Free Writing 1

The week before had been a busy week for me as it was the CA week.

On the first day of CA, we had our Biology paper which was a 35 minutes paper. What I could say about the paper was that it was a rather tough and tricky paper. However, with the usual practices and revisions I had, I was able to cope with the difficulty level of the paper.

On the second day of CA, we had our Geography paper followed by Literature paper. Most of us were able to cope with the Geography paper, however, on the other hand, most of us felt that the literature paper was much tougher than expected. I tried my best completing the paper and really hoped that all my effort did not pay off.

On the last day of CA, we had our English comprehension paper. The context of the passage was somehow complicated and it took me quite sometime before I could totally understand what the author was actually conveying. Most questions regarding the passage, was however answerable and I was able to cope with it. Besides, I also experienced a slight change in the standard of the questions being asked at our current level as compared to Secondary One.

In short, I realized that what I do require now are more intensive practices, so as to prepare for the following exams.

Reunion Dinner cum Chinese New Year Visiting

It was once again on the Chinese New Year Eve when the big family of mine get re-united again. This year was special, we did not have any steamboat dinner, we ordered some mouth watering food from a well known restaurant instead. If I am not wrong, the dinner cost a total of $297.60 which i think was worth it for more that 10 person. By ordering food from outside, we could save the trouble preparing for the steamboat dinner. We then started to have our dinner while chatting to one another,mainly chatting about our daily lives and even rumors of other people to keep ourselves entertained. Well, I can say that I felt pretty full after the dinner. I am sure that you too would be full with a lot of food such as Cereal Prawns, chicken wings and other different varieties of food. (Sounds delicious, isn't it?)

Immediately after our dinner, we had our "annual lo hei" If you do not know what it is, here it is: (It is a tradition to be done every Chinese New Year)

After placing in all the materials, mainly sliced carrots, radish, fish and other vegetables, we started with the "mixing procession" whereby we use a pair of chopsticks to mix all the ingredients together. Although, the taste of the end product of this may be a little awful, as part of the Chinese tradition, we have to eat at least a mouthful or more. Most of us enjoyed the part of mixing the ingredients but only a small percentage love eating. The video below shows the entire process of mixing the ingredients together. Anyway, it may seem chaotic to you!



We then cleaned up the place and went to the living room to watch the Chinese New Year Countdown programme on Channel 8. The programme is being hosted every year and it is a live telecast from both Chinatown and the Mediacorp studio. It is made up of performance (Mainly dance and singing items) by mediacorp celebrities.

The show ended at around 12 am when we started wishing one another Happy New Year since 12 am was already another day and was the start of Chinese New Year. I was not really tired then and I was looking forward in collecting Red Packets the next morning. HaHa!

Chinese New Year Celebration 2009 @ VS

Firstly, I would like to wish everybody including related relatives, friends, teachers and my parents a very Happy Chinese New Year. In the year of Ox, may all of you to have a healthy and strong body.

On the 23rd of January, which was last Friday, Victoria School had their annual Chinese New Year Celebration. As usual, there were many programmes being planned to keep the Victorians entertained throughout the whole performance. Something special was that, a group of elderly from the old folks home was invited to our celebration this year.

This year, the Chinese Orchestra was once again requested by the organizing committee to perform for the school.Besides having the Chinese Orchestra to perform, there were dance items by the secondary 4 seniors, singing items prepared by the old folks home and also a science experiment by our 3 science busketeers. (They did the school proud by clinching first during the recent Science Buskers Competition)

Of course, the reason why I knew these was that I was part of the Orchestra ! We were to stay back for three days after school that week, before the actual performance for rehearsals. (The photo above was taken during the rehearsal)

On that day, the performance went on smoothly, and this proved that our hard work of practicing did not pay off! Unfortunately, after our performance, we were not allowed to watch the performance, we were to return to the CO room to keep our instruments.

Back in the CO Room, after we had settled down, our chairman commented on our performance. He added on, telling us that we were to go up on stage to sing some CNY songs for the last programme of the celebration. Most of us were reluctant to go up on stage but we were eventually forced to. Guess What happened!~

On the stage, most of us decided not to stand at the front but to stand at the back of the stage where we could hardly be seen. The fortunate thing was that the teachers there did not actually care if we were singing or not. We started to push people randomly to the front, it was then when we began to get rowdy and noisy. However, the whole event of pulling and pushing ended up very fun!

The day ended at a very high mood and i think that most of you who had watched the performance had surely enjoyed it. Though I did not manage to watch the whole of the performance, I managed to get a feeling of the Chinese New Year atmosphere!

After the celebration, I still had to stay back to do my math project. Poor me.....

RSP Orientation

The day which I think most sec ones had been anticipating for finally arrived, it was the day when they had an orientation for RSP. Something special about this orientation was that, besides having just tours around the room, telling them facts of SEA (South East Asia), we even planned The Amazing Race "RSP Version" for them to have an even greater understanding about what they are going to learn throughout their USEA syllabus. (Understanding SEA) We had a tedious time planning and preparing for the race, however, with help from classmates such as Dev, Francis and Matthew, we finished it just on time.

Being the pioneer batch, we did not get to enjoy such a fun. Photos and videos showing how fun it is would be shared in the later part of the post.

At the start, Dev briefed the Sec Ones about their groupings and how they were going to move about. I was then at a corner busy snapping the best shots of the juniors. (image below, the photo is taken by me by the way)

When it came to groupings, just like us last year, we preferred choosing our own groups, however, the groupings came out random in the end. The juniors jeered when they were assigned to groups when they did not actually wish to. "That's nothing unusual" I told myself them. The programme started at the RSP room where 3 activities were carried out - Playing of traditional games, tour around the mini garden being looked after by Mr Leo, the so-called "gardener" and also introduction to Indonesian musical instruments.

After which, we then started the race, which lasted for around 45 minutes, (well, it was much faster then what we had intended). Well, I am sure that the sec ones had much fun and had learnt a lot from those activities like knowing different types of musical instruments and plants that can be found in the South East Asia region.

The day ended with a prize giving ceremony whereby Darius's group emerged first for the race, followed by a chain of performances by the senior. One of the performances was by me, singing a small part of "Bengawan Solo" for the juniors. They applauded loudly, as if they did not watch a performance better than mine. Haha! It was the time for the teachers to perform, similarly, they sang the same song. The last programme was debriefing by Mr Leo where he did a brief introduction to the sec ones about the programme. Well, I did achieve an aim by the end of this orientation day which was to get to know the sec ones better. :)

2nd Post

his just happened last week, my grandmother was admitted into the hospital.

We were having afternoon tea and chatting within ourselves then when my aunt(who is there also) received a call from his son saying that my grandmother was unconscious in bed. We were shocked to hear the news and we immediately rushed down to my aunt's house.

Upon reaching, the first thing that my mum did, was rushing into the bedroom checking out my grandma's condition. It was then when we found out that she was running a high fever. We started to 'sponge' her using a bag of ice, whereas my uncle called for an ambulance to send my grandma down to SGH.

Upon reaching A&E department, my grandma was sent for an overall check-up while we were all waiting anxiously at the waiting area. It was at around 12 midnight when the doctor finally came out.

'There is a 9.6cm long stone like object at the bottom of her liver," he said "If you all are related relatives, you all are to make a choice whether to inject a solution which was to enable the scanning of her body to be much clearer, thus, diagnosing what actually the object was, but there was a 30% chance of having kidney failure after injecting" he added on. My mother and uncles were in a dilemma then whether to approve for the jab. They discussed among themselves and finally decided not to take such risk. The doctor, Mr Alexandra, said, "If she do not wish go for the jab, we will have to do further scanning to diagnose her current condition". That evening my grandma went for another scanning and we prayed hardly that it was not a tumor.

Day 2
In the morning, around 8 am, the doctor came in, telling us, "The result of last night's scanning is out. I am glad to say that the 9.6cm long stone like object is not a tumor but a past," he added "However, we still have to carry out a minor surgery to remove the past in the liver as it may burst anytime" We then had a sigh of relief.

*Update: She has been discharged from hospital today, 18th of January.*
She is currently recovering fast and is healthy.
I do not have pictures as this is unexpected and photography is prohibited in hospital.

The Moment I enjoyed most with my family

The day I had been always anticipating for finally arrived, and that was the day when my family embark on a trip overseas. Traveling overseas for tour is the only moment i enjoyed most with my family as it was the only time when we could be really bonded together. During those busy schooling days and working days, we could hardly have the time for family outing and meals except on special occasions such as Chinese New Year. Throughout these years,we have been traveling to different places especially to developed states of China.

For 2008's December holiday, my family embarked on a trip to Harbin, China. This particular trip had especially been a great one, besides bonding our relationships we also gained numerous precious experiences. Now, let me share with you guys what I did and experienced on the first day itself.

On that day we reached Harbin, we were exhilarated as we had never been to such a cold state in China before. The first stop which we visited was the place where the world largest Santa Claus could be found, the famous Sun Island. (Image below)


The place was totally covered with snow. We started throwing snow at each other, until we were reprimanded by staffs there. This activity is part of how our bond strengthened as we get to know the weakness and strengths of each other just like the bonding days I had when I was Sec 1.

That night, we continued to view another 5 star tourist attraction named "Harbin Ice and Snow World", which is located near the Sun Island. It is simply an exhibition of structures that are skillfully being carved out from ice.

"Careful! Careful!" came out from mouth at times as we held on each others arms to prevent slipping especially on ice which can hardly be seen at night.

As I am afraid of slides that are from a height (mainly due to scare of heights), i did not dare to play on one of the slides. (Image below) "How can you be afraid of slides?", my brother commented then. Finally, with the support given by my family, i decided to give it a try. The "results" at the end was that, I enjoyed it instead of fear.

In this tour, just like the past, we gained more experiences such as taking care for each other for every now and then. After this trip, my family had even better relationships and has lesser conflicts as before.
(<-me playing the slide)
(Well, that's briefly what we had for the tour. In this tour, just like the past, we gained more experiences such as taking care for each other for every now and then. After this trip, my family had even better relationships and has lesser conflicts as before.
Thus, this is the moment i enjoyed most with my family ... going on tour!
I look forward to the next trip with my family again!)

Possible post entries

The following are the topics which would be shared with all in the blog ...

1. A moment i enjoyed most with your family
2. The day i got into this school
   
3. Difficulty that i often faced
4. The happiest day in my life
5. (Not Decided)

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