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It really was a few days ago that we stepped into the present decade. 2010 is a new year, a new beginning for all. As the clock struck midnight with boisterous cheers and fireworks welcomed 12 more pages on the calender to flip, it was also the time when people would make resolutions and hope they would stick to them. I never believed in making resolutions... maybe I was too lazy to begin with. Haha.
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2009 had been a very fruitful year. Not only were there lows and high highs, it was a year during which I felt I made good use of time and lived my life the way I liked!
Here's a recap of the more significant events in 2009.
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In January, Busy Roys departed for his much looked forward to Student Exchange Program, to far far away to Eindhoven, Netherlands.
I remember rushing down from school after FYP to send him off. While I was facing hair loss over my FYP, this bugger was just starting his 6 months of fun, cool weather, awesome sceneries, travelling, a hella experience, and fun, fun and fun. And fun. It also meant that he would rather look at hot European babes than return in time for Jx's and my Commencement. Talk about sticking through thick and thin!
In Febuary, Ms Yeeeeee invited many of us over for a Chinese New Year reunion dinner. It was great fun - from the preparation of the Lo Hei to the tossing, to the laughter, to the celebration of Tata's birthday. For me, I felt real blessed to have such good friends to accompany my 4 long years of tertiary life.
(Missing from pic: Jx and hf, who just had to miss it due to an unexpected circumstance...)
Now in my eighth, final, semester, I never would have expected that it was going to be the most slack semester ever. Let's see if I still have a copy of my timetable...
*clicks into my historical folders*
Oops, don't have it already... =( but it was a 2 day week, 3 modules (including FYP), 1 non-examinable, and the other was open book exam!!! Ok truth be told, I went back maybe 1 or 2 days to work on my FYP, but it was totally up to my own discretion and freedom! Come to think of it, totally do not regret cramming 6, 7, modules during my first and second year.
I was always waking up late (like after 10am), not doing much studying/tutorials, hanging out, to the extent my dad often asked if I was still schooling, haha.
In addition, as a result of my much loved free time, I could do many, many other, random things during the weekdays...
For example,
Spontaneous overseas trip.
To Kukup with my parents! Super spontaneous. I was still lazing in bed at about 8 plus 9am, when my mom shook me and asked if I wanted to tag along to Kukup. Groggily, I agreed. And later found myself behind the wheel. %!@#&#
But Kukup is a very laid back place. Most of the houses were built on stilts. You could see the murky sea water below, and god knows what lies beneath. Seriously. All the toilets open down to this brown piece of water. And we had lunch there, that comprised of fresh seafood catch... =O
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With little homework to worry about, I joined Whiny Wanyun, Titus and some of her friends for the annual sports event organised by NUS, at Sentosa. We formed a team to compete in Captain's Ball.
It was intense competition!!! The girls from the other teams were real pros. Like, they played like guys! On our team there were only 7 of us, 4/5 games to be played and we got tired easily. But it was great fun, hanging out in the sun. Late in the afternoon the rays had heated up the sand and many were literally jumping like ants on a hot plate. Thus explained why some people were seen wearing socks! Haha.
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In April/May, I made an appointment with Jx to step into Tampines 1 on its official opening day.
Uniqlo T shirt.
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Furthermore, I also found free time and took part in my secondary school's Speech Day opening ceremony. Together with some alumni, we formed a small orchestra and had much fun picking up our instruments once more. For me, the music, the joy of playing again, performing, never fail to temporarily bring me back to my secondary school days.
It had been 5 YEARS since I last touched the zhong ruan. My fingers were madly pricked but I enjoyed myself, with the company of some crazy alumni juniors.
I also received a Silver award in recognition of my contribution over the past years as a "Friend of Temasek".
Another note-worthy day must have been the SYF Central Judging day. I went down to support the students. Singapore Conference Hall always brings back some good memories for me. The day proved to be the best in TMS's history, with TMSCO clinching the most prestigious 'Gold with Honours'. The students were exhilarated and in disbelief, while we the alumni were very proud of them :)
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Back to being a full-time student, that period also marked the end of my FYP! No more research work, no more conducting experiments, no more spending time in lab... Our FYP report format was double spacing, single paged, limit : 30 pages. Coolly accomplished, given that over two semesters, I had been conscientiously keeping records of my findings and results.
My experiment circled around the investigation of the composition of electrolyte gel. As the above picture would have told you, yes, I conducted experiments on myself. HAHA. And if you hadn't known, I ALWAYS HATED DOING EXPERIMENTS, since secondary school! JC chem experiments were the worst experiences. Thinking back, I feel lucky I survived those 2 years of litmus paper testing, intense hearing out for that 'pop' sound, carefully opening the burette whilst looking out for the colour change... shit work!
I think I wouldn't have chosen this FYP if I had known earlier that experiments were involved. Furthermore, each set of tests needed like 3, 4, 5 hours, including the preparation of chemicals, preparation of test equipment, and the testing itself. 5 electrodes on my forehead, 5 different sets of gel composition, noting down timings every 10 secs, shit work!
And it doesn't end there! The electrodes would leak if the setup wasn't perfect... and it would affect EVERYTHING. And then I would have to re-setup, reset everything, wait for my forehead to dry... shit work.
But man, am I glad that I managed to churn out consistent results in the end. Super fortunate that despite all the failed experiments, I still produced convincing results to show. But actually, my FYP experience wasn't that hellish la haha. I made some good friends in the lab.
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During the semester, Jx and I frequently the street soccer court on weekday evenings. We were friends with all the bungs and adiks.
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AH, very soon our student life came to an end... at the juncture the invigilator said, "Time's up, stop writing."
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In May, 5 of us from ME clique embarked on our 2 week graduation trip - to Vietnam.
While many of our peers were heading for Europe, we went for budget. Initially we would stop by Bangkok for 3 days too, but 2 months prior riots stirred up again so to stay on the safe side, all 14 days would be spent in Vietnam.
Which turned up not to be a bad thing, too. We backpacked from southern Ho Chih Ming all the way to northern capital Hanoi, stopping by a few places. We travelled by bus from one city to the next. We had so much fun among ourselves that interestingly, many of our jokes were derived from the nights on the sleeping bus. HAHA.
It was an enjoyable mix of programs and activities the whole planned trip. We did the following:
- took sampan along Mekong Delta
- rode on a pony carriage
- beached, had a cheap but the BEST massage
- snorkelling in extremely clear and beautiful waters, not forgetting sipping red wine whilst basking under the sun. I was high and jumped down from the deck of the boat. Shiok!
- Sand surfed
- for me, first time tasting of Singapore Sling (in a foreign land lol)
- visited UNESCO heritage sites
- had some formal office attire tailor made
- ate KFC in foreign land, again
- the first times taking a train, for a few of them
- tracking for kilometres atop high mountains, steep slippery slopes, crossed rapids, all in SLIPPERS.
- ate clouds! ahahha
- mud bath!
- spending a night on a junk boat at 1 of the 7 wonders of the world
- played soccer with local kids
- ate Balut, aka egg with unhatched chick...
- lastly, successfully converted Frankenstein Fab and Ms Yeeeee to play Daidee (Big 2), without which wouldn't have kept the 4 of us sane from all the long hours spent on travelling!
And all the while, Irritating Ivan was on a look-out for potential Vietnamese brides... hahaha!
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When we were back, results were out. I achieved the Class of Honours I had set out to achieve since the beginning of year 2. Happy! Yay to all my other friends who also graduated with their desired Class!
Meanwhile...
I waited eagerly for calls. And read Recruit. Worried about unable to land a job. A few months back I had made that decision to forgo an offer, with the desire to find one I truly am interested in. While all the rest of my clique had already reported to work, I was still going for a couple of interviews... while waiting in anticipation for THAT call/email...
And finally, very fortunately, I got it. =) You should know, if you had been following Me and Myself.
It was the happiest piece of news in my life.
For days I had been so painfully living in anticipation of the news, I couldn't sleep nor eat properly. I logged in into my email a few times a day. When the mail finally came, I clicked on it, psyching myself to expect the worst... but the words from the email were the sweetest words. A message worth waiting for, and sacrificing for.
Without hesitation I put my signature on paper and excitedly said I could start "next week".
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A day before reporting for my first day of work, our ME clique went to CBD area for photo shooting. Through Frankenstein Fab, we had engaged the help of three very nice photography enthusiasts.
It started as early as nine at the old supreme court, and ended late afternoon at NUS. I love all the shots, very professional, very artistic, very well taken.
Introducing this shot below...
That attracted the attention of the Group which was in charge of the annual NUS Graduate survey.
And there below you see us appearing =)
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On 6th July 2009, I started work. The first week was kinda like orientation, team bonding etc. I soon found out that all the MTs are very nice people =)
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Our first team activity (aka arrow to many), was a performance at the Long Service Awards function. It was a huge success cos we spent alot of time rehearsing. We won a huge amount of shopping vouchers which we split among ourselves and had enough to cook up the 'ATAS BBQ'!
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A healthy work life balance I loved and enjoyed.
Went for President's Star Charity 5km run at Padang, Esplanade, F1 track circuit area with Blur Beebee.
I enjoyed the run cos the weather was cooling, it was scenic and refreshing. I wanna do something like that again this year!
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Also found time to gather with beloved ME group of friends.
Meeting them again for Yum Cha this Saturday! =)
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Another team activity was the successfully planning and execution of the company's annual ACTIVE DAY.
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In late 2009, I spotted myself appearing at most train stations.
Received many curious smses asking if I was the one, haha. Very happy my friends recognised me! =)
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RSGT formed. All had to pass a 'test' before enlistment. Haha. Many happy moments spent, and plenty more to go.
Above, a rare group picture with all 10 present! All of us planned and turned up in 10 different colours, all except bitchy Kip, who just HAD TO perform a stunt... -_-
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In December, I went on a short overseas trip with my family to Penang and Ipoh.
PDF. Plenty of Drinks and Food. I felt myself gaining weight. But for the love for food, it was worth it!
In Penang, ALL our meals revolved around Assam Laksa, Choa Kway Tiao, Chendol and Hokkien noodles. My mom was getting so sick of the taste but my bro, dad and I were not complaining cos they're all my favourite food! And so cheappppppp! =D
It was a short 5, 6 day trip but we enjoyed ourselves very much. My dad got to play alot with his new DSLR. My bro was playing mouse hunt on fb whenever he found free wi-fi. -_- While for myself, I felt like I really needed a good getaway as well as spending some quality family time :)
By the way, the drive from Sg to Penang took about 12 hours, including stop overs, lunches. It was real boring to drive on the monotonous NS highway! -_- Lucky my dad and bro and I shared the driving. And! The GPS we bought for my dad as a birthday present must have been the top 10 inventions all time. We depended on it for everything!!!
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(Here I am at 12.16am, when I should be sleeping already! Cos still got work tomorrow, but I don't feel like stopping halfway again to continue on this post another day!)
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December 2009 also meant that:
2009 - 1984 = 25
I turned a quarter century old.
For me, I always felt birthdays are like any other days... but this time I had my Blur Bee to spend it with me. =)
Long but happy day, having her company throughout the lazy afternoon =)
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PHEW! So there's my summary of my 2009! I think I went abit lor-sor than expected, haha, sorry but thank you for bearing with me!
Today is 5th January 2010. What/where would I be this time next year? We'll await... =) One thing for sure, I know this year I wanna live my life the way I want it again. Looking forward to some exciting events hopefully, stay tuned!
ENJOY UR LIFE MY DEAR FRIENDS! =D
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