-= adventures in Europe =-
"They're both convinced, that a sudden passion joined them.
Such certainty is beautiful,but uncertainty is more beautiful still."

By Zεηιτħ

Back from O-Week!

An entire week of shack-ness, coupled with the numerous days of bidding! All in all, it would have been much better IF I just had a room in NUS. Oh well. What's done, cannot be undone.

Now, I shall do a one-week summary of what I've done *lol*

Monday:
Joined Engine O-week under Atlantis House in Skadi (yea, the DOTA item called Eye of Skadi...) Not really the first day meeting up with all, since a group of us (Merry, Xiang Yu, Velda, Yi Si, Chin Gene, Minghui) had introduced each other on the previous Friday already. We even skipped the morning Inaugaration Ceremony, because of the fact that we've to meet up at an unearthly and dreaded hour of 7.30am at LT7A before proceeding to the UCC for the Ceremony.

By the time we met at 10am outside LT7A, the Ceremony has yet to finish. So we just sat around and chit-chatted with Jiaming to pass time, whilst waiting for the rest of our group members, as well as Benjamin, our OGL.

We met up with the rest of our OG people, Joyce, Yi Hui, SK and Imran. It was lunch and games after that, where we were brought around Engineering to play games, as well as cheering.


Checking out the product


The TORTURE!


Shaving Pros


Transferring water via t-shirts


Night activities consisted of a Night Walk, in which we're all blindfolded and made to play games which used our other senses. On top of that, starch was aplenty and we were full of it by the end of the games. Not to mention, full of foam and chili on our faces due to our "SK-III" game. Haha.

Washing up followed after the Night Activities, and Imran, Minghui, Yi Si and I proceeded to Eusoff Hall for showering up before going to the nearby Fong Seng for supper. Met up with Vijay in his hostel room, and it was damn spacious! It's even bigger than the Raffles Hall double bedroom!

The security guard came around whilst I was bathing and the others were packing up, and threatened to get our Matriculation Numbers. We scooted, but luckily with all of us having finished bathing already. But seriously, I think the security guard was a lil' too fierce and oh well, luckily nothing else happened.

After supper, we were back at ComCentre for sleeping and only Yi Si and I were left awake, together with Geoffery and another Councillor, to play Big 2. Done throughout the night (actually only an hour plus) without sleeping, and by the time we knew, it was time for the rest to wake up to prepare for Flag Day.

Tuesday:
Early morning we were gathered outside LT7A, given our Flag Day T-shirts, waist pouches, tissue paper, tin cans, stickers and moved out of the area into the bus for the trip to our designated collecting point: Novena. Actually, it was supposed to be Far East Square for us initially, but there were some changes which made us go over to Novena with another group. So 2 groups were spread over the same area, and Novena was not really having high-traffic flow in the first place.

After breakfast and meeting up with those who came from home (e.g. Velda, Merry, Chin Gene), we spread out around the area to solicit for donations. I led Yi Si, Minghui, Joyce and Xiang Yu up to Balestier Hill Shopping Centre for donations, and spread ourselves around the area (with our heavy bags) to collect donations. It was quite a lousy planning as we did not have a place to keep our bags aside during the entire donation collection exercise. Oh well.

When the rain threatened to come near prior to lunch, we headed back to Novena Square's Burger King to grab seats ahead of the lunchtime crowd. Met up with Velda and Hong Jun (who were at Revenue House), whilst the rest were over at Little India having their own meals with our OGLs for the day, Steph and Cher How.


Flaggers!


Gone for Lunch, Pls Donate!


YAAAAMMMMM.....CAN!


After lunch, we restarted our bid to gain more donations around the area, before proceeding down to Orchard and meeting up with the rest of our OG at Far East Plaza's Burger King (again!). All were visibly tired, since we had little sleep, and it was already more than 6 hours of soliciting for donations!

After BK, we proceeded to Gelare, as it was offering 1/2-priced waffles on Tuesdays. Shared some waffles, and it was also a nice place to take a nap for the tired ones (me included).


Cher How & Steph!


Waffles, anyone?


On discussion with the OGLs, we decided to return the cans to the organisers, and call it a day. It was 4pm by then, and all of us were almost screaming to hit the sack. A tired, yet fun-filled day ;)

Wednesday:
After around 12 hours of non-stop sleep, I'm totally revitalised...except for my voice that is. A bit on the hoarse/soft side already. Gotta take care of it liao...

Played Amazing Race around the school! Sort of like Telematches, so it was pretty normal actually. Also managed to finish my laptop loan application this day, and got my Tertiary ezLink card. Yea. Finally...


I think I got it...


Fitting the letters into the spaces...


The suay ones who kenna camou cream...








Delicious Food...


At night, went out for lunch with Yi Hui, Yi Si and Merry, but not before we encountered this freakin' long jam at the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Clementi Ave 6. Really bad, and we were stuck in the jam for an hour at least! By the time we reached Sixth Avenue for dinner, it was already past 7pm.

Nonetheless, our appetite did not dilute, and we ordered pineapple rice with dishes to go with. Definitely a great meal! And the time was well-spent chit-chatting. Imran joined us after some time, and after the meal, all of us set for home.

I was the last to leave the area as my bus passed by me while I was on Dunearn Road. Dang. So I had to wait for like 10-15 mins in the end.

Thursday:
Met with Anqi, Weili and Jinyao prior to going NUS at Clementi, but not before encountering a 105 with spoilt air-con that refused to travel any further. So I had to take a train instead to reach Clementi (2 stops only!!!)

For ChEss O-week, I met up with Cher How and Silk, who are both in my senior class. Moreover, most of the dudes in my class (around 8) I have known them before and it was really great to be in the same class as all of them. Though our class seemed to be very on, the downside was the apparent lack of ladies attending the entire Orientation. However, it did not seem to affect us guys, since we still managed to hold on and bond together through the Amazing Race around school ;)

This Amazing Race was different in the sense that it revolved around skills which you might require for the entire duration of stay in NUS. And this was what an Orientation Camp should be! We learnt how to photocopy, how to borrow Reference Material, how to use the computers in the ComCentre and how to print from the computer stations. All in all, it was really useful!

Night time was spent doing BBQ, and as more and more people left the BBQ early, our class was one of the last ones remaining in the BBQ area. Playing games (lame ones *lol*) and talking amongst ourselves were the most common items done.

Silk gave me a lift to Woodlands MRT, and I managed to reach home pretty fast too, around 11pm that is.

Friday:
Went to YIH in the morning to meet up with Weili, Jinyao and Angela for breakfast (but not before doing last-minute biddings). Anqi joined us shortly, and we went over to LT3, where they Christina was entertaining us with her range of jokes, prior to the start of the entire games morning of Frisbee or Captain's Ball.

After which, I met up with my Skadi group, who were doing their land games. Finally, I get to meet them again, after a 2 day hiatus. It was great to see them again, probably due to the fact that we're going to go our seperate ways soon after this o-week, which is a lil' sad...

As for my class, we were left with all guys, and we went over to Ghim Song's and Jiaxin's room in RH for checking our bids during the close bidding period. After that, we spent some time in the room with Daryl entertaining us with his array of card tricks. Our class people then went our seperate ways after making a decision not to go for the 'mystery programme' and Dean's talk and buffet.

Cher How and I joined the Skadi group outside Engine Club Room. Was chosen to become a cheerleader, but my voice had somehow gone kaput by then. Hoarse sounding, I am.

Night activities was the Rag Preview, as well as letting the rest of the Engineering Faculty know the cheers. Moreover, we had Fright Night, and it was really good to play such games. Fright Night was okay for me, but the interesting thing was that it was done on the 1st Day of the 7th month (Hungry Ghost Festival). This added to the atmosphere of the night, but my group was already full of lame and cold jokes already, that it was almost impossible for Cher How to be saying ghost stories to set the mood. Haha. I guessed the late night was making us high.

After 2 stations, we skipped the last one as we had overshot the schedule, and went for our supper @ Fong Seng's, as well as our shower at TH (No more EH!). Saw Davina on my way outta TH, and it was nice to see her again in NUS.

Back outside LT7A, Imran, Minghui, Yi Si and I entertained ourselves to poker cards and a game of Big2, but eventually succumbed to the nice floor and catch an hour's worth of shut-eye.


Prior to Fright Night


We luuurrvve this baby!


Steph KO'ed


=P


Cool Dudes, Cool Day


Rabbit teeth!


Chicken Wrap! Nice!


Imran!


Things you do @ 5am in the morning


Best pic THIS MONTH!


Stirred-up Dinosaur


Plaster Prata!


U want to EAT? U want to F***?


5am @ Cheese Prata Shop! WooHoo!


Me & Minghui


I should have activated flash. *lol*


Jiaming's cool hairstyle! Stylo!



Saturday:
RAG was a fun-filled atmosphere for us, and we the introduction of the various floats and Rag Dances was widely anticipated. We left at around 11am for lunch at HarbourFront Food Court (for the air-con), and dismissed ourselves after that.



SRC is all RAG-dy!


Creating the stack...


Retro-inspired Biz


Naruto-inspired SoC


Current Mood: Exhausted

Current Music: Fang Hao Wen - Meng De Pu Shou

Posted In: . By Zεηιτħ

Matriculated!

Was at KBox yesterday night with our Fuego councillors, and it was an overnight sing-a-long session! Really sang till almost no voice. Moreover, some of our seniors seemed to be high man...not to forget the addition of mambo/rock english songs. Mambo Night...Indeed.





Anqi & Weili Me & Anqi


Picture Taking Frenzy!


The Crooners


Hyper-ness


The FINGERS...Weili, Jinyao, Mark


Taking shut-eye...It's 4am...


Oh yea, I'm officially matriculated and a member of NUS. Standing in the queue en route to matriculation, I met up with many old firends, like Calvin, Henry, Weibin, Yisi and Enping. Was together with Weili in the queue, while Jinyao, Anqi and Mark could not get into the hall as their surnames were a latter batch. Met up with Kent, who was in the queue earlier.

I had convinced them to say that they couldn't make it in the afternoon, so had to do a slightly earlier matriculation, but alas, Jinyao told them the truth

So there was no choice but to continue the entire long process with Weili, whilst the rest waited for their turn outside.

And the Matriculation Fair was so big! Lotsa booths cramped into a tiny space too. Lotsa freebies given away. Lotsa people vying for your names & contacts (to fulfill their quota? *lol*)

Met up with Tong Cai in the Fair, and he was with his Akido sub-club. And he managed to help me get into Engine O-Week! Oh yea!

And the Matriculation Pack was huge! Full of flyers and other stuff, but the most important stuff to me were 3:
(1) Matriculation Tshirt - It's BLACK...FINALLY!
(2) Matriculation File - Ahhh...a useful item there
(3) Notebooks, Post-Its and writing stuff - That's useful...TOO

On top of that, we get 2 Hair Dyes! Woah...(But I dun really use hairdyes so....it is kinda useless? Who wants it?)

After Weili, Yi Si & I managed to finish the entire Matriculation Fair, we went back to the 1st level to find the rest of our friends, who are undergoing the matriculation process. I had another look at the rest of the laptop offers, and did a mental note of the ones I had in mind...iBook, T43, S7020.

And we went through the entire Matriculation Fair...AGAIN. Haha. But Jinyao & co. were surprisingly fast in completing the entire fair, so it seems like we're the only ones taking our time going through all the stations then :)

Prior to leaving, saw Guanyu and Weichuan in the queue, as it was Weichuan's time to matriculate, as well as Seah, Angela and Chee Hau.

Went over to the YIH canteen for our lunch with our Fuego seniors, and Jonathan was kind enough to explain the CORS bidding system to us in the comfort of the TV Room. Junjie, Qingyi and Jianbang were there to help us with our queries, as most of us were still quite unfamiliar with the system of bids. With their explanations and help, it slowly became better and easier to understand already. Thanks to you guys!

Now comes the headache part...Module Bidding.

Whole night, spent on module matching, doing of my timetable, and discussing with OGmates and friends what modules to take. A pretty rough ride...as of now, still undecided on my SS mods, my GEM mods and whether to take a Minor in Business.

Apparently, getting a Minor is not an easy feat, and it's tough, or so it seemed.

Time to discuss on bidding dudes...

Current Mood:

Current Music: F.I.R. - Qian Nian Zi Lian

Posted In: . By Zεηιτħ

Thanks to all!

Just had dinner with my 01S09 friends around 3 hours ago. Pretty big group for an outing, considering tha 10 people turned up (5 guys, 5 ladies). It was my treat for a dinner @ Crystal Jade Kitchen (Fei Chui Xiao Chu), after the plan @ NYDC fell through as a group of 10 were just hogging the place and not moving off. Irregardless of that, the dinner over @ Fei Chui Xiao Chu was indeed sumptuous and rewarding!

Junhong
Junhong's stare

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Huiwen, Huijun, Grace, Genevieve

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Weichuan, Guanyu, Junhong, Me, Aloy

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Good Dinner!


After the dinner, we left the place to have some waffles (1/2 price on Tues) at Gelare, 3 large waffles with 3 different ice-cream flavours - Rum & Raisin, Choc Mint Fudge and Tiramisu. And over the span of 2-3 hours, there were lotsa catching up and fun. Man, those were the days...

And I got a birthday gift from all of them!

It's a Crumpler Barney Rustle Blanket!

And it was ORANGE! Whoopie! I lurve that colour sia!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Me & My present :)

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
The orangy bag!


(Heard Eups got a similar purple one...wahahaha....now mine is brighter. U heard that Eups? Kekeke)

Thanks guys for the wonderful present and birthday card! I'm glad that you guys are there for me! I'll organise another chalet to replace the one which was cancelled....next year ;)

P.S. And sorry for the low battery sia. Forgot to bring out the other battery with me. In the end, I couldn't take a picture of you guys with the present for me. *sigh*

Current Mood: Thanks a lot guys....^_^

Current Music: Guang Liang - Tong Hua

Posted In: . By Zεηιτħ

Ubin Redux!

Met up with my Fuego mates at 8.30am today, instead of the arranged 8am (I was way way way late...), for the trip to Ubin for cycling! Actually supposed to meet up with Chee Hau and Kent at Changi Jetty Ferry Terminal at 9.15am, but due to us having to buy some supplies for the trip to Ubin, we could only meet them at 9.45am.

And it was only around 10.30am that we had our breakfast done and ready to cross over to the island which is still green and nice. Proceeded to rent our bikes from the shops there, and Mark was 'coerced' to go to Ubin with us as he had joined us for breakfast, so why not Ubin? Haha.

The problem was he wasn't so much of a good rider, so initially we got a bike each, but the situation wasn't good enough to warrant a "Move-Out" signal, so Junjie got a tandem bike to pair with Mark. Power rider, in fact. This is because the routes which we are going are bound to be tough for the tandem bikers, as they are mainly dirt tracks with uneven terrain, so definitely the tandem bikers would need more skill and more butt 'meat' so as to take in the bumps along the terrain.


Before it all starts...


Moving off!


JJ & Me! Plus! A pair of fingers!


Anqi, Weili & Xiao Wang!


JJ & Mark coming in!


Moreover, it rained right after we left the Basketball Court, so we had to seek immediate shelter from one of the huts. The rain lasted some time, and we ended up talking cock under the shelter and playing games to pass the time away.


May the power of the fingers combine...


After the rain had subsided a bit, we decided to carry on and proceed to the Eastern side of the island, near to Chek Jawa. And we ended up getting dirty backs due to the mud which just keeps splashing upwards. The lack of the mud-guard at that time was obvious.

And only Jinyao had the mud-guard, which meant that his back was much more cleaner than ours. Haha.


Talk about dirty backs


Closer view


Taking a breather


Kent injured after doing a lil' too much drifting...


Nice view


Group pic!


Anqi & Me


So moving on, we managed to make it to Orchid (which sells drinks) and back to the hut which we were before, so it ended up as a loop in total. We pushed further down to the Quarry, which was in the central side of the island, and the terrain there was much better for most parts of the journey.

The view was also great, passing by not 2 but many quarries and bridges, as well as passing by the OBS campsite. Also, we passed by a path lined with many rambutan trees, as well as the Ubin Thai Temple!


Ubin OBS


Best quote :)


Such stores are common on Ubin ;)


Ubin Thai Temple


The nice-looking signboard


The Quarry


We've reached!


It was a fun and shack day, but it sure did not end at Ubin. We ended the trip at around 6pm and we made our way back to mainland trudgingly, after washing up and having a change of clothes.

Then, it was dinner at LJS @ TM, where we just sat there and continued talking, with a couple of interesting convos going on. Haha. Scandals flying in the air. I think this is a trademark of our OG. Plus the fact that some of us seem to have hearing problems in the OG (lol!)

On the way back via train, dang....I was so so so EXHAUSTED! But, it was a great, fun day ^_^ Fun like these, should last...

Current Mood: Exhausted

Posted In: . By Zεηιτħ

Blading...Redux!

This time round, went blading with the Fuego people (freshies and councillors) @ ECP! A great turn-out, with 15 people in all, all on skates! Definitely many beginners, as seen by the all-so-frequent 'four legs pointing sky' techniques shown.

And I also had a bumpy day. All the time I had a weird feeling on the reliability of my skates. Seemed woobily at high speeds. Did some falls, but luckily, no back-flips...YET.

After ECP, we had dinner over @ Chomp Chomp @ Serangoon Gardens. Taking a cab there, each paying 3 bucks was still okay I guess. Moreover, the food's the main drawing attention so.... ^_^

Full, and a satisfied day!

Current Mood: Happy

Current Music: Guang Liang - Xiang Zuo Zou Xiang You Zou

Posted In: . By Zεηιτħ

The Island

You have Been Chosen...to the ISLAND.

Luckily, that's an interesting show, as Yi Si and I failed to catch Sin City for reasons oblivious to the Ticketing Booth at GV. Interestingly, I asked the Ticketing Booth if we need to show both of our ICs to him, but he only requested for one, which I duly showed him.

Yet, the auntie at the entrance of the movie theatre chose to shoo us away, just because Yi Si's 2 months short of his birthday. And I think the pathetic answer by the Ticketing Booth is really CMI. Oh well. Had to shell out another 2 bucks for the movie "The Island", just because it was a preview.

I feel totally suckered by the money-gobbling organisation of Golden Village.

Oh yea. No apologies or nothing. Just said that, "Since you have not reached 21, you cannot watch it, till [b]after[/b] your birthday."

Anyway, I won't let my day get lousy with that pathetic straight-out-of-textbook remarks by the staff at GV, so I shall go on to the finer things in life.

Shopping @ F-Men was great...50% off sia, just nice for me to get the t-shirts and jeans which I was looking for all the while for school. Haha. 2 t-shirts, 1 jeans for $55, which is decent I must say.

And, regarding the movie "The Island", it's an interesting story, but an outdated concept. While it's true that genetics is becoming more and more researched upon by scientists, who are looking for the Holy Grail of modern science, it shows what could happen if the intentions were mis-matched with the ultimate goal.

For man trying to be God, it's a difficult task.

And morality is an issue here. Who determines that you have the power to give life, only to take it away from them when the need arises for 'spare parts'? (E.g. heart, kidneys, lungs etc) True, the idea was in effect good and could potentially prolong human life, yet the very idea of harvesting from the sponsors' clones is certainly a crime.

So in effect, the movie is sort of like "Minority Report", whereby the issues inherent in the movie set you thinking.

I've enjoyed the movie, not due to the special effects or the plot (which was a bit off-tangent at times), but due to the issues the producers choose to delve into.

Current Mood: Angry

Current Music: The Island OST

By Zεηιτħ

Compelled to post...

I'm feeling compelled to post this...regarding the NKF saga, there's been so much stuff written about it on the Internet and the forums, that I think it's just a show of how vocal Singaporeans are.

I mean, when the truth of how the NKF run things, how much they pay their CEO and the benefits he gets is reported to the public, it contradicts the very belief of what people had been doing all along - for CHARITY.

The public's trust in NKF has been shattered, and it'll take a long time before this saga gets buried and laid to rest, and the new team tries to resurrect a broken image in the eyes of the public.

While I believe that most people may have already known that NKF has more reserves than actually reported, and that the 'volunteers' are paid highly (esp those up the ladder), it has never been a fact.

Not till NKF's CEO Mr T T Durai decided to take action and sue for defamation against a Straits Times reporter, Ms Susan Long.

A costly mistake, as many of the unreported and dark secrets of the running of NKF came under the close scrutiny of the defending counsel and the public.

A can of worms, opened.

I guess it was a wrong call by Mr Durai, and the remarks by Mrs Goh just added oil to the fire, which was a little insensitive in anyway. I personally felt it as a remark against us, the commoners, who had to work through sweat and blood to earn money and donate, while the CEO sits up there, does a few charity shows, and earns $600,000 worth of PEANUTS.

Oh yea, it sure got many enraged. Who wouldn't?

I guess this is another good example of shooting off the cuff, without thinking and getting the idea across wrongly.

Quote of the Day: Got Peanuts?

By Zεηιτħ

NDP Rehearsal!

Woke up early in the morning, having barely 3 hours of sleep, to help my dad with the Straits Times "Win A Car Contest". The prize? A cool looking Mazda 6. And we got on track with the info and the newspaper cut-outs all safely kept aside. All we needed to do was to fit in the last few letters into the appropriate blanks and we will know where's the location of the lucky draw.

It was at ECP's MacDonald's. I should've guessed, since it was mentioned that the place is "Where the sun rises by the sea". So we went early, managed to get a carpark lot, and spent the subseuqent 4+ hours there awaiting for the lucky draw timeslot, which finally arrived.

The event passed us by so swiftly, I reckoned I did not feel the least bit engaged by the event. And 4 hours was such a waste of time, I could've used it for some nice rest. Really.

Anyway, got home after sending Weisi to grandmother's place, and lazed around before setting off for the NDP Rehearsals down at the Padang. Took many pictures of the vehicles for the mobile column, as well as the fireworks. Once uploaded, will post the pics here for viewing.

Anyone interested to do another NDP viewing next Sat? =D

Current Mood: Exhausted

Current Music: Lionel Richie - Dance For The World

Posted In: . By Zεηιτħ

Blading

Oooh...I'm getting the hang of blading. Well, still a beginner only, and I reckon I have a long long way to go before I know how to stop and balance myself properly. Just returned from the blading outing with my Sports Camp people, straight from my ChEss camp. Shack man.

And I had the 'honour' of losing on of the wheels of my skates, ending up requiring me to walk/run back to the skate shop. On top of that, my legs and feet became sore.

After that we went over to Bedok Blk 85 to have food, luckily we've 3 cars, so ferrying of the people to the food-center is no problem. And it was a wonderful meal too :)

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Bladers!

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Picking up the ropes...

Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Seah & Me


Later on...gotta check my Hall application, as well as attend Cpt Don's COC Parade...the changes have finally come into place...

Auto-sleep Mode Activated