brrr...weather is so cold nowadays...dun even dare to put my feet on the freezing cold floor liao....hope tt the flu bug doesn't come...

haven't started on my hmk too...i'm so dead =(

Just got my retainers today, and they are really uncomfortable. My pronounciation is quite screwed up too, especially with words that has a letter 's' in them. And the lower retainer is making my tongue feel uncomfortable cos no matter how i place my tongue it just doesn't feel right. The funniest thing today is that before i had my breakfast at singpost, i took out my retainers and forgot to remember which one is for the upper teeth and which one is for the lower teeth. So when i reached home after breakfast, i didn't know how to put my retainers back on! In the end, i just tried to randomly fit into my teeth. Haha, with expert advice from mr yiming and mr kang, i realised that the bigger retainer is for the upper teeth. But retainers are starting to get onto my nerves, even though they haven't stayed in my mouth for over 24 hours. How am i going to tahan this irritating thing all the time for at least half a year??!!!

Anyway, noticed that every year boxing day will be a rainy day, and it will also rain non-stop and very heavy too. Haha, but i wonder why. So if anyone knows the reason behind this phenomenon, pls tell me! =)

Realised tmr going to have hcco meeting, and i wonder how m i going to talk with my retainers on? RAH! Retainers are so irritating =(

Haha i know this is quite lag, but shall blog abt my camp! =)

Had this camp from 13th to 15th of dec at NUS. It's mainly a pharmacy camp where NUS Faculty of Science is like trying to encourage people to take up pharmacy course, so i just went there to know more about it and have fun. At first was kind of dreading it cos just came back from malaysia then i was very lazy to go for a camp straight after my trip, haha but the camp was quite fun ^_^ Anyway, some highlights of the camp...
1. the practicals are so much more interesting than the boring VA and heating practicals in school. Got to make creams and play around with the emulsifying agents in the dosage form design practicals (even though i still dunno the concept behind the difference in the effects of using single and multiple emulsifying agents). Dispensing practical is very tedious but satisfying, especially when i managed to stuff about 200mg of charcoal powder into small little capsules of about 1.5cm long, and the dispensing labs have a weird smell.
2. the talks and lectures are as usual -- BORING! Almost slept through all of them, especially for the last day since we stayed up quite late for the last night. I had to go through the same set of slides for the hospital pharmacy talk by some SGH personnel, since I saw them during the SGH attachment already. But some of the speakers are quite interesting, especially the guy from guardian pharmacy for the community pharmacy talk and a SGH pharmacist from the drug and poison information centre, so managed to stay awake O_O
3. one of my most favourite parts of the camp is the game of life! It is quite complicated at first, but once people start playing it makes you very high! The situation is like this: everyone is born as a baby called pharm into pharmily. Our parents died in an accident and left 10K as inheritance. The main aim of the game is to plan our life, and the point system is based on shares, cash, property, transport, spouse and education. There are a few parts to the game
- Education: we are supposed to "study" and increase from no education to pri, sec, jc and finally university level (which is a pharmacy degree of course). So pri level is "spot the difference", sec level is a memory game using poker cards, jc level is "circle out the words" puzzles and lastly uni level is sudoku!
- Pharmacy: That's where we are supposed to work. Mainly it is made up of 6 station games and we earn money by playing those station games, and our salary depends on our education level.
- Disco: It is also made up of 6 station games, and the difference with those in the pharmacy is that the salary does not depend on the education level and we can multiply our salary when we throw the dice when we redeem the money at the bank. Since it is illegal, there are police raids
- Casino: Got blackjack and "odd or even" (where you try to guess the sum of the two die whether it is odd or even after the banker threw them). It's illegal, so there will be police raids
- Jail: The only way to get out of jail is that every member of the group must try to throw a double 6 or double 1. If after 3 cycles no one managed to do that, the group will be let out of good behaviour (which is quite dumb -_-")
- Shares: Every share bought brings the price up by $200, and every share sold brings the price down by $200. The pro part about the shares is that one senior managed to use the microsoft excel to make the shares system "automatic". Somehow i think he made use of AP and GP, which i totally sux at
- Banker: Duh, the person whom you redeem money from (and probably got shouted at most from me =P)
- Property, Transport and Spouse: We supposed to buy property and transport, and there are 5 types of spouse, type I being the best and type V being the worst
- Miscellaneous: every 15 minutes is 10 years, and we died at 60 after getting a genetic disease or sth like that (which means time limit is 1.5 hr long) and every "decade" there are announcements
haha..mainly tt's the game of life! my group managed to get first cos we got uni education, type I wife, bungalow, limousine and more than 1 million cash! (even though we got 0 shares) Haha, this is all thanks to those gamblers from my group. They really earned like a few million from the casino, and thank goodness we managed to escape all the police raids! =)
4. haha, here comes the best part of the camp, which is group one! ok, it is just my group, which made up of mabel (my pri sch friend and kang's neighbour!), hwee keng, esther, josephine (kelvin ho's pri sch classmate), ni zhen, jimmy, leroy (ex-dunmanians), cheryl, sylvia (hcco mate!) and me, and huimin and wanyu (our camp group leaders!)! haha, quite obvious that my group relationship a bit complicated. Really had lots of fun with this group, cos everyone is like so easy to get along, especially during the last night, when we played so many dumb games like indian poker (mabel's favourite!), heart attack (with the inclusion of the different levels of pig), asshole daidee etc Really had lots of laughter, and i laughed until my stomach super pain, especially during heart attack. Rah, kind of miss them now, looking forward to the dinner next wed! =)

ok..that's quite a long entry on the camp haha! lazy to type anymore stuff, but after some things that happened recently, just suddenly felt very appreciative to dhsco exco 2004-2005 and hcco exco 2006-2007 for giving so much support to me as a treasurer. Really without their cooperation, i would be in a super sad state and dying off somewhere. Haha, just want to say a big thank you to these people =)

Oh ya, gu du feng qing rawks! especially the cello solo, even though i not sure if we can play until gan ren de jing jie. And the other potential syf piece is nice too! but sounds a bit hard. haha, just to summarise, going to really look forward to next year syf! but before that, must start doing hmk! =(

P.S.: If anyone had started to notice, i am trying to write more properly instead of including all my ".." ^^ But it feels so weird and sounds so boring!

back from malaysia!!..went KL and genting..haha..it was quite ok..went on a little shopping spree..and ended up buying 4 nice shirts!..chocs...cookies..and cakes!...wah..every day eat a lot..until i got one big fat tummy..and it looks so ugly when i m trying new clothes!...and so sad!!..i failed to get new pants..new bag..and i forgot to look for slippers!!..(those beach kind de)..haiz...tried to get those kind of slippers...err..like between formal and casual kind de..but thanks to my big fat foot..i can't wear them!..rah!!..so in the end this shopping spree not very successful..

wah..when trying to take the cable car up to genting highlands...there was like so much pushing to go up and escalator to queue..all the poor kids are like squashed between adults' asses and being suffocated la...i think the luckiest person there is my brother...cos he got the freshest air due to his height..and there is like totally no order...once the security guards open the barrier ppl just try to chiong in the less than 1m wide opening...like wth???..i nearly couldn't go pass tt barrier cos my foot got stuck in some pram..haha..so my mum just simply used her whole body and stretched out one hand to stop other ppl from going in and tried to pull me out with her other hand..haha!!..come to think of it...it's quite dramatic..after tt when we are on escalator..she still scolding those ppl for being uncivilised etc etc etc..and then we still had to queue for like more than 1 hour for the cable car...rah..and in the end when we reached genting we just shopped..and i can't play the theme park etc!!..cos my grandma came along with us and i can't expect her to sit on a bench with my mum and watch me play right..haiz..but hope tt next time can go with friends and play more =)..

anyway..was reading zhengyou's blog..and saw a few ppl's comments abt good music..haha..was thinking tt good music just simply comes when every single person involved...regardless they are part of the audience or the performer..feel connected to the music and eventually moved by the music at the moment..haha..this should be the so-called perfection for me..to achieve this performers definitely have to have technique and musicality..haha..remembered ttk always say tt music not only have ying1 (technique)...always must have yue4 (musicality)..tt's why music is called ying1 yue4 in chinese..but i think musicality is more impt in defining quality of music..cos that really differentiates which music moves ppl and which music don't..everyone can achieve technique if they are taught the right way and are willing to put in the time and effort to master the technique..but musicality is not so straightforward...not only do we have to listen..we have to filter through what we have listened and play with the correct style..like western music we can't use the baroque style to play chopin's music..and for chinese music we have to be able to differentiate the different styles of different places and genres..like how to do the hua yin etc..plus if we belong to an orchestra...it is even more difficult as we have to blend in different playing styles together as one to produce music as a whole..and this has to be achieved through bonding and listening out for one another...and no one will really want to listen to music tt has no musicality...cos tt will be no difference from a robot's playing..tl always said tt the reason why ppl still want to listen to other ppl play music is tt the musicality adds a human touch to the music..and tt is what moves ppl..which is quite true =)...

haha..so much for those boring crapping..shall have to start packing for my camp ^^

went into 'MIA mode' for nearly a week...haha..cos forgot to tell most ppl tt i running off to xiamen...the trip was ok..went there cos my dad wanted us to go..and the food there very nice!!..made me gain 1kg...esp the peanut stall at the zhongshan road...the peanut totally melt when my tongue touches it la!!...and my first two nights there eat a lot too...cos the first night my aunt (who is my mother's cousin) and her husband treated us...then the second night my dad's office ppl also treat...then they quite mad...order over 10 courses..including 2 plates of goose meat, roast pigeon, chicken, fish, one big prawn for each person, some nice nice soup =) etc etc...my stomach totally cannot take it la..and the last night dinner was nice too!..haha..simpler but much nicer..got mushrooms, fish etc..

bought new shoes there!!..quite comfortable..but if i wear it with my hc uniform and converse bag..i will be the same colour throughout..haha!!...and went to gu lang yu...which means "drum waves islet"..haha..tt's the old hometown of my grandpa..and it is some small little island very near xiamen..the distance is like sentosa and singapore..then went to this garden which was built by my first piano teacher's great grandfather or grandfather..haha...and tt grandfather was the brother of my mum's grandmother..haha!!..so my parents were like discussing family history with my aunt..aiyoh..it is complicated la..haha..and the islet was also known as "the piano island"..cos lots of ppl there play piano..and they even have a concert hall!!..then they got piano museum...haha..very nice!!..saw all sorts of weird piano..mostly the old old ones..then you can see those candle stands on the piano...cos last time ppl need to light candles at night when playing the piano..and i saw the old steinway & sons piano!!...i think the old pianos dun look as professional as the modern pianos..but they are more artistic..cos they got more special carvings and designs..then saw this piano which is L-shaped...so tt it can be fitted at the corner of the room..and the keyboard is also L-shaped..but very small...it at most got only about 30 to 4o keys..haha...dunno how ppl play it..but too bad the piano museum dun allow us to take photos..

went wuyishan to play too!!..mainly it is a mountainous area..and went to climb this peak..which is only abt 300m tall..haha..but my mum nearly died climbing it..cos about 800+ steps...and also sat on this bamboo raft...then the scenery very nice!!..and drank lots of tea..haha..cos tt's the most well-known local product in wuyishan..actually went there 10 years ago..compare then with present...i think last time nicer..cos now wuyishan got too economical..lost its local flavour liao..the bamboo rafters last time tell nicer stories and will sing all those native songs..but now they demand tips and dun tell stories or sing songs as nice as before...haha..i somemore go and take a picture of the license plate in front..which says sth like sincere cooperation, no thank you to tips..haha!!...

on wed had shicheng concert...a bit worried cos i only went for 1 prac out of 3..so didn't feel too confident...plus we had no conductor!!..then got one song is like the orchestra accompany an erhu soloist..then there are too many variations in tempo..so tt song was super stressful!..and there was some sheng song tt i was in the accompaniment..then i only played it once during the rehearsal then have to play the actual one...wah!!..tt one also very scary!!..haha..but too bad this concert response isn't very good..haiz...but we gossiped quite a bit abt someone..hahaha!!..shan't say who =P

yest finally get to stay at home for the whole day...so i was busy watching the pianist and schindler's list..dvds tt i bought in china..didn't felt too much during the pianist..cos watch half of it before..but i like the second half best..cos can see more piano playing...i just dun understand how these ppl can play piano pieces tt are so technically and emotionally demanding easily??!!..when it comes to schindler's list..i nearly cried la!!!..it's quite a gory movie...esp the scenes when the germans shoot some jews from the back of the head..you can see the blood spurting out from the wound..like water from the whale's blowhole..and oskar schindler is really admirable..he like spent his whole fortune on saving 1100 jews..compared to him..amon goethe really should go and zhuang qiang...where got ppl wake up in the morning and start shooting at ppl for fun from his balcony de??!!...seriously i think anti-semitism is very dumb...it is more of a form of jealousy against the Jews of being able to enjoy a better life..it is just like the anti-Chinese feeling in Indonesia la..there is no logic in blaming a country's downfall on a specific religion or race..

just read in today's newspaper tt in Iraq..there was this man who was badly wounded from some violent act at the side of a street waving at cars for help..then there was this man who stopped his car and stepped out..took out his gun and shoot at this wounded man...and there was no reaction from others..like what the hell la??!!..bleah..one quote from tt article left a deep impression in me.."I feel sad, bitter and frustrated. Sad, because a human life is now worth nothing in this country. Bitter, because people no longer help each other. Frustrated, because I can't help either."..despite all those talks about human rights..haiz..what is this world coming to..

on a happy note...next year there are 3 concerts of rachmaninov's piano concertos!!!..hopefully i can go for the 2nd piano concerto de..dun think i will be going for all 3..cos i will be super broke at the end of it...hopefully there will be rachmaninov's rhapsody on a theme of paganini! =)

will be going malaysia tmr..and coming back on next tues..then wed to fri going to stay at NUS for 3 days 2 nights for some pharmaceutical camp..haha..so will be going into 'MIA mode' again...