Little-Wonder.Net

13 September, 2003

A Day for CIP (Community Involvement)

23:11:23 | School Life | writebacks (8)

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!

12 September, 2003

Lantern (Mooncake) Festival 2003

00:22:13 | Little Things, Web Stuff | writebacks (11)

Good grief, it is 12:10am now, which means that I have been officially online for close to 5 hours. This explains why my head feels so tense, probably due to too much radiation, as well as all the undue stress on my eyes from the constant brightness from the computer screen. One safety precaution I can take in the future when using the computer for long periods of time is to put on extra strong sunglasses to shield my sensitive eyes from the strong glare.

It was the mooncake festival yesterday, which incidentally fell on the September 11th. Gen and I went down for a walk not long ago, hoping to catch the glimpse of the many little neighbourhood children parade their lanterns around. However, we were dismayed to find that there were none. Other than the few families who held little gatherings in the garden outside their homes, the whole place was literally deserted. Where is all the youthful spirit? In the past years, little children used to clog the walk paths with their happy laughter and the music wafting from their various laterns. This year, there were almost none.

Captured a few photographs from the walk. The first one shows the lanterns hanging in the garden outside one of my neighbour’s home and the second one shows the one and only group of children strolling around with lanterns.

On a lighter note, I managed to complete part of my Physics revision today, despite the fact that I fell asleep whilst studying for almost an hour. Accomplishing a bit of revision is better than none. There are only three more days of the September holidays to go, which means that my newly-found freedom is coming to an end. After that, the endless piles of schoolwork would come raining on me again. :(

Anyway, I gave a redesign to L-W Designs to give it a more professional touch as the previous one was a little too plain. Talk about wasting my time away… Sigh…

[EDITED @ 6:29pm]
My second domain, OneSidedMind.org has just been launched. Your opinions are welcome.

11 September, 2003

Why do we fall sick?

00:24:18 | People | writebacks (11)

I am currently having a terrible case of flu. Have been sniffling and coughing for the whole day continiously to an extent that I am starting to get really irritable. The mere idea of being sick really angers me as it constantly serves as a reminder of my extremely low immune system. Popping Vitamin C pills and watching my diet everyday doesn’t really make a difference. Ironically, after my huge warning to everyone to stay home when unwell in yesterday’s journal entry, I was the one who wound up falling sick. Bleah…

Not that I do not practice what I preach, my mother dragged me out shopping this afternoon with my relatives. David, my 11 year old cousin came along as well. During lunch at Orchard Hotel, David made a mess at the restaurant by dropping a spoon as well as breaking a plate. The sound of the crash attracted so much attention and I was feeling really paiseh. (Translation: embarassed) David also demonstrated the typical kiasu-ism of a Singaporean by pocketing many free packets of sugar and honey home from the restaurant.

On a lighter note, I finally found something almost perfect for my cousin’s wedding next month. As I am not really good in describing apparels and such, I can only say that it is a white dress. Costed me about $39.90 and was purchased at Far East Plaza. When my Aunt saw me trying on the dress after reaching my grandmother’s house, this was her comment…

“Finally! I see you in something more feminine other than your usual tomboyish style!” (cough)

Today marks the second anniversary of the September 11 Terrorist attacks which took place two years ago. Despite such a long period of time having passed, the threat of terrorism remains real, and there seems to be no ending to this dark episode. From what I heard from my parents, there seems to be yet another threat of a terrorist attack looming overhead and nobody knows where they would strike next. Countries all over the world are tightening their security, especially on this day. However, there is one question which remains unanswered. Is Osama dead yet?

Also, September 11, 2001 was also the exact day which this domain made its very first appearance, which means that today is also the second anniversary of little-wonder.net’s existence. Talk about bad timing…

ATTENTION! I am putting my second domain, Inundation.Net for sale. Currently, there are still 5 more months before its expiry in January 2004 and I’d like to find a buyer who would keep the domain for at least three years (long term basis). This domain is quite precious to me as well, so I’d like to find someone who I can really trust. I am selling the domain for SG $12 and all renewal fees would be handled by the new owner. If interested, please contact me as soon as possible. Thanks.