exams.

saturday morning well well, here we go. the exams start in under a week. eBusiness promises to be a scoring module considering i did very well for mid-semesters and hopefully in the class project (of which i'll rant about some other time).

unfortunately, the week was spent lamenting the fact that a senior who has come to epitomise what a generous and gracious friend is, is finally going back for good. the freshies had a dinner with him at iori's a few days ago before his big farewell dinner on wednesday. he cooked for us one last time and the rest of us chipped in with other food. it was a massively huge farewell party, i'm guessing around 50 people turned up.

i'm sure he was touched by the scrapbook that we did up for him. the send off yesterday afternoon was to say the least, touching. about 20 people sent him off at the bus station and it was hilarious. the bus driver waving at us, random passengers waving at us. haha! it was good humor in a grossly upsetting moment for a lot of us. i swear i saw a few of my friends fight back the tears and i'm not ashamed to say that i fought mine back too. so! till the end of the month, we'll find ways to entertain ourselves late at night..

exam preparations are not going as well as i would like. i'm lagging in math (as usual), eBusiness is just about done. IT in eCommerce is going to be a bit challenging but i'm looking forward to it. hci promises to be a very difficult paper considering that a lot of us did very well for the assignments. i'm not counting on them to be any easier but to be that much more difficult actually. i only hope and pray that i'm on the right track in terms of preparations.

interesting.

sunday morning in a matter of minutes i've lost all drive and passion to do some things that i really believed in. the disappointment of it all. not only in myself for failing to deliver the message that i wanted to ( i rarely have panic-attacks like i did yesterday but well..) but also because of the way things were done and how the results came about. i won't say much about it now because it's all done and dusted. it's a shame and a sham all in one. if only the world weren't so short-sighted and narrow-minded.

in any case, i've decided to channel that very same drive and passion into other things. valete was an eye-opener of sorts. being able to represent the hall is something i never thought i'd be able to. the experience of being smack in the middle of an intense rivalry (more so than ngee ann against singapore poly or even nanyang) was amazing. i thrive under pressure when it comes to sports. i don't know why but i just seem to do better especially when i have a point to prove. but anyway, i think i'm able to find more satisfaction helping other people in other organizations considering that their intentions are geniunely for the good of all with very little policticking going on. in due course we'll see if i'm right.

chilling.

thursday morning i feel the weight of my shoulders. all of a sudden all the datelines don't matter anymore. one last assignment due next wednesday but that's more or less done so it's all good. one last team meeting next monday to sort out the small bits and i'm done with all my assignements and essays.

today is all about taking a breather. got a group interview later on and that's pretty much it. should be able to squeeze in some revision before going for valete.

shites.

thursday morning if it's one thing i regret right now, it's not starting on my essay earlier. for a very long while i've got the structure planned and the flow of the whole essay. but what i did not realize until a few hours a go is that almost half of it, was out of point.

for a while i thought my recovery actions were working (rewriting certain bits to make the points and arguments all link) but now, i'm running out of creative juices to bullshit my way out of this mess. ha! i know i shouldn't do it but desperate times call for desperate measures. it's due at 4pm but because of the massive amount of things i have to do later on today, i set myself a dateline for noon.

so. back to the last pesky essay for the year before i rest over the weekend. valete's up tonight and interhall touch is on from friday and over the weekend. i'm pretty sure i won't make the team considering i can't make a good long pass. on the flip side, i think i'm doing very well as a defensive player. but we'll see.

as it is, i've given up watching cirque du sollei with justin and sherwyn because of an agm that i'm going for (and running in..). looks like i'll have to look at other dates then. sigh.

a tribute.

tuesday morning i just found out that a lecturer of mine has passed away a week ago. while he may not have taught me personally and we probably have exchanged less than 50 words in the three years that i was in ngee ann, it's still a loss that is felt. that's how close the lecturers were with us in egarage. those who didn't teach us knew us and vice versa. my prayers and condolences go out to his family.

life. it's tragically beautiful and unpredictable.

---

birthday celebration was funny. was supposed to be out salsa-clubbing with sherwyn, tianyu, vivien, sebastian, hanson and hussy on friday night. angel, claudyne, kim and tingho turned up with anqing's home-made mocha cake (thanks sis!) and 24 krispy kreme. all the random people around the table started coming over to wish me happy birthday and what-not. amazing. moved on to another club after that where hianyang and don joined us but we didn't stay long because the crowd was slowly leaving and the music was bad.

woke up on saturday morning in an attempt to do some work. i ended up watching movies till late afternoon. had a quick lunch with anqing and did the laundry when dad called. could hear mum in the background i think. haha. oh well. it was funny. was told to come down in the evening for dinner. so as i woke up from my nap, i went to the bathroom and on the way back to my room, i caught zara attempting to decorate my door! hahaha! she took away my glasses, covered my eyes and made me walk back to my room "blind". hianyang came soon after and i have a feeling he was holding the door shut because i couldn't even open it after that. hence the post about being trapped in my own room.

dinner was great by the way. a mixed barbecue and steamboat thing. didn't expect to see 30 people turn up but well, there was 30 people. honestly though, i'm not one for big birthday parties so i was a bit uncomfortable. all in all though, it was lovely to be in the company of so many friends at once. a big thank you and hug for everyone!

and oh. presents. got loads of it. from singapore, melbourne, adelaide, taiwan and even england! totally totally amazing. now i have no idea where to put them.

so yeah. that's it for the weekend. back to my assignment due in.. err... a little under 7 hours.

trapped.

saturday evening i'm being trapped in my own room by zara and hianyang. =|

irked.. again.

friday afternoon i don't mind people insulting me, getting racial on me even. but be warned, drag my family and religion in and it's no holes barred anymore. one punch to the nose doesn't quite do it for me but on account that you're probably drunk, i'll let it slide. don't push it.

irked.

thursday night i don't like people who take things for granted. even more so if they take their friends for granted. the lack of social graces in people is quite disturbing to say the least.

NBO Weekend.

monday afternoon was up in sydney over the weekend for the northern beaches open tournament. teams from all over australia came to dural sports and leisure center, about 40 minutes drive from the city. i slept over at julian's (thanks man) before heading out at 7am on saturday morning. by the time i got there, the first game was already in progress. it was amazing to be playing full-sized 5-on-5 floorball again.

the amount of space available to run in, the shots and passes felt more comfortable, more natural even as compared to playing 4-on-4. the fact that there were full-sized goal posts and goalkeepers meant that i could revert back to my normal shots.

in any case, to be playing so many games all in one day was without a doubt, the most tiring thing i've ever done in floorball so far. the pace of the games were fast, just the way i like it. the opponents, well, they are probably not as good as division 1 teams in singapore but they would definitely give most teams a run for their money in division 2 if not some teams in division 1 too.

all in all it was great fun especially being able to play on the same line as scott o'brien (australia's ex-captain who has since retired), adam and brett (two really fantastic players from canberra). it didn't matter that i did not tally any points, no goals no assists but i think i played one of my best games ever in the 3rd/4th placing game. even though we lost on penalties, it was a fair result if it weren't for the fact that someone had to be 3rd and 4th.

i crashed immediately when i reached back julian's place that night after dinner. we were watching a movie halfway and wham! i just knocked out on his bed. oddly enough, i woke up again when he was watching england's world cup qualifier game.

sunday was spent trying to recover. went for dim sum before doing a bit of shopping. had a really quick dinner at gabriel's place before heading back to canberra. was totally exhausted by the time i got back and again, i crashed once i changed out.

so yup, back to all the essays and assignments awaiting completion. exams in under a month and it's home!

Stereophonics - It Means Nothing

Did we lose ourselves again?
Did we take in what's been said?
Did we take the time to be,
All the things we said we'd be?
So we bury hopes in sand
And my future's in my hands

It means nothing
It means nothing

You can find yourself apart
But you leave in which one you want
Coz they love you all the same
They just go by different names
Did ya fly your flag today?
Are you proud or just ashamed?

It means nothing
It means nothing
It means nothing
It means nothing
It means nothing
If I haven't got you
If I haven't got you
If I haven't got you
If I haven't got you

The sun sets in the sky
You're the apple of my eye
If the bomb goes off again
Blows my brain around the train
And I hope that I'm with you
Coz I wouldn't know what to do

It means nothing
It means nothing
It means nothing
It means nothing
It means nothing
If I haven't got you
If I haven't got you
If I haven't got you
If I haven't got you

exhausting.

tuesday morning it's been an amazingly tiring first week of spring break. headed up to sydney for the weekend after a night of salsa with a couple of B&G-ers. met up with julian, gillian, terence and cera for a short 2 days or so before making my way back to canberra.

repacked and rested for the trip down to melbourne. we kinda set of for melbourne later than planned but the journey down was good. stopped off at a submarine town whose name has now escaped me for a bit before continuing on.

reached melbourne right around 6 plus in the evening and attempted to make our way to the accommodation place. unknowingly, the place i booked was smack above one of the best clubs in town (eve bar/club) and it was about 10 minutes walk from crown casino. so i guess the location was pretty convenient.

much of the melbourne trip was spent catching up with friends whom i haven't seen in a while. it was fulfilling as much as it was fun to have been able to meet up with michael, mingrui, evan, terence, lini and of course yeni too. i was even able to meet new random friends like lina, winnie, marcus, derek, old floorball friends like yati and weelun, primary school friends like shah and sigmund. it was amazing.

spent a lot of my money on food and i must say, melbourne is a gastranomic adventure everyday. not that canberra doesn't have good food but it's the variety that matters.

not forgetting singapore day on saturday. it was for a bit, inspiring to see that many singaporeans all at the same place at the same time in a foreign country. of course there was the food to clamour for. kaiwei, zongyao, anqing and i stood in the queue for a good 3 hours just for bak chor mee. talk about being desperate. hah!

so yeap. it was a good trip, a really good break from all the work that has flooded us all the past 10 weeks. will be heading up to sydney again this weekend for the northern beaches open. once that is done, it'll be full-steam ahead till the exams are over. and when that's done, it's time to kick back and relax for 3 months.