Mostly photography.

Better hurry, I'm racing against time. Ten minutes till they cut the internet connection.

I miss these. (Left to right: My Alhambra, my beloved, my dad's bass, my electric, my uncle's super old guitar.)

Surprisingly, I miss CNY a lot now. It's like I'm missing out on all the ang paus and lion dances and good food (though I did bring loads back here).
At my first uncle's house. My fourth uncle is holding my brother in the picture below. Yes, my mum has seven brothers. Have to call them by order of birth.

Oh, and check out the super cute bubbles during our Physics practical on Wednesday.

Media club was fun. Had to go around school during one of the ice-breaking games, looking for things that matched pictures they gave us then taking pictures of the scene right opposite it.
Since most of you guys in Brunei wonder what my school looks like... Up there is the concourse, from the General Office. Down there is the hostel car park.

People talking. Picture was taken from the view of one of the oranges hanging from the trees they put there for CNY outside the hostel gate.
Hostel gate on the right with people on the left. Say hi to the oranges.
And a bit of the path leading towards to hostel from school.
Last but not least, the pizza we ate when it was all over.

Yum. Saved me from hostel food tonight.

It wasn't me, it was noodles.

I'm in the school library now.

I seem to be going from one library to another; I was at the Jurong East Library two hours ago, waiting for Ivy's parents to pick us up. Thank you Ivy's parents.

Why on earth would I be there, you ask?

Ivy, Miao Jing, Cheryl and I felt obliged to actually start our Bio essay (Rania couldn't come; she had a netball match to win).

There was this awfully weird book called "How Animals Do It". I forget the author/cartoonist, but all I know is that he's extremely funny and has an extremely dirty mind to go with it.

I wrote three quarters of a page on the human reproductive system, so we can compare it to that of a blue sea star (or maybe honey bee?) and killer whale (orcinus orca, yo. Man, scientific names manage to make one sound cooler and nerdier at the same time).

It's terribly sickening to write a terribly detailed description of human anatomy (especially the reproductive systems), because, do we, normal people, really want to know what goes on when we do things?

But then again, without this, many babies and women would've died by now. So I would like to say thank you to the sick person who was actually brave enough to investigate this matter in the first place.

I'm writing my BM newspaper report thing now, derived from a newspaper article. I'm doing the one on F1. 'Cause I is still lovin' it to da max (not BM, F1!).

Aisyah and I are doing two articles, one on a library book delivering thing and the F1 one. The one with Kimi's pic.

Heard the MYBs sold ice cream today for charity. That's super cool, guys. Wish I was there.

I miss MS.

But NUSH is all right.

NUSH of Gaming and Entertainment.

I watched American Idol again just now. 

Ms Queenie invited us to her room for CNY. Her only words to coax me into finishing off my Physics graph were "Want to watch American Idol?"

Those words are like magic. The power of wanting to watch ridiculously hilarious television shows (like The Simpsons, House, et cetera) increases efficiency by seventy percent (not accurate). Besides, I work as slow as a snail sleep-crawling. 

I honestly need to start sleeping earlier, but it just doesn't work out any more. Need to re-analyse my sleeping pattern.

Oh, and I just remembered: I posted already just now. 

So what on earth am I doing here?

Being jobless, of course.

Jung Min, Chang Yoon and I thought up of two new schools today. 

The first was NUS High School of Scouting because both of them were given their third choice of CCA: Scouts.  Pretty weird, because their first choice was Robotics.

The second school was NUS High School of Gaming and Entertainment, where it's so terribly cool and awesome. Requirements are a state-of-the-art laptop, gaming keyboard and mouse and plenty of cash (as to pay us, the "owners" of the school).

Then, we would have no exams, and CA would be 100%. 

Continuous Assessment, of course, would consist of the following:

- Game playing.

- Catching legendary Pokémon.

- Leveling up two levels in any one game for homework.

- Assignments would consist of downloading games.

- Group projects would require one to play Wii with your friends and throw a party then "kill the boss" (Chang Yoon's idea, don't look at me).

- Studying would decrease your CAP.

- Exercise is also essential, because exercise is good for you.

- Electives would include Counter Strike, The Sims 3 (in the future), and World of Warcraft (because we say so). And probably Spore as well. Need to buy it when I see it in stores for Mac. 

- Students who want to graduate or pass into the next year would have to win a game against one of the teachers.

- Question papers would have questions like this: "What powers does this character have?", "How much memory does this game take up?" and for Year 6, "Who created this game and who was the first to reach level 100?"

Stuff like that would rock.

Runny nose.

The border between Brunei air and Singapore air is the smell of the plane. Which means I can't compare directly. Though I believe Brunei has a grassier, fresher smell.

Chinese New Year was fun, but I guess it's over (relatively, at least, for me) for this year. Have to wait till next year for more lion dances, pointless games of Monopoly and such.

I've got my guitar here with me. My dad insisted I bring the Alhambra, because he likes it more and he's biased. Well, not exactly, but he says I should use it more often because it's got better resonance and is more expensive.

I've been calling my older guitar "the other guitar". That's so sad. I miss my beloved, I really do. It just needs cleaning up and new strings, that's all. It's a pretty guitar. 

The one I have now is more... how do I say it, darker, deeper and beautiful?

I don't really know, actually.

We had pot luck in class this morning. Miao Jing brought dumplings. Yum. I liked 'em, but my throat's kinda sore and I've got a cough (I lost my voice yesterday morning), so I didn't feel like eating. 'Twas a pity. They were good.

What else?

We boiled water during Physics. Which reminds me, I've got a graph to do and tables to draw. Due before flag-raising tomorrow. Crud.

We've got a CNY thing at Ms Queenie's place after Study Time. She told me we can watch American Idol again. Yay.

I gotta go. Want to practice some songs.

Adieu.

Night of the 30th.

I've been busy, still am, and probably will be tomorrow.

But not too busy to drop by and wish you all 

a prosperous, luck-filled Year of The Ox 

and an angpau-filled happy 

Chinese New Year

from yours truly.

Feels good to be back. 

.....Oh, by the way, I finished my Math assignment.

Finally.

Home sweet home.

Wow. I can't get over the fact that my iMac screen is super large compared to my MacBook. And that I seem to have forgotten how to use the mouse.

I don't think I've got enough time to spend here.

I want to go see the MS peeps, but CNY will take up all my time for now.

Probably be back in March though. Longer stay. =)

Missin' you guys in MS and our stupid jokes.

Brunei air smells good, I tell you. Nothin' fresher in the mornin'. 

I slept through most of my ride on the plane. Hated the bit at the end where my left ear hurt like hell. Stupid pressure in ear wouldn't go 'pop' like it always does.

Went numb for a few days. Got so sick of my hearing being muted that I held my nose and blew in Hua Ho, where both my ears kind of exploded and I could hear again. 

Yay. 

I can't tell whether I'm dreading the plane ride back to S'pore or not. I kind of miss them people at the hostel but I've got no time to dwell upon it. 

Honestly, nothing feels better than home.

Even when it's my messed up, dysfunctional, crazy, noisy home.

Home sweet home is sweet indeed.

Aeroplane...!

1) Do you think you're hot?

- Now who would do that?

2) Upload a favourite pic of you.


3) Why do you like this pic?
- 'Cause it shows what a hardworking person I am. *cough* Note the Jay Chou poster at the back that won't come off and my luggage at the back. It's not exactly a fave though.

4) When was the last time you ate pizza?
- Last week, when we got lost at Suntec.

5) The last song you listened to?
- Home - Daughtry

6) What are you doing now besides this?
- Packing, typing, breathing, blinking, typing, thinking, et cetera.

7) What name would you prefer besides yours?
- Mine.

8) 5 people I tag:
1. Effie
2. Syaz
3. No one in particular
4. Ivy (number 4)
5. Ash

9) Who is number 1?
- Si famous.

10) Number 2 having relationship with...
- Dunno.

11) Say something about number 5?
- She's in Aussie, coming back to Brunei soon.

12) How about number 4?
- Loves her basketball. 

13) Who is number 3?
- No one in particular.

14) Say something about the person/people who tagged you.
- Monkey boy. Has a huge butt. Doesn't let anyone know who is girlfriend is. Beeeg secret. Ha hah.

Semangat.

There you go, Iv.  A very blurry pic of yesterday's egg sandwich. Which didn't taste as good. Don't know why though.

During Study Time (after we were kicked out of the discussion room for laughing at Chang Yoon's "1=2, therefore 1+1=3=4"), the power went off.

Backed up with a few lights backed up by back up power, chaos erupted. 

I took out my awesome K850i camera phone and showed off the only thing it can do well (apart from playing Quadrapop): its flash.

So I did my Math by camera-phone light.

Cool.

I managed to get a few right. Thank you guys, for giving me a hand.

Oh, and this is Kimi Raikkonen's pic.

Forza Ferrari!

"I'm going home, to the place where I belong.." -Daughtry

I'm going home, I'm going home, I'm going home, tomorrow!

One thing I can't believe is that I've got to bring my work back home to finish it off before their respective deadlines. 

If I were supremely rich or if I could finish everything as fast as Flash and as smart as a really smart person, I'd say, "Screw work. Bring on CNY!"

But I'm not supremely rich, nor do I have superpowers or a superior intellect. So I've got to work. *sigh*

At least I get to go back to Brunei, where all the action's been happening for the past few days. 

Firstly, a huge sudden flash flood flooded my house. Obviously, because what else can floods do? (Actually it gave my rabbit a good wash and she came back squeaky clean after disappearing for two hours.) 

Probably it rains there 'cause it misses me. Awww. NOT.

Secondly, well, secondly...urm, secondly.... I'm coming back! =)

Majal.

I saw a pic of Kimi just now during BM. I miss F1. I really, really do. McLaren named their car after a music player again: MP4-24 (probably 'cause their beloved champ Lewis turned 24 recently).

Ferrari's car is called F60. Much simpler, don't you think? (And that I'm severely biased?)

I'd upload a pic of the pic, but I want to wait until tonight after I take a pic of the egg sandwiches we get for supper tonight, so Ivanka can see them and probably imagine herself eating.

She's going back to KL by coach tonight. I'm going back tomorrow night *majal again*.

I had gym orientation last night. Explains why I didn't blog, doesn't it? 

We got briefed about the uses of the apparatus, et cetera et cetera. I went to the boarding office just now (just dropping by) and collected my gym card thing. Now I get to use the gym. Cool.

"Cool." 

Reminds me of Chang Yoon. Can you believe that he got accelerated to Year 2 Math after taking a test? He's studying Math in my class now, m09203. Wow.

He gets to see how much I really suck at Math. But he said one thing, "Year 2 Maths? I die." in his lovable Korean accent. 

Chang Yoon, you rock! (He solved a 4 by 4 Rubik's cube in half an hour with the help of a Korean website.)

Jung Min loves hostel food more than the food his maid cooks at home. Eats every single meal on the dot. 

And the problem is, both of them won't teach us any Korean. 

During Math, I had absolutely no idea what on earth the teacher was talking about. Then Rania gave me an explanation and now I think I know what I'm doing. Thank you Rania.

I'mma gonna go shower now. 

Catch you guys after Study Time.

Bach be awesome.

My addiction to coffee is Bach- I mean, back.

I buy a can of (hideously covered with Lewis Hamilton's photo) coffee almost every day now. Keeps me from falling asleep in class.

I hate loads of work.

Yeah, I know that was totally irrelevant, but that's how life is.

I'm still stuck on page 1 of my Math assignment. Argh.

I'm going crazy.

Need to do research for Bio essay.

Need to finish Math assignment.

Need to think of ways to save imaginary people from a volcano and make a 3-D model of it for Geography.

Need to read 'To Kill A Mockingbird" for English book review.

Need to read for Music.

Need to read for Bio.

Need to print my eTicket to go home.

Need to buy books.

Need to pack my bag for tomorrow.

Need to sleep.

I wish I had more time.

But then again, it's not about how much time you have, it's how you use it.

And I, apparently, didn't use it very well at all.

Oh, and I saw a copy of 'Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons' by Bill Watterson at Popular today. But I didn't buy it, 'cause it was too crumpled and old.

Meh.

The Pianist.

I've got an assembly at 9.30 p.m.

Watched 'The Pianist' in the TV Room today. We were being selfish. Five hours in there and yet nobody came to kick us out. We always tend to "kick people out" (not intentionally, of course) of the TV Room and Music Room B but nobody ever does it to us. Hmm. Very interesting. But I digress.

The Pianist was great. It was awesome. It was entertaining. It was brilliant. It was so touching and disturbing and interesting. In other words, I enjoyed it immensely. Some scenes were terribly disturbing though, like the one where they shoot people in the head for no reason whatsoever.

I'm going to try and do my Maths tutorial thing.

Right after I shower and fold my clothes.

Adieu.

Oh, by the way, happy birthday Zimah. =) May you live long and content and not be subject to arseholes. Hahah.

Gay villains.

They cut internet access here at midnight, so I've about twenty minutes to do this post.

I just recently came up from the TV Room, watching 'Batman Forever'. Not that I chose to watch that movie; a guy (can't remember his name) had borrowed it and Wardah and I felt like watching a movie so we just decided to watch as well.

Story line? The usual superhero thing, you know. Superhero has deep dark secret, falls in love with girl, bad guy(s) try to kill him, probably kidnap girl as well, superhero has to choose between the one he loves and something else major-ly important. It's so meh, man.

At least the bad guys were acting all gay. Good entertainment, that.

I finished reading Wolf Brother. It's quite good, I dare say. 

Also, I think there is a slight chance that the author decided to extend her book into a series by adding a little scene at the near back, right before the resolution (I learned that in English class, meh) of the book.

It was so off.

Still got loads of work to do. Don't know why I'm putting it off. Must remind myself to work harder (I'm not even working at all, now) and not slack.

Whee. Wii. Nintendo Wii. MarioKart. TV Room. Music Room. Game Room. Table football. Pool. 

I like.

Huge mess of things.

From Myra:

if you could take credit for writing one song, which would it be?
American Idiot by Green Day.

if you could play one instrument perfectly?
There is no such thing as perfect in this sense. But I'd go with the guitar, please.

if you could play one sport perfectly?
Martial arts? Or rollerblading.

if you could speak a second language perfectly?
Chinese would be great. But then again, some rare language would be cool, like Xhosa.

if you could own a house in another country, which would you choose?
In a country with clean air, content people and beautiful wildlife.

if you could have all the knowledge of one profession, which?
Probably professional professor of the Sciences. Then I wouldn't have to work my way through this.

if you had to choose one candy you could have from now on, which?
Neither. I'd hate to restrict my selection of good food. It's either all nor nothing.

if you could meet one living celeb, who would it be?
Jackie Chan!

if you had to change your name, what would you change it to?
Lim Ya Wen.

if you had to change lives with a friend for a week, who would you choose?
Someone in Brunei.

if you could read one person's thoughts for a day, who would you choose?
Some optimist.

if you could have one car, what would you choose?
A Ferrari.

if you could have one superpower, what would it be?
To be able to shut arseholes up with one stare.

what's your favorite word?
Oh, this is a hard one. ..."Arsehole"? "Hypothetically".

what noise do you love?
The sound of wind rustling leaves and the sound of Christmas songs being played on the classical guitar.

what noise do you hate?
Screechy sounds.

one profession you'd hate to do?
Be a teacher.

what's one song that you hate?
Don't want to offend anybody, but it's 'Lucky'.

what's one song you secretly love?
It's a secret, so why should I tell you? 

what city feels most like home to you?
B. S. Begawan.

what's your best friend's name?
*MYBs, insert your own names here.* And probably Syaz as well. =) 

describe him/her in 5 words.
*of the above, describe yourselves*

what's your favorite day of the week?
Saturday.

what's your favorite curse word?
Screw/Crap/Crud/Arsehole.

what's your favorite reality TV show?
Project Runway.

do you want to get married someday?
Probably.

if you had to live with one person as your roommate, who would you choose?
My imaginary friend. Not.

what's your favorite nickname?
None.

name one song you could sing all the way through even without it playing?
Probably 'One Last Breath' by Creed. It's a special song.

name one band that sings lyrics that relate most to your life?
Um... I don't know.

what movie makes you cry the most?
None? Hahah.

what would you name a horse?
Black Beauty. Hahaha. Actually, it would depend on the horse.

did you ever babysit? who?
Yeah. Babies. Duhh.

what's your favorite book? why?
Ooh, hard question. LoTR? Because it's so awesome, normal people can't read it.

favorite Disney character?
Ferb. Ha hah.

Stupidly pointless.

I is still lovin' to blog here at my bloggy.

Me loves me bloggy.

*ahem*

We made fish things out of ang paus this morning to decorate the class. The theme is something about spring and new beginning, but I can't really remember.

Then we had to go through three hours of Chemistry and Math. I have no idea how these calculation things work. At least I got to copy some off Rania's paper. Thank you Rania.

So anyway, I went out (again, after I swore not to after the Suntec incident) with Ivanka today. She's Wardah's ex-roommate, but she got transferred to the 3rd floor. But she still hangs out with us, and that's cool.

We went to Boon Lay, I think, where I bought a new wallet and cookies and then saw this.

Now that's just seriously weird. Is it even legal to use McCain and Obama's faces like that to advertise your restaurant/CNY special?

Like they used Lewis Hamilton's face on this can of Nescafé coffee. It's just disgusting. Look at him. Smug arsehole.

Jung Min's gone home for the weekend. We sure miss him and his Korean accent. 

We asked Chang Yoon if he missed him and he said, "No."

"No?"

"Not yet."

My page counters were down for like a week or so. Now they're back. I wonder what happened.

I want to go and play with the Wii again in the TV room. But meh, I've got homework stuff to do.

Hostel life does seem very fun, doesn't it? Actually, it sorta is, but then you look at the curfew and the rules and the food on some days and the lack of family (with friends abundant; that's a good thing) and you realise that you'd rather stay at home sweet home with your wacky dysfunctional family.

Wolf Brother is addictive. I keep thinking about Torak and Wolf and my brain is wondering why my body doesn't just pick up the book and finish it off. I don't know either, brain, sorry.

It's got a good, unique little story line. Inventive and interesting. 

I got to go.

Adieu.

Pointlessly stupid.

On Wednesday, Kevin, Faiz, Insan, Alex and I skipped a Da Vinci briefing (except Alex, he's a Year 3) to make our Student passes at the Immigration place...place.

Then Faiz and Kevin totally disappeared, so the rest of us decided to go check out Suntec. Stupid idea. 

We got lost trying to find Suntec, got lost in it, and got lost trying to get out. I'm not going back there again any time sooner. We walked for three hours straight without stopping, probably only to eat at Pizza Hut. My legs ached all night. At least we got to buy Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Which was probably all we bought there.

Then, after Study Time, there was a birthday party for our clustermates. I got to watch American Idol at Ms Queenie's place and had cake.

Blackforest cake, to be precise.

This is a monument we saw while we were in the process of getting lost. It's a memorial for the people who died during the Japanese occupation during WWII.

Pretty.

Also, on that particular Wednesday, I somehow managed to injure both my thumbs in a span of less than 12 hours. I woke up and my left thumb hurt. Like I sprained it or something.

Then when Ivy managed to convince me to play basketball during third language period, her b-ball hit my thumb at a strange angle and the bit under the nail of my right thumb turned all blue-ish purple. Now (I'm typing this post on Friday) it's all dark-reddish.

Hmm.

Sometimes, I do care.

Why on earth do people in Brunei find it funny that I have to wear short shorts for PE?

It's no big deal, honestly. It's just that I'm not used to it and stuff. We did half of a fitness evaluation thing today (lower limb strength, a T-shaped shuttle-run thing, and...wait for it...reflexes!). I don't know how juggling ping pong balls with a bat evaluates "reflexes", but that bit was fun.

Kevin jumped 57 cm for the first test. Basketball addict.

I doubt anything else of significance happened today, apart from the fact that I've got more homework and stuff to read.

I messed up my Music test a bit. I put Baroque before Renaissance, which is actually the other way round. Tsk.

Whoop. Roll call. Better go scan my fingerprint at the biometric scanner thing outside the cluster gate before I get into trouble. Again.

I spent ages doing one Math question during study time. Then I realised I forgot how to do indices. Hopeless. Completely, utterly, absolutely, hopeless.

I going to read Wolf Brother before bed. It's good so far, but the thing is, it's quite similar to Eragon. Now, because I like Eragon and that I don't know which one came first, I won't say much.

I may go to the Immigration place tomorrow and skip our research session (Da Vinci). A lot of people favour the name Axis more, but they changed it probably because they read Dan Brown's book.

Night y'all.

P.S. Have you guys noticed I tend to post at night now?

P.P.S. I miss Brunei rain. All the weather does here is blow strong chilly wind. 

ASSignments.

I just climbed up seven flights of stairs up to my room on the eighth floor carrying a pile of books. I wonder why I complained in MS when I had to climb only three floors. Whoever person who said "it could've been worse" is so totally right.

Oh, and if you're wondering why my Math has become so poor as to have to climb seven flights of stairs to the eighth floor, Singapore uses the "ground floor is first floor" system. 

I've got a Music half-hour test thing tomorrow. Meh.

Today's dinner was Indian food. Wasn't so good though.

I've got PE tomorrow. Which means I have to wear those really short shorts. Screw, man.

I is sleepy. I is tired. But I is not wanting to be sleeping now. I is having to wait for roll call. I is wanting to read Wolf Brother. I is required to be reading my Bio. I is having to reading for my Music test tomorrow.

Oh God, why my English so broken?

Oh, so my classmate Ivy can read it. She claims she doesn't read all my posts (who does?) because they're "too English". I didn't even know that was a term.

I so sarcastic.

I've got assignments to do. 

ASSignments. Hah hah.

These things are seriously a pain in the ass. I've got a book review for English (choose between The Lord of The Flies and To Kill A Mockingbird) and a Biology essay (1000 to 1500 words on the comparison of the reproductive systems/styles of three animals out of five).

And they're group projects.

I feel like crying. 

But I've got my monkey here with me. My monkey will console me. *sniff*

Good night, good people.

Save my soul.

Jung Min called at half-past eight in the morning and said in his Korean accent, "Oi, wake up. Wake up now. We go eat breakfast. I give you fifteen minute."

And that was the epic story of how I got to have hostel breakfast on a Sunday morning for the first time (usually I just sleep in and wait for lunch). 

Breakfast was a piece of bread sparsely decorated with the thinnest slices of sausage I've ever seen and a few strings of cheese. Lunch was noodles with some veggie and some fried ball thing, I'm not sure what meat it was though. Could be fish (or something worse, for all I know).

But dinner, dinner was awesome. Probably better than the chicken and potatoes we had around a week ago. 

Check it out.

Mashed potatoes with salad and one and a half pieces of pizza-toast, together with potato and garlic soup and a banana for desert. Yum. To the max. I wish dinner could taste as great every day. That would be something to look forward to all day.

Ivanka (Wardah's ex-roommate), Insan, Jung Min, Chang Yun and I spent our afternoon playing Nintendo Wii in the TV room. It's like we're addicted or something. 

MarioKart is fun. I keep falling down crevices and cliffs and drowning in water. I did manage to win a race though. =)

I've got study time again tomorrow. Meh. Time to read my Bio and Chemistry. 

I still haven't started reading Wolf Brother. But I have started reading my Bio textbook. It's at least eight hundred pages long, and I skipped directly to the part we're being taught about this semester: Reproduction.

Once again, I know we did this subject in Form 3, but things here are different. We learn about the little chromosomes, and the cute little cells dividing and all those fancy terms.

Gotta go. I think our cluster mentor is checking our rooms. My roommate is out and I'm left alone to face Ms Queenie. 

Adieu.

Oh, by the way, I finally learned how to tie a tie.

A billion forms and one.

It's "lights out" time and God knows why I'm still here typing this post.

The fingers of my left hand hurt, because I spent last night and today in the music room with Wardah's guitar. (Thank you Wardah.)

I miss my baby (what I call my Alhambra now) and my beloved (my older guitar of which my dad's friend finally returned to me two months ago). I miss their nylon strings and beautifully crafted bodies. I miss the feel of their fretboards and the reverberating sound of their strings singing in harmony. I miss my picks and my tuner and my music scores. I miss my electric guitar and my amplifier. I miss my subwoofer (which is still broken) and my speakers. 

But I will be bringing on of my beloved guitars back here when I return to Brunei for CNY. =)

I've discovered one thing while living here in Singapore: Things taken for granted will be sorely missed when gone.

Like in the Goo Goo Dolls' song, Before It's Too Late, one part goes like this: "..nothing is real till it's gone..."

I spent my afternoon playing Nintendo Wii in the TV room with the guys. 

Of Mario Kart Wii, I will say only one thing: I despise mushrooms.

I finished my elemental Sudoku. I feel slightly enlightened at the moment. Such a sweet feeling. But I couldn't and can't savour it 'cause I'm tired and in need of sleep. 

Honestly, I don't know why I'm not sleeping right now.

I'm definitely going to have to start reading "Wolf Brother" and my Bio/Chem books tomorrow. And do my laundry.

I want to eat cookies.

Good night.

B is for busy.

Busy day yesterday. Went to Clementi Central to get my ATM card from POSB.

And I saw this:
Brilliant, ain't it? "Clearence" sale indeed.

So Kevin, Alex (Indian guy) and I walked to Clementi Central and got lost along the way trying to look for a shortcut. Longcut, more like it.

After several incidents at the bank (involving a very cute baby, Alex's ATM card getting eaten by the ATM machine, and a woman taking advantage of my kindness), we went to visit the bookshop, called "BIG BOOKSHOP". Which is a weird name, if you ask me. 

So I bought the book pictured above (which I haven't started reading yet) called "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver. Seems pretty interesting. The piece of paper with the boxes is the first page of my elemental Sudoku. I've done one and three quarters out of three.

The bookmarks were given to me by the school choir who were trying to force me to join. But this choir isn't as great as MS's. But NUS High has an orchestra, which is super cool. I want to join that, but I don't have my guitar with me. And I'm not sure if they let guitars join. Maybe I should introduce them to something called "diversity". Hm.

I think I might start believing in karma. You know how Stella and Effie laughed at me when I was in the news, and when we laughed at Effie when she appeared on RTB, well now Stel's in the Borneo Bulletin.

Isn't that awesome? Hahahahah. We just love teasing each other. But Effie's still more famous than both of us. I believe so.

What comes around, goes around, my friend.

Stupid CCA crisis.

Immense.

I dedicate this post to Myra's question: How about my pressure here?

Well, tell you what.

Imagine you're a little germ-thing, dwelling in the deepest, darkest part of a secluded area of ocean somewhere out there.

Pressure in water, as we know, depends on depth. It's so deep, that when an inquisitive, bespectacled scientist/researcher person tries to take you out to study you, you go "pop!" because of the lack of pressure.

The pressure here is going to be (therefore not yet), immense.

There was a meeting for all the scholars (people who got scholarships) this afternoon, and we were told of the school's expectations of us. We're expected to be perfect role models, brilliant at studies, intelligent, hardworking, to represent the school in whatever competition, to take on roles of leadership, to excel in co-curricular activities, to be well-liked, disciplined, respectful and all that jazz.

Otherwise we'd be kicked out, sent home and our scholarships will be cancelled. Can you imagine the embarrassment endured if we have to return to our home countries in shame? The fact that we'd be stuck in limbo with nowhere to go and our families hanging their heads in shame? 

Terrible. Completely, utterly, terrible.

And that, my friends, is the pressure we have here.

I'm going to bed. 

Night, good people.

Da Vinci programme?

Just in case anyone wonders what I eat at the hostel, this is a delightful *cough* picture of yesterday's dinner. Butter chicken, egg with bits of stuff in it and some vege. With rice, of course. I never take the soup, and they served some orange-coloured melon yesterday, so I didn't take the fruit either.

I changed class today (which was a pity) and now I'm in M09203. 203 isn't that bad. 

So instead of having English, we had Physics as our first lesson of the day. We learnt about the state of matter, and intermolecular forces in solids, liquids and gases.

I think I got a bit bored 'cause I'd done this stuff back in Brunei (although as I had said earlier, the way they teach is different).
Say hello to all my fifty smiley faces. It says "INDIVIDUALITY!" at the bottom, by the way.

Now I've got a Physics worksheet to do. Lucky we don't have to hand this in. 

I've only one unanswered question. It's "Explain, two inferences that can be made about air particles, from the Brownian motion of the smoke particles."

I can make many of these "inferences", but I don't know which is the one they're expecting. 

"There are air particles in between the smoke particles."

"Air particles are everywhere."

"Air particles are so small, we can't see them when they collide with smoke particles."

"Air particles are also a gas, hence they have very large spaces in between the particles."

and so on.

Meh. 

Faulty measuring equipment.

I just finished the bag of unfinished (obviously) Famous Amos cookies on my desk. Yum.

After Bio, we had break time. Then my classmates (Angela and Pari) told me that I had to take a Humanities subject out of Fine Arts, Music and English Literature. 

Guess which one I chose?

I decided to give Music a try, so Insan and I went to Music Studio 1 to check it out. I actually liked it, to be honest. The module is about music appreciation, with all the musical history and development, how to listen for the right things and what to expect from pieces from different eras. Now I've got seventy-seven pages of Music: An Appreciation by an old guy called Roger Kamien to read, in addition to my unfinished elemental sudoku and thick Bio book to read on Reproduction. 

Somehow my BM teacher (the only Muslim teacher in the whole of school) hasn't sent me the karangan topics yet... Hm.

The Math here is very different than in Brunei. My head hurts just thinking about it. Math was never my favourite subject (as you all probably know by now) and now I still can't come to terms with it. All the numbers make my head hurt. 

But yes, I know more formulae than they do. 'Cause I'm older and they make us memorise all the formulae in Brunei for PMB. 

I'm tired and in need of a shower. PE was the last class of the day after Math. Our PE teacher measured our heights and weights with faulty equipment and then we jogged two rounds around the track. 

After that I walked back to the hostel (which was right behind/in front of/next to) the track.

Oh, I almost forgot about yesterday. We had a boarding bonding session last night at 8.30 p.m (so NUS High students could go online to register for their modules [sorta like option subjects]). It was pretty dull and hectic at the same time. Why? Simply because the first thing we did was listen to a briefing on discipline and laundry and we were all tired (especially the Year Ones and Year Threes who had to attend day-long orientation).

After we tried to sit on each other in a big circle (I think it's a community bonding thing, the weirdest thing I've ever done in my whole entire life), we were let out of the hall.

And just when we thought we could get a teensy bit of rest before school, there was a cluster meeting at 10.45 p.m. I could've died of exhaustion. But I made it anyway, fortunately.

So for now, I bid thee, farewell.

To tie a tie.

I has gots loadsa homework.

And to all you guys (esp. Myra) who're wondering about my uniform, today's formal wear day, hence the tie and shirt. Behind me is my roommate, Syafiqah's bed, so the Patrick doll isn't mine.

I know my clothes look un-ironed, but come on, I spent almost a whole day at school. I'm in the library now, complaining about the amount of homework I have. I've got Chemistry sudoku and a BM karangan which the teacher will send to us by email. Argh. 

Oh, and I'm still trying to get over the fact that I have to do Geo this year. Can you believe it? I swore to myself when I sat for PMB that that was going to be my last Geo paper EVER, and now I have trouble breaking it to myself that I lied. Boo hoo.

I had trouble trying to find someone who knew how to tie a tie this morning. The guys were still upstairs (probably last-minute ironing) and I finally found Emily (Bruneian dari KB) and she helped me put on my tie. 

Then we had an assembly then class. 

We had two hours of Chemistry first thing in the morning, followed by breaktime, Math, Malay, lunch, English and Geo.

Oh God, spare me. 

Ironing 101

School starts tomorrow for the peeps in Brunei. 

Lucky them. But actually, starting school on a Monday isn't that good either. I mean, you guys have to go to school for the next three days after starting, which means waking up early for four days in a row. 

We started school on the second of January, and we get weekends off to do other stuff like buy LAN cables and visit Toys R Us. 

I did my laundry today. Used the washing machines and stuff. Which reminds me, I left my shared bottle of Breeze (with Wardah) in the laundry room. Better go get it before anyone uses it...

Back. Before I start to digress, I've realised that maybe ironing isn't so bad after all. My number one rule is "don't get burnt", and my number two rule is "as long as I don't look like a hobo, that's all right". 

Great, innit? My attempts at ironing are fruitless, meaning my clothes are as wrinkled (probably only a tad less) than when I first took them out of the dryer. Perhaps the only things I really bother to iron properly are my school uniform (of which I may upload a picture or two in the coming week). 

It's like my formal school shirt is telling me in a terribly rude mocking tone, "Na na na na na! You can't straighten me out, ha HA!".

My skort also probably says in clothing language, "Your attempts at making me look decent are futile. Muahahah HA HA!"

Yeah, I'm pretty hopeless. Now I really, truly appreciate my maid back home. How does she do all this stuff?

I met my cousin at Paragon after finding out that Toys R Us doesn't sell yo-yos anymore. Major disappointment for Insan. 

Anyway, Insan then went back to the hostel and I had loads of cake. Yum. Chocolate cake and soufflés. 

After dinner (mash potatoes with chicken and salad, delicious for once) with Jung-min, Insan and another Korean guy (who lives next door to the guys) called Chang-yun (sp???) we went down to the track despite fears of appendicitis. We did some football/jogging/martial arts demo and now I'm back here in my room, trying out the new LAN cable they guys gave me. Thanks guys.

Now I don't have to put up with the terrible wireless anymore. =) Cool.

Au revoir.

Slurpy? No, seluar PE.

I'm in the TV room now, where the internet isn't gay at all, watching Mind Your Language.

Awesomely hilarious show, 'at. 

I think I love the TV room. Even when you have to sign your name at the office to get in. It's got air-conditioning, a wide-screen television, an excellent TV show, fast internet and comfortable sofas. I should start spending my time here. 

The air-conditioning is a good change from my hostel room, and the canteen where we hung out yesterday. Insan, Chang-min (Korean dude, shares room with Kevin) and I followed Wardah to Clementi Central to do a bit of shopping and visit Seven Eleven (Insan has an addiction to Slurpys aka "Seluar PE").

Then Wardah left to go to Jurong and we got almost got lost looking for Fair Price (supermarket). 

Mind Your Language just finished. Extremely funny. Especially the Indians. Not that I'm racist though.

Now we're watching 102 Dalmations. We've got too much free time on our hands. But real school hasn't started yet. The first day (yesterday) was just chock full of briefings and stuff like getting lost.

I just used Skype to talk to my mum and cousin. Insan and Chang-min thought I was crazy, talking to my laptop and all that.

Tomorrow's a Sunday. I'll probably do my laundry tomorrow. Or send my clothes to the laundry lady, but it takes a longer time to get your clothes back. Meh.

Got to go now.

That's all, folks!

Note: Yes, I did do a Looney Tunes reference.

Blah blah blah...

I'm using the school's internet for the first time.

In MS, we were actually somebodys, but here, we're "who are you again?"

or

"What are you doing here?"

or

"Oh, you're new."

But anyway, it's not all that bad. We've got a goal now: to eat at every chicken rice restaurant in Singapore. Well...sorta.

Wani's birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday Wani aka "the crocodile". Have fun being fifteen, and do try to be good this year (j/k).

We often get warned that we'll get into trouble if we say too much on these blog things. I don't know what the limits are though, but I'll just keep my trap shut. 

I want cookies. To be precise, Famous Amos cookies. Yum.

I miss illegally downloading songs.