Monday, June 27, 2005
Busy busy busy... hehe.. I'm busy going out. With my cousins :) My third aunt from my mother's side is here for the holidays and she's bringing her two daughters and my grandmother; her son Charles is studying here. But now that my aunt and grandma are in Shanghai, the two girls are alone. So my job (and my sister's) is to bring them around!!

They're quite poor thing though shopping here. My family are not the rich "Indonesian with a factory" type. We're only average. So when they shop (I no longer do that since I'm already 'living' here) they'll convert the price to Indonesian rupiah. And then they'll go "Wah, so expensive" and put down the stuffs. I do want to buy for them. But well, they are expensive. Even I myself go wah and have to dismiss some items sometimes. The difference is I'm staying here and they're not. It's like when you go holiday to some other countries you will want to buy some stuffs home right.

Okay, my aunt did tell her children not to buy anything 'big' first like clothes, bags, etc before she sees them and approves. But teenagers are teenagers. They don't know what they really want (trust me). They see something nice and they want to buy. After a while it'll be forgotten. And sometimes they really don't care if the stuff worth the money. Like consider the material, the uniqueness (you can find a lot of things in Indonesia as well). So I only hope they buy the right thing.

Say today for example. My cousins went to the movie (Charles brought them of course) and each paid $9.50 without the popcorn yet. What I don't get is, they can always watch the show tomorrow, Tuesday, or Wednesday and save $2.50 each. Okay, so Charles has school. But can watch after school no? I really feel that it's money spent unnecessarily. Hmmm.

romanced at 00:12hr

Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Wah. I'm back like after two days.. hehe. I don't understand why everyone must be so deprived of sleep during the camp. There are so many games to play. Isn't more enjoyable if we can play with clear minds rather than a headache. Okay, so I don't know if anyone has got serious issue regarding the lack of sleep. I know I can endure the rest of the camp even if I have less than four hours of sleep on two days consecutively. It's just that I got bored when there's nothing to do. At first I wanted to be at home on Wednesday because my grandma and aunt are going Shanghai on Wednesday night and my uncle is going back Indonesia on Thursday morning. I can be of help at home, which I already am :) And I thought maybe I'll go back camp on Thursday. But Baya is not planning to go back camp anymore and I don't want to go back alone. So how?

Anyway, more about the camp. It's fun. A bit tiring. But at least it's packed. But for councilor is different. We can't play. So we just cheer and encourage the freshmen. At first they are shy so we push them to come out and volunteer. But after the first day they all can manage on their own already so we don't have much to do. Except answer some questions that they have. Which I can't cause firstly, if they ask about the activity I can't answer them because I don't really know. Secondly, if they ask about the course I can't answer them because I'm not from Arts. So I'm a bit useless there lah :(

But it is an experince. Even though I was there only for two days. Today was games at Sentosa. And I'm not really keen because Sentosa is already crowded everyday, more so now it's holiday and I cannot tahan big crowd well.

The moment I reached home I slept. For 8 hours. Scary ah.

romanced at 23:48hr

Friday, June 17, 2005
I'm going for an orientation as a councillor!! (eh, correct spelling?) I can't believe it myself but I think it's confirmed. Yay. This shall make up for the freshman orientation that I missed or rather not allowed to go for last year. I hope everything goes smoothly. And I wish I will not be too exhausted by the five-day camp. I feel quite guilty taking part in the camp cause my grandma and aunt and her two daughters are coming this Sunday and on Monday the next day I'll be off to school already. Isn't it rude?

But I think this will be a good experience whether nice or not. :) Oh, I really hope I'm up to it. And please please give me comfortable room to sleep in and hopefully I get to share a room with Baya if it's a double room. Yep, Baya is going too. And my sis is also going. By the way, it's an orientation for the Arts faculty. Hoho.

romanced at 20:28hr

Wednesday, June 15, 2005


This is the card my sis and I made for my grandpa. I did the flowers and the word "Grandpa" while my sis did the border (I don't know what it's supposed to be but it looks not bad overall) and the word "dearest". Nice? I think it's pretty good. Luckily my 3 years of Arts in Sec has not gone to waste. Hehe.

romanced at 20:22hr

Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Sent my grandpa off at the airport this morning. I feel very fortunate to have a grandpa like mine. My grandpa is more than 80 years old. But he could fly on airplane without any assistance, while carrying a luggage no less. And he remember telephone numbers, lots and lots of them. While I only remember less than ten numbers - all recently and frequently used ones. And he can calculate fast: 20% of $56 = $11.2 . Faster than the salesgirl who was using a calculator.

I love my grandpa. He's hot-tempered and wants things to get done fast. But that's when he was unhappy or angry and because he can get things done fast so naturally he'll expect people to have the same ability. Despite his age, he's still earning money for family. Not just receiving money from children like other grandparents. In fact, he's giving money to his grandchildren. :) Of course I got pocket money from my grandpa when I was young. Back when life was difficult. And I mean difficult. Life is difficult in general. But you know what I mean.

I know I've not been a very good granddaughter. I haven't been visiting my grandparents in Indonesia as often as I would like. Though my grandpa comes at least once a year. But how can once a year be enough. I lived with my grandparents for 8 years before I moved here.

I love my grandma equally. They have flaws. I do too. But I love them all the same. And I know they love me. I don't know how I can be filial when I'm so far away. So when they come to visit I'll stick around for them. And I want to be someone they can be proud of. I hope I can be someone they can be proud of. How time flies. But not fast enough. I have 3 years before graduation. A few more years after that before I earn and save some money. Okay, money is not everything. But it can buy air tickets and gifts and nice food as well as nice hotel rooms.

Sigh. This is not right. Sometimes I think so much about money it's scary. And often I wonder if I'm really like that. Perhaps I just care about money because I like money. True. Life was difficult when I was young. And many relatives chipped in to help. I want to be able to help them back. But it won't require so much will it.

Hmm.. how did my happy, love-filled entry came to that. Oh, don't mind that. Anyway, I want my grandparents to attend my wedding ceremony. Yes, I don't know if I'll get married yet. Somehow life seems simpler when I was younger. Girls went to school, grew up and got a good job, met a good boss or superviser, got married, have kids, and live happilly ever after. Somehow I just knew I have to get married and it seems to be the most natural route to take. Now everything is so much more complicated. I don't even know if a few years later I'll want to get married. My mum used to have only one thought about marriage. You have to have it. But recently she was telling my sister and me that getting married is not important. The most important thing is to find a husband who loves his wife and can provide for the family. If that kind of husband don't come along then it's alright to stay single. Wow, didn't know my mother can have a modern thinking like that.

Back to my grandparents, ops. My grandma is coming. Haven't seen her in one and a half year. :D My aunt will bring her to Shanghai (I hope it really happens, my grandma is so happy about it already) but I won't be going along. And I'm not going to Hongkong as well. The plan was to bring my grandma there but she prefer Shanghai cause she's been to Hongkong before. Yup, so no Hongkong for me. I'm not particularly sad actually. I'll go travelling in the future. Hehe.

romanced at 22:15hr

Friday, June 03, 2005
Results are.. satisfactory. :D Although some can still be improved in my opinion. My own fault for slacking then. And I deeply regret the grade for my Singapore Study (SS) which I took in the first semester. Why didn't I SU (read s-u) it, urgh.. A lousy C+. The impact of it is greater than I've estimated. I can still feel it! Okay, I don't feel it. But my average score feel it!!

Well, I'm happy with my results la. No point crying over spilled milk now. And here at this moment, I want to make a promise to myself that I shall continue to work hard, I will not slack so much :P so can slack only a bit, and I shall not allow my performance to drop. Go Amelia!!

Oh, have I mentioned the reasons I chose chemical engineering? One is money, two is money, three is money, four is mo.. haha, just joking. I don't really know the exact reasons myself. But money is definitely a factor. You don't think I'd go in there to suffer along with other nerds, and compete with the geniuses from China and India for four long years, so I can volunteer my service at BP, Shell and the likes, do you. :)

Back to the reasons. Or how I ended up chooosing Chemical Engineering more like it. At first I wanted to do Mathematics, yes, my favourite subject. But I don't really want to be a teacher or a lecturer. And learning only Maths seems to narrow it down rather too much. Besides Maths I also like Physics and I don't mind some Chemistry or even Economics, but just a wee bit. Heh. So Engineering seems like a good choice. Back in JC1 I don't think I know of Chem Engin as a course. And Mr Fuad, my JC Malay tutor, is the first one to introduce the course to me. My interest grew since then and it seems to me the most logical choice. I did consider a degree in BA. Somehow when I was young my mum was always telling me to study hard so I can be a successful businesswoman. And when I was about 10 the image of a woman in nice tailored suit sitting by the window inside an airplane on its way to New York was very appealing. Supposedly the woman was going for a business meeting, and on first class of course. It is still quite appealing, but the image now need a glass of red wine and the world's slimmest Laptop for it to be complete. Haha, I wish.

Okay, so now I'm settling for a white lab coat instead of tailored suit. Never mind. In a few years time there might be a Gucci or Prada white lab coats to choose from. Yeah, I can settle for that. And a Guess goggles to protect my eyes, and maybe Louis Vuitton gloves for my delicate hands. Oh, don't forget the boots, from Jimmy Choo preferably.

romanced at 12:49hr

Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Hello, I'm getting my results tomorrow. Right now I'm feeling quite nervous. I haven't thought about exams and results for a very long time. Well, one month is not exactly long. But it seems long to me.

I pray for everything to be alright. Results only out at 3 p.m. Makes one wonder why doesn't it. Why must it be at 3. I bet they have everything settled already by now. Some people will get to see their results at 11 a.m though. That's about the time I wake up nowadays. Good life. Perhaps it's kinda good to have mine at 3. That way if in case they're not satisfactory then at least I have eaten my lunch and won't starve for the day due to my loss of appetite. But then, I don't really lose my appetite over things like that. Only physical effects will cause me to be unable to eat, like the killing headaches caused by the imbalance thing in my ears for example, or the horrible stomachaches that follow cause when my head spins the rest of the body also feels like it's spinning, and when the stomach spins.. well, you know what happen.

Now what did I do today? Went to Junction 8 with my sister, my cousin and my mum's friend's son Robin whom we've promised to bring to the cinema in the holidays. We have initially settled for Madagascar, but we reached J8 a bit too late and it so happened that there was some live show for kids (something called Thomas and Friends, if you know what they are) and I conveniently concluded that the group of parents and kids who were there to watch the live show also planned to watch Madagascar. We couldn't get nice seats so we decided to watch Monster-in-law. Though I bought the tickets 10 mins after the showtime we still have time to buy popcorn and watch movie preview.

I would say Monster-in-law is a very enjoyable show. At first I was unwilling to watch because it's so cliche. From the title you can guess, girl from poor family, guy from rich family, guy has horrible mother who doesn't like poor girl, some girl fight, then make up, and voila, happy ending. And the show turned up to be.. a cliche still haha.. but truly enjoyable. Or maybe cause I like happy ending :) Okay, the big story line is exactly what I've mentioned, but the little details are different and that makes the difference. Hmmm.. nevermind.

Oh, and I cried when Jennifer Lopez cried in the show. Boo hoo. I can't help it. I'll cry when I see people cry. It's.. reflex. Heh. And when I screamed rather loudly at the part where Jennifer Lopez got punched (she screamed that's why) by the older women who was faking a nightmare, yeah, that was reflex too. To be honest I was quite shocked to hear my own scream. Hoho..

romanced at 21:26hr