton Hall while the drama group took shelter in the dancer's studio.

There was a huge mess with the MRC, but in the end we managed to get our act together, albeit on the slightly wet rubber floor with wet dance shoes and the risk of slipping and falling. In the debrief in the dance studio later, Raj commented that it was a good performance on drama's part, because we danced firmly even though the music didn't sound too good.

After clearing up over in the Black Studio (I kept my hair), I headed over to the Badminton Hall to soak in the spirits. Over there, I saw a number of J2s watching the proceedings (including Elizabeth, Yen Nee, Tania, Beiqin and some of the dancers who have changed out) and other ex-ACSians were also there watching. A slideshow of the happenings over the 4 days of orientation then followed, and I was hit with a feeling of nostalgia. How I wished I was the one sitting in the crowd, reminiscing about the orientation we had.

After the slideshow, it was the moment the OGLs and the J2s at the back of the hall were waiting for: a performance of the mass dances that we did last year, i.e. Blame It On The Boogie and Superstar. While I managed to remember most of the former song, I forgot parts of the second verse of Superstar, and I was a bit more clumsy in it.

When we finished both our dances, it was time for the new J1s to show off their mass dances. The first dance was a couple dance (I don't know the name of the song), and the second was Black And White, a solo dance which I personally liked better. After the dance and some announcements about worried parents, the usual party continued with more dancing. A couple of dancers and I mixed into the crowd to dance and get high. All the while I tried to learn their mass dance. All the while I remembered about the time last year at the basketball court. By the end of the night, I still don't know the couple dance, but I've got some hold on the Black And White dance. I headed home finally at 11.30pm, when most of the J1s have left and it seemed that the OGLs were getting ready to debrief.

All the while, throughout the night, in the rain, the campfire have been kept burning by a number of OGLs who have been sitting around the fire making sure it doesn't go out. The campfire is a symbol of the AC spirit: Always burning, never ceasing.

The Merchant Of Venice

2006-01-05T00:07:00.000+08:00

After a short costume run of the campfire dance after school, most of us headed to The Substation to watch the ACSian Theatre alumni's performance of Shakespeare's "The Merchant Of Venice". Overall, the show rocked (literally), though I was a little surprised when the show took 3 hours long; I have been used to one-hour-something productions, since the ones I've been in since Camelot were all of this nature. Ooh, and I love the make-up.

2006-01-04T00:03:00.000+08:00

Rehearsal for campfire dance tonight. There was a big hoo-ha about the costumes. Major chaos.

2006-01-03T23:42:00.000+08:00

Official School Day 1. New seating location for morning assembly in the Hall. New faces in the college, both students and teachers (and a new Vice-Principal). New time-table.

Same old life.

2006-01-02T19:46:00.000+08:00

Drama committee meeting in the morning. After that, those who weren't involved in MOV went up to the Cage to help Lindis clean the Cage. Rehearsal for the Orientation campfire dance performance started at 1pm and ended at 4 plus.

2006-01-01T22:10:00.000+08:00

Took this off Yan Ting's blog:

Current mood :: Uncertain about the coming year. However hopeful I try to be, I always get that nagging feeling that something really bad is gonna happen.
Current music :: Nothing right now.
Current taste :: Not eating now.
Current hair :: Short sides, long fringe. I didn't like my look initially, but I was surprised how fast my hair grew back.
Current clothes :: Keming Primary School "Faith" house T-shirt and knee-length trousers
Current annoyance :: Thinking about the homework.
Current smell :: Smell of my room. It doesn't smell.
Current thing I ought to be doing :: Homework.
Current desktop picture :: Habbo Hotel's "Winter Wonderland" wallpaper.
Current favorite band :: Can I name 2? Simple Plan and Green Day.
Current book :: Not reading. :P
Current cd in stereo :: No CD.
Current crush :: :P Can't say.
Current favorite celeb :: Hmm...can't decide.
Current hate :: Staying at home. Wish I can go out with some friends and celebrate.

DO I

Smoke? :: Never in my entire life.
Have a dream that keeps coming back? :: It doesn't happen that often nowadays.
Read the newspaper? :: Yep. I always read the Today newspaper while having breakfast on school days.
Have any gay or lesbian friends? :: Don't know.
Believe in miracles? :: Perhaps.
Believe it's possible to remain faithful forever? :: Yes.
Consider yourself tolerant of others? :: Pretty much yes.
Consider love a mistake? :: When it's given to the wrong person.
Like the taste of alcohol? :: Never tasted.
Have a favorite candy? :: Seldom eat candies.
Believe in astrology? :: Occasionally.
Believe in magic? :: Not really.
Have any pets? :: No.
Go to or plan to go to college? :: Er...JC considered college?
Have any piercings? :: No.
Have an obsession? :: Habbo Hotel.
Have a secret crush? :: Aren't crushes meant to be a secret?
Do they know yet? :: What do you think?
Care about looks? :: Not all the time.

LOVE LIFE

Ever been in love? :: No.
Do you believe in love at first sight? :: Maybe; need to experience it to believe it.
Do you believe in "the one?" :: Maybe; need to find one to believe it.

JUICY STUFF

Have you ever played a game that required removal of clothing? :: Don't think so.
Have you ever been intoxicated? :: No.
Height :: 170-something cm? Definitely not exceeding 175 cm.

LAST THING YOU

Bought :: Oyako Don on New Year's Eve.
Ate :: Dinner today. Rice, vege, fish, radish soup.
Drank :: Plain water.
Read :: The dictionary, to confirm the meaning of 'college'.
Watched on tv :: Channel 8 evening news.

EITHER/ OR

club or houseparty :: House party.
cats or dogs :: Cats.
single or taken :: Single.
pen or pencil :: Pen.
gloves or mittens :: Mittens.
food or candy :: Food.
cassette or cd :: CD.
coke or pepsi :: Coke.
this or that :: This.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO

Kill :: Nobody.

LAST PERSON YOU

Talked to :: My parents.
Hugged :: The cast of Morning at Memory's Border.
Instant messaged :: Yu Wei.

WHERE DO YOU

Eat :: Usually at home.
Wish you were :: Lying on the cold sand at Sentosa looking at the night's sky.

HAVE YOU EVER

Dated one of your best friends? :: Never been in love.
Loved somebody so much it makes you cry? :: Never been in love.
Broken the law? :: Never.
Run away from home? :: Never. (Unless I'm late for an appointment. Then I run away from the house.)
Broken a bone? :: Yes; my skull bone.
Played Truth Or Dare? :: Yes.
Kissed someone you didn't know? :: Never.
Been in a fight? :: Argument, yes.
Come close to dying? :: Yes.

WHAT IS

The most embarrassing CD in your collection? :: Er...Britney Spears?
What's your bedroom like? :: Study table and computer on one side, bed on the other. The floor separates the two areas. Walls are pale yellow, curtains have flowery patterns.
Your favorite thing for breakfast? :: Vegetarian bee hoon from the Kopitiam across the road.
Your favorite restaurant? :: Seldom eat at restaurants.
What do you eat when you raid the fridge late at night? :: I usually don't raid the fridge. If I'm hungry, I head for instant noodles.
What is your secret guaranteed weeping movie? :: Not movie, but musical: Camelot. (The final scene with Leon and Shu An is a definite tearjerker!)
What is your biggest fear? :: Spiders.
What feature are you most insecure about? :: Belly.
Do you ever have to beg? :: Playfully.
Are you a pyromaniac? :: I don't play with fire.
Do you know anyone famous? :: Hong Jun Yang is my senior from long ago. He won't know who I am though.
Describe your bed :: The bedsheet has dolphin designs on it. Pillow, pink blanket (not my fault), a few soft toys (yes, I have soft toys).
Spontaneous or plain? :: Plain.
Do you know how to play poker? :: Not really.
What do you carry with you at all times? :: Wallet, keys and handphone.
How do you drive? :: Don't drive.
What do you miss most about being little? :: Hmm...nothing actually.
Are you happy with your given name? :: As time passes by, yes.
How much money would it take to get you to absolutely give up the Internet for one year? :: S$1 million.
What color is your bedroom? :: Pale yellow.
Do you like yourself and believe in yourself? :: Most of the time.
Do you think you're cute? :: No.
Do poor, homeless, or starving people sometimes annoy you? :: No.
Do you consider yourself to be a nice person? :: Yes.
Do you spend more time with your girlfriend, boyfriend, or your friends? :: Never been in love, so it's my friends.
You ever been caught "doing something?" :: What is 'something'?

The Year Ahead

2006-01-01T20:55:00.000+08:00

My exterior doesn't show much emotion towards the coming of 2006, but deep down in me, a voice is saying, "Wow, it's 2006!" Here's an overview of what's coming up this year, in sections:

ACSian Theatre
The following are the projects which ACSian Theatre will be doing this year (information taken from ACJC website):

1. The Merchant of Venice (4 Jan - 6 Jan, 8pm, The Substation, tickets at $15)
2. Hate.Love.War.Peace (20 Jan - 21 Jan) (I honestly have no idea what this is. This has never come up in our committee meetings.)
3. Night of Laughter (22-23 Feb, ACJC) (An in-house production as usual, tickets won't cost a lot, so must come and support)
4. South Africa Tour (March school holidays) (I really wish I can go, but I seriously don't want to have someone pay for my trip. Should try to chalk up as much money as I can.)
5. The Tempest (6 Apr - 8 Apr)
6. Singapore Youth Festival: (Central Judging: 16 May - 18 May; Drama Show: 21 Jul) (Details about our SYF production will be kept to a minimum, so don't ask so much. :))
7. Little Women (23 Nov - 25 Nov) (A J1 production)

The J2s will step down after SYF. That's a lot of opportunities for 2006.

2SA1, class of 2006
All of us promoted! Well, academically, there's quite a lot of stuff to cover. Our teachers will all be the same (including GP's Miss Dorothea Lim, who SMS-ed me after Christmas to let me know that she will be taking our class this year). Being the dinosaur-batch of F. Maths is a certain pressure on us too; we are expected to do well. :)

For more class stuff, I'm intending to treat the class to chalet in June with NTUC vouchers I got from my relative. But I still gotta ask the class if they're even interested in chalet. After chalet, it'll be study all the way till A Levels, Senior's Night and perhaps a few more hanging-outs after that. And 2SA1 will officially graduate, until we meet again in March 2007 for the release of the A Level results.

ACJC
Major event of ACJC for 2006: Fun-O-Rama XVIII! Held on 18 February, it promises to be a whole day of fun and thrill! You seriously need to come! And how to play the games and eat the food if you do not have coupons? Coupons are sold at $10 each and every coupon bought gets you a free set of Long John Silver's coupons too.

Otherwise, it's the usual stuff. I wonder if I'll be getting something on Founder's Day.

Past friends
More outings with NHSS 4o1o4 and Exco11! Hopefully. Best if Exco11 can celebrate New Year's Eve again. It was a great experience just being together and watching the beautiful fireworks. I'm also hoping to get as many people from Keming Primary School 6AA (class of 2000) as possible together for a reunion.

Hmm...New Year Resolutions? I'm not a 'resolutions' kind of guy. I just live life as it brings me. Hopefully 2006 is a great year.

2005-12-31T23:53:00.000+08:00

Originally I was going to spend New Year's Eve at Judith's New Year's Eve Party, but Kegan informed me about the Exco New Year's Eve outing a few days ago, and I couldn't miss it. We had originally planned to meet in Seoul Garden @ Marina Square for dinner at 8.30pm. Unfortunately, as a home dweller, I was lost trying to look for the place in Marina Square. I eventually found it after being lost for about 30 minutes. In attendance: Kegan, Shao Ming, Wei Loong, Jane, Edwin and Wee Cheng. Bernice came a few minutes after I did. What happened was that the bill actually turned out much more expensive than we expected, so after some deliberation, we decided to leave the place to find somewhere else to eat.

After picking Xin Jie up from the Barbie sale at the quadrangle, we went around the mall looking for a place that did not have a queue outside. We eventually found Waraku Restaurant, a Japanese restaurant on the ground floor. Since we came in a big group, we were immediately allocated a room which looked like a meeting room (how appropriate for the Student Council Exco). I ordered an Oyako Don, while quite a number of them ordered Curry Udon. The food was rather nice, and the service was exceptionally good. Very typical of a Japanese restaurant which I've seen on Japan Hour.

We left the restaurant a few minutes past 10. After we took two group photos, we said goodbye to Edwin (who had church duty on New Year's Day) and headed to the Esplanade Bayfront to play with sparklers and watch the fireworks. The place was simply crowded with every sort of person in Singapore. We found a spot about 80 metres behind the concert area and started playing with the sparklers. After we were done with the sparklers, Wei Loong and Jane made their way home while the remaining 6 of us walked further away from the concert. We eventually found our fireworks watching spot, in front of a ship-like sculpture.

While waiting for midnight to come, we chatted and took a few photos here and there. When the prologue began (play of lights on the other side of the river), everybody directed their attention to the lights and some began to cheer wildly. Since we were far from the concert area, we couldn't hear the countdown. So when the fireworks began, it just began. What followed was 5 or 10 minutes of fireworks of all sorts. This was the closest I've ever been to the fireworks while watching it, so it was an entirely new experience for me. I just couldn't help screaming when sparks exploded into a myriad of colours and sparkling lights.

When the fireworks were finally over, we started to make our way back home. Shao Ming waited at the bus stop for the bus. The rest of us walked through the huge human jams towards the MRT station. Halfway through, Wee Cheng cut across the road to one of the entrances into Citylink Mall. So the four of us continued towards the Raffles City Shopping Centre entrance. On Bernice's suggestion that there may be no more trains leaving Jurong East at this time, Bernice, Xin Jie and I took the train heading towards Woodlands, while Kegan was the only one who took the train heading towards Boon Lay. Xin Jie was the first to get off at Dhoby Ghaut. After what felt like an hour's ride, Bernice alighted at Chua Chu Kang, while I got off at Bukit Batok, after which I walked home.

This was my last day of 2005, and it went down in my life story as the best New Year's Eve I've had so far.

2005-12-30T21:03:00.000+08:00

Went back to school once again to help Lindis out in clearing up the Cage stuff. When I walked into the Cage today, I was slightly surprised to see the neat shelves that have been installed. There's a lot more space on the floor. Lindis and I worked from 11am till 7pm, having lunch at 1pm. Kass and Jayne came later to help. At the end of the day, most of the stuff from the Art Gallery side of the Cage have been pretty much cleared up, but there's still quite a lot of stuff from the canteen side of the Cage. Again, we'll be meeting on Monday, this time with the full Committee, to clear things up before school reopens.

2005-12-29T20:01:00.000+08:00

Went back to school today for a rehearsal for the Orientation Campfire dance performance by Drama. We will be doing the finale dance from "A Christmas Carol", "It's A Miracle". Today's session was basically a recap rehearsal, since Raj wasn't around. We meet again next Monday.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

2005-12-25T10:47:00.000+08:00

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
May your hearts be light
From now on our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on our troubles will be miles away

Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now...

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

2005-12-24T14:41:00.000+08:00

I went to Suntec City today with Jackson to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. My father had gotten the free movie tickets from the Singapore Police Co-operative Society, but since he doesn't really watch movies, he gave them to me.

I shan't spoil the movie for those who have not watched it, but I was enthralled by the movie as a whole. One word of caution though: don't rush to leave the cinema immediately after the credits start rolling. That's how movie-goers miss certain ending (punchline) scenes (like the Lockhart scene at the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets).

After the movie we went back to Westmall to meet Zhi Yuan who was buying gifts for a (female) friend of his before Jackson and him went back to his apartment while I headed home. Later, while I was surfing the net, I discovered that the gal who played Susan in "TLTWATW" had the exact same birthday as me: December 16, 1988! (I thought she was quite beautiful too. Sigh...why aren't I as handsome...)

The Other Wise Man - A Musical

2005-12-23T23:31:00.000+08:00

It's two days to Christmas. Mrs Lim (the NHHS Student Council teacher-in-charge if you don't know or don't remember) had once again invited a few of us to her church to watch a Christmas musical. Kegan, Bernice, Xin Jie and I had accepted her invitation.

The musical is titled The Other Wise Man - A Musical. It is a fictional story about a Magi named Artaban who had hoped to meet the Messiah and present him with three gifts when he saw the sign in the heavens. However, for 33 years, his journey led him to use his gifts to help the people in dire need. He finally met the new King after helping a lady with his last gift and dying in an earthquake.

My humble review:
The first scene, where the Narrator (played by Paul Seow) started his story about Artaban (played by Jameson Soh), was a great introduction to a great musical that was to culminate in a powerful conclusion. Scene changes were done tastefully with the help of (what I believe to be) overhead projectors projecting images behind a white screen. The main credit for the singing went to Artaban and the people whom he helped in his journey. The most touching and powerful scene came in the scene A Pearl of Great Price, where Eunice Wong sang to the Gods to help the dying Artaban, and Artaban himself opened his eyes to meet the King. That moment, I truly felt touched.

The music was great too. Though the 60-strong choir's voices didn't carry much 'oomph', it was the lyrics and the songs that were truly amazing. The only few letdowns I felt was the over-elaborate costumes in The Hall of Dreams (which took quite a bit of attention away from the text) and the (apologies for using the term) mediocre movement pieces. Sorry, but they don't even qualify to be called dances. Only one dancer impressed me with her professionalism; at the end of the second dance (by a couple of ragged women), she was the only dancer who walked off stage in her ragged character, while the other dancers in front casually walked out.

All in all, the show is excellently executed. I give it four out of five stars. :) For more details, please click on the following link: THE OTHER WISE MAN - A MUSICAL

Advertisement: ACJC Fun-O-Rama XVIII

2005-12-18T11:58:00.000+08:00

I suddenly remembered about the 20 Fun-O-Rama coupons still sitting on my desk since August 2005. It's time to bring out the advertisement again!

Anglo-Chinese Junior College presents
FUN-O-RAMA XVIII

Date: Saturday, 18th February 2006
Time: 9.30am to 6.00pm
Place: ACJC, 25 Dover Close East, Singapore 139745

The Fun-O-Rama, ACJC's funfair, is held once every two years. This year's funfair promises to be another day of non-stop activity! Expect lots of food, lots of games, lots of music and lots of walking ALL DAY! You won't regret coming to the funfair. Gather all your friends and come to Fun-O-Rama!

Get your Fun-O-Rama coupons now! Coupons are sold at $10 each, and every coupon bought comes with Long John Silver's coupons! Write in my Tag Board if you would like to buy coupons. You mustn't miss this great event! See you there!

2005-12-17T23:55:00.000+08:00

Gwen's parents had booked a Karaoke Lounge at Keppel Club (near HarbourFront) and Gwen had asked the Dance and Drama people to come and have fun. After a seemingly long walk from the bus stop at the main road, I finally arrived at the Keppel Club. Gwen led me up to the Karaoke Lounge, where the only people around were Gwen's father, Gwen's younger brother (er...?) and Abiel, a Dance guy. They were playing pool when I came, and nobody was singing the karaoke. Soon after I arrived, Yu Wei and Judith came.

I was the first to actually sing on the karaoke with Yu Wei. We were trying in vain to hit the high notes in Jay Chou's songs when more people started to arrive. The real singing began when the bulk of the drama people came. (Actually, looking back, there was an equal proportion of drama and dance people. :)) Viknesh, Ethel and later Yi Jun were the best singers that night, with Gwen coming in a close second. Drama president Suraj also jumped in on the Michael Jackson songs; beatboxing wonders came in the form of Deo and Yi Jun mainly. The people on the karaoke were even kind enough to slip in a Chinese song (The Girl Next Door Looking Over Here), but then again, that's because they wanted me to sing as well.

Once again the same dilemma I've had at the "A Christmas Carol" PPP surfaced again here. I was having so much fun and I didn't really want to leave, but then I had to catch a bus home, and Mum doesn't exactly fancy me going to karaoke lounges (she's convinced by drama serial portrayals of karaoke lounges). The bulk of us eventually left at about 11.40pm. Yu Wei (who recently moved house) and I initially planned to take 963 home, but after waiting till 12.10am, we figured the last bus had probably gone, so we took 61 instead, with Yu Wei taking a taxi at Bukit Batok Interchange back home.

Note: When I later checked the bus guide online, it said that the last bus for 963 leaves from HarbourFront Bus Terminal at 11.30pm. So, yea, we did miss the last bus.

Morning at Memory's Border

2005-12-16T23:58:00.000+08:00

The two-show run of our mini production "Morning at Memory's Border" ended tonight. This week has felt very long, what with the rehearsals at school on Monday and Tuesday and the rest of our rehearsals at The Substation, where our performance was held.

Monday and Tuesday
Rehearsals in school. Jared still wasn't around on Monday, and Audrey Low could only come after her work, which is after 7pm. Still, we made do with whatever we had.

Wednesday
Today was our Tech cum Dress Rehearsal day. I came to school at 12.30pm to help in the packing and moving of things from the school to The Substation: frames, platforms, clamps, costumes, first aid kit and lots of dance tape. Once we arrived at The Substation (which was slightly before 2pm), we had to wait outside the back gate since it was still locked. When it finally opened, we moved the stuff into the Guinness Theatre.

This was my first time at The Substation's Guinness Theatre. The theatre is an intimate space, where performers are in close proximity to the audience. The lighting was simple, so rigging didn't take too long. The floor was a horror, 'cause the gaps in the parquet flooring was slightly dangerous for our bare feet. So, as a safety precaution, we all had to put dance tape onto our feet.

I was slightly surprised by the backstage area. There was only one entrance point onto the stage from backstage (back of the stage, on the left), and the dressing rooms were below the stage. The dressing rooms and "living room" area reminded me a lot of my grandfather's zinc-roofed kampong house in Malacca. Then again, The Substation was housed in an old shophouse.

We did two full dress runs, ending slightly past 9pm.

Thursday
Our first show was tonight. According to Mrs Creffield, it was a full house (surprisingly, since initially we thought it was going to be at most three-quarters filled; the theatre seats 108), with both young people and adults in the audience.

Friday
Even before I went to bed at 1am, I had already received a few SMSes wishing me a happy birthday. A few more came in after I woke up this morning. The audience was also supposedly full house tonight. After we had all changed out of our costumes, dismantled the set and gathered in the theatre space, Suraj brought in a birthday cake and all of them sang the birthday song to me (twice, for whatever reason I do not know). The committee lovingly bought two teddy bears for me (it's actually one whole toy, with the big bear hugging the smaller one). After the cake was finished, we moved the stuff out of The Substation and into the waiting lorry at the front of the place. Then, all of us boarded the open-air lorry back to school to unload. I headed home after the work was completed. This was the earliest time ever that I had gone home after unloading.

So anyway, thanks to everyone who sent me birthday greetings, I appreciate them. :) Here's to another great year!

ACSian Theatre presents:

2005-12-05T09:27:00.000+08:00

EDIT: I've made a correction to the information for The Merchant of Venice. There're three shows instead of just two.

Aaron Maniam's Morning at Memory's Border

This is a dance cum poetry recital performance, an extension to a short performance we did for Mr. Aaron Maniam at the launch of his book of poems "Morning at Memory's Border". I'll be dancing in this one-hour long show.

Dates: 15 Dec 2005 (Thursday), 16 Dec 2005 (Friday)
Time: 8pm
Venue: Guinness Theatre @ The Substation
Tickets: $15 (Free Seating)

************************************************

The Merchant Of Venice

Relive the classic Shakespeare story with style. Live rock music and goth-themed costumes accompany the telling of the story. If you love jamming and/or Shakespeare, you must not miss this mainly alumni production (supported by a few J2s-to-be).

Dates: 4 Jan 2006 (Wednesday), 5 Jan 2006 (Thursday), 6 Jan 2006 (Friday)
Time: 8pm
Venue: Guinness Theatre @ The Substation
Tickets: $15 (Free Seating)

************************************************

Do come and support ACSian Theatre productions. Please let me know if you would like to purchase tickets. Looking forward to your attendance!

2005-12-01T12:23:00.000+08:00

Sorry, but this quiz is quite fun; I'll pick another selection of 20 people (same thing as just now; 10 1SA1, 10 4o1):

1. Iris
2. Shu Hao
3. Xue Yi
4. Arvin
5. Brian
6. Ho Yuen
7. Joon Kiat
8. Andy
9. Dhriti
10. Wern Jian
11. Yu Tian
12. Aileen
13. Peiyu
14. Ming Hwee
15. Kuan Yee
16. James
17. Veronica
18. Chii Yeh
19. Amanda
20. Wee Cheng

- How did you meet 13?: Peiyu - First met when we were Councillors in Sec 2.
- What would you do if you never met 5?: Brian - I wouldn't know what it means to be cool in his own right.
- What do you honestly think of 10?: Wern Jian - One of the freaky "gamer" - Rubik's Cube, chess and all those stuff.
- Have you ever liked no.3?: Xue Yi - As a friend. That's all.
- If 1 died tomorrow, what is one thing that you would like to do?: Iris - Offer my congratulations/condolenscences to Shu Hao.
- Would 2 and 11 make a good couple?: Shu Hao & Yu Tian - Nope, sorry, both guys.
- Do you think 12 is hot?: Aileen - Er, no.
- Would 1 and 17 make a lovely couple?: Iris & Veronica - Nope, sorry, both gals.
- Do you know any of 3's family members?: Xue Yi - Never met his family.
- On a scale of 1-10 how cute is 14?: Ming Hwee - Another cute guy? 7 lah, same as Fang You. :P
- What would you do if 4 just professed their undying love for you: Arvin - He will mean it as a joke.
- What language does 19 speak?: Amanda - English, Chinese, some dialect.
- Who is 8 going out with?: Andy - Yen Nee.
- Would 18 and 5 make a good couple?: Chii Yeh & Brian - Seriously, what's this thing about homosexuality? Nope, both guys.
- When was the last time you talked to 6?: Ho Yuen - Also at the Project Work Oral Presentation examination.
- What is 18's favorite band?: Chii Yeh - I don't even know if he listens to music.
- Does 4 have any siblings?: Arvin - I think he doesn't.
- Would you ever date 1?: Iris - If I don't end up like Shu Hao.
- Would you ever date 7?: Joon Kiat - Sorry, I'll pass on that. He's a guy.
- Is 15 single?: Kuan Yee - Not married, not sure if she's going steady.
- What is 19's last name?: Amanda - Choa.
- What is 3's middle name?: Xue Yi - Chinese people don't have middle names.
- What is 10's fantasy?: Wern Jian - Break the world record for solving a Rubik's Cube? Hehe.
- Would 14 and 19 make a good couple?: Ming Hwee & Amanda - Don't think so. Sorry.
- What school does 16 go to?: James - Now in Hwa Chong Institution.
- What school does 1 go to?: Iris - ACJC and occasionally Raffles JC.
- Where does 9 live?: Dhriti - Oldham Hall.
- Would you make out with 13?: Peiyu - NO.
- Are 5 and 6 best friends? : Brian & Ho Yuen - No. 4 & 5 are (Arvin and Brian).
- Is 20 older than you?: Wee Cheng - Most people are older than me. So is he.
- Is 4 the sexiest bitch alive?: Arvin - Sorry, nope.
- Is 17 your ex?: Veronica - I've never had girlfriends.
- Do you ever see yourself with 12 and 18?: Aileen & Chii Yeh - Nope.
- How is 2?: Shu Hao - Ask Iris.

2005-12-01T11:52:00.000+08:00

A little quiz I took off someone's blog:

List down 20 names that come to your mind. (Names mentioned are not in order.)
1. June Teng
2. Jesslyn
3. Jeffrey
4. Jun Yi
5. Jiun Siang
6. Joel Ye
7. Yan Bo
8. Barry
9. Robyn
10. Eliza-barney
11. Xianglong
12. Kegan
13. Michelle
14. Fang You
15. Yvonne
16. Yen Nee
17. Tania
18. Quan Ming
19. Phangzy
20. Delia

(Hehe, first 10 are my current classmates in 1SA1...next 10 were my classmates from NHSS 4o1. And I deliberately placed all the Js together. :])

- How did you meet 13?: Michelle - We were classmates from Sec 1.
- What would you do if you never met 5?: Jiun Siang - I would have thought I was the lamest person on the planet.
- What do you honestly think of 10?: Eliza-barney - She's a great gal, though she gave me the creeps when I first met her.
- Have you ever liked no.3?: Jeffrey - In an alternate universe, but not in the real world.
- If 1 died tomorrow, what is one thing that you would like to do?: June Teng - Pray that she finds peace with God in Heaven. :)
- Would 2 and 11 make a good couple?: Jesslyn & Xianglong - I doubt they know each other. But, yeah, if they knew each other, they would make a good couple.
- Do you think 12 is hot?: Kegan - Shao Ming does.
- Would 1 and 17 make a lovely couple?: June Teng & Tania - Nope, sorry, both gals.
- Do you know any of 3's family members?: Jeffrey - Never met his family before.
- On a scale of 1-10 how cute is 14?: Fang You - Cute guy? Er...7?
- What would you do if 4 just professed their undying love for you: Jun Yi - I would politely decline, and recommend Yan Bo to him.
- What language does 19 speak?: Phangzy - English, Chinese and some dialect (I'm not sure which one though.)
- Who is 8 going out with?: Barry - Don't know. Probably some gal in Indonesia?
- Would 18 and 5 make a good couple?: Quan Ming & Jiun Siang - Nope, sorry, both guys.
- When was the last time you talked to 6?: Joel Ye - During the Project Work Oral Presentation examination.
- What is 18's favorite band?: Quan Ming - Er... May Day? I'll need to read his blog again. :)
- Does 4 have any siblings?: Jun Yi - In my memory, yes (I mean, he didn't really say he's an only child).
- Would you ever date 1?: June Teng - If I am not too boring for her.
- Would you ever date 7?: Yan Bo - He wants to date me.
- Is 15 single?: Yvonne - Not married, but not sure if she's going steady with anybody.
- What is 19's last name?: Phangzy - Phang.
- What is 3's middle name?: Jeffrey - Chinese people don't have middle names.
- What is 10's fantasy?: Eliza-barney - Er...?
- Would 14 and 19 make a good couple?: Fang You & Phangzy - Nope, sorry, both guys.
- What school does 16 go to?: Yen Nee - Currently in ACJC with me.
- What school does 1 go to?: June Teng - Also ACJC.
- Where does 9 live?: Robyn - Somewhere in Bishan or Ang Mo Kio.
- Would you make out with 13?: Michelle - Psst...I would love to. *:o*
- Are 5 and 6 best friends? : Jiun Siang & Joel - Friends yes, but not really the best of friends.
- Is 20 older than you?: Delia - Same year, but yea, she's older.
- Is 4 the sexiest bitch alive?: Jun Yi - Sexy yes, but not a bitch.
- Is 17 your ex?: Tania - I've never had girlfriends.
- Do you ever see yourself with 12 and 18?: Kegan & Quan Ming - Nope, sorry, we're guys.
- How is 2?: Jesslyn - Doing fine I guess.

2005-11-30T23:59:00.000+08:00

First proper rehearsal for Morning at Memory's Border began today at 5pm. After taking some time before Raj came to teach Lyn "Flying", we went about learning the opening dance. After the practice, we headed to Ubin Seafood (at Sixth Avenue) for dinner, because the madams needed to talk to me about making the tickets for the performance. I reached home at about 12.30am.

And since we're on the subject:

ACSian Theatre presents:
Aaron Maniam's Morning at Memory's Border

Dates: 15 & 16 December 2005 (Thursday and Friday)
Time: 8pm
Venue: Guinness Theatre @ The Substation (45 Armenian Street, Singapore 179936)
Tickets: $15 (Free Seating)

"A Christmas Carol" Post-Production Party

2005-11-29T23:55:00.000+08:00

The "A Christmas Carol" Post-Production Party was held tonight at Suraj's house. I was the second to show up (after Viknesh). As time passed people started to turn up, including Mrs Creffield, Ms Wong, the lead actor David and Lindis, the only other female to turn up on time. While nibbling on snacks at the foyer and waiting for the sun to set and the sky to darken, a whole bunch of girls finally showed up; they had apparently met up at Kranji MRT station to come to Suraj's house together.

The buffet naturally consisted of mainly Indian food, most of which are rather hot and spicy too. I had two helpings back to back and ended up feeling bloated. We blasted music and occasional dancing and banghra occurred. Throughout the night a couple of other people showed up too, including Mrs Creffield's friend Mr. Aaron Maniam, the other two "ghosts" Judith and Yi Jun, Jayne, Ethel, Meixi and Meiyi.

As the night stretched to 10pm, there was less dancing going on, partly due to the rain which came in the middle of the party. A big group shifted into Suraj's room to chat, while a couple more chilled out outside. Small groups of people also started heading home, but I heard that a number of them intended to stay overnight. Though I could stay overnight (my parents are away in Malacca), I wasn't exactly prepared to, so I left around midnight.

But, honestly, I didn't want to leave. It's been quite some time since I've had so much fun. Sigh.

2005-11-27T16:04:00.000+08:00

"A Christmas Carol" ended its 4-show run last night. I wasn't exactly totally satisfied with my performance throughout the four shows, but I did the best I could. I'm currently sitting at home and suffering from a bad cold...ah, the theatre withdrawal syndrome!

2005-11-19T13:01:00.000+08:00

"A Christmas Carol" is coming soon, and the work is progressing nicely. Somehow I just feel there's so much stuff left to be done. Did I feel the same way just before Camelot? I think so. One thing's for sure; I can't wait for it to start.

Update on our sales: Saturday (26th November) night show is sold out. Say WOW! I'm still currently holding on to Saturday matinee tickets (2pm), so if you're free on Saturday afternoon and have $20 to spare, why not come watch "A Christmas Carol"? Better still, get your friends to come watch the show, spend a few more dollars to buy Christmas hats and fully enjoy a November Christmas!

2005-10-27T20:02:00.000+08:00

Another long break from blogging. A couple of stuff have happened in this period. In roughly the correct chronological order:

1) Baccalaureate Service
Held on Thursday morning (13 Oct), the service also marked the official last day for the JC2s, the students who have been in ACJC for almost two years and been our seniors ever since the first day of school. It was also at the end of the service that the students received their final Report Cards. The atmosphere was akin to the release of the A Level results; there were lots of photo-taking, hugs, tears, gift exchange and what have you. The vibe was sad, but also with a tinge of hope for the future. I really look forward to our baccalaureate service next year. Mental Note: Get Mr. Chan a bowling pin as our gift to him. Tee-hee.

2) AC Games
This event stretched over three days (the Thursday immediately after the Promos, Friday and the following Monday) and saw 6 games and over 100 fixtures. An inter-class event, 1SA1 was initially reluctant to play, but eventually all of us joined in after the threat of CIP. In the end, our class didn't do too bad, coming in third in both Ultimate Frisbee and Street Bendy.

3) Outreach @ NHSS
On Friday morning (14 Oct), I headed straight to Nan Hua Secondary School. I was part of a team of teachers (Mr. Ngoei, Mr. Sim and Mr. Low) and students from ACJC who were going to promote ACJC in our Outreach programme. The chosen students were all ex-students of NHSS. The Sec 4s turned up for the talk by Mr. Ngoei, who seemed to be in his best debater mode. It was weird seeing the Sec 4s seeming to be slacking. Anyway, after that, Peiyu, Tania and I had sushi in the canteen with Ms Wassan for a while, before she had to return to the hall to introduce the next college that was in NHSS that day (National JC). We hung around until about 12nn before we went back to ACJC.

4) Voice auditions for A Christmas Carol
Voice auditions for our next ACSian Theatre production, A Christmas Carol, were held that Friday afternoon. We auditioned in pairs reading from one of two selected scenes in the script of CC. That night, I received the SMS that there would be rehearsal for CC the next day. That meant I got a role in Christmas Carol! Well, that's until I found out...

5) First rehearsal for A Christmas Carol
...that I would be playing four minor roles. Ah well, I don't really mind it. I really like our drama rehearsals. Wonder how dance rehearsals were going to be.

6) Preparation for ACJC Open House
Preparation for our college's open house began a few weeks prior to the event. For ACSian Theatre, not only did we have the booth and a performance in LT3 to be concerned about, we needed to help Mrs. Creffield with the Drama Elective Programme (DEP) stuff. Dance rehearsals were held every day in the week of 17 October. The committee also helped out in painting the Black Studio (our current studio) black and the Pink Studio (a new studio for the DEP students at Oldham Wing) pink, though the latter was of a lower priority.

7) Promotional Examination results
On the eve of the Open House, we had to be delivered the bombshell: ALL our Promos results. We spent the first three periods of the day checking our scripts and the marks. I got As for Maths, F. Maths and Physics, C for Chemistry and failed by half a mark for General Paper. Thank goodness this is not the overall grade for the JC1 academic year.

8) Open House
The time after the release of the Promos grades was used to prepare the whole college for the Open House on Saturday (22 Oct). Our class was assigned to move plants to a few locations around the school. After that, I headed to the hall to help ACSian Theatre in setting up the booth and later moving frames into the small Store Room beside the Black Studio. By about 4.30pm preparations were pretty much done. We had one final dress rehearsal in LT3 before we stayed behind to scrape off a few-year-old masking tape from the floor of the Black Studio.

On the Open House day, Drama staged a total of 5 performances in LT3 throughout the day. Because the costume for the guys was pretty acceptable enough to be seen in the public, I could walk around the hall in between performances and freak my classmates out. Overall, I must say I really liked Open House. In fact, it was only until the time when I was writing this blog entry that I really realised the presence of the AC Spirit on that day. It was so strong.

9) Project Work
Project Work was another big thing these days. We had to scramble in the one week which we had to finish up our Written Reports. After that, my group had the great honour to finish our Oral Presentation powerpoint slides in less than 4 days before an OP Trial on Tuesday (25 Oct). Thank goodness I was able to get a high level for myself, but overall the group was pretty uneven. For now, we need to relax a little.

10) Christmas Carol rehearsals and tickets
Christmas Carol rehearsals resumed on Tuesday (25 Oct) with both drama and dance. We are practising both in opposite directions; drama from the front and dance from the finale dance. Until today, we have rehearsed about one-third of the script and finished two-thirds of the finale dance.

Another issue with Christmas Carol was tickets. Our ticketing IC Matthew gave his first lecture after rehearsal on Wednesday, and he was shaking by the time he was done. The most unfortunate thing was, we were selling fewer tickets in ACJC than in every other secondary school we visited these two weeks. So here's the breakdown of the whole issue:

Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL
An ACJC Production
Dates: 24th November (Thursday), 25th November (Friday), 26th November (Saturday)
Times: 8pm (and 2pm matinee on Saturday)
Venue: Tan Cheng Siong Drama Theatre @ ACS (Barker Road)
Tickets: $20 (Free seating)

Some reasons why you should buy tickets to watch:
1) I'm performing. :)
2) It's kinda like a fairy tale play.
3) The duration is almost half of that for Camelot.
4) All ticket sales go to fund this production.
5) An actor's worst fear is having no audience to appreciate his work.
6) It's the holidays! O Levels should be over by then too.

Please look carefully too; it's NOVEMBER, not DECEMBER (just because the show's titled A Christmas Carol). If you wish to get tickets, get them ASAP from me because the closer we get to production date, the less time I'll have to correspond with any of you.

And finally...
11) Overall JC1 academic year results
I got a shock when I saw my result slip, which was given on Wednesday (26 Oct). After moderation, I got As for all my subjects except GP (C5).

Phew. Two weeks squeezed into one entry. Kegan, can you beat me? MUAHAHAHA!

PS: Once again, PLEASE WATCH A CHRISTMAS CAROL!

ACJC Promotional Examinations 2005

2005-10-08T11:17:00.000+08:00

The Promos started this Monday and will end next Wednesday. For me, it ended unofficially yesterday, since the only paper I have left to take is Physics SPA (next Wednesday). The week had not gone on too badly. The most difficult paper for me was Chemistry (Monday afternoon), while the easiest was the Maths C paper (Wednesday morning). GP (Monday morning), Physics and F. Maths (Friday) come in no particular order between those two. And Chem SPA (Thursday morning), I did my best in the experiment to prepare aspirin. Other than a not-so-dry sample and a black spot screaming "IMPURITY" at me, everything else was fine. At least I didn't screw up.

Now I get to enjoy 4 free days. I really don't know what I can do within this period. Go swimming, go buy a new CD, slack at home and surf the Internet. Hmm.

2005-09-28T18:57:00.000+08:00

*Shakes my head and looks at the computer screen groggily*

Wooo! Sorry about the inactivity, I fell asleep in front of the computer since my last entry, and as Green Day's song goes, "Wake me up when September ends."

It's indeed time to wake up. Our Promotional Examinations (Promos) are starting next Monday and I have not done any revision (as usual). In school, Maths and F. Maths revision started last week, Physics a few days ago and Chemistry, just today. That despite the fact that next Monday's papers are GP and Chemistry. What great timing.

Already I'm looking forward to the December holidays and spending time out at chalets with my friends. *Looks into the future* Oh no, I predict a poor result for the Promos...better start working hard!

...But not tonight, The Amazing Race 8 is debutting tonight!

2005-09-06T23:41:00.000+08:00

Went bowling today. The original picture was Joon Kiat, Ho Yuen and I meeting at 11am at Jurong East MRT Station to go bowling at Cathay Bowl @ The Chevrons. When Joon Kiat and I met, Ho Yuen told JK he could only make it at 1pm, so the both of us decided to shift it back to 1pm, and thanks to this change in time, Wern Jian could join us in bowling too.

However, it was 1.20pm already and Joon Kiat, Wern Jian and I were still waiting for an uncontactable Ho Yuen. Hence the new picture became the three of us going to the same place to bowl. When we got there, we settled for one game each first because the lady at the counter had told us that there was going to be a bowling camp held here later, and the lane which we were playing in may be booked. After this round, we went back to the counter to check if our lane was booked, and thankfully it was not, so we played two more games each, making a total of 3 rounds of game.

The children came into the bowling centre in the middle of our second round. They were here for the second day of their three-day "Learn-to-Bowl" camp, conducted by some Team Singapore bowlers (sorry, no Remy Ong or Andrew Fang). While watching the little kids get their position for the release of the ball, I felt like I've been doing it wrong for years. But who cares? I'm playing it for my own leisure, not represent Singapore in bowling competitions.

When our three rounds were over, Wern Jian played the highest score of 160 in the first round (he scored a turkey in his first three frames!), while I won the next two rounds with 150 (my personal best) and 111 respectively. After bowling, I was still itching for fun, so we headed down to the arcade. We played a little of Bishi Bashi, Wern Jian played Time Crisis II, I played Dance Dance Revolution with disastrous results, but in the end both Wern Jian and I played Para Para Paradise the most. :) I spent $1.50 playing Para Para, but it was okay; even Wern Jian said this arcade had the cheapest arcade games. We headed home at about 5 plus.

"morning at memory's border" Book Launch

2005-09-04T23:16:00.000+08:00

Reporting time to school was 11am. It's the first time I'm coming to school on a Sunday, and the school was surprisingly teeming with activity. I could actually hear the noise coming from the swimming pool while standing near the main gate. I found out later that there's church here on Sunday. Of course, how could I have forgotten?

The clouds opened up a few minutes into our rehearsal and preparation and rain poured down. After a few run-through, we moved the platforms and frames down to the waiting truck at the foyer and settled down on the steps to have a quick McDonald's lunch before setting off for the Arts House (once again). I went in Callista's car with Raj, Audrey Low (aka Dree) and David.

Raj had betted that we would arrive later than Jared's bunch (Jared, Mrs Creffield, Ms Wong, Yi Jun and Tim) and he was right. Callista parked the car at the New Parliament House carpark and we walked to the Arts House with Raj sheltering the two gals and me sheltering David. When we entered the Arts House through the front doors, the others had already moved the frames from the truck at the loading bay behind into the building and were wiping them dry. With great care, we brought the frames and platforms up the stairs into the Chamber, our performance space. The Chamber was the actual Parliamentary Chamber where the ministers held their Parliament meetings. Most of the main fixtures remained intact; the then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's seat was identified too, together with those of a few other pioneering ministers.

Aaron Maniam, the author of the book "Morning at Memory's Border", arrived while we were setting up our platforms. There were to be three schools performing during the book launch later: CHIJ (forgot which branch), RJC and us, ACJC. Of course, since we were the first to arrive there, we had quite some time to get acquainted with our performance space before the other groups came. After our rehearsal time on the space, we went into the dressing room behind the stage, changed into our costumes and did our make-up.

The crowd started to come in at about 4.15pm. Aaron started the reading at 4.35pm; he introduced each school as they came out for their performances. The two groups in front of us went back into the audience seats after their performance. When it was time for our performance, we did our stuff and went back into the dressing room. When Aaron invited the audience for a reception on the ground floor, we went out and quite a number of people from the audience had so much praises for our performances I was a bit overwhelmed. I changed back into my blacks before going down for the reception. The book was sold at the door for $12, but my parents only gave me $8...anyway, we met quite a number of ACSians downstairs too: Judith, Nalli, Hazri, just to name a few.

When the reception had ended, we swiftly moved the set back to the truck. Only the madams and Jared were going back to the school to help unload. I should have went back with them to help to; that was a little bit of regret for me. So, well, while the others went out to celebrate (I suppose), I headed home on the MRT.

Ah, I'd be looking out for the book in the bookstores.

Teacher's Day Celebrations @ ACJC

2005-09-02T23:05:00.000+08:00

ACJC was one of the few schools in Singapore to celebrate Teacher's Day on September 2. Our day started with ACES (All Children Exercise Simultaneously), and for that, we had morning assembly out in the field facing the bleachers and following that, we returned to what we've been doing for half of Term 3: Body Combat. The two trainers were back to lead us in supposedly fun workouts. However, the sky decided to work against our favour (or to our favour, depending on whether one liked body combat). Dark clouds loomed, wind blew strongly and soon the rain decided to fall. We had to end the workout early at 8.15am, and we returned to the shelter just in time before the downpour came.

By 8.45am all of us (the students) were seated in the Hall ready for the concert. This year's Teacher's Day Celebrations theme was "ACWood" (named after Hollywood). Thanks to the Councillors, the route from the Staff Room to the Hall has been turned into a Walk of Fame similar to the one at Hollywood, with stars showing all the teachers' names lining the road. The hall is decked out with gold and silver stars hanging from the parapet on both sides of the hall and long blue cloth hung over the students. The stars end at the end of the aisle furthest from the stage with Kelvyna Chan, following which a long red carpet was rolled down the aisle to the front of the stage.

There were some hiccups during the concert (mainly technical), but otherwise it was a great success. After the main concert, some J1 Drama members (including me) put up a separate, private performance in LT4. Because we were dancing to some hot Michael Jackson stuff (with our Drama President, Suraj, as "Michael Jackson" himself), there were concerns about the mental well-being of the teachers should this item be put up during the main concert, so we decided to make it private. The performance was short, but there were lots of praises for the performance.

After that performance, I returned to NHSS with some other NHrians from ACJC. The Sec 4s were having their Biology Practical Papers (I assume for the NHSS Prelims); the Sec 3s are away from school having their Adventure Camp; the rest of the school was probably slacking away, since it is the last day of term. Peiyu, Yen Nee and I headed into the Staff Room, where we met Mdm Sia first. Then Ms Ang came along, and after that we went to look for Mrs Lip (former Ms Wong, Biology teacher) and Mdm Foo. Around the Staff Room I saw a few teachers I knew, but there were also quite a number of new teachers around.

We then went down to the canteen where we saw Mrs Wong already sitting down having lunch with Abraham. Supposedly her baby is due December (yep, she's got a big tummy now!), hopefully a Christmas baby. :) For lunch, I ordered from the Western food stall, but I did wish I had tried the Miso Chicken Ramen from the new Japanese Cuisine stall beside the Western food stall (replacing Italian Food). During lunch, we talked about quite a number of things with Mrs Wong, and by the time we ended, it was around 1pm. We bid goodbye to her and Peiyu, Yen Nee and I headed back to our respective homes.

Teacher's Day

2005-09-01T23:25:00.000+08:00

Afternoon: A guy from VRnet came to help us install our new wireless modem for the computers in our house, having signed on a new SingNet 1500 kbps plan for 36 months. Within minutes he was done, and the result is the ability to have both my PC and my brother's laptop use the Internet at the same time and also allow people to call in even when we are online.

Night: Project Superstar Grand Final - the battle between visually handicapped Kelvin and hot lady Kelly. Stagewise, this was a better stage than the one for the Singapore Idol Grand Final. The difficulty was also there, for each finalist had to sing a total of 6 songs for competition tonight, one of the song being a duet between the two of them. At the end of the competition, it was Kelvin who beat Kelly. I wouldn't say I was totally satisfied with the results, but since both received contracts (Kelvin with Play Music; Kelly with Universal Music), did it matter?

In Quest Of Conscience

2005-08-27T23:44:00.000+08:00

Once again, the time has come for the presentation of what we have been doing for the past few months: our Arts House performance, "In Quest Of Conscience". Before our rehearsal began at 1pm, we took our GP Package Test at 11am and went for lunch at a nearby coffee shop.

Just yesterday we made our first trip to the Arts House to rehearse a little at our performance venue, the Play Den in the Old Parliament House. The set we had been building in school all along was too wide for the stage space, and so we had to shrink it. Even then, the front row audience would be so close to the set that all they needed to do was to stretch out their legs. Nevertheless, the venue was very cool.

After a short run through in the drama studio and our preparations (changing into costumes, make-up, prayer), we took the bus to the Arts House. Once there, we were ushered into the female dressing room behind the Play Den because VJC was still performing in the Play Den. We were sitting in the dressing room quietly (almost like prisoners) until VJC was done. Then we moved the platforms from the storage room onto the stage and set up the frame quickly. A short warm-up and concentration exercise later, we sat in the frame while the teachers opened the doors to allow the public in.

The play went on rather smoothly. At one point someone accidentally kicked a C-lock out of its place and it fell to the ground with a rather loud clang. I had a conversation to act out in a few seconds' time, but I was the closest to the fallen lock. But I could see how I could adapt to the lines. I swiftly picked the lock up and went through my lines like nothing happened. When I finished my lines and the next line said, "'Stop, stop,' I told him. 'Go away!'", I moved back and silently placed the lock back to where it fell out from.

When the performance was finally over, we hung around in the frame a little more while until Mrs Creffield gave us the go-ahead to look for our friends in the audience who remained behind. Just like Camelot, flowers (and in Joshua's case, a huge bear) were presented to the cast, and after about 10 minutes, the signal was given to strike set. We swiftly removed the platforms from the stage and onto the truck waiting for us downstairs. We then got onto the bus and on our trip back to school, the madams told us about all the great comments they received about the play, one of them from Michael Corbidge, vocal coach during Camelot.

Went home at 11pm after ridding the studio of cockroaches which decided to move in while we were away. That's another production to my portfolio.

2005-08-13T23:38:00.000+08:00

The group of us are performing the cowboy dance, Wild Wild West, at Carnival@Marina today. We arrived in school in the morning and got ready to leave school by 12nn, heading to the venue. Our stage was just next to the Arts Village entrance. It's sheltered, but still very hot weather (at least better than rain). We performed 3 times to only a few people who were around at the carnival, with only about 2 to 3 minutes separating each performance. Inside I was thinking, "Oh man, thank goodness it's only three performances!" But that means I'd need to have more energy, some of them in reserves for future performances.

2005-08-10T19:12:00.000+08:00

It's a public holiday today too. I found the video of the TV telecast of NDP 2005 on www.ndp.org.sg, and I never really knew how great the NDP was until I watched the show online. It was just splendid; the music will probably be ringing in my head for a few months.

National Day 2005

2005-08-09T22:49:00.000+08:00

It's Singapore's 40th Birthday!

If you'd recall, I got my tickets to watch the NDP at the Padang on Youth Day this year. I would be going with Jackson. We had arranged to meet at City Hall MRT at 3.30pm, which also was the time when ticket-holders to the NDP would be allowed to enter the parade ground, but when I arrived at 3.15pm, the place was already swarming with people dressed in red either heading towards the Padang immediately or waiting for other people. The MRT station became so crowded that SMRT staff had to get people to wait outside the MRT station.

Jackson SMS-ed me to tell me that he had taken the MRT in the wrong direction, and so would be very much late. I decided to walk around the nearby Citylink Mall and back to City Hall MRT station at about 4pm, when Jackson finally arrived, apologetic.

From the MRT station we headed towards the Padang in a sea of red. Entry into the Padang was smoother than I had imagined: we presented our tickets at the entrance, went through a security check with no bags to check and collected our Funpacks, which was the same as the one I got at the NE Show (even the colour was the same). It did take a bit of time for us to get onto the stands and be seated, but eventually we walked up the staircase to the Level 2 seats and moved to our seats. At the same time the Combined Schools' Choir was also walking out onto the central stage to get ready.

After handling the stuff in my Funpack, the Pre-Parade Segment started at roughly 5pm with "Let's Get It Started". I got rather high during the Pre-Parade Segment with the emcees' high spirits. The Parade segment and the Mobile Column were the times for Jackson and I to snack on the food in the FunPack, while the Show segment was, as usual, spectacular. My only point of suggestion was about Act 3 of the Show segment. Unlike during the NE shows, the 8 floats and qualities weren't used as significantly. The version of Act 3 during the NE shows was slightly better and more meaningful.

Dispersal was a less smooth affair. The whole throng of spectators headed to City Hall MRT station had to wait quite a while as SMRT staff and army personnels allowed small groups of people to enter the MRT station, lest it became flooded with people. Jackson and I were rather lucky since we were close to the front of the pack. We both headed to our house first since Jackson's school (JJC) exams were coming and he wanted to get my papers to study. We then headed to Zhi Yuan's house nearby where he also passed Jackson NJC's papers and took him to eat at Kopitiam nearby. I headed home for dinner.

I'm gonna miss NDP.

2005-08-08T22:37:00.000+08:00

It's National Day Eve today, and ACJC's National Day Celebrations began as usual (in ACS schools' tradition) with a Thanksgiving Service. After the meaningful service, some teachers and a band made up of students led the school in National Day songs which we clapped and sang to. Overall I was satisfied with the celebrations; my only complaint was about wearing school uniform to school instead of a red T-shirt, like what the ACS(I) boys wore to school today.

The day wasn't over for me yet. After the end of the celebrations at 9-plus, there was a dance rehearsal for the Carnival performance at 11am, and after that there was a rehearsal for the Arts House play at 6pm. When the rehearsal ended, it was finally the time to relax and celebrate. I can't wait for tomorrow.

2005-08-06T22:21:00.000+08:00

After the Arts House rehearsal today, a bunch of us headed to town to get clothes for the carnival dance. In the end, I went home empty-handed despite having gone to Plaza Singapura, Serangoon, Little India and Suntec City, 'cause none of these places had long-sleeved white collar shirts without pockets.

2005-08-04T19:16:00.000+08:00

ACJC Fun-O-Rama XVIII is coming!

...in about 6 months' time. But this morning all students spent about 2 periods at our base classes to receive the Fun-O-Rama coupons to sell. Here are some details:

ACJC FUN-O-RAMA XVIII
Date: 18 February 2006 (Saturday)
Time: 9.30am to 6.00pm
Venue: ACJC
Coupons: $10 each. For every coupon bought, you will also get a set of Long John Silver's coupons, which LJS'S has kindly sponsored.

The funfair will be excellent; you should see photos of our previous Fun-O-Rama, held last year. So if ya wanna get coupons, call me!

PS: Our class teacher told us later in the day that since the Haunted House stall was favoured by a lot of classes, we would be doing the dunking station instead. So if you want to sabotage and dunk one of your friends, get your other friends to buy the coupons!

2005-08-03T22:13:00.000+08:00

The results of the audition were released yesterday. Today is the first dance rehearsal for the Carnival@Marina performance; all rehearsals for A Christmas Carol will begin after the Promotional Examinations. Our Carnival dance has a cowboy theme, and it wasn't easy to grasp the moves at first. We ended the rehearsal 3 hours later, having learnt the moves for two stanzas, the chorus and a couple part.

2005-08-01T22:12:00.000+08:00

Today is the 2nd dance audition for A Christmas Carol and another dance performance at Carnival@Marina. Before the audition, I was rather surprised to see my name on the results list for the Carnival dance, even though I have not auditioned for it yet.

The audition dance was a rather fast paced one. I once again screwed up the second round of sequence (like the very first audition I took part in for Camelot). Hopefully I do get into Christmas Carol too.

2005-07-31T22:11:00.000+08:00

Went swimming with Jackson and Desmond.

2005-07-29T21:07:00.000+08:00

The first official Drama Comm 05-06 meeting wasn't exactly the most ideal meeting for the simple fact that we had the meeting on the marble floor outside the Drama Studio instead of Holland Village, as we originally planned. Otherwise, the meeting was rather smooth; we finished within an hour.

2005-07-27T21:56:00.000+08:00

Today is the day of the Temasek Seminar 2005. The ACJC representatives set off from school at about 7.35am together with the SAJC batch. After arriving at the SAFTI Military Institute and Officer Cadet School (SAFTI MI & OCS), we headed to one of the auditoriums where the seminar would be held. I spotted Kegan sitting in the row in front of me and Chii Yeh on the left side of the auditorium.

The morning's programme included an address by the Guest-of-Honour, Minister for Defence, Mr. Teo Chee Hean, a talk by ex-Singapore Ambassador to the UN and now Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, Mr. Kishore Mahbubani, the presentation of the winning entries for the Tagline Presentation (NJC won with their tagline "The Singapore Lighthouse: Light Beyond our Horizons") and a media-free forum with Mr. Teo and Mr. Mahbubani.

The end of the forum marked the end of the Temasek Seminar. After lunch, there was a tour of the OCS conducted by officer cadets from Delta Wing. ACJC's tour guide, coincidentally, was from ACJC. We were brought to places like the Initiation Hall (a rather sacred place in OCS), the SAFTI Tower (the wind up there was extremely strong) and Delta Wing's living quarters and watched demonstrations of an ambush attack, the different rifles used in the SAF and Close Combat Training. It seemed rather stressful to be at OCS...I still can't do any pull-ups anyway...

We finished the tour at 4 plus and headed back to our respective schools, me sleeping on the bus shared again by ACJC and SAJC. We arrived at the ACJC main gate just in time for me to see Raj (dance choreographer) leaving the campus; the dance audition for A Christmas Carol has ended for the day. There will probably be a second audition a few days later.

2005-07-26T12:55:00.000+08:00

Physics SPA today. I think I probably did okay. Just okay.

2005-07-23T22:01:00.000+08:00

Went to school at 11am to help out with other ACSian Theatre members and some Dance members in the cleaning of the Cage, a narrow but high strip of room behind LT1 on Level 3. The Cage has been home to our props, costumes and other materials for years. Of course, regular cleanings have been done, but when we went in, the place was like a junkyard, with stuff everywhere covering any empty patches of floor which one can possibly walk on.

We set about clearing up the room, first removing all costumes from the Cage for sorting, folding and re-packaging, and then sweeping up rubbish and sorting out other props and furniture. By the time we finished the job at 6pm, the Cage looked much better. The clothes were sorted out and packed in boxes lined along the wall with the windows, while all other furniture were arranged neatly to corners of the Cage. And there actually was a floor; in fact, we've cleared so much of the floor that at least 6 people can sleep on the floor in there. Tiring, but with a fulfiling result.

NHSS 88th Anniversary Dinner cum Official Opening of New School Campus

2005-07-17T23:37:00.000+08:00

I woke up at 11.39am this morning and had lunch. Seriously. Then headed to Westmall Popular to get a copy of the Half-Blood Prince (albeit the children's edition; the adult's edition was reserved for those who pre-ordered) and had a hair cut at a neighbourhood barber.

I then changed into formal wear for the NHSS 88th Anniversary Dinner (long-sleeved white shirt, black T-shirt inside and beige pants). Boarding the bus to Clementi MRT Station with me was Juliet, and on the bus already was Zhi Yuan (near the back door of the bus) and a sleeping Chii Yeh (back of the bus). We were heading to Clementi MRT Station to meet with the other 4o1ers who were also going. Once most of us were here, we walked to the school.

After signing the canvas sheets for guests (acting like guestbooks) and passing through security checks, we came to our tables. Tables 89 and 90 were next to each other, while some of us got Table 101, which was separated from us by a few giant lanterns. There were two dining areas: the Hall was where the Guest-of-Honour, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and other VIPs would be dining, while the Parade Square was for the others, which included past and current students. In the Parade Square, the tables were arranged such that they make the numbers 88, with lanterns in the holes of the figure '8' and a small stage between the two numbers.

We had a bit of wait before a few performances by the Harb Ensemble, drums section of the Chinese Orchestra and the Symphonic Band. After that, PM Lee arrived, his car escorted by two others, and he, together with Principal Foo Suan Fong, walked towards the centre stage to officially declare the new mascot of NHSS. Since I was seated between the stage and the flagpole, I could see what the mascot was already: a yellow figure with some sort of an inverted comma for its head; kinda like the Pokemon Makuhita (go check it yourself!). The life-size mascot was like balloons filled with air and the poor little person holding the mascot up had to be escorted up the steps of the stage with much difficulty. That one looked horrendous; the drawn version looks cuter. Students representing different groups of the school held placards showing the mascot specialising in their corresponding areas.

The whole group then headed to the Hall for a few speeches and PM Lee signing on the school plaque to signify the official opening of the school campus. After his speech, we began the 9-course dinner. There was a cold dish, shark's fin, ginseng chicken, red snapper, fried yam paste with duck, mushroom in abalone sauce, rice wrapped in some kind of leaves (forgot what), prawns (which I didn't eat thanks to some photo-taking; well, I wasn't into de-shelling prawns anyway) and fruit pudding. A splendid meal, but perhaps the air in my stomach sort of reduced the amount I could eat.

Some of the best things about the event were the performances and the lighting. Ther performances reminded me of the 117th IOC Session Opening Ceremony in Singapore. The first act, sticking to the theme of Oriental Splendour, was carefully planned. On the forefront, performing were the Dance Society, members of the Calligraphy Society, the Guzheng Ensemble and the er-hu genius (according to Ms Wassan, he was only Secondary 1). The backdrop was highlighted with excellent lighting work and tall bamboos (with leaves). The second act was a purely Dance number, but it was equally enjoyable.

The lighting and visual effects were also done spectacularly. In the Parade Square, light which changed colours were installed around Level 2 shining down, while the visual effects projectors (the type you see in the MediaCorp Studios shows like Project Superstar and the charity shows) were used in the Hall to give the performances a magical makeover. And because the backwall of the stage was white, the visual effects worked very well. The school spent more than $40,000 on all these stuff, and I must say it was well used. They sure pulled out all the stops on this opening ceremony.

There were also quite a number of photos taken. I took pictures with the Exco, with some members of the Piranha group (from the Leadership Camp a year ago) and of course, with my class. We left the place at about 10.15pm, having thoroughly enjoyed the event.

NOMAD Carnival & NDP Parade@Padang 2005: NE Show 2

2005-07-16T23:59:00.000+08:00

1) Launch of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Before going anywhere I headed to Westmall at 8.30am to buy the latest book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Popular there was almost like a deserted area; only a few souls were around. I tried to buy the book with the gift vouchers I got at the Nan Hua Speech Day, but the lady at the counter explained that since the book was already at a discounted price ($40.59), I couldn't use my vouchers. So I decided to get it another day.

2) NOMAD Mega Carnival
After that, I headed to Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) for the NOMAD Mega Carnival, since I received an SMS a few days ago saying that as a committee member of ACSian Theatre, I was supposed to be around. A few members of ACSian Theatre are performing mimes for the kids there.

When I reached the school I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the people. When I eventually found them in a holding room for one of the performing classes for the Dramathon, Yi Jun (holding the position for Publicity I/C) was entertaining a few boys with card tricks. Around him were Sharm, Jill and Yarong. The moment I came in, they offered to spray my hair. I was a little reluctant, but it was all in good fun. At the end of the process I had hair with red and a tint of gold.

After also spray-painting Yi Jun's hair (he now has purple with streaks of silver), we walked around the campus making quite a bit of noise with our instruments. We were waiting for the other mime performers to come, since they were having an Economics lecture in school. They arrived at 11 plus. Shortly after I left at 12nn, had lunch at the nearby Newton Food Centre and travelled by MRT further down into the CBD.

3) NDP Parade@Padang 05: NE Show 2
I reached City Hall at around 1 plus, ahead of my reporting time. My duty today was with Mr. Henry Tan, and we'd be at the command post (wherever that was, I thought at that time). Both of us headed down to the Command Centre, which was actually behind the Green sector in a container. Our job was mainly to keep track of the arrival, seating and dispersal of the schools coming in. Mr. Tan would get the info through his walkie-talkie and handphone, and I would record the time. Again, our duties only revolved around arrival and dispersal, so we were free to go around during the Show segment. We finished our work at about 10.30pm when the last schools departed on reserve SBS buses. All the while I had my NDP05 cap on. :P

2005-07-15T23:18:00.000+08:00

For double PE period today, we had our first lesson on Body Combat which ACJC has organised. Our instructor was probably someone from some gym, wasn't sure which. Anyway, I was expecting some sort of karate or kungfu when I walked into the Badminton Hall for the lesson, but really, it's like 'kungfu' dance. I loved the music and it just got me moving. By the end of the two periods I was, like, sweating like mad. We still have a few more weeks of it.

After school, we had the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for ACSian Theatre, or what they called it, the meeting. (Well, it doesn't take a genius to know what the meeting would be about, especially if it's held this time of the year.) The new committee has ... I forgot how many people, and I've landed myself a spot in the Treasurer place. Suraj is President and Natalie B. is Vice-President. Then when I was going home, Mel, the former treasurer, sms-ed me saying that she was sick and so could not come, and that she had picked me because of my passion for theatre. Wooo, I'm flattered.

2005-07-11T22:37:00.000+08:00

First cast reading for the performance to be done at the Arts House. The play is entitled "In Quest of Conscience", set in the World War II period. I won't divulge much (considering I only scanned through the 33-page long script). ;)

NDP Parade@Padang 2005: NE Show 1

2005-07-09T23:58:00.000+08:00

I spent the morning printing stuff I think I would need and left home later than I expected. Nevertheless, I arrived at City Hall well before the 1pm reporting time for ushers, so I waited outside the entrance of the City Hall (according to some official, the only entrance for NDP officials and ushers into the City Hall building) for the other ACJC ushers to come, since their security passes are all with me.

However, 1pm came and went and I still saw no one. I was wondering if they were possibly stuck outside, and just as I was wondering, Supreme Court Lane, the road behind City Hall and the only road leading to the entrance of City Hall, was closed. Really, now no one could come in without the security. I spent a lot of time tracking them down one by one (the earliest probably at 1.10pm) and finally went into the City Hall building at 2.10pm with one card still in my hands. It's partly my fault for not giving them my phone number before, but then again the reporting time was 1pm, and we wouldn't have met with such trouble if they had come on time.

When I found the rest of the ushers outside the Media Centre having lunch, I didn't want to get a lunch myself, instead sitting down beside them and drinking water. Everything really got started at around 3pm, with people starting to head to their posts. For me, I had to find Mr. Raja, whom I'd be tagging along. I found him after a bit of time, and he returned to the Media Centre to have lunch.

Basically we slacked (seriously) until about 4pm when the children began to walk into the Padang. My role was perhaps personal assistant to Mr. Raja; I held the walkie-talkie for him while he walked around. We mainly stayed in the City Hall building, occasionally coming out onto the VIP area in front of City Hall. I really sat down to enjoy the show in the middle of the parade, sitting at the back of the VIP area. From there, it felt as though it was the actual National Day and I was really enjoying myself. Everything that happened earlier in the morning was gone, nowhere seen in my head. I was standing throughout the performance, not only because it was hard to see at the back, but also because I was feeling it.

And listen to this review from someone who has actually gone there to watch: it was fabulous. I won't reveal much about what will happen (you can actually read it up on www.ndp.org.sg). But I can say that it was a magnificent show of action, lights and music. The concepts were brilliant and the performance was almost flawless (of course, effectively, it's only a real-life rehearsal). Not to mention the fireworks: I never knew why people liked fireworks so much until I saw it for myself tonight.

After the performers were dismissed from the performance area, it was time to do the opposite of the arrival: the dispersal. This time, I didn't have to tag along Mr. Raja, because he was only hanging around the St. Andrews Road boarding area to make sure everything was running fine. All I needed to do was to look after his FunPack (and mine; a fellow ACJC usher gave one to me). Surprisingly, though it started later than scheduled, it finished earlier. After getting the signal for dismissal from Mr. Raja, I returned to the Media Centre where another 3 student helpers (from other JCs) were watching True Files on TV (it was ending; meaning it was around 10.30pm when the dispersal ended). We cleaned up the room after that and went home after we've settled the stuff.

I can't wait to go back again next week and on the actual day.

2005-07-07T17:47:00.000+08:00

Got back the other two Term Exam results. Chemistry was a borderline A for me (56/80), whereas GP was a C5 (28.5/50). In summary (don't kill me),

GP: C5
Maths: A
F. Maths: E
Physics: A
Chemistry: A

2005-07-06T22:16:00.000+08:00

Okay, a few stuff today, so needa do it one by one:

1) More results
We got back our Physics paper during the recess break and I got 61/75 (A). We also checked Section B for our Chemistry paper and I had 27.5/30, which meant I only need 28.5 points more from Section A and C combined to get an A. And for NAPFA...well, at least D for 5 of the test items and F for pull-ups (couldn't do any).

2) Briefing for NDP Ushering
Before recess this morning, I saw my name on the list of students chosen to be NDP ushers for the NE Shows of the NDP05. So I got to skip the Security Seminar this afternoon in school (which all J1s had to attend) and hopped onto the bus to City Hall for the briefing. On arrival at the briefing hall, I was called out by a lady, Charis, and she immediately made me the I/C for the ACJC contingent of ushers and a sort-of assistant to Mr. Raja, overall I/C for ushering. I was kinda shocked; my name was only on the top of the list and I got this important role.

The briefing lasted till around 4pm, with a whole lot of stuff covered. Our ushering duties are only for the 3 shows over the coming Saturdays where primary school children will be attending. I personally felt that this is the extreme of organising events; it was nothing like what I've done in NHSS. This is a nationwide stuff, with 178 mainstream primary schools (quoted from the briefing handout) involved. It's a feat to be able to organise all these stuff, and also a lot of things to remember since I'm now sort of Mr. Raja's right-hand man and may have to answer walkie-talkie queries. I'll probably come earlier on Saturday morning (before the reporting time of 1pm) to tour the area and make sure I know them.

3) Drama audition
After the briefing ended at 4pm, the different groups of ushers congregated and some went out to tour the areas they were handling. Since I've lost Mr. Raja, I wasn't exactly needed there anymore. Remembering that drama auditions for ACSian Theatre's upcoming productions start at 5pm, I quickly headed back to ACJC via MRT (at the same time also walking the route taken by students taking the MRT to City Hall MRT station) and arrived with about 10 minutes to spare.

According to Mrs. Creffield, our next two productions are the Night of Laughter 2 and a performance for some event at the Arts House towards end-August. From her description, it sounded like a great production and a totally different genre from Camelot. Our audition scripts are really the first few minutes of the play. We separated into 4 groups and my group went last. I probably flopped my chance again, but then again, results will only be out tomorrow.

4) Olympics 2012 Hosting City announcement
I got home just in time to switch channels to Channel NewsAsia to hear the President of the International Olympic Committee make the announcement of the winning host city for the Olympics 2012. Ah, London. I personally don't have a preference between Paris and London, but I probably felt slight pity for Paris, who lost again. Oh well, keep trying Paris! You'll get it! ;)

2005-07-05T22:12:00.000+08:00

It's back to school today, and we've received results for two of our papers. I got 37/70 (E) for F. Maths (9th among the SA combination) and 62/70 (A) for Maths C (er...I'd rather not give my ranking for this one). Thankfully I've got no failures yet.

Tonight the 117th IOC Session Opening Ceremony was aired over Arts Central and Channel NewsAsia. Erm...I think the performance was pretty cool, though the stage was a little plain.

2005-07-04T22:07:00.000+08:00

It's a holiday today 'cause it's Youth Day. Slacking at home, a call came in the middle of the afternoon. My mum picked up the call and said in a bit of surprise, "Oh, NDP05?" She then passed me the phone and after confirming my identity, the person on the other end of the phone told me that I had gotten 2 tickets to the actual day NDP05 parade on August 9. I was probably in such a shock that I was sought of speechless.

Apparently, there always appears a case where there will be tickets uncollected after the allocated collection period for the tickets, so then the ticketing personnel will call the people selected on a reserve list to give away the tickets. What luck that I got into the reserve list!

So that evening (5 plus), I headed down to Far East Square to collect my tickets. At first, walking from Chinatown MRT Station, I overshot Far East Square. Then, walking back and looking properly, the ticket collection venue was really sort of hidden from the public's eye from the main roads. Whoo, what a lovely gift for Youth Day! Now looking for someone to go with me though.

The Week in a Glance

2005-07-03T23:05:00.000+08:00

Term Exam Week

The opening week of Term 3 is the first major test for the J1s: Term Exams. Starting with GP on Monday (27th June) and ending with Chemistry on Friday (1st July). The toughest paper was easily the F. Maths paper, but the others should be fine for me. Or, at least, I hope so.

Weekend

I spent Saturday morning swimming at Clementi with Desmond. I swam a warm-up lap before Desmond pointed out that another two guys beside us looked very familiar. Alas, it's Shao Ming and Kel Lay, also here for a swim. Shao Ming and I chatted quite a bit in the pool. Left the pool after Shao Ming and Kel Lay at about 12.30pm.

Sunday afternoon, then, was spent at K-Box Jurong East with June Teng, Jesslyn, Beiqin, Wern Jian and Ho Yuen. I think June Teng and I sang the most songs today, and I went off key so many times because I was trying to sing on a higher register, which is not my cup of tea. But I can't wait for the next trip to K-Box again. ;)

Tomorrow is a holiday (Youth Day), but I'm probably gonna spend some time doing some tutorials, especially F. Maths.

4o1o4 Outing - June 2005

2005-06-20T23:53:00.000+08:00

Veronica and I have planned this outing a few weeks ago and hoped people would come. I was the first to arrive at the HarbourFront MRT Station. Continuing to wait with an empty stomach (I intended to have breakfast out), the final head count was 6 - Pei Ying, Veronica, Wee Cheng, Chii Yeh, Kegan and I. Fang You told us he would be coming later because he just woke up. Also, Veronica told us that most of the other 4o1ers were coming to meet us for dinner later. So basically we were planning to hold out at Siloso Beach on Sentosa for as long as we could until a few hours past noon.

After having breakfast at HarbourFront Centre's McDonald's we headed to the bus terminal to take the shuttle bus into Sentosa. We then boarded the Blue Line to Siloso Beach and headed to the shore. Since the pavilions around us were occupied, we placed our bags and belongings under a tree. I had a stomachache and so had to use the toilet. After coming back the rest were already in the water. I waited until Fang You arrived (strangely without paying the admission fee, since he chose to walk to Sentosa instead of hopping onto the bus), and both of us got into the water.

We hung out in the water, losing our sense of time even. Wee Cheng dug a deep hole in the sand near the high tide shoreline; a pretty commendable effort. We even helped him to build a 'dam' to prevent water from entering the hole and possible destroying it. We got out of the water just as Abraham and Delia showed up, which was about 2pm. After a quick bath at the nearby shower facilities, we headed back to mainland for a small lunch (effectively wasting Abraham and Delia's $3 admission fees). At the Seah Im Road Food Centre, Clarence and Samuel joined us.

A short discussion in HarbourFront Centre later (where we also hooked up with Zhi Yuan in his NJC T-shirt), we decided to have our dinner at Marina Square. We took bus service 97 to Marina Square and headed to GV Marina. We were contemplating whether to watch a movie or play at the arcade or play pool or go bowling. Eventually we decided to head to the arcade where I almost detached my hands playing Bishi Bashi with Kegan and Pei Ying (Kegan was overall champion; I was second). A couple of people joined us at the arcade too (Siang Yong, Sia See, Ai Pheng, Shiling, Ming Hwee), and after we were done we headed to the food court. Even on our way to the food court we picked up people (Yan Chen, Juliet), and at the food court, while having dinner, even more people (Jin, Yan Ting, Brenda) came.

After dinner we headed to the open space outside Marina Square to chill. As night fell some of the girls went to eat ice-cream while 10 of us played Captain's Ball at the open space (with lots of screaming). After I called for a water break, we sort of stopped. We decided to head home, but then decided to have a little game of Dare or Dare before heading home. So we walked to Suntec City Mall and went to the Sky Garden. The three victims for the night were Jin, Ming Hwee (both victims of the game Veron taught us, involving passing down signals of some sort) and I (number-guessing game; Ming Hwee set the number and I, the first to make a guess, hit the number immediately).

Throughout the day after dinner people left group by group. Eventually the people remaining on the MRT were Juliet, Veronica, Jin, Yan Chen, Shiling, Chii Yeh, Fang You, Kegan, Ming Hwee, Samuel and I. Guess it was a not so bad outing after all; (counting back) 21 people were present for the dinner. ;) Perhaps the next gathering (December 2005) will be chalet. ;)

2005-06-18T22:11:00.000+08:00

Skipped all the way to today. Been slacking a long and playing Pokemon Emerald. Went back on a coupla of days for remedial lessons, and headed to Changi Naval Base on 9th June as part of the pre-seminar programme for the Temasek Seminar. Coming up, the 4o1o4 outing on Monday and the dreaded Term Exam when school reopens.

2005-06-09T21:43:00.000+08:00

Morning: As part of the Temasek Seminar series, MINDEF has organised site visits for participants. Today's visit is the first among others, but participants will only go to one place. ACJC, together with some other JCs like VJC and SAJC, headed to the Changi Naval Base together. The bus ride from school to the site wasn't exactly eventful, but I enjoyed the scenery as we got closer to the naval base.

We arrived at the naval base on time (9am). We alighted and moved to stand in a parking lot near the entrance of the place. Security issues delayed the whole process, but eventually we got through. We then headed to another bus and were told that we would be sharing the bus with the SAJC participants, so we could make friends if we could. It was a little easier for me, since I spotted another NHrian, Huang Yu (originally from 4/11).

We boarded the bus to the auditorium first for a short introduction on the Navy and their roles, for instance in the defence of Singapore and also in humanitarian aid, especially seen in the December tsunami crisis. We then headed down by bus to the harbour to tour a Landing Ship Tank (LST), RSS Endurance. (Did you know: the 'RSS' stands for "Republic of Singapore Ship".) After the tour we took a ride on the Fast Craft Unit (FCU) around the harbour. The wind was so strong during the ride that I needed to hold on to the side of the FCU. Nope, I'm sure it's not seasickness.

Following that was refreshments, and the ACJC participants shared the bus with the SAJC people back to our schools, first to SAJC, then to ACJC. After that I went home quickly, ate instant noodles and went down to Clementi CC in appropriate attire for badminton with the 4o1 people. Well, supposedly. When I arrived at the badminton hall only Wee Cheng, Yan Chen and Kegan were around. We played doubles until Juliet joined us at about 4pm. We continued to play until 5.30pm, after which we hung around Clementi Central for a drink and chatted until probably 6.30pm. Headed home later, buying dinner on the way (parents in Malacca, will be back tomorrow night).

2005-05-30T23:35:00.001+08:00

Morning: Went back to school for extra Physics (Dynamics) lesson and Chemistry (Chemical Kinetics) lesson. Afternoon: Exco outing to Marina Bay for bowling and steamboat.

2005-05-29T16:44:00.000+08:00

I skipped to today because, seriously, the past few weeks have been Camelot and more Camelot, so much so that it would have really been a waste of space to click on the link of my blog and see 'Camelot rehearsal' repeated 5 times on the first page.

Let's see what had happened since the last time I posted:

20 May: Mrs. C has given us the blue slip (exemption from school) from today till next Friday, knowing how tired we would be after every performance. Went back to school today, however, to help move some stuff from the Cage (ACSian Theatre's prop place) to ACS (I). After that hung around in school to collect the PI submissions from my class. In the evening I went to the University Cultural Centre to watch NHSS' Cultural Potpourri concert Part 1. This year the concert is spread over two nights. Tonight's show was the Western show, while tomorrow's will be the Chinese. Since the English Drama Club was performing tonight, and tonight's the only night I'm free, I came tonight. I must say the EDC has improved tremendously, and I got good comments about the EDC from my friends. I'm so proud of them.

23 May - 28th May: Camelot intensive week. We have full dress runs on Monday and Tuesday night, and the performances went on Wednesday through Saturday. Our best selling show was Friday night, followed by Thursday night. The audiences for both shows on Saturday were small, but much more appreciative (we were all a little puzzled when the crowd for Wednesday night, made up of mainly ACJC students, burst out laughing after Arthur's line to Lancelot: "What a blow!"). Our best night technically was Saturday night (Gala Night) of course, especially since it's our closing show and the Guest-of-Honour was Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean.

The whole Camelot experience has been excellent. I can't wait for A Christmas Carol...Oh well, it's back to normal life and lots more mugging for the Term Exam...

"...Don't let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known
as Camelot..."
- Camelot (reprise)

2005-05-14T22:05:00.000+08:00

Camelot full run from 10am to 6pm.

2005-05-13T22:40:00.000+08:00

It's the creepy Friday the 13th...and it is indeed creepy. For PE today, the boys had their five NAPFA test items, and our aim was to get at least a D grade for every item, i.e. aim to get a Silver. I got above D for 4 of the items, but couldn't do a single pull-up. Hence, I failed the whole NAPFA!

Then had Paper 2 of the GP Mock Exam after school today. I hope I didn't do too badly; I was half-dead when doing the paper. After that it was Camelot rehearsal.

2005-05-12T21:29:00.000+08:00

No Camelot rehearsal today. Since I have Camelot full run rehearsal this coming Saturday, I won't be able to go for Mrs Ong's GP Mock Exam. Hence I took Paper 1 today after school.

2005-05-11T23:50:00.000+08:00

For PE today, the girls ran 2.4km for their NAPFA test. I suppose the guys are running next week. Then from PCCG period till 2.40pm, we had part 1 of a personality profiling workshop which makes use of the DISC personality analysis. I was a C. (Try finding out what is C yourself. ;)) After the workshop I headed back to NHSS to pass some of my ELDDS juniors the Camelot tickets they bought and got back money for some of them, including two who wanted to buy $100 tickets. :) Returned to ACJC and slacked till Camelot rehearsal.

Amazing Race 7 finale tonight.

2005-05-10T23:31:00.000+08:00

Camelot rehearsal.