Footprints

Summer Reviews

Flying off on MAS tomorrow evening at 2055H.

Looking back on this unproductive summer, I do realise that I do not wish for the holidays to be any longer, even though the rotting feeling has been nice =) As what Shilie says, there is probably not going to be another such chance in my entire life, save for retirement to do what I had done this summer, or rather... to have NOT done anything this summer =PpP

Going back in time, even after I've landed, I did not particularly feel a strong sense of 'I am home!' Probably because at that time, no one was airport to fetch me. (Well, I sort of deserved it. I didn't tell anyone that I am coming home ha~)

I believe the only productive, or useful thing I did out of Singsoc was to help with 'Cheng Yi' by coming up with the PowerPoint. I am pretty sure that anyone else could have came up with the Presentation. Jiaying basically was trying to find some excuse to get me involved. Were you?

Singapore Society stuff only kicked off after the rest of the guys came back from their travels. After the first meeting in July, and after the freshers' email replies start flooding in, my heavy duty work finally started. Compilation of details, Sojourn meetings, sentosa outings, UK Bound preparation, Traders Hotel meetup, pre Departure talk, UK Bound and then finally Sojourn. Phew.. long list to an otherwise uneventful summer.

Well, even though I currently wish for time to pass so that I am on my flight back to London once again, I would definitely miss the sunny volleyball days at Sunset bay, walking back to Hougang from Jurong with Jeftor and Jerome while humming all the Chinese Pop Songs, or all the hours we spent rotting out somewhere... beit at Shilie's place watching F1, or shaking our legs and talking loudly at the neighbourhood Kopi Tiam.

Oh well, keep dreaming then. See you guys next summer. Ciao~

Shopping

That is something I dun like to do, but sometimes, the necessity simply arises. Dragged myself out of bed early this morning to NUS to have lunch with Zhongwang and Shilie. The last time I am going to meet this Alien King before I make my way back to London. As usual, guys talk means lotsa crap.

Went downtown after that. Bought the RJ45 cables (10 metres worth, just in case the house that we have is too big... though remotely likely), met Sinyee and gotten Esther's pillow from her (and yes, that pillow is going to make its way into my lugguage space) and then went stationary shopping with Shilie. Gotten most of the stuff I need, and I shall commence some serious packing this evening after I visit my grandmother.

Sick

Having a bout of rashes and fever... just came back home with an armload of medicine... (no it isn't SARs dun worry... I just hope I recover fast from this... can't blog much, going to dose myself with litres of skyjuice (water) now...

Pointer Magazine

Received this email from one of the clerks relaying a message to me...

Dear Sir, as an overseas scholar, AMD hopes that you could represent the department and contribute articles to the Pointer magazine, and hopefully impart some of the experiences you absorbed overseas to other readers. Thank you

Lets get things right. Firstly, has anyone considered my pathetic command of my Ang Mo language, and secondly, most of the officers who read Pointer are overseas scholars, so what is there for me to impart to them?

Ponders

Ranking

Not bad... Hwachong, for the first time in many years, managed to shake off RJ and clinch the sole top position.
As for Catholic, not bad too =) Improving steadily ever since my batch left =P

2nd day of departure

Just gotten back home from the airport, sending off Danielle, Zhenhao and Huiyuan. Tired, eager to go back to London, and at the same time, reluctant to leave my sheltered harbour here.

Sigh...

The new cycle begins

Went to the airport to send Fengqian off to LSE, before trodding over to T2 to send Peida, Clement, Jianzhong, Fengtian and Gwen back to London. It will be my turn next Wednesday. Time to study and time to mug.


As Yuxiang and me were on our way back, we were discussing what we have done over this summer. Conclusively, if not for Sojourn and the rest of the Singsoc stuff, I would have rotted the summer away.

Deprive

Life is hard when you are bored without anything constructive to do. However, when your laptop decides to go down on you at this point of time, life can become utmost miserable. Luckily for me, I will be getting back my laptop today. Back in action.

Post Sojourn Sojourn

Dark Elves Group


Yup the final note for Sojourn 2003 has finally been played, and I am pretty sure everyone enjoyed themselves. (Perhaps save for some people who were freaked out by the drinking nite =P).

After a short debrief in the morning, (of which surprisingly, there were still a lot of freshers left! Yay!), we made our move for Harbourfront Makan Center. Dispairingly, it rained (again) on our way there. Lousy weather... Pigged and talked till it was noon before leaving for home. Meanwhile, got to know the remaining freshers better.

On the way back on NEL with Eewen, it kinda reminded me of the previous year's Sojourn, where Zhichen was with me on bus 82 back home, with him bombarding me with all the questions regarding the girls from my batch =P. I think the entire Sojourn Camp might have been a lot more fun if not for his absence.

Sojourn Day 2!

Woke up (groggy), and prepared for Beach games. However, this time, the weather didnt agree with our plans... and having a bad morning anticipating rain, it finally game after the first game got underway. Three legged soccer was a disaster I think, especially since Ira completely blocks the ball and our view when he comes in between =PpP.

Poison Ball: Not that bad, considering that my ploy (of getting the ball stuck on top of the coconut tree to delay time) worked =P and we won that game =PpP

Milky way: Somehow, things didnt work out the way we wanted it to go, and we didnt get anyone through the final line. Nevertheless, I think all of us had lotsa fun with that game hehe.. wet and happy. Objective met =PpP

Senior v.s. Junior water captain ball match was a hit, though the audience seems to be more than a little bored =P. Splashed and screamed and laughed our hearts out during the game, and of course, with the Ironman Mingjie on our side, the seniors won... =P

Afternoon went by so fast that I didnt even notice it. After setting up the Imperial Guards platform, I was so cold and hungry that I seeked refuge from the chalet. Was banned from returning to help by Bingrong, and after taking 2 panadols, I was forced to either rest or be sent home =(. Got up in time to help out with the campfire.

After the spicy buffet and entertaining, corny skits put up, the revelation of secret pals took place. It ranged from boring, common proposals to the elaborate, hilarious declarations. Highly entertaining hour spent, and I believe that everyone were much, much closer to one another after this.

After that, drinking session. Shall not go into too much details of the antics of the drunk people =PpP

Sojourn Day 1 !

Yes! (exubulent) It is finally over! Had lots of fun over the last couple of days, and got to know my freshers so much better.

Arrived in Sentosa after a sleepless night (excited), and went to Sentosa early to help with the unloading of the equipment. Went without breakfast, as usual, and grabbed a McMuffin before entering the island. The final bit of preparation went on smoothly, and choas reigned only after the freshers came. We then started on the ice breakers. Woah... didnt know some of the seniors are so pro, e.g. Zhenhao =PpP

Yup... anyway got to know the people from my OG... Raymond, Ee Wen, Zi Ming, Naiyan, Lionel, Ziyang...
Painted flag, (best flag anyway =P), ate lunch, talked a bit before the Land games begin! Chair crossing, bunker web (with a great test of my waist power), toothpaste game, passing the dumb bomb, Flour game and Biting that apple game =P All of us got wet and dirty and happy after that haha~

After all those excitment, comes more excitment in the form of War Game! Too bad I was pulled away to prepare for the Haunted house that night. Surprisingly, this batch of freshers are brave!! They dun seem to get unnerved by what we have inside. Even Jerome's antics failed to get most of their screams.

Yah... after the night walk the day ended with the usual Singsoc game: Polar Bear (-_-"). Why does it always end up with that I wonder =PpP

Pre Sojourn Sojourn

Monday:
Blues... didnt really function today... met the programmers in the afternoon to finalise stuff, and ended up calling the freshers one by one to inform them of their Secret Pal stuff. That lasted for quite a while, and I ended up turning up late for the ExCo meeting... That meeting ended late as well, and my brain juices were kinda dry by the time I left for home.

Tuesday:
The sun and the beach again! Its probably the last Sentosa Volleyball session that we are going to have, since Wenbin and Siangbin are going to return to London a couple of days after Sojourn. Shagged myself out over volleyball, soccer and fresbie, before rushing over to Alvin's place for a brief session of Warcraft III. Then there was again another mad rush to the train station to get to Kuala Lumpur.

Wednesday:
I am usually clear when I get off the train. Perhaps it was due to a lack of something to read / do, thus resulting in me sleeping through the entire 3 hours before Esther came to get me. Yawnz... Anyway she finally did come around 1030, and our first stop was to get the three heavy weight books for my precious juniors heh... then lunch (sushi, what else?) and then the cantonese version of turn left turn right. Shopped around a bit after that, and gotten a few cute stuff (her definition =P) for my room, including a Kukumalu notice board. Cute~

Thursday:
This is when the mad rush begins. Have to get back my laptop from Alvin's place, check mails (42 unread), buy stuff, print stuff, and even as I am bloggin now, my poor printer skating left and right, churning out more pieces of paper =P. I hope that all will be fine for the next 3 days!

And now, Sojourn begins!

Mid Autumn Festival

THE event of the summer in Hwachong. It was quite a disappointment though.. all the performance standards dropped. Even the light up was not as spectacular as those of the previous years. Nevertheless, those are not important.

Meeting my old friends after so long was the important thing... Sang... danced... went crasy together like the good old days... Maybe in our case, we were never meant to be parallel lines.

Parallel lines might meet, someday

I thought this was a nice show, even though there are some parts of the story which does not fit in with the original plot from the book. Nevertheless, I do think it is true. If fate holds, even parallel lines might meet someday. Beit via a lousy earthquake...

I am Back!

Yo.. After spending the last 2 days in Kuala Lumpur, and coming back and spending another half a day sleeping, its time to restart what I stopped doing! *drum rolls*

Bum!

Yah thats right. Whats new? Went over to Jerome's place to meet the mech eng people and the freshers, and ended up tearing down Jerome's house with terrible singing, of which most of it was contributed by the host ironically. More or less enjoyed myself, given that it was a last minute thing =PpP

Going for dinner with Jeftor later, perhaps the last dinner we are going to have together before he flies back to London.

Northward Bound (Again)

Hey, I am off towards Kuala Lumpur again. Wun be around for the next 2 days, see you guys on Thursday =)

BBQ and being BBQed

5th Sept: Went over to Shilie's place for a little get together session. Its only after upon arrival that it is really a little get together. Only Jeftor and me represented the ex-freshers. SOme of the seniors came as well, but well.. where are the rest? The food was great, the charcoal was amazing.. and had some fun. Played cards and majong, and finally after everyone else left and only the three of us nutters are left, we started on Playstation II. =PpP And we played through the night...

6th Sept: Slept. What else do you expect me to do?

7th Sept: Sentosa! Its the last recce before the actual thing. We walked throught the most important station, and made sure that everyone is familiar with it... Then we got down to the beach to construct the platform for Imperial Guards. The initial buildup was a flop though. However, we managed it on the second attempt, and all was well! Of course, we don't end the day there without the usual frisbee and volleyball session at Sunset Bay =P. Went for dinner (and I mean loads of it) at Harbour Front Hawker Center, and left that place at 10.

Great weekend.

UK Bound !!

One more summer event has been organised, and even though we did not meet our targeted attendance, it was nevertheless, still a great success!

Met up early at 1830 to prepare for the things. Set up booths... set up band... set up everything else.... and the girls even managed to dress themselves up 'retro-ly', even though we have feedback that Velma looks like Velma from Scooby-Doo =P

Yup.. and the bash kicked off at 2200H. Well, I didnt get to see most of the action since I was stationed at the booth, but Fenghuai and me managed to sneak off after the queue subsided and went to take a look at the crasy people inside.

All went well.. and everything ended without much of a hiccup at 3am. ~Yawn~ Homebound... =)

Doubts

Its a 24 hour countdown to UK Bound, and the ticket sales does not seem very promising.
Have to get a lot more tickets to survive and not lose money.
Getting real worried.

Velma

Oh Yes, and how could I have forgotten...

Happy Birthday Velma =)

Marathon

Sunday: Sinyee treated the Mech Eng gang and Ken and me to dinner at Fatties, for topping her course =P We made her splurge $160 of her 500 pounds on us greedy pigs =P. Haha... Went to Suan's house after that to watch soccer. It is kind of satisfying to see Man Utd lose (after seeing Liverpool getting a 3-0 win). Muhaha... *evil~*

Monday: Met up with Eik Sheng and Philis for breakfast early in the morning. Philis just came back to Singapore after her tour of KL, and will be returning to Hong Kong in the evening. Eik drove us up to Mt Faber. Even though I am true blue Singaporean, I regret to announce that this is my first time up that hill =P. A short Sentosa drive through tour follows.

Lunch was with Yuxiang and Kenneth, and of course with our pampered guest for the day. Had sushi (Yes, and I am getting rather sick of that) and was treated to a lunchtime story of Yuxiang and his amazing tour of duty. Yup, but with Yuxiang around, you can never feel bored. Walked around with Ken and Philis for a while around Bugis, helped her to do her last bit of shopping to bring back to HK, before Ken drove us over to the airport. Yup, Bon Voyage Philis.

Sub Note: I can't find Esther throughout the day, and she and her family is not back from Cameron Highlands... Sure AM getting a little worried... =(