love today

I am young, so...

2009-04-05T22:16:00.001+08:00

I am young, so... I feel invincible!
Youth is short but so powerful - a time when many people hold the most dreams and desires; when one idealises and contemplates the future with optimistism and enthusiasm.

This is the time of our lives for us to do as many things that we want to - things that we would likely be unable to do as we grow older with age, or get involved in community activities and overseas trips that are all the rage at the moment. When we enter the working world, we become so caught up in work that, as much as we may want to do some things then, we never get to do so.
It is good to travel when one is young, because this would open one's mind much more to the world out there - outside tiny Singapore. Places where people speak a different language, have varied understandings on any particular subject, different cultures and food can give one a whole new perspective on the world out there. Exchange programmes give an excellent opportunity for undergraduates to do so, since living in an entirely new environment for several months to a year allows one to meet new people from all over the world, and sufficiently immerse oneself in another country's culture. Such opportunities fade as one starts working (with the exception of an overseas posting, perhaps), so this is definitely something one should do when young, if possible.

The same applies to anything else that you want to do - this is the time to do it!

2008-03-21T11:18:00.001+08:00

My "in-Tokyo" blog: HERE!

2008-02-02T23:02:00.000+08:00

Munching. delicious. melt-in-your-mouth. almond. cookies. as I'm typing this! Mum bought some back from JB that are oh-so-good (or is it because it's been a year since I last had some?). My favourite cny snack by a mile. Less than a week to the start eating, and eating, and...

2008-01-26T00:34:00.000+08:00

Thanks to barry's repeated nagging... I'm blogging!

It does seem that I haven't been taking the SMRT trains for a while - they apparently changed all the announcements and door-closing chimes - they now sound like the ding-dong that would (used to?) play when you enter a seven-eleven. Also the station-announcer now sounds like a Chinese girl trying her best to slang "Somerrrset" with an irritating and unnatural American accent. I'd shudder to think how "Toa Payoh" or "Ang Mo Kio" would sound like.

Was on my way to watch "The Mist" - which although was pretty much the nondescript thriller we all expected it to be UNTIL the twisted ending, which did a good job of leaving a rather deep impression that the entire movie would otherwise have been unable to without the ending.

Peeved because Djokovic beat Federer. And that my exchange university has yet to respond affirmatively despite it being nearly February already. And that everything seems to be becoming more expensive.

At least Maria Sharapova won the Australian Open weeks after seeing her live at the Indoor Stadium! (which I forgot to blog about)

Finally, I've added imeem - and got hooked onto a cover of an old song. Listen to it. You have to. Because it's on autoplay hehe. Unless you don't have flash (which is like how unlikely).

日本料理 overload!

2008-01-09T01:01:00.000+08:00

Over the past two days I've had:
ichiban sushi at mall (yesterday), sakae (i know i know, i've sworn off that place already but...) at compass for lunch today, and waraku at marina square for dinner!

Surprisingly i'm not sick of it at all yet (don't mind eating more tomorrow lol), good preparation for my exchange if it turns out eh?

2007-12-01T00:12:00.000+08:00

Semester 3 Exam Look-back

I realise every time I try blogging these days, I either

never finish the entry, resulting in it becoming just another of the many permanent "drafts" I have; or
forget what I had meant to blog about.

I've not seen undoable exam papers until this semester - two in fact - both of which frankly were not difficult ("tutorial-questions standard"), but I still had no idea how to do the questions! Despite having gone through the tutorials. I know this must mean that I'm inadequately prepared, but this time, it does seem I'll be punished. Big time.

6: The number of papers I had to take.
4: The number of days my exams were spread over.
2: The number of days on which I had two papers.
1: The number of handphones that rang loud and clear in the middle of an exam. Surprisingly few this semester - maybe all the students wisened up? The phone rang thrice though; the ringtone: Michael Jackson's "Black or White". Must have been a real Jacko fan eh.

2007-10-06T23:52:00.000+08:00

Arts Canteen Bashing (Part two)

Friday afternoon at the arts canteen. Noon.
"Lunch crowd". Queues were short, even yong tau hu had less than ten ppl in line. hongwei, cheryl & i could not get turned on by any of the food at all, so we decided to *gasp* defect to business canteen! Which turned out to be a good choice foodwise - except that it was twice as crowded!

Looks like people have finally gotten over the new canteen hype (remember the first couple of weeks in school - it was near impossible to eat at arts) and realised that the standard of food there, is, simply, bad. It's a sad truth, that our once-glorious canteen had deteriorated to such a state, but it has. Hopefully NUSSU or someone realises and decides to start a petition to improve the food. Thankfully business is nearby enough...

Fri night - Pat's birthday treat at sushi tei. Probably that's the only restaurant that I can safely "introduce" people to... haha. Inexpensive + reasonably good. It isn't difficult to convert them, especially if they'd been eating the crap at sakae all this while... You deserve better! Yes, you!

Anyways it was a good day to unwind - too slack to take any photos. There was this pretty China waitress this time too... too bad she's cheena. Here's the only one of the seafood kaminabe (from the summer promotion menu). Prawns, scallops, crab, salmon, vege and mushrooms in sweet miso stock. Not bad. =)

~~I can't seem to get a cbox up and going... it screws with the template for some reason.~~

I just did heh.

2007-10-03T22:06:00.001+08:00

I (think I've) finally realised today why I've been finding the rebuilt arts canteen so lacking... Feeling a bit hungry after the test (don't we always do?), I was suddenly craving for some wan tan mee and a dose of vinegared green chilli! So I trotted down to the uninspiringly-named "Noodles" stall, only to find that they only sold bar chor mee and fish ball mee. How disappointing! How can a canteen be without wan tan mee!? Come to think of it, there isn't chicken rice either is there? *shakes head*

And bring back Olive Cove! I need the potato/waldorf/pasta salads for a good post-lunch or pre-dinner filler. Two of my fave stalls from the old canteen - gone for good. Looking for the fried beef kway teow too... the stall's gone but I heard it's still available somewhere... other than that I'm really not turned on by school food this sem at all. Maybe it's cos of the workload...

Three mid-terms in three days. One more (big bad one) to go. Just a slight sense of relief that they're over.

2007-09-17T21:01:00.000+08:00

Absolutely can't stop munching on the honey roasted and plain unsalted macadamia nuts my aunt brought back from Down Under! Chocolate may make most people happy, but I realise it's the nuts that make me lose myself. Pure bliss. Though momentary. Great after a long day at school.

My list of fave nuts!
1. Macadamias (any way. heavenly with chocolate)
2. Walnuts (best honey-coated! or in a waldorf salad)
3. Almonds
4. Pecans (with choc chip cookies!)
5. Pine Nuts (great with pasta and ice-cream!)
6. Cashews (CNY fave!)
7. Hazelnuts (always with chocolate)
8. Peanuts (anytime. cheapest. wahaha)

Was quite blur at school today, after two brain-draining back-to-back lectures perhaps. Had to have grace prompt me about people whom I should be recognising and saying hi to all day haha.

Speaking of blur...

Lord I need to find,
Someone who can heal my mind
I'm waiting for that feeling,
Waiting for that feeling to come

休み、速く来て!

2007-09-16T13:49:00.000+08:00

Can finally breathe a bit after helplessly watching the past five weeks zoom past like nothing at all, despite the disgusting five-day timetable. Workload's tonnes more than I've ever had - totally behind in every mod. Although I've always been behind... this time I'm really/absolutely/shockingly behind. Only been for ONE lecture all sem for EC2102. Haven't read a single JS2228 or PS1101E reading. EC3101's so abstract and mathematical, it's scary. EC3303's wrought with statistical difficulties. A great sem this will be.

Bleaker things aside, Mine (say mee-nay) from Osaka exchange last year came to town to visit with his friend on Monday! Brought them around school for a while before joining them for a short dinner at some place I've never been to (outside Kent Ridge Terminal). We still can't communicate very well in Japanese (or English for that matter), which isn't very encouraging when I should have improved after another sem of Japanese... He kindly agreed to pass a letter and some stuff to my host family for me (after so so long) when he got home, but he told me on MSN later that they had moved house already apparently! The grandparents still live there though, so my letter might just get through...
Desmond left for his four-month long exchange to Switzerland on Sunday night, so it'll be a while before we'll have any class "outings" eh? haha. Hope he'll enjoy himself (of course he will) and come back with loadsa stories/photos to share.

Totally k-o'ed after coming back from the not-so-nice dinner last night (lucky the company made up for it), just dozed off minutes after plonking myself onto the sofa (which never happened to me before). Really need a break eh. A long one. Now. Not in two weeks.

And.
I found a nice skin, orange and black and with a guitar =)
A happy ending for a post with a depressing-sounding start, no? Not sure what's with the "you and I both loved" tho.