There’s more than meets the eye, life is not all that boring...(Something unusual that happened that day)

This picture was taken from: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_103/1165165567YKev77.jpg

This quote might be familiar to you, well; it is none other than the tagline that is used in TRANSFORMERS, and what Optimus Prime said in the movie is right, there’s more than meets the eye. There is always more to something than it looks at first glance. As the saying goes: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Well the same understanding goes for life. Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes unusual things happen, and suddenly one is pulled away from his boring world and into another mystical world when it happens. This feeling is exactly what I felt when I……

Although starting with a flashback- kind- of- style is what I believe to be very cliché, I still think that this is the best way to present my emotions.

There I was, taking the MRT train home from Pasir Ris, after going out to downtown with my classmates, on one of days during the December holidays. It was around seven in the evening when I entered the train and saw that there were no empty seats, so had to result to standing.
“Ding Dong, next stop Eunos” the speaker in the MRT train blared. There were about two to three stops until the train reaches mine and I was so eager to go home and lie on the bed. I took a glanced at the map that showed the route of the train and confirmed that it was another three stops before it reaches mine. Since it was the holidays, I had the kind of “high” feeling where I felt so carefree and distressed. After one year of hard work, I finally get a good rest.

I held onto the pole as the train stopped. I looked around as passengers rushed out and others entered the train. There were two guys, about 15 years old, in front of me that kept making so much noise, what more, they were listening to their iphones and the volume was at full blast, even I who was standing a few good inches away could hear the music. Then, I turned to my right and saw two girls, about my age, giggling and gossiping, hand phones in their hands. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but they just kept giggling, but I couldn’t care less.

Suddenly, I felt a thug at my t- shirt. I turned around and realized that it was one of the two rowdy guys that were listening to their iphones at full blast. I looked at him.

“Come here,” he said. I inched my way forward, heart pounding with anticipation, wondering what he was going to do to me.

“Come closer la” he said again, with the Singapore slang. I moved about half a step and then he asked me to bend down. I was getting ready for the worst to happen, whether it was that the guy was trying to rob me or not.

I glanced around and saw that everyone in the train was busy minding their own business, either burying their head in the newspapers or fixing their eyes on their hand phone.

“Erm” the guy continued, somewhat stammering a bit. I got a little tensed and kept a staring at his hands, making sure that he does not reach for my pockets.

“Could you help me…?” My heart pounded, my mind was overflowing with thoughts.

Then, he finally blurted out what he wanted to tell me. I was already at the verge of dying of anticipation.

“Could you help me ask the two girls there for their phone numbers?” he whispered into my ear and pointed to the giggling girls.

Well, I was STUNNED, utterly STUPIFIED and DUMBFOUNDED. My mind was thinking: “I got all worked up for nothing…” No one has ever asked me to do something like that before; I was just shocked, and stood rooted to the ground. I hesitated a little and then, just before I could answer him, the speaker blared out: “Ding Dong, next station, Paya Lebar”. I soon realized that it was my stop.

I then told the guy: “I’m sorry but I am alighting at the next stop, so if you could kindly ask someone else to help you?”

I could see the disappointment in his face as he said “okay”.

I left the train, turning back only to see the guy talking to another stranger. He must be asking the stranger to so the same favour that he asked me to do, well the only thing can say is: “good luck!”

Well, this incident made me realize that the most unexpected thing can happen in your life. Take this incident for example, I thought that I would only see this happen in television dramas, never had it crossed my mind that this will happen in real life, little long it happening to me…… This experience that I have shared with you shows that there’s more than meet the eye, especially when one uses this phrase in the context of life.

This picture was taken from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/2166485450_23d6da65c3.jpg

Lost in a world of darkness until I finally found the light......(A problem you encountered and how you solved or managed it

I was momentarily clueless, I was momentarily trapped, and I was momentarily lost, in the world of darkness……

Troubled was I, but to whom may I ask for help? The answer to that, find out, you will as you read on.

Well, you must be wondering what was bugging me so much. Well, it was the gigantic amount of homework, it was the tons of project that we had to do as a group, it was the preparation of CCA every week, it was the……I figured that if I had to go on, I would have written a novel by just listing down the things that were bugging me so much. So just to conclude: it was the stress of school life in Victoria and the torturous life of being a secondary two Victorian.

Basically, this week was the worst of all, furthermore, I don’t know if you readers agree with me or not, it was only the third week of school and everything was already piling up. Almost all the project, whether or not it is the whole project or just one part of it, had the same dateline, and it was this week! I slept at 12.30am yesterday and I am sure that some of you have slept later than me. But, we all got to do what we all got to do. The homework that was really driving me crazy was not the normal subject worksheets kind, but it was the project. Why, you ask?

The projects include: OPW, Science TfU and most importantly this English blog assignment. Not all the projects were driving me crazy, only one, it was the science. Reason being is that this science project’s dateline was supposed to be today (28-01-10) and the days before that, my group members were all not free, hence, no time to prepare and rehearse as a whole group, plus I took on the liberty of designing the slides, while the rest of my group gave me the information. The only day that we got to rehearse was yesterday (27-01-10), but not all of us were present as J_____had to go for his CCA.

Therefore, from here, you can see my problem; I was troubled about this science project as besides having to worry about this science project, I had many other things on my mind, which I had written it down on my journal. Apparently, when you open my journal, it would be packed with word that when you try reading it, it will make your head go dizzy! Dealing with all this stress, I realised that I had to do something, so I figured that for one hour, I would just slack and watch television, not doing anything else...and....it actually worked! I was feeling less stressful after one hour plus, the additional time was due to procrastination... and was ready for work, my mind was cleared and I was so hyped on ready to finish up the science project. I burned the midnight oil that night and slept at 12 plus, close to 1am. Plus, to top it all, the only mean of communication was through instant messaging on hand phone.

Although this wasn't the most efficient method, this was the only method of communication, although sometimes, this form of communication can fail you...

I could give you one example: yesterday, I sent a message out to three group members and only got one reply. I was totally frustrated and luckily, I manage to stop myself from tearing the pillow into two. It was only when I got to school that I found out the reason why there wasn’t any reply. One of them just didn’t reply to the message, while the other said that he received the message not at ten, but at 3am THE NEXT MORNING! See? This is how frustrating it will get and I am sure that you guys that have a phone have all experienced it. Well, the solution to my problem is not very effective, but it was certainly the light that got rid of the darkness. Reason is that even though the message came late, but as the saying goes: "Better late than Never". The message got through to my group members and they manage to do what I told them to.

Therefore, I can conclude that through this experience, I learnt that we can’t always trust technology. Plus, if you have any problems with coping with stress, you can either do something that you like to relief stress, slack for a while to relief stress or the greatest advice: GO SEE A COUNSELLOR!

Oh and after preparing and burning so much midnight oil the day before, I found out today that the presentation was postponed to next Monday…….( You should know how I felt, I’ll give you a clue: ARGH!)

Psss! Sizzling HOT Saturday (A special moment you enjoyed with your family)

What was your most precious family moment ever? Would you cherish it forever? Well I know mine was the perfect family moment ever and I know that I will always remember it and frankly, this was the best family moment ever and in my opinion, this is what I call a family moment, whereby everyone finds time to get together and do things together as one big loving family……

Last Saturday was hot indeed. Standing on the side walk under the sun felt like I was being roasted alive and if I didn’t bring a mini- fan along with me, I would have been cooked to death and served on a platter for the next guy to eat! We were all carrying bags and bags of frozen food, potato chips, crabsticks, and etcetera. We were the last to arrive and not a moment too soon! “Pit 50” I stared at the big sign drilled in at the side of the barbecue Pit.

Yup, that’s right, my family and I are having a Barbecue today to celebrate the birthdays of five January babies and my mum was one of them! It was pit 50, located at Pasir Ris park and boy was the park large! When we arrived, the tent had already been pitched and three of my cousins were found playing in the tent while my aunts sat on the mat and chit- chat while enjoying the cool sea breeze that lashed their faces, bringing forth a soothing and calm feeling. While the aunts do what they always do, my father and uncles and granduncle were at the barbecue Pit, lighting the charcoal, getting ready for the barbecue.

Well, you must be wondering what I was doing when all this was happening…or did you forget about me? Me, my cousins, my brother and I brought a football to play with, just in case we had nothing to do and was about to die of boredom. First, we just started by passing the ball around, then, the fathers joined in and it became a small match. We had a ton of fun and this is what I call family bonding, sharing our laughters with one another and enjoying the precious moment that we are having. While we were playing football, my other cousins were at the beach playing the sand, building sandcastles and stuff like that.

Soon, it was time to chow down, the food was ready and boy were we starving. But the long wait didn’t seem that long as we all chipped in to help barbecue the food. So every bite out of the food had our hard work and sweat in it (not literal sweat). It was that sense of achievement that warms our hearts. I tried a new invention of my own and that was dipping the crabsticks in Coke and then barbecuing it over the hot grill. At first my relatives all thought that it won’t taste good and they even said that it was a little disgusting. But after much persuasion, I manage to stuff some into their mouths. It was then that they started to demand me for more of my delicious creation. It was a mix of both sweet and salty. It was sweet because of the Coke and salty because of the crabstick itself.

The sun set in the horizon as the night settled in. our tummies where already filled by then and my cousins and I continued to kick the football around. Only the area around the barbecue pit was lit, but the rest of the areas besides the surrounding barbecue pits, especially the sea and the shore were totally pitch black. My uncle told us not to hit the ball too hard, to prevent it from going into the water, but in the end, it was he himself that kicked the ball too hard, which flew over our heads and resulted in the ball landing smack in the middle of the water, over the water breaker. We dashed towards the shore to find the ball and with the help of the light that our hand phones produced; we managed to spot the ball, slowly drifting to shore. My uncle, the culprit, then went to grab the ball that was moving with the current along the shoreline. For the record, the ball fell into the sea twice, the second culprit was none other than yours truly though.

The barbecue birthday party ended with the traditional happy birthday song and the blowing of the candles on the scrumptious almond cake and man was it delicious. I was pretty sad when the barbecue party ended. This was one of my precious moments that I spent with my relatives and I would cherish this memory forever.

Enjoy the pictures!



Lazying around the tents and mats




The fathers lighting the charcoal




Getting ready for the BBQ




Curry....Bee Hoon....Fried Rice....YAY!!


The BBQ Starts.... Nuggets, Otah, Crabstick etc




This is my mum' s home-made fruit salad. It is basically filled with fruits, yoghurt and topped off with Nata de Coco. (It is square and chewy, though i don't know what it's made of, but you've got to try it if you haven't!)




Night falls.... this is my grand aunt playing the iphone! Who says old people cant use touchphones??



Here is my cousin and my aunt, relaxing in the tent that my unlce pitched.
COCA-COLA! :)



Extremely melted marshmallow, my cousin is having trouble eating it though...



This is my aunt trying hard to ride the scooter....DON'T FALL!!




These are the 5 January babies, the one in pink is my MUM!!


ALMOND CAKE...



Sparkles time




Guess what we're doing....burning a DEAD leaf...Shhh! Don't tell anyone!

END OF BARBEQUE SESSION, sigh......

Sigh! My bags are packed, now getting ready for hell! (Something that took place in school)

Hey, yea, I’m talking to you, I bet when you first saw this title, you must be thinking that I’m getting ready for school right...WRONG! You are totally wrong! But if it so happens that this thought never occurred to you then forget what I just said.

Anyway, it all started at the end of last year’s end-of-year holidays. Usually at this time, I would be getting ready for school and would usually be trying to have as much fun as possible before the start of school, but one little problem that ruined my perfect plan… it was the NPCC Unit Training Camp. This camp is also known as UTC to us. This camp is held every year, usually at the last part of the holidays probably because they would not want to disrupt our holiday plans. Last year, it was held between 28th of December to the 30th of December. This camp was planned by the secondary three cadets, and it is not a slack camp, I prefer to call it a torture camp though. In this camp, we and the secondary 2 cadets were split into four groups and each group had a leader and assistant leader.

I got to admit, I was pretty reluctant about going to camp, having to reach school by 6.45 am on the first day and having to wake up every day for the next two days at five plus…but I did not have much choice though.

My bags were packed and I was ready to go. I reached there a little before 6.30 am and hence waited at the staircase near the canteen. Then, at 6.45 am, we had to assemble in the canteen. We got scolded for not greeting the seniors and hence had to do pumping (which means push- ups for your information). What a way to start the camp! Getting scolded by our seniors......

The first activity was the second hardest one out of the rest of the activities held throughout the camp. It was called Physical Training Competition. We call it “PT Comp”. This competition tests the endurance and the physical abilities and pushed them to the extreme limit whereby we push ourselves mentally by striving to reach our goals. In other words, we push ourselves to reach our goals. There are a total of four stations and at each station we have to set a record by doing different forms of physical exercises at different stations. In the end, even after all of us have
pushed ourselves to our limit, we still ended up as runner ups, but we were not discouraged.

That was only day one and already it felt like hell and it isn’t going to get better. On the second day, the hardest activity was Land Expedition. We call it “Land X”. This was worse than hell; we had to travel from one end of East Coast Park to the other, stopping at stations to do a few activities. We were the only group that managed to complete all of the activities within two hours, but sadly we were also the last to arrive at the end point, hence, did not win first place. Although we weren’t able to clinch the first prize, we felt like we have completed a great feat, and that was that we were the only group that finished all the stations within that time limit because we persevered and pushed ourselves to our limit, we even made the final 200 meter sprint to the starting point (the underpass) while carrying out bags and that is what I believe greatness means, to push on even though we were dead tired.

The most fun part of the camp was the water activities and of course the ending of the camp the next day. The main purpose of the water activity was of course to get us wet! That was the most fun because we finally got to relax a bit after the long tiring “Land X”. I had a ton of fun, splashing other groups, even our own seniors! That I think was a great pleasure, seeing them get wet form head to toe.

The last day of camp! This is the best part of the whole camp. Everyone was very enthusiastic on the last day, probably because they couldn’t wait to go home and relax! Frankly, I too wanted to get my butt home quickly. After a debrief session that felt like it would last forever, they dismissed us. We bolted towards the staircase, grabbed our bags and raced down. “Torture camp is finally over! Looks like I’m going back to Earth!” I told myself. Taking the bus home felt like taking an elevator from the lowest floor in hell to Earth……”Finally I’m HOME!”

This is one of our unit shirt, though we did not wear it to camp

Well, this camp wasn't a wase of time though, it improved my physical ability and plus, i got a new rank!!! Now i'm no more a cadet, i'm a Lance Coporal!!! hehe :P

Home Alone? Me 2! (A moment spent alone doing something that you enjoyed)

Have you ever been alone at home and you found that you were about to die of boredom?

Both parents were either busy or at work, or going out together? Shopping, watching a movie…well, so long as they are doing things together…

If you haven’t, don’t worry, I’m sure you will get plenty of chances like these. These are one of the few chances where you get to express yourself in the way that you like, or at least do something that you’d always wanted to do…(as long as it doesn’t break the law). Basically, it’s quite stereotype as to what kids do when their parents are not at home.

For me, usually I would watch television after I finished my homework and revision whether or not my parents are away, but one particular day last year, changed everything. I fell in love. I fell in love not with a human, not with an animal, but music and a guitar. Yes, I do listen to music but now I listen to it more frequently.

On that day, I was all alone. Only me, my computer and the guitar. I don’t have any musical background at all, except blowing the recorder in primary school. Hence so, I decided to surf the net and to find songs that I can play and learn them. I wasn’t pretty good and only knew how to play “happy birthday” with only one of the six guitar strings. I felt like I was hopeless, like I won’t be able to master the art of stringing a guitar, but on that day, I searched YouTube and found a song that I liked and yet I was able to learn it quite quickly, in around thirty minutes flat, I knew the song by heart and that was snow patrol’s chasing cars. You may or may not have heard about it, but still it is quite a nice song and this song was the first song that I ever learnt how to play.

Up till now, I am still trying to perfect it, although I know the sequence of the song by heart, I still have to know how to transit smoothly from one verse to another without having the need to stop and find what note I need to string next. That is what I call perfect. I am still a beginner and I only know two songs, both of which I haven’t master.

Hence forth, this day where I was alone at home, I did something that I have never done before when I was alone, and that is practice playing the guitar. This day when I was alone at home, I did something that I enjoyed very much and that was learning and playing the guitar, just like my cousin, who is also a beginner like me!