Read! Singapore, volunteer workshop, storytelling competition

Last wed was a long day... I only ended at 9.30pm at night!!! That's due to us having to help out at Read! Singapore closing ceremony, and that's cos it's our department's event and we only have a limited no. of manpower. So if there's any event, the whole department is quan ti chu dong one... I'm supposed to usher the guests of honour that day, sighs and i totally freaked out. Our guests of honour includes our CE, director as well as the AMK MP. Heard the mp is a no-nonsense person, and after that table tennis thing that's going on, i pray i don't step on her toes or anything.

So we spent 1 whole day at the Pod (at National Library) preparing for the event. It sure is a lot of work for just a 2-3 hours event man.. going through the schedule, making sure everything is in place, wrap the gifts, prepare the food and everything~ Oh and we also ordered little cupcakes, specially designed for our Read Singapore event, for all our guests! They sure look enticing... but unfortunately, it's only look, guess they have much more room for improvement in the taste department. (I chuck off the whole piece of icing on the top!)

Luckily the ceremony went smoothly in general, though there's a little hitch on the playing of the video, but thankfully no one noticed. Ha... And seeing the MP in person, i think she seems to be a nice lady quite unlike what the newspapers wrote. But oh well, of course i can't say much since i don't know her well after all.

And throughout the whole thing i was so busy, that i totally forgot that i'm supposed to meet kl!!! =O! Feeling super guilty at 10 pm when i first saw the msg on the train back. But luckily she's smart enough to guess that would happen, so she didn't wait... Otherwise, i'll feel damn bad sia.

So that day was totally tiring.. Especially my poor feet! Having to stand on heels for the whole day is sheer torture i tell you!




And talking about torture~ Today is my only free day!! Argh. Last weekend was burnt cos i've to man the Active Aging Carnival booth at Ngee Ann City. And yesterday was totally gone as well, because we have this 10k fathers closing ceremony in the morning, and then i have to rush to prepare for the volunteers' workshop right after.

Oh and about this workshop, I actually have to start off the programme by giving a 20 mins presentation on kidsREAD! Because my boss have to stay at WRL to help out for the 10k fathers event. So on thurs, when she told me for the first time, i totally freaked out (again). And i only got the slides on Friday! PLUS i only end at 7pm on that day~!! It's damn jialat for me, cos i absolutely hate presenting. I've to spent like 1-2 hours going through the slides and thinking of what to say sia.. Terrible man...

And yesterday during the workshop, suddenly there is about 30 people in that room sia~ Usually it's only 10+! And this time there are 5-6 australians, together with many many international students! Usually the people are all Singaporeans! Almost faint~

So during the presentation, i put on a brave front (which i think i must be pretty good at, since my friend told me later that i'm not bad during the presentation heh.), and thankfully, nothing really went wrong, except that i took only 15 mins to say what i'm supposed to say in 30 mins?? Haha... But in any case, that's experience of the giving a kidsREAD presentation to the volunteers for the first time... And i still dread the next one, coming next month. I really hope my boss would offer to present instead of me. Heh.

Then at night, i went for this storytelling show at the Old Parliament House, now the Arts House. Actually i didn't really wanna go for this show, cos i've already have plans to meet jh they all... But this ticket was given by my boss's boss, and she said can't find anyone and these tix are real ex AND this is really relevant to my jobscope..... So i've no choice but to postpone what seem to be one of my rare social meetings of the week, at the last min. Sighs...

Luckily the 2 more major events are over now... I need some rest man.. Need time with my family, friends and also myself! Think i'll take the next 2 fridays off.. Now that i have like 20+ hours to clear! HAha! Shiok~!!

But before that maybe i go sleep first. It's 12.43 am already!!!

CiaoS~~~~~~



PS: Oh btw, i got myself a HP tablet notebook today!! Cool and yet not ex! Exactly like Comex prices and packages!! BUT minus the crowd and the queues! Haha... Apparently, many places are selling their electronic stuffs comparable to the Comex fair... but not many ppl know about it and all chiong to Suntec Convention. Heh.

Orientation

Enjoyed these 2 days of orientation programme~
Cos this means i don't need to be stuck in the office doing the mundane work~~ lolx...

These 2 days of orientation programme quite shiok.
Yesterday went to National Library for a short tour around it. Didn't know there are s many heritage collections there. Almost like a museum sia.

Ended at 5pm yesterday, was quite happy cos this means i can go home earlier (my usual office hours end at 6.30pm). So lalala... i was on the train... Then at redhill station, my colleague called me, " Yiling, i thought you are at the NL? You went off already ar?? Can you come back and help us? We need people!"

Sighs... there goes my dream of reaching home early....yes dream, cos it's no longer a reality. So i turned back with a heavy heart...

In the end, the talk was not too bad... They provide free food and i had fun chatting with this colleagues. Plus there are 4 very 'interesting' individuals.

After the talk got 1 uncle came to me and gave a few feedbacks, about the microphone, the food and the talk. Then later our colleague P, told us that he can already identify 4 people who are not right up there, and that uncle is one of them. Then we were quite shocked, because everyone seemed decent to us. Then he told us about these 4 characters. 1 would always go around and introduce herself as an English teacher, and get phone numbers from the speakers, the authors and so on. But in actual fact, she's actually an umployed lady who always go to the library borrowing the book called memories of life or something. True enough, she was there... talking about that book, and asking for phone numbers... P was damn zun man..

The 2nd one was the most classic one.. P told us she would always tabao all the food back after the events. At first we don't believe, cos she really looked sane and decent and all... Then later, we saw her in action, she tooked her ntuc plastic bags and clear, yes literally cleared all the trays of food~~ Then P was really bad la.. when the lady walked to the lift, with her bags of food... He exclaimed loudly (on purpose)... "Oh NOOoooooo.....!!!! WHERE ARE MY CHICKEN WINGS?!!??!!!" Though she could be the type who really hated to see food being wasted, but the whole scene was really damn funny man... Lol.. And the thought of lumping the chicken wings, samosas, chocolate eclairs and cheese cake all into two plastic bags.... seems a little ... ok nvm.

The other 2 was less extreme. 1 of them always give his feedback after the talks, and P mimicked what the guy always say in his feedback... All i can say is that it was totally uncanny..because that was what that guy told me exactly!! Lol.. The last one is the quiet kind most of the time, but when he gets frustrated he would shout out hysterically in public...

So it's really quite interesting to hear such stories...

And as for today, we went around the main libraries to tour and understand the functions of these libraries.. quite cool... esp the esplanade one.. Can borrow music scores, cds, movies and even screenplay scripts sia...They also allow the public to showcase their piano performance at their open stage.. So cool lo!!

Quite an eye opener today...

Okay.. Will talk another time...
I'm tired man... everyday lack of sleep sia...
Tata!

Shiok-est day so far...

Today's quite shiok...

Worked for half a day.

Went off for lunch at 1pm.

Then after lunch went to collect the tickets, and the drinks & popcorn combo..

The bestest thing is... EvERYtHInG is FOC!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next bestest thing is... Because it's an official company event, so i'm paid while watching movie!!!

Muahahahaa....

So i said, nlb has the most fantastic welfare ever...

But there's a little flaw to this shiok-est day though... The movie isn't really interesting ( i dozed off halfway through the movie)... and the popcorn i can't choose the salted ones.

But i'm not complaining at all though.. It's foc anyway haha...
But if i'm paying for it, i'll definitely have lots to complain. The title is "Mad About English". It's basically a documentary about how the whole China nation are putting efforts in improving their English for the Beijing Olympics. I can't believe how the posters said that this movie is hilarious, because throughout half the movie i can only managed half a smile... while the other half, i simply just slept.

Oh well... maybe this movie can serve as an inspiration for us to prepare for the upcoming F1 event though...that if we all work together, we can also achieve great improvements not so much in our English, but in our standards of conduct. Hopefully when we host our first F1 or YOG, guests won't catch any taxi-snatchers, spitters or gold-diggers in action. (Eeewww...)

Off track again, haha.. But anyway, at the current rate, i believe i'll be staying at nlb for quite some time now...

Ha.

1st time at kuishinbo...

Finally... i got to eat at Kuishinbo after 2 long years man...
Still remember me, Bri and Claud were supposed to go there to celebrate Claud's birthday, but couldn't work it out that time..

Now, finally got to eat there!!
hahaha...

But unfortunately it's cos i'm kena cheated by Bri to treat her part of it...

Oh well...
Anyway, it's really an eye opener... Never seen the legs of a crab so long before~~ about 15 cm know!! And the meat in these legs is as much as the amount of meat in a pincer of a normal crab~ Shiok... That's Alaska Crabs for you... cool...

And first time i tried their well-known paper steamboat... Hmmm... but the soup never ever boils even after the fire went out... faints.. haha...

Bri recommend me to try their soba... Well, agree. Their sobas are pretty good. I even had 2 bowls of that!! hahah shiok...

Other than these more unique dishes, there's also the normal sashimis, the teppanyakis (did i spell correctly?), the normal desserts, the choc fondue and stuff... Not bad...

The most interesting thing in this restaurant is that they have this "tong tong tong kuishinbo" time when only the first 30 customers who chiong to the counter will their limited dish/dessert. And i got 2 out of 4!! lol... One of them is the orange sorbet, which is served in this little orange-shaped container. Cute...

Then me and Bri had a really good chat over there... Oh well, this dinner i really think is for her to nag de... Lol... jkjk. But it's really a great heart-to-heart chat. =)

Hope we have such chats more often...

Okies, gotta catch up my constant lacking beauty sleep~~
TAta~

Run NUS

This is the first time i took part in Run NUS...
Of course i only participated in the Mass Run, which i already think it's quite far already. Lol...
For the competitive category, the route is 10km long lor~~ Okay to me it's super far.

But overall okay lar, when you have a friend to chat with, the run doesn't feel that far after all.
Can't imagine if i run alone man, i''ll probably feel that the run takes years to complete. Haha...

This time there are about 460 people who took part in the mass run, and 200-300 in the competitive category. The route starts from the stadium, to UCC, to Clementi Road, to Kent Ridge Crescent, to Biz bridge, to Prince George's Park, then along the road where the fright night houses are, to Central Library, then finally back to the ending point at the stadium again.

It's quite an experience to run around the campus the first time. Not bad... And no matter what, i have completed 5km after all!!! ha!

Arts workshop, first time volunteering at kidsREAD

Today i'm feeling overall okay, but rethinking the day i feel that today's experience are actually quite interesting.

Meet an arts workshop trainer to discuss about the workshop for the volunteers.
Just this meeting itself had me experienced lotsa mixed feelings, which is a long story....
But anw in summary, she forgot about our meeting the other day and today she was still late by like half an hour! I can tell you i was so on the verge of smsing her "the meeting is off".

But then later when we finally meet, she explained to me her reasons, i forgave her. She turned out to be an interesting person, bubbly and energetic, that i couldn't be angry with her for long. Sighs...

Anw, it seems that her life was quite drama. Her student got involved in an accident, was paralysed and ever since suffered from brain damage. Before the accident, he was a popular rugby captain in JC, had Miss Singapore as his girlfriend and things were going smoothly for him. But after the accident, everything changed. He got very hostile most of the time, no longer the good-looking person he was before, girlfriend and many of his friends left him, and his IQ went back to primary school level. Omg... it's really really sad.. i mean, the plunge after being at the top of the world. If it were me, i wouldn't even know if i can live that long.. But it's really the parents who suffered the most... the guy would probably not understand nor experience this sadness due to his current intelligence, but the parents, who witnessed the whole situation with a clear mind, it's indeed a tragedy..

Oops, i'm off the point again.. but to cut the story short, she's involved in his case, a court case in fact, and she may need to be present during court to give her testimony. The whole case got really complicated and actually involves PI even. omg... sounds totally like what you see in dramas man.

Not only that, she worked in Nickelodeon before, was an illustrator of a storybook and had an interesting editor friend with a mild case of OCD.

There are really interesting people out there. My life on the other hand, looked blank and like a white sheet compared to them. In fact everyone in my office seemed really knowledgeable, very analytical and very up to date with the current affairs, so much so that i feel kinda a little stressed working in that environment. But oh well... we'll see as we go along...

Oh yar, this week a new colleague came. Perhaps we are similarly blur, or maybe she's just very sociable, we hit it off pretty okay. First time i actually see some light in the office. lol.. But nope, she's not our age, she's in her 30s, has a husband and children, something EVERY colleague in my department has... except me of course.

Then we had an interesting session called Gym in the Pocket, before we end work. It's like a huge rubberband which you can use it to do your gym exercises, be it toning your biceps, triceps or trim your tummy area, this simple rubberband can help you do it all. First time i saw such a product. lol...

And after work, i had to rush back to Gombak to volunteer at the reading club with my friends. As to why i went to volunteer, that's another long story.
But anyway, i kinda had to drag my feet when i reach there. I mean after work, when everyone can rush home, relax and probably catch the Olympics on Channel 5... I had to go to the CC to do volunteer work. How pathetic is that! Esp when fri is when i end work early!! My visionary image of me going shopping with friends aft work on fridays has now totally blown into smithereens. Sighs...

But hey, in the end, it turned out to be quite fun...and that hour actually went by pretty fast. Lols.. thanks to those stupid kids (yes i still dun like kids!), they actually made my day by their stupid silly responses.

Ask them to cut out the T-rex on the paper, one boy go cut off all his teeth and turned him into a "bo-gay" dino. Tell him that's very cruel cos the T-rex can't eat meat anymore, then he say the dino can be vegetarian. I ask, if no teeth he can chew the veg meh?? He say, oh yar hor! okay i feed him porridge.

Then there's the 3 army brothers, (they seem to have gone to the same hairdresser and that hairdresser must have worked in NS before). When they are colouring the dino, one of them asked me what color should he colour the dino's teeth. I said it depends, if they brush their teeth it should be white; if they didn't, then it should be yellow lor. Then he went to the extreme and coloured it green. Faints.

And they dare gang up and bluff me. When i asked do they watch tv at home at all, they say NOoooo... in unison (ya rite!). I replied, how can?? Don't bluff lo!! You all really only do homework most of the time meh?? They still dare say YESSsssss... totally in one voice you know. When i asked whether they know how to spell Spongebob, suddenly they all know how to spell... (Ha! I knew it!). Stupid silly kids... lol..

Then there's also this pair of indian siblings... The big sister is so sweet, she helped to clear up the table after everything, and she also took the broom to help us sweep the floor, while her clown brother was busy stealing their cousin's slippers. lol... But when the clown brother ran and fell down, the sister didn't reprimand her brother "see lar!" like i thought she would. Instead she took his hands and examine whether he's hurt, rubbed his hands and tell him gently not to run again. Such sisterly love at such a young age! I'm truly touched at that sight.

Overall, today's quite an interesting but very tiring day indeed.
Gonna catch up some sleep liao.
Bonne Nuit!

NUSSU welfare diary

Wah... this yr's diary is so nice man~!!

The nicest ever loR!!

So nice design!!! Hard cover somemore!!!

kns... when i'm an undergraduate the diary is NEVER that nice man...

Not only that.. the info inside is damn useful too~!!

All the timings of the food outlets, the libraries, the offices and their hotline are in it...

All the important dates of the activities are also compiled in it, so that you won't ever miss any happening event or any deadline with this diary!!! So good lor!!

And there's even a MRT route map in the diary!!!

I'm so jealous man! Why didn't our NUSSU committee do this few yrs ago???

I would have loved this diary if i was an undergrad lar~~

So jealous....... :S

First times...

Many just woke up, suddenly had many thoughts...

These 2 months I had experienced many of my firsts...

Starting from job search...
First time i know what i want for career
First time i went for an official job interview, with 3 interviewers on the panel
First time i receive the job reply from a company

Then mini grad trip...
First time i went to Genting without my family

Then commencement...
First time i put on the graduation gown
First time i received a flower bouquet!! lol...

Then Camp..
First time i am a camp counsellor
Then job starts... this is when i experienced many many of my firsts...
First time i helped out and know about the charity book sale at expo
First time i'm supposed to guide people what to do (usually people guide me~)
First time i'm supposed to book catering, venues for events, workshops
First time i go for a talk by a CE
First time i meet a CE, director and senior director of a large organisation
First time i can borrow reference books out of the library
First time i meet a grassroot leader
First time i went for a book discussion and meet an author
First time i help out in the organising of a contest
First time i requested to put up ads in the ST
First time i applied for medical leave and got subsidized for 85% of my medical bill
First time i stepped in a photo studio, get made up and pose for photos (now i know how difficult it is for American Next Top models to really pose the way their photographers want them to pose


And also first time i saw a dead cockroach in a storeroom


Think there'll be lots more firsts in future...
Hope i can really handle of them well...

Right now i'm indeed a NUS salmon... who just got thrown into the salty ocean after being in the freshwater lake for so long.. Wish i could swim nearer to the shore, but i know i can only move forward.. sighs..

Photo taking at Esplanande & Singapore Flyer!

Started this post on 3rd Aug, 11.13pm...

I still can't believe we did the craziest thing ever today...

We went to Esplanade and Singapore Flyer to take photos...

So what, you'll probably be thinking...





How about taking photos at these places with our graduation gown????



Though it's only me sh and sy, it's unexpectedly quite fun to walk around with our gowns in the public... Especially today when so many tourists are at those places!! Damn paiseh lar, when we first put on our gowns and hats...

National DaY coming SoonS!!

(Finally the glass doors are shut while we are taking e pic~)

Who's Chee Keong??

Nice Esplanade background~~

Great take sy~!!

Thanks for helping us take so many photos that day~!!

Thanks soo much!! :)

Taken by a passer-by, who did a great job!!

The picture is all i asked~ Flowers n esplanade!!

Taken by a caucasian guy,

who finally help us take aft he had finish snapping pics of us with his cam phone..

treat us like part of e tourist attraction sia! :S

People start staring at us... Especially when we reach the merlion at the esplanade, some tourists took photos of us!! FAints! A few came up and congratulate us on our graduation.. haha...

With mini merlion~~

With the original huge one~ Haha..

(Taken by a China lady)

And also got 2 requested to take photos with us.. 1 Caucasian guy, then a French mom and her kid.. Lol... Damn cute lar..

French mom and her kid~

So cute! ^_^

Then because there's only 3 of us, we need to ask tourists along our way to help us take photos.. damn paiseh also.. Out of all these tourists, probably the most memorable one is a German family.. No, should be a big group of two families. They immediately split themselves up just to illustrate to us they are two different families here for different purposes. LOL.. 1 family stays in Singapore and the other came here for vacation... Haha.. They damn cute la, but too bad we didn't take any photos of them so I can't post it here.. Damn animated when they posed for their pics (we helped them take for the whole group)..

Taken by the german dad

the one who lived in Spore~

Later when we were about to leave the merlion, we actually saw another guy in his graduation robe taking photos with his family!!!! LOL... what a coincidence!! And we thought we were the only one!!! HAHa... Since so damn qiao, and he not bad looking also so shun bian ask him take a photo with us lorz... heh.. And from our short introduction, he's also an NUS graduate, graduating from Econs with hons..

All the Arts GRadUAteS! HA!!

And the next crazy thing is, we actually WALKED from Esplanade all the way to Singapore Flyer!!! Faints!! Don't forget we wearing our heels somemore...

At this last destination, we marked the end of our graduation stint...

Ahhh... finally i get to throw this motarboard~~

WooooHOOooo

Bye NUS!!

Bye EssayS!!

BYE STuPID ASSIGNMENT DEADLINES!!!

Went to chill at Jelapeno cafe... After those long walks, we definitely need the cold drinks and the aircon AND the cushion seats!!

But my fusion tea turned out to be a great disappointment....

Then me and sy had our dinner at PopEye's before heading back... where we sat the whole of the red-line from Marina Bay to Bukit BAtok (and JE for sy)!!

Definitely a memorable and satisfying day... =D



PS: Will add the photos to this post soonS!

WASTE MY TIME...

I still can't believe this man...

Uploaded all the pics, arranged them nicely for the prev post and was ready to publish.

Clicked Publish Post, and instead of the "your post is published successfully", I got an "Sorry, your request cannot be processed. Required field cannot be blank. Blogger ID is missing." or something like that..

And i don't know why the hell the stupid autosave isn't working!! Cos usually if i go back page, the page will still be saved...

But when i click back, all the work, all the 3 HOURS OF WORK IS GONE!!!!

GONE!!!!!!!

WTH!!! @$#%%$@%$@%$#%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BL**DY H*LL!!!

great haul from G2000

BHID today is okay... Quite fun, but quite short too...

I can never fully understand how people thinks..

Went shopping awhile with Yenling at G2000. Wah, the sales not bad! $29 for a pants worth $69 at usual price~!! but i heard it's already a week le... so many sizes and designs already sold off!! =(((

Bought 2 sets of office wear. Not a bad shou huo. heh..

Went to Westmall to meet hy n wl.. Quite enjoyable just chilling out man.
So long never had such chilling out times that i almost forgot it could be quite fun...
Lol...
Then bought a pair of shoes~ Only $15.90 and quite good for office wear too~

Shiok shiok~

Overall feeling not bad today~ HAha...

Induction programme

Ahh....
Today's induction programme must be a brain washer man...
Make me lose my determination to quit liao...


Argghh...


And this happened right after i checked my bank account yest~




This must be a set up!