Outcome of Chemistry Practical
Despite prying myself from the internet for three whole days, nothing much has been accomplished. For some strange reason, I am still slacking in the afternoons and in the evenings and would only touch my notes when I feel like it. Such poor work attitude when the promotional exams are only three weeks away. To make matters worse, mt attempt at studying this afternoon failed when I dozed off halfway whole reading through my physics notes.
After combing through countless Sports retail outlets at the various shopping malls here in Singapore, I finally managed to purchase a proper sports water tumbler. Gone are the days when I would be carrying a recycled mineral water bottle during each and every school day. For some reason, the sales of Sports bottles had risen dramatically after the results of a study showed that recycled mineral water bottles contain a relatively higher percentage of bacteria as compared to using a proper bottle. For hygiene purposes, I have no other choice but to fork out $8++ rather than to let my health deteriorate.
The Promotional Chemistry Practical paper was held today. As usual, I was in a deep frenzy whilst waiting at the reporting venue before the practical while Swee Wah was completely calm beside me. I panicked even further upon looking at the practical paper when I realised that I had to complete 2 experiments, plot a graph and answer 5-6 chemical calculation questions within one miserable hour. Therefore, I had no choice but to multi-task. Anyone who was watching me during the whole practical would realise that I would be doing two different things each time. At one particular moment, I was pipetting 25cm3 of FA3 into the conical flask with my left hand and dropping methyl orange indicator into another flask with my right hand…
However, multi tasking would not always be effective as I made a grave mistake during the second experiment. The question specifically required us to pipette 25cm3 of solution FA3 into a conical flask and add an additional 30cm3 of solution FA1 into the same flask. In my haste, I added the 25cm3 of FA3 and accidentally added an additional 30cm3 of the same solution FA3 as I had forgotten to switch my bottles over. I only found out about that mistake when I realised that there was still no colour change even though I had enptied the contents of the whole burette into the flask during the titration. The result? I was delayed by 5 minutes. Thank goodness all my answers to the practical matched that of my friends’ upon comparision after the paper… *phew*
There was a certain teacher who really pissed me off before the practical examination itself. She would yell at anyone who was late in reporting for the practical and my entire class was yelled at for a whole minute in the lab because we took quite some time to settle down. Hello? The seats weren’t even labelled properly, so how on earth would you expect us to find our allocated seats quickly? She even accused us of holding up the entire examination when it was the fault of the seat planners themselves. Her voice was loud and shrill as she yelled continuously at the whole group with me half expecting the glass windows and chemistry apparatus to break any moment. Some lung power! In fact, she really reminds me of a “ba po” or typical Singaporean “ah soh”
Sigh… Physics lecture at 8:00am tomorrow… No more late Saturday mornings for me until the promotional examinations end.
I have placed this weblog off-hiatus, as I have decided that I cannot live without my daily dosage of weblogging.
Had to crawl out of bed at around 9:30am today, which is considered quite early for me especially on a lovely Saturday Morning. I wonder what had possessed me to sign up for CIP during the holidays, but that is the only thing I can do in order to meet up with 6 hours requirement set by the Ministry Of Education. Erica decided to join Swee Hua, Hui Hoon, Hui Ting and I, for the first time and it was really enjoyable having her around.
The area we were assigned to as Tanah Merah, but the place was deserted when we got there. So we headed to Bugis where there was plenty of competition. Students from Serangoon Junior College, Chung Cheng High and Cedar Girls Secondary School were also involved in the flag day, and so many of them had chosen Bugis as their location. They had practically covered every spot of Bugis by the time we got there, but Erica and I found a nice spot beside a temple where there were relatively fewer volunteers to “fight with”. We worked and worked until our tins were completely full to an extent that my arms hurt just by carrying it.
Majority of the people who I had approached were generous. However, a selected few just dao-ed (Translation: To ignore and shun) me when I approached them. There was one point where I approached this rich-looking lady who was carrying an umbrella. She daintily opened her handbag, slowly removed her wallet, made a big show of displaying her credit cards, took out a 50 cent coin and daintily placed the coin in the tin in a way where her fingertips wouldn’t make contact with the tin (and me). Then, she glanced at me, batted her eyelids and pranced away from where I was.
Gag me…
However, I was rather ill prepared to answer any questions regarding the association which I was collecting donations for. Here is the conversation between another lady and myself.
Lady: What is this for?
Brenda: This is for the Singapore Heart Foundation.
Lady: Singapore Heart Foundation shi lai zuo she me?
[Translation: What does this organisation do?]
Brenda: Ta men shi lai zao gu na xie you xin bing de ren.
[Translation: This organisation helps to look after patients with heart problems (What I was actually trying to say)]
Lady (puzzled): Xin Bing???
[I wondered for a moment and realised that "xin bing" actually meant "heartbroken patients"]
Brenda: Oops… wo de yi shi jiu shi lai zao gu na xie you xin zhang bing de ren.
[Translation: I meant, to look after those patients with heart failure]
Good grief… This is a warning signal which tells me to brush up on my Chinese ASAP!
At this moment, it is almost 1:00am in the morning here in Singapore and yet I am still wasting time online. I have no other choice but to work on the website design for my college’s Bowling CCA Website since I was appointed Head of IT not long ago. It is quite a tedious job, considering the fact that I had to analyse the existing site in depth for various information and data as well as scruitinising the whole Tampines JC Web Portal for any bowling-related information. Only then am I able to transfer any data effectively into the new website which I am currently in the process of making. Sigh… at least this is earning me some CCA points.
Had a Chemistry test first thing in the morning today. Personally, I found the test quite basic and this is the very first test in which I am quite confident of attaining a good grade on. Now that I have to face the fact of being extremely poor in Mathematics, I would definitely have to buck up on my Physics and Chemistry subjects in order to do well in the Promotional Examinations. I am expecting an A, nothing less. At least if I work hard now and do well in the Promotional Examinations, I can live in peace for the rest of the year, knowing that I have mastered everything that I had learnt in Year One. Otherwise, I would still be burying my nose in my books during the December holidays this year, trying to catch up on the JC1 curriculum.
Only 6 more weeks to go before the Promotional examinations. I…. must….. carry…. on….. studying……. *puff..wheeze*
Finally the September break is here! However, it has already been partially ruined by teachers calling us back for remedials, lectures and such. How on earth am I going to study for my promotional exams?? Currently, my schedule for the September Holidays is already so packed with such sessions to an extent that I have no more time for myself. This would mean that I might have to end up studying 24 hours a day during the September break with no rest at all in order to make up for all the studying time wasted due to such remedials. From now, every spare moment I have would be dedicated to revising my tutorials and lecture notes. However, at least two hours would still have to be dedicated to leisure per day and this is my fixed rule. After all, all work and no play makes Brenda a very dull girl. :)
How to survive?
There is only 2 more months to go before my real freedom begins, and that would be the December Vacation period. According to my college calendar, there would be no make-up lectures or remedials planned during that period and thus, that would be something I would be looking forward to. One and half months of nothing but rest and leisure. Sheer bliss!