It was a small bunch of us that went down to Central for the fabulous ramen noodles at Marutama. I believe its the best ramen in town. Then while qx went home to watch 'Friends', the rest of us had a walk down to the Esplanade. We had a good time taking photos of the night.

The next Monday morning I woke up in the early afternoon and joined C and her gang at the Tanjong beach. It was a pretty good day of play and the weather didn't ruin the rest of the day. There is the surf and sweat to look forward to with some of them.

Came Tuesday, the 29th of December, two days before the new year, I made my way to school. The FAL closed on me so I was left at the reading room, unable to print my things. I continue to map out the factory outlets from the google maps in anticipation of the then upcoming Hong Kong trip. At around seven in the evening I made my way down to the hall's volleyball court. T'was the slight drizzle, and a bit of tension when the guys didn't show up punctually. Towards the end I could not really play like how I wanted to (or how I used to). It was frustrating. I blamed it on playing on an empty stomach but I wonder if its something more of an excuse.

I took a quick shower, picked a couple of people up, before driving down to Walt's place where it was another night of poker. I think nights like these are gonna be here to stay. We checked our grades for the semester online. Not too shabby, and I'm pretty close from my target cgpa. To get there, that would be my new years resolution. After the last couple of rounds of poker, we headed down for supper before going over to the airport where we saw Chris off. The early morning drive was smooth. I reached school back at 7 in the morning where jn and I had good old eggs and toast for breakfast.

On the 31st December, New Years Eve, relatives came over to my place. It was a belated Christmas dinner. Gab and his sis, together with my brother and I found ourselves in a bedroom playing poker. At around ten at night, I went over Joce's place where the gess gang was. Friends for a decade. We had a couple of drinks, played cards, and then it was a long tiresome struggle for Sj to go off. My brother came to pick me up at around 8. That was my new years eve.

I stayed home on new years day, to pack for the trip to Hong Kong. I didn't get much sleep that night and then on the 2nd Dec, six in the morning, we flew off. The sun was rising as we took off. The itinerary went something like:

Day one: Night Markets, Victory Peak - The fog was pretty bad we could hardly see the buildings. The weather was chilling. We went on a random spree.

Day two: Disneyland - It was really the best of experiences, especially when tinkerbell flew by... even if its just the 3d goggles.

Day three: Shenzhen - The Lowu Commercial Building was an eye opener; the vendors and fake watches... Deeper in, to dong men was more pleasant to walk around. I crossed the immigrations back to hk empty handed though. Back in hk we visited the stretch of outlets at the camel building where I managed to grab a nice jacket. It was the one of the few buys from hk. I was quite convinced its hard to get a good bargain these days...

Day four: Citygate outlets - I walked out empty handed, though they really had every outlet housed in a building. And bid cw and kl farewell.

Day five: The Dragon's Back of Hong Kong's trail - It never got this cold although at first refreshing. The view was breath taking. If I had the time I would bring up some hot cocoa and sit there the entire day. I really would.

On the 6th Jan, midnight, I touched down back in sg. I had a casual chat with the cabby on my way back. Never felt better when I dropped my bags. I was exhausted and deep down glad that the IH volleyball match on the next day was postponed.

On the 7th evening, my family had dinner at the Long Beach restaurant off the east coast park. It was good to have dinner with the entire family every now and then.

The next day I had two of my wisdom tooth removed. The process was sort of nerve wrecking I admit. I wasn't in much pain but spitting blood in the sink didn't make me feel any better. The bleeding has stopped but not the lethargy.

Before the surgery I ended up buying a siamese fighting fish. I call him Mr B (for barracuda). I can't stop watching him swim around in his tank.

I watched the guys game on saturday and spent a good portion of sunday out gallivanting with my parents, from the hawker center at amoy street to the flea market at china square central, to the marina square and then to clementi. In the last few hours of the night I watched episodes of 'That 70s Show' which made me have some good laughs. Its been a long time since I had good laughs.

School starts tomorrow. December I should say was rather well spent. Sure, there weren't many days of laze and rest. That is how I know I was out having a kick ass time. I sure hope its a good semester ahead. A good internship ahead. And a couple of good trips ahead...

Labels: december, gess, nbs, travel, vacation, volleyball

december is actually not too far away. its means both the examinations and the end of it are drawing close. while its worrying(the exams), i'm looking forward to everything beyond. hopefully, my foot heals good soon. i'll be at the nike human race. then the runs that build up to the marathon(dec 4). i'll be playing the inter hall games. its been so long since i've played a good game of volleyball. i'll be heading to the beach. may the weather be good. i'll be watching all those films i've never quite got to watch (public enemies, nine, district nine, up, inglourious basterds). i'll be getting a new phone(se w705), a new digital camera(a panasonic lumix), and maybe, just maybe if i succumb, a new guitar(a cheap electric squire). i'll be looking forward to christmas, the new year, a good getaway perhaps, the late nights, the ten hour sleeps, the good life.

i feel stucked still given the 'recess' week. i wish i had the week all to myself to frolick the fields. i've got the week planned out and here's the first half of it:

saturday - online meeting for aa201 project
sunday - meeting for negotiation task
monday - meeting for ac213 project
tuesday - meeting for aa201 project/chalet at night
wednesday - chalet/???
the rest is still of revisions and meeting of datelines...

not too long ago, i created a playlist of songs. i think everyone should have a playlist on standby. one which you can count on for a slower heart rate and a better state of mind in times of crisis. here's mine:

paint the silence, south
living life, eels
ride, cary brothers
in the sun, joseph arthur
lost cause, beck
stop joking around, hawksley workman
orange sky, alexi murdoch
caught by the river, doves
honey and the moon, joseph arthur
dice, finley quaye
konstantine, something corporate
windmills, wet toad sprockets
something always goes wrong, wet toad sprockets

"there is no rose without a thorn. there is no bed of roses. take the rough with the smooth. if you try, you can be anything you want to be."

Labels: december, life, nbs, recess