Studying..... on Sat

Went to NTU to study with Gs, Terence and Derrick today and we studied all the way from 2 pm to almost 2 am. Quite a productive day indeed as i finished studying for both my maths and chemistry tests on monday. We were in the library from 2 to 5 pm, open air benches from 5 to 10 pm, and finally tutorial room from 10 to 2 am.

The good thing is that some tutorial rooms in NTU are open 24 hours and the air con is on 24 hours as well. Clarified a number of my queries on chemistry with experts like Derrick and Gs around. After our intensive studying, we headed to a 24 hrs hawker centre in boon lay for our supper. Derrick and i ordered 2 dishes as we were both really hungry.

17 days to my first exam on 12 Apr!

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Dinner & Supper

Waited for Derrick and Terence's gf to finish watching Angela Chang's campus concert before going for dinner together. After the concert ended, we went inside MLT for a short while to watch her music videos. She sang only 4 songs and left promptly after around 35 minutes.


We noticed her chauffeur at the carpark near MLT and waited for a short while to catch a close-up glimpse of her. I got a blurry shot of her as she was walking quite fast to her vehicle. She was only around 1.5 metres away from me and i was starstruck of course. Too bad i didn't capture another shot of her as my camera's processor is quite slow and her walking speed was quite fast.

After the brief encounter, we headed to orchard to have our dinner and met up with the other half of our jc classmates not from NTU. We loitered around for some time before settling down at Scotts Picnic to have our dinner. Next was more loitering around in Orchard and we decided to have supper or dessert at the famous Rochor Soya beancurd. We all mounted on top of my lorry and i decided to take a break and sit behind my lorry while Terence ferried all of us there.

It's really shiok to have so many people sitting at the back of the lorry passing through orchard road. Feel like shouting at the passerbys walking along orchard road. Haha... Took some pictures during the trip there.

Hair messy liao...... ha...

My eyes are nearly closed due to the wind

One of my classmates commented that some drivers might mistake my camera flash as the road camera flash and we all thought that was very funny. We reached Rocher dao huey in around 10 minutes and each of us ordered a packet of dao huey (soyabeancurd). The soyabeancurd is indeed very smooth, very tasty and not too sweet.

Some of us had another packet of grass jelly and we spent quite some time crapping and joking as usual. Took a group photo together there before leaving.


Meibin wanted to drive my lorry to fetch the rest back to their vehicles in orchard and i allowed as she had drove my lorry before. The journey back to orchard was a little bumpy and most of us were a little worried of mb's driving skills. Nevertheless, i trusted her driving skills and we got off safely.

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Hectic Day

Woke up early this morning to get Angela Chang's campus concert tickets but it was sold out 1 h 30 mins before the actual ticket distribution! Sad lor! Thought that i will confirm get tickets coz Terence was already queuing and i would be able to cut queue. However, they gave queue numbers to the first 200 people 10 mins before i arrived and i did not get a queue number. Next time i will be more kiasu for sure.

Watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon during my elective today. Had watched it previously in the theatres and it once again reinterated Lee Ang's supreme directorial skills after watching Brokeback Mountain not too long ago. Noted several similarities between CTHD and Brokeback Mountain. The locations of the shoot are places which few people frequent or are exotic, eg. the desert, mountainous areas, 18th century buildings, etc. The music is often soft and soothing, Brokeback Mountain has gentle guitar music while CTHD has world famous Yo Yo Ma playing the cello and composer Tan Dun with his soft oriental music. The stories often involve death of different characters and his characters are often oppressed by the patriarchal society. Ennis and Jack are oppressed by the homophobic society while Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai are restrained from marriage due to previous relationship engagements. The movements of the characters are also fluid and elegant; Ennis and Jack riding horses against the scenic landscape, Li Mu Bai, Jen and Shu Lien flying above bamboo forest and buildings.

Too bad Brokeback Mountain was robbed of Oscar Best Picture by Crash. BM should definitely have won and there is no doubt about it in my opinion. I guess the main reason for its loss is due to its controversial theme and homophobic judges. Is love just between heterosexual couples? Definitely not and the film exemplifies this fact.

Went to watch Capote at cineleisure with Clarence after our lessons. Capote is a biopic on Truman Capote, the author of the famous non-fiction book, In Cold Blood. He starts his research on a murder case that investigates the psyche of the murderers. Capote gets acquainted with the murderers and discovers a human side in them. He also gets involved in their sentencing and helps them to employ lawyers to fight their case.

Based on a true story, this movie is centred around Truman Capote, well-acted by Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The story is often uninvolving and we always get to see Capote talking to the criminals, talking to his friends and thinking about lots of stuff. The movie progresses dreadfully slowly and it is tedious in its pace. Although the cast is dedicated in each of the roles, we do not empathise much with the plight of Capote as the quirky, effeminate and emotional writer. A borefest for me indeed.

Went for a run round NTU at night and had supper at a 24 hours hawker centre after that.

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V For Vendetta

Watched V for Vendetta with Liyuan and Daryl today at West Mall.

V for Vendetta is visually spectacular, verbally profound and violent. The story is about a terrorist, V, who bombed the Old Bailey and intends to bomb the Parliament next. He bumps into Evey, Natalie Portman, by chance and helps her out of a difficult situation. Being the daughter of politician parents who had been murdered by the totalitarian government, she understand the reasons for V committing the crimes and she gradually gets converted to become his accomplice.

We get to know the intruiging background that formed the merciless and vengeful V a few decades back and the politics behind the government's veil of orderlyness and commanding control. "We should not fear the government, the government should fear us people." V proclaims. Indeed, an uprising is escalating and there is nothing much the government can do.

Natalie Portman is great in her role as Evey and her hair was also shaved off in the process. Hugo Weaving, hidden behind the mask is also convincing as an man with great conviction and ambitions, sprouting politically charged speeches filled with "chim" ideologies but yet gentle in his mannerism.

There are quite a number of fights to enhance the entertainment as well as a rich storyline to engage audiences. It is typical Hollywood fare with many added features like fine performances, engaging storyline, political statements and colourful characters. V for Vendetta is good entertainment.

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Weekend

Went out with my jc friends yesterday for supper and we went to Bukit Timah hawker centre. We spent around 2 hours chatting and eating before heading back. Most of them wanted to try driving my lorry and i gave each of them a chance to drive it around the empty carpark outside. When i was fetching them a short distance to their car at a carpark further away, i performed some stunts to make them feel very "comfortable" at the back of the lorry. Haha...

Went NUS to study with Ks and Jy today and spent most of my time learning computing and some of the exercises i didn't manage to complete during the hands-on sessions. It was time consuming and tedious as my program writing skills was still quite lousy. Fetched Ks and Jy to Holland Village for their dinner and back to NUS before meeting my parents for dinner.

We headed to a newly opened mini restaurant in Telok Blangah area owned by my aunty and uncle for my mother's early birthday celebration. Some of my uncles, aunties and cousins also came the celebration and we had quite an enormous spread of food. It was very delicious and we finished every scrap of food even though we were very full. Took several photos with my family after that.

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Preparations...

Will be gearing up soon for the exams in 3-4 weeks time. I will have to put in a lot of effort in computing during these few weeks. Can't wait for the exams to be over.

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Holiday in July

Terence just helped us book 9 tickets to Taipei from 4th to 11th July for $230 per pax. Raring to go but still got 4 months to go. We will be spending 8 days there and it is quite a lot for a holiday. At least we won't have to rush to visit all the places of interest.

Hopefully nothing crops up in july coz the tickets are non-refundable. :)

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Temptations

After extensive research on digicams on sat night, i decided to buy canon ixus 60 at the IT Show on sunday.

Went out with my family today to pray at a temple and after sending my sister back home, i went to Sim Lim Square to compare the prices of digicams as i already know the prices from the brochures at the IT Show. After asking the price of Canon Ixus 60 at several stores in Sim Lim, i found out that it was actually cheaper here compared to the IT Show. IT Show was selling at $599 with quite a lot of freebies but Sim Lim was selling at just ~$540 with memory card and digital kit bag. I had originally intended to meet Edwin and Terence at the IT Show but i decided not to meet them there and informed them of the cheaper prices here.

Edwin was going to buy some other computer stuff at the IT show and i waited for him at Sim Lim as we planned to buy digicams together.

I did my tutorials in a cafe at a less crowded section of Sim Lim Square for around 2 hours. Next, we searched for the stores selling cheaper digicams and Edwin decided to buy Canon Powershot A430 for slightly less than $300. Quite a worthy camera with 4x optical zoom, 4 megapixels and a cheap price tag.

My turn to decide. I was weighing the pros and cons of buying Canon Ixus 60 although i really like the design, colour, image quality, high resolution, quick processor, optical viewfinder, fast shutter speed, small size, large and bright lcd screen, etc...

This minimalistic camera is so tempting when i hold it. Got a compulsive urge to buy it but after thinking for some time, i decided that it is totally unnecessary for me to buy another digicam.

I must find a very well paying job in the may, june, july holidays so that i can SPEND, SPEND and SPEND without so much hesitation. Hahaha....... Can't hardly wait.

Should be going to Taiwan in July this year with my jc classmates! Jetstar Asia is holding a Super Summer promotion which has air fares starting from $8 which excludes airport tax. The travel period is only from 1 July to 30 Sep this year and the promotion lasts until 14 March. Very good deals indeed. It costs $230 for the 2-way trip including airport tax to Taipei but we have to settle our own accommodation. Shouldn't be too much of a problem.

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