sigh.
i realized that the last time i blogged, it was almost 3 weeks ago.. from studying for exams to playing around after exams..
tmr, i'll be starting work at the zoo. of cuz i'm happy and really excited. but also getting really nervous. plus of all days, i fell sick yesterday.. so kinda still recovering today. yikes.
nothing much to say in this entry. just to let everyone know i'm starting work! will not be as free anymore.. but can still find me for dinner! hopefully i can get some photos tmr at work.. :)
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
our little cocktail.
i'm in the midst of studying for my stupid exams so i shall not spend too much time blogging.. here's some pictures of martine is the meantime..
in the first couple of days that martine was here, it was trying to find its spot. so it was experimenting sleeping everywhere.. in this picture, it was sleeping under come wooden box thing in my room.. see its paw?
this was taken yesterday.. after a day out having fun, it went straight to my bed and slept. haha. it was damn funny.
again, on my bed... it was staring at the maid when she was clearing the trash from my room.. martine gets excited when there's movements.. so she was staring pretty intensely at wiwin. haha.
ok... that's all for now.. martine is such a pretty cat.. :)
in the first couple of days that martine was here, it was trying to find its spot. so it was experimenting sleeping everywhere.. in this picture, it was sleeping under come wooden box thing in my room.. see its paw?
this was taken yesterday.. after a day out having fun, it went straight to my bed and slept. haha. it was damn funny.
again, on my bed... it was staring at the maid when she was clearing the trash from my room.. martine gets excited when there's movements.. so she was staring pretty intensely at wiwin. haha.
ok... that's all for now.. martine is such a pretty cat.. :)
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
my immortal
if you loved me, you would be here with me.
and if you have to leave, i wish that you would just leave.
and if you have to leave, i wish that you would just leave.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
good things come in 3s!
i refuse to let other more joyous happenings be in the same post as the bad one. argh. (read the previous post to know what i am talking abt... )
anyway, as busy as i was, i went for my interview at the zoo on monday. i know most pple think it's crazy to wanna do an internship at the zoo.. i think because everyone wants a bank job nowadays, it's a little overwhelming.. i dun understand those pple, to me, banks are boring. and i dun think i will survive that. having said that, that's where the money is too. and if one day i am really in need of money, u might find me there! haha.. right.
anyway, on wed, i finally heard from them! I GOT THE JOB!!! :):):)
here's what the email said:
Hi Reina, I am pleased to inform you that you have been offered the internship with Zoo. Kindly log on to OnTRAC asap to 'accept' the offer, and drop me an email once you have done so. You would also be required to submit the completed Indemnity Form to me prior to your internship commencement. At the same time, please find attach the Internship Performance Appraisal form. Towards the end of your internship, please pass the form to your supervisor and request for him to complete the appraisal for you. The completed form can be emailed/mailed/faxed back to me (see my contact details below). Lastly, below is a note from Zoo. Pls take note: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please be informed that all trainees attached to the Singapore Zoological Gardens are required to be vaccinated against influenza as a form of protection. This is part of the precautionary measures against the threat of bird flu. The vaccination can usually last for a year. For trainees who have not taken flu jab within the past 12 months, they are advised to visit any clinics to get the vaccination at their own cost. Usually the cost range from $20 to $30+. The trainees will need to provide document proof to us within the first week of work. If they would like to go through our company doctor to get the flu jab, the rate is at $20. Please let me know in advance so that we can arrange for that.
when i saw i have to take a jab, i nearly fainted! haha.. but i'm really really excited to get this job so hopefully, i can overcome my fear this time.. yikes. (char, i can already hear u laughing at me.. )
anyway, yes yes yes! pls come find me at the zoo from 23/04/2007 to 03/08/07! and we can eat ben n jerry's! heee..
on other good news:
it was another email..
Hi Reina, Congratulations! Your initial application to Norwegian School of Management - BI is successful! Please let me know by 10 Apr (Tue), whether you'll like to accept this placement, so we can nominate you to our partner. Once they've accepted you as our nominee, more information regarding application procedures will be provided. Let's work closely together to make this exchange happen for you! Cheers! Ying
YAY YAY!! it's my first choice and lionel's going too! how exciting.. i can't wait! although i seriously hope i dun play so much that i dun even pass. haha.. and that means that i really have to save saving! norway is crazy expensive i heard.. BK meals are S$25!! sigh.. friends who are reading this, it's time to start treating me and showing me ur love for me by donating to my norway fund! haha! :p
ok.. so lastly, martine is here!
martine is the cat my sister had when she was in aussie. and she finally brought it back.. it's a really pretty cat. although i'm still pretty worried it will attack the rabbits.. sigh.
see pheebe hiding under my leg.. haha.. martine doesn't really bother about the rabbits and in fact, i think it's scared of derby and derby's sudden movements. haha..
anyway, as busy as i was, i went for my interview at the zoo on monday. i know most pple think it's crazy to wanna do an internship at the zoo.. i think because everyone wants a bank job nowadays, it's a little overwhelming.. i dun understand those pple, to me, banks are boring. and i dun think i will survive that. having said that, that's where the money is too. and if one day i am really in need of money, u might find me there! haha.. right.
anyway, on wed, i finally heard from them! I GOT THE JOB!!! :):):)
here's what the email said:
Hi Reina, I am pleased to inform you that you have been offered the internship with Zoo. Kindly log on to OnTRAC asap to 'accept' the offer, and drop me an email once you have done so. You would also be required to submit the completed Indemnity Form to me prior to your internship commencement. At the same time, please find attach the Internship Performance Appraisal form. Towards the end of your internship, please pass the form to your supervisor and request for him to complete the appraisal for you. The completed form can be emailed/mailed/faxed back to me (see my contact details below). Lastly, below is a note from Zoo. Pls take note: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please be informed that all trainees attached to the Singapore Zoological Gardens are required to be vaccinated against influenza as a form of protection. This is part of the precautionary measures against the threat of bird flu. The vaccination can usually last for a year. For trainees who have not taken flu jab within the past 12 months, they are advised to visit any clinics to get the vaccination at their own cost. Usually the cost range from $20 to $30+. The trainees will need to provide document proof to us within the first week of work. If they would like to go through our company doctor to get the flu jab, the rate is at $20. Please let me know in advance so that we can arrange for that.
when i saw i have to take a jab, i nearly fainted! haha.. but i'm really really excited to get this job so hopefully, i can overcome my fear this time.. yikes. (char, i can already hear u laughing at me.. )
anyway, yes yes yes! pls come find me at the zoo from 23/04/2007 to 03/08/07! and we can eat ben n jerry's! heee..
on other good news:
it was another email..
Hi Reina, Congratulations! Your initial application to Norwegian School of Management - BI is successful! Please let me know by 10 Apr (Tue), whether you'll like to accept this placement, so we can nominate you to our partner. Once they've accepted you as our nominee, more information regarding application procedures will be provided. Let's work closely together to make this exchange happen for you! Cheers! Ying
YAY YAY!! it's my first choice and lionel's going too! how exciting.. i can't wait! although i seriously hope i dun play so much that i dun even pass. haha.. and that means that i really have to save saving! norway is crazy expensive i heard.. BK meals are S$25!! sigh.. friends who are reading this, it's time to start treating me and showing me ur love for me by donating to my norway fund! haha! :p
ok.. so lastly, martine is here!
martine is the cat my sister had when she was in aussie. and she finally brought it back.. it's a really pretty cat. although i'm still pretty worried it will attack the rabbits.. sigh.
see pheebe hiding under my leg.. haha.. martine doesn't really bother about the rabbits and in fact, i think it's scared of derby and derby's sudden movements. haha..
forget pageone, move on with the story.
for the past week that i haven been blogging, alot of things happen. mostly good. but just one really bad something.. so i'll start with the bad.
if u do not know what pageone is, let me tell u what it is. it is a small and really plain bookstore with overly priced books all in the name of art. believe me, those books can be found anywhere, just cuz they say we're targeting the arty farty people.. it's all bullshit. kino and borders have the same books at a lower price and at a better, more convenient location.
as written on lionel's blog:
"Okay basically this is an Advertising project for a real client: PageOne, a bookstore in VivoCity. They've quite well known in some countries like Hong Kong, but in Singapore there presence is BLAAATTT. That means nobody knows who the hell they are.
So the aim was to come up with a campaign for them to 1) Raise Awareness, 2) Increase Patronage , 3) Increase Sales. And it was to be feasible and stay within a budget of $15k / 3 months.
My group identified that the problem was mainly because they didn't have a brand image. So we proposed a campaign that would work around the 'Green Dot' in the O of the logo. Basically our objective is to have consumers immediate think of PageOne when they see a circle with that particular shade of green.
We also played with the idea of how books transport you to another world.
In summary, we came up with a series of strategies, I'm only going to put a couple up. One is an outdoor campaign at Raffles Place to raise awareness which would look like this:
Another is Outdoor floor stickers at the MRT which look like this:
Also a print ad which would look like this:
kay you may not think it's impressive, but we thought it was and we were led to believe that it was because when we sent in the proposal, this is what the client said about it:
- "Clear strategies and potentially interesting concepts"
- "The team is a bit more advance in their ideas, but need to work on how they can gel all the fragments together"
So naturally, we assume we're going on the right track right!??!
Here's what the feedback after our presentation was:
1) It's been done before like 6 years ago in HK, it was a flop.
2) Idea is too simple. All the other groups probably thought of it but decided to be bolder and do more adventurous campaigns.
3) Disappointing we chose to do this simple campaign, and not think out of the box.
WTF!?!?!?
Firstly, if it's been done before, why didn't you say so in the feedback which was like a month ago!?
Secondly, it's not too simple. It's simple because they simply do not have a brand image. You have to establish THAT before you go into other bolder campaigns, or nobody will know who the hell you are!
Thirdly, we're not NOT thinking out of the box, we're just being realistic and sticking to the needs and budget of the client. So we look FEASIBLE.
And the worst part? She said this is an academic exercise and we should have explored the full range of our creativity. KNN!! The whole point of having a client is to try to replicate an actual scenario wat..If it's purely an "academic exercise" , why give a bloody budget in the first place?!
Wahlau...and this project is 40% of the final grade!! Even though the client only determines 30% of this and the prof determines 70%...it's still very significant!
Anyway, even the prof thinks the client is full of shit. When the client kept going on and on and wouldn't shut up, (see previous post) he actually took the TA's camera and snapped a picture of him. And They were both sitting beside the client..HAHA!
So after class a lot of us stayed back to bitch abt the client, this group came up with an ad slogan for an anti PageOne movement. It'll read:
"Forget Pageone, move on with the story."
Haha! I thought that was hilarious!
I'm ESPECIALLY bitter cos i was up ALL NIGHT doing the presentation, I didn't sleep a wink just doing it up. At least the prof said the presentation looked really nice. He also told us not to worry about the client..he said "some clients are just like that..."
Damn Mofos."
yup. as u should be able to tell, our whole grp was really pissed. so were the rest of the class. we spent so much effort on it, sacrificing sleep and food, taking cabs here and there to print this and that, rush to meetings, rush home to change and what not, only to have a client that is full of shit and who keeps contradicting herself. great.
if u do not know what pageone is, let me tell u what it is. it is a small and really plain bookstore with overly priced books all in the name of art. believe me, those books can be found anywhere, just cuz they say we're targeting the arty farty people.. it's all bullshit. kino and borders have the same books at a lower price and at a better, more convenient location.
as written on lionel's blog:
"Okay basically this is an Advertising project for a real client: PageOne, a bookstore in VivoCity. They've quite well known in some countries like Hong Kong, but in Singapore there presence is BLAAATTT. That means nobody knows who the hell they are.
So the aim was to come up with a campaign for them to 1) Raise Awareness, 2) Increase Patronage , 3) Increase Sales. And it was to be feasible and stay within a budget of $15k / 3 months.
My group identified that the problem was mainly because they didn't have a brand image. So we proposed a campaign that would work around the 'Green Dot' in the O of the logo. Basically our objective is to have consumers immediate think of PageOne when they see a circle with that particular shade of green.
We also played with the idea of how books transport you to another world.
In summary, we came up with a series of strategies, I'm only going to put a couple up. One is an outdoor campaign at Raffles Place to raise awareness which would look like this:
Another is Outdoor floor stickers at the MRT which look like this:
Also a print ad which would look like this:
kay you may not think it's impressive, but we thought it was and we were led to believe that it was because when we sent in the proposal, this is what the client said about it:- "Clear strategies and potentially interesting concepts"
- "The team is a bit more advance in their ideas, but need to work on how they can gel all the fragments together"
So naturally, we assume we're going on the right track right!??!
Here's what the feedback after our presentation was:
1) It's been done before like 6 years ago in HK, it was a flop.
2) Idea is too simple. All the other groups probably thought of it but decided to be bolder and do more adventurous campaigns.
3) Disappointing we chose to do this simple campaign, and not think out of the box.
WTF!?!?!?
Firstly, if it's been done before, why didn't you say so in the feedback which was like a month ago!?
Secondly, it's not too simple. It's simple because they simply do not have a brand image. You have to establish THAT before you go into other bolder campaigns, or nobody will know who the hell you are!
Thirdly, we're not NOT thinking out of the box, we're just being realistic and sticking to the needs and budget of the client. So we look FEASIBLE.
And the worst part? She said this is an academic exercise and we should have explored the full range of our creativity. KNN!! The whole point of having a client is to try to replicate an actual scenario wat..If it's purely an "academic exercise" , why give a bloody budget in the first place?!
Wahlau...and this project is 40% of the final grade!! Even though the client only determines 30% of this and the prof determines 70%...it's still very significant!
Anyway, even the prof thinks the client is full of shit. When the client kept going on and on and wouldn't shut up, (see previous post) he actually took the TA's camera and snapped a picture of him. And They were both sitting beside the client..HAHA!
So after class a lot of us stayed back to bitch abt the client, this group came up with an ad slogan for an anti PageOne movement. It'll read:
"Forget Pageone, move on with the story."
Haha! I thought that was hilarious!
I'm ESPECIALLY bitter cos i was up ALL NIGHT doing the presentation, I didn't sleep a wink just doing it up. At least the prof said the presentation looked really nice. He also told us not to worry about the client..he said "some clients are just like that..."
Damn Mofos."
yup. as u should be able to tell, our whole grp was really pissed. so were the rest of the class. we spent so much effort on it, sacrificing sleep and food, taking cabs here and there to print this and that, rush to meetings, rush home to change and what not, only to have a client that is full of shit and who keeps contradicting herself. great.
Friday, March 16, 2007
a glimpse of my past.
yesterday, after a long day at school having classes and meetings, lionel and i went to the jap rest. where i used to work for dinner.
before i went to uni, i was working as a waitress at shinryoku yakitori restaurant at purvis street. i haven't been back there for like 3 years i think. yup. basically i had 2 lady bosses and one of their husband. but, when i went back, the boss that i was closer to was in france! argh. so i said hi to the other 2.. but although they sorta recognized me, they din rem my name.. sigh. cant blame old people! haha. kidding. can't blame them cuz i only worked for like 2 mths at the most. and i haven't been keeping in touch.. haha.
but the food was great! had garlic fried rice, paper pot seafood soup, prawns with bacon and mint leaf, grilled onions, lamb chops and green tea ice cream! it was all so yummilicious! and after that, we went to liang seah street for some ah chew dessert... YUM-MY!! i had a great meal yesterday.. that's cuz i din do well for my FIIM mid-term. (even though i really studied for it).. so lionel wanted to cheer me up.. sigh.. i hate these tests.. make me feel stupid all the time! argh. i shall have to work harder. yikes. oh well. i din take pictures though. heh..
eh char! must go back with me to find shirleen soon ya. she'll be back on 17 april i think..
btw.. go watch freedom writers! i think it's a great show... really touching. my top was wet when i left the cinema... haha.. yup.
before i went to uni, i was working as a waitress at shinryoku yakitori restaurant at purvis street. i haven't been back there for like 3 years i think. yup. basically i had 2 lady bosses and one of their husband. but, when i went back, the boss that i was closer to was in france! argh. so i said hi to the other 2.. but although they sorta recognized me, they din rem my name.. sigh. cant blame old people! haha. kidding. can't blame them cuz i only worked for like 2 mths at the most. and i haven't been keeping in touch.. haha.
but the food was great! had garlic fried rice, paper pot seafood soup, prawns with bacon and mint leaf, grilled onions, lamb chops and green tea ice cream! it was all so yummilicious! and after that, we went to liang seah street for some ah chew dessert... YUM-MY!! i had a great meal yesterday.. that's cuz i din do well for my FIIM mid-term. (even though i really studied for it).. so lionel wanted to cheer me up.. sigh.. i hate these tests.. make me feel stupid all the time! argh. i shall have to work harder. yikes. oh well. i din take pictures though. heh..
eh char! must go back with me to find shirleen soon ya. she'll be back on 17 april i think..
btw.. go watch freedom writers! i think it's a great show... really touching. my top was wet when i left the cinema... haha.. yup.
Monday, March 12, 2007
X-physique 2007. Xtreme, Xciting, Xperience it.
yesterday, thanx to my 2 very good friends namely Meng Heng and Kenneth Fang, i was running around town during crazy stunts. at 10.30 am on a sunday, i met 3 other team mates, of all whom i do not know!! got to wear an over-sized free tee-shirt, which was not the usual big tees u get but the length was right, just that the sleeves were all over the place. anyway, at 12, we were flagged off from youth park to a series of "unfortunate events".... so here's what happened:
this was at youth park.. bright and early on a sunday morning. the stage was still clear.. and we were the 2nd batch to be flagged off yesterday. the 'open' category started at 8am (i think)..
at 11+.. just a little after 1130 i think, we saw the first team from the 'open' category running towards the finishing line.. damn cool la.. they all looked damn shagged.. but happy and really relieved. at least that would be how i felt. since i joined this competitor because ken fang and meng decided to pull out, i did not really know or bother them with my countless questions. so i did not know what this team would win.. although later in the race, i heard the 2nd place gets $2500 worth of prizes / vouchers.. which is a whole load more than NVM ever gave!! unfair. but oh well. this is more expensive. haha. $30 to join, phew ken says they pay for me! haha. yay!! free (ugly but still free!) tee-shirt and goodie bag!! <-- typical singaporean. heh. proud to be.
this is the team yesterday.. from left to right.. me!, yishun (? that's how they called him. and i asked julia if it was the place and she said yes.. so i assume the spelling is the same. heh.), hewbert (have not idea how to spell too.. haha.), and julia. yishun and julia and 2 years younger than me. odac juniors. hewbert is 3 yrs older.. he looks like derrick eh.. haha. maybe not here. but sometimes.
i almost forgot the most impt part of the story. before our race, we were already DISQUALIFIED. how encouraging.
1. did not know any of them.
2. i was damn busy.. i have no idea why i said ok to help them do this.
3. on sun itself they told me i was 'illegal' becuz we're registered under a NTU team.
4. then they say yishun is standing in for some guy called felix who is also an odac junior and he (for some whatever reason, totally not impt and irresponsible reason) decide to pull out at the very last min.
5. felix is indonesian who makes his ic number damn long. so poor yishun screwed it up. the pple registering us suspected, asked him for his full name, hall number, and his bday. he did not know his birth date! and that's when they said we were disqualified.
if we wanted to run, we could, but we're a 3 member team and will be unranked even if we are damn fast so we couldn't win. and yishun was allowed to run with us but now do any thing else. so anyway, we decided to go on for fun.
so after flag off, we had to run from youth park to marina bay mrt which was the first station of the day.. honestly at first, i tot they were kidding cuz i din know there was such a thing as marina bay mrt.. of cuz i went there to eat steamboat before la. not so sua ku.. just that i dun take train often enough to rem how i got there.. and my gosh.. it's damn farrrrrr... and like nearing havelock road, i was tired from not training and being old, i started walking.. haha. which became the pace for the rest of the race. heh.. i mean come on! the sun was all out to get us.. and i din have lunch.. and i din train and we wont win and running is just so not fun. haha. so many excuses eh. ok so at marina bay, when we finally get there, we were told to cycle 3 rounds round the whole of marina bay area. ok! cycling was pretty relaxing. heh.
station 2: after cycling, we made our way to another part of singapore i totally had not seen before in my life.. some pond at marina bay area? seeing the people in the pond was not too exciting. we had to do some river crossing.. basically get wet and dirty..
wearing the lifejackets made us dirty already. haha.. the only thing consoling abt the water was that it was a little more refreshing than the sun..
i had some fun.. couldn't stop laughing cuz we had to do it backwards and the lifejacket is working so well i was floating so much!! haha..
this pond is like full of rotting logs inside... really damn gross.. the water was grey and my white socks turned greyish black.. and the white tee-shirt we were wearing were greyish too..
making our way to our next station... on the sheares bridge... julia told me that there was one year , they made participants jump off the bridge.. it was pretty pretty high.. yishun, our cameraman, water-provider, map-reader and bag-carrier, checking out the next stop..
station 3: kayaking. when we first looked down from the bridge, the route looks quite long.. i never told it would be 5km! the longest i have to paddle.. considering i dun really enjoy kayaking cuz i'm quite lousy at it.. haha. after getting my one-star, i stopped kayaking. haha. this shall be a challenge.. poor hewbert had to kayak a double-kayak be himself.. but he was still faster than me and julia. haha.
that's us! dun we look like we know where we were going and we're quite synchronized? heh. the truth is we were zig-zagging alot.. and i blame the wind. heh! (if there's no one to blame, blame mother nature!!) btw, i'm in the pink lifejacket. heh.
station 4: after kayaking a horrendously long 5km, my arms nearly broke. haha. kidding. it was tiring but bearable. we went on to some lame game station.. had to transport this 125kg load from one end to another. hewbert pulled and me n julia took turns to switch the rollers.. and at the end, we had to turn the thing 180 degrees before removing all the rollers underneath. dun ask me why.. i think this is damn lame.
station 5: last and most interesting part of the race. abseiling at shaw towers. 6 storeys off the car park. i haven abseiled since i got out of jc.. that's 4 years now? we spent almost 2 hours just waiting at this station. by this time, the first few teams would have won and collected their prizes and are on their way home. haha. but we just wanted to try.. it's not always that u get to abseil down a building in town..!! looked pretty high huh.. see how small the people below areeee..
u have to sit on the ledge before u get into the abseil position. i was thinking what if the guy slips at this point? of cuz he wunt die cuz he has his safety rope already. but still.. i think he'll scream. aha.
when it finally got to our turn, it was already 6 pm.. julia was the first to abseil down.. look how small she is. she is comparable to teresa! haha..
then it was my turn... (for some reason, this photo appears sideways.. it's a bug!! ) anyway, this guy who hooked us up was apparently the 'boss' so i felt safer with him than any other student helper.. haha. check out his tattoos man..and the gloves look like the gloves they use at the birdpark for the eagle show. haha! i'm thankful for that.. otherwise will definitely get rope-burn!!
the boss was telling me: i'll be waiting for u upstairs.. looks and points to the sky.. great.
from this picture onwards, u will see clearly the many expressions and feelings i had before i started abseiling. haha. first picture: i just got off the ledge, was standing on a thin log.. not really a log.. but a branch like thing against the wall.. happy but hesitant.
picture 2: huh? so i must go down now? u sure? checks with the 'boss'.
picture 3: checks to see if the person belaying was there.. and also to check out the height. haha.
picture 4: i really dun wanna do this!! what did i get myself into??? so here goes.. bye~~
picture 5: ok.. so i'm off.. this is not so bad.. and i could still hear the 'boss' and my team mates.. and i hope that if i fall, hong chang would catch me!! haha.. if not, jem is there too! haha.
this is not a good picture! haha. my legs were straighter than that after this la.. haha. otherwise i would have scratched my knees against the wall.
lastly, mr 'derrick' abseiled down and we were off to youth park to finish the race.. at last.. it was funny cuz he had such a small harnest, his ass was like bursting out when we looked up from below..
yay! we made it to the end.. took a picture, collected our goodie bags and headed off to different directions. i went on to wash up and waited for hong chang and jem liew for dinner!
it has been a super long day.. hong chang was at his station (abseiling area - shaw towers) at like 5:40AM till we ended at 7+pm.. jem was there before 6am too.. and did not sleep the night before because of his own doing - mahjong.. and i was tired from being under the sun, in the water, kayaking, cycling, walking, jogging, waiting to abseil and abseiling.. it was a long day.. and after dinner while having coffee, jem fell asleep. haha.
overall, it was quite a nice experience. given a 2nd choice, i might still reconsider joining it.. it was really fun doing all the stunts but also really exhausting. my body is aching now.. and my face is all burnt. but! it beats studying.. haha. oh well. back to my pricing hw. yikes. :)
this was at youth park.. bright and early on a sunday morning. the stage was still clear.. and we were the 2nd batch to be flagged off yesterday. the 'open' category started at 8am (i think)..
at 11+.. just a little after 1130 i think, we saw the first team from the 'open' category running towards the finishing line.. damn cool la.. they all looked damn shagged.. but happy and really relieved. at least that would be how i felt. since i joined this competitor because ken fang and meng decided to pull out, i did not really know or bother them with my countless questions. so i did not know what this team would win.. although later in the race, i heard the 2nd place gets $2500 worth of prizes / vouchers.. which is a whole load more than NVM ever gave!! unfair. but oh well. this is more expensive. haha. $30 to join, phew ken says they pay for me! haha. yay!! free (ugly but still free!) tee-shirt and goodie bag!! <-- typical singaporean. heh. proud to be.
this is the team yesterday.. from left to right.. me!, yishun (? that's how they called him. and i asked julia if it was the place and she said yes.. so i assume the spelling is the same. heh.), hewbert (have not idea how to spell too.. haha.), and julia. yishun and julia and 2 years younger than me. odac juniors. hewbert is 3 yrs older.. he looks like derrick eh.. haha. maybe not here. but sometimes.
i almost forgot the most impt part of the story. before our race, we were already DISQUALIFIED. how encouraging.
1. did not know any of them.
2. i was damn busy.. i have no idea why i said ok to help them do this.
3. on sun itself they told me i was 'illegal' becuz we're registered under a NTU team.
4. then they say yishun is standing in for some guy called felix who is also an odac junior and he (for some whatever reason, totally not impt and irresponsible reason) decide to pull out at the very last min.
5. felix is indonesian who makes his ic number damn long. so poor yishun screwed it up. the pple registering us suspected, asked him for his full name, hall number, and his bday. he did not know his birth date! and that's when they said we were disqualified.
if we wanted to run, we could, but we're a 3 member team and will be unranked even if we are damn fast so we couldn't win. and yishun was allowed to run with us but now do any thing else. so anyway, we decided to go on for fun.
so after flag off, we had to run from youth park to marina bay mrt which was the first station of the day.. honestly at first, i tot they were kidding cuz i din know there was such a thing as marina bay mrt.. of cuz i went there to eat steamboat before la. not so sua ku.. just that i dun take train often enough to rem how i got there.. and my gosh.. it's damn farrrrrr... and like nearing havelock road, i was tired from not training and being old, i started walking.. haha. which became the pace for the rest of the race. heh.. i mean come on! the sun was all out to get us.. and i din have lunch.. and i din train and we wont win and running is just so not fun. haha. so many excuses eh. ok so at marina bay, when we finally get there, we were told to cycle 3 rounds round the whole of marina bay area. ok! cycling was pretty relaxing. heh.
station 2: after cycling, we made our way to another part of singapore i totally had not seen before in my life.. some pond at marina bay area? seeing the people in the pond was not too exciting. we had to do some river crossing.. basically get wet and dirty..
wearing the lifejackets made us dirty already. haha.. the only thing consoling abt the water was that it was a little more refreshing than the sun..
i had some fun.. couldn't stop laughing cuz we had to do it backwards and the lifejacket is working so well i was floating so much!! haha..
this pond is like full of rotting logs inside... really damn gross.. the water was grey and my white socks turned greyish black.. and the white tee-shirt we were wearing were greyish too..
making our way to our next station... on the sheares bridge... julia told me that there was one year , they made participants jump off the bridge.. it was pretty pretty high.. yishun, our cameraman, water-provider, map-reader and bag-carrier, checking out the next stop..
station 3: kayaking. when we first looked down from the bridge, the route looks quite long.. i never told it would be 5km! the longest i have to paddle.. considering i dun really enjoy kayaking cuz i'm quite lousy at it.. haha. after getting my one-star, i stopped kayaking. haha. this shall be a challenge.. poor hewbert had to kayak a double-kayak be himself.. but he was still faster than me and julia. haha.
that's us! dun we look like we know where we were going and we're quite synchronized? heh. the truth is we were zig-zagging alot.. and i blame the wind. heh! (if there's no one to blame, blame mother nature!!) btw, i'm in the pink lifejacket. heh.
station 4: after kayaking a horrendously long 5km, my arms nearly broke. haha. kidding. it was tiring but bearable. we went on to some lame game station.. had to transport this 125kg load from one end to another. hewbert pulled and me n julia took turns to switch the rollers.. and at the end, we had to turn the thing 180 degrees before removing all the rollers underneath. dun ask me why.. i think this is damn lame.
station 5: last and most interesting part of the race. abseiling at shaw towers. 6 storeys off the car park. i haven abseiled since i got out of jc.. that's 4 years now? we spent almost 2 hours just waiting at this station. by this time, the first few teams would have won and collected their prizes and are on their way home. haha. but we just wanted to try.. it's not always that u get to abseil down a building in town..!! looked pretty high huh.. see how small the people below areeee..
u have to sit on the ledge before u get into the abseil position. i was thinking what if the guy slips at this point? of cuz he wunt die cuz he has his safety rope already. but still.. i think he'll scream. aha.
when it finally got to our turn, it was already 6 pm.. julia was the first to abseil down.. look how small she is. she is comparable to teresa! haha..
then it was my turn... (for some reason, this photo appears sideways.. it's a bug!! ) anyway, this guy who hooked us up was apparently the 'boss' so i felt safer with him than any other student helper.. haha. check out his tattoos man..and the gloves look like the gloves they use at the birdpark for the eagle show. haha! i'm thankful for that.. otherwise will definitely get rope-burn!!
the boss was telling me: i'll be waiting for u upstairs.. looks and points to the sky.. great.
from this picture onwards, u will see clearly the many expressions and feelings i had before i started abseiling. haha. first picture: i just got off the ledge, was standing on a thin log.. not really a log.. but a branch like thing against the wall.. happy but hesitant.
picture 2: huh? so i must go down now? u sure? checks with the 'boss'.
picture 3: checks to see if the person belaying was there.. and also to check out the height. haha.
picture 4: i really dun wanna do this!! what did i get myself into??? so here goes.. bye~~
picture 5: ok.. so i'm off.. this is not so bad.. and i could still hear the 'boss' and my team mates.. and i hope that if i fall, hong chang would catch me!! haha.. if not, jem is there too! haha.
this is not a good picture! haha. my legs were straighter than that after this la.. haha. otherwise i would have scratched my knees against the wall.
lastly, mr 'derrick' abseiled down and we were off to youth park to finish the race.. at last.. it was funny cuz he had such a small harnest, his ass was like bursting out when we looked up from below..
yay! we made it to the end.. took a picture, collected our goodie bags and headed off to different directions. i went on to wash up and waited for hong chang and jem liew for dinner!
it has been a super long day.. hong chang was at his station (abseiling area - shaw towers) at like 5:40AM till we ended at 7+pm.. jem was there before 6am too.. and did not sleep the night before because of his own doing - mahjong.. and i was tired from being under the sun, in the water, kayaking, cycling, walking, jogging, waiting to abseil and abseiling.. it was a long day.. and after dinner while having coffee, jem fell asleep. haha.
overall, it was quite a nice experience. given a 2nd choice, i might still reconsider joining it.. it was really fun doing all the stunts but also really exhausting. my body is aching now.. and my face is all burnt. but! it beats studying.. haha. oh well. back to my pricing hw. yikes. :)
Friday, March 09, 2007
adobe photoshop 101
attended a photoshop workshop held in school with lionel today. actually he wanted to go and i was just being nice, so i accompanied him. actually i must admit, it was not too bad. although i was seriously dead tired, i wasn't falling asleep at all. and managed to learn some stuff la. haha. although everything is very basic still. at least when i open photoshop now, i know what i can do. haha.. anyway, so here's the edited and unedited photo..
actually it's not obvious which is the photo-shoped one and which is not huh. haha. guess.
(*photo taken in end 2005. in australia. we've all grown up now. if u cant recognize, it's me in green, my sis and my bro.)
ok. the 2nd photo is the photo-shoped one. it's cropped, and sharpened. and errr there's another layer.. and i erased some clouds. haha.
actually it's not obvious which is the photo-shoped one and which is not huh. haha. guess.
(*photo taken in end 2005. in australia. we've all grown up now. if u cant recognize, it's me in green, my sis and my bro.)
ok. the 2nd photo is the photo-shoped one. it's cropped, and sharpened. and errr there's another layer.. and i erased some clouds. haha.
Friday, March 02, 2007
"studying"
on monday, i was studying with lionel in school for our pricing mid-term.. after awhile, we got a little bored and decided to draw a 'time line' purely to record each hour that passed.. so he suggested drawing a snake.
drawn by lionel. version 1. (dun ask me what the thing is... he said it was the snake's beard.. err.. i think it's double chin and facial hair.. but then again, snakes dun have hair.. do they? haha..)
drawn by me. lionel says it looks like a monk.. or a little bald boy.. haha. cuz it has a neck and the head is so round. hmm. fine. it is not perfect. but i still think it's nicer than his! :p
lionel's. version 2. he redrew his after seeing mine.. said the head should not be round.. and there's this extra flap thing on the head which i have no idea what it is. and the eye is bulging and the nose part is flat. haha.. looks like a monster..
lionel's. version 3. and so he redrew again. i think this is the best out of the 3 he drew. of cuz mine is the best out of the 4. haa.
a look at our board at the end of the day.. besides all the drawing which wasn't alot of time wasted, i would say it was a rather productive studying day.. i managed to cover my stuff and still had my bit of fun! :)
sigh. tmr is my last mid-term. i cant wait. cuz even CNY break, i din get to rest cuz at the back of my mind, i knew i had mid-terms.. tmr is the last of all of the horror.. (of cuz there's still projects to do.. ) but ahh.. i shall take a break tmr after my paper! plus tmr is animal day in school... :):)
drawn by lionel. version 1. (dun ask me what the thing is... he said it was the snake's beard.. err.. i think it's double chin and facial hair.. but then again, snakes dun have hair.. do they? haha..)
drawn by me. lionel says it looks like a monk.. or a little bald boy.. haha. cuz it has a neck and the head is so round. hmm. fine. it is not perfect. but i still think it's nicer than his! :p
lionel's. version 2. he redrew his after seeing mine.. said the head should not be round.. and there's this extra flap thing on the head which i have no idea what it is. and the eye is bulging and the nose part is flat. haha.. looks like a monster..
lionel's. version 3. and so he redrew again. i think this is the best out of the 3 he drew. of cuz mine is the best out of the 4. haa.
a look at our board at the end of the day.. besides all the drawing which wasn't alot of time wasted, i would say it was a rather productive studying day.. i managed to cover my stuff and still had my bit of fun! :)
sigh. tmr is my last mid-term. i cant wait. cuz even CNY break, i din get to rest cuz at the back of my mind, i knew i had mid-terms.. tmr is the last of all of the horror.. (of cuz there's still projects to do.. ) but ahh.. i shall take a break tmr after my paper! plus tmr is animal day in school... :):)
Monday, February 26, 2007
NVM 2007.
After 2 months of "training", the day we were all anxiously waiting for finally arrived. Eeks.
At 9:30am, the team met at Raffles Place MRT. Changed into out "team jersey", and proceeded out of the train station. I never really knew how the building I was going to climb that day looked like.. and never really did bother to find out..
It was not hard to figure which one it was when we got there.. haha.. it was the one that seemed like it was touching the clouds.. EEEKS.
Replubic Plaza. 66 Storeys. Said to be the tallest building in Singapore. (really? i dunno.. haha).. look at it.. it's all nice, polished and shimmery under the morning sun.. it would have been nicer if i din have to climb it. haha! by this time.. i'm already feeling the adrenaline.. and also regretting.. "why? why? why did i ever think of doing this?"
While doing our warm-up run rond the Singapore River, I asked Eleanor "why did i do this to myself?" and she's like "we always say that but we still join.. year after year.."..haha.. i tot it was funny.. but it's so true too.. let's see if i join again next year! haha.. (lionel!! lover's challenge? da jie, daddy, aaron... family team???)
Took a couple of photos while doing our stretches since the river seemed like a nice place to chill.. esp sunday mornings cuz there's hardly anyone..
10:56. after reporting, we were escorted to the start line.... i need new shorts.. haha!
nearing the flag off line.. YIKES... oh.. we manage to take these photos only because Lek decided to bring his cam all the way up..
the clock that is there every year. between each team, there's a 2-min interval.. so that teams will not clash.. 11:12 was our flag off time.
ahhhh! finally at the top.. it seems so easy when u are looking at these photos.. one photo ago we were at level 1. the next photo and we are at the 60th storey. haha.. if u notice me, i am damn shagged.. haha.
more photos taken at the top. had to make use of the camera cuz lek took pains bringing it up there!!
the team and i with republic plaza at the background. (from left to right) ze bin, lek, meng heng, eleanor and me! we were all wearing the NVM 2007 shirt.. nicer compared to last year's.. meng is in yellow cuz he's extra! haha. no la. cuz he's in the sub-com. heh.
Kenneth is in black cuz he's extra too! never climb also take photo with us?!?! tsk! haha.. actually he did climb.. recce climb.. and he was pretty fast.. even without training.
When collecting our goodie bag, we manage to get a sneak peek at the prizes. and they were not too great.. if u can see, there's a hamper labeled men's open 1st i think.. and it has tomato ketchup, condensed milk, maggi mee, etc.. yikes.. first prize and that's what u get? no thanx. haha.. we were thinking if we really get something like that hamper, we would donate it to some old folk's home.
and so we left, not really anticipating a win.. went down to city hall for mos burger and then to smu to study.
one little joke that i wanna share. at mos burger, ze bin ordered for eleanor..
and halfway through the meal, eleanor asked zebin: what are u eating?
ze bin: mos burger
eleanor: i know mos burger.. what burger is that?
ze bin: mos burger!
(and this went on for quite some time)
then me: the burger he's eating is called mos burger. like what i'm eating, it's a plain hotdog.. but it's also called a mos dog.
heh. ok. so after mos, we went smu and was settling down before starting to study when meng called ze bin..
shouting through the hp loudspeaker, we heard him say "we got 4th!!!!! ok wait wait. i confirm then i call u back" and hung up.. anyway, it was confirmed and we had to rush back to claim our prizes.. haha.
this shows the times for the top 9 teams for team open category.. our team is "the fifth element"..
YAY!! medals.. haha..
Last year, we had medals, vouchers and 3 hampers of food and drinks.. and sigg bottles for each of us. this year. we had medals, vouchers and one plastic bottle. hmmm.
last year, we got 5th climbing 43 storeys. this year we got 4th climbing 60 storeys. and the prizes........ hmmm..
left: last year's medal. right: this year's medal..
So. NVM 2007 came to an end.. it'll be next year (if we join) that we meet and train again. This year, the climb was really really tiring. And i want to apologize to my team. Let me explain myself. at the start, i was chasing behind lek.. and by the 5th storey or so, i was really damn tired but still continued.. by the 11th storey.. i dramatically slowed down. i realized that i started out too fast.. totally not my pace and it was a big mistake. after that, i cant even walk fast enough.. the 3rd team's timing was a mere 1 min ahead of us. and i think i'm the cause of us losing that place. i could have done below 15 mins but i did 15:24.. i knew i could have done better. my legs did not ache. i was just out of breath.. i'm really sorry!! i'll train harder next year and learn form my mistake! i promise!!! sorry sorry...
At 9:30am, the team met at Raffles Place MRT. Changed into out "team jersey", and proceeded out of the train station. I never really knew how the building I was going to climb that day looked like.. and never really did bother to find out..
It was not hard to figure which one it was when we got there.. haha.. it was the one that seemed like it was touching the clouds.. EEEKS.
Replubic Plaza. 66 Storeys. Said to be the tallest building in Singapore. (really? i dunno.. haha).. look at it.. it's all nice, polished and shimmery under the morning sun.. it would have been nicer if i din have to climb it. haha! by this time.. i'm already feeling the adrenaline.. and also regretting.. "why? why? why did i ever think of doing this?"
While doing our warm-up run rond the Singapore River, I asked Eleanor "why did i do this to myself?" and she's like "we always say that but we still join.. year after year.."..haha.. i tot it was funny.. but it's so true too.. let's see if i join again next year! haha.. (lionel!! lover's challenge? da jie, daddy, aaron... family team???)
Took a couple of photos while doing our stretches since the river seemed like a nice place to chill.. esp sunday mornings cuz there's hardly anyone..
10:56. after reporting, we were escorted to the start line.... i need new shorts.. haha!
nearing the flag off line.. YIKES... oh.. we manage to take these photos only because Lek decided to bring his cam all the way up..
the clock that is there every year. between each team, there's a 2-min interval.. so that teams will not clash.. 11:12 was our flag off time.
ahhhh! finally at the top.. it seems so easy when u are looking at these photos.. one photo ago we were at level 1. the next photo and we are at the 60th storey. haha.. if u notice me, i am damn shagged.. haha.
more photos taken at the top. had to make use of the camera cuz lek took pains bringing it up there!!
the team and i with republic plaza at the background. (from left to right) ze bin, lek, meng heng, eleanor and me! we were all wearing the NVM 2007 shirt.. nicer compared to last year's.. meng is in yellow cuz he's extra! haha. no la. cuz he's in the sub-com. heh.
Kenneth is in black cuz he's extra too! never climb also take photo with us?!?! tsk! haha.. actually he did climb.. recce climb.. and he was pretty fast.. even without training.
When collecting our goodie bag, we manage to get a sneak peek at the prizes. and they were not too great.. if u can see, there's a hamper labeled men's open 1st i think.. and it has tomato ketchup, condensed milk, maggi mee, etc.. yikes.. first prize and that's what u get? no thanx. haha.. we were thinking if we really get something like that hamper, we would donate it to some old folk's home.
and so we left, not really anticipating a win.. went down to city hall for mos burger and then to smu to study.
one little joke that i wanna share. at mos burger, ze bin ordered for eleanor..
and halfway through the meal, eleanor asked zebin: what are u eating?
ze bin: mos burger
eleanor: i know mos burger.. what burger is that?
ze bin: mos burger!
(and this went on for quite some time)
then me: the burger he's eating is called mos burger. like what i'm eating, it's a plain hotdog.. but it's also called a mos dog.
heh. ok. so after mos, we went smu and was settling down before starting to study when meng called ze bin..
shouting through the hp loudspeaker, we heard him say "we got 4th!!!!! ok wait wait. i confirm then i call u back" and hung up.. anyway, it was confirmed and we had to rush back to claim our prizes.. haha.
this shows the times for the top 9 teams for team open category.. our team is "the fifth element"..
YAY!! medals.. haha..
Last year, we had medals, vouchers and 3 hampers of food and drinks.. and sigg bottles for each of us. this year. we had medals, vouchers and one plastic bottle. hmmm.
last year, we got 5th climbing 43 storeys. this year we got 4th climbing 60 storeys. and the prizes........ hmmm..
left: last year's medal. right: this year's medal..
So. NVM 2007 came to an end.. it'll be next year (if we join) that we meet and train again. This year, the climb was really really tiring. And i want to apologize to my team. Let me explain myself. at the start, i was chasing behind lek.. and by the 5th storey or so, i was really damn tired but still continued.. by the 11th storey.. i dramatically slowed down. i realized that i started out too fast.. totally not my pace and it was a big mistake. after that, i cant even walk fast enough.. the 3rd team's timing was a mere 1 min ahead of us. and i think i'm the cause of us losing that place. i could have done below 15 mins but i did 15:24.. i knew i could have done better. my legs did not ache. i was just out of breath.. i'm really sorry!! i'll train harder next year and learn form my mistake! i promise!!! sorry sorry...
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