Wednesday, June 30, 2004
A lot of things can happen in one week… it has been exactly a week since I left any entry here but rest assure it is not dead yet, this blog site of mine I mean.
Just reach home from an evening out with Denise, Yanshan, Margaret, JingQiang and the rest of their clique. We had dinner over at
Ellenborough Market Cafe over at
Swissôtel Merchant Court, the place where Xinyi’s boyfriend was working as a chef.
It was quite a nice dining experience and was really enjoyable to catch up with them after such a long time. If I am not wrong the last time all of us sat down together was before Joanne flew back to Perth and since then four months had flown by.
In the past week I had also worked as a product advisor for
Citibank, been to the
airport,
world trade centre,
Labrador park and done many other things that I shall not elaborate here. Yeah… so much has happened in the short space of a week.
It will only be another month before the holidays end and school resumes. Now the new semester doesn’t seem so far away after all like what CheeWee mentioned in the afternoon over the phone, and yeah should get him and Hanwei to go for supper, perhaps prata when Hanwei returns from his Tioman trip, and yeah we will also be having a chalet at Changi the first week of the school term.
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Was reading
the newpaper just now, and was outraged after reading the report on the marked increase in the number of door-to-door salesmen peddling pots and pans to their victims, most of whom usually old and illiterate not knowing their rights and what they are paying for.
It really angers me to see these able-bodied people taking advantage of the elderly, and profiteering from them as a result.
Why do people have to stoop so low?
True, no one can force those elderly to sign for their purchases and they can perhaps blame no one for being only too trusting and gullible. But do those salesmen have no conscience? How would they feel if their roles have now been reversed? Or if it were their parents whom had been hit by such a racket instead?
Do they ever consider what that amount of money could represent to those elderly?
Not all might be living comfortably off their pension funds, and that they might not have much chance to earn back the amount, and of
what use are the pots and pans to them if they can not afford to buy food?
What is the world coming to? I mean in Law these errant firms are probably not doing anything wrong, but should they be allowed to remain at large, preying on the helpless elderly?
Those firms have probably settled all the claims and legal tussles as reported, but what about those cases that do not go uncovered, the cases where the elderly do not know whom to turn to, what rights they have?
One can only hope that the government can introduce some measures to better protect the interest of the elderly from these big bad wolves.
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
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Went down to library 2 in NTU today to register for my subjects for the coming semester, and boy… was the process exciting and perhaps
frustrating?
Within the span of say five minutes from twelve [the designated time for registration], the time slots for two of my modules were all taken up. Yeah.
Five minutes…
But I can’t complain much in the sense that at least I still managed to get all four of my chosen modules. It would indeed have been a real headache had I not been able to get say AA101 or BF218.
I was also fortunate in the sense that I still managed to get a 4 day week for the coming semester even though I missed the time slots I wanted, but that just means that I will have two days with
8.30 am classes.
Now the only thing that bugs me is whether I should offer an additional general elective,
Person and Society or perhaps
International Business Environment for the coming semester.
To take on something interesting during the semester, or to leave myself with more free time and focus on all those modules that count? Well… at least I still got a couple of weeks to think it through.
The past few days have been pretty low-keyed and I hadn’t really been going out much except maybe to the gym or Lot1. Just as well… don’t think have the finance to match my spending otherwise. Haha…
Finally got the call from PServ regarding the Citibank Road show position, and that the half day training is scheduled for this coming Thursday from ten to one over at millennia walk. Sure hope that this assignment will be fun and keep me occupied for the remaining month of the holidays.
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
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Saturday, June 19, 2004
Woke up this morning with throat feeling worse than the day before… It must have been the drinks and all the food that I should have avoided the night before.
Went clubbing with Denise and her American cousins who had just flown in the day before, and flying off today. They had wanted to see the entertainment scene in Singapore I was told.
Denise’s cousins, David and Jenny as well as her distant cousins were all of Vietnamese decent. David, the eldest of the group had graduated from Cornell three years back and is now working as a programmer in New York and earns a cool
US$75,000 a year.
That works out to a whooping S$130,000 a year and over S$10k a month.
His sister Jenny on the other hand had graduated from UC Berkeley and is now working as an elementary school teacher and is now working as an elementary school teacher and she supposedly brings life into her classes
literally. According to Denise, she would bring in snakes and other animals for her math and science lessons.
The distant cousins, Irvin [17] and Ian [19] was studying in high school and college respectively, and it was because of the younger cousin that we were not admitted into Devils Bar. We should have gone in with Denise’s uncle Greg knowing the management over at Devils had we not been so truthful.
We went over to Dbl-0 and boy… was the place empty. We still managed to have a decent time at Dbl-0 what with David and Jenny constantly attempting to get free drinks from the bar tenders, David trying to pick up the local girls, and the distant cousins demonstrating their dance moves.
We also had our pictures taken by the photographer, a model employed by Dbl-0 to take pictures of the clubbers having fun. Can’t really recall her name, but she sure was pretty. An ACCA student who had graduated from design school in TP, and is now working as a part time model during the holidays. Her pay?
A cool $80 per night for 3 hours of work.
After Dbl-0 we went down to Geylang where they were staying to have supper. We had wanted to introduce to them some of the famous local dishes such as the
beef horfan, the
frog leg porridge as well as the
You Tiao Da Wang [King of You Tiao]
But alas it was not to be, the beef horfan store closed just as we reach the place and they were not all that adventurous and chose to give the amphibians a miss. We settled on other local delicacies like
Oyster omelet,
chili Prawns and
chili grilled stingray in the end and haha… it sure didn’t help my throat.
Went for the Citibank interview with Sean today and finally met up with Susan and Yanru finally. Was lucky that Susan did not really directed that many question at me because I sure wasn’t feeling my best. In fact I did felt a wee bit sick. It must have been the lack of sleep and the alcohol.
Sure hope that I get the job on Monday. Really could make do with the extra cash.
Other than the interview the rest of the day was spent trying to fix out my ideal timetable after reading from the latest email recommending that we take Accounting 2 in semester one.
JIONG TING ♥
Saturday, June 19, 2004
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Thursday, June 17, 2004
Learnt from Derrick and Jon yesterday that our deferred period might now be reduced after the change in the national service system that see intakes of new enlistees from junior colleges and polytechnics reduced from the present two and a half years to two years of service.
That would meant that I would not have to serve out the whole of the three months owed, and after taking into consideration of the remaining leave I guess I probably would only have to serve out the whole of say two weeks?
That sure would give me more time to go on a graduation trip or say look for employment like the rest of the graduating cohort. Boy, this move by the top echelon up there in Mindef sure is long overdue and had they implemented this system in 2000, I would probably be doing third year in NTU this year instead of just having finished first year in university.
Putting the national service issue aside, I had a chat with Winnie over the phone last night, a talk that stretched quite some time and covered many issues. We also had a good laugh over stories from my earlier days, going back from my primary school to army days.
Looking back at those events now, like how I would always find myself in trouble with the various teachers [a one week prefect, habitually late…] and
testing the system in army [the 21days suspension of leave, the loosing of the security pass…] because of my disdain for routines and systems really is funny, but I can certainly assure you that I did not find them at all amusing back then, not when you are always on the receiving end of the punishments or arrows.
Haha... perhaps I should compile all this memories so that I will have a good time laughing at them again when I am much older. Or like what Winnie suggested, compiling a book titled
‘The things you do not do to get into trouble or be misunderstood’.
Was supposed to work out and swim with CheeWee this morning, as he finally gave in and offered to come down to Choa Chu Kang. Too bored I guess. Haha… but in the end only I worked out, and he swim because he had forgotten that to step into the gym you are required to put on appropriate footwear, and
slippers certainly do not come close.
In the gym as I was scrawling my name in the entry log book, I saw the two names Margaret and Yanshan, and looked around the gym and there they were running on the treadmill, friends who go all the way back to secondary school days. Did not really catch up with them since time wasn’t on hand and we were using different equipments.
After the session, joined up with CheeWee and had lunch over at Lot 1 and after which, went on our way home, and here I am logging this entry.
JIONG TING ♥
Thursday, June 17, 2004
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Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Went for Winnie’s birthday party last night over at
Northvale, Viola’s condominium and hmmm I must say that it was really a nice party altogether… nice place, nice décor and some of her friends, some of whom were quite pretty.
The party was to start at 7.30pm but a few of us [Kas, Andy and Chris and I] were down early to help with the décor and the set up of the place and also because Andy had to leave early because of his flight to Thailand today.
Before the party, I had met up with Andy in the noon after gym to proceed to town to get Winnie’s present. I guess we were not exactly the right people for the job and took quite some time deliberating over what to get. We finally settled on getting a perfume for her, Clinique’s
Happy for her since it was the most frequent answer I got after messaging a few of my friends.
I would think that the girl’s are better judges of feminine and flowery scents than I would, and that I definitely still prefer guy’s scents over the ladies’. One ponders. If the girls are wearing the scent to attract the guys, are they not supposed to be wearing something we prefer?
Oh yeah… Davidoff’s
Deep was pretty nice too, much nicer than its
cool water range.
Ok… back to the party. The party more or less ended around 10 with the guests gradually dispersing till only the minor class people and her
jie meis from her secondary school days were left.
Eventually it was down to six of us… Randy, Sean, Viola, Kas, I and the host herself, and there we sat outside the function room, chatting and sipping their wines and me, my mineral water because of my throat.
It was really nice to just sit down and just chit chat and exchange stories, and I must say Sean is really one colorful character, what with his tales of his 4 other brothers to his promotion of his friend
Da niu (Daniel) to Viola.
We eventually left the place at 4 plus after deciding to perhaps go down to Malaysia sometime next week for food and check out its night life.
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
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Monday, June 14, 2004
Went down to international plaza this morning with Denise and Sean to P-Serv for the Citibank road show appointment, and boy was I am embarrassed over my voice, or rather the lack of it. At least the job consultant Lynn was nice enough to see if she could schedule me for an interview with Citibank on Wednesday instead of tomorrow.
It has been four horrible days since I have been able to utilize my vocal cords effectively, but having a hoarse and barely audible voice sure beats having no voice, or having your throat so inflamed that your phlegm appears dirty green or reddish brown at times. That was how bad it was...
The European Championships 2004 kicked off 2 days ago, and luckily this time round I was not involve in any serious punting or I would have gotten my fingers burnt with some unexpected results. Who would have expected the host, Portugal to succumb to the lowly Greeks in their first match, or England to give away their one goal lead in injury time to loose 2-1 to France?
Well, had England won I could perhaps have gotten two new shirts at this year’s sales. But haha… I sure wasn’t looking to win anything when placing the bet, not on a
1-11 odds basis. Not everyday is a Sunday, thought technically yesterday was one.
I was wrong in my previous entries when I thought the commencement of the games would alleviate me of my boredom, not when I found out to my dismay on Saturday that the channel 5 would only be showing the opening match and the matches from the quarter finals onwards.
Well I guess maybe it is just a cue that I should be doing more readings and having less of the goggle box. After all I don’t think I have yet to read any of the books borrowed from the library so far.
JIONG TING ♥
Monday, June 14, 2004
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Friday, June 11, 2004
Feeling kind of sian now that I think I am running a slight temperature and loosing my voice. Guess it must have been all that heaty and fried stuff that I have been taking these few days.
What is worse is that tomorrow Hanwei, Cheewei and the rest are actually celebrating the birthdays of RongMing, Hanwei and Vivian-and RongMing's present is still with me... and I would feel damn bad if anyone has to come down to get the gift from me personally.
These few days otherwise has just been helping Winnie brainstorm for ideas for her coming twenty first birthday party next Tuesday. Haha… after two days, we finally decided that the club house over at Viola's condo would make a much more appropriate choice after considering the cost of going to KBox, which would run up to over $1,200 if she was to invite 30 or so people. But I got to admit that the KBox at Lot1 and Paradiz Center really looks nice, what with the pool table thrown in over at Paradiz Center and a barbeque pit over at Lot 1.
Well, at least the European Championships 2004 will be starting next week, and it will at least keep me entertained for the next 3 weeks if I still can’t find any decent job.
JIONG TING ♥
Friday, June 11, 2004
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Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Today marked the end of the two day school camp and I must say that it really was an enjoyable and memorable experience looking back at it now. It was the first time I had taken charge of a class, and such a young one too.
When it was finally time for us to bid our final goodbyes to the kids, it did left me a tinge of sadness that we will not be seeing these kids again. Over the course of the 2 days, some of the kids did manage to leave an impression, particularly those from my own class of 4/5. Although not as vocal as maybe some of the classes, it was really nice to have been able to work with them. They can be so attentive at one moment, yet running around the next. Kids will always be kids I guess...
One other kid that managed to leave an impression in particular, was from Sean’s Class. A boy by the name of
Benny who somehow seems to have problem integrating with the rest of his classmates, and always trying to seek our attention. I do feel a bit sorry for him, and can only hope that he will be streamed to a class that will better cater to his needs next year. At the same time I wonder how his teacher will cope, when we ourselves barely could for just two days…
The pay was pretty high too at $150 for two days of work, and to our surprise the Chinese coordinators even gave the five of us a red packet of $50, and insisted that they pay for our lunch today because they felt bad that the food were not to our liking… I did feel a bit bad after having such a negative impression of them all along. Well, let’s just hope there will be a next time that we will get to work with them.
Charles and Viola had to rush off after the camp for their tuition arrangements, and the remaining three of us-Winnie, Sean and I went for dinner at Causeway point, and on the way we decided that we should perhaps take the $70 and head to JB to enjoy ourselves over a meal of seafood on some weekday. A pity Troy wasn’t showing at the cinema or could have finally got down to watching it.
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
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Monday, June 07, 2004
Finally managed to fix Kazaa Lite, and boy was I glad to see the first of my large movie files successfully downloaded to the designated folder. Today I also completed the download of
The Rats of Nimh, a cartoon based on a novel I have read many years ago, when I was still in Assumption Primary School-that being some 10 years back.
A story I have read many times over and over again, and never have it once not failed to evoke the different feelings and emotions. I was kind of let down by the show, that it did not lived up to my expectations. It changed the story too much and made it too much of a fairy tale, what with the magical stone and such. It also failed to delve into the emotions of the characters something that really made
The Rats of Nimh such a favorite story even until today.
Today was also the first time I actually took part in any kids’ camp, the objective of the camp being to instill a sense of comradeship among the different races to a group of primary 4 kids from East View Primary School.
Well I wouldn’t say it was really difficult, but I would neither say that it was a breeze. Not when you have to bellow at the top of your voice to get the attention of twenty something kids but overall I would say that it was quite an enjoyable and challenging experience.
Teaching the kids sort of set me thinking about my past, the days that were spent in primary school. The days where we were as kids were without a care in the world, going to school because we had to, dreaming of ourselves as the various superheroes and chasing one another over the school.
After today’s camp, I really take my hat off to those teachers who have to take on such young kid full time for it sure is no easy task. One certainly requires a great deal of patience and dedication to nurture the future of our country…
JIONG TING ♥
Monday, June 07, 2004
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Saturday, June 05, 2004
Just reached home not long ago after the end of Adventure Trial Competition (ATC) organized by ODAC and it sure had been a long day…
Waking up at 6.15 because of the good (or shall I say bad) weather and not setting the alarm clock properly, I though I was sure going to be hell late for the event, but still managed to made it to MacRitchie by around 7.15.
Overall I would say that I enjoyed the event, and coming to know some nice people, people like Zoey, Candy, Eugene … I was stationed at Checkpoint 2, namely the bola checkpoint where the participants were required to twirl their tied socks that were filled with sand and rocks around the trees… till the natural park people came and demanded that we use the stumps instead. That perhaps saved us more trouble of having to get the socks down from the trees, and boy, was it disgusting and challenging to get them down.
But it was fun. Maybe I will take up a position in another ad hoc event in ODAC for the coming semester if my timetable allows for it.
Last night, I planned out preliminary timetable for next semester. An optimistic one would see me taking subjects AB213, BF212, 241 and 218. But to also allow for unavailable slots, I had to search for replacements that would not clash or have unfavorable exam schedules. Now I can only hope for the best, just as the case for my application for review of my grade for stats.
Tomorrow would be another packed day, what with a wedding dinner, a friends catching up session and a friend’s birthday party… now it is only the matter of fitting them all together… and tonight I shall try to see if I can find some materials for Monday and Tuesday camp and not leave it to the last minute...
JIONG TING ♥
Saturday, June 05, 2004
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Friday, June 04, 2004
Yesterday was a pretty dull day for a holiday, but which day isn’t a holiday? I got a call from Denise last night, and learnt that she had only touched down the night before after her stay with Andrian in Melbourne.
Learnt from her that she will not be going on to do her honors, at least not locally and that she has already sent out an application for some United Nations kids thingy although they were not looking for Singaporeans…
After hearing her account of her stay with Andrian at the hostel, it only made me wanted to go on exchange more. After all isn’t education more than just academia like what we always say. It definitely seems much more fun to spend an entire semester in Miami, New York, Europe or even Australia...
We went down to town today to see what the Great Singapore Sale had to offer. I ended up buying two shirts from Annex over at Hereens, one being a puma tee and the other a being bluish polo tee. Hmmm I also think that quicksilver really have some nice shirts to offer, perhaps shall get them if I do manage to get a job.
The next few days will be quite packed because of tomorrow’s school camp briefing, the impending ODAC Adventure sport race on Sat, and the school camp on Monday and Tuesday itself… but at least the consolation is that I won’t be thinking what I have to occupy myself with… not this week at least.
JIONG TING ♥
Friday, June 04, 2004
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