Promoting my driving instructor...

Tan Lai Soon, 48% First time pass candidates
HP = 97682348

Grace Cathedral Hill - The Decemberists

This is a nice smooth song.

Grace Cathedral Hill by The Decemberists

Grace Cathedral hill,
all wrapped in bones of setting sun,
all dust and stone and moribund.
I paid twenty-five cents to light a little white candle
for a New Year's Day.
I sat and watched it burn away then
turned and weaved through slow decay.
We were both a little hungry so we went to get a hotdog.
Down the Hyde St. Pier,
the light was slightly disappear
the air, it sunk of fish and beer.
We heard a superman trumpet play the National Anthem.

And the world may be long for you,
but he'll never belong to you.
But on a motorbike, when all the city lights blind your eyes tonight,
are you feeling better now?
are you feeling better now?
are you feeling better now?

Some way to greet the year: your eyes all bright and brimmed with tears.
The pilgrims, pills and tourist here all sing
"Fifty three bucks to buy a brand new halo."
Sweet autumn green-eyed girl,
all fiery Irish clip and curl,
all brine and piss and vinegar.
I paid twenty-five cents to light a little white candle.

And the world may be long for you,
but he'll never belong to you.
But on a motorbike, when all the city lights blind your eyes tonight,
are you feeling better now?
are you feeling better now?
are you feeling better now?

La la la, La la la, La la la
Ohh la la la
La la la , La la la, La la la
Oh la la la

Wayward Cloud, RJC, RI02, Sentosa, So1E...

WAYWARD CLOUD

Watched 'The Wayward Cloud' on Friday night with ZK and Kelli. It's a artsy fartsy RA film made in Taiwan, Kaohsiung (I recognised one of the scene from my army days) which probably went down the drain with many pple here. Kelli left before the show ended, refusing to pay taxi midnight charges for staying to watch the film; ZK didn't see much to the film either.

I think it's not really a for-everyone kind of film. How to describe it? It's a haphazard assembly of tacky (and sometimes sentimental) chinese songs from the 60s-70s? outbreaked in unexpected drama-mama dance scenes (think Bollywood style), mixed with non-logical protagonist actions/behaviour (think scrapping key out from a newly bulldozed road, pornographic fascination with watermelons, implicit sexual frustrations, collecting water from the public toilets in mineral water bottles; unexplained determination to open a locked luggage case) But from the film, I saw hints of lamentations by the director on the social development of Taiwan (scantily dressed girls dancing around Sun Yatsen's statue amongst many other scenes); changing sexual roles (guy-wearing-girl's-clothes trying to vie for the attention of a girl-wearing-guy's-clothes from other girls; many girls with big boobs trying to chase after a penis-headed guy in a rather huge toilet); confusion over focus in our lives (over-abundant production of watermelons in drought period forced watermelon juice prices to dive lower than mineral water?); and selfishness (protagonist illegal swimming in a block of flat's water storage tank)

The show does also have video shots from refreshing angles deserving of praise, so I think it's not that bad lah... although I won't watch it at a 9.50 price tag, unless my buddies call me out for it.

-------
RJC
Went to the new RJC campus in Bishan with ZK for a self-guided tour on saturday after eating lunch in Thomson area. Our supposed main aim of the trip was to get ourselves new spiffy RJ tees, which are reasonably the best buys for tees in Singapore. As Garry explains, 'Where else to get cheap [$4.80], comfortable [100% cotton], and branded [RJC's branding] t-shirts???!?' Haha... remembered the time when we drove down to the old RJC for lunch and bought ourselves some RJ tees while at it, when we were in undergrad year 1...

Our pessimism of not being able to fulfilling our main aim was unjustified, when we found the bookshop miraculously open at 2pm that saturday afternoon. Sweet.

I stayed around and studied (donning my new RJ mugging outfit) in the quietness of RJC's compound, with the companion of many other cao RJC muggers, until night time came(when RI02's campfire began)

RI02
I think I'm too old for campfires. =|

RI02's campfire was held in RJC's compound and it was quite refreshing to be in the companions of little boys wearing oversized uniforms squeeking in high pitched voices. And very cute to see little scouts being shy with little guides ('eeeek!')

And yes, the emcees were horrible to the point that they were interesting. I think only RI pple have the ability to tell such lame and horrible jokes that you'd have to hand it to them and laugh along - not at the jokes, of course, but at them. ;) They're so lame that even Jesus would have a hard time performing miracles on them. Joking.

Nevertheless, the old boys had a good time ridiculing them among ourselves. There was a "I'm PAMELA from ANDERSON" who went up the stage and sent us into guffaws. =P.


SENTOSA
New Balance Realrun was a killer, I find. Chee wee, I hate. That si nang kia ran faster than me by 30secs, though I outran him for the first 5km. I refuse to admit defeat to that swine.

I think I'm quite able at 4km runs, and should move on to 2.4km runs (speedy runs), and/or 10km jogs(endurance).

So1E
So1E bbq later in the evening was good. I'm quite unabashed to say that I'm a rather proficient bbq-er, due to the fact that I AM a rather proficient bbq-er. =)

Driving test.

I passed on no merit of my own but God's miraculous works.

I mistook vertical parking for parallel parking and cocked up the first few steps, only to realise it in time later.

I took extra movements to complete my parallel parking.

Those extra carelessness cost me 10 points, but I only had 4 points deducted on the road (for late signals) as there wasn't much traffic on the road to hinder my way. 14 points is a pass. =)

How can I pass, but for the miraculous meeting of a very lenient tester and such excellent traffic condition?? God's work, I tell you... Once again, He has shown me undeserving kindness despite my bullheaded stubborness against His plans for me.

To me, God has shown himself to be a strict disciplinarian who's always chastising me, but always making plans/providing a way out for me, when I'm in a pivotal situation which is simply beyond my control. He always answer my desperate prayers, when I acknowledge that the situation is beyond me and that only He, my God, my Lord, can handle it for me. He shows Himself to be the 'Great I Am', whenever I flings my hands in helplessness into the air and say 'God, everything shitty is happening to me now. If everything works out, it is of Your power and will. I am in your hands.'


In the near terms, I count his major landmark blessings whenever I fling my hands into the air -

NUS Undergraduate Scholarship: Unable to secure any fundings from any scholarship organisations, I had been dejected. I had thought myself doomed to slogging a few years to pay off study loansss. But he showed a way out for me by giving me the excellent bond-free NUS Undergraduate Scholarship.

SEP to UBC: Man proposes and God disposes. I had wanted an exchange to U. of Washington, and had braced myself to borrowing money from my brothers for the whole exchange. God thought otherwise. He sent me to UBC on a 10K Award from Lee Foundation, thereby ridding me of another financial woe. It was a free extended holiday from God.

Eu's laptop: Got water-poured while in Vancouver. I earnestly prayed to You and you made it well.

Elisa: The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. He has shown a beautiful person - a person too beautiful for me. To this date, my shortsightness has failed me to see His purpose in this. But there is one. For I know that in all things, God works for the good of those who loves Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

V-day flowers project recently this year: Pre-orders never did come in enough to generate predictable profits. Desperate, I committed it into Your hands, offering all possible profits (if any) as tithe to You. You gave me profits of SGD$500.

And today's driving practical test: You know that I've already spent so much money and am fully drained financially. You know that if I fail this test, I will be in big financial troubles, if not simply losing the extra time needed for a retest. I committed this into Your hands and you blessed me with a pass, though I have seen myself intrinsically unworthy of one. I have never been a good driver throughout my lessons, and there's me and my instructors to vouch for that ('You better pray that you do your very best on your test day').

And yes, I am happy. Thank you, God.

My Other Life - Lloyd Cole

My Other Life by Lloyd Cole

Clearly you can see that I am bleeding
Clearly you can see my clothes are torn
Clearly this demands an explanation
Only I can offer none.

My other life.

Witnesses have placed me at the crime scene
Forensic evidence concurs
Samples taken from under my fingernails
Support the prosecution's case.

My other life.

Analysis failed to find the motive
Hypnotists failed to break the code
Journalists are camped out at my doorstep
perchance that I might slip and drop the key
to my other life.

Welcome to my made-for-TV movie
I look strangely placid on the stand
You can be the judge and the jury
consider please the allegations.

My other life.

I slip away to my other life
with no regret or remorse
happy and gay in my other life
no need to wake me monday morning
from my other life.

...and my MP3 player is back in action!

Thanks to Kiam ming for his effective soldering kit and desoldering pump (the one that both of us spent 5 min figuring out how it works exactly in his lab)!

and Kiam ming's back! I'm quite elated that this dear dear old friend of mine is back from Germany for good. :) I've been missing him dearly for far too long. Yay yay yay. Share my joy.

Kiam ming's had a screw in his knee surgically taken out quite recently and he's into afternoon swims for physio. Maybe I'll join him during lunchtimes or something. =)

I've taken a defeatist stand

against the white termites in my room.

My stand now is: If they can find anything, then it's theirs.

They've got excellent stealth tactics up their sleeves (what sleeves?), finding food which I've long forgotten, misplaced, or put into cold storage. They've actually managed to :
- sniff out a long forgotten piece of gum in my bag;
- gnaw off some unpalattable chinese beef jerkies (gave me an excuse to throw them away =);
- eat my precious preserved plums! (damn them)
- sniff out my bread, but couldn't gain entrance to it. =P

Other than feeling quite unabashed about taking my food without permission, they've not been much of a problem, as they consciously keep out of my sight - they bugger off once the food's gone.

They've also been useful in keeping the cleanliness in my room, clearing away all the dead insects that stumbled into my room.

So I take that it's a symbiotic relationship here, haha. Not really. I still hate them and will crush them like cockroaches... hmm.. no... like white termites, when I see them.

Damn them white termites.

Westlake Primary School reunion... online!

haha... all of a sudden, Nelson's into the fad of pulling us away from whatever we are doing on our comp, into innane MSN group conversations.

Quite quite refreshing to know what all those clowns from yesteryears are going on about, in our now quite separate paths.

Benglish.

View my blog in Benglish

Bengify your blog here!

Driving again. =)

I find driving quite fun now with Mr. Lau, the instructor who has the incessant habit of nagging.

I'm at the point where there's not much to be grumbled about, save the occasional slowness in reacting to sticky situations (taxi suddenly stop in front; inconsiderate drivers refusing to give way++; old grannies snailing across zebra crossings), so it doesn't get too exasperating being around him anymore.

In fact, it gets quite fun small-talking with him. It makes me feel almost like a taxi driver talking to his passenger, albeit a taxi driver with lousy skills on the roads. =)

This morning's rain brought rheumatism to his back (on top of a sleepy disposition) and he started complaining about his long hours without any public holidays. Then we started complaining why Nathan's walkover was a bad thing for all Singaporeans since this means one less public holiday for all of us. I pointed out that since he is his own boss, he can simply declare a holiday whenever he wants (He shakes his head and say 'Where got so good life..', in chinese.) Complaining about the small things in life does make life more interesting - no wonder pple like to gather at coffeeshops to talk about politics and all, though it's all NATO [No Action, Talk Only].

Near the end of our driving session, there were two idiots who crossed the traffic junction slowly and caused a test-driver to fail his driving test. He was unable to complete his turn at the junction, and was thus left dangling past the 'Stop' line. Lau called me to stop as I was driving past them, and he wound down his car windows to scold them (害死人啊，你们！！, complete with accusing fingers). It's his nature. =). But I think the 2 pple quite deserve it, cos it's quite a bad thing for the test-driver to spend so much time and money on driving lessons to simply fail because of their inconsiderate actions.


I call Mr. Lau 'Boss' since he's my driving instructor; he calls me 'Boss' since I'm paying him for his services. These terms of endearments from such familiarity with each other is simply lovely, and bring smiles to our faces everytime we see each other.

Although I do hope today is one of the the last few times I need his services before my driving test on next Friday. I'd better not meet with inconsiderate pple during MY driving test.

SEXPO?? Singapore?

Official Website

TodayOnline article on the event

Erm... who's NOT going? =P

Hyundai Getz!

Bro just paid for a new Hyundai Getz!!!
Haha.. now I just need to get my driving license. =P

I, however, am quite partial towards the Renault Kangoo instead...
Maybe I'll get one IF I have the money... haha.. note the IF (it's not a WHEN).
It's big and spacious, good fitting for a picnic anywhere you want. =)
And it runs on diesel (cheaper). Only bad (or good?) thing is that it's manual.

Weird Dream

I had a dream yesterday night, and it seemed to be a strangely monotonous one. I dreamt that I woke up and went to pee in the toilet.

And I peed.

And I peed.

And I peed.

And I peed.

And I peed.

For what seemed like 5 minutes.
(If 5 minutes of peeing seems a short time to you, try counting to 300 the next time you pee, and you'll know how weird my dream seemed.)

And after I peed, I went back to sleep.

That's when I woke up. End of dream. (What? woah?? What was that again?)

On afterthought, it could have been a really scary dream, material fit for The Maid or some other ghost movie - imagine someone going peeing in the middle of the night, and
\t 1) He pees uncontrollably until he dies of dehydration
\t 2) He pees until blood comes out of him and he bleeds to death.

Scary, huh?

I have a very slack semester~~~!

and I shan't complain much about it. =)

MY TIMETABLE

Yay.

I've quite a spontaneous friend in Ivan - the evolution of what was just a dinner in PGP yesterday to a gym session to a basketball game to our Zouk hangout ('Let's go there for my first time before it closes for revamp'), all in one short night proved it all. It's almost like Harold and Kumar goes to White Castle....

Let's just hope he keeps up being my workout buddy.

Yesterday was a personal best of 40 pull-ups in a go. Shall I try for more? But I think I'll need to get professional training gloves, since calluses are almost a given once you reach past 35, and blisters are very real once past 40...

To catch a flitting butterfly

is a hard thing
for a boy with no means
but only will
to say 'I love you'

She won't stop,
nor does she want to
stop for this boy
she knows not
much of

He can't try,
doesn't try,
for he loves her -
and know
she can never be kept
in a pocket.
She
is not meant to be

Such intense pain
but such
trivial love
that bothers a boy
who can only
love
the butterfly
from a distance

Whenever I open my drawer and look at my passport...

I feel like taking the earliest bus/boat/plane out of the country to somewhere far away - away from my thoughts, my work, and my everything.

To see sceneries I've never seen before, trails I've never tracked, people I've never met; to do work I've never done, things I never dared to do; to enjoy all the fruits and beauties of the world, guided only by His masterplan in reckless abandonment.

I want to travel to far and foreign lands, fall in love insanely with someone, work for her hand-in-marriage for 10 years and more, and live a happy ever after, owning a mama shop for retirement.

Yet we are tied down by institutions, by possessions, by cares and responsibilities. Sigh... I'm sick of all this.

7 swords

isn't really that bad lah, even though
1) The show feels a bit too long
2) There were too many characters, which confuses the audience
3) Little character development
4) Has hints of Green Destiny, and Musa (copycat?)
5) Jerky plot development of whatever little plot there is.
6) A few scenes were attempted in Zhang Yimou's style. Or it seems so to me.

But there are
1) Quite a bit of action!
2) Excellent baddies resplendent in outlandish outfits and WWE makeups
3) Nice scenery/postcard shots
4) Artful use of shadows and source lightings
5) Cool gadgety 7 swords (though I can't really catch all their names..)
6) A few scenes were attempted in Zhang Yimou's style. Or it seems so to me.

I think it's not a bad show to watch, if there weren't much expectations prior to watching the show. A lot of critics to the show had been long waiting for it to be shown, and the expectations were not met.

So don't watch the show if you have been long waiting for it to come out. =)

Bus 172

I recall a time some time back during my army days when I was taking bus 172 in the wee hours of the morning along the Tengah Airbase route towards Boon Lay. The bus was (as usual) sardine-packed, and I was squeezing with the other NSF-sardines near the front door.

Everyone was kinda sleepy and grouchy at having to wake up so early to work - everyone should know the feeling.

What made the situation memorable was that a Mr. Warrant Officer - who squeezed with me near the front door - when he got off at the Tengah Airbase bus stop, waved his umbrella (like a rabied old lady) at the bus driver and shouted "I shall COMPLAIN to TIBs about this bus being overcrowded!" in similar words.

I was quite taken aback by his actions. What prompted such actions was quite obvious - extreme discomforts from squeezing in a crowded bus. But what were the underlying reasons that motivated such actions? Where was he coming from?

1. Was he simply pissed because HE had to stand and squeeze with the crowd? Would he have not opened his mouth like the majority, if he had the chance to be happily seated among some of the much prized seats? This might qualify him to be a self-centered person, acting on his own selfish reasons.

2. Or was he pissed because MOST PEOPLE had to stand and squeeze? That he was feeling TIBs should do a better job at allocating buses for the peak commuting period? That he was feeling injustice done to the general public commuters here? This will qualify him to be a civic-minded person, acting for the good of the general public.

3. Or was he simply a quarrelsome person who likes to complain at everything and anything? He would be instantly dismissed as extraneous.

In any of the above circumstances, he had done a service to the public - to point out the inadequacy of the bus services along this route. He had done better than all the other passengers in the bus who simply suffered in silence (plus extra confinement! ==> [SISPEC]) and/or try to fight among themselves for space in the limited size bus and getting irritated at each other. Non-constructive measures, in any case.

In essence, it is - in some cases such as this - advantageous to act rather than to be passive like most other people, no matter what motivates the action.

The situation along Jalan Bahar was alleviated soon after, much to the delight of everyone, including those who thought Mr. Warrant Officer to be stepping out of line when he made the boisterous comment.

My tea-ish pillow

I took all my beloved (but expired) oolong tea leaves and stuffed them together with a small dump of socks and rags into a pillow casing, to form my very own tea pillow!

It smells very pleasant when I sleep on it, and it's said (by experts ok, not me..) to be sleep inducing + a lot of other miraculous properties.

I'm in love with it. Except that it's a tad bit on the hard side.... maybe should have used more comfy stuffings instead.

Stoned

Went to Zouk last night and it was the first time I got so drunk. =P

Puked twice in the washroom, once on the dance floor, and was groggy the whole night after all of 3 tequila shots, 2 bourbon cokes, random sippings from friendly faces' jugs, and our last jug of Long Island Tea (this is the killer!)

Figured that my tipsy level is at before LIT, with me walking in curvatures already. =S.

Lost contact with HY , Assumpta, and Aaron on the dance floor after my first puke in both basins in the washroom. Was consequently engaged in staring into blank spaces, moving around the dance floor looking for the group, and rushing to the washroom to puke. The feeling's not nice....

Spent the night after the action zoning off and sleeping around Zouk's compound, unable to respond to security guards asking me to move, or ants biting at me.

Really stoned.

Haha, and the formidable HY was drunk too! She found her consciousness in her living room, a long time after losing it on the dance floor of Zouk... And I was holding onto my HP the whole night, SMSing inconherent SMSes to HY, asking her where she was, in the hope of reconning with my newfound 'darling'-
'where crew you?'- 2:45:19am
'X.Wierd are you,? I need you....' - 2:57:43am
'Where are you?.O' - 3:23:45am
'Where are you-i'm drunk.' - 3:26:16am
(Conked out zoning off)
'Are you ok???' - 6:21:43am

Bloody PGP Admin is so efficient...

..in sending me the invoice for the period of my stay. $1171.50, to be paid up in 7 days time.

How come I don't see the same level of efficiency in fixing up my half falling down bookshelf, and my broken towel rack???!?

Nabuay. =|

The view outside my room

Faces a playground. Families come along and play in the evening with their children, swinging them to chuckles of delights; couples come along to share sweet intimacies.

Such a nice view. =)

Saturday afternoon

I was a perfectly contented man sitting by myself in the reading room, reading my Straits Times before he opened the door and came in, a twenty-ish sod with an air of impatience implied from the perpetual furrow between his brows. He was holding onto a folded chessboard - one that you can put the pieces within the folded compartment - in his left hand.

"Do you play chess?", he asked, quite out of the blue.

There was an awkward short pause.

"I asked, 'Do you play chess?'", he asked again.

"Huh?"

"Do - you - play - chess?", he asked again, with a tone that does not convey friendliness.

Looking around to see no one else in the room, it then seemed clear to me that I was being asked a qualifiably random question to do something quite unplanned for on a saturday afternoon when I was perfectly contented to be left alone in my leisure, by a stranger.

"Yeah I do." I quipped. I was quite certain that I won't be left to my own program anymore, even though I wasn't sure if I was about to interact with a new acquaintance in an activity I have no partiality towards.

"Then let's start already."

He moved towards the empty wooden table complete with two chairs at the corner of the room, and started laying out the black and red chess pieces on the chessboard which he had already opened up and positioned in the center of the table. I was still sitting in my comfortably warm armchair, not ready to accede it to anyone else who might come into the room. For all I know, this may be a cunning plan to get me away from this wonderful device.

"Come on, play play play. Hurry up." He pulled up his long sleeves and motioned me to sit in the chair which he was about to sit opposite to.

I wasn't sure.

"Come on, don't be a wuss."

And so he irritated me enough to begin what was to be several games of chess, with the results already decided before the start of the games.

Food etiquette and LPS

This is a long delayed post, concerning food etiquette, especially among the chinese. Chinese are most fussy about such stuff (especially Edmond [rite, chee wee?]), and if you're at dinner with your chinois boss and his tai tai (or his mistress, heh.), the importance of food etiquette is quintessential.

Ok, so what are there to observe? From the limited knowledge I have :

1) Never never cross your chopsticks and show that you don't know how to use them! Showing your inaptness at wielding these two pieces of wooden sticks might extrapolate to an inability at any simple jobs in your boss' eyes. So must up your level on this. The most effective and arduous trainings for this include picking fishballs out of soups, and moving delicate pieces of beancurd around. Also, never stick your chopsticks into the rice to resemble incense offerings at an altar, for obvious reasons.

2) When eating rice off your bowl, it is ok to hold the bowl in your hand, but NEVER ok to hold it such that the bottom of the bowl is in your palm. It resembles a beggar begging for alms, and is certainly the image that you don't want to portray.

3) Scrapping off your bowl and slurping is supposedly OK to the traditional Chinese, but I beg to differ. Cos it's simply bad manners in western culture, and with so much fusion of culture going on, it's a safer bet to ignore both acts altogether.

4) Chew with your mouth CLOSED. I've noticed a lot of pple unconsciously chew with their mouth sometimes open. Though I'm quite ok with this, except for situations where I can see vividly the ingestions of the eater, some people are quite particular about this. In doubt, err on the safe side and make a conscious effort to keep the mouth closed.

5) Taking food from the center of the table and putting it directly into your mouth is regarded as impolite. Normally, the Chinese would pick the food and put it into their bowls first. So do that. In situations where there're common utensils, USE THEM! It's a matter of hygiene that I'm quite partial to, unless I'm really lazy that day and everyone's chummy.

6) TEA. To ask for a refill, simply turn over the pot cover and place it at the top of the pot's opening. As a matter of courtesy, refill the cups of your fellow diners first before turning to yours, even when theirs is not empty. And never extend your pinkie outwards when you drink. If people serve you tea, use the middle section of your index and middle fingers to knock against the table as a gesture of thanks. There's a story concerning this - When emperor Qian Long travelled incognito, he once served his accompanying official some tea. Because the official cannot kneel on the floor to show his thanks to the emperor, he used his index and middle fingers to knock against the table as a symbol for kneeling on the floor to show his thanks. So there. Your server is not an emperor, but it's never unflattering to show him similar regards.

7) Let the more important guests start first to choose their preferred parts of the dish. Also, it is important to not overeat your share, especially in dishes where there are discrete amounts of food (like fried wantons, fried fishballs, pieces of chicken wings++). Always eat your share, and leave remainder sums on the table for polite offerings later.

8) Turning over a fish is considered bad luck to strict Chinese tradionalists - they rather remove the skeletal bones directly off the fish then turn it. But I'm quite fine with not observing this, cos most people don't. It's just not efficient.

9) If you use a toothpick, please cover your mouth with the other hand to reveal less details to your fellow friends.

10) Burping? Not fine.

Yup, that's all I know. Do you know any other?

======
During meals with friends, I have always noticed the LPS - the Last Piece Syndrome. It has always been a source of awkward silence - who will take the last piece?? Will it be offered to me?? For goodness sake, someone just eat the last piece!! I can't stand it!! I'M GOING CRAZY!!! SOMEONE JUST EAT IT UP!!!! ARG! ARHG!

Eh?? Hmm.

This is a situation that I have no foolproof solution to, but some of these might work:

1) Don't let it exist in the first place! Once someone has taken the second last piece, wait a short pause and whack the bugger off the plate in the most unassuming of manners. The pause is to normalise behaviour and let pple know that you're not so gian about the food. Hopefully you won't be the only one doing this after your gambit, else it'll look bad on you to finish ALL the last pieces. Or you can just bochup what they think, and think of yourself as a saviour who prevented the LPS from taking place. You're worthy... *nods head slowly*

2) If the LP is there already, you need a distraction. It'd best be an external distraction, like the waiter serving tea, or someone's phone ringing. Else you can also think of an interesting topic that captures the thoughts of everyone for the short while, while you surreptiously swipe the LP off its feet. If you can't think of an interesting topic, try asking them to calculate a mathematical question ('What's root b-squared minus two A B, over two A?', or the conventional '5 men builds 1 house in 2 days' question)

3) Take initiative and assign pieces to people as fairly as possible.

4) Offer them randomly.

The last piece is often seen as the most delicious piece of the whole lot (Choji will agree to this), but it's really not the case. It's just another piece. So don't fret if you don't get the LP.

Who am I kidding? The last piece IS the most delicious piece, so grab it first while you have the chance! =P

It was a good week

1.
wakeboarding is tons of fun, despite being awarded the title of 'face-plunge pro' by zk. Hey, no pain no gain is my belief, and the road to learning tricks fast is to stare danger in the eyes and poke them while you can.? 7 - 10 face plunges got me out of action for the whole weekend, making me forgo an appt with Huiyi. Another time, perhaps. =)

2.
met up with Rene and her beautiful Siobhan (pronounced to something like Charvon [dun ask me why, it's irish.]). I think I like babies, but am always terrified of doing something to them without meaning to ('aww... what a sweeet baby...' *crackz* 'oops~~!') They seem so fragile, so vulnerable, so prone to accidents in my careless hands. Sigh.
But I think children around the age of 2 to 4 is fun to to play with.... if at this point you're thinking me a paedophile - I'm not, ok?? Neither am I a gay, despite all those gayishly intimate conversations I have with friends. I wish I was, and I won't be so troubled by matters of the heart.... guys are so much easier to fathom. Sigh again.

3.
It has been some time since the JC group hanged out and played bridge overnight to such an extent. I think NUS S15 corridor makes one of the best places to play bridge... 24-h aircon, square table, internet and power points for internet radio playing, no one around, toilets at both ends of the corridor.... what else do you need? I think everyone shagged out in the morning... and we only got a Captain Foo out of all our endeavours. ;)

PRINCE GEORGE'S PARK B1-29-E. Sweet

This is my new room for the next semester. Not really cleared up yet, in this picture, but it has already been settled by now. =) My hands are getting all wrinkled from the jap-style floor washings...