Back to school - not that I actually like it.......

After a really really long hoilday, its finally back to school, not that I actually like it. However, the end of this holiday feels more different from the others. Usually, when the hoilday is about to end, I will get this dreaded feeling of not wanting to go back. It gets stronger and stronger until the day before school actually starts. In fact the dreaded feeling never got to me till the day before school actually started. Its probably because I spent most of my hoildays working and not actually playing (the was plenty of playing but not as much as the previous long hoildays). Well its the fact of meeting new people excites me, just seeing not actually saying anything though. Just thinking about it makes the feeling course through my veins. Well we have to see what happens next then whether its for better or for worse.

Totally Classified

During the computer convention (Comex) at Suntec, I was begining to wonder why other people was able to buy what they wanted and I have to pinch and scrap. Was it because their allowance was far more then mine or I had poor money management? In the end, I did a rough calculation on how much I spent in August. True enough I had almost spent all my money except for the $25 which was still sitting in my bank, waiting to be withdrawn.

The following Monday(3/08/07), I started searching the newspapers for jobs(Classified section). Eventally I found 3 jobs that I was interested in. A cashier at Shell 7-11(pasir panjang) , a waiter at Westend (pasir panjang) and a coffee maker (not the machine XD) at coffeebean. I then went for the walk-in interview on Tuesday itself. First to Shell 7-11 unfortunatly the boss wasn't around so all I had to do was to fill in my application form. From Shell, I proceeded to the Westend, some restaurant with western cusine. The main reason why I chose that place is because it is within walkable distance, about 5mins walk from home. When I reached the Westend, I tried calling the one in charge but nobody picked up. I then tried calling 5 mins later and it was engaged. I finally called 1 last time and nobody picked up again. Feeling irritated and annoyed, I left for Tiong Bahru Plaza for the coffeebean interview. In fact, there was no walk-in interview, all I did was fill in an application form and it was done. I went home after turning in the application form.

On Wednesday, the in-charge of Shell called told me I was hired and I was to start work on Thursday at 10pm. When Coffeebean didnt call me the next day if I was going to be hired, I started to get slightly worried. I eventually called them on Friday and arranged an interview on Tuesday 11/08.

If it looks easy to make, its actually not.

For some reason, I had these popiah cravings each day. So much so I went as far as to search for popiah recipes on how to make and prepare them. Finally on 24/7, I went to Queenstown to buy the popiah skin ( $8 for 1/2 a kg and $16 per kg). I wanted to buy some sweet sauce for $2 per bottle too but I didn't have enough money as I had gotten myself some popiah beforehand. I bought the rest of the ingredients on sunday, which consisted of, lettuce, turnip, eggs, beansprouts, crushed nuts and sweet sauce. I started to wash the turnip and peel it once I got home. Since the kitchen was kinda busy during that time because my sister wanted to prepare for her western dinner, I went to sentosa and met up with maddy, mervin and SC.

When I got home from Sentosa, my father had already prepared the turnip. He had boiled it with chicken broth. The next day, I began making my popiah.

<--------- all the ingredients for my popiah

Took out the eggs and boiled some water and tried to make hard boil eggs. I didn't put them in hot water long enough and they didn't become fully hard boiled ( the center of the egg was still abit runny). Using the hot water that was left from boiling the egg, I used it to cook my beansprouts. While the beansprouts are being boiled, I shelled the prawns. I then reused the water to boil the prawns. Next I microwaved the turnip and washed the lettuce.

the popiah's base ---------------------------->

I laid 2 pieces of popiah skin then spread the sweet sauce over it. Placed a piece of lettuce and started adding the ingredients one by one. First the beansprouts, followed by peanuts, prawns and finally the turnip itself.

^ ^

my very first popiah made (dont know if my 2nd popiah made

you can even call it a popiah) XD

Thats all for now, gonna try making some kaya toast next.....

The simpsons movie outing on 18/08/07

Levallon arranged for us to meet at 1pm at sommerset MRT station but as usual there were late comers (I was one of them). After waiting for everyone to arrive at sommerset (the last few people to reach there was me and mervin), we headed down to cineleisure We met up with chilly and sea_gal soon after at cineleisure itself. We went to get tickets for shucks and viva and proceeded to the food court for our lunch. As I was not going to be watching the movie with the rest of the gang, I passed on lunch at cineleisure and went to Hong Lim Complex at chinatown intead, after the rest went to the theater.

My 2 rules of eating at hong lim complex:

1) Eat crayfish horfun if you go there before 3pm XD

Well sadly I didnt get to eat crayfish horfun but I managed to get prawn horfun (they ran out of crayfish and chicken by the time I got there).

It still tastes as good as ever. The prawns was quite fresh and give quite a fair bit of them. Asked them for extra gravy though XD.

Cost: $3.50 ($4 for crayfish and prawns)

2) Eat mincemeat noodles / wanton mee / nasi lemak

Well since I cant eat all the 3 above, I picked the mincemeat noodles (ba chor mee). It been almost 4 months since I ate it. After taking the first bite, the taste of vinegar tingles my taste buds. With the 2 pieces of fish wanton eated and the bowl of soup drunk, I decided to try some curry puffs.

Cost: $3 for small---------------------------->

$4 for big (extra wantons and more noodles)

After completing my lunch, I decided to try out the curry puffs recommended by some TV show. I then headed back down to cineleisure to meet up with those who went for the movie. We didn't have any idea on what to do next so we walked aimlessly around orchard until we reached Plaza Singapura. Mervin and sk wanted to listen to some arcade sounds but we didnt even go to the arcade in the end. We went to comic connections instead. We roamed around Plaza Singapura waiting for Grace, Jade and Jenson to arrive. In the mean time, we checked out a music store and levallon bought a 881 OST for his mum. Then we checked out Gelare from story above while we continued waiting. While we are looking at how they were making waffles, suddenly we saw Jeremy walking to Gelare and buying himself some brownie ice cream. After Grace, Jade and Jenson arrived, we headed down to Merridian for dinner. Monich and Ivan arrived about 30 mins later. It was Monich's first outing and I didnt expect him to be that tall despite people saying he is. We sat at Merridian until 9pm when called saying that there was going to be fireworks. And surely enough, there were fireworks. I didn't get to see much of it though as a most of the trees were obstructing my view. From then on we went back to plaza singapura, this time to starbucks. I bought some vanilla mocca drink and it tasted horrible. Nick joined us while we were at starbucks We countinued to chat till about 11pm then it was time to part ways.

Time flies when you are having fun....

The week when the WCG is going to be being held always excites me unfortunately for me, this year happens to be a major disappointment. I was hoping that there will be something to look forward too despite the small advertisement on the newspapers (none of which mentions the activites going to be held at event itself). We reached the convention center about 1.45pm and managed to catch the cosplayers in action. The place the definately more lively that the previous time we came. Now after seeing what we needed to see at the WCG, its time for the study outing.

This time the study outing is held at the Orchard library instead of the usual National library near bugis. Managed to do a few sums before I became hungry. Me, wen wei, seng kwann, mervin and jeremy when down to takashimaya's food haven to get some food. Mervin got his takoyaki while jeremy got his mua chee, takoyaki and brownies (I wonder how he can spend like that....). We all finally settled on a garlic loaf each from st. leven for $1.40 per loaf. It was good stuff. We back up to the library, stayed there about 1hr before we left. We then headed to meridian's food court for dinner. I had Ban mian, it was average but the soup was tasty. After dinner we went to plaza singapura as loco wanted to go to the arcade. We saw a lady who was dominating in one of the machines. She won abt 3 bags worth of sweets and plushies. Well everyone went their seperate ways around 10.15pm.

Transformers the movie outing part 2

We hurried back the orchard to meet the rest. By the time we reached orchard MRT, the STOMPers we were supposed to meet had split up into 2 groups. Around 20 min later we regrouped and headed for Shaw house to get some popcorn. "Movie bites" which is the place where they sell popcorn and snacks at shaw cinemas is the place to get value-for-money stuff. After taking pictures and buying our snacks we reached cathay cineleisure at 6pm. When everyone gathered, I realised there was a problem. Too many people and too little tickets, 3 tickets infact. After much debating me, kate and jack gave up our tickets and accompanied jenson. We then pasted the time at BK eating kids meals, courtesy of kate (she wanted the simpsons toys). The original plan was to head down to cafe cartel but it was changed to Pizza Hut in the end. During the dinner chilly left hastly due to some missunderstanding.

After dinner we headed down to plaza singapura to check out the LIVE EARTH concert which is currently going on at the same time. Me and mervin left the place at abt 11.15pm and managed to catch the 2nd last bus back.

Transformers the movie - Review

I missed several parts of the show - first 20mins and the part where barricade got decapitated (toilet break). Well my first impression of the movie was -

romance + robots = lame movie

but I was wrong. The movie was pretty interesting and very funny. Its a pity that the Autobots only appeared halfway through the movie. Bumblebee got most of the action, though he is unable to speak 99% of the movie XD. Optimus was pretty cool too, especially when he transformed for the first time and spoke (almost wanted to cheer out loud), I almost couldnt reconise Peter Cullen's voice . Loved Barricade and his motto "to punish and enslave". Ironhide was mostly talk and there was hardly any action from him. Jazz's visor looked cool too but pity he was ripped into 2 by megatron, who only appeared 3/4 into the movie. The ending was very anti-climatic and I wished they added in the original transforming sound. Prime said serveral iconic phases in the movie however like"Autobots, roll out" and "One shall stand, the other shall fall".

Transformers the movie outing (reprise - solo)

No being able to watch the transformers with the stompers was somewhat disappointing but if it means giving up my place to someone what wants to watch more than me, its worth. I managed to abstain from watching the show for about 2 days before I couldn't hold back any longer. After my classes on Tuesday (ended around 5pm) and forsaking my NAFPA test on for that day. Forgetting to bring my season passes for the movie, I went home to get them. By the time, I reached cathay cinema, it was 6.20pm. My original intention was to catch the 6.20pm movie, but since I wanted popcorn from shaw house (value for money), I chose the 7.10pm slot.



Going to shaw house at 6.30pm and making it back before 7.10 = bad
By the time I bought my popcorn it was 6.50pm. "20mins left.... still plenty of time to get back since cathay nearby", I thought to myself while I was on the bus. Heavy traffic, numerous stops led me to check my watch again. "7.10pm.....ok, not very far. Reaching very soon, I am just going to miss the boring opening". Settled down in the cinema at 7.25pm XD

Aftermath of the transformers movie outing: Part 1

Left the house around 11.30am and was going to meet Asevinge and 12.30pm at orchard MRT station. Soon after leaving orchard MRT, we headed down to orchard cineleisure the buy another movie package set worth $80. After sitting down and deciding which people are going to turn up, we both came to a conclusion that 17 people are definetly going to show up. So we got 3 rows of 5 seats and 2 more additional ones right below the last row we purchased. After getting the tickets, we went to lv 9 to redeem my transformers notebook, only to realise that the redeemtion counter would only be open at 4pm. While I was a E2max, i found out that a new shop had opened, Games Academy. Its a game rental shop whereby one pays $35 and becomes a lifetime member. Currently 1 can borrow a game for a max of 5 days. My name will be in their books once the start having PS3 games XD.

Next destination: Funan the IT mall
By the time we were done at cineleisure, it was only 1pm and still had plenty of time to spare ( we arranged to meet the stompers at 3.30pm). Since Ilovemoney(ILM) hasn't told me if he wants to go or not, we decided to get an answer from him personally at his workplace. Locosing called me along the way to funan. At funan, there was some overclocking competition going on. Me and asevinge decided to take a closer look. I was amazed how fast their fans were spinning and that some of the competitors were using dried ice to help cool their components down. After taking the pictures Asevinge wanted, we all headed to Challenger's customer's service section to look for ILM. Sadly, he wasn't there (or so we thought XD). We noticed that Gamescore was having a buffet so we went to check it out. It appears it was only for "members and selected guest". As I was already a member, I went to register. There was a lucky draw and I won a DS stylus, a screen protector and keychain. Feasted on the buffet, abit oily but nonetheless delicious. Soon after, Locosing arrived while I was going for my 2nd helping of the buffet. Since Loco (he just came from the SP open house) hasn't taken his lunch , we accompanied him to Mac, not before stopping again to check on the overclocking competition. After staring at the screen protectors for sometime, I realised that it was only for the DS lite XD. I also found out that it wasn't a screen protector but it was a cover protector.

End of part 1

Count down to the transformer outing : 13hrs

At the last hour closes in , more people withdrawed from outing. I too didnt do some minor changes, like editing the numbers and removing people's names that shouldnt be there. All that is left 20 people so that means i dont need to borrow anymore cash. And i will get 2 tranformer notebooks too XD

Hopefully the movie is good and the dinner will just as good.

Teachers....

thats what you call them in secondary and primary school or maybe even JC
In poly, we call them lecturers.

I have met 4 kinds of lecturers in NP so far:
1) the good lecturer, cares for the students (gives additional lessons before common test,etc) and teaches well (pays attention during classes).
2) the average lecturer, almost the same as the good one but only thing is that he/she doesnt teach as well (pays attention in class sometimes).
3)The old lecturer, no interaction, reads directly from the transparency/notes, may care for the students (pays no attention whatso ever).
4)The arrogant lecturer, in his own world, speaks rubbish , wastes time on irrelavent stuff and thinks highly of himself.

Speaking of which, I just met the 4th type of lecturer today. Disguised as a 1hr tutorial , the arrogant lecturer started off today by reminding us that there was a compulsory training session for our NAFPA. That itself took 15mins. Then he finally starts on the first question.
"Ok you know how to the question right? Go write it on the board", he says .
He then continues rambling on for the next 10mins. Suddenly he mentions, " Have you done your SET (student evaluation whatever)?". "Come let me give you a model answer."For those who doesnt know what SET does, its an evaluation form where the student evaulates the teacher/ lecturer.
And the next thing he showed us was a few slides from his model answer (or at least what he hopes to see). On the model answers he showed us, there was not even a single trace of negative comments. 100% postive. He keep pushing us to do the SET and fill it up with flowery words. 40 mins of the lesson was already gone just like that. He asked us to do 2 more questions on the board and the lesson was done.

End of part 1? maybe......

Fickle-minded peeps

Countdown to Transformers the movie outing:3 days remaining

While I was still weeding people out list of people going for the movie outing, I realised how many people actually put down their names on the list and totally forgot the outing itself. Some had other commitments, not sure if they actually made them before or after putting their name on the list, while others put their names under TBC and were never heard from again. Hopefully there wont be any more last minute cancellations or people wanting to go on the last day itself.

Boring Tuesday

My classes start on 11am on Tuedays but half the time I am either late or don't even show up at all.
The reasons why I dont up show is
a) "why show up when 1 hr later is your break?"
b) "since i am going to be more than 30mins late, why bother showing up?"
well, thinking of B will eventually lead me back to A. XD

But today, I wanted to go to school school early. Of course, I didnt spend my time studying. Instead i spent most of my time during the lessons reading Neon Genesis Evangelion online XD.
Time almost ceased to move when you are looking forward to going or at least when you are not having fun. After classes there was an last minute meeting (not that we are late for any project or anything) for my WISP(world issue: a singapore perspective) members. And still ended up going home late in the end XD.

Met a weird obese guy on the 184 bus while going home. At first glance, he seemed to be pretty angry talking to the person over the phone. Almost 1/2 of the bus felt the impact of his screams. The one over the other side of the phone was sure some unlucky guy......or so I though. Upon further inspection, I found out he was talking to himself...... a mental r-tard? I guess I will never know.

Countdown to transformers the movie outing: 5 days left

3/07 is final day for people to confirm if they wanted to go the transformers movie outing. The original number of people going for the movie was 31, including people on TBC. When it was all done, 25 remained inclusive of TBC people.

I was one of those people who thought people who blog are attention-seekers but yet I am here writing one.... the sweet irony XD.
But I didnt create a blog just because wanted attention (well maybe alittle XD) but i just wanted to share with my friends or people are just simply interested, that every single day of my life is not a boring one. Just like Suzumiya Haruhi's SOS-dan (aka SOS bridgade).

Saving the world by
Overloading it with fun
Suzumiya's
Bridgade

PS: This blog was supposed to be done on sunday but i took so long to think of a good name and address.