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Goodbye 2005. It has been a good year


Picture snap thanks to Wishfulone

The start of the new year. My goodness, how did 12 months go by so quickly like that? I don’t think that I even got comfortable with 2005 yet! However, there were a number of highlights in the year 2005 to remember by.

January:
Moving in the new school campus for West Spring Secondary, where I used to work at.

February:
Registered for night classes with the hopes to improve myself. After a hiatus of many, many years.

March:
Entered into very bad depression, caused by many different factors, such as the problems with my previous job, and the psychological effects from my severe acne problem.

April:
Got my canon EOS 350D! And took loads and loads of pictures thereafter.

May:
I was terminated from my previous company. Well, good riddance to them, the only reason I stayed so long was because I liked the previous school I was attached to.

June :
Got a new job in a better, and more established company!
Started my photography classes and my brother’s basic military training graduation.

August
Took a leap and travelled half-way around the world to meet my dearest for the first time in real life.

September
My blog post about my dearest got into Tomorrowsg! Hee hee hee hee!

October
After a long year and a half, I finally passed my Motorcycle Riding Test.

November
My maternal grandfather passed away.

December
After a long engagement, best friend Hema, got married and it was also Cart and my first year anniversary 🙂

Goodbye 2005! It has been a good year, full of interesting and enriching experiences. Some bittersweet. Some beautiful and unforgettable. All that I wouldn’t ever want to trade for anything else.

And what are the things to come in the year 2006? I’ve many things that I planned to do this year, the nimmo and friends webcomics, writing articles for publications, going in depth with photography, trying to learn actionscript and loads of other things …

I’ve many things I’d like to do! But first things first would be my upcoming A level examinations. And I’d like to try to do good this time … and I might have to sacrifice a little.

Anyhow, bro and I was out last weekend with the intention of going to the Vespa Showroom to look at the different scooters that they had there. I’ve always wanted to get green GT200 for the longest time but wanted to see it for real before the actual purchase.

It was a beautiful day. Skies were blue, and big fluffy clouds graced the sky and I was happy and revved up to finally get to sit on my beloved scooter.

To our dismay when we finally got to the building, only to find it locked and closed. It was so upsetting that I had to jerk the gates repeatedly to see if it really was locked. It was as if someone played a prank on us.

We decided to head back and took the bus that will take us home. Fortunately for us, we saw a huge motorcycle gallery while on the way and I quickly asked Nazry.

Wanna go take a look?
I don’t mind
I don’t mind either
Lets go!

He quickly pressed the buzzer and we dropped by and explored the place. Ohh .. there were loads and loads of motorcycles around, in many different colours, shapes and sizes.

There were several men looking around a specific model of a bike and asked the sales person some questions. There were so many bikes! Almost bursting with them that even the exit had at least 10 bikes being displayed outside. Even the walls and ceilings had bikes hanging precariously with metal bars.

At this time, I was feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of bikes that there was there. There were so many, that I didn’t know where to start. And the signs on the bike didn’t help much either. I couldn’t understand a thing! All the technical specifications were so alien to me, it felt like the first time I bought a computer (I didn’t have much computer knowledge then) and finally just settled on a computer that seemed easy to use.

But nevertheless, I did see some interesting bikes, some with really large radiator looking devices in front of the engines. Some sprayed to look like a yellow cab taxi. And there were even one interesting bike I saw that looked so plastic, I wondered how it could ever even run.

Bro seemed to fall in love with this one


Gosh look at how excited and happy is

It was an interesting looking bike, with footrests. Nazry thinks that it exudes the ‘cool’ factor with the interesting body-frame and the movable seats. Personally, I thought it looks a little odd and a bit flimsy. He asked the salesman, how much the bike costs. “$10k” was the reply. A bit much for me.

We left after spending about an hour or two in there. I think next time, I should ask someone who’s more experienced in bikes to accompany me. It was truly overwhelming.

We went to Jurong Point for lunch when bro felt like playing a game in the arcades. I accompanied him and looked on, while he played this game called “Ghost Squad” and I was amazed to see him shoot down the enemies one by one.

This must be what the army trained my brother for 😛 He was so fast that even before the enemies appeared, he was well prepared to aim and shoot them down. A true marksman.

Bro had a strange costume for his character player though.

A man in a panda costume with a cat stuck behind him. “What the heck is that?” I asked him, with a note of disbelief. “Why, only high level people could use this costume!”, he replied proudly.

And he looked triumphant as he completed the entire game.

Anyhow, it was a lovely and relaxing day. It was pretty good. And I enjoyed myself. Before I go, I think I’ll post a picture of my mum, just because I like this picture of her.

Goodnight!

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I’m not gorgeous but its okay

Oh sweet! Look at what was just delivered this morning. Yay!


The coy and demure pose

Tried to call up the vespa showroom but there was no reply. Thought it would be nice to try out the different scooters before making my mind up about which one to get.

I dont mind slightly heavier bikes. (Not too heavy though!) Because they are more stable but I don’t think I could get a bike which is too tall. If the balls of my feet can’t touch the ground, that’s no good.

Anyway, been looking at tomorrow.sg when an article caught my eye.

In a nutshell : A blogger here in Singapore was nominated as the hottest blogger Apparently, she was noticed by a local talent agency to sign her up with MTV.

I read about that a few days ago but I didn’t think about it much. She’s a very pretty girl and she’s very lucky to be signed up with MTV.


What an adorable face

I mean, I wish I was as pretty as she. But I’m not. So I pretty much abandoned all my hopes to become the next popular pop-star/TV host/singer/ and just forget about it. (Haah? No more Marina Carey? Boring)

However, I wonder why talent agencies or TCS or any local media here seem to favour more of the Caucasian look and then the Chinese. There is very little, if none at all Malay or Indian actors and actresses, models used for advertisements.

Even Taufik Batisah, the winner of the Singapore Idol competition, seems to be completely non existent in the TCS 5 world. Save for the one drama series, Shooting Stars and the 7-11 commercial. Sheik Haikal, Norleena Salim, Kumar … Where are they now?

My classmate, Adi, believes that the reason being is that Caucasians have much more appeal than the other races. It all boils down to marketing, people with more appeal, generate more revenue.

But I feel that the lesser fairer races also have their own special appeal. Who is to say that Indians and Malays don’t?

It makes me sad to see biasness in the media when in actual fact, most Singaporeans are in a melting pot. We interact with each other in daily life, we have best friends with each other, we even form relationships with each other. So what’s up with the one sided view?

Yes, I would like to see more diversity in races in the media. What can be done to promote it? I wish I knew.

I’m still hopeful though.

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New look!

Curiosity got the better of me. After a year of the same template, my itchy fingers was dying to try something new. And after a bit of fiddling around, a new look. What do you think?

Still dont know how to add in colour to the sidebar boxes though. Css is wierd.

—

Anyway, had a lovely and relaxing week from Hari Raya, spending time and get togethers with families.

Hari Raya is a day for forgiveness and the strengthening of bonds. Start afresh. Start anew.

Feels a little different this year though. Ketupats seem to be rarer to be seen these days and lontong pieces doesnt seem to be as soft as before.


Picture of ketupat stolen from Pniiwof blog

Okay I admit it, I dont know how to weave a ketupat. My aunt tried to teach me, when I was a little girl. But the only thing I managed to weave is my fingers. It was so hard! So according to Malay sayings, I’ll never get married :/

But I remember helping mum make lontongs till after a while, she got busy and now, we just buy the factory made ones. It doesnt taste the same though. Now I dont really have the mood to eat them anymore.

—

This article from the Sunday times newspaper caught my eye.

It says that by taking 9 days leave, we could have 43 days of rest. Quite impressive. Having more rest days is always a good thing 🙂

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Spending Deepavali holidays in Geylang

Happy deepavali to all my Hindu friends 🙂

Hari Raya is just a few more days to go!

Visited Geylang today. Heard that it would be the last year that Geylang would be around before it gets demolished for an upgrade.

As a kid, my parents brought me here quite frequently every time during the fasting month and I remember the warm, if a little stuffy alleys of geylang serai, full of people selling clothes, food and other cultural needs.

I’ve always enjoyed walking through these mazes of shops that leads round and around and exploring which little corner that I can stumble to. Sometimes it will lead me to a delicious snack corner full of delicious traditional cakes and sometimes it will lead me to a clothes stall, full of baju kurongs. It was always exciting for me to walk around.

Am a little sad to see these alleys go. We’ll never experience the old style geylang any more from next year onwards. Am going to miss it.


Stall selling colourful scarves and headgear


Lovely kebayas for sale for about S$50


During the fasting month there are many boxes like these – donations are used for the poor and needy


Crowded with other nostalgic people, like me


Man cooking ayam percik (Original one, on a stick tastes better!)


Man selling off lemang (bamboo filled with rice, slowly cooked over an open fire)


I’ve no idea what he’s cooking. But it looks so cool


Selling kuih raya (cakes and snacks)


Kebabs! Mmmm …


Seafood! Mmmm …

Man cooking Dengdeng (what a cute name) a type of thinly stripped bbq’ed marinated meat


Display of kuih raya

Putu bambu (coconut snack with sugar inside) I like!

It was easier for me to take pictures here as compared to Chinatown Most were happy to have their pictures taken. I chatted with some of the shopkeepers and he told me. “One day, maybe in 10 or 15 years from now, those pictures will be valuable”

To me, the pictures are already valuable. But the good memories, is the most valuable of all. I will miss Geylang.

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I passed my riding test!

Awesome! After a couple of previous attempts, I’m now a qualified rider on the road! My goodness that took ages to complete. I started in May 2004 and only completed it now. Some people only took a few months to do it but I guess the important thing is, that I’ve eventually finally done what I’ve always wanted to do. So now I can put a tick next to my “to do list”

Initially, I was a little apprehensive. Judging by the dark clouds above me, it looked as if, it was going to rain. I dont feel confident when it rains – roads are more slippery and harder to manage.

I arrived the Bukit Batok driving center at about 7.50am, put on my number tag, 21 and was given a quick practise before the actual test. And just as expected, it was drizzing. I sort of fell off the plank and feeling a little peeved with myself.

Later on, me and 89 other testees sat in the room for our briefing and I quickly scanned the road map for a visualisation of the road that I’ll be going through later. I breathed in deeply, concentrated and then started my test.

The tester waved his hand, signalling that test was begining. I checked for oncoming traffic and did my blind spot and proceeded to the lane change. So far so good, I thought to myself. Let me just turn over at this junction and then go up the slope.

Hey not bad! Easy does it. Dont be gabra (panic) Be cool! Look for oncoming traffic and then go. Not enough space at the road? Just stay behind the traffic light. No problem. No gabra.

I observed the other people at the figure 8 and noticed that alot of the people in front of me didnt check their blind spot. I’ll try not to do the same mistake. And then I proceeded.

I felt so lucky that the bike that I was riding didnt give me any problems. A good bike would either make you or break you. Good bike! Good bike!

Then I proceeded to the plank. Easy does it Marina. Count. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Good … Now you dont need to stay on the plank any longer, thats fine. Carry on to the emergency break.

Speed up Marina. But not too fast. Now decrease throttle! Then clutch in! Good! You’re doing fine. Continue to the road.

Speed up! Speed up! You’re on public road now. Observe your surroundings. You can do it! Its a lovely day to ride. No problem at all. Car in front of you? Signal quickly and try to move away as possible. Wonderful.

I talked to myself and tried to motivate myself as much as I can. And at length, I completed the test and waited for the results.

It was such agony. The waiting. I was complaining to the guy sitting beside me. Just give me the results already! Fail fail lah! Aaargh!

Everyone around me are feeling the same, I was sure. They had the same sheepish/in agony/pained face as I had.

Eventually the testers arrived. And they called out the names of the people who failed. I watched as how disappointed they looked. There was even a guy who crushed his result paper in anger.

“I’m going to call out some numbers”, my tester announced. “19! 20! 21!”

Haaah? Fail again? 🙁

“19. 20. 21. You all pass”

Haaah? I pass? Bluff lah. I dont believe.

“You passed lah! Unless you want to come again next time” Said the guy beside me.

I passed? Really? Wow! Really? Unreal! Wow! Oh wow!

And I looked at the slip of paper in my hands. 8 points. Unreal! From 34 to 26 to 8 points. So amazing.

Woopee! I can ride on the road now. Unreal! Zoom! Vespa GT200 here I come!


SMOOCH!

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Riding Test Checklist

Third time’s a charm, I hope. It would be nice to finally clear the traffic police test and get it over and done with so I concentrate on other matters.

I flunked my tp test twice already. The first time was due to the rain which made everything slippery and the second was a matter of pure carelessness by me. So I hope my third time would leave me more optimistic.

It would be so disheartening if I dont do well. But I’ll never give up. Went through so much just to let go when the end is so near.

Was back from the Bukit Batok Driving Center for a self practise. It wasn’t anything that I didn’t already knew. So why is it that I keep doing silly mistakes during the actual test itself?

Farid, a colleague of mine, whom I was replacing for the school found out that I was taking riding lessons too. He retold about the time when he was taking the traffic police test. The night before, he visualised the circuit and the road. What to do in every instance and every gestures.

I think I’ll give it a try too. What’s there to lose anyway.

Starting point.

  • Signal the lights to the left and look out for the traffic.
  • Look to the right, and then look to the left
  • If all is clear, blind spot left and proceed
  • Watch out for pedestrians at the zebra crossing
  • Accelerate to at least gear 3

Before approaching the bend

  • Signal right
  • Blind spot right when touching the bend
  • At the end of the bend, another blind spot
  • Go in the right lane

At the junction

  • Shoulders must be aligned to the white line
  • Blind spot to the right and proceed.
  • Avoid wide turning

After the junction

  • Signal to the left
  • Blind spot left
  • Accelerate to prevent wobbling
  • Change lane to the left

Before turning

  • Blind spot to the left and look far.
  • Stop at the stop sign and look out for traffic.
  • Blind spot left at the middle of the junction
  • Get to at least gear 2

Slope

  • Kick down to gear 1.
  • Signal right
  • Hold rear break
  • Open throttle, release break and proceed downhill
  • signal left and look out for incoming vehicles

Traffic lights

  • Front tyre must NEVER touch the yellow line. (instant failure)
  • Check front road, left and right and accelerate
  • Signal left as soon as you leave the yellow box

Figure 8

  • blind spot left
  • go to gear 2
  • let go of clutch
  • control throttle
  • use read break to control speed
  • Press the clutch slightly just when about to go out and look right


Crank

  • Signal right before proceeding in
  • Go to gear 2
  • let go of clutch
  • control throttle
  • cancel signal
  • look right

Traffic light

  • Look left and right
  • Signal right while in the yellow box
  • Check blind spot
  • Change lane to the right
  • accelerate

T Junction

  • Look left and right and repeat till lanes are clear
  • Blind spot right
  • Turn right and kick gear up
  • Accelerate
  • Signal left
  • blind spot
  • change lane to the leftmost
  • Blind spot again as approaching the outermost bend and enter
  • Cancel signal

Plank

  • Kick to gear 1
  • Look at the plank
  • proceed and then look far
  • Balance using rear brake

Slalom

  • Kick to gear 2
  • use rear brake to control
  • Blind spot right when approaching end

Emergency break

  • Accelerate up to 35km/h
  • Go to gear 3
  • When you see the red line, close throttle
  • Break front and rear
  • Clutch in
  • Kick down to gear 1
  • Check back
  • Proceed to the road

Road is a little easier for me. Similar to the circuit, but you have to check with other traffic and the pedestrians too. Give way when needed and accelerate whenever possible.

Hope my assessment check-list doesn’t go up too much during the actual day.

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Ramadan is here

Selamat berpuasa di bulan ramadan. 🙂

May you have all the blessings, health, riches and peace for the heart as you embark on this holy month.

Allahuma razakkana fiima azabanna

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Having fun at an outdoor shoot in Chinatown Square

My AOC LCD monitor sure isn’t being very nice to me. Do you think it can be fixed at a regular computer repair shop? My warranty for this has ran out and my cpu keeps restarting and insisting that there’s no hard disk drive in my computer. But I just changed it less than a year ago!)

Hope that it wont be too pricey. Computer parts can cost an arm and a leg. And not having a working computer is such an inconvenience. Gosh, I’m so dependent on compys.

Anyways, it was another lovely day spent yesterday. I was out for an outdoor shot with Fais, the photography instructor and Kathy, the lady who was in the same course as me. We met up in Chinatown Square and started from there.

There were many interesting sights around. Some of them can never be found in a regular neighbourhood town like the grocery shops which are now replaced by supermarkets and such.

Like this particular shop here. I grew up in my grandfather’s shop before Pulau Tekong was reclaimed by the Singapore Ministry of Defence. It was peaceful there. I enjoyed the lifestyle there so much. The island life, peaceful and idyllic. With vast and vast of land and the sea as your playground.

I remember roaming around a lot in the fields and went exploring about in the area. And playing around in my grandfather’s shop. He used to have so many interesting things like mounds of rice in the store room for sale, bales of cloth by the side, food stuff arranged. My atuk would pull this pulley from the ceiling and a can will roll down, and he pays the customer his change.

It’s a rare scene now. And I’m so thankful that I’m blessed enough to experience it. Not many people would have the same childhood I had.

We walked over to the flea market

It wasn’t easy trying to capture the pictures around here. Not the same as the Bugis Photoshoot. People in Chinatown were reserved and didn’t like having their pictures taken. It was a huge challenge for me.

I’m happy to see you healthy but I cant help wondering …




This lady here was nice enough to pose when we chatted to her. We went to a little shop selling teh tarik and local snack to have a break and to review the photos that we’ve taken so far. I had a mug of teh halia (ginger tea) and some epok-epok (sardine pastry) and we talked about our challenges today.

Kathy : A lot of the people don’t like their pictures taken! Some of them scolded us!

Fais : Sometimes, people don’t like having their pictures taken. You have to find a way to take the picture without them noticing. I’ve been through photo-shoots where I am required to take pictures. I still have to do it.

Interesting lessons of real life photography. So different from studio shots when you can command the models to pose and move however you want. Outdoor shoots is quite different but they are definitely most rewarding.

After the photo-shoot, Kathy, Fais and I said our goodbyes to each other and promised to meet up again soon.

I was supposed to meet Zila in Orchard at 4 pm. And then I received a sms from her saying that she will be a little bit late. I was already in Orchard. No problem. I’ll just walk around in Wisma Atria shopping centre a little bit.

A fashion show. Stores like Osmose, Sense, and Future State were showing their latest designs that were being sold in the stores. The models looked good. Unfortunately, the clothes design were pretty much nothing new. You see women wearing stuff like that already in the streets. I wasn’t impressed. I’d rather get stuff at ‘This Fashion’.

I want to be pretty and earn big bucks too … Sigh

The phone rings in the middle of the photo-shot. It was Juli and I moved in to a shop where it was slightly less noisy to answer the phone.

Juli : Hey Marina! (Hears the music blasting) Oh you’re in Orchard! I’m upstairs right now.

Me : Come down to the second floor! There’s a fashion show right now … But the clothes aren’t so nice.

Juli : I’ll be there!

And we met soon after. Juli was just back from a talk at library@Orchard and soon-after, Zila arrived and the two girls said hello.

Juli : Hey you look different Zila. You’ve rebonded your hair.
Zila : Yeah! Its been a while though
Me : Check out Juli’s hair. She did something different too!

We went to Far East Plaza to have lunch together at the Sakura restaurant which specialises Thai styled cooking.

What to order … What to order …

Usually when at the Sakura, Juli and I would order Tom Yum. Sakura makes the best Tom Yum. Spicy and hot .. with oomph! It’ll make the most tired of people, wide eyed after a sip of the lovely broth.

Juli and Me : Scoop it Zila! And serve it to us! Cause we’re your BIG sister and you must respect us!

Zila : Err ok.

(Zila takes a sip of the broth)

Zila : Woah! I didn’t know it was so strong! *cough*

Me : Its strong, but not as strong as the real Thai Tom Yum Goong we had when we went to Thailand.

Juli : I don’t even remember much of our vacation.

We had a lovely chat together, we updated each other about our lives and happenings. Zila talked about her soccer practises and how the leagues were starting and her unfortunate accident in which she couldn’t participate in matches anymore.

And then we talked about work and I discovered something extremely interesting. Zila tells me of a story about a particular guy at her workplace. Admittedly, I used to have a major crush on this guy. Juli knew about it too and she started to snigger as I perked up.

Zila : You know what? He’s been a little … odd

Me : How is that?

Zila : While we were at camp, he took some pictures and showed them to me and asked me. Aren’t my pictures great? Isn’t it better than Marina’s?

Me : Hmmmm

Juli : Aww .. He’s thinking of you.

Zila : And then he asked me so … do you know that Marina has a boyfriend she met on the net?

Juli : (teasing) Wow ..aww that’s so sweet of him to still have you on his mind.

Me : (Embarassed) Ha! Ha! HAHA! Ha!

I can’t help wondering how he is doing though, I know its not easy trying to slog off at that school. The first time I knew him, I thought he was a little annoying and very earnest but then I found out that he was a determined and a hard-working person. It was admirable qualities to be innovative, systematic and determined like that and I respected him a lot. it takes a lot of willpower to stay focused the way that he did.

I remember last year, when we had lunch together and I remember some of the things he said :

You know, I’m going to Japan and I’m going to sell laksa (a spicy type of noodle) there.

Huh? Laksa? What on earth for?

Well, Japanese people don’t know what Laksa is, and I’m sure it’s going to be a hit there!

But they can’t stand hot food can they?

They eat wasabi. I’m sure they can handle laksa.

And I forgot about the laksa incident for a while. Amazingly, just a couple of months ago, in the straits time newspaper, I came across an article about the Singapore Tourism Board promoting local food in Japan and the Japanese people loved it. Especially laksa. There were several Japanese whom wanted to travel here because of that promotion.

It just made me flashback to that lunch. He’s got these ideas in his head to the point of eccentricism. I hope he’ll do fine. Some of the things that he does can be too radical for the common person to understand. But I hope for all the best for him.

We roamed around Far East Plaza and looked at the lovely things being sold there. Juli and I stared at the shoes shop while Zila was fascinated by the accessories shop. Far East Plaza sure had a lot of different interesting things to see. I like the fact that there are a myriad of things around here. Different range of items from the classy and glamorous to the hardcore and punk items.

After flying about the different items, we landed at a shoe shop called Mondo and I saw the most adorable shoes. Chickens!

At first I thought that they were separate shoes as the left shoe and the right didn’t match. But the lady selling the shoes insisted that they were a pair. Too irresistible to try on such a unique pair of shoes.

Juli : Do you like it? I’ll get the green one if you get the black one

Me thinking : Eh I like green though but it looks better on her

Me : Oklah. Aren’t these shoes the cutest?

Juli couldnt wait to wear her shoes and asked to wear it immediately. I think I’ll wear mine to work. And yes, I did ruin my other shoe, the flat one that was to replace my heels. I guess the moral of the story is, heels or flats, they will all die anyway so just be happy till it lasts.

Zila asked me out afterwards to a cafe in Arab street while Juli asked me to come over and watch a movie with her, Red and friends. I couldn’t decide. So in the end, I said goodbye to the both of them to go home. Was tired anyway. I’m not a spring chicken any more. Unlike my shoes.

I did enjoy myself though, it is always lovely to spend time with friends

I like to walk home from the train station. It was most wonderfully peaceful to walk around lakeside area at night time. I love the cool breeze and the quiet atmosphere. And the most glorious sight greeted me as I walked past the lake.

The beautiful full moon over the high rise flats, illuminating the lake.

It’s the mid autumn festival here. With moon-cakes and lighted festival. As a kid, I used to have neighbours, who were my best friends, Michael and his sister. He taught me how to ride the bicycle and his sister would play catching with me.

They asked me out during a mid autumn festival one day and instantly I said yes. It’s going to be fun. I love playing with paper lanterns. And we laughed at other people, who burned their paper lantern accidentally.

And then a group of kids came up to me …

(Tsk tsk tsk) You know, you’re not being very Malay playing with paper lanterns. This is a Chinese custom. Don’t do this!

Saya punya sukalah! I do what I like. Nice what.

You’re disrespecting your race

Lets go lah Michael

I was 11.

Anyway, I saw some kids lighting up some candles and I couldn’t help snapping away. Unfortunately I forgot to set my camera back to auto focus from the moon shot and now the shots which is supposed to be awesome is now quite ruined.

I’ve still got a lot of things to learn.

In other news, PhotoI is hosting a Canon Workshop. The theme is Nature and Things in the city. Geri and I signed up for it – I think its going to be fun 🙂

Time to end this entry here. Be safe everyone

P.s

Oh! And if anyone reading this can sponsor me a new computer plus lcd monitor, that would be great! (I know that’s a far fetched request, but I try.. lol)

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The re-opening of Taman Jurong Community Center

30th July was the official launch of the re-opening of the Taman Jurong Community Centre.

With the immense amount of people that turned up at the event, it was a blast and felt so festive too. The streets were closed and there were street performance, fairs, and concerts and other activities that went together simultaneously. It was truly a night to remember.

When we started walking there, there were a few kids who were trying out the rock climbing display

Some kids tried the abseiling display. love abseling!

This girl here is drawing a lion statue

These are the displays done by all the various schools from the Jurong area

A lot of people crowding around!

Lions balancing on the 2 meter high poles

Cooking yummy stuff!

Delicious Japanese pizza

Yummy corn

Thousands and thousands of people watching the concert.

Watching the artwork

Girls competing with the biggest balloons.

Slyvester Sim was there

Sheik Haikal was there too

And Taufik was there, the highlight of the show.

What a lovely night!

Related link

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Get lost!

Spent a wonderfully relaxing day watching Lost.

After trying to download the entire series with Bittorent and Limewire without success, I had to practically pull Clement’s (the school technical assistant and my newly appointed best friend) arm and he gave he the entire series in 2 DVD’s! Sans the last two episodes since it didn’t fit in the DVD, and I downloaded those with no problem.

Super fantastic show. I enjoyed it immensely. It’s a show about a group of survivors who survived a plane crash on a strange and mysterious island. There were several flash backs of what their lives were before the crash and the discoveries of the island’s secrets. There were some creepy bits like the mysterious black mist that goes around.

Just what are those debris? Creepy

Almost as creepy as the scene with 3 men and a baby

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But every one knows that the little boy by the window, who is supposed to be the victim of a murder, is a hoax.

21st July is racial harmony day, in remembrance to the racial riots that happened in Singapore in 1964, when many people died from that most unfortunate incident.

Schools here would usually have an event for this day, some schools would put up a show or a festival. I saw that West Spring had a large joint festival together with 2 other schools. It sure looked like fun.

Racial harmony day sounds dandy, but in my personal opinion, it shouldnt just be a one day event where people would wear their traditional costumes. The main point that the different races be understanding and considerate to each other.

Not to say that there isn’t any cultural understanding here, the situation here has improved considerably since the times when Maria Hertogh who was taken away from her Malay Muslim adopted mother back home to the Netherlands.

Anyhow, my point is, Racial Harmony should be practised daily and not just be a carnival that everyone forgets the next day. Just like Valentines day which is a celebration of love, should be practised everyday instead of just once a day. The fact that people *need* a reason to celebrate their appreciation for their partner is a little farce to me. But thats my own opinion

(steps off her soap box)

Was a busy day for me, the entire day was done taking the picture of the teachers, the entire department. I got to borrow the tripod stand from the AVA room (I found it quite fun to use, a tad heavy but it was still pretty ok)

And then I suddenly find myself being the ‘official’ photographer for the school. Teachers would be asking me to take photographs of their activities like the science show, and the national day (I can’t make it for that one though) and the staff department photograph. I accepted them all gladly. Loved taking photographs. It’ll give me more practise with my awesome camera which I totally adore. I’d like to get new lens when I can get my hands on one. Maybe a tamron Af18-200mm.

I was just looking over at the different cd’s that I borrowed from the library. I borrowed this cd, ‘Learn Malay’ by eurotalk interactive with the intention of seeing if it would be good for Cart to use since I have no patience to teach him myself.

Unfortunately, the programme had a lot of glaring mistakes in them, and me, being a Malay found it much too disconcerting.

Bolehkah saya pakai telefon awak?

In Malay, pakai means wear (clothes) so the meaning of ‘May I wear your telephone’ was shocking. The correct sentence to use is:

Bolehkah saya guna telefon awak? Or Bolehkah saya mengguna telefon anda?

I swear, I’m not nitpicking. But I cannot recommend this cd-rom because of the errors which I believe would be minimized by having it tested and checked by a native speaker.

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Very stressful, you know.

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Ok fine. Bye.

2 more weeks to go 🙂