gollysmolly

‘Tis Thursday yet, but not all bodes well as life progresses in this
dreary world many mistake for a home. Ever on the horizon, prelims lurk in the darkness to trap all those who
wander forth in blind search of liberation. I am one such witness to this entrapment, despite lingering in such
close proximity to the obvious impending doom awaiting me.

Situated outside the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Changi
General Hospital, I express melancholy without passion on this ebony machine (stained by the sweat of too many
fingers striking it harshly, but ‘tis merely a tool which many take for granted
yet regard so highly as an essential item in their daily life).

As life lived in a hectic pace not unlike ours, time is scarcely enough
for affordance of the leisure to spend with our elderly and the first
generation of Singaporeans whom we now call our grandparents. No justification will be satisfactory for the
reality in which our apathy is the root of much anguish in today’s society.

Deep-seated views originate within me, but they come with neither passion
nor particular purpose, except to pilot the narration of the recent abrupt
incident in the household.

My location may initially have seemed peculiar, but the rationale for
such an anomaly may not be explained sufficiently in so short a period or
space.

Currently seated contentedly in the waiting room outside the SICU (Ward
33), I type hastily against the desires of my kin in the seats
surrounding. With the continuation of
the prelims just the following week, I commence not on contemplating what
desperation that my lack of preparedness would lead me to.

Bluntly putting the commotion caused, my grandmother has a chronic
cranial haemorrhage, and is undergoing a relatively straightforward surgical
procedure to remedy the situation. However, the circumstances are further complicated by her mature age,
coupled with her unique blood type.

Family reunited in difficulty is not an infrequent sight, but a whole
reunion over one member seems a minor exaggeration of the accustomed scenario. Such is the authority that age commands in
the hierarchy of a conservative Asian family.

Thus, productivity is sacrificed once more for the sake of filial piety,
despite time spent lounging about for the sole purpose of relaxation and
leisure, all outside the SICU.

Translation: That was a whole day of studying wasted, but it was one heck
of a fun time just sitting around doing nothing =P

Never didst liberation ever feel
so potent, nor so well-received by the multitudes of those undergoing the
diurnal trauma of the preliminary examinations.

One didst say, however, “Who sums the yet unfractured shells of bipeds gallinaceous is apt to find his calculations woefully fallacious”.

In English, that means I’ve never felt so free in my life, and I don’t
want to count my chickens before they hatch.

Well, the first phase of the prelims is over, and praise God for that
=P Especially since he played a big part in getting me through it… Starting from last Friday, the English exam
was fine, and I hope I didn’t go off topic by writing about Elitism in such a
way that even I didn’t know what I was talking about…

Other than that, this week has been rather smooth-flowing, all except
for SS, which I kinda screwed up, but managed to get through nonetheless… E Maths sucked, but at LEAST I knew what I
was doing, and the Chem paper was fun, even though I lost a lot of marks
through carelessness already…

The best was easily today’s paper lah, hands down the biggest exam high
I’ve ever felt…  Yesterday was CAP, so
most sec 4s didn’t even go to school at all, but half had bio the next day, and
on top of that, a quarter of them had full Geog (while some others had elect
Geog)… So yesterday, I had a nice long 3-hour nap, before working on my Geog…

So from around 7pm onwards, I was just working on Malcolm Wong’s notes, and that’s all I
concentrated on; no textbook, no notes, not even a damn clue what to focus on…
And better yet, I only had 2 themes out of the four I was to study for… So naturally, that took me the whole night to
do.

I worked all the way until about 4.30am, and then went to bathe for a
little pick-me-up of my own =P A nice
hot shower did the trick right about then, so I did a little bio after that;
nothing much, mostly just flipping randomly through the book, and trying to
remember all my sec 3 and sec four stuff… Catch was, I didn’t remember much of the hints that he usually drops
here and there, all cuz I was so tired in class from studying late into the
night…

In my brother’s words, “Reaching unprecedented levels of unverifiable
productivity” indeed.

But anyway, I sorta knew that I wasn’t gonna score for Bio at the rate
I was going, so I decided to try and get a little sleep before the morning
came. Well, by then, it was a bit too
late for “a little sleep”… I had about enough
time for forty winks, literally, so I caught a 30-minute nap, and then I was
rudely awoken to the harsh reality of mental fatigue and near-exhaustion…

My only hope rested in the pierced hands of One who looked down from
above, and that ain’t no joke, cuz I really had no other choice by then… So I zombied my way to school, and then God sent
a great gift down from the heavens above; he sent Melvin Keenan Jason Loh
Qiren.

So we were talking about music, and then I mentioned Natasha
Beddingfield, so he asked me what her brother’s name was. I told him Daniel Beddingfield, and he was so
insistent (in his usual Melvin way) that it was David Beddingfield.

And I seriously burst out laughing in front of everyone there, you can
ask anyone who was there, especially Jared Monteiro, cuz I swear it was that
funny (and he was that stupid!)… So my
free entertainment went around asking ppl the same question, and kept on
getting the answer he didn’t wanna hear! And he was going on and on and on about how the whole world was against him and blahdeblahdeblah….

It was as if God had bundled a huge packet of laughter and sent it to
me right there and then… He seriously
kept on raving and ranting about a David Beddingfield, and that he was a
thousand and one per cent sure, et cetera, et cetera…

But anyway, that was a nice wake-up call for me, cuz I was totally
zonked from the previous night’s cramming, but Amen, I say to you, IT TOTALLY
WORKED.

My Geog went so smoothly, though my hand hurt
like hell, that I swear it was the hand of God (no pun intended) that was
working (cuz my Mum was praying in Church all the time), and better yet, I
actually knew, for once in my life, what I was doing!!!

Then came Bio, the sacrificial lamb that
everyone gave up for the sake of Geog… Who knew better than to make it easy peasy for all the Geog
students! Whoah, it was a dream come
true for Bio and Geog, the two killer subjects, to be on the same day, and to be
so do-able, that even I could make it through…

The high followed immediately after the second
Bio paper. Oh man, perfection never didst
come this close!

I came straight home, and now I’m
too high on caffeine to go catch up on my 12 hours of sleep that is SO waiting
for me =P

Give me liberty, or give me
death. Right now, I don’t need the
latter just yet  =P

PS If you’re wondering why Natasha Beddingfield came up, go check out her new single SOULMATE, it’s damn good!!!

I know, I know, I’ve been a real slipshot excuse for a blogger…

Anyway, I’m typing this from LLTC, cuz I really don’t have much else to do… But anyway, I’ve been for a few camps this June hols… Organized some as well, such as the RCIY overnight camp that I just came from… “Professional Camper” indeed…

Anyway, I’ve been neglecting my group alot lately, but without much guilt either, cuz my group facil isn’t the greatest, my group members aren’t exactly a “dream group”, and I really don’t wanna waste my five days here, so I guess I’d better go help them =)

See yall soon!

What can I say?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ squigglies r cute~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Legion Camp wasn’t TOO bad, but it had its ups and downs… Like crazy YCS boys havin’ so much fun on their own, they didn’t need us to create even more havoc =P

Anyway, e camp itself was quite boring for us seniors cuz we were already like sick n tired of such leadership that we mostly slacked off the camp… Poor juniors, now they have all this workload dumped onto them (but they’re actually taking it very well), n I take my hat off 2 them 4 handlin it so well…

A few crazy points that highlighted e camp 4 me were things like e midnite movie, wheelchair rides & bestofall, e post-lunch ice war involving a few of us seniors goin crazy… Let’s go in chronological order, shall we?

So first came the Ice War after lunch, cuz Ian Chai as usual was taunting n provokin me, so I took some ice n put it down his back, then that basically triggered this MASSIVE Ice War which involved quite a lot of ppl; including me, Marcus Tan, Ian Chai, Julian Wong, Paul Maxi, Ronney Tan, Sam P, Russell Chiam, n maybe a few more (but I can’t rmb).

By the time we were done, I think the whole damn canteen was covered with ice cubes, n little puddles began to form here n there… Lucky it was a hot day, so all e water evaporated; so I went over 2 e parade square 4 a little cooling off with WATERBOMBS!!!

Ian Rezel n Joshua Tan were doin that station, so I went 2 c if they needed any "help"… But it seemed as if they were doing fine wasting waterbombs all on their own, cuz they couldn’t really control the sec 1s n 2s from taking waterbombs and wreaking havoc all over the place, cuz the 2 of them couldn’t even control themselves! *Sigh* so much 4 leading by example =P

Anyway, that night, we had fun in the freezing cold LT watching TROY, cuz we were all set; I had chocolate and coffee to keep me awake all night, but a lot of ppl pang seh me, so I went to sleep after the movie… That morning, I was quite zombified, but still managed to liven myself up enough to give ppl like Moses, Ian and Jared wheelchair rides that would prob give old ppl heart attacks… LOLZ =P

So that’s about it for Legion Orientation Camp, but then came the CUTEST CAMP EVER; CAMP LA SALLE!!!

Oh man, they were so damn cute lah! Especially my Marcus Teng, who went around manja to all the facils, and no one could resist him man =P  But yeah, he wasn’t the only one; I took lotsandlotsa pictures… So I’ll prob upload them soon, or sth…

Stay tuned for Part II, yeah =P?

-gabz-

Well, here we go again…  For the past week or less, I develped an itchy/painful rash on my waistline, on the "right lower abdominal wall" as described by my doctor; but the thing was I only told my parents on Thursday night, when it may have developed as early as a week before =P

So yeah, that was quite dumb cuz it turned out to be quite serious, but I guess it was a blessing in disguise cuz i got to skip Chem, Bio and House Cheering practice on Friday, and by a miraculous stroke of luck, NCC training! (Sorry Belmond =P)

Whoah, was I "happy" when they hospitalized me… For the third time in four months…

Some ppl might think I’m weird, some may think I’m a hypochondriac, but I don’t create these things myself!!! If I could, there would be a lot more of them all over my body, trust me.

Anyway, so I was referred to a different doctor, this time a general surgeon instead of the paediatrician I was seeing (cuz it moved up from my shin & calf to thigh then to my stomach/waist)… So yeah, I guess I was out of the paediatric department…

The doctor really freaked me out, cuz when I was on the table (not operation yet, just checking the wound out), he started tugging at my pants, and I swear at that moment he seemed like a paedophile or a child molester, but I got over it and pulled myself together…

After that, I was a bit cold towards him, but figured I’d be seeing him a lot more, so I just forgot all about that incident… He was like tugging at the waistline of my shorts, and I was really really uncomfortable, but I’m okay now, so yeah =P  (I almost know what a rape victim feels like… LOLZ =P)

Other than that, he’s okay lar… I mean forgive and forget, that kinda thing… The actual operation was not done under General Anaesthetic, but under Intra Venous Sedation. And the funny thing was I told my mom that I was going for IV seduction!  Oops… Lolz =P

The operation went fine, and I stayed overnight in the hospital… And I was all alone in the room, with an empty bed behind the separating curtain… Stupid Belmond was trying to freak me out with stories of a dying guy appearing there, or something like that =P  Nothing happened, okay!!!

So I’m living life normally now, having a dinner party as I type, so I probably should go and entertain guests… See yall soon, yeah?  (I’ll be limping around school, dunno how I’m gonna wear my belt, etc.)

HFTC (have fun take care),
-gabz-

Yesterday was everyone’s birthday, so Happy Birthday yall!!! Anyway, we had two camp planning meetings for LLTC (in the morning) and CLS (in the afternoon)…

LLTC was fun, as usual, with all the same ppl as last year… Expected lah, all the fun ppl stick together, but for a new purpose; we’re gonna work hard to make this year’s LLTC a success! Hopefully, it’ll be easier than it sounds… *SIGH* If the SJI (I) gals and guys come over, its gonna be so much more difficult lah (no offense to Ben Teo), but its reeeeally hard to work with them…

Camp La Salle (CLS) was a bit less fun, cuz all the ppl there were SO DAO!!! Some ppl like Chris, who never mix around, or Kia Boon, who go there for fun only… (No offense to the both of them), but its really gonna need a lot to make us gel, and Jason and Eddy aren’t doing anything to help that… *SIGH* Let’s just hope we can pull things together to get the camp going successfully, and I can safely say that I prefer last year’s CLS already…

Anyway, moving on to lighter aspects (and later aspects too) of the day, Qing Wei, Belmond and I went out after the CLS meeting to Orchard to eat an early dinner… Just then, I discovered that the Chingay parade was that evening; I had absolutely no idea! So we decided to stay on for the parade, maybe even play a bit of pool in the meantime…

So after the pool lesson by Qing Wei, we went out and caught a bit of the parade, but went in for an ice kachang after a bit of sightseeing, filming, phototaking, and shopping in the nearby malls too! Haha, so fun, its madness lah… But then when we came out, everyone was walking on Orchard Rd already, so we joined them, and met up with Ernest Wang who was taking his bro for a short walk too…

After an hour or so of partying, dancing, taking pics with manga characters and emo figures, as well as dancers and all the other parade ppl, we were so high… Even Edgar Wang was high lah, he was having a lot of fun with the four of us, even tho there was that age gap =P

But all good things had to come to an end, and we all split up eventually to head back home… And another party to add to my list was counted =) We resolved to go back next year with a whole group of SJI guys to dance and party the night away… And I plan to keep that resolution, so all you SJI ppl reading this, watch out and wait for next year’s Chingay, yah?

Maybe I’ll drag some other ppl like Nicole and NATZ too, cuz I know they read my blod… =P

Looking forward to more parties,
-gabz-

So since I came back on a Saturday morning, I went for mass the next day, not knowing there had been a choir retreat that night… Well, I suppose its just as well I didn’t go, cuz my leg infection had to be taken care of…

So what happened was, Monday was New Year’s Day, and hence there would be no doctors except in the Accident and Emergency clinic… So I had to go to a paediatrician on Wednesday, when school reopened, which meant I would miss the first day of school… How fun, I hadn’t completed my HW by that time =P

So anyway, I went in for surgery on Wednesday afternoon, and was released later that night… All in all, successful, but the GA made me really really sleepy  =P  So I decided not to go to school the next day, and put off facing the music for another day (by which time I had hoped my homework would somehow miraculously complete itself =P lolz)

So I had to return to school on a Friday, whereby I thought I would be attending classes then going for Orientation Camp, but somehow, plans had changed, and knowing them, they didn’t tell anyone who wasn’t at the prep day… So i lugged my heavy camp bag to the LT along with my school bad, which had nice sweets and goodies… Muahahaha =P   But that’s a different matter… So I met all my good friends once again, and had all the fun in the world in the camps for the first three weekends… For example, the first two Fridays were spent in the two SJI Orientation Camps, and the third was spent in the SJI International Orientation Cmap…

Actually, I had lotsa fun doing all three camps, but the difference being that I was so sian of being a leader in a camp… I just like being a facil, and nothing else, taking a back seat in camps that I can ensure run smoothly and not to actually have to lead a group…  Somehow, my 30+ camps in SJI and church have already spoilt that experience…

So yeah, I made lotsa new friends during the camps, mostly with the PSLs and PSFs… (for those that know what’s going on between me n Wei Jin, good for you),  but other than that, I had fun in all camps… But then came the climax; the SJI campfire =)

Wow, that just blew me away… It really displayed Peer Support’s capability, effectiveness, and real enthusiasm… But there’s a difference; you know how you get a "high" after something really really really fun?  I sorta had to come up with a pseudo-internal "high" that got me through the night, but after that, I was too pooped to go on…

What I could do however, was go out for supper with Belmond, Lennon, and some other guys…  I really had lotsa fun that night, and I hope that’s one of the memories that will stick with me forever =P

So school after that was pretty much quite uneventful, except for those few activities that involved me; like emceeing the morning assembly one morning (which most of the school doesn’t have the privilege to do…) as well as leading morning prayer during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (which was before the Total Defence Day speech and prayer thingummy)…

So anyway, right now, it’s after the common tests (which nobody really went to study thoroughly for), and everyone’s so relaxed cuz its CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!  Muahaha… But I did manage to go out twice with my friends before the celebrations started to get into full swing…

On the first day, I went out with Lennon (cuz he wanted to watch a movie before going to Thailand for CNY) with Belmond, Qing Wei, and Joel Goh; went to catch Ghost Rider, which isn’t a bad show… Quite predictable plot, but very good special effects though its not the best of all the Marvel movies…

On the second day, I went to see the Epic Movie with Belmond, and it was hilarious!  Of course, I was with Kevin Koh, Ting Soon, Jon Chen, Thaddeus Ng (all 435; I felt so inferior in their presence); but they all deserted Belmond and I, so we went to watch the movie… Crazy story about Leslie Lim if u wanna hear (later on), and had dinner after movie with Kevin Koh and Qing Wei (another crazy story about BK =P lolz)…

Leslie, being some rich guy, came out that day with a total of about $120 to spend… But being very spendthrift, he spent around $20 on food, as well as $10 on a movie ticket (if I’m not mistaken)… Here comes the weird part; he goes to buy speakers for his iPod, and forgets to buy batteries, then asks me for money cuz he doesn’t have enough?  I was like, no way in hell, cuz he had like $54 left in his wallet…. He would just have to forgo his $50 shirt, and use the remaining money left for dinner… Bloody hell, he was almost down to begging me for money!

Another funny story; Belmond and I were rushing for a lift going up, and the ppl inside didn’t press the open door button in time, so I hit the open door button from the outside… Anyway, once we were inside, the lady right next to the buttons explained that she hit the call for help button instead of the open door button, since the open/close door buttons were usually at the top, but Plaza Sing buttons were different…. Nevermind, halfway up, the speaker box rang out and some indistinct voice came through, and we all burst out laughing! The whole lift was like laughing lah, and when the doors opened, they burst out, hardly able to walk… Belmond himself was trying to keep himself from falling in laughter…. LOLZ

Last story, four of us went for dinner, and couldn’t decide where to go… It was between budget fast food like MOS Burger and KFC, so we decided KFC since that was cheaper and better… But when we saw the place packed full of ppl, we decided to hop next door into BK instead… And just in time, a table opened up for us with a "red packet" lying on it that gave us free 4-piece chicken cheesesticks… So being extra kiasu Singaporeans, we went around the restaurant collecting these little "red packets", in exchange for free food… So we ended up having our measly dinner, as well as like six packets of 4-piece chicken cheesesticks, as well as four free small cokes… MUAHAHAHA =P That was super super fun!

So yeah, now its mostly just going aroung gorging ourselves with food from relatives’ houses, and I even went to visit Lee Kuan Yew and his wife in their humble home, though they do not practice exchange of red packets… They did give us nice fruits though =P  (his Taiwanese apples are stamped with "MINISTER MENTOR LEE KUAN YEW", so cool… I want my name on apples too!!)  And I went to two different consecutive reunion dinners, and I was so full after that… Had a nice dose of white wine yesterday night, and just now as well =P

Chinese New Year rox =)
-GABZ-

Whoah… Its been like AGES since I last updated my blog…

So I’m now sec four, everything’s so fun and all… It’s my last year in SJI, and I plan to treasure it to the fullest possible sense =P

So let’s start where I last left off; after the confi party in mid Nov last year… Yah, Wow, I know. So, yeah, I had a wedding that I originally couldn’t go for, cuz I was supposed to go for Beijing trip… But now that I could go, I had to sing for the wedding mass, and it was the responsorial psalm some more, so I had to solo in front of all the ppl who were all staring at me… But it was a familiar song, a nice song, so I was comfortable enough… Thankfully, the pianist didn’t throw me off by singing harmony in his own mike, though he nearly did… But other than that, the dinner was great, especially the drinking part =P (their red wine was quite cheap though)…

So THE CLUB formed at LLTC ‘B’ last year had a chalet, where they got together to celebrate all birthdays in Dec/Nov… And it was quite fun, SPS got to see how SJI guys really were… All the more cha kway teow-ing and teh tarik-ing… But yeah, I got a nice necklace that I still wear (though I broke it already, it’s repaired but quite fragile now), and I got to know more SPS guys, although the barrier between the two schools is still there… Why can’t we all just mix?!?!? It’s as if there’re two different groups… *Sigh*

Next up, I had a Vocation Camp at the Singapore Seminary at Punggol… That was actually quite fun, since I went with Julian and Eugene, but didn’t know that Glen Kiang and Andrew Yong were going too… So in the end, I had quite a few friends there, though I didn’t even know who I would get to know when I got there… So it was a very good, meaningful camp, and I really got to turn to look at my intrinsic self… Andrew does look and act like Marcus Goh, or vice versa, I SWEAR they’re related!

So after that weekend camp came the Legion Chalet, the one we were all waiting for (sorta)… And this time, it wasn’t so much of a disaster… Hehehe =P But yeah, it actually wasn’t that bad… Everything was quite easygoing, and I had to leave after two days, but it was going quite smoothly… Spent most of my b’day in camp again, last of which was at the beach, where we built a series of canals in the sand… So sad I couldn’t swim, but I don’t think anyone would’ve joined me looking at the sad state of the sea,,, But other than that, it was a nice day for me =P Stupid Chitty didn’t turn up…

So I left on the seventh night, and we went out for dinner, though I can’t remember where… It might have been at home, but I really don’t remember… Anyway, the next day or so was spent packing, and on the eighth night was our flight to Boston… I ended up getting an economy ticket which was upgraded at Frankfurt, and I had a nice nap cuz I couldn’t get much sleep before in the squashed seat… But I did make friends with the two guys beside me, and they gave me their business cards, though I don’t know what for… The caucasian guy was nicer though =P made some latex mattresses or something like that… LOL

So Boston was fun for all four days of our stay there… For another rare occasion, all five children were once again reunited… Last time was Kids Camp earlier that year in June, but it was the first time that Rem and Wei had been to Boston, and so Gen and Tush had a good time showing them around, especially all the cool sights like the Aquarium and Museum of Science… Other than that, we had a nice drinking game, where they forced me to pull out before I got any more drunk than them =P They were jealous, just because alcohol capacity is related to body mass… *Sigh* I needed all that anti-depressant…

So from Boston, we flew up to Vancouver, where we stayed overnight in our grandparent’s house, which was quite inconvenient, cuz of all the moving in and out… I prefer their old house, it was nice, big and warm… But their new house sufficed; I slept on this weird rug thingy that kept me warm and toasty… And the next day, we found that cuz of a snowstorm, we were delayed going up to Whistler to ski, so naturally, we went out to do what we did best… SHOP! We shopped the whole day through, and breakfast was a damn good original Denny’s breakfast… All you need to trigger a heart attack; eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.

When we finally got to Whistler, it was like returning home… The snow was such a welcoming sight, it was like so white and fluffy… I will never forget the time I spent there, all the joys and the tears, and that time of year =P So yeah, skiing downhill the mountain, and the nice snow that we built our snowman in,,, All the fond memories in Whistler when we used to go there at the end of each year… It was so fun lah, but its tiring and expensive… *Sigh* I hope we can go again, it would be even better if we could go with friends, so that the experience would be heightened…

So, we go back to Vancouver for Christmas, where multiple Christmas parties are celebrated… All the fun and laughter, the Christmas spirit just sets everyone off =P (in a good way), but I really missed the Christmas spirit here, what with Legion parties and Choir parties…

Just when I was going to leave for Singapore, I discovered a new swelling of an infection on my inner thigh that resembled somewhat my previous two leg injuries… However, this one was much more painful, and it was also inhibiting my walking cuz of its position and painful nature… *Sigh* Third time it was happening to me… And I had to tahan it all through the flights and the long walks through the airports, carrying my lovely little crumpler =P

But school was starting in a few days, and I had to finish up my homework for that… I was actually quite excitied to go back to school… Don’t know why, but I had so many things to look forward to =P

Little did I know, last minute complications would present themselves along the way…

Alrighty then, I have to go now, but I promise a part II, yah?

Must study hard for CTs, and work hard too!

One last year, till it’s aaaaall over…

Here we go then, till the end.

*Sigh* once again,

.

PS, Sorry there’s no colour on this com… It’s a mac =(

So little time, so much to tell =)

PSLTC ended on Sunday. Two days later was the party at my place, and it rocked!

For me, at least.

The party was great, sure, but it all started that Tuesday morning, after mass =P

————————————————————————————————————-

My leg, that got infected during PSLTC, was noticed by some family members, and so, I was brought in for a checkup at the clinic by a very insistent mother.

Well, it paid off.

Antibiotics were prescribed, and I was told I might not be able to make the Beijing school trip that Saturday if I had not healed by then, and wanted to hospitalize me! That was just to put in an intra-venous antibiotic drip, but didn’t cuz he thought the oral antiobiotics were enough. Little did I know that was the worst of my problems…

The doctor just bandaged my leg up, and sent me on my way. I then went for Legion at the Gift of Love home as usual, no biggy, other than Mr Ang not being present… But things went fine, everything was smooth-sailing, right through lunch.

Then we went over to my house, where they got settled in, and they watched Superman Returns, while I got stuck on the phone giving directions to three different people at once, all trying to come to the same place from three different locations, and I had to tell them exactly how to get to my house, step by step…

So yeah, they had fun watching the movie, while I had to get people to the party, then I had to get the food ready for dinner, starting by starting the fire and throwing ppl into the pool to get the party started, things like that.

It was time to get wet.

(For them, at least)

Anyway, back to me, I was roasting the sausages, cooking the beef (or was it chicken?), and getting a tan on my face all at once! Isn’t that just great? (Especially the tanning part, I especially like my face getting roasted from the fire that was cooking other stuff too, but those weren’t important).

Yeah, so ppl were really having fun, especially me when I was told I had to go in for an appointment the next morning for the doctor to check out my leg (it was a different doctor, the best one I know at Raffles)… And therefore, I had to leave the stayover ppl while I went down for the checkup. My Mum said it would probably only take half an hour… Hmm -_-"

I couldn’t swim that night, cuz of my un-waterproof dressing, and therefore, I could only throw ppl in… Muahahaha, I was untouchable! Except when Nigel and Joshua found that they (dripping wet as they were) could hug me without wetting the bandage… So that got me =(

But then again, I was the one who threw them in, eh?

That triggered off a whole second round of swimming, since Belmond, Marcus, Alex, Qing Wei were still swimming, and Christopher, Lionel, and others were dragged in to join in the fun. Always, swimming in the night is so much more fun… Always.

So when everyone finally got up, I went to bathe too. By then, most of the party-ers had gone home… And the place was now ours. ALL ours.

So I showed Belmond some more House, and all the others watching were fascinated with how good a show it was, while Alex and Marcus stayed upstairs in the playroom discussing love lives, or probably something to that extent.

House rox!

Anyway, soon, most of the others fell asleep, and the two lovebirds came down to snuggle in too. Since I had to get up early later that morning, I decided to turn in as well… How sad for a party =P

Yeah, so we all got up the next morning, they had breakfast, while I went to the clinic, where Dr Alfred referred me to a paediatrician to get my leg checked up… And it took a lot more than half an hour for just that part. Now, not only was there a threat of hospitalization, there was also a matter of surgery to deal with!

The trip up to the 13th floor of the clinic confirmed the threat, I was both hospitalized AND scheduled for surgery that afternoon at Raffles Hospital. Being hospitalized for the first time in my sentient life, I was kinda excited =P  Especially with the notion of going under general anaesthetic for the surgery, this was gonna be one BIG adventure.

Well, the price to pay was not only monetary, it came in the form of my Beijing trip being cancelled, as well as my party being cut short. They did come to the hospital after going out for lunch, and that was right after my surgery, so let’s backtrack a little =P

I wasn’t allowed to eat five hours before surgery, so no lunch in the hospital for me =(  But fast forwarding to the surgery part, I had to wear this ridiculous gown with tight disposable underwear that felt really uncomfortable…

But yeah, other than that, I was fine for surgery… And they wheeled me down on those bed thingummies… It felt kinda weird, especially in the lift, when we went down to the Operating Theatre… They pricked me with the anaesthetic, but I didn’t feel anything happening, until they put some weird gas mask on my nose and mouth, and I breathed in smelly gas, until I started to lose conciousness, like some fuzzy thing eating away at your conciousness…

Quite cool lah, when I woke up, I was in the recovery room, and I could be wheeled back to my room. My parents were waiting there, and then my friends were allowed in after I had changed, cuz the gown was really weird… But I kept the cool robe on like some kinda jacket… Heh =)

So we had fun that afternoon, just hanging round my bed… Leonard kept on playing with my bed, me irritating Peter cuz of his holey shirt, Qing Wei telling me funny and weird stories to keep me entertained, Melvin falling asleep on the floor, Alex Poon running off with Marcus to talk about you-know-what again, and of course Belmond watching TV (as usual)…

Anyway, they left around six, when my dinner arrived, and I tucked into my "extra large portions", as my mother had ordered for me… Seems to fit my size, don’t you think? Actually, I prefer XXXL, but I think they don’t serve portions quite that size -_-"

Yeah, overnight stay was interesting… Spent most of it sleeping, as well as the morning… Heh =P  There was nothing much else to do, really… So I just slept my hospital time away… Then the doctor said I could be discharged, and I was walking around with the unplugged drip still in my hand… Till the nurse came and took it off… Damn, I thought I could go around with that and my hospital tag and scare ppl… Haha =)

So I was released on a Thursday, and there was fairly no event until Sunday, which was Melvin’s confirmation, and since I couldn’t go Beijing, I was obligated to go… And I got a tub of Mentos for him and Moses each, and I felt really cheapskate, so I went around shopping, and found bags worth ten bucks each at a Hang Ten sale! I grabbed them and stuffed the Mentos inside… Man, was I lucky to find that sale, but I still was kinda reluctant to part with twenty bucks just like that =(

Anyway, I later went back and got a tin of Hello Panda for Sam Branson, cuz someone reminded me it was her confirmation too… And so, I had gifts for most of my friends, except for Gerald Chan and Keenan Tay, both of whom I lost contact with years ago…

There was quite a huge turnout of Legion ppl, cuz O levels just finished, and most had nothing on that day… There was also a big number of confirmants, so the church was very well packed… We were making quite a big deal of noise, so I think a lot of ppl were staring, but I just pretended to be innocent and prayerful =P I saw Gabriel Rod’s mum (forgot her name) cuz Mark Rodriguez was getting confirmed… He still looks the same, never grow, face never change… haha, I guess SOME ppl don’t change -_-

*sigh*

After the confirmation, we all went down to congratulate the two newly confimed boys, and I caught a few other guys whom I recognized, like Ryan and Merill (dunno how to spell his name, haha) who were there for their friend, and Nat Fern (sitting behind me) who was there for all her girlfriends, esp Sam Bran, and some other ppl lah…

So then came the party at Pastamania, sponsored by Melvin’s parents… So we all had fun, and when we went over to the Entertainment centre to catch a late night movie, we found ourselves headed on a wild goose chase, cuz Melvin led us back to the MRT, then I led them back to the church, and then when we finally got there, the shows all closed already… Haha, how dumb right =P ?

Anyway, Sam Branson’s party at Swensen’s was still not over, but I didn’t know that… So I ordered a Regular Earthquake (not a giant one, as I was advised against) and shared the cost (as well as the dessert) with Alex Poon, Mevin, and Mark Goh took a bit… It was surprisingly good for the mountain of eight flavours… And even more surprisingly, Sam Branson’s parents paid without even knowing if we were her friends… haha =)  Cheers to them, man! But we were really going to pay ourselves, and not just there to freeload!

So that day came to a close, nice and happy, and I was left with a warm fuzzy feel inside after all that partying… Especially all that ice cream =P

yumyumyum,
<GABZ>

PS  I promise a part two, okay?  Sorry, I gotta go now  =P

Wah… Thank God Mr Ang gave me nice ppl in my group… I mean, I didn’t know all of them well lah, but I knew about four Legion ppl in my group, with another five guys, two of which I’d seen before… So that made three ppl whom I didn’t know, one of which didn’t turn up…

And the group is: Arthur (MM guy), Benjamin Teo (family choirmate), Choo Ruizhi (junior josephian), Daryl Lee (I think its lee…), Dylan Teoh (nice guy, proved me wrong), Ian Low (always so quiet), Jared Monteiro (damn fricking tall), Samuel Koh (poor boy, always kena bully)…

So I brought like two tubs of Mentos for them to chew on throughout the camp, little did I know they’d down the first  tub so fast, it was gone in one evening… Oh man, I refused to give them the second tub lor… But they did thank me for it in affirmations (prob cuz they didn’t have anything much else to say…)

But yeah, they were a great group, all very nice to me, all very friendly ppl… No problematic ppl, and thanks to my co-leader, Jon Chen, we managed to impart our knowledge to the group pretty well… Hope they do well in Orientation Camp next year… I’ll probably be busy running around doing everything, cannot get to know the sec 1’s too well =(  Even the sec twos, I didn’t really get to know that well, I’m pretty sure they saw me around tho, won’t forget me too fast… I’ll make sure of that =P

But yeah, PSLTC this year was quite fun, and I hope we managed to carry on the tradition of it being the most fun and brotherly camp in the whole four years of SJI… But the camp wasn’t ALL for the PSLs, I’m pretty sure the PSFs had their fun too… Now what would the camp be if the facils didn’t have their fun?

What would you get when you cross a crazy bunch of PSFs with a hyper bunch of PSLs?  A mad PSLTC =P

And that’s exactly what we got.

P.S. I know its a short post, but I gotta catch up, right? =)