Catching Up With Life

2012-01-08T23:43:00.001+08:00

Barely even 24 hours, and I'm missing home already.

SIGH.

When will I be released from this emotional torture? I'm getting so tired of it.

2011-12-15T12:53:00.002+08:00

Hello dear blog, it's been awhile hasn't it been? :)

I actually have many thoughts that I wanna pen down on this blog but they are all jumbled up, I just don't know where to start. Most of them I have accumulated in my mind over the past few months and some of them just occur to me at the most random times.

I am the kind of person who tend to think a lot. Sometimes too much that it really affects me. I have always believed that anything excessive is detrimental; be it an excess of the good or bad, because there must always be a balance in everything in life.

It's weird that I have so many things that I wanna say when I was so stressed up with my studies but now that I have ample of time, I don't even know what to say! Blah. Maybe I'll blog again next time, when I actually do know what to say. Hahaha.

Nevertheless, holidays have been treating me good so far! :) Just got back from New Zealand a couple of days ago. It was awesome! Just what I needed after a gruesome semester! Spent so much time with my family which I have missed dearly during the semester!

Maybe I will post pictures next time!

November, please be good.

2011-11-04T23:27:00.002+08:00

Eventhough I really want November to be good but I doubt it. Because this month is packed with exams! Next week is the last week of school for this semester and I'm still not even done with my CAs! How can?! After that, I'll have a week off to study for finals. Then it's FINALS. Omg I feel so unprepared. Not funny at all :(

On the bright side, less than one month till home! Can't wait! :) I haven't been home for almost four months already!

Today we did balloon sculpturing for our weekly volunteer work at the psychiatric ward in NUH! And this is the product of my first attempt on balloon sculpturing!

It's a dog! Not bad for a first time eh? Anyway, I sent a picture to my dad via WhatsApp.

This was his reaction! Hahahaha I laughed when I read his message because I really didn't expect him to respond like that! Totally made my dy :) Moments like these are the little things in life that really matters and makes me genuinely happy. Makes me miss home even more!

Oh well, I'll be home soon! Now it's time to drown myself with a limitless list of antibiotics that I have to memorize. Ugh.

2011-09-23T10:01:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the major scare yesterday.

Told you this semester would be a crazy one.

Guess I just gotta keep my head in the game. MUST STAY POSITIVE :)

2011-09-22T15:51:00.002+08:00

Why? What happened? What went wrong?

I keep asking myself these questions over and over again.

I really, really wonder what happened to me. It's like my life took a 180 degrees turn. I'm no longer achieving the same things I used to achieve last time. WHY. WHY! WHY :(( I miss that sense of accomplishment, that sense of satisfaction, like everything paid off. It's not quite the same here.

What's going on?

Am I distracted? Or have I just given up completely?

I feel so ashamed for myself, for letting this to happen to me..

Maybe I'm really not cut out for this. Maybe I was never intelligent or smart in the first place. I just got lucky.

So afraid to face a lot of things. I can't wait to just escape of this black hole. It's eating me up inside. I wanna go home :( There's too much that I can't handle here. Too much tension in the air. Just really too much.

Don't know how much I can take anymore..

Blogger finally has a mobile app!

2011-09-12T21:14:00.001+08:00

Woot woot! Don't know if this also means that I would be blogging more frequent than usual? I doubt so, this semester is a really challenging one and I always a little fear of facing each day each time I wake up in the morning.

Oh well I can only hope for the best. I have three midterms this week! Finished one this morning, two more to go. The one that I'm afraid the most is Medicinal Chemistry! Omg judging by today's tutorial class, I'm afraid that I'm not gonna do well :( Sigh. Anyway not gonna worry too much yet. I have to focus for my Pathology test this Thursday!

That's all for now! :)

Twenty-two

2011-08-21T23:36:00.001+08:00

Happy Birthday, Me!

It was a whirlpool of emotions, this time around.

More on that next time, perhaps? It's time for bed now!

Hello Semester Five

2011-08-10T17:41:00.001+08:00

I left KL six hours ago and I’ve been missing home since then. Sigh, why? Letting home go has always been so hard eventhough I was back for about a week only. My mom accompanied me at the airport until I entered the departure hall. Kinda glad that she insisted on accompanying me because I told her that she didn’t have to take the trouble to follow me all the way to LCCT.

Anyway, this summer vacation has been a meaningful one, especially the second half of it. I’ve been so busy ever since preceptorship started and even when it ended, I wasn’t any less busy! My mom came down the day after my last day of work for a short holiday. We covered quite a number of places such as Chinatown (her favourite!), Bugis, Orchard, Suntec City, Clementi (lol), Merlion Park etc. Could have gone to more places if she stayed longer. But I wanted to go home until my holidays were over.

Amidst all that touring, I was also busy rushing my SOAP notes and prescriptions for my report! The morning on the day I left for KL, my mom and I went to Jurong Point so that Mariana can evaluate part of my report and also fill an open evaluation form. Then we rushed back to get our bags and left for the airport!

Upon reaching home, I had plans every single day. I was trying to fully utilize my last week of holidays. I think I did that pretty well. Of course, I did spend some time at home (that’s the most important thing!). I also completed the other parts of my report and compiled all of them. Ah I’m so glad I managed to finish it eventhough the deadline is next week.

I have class from 8 am to 4 pm tomorrow, sigh! I have 8 am classes everyday this semester! :( Hope I don’t fall asleep in class!

I’m so tired from all the travelling I did today. I was awake since 6.30 am and I am not planning to take a nap, fearing that I might not be able to sleep tonight!

Anyway, hope this semester would be a good one although I have been warned that it would be the toughest semester in Pharmacy. Wish me luck!! I still find it hard to believe that I’m in my third year already. TIME FLIES.

Week 6

2011-08-09T11:10:00.002+08:00

Hi guys! Sorry for the terrible delay for “Week 6”! Well, not like it matters anyway, I’m just blogging for the sake of memories! :) It’s funny how you think you would definitely remember about a particular day but you fail to remember the little details that come along with it after a few days! It always happens to me when I try to recall what I’ve done for the past week.

That’s probably the reason why I wanted to blog every single day during my preceptorship. Unfortunately, time does not permit me to do so! :(

Anyway, here we go!

Day 30
It was a Monday, so it was Warehouse Day! :) We did our jobs as per normal and finished just in time for lunch (It’s not like we have a fixed time for lunch :P). Omg see I’m forgetting the little details!

The rest of the day went on like normal I suppose!

Day 31
Qi Xuan and I worked at Lot 1 Shoppers’ Mall! :D We wanted to experience a different environment. Hui Ling is attached there but we were attached for a day to Mr Lim, who is Hui Ling’s preceptor’s partner (Jaclyn). So we only worked with Hui Ling for about four hours.

Anyway, when I arrived at Lot 1, Qi Xuan asked me so many questions! Apparently, Mr Lim asked him all those questions when he arrived. All of the questions were about supplements, which I’m so weak at! But anyway, it was fun learning new things about supplements, although I have a lot more to learn! :)

Since Lot 1 just had a renovation, most of the shelf labels were missing. So, Qi Xuan and I rummaged the entire Prescription Only Medication (POM) cabinet to see if the medications have shelf labels and if they do, do they tally with the medication. We had to print so many new shelf labels because a lot were empty! You think that was easy, we were so relieved and worn out when we were done!

We headed for lunch after that at a Hong Kong restaurant. Qi Xuan ordered Wasabi Cheese Baked Rice and when his dish arrived, the whole freaking thing was GREEN! So scary! Imagine the amount of wasabi inside! He took one mouth and his whole face went red! There was simply too much wasabi! CRAZY! Anyway, he tried his best to eat it but he couldn’t cause it was too pungent. Haha so he went out to buy something from Old Chang Kee instead.

When we were done with lunch, we helped Jaclyn at the store! At the same time, she asked us a lot of questions. At one point, she made me counsel a patient on diarrhea pills. OMG. I was so stunned, I don’t know why.

Then, we listened to Hui Ling who gave a presentation on dressings to two of the staff. :)

Day 32
We returned to our good old Jurong Point! :) It felt like home to me a little, haha. :) We told our stories about Lot 1 to Mariana, heh.

The day went on as per normal until Qi Xuan told me that Pamela (our classmate who’s attached to Bukit Panjang Plaza) wants to have dinner with us! We were assuming that she needed someone to talk to since the staffs at Bukit Panjang Plaza were known to be rather snobbish and unhelpful. We were free anyway, so we agreed! :)

She came over to Jurong Point and brought us to this high-end Chinese restaurant called Putien. She helped us order our dishes since we were alright with anything! After the dishes arrived, she said that she’s not eating much cause she already ate before she came. Qi Xuan and I were like “No no no, you MUST eat!”. There was plenty of food! She agreed to eat but she mentioned that she was gonna leave early because she had a movie to catch. AHH!

Few minutes before 7.30 pm, she called for the bill and PAID for it! OMG? I think it was around SGD 90! She said it was her preceptor and her treat since we helped them when they called us for help regarding the new system. We politely rejected the offer and offered to pay her back because we really didn’t do that much to receive such a generous offer. She didn’t want us to pay back! She brushed us aside and left us since she was almost late for her movie. Haha. Qi Xuan and I just stared at the food. LOL. Tried to finish as much as we could! The food was delicious, no doubt! :) At that moment, I felt really grateful.

Day 33
It was Warehouse Day again! After completing our tasks, Mariana, Jenny, Qi Xuan, Alwin and I went out for lunch. Well, we didn’t exactly go for lunch but we went to Pizza Hut to buy pizzas back to the store! We were gonna celebrate Lai Khim’s (Ah-Kim-Bo!) birthday1 :) Alwin, Qi Xuan and I waited for the pizzas to be ready while Mariana and Jenny went to get a cake!

We had to celebrate her birthday that day because everyone was around and the next day was her off day.

We had pizzas and cakes for lunch! Hehe, all paid by Mariana! THANK YOU MARIANA!! :) Shortly after lunch, Qi Xuan and I waited for Pamela and we headed to Fish & Co at The Glass House in Dhoby Ghaut.

We had a debrief session with our chief preceptor and the rest of the Batch 2 students. Honestly, it wasn’t what I had expected at all.. The debrief session wasn’t a debrief at all. :/ But anyway we enjoyed the food and the drinks at a cafe after that.

Day 34
Second last day of work! We wanted to have lunch with Mariana but something came up in the store so she asked Qi Xuan and I to go have lunch without her :( Sigh.

Since she didn’t have lunch yet when we returned, she asked us to join her for desserts! Haha :D So we accompanied her while she had lunch at Swensens. She treated us desserts! :) So thankful for having her as my preceptor! Not because she treats/buys us a lot of things, but because of her sincerity and generosity!

Day 35
LAST DAY OF WORK! Omg, couldn’t believe it! Gave Mariana her present – customized big heart-shaped cookie with the words “We Love You Mariana :)” and small Coach coin pouch! WOO WOO. :)

Gave chocolates to the staff. Snapped many pictures and we were done for the day! We only worked half day that day! After that, Qi Xuan, Alwin and I headed for lunch at New York New York.

As I’m typing this, I can’t believe preceptorship has been over for almost two weeks now! And in a couple of days’ time, classes would start! Oh time, where did you go?

I feel so blessed and grateful to have such wonderful people to work with! :)

Week 5

2011-07-23T19:04:00.006+08:00

Oh crap, I think I'm getting old. I'm having difficulties trying to recall what happened during the first few days of the week.

Day 24
Warehouse day (nothing surprising *yawns*). Did all the necessary things to be done on warehouse day. By the time we were done, it was time for lunch! Had lunch with Qi Xuan, Alwin, Mariana and Sabariah! :)

A old uncle came to up to me and asked me for Diaspan. I was puzzled because I've never heard of such medicine. I asked him to spell it out for me, he said "D-i-a something something". I told him we don't have such medication here. He told me that it is a very common medication and asked me how come I'm not aware of such medication. He told me it is a common medication for sore throat. I am aware of the common medications for sore throat unless it's a prescription only medication. I asked Doreen about the medication he wanted and Doreen have never encountered such a brand for sore throat.

Since he said it was common, I showed him the closest medication for sore throat to the brand he mentioned which was Danzen. Then he was like "Ah yes Danzen, sorry sorry I was wrong just now! I forgot the name!". Luckily he apologized, otherwise I'd be pretty upset since he accused me for not knowing such a common medication earlier. I may not know all the drugs available in the pharmacy but I do know a thing or two about common minor ailment medications.

Mariana bought for Alwin, Qi Xuan and I a giant cookie from Famous Amos each! :D Mine is the one with the pink ribbon!

Day 25

It was quite a boring day at the store. There weren't many people in the morning. We got every task settled as soon as we received them. Qi Xuan, Alwin and I had Korean for lunch! I had kimchi fried rice which tasted pretty good! :) The good thing about that restaurant is that we didn't have to pay any additional charges (eg. service charge, government tax). But who knows, they may have already included those petty charges into the price itself.

When we returned to the store, Alwin had to attend to an old man who demanded for codeine. He was telling Alwin how he knows that we do have it our store and wouldn't sell it to him. But the truth is, we don't keep any form of codeine in our store! Some pharmacies keep codeine hidden away from customers to avoid potential abusers. Alwin kept telling him that we really don't sell codeine in our store until he was satisfied enough to leave.

Day 26
All the pharmacists in Unity had to go for a meeting so there wasn't any pharmacists in our store that morning. We couldn't sell anything that's in the cabinet so we had to politely reject customers who wished to purchase Pharmacy and Prescription Only Medications.

Apart from that, we helped the staff to take care of the cashier and replenish stocks! Once Mariana was back, Qi Xuan and I were tasked to check all the expiry dates of the medications in the cabinet! We had to stick an orange label into any medication which was expiring within the six months to come. It took us quite a long time to finish checking every medication as there were shelves which were at higher levels and weren't within our reach.

Found this cute perfumed body mist in one of the shelves under the dispensary counter. It belongs to Mariana. Apparently, she bought a few bottles from Korea since they were pretty cheap over there and she thought they were only available there. She didn't know that they also sell it here in Etude House. Hahaha.

Day 27
Warehouse day again! Alwin didn't work that day because he had to get enough rest before he went to work at night at Ang Mo Kio! He had to work there over night along with all the pre-registration students and other staffs because they had to do some re-merchandising. That means, all of them had to unpack many boxes of products and place them on their respective shelves. I think Ang Mo Kio had a minor renovation before this. They had to work overnight, when the shop was closed!

I did some paperwork that day and also counselled a few customers as per normal!

Day 28

I had to count all the money in the safe box for the week! I spent about 30 minutes counting all the money inside! Then it was Qi Xuan's turn! Luckily the amount we counted tallied! Otherwise, we would have to count all over again.

It was a part-time staff's birthday that day! Aunty Lye Kim, Doreen, Qi Xuan and I went around Jurong Point to buy her a birthday cake! :D She came in the afternoon for work and we went out when she was busy at the cashier. Bought her a yoghurt cake!

When we were back at the store, she was still busy at the cashier. She saw the cake shortly after and she felt so grateful! She asked me to take a picture of her blowing off the candle on her cake using her phone's camera. She looked so cute! Haha. :D She turned 71 that day! :)

Before I left the store to go back that day, I bade farewell to her wished her "Happy Birthday!" to which she responded "Thank you, girl!". Something about that response made me feel warmth in my heart. :)

Mariana gave me a new bottle of perfumed body mist! Aww so sweet of her! :D

Day 29

Doreen's last day at Jurong Point! She was transferred to Tiong Bahru because the pharmacist there decided to resign. Alwin and Qi Xuan went out to buy a bigger duck plushie for her since she is quite fond of ducks. Haha.

Aunty Sabariah cooked nasi lemak for us! Her sambal was so tasty! I ate her nasi lemak for lunch! :) Mariana also bought pies from "Pie Kia" (haha such a witty name!) but I didn't eat because I was too full!

Earlier, two different customers came back to the store to ask for an exchange of a dressing which only had hard hollow tubes in the packagings without the actual bandages! Apparently, the newly bought dressing contained the tubes only when they opened the boxes. It was funny because normally, the dressings don't even come with the hollow tubes.

Then, we realized that someone had actually stole the dressings that were in the boxes and replaced them with hollow tubes to add some weight! How smart! :/

A foreigner came to our store sounding very urgent about the prescribed medications needed for her mother back in London. We didn't have one of the medications she wanted but she really needed it urgently for her mother because her mom would have palpitations without it. We told her that she could try going to hospitals to get the medication but they probably wouldn't be able to dispense any since all the pharmacies in hospitals only operate half a day on Saturdays.

We tried calling the emergency pharmacies for a few hospitals to see if they could dispense any for her as it's urgently required. We called up NUH but they couldn't dispense as those in charged there weren't licensed to dispense. :/ Anyway, we helped her as much as we could and gave her a few contact numbers for her to try calling.

Among the medications needed was warfarin! She needed 20 tablets but we only had 11 tablets. Two of the tablets were chipped so we could only dispense nine tablets to her. Warfarin is quite a meticulous and serious drug so it is no joking matter if the tablets were not taken in full.

Done with Week 5! Supposed to have my presentation but Mariana said we'll do it next Thursday! Lazy to check for grammatical errors again! Toodles :D

Week 4

2011-07-17T15:36:00.002+08:00

Week 4 right here!

Day 19
I went back to work after a two-day leave! It was pretty quiet in the morning but the store slowly picked up pace! It was a Tuesday, so sales should be pretty good because Unity offers a 5% discount to all senior citizens every Tuesday! Qi Xuan and I were handling the cashier for a moment until he had to attend to a customer who needed a knee guard. I was left alone at the cashier and the line started to grew longer!

There was a problem with the system because certain items were given more than 5% discount after pressing "Senior Citizen Discount". By more, I meant like 40% more! So I had to be very careful and made sure every non-promotional item was given only a 5% discount.

After attending to the customer, Qi Xuan couldn't help me at the cashier because he had to do some paper work upon receiving stocks from suppliers! Both of us worked all the way till 3.00 pm without any rest! I was quite relieved when the crowd started to quiet down a little! Qi Xuan on the other hand, looked hypoglycemic! Haha.

Aunty Jennifer fell sick that day. She came to work as usual in the afternoon but she felt dizzy shortly after. Qi Xuan and Alwin were tasked to go get a wheelchair for her. They brought her to a clinic nearby and she was given the day off.

Day 20

Mariana had to replace Victor at West Mall because he flew overseas. So, Qi Xuan and I decided to follow Mariana, to experience a different place and crowd. I arrived almost an hour too early for work that day. I thought that it would be hard for me to find the place but to my surprise, as soon as I stepped into West Mall, I could easily spot Guardian, Unity and Watsons! I walked around the mall a little before work.

The Unity in West Mall is quite new and the layout of the store is different compared to the Unity in Jurong Point. I liked the new layout but the dispensary counter is a little small. There isn't much space for three people to move around. The display cabinets are so small and the P and POM medications stored there were all over the place! We did a bit of housekeeping, helped to clear the clutter a little so that it would be easier for us to find for the medications we needed.

A customer came asking for Robitussin DM and the three of us searched high and low for the medication! In the end I found it! It was hidden behind another medication! -__-"

The crowd in West Mall is really small. I didn't have much to do over there. I still prefer Jurong Point!

Day 21

Back to Jurong Point! It was warehouse day! Bleh. We received so many boxes of stocks from the warehouse. We had to make sure we received the correct quantity of medications, paste labels and replenish stocks! It was a lot of work. Moments after we finished handling the warehouse stocks, Ah Ho (delivery man from Zuellig Pharma) appeared with many boxes stacked on his trolley! *faints*

Day 22
Woke up early and travelled all the way to Pasir Ris for a visit to Zuellig Pharma. Zuellig Pharma is one of the biggest pharmaceutical industries in Singapore! I didn't like the thought of travelling so far for just a 1.5 hour visit! :/ Pfft. But I was really looking forward to the goodie bags!

Their warehouse is really different compared to LF Asia. It was huge and the interior design was more classy! After the visit, it started pouring outside! On top of that, there weren't any refreshments or goodie bags for us! :(

We went to White Sands for lunch before heading back to work. When we reached Jurong Point, it was already 3.00 pm! I decided to work until 8.00 pm that day! I actually wanted to work till 10.00 pm but I felt a bit uneasy and nauseous because of the coffee I had during lunch (it was in my Ying Yang drink). I hate the feeling coffee gives me other than keeping me awake. I don't really like the palpitations either!

Anyway, when I reached Clementi MRT station, I saw that the estimated time of arrival for the next 183 bus was 54 minutes! That's crazy! I didn't wanna wait for almost an hour just for 183 so I took 189 and alighted at Kent Ridge Terminal. Luckily, a NUS shuttle bus came just right in time so I didn't really have to wait to go back to my room! :)

Day 23

It was a quiet day at work without Qi Xuan! Hahaha. He took a day off because apparently, his bicycle would be arriving from overseas!

Doreen taught me how to do posting on the new system! :) Other than the normal patient counselling, I had nothing much to do. After work, I went to Clementi Mall to meet Seng Thiam. Then, we headed to Cashew Heights in Bukit Panjang for Grace's 21st birthday! :)

It was a long day for me and I was really tired by the time I got back to my room!

Alright! Back to my presentation slides :(( Can't believe four weeks flew by just like that! I have to hand in my slides by next Friday! Argh!

P/S: Too lazy to check for grammatical or spelling errors!

Have A Clean One!

2011-07-09T17:44:00.001+08:00

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY LIM WEN YEE! :D

My lovely sister! :) Have a "clean" birthday, hahaha!

I love you and miss you!!

Week 3

2011-07-08T22:00:00.000+08:00

Week 3 updates!

Day 12

It was a Sunday! Apparently, the crowd is different compared to the other days. Most of the customers are foreigners from Bangladesh. Mariana says the way to counsel them is a little bit different compared to other customers. It can be pretty funny too!

One of them actually asked me for a cream called "Termite". I was like "Huh? What is it for?". He said it was for his itchy skin. I asked him to spell it out for me and he spelled it the way he pronounced it. I was confused because from what I know termites are insects that eat up wood! He proceeded to call his friend over the phone to ask for the spelling and gave me the same spelling back again. -__-". I tried searching for a product that is somewhat related to it online but it was to no avail. Luckily, he spotted the cream inside the cabinet and pointed it out. When I took it out, I was like "OHH DermAid!". LOL.

Day 13
I had to wake up super early and on top of that I only had five hours of sleep! I had to go for a training for all pharmacists in Unity. They have to go for this on a monthly basis. Usually, the training starts at 8.30 a.m but this time it started at 7.30 a.m! All because of a doctor who had an appointment with a patient after his talk.

Seng Thiam, Yu Lee and I took the first bus to Clementi which actually arrived later than scheduled causing us to be slightly late for the training. The training consisted of three talks about pain management, HSA Adverse Drug Events and, CPR and AED respectively. I enjoyed the last talk the most! The speakers were entertaining and funny!

After that, we all made our ways back to our respective stores. It was Qi Xuan's first day of work too! He just came back from his summer programme at Canada. So now I have company at work! I've never talked to him before in class but luckily it wasn't that awkward. Good thing that he's quite talkative and we could click!

Since Mariana didn't have to be at work that day, I was appointed to teach him stuff that I have learned on my first day! He dubbed me as his "preceptor", haha.

It was also the day that we encountered a customer who claimed to be an "NTUC supporter". We couldn't dispense the medication he wanted (famotidine) because Doreen wasn't around and it was a Pharmacy only item. So, we told him that he could try Watsons or Guardian thinking that he needed the medication urgently. Then he responded by saying "How can you tell me to go other pharmacies? I am an NTUC supporter you know! Later your boss will scold you! Where can you chase your customers?!" in Mandarin. Qi Xuan and I couldn't say much, so we just nodded in approval.

I went on an impromptu visit to the movies with Jason and Wil Sen after work! We watched Transformers 3! Finally!! I've been waiting to watch this movie ever since last year! Yes, Transformers never fails to impress me despite what people say about this sequel of the movie. Apparently, it was quite draggy but I didn't find it so! Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion I guess! :)

Day 14

"NTUC supporter" came back again! This time Doreen was around so he could get his medication. But, Doreen told us that apparently, she saw him coming back for the same medication in less than two weeks. The medication is supposed to last him for two weeks (14 tablets to be taken once daily). So, we have to keep a lookout if he requests for the medicine again within these two weeks!

After purchasing his medication, he asked Qi Xuan for the price of Clarinase (non-drowsy runny nose tablets). He told Qi Xuan that he wanted to compare the price with Watsons. Qi Xuan nearly wanted to tell him this, "I thought you said you're an NTUC supporter?" but he didn't, hahaha. Anyway, he came back to Unity to buy Clarinase after awhile. I guess ours was still cheaper!

On the way back from work, I noticed many policemen around Clementi Woods, just opposite of NUS Kent Ridge terminal but no signs of any road accident. I found out the next day what it turned out to be. A decomposed body was found! O_O

Day 15
Mariana insisted that Qi Xuan leaves work at 4.00 pm that day since he worked from 9 am to 10 pm for the past couple of days since he had to clock two weeks worth of hours that he missed! She didn't want it to seem like she was exploiting him. So she chased him off at 4.00 pm sharp!

A customer came with a half a strip of chlorpheniramine (for runny nose) tablets claiming that she paid $1.50 for two strips at our store when she should be getting five strips for $1.50. Our chlorpheniramine tablets come in a pack of five strips that costs $1.50 per pack. It is quite impossible that she could have bought two loose strips from us. Besides, this medication is a Pharmacy Only medication and could only be dispensed by a pharmacists. There is no way that any one of us sold her two loose strips.

Even if we did, the staff at the cashier would know because there is no bar code to be scanned on each strip. The customer was so confident that she bought it from our store and apparently, a female pharmacist with short hair served her. But guess what, none of us have short hair! Aunty Karen told me that lucky thing, none of us tied our hairs! The customer tried to accuse Fang Fang (a promoter) for selling her two strips since she normally ties up her hair. But Fang Fang isn't a pharmacist! So we told her to show her receipt as proof but she said she didn't bring it. So we told her to bring the receipt back the next time she comes.

I doubt she'll come back!

Day 16

Warehouse goods day! Qi Xuan and I had to count and check the expiry dates of all the warehouse goods which arrived! We also had to stick labels on all Pharmacy Only medications and replenish them on the shelves! It was a lot of work. We worked non-stop until it was lunch time!

After lunch, a customer came by claiming that he bought a wheelchair from our store and that he needed some spare parts because it was spoiled. He asked if we provided any servicing. Mariana told him that we do not provide such services, neither do we sell any of those spare parts. He then asked what should he do and what can we do. Mariana told him we could give him a refund if the wheelchair is still under warranty. He didn't seem to be very fond of the answer and questioned her again. She helped him to call the respective party regarding the wheelchair. But, she was told to ask him to call the lifeline. He was quite angsty because he couldn't get his wheelchair fixed. He asked the same questions over and over again and Mariana answered him patiently. He kept looking at her name tag, showing signs that he wanted to use her name as someone to be referred to or report about the next time he calls the lifeline or visit another pharmacy.

Mariana was quite pissed because she's not in charge of these kinda things! Our pharmacy only helps to sell the manufacturer's products! She asked Qi Xuan and I to buy her a cup of chai latte from Coffee Bean! She also asked us to get a drink each for ourselves from there. It was our first treat from her! :) Qi Xuan bought her the largest chai latte and she was shocked! He told her that she needed to drink more since she was quite stressed out and she told him that she won't be able to sleep tonight! Haha.

Day 17
Qi Xuan and I packed seven boxes of chlorpheniramine into packets of five strips (50 tablets) each. Each box contains 1000 tablets of chlorpheniramine! We pasted the main label and auxiliary labels as well! We also packed Famotin tablets at which I had to cut the sharp edges of the strips and made it round-edged!

There weren't many customers so we did all the packing to kill time! After lunch, the sales representative for "Hairy Lemon" came looking for me! I attended to him during my first week since there wasn't any pharmacist around. When I saw him, I immediately blurted out "Oh you're the Hairy Lemon guy!". He told me he was grateful that someone actually remembers him. Haha. Then, he asked how is his product doing and frankly, it wasn't doing so well. So I tried to put it in a nice way and told him that it wasn't doing well but there is at least a progress eventhough it's selling pretty slow!

He did a stock check and I asked him how often does he come for a stock check, he told me at least once a month. I told him that he might not be able to look for me the next time he comes because I would be done with my preceptorship. So I gave him Mariana and Doreen's names. He asked me how long have I been working in Jurong Point and I mentioned to him three weeks. He said, "Wow, three weeks only but you look so experienced!". Hehehehe :P

Anyway, he sounds like a humble guy but the way he looks at people can be a little bit scary!

Day 18
Worked for 3.5 hours only, can you believe it?! Haha.

An old lady came requesting for Domperidone (for indigestion, nausea and vomiting) but we don't sell the brand that she was looking for. However, the active ingredient and strength are exactly the same! Told her she could use what we have for the same purpose but apparently, she tried it before and it doesn't work for her but the other one (more expensive) does. :S That's weird because they have the same content! Qi Xuan thinks it's just a placebo effect, maybe she thinks that the expensive one is better.

That's about it for Week 3! :) I really don't know who would read my weekly lengthy posts about my preceptorship! They're all words without pictures at all!

Week 2

2011-07-02T10:57:00.000+08:00

Week 2!

Day 7
It was my first time doing afternoon shift! My previous part time jobs never required me to work on shifts so I was pretty excited! Plus, I get to sleep in and wake up late! Ahh :) But the bad thing is that I end work very late! Anyway, when I first arrived for work, I met a pre-registration student named Alvin! He has to complete nine months of pre-reg before he attains his pharmacist license. I would have to do the same thing as he is currently doing after I graduate in two years time! He actually started working two weeks earlier than me but I didn't see him last week because he went for a course.

Since there were a lot of people at the dispensary, Mariana assigned me to be at the cashier with Aunty Sabariah! I like her a lot because she's nice and friendly! :) I finally got the hang of handling everything at the cashier on my own albeit a little slow, heh. Most of the time, I would prefer that customers pay by cash then I wouldn't have to do so much. Haha.

Many kids bought thermometers for school because school just reopened. It's part of an act by Singapore's Ministry of Health.

Towards the end of the day, when we were about to close the store, customers started flooding in! We got quite busy! Nevertheless, we managed to close in time. :)

Day 8
Recorded a customer's details which is required when purchasing Nurofen! I was a little fearful that I might have missed out any details but I didn't! Doreen had to attend to a customer who had quite a number of prescription drugs while there were quite a lot of customers waiting. Thankfully, I knew the medications that the other customers wanted. :)

Thermometers were fully wiped out! One customer bought 10 thermometers at one go! O_O There were a few thermometers left but they were expensive ones (i.e $27 each!). The regular ones were about $5.90 each! So much difference!

Day 9
Taught and assisted Alvin with cashiering since he didn't have much hands-on experience since he came. I also had to make a call to a company who distributes Ebene Bio-Ray knee guard because of a customer who wore it for a few hours and complained that her leg was swollen after that. I had to ask the company for recommendations on how to advice her.

Apparently, it shouldn't be worn for long hours and at night. She should also take breaks at intervals for 1-2 hours. The knee guard can be worn with other topical medications and should be the right size for her.

Doreen measured earlier to see if she bought the right size and indeed, it was suitable for her. After calling the company, I had to call the customer. Oh my, she was screaming into my ears. I know it wasn't her intention, maybe she just speaks loudly all the time. I had to talk to her nicely and tell her that if she wants better advice, she should call the company instead since we have done what we can. It is better for her to talk to them as they know they product better. :) She agreed and I gave her the company's number. Case closed! Phew!

Day 10

We did some cleaning in the store! Mariana, Alvin and I wiped the plinth ends of all the shelves and arranged the products accordingly. It was a little dusty. As I was cleaning one of the shelves, I overheard a conversation between a Malay aunty and Aunty Jennifer at the cashier. Aunty Jennifer asked her what is intestines in Malay and the aunty replied "perut". Hahaha, Aunty Jennifer then said "Perut is stomach!". So I replied "Intestines is usus!". The Malay aunty got a shock and she was like "Wow this girl keep quiet only, but can speak Malay actually!". Haha.

Then she wanted to sign up for NTUC Plus card in which she could use to collect points. I helped her to fill up her application form. She was really thankful that I was around to help her and that made me feel good. :)

Day 11

It was pretty chaotic in the morning because it was the day we embark into our new system! We had a new POS machine! I forgot what it stands for but it's basically the cashier. The new system was so slow! Scanning a product took it a few seconds to register into the system! Also, it couldn't connect to the NETS and credit card machines! So, we had to accept cash only. The staff were a little nervous because they are not used to such "high technology" (touch screen!). After playing around with it, they sorta got used to it. But, it was still very slow! I left after a short while for my visit to LF Asia warehouse!

We had to meet at Jurong East MRT station at 1 pm. But we only left the MRT station around 2.00 pm because Fenix was late! We took a cab to the warehouse and were led to a meeting room. Listened to presentations by two important people in the warehouse. They basically gave us insights in the industrial aspect of being a pharmacists and also a thing or two about their company. Although it isn't necessary to be a pharmacist to be in the industry but it is an advantage! I think some of the guys would prefer to work in the industrial side of pharmacy. But I'm not very keen on it.

We were taken on a tour of their warehouse but first, we had to change our shoes! We had to wear safety shoes which were quite ugly yet cute. Haha. The warehouse was huge and everything was well coordinated! I also experienced -15ºC in a freezer where they stored botox! Haha. :D

After the tour, we had some light refreshments from Delifrance and goodie bags! :D Yu Lee and I savoured the delicacies, they were scrumptious! :) Had a few Q&As, then it was time to go home (technically, room for me)! Haha.

Week 2 is a day short because I'm off today but I have work tomorrow! I'm not sure if I have mixed up any events between the days but I'm pretty sure that they all happened last week!

Week 1

2011-06-25T21:51:00.002+08:00

As promised, a recap of my week! :)

Day 1
Yu Lee, Seng Thiam and I started our journey all the way to the East for our orientation! We had to be at Ubi Avenue 1 where Unity's HQ is located. We took the MRT to MacPherson station and looked for the place by foot! We almost got lost! Luckily, Yu Lee asked a passerby for directions! Otherwise, we would be heading towards Paya Lebar!

At the headquarters, all 12 of us sat in a meeting room where we were thoroughly briefed about our entire stint. We were given a handbook and a copy of an old edition of MIMS each. One flip through the handbook made my eyes popped! There were so many things to do, so many questions to be answered!

Then, we went to Suntec City for lunch. We were treated Swensens! Yums! :D Thank you, Unity! After lunch, we visited the Unity outlet in Suntec City which is where Yu Lee is attached to! Over there, we had another briefing about the quality control aspect of the store. We were dismissed by 5.00 pm!

Day 2

I was a little bit nervous and had butterflies in my tummy probably due to the new environment that I was about to experience. I met my preceptor, Mariana and a few other staffs. She took me on a little tour of the store. The store is very small compared to the regular Guardian and Watsons outlets you see in shopping malls. I can see the whole store from the dispensary counter!

Then, she taught me a few things from the operations aspect of the store. After awhile, there were deliveries coming in back to back which I learnt how to handle. The store was starting to get busy! This went on all the way till about 5.00 pm! I also met my preceptor's partner, Doreen. She taught me how to do daily submission in which I had to do invoice recording into the computer.

Besides the operations stuff, I also listened and observed how my preceptor counselled patients. :)

Day 3

My preceptor wasn't around in the morning because she had a meeting so I had to work with the staffs and attend to customers' needs! I was quite blur and had to rely quite a bit on the staffs. Good thing that all of them were very familiar with the medications and products in the store. Unfortunately, we could only sell medications that were on the shelves (General Sales List) and not in the pharmacist's cabinet (Pharmacy only medications and Prescription Only medications).

I had to explain to customers about our inability to dispense P and POM medications because only licensed pharmacists are allowed to and I'm not one YET, heh. When my preceptor returned, I helped her to stick cautionary labels on certain medications!

Day 4

This was the day when so many warehouse stocks came in! Unity is in the midst of going through a change to a new system. Hence, all stocks had to be delivered by this day and orders could not be made until the new system begins. I had to stick labels on all the P only medications! I spent a few hours on that!

After lunch, a sales representative from a company who manufactures blood glucose monitoring devices taught me how to use their blood glucose monitor! We actually did it before last semester during our last lab session of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology but it was from a different manufacturer. She did a test on me and my blood glucose level was 7.2 (which is high!). Well, that's because I just ate! Hahaha :) Then, the sales representative asked me to test my preceptor's blood glucose level *gasp* But then, since all the staff wanted a test too and she was quite busy, she asked me to just conduct the tests for the staffs. So I pricked their fingers and tested their blood glucose levels! So random but quite exciting! :)

I also was given the privillege to dispense chlorpheniramine (runny nose) and Zyrtec-D (runny nose and blocked nose) which were P only medications! :D So exciting cause I normally have to ask my preceptor to dispense eventhough I know what to give because I'm not allowed to dispense these medications unless she approves!

Day 5

I was feeling quite bored because there weren't any deliveries! Didn't have much to do in the store. So I just walked around the store to sort of familiarize with the locations of items. Doreen also explained to me a few things about the common medications for minor ailments. I also did some packaging for a few medications together with my preceptor.

I also had the chance to observe how my preceptor explain to a customer about smoking cessation!

Day 6

Half day work! Didn't have much to do in the morning so I helped the staff to replenish stocks! I also helped them to handle the cashier! :) At least I had something to do, rather than just stoning around.

That's all for this week! I am quite pleased with my experience thus far but I know there is still a lot to learn! Glad that I'm attached to Unity because learning how to manage a store is a plus! Guardian and Watsons have their own store managers but in Unity, the pharmacist is also the store manager!

Next week could be an entirely different story! Wait and see! :)

2011-06-20T23:59:00.000+08:00

Initially, I had the intention to blog a little bit of my preceptorship experience every single day.

But, guess I can't really do that because by the time I'm back in my room, I'll be too tired already. Besides, I have "homework" to do as well!

Perhaps a weekly update, yes?

Tomorrow work officially starts for me! Wish me luck! :)

Happy Father’s Day!

2011-06-19T13:28:00.001+08:00

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! This is a really old picture of us. Taken one year ago! Hehe. :)

The thought of not being at home today, on Father’s Day makes me feel even more homesick. I miss my family already!

I love you daddy!

Not any different.

2011-06-18T18:00:00.001+08:00

Crap. Feeling homesick.

It’s been two years already and I still feel this way. I’ve said this so many times. Whenever I’m back in Singapore for school, there’s always that homesick feeling I get which I really hate.

I was perfectly fine this morning when my dad accompanied me to the airport except when I hugged my mom and dad before really leaving. Going up the escalator was painful. I turned behind while going up the escalator to see if my dad was still watching me. Yes, indeed he was. I waved one last goodbye to him and there they came.. tears. Now I will always remember the feeling of riding up this particular escalator because it happened one too many times. It’s just another phase in this vicious cycle I go through at every end of my holidays.

I still didn’t think it was that bad compared to the previous times when I’ve left home. But oh boy, I was wrong. I’m feeling the after effects now. I feel like crap! Still feels like the first time even if it happened pre-departure or post-arrival.

You can’t stop me from feeling heavy hearted about leaving home. I’ve grown so attached to my own home that it has become very hard for me to let go eventhough I know I must. And I know I will be all right after this. It happens all the time. But the process is really painful. A lot of things run through my mind in a flash. Sigh.

I guess I will never part from this feeling, not anytime soon.

All I need to do is just let it out (i.e. CRY) and I’ll be fine.

I should just keep myself occupied. Hate it when I’m alone cause I tend to think a lot.

2011-06-18T14:57:00.003+08:00

Yesterday, I thought about how nice it would be if we could actually know what's going to happen next in our lives (like literally the next day). Then, I wouldn't have to be so afraid of a change. I'm not the biggest fan of change, especially really drastic ones but I do admit that it is necessary. I don't really like the fact that when I'm finally getting used or adapting to something, a change occurs. It's back to square one again. Sometimes you get too caught in the moment, time flies so fast without your knowledge and the next thing you know it, you'd be thinking to yourself "What happened to all the time I had?".

But then, I also thought about how boring life would be if you know every single thing that's going to happen next. There are no surprises and nothing to hope for because you can tell the future.

So, I think I'm just fine with life the way it is, with change that is. :) Spending time on the bus and MRT makes me think a lot during my journey. Sometimes, I wish for things that are impossible. Sometimes, I reminisce about the past. Sometimes, I think about the future.

On an unrelated note, I'm back in Singapore after carrying 21kgs worth of bags! Omg, I nearly died on the way back from Changi Airport. Most of my energy were already drained this morning before I boarded the plane! The damn Air Asia plane was so far away from our terminal. We had to walk all the way there, felt like forever! I was lugging 10kgs with me! :/

But I made it, in one piece! :D Took a much needed nap because I hardly slept last night. Now I'm wondering what to do next. Hmm..

Ooh finally got a call from my preceptor! :) Gonna report for work in Jurong Point on Tuesday at 10.30 am! She sounds like a nice person! :)

Two Meals

2011-06-17T01:52:00.001+08:00

Two more meals in KL then I’m off to Singapore. It’s just two more meals because I hardly take breakfast nowadays. When I wake up, it’s always almost time for lunch, so I have brunch instead. Need to kick the habit of waking up late soon, as work is going to begin!

Received an email from the hall office today. I have to move back to F Block by Wednesday. LE SIGH. But since I’ll be working on weekdays, that leaves me with only this weekend to move out. Not good at all. :/ Why do they have to make my life so hard? :( Oh well.. That’s the life of an international student! You will always have to move about bringing along every single thing you own. Kinda like nomads. :/

I have yet to catch Super 8 and Green Lantern! I don’t know if I have the time to catch them in Singapore. Besides, movie tickets there are so expensive if you convert to RM. But, I’ve learnt not to convert too much when buying things or spending money there. At the same time, I always limit myself to a certain amount that I should spend. It’s not like I go out all the time in Singapore. I only go out like probably once a month?

As of right now, I’m in the midst of packing. Got almost everything packed! Dreading the journey back to hall, especially the hill and staircases that I would have to climb just to get to my room. On top of that, the thought of moving out.. Oh gosh. I really hate it. :/

Well well well, what do we have here?

2011-06-15T22:17:00.002+08:00

Just four days before I begin my preceptorship in Unity, Tanjong Pagar Plaza, I received an email from the Chief (somewhat like a coordinator) regarding my preceptor. Apparently, my preceptor has left and hence, I would have to be assigned under a different preceptor at a different branch.

Well, It didn’t come much as a shocker to me because Qunyuan, who is currently working with my initial preceptor told me that she will be resigning soon, probably in July. When Qunyuan told me that, I assumed that I would still be working at the same place until she resigns. Oh well, guess she resigned earlier than expected?

After I have painstakingly interrogated Qunyuan about her experience in Tanjong Pagar Plaza, it just dawned on me that most of it would be gone to waste as it is confirmed that I will not be working there. Aside from Qunyuan, I have also asked Kah Eng about her experience. I assumed that Qunyuan and Kah Eng’s preceptors are quite close since Kah Eng told me that Qunyuan’s preceptor works overtime at Kah Eng’s workplace in Tiong Bahru. Hence, Kah Eng knows a thing or two about her. Both of them have been very nice enough to share their experiences with me and also give me some useful tips!

So the Chief emailed me and asked for my preference for my new allocation. I tried my luck on Clementi or Harbourfront since they are quite near from campus. But she suggested Jurong Point Mall which is four MRT stations away from Clementi. Not that bad, in my opinion.

I wanted to opt for Tiong Bahru, eventhough it is further because of what Kah Eng had shared with me. But Kah Eng told me her preceptor is quitting as well! Haha. So after much consideration, I agreed with Jurong Point.

According to the Chief and the document regarding our allocations, there will be another student working together with me. But Kah Eng told me that he (who is also her lab partner) is currently doing summer programme in Canada and has no intentions on getting his pharmacist license. Oh well, guess I would only know on Monday.

Well, it doesn’t matter where am I allocated to. One thing that I have to bear in mind is to go there with an open heart and mind. The main goal is to learn!

I’m kinda anticipating the experience! Sounds exciting! But at the same time, I am feeling heavy-hearted for leaving home so soon.

It’s goodbye again, but I’ll be back.

2011-06-10T21:55:00.002+08:00

One more week worth of holidays then I can kiss goodbye to it. Well, technically I still have another 1.5 months of holidays. It’s just that I’ll be doing my preceptorship rather than slacking and bumming around. Sounds like a pretty decent way to spend the next half of my holidays.

I’ve always wanted to achieve something memorable out of all my long breaks. For example, last summer holidays, I went to Cambodia for social work and this summer, I’ll be working in a pharmacy! I like the idea of knowing that I’ve learned and achieved something throughout my holidays instead of just bumming around, wasting my life away. I mean I still like the idea of relaxing and slacking. I’ve always wanted it, especially during term time but a few weeks of that would do. After that, I should be up on my feet! Otherwise, I’d just feel like I’m wasting a lot of time doing nothing productive.

However, the thought of having to work five days a week seem like a real chore to me. I am sure that I would be wishing to have holidays again once I start working. I am contradicting myself aren’t I? Well, that’s how life works sometimes. You can always have what you want and you can’t always have the best of both worlds.

I’m a bit scared but at the same time excited about my preceptorship. Hope I’ll manage to pull through. Oh and the aftermath of my preceptorship would be writing a report about it! Ah the horror. I’ll try not to procrastinate so much so that I can go home for about a week after my preceptorship ends before school starts! :) Hope I’ll have time!

I had a really good time spending my holidays at home. It’s what I have always yearned for during my stressful times in Singapore. Glad to have finally get a good grasp of it although it’ll be ending soon. Oh well, time flies right? :)

Better enjoy my last week to the fullest! I love the people surrounding me i.e my family and friends. They make me feel so loved! :)

My Wisdom Tooth Extraction

2011-05-16T23:08:00.001+08:00

I wanted to blog about my wisdom tooth extraction few days ago but never gotten around to do it because I was either too lazy or busy running around town.

My parents brought me to the dentist last Saturday morning for my wisdom tooth extraction. I was really hoping that it wouldn’t be as painful as I thought, just like how the dentist claimed it to be. The verdict? We shall see.. :)

My mom went into the room with me and she took a few pictures of me during the surgery. None of them are with me now. :P

First, the dentist injected some local anaesthetic into my gums. We waited until my mouth was numb partially on the right side. After that, I was directed into the X-ray room where an X-ray of my lower right wisdom tooth was done. My wisdom tooth appeared to have grown horizontally whereas a regular tooth grows vertically. I think this is a pretty common case hence extraction is needed.

After ensuring that I couldn’t feel a thing on the right side of my mouth, the extraction began! There was a lot of drilling in my mouth which was kinda freaky. Then, he took a tool and pulled my wisdom tooth out forcefully! He had to pull a few times before it finally came out. After pulling out the lower right tooth, he went on to pull out the upper right one.

I was so anxious throughout the whole ordeal that I kept asking the nurse and dentist whether he managed to pull out my tooth already or not. I couldn’t feel anything so I couldn’t tell!

So yeah, the extraction wasn’t painful at all. I think the aftermath was even more painful. :/

I brought back my wisdom tooth! Gross, I know.

Anyway, I thought I had to survive on porridge the entire week but guess what? I was back to my normal eating habits and meals after the first day! :D

Catching Up

2011-05-14T22:55:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was so much fun because I spent the entire day catching up with friends and enjoying my meals while I can before my wisdom tooth extraction this morning.

I had banana leaf rice with Janice and Jonathan at Kanna Curry House. My first time having banana leaf rice at a place other than Nirwana’s! It was pretty alright but I kinda like Nirwana’s more because they have fried bittergourd! :D

We talked and made fun of each other while enjoying our feast. Jonathan ate the most, as per normal.

This giant dude started wearing contact lenses! I couldn’t really recognize him when I first saw him!

This is my dear friend, Janice. She’s ever so cheerful and jolly! *Both pictures taken from Janice.

At night, I had dinner and hung out with my amazing girlfriends! I haven’t seen them for so long and it was so good to have literally each and every one of us around. It’s often kinda hard to get everyone to meet up at a certain time and venue because we all have our own lives that we’re busy catching up with. I guess I make a good excuse for them to set aside some time for a girly meet up? :D

Polaroid picture that each of us went back home with thanks to Jessie! :) Yes, we took a group picture seven times using her polaroid camera.

2011-05-10T14:47:00.001+08:00

Tomorrow marks one week since my last paper of my second year in Pharmacy. Gosh, it feels like I have been on holidays for so long already. That’s a bid odd. Guess I’m taking some time to readjust my life from the fast-paced life I had back in Singapore before my holidays started.

HOME – The Good and The Bad

2011-05-09T22:07:00.001+08:00

I’m home! :D

After all that intense packing and moving out, I’m finally home. :) The first meal I had in KL was this..

BAK KUT TEH! :D YUMS! :))

Although it feels really good to be home and I feel really excited about eating all the food that I’ve missed ever so dearly, I am having a really bad toothache! What a way to spoil my first couple of days in KL!

The toothache actually started yesterday before I boarded the plane back to KL. I thought it was a minor toothache and didn’t really bother much about it. Luckily, I was still able to enjoy my BKT eventhough it was slightly painful while I was chewing my food. But, it got worse at night! I woke up at 3.30 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep. The pain was excruciating!

Went to visit the dentist first thing this morning! Oh boy, the dentist told me that my wisdom tooth (MY THIRD ONE ALREADY) is growing and it is hitting the one below causing the nerves in my gums to be affected, hence the AWFUL PAIN. I thought he would do the same thing he did for me when my second wisdom tooth grew last time – injection but apparently not. I HAVE TO GET MY WISDOM TOOTH EXTRACTED! Oh the horror! I’ve heard about how painful wisdom tooth extraction can be and I immediately started questioning the dentist. Hahaha. Paranoid much?

I just hope he gives me really strong anaesthetic to that I don’t have to feel any pain.

My second wisdom tooth didn’t need extraction last time because after the jab he gave me, it didn’t cause anymore pain. I don’t understand why he can’t do the same this time cause he didn’t explain to me. :( But a dentist knows what is he doing best! So I shall trust him!

In the mean time, I am having a lot of trouble trying to eat cause the pain is really terrible! Heck, even moving my tongue hurts! My delicious meals shall wait for me till I recover. Porridge for now, meh. :/

At the same time, I’m really glad that I’m actually home when this is happening. If I were to be in Singapore, I would have already started my preceptorship (it would be my first day today) and it would be a hassle to work and at the same time, visit the dentist. Plus, there would be post-extraction problems to be taken care of! Really thankful that I’m home. :) My parents have been really caring and I feel so blessed! My mom is cooking porridge for me tomorrow morning before she goes to work! Feel so bad for troubling her. :( She’s also gonna accompany me for my extraction this Saturday in case anything happens. Who knows what might happen if I were to go alone? Paranoid, again. Haha. :)

I’m currently relying on medication to soothe the pain a little. It’s actually bearable whenever I’m not eating. This afternoon, I visited Nanny after going to the dentist and she made sardine puffs! I gobbled four of them despite the pain! So tasty! A reason why I could bear the pain is because I took painkiller earlier haha. :D

P/S: I don’t feel like I’m getting any wiser. Oh and I’m gonna have more sardine puffs now! :D

2011-03-06T20:50:00.002+08:00

One flip through my organizer and it struck me that this semester is coming to an end pretty soon. Actually, it's not that soon.. but the fact that I have one test each week on average just makes it seem that the semester is coming to an end soon.

Time flies here in NUS. Like really fast. Too fast in fact. There isn't and will never be enough time here. As soon as I'm done with one test, there's another one coming up that I have to study for.

Realizing the fact that this semester is ending pretty soon is also a good thing because I get to go home for the holidays although it'll be much shorter than last year (by 50%). But then again, I'm still unsure if I should do special term.. If I decide to do special term, I wouldn't have holidays at all! I'll probably have a week off only? Oh well.. time will tell.

Until then. :)

IT GLOWS!

2011-02-04T22:40:00.004+08:00

Dad tagged me in this picture on Facebook. A lion that glows! It looks so pretty and one-of-a-kind! Somehow, I have this feeling where I've seen this kinda lion dance before but for some odd reasons, it feels like I'm seeing this for the first time! What is this feeling called? :/

Anyway, it's just too bad that I couldn't be at my uncle's place to witness it. Seems like the lion dance troops have taken lion dance a notch higher when it comes to performing and impressing people! :)

Knowing that my dad uploaded this picture and tagged me on Facebook makes me feel proud somehow, haha. It's a good thing that he's catching up with technology. ;) My mom as well! :)

I wonder if my sister helped him on this because I taught the both of my parents how to upload pictures on Facebook before.

It's a good thing to know that they're enjoying themselves in Sabah. I have never once and never would deprive them of their hometown. :) It's not very often do they get to go home. I'm sure there is a part of them that is very much attached to where they belong. CNY is the perfect time for them to relax and get away from all the chaos and stress in KL.

As for me, even with all the hustle and bustle of KL, I still prefer KL because that's where I was born and raised.

Bunny Year!

2011-02-03T21:05:00.005+08:00

*edited: added a picture!

Today, for the first time..

#1 I tried kimchi! :D Although not the authentic one, but Kelvin claimed that it was close to authentic. I liked it! Tasted almost like ham choi (salted vegetable).

#2 I peeled carrots! (Omg I know right, after 21 years!)

#3 I tried corn tea! Kelvin brought it back from Korea! It tasted a lot like coffee (very much diluted coffee actually) which in my opinion, is not supposed to because it's supposed to taste like corn! But it was quite tasty.

#4 I spent CNY with my hall friends!

#5 I got to know that Kelvin's room is actually much spacious than the normal ones because his room used take up one half of the bathroom! They demolished the bathroom and made two rooms out of it! I wanna see how much bigger is his room!

Hmm, I guess there is a first for everything? :)

Happy Chinese New Year guys! :D The year of the bunny! :)

Oh the CNY blues.

2011-02-02T23:04:00.005+08:00

Oh look we have a wet CNY eve this year.

Less than an hour till midnight strikes. I hope everyone is enjoying their reunion dinners. It's too bad that I can't spend CNY with my family this time around. My first time spending CNY in a foreign country, ALONE! Well, technically not all alone. I do have a few friends who decided to spend the holidays here.

Hall is a lot quieter now, sigh. :/ Everyone's at home spending quality time with their families while I'm stuck on this island. Hahaha oh well, recess week is coming soon! I'll be going home! :D

Happy Chinese New Year people! :))

P/S: I WANNA EAT BAK KWA.

Mind Over Matter

2011-01-04T11:10:00.002+08:00

I think I've figured out what my resolution this year is going to be. I never thought of making a list of resolutions to be accomplished by the end of this year like how I used to. It's because I don't always get to put a tick next to each of my resolution. But this time, it just occurred to me suddenly (while I was in shower, haha) that I really need to work on this resolution of mine.

My resolution this year is nothing materialistic, really. What I want to accomplish by this year or at least try my very best, is to worry less and stay optimistic. The mind really does wonders you know?

How do you think what started off as a passion can turn into an obsession gone wrong?

My dad always says "It's all in your mind.". I guess that's also the reason why people always say "mind over matter". What I really need is a control of my own mind. Sometimes, it's really hard to keep telling yourself you can do it when there are many temptations and bad influence out there. There's always space for negativity. It's a matter of whether you would succumb to it or not.

I like optimistic people and I've always envied those who have managed to stay optimistic despite going through disappointments and rejections. It just goes to show that they see things differently. They have different perceptions. Come to think of it, it's not really the end of the world, isn't it? So, why worry? Let bygones be bygones!

I really need to control rather than be controlled.

This will be a life-changing resolution if I succeed.

1.1.11

2011-01-01T21:34:00.001+08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :D

1.1.11 :D

Goodbye 2010

2010-12-31T13:04:00.000+08:00

It's the last day of 2010 and it's New Year's Eve!

As excited as everyone else may be, I'm not that thrilled about welcoming the year 2011. I don't know why. I guess it probably means that I have to leave home AGAIN and a new semester (another vicious cycle) resumes again. It's my last weekend here and it has always been hard for me to let go of home, the place where I truly belong. But, I'm getting better. After countless of times, it doesn't affect me much anymore. I still get the feeling of being homesick, but it's just lesser in intensity.

Putting the negativity aside, I'm hoping that the year 2011 will bring more joy and happiness. I foresee a lot of obstacles ahead of me! One of the things that pops in my mind when I think of 2011 is preceptorship. Preceptorship is like an internship/attachment with community pharmacies (i.e Guardian, Watsons etc) in Singapore. I'll then be attached to a hospital pharmacy in Year 3. Two different settings, two different years! I wonder how is it gonna be like. I'm sure it'll be a great experience. :) I bet it's gonna be a rocky road!

2010 was great in many ways. I had my share of inevitable ups and downs. But, they're gone now, I'm only left with memories. Hence, cheers to 2011 and to a new decade! I'm gonna embark this year with positivity.

BAZINGA! :D

Eve of NYE

2010-12-30T20:27:00.003+08:00

It's the eve of New Year's Eve! :)

Since Malaysia won the AFF Suzuki Cup, tomorrow is a public holiday! There's no reason for me to rejoice or be happy about it because I am on holidays anyway! But seriously, I don't think this will ever happen in Singapore. Meh.

I'm sure everywhere will be packed tomorrow! Traffic becomes extra congested on NYE! On top of that, it's a public holiday tomorrow. Can't imagine what the jam will be like.

My mom was very happy that the PM declared a public holiday tomorrow. This morning, she knocked on our door and told us about it after reading the news online. Now, I don't know if this was really what happened or it was just a dream I had this morning. :/ Ever had that feeling? When you can't tell whether it was a dream or reality?

Anyway, glad that both my parents get an extra day to rest! :)

Heading out for dinner in a bit! BYE!

Stagnant

2010-12-22T00:39:00.002+08:00

Oh boy, how I hate stagnancy right now.

If it's a good position to be stagnant, I wouldn't mind.

OCIP Cambodia 2010, Part Three

2010-12-10T01:22:00.002+08:00

Looks like I took a very long break from my previous post on Cambodia. I didn’t have the time to spend on blogging without feeling guilty! :/

For Part 1, click *here*
For Part 2, click *here*

Picking up from where I left..

On the second week of our trip, we visited Andong Village. It’s basically a slum area stuck in the city. Apparently, the villagers’ houses were taken away from them and they had to move out but they couldn’t afford a typical house so they had to stay in squatter houses which had rubbish surrounding them everywhere! I can’t imagine living with rubbish! The horrible stench, clogged drains, plastic bags at every nook and cranny of the slum, flies everywhere, minimal amount of CLEAN water supply and just the pure thought of how low the level of hygiene there scares me!

Pictures to help you visualize what I really said. The condition is awful isn’t it?

After taking a tour around the village, we went back to the villages’s primary school.

This was the school we taught at during the second week. The students who lived in the village attend English lessons at this school. It’s kinda like a tuition place for English lessons in the afternoon. In the morning, it functions as a primary school.

One of their classrooms.

The school’s kitchen.

The younger kids waiting for their class to start.

One of the primary school kids was asked to lead the class (complete with a long stick) on reading whatever that’s written on the whiteboard. I thought this was a really cute scene.

Besides running the school, they (principal’s wife and relative) also sew for a living.

Their crafts that were for sale.

There was a well beside the school and this was how deep the well was!

This is a pond near the well.

We went to another place nearby which used to function as a community hall (I think). Some of the volunteer organizations wee kind enough to buy that place so that the school could be transferred over.

This place had a much larger space.

There was another well in there too! I tried getting water from the well with a pail and it wasn’t easy! You need skills to scoop a significant amount of water into the pail.

We decided to create a library at an empty shack in the school compound for the students when their school gets transferred over.

We didn’t bring any materials with us on the first day. So, we started by sawing logs into smaller pieces with the help of some of the students and teachers.

I tried sawing too!

We also cleaned up the compound.

Alvin and Fan Rui tried to break the lock to enter a room and seconds after they succeeded, one of the teachers found the key to open the lock. Hahaha.

The empty room.

Wiping the wall.

We collected water from the pond in the school compound for cleaning purposes.

The clouds looked scary and it was really windy. But, it didn’t rain.

Minutes later, the skies were clear again.

Siew Wai, Cui Shan and I.

After all that sawing, we headed back to the primary school to start conducting English lessons!

Back in school. Since we had some free time before classes started, we played with the kids and took pictures.

We sat behind and observed the students.

This is one of the English teachers. I forgot what is his name. :/

Then, it was our turn to introduce ourselves to the students and teach them.

The next day, we went back to “new” school to work on the library. Some of the guys went out to buy paint, brushes and furniture for the library. We were divided into three groups for three different tasks which are building benches, painting and organizing books.

Unloading shelves from the tuktuk.

Painting the wall and railings.

Dr Seow helped out too. Since he was so tall, he volunteered to paint the higher areas.

Working in pairs to saw the log for the benches.

Painting the logs.

Tying the logs together!

Alvin requested that I take a picture of him sawing or more like pretending to saw (since the benches were already done!). He’s such a camwhore. :P Lucky guy is enjoying his student exchange at the States now!

Rearranging and labelling books.

The painted wall and railings.

The revamped library.

After all that hardwork and while waiting for our painted benches to dry, we played with the principal’s son, Puri! He is so adorable!! :D I remember trying to recall his name a few days later back in the guestroom and accidentally guessed his name as “Pussy” which made Gavin laugh. Oops, my bad!

Proud of our benches (the other bench not seen in this picture)!

At night, we went out for desserts! Scoops of ice-cream in coconut shells and coconut juice!

On the last day, we stopped by a duck farm to buy duck eggs for the students before going to the school.

On that day also, we washed the kids’ hairs! It was very fun! :D I was in the washing department so I poured a lot of lice shampoo and scrubbed their heads!

Kids lining up to get their hairs shampoed!

The rinsing department.

The combing department. This was where all the lice could be seen dead on their towels. Two person had to comb each girl’s hair because it was really hard to untangle all the knots! I know this fact because I tried combing a girl’s really long hair after I was done with washing and it took so much effort!

Every kid was given a duck egg after all that washing.

After that, it was more of playing with the kids! :)

When we were done for the day, Hazel, Cui Shan, Ek Theng, Siew Wai and I took the same tuk-tuk back. The driver was driving so slow that the other two groups were far ahead of us. We kept telling the driver to go fast and he didn’t listen. We thought he didn’t understand English so we tried to make sounds that could possibly mean “fast” to him but he kept at the same speed.

When we reached the guestroom, it was so dark and the lights were switched off. Then, “SURPRISE!!”, hehe. It was Siew Wai and Hazel’s birthdays! :) The tuk-tuk driver purposely drove slow so that the others could reach first in time to prepare. Hehehe, Cui Shan, Ek Theng and I knew they were gonna surprise them but I didn’t know the tuk-tuk driver was involved too! He must be laughing inside when we tried to make him go faster!

Us with the birthday girls!

That night, some of us tried the famous local delicacy – embryonated duck eggs! Cui Shan was daring enough to try. I didn’t! Apparently, it was really tasty.

One of the days during that week, Dr Seow who flew to Cambodia for a few days treated us pizzas for lunch!

Group pictures! :)

The kind and thoughtful Dr Seow! :)

One of the days during that week, we also had steamboat for lunch.

Phew, finally done with Cambodia! Actually, I’m not quite done because I still have the touristy stuff that we did after all that volunteering to blog about. But, I think I’m gonna pass on blogging about that. Hehe. :D

Universal Studios Singapore

2010-12-01T16:54:00.002+08:00

After more than three months, I finally have the time to blog about Universal Studios! Gee, this is what NUS does to you. There simply isn’t much time for you to do anything else besides studying without feeling guilty. Now that I have the liberty to do whatever I want with no sense of guilt whatsoever, I shall blog and a meaningful blogpost it shall be i.e no ranting or rambling.

So, my ultimate best friends in the whole wide world flew down to Singapore to celebrate my 21st with me and we went to..

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!! :D

The entrance.

Collected our souvenir and food vouchers here.

Popcorn truck! How cute! :D

Frankenstein! There were many other characters roaming around and people were lining up to take pictures with them. We were one of them!

Woody the Woodpecker!

Po from Kungfu Panda! He was huge!

There were also assigned photographers who took pictures of people with the characters and the photos captured can be obtained from this place!

Cute stroller!

Huge mock tree.

We played around with some funky hats! :D

Birthday girl gets a picture with a birthday hat!

Yellow taxi!

This building looks real huh?

I think we fail at making robotic movements, haha.

This ride looks wicked! It isn’t completed yet though. I think it’ll only be completed by next year.

They look so futuristic.

Lights! Camera! Action! We saw how a set in a studio could look so real because of special effects. Pay attention to the background of the windows.

A huge ship crashed in towards the end. On your right, you can see that one of the window panels fell off and the background changed!

This was at Egypt! :P

Just look at his abs! This was in front of the entrance to the Mummy ride which was TOTALLY AWESOME. REALLY.

A parking lot for strollers, how convenient!

Kiddy ride! No, we did not go for this although we almost did.

This was at a park called “Far Far Away”, a Shrek-inspired theme. Lavonne’s popsicle was just perfect for the really hot weather!

This castle is so fairytale-like.

At the Donkey Live Show. We didn’t see a real donkey, only this. I thought it was more suitable for kids but it was quite entertaining. The donkey could actually respond to the audience! Some of the people in the audience asked a few questions and the donkey answered them!

Ramyah with her big cookie!

Jurassic Park!

A souvenir shop at Jurassic Park.

Another cute popcorn truck.

Dinosaurs, no smoking please!

We were queuing up for this ride. Looks pretty okay right? Janice wanted to take pictures of the view beneath us but she didn’t dare because it was going so fast (less than a minute to finish the ride) and we were so high up! Haha.

Madagascar!

Had lunch here.

Old school jukebox!

The view outside.

Lunch! The fries were awesome. I LOVE FRIES!!

There was a retro performance outside.

Queuing up for our last ride with our ponchos because it was a wet ride!

Yes, it was a wet one indeed. A really wet one.

Jelly beans!

A Betty Boop souvenir store.

A mock pharmacy haha!

Audrey Hepburn!!

Then it was goodbye Universal Studios! This was in Vivo City.

That pretty much wraps up what we did that day. It was day filled with fun, joy and laughter! I’m really thankful that I had the opportunity to celebrate my birthday with them around. Hope they had fun cause I had tons of it! :D

LIBERATED

2010-11-27T17:01:00.002+08:00

YESH. This feels awesome!! :) I can practically smell home from here!

It's also time to catch up on Gossip Girl and all the other English TV series that I've missed. And the best part is that I can watch them without feeling guilty. YAY YAY YAY!!

But first, I need to start packing! GAH. I loathe this.

2010-11-22T18:10:00.004+08:00

Flipping through the exam papers during Pharmaceutical Analysis just now really reminded me of the horror of PPDA (Physicochemical Principles of Drug Action, ugh what a mouthful). Hopefully, my grade for this paper wouldn't be as bad as PPDA. That would just make me depressed. :( PPDA REALLY SUCKED last year.

THE MCQs WERE A PAIN, really :(

I think the limiting factor was time. Two hours to answer 60 MCQs and three long questions! How can! 1 minute for each MCQ, reading the question already takes up more than one minute. :/ One of the long questions involved really long calculations albeit quite easy to do provided there was more time. I finished right on the dot. I realized that I have always been finishing my papers right on the dot so there's really no time to check which sucks because I'm prone to making careless mistakes.

Oh wells. I'll just hope for the best.

'Nuff ranting, start studying.

P/S: You know what? I really miss blogging.

Hold On

2010-11-20T23:12:00.002+08:00

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure - Bill Cosby

2010-11-20T20:36:00.002+08:00

What can I do to change the way things are now?

There are just too much disappointment, sadness and pessimism in the atmosphere.

2010-10-03T14:44:00.002+08:00

sayingimages.com

Now that September has ended, I wonder what October has in store for me.

Last week was really a shitty week. I had two midterms to sit for and two assignments due! The assignments were very time-consuming, mind you! I was counting the days till it was over ever since the week started. I was very overwhelmed, I had too many things to handle. Too much tension in the atmosphere.

And I didn't even procrastinate okay! I just didn't feel confident or satisfied with my assignments (especially the Singapore River essay, ugh!) and had to do a lot of editing towards the end. :( I guess that built up the pressure. And also, designing a pamphlet, omg (Hello? Pharmacists don't design pamphlets!). I think the designing was a lot easier relative to the Singapore River essay. :/

Exams? I seriously hate coming out of the exam hall thinking or saying to myself things like "Oh I should have written that..", "OH YAH! I just realized..", "OH CRAP, I forgot about that.." etc. You get my point right? It gets kind of frustrating but I guess it's inevitable. :/

I foresee a lot of these kinda situations (especially the stress) multiplied by 10 in Year 3 Semester 1.. and make that stress x 10, EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

Oh God.. I just need to breathe.

Midterms

2010-09-25T23:58:00.003+08:00

It's been exactly a month since I last updated. Never realised that my blog was on a halt for that long. I've been too preoccupied!

What's new with me? Oh, nothing much, same old same old.

Mugging for midterms now. Wish I had more time. Recess week isn't enough for studying and holidays. Anyway, recess week is meant for us to relax not to study for midterms! When will they ever learn that holidays are named holidays for a purpose? Sheesh, totally defeats the purpose of recess week.

Time flies, we're moving into the second half of the semester already. Pretty soon it'll be finals and BAMMMM holidays for good yo! :) Well, until next semester at least.

Okaaaay back to my Pharmaceutical Analysis lecture notes!

21 on the 21st

2010-08-26T16:38:00.003+08:00

My 21st birthday was major awesome! I really wanna blog about what happened and stuff but I need to find the time to do so. *shrugs*

I wanna thank my girlfriends - Lavonne, May Jean, Janice, Jessie, Rita and Ramyah for coming down all the way from KL just to celebrate with me! They actually intended to surprise me but too bad I spoiled the surprise for myself, haha. They planned the trip like 1.5 months ahead! :D Hehehe, the fact that they were willing to sacrifice so much just to celebrate with me made me feel so touched. I hope they enjoyed their weekend here though, I know I had a lot of fun!! :D

On top of that, they also got me a BLACKBERRY (my sister chipped in too!)!! OH MY GODDDD!! For this plan, they got me! I didn't see this coming at all! I thought they wouldn't give me anything since coming down to was already like a gift for me. Haha. THANK YOU MY LOVES! :D

My parents also gave me an enormous ang pao (not in terms of size of the red packet). It's SO HUGE that it's so far the biggest one I have ever received! I don't think anyone is gonna top this unless my parents decided to give an even bigger ang pao in the future. Hehehe. I was so shocked to see how much that small packet contained. THANK YOU DADDY AND MUMMY I LOVE YOU!!

My mom also gave me a white gold necklace with a key pendant. :D Kinda like an obligatory thing when you turn 21 ey? Anything and something just has to be the shape of a key. :D I love it!! :)

I had a lot of little gifts too along the way which really made me feel special, hehe. Thank you guys, you know who you are!!

I shall blog more next time! ABOUT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS PERHAPS? :D Mwahahaha!

I shall leave you with a portrait of Huang Rong and I that Denis drew! Huang Rong and I share the same birth date so the people in hall had a celebration for the both of us together. Thanks people!! Thank you Denis for the portrait! It looks exactly like us, he's so talented!!

Until next time, bye!! :)

This is for you, Mummy.

2010-08-13T16:19:00.003+08:00

To my dearest and beloved mother,

Happy Birthday! :)

I’m deeply saddened by the fact that I’m not able to be back at home to celebrate with you and the rest. I say this all the time because I always reminisce about the good times and I’ve always wished I could turn back time just for a day. Although we are miles apart, I want you to know that I’m proud to have you as a mother, MY mother. You have done well with the best of your abilities into bringing us up and I can never thank you enough for that.

Isn’t it wonderful to think about how much you have been through all these years? How life has grown for you? How far have you progressed in life? :)

Mummy, this is probably your last birthday before you retire and I know you can’t wait to retire. Do enjoy life all you can for I know that you are a woman with great dedication, patience and not forgetting a very loving person. I know that you secretly wish to travel as much as you can and I hope to bring you and our family around someday in the future. :)

Picture taken about 2.5 years back. :)

You’re awesome Mummy! I love and miss you so much! Sorry for calling you at almost 2 a.m this morning because I actually thought it was 6.30 a.m. I thought it was time for school! What a joke, hahaha.

Many hugs and kisses from me, all the way from Singapore! :)

Credits to Neverforgetisz @ Tumblr

NUS Rag Day 2010, NUS King Edward VII Hall - KE Soul

2010-08-07T10:38:00.003+08:00

Must watch! Totally awesome! :D

Rag Day 2010

2010-08-06T23:30:00.005+08:00

So.. Rag Day just ended. This year was extra special because it was held at night and most importantly, it was held in conjunction with the flame arrival of the Youth Olympic Games! :)

I went for Rag Day as a proud supporter of King Edward VII Hall! We were all clad in bright red! It was awesome eventhough I couldn't really see or hear what was going on when we were cheering like crazy! Must go search on YouTube tomorrow to watch some of the performances that I have missed. :D

We didn't win anything this year. Despite that, I think everyone put up a great show with the very best that they could. :) They have worked so much to have come this far, I'm sure that every KEVIIan is proud of them. I know I am! :)

Lightsticks are amazing inventions I tell you! :D They look super pretty at night eventhough they only last for a short while!

I received a few goodies today including a vuvuzela like Coca-cola bottle (Coca-cola was one of the sponsors), orange and blue lightsticks (woohoo!), LiNUS the NUS lion keychain and more!

This is how our float looks like this year. Pictures credit to Jennie Ei Phyu! :)

As a result of Rag Day, I have lost my voice! But, it was worth it because I had fun! :D Can't wait for next year's Rag Day! :) Now that Rag Day is over, it marks the beginning of a dreadful semester! Many new challenges coming ahead!

Studded LBD

2010-07-25T16:27:00.001+08:00

About a few weeks ago, my sister and I were bumming around at home till we got bored so we decided to “bling” my little black dress (LBD)! :D I bought my LBD and a few packets of studs during the end of my first semester and never got around to “blinging” it. Actually, I don’t think “blinging” is the right term used for studs. :3 I don’t know what’s the appropriate word!

This is how it looked like initially. A little plain don’t you think so?

We spent some time ironing the studs on the dress and also clipping on the dress. We had two types of studs i.e iron-on and clip-on. I did the ironing and she did the clipping! ;)

We came up with something random, really random. We’re not very artistic people, you see. :P

Nevertheless, I was satisfied. :) Thanks to my dear sister who got so excited about “blinging” my dress after she DIY-ed/bling-ed her own studded belt!

Now, whenever I look at this dress, I’d think of my sister and the fun that we had while “blinging” this dress. :)

Happy 18th Sis!

2010-07-11T13:58:00.002+08:00

This birthday post is late because our modem at home got struck by lightning! I’m sure you understand my dear sister! Now that it had been revived, I’m not wasting any time to do this post before I procrastinate more and eventually end up not blogging about this.

Okay, enough blabbering!

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY LIM WEN YEE! :D

(I know it’s supposed to be a belated birthday wish, but screw it lah k? Let’s pretend that it’s still your birthday, hahaha.)

You’re EIGHTEEN! :D Can’t believe how fast time flies. I still remember how you looked like when you were young and I always smile to myself when I have a certain picture of you when you were little in mind because you looked so cute! Especially with your bangs and chubby cheeks! Awww. :D How I wish I could relive that moment once again.

I remember how we used to play “Global Guts” and “Legends of The Hidden Temple” (the game shows on Nickelodeon) at home! We would run around the house going through our self-created “obstacles”. Hahaha. Those were the days!

Now that you’re all grown up and I’m not always at home except during the holidays, I do hope that you take care of our parents and behave yourself! Just to let you know, I think you’re doing a great job so far. :) Since you can drive, try not to get yourself involved in any mishap! Now that you’re in college, this is the time to explore and grab any opportunity that you can before it’s too late when you’re older. Take good care of yourself and stop spending so much! :P Luckily, you’re noisy so you surely do make the house feel lively!

Spending quality family time is awesome! :)

Hope you like it! Actually, I know you love it! ;)

I love you deep deep! :D

2010-07-10T21:17:00.003+08:00

It takes a whole lot of sacrifice, responsibility, love, patience and much more to be a mother.
Merely giving birth to a child without nurturing that child well does not award you the title, "mother".

Some people just don't get it.

OCIP Cambodia 2010, Part Two

2010-07-07T11:59:00.002+08:00

*pictures credits to Siew Wai and Reuben

Moving on from where I stopped..

Our plan was to teach for five days in Kampung Speur. But, we didn’t know that during that week, the King’s birthday was around the corner. The students had public holidays for a couple of days so our teaching lessons were reduced to three days. Teaching for three days was quite swift. Eventhough we taught for a short period of time, we found it quite tiring. Maybe it was due to the heat we were facing. Their classrooms had fans but they had no electricity during the day. So, we relied on the wind which blows intermittently.

On the fourth day, we visited the homes of 30 needy students. We were divided into three different groups and were assigned to go to three different locations respectively. We had a bunch of Cambodian volunteers who accompanied and assisted us in communicating with the villagers. They also introduced and explained their culture in Cambodia along the way.

The students went to school that morning to lead us the way to their homes. While waiting for us to settle some stuff, they cleaned their school compound a little.

We got to know them briefly before visiting their homes. Coincidentally, all five of these students were students from the class that my group taught during the teaching sessions. We also played some games with them.

Off we go to their houses, which were about ten minutes away from the school.

We passed by a lot of dried up paddy fields and saw so many cows grazing in the fields. One thing I noticed about the farm animals in Cambodia is that they are all very skinny! Poor farm animals. :(

Palm trees! Notice that boy climbing down from the tree? He is a student studying in the school in the village. Villagers collect palm juice and palm fruit from palm trees for a living.

Containers used to collect palm juice.

This is a stove used to boil them palm juice into palm sugar.

This is a student’s mother’s house.

Chruk! It’s pig in Khmer. Cui Shan was labelled as “Chruk” throughout the whole trip because she ate almost anything and everything, including exotic food like fried cicadas, spiders, embryonated duck eggs etc! She’s one brave girl. ;) Reuben and Gavin also tried everything!

Hay being kept to be burned to provide heat during rainy seasons.

Palm fruit!

This is a water filter.

Pour water into the filter.

Clear water comes out! Throughout our trip in Cambodia, we only drank distilled water that we bought from sundry shops because of our weaker constitutions.

Reuben, Gavin and Fan Rui with their glasses of palm juice.

This is was first house we visited.

Palm sugar!

Hazel trying the palm sugar and that’s Fan Rui sticking out his tongue. The palm sugar tasted really sweet!

This is a type of sour fruit called “Kan-tut”. When we first told what fruit is this, we laughed because it sounded like “kentut” which means fart in BM.

Some of the things we saw around the second house.

We went to third house and this lady was telling us about her story. Notice that little girl next to me? :D She followed me! She held my hand and refused to let go when we were walking towards the next house. Hehehe.

She reminds me of Pebbles from The Flinstones.

Kantut tree.

Another type of sour fruit. I don’t know what’s it called.

This man found a land mine and he emptied the contents of it. During the Pol Pot Regime, land mines were planted everywhere randomly. That’s why they always say don’t take a path that has not been walked on before. See that little girl clinging onto me in the background? :D

We found this along the way towards the fourth house. It has a nice scent and it can be eaten. I think it had a sour taste.

We were quite surprised to find a concrete house in the midst of the village. The owner should most probably be one of the richest in the village.

This is the fourth house we went to. The old grandmother was telling us about her story. I remember this one! She said her daughter married another man and abandoned her own daughter (the old lady’s granddaughter which is our student). So she took care of her granddaughter. Their house was so small and it could only fit two person. The old grandmother is very sick and she requested that we give her some medication but sadly, we didn’t have any and besides, we can’t simply prescribe medications without knowing what is her disease/illness.

The last house we went to. The story we heard was even more tragic here! According to a resident there, our student’s mother became mentally ill when both her mother’s parents were executed during the Pol Pot Regime. While she was working in the paddy fields, she was raped by a man and she became pregnant. Her child is our student. Her aunt takes care of her now instead of her own mentally ill mother.

Gavin’s favourite boy! Gavin bought him a lot of snacks along the way and because he didn’t bring his wallet along, Reuben had to be his ATM! Hahaha.

The shop where Gavin asked the boy to pick whatever he wanted.

On our way back to the school, one of our students (not among the houses we visited) invited us to her house. She gave us to taste this. It tasted a bit like a doughnut and it’s really delicious! We bought twenty pieces back for the rest of our team.

There are actually more pictures that were taken during the home visitation. It’s just that Siew Wai, our official photographer wasn’t in our group, Pearly and Rueben’s cameras were running out of battery and we took most pictures using Fan Rui’s camera but.. he rarely logs in to Facebook and I haven’t added him as a friend yet. He’s always on China’s version of Facebook though which I don’t have. :/

On the fifth day which was our last day in Kampung Speur, the students returned to school for our farewell ceremony despite the fact that it was a school holiday for them that day. These are the secondary school students.

The primary school students came back as well.

We gave out books and pens to the primary school students.

A group of Cambodian politicians also attended the farewell ceremony and gave out books and pens to the primary school students.

We had a more formal farewell ceremony with the secondary school students.

Before the ceremony started and before some of us were asked to sit in front, behind the VIPs.

Vibol was the emcee.

The secondary school’s director giving a speech. He’s a very grateful and sincere man. He couldn’t stop thanking us throughout our stay in the school. Each time he sees any of us, he utters the work “O-kun” which means “Thank you”.

Carmen, our team leader giving a speech with the help of Nalene, our Cambodian teammate for translations.

We sang a few songs for them including nursery rhymes that we taught them before this.

Carmen presenting a mock cheque to the school director. We donated USD300 to the school for them to enlarge and deepen their existing pond so that they can collect more rainwater for their water supply.

A group photo!

We gave out notebooks, sweets, bags, caps, button badges etc to the secondary school students before they went home.

Happy kid!

Going home with their bicycles.

The pond!

Throwing stones into the pond. We were trying to make them hop. Haha.

Done with Kampung Speur! :)

That was roughly what we did during the first week. After that it was rest and relax for the weekend before heading to Andong Village.

We went to Harvest Inn (Jacob’s guesthouse) after Kampung Speur. We felt so delighted to finally have a proper place to stay after our stay in Kampung Speur. All of us felt grateful for the air-conditioned rooms, water heater, comfortable beds, nice food, friendly staff, laundry services etc. :D

During that weekend, we visited many places including Tuol Sleng (S-21 Prison or Genocide Musuem) and Cheung Ek Killing Fields where the history of the gruesome Pol Pot Regime lies.

This is Tuol Sleng Prison where people were tortured before being executed.

Jacob (owner of the guesthouse) was kind enough to be our tour guide. :D The scarf on his shoulder is called the magic scarf. Apparently, it gives a cooling effect. If I’m not mistaken, it has some kinda crystals in it that gives that effect. I don’t know how far is that true though.

One of the blocks there.

Cells made out of bricks on the first floor.

Inside each cell is a box to empty their bowels and a bowl for food.

Cells made out of wood on the second floor.

There were no cells on the third floor. The prisoners were tied to shackles. The reason why the first floor had brick cells, second floor had wooden cells and third floor had no cells is because they were afraid the building might collapse if they were to build brick cells on all of the floors.

We met Mr. Chum Mey, one of the survivors! :D This is him telling us about his experience. Click *here* to read what I have blogged before this about it.

Pearly, me, Mr. Chum Mey, Cui Shan and Siew Wai.

Group photo before we left! It was nice to be able to talk to a survivor. But it would also be good if one of the heartless Khmer Rouge members was there to tell about his side of the story, wouldn’t it?

Then, we went to the Killing Fields.

We watched a short video in this museum.

This is where the remains of those executed were kept.

We also went to the Russian Market where all sorts of things were being sold. There were many local crafts, decorative items, food, clothes, books, electrical appliances etc available. The best part is you get to bargain for dirt cheap prices! All of us went on a shopping mode so none of us took any pictures, I think. Hahaha.

We went on a boat ride along Tonle Sap Lake and Mekong River.

The next day, we went to this chill out place for lunch where they had hammocks tied to the pillars all over overlooking the view of the lake/river. We just relaxed while we enjoyed the breeze and lunch!

Me in my hammock!

The view!

The locals approached us to sell their food.

The food they sold.

Fried insects like cicadas, crickets and beetles were also sold! Reuben and Gavin bought some to try and they ended up liking them. They popped the bugs inside their mouths as though they were chips! This includes Cui Shan, who ate the most!

This is Cui Shan looking very happy with her cicada before she gobbled it down. Heh.

Reuben with his cicada. I tried one of its legs! It was crunchy! I refused to eat the whole thing though. Eww.

A proper lunch!

Cambodia’s famous Angkor beer.

Ek Theng, Sheng Hui (clearly, enjoying Angkor beer) and Fan Rui.

Cui Shan and I.

Then, we went to Sorya Shopping Centre to just roam around before going to a nearby market. There weren’t many things to buy there, at least there wasn’t anything appealing to me. So Cui Shan, Pearly, Siew Wai and I bought ice-cream from Swensen’s while waiting for the rest to be done.

This is the nearby market I mentioned, forgot what it is called but it wasn’t as good as Russian Market. Didn’t shop much here.

This girl looks so cute and chubby! She looks like a baby sumo! Heh.

We visited the Royal University of Phnom Penh since we still had time before dinner.

NUS Faculty of Science students.

NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Science students.

Group shots!

The girls! :)

This bunch of students from Phillipines introduced themselves to us and we had a little chat. Such friendly people. :) They said they were going to visit NUS and hoped to see us there. But too bad, on the day they would be visiting NUS, we would still be in Cambodia. We bumped into them during our trip to Angkor Wat though. What a coincidence!

We took a group picture with them.

We went to DP Lodge, Siying’s uncle’s guesthouse for dinner.

We had a buffet there! Thank you Siying! :)

And so, that’s a wrap for Cambodia Week One! Phew, took me quite some time to actually cover week one. There is still week two to go.

Bittersweet

2010-07-05T20:46:00.002+08:00

Finally got rid of my split and dry ends! It’s about time! Ah, my head feels so light now. :) It always happens after a haircut, don’t you love that feeling? Feels like a whole lot of weight has been lifted and thrown away although the feeling is temporary. I was so scared that I would walk out from the saloon feeling regretful about cutting my hair because I always miss my old hair when I get a new haircut. But, this time I felt relieved! :D

Saw two pretty rainbows that day! :D Really made my day. :) The second rainbow can be seen very vaguely on the right.

Ten more days till I’m back in Singapore. It’s a bittersweet feeling for me. Oh well, life has to go on..

OCIP Cambodia 2010, Part One

2010-07-02T13:06:00.007+08:00

*OCIP stands for Overseas Community Involvement Programme
*pictures credit to Reuben, Alvin and Siew Wai

I know I should have blogged about my Cambodia trip ever since I touched down but I haven’t been doing so because:

#1 I was (still am) waiting for pictures to be uploaded on Facebook.
#2 I had plans practically everyday.
#3 I didn’t really have the time to sit down, recall and recollect whatever I went through, at least not without pictures! Pictures really do speak a thousand words. I saved almost every picture that was uploaded and instantly, I could recall what happened although not in a detailed manner.

Since my internet connection is succeeding in disallowing me to surf the net, this goes to show that I have time to blog about Cambodia! I am going to summarize our daily happenings by posting pictures and they will be in a weekly manner to make things easier for me.

Before the sun rose on the 10th of May and while the city was still asleep, we were busy getting ready to depart from Changi Airport bound to Phnom Penh, Cambodia!

We were waiting in line to weigh the boxes containing donated items for the kids in Cambodia because we were afraid there would be excess baggage. We had over twenty boxes packed with clothes, books, stationeries etc.

These were our cabin baggage.

Obligatory group photo before departing. 18 of us in total (excluding Nalene, our Cambodian teammate who flew back much earlier than us). Eight Malaysians, six Singaporeans, three Chinese and two Cambodians.

Loaded our stuff into the van. There were two vans and a tuktuk!

We headed to a Cambodian restaurant to fill our tummies. This is a glimpse of the restaurant. Reuben’s camera shutter was giving him problems, which explains the mysterious looking picture above.

Something like yao char kwai. Forgot whether it tasted like that or not, heh.

A variety of sauces and spices!

Slices of lime. I think it’s somewhat like a staple for them to consume their food paired with something sour.

Their version of dim sum.

Various meat dishes. I don’t know which is which. We randomly pointed out to which ever dish that looked appetizing to us on their menu.

Okay so for the first week, we spent our time in Kampung Speur. It was very far from the city and we couldn’t afford to travel between Kampung Speur and Harvest Inn (Jacob’s guesthouse). It would be time consuming and we were on a tight budget. So, we stayed in the school there instead.

This is one of the three blocks in the school compound. Look at the clear sky without any trace of clouds! That was how hot it was over there.

The lady on the left is the primary school’s director and the man on the right is the secondary school’s director.

Primary school kids heading back home. Most of them ride bicycles which are too big for their size.

We formed a human chain to transport our bags and luggage from the ground floor to the first.

All done! :) Next, we had to clean up the classrooms which will be our bedrooms. We also had to merge tables to form our temporary beds. Yes, we slept on hard tables!

We also decided to clean their toilet because it was in a really terrible condition. There wasn’t any clean and clear water. The source of their water is from a pond in their school compound. I wondered how we were going to take our shower in this condition. Thankfully, the villagers were nice enough to filter the water for us so that we will have clean water although not crystal clear water. But I guess it was good enough, didn’t want to trouble them. After all, we were that to help them. :)

On my temporary “bed”. I slept in my sleeping bag on the table. Mats were provided by the school for those who didn’t have sleeping bags.

Lunch was prepared by the villagers and honestly, they didn’t look very yummy to me. But, they didn’t taste too bad either. You need a kind of acquired taste for these kind of food and clearly I didn’t have this ability.

Dinner was better!

For the next couple of days, we taught them English. We didn’t know where they stood in terms of their level of proficiency in English so our plans had to be very flexible in order to accommodate their level. These bunch of students in the picture above are aged between 13 to 18 years old. But, we taught them ABC and nursery rhymes! It felt a bit odd to me because back at home, we normally learn these in kindergarten. Nevertheless, it was fun. :) They paid close attention eventhough they were quite shy. Most of them are very small in stature due to insufficient nutrition so it’s quite hard to predict their age based on their sizes until you ask them about their age.

We also played some games with them to boost their energy and so that they wouldn’t feel bored in class.

This is a small stall where they sell snacks and tidbits for the students. It’s something like a canteen except that they don’t sell heavy food and it’s much smaller in size relative to the typical canteens you see back at home.

Local snacks and delicacies. The students here normally get a ten-minute break after each hour of lesson! So they’ll either play outside or buy something to munch on.

The primary school kids like to peek from outside to see what’s going on in the secondary students’ classes, just like this boy!

We played with the primary school kids during break time! :D

This is Srei Sa! :) She’s so cute! She kept saying “Akrang” to me and I had no clue what that meant so I uttered the same thing back to her! I thought it was a greeting or something, like “hello”. This went on a few times and each time I repeated after her, she laughed! Then I found out from Vibol that “Akrang” is her little brother’s name. Hahaha. Almost all the primary school kids have the toy that she’s holding. It’s like the “in” toy there. I wanted to buy a few back but I couldn’t find it! To play that toy, you have to roll the pink stick off your palms and just let it fly in the air.

Pearly and I with some of the primary school kids!

This is the class my group was assigned to.

We also revamped their library. We gave them donated books that we collected before the trip and arranged it accordingly in the library.

A picture of us organizing the books to respective categories.

After revamping, we brought them on a mini tour to the library. We taught them how to use and maintain the books and dictionaries available in the library. We had story-telling sessions as well.

I think I’m gonna end this post abruptly here. I just realized that I have more pictures to be saved and I have to divide week one into two posts. Heh.

Hopefully, I’ll start on the continuation soon!

She turns one.

2010-06-21T21:06:00.001+08:00

This little girl turns one today! :D She looked so cute with her baby pink (looks a bit white in this picture) dress today!

My nanny baked a birthday cake for her. Her name is actually spelled as “Sara” but all of us prefer to pronounce her name as “Sarah” instead of “Sa-ra”.

Brought her along for grocery shopping this morning. :D

That red hairband belongs to Laura. She can’t stand having things being placed on her head. She removed the hairband a few seconds after it was placed on her head. Then she played with it and tried to put it on her head by herself but failed to do so. How adorable!

Her birthday party was small and simple. Her parents couldn’t take the day off so we celebrated for her with her elder brother and the rest of my nanny’s grandchildren. I can roughly remember bits and pieces of my one year old birthday party. It was held at my nanny’s place. She claimed that all of the children she took care of celebrated their one year old birthday parties at her place. The one thing that I can remember the most is sitting in what seemed like a pool of presents! :D So many presents which made me so happy! Life was so carefree back then!

Last week, she was on my lap meddling with the ginrami tiles while I was playing with my sister and nanny.

Shortly after that, she fell asleep in my arms. No wonder she stopped fiddling and meddling.

Carrying her to her cot. I was trying to place her head in such a way that it rests nicely on my shoulder but she tilted her head that way naturally. Oh well, whatever makes her comfortable!

Happy 1st Birthday Sara! :)

Daddy!

2010-06-20T16:03:00.001+08:00

To my one and only beloved father,

Happy Father’s Day! :D

I’m grateful to have you as my father and I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else as a father. Thank you providing tender, love and care as much as you can since I was young until now. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without you. I' am proud to have you as my cute father! :) No words can express how unconditional my love for you as my father.

I’m sorry if I have made you upset in any way in the past. I didn’t mean to hurt you.

Thank you Daddy and I love you! :D

Love,
Your faithful daughter ;)

Thoughts at midnight.

2010-06-18T00:39:00.001+08:00

Here I am, sitting in front of this screen, thinking about what the future holds for me. Somehow, my thoughts are overshadowed by fear. It’s the one thing that can easily crush all my hopes and dreams for the future. I hate this feeling, it makes me feel like I’m taking two steps backwards instead of a step forward.

I shall not let fear take control of my life. Otherwise, I would have to live and die as a coward. There is no way I’m letting that to happen to me. Someone once told me, “The only enemy you know is yourself”. These few words do really mean a lot if you take some time to think through and appreciate it properly.

Yes, life is full of challenges and there are many choices in life that have to be made as you grow older. These choices come tagged with a price. Sometimes, the choices you make might not be a wise one and you wished you could turn back time. But, little did you know, it could be a blessing in disguise. It’s amusing to know how life turned out to be for us after all that we’ve been through. One way or another, there is always something we can hold on to that makes us feel the need to muster all the courage and fight with all our strength and abilities with hopes of a better outcome. It may not be a short journey as it can go on for decades. But, at the end of the day, the satisfaction is priceless, I believe.

The future is like a blank canvas waiting to be painted with vibrant colours.

So what are you holding on to?

Let There Be Light!

2010-06-16T02:54:00.002+08:00

Why hello there! :)

It surely feels like I haven’t been blogging for a long time. I’m blogging from Windows Live Writer, giving it a shot. Thanks to my sister!

I just finished watching Season 6 of Desperate Housewives! :D Now, I can’t wait for the next season eventhough I would only be able to watch it the next semester holidays given that it comes out by then. I am done watching whatever tv series that I have been anticipating to watch even before the holidays started so I’m probably gonna find something else to watch soon.

World Cup is on! Once in every four years! :D Don’t be deceived, I’m not THAT thrilled and excited about it (I don’t mean it in a bad way) but I find myself wanting to know what are the matches of the day and what are the scores like. Last weekend, I found myself engrossed to the tv in a food court watching football while having lunch with my family. That was when I saw Green’s attempt on saving the ball! So funny and cute in a way but what a pity. He must have felt like crap. I don’t know why am I blogging about football! Maybe I do have interest in football after all. Or maybe this interest only appears every four years. Hahaha.

We had a sleepover at Lavonne’s place (her new house :D) the week before last and this time ALL of us were there (unlike last time when it was only Lavonne, Rita, Ramyah and I). Eventhough we only stayed over for one night, I enjoyed my time with them. HTHT! ;) Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures with all of us together, how could we huh? Must have slipped off our minds!

Now I shall test the uploading picture function on Windows Live Writer!

This is Sara! A baby girl that my nanny takes care of. She’s cute isn’t she? :D Look at those big, round and innocent eyes!

Russian dolls! A neighbour of my nanny’s gave them to her. She recently went on a tour to Russia. :) How thoughtful of her. Isn’t it nice to have neighbours like that? Neighbours who actually care about you. Like the neighbours in Wisteria Lane minus all the drama (sorry, too much of Desperate Housewives). But then again, how would life be without dramas huh?

Wow, I can actually change the borders of the pictures without a hassle. How convenient! :)

Sorry about the incoherent paragraphs. I think I have too many things that I wanna say all in one post. Therefore, I’ll abruptly end this post here! It’s getting late anyway, good night!

I wish things were like how they used to be but I guess this is inevitable. A path has been chosen and that path shall have traces of footprints even if it is going to be a rough path. There’s no turning back.

The Pol Pot Regime

2010-06-06T21:14:00.002+08:00

Today's post will be a little bit about a Cambodian history which I think is rather interesting and eye-opening. I hope I don't bore you guys. I have never been a fan of history, so if I'm alright with this particular Cambodian history, I guess it shouldn't be too boring for you. :P

Some of you might have heard about this as it happened not long ago (some of you might have not, since we learn mostly about our country's history), about 35 years ago to be exact. Sounds quite recent to me! I shall try to keep it short and simple. Anyway, this historic event is called the "Pol Pot Regime".

In 1975, when the King of Cambodia finally gained independence for his country, every Cambodian was celebrating for him and their country. Shortly after that, he found out that the country's Prime Minister, Lon Nol, wanted to overthrow him. The King approached the Khmer Rouge soldiers for help.

Khmer Rouge is a group of communists in Cambodia led by Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge soldiers managed to overthrow Lon Nol and they grew in terms of strength and power. They decided to take over the country and overthrow the King!

Pol Pot wanted Cambodia to be "purely" Cambodia. He did not want any foreign intervention and his vision for Cambodia is for Cambodia to be purely an agricultural country. He forced every Cambodian to move to the countryside to work on farms and paddy fields. They became slaves and worked all day under the scorching sun without any proper meals. Pol Pot claimed that it was year zero for Cambodia.

The Khmer Rouge soldiers eliminated all foreign affairs by killing foreigners, educated people, owners of private properties, citizens whom they accused as "CIA undercovers" etc. Not long after that, it became a killing spree as they went out of control! They accused people for being CIA undercovers merely as an excuse to terminate them. Many Cambodians were tortured and hurt brutally. Many innocent lives were taken away. The Khmer Rouge soldiers killed about two million of the population at that time.

At that time, nobody knew that this was happening in Cambodia. There wasn't any help from other countries as nobody was aware of this. This went on until 1979, when their neighbouring country, Vietnam, decided to intervene. The Vietnamese soldiers attacked and managed to defeat the Khmer Rouge soldiers.

During our first weekend in Cambodia, we visited the Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields.

The Genocide Museum used to be the place where Cambodians were interrogated and tortured badly before being sent to The Killing Fields to be terminated by the Khmer Rouge soldiers. There were small cubicles made out of wood and bricks for each person. In each cubicle, there was a small box for them to empty their bowels. If there were any stools or urine that are out of the box, they were forced to lick and eat them up. But since they hardly get any food, there wasn't much emptying to be done. They only get a handful of porridge (with very little rice in it) and some water twice a day.

Before killing them, the Khmer Rouge soldiers snapped a picture of each and everyone of them. So there were plenty of pictures displayed in the museum. There were rooms with metal bed frames where victims laid down with their hands tied to the frame. They were electrocuted and hit with a metal rod when being interrogated. There were also rooms with shackles where the victims' foots were secured so that they couldn't run away. These shackles come in a universal size and if any of their foots were too big, the soldiers would force them in.

At the museum, we were lucky to be able to meet one of the four survivors of this horrible event. His name is Chum Mey and he is about 75 years old now. Thank God we had Nalene, Vibol and Nice (our Cambodian friends) to do all the translations for us. :)

Mr Chum Mey told us about how he was used, tortured and accused by the Khmer Rouge soldiers. He worked as a mechanic during that time and he was asked by the Khmer Rouge soldiers to build sewing machines. They assured that he and his family would be placed in a safer place at that time if he build sewing machines for them for textile purposes. When his job was done, he was blindfolded and brought to the Genocide Museum (at that time it was known as the S-21 Prison). The Khmer Rouge soldiers lied to him.

He was locked in one of the cubicles. The soldiers interrogated and accused him for being an undercover. When he denied their accusations, they whipped his little finger, pulled out his fingernails, supplied bolts of electricity to his head etc. He continued to deny but he couldn't earn their trust.

They brought him to another place and he stumbled upon his family members who were blindfolded. They were about to be killed by the soldiers. He saw some of his family members being killed and he heard one of them asking him to run (I think it went something like this, can't remember).

So with little strength and baby steps, he ran as far as he could and the soldiers chased after him. He ran until he reached a hill where he hid away from them. The soldiers fired gunshots towards the hill thinking that they have killed him but they actually missed him.

He knew how to get back to the city from that hill and he ate leaves in the jungle for six days before reaching a village where he was taken care of. That was how he survived!

The Killing Fields we went to, had mass graves everywhere. Innocent people were killed and buried together. Babies were thrown against a tree because the soldiers were afraid that when the babies grow up, they might take revenge against them. There was a place where loud music was played while the torturing and killing was done to mask the screams of the victims.

I can't believe that this actually happened. It is so inhumane and disgraceful. What were the leaders of Khmer Rouge thinking? They were educated people as well! It's such a shame for educated people to have that kind of mentality. Shouldn't they be terminated as well then?

I feel sorry for the Cambodians for they have suffered so much throughout that four gruesome years. No one saw this coming and no one could do anything about it. Two million people in four years, that's really a lot. Imagine the pain they went through, it must have been unbearable.

Mr Chum Mey visits the museum everyday to spread an awareness about this. He doesn't want this to repeat again in Cambodia or anywhere else and I'm helping in a way by sharing this through my blog! :)

Hope you enjoyed reading and sorry if this post sounds boring to you.

Disclaimer: Some of the details might not be entirely right as I have briefly put it in words based on my aging memory. :P But, I guess I got the gist right, that's the most important thing right?

2010-06-01T23:39:00.003+08:00

Happy 21st Birthday Lavonne! :D

Hope you had a fantastic birthday! :D

Many more awesome birthdays to come!

I heart you woman!

How I Indirectly Helped Her

2010-05-29T11:33:00.002+08:00

The weekend before last, I checked my email in Harvest Inn (the guest house owned by a Singaporean where I stayed in during my second week in Cambodia) and found out that an anonymous left two comments on my blog, specifically on this post *click here*

The comments weren't meant for me but they were directed to my dear friend, Suyi, who ditched NUS and went to study Medicine in Australia shortly after CNY.

According to Anonymous, Suyi lost her purse and he (assuming he's a guy) left his contact details. I asked Suyi if she had recently lose her purse and she was like "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS! HOW YOU KNOW WEN CHEAN?!". So, I asked her to check out the comments on my blog and few days later she told me she got it back!

Wow! She really got it back! The guy actually took the trouble to Google her name! He surely is honest! It will take one in a million chance for this to happen in Malaysia (I may be exaggerating, but it surely is rare to hear something like this here). Seriously, we need more people like him in our society. Wouldn't it be so much better for you and I? Suyi is really fortunate to have her purse back! You better not be so careless next time woman!

In a way, I'm glad my blog served as a medium for her to be able to retrieve her purse back. :D I indirectly helped her eventhough we are miles apart!

H-O-M-E

2010-05-27T21:52:00.003+08:00

I AM HOME!! :D

Left Cambodia last night and reached Singapore at midnight. Pearly and I had to wait for our flight to KL in the morning. So we spent the whole night in Changi Airport barely getting any sleep. The wait was horrible but we were so relieved when the flight attendant announced that we have landed in KLIA! :D

H-O-M-E! :D I miss you. It feels like I'm back to civilization.

I have a very mixed feeling about my experience in Cambodia. I wonder how I survived but no doubt it was a good experience minus the crazy and frightening encounters. I'm just really thankful to be back at home and I feel a great sense of contentment. As predicted and mentioned before, I knew this would very likely be the aftermath of my trip.

I don't have any pictures of Cambodia with me because I'm waiting for Siew Wai to compile all the pictures before I get hold of them.

Now is the time to savour every bit of my remaining holidays!

Hello From Cambodia

2010-05-23T15:46:00.002+08:00

HELLO! :)

I'm currently blogging from a cyber cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We had a seven hour long bus ride journey from Phnom Penh yesterday. Somehow, Siem Reap doesn't seem very appealing to me. If it isn't for Angkor Wat, I doubt I would ever go to Siem Reap. Siem Reap gives me negative vibes, I don't know why. I can't wait to go back to Phnom Penh on Tuesday! Things haven't been good since I stepped into Siem Reap. But I should be strong! Mind over matter!

Hope things will be better soon. :) I wanna go home! Cannot wait to go home!

On a brighter note, I really liked all the voluntary work we did for the school kids back in Phnom Penh, it was really fun! But, coming to Siem Reap just for rest and relax gave me a feeling like it's slowly turning into a disaster which shouldn't be the case yóu know! I'm supposed to feel relaxed! Hopefully, things will be better.

GOD BLESS ME.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T00:04:00.002+08:00

Happy Mother's Day! :D

I LOVE YOU Mummy! :)

Cambodia

2010-05-08T14:13:00.002+08:00

I realised that I have not been blogging since I got back home. Guess I had a lot of other things to catch up with. :D

I'm leaving for Singapore tomorrow morning. So fast right? Well, that's because Cambodia awaits me! :) I feel excited yet scared at the same time. I really wanna know how life is over there and how are the people really like. Are they any different than us here in my home? I reckon it would be an eye-opening experience! Going there would probably teach me how to appreciate and be contented with what I have in life now. There's no doubt I'd feel this way when I come back. Oh well, we'll see what happens! :)

It's my first time doing something like this. I mean, yeah, I have done charity, community service and voluntary work before but not at this scale! This is considered quite a big scale for me. I guess I still have a lot to learn! :)

We are going to work with kids! :D That's gonna be exciting! :D Hope everything turns out fine and as planned. :)

Anyway, the past week was awesome! :) I caught up with my friends, visited the kids at Nanny's, spent time at home with my family, went on tv series marathon etc. A lot more to be done after I'm back for good! :D Well, for 1.5 months, at least. I cannot wait!

Holidays are great y'know? Just what I needed after two gruesome yet memorable semesters!

Moving Out!

2010-05-01T13:31:00.001+08:00

I took so much time to clear up my room that is filled with plenty of junk which I wasn't aware of. I didn't realize that I had so many things in my room. I had to throw some of my stuff away and donate some things that might be useful for float.

As of now, I think I have roughly about four boxes and five bags of stuff, not including smaller bags.. *gulp* I feel so lethargic! But on the brighter side, I'm going back home soon! Yay! :) Although I'll only be back for a week because I'm going to Cambodia in a week's time, the times back at home must be well-spent!

Speaking of which, CAMBODIA really is in a week's time, omg. So fast! I wonder how would the experience be like. Too bad Suyi won't be joining us. :( It would have been so much fun!

I can't believe my Year One in NUS has ended. It has been a really enriching journey. I am not looking forward to Year Two just yet, for now, I just wanna enjoy my holidays to the max! :)

Happy Holidays peeps!

Sara!

2010-04-20T17:45:00.002+08:00

SO CUTE! Couldn't resist putting this up! I feel like hugging her now! Thanks to my sis who showed me this picture. :D

Bittersweet

2010-04-18T18:46:00.002+08:00

My second semester is coming to a halt.

Can't believe how fast time flies. Two more weeks and I'm done with being called a freshman. It still feels like just yesterday I stepped into NUS.

My journey so far? It has been a bittersweet one. :) I'm thankful to have gotten the opportunity to meet so many wonderful, talented and amazing friends here. I've encountered so many eye-opening experiences that I've never expected to happen ever since I stepped out of my shell.

Anyway, time to get back to my books, I don't have much time to blog. :( How unfortunate. But, no worries, holidays/freedom is near! I can't wait!

Dreadful finals? You're screwed.

All the best to me and everyone else who is going to face something most of us despise of - exams.

Come to think about it, I used to like exams, wonder what happened. :/ I guess I'm beginning to grasp the fact that there is so much more of school and life than just exams and good grades. Unfortunately, this culture is not inculcated here in NUS. Everyone just studies as much and hard as he/she can. I'm not saying that it's wrong, in fact, I am pretty sure I'm like that too. But, studying and being cooped up in this room makes me feel like I really need a breather.

I feel like hopping on a random bus without knowing where am I gonna head to. I don't care what will I obtain or what will happen at the end of the bus ride, I just wanna experience the journey and perhaps get a glimpse of how life used to be for me.

*pours a bucket of ice cold water onto self*

OKAY. STUDY.

See you in two weeks. :)

It always happens..

2010-04-12T19:02:00.002+08:00

So near yet so far.

I'm upset. >:(

Why does this always have to happen to me?

Am I not doing my part?

One, Two, Three, Four.

2010-04-11T19:17:00.002+08:00

One more week to reading week..

Two more weeks to the dreaded finals..

Three more weeks to HOME :D

Four more weeks to Cambodia! :)

I just needed to rant.

2010-04-09T02:20:00.003+08:00

Taking a short break away from studying! HEH.

I don't understand how can some girls be so irresponsible especially when it really concerns about their own hygiene. I understand that not all of us, girls, keep ourselves clean in tiptop condition but we should at least know the basic rules of self-hygiene right?

This morning when I stepped into the bathroom, I saw that the cubicles were flooded with soapy water. Luckily each cubicle has an elevated platform so it didn't flood the entire bathroom. The reason of the mini flood? Accumulated hair that's blocking the holes of the lid that closes the opening that leads to the drain. It's freaking clogged. Nobody bothered to at least push aside the accumulated hair so that the water will be drained out instead of flooding the cubicles.

Guess who had to do it? ME. This is the second time already! I did it because I couldn't stand the fact that the cubicles are flooded and if everyone else continues to be ignorant, the whole bathroom will be flooded and we will be showering with our feet sunk in the water.. polluted and contaminated water, wouldn't that be more disgusting? Of course I didn't use my hands to shove the hair aside! At least I know how to keep myself clean!

As if the flood wasn't terrible enough, some girl just HAD to leave her freaking sanitary pad drenched with blood in one of the cubicles. OMG COME ON, how can you leave something like that there? Okay I understand that you might have forgotten about it, but you don't visit the bathroom once a day right? How can you not see that freaking thing?

How can you forget to dispose your own waste when you know it's that time of the month already? I don't understand. A note was written and pasted on the door of that particular cubicle, asking her to kindly dispose it appropriately. I went back to the bathroom an hour ago and it was still there!

It's starting to ROT! That thing was infested with tiny ants and the bathroom is starting to have a weird stench. HOW LIKE THAT? I cannot stand it! But I am certainly not gonna lay my fingers on that unsightly thing.

How can people still take shower in that cubicle with that thing in it? It's unsightly and impossible to miss! I pity the cleaner. I initially thought that he would have cleaned it up already by the time I got back from class because the bathroom looked like it was cleaned. But, to my horror, he cleaned everywhere else except that (or maybe he didn't clean the bathroom today). I don't blame him though. He's a male cleaner, you wouldn't expect him to throw it for you right? It's YOUR WASTE. He doesn't even have to go through this monthly routine!

It's bad enough that he has to empty the bin that sometimes contain unwrapped sanitary pads filled with blood. What the heck? Because the bin is right in front of the door, every time you open the door, you'll see a red sanitary pad in the bin. OMG EWW. At least use tissue paper to wrap it or something, don't leave it in that state.

SIGH. I really don't know what to say. :/ I hope it will be gone by the time I wake up in the morning later. Or else, the cleaner would have to do it if he realizes that it has been there for so long. Poor dude.

I'm sorry that you have to read this post, I just had to vent it all out.

On a brighter note, Ken Juin recommended me to watch a YouTube video that the students of Yale together with their alumni in collaboration with their office of admission came up with. It was to produced to promote Yale and it's called "That's Why I Chose Yale". I think the video is really entertaining, very Glee-like. I like! :D Check it out *here*.

Now, it's bedtime!

Because it's not easy

2010-03-30T09:31:00.002+08:00

With the current ongoing politics in hall, there seems to be a boundary between the two teams. It may not be visible but deep down inside, we all know which team are we rooting for. Of course, there are those who genuinely are torn between the two teams.

What I fear for this hall is that people who are strongly involved in this may forgive but not forget. After this week, I hope we will all return back to normal. After all, unity is what we want. :)

Only one team can win, that's the rule of this game. So no matter how the outcome might turn out to be, I hope the next JCRC will do this hall good without any hidden intentions.

Tonight's Presidential Rally is gonna be so exciting! :)

Good luck to both teams and may the best team wins! :)

Hmm?

2010-03-26T19:45:00.002+08:00

When things happen unexpectedly at the wrong time, wrong place and for the wrong reasons..

Tell me, what do you do?

Elements

2010-03-23T11:35:00.002+08:00

Wish I could incorporate all these elements into my life. I shall try! :)

Dear Daddy :)

2010-03-21T00:38:00.002+08:00

It's 40 minutes past midnight.

It's my dad's birthday! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! I LOVE YOU! :)

Somehow, I feel slightly sad about not being home to celebrate his birthday. In fact, I won't be able to celebrate MY OWN 21st birthday this year with them and my mom's birthday. I'll only be able to celebrate my sister's birthday. It's gonna be like this for about four years from now.

It's ashame that sometimes I may have took minor things such as birthday cake, birthday presents, family pictures etc for granted for the past few years back at home. But, I'm thankful that I have people around me who reminded me about who my family truly is. My mom and dad are always equipped with cameras/handphones in hand to take photos. My sister will always ask me for my opinion on what to buy. We take turns to get presents for our parents and there were times when we hunt for presents together. I miss those days.

Never knew I was gonna miss all these minor details.

I want to be able to feel and experience the birthday celebrations back at home again even if they were all in such small scales. Those memories seem so priceless to me right now despite them being repetitive for every birthday.

It's true when they say that you only learn how to appreciate things when they're gone. But, in this case, they're not "gone", they're just on a temporary hiatus.

As much as I'd hate to say this, but this is the reality, we all grow up and eventually will have to leave home at some point in our lives. Leaving home means a lot, it means not being able to embrace the homely feeling that has been lingering around for the past two decades, it feels like my backbone, my pillars of strength, my army of support and defence are missing.

I miss my family, I really do. :(

This is gonna take awhile for me to adjust but I'm sure things will be alright. :) Life must go on! I know they will always support me mentally and emotionally and they will always have my back. :)

Blood is thicker than water.

Hope you enjoy your birthday daddy! :)

When reality strikes..

2010-03-19T12:27:00.002+08:00

..sometimes I just wish I could stay delusional.

Most of us are good at hiding our feelings. We put this facade over our faces and pretend like nothing happened.

Why do we do that when we are given the freedom to express how we truly feel? Some things are easier said than done. Sometimes the desire to express doesn't come easy as to how it may look like.

But in the end, life still has to go on.

I'm gonna eat my Ramly burger now, it's been a long time since I last tasted one!

See You!

2010-03-12T17:16:00.002+08:00

This definitely helps when you're feeling down after getting your results, no? I hope Siew Wai sees this. :)

Goodbye Sky, take care and see you next year! :) Or probably during the holidays? We could all pay you a visit in HUKM. :) It has been a wonderful journey having you as a friend here. :)

This is for you, Sky.

2010-02-22T20:57:00.003+08:00

Looking at her lying down on her bed weakly, stationary, with various sizes of tubes connected to her arms and nose, I couldn't help but feel pity and sad for her.

As she requested for my hand to grasp, I couldn't help but cry.

I didn't think I would cry, she didn't even cry! But, I guess that's just my nature. I am very weak and sensitive when it comes to these kinda incidents. She's a very strong and brave girl and I don't think I'll ever muster enough courage to withstand all these if they were to happen to me *touch wood*.

She has been hospitalized for four days now. I guess her condition is getting better. At least she could still talk to us although she feels lethargic. Her parents finally arrived after much delay. Listening to her mom say what they had to go through just to get to Singapore to see their daughter made me feel like crying even more. That just shows how much sacrifice her parents are willing to take just to be by her side. I wasn't surprised, my parents would have done the same thing. I felt really touched. She's lucky to have such blessed parents.

She's relieved that her parents are here to accompany her. She went through all the surgeries and tests all by herself before this. I'm sure she must have felt a whole lot of fear but she hung on and persevered. She managed to push her fears aside even though she didn't know how the outcome would be. And for that, I'm very proud of her.

I just wish she will recover soon, I want to see her around hall again. Tomorrow is a very crucial day for her and I'm sure that most of us are anxious and worried at the same time. All we can do is to keep her in our prayers.

I have faith in her.

Stay strong, Sky.

And so, I'm back, again.

2010-02-18T21:54:00.003+08:00

After what seemed like a very brief period of holidays in KL, I'm back again in my room in the midst of NUS.

How do I feel? Hmm, neutral although I still feel a bit heavy-hearted. I didn't get to do so many things that I normally do when I'm back but at least I got to spent time with my family and friends. :) I didn't manage to see some of my friends though! Next holidays perhaps!

I abhor the whole routine of having to pack-unpack-clean and all that shit. It just drains so much of my energy especially unpacking after travelling back from my arrival destination. Oh well, but that's part and parcel of the life of an international student in NUS, no? Gotta give and take! Mom packed me a bag of snacks/food to stock up my junkie drawer! :D How nice! The reason why I never run out of junk food or snacks is because I keep stocking them up. BAD HABIT!

Yesterday, I went for my second dose of Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B jab at the doctor's. He penetrated the needle slightly into my left arm and the moment he pushed the syringe, I FELT DIZZY. At that instant, I thought to myself, "How could this be happening? I was never afraid of needles! I have never fainted because of needles!". I turned to my sister and told her that I was dizzy. My whole head was spinning around and it was like I was seeing stars. She was shocked and afraid because someone has to drive and obviously, that would not be her.

I immediately complained to the doctor and he was like "What?! Don't joke!" and in which I immediately replied "I'm serious!". He asked the nurse to prepare a cup of glucose drink for me. The cause of this turned out to be me going for an injection with an empty stomach. Heh, my bad. :P That shall never happen again!

But somehow, the whole incident fascinated me about how our body works. One push and boom, it goes straight to my brain. SO FAST! After downing the cup of glucose drink, I was alright in a matter of minutes. :) Thankfully, I told the doctor about my dizziness. :)

Mom got so worried because I'm very prone to these kinda symptoms - headache, dizzy, faint.

Glad I was okay! :D

Okie, anyway gotta go do some work now.

I HATE IE! I HATE IE! I HATE IE! :/ But no choice, gotta use this to watch webcasted lectures.

RAWR!

2010-02-14T16:48:00.001+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! :)

and

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wonder if the combination of V-Day and CNY is a good thing or not, haha. :)

God bless the year of the tiger! :D Have a prosperous CNY everyone!

RAWRRRR!

Take Me Away

2010-02-10T19:34:00.003+08:00

It's February!

I'm going home in two days time for CNY. :) It's gonna be a hectic and short one but I'm thankful for being able to see my family and friends again. I really miss home although I'm not homesick.

I'm feeling kinda confused.. :/ I hate being put in situations which require me to do do-or-die stuff. The feeling of being indirectly threatened isn't fun at all. Well, maybe it wasn't a threat, maybe it was just me. It makes things even worse if it interferes with my priorities.

I've always been a person with strong priorities back at home. Coming here made all of my priorities seem so shaky. Nevertheless, I'm going to be firm and steady! But.. the guilt (although I didn't do anything wrong).. the negative aura.. somehow, it just kills me. Why do I seem to care so much about what they think about me? I guess, it's human nature, no? I'm slowly learning to say "NO" without feeling guilty.

I hate it when it lingers in my mind because I'll be distracted and I end up not getting things done. :/

I hate feeling unnecessary stress. Must keep reminding myself why am I here in the first place.

Anyway, sad thoughts aside. Time for some jolly stuff. :)

Come to think about it, nothing jolly happened this week. :/ I fell sick! Thank God, there's no fever. I hate feeling feverish, it just makes me wanna lie on bed the whole day and that's just too time-consuming for now. I went out last weekend despite me feeling rather unwell and although I didn't buy much.

The clock is ticking.

Over

2010-01-31T19:15:00.002+08:00

Finally, some quiet and peaceful time of my own. Every major thing is over for me and I'm really, really, really glad. I need a break eventhough school just started like three weeks ago.

Three weeks zoomed pass so fast, it gets harder and harder to catch up. But, Hall Play, softball, swimming and Convening Committee duties are over for me! :) I've been waiting for this day to come for such a long time.

Hall Play was awesome! I really enjoyed myself while watching the play. The cast did a great job and I'm proud to be a part of Hall Play. The sets turned out really pretty! :D I was in Set Decor so of course the sets deserve some credits! :P

My duties for IHG are over! As a result, I'm burnt. But, my friends say that I have a nice tan, wonder if I should take that as a compliment or not? Hahaha. :)

On a less brighter note, Suyi, one of my dearest friends are leaving. I've been sulking for the past few days because of this. The thought of not having her around is really saddening. She has always been the jolly and noisy one in our group and without her, things will be a whole lot quieter.

I never thought that I would feel this way if she leaves. I mean, I never thought it would pose such an impact on me. Guess, I was wrong. Over the past six months, I think all of us grew a lot closer. It's sad to know that she has to leave us although I don't want her to leave.

However, I am also happy that she finally gets to pursue what she really wants eventhough not-wanting-her-to-leave overpowers this happiness. But, I can't be selfish because this is her life and I will support her no matter what she does. Everyone knows that this incredible girl wanted to pursue Medicine all along. She missed out so many golden opportunities and this recent opportunity, shouldn't be let go.

I'm sure a lot of people will miss her. SIGH, all these sadness are going to make me cry. Suyi is a bright girl. I know she is strong and I believe she will be alright in Aussie despite her past traumatic experience. I have faith in her.

I can go on and on you know but I don't want to, because there are some things that can't be penned down easily.

I really wonder how will school and hall life be without her. I'm sure Cui Shan feels the same way as I do or maybe, even worse.

Siow Suyi, I wish you all the best there! :) Don't forget us yah and you MUST visit us whenever you return. We will gladly make time for you! Keep in touch!

P/S: Hall life really does make bonds grow stronger.

Hey Batter, Better Swing!

2010-01-18T20:59:00.007+08:00

Hello there! :)

Week 2 just started today and I hope it's not gonna be as crazy as Week 1! I had quite an eventful week last week, I must say. :) It all started with fundraising for OCIP Cambodia trip! We are going to Cambodia in May for some voluntary work! :D We're gonna teach the kids over there English, educate them about hygiene, build a well (that was the main purpose of fundraising, building a well costs USD 500!) etc. Oh, we're not providing manual labour to build a well of course (although it might be fun)! We're getting the appropriate people to do it! :)

This was all very last minute because we weren't aware that KE Bazaar was gonna start on that week and we had like a few days to prepare! Thank God for some lovely seniors such as Dang Ni (whose Mom is a sweet supplier) and Shireen for helping out. Suyi, Cui Shan and the both of them bought a lot of sweets from the supplier in Woodlands (Dang Ni's mom's friend). :) So we sold sweets and also some stuff from Cambodia! :) The event went on for three days! I had to pull out from the cheerleading performance on the last day because I had sports trainings and other commitments. Besides, it seems almost impossible for me to memorize the dance steps in a few days with such limited time and at the same time go for cheer practices.

Anyway, we went all out while fundraising, trying to convince people and getting them to buy sweets from us! It worked most of the time! :D

Pearly, Siew Wai and I.

Siew Wai, Suyi, Cui Shan and I. :D We're the fundraising girls except Siew Wai. She's the photographer.

After fundraising event was Inter-Hall Games (IHG) for me! I participated in softball and swimming. In addition to fundraising during the day, I had trainings at night. At the same time, I had Hall Play Set Decor work to do as well. Can you imagine the horror? O_O I couldn't wait till the week was over.

Our competition was last Saturday and sadly, we lost. :( It was a good experience for me though since I was never really into sports and also, most of my team mates were freshies. It was our first time for most of us.

My first softball jersey! :D

Batter, better swing! Heard this so many times from the opponent. -___-" They were just trying to taunt us. Pfft, like I was affected. It's all about being strong mentally yo! ;)

There was one time when I was batting and I had two strikes, another one and I'm out, the opponent team kept saying "Two down, batter, you better swing!". Hell yeah I swung but unfortunately, they caught the ball too fast and threw it to the first base catcher as I was running towards it. OH WELL!

I was the catcher throughout the two matches against two different halls. There was one time I had to catch a ball because a runner was running towards me (which was home) to score a point and the ball was thrown by an IVP team mate of mine. So it was a very strong and fast ball. I caught the ball! BUT.. the impact was too hard and my glove came off together with the ball and fell on the ground. DAMN! But, some of them who were watching said that they thought the runner hit me or something. I can't remember what happened. :/

So happy, don't know why, hahaha.

KEVII SE7ENS!

The next day (Sunday), since I'm a part of IHG's Convening Committee, I had to be in charge of Touch Rugby. I was up very early in the morning, busy getting players to register and making sure everything goes smoothly. Luckily, I had a bunch of people who helped me. :) Towards the end of the game, I had to walk to the swimming pool because I was gonna swim for the Novelty event. This event is a special one. Why? Because it's actually not a competition! Points would not be counted for this event. So it doesn't matter if you swim first or last, makes no difference. Hahaha.

I swam as fast as I could (not very fast though) anyway because the adrenaline was too high! I was too pumped up to swim, hahaha. It was a 10 x 50m relay and I was the only girl in my team who did freestyle. The rest did breast stroke cause they were more comfortable with that. After finishing the race, I felt so relieved and happy that everything was over! :)

KEVII's swimmers!

*pictures credit to Zhuo Shuo and Kelvin Anggara

I didn't eat the whole day and I thought I could finally have my dinner after swimming but I was wrong, I had F Block Comm meeting, oh gosh. I thought we were gonna have a normal general meeting but it was all about cleaning up the lounge! We shifted furniture, vacuumed, swept and mopped the floor. Then I had Hall Play curtain call practice. OMAIGOD, at that point of time, I was telling to myself, "Kill me already!".

Thankfully, I survived the famine! :)

My hall has new candy machines that look like this! :D :D :D SO HAPPY!! Seeing them colourful candies, I WANNA HAVE THEM ALL!

That wraps up my post for this time. I don't know when the will the next post be. Till then, adios amigos!

Bid Bid Bid

2010-01-07T01:52:00.001+08:00

Damn the bidding system.

Made me change my mind so many times!

Dear God, let this be the right and final choice now and please grant my preferred modules. T__T

Sorry for ranting, can't help it!

Hocus Pocus

2010-01-02T21:39:00.003+08:00

Google

Word of the year 2010 - FOCUS.

I will and I must. :)

---

Less than a week more till I leave for Singapore again! Bleh. There are certain things that I look forward to and there are things that I dread about. Oh well, the perks of life right?

Got my Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B vaccinations today! Had to take these injections for my Cambodia trip in May. I would have to take another two doses of these injections again in February and May respectively and I have another two types of injections to take - typhoid and tetanus.

Wow. Luckily, I'm not afraid of needles. ;)

I wonder what's in store for me for my second semester in NUS. Thinking about it makes me feel tingly all over.

Anyway, I started packing already and needless to say, my luggage is almost full! I have not fully packed yet and there are still a lot of things I wanna stuff in my luggage. Gah.

No worries, mom will help me or at least, find a way to stuff everything inside! :D

Alrighty, shower time for me, then it's Desperate Housewives! :)

Whaaaat? I won't be getting my daily doses of tv series anymore when I start uni! :(

Hello 2010! :)

2010-01-01T02:09:00.003+08:00

Movie. Dinner. Ice-cream. Puppies. Sushi. Chilling out. Fireworks. Foam war. MickeyD's.

Happy 2010! :)

May 2010 be a fab one!