year of the ox

Happy Year of the Ox everybody! Well, two days of public holidays have come and gone and it has been a nice break while it lasted. Had lots of great food, from the Peranakan reunion dinner to the Szechuan lunch I had today. Had better luck in gambling this year and spent quality time with my family and relatives. I even tried to play a bit of Mahjong but the game still eludes me to an extent. Gin Rummy is so much better. Hahaha. But the Chinese New Year specials are getting from bad to worse. Too much singing!!! And kinda boring after a while. Anyway, Detective Conan's latest opening song is very nice! Very jazzy! :P And I've been watching Nodame Cantabile recently and it's quite good. Love the classical pieces and renewed my great admiration for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. So that's the break for me and hope I can go full steam ahead with the work that I have for the rest of the term.

slowly taking shape

Finally I'm gaining a bit more momentum to do my thesis. I've been seriously slacking too much and when I got the email from my supervisor, requesting for us to meet him, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed at my lack of conscientiousness. I see the rest of my classmates trudging along, making progress with interviews and survey questions, and yet I still have nagging doubts as to how to organise my thesis. And everybody thinks I'm too free for crashing tourism 4k lectures when everybody else is frantically doing their theses. But I think I made the right decision in attending that lecture. Dr Sallie touched on postcolonialism and tourism, which was something that we didn't cover when I took the mod last year. And it seemed so perfect for my thesis! As I was leaving the lecture, I bumped into Dr Sallie at the corridor and I talked to her about my thesis. She seemed very interested in my topic and we arranged a time so I could talk to her more extensively. Met her for the consultation a few days after the lecture and she gave me a lot of good ideas, even though she was not too familiar with my topic. She even offered to find books for me, so I'm so glad that I decided to talk to her about it!

Met Prof Chang today to talk about my thesis and honestly I was having butterflies in my stomach. The feeling of not being prepared sucks and I was bracing for some harsh words. But that did not materialise. Prof Chang was ever so helpful, talking about my thesis and fieldwork strategies, recommending me this boutique hotel in Penang, which used to be a mansion for a rich Peranakan family, and introducing me to potential contacts. I feel so blessed for all the help that I have gotten this week, and this is perhaps the motivation I need to make this thesis a great one.

footprints in the sand

You walked with me, footprints in the sand
And helped me understand where I'm going
You walked with me when I was all alone
With so much I know along the way
Then I heard you say

I promise you, I'm always there
When your heart is filled with sorrow and despair
I'll carry you when you need a friend
You'll find my footprints in the sand.

I see my life flash across the sky
So many times have I been so afraid
And just when I thought I lost my way
You gave me strength to carry on
That's when I heard you say

I promise you, I'm always there
When your heart is filled with sorrow and despair
And I'll carry you when you need a friend
You'll find my footprints in the sand.

When I'm weary, well, I'll know you will be there
And I can feel you when you say

I promise you, I'm always there
When your heart is filled with sadness and despair
I'll carry you when you need a friend
You'll find my footprints in the sand.

I promise you, I'm always there
When your heart is full of sadness and despair
I'll carry you when you need a friend
You'll find my footprints in the sand.

Sung by Leona Lewis

~

This song is so poignant, especially now. I really hope it's true, what this song proclaims...

code geass

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And just when I thought I couldn't find another anime to trump the others I've seen, Code Geass comes along! Just finished watching all the episodes and well, I never experienced something quite like it. Every episode is just one emotional rollercoaster after another, and I cannot help sighing after every single plot twist this series throws at me. This is storytelling at its best. Although the storyline can be rather Shakespearean, that's what I like about it. Wasn't very keen on the emphasis on fighting robots, but at least the writers really tried to keep that to a minimum. Maybe it was a strategy on their part as they didn't want to narrow their potential viewing demographic. And as usual, they deal with universal themes such as justice, morality and friendship, and Lelouch's strategic manoeuvrings are simply mindblowing. And the ending was EPIC. Sigh sigh sigh. And Kururugi Suzaku rocks! Hahaha. Oh well, that's enough anime for me for the holidays as my final semester starts tomorrow. I have been sufficiently entertained and really need to pay much more attention to my studies.

life is short

The honours class chalet was a success! I was afraid that very few people would turn up as many did not reply my emails, but I'm very satisfied with the turnout. Was the busy bee, buying things, checking in and seeing everything was going ok. Afraid that there wasn't enough food but of course, we ended up with having lots of excess. Thanks to the many, many packets of hotdogs that we bought. Hahaha. Even though the chalet ended prematurely, I hope everybody had as much fun as I did planning this thing out. Especially the all nighter of games. But I'm happy that I finally can come home to my bed and a good bath, and then concussed for 13hrs, nursing a slight sore throat and a headache. Now I'm feeling better.

But, I'm afraid this year will be a most challenging year as predicted. My mother told me of my aunt's medical condition, and we are all expecting the worst. The doctors say that she will most probably not survive the year and that came as an extremely rude shock to me. Cancer is a most horrible disease, especially after she had already survived breast cancer. I hugged my mother whom I could tell needed all the support that she can get. She will be trying as hard as possible to make my aunt as comfortable and happy as possible. But losing your younger sister will definitely be a huge blow for my mother, as for myself, I just hope that God will grant my aunt the strength to tide through her final days and at least let her remain strong for my uncle and cousin, and it would be especially bittersweet if she could be able to attend my graduation. I will pray with all my might and soul as I dedicate my final semester, my honours thesis to my aunt who has always been been there and has been almost like a mother to me.

mosaic kakera

New anime song which I like. I think I'm slowly becoming an otaku! Lol! Anyway, this song is the ending song from one of Japan's most popular anime series, Code Geass, which I'm starting to watch right now. It's a rather sad song actually, but the melody just sticks for me. Enjoy.

first post of 2009

First of all, here's wishing everybody a happy 2009! I know this year will be one full of challenges ahead, and also one with hopefully plenty of milestones for me, but it's pretty sad to hear of the Bangkok nightclub fire on New Year's Eve, and yet another Singaporean fatality. But anyway, I'm very lazy to do a recap of 2008, as you can tell from the lack of updates. But on the whole, 2008 has been a rather mixed year for me. I entered my honours year in 2008, and it proved to be the most challenging semester I've ever had in NUS thus far. Made a lot of new friends and managed to travel quite extensively to Malaysia, revisiting many of the places that I have been. Also, it was in 2008 when I began to appreciate Japanese ingenuity more, after stumbling upon Detective Conan and D.Gray-Man. I just hope that 2009 will be an equally good year for me, as it will be the time when I formally end my time in NUS and begin a different phase of my life. I pray for health and happiness to my family and friends, especially my aunt, who is experiencing some medical issues right now.

I had my usual gathering on New Year's Eve at Sharon's house. The food was great, we played something similar to 20 Questions, and a little bit of my Cluedo DVD. Had our countdown while watching the Marina Bay one, and there were really a lot of fireworks this time round. Finished the game and went home early because I was going to Prof Chang's house for tea on New Year's Day. His house was immaculately decorated, like the last time we went. And the food was delicious and we were filled to the brim with pizza, tempura and ice cream! But what provided the most entertainment were Prof Chang's niece, nephew and his dogs! And we had fun walking around Paragon prior to going to Prof Chang's house trying to get nice presents for him. And I never been to so many branded outlets at one shot before. Haha. And Prof Chang gave us geographically inspired presents too. What a nice way to start the year, and now I'm feeling super guilty for not doing enough work in the hols. :(