To one, music is pleasure and to another, music could be like the whole life of that person. How important is music to you? Do you play music? Or does music even play a part in your life in the first place?

Well, music used to be one of the highlights of my life. I played music and definitely loved those days when I sat in a band or an orchestra playing music. Currently, music is merely for my ear and soul pleasures and I have stopped playing music.

Personally, slow and emotional songs are the type of music I listen to nowadays. They serve the best company whenever I go out, board a train and go home. On some occasions, listening to such music really does bring out emotions and questions, questions about my life. I tend to be more reflective about my life and kept thinking about "What if" or "What could have happen if I had...". Typical essay questions for narratives you might say, but aren't these questions something that we should ponder about as we look back at our lives?

With regards to playing music, I've been exposed to that since primary school and I realised that I have been in the aesthetics for co-curricular activities all these while. Sometimes, I wonder how it feels like to be involved in sports activities or uniformed groups or even clubs and societies. They always seem like a mystery to me and I don't think I'll ever get a chance to experience such activities. Darn, perhaps I should have changed the co-curricular activities that I took part in primary school like every year so something. 6 years meant 6 different exposure to some co-curricular activities in school. However, there comes another question: Would I actually switch co-curricular activities every year if I'd developed the passion and love for one I'm already in? I might say no to the latter as commitment is a value which I hold on to if I really had the passion and love for it. [On a side note: However, in reality, skills is worth of more value compared to commitment or even experience. Take a look at jobs nowadays. How many people really stay fixed in a job throughout till retirement? Besides, employers are constantly looking for better skilled employees and out you go if you're worse-off, no matter how committed you can be. Well, perhaps that reality and we just have to accept what is given.]

Back to my point, playing music is an activity which has followed me since childhood. As a child, when I watched musicians performing on television, I was always in awe and I knew that it really takes skill to sit there playing music. Never did I knew that I could actually play music when I started to learn playing the flute. However, another point arises at that point: If you could play music, how well can you play then? That's a tricky one, really. But no matter what, I have this perception in me that there would always be people who play music better than you do. There's no need for a right or wrong but it's just how I personally feel.

Anyway, I feel that the most important thing is happiness. Feel happy in what I'm doing, like playing music and that's what really matters. While achievements do matter in the form of paper qualifications and what they call the "face" issue, the process of learning to play music is something which I feel should be cherished, for those would be everlasting memories that would most probably resurface when you look back at your life someday. Sadly, however, reality emphasise more on achievements instead.

As I looked back at those days when I was in band or chinese orchestra, it feels kind of foreign all of a sudden, perhaps due to a lack of contact. Looking back at the old photos and I'm remembered of the people I've met, the stories and ties established during that period of time. Currently, other than a few, I've lost in touch with most of the people I knew even though we may be friends on facebook. While we may be connected, we are not as bonded as before. How true is that, really. Honestly, it would be nice for everyone to meet each other again someday but I guess as everyone now lead a different life path, it's kind of tough to get everyone back together with the current pace of life that we have today.

Life is really unpredictable sometimes, like how it turned out for my so-called music "career". Never did I knew that I would join chinese orchestra again in JC and my band life just ended like that when I thought I would continue band for another 2 years. That turning point was one of difficult moments, with eyes from 2 different groups of people expressing different thoughts on you. It really gets unbearable and depressing sometimes. Trust me, you won't like that. During that period of time, the thought of leaving JC surfaced but I just had to push through. I thought that joining the chinese orchestra was only a short period of time (for SYF only) and I would join band after that but never did I expect that I stayed there throughout and graduated from the chinese orchestra. Well, it was also partly influenced by my decision (with friends' advice) and the troublesome process of switching programmes then. Nevertheless, I can say that I am happy to stay in the chinese orchestra actually. I don't know if things would remain like it was then if I join the band since the people in band whom I knew would have graduated by then. I could have been feeling worse-off and stressed if I did join the band, provided that the teacher-in-charge was kind and generous enough to accept a music player who she thinks is off the mark. Indeed, there are just too many what-ifs and I'm actually glad that all those struggles are over. I guess it was fate that I would end up joining and graduating from the chinese orchestra and meet wonderful people in Year 2. Most importantly, I felt happy and satisfied in Year 2 and I would say that that's the key. Who cared what your co-curricular activity was since your results are what matter eventually? As long as you had one co-curricular activity, contributed what you could and did your part, it's enough.

After year 2 in JC, I guess I shall not touch music for anytime soon. Sometimes, I feel that it's kind of ironic when music is supposed to make one relax and yet ends up causing one to stressed in the attempt to make it better. Okay, maybe I'm wrong and I don't know. Nevertheless, I still appreciate music today and even when I hear band or CO music, memories of "those were the days" flashes through my mind. I can only reflect about it and that's all, since I have to move on with my life and you too, it's time to move on.

Since young, I haven't really been exposed much to reading books, literally any kind of text. Even if it was the I-weekly, I would just flip for the sake of looking at the pictures and admiring the advertisement. Close the book, and it's the end of the story. Even in primary school, I didn't really read much, though there were opportunities for me to read, such as borrowing books from the library. However, I used to frequent the school library for the sake of the cooling wind during recess. Even if I felt like reading, I did more searching for THE book rather than to queue up at the library counter to borrow a book using my student pass. Well, blame it on laziness and perhaps the fact that I didn't had much books to read at home to cultivate the habit of reading.

I remembered that my primary school used to promote the habit of reading books through distribution of badges which students can pin on the collar of their school uniform. Each student would then receive a piece of paper to record the names of the books that they have read. Get names of 10 books (that you have read of course), record them down, show it to your teacher and the job's done - a reader's badge for you. Another badge for having read 20 books and one more for having read 50 books and so on. I could still remember that each badge stated the "level" of you've attained as a reader, depending on the number of books that you get. It goes something like "Good Reader" for having read 10 books and "Super Reader" for 20 books. Plus, those reader badges seemed like collectibles to everyone then since each type of reader badge had a different picture of an owl. A good tactic indeed to promote reading I must say.

Sadly, I didn't manage to collect all of the owl series of reader badges. I have only attained 2 of the series, namely the "Good Reader" and "Super Reader" (hope I'm correct with the names). It also means that I managed to read 20 books! Wondering how I managed to have read 20 books back then? Well, honestly, I really read 10 books (which do really exist!) wholeheartedly and for the next 10 books, they were either some really simple books for young children or names cooked up by yours sincerely. Another question: How did I manage to escape scot-free? While the school did inform us that we should be reading books pitched at our level (meaning primary school level), they didn't really enforce that. A P6 kid could just go ahead and read a P1 or P2 book and write it down in the list. My teachers didn't really check the list actually, so yup...that's the tale of my 2 reader badges.

Nevertheless, I did read some books in primary school like Charlotte's Web, which I also read again in secondary school. I kinda of "re-read" the books I had at home then. Even in secondary school, I didn't had much time to read either. Sadly, the library in my secondary school was another corner which I enjoy the howling wind and the Internet. I did try reading though, just that searching for THE book took a bigger portion of my library time instead. Nevertheless, the library was an important place for me to study and seek consultations with teachers during my Secondary 4 days.

During my secondary school days, the school also implemented the same reading programme ( both english and mother tongue languages) for all students. They initially promoted newspapers (which had me rushing to a coffeeshop every Tuesday to purchase one back then) but subsequently only books were allowed. One incident has always been etched in my mind and I don't think I would forget about it anytime soon. When I was in secondary 3, I read a book titled "The War with Grandpa", a book which most people would categorise as "a book for lower secondary". Despite all my efforts to prevent the world to know that I was reading that book, the then English Department Head (the you-know-who) caught me reading that and embarrassed me in public. She took a whole lot of effort to beat about the bloody bush to ask me which class I was from, which was seemingly so obvious from our seating arrangement. "3E1," I replied. The next moment felt like a dozen or even million of morning crows which flew past and my book was carried away from my by some nasty slimy fingers. Well, that was the last moment I stood there looking at my book for the very one last time. To my book (or rather my brother's book actually), I just wanna say that you've fulfilled your mission and hopefully, you have now been given a new lease of life.

When I entered post secondary education, there was even less time for me to read. Just to let you know, when I mean "read", I mean reading books like novels which are not related to curriculum studies and for my own pleasure. More time was devoted to curriculum and college activities I would say during that period of time. Hence, the habit of reading books for my own pleasure didn't really materialise. Nevertheless, I do read up newspapers then to keep myself updated with the times.

That's mainly my reading experience so far. The main reason I'm writing this post is due to an inspiration I've got when I went to Popular bookstore at Eastpoint Mall. Initially, I went to the bookstore to take a look at the driving books which I've yet to really take a good look at. The books I was browsing through was near the "Self Development" section so I took a quick look there too. Subsequently, I went on to other sections like "the Bestsellers", "Travel", "Comics", "Languages", "Children", "Puzzles", etc. Looking at some of the books, there was this sudden drive in me to feel like reading them, especially when I came across this book about China's History since I have always been confused about china's history during the imperial era. As I moved on, the "children" section made me think about the books I read when I was a child, which are countable with your fingers. Kids nowadays really have a whole lot of books to choose from. The shelves were full of books in the "Children" section and I also came across some familiar books like "Little Mr Men Series" and books from Enid Blyton, which should be a familiar name to everyone. I would always remember Enid Blyton's The little Brown Bear since it is one of the very few books of Enid Blyton I have at home. I was even more amazed and felt like a frog in the well when I looked at the Chinese section for children. Every book seemed so appealing and I felt like a child again, wanting to digest these books as fast as possible. It struck upon me that learning Chinese as a child must be of more fun nowadays with so many awesome books around. I mean like, those ancient Chinese stories associated with "chimology" like "Sun Tzu's Art of War" seems so simplified and easier to comprehend with those colourful cartoon books for the children. Even at my current age, I would prefer to read these books instead since it feels more refreshing and captivating. I even went on to the "Toys" section and take a look at the games kids play nowadays. Board games are still the best game for children and perhaps for all ages I must say. I cannot believe I actually stayed in the bookstore for around 2 hours until they announced the end of the day. Nice discovery today and I'm totally satisfied.

Currently, given my holidays now, I've more or less decided to start reading up more books to make up for the time I lost when I could have made time to really read. I'm looking at self development books rather than novels currently, as I find it more beneficial to read inspirational/self development books to improve myself as a person. I'm considering to continue reading even when I go into the army, hopefully I've the time and energy to do the work and, we shall see by then.

A Chemistry Lecture

LT 1 of TJC

Somehow, there's always this irony: Dreaming and yearning for holidays when school's busy while thinking back of studying or the so-called "mugging" when one gets too bored during the holiday season. Yup I'm feeling that right now, and it's the holiday season for me currently.

I would be lying for now if I'm telling you that I missed studying. Sometimes, there's just this feeling in me missing school life. Most importantly, I miss the days hanging out with my classmates and living the typical college life that any JC student would lead, but not the hard core studying moments. Hahaha.

Recalling back to my JC life, I'm pretty satisfied with the time I had there. I mean like, the environment, the people I meet and the sequence of events that would happen day after day: Normal flag-raising in the early mornings; the forever huge human traffic jam that would occur after that as everyone proceeds from the assembly ground to their respective venues; the breaks in between lessons and such. These daily events seems insignificant during my JC days, but it never occurred to me that they would be so vividly remembered at the end of the day.

Now, allow me to describe how a typical early morning occurs for me back in JC. Every morning, as time reaches 06:15, my phone would go ringing the song entitled "A thousand Why's", a perfect description of my eagerness to wake up every morning. At about 06:48, I would have been waiting for the lift and if I'm lucky, I would board the train which comes to Simei at 06:55. I would take the next one at 06:58 or at 07:02 if I really couldn't wake up that day. While most people coming from the east side of Singapore to TJC would normally alight at Tanah Merah MRT Station, I'm one example who refuses but alights at Bedok instead, unless it rains. Supposing a typical sunny day, I would be walking the usual route to TJC which takes roughly about 15mins from Bedok MRT Station. One thing that I'm pretty anal at would be the pedestrian zebra crossing which I would pass by on the way to school. Honestly, some drivers are just not that kind to stop before the white line and let you cross the zebra crossing. Thus, on most days I go to school, I don't smile. While that is one big contributing factor to the reason I don't smile, another would be that I just feel like smiling. Hahaha however lame that is. Alright back to the topic. I remembered that in Year 1, I used to walk through the carpark on the way to school and avoid the marketplace (including the stage and basketball court if you know what I mean) as I felt that it was too time-consuming. However, in Year 2, I did the otherwise and everything just went on fine. Nevertheless, on a typical day, I would have reached the traffic light opposite TJC by around 07:20 and that's right, I'm one of those people who reach school on time (meaning 07:25). Pardon me if I've just made you read a big chunk of words. =P

Anyway, I'll continue to post about my JC days subsequently (if I've the time)! See you around~

My apologies for the slow update. I've been busy for the past 2 months and for now, I can finally take time out to come here again. It's been a wonderful journey so far I guess. And as you enjoy the moment, time flies. How indeed is that. To cut it short (and sweet), I'll be using the "timeline" format as a form of summary of my life in the past 2 months since the start of 2011. Here goes!

There's just too much for me to say and I doubt I'll be able to "pen" down everything here. Someday, I'll post about it here.

Went out with 12/09 peeps to the NTU Talk, basically to get a better overview of education at NTU. Well, I went to talks on Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, NIE and MOE. My direction seems very different from my friends, like most of them are going to the business path. Nevertheless, my interest is in the sciences and thus business is kinda of a no-no for me now. Anyway, that was my first trip to Just Acia and I would say that the visit there was pretty alright. I like that nice feeling when I get to chill out with my friends, talking over dinner and just sitting down, not intending to move around anymore. The conversation with everyone about the past, present, future and all other off-topics of life is simply so light-hearted and I'm glad to say that I enjoyed it.

I must say that I had a lot of "first times" this year and visiting a Karaoke lounge is definitely one of it. Though it's a small room, that singing session with around 10 people is definitely a memorable one! From pop songs to love songs to duets and classics, it's fun to see my friends singing and that singing behind closed doors definitely took a lot of courage and risks from me. I felt like so thick-skinned to sing knowing that I suck at singing. Haha but well, we paid to sing and thus we should make the chinks worth it right?

Another "first time" of mine was trying out Veganburger - located near Eunos MRT Station. I think it belongs to the fast-food category but every food there is made of no meat. I would say that's a healthy burger and I did enjoy the ambience there, since it gave me the natural feel. By the way, the Health minister of Singapore and his family sat beside our table. What a coincidence huh.

Shaolin is my first movie of the year and my first Chinese movie in a cinema. Haha guess I really rarely visit the cinema.I think this movie is the 5th movie that I've watched in a cinema so far. But hey, I watched a lot of movies outside cinemas alright?

Anyway, I went with Jonathan and Candice to watch this terrific movie and it's a pity if you'd missed it. The most important point of this part is that I finally got to use the free GV movie voucher that I got from my contribution for YAH Birthday Bash 2009! Hahaha Candice and I managed to utilise it on the expiry date! It was definitely worthwhile and to think we went to watch this movie after school (work)! =)

Met up with the others since we saw each other 1 week ago during the NTU Talk. We went to Wenkai's house for this gathering and I would say that it's awesome time with everyone there!
Let me recall the main gist of what we did (other than on-and-off eating):
1. The usual monopoly deal which now has become a chill-out game amongst youth.
2. My first money-on-the-line MAHJONG session with Shawn, Henry and Stephanie.
3. My first 1-on-1 monopoly deal between Zheng Hao and I which requires one to obtain 7 sets of properties in order to win.
4. The epic chess "match" with Yvonne - where I played against Yvonne, with her powerful allies like Shawn, Wenkai, Zong Yang, Zheng Hao and Henry. Alright, some of them did help me sometimes throughout the game. Well, you should know who won after reading this.
5. Pizza and dumpling for dinner
6. The "Polar Bear" game which is similar to "Murderer". Nice acting skills to those who played the game. Alright, as I'm typing, I recalled a phrase - Vegetarians don't lie. Haha.

Gathered at Ming Leon's house this time round and I managed to play pool at Ming's condo! A nice chat with everyone - Jesslyn, Kexin, Hongye, Zhao Ying and Ming Leon. Had KFC Family Feast for dinner and explored Ming Leon's residence. Nice place I must say.

This was one epic day of my life in Coral Secondary. The interns and relief teachers agreed to wear black on 14th Feb for fun. Well, we didn't know that us wearing black caught so much attention to the crowd in the morning during assembly. Students and colleagues were wondering why we were wearing black on that particular day. I mean like, for fun? Hahaha. During the afternoon, everyone received a notification email to wear black in commemoration of Total Defence Day, which was the next day. And yes, it seemed that we interns and relief teachers made a blunder by wearing black on this fateful Monday. Gah, whatever it is, this moment is one which I don't know if I should laugh at or to dig a hole myself, honestly.

My second movie of the year (and it's a Chinese one) at Plaza Singapura. Went with Janice, Shawn, Yiwen, Huiling and Stephanie to catch this movie and I liked the movie, in terms of it's portrayal of the Great World City and the fact that a lot of Mediacorp artistes participated in this movie. I didn't get the movie at first (and I liked that) but kept my mind open and bingo! I got the drift of the story =).

On a side note, somehow, that vicarious experience of watching movies in cinemas gets me so immersed into the movie to the extent that I feel out of place when the movie ends and I'm back to reality. Well, that happens for me, how about you?

Our annual gathering at Jesslyn's House but with a breakthrough this time round - no more BBQs! Haha we ordered takeaways like pizzas and finger food to save the hassle of cooking and waiting. We did an evaluation the previous time that there wasn't much time for interaction when we had a BBQ. Thus, we came up with this idea for that there would be more time for us to chat and etc.

Nevertheless, the long awaited Mahjong session was the key event of the day (for me)! I had quite a time adjusting myself back to the way we play mahjong at Jesslyn's house. Different rules apply at different places so I got confused at some instances during the game. I think I won once during that mahjong session and whoo! I like it. Hahaha.

Finally, I got a chance to meet up with my friends from BVCB! It's been 3 years since we graduated from the band and I liked that reunion. We went to Pizzahut for dinner and I liked the talk about old times, current stuff and the creepy ghost stories that we shared while we were there. And thank you Shan Hui, Nicholas Ong, Karen and Liling for the present from Phuket, Thailand!=)

Well, I attended an overnight camp for the first time in 2 years and I definitely the learning journey with everyone there during BFT! Alright, I'm getting lazy to elaborate so I shall just leave this part short and sweet. =D

Went with Yvonne, Huiling, Henry, Zong Yang, Che Xuan and Kuan Yu to the NTU Open House. It was impossible to go for any talk as everywhere was packed with people and people. The food at NTU there was great and really very affordable! Other than going to the individual booths to know more the courses and stuff, Yvonne, Henry, Che Xuan, Zong Yang and I took a campus tour to take a look at the halls. Haha we classified the halls into 3 kinds - Condos, Chalets and HDBs. Other than that, exploring one of the halls and getting to know how uni life works in NTU was an eye-opener indeed.

After the NTU Open House, Zong yang, Henry, Kuan Yu, Che Xuan and I headed to Dakota for dinner. After dinner, we sat there too long and got chased out by the stallholders there to let others dine in at the food centre there. Impeccable service I say.

The next day, Shawn, Lian Ping, Che Xuan and I went to the NUS Open House and we met up with Huiling there. I kinda of made up my choice of courses during the Faculty of Science talk and during that talk, all the others were in the Business talk. Hahaha. We missed the campus tours as we were there too late after exploring the booths and going for talks, so we headed for the activities booths instead.

We went to the same Just Acia for dinner again and it was indeed another nice conversation with everyone about jc life and the past!

15. World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles - 19th Mar 2011

My 3rd movie of the year and my first time @ Cathay Cinema in Downtown East, as a form of celebration for Zong Yang's POP according to Henry. Well, I must say that the amenities at Cathay is definitely much nicer - more leg room and a nice backrest! I finally could put my PAssion card to some use by purchasing the tickets @ 7 bucks =).

Alright, I shall not be a spoiler here and catch this movie if you hadn't! It's awesome =)



Okay, I think I had said a quite a bit and I'm kinda of drained already. Enjoy the (holy)days ahead everyone!