Istanbul 2010

Ah, the sweet, familiarly homely sounds of frogs croaking, crickets chirping, air-conditioner humming, dad snoring, and the karaoke set of our neighbour blasting some kind of Malay song.

Scalp hurts now 'cause I spent all afternoon getting my hair straightened. Ugh, horribleness. Next time I'm just going to let my hair be.

Managed to finish up 'Life, Interrupted' though. Great book. Tourette's probably couldn't be described first-hand any better, in my opinion.

I also loved the fact that it's not fictional, or simply made up to entertain the masses. There's this hint of truth in it that makes the retelling of past events more appealing.

Definitely going to get myself more books like these.

A deeper understanding of such intriguing conditions feels awesome.

About today's race, it's funny how Hamilton won the race and achieved (along with Button) a McLaren one-two, but it's Mark Webber and Red Bull that are currently Twitter's trending topics.

I don't find it surprising at all, actually.

Webber should've won. Honestly. That one-two should've been Red Bull's.

But they shouldn't have screwed up then, so I guess fair's fair after all.

I honestly wonder what Webber has to say to Vettel. "Hey mate, I was winning and you had to go run into me like that and cost us a one-two and my third consecutive race victory? What on earth were you thinking?" I dunno.

Poor Vettel. He must've felt so bad.

Ferrari's 800th race was probably there for them to salvage a few points from yesterday's awful qualifying session. Vettel (pitifully) crashing out helped Massa and Alonso gain a place each, but that's still no excuse for such an average performance. Sigh.

Renault did surprisingly well for Istanbul, 'cause Petrov set the fastest lap of the entire race, and Massa couldn't overtake Kubica and Alonso only managed to find his way past Petrov after many laps. Interesting.

Anyway, feeling really sleepy and nothing much happened during the race, so going off now.

Night.

P.S. I hate it when people speak to me in Mandarin. When I tell them I don't understand, they look at me as if I'm incredibly stupid, and then give me horrible looks/refuse to speak to me at all. So whenever it happens all I do is nod hesitantly, smile nervously and pray hard they won't find my answer weird and that they'll just stop talking.

Relatives.

Just received an email concerning the twenty CIP hours we earned by not sleeping an entire night and surviving an entire day being busy on maximum an hour of sleep.

Racing against time to finish this post right now, for several reasons. Firstly it's 'cause my laptop is running out of battery and I'm too lazy to go and get my charger. Secondly, it's 'cause everybody in the house is in bed by now and I feel some sort of pressure to go to bed myself. Thirdly, it's 'cause it's been a long day and I'm mentally tired (haven't had enough sleep since, like, forever). Fourthly, I'm back in Brunei and there's air-conditioning. Wootz.

Nothing beats sleeping in an air-conditioned room. Ahh. So good, so good.

Haven't had time to watch television though, but I've had plenty of time to eat so that's all right.

But heck, if I don't catch tomorrow's race I think I just might cry.

Ferrari's 800th Grand Prix this weekend. Istanbul, Turkey.

Was hoping for Ferrari to do well this weekend, but unfortunately we've only managed an eighth and twelfth in qualifying, so fingers crossed and hope hard that we'll be able to at least make a podium position.

Sigh. Such disappointment.

Just in case you're curious, the results are: Webber, Hamilton, Vettel.

Still so sad.

Anyway, the flight last night wasn't bad at all. Read the Daily Mail for an hour, then went to sleep (I always sleep in the plane. In fact, I make it a habit to do so. Also, I think the whole volunteering for the National Vertical Marathon thing gave me the ability to sleep in otherwise rather uncomfortable conditions).

A huge thanks to Faiz for trading seats with me so I could sit near the window (and lean against it for better sleeping).

I realise that I hardly ever talk about the flight process between Brunei and Singapore. Hmm. I wonder why.

Will probably give you guys a good, detailed one next time.

Oh, and met Insan at the airport. Poor guy seemed a bit down 'cause Fatinn, Wardah and Syaf took the noon flight, and Wan Shen, Faiz and I were leaving at night.

Met a few relatives today. Interesting.

Anyway, gotta go now.

Adieu.

P.S. 'Life, Interrupted' by James McConnel is a great book. Less than a quarter way into it and I'm already hooked. Tourette's is interesting indeed.

P.P.S. My mum's always telling me I should go for Medicine, but the truth is, I don't ever want to be a doctor because, well, because.

The Phantom of the Opera.

Has 'Come Fly With Me' stuck in my head since yesterday, 'cause of Neil Fullard.

Still haven't finished packing yet.

I dislike packing.

Last day of "school" today. Bleh.

Discovery Centre place not so interesting. In fact, there wasn't much to do 'cept look at little kiddies run around (no don't call me a paedophile, thanks).

Then watched Shrek 4.

Ah, Shrek.

It had all the lovability of the first three, but the plot wasn't as great. Wouldn't ruin it for you here, but meh, meh and meh.

Donkey is still the best character though. Had plenty of laughs.

Giving up on reading 'Monsters of Men', 'cause I can't remember what happens in the first two books of 'Chaos Walking', and it just jumps right into the war which makes a huge mess out of my mind. Going to restart during the holidays when I have access to the other two books first.

I won't worry much about having nothing to read 'cause I have a book on Tourette's I've been wanting to get my hands (or eyeballs) on since its purchase a week ago. Should be good.

Okay okay need to go watch 'The Phantom of the Opera' (2004 version) now. Still getting over the fact that Gerard Butler plays the role of the Phantom. Tsk.

Adieu.

P.S. So proud of myself for not buying books just now. Yeah, self-control.

Awkward Lounge Music.

Oh my goodness I'm sitting here trying to decide where I should start with the packing I have to do, and boomz, this came out of absolutely nowhere and made my day.

THE CHIPPENDOUBLES.

The weather's acting all horrible, sweating at the slightest amount of physical activity, dust is in my eyes from my luggage bags, and I've been distracted by Britain's Got Talent 2010 all afternoon, and this pops up.

Utterly, completely amazing. The epitome of pleasantly surprising acts, that one. Absolute winner. I kid you not. Pure genius. Loved it loved it loved it.

Nothing could've made my day more, actually, than to see that act. Brilliantness. And yeah, I'm still quite impressed by it.

I'm also impressed by this guy, Christopher Stone. Great voice. Honestly thought he was going to be horrible, but hell no he was awesome.

I love Britain's Got Talent. It's more diverse than American Idol, and hence more entertaining. Got weirded out by some of the acts, but I think it's another good year (no Susan Boyle though, just an eighty year old great-grandmother who sings extraordinarily well for her age, and a doorman whose 'Come Fly With Me' made me smile early in the mornin').

Spent my afternoon in the audi for the SIMC closing ceremony rehearsal. Thankfully had Ash and Minh Chau to talk to, otherwise would've died of boredom. Our only form of entertainment was probably randomly pressing random buttons on the big video cam, and listening to Mr Murali make funny comments.

Oh, and Dr Li apparently has (or had, she likes to insist) this obsession with Wu Zhun. She was like, "You're Bruneian? Does that mean you know Wu Zhun?"

Heck. TMI? Definitely TMI.

Went out to New York New York for dinner with Kelvin and Yee Rou afterwards. It's been four hours since, and I still feel awfully stuffed.

Beats hostel dinner hands down though. Hands down.

Okay, better go continue packing before I totally regret wasting my time now.

Arrivederci.

P.S. I find myself crossing my fingers and hoping hard that the contestants' acts are good, but I laugh when they're horrible anyway.

P.P.S. Some acts are simply atrocious and need to be dropped. Right away. Oh God.

Floccinaucinihilipilification.

Oh my gee I need to pack.

Following my own advice from last year, I'm going to throw away anything deemed insignificant and unimportant (which is probably hardly anything, since I find it hard to throw things away 'cause of this feeling I get that I might need it for future use).

Okay, going to start packing tomorrow morning. Note-to-self: If you don't, I keeel youu.

I've said it before but I'mma say it again: I hate packing. Horribly tedious and frustrating.

Went for the SIMC (Singapore International Mathematics Competition) opening ceremony today, 'cause we've got an extreme lack of manpower and I wanted to help out.

Basically stood there for half an hour twiddling with the camera controls trying to disable the inbuilt microphone, but failed. Nobody knows except Vishnu (whom everyone I asked told me to ask), and he's been MIA-ing (Missing In Action, just in case you've never heard of it before).

Then when the event really started, basically stood there adjusting camera angles for an hour or so.

Should be more entertaining operating the smaller camera during the closing on Thursday.

Speaking of the smaller camera, got to have fun stalking the foreign SIMC participants with it around Chinatown and Bugis with it and Michelle later on in the afternoon. Michelle was asking me what good came out of being on duty for the opening ceremony, and I told her "The CO playing Mambo No.5". (Personally I thought it would've been absolutely awesome if it was less out of tune and better played. Good job.)

Managed to join Mr Wong's group during the "cultural exchange" thing.

Nothing much to film 'cept people walking and walking and spontaneous funny things these Filipino and American guys did (and the Malaysian who drew an outline of a rectangle with his hands when others asked "What's ba kwa?"), so made use of the time to do a bit of "checking Chinatown out" ourselves, talking about how Helvetica differs from Arial, and other random observations.

Met up with a couple of the Bruneians at Vivo afterwards, 'cause it's Syaf's birthday and we felt like we had to do something about it (they went bowling, but I couldn't go).

Had Ben & Jerry's with Syaf, Wardah, Nicholas, Nazihah, Insan, Yee Rou and Wan Shen. Played 'Truth or Dare'. I think it's a horrid game, but had plenty of laughs getting Nick to ask a pair of girls where Vivo City was.

Okay, gotta go sleep now, 'cause I gotta wake up early to return the camera and other stuff to Dr Li.

Night.

P.S. It's funny how all us NVM volunteers see each other and go, "Man, you look tired,

and then compare how much we've slept since getting back to the hostel.

Sleep deprived.

Tired to the bone, haven't posted in quite a few days, and my blog is quite in need of reviving. Poor thing.

But yeah, I've got excuses (I don't really know whether they're valid or not, but whatever).

Went out to East Coast Park with a whole bunch of hostel people on Thursday as part of Wardah's birthday celebration. Had epic fun cycling, failing at flying kites, sculpting God-knows-what with sand on the beach and other things like that.

Got back and wanted to post, but I dunno, got caught up in other things.

Somehow got convinced to go to ECP again on Friday. Had curry chicken with Wai Yin and MJ, walked around JP and then went to ECP. Epic déjà vu.

Cycled to Changi Village with a bunch of Year 3s and Mr Fadhir.

Got back and kinda KO-ed.

Woke up the next morning with my voice gone, which was really awful.

Went for some free random cooking course thing. Yum, free good lunch. Have pics, but with the horrible internet connection we got going on right now, no way. (That, and I simply can't be bothered.)

Lazed around, played Tetris and watched Ip Man fight scenes on YouTube while I waited for the National Vertical Marathon volunteering to start. Then went out to Jurong Point for dinner. And then to the NTU campus where we got stuffed into a stuffy hall for the night (.

Talk about discomfort. Hot, humid, bright and noisy. Hardly got any sleep, so we were all severely sleep-deprived when "morning" came and we had to take a bus to Raffles Place. Never thought buses could be so comfortable.

The group of us (fifteen hostel people in all, excluding Ivanka, Ly En and Yi Jia) got jobs under "iGantry". Had no idea what it meant, but turns out they're these things like number tags used to time people when they run and we had to collect 'em after their climb was over.

I think we tried to cram bits and pieces of sleep between ticking off names, counting iGantry tags, congratulating and thanking people, ushering, handing out certificates, manning the lifts and issuing instructions.

Poor us.

But you know, was kinda fun overall, despite all the awfulness.

Now I'm freakishly exhausted and need sleep.

Night.

P.S. Heard an absolutely brilliant version of 'Careless Whisper' on Youtube during an Ip Man montage. Need to go look for it. Been stuck in my head ever since.

P.P.S. Get to stalk foreigners around Singapore tomorrow with Michelle. Being on duty rocks when you get privileges like these (free food, free tour).

Elton John.

Listening to Elton John off YouTube right now. So many so many memories.

'Your Song' is one of the few things that brings me way back, back when I was around three or four (and extremely adorable). Didn't really understand all the hoopla going on about Elton John coming out of the closet, and still don't. Nothing wrong with him being gay.

Weather is great, internet connection is horrible.

Had some debate thing at school today. Teacher was awesome, 'cause she somehow managed to deal with Ryan. Win.

Also, Joshua's epic win deserves to be mentioned here. His "wife" analogy completely owned Ryan.

Malay mock oral thing was weird. Chinese teacher was shouting some instructions at us outside the hall, and we were like, "Hello don't understand you please speak in English".

I think I should feel ashamed, 'cause I'm a failed Chinese. Hmm.

Break times were punctuated by attempts to film our three-minute video on "what we learnt at the ACM".

Yeah, completely forgot to talk about our trip to the Asian Civilisation Museum yesterday.

Got into a group with Zheng Wei, Chee Seng and Shuen, and basically the only things we learnt were that Google is your best friend, and that I get scared pretty easily in there.

So I'm a little jumpy, yeah, and they (including Insan) thought it'd be funny to hide around every corner to jump out at me or make creepy noises or tap my shoulder and deny it. Heck. At this rate, I'm going to get a heart attack one day.

There is no way I'm ever going to step into a museum alone. I'd probably freak out.

But I digress. We came up with some seriously lame and random idea that involved Shuen being a bomoh and consulting his "magical purple water", but aren't really bothered to film it. Wasted too much time planning and going off-topic.

Gotta go now.

Adieu.

P.S. There's always this feeling weighing down on me that I've gone to the wrong school. What to do, what to do?

P.P.S. I think one of the sweetest verses ever written for a song is "I hope you don't mind/I hope you don't mind/that I put down in words/how wonderful life is/when you're in the world."

Robin Hood.

Remember what I said about school internet being at its best after midnight?

Well I take it back. Right now, it's horribly atrocious. Can't load anything.

Haven't been paying much attention to Facebook or Twitter lately (and regrettably MouseHunt and LevynLight as well).

Been using up my free time (time that I'm not in school, on weird field trips, nor at SIMC rehearsals) to either leisurely read 'King Arthur: Dragon's Child', or go out.

Great book, that. First book on the legend of King Arthur I've read, but it's pretty awesome in its own way. I love the believability of it all. It wasn't about magically pulling a sword out of stone, but a journey towards the man he would eventually become. All the small events and stories that weave together nicely to form a feasible explanation for his character and such.

Hm yeah. Definitely going to get the sequel.

And now that I'm done with Artorex and Britain, it's back to the Chaos Walking trilogy. 'Monsters of Men' has been lying around on my bed for a week and a half now, begging to be read.

Cluster outing-ed and had to re-watch 'Robin Hood'. Watching it for a second time, I somehow managed to find a sweet, sweet feeling of clarity I didn't have the last time I watched it. Heck, I kinda even think it's a pretty decent movie now. Interesting.

Okay, gotta go now, in case I have trouble waking up tomorrow morning.

Night.

P.S. Mercedes aren't going to appeal against Schumi's 20s penalty after all. Smart move.

P.P.S. I hate ulcers.

P.P.P.S. Donnie Yen. Is awesome.

Heights.

Currently listening to FOB and trying to complete that module evaluation thing we have to do (completely forgot about it till module registration tonight).

With internet connection as laggy as this, our only hope is to either subscribe to broadband, or wait till past midnight when the connection is a tad better.

The secret to module evaluation is the key with the dash (or hyphen, whichever) on it. "What aspect of this module blah blah blah?" "*dash*" "What do you think blah blah blah?" "*dash*". As simple as that.

Okay, module evaluation done.

Got back from West Coast Park a few hours ago with Wardah (the birthday girl), Fatinn, Syaf, Emily, Woan Chyi, Nicholas, Billy, Kelvin, Insan, Adithya, Ly En and Ivanka.

Hands are now sore from all the climbing of strange things, but apart from that, it was pretty awesome.

Had tonnes of fun.

I kinda spent the entirety of my childhood wishing fervently that I wouldn't grow up, 'cause adults seemed to have it much worse than we did. It's great to be young (not that I am anymore, but you know, whatever).

Felt like a Friday night. Pity we can't sleep in tomorrow, 'cause it's still a Monday. So sad, so sad.

Started our week of post-exam activities with some talk by a Mercy Relief representative. Left me feeling all confused and such. Such an assed world we live in. What to do, what to do? So very bewildered.

Had CCA afterwards. Somehow managed to drag myself into helping out for SIMC, opening and closing ceremonies, farewell dinner thing and some tour (meaning Michelle and I get to stalk foreigners in Chinatown, Little India, etc). We're awfully short of manpower. Tsk.

Tired, tired. But I want to get a few chapters of Artorex in before I go to sleep.

Adieu.

P.S. Schumi got penalised. Twenty seconds. Interesting.

Monaco 2010

While the race stewards investigate Schumacher's overtaking of Alonso 'round the penultimate corner of the final lap of the race right after the safety car left, I might as well type out this post.

And yeah, pretty dramatic race today.

Safety car came out four times. Monaco is so narrow, one tiny overtaking mistake and you end up slamming into a wall. Kinda like Singapore, 'cept Singapore is worse.

Seriously speaking, it was way more entertaining than last week's race at De Catalunya. Sorta reminded me why I started watching in the first place. The awesomeness.

But as Stella likes to kindly remind me, I don't get to actually see the action happening, 'cause I'm stuck here televisionless with only the live timings and Twitter for company. So very sad.

Oh God, how my eyeballs crave for the cars and track, and how my ears crave for that sweet "nyeeeoowwh"-ing of the cars. Will thankfully be able to actually watch the race at Istanbul in two weeks.

I'm having trouble deciding where to start, 'cause there are loads of things to talk about this race. (Also, non-F1 watchers need to stop reading right about... now.)

Okay, I've decided. Here goes.

A huge congratulations to Webber and to Red Bull for winning the race and achieving a team one-two respectively. Stalin (that's what we call Stanley nowadays) must be crying tears of joy right now, 'cause he absolutely adores Webber (I kid you not).

Now Webber and Vettel are tied leaders of the Driver's C'ship and things are looking pretty dangerous for the other teams and drivers. If they don't do anything any sooner (I'm sure they're trying though), Red Bull are going to own their asses like Ferrari has owned F1 over the years. Scary.

I console myself by telling myself it's just momentary luck, but I doubt it.

Speaking of Ferrari, Alonso's done amazingly well this race. Must've been great strategy. The dude started from the pit lane (and effectively last), and ended up finishing seventh (should've been sixth, but Schumi pulled off some extremely experienced veteran ownage-ness on him on the last lap).

Holy crap news just in: Schumi overtaking of Alonso is ILLEGAL. (I simply love Twitter for this, don't you? Instant updates, man.)

Does this mean Alonso went up eighteen places? I'm not sure. 12/24 drivers failed to finish the race 'cause they either crashed out, had mechanical/engine failures, or some stupidly ridiculous fault by the engineers (like leaving a radiator bung in Button's McLaren 'causing his engine to overheat and blow up). Hmm.

And does this also mean Schumi gets penalised? Or just dropped down a position? I don't know. F1 rules are confusing (it doesn't help that they revise the rule book every year either).

Anyway, I think Force India will secretly come up from behind and win a race. They're doing quite well, actually. No accidents nor mistakes whatsoever. It's just that their car isn't fast enough.

Renault was surprising today though. Kubica managed a podium position after a second in qualifying (congratulations to him), and Petrov had to retire 'cause of car problems. Talk about contrast.

Concerning Lotus vs Virgin, Kovalainen retired and Trulli ended up flying over Chandhok's HRT, and Glock and Di Grassi's cars ended up GG-ing as well, so it's a draw this time 'round.

Hmm yeah, I think that's it. (I might have left a whole chunk of stuff out, but I'll talk about it some other F1 day.)

Night.

P.S. Went out with my dad today and got a book on Tourette's. Awesomeness.

Google.

Okay, okay, just got back from Orchard with my dad and I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that somehow I managed to get into the Talent Search finals by some miracle (I still think they sent me the wrong email though).

Heck, disbelief.

But you know, it feels good 'cause it proves to me that I don't totally screw up nor fail at everything I do.

Whee, self-esteem boost.

Maybe you know, perhaps I'm not such a failure after all.

Awesomeness.

Okay, the (relatively) good news is over, and here comes the bad news. Are you ready? Are you ready? Here goes...

Alonso didn't make it to qualifying.

Hah. Non-F1 fans must be silently (or openly) cursing me right now for the suspense I have just created, but heck, I saw the words "Alonso out of Monaco qualifying" on my Twitter home page and was like, "Oh no.".

The thing is, I think the F10 does well on this track, judging by Massa's performance (fourth, not bad. The Red Bulls are still owning though). Tsk, Alonso. Mistake on his part, crashing during practice. Tsk tsk, currypuff man.

Webber is on a roll, victory last race to pole for tomorrow.

Kubica second, in between the two Red Bulls. Not bad, Renault.

Weather is freaking hot right now. Bleh.

Gotta continue with 'King Arthur: Dragon's Child'.

Adieu.

P.S. I learnt off YouTube that if you Googled 'the answer to life, the universe and everything', Google calculator would appear and give you "the answer to life, the universe and everything = 42". Win.

P.P.S. Also, if you search Google Maps for directions from New York to Paris you'd get a long list of instructions, including "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean". Even more win.

Effort.

Listening to Fall Out Boy right now (here's a shout out to you, Myra, if you still read this blog. I miss you and your FOB-crazed ways and your big dreams and your never giving up on them. See you in Brunei when I return to be King of the poklenz).

Found 'Infinity On High' in my hard drive this afternoon.

Heard 'I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)' and felt a twinge of nostalgia. Like, heck, I remember hearing this on television around two years ago, man. Two years ago, back when I was, well, just was.

Spent my afternoon sleeping, and my evening watching Russell Peters with Woan Chyi. I wish I could be that racist and still get away with it. Awesome guy.

Script-checking is over, and the only papers I didn't manage to screw up badly were Geog and Bio.

It's depressing, really.

Let's not talk about it, because addressing the issue makes me want to just cover my ears, go "lalalalalalalalalalalalalalcan'thearyou", and then turn up some angst-y music and forget the world.

Gotta go continue reading book now.

Adieu.

P.S. I hear thunder. Interesting.

Juggernaut.

Script-checking happened today, but I don't want to talk about it because I'm a bit bitter about it, and that I didn't really do much "script-checking" 'cause I managed to spend most of my time doodling.

Horribleness.

Spent the afternoon out with Deborah, Shi Ni, Joshua, Shuen. Cyrus and Isaac, after our 203 class outing kinda failed epicly.

Watched 'Robin Hood'. Awfully confusing movie. Kept turning to Debb trying to figure out what on earth was going on.

Honestly, I don't think it captured the true essence of the general view of Robin Hood. As Joshua put it, you could count the number of arrows he shot on your fingers.

Perhaps it did do a decent job portraying the story behind Robin Hood as we know him, but I definitely could do with a tad more explanation. It's excusable when you don't know what's really going on ten minutes into the movie, but when an hour's passed and you're still completely clueless, it's either 'cause the movie's not up to par, or that you haven't been paying attention or are slightly obtuse.

Tsk.

Apparently Shuen didn't get anything throughout the entire movie, 'cause near the end when the bad guy got shot through the throat with an arrow, he asked, "Is that the good guy or the bad guy?"

I think that if you knew a little background information or something you'd probably actually enjoy the movie, and not think it was draggy at all (I thought it was awfully draggy).

Weather is horrendously humid right now; a ridiculous 94%. I loathe humid weather. Feels like hell.

Hm tired. Been a rather trying day.

Night.

P.S. 'King Arthur: Dragon's Child' is awesome.

P.P.S. Hmm, gender.

Dread.

Oh man, I feel so awful right now I have this great urge to bury myself in 'King Arthur: Dragon's Child' and not look up till Saturday.

But that's not possible. (Great book, by the way.)

So too bad. Script checking still has to go on, no matter what.

I'm doomed.

Anyway, went out to watch Ip Man 2 with Insan and Kelvin today.

Awesome movie. (Or maybe that's 'cause I love kung fu movies and all things martial arts, I dunno.)

As always, loved the fight scenes. Brilliantly choreographed. Somehow I think they were trying to bring out the difference between Wing Chun and the other styles the other masters were using. But then again, Wing Chun's not hard to spot. It's rather centred. Everything else seems so fancy.

Was cursing throughout the second half of the movie, 'cause some parts were just plain brutal and unfair.

But hey, that's life.

I think Donnie Yen plays Ip Man pretty well, actually. Heard he didn't sign up for any Ip Man 3 though. Pity.

I want to watch the prequel though. 'The Legend Is Born: Ip Man' sounds promising.

Gotta go now. Need to read 'King Arthur'.

P.S. I miss TKD.

Catalunya 2010

Hello world.

Several things of importance happened today. Firstly, it's Wan Shen's birthday today (one of our juniors, otherwise known as "the little boy"). Secondly, Hamilton slammed into a tyre wall. Thirdly, there was cake. Fourthly, Hamilton slammed into a tyre wall. And so on.

I think it was pretty nice of Wan Shen's parents to treat us Bruneians to lunch at Thai Express.

So, about Hamilton slamming into a tyre wall.

The Spanish Grand Prix was tonight, which meant I basically sat here at my laptop staring at the live timings from Formula1.com and Tweeting every single thing that comes to mind.

Talk about having no life.

Anyway, the race turned out pretty good, considering I wasn't able to hear any commentator go "Oh, and Chandhok needs a new nose, by the looks of it", or "OMFG race over for Lewis Hamilton".

I think the Driver's Championship is going to be pretty tight this season. Unlike the previous years, where it was always down to a precious few, this year we might actually not be able to safely place bets till mid-season break.

Scary prospect, but it's the uncertainty that keeps us hooked, I think.

Potential C'ship contenders include drivers like Button (current title-holder), Hamilton (his teammate, whom I think does not deserve the C'ship at all), Alonso (after a few races, I am now pretty convinced that this man will most definitely help Ferrari out here. The eyebrows and temperament aren't really much of an issue at this point), Massa (whom I strongly believe deserves the title this year after all the crap he's been through last year), Vettel (whom I strongly support in his bid for the title this year because he's a brilliant driver) and Webber (who'll probably just come along for the ride but not win the thing).

Of the teams that I have deemed capable of winning the Constructor's Championship, there are only three: Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari (oh Ferrari I love you).

Red Bull are looking extremely strong this season. Both cars and drivers constantly in excellent form and in tip-top condition. I wonder what they've been doing. Feeding Red Bull to their drivers, perhaps.

Uncertainties aside, there's only one thing for sure, this thing's gonna be hella close.

Will most definitely see, nearing the end of the season in a couple of months.

Schumacher needs to take a chill pill and loosen up a bit. I think he's been putting too much pressure on himself. He'll improve to almost his old form, probably, if and only if he had enough practice. But testing is banned and that kinda sucks. You go, Schumi. Take your time. I'll be here to support you.

Force India seem to be in much greater form than last year, actually. Looking forward to seeing them win a race and Vijay Mallya treating everyone within a mile radius to free curry. Awesomeness.

Oh, and plucked from a post-race interview of teams and drivers on Catalunya this year, Trulli said the funniest thing: "I'm pleased we finished comfortably ahead of Virgin even though...".

Virgin-Lotus rivalry still on, I hope?

Monaco next week. Reminds me of 'Iron Man 2'. Lovely circuit, horrible lack of overtaking space.

Gotta go now.

Night.

P.S. McLaren are still blindingly and disgustingly in love with Hamilton.

P.P.S. Alonso is now "currypuff man". Don't ask.

A Little Appreciation.

All my life I've been searching

For the answer to a query

One so simple yet mind-boggling

Even the most intelligent made weary

I looked far and I looked low

I travelled and travelled many a mile

Everywhere and anywhere I did go

But my efforts were futile

Isn't money the answer, they ask

Gold, diamonds, necklaces and rings

If so, that is quite simple a task

With riches one can buy such fancy things

So if one was wealthy

And successful, we may attest

One could love her exceptionally

At least, better than the rest

Surrounded by luxury

Proves a comfort indeed

But are you sure, surely

These things fulfill her needs?

Those sparkling gems are definitely not you

And neither are the gold or silver

It is a fact proven, you know it's true

Big houses, empty, only get lonelier

With that, I figured it out

I knew exactly what I had to do

I knew then, without a single doubt

I was home before a cow could say "moo"

I found her and hugged her

Shared with her things that I found

Told her stories, and jokes that were better

Her smile is one of the best things around

Another thing about smiles

Is that they show me someone's happy

Which makes everything worthwhile

And my hard work not so crappy

In conclusion to this story

What is the perfect gift for Mother's Day?

(If you find me corny I'm awfully sorry)

It's "I love you," that's all I can say.

Okay, it's late beyond late, and I'm seriously sleepy and my brain doesn't function as well at this hour, but I wanted to get this written and posted before my mum wakes up today.

P.S. "I don't believe in "Mother's Day". When I say that, people assume I don't appreciate my mother. But I do. I just think, after all they've done for us, expressing love to your mother shouldn't be limited to a single day. Every moment of our lives should be "Mother's Day". If we've managed to come this far, we at least owe them that much.

Diversity.

Sitting here munching on biscuits from the pantry, listening to 'Wonderwall' (yes, after all these years I still love this song to bits) and trying to think up things to type out here.

And yeah, we finally stocked up. Every month or so (I think), we get free food from the office, stuff like biscuits and coffee (you don't know how much people like us depend on coffee) and milo. (I for one don't drink coffee for survival though.)

And someone wrote "FOOD IS HERE!! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!" on the pantry whiteboard.

You see the thing is, I realise I've somehow managed to survive my way through exam week solely on hostel food. How is that even possible? How is that even legal? How...

How awful.

Anyway, I kinda spent most of my day sleeping. Woke up, watched a few episodes of Glee, did random stuff, slept again, went for dinner, came back, started reading and finished 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules', Music room-ed, and am back here.

I read 'Wimpy Kid' for the entertainment. A bit of light reading. You gotta admit, reading about a kid doing random wacky things is actually fun. So many things Rodrick does I wish I'll be able to do to my brother. Sigh.

I'm such an awful sister.

(But really, it's fun to have a younger brother to push around. I think little sisters might cry. Not that my brother isn't a total wimp, but you know.

All right, he's a total wimp.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I need to diversify.

Oh gosh, I need more time.

Gotta go now. Get started on some other book I picked up yesterday.

Arrivederci.

P.S. Mother's Day? Hmm.

Iron Man 2

The internet connection is acting especially awful tonight, and since I've nothing better to do, I decided to come here and finally get started on my seven hundredth post.

Seven hundred, baby.

Anyway, been up to quite a lot of slacking lately (id est, this afternoon).

Met Kelvin, Adithya, Wee Thean and Insan downstairs after my hurried, typo-filled blog post this morning.

Went to Clementi and saw this cat sleeping on top of a random POSB ATM. So adorable. (It's funny how this is so true. Yeah, I'm completely in love with XKCD at the moment. Simply genius.)

Adithya then left to for his class outing, and the rest of us took the MRT to Dhoby Ghaut.

Basically got tickets to Iron Man 2 at Cathay, had lunch at Plaza Singapura, spotted and then half-stalked the 01 people on their class outing, drooled over the awfully badass swords for sale at this awesomely cool sword shop, checked out the Yamaha store for the sake of it, went back to Cathay have Ben & Jerry's, wasted time hanging around some random gaming store, was tempted by laptop/phone/ipod case designs, watched 'Iron Man 2', and one afternoon was spent.

Iron Man 2 was awesome. I kid you not. Funny in all the right places; definitely entertaining and highly enjoyable. Should watch Iron Man some day.

Also planned to watch a few other movies together, such as 'Robin Hood', and can't-remember-what-else-'cause-my-brain-is-tired.

Went to Clarke Quay after that, and realised there was a Kinokuniya there. Browsed and browsed and avoided sections promoting the 'Twilight' series 'cause of the disturbingly large and high resolution close-up photos of Robert Pattinson's face.

Got myself four books. Will introduce tomorrow once I get started on 'em.

I think I spend too much on books. Bad bad bad, but hey, exams are over and I needed a treat (even though I don't genuinely feel as if I deserve it 'cause I think I didn't do so well).

Met up and then had dinner with Fatinn and Woan Chyi.

Laughed throughout dinner 'cause of Insan's constantly-interrupted "why-Insan-dislikes-dogs" story.

He starts off with, 'When I was small, and fat," and Fatinn and Woan Chyi crack up and don't stop laughing for a minute or so.

Ended up telling "you're so fat, ...." jokes.

The guys think it's a compliment to be called fat, 'cause they (Insan, Kelvin and Wee Thean) are all apparently underweight, and girls (yes I am a girl, accept the fact, won't you?) think that being called fat is a terrible thing.

Bleh, weight.

Anyway, brain is shutting down as I type, so better go off now.

Night.

P.S. Oh yeah, exams are still over.

P.P.S. "I'm sorry, it's your fault."

P.P.P.S. "That is not my bird."

P.P.P.P.S. That Ivan guy from Iron Man 2 can transform from revenge-bent Russian thug to bird-loving nerd just by putting on a pair of glasses. I like his glasses.

No backspacing.

Okay, before I start, here's the deal: No backspacing, as promised to Insan and Brendan (this sentence doesn't count).

Here we go.

EXAMS ARE OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVE R OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OVER OMG SO AWESOMELY HAPPY....for now.

Script-checking will be hell, but that's okay. WE've got seven weeks n of nothingness, man.

Now I'm waiting for Kelvin to text to see when or what time we're going out.

Oh God this blog post t is turning out into a mess 'cause I can't backspace and backspace is my friend. I always backspace. It's tu type a sentence, come up with soething mett better halfway, come back to it, backspace backspace.

Anyway, this time round, exams weren't so good.

English was meh, Math was the complete definition of hell, 'cause I didn't know a thing, left more than half o f it blank and unanswered, and am most definitely going to fail it. I'm not kidding you. It's true.

So so awful.

Malay was harder than expected, for some strange reason. Some people came up with their own peribahasa, and I guessed every single on e of my cloze passage. So brilliatn.

Physics was um... could be ebtter. Definitely. I'm going to fail the MCQ section.

Chem was okay0-ish as well, kinda, sorta, probably. Hope I get lucky.

Bio was awesome beyond b words. I love Bioe. And Geog. O Heck, geog was awesome. Now I can't decide which was awesomer, Bio or Geog.

I thnk Geog, 'cause I guessed the last question of Bio. Wrote down some retarded answer.

Now waiting to go out with a few of the hostel guys. M It's fnny that they take a longer time to change than I do.

Can tahnkfully not have hostel food tonight. Horrible, horrible hostel food.

I can't believe i Managed to survive exam week on hostel food. Heck.

Okay, better go now. This no-backspace thing is killing my senstence structure.

Bleh.

P.S. This is how messy my brain is whyen I first come up with things to type. And I can't spell, either. Thank God for spellchek.

Saya tidak suka trigo.

Mengikut adat (seperti peperiksaan akhir tahun tahun lalu), saya akan melatih penulisan saya dalam Bahasa Melayu di sini.

Sebelum saya bermula, saya hendak membuat pertaruhan bahawa saya akan membuat lebih dari dua puluh kesalahan tatabahasa dalam blog post (how on earth do you say "blog post" in Malay?) ini.

Saya rasa saya akan menggunakan banyak masa untuk menulis blog post ini. Bahasa Melayu saya memang tidak bagus.

Saya juga rasa bahawa ramai orang akan ketawa semasa membaca blog post ini. Untuk pengetahuan semua, saya rasa ia adalah tidak baik untuk ketawakan orang yang ingin memperbaiki diri mereka (sebenarnya saya akan ketawa juga jika orang lain membuat seperti saya ini).

Ketawalah. Saya mungkin tidak akan kisah.

Hari ini merupakan hari sebelum peperiksaan Mother Tongue (lidah ibu? Mejijikkan benar), dan Matematik.

GG.

Ramai orang tahu bahawa saya tidak suka matematik (ataupun ilmu hisab). Ramai orang juga berpendapat bahawa matematik adalah mata pelajaran yang paling senang. Saya tidak faham cara pemikiran orang yang berpendapat begitu.

Walaubagaimanapun, saya akan cuba dengan sedaya upaya untuk lulus dalam peperiksaan Matematik kali ini (yeah, right. Berserah kepada nasib sahaja. I'm so screwed. I don't seem to be able to process much about trigo, and that makes me very scared indeed).

Sesuatu perkara yang merupakan agak menghairankan ialah makanan malam hostel hari ini. Makanan Muslim dan Indian lebih nyaman daripada yang biasanya dibagikan. (Probably the first time ever in the history of the school we've fought for hostel food. Non-Muslim food sucked though, so Woan Chyi, Kelvin and I didn't touch a thing and stole sauce from Insan and Adithya.)

Mesti teruskan mengulangkaji Matematik.

Adieu.

P.S. Apologies to any non-Malay speaking people, but hey, time to try out translate.google.com. It's a fail.

P.P.S. Yes, Malay is exclusive. Admit it. Embrace the awesomeness.

Where The World Has No School

Rewriting (re-lyric-ing, actually) 'Where The Streets Have No Name', I'd do it like this:

Where The World Has No School

I want to run

I want to hide

I want to forget all this nonsense

And leave it behind

I want to go out

And break every rule

Where the world has no school

I want to feel

See the relief on my face

I see the test papers disappear

Without a trace

I want to take shelter from the sines and cosines

Where the world has no school

Where the world has no school

Where the world has no school

We're still studying

Then forgetting what we've learnt

Forgetting what we've learnt

And when I fail school

I fail it with you

It's all I can do

My brain's aflood

And my mind turns to rust

Freedom refrained by exams

No time for fun

I'll show you a place

Beyond wonderful

Where the world has no school

Where the world has no school

Where the world has no school

We're still studying

Then forgetting what we've learnt

Forgetting what we've learnt

And when I fail school

I fail it with you

It's all I can do

It's all I can do

All right, back to notes.

Konsentrasi.

Night.

P.S. Yeah, you saw it here first.

Influence.

That's it. I'm officially in love with U2 again.

Been listening to songs off YouTube (initially just wanted to watch music vids and live shows for a few songs 'cause for some reason I like to watch guys sing and play musical instruments).

Came across this live show of U2 performing 'Where The Streets Have No Name' and completely fell in love with it.

My dad owns a copy of 'The Joshua Tree' and we used to listen to it occasionally in the car. Yeah, his "play-in-car-with-daughter" CD collection is pretty limited; The Joshua Tree, (What's The Story) Morning Glory, Knockin' On Heaven's Door [Single], a few obscure jazz CDs, pirated burned-by-colleague compilations of songs with top guitar solos and riffs, that funky Indian-fusion one and probably a few more I can't quite recall at the moment.

My mum, on the other hand, has a Michael Bublé compilation CD, her "80's number 1s" compilation CD, ABBA Gold and Queen's 'Greatest Hits I' in her car, if you omit the childrens' songs CDs my brother used to listen to and I can't stand.

Hmm. My dad has the stranger taste in music here (more diverse, I like to call it), but my mum once told me she liked Justin Bieber's 'Baby', so I'm definitely siding my dad on that one. Also, I think my parents are pretty nostalgic, musically. I dunno. I think I'd be that way too, a decade or two from now.

I bet my dad's secretly glad that rock is and always will be my number 1 genre. It's all his fault any way.

I love my parents because they fully understand and support my love affair with music and rock bands.

I need to open up my eyes a little. (Technically I can't 'cause I'm Chinese, and Chinese have slitty eyes, but you get what I mean.)

Need to take up more things, need to improve.

Anyway, using earphones now, 'cause my headphones have been clamped over my ears for the entire day now (not counting lunch and dinner, of course) and my ears have started to ache a little.

I love my Skullcandy products.

Listening to songs is probably the only thing that's kept me awake through piles and piles of lecture notes.

And yes, I've been studying (depends on your definition of studying, really, but I do try, yes.)

Personally I think today's post is turning out quite good. Must be 'cause all my thoughts have been pent up all day.

Gotta go now.

Arrivederci.

P.S. U is less than 1.5.

P.P.S. The next race is Catalunya on the 8th, thankfully after exams. Been out of touch concerning F1 news lately.

P.P.P.S. Headphones give a more open sound, don't you think?