Sending off Naps

Hello, I am back to blog after a eight day hiatus. Well honestly, I do have a list of topics to blog about, but lets just say that I am a bit lazy to do all that.

So anyway lets get back to what I wanted to blog about. Last Tuesday, the 30th of November. I sent off my friend, Napittha at the airport. She was leaving for her home country, Thailand. That was the first time that I saw off someone at the airport. But anyway this was how the day started. Naps was also the first friend who had the sincerity to personally call me up and tell me that she was leaving the country. It really made me very happy. She could have texted me or could have just told me on Facebook. But she called. Thanks Naps.

Due to my " After O'levels sleep patterns" I regularly go to sleep at four in the morning and wake up at twelve to one in the afternoon. Anyway that certain day. I woke up at around twelve noon. I was making myself coffee when my phone rang. I saw that it was Napittha. I thought it was rather odd, I mean, there was no particular reason, why she would be calling me at the certain point in time. So anyway, I answered the call. It was Napittha. She basically told me that she was leaving for Thailand later in that day. She told me to take care and to not to let anyone take advantage of me and things like that. So here is what she said, more or less.

"Hey Bhalaji, I am leaving for Thailand today. Take care of yourself, and don't let others take advantage of you. Be strong and more independent And stop being so nice to everyone. in that day. She told me to take care and to not to let anyone take advantage of me and things like that. So here is what she said, more or less"

Well, that was not verbatim, but it is close enough. I decided that I should send her off.

So I prepared to go to the airport, she said she would arrive at the airport at around 4.30pm, so I left my house at around 3.45. If did not take me very long to reach the airport. I live quite near it in fact, I reached the airport at around 4.20pm. I called Napittha, and found out she was still on the way to the airport. To kill time, I went of the 'Hudson News' bookshop. I was browsing through some books there and just walking around the store, when I got a call from Napittha, however the person on the phone was Nadhirah. She told me to come to check in row 9 (if my memory serves me correctly)

So yes, I went to the check in row, Napittha, Nadhirah, and Sou Young were there. The first one to notice me was Nadhirah. So it was just hi and all that. Naps had bit of a check in problem. Anyway, after sorting it out (during which Nad was showing me tips and tricks on my iPhone).

Shortly Mayer and Linus arrived ( I had to get Mayer's number from Mitchell). So anyway, after everyone, had arrived, we all went down to McDonald's to chat and have a drink.

But most of us just chatted. Some got meals or drinks but I just chatted with Nad (again mostly about the iPhone) and also helped Nad, Naps and Sou Young take pictures together. After that, we all just headed up to again chat and to take pictures together.

After a short while, Mayer, Linus and the others (I am not so familiar with them). The only ones remaining were, Napittha, Nadhirah, Sou Young, Napittha's Guardian and I.

We asked Naps whether she would be coming back to collect her results in January. She, (to my huge surprise) said maybe. I was like "MAYBE? what maybe, don't you have to be here to get your results."

I don't know really, maybe she can have her results mailed over or something. But they should not matter too much to her. She has already secured a place in The Chulalongkron University, (Yes it is spelt correctly, I made sure of that). I feel really happy for her, (and also a bit jealous, but hey)

So soon after, we all were waiting for Syahirah (I really don't know if I spelt her name correctly) so anyway. She came, eventually, after a long wait. After that it was time for Naps to go into the Terminal to board the plane. After exchanging hugs, and more photos. (Gosh, do girls take a lot of photos). Naps then went into the terminal. After that Sou Young left. And quite to my surprise. Nad started tearing up. Guess she is going to miss Naps a whole lot. Anyway, after that I just went home.

These two(Naps and Nad), were actually quite unexpected friends, Here is why...

You see, now Nad and Naps are like my two homies, but we were not really good friends until like the beginning of this year. I sat beside, Naps and Nad at the beginning of the year. But then, one month into the seating arrangement. I ended up in between them, for reason that I will not say here. So I was like the bridge between those two. And also, I constantly shared my textbooks with them, since well; I was the one who actually bothered to bring the textbooks to class. We had a lot of fun, I covered for Naps when she fell asleep or for NadNad, falling asleep a few times, for Naps however it was on a daily basis.). We also copied homework for each other. And I learnt a bit about filing from those two. Ahh, such great friends.

(You realise I use short forms of my friends names sometimes, I am sorry if I confused you with that.)

Blog: The Origins

You would expect this to be my first post, but it is not. But I am happy that I am writing it.

You see, back in the days, I was not a very tech savvy kid. In fact I did not even know how to use a search engine, properly. I also did not have an email until I was thirteen years old. And that was months after I began my life as a secondary school student. Thank you Nabil for teaching me how. Like I said it was only in secondary school that I was introduced to the wonder that was the internet and I was well into completing my first year of secondary education when I heard of these peculiar internet phenomenon called blogs.

To be honest with you, what this 'blog' was I never knew nor was I especially interested in it. But over time I started videos I started visiting my friends blogs and started finding out that they were rather like personal diaries. With the exception of not being so personal.

Then I started visiting blogs made and maintained by professionals, who shared their knowledge through their blogs.

So there I was inspired to create one for myself, however I never got around doing it for almost another year. The first two created (Oh boy, I cannot even remember their names) are lost blogs. They still do exist somewhere in cyberspace.

After creating my proper blog, last year, it was still not regularly used, in fact. Most of what my blog is happened this holidays.

So that is the story of how I became a blogger.

Yesterday, I went to the Singapore Army Museum with Swee Yik. I brought my camera along and managed to take some wonderful pictures. Honestly though, I have to admit the trip was quite boring. ( Sorry Swee Yik, if you ever read this, nothing personal, just not my cup of tea). The five dollars I paid as the entrance fee could have been spent in a more productive way. That said, I still do respect the Singaporean Defence Forces, myself being a very proud member of the National Police Cadet Corps.

Anyway this is how it started out. I woke at 0930, I was to meet Swee Yik at the bus stop at 1010 but I only arrived at 1024 to meet a very annoyed Swee Yik. Anyway we made our very long journey to the museum, after a long train ride and a short bus ride. Interestingly enough, the buses in that part of Singapore are quiet old. They still have sliding windows and also have no air conditioning.

Anyway we went to museum and spent about an hour and a half there. All I did there was to take pictures, then we had a go at the mock obstacle course they had there.

Then we went to Jurong Point, were we had a meal at an Indonesian Restaurant. The chilli was so spicy there. Then I bought a drink at Starbucks, mostly because of the chilli and we roamed around. We eventually came to HARRIS bookstore and we went in there to spend the time while I finished my drink. I found a book there - Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe - which I bought. I have to admit, I got an excellent deal on that book. I guess that the book will keep me occupied for a decent amount of time.

Then I just went to buy flowers at Bedok Interchange for the morning prayers on Thursday mornings. Thought I had to wait out the rain at Bedok Library. After that I just headed home.

-Bhalaji

Vivo

Yesterday, my friends and I had initially planned to go to Vivocity, to watch a movie, but alas, none of

them could make it.

Anyway, the actual reason I had to go to Vivocity in the first place was to register the warranty for my camera and also to purchase an additional lense for my camera.

So when my friends could not make it, I just took some pictures around Vivocity.

The 20th of November was my school's graduation day. It is a day when my school commerates (yup, you guessed it) the graduation of the students in their final year. At first I did not give it much thought. I anticipated it to be another usual "prize giving ceremony" sort of thing. Maybe a guest of honour, a speech by the principal or the vice principal, the reception of certificates, and photos with friends.


Well to be honest with you. It WAS much as I expected it to be. Nothing too grand. There was a guest of honour, a Bedok View alumni who is currently a successful dentist. And of course we had a speech by Mdm Rao. She talked about friends and how it was important we carefully choose our friends. I believe she is right. You cannot just make friends just because they give you the upper edge. After that it was the prize giving ceremony.


I got two awards. The first one was the 'Colours' award which I got, ( as it said on the certificate) for my 'Outstanding contributions to NPCC [ National Police Cadet Corps]). I was proud to recieve it. Yes, several other got it with me, but it felt good. Npcc was one of the things in my secondary school that made my life there wonderful.


The next one was a certificate that everyone got. It was the graduation certificate. Again I went up on stage to get it, it was handed to me by my form teacher, Miss Joy Ho. Maybe this sounds cliche, but really, reality hit me at that point in time, when I was shaking hands with Miss Ho, I knew I would not see my Form/Physics teacher so often again, She is one of the few teachers, who I had known and interacted with throughout my secondary school life. I knew her as a teacher in Npcc in my first two years and as my form teacher, physics teacher and Npcc teacher in my final two years. Of course in this small island it is not hard to bump into someone you know, but hey what are the odds?


 Anyway I collected my certificate and headed back to my seat, handing my tie to Angie (Poh) along the way, Bryan also lent his tie to someone, but that is besides the point. The rest of the ceremony was... I honestly admit, was a bore. So Bryan, Miss Ho and I started talking about the future. We all talked about what we planned to study in our next steps of education. Bryan and I have similar ambitions, we both want to engineers. 


Anyway we talked to Miss Ho about it and I talked of how I wanted to get into MIT and how I wanted to start my own company.


Oh yes, very important point, the overall best student award was won by Joshua, yes Joshua Maximilian Hendrojuwono, I am very proud of that guy, he is probably the most hard working and meticulous person I have ever seen.


I am obliged to mention that Adli from 4E3 also won that award.


After the ceremony was over we ended it by throwing our ties in the air ( Bryan and I just pretended, we did not have our ties with us after all). After that we all took photos with our friend and teachers. 


After that we went down to have some refreshments, once again provided by the girl guides. Then it is worth mentioning that Mrs Cheong was very excited to meet my mother, they spoke about me for a while and then we (Mrs Cheong, my mum and I) took a  photo together. That was pretty much all, My mum and I left by cab after that, since it was raining.


Bedok View Secondary School has been a integral point of my life, without this school. I may not be the person I am today. I will never forget this wonderful institution. It will always be my school. Once a Bedok Viewan, always a Bedok Viewan.


Thank You Bedok View


Signing off as a proud Bedok Viewan.


Bhalaji

4E1 class chalet

Hello, recently (last Tuesday the 16th of November 2010) I attended my class chalet. I could not attend my class chalet last year as I was busy training for my PDS performance. So I made sure I attended this one.


The day started out okay. I woke up at 1030, then just slacked all the way until about 1200 then I headed to the gym at Fengshan community centre, since Shan Leong and I had planned to go there, Nabil and Hasfis were there too. I only reached there around 1320, after following very vague and confusing instructions from Shan Leong. Only upon reaching there did I realise that I could have easily walked there in about twenty minutes from my house. First did some treadmill, bicycle then I did weights. After gym I left for my house, so that I could shower, pack my bags and head for my class chalet.

Then as it was to be, it started raining when I was walking home, thus I had to run under a block of flats and had to navigate my way to my house through the concrete maze of HDB blocks, i kept me mostly dry but the detour added a good ten to twenty minutes to my journey back home.

Finally I made it home by 1500, then I had a shower threw in a few clothes, a towel, pens and notebooks into my bag and headed to my class chalet, but I made in to Shing Siong to by a few packets of chips and a few bottles of drinks since Wei En told me to buy some since I had the class money.

Then, again, it started raining again, this time, heavily, still I braved it with my umbrella. Unfortunately, the umbrella inverted while I was crossing the road, due to the strong winds. Luckily, the taxi arrived shortly, I jumped in and gave the cab driver the address, after about a twenty minute ride, I arrives at the National Service Resort and Country Club. After a few minutes I found my way to the bungalow, we had rented and was welcomed by Hong Yu, in fact there were only a few people when I arrived, Hong Yu, Edmund, Matin, Jerald, Geoffrey, Ahmad and possibly a few others. I joined Matin and gang, and watched them play some video game, then tried my hand at Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Napittha also put on make up on Hwee Min, Jia Yi and Melvin, with the last looking wicked (in a good way)

Also just after dinner, we had dance performance by Nopphiphat and Melvin

After that slowly people came back to the bungalow, then we had dinner, after the dinner most of us stayed at the bungalow. watching movies, playing cards and things like that, I managed to entertain Ms Ho, Nad and Naps with a mathematical card trick, though I admit, it was not very professionally done.

I did the same with the people playing Big Two. Then I even learnt how to play Big Two.

After that we a few of us, including me, watched a Science Fiction movie called 'Pandorum', Nice movie, but can be a bit confusing sometimes. Anyway after that most of the class left for home and the rest left to play pool. So the only ones in the bungalow were Yi Jun, Angelina, Kai Wen, Yanin and I. We all played Big Two, with Yi Jun and I teaching the rest how to play it. Angelina won two games despite having never played the game before. (Impressive)

After the rest came back it was pretty much a movie marathon until the wee hours of the morning. I think I fell asleep at the couch at around 0400, but somehow, I woke up at 0830, in a sort of cot, fashioned from two couches. I was the second last to wake up, with Geoffrey being the only person to wake up after me.

The second day was very short. I had a shower, brushed my teeth and did the things people do after the wake up. Then it was just Big Two until 1000, then we took the shuttle bus to Tanah Merah MRT station. Then I just went home, while most of the rest went to Paya Lebar to eat.

That is all I guess.

-Bhalaji

It is Due

Interesting day today, went out with Shan Leong and Swee Yik, to watch a movie, at Golden Village located at Tampines Mall unfortunatelyYanin, Kai Wen and Angelina could not come. It was still fun though, the movie was pretty much decided between Swee Yik and I. Shan Leong did not really have an idea of what movie he wanted to watch.

Firstly he called up others to see if they wanted to come for the movies, the others did not. So it was just Swee Yik, Shan Leong and I. We in the end planned to watch 'Due Date,' a comedy starring the Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis.

Good Movie, I would say, damn those critics who think they so good at judging movies. I liked it and that is all I care to care about (tinge of incoherence there, get used to it).

We bought the tickets at 3 O'clock, the movie only started at 5, so we spent some time at the arcade with me trying my hands at a first person shooting game, a racing game and a game of Air Hockey (which was quite wasted because the puck went missing after a while).

After that we went to have a meal at Long John Silvers, felt kinda guilty eating there, but never mind, one cannot be too stringent. Then we just roamed around in a Toys R' Us and Popular Bookstore, flipping through books and stuff.

The movie went rather smoothly, not much to say, the theater was a bit cold initially but that got better.

After the movie we went down to the Basement of Tampines Mall to get some food, I did not eat anything. Anyway than the two others went home, while I set foot into Tampine 1 (for the first time) and spent some time at Times Bookstore. Then I just headed home.

Basic plot of the movie:

Peter Highman (Downey) is a successful architect and an expectant father

Ethan Tremblay aka Ethan Chase (Galifianakis) is an aspiring actor. It is also worth mentioning that he carries his father's ashes in a coffee can and later he scatters it over the Grand Canyon

Both the gentlemen metioned above are put on the no fly list and thus Highman is not able to fly to Los Angeles to see the birth of his first child, Highman's belongings are still in the plane so he is not able to drive. He ends up hitching a Ride with Tremblay and that is where all the fun (and trouble) starts. Really go and watch the movie, there is too much to describe in a few words.

Hello people out there,

now having been abandoning my blog for quite some time now and its really rusty. Its now the last week of the June holidays and its nearing the O' levels, well, I am studying but sometime I just get distracted, but I shall give it my best. The holidays have not been that eventful but at least I exercise regularly now. Add Maths prelim papers are a challenge but suddenly I have this urge to Major in Mathematics. Its not bad actually, quite a intriguing field of study. I strongly believe that anyone can achieve anything, so I like to keep my mind open. Well that is all for now

Bye.

Talk about being inactive

Hey, surprise, I am blogging. Why? I have that little bit of free time in my hands now. So why am I blogging in my free time? Well, blogging actually is a bit educational. One of the best way to improve English is to

1. Read

2. Write

So I am writing now. If you have noticed I do not use any internet slangs in my blogs, maybe I have but either I do not remember or its really minimal. Also, for those who do not know, I do not really type very fast. So this is a way for me to improve my typing speed.

The chinese new year is here, so HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR to everyone.

Everyone is school and I have a two day break from school. This time has to used wisely, have a break but do not forget to study.

I have a lot of stuff to do. Then again, I must have fun, but how do I have fun, that is a question I have to ponder on. Anyone have any ideas, feel free to tell me.

I have not read a book in a three weeks, that for me atleast, is a VERY long time. Last book I read that kept me riveted was Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. He was the man who wrote the best selling book - the da Vinci code - Digital Fortress was his first book by the way and it is well written. It was one of the books I chewed through in one day ( I DID NOT literally chew the book) Before I continue, I would just like to say, a writer is cannot be solely judged by critics. Each one is a storyteller and each has his or her own story. It is a personal choice whether one likes a book or not. If you like it, good, carry on reading, if not, put it down and pick up another one. Furthermore, being the avid reader I am, I have been through a lot of different writing styles. And I have a few interesting questions on grammar.

1. The use of single quotes ( ',' ) and double quotes ( " , " ). A quick look at ' Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary ' told me that single quotation marks are used in British English and double quotations are used in American English.

Authors who use single quotations marks to punctuate direct speech.

1. J.K. Rowling (British)

2. H.G. Wells (British)

3.Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(British)

4.Dan Brown(American)

5.Clive Cussler(American)

6. Agatha Christie(British)

Authors who use double quotation marks to punctuate direct speech.

1. Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish)

2. Lewis Carroll(British)

3.Paulo Coelho(Brazilian)

4.Carlo Collodi(Italian)

5. Christopher Paolini(American)

I understand this represents a very small proportion of writers. And I am assuming that the publishers publish the manuscripts exactly. So there seems to be a good mix. I also wonder if authors use single quotes because its easier to type.( You have to press SHIFT + single quote button) to type double quotes on a modern keyboard.

Well the real question though, is why do we, in Singapore, use double quotes, when we are a country that uses British English.

Well, it really does not matter. It is a interesting topic to think about though. And makes for a exciting blogging topic.

Until Next Time

Bhalaji