Scream FIRE if you need help

Ah, indeed! To succeed in life, and not just be successful from a narrow point of view, one should be a complete person. To do that, wholesome education is necessary! Ok, not wholesome like a comp sci fella from st paul told me (something about gawking at girls etc), but rather in a..wholesome way. Hahas..

I must state this for a fact. NUS surely would beat the living lights out of any university over this side of the bridge! Man, they even have lame lecturers! Haha..but seriously? It was a real eye-opener.

[Day 1]

Ok, every story has a beginning, and this is no exception. Man, what a lame opening for a paragraph! Exactly like those primary school essays we used to write. -_-" The idiotic KTMB train departed late from home. I was all panicky and rushing all the way to the station just in case it left without me. And they had the guts to just slack around for half an hour after I arrived just because of lousy planning on their part. Come on, a train is coming from the opposite direction? What lame excuse is that?
Anyway, after much ado and no fanfare, the train finally left. Snatched some sleep along the way, finished a whole lot on The Count of Monte Cristo. Ah, reminds me exactly of the time I used to do this once, long long ago. Lazing on the chair, flying through the story like an Airbus 320 cleaving through the clouds. Lolz
Gulped down the Domino's I rushed to get on the way to the train for dinner. Not a bad dinner as dinners go by, though I really have a bone to pick with the chef for the superbly exessive amount of MSG he put. Way more than that hut that sells pizzas. Nevertheless, it tastes better, so I guess I'll let this go..once again.
Arrived at Woodlands around 7 something. Just slightly behind schedule. However, a tragedy happened at the customs. Really tragic. An over-zealous official spotted my student card and embarkation/disembarkation card. Ah, woe is me! The long arm of the law has finally overtaken me, and swept away my momentos in one fell swoop! Ah, the deuce! Ma foi! Oh well, life has to go on. Just a reminder to all who wish to retain their student cards: keep it in a cool, dry place. Like a vault. Or your home. So sad~
And to make things worse, KTMB was getting back to their old habits. Just 10 minutes after clearing Woodlands the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. Ok, rather, in the middle of the Red Dot in the Middle of the Ocean. FOR HALF AN HOUR! You know what was the excuse this time? Train track was spoilt. Undergoing repairs. Ah, for the love of whoever! Of all the times of the day, of all the times when no trains where using the track, KTMB just had to choose that time to repair the tracks. But wait, what was that I saw?! A TRAIN passing by ours right at that moment. The cheek of them all! Choose your excuses wisely! Tracks are spoilt and the other train could use the track? What a load of rubbish. Ended up at Tg Pagar at 1145pm. Not bad really, considering that I was only 2 hours delayed. Better than the 5 hours I had to endure the last time. At least KTMB staff aren't as slow in the head as their service would leave you to believe. There were no staff on hand for the frustrated passengers to scold or demand reimbursement for time and effort wasted. Cheeky fellows..
Thank God I found the right bus in time to proceed to Kent Ridge. On a more earthly aspect, thanks nocturnal and jason for the info too. Note to self: busses 10 and 30 are excellent numbers to see right after exiting Tg Pagar. The bus driver was also quite kind to point out exactly where to haul my big fat mass out. =p
Well, they say that all the pains and weariness fall away when you reach paradise. I'm not too sure of that, since I have not had the pleasure of tasting paradise~ However, seeing 2 good friends that night really helped to erase the bad experiences on the way down until it seemed but a shadow of a nightmare. However, maybe I was too tired to say what exactly was on my mind. So here it is: Thank you so much for waiting for me. It meant a lot. Too bad I didn't notice you at the bus stop. Or maybe I was already in the cramped bath cubicle of PGP. Hahas..Nevertheless, hope the items you received will help you to reconcile your feelings of leaving home with the joy of experiencing new things abroad. At least since I can't bring you to agape so soon, I hope I did the next best thing - bringing a fragment of agape to you.
Never saw so many midnight joggers.
Had a fun night trying to get used to sleeping on the floor. Good thing jason still had his mat with him. And a new addition.
Meet my pillow.

Believe me, it/his back was a really good place to rest your head =p The head and tail form natural boundaries to prevent excessive rolling of the head. Too bad it wasn't long enough to be a bolster. Hahas..

[Day 2]

Breakfast was a slice of pandan bread, courtesy of jason. Thanks dude! It's not bad, at least the smell cloaks the taste of the bread, or there wouldn't be any bread in the world that would enter his mouth. Hahas..
Biodiversity lecture was the in the morning. Quite interesting. The lecturer, Prof LM Chou, gave an introduction to the course. Quite the joker =) "I have an excellent textbook to recommend. Incidently, it's written by me and a few others. Remember to rush down to the bookshop next week to get it! Get 2 or 3 copies..just in case you lose one. Also, there will be autograph sessions with the authors soon!" Coincidentally, he was the prof who taught Mrs Teo! Whoa~ She had nothing but compliments for him. Must be a great zoo guy. [He's a zoologist]
Oh yes, met nocturnal's cluster mate before the lec. Ken Yee. Real nice girl. Spirited, helpful, cow's hostel mate and appreciator of my jokes. Good start=) Meet Jian Guang during the lec too. So ngam that he would be sitting directly in front of me. Man, it was just fated. 真有缘!
Had the rest of the day off. Got coerced into eating one of nocturnal's siew paus. Real paisei. Should discipline my stomach next time and not be a slave to it's whims and coercions. Haha..being the showoff that I supposedly am, took nocturnal on a tour around VJC. After getting my long-awaited A level cert. After being laughed at by Mr Choy for forgetting. Lolz..She was quite impressed I hope..or not it would have been a whole waste to have subjected her to the stress of going through a long busride with me. Hahas..Sorry nocturnal, didn't know about the passenger stress syndrome =(
Learned a few things that day.
1) Siglap ban mian is not opened during the late hours of the afternoon.
2) Walking under the hot sun is totally different from flying on a bike.
3) 197 is a very useful bus. Goes to lots of interesting places I never noticed before.
4) Siglap Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee tastes great on an empty stomach.

Met up with ecnerwal, owern, kokosing, kokosing's sis and kong jien for dinner. The Deck really lives up to its name. Or my stomach is an empty pit that devours food like black holes suck in all matter and light. And yea, ecnerwal and owern got into the familiar routine of "i'm better than you at [...]" - "no way, i'm way better!" - "i chop into thousand pieces if you win me!" - "set, you're on! let's get it on now!"
I think it was about badminton. Or something like that. Not that it really makes much difference. Haha. Format is always the same. =p

Important lesson #1: Visiting friends in PGP is a pain. Multiple security measures designed to ensure a high level of protection results in multiple pains. And irritatingly long waits just to meet up with anybody at all. At least meeting with an intimate friend will make all those worth it=p

[Day 3]

Noticed this structure and took a picture of it. Reminds me of my nick on the shout!box.
Went for an early lec with ecnerwal. Physio. Interestingly, the lec was comprised of four faculties - pharm, bioeng, nursing and dentistry. Very varied people, but all coming together for one purpose. Nice~ The lecturer was quite good. Went through the basics of ECG and cardiac muscle contractions.

Important lesson #2: Having breakfast with a friend whom you've not meet for a long time while being slightly sleep-deprived just before lecture while surely cause time to fly..such that you will never be on time.

Rushed to the Scotsman's Chem lec after that. Due to a breakdown in communications, ended up sitting at the far back with lizzie! Same old look about her, perhaps more aunty looking than ever? Hehe..Interesting modules she had..Pop culture in Singapore, Post war jap movies..oh yes, she has an interest in Kendo! Wahaha..should ask her to demo her super Kendo scream after she starts lessons =p

Important lesson #3: The projector is a good friend. Always head towards it for friendly company.

Had spaghetti for lunch. Practically daylight robbery in progress! It was the shortest queue, and being the gentleman I am cough cough I didn't want my friend to wait too long for me. It was edible at least. But seriously, too watery and sour. =(

Surprise surprise! Guess who I met right at that moment? Our resident mad rock climbing burmese! Haha..THAZIN! Of all places~ Seems like we have brainwaves of quite the same frequency in terms of motives. Hehe..

Went to Central Library after that. Met kong jien along the way. Poor fella, couldn't find a single person he knew who didn't have lunch yet. =(
Found out how to make "courtesy calls"! Woohoo! Haha..basically means free calls =p Neh, it's a secret..can't rat out my friends=)
But hey, Central Lib is seriously well designed and equipped! None of that Malaysia crap you get in sec sch. Even have a whole floor that is a quiet area ie shaddup-when-you-are-there area. Hahas..Met jason who was reading up on real estate law. Poor fella didn't notice that the module was real estate law and thought it was a good opportunity to understand real estate. At least, he'll get some exposure throughout the course =)
Met with a whole load of friends on the way to and from the library. Hahas..poor nocturnal, bombarded with a whole list of faces and names. Kudos for remembering more than 50%! Haha..met elaine too! Haha..that fella. First thing see me is start make fun already. Ceh~ people go library study one leh, not for other reasons. Hmph. Hahas..
After a short rest at PGP, went for biochem lec. Intersting demo by the lecturer on DNA extraction from a liquid solution. Prof HPToo was uncannily familiar. Perhaps met him during one of the seminars I attended. Hmmm..
Had a sneak peek at the interior of Kent Ridge Hall, the newest hall in NUS. Real nice place. Even has its own alarm that goes off around 8 in the morning. Sounds like a piling-machine at work. Which was exactly what it was doing=p

Met a st paul guy at PGP during dinner. Quite the humorous fellow.
And yu min at PGP Asian Cuisine is totally out of this world. In terms of salt content. Could have gotten hypertension from that one meal alone :~ Not to mention the trader talked weirdly. Couldn't understand a word he said. Surprising thing was that his pronunciation improved remarkably when he was talking to another customer, a girl.
Hmph
Buaya

[Day 4]

Ah..heard of the term TGIF? It stands for Thank God It's Friday. Yup, Friday is such a good day! Had the first breakfast prepared by a non-family female friend! Ok, please exclude the maid and any female hawkers. Ah, luncheon meat spread with margerine sandwich and milo will forthwith be my favourite meal! =)
Mmm..getting hungry just thinking about it..hehe
Attended sci of music lec after that. An interesting physics module. Covers exactly that, the science behind the art. Got to know that YST Conservatory of Music actually offers free performances on a regular basis! Wow..

The rest of the day was quite a slack one. Yielded to the Sandman after brunch. No matter how much I strove to achieve a permissible level of fatigue to allow an easy transition to dreamland every night, there has to be limits. Haha..

Met our resident photographer peter chung! Haha..brought us to the med lib. Quite an okay place. Got to know some med people. Had some fun reading up on physio. Hopefully it's a baby step on my efforts to get my momentum up to speed over the next few months =)

Had a peek at the famous KE7. Nope, that's not kinetic energy to the 7th power-_-" Nice try though=) King Edward is positively the best! There's not a single piece of obstruction from the outer stairs to the final target: friend's room. Haha..makes things so much easier=) Met teaegg there. Room was not too bad. The chat was good. Took a nice picture of Newater in its preprocessed form.
Yea, I was just kidding=) That's detergent-_-"
Then had to rush down to KR to meet vege, who was kind enough to skip some hall activity to accompany me to the gathering=) Thanks gal!

Took the 143 to Harbour Front in the evening with vege. Real nice place. First time there in fact. Hahas..Had dinner at Spizza, real cozy place. Had a little gathering with kid, peter chung [hey, where's those fireworks pics you promised?! I need those works of art =) ], vege, viv and varensa. The pizzas were superb! There was like real nice white mushrooms, mussels, and truly splendid Italian cooking=) We polished up everything between the 7 of us in a jiffy! Had a real nice chat too..yea..too bad the management got fed up of us and tried to give subtle hints that we should leave, about an hour after we paid the bill. Haha..stuff like slowly cleaning our tables one item at a time. First were the plates. Then the cutlery. Followed by stopping the flow of water. And finally the loss of the cups. Haha..kid said no fair, since we were indirectly promoting the store by making it seem like there were a lot of people there, but with sufficeintly empty seats to entice potential customers. Haha..

And yes, some people commented that viv looks a little like N. Hmm..what say you?

That's her on the left. Must be the hair she grown.

Took 10 back to PGP. Bus stopped at a bar area just before arriving to pick up a whole load of passengers who were evicted from their bus because their bus driver was involved in a brawl. According to some helpful local Malays, "itu bodoh punya orang, pigi lawan. Gigi pun sudah jatuh." You get the idea..

Slacked at student lounge around midnight.

And yes, like it says, it was a beautiful day=) Ending with a beautiful night.

[Day 5]

Had breakfast at..wait, you better prepare yourself..a mamak stall! Haha..it's called the cheese prata shop, situated just near yusof ishak hall. The food there is quite good. Quite Malaysian-ish. Haha..da bao some lunch from PGP for the long trip back that afternoon. Nocturnal was kind enough to accompany me all the way to the bus stop! =) Thanks! Too bad I dropped her umbrella and the wind blew it down this ravine behind PGP =( Good thing was able to retrieve it =p Though I must have looked like some silly fellow..haha..if I just did a roll that would've completed the look..haha..

Important lesson #4: My handphone screen does no respect its victims. Looks too wide. Thank goodness the camera is well and the pictures turned up fine=)

Important lesson #5: Never handle an umbrella unless in an emergency. Especially if said umbrella is of sentimental value.

Needless to say, after half an hour ride of the bus to Tg Pagar, we were all suffered to wait another 40 minutes on the train because "another train is approaching". Typical KTMB.

Maybe I should just consider taking the coach back. Cheaper and faster. Though more dangerous. Oh well~

In conclusion, we will recap our ABCs.
A is for "A mamak stall in Singapore?!"
B is for "Blast, missed that shuttle bus~"
C is for "Can I have another taste of that wonderful sandwich?"
.
.
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J is for "

Qoo!