Last June Entry

On Tuesday, after school, I went to watch a movie with my cousin and sister. Before the movie, we went to Pasta Mania for lunch and I finally got to eat my favorite Spaghetti Bolognese, for which I have been craving for months. After the movie, we headed home and I started updating my Itunes with new songs as my Cousin brought a whole lot of CDs. Today, finally after months, I updated my Ipod and I am very happy about it.

On the next day, after school, we went out again. We went to Raffles City for a boat ride at the Singapore River. It was a very nice experience as it was the first time I ever went for a boat ride. After this, we went to the thirty-sixth storey of the UOB building to get the view of the whole of Singapore. However, unfortunately, the viewing gallery was closed. My cousin and I decided to go to the sixtieth storey of the building, but it was just offices. My sister did not go with us as she is a “scary cat”. Anyways after this, we wanted to go to the toilet, so we decided to go to the Fullerton Hotel’s toilet. We then went to Somerset to the Mac Café for some drinks and then we walked down to the Heren as my sister wanted to look around. My cousin and I were quite reluctant as we do not like window shopping or shopping. My sister spent thirty minutes in a belt shop and during that time, my cousin and I went to Action City. There was a game there and we were playing it. We had to put a coin in it to play it. My cousin first put a five cent coin in it and then a ten cent coin. However, it did not work as we did not press the on button. After switching the game on, my cousin put a paper instead of a coin in the coin hole and the game could work. After a while it could not work, so we decided to go. When we moved away, the shopkeeper came, off the game and took out the fifteen cents and place it next to game. My cousin then quickly took back his money and we quickly went away from the shop back to where my sister was. We then headed home.

I just had tuition and now I’m going to get ready as we are going out again, but not alone this time but with our Mums instead.

3rd June Entry

Today I went to the Singapore Science Center with Sandra, Chun Hui and Jia Ping for our Chemistry Project. It was fun, but I was a little disappointed with the designing t-shirt activity. I did not gain anything useful. I actually wanted to go for the invisible ink activity, but could not as Jia Ping had already booked the activities.

Here is the horrible t-shirt I designed!

This skeleton head was designed by Jia Ping and she is very proud of it!

We also went for the blue printing activity and I must say it was much more interesting, exciting and useful compared to the designing t-shirt activity.

Here is my blue print.

Jia ping drew my name for me and I drew the heart.

Anyways, last week was really a wasted one. I did not do anything productive at all. I did not even practice on any of my weak subjects as I said I would do in my first June entry or enjoyed myself. As a consequence, I feel very disappointed, but no one is to be blamed for this except me. However, I still have this week!

Anyhow, I feel so sad because it is the last week of the holidays and this week I have to go back to school practically the whole week. However, I will be going out on Tuesday, so I guess it is not that bad.

I know I sound very negative in this entry, but I cannot help it. Maybe because I am very happy today! ( Ha! Ha!) I am going to eat my yummy pizza from Spizza now, so bye bye!

2nd June Entry

“I love Arab Street. For the longest time, I've been hanging out there. At a very young age, my sister and I would follow my mum to work in Arab Street (family shop) during the hols everyday. While my mum worked, we would play around the streets and hang out there.”

I was just reading my sister’s blog and I took this from there. Not only do my two elder sisters have childhood memories at Arab Street, but my third sister and I also do. In fact, I think all my cousins from my mother’s side of the family do.

Just like her and my eldest sister, I used to follow my mother to work. I think my mum has been working in Arab Street all her life.

Anyways, I remember my sister, cousin, who sometimes came there to spend time with us, would walk around the whole of Arab Street and would hang out at a shop, a few shops away from my mother’s shop. This shop used to sell drinks in bottles like in the olden days and we used to buy them and chat while drinking.

Another time, my other cousin came and I remember him pushing us around on a trolley. It was very fun. I know you might be thinking why all of us could go to my mother’s work place, well because it was a family shop owned by my grandfather with my mother and my mother’s two brothers working there.

Alright, I would not elaborate anymore on this and share about how I spent my boring week.

Well, this week was super boring as I slogged like a dog, trying to finish my homework and now, I can publicly proclaim that I have finished all my homework. Other then doing homework, I managed to watch some television and use the computer.

Anyways, I cannot wait for my cousin to return from his holiday at the Hellenic Republic as I am planning to go to Arab Street with him and my sister and relive those beautiful childhood memories again.

1st June Entry

( I have just realised that this post which I wrote on the 25/5/07 could be viewed, so I'm reposting it!)

Today was the last day of the first semester of the year 2007 and sadly, this week ended with me being terribly sick. From Monday night till Thursday morning, I continuously had high fever. However, I glad now as I feeling much better.

Today my mum went to school to meet Ms Ang as it was Meet-the-parents session. I’m contemplating to take basic Chinese as I think it will be much better for me. However, after Mdm Tay gave the suggestion that I can continue with normal Chinese and if, touch wood, I fail my ‘O’ levels, then I can consider switching to basic Chinese. I think I might do this as since I have been doing normal Chinese till now, why now just continue till my ‘O’ levels!

Anyways, my results were quite ok for this Mid-year. I am quite satisfied with it except for English and, of course, Chinese. I have decided to use these holidays to brush up on my weaknesses.

I have lots to do during these holidays. I have loads of projects for E-maths, Chemistry and Physics. There is also quite a number of English homework but this homework might help the class brush up on their English.

Anyhow, these are my plans for the holidays. I will be resting quite a lot this holiday as I do not want to fall ill again and suffer. I will, of course, be doing my homework and practicing on my weak subjects. I have decided to try and finish all my homework and project by the first week so that I can have time for myself in the second and third week. I rather slog in the beginning and relax later.

I think this is just about it. I will be updating more about what I did during the holidays so stay tuned.

Comments On Taki Friends' Blogs

(Class A, 21) Masahiko Murakami

It is such a co-incidence that Masa also wants to be a doctor like me. However, I’m not sure in which area of medicine he wants to specialize in. Being a doctor is, of course, a very dignified job. Moreover, it requires excellent communication skills, which are a prerequisite; the ability to work in a multidisciplinary team; listening skills, which are vital; and having compassion and resilience. I am sure that Masa will be able to fulfill his career as a doctor to the fullest.

(Class A, 22) Ryo Yamamura

Ryo wants to be a veterinarian and his reasons for being a vet are very virtuous. He wants to be a vet because he had a bird, but sadly it died, so by being a vet he will be able to help animals. He also wants to go into this profession because many animals are getting extinct. I feel this is a very noble job and with the compassion that Ryo has towards animals, being a vet is one of the best career option that he can consider.

(Class A, 24) Tatsya Yoshida

Tatsya wants to be a pilot and at one point of time, I also wanted to be one. However, due to my eyesight being poor, I had to leave my desire at the backburner. Anyways, after reading Tatsya’s career review, I learnt quite a few things about a pilot, which I did not know at all before. After reading Tatsya’s self introduction, I gathered that Tatsya is a very dedicated person and I am sure with such determination plus dedication, he will be able to acquire a position as a outstanding pilot.

Career Fair

On Friday, 2nd March, my school brought all the secondary twos to secondary fives to a career fair hosted at Suntec city. The purpose for bringing us there was for us to understand more about the careers that we would want to pursue in future.

All the secondary threes were given worksheets with four questions about three desired future careers so as to help us with our informative report that we have to write. The questions on the worksheet were, what are the qualifications/experiences required for this job; what is the job scope; what are the long-term prospects of this job; will this job be relevant in the next decade, if so, how, if not, why.

Actually, I thought the career fair would have booths according to different fields, like for example, medicine, law, and many other kinds. However, I was totally wrong. In actual fact, there were booths set up by local and overseas education institutions, public and private employer-organizations, government agencies and associations. As a consequence, I was a bit vexed as I could not find anything to do with medicine doctors. I even asked Mr. Wong for help, but all in vain, so in the medicine aspect, I did not gain anything. However, I managed to acquire quite a number of information about teaching and hospitably and tourism. In fact, now, after this fair, I would not mind being a hotel manager.

Singapore Heartware

Singapore Heartware is actually a video on Singaporeans going overseas to study and eventually, settling there. Since this is happening, it becomes very important to bind them to Singapore so that they will still have a sense of belonging.

Our Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Long, said that one reason why the new generation does not really have a sense of belonging to Singapore is partly because they do not understand the core part of the Singapore story. If they know that Foreign Minister S. Rajaratnam was the one to write the pledge or Mr. Lim Kim San was the reason why we all have homes in HDB flats, they would then feel and when they feel, then they will belong.

I do agree with him, however, not completely. This is because one might understand the core part of the Singapore story but still have no sense of belonging to Singapore. There are also other reasons why people go overseas to study and eventually settle there, for instance, my eldest sister. My sister was working in SIA for 5 years before she got retrenched. After her retrenchment, she started searching for jobs, but most of them wanted Chinese-speaking.

Consequently, she decided to study and work overseas. Now she is studying a course, BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) in Advanced Practice in Work with Children and Families, and working part-time in Birmingham, England. If she decides to stay on and work there after her studies, she would be earning more there than she would have, in Singapore.

My point is not everyone in Singapore can get jobs or continue their education here. This may influence them to go overseas. Furthermore, some of these people do not come back here because they might like the lifestyle there, get paid more or have more job opportunities.

Anyways, I believe that it is alright to go aboard to study and settle there. However, one must never forget that Singapore is their homeland.