Moving Around

In anticipation of the coming Chinese New Year, I did something that I have not done for quite a while; I redecorated my room.

It's nothing like Dan's refurbishing of his room. There were no paint jobs, no new furniture. It was just a whole lot of moving things around and throwing things away.

I never knew I had that much stuff. Well I did but it didn't seem so much. I'm only halfway through and already out of shelf-space.

Chinese New Year's not the only reason why I started this project. You see, in recent years, due to my brother's marriage and my sister's moving out, my room has sort of become the de facto storeroom. There are so many of non-Wee Loon artifacts in here that everytime I wanted to clean it up, I didn't know where to start because I couldn't just throw out their stuff.

As a result, after much brainstorming, I came up with the idea to partition a part of my room as a storeroom. So today I set out to do just that and at the same time do some spring cleaning.

It turned out great. I have a bigger room than I thought. When the mess gets out of the way I should get quite a roomy and comfortable space to call my own. Plus I got reconciled with quite a few CDs that I haven't listened to in a long time. Now I'm enjoying Craig David's first album.

"Six o'clock in the morning wiped the sleep off my eyes.... Felt just like an ordinary day... Just around the corner such a surprise... Beautiful angel materialised..."

2009

Like a flash of lightning, 2008 flew by. Before I know it, the second week of 2009 is over.

During these past week, things looked a little different. Just like the movie "Yes Man", I have become somewhat different recently. I was for the past few years - I can't remember what I was like further back - less spontaneous.

Recently i have been going out a lot more. I do things more readily, went out more with my friends, accept movies invitation more often, been drinking every other day. I swim and play soccer every week. I finished a marathon. I went for NCC course when i wasn't even a confirmed education officer. I look forward to joining more stuff. Things just seemed different. I even made donations to NUS for people that I don't even know.

Of course these things come with a price. My credit card bills are higher, I am even more short of money. I can't get a lot of things done cause I'm already always doing something. But these are beside the point. The point is there is something different. And I can't quite put it down as good or bad. It just feels weird.

School Life

Barely six months out of school and I'm back in again. I know people have said this many times but I have to repeat it again; being in school is way better than being in work.

First week of orientation's over and NIE seems to be a nice enough place, the distance not withstanding. 36KM is a long distance to travel on any day.

The timetable's out and it's pretty relaxed so far. At first glance my days are almost filled. On a closer look the classes are staggered and the two halves of the semester are quite different.

One of the course that I have to take is GESL (pronounced guess-tle). It's short for Group Endeavour Service Learning. It's basically a community involvement project where we try to do something for a selected beneficiary. When we went through the briefing, they said that we have to learn to do something altruistic. I wondered how altruistic is GESL when we're all made to do it. Food for thought.

Next week lessons will start. Pretty exciting as I have almost forgotten how it is like to be a student, short as the time is since I graduated from NUS. Can't wait.

HCMC Trip Lookback

After many travels to the far away land of Europe, I finally made it last month to the neighbourhood.

Ho Chi Minh city is a vibrant city in the South of Vietnam and one of the largest Vietnamese city. The pity is that I did not get to see the city like I wanted to. The stay was restricted in the main tourist district of District 1 and activities were down to mundane stuff like the Big Market meant for the locals to extend their hands into the pockets of rich tourists.

The highlight of this trip was no doubt Raymond's wedding. I am proud and honoured to be, in his words, the only friend who can attend his weddings to his Vietnamese bride three times.

The ride to Long Xuyen was long and bumpy. We passed by villages and towns filled with students on bicycles, more canals than there are in Venice and roads damaged by the seasonal flooding. In the bride's hometown, we tasted firsthand Vietnamese hospitality and food, witness Vietnamese customs and basically had a lot of fun.

In HCMC itself though, it wasn't that much fun. It was partly due to the travelling crowd. I had originally intended for this to be a small family trip with my parents. They having sponsored and supported my previous trips to faraway Europe. It was my way of treating them back; to show them how I travel and to let their hair down.

In the end it became a trip of six, with my aunt and her husband and my uncle as well. Not that it was not nice to have them along; more adults meant that it was easier on my pocket. However, it also meant that more accommodation was needed. Uncle Chun has high blood pressure and was a little big. This meant that we couldn't go very far. Aunt and her husband were more interested in shopping. Not to mention that he's difficult to please.

As a result I never got to see the whole city. I wanted to just walk around the city and explore the nooks and crannies. Sit down and have a coffee, or beer and just people-watch. Visit museums and take in the history and sights. All these were not possible.

At the end it felt like I never step foot on HCM. I just can't strike it off my list yet. I hope I'll get to go there again. Of course the next time, knowing some Vietnamese will help. I kept getting mistaken as a local anyway. I really have no idea why.