To conclude this month's posting frenzy, I end (up) with cycling injuries.
I got hurt twice yesterday while cycling. The area from loyang to changi is quite a hilly road.
While riding perpedicular to a steep, downhill road of slightly more than 30 degrees, I manoevered my bicycle slightly upwards as I estimated that the incline would pull the bicycle down, compensating for the rise. Unfortunately, I overestimated it and as I cycled back onto the track on the other side, the front wheel hit the curb, lifting the bicycle into an airborne position for 2 meteres.
I crashed into the metal fence which saved me from a terrible fall of 5 storeys, flew forward into the bicycle frame and slightly hurt my shin.
That was nothing compared to the second injury.
While cycling downslope slowly, where joelle fell the last time, I made a slight turn. I didn't expect anything to happen at that speed or angle. But it skidded. This is what I think probably happened.
I cycled at a pace at which the wet ground was probably maintaining the bicycle's speed. When I turned, the front wheel of the bicycle changes direction, and thus it slow down. However, the inertia of the backwheel caused it to continue at its speed and that probably explains why my bicycle suddenly turned sideways by so much as I turned the handle and started skidding. It brought my knees to the ground and scratched it as it acted as a brake.
That hurt a lot...
Really unlucky was that the part that was scratched was the part that stretched when I brought my knee up. So I could not really cycle back properly.
That slope seems to be a real accident hot spot. Joelle tumbled, I skidded, Ryan fell for some unknown reason and Jk went offroad, onto the grass. I guess its probably due to the slope and simultaneous turning.
They really should transfer the useless "dismount and push" signs at lifeless bus stops in changi to more usefull areas like these steep slopes, so that people would know when to 'DAP' at the right time.
The deep wound has not sealed yet...that disgusting pus seeps on everytime I press onto my plaster. I can't really climb the stairs properly either now.
I am leaving for Hong Kong on Sunday. So expect a week-long dead blog. Bye!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Victory's Illusion
Many people argue for the sake of their egoes, and nothing else. There is no reward, other than perhaps what these conceited people value most. Maybe its was due to misapprehension, so I, being uneasy about it, tried to clear things up.
One of the most hard-core ways to plough one's way through an argument is with insistence. Lets take an extreme of one of these cases...
A: Why can't you do that assignment?
B: I don't want to do it?
A: But why? ....(blabbers a whole chunk of reasoning why A should do it)
A: So can you do it?
B: (Not listening at all) No, because I don't want to.
As long as one is firm on his stand and what he wants his conclusion to be, without the slight swaying of opinion, what is the point of reasoning with him, considering that that person is deaf to any logic? And what if someone wins an argument, proved everyone else wrong and all? Is that going to do anyone any good?
If argument is not for the sake of hearing each other's views out, but for the sake of winning, its just a waste of time when I could be doing something better like sleeping. (Didn't I mention that before?)
Ridicule, defame, denounce me. Be ceremoniously welcomed to do so if you think it would help. Why should I care about what a certain someone thinks of me?
I would not be the least angered.
Opinions aside. Now that I have finished addressing an issue, lets move on to something else -next post - Cycling Injuries.
One of the most hard-core ways to plough one's way through an argument is with insistence. Lets take an extreme of one of these cases...
A: Why can't you do that assignment?
B: I don't want to do it?
A: But why? ....(blabbers a whole chunk of reasoning why A should do it)
A: So can you do it?
B: (Not listening at all) No, because I don't want to.
As long as one is firm on his stand and what he wants his conclusion to be, without the slight swaying of opinion, what is the point of reasoning with him, considering that that person is deaf to any logic? And what if someone wins an argument, proved everyone else wrong and all? Is that going to do anyone any good?
If argument is not for the sake of hearing each other's views out, but for the sake of winning, its just a waste of time when I could be doing something better like sleeping. (Didn't I mention that before?)
Ridicule, defame, denounce me. Be ceremoniously welcomed to do so if you think it would help. Why should I care about what a certain someone thinks of me?
I would not be the least angered.
Opinions aside. Now that I have finished addressing an issue, lets move on to something else -next post - Cycling Injuries.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Discipline
I am going to talk about one of my bad habits. Something to do with what everyone of us have to do everyday. Something essential for all of us, if we want to get anything done, that is. Something that all of us are supposed to do in the morning, something that all of us will do the first thing when we get up, and I am sure about it. That is waking up itself.
How many times have I been late for school because of this? How many times did I hold back my urine, just because I was too lazy to get my lazy body out of bed? How many times did I say I want to wake up early so that I can do some jogging, and in the end decided to do it tomorrow? To the last question, most recently yesterday morning.
I am going to take this passage as a guide from the book '8th habit' I have read quite some time ago. Discipline is not all about caning, corrective work order, or any form of punishment. It is having some control over your mind.
Some might think that with discipline, one has no freedom, confined to rules and all, but this is not true when you are the one disciplining yourself. In my case, by disciplining and telling myself to wake up at a given time, I am breaking free of other things controlling me, and gaining freedom from all these; like luxury of sleeping, comfort of the air-con, or not wanting to get up because the soft matress is grabbing you to the ground.
Just before the holidays started, my mother asked me to wake up. I did not. Ten minutes later, it was time when I should have left house already, but still...When I finally woke up, I fell half-asleep in the toilet. At 20 minutes behind my usual time, I rushed to school (Or perhaps I did not...)
Its amazing what a little discipline in to our lives can make. On one of the rare occasions when I woke up early for a jog, I felt time pass into the middle afternoon, when it is actually still late morning. People say that everyone is given same amount of time to spend everyday, I think how much time we have its only a matter of how we organize it.
Nice day today...woke up early and found nothing much to do for the rest of the afternoon...
How many times have I been late for school because of this? How many times did I hold back my urine, just because I was too lazy to get my lazy body out of bed? How many times did I say I want to wake up early so that I can do some jogging, and in the end decided to do it tomorrow? To the last question, most recently yesterday morning.
I am going to take this passage as a guide from the book '8th habit' I have read quite some time ago. Discipline is not all about caning, corrective work order, or any form of punishment. It is having some control over your mind.
Some might think that with discipline, one has no freedom, confined to rules and all, but this is not true when you are the one disciplining yourself. In my case, by disciplining and telling myself to wake up at a given time, I am breaking free of other things controlling me, and gaining freedom from all these; like luxury of sleeping, comfort of the air-con, or not wanting to get up because the soft matress is grabbing you to the ground.
Just before the holidays started, my mother asked me to wake up. I did not. Ten minutes later, it was time when I should have left house already, but still...When I finally woke up, I fell half-asleep in the toilet. At 20 minutes behind my usual time, I rushed to school (Or perhaps I did not...)
Its amazing what a little discipline in to our lives can make. On one of the rare occasions when I woke up early for a jog, I felt time pass into the middle afternoon, when it is actually still late morning. People say that everyone is given same amount of time to spend everyday, I think how much time we have its only a matter of how we organize it.
Nice day today...woke up early and found nothing much to do for the rest of the afternoon...
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Happy Early Birthday to me!
Just went to play badminton with jk at hougang cc earlier yesterday afternoon.
The people there were not very friendly. When I tried using my mother's PA member card to book courts, the indian counter woman asked if it was my card, and I said no. She told me that I could not use it in an unpleasing tone, resembling a lecture, as I was not the owner of the membership. However, later when she checked the membership, my name was also part of it, so in the end I got that discount.
Jk and I arrived early, and while waiting for our playing time, we went into a small air-conditioned cafe. Seeing that we were 'stoning' at a table, the shop owner asked us if we have ordered our drinks. Having chased us out in one of the best methods, we walked out, but she shouted to us that she never said that she was going to charge us for sitting around the table. Well, but still, although there were not many customers, and there were lots of empty seats, something, judging by the way she talked and her attitude told me that she wanted us out still...
Hougang Cc was one of the first Ccs I have seen to actually have NTUC fairprice in it. There, in its air-conditioned environment, Jk and I spent like 10 minutes deciding on what drink to get. The 1.5 litre drinks were really cheap, but many of the other cheap drinks were not cold. (There would always be something to complain about no matter how good some things are) In the end, I chose a canned drink because it would be colder than the plastic bottle drinks.
---
My whole family went for a combined birthday dinner last friday, with my relatives, to celebrate my youngest brother and my birthday. Got some extra money to save/spend/give, and my aunt gave me two boxes of stuff in it.
Lets see what the first one is...
-Water clock. For 8 years and above. Its a total cheat. Just by looking at the cover, you can tell that with all the electronic displays and a digital clock at the base, it can't be a water clock. What is it then? Its a wet cell battery connected to a real and pre-built digital clock. So why water, the wet-cell batttery...
-Physics workshop. For 8 years and above too. Learn about gravity, force, simple machines...(Don't feel like reading anymore)
A new upgrade to the increasing entropy I have at home.
Cut and ate the cake yesterday night. My youngest brother was crying and utterly disappointed when he found out that we could not bring the cake to the restaurant. Why is that so? Because, according to the person at the phone, there would be cakes at the restaurant. What a rubbishy justification...
21 more days to my birthday. Still have one unwrapped present in my cupboard, awaiting for that day to come...
The people there were not very friendly. When I tried using my mother's PA member card to book courts, the indian counter woman asked if it was my card, and I said no. She told me that I could not use it in an unpleasing tone, resembling a lecture, as I was not the owner of the membership. However, later when she checked the membership, my name was also part of it, so in the end I got that discount.
Jk and I arrived early, and while waiting for our playing time, we went into a small air-conditioned cafe. Seeing that we were 'stoning' at a table, the shop owner asked us if we have ordered our drinks. Having chased us out in one of the best methods, we walked out, but she shouted to us that she never said that she was going to charge us for sitting around the table. Well, but still, although there were not many customers, and there were lots of empty seats, something, judging by the way she talked and her attitude told me that she wanted us out still...
Hougang Cc was one of the first Ccs I have seen to actually have NTUC fairprice in it. There, in its air-conditioned environment, Jk and I spent like 10 minutes deciding on what drink to get. The 1.5 litre drinks were really cheap, but many of the other cheap drinks were not cold. (There would always be something to complain about no matter how good some things are) In the end, I chose a canned drink because it would be colder than the plastic bottle drinks.
---
My whole family went for a combined birthday dinner last friday, with my relatives, to celebrate my youngest brother and my birthday. Got some extra money to save/spend/give, and my aunt gave me two boxes of stuff in it.
Lets see what the first one is...
-Water clock. For 8 years and above. Its a total cheat. Just by looking at the cover, you can tell that with all the electronic displays and a digital clock at the base, it can't be a water clock. What is it then? Its a wet cell battery connected to a real and pre-built digital clock. So why water, the wet-cell batttery...
-Physics workshop. For 8 years and above too. Learn about gravity, force, simple machines...(Don't feel like reading anymore)
A new upgrade to the increasing entropy I have at home.
Cut and ate the cake yesterday night. My youngest brother was crying and utterly disappointed when he found out that we could not bring the cake to the restaurant. Why is that so? Because, according to the person at the phone, there would be cakes at the restaurant. What a rubbishy justification...
21 more days to my birthday. Still have one unwrapped present in my cupboard, awaiting for that day to come...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
In memory of a two year journey - Part 1
Friday, last day of school.
CAP: 4.44, what a nice number...
I really do not know how to start this; it has been two years since I came this school already. Many things have happened and there had been many changes in my place in my class and school. I'll just try to remember as much as possible.
When I first came to this school, I expected quite highly of it. Not just academically, but high social standards. The first few days were orientation, and nothing much happened. I saw a short girl and kept on thinking she was angela, until later. I kept on mixing up ryan's name as 'bryan' too. Maybe it was because I did not talk too much, I did not have many friends then.
Of course, we learnt the mass dance too. I thought the song was quite nice, but my dancing wasn't very good so I kept on mixing up the moves.
I remember it was a saturday, when the amazing race was held. This is probably the most memorable day of the orientation, and I could retrieve scenes from my mind clearly. I remembered this was the day when I started talking more to cmc, and I made friends with him. I also remembered it was this day, when he started his theory about ryan dropping a one cent coin into a manhole and digging it, forming the grand canyon. Throughout, I talked to him quite a lot. When I asked him what primary school he was from, he insisted that he was from a non-existent primary school which then made me quite irritated.
Orientation passed quickly. In class, I sat next to him. After a few days, it was when I started to get a little pissed. He talks too much and lack a sense of knowing when to stop.
There was once when I requested for a seat change because I could not concentrate in class...
He used to find humour in things that I know why he thinks are funny, through my experience with my younger brothers, but I don't find them funny, but irritating. Once, when a teacher talked to him about it, he blamed me for 'complaining' about him.
Him, being not very well-liked, and with me being his friend, I was not very well-liked by many either. I felt quite, not to say lonely, I found many means to keep myself to not have that feeling, but rather, out.
Cmc, jk, ben and I used to do things in a group almost everytime, and that made it almost slightly worse, as I feel, because it takes away many chances for me to try to socialize more with other people alone. Just like my shadow in a moonlight, this undescribable thing keeps on casting a darkness which breaks the light of whereever I go.
Although this did not really bother me, what bothered me more was the bad impression others had on me. I have currently no means to defame anyone, so I keep these names anonymous. I once asked a person A if he could teach me how to do a question which I did not know how to do. A was willing to answer me, but B, being beside him and being A's good friend helped him answer a no. However, my impression of B was quite good, and yet at times I know he supports me, at other times he is against. This is what is scary, not a cunning enemy, but a person who has an unknown identity, whether you should be with him, or whether you should be aware of him always.
Over time, his impression of me had a turn for improvement, but his attitude remains the same to all that he does not like. I never thought that his judgement was wrong, but his attitude was, to those he does not like. I think that whether we change our judgement towards certain people is not at all important, what matters is our attitude towards those people.
Another setback for me, or more like, a group of people, was this double-headed snake, who changed sides often, whichever side favoured him. All I could say about him was that he equalises friendship with popularity...
This first year had been quite a tough one, not academically, but socially. Maybe because it was shyness within us, but not many of us talked to girls then, which limited my range of friends, or even people I could have a leisurely chat with even more.
One word to sum up all these - loneliness...
To be continued...
CAP: 4.44, what a nice number...
I really do not know how to start this; it has been two years since I came this school already. Many things have happened and there had been many changes in my place in my class and school. I'll just try to remember as much as possible.
When I first came to this school, I expected quite highly of it. Not just academically, but high social standards. The first few days were orientation, and nothing much happened. I saw a short girl and kept on thinking she was angela, until later. I kept on mixing up ryan's name as 'bryan' too. Maybe it was because I did not talk too much, I did not have many friends then.
Of course, we learnt the mass dance too. I thought the song was quite nice, but my dancing wasn't very good so I kept on mixing up the moves.
I remember it was a saturday, when the amazing race was held. This is probably the most memorable day of the orientation, and I could retrieve scenes from my mind clearly. I remembered this was the day when I started talking more to cmc, and I made friends with him. I also remembered it was this day, when he started his theory about ryan dropping a one cent coin into a manhole and digging it, forming the grand canyon. Throughout, I talked to him quite a lot. When I asked him what primary school he was from, he insisted that he was from a non-existent primary school which then made me quite irritated.
Orientation passed quickly. In class, I sat next to him. After a few days, it was when I started to get a little pissed. He talks too much and lack a sense of knowing when to stop.
There was once when I requested for a seat change because I could not concentrate in class...
He used to find humour in things that I know why he thinks are funny, through my experience with my younger brothers, but I don't find them funny, but irritating. Once, when a teacher talked to him about it, he blamed me for 'complaining' about him.
Him, being not very well-liked, and with me being his friend, I was not very well-liked by many either. I felt quite, not to say lonely, I found many means to keep myself to not have that feeling, but rather, out.
Cmc, jk, ben and I used to do things in a group almost everytime, and that made it almost slightly worse, as I feel, because it takes away many chances for me to try to socialize more with other people alone. Just like my shadow in a moonlight, this undescribable thing keeps on casting a darkness which breaks the light of whereever I go.
Although this did not really bother me, what bothered me more was the bad impression others had on me. I have currently no means to defame anyone, so I keep these names anonymous. I once asked a person A if he could teach me how to do a question which I did not know how to do. A was willing to answer me, but B, being beside him and being A's good friend helped him answer a no. However, my impression of B was quite good, and yet at times I know he supports me, at other times he is against. This is what is scary, not a cunning enemy, but a person who has an unknown identity, whether you should be with him, or whether you should be aware of him always.
Over time, his impression of me had a turn for improvement, but his attitude remains the same to all that he does not like. I never thought that his judgement was wrong, but his attitude was, to those he does not like. I think that whether we change our judgement towards certain people is not at all important, what matters is our attitude towards those people.
Another setback for me, or more like, a group of people, was this double-headed snake, who changed sides often, whichever side favoured him. All I could say about him was that he equalises friendship with popularity...
This first year had been quite a tough one, not academically, but socially. Maybe because it was shyness within us, but not many of us talked to girls then, which limited my range of friends, or even people I could have a leisurely chat with even more.
One word to sum up all these - loneliness...
To be continued...
Thursday, November 13, 2008
我的考试作文 - “一此失而复得的经历“
这篇作文大纲是略略基于真实的发生。
时间已经是三点多了。学校里剩下没多少人，一片寂静。当走到走廊时，个人就会觉得似乎它是世界上唯一的人。老师全部应该在教师室里吧，在充满冷气的环境里改簿子。学校里就是这么安静，除了我班那代以外。
在我的课室里十分热闹。就算有一两个同学坐着像乖猫子静静的读书，还会有五六个在调皮。有的在扔纸球，有的在私人电脑上网，但最起眼的就是四个同学，包挂我，在课室的一角激烈地打扑克牌，激烈地像在玩人命关天的游戏，几个同学偶尔还站起来完呢！总结一下，课室就像个老鼠宴会。为了“增添气氛”，有的人还大胆的把手机的音乐接到扩音机！
突然，一位老师路过，整间课室安静了下来...猫来捉老鼠了。虽然那老师没理我们，只是与几位同学聊天儿，但我们就像自我认罪的囚犯。立即地，我把牌子塞进口袋里。
那位老师走后，课室里的热闹又爆发了。我们的游戏也打了一场又一场。就在其中的一场，一个人发现一张牌子不见了。
“不见了”这三个字进入我的耳朵时，我愣住了，一时不知所措。那套扑克牌是我哥哥的，是我偷偷带来学校的。他是否会发现一张卡不见了呢？如果会，他会利用哪中刑罚杀了我？万一向父母告状怎么办？再说，我没得到哥哥的允许就拿走他的东西。就像个机关枪的子弹，万般思绪用上我的心头，令我十分烦恼。最好快点找到那张人命关天的扑克牌。越是找不到，越是令我心急如焚。
同学们分头到课室各个角落寻找失去的牌子，但无论找了多久，仍然找不到。小明问：“难道是刚才那位老师看到我们在打牌，恶作剧利用它的超能力把那牌子毁灭？”他边说边傻笑。
“这种时候你还开什么无聊的玩笑，还不赶紧找出我的‘出狱卡’？“
“哇，我们似乎是你的奴婢哦！都说找不到了，你还想我们怎样？”
在这时，我紧张，生气与惭愧的心情直交织着。一气之下我喊：“我怎么知道？找不到就是你们偷的啦！”没想好，这番话就在超音速*出口。我立刻后悔了我那么冲动。
三个人，一声不响，拿起了书包，迈着大步走出课室。我没办法收回我的话了，于是也背着沉甸甸的书包，拖着沉重的脚步走回家。
在车站，我拿出了我的钱包时，也发现还有一张东西- 就是那张失去的扑克牌。我欣喜若狂，简直不敢相信自己的眼睛；我感觉上好像种了彩票。一定是刚刚在把卡片从口袋掏出来遗漏掉的。
这件事给我了一个很大的教训。当有一件事难办，或办不成，别老是注重外面的东西，也别先责怪别人，而从自己搜查起。
打个比方就是甲同学华文不怎么好，他老是埋怨这华文的难度，多么不喜欢中国，但这样做，除了发泄，让人烦，还有用吗？别想去改变别人，外面的世界，而应该从心里找出自己‘失去的扑克牌’，便改变自己，进步自己的华文，让自己能应付这个世界。**
明天，我就向那三位道歉吧。
*我也不知道自己当时在写什么，声音怎能获得超音速呢？
**欲知详情，请到以下的超连结
tzy的威胁
时间已经是三点多了。学校里剩下没多少人，一片寂静。当走到走廊时，个人就会觉得似乎它是世界上唯一的人。老师全部应该在教师室里吧，在充满冷气的环境里改簿子。学校里就是这么安静，除了我班那代以外。
在我的课室里十分热闹。就算有一两个同学坐着像乖猫子静静的读书，还会有五六个在调皮。有的在扔纸球，有的在私人电脑上网，但最起眼的就是四个同学，包挂我，在课室的一角激烈地打扑克牌，激烈地像在玩人命关天的游戏，几个同学偶尔还站起来完呢！总结一下，课室就像个老鼠宴会。为了“增添气氛”，有的人还大胆的把手机的音乐接到扩音机！
突然，一位老师路过，整间课室安静了下来...猫来捉老鼠了。虽然那老师没理我们，只是与几位同学聊天儿，但我们就像自我认罪的囚犯。立即地，我把牌子塞进口袋里。
那位老师走后，课室里的热闹又爆发了。我们的游戏也打了一场又一场。就在其中的一场，一个人发现一张牌子不见了。
“不见了”这三个字进入我的耳朵时，我愣住了，一时不知所措。那套扑克牌是我哥哥的，是我偷偷带来学校的。他是否会发现一张卡不见了呢？如果会，他会利用哪中刑罚杀了我？万一向父母告状怎么办？再说，我没得到哥哥的允许就拿走他的东西。就像个机关枪的子弹，万般思绪用上我的心头，令我十分烦恼。最好快点找到那张人命关天的扑克牌。越是找不到，越是令我心急如焚。
同学们分头到课室各个角落寻找失去的牌子，但无论找了多久，仍然找不到。小明问：“难道是刚才那位老师看到我们在打牌，恶作剧利用它的超能力把那牌子毁灭？”他边说边傻笑。
“这种时候你还开什么无聊的玩笑，还不赶紧找出我的‘出狱卡’？“
“哇，我们似乎是你的奴婢哦！都说找不到了，你还想我们怎样？”
在这时，我紧张，生气与惭愧的心情直交织着。一气之下我喊：“我怎么知道？找不到就是你们偷的啦！”没想好，这番话就在超音速*出口。我立刻后悔了我那么冲动。
三个人，一声不响，拿起了书包，迈着大步走出课室。我没办法收回我的话了，于是也背着沉甸甸的书包，拖着沉重的脚步走回家。
在车站，我拿出了我的钱包时，也发现还有一张东西- 就是那张失去的扑克牌。我欣喜若狂，简直不敢相信自己的眼睛；我感觉上好像种了彩票。一定是刚刚在把卡片从口袋掏出来遗漏掉的。
这件事给我了一个很大的教训。当有一件事难办，或办不成，别老是注重外面的东西，也别先责怪别人，而从自己搜查起。
打个比方就是甲同学华文不怎么好，他老是埋怨这华文的难度，多么不喜欢中国，但这样做，除了发泄，让人烦，还有用吗？别想去改变别人，外面的世界，而应该从心里找出自己‘失去的扑克牌’，便改变自己，进步自己的华文，让自己能应付这个世界。**
明天，我就向那三位道歉吧。
*我也不知道自己当时在写什么，声音怎能获得超音速呢？
**欲知详情，请到以下的超连结
tzy的威胁
Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Sports day - A wet day.
Sports day - A day when my friends and I loitered around the school.
Expected since yesterday...
Some people do not absorb enough before blurting out their opinions. These kind of opinions fall into a special group, a group called 'rubbish'. They do not try understand others, before being understood by others and making their point. (5th of the 7 habits of highly effective people by steven covey)
I lost my locker key you see? Thus when I asked some admin person for advice, she told me to pay 5 dollars to the school to make a new one. There, I went to the office today while loitering and talked to this woman sitting at the desk.
Me: "Excuse me, I lost my locker key, what should I do? (I asked what I should do just to get her into the topic first)"
Her: "You lost your locker key?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Well, you have to go and get the estate staff in charge of the lockers to help you then, I can't help you with that."
Me: ...
Her: "They would have to break into your locker."
I guessed that that meant I was not supposed to hand the money to her.
Later...
Me: "Excuse me, but since I do not have the locker key, even if my locker is broken, then how am I supposed to return the key?"
Her: *Blurs out*
At this point of time, I really felt like telling her that I was the boy she saw 5 minutes ago and asked her if she still remembered me, but I control my frustration in order to avoid trouble.
Me: "I lost my locker key."
Her: "Get the estate staff to break your locker."
This is getting no where...
Me: "But this morning it was announced that I have to return the locker key and if I break it and get all my stuff out I still will not have the key."
Her: "Wait wait wait... Some person broke into your locker?!"
Me: *Repeats*
Her: "Oh this you have to tell the estate staff"
Okay, I got the point. She does not know anything, I cannot ask her. I have to ask the estate staff. But one last question...
Me: "Ok thanks, but may I know where I can find the estate staff?"
Her: "In the estate office." (Might as well not answer my question)
Me: "Where is the estate office?"
Her: *Pauses* "Hey boy, you have to take responsibility for your actions okay? You lost your own locker key and don't expect me to help you with everything right." (Not the exact words but the intensity is not exxagerated at all"
By now I was already quite angry and turned to look at my friends...I replied in a voluntary impatient tone.
Me: "Yes I know I have to take responsibility, but now since I have to look for the estate staff and they are in the estate office and I do not know where the estate office is how am I supposed to get my problem fixed?"
Her: "Alright wait I would make a call."
On the phone: "Hello, this boy had lost his locker key and he has to return the key today...(I never said that)."
And she continued talking about things she assumed that I had never said myself. I looked down at my clenched fists. I loosened them.
Finally...
Her: "Do you know who (estate staff's name) is?
Me: "Er no..."
Her: "Oh my..."
Just when I was about to 'grrrr...' at her not helping me at all, D.W. came.
D.W.: "You lost your locker key?"
Me: "Yes"
D.W.: "Can you remember where you put it?"
Me: "No, it was in my wallet, then six months ago it disappeared."
D.W.: "And you only inform us now?"
Me: "I kept on forgetting."
D.W.: "I hope there isn't any food inside..."
Me: "A few sweets"
D.W.: "There has got to be a lot of ants now. Anyway, you email this person...blablablabla..."
She gave me the email address and asked the other woman, "Do you want him to Cc it to you?"
Her: "No No No thanks at all...Nothing to do with me. Students these days...just do not know how to take responsibility..."
Yes I agree, I responsible for my missing key and it is my fault, but although I am responsible that I do not know where the estate staff are and who to contact, why is it my fault? If I knew how to, I would have taken 'responsibility long ago' and not waste some 10 minutes of my time in that office trying to make my point.
Thats settled.
Before more trouble ensued, I quickly walked out of the office with my friends...
Sports day - A day when my friends and I loitered around the school.
Expected since yesterday...
Some people do not absorb enough before blurting out their opinions. These kind of opinions fall into a special group, a group called 'rubbish'. They do not try understand others, before being understood by others and making their point. (5th of the 7 habits of highly effective people by steven covey)
I lost my locker key you see? Thus when I asked some admin person for advice, she told me to pay 5 dollars to the school to make a new one. There, I went to the office today while loitering and talked to this woman sitting at the desk.
Me: "Excuse me, I lost my locker key, what should I do? (I asked what I should do just to get her into the topic first)"
Her: "You lost your locker key?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Well, you have to go and get the estate staff in charge of the lockers to help you then, I can't help you with that."
Me: ...
Her: "They would have to break into your locker."
I guessed that that meant I was not supposed to hand the money to her.
Later...
Me: "Excuse me, but since I do not have the locker key, even if my locker is broken, then how am I supposed to return the key?"
Her: *Blurs out*
At this point of time, I really felt like telling her that I was the boy she saw 5 minutes ago and asked her if she still remembered me, but I control my frustration in order to avoid trouble.
Me: "I lost my locker key."
Her: "Get the estate staff to break your locker."
This is getting no where...
Me: "But this morning it was announced that I have to return the locker key and if I break it and get all my stuff out I still will not have the key."
Her: "Wait wait wait... Some person broke into your locker?!"
Me: *Repeats*
Her: "Oh this you have to tell the estate staff"
Okay, I got the point. She does not know anything, I cannot ask her. I have to ask the estate staff. But one last question...
Me: "Ok thanks, but may I know where I can find the estate staff?"
Her: "In the estate office." (Might as well not answer my question)
Me: "Where is the estate office?"
Her: *Pauses* "Hey boy, you have to take responsibility for your actions okay? You lost your own locker key and don't expect me to help you with everything right." (Not the exact words but the intensity is not exxagerated at all"
By now I was already quite angry and turned to look at my friends...I replied in a voluntary impatient tone.
Me: "Yes I know I have to take responsibility, but now since I have to look for the estate staff and they are in the estate office and I do not know where the estate office is how am I supposed to get my problem fixed?"
Her: "Alright wait I would make a call."
On the phone: "Hello, this boy had lost his locker key and he has to return the key today...(I never said that)."
And she continued talking about things she assumed that I had never said myself. I looked down at my clenched fists. I loosened them.
Finally...
Her: "Do you know who (estate staff's name) is?
Me: "Er no..."
Her: "Oh my..."
Just when I was about to 'grrrr...' at her not helping me at all, D.W. came.
D.W.: "You lost your locker key?"
Me: "Yes"
D.W.: "Can you remember where you put it?"
Me: "No, it was in my wallet, then six months ago it disappeared."
D.W.: "And you only inform us now?"
Me: "I kept on forgetting."
D.W.: "I hope there isn't any food inside..."
Me: "A few sweets"
D.W.: "There has got to be a lot of ants now. Anyway, you email this person...blablablabla..."
She gave me the email address and asked the other woman, "Do you want him to Cc it to you?"
Her: "No No No thanks at all...Nothing to do with me. Students these days...just do not know how to take responsibility..."
Yes I agree, I responsible for my missing key and it is my fault, but although I am responsible that I do not know where the estate staff are and who to contact, why is it my fault? If I knew how to, I would have taken 'responsibility long ago' and not waste some 10 minutes of my time in that office trying to make my point.
Thats settled.
Before more trouble ensued, I quickly walked out of the office with my friends...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Newton explains my week
So far, perhaps it had been quite an eventful week.
Some friends of mine and I went to play tennis yesterday, and today, we went over to someone's house to play games. Joelle brought another board game, which was even more fun than top secret - Cats manshion. I'll hope the games she bring would just get more and more fun. Other than that, we played some cards and sat around the television watching and playing Guitar Hero.
Once I started playing, I was quite reluctant to go home. Afterall, as the first law of fun states:
Every Person in a state of having fun tends to remain in that state of fun unless an external factor is applied to it.
Quite a lot of people went to play tennis and went to kat's house too. As the second law states:
F=ma (F: Fun m: members a: activities)
The relationship between having fun, the amount of activities, and the number of members is F = ma.
Again, there is the last law to be accounted for...
For every relaxation and fun there is an equal and opposite amount of relaxation and fun.
This probably explains script checking.
English: Remember my musical descriptive essay? The marker said that the expressions I used were confusing. Pity... Paper 2 was rather okay though. Although my comprehension section failed me, my summary pulled me up with a surprising score.
Chinese: Paper 2, 52.5/70. This was what I was quite contented with. What about my essay? I really do not know if I should feel sorry and pity, or happiness. I could have got 47/50, but I wrote too many wrong characters, and thus I got minused off 3 marks.
Chemistry: Alright, but many careless mistakes
Trigonometry: Careless...but my marks are good enough for an A.
Geography: This was the worse; again, but perhaps it was the most surprising. I spent half the given time to finish the paper and expected myself to get half the total marks, but i got 34/50. I was too surprised...
Now here comes in the equal and opposite reaction of 'fun'.
We went through the answers in 15 minutes for almost all the papers, and for the rest of the time people just ran up either trying to change their marks or signing their names. What did many of us do? Sign our names, go back to our seat, do nothing.
Maybe towards the end of the geography paper checking it started to get a little better, when some of us formed a group and I finally opened my mouth.
Hopefully sports day tomorrow and the day after would be interesting days.
Speaking about sports, I had quite an experience this morning...
I woke up my latest ever, and reached buona vista station the latest ever, 7:30. Thinking that the buses there would take too long to reach school, I proceeded on to clementi. I reached there, and looked at the digital bus arrival board. Noticing that no buses were coming soon, I decided to set off on foot.
As I ran towards a junction, I wondered if I should go by clementi avenue 2. I did not know if it linked to my school, though I guessed it would. Not wanting to take the risk, I left it behind and proceeded along the "conventional" bus 96 and 183 route to clementi road. As I approached school, I noticed that everyone was assembled. Oh crap, I was late. Or was I not? I realised that people were still walking to the track. I ran, and made it just on time as I caught some attention while running across the field.
Wonderful, an early morning 1.6 km run in completed in 10 minutes...Well, it was a well-taken risk - The bus had not reached when I ran past the bus stop outside my school.
Lalala.
Source: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html
Some friends of mine and I went to play tennis yesterday, and today, we went over to someone's house to play games. Joelle brought another board game, which was even more fun than top secret - Cats manshion. I'll hope the games she bring would just get more and more fun. Other than that, we played some cards and sat around the television watching and playing Guitar Hero.
Once I started playing, I was quite reluctant to go home. Afterall, as the first law of fun states:
Every Person in a state of having fun tends to remain in that state of fun unless an external factor is applied to it.
Quite a lot of people went to play tennis and went to kat's house too. As the second law states:
F=ma (F: Fun m: members a: activities)
The relationship between having fun, the amount of activities, and the number of members is F = ma.
Again, there is the last law to be accounted for...
For every relaxation and fun there is an equal and opposite amount of relaxation and fun.
This probably explains script checking.
English: Remember my musical descriptive essay? The marker said that the expressions I used were confusing. Pity... Paper 2 was rather okay though. Although my comprehension section failed me, my summary pulled me up with a surprising score.
Chinese: Paper 2, 52.5/70. This was what I was quite contented with. What about my essay? I really do not know if I should feel sorry and pity, or happiness. I could have got 47/50, but I wrote too many wrong characters, and thus I got minused off 3 marks.
Chemistry: Alright, but many careless mistakes
Trigonometry: Careless...but my marks are good enough for an A.
Geography: This was the worse; again, but perhaps it was the most surprising. I spent half the given time to finish the paper and expected myself to get half the total marks, but i got 34/50. I was too surprised...
Now here comes in the equal and opposite reaction of 'fun'.
We went through the answers in 15 minutes for almost all the papers, and for the rest of the time people just ran up either trying to change their marks or signing their names. What did many of us do? Sign our names, go back to our seat, do nothing.
Maybe towards the end of the geography paper checking it started to get a little better, when some of us formed a group and I finally opened my mouth.
Hopefully sports day tomorrow and the day after would be interesting days.
Speaking about sports, I had quite an experience this morning...
I woke up my latest ever, and reached buona vista station the latest ever, 7:30. Thinking that the buses there would take too long to reach school, I proceeded on to clementi. I reached there, and looked at the digital bus arrival board. Noticing that no buses were coming soon, I decided to set off on foot.
As I ran towards a junction, I wondered if I should go by clementi avenue 2. I did not know if it linked to my school, though I guessed it would. Not wanting to take the risk, I left it behind and proceeded along the "conventional" bus 96 and 183 route to clementi road. As I approached school, I noticed that everyone was assembled. Oh crap, I was late. Or was I not? I realised that people were still walking to the track. I ran, and made it just on time as I caught some attention while running across the field.
Wonderful, an early morning 1.6 km run in completed in 10 minutes...Well, it was a well-taken risk - The bus had not reached when I ran past the bus stop outside my school.
Lalala.
Source: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html
Monday, November 10, 2008
The Lighthouse
Disclaimer: This piece of work is created by me, no part of it have been reproduced from other sources in the process.After an hour and a half of working in microsoft paint, I finally completed this piece of art. What motivated me to do this? Boredom, and with some urge of mine to publish a little something more different from the rest of my posts.
Other than the solid sky background and lighthouse, coloured by a cheapskate method called fill, the rest are mainly completed with the spray brush tool.
The idea to create the clouds in such a manner with a slight 3d texture came to me when I realised that my sea looked more like blue balls of cotton than what it was supposed to be, when I sprayed a kaleidoscope of cool colours into it.
Connotation of clouds = cottom wool (Cool, 3 Cs in a sentence of 4 words. And cool starts with C too.)
Well, feel free to comment on it, and rate it too!
Kickoff to the final week
The weekends have been a usual noisy one. Other than going for my brother's kindergarten concert, nothing special happened.
It lasted for a whole two hours, with many performances hard to admire, needless to say, to concentrate on. Oh great, I am going to sleep throughout, was what I thought as I entered the performance hall. It turned out the utter opposite for three reasons:
1) The back of the chair was too low, I couldn't rest my head
2) The music was really really bright and loud
3) I had to film my brother
One hour after I got very restless, there was still a finale, and there was this girl stoning in the middle of a dancing crowd. I don't care about her. I care about the fact that she was blocking my brother, and I had to move about holding the camera trying to get a constant image of him for 7 minutes.
Enough of that.
The weekends are over and now its back to school for one more week.
The bio paper and statistics and probability paper were returned today. My prediction was correct, in fact, I should say doubly correct.
"Prepare to scare or surprise myself..." as mentioned in the previous post, well? I scared and surprised myself.
I surprised myself for my biology paper. 45/55. That is a record for any biology exam I had! I even won ben, for the first time. I guess its my essay questions that always fail me. Fortunately there were none this time round.
I scared myself for my statistics and probability paper. 41/50. Does not sound bad?
1) That is below average
2) Everything were just careless mistakes. No, I should not say careless, they were just plain stupid and nonsensicle mistakes I made.
I calculated mean wrongly as my entire formula was wrong and the formula I invented and assumed to be right did not make any sense either when I read it.
Also, I input a wrong probability of 1/3 when it was supposed to be 1/2. Why did I do it? Out of haste? No. Something just got into me.
However, two open ended questions still left my frustration hanging. Although my points for reasoning were quite similar to the model answer, my opening statement contradicted the model answer due to different judgements. Still, I was given no marks despite my reasoning.
Still, there isn't a need to complain about everything, and I was not really bothered about being top, or average, or anything that all matters a whole 3 marks (that's quite a lot).
Anyway, I have picked up a new way to pass my time on the mrt just today - rubik's cube (2x2x2).
School ended at 10am. That leaves 4 more days to the official end of two years in this school, or the two years which I could see my classmates easily almost everyday. Perhaps it would be time I started looking back and reflecting on all that has happened, all that we have been through...
It lasted for a whole two hours, with many performances hard to admire, needless to say, to concentrate on. Oh great, I am going to sleep throughout, was what I thought as I entered the performance hall. It turned out the utter opposite for three reasons:
1) The back of the chair was too low, I couldn't rest my head
2) The music was really really bright and loud
3) I had to film my brother
One hour after I got very restless, there was still a finale, and there was this girl stoning in the middle of a dancing crowd. I don't care about her. I care about the fact that she was blocking my brother, and I had to move about holding the camera trying to get a constant image of him for 7 minutes.
Enough of that.
The weekends are over and now its back to school for one more week.
The bio paper and statistics and probability paper were returned today. My prediction was correct, in fact, I should say doubly correct.
"Prepare to scare or surprise myself..." as mentioned in the previous post, well? I scared and surprised myself.
I surprised myself for my biology paper. 45/55. That is a record for any biology exam I had! I even won ben, for the first time. I guess its my essay questions that always fail me. Fortunately there were none this time round.
I scared myself for my statistics and probability paper. 41/50. Does not sound bad?
1) That is below average
2) Everything were just careless mistakes. No, I should not say careless, they were just plain stupid and nonsensicle mistakes I made.
I calculated mean wrongly as my entire formula was wrong and the formula I invented and assumed to be right did not make any sense either when I read it.
Also, I input a wrong probability of 1/3 when it was supposed to be 1/2. Why did I do it? Out of haste? No. Something just got into me.
However, two open ended questions still left my frustration hanging. Although my points for reasoning were quite similar to the model answer, my opening statement contradicted the model answer due to different judgements. Still, I was given no marks despite my reasoning.
Still, there isn't a need to complain about everything, and I was not really bothered about being top, or average, or anything that all matters a whole 3 marks (that's quite a lot).
Anyway, I have picked up a new way to pass my time on the mrt just today - rubik's cube (2x2x2).
School ended at 10am. That leaves 4 more days to the official end of two years in this school, or the two years which I could see my classmates easily almost everyday. Perhaps it would be time I started looking back and reflecting on all that has happened, all that we have been through...
Friday, November 7, 2008
Second day at the Chalet
Woke up.
Went Pasir Ris West Plaza to get Lunch, went to Pasir Ris Interchange to meet joelle and ethel, then finally took bus 359 and walked to the chalet.
By the time we reached there we were sweating quite badly. Many people went to play basketball but I was too tired to do so. Thus, the remaining people and I played a mad game which joelle brought in which you were supposed to lose all your money to win. We also played heart attack with peanut shells, blokus, a dinosaur card game played with peanut shells and Uno Cards and lastly a game called top secret.
It was a good way to pass the time. After lunch, we moved out to the chalet for a suite TZY's mum booked. We went in, went out and some people prepared the bbq. I say that that, is a terrible way to spend, or waste money. Even in spending money, there are ways to do it. Firstly, I think we did not need that suite at all. Secondly, I think even buying stacks of newspaper from a stand and then giving it to the karung guni is a much better way to waste your money. Instead of giving a country club, already so rich, money that you do not need, would not it be better to give them to someone else, at the same time giving the karung guni and newspaper stand business. Extreme case, but yes, I really think that there is a right and wrong way to do some "spring cleaning".
There after, there was nothing much for me to do, and so I went home at 7. I cannot see what people see in bbqs so much. Environmental-unfriendly, expensive, unhealthy, troublesome, supportive of the meat industry...Oh well. I just think that the cons outweigh the pros.
That ends my day at the chalet. Not bad at all, though the day could have dragged longer. Perhaps I should try staying over for once in future...
Now, off with all these outings. Next Monday- exam script checking. Prepare to scare or surprise myself...
Went Pasir Ris West Plaza to get Lunch, went to Pasir Ris Interchange to meet joelle and ethel, then finally took bus 359 and walked to the chalet.
By the time we reached there we were sweating quite badly. Many people went to play basketball but I was too tired to do so. Thus, the remaining people and I played a mad game which joelle brought in which you were supposed to lose all your money to win. We also played heart attack with peanut shells, blokus, a dinosaur card game played with peanut shells and Uno Cards and lastly a game called top secret.
It was a good way to pass the time. After lunch, we moved out to the chalet for a suite TZY's mum booked. We went in, went out and some people prepared the bbq. I say that that, is a terrible way to spend, or waste money. Even in spending money, there are ways to do it. Firstly, I think we did not need that suite at all. Secondly, I think even buying stacks of newspaper from a stand and then giving it to the karung guni is a much better way to waste your money. Instead of giving a country club, already so rich, money that you do not need, would not it be better to give them to someone else, at the same time giving the karung guni and newspaper stand business. Extreme case, but yes, I really think that there is a right and wrong way to do some "spring cleaning".
There after, there was nothing much for me to do, and so I went home at 7. I cannot see what people see in bbqs so much. Environmental-unfriendly, expensive, unhealthy, troublesome, supportive of the meat industry...Oh well. I just think that the cons outweigh the pros.
That ends my day at the chalet. Not bad at all, though the day could have dragged longer. Perhaps I should try staying over for once in future...
Now, off with all these outings. Next Monday- exam script checking. Prepare to scare or surprise myself...
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
To the Chalet...
Where shall I start?
I shall start when I heeded the sms' advice and took 8 stops on bus 403, although the sms said 6 stops but I read it wrongly. Even then, it made no difference, for 8 stops was closer to my destination than the 6 stops. I alighted and was surrounded by many houses on the hilltop. Where could the chalet be? Shouldn't it be a 30 metre walk from the bus stop? (at least that was what the message said)
As I started contacting many of my classmates to get directions to the chalet, none of them picked up my call. Finally, when I managed to get through with emman, I was so excited, but it turned out to be a recorded voice. Oh great, all of them must be still at wild wild wet. What should I do now...
Last resort, tzy. With his mother's help and based on my past experience and memories, I found the chalet just next to the year 2 campsite we went to earlier this year. Why didn't anyone just say that in the first place. It had been some 600 metres walk from that bus stop to that chalet, and when I reached the place, I saw a bus stop just outside. Which stop was it? The 11th stop. 11-6 = 5. Inaccuracy of 5 stops...
Alright, now that I have finally found the place after half an hour of probing into different alleys, I went into the building itself. The moment I saw it I went "wow". Doors wide open, electricity on, everything. Messed up tables and shoes and bags lying here and there. Count myself really lucky, or I would have stayed outside for the next 3 hours, or alternatively I could just go home.
There was absolutely nothing to do in there, so I stoned on the couch and tried to fall asleep. It was useless, and sleeping in the deafening silence was creepy...and boring. I slouched on the couch and watched a boring chinese show for an hour. Afterwhich, I walked around and looked out of the window. Nick and Yanni were there, walking. I sighed to myself, "Finally got some company!" I rushed down and it turned out they could not find the place either.
We went up, and watched Hulk. It was quite a movie with action and all but completely lacked a storyline, and considering I never watched the prequels, that made it worse. That was all for the day, and we three just left the chalet after the movie ended. There, at the bus stop, we met the rest of the chalet-goers who just returned from wild wild wet.
We waited at the bus stop, but that bus stop only had 403. So, I decided to find the bus stop that held both 358 and 403, since sms told me that it was just 8 stops from the interchange to take 358 too. Apparently, I forgot totally the only bus that plies through pasir ris park and the northwestern hills of pasir ris is 403. So while Nick and Yanni were waiting at a bus stop, I went to look for that non-existent one I had in my mind.
Running on the hills could not be said to be too easy. After I found a bus stop furthur down the road, I assumed it to be the right one. Then, I did not know where I was.
To be safe, I ran back to the same bus stop uphill, when 403 just arrived. It turned out that two things went wrong:
1) Nick and Yanni were waiting and the wrong side of the road for the bus, but it did not really matter because the bus made a loop.
2) I ran in a circle.
I shall illustrate my second point.
The Orange arrow shows where we were suppose to head towards.
The Green line shows the route 403 takes.
The Green arrow shows where Nick, Yanni and I headed for at first.
The Blue arrow shows where I headed for while trying to be smart.
And when I tried watching out for the 358 bus stops along the way home, I noticed that the 2nd and 3rd stops(red circle) were nearer to the chalet than the 8th stop(black circle) which was mentioned in the sms.
By taking 358, I would still have to walk at least 1km additional of slopes. Fortunately I did not take that bus.
All these just proves to myself one point, to be self reliant when possible especially when I live in pasir ris, having a headstart in knowing the place, yet I chose to rely blindly on an sms, and wasted myself so much time for this chalet, searching...
running...
complaining about the sms...
Okay I should stop complaining now.
Let me try getting to the chalet again tomorrow without any problems.
I shall start when I heeded the sms' advice and took 8 stops on bus 403, although the sms said 6 stops but I read it wrongly. Even then, it made no difference, for 8 stops was closer to my destination than the 6 stops. I alighted and was surrounded by many houses on the hilltop. Where could the chalet be? Shouldn't it be a 30 metre walk from the bus stop? (at least that was what the message said)
As I started contacting many of my classmates to get directions to the chalet, none of them picked up my call. Finally, when I managed to get through with emman, I was so excited, but it turned out to be a recorded voice. Oh great, all of them must be still at wild wild wet. What should I do now...
Last resort, tzy. With his mother's help and based on my past experience and memories, I found the chalet just next to the year 2 campsite we went to earlier this year. Why didn't anyone just say that in the first place. It had been some 600 metres walk from that bus stop to that chalet, and when I reached the place, I saw a bus stop just outside. Which stop was it? The 11th stop. 11-6 = 5. Inaccuracy of 5 stops...
Alright, now that I have finally found the place after half an hour of probing into different alleys, I went into the building itself. The moment I saw it I went "wow". Doors wide open, electricity on, everything. Messed up tables and shoes and bags lying here and there. Count myself really lucky, or I would have stayed outside for the next 3 hours, or alternatively I could just go home.
There was absolutely nothing to do in there, so I stoned on the couch and tried to fall asleep. It was useless, and sleeping in the deafening silence was creepy...and boring. I slouched on the couch and watched a boring chinese show for an hour. Afterwhich, I walked around and looked out of the window. Nick and Yanni were there, walking. I sighed to myself, "Finally got some company!" I rushed down and it turned out they could not find the place either.
We went up, and watched Hulk. It was quite a movie with action and all but completely lacked a storyline, and considering I never watched the prequels, that made it worse. That was all for the day, and we three just left the chalet after the movie ended. There, at the bus stop, we met the rest of the chalet-goers who just returned from wild wild wet.
We waited at the bus stop, but that bus stop only had 403. So, I decided to find the bus stop that held both 358 and 403, since sms told me that it was just 8 stops from the interchange to take 358 too. Apparently, I forgot totally the only bus that plies through pasir ris park and the northwestern hills of pasir ris is 403. So while Nick and Yanni were waiting at a bus stop, I went to look for that non-existent one I had in my mind.
Running on the hills could not be said to be too easy. After I found a bus stop furthur down the road, I assumed it to be the right one. Then, I did not know where I was.
To be safe, I ran back to the same bus stop uphill, when 403 just arrived. It turned out that two things went wrong:
1) Nick and Yanni were waiting and the wrong side of the road for the bus, but it did not really matter because the bus made a loop.
2) I ran in a circle.
I shall illustrate my second point.
The Orange arrow shows where we were suppose to head towards.
The Green line shows the route 403 takes.
The Green arrow shows where Nick, Yanni and I headed for at first.
The Blue arrow shows where I headed for while trying to be smart.
And when I tried watching out for the 358 bus stops along the way home, I noticed that the 2nd and 3rd stops(red circle) were nearer to the chalet than the 8th stop(black circle) which was mentioned in the sms.
By taking 358, I would still have to walk at least 1km additional of slopes. Fortunately I did not take that bus.
All these just proves to myself one point, to be self reliant when possible especially when I live in pasir ris, having a headstart in knowing the place, yet I chose to rely blindly on an sms, and wasted myself so much time for this chalet, searching...
running...
complaining about the sms...
Okay I should stop complaining now.
Let me try getting to the chalet again tomorrow without any problems.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Cycling once again
Finally, after the last cycling trip for some three months, my classmates and I went cycling once again on the last day of the examinations (3/11/2008).
Some went rollerblading, a group thought ryan how to cycle and another group went cycling, which eventually split up into two groups which went into different ways.
For easier references, I shall label these groups
Rollerbladers: Gen, Cheryl lin, Kat, Pyq, Nick, Ethel
Teachers: Cmc, Christine, Ryan
Beach-goers(they went to the beach halfway and turned back): Angela, Nar, Ben, Emman
Adventurers aka losers (We got kind of lost): Dillon, Cheryl lit, Jk, Charlene, ZF, Joelle
For a start, here a some statistics of my group.
Distance cycled: 36-42km
Time taken: 5 hours (due to some major yet interesting problems encountered on the way)
Time we SHOULD have taken: 3
Number of people who got injured: 3
Number of damaged bicycles: 3
Number of times one of our bicycle chains dislodged: 3
Looks like 3 is a lucky number:)
It started as a typical cycling event, when we cycled and rollerbladed leisurely. Slowly, the distance between people increased and we could not see many people around us. As jk, joelle and I approached the tanah merah side of east coast park, a light drizzle fell. That was not exactly the hard part, the hard part was the wind which we had to cycle against. I took out my umbrella for fun and sheltered myself from the rain while cycling, one hand holding it, and the other onto the bicycle handle.
However, the wind was too strong for the upright umbrella to take it, and it turned inside out. I stopped and tried to fix it, but my efforts were in vain. Just when I was about the give up and keep my umbrella, I had an idea to use poison to cure poison. I faced my umbrella infront, such that it looked like a radar and cycled really fast. The wind blew it back:)
We reached changi coast road and cycled and cycled and cycled and cycled and...you get the idea. Charlene was not very fast at first thus joelle waited for her. Now that made them the last people so I waited too just in case. And in front waiting were dillon, cheryl lit and jk near the end of changi coast road(we took very long to catch up). When we caught up, we started cycling together.
Nothing much happened as we cycled along towards changi beach and joelle suddenly became very sad for some weird reason; I guess its just no one talking to her. We saw the beach-goers playing at the beach ahead and thinking that they would catch up with us eventually, we just cycled on.
We rested at changi village. We were around midway of the park connectors to east coast and thus we decided to continue on. Time elapse was 1 hour 40 minutes and at this rate, we probably could make it in around 3 hours provided we cycled fast, but this was not the case...
Changi village was full of up and downs. As we rolled down a slope, we cruised along the track when I heard a crashed. Joelle fell off her bicycle while going down the slope and she rolled down. Probably she thought the slope was so fun that she did not brake. She landed in a sitting position and laughed hysterically with 3 minor injuries on her limbs. Her bicycle gearings were damaged too. That was very dangerous...and thank goodness she was lucky that she was not hurt too badly.
After washing her wounds, we proceeded and soon we reached loyang avenue which was still 'slopey' (full of slopes). Pushing the bicycles up long slopes was tiring.
Some where along the avenue, Joelle's bicycle chain dislodged and I went to fix it based on my experience the last time mine did. Great, and I thought that today would be a nice and 'black-hand-free' day. However, worse was about to come.
We passed by my home (Just when we passed by pasir ris drive 2 while cycling along pasir ris drive 3), and loyang point, and it started to rain. It did not stop and the rain was escalating, drenching all of us worse than ever. I could not take the cold and took out my umbrella, which turned out more of a hinder to getting to the nearest shelter. We went pass downtown east and lightning split the sky just like how my pants split in school earlier this year; and thunder roared louder than my chemistry teacher's voice. I held the umbrella at a 45 degree angle ahead of me and rode towards the bus stop, but jk was no where to be seen. We looked around, but no one could find him. I turned back and went to find him.
The road ahead was a fog. Pedestrians were just blurred images of a low resolution graphic. My only guidance was the traffic lights ahead, their circles of light breaking through the inpenetrable rain.
I reached the junction but jk was no where to be seen. I turned back and saw joelle along the way in the rain. Apparently jk was safe already and thus we tried to run back to the bus stop under an umbrella and pushing a bicycle which was not that easy, and I slipped and fell halfway there. I got up immediately and we moved back to the bus stop as fast as possible.
My knee was cut and there was quite some blood. My lower torso was also scratched but fortunately there was not any blood. I can't imagine my stomach sking bleeding.
Now, someone said that jk was here, and now he disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. Surely he was not left behind, that means he proceeded on his own in the rain. That is very risky in a thunderstorm and we were all worried for him.
The rain finally diminished and thus we continued on our way. We met jk and he said that he thought we did not stop cycling thus he continued...how blur. I was keeping my umbrella when a blinding flash appeared accompanied by a thundering thunder of thunder. Oh dear, its starting all over again. We rushed towards the nearest shelter once again, which was in pasir ris town park. We had better not continue anymore until the sky fully clears of dark clouds.
Our bags were wet. Really wet. Lets see what I have in my bag...
-Soft toy kangaroo
-Library book (Paperback)
-Shirt
-Graphing Calculator
-Handphone
-Stationery(safe in the plastic bag)
Oh dear...
The sky cleared after 15 minutes. Pasir Ris, being an area of low lying land, was utterly flooded. I realised that the rain had washed away the grease stains on my hand from fixing the bicycle chains. As I cycled, my bicycle splashed into a big puddle, at least being 10cm in depth. It was around 2 metres across and yes, this was time when I got my shoes and socks really wet. Uncomfortably wet. I was quite surprise to see such a big puddle, and as I looked ahead, this was not the only one. Many more were ahead, with one of them covering an entire stretch of track. We reached the end of the flooded track, when we heard that dillon got into some kind of trouble. He fell into a puddle and his bag too, with charlene's handphone inside. At the same time, his bicycle chain got dislodged. Oh well, once again my hand is going to get dirty, but it did not matter.
In dirt-stained and soaking clothes, we proceeded. We went over the TPE pushing our bicycles tiringly across the overhead bridge, and just after I got back onto my bicycle after that, the chain fell out. I have too much experience in this already...
We cycled across tampines, across many streets so each time we saw a traffic light ahead, I'ld go 'oh great' and slow down my bike impatiently. We reached bedok resevoir and crossed another expressway. My first thought when I saw it was that it was the ECP and just across it would be east coast park, but it turned out to be the PIE only. How depressing.
Across the expressway at one point, just ahead of the track was a busy road, upper changi road east, and it appears that there were no traffic lights nearby. I didn't know what to do as I have never crossed a major road without a traffic light, until Joelle said just cross it when there are no cars, and stupid as it might seem, but I thought in my mind, "Oh yea when there are no cars we cross the road". This is what happens when people start to get mentally tired. And I must point out that its a terrible design of that track... Can't they at least lead us to a traffic light?
For some reason which no one ever realised, after we crossed the road, although the continuation of the bedok park connector was directly in front, we all turned and started to ride along Upper Changi Road East. I guess its just about our tiredness.
Then dillon said，"Oh I know this place, this is Singapore Expo." and someone else pointed out that the cycling track is just ahead, and we all started cycling towards simei. We only realised when we found out the track keeps on going straight. We turned back.
We got back onto the right track, when we realised that jk was still at the back. He collapsed on the floor with his bicycle. We turned back and found out that he had leg cramps. We surrounded jk, other than charlene who was taking care of the bicycles ahead.
Jk asked, "Where's Charlene?" At that time, I suddenly reminded of those shows, in which a dying hero wants to see his girlfriend for a last time. Oops sorry hope I offend neither of them.
Jk called his father, but after some time all of us just cycled on. All of us were confused. Finally, we reached Upper East Coast Road where jk talked to his father again. When I asked him later he told me that he told a lie that we were lost, well actually it was kind of true, but still...because he did not want his father to worry too much.
At last, East Coast Parkway! Another irritating thing is that to get to the underpass, we had to cycle along it for some distance, and when we reach the park itself, we have to cycle back in the opposite direction. We reached the underpass and to make things worse, the designers knew that there would be cyclists, yet there were no ramps, only staircases.
Reluctantly, I dragged my bicycle down the steps, or I should say that my bicycle dragged ME down the stairs. On the other side, a kind man and dillon were helping to carry bicycles up. It was quite slow, so I decided to carry it myself. Heaving it onto my shoulders, I managed to get the bicycle up, but I did not know how to put it down ironically. Out of a weird instinct, I flung my bike onto the ground. First was joelle's bicycle gearing, second, jk's bicycle handle that got bent as he crashed into a pole somewhere along the road. Crash. Third bike down. My bicycle landed on the handles and the bell automatically disassembled itself.
It was tiring and I was totally worn out by the time we reached the bicycle rental shop. Nevertheless, it was a good experience, and finishing the eastern park connector network finally, I had quite a sense of achievement. This trip is my standard of a wonderful outing it had been.
Some went rollerblading, a group thought ryan how to cycle and another group went cycling, which eventually split up into two groups which went into different ways.
For easier references, I shall label these groups
Rollerbladers: Gen, Cheryl lin, Kat, Pyq, Nick, Ethel
Teachers: Cmc, Christine, Ryan
Beach-goers(they went to the beach halfway and turned back): Angela, Nar, Ben, Emman
Adventurers aka losers (We got kind of lost): Dillon, Cheryl lit, Jk, Charlene, ZF, Joelle
For a start, here a some statistics of my group.
Distance cycled: 36-42km
Time taken: 5 hours (due to some major yet interesting problems encountered on the way)
Time we SHOULD have taken: 3
Number of people who got injured: 3
Number of damaged bicycles: 3
Number of times one of our bicycle chains dislodged: 3
Looks like 3 is a lucky number:)
It started as a typical cycling event, when we cycled and rollerbladed leisurely. Slowly, the distance between people increased and we could not see many people around us. As jk, joelle and I approached the tanah merah side of east coast park, a light drizzle fell. That was not exactly the hard part, the hard part was the wind which we had to cycle against. I took out my umbrella for fun and sheltered myself from the rain while cycling, one hand holding it, and the other onto the bicycle handle.
However, the wind was too strong for the upright umbrella to take it, and it turned inside out. I stopped and tried to fix it, but my efforts were in vain. Just when I was about the give up and keep my umbrella, I had an idea to use poison to cure poison. I faced my umbrella infront, such that it looked like a radar and cycled really fast. The wind blew it back:)
We reached changi coast road and cycled and cycled and cycled and cycled and...you get the idea. Charlene was not very fast at first thus joelle waited for her. Now that made them the last people so I waited too just in case. And in front waiting were dillon, cheryl lit and jk near the end of changi coast road(we took very long to catch up). When we caught up, we started cycling together.
Nothing much happened as we cycled along towards changi beach and joelle suddenly became very sad for some weird reason; I guess its just no one talking to her. We saw the beach-goers playing at the beach ahead and thinking that they would catch up with us eventually, we just cycled on.
We rested at changi village. We were around midway of the park connectors to east coast and thus we decided to continue on. Time elapse was 1 hour 40 minutes and at this rate, we probably could make it in around 3 hours provided we cycled fast, but this was not the case...
Changi village was full of up and downs. As we rolled down a slope, we cruised along the track when I heard a crashed. Joelle fell off her bicycle while going down the slope and she rolled down. Probably she thought the slope was so fun that she did not brake. She landed in a sitting position and laughed hysterically with 3 minor injuries on her limbs. Her bicycle gearings were damaged too. That was very dangerous...and thank goodness she was lucky that she was not hurt too badly.
After washing her wounds, we proceeded and soon we reached loyang avenue which was still 'slopey' (full of slopes). Pushing the bicycles up long slopes was tiring.
Some where along the avenue, Joelle's bicycle chain dislodged and I went to fix it based on my experience the last time mine did. Great, and I thought that today would be a nice and 'black-hand-free' day. However, worse was about to come.
We passed by my home (Just when we passed by pasir ris drive 2 while cycling along pasir ris drive 3), and loyang point, and it started to rain. It did not stop and the rain was escalating, drenching all of us worse than ever. I could not take the cold and took out my umbrella, which turned out more of a hinder to getting to the nearest shelter. We went pass downtown east and lightning split the sky just like how my pants split in school earlier this year; and thunder roared louder than my chemistry teacher's voice. I held the umbrella at a 45 degree angle ahead of me and rode towards the bus stop, but jk was no where to be seen. We looked around, but no one could find him. I turned back and went to find him.
The road ahead was a fog. Pedestrians were just blurred images of a low resolution graphic. My only guidance was the traffic lights ahead, their circles of light breaking through the inpenetrable rain.
I reached the junction but jk was no where to be seen. I turned back and saw joelle along the way in the rain. Apparently jk was safe already and thus we tried to run back to the bus stop under an umbrella and pushing a bicycle which was not that easy, and I slipped and fell halfway there. I got up immediately and we moved back to the bus stop as fast as possible.
My knee was cut and there was quite some blood. My lower torso was also scratched but fortunately there was not any blood. I can't imagine my stomach sking bleeding.
Now, someone said that jk was here, and now he disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen. Surely he was not left behind, that means he proceeded on his own in the rain. That is very risky in a thunderstorm and we were all worried for him.
The rain finally diminished and thus we continued on our way. We met jk and he said that he thought we did not stop cycling thus he continued...how blur. I was keeping my umbrella when a blinding flash appeared accompanied by a thundering thunder of thunder. Oh dear, its starting all over again. We rushed towards the nearest shelter once again, which was in pasir ris town park. We had better not continue anymore until the sky fully clears of dark clouds.
Our bags were wet. Really wet. Lets see what I have in my bag...
-Soft toy kangaroo
-Library book (Paperback)
-Shirt
-Graphing Calculator
-Handphone
-Stationery(safe in the plastic bag)
Oh dear...
The sky cleared after 15 minutes. Pasir Ris, being an area of low lying land, was utterly flooded. I realised that the rain had washed away the grease stains on my hand from fixing the bicycle chains. As I cycled, my bicycle splashed into a big puddle, at least being 10cm in depth. It was around 2 metres across and yes, this was time when I got my shoes and socks really wet. Uncomfortably wet. I was quite surprise to see such a big puddle, and as I looked ahead, this was not the only one. Many more were ahead, with one of them covering an entire stretch of track. We reached the end of the flooded track, when we heard that dillon got into some kind of trouble. He fell into a puddle and his bag too, with charlene's handphone inside. At the same time, his bicycle chain got dislodged. Oh well, once again my hand is going to get dirty, but it did not matter.
In dirt-stained and soaking clothes, we proceeded. We went over the TPE pushing our bicycles tiringly across the overhead bridge, and just after I got back onto my bicycle after that, the chain fell out. I have too much experience in this already...
We cycled across tampines, across many streets so each time we saw a traffic light ahead, I'ld go 'oh great' and slow down my bike impatiently. We reached bedok resevoir and crossed another expressway. My first thought when I saw it was that it was the ECP and just across it would be east coast park, but it turned out to be the PIE only. How depressing.
Across the expressway at one point, just ahead of the track was a busy road, upper changi road east, and it appears that there were no traffic lights nearby. I didn't know what to do as I have never crossed a major road without a traffic light, until Joelle said just cross it when there are no cars, and stupid as it might seem, but I thought in my mind, "Oh yea when there are no cars we cross the road". This is what happens when people start to get mentally tired. And I must point out that its a terrible design of that track... Can't they at least lead us to a traffic light?
For some reason which no one ever realised, after we crossed the road, although the continuation of the bedok park connector was directly in front, we all turned and started to ride along Upper Changi Road East. I guess its just about our tiredness.
Then dillon said，"Oh I know this place, this is Singapore Expo." and someone else pointed out that the cycling track is just ahead, and we all started cycling towards simei. We only realised when we found out the track keeps on going straight. We turned back.
We got back onto the right track, when we realised that jk was still at the back. He collapsed on the floor with his bicycle. We turned back and found out that he had leg cramps. We surrounded jk, other than charlene who was taking care of the bicycles ahead.
Jk asked, "Where's Charlene?" At that time, I suddenly reminded of those shows, in which a dying hero wants to see his girlfriend for a last time. Oops sorry hope I offend neither of them.
Jk called his father, but after some time all of us just cycled on. All of us were confused. Finally, we reached Upper East Coast Road where jk talked to his father again. When I asked him later he told me that he told a lie that we were lost, well actually it was kind of true, but still...because he did not want his father to worry too much.
At last, East Coast Parkway! Another irritating thing is that to get to the underpass, we had to cycle along it for some distance, and when we reach the park itself, we have to cycle back in the opposite direction. We reached the underpass and to make things worse, the designers knew that there would be cyclists, yet there were no ramps, only staircases.
Reluctantly, I dragged my bicycle down the steps, or I should say that my bicycle dragged ME down the stairs. On the other side, a kind man and dillon were helping to carry bicycles up. It was quite slow, so I decided to carry it myself. Heaving it onto my shoulders, I managed to get the bicycle up, but I did not know how to put it down ironically. Out of a weird instinct, I flung my bike onto the ground. First was joelle's bicycle gearing, second, jk's bicycle handle that got bent as he crashed into a pole somewhere along the road. Crash. Third bike down. My bicycle landed on the handles and the bell automatically disassembled itself.
It was tiring and I was totally worn out by the time we reached the bicycle rental shop. Nevertheless, it was a good experience, and finishing the eastern park connector network finally, I had quite a sense of achievement. This trip is my standard of a wonderful outing it had been.
第一次出国-第四级
年终考试终于结束了, 现在我终于有多点儿时间写记录了.
上次不是记叙到第三天了吗? 现在就谈谈第四天的吧!
今天, 咱们早一些起床, 因为要去搭猫空缆车. 怎么去呢? 就是搭捷运, 从淡水线换到板南线, 在换木栅线.
看看台北的交通工具使用者，我觉得他们比新家坡人有规矩多了。搭电动扶梯时，一定靠右。上捷运时，一定以两排慢慢走进去。新加坡呢，大家争先孔已经习惯了； 大家都这样，我们也不得不这么做，不然就无法上车了。
还有，这里等待一趟捷运只需一两分钟。可惜，台北捷运站的一个短处就是换线是需要走很长的路，我看至少200米吧。
在动物园站，我们下车。买了缆车票后，我们排了半个钟头的对。上了缆车，已望出窗口，就是树，又是山，又是树。偶尔，也看到鸟瞰的台北市。
后来，我们在其中一站下缆车，走到湖畔去。但是，不管怎么走，好像都到不了。虽然后来有听到水声，但山路难走，而且虫子有多，因此我们倒回去了。
接着，我们去看了几个庙就走了。
再回去路途中，拍到了这些。这就是台北101。在绿洲中的斑点就是不幸而拍到的坟墓。
回到了饭店，我们已经精疲力尽了。 第五天与最后一天我就略写了。第五天， 就是平凡的一天。爸爸带我到诚品书局看看。在那儿花了几个小时，最后我只买了一本小叮当的漫画书。后来姑姑带我们到一间餐厅吃自助餐的下午茶当作晚餐，因为晚餐的收费比较贵。
最后一天终于来了。早上到了科学馆后，我们和姑姑到桃园里的一间道馆办些时。最后去了飞机场。
天边的彩霞
抵达新加坡！
上次不是记叙到第三天了吗? 现在就谈谈第四天的吧!
今天, 咱们早一些起床, 因为要去搭猫空缆车. 怎么去呢? 就是搭捷运, 从淡水线换到板南线, 在换木栅线.
看看台北的交通工具使用者，我觉得他们比新家坡人有规矩多了。搭电动扶梯时，一定靠右。上捷运时，一定以两排慢慢走进去。新加坡呢，大家争先孔已经习惯了； 大家都这样，我们也不得不这么做，不然就无法上车了。
还有，这里等待一趟捷运只需一两分钟。可惜，台北捷运站的一个短处就是换线是需要走很长的路，我看至少200米吧。
在动物园站，我们下车。买了缆车票后，我们排了半个钟头的对。上了缆车，已望出窗口，就是树，又是山，又是树。偶尔，也看到鸟瞰的台北市。
后来，我们在其中一站下缆车，走到湖畔去。但是，不管怎么走，好像都到不了。虽然后来有听到水声，但山路难走，而且虫子有多，因此我们倒回去了。
接着，我们去看了几个庙就走了。
再回去路途中，拍到了这些。这就是台北101。在绿洲中的斑点就是不幸而拍到的坟墓。
回到了饭店，我们已经精疲力尽了。 第五天与最后一天我就略写了。第五天， 就是平凡的一天。爸爸带我到诚品书局看看。在那儿花了几个小时，最后我只买了一本小叮当的漫画书。后来姑姑带我们到一间餐厅吃自助餐的下午茶当作晚餐，因为晚餐的收费比较贵。最后一天终于来了。早上到了科学馆后，我们和姑姑到桃园里的一间道馆办些时。最后去了飞机场。
这不是山，而是飞机翼。
天边的彩霞
抵达新加坡！台湾旅游记就这样结束了。这是一个非常不错的经验。 即将到来的假期里，我全家打算到香港去，希望能和这次的出国一样美好。
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