spy.

so the one-month spy mission has unofficially ended, and i've learnt so many things this month, much more than what i'd have learnt in school for one year. not only did i manage to acquire almost all the necessary knowledge and learn the important skills, i also had the opportunity to observe life from a very different angle - from the perspective of people who only make about 1000 dollars a month and can barely survive in this expensive nation.

despite having to wake up at the most unearthly hour of the day to go to work and standing for the whole day in an area of less than 10m2, they always smiled and helped one another without expecting anything in return. thanks to my pea size, i was never asked to do anything beyond the amount i could handle and always showered with care and concerns. even though i was often a hazard to the people around me, my colleagues always thought i was very helpful and thanked me for every little thing i helped them with. and the most amazing part is that we communicated really well most of the time (yeah, there were some misunderstandings here and there), given my limited command of chinese!

one month isn't a long time, but it is enough for me to form certain bonds to these people. even though i must admit that i couldn't wait for the mission to end so that i could turn my biological clock back to normal and get back to my usual life, it wasn't easy leaving. but well, life goes on! what i've learned and observed has taught me to be thankful for what i have now and i promise i will do my best in everything!

peace.

i am losing my appetite and sleep over matters that don't deserve my time and attention. like after a long day at school/work, i can't even get just a few minutes of peace at home! ): haish maybe that's why i am becoming sickly skinny and noticeably ageing! >.<

one day before funorama!

literature.

i couldn't sleep last night because of the stupid cramps so i just lazed in bed, thinking about random things and somehow my thoughts ended up at how i was so interested and amazed by literature back in secondary school. i still remember how proud i was of the essays i wrote analysing well known proses and poems by famous authors, which would, most of the time, end with a very apt rhetorical question (in my personal opinion back then). but my 'baby' passion in literature was killed even before it was given the chance to fully develop because my essays were deemed to be inconsistent with what the teachers taught in class. hence, i ended up almost failing literature and almost not getting my Excellent Student award for that semester while my classmates who diligently attended tuition classes given by your literature teacher and merely regurgitated everything the teacher said into their essays scored unexpectedly well.

then, at the age of 12, i couldn't reason everything out logically but instead blamed my father for not letting me attend tuition classes or was disappointed with myself for being such a 'boy' who couldn't appreciate literature. and literature gradually became my least favourite subject in school and i had no choice but to conform to the norms in order to do well academically. now, at the age of 24, i realised that hey, it wasn't actually such a bad thing. instead, i'm thankful for having a father who has always wanted me to learn through reading books, watching tv and visiting places rather than through attending tuition classes, and for having other teachers, especially an excellent form teacher, who really had the heart for educating the young.

this is totally random, but oh well...

i deserve to fail the driving test 10,000 times!

so it's been almost a year since i gloriously passed the driving test at the second attempt last year. it was indeed a magical experience and till now, how i passed still remains as a myth. none of the people around me (including family members, friends and strangers) has any faith in my driving abilities, and well, i guess they really have a point there. here are a few reasons:

1. i often mix up the right-hand traffic in vietnam and the left-hand traffic in singapore. that's why i have a very high tendency to turn into the opposite lane when driving in singapore.

2. it usually takes me 5-10 seconds to differentiate between left and right but your response can't be that slow when you are on the road, so i occasionally turn in the wrong direction when i was learning driving last year and even now.

3. i am often in great distress when driving on crowded roads and at high speeds. under these circumstances, i can only focus on the road in front of me and don't dare to shift my vision elsewhere. hence, i often need to ask my passenger (friend, driving instructor, driving tester) whether there are cars behind me or near me.

4. neither can i park without cues (like those lines in the circuit) nor when there is another car in the neighbouring parking lot or when there are two cars in the neighbouring parking lots (one on each side).

5. i am very impatient, so i often feel like banging into everyone and everything on the road if they are in my way.

despite all these problems, my driving skills (when on a straight road) are as good as those of any driving instructor and i know the traffic rules really well! hmm, maybe i should consider having a career as a driving instructor!

love as before, and always!

i met up with my sb4 classmates over dinner a few days ago and we spent a substantial amount of time looking at our class blog over desserts! (: although it wasn't really very active in the past and has been dormant for so long that it was almost deleted from blogger, it still contains so many memories, some of which are still fresh in our minds as if they just happened yesterday while some others are like foggy air hidden in an isolated corner.

looking back and looking forward, I'm thankful that most of us only carry the good acsian genes and none of the bad ones. and I'm glad to realise that most of my classmates are still the same as before, and always.

isolation.

i've been so caught up in my own little world over the last few months that i've kind of become ignorant and grown distant with what's happening in the lives of the people who used to be a big part of my life not too long ago and are still very important to me now. no, it's not that i don't care anymore because i know i still do, but i guess i am just not as good at expressing my concerns as i was in the past and i can't really draw the line between showing concerns and being nosy sometimes.

so maybe this is one of the reasons why i've received feedbacks saying that i've changed! ): hmm i guess it's good that at least i'm now aware of my problems and i promise i will consciously make an effort to return to being the better person that i used to be! (:

www

please tell me why my blog's audience consists of people from russia, france and poland? no, i have not travelled the world and my circle of friends is limited to asean countries, some other asian countries, us, canada, uk and australia. so i can understand if there are views mostly from singapore, vietnam or the united states, but europe seriously? :O

this is one of the occasions when i find the internet extremely scary and feel like deactivating all my social network accounts! ):

nostalgia.

seeing a photo of tom's palette posted by a friend on facebook, i couldn't help but be reminded of the times when i was happily eating ice cream at tom's palette in particular, or trying out exotic dishes at various restaurants in shaw tower in general, or going on random food adventures all over singapore.

things have changed a lot since the last time i was at tom's palette (oh trust me, i can't even remember when that was). no, maybe things have not really changed but i have. i guess it's a combination of reasons (aging + busy schedules + responsibility + companion + excuses) and i'm not sure which of these factors contribute more or less than the others but i'm not gonna waste my time figuring out. on second thought, maybe i should, since it will probably help me solve various other issues as well, but i guess it wait for now.

so since i'm someone who often dwells in the past and has the amazing ability to link random events without any clear association together, i just miss the days when i was free and easy, spontaneously doing things that i loved instead of having to weigh the options and calculate the costs and benefits like i often do now, and i just wish i could go back to those days, even for just a moment.

oh well, i guess this is just an inevitable part of growing up and growing old - nothing unexpected since i'm already in my 24th year on earth. gosh, that's scary!!!

127th founders' day!

it's so heart-warming to see acs logos, slogans and photos on facebook newsfeed and acs shirts, ties and sweaters around in school on this special day.

 

not exactly a fan of birthdays, i'd usually have thought of this day as no big deal, just like any other day among these 365 days of 2013. a very judgemental person, i'd usually have laughed at events like 'wear your acs'. however, i realised that there are actually meanings to these events - they are to remind us of the wonderday days we've spent with special people at a special place, no matter who we are with and where we are right now.

 

so on acs' 127th founders' day, i'm reminiscing about the beaufitul memories i've had at acjc and thankful for having been able to spend 2007 and 2008 here.

 

the best is yet to be! (: