this week was supposed to be very fun. but then something stupidly unexpected happened on wednesday :(

monday: i stayed home to wash clothes and i got to eat all the rubbish snacks at home and watch tv!

tuesday: jasmineHO's birthday! bengawan solo poster girl:haha shihui planned a very nice surprise that unfortunately was ruined! but it was quite nice anyway cos we had PIZZA!! and ice cream!! the three of us in lab coats and tee! somehow my lab coat looks damn big. but look at the nice flowers!! haha jasmine did you remove the anthers like i told you??
then we left work early to have ben & jerry's free cone! chunky monkey. i wanted to have a few more but then everyone else was feeling guilty abt kop-ping free cones so we left :( :( :( :( :( then ereeeen and i went to buy materials for joan's present. haha we left city hall to go to dhoby ghaut (is that how it's spelt?) and as you all know, it's only one stop away. but i can't remember what we were talking about that was damn funny cos i kept laughing and laughing and next thing we knew, we were in newton! argh so stupid right.

wednesday: was supposed to be super fun cos i was going to meet up with my primary school gang! but then........... like 2 hours after lunch, i suddenly felt very hot and giddy and my stomach lurched and i just thought "oh shit". so i quickly excused myself from the emergency room and ran to the toilet where i subsequently emptied my stomach contents :( the pink ice kachang all came out :( :( so for the rest of the afternoon, i slept in the office. then my mum picked me up and i went home and slept the rest of the night.

thurday: took the day off. i was supposed to meet bird for the morning but then all sorts of stupid things came up and i only met her for like an hour. later walked over to toa payoh sports hall to watch my sister's badminton finals! oooh i got to sit with the players and parents!on thurs 27 april, i was formally inducted into the parents' club. haha the badminton parents are all so supportive, take day off to support their daughters! when they sensed new blood (i.e. me) they quickly turned around and introduced themselves. so nice! how come softball parents not like that? haha and they all asked me whether i was an ex-player. it's so funny how everyone assumes sports must run in the family. anyway rgs was playing sports school! rgs won the first singles 2-1! my sister played first doubles against this super qiang pair. poor thing.
我的妹妹!they lost 0-2 :( then rgs won the second singles 2-1! wahhh that match almost gave me a heart attack. the rg girl was damn good! she will like dive at the net to receive the drop shot and then somehow get up and run all the way to the back of the court and lob the shuttle back AND win the point! so cool! very stefi graf eh? except in badminton context lar. i thought it was v funny when one girl fell and since the floor was wet from her sweat, the umpire asked the linesman to clean the floor. the linesman was an ac boy! haha when will you ever see an ac boy mopping the floor for you??? rgs lost second doubles and third singles :( :( so saddddd. actually sports school was lucky they won. they already lost the boys b div. if the girls lost as well, then so malu! what kind of sports school will that be? but oh well.... never mind.

sometimes the more you achieve/possess, the more you expect. and you will never be contented.

sometimes i wonder, if i had completely flunked the bloody PSLE and never got the chance to go to rgs and then rjc, i wouldnt be in this situation now. if i didnt get into rg, then i wouldnt have aimed to get into rj, then i might not have considered being a doctor, then i wouldnt even have thought about overseas studies, and i would be contented and happy. if i had never gone for uk interviews, then i wouldnt have opened myself up to that option. and then i would have no CHOICE but to stay in singapore. but now that i have a few options, it really complicates matters. it's really hard for me to decide what i REALLY want, cos honestly, i have no idea. i know i may sound like an asshole saying all these cos yes, it is a fact that i have been very blessed. there are people out there who dont even have the chance to do med at nus (or even study at nus) and here i am complaining that i have too many options. i should thank God that my parents can afford to send me through med school (if i get in anyway) here, but why am i bugged by the fact that they probably do not have the means to finance an overseas education while others can just pack their bags and leave? i just cant help it! it's how we work. or i work. we'll never be contented with what we have. we'll always envy others who can get to do the things which we might not get the chance to do. but who wouldnt want to have the chance to experience life outside of this..place?! i bet it'd be exciting. (but then again, all my friends/family/whatever else are here and i would be terribly homesick. and i can go on and on and on and on and on about the pros and cons of studying overseas...........)

anyway, the point is: sometimes i wish money was never an issue.

on a side note, i'm sick and tired of being a kiasu berger. doing things just because i'm scared of losing out. why cant they just leave me alone...?! buggers.

hurray!! no more "why do you want to do medicine" or "what qualities do you have that would make you a good doctor" questions! i honestly admit that i'm sick of answering such questions and i'm so glad that i'm finally done with med interviews! now all i have to do is wait patiently for results to come out. which makes me feel very scared cos no, my interviews were not all that great. my interviewers decided that they wouldnt like to just talk about my personal statement (contrary to what everyone else says) and so they cunningly led me towards CURRENT AFFAIRS. oh what horror. i'll just leave it all up to God to show me where i should go.. all the best to all of you out there who havent gone for interviews :)

ps: ok la, i've changed my display name. since ymw has complained that no one knows who elizabeth is.

my weekend in nanjing

yes it was a very short holiday. my holidays are always short. save money whatttt!

anyway starting from the beginning:
left on friday early morning. the taxi fare to get from my house to changi airport is fricking $15.20!!! plus additional booking fee, it took us $20.20! daylight robbery! (although technically it was still dark when we reached the airport) anw. we took sq there. me in economy and my dad in business :( haha watched quite a few movies there and back. the only good show was KISS KISS BANG BANG. omg it was sooooo funny. robert downey jr is very likeable, michelle monaghan is so hot and val kilmer. omg haha. val kilmer looks way different from his batman days (i.e. now he is fat and quite ugly) but he is incredibly funny as gay perry. i really couldn't stop laughing. plus the plot was relatively intelligent. you can watch the trailer here and read let's review on the movie here! the food on the plane wasn't nice. i only liked the cornetto ice-cream. anyway since business class was empty the stewardesses let me sit with my dad just before landing. oooh business class is so nice. silk pillow covers, suede arm rests, tons of leg room and gigantic seats! haha i'm so suaku.

so then we arrived! our hotel was the 名人城市酒店 (celebrity city hotel). it was so niceeeee.

that afternoon we visited the 南京大屠杀纪念馆 (nanjing massacre museum). at first our guide told us we were going to the "nanjing massack" then my dad and i were like "huh??" haha the weather on friday was like shit as you can see. luckily the museum is indoors. most of the displays had english and chinese placards but the english translation was quite bad. the problem with my poor chinese is i take so damn long to read everything! :(

there was a grand banquet that night! my dad got to sit at the head table so i got to sit there too :D i even had a little namecard that said 王小姐. quite funny right! the food was sooo yummy. a lot of lake food (cos they have a gigantic lake in nanjing) and a lot of poultry. i was quite scared to eat all the duck etc cos of the bird flu but a lot of the food items were nanjing specialties like 盐水鸭 (brine soaked duck) and it would have been very rude if i didn't eat them. ooh in nanjing they eat their 豆花 savoury with soy sauce and pickles. quite yummy although i still prefer it sweet. what is 豆花 in english ah? the hotel put it down as borled beancurd which i'm pretty sure isn't right. heck china is the place where signs like this exist:

so the next day i went sightseeing! my dad was at the meeting so this china guy took me out for the day. he's from harbin, surname is zhang and plays basketball... doesn't that sound familiar? he even looks like haoming! so scary. we went to 紫金山 (i think that's how it's written) where you're supposed to see the whole of nanjing when you reach the top. but all i saw was....
fog :( shitty weather lar...

later we also went 中山陵（sun yat sen's memorial) look at the steps we had to climb!
finally at the top!

at night we went to 秦淮河 for dinner. that place 真有气氛. there were like a million people there! neon signs and the smell of 臭豆腐 or exceedingly smelly people filled the air. we took a river cruise (highly touristy i know) and the guide was speaking mandarin so fast i could barely follow. i did recognise at least one poem though. you know the one 清明时节雨纷纷？ugh i hope that's right :S oh and can someone tell me what is the story of 猴子捞月? i don't remember it at all.

next day was more sightseeing. i've left out a lot cos i realise it's quite boring. aiyah actually i had a lot of thoughts on this trip but now i can't be bothered to type them out so that's all. oh wait! before i forget: everyone said my chinese is very good! :D :D :D :D

so i decided to look back at our earlier entries. and i found THIS. (2 nov 2004 entry)

10. no matter how much i rant and rave about THE PW SHIT, i actually quite like my group members. and hu chen is really kinda cool man.

goodness gracious me! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

class outing on 170406

pictures from 403 class outing at swensen's/swenson's! aiya i cant be bothered to check the correct spelling and i can never remember.



and jas ho: i havent met you at ssdc for a long time..!! aha prob cos i'm not going very regularly anymore and we always go at different times. :(

i should have posted this a long time ago :(

RGS is raising funds to help a cancer-stricken ex-student Joan Chan Shu Fang (RGS 2002/RJC 2004) who was a Peer Support Leader and 1st sergeant in NCC and captain of the RJC softball team.

In 2005, Shu Fang was diagnosed with tongue cancer Stage 4 and as a result, gave up her place to study Architecture in NUS. She underwent surgery, after which she was treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. During a second operation on her shoulder, it was discovered that Shu Fang was suffering from skin cancer as well. Unfortunately, chemotherapy has not worked and her situation has deteriorated. She has less than a year to live if treatment with a trial drug Iressa, fails. Iressa has shown to kill off some of the cancer cells but results are still inconclusive. The cost of Iressa is S$110.30 per tablet and she requires 2 tablets a day due to her worsening condition, bringing the total medical bill to a hefty S$6000 a month. This is a great financial burden to her family as her mother has had to quit her job to look after Shu Fang. Her father, a taxi driver, too has had to limit his working hours per day to watch over her in case of an emergency. RGS hopes to raise an amount of $36,000 to cover Shu Fang's medical bills & treatment for 6 months.

If you feel moved to help give Shu Fang a shot at life, please issue your cheque to "RGS" and write "Chan Shu Fang Fund" at the back of the cheque, together with your name & contact address/e-mail. You can mail the cheque to RGS at 20 Anderson Road, Singapore 259978, by 17 April 2006. Thank you.

(it's past the deadline but i'm sure you can still send in donations!)
my sister in oxford got this email and some of her friends thought it might be a hoax. IT"S NOT!

anyway it's been good catching up with a ton of people the past week: 403 (i don't like it when we call ourselves funkyfishes. it just sounds.... weird :D) sarah lee (finally) sunxing! unfortunately i won't be able to meet her when i go to canada cos toronto is too far from montreal :(

yesterday i got immensely stressed out when i was waiting for my dad to go home. was working on my personal statement and it just wasn't flowing! i really got super annoyed and angry at myself :( the worst part was i ended up spending abt 4hours alone in my cold office thinking about how i'm so stupid that i can't even put my thoughts and feelings into coherent sentences. also got a bit overwhelmed by the fact that most doctors i meet think medicine is a shitty career choice. it is highly highly discouraging. but i still think it's the way to go. anyway guess what time i left the hospital??? NINE! at first my dad told me 7pm can go home already. then i paged him and the nurse called back to say he was still in OT :( anyway at 9pm i was tired, hungry (i finished my week's supply of food. partly cos erin ate some) and upset. but i couldn't be mad at my dad cos he just spent his entire day helping ppl. and he was very happy cos the cases went well. sigh.
so i finished my essay last night. it looks terrible but i don't want to have to edit it anymore. working on the resume now. i think i can just fit it into a page. argh and i still have to pack!

driving is dangerous!

eeek i conclude tt i'm an extremely dangerous driver after today's revision lesson. yes, i'm a road hazard. beware of the bird!!! everything was going smoothly but in the last few minutes of my lesson, i -gasp- spun round a corner really sharply and scarily cos the stupid gear lever couldnt get engaged properly (all ssdc cars are like that, so lousy!) and i forgot to release my clutch and so erm, i free-wheeled quite badly. i think. thankfully, somehow i managed to remember that the car had a brake pedal. shock of my life man! i thought the car was going to like fling out and bang into some random car in the circuit or what! and this motorcycle instructor rode past in his motorcycle and gave my instructor and i the shocked-but-sympathetic look. goodness gracious. it was quite traumatising; something like the feeling i got when i almost knocked down this motorcyclist in the circuit. urgh, better drive carefully next time.

yay i am super duper happy today cos......................

RJ beat HC 8-7!!!!!

woot! yayyyyyyyyyyyyy! obviously i'm talking about the girls team! guys team don't need to say. i am so happy for them!!! 2 years in a row liao... we started a trend :D haha i'm so proud of them! they've really worked VERY VERY hard this year. i don't think i could tahan this year's training :S haha hope they'll continue doing well!

heh heh anyway today tanshihui the newly-certified driver took us down to rj! wah i'm not sure whether it was because the weather was too hot or i was damn scared to sit in her car, but i was sweating like mad on the way there! haha but seriously she's a very good driver, right jasho?? successful filtering during heavy traffic! good parking! ...we reached just in time! the match was really quite scary. we were losing at the start, then we had a really good inning and held them and then scored many many runs. i was damn kanchiong as 3rd base coach lar... my heart was beating so fast whenever they were stealing and the catcher threw to the base. haha note: i think the other catcher was very zaiii. deb was good too of course! aiyah i realised i don't really know how i played as a catcher. in fact i can't really remember doing any plays (besides hollywood). just remember squatting behind home plate with sweat dripping down my face. how unglam. oh yeah the sun today was VERY HOT. we were there for 4 hours. i didn't have sunblockkkk!!! huh see if rj pe dept had taken up my suggestion last year for a sunblock dispenser to be available we wouldn't have such severe chowtah problems. (everyone laughed at me when i suggested it. pale freaks) this is serious ok! my feet feel cold but my eyeballs are radiating heat. ugh.

miss singapore universe!!!

so i sat in front of the television at 7 pm, eagerly waiting for miss singapore universe 2006 to start. i watch this every year; mainly to see how smart/stupid the contestants are and to be mean and comment abt how fat/skinny they are. first things first, i have nothing against people joining miss singapore universe. if you're beautiful and smart, go ahead man. (yes i believe that msu is not only a BEAUTY PAGEANT but you need a CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF BRAINS too. i mean like, if you're going to represent singapore on the WORLD STAGE, you shouldn't behave like a bimbo who cant speak proper english and formulate her thoughts well, right..?!!!?)

anyway, i shall not be mean and comment abt physical features. so, let's talk abt their level of intelligence! (i'm not saying that i'm extremely intelligent or being intentionally horrid here. just have a sense of humour ok!) i was especially interested in THE A*STAR SCHOLAR. since she talks so much abt her being a scholar (and an A*STAR one!), i was really really really interested to find out how smart she really is. and....-snigger-...haaahahahahaa...ha...ha...150 km/h...-tries very very very hard not to laugh-...PARKING TICKET (HAHAAHAH speeding ticket you mean.)..yes so, taking into account the level of stress/anxiety/nervousness, i still dont think it's justified for MISS A*STAR SCHOLAR to say sth so extremely..unintelligent. seriously, like WHO WALKS AT 150 KM/H and gets a PARKING TICKET for SPEEDING?! (alright, i know she was trying to be funny but sorry, it didnt work :( ) and like, i think the question meant "slow down" as in slow down in our daily lives and not LITERALLY sloww down when walking along the underpass. like, what a hilarious answer.

alright, cant be too mean. :)

on a side note, i didnt know lee hsien loong was at rj on saturday!! cos i was trying very hard to sell tau huay. i think people who went will forever remember me as the irritating tau huay seller. hey, we really need the money ok. hahaha.

at least one keen reader has complained about the lack of updates so here i am!

yesterday afternoon we had the freshers' meeting. jasho and i went for lunch before that and found out how gst and service charge can really kill! also met miss loooooooo working at b&j's looking quite pleased with herself. haha i think her job is quite nice, no? look at ice-cream the whole day, think about ice-cream the whole day, scoop ice-cream the whole day... oh and get paid too! haha shite miss looo i suddenly remembered that next fri i cannot make it cos i'm going to chinaaaa!

back to the meeting thingy: thinking we were insanely late, we decided to cab down to the venue. in a rather nice mercedes cab complete with issues of singapore tatler in the seat pockets. i'm always thoroughly amused by singapore versions of swanky magazines cos the socialites look so uncool! haha but i think it must be fun to be one. just pose for pictures and drink champagne 7 nights a week :D anywayyyy, i was a bit peeved cos we spent $4 on the fare and it turned out we weren't late at all. in fact we were like the second and third to arrive! grrr but when everyone else turned up all smelly and sweaty after the gruelling hike up, $4 didn't seem too bad. the session was sufficiently awkward :7 as all first orientation thingys should be. haha but at least it was quite interesting to see who might be going. i honestly don't know how fitting in with this group is going to be like but let's keep positive! i will be more sociable! :D :D :D

i think i must be becoming a super s-league fan! every week i visit tampines rovers homeground lehhh. even better than visiting highbury etc! don't need to pay money!so cool right?? hurhurhurhur cos of my sister's weekly training, i spend every saturday in the tampines area :( who will play badminton with me there?? since i don't know anyone living around the area, i have been visiting the library most diligently. then a couple of weeks back my dad said: why don't we go watch the football match? okayyyy. the stadium was. (almost) empty. the dugouts (are they called dugouts in football?) were benches. my dad and i took very long to figure out which team was tampines. we didn't know the team colour was yellow. it was a dull game. in fact the only highlight was when someone kicked the ball to the stands and my dad had to return it to the linesman. sad sad sad. i think i should do something else with my saturdays.