Friday, May 29, 2009

And I Love You So ...

You're different.
You're supportive.
You're understanding.
You're obliging.
You're helpful.
You're kind.
You're caring for me.

There are so many things that set me deeper into you.

And most importantly, you're the unique one I can't find anywhere else but here.

I sincerely wish the best for both of us and for more good things than bad that will come along between us.

And that's when I'm in love with you =D.

Monday, May 25, 2009

-

For Some Reasons ...

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Graduation Year

*Before I begin, I would like to apologize for the messy previous post, not just the alignment (which I have no idea what happened), but also the language. I have no idea what I was rushing for, thus the way of writing. Haha. I'll try my best in this one.

Year 3 - As we go on ... We remember ...

In the previous post, we ended talking about the workload we were going to face in the coming final year. We had heard how seniors complained about juggling Final Year Project (FYP) with the curriculum, and often than not, we saw many all stressed out. Despite those woes, we also witnessed their fruits of success during their Graduation after they had gone through piles and piles of shit.

For me, everything was well thought out for. I came back from Perth and went back to begin my final year just 2 days later. My FYP was already decided - I joined Aric and Wayne in Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) situated in SGH under our supervisor named Dr. Louis Tong. While the rest were eagerly waiting to ballot for the projects, we were already discussing how we would go about doing the project. A long discussion was held with Dr. Tong as he tried to get me in-synch with what they had been, and will be doing. As I had no prior knowledge on the topic, it was really tough for me to pick up both the skills and theories. It was decided in the end that I would take charge of the a certain part of the project, while Aric and Wayne were given different roles which they were already trained at performing, spreading out the workload so we would have more time for our respective commitments.

From here on, you will realise that the most part of this post will be about FYPs. Of course, I will be inserting some interesting happenings if I manage to remember as I continue =D.

As for our other class/coursemates, they went on for a gruelling balloting process, which I heard turned quite ugly as people cheated in the process and people not getting their choices of project. In the end, I believe some left with disappointment, but eventually made terms with reality and moved on. For our clique, Fiona, Nicholas and Jun Rong had already finished the wet work during their ITP, so they were left with only the report to write, and also coordinate with TTSH people if I am not wrong.

Then there were two other groups - 1) Andy, Shirley, Sarah and Janet, 2) Johnny, Madeline and Ruo Ting. Both groups required volunteers to finish certain amount of food within a period of time, of which later blood had to be taken in 2 different ways for analyses. Group 1 performed fingerpricks for pre-experiment recordings, followed by venepunctures. I participated in both experiments, but was later rejected by group 1 because I was poked a total of 9 times on my first appointment, with only successful takings at 1 or 2 time points, HAHA. My visible and not-so-visible veins were playing hide and seek with them, and it was quite an (painful =X) experience to be poked so many times on both arms. They were not to be blamed, 'cause I was one of the first few volunteers and they were not yet proficient in the technique. Later, I heard they improved so much and became expert venepuncture-rs.

As for the other group, we volunteers were instructed to finish our food within the designated time, after which blood glucose levels were taken from blood after the fingerpricks with a glucometer. I was given 3 types of chocolates - normal chocolate, dark chocolate and 1 more I can't remember. Or was I only given 2 types? Haha. Their main purpose was to examine the glycaemic index of various food types, including different forms of carbohydrates such as grains, rice and pasta.

I must say time spent during these experiments were pretty fun, because not only we got free food, we spent some crazy time in the laboratory. As year 3s, we certainly were given the privilege in terms of lab usage. Especially having those bunch of people in the clique, we would have fun anywhere we go, be it small talks, or playing too-too train in the lab with lab chairs. Although I was, and never am, a fan of too-too train, their actions and gestures never failed to make my day during boring lab sessions.

Talking about these people's FYPs, I would regularly bring my laptop there to spend my time while waiting for my turn. One of the reasons why I brought it along instead of just reading a book was because, with the convenience of cleaning equipment in the lab, I could give my laptop a good clean with bacillols (70% alcohol) and kimwipes. Haha!! *I suppose no lecturers or SP staff will read this =X.

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Now I will sidetrack from the main assignment we had for the Academic Year. Apart from FYPs, in sem 1, we were challenged with various assignments as well, and one was a class report for our Lab Safety and Management module. I am sure some of us still remember the frustration we faced during that period of time, because of those confusions and disagreements inbetween. During that period, we were always caught up with arguments, but eventually we pulled through and although our result was understandably not as satisfactory, we were, as a united class, glad it was over.

That assignment was not as comparable as this coming one, which drove many of us to the wall, even murderous (anyone putting up their hands and joining me? Haha). This lecturer was so into thinking about himself and himself only that he jeopardized his authority over the module and made us complete unrelevant assignment. Other than those essays that we had to write, which their weightages were not high, this particular one weighed the most in the module, and not the easiest. Wanna know what is it? It starts with the letter 'G'.

Personally I feel that the lecturer was a nice person, even as a lecturer as his teaching method was different and refreshing. However, he was acting much like a jerk in making us do that cyber-magazine, which we wouldn't mind doing if we did not have so much to do and if it was not included as part of our ICAs. As we finally finished that, some of us were given unjustified grades, and i felt it unfair for these people who put in lots of effort for this. Willy in particular, who tried to confront him over this but failed terribly. HAHA!

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I actually left this out the previous post, but we did have our bi-annual chalet trips the previous year as well. Without exception, we had it for our final year as well, though one in particular wasn't exactly pleasant and left many unhappy. Anyway, we have all gotten over it so it wasn't an issue and we were back to good o' classmates again.
Our final one was as usual - BBQs, mahjongs, and also our first visit to Wild Wild Wet. It was so much fun and I enjoyed myself, a lot.
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Back to FYP. My group with Aric and Wayne wasn't the easiest. The main problem being the place we carried our laboratory work was located in SERI itself, meaning we had to travel to Outram Park to continue our project. Because we had lessons on weekdays, we had to sacrifice weekends even to do extra work. For that, I quitted my Fort Siloso job and picked up tuition because that way, I could still earn enough pocket money while committing fully on schoolwork and FYP.
Other than FYP, we were told by Dr. Tong to participate in their weekly Journal Club. That's when each of us would be given a journal to read and sort of review. During Journal Club, the scheduled person would present the paper to the rest of the team in the laboratory. As Dr. Tong is such a sharp person, and very smart, he never failed to post tough questions that made us doubt ourselves, and the paper. He is always so into details and because he habours vast knowledge and experience in the research field, he was able to pick out doubtful results just by looking at them and pointing them out to us. As much as I hated to do this Journal Club thing-y, I must thank him because it sort of prepared us for our FYP Presentation later, giving us more confidence in presenting our results to a group of lecturers who had done their Post-Grad projects, or are doing currently.
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Meanwhile, we did have our usual meet-ups, but in the most unusual ways. We found new activities to do together as a clique, such as conquering the Southern Ridges and our first Potluck for Sarah's 19th Birthday Celebration. We also had steamboats at our favourite venue (right Janet?!) and I invited a truckload full of people to my place for CNY celebration. We celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival too, and that's just how random we are =D.
The biggest event of the year must be our AD&D. Just refer to my blogpost in December 2008 for some other details. Haha! That night was definitely unforgettable, other than the karaoke session through the night. LOL.
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Zooming back to the final hurdle in our FYP, we were all rushing out our reports before the deadline. Data to collate, results to analyze, discussions to discuss, and words to type. All of us, not restricting to my group only, had to read and re-read what we'd written, followed by multiple editions to make it more scientific and presentable. For our group, we did not, in the end, get desirable results, but we were able to create magic out of nothing, wrote the best ever report I have ever written throughout my 3 years in Poly, presented like I had never before, and scored an A for it. I was delighted to have gotten that kind of result, though a tiny bit of me was disappointed at not being nominated for the Distinction round. Still, I am grateful to all the assistance I had from Dr. Tong, Shel Hwa the assistant in SERI who is currently doing her Ph.D studies in New Zealand, Mr. Fraser for some comments on our report and the two other group mates, most importantly =D.
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Final Semestral Exams. Our last, ever examination in Singapore Polytechnic. It all ended on the 24th February 2009, when we sat for our ... was it Haematology II paper??? Haha. After that paper, we took a large group photo, many of us looking relieved and happy, for it's all finally come to an end. Well, the full-stop to our Poly days is not yet penned, until we have our Graduation Ceremony. Still, we were all glad, though we didn't bear to part with those days ...
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Time passes so quickly during those days, that we have no time to look back at what we have done until this moment when we can sit in front of our computers and reflect. Over the past 3 years, I have changed, not just physically, but mentally as well. I never knew I can become the person I am today, much thanks to these people I met during my 3 years. As I continue to write, many things in the clique are continuing to happen, and I will continue to anticipate more outings and gatherings that will come in the future.
As for now, I will never forget those times we ate, drank, laughed, stressed, quarreled, disagreed, made merry, mahjong-ed, had fun, acted retards, posed for silly pictures, made nicknames for one another, shared our unhappiness and happiness, and so so so many other things that were deeply etched in every single one of us. Thank you for these memories, and although we will not see each other that often in the future, this part of my life will always be one of the happiest and eventful ones I will ever, ever have. I am truly grateful to have chosen to come here instead of elsewhere, where I might not have met you wonderful things =D.
And as our lives change, come whatever, we will still be ... clique forever =D.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Midway Through ...

Getting in the groove of things ...

Year 2 already and we were accustomed to how school worked and the way to go about getting things done. Not that we always got things done way before deadlines though. Procrastination was a contagious thing. Dangerous too. Let's put it in a better way - we worked under pressure. Well.

Nothing much happened in the first half of that year. Perhaps the most interesting being the lessons with Mrs Ho, or Mdm Mah Mon Moey. She was then, by far the most strict and undesired lecturer. Count Kumar* in as well. She was very particular with the slightest details regarding what we did for her tutorials, and also what we did in her class. At first I thought coming in late as a poly student was not much of an issue to lecturers, who knows she was one of those that looked forward to go against these latecomers.
Tske for example tutorials. Everytime she gave some tutorials to be completed, many of us didn't. We all thought they're only tutorials and we had the freedom of choice whether or not to do, when she did a check and collected from those who did instead of going through the answers. If I'm not mistaken, she actually gave extra credits to those who completed her tutorials, and penalised those who didn't.
It came a time nearing the end of the semester when we were told to draw up a metabolic biochart based on our knowledge. That chart was supposed to be supplementary to our final ICA for that module, and had to be submitted to her before that ICA. Any latecomers, even by 1 min according to her, would be marked late and penalised. Well, we certainly tested her system and got marked late. Not that I did badly for her module in the end anyway ... so ...

P.S. Fiona became Mrs Ho's daughter after that. I think it's because they look alike??? Haha!
and ...
*Kumar is a character we named in year 1. It is strictly prohibited to mention the name, so it's up to readers to know who we're talking about. We clique people, of course, know who is that =D.

The rest of that semester went on smoothly, as we continue to choke walkways and look for big tables during lunchbreaks ...

Then come Semester 2. I remembered that time, something happened and I totally excluded myself from most outings with the clique. I understood my budd's feelings, but he was great to stick by. Things eventually got better and I didn't have to avoid going out with them anymore.

In Sem 2, I had a discussion with my dad on possible overseas attachment programme. SP did have some offers from 2 or 3 Australian Universities, and I managed to obtain some information about it, also knowing that a few of my classmates were going the same place. Soon, everything was confirmed and the 10 of us were given a place at University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth.

Sem 2 ended in a flash and I had a few meet-ups with friends before I flew over for my ITP. I had a sumptuous dinner with a few of my clique members at Maison, sang at Kbox with Xin Yi and another of her friend, enjoyed a brief Chinese New Year celebration and played some mahjong with my closest buddies at my place on the 2nd day of CNY. On the 3rd day of CNY, 9th Feb, we headed down to Changi Airport to board the Qantas Airline, heading for Perth.



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ITP @ Perth, 9 Feb 2008 - 12 Apr 2008

Ten coursemates - Zul, Lynette, Hui Hui (aka Da Jie), Franco, Desmond, Justin, Guojie, Afsheen, Joan and myself touched down at Perth, followed by a cab trip to Townsend Lodge, which we were not very happy with and moved to ... ... ... ______ Hotel shortly after. For me, that experience was amazing. Not only I was there for ITP, it was my very first overseas trip without my parents, and at a western country!


The stay at Townsend was not really that unpleasant, but because we were not used to their culture and also some racial discrimination issues, we decided to move instead. The move to a studio apartment across the streets was a great move, as we had the kitchen all to our own. We had fun staying there, where we definitely left with fond memories.

Our mini kitchen.


That ITP trip was really not much of an attachment to me. First, we were not paid. Second, although on paper we had to work from 9am to 5pm, I was given the opportunity to leave by 2/3pm most of the time. With that, I could resume my usual jogging regime, at a foreign place with nicer surroundings and sceneries. The route I went was just slightly more than 10km, but I usually went 5km odd. Only on the last week of ITP when I finished that whole route round the Swan River, which was refreshing ... and very hot too. Haha.



Aunt Eileen and William at Swan Valley

Not only I could exercise with those free time, I could do grocery shopping at Woolsworth Supermarket nearby, because they closed at 7pm. Imagine me having to carry my bag and laptop, reaching there at 530 or 6pm from the University, I had to rush through my shopping and would have no time to cook a good dinner for myself after that.

On weekends, we would make trips to popular sites in Perth, such as Rottnest Island, Penguin Island, Caversham Wildlife Park, Pinaccles, and many more. Aunt Eileen and Fiance, William, brought me out on a trip to Swan Valley for some exquisite lunch and visits to Margeret River Chocolate Factory and a local brewery. I can still remember the name of the glass of beer I had - Honey Pils, which was so smooth and light, nothing like those you have here.

Situated right in the city, we had the shopping district within close proximity as well. I did not shop as much, but the rest certainly did some hauling there. We had our fix of fast food at their local chains too, such as Hungry Jack's (known as Burger King over here), Red Rooster, and their own Macdonald's. Trust me, we Singaporeans are fortunate to be able to ask for as many sauces as we like over the counter, whereas over there, you have to pay 50cents for a small packet of ketchup. No chilli sauce at all. Haha.

As for our asian cravings, we head down to Northbridge (is it Northbridge?) to this popular asian store where they sell asian products there. I could easily find my favourite maggie mee and frozen dim sum there. Right over there was a Korean hair saloon, where for $20, you get a quick and good haircut with hair wash as well. You can also find Japanese grocery store, many Vietnamese restaurants, Chinese restaurants (not cheap though), Hong Kong Cafe (Lou Mou Cafe as we called it ... Haha, some inside jokes), and even Esteller77. You can easily call that place Little Asia or Asiantown.
All these were what we did for that 2 months of ITP, and some of us missed home so much, that we did a countdown to the day when we would finally come home. It was to our disappointment on the actual date when Qantas experienced some technical problems, resulting in an 18-hour flight delay. I would say it was not that bad, as we had accomodation at a far better hotel, a specially reserved dinner for us, and some breakfast vouchers when we arrived next morning for the flight. All these were thought for, including the transport fro and to the airport, so we practically didn't spend at all during that delay, and was compensated $300 from our Travel Insurance later on. Haha!

On 12 April 2008, we finally touched down Changi Airport, safe and sound. That ended our ITP when many of us were actually missing over the next few days what we had all gone through together in Perth. Personally, I feel that to be a whole new experience, and when my sister told me she has the chance to go China or Taipei for her internship this late 2009, I strongly encouraged her to go for it if given the chance, and I'm sure, she'll enjoy her trip just as much as mine.

Last group photo at the UWA


I had only a day's rest before we began Year 3, the most gruelling year of all, as we battled with FYPs and mountain-ful of assignments ...

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Year 1 - Sparks Of Love

Year 1 - When stones are rubbed together ... (or sticks on logs)

Often when you find yourself part of a large clique like mine, seeing friends get along extremely well and eventually ending up as couples is just as common as ordering teh peng when a Kopitiam lady approaches you while you have your favourite plate of roti prata (or is it just me???).

This clique of mine is of course, not left out from this all natural occuring phenomenon. I guess it is an instinct of a man (or wo-man) to take a quick glance at the people they meet first time, and when one catches your attention, you can't get your eyes of her, or him. Well, there are others of which you won't even tend to notice, and there are some you refuse to take notice of. No, I don't mean ugly people, they just don't stand out enough like those that caught your eyes do. Perhaps it's more of a habitual behaviour of a human-being, since we're constantly on a lookout, and not suddenly presented with images so pretty that mounts a reaction.

I have not much idea how the 2 couples in our clique became, well, couples, but this is my recollection of how it all happened.

The first one I am going to talk about is an animated-animals lover that can only go close to animated ones and others that move will send her screaming at the top of her lungs and this tall, then skinnier, guy that has a strong mind and opinions of his own, confident and outspoken.

Their friendship, if I'm not mistaken, began with a magic trick. Herself, Sabrina, Lawrence and I were hanging around the outside of the class when this guy came along and started chatting with us. I believe Jun Rong was around too. It was then he took out his deck of poker cards and pulled up some tricks that well, like all magic tricks do, amused us. We all clicked well, and he soon became part of our clique.

The rest of us started taking notice of the 2 of them during our very first (or second??) chalet trip, and many of them were raising suspicions, excluding myself, I swear. It was not only after someone who told me before I started taking notice. And sure enough, the two of them were declared a couple soon after. Now, being still together, a good friend and a buddy in the clique of mine, are still as loving as ever.

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As for this other one, their getting together was not at all sudden and many of us were already speculating and betting that they would eventually do so, which obviously, they did. It happened when we had a clique outing somewhere, in fact, many outings everywhere, and the 2 of them were always walking far behind, enjoying a little time between themselves. At times, they would get lost among the crowds of people, then appearing after we gave them some wait.
Correct me if I'm wrong, they got together before the one I mentioned. It was quite soon actually, a matter of months, probably weeks, but I am not too sure and I don't know when's their anniversary, which some people in the clique actually do. Same goes to the one I talked about. Similarly, though it appears that they are always on loggerheads with one another, they are doing fine and having the longest-lasting relationship I have ever known.
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That are the 2 couples we have in our clique of 12 people. The rest of us, no doubt, will sincerely bless them to accompany one another at every 'this moment'. Whatever happens in the future is not for us to know, but whatever is happening now is for us to relish, remember and store in our memory lane. And yes, their memory lanes =D.