Jeffirean Stories
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Gaspz!
Recent reports stated Ricardo Carvalho cost Chelsea 19.25 million pounds, hence actually my WE7I team is worth 100+million pounds, hahahaha.
Anyway I have got more important stuff to note down today. Here they go...
Last night was the 2nd last day of Project Radiance. Everything went well, but the project ended pretty late. We could only get home around 11pm. There was this project mate, CP, who lives near me who was with me together on the way home. As we reached the eventual junction, I've just bidded her goodbye and went off home.
Yet, on the last few steps before I reached my doorsteps, I reflected on the day and realised how ungentleman I've been. I ought to have sent her back to her void deck, or at the very least, asked if she minded. And during the day, I hadn't been treating my project team well....sometimes my mouth might have spilled some words that may not sound nice to them.....i hope she doesn't mind. I had sent them emails of apologies immediately after midnight, wonder what will they think...?
Anyway, Project Radiance ended today. It was a great achievement although the response weren't as strong as hoped. Each of us felt immense satisfaction during the project review discussion, judging from their descriptions of their feelings and experiences. The whole project was very fun, as opposed to what I initially expected. Hahaha. Many thanks to the project executive committee, as well as my teammates, YM and Namitha, and the other project members. Must especially thank YM who had been stuck with me throughout the whole project (well she's the one mentioned in the above paragraph), it must had been hard on her! There will be a celebration next week, and it will be a potluck. I love potluck gatherings! Anyway I offered 2 items, almond jelly with mixed fruits, and also sushi. Wonder if these items are acceptable.
My MSN nick has changed from the usual 'Fight for only myself, Love only myself' to 'Heartache, do I really love only myself?' Haha. Figure this out in the previous post about the camp.
Lastly, most of my friends would have known I had passed my driving. I am glad I did the confessions previously as it spurred me on to pass this time with proper thinking and planning and it sure was useful. Likewise, will like to encourage all my friends who read this, admit your mistakes (not necessary to the world, but at least to yourself) and you will find a way to get things right.
Hope this help!
Still elatedly
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
8:30 PM
Monday, July 26, 2004
WHEEEEEEEEEEW~
I'm finally back from a up-n-down week which ended in the best manner it could ever for this 2004! Never been so happy, the day I RODed can't even match 1/2 of the smiles, laughters and fun I had for the weekend.
Actually I was at my school's Student Association Leadership Camp. I am very very glad that I made the right choice by hammering emails to the organisers, from the secretary to the President. Haha. Luckily they weren't annoyed and facilitated my participation. The camp was sure one of the best I ever experienced.
Before writing about the camp, let's first wish my grandfather a Happy 7Xth Birthday! (Oops, my mother and aunts forgot to mention his age to me, but I reckon he's still in the seventies... We had the celebration just now at a restaurant at SRC, all of us 110% full with the sumptous buffet and the ice cream cake....hahaha. I ate lotsa desserts..
Okie, the days before the camp were much wasted days as the planned activities all blanked out less the driving lessons. Anyway I managed to build my champion Master League team with a cheap budget and probably another 2 additions in the form of Hatem Trabelsi and Walter Pandiani will end my WE7I conquest as I look forward to WE8. Most likely I will stick with this team in WE8, depending on what I see in next season's Champions League ba. Anyway here's the 1st 11 list and you may be thinking, "hey who are these people?" Anyway, if you aren't an enthusiast in soccer(or betting) then probably, you will be scratching your head. Here goes:
Forwards: Diego Tristan, Zlatan Imbrahimovic
Midfields: Ludovic Giuly, Pablo Aimar, Damien Duff, Joaquim Sanchez, Steven Gerrard
Defenders: Espionaza, Ricardo Carvalho and some Greek defender (who will be relegated to the bench after Trabelsi's arrival)
However, by estimated worths of pounds in the real world, this team will cost you 80+million pounds... haha.
Enough about football and back to the camp experience.
This camp was held at NACLI (National ... Leadership Institute) at South Buona Vista Rd, around 5min bus ride from KE Hall of NUS. There were probably 70+ participants as we had 7 groups in all and I was in group 7. My group facilitator was a 120% super duper interesting, wonderful, caring, etc etc(the praising adjectives goes on and on) girl, called Zing. Hahaha. My team members were 7 girls and 1 guy, and they are HW, HL, Valerie, Bernice, Fern, Corrine, BQ and Glenn. They are all one bunch of very interesting people, fun-loving and dynamic. I had a great time "serving the girls", haha, no la, just being as best as possible the gentleman in the group because Glenn is such a nice chap, so how can let the girls be disappointed with me. Anyway, I was "rebranded" Mustafa by HW just because of Zing's looking for the Mustafa plastic bag which I had on me incidentally. Kaoz...anyway it's out of fun nature and I'm pretty fine with it, though probably I have to spend some time to rebrand myself back again as the same old Jeffire. Hehz.
The start of the first day was slightly off key because I mistaken the camp's time to be later than actual, but luckily my driving instructor was very forgiving, even though I 'fly aeroplane' in the eleventh hour for him. Anyway lesson was cancelled and I was on my way punctually to NACLI. I was quite anticipative as I walked up the slope leading to the "Hall of Aspirations" where it was the reporting venue. What would happen, who would I get to know, etc, were the questions that whirled in my mind...
Upon reaching, I did my registration. I found a seat in the front row which was empty and looked around the room. Soon, I realised many were late and so I just went to sleep promptly because I was watching One Piece till 4am in the morning...wahaha. A couple of moments later the activities started and I got to know the people in my group through the ice breakers. Then we had some workshops and a sharing session by the president of the SMUSA, Victor. He was a great speaker with his witty humour and soon we also got to know the rest of the exco one by one. I realised that the girl whom I was bothering with my endless emails enquiring about the camp was a super chiobu (ok, this is a praise which i can't find any appropriate English word to describe), and I was like 'kaoz, siao liao'...haha. Anyway please don't get mistaken because of the special mention. I'm just putting my true thoughts out mah... dun mind dun mind.
Lunch was heaven as I couldn't had breakfast in the morning due to a sleep too much. It's awkward sitting in the middle of 2 girls, errr....something I had never done since dunno how many donkey years ba, or even maybe never before. haha. I tried to spaced out a little by sitting slightly outwards, but some soon questioned why I was so...well, I can't say I'm shy about it right...bzzzzt. Scored a goal with the girls by helping some of them to clear their dishes.
After lunch was another briefing and a change into sports attire, as we were gonna be playing some games soon. The first one was Captain's Ball in a round robin format. I was supposed to play in the defense area but I reckoned that I ought to be joining the attack so I aimed to be the table-turner which worked pretty well in some games as I managed to get the ball to the forwards. In some others it was totally a wreck as I didn't contribute enough to help Glenn in preventing the loss of goals. Oops. Due to a long lack of serious exercising, I was very much out of breath in the 2nd game but soon readjusted in the 3rd. A few memorable moments in the games were being elbowed by "Faye Wong" (haha, sorry it's another long story), charged down by another girl and also trying to be hero. Er. If my grpmate reads this (the trying to be hero part) I will be in deep trouble *pray*. It's like this, one of my grpmate who was the Captain (the person who stands on the chair to receive the final pass), fell off the chair. Upon seeing it I immediately grabbed her on the waist and tried to cushion her fall. I wonder if it made her fall worse because some people may have very good balance/reactions and know how to break their falls. Moreover the area was pretty clear with me behind her by 2 steps and no one else in the vicinity of 5 steps. I also wonder if she will be angry to be touched.....ok. i have 100 wonders in my mind now because of the fact that I have never touched a girl on the waist before....OKIE. Some of you must be thinking what's the big deal... er, whatever la.
After Captain's Ball was water bombing.... I seriously suspect it's one of the organiser's idea to get people (esp girls) wet..... err.... never mind, but the idea of having a strategic war game with water bombs in a field doesn't turn out to be 'strategic' after all since it was very easy to get people wet. Even with human shields it didn't help. And of course in the end it was free for all as every 'pharoah' (the person that supposed to remain dry for the grp to win) was wet in 5 mins time. Hahaha. I didn't have much fun in this game because I knew before the game there will be plenty of cleaning up...well, in the end I led the cleaning up of a portion of the field by initiative and luckily many followed on and the field was cleared very quickly. Phew.
Checking into our rooms was a pleasant surprise as the rooms were hotel quality. We had 5 beds in each room, and I was bunked in 202 with BQ, Bernice, HW and Fern. Got the chance to hit the bathroom first and yeah, was very glad I could clean up first because I hated the feeling of being wet and dirty. (I enjoy being in the swimming pool though, haha). Whew. After that was chambermaid duties because Glenn helped his bunk 201 girls make their beds and yeah, ok, I had to as a matter of duty. Ok, maybe I should clarify why I didn't volunteer with initiative or why I wrote this now. I'm very pleased to be of service, no problem, but to me a bed is a pretty personal property/teritorry (you wouldn't want anyone to be touching your bed unnecessary right?) so you know... i just dun wan to make anyone uncomfortable, angry...
After cleaning up it was time for dinner, then another discussion. Before the serious thing, the 2nd IC, Ford, held an impromptu singing competition. The first song after being cajouled for probably 5-10 mins was Fish's Fly Away, it was awesome! I mean the 2 gals who sang it together sure have all the courage to be singing to the whole camp, and they did it very well. After that, not to be outshone, the most outstanding group (Ford's group, haha) had a even more powerful singer, yes, the "Faye Wong" who elbowed me. Well, I was completely wowed out by her singing... only a few people can wow me out, and some of you may know I have very high expectations of singing standards so you know i'm very honest about it. She sang an English song which I cannot remember the title, but she had a powerful voice (contrast with her petite size). I hope to be hearing her sing again soon....haha. Well, anyway I didn't muster the courage to sing because I felt I couldn't make it anyway after being wowed out... soooooo......
After the discussion we were all super tired but there was still this night hike to Holland Village. It was 3.81 km away but we took 1.25 hrs to get to the cafe we were instructed to. Had some great chats with a couple of grpmates, and had a great time in the cafe too. Although there wasn;t much for supper, the ambience was great! Learnt more about the grpmates, and also had a close chat with the president himself while we waited for the chartered coach outside the cafe. Hehz. All the girls was surprised that the matured looking prez was not as old as they thought. Hahaha.
A short ride back to the camp area, we were all back to our bunks. Was intending to see how the situation goes before retiring to dreamland, and indeed it was really worth the sacrifice as I got to see the girls enjoy a ice cream banquet (ok, not a real one, just sharing of 2-3 little tubs of Haagen Daaz). I mean they were having fun yakking away and eating ice cream, so it's kinda made me think that these people are really so onz...haha. After some deliberation between both bunks after the ice cream, it was decided that we all retire. I felt relieved because I was starved of sleep, but the idiotic irritating girly shrills that boomed from other bunks (other grps) prevented me from getting to dreamland earlier....grrrrr.
It was like until 4+ or early 5am that I collapsed but soon I was up again at 73oam. Breakfast was scheduled to be at 830am so I guess I ought to be first up being the only guy in the bunk. Anyway I washed up but soon returned to bed again because of the rain and the freezing aircon. Finally decided to switch it off since I saw that everyone was covered with their blankets entirely. Phew. BQ was as usual the garang one, being the 2nd to be ready. Fern with her dental appt was 3rd though it was 10mins only to 830am. Fern and BQ then went around waking the princesses up (err, I would never dare to do that) and they were up at 830am reluctantly. Everything was back to normal at 0900am where we were at the dining hall chatting away.
After breakfast it was group discussions with topic groups led by different members of the organising team. I decided to go for Welfare, which was led by Elvis in bunk 106. I can't remember the group no but their whole group was there while my own group was with Ford in bunk 201. We had a fruitful discussion on welfare matters, while some ideas were probably up in the heavens, others were down to earth yet critical. Soon the bell went off for the checkout and I bidded goodbye to the group and Elvis.
Back at the bunk, I realised that the girls were all waiting for me as they had long ended their discussion because Elvis was the last one to be informed about the check out. I quickly packed and soon we were at the Learning Lounge for the last bits of activities. It commenced with a jigsaw puzzle competition, and then the presentation on a pitching a product. Our group presented on a toy rugby ball touted to have medical properties. I had to be on stage as an actor but being poor at that, I could only muster some response with my falling flat on the stage....haha.
The last of the lasts were long winded as Victor and co summed up the camp with speeches. There were also invitations for people to stay back if they were interested in running for SA positions, or helping to organise the upcoming flea market, or helping to organise events with Excites, an event organise CCA in school. I was interested in the former 2 so we stayed back to hear some first hand revelations about schoollife. It was long stories but useful words that we heard.
Went on the train with Fir, Fern, Glenn n Yvonne. Bidded them goodbye at Raffles Place and was home at 6+. Soon I was busy with clearing emails, especially school stuff.....
I only got sleep at 2am..
It's 2am now again! Acks. Wish me good luck for tomorrow....
Smiling Idiotically
Jeffire =)
Acknowledged my existence at
2:05 AM
Monday, July 19, 2004
Surprisingly while I was blogging the last paragraph of the previous entry, JXing dialled me and asked if I wanted to play mahjong the next day. Of course I agreed. We scrambled for players as it was late at night and fortunately we caught Justin and RS. The next day we were at JXing's home playing mahjong. It was a great turnaround by RS when he surged back into contention during the last round... JXing was as superb as ever. I lost my 2nd position to RS as I was always a tad slower than them...haha. In the end Justin lost and had to treat us ice-cream. Well, wonder if playing mahjong in money terms would be more fun than playing with penalties terms. Should we up the ante and make the penalty harsher? However it's difficult to decide penalties unless you are the host and the players are on with it. Wonder if SMU people play mahjong too? Hahaha.
Anyway I had a lazy Sunday without doing much for the day.
Lately I've been doing nothing much at home except the usual washing, cooking, sweeping and mopping. I have no mood to prepare for school anyway, short of thinking if I ought to read some books to improve my English. I feel so empty, unlike the times in NS, where everyday was a day to look to as each passing day signifies a day nearer to ORD. I felt more productive and useful too. And, the best thing was I was paid a regular allowance which allowed me to survive independently without asking my parents for money directly. I'm a sad soul now, unemployed and struggling to live to my expectations. I set my targets, as you can see them on the side panel, but it seems nothing much has progressed. I can't find my preferred evening job because of the upcoming activities which will hinder my employment, like the Student Assoctiation Leadership Camp coming this Fri and also Project Radiance next Mon - Wed. I guess since I'm desperate to be productive (in the sense of being employed, do I sound like a workaholic?), after the project I will snag a job immediately before school starts so that I can plan better in anticipation of the avalanche of work to do. I really enjoy being busy. Hahaha.
Anyway I've been spending my time overleisurely at home being a 'chair potato', yeah as mentioned, apart from doing housework and going for school stuff, i'm always in front of this lousy monitor trying to catch up on the anime One Piece. It is so similar to the days when my mother was watching video tapes of HK dramas at home!
And I've been missing the exercise I so much needed. It makes me so sad when I go out to town to see everyone so nicely dressed, to see the guys so shuai, i just feel like i'm so out of place. It's the same in school. Most people are well dressed, speak well and have no problems putting their face there for everyone.
I guess I have very high expectations of myself. I want to be a much better person than everyone else. Maybe I crave for attention. Yes I believe I'm an attention seeker. HAHAHA. Otherwise I wouldn't be blogging here for the whole world to see?
War with the heart and mind, it's time I do something to make myself feel better.
I miss playing football. It's the only time I feel like I'm a real person with blood and sweat, it's the only time when people will work together as a team, it's the only time when people will look at you to see if you can play football.
Mentally uncomfortable
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
11:26 PM
Friday, July 16, 2004
Project Radiance Team & Mdm Michelle - Our Star Volunteer
You can see above members of the community service project I'm currently involved in.
I had a great time with my group members and Mdm Michelle, knocking doors on the 10th and 11th floor. I was more involved in writing rather than talking, but of course, I've got 2 pretty girls to do the talking so why not? Haha. Add to that, Mdm Michelle knew so many people around that things were breezy...hehz.
The next gathering would be on the 22nd to pack goodie bags in school (i think so), I hope it would be another fun time working together.
Meanwhile, there was no response from the company I emailed. What do I do now? I guess I would just dial in tomorrow and see what happens.
Purinbi gave some new ideas on the pushcart biz, selling Meiji stuff. I'm not very keen on FnB at this stage but it's still a good idea. The company I'm trying to get my supplies from will call me anytime as the person in charge has requested for my number. Wonder how things will go from there.
Been watching the anime One Piece lately, finished 89 episodes. This anime is about pirates and adventures. The storyline's great! Had laughed and cried throughout the 89 episodes, and there are another 110 more to catch up! Hahaha.
It's been a boring boring day. Maybe I should get people to play some mahjong soon. Anyone interested?
Yawnz
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
8:21 PM
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Monday was a day full of meetings. In the morning it was with the community service grp Project Radiance. I was late by around 10 mins but there were people even later. I was looking around the level to find that seminar room but fortunately, a very pretty girl came to lead me to the room. Initially we were walking together towards the same direction until she asked if I was going for the project briefing. So it turned out she was the project IC. Hahaha. As mentioned by many friends, there are really so many pretty girls in SMU! However my idea is that most university girls are pretty so don't think wrongly of me!
Didn't know there were external speakers. They were volunteers from Tsu Ching (Ci2 Ji4). They spoke with an taiwanese accent, and soon we found out that they started from taiwan and now have 38 branches around the world including Singapore. The English-speaking speaker was very humourous and tried cajoling us into more interaction. Haha. I was the first to volunteer as a group leader when I saw that nobody wanted to volunteer on first call. Looks like we need to learn to be more proactive.
In the evening there was another meeting with the SCS (Student Card Scheme) Dept of the BizCom (Business Committee) at, guess where, Coffee Express of Kinokuniya! I learnt a great deal at the meeting, and realised SMU is an expensive place to study in because one of them mentioned most students there were affluent. I hope he's not that right in the sense that maybe these affluent people are not that spendthrift. Anyway, there was this doe-eyed, pretty girl sitting beside me who was very initiative and full of ideas. Woah. A possible big star in the coporate world in the future. Anyway, this SCS Dept is very interesting with the personalities and their job scopes. Basically the project now is to get shops/outlets/restaurants to participate in a card scheme where our student cards can be used as privilege cards, something similar to the SAFRA card (but without the annual membership fee). It was then I got to know that the SMU student card can be used at McDonalds to get discounted prices. Wow. Then this realisation led to us thinking that our marketing of the card privileges was disastrous because nobody had used the card before at companies who had already participated. Anyway many ideas were exchanged and we were even trained on spot a la a OJT at the Heeren where we approached shops to join the scheme. I was assigned a shop but I wasn't very keen to speak so it was disappointing to them. In the end, the senior spoke on my behalf and we got the contact of the marketing manager. Then they assigned the follow up to us. Now I had to follow up with the retail manager. I just sent the email. Wonder if I would be reprimanded for changing some words in the proposal and also only writing the email as opposed to calling the person directly. My idea is to only call when you get no response electronically, so let's hope the manger reponds soon. I will decide whether to join this CCA pernamently pending on the reaction of the company and also the SCS people. This CCA is primarily a marketing based group but actually I'm more interested in entrepreneurship, so I had contacted another CCA grp as well to see if there is a trial or something to grasp a feel of things there.
Was at AMK Blk 217 with the Project Radiance group yesterday. This project is about gathering information from the elderly to create a medical IC for them so that they can use it when visiting any doctors without encoutering communication barriers when describing their ailments/medical history to a new doctor, especially in emergencies.(if it happens so coincidentally that one of your elderly relatives are living at that door, please help to get the idea across). I volunteered to be a group leader and had a senior called DC as my coordinator, an elderly but dynamic, vocal and friendly volunteer from Eden Community Service called Michelle, and another senior Ada and a fellow freshie, YM as team members.
It was difficult initially as we met doors that were never opened and people who couldn't understand what we said. If not for Michelle, we would have absolutely achieved nothing. She's so versatile in her languages! Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay, etc etc. I could speak simple hokkien only so wasn't of much help. Haha. Anyway it was a day well spent as I've got to know new people and seniors who gave us advice for our courses.
Jinki dialled over from Australia last night. It was such a surprise! Anyway he's pretty fine there and probably hope he can update his blog soon once he gets his net access.
My driving lesson today was fine except for the usual errors my instructor pointed out, I am glad I'm getting very familiar with it. Another 12 days to the test!
Tomorrow it will be another round of visiting at BLK 217 in the evening. Hope more of the elderly will be at home and we can get to spread more of our word around.
It's Dorothy's birthday today and I will like to wish her all the very best for her 21st birthday. Too bad I can't send her anything because she had shifted and I don't know how to link up to her except by calling her, which is not appropriate! Haha! Ok, dun get mistaken with the idea ok.
My brother's 18th birthday is tomorrow! I hope he can accomplish his dream to be a professional soccer player. I think he has no hope of achieving that in Singapore. Perhaps will ask him to go overseas to see if there are any opportunities around.
Sigh, this entry is not up to standards with its poorly structured paragraphs. So much to say, but so difficult to say that much.
Regards
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
8:26 PM
Sunday, July 11, 2004
It's a week since I last blogged. These days have been pretty meaningful with many happenings.
<6 Jul 04>
Was in school for some talks and orientation of the career services centre. The talk on networking was the most challenging of all, in which we were given a breakable coaster that has 6 sections in all. There were 6 different coloured coasters, and the speaker made us go exchange the parts so that we get a multicoloured coaster. Since I was really bad at talking to strangers, especially girls (the ratio was like 2:1), I could only get 2 other coloured parts. We were given stickers in the beginning so that we could put our names and email address on it as a 'namecard' to use during the exchange. I thought the game was very well thought, as it made me realised that I must overcome the fear of speaking to strangers. Yeah, anyway the good thing was that I've got 3 email addresses back, all girls! Hahaha. Of course some may think 'so what', I guess it's quite a breakthrough for me! The other talks were about volunteerism, career management in SMU, Biotherm's appearance maintenance talk (cum advertising) and a tour in the Office of Career Services (OCS). A day well spent in school.
<7 Jul 04>
Had lunch with Jinki and JK at Macpherson. The food was great but I overdid it with ordering of dim sum which was expensive. We all ate over our heart's contents.
After that was at Pius' place helping him shift the stuff from his old home to his new home. His new home is smaller but much nicer. Hope he likes it too. And of course hope we can also be invited from time to time to enjoy some facilities there like tennis courts, swimming pool etc. Haha.
Later I had a driving lesson at YCK in the evening with a private instructor. I decided to get a private instructor to coach me so that he can monitor my progress and guide me on my mistakes. My first drive on his Nissan Sunny was pretty good. I am still wondering if I made many mistakes as he didn't really say anything bad about me except for my judgement. Well, he mentioned that judgement/perception is a matter of practice, so I guess I just need some more lessons before the test. It's a required investment I think. In the past I never had much practice sessions because I thought they were expensive and useless. That was why I kept failing.
After the lesson I met up with Pius and Jason for dinner at AMK centre. We had some updates on each other and Jason asked us if we could help him to do a jigsaw puzzle. Since I was free so it was not a problem.
<8 Jul 04>
Was at Jason's place ard 4+pm to help him do the jigsaw puzzle. His house has just been renovated and his room is now much comfortable than before. Wonder when will we be staying over again? Haha. Anyway the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle was a gigantic headache and we were only 45% done by the time I went home at 11+pm. Managed to catch the last bus and slept on the bus because I had eye and brain strain with the puzzle.
<9 Jul 04>
Early in the morning I woke up despite only sleeping at 3am because a big day in the history of the 7seas has arrived - Jinki's departure to Australia. 8.10am I was at the airport, 5 mins earlier than the time set by JK. I was the earliest, to my surprise, because I'm a well known latecomer. Hahaha. Anyway soon Kevin and LX arrived. We awaited at the entrance seats, and I spotted Jinki's mother soon thereafter. Kevin mistaken Jinki for someone else at first glance, but on the second, he got it and asked if we should go see him. I replied maybe later after he finished checking in etc/while waiting for the rest to come. Thus we were sitting there and looking at him faraway, doing the scanning of luggage, talking to the counter staff, his parents and his relatives who had come too to see him off. Soon Kevin couldn't hold on and he made the first step to go and say hello. Of course we followed suit. We had a short chat and then proceeded to the staff canteen for breakfast. I say the staff canteen's food isn't bad and expensive. Soon JK arrived and a few moments later, Eileen also arrived. Unfortunately Alex didn't feel well enough to come forward to see Jinki off, it must have been pretty bad for him. The missing person, well, I should say, it was pretty disappointing not to see him but perhaps he had his own matters. Time was flying and soon Jinki had to depart. We bidded him and his parents goodbye (his parents were following him there for a short trip). Since time was still early, Kevin suggested we go see the plane fly. For the first time in my life I was at the gallery to see a plane take off. Haha. Anyway we didn't get to see the Qantas plane take off due to its course. This departure signalled a new chapter in the 7seas history, leaving 5 brothers together on this little island. For the remaining 4 of us, it must have been a long trip to get so far to university. I definitely hope Kevin will join us soon next year.
Soon after, Eileen and Kevin had to leave for their individual matters while LX, JK and I were free for the time being, so we decided to accompany LX for her interview at Golden Mile Towers. Brought them to the Beach Rd hawker for a prawn noodles lunch. All readers should try this stall which is on the 2nd floor. The prawn noodle was 100thumbs up! You can locate it where it faces the main rd (Beach Rd), the famous grass jelly stall is also just beside it, so you know what to order to cool yourself down.
After lunch we went to Golden Mile Towers. At first we waited at the wrong lift, the lift was to the cinema. And guess what, 100% of the people taking that lift were old men, ya, you can guess it, they do show R21 shows at Golden Mile Towers cinema. We realised the mistake and promptly went to find the office lift. Phew. We found it in a jiffy and LX went for her interview. JK and I had a discussion on things, particularly soccer and Winning Eleven. Hehz.
The interview ended around 40mins later. We walked to Lavender MRT and departed on our ways. OK, sorry for being a bigmouth here, but was I being a BIG 'lightbulb' throughout? Readers, I have to confess that after knowing both LX and JK for 4 years, I still have no inkling if they are an item or not. They don't behave like one to me, but yet.. aiya, it's so complicated.
After that I went to Jason's place to continue the puzzle, and we managed to get it 85% done by the time I left, around the same time as the previous day. Jason complained of a headache...haha. What to do, the jigsaw puzzle was so difficult. I had dinner in between the completion of the puzzle with my parents at Chomp Chomp. The place was renovated so it was much cleaner than before. The food was still just as good, so hope someday soon can gather some friends there for a meal..
<10 Jul 04>
Enjoyed playing WE7I for the day where I finished the previous season on a high, scoring 52 goals in 26 matches with Obfaemi Martins and Wesley Sonck notching 14 and 18 goals each. My dad thought of going Sembawang SC for dinner to give a treat to my brother whose birthday was next week, on the 15th. Unfortunately, the previous good food stalls we used to eat were all gone and we had to settle for dinner opposite the mall. My dad ordered from the seafood stall, which I was actually strongly against, but powerless (and no point spoiling the day) to do so. Well, the wait was so long. We had only 4 dishes(1 veg, 1 meat, 2 seafood (crab n fish), prata (yes they sell prata) and rice, it totalled $64+. Sigh. Add to the misery was that the curry fish we had was infested with little COCKROACHES babies, (luckily on the bottom holding plate only) which we promptly complained. It spoilt my appetite completely and of course I was sulking throughout the meal. NS had changed my brother for the better in the sense that he complained less than before and was okay with things. Well, my recommendation is - Never visit the S21 coffeeshop unless you are there for soccer and beer. They have a big LCD tv there and I guess the beer is safe from roaches.
<11 Jul 04>
Finished another season of WE7I in the afternoon in a team where I had Zlatan Imbrahimovic joining me in the close season. It is one of the best buy as I finished the season with 62 goals and also a double as in the league title and the champions league trophy. Imbrahimovic scored 26goals in the league with Sonck notching 14 too. Sonck had 13 assist in total followed by Bellamy at 9 and Imbrahimovic at 8. Whoo..but of course I revamped the team and hope I can finish better the next season. Oh ya, I won the league on 5 star difficulty, winning 22 and drawing 4 with no losses. I will strive to win all 26 matches the next season and also the Div 1 Cup and Champs League trophy.
In the evening I was invited to a farewell dinner by the guys in camp. SW, QY, GQ, Alvin Lee, JXian, JXing, Ah-Goh, Vicky and hubby were the hosts while Justin and I were the VIPs. Many many thanks to all the guys who were present at the meal. I've enjoyed it as much as everyone had. It was great! By the way, we had it at Brekz Buffetaurant. Haha. Wonder why they changed their name..
Tomorrow I will be having 2 meetings with people in school! Wooo...hope to make some more friends again.
Well, you guys must be tired reading such a long entry. Anything you will like to know in detail please feel free to discuss it online with me.
Regards
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
11:50 PM
Monday, July 05, 2004
This is my Euro 2004 report card.
Amt betted = $540
Amt Won = $841.60
Profit = Amt won - Amt betted = $341.60
Biggest Win by returns - $25 returning $112 in a HT-FT ticket for a Draw and Czech Republic win for the Denmark vs Czech Republic Match.
Biggest win by odds - $10 returning $87 ($8.70 odds) in a HT-FT ticket for a Denmark and Draw for Sweden Vs Denmark.
Smallest win by returns - $10 returning $20.50 in a Holland -1.5 goals ticket for Holland Vs Latvia.
Smallest win by odds - $40 returning $60 in a Greece +1.5 goals ticket for France Vs Greece
Biggest amt lost - $30 each for a Czech win (Greece Vs Czech Republic) and a Sweden win (Holland Vs Sweden)
Biggest bet amt in one match day - $85
Smallest bet amt in one match day - $15
Well, too bad I spent most of my winnings in my Malacca trip..haha.
Regards
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
8:54 PM
This is absolutely a fluke! Greece took the Euro 2004 trophy back in a game where they only had 2 shots, in which only 1 was on target and that was the only goal in the final. Efficient football to the max. Unfortunately, to me it wasn't really Greece who played that well, it was rather Portugal who didn't play like a team. And of course one of the worst scenarios was having Miguel injured for nothing. Up came Paola Ferreira and there he goes. I guess none of his crosses reached any Portuguese feet. Adding to the Portuguese defeat was the constant cheating they attempted. It was disgusting. Only Figo, Miguel, Carvalho and Maniche played like real men. Ronaldo and Deco led in the cheating attempts. Stupid. And I think Scolari should had planted some surprise in his starting line up, but what to do, against the counterattacking Greeks, there would only be a few risk takers. This is indeed the year of the underdogs.
The 7Seas got together today for maybe the last time for the first half of 2004. Wonder if we would be able to get together again as a whole in the end of year. This time we met at Olio Dome, a place which I think isn't that nice. That chat was pretty normal, and as usual, the guys were crapping. Thought I would hear some plans here and there but nothing much about these. Everyone's sticking their guns to their hearts.
At night some of us met again at AMK again for the relevation of the year - Jinki's girlfriend. Haha. They started only recently after his tour to Korea, and guess what, she was the tour guide. On first impression she's quite a gentle looking girl but after the long chat I realised she's a very dedicated person who goes for details. Possibly a workaholic too, since most people would actually give up after working too much long hours. Haha. Anyway hope their long distance relationship will last and wish them all the best in the future.
After the chat, on the way back, I mentioned some of my newest plans to JK and LX. Guess it isn't really the usual me to mention my plans. However I am very confident for this project and hope somehow everyone can give me their support. Pray the company contacts me soon and let's see how things turn out.
I will write my Euro 2004 betting report later.
Regards
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
5:01 AM
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Just back from a long bus ride on the Nightrider. Had a long chat with my brother's friend, who is also my friend's brother. Haha. I guess I must have talked too much and bored him ba. However the long bus ride was comfortable and there were some memorable sights we passed. The garden by the sea behind Oriental Hotel, River Valley Rd, Chinablack @ Pacific Plaza. The 7Seas spent a long night at the garden by the sea, think we were playing cards there or something, it was memorable of the time wasted there. River Valley Rd reminds me of MS, and my first clubbing experience was at Samsara, believed it has closed down now or changed names. Chinablack, oh, I haven't been there before, but Aloy mentioned queueing there from 10 - 12. My bus went passed there @0044hrs, and there was still a bloody long queue! I just feel like why are these people queueing up to get drunk, or to dance, or to flirt. There must be other better ways...
Anyway I was at ECP Coasta Sands chalet hosted by the birthday boy, C_U. This is his 19th birthday and also his last day in Singapore after spending one whole month here reminiscing his past with his secondary/primary school friends. There were many people at the chalet but so little food. The first time I know of a bbq with INADEQUATE food. Haha. Usually there's always a wastage. Anyway the photo taking was a challenging task. They took it as if in a class photo manner. Still living in school huh... I didn't feel I was in the group ba. They were all my brother's age. The funny thing is that nobody except those whom I regularly see knows that i am the elder brother rather than the younger. Some others thought I was my brother's friend! Haha. My brother is indeed an enigma in his primary school days and people treat him with plenty of respect. I guess it's an image thing. However I also think it's because of this image thing that now he doesn't have any friends to go out with. Yet it suits him anyway because he doesn't want to go out. Every weekend his return from Tekong is the same, wash clothes, download taiwanese variety shows, watch some soccer, play some soccer(or soccer games), have a meal or two with the family and sleep. Going out with friends never appears on his agenda. Well, maybe if not for the 7Seas and my 3 great friends, Pius/Dan/Jason, I might have ended up the same. Anyway, the chalet was overcrowded and thus I decided to go home in spite of C_U's endless begging for my staying. I thought it was pointless because to me I can't really mix in the group, but of course the other guys don't mind. I mind it's because of the girls there... haha. What to do? Not really very comfortable with all the young girls around...hoho. Wonder if it would be the same in school..
Joined another job search website and posted my resume there. I don't know how to write a resume, but I wrote down my education achievements and my work experience. It seems like I have nothing much to brag about...so I hope I can add some gloss to it in university ba.
Acknowledged my existence at
2:37 AM
Friday, July 02, 2004
Man, it's unbelievable. Greece are in the finals of Euro2004. Finally the time for black horses! Oh well, I didn't win anything from that semi final but it was really a nerve wrecking match. Haha.
Acknowledged my existence at
3:41 PM
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Actually I had made an entry yesterday but my computer was plagued by a reset-computer virus that halfway through the typing, the disastrous scenario happened. No mood to retype after that so left it till today.
Went to school yesterday for matriculation yesterday. It was a complete mess! I guess the planning didn't turn out as smooth as they wanted. Precious time was wasted especially while waiting for our student cards to be printed. I guess they ought to have assigned people to batches after they have taken their photo. With that, we could have went on to view the laptop booths or clear the other stations while waiting for the cards to be made. Anyway my photo on the card sucked big time, so too bad la. Haha. I also didn't see anyone I know among the freshmen, so probably gotta start on a clean slate in getting to know the people.
They had various camps and voluntary projects planned for us to participate before school starts. All SMU students have to clock 80hrs of community service as one of the graduation criteria, so the seniors suggested that we take up one or two projects first to clock the 80hrs needed even before school started. I have yet to decide which one I wanted to join, and I guess it's too late for they would have closed the registration by today, the last day of matriculation for local students. About the camps, I guess I wanted to join the SMU Student Association Leadership Camp, but the first day of the camp is on the same day as my driving test. I wrote them an email enquiring if I could skip the earlier parts of the camp, but they haven't replied. What to do? Anyway there will be lots of activities lined up next week, talks and seminars, blah blah. Maybe I ought to make a friend or two soon as it would be quite boring to be alone in all the talks. Haha. This remains a difficult task for me..
Before reporting to school for matriculation, I had to return to camp for my last task - collect my pink IC. However things didn't turn out as smooth as I thought, with me having to answer for one more item on my job to my boss because my understudy wasn't able to answer her satisfactorily. Kaoz. Anyway, I've got some presents from my superiors, which were all quite nice except for V's. She gave me an oversized shirt which was pretty ugly. My mother said it looks better on my father! Well, ok la, since it's a gift. Had lunch with Mdm Sonia too. Gotta thank her for all she had done during my 2yr 1 mth stint in HQ SA. Probably she thought she made a good 'catch' by taking me from CPC. The lunch was disastrous as I made a wrong order of spaghetti bolognaise. It was beef! Luckily the waitress was kind enough to change it for me to tomato basil.
I had also bought some stuff from my trip to Malacca for my friends, some of the NSFs and also V and Mdm Sonia. Most of them got mini perfumes.. hehe. I hope they like them. V got a box of Malacca local snack and Mdm Sonia got a tin of ginseng tea. I hope my friends wouldn't mind the little value of the gifts because I had a limited budget only..haha.
Well, so I got my pink IC, finished registration for school but I have yet to commence the search for the job. Sigh. These days there's nothing to push me on and I feel I'm slacking so much.
Congratulations to my 2 7seas brothers who had made a gigantic step in their love lives. I hope I can be of help soon for your weddings! Haha. Gotta go and learn from people about this liao.
May all of the students who have begun school get their engines rev-ed up! 2 more laps to go before we reach the end of this school year! Vrooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmm!
Regards
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
7:31 PM