Went for Paddle and Pedal by SMUX last weekend which is basically a two-day kayaking (Paddle) and biking (pedal) event.
There we go starting at the Punggol beach with our warm-ups.
After the buoyancy test it's off to the water!!!
And for some reason me and my partner Tim aren't able to control the boat well so it keep moving to the right towards the bum boat. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise that we have more pictures taken cause we are nearer to lia who's taking photos on the bum boat.
And this is my partner Tim
Not forgetting to take photos at the same time
and play games too
before we cross the channel over the ubin, we decide to change partners and here's my new partner John
After crossing the channel we started to capsize each other. My kayak was one of the kayak being capsized as well. But since I'm already wet and I can't drown with a floatation jacket, I don't really mind going down the water.
Reached Pulau Ubin near the evening and you can see after a whole day of tanning, I've turned into a 阳光男孩
After which we had our BBQ and ended the night lying on the ground sheet gazing at the stars. Never realised stars can be so beautiful in Singapore. Did not have a good sleep though. The mosquitoes seems to be immune to the mosquitoes coils I set around. What they said about O+ blood attracts mosquitoes seem true too.
The next day woke up early and kayak back (this time round me and Tim managed to go straight and faster too) to Changi and began our cycling after lunch. Cycled on the PCN towards Pasir Ris and Tampines playing games on the way. More or less a leisure ride until we went to explore the Tampines Trail.
Took an easier route but nevertheless quite fun and challanging too. After which I tried to cycle across the ramps. Managed to pass through the first few and got stuck at one ramp and fell a bit and no choice have to give up. How can a cycling expedition happen without any casualties? We have 3 casualties that day and John is the worst casualties as I witness him fell and fly in front of my and rolled a few rounds.
Definitely a fun trip which I might want to try again next year. I'm finally tanned now but my face is peeling so I guess after the peeling my face will turn fair again. But sort of realise that kayaking isn't my cup of tea so think will try out more SMUX land activites soon, with round island biking expedition being the next activity. After all, water dog should stay in water too long :). Paid for SMUX membership today and so there will be discount for future SMUX activities. Yeah.
In today's creative thinking class we had an impromptu class group project where we were divided into groups and given one hour to brainstorm and present our idea. Quite a stressed free assignment even though the weightage is actually 20% of the total. Nevertheless, that is not the main point of today's post. It's what Prof Kirpal Singh said during class which actually spurred some random thoughts in me.
The point he mentioned is that whenever someone tell you his or her own stories, it meant that he or she cares about you. Analyzing between someone lending you a sum of money and telling you a story. For a rich man, the sum of money may mean nothing to him. However, whenever someone tell you his or her personal story, he or she is actually giving you time and sacrificing a piece of his or her life. Quite true isn't it? But most of the time when someone tell you their story, you would start to think,"Why tell me that? I'm ain't interested in your personal life" So now, we should start to appreciate whenever tell you their own stories and make sure their life aren't sacrificed unnecessarily. As for me, I'm giving all the readers of this blog, as few as it may be, a piece of my life whenever I update my blog, so I'm caring about you as well :)
He gave some mention about money as well, which I have been mentioning once and once again. When describing someone, why must we use 'poor BUT happy'? After all does being rich means one will be happy? There's a rich man living in Nassim Road all 'alone' with five servants but he's probably just a lonely sad old man. I'm now much much much poorer than before but somehow life feels more meaningful. Probably I don't need so much money as I planned for the time being. After some thoughts, I guess I will just work hard for the next three months and make the best out of it for the rest of the year.
Gave my first tuition today, not English of course, but maths. Sec 1 maths so no much preparation was needed and by reading the assessment book I was able to get most of the memory back. Quite satisfied with my performance today and I hope Lorraine thinks so too. It's not hard to teach her too, cause although she might take some time to understand the concept, once she understood it she could solve the problems quite fast.
Previously I was quite against tutoring and taught it was rather unethical. This time round, by circumstances and by chance I started tutoring. It's tough for the the last few months financially as after entering my expense and income on Microsoft Money most of the time I will find my account in the red. All I can do was to save whatever I can and push backward whatever expense I can push and sometimes if I'm lucky, I would be just able to break even at the end of the month. Now with delayed expenditure amounting to a large amount and depleting reserve, I have no choice but to go against my principle and start tutoring. Looking at my timetable and commitments I doubt that I can have other career opportunities.
Still it will take sometime before I can live a luxurious lifestyle during the pre-SMU days. Hopefully by end of March I would be able to liquify the assets which are required to liquify and allow my cash holdings to earn some passive income for me (one of my new year resolution). Maybe I would be able to take another 2-hr/wk tuition assignment to refill my depleting reserve and to clear off the delayed expenditure. Of course it would be best if I can strike the CNY 10mil toto.
It's true that money and women are my greatest worries. From putting effort to save cents in Kopitiam to budgeting to investing, it's killing a lot of my brain cells. Students should still have the right to lead luxurious lifestyle, please let me get rich soon.
The new sem has started with new modules, new profs, new friends and new experience. Unlike semester 1 where everyone do not know each other, everyone is more or less in groups this semester.
Started the week with creative thinking under Kirpal Singh. Super interesting prof with high degree of freedom to do whatever we like for the project. Got into a half-international group again and had my very first meeting of the sem today.
Stats was just the opposite and super boring, even worse than accounting. But fortunately I guess all I have to do for this course is to recall my A level stuff. No project for this course but somehow got the temptation to continue to work on my toto stats in view of the coming 10million draw.
Analytical skill mod was rather short this week and ended in 45mins. And in the same class as my old Dunman friends Ellery and Derrick.
Business Law was more interesting than expected as the class participated very actively in discussions. However this should be a taxing course as quite a substantial amount of reading is required. And till now still couldn't get a group yet, must go around and advertise myself le. Haha.
Business, Government and Society, really dunno what to say. Prof Raj was quite entertaining and spent 3hrs on course overview and 15mins on the course. Looks like another TWC to me and had already formed a group and hopefully can do another TWC with Irving for BGS.
Overall this semester seems to be more challenging then the previous but first thing first is to make more friends. Sort of felt quite bad when you walk into a class and you do not know anyone in the class. Another priority will be not to get suck into the rat race and continue my slacking yet efficient way last semester. After all I was assigned a 3-day week and I assume it's a sign that I should not be overworked this semester. Just do my best and hopefully quality will prevail.
Went to Sentosa with Bin, Demong and Gary. Played some frisby and soon it started pouring. There goes my plan to be tall dark and handsome before school starts. Haiz.
Gary looks sad coz someone is not here
Hot Hunks @ Sentosa
Frisby!!After that joined by David, William and Roger for dinner at bukit timah (sounds far but thanks to bus 154, going home is a breeze) . Sumptuous hawker food including stingray, carrot cake, etc. After which went to Mac for bridge and Roger's magic tricks and he revealed some of the secrets to them. Haha, gonna practice it and who knows it may be useful to 骗小妹妹and hopefully, no Wii for me for the next Xmas.
Spend an entire day out with good food and lots of fun with the NP peeps. Started off with lunch with the NP guys at Imperial Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao. Basically it's a pirated CJ La Mian Xiao Long Bao and I still prefer the original CJ La Mian. Carried on with bowling and quite a good game for me hitting above 100 for 2 out of 3 of the games bowled. Finally cut my hair after two plus months. Felt that it look a bit guai compared to my original hairstyle but at least it looks neater and perhaps its time to try a new style.
Dinner was at Sushi Tei, with NP guys and girls again. Afterwhich went to Max Brenner for chocolate while the girls went to watch their musically. Always wanted to try out their chocolate since the StarHub days but never had the chance. Tried out their dark chocolate Suckao which is one of their signature dish however was rather disappointed. The dark chocolate is just like those normal sweet chocolate sold outside and when melted with milk, it tasted just like milo. Guess it's more style than substance for the chocolate cafe.
Anyway, met up the girls again and went to Cineleisure for K-Box. There's actually supper buffet served over their which include nice food like satay, sushi, ice-cream, etc. Sang all the way till 4+ in the morning but my voice was rather bad that day. Nevertheless, it's quite an entertaining Kbox session. Tried out the new cab fare home and the meter really jumped faster.
Damage for the day: $96.50 (Ouch!) and quite significant amount of fats.
It's already the second day of 2008 and so far so good. Had been full of hopes though nothing in particular happened. It's just the omens and the feeling that this year is gonna be the best year that I had so far. In view of this, got to keep this spirit up through the year and this years resolutions will be more ambitious.
1) Dean's List
Sounds ambitious, and is indeed quite ambitious. This sem's grades did make the mark but it's more luck than anything else. So got to work a little bit harder next sem as it seems like it's my only chance to get into Dean's list as the next few years would be much harder and competitive.
2) Complete a Marathon
The Standard Chartered Marathon at the end of the year is the top priority. If time permits might go for AHM again to collect one more medal and as a warm up, might even go for the vertical marathon as well. Anyone interested to go with me?
3) Archery Medal
After training for months my grouping still can't make it and after learning and unlearning my form is just bad. Still believe I got to have the talent for it and I just need more practice and some luck to get a medal in my first novice competition.
4) Passive Income
Manage to survive on the allowance from parents but I'm not quite content with it. How I missed the good old days of luxurious spending without feeling the pain. Basically now I have cut on all single items costing more than $100 in order not to dig into my savings but that's self-torture man. Maybe going to find tuition or other lobangs so that I can go back to my luxurious spending ways again.
5) Mr. Magnet
Meaning I want to be more attractive in 2008, both appearance and character-wise. Want to build up a more defined personal style and carrying on my willingness to try out new styles. Maybe it's possible to change my character and be less of a 乖乖男孩 and more of your sunny and friendly guy next door.
6) No more Lonely Christmas
Last but definitely not the least. My annual resolution which always did not manage to be realised. Will this year be the year it finally come true? I hope so.
That's all that I can think of currently but that doesn't end here. Talk is cheap without action so I will work hard for my resolutions to achieve as many of them as possible. Good luck to all and let's work hard together for your resolutions as well =)
A very enjoyable New Year's Eve for me this year. Firstly met up with Wilson, ZX and Nut for dinner. Originally wanted to shop first but found that we just went to Marina Square to shop just a few days ago so there isn't much to shop for either. Anyway, had dinner at Billy Bomber's with their very limited new year menu and as usual, the meals served are extremely filling. After dinner proceeded on to Orchard to shop a bit but found that Wisma is surprisingly a ghost town on New Year's eve and since everyone is shag we decided to just chill out in Mac and play the Ipod quiz on Wilson's Ipod. Headed back to Marina to watch the fireworks display. The crowd was rather bad especially with all the foreign talents pushing hard to proceed to the front. Finally got squeezed to a quite forward position and enjoyed the fireworks display. Not exactly a brilliant display compared to NDP nevertheless is a good way to kickstart a year.
The rest of them went home after the fireworks but for me, the night is still young cause there's another Greenies party at Caelan's place. It's a night of fun till dawn with Chih's Wii. First time playing Wii and found it fun but some games like boxing can be real tiring. Not forgetting the booze and the card games as well and it's one of the very rare occasions where nobody went down from alcohol.
The start of a new year is also a good time to look back at what one has achieved in the past year. So just a quick recap of what had happened for me in 2007. The first half of the year was spent in StarHub where I met all the cool Greenies especially Team 100. Even after being transferred to Callback team I was still very attached to the Greenies. Then came the two special weeks. Sadly not all stories end with 'happily ever after' and 5months down the road today, it's still hard to get over it. 也许时间是一种解药也是我现在正服下的毒药。 Next come the start of my uni life in SMU. I supposed I've chosen the right school and so far had survived well in SMU and continued to remain slack in the highly competitive environment. All the CCAs and ac-hoc activities in school had also made my year more happening and made good used off. This year also marks my 21st birthday but it doesn't seems to make much difference. I have yet to watch a R21 movie yet and being 21 just makes me feels old at times.
Back to what I have achieved this year. Looking at last year's resolution I would say that I have achieved half of what I wished for. Apart from better finance due to working in StarHub the rest of my achievements are somewhat intangible. Firstly, I felt that I looked better and my guess is that people will be calling me shameless. But looking at the before and after photo picture below taken at the start and end of the year respectively, it's not hard to understand why do I think I looked better.
Transformation 2007
Other achievements will be in terms of character development. In 2007 I felt more confident to try out new stuff as well as networking. This is also one of the most happening years in terms of going out much often for good food and stuff like that. One year ago being alone seems alright for me but now I'm quite scared of loneliness but that's a good thing. So in conclusion 2007 is a rather fruitful year for me but let's hope 2008 will be better.
