distant memories.

sunday morning i was looking through some old photos of mine and it got me thinking about how much has changed. the fact that i'm already in university means i have to now step up and be answerable for my words and actions, never mind that the responsibility comes at the age 21.

what struck me most was how my national service turned out. it wasn't all i hoped for nor was it the best thing or worse thing that could have happened. i longed for the days of outfield and running around in long four with a rifle doing combat stuff. as it is, i was given an opportunity many would have wanted and was thus posted overseas. my biggest regret still remains the fact that i injured my knee so bad that it still affects me now, even more so in the winter.

then of course there was poly before that. the many ups and downs have taught me much about responsibility. being a captain was perhaps one of the most memorable milestones in that 3 years. i've come a long way in terms of my floorball. from someone who did not know how to play to progress to a level where i was above average (i hope), all within a relative short span of 1 year, i'm ever so grateful to my seniors and coaches.

and how could i forget the e-garage gang. the group of friends who taught me what true friendship is all about. the values and principles by which i live by were partly shaped by my interactions with them over the years. people who helped me through troubled times in school, in army and now back in school.

it has been a fun ride thus far and i can only hope for the best in the future. they say faith and luck can work wonders and i do hope things will swing my way soon. with all the pressures of work and commitments coming to an end in 6 weeks, i need to find strength and more importantly, discipline, in myself to get things done.

meanwhile. winter has unofficially started. weather report says that there might be hail tonight so i'm keeping my fingers crossed. it would be fun if it did happen but then again, i think not. ha! and what a game. manchester united 5 tottenham hotspurs 2. an amazing second half showing..

reality check.

thursday morning the more i research into the costs for exchange, the more i think it's getting a bit too much. here's where i've looked at so far (my top three choices):

university of manchester
university of leeds
university of north carolina

the deeper i dig, the more i wonder if it's financially feasible for my parents and i. accommodation itself is going to cost up to two times more than the meager A$157 per week i'm paying now and that's without food. essentially i'm paying up to A$220 to keep myself alive. comparing A$220 and £200, that's a lot of money..

on one hand, i'm really excited that exchange is a possibility and i'm really keen on it, on the other, i feel quite upset taking into consideration the amount of money my parents and even possibly my sister, have to fork out in order to fund my little "adventure".

sometimes i really do feel i'm a liability to the family, being the only one not working. of course others would argue they're paying for an investment in my studies. but hey, it's one thing to work under pressure in the army and another to work under pressure from home. i think the latter is worse.

anyways, i've about 4/7 done studying for my last mid-semester paper. the only problem i realized, is i'm taking too long and procrastinating too much. been in a holiday mood since the week before Easter when lessons sort of ended unofficially even before the official two-week break.

meanwhile. i started playing floorball again. because my team is not participating in the autumn/winter season, i'm sort of on loan to another team now. made my debut just last night and though we got whipped bad, my 1 goal and 3 assists means i can sleep well tonight knowing i did my fair share. considering that we had no substitutions and the other team had a few, i guess it was only a matter of time before fatigue kicked in and we lost the fitness race and eventually the game.

oh well. at least i know where i stand in terms of my stamina and it doesn't make for very good reading. i'm pretty sure i can do a 5km run easily. anything more than that? i've got a long way to go..

fast and furious...not.

wednesday morning took a study "break" and went out to watch fast and furious. what a whole load of crap but it was entertaining enough. it occurred to me that this year is a year for boys and men alike to go crazy. why? because of the line up of movies that are out and are yet to be released..

off the top of my head:

watchmen
dragonball
fast and furious
terminator salvation
star trek
x-men origins: wolverine
transformers 2: revenge of the fallen
g.i. joe: rise of cobra
astroboy
witchblade

set to be announced:

he-man and the masters of the universe
highlander
metal gear solid
x-men origins: magneto
gears of war
halo the movie
robocop

boys'/men's shows indeed..

self-righteousness.

saturday evening to a certain extent, i hope everyone has seen the youtube video on susan boyle. it's a lesson for all of us to learn - that whatever preconceived biaseness/perception we may have about people, there is always room to be proven wrong, more often that not, we are wrong.

people laughed, rolled eyes, sniggered and were wondering what the hell was this frumppy looking 47-year old woman saying, wanting to be a pop star and all. no one laughed the moment she started singing. the same can be said with paul potts, the chubby handphone salesman who eventually won britain's got talent. all were proven wrong when he belted out tenor-style.

as it is, we are all caught up in the need to look good - people dressing up for school, to go to matches (both as players and spectators), short walks to the supermarket, it's everywhere. we thus base our judegement of people based on how they look and formulate opinions without having had personal contact/conversations with them.

it's the same as how in taiwan, a whole group of us walked into the armani shop and were then ignored by the shop attendants because we were dressed in t-shirts and jeans, unlike the rest of the crowd who were in pants, shirts and such.

while it is not wrong to want to look good, to what extent do we go to judge people based on apperances?

--

if there's one thing that has irked me the past few days its self-righteous people. i sat in the bus on the way back from sydney and as i was clearing my nose (blowing out the mucus) with a tissue (make that a lot of tissues), the middle-aged woman turned around and gave me a dirty look and then told her son that it's disgusting that people actually clear their noses in public. apparently she thought i was out of earshot and that my music was playing therefore i couldn't hear a thing. i never knew it was a crime to have a flu and a crime to have to blow one's nose in public.

then there's this retard of a driver. it's a t-junction. i have a choice to turn left or right. so i chose to turn right and proceeded to move forward. and this retard, seeing that i have have the car out and about to turn off, he then proceeded to accelerate AND honk me. wow!

term break.

friday morning trip to gold coast was fantastic. started with a drive to sydney, sleeping over at julian's before catching the 8am flight to gold coast. as all flights go with qantas and jetstar, it was delayed. where's the surprise in that? eventually reached gold coast at 10 plus, catching a coach to the service apartment where i was to share with 5 other friends.

bummed around surfers paradise till rena and marc were done with their diving trip before meeting up with them at harbortown, this pseudo-factory outlet place in the suburbs. had a seriously huge dinner in the form of huge pizza slices and bubble tea before making my way back to meet up with the rest of the gang.

went to movieworld the next day, took all the rides (i think) save for the batwing one and i must say, it was a tad disappointing. superman wasn't as fast as i remembered, lethal weapon just gave me a headache. the shrek 4d show was interesting and that's as much as it goes. the parade was not as spectacular as the disney ones but hey, it was all good.

dinner was to be at a seafood place but the service was so bad (the manager actually lost her temper at those of us in the queue) so we ended up eating at santino's instead. probably wasn't as good as the one in melbourne but the service more than made up for it.

it rained the whole day on monday so we ended up shopping at harbortown and pushing the visit to dreamworld a day later. (un)fortunately i didn't have anything to buy due to a lack of options and size. we headed to the marriot courtyard for seafood platter but after 30 minutes of waiting, was told that they had run out of seafood and the manager offered to make a reservation for us the next day together with complimentary white wine.

with that, we crossed the road and had a spectacular spanish dinner. it was amazing especially given that the prices were very reasonable. zongyao and i headed to the gun range and fired of 50 rounds of .45 calibre before joining the girls for an insanely noisy time at the arcade (deal or no deal anyone?).

so, dreamworld on tuesday and i happened to wake up with a fever. i attribute it to the pizzas and the amount of times i walked in the rain. in any case, took a few rides which were very tame, even managing to have conversations with zongyao on a couple of them, caught yawning in the photos and basically not really having fun on the rides. hah! the highlight of the day was perhaps the seafood platter at the marriot. it did not disappoint. i never ate so much seafood all at once, prawns, crabs, calamari, baked rice and the whole works. didn't even have space for dessert after that.

headed off to hard rock cafe to meet up with maryann after a long long time. drove out to the harbour end called "the spit" with a couple of her friends before returning back to the service apartment to pack up.

left the apartment at 4.20am for the aiport. this time round, the flight was delayed for a good 2 hours plus. the reason? a crew member reported in sick at the last minute and a replacement had to drive down from north brisbane. my goodness. talk about embarrasing.

all in all, it was still a good trip. time to hit the books. fark!

annoying journalist(s).

wednesday morning i hate journalists who are rude. bbc's jonathan dimbleby happens to be one. i dislike journalist (or people in general) who interrupt others, people who twist words that have been spoken and change the meaning of what was originally intended, you get what i'm driving at.

then again, it may be just me but journalists are all like that? even more so if you host a program such as hardtalk. sometimes i wonder if it is a pre-requisite to be rude to be a journalist - i mean i know it takes a thick-skinned person to be a journalist but rude?

random objectives.

sunday night targets for the next one year..

1. regain fitness, at least to army level
2. run standard chartered end of this year (full 42km with nivi and randeep)
3. run IB next year (team singapore!)
4. qualify for honors in information systems
5. graduate with 2nd class honors
6. get a truckload of high credits/distinctions/high distinctions to fulfill point 4
7. score at least 15 goals in the upcoming floorball season (damn swedes and fat defenders)
8. tally at least 5 points in the australian floorball open in july
9. hopefully go for exchange to the states or UK (means scratching out point 3)
10. pick up two new sports, volleyball and tennis (okay, continuing tennis)

back to studying for my accounting paper..

relief!

thursday night i just spent the entire day rewriting the essay that i.. ermm.. lost. with the essay due on monday, i think i've done all i could in 2 days what i have done over a month. it most definitely isn't as good as it should be but it will have to do for now, hopefully enough for me to hit a credit.

time to have my first meal of the day..