hrm, have just changed skin. am using this one till find ideal background then will commission chan/liz/whoever to customise for me. but presently will do with this. alterations to come in future.

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

hello again! how are you? and how are you? terribly sorry as have not been blogging for these past few weeks, school's been just up in my face, screaming at me to wake up. hell, am in sec 4 this year and can't believe it. like sean said (met him today at the bus interchange), he can't get used to the idea that we're all in sec 4. then said that when we get to j1 (or whatever who's going where) we'll still think we're 16.


recently, my com went all whack and now have lost all bookmarks and everything, again. am so tired of this. everytime i build up a list that vaguely resembles the last one the thing crashes in due time. it's not like i download rubbish or anything. bloody hell.


many things have happened since the last time i blogged. of course, many things seemed to have happened all at once since christmas. eldred's gone to toronto, my sis has gone back to london, am getting chinese remedial from my cousin/aunt/both, christmas was nice although quiet (and my grandma makes wicked rendang) and the christmas mass was... think i should shut up now.


if you haven't noticed, this is my blog so i get to be self absorbed (shut up sam, you are so lame!) ok? got alot of nice things for christmas. very nice, i should say. money (how can that not be a good thing for me right now?), the odd photoframe and bedsheet, a piece of wire bent to form my name that's supposed to be used as a bookmark (always wanted one of those), an lotr postcard from NZ (thanks mum!), a set of PotC postcards (thanks chan!), black feather earrings (thanks mavis!), parchment paper (thanks steph!), a stuffed jack skellington (love you jenny!), a HMV voucher that i need help spending (any volunteers?), the quotable sandman (thank you amanda and rosie!!!)and... Stardust, the illustrated one Gaiman did with Charles Vess. autographed by the man himself. you see, my sister was in london and he was touring so... thank you so much tor! i love you!


and so we move on from christmas. i hear from jenny that her cousin saanthiya (and the whole of that bit of the family) is moving to houston at the end of this year. daaaammnn, wish she could stay. she's a fantastic person, always willing to help and the sort you should meet a least once in your life. here's her blog add: www.boredom-ville.blogspot.com. take care saanthiya, promise us you'll visit...


am thinking about not writing again, till after my 'o's or at least for a few months. have just enough time to squeeze in all my work, let alone posting on my blog.


and oh yes. merry (belated) christmas, happy (belated) new year and of course, happy (be-earlied) birthday to all.

bought a lollipop from ntuc today, the giant type about the size of my palm. went around licking it in an attemp to finish it in one day. cannot lah, it's damn big. got up to the point where my tongue started to bleed. when my cousin saw it she thought it was the dye from the lolly itself because my whole touge was red. ouch. it's a good thing i rather like the taste of blood. so had a hard time trying to eat dinner, especially the curry.


lesson learned today: never eat curry when your tongue is bleeding. or put curry on any open wound for that matter.

am blogging on my sister's lap top. yes, my home computer's down, (again!) but at least i'm not one of those who're dependent on the com, sure i can live without it. gets a bit piss-offing at some times but is ok.


as you have gathered, my sister's home, yay! she only comes back about once a year, think my parents so rich is it? can send her back and forth? she hasn't changed very much, of which i am happy to say. she does weird things sometimes though, like sticking her hand out the window before going out, to check the temperature because she's so used to having to do things like that in london. there sure is odd weather over there.


yay! have just watched return of the king! actually was supposed to see it with eldred but he went for the freaking GALA PREMIER so i brought my sister instead. damn, the movie is good! the trilogy is something everyone should watch at least once. am going to borrow eldred's FotR and TT when he gets them back. anyone up for a marathon? have to say though, i am very sad it's all over. an epic adventure to end all adventures has been made by the genius who goes by the name of peter jackson. somebody, give this guy an oscar!


i've had so many things to blog down, especially since with the crazy computer that's gone down (again!). but i can't seem to remember it all now. oh yes, nearly forgot to mention. steph came up with the brilliant idea of doing CIP hours this month for next year, so that we don't have to squeze them in during our practicals. so now i'm rushing through 36 hours of kettling down at orchard mrt. if you don't know what that is, it's the salvation army ringing bell thing. can get damn boring after 2, maybe 3 hours or so but it's rather fun people watching lah, it's a good spot for it after all. there're also the random few people one of us know who stop by (well duh, it's orchard mrt after all...) who want to ring the bell and just talk to us for a few minutes. i reckon we see someone we know or an ij girl and average of every hour or so.


oh yes. was supposed to say something about clay aiken's album? got it when mum got her david tao cd. he (aiken, not tao) can sing fantastically well. but he has really odd songwriters. i don't know why they don't want to write something that can show the extent of his talent, i mean how far can ballads go? by the way, he's working with the same people who work with westlife...


am having a very bad sore throat. couldn't sing for carolling today, sometimes had to switch down to the alto part (the bits that i know lah, in any case) because got a lot of notes i cannot reach. so it's a good thing i'm standing at the extreme side of my section, right next to an alto. for the past couple of days people can only hear 3 words out of a sentence that i say, it's that bad. on the phone it's worse. and erm, i seem to have passed it on to my sister. opps.


on a more serious note, everyone please pray for amelia's mother, who passed away recently. let us hope that she may find peace. you know, i once read somewhere that there's this legend about death. death is a person so heartbreakingly beautiful that once you see death, you fall in love so hard that your soul is pulled out through your eyes. that's an interesting way to go, to say the least.

Travelling in London is like a game of russian roulette. You never know what you're in for when you step out the door. You might die on the subway, get your pocket picked, or meet a famous person. Drunk and homeless people assault you with their fragrant personality, very tall black models puff on suspicious smelling sticks, rats run up your leg.

Maybe I am speaking as a Sanitized Singaporean, but sometimes, I just wanna be home.

One encounter of note:

'Happy Belated birthday!'
*nods dumbly*
'Could you make this out to Victoria?'
'How do you spell that?'
' I wasn't aware there was an alternative way to spell Victoria'
'You'd be surprised, the Jennifers spelt J-E-N-I-F-F-E-R, the Daves spelt D-A-E-V, the Amys with an E..'
'I suppose it takes all sorts...'
'Yes... where are you from?'
'Singapore, you were meant to be there but didn't go?'
'Yes, Dave McKean and I had an important meeting for MirrorMask.. but I really want to go there... I hear the food is amazing'
'Yes! My sister was so disappointed'
'I'll be sure to go when I have a chance'
*hands my endless nights back*
'Thank you!'

Now that kinda makes it all worth it.

couldn't go for band today. was too painful, as woke up with period cramps. yarh, the cramps actually woke me up a couple of times during the night/morning. got up to get warm drink and that funky herbal pillow that you microwave and can stay hot for hours but couldn't find it. gave up and wet a towel with warm water and put it in a plastic bag then went to sleep again, hugging that.


when i got up, i realised that the stupid forfeit i had to do yesterday at choir camp (write 'christus laudatur voce' with my arse) really took a toll on my thigh muscles, now they ache. it feels like i ran 2.4km without warming up. when i walk or climb the stairs i've got to re-distribute my weight between both feet so now am looking as if i'm a bit drunk 'cos it results in a rather unsteady gait.


the camp itself was fun though. had good company, nice house (except for the mosquitoes) and great food. kudos to stephanie's mum, auntie maria, who cooked food for us. her spiced ribs brought the house down!


wish i could stay for the whole thing, but either way couldn't have because of cramps and band. really wanted to go for band today too but that's a bit difficult since i couldn't come down the stairs properly in the morning.


ok, have to go now. yay! my sister's coming back next week :)

darn it. just called my choir mistress, trying to get out of this week's choir camp. she didn't let me, saying that gerard might be able to fetch me home on sunday. ack, hate it when pple do stuff for me, feel like i'm inconveniencing them. which is why i'm not asking denise to give me a lift, her dad is really nice.


truth be told, i don't like going for things just half-way. if i go for the camp i want to go for the whole thing, not leave on the night of the first day and come back at dusk on the second. what's the point, if im going to be missing half the thing anyway. there're obviously going to be things done on the day that i missed and, how do it put it... i'll be out of sync with everyone else. i'll start feeling like i'm part of an interactive audience or something. get my drift?


don't get me wrong, am really wanting to go for this camp. there's going to be praise and worship and everything. but i'd rather not travel back and forth from sembawang and thompson/bishan or worse, have someone do it for me.


urgh. how did i get myself into this... and so sorry for sounding american, was watching tv before this.

hah. ok, shd have a few good hours on the com. and tor, eldred said he never got anything from you.


so. camp was really funky. everyday we'd end at abt, roughly 12 in the morning and by the time we were finished with supper , washing up and whatnot it would be abt 1 something so everyone would get an average of 9 hours of sleep for both nights togther. but that's for the pple who actually slept at all lah... heard abt alot of strange things going on in the other dorms... spin the bottle and all. which dorm? if you're familiar with the pple in my church then you shd know.


was hanging out with either my group members or kat and ara (both pple who were in the same dorm as i was in) at any given time. they're all pretty decnt pple, except for ara and kat who stole my towel while i was bathing. screamed at the same time a facil was nearby so they had to give it back. when asked why i screamed they responded by saying that the water was cold. sheesh.


if i ate like how i did during the camp, i'd be hell a lot fatter than i am now. 3 square meals a day, plus supper. boxes of oreos were present all the time, unlimited supply of milo and the occasional bag of chips. oh yes, and nutella that saved me because i badly needed a sugar high. i mean, the meals were so healthy.


had mass on the last day. was surprised that my parents turned up. thought only my godma would 'cos my parents are so blur, i had to call my dad the previous day to tell him that there was mass at all. it was pretty cool, especially since it was on a sunday. was sorry i had to have lunch them though, there was funky stuff happening at my group table...


ok, aside from all that, i really learnt a lot. about myself, my faith and my parents. it may sound cliche (but hey, look on the bright side, they sorta become cliches because they're true...) but somehow after the camp i was feeling maybe a little closer to God.


and that was last week. the most recent weekend was my confirmation itself. the rehersal was on saturday so had to miss half of band because of it. but i think mebe it was mainly because of the recruitment drive. sang in a small group to promote choir. and screwed it up. oh well. and not forgetting elizabeth who baked brownies for everyone as christmas presents. she's unbalanced larh.


bought a dress, shawl and did a manicure for my confirmation itself. manicure being a colour french (black). i really like it but is now odd to eat with fingers. anyway, was sitting at the back of the church and everytime i turned around, it seemed as if there was another ij girl strolling in. i say, we don't need a chapel, we'll just use risen christ.


been preparing for sunday for all my cathecism life. now it's all over and i feel just weird. it's like i've become the church equivelent of an adult. im going to miss class and of course my cathecists, especially lester and lai probably 'cos they've been the closest to my own age compared to all the other cathecists. easier to connect and all that.


honestly, i've never given much thought to cat classes. but now am feeling grateful, for all those lessons concerning my faith, the classes on saturday afternoons that became such a chore to attend but now when i look back, rather enjoyable really. they were an integral part of my life.


enough reminiscing. am going to change skin, am tired of this one.

wheeeeee!!! my com has been fixed!! the thing kind of died while i was away for con camp. my parents told me that my mum had overloaded the washing machine so there was a blackout. next thing they knew, the cpu couldn't be switched on.


have a lot of stuff to say.


already mentioned, confirmation camp. met some really nice pple there, the type you don't want to lose contact with. adrian, amelia, angelina (two of 'em), daphne, elizabeth, ester, gabriel, kenneth, matthew, sean and vanessa. typically known as the st paulians as our group was (duh?!) st paul. we had the best time there, and i want to go back!! learnt many things abt myself, did a lot of reflecting and bonding. though one thing i hated was that there was no starbucks nearby. nearest one was at compassvale mall, 10 min drive away. our facillitators were (and still are, actually) really nice. they got stuff for us from 7-11. man i had the best time.


ah crap. need to make long entry abt week but need to wake up for band tmr. at this rate, i'll get mebe abt 5 hrs of sleep. will have to make post tmr as don't need to get up on tues.

am freaking out right now. haven't the foggiest idea what i want to do in the future. at least steph has her whole lawyer thing and all that, even knows what jc and stuff she wants to take, so i rather envy her on that bit.


people always say do what you think you'll be happy doing, what you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life. the problem is, i don't think i'm good at anything. i did used to think perhaps geography, but i was wrong. i suck at that, even. i can't draw, write, act, debate or even play an instrument properly. oh shut up, the sax doesn't count, i suck at that too. i did though, once really enjoy this class we had in sec 1 and 2, design and technology. was rather good at it too. pity my school doesn't offer it o level. perhaps i should have gone out of school to persue it instead, is it too late for my aspiration as a carpenter(ress)?


hang on, i'm cheering up now. i'm going to go into spa therapy which is something i like and am remotely good at. my cousin makes me massage her everytime i see her and apparently says that it's as good as the funky thai massage she went for the other time.


ok. am quite cheered up now. typing to myself on a blog can be very theraputic you know. and oi tor, when are you going to next call? mum's been bothering me with her paranoia.


and another thing. in response to denise's post, i might be taking off the links to the other blogs. i don't see a point, practically everyone who comes here already has those addresses or aren't interested in them. it's the whole blog network thing, if you get what i mean.


have to go have dinner now, am having claypot rice. and speaking of clay, i need to make an entry about that clay aiken album that's just come out. another time then.

rosie and chan came over today to make good use of the 6 disc set from studio ghibli that i've got on loan. saw mononoke, some racoon thing i don't know the title of and totoro! aargh, that was one hell of a cute movie! i recommend that everyone watch it. why can't disney produce stuff like this?


am getting results tmr. so scared, im numb. am confused as to why they always moderate english but not chinese... and have done much better for end year as compared to mid year. so obviously that's going to pull me down, ack! also have to go to school earlier 'cos gail siow (i can't for the life of me remember how to spell her surname) wants to go through the answers for social studies with us, which is nuts 'cos no one's gonna want to come early.


tor, stop with the friendster thing, i think it hates me. i can't get in, said something about cookies. oh well.


ok. have to go draw up giant planner to stick on wall because of my horrible holidays plans. need to have parents know what time i come home and all that, ack.

had the best time yesterday. went to watch underworld with eldred (shut up about the whole premier thing you had, rachael) and, i don't know what to think of that movie. i'd say that it was a good movie but they ripped off so many things from other places, you wouldn't believe. got the whole retractable blade thing from spawn, the blade itself had some blade II thing going on, blue vampire eyes from interview, moves from the matrix and one character even resembled x-men's nightcrawler (shut up chan, i can hear you from here). but hey, i still say watch it anyway and go form your own opinions.


after that went to this nice comics shop behind kino (the one at bugis).


boy am i suckered. now i know how you felt when you saw that sandman globe the other time tor. saw so much great stuff, that were, needless to say, horribly expensive. $350 for a pewter set of the Endless, $79.90 for a small arabian nights thing (not sure what it was made of, some kind of metal..?) of Morpheus doing the whole putting the ball of monsters thing into his robe, $30 for Nightmare before Christmas playing cards, $25 for the Sandman 2004 calender...


oh boy am i suckered.


also feeling very weird 'cos i haven't got anymore studying to do. spending my days on the com and reading (am starting on terry goodkind and trying to get into anne mccafrey. i like dragons, but rather enjoyed her whole arcona thing). so now am very relaxed.


by the way, if anyone hears me curse and it doesn't sound english, it's most likely a triple decker russian insult.


good night.

huh, whatever lah. and yes, happy birthday. got the mail too, laughed at the london is a sinkhole bit. hah, drink lots of water is a very suitable bit of advice now too, thanks, seeing that i have a sore throat. it got so bad that during choir i had to sing all the songs one octave lower. shd have been standing with the guys.


ack.


last exam is one monday, but am going to die before then. ok, have to go study now.

It was so below 100 words. And I have been doing yoga for one year already! (shoulder stand triangle half moon and also good at breathing exercises) Can't stand on my head or suck my toes yet (actually i can but not very elegantly).


Ghibli.


Thanks for Bday card! Am going for swing dance lesson in hours time so just blogging for no particular reason. Should be researching law firms to apply to but they all actually do the same boring thing. Did you get my email? Was on wales and other places visited. Here is extract in case you didn't get it:


Waterfalls and beaches. Wales is like Lord of the Rings country, and I don't mean the movie... it's laden with celtic history, and the fields really are of gold. I even saw an Underhill cottage! (Underhill being one of the surnames of characters in LOTR).


Sardinia was a mediterranean dream, the scrubby, rugged landscape is deceptively even, but drops to sheer high cliffs as you round turns on narrow mountain roads. (We were in a Ford Fiesta, thank god for 4 wheel drive.) The views were amazing, and the beaches... pristine and isolated. We ate loads of seafood, lobster, clam and scallops. And I scuba dived for the first time! Was a bit scarey especially when you look up and see lots of blue water on top of you.


Ok good luck for exams and drink lots of water!!

to tor: what's having a sister got to do with describing yourself? and if you can't draw patterns like death then you probably wouldn't like cosplay. and since when did you like yoga? and i think that was more than 100.


ok. have not blogged for close to a month already. in middle of exams now and have just finished maths and lit paper on friday. only way to describe maths is screwed. on a lighter note, my lit was better than i expected it to be. it was good, in fact. also had a very good physics paper though i can't say the same for eveything else.


was talking to eldred last night. he was nice enough to lend me Gaiman's endless nights and am feeling v. happy now. would have read yours tor, if you hadn't sounded so reluctant at the thought of bringing it over. so now you don't have to. he's also lending me his studio gibli (i dunno how to spell it but it certainly sounds something like that) collection and so am going to watch mononoke in english (finally!!) and am getting around to watching totoro as well, hah!


for some very strange reason i cannot fanthom, as i stepped out of the shower yesterday, i suddenly recalled the name of the main character from Tim Burton's nightmare before christmas: Jack. and i realise i don't know anyone of the name jack, even if it's a rather common name, come to think of it.


sorry, that was just random stuff.


you know one of those warm, lazy afternoons when you don't really feel like doing anything at all, but you know you must because there's an exam 2 days away? well, i feel like that now.

I have no instincts. In fact, I am a large placid creature who likes to sit in a pool of warm water and coagulate. My rock-like physical reactions to proximate balls and people in a sporting context means painful injuries. My happiness is a warm bolster. My bolster is a footrest, a pillow, an eyeshade, a weapon and a placemat, all at once. It is not everything. It is everything important. I like to write and think. I like yoga and scrabble. My toes smell like boiled peanuts. I wear brown eyeliner but lack the courage to draw patterns round my eyes like death. And I have a sister.


About Me-- In 100 words or less. This is Tor.

have not posted for quite long. am busy and everything, especially with afternoon study taking up my whole, well, afternoon.


had a very interesting PE lesson today. learnt swedish massage techniques and practised on each other. my partner was steph. and now she wants to sue me for emotional trauma. am going to do it on jenny just to prove i'm not lousy.


ack, i know this post is short (very short's an understatement) but i really need to go. tor, did you know you were supposed to call every wednesday? okok, dad's breathing down my neck.

Icahbod


What Johnny Depp Boi Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla



nightmare before christmas!


What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

got a few things to say. first, may we please have a moment of silence for those who perished in the september 11th attacks.


ok. on a lighter note, my sister's blog has screwed itself up. not sure what happened but she can't post and i can't even get in. so she came up with the hair-brained (is that how you spell it?) idea of sharing mine. i barely post once a week and she doesn't post all that regularly either (when she had hers, that is) so i was thinking, why not? let's put this blog to good use man. might change the address though, to something more relevent to both of us.