// what do you believe in? //



Since young, I have always believed that whatever that happens is a result of our own actions.

In other words, our destiny is in our own hands.

However, as I grew older, I realised that the world is not so simple.

People's mentality change as they age.

Things which will happen happens and there's no control over it.

The mistakes we made will make us look back and realise the causes and how we could have prevented it but there's no way you could have known it beforehand.

So? is this called destiny?

Many encouraging phrases by famous philosophers, theologians, ex-world leaders, ex-US presidents...people who supposedly have weathered turmoils and turbulents.
"Failure is the mother of success"
"The process is more important than the result"
and so on. which I cannot think of at the moment.

If you win, you win. Could it be due to luck and destiny?
You lose, you lose. if you keep losing, it is wise that you accept that your are born loser.
Everyone knows to win is better than to lose.
But why are some people trying to prove the contradictory I have no idea.

Being sceptical, I cannot help but think they are simply phrases of self-consolation.

//back from kenshu//

I'm finally back to my comfortable home after spending 3 days at my religion's student camp.
BAck to water heater, laptop and TV!

Oh and, just in time to check out my results.

I hate getting Cs!
REally.
I wonder if the day of not seeing any C in my results slips will ever come?

At the same time, I'm rather happy to get a A- for intro to psychology!
yea! =)
hmm..makes me wonder if i should take up a minor.
Just for interests' sake ?
But my core mods will surely suffer. maybe a couple more Cs next time.
OK I JUST HATE Cs.
Super frustrated cuz the subject I spent the MOST time on reaped a Ccccccc.
=(
Like I think I have blogged last time, I should have remembered to bring a watch to that killer exam!
Full of regrets now =(
Or else I could have gotten at least a B-?



Goal for next sem: To achieve grades higher than C for all the mods.

-YONG JA- GO- YONG GAN de NINJA!-
(my kenshu group)

// out and out //

Last week, I was kept busy slacking at home.

The following pic explains it.

The best thing was that I got to meet up with christy for a long-awaited sushi feast.

Bonus: Bolt

Was debating between watching bolt and 4christmases.

The bottomline: Pigeons are dumb. Don't be too naive.

Haha!

Eat like there's endless food.

Chat like there's no tomorrow =)

This week, it was rather fun as I visited new places.

-Sunday-

It's to explore quaint, suburban town of Yew Tee.

Hmm...I wonder why, but I developed a fondness for that place even though I have never really step foot on that place.

Usually I will need to travel past the mrt station to get to school.

I think it's rather special because it's a relatively quiet place linking between the rowdy Kranji race course and the equally crowded Chua Chu Kang.

And on sunday, I finally got to visit the Yew Tee central, which is nothing like a shopping centre.

But I've got to say, the chicken cutlet noodles from the food court's taiwan stall IS serioously delicious.

I mean.. yes the cutlet is crispy, but the noodles are superb.

I have never eaten such 'QQ' noodles, so full of bite and succulent.

It's a hidden treasure I managed to uncover. lol. =D

Anyway, I was thrown off the track by the thought of those noodles.

And not to mention, I especially like the view from weiqi's 16th storey unit!

Everything on the ground, every building faraway seems so minute.

I had a sudden feeling as though I was living in the clouds.

Ok, perhaps just a hallucination.lol.

And, haha, I couldn't believe it, I tried chiku for the first time.

I mean, I have heard about the fruit, maybe more than 10 times.

I remember, in primary school, the science questions sometimes involved classifying chiku in a Venn diagram or something like that.

And, when people want to name fruits after alphabets, they'll go..

A is for Apple.

B is for Bananas.

C is for Chikus....

Don't they?

They tasted quite nice and I couldn't believe my ears when meiting said there were chiku trees growing in aj and she used them in elementz lab last time.

Haha. I am such a frog in the well.

I checked with my mum and she certified that she have never bought them before.

I asked why?

"Last time in kampong, we used to eat alot of chikus and it was free, fresh from the trees. I see no reason to pay for it now. anyway, it's rather hard to find in supermarts"

What a reason.

Mystery solved.

Oh ya, I never read chinese books unless I'm required to.

But the book by Jimmy is really nice.

I feel like re-reading it.

Thanks, wq =)

-Monday-

It's the once-in-a-school-break ktv session with lynette, christabel and rou hua.

It's also the first time I heard someone I know (rh) singing jap songs.

Hmm..so pro =)

Lynette just came back from Taiwan and Christabel is going Korea.

It's like everyone's going overseas.
Hmm...rather envious because I have never been to those two countries before.

Out of nowhere, I formed some warped theory. lol

My (warped) theory:

If you have never been to a country and you heard your friends talking about going to that particular country.

Level of envy: 90%

If you have been to a country and enjoy being there, and you heard your friends talking about going to that particular country.

Level of envy: 70%

If you have been to a country and did not really enjoy being there, and you heard your friends talking about going to that particular country.
Level of envy: 10%

-Tuesday-

Went to the library to get some books.

I managed to borrow Neil Humphreys' Final notes from an island, and the latest CSI book.

And several Ian Rankin's mysteries.

-Wednesday-

It's another rare meet-up with my xinmin friends.

I finally had a chance to eat Ajisen Ramen for the first time.

The waitress at the square2 branch was especially helpful and nice.

She even offered us iced water when she noticed we finished our iced tea.

We also bought a small but pretty bouquet of roses for suyee.

The shop owner was especially kind to explain to us each kind of flower he used.

Baby's Breath- I finally know what it's called!

Went for suyee's chinese orchestra at nyp.

The conductor is so charming! omigosh.

He even interact with the audience by asking us to clap or say 'ee-haw' whenever he points his baton at us during the song.

I especially enjoyed the Beatles's medley. and the 'ju hua tai' too!

All those never-die classics.

A 'western styled' chinese orchestra,

that's what I can say.

-Thursday-

It's the MSE gang's one-day trip to Malaysia.

Of course when we're there, we have to take advantage of the low exchange rate and go for anything that is cheaper than in Singapore.

It's the first time I watched a RM6 movie. It's sooo cheap i can't believe it.

However, the screen turned blur at several instances.

And there were only chinese and malay subtitles.

Luckily I could understand Jim Carrey.

Anyway, It's so comical that I was laughing until I was tearing.

Jim Carrey IS fantastic.

BE A YES MAN. lol.

Then, we went to the Ktv, which was more roomy than Singapore.

In fact, I think it's because Malaysia has much more land than Singapore, that's why I find

everything there is larger than Singapore, take shopping centres as a common example.

To top it off, we ended the trip by going for zhi-char style food.

I tried the fried cereal crayfish..weird combi but tasty nontheless.
I think their stir-fried baby kailan is fresher than what you can find in Singapore.

After being to Malaysia so many times, I seriously think their veggies are fresher and tastier than Singapore's.

If Singaporean kids do not like veggies, who knows? trying them in Malaysia might just change their mind about greens.

Yea. I bought scones and egg tarts from 'Season' too.

A must-buy!

-Friday-

Paid S$6 to find out the hype about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series.

Sometimes, it's good to be a student.

You can just flash your ez-link card to be entitled to many discounts.

Haha. The econs term is 'price discrimination'.

Anyway, next time when I graduate... everything and everywhere will be adult-priced

and the best (and cheapest) entertainment is probably renting dvds to watch at home.

Oops..i sound like NO MAN.lol.

Okay, back to Twilight.

Even though I have never read the book before, I had this feeling that the book would be much more interesting than the movie.

Ya, a bit disappointing.

I think it's rather bland and unconvincing.

However, I must say that it won't be easy to convert such books on supernatural beings into a movie. The director probably had a headache trying to find a cast of convincing vampires.lol.

Oh well, I don't even know if I would watch the second instalment of the series when it comes out.

-Saturday-

I was late for the baking session with debbie and hui ling.

When I reached deb's place, she was squeezing some coffee cream mixture onto some buns while hl was rolling some dough.

Haha. Truth be told, it was the first time I went anywhere near the oven.

Deb is so pro and skilful with the dough whereas hl and I were struggling.haha.made some really awful ones.

Anyway, Deb encouraged us and we made some nice ones. Nice ones that can be showed at the party.

Deb's mum came into the kitchen and asked us what was that (the awful-looking ones).

hl and I was, like, hmm..those are our 'creations'. I guess those were really beyond recognition =X

Haha. In the end, hl and I took our 'creations' home. 'Creations' that I'll rather not be proud of.

Aiya, too bad hl couldn't make it for the gathering due to a wedding dinner...but haha we know that she'll probably meet sy in korea.

And, yes, hl is going to korea with christabel and a few other uni friends.

Haha. Singapore is indeed very small. Two of my friends who didn't know each other earlier on ended up in the same course.

Anyway, I was late for the gathering as I had to go home to shower and change.

Mel said something like, my presence is a once-in-a-year phenomena.

Come to think of it, it was rather true.

Anyway, it would suffice for me.

I was expecting a buffet-style dinner, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw my ex-classmates seated in a restaurant style.

But it was rather nice, I might as well describe it as alfreso-dining style.

Complete with candles, nice music and elegant ambience.

In fact, jiayi's place is really elegant and nice.

No doubt it was not easy organising a pot-luck party and I thought jiayi and suelynn did a nice job =)

Then we had to wait for andee for the gift exchange...and he appeared rather late =(

I think those of us taking public transport were at the risk of missing our last buses and trains.

Perhaps it was worth it because he was up to his (un)usual antics, I think everyone present yesterday will definitely remember what he bought for the gift exchange.lol.

Lucky deb =X

//the best drama//

I'm abit slow..but this show is fantastic.

moonlight resonance.

//back from KL //

Actually our mini getaway was to my uncle's house in KL.
Oh and can you believe it, his house is so near to Zoo Negara, Malaysia's national zoo.
I mean, in Singapore, our zoo is at such a ulu place where nobody stays.
In KL, however, you can find residentials near the zoo.
According to my uncle, the animals there are underfed and malnourished, so we did not visit the zoo.
The nice part of it is that we could see giraffes walking about the back of the house. (of course there were fences)
The downside is that we could hear threatening lion roars and elephant screeches.
Not to mention the pungent smell of animal manure occasionally drifts into the house.
yucks.
lol.

Other than indulging in shopping, the highlight of the trip is going up the Petronas Twin Tower!
Actually, we just went up to the skybridge at the 41st floor. (The whole tower is about 81 storeys high)
Of course it isn't the highest in Asia already. (Taiwan's 101 building has taken over)
My mum and aunt kept saying the skybridge was swaying but I didn't feel any movement.
Perhaps it's all in their mind la.

Anyway, when the staff showed us some introductory video about the Petronas company, my sis and I felt it was so ironic.
Just one day ago, my uncle drove to a petrol station to pump his car but guess what?
The station staff said there was no petrol!
haha first time we're seeing a petrol station with no petrol for sale.
And it was not only one petrol station but the whole stretch of petrol stations.
Shell had no petrol, neither had Exon Mobil, Petronas or Berhad BHD.
It was until we reach the second Petronas station when there was finally a few pumping stations with petrol.

Later in the day when we went to this Jusco shopping centre, electricity was down when I was trying on some shoes.
The whole shopping centre was thrown into darkness save for a few dim lights in the department store.
All the other shops was in pitch darkness.
If there were dishonest people or thieves around, they could probably get a really fat loot.

As my uncle says, "Malaysia, no petrol, no electricity"

Another thing to mention is their confusing LRT systems.
At one platform, there can be two trains travelling in two different lines.
The catch is to look at the words shown on the front of the first cabin.
At first we did not know about this and caught the wrong train twice!
There was no different colour codes or whatsoever.
haha and I couldn't make any sense out of the malay words.

In Singapore, our LRT trains are colour-coded yet so many people still took the wrong one.
Are we so pampered?

By the way, the traffic conditions in KL is terrible, with jams everywhere.
Sometimes, the lights only allowed time for two cars to drive through.
I really admire the drivers there who have special adaptations abilities.
To avoid such long queues of cars, many of them skilfully did a U-turn, albeit illegally.
Anyway, knowing the kind of traffic police they have, most likely there will be no penalty.
Pedestrains are really bold to cross the roads in front of snaking queues of cars.
And the drivers are good at estimating the distance between the car and pedestrain to avoid knocking them down and at the same time move in the queue swiftly.

Overall, it's not too bad an experience, except for the fact that the bus operator cheated our feelings and money. They promised to let us alight at Kovan bus terminal but just before the Woodlands checkpoint came the annoucement that all will be getting down at woodlands checkpoint as the bus will not be going through the custom.
I bet that driver did not have a malaysian passport. (which by the way cost RM300)
That explains why we were issued new bus tickets (when we had already got on the bus) which was imprinted with RM 39 instead of the RM50 we paid.
Great. they have destroyed any evidence that we could use for lodging a complaint.
Having taken a 830pm bus, we were left stranded at wdl checkpoint at 2am.
What a nice end to the journey.