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31 January 2013:

The start of an ending.

It's 31 Jan today. To others this is yet another date. It's a Thursday, a school-going Thursday. To people like me whom completed O Levels last year, today is special.

Today is the start of an ending. Today marks the last day of our 'school holiday'. It is the last day because we go to school tomorrow.

School. People were united previously under a secondary school. Tomorrow, it's a different school we're talking about. Junior College. JC. Some go to poly; they get another two months or so of holidays. Lucky bastards.

Junior College. I've visited my JC previously. Besides the Open House, I went there representing my secondary school. I don't really remember what it was for now, though. Does it matter? For the next two years I would spend my time there.

I believe it's fate. I believe that fate brought me to the JC. And with this fate, I shall embrace this chance and this opportunity to study there. It may not be the best institution in the country.

But I believe it is good enough. After visiting a few JCs during the Open House two weeks ago, there was a striking message.

'You, it's up to you.' So the kind of JC that people go to doesn't really matter. There are JCs with high cut-off points. Presumably those are lousy ones. But no. Amongst 'lousy' JCs there are achievers. And amongst 'good' JCs there are slackers.

The next two years would be a struggle. I think I don't need to deny it. I think I can foretell without experiencing it yet. Because so many sources have said, that JC life is no walk in the park. It's rigorous and demanding.

I don't think there's a point in choosing subjects based on their difficulty. Too many teachers and students I've met tell me the same thing. H2 subjects would be as difficult. So comparatively, H2 bio stretches me just like H2 history, only in different ways.

And with that, I've made my choice. I've made my choice of what subjects to take.

I look forward to tomorrow's orientation.

TTFN.


30 January 2013:

The Coincidence

In the morning, Bee Lay woke up and took a look at her calendar. December 12! That would mean five days to her boyfriend Jack’s birthday. During her birthday months ago, Jack had planned an elaborate celebration that ended with a romantic candlelight during on the Singapore Flyer. She had to reciprocate with something equal, or even better. Bee Lay decided to hunt the shops for something that Jack would fancy. She dressed up and headed for Marina Square.

~

Siew Leng was putting on her makeup when her phone beeped. It was an alarm reminder about December 17. She placed her lipstick on the dressing table and took a look at the phone’s display. Oh! It was her boyfriend Jack’s birthday! How could she have forgotten about it? Luckily there was this reminder, she thought to herself. Siew Leng knew Jack was fond of designer brands, so she thought of going to boutiques at Marina Square to find a present for him.

~

Bee Lay entered the mall and a particular brand popped up in her mind. Jack had casually mentioned that he liked ties of this brand. She took the lift up to the third floor. Siew Leng entered the mall and remembered this tie that Jack liked a lot. However she had forgot which floor the boutique was located, and had to check the directory before taking a lift up to the third floor.

Bee Lay went into the boutique and a particular tie caught her attention. This was the exact one Jack had told her about. She beckoned the saleswoman over and told her to wrap the tie up; she was going to buy it regardless of its exorbitant price.

‘Wait!’ Such a sound shrieked through the boutique. People watched in shock and disgust as Siew Leng rushed to where Bee Lay and the saleswoman were, nearly knocking down bottles of perfume. ‘I saw that first!’ Lily was huffing and puffing and her face was red by now. The saleswoman was at a loss; who should she hand the tie to?

‘Here’s an extra $100 for you. Pack the tie, quick.’ Bee Lay thrust a hundred-dollar note at the saleswoman and looked at Lily coldly, with a sense of contempt in her eyes. Lily gasped in horror and took out four fifty-dollar notes. ‘Take $200 and give that tie to me.’

The saleswoman looked at the both of them who were on the verge of bursting a vessel. She creaked weakly: ‘Look, I can’t do it this way …’

Smack! Siew Leng landed a slap on Bee Lay’s cheek. ‘You bitch! Why won’t you just let me have the tie?’

Bee Lay returned the slap, screaming wildly at the same time. Tears were overflowing from their eyes in anger, ruining their makeup. Vulgarities were hurled freely between the both of them as they cooked up a nasty brawl. Customers started to leave the boutique, which was a good choice since it was not before long that perfume bottles were being used by the two women as weapons against each other.

The saleswoman stared in disbelief, and it was a while more before she realised to call her manager out from the store room. The loafing manager was rudely awakened from his snooze and was about to chide the saleswoman, but rushed out immediately once he heard glass breaking outside the store room. The manager was able to stop the brawl before his whole stock of perfume was destroyed between Bee Lay and Siew Leng.

After much mediation, Siew Leng decided to budge a little. She would call her boyfriend Jack and ask for his opinion. To her delight, Jack decided he would go there and take a look, since he was around the area. It wasn’t before long that Jack arrived.

‘Jack?’ mumbled Bee Lay. A sense of embarrassment, panic and despair crept to Jack’s face. His legs were rooted to the ground. Bee Lay and Siew Leng looked at each other; being smart women they knew what had happened without much guessing.

The manager buried his face in his hands as the two women finished his only stock of premium perfume on Jack, who was sheepishly trying to leave.


27 January 2013:

How to win in a by-election.

Michael Palmer had an erection with the wrong woman. Thus he lost his position and triggered an election. Now that it's over, I shall share how you should campaign to win an election in the future, if you happen to be a candidate.

1. Don't go with the mainstream, do 'online rallies'.
Even though Singapore has never had such things, and not many people really fancy such things, go ahead and use online rallies. From experience, online rally videos can reach viral status of 150000+ views. If those translated into votes, you'd sure win the election.

2. Make sure your videos get 90+% dislikes.
Don't be sad when that happens. In fact, be encouraged. Mainstream media always demonises the online crowd, saying that they are full of vitriol. Therefore, why worry about the large proportion of dislikes you received? On the contrary, this just goes to show you're so well-liked that you gain haters. Sure-win.

3. Join your desired party three weeks beforehand.
Although others would think you're a greenhorn, those who really know you and support you would think this means you're new and full of new ideas! You definitely have what it takes to lead a constituency. So what if you're new?

4. Make sure you're of 'ministerial calibre'.
OMG! Ministerial calibre! How can one not vote for you? Nuff said.

5. Threaten to cancel your rallies at the last minute.
Blame that on a threat of your safety or your family's. Instead of getting negative responses, voters would think you are a responsible family man.

6. Demand that people shalt not vote you based on sympathy.
C'mon! What an insult, isn't it? You already have so many supporters, why should more people give you sympathy votes? So don't worry. You'll surely win it, and without sympathy votes.

7. Say no when you're asked to run as a candidate.
Yes, say no! People won't feel that you're insincere. Instead, they'll think you're careful and considerate. They would believe that you thought hard and long and decided to take the plunge for them voters. For reciprocation, they shall vote you.

8. Make promises then break them.
Go on, tell them about how you're very independent and can cope without your party. Your voters will understand when bigshots start appearing: oh, it must be because you're too busy, so they had to help out.

9. Share on your Facebook page about your leg hair.
Your voters certainly want to know about the status of your leg hair. Therefore, it would be good if you could add that in your posts. And for some, they treat it as best humour material. Either way, voters would be so impressed that start supporting and voting for you. A sample is shown below: (Because the guideline applies in general, I've whitened certain specific elements.)


10. Sing common songs during your rallies.
Why sing crude Hokkien songs like 愛拼才會贏? Instead, sing soothing songs like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars'. People would interpret it as your party's gentle touch reaching them. They will be so touched! Fast-forward to election day and their votes would be yours. (Again, one party seems to follow my guidelines really well, but I shan't name them.)


And there you have it, 10 points to help you in your campaign. After all, Singapore's politics scene is warming up after a 'new normal', ain't it?

TTFN.


26 January 2013:

A day out with P.M. - A.M.

(Seriously speaking, I almost don't know how to blog, after being on a hiatus for almost a fortnight.)

The original plan of our outing was to celebrate V's birthday. We would go cycling, watch a movie and go sing karaoke. In the end, we only cycled.

I met them at McDonald's in Parkway Tower. I was a few minutes late and there was V, I, SJ and J. They were just talking. The topic moved from things done during oral to horror movies. I has a very high threshold of horror and gore and she lambasted many movies for being not scary enough.

As usual, when the meeting time's 11, people would reach at 1130 or even later; not surprising at all. CW was the last to reach. At 12 we decided to go cycling, but then V had to go back to CCHMS. Her sister forgot to bring their house keys out, so she had to bring it to school so that her sister can take it.

That took about an hour. CW and I stayed behind. SJ had left by then and J and I accompanied V.  At first we sat there talking and I ordered McWings because I was rather hungry. When I finished, we moved to Popular cos I told CW I wanted to see the books there. It was a better way of killing time.

We went over to Popular and we did browse for a while. I wanted to see the new textbooks but I called. Then she told us that she was expecting us to use the time to write on V's scrapbook-card. Both of us never thought of that.

We had three minutes to do so. The both of us didn't know where to go and write. Finally we went to outside the church near Popular. There was this raised platform with a metal covering. We hastily wrote there and V called before long.

They had finished and were back. Because we previously said we were in Popular, they went straight to Popular. CW had not finished with the scrapbook (I wrote first so I finished first) so I tried to stall them for a while.

Finally, we met outside Mavis Tuition Centre (not being paid to mention them okay). From there we finally went cycling, two hours after our original planned time. We finally reached ECP about five minutes later. But from the underpass we had to walk a while to the bicycle rental shop.

Within the past two weeks, I went to the shop at least thrice. I really wanted to ask the staff there if there could be a discount for regulars. The price was $8 for two hours (but of course they make it sound nice by saying one hour free another). We decided to cycle for four hours so we all paid $16.

This was my third (or fourth) time cycling, so I was more confident of myself. Since it was already 1330 or so, we went to the hawker centre first. It was far away, so we cycled there. I could ride off more properly now, instead of wobbling here and there. Along the way we cycled at different speeds. Most of the time I cycled the slowest; my legs weren't used to pedalling so I couldn't pedal fast enough.

There were some parts that went uphill and I found it tough. My leg was quite tired by the normal pedalling liao, still have uphill! So I dismounted for some parts and pushed the bicycle. When we were almost at the food centre, an accident happened.

I was going downhill and there was a bend. I was still a little self-conscious and afraid of turning, so I didn't turn the handlebar fast enough. The worst thing was that I had pedalled. Downhill + pedalling = acceleration, which was definitely not good.

Thankfully I remembered such a thing called 'brake'. So I applied the brake but it was slightly late. My bike had already went off the road and onto the grass. The bush was just centimetres away. Somehow instinct kicked in and I tried to get off the bike. I swinged one leg around. Just at the same thing, the bike crashed and fell.

I was alright, but my intenstines felt like they were jumbled up or something. Thankfully my crotch was alright, I suppose. Because they were all ahead, they had waited for me some distance away. V heard the crash and came running over, followed by CW and I. At that point I just started laughing over how funny the whole thing was. I then picked my bike and went towards them.

Off we went to the food centre. V and I wanted to order carrot cake, so I chipped in and we ordered a big plate. I went to order. I tried using Hokkien but the guy kept using Chinese with me. So failed attempt #1.

After bringing back the carrot cake, I went to look for 'my own' food. CW didn't want to eat at all, and they were contented with just carrot cake. I bought pineapple juice first; I was so thirsty. Failed attempt #2.

Not many stalls were open, so I went to an open one that had queues. They were selling duck rice and porridge. There was a group of angmoh tourists in front of me. I don't know if it was they who were slow or the stallholders; anyway I waited for a while. Finally it was my turn. Failed attempt #3 cos I suddenly forgot what to say tsk.

Okay after that it was eating and talking. After finishing with the meal, V and I went to search for bottled drinks. It seems like the whole food centre didn't sell it; we went to four stalls. But finally I used Hokkien with an elderly couple.

Since there was no bottled drink, we decided to continue cycling. I was very full from the duck rice + carrot cake + pineapple juice. We left our bicycles in the sun, except CW who had cleverly placed his seat under shade, so I had my balls fried for a while didn't enjoy the seat at first. Luckily the 退熱功能 is not bad.

So we cycled all the way in the same direction for a very long time, maybe an hour or so. We went through the zones till the last, Zone H. In fact, we exceeded Zone H. From that part on, things were kind of scary.

There were many uphill and downhill areas. And to our left was a road where cars were speeding really fast. We dismounted and went across until we came to this turn. It was quite dangerous cos it was uphill (downhill from the other direction) and a right turn (left ftod). They pedalled up and I pushed for a while. From there we cycled until we reached this traffic light. We decided to turn back cos it was so far away.

We cycled the distance back. We went to that dangerous turning again and again I braked else I would hit a tree. I didn't turn enough. V was worse: she couldn't brake and dashed straight across. ... Which meant she went across two lanes of roads. Thankfully there were no cars or she would have been hit. That was very scary.

V scrapped two of her toes on a small 'pillar' and they were bleeding. Her calf was also scratched a little. We hurriedly went over to her. CW gave her tissue and water to clean the wound. I would think it was quite pain, ouch.

Because T was coming to meet us, we told him to head to this building at Zone H. We were 'back' at ECP. We rested for a while. As usual, taking photos of the sea and tagging on Instagram.

Once T arrived we set off again back to where we came from. When we were near Bedok Jetty, CW and T told the girls to turn left into the jetty. Somehow they didn't hear and went straight. After that I don't know where they went; I followed the two to the jetty. People there were fishing or enjoying the scenery.

At 1645 V called. She told us to hurry back cos she had to leave for work. So we went off and met at 1715, returned the bikes. The rest went to eat dinner and I went home.

TTFN.


13 January 2013:

Back with a blast!

After 13 days, I'm back. Firstly, sorry to the 668 of you who have clicked in since 1st Jan. I am surprised that there are more than half a thousand views since then; I really thought viewership would drop to maybe around five per day. Secondly, sorry about breaking my rule. I mentioned that I would blog at least once a week, but for the week of 6 - 12 Jan I did not.

Why haven't I blogged since 1 Jan? I was bored and depressed. And by depressed, I really meant depressed. Thankfully this time there was no suicidal thoughts, but I was still very down. Days passed and I did almost nothing. It was quite horrible, very horrible.

Now that I'm much better, of course I'm back to blogging. So much has happened over the past few days. I actually prepared to write so much more, but I forgot what to type. So too bad.

TTFN.


1 January 2013:

С новым годом.

Привет.

It shall be a better year.

I'm not in the mood of writing summary posts, cos after all I blog weekly. If you're really that interested just go to the forbidden archives. And secondly, I can't really remember what happened already.

TTFN.



aboutme.

From Singapore. 20 years of age. Blogs as and when inspiration comes, in British English (and Singlish), Traditional Chinese and (hopefully) Russian. Not a lifestyle blogger, expect posts to be serious, dull or even obscure. I enjoy comedy, in particular British humour.



interests.

[more or less in order] medicine | forensics | theatre | modern world history | typography (including style and grammar) | visual design | Taiji | Chinese language and literature | Mandarin pop (and singing) | Apple products.



typography.

PT Serif for main text and links. Ubuntu Condensed for dates, post titles and sidebar headings. Both fonts from Google Web Fonts.



credits.

singzeon. by Sing Zeon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. Pictures used here either come from my Instagram (instagram.com/singzeon) or Google image search. For the latter, I do not own those pictures.



quote.

Hard to love. 認真你就輸了。