PAYCO concert

So I can't exactly remember when was the last time PAYCO had a full concert, but here it is, at the end of 2015 in the SG50 year #simisaialsosg50 #cantuseitmuchlonger

I was pretty reluctant to go because er I knew all of EIGHTEEN people in the entire list of performers but ok, loyalty says if everyone I hang out with goes, I also go. So off I went and the best part is the entertainment came from the stories from behind the scenes (or in this case, backstage) instead of the concert itself. 

I suppose the concert was decent by any standards (surprising, given the low expectations I was told to have), and the soloists were actually really good. So proud of this little kiddo here, who's gone on to excellent standards in his dizi!

I may have left the orchestra years ago, but I still have soft spots for my dizi kids. On hindsight, should have talked to him before the concert started but oh well, I'm sure there are future chances. 

Bumped into a couple of those 18 people and though I do miss the feeling of performing as a group, I totally did not regret my decision back then. 10 years is a long time for anything and it really was time for a change. It was only after getting out that I had the chance to pursue further studies, and to do the activities I like on a Saturday afternoon instead of dragging myself to practice and finding that no one else has reached on time (yeah, that's really the last of my memories there). Oh, and also to bitch about how terrible the members are, or to bitch about the ICs. So while it was really part of my life, it's also over yup. 

Supper with the bunch and I kind of felt some... subconscious alienation from the group but I cannot help it. It's just weird until it's no longer gonna be. 

Dead beat

After Sentosa Flowers became a hike and being "trained" by Janelle and Nicole, probably will be so cui tomorrow esp after a loooooong weekend.. Wonder if it helps that I already started the "healing" process by sleeping 1.5 hrs earlier on. Oh man headaches kill :(

I guess it's time to retire to bed and prep for tomorrow.. It's a long week ahead.. For more reasons than 1. *sigh*

Mega booboo.

I thought sniffling and sneezing and coughing was bad enough. Apparently no :(

Shouldn't have jinxed myself by praying that it wouldn't clash with anything.. Namely, CHINGAY.

Apparently already very reluctant to join Chingay right at the start, and it's totally not giving me any more reasons to like it. Esp when I have a good half day tomorrow and have to end up @ practice. And the mega boohoo which Fabian mentioned just now. 

I hadn't missed a single JJ Party since it started, except for the time when I was in Switzerland! :(

Upset.

The start of 2011... Still under observation

It was just a matter of crossing the 12am mark and off into another new day, that's all! Spent NY eve with the same people for the past few years, albeit being in foreign land this time round. Despite the ridicule right at the start of the day, it was a pretty fun 2 days and I got my One Piece!! Asking Weixiang to get more for me, hehehe. 

Guess 2010 has been pretty uneventful for me. It's quite a year on spending though, with 3 huge gadgets bought: laptop, phone, and camera. I guess I've become abit more lax in spending $$. Uh, let's just hope it stays this way and not increase with each year!

Long weekend to end off the year, and it's back to work as usual tomorrow. Thank goodness I don't have to do induction presentation!!! 

Mj luck is STILL lousy, but I guess I'm luckier in getting some refunds!! Good thing I didn't waste the 40+ dollars due to lack of sleep and stupidity.

New year, new start! I guess I don't really do resolutions anymore since I just can't seem to keep to them. But I know there's one thing I definitely want to do: Pick up french again! Je dois dois dois!

PA camp 2010

This is the first time in 10 years that I am not at PA camp on the first day. Feels weird. I'm almost used to going to camp and staying in that mini oven at all times of the day. Slogging over lunch at breakfast, dinner at lunch, and cleaning up the kitchen everyday.

It's also the first time that I didn't stay over at camp at all. Old liao leh? And yet again the first time that I will only be going for (one) night. 

But I sure hope it's something that I can get used to, not being a slave @ camp!

Of double standards and homo sapiens

Double standards: any code or set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another. - Defined by Dictionary.com.

I believe everyone has double standards. I try not to. But at times I have to admit I may display slight double standards as well. I guess the difference is between whether you want to try to be as uniform as possible, or that you just simply do not care whether you are consciously or subconsciously displaying double standards. For there is always one side who will side with you, isn't it? And most of the time, homo sapiens will care more about the side to whom they display the lower standard. 


And since I try so hard not to display any, I often end up with 兩面不着岸。It should be ok in the end, because I have tried. But the reality is that it is never ok. 因爲兩面都不着岸的結果是溺水。


It's just a random post. Because I have seen too much of double standards that made me reflect on myself. Yes, nearly everyone around me has double standards. Myself included. 

It is a great relief to finally say out what I have been wanting to say for months. And hence thereof I knew that I had also displayed double standards at this moment. But at this point I just don't feel like caring for anyone's feelings, and try to put myself in first place.

"Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have no idea what honor is." - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904), Russian author, playwright. Letter, April 9, 1889, to the writer A.N. Pleshcheev. Complete Works and Letters in Thirty Volumes, Letters, vol. 3, p. 186, "Nauka" (1976).

♥ being patriotic

Had our National Day Observance this morning, and boy, our officers were quite onz, decked in red and waving their flags. Had some performances, sang some songs, and this is why I like to go NDP so much - it's very rare to see so many patriotic people in a day! I like it that no matter how distracted we are talking to each other or fiddling with phones or whatever during the observance, but when the national anthem starts or when SMS speaks everyone will just drop what they are doing and silence is attained in an instant. It tells me how much we respect our national anthem and the significance of keeping silent for the anthem, the pledge and everything else under the sun. I AM proud of being a Singaporean because nothing is perfect, even if I have my own gripes about Singapore and its society. 

We should all move forward with pride and Singapore will grow even more with time (: Happy early birthday my nation!

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Taking a little time off to blog because I am stumped with what to write for my draft email.. It's been more than a little discouraging in some ways and whilst I try to be positive, sometimes it's just hard to be when response is 100 / 400+++++ people and damn the particular unit for ignoring me!!!! Grrr. Getting butchered emails doesn't help either, WHEN will I learn to write such that it will come back with minimal changes?? 

And I suspect I will be hella busy for the next few months all the way until March with 4 new projects, 3 under me, one existing one ongoing, the forum next month, and CAS next March for the entire div! And there is then the pressure of completing the database because the dateline was supposedly the end of this yr.. And that is on top of the usual work. Okay at least the database was part of the usual work.

Ahaha and not to mention tuition. 

I'm sorry, but really where got time to go PA? I highly suspect I may have forgotten how to blow dizi, lol..

Kids will be kids

I've forgotten that "Starbucks" doesn't exist in secondary school students' dictionary.

JJ: Can I buy something with 2 dollars??

JJ: Wah....... So expensive.

Of course I didn't bring the lot to Starbucks and expect them to pay for the drinks. I remembered back then 5 bucks was my JC allowance a day -.- Which means it was effectively lesser than 5 bucks for sec sch, and then a drink at Starbucks is like, 6 bucks.

So I bought them a couple of drinks + muffin. Anyone would smile seeing the look on their faces after drinking and eating. (: It's the kind of simple happiness I seldom find on people's face nowadays. They kinda brought me back to the sec sch days, where having a 6 bucks nice coffee drink was pure bliss.

Of course, it's hard to attain that level with the equivalent, or even more, sometimes. Hard to search back that feeling, and even though they thanked me for today, I felt that I should be thanking them instead. Haha, seriously hard to describe my feelings now. Maybe the sense of satisfaction is much easier to explain, seeing the lot nodding their heads. Hmmm, I need to practise people management when dealing with 3 kids. The best effective way to not waste everyone's time. 

I may not have landed the teaching job, but I'm deriving the same kind of satisfaction here, which unfortunately I can't get in YL. Dizi <3

What is Singapore famous for?

1. American naval base
2. Bird Park
3. Changi Water Recycling Plant - world's largest (I thought this could be Changi Airport)
4. Diversity - multiracial, multiethnic, multinational
5. Esplanade - centre for the arts
6. Food - all kinds of food, all kinds of cuisine, at all kinds of prices. I highly recommend seafood at East Coast beach
7. Government. Lee Kuan Yew. Housing and Healthcare policy. World's highest rate of home ownership (90%) and world's lowest healthcare cost (3.7% of GDP). World's first electronic road pricing system.
8. Hub - every year, as many ships call at the Singapore port as at all of the ports of the United States. The port transships a fifth of the world's containers and half of the world's crude oil. Financial centre and forex trading hub.
9. Inkjet printers - HP develops and makes lots of them here and Dell launched its printers division in Singapore
10. Jurong Island - an offshore island formed by combining seven islands. The world's third densest chemical cluster after Houston and Rotterdam
11. K
12. L in Jun Jie!!!! LOL
13. Mustapha - Little India. 24 hour shopping.
14. Night safari - world's first
15. One North - a 200 ha research and education hub located one degree north of the equator - and INSEAD is part of it
16. Pulau Ubin - an offshore island, the last 'kampung' village left in Singapore. you take a boat there and you feel like you travel back in time
17. Q
18. Rainforest. One of two cities in the world that has a tropical rainforest.
19. Sentosa.
20. Trade. Total trade is more than 300% of GDP.
21. Umbrella - good for rain and sun. Bring yours along
22. Vanessa Mae
23. Water sports
24. X
25. Y
26. Zoo - one of our top attractions

Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Singapore_famous_for

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Haha, I wonder if anyone can find events/places for the missing alphabets.. (Ok, I put JJ's name in :s hahaha) This is quite interesting. Came across this site while pondering over the itinerary for my event.

Super tired, Slept only 3 hours on Sunday morning -.- Visited the National Museum of Singapore - it's my first time!!!!! Visited the Quest for Immortality and saw mummies. Rather interesting. Shall put the photos up when I have time. :D The paper bag exhibition was interesting too! It makes me feel like going on a museum tour around Singapore. They can be interesting! I wonder why I've always hankered after overseas museums but not our own. They are nice (:

And because I stayed up late yesterday to watch Autumn's concerto, I was so worried I wouldn't be able to wake up this morning -.- (and still continued to watch anyway~). Thanks to Clement's dad for fetching us to work, at least I got a seat all the way even if I thought it would be really rude to fall asleep on the car, LOL. 

And HELLO YUENLING YOU'RE BACK!! :D:D:D

After 3 days of non tired feeling, the tired feeling came back!!!

Whoever said holidays are meant for rest :p

Full packed activities through the uber long weekend, starting with the mad dinner on Thursday to the mini urban hike on Friday to the nua-ing + late night movie yesterday to cannot wake up for breakfast this morning. ...

But it was oh so fun and works starts tomorrow with one week's of inductions ahead :s

Cleared half of old movie list, but ADDED A FEW MORE AFTER WATCHING TRAILERS!!!

New list:

1) Alvin and the Chipmunks II

2) Bodyguards and Assassins

3) The Spy Next Door

4）蘇乞兒

5) One more Chinese show which I didn't catch the name.

On top of which.. Ironman II is coming out, and I'm anticipating Harry Potter and Ip Man II for this year!!

Bought a pretty little planner for myself yesterday. Looking at it brightens my day up.. :)

But the conv yest really left me quite speechless, of which, I shall decide to head down on Tuesday so I shall not be falsely accused. I mean, if it's really not there, then forget it. But I don't want a false accusation to hang over my head for something I've completely not done. It's damn disturbing, to realize at the end of the day after what I did, to end up with this type of nonsense. Unbalanced.

Time for a good rest!

FINALLY one day which I can sleep early without anything to work on.. Accidentally fell asleep at 11 yesterday, and woke up only at 6 plus, when I was supposed to finish my tuition stuff.. -.- BUT I can sleep at 11 today without feeling guilty and keep waking up =D I haven't felt so tired in ages.. From tuition to working to staying at PA longer than I've stayed at home for the entire week - 8am on both Saturday and Sunday ain't no joke! So stoned, I fell asleep everywhere, on the train today, there and back, almost during induction -.-, on the cab back yesterday (and cabs on both Saturday and Sunday ain't no joke either), everywhere and anywhere la!  Plus helping out everywhere and everywhere AND everywhere, chionging to find costumes still in rooms, having missing stuff here and there, and so on so forth, was totally draining.

Beautiful Sunday is finally over. All the intensive practices, for that one hour on stage which I felt rehearsal did a lot better. Rather screwed up, I think. =.=! But never mind, all's over. At least I do know that 第二民族 was at least good at some point of time, and all songs do have their perfect moments. I will never fall in love with 第二民族 like what I did with 冬，but after so long, at last I'm starting to accept the 立體感 and uniqueness that the song brought. And at the very least the entire orchestra has improved leaps and bounds since November, when I felt so cui at the thought of concert in less than a month's time. -.- It's always like that, PAYCO. Only during the last month will they produce decent results. Kinda like TJCO actually. Shrugs. And most of all, at least I know that my dizi ppl has improved by leaps and bounds too. I'm so proud of Juncheng! And Jiangjun. And William. And Jazz Variant was quite well performed, in my opinion. I loved that piece and was glad to see it executed nicely. Guitar on Fire was a pity, that it was so rushed that I could barely hear the 附點，and the music felt all wrong because 柳琴's sounds came out from the speakers instead of merging with the rest of the instruments. It's just more than odd, to hear the sounds floating from up there while the rest of the instruments' sounds stayed down there.

Rest and relax now! I'm lagging by a couple of episodes for my 桃花小妹, but I'm in no hurry to watch them now.. Sleep comes first! Oh, welcome to another short work week :D

So tired!

I don't think I'll recover in a short while, not with the super busy schedule. -.- Am looking forward to the end of the concert, then I can finally rest a while.

Been talking quite a bit on msn today. Time to get back into serious work..

At least I'm glad that noone was poisoned after all, and the kids did look like they enjoyed. I still <3 my dizi ppl, they are too cute :D

I would have thought that I can have no strings attached and be 瀟灑, but apparently not.. The mere thought saddens me.

Hiatus again!

Annual camp. 'nuff said.

May the kids have fun, and hopefully none will be poisoned by me!

Sometimes Cheeyao can be so funny :x

Dayn - it's easy to turn bad... than y not? it's essential anyway. says (19:38):
*3 more days!!!
joyce: 讓我們 get high! says (19:39):
*haha!
*exciting huh
Dayn - it's easy to turn bad... than y not? it's essential anyway. says (19:39):
*3 MORE DAYS!!
*yes..
*but a bit scared..
joyce: 讓我們 get high! says (19:40):
*why?!
*scared we bully u all the way???????
*LOL
Dayn - it's easy to turn bad... than y not? it's essential anyway. says (19:40):
*EH!
joyce: 讓我們 get high! says (19:40):
*KIDDING
Dayn - it's easy to turn bad... than y not? it's essential anyway. says (19:40):
*YOU DON'T TREAT ME LIKE HELLO KITTY LEH!

Hahahaha, entertainer :o

That said, everyone is looking forward to the extended weekend!! :D

Apprehension, thoughts.

TOO FULL to sleep

Imagine eating dinner and dessert, then drinking coffee and having wedges, then come home to soup, duck, and chicken wing.

Like O.M.G.

And that brother isn't really helpful - Go settle yourself hor, don't ask me to settle - were his exact words! Sheesh.

In the end, most of it went into the fridge :s I know, it's my own fault that I didn't make sure that sms was sent out. Bleah.

That said, it was another night of entertainment. I'm beginning to think that this bunch of people are my natural entertainers :D So long as Junhong stops asking me when I will get married, -.-

"you cannot ask Joyce if girls are mafan, coz she's the least mafan gal that i know" - followed by "because she acts like a guy more than a gal" - I have to agree, even though I feel like strangling him :s

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Why should people bring grudges with them all the way. I asked some stuff, I withheld some information, because I simply wanted to see whether people are biased or not. In the end, I saw that some could be biased, some are biased, and I don't really know what to believe in, until I see everything with my own eyes. And it's dangerous territory, so DON'T question me about what this is :) If only the world could be simpler, grudge free and people could be not so petty, the world will be a very bright place indeed. I just wonder how I got dragged into this without any active interference on my part :\

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And for various reasons, I am apprehensive, expectations are very high, and I wonder if I can surpass them at all. Nevertheless, I shall seek to do my best, seeing that it's hard won. And yet again, I'm worried for other reasons, that things have been delayed, and things will not get done, even though technically it could be none of my business, I suppose I have not gotten out of this cycle yet. Worrywart - stop thinking! It's up to them to decide.

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Yes yes, the above post is so jumbled up, there's about 580345 topics in just 3 small paragraphs, all stashed together. Not in the mood nor the energy to organize my thoughts, instead, just did some senseless ramblings, since after all it's just for me to understand, isn't it? :p

Balanced weekend

For the first time in eons, I woke up at 10 on a Saturday + 12pm on a Sunday. Shiokness to the max! I forgot the enjoyment of waking up not to the alarm, but waking up because I felt like waking up. =D Played hard on Saturday, nua-ed hard on Sunday. Went out for dinner as usual, but with an extra 3 complimentary drumlets, 1 complimentary pizza, and lots of angry women and crazy men. LOL. I've always said, a hungry woman is an angry woman, but I realized this saying should be tweaked to suit men as well: A hungry man is a crazy man! Conclusion, after witnessing the guys and their 2 hour long complaints, and the way they attacked their food. Haha :b

Ended up at ECP Starbucks after that, for pure nua-ing's sake, and watching Cheeyao being depressed when we whipped out our wifi-enabled phones. Lol. Chatted, both on the phone and to each other, and we left Starbucks at about 12, and NO, not to head home to sleep, but to head home and bathe, change, and head out. Ended up at jh's house and we watched THE Joe Hisaishi's 9 cello concert. *swoons* I'm back in love with him again =D Such a fine night, with good music, funny mahjong, and disgusting-green-tea-Chivas but no-so-bad-Coke-Chivas.

And yes, Longhui, you SO owe me a meal for distracting me from my 東!!!!! LOL

Slept about 6 hours and totally nua-ed the day today MSN-ing, surfing net, reading my books (so many suddenly!!!), napping, AND watching TV. Hmmm, shiok. :) But it's time for sleeping again, because tomorrow is another workday!

Sudden realization, that I am actually quite spoiled.

Beautiful Sunday 2009: 27th December 2009, 3pm, Esplanade Concert Hall (click here for the website)

Bridal kidnap!

Conversation heard over lunch time.

Part 1: While I was off buying nasi lemak. Nicole heard it. Some gal was sitting opposite us and frantically making phone calls.

Part 2: Nicole went to buy and I heard the rest.

After gal left, me: EH I wanted to tell you about the conv the gal was having!!!

Nicole: ME TOO!!!

So part 1 was basically, the gal called some friend, and went "I don't know what she is doing, pushing the wedding date earlier.. Don't know why she's marrying that scumbag.. She's such a bitch.." Yada yada..

Then I came back, and she made another phone call which we weren't paying attention to, then Nicole left to buy her lunch.

Part 2: "Eh, I found out liao. The wedding is next wednesday." ... "Ya, tell her if we're not witnesses for the wedding we will not appear for the wedding. I mean, why are we good friends if we're not even there for the ROM??" .... "That was exactly what Joan was thinking. She plans to be there so that she will not sign the papers and provide reasons why they cannot get married." ... "Do you think it's legal? I'm not sure.." ... "Yes, bridal kidnapping. ... Kidnap leh.. Ya, it's a type of kidnapping to get the bride away" yada yada.

Wah piangs. A dangerous friend!!! Kidnapping to prevent your own friend from getting married. -.-

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On a rather random note, I kinda liked last Saturday, where Vivo was rather happening with nice music for Oktoberfest. Kinda reminded me of the Europe times, and seeing everyone so high down there in Brotzeit brought a smile to my face. Wonder how it's like to just really let go of everything for once, and let your hair down. And liked sitting down at some random restaurant that we didn't know existed, drinking some hoegarden though I didn't really like beer, but decided not to be fussy, and yakking nonsense away like no one's biz. A carefree night, which I think I should really deserve more of. :)

I miss him, because of all the times that I can complain and non constructive comments will actually not be given, and because I've once had all these but sadly lost it all.

Whole day out

Spent the first 18 hours of the day doing the usual stuff. Sleep.. Wake up, go for Jap, not understanding much, then lunch, and went off for tuition at 3pm (which is totally annoying because of my #$%^&* student and I'm rather glad later will be his last session, he has PMS worse than a gal's, and too lousy an attitude for sincere learning). Met wanching on the way, which was a total coincidence, and I realize I really haven't seen her for a super long time.

Tuition overran, so I only reached PA at about 6, in which Xuefang kindly informed me that hs has left?! Lol felt a little dumb for walking into the compounds, but luckily we still ended up with dinner at some random claypot place, with a super chim conversation, and nice food (: Afterwhich, because hs has not gone out with us for such a long time, we ended up at Vivo, to choose a midnight movie to watch. Lol. Spent the time in between at Starbucks, where I am proud to announce that secret missions 1 and 2 are both completed and 1 is given out, the other will be given out soon (: Posting photos tomorrow!

Movie was very meaningful, but mannequin-like surrogates are damn scary. Haha. Cannot imagine a world like that, where humans are treated like dirt and surrogates are perfect. The plot is a little confusing, but all in all, I thought it was a rather well thought out movie and this is the 3rd movie that I've enjoyed in 2 weeks!!

Feeling abit emo suddenly. Tonight was something brought forward from some time ago, because it's been a long time since we ended up like that. Because everyone's schedule is impossibly different already.

Weekend over

and I'm hijacking jh's computer to online, check mail and stuff.

Don't appreciate having my hair all gelled up, but nevertheless it was quite fun. Sean's accidentally throwing drumstick and catching it stunt was worth everything. Lol.

Need to go home soon. Work tomorrow!