Last night

Tomorrow I shall be setting off to Paris. Just as well, I am left with only £10. Looking back at how much one has spent is scary indeed. Will have to be careful with my Euros then, I have yet to find my bag (Best bet is in Galleries Lafayette). London (as well as Bath) has been wonderful, with a few nicks here and there, I hope Paris will be the same, although the cheese eating surrender monkeys might not be as jolly as the bulldogs.

London, with not much time left online.

London, 2314 hours. 2nd day running. Went to loads of attractions and places of interest. And loads of food as well. Shit, all my running had gone to waste. Treat £ as S$ is definitely not a good idea, but I can manage. I hope to be online soon. Internet's fucking expensive in the hostel, and I can't access FB, ARGH!

Going off to the Land of Hope and Glory

4 more hours till I set off to the airport, for 2 weeks (more or less) in London and Paris. I should be excited. Well, I suppose I am, but compared to my UG trip to Japan 2 years ago, it's something akin to a whimper. I guess the fact that I hardly know any of my peers going for this trip played a huge part in this situation. Moreover I will (most probably) be the only lone ranger not having his parents waving him off. Damned UK civil servant strike, now I am the one seeing them off, not the other way round. At least my cousin is kind enough to give me a lift, and I will have a few wonderful secondary school comrades seeing me off.

Perhaps I should stop being such a pessimistic fucker. The fact that I am able to go to Europe in the first place is an indicator of my improving, although erratic luck. Maybe Hopefully, I will be able to make some new friends on this trip. 14 days can't go by with me being a lonely bugger. Besides, I will had loads of shitty work on my hands once this trip is over, sigh.

My bags are all packed, cameras (yes, I am bringing more than 1) charged, and I am now able to speak "Sorry sir/mdm, I can't speak French, can you speak English?" I guess I am more or less ready to go. To anyone who even bothers to read this infrequently updated blog/rant, cya in a few weeks.

Monotony...bummer

Middle fingers plucking out clicks from the keyboard. Kate Bush reverberating in my earplugs. Another typical monotonous night. So much to do, but so little allocated to me. Of course, I do have a lot of homework to do, but I shall procrastinate, I rather enjoy a bit of "me" time first. Time to catch up with friends and acquaintances. Time to work out. Time to explore my World. Time to wallow in jealousy under the shadow of the success of others, only to take a vow to destroy that shadow or surpass it. Time for what is basically R&R. A week or so till my trip to London/Paris, I better make those few days count.

EoY reflections

It's the end of the school year, although this term is extremely subjective, considering the fact that my A Level OP is this Friday, and I still have lectures the week after. Not to mention the avalanche of holiday homework that I fear will come down upon me. At the very least, I can rejoice in the fact that my workload now has been drastically reduced...sort of, as well as the fact that I have done reasonably well for my promos (the fact that I mugged for 2 weeks either shows my prowess or stupidity, either way, I'm cool).

For the past few days I have been slacking like a corrupt Malaysian policeman on the Second Link causeway. Watching Youtube videos over and over again, reading, playing my Xbox 360 with games that have begun to lose their appeal. I am seriously bored. Maybe I should start on my homework soon. I recently had a dinner with my cousins, and I've started a routine of jogging around the neighbourhood, so at least I am not a complete couch potato, thank goodness for that.

To be honest, my holidays aren't exaclty as bad as my post O Level vacation. I have my debate competition to plan for (if enough schools actually turn up) and I will be going overseas, twice. Plus I will need to reunite with my squadmates, classmates and other wonderful Secondary school comrades, even if the reunion lasts only for a mere 5 hours. I better get my ass in gear then. At the end of this week would be the 1st anniversary of my last O level paper, perhaps I might have something good to blab about.

Reflections

It has been more than a week since the end of my promotional exams. I am not going to say much about it. The results are less than satisfactory, might have to forfeit my London trip, as well as the 700 dosh penalty. Tuesday will tell me whether my J1 life ends with a bang or a bang from a gunshot. Moderation, I do hope you can do something about my predicament. While I have wasted my September holidays, it proved to be something of a wake up call, I guess I should be thankful for it. My Econs might be shit, but at least it was not the most miserable...hopefully.

Debate brought about much needed relief from the damned academics, until I was drafted into the proposition for a debate against internet anonymity. Still, it was quite fun, especially when my peers now know how deranged my mentality is. Bonded with them, well, Jordin at least when we had dinner at Subway. And our conversations further showed them how demented I was. I look forward to shocking my peers once again.

Then, I had the opportunity to meet up with a couple of ex-schoolmates yet again. Bros from Bedok View NPCC. The same old rhetoric: old times, how shitty our present situation is now, girlfriends, cigarettes (for them anyway) and all sorts of nostalgic crap we could think of. It might seem like a worthless exploit to try and relive the old times, but, I guess we all have our moments of glory.

More nostalgia came when I went to see my Sec 4 tutors. First was the science tutor, Ms Pratthi (spelling?). Wonderful teacher, and she was teaching a bunch of Sec 4 students when I went into the tuition centre. To think I was in their shoes only a year ago. Time does fly, and I guess it is human nature not to cherish their most memorable moments until they are long gone. I do miss the company of Jeremy, Bo Jun and those 2 girls, all the lewd jokes and crap. Those were simple, yet precious moments, I regret not treasuring them, but then again, I am just looking back with the benefit of hindsight..

Went to see my MT tutor afterwards. Our meeting was brief, very brief. I suppose she was tired. She seemed to be happy to meet me, but she seemed to be in a hurry to finish our conversation. A bit weird, since I had been her student for almost 7 years. I could still vaguely remember my last class with her, when we reminisced about old times and all the (missing) acquaintances and (disappeared) friends I've made there. While I am not the most enthusiastic about the language of the "Middle Kingdom", I did reasonably well for my standards. I have yet to thank her for that.

JC life, despite being only a year old for me, has been a life changing experience. An entity that practically changed, if not destroyed my previous routines, changed my perspectives, reduced my optimism and stifled my emotions. For the better or worse, I do not know, even after 4 hectic school terms. All I can say is, things will never be the same. Life is like a town ravaged by a hurricane, some things might disappear, others might stay, but things will never be the same again.

Random ramblings

I've finally managed to do two hours of proper study, I guess that gives you an idea on how productive my holidays were. After 2 hours of Southeast Asian history at a McDonalds near home, I've decided to ditch one hour of literature so that I could hang out with a couple of old comrades who interrupted my lonely existence. Ah, the joys of "lepaking" with a few friends, bullshitting about how screwed up our lives are, talking about future ambitions and reflecting on the past with the benefit of hindsight. Moments like these, no matter how scarce, are always more enjoyable than surfing the net or even LAN gaming (with I enjoy with a passion mind you), even if all we do is to talk in some secluded corner of Bedok Central, made cosy by the cool, humid equatorial night. I hope we would be able to do something like this again, I really do.