pregnancy is a scary thing

Rob shared with us snippets of progress of his sister's pregnancy over dinner at Chilis' last night. She's due in April, so we heard about the 20 kilos she gained so far, how big her tummy is right now, how bloated her entire body is from the pregnancy water retention; her fingers have become stubby and her ankles have completely disappeared under the swells - he even showed us a picture of her swollen ankle and oh my, it looks like one of those small balloons filled with water in it.

Why is it that such horrible things happen to their bodies when women go through pregnancy?! It makes the whole process sound so scary, and that's not even the scariest part yet (scariest award goes to the labour process itself)!

On a slightly more light-hearted note, maybe funny even, the shark tattoo on her ankle now resembles a whale more than the shark that it's supposed to be hur hur. And it was really cute when she said that she missed doing things like lying on her tummy/front. We tried to imagine what it'd be like if she did that, and came up with the following (bo liao) questions: 

Would it be like lying face down on one of those ginormous exercise balls? 

Can she rock back and forth on her tummy now?

Will the baby be crushed?

No pregnant woman in the right state of mind would attempt that, I guess?

Here's a picture of the sky when the sun was setting a couple of days back. I don't remember seeing the sky in such pretty shades of orange, pink and yellow in Singapore before so I thought it was something worth capturing.

Anyway, I've just attended the first (of five) day of the instructor course today. It feels a little like I've come one full round in this windsurf journey, though it's way too soon, and I definitely felt unqualified and undeserving of that seat in the class today. 

why i am such a guy

Today, Mumsy shared with YF and I about how Dad refused to believe she was expecting a girl when she had me back then. Then she said that must have been the reason why I turned out to be a tomboy.

Might be feeling a teeny bit disappointed right now... :(

but I'm sure the feeling'll go away when I wake up later!

Thanks for the new perspectives?

New people who enter our lives make us start thinking differently about the same old thoughts that we've been playing in our minds all this while.

不健康的晚餐

Mumsy said, she came to Singapore 30 years ago when we spotted this poster outside ECP McDonald's. 

I'm not their biggest fan (nowhere close) but I guess since we were in the area, we could do one last visit before the place gets torn down. And I guess it now means a different place altogether when you arrange for meetings at ECP Macs, after tonight at least.

better late than never

It took me 4 years to realize this, but you know what they say, it's always better late than never. 

The pork ribs noodles sold by the noodle stall in NIE's canteen is delicious! *slurp slurp* 

The combination of the 'prawny' broth (meant for prawn noodles) and tender, savoury near fall-off-the-bone pork ribs make such a wonderful and yummy eating experience.

Can't believe I've been sticking to ba chor mee, lor mee and missing out on the other good stuff all this while.

Yet another joy of school before my life as a student officially ends.

joy of reluctant mornings

I'm not exactly known to be a morning person (night owl 100 percent yes), but one of my favourite things to do in the mornings is driving into NIE from the Jalan Bahar entrance, taking the same route as bus 199 does.

I love that little long, straight stretch of road that comes up after Halls 9 and 10. Trees line either side of the road, and their slender branches extend overhead; reaching for opposite sides thus, creating a thin and sparse canopy of leaves. The well-spaced but overlapping branches allow light to filter through generously, and reveal brillant blue and golden hues of the morning sky.

It's beautiful,
and it helps start my day on a happy note.

Probably one of the many reasons that add to the joy of (me) coming to school.

forever

The absurdity of this word is completely applicable when applied to people whom I don't want in my life anymore.

school, and some time with friends

stuck in a terrible, terrible jam on the way home sometime last week

One final assignment to go after today's submission. A little hard to believe that this is the LAST ONE that'll conclude my 4 years in university, but... oh yeah! I'm looking forward to spending some happy last days in school, and of course, outside school too ;)

Met up with Jenny, Bun and two of Bun's friends on Friday night for a drink at Harry's and it was nice to hear them share the ups and downs of their practicum experiences. 

Caught up on the Draw Something hype, and we had to make Bun draw for us after looking at the thresher shark she drew for her students (one of whom said it looked like a parang). In case you're wondering which was the shark she drew, it's the eel-like looking thing in the picture above. Not that I could do any better (below parang-lookalike shark), I decided that I should 'intervene' lest the rest of our company for the night walk away thinking that's how a thresher shark looks like.

<3

Caught up with ktowy for another round of mahjong at WY's place too and I had so much fun with them again. We were making all sorts of funny noises and saying all sorts of stupid things by the time it was 4 a.m. because we were getting tired and some of the nonsense spouted was just way too funny.

Made me feel really lucky to have all my different groups of friends whom I can get really high and crazy with, even without alcohol involved. I'm so thankful for all of you! <3

late for dinner tonight because I was busy playing Tetris.

And I've realized how much time I've been spending on Facebook games too, and that's really not part of my resolutions for this year, so, I deleted the app for Bejewelled today. I think I'll get rid of Diamond Dash sometime soon too, but Tetris can stay :p

new pair of specs

Ah Hong say I look like Ah Te, i.e. super old-fashioned. 

okay lor.

摩托车

今天，我认识了一个 18岁的小妹妹，她让我想起了自己18岁的时候。她和那时的我一样，想要考个 class 2b 的驾驶护照，为了就是之后可以买辆 Vespa 到处跑。很可惜当时没有好好把握学习骑摩托车的机会，从第一堂课辛辛苦苦地进展到第三堂课，却因为不够钱和没有决心而放弃了。有些可笑的是，反对我学骑摩托车但却和我同时报名的前男友顺利的完成所有堂课，并且考到驾照。

或许，过些时间，我应该再次报名上课，落实我这18岁未实现的 ‘梦’。

troll-farting

Must remember to do this to Mumsy soon!

alternative view of what being lucky is

Before I forget...

A tutor who took me for one of my math modules last semester said something that struck me as sort of interesting. She said that she was "lucky to be one of the few people who do not need to have a mobile line to get by in life". I thought about it and I suppose she's right in some sense; we've been getting busy trying to connect with the rest of the world, and now, we're way too dependent on some of our telecommunication devices that it makes us look like slaves to our gadgets sometimes.

I tried to imagine a life without my mobile when my tutor shared her thoughts with us, and I concluded that even though I'd love to live a life without a mobile phone too, it's probably not for now hur.

闭馆修炼

No more Facebook games or trolling on the hwz forums for the next few days.

That's for procrastinating so much this entire recess week.

On a side note, I finally booked lessons for a groupon voucher that I got sometime back. Headed down to ECP for an instructors' recruitment talk today - if things go well and I don't drop out halfway for whatever reason or fail my powerboat tests too many times, I should be a certified instructor by this time next year. Having a lot of thoughts about my windsurfing journey right now, but I'll come back to talk about it again next time round.

Just something random that I suddenly remember from a few nights back. I shared with K over dinner (when he was in Sg) about how I would like to experience working life overseas after I'm done with my bond. He responded with "If you want something to happen, it will happen", in the most as-a-matter-of-factly manner. Words that I'll have to keep in mind. 加油AJ :)

#27 The friendliest person you knew for only one day

阿豪.

去年的五月，我们在北京市的北海公园撞面。

#24 The person that gave you your favorite memory

onboard 4 Friends, on the way to 'our leeward islands' in the South China Sea

No one person in particular, but this group of people sure gave me some of my favourite memories back in 2005!

#16 Someone that’s not in your state/country

K. A Japanese dude who's been learning Bahasa Indonesia for the past 2 years and has been living in Lombok for the same period of time.

We met back in November 2009, on the island of Gili Trawangan, Lombok while I was there diving, on my own. I'd just finished dinner one evening and the diners at the table (one of whom was K) next to mine asked if I'd like to join them. In no time, we were having hearty conversations about anything that came to our minds. K's friends retired to their rooms post dinner while the two of us bought a bottle of local wine (brand translates to Old Man) and had some drinks on the beach. I can still remember how the moonlight illuminated the beach and the sky filled with trillions of stars hanging above us as we shared snippets of information about our lives, our countries and thoughts. 

It was really awesome.

I thought I'd never see K again, but he stopped by Singapore this time round en-route back to Japan. So, I played host and showed him around our little island that's slightly more developed than the one he's been living in. We visited Botanic Gardens and I found out that the place's really much bigger than I thought it was, visited the National Museum and learnt something about the history of Singapore together, walked down Orchard Road where he went to get his eyebrows threaded by an Indian lady -_- had some ice-kachang at the food court of Plaza Singapura, enjoyed a lovely dinner by the Singapore River at Clarke Quay and I learnt to enjoy a rare steak, stopped by the river front at Esplanade to take a good, long look at the CBD skyline as we had a good conversation over a bottle of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon (snucked from home).

We both agreed that he should book a room at MBS the next time he visits Singapore.

I'm really happy that he's decided to visit, and also, for sharing stories about his experiences living with Indonesian farmers and giving me so many new perspectives about things in life.

He should be back in Nagoya for his 2-month study break by now; I'm looking forward to visiting him in Japan soon!

today, i miss being in a relationship.

:(

while cleaning...

spotted at the library last week

I'd been cleaning out my cupboard last weekend again because it's getting unkempt since CNY was over. Here are some of the things that were 'dugged out':

way before ez-link cards came about.

free movie postcards for writing notes to classmates

my first graduation shot

don't think i've changed too much since then 

bookmark received from a trainee teacher; probably one of the few things from primary school that i've kept up till now.

this brought back memories of mumsy buying concession stamps for me.

poem that a stranger wrote for me while i was working at kino, 6 years ago. how time flies.