9-odd pm. We're settled comfortably in front of the TV, armed with cocktails, snacks and plenty of cushions.

Then it's ten, eleven, midnight, one in the morning. A supper-run to the coffeeshop ended in us returning to the kitchen to brew some goodness. They were out of hot drinks. Two becomes three, three turns to four and in between each movie we take youtube-breathers and change lazing positions. Elimination round started at Movie Number Three.

Outside the house, the air was a very comfortable kind of cool, everything had a blue-ish tint, and everything was so. unnaturally. s t i l l. At that moment, I could completely understand why some people take solitary middle-of-the-night strolls.

It was around half past five when we finished our fourth movie (& final movie of the day). That ONE cup of coffee kept me up all night. Level-ed uppp! (I usually die by 2am.)

6am, bedtime. Amazingly enough, I woke up two & a half hours later, before the alarm rang. Then we watched another movie.

Will be feeling the effects of this movie marathon tomorrow, but I guess it was worth it (:

Thanksgiving 2010: Sing Praise!

2010: the year I truly give thanks for the people in my life - (to quote a friend) the ones who pop in & stay, the ones who pop in&out, the ones who pop in&out every once in a while and the ones who unexpectedly pop in for a visit.

I'm so thankful for the incredible people who are blunt enough to tell me off, wonderful enough to remind me of my priorities, annoying (in a good way) enough to laugh at/with me, concerned enough to ask How's everything? Are you okay?, engaing enough to thought-bounce with me, awesome enough to buy me eggtarts, loving enough to pray for me, patient enough to hear my thoughts, comfy enough for me to steal bear hugs from, brave enough to shake me out of bouts of emo-stupors, cool enough to play random mind-games with, accommodating enough to have breakfasts, lunches, teas & dinners with me, audacious enough to question me till I question myself  and list goes on (:

The ones who send reassurances & encouragement, the ones I meet at least once a year simply because I have to, the ones I'll always meet during Mocha Meetups, the ones I see on Sundays, the ones who'll sit&stone with me, the ones so scarily familiar to me, the ones who crack me up endlessly, the ones I can tell-off without feeling guilty, the ones I've inane circular arguements & repeated conversations with, the ones I've spoken to but never met, the ones whom I meet at the most unexpected times & places, the ones who make my day with brilliant smiles (:

All of you made my days more than you'll ever realise. & I thank God for having placed you all in my life ♥

Due to the NYE/NYD bustling around, this post comes a little late since I hardly had time to sitthink&type. Nevertheless, here it is.

NYE was a full day out (since I woke up late and had to head out soon after) with friends in the afternoon then meeting my family in church followed by post-service supper. Exhausting, but heart-warming, yes. (: The highlight of NYD was the late night Family Scrabble ♥, complete with vodka, crackers, cheese and whatnot. Lasted till 1am so we were almost late for church today. Unsurprisingly, my alcohol intolerance still gets the better of me. Barely two cups and I hiccuped. Fun though :D

JTLYK #17 Mine

"This above all: to thine ownself be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst no then be false to any man. - Shakespeare, Hamlet"

Taken out of context, it is something I find worth pondering over given that it has been ages since the last time I selfishly allocated Me-Time for myself.

All the thinking had me arrive at several disjointed conclusions:
a) Henceforth, Saturdays shall be ISE (I Study Everything) days until The Finals are over, after which it will be promptly renamed to something cooler. Waaay cooler. I can't wait.
b) Sundays will still be kept work-free, as much as possible.
c) Will be on a general hiatus from everything non-academic these 2 weeks, with the exception of random school dinners with lovely people. Let's see where this takes me.
d) Chess is distracting me. Terrible timing again, as usual.
e) Hello mt02, I miss ya'll :(

& we remember the importance of people in our lives ♥

This week, I met...

...new people in a strange but comfortable, potentially flourishing setting on Wednesday.
Hello, I'll be there again next week. (:

...a lovely friend from not too long ago in a flustered, too-fast exchange of words & expressions (only on my part).
Hello, we'll meet again. See you when I see you. (:

...up with a bunch of lovely College people from just a while ago for a comfortable, leisurely dinner on Thursday.
Hello, I'll miss you guys. Let's meet up again. (:

..., yet again on a Friday, with an intriguing friend whom I'll meet (again) all too soon.
Hello, you're becoming a habit. (:

...my regular Movie Marathoners and indulged in Nolan-goodness, food & plenty of discussion on a wonderful Saturday.
Hello, I'll miss this when Jamie goes overseas. But it'll be all the sweeter when she comes back (with our threadless tees heh). (:

...the Sandman in the early evening, promptly overslept and missed my Mocha dinner date & birthday celebration today.
Hello, I'm sorry. I'll definitely be awake the next time! (:

Apple pie & Ice cream

Life has a funny way of making things SEEM like they work out, lulling you into a false sense of optimism before sending curve balls hurtling towards your face, with a particularly big one knocking all the air out of you. Like my Thursday. It started off well, but ended...like a depressed omelette (cos it was flat & crumpled & all).

I went from ambivalent to optimistic to YESS! to bored to extremely annoyed (which, in this case, is a milder euphemism for seriously #@!$? livid Imma punch your face (Repressed Violent Tendencies happening again), afterwhich I felt guilty for being so angry) to bitchy (only to the random commuters who stared at my slouched, disgruntled, anger-emanating form on the crawling Bus).

But that was yesterday. Today has been as awesome as a public holiday/ hanging with the family day can get. Stupid things happened in the morning when I went swimming with my younger sister. WHY do they have to have special timings for PH?! Reached at 0800h only to find out that the pool opens at 0900h because oh, it's a public holiday. So both of us slept on the massage chair at the bowling alley before burning some cash on Time Crisis. The swim was hilarious in the "I watch my sister flap around & I have to stop swimming cos I can't continue without laughing/snorting/choking on water" way xD She's great like that.

To Life!

Tomorrow's gonna see the biggest clash of emotions everrr.

JTLYK#12 Where're the swings?

Uno

I spent the past few days getting acquainted with classroom furniture while murdering pieces of paper & muttering about the non-existent air-conditioning in the classrooms. I refuse to go to the library; too troublesome... & stifling. (In class, I can prop my legs on the desk, demand the fan's 100% attention, snack , and walk around semi-barefooted.) Productivity levels shoot up when I'm in school, thankfully. Partly Mainly 'cos an accessible fridge is non-existent in school.

Dos

Haven't been running. Does this mean my stress level's below optimum level? Yea, I think so too. Good or bad, idk, really. But I'm guessing it's more bad than good since the voice in my head's telling me that I should be feeling some form of intense, healthy stress right now.

Tres

Made a new friend on Wednesday! (: I hope I meet you at the bus stop again!

Cuatro

One of the self-rules I made back in secondary school days was never to get too emotionally attached to my SMS buddies. Simply because they were SMS buddies- people who were more important than 5-minute friends but of less priority than those whom I called friends- some of whom I've never met. But as life has it, the awesomest SMS-buddy I have became my good friend even though we still haven't met. & right now, we're not talking anymore. At all. Cos this dear friend found himself to an insanely jealous other half who practically severed our mobile phone connection with a bloody chainsaw :/ Damn it, right. What happened to BBQ sambal stingray, man!

Cinco

Inspiration comes in different forms. Today's came in the form of sarcastic, eloquent posts of a highly interesting semi-loony person whose brains I'd love to pick, which I will. Soon (:

Seis

Eavesdropped on a young couple's quarrel (I couldn't help it; the girl was talking/ whining really loudly. & everyone around them had the "pretending-not-to-listen-but-hanging-onto-every-word" act down to an art.) whilst on the bus, secretly laughing at the misfortune of the fellow sitting opposite them (poor guy looked so awkward & stared determinedly out of the window the entire time). Seriously though, wash those dirty linen at home, or in your dorms. As entertaining as it is, I don't need to know that you waited 4 hours for him to arrive at your doorstep when he was at home making love to his computer games & -insert more whining about "not being there for me 100% of the time"- when I'm attempting to construct an Epic Essay in my head.

Ocho

I realised (after eons of pseudo-realisation), in the startling-clarity-crystal-clear-way, that a good many people have high expectations of me. & I don't want to let them down. Hmm.

Nueve

The next 20 days are going to be great academic fun. Oh yes.

Adios

Look back &?

Oh, the many things that I could be doing.
& the others that I should be doing...

This week, I messed up majorly.
But I hope everything turns out fine. When I wake up tomorrow, I'll forget the frustration & annoyance at having experienced regret, & the regret itself of course, & MOVE ON MAN.

Restless energy struck the other day; painful.

JTLYK #11 With that smile on your face

#1. Beautiful day, beautiful souls, beautiful smiles (: Starting with Chang's.

#2. I conformed & became part of the Mass(es) of Redness populating The College today. Was interesting though! Red really cheers a person up! :D Felt really bright & conspicuous when I was out of school.

#3. Smiles made my day! Everyone was so smiley & lighthearted today- it's a great change from the usual tense, still atmosphere. & there was a marked improvement in class today! I didn't doodle on my foolscap pad at all!

#4. My current chemistry lecturer is the dorkiest person ever, but also the cutest! Majority of my female classmates concur. It could've been the clothes considering how the casual look suits him so much more than office attire ever would. Dorks ftw! :D

#5. The bus ride home after Thursday Tuition is always interesting especially when you've got a friend who's full of entertaining stories & confusing questions (works your perspective, y'know?). & a great smile too!

#6. Cheese!&!Crackers! 'Nuff said.

Wine-coloured days warmed by the sun

My latest It song. Andy Williams is utterly amazing. It's beautiful, especially the last part from 2:20 onwards, in particular the part where Andy Williams goes soprano-ish.

So smooth! So soothing! So full of romanticism! So addictive!
So devastatingly divine!

This is precisely the reason why I hardly listen to pop songs. If you must know, I played this on loop the whole time while napping in school this week.

*****
School's speeding up things alot, what with all the work/ tutorials/ revisions packages flying in my face. I should be whining & hating it immensely, but a small (& probably sadistic) part of me is enjoying the abstract stress being caused. My explanation?

Entropy.

Entropy In The Surroundings (check out my class sometime, we're all kuku already) relieves Entropy In The Head. Dynamic equilibrium reduces the difference in entropy so we won't be behaving so oddly. Or at least I won't. Makes odd sense, no? Either way, I'm loving it (:

On an even brighter academic note, I won't ever have to see ol' KaTie for help! Cos I'm wonderfully fortunate & extremely blessed to have another teacher to approach for help now! :D

JOYJOYJOY!!

OHJOYFULNESS!!!

College Fridays, somehow, always turn out great.
Just like how everything's gonna turn out fine, despite them deadlines & tight schedules & all.

Praise God! :D

"1 box $28."

"Ok, 6 for $60."

"3 for $30?"

& so we ended up with 6 boxes of glorious durian ranging from D24 to the CatMountainKingThing (senselessly funny name if you ask me) after the parents bantered with (& pressured) the durian seller :D

OHHMYTATTOOEDEYEBALLS you have no idea how much I heart durian. (I shouldn't have eaten dinner.)

Jolly good way to end the day; beautiful day to end a weekday!

On another T!LT note, the girls in class had a MASSIVE discussion/sharing/gossip session today that cracked me up. It started with Japanese then went on to universities, dating, proposing, rejecting a marriage proposal, marriage & kids, childbirth and ended with general College gossip/rumours (I just found out today that the class 3P exists!!). Some parts may have been slightly disturbing for the guys in the class though..hehe.

Your Funny Melody

Yet another day spent in school, from 0830 to 1830. On a Sunday at that. Brilliant way to end term 2 huh. I'm so glad IIICC is over. Today, I was so tired that fatigue overtook hunger as The Thing That Demands My Attention. I rarely go without food for more than 6 hours but I only had my lunch around 4 odd today. Felt so snappy in the afternoon that I decided to not talk at all in case I regret my words.

Amazingly enough, despite the fatigue-haze, I managed to get some work done (or concepts cleared up, rather) with the help of a classmate! (Gracias!) Long overdue work that is, but it's a start! (:

Speaking about food though, the past few days has seen an influx of Optimism Food & plenty of Food I Love: Haagen Daz Macademia Brittle, apple pie, Swissbake apple crumble, double baked brownie cheesecake, Subway, delicious mangos.

Ohoh & my friend's dad gave me a lift home after the tourney today (: I'm always impossibly grateful whenever someone gives me a lift home because it cuts down travel time by so much & saves me a huge amount of energy. Energy that requires even more energy to exert. & whenever I get a lift home, it's usually after a long school day/ training/ draining event, so yea, insanely impossibly grateful. Thank you.

LATE NIGHTS

Stay strong; keep them flames burning.
I'm not tired. I'm not tired. I'm not tired.

Life's been insanely packed but highly rewarding. The past 2 days have been spent in school from morning to 6odd. Past 2 nights have been incredibly eventful with Jeremy Monteiro & T'ang Quartet yesterday and Impempe Yomlingo, an African version of the opera The Magic Flute a couple of hours ago. Jazz was good, but it wasn't as enjoyable as the previous Monteiro performance I went to last year since it felt a little dry in the middle. The Magic Flute, however, was brilliant! A total go-with-the-flow, feel good, groove to the African rythm performance with fantastic opera (: Awesomeawesomeawesome. Been sleeping at 1am cos of the performances ending late & post-show-late-night-supper. But it's worth it.

Go watch more Art Fest stuff!

But pick those that have better reviews/ ratings. Things such as the opening act held at the Marina Barrage, Helios, was a waste of time. I had more fun taking photos with my sisters than oohing & ahhing over subsubstandard juggling performances. Seriously, if you're bringing in an international act, it sure as hell better be more professional. However, I'll admit that the giant praying mantis & musicians were cool. But then again, one cool giant insect & a 2 musicians travelling on said insect can't make up for the general lack of quality & attention-capturing sequence of events. Things like that may very well spawn even more disinterest in the arts than actually reach-out & encourage more Singaporeans to let arts play a bigger role in their lives. First impressions, y'know. The audience isn't dumb nor completely ignorant.

Look Behind You.

Brilliant College Friday! Albeit an absolutely abnormal one.

There was this wonderful catching-up conversation really made my day despite my fatigue. Chang & JH we should have breakfast every morning! & I want a Blackberry.

Badminton for PE was good, though it was too hot & too short (but what's new, right?). Let's play more floorball on Mondays please.

Chlorine was chatty today, which is a rare occurrence since we don't usually talk much on normal days. He also pretty much admitted to being an insensitive online-soul. (See, it's an abnormal day.) Went over to the Secondary Section for a bite during break and met BD&friend there. I forgot how huggable BD is, with all that phats (: & we met his awesome-too-cute brother who's doing extremely well in tennis. I'm jaw-droppingly impressed with him.

Then there was the New Zealand ice cream where I got 2 flavours; cost me $3.50, which I think is super duper expensive for a scoop of ice cream. But okay la, do my bit for charity. My Good Deed For The Week quota's fulfilled. I prefer Haagen Daz (whoo!) anytime, however. & interestingly enough, I'm more than willing to shell out $16 for a good pint of Macadamia Brittle/ Rum&Raisin. Hehe. (But I am broke. I've been broke for a very long time cos taxi fares are pocket-burning vacuum cleaners.)

Plusss, for the first time ever, I didn't fall asleep during H3 lecture.

It's a miracle! None of us slept today! Guess the Extended-Toilet-Break-Turned-Ice-Cream-Trip had something to do with it ;)

But before that in Math? Everyone knew I was falling asleep cos the teacher called my name like 5-6 times in 50 minutes. That's once every 8.33 to 10.0 minutes. Every single time my eyelids start drooping, it's "Christine, can you answer this question?" or "So Christine, what do you do after this step?" & then I further embarrassed myself by blurting out some random step immediately after he jolted me from my slumber. Like, thanks, really. Glad to know I provide laughing-fodder for my classmates.

Interesting Friday! Make this last!

Can't wait for Tuesday! Wednesday's GP paper can curl up & die.

Cos radiation's fried your brain

Guy's match today was superrr cool! Like, WOW! Beautiful goalsss!!
& it should've been 5-0, not 4-0.
& Nick's awesome. Seriouslyseriously.

Today marks the end of hockey season :/ It's been an interesting ride these past 6 months, picked up on so many things, made new friends, learnt new skills, got hit by a plethora of realizations, found something that I can actually see myself committing to if given another chance. Kinda sad cos I did enjoy having something to look forward to on Tuesdays. Now my Tuesdays are gonna be Empty-In-The-Sudden-Loss-Way. At least, in term 3.

Badminton finals next week! I'm going down to support Dar! (:

& after that, it's back to reality.
I'm so tired I swear I'm gonna roll down the stairs on of these days.
Why is our homeroom at Level-freaking-Five.

Beginning of the End

Last official training here. Although it's been less than a mere 6 month's commitment, there's this odd feeling in my chest when I think about it. I'll miss this? Damn me for getting emotionally attached to odd places.

Tomorrow's the last match of the season. Dear God, please let us play well & give our all.

Caught a ride home after training today. Cut short my travel time by so much. Thankyou thankyou thankyou YY! :D Also, I'm gonna pick up the game properly once season's over. For the sake of personal satisfaction.

Vamos

Tomorrow; I'm hoping so hard we come out tops.
Cos losing simply isn't an option at this stage.
& please don't let me concede stupid goals.

Breakthrough, in every possible aspect.

Black & white photography is quite possibly the most beautiful I know.

Angels in our Lives

I love The College, I do. I love my class, my OhGee, and all my awesome friends (and some teachers). But going there day after day after day for lectures I don't get & tutorials I don't prepare for really saps my energy the way sunlight drains a vampire. I've been trying to convince my mom, albeit unsuccessfully, that staying at home may be a better way to up my productivity levels. Speaking of productivity levels, The College's effort to be more environmentally conscious (i.e. Eco-day) means enduring unbearable amounts of heat waves crashing into you from all angles. I can't take it; my productivity level plunges like the stocks on Wall Street. Damn global warming. It'll make more sense if the canteen operators start to use paper plates instead of styrofoam for everything.

Anyway, College Friday hath cometh again, one that I'm grateful for (: Wouldn't describe today as great & fantastic but it did end on a blissful note that wrapped up the school week wonderfully. Spent a good portion of time after chess session talking to a rather enlightened, perpetually pink-cheeked friend who should just be my personal counsellor already cos he's perfect for thought-bouncing. Gracias! (:

Still captains of our soul

Free Your Soul by ~InfernalFear on deviantART

So much more to life than the mere assimilation of information.

I want to be remarkable.

***

On another note, I really cannot stand how ugly the school name is. It has no flow, no impact, no sense. It kills me.

Sprinkle Strangers in my way

I made friends with an Iranian economist I met on the bus whilst on the way home today! :D Awesomeness! Except that sometimes I couldn't really make out what he was saying cos of the accent and background noise.

Forget what parents say about the dangers of speaking to strangers. It's fun! Of course, you make sure that said stranger doesn't exude creepy vibes or a pervy aura and you're in a visible public area so you won't get kidnapped etc.

And once again, Wednesday passed by in a water-coloured blur. Burnt no fats during training/ friendly match today since the ball barely reached my area.