t'was the course registration in school on a friday morning. i had trouble sleeping and then find myself speeding the latio to school. i didn't quite get my modules on first click which led to a lot frustration. i had an exchange of emails with the school and finally got my modules finalised for the coming semester. the thing is, i find myself doing one module on my own. it could be refreshing, meeting and working with new people. or something else then again.

the kenai/casper gang swang by my place that night for a bbq. it was mini gathering of sorts. it went well. and then half of the bunch came up my place for a night of poker. my brother joined in. i bled chips. but i couldn't stop the haemorrhage. we had the left over chicken wings in the oven and it was smoking awesome. by the time the guys left i was dead beat. i slept through saturday. i dropped by shawn's place on saturday night when i exchange textbooks and got a threadless tee from him. 'birds of a feather'. it was very cool.

sunday night came along. it was the party at adam's. i managed to hitch a ride from andy. almost nine when we reached sensoria. jean and angie were waiting for us at the pool side where slipped into our uniforms for the themed party. for that night i was superman disguised as an rjcian. there were a couple of generations under that roof. generations of orientation groups. it reminded me that this phase too would fade away. we'll all move on to something else. after the gift exchanges and photo takings, we had another round of poker. i was going at some astonishing rate. i tried to get some shut eye thereafter but it didn't work out so i found myself back at the table playing daidee doing the weirdest forfeits. i toyed with the ukulele i got from jean. it was of a classy white. someday i might just get a hang of it!

it was monday afternoon, a brief four hours of sleep after party. i went down to school for the inter school games after i got wind of it during the party. the preliminaries were dead easy. with a bad nose i decided to cancel the night out with some friends, forgoing the night out at orgo, and avatar in 3d. the next day i went for my appointment at the national dental center where i had the x-ray done and figured that i needed two extractions.

i can't remember much of wednesday. i think i watched public enemies in the late night(or in the wee morning hours). i thought it was tragic that they killed off the johnny depp character. the scene where he sauntered into the police station was most awesome. i spent christmas eve at parco and then the esplanade. the ice cream flavors at tom's palette were sort of bizarre, yet enticing. christmas eve ain't like how it used to be on those rainy december nights when they used to air the 'home alone' movies on channel 5. i used to hang socks and wonder how would santa have popped by. there was no damn chimney!!! but i believe i was missing the point of this festive season. blink 182's 'i won't be home for christmas' has always been the most apt of songs.

on christmas itself, i paid my grandmother a visit. my parents and i had dinner at imm. we had some walk around the place before the dropped me off at kw's place. soon, the gess gang was at joce's place where we had the johnny walker, coke and pasta. we talked about how things have been and went back and forth about plans for the new years eve. we ended with rounds of cai quan and lots of laughter. i went to bed at 7 in the morning, after another one of those episodes of the simpsons...

the next evening that came the gess gang regrouped at the Games Haven at clark quay. we headed up to Players. joce and cz soon joined us. surprise surprise. the sirloin steak that refused to be put on the table stirred up a fuss and we left with a bad aftertaste despite the very very apologetic waitress. we found ourselves at a tcc where the candles went out and cake was served. at the end of that night, while some contemplated a night at the club, a few of us decided to make it back home...

Labels: bbq, casper, christmas, gess, kenai, nbs

wmp: dave matthews band; crash into me.

wednesday - the casper gang came over to my place to bake. the cookies were burnt. both batches, in fact, though the roosties and other dishes turned out swell. my feet and left ankle weren't feeling too good still.


thursday - leo helped out with my guitar. the elixir poly web strings gave my guitar a new lease of life. i popped by chin bee cresent on my way back to grab a kilo of ribeye right after. it was a good dinner.

friday - we were going back and forth about poker that night. it was called off (to my disappointment). and then all of a sudden in the early night, we managed to arrange for a night. jean, andy, walt, jer and myself. we kicked off the night at jeans place at around midnight. it was quite a night. around something around 4am we had supper at thompson. i've always enjoyed taking the night out with friends. it was seven in the morning when i conked out on bed.


saturday - damn i can't remember what went on. i probably slept most of the day away before visiting my grandma in the evening. it was depressing. thereafter my parents and i went down to the runninglabs at velocity. i grab a new pair of shoes and hopefully it will be the end of my feet problems.

sunday - i hand washed both the latio and 200e. my brother would have helped but i was in debt to him already. thereafter, i went to the gym for some ten to fifteen minutes. i haven't quite have the time and energy for a full workout, tragically.

monday - i made my own way down to town. to be honest, after stepping out of the orchard mrt gates, i stood in the area, stunned for a quite a moment. i almost had problem recognising the immediate area. it must have been quite a while since i popped by town. i hardly make it there these days. ky, chris, daoy, cas, zhiyun, km, walt and i had dinner at relax bistro at new 313 somerset. it was a surprise dinner of sorts. the pasta were at 50% and was not too bad. we ended off with ice cream at cold rock on the same floor.


tuesday - walt, jean, jn, chris and i made another one of those day trips to jb. we had lunch at stonegrill, hung out at the arcade, did some brief shopping, sung k at the 'neway' at city square, and the seafood was glorious as usual. we each got a superman tee which was uber awesome. the plan was to wear it together at the upcoming xmas gathering.















wednesday - casper gang came over to bake once more. this time round the chocolate chip cookies were much of a success. i went back to hall seven for some vball in the evening. it was ages since i last played; my last game was weeks before the examinations. it was just two sets as i was late but they were good still, mainly because of two reasons. one, i played pretty well i guess. two, my feet didn't quite hurt. it was liberating. i was worried about recovery but that night was a sign for more to come. its a pity i'll be missing two out of three inter hall matches because of the clash with my hong kong trip. the inter hall games are important to me as they are one of the last few school competitions of my life.

thursday - i woke up early to grab two sets of the 'stacked poker' chips from bluegate in anticipation of friday's poker night. since i was in the area, c and i managed to arrange to have lunch together. i brought bah kut teh to my grandma's place on my way back to the west. with what was left of the afternoon, i baked 50 cookies & 2 cookie man with the leftover batter from yesterday. i decided to do the cookiemen after the two batches of 25 cookies when it began to get boring. they were great fun to do.


friday - it's gonna be another early morning because of the course registration.

Labels: bbq, food, friends, hall 7, nbs, poker, travel, volleyball

the Saucony Progrid Hurricane X. stability shoes, that's what they call them.

"whenever you're ready" it calls out.

Labels: run, shoes

i've been spending some time these two post marathon days googling on foot pain. i would see a doctor if i wasn't already so sick of giving them money. to top things off, sometimes i think they're pretty much clueless themselves. the body heals itself, it always does.

both my feet now hurt terribly. the pain is unlike the usual muscle aches that i have no problems managing. its like mini atomic bombs going off when i walk. i hope it gets much better by the end of the week so i can get on with the hall trainings. i'm rather convinced that the mizuno elixir might be the fault. it might be time to get some serious advice and a new pair of shoes if i were to sign up for sundown.

i've watched 'up' and 'nine'. i like the former a lot more.

Labels: run

from the pretentious street lamps of the 5am roads to the kites on the trees of the east coast... my ankle was screaming.
















5:14:33

Labels: run

(i will endeavor to be more detailed in my entries 'cause some of my past entries don't make sense to me anymore and it feels like i've lost something that i might never quite recover)

wmp: black eyed peas, meet me half ways

thursday - astro paper, the last of the papers. i was bursting with joy at the end of it though the people around me didn't quite feel the same. i am keeping my fingers crossed especially for the aa203 paper (God knows what the heck i was doing). after pondering our next move for awhile, we canceled the trip down to the sitex and leo zy & i had dinner at olive & fig. the wait was long. the kebabs were big on the portions. a tad too much garlic on the pasta, but i liked it anyway.



friday - t'was the morning run with jn. its a long while since i last ran. two rounds round the campus. i ran of out gas somewhere near the 10km mark. we had breakfast at the hall two canteen. after a nap at home i ran out again to grab my new phone. the SE w705 had dropped to $0. the timing was oh so fine and i didn't have much second thoughts about it. i was in fact quite pleased after toying with it... i had a couple of episodes of everybody loves raymond before i headed to bed. its nice, to have a few laughs before dozing off and i've been doing it almost every night.

saturday - at 630am i reached toa payoh and met leo & his friends. we hopped on the coach and made our way across the causeway. we spent a fair bit of time travelling on the coach and i napped whenver i could. t'was the kota tinggi falls which wasn't much of a sight. we didn't even bother to get ourselves wet. the seafood lunch and dinner weren't top notch either. t'was much to diss about. somethings were so atrocious that its almost hilarious. of all the stopovers, the ostrich farm was an eye-opener. the ostrich egg, the ostrich chicks, the ostrich satays,... the ostriches that roamed around were so calm, gentle and at ease with us humans around that its almost sad to know that at some point of time they'll all eventually end up at the slaughterhouse...




















sunday - beach with gess mates. i dumped my guitar in the latio before driving out. i got the sun burns even with the sunblock. honestly, the beach has somewhat lost its appeal. maybe i'm just getting lazy cause i had thought the best thing that could have happened then was not a good game of volleyball but a nice hammock. i wonder if i'll find the motivation to head back to the gym this month. showering at one degree fifteen has always been something of a sumptuous life, thanks to jo. we eventually found ourselves at the red dot at dempsey hill. with a glass of green beer each. and dish after dish of glorious food. at the end of the night i made my way to leo's place where he checked on my trashy guitar. i can't wait for the new strings to arrive.




















monday - i accompanied a friend to the dentist for a tooth extraction. did a check up while i was there. it seems like i've got some extracting to do myself but i'm rather reluctant to do it during this holidays (hmmm). i got back home for a quick nap before running off again to tabita's new place off the west coast. it was nostalgic driving around the area having lived there before myself. i didn't do much while the gang had their go at tennis, table tennis and pool. i really am getting lazy. some of us parted and the small bunch of us(marc, melo, leo & myself) had dinner at karu's curry, before finally heading back home after being unable to settle down for a night of poker.

tuesday - the run with jn & ky from the macrichie reservoir to the bukit timah nature reserve to the bukit batok nature reserve. it was refreshing. i was reminded of the cross country days back in gess.




















wednesday - i woke up and rushed down to the cathay to meet leo & zy. we caught 2012. not too bad a film. i'm quite keen still on renting the bunch of dvds of films i've yet to catch because of the tight semester. cw joined us after the show for a little while before we went on our own ways. i met up with the rest of the casper gang at chinatown for steamboat. it was quite a feast. zouk was tiring business. the casual chat with j over supper was depressing.

thursday - i woke up at around noon before heading down to the nlb at bugis where ky, jn & jo were. they were busy looking up for recipes for a good time in the kitchen come next week. we wandered around a bit for some food around the area before ky jn and myself headed down to the expo to collect our race packs for the coming standard charter marathon.

friday - rest. i hand washed the merc 200e & the nissan latio. i had dinner at imm with alvin, hj & kk. my ankle hurts so i wonder how the marathon will turn out... with regards to 'other matters', i guess i shouldn't be as hopeful.

Labels: beach, gessvball, nbs, post exams, run, travel, vacation, volleyball