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I am impossibly tired, but mightily satisfied. Spent the last 3 hours packing my new room in hall. Did what I do best.. Conceal the mess. What cannot be seen can’t hurt you.My eyes are hurting right now. Forgot to bring my glasses and been wearing contacts for about 15 hours and counting. But I’m in the midst of doing laundry right now and can’t do that blind.

Ultimate horror of all was finding a soon-to-be ant nest. But mightily satisfied because I have since gotten rid of the pests.

Just mopped my floor 3 times. Yes, I am a clean freak. But I figured, I probably won’t be cleaning the room for the entire semester hahaha so that 3 times kind of makes up for the rest of my 6 months in this room.

Speaking of which, after spending most of my vacation at home, I feel like an alien back in hall. It doesn’t feel too good but it’ll go away soon enough. I’m one of those who adapts easily, which explains why I got too comfortable at home to want to be here in school. Not a good sign for exchange though. I foresee myself being homesick the first week, being alone in somewhere strange.

Anyway now that Hallelujah from The OC is playing in the background, let me just share a silly thing I did. I was sorting out my iTunes library and upon seeing the above-mentioned song title, without thinking a second thought, placed the song into my Christian playlist. It wasn’t till a few weeks back that I realised my folly.

I hear the strains of mahjong tiles coming from block 36.

Anyway was just chatting with this guy from my hall OG. Talking to him always makes me feel so bad. He is such a humble guy and absolutely the nicest person, down-to-earth, sincere, have I said humble? He is just a very good person la. I feel so small talking to him. Unfortunately, he made a booboo with his hall application so he might be booted out of hall 7. Poor thing, he’s Malaysian. Hope he gets a room soon.

Sweden. Weekend trips to Finland, Norway and Denmark. Maybe shall try Arctic too, like Deb. Definitely will commute to London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia too if I may, Munich. Greece.. Italy. Czech, Austria, Romania, Russia. Yes, I shall attempt as many as I can. And I hope my parents are not reading this.

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I’ve had it with long bus rides. Or at least long bus rides in Singapore. First, there’s the countless repeats of those makeover shows. And every break, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll get not only one, but TWO Singapore Idol adverts, or Pirates of the Carribbean trailers. I’m hoping Mediacorp hire some real people to work in programming or maybe they should remove TVMobile completely. Would be a nice favor to all of us. If I may speak for all.

Today marked my official retirement from my band playing days. Felt good.

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I was at dinner with my godparents today when they were telling us about their recent 3-week long vacation to UK. They brought up the point that the security climate in London had changed drastically compared to their previous trip that was pre-9/11. In part, it was the accidental shooting of the Brazilian guy a year ago that contributed to the very tense situation. Apparently, there are CCTVs installed at tube stations and bus stations. That’s still okay. What’s funny is there are less trash bins around now. They don’t want terrorists dumping bombs anywhere.

Even traditionally quiet and peaceful places like Lake District now has police patrolling and guard dogs sniffing around everywhere.

Oh well. It’s a really bad time to be alive. What with all the Israel and Lebanon unhappiness going on. Even here in Singapore, we are not spared from it all. Just saw some of our northern neighbours kicking up a big ruckus on news about the Lebanese attacks, Israel is wrong, religion, ethnic, XXXX…%$*#@

Bah.

Anyway, by the end of the night, I tried to steer the conversation towards Sweden, where I hope to go for exchange next January. Didn’t work. After some comments like “Oh, it’ll be so cold in January.”, “You have to eat fish all day. Chicken and eggs are expensive there.” “Why not Finland? It’s the cheapest among the Scandinavian countries.” And then it was back to “Oh Jeremy, luckily you didn’t apply to Durham. It’s so unsafe now.” And the topic whittled back to UK.

It was UK all the way. From Rooney the Looney to Old Trafford, from Oxford and Cambridge to University of London, from Lake District to Manchester to Edinburgh, from Bed & Breakfast at the Browns’ to Bed & Breakfast by “China Chinese”. I tried once again to steer World Cup talk towards France’s glorious run to the final, but I lost out to the old man in the tube with a tattoo that read “England forever”.

Rest my case.

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Yuanting’s convocation collage of The F.Four

I was walking along Citylink on Sunday when I spotted a sign that read “SALES DEDUCTION”.

The whole of last week was spent at orientation camp for the incoming batch of freshies. I think orientation camps are more enjoyable for seniors than freshies somehow. One of the OGs was a horror story in itself. I think I speak for the seniors when I say some of those bitches completely stumped everyone with their behavior. I can hardly wait for school to reopen to see what’s going to happen to them. It’s terribly saddening because one of those bitches is my junior from Fairfield! She remembered me (who wouldn’t, given my dad and all.) and she called me “Prefect! Prefect!” throughout the camp. It was embarrassing to say the least. Tried getting her to stop calling me that but to no avail.

Anyway, on the last night of camp, it was Fright Night. I was acting as a weirdass Chinese boy with his grandma.

Weiyi and me. No, I didn’t put on lipstick.

Shisi and me trying to look scary.

Me. In state of shock.

Jönköping

Sweden, I am dreaming about you right this minute.

Gimme my HUGE Euro adventure, please.

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Grabbed this off Becky’s blog. Fairfield past v. present games day. 29 July 2006.

Been busy the past few weeks. Did the survey job for a prof’s project. Bummed some. The occasional rehearsals for my hall production. Planted my ass down at settler’s cafe for some quality time with army pals, plus Sean (whom I’ve not seen for such a long time). Watched France whip the asses of Spain at JE Macs with Ian and Jean. Bummed more. Back playing the oboe with NJ alumni and Phil Youth as well. Reminded myself I need to lose some weight. And felt guilty that I’m never able to exercise twice a week at least.

Well.. I am a bummer, after all.

I have decided to call time on my band days. It’s been a good 10 years, since i picked up the oboe in Sec One. It was a good hobby and I learnt so much and had so much exposure being in SAF Central Band. Met most of my friends from being in various bands as well. My last performance will be this Saturday with NJ alumni at Esplanade. Some sort of a last hurrah before retirement, I suppose.

When I was in Central Band, it wasn’t a complete breeze. I found myself in a slack unit, thinking that army couldn’t get any easier. True to a certain extent. Expectations were high, maybe particularly higher for me being an oboist. I’ve never been a fine musician. Ask me to play solos, I’ll try. But being a musician requires talent and passion. When you have neither, you’re a goner. Music is but a hobby to me and nothing more. After so many years of performing, I think I prefer being the audience. I love it, I just don’t love it that much.

That said, it’ll be a semi-retirement for me. Only band I’ll play for will be Fairfield Alumni if they do revive. And probably NIE band so that I can earn easy credits. Haha.

And this is off Ting’s blog. Taken at Gladys’ birthday dinner.

Happy 4th July, America!