Before I go tottering off to do all the Lit homework that's piled up on my desk, allow me to blog about the past few days, starting from August 7th.
August 7th was Mabel's birthday. Unfortunately, I don't have too many pictures of the event; for that I'll redirect you to the birthday girl herself. After a failed surprise attempt in school, we went to Bugis to eat, gossip, and talk. Yeah, yeah, I know it's barely a few weeks to the prelims, but I think this week is a welcome reprieve from all the late nights we've been keeping.
August 8th was a noteworthy day for various reasons - happy and sad. For the former reason, along with a bunch of other 35ers, I'd gone to school (unlike those lazy pigs sleeping at home!) and witnessed for myself TJ's 'National Day Idol'. Entertaining for awhile - one of them was pretty good - but some others were cringeworthy... I must add that it takes a whole lot of guts to be up there and belt out a song in front of the whole school. And, on another note, perhaps I could interest you in a few shots I took of my friends dancing the mass dance:
ZH grins sheepishly and Amande screams "I'm a ninny!" Haha!
Ivan wants to make some noise
After that, ZH, Mab, XT, SY and me headed to my place to do one of the most unhappening things on earth: a project. It was so uninspiring, all of us could've fell asleep sitting up. Lunch was a much more interesting affair - we'd headed to Arab Street's Zam Zam to gobble up some prata, murtabak and mee goreng. Cheap (S$9.90 for 3 people) and good, people!
Thereafter, I headed to Century Square in what was supposed to be a belated birthday celebration for QPN, my long-time squadmate. She'd treated us to Häagen-Dazs, which is IMO one of the most effective ways to burn a hole in your pocket. My condolences to your pocket, QPN. We had fondue fountain ice-cream. The most sinful thing I've ever consumed in the past year. But it was fun poking around in the pot! To give you an idea of what it looks like:
Poke, poke, poke.
Dip, dip, dip.
QPN holds her gift and strikes a beautiful pose.
The hilarious thing was that, since where were sitting was out in the open, i.e. along the mall's corridors, every person who walked past our table would stare at the bubbling pot of chocolate, and if it was a girlfriend, she would whisper (I lip-read, maybe inaccurate but it's most likely what they said) "Oh my god, look at that!" (clings on to boyfriend's arm) "I want to have that!". Ah, Häagen-Dazs was really clever in designing their little branch in CS. Free advertizing indeed. And of course, Mariana, being Mariana, would say something like, "Oh my god, this is really delicious!" everytime somebody stared. Talk about being gloaty.
I did mention August 8th was noteworthy because of a not so happy reason too, didn't I? I'd originally wanted to write a tribute of sorts, but somehow, I can't find the words to fully bring out what I feel about it. Anyhow, it's been 4 years and 4 years is not short, not long, but (i'm really tempted to say a viable, dieable...) it's enough for me to recover somewhat and move on. Wounds have turned into scars and are fast healing - I believe it's the same for my siblings and my mother.
August 9th was our nation's birthday. There weren't any special arrangements for the day; I only went with my sister to my aunt's place for dinner -- and if you must know what I ate - Pumpkin Soup, baked pasta, and walnut brownies topped with vanilla ice-cream. It was good, man! I'm gonna learn how to cook from her...
That said, that was how I spent my week. And I've left all my work for today, and am regretting it as usual. _______________________
Most of you who read my blog should know of my interest in psychology, but I've never really talked about it in my blog, yeah? Well, over the ice-cream fondue, my comrade in Literature Marilyn was telling me about a book she was studying - and how her teacher referred her to a man named Carl Jung. Carl Jung was an expert in psychiatry, and apparently he was considered to be Freud's 'heir apparent'. I won't say more or else this entry will stretch for another few paragraphs - but if you've got time and interest, read about Carl Jung's theory. I'm most interested in his 'Persona' theory because I think it's very real. And check out that Venetian mask! Heh heh.
Most of the people who read my blog would know that I have pets at home. 2 dogs and 10 odd hamsters (belonging to my mom). My 2 dogs are a Jack Russell Terrier (JRT) named Chasey, and the other one is a mixed breed (suspected terrier and Schnauzer cross) named Lucky.
2 Wednesdays ago, my college initiated a project called Pets' Day - where all students/teachers are invited to bring their pet - it could be a dog, a cat, a hamster, a gerbil, fish, (I think even iguanas were allowed.) - to school. So I kinda got excited with the whole idea of bringing my dogs to school - and I had to choose between the 2 of them. I ended up choosing to bring Lucky because I thought he was the milder one.
As all stories go, I was so, so wrong. More on this later.
The response to this project was just average, with about 10 odd students and teachers bringing their pets to school. 3 other people I knew brought their beautiful dogs along - RJ brought her Spring (kee), Clara brought her Lassie, and Pam T. brought her Brownie. Introducing the stars of the day:
Springkee And Miss Kee!
So that elegant dog you see above is called Spring - apparently a suspected Spitz-Pom mix, and dareisay very well mixed indeed :). Was given to RJ by a neighbour (What Luck!). She's a very well-behaved dog, and she can't stand Lucky. Plus, Isaac has a thang for her. ;)
Lassie, the lazy Shetland
And here's Lassie, the 'xiaojie' (dainty woman) of the group! Her fur's really impressive, and she's quite the loyal dog, always whining when Clara's out of sight. She's a little lazy though, and if she doesn't want to walk, she really doesn't walk. Forget trying to pull her along. Also another anti-Lucky. Bought by Clara's family, I believe - correct me if I'm wrong.
Brownie - Silky Terrier
That's Brownie, Pam T's little timid dog! The only other male in the group besides Lucky, and he's a very mild-mannered boy. One of the friendlier ones with Lucky, but Lucky that bad boy keeps growling at poor Brownie. I suspect its a Alpha Male thing going on between them. Adopted by Pam T.'s mom - was abused (Pam T. says) by his previous owner.
Scruffy Lucky
And lastly - The mixed breed Lucky! I suppose besides Spring, he's the only other mixed breed. :) His history is pretty sad - He was abandoned at a petshop I frequented (in hopes of getting a puppy) by his previous owner - on the excuse of sending him for grooming. Under normal circumstances grooming is quick and the owner may collect the dog after a day. The owner never came back, however, and left false contact details. To cut a long story short, my mom and I ended up adopting Lucky. He grew to be pretty adorable - but under that cute facade I think he has an abusive past. He gets agitated when people raise their hands to a certain angle, and starts barking/growling at them. Lucky's also rather territorial and possessive... which is something I've been trying to change for months.
Anyway, Mr Ivan (who has a pom of his own that goes by the name of 'Jackie Chan'), nicknamed Lucky the 'Suicide Bomber', because basically Lucky was creating chaos and according to Ivan, 'colliding into walls repeatedly.' At home he is normally mild mannered, but when I brought him to college, he was quite an embarassment indeed. He'd tried to get fresh with the female dogs there, and basically made a new enemy out of one schnauzer.
Hopefully with enough patience and training, Lucky's aggressive side will be quelled :) I've a lack of other photos, and I went into a photo-taking frenzy when Lucky was asleep, so enjoy the rest of the pics!
My all time fave. Photo was taken by Ivan. Thank you Mr Chan!
If you're thinking, "Is this (the template) my work"?
I wish I could say "Hell yeah!" but I can't and I won't -- I got it from blogskins.com and probably 12, 000 other people are using it, but I like it anyway. I'd wanted to create my own template - I already have the necessary brushes and a teeny slight bit of idea of what I wanted to make, but unfortunately Time doesn't allow for extensive use of the computer. So I chose the easy way out :)
But seriously. The past few weeks have been utter pandemonium for my classmates and I. Come to think of it, the entire Year 2 cohort probably felt the way I did for the past few weeks. Why, you ask? It's Term 3 and we're 3 months away from the A levels. There you have it - the formula for sleepless nights and massive hair loss. This week alone, my average bed time was 1 a.m. - making the sleep time I clock about 5 hours a day. Hardly enough to function properly in the day. Heh. At one point I'd slept at the unearthly hour at 2.30 a.m. I thought I could stretch the limit, but apparently my body disagrees.
This morning, I woke up and found my lower left lid twitching uncontrollably. It's about 11.50 p.m. now and it hasn't stopped throbbing. Dark lines and swollen lower lids are telling me it's time to catch up on rest. So I did - and I totally relaxed the day away today. Not guilty at all. :)
So if you're experiencing fatigue (whatever it is, mental, physical or otherwise), do rest up immediately before you fall sick. Your body will appreciate it.
On another note, I have plenty to update about Pets Day later on, which happened a week or so ago, (plus pictures of my lovable dogs!) For now I'll need to catch up on some more sleep. :) Enjoy the weekend, fellas.
