having an adrenaline rush from the coffee now. haven't had coffee for quite a long time... i suppose since the composition dateline. had a fun time with my section mates again. hahaha as usual it was amusing and entertaining to watch jiehui and yiting bickering. i realised that our section outings/reunions are always centered around food... swensens, coffee bean... last year it was some ice-cream place. i still remember i had to leave early, just when shini arrived. hahaha now we're all more free, except our clashing schedules la. looking forward to our next outing! :)

for an hour i was a homeless wandering spirit this morning...

wanted to make a cheesecake for my mum's birthday cos i'm going for dinner with debbie, jiehui, shini and yiting tmr so felt a bit bad for not eating with the family when it's her bdae. i had no idea that both ntuc and liberty open at 9, i thought they should be open by 8. so i just wandered aimlessly around the basement of jurong point... hahaha think the other vendors getting ready to open their shops thought i was mad. cheesecake was toooo sweet (haha sweet is good, birthday must eat something sweet rite)... but still yummy though. *grinz* with piggish pple like me & bro, it'll be gone in 2-3 days' time! =D

fortunately i was looking forward to finally trying the cheesecake tonight, otherwise i think would have died during tuition. can't stand it, he's so cute and sweet at times, yet he's often so very irritating! try telling him why a plant in a glass box grows while another in a wooden box doesn't, and he'll tell you that the sun can shine through wood.
mx: *goes behind a chair* see, i here behind chair still can see what!
jess: no, not can see or cannot see. the sunlight cannot go through the chair.
mx: can!
jess: if i cover your window with wood can the sun still shine in? can you still see the light?
mx: *grins* can! on the light lor!
jess: (exasperated) i'm talking about sunlight, not the light in your house!

no use giving him homework... he'll just write random answers for mcq, like 1234 all the way. three-digit number minus two-digit number he still wrote 7777. hmmph i was so angry, made him do it again. but he didn't want to do and tried to close the book... i was snatching the book from him [O_o?? jess actually snatches books from adorable little kids??!!] and during the tug-of-war his hand accidentally closed on my pencil instead of the book. OUCH! my heart broke! his face screwed up from the shock and pain... kept apologising but nothing could erase that look of hurt and anger he gave me.

as if that wasn't bad enough, his mother just brushed the incident away as a small matter. ok, it's quite a small matter... just an accident, but he just wanted her to comfort him! actually he's still quite attached to his mum. when she walks past during tuition time he'll turn around and if she takes no notice of him, he'll say, ma! and then his brother's tuition teacher was complaining about how the brother doesn't do homework properly and filled in his grammar excercise randomly (they're really one of a kind huh). his mother was very angry about that and even though tuition time was over she made him do the homework again... and she was scolding the two of them when i left. sigh. ARRRRGHHHH! i don't like his laziness and his attitude towards tuition, yet at the same time i just can't bear to see him get scolded by his mother. ok, there'll be people saying, you're too soft-hearted! that's just how i feel... tuition totally drains my energy, every time i have to argue with him and then there are the scoldings he gets from his mother.

help! i need some peace!!!! and lots of chocolate. hmmm... no chocolate left, i guess cheescake will do! :)

for those who are bored like emily, check out this video at alvin's blog... it's titled pianist at arcade. it's incredibly amazing, jaw-dropping and i wouldn't have believed it if i didn't watch the video. there are also other videos there, some lame ones like the chin brothers... and others of gym stuff. understandable because he's a gymnast. people from my primary school grew up watching gym performances. it was THE event at every celebration or occassion. mainly it was just a showcase of the gymnasts and the various things they can do, but to us little kids who cannot make it in gym lesson during pe, it was so grand. and i remember it always ended with a pyramid sort of display that would have all of us holding our breaths in case anyone should fall down!

haha really miss those primary school days. my group was very naughty... hahaha alvin and grace were always talking to each other during lesson because the orientation of the tables sort of separated them from me, jiayuan, shafik and mingjie. maybe also cos they're both gymnasts, have more things to talk about.

i think we were the only group with only 6 instead of 7 people, so we had the advantage of one extra table to dump things. sometimes me and mingjie would also switch tables... but of cos remaining in that order of boy-girl-boy-girl. ha! as if it stops us from talking! well, the teachers seemed to think it would.

mingjie and shafik would play stupid pranks, throwing staple bullets to other groups' tables etc... and when they were absolutely bored, they would irritate me and jiayuan! we were accomplices during ting xie (chinese spelling)... those sitting at the "inside tables" would consult their textbooks under the table and those sitting outside will copy from them. hahaha it was so fun! hmmm and i remember getting sent out of the classroom during chinese lesson because we didn't pay attention. instead of standing at the window where the teacher could keep an eye on us, we hid behind the doors hahahaha. other lessons were not so fun cos our form teacher, who taught us every other subject except pe and chinese, was shrewd, alert, sharp and quite fierce when she got angry.

agreed to help my mum buy toto today. according to her, people born in the year of the tiger are the "lucky stars" of those born in the year of the pig *oink* and vice versa. haha i thought it was so ridiculous. tigers would devour pigs in a few moments, how can they bring fortune to pigs?! hmm... but pigs are so cute, i wish tigers were herbivours! :-p some lessons i learnt today...

lesson #1: don't even agree to help anyone buy toto or 4D.
yep. especially during chinese new year when everyone is trying to win money. for some reason they think chinese new year is the best time to place bets... lame reasons like, i was born in the year of the rooster, so must buy!

lesson #2: go there as early as possible.
hahaha, sounds so kiasu! no la, as early as possible meaning in the morning when the booth just starts operating and definitely not during lunch hour or after-work hours... so as to avoid long queues! i had no choice but to go in the evening and er... needless to say it was a long wait.

lesson #3: don't look too young.
i went there in jeans and tee... obviously all the people in the queue couldn't help but cast doubtful glances in my direction.

lesson #4: don't go to booths in supermarkets.
argh, i hadn't had dinner so when i was queing amid all the packets of junk food and tubs of ice-cream... it was pure torture!

lesson #5: approach anyone familiar-looking for help.
this old aunty was about to queue up when she spotted somebody she had seen in her neighbourhood quite often. she deliberately said, whoa... queue so long, wait until when! this neighbour nicely offered to help her buy. the aunty didn't even know that the neighbour lived one floor above her until the lady told her!

i love wednesdays! i don't have to work, i can stay home and read all i like! haha, no... i don't hate work, just that i'm a lazybones who prefers to do nothing at home if i could.

i'm hopelessly addicted to books. whenever i'm free i can't stop reading, even to do things i like (playing piano, eating, listening to music, sleeping etc), or to do things i have to (prepare lessons, do housework etc). this phenomenon didn't just spring up suddenly, i only noticed it because recently i've had more free time than when i was still studying. only weeks ago i gave away most of my childhood books to my mother's colleague's daughter, who was so excited and fascinated by them that it made me happy and contented, although before that i had been reluctant to give the books away. reason told me i had no use for the books anymore, i just felt like keeping them in the cupboard, if only for the sake of looking at them occasionally. but what's the use of that anyway, taking up space in the cupboard and indirectly causing my room to be strewn with other things that have no cupboard to belong to.

so when i went to kinokuniya with kankan the past two weekends, i just couldn't resist the books on the shelves screaming at me to read them! i think so far i've spent $92.30 on my kinokuniya trips. that could have bought a box set... maybe someone's symphonies, or many more cds... about 3-4 cds?! i always feel a little guilty for spending my money on books when i guess it'll have been better used if i had bought cds or scores. but i'll end up convincing myself that what's the harm of reading anyway, it's supposed to improve your english. haha, notice the word supposed... i don't think it has helped my english. maybe that's because i've been reading fantasy books. i don't see what's wrong with that, but elitists such as a man we met at kino the other day think they're trash. this particular man - a self-proclaimed poet - was pestering an expat browsing at the literature section, trying to advise him on what books and authors to read... and pursuaded the poor expat to read his poems. after the expat glanced through the poems, he finally made an excuse and got away. maybe the poet was very enthusiastic about literature (or maybe he was trying to "save face" after being rejected by the expat), when he turned and saw kk and i browsing at the fantasy section, he said, "so, you like to read these sort of books huh, might as well go back and watch television... blahblahblah" okay, what was i supposed to say in reply? i just stood there staring at him (oops, so rude of me! =p) and i think kk was equally shocked or surprised because she stood there speechless too.

i like books because they bring you somewhere else... and you can just escape from this world whenever you're reading. another reason why i like to read is because i'm the type that likes to be cooped up (ok, not exactly cooped up...) erm, that likes to stay in my room all day... yes, i prefer that to going shopping with friends! out of necessity and many other reasons, of course i can't keep myself in my room everyday... but i hope when i grow old and finally have some time to myself i can do that =) . i was also partly influenced by kk to read fantasy books. of course most of my childhood books were fantasy books for children, but ever since then i've been reading my brother's books (save money!)... mainly tom clancy, john grisham... and lots of mystery books. after i bought the first harry potter book for his birthday many years ago (no prizes for guessing why i bought it ;P), we've been sharing the cost of the rest of the harry potter books. until now, the only two fantasy books that i've read and owned were the hobbit and the lord of the rings... it was one of the books in a list of "suggested books" to read during school holidays at the end of sec 3. i was drawn by the title but even after i bought it i never found time to read it until when i finally started on it, the first movie was already showing. when i finished the book i was equally excited by the movie... haha, sometimes when i'm not reading i'll be watching the vcd. maybe one day i'll be like kk, remembering every single dialogue in the movie! =?

okay, enough about books... i better go practise piano before i mess up big time during lesson later.