I have moved! Drop me a message on MSN if you wish to know the new URL. :)

Been some time since my last update. Was always tired when I got home from NIE. The train rides are energy draining. :(

Had my ed psy presentation yesterday. So glad it's over. The whole of last week was burnt on this presentation. Yes, I didn't manage to complete any other assignment. We stayed back to discuss on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And Thursday was spent printing out the stuff, correcting this and that, and making sure everyone in class was informed of the change in venue. >_<

Many times we tried to relate things back to our school experiences. Over lunch and chit-chat sessions, they discovered all the weird things I did last time. Ok, and probably how weird I am. Like I think html is easier than powerpoint and I rather use latex to make my slides instead of using powerpoint. We had quite a good time working together (oh well, they probably had a wonderful time suaning me).

I hope to finish all my assignments before CNY. :)

Happy 2008!

Today marks the start of a brand new year. 2007 had not been a really fantastic year, but the problems encountered did make me a stronger person.

Family: We are going to have a breakthrough in the number of people in the family. Haha. In 2007, I took up slightly greater responsibilities in the household, partly because mum's health conditions deteriorated. I hope to see a more healthy and happy mum in 2008, as well as an united family.

Friends: I did not get to spend much time with my friends in 2007. It was in their absence that I realize how much I've missed them, as well as how wonderful each of them is. I guess very importantly, they treat me well from the bottom of their heart. No hidden knife in their smiles. I hope to spend more time with them this year. :)

Personal Development: I hope to take up some courses and develop new skills. Maybe a language course? Pick up some computer courses? Haha. Must spend my LDS well.

Relationship: Haha. Don't worry, I'm not the contributer to the additional family member. Furthermore, I don't think I'll be getting married this year, so there's absolutely no need to start digging out your piggy bank and saving for my big day. Lol. As I have told some of my friends, I won't be having wedding dinner. To my dearest (haha, I know you want a low profile, so I shall not mention your name), thanks for being there during my struggle with the three musketeers. We have been through a lot last year, I hope the coming year will be more smooth-sailing.

Schooling: I have left NUS at last. The five years as a mathematics student made up a really memorable period. I'm now in the midst of the transition period from a student to a teacher. As a trainee teacher, I sometimes reflected deeply on my personal encounter as a student. I must say I was really fortunate to have teachers who have been truly good role models, even up till this point of time. It is partially because of them that I want to become a teacher. I have had friends, who are truly friends. I need not have to be too careful and protective when they are around. In 2008, I look forward to a good start for my teaching career.

Before I go, here is a video i took during the countdown at Marina Bay. Short video of the fireworks. Enjoy. I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2008 ahead!

Imagine my joy when I saw the 7th harry potter book on the library book shelf this Friday. Haha. I looked forward to reading this book despite most other harry potter fans have already read it and written numerous reviews. I would check out its price every time I visit any bookshop. I never bought it because I was stingy, and have already run out of space in my room to store books. It's really good that I got it from the library as it solved both my problems. Lol.

To me, the most touching part was towards the end, when even the house elves were united to fight against the dark lord. There were lots of bloodsheds. My favourite Weasley twins, one died and the other lost a ear. Both incidents came about pretty sudden. Of course, being a children storybook (seriously, I doubt children can understand the last few episodes), it comes with a happy ending. Hermoine is married to Ron, and Ginny to Harry.

Met up with sauwai. Haha, this name has been absent from my blog posts for so long. The good thing bout meeting up with old friends is that, the conversations don't just stop at what are you doing recently and what movies have you watched this month. You can't possibly ask anyone "Is your brother getting married soon?" or tell anybody "My boyfriend's brother is handsome." More importantly, you don't have to sound politically correct all the time.

We bought three birthday presents. Gonna have a belated birthday celebration for three of our friends next week. Two of them were born in November. >_< Hopefully I'll see everyone there.

I know it seems really insincere to postpone birthday celebrations for two months.

During my supposedly birthday celebration, which was less than a week from my actual birthday, only two others turned up, one of whom left early. I found out the rest weren't able to make it on the spot. I wore makeup, strightened my hair and brought a camera. I didn't take out the camera of course. I felt like leaving to go home and cry. Very much on the contrary, I told myself to smile brightly to my friends who turned up, which I did. I wanted to show them that I appreciated their attendance.

To me, seeing my friends is a much better gift as compared to the actual birthday present itself. To have a birthday celebration when most of my friends don't turn up is worse than not having any celebration. Of course, I understood that they couldn't make it probably because they had something really important to attend to. But because I didn't want any of my friends to feel the same way as I did, the celebrations were postponed until everyone can make it. Haha. Anyway, I hope I don't have to postpone it another time. :)

I think I've spent too much over the past one week. Since I need not go NIE this month, I can afford to spend the transport fees on clothes. Lol. Speaking of NIE, the timetable is still not out yet. Argh. I really hope I'll get a 3 days week. Then the two months of torture will seem much shorter. :P

Went for the Isetan sale this morning. Reached there at 10am, and it was already packed with people. >_< I thought I was one of the early birds.

I'm afraid of crowds and noise. I gave up on my quest within 45 minutes. Haha. The IORA counter inside Isetan is having 30% discount. Nothing looked attractive. Mostly previous designs, and the nicer ones are left with XL size. So much so for sales. I can't squeeze and push as well as the others. Even babies bullied me by poking and touching my hair. >_< I left without buying a single thing.

To make my trip to Orchard slightly more worthwhile, I went to the IORA boutique at Wisma instead. Haha. Pretty rewarding, coz I bought three new blouses. I'm so proud of my new clothes. Lol. The first thing I did when I saw my mum was to take out my blouses to make her jealous. And I really think I've succeeded. So happy that I kept smiling to myself. See the power of retail therapy?! :)

Have not touched my jap textbook for the whole of this week. Better work hard tonight.

Got a new table for my computer. Coupled with the reformatted hard disk, I feel as if I'm using a brand new computer. Haha. The table is small. Need some time to get use to it. :)



Big enough for my monitor, cpu, speakers, printer and dvd player. No extra inch of space. The part where I placed my keyboard and mouse can be slided out. Available at ikea. It costs $90+ (excluding delivery and assembly of course). Quite a small package, you can actually pick it up and assemble it on your own.

Was looking at how the two guys fit in the wood pieces like jigsaw puzzles. They looked amusing: one is small and thin, the other is big and fat. The smaller one was the one instructing. Haha. They both have this punky hairstyle. I can imagine them making trouble in class. Big headache for the teachers. But now they're able to take up small responsibilities. They can work wonders with the hammer and nails.

Imagine few years later, the normal tech students I taught during my ESE came to my home to assemble my furnitures... I think I'll be really happy to see their progress (provided they don't come and make a mess, of course). Haha.

Back to my new table. When I look up from my workstation, I see......



When I look to my left....



When I look to my right.....



Hopefully I'll get good inspirations while working on my computer.

Before I go, Happy Boxing Day to all. Hope you've received lots of nice Christmas presents!

Have reformatted my comp few days ago. It was a nightmare. Especially when I had to re-install my Winedt. The most important file to back up is my masters thesis. It must be available when I do my corrections.

When I met up with my supervisor last week, he mentioned bout promoting my results during his talks. Haha. For a moment, I felt really proud of my work. Lol. I'm quite sure that he said that to just to assure me that my thesis will be fine. Otherwise, I'll begin to have nightmares of myself doing major corrections. My supervisor is such a nice guy.

Back to my comp. Yes, I think it is well and sound now. Installed the new versions of Matlab and Winedt. I miss the days when I spent hours working on the projects. If only lesson plans can give me such pleasant memories. >_<

Met up with my TKGS friends last Thursday. It has been quite some time since I last met them. Probably when I try to slack more next semester, I'll get to see them more often. Haha. Took some photos that day. Enjoy the slideshow below.



My trains to Boon Lay shall be accompanied by a PSP slim next semester. Yay. :)

I'm so happy to have met up with my supervisor today. Haha. Always feel so high after seeing him. :) Despite the rain and waiting time, I'm really glad to see him. Will probably be meeting him again in January or February for thesis correction. I really hope there's little correction. I've waited for 4 months plus, still no news from the Registra.

Went to the book fair at Suntec City after that. Not very crowded, probably because it is rainy weekday. The aircon was freezing cold. I was there, simply to take a look at the stuff. Lol. Was constantly reminding myself not to buy anything unnecessary, for otherwise I would have to find a place to store it. There was a huge collection of fengshui books in the book fair. Haha. I didn't know people are so interested in fengshui.


Was pleasantly surprised to find four Christmas cards on my table when I went back. :) One of them wrote a very long message. Haha, so touched.


Oh yes, my gifts from Yunnan and Japan:





Necklace and earrings from Yunnan

My best friend from Japan

Really appreciate the gifts. Haha. So nice of them to remember me while they were overseas. :)

Quite unusual of me to be blogging at this hour. Haha. Probably the power of the mug of hot milo. Imagine if I drank coffee instead.

Have been busy with learning japanese for the past few days, as well as the cleaning of cabinets. I found several dried cockroaches. And just for today, we threw away more than 200 video tapes. Oh man, I'm thinking if I'll be brighter if my dad invested the money on me rather than the video tapes.

We're thinking of painting the house. For now, all three of us are working towards the goal of cleaning up the house by Chinese New Year. :) Basically I was the one cleaning. Nevertheless, it is important that they agreed upon the idea, so that I can throw away some of the unnecessary things.

I hope my plan will go well. :)

Was exploring Photoshop 7.0 yesterday afternoon. Haha. All I can do now is to remove some pimples from the faces in the photos. The book elaborated on various other cool effects, which I believe will come in handy when it comes to poster designs and so on. Due to my limited talent in art and design, I'll probably just make a mess. So I'll spend the time to learn something else instead.

Claimed $400 of LDS. Haha. We can make an LDS claim for cultural performances like Phantom of Opera. Too bad I'm not a cultural person. We can make a claim for internet subscription, books, professional magazine subscriptions and so on. Not to mention PDA, laptop, digital camera etc. Yes, and also language and IT courses, as well as motivational talks and conferences. Sounds pretty good huh. :) I should spend my LDS wisely next year.

I'm still very determined not to buy any pair of shoes in Singapore. Haha. I'll see how long this determination can last. :)