today's the official day i graduate from high school. it will be a long time before i start studying again, and i wonder where will i be this time next year. year 2004 has been a busy year, studying for As, canoeing, i guess that's about it. now when all these are over, it seems like i'm even busier, doing applications, working and still looking for a job, training, yes training. boris is torturing me slowly but painfully with his weights programme that i'm acheing all over and can't even bend down to touch my toes. and it is only now that i realise your neck has muscles too and i have no idea which exercise made my neck muscles ache. well, i guess that's what i need to get back to my original standards.
rainy day today and i have not and will not learn my lesson to bring umbrella out. well, it makes no difference when you're drenched during training.
farewell 2004, and saying hello to 2005 in less than 10 hours. a new year, a new start. what's my occupation now? working adult? wait till i find a proper job first. i've been looking through the ads and calling up the places. it's not hard to find a job but it's hard to find one that matches my schedule and interest. and it's interesting how different companies define normal working hours. basically it ranges from 8 to 6. have yet to find one from 9 to 5 (which is my only available time currently)
but i shall not complain. i am glad i'm living, strong and healthy, and i have a happy family, living a simple life, with great friends, relatives, neighbours etc. jian3 dan1 jiu4 shi4 kuai4 le4

Let me summarise the past two days in two words: Shopping Madness, or you can also call it Mango Madness. went christmas presents shopping with my darling vanessa on thursday. shopped from centrepoint down to taka. i only realised it was the first day of mango sales when we saw this long queue outside centrepoint mango, can't believe people actually queue to get into a shop, looked like they were queuing for free gifts. so we decided to try mango at taka instead, not much of a queue but it was damn crowded inside. people digging at piles and piles of discounted clothes, and that includes us. didn't buy much in the end, but must really thank them for providing a big plastic bag for me to dump all my other small bags. what a relief when we stepped out, finally got some fresh air to breathe. i sure looked like a shopaholic with 2 gigantic bags full of christmas presents, of which i realised half the money spent are on things for myself. well, i think i deserve a treat after earning some money and not shopping for so long. just hope that i don't spend more than what i earn. net profit, haha. feeling rather proud of myself for settling almost all the christmas presents in one afternoon. i must have looked damn out of place at macritchie. yes, it's back to training after a long break without canoeing. got a bit of my balance back on a k1, but it's still very unstable. think we must have provided a lot of entertainment value to passers-by.
went for testing yesterday, luckily we were allowed to go in a k2, but months without training really made a huge difference, especially the lazy me who conveniently did not want to visit the gym to do weights. alright, i guess i would have to train really hard from now on if i want to continue. went kallang after that, watched the juniors train and talked to jiaolian. yeah, memories of kallang, and i wonder for how long more can i paddle in kallang before they move everything over to macritchie. only 12 girls left and the guys team is in a worse state. hmm.. if there's any juniors reading this, you all must really jia you ok.. rjcanoeing all depends on you now. bathed and went suntec in an attempt to finish my christmas presents shopping. and guess where i ended up at, yes, mango again... can't resist the temptation. wasn't as crowded as the one in taka yesterday, and it was bigger too. queue for the fitting room was surprisingly fast but the one at the cashier was moving like a snail. and i don't know whether to congratulate or kick myself for only buying a jacket after spending such a long time in the shop. my christmas gifts shopping ended at queensway for my dad's present. he better be grateful for making me hunt all over the island for it. home for dinner, not really a feast because we don't really celebrate christmas. exchanged presents after that, and then stoned. didn't even stay awake till midnight. well, save the countdown for 2005.
started my day with the usual morning run and contemplating whether i should go gym later. just found an e-mail from uc berkeley admission officer requesting for 'O's and 'A's results and i happily ended my email with "merry christmas" haha. luckily i checked my junk mail because i realised all the important emails are found there, whereas inbox is filled with useless mails.
alright, that's for now and it's time to start and hopefully finish all my application as soon as possible..
merry christmas!!

back from malacca trip, 3 days of indulgence in food and leisure, felt great.. here's an account of the things that we did, as much as i can remember..
first day, the coach left at 9 plus, almost 10, quite a smooth journey to malaysia, until we reached malacca. the lousy coach broke down, in the middle of the road, and the best thing is that it could only reverse, haha. waited for another coach for about an hour, the second coach was in a much better state, and we had weird drivers.. the first one was the most normal, except for his infatuation with tamil songs which accompanied us all the way to malacca. the second one was driving and waving his hands, which i suppose he was dancing to the music and the third one was smoking in the bus, poor sheryl buried herself under her jacket, haha. it was already 4 or 5 when we reached the hotel, actually it felt more like a house than a hotel, with 2 bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. settled down, dumped our stuff and went off to the shopping centre across the road for dinner and grocery shopping for breakfasts. decided to try out this japanese restaurant, which we had to wait for about half an hour for that small portion of food. went to the supermarket and bought instant noodles, cereals, drinks, fruits etc. then went back, bathed and planned our next few days. went back to the shopping centre at night for ocean's twelve, and as usual, i didn't understand the movie, and did i mention the movie tickets there are so much cheaper than those in singapore? too bad there wasn't much choices of movies available.
second day, made our own breakfast and set off at about 10 to go sight seeing. the sun was damn bright and poor vania had to hide under her towel, took lots of photos, looked at the small stalls selling souvenirs, and of course the highlight was the photographs with the iguana and snake. we even took videos on how scared vania and sheryl were, haha. had lunch at this nice porridge place before making our way back to the hotel. passed by this hair salon on the way which offers hair cuts at rm2 and colouring at rm30 by students. amazing prices, but what's more amazing is the queue, haha. worked out a bit at the gym when we got back, then went swimming in the freezing pool and baked ourselves in the sauna. zhen's family arrived at 5 plus, which meant that we had mahjong to play. stayed in the house till dinner, which was at this damn nice chinese restaurant, which meant damn crowded too. the food there was awesome and the prices were even better, and that was the beginning of our indulgence in food. went to jonker's walk at night, more shopping, but no eating cos we were too full. walked back to hotel in the middle of the night, luckily we had 4 people if not it will be very dangerous.
third day was reserved for shopping. oh yes, i must mention the breakfast, on top of our self-made breakfast of maggi mee, cup noodles, cereals etc, zhen's parents came back from the market with lots of dim sum, loved their lormaikai, and the dabao is really huge, i think it can't even fit into a normal bowl. went to the hair salon first to watch zhen cut her hair, too bad the students weren't there on sundays, but the rates are still cheaper than that in singapore. and then we began our shopping trip, tried on lots of clothes, shoes. bought a pair of slippers and 3 tops in all from the trip, not too much but didn't have much money to spend also. had pizza for dinner, no lunch for the day due to the limited space in our stomach. shared a square pizza which was divided into 4 parts with 4 different flavours. one day of shopping had left us too tired to do anything but play mahjong after that, and for the first time, we slept before midnight.
day 4 was left for last minute shopping and finishing up of the food in the fridge. we abandoned the initial plan of going for the hotel's buffet breakfast to finish up the ice creams, paos, fruits and everything else. and guess where we went after that? the shopping centre again. bought the foodstuff to bring home and shopped for clothes and shoes again. seems like girls can never get sick of shopping. luckily we had zhen, if not we would have believed the cleaner and gone back to the hotel at 2 when the actual check out time is 12. camped in the lobby for the last hour or so, eating lunch and stoning, sleeping. left at about 3 and headed back to singapore on a much better coach and a more normal driver.
that was the end of a weekend in malacca. felt great to be on holiday with friends, even though it was only malaysia. it's just great to get away from singapore for a few days.. can't wait for the australia trip and i'm dreading all the applications that i have to do, which is what i'm suppose to do now..
it's not easy to make money... better start a proper job and save money for uni..

finally got my hair cut and coloured today. yes, it took me quite a bit of courage to cut my hair short, but somehow i just felt like doing it. not used to seeing myself in short hair though, but at least i don't have to worry about searching for rubber bands anymore. going off to malacca tomorrow, and that explains why the computer is on today, the last minute girl is doing her essays again. ok, not too last minute, just want to get it done before going off. it's driving me up the wall, irritating essays...
and yes, i will start earning money next week and spend less.

the past few days have been rather exciting, and i've been running and rushing from places to places. spent my last week studying for sats, doing some last minute shopping for prom. saturday, went for sats in the morning, maths and chem were relatively ok, don't feel very optimistic about writing though, alright, i know i can't write and just when i thought i'll be done with writing essays, i have lots more application essays to write, seems like i can't escape from writing. sigh. went to collect my dress after that then went jiaqing's house to stone. literally stoned, sat around talked, played drums, ate, that's about all that we did, but isn't that what relaxation is all about? went home rather early to pack my stuff for prom and sleep.
woke up at 4am the next morning, continued to load myself with carbo (and fats) before heading towards esplanade for the challenge of the lifetime. it was much more orderly than the army half marathon, didn't have to queue for baggage deposit and there were sufficient toilets, and they were very punctual. at 6am sharp, the Singapore Marathon started. we made our way to the starting line, and excitedly started the run of a lifetime, our very first marathon.
the first few km were quite enjoyable, especially when it's still dark and cool. after we ran about 3km or so, we saw the first runner on the opposite side, who has already completed about 12km. superpowerful, and he was followed by a small group of kenyan runners. wow, it was really exciting to watch and clap for them, and it feels good running the same race as these elite marathon runners "competing" with them. and so we ran for 10km, 20km. the first 10km was a rather relaxing pace, conserving energy for the rest of the race. after about 20km, i was quite numb already, the sun was out and my legs just kept moving and moving. it was after 30km or so when fatigue really hit us. our speed was reduced to about 10 minutes per km, and the km markings seemed to be getting further and further apart. but we moved on, for we set out with an end in mind, my legs were tired, my knees were dying and my feet were getting heavy, but i knew i had to finish it. the posters along the way were very motivational, the cheerleaders and music kept us going and i'm very touched by ordinary people who just stood or sat along the way, giving us encouragement. and so we inched our way to the finishing line. i told myself no matter how slow i ran, no matter how tired i am, as long as my legs are still functional, i will run on, for every step i make, i'm closer to the finishing line, i'm closer to my goal of completing a marathon.
slowly but surely, we made it. we've ran 42.195km. shine, i'm so proud of you, and i'm so happy. towards the last few hundred metres, i nearly could not control myself, for i knew the end was so near, we've ran more than 5 hours, more than any distance that we've ever done and we are about to achieve what we set out to achieve. yes, we've done the near impossible. i don't know what made me sign up for the marathon, but i vaguely remember about 2 years ago, i was still struggling with 2.4 and even distances like 5km were great achievements. yes, i totally agree with the posters, it's mind over matter, as long as your legs are moving, your heart is beating fine, there is only your mind that stops you from going on. it was exhausting, it was madness, but it wasn't impossible. it was a day to remember, 5th december 2004, the day i ran and completed my first marathon, and it will definitely not be the last.
after the run of our lifetime, i rushed home immediately, bathed, ate and packed my luggage for prom and stayover. everything was so rush after that, hair, makeup, back to hotel and finally to suntec for prom, yes suntec of all places, and we were about an hour late. took lots of photos, the programme wasn't exactly exciting and the food wasn't that great, but it's the atmosphere that mattered. afterall, it's the last prom and it's probably the last time i'm going to see all my classmates, those that i've spent 2 years of my jc ife with. alright, back to reality, everything is really coming to a close. it may be only 2 years, but in this short period of time, i've discovered more of the meaning of life, of friendship, relationship, hatred. i think i'm very fortunate to have classmates whom i can just stone and talk through the night, teammates who get high and talk about everything under the sun. i dare say the 2 years spent in rjc is the best time of my school life and i love rjc, for everything it had given me. although i like taking photos, one whole night of phototaking is rather tiring, especially when you have to wear a perpetual smile and get blinded by the flashes. prom is an expensive event, from tickets, dress, shoes, accessories to hair and makeup, so much money was spent on a one night event, but it's definitely worth it.
got back to hotel at around midnight, and to save my legs before they totally collapse on me, i've decided not to go clubbing, had less than 3 hours of sleep, because i'm so used to waking up early and couldn't go back to sleep again after i woke up. so i sat around, played cards and talked with the nocturnal people. went for buffet breakfast which extended to lunch. i feel guilty and sinful, so much eating these few days, hopefully i've burnt enough during the run to make up for all the fats that i've eaten.
and so, it's all over now. or rather, it's going to be the start of another stage in life. i'll start looking for a job tomorrow and i will start on my university and scholarship applications. no, it's not an end, it's a new beginning.