If I Must

The whole concept of a new year is artificial. Like chapters in a book, years provide us with moments to pause I suppose. To stop and reflect. And celebrate. Hence the year-end roundups, the resolutions for the coming year, the parties and fireworks and general merry making. But unlike the pages of a tome, we are not masters of time. It moves on regardless of any boundaries mankind may seek to impose.

I have already written a sort of roundup for 2007 (friends will know where to find it), and although that isn't exactly a summary of my 2007, they were certainly some of the events that defined my year. I'm not that shallow of course. But I figured the average tragic reader would not want to read about the Virginia Tech massacre, the many leadership changes, soaring inflation, and all that bull that I enjoy immersing myself in. Hence the (lack of) depth of my article.

On a personal level, what to say. The last few months of 2007 eerily resembled those of 2005. Bittersweet moments. Eventually leading to some form of redemption I guess, but painful nevertheless.

If we're following trends, then I should be getting into 2 quickie relationshams soon enough. Yipee.

I'm too old to be making the same mistakes again.

I shall sum up my year in cryptic words and phrases because I really am too lazy to continue typing.

Work. Patrick. Ergos. Earning bushels of money. AC friends. Slack. Patrick displeased. Tong angered. Stopped work. JB with Lena, Meng and Yin Xuan. Cruise to Penang and Phuket with Gerald, Tong and Elissa. Fucking bad food poisoning. Vomit. Lots of it. Disgusting. Ann Siang Media. Writing. Singapore Fashion Festival. Meng. "All work stops when Simon comes in at 2". A LOT of nonsense. Abusing the poor Newfound Jealously CD in our office. Lots of laughter. Too much for some people. Haha. "Can you stop doing weird things?" Well my reply to that would be can YOU stop being ugly? No? Then shut the hell up and sit down. Christina concert. Meeting Rihanna. Loads of freebies. Spurting coffee on Shirlynn Tan. Wakeboarding. Jooles. Meng SPILLING coffee on Joanne who sits there like a deer in the headlights. Crappy workshops. Good editorship ending in ignominy through no fault of my own. "Oh this guy is going to Law too. Meet Jinesh." Alleged dagger eyes. HAHA. Leonard Choo. Law camp. Cringe-worthy memories. "Pole dancing". What the fuck. Christine. Nalli. Bye bye CHOO WEIREN. Krabi with Christine, Rachel, Jerrine and Meng! Loads of pictures. Jun Sheng. School. Oh my. Bye Michael! LSIRC interview. Bloody hell. In so many ways. Not again. Mood swings. Fun people. Sam and Cheryl. Andrea. Leon. Amy. Chengying. Wee! Zx. "Fashion forward". Really? Bye bye Meng. Mugging. Dying. Worth it. I think. Lisa, Joel. Getting piss drunk and hungover. On multiple occasions. Hi Weiren! So fast. Bye Weiren again. And hi! You travel too much. Self-absorbed. Talking about myself is what I do best. Not to forget constant Britney antics, filling me with hope, pain, disappointment, outrage, joy. But at the end of the day, just love.

Needless to say, 2008 will certainly be getting off to a smashing start with Tokyo and all. Here's hoping for a great year ahead for everyone =) (But most importantly for myself of course)

Moment for pause

The moment I let go of it was the moment I got more than I could handle. The moment I jumped off of it was the moment I touched down.

Starting Over

Jin & I went to Changi to say goodbye to Cheryl who is off to be Mother Theresa in Calcutta. It was a brief farewell but nevertheless worth the trip =)

We then headed to Marine Parade Library to borrow Tokyo books and walked over to Parkway Parade to meet ZX (who was also at the airport).

We had a fascinating...conversation...outside Borders. I was going on about the books I was unable to finish reading which include Plato's Republic and Virginia Woolf and how I didn't take to her stream of consciousness style because I'm the kind of reader who needs to have a destination, in the sense that I like my books divided into chapters so I know how much I have to read before I stop...and concluded by going 'that's me.'

Somewhere near the end of my speech, ZX started laughing, and I was wondering what the hell was so funny about my reading pattern, and he went, 'you really can't stop talking about yourself ah.'

It never dawned on me. Fuck. I am so completely self-absorbed, and the scary thing is that this is the way I always conduct "conversations". I am so fucked up. It takes someone else to point out these things because to me, I am perfectly equipped with a respectable set of social skills, which would include the art of conversation. I am so.fucked.up.

Fucked up.

So now I need to start from scratch and basically relearn conversation 101. Or conversation for dummies. Might as well be one at this point.

Past few days haven't been as quiet as may seem from the lack of updates. I have just been very lazy. Christmas Dinner at PS with Tong, Gerald and Lena. It was great to be back in the safety net of old company, Tong as hilarious as ever, even in the face of crisis...

And yesterday was reunion with the America boys (and girl) and assorted AC/RJ peeps. We went on a mini food tour that ended with drinks in One Rochester. Very nice. Ok time to go back to my stupid compilation work (ohmygodkillmenow).

Tragic

That's the one word that sums up what's happened in Pakistan. Tragic. They're playing footage of Benazir's interviews, and she acknowledged that her life would be under constant threat in Pakistan, but that she was an optimist and would take the risk for democracy. And I admit I was always a bit cynical about her motives.

But think about it. She could have lived a very comfortable life in London or Dubai. She had children who were worried for her. But she took the gamble in going back to Pakistan...and she paid for it with her life.

So...whatever the charges of corruption, or of being seeking power for power's sake...I think all of that has been - and should be - erased by the fact that she paid the ultimate price for what she believed in. And no one should question that commitment.

Funny

Got home from town and went online. Didn't find what I was looking for but, strangely enough, found something unexpected and...for those moments...very welcome. Maybe I do need to take more initiative. Its not like I never do but maybe more is required? I don't know.

Quotable Quotes

Leonard and I are staying over at Jin's house. We're supposed to be watching DVDs but have ended up surfing the net.

From Lenny Choo
[Discussing languages spoken in online profiles]: English, Mandarin, Hokkien/Min, GOODBYE!

[Looking at pictures]: More than 3 bad pictures - ugly, GOODBYE!

[On someone's profile]: Ewww he has Gollum Teeth!

[On another's profile]: He has one picture. No one who is good looking has one picture.

HAHA Lenny is on fiyah!

Might As Well

Was telling Jin to see this and I figured I'd post it here so everyone else (whoever that may be) can see it too. One of M's best, most underrated songs and videos. It's a bit lengthy but once you get into it, it's mesmerizing.

Let's Play Pretend

I can just pretend that everything's fine
Deny that any such feelings were ever really mine
I can play along to this, your game
And not flinch at the mention of the name

So go ahead, make your call
I'll smile like you never meant a thing to me at all

Sometime soon I'll look back,
And go 'now why did I do all that?'

I've never been one for modesty, so when I say that I'm writing bad poetry, you know its gotta be BAD.

Cousin's wedding today at the Pan Pacific. Was unable to take photographs of my cousins' adorable blond kids because they were being taken care of by a NANNY hired for one day in a hotel room booked specifically for that purpose. Australia must be prospering indeed...But I do have pictures from the dinner.

Some of my cousins (and my brother). I look unhappy. Because I was (am).


Anyway, this shit is hilarious. Although it took a fucking long time to upload. Note that I'm trying my very best to sound as butch as possible.

Post Then Post La

I was thinking of leaving this till tomorrow but since I've already uploaded the pictures I'll get on with it now. Spent the past half an hour reading my old entries, which never fail to make me laugh. Narcissist, thy name is Simon.

Sooo, Jin's 22nd! Apparently I behaved as though it was my own birthday, but the underlying intention was to make sure that the somewhat disparate group of people gathered at the Loof were comfortable with each other...and I daresay that everyone had an enjoyable time.

Before meeting everyone else, Cheryl, Jin and I (sans Sam Anna Lee who is in Bangkok), had dinner at Sun With Moon (which is a rather peculiar name, even for a Jap restaurant), followed by Veuve Clicquot which champagne, which Jin had brought along in an orange bucket.
I hereby conclude that all good things come in orange packaging.

The birthday boy should never be punctual for his own party and he wasn't...we were 45 minutes late actually. But some others were even later, which is amazing to think about. Punctuality has gone out the window with the advent of the mobile phone.

Of course, there were more guests than that, but these pictures were taken before the others arrived, and we didn't take a big group photo after that (don't forget whose birthday this is, after all). I'll upload everything on Facebook tomorrow.

It proved to be a great mix of people, the mingling, the conversation, the laughter, things I live for really. When I don't feel anti-social. And I wasn't last night! That's what alcohol does to me.

Some of us headed to Fabulous after that...pretty uneventful. I'm over clubbing. I really am.Meng wherever you are...come back soon...we miss choo!

Today. Lunch with Zx at The Line. The Line. Lingering fond memories of my birthday dissipated when faced with the fucking crowds and the, frankly, mediocre food. The variety is there but the quality simply isn't. A harsh assessment indeed (particularly when you consider how much they bloody charge), but true. I shall be parking my money elsewhere in the future.

Zx had to run off to...do whatever it is that he does...and I was well prepared. Bought a coffee from Starbucks (where else?), sat my ass down, and watched 2 episodes from Season 5 of SATC on my MacBook. So completely immersed myself in the show, I may as well have been in a coffeehouse in Manhattan.

Headed to the gym and then to Spinelli's (gosh the amount of money I've been spending on these coffeehouses ah) where I waited for Weiren to be done. Wanted to introduce him to the delicious wanton mee at the Heeren but apparently he's known of it since secondary school. I must not have had a childhood.

So we retreated to the usual place and then walked all the way to Tony Romas to meet Tong for drinks. Had a huge ass strawberry swirl thing and, as usual, was entertained by the one-of-a-kind person that is Tong Wei Chuen. I have come to appreciate Tong more and more over the years. And of course I now know that he actually bothers to read this so I shall flatter accordingly. But its true. I was always...obsessed...with Tong, but its only been over the past few years that I've actually been able to appreciate the wacky friendship we have.

Friendship. Maybe that's all that will sustain me in the end. And you know what, I'm none the poorer for it. There are some spaces that friendships simply don't fill la, I stand by that, but as Carrie Bradshaw says, at the end of your life, that's all you're left with. Of course, I don't see myself as an elderly widow on the bus to Atlantic City, so I'm not quite sure how applicable the statement is to me.

Tomorrow...or should I say later today, will be the wedding dinner. SHARKS FIN SHARKS FIN YAY! *Jinesh gets upset*

Another Day Another Drama

I've changed the name of my blog in honor of the legendary Miss Britney Spears, and thought I might as well post the (just released) video of the song its taken from. This is the US version, there's an international one with slightly different scenes (mainly Britney in a bob instead and wearing an ugly purple dress instead of the ugly jacket/bra/jeans combo). Video's nothing fantastic but, considering all that's been happening, is rather good. Quality sucks but oh well, you'll be seeing it on TV soon anyway I'm sure.

EDIT: Stupid Zomba took down the video la. I don't understand the rationale behind restricting youtube access. Will having a low quality video estopp people from buying the fucking song (or video) from i-tunes?

Anyway, yes I have updates but shall wait till I have uploaded the photos and such. Another day another drama indeed.

EDIT: Found another one

Counting Down The Days

I just realised that I have very cute nephews and nieces. These adorable blond things. I shall take pictures on Tuesday and bask in the reflected glory.

So the wedding today was not as bad as I had expected. Endured the singing of hymns, slept through part of the mini sermon, groaned at some of the vows, and felt unmoved by the prayer. I am a terrible, terrible Christian. Do I even have the right to consider myself Christian any longer, what with the aversion to church and the desire to read 'The God Delusion'?

Mum has said ad nauseam that one day I will see the beauty of the Faith, and that she looks forward to the day we can share spiritual...succor, and I scoff, I laugh, I mock. But why am I doing this really? Rejecting that which I feel has rejected me?

But in any case, yes I have precious precious ang moh relatives who are so cute they make me want to consider having children. The question is how to ensure they come out with blond hair and blue eyes. Haha I am disgusting.

After the wedding went into town to finish Operation JBP, which had a very...unexpected...but no less satisfactory result. Mission accomplished I hope its looked on favorably.

Met Jun Sheng for dinner at Ambush, which I just went to with Tong and Gerald two days ago after KhattarWong meeting. Went to Starbucks where, having read the papers (and Details), we just talked. And talked. And sometimes that's the perfect pastime. I have been contributing quite a bit to the green mermaid recently.

Last night, after injuring myself at the gym, I met Jon and Shaun and we embarked on a quest to find a place to eat dinner in Orchard on a weekend night, which is nigh impossible. Ended up at some Yum Cha restaurant in International Plaza, also known as FAR COAST building (and NO IT IS NOT CLOSING DOWN).

I miss my Far Coast. I've reverted to Starbucks in the meantime.

Drove over to PS for yummy desert, fries, and drink, and more talk. Jon says that I'll never get together with anyone because my conversation topics are too cerebral (he used 'atas' la but I shall take the liberty of paraphrasing). Now of course I protested, 'I just spent a whole night talking about normal fun stuff what!', but I suppose it is - to an extent - somewhat true.

I have effectively drained my pool to the point where it has become a wading pool, no, a jacuzzi, and even then I'm not willing to go in and get wet. So how? Stay dry lor.

Boo.

For a glimpse of what I may become in the future, I need look no further than my Caucasian uncle, in town for the wedding, who I had the pleasure of speaking with today. Not many people would consider it a pleasure I reckon. He enjoys making somewhat one-sided conversation, and I mostly listened to him talking about Taiwan (where he now lives) and Australia (where he is from) - the economy, history, government, people...basically things that would bore most of my family to bits, which explains why very few of them are willing to entertain him. Apparently they think him snobby and aloof...and I suspect that has something to do with them simply not *getting* what he's saying.

The thing is, I *understand* exactly how that feels, and I listened attentively and patiently, because I can be JUST LIKE THAT sometimes. I'll talk about something I'm interested in, that most common folk have absolutely no regard for, and I'll just go on conducting a "conversation", thinking myself the most fascinating conversationalist in the world, when in actual fact I'm boring people to bits.

As Tong says, "Simon, can you just shut up for 5 minutes?"

But yeah la I do empathize with my Uncle Wahlquist. And I'm concurrently TERRIFIED that I'll end up like him. I can see my pool getting smaller and smaller even as I type this. Haha.

But you guys love me right?

Duh.

Mmm.

Vad else vad else. Thursday Tong, Gerald and I, having eaten at Ambush, headed to Marche at Vivocity. Tong is the funniest person in the world. Like, seriously.

Tong: "I just realised I have claustrophobia"
[note Tong is also afraid of heights]
Me: "You seem to have a lot of phobias. Claustrophobia, height phobia...homophobia"
Tong: "Use the correct term. I'm not afraid of gays. I hate them."

Classic. The ping pong between Tong and Gerald is also fucking hilarious at times.

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person in the world to know the people I do. And sometimes I feel like fucking shit.

Words

From Madonna's Bedtime Story,
"Today is the last day that I'm using words. They've gone out, lost their meaning. Don't function anymore."
I'm tired of writing. Pictures away then.


Sunday night at St. James. Yes I know my body looks good there. HAHA.
Children's charity.
Together again with Gerald and Tong.
Ok I am terrible at multi-tasking and I am doing a lot of that now. Blogging, facebooking, talking on MSN and Skype. So I'm just going to finish this up.
The year ones and the birthday boy. Zx's 22nd at Brussels Sprouts. Or something.

EDIT: Meng I just got your Christmas Card! Merry Christmas to you too. Hurry up and come back =)

Neh Update

It's funny that I blogged more frequently pre-exams, which is perhaps indicative of two things.

#1 How easily I was distracted while revising
#2 I have more to write about studying than my post-exam life, which is very very sad

Ha. The situation's not that tragic la. I just haven't been updating because I want to post pictures but am lazy to transfer them from my camera so I shall wait to accumulate more.

At this point a brief outline will suffice (more for my own memory than anything else)
Sunday: Dinner and martini (yes, singular) with Len followed by St. James with the gang.
Monday: Preparation for today, followed by window shopping, dinner and gym
Tues: Law School Christmas Charity, met the AC gang and Cindy for dinner, and went to BTP to LAN (oh the nostalgia, the memories...I was like an over-the-hill singer on a comeback mini-tour or something, with the only qualification being that I was never very good to begin with, although I love to reiterate that I've been playing CS for more than 7 years)

Will update properly when I have more pictures from tomorrow la. And then Thursday is meeting with KhattarWong to ask for $$$. ARGH!

On Acrinomy, Boredom and Coffee

My day summed up thus far.

Acrimony? I needed a word starting with 'A' to complement B and C and that was the first thing which popped into my head. It isn't particularly out of place either, when you consider the tone of my first phone conversation with Jin today. No we weren't quarreling (I bet people are waiting for that to happen). I was just being a bit of a bitch and he remarked that I sounded awfully bitter. Hence acrimony. I'm feeling marginally better now but I suppose that's what a caramel frappe does to you.

Boredom doesn't need elaboration. An apt description for my whole day thus far, although I am having dinner with the AC gang later so thats something to look forward to.

Coffee...self-explanatory. Having walked from Hermes to the Heeren and back again, I finally found a Starbucks that wasn't ridiculously crowded by way of the Orchard Parade Hotel outlet, and I sit here now tip tip tapping on my keys when I'm supposed to be doing work (FOCC la, not academic - I'm not THAT crazy).

Caught the Golden Compass with Weiren and Jin yesterday. Having seen Stardust recently, this one was a bit of a comedown, but it certainly wasn't as abysmally bad as Jin made it out to be. He was practically begging for the movie to end. Nicole Kidman was divine. I've never been a fan but she turned in a great performance.

Tis the season to rain. We don't have winter and snow during Christmas season, but we do have ample precipitation. I love the rain, but not when I'm looking to get out of the house without carrying that cumbersome thing called an umbrella. Wah it's damn cold here.

I was looking at the weather forecast for Ulan Bator and holy smoly, the temperature goes into negative territory 8 months of the year. Looks like we've found the perfect city for the Lalwani to work in.

Fuck la my MacBook's been on for about 45 minutes only and only has another 1:09 left. What the HELL is wrong with the battery you tell me.

Sales aplenty everywhere. Long queues outside Prada, Gucci, Coach and, of course, Louis Vuitton (its become the norm rather than the exception there). Trust Singaporeans with a bit of money and even less taste to go for the mass-market luxury labels. I'll stick to Bottega and Hermes, thank you very much. I speak like I have the money for these big-ticket purchases when in fact don't. But when I do, no gaudy monograms (a la Gucci and LV) and pseudo-luxury made-in-China labels (Coach, I'm looking at you) for moi.

In the meantime, I shall resume my attempt to sell ice to Eskimos. Twars!

Oh Yes

I. Cannot. Wait.

O-v-e-r

Finally. Forget it all and pray at the altar of the Bell Curve.

Sam, Chery, Jin and I headed East after the paper to pick up DVDs from Sam's place and for FREE coffee at Starbucks and a belated lunch.

Headed to Jin's house and did Gods-knows-what before settling down to John Tucker Must Die, which I wasn't particularly interested in seeing because 1) I had already seen it; 2) It's unremarkable.

Cheryl seemed very...involved with the storyline and characters. Haha. We've all had our share of John Tuckers I suppose. The girls had to leave for Kai Yong's party and we won't be seeing them for a while, with Cheryl going to South Korea and Sam headed for Thailand (allegedly for a whole week) =(

I walked over to Siglap to meet CHOO WEIREN who just returned on Tuesday. I was so happy to see him again after all these months...it's great to have an old(er) friend back in town, and to just catch up and talk over dinner. There was so much to talk about we couldn't even look through the menu and order food for a good 15 minutes la!

So yeah. Semester 1 has officially ended. I need to work a lot harder in Sem 2 if I'm going to New York, but that's another story for another day. All I want to do now is get some sleep.
The wonders of Skype. What would I do without you?

Nua

I just printed out my contract notes...notes that I've spent the past month painfully collating. They're warm, crisp and...only useful till 1pm tomorrow. Actually contract's not so bad - at least I'll have to refer to them again at the end of year 1. Torts was the worst. Page after page after page of notes that I used for like, 2 - 3 days and have absolutely no need for anymore. Hell I left all my Torts things in the locker after last Tuesday's exam and have yet to claim them.

The weather today is NOT CONDUCIVE to studying in the least. Seriously. I spent the better part of today fighting an insatiable sleep vortex. Never mind, once contract is over tomorrow I can get all the bloody sleep I want. My accumulated sleep debt manifests itself in the disgusting pair of bulges under my eyes.

Chengying: 'Since the exams started you've been looking very disheveled.'

Never shave, never cut hair, skincare regime cut back to bare essentials...That's how I've been living the past month. But behold, Emancipation looms. The Butterfly Within awaits release.

Eeeeee.

At least I don't have to see that fucking inbred couple again. But the image of that slob of a girl doing her 'victory dance' after winning some spastic game, fats jiggling about uncontrollably, is eternally vividly emblazoned in my mind.

And yet you're so far
Like a distant star
I'm wishing on tonight

What's with the random M references I wonder. Must be the product of seeing the Lalwani everyday...

Actually I've got infinite lyrics running through my head at all times of the day. Today it's been 'When we live such fragile lives, it's the best way we survive...I'll keep you my dirty little secret, don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret...Who has to know?'

Some random lyric just pops up and I can't help but hum and, yes, *sing* it. I try not to overuse my Grammy© - or is that Abu Ghraib - award-winning voice, which is why when friends hear me sing, it's a rare treat indeed. Some people have been known to savor it so much they simply go deaf after that because no other sound is comparable.

Ah I'm talking nonsense again. OMG in 24 hours IT WILL BE OVER. Time to hunker now and wrestle with Contract Law then.

This Far And No Farther

In what seems to have become an uncomfortably familiar routine, I found myself in CJ Koh by 10AM, rearing and ready to go. And I did make a fair bit of progress. To the point where I gave myself an extended 2 hour lunch break, which included a walk down to Serene with Jin to get desert.

Similarly, I subsequently accomplished what I had set out to do by dinner and so...gave myself a dinner break (which consisted of me watching Jin eat) that lasted 2 and a half hours. Which sort of defeats the purpose of going to school to study. We then went up to the 5th floor to disturb Cheryl.

I realized, in that short span of time we spent with her, the extent to which the exams have taken their toll. It's ironic because Law School giveth me all these wonderful friends, and Law School taketh them away. Very Biblical.

Uh. Ya. I wrote out this long post on The Problem (which is the reason Jin and I took such a bloody long time for dinner) and how I was going to draw the line (which explains the title) and then the phone rang and well, an hour plus later, everything I wrote went out the window.

I'm a charlatan. A fraud. A mangy dog.

On a lighter note, Lisa and I decided to indulge in round 2 of selective cam-whoring.

The first photo's a rehash of the 'Taoist' one we took some time back, while the second one, the second one...haha...please refer to my post below titled 'On The Consequences Of Inbreeding'. They were there again. In their usual nesting spot. So while they were taking their shit to the canteen and tormenting Jin, we decided to express our 'collective revulsion' at them, and the above is the product of that. Haha.

Ok I should be getting some sleep although I am strangely not tired and am now feeling very chipper, although I KNOW that won't last for long.

You Want A Piece Of Me?

Frustration induced by contract. I love pop art!

Had a three-way conversation with Jin and Meng just now. Which consisted of me doing most of the talking, listening to the echo of my voice, and silence.

But I've always been the one who likes doing the talking.

Has anyone heard the new Celine Dion song Taking Chances? The video is WHACK but the song is nice la. Embedding has been disabled but you can see the video here.

What do you say to taking chances?

I need to isolate myself in a room with nothing but water, my contract book, and a laptop without internet connection (except for Lawnet and Lexis). Technology. Ayo.

WHA DA BUNG

'We suggest that you allocate approximately 2 hours to attempt each question.' - Singapore Legal System Examination Instructions and Information, 30 Oct 2007

JOKE OF THE YEAR! 2 hours per question? 4 papers = 8 hours in total? YA TELL THAT TO THE 90% OF US WHO WENT WITHOUT A WINK OF SLEEP THROUGHOUT THE 24 HOUR PERIOD. Worst 24 hours of my law school life ever.

By the time I had done formatting and printed all 4 questions, it was already 9.30AM, which means that I effectively took slightly under 6 hours per question. The WORST time was between 4am and 7am during which I effectively shut down. I was awake but I might as well not have been, and the consequence of that was a shitty answer that fell a couple of hundred words short of the 1250 word limit, which means I'm getting a C...or something. My answers to Institutions and, ironically, International Law (ironic because I skipped half the lectures and had not done the readings properly) were good, if I may say so myself. Private Law answers were...mediocre...and Constitutional Law...which was supposed to be a chance for me to shine, was that nadir of an essay that failed to even break the 4 digit word limit. My only salvation is the bell curve.

So at 9.35AM I hopped into a taxi which my mum called 5 minutes before and got to school, but not before cracking my I-pod earphones because one side got stuck in between the taxi door and the seat when I slammed the door shut. Damn pissed off. They're still working so I'll probably continue using them for now, hopefully I don't get electrocuted - can get nice new ones at the 5-story APPLE STORE in TOKYO!

Finally got to school - A SIGHT TO BEHOLD INDEED! I was saying we should have brought a camera to school because EVERYONE LOOKED TERRIBLE, myself included. Sam started laughing the moment she saw me. Caleb look WORN...like he had aged 20 years in a night, almost everyone was wearing spectacles and horrible clothes. It was, in an odd way, comforting to realise that I wasn't the only one who had been suffering and who had not gotten a moment of sleep. Nalli said she fell asleep in the car...while she was at the wheel =D. Amazingly, after not getting any sleep for 24 hours, Chery Chua still looked like...Cheryl Chua. Jin said it's damn unfair. Hoho.

We spent the next hour plus in school, uploading our electronic copy of our work onto IVLE...the process took such a long time because Jin was admiring his essays - they were entertaining la. Bolsters, NKF, creatures and all.

We talked to Diyanah for a bit and Year 2 Sam walked past, looking very...shaggy, and advised us to get some sleep. But did we listen? NOOOO!

While everyone was going home to get some shut-eye, Jin and I decided to go down to town for a while, just to 'reward' ourselves...I was remarking that we were probably the only year 1s crazy enough to not go home and sleep after 24 hours of physical and mental torture.

So there we were in Bugis, perusing Topman, flipping through magazines (what's new) at Kino, trying not to be overcome by sheer tiredness. Had wanton mee at that place below the offices I used to work at just earlier this year - and that seems like a lifetime away - and we just savored the beautiful day. It was a pity we spent most of it rushing, comatose, and then sleeping, because it was one of those rare days when you're just glad to be living in Singapore. Incessant breeze, enough sun to keep you warm without being overbearing, no humidity (which is really the worst thing about living here, the whole sweating-like-a-pig thing).

Ya.

Was remarking at the considerable progress I have made since this all started 3 months ago. Yet there is this constant insecurity that something will go bad soon, that this state of affairs is fleeting and ephemeral, and the prospect of losing when I've become...relatively dependent...terrifies me. Like the prospect of getting a B. Or worse.