i can't believe year 2007 is coming to an end so soon. it's been such a blast, being in SA.
in fact, if i'm given a chance, i would really love to relive my whole SA journey. no matter how disgusting studying and taking NAPFA was. i miss it all. i miss going to school...even potong pasir itself brings back loads of memories. it's only about a month and i really really miss all my friends from SA.
2007 has been a pretty flat year though. not much up and down...i guess with the A levels u're so busy working hard that you get numb to everything around you. It's been a really fufilling year working my ass off, seeing the results, some bad some good, pushing myself to greater limits. It strange how i made more friends towards the end of the year than compared to the front part of my JC journey. The art student domo, arts fac peeps from A4 etc made studying such a fun process that i wouldn't mind doing it all over again ;)
i guess the only thing bad about 2007 was my spiritual walk. there were loads of flats and downs. stagnant and drops. not going for youth service did have a toll on my spiritual walk. guess no accountability and after a while you get complacent about alot of stuff. messed up my church ministry too. sigh.
nonetheless...i shud bring the good stuff along to the new year and keep the past behind. it's time to start brand new, afresh and get things back to where it should be :)
thank you people...for the wonderful memories :)
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
the 2 retreats that i recently attended-yf leaders retreat and the yeo family retreat have been pretty good. contrary to what i expected.
went to pulai springs in johor for family retreat and it was pretty cool. we went through the family tree thing like we did last year and found out alot of very interesting stuff. like how my grandfather was adopted so the family's surname is actually tan and not yeo. and then because my dad is also adopted my surname is actually quek so in one way or another, i have a very complicated history of surnames - wu/yeo/quek/tan. my extended family is super drama we can write a super long drama seriel. lol.
we went down to some fruit orchard in malaysia where we got a tour of tropical fruits- passionfruit, durian, bualonglong etc. apparently chilli's can grow anti-gravitational. like the sharp end pointing upwards. apparently it shows that it's super spicy. and we also learnt like how to tell which fruit is rich in vitamins etc and how green beans actually come in black long pods. there was a mini zoo there and you can interact with the animals there cos they're all not caged up. haha. the animals are all super friendly. even the caged up rabbits. in singapore they either ignore you or run away from you, but there, they come to you automatically. it's super cute. even the goats there are like that :)
we went on a firefly watching river tour at night after a seafood dinner. it's quite cool cos everything is dark and you are on some ulu river. it really felt like some disney ride. except in real life. there were so many fireflies it really looked as if God had decorated the trees for christmas. shiny shiny blink blink. the fireflies only hang around 2 different trees, namely the pong pong tree and some other tree that the guide didn't know the name. we caught a few in a plastic bag and they're really gentle creatures which live for only 2 weeks and they die quite easily. they look like those flying ants with a cockroach looking body shape, minus the ugly feelers. in light they stop emitting light and they usually come out and shine after it rains.
God was really faithful during the trip and at first it was really hot and then it started raining quite heavily. we were quite afraid of missing out on the fruit orchard but when we reached there the rain stopped. it started raining only after we were done with the tour. it continued pouring even more and we thought we might have to forgo the firefly watching thing but it stopped when we were done with dinner. so we got to see many fireflies because they come out to shine even more after the rain **YIPPEE**
quite an interesting experience and next year, the adults have happily handed over all these event organising to the next generation. sigh. oh wellz. we were thinking of doing charity work. like work with habitat for humanity or smth cosit's a really easy way of getting out of the planning process it's really meaningful and fulfilling :)
2007's ending pretty soon. quite sad that i won't be returning to school. i used to dread school reopening...but i really loved SA and i miss everything about it. sigh. miss the whole bunch of friends-char, rach, mel, yinx, beh and ph..all 7 of us. MISS YOU GUYS LOADS. we need to get out together k!
gonna start work and i need to start working my ass off for my portfolio. organising the stuff, doing stuff for portfolio, the video--storyboarding, filming and editing etc. SIGH...LORD HELP ME.
i hate growing up now....it's all so scary.
went to pulai springs in johor for family retreat and it was pretty cool. we went through the family tree thing like we did last year and found out alot of very interesting stuff. like how my grandfather was adopted so the family's surname is actually tan and not yeo. and then because my dad is also adopted my surname is actually quek so in one way or another, i have a very complicated history of surnames - wu/yeo/quek/tan. my extended family is super drama we can write a super long drama seriel. lol.
we went down to some fruit orchard in malaysia where we got a tour of tropical fruits- passionfruit, durian, bualonglong etc. apparently chilli's can grow anti-gravitational. like the sharp end pointing upwards. apparently it shows that it's super spicy. and we also learnt like how to tell which fruit is rich in vitamins etc and how green beans actually come in black long pods. there was a mini zoo there and you can interact with the animals there cos they're all not caged up. haha. the animals are all super friendly. even the caged up rabbits. in singapore they either ignore you or run away from you, but there, they come to you automatically. it's super cute. even the goats there are like that :)
we went on a firefly watching river tour at night after a seafood dinner. it's quite cool cos everything is dark and you are on some ulu river. it really felt like some disney ride. except in real life. there were so many fireflies it really looked as if God had decorated the trees for christmas. shiny shiny blink blink. the fireflies only hang around 2 different trees, namely the pong pong tree and some other tree that the guide didn't know the name. we caught a few in a plastic bag and they're really gentle creatures which live for only 2 weeks and they die quite easily. they look like those flying ants with a cockroach looking body shape, minus the ugly feelers. in light they stop emitting light and they usually come out and shine after it rains.
God was really faithful during the trip and at first it was really hot and then it started raining quite heavily. we were quite afraid of missing out on the fruit orchard but when we reached there the rain stopped. it started raining only after we were done with the tour. it continued pouring even more and we thought we might have to forgo the firefly watching thing but it stopped when we were done with dinner. so we got to see many fireflies because they come out to shine even more after the rain **YIPPEE**
quite an interesting experience and next year, the adults have happily handed over all these event organising to the next generation. sigh. oh wellz. we were thinking of doing charity work. like work with habitat for humanity or smth cos
2007's ending pretty soon. quite sad that i won't be returning to school. i used to dread school reopening...but i really loved SA and i miss everything about it. sigh. miss the whole bunch of friends-char, rach, mel, yinx, beh and ph..all 7 of us. MISS YOU GUYS LOADS. we need to get out together k!
gonna start work and i need to start working my ass off for my portfolio. organising the stuff, doing stuff for portfolio, the video--storyboarding, filming and editing etc. SIGH...LORD HELP ME.
i hate growing up now....it's all so scary.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
portfolio
i finally got down to start on my portfolio yesterday.
was really quite apprehensive and i was wondering whether i was just delusional thinking that i should go into design and in so doing so made my parents delusional that i was a art prodigy =S this sounds really stupid, but i was REALLY scared holding the pencil, not daring to place it on my new sketchbook.
i had to suck in a mouthful of air and for the first time (minus the disneyland drawing session), i used guidelines. as in drawing those circles and stuff that wilkie tan always taught us to but i never followed cos i never saw how it worked and it made my drawing weird anyway. looks like going for disneyland's character drawing workshop helped me quite alot :)
so here's my first portfolio project: cockatoos.
was really quite apprehensive and i was wondering whether i was just delusional thinking that i should go into design and in so doing so made my parents delusional that i was a art prodigy =S this sounds really stupid, but i was REALLY scared holding the pencil, not daring to place it on my new sketchbook.
i had to suck in a mouthful of air and for the first time (minus the disneyland drawing session), i used guidelines. as in drawing those circles and stuff that wilkie tan always taught us to but i never followed cos i never saw how it worked and it made my drawing weird anyway. looks like going for disneyland's character drawing workshop helped me quite alot :)
so here's my first portfolio project: cockatoos.
it's not fantastic, but i'm quite proud of it. considering that i haven't touched drawing in like forever. haha. they look more cartoony then real. oh wellz.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
US trip 2
finally back in Singapore for the dec holidays...for another 5-6 days before i get whisked off the malaysia for a family retreat **rolls eyes**
on one hand i was getting bored in LA. i didn't like being so confined to everyone's likes and dislikes. i learnt during this trip that the best way for a family, or in any case, any group of people, to maintain relationships together is ironically, to not stay together....for a long time at least. so paradoxical. but yeah. u start to trample on each other nerves and not long after, you'll start tearing at each other's eyeballs...or whatever's left from the previous fights.
i was actually looking forward to coming back to Singapore where i was free to go wherever i wanted, to wake up at whichever time i wanted and to use the toilet for as long as i wanted. for the first time in all my travelling history, i didn't dread coming home. :) ah yes...home sweet home
i guess after 15 years away from US, as you grow older..your expectations increase and all the nice impressions of US that i had when i was young (which stayed with me until now) made US quite a disappointment. the whole big brother thing and stuff...i still love Singapore more...even if that means i'm going to starve due to the availability of job opportunities here as compared to the states. i don';t think i'd be able to survive in US considering that i don't really intend to learn how to drive just to keep my sanity alive. but...i must say...the environment there is awesome...very inspiring to draw and be all arty farty and nature dweller.
sooo....within these 2 weeks that i've been gone, i've been to universal studios, disneyland, california adventure park, sea world, san diego zoo, grand canyon, las vegas, balboa park, la jolla bay etc etc. in summary, las vegas is boring unless u like to marvel at the architecture and the likes, univeral studios, san diego zoo standards have dropped, disneyland isn't as happy as i wanted it to be. i overrated america (and for this my house is going to get bombed. people. remember me and come to my funeral to say nice things about me k!).
for shopping fanatics like my bro, america's the place to go.it's like shopper's heaven/haven...wadever..their factory outlet's are humongomous and they go cheap. seriously. the one i went to had like 130 shops..or was it 100. and they werent small. they were big shops. my family was there from morning till night just shopping. the 4 of us alone spent about 1k. but that's mainly cause my mum spent half that amount on coach bags. i got myself like ...4 levis jeans, 2 tees and 1 pair of long pants. i never really enjoyed shopping till then..but i think it started and ended there. we really shopped till we dropped.
universal studios, san diego zoo and disneyland were a tad bit of a disappointment. all the hoohaa and the expectations din quite meet. disneyland wasn't as happy as i wanted it to be. hong kong disneyland was happier even though it was lousier. oh wellz. san diego zoo has very little animals :( and they all look malnourished. i never knew elephants ate twigs and bears played with cardboard and paper until then. you could barely see much animals and the cages made it hard to capture pictures of them. even the animal shows were boring :( oh wellz. some world famous zoo.... -___-
we took a tour down to las vegas cos my mum didn't want to drive down. it was a rather eventful tour. we had a very small tour group u see and we filled only half the bus. so they decided to consolidate to cut costs, without telling us, lying that the bus broke down at the first stop/bus driver disappeared and they squeezed us all into another tour group. well.. there goes our night tour and we had to figure out how to travel on our own. on the second day, we travelled down to grand canyon (with another tour group) where it was so cold smoke came out when u peed or spoke. but the view was cool....and scary. very scary. i don't quite want to imagine wad will happen if u fall down. saw some snow and a cow and a mountain goat there (i seriously have no idea how the goat got to the cliff..cos it looked stuck there with no where to move. either way...it'd die). took loads of pictures of us "scaling" the tip of grand canyon and the sky walk which is really scary. it's the glass bridge over the grand canyon. so when you look down...you look all the way down. it's really scary!!!
but i think overall the best highlight of the entire trip would be watching the musical "Wicked". IT"S AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! my bro was real lucky to win the Wicked lottery. so, for like 25 bucks we got a 200 US dollar seat which was located first row, right behind the orchestra pit. sitting so upfront meant we could see every nitty gritty detail from the make-up to the texture of the costumes to the actors and actresses faces :) haha. YES...that means admiring some eye candies. sweeettt >.< ok. i'm lazy to update more. hahahaha. if i manage to get some pictures from my bro...i'd post them up..see first....
on one hand i was getting bored in LA. i didn't like being so confined to everyone's likes and dislikes. i learnt during this trip that the best way for a family, or in any case, any group of people, to maintain relationships together is ironically, to not stay together....for a long time at least. so paradoxical. but yeah. u start to trample on each other nerves and not long after, you'll start tearing at each other's eyeballs...or whatever's left from the previous fights.
i was actually looking forward to coming back to Singapore where i was free to go wherever i wanted, to wake up at whichever time i wanted and to use the toilet for as long as i wanted. for the first time in all my travelling history, i didn't dread coming home. :) ah yes...home sweet home
i guess after 15 years away from US, as you grow older..your expectations increase and all the nice impressions of US that i had when i was young (which stayed with me until now) made US quite a disappointment. the whole big brother thing and stuff...i still love Singapore more...even if that means i'm going to starve due to the availability of job opportunities here as compared to the states. i don';t think i'd be able to survive in US considering that i don't really intend to learn how to drive just to keep my sanity alive. but...i must say...the environment there is awesome...very inspiring to draw and be all arty farty and nature dweller.
sooo....within these 2 weeks that i've been gone, i've been to universal studios, disneyland, california adventure park, sea world, san diego zoo, grand canyon, las vegas, balboa park, la jolla bay etc etc. in summary, las vegas is boring unless u like to marvel at the architecture and the likes, univeral studios, san diego zoo standards have dropped, disneyland isn't as happy as i wanted it to be. i overrated america (and for this my house is going to get bombed. people. remember me and come to my funeral to say nice things about me k!).
for shopping fanatics like my bro, america's the place to go.it's like shopper's heaven/haven...wadever..their factory outlet's are humongomous and they go cheap. seriously. the one i went to had like 130 shops..or was it 100. and they werent small. they were big shops. my family was there from morning till night just shopping. the 4 of us alone spent about 1k. but that's mainly cause my mum spent half that amount on coach bags. i got myself like ...4 levis jeans, 2 tees and 1 pair of long pants. i never really enjoyed shopping till then..but i think it started and ended there. we really shopped till we dropped.
universal studios, san diego zoo and disneyland were a tad bit of a disappointment. all the hoohaa and the expectations din quite meet. disneyland wasn't as happy as i wanted it to be. hong kong disneyland was happier even though it was lousier. oh wellz. san diego zoo has very little animals :( and they all look malnourished. i never knew elephants ate twigs and bears played with cardboard and paper until then. you could barely see much animals and the cages made it hard to capture pictures of them. even the animal shows were boring :( oh wellz. some world famous zoo.... -___-
we took a tour down to las vegas cos my mum didn't want to drive down. it was a rather eventful tour. we had a very small tour group u see and we filled only half the bus. so they decided to consolidate to cut costs, without telling us, lying that the bus broke down at the first stop/bus driver disappeared and they squeezed us all into another tour group. well.. there goes our night tour and we had to figure out how to travel on our own. on the second day, we travelled down to grand canyon (with another tour group) where it was so cold smoke came out when u peed or spoke. but the view was cool....and scary. very scary. i don't quite want to imagine wad will happen if u fall down. saw some snow and a cow and a mountain goat there (i seriously have no idea how the goat got to the cliff..cos it looked stuck there with no where to move. either way...it'd die). took loads of pictures of us "scaling" the tip of grand canyon and the sky walk which is really scary. it's the glass bridge over the grand canyon. so when you look down...you look all the way down. it's really scary!!!
but i think overall the best highlight of the entire trip would be watching the musical "Wicked". IT"S AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! my bro was real lucky to win the Wicked lottery. so, for like 25 bucks we got a 200 US dollar seat which was located first row, right behind the orchestra pit. sitting so upfront meant we could see every nitty gritty detail from the make-up to the texture of the costumes to the actors and actresses faces :) haha. YES...that means admiring some eye candies. sweeettt >.< ok. i'm lazy to update more. hahahaha. if i manage to get some pictures from my bro...i'd post them up..see first....
Saturday, December 08, 2007
HELLO PEOPLE...GREETINGS...ALL THE WAY FROM LA :) WHOOPIEEEEEEEEEEE
the plane ride from Singapore to tokyo and then to LA has been a killer. esp for someone with serious motion sickness. I really wanted to drop dead and die then to endure all the horrid feeling :S nonetheless, a plane ride on your birthday is really quite an experience. :)
i was kinda surprised when i was watching high school musical 2 on the plane when all of a sudden this 2 flight stewards stuck out their hands in front of my face. got quite a shock cos i didn't know who they were of what on earth they were trying to do. got me some time to digest what they were saying. Sooo....i was pleasantly surprised with many many many birthday wishes from the crew, some nice dessert in place of a cake from the first class (first class leh) consisting of ice-cream, chocolate pudding, ice cream cake and a bowl of chocolates from the business class...not to mention a personal tour round the plane...except the cock pit thanks to the idiots who stirred up fear from 911. sucks. but still...better than nothing. made friends with the flight stewardess who was my tour guide :) so special
on the transit flight from tokyo to LA, i had another cake from japan. haha. COOLIOS...cheese cake, which i gave up to my brother and the other passengers cos i was so badly motion sicked that i couldn't swallow or stomach anything :( stupid US wouldn't allow food..which is quite dumb..oh well. nonetheless, i was just glad to be back on solid ground. i'm a very jiao3 ta4 shi2 di4 person. ;p
the air here is super fresh..and though the weather is cold (16 deg) it's not as bad as what the pilot said (6 deg..he apologised for the mistake..quite funny. this pilot. very lor sor and very apologetic) love the smell of the fresh air..reminds me of the nice cosiness of US back when we stayed here like what....15 years ago? i love the grocery shops here. the fruits and veg really RADIATE AND SHINE. the colours are like WHOW. beautiful man. and it's soooooooo fresh that even someone like me who don't digest fruit and veges is tempted to pop them all in my mouth cos they all look so yummyyyy..and they actually polish their fruits...soooo nicee :)
kinda suffering abit from jet lag. but oh well...universal studios was kinda abit of a disappointment. it's not as fantastic as it was....15 years ago (haha. that's the only thing i can compare to). we explored every single attraction in the place and i dun think i'm very much impressed by any :( in fact...the grocers impressed me more than universal studios. it rocks going to such place on weekdays cos there's NO QUEUE! yep, no time wasted...which was precisely why we wre able to go for every attraction and watch every show. yuppos. i learnt what cheater bugs hollywood is. visited the sets of movies and series including desperate housewives, jaws, jurrassic park etc. i really don't think they look anything much like what u see in the movies. it's just amazing what technology can do nowadays!
there's loads of food here....alot of asians...alot of chinese stuff....i feel like i'm in a westernised China then in Cheen-erised US. YEP. IT's THAT MANY CHINESE. in fact, the hotel i'm staying in is run by asians...and oh....the receptionist is HAWT stuff :) hahaha. really good awesome eye candy. heehee.
time to sleeeeppp :) ciao!
the plane ride from Singapore to tokyo and then to LA has been a killer. esp for someone with serious motion sickness. I really wanted to drop dead and die then to endure all the horrid feeling :S nonetheless, a plane ride on your birthday is really quite an experience. :)
i was kinda surprised when i was watching high school musical 2 on the plane when all of a sudden this 2 flight stewards stuck out their hands in front of my face. got quite a shock cos i didn't know who they were of what on earth they were trying to do. got me some time to digest what they were saying. Sooo....i was pleasantly surprised with many many many birthday wishes from the crew, some nice dessert in place of a cake from the first class (first class leh) consisting of ice-cream, chocolate pudding, ice cream cake and a bowl of chocolates from the business class...not to mention a personal tour round the plane...except the cock pit thanks to the idiots who stirred up fear from 911. sucks. but still...better than nothing. made friends with the flight stewardess who was my tour guide :) so special
on the transit flight from tokyo to LA, i had another cake from japan. haha. COOLIOS...cheese cake, which i gave up to my brother and the other passengers cos i was so badly motion sicked that i couldn't swallow or stomach anything :( stupid US wouldn't allow food..which is quite dumb..oh well. nonetheless, i was just glad to be back on solid ground. i'm a very jiao3 ta4 shi2 di4 person. ;p
the air here is super fresh..and though the weather is cold (16 deg) it's not as bad as what the pilot said (6 deg..he apologised for the mistake..quite funny. this pilot. very lor sor and very apologetic) love the smell of the fresh air..reminds me of the nice cosiness of US back when we stayed here like what....15 years ago? i love the grocery shops here. the fruits and veg really RADIATE AND SHINE. the colours are like WHOW. beautiful man. and it's soooooooo fresh that even someone like me who don't digest fruit and veges is tempted to pop them all in my mouth cos they all look so yummyyyy..and they actually polish their fruits...soooo nicee :)
kinda suffering abit from jet lag. but oh well...universal studios was kinda abit of a disappointment. it's not as fantastic as it was....15 years ago (haha. that's the only thing i can compare to). we explored every single attraction in the place and i dun think i'm very much impressed by any :( in fact...the grocers impressed me more than universal studios. it rocks going to such place on weekdays cos there's NO QUEUE! yep, no time wasted...which was precisely why we wre able to go for every attraction and watch every show. yuppos. i learnt what cheater bugs hollywood is. visited the sets of movies and series including desperate housewives, jaws, jurrassic park etc. i really don't think they look anything much like what u see in the movies. it's just amazing what technology can do nowadays!
there's loads of food here....alot of asians...alot of chinese stuff....i feel like i'm in a westernised China then in Cheen-erised US. YEP. IT's THAT MANY CHINESE. in fact, the hotel i'm staying in is run by asians...and oh....the receptionist is HAWT stuff :) hahaha. really good awesome eye candy. heehee.
time to sleeeeppp :) ciao!
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Brudders sleepover at the Mariott
this is just a summary. for a more detailed and entertaining version, pls read debby's version on our sleepover. for ur convenience, i have copied and pasted her entry here on my blog. it is right at the bottom of this entry is nice grey italic font. :)
The sleepover we had with the brudders was THE BEST IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. for once, we all felt like RICH kids. man..the feeling was AWESOME.
we can finally heave a sigh of relief in the planning of the birthday surprises. it's no joke accumulating the sept babies birthdays cos of the As. Still.it was nonetheless funny because both parties were organising the other's birthday surprise. (Denise and the rest of us planning su hui's birthday and Su Hui and us planning denise's surprise) Soooo....we used the same lies for both sides and each thought they knew what was going on. Can you imagine the amount of lies and stress i had to face being the sacrificial lamb to be on time and hang out with them while the rest gets the surprises ready???????? i had to deal with alot of cursing and swearing and complaining esp on Denise's side. she is soooo easily irritable man. Nevermind. we still love one another. And there was also Su Hui's surprise for all of us. a total of 3 surprises in 1 day and many more. the whole preparation, getting of gifts, doing our usual 18th birthday frame has been quite hectic cos of the many lies that we had to come up with about technicians at our houses, being in sch, at the dentist, fetching brothers etc. i really think the book of our lives grew alot fatter within this week because of the MASSIVE amount of lying that we did. and if sloth was really a sin..then we prob need a new book by now cos we finished up the old.
Anyway...since both parties thought they were surprising the other, it took them some time to register that we were celebrating BOTH their birthdays. haha. but yes. the surprise was successful and our cake was finally edible in a proper way. the previous attempts were quite weird. we had an agar-agar-ish chocolate cake (even though we used the pre-mix), we had a melting chocolate cake etc. FINALLY...we had some really good brownie cupcakes. nice and gooey and chewy :) YUMz.
life after the A levels never felt like it really was the end..until we all had the experience of THIS sleepover and su hui's surprise. Su Hui's surprise and our sleepover was at Mariott hotel, courtesy of Su Hui's mum who felt that we deserved (or rather su hui) a relaxing stay at a hotel :) after we slogged our asses off for the As :) and we had A POOL TERRACE (something i most prob won't even have a chance of staying even during my honeymoon). we had an escort to bring us to our room, open our door for us, have people come in to check security to make sure everything was A okay, we have an awesome pool to lounge around, a really cool bathroom with a walk-in-wardrobe and automatic blinds (cos the room and the toilet is erm....connected in a very open sense - the first thing we all panicked about was how we were going to use the toilet in private.)
as usual...being all so similar in our entertainment habits, we bummed around...movies, food, bed, movies food, bed repeat. we had a really cool dinner cos we went to cold storage and bought food. not like we were going to cook. we bought sushi, sashimi, a family roast/peppered chicken (the WHOLE chicken) and instant soup. YUMMZ...a picnic in our hotel room on our carpet. and we watched 3 different very nice movies. no reservations, evan almighty and the last show...i can't remember the title..but it was the best out of the 3. really interesting and cool show. and after being sick of food and movies we went lounging at the pool side and cam whored while novita slept...as usual.
we went out along orchard road in the middle of the morning...lke 3 plus in the morn to take photos of the christmas deco and lighting (which was dumb..cos everything is off at that time). for once. orchard road was nice and peaceful and no flyer distributers like the one who actually followed and pestered each and every single one of us for about 50m. but of course...walking in dark and deserted orchard road has it's price too. i never felt so unsafe in singapore before. we had weird people stalking us for some distance, trying to hit on us and stuff. quite annoying. and we weren't even wearing sexy clothes but PJs. sigh. we held on to our valuables for life and huddled together for safety and comfort whenever danger was lurking. i never knew singapore to be such a dangerous place until then. it was a great relief to finally be back at the hotel where we were safe and sound. and thus i slept at like 5 plus :S and i am still sufferig from the effects of err..lack of sleep.
ANYWAY..i'm too lazy to blog in detail cos debby has already done an awesome job. so just go read her blog entry here:
this post is just to help me remember what happened on friday & saturday cos its really worth remembering. haha. so its going to be a boring one cos for those who were involved, you would know it already, and for those who were not... it just might not make sense. haha.
we can finally heave a sigh of relief in the planning of the birthday surprises. it's no joke accumulating the sept babies birthdays cos of the As. Still.it was nonetheless funny because both parties were organising the other's birthday surprise. (Denise and the rest of us planning su hui's birthday and Su Hui and us planning denise's surprise) Soooo....we used the same lies for both sides and each thought they knew what was going on. Can you imagine the amount of lies and stress i had to face being the sacrificial lamb to be on time and hang out with them while the rest gets the surprises ready???????? i had to deal with alot of cursing and swearing and complaining esp on Denise's side. she is soooo easily irritable man. Nevermind. we still love one another. And there was also Su Hui's surprise for all of us. a total of 3 surprises in 1 day and many more. the whole preparation, getting of gifts, doing our usual 18th birthday frame has been quite hectic cos of the many lies that we had to come up with about technicians at our houses, being in sch, at the dentist, fetching brothers etc. i really think the book of our lives grew alot fatter within this week because of the MASSIVE amount of lying that we did. and if sloth was really a sin..then we prob need a new book by now cos we finished up the old.
Anyway...since both parties thought they were surprising the other, it took them some time to register that we were celebrating BOTH their birthdays. haha. but yes. the surprise was successful and our cake was finally edible in a proper way. the previous attempts were quite weird. we had an agar-agar-ish chocolate cake (even though we used the pre-mix), we had a melting chocolate cake etc. FINALLY...we had some really good brownie cupcakes. nice and gooey and chewy :) YUMz.
life after the A levels never felt like it really was the end..until we all had the experience of THIS sleepover and su hui's surprise. Su Hui's surprise and our sleepover was at Mariott hotel, courtesy of Su Hui's mum who felt that we deserved (or rather su hui) a relaxing stay at a hotel :) after we slogged our asses off for the As :) and we had A POOL TERRACE (something i most prob won't even have a chance of staying even during my honeymoon). we had an escort to bring us to our room, open our door for us, have people come in to check security to make sure everything was A okay, we have an awesome pool to lounge around, a really cool bathroom with a walk-in-wardrobe and automatic blinds (cos the room and the toilet is erm....connected in a very open sense - the first thing we all panicked about was how we were going to use the toilet in private.)
as usual...being all so similar in our entertainment habits, we bummed around...movies, food, bed, movies food, bed repeat. we had a really cool dinner cos we went to cold storage and bought food. not like we were going to cook. we bought sushi, sashimi, a family roast/peppered chicken (the WHOLE chicken) and instant soup. YUMMZ...a picnic in our hotel room on our carpet. and we watched 3 different very nice movies. no reservations, evan almighty and the last show...i can't remember the title..but it was the best out of the 3. really interesting and cool show. and after being sick of food and movies we went lounging at the pool side and cam whored while novita slept...as usual.
we went out along orchard road in the middle of the morning...lke 3 plus in the morn to take photos of the christmas deco and lighting (which was dumb..cos everything is off at that time). for once. orchard road was nice and peaceful and no flyer distributers like the one who actually followed and pestered each and every single one of us for about 50m. but of course...walking in dark and deserted orchard road has it's price too. i never felt so unsafe in singapore before. we had weird people stalking us for some distance, trying to hit on us and stuff. quite annoying. and we weren't even wearing sexy clothes but PJs. sigh. we held on to our valuables for life and huddled together for safety and comfort whenever danger was lurking. i never knew singapore to be such a dangerous place until then. it was a great relief to finally be back at the hotel where we were safe and sound. and thus i slept at like 5 plus :S and i am still sufferig from the effects of err..lack of sleep.
ANYWAY..i'm too lazy to blog in detail cos debby has already done an awesome job. so just go read her blog entry here:
this post is just to help me remember what happened on friday & saturday cos its really worth remembering. haha. so its going to be a boring one cos for those who were involved, you would know it already, and for those who were not... it just might not make sense. haha.
the whole thing started when suhui mysteriously told us to keep the 30th free because she has a 'surprise' for us. apparently it was going to be a sleepover, and since it was a great chance for all 7 of us to get together, the rest of us had a brilliant idea to use this time to FINALLY give suhui her 2-month-late bday celebration. and we wanted it to be a surprise. and then, suhui and i also thought that it would also be a great chance to give denise her 2-month-late bday celebration, since their bdays were quite close. and we also wanted it to be a surprise.
so it was a day of 3 surprises in total, all for different people. and the 5 of us who were left to plan surprises for 2 different people, were thinking 'CRAP HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO THIS'. it was difficult cos we had to include denise in planning suhui's surprise, and include suhui in planning denise's one. and so began our lives of hiding and secret phone calls and smses, and many, many lies.
we had to wait for everyone's papers to be over, as well as for the go-out-everyday-and-slack! rush that everyone has right after their papers. so on monday, 26th nov, 4 of us (den, glor, am & me) went to shop for suhui's presents. luckily we managed to find it pretty quickly, and the rest of the time was spent thinking of sneaky plans to surprise suhui. we finally came up with the plan of going to novita's house on thurs, the day after she came back from taiwan, to do suhui's bday frame, and doing the cake on friday morning, and then having me and novita come 'late' with said items to wherever the rest of us were and SURPRISE suhui.
that was fine and dandy, but what abt denise then? so after that, i smsed and called the rest for some ideas and that night, the very night that novita came back from taiwan (haha so sorry we never gave you any time to rest =P) i called her to think of more sneeaky ideas. after she got over the shock of me saying 'OH BTW WE'RE ALL GOING TO YOUR HOUSE TMR', and some discussion, we decided that since there was only thursday left before the day of the 'surprise sleepover' on friday, we had no choice but to do denise's frame in the morning, and then suhui's frame in the afternoon.
that was fine and dandy, but what abt denise then? so after that, i smsed and called the rest for some ideas and that night, the very night that novita came back from taiwan (haha so sorry we never gave you any time to rest =P) i called her to think of more sneeaky ideas. after she got over the shock of me saying 'OH BTW WE'RE ALL GOING TO YOUR HOUSE TMR', and some discussion, we decided that since there was only thursday left before the day of the 'surprise sleepover' on friday, we had no choice but to do denise's frame in the morning, and then suhui's frame in the afternoon.
THURSDAY WAS A FUNNY DAY. HAHAHA. the rest weren't free in the morning so it was up to me and novita to do up the design & decor (sounds so pro, woohoo) while leaving space for the rest to write their messages. we did it pretty quickly and soon CLARISSA arrived. she wrote her message, and the rest of the time was just slacking and waiting. by 4+ pm, we were getting tense cos anne marie was late and denise was due to come at any moment, which would be disastrous since we were doing her frame. in our desperation, novita told denise to come later and later with the excuse that there was a technician at her house. and then, the doorbell. we didnt know if it was denise or am, so we panicked a bit and novita went 'OK IF I CLOSE THE DOOR SUDDENLY YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!' (and then me) 'WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO??' (and then clarissa) 'HIDE THE FRAME!!!!!' so we found a good hiding place under the bed and then, lo and behold, it was... ANNE MARIE.
insert sigh of relief here. we unhid the frame and am started writing her message. more slacking and waiting by the rest of us. hahaha. and then, while am was halfway through her message, gloria called! she was opposite the building. came the frenzy of 'QUICK COME COME BEFORE DENISE GETS HERE!!' (ok fine, that was only me). and then, gloria called again, said she was at the lift lobby, and then added oh-so-casually but very hintingly 'BTW, DENISE IS WITH ME..' (tension in the room) so we quickly hid the frame and prepared suhui's one and TRIED to pretend that we only just got there, too.
denise and glory came in, and denise unexpectedly went 'WALAU! CHEAT ME!' insert confusion here.
denise: DIDNT KNOW U ALL WERE UP HERE ALREADY!!
me: (automatically) oh but we only just got here also...
denise: (confused) really? then how come i didnt see you? i was downstairs since 4.45...
Stunned silence. can see everyone's heads going HOW HOW HOW OMG OMG.
glory: (quickly) OH must be novita's BACK DOOR right ahahahaa...
the rest: oh yea back door ahahaha haha... *shifty eyes*
oh and forgot to mention, before denise came we were smsing and she asked me to go west mall with her so i had to say that i had a dental appointment. a long and painful one. and later on the bus ride home i had to reinforce it a bit but thankfully she believed it. but ANYWAY that little STUNNED SILENCE was the only bit where we almost gave the surprise away, i think, and everything else went pretty smoothly.
except that we had to change the plans a bit, because we couldnt let suhui come that day since she would only complicate matters (haha sorry, but its true) so novita had to meet her on friday morning. also, glory came with denise so she had no chance to write denise's message, so she also had to meet novita earlier the next day.. so novita would have to carry denise's frame. but she couldn't have suhui's one. so anne marie had to bring it back instead. and i had to explain the new plan to denise by saying that novita couldnt 'come late' with me and carry out the surprise cos she was REALLY going to be late cos she had to go to school.
we managed to finish suhui's frame so that was a no problemo. we went home thinking of the frantic but very exciting day that lies in store...
we managed to finish suhui's frame so that was a no problemo. we went home thinking of the frantic but very exciting day that lies in store...
FRIDAY WAS A HILARIOUS DAY. well the first part wasnt that amusing to me, cos i had to go back and forth to 3 places in the first half of the day alone (not to mention i walked from the bus stop to the main gate 4 TIMES unnecessarily wtheck) and that sucked, but oh well. anyway. i met denise in cold storage to get the brownie cake mix and icing sugar. denise already had a cake box for suhui. no time to get another cake box for denise, so i had to ask am...
the plan for the day was that denise and i would have a quick lunch, start the cake, and then denise would have to leave to meet suhui and the rest at suhui's planned meeting time of 3pm for her own surprise. as in, the original surprise that she wanted to give us, not the one we were planning for her. while denise thought that i would continue the cake alone, in fact am and novita would come after that and we would come 'late' together to do the surprise.
while we were at my house and waiting for the cupbrownies (that is, brownie mix baked in cupcake shapes) to bake, we had to improvise more plans on our own a bit, had to keep telling glory and clarissa to keep shopping with denise & suhui FAR FAR AWAY from the place of the surprise, which turned out to be MARRIOTT HOTEL. (insert gasp here). in fact it was a continuous improvisation on our part and i must say that if there is a nobel prize for carrying out surprises, we deserve to win it for sure.
while we were at my house and waiting for the cupbrownies (that is, brownie mix baked in cupcake shapes) to bake, we had to improvise more plans on our own a bit, had to keep telling glory and clarissa to keep shopping with denise & suhui FAR FAR AWAY from the place of the surprise, which turned out to be MARRIOTT HOTEL. (insert gasp here). in fact it was a continuous improvisation on our part and i must say that if there is a nobel prize for carrying out surprises, we deserve to win it for sure.
there was a slight problem here: i had to tell suhui that i was going to be late cos i had to take my bro to his piano exam (which was partly true, since i did in the morning) and create the impression that i wasnt in the surprise plan and i was just coming alone. BUT novita had told suhui that she was coming to my house with anne marie to bake denise's cake. but thankfully we had a chance to explain the discrepancy later on.
once the cakes were ready, we packed everything (i had to quickly pack my personal things for the sleepover) and we went off to cold storage to get a lighter. novita made me go back halfway through cos i forgot to bring DVDs. =( anyway, after that we got into a taxi and we were off to orchard.
SECOND problem here: while we were in the taxi, novita kept in contact with clarissa to know how the situation was like. at one time novita was calling clarissa, and then a call came in. she naturally thought it was from clarissa, and didnt check the name, and started talking as if it was her... 'yea we got a LOT of things' etc etc plus me and am talking in the background. and then she realised she wasnt talking to clarissa, she was talking to SUHUI!!! sudden panic to try to remember what we said and worrying if she would suspect anything... (but in the end, she didnt. thank goodness. turned out we didnt really say anything revealing, PHEW)
the next part of the plan was for clarissa to go back to the hotel room and meet us ('OH NO I HAVE TO GET MY CREDIT CARD!') so that we could set up the cakes, frames, surprise, etc in the room. to make it more convincing, clarissa (very cleverly) hinted to suhui that she was in fact getting the cake for denise, and hinted to denise that she was in fact getting the cake for suhui. i duno how she managed it but thank goodness she did. meanwhile, suhui had told novita to call her when she arrived at marriott, although obviously we didnt say anything yet until we planned what to happen next.
the taxi arrived in front of marriott, and we met clarissa at the hotel lobby. we experienced our surprise for ourselves when we went up and saw that suhui's surprise for us was a STAY AT A POOL TERRACE. INSERT MANY WOWS AND GASPS AT THE BEAUTIFUL POOL AND NOT TO MENTION THE GORGEOUS HOTEL ROOM WITH A BATHROOM AS HUGE AS THE BEDROOM ITSELF. (sorry had to emphasise that cos it was really very nice.) the bathroom was actually opened to the bedroom, and novita went 'HOW ARE WE GOING TO BATHE???' and then we discovered AUTOMATIC BLINDS. oh my goodness. that was coolios.
ok so we had our own little surprise and then it was time to set up everything, and plan HOW TO GET DENISE, GLORIA AND SUHUI TO COME BACK TO THE ROOM?? (btw here i must say we felt VERY VERY SORRY for gloria who we left alone to deal with the 2 bday people, and in her own words later, 'denise's cursing'. we applaud you glory.) we thought for a while, during which suhui called clarissa (omg omg omg... and then we decided to pretend to ignore the call) and suhui smsed novita asking if i was with her and am. here we managed to rectify an earlier prob and novita explained that i 'left halfway to take her brother to piano exam' and so i wasnt with them.
and that inspired the next, and final, part of the plan. i had to go down to the hotel lobby, and call suhui, saying that i had found out from novita that i had to go to marriott hotel, and from there get the 3 of them to fetch me and bring me to the room/surprise (when in fact i was really bringing them to the room and the surprise... ach too confusing). BUT THINGS DID NOT WORK OUT AS PLANNED. the next part will be told in play-style.
(in my call to suhui)
me: hey suhui, novita told me that i had to go to marriott so im here.. so... what now?
suhui: ok, where are you now?
me: outside the hotel.
suhui: OK, i'll come and get you.
me: eh, is the rest with y---call ends.
I don't care if im exaggerating but at this point, i felt that DISASTER HAD STRUCK. because we couldnt possibly do the surprise if denise and glory didnt come along, too!
thought of different ways to make it still work and then decided the only way was to call denise too, and tell her that we were doing suhui's surprise, so that they would catch up with suhui.
thought of different ways to make it still work and then decided the only way was to call denise too, and tell her that we were doing suhui's surprise, so that they would catch up with suhui.
(in my call to denise)me: hey denise, are you with suhui?
denise: no, she left to go find you!
me: (WHAT???!!) ok no no you & glory have to go with her! we're doing her surprise NOW!
denise: (obviously pissed) WHAT?? why you guys-- ok-- insert some flurry of conversation which i cant remember now, and then the call ends.
i waited in tension, hoping the plan would still work, and then suddenly, i saw denise and glory RUNNING towards marriott. i waved to them.
me: where's suhui? (cos i thought they would catch up to her, not run ahead of her...)
denise: we were sitting at coffee bean and she left to go find you! we had to go ahead of her..etc etc etc.
denise rushed us to the hotel lobby, with me saying in vain 'MAYBE we should wait for suhui'... at the lift lobby, it was the scariest not only because denise was being very pissed and scary (sorry but its true, and i really felt for gloria at that time) but also because if we went up without suhui, that would spoil the surprise and everyone else would be pissed at me. so to try to escape everyone's wrath, i had to think quickly...
denise: we have to go up now!
me: what about suhui??
denise: she cant meet US, she thinks we are still at coffee bean!!
me: (thinking) (thought of doing SIGN LANGUAGE to glory but it was futile since she looked just as confused) ...erm then what? we go up and she would be alone?
denise: NO, YOU go and meet her! we go up!
me: (thinking: OH NO SHIT THAT MAKES MUCH MORE SENSE BUT I CANT LET DENISE GO UP FIRST) (playing dumb while trying to delay time) eh...what?
denise: SHE cant see US cos she thinks we are at coffee bean... (explains the situation, from her POV)
me: (still acting dumb while praying for suhui to PLEASE COME SOON) ..but wait shouldnt we wait for suhui?(after a short while)
denise: (very very pissed) AIYAH NVM JUST GO AND MEET HER!! GO!!
me: but--
and at this point, i have to say that what happened next is just... GODSENT. so thank you God, because if what happened next did not happen i might have been killed by denise simply out of anger, or by the rest for spoiling all our hardwork (and plans, and lies..) anyway, what happened next was that I TURNED AROUND AND SUHUI WAS THERE.
waved to her to make sure it was too late for denise to escape/hide. short moment of confusion where suhui said 'eh? how come the 2 of you..?' i tried to distract her by saying 'oh yea i met them here...' then talking about other things. ('whats the surprise? WAIT... are we staying in the hotel???') have to add in at this part that i had to keep reminding myself that i wasnt supposed to know about the hotel surprise and had to act shocked. anyway i was too scared to talk to the very-pissed denise because she thought that i had spoiled the plan for suhui. sigh. felt so misunderstood. =( HAHA.
so suhui brought us to the pool terrace (with me remembering just a little too late to WOW and GASP at the pool) and came the moment of truth...
when suhui opened the door what followed was just an ABSOLUTE FRENZY of 'SURPRISE!!!' and the birthday song and denise being LAGGY (hahaha) and realising only after a while that the surprise was FOR HER, TOO (later on she said she wondered for a while why there were TWO frames??) and blowing of candles and looking at the frames and EXPLANATIONS of everything that had happened (after keeping secrets for so long it felt very good to let it all out) and me collapsing on the floor (brain exhaustion!!) and reading the messages on the frame and opening of presents...... had only one thing in my mind, which was, 'IT WORKED.'
the rest of the hotel stay can only be described as a pleasant feeling of relaxation (except when we were walking on orchard road at 4+ am, and we met a number of suspicious people) .. just EATING AND BUMMING AROUND (both activities which really sum up our lives as brudders) and taking photos... it was really nice, i enjoyed myself. i got to try bathing in a bath tub, and i have to say that it is OVERRATED. its not really that relaxing and i prefer a shower still. plus, i dont understand HOW people can be clean by bathing in a tub, cos after i did i just felt dirtier than before...
all in all, it was a great sleepover and am thankful for each and everyone of my brudders.. and also God, cos i think without Him things wouldnt have worked out at all.
btw, if you think things sounded confusing when you read this entry (congrats for reaching the end btw! unless you cheated and skipped) it is really nothing compared to trying to WRITE it and certainly not at all comparable to all the confusion that we experienced... cos i think during the whole process NOT ONE OF US had a clear bird's eye view of EVERYTHING that was going on.. and if there HAD been someone taping everything, it would make a very entertaining reality tv show. HAHA.
- i told u...very detailed...but entertaining piece. i agree. we really SHOULD make a series on our lives.
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