Chomps!

sha die!

chicky wings

I picked the girls up and we headed down to Chomp Chomp. What will I do without them! We parallel-parked together, lol, don't laugh at me please! First time okay! Anyway, as usual, we had a great time making fun of each other, licking our fingers clean and sucking the bloody spicy chut chut out from their spiral-shaped shells.

Saved some space in our tummies and we headed down to Island Creamery after dinner. Yums. It must be the sugar that got us into a high; we started smearing the leftover Baked Alaska onto each other, screaming and jumping about just outside Cold Storage taking self-timed shots.

I'm alraedy looking forward to next Friday!

ps. it's not wise to depend on some people to do the job for you, lesson learnt.

pps. I'm pretty damned nervous right now. Please let me do at least an okay job out of it. *fingers crossed*

Taxi Uncle Stories

I met 2 really friendly taxi drivers yesterday. Both talked to me about guys and their lies; the first one said he "felt like punching the idiot's face for breaking up" with his daughter right before A levels, how his youngest daughter who is on exchange is infatuated with some Sri Lankan Indians in Canada right now, and how he told his daughters not to look for someone like daddy for their boyfriends or hubs.

And the second taxi uncle told me bout how it's so easy for guys (okay to be fair, it's not just a guys' thing) to make up lies; 讲骗话不用钱. And he told me about his aunty girlfriends too; how he picks them up after their mahjong sessions and go for spins early in the morning in his taxi.

Uncles and their stories, how interesting!

Live your life for who you are, and not for anyone else

That is what I want to say to you. I hope you know who you are.

I'll definitely be here if you ever need someone to talk to, you know it so stop saying that I'm trying to push you away or anything along that line.

And on a seperate note, you! Omg seriously, why am I even doing this? 

I need another night out soon, girls!

Happy 牛 Year!

fake one la

Hehe. I know the title's really corny but I couldn't resist posting it up. We don't have that many animals in the zodiac that fits into that blank so nicely yeh? No idea why I was so looking forward to this year's CNY; not much oh wait, nothing's big been planned and I only got my new year clothes a few hours ago (together with half the Chinese population in Singapore, omg Bugis was so packed). Must be all those annoying CNY songs getting me into the festive mood. 

Finally done with all that spring cleaning, and I can't tell you how glad I am. Especially with Mumsy breathing down my neck every 15 minutes or so. The house LOOKS spotless now; I'm so proud of us all. & yay to fresh bedsheets too!

I drove back to hall today and my side mirror kena tiaked by bus 179 at a sharp bend just outside the heritage centre. Can totally imagine what my Dad was thinking (nope, she's not ready to drive on her own yet). I guess I sort of ruined my own chances eh.

Cn't think of any lucky thing to say, so, everyone just huat in this niu year okay! Huat ah!

Girls Night Out

suki dinner buffet

psc girls

We are definitely not the craziest bunch around, but heck, we have so much fun together and I love these girls so damned much! This is one of the rare occasions where we have Aileng back with us. She'll be going back to Australia soon to complete her Masters. hugs and kisses for you three and more!

7. Gloom

gloom

Attended windsurf training finally, after two weeks of absence. Mum let me drive to ECP under her supervision, and it was pretty fun. Guess everyone's who's just got their licenses feel the same excitment as I do bout driving.

Training started off pretty alright, but I lost whatever 'feel' I had midway through. We had a combined session together with NUS; Uncle Tan gave us a short briefing and it was races, races, and more races after that. I can only think of one word to describe the way I surfed: inconsistent. My sail came loose and fluttered madly at one point in time, and I got really upset about it. Now that I look back, I guess I should be pretty thankful that it didn't happen on the race day. At least I know of one more precaution to take before we all set off. Capsized a couple of times and it sort of set me into a mini bout of depression; what am I going to do if this sort of thing happens on race day?

I got really emo (nearly teared) when I made it back to Uncle Tan after a race where I faced some difficulties at the start. Can't tell you how much I want to do well, but the performance that I'd put up was a far cry from the ideal situation. When was the last time I felt like that? I don't even remember feeling so strongly this way when I didn't do too well for my exams.

ps. Will try snapping out of this bullshit as soon as possible.

joy to the world

I hate it when people come into my room, meddle around with my stuff and not even bother putting them back. I hate it more when they act as though it is only right for them to do so, and I have to pretend that it's totally fine with me. Fuck. You should be mature enought to understand that you can't go around fucking just because you feel like it, only to leave things/people behind to do the clean-up act for you. It doesn't work this way, dude.

Rants aside, on a side note, I am relieved that I can finally sleep in peace now that the practical test's over. I was near to hyperventilating (okay, exaggerating) last night as I tried to make myself go to bed, still was this morning, all the way till the whole damned thing was over. My legs were wobbly throughout and I was pretty surprised I was still able to manage the clutch appropriately. I nearly cried tears of joy as the tester announced my results.

The world around you looks a whole lot nicer when you're happy like that. The shrubs on the overhead bridge never looked greener, and the lousy traffic conditions actually don't look that bad! Thank you all for the well wishes.

Met up with the PSC girls for dinner at Hougang Plaza, and I've decided to swear off sushi buffets for a short while. Aileng's going back on the 4th, so I guess it'll be one of the last few meetings we'll be having until she's coming back in December. I love love love love them all!

ps. photos tomorrow okay, flickr's taking forever to upload.

Blaze

Over hockey training today, I came to conclude that I really need more guts than what I have now if I want to stay on in the team. It's horrible; I'm afraid of the slightest threats such as falling down, facing new opponents, and I have absolutely no idea where all my courage went to. Not to mention all that strategy-talk; I caught no ball despite having Bern repeat it at least thrice.

I'm just so not a hockey person.

Thank goodness I still have the girls.

& it's only now that I actually start looking online for a pair of proper hockey skates.

Gosh.

6. Blurred lights

my very first

I've been really fascinated with bokeh shots ever since I came to know about them. Somehow, these colourful balls of lights never fail to put a smile on my face; might be the colours, might be the cuteness of them, I don't know! Decided to have a go at it, and the object that I've used this time round is the paper star lamp that hangs in my hall room.

Took a few more test shots with varying apertures. I know they're all very raw; but I still hope you guys will enjoy them. Right, so here goes!

auto-focus; no particular setting for this one. Just to show how it'd look like in a normal shot.

set the lens to manual focus, turned the knob to Av on my 30D, and 5 was the lowest aperture I could go with my kit lens.

turned the dial 3 times and increased the aperture to 7.1

3 more turns, and this was taken with an aperture of 10.

aperture 14

aperture 20

and aperture 29.

So as you probably have already noticed, the balls of light got noticeably smaller with increasing apertures. From what I've gathered on the Internet so far (not a lot actually so please correct me if you think I'm wrong), the smaller is your aperture (the hole that allows light onto your images), the bigger is the hole. Thus, small apertures allow more light into the camera. By right (& I hope I've got it right), smaller apertures yield bigger (but more blurred) balls of lights.

It was pretty fun! So do you think you like the bokeh effect too?

As it is.

School's starting to get pretty busy; assignments loading up for the upcoming CNY week, ongoing trainings, tuition sessions with Kaka & his little sister, so on and so forth. And driving practical's this coming Friday, have I mentioned how worried I am about it already?

2 weeks ago, I thought my iPod Nano died on me (after I've subjected to 2 years of abuse). Was feeling pretty blah about having to spend money to get a new player (hello iTouch?) and all, BUT, it turned out that the earphones were faulty. Procrastinated quite a bit before I finally went to get a new set, and in the mean time, I borrowed Rachie's set.

 

pinkies! Don't they look cute or what.

The turn-out for today's skating clinic wasn't too good; we had a grand total of 11 participants. It brought back some memories of the SWU days just before I came into NIE; gosh I do miss those fuck-care days. Supper after with the guys at Ah Fang's, and we sort of had a mini discussion about relationships (again). It was interesting to look at relationships from a guy's point of view (and this case, 4 p.o.v), and it sure felt like I was talking to 4 big brothers. 

I'm pretty much running out of ideas for things to shoot. Can anyone throw me a theme or something along that line, please?

Memory Card Crash

!@#$%^&&^%$#$%^%$#$%

Pictures taken so far are all gone. I am super sian-ed right now. FUCK LA.

On a side note, wakeboarding today (with kenni & friends) left me in a lembek state. I feel like I haven't been exercising in the longest time, ever.

ps. & yes, continue sending me on guilt trips like this. I hate it, fyi.

Time for a breather.

Gosh!

Resolutions for January

This may come a little late, but still.

I will lose weight; realize I've been eating a lot and the tummy's showing urgh.

I will save up; it's never too early to start saving for my graduation trip.

Let's not be greedy.

Conversation with a friend last night set me thinking about relationships. I think it's absolutely right to say that they are a matter of choice, more often than not. In my free time, I like to think about the most random stuff; for example, why do people get into relationships? What do people want out of their relationships? A pair of hands to hold, someone to hug, or just a shoulder to rest your head on?

What about the commitment that comes with it? How are you going to judge if you're ever going to be ready for that? I don't think I'm ready, and I'm not going to be anytime soon. It gets complicated when there's 2 people in the picture, so many more factors for consideration, yadah yadah. & it's not that hard to see why I'm out.

On a side note, it feels like it's the season to get hitched; I'm seeing so many status changes on Facebook.

Getting cold feet

I hate to admit this but I get cold feet whenever I have to present something. Today was the final GESL presentation (not, but let's save it for later) and I had to talk a little about what the group did for preparation. It was supposed to be a really short and simple elaboration, but me being me, fumbled over the little notes I made prior to the presentation.

The point of the notes was to aid me in the presentation, but it seemed to have a counter effect instead. I can't help but want to stick to every single detail that I'd put down in the notes, and this was probably what made me trip on my words and forgot what I wanted to say.

By the end of my 5-minute long sharing session, I was so near to breaking out in cold sweat (I kid you not) and my ears were flushed. I couldn't be any more thankful that the 5 minutes were up. Next time round, I'm not going to make notes like such again. Let's see if it'll make a difference.

Anyway, it's not the end of GESL yet, unlike what we all thought. Our group's professor-in-charge made it known that there's going to be a GESL Day sometime in either March or May. A big-assed poster will need to be drawn up to be hung for the exhibition of some sort, so it's not really the end for us. Damned!

Salsa Thursdays

And so began my first official salsa dance class.

It was fun, and I did not cause any serious injury to any of my partners' feet. I wasn't the only one who turned up without a partner, and it didn't really matter because they made the guys rotate around so that we'd definitely have more than one chance to pair up.

I'm looking forward to the next lesson already, gee.

5. Miss Chang's Latest Gadget

hp's Elitebook.

I love it! :) Thank you MOE; I can still vividly remember the day when it was announced that each of us will be receiving a laptop for our course of study and how everyone burst into excitment. Can't believe that the day's here so soon; oh well, to better lappy days!

After I've installed all the necessary programmes, that is. So much to do!

ps. you can probably tell I'm running out of ideas for my pictures :x

4. I'm happy like that

Say Moo! This silly-looking cow never fails to make me smile.

Sports Exposé begun today and I should really be thankful that the inline skating & windsurfing club booths are side-by-side. We were 'overstaffed' mostly, but it was a good time to just chit chat!

Had my first phonetics tutorial today and I thought the new tutor looks pretty young. Can't remember much of what he said about his qualifications and all, but he used to work as a speech therapist. Cool job or what! We did a lot of transcription today (I'm not complaining), and I think somehow, I like transcription! When it got really dreary for me on the train towards Kallang today, I took out a piece of paper and started transcribing. Really helps in keeping one awake, I swear.

Transcription aside, I was so pissed off at the end of the tuition session today. It was annoying to have him tell me "I don't know, I don't know" all the time; especially when he's trying to be funny and doing it on purpose. Don't bother telling me kids are like that, I know that perfectly well. But since nothing can be done to make it disappear, I need to come up with a way to deal with this sort of behaviour before I step up and meet a class of 40, seriously.

Drove a bit around school tonight. Mum was pretty reluctant initially but after my persuasion, relented! I asked her if I drove better than Dad (shall keep Dad's driving tales for another day for those who don't already know bout it), and both Mum & Dad chuckled to themselves. It's only a matter of time, let's hope it'll be soon. Keeping fingers crossed!

& on the way to school, Dad talked bout how YF's probably going to take up Nautical Studies at SP. If he really does that, he'll be the second captain from the family when he graduates; and we'll become the family of sea-farers. I hope he makes the right choice this time round, and puts his heart into whatever he's going to be doing.

It's going to be another long day at the booths tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to it all!

Just a quickie

Tuesdays, are burned because of the one and only 5.30 p.m. phonetics lecture. But I really enjoyed what Ludwig's come up with so far this semester; you can hear everyone making those phonetical sounds every now and then. It's a big difference from last sem's Grammar lectures (I was always on the verge of falling asleep). Guess breaking it up into one-hour slots help quite a bit.

Had dinner with KH & David after lecture; headed down to KH's room where we watched him play his Rubik's cube, listened to a few Canto-pop Hits, discovered an ants-infested box of crackers and had a few laughs over how HK people pronounce their Fs, Hs, Ls, Rs, S-es and Zs. It was 9 p.m. before we knew and I missed the last shuttle bus back to hall; it's at times like this that I wish I lived a little closer to my friends in school!

Bed-time for me now; 2 tutorials and duty for Sports Expose up later in the day. Kaka's weekly tuition resumes today too.

3. Filtered: What's left of the good stuff

Made a cup for me, and a cup for roomie. Did I mention that I never really liked drinking coffee until the Saigon trip that took place last December? Before that, I used to think "why would anyone even like to drink this murky and foul drink?" Nope, I've not become a coffee addict but I really like the powder I brought back. Powerful stuff.

If you're ever visiting Vietnam, don't forget to try the coffee they have there.

ps. I got my kit lens, finally. Now I can shoot without worrying bout damaging Kenni's lens.

2. Chicken Wing Effect

Self Portrait, originally uploaded by reallycheaptalk.

One of the things that I can do in between 4-hour long breaks; just got back from lunch with Gladys.

Lens-search, PangSeh-ed dinner and Parking lessons

thank you Kenni for your help, and your lens!

We went to almost every shop (that he knows) selling second hand camera-related stuff to look for the 18-55 mm lens, but nope, we didn't manage to find any. Guess luck just wasn't with me yesterday.

Headed down to Suntec after the futile search; dinner with KH (David pangseh-ed) at Fish & Co. and ice cream after. Digressing, Azabu Sabo doesn't serve the parfait thing with cornflakes anymore?

KH's

mine

A month since I last touched a manual car, and today's my first official parking lesson. I thought the instructor was really annoying at first but that impression was gone by the end of the lesson. He specially made some handwritten notes in my mini blue book on parallel parking for me can (or is this actually a common practice among the school instructors?), awesome or what! Parking was pretty fun but I seriously wouldn't be able to do it correctly without the guiding poles and little red triangles.

Hitched a ride back to hall on my aunt's car; my two little cousins were screaming, giggling and poking each other throughout the entire journey. I joined in the fun at times. Their laughter's really infectious and they're cute and all, but the shrilly wails OMG. I hope my children (if I'm ever going to have any) won't do that in future.

Elaine!

ps. I fart really smelly farts and I can't stand 'em sometimes :x

a thousand words

At $750, this second-hand baby didn't come cheap (mini rip-off); blame it on my all-too-eager character! Went lens-hunting with Kenni yesterday but we didn't manage to find any basic kit lens for my 30D, he ended up lending me his EF 50mm 1:1.4 instead. Meeting a potential seller for an 18-55mm later on, let's hope it goes well and I'm so not going to get ripped off again.

To make sure that I'm not going to put him in one corner to collect dust, I'm going to embark on a little project, APAD; A Picture A Day! It's obvious what it's all about, as the name implies, and I'm really hoping that this thing's not just going to be a passing phase :x

Anyway, I guess I'll be including totally random pictures (friends, strangers, events, my room, my smelly smelly, animals, lunch, or anything like that) in this mini-project of mine. Guidelines? None. I'm just going to shoot and post, and try to take better pictures each time lor.

To get things starting, first picture!

starry signs

Merry project-making!

This way please!

I used to be so fucking unsure of the future (digressing, I still am. Probably just not as much). But not anymore. Two wrongs make one right, let's hope this stands true at least for now. I'm thankful that the next 8 years've been pathed out nicely for me, really am.

First Surf of the Year

It was kind of depressing actually. My mind was so occupied with the thought that I might not be able to come back due to the offshore wind I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I seem to get a little more 'hum' with each passing year.

Really worried bout the upcoming Opens. I'm very certain I haven't been training hard enough. Argh

Relationships...

make you see the different sides to a person. I think it's amusing how I see guys behave like total asstards when they're not with their girlfriends, and yet transform into a totally different person when their sweethearts come into view.

Guys and their sweet talk, srsly? lol

Much Ado bout Nothing

I'd wanted to blog that last night was dreadful. It felt so off, I haven't been down for the longest time ever, and now that I'm back, I really didn't like what I went through. Might be the people, might be the place. There's no use pointing fingers, because it's all going to end up pointing to me. Argh. Commitments = Obligations, and I don't like what's in my face now but there's no use escaping. 

It becomes a chore, doing something that you have little passion about. And what makes it worse? Working with people you don't see eye-to-eye with. What have I gotten myself into? Fuck.

I can't wait for the semester to be over, seriously!

Anyway, here's a cute picture that was taken in Saigon.

First Day of School

Got back to hall and I tidied up the place a little. Hung up the 'starlight' I got from Batu Ferringhi's night market in December and my room looks awesome now. Yay to lovely orange lighting!

Lectures were okay, we've got Ludwig as lecturer again and I'm really looking forward to all the phonetics lectures we'll be having this semester, though not too much about transcribing. So my latest lecture ends at 7.30p.m. on Mondays, that's yesterday, and I headed to YCK for a little gathering with the inline hockey girls. Had some Wii fun at Reimin's place and just 2 slices of pizza cause I was awfully late.

Got back to hall at around 12 plus midnight and I decided to put on my skates and went half a round around NTU. It felt so damned good! Monday nights are now reserved for leisure skating yoo.

Called some dive operators up earlier on to check the rates, and just a handful of them sounded friendly. Seriously!

You know what

I'm going to take a shower, drink some bubbly, brush my teeth and go to bed.

ps. For the Nth time, I fucking hate my monthly cramps.

And the night wind blows

Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon, it's one of my favourite shots from the Vietnam roll

2008's over in the blink of an eye, let's take a look at what resolutions I set for myself last year: 

1. Stop being late for almost everything so often.
I guess I still am, for lectures sometimes.

2. Cut down on lying to mummy/dad
Fessed up to Mum that I got my diving license, and I definitely feel that I've cut down on the lying plenty.

3. Save save save (less taxi rides, very expensive nowadays!)
Nope, didn't save much.

4. Appreciate everyone a little bit more, even at times when I'm drunk
Hmm, what do you guys think? I haven't got really drunk recently.

5. Work hard for everything that I really want

Ahem. Definitely not academically-wise.

So apart from #2, I guess I didn't quite hit the mark for the rest. Oh well! I'm not disappointed or anything. After all, a brand new year signifies a brand new start. And in 2009, spontaneity's key! And I certainly hope I'll be able to better manage my time and money in this new year too.

I am thankful,

for everything that I have,

everyone who loves me,

& everything that's become what they are right now.

New Year, a brand new start

So this time round, I spent New Year's Eve with the PSC. Our batch of mini cupcakes overflowed (again) but they didn't taste too bad. We were furiously eating our Vermonster at Dempsey's Ben & Jerry's during the last few moments of the year, and I was on a sugar-high not too long after. We played card games, mahjong and I laughed so hard tonight, I seriously wish I'd get abs from all that laughing! Aileng's back this time round, so it's a happy reunion for all of us. I love you guys and babes, can totally imagine all that laughter I'd be missing without you lot in my life. 10 years and counting!

Timetable's finally out too. Guess my timetable this time round is not too bad, because I've got my Thursdays off. No worries bout not being able to wake up for lessons if I really have to party on a Wednesday night. I am thankful indeed.

And only yesterday, I received an email regarding the laptop that MOE's going to sponsor all student teachers. We'll be receiving the lappy sometime in January, & yes, I'm looking forward to that too!

Good news aside, the claim for my hardisk's been rejected. Seriously! $189 and yet I refused to send the receipt in any earlier. My bad, and it's a lesson well learnt. I'm not going to do the same thing again in the new year; waking up my idea.

08's been pretty good, all thanks to everyone I've crossed paths with (nope, not naming names. Every single one of you played a part). I'm glad I made the new friends I have right now, and I'm also thankful that the old ones are still here. If there's one thing I'd like to change bout myself, I'd say I'd love to learn to manage my time and money better.

Oh, and probably exercise more too!

Happy 2009 once more, 20th or more time you're reading this but yeh, may all your dreams come true. Brand new start, brand new hope awaits! Hugs.