an afternoon with friends

alright guys and gals, i know this place is collecting quite a bit of online dust but hey, here's finally something that's worthy of mention!

it was a meeting of people who "live with passion" and "lead with compassion". Nicholas, Jennifer, Christina, Kohila (Christina's friend) & I met up today for a supposedly short lunch session which turned out to be non-stop chatting from 12noon-6pm, dessert at Baskin 31 Robins included. i'm really glad to be able to meet up with the juniors today.. so to all of you studying in singapore/uk/us when are you guys coming back to malaysia?!?! we need a gathering too! haha.

one interesting question that we discussed today was "which part of hwachong do you like best?". there were two parts to this question though, one's referring to the 'physical' side of hwachong, the other is your most memorable experience during your stay in hwachong.

as for myself, my favourite would be the central plaza, at night that is. i think our college looks really beautiful when lighted up at night, not like those massive light-ups during MAF but the simple, minimum yellow lights that keeps the place alive during a normal evening in school. when i sit near the squash courts at midnight ( during council stayovers), i get a really magnificent panoramic view of the college plus i get this really peaceful ambience as an icing for the already serene night.

now, if it was the most memorable 'moment in HC, it's definitely the sounding of the gong during MAF '04 to kick-off the Grand Light-Up display - it was really a sign to me that MAF programme was carried out successfully, and the celebrations just starting with the college mass dance and song sessions.

But ask me about my most memorable 'experience' in HC, it will definitely be the time spent together with the HC Asean "farmelee" =) Really.. the honours goes to you guys. I especially miss the times we practised together for our Asean Night performance in 2004, and also the times we had dinner together in the dining hall after a long day in college. not forgetting also the BBQ sessions at Mrs Ooi's place.

Miss you all loads. Good luck everyone!

also,
to jennifer: good luck with medic interviews
to christina: hopefully we can meet up again in australia! xD

HWA CHONG KE BAH BAH!!!
=P

Let's just go simple. And green!

Many feels that the previous template cannot be viewed properly. So, I just change it to the standard one.
Style doesn't matter.
Content does it so much more.

Updates

Maybe it's time for me to update what some of us i.e. Ying Ting, Yin How, Mei Sheng and I have been doing. We were organising coaching programmes for upper primary and lower secondary school kids!
Yep. We were coach, to coach the children so that they can better understand the study skills introduced during the lessons better.
But who taught them the study skills? It was the coaches, who are us.
So who drew up the syllabus for the coaching programme? Again, it was the coaches.
Four of us started planning for the ASEAN Coaching Programme(ACP) in April. Initially it was meant to be only for lower sec children. But we encountered tonnes of problems as we didn't have 'connection' to sec sch, since all of us left after pri sch. So after a few setbacks, we decided to modify the programme into a pri-sch-friendly programme, called the Zhuang4yuan2 Ji1li4 ban1. We introduced the programme to our own alma mater, and in the end Yin How's and Mei Sheng's schools agreed to let us carry out the programme in their schools. At both schools we had more students than what was intended.:D
At the same time, one parent called us up to express her daughter's interest in ACP. So we decided to let ACP go on as well.
After that was a series of madness preparation and presentation. We fought hard to attract the attention of every child, make the lessons interesting and digestable. It was encouraging to see the primary school kids being so enthusiastic and fought hard to answer our questions (Of course, that was partly because we were giving out prizes). And it was encouraging also to see teachers and PIBG representatives getting themselves involved when we were teaching the kids how to do progressive muscular relaxation.
ACP posed a greater challenge to us. Form 1 and 2 is the age when the kids are kids in the more mature age group. So while they are not much different from the primary school kids in adults (like us) eyes, they pride themselves to be more mature and cool. So some of them snided at our attempt to get them interested, and some of them were basically more interested in BGR and stuff ( One sec 2 boy had 9 girlfriends in just this year!). Some of them attended the course to be released (One boy asked us when's lunch at the beginning of the course, when's tea time after lunch, and what time can they go home after tea @.@)
And we got a little bored after doing the same demonstrations for ample times, saying the same thing, and watching the same movie.
But there were also those who were genuinely interested in how to improve their studies, time management and stuff. And these were the ones, who motivated us to continue to speak well, despite the attitude of other participants.
Yep. Then everything ended.
So suddenly. Like now.
But this relatively short experience has taught us a lot. Not only have we learnt how to coach, but also about public relations, financial matters, packaging, editing (we composed their course books), meals catering, but also about study skills. As this was a programme that contains a relatively comprehensive guide to how to study effectively and efficiently using information gathered from books as well as from the experience of four of us, we managed to learn a lot from each other too.
Here's something that I like a lot. Let me just share it here.
Don't look at failure as a failure. Look at it as a detour. Learn from the failure and fall forward, not backward. Let it guide you towards success, not away from it.
I guess this would be a very useful way to counsel ourselves in the future. When we get depressed and demotivated (if there's such a word) by the huger and greater challenges we face later in life.
And finally, my own favourite quote for now: Life is 10% what happened to us and 90% how we deal with it.

Oh Jennifer, that's the prediction I had for my As in dreams. Not for you. But well, are you satisfied with it? Hope you are. It's quite commendable to get a B for Chem in HC. Haha. I just realise it's ABC: A B for Chem. *shivers in chill. But well, keep up the good effort! Just remember that Hwa Chong is crazy!

RE:

For your info Wan Xin, you predicted A for my Maths and B for Chem. I managed those two but really CMI for Bio and Physics...

Hostel food is deteriorating steadily... I'm surprised it still has room to deteriorate, actually. Man, do we miss Yan Palace. Last night i was doing the HCIBS survey and my complaints, as you might guess, were overflowing, especially under dining, public phones and facilities! For info's sake, some of us got mild bouts of stomachache and diarhhoea after taking some sausages at breakfast sometime last week... And to think we hoped we had left Yan Palace's Sunday night fried rice behind...

The HC juniors are actually worrying us... cos they are even more antisocial than we are, apparently. And the girl SL is better than the guys... Oh... just a point... we managed to get into semifinals of MIQ competition. We won't win because either AJ or SA alone is enough to thrash us.

apa khabar semua? haha.. i promise to blog so that you guys know that i'm still alive and kickin'. =)

anyway, it is REALLY cold here... i get negative 5 celsius at night! and it seems that soon enough, the maxumum for the day would be 4 deg celsius. brr...cold. it's worse when it rains.. but actually i miss rain! it seldom rains here.. i miss the sound of rainfall... also because it makes the air less dry/more moist - the weather is normally very dry..don't want to end up having my skin all come off.
i'm having easter break now, going to melbourne tomorrow for some fun! we have 2 weeks easter break over here....cool huh?? other states usualy only have one week of break. next time i shall post pics here. or anyone interested can visit my photo/recipe blog bakingmusic.blogspot.com . just dont browse through it on an empty stomach... you are bound to feel hungry!
wanxin... why you didn't apply to anu??? ahhh.... so sad... no more daily digest of one-sin jokes anymore. meisheng... how's prep for uni going? still going overseas? yingting? yinhow? how's everyone else? ohhh... does jiavoon know the existence of this blog? we should invite him.. he'll surely contribute i think.

how's hwachong lately i wonder? and also hcibs.. lol...is the food any better, jennifer? how's lau? getting along well with the juniors? i think i met a hwachong asean cum councillor senior here in anu.. she just graduated from the same course as i am doing now.. soo cool right? meeting seniors or other hwachongians... we can just click with each other and there's soo much to talk about esp reminiscing college days. haha

that's about all for now folks. till next time!

Finally I can enter my account agn

Sorry for my slowness. Thanks to blogger's faulty system.
Anyway, do you think that we should have an official opening ceremony for this blog? I am not sure in what style.
Dear Jennifer, pardon me for my forgetfulness. Alzheimer's disease is invading me! What have I predicted for your BT1?
Genting trip was largely fun. We were welcome by pouring rain when we reached the peak, and that left all our shoes soaked. Then, we actually have the guts to take the Sungai Rejang flume ride (The one which people sit in boats that dashes down the slides), which left our shoes wetter! and us colder! haha... For me, it was like that for two days! Yucks. We managed to play almost all the thrill rides, even the latest Flying Coaster, which we have to lie on our stomach while taking the ride. We actually have to pay separately for that ride which was really short! But well, the experience was quite good la. Must admit that.
The downside: 1. Cockscrew wasn't opened! Argh... 2. The room shared by Meisheng and I had cockcroachES! Urgh..
It was a trip without proper meal. We had our lunch at 7pm on the first day, and at 4pm on the second day. Well, ok, they were more like dinners.
But glad that none of us fell sick given the cool temperature, the FRIENDLY weather and the irregular meal times. :D
Hmm I apologise if this seems like a very unstructured piece of entry. I only penned down what flashed across my mind as I typed.

Hey, where's everyone?

Has everyone been notified bout this blog? Cos I see no evidence that more than 6 ppl know about it. What's everyone up to now? Daniel, how's exams? Wan Xin, your predictions came true for my BT1... Thanks! Mei Sheng, what are you up to now?

I'm busy blogging now cos believe it or not, I am supposed to be late for Chem lesson later at 11 am. On a certain teacher's orders. It's 10.45 am at the time of this post. I am feeling very uneasy about it cos it's really the weirdest thing i've ever been told to do. So... i thought i'd while away some of my time here.

Tell me more about what's going on in your life now... I want to know what all of you are up to... Don't want to lose touch with you... ok?

Jennifer~10.46am 10/4/2006