There are too many foreigners in Singapore?
Not that I’m against them or anything, just that they are everywhere. On the roads, as bus drivers, service personnel, waiters, students. They are taking away our places, our jobs, our bell curve…it’s overwhelmingly and increasingly competitive and stifling. It happens when you think of them as the masses, the majority. However, it’s kinda different when some of them become your personal friends and you work with them and go through the language barrier. Then the experience becomes different and personal. They become your teammates and your pals. I guess it’s all about learning to love and accept them like what Jesus would do. Love transcends barriers.
It’s the end of CNY and very soon it’s the mid-term break. CNY was good, although it seemed that I visited less relatives this year. The best part was being able to carry my cousin’s new baby hee hee. he’s so cute.
nuSTUDIOS
Last few Wednesdays we also had nuSTUDIOS events every week. The first one was We Heart Films and we watched some Jap and Singaporean short films. The second one was Ian’s scriptwriting workshop, which was cool, fun and interesting. I also showed Sunday’s Best as an example, and everyone said it was not bad, even though they could not decide whether Uncle Micckal was serious/angry or comical. Haha. But some commented that if the fact that Karyn’s family was non-Christian was made stronger, the story would have came out stronger. Today we watched Closer in the library. We also had a nuSTUDIOS Exco lo-hei session last week at YIH Canteen. Haha created a mess on the table!
IT Club Gathering
Last Saturday, some of us from IT Club went to Mr. You’s house for another gathering. The last time we met was his birthday last May. It was good as 10 of us came – Hoz, Vic, iVan (lol), ZM, YF, Muzz, Richie, Derick, Terence and myself. We had a great time surfing facebook and youtube and watching a (lousy) movie on Mr. You’s new HD projector. I also screened Sunday’s Best to them and some of the past IT Club photos. We were laughing at how young we were and the silly things that we did…haha like banana dances and other weird things. It was a whale of a time.
As we were about to think about going home, Mr. You suggested we go for a drive. He was super enthusiatic about an adventure into the mysterious and eerie. We had a few (luxury) cars, like Honda Odyssey, Mercedes E-Class, BMW 7-series and a Toyota Liteace van! We couldn’t really decide where to go, altho he was very gain about going to a cemetery. In the end, we went to Fort Canning Park, which was no kick. So Mr. You proposed to go CCK cemetery with some objections. But we went anyway to check out the spirits, if any. And so we drove in 2 vehicles there while the other 2 went home. It was like after midnight. At Old Choa Chu Kang Road, it was like going back to camp and going past TAB and the familiar gates and fences haha. Mr. You wanted to drive into the Chinese cemetery but Hoz was apprehensive and was afraid of getting lost inside the dark. But we did drove a small L-shape anyway, it was a little eerie to look at the graves and surrounding trees, but nothing much. Mr. You wanted more, so we drove deeper inside and make another L-shape, almost got stuck, but went round and came out. One of our friends who is very sensitive to spirits said that he felt spirits gathering around trees and lingering around. The rest of us did not see anything so we did not really believe. However, he was very uncertain and afraid of continuing the journey. We went one last round around the Muslim cemetery which is neater and brighter due to the foreign workers dormitory nearby. Actually quite sad for the workers living there as they are like living next to a cemetery. After that it was pretty late and Mr. You drove us home.
Jordanites Outing
On Sunday, we finally went for our first Jordanites outing of the year! We went to Kallang Leisure Park for Ice Skating. However, we found out it was quite expensive, $14 for admission + $3.50 for skates + $2 for gloves for adults, and even those who want to visit have to pay $3 for admission. Kinda stupid. So Jere suggested going bowling. But the girls wanted to ice skate. In the end bowling was all full and we came back to ice skating. But they were resurfacing the ice so we have to wait for like 15 mins. In the end we only started at like 4.30pm, 2.5 hours after we met at church! lol. But the ice skating itself was really fun. I could re-learn it quite easily after the recent roller blading and was skating quite easily, although still not as good. I didn’t really fall except once when JK pulled me down lol. It was really fun to skate fast round the ring with Trixie and Jean. Theresa was really good too she was like learning ballet from the “lifeguards”. Bernice was interesting as she was like really afraid but being coached and targeted by them. lol. Zack was like playing afool all the time although Jean was helping him half the time. By the end of the 2 hours, I’ve got a little painful in my foot as the skates were kinda tight. But it was fun all in all, albeit expensive.
After we end, we returned the skates and thought we could just hang around and wait for the others, as some of them came later and hence have half hour longer to skate. However, when we exited the premises, the ticketing counter claimed that we were overtime and wanted to charge us overtime charges, of which amounted to a total of $44(!!!) for 10 people! That’s pretty ridiculous, because firstly, we returned the skates on time, and secondly, we didn’t even do anything in the last half hour or so! We refused to pay $4/5 per person for nothing, and hence we had a slight dispute with them. The counter girl was like if you don’t pay, you stay here. As if she has authority like that. Later the manager came and he was nicer and more understanding, although it took us awhile to convince him that it was a misunderstand as we do not know the rules that the admission is by the entrance/exit and not by the returning a skates. The system is kinda flawed, and they should change it! So next time you go there, please be careful as the counter staff won’t really explain to you.
Left4Dead
Edwin introduced us to play Left4Dead and I’m like kinda like it now. Everyone’s like playing it in LAN shops everywhere now. First went to play with vic kc zhan and jr, and we played 3v2 and it was quite fun to work in a team of 4 to heal one another and move forward together. The zombies are like overwhelming, like the 28 days later movies. As the zombie, it is more fun to be the boomer to spit on someone and attract a wave of zombies. The second time we went to play with zy, kimberly and mh and we played expert mode in campaign. It was really hard and we failed like 5 times and couldn’t pass the third stage. I think the game succeeds because poeple are sadistic and like to kill people. Violence? Aiyo.
Imagine a school in the middle of the desert, with a rundown zinc roof which leaks, wooden tables and chairs, chalkboard, termite-infested walls, children with no pencilboxes. That could be the description of a school in a third-world country today. And what are we doing? Donating the One Laptop Per Child (