A slow day in school sees Yenn and I in our room. She plays her new J-rock CD on her almost-obsolete CD player, while Mapling. I listen to her CD [because it's being blasted through the room] and read blogs and blog, while resisting the temptation to fall back onto bad habits.

Only I have a class, about 5 hours later. She just found out her only project meeting for the day got cancelled.

Deadlines are still at least 2 weeks away, and because we just started this week, not much in the way of concrete work has yet to be done.

So none of us have pressing deadlines [yet], none of us have pressing work that needs to be done now [yet], and none of us are in a hurry to go to classes today [till 5 hours later for me]. And we are still free [for today] to relax, and enjoy this afternoon.

Yes, it's a good day for us.

Reflections on a Year Past

Apologies for lack of entries due to my holiday obsession, which kept me from a lot of productive activity. ^_^! Now that I'm back in school, *unfortunately* you may find this blog getting a bit more dusty... *sigh* But I do still hope to keep it up.

I was reflecting on NYE on what a year 2005 had been for me, biggest changes of all being in the love and career depts of course. [what else?] It was like my life had been stagnant for all that time after I was teaching tuition, and then suddenly wham! bang! alakazam! Everything just came at once. ^_^! Even I wonder at how it happened, now that I look back on it......

But even then, 2005 I guess was the year when a lot of realism set in as well. I found out, firsthand, that relationships weren't always the bed of roses and happy endings that the movies made it to be. Even though I always knew it in some deep, dark, cynical corner of my heart, nothing beats a practical lesson to instil it in you.

But at the same time, I also learnt what it really meant to be in a relationship, that it also entailed a lot of tolerance and give-and-take. If you expected certain things out of your other, then your other also is entitled to certain expectations about yourself. And in the end, maybe the most successful relationships are about how you work it out between the two of you. [funnily enough, I have to credit this lesson to Dad over a plate of fries and a cup of milo]

So as to this, I can only see, "We'll see." I always tell people that the DF may not end up being the guy I marry, because, well, I've seen enough of my friends' [ex-]relationships to know that it doesn't always turn out that way. Not that I'm trying to jeopardise the future of my own relationship, but more like I cannot predict the future with any amount of certainty. I can't say for certain what will happen to us, or whether he or I will change or some other outside circumstance will force us apart.

But above all, I do hope we will try our darnest at this state we've gotten ourselves into. And that it all will not turn out too badly in the end. :)

My own career also took a sudden steroid and went into booster mode. The time from when I first signed on the dotted line all the way to the day I moved out of the hostel and started my holidays was something of a whirlwind now that I think about it.

The thing I don't like is that the course I'm in seems to be cramming too much into us in too much time, and this is a complaint shared by me, Yenn, and about a thousand of us. And whether because of what Yenn told me, or because of my own cynicism, I can't help holding little question marks about the training we receive in here, and its validity in the real world.

But in the end, it's all I'll have when I go out to the real world for the first time. And in some ways, it scares the blardy hell outta me.

Because when I did tuition, I was relatively carefree. I only had to concentrate on one kid at a time, and I could implement my own 'syllabus', my own work, and teach the way I wanted.

Now, I have to account for the academic progress of 40 kids at a time, multiplied by the no of classes I teach, follow a set syllabus, and leave a paper trail of accountability to show that there is method in my madness. @_@~And that's not counting the admin stuff and the extracurricular stuff.

It scares me shitless sometimes, when I think about it. What happens if I boldly set out, test my mettle, and find myself wanting in this area?

Then when the fear passes, I remind myself not to think too much again, and I get down to the serious business of solving my next Sudoku puzzle.

There is never any point in wildly imagining situations which may or may not be happening. I did that on occasion with the DF and it never got me anywhere, and in fact, made me a whole lot more miserable than he could have with any concrete actions. Thus, the same thing with this stint. When the time comes, I will face it, do it, and get it over and done with.

And maybe, somehow, I will survive 2006 and get through this thing they call 'Life'.

Happy 2006!

The first blog post of 2006... ah.... is very photo-heavy. I advise you to take that loo break, or get some water while waiting for this to load.

So how was everyone's New Year's Eve? [or did some of you just sleep past it and wake up the next morn like always? Shame on you...] With no pending invitations [sob sob] and the DF with his family, I spent NYE with Necroz wandering around the Marina area.

And I really mean wander. We met early for dinner, shopped a bit, and then when the stores closed, found ourselves with nothing to do till midnight. So we walked around from Marina to Esplanade to Boat Quay to Clarke Quay and to Fullerton to await the New Year.

ALL the places were packed more than usual, no surprises there. At 8-10pm, there was already a sense of party fever in the air, as revellers increased in numbers, making their pilgrimmages to these holy spots of wild abandon.'


Clarke Quay prepares


Singapore waits for the fireworks

After walking and walking, we finally staked out a spot at the One Fullerton overlooking the Merlion to wait for the fireworks display.

I know some of you will think, "WTF you wanna go to somewhere so crowded for what???" What can I say? There's a difference in the atmosphere when you're celebrating with 1000s of strangers the coming of the New Year. In the last hour before midnight, we felt it as the people increased, and the heat of the moment increased as well. You feel a heightened sense of anticipation in the air, and the feeling of waiting that everyone is going through with you. Some jokers may suddenly spray the air full of crazy string and foam. Others suddenly bawl and scream. Someone actually released a small hot air balloon, complete with gas flame. [i kid you not]

There's a strange feeling that strikes a mob that is waiting for some action. I guess that was the high we were looking for.

And when the fireworks heralded the zero moment, WA-HOO!!!!

Aside: IN case you haven't noticed, what with all the digital cameras and the camera phones, we have suddenly become a nation of aspiring photographers. [moi included, hehe] Which means that in any national event, what you inevitably see is the whipping out of lens on the phones or cameras:



Unfortunately, my phototaking skills, when it comes to fireworks, are horribly pathetic.


bleah.


still too slow, sucker.

And after a few aborted attempts,


Yahoo!


Yeah!

And that was the two only good shots. -_-!!!!!

After the countdown was over, though, the sparklers came out in full force.


Sparkly time!

Cute kid!

His friends with him

Singaporeans attempt to set the Merlion on fire.

But I did catch one pose, unawares, and I didn't even realise it till I uploaded the pictures. Which made it one good shot for a fireworking opportunity, and also became one of the funnier shots ever:



Finally, it was all over. The last firework, the last sparkler.

Well all is said and done, however, one problem remains.

WTF do we get outta there???

There are only a few routes out of One Fullerton, I realised, and all of them were choked with people.

Here's an example of one of the exits on that night:


Blardy hell!

Eventually we got out, walked around the river to get to Esplanade.

If you walk that route, though, you'd remember that before reaching the Esplanade, you'd have to cross under the bridge just before the Durian.

We aptly named that stretch of tunnel the Tunnel of Doom.

What with all the aerosol cans and the guys all high on party fever, and the tons of trash on the floor, the area resembled some apocalyptic vision of Singapore's doom.

Not to mention the weird party calls, the people all huddled furtively trying to escape the gangs fighting with the aerosols, and the gangs all fighting with one another spraying each other with that white foam left over from christmas.

And yes, we got sprayed by some dude. -_-! If not for the fact it was just white foam, I'd be cursing the guy to Kingdom Come.

erm, no pix of that scene because I was afraid of the flash attracting unwanted attention via foam. -_-!!!



And this was one of the few nights where there were virtually no taxis on the road. Because all of them were on freakin' call or were already ferrying customers. I bet you some of these uncles can now send their kids to uni already. In the UK even, maybe.

We assessed the traffic situation, decided the case for the cabs was hopeless anyway, and skipped to Marina Square where thankfully, Changing Appetites was still open, and we had our first meal [supper?] of 2006.



As I jokingly told Necroz in haltingly bad Chinese, cheesecake for a sweet mouth when talking to people [like when asking your boss for a raise], and for a rich life. [because of the richness of the cake]

Iced tea for a 'liang shuang' life. [i think literally translated, means something like 'light and carefree'?]

"And water?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

That's easy. "So that we may always be humble, and yin shui si yuan."

See, my china buay pai eh.

And thus, we started the New Year full of wishes for a sweet [and glib] mouth, a rich and carefree life, and a humble disposition. Not a bad start, I would say.

So, on one last note, from the boredslacker to all the friends and blog readers: