farewell 2006

whipped out my camera aft trg today to do smtg i havent done for quite a while. TP! heh but tt was done aft trg.

anw here's e last team pic we'd be taking for 2006, a pity yc, adeline, cherylene, yh were absent.

tiz was when zw n manda were abt to start debrief

listening intently (i think.. ;)


juz when i was settling comfortably at the back as 2nd last pair, enjoying the magnificent view of everyone's punching arm lifted high, a unified motion tgt, i got posted back to 2nd pair again. so its juz 4 things i see. 10-15m ahead, phyllis, racheal, n wt.

then again, it was quite 怀旧 sitting beside wt. hahaha previously the ones at the receiving end of zhua-ing, now at the other. train ride home wif her was damn funny as we reminise abt how in e past, vic wld say, 'pacers, maintain the pace at 62 strokes. u noe how 62 feels like rite? remember e feeling' n we'd juz nod, even if we havent a clue. den we'd look at each other, sometimes a look of helplessness, n really juz 靠感觉. if it was wrong, then the response was immediate. if it was correct, then ntg's said. normally we prefered the latter.

perhaps its smtg like cooking. for instance u ask ur grandma to teach u how to cook a particular favourite dish of urs, and then u try to merticulously take down the details for the recipe. then u ask, 'how many tablespoon of sugar did u just add?' and she replies, 'i dunno. just add enough to taste. its all based on feeling..'

ambiguous as it may sound.

watched charlotte's web aft trg. tear jerker. i particularly liked tiz quote by charlotte, 'No, my webs were no miracle, Wilbur. I was only describing what I saw. The miracle is you.'

clique outing + manda's 21st

i'm so lazy to blog these days. i dun wanna type anymore, so i'd just leave pictures n let them do the talking.

Jackson and Kaiyan

Lipin and Fabian
Yanling and Kenneth (marrying soon i think..haha)
guimei and weili
all of us contented aft dinner at kenny rogers @Marina

following which i left aft dinner to celebrate manda's 21st bdae @bugis.

sharon and i
manda stepping into adulthood
ziwei, lijun n rang

惊爆之 swensen

quite fun la, though its quite..惊爆 in some way or another. thanx to sharon who started it -_-^ well frm there, we came up wif a new way of saying jiayou. from now on, we'd hold hands, look passionately into our team mates eyes, n say jiayou. laugh till pengz man.

i think..i shd cherish them more. b4 i dun get the chance to do so.

christmas eve dinner

spent christmas with the family. i'm not into countdowns or havocking wif friends. for me, i spend christmas in a quiet fashion. benjamin told me to invite some friends over to spread the food, and more importantly, the love. haha anw i felt like i invited the right pple to come, coz both of them r really gd meat lovers, while i pale in comparison.

dad, mum n bro doing last few preparations

project FAT
Guest no. 1 --Rang. (Note: I'm a bad host, bully her by asking her to prepare ribena vodka n den she helped make the whip potato sauce too. heh no la, this is wad i call involving the guest so they dun feel bored ;)
Guest no. 2-- Kevin aka bro. damn gd. help to finish up alot of the food hahah
Delifrance log cake @$45
Mahjong session. my grandmother the mahjong 神..i think. hahah dat's rang, my dad, my brother's gf, and my grandmother. intensed concentration..

spent christmas the simple way. i dunno, to us catholics, we dun really spend christmas in an extravagent manner where we go into a shopping spree n stuff. to us, christmas is abt simplicity, about preparing for Jesus' entering this world. in other words, it's the coming of our savior, ie the word is made flesh. so basically for the season of xmas, we prepare ourselves spiritually for Jesus' coming.

fr richards told a story bout how this mother (swept into the material world's disillusionment), who was soooo exhausted with all the christmas shopping, yet still have to drag her kids (also tired n whiny from all the xmas shopping/walking) into the lift. then when she and her 2 kids finally entered the lift n e door closed, she lost it. She just lost it, n burst out angrily, "Whoever is behind this whole christmas bullsh*t ought to be shot dead!!".

The whole lift went silent.

Then from the back of the lift, a man replied, 'well, he has. not shot, but crucified.'

----------------
For a moment, i was like, wow. speechless. the way he tells his homily, it juz strike a chord n makes u think.

Wad does christmas truly mean to each and everyone of us?

gunung tok nenek

i only realised during the trip itself that we weren't climbing ulu sepat. haha how blur cld i get? they changed 1 mth b4, hence we were climbing gunung tok nenek (grandfather rock), aka table and chair (it got its name coz it looks like that from afar). Basically, this trek was triggered by a series of unexpected events which we have to experience and go thru' such as mud,cold weather, rain, flash floods washing away bridge, strong currents, crossing 15 rivers. technically speaking, its juz 1 river. but we crossed it 15 times, different parts of it that is!

quite sick of elaborating n giving loooong detailed entries, n anw i still believe tt a picture paints a thousand words.

we stayed in the orient 'hotel' for the during e RnR day, ie monday.

Super RnR damn relac b4 starving ourselves for 3d2n. me enjoying roti tissue with teh tarik
tis is by far the best naan i've tasted so far >>the uncle has just tossed the naan into the air and caught it
my lunch on Monday (19/12/06) tendoori chicken with naan ;p
my 2 roomies, 2 amazing industrial design (ID) girls i've known better during the trip. huiying and huiqian
this is the 1st bridge we had to cross b4 trekking. do remember this image in ur head. picture taken on 19/12/06 (Tuesday)
scrambling up soft soiled ground. the thursday on our way back, it was a potential landslide and i clearly recalled my fren, shenzhi shouting to me, '闪!!'as he saw some small rocks tumbling down towards my direction.

tts wad happened aft i pulled my left leg out, which was stuck in the soft soiled ground

1 of the many river crossings we did

1 hr more to the summit

us at the summit. huiqian, lijun, huiying and me. 3 of the ID girls i know durin the trek. we were ald in the clouds at tiz pt in time.

if u recalled, i mentioned earlier to take note of the image of the bridge. this is wad happened on 21/12/06 (Thurs). Yes, we are subjects of nature's wonder and awe. all of us had our jaw dropping, we were supposed to reach s'pore on 22/12/06 (Fri), but as a result of this, there was delay. in e end, i reached s'pore on 23/12/06, and headed straight for trg. we were stranded.

River 'teh tarik' :

been shivering uncontrollably during the entire trekking trip. it was raining the whole time; i've experienced all kinds of rain. the big rain which splatter all over u, and the soft small kinda rain. it was just super wet, super drenched, very muddy, hmm very risky too. my advise to all is to avoid gg for trekking trips during the monsoon season. it can b very dangerous. i think i've learnt my lesson. oh, n i'm not drinking teh tarik in e meantime. image of river teh tarik is pretty disturbing.

i came back home to creature comforts. if there's smtg i took away from this experience, it's to treasure 3 things tt i've somehow taken too much for granted. warmth, love, and shelter.

maslow's hierarchy of needs (physiological)

last words (choy!)

all packed and ready to go. my 45litre bag weighs 15kg aft i packed in all the stuff. quite heavy leh, i'm serious. i dun feel like i'm physically conditioned for this trip.

ah well, wad the body lacks, let the mind take control.

received many words of caution frm frens to b careful. esp now since its e monsoon season. someone told me abt a fren who died in a trekking trip coz she fell and the waters washed her away. hypothermia hit her.

to say i'm not affected by all these wld be a lie. of course i understand the risks and dangers involved. but then again, danger exists everywhere. it's abt how u ensure safety in e midst of risks.

shd be back on 22nd or 23rd, depending on the group's decision to stay for a 1 day RnR in Ipoh, or come back. actually i wanna come back in time for 1st h2o session.

walau damn morbid can? anw ytd went to army mkt to get some last min stuff for the trek, den aft tt went for the OUCH session. went for an impromptu ktv session and now a new song is stuck in my head. its 光辉岁月 by beyond. its damn catchy. a very old song but its only now tt i finally rmb the name of e song.

on e highly unrelated note, i finally noe where sunny got his 胆小 trait from! from benjamin. -_-^ if u heard him shriek upon seeing a flying beetle or cockroach, u wont believe a guy who has such big muscles actually have so little guts. heh but i guess in other aspects, he can b brave lah. (i think..)

last thurs, he called out 'cindy!! come to my room, help me kill the beetle! how!? u tell me how?' and i just walked to his room, stared at it, den said in a sian tone, 'huh? just leave it alone lor. it will fly out the same way it flew in.' he managed to catch the beetle n placed it in a plastic bag, with the aid of chopsticks. then it escaped and bit his finger. (the whole time i was in my room doing my own stuff) next moment i heard, 'FUCK!'x 10 and den i went out only to realise the beetle escaped n bit him. see? i told him to leave it alone right? it wont disturb so long as it isnt provoked.

sometimes i really wonder why did the distribution of traits turned out like tt? shdnt it be me being afraid of cockroaches or beetles, n he being the brave one? tsk sigh.

Sa Rang Hae Yo 只对你说

aft e ktv session on mon, this song was stuck in my head. its damn nice, ok maybe the lyrics a little cheesy but i think its damn sweet. anw who cares?

Sa Rang Hae Yo 只对你说 -林俊杰

Sa Rang Hae Yo means i love u
代表着我离不开你 每分每秒每一个声音
只有你撒娇 会让我微笑
Sa Rang Hae Yo 只对你说 i will love u and forevermore
我答应 baby u will see
每一个我都属于你

and if u watched 'gals out loud', u'd realise its e singapore version of 'the simple life', just that its wendy (the blog owner of xiaxue.blogspot) and roslyn instead of paris hilton n nicole richie.

i think that wendy n roslyn are sooo bimbotic, i can seriously just faint n die! basically its a damn cheap thrill show abt how they take steps to achieve stardom, fame and publicity. if shooting to stardom is abt making a fool of yourself on national television, they have no doubt succeeded tremendously.

so u might ask why did i even choose to watch such a distasteful crap show like this? well, coz my brother taped it, and i got this habit of just watching wadever he tapes when i come home during the weekends. so tts how i get to noe greys anatomy, prince of tennis, justice league, pokemon (yah he's 24 this year -_-^), csi miami, the apprentice, prison break, criminal minds,america's next top model, victoria secrets (yah i noe its not my type)..ok u get the idea. he's a tv junkie, n i just watch wadever he tapes.

but its damn funny lah. there's this one part, where they r taught how to date men. and there's this geeky guy who said tt an example of a romantic sms is like this, "Ros, it has been scientifically proven that sugar dissolves in water; so please dont go out in the rain too often..i cannot afford to lose a person like u"

I laughed so hard the laughter reverberated in the entire living room! wahahaha if tts wad u call romantic..-_-^

Ulu Sepat

i'd be trekking up tiz mountain from 18th-23rd dec

it came as a surprise. my fren is unable to make it last min for the trip to ulu sepat, hence being the reserve, i'm mobilised. mixed feelings coz on 1 hand, it's an opportunity to embrace nature and its simplicity all over again. on e other, it means i'll b missing the start of the 1st few trgs.

At 2161m, Ulu Sepat is the 7th highest peak in West Malaysia covered in mostly pristine rainforest. Elephant tracks are often sighted along the logging trails at the start of the trek. Definitely a challenging and unique experience.

Am i ready?

Eh, to be honest not really. it's rated 3 stars: Moderate to Strenuous
Participants should be in good fitness condition. Those who have not been exercising regularly may need to undergo some pre-conditioning.

i need to get in shape, fast. shall climb stairs tmr, 6-8 sets.

i'm really sorry ky (and to the crescent clique) i gotta fly ur aeroplane tiz sunday. trip is by right from 18-23rd dec, but they r leaving earlier on 17th coz of complications in the trekking route which will take slightly longer than planned to reach summit. i'd bear the consequences. if u wan a treat from me, i'm ok with that. but make it a girls-only event can? ha with ur other halves there's more mouths to feed (pocket not deep enuf)

the missing piece..

nite cycling was canceled coz upon a check wif the local weather station, they reported showers with thunder ;[ as a result, i went to have dinner with my family instead. we ate bbq stingray, sambal kangkong, sambal sotong and onion omelette. aft dinner, i decided to head to jigsaw puzzle world at jp. had wanted to occupy time during the hols by doing a jigsaw puzzle i had wanted to do ever since sec sch.

had always wanted to do diz particular jigsaw puzzle with a picture of pooh n friends watching the meteor shower. BUT upon browsing at the shop, i decided on this instead. tts coz i had wanted the 全家富 version. the one with pooh n friends watching meteor shower didnt have kanga and roo.

it's a 300 pieces glow-in-the-dark jigsaw puzzle. there was the 1000 pieces, but i chose tiz instead considering i havent done jigsaw for a looong time ald. thought tt by buying this, i can occupy my time during the hols. wld span it during the hols to complete it.

i should have known myself better

once i start on smtg, i wont stop until i've completed it. as a result, i finished completing it within 2 days, spent a total of 6hrs on it. now i think i'm gonna buy another jigsaw puzzle to occupying myself. I started off with the corners, then worked on eeyore, tigger, piglet, pooh, kanga, then roo. damn sad, coz sunny was laying beside me watching me fix the puzzle tgt, all of a sudden my buttpad dropped on him. as u noe, he's a scaredy dog. 胆小狗. he jumped and den the next moment i was searching frantically for the corner pieces. i could find all but one.

starting 2hrs..

tiz took me another 1hr+

the sky (brown parts) took the longest: 2hrs+

see the missing corner piece ;[

as i was working on the jigsaw puzzle, i received a call from rang at 11. she asked if i wanna gym like now, but i asked if she'd give me an hr to work on e puzzle.

wt commented we have bulked up considerably ever since yr 1. arghh

anw aft tt we went to the newly open jurong west sports and recreation centre (SRC). omg its like soooo cool. super fascinating. it has everything ranging frm a 8-lane track, a aquatic centre on e 2nd level which is like fantasy island! it also has an indoor, and an outdoor pool. tennis courts, badminton courts, and of course, gym.

when we entered the gym, we were like, FWAH! lets juz say its about 5-6 times the size of the the new conditioning gym. they had all kinds of machines to work out every single part of ur body. rang n i were super fascinated. we agreed that we'd make full use of the $2.50 paid. hahaha min 10 stations. aft which we tried out the other really cool machines. both of us started off being slightly ambitious; we did our previous weights, and later agreed that we'd go easy and build from scratch. the effects of not training for juz 1 mth is real. my gosh, our bodies had turned jello. we so totally agree tt boon lay is no longer a shit hole.. the new src is extremely impressive. using the gym's digital scale, i realised tt i lost the 2kg tt i gained. i'm back to my original weight. no more sedentary lifestyle!

so is anyone game on coming down to boon lay to gym? ;]

my (spend money like water) life

i thought i wld b able to climb a mountain tiz hols--ulu sepat, but there's no more vacancies. darn, to think i'm a self-proclaimed part-time odac/rover. so i'm staying in sunny singapore tiz hols. not very exciting, but den again can spend less tiz hols? ha since i'm not traveling anywhere.

ended my papers last tues, den packed e room and headed for home. wed saw me gg for the AIA interview. to my dismay, they had wanted me to b in sales, ie sell insurance. hello? if u noe me better, u'd noe i cant sell anything for nuts.

wt wenya theresa angela n i went to watch open season on wed. quite a hillarious show, also kinda touching at the end. wld be looking out for 'meet the robinsons' and 'charlottes web'. anyone interested?

thurs saw me going all the way down to J8 to meet twin n zy for dinner. like yahhh..boon lay to bishan is no joke k!? twin..no more 2nd time ah. aft tt we went liquid kitchen to meet bc for drinks. damn sad, coz apparently aft leading a sedentary 2 weeks w/o gymming, i've become flabby ;[ n i found out that i unknowingly bulked up during the exam period coz of my protein diet. was totally unintentional, its juz tt i love to eat fish. arghh so i gained a few kg. 2 to b exact. my arms are hugeR than ever, tummy's out..i'm seriously in a bad shape.

went for my jc clique gathering on fri. we had crystal jade at taka for dinner. jinwen's back from aussie for her summer break, so fanelle planned the meet up. aft which we proceeded to lipin's house for mahjong. feels like jc all over again, juz tt some have their own cars, another setting up her events coordinator company next year, n sad to say, the rest..studying. jinwen's taking sports psychology in UWA and will be coming back to b a physiologist. how cool is dat? she's still as lame as ever, and the butt of our jokes. here's smtg she asked

jinwen: u noe wad's kantang?
me: yah..potato lor.
her: u noe who dare to sit on kantang?
us: who?
her: guess lah
us: just say..
her: ok i tell u, it's 男子汉 大仗夫 because.. 敢作敢当 （敢坐 kantang)

walau all of us just pengz! -_-^ hahahaha omg. and e first thing she asked was, 'cindy has ur butt grown smaller ever since jc?' like seriously..
diz is us at the taka christmas tree. from left: me jinwen fanelle lipin chengwang wenjun chonglong

came home on fri nite n saw this. dun u think tiz is a pretty nice christmas tree? my brother dug it out of the store room and put it up, in an attempt to create a christmas-y atmosphere at home tiz christmas. done quite a nice job i muz say. for all the times he's been such a menace, i must say that he's quite a cancer at heart.
and that was my week for u. weekend updates up next.

helplessness

when i was a kid, i was pretty strong in character. i wouldnt cry AT ALL. the only times i cried was when my mum forced me to wear a dress. she'd make me try on those hand-me-down dresses which my cousin had grouwn out of. i hated it..i really did.

i hated the lace, the way it scratched my body. the roughnes as the laces and zip cut my skin. i knew that one day, the day when i grew up, when i could choose, i would NEVER wear a dress. or a skirt. ntg with laces, ntg that would make me feel oh-so-uncomfortable in. despite being labelled a 'tomboy', i juz prefered wearing pants, or shorts. i saw no meaning in wearing a dress so as to prove my gender. if i'm a girl, den so be it. why did i have to wear a dress to prove i'm one?

so u see, i was a damn rebellious since young. and i realised that certain traits displayed when young remains as it is now.

today, i had no choice but to go jurong point to shop for clothes. i nd clothes coz i have to go for some 'interview' tmr at AIA. they chanced upon my pathetic online resume, and called me up, decided to chat or some sort. no obligations wadsoever.

while shopping, the childhood fear came to haunt me. the same kinda helplessness gripped me, rendering me weak.

the thought of having to dress up in office clothes in juz a couple of mths down the road just blew me away. to put on make up, to completely revamp my wardrobe. for a moment, i felt like those angry tears coming back.

some kinda learned helplessness have unknowingly set in, even without me realising. i hate shopping for clothes for myself. i detest the thought of dressing up. i give plenty of trouble for my friends and myself when shopping, being the worst complainer/whiner ever. perhaps its some form defence mechanism or coping strategy?

i remembered how i was so unwilling to shop for clothes for prom nite in sec 4. while my clique of friends enthusiastically browsed shops aft shops, i chanced upon every chair that i could find in every shop to park my ass.

anyone volunteers out there who'd help me next july in a wardrobe make-over?

archived

still grinning when i tink back..
Monday, November 22, 2004 1:48 PM

I wasnt surprised to find myself grinning unconsciously when i walked to the science library to study today. Yahh..i was thinking about yesterday. It was really an eventful weekend filled with adrenaline rush n screaming with euphoria n also tears. We luffed and screamed and cried and experienced a spectrum of emotions within these 2 days.

Why i was grinning? I was thinking about yesterday's Women's Open (Plate) finals. We were up against Canada Santa Fe Team, 2 Ngee Ann Polytechnic teams, and ORCA(i dunnoe wad it represents) It was our last race for the day. You can also interpret it as last race for the year, last race for the semester. Boon Chin was our coaxwain, and boy was she a really good one. A coaxwain stands at the back of the boat to steer it. It's lyk..before the race we did a few warm-up sets. She helped alot by asking us to Focus. The horn blasted and it was a signal to go. We executed our starts properly n soon we were leading. Yah and at tt pt of time, our drummer, WeiLing shouted.."c'mon guys we r leading..Pull Away" and on my left i cld also hear the drummer on the other boat saying.."c'mon our boat is leading.."

At tt pt in time, i was like thinking.."wad the hell..who's leading.." and really exerted some more force into my strokes. In my mind i was thinking.."who's leading now![referring to the other boat's drummer]' Anyway throughout the race there were many occasions tt boon chin called for "Ups". And its still fresh in my head..i seem to be able to hear and feel the excitement of the race each time i close my eyes. "Ready for Up 5? Ready! 1,2 and Go! Up!!" and we really dipped in and pulled hard. Before we knew it, boon chin called for our last charge. "Ready for last charge? Ready! 1,2 and Go Now!" and we rowed with no regrets. There were lotsa shouts in the boat.."kiyah!! laiyah!! arghhhhh!" to really release all the energy. Yep..we reached the finishing line..and came in...*drum rolls pls* 1st!!! Woohoo..at tt pt in time, the whole boat was filled with jubilation and euphoria and were simply estatic. We were screaming like nobody's business and hugging and slapping each others' back as if to say "good job girl!!" When-yah was directly behind me on the boat and we were practically screaming into each others ears and hugging each other so tightly i thought we were gonna suffocate or smth. We almost caused the boat to capsize coz we hugged each other n the boat went off balance!

It really felt good. Really. It felt good coz we proved to ourselves that we could do it..and that we can push our bodies to such an extent that i'm amazed. We didnt do too bad nor too gd either. 3rd for Inter Varsity Polytechnics[IVP for short] and 1st for Women's Opens Plate Finals. Yes..the award for the Plate Finals was indeed a Plate..a golden one. hahahahaa. But it was damn chio lahh. =] As for the IVP..they got their bronze medals.

i seriously pengz when i re-read this entry. hahaha omg e yr1 cindy n the yr3 cindy r like 2 worlds apart. i'm not ashamed of my past, coz without ur past u wouldn't have ur present. 是我变了吗? back then i was so much more emotional and excitable coz it was our very 1st race.

u never forget ur first