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Friday, December 31, 2004

I went to church just now and had dinner with my family after that. Not surprisingly, the reverend talked about the tsunami disaster in his sermon. He told us an account by a survivor, who lost her parents because of the disaster. The family was taking a picture and the parents went away for a little walk and could not be found after that. Life is so unpredictable, but I guess what the reverend said was true. Without the mysteries of life, we would become arrogant and proud. With such mysteries, we're reminded that God is in control of our lives. We can plan on what we want to do with our lives, but ultimately, our lives are in God's hands and sometimes, things just don't work out according to our plan. May God grant strength to the survivors. The death toll is rising rapidly and Indonesia is the worst-hit country. So far, the death toll here is 80000 and still counting.

Oh well...last post of 2004. I don't know.. I'm feeling rather indifferent that tomorrow will be the first day of a new year. Anyway, wishing everyone a wonderful and fruitful year ahead!

posted by vivien at 10:14 AM
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Thursday, December 30, 2004

I'm feeling weird right now. I'm still quite high from the Christmas weekend. But after watching the news and seeing all the tsunami stuff, I feel bad. I only heard about it when I got back home on Monday, so I don't really know much about it. But after seeing the death toll, I really feel sad. I don't know..my heart just goes out to all those people.. I mean it was like so unexpected and stuff. Oh well..

posted by vivien at 12:18 PM
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Went to watch Ocean's Twelve on Tuesday night with my dad and brothers. I think the movie's pretty slick, but didn't really understand it haha. It's my first time watching a movie in a cinema here since a really really long time. I think the last movie I watched in a cinema here was Pinoccio, and that was like when I was in primary school. After that, I watched VCDs haha. Anyway, I shall remember I watched Ocean's Twelve in the nicest cinema I've ever been in. Made me feel grand haha.

I'm done with my driving lessons. And I think I can safely declare that I've improved! Haha. Besides driving and playing tennis, I think I haven't done much at all during the holidays so far. Went shopping a few times. Tried using the Internet but couldn't. So most of the time I just watched tv. Watched movies, soccer matches, their replays, music videos, tennis matches, basically anything that looks interesting haha. Sigh.. I feel fat and lazy.

posted by vivien at 10:52 AM
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Haven't been going online recently because my com was infected with virus. Finally got it repaired today. Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas. I certainly did! Spent Thursday-Monday with my family and relatives from my mum's side (sort of like a family gathering I suppose) in Bali. And I had an awesome time! I'm gonna write a really long entry on my time there..

We stayed at Hard Rock Hotel, nearby Kuta Beach, for the first 2 nights. The room isn't exactly very clean and I've no idea why the bathroom has no lock, but the facilities there are great. The swimming pool is really huge and there's also gym, pool table and sauna. After we checked in, we went shopping nearby our hotel. The main shopping area's within walking distance, so it was quite convenient. The area's like a surfer's paradise. There're so many surfer shops and also polo shops. Price's definitely lower than that in Singapore. Apparently, the things there are even cheaper than in Australia, but I'm not sure. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant nearby the beach. We chose to eat indoors, but I think it's pretty romantic to eat outside along the beach. There were candles at each table and the view is also nice. A few people were playing with fireworks. Very noisy, but quite spectacular also. Oh ya, the food was of course delicious, but quite spicy. Not surprising considering that Bali is practically surrounded by the sea, so specialty there is seafood. When we got back to the hotel, there was a band from New Zealand playing at the bar near the lobby. They were playing some of the current songs, so a few of us decided to stay back at the bar. Even two very young cousins of mine stayed back and they didn't get chased out haha. Anyway, the band was quite lively. Great energy too. I was mostly just singing along to the songs, but we spotted a few people dancing, some quite hilariously. After I went back to my room, I could still hear the band performing. My mum looked incredulous when I told her I practically knew all the songs they were playing. Think she didn't know I was so into music haha.

The next morning, I went to the gym. Haven't worked out for quite a while; my stamina really sucks. Anyway, the next morning I had muscle aches even though I didn't really work out that much. Oh well... After breakfast, we went shopping again. This time, we shopped at the row of roadside shops selling all the Balinese stuff, from shirts, shorts, slippers to cloths, curtains, etc. The good thing is that you can still bargain with the stallowners, even though prices are considered relatively low already. We had 'babi guling' for lunch. I think it's quite a popular dish there. Didn't really like it, partly because it's too spicy. After that, we went to Kuta Beach for a while. The place was quite crowded and dirty. Off for more shopping after that. We shopped quite a bit while we were staying at Hard Rock because the shopping area was so close to the hotel; bought quite a lot of stuff too. On the way to dinner, my uncle who went for the Olympics told us about his experience there. He got to watch swimming and tennis! And he got to see Phelps, Thorpe, Hoogenband, Henin-Hardenne and Myskina! He got good seats too I think. And he got to watch the 200m freestyle race and the relays. I was so jealous! Later on, he showed me the pictures. Very small, but when I zoomed in, I could see Phelps and the rest. Oh well.. Anyway, I found out from my brothers that one of my dad's friends went to the 2002 World Cup to get Thierry Henry's authograph. But he was sent off in the match that my dad's friend watched haha.

Saturday morning.. it's Christmas! Went to the gym in the morning again. We were supposed to move to Hyatt Hotel, which is nearby Nusa Dua Beach. Before moving, my mum and I managed to shop a little bit more haha. Oh I also took pictures in front of the house, which's made up entirely of bread, cookies, etc. Really cool. In the afternoon, we went to the beach. We rode on the banana boat! It's really just a rubber boat that looked exactly like a banana. Only 5 people could go on at 1 time, so I went with my brothers, cousin and aunt. The boat was dragged along by a speedboat into the sea. Think we went quite far out, but the view was pretty nice. My youngest brother had told me that the banana boat would flip at some point, but up till that point, the ride was pretty tame. I think the people at the speedboat must've heard us, so they turned sharply and all of us fell over into the sea. The water was really salty (ok, I knew seawater's salty but I didn't expect it to be that salty). I managed to get back onto the boat after great difficulty. But moments later, the boat flipped over again and we were all in the sea. But I think it was quite fun. I think we all spent the rest of the ride wondering whether the boat's going to flip over again haha. The second boat, consisting of the rest, only flipped over once. And one of my cousins, who sat on the third seat just like I was, didn't even fall over! After that, I went jetskiing with my uncle. Pretty bad at that too. I would turn sharply at full speed and stop suddenly. Just didn't know how to control the jetski. Luckily, neither of us fell over.

We went rafting on Sunday. The company that organised the rafting trip arranged for a van to pick us up. On the way there, I had a nice chat with one of my cousins, whom I haven't seen in quite a while but was close to her last time. We talked about everything; it was really just nice to catch up with her. Rafting...it was quite exciting. The guide would shout commands at us and when he told us to lower our heads, we would all do that, wondering whether we were going to hit the rocks or something. We occupied 2 rafts and it was fun competing against the other raft. Not to mention that my youngest brother actually fell into the river while trying to hold the other raft back. All in all, the rafting trip was about 11km long and it was very tiring to row against the current. Surprisingly, my arms didn't hurt the next day. Instead, my shoulder blades did..and my legs, from going down and climbing up the stairs I think. The company also provided a buffet so that we could eat after rafting. We all just lapped up the food greedily. We were the first people at the buffet place and we were the last ones to leave haha. When we got back to the hotel, we just lazed around at the cafe near the lobby. We had vouchers for free drinks and we just sat there, talking and making fun of my youngest brother (ling ling hahaha). After that, we decided to play tennis..quite fun. And at night, I watched the MU vs Bolton match. MU won, so it was quite a good day.

Monday, last day in Bali. We actually wanted to go parasailing, but we couldn't because it was raining. We went snorkelling instead. It was really weird to wear the flippers and walk around in them. I didn't really enjoy snorkelling that much because I couldn't really breathe through my mouth and I was also seasick. Think I would've enjoyed parasailing more.

That was basically what we did in Bali. I really think we should've a family gathering every year; it's nice to catch up with the rest, but I'm not sure if it's possible. The only thing I feel bad about is that I haven't gone to church on Christmas for 2 years now. I think I probably got sorethroat from the trip too. Had seafood practically everyday. Not to mention that the meal times were irregular and I ate a lot. Really.

My brother and I were just talking about it the other day.. we would have 1 more hour if we come back home, because Jakarta's time is 1hr behind Singapore's. And we would have 1 less hour if we go back to Singapore. My brother told me he liked the feel of having 1 more hour to spare. I'm not too sure about it myself. But I think the whole time thing is very interesting.

posted by vivien at 9:10 AM
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Sunday, December 19, 2004

I think I'm really not cut out for driving. My brother and I tried to drive our own car yesterday, with someone to guide us. My brother drove first and he drove quite smoothly. After about an hour, I took over. At first, it was quite ok, but then we came to this stretch where there was heavy traffic. Total jam and it's really tiring to drive a manual car when there's a traffic jam. Your left leg will get very very tired. Anyway, I was getting quite flustered, especially with the other cars honking at us.. I'm really such a lousy driver. And then, the police just had to stop us, apparently for beating the red light. If I don't recall wrongly, the light was actually still yellow and all the other cars were still moving. So I drove also but I must have stopped suddenly quite a few times, which caught the attention of the policeman, who asked us to pull over. He asked for my driving license. Of course I don't have one, but apparently, it's legal to drive even if you don't have driving license, as long as the person in the passenger seat has one. So that person who guided us searched for his license. But he took quite a long time and the policeman asked instead for one of the car's documents, which's quite important. After we gave it to him, he walked away, without returning us the document. We had to give him money to get the document back! I think that policeman just wanted money.. I mean after all, I didn't even beat the red light! To top it off, I lost my parents' room key and I still can't find it. Wonderful.

Anyway, I'm happy that Taufik won the Indonesian Open! I didn't really watch the match; only saw glimpses of it. He won for the third consecutive year and each time, he beat Chen Hong for the title. Think he's almost unbeatable when playing at home. Oh my dad told us that when he was coming back from Singapore the other time, he was on the same flight as the Indonesian players who played in the Singapore Open. If I were there, I would've asked for autographs! Haha. Imagine if Taufik didn't pull out, then my dad could've met him. Ok think I'm imagining too many things haha.

posted by vivien at 8:55 PM
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Friday, December 17, 2004

It's been quite a rough and tiring week for me. I would like to think that I'm coping just fine..hopefully, next week will be better. I've been playing tennis everyday and gosh.. my right arm and elbow really hurt. Think there's something wrong with the way I'm holding my racket. Oh well.. maybe it's just that I haven't played in a really long time.

Holidays have been kind of boring. I'm literally wasting my days away watching tv or going online. Not very good huh. I need something to occupy myself with. Oh I forgot that I'm going to start my driving lessons again tomorrow..maybe that'll keep me less bored. Driving..sigh, the thought of it makes me both excited and nervous. Hopefully, I won't crash like I almost did last year. I really want to get my driving license and be able to drive a manual car. I know that almost all the cars nowadays are automatic, but I think it's an advantage to be able to drive a manual car.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether I should get a job next year. Everybody seems to be getting one. I feel like getting one too, but with Chinese lessons in the morning, I can only work in the afternoon. I don't even know whether I'll be too tired.

Sigh.. MU just has to be drawn with AC Milan, following Ferguson's prediction. And Chelsea just has to be drawn with Barcelona, so Mourinho got his wish.

I really want to meet my primary school friends. I haven't seen them in a long long time. I only see one of my friends during church and lost contact with another one because I took too long to reply his email. Wonder how the rest are getting on with their lives.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight --Proverbs 3:5-6

posted by vivien at 7:57 AM
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Monday, December 13, 2004

I'm just so relieved today. Finally sent another application, which I had to send earlier anyway cos I didn't know the deadline wasn't postmarked. So I'm now left with one more..and the deadline is 1 Feb. Still quite a while I guess. Anyway, I can't watch MU's match! It's like so early! I watched Arsenal-Chelsea last night and I got scolded already. Slept at 1; had to wake up at 7. Maybe I'm really lacking sleep. Have been sleeping at unearthly hours ever since the holidays started and I've fallen asleep in the car whenever there's a jam. Still, I don't usually fall asleep. Can't go online for too long now.. my mum has to pay for every single minute I spend online. Unlike in singapore. If we just turn on the com for the whole day like what we normally do over there, I can't imagine how much my mum has to spend.


posted by vivien at 8:38 AM
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Saturday, December 11, 2004

I'm typing this entry from back home. I'm still trying to get used to typing from a lap-top and the fact that the Internet here is so slow - it's after all dialup - and often shuts down for some unknown reasons. Anyway, the good thing is..there's cable tv! Haha how superficial I am.. the thing that gets me happy about going back is not that we all can spend time as a family, but rather cable tv so I can watch as much soccer as I want. Must admit I've been soccer-deprived for quite a while. I was watching the Everton-Liverpool match last night and it was really really exciting, typical of a derby match. Too bad Liverpool lost cos they were the better side in the first half. I was actually expecting them to win. Anyway, MU lost 0-3 in the Champions League, so they finished runner-up in the group. I know they fielded a second-string side, but there're still enough recognized names. I guess it doesn't make much of a difference whether they'd finished top or second in the group. Think I'm just hurting from the loss cos the previous day, Arsenal, who're supposed to be in a mini crisis, thrashed Rosenburg and finished top of the group! Thankfully, my brother didn't really talk about MU losing that much.

Anyway, I must say it's been quite a relief to have a relatively smooth flight back. I don't know why, but I suddenly had a phobia about flying. I kept praying, but images of plane crash kept coming to my mind. I guess I just think too much, rather unnecessarily. Oh well... but the take-off wasn't smooth; there was quite a bit of turbulence, and it just heightened my fear. But the rest of the flight was ok.

This week's been quite eventful I suppose. We had prom on Wednesday! Took lots of photos, but ate quite a bit too surprisingly. But I was quite embarrassed after seeing someone else wearing something similar to what I was wearing. I wore this black top from daniel yam and long black skirt, but the design of the top is quite similar to that of some of the gowns there, and a few others actually wore those gowns. I was actually planning to wear two-piece all along, but couldn't find the right top. Eventually, I settled on that top, the best I could find anyway since I only had 2 days to shop. But I think everyone looked so pretty! It's quite sad that we didn't take a class picture. I think I didn't even take pictures with some of the guys! Anyway, left quite early that night cos I had a lot of stuff to do the next day, since I was going to go back on friday. I don't think I'll miss hwa chong, but I'm definitely going to miss all the people that I know. Don't know when we can see one another again. Sigh..the future seems so uncertain.

I went to church this morning with my mum. Had to wake up at like 6.10 super early! And I slept at 12.30, so I'm still feeling quite sleepy now. Church service was at 7..I know it sounds very early, but in Singapore, that'll be at 8, just half an hour earlier than my usual church time. It felt weird singing songs in Indonesian. I don't even really understand what I'm singing which is really bad. Shows just how lousy my Indonesian's become! And it felt even more weird reading the Bible in Indonesian. Some of the translations are like really awkward. Like Philippians 4:13 sounds really weird in Indonesian. Doesn't have the same meaning and impact as the English version. Oh the choir sang Josh Groban's You Raise Me Up. I didn't know that was a Christian song! Was kind of singing along during the chorus. They even sang the Indonesian version of the song! I was quite surprised that Josh Groban's actually nominated for the Best Male Vocal Performance for Grammys.

You raise me up so I can stand on moutains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be

posted by vivien at 10:55 PM
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Monday, December 06, 2004

Church camp was fun! But super tiring. It's supposed to be until tomorrow (tuesday), but I left earlier today after lunch..and missed the big game, which I heard is really dirty and involves starch (sounds like orientation). Anyway it's really tiring cos I only had about 5 hours of sleep. Couldn't sleep cos pillow was too hard. And had to wake up at like 6.30, which I haven't done in a long time, to do PT. Speaking of PT, I'm still aching from the squatting we had to do this morning. The workshops were really meaningful, think I learnt quite a lot from them, and I got to know quite a few people also. My group was really fun too, definitely made camp much more interesting. And the games.. the one that stands out has to be the underground church game. The aim was to get a group of 50 christians to sing a chosen song in front of a pastor. But there're spies and secret police who're gonna prevent that from happening and basically, prosecute e christians. And there're also locals who can convert to become christians. I got the role of spy but I didn't want to become one cos I think it's not fun at all. Zhimei (who's a local) and I were slacking around at first before we decided to become christians and get ourselves prosecuted so that we could go into the prosecution room. Basically, we were blindfolded and had our hands tied behind our backs cos we were prosecuted. For me, I was just asked questions about christianity..about 20 maybe and some are really deep. But Zhimei had to kneel down (hope your knees are ok!) and drink bitter gout (think I didn't spell it correctly) juice and answer questions also. Then after getting prosecuted, we were quite bored again before we managed to join other christians and sing a song at the carpark to win the game! Haha..anyway, the camp was at Singapore Sports School. The place's really huge..they've got 2 international-sized swimming pools I think. The pools just looked so tempting but we weren't allowed to swim. We had to stay in the dorms there. The dorms are quite nice and clean, but I think the security system at the dorms sucks. And I don't know why there're so many millipides all over the place..both dead and alive (of course not in our rooms!)..really disgusting.

Anyway, I'm still doing my app now..sucks..when can I get a break? Went shopping for prom just now. Think I know what I want to buy already. Must do all the shopping tomorrow. I'm a really last-minute person. Sigh.. this week's just so busy for me..so many things to do!

Yeah..MU won! A great way to start the week! Think I should sleep now..

posted by vivien at 12:45 PM
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Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Taufik is the Singapore Idol! I think it was very close between him and Sly, but I was expecting Taufik to win. I mean so many people are like supporting him, so I was not very surprised that he won in the end. I was hoping that Sly could actually get enough votes to win. Oh well.. I don't really mind the two of them, just that I prefer Sly. But overall, I guess Taufik is more deserving. He's been more consistent and he's obviously the better singer. Of course, I felt a little bit sad that Sly didn't win.. I mean I spent 5 bucks to vote for him (voted 10 times last night) and wasted my money haha, but I don't regret voting at all. Oh ya.. I just got the confirmation replies from Singapore Idol this morning, went something like: Thank you for voting for Sly. Tune in to the results show at 10 on Channel 5 to see who will be crowned Singapore's first idol. You vote, you decide! Really very late la haha. Anyway, think the show last night totally rocked! I think the 2 finalists performed really well. I still can't believe that the judges didn't have a single bad thing to say at all; thought that Sly's It's My Life sounded quite bad. I really like the new single, I Dream. I think both sang it really well. I just heard Taufik's version of the single on the radio just now (both Sly and Taufik were on Perfect 10 this morning) and he sounded really nice! I thought Dick Lee's song was quite lame and hilarious haha. Oh..Sly and Taufik sang The Reason, which is like my favourite song of the year and one of my all-time fave songs! The medley wasn't that bad too; I like That's What Friends Are For. I've heard it a few times on the radio, but it's different to hear them actually performing the song live (though it sounded suspiciously exactly like the radio version). I think the lyrics are really meaningful, especially for us, I guess, in our last year in JC and not knowing what the future will hold for us. I'm really really gonna miss the show and all the excitement and hype that come with it. I didn't expect it to be such a big hit and I certainly didn't expect myself to get hooked on the show. I guess it's a small consolation that American Idol is coming back in January. It's going to be a different feeling watching it after I've watched Singapore Idol. Obviously, you can't vote in American Idol at all so it's going to be less exciting. And now, I can't blame the Americans if they vote for somebody who's less talented and we in Singapore are like cringing at their choice (like La Toya getting voted off earlier than Jasmine). It's just like me supporting Sly despite knowing that he's less talented than Taufik and Oli. I just can't help it. I've supported him since the wildcard show, whereas for Taufik, I didn't really like him at first and only started liking him the last few weeks. So I still stuck with Sly even though I knew that Taufik's the better singer. I think it doesn't really matter who wins in the end. I mean both of them are like getting record deals. Just that Sly's probably going to be in the Chinese music industry, so I guess I'm going to hear less of him haha.

Whoa.. such a long entry on Singapore Idol! Anyway, now on to other stuff. MU beat Arsenal 1-0! Yeah.. I kind of expected them to win. Even though it's a match between the reserves, I guess it's still quite a significant match considering what had happened the last time the two sides met. But I think this time, it was much more subdued. Still, I'm quite happy that MU won.

Help! I think my computer's infected with some virus. Really irritating! This window keeps on popping up. And my computer's getting slower. Sigh.

Oh ya I went into the University of Illinois chatroom. They organised this online chatting so that prospective students can have a chance to talk with admission people and current students. It was supposed to be from 7-8pm Central Time in US. I didn't know what time that'd be in Singapore, so I just went in anyway and I was quite lucky that they're still having the chat then. I wanted to ask some questions, but I was too petrified to type and ask haha. Don't ask me why.. think it's just that I was scared I was going to be the odd one out chatting with all those local people. Really silly of me haha. Anyway, I was actually about to ask something when the computer suddenly had a problem (again). So I had to close all the Internet windows. By the time I went into the chatroom again, the chat was already over. Haha oh well...

Christmas is like so so near! I can just feel the festive atmosphere. And the radio's like playing all the Christmas songs. I really like those songs..they're like so joyful and happy. And Christmas is like my favourite time of the year. Besides the Christmas songs, Perfect 10 is also playing some really really nice songs nowadays. Like Ryan Cabrera's True, Girls Aloud's I’ll Stand By You and Band Aid 20's Do They Know It’s Christmas? (which is actually a Christmas song performed for charity I think). And of course the Idol finalists' song and Taufik's song.

I think I better get back to doing my essay now. I must get it done by tomorrow! And I've just written a super long entry. Enjoy the holidays everyone!

posted by vivien at 10:08 PM
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