Sunday, August 10, 2008

Happy National Day Singapore!

Today is National Day in Singapore. Well, it seems like any normal day here in Northern Ireland except for the great sun we got for the first half of the day.

And then it rained. Typical.

Anyway, went on to research for pictures on National Day Parade this year. Well, I've seen the pictures, but I must admit it is not as fun as sitting on my mom and dad's bed in front of the tv with my family munching on titbits and watching the National Parade go on.
Ah well. Heard from a few friends in Singapore that this year's is pretty boring, not as big as last year's. Not many fireworks. Fireworks are the best bits. I remember once I was celebrating National Day at a aunt's house and we could see the glow of the fireworks there. It was pretty exciting considering I've only ever been at the parade twice. Once when I was five and another time when I was eleven when it is compulsory in Singapore for all students in Primary 5 to watch the National Day Parade. The feeling of patriotism is just irreplaceable.

Singapore has progressed so much. From 1966 when the parades consist of small marching soldiers. To a much bigger scale like this: I heard that this year they have a three tier stage for National Day Parade. Really wish I have been there.

"A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle." -George William Curtis (an American writer and public speaker)








Friday, August 08, 2008

Home?

It is coming up to National Day and I am feeling pretty down. Went to search Singapore images and these are what I got.Damn I miss Singapore.

"Home is the nicest word there is." -Laura I. Wilder (an American author who wrote the Little House series of children's books based on her childhood in a pioneer family. Her best known book is Little House On The Prairie) I sooo agree with her on that quote.








Thursday, August 07, 2008

Helloooo

Was really busy the past few days. Monday, I went to meet Ryan at Downpatrick and guess what he got me? This!Nice right? It's his old camera with the works. Lenses, close-up filters and flash. His dad got him a new camera and none of the old lenses would go on his new camera so he gave it all to me. Yay!

Then on Tuesday I had the girls over for a sleepover. It was so much fun. All of them got me presents which was so nice of them. Here are the things they got me.One of which I want to specifically say, Sarah made me Herberta, who is the female version of Herbert. Let me explain more. Whenever I first got to Down High, this guy called Bogie (yes that is really his name), came with a tennis ball with a slit in it. And turns out the weekend before, he was trying to play tennis and found out that the particular tennis ball (also the future Herbert) rattled. So he slit a hole in it, took out the stone, thought it was interesting and brought it to school. I was looking at it and then I drew eyebrows and eyes on it and showed it to everyone around me. Then I got to one girl and she said "That's so cute you should call it Herbert or something." Then I named him Herbert and got to keep him because I was so excited over a tennis ball with eyes.

Now, nearly a year later, Sarah decided that Herbert was lonely and thought to give him a girlfriend! So here is the happy (for now) couple.As you can see, Herbert is very much under-accessorised, especially after his shoes fell off. So I will have to make him something soon. Maybe draw on a shirt and tie or something.

And here are the cards they gave me. ^_^ it was nice.Then we watched about 5 movies in a row and ended up only getting to sleep at 7.15am in the morning. Alright, that was a lie. I slept a little bit through the second last movie and all through the last movie because I watched it before. We should so do it again. Took lots of photos but because we all look like eejits I don't think I should put it up at all.

Alright, here is one of the less stupid looking ones. Just got news from my mom that my little sister (Li Hao) is going to sing a solo in her school for National Day celebrations tomorrow! Well done wee sis. At your age I would have been too much of a coward to go up and sing.

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." -Albert Camus (was an Algerian-born French author,philosopher, and journalist who won the Nobel Prize in 1957)



Sunday, August 03, 2008

Happy Birthday To Mee

Yesterday was great! Woke up feeling pretty good. And then showered. Actually I thought of making Cheryll's birthday card for her yesterday but I went downstairs instead and received..

Flowers! MY flowers. Teehee. got them from Auntie Carol.Plus, I got a personalized cake. Here.And then, chocolates, from the best chocolate place in NI.Then Auntie Carol and me made a smoothie with the leftover watermelon. I cut it up and everything.

Put it into the smoothie maker with milk, ice-cream, apple juice, strawberry yoghurt and a sprig of mint. This is the end result:That was actually pretty good. Though I think I had a little too much. After that it was relatively calm, talked to the family in Singapore for a few hours before walking into the kitchen to see lots of things being prepared. End result of Auntie Carol's afternoon is this!She's outdone herself. Always does and the results are absolutely wonderful.

There are even balloons to announce to the whole world that I'm 18. Well at least that someone in the house has turned 18.Here's the cake again, with candles on. By the way, the candles are called 'Magic Candles' which give out sparks when lit but simply would not go out. I did it once, and the flames didn't go out. Ended up, the everyone was puffing at the candles which go out for a moment, then relights itself. Real magic indeed. We had to eventually pick it up in put it into a glass of water to extinguish it. And no, it didn't relight itself in the water. That would be plain freaky.Here's what I got from the aunts and nanny.A lime green Nintendo DS lite! I couldn't believe it. Still can't. I got it with the brain training thing with Sudoku puzzles in it. :)

And this from Uncle Paul, Auntie Carol and Jordan.It's a key, for my 18th birthday because traditionally, teens are handed the house keys on their 18th birthday. Apparently it's done from the olden times and used to be made of plastic and cardboard or something. Mine is real metal :)

This is from Auntie Carol and Uncle Paul.A necklace with an Irish Harp on it ^__^

And this from Jordan. The Body Shop so totally rocks, I love their stuff.Here are the cards from everyone.Today I took a few white chrysanthemums and put it into a little vase with beetroot juice in it. What I'm hoping to do, is to get the chrysanthemums to turn red or at least pink. So will be taking a picture of it tomorrow to see. Here is Day 1 of Chrysanthemum Dyeing Project.By the way, the bottle of 'water babies' to prove if they really 'give birth' was accidentally squashed in the camp and therefore, that project is called off. Below is the post about the camp, so do scroll down and take a look.

"For my birthday I got a humidifier and a de-humidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out." -Steven Wright (American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, witty, deeply philosophical and sometimes confusing or nonsensical jokes and one-liners with overly-contrived situations.)






Residential Camp '08

The camp was, surprisingly, not as bad as I prepared myself for. Most of the stuff I did can be done, and besides that, I've got quite a bit of free time to myself in between activities and meal times. One thing's for sure though, the chef is really good. Food is sooo much better than last year's.

Right, so first day. I did not go for bouldering, (because if I remember correctly, I got a big bruise from it). Instead, I went for Initiatives, which is, to cut the long story short, a series of games which build up teamwork and stuff. After that, it's dinner, and then a looong trip in Newcastle. I went on the bumper cars for the 1st time in my life and absolutely loved it :) Then we watched a movie called Good Luck Chuck. Really good, really funny, but ever so risque.Second day, we did canoing in the morning after breakfast. People were dragging so much, and also because I let the other girls use the showers before me, I only had 5 minutes to shower. Pretty amazed at myself for doing that, and really come to think of it, the water is so cold, I had to be fast anyway. In the afternoon, we did Low Level Ropes Course and then Archery. Archery is by far, my favorite activity. I must admit my aim is pretty lousy, but still, whenever I shoot the bulls eye out of pure luck, I still walk back to my seat grinning. Night time it's free time, and I spent the night sitting on my bunk bed relaxing and talking to Ryan on my phone.Third day, was pretty much the most exciting one of the whole camp. I did the High Level Ropes Course, which is a series of rope courses about two storeys above the ground. Now, as everyone knows, I'm dead scared of heights. Absolutely hate them. Once I got up the very wobbly ladder, I started shouting "I want DOWN!" before I even started the course because I had trouble getting onto the platform. When I found out that I had to get back down the ladder again, I decided to get on with it. After getting pass two stages I didn't want to do anymore and had to be rescued. :P Meanwhile, I looked back and saw a very noisy guy behind me named Henry shout and make a fuss because he, too, was afraid of heights. Well, at least I was more dignified. In truth, I was really that paralyzed with fear I dare not talk or move in case I fall. Then, lunched and went for Initiatives again. Because I like Initiatives better. You don't have to strain yourself. ^___^ This time, we went onto a bus to Newry. Stayed there for about 3 hours. We actually had to meet the leaders at 10.30pm. But because the shops closed at 9, all of the teens were left sitting on the benches with literally nothing to do. 10.30 rolled on, and roughly 18 very bored, and very annoyed teens still saw no signs of the leaders. Eventually, the leaders came which was good.

Fourth day, which is the last day of the camp. Woke up with a sunny disposition because I'm looking forward to going home. But only yo be greeted by gray skies and rain. The whole camp has decided to not do the activities today and go for a walk in Newcastle instead. Paul led us to near the top of Green Hill I think, and then back down again, promising great sights and scenery. But alas, it's been raining so much over the summer that the trees have grown to cover the scenery. To make things worse for the others, it started raining just before we went down. And some of the girls were wearing inappropriate footwear *snigger*. It was fine for me though, I was actually quite enjoying it. Just don't particularly enjoy being accompanied by a small flowing river that appeared with the rain. Now did I enjoy the lengthy walk back to the camp from Newcastle in the pouring rain. Went home really relieved, wet and tired. Had a shower, and then went to bed. Phew!

Now to say I completely enjoyed myself was a lie. I didn't like the conditions we were put in. Just take a look at our room.And now the showers and the toilet.It all looks a wee bit dinghy looking doesn't it? In some parts of the shower floor, it is actually slimy! And there were hairs from the previous girls who showered who were not in the camp with us! Eugh!

Then here is the living room. As well as the people.So ends my really long post about the residential camp this year. Not too bad, and definitely better than last year in spite of the terrible conditions we were put in. All because I came home with less bruises, it was less exerting and the food was good. Damn I'm easy.

"The greatest problem in the world today is intolerance. Everyone is so intolerant of each other." -Princess Diana (Princess of Wales, was the first wife to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales)