So poor thing... Taiwan had an earthquake, causing much disruption to the internet across most of asia. Explains why most of the websites can't load today. Oh well, will be doing duty tomorrow. Sigh sigh sigh... so sian... Hopefully all things will go well. God bless us, especially the victims of the Earthquake.

Anyway, I tried making Broccoli and Cheese yesterday because I've always wanted to try something like that. So I went shopping with my mum at Hougang Mall for ingredients. After an hour worth of hard work, the turn out is not bad (in appearance only though... )

I think I've added too much cheese. That's why it taste very meaty... hahahaha... Oh well, its Chocolate fudge cake next!! woohoo!!

Its extremely boring in camp today. No one is around. Its like a Ghost Town at Sch 2 HQ. To make matters worst, I have nothing much to do today. So i ended up staring into blank space in my office and drifted off to lala land...... Hopefully things will be better tomorrow. Argh... Can't wait for Friday to come!!! Not going to roller blade any more but its ok ; ) I shall find some other things to do. Wait for Friday to come first...

.... Let duty be over, Let duty be over, Let duty be over...

Merry Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas for me is the same as all Christmas since my mum's birthday fall on Christmas day!! So everyone in my family will come down to my house and we will celebrate Christmas and my Mum's birthday together! I baked cookies for the event with my new Oven and new Mixer. The turn out was not bad though its very thin. I guess I will have to put more flour the next time. My cousins came down to my house yesterday to help me bake the cookies and its a very fun experience =)

Anyway, I had my first ever Guard duty in the forbidden island. Its a tiring and boring experience. Shan't give the details. Sigh...

Lets see... My programme for this week will be...

Tuesday: Zoo zoo Zoo with the 3 musketeers!
Wednesday: Work.... =(
Thursday: Ops Clerk Duty
Friday: Blading with Sandren aude
Saturday: Class gathering!!!! =)))
Sunday: Countdown with cousins?
Next Monday: Lunch with S208?
Next Tuesday: Cry you a river that leads to your ocean because work starts on wednesday...

Somehow, I am having this recruit like feeling of fear in me. I don't know why... Its really irritating and I'm becoming more and more petty about thing. Sigh... Somehow, the Korea trip has made me realise how much I've been forcing myself to accept the fact that I still have 11 more months to go. 9 days away from camp made me realise how happy life can be if I don't have to be tied down with rules and regulations, the fear of being charged for any little thing you do, the fact that adults can actually be childish, unreasonable and irritating with their incessant use of expletives (be it in dialect or English). Maybe that is the working world for me? I don't know. I just can't wait for school to start, can't wait for 7 Dec 07 to come. It seems so far away from where I'm at now. I will just have to treat this 2 years as a learning experience won't I? I've become more and more stupid each day though (I just can't process what people are saying these days. Can't even solve a simple Maths problem. haiz... What's wrong with me!!!!).

Oh well... Life still goes on with or without work. Will just have to live with it won't I? Sigh...

I want to study!!!

Yuppie doodles! Finally, I'm back home in Sunny Singapore! How I wish I need not have to come back even though I don't really want to stay at Korea for very long. Coming back means the start of work and that can really be very frustrating... sigh... Oh well, we shall see what has happened during my week of absence tomorrow... muahaha

Anyway, I feel so relieved when I touched down at both airports because the flight experience was extremely scary. My trip from Singapore to Korea was one filled with continuous turbulance (6 hours...) which causes the whole plane to shake here and there quite often. The plane was quite small too, so it didn't help for someone who had not sat on an aeroplane for 10 years and has suddenly developed a fear for flying... My trip from Korea back to Singapore is quite alright until when the plane is about to land. It seems that the pilot does not know how to descend gradually because about a few minutes before landing, we actually felt the plane drop a few feet (everyone began to panic and all...) and it seems like we were not going to land at all........ And when the plane landed, there was quite a bump... haiz... scarrrrry...

My trip in Korea is actually quite fun, come to think of it. The tour guide is a Korean who speaks with a Chinese accent. We have a very hardworking tour guide assistant/photographer who is quite acquainted to our family. And we have a very nice and friendly Singaporean tour leader. Yea yea! On the very first day, upon arrival, we went to visit some tunnel dug by the North Koreans (they wanted to invade South Korea see...) and we went to the border between North and South Korea. The tour guide gave a very lengthy history about the separation and stuff (things learnt in Social Studies and History..) which I didn't really listen because I fell asleep... hehe... After that, we made our way to the spa resort where we experienced the lifestyle of Koreans. We stayed in a condominium whereby the apartment has a kitchen, living room and a bed room. And like all Koreans, we slept on the floor!! woots!


This is the Kitchen



This is the Dining Table




Living room




The 4 of us in our room

We went walking around and had spa and the day ended quite quickly like that.

Day 2 is skiing day!! We made our way to the ski resort and borrowed skiing gear from the shop there. Skiing is extremely fun!! (Although I didn't really ski much...) But yea, we spent the whole day at the ski resort. And we ate ice cream outside when the temperature is -2.5 degrees. How crazy is that... muahaha...

Okay... I'm actually quite lazy now, still recovering from being so so so tired... I've uploaded all the photos online!! You can start viewing the 1000 over photos taken at this link

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r46/jere87elm/Korea%20Trip/

Please press previous if you want to view the photos in chronological order... haha... Shall update more on my trip tomorrow or something... yea!!!

Yippee!! I'm flying off to Korea tonight!! So exciting... But scary at the same time... It has been a looooooooooong time since I've last sat an aeroplane and I'm feeling the jitters now... Andre should know my "What If "chant... In order not to jinx it any further, I had stopped chanting wef 12 mn this morning.

Anyway, I've only finished packing my stuff this morning and I don't even know if I had brought enough clothes to help me survive for the next 5 days (apparently today is day 1 of my holiday and I'm at Singapore!! So korea-ny here!). And my bag is filled with winter clothings.... Those clothes really take up a lot of space man! Oh well... Don't know how I'm going to survive at Korea but I shall see how things go. So exciting!!

Mr Yong, Ernest and I went to China Town for ma la huo guo (numb spicy steamboat... haha) on Friday. The soup is really very very shiok! Very nice and very spicy! I can't really take it though. was sweating throughout the whole numb spicy experience. Phewy... But its nice and it helps to clear our bowels too! haha... Had diarrhea the very next day because of the spiciness of the soup... woots!

Okay... I shall end here and prepare to fly off to koooooorea!

Woots!! Three is the best concert I have ever attended so far! The 3 choirs featured are extremely good!! Really inspired by their music. I love the compositions by Ko Matsushita especially! His songs are very dynamic, very active. It is really very very very interesting!!! Loved the songs Mihara Yassa Bushi and Tawara-tsumi-uta especially. Ko Matsushita is indeed a good composer and a great conductor. With his funny antics on stage and humbleness, he never fails to entertain the crowd. Of course, as I have mentioned many many times, I LOVE HIS COMPOSITIONS!!! Be it slow or fast, contemporary or melodies, I love it! His songs are very touching and moving man!!!! In the concert, his songs were performed by Gaia Philharmonic Choir! Very nice! Rapid Jap, unique Jap tone (obviously since they are from Japan... but love it!) ARGH!!! How i wish i have the recordings! Once again, Ko Matsushita did not fail to amaze me! Woots! I would say the triple chorus composition by Ko Matsushita, Dona Nobis Pacem, is the best of the best! The arrangement of the choir around the whole concert hall seems to bring out the effect of the song! Though the song is short, seems easy to learn (seems arh...), but the impact was great (to me at least)! I am really wowed by it!

As for the songs performed by the SYC ensemble singers, conducted by Jennifer Tham, I guess its too abstract for me (the first two songs as least). More abstract than the ones i used to perform or listen. So I was trying to figure out what the sound was like and all (makes me a little drowsy too... haha) But I love the song Laudate Dominum by Urmas Sisask. Its a latin song with a Japanese tune! Very very interesting piece of music! Overall, the choir's performance is fantastic! Love the sound, the tone, the interpretations. Very beautiful.

Lastly, the part by the Ateneo Chamber Singers, conducted by Jonathan Velasco. As the main religion in Philipines is Catholicism, the songs sang by them were mainly hymns in dialects of the filipino language. The first 2 songs are like those sang by SYC, quite abstract. But still, it is really amazing. I guess they have lots of power pact singers as their singers can really project very well! I guess the songs sang by them have the best interpretations given their abilities and all! Its like you can be really touched by the song and actually feel what the composer is trying to tell you. LOVE THE ENDINGS MAN!! THE GREAT CRESCENDOS TO THE END! WOOTS! Nice ending chords! Loved the song I Believe in particular because it is very very well done! Their soloist for You Raise Me Up was great too! woots woots!!!

In summary, the concert is worth every single cent I have paid for! Wouldn't have missed it even if the ticket is very expensive! Ahhhh... My life is now complete! =))))))

So so tiring! Yesterday's BBQ was definitely enjoyable!! However, Miss Lim and Mrs Voo couldn't make it so we were a little sad about it. Oh well... It was extremely tiring for the organisers yesterday and on Friday because we had to prepare the food. We marinated the Chicken wings on friday and the turn out was actually not bad! We made toy swords with sausages and crab sticks too!! haha... Then we went to the market yesterday morning to get our seafood. The innards of a squid is so so disgusting. The ink is messy and the skeleton feels like drinking straws. The cooked seafood didn't turn out well because it tasted bland so its time to review our style of marinating for next year.

Anyway, Chase, choon, jan, Mr Yong and I tried to be ambassadors of Mandrain by playing the speak Chinese game. It isn't easy for all of us except Mr Yong because we were so used to speaking English with each other that sometimes we just speak in English out of excitement. Wahahaha... But it is definitely fun (and mentally tiring =X)

I am extremely excited now because I will be attending a concert by 3 choirs tomorrow at the Esplanade!! Three. A concert by SYC, Gaia Philharmonic Choir and Ateneo Chamber Singers conducted by Jennifer Tham, Ko Matsushita and Jonathan Velasco respectively. These 3 conductors are world renown conductors and I'm waiting to hear the compositions of Ko Matsushita being sung tomorrow. His compositions are very very interesting and he is the composer for next year's SYF set piece for secondary schools. One of Meridian's choice piece is composed by him too! Woots! So yea, I am very excited (Especially to be able to see him in person since I've seen Jonathan Velasco and Jennifer Tham before... hehe).

Alright, less than a week to Korea Trip!!! Can't wait Can't wait Can't wait!!

By the way, note to cab snatchers...

GOD WILL PUNISH YOU!!! Don't think that the people standing in front of you are transparent because we are not! KARMA I TELL YOU!!! Retribution!