john and trina's birthday dinner

met my friends up to dine yesterday. Went on quite smoothly, except i had to bluff the receptionist that some of my friends (5/10) are at the carpark waiting. I was quite dishonest actually! Well, that's what i really thought..

there was a minor unhappiness though. Shall not mention it here...

Dong Po Pork at the left, DXE crispy tofu beside it.


Tried nu er hong - 18% ALC


Went to mac to chat


Doraemon cake!


The couple cutting doraemon up!

faizah's birthday

happy birthday to a friend of 12 years!

had western dinner at breeks, causeway point. The service by their crew seemed better - careful placement of cutlery and dishes of food.

Cajun Blackened Chicken - had sore throat, avoided deep fried stuff


Me, gw and John


Trina, sj and Faizah


Tom and Jerry cake!

had a wonderful saturday. Career fair + SPM + SAM + PS + Cathay + Central + lunar eclipse at hougang. I was so tired, not sure why. Maybe it's my cough and throat. Got home at 7am, slept all the till nearly 4.

an excellent photo of the eclipse can be found here.

birthday dinner

on sunday i had a gathering over dinner with secondary school peeps. The occasion was to celebrate wenqun's and my birthday, which were over a month ago.

I remember dining here with family 9 years ago..

had quite a good meal and company of friends of over a decade. Heard of some unhappiness prior to the dinner, but i'm glad everyone turned up. I hope the affected parties can overlook past differences, and be proper friends again. We are already a quarter of a century old, it doesn't make sense to bear grudges against issues that happened long ago!


on the eve, i went back school to renew my contract. It's my 3rd renewal and probably the second last or the last one with NYP. Hope i can accomplish more this year. Was quite sick with a sore throat and headache, then headed back home to have a short rest. Then had a good evening out with a friend for the countdown. I only wished i had a better location for the fireworks!!


new year's day was allocated to rest. Went out for a while for banking and dryclean my jacket, then coincidentally met Kelvin and company at the lift. He didn't see me, so i just entered another lift. By the time i noticed XL and Ananth (sp?) the lift door closed.. oops.

and spent the night unwrapping a gift. I have to record about it here because...

I thought the gift was huge...


But i removed xx pages of newsprint for the next 3 hrs...


I still like the present. Thanks!!!

i can't be negative about it, because effort was spent in wrapping it up! haha...

dailies

friday was badminton with Celeste and Jac. My arms are aching now, was quite an intensive play. Intensive because i was trying to catch celeste's moves. I'm as usual bad in it =x

before that they were giving out those collages to their classmates. Surprised to see vicky doing it for HIM, hahah. Then poor Jac with watery (!) eyes was stuck at the pc, trying to submit the UI. Instead of helping her much i rushed her to submit and go off... oops bad example as a uni student.

then we went to NFS nearby to dine. Surprise surprise...

I din know the cake was for me... lol

=)

sabrina also came back from her leave; the youngest daughter got her PSLE result. Her youngest daughter is a pig, not literally but according to the calendar la -

- 1971 pig: my colleague (no prizes for guessing who)
- 1983 pig: me
- 1995 pig: sabrina's daughter

if her daughter joins us as a TSO, then our nicknames gotta change. She will have a title of small pig, i should be called a middle pig instead of small pig. The big pig should be called old pig. Just for laughs... =x

back to the PSLE, we're discussing how the scores shifted towards the >80% percentile recently. Getting a 260 or even 24x, 25x is considered a 神 in the 90s, then it's like so common now! Now that the result is out, she's deciding on the choices of secondary schools. Even the choice has to be deliberated on... omg. Now i know why a lecturer left a tutorial's room projector lighting and the key attached to the cabinet on thursday. When i become a parent, will i become like them?!

Rainie - 暧昧 (Ambiguity)

暧昧让人受尽委屈
找不到相爱的证据
何时该前进 何时该放弃
连拥抱都没有勇气

只能陪你到这里
毕竟有些事不可以
超过了友情 还得不到爱情
远方就要下雨的风景

到底该不该哭泣
想太多 是我还是你
我很不服气 也开始怀疑
眼前的人是不是同一个真实的你

暧昧让人受尽委屈
找不到相爱的证据
何时该前进
何时该放弃
连拥抱都没有勇气

暧昧让人变得贪心
直到等待失去意义
无奈我和你
写不出结局
放遗憾的美丽
停在这里

Ambiguity makes people feel wronged
they can't find evidence of love
the right time to get closer, the right time to give up
Can't even bring up the courage to hug one another

I can only accompany you up to here
After all, there are some things that I cannot do
Surpassing friendship, not quite reaching love
It's about to rain in a faraway place

Should I cry?
Is it you or I who thinks too much?
I'm really not convinced and I start to suspect
Is the person in front of me really the same you?

Ambiguity makes people feel wronged
they can't find evidence of love
the right time to get closer, the right time to give up
Can't even bring up the courage to hug one another

Ambiguity makes people greedy
until waiting loses its meaning
I cannot bear the fact that we cannot write out an ending
Let the beauty of regret stop right here

birthday thoughts

yup, indeed my birthday came and is passing without much ado. Ivana was the first to message, followed by 3 girls and Andrew (i think?!).

it was quite a far cry, if you went through the photos in my friendster. A year ago, i was close to crumpling down because i felt i was a failure. A failure in managing my personal life - a relationship of many years gone to drain, which inevitably affected my grades. It was 'zi bao zi qi' that explained the effects. The grade point system punishes students who started off badly, like me. I never got a D since polytechnic years. Yet i was rewarded a D for my personal problems in my first semester. And so far i have been unable to push up my CAP by a lot - but i persist in hanging on.

time indeed works to heal wounds. I (still) have to thank my friends who were there for me. Last October, i remember calling GY down to his coffeeshop, ordered a bottle of Heineken while i waited. As he arrived and i drank, i recounted the regret to him. The rest that followed is plenty of sad stuff, which took months to recover. As i looked back, i might have looked foolish, but i'm never the one who can hide my emotions well, especially unhappy ones. The more i know the person well, the more i reveal myself (can be good and bad). So, it's always better to release pent up pressure.

Scott Jones and i talked briefly along the corridor just now. And saw MY coming back to take her bread (hmm). Then i recalled he and some of my tutors know both of us when we were in campus as students. I could still remember MY's reaction when she heard about the bad news.

many love songs carried deep meanings, and somehow i paid more attention to the lyrics since. The proverbial message of "letting go in order for the other good" hurts, but eventually it may be the best choice after all. She is doing very fine this day. I have also not stopped believing in what i should believe, and hope for the best for everything.

as i looked ahead, there are more to ponder - my career, my love and family. For my career, i maintain my stance; i'll go wherever there are good opportunities, including overseas stints. For my family, they are always the closest to me. Love is always an irony. When i'm attached, there are always frustrations because i care for my other half, yet always have problems showing it. When i'm single, there are always frustrations because i want my life to be mine and someone else's too. I want to share my ice lemon tea now, but nobody wants to. What's worse, i'm trapped in a one-sided situation.

matters of the heart aside, i feel like telling her to be more assertive of herself. She aims to further her studies later, and she can't really handle the human aspect of groupwork well. Get in touch with the harsh realities of working life as quickly as possible. What drew said might sound far fetched, but it may well be her nemesis. However who am i to tell her, and will she listen? Nevertheless, i'd like her for what she is.

sigh.