I'd just like to thank the following people for their birthday wishes :)

Hui Ping
Shufen
Tina (the insurance agent lol)
Zec
Elaine
Amir
Mabel
Qi Xiao
June
Jaime Yeo
Joyce
Charmaine Loh
Anu
Chelsia
Jia Xin
Shu Hui
Jasmine
Lizhen
Andrew
Yea Tian
Serene
Shanta
Evelyn Lew
Bryan
Joe
Jean
Ching Huey
Shannon
Charles
Wei En
Sam

Yes, this means I am back from Batam, will blog about it when I feel like it :P

EDIT: Special thanks to my squad mates (Shu Hui, Ching Huey, Elaine, June, Jia Xin, Yee Chien, Xing Qi, Humairah, Vahidha, Lisa and Ziting) for the belated birthday celebration earlier on =) And thanks for the presents! -28/12/2008-

I'm back in Singapore, for now. Well actually I got back yesterday evening.

Remind me NEVER to book flights with Silkair ever again. This has got to be my worst flight EVER! And the trip wasn't all that enjoyable, and I don't want to talk about it because it wasn't enjoyable.

Anyway, I'm going off on another vacation next week, this time, not a family vacation (thankfully, because those things are HORRENDOUS). I'll be in Batam over Christmas and Boxing Day, so you know NOT to call/text me over these 2 days unless you'd like to incur additional charges for calling/texting someone who's overseas. If there's anything you'd like to say, email me or message me on Facebook. Or you could always wait till the 27th to do that.

I had my hair cut earlier on. Well I'm usually not very experimental and brave with hair cuts but today, I went with the intention to chop my hair off till it ends around the collar bone.

As you know, hairdressers here tend to overcut, but thankfully, this one was pretty good (yea, so was the price, lol, $38! That has to be a new record for a haircut- personal record I mean). So now, my hair's shoulder-length and he gave me a hair cut that looks dollish!While he was cutting, I kept thinking to myself how it was gonna suck because sans glasses, it was starting to look like a China country pumpkin sorta cut, thankfully it looked better than that when he was done and the glasses came back on. PHEW!

So be warned, my hair looks drastically different. No bad jokes about it, please.

I know I haven't been blogging much (in the sense that I'm actually writing and constructing most of the post's contents as opposed to uploading widgets from NBC's SNL site or completing memes) so yea, I'm not really going to do much writing. Instead, I'm going to flood you with pictures.

Okay, so I don't have that many to begin with. But I did take a trip down to the National Orchid Gardens in the Singapore Botanical Gardens (which is the name I prefer as opposed to the Botanic Gardens-sounds so...... common, and unscientific-) and I did walk away with a large number of photos, some of which have turned out decently well. =) Also, IF my crab dissection attempt turns out good, I'll probably post the photos. Yes, I already tried it once last week, but I'm going to try it again since I didn't get all the things I need then.











Oh, and remember the family tree I was made to do?
Yup, it was that big. Mind you, the board was constructed by gluing and taping 2 vanguard sheets together!

And this tree's bark split in its centre and then toppled over after being struck by lightning. This occurred right outside my bedroom window.

There's this ongoing sale at SUNTEC city where goods with slight defects are being sold at outrageous prices.

I got myself a pair of LEVIS jeans (which is horrendously expensive in Singapore, try $90 at the very least, to $160 for the average pair and >$250 for a more trendy pair) for $30.

I am not kidding.

THIRTY FREAKING BUCKS.

And then I got 2 polo t-shirts (also Levi's) for $15 each.

I'm a happy girl. Lol.

3.68km in 30mins today. Looking at that time, I wonder how I ever clocked 15min25s when I was in Secondary 2.

But then again, that was the month after I spent my school holidays camped up in CCA camps (both school and course camps), only to have classmates comment that I looked as if I spent my one month break locked up in some concentration camp to come out looking like a POW (not to trivialise real POWs and concentration camps but I did have a couple of classmates making that comment, and that was the year I finally got out of the national Trim And Fit (TAF) club, which has since been abolished by the government after numerous complaints that the program was causing students to lose all sense of self-esteem, of course I wouldn't know, having spent 'only' 8 years in said program).

I got mistakened for a 16 year old by this middle aged guy who's a tutor at the gym today. He actually thought I was his 16 year old student. Right....

I'm behind in my textbook readings now, and I blame it all on last week's massive workload. And the same amount of work looms next week (and more, since I actually have a test next week).

Of course I just had to google for the Grey's Anatomy Season 5 promotional trailers this afternoon and now I can't stand not knowing who Meredith was shouting "NO!" for. And it's disgusting how Shonda Rhimes said that McPlant wouldn't be pregnant and then modify it to become a fake-pregnancy plot. Die McPlant, DIE!

And then there's the US Presidential Election. Sarah Palin for VP? COME ON! She labels all crimes as hate crimes, leaving out the reason why people actually call them hate crimes (because they're targetted against a specific group of people, usually of a particular race). She is effectively against affirmative action. She is anti-abortion, pro-guns. How can any woman vote for someone like that? Woman.. the focus on women as the swing vote in this upcoming election, it's long overdue how they finally recognise that appealing to women voters, especially if you can get them involved in the political process, can pay off. Sarah Palin is riding in Hillary Clinton's work. Clinton got them energised, involved, gave them hope and then Palin is just trying to build on that, with the bulk of the work already accomplised by Clinton. Palin's hoping that women will vote for her just because she wears skirts, wears her hair in a up-do, possess 2 X-chromosomes. All these without considering that Palin stands for everything Clinton is against.

She may be charismatic (kind of like the Caucausian female version of what Barack Obama is to the Democrats) but she has a non-existent track record. Sure, she's the governor of Alaska, the ex-mayor of Wasilla. But how can you compare that to running a nation? Republicans are calling Democrats and the US media sexist for putting Palin under the spotlight and no one even batted an eyelid when Clinton was subjected to worse. The Democrats may have made a wrong choice is nominating Barack Obama and then leaving Clinton out of the VP ticket but voting a McCain/Palin ticket into the White House may prove to be an even bigger mistakes.

A campaign that initially started out as full of hope and promise has turned to a deeply disppointing one with mistakes made all around. It was supposed to be an election for the Democrats to lose after 8 years of disastrous Bush administration and with mistakes being made all around, the question now is, who's making the bigger mistake? A Democrat as the next President? Now I'm not so sure.

Hopefully Clinton runs again in 2012 and puts right things that went awfully wrong this time round.

Tuesday is really starting to become the freakiest day of the week for me. This is the 2nd consecutive Tuesday where my journey home after my lecture has been, well, interesting (and that's the most positive way I can describe it).

I first bumped into Stalker (yes, the same Stalker in a previous post just last week) at the bus stop. My friend and I kinda brisk-walked to the bus stop without looking at whether Stalker was there since the bus was approaching and by the time she saw Stalker, it was too late to warn me as Stalker had by then crept up beside me and patted my shoulder. DARN.

Stalker then makes some really lame comment about my friend and I always being seen together (d'oh, because for one, we're friends and secondly, we take classes together, which in turn is sort of linked to the first reason). The 2 of us (Friend and I, not Stalker and I) give each other the 'Oh no, now how do we shake her off?' look as she creeps increasingly closer towards me, infringing on my personal space. When the bus FINALLY comes to a halt, she rushes off in front and somehow, Friend and I, without any form of communication and eye contact, simultaneously made the same decision to move to the back of the crowd trying to board the bus as Stalker pushes her way to the front. By doing so, we have ensured that we would be unable to board the bus since the crowd was sufficiently large enough to fill the entire bus right up to its steps. We finally got rid of Stalker.

And just in case you think that we haven't made it clear to her that we don't want her around, just last week, while another Friend (B) and I sat in the 3rd row from the front for another lecture, Stalker comes into the lecture theatre, sees us and makes a beeline for the 2nd row, sitting right in front of us. She then turns to us, pats B on her knee and says 'Did you drive to school today?' By that point in time, the 2 of us were shooting panicked looks at each other when I realised that 2 of our friends weren't here yet and the following exchange occurred:

Me: Do you think we're too close to the screen? I don't think A and C would appreciate being so far in front.....
B: Yea... you know.. in case we talk...
Me: Okay... I guess we better move, don't want the 2 of them killing us
*Grabs our stuff and moves to a row MUCH further back in the lecture theatre*

And you'd think someone would recognise being brushed off, but nope, definitely not Stalker!

Anyway, back to my journey home today, I was on the train when I got a seat somewhere near Outram when I noticed that an elderly man who looked about 70 had boarded the train. So I gave my seat up to him and his cohort, a middled aged man who looks about 50-ish, starts yakking to Friend and I! He first makes all these comments on how said elderly man isn't old and how he's fit. After the elderly man alights, I'm basically forced to replant myself in the original seat and carry out a conversation with Middle Aged Guy (whose breath reeks of alcohol) who goes on to interrogate Friend with regard to her ethnicity and mother tongue. Friend alights soon after and I'm left alone with Middle Aged Guy (MAG) who suddenly switches to MANDARIN (if you knew me well enough, you'd realise I HARDLY EVER converse in MANDARIN). About a handful of stops later, I notice an Elderly Woman (EW) at the corner of my line of vision, and seeing that it would be a perfect opportunity to rid myself of MAG and be a good samaritan, proceeded to volunteer the seat to her.

ONLY FOR HER TO TAKE THE SEAT, AND JOIN MAG IN ENGAGING ME IN CONVERSATION!!!!!

It wasn't that bad in the beginning since EW and MAG were more busy talking to each other to notice my obvious discomfort (did I mention there was a young girl in her school uniform and a grown woman who turned and looked at MAG and me when he forced me into a conversation?).

And then MAG left, causing me to initially think that the worst was over. But nooooo... EW started talking to me about her numerous children and grandchildren. What each one did, what they studied, how she put them through university. Ok, I know it was grand, noble and sacrificial of her but I thought once was enough, but she kept repeating her stories over and over, to a COMPLETE STRANGER.

I take the train to the end of the line and I spent the entire time wondering when she'd get off, only to realise she would be taking the train to the end of the line when she didn't alight at Tampines! Oh gosh. What is it with me and strange people on Tuesdays?!?!?!?! We finally alighted at Pasir Ris and I finally managed to get away from her.

And at this point, I should mention that over the course of the conversation, both MAG and EW had spit flying out of their mouths are various points in the conversation. *Gulp* The first thing I did when I entered the mall with the aim of running some errands? Find the nearest restroom and wash my arms (all the way past my elbows) and face just in case some spit got on me.

Please don't let next Tuesday be another strange Tuesday!

I actually managed to complete all that I had set out to accomplish over the weekend, including genome mapping. So I'm happy because of that. What I'm not too pleased about is how my group is starting to fall behind and the deadline's about 3 weeks away. The slave driver really needs to come out now. The thing is, I really dislike being the slave driver, especially when the metaphorical slaves are all people my age. But something has to be done.

Meanwhile, there are too many things due in the coming 3 weeks I hope I won't suffocate under the sheer pressure.

I don't really have time to think about nor blog about some really remarkable things that happened in the past month or so. But just so you know what I felt was really exciting, here's a few of them.

The US Presidential race. WOW. Personally, I'm on Clinton's side.

The recent Malaysian General Elections. Always nice to see UMNO and the BN get a good whipping at the polls.

The escape of what is probably the most dangerous man in Singapore from Whitley Detention Centre, Mas Selamat, the leader of the JI network (they tried blowing up a few MRT stations and wanted to fly a plane and crash it into Changi International Airport).

Right, I'm off!

Here are some photos taken last week at 2 events.

The first, at a long time friend's 21st Birthday Party
At another person's birthday party whom I'm actually not close to but is a close friend of my significant other (lol)
Yes, there were plenty of balloons, and plenty of helium. And you really need to inhale A LOT of helium to get the duckish voice.
I think there were 99 roses in the bouquet. Freaking heavy. I know, I had to hoist the bouquet while this shot was taken. I hope I never have to carry such a huge bouquet.
And the party was really a surprise proposal kinda party. Need I say bling bling? I mean, that thing is HUGE.

It's ironic how I'm reading a book about Murphy's Law and then Murphy's Law comes up and bites me in the a$$ when I least expect it.

Last Monday, when I decide to leave home earlier than I usually would, the bus and trains all come on time. And then this morning when I decide to leave at my usual time, train services get disrupted.

I go to Pasir Ris MRT Station, only to see a woman yelling that train services has been disrupted betwen Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah (that's 4 stops for you) and so we would have to go by shuttle bus to Tanah Merah MRT Station before we can get on the train. Of course, that means that Tanah Merah MRT Station would be extremely crowded. If you take into account the population living in Pasir Ris, Loyang, Tampines and Simei (the 'towns' affected by the disruption), you'd have a sizeable portion of the Singapore population affected by this disruption, all unable to get to work, school or any other appointments on time.

I left home at approximately 7.55am, got on the bus towards Pasir Ris at 8.05am, reached Pasir Ris MRT Station at 8.15am. Of course, I found it a little strange that there would be so few people on the bus towards the train station but back then I didn't know that the trains weren't working. So i reach the train station and FINALLY realise that the trains are down and we're all stranded. I try to get on the shuttle bus that would take the stranded commuters to Tanah Merah MRT Station (where the trains actually work), to realise that the bus was so crowded there was no way to get on the first one and when I finally did get on the 2nd bus, it would take them 20 minutes to get the bus doors to shut and another 40minutes or so just to drive to Tanah Merah MRT Station without making any stops (normally this would take 20mins or less, but the morning peak hour jam made it worse).

By the time I alighted at Tanah Merah MRT Station, it was 9.15am (45 minutes before my lesson). On normal days, it would take about 70mins to get from Tanah Merah MRT Station to my school, but knowing that this station is going to be extremely packed, the travelling time would no doubt be extended to something like 90 minutes. I ended up taking a cab to school, making myself $20 poorer in the process (thankfully I had just withdrawn some cash from the ATM yesterday).

At least I was lucky enough to find a cab driver who would speed just to get me to school on time. :) He was basically my hero for the day 'cause without him, I would be at least 30mins late for class, most probably more. In addition, he gave me a discount on the final cab fare (but I am still $20 poorer, which is 10% of my monthly allowance so if that doesn't drive home the point that I simply cannot afford to keep taking cabs to and fro school, I don't know what will).

The fact is that the fact wasn't disseminated in an efficient manner, which led to what is possibly thousands of commuters being stuck in the train stations during the morning peak hour rush. The public transport operators need to get their act together for this and actually cooperate. Firstly, commuters should have been informed before they hopped onto buses that would take them to the train stations, signs could have been placed at the front of buses communicating the train disruption to commuters who were on their way to the train stations so they could make alternative arrangements and travel to an unaffected station. In addition, why was SMRT the only operator to provide shuttle buses for stranded commuters? SBS Transit which is the largest bus operator in the country should have at least helped out by volunteering a few of their MANY buses to help shuttle the stranded passengers out of the affected areas. Surely they can afford to spare a handful of buses. The sheer number of passengers stranded meant that a LOT of buses would be needed. Commuters shouldn't have been made to board the shuttle buses from a minor road near the train station at Pasir Ris knowing that the 2-lane road would be completely blocked off by commuters swarming and shoving to get on the buses, that's why we have a bus interchange at Pasir Ris. Board from the interchange, people, and place the signs at the interchange so we don't have to walk to the train station to find out that we can't board the trains. The shuttles also took a longer than necessary route which resulted in us spending unnecessary time on the road.

I can say that the people who are likely to be the happiest from this strange turn of events would be the cab drivers. For the past few weeks, cab drivers have been unable to find passengers due to the hike in cab fares (brought on unilaterally by the cab companies and not the drivers), for the first time today, they're finally getting a decent amount of business, primarily because the train operator screwed up.

And all this happens just when the government talks about making the public transportation system more efficient and affordable. The irony.

EDIT: The news just reported that the service disruption affected 57,000 people. That's close to one-eighth of the Singapore population for you.

If there were a school for slobs, my father and brother would DEFINITELY qualify. I mean I can be somewhat of a slob when it comes to keeping my room tidy (you can pop your head into my room if you want proof) but they are slobs when it comes to ETIQUETTE!

Who finishes a box of biscuits and leaves the box out in the open? Will the box suddenly grow legs and walk itself to the rubbish chute? Who smashes and cracks the last packet of biscuit and leaves it in the box for the next person? If you smash it, YOU EAT IT!

Seriously people, grow some etiquette already!

This semester sees me in school before 7.30am two days every week. As my lessons only start at 8am, I tend to go to the Science Canteen and grab a bite before class since I won't get to eat till 2pm (on Fridays) and 4pm on Tuesdays.

Remember there was once I blogged last semester about kamikaze birds in the Science Canteen. That one incident where a bird decided to fly itself into a metal beam, crush its skull, fall to the ground some 3 metres away from me and die there?

Now I am simply paranoid!

Whenever I'm in the canteen, I constantly inspect the metal beams above me. Everytime I hear a bird call from above me, my blood freezes. It's almost as if I'm half expecting to see a dying bird suddenly drop into the table in front of me. It's morbid, I know, I think so too. If only I could stop these thoughts but I'm sorry, after seeing one not-so-smart bird do that, I'm inclined to think that another will, eventually.

My faculty's canteen is killing birds without even trying and I'm disturbed, if only there was a way to keep them out of the canteen to begin with. I just keep thinking that

a) a bird is going to poop into my food as I'm eating (gross!!!)

b) a bird is going to kill itself by crashing into a beam/pillar and that it has to die in front of me (again).


I don't have the same trauma at the other canteens, just the Science Canteen. Now, can we pretty please get our canteen renovated? Preferably to one that keeps the birds out...

Yup, you read me right, I have a new computer, courtesy of my mother.

The monitor's screen is so wide, everything looks big and fat to me. I need some getting use to... but this computer is definitely better than any of the computers I've used in the past. So it's time to enjoy (except I have graded assessments and assignments next week...)

Meanwhile I'm going to leave you here while I explore my new computer =)

I was warned beforehand by some seniors regarding how much it would suck and now I truly agree with them.

It sucks, without doubt.

I have one really bad lecturer who simply can't teach, one boring module with decent lecturers (thank goodness), one module with tons of readings that will put psychobiology to shame (ARGH), one module that's familiar turf to me for now and only one module that I absolutely enjoy.

Things are not looking good for me.

And just so you know I'm still alive, here's something to tantalise your taste buds.

I present...........


PINKBERRY. The BEST frozen yoghurt I have EVER tasted in my life.

Just looking at it makes me miss LA. :(

I had a dream last night and in my dream, I saw my mum who was doing one of those DIY dye your hair red things and I actually did that too. In my dream, I dyed my hair a shade of red. AHHHH!!! I will not turn into my mother!! Lol.