stupid tagboard has been down for gdness how long already. have no choice but to switch to another one. and finally i have the time to blog. ok not really as im not done with my packing and my train leaves in 2 hours' time!!

am so happy that the holidays are finally here! a gd time to take a breather and have a short overseas trip. if only they were longer, i could have gone to further countries. nvm, id leave that for december. for this break, im gonna visit frenz in london and oxbridge. it wld be nice to speak rapidly in singlish on a daily basis, instead of speaking mostly proper french at a slower pace haha =) MOE should really review their 3rd lang syllabus. there's not much use in drilling so much grammar in areas like e gerundive and subjunctive mood, as well as the awful past participle and conditional tense for hypothetical situations. as if in daily life, i wld be going on and on about "if i WERE bill gates, i WOULD donate 50% of my fortune to charity" or "if it IS sunny tomorrow, we WILL go to the beach", or "if the train driver HAD SLOWED down, the collision WOULD HAVE BEEN avoided". u get my drift. granted, grammar is important, but colloquial usage and slang are just as crucial. they add vibrant nuances to the language and bring it to life! yet they are sorely lacking. tsk tsk. u know how important that is? im catching up on it now. imagine dear mr lee issuing a mandate that everyone in spore is to speak BBC english all the time, and that speaking singlish is a criminal offence that warrants flogging. theres goes my talkingcock.com and mrbrown show, and all the comedic acts that rely so much on singlish to deliver the punch in the jokes. and sporeans wld become sad, stiff-lipped and staid ppl..

in school, things are getting better, which is gd. im only bogged down by math and philo, which ive plenty to bitch about, possibly when i return and after finishing my 7 horrendous assignments that EVERY prof handed out with glee. IRRITATING. and i even plan to study in the train itself as i have an exam on e mon that school reopens.. boo hoo, come to think of it, id prefer a final-year assessment style to a continual evaluation one.. at least then i dun need to mug daily and can afford myself a lot more slack.

and interaction-wise, the dynamics are improving! and for that im really grateful. rem how we used to have PRC or indian or even msian and indonesian scholars back then in the days of yore of sec sch? and how we sporeans used to just hi-bye them and then keep to our very own singaporean clique? the tables are turned on me this time round, and its really tough. on one hand it makes u aware of how it wld be like to be their position, on the other, it makes u vexed at the injustice of it all. but when push comes to a shove, ud just emerge a survivor. AMEN! haha

and i just remembered this incident in sec 3. we had an orientation camp at jalan bahtera(sp?) and my class had an influx of about 10 indonesian and msian scholars. and on one of the campfire nites, we had to get into a circle and do this stupid dance that goes:

as we walk to the left, as we walk to the right
as we walk, as we walk, as we walk all night
with a heel and a toe, and a half turn-around
with a heel and a toe and a new friend found!

the tune is nice, tho the lyrics are cheesy. but can u imagine 15-yr old guys wearing PT kits doing that in a muddy field? it was quite funny, as the dance movements included doing the half turn-around behind ur partner, and then jumping in front on the guy behind ur partner on the beat "FOUND". now, that was in 1999 where BM2000, yonex and bata white shoes ruled the day, and sports shoes like nikes and reebok( quite big then i think, since adidas wasnt really in sight) could only be found in indept shoes like acs. and so i carefully treaded here and there on e field in my second pair of painfully white shoes, e 1st being caked in mud already from e day's earlier activities. all went well as i think most of e guys were careful not to splash too much. BUT. this goon of an indonesian called mark (i will nv forget his name haha) was super gungho. he was trampling around in e mud as if it were water from a baby's rose-scented bath or smth. and i knew all was gone as i slowly advanced forward in the circle when he moved backwards. and so the tragic moment came when he did e half turn-around behind his partner, and den JUMPED RIGHT INTO A MUD PATCH right in front of me. the rest was history as i cld only remember getting irritated with him for having jumped so hard e mud spashed right up to my thighs and shorts. hmm.. i think ive digressed yet again. backtrack.

ok, one gd thing is that i only do not understand slang well (moe has done its job well after all), and that in no way hinders me in my studies; and so by e grace of god, i understand everything that the teachers say and do farely well in my studies. to those french idiots who have been treating me like an invisible ghost and get frightful grades, just 4 words: vous êtes vachement minables! oh dear.. im so vindictive. but i dun really care. hah.

yesterday afternoon saw my classmates and i playing baseball and rugby in the park beside school. it was awesome, my retarded psycho-motor skills managed to serve me so well in baseball i made 5 consecutive homeruns! so proud of myself hah. and wat made it sweeter was that the weather was cool, so even with my being decked out in 3 layers, i didnt even break into a single sweat. but for rugby its a different story. now, im not one garang guy who enjoys tough 'ruggedy' sports that involve jostling and getting muddy etc. and so i played 'tactically' without getting dirty (read avoiding all the muddy patches on e field when possible lol). the jostling part couldnt be avoided of coz, and my arms still hurt from getting rammed by 1 of e guys. i wish i were much bigger-sized like them.

and im playing sports more often now than in singapore. amazing. my tubby lardy self is slowly evolving into a lean mean machine. haha yea rite. as i have a 1 1/2 hour lunch break everyday, i have lotsa time, and fats as well, to burn after lunch. and esp after ingesting dessert and cheese and a mini bread loaf daily, i feel esp unhealthy. im usually not a cheese person but e dining hall usually serves gd mild cheese tt goes v well with e soft bread, so i cant help but wipe everything out. the same thing goes for desserts. omg e cakes and eclairs and pastries and chocolate and caramel cream etc. i feel so light-headed from e sugar overload i can float above the table . oh my the irony of that statement.

and so i usually play either soccer, volleyball or basketball after lunch. i shldnt have actually. coz its so damn paiseh. for one, im like almost always the shortest guy amongst them, and secondly, they dun have retarded coordination skills that im so sadly blessed with. and so u can imagine e catastrophe when i play. i once aimed at e basket such a lousy throw my team mate stopped talking to another guy and said 'quelle chute!!' to me. i shant bother to translate that haha. till now, i wonder how i managed to be so thick-skinned and 'parade my skills' in front of them. but well, no harm done rite? ive moved on to the gym eversince, haha, its safer. and i can at least haolian about my pull-ups, coz for all their beefiness is worth, they cld only do a quarter of e no. i do haha.

one of e guys in my cls generously opened up his place for us to party last nite. and it was damn gd. he had 2 garages, so 1 of them is assigned for partying. my god. and i thought setting aside a room for theatre and ktv purposes is gd enough. in it, he has 3 couches, 2 fridges and a huge table on which e food is laid. but wat is even better is that there's a room beside e garage where he has the disc-spinning equipment, replete with shelfs of discs of all e clubbing music. he even has this disco ball hanging from e ceiling and spot lights aligned along the ceiling that throb. and by throb i really mean throb like how they do in clubs. it was fantastic. and there was free flow of champagne. shiok. i wish i can have such a place like tt. add a pool table and it wld be perfect. and all thanks to e alcohol, im much closer to my clsmates now. To clubbing, the international activity that transcends culture, language and colour! Vive l'alcool!!!

ok i betta go now. damn late!!