A not very happy journey starts like that

A not very happy journey starts like that

You are standing behind the yellow line like every other fellow commuter, waiting to board the next train which is arriving in six minutes. The "please stand behind the yellow line" announcement is made over four different languages as expected.

You look around the train station as you had nothing to do. You see a bunch of teenagers in school uniforms, who were rather obstreperous and antagonizing the people around them. A young couple strolled past you while heading towards the last "door" at the end for some privacy

Starting to get impatient as you are bored, you turned to the screen projecting the amount of time left for the next train to arrive. The number stated on it is one. You heaved a sigh of relief as you have finally laboured through five long minutes of waiting

As expected, you hear the the sounds of the current flowing through the railway tracks as the train approaches the station. Less than three seconds later, the train bursted into the station with a roar. Those who were sitting down stood up, those who were standing moved nearer to the yellow line

By the time that big, long and black monster stops. Everyone was crowding in front of the door. You had to be equally selfish and kiasu for the sake of not losing out. The doors slide open and everyone rushed in. The train was relatively empty. You decide to sit at the seat nearest to the door which is labelled as "priority seat". There were advertisements of the happy journey campaign pasted on the windows. The train moves off

More than ninety percent of the seats were taken up. The train reaches the next stop, more people enter the carriage, some stood nearer the doors, some moved inside and held the grab poles while others looked around frantically for an empty seat to no avail

Suddenly, you felt rather uneasy as you are sitting at the priority seat. You pondered whether should you stand up and give up your seat to someone among the standing crowd who needs it more than you. You monitored the area around you, there was a middle-aged man with a considerable amount of grey hair to be labelled as a senior citizen

You really wanted to get up and approach the guy but didn't do it because he was too far away and by the time both of you walk back, someone else might have taken the seat. You felt guilty that your analytical skills got the better of your kind heart. Next, you spotted three kids having fun at a corner

Thinking that a young child like them might need the seat more than yourself, you again wanted to give your seat up but didn't do it. You can't bear to deprive them of their childhood. The trio were having so much fun and laughter. If one of them is seated, he will not get to play with the other two. You know how important and precious one's childhood is therefore you "let them off"

Still feeling culpable for sitting at the priority seat, you scanned through the carriage again for another target. No pregnant women, no handicapped people and some soon to be senior citizens whom you think are not entitled to the seat

All of a sudden, the woman seated two places to your left stood up and gestured one the kids that she is giving up her seat to him. He sat down as told. You felt a big splash of guilt on yourself and a tinge of embarrassment. You can't wait to get out of the train. Just two more stops, you told yourself

When you finally alighted, you told yourself that you learned a lesson. Never sit at a priority seat in the train again unless you want to feel guilty, embarrassed and useless. You decide to go write a snarky blog entry about this entire thing

But deep down in your heart, you knew that this happy journey campaign did work somehow or another

18 June

Today morning went to Hwa Chong Institution for some things. Took bus 154 from the usual Clementi bus stop. I don't know if it happens to you all but it always happened to me. Whichever bus service number that I am taking, it will be the last to arrive after all the other service numbers have at least one bus passing by me. Yes, at least one, so that means it can be two or three

Usually, it is always 154 that arrives first when I am going to school in the morning on a typical schoolday. The buses always come in pairs, cramped with Ngee Ann Polytechnic students in them. All the buses heading to NP(including 52 and 184)will normally arrive first to my disgust. And poor 105 and 106 will only appear after I wasted ten minutes standing there, not to mention the rarely seen 185

Ok, back to Hwa Chong. So as you have guessed, 154 is indeed the last bus to arrive today. Two 106s have gone passed me before that. Call it fate or destiny. Anyway, I had to walk a long way to the gate at the side because all the other gates are closed as it is school holidays

I keep getting mixed up with the secondary school and high school because they all sound the same and their students all look rather smart. At least they don't possess that kind of nerdy image some top school students have

The school is really big, well of course lah, branded school leh. As I walked past the gigantic field that they have, I was thinking, if a guy was punished to do CIP by cleaning up the entire grass area, what will happen to him? Anyway since it's school holidays, the place was relatively quiet so nothing much to explore

In the afternoon, I saw Michelle Chia at the coffee shop near my block. She was hosting some food variety show I believe and they were recommending the famous claypot rice. But the coffee shop was rather empty and seems that all those passers-by didn't realize that there was filming taking place. I looked for five minutes as it is rather boring

As you all know, Real Madrid has been on a heavy shopping spree lately. 56 million for Kaka, 80 million for Ronaldo but Liverpool paying 18 million for Glen Johnson? I think that's out of the mind. Liverpool always seem to buy the wrong players other than a couple of Spanish internationals. One more thing, shouldn't we kick North Korea out of the world cup because of their nuclear ambitions? Hmmm, at least the South Korean and American teams should have some reactions to their entry of the competition

First Celebrity Swine Flu Case

First Celebrity Swine Flu Case!


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Ho Ho Ho

What kind of teachers?

Yeah! LA Lakers are the NBA champions! Better not post any celebration photos here in case supporters of other teams start to get jealous

Here is something I would like to share with you all. Apparently, one of the lecturers(not the one teaching my class)teaching the MAD module(which I am taking)posted on the e-learning website that the sample questions for the Mid-Semester Test are up for us to try starting on 10 June(see screenshot)



But, I waited until 12 June and there was still nothing in there, it was just an empty folder. So I had thought why not? I decided email her directly since the address is stated on the website(see screenshot)



Well as expected, she posted it up the very day she replied me. Do take note that the announcement on June 14, Sunday was only posted after she replied my email or it might not have ever appeared and she didn't even bother to offer an apology or at least an acknowledgement for this thing. If she does not want to do it openly on the web, at least do it in the email right?

What kind of teachers are we getting? Can they really be called good examples? No wonder people out there on the streets are saying NP are the branded(ming pai)poly while we are the oldest(lao zhao pai)poly. Not just because of the appearance I think? One's appearance is superficial, most importantly is his character

12 June

Finally after seven weeks of the same old life, it is finally different for me this week. Going to school early in the morning and squeeze with the morning crowd on public transport, snatching seats with strangers at foodcourts during lunch, facing the computer for three straight hours in the afternoon and then go home in the evening with a worn out body and mind. I won't be experiencing all these things currently, at least for the next two weeks since it is the holidays

So much so for holidays, the only thing nice about them is the name. Yes, the name holidays. Because the upcoming exams will be held right after our holidays which means you know what I mean. For the past few days this week, my life has been analysing the stock market and different stocks. Recently, everybody is saying buy Singtel as its price has dropped. On Channel NewsAsia, in the newspapers and even on the Internet. Then there are people recommending Abterra, SembMarine and all those oil and coal companies

By the way, the Lakers are leading 3-1 after they defeated Magic this morning. So it is ninety-nine percent confirmed that LA Lakers will be the ultimate champions. Haiz, if only Liverpool was half as mighty as the Lakers as they both start with "L", then the reds would have been much better off

Oh yes, the new poll this week is up and waiting for your votes and this blog has some changes to it if you have noticed

Ronaldo is going to Real Madrid

Breaking news!

Cristiano Ronaldo is heading to Real Madrid! Well, according to Manchester United who had accepted an offer to sell their star player for 80 million euros. The second Galaticos era is about to begin...

10 June

Oh finally, Magic managed to pull back a game to half the deficit in the NBA grand finals. They beat the Lakers in Game 3 this morning(local time). Dwight Howard was awesome and so were the other Magic players. But never mind, Lakers will still win in the end, just like what President Obama had predicted

Smartphones versus dumb phones

Smartphones versus dumb phones, the winner is obvious isn't it? Not really after all. Smartphone owners have all the privileges and convenience which his/her dumb phone counterpart do not get to enjoy. Take myself for example. Oh yes, I use a dumb phone in case you are wondering

My Filipino friend, Wyndell, owns an Iphone. Quite some time back while we were waiting for the bus, he was sort of trying to show off his precious gadget to me or rather the features in it. With the ease of using an index finger, he slowly moved each photo with the help of the touchscreen technology while telling me about his story back in his homeland.

Then he showed me an email about this stranger who sent it to him asking if he would like to rent a house in Bedok. Next he used the location-sensing feature to find where in Singapore was it located at and came to a conclusion that it is too far from office

All these actions may seem innocent and just trying to share with me the good features the Iphone has but the bottomline is still about all these features right?

Recounting another experience, Wei Ying who is also an Iphone user sat beside me in the office. She can afford to log in to Facebook via the application on her smartphone and have lots of fun with it while I can only stare with envy because the company network blocks that website

Another colleague, Verlyn who uses Ipod Touch will be discussing with her all the latest applications and games to download and play. To me, all those talking does not mean anything and I am left out somehow or another. But that does not mean dumb phones are going to be out soon

I still remember my first(few)dumb phones. They blasted monophonic ringtones that sounds more irritating than understanding what Jay Chou is singing, texting at high speeds with both thumbs on the small keypad and playing the once popular Snake game in monochrome

They were never laggy and lasted for a number of days without charging thanks to the simplicity of its operating system. Smartphones with complicated interfaces tend to run of battery quicker and might get laggy or hanged if overloaded with applications

Phone manufacturers are not dumb too. There is still survival for dumb phones in the market. Phones with competent multimedia features have been created. They cater to the needs of consumers who like trying out new things but don't want to get involved with sophisticated software. Nokia's XpressMusic and Sony Erricson's Cybershot phones are two good examples

Although people are saying smartphones will become the norm in the future like what people say handphones will be in the past. I don't think it will be in the near future

5 June

Seven weeks have passed and it is back to school holidays again. By the way I think I roughly know my new classmates more or less now compared to a few weeks back. Sometimes it is not that I do not want to talk to them but that I really can't think of any suitable topic which can start of a conversation. Actually, I only talked about one or two sentences with them so far

The weekly poll on this blog is up again. Please go make your votes. Thank you. I apologize that there was no poll for the past week because the codes didn't seem to be right

3 June

Today is the 50th anniversary of self-government in Singapore. Yeah! But too bad there is no public holiday for lazy people like you and I. Check out George Yeo's status update on Facebook! Yup, it's a long time since I last posted screenshots of him and his erhem bootli...oh I mean ermmm followers or ermmm rather supporters



Oh yes, there is Maths quiz tomorrow

Butter Spaghetti

Today is just yet another ordinary day. Went to Foodcourt 4 for lunch during noon. I decided to buy from the western food stall since I have not tried it before after more than a year studying there. Ordered the chicken spaghetti in butter cream(sounds something like that)and it was marvelous man! When I placed the tray with my plate of pasta on the table, Vernon and Alice stared at it with a don't know how to describe look

It looked so delicious. The white and pure colour of the cream and spaghetti contrasts with the black plate it was lying on. The smell of the cheese was tantalizing enough to make one stop and look at it for three seconds

And when I placed the first mouthful of spaghetti into my mouth after curling them stealthily with the fork, all three of them including Zhi Teng looked at me with envy or rather jealousy. Jealous that they didn't get to savour it like kindergarten kids looking at one of their lucky friends getting to munch on something exclusive. So in short, throughout our eating session at the table, I was the centre of attention for about ten odd minutes. As I twirled my fork or shove my spoon, three pair of eyes will be watching me. I felt rather awkward but honoured too. ALice even said we(Zhiteng and I)really know how to look for good food to enjoy

Oh by the way, I think it is the best thing I ever ate in school so far in year two. The velvety butter sauce does not melt on the plate, it melts in your mouth together with the "mo-tak-teng" fragrance of the cheese. Heavenly delicacy at an earthly price. Hey why am I so exaggerating? Because it is really yummy