clean linen

As I am now waiting for the bathroom to be freed up by my sister so that I could take a bath, I read my sister's blog and an email I received from my cousin now living in Ambridge... And have come to the conclusion that I, myself, want to do some serious travelling to visit all my cousins overseas! Especially my nieces and nephews! :) While my sister talks about how adorable and SMART my nephew is becoming, I must whine about the differences in education systems of Singapore and America. Just look at the FUN school lives of my nieces, Rachel and Elizabeth, after they've moved over to America (Words are written by my cousin)! 1) The girls are doing very well at school. Both are ahead of their classes, mainly because the S'pore syllabus is ahead. Elisabeth is in 1st Grade and has been put on an accelerated programme doing 2nd Grade Reading and Math. Rachel is in 5th Grade and has been picked to be part of the school's 5th Grade Gifted Programme. All this is doing wonders ...

I happened to catch this show on Starworld (Channel 18) that was showing from 9-10pm. It is fast-paced and can get very exciting. Here's a synopsis I took from its official website : Neal McDonough (NBC’s “Boomtown”) and Kelli Williams (“The Practice”) return to series television as members of a mobile medical team from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who are summoned in a heartbeat to scope out -- and hopefully snuff out -- outbreaks of unexplained and fearful diseases. These specialists drop out of the sky anywhere and have government carte blanche to take charge when people start dying, which requires them to medically re-construct grisly events to prevent the next epidemic, plague or contagion. McDonough stars as Dr. Stephen Connor, the leader of the team whose take-charge attitude has enabled him to save the lives of millions, but in the process, has sadly cost the separated Connor his family. Williams portrays Dr. Natalie Durant, who specializes in pathology and epide...

If you're wondering what award this is (Yes, it's an award), it's actually a merit award for being voted by teachers as being very courteous. I got this same award last year in MGS and am very happy to get this merit award again this year. Actually, I didn't even know I won the award until this morning right before assembly. As Jien and I were gettting into line for assembly, my CT rushed to me and asked me to go up to the Balcony to receive a prize for the class. I asked him what was the prize that our class won and he just answered flippantly, "Er... I also don't know, forgot already. Just look for this teacher (who shall remain unknown)." Huh. I didn't know who that teacher was, and I was just supposed to rush up to the balcony to receive an unknown prize of unknown origins? Well, I did exactly that. Apparently, the teachers are not supposed to tell us winners in advance. It was supposed to be a surprise. So it was a nice surprise. But I was panicki...

Today was the first time my brother booked out of camp, and the first time I saw him in uniform. heh. Here's a picture. He actually posed for me 3 times, the first two shots were shaky so I had to take one using the flash, and produced this! I've such a patient brother! :) Dinner that night was interesting. My brother told the family all the interesting events that happened in his first 2 weeks at camp while he was gobbling down LOADS of food. Now, you must understand that the whole family eats very very little rice every night. But this time, my brother took 2 large helpings of rice. I was amazed. He was practically ATTACKING the food! I really couldn't help but stare. It was cool to have him back. Sunday he's going to have to report at Pasir Ris bus interchange to return to Pulau Tekong in the evening so we're going to have an early family dinner, then send him there. More guys in uniform! ;)

Today, I went to Videoezy intending to rent a few episodes of a Korean drama serial called "Full House" so that I could watch it while running on the treadmill at home. But every single disc was rented out already so I rented 2 other movies, one starring the Care Bears and the other starring Drew Barrymore. The Care Bears are ADORABLE! Oh my gosh! Even though I felt like I was back in Kindergarten while watching this show just now, I still enjoyed the show. Here's the synopsis of the show as printed on the back of the VCD cover: When one of his jokes goes wrong, Funshine Bear leaves Care-a-lot to find a place where his sense of humour will be appreciated. His travel takes him to Joke-a-lot, a whimsical land where humour rules and Funshine is made king! He is even given a royal sceptre guarding the magic jewels which hold the secret to Joke-a-lot's power to tickle the funny bone. Worried about their lost friend, Tenderheart, CheerBear and the other Care Bears track dow...

This will be the 2nd Sunday night that my brother's not around. This is because he is busy becoming a MAN on Pulau Tekong. I can't wait to see him this Friday. His absence can really be felt on weekends because weekends are usually the time where the whole family goes out to have dinner together on both Saturday and Sunday. Tonight, as well as last Sunday, it was just my parents and myself because my sister had her own arrangements. Just 3 of us going out for dinner makes it so obvious that my brother's not around. Ah well. AGAIN, I just have to say that I'm looking forward to this Friday when I get to see my brother. Also, next weekend should be a better, more normal one, because my brother will be having dinner with us!

This korean drama serial is one that has a better ending. When I say "better", I mean that it has a happy ending that is not morbid or not satisfying enough. My sister and I agree that the ending could have been much better if they left out some things in the last disc, but it's already considered very good. Take for example, "lovers in paris". It was a really good show until the very last 10 minutes or so of the show. What was THAT all about! You'll know what I mean if you watch the show. But back to this show. The male lead is completely DASHING. Especially when he smiles. He's got both my sister and I weak in the knees, swooning over him. Take a look. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/shanti_psy/ji%20sung/jisung_30.jpg This picture has him covering his fantastic smile with his hand (oh bugger!) but you still can see his features, right? My sister and I have been trying to find a photo of him that has him smiling in a cool pose. But so far, all t...

Today, after reporting my return to my mum, I entered my room to receive a pleasant surprise. Or maybe I was more shocked than surprise. My usually crowded table which had piles of books and toys on it... ...was EMPTY My mother, the packer in the house, had seen me using a cramped table to study and figured it was time to make some space for me so that I spread my books out on the table. I later discovered after taking a few more looks that she basically hid everything away in a corner, piled up high. If you come into my room and look towards the right of my table, behind the white pillar, you'll see 2 high stacks of books. Ok, so maybe not 2 high stacks. But it's high. I was happy, but shocked. Still haven't gotten used to the emptiness of my table. One thing I was really sad about was that my mother had to squeeze all my favourite stuff toys into a miserable box. I placed all those toys on the table so that I could look at them and smile at them when I was a little sad fr...

Our second class outing, besides our class dinner after our Common Tests, was to the NEWater plant at Bedok Reclamation Centre (I think that's its name). At 1.15 we got on the bus together with our form teacher. While we were busy passing around snacks to fill our stomach, Jien and I took a photo that really reminded us of the time we went to OCS together. Here's a nice picture of us: Although my hair looks positively weird. Jien, I think you have the nicer photo. :) Anyhow, it was an interesting experience. I didn't take any photos once we got inside and we weren't allowed to take any photos outside of the building so there's a sore lack of photos on this "festive occasion". However, I did take a photo of Sheryl and Joanne in the building after we each got a bottle of NEWater. It was the usual packaging but this time it came with a lanyard for us to hang the bottles around our neck. Don't the 2 of them look so primary-school-ish? Which is a good thi...

Ok, so today he was one of the "enlistees", a "recruit"... but he is on his way to becoming a handsome, fit young man in UNIFORM! Whoo! I love guys in uniform! :) What more, the name of my brother's company is QUITE cool! Falcon! He's in the 2nd platoon so he doesn't need to climb so many floors to his bunk, just to the 3rd floor only. As compared to the 4th platoon that's on the FIFTH floor! So. Starting right from the beginning. My parents, brother and I left the house at 11.45 today for the SAF Ferry Terminal. My brother was supposed to report by 12.45 while my parents and I went on a tour of the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC). We went into the bunks (Quite spacious, 12 or 13 beds in a room. The tour leader said the beds were as comfortable as the ones in a chalet), saw the Recruit Annex (A place in their block for the guys to chill, watch tv, play table football, table tennis, billiard), their sports facilities, canteens and auditorium. At...