Auld Lang Syne

To all my faithful readers, merry christmas and a happy new year. By now many of u might have guessed by now that my blog is more of an entertainment blog instead of than one which talks abt my daily life and how much weight i have put on, u know the usual blog stuff... so i usually blog when i see sth interesting happen or think abt some wierd stuff that i think is worth mentioning. I hope to keep all my thoughts somewhere where i can view them again and again..

2005 has been a good year because i finally completed my NS liabilty and finally moved on to start studying. Just today i was surfing ard in miw.com when i stumbled upon this article, my fellow 21st batch divers from ndu, you might recognise him:

Guess who got interviewed by the team from miw? Yes!! its MSG Patrick Kiang a.k.a Spider Pat.
A quote from that interview,

To budding naval divers, Patrick advises, "You need to possess a positive attitude towards life so that it will help you get through the tough training and challenges you will face as a naval diver. However, rest assure that you will also gain a lot in terms of character building."

well well doesn't that phrase sound familar... anyway he's a nice guy generally except that when doing QM(guard duty) with him and he's the dpo(cause he kena take b4). We wish him all the best and hope that he will not be so kan cheong in future...

2005 is coming to a close. So its goodbye 2005 and hello 2006. I've been looking ard for a new calender to use when i find a nice one in the kitchen, check it out... nice??

Classmates

The December holidays are ending soon, time is ticking away... The tv is on and i'm watching the star studded hong xing da jiang(means star awards for non-chinese readers)...

The countdown before school reopens begins... 20 more days before I move back to Ah Tiong land. This is only my first year and i'm beginning to get sick of school. Many pple i've met hate their uni life, yet there are those who seem to enjoy it. Then there are those who say its better to be studying than working... all a matter of perspective.
Sitting infront of the computer I wonder how to make my university life more interesting. Quizzes, tests, Lab sessions and exams makes university life dull. So wat can make university life more interesting?

To a certain extent, classmates can make a difference.
Having classmates from China is stressful, they sometimes ask tutors questions that are beyond me and even the tutors themselves have problem answering... Since the MOE implemented the streaming system in secondary school, maybe they should also have that special stream in university. Then all the China scholars who study 24-7 can stream there, then Sporeans will go to Express stream.
Then there are classmates who claim not to study but mug really hard, those are the hypocrites. I probably know who they are when I talk to them.
Good classmates are those who share valuble information in studies, help you cheat in tests and quizzes and organise outings after class, a good way to get away from the books and lecture notes. Life can be more fun and interesting with happening classmates.

So far my the friends i have made in Ntu are good. But it would be even better if i had the following classmates in my tutorial group, maybe they should take engineering, then I might have a chance to be their classmates. It will certainly add colour to the life for any guy studying engineering for 4 yrs. My dream classmates for next semester(not in order of merit):

1. Priscilla Chan

She looks like the quiet, shy and introverted kind of girl, not the type in Tong Xin Yuan 2, but the more demure type. She also looks like the kind of girl that will not talk to you unless you approach her first.
This is the type of ger that will sit at the corner of class doing her work and be paying attention during lectures. Then u cant help but admire her beauty from the corner of your eye during the lecture and miss wat the lecturer is saying until you finally realise that the lecture is over.

2. Jeanette Aw


A.k.a Jingjing in Holland V, I personally think that she is the most beautiful actress on tv nowadays.
She's got a nice smile, one that will brighten up your day even after a 3 hr boring Lab session or even after u received news that Man Utd is out of the Champions League(for Man Utd fans only). Hope she says the above 3 words when i ask her out for lunch... But her choice of jewellery may be abit too exquisite for any undergrad to afford(SK and above), might burn a guy's pocket during Vday.

3. Fiona Xie (Yes! You can Click to View Full Photo!!!)




If you don't like her, you are probably not a guy... Every NSF's guy favourite girl i suppose. She may not be a good choice for a classmate cause u might be severly distracted and may end up staring at her during class.

A Limit to Tuition Pls...

Ok now i'm in the mood to type the stuff that's gg thru my head.

Recently I spoke to one of my mum's colleague when I visited her at the tuition centre. Her friend is working part time at the centre. She's in her late forties and to break the ice she decided to engage in some Auntie talk with me and so I later found out that she has 3 children, 2 in secondary school and 1 in primary school. She asked what i was doing now so i told I her i'm studying in Ntu. So she asked me which Junior College i came from so i told her St Andrews. Her immediate reaction was:

Auntie in her 40s: St Andrews ar... Is it a good Jc? Is it top 5?

Me: Ok la, its an average Jc. Not top 5 but popular choice for many.

Auntie in her 40s: Average ar? Oh, cause my daughter is thinking of gg to that Jc. So i want to find out if it is a good Jc.

Me:Let her go la, many pple go there cause the uniform very nice mah.

Auntie in her 40s: Did u take chinese in Jc?

Me: Yes i did.

Auntie in her 40s: Hiyo i tell u my daughter now taking higher chinese and she wants to drop higher chinese cause she complains its too tough...... blah blah blah.....

And then she goes on telling abt her daughter, to me i felt she was doing a good job trying to sell the fact that she has brought up her daughter very well and her children had a very bright future ahead.
In my mind i was like thinking ok ok good for you.... spare me the details pls...

These days parents all want the best for their children, this auntie was no exception as u can tell when she questioned me abt the jc thing. Parents enrolling their kids in tuition at Primary One and on top of that giving them enrichment classes on weekends. I found out that my mum's tuiton centre alone has 300 primary sch kids at the cck branch. In a recent Straits Times article in was found that most parents agree that tuition is no longer optional but a neccessity.
In 1996 in a survey conducted, it showed that 50% of children in pri sch had tuition. That was a decade ago, now i suppose the figures would have increased(obviously).

To say that Sporean parents are Kiasu is seriously an understatement.Even though it is natural that parents are concerned for their child's education, there is a limit to how much a child can learn and absorb at such a young age. The question is, where should their parents draw the line? how much is enough for the child? I believe that education in Spore to a certain extent has become a positional arms race whereby to improve one's postion, one must be better off than another. Pity those parents who do not have the financial ability to send their kids for tuition and enrichment classes. They are obviously out of the race...
I will not be surprised if tuition is extended to kids in nursey and kindergarden in future...Correct me if it already exists. I believe that children in cities like Hong Kong and those in Japan also face the same situation.
A good head start in life is important, most parents know that so they send their kids for tuition and a few beat their kids if they don't get 90 marks and above for their exams.
Will these children thank their parents in future?