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Hello all. Ok feeling quite guilty, the past week has been so filled with so much activity, I really had ample reason to make a post anytime during the week. More than reason, I should actually have been obligated to do so (My general rule of thumb: once enough things happen that you won't be able to recount the important things fully and accurately, it's time to post. Immediately). Except, well, I sort of got carried away by the wiles of time-wasting. Apologies to my readers I suppose, but really i'm feeling more remorse at myself. The whole habit of posting on weekends I developed in the army has a hold on me. Which is not exactly what I expected to happen, and I'm quite disappointed at really. Only posting on weekends limits so much in a more civil environment with regards to the quality of my entries. Sigh, time to start working on unmaking this unfortunate practice. Anyway, lets start from where I left off.

Ok, Monday was a real rush, probably one of the worst. It came to the point where I was about 30 mins from leaving for the airport, and my bag wasn't even packed. AT ALL. It was just empty, with my stuff lying all around (I did manage to congregate them to some extent, but that's beside the point). 30 minutes is probably the most I've ever stretched it before flying off somewhere. And then I learnt why: 30 minutes simply isn't enough for me. It was just a flurry of stuffing and running all over the house, gathering up the bits of myself you inevitably leave around your own house. If I had more time, perhaps I would have felt something akin to a sense of loss, but winded as I was, all I could see was the time, and all I could hear was my mum's incessant nagging. I made it, after a fashion... Ok fine, I didn't make it. We ran really late in leaving for the airport for my flight at 7+. However, this encompassed the time we needed to go buy Krispy Kremes first~ (super famous donuts in the US, still currently unavailable in Singapore. It's become almost customary for frequent flyers to and from Melbourne and Singapore to carry Krispy Kremes with their hand luggage~)! All we had to do was hurry and we would still make it yay! We got to the Krispy Kreme shop near our place (it was actually the first branch in Melbourne, and thus a big one, where they were made everyday), and then they made me choose which specific ones I wanted for the assorted box. Bad move. I don't happen to be the most decisive person around, far from it actually. So I ended up spending WAY too long choosing (such a trivial thing, T.T, but I can never help myself). And on we went to the airport, even later than before. Still, we managed to check-in on time (somehow we skipped the queue because I remembered to check-in online~). Only my parents came, since my sister had school. So said my goodbyes to mum and dad, prayed, and through to immigration I went. The next time I see them will probably sometime at the end of the year, and it'll probably be them visiting me.

The flight was ok, they relocated my seat at the last minute without any notice. Just before I boarded the plane they were like "Hey you, go see that guy over at the counter." And he issued me another ticket. The cool thing is, it was an aisle seat, with no one beside me! That means access to the aisle without obstruction, and no need to shift for being an obstruction to the person sitting inside. Watched a few movies (all I really do in planes, I never manage to sleep properly in them anyway), and then arrived in Singapore at 1am. My cousin was there to pick me, and a good thing too. It wasn't fun walking around with my luggage, a backpack, a pouch with the important stuff (passport etc), and 3 boxes of Krispy Kremes.

Didn't have much time at home to rest, since uni matriculation was on in the late afternoon. Did manage to sleep a little, though not as much as I liked (isn't that always the case >.>), and then went down to NUS. I've got to say, it was nice seeing people again, after about 2 weeks. Everyone was just as warm, and it almost felt like I hadn't been away at all. There was a fair as well after matriculation, so we just went walking around, about 10 of us who converged after getting our uni cards. The cool thing was that pretty much every company that meant anything to students (and I mean anything) was represented, and giving away free stuff. And they were actually real free stuff (ie. useful). There were also stations/exhibits/stalls where all the co-curricular activities were also advertising (rather aggressively, might I add >.>) we couldn't walk more than a few steps without getting stopped/approached by some advocate for the next CCA down the line, handed a brochure and start getting chatted up. I felt we didn't really have time to go through the whole fair to do it justice, but I suppose we grabbed the essentials. Thanks to the medicine faculty being placed last on that day, the stalls pretty much closed right after we passed them, leaving little time for contemplation after that. I was also looking at getting a computer from the fair at this point (they offered interest free loans for the length of my course!), but they were closed by the time we escaped and disengaged from the traps of the evil fair (which was actually rather late, must have been 6+ by then really, maybe even 7). Went down to the co-op shop with Huiting to grab our atlases before school started (for fear of being unable to procure stocks of them once school started), but alas, they were closed too (for some unknown reason... I mean, since when do bookshops close at 6?. At least the dejectedness didn't last long =). I planned to come down for the fair again on Wednesday, since it would be around until the end of the week. After all, there was that computer to get~.

Ended up going down on Wednesday, managed to catch the Co-op shop open and got our atlases ^^, then met Xu Sheng to go browse the laptops. I ended up getting the Lenovo T400, which actually isn't out in the stores yet lol... But it was the best of those there (still wasn't very good, initially had something better in mind... But oh well, it wasn't bad I suppose, pretty good processor 2.53ghz, 4GB RAM, average gfx (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470)). Anyway, paid the deposit and stuff, and then headed home pretty much. I attempted to renew the book I'm currently reading from the library a second time, and failed. So now the fine's collecting up while I finish reading it -.-" (stubborn refusal to return it~). I haven't been reading much... Probably read more in the army than I am now actually O_O... Probably because computers don't exist in the army. Or anything remotely intellectual really, besides the books you bring in.

Thursday was the inter-OG party we threw~! If anyone remembers the "compromise" we came up with to split the Ben & Jerry's vouchers we won at Medicamp, this was one aspect of it. We had another OG come down, and Ben booked us a function room at a condominium, where we had dinner/the ice-cream, which was great. We also watched "How to lose a guy in 10 days", downstairs, and then followed up with "Serendipity" after the party and into Haotian's house, where the sleepover was carried out within our OG. Both ended up being romance for some reason, somehow >.>. Not that I minded, I actually quite enjoyed both movies... Never used to think so, but I've found recently (as in, last few years recently) romance films aren't actually that bad, in fact, a few are actually really good imo.

We spent the rest of the night playing Taboo (quite a few lol's from that actually... The antics of some people, lol... That's probably what makes the game), and heading down to the streets for supper. Ok, the funny part is this... Haotian's condo is in Geylang, well known in Singapore for, none other than, prostitutes. Singapore is one place, where (quite surprisingly, shocking in fact) prostution itself is actually legal, though street promoting and the like are not. So, as you can imagine, taking a walk down the street at 3am in the morning with the rest of us who stayed the night was... Interesting, to say the least >.>. Our objective was actually a rather famous place in the same area (which is, consequently, also remarkably famous for food), but the walk there... At first it was pretty sparse and scattered, just random hookers standing around, but some streets were literally lined with them, reminding us of some sort of exhibit, which it not necessarily wasn't. What disgusted me most though were the random guys roaming the area. Strangely, they reminded me of Soulless (Undead, Zombies, whatever you like to call them). I don't know why, but upon reflection that was the impression on my mind. Most stalked alone or in twos, and had a sort of haunted look in their eyes, constantly darting. Rather freaky actually, but I especially disdained some of the looks they shot our girls, which held... I don't know what it was, but it sure upset me, and made me want to shoo them away, to put it lightly. Still, the dim sum we had at the place was excellent stuff, and uncannily fresh for the "environment", if I may put it that way. We ended off the night (morning) with The Mummy, which some people surprisingly had never seen. Honestly, it wasn't as good as I remembered it. But then, it was an old movie. Really anticipating the new one just out though, which I'll be going to see tomorrow~ with some of us from the OG =).

Friday was largely a waste of time, went to Uni to enquire about some things before the fair disappeared in general, but otherwise I didn't get much done. It was a nice break though. Cell was cancelled that night for some reason, but it happened to be my cousin's 18th birthday, so I went with his family to celebrate at some restaurant (some interesting mushroom place... Their speciality was mushrooms pretty much, and it was a sort of steamboat cum set meal, which was surprisingly tasty, but then, I've always liked mushrooms =/, which some people find odd for some reason >.>).

The next day was my bond signing =O, which was sort of a formal occasion, where I went down with my aunt and working cousin, my two guarantors, to sign the next 10-11 years of my life away. No hesitation though, it's what I wanted, I got it, and I'm glad for it. Now, if I just flew off and never came back, my aunt will be in huge trouble... Quite a scary thought actually, considering my home isn't even in Singapore... But then, I do tend to entertain these extreme and disturbing thoughts for time to time.

Met up with Huiting, who also goes to City Harvest Church, and some of the people from her cell, and headed down from Suntec City to the Singapore Indoor Stadium, where this year's Festival of Praise was taking place, in place of church this week (as it was being hosted by none other than our church). It's sort of a congregation of all the churches in Singapore for a night of corporate prayer and worship, as well as a series of messages from the guest speaker that year, I've personally never been, although I'd heard much about it, but Huiting had before. The initial plan was that we'd go down together after bond signing, but turns out we didn't have to go down that early... Still met up anyway, though it was closer to 5pm, and then proceeded to queue in the stifling heat until the doors opened at 6+. We then sat around until the service started at 7.30pm. It was nice though, just talking to Huiting and her cell group members and getting to know them, despite the heat outside, and then the crowds inside. Really powerful night, the Hillsong team was down, and Mark Connor, the senior pastor from CityLife Church LOL (my former church in Melbourne pretty much). His preaching's actually improved quite a lot from the last time I heard him, the sermon was humorous, simple and yet meaningful. It ended pretty late, was past 10pm when the service itself ended. We then proceeded to walk down to Kallang Station, just a few of us (turned out to be quite a long walk >.>, thankfully they're building an MRT station next to the Indoor Stadium, yay~), still, we took our time and chatted all the way there, so I didn't really feel the distance in that sense. From there it was pretty much get on a train and head home, it was horrendously late by that time (past 11 easy). Everyone got on the same train, and we bade our goodbyes from there. It was quite nice talking to Huiting, haven't seen her around much at the OG meetings though, she's pretty busy I guess. Well, we'll see more of each other in time to come I suppose.

This post actually started on Sunday morning, but as of now it's 11.50pm, and I amended the post time accordingly. Actually, my pair of x3is (headphones i'm currently using for my iPod) broke, and I found out on Saturday night on the way home. I was surprisingly devastated... After all, their just a pair of headphones. But then that meant no music, and I think that's the part that really struck me hard. You see, I've become hooked on music I think, after a fashion. So today was spent going down to the shop I got them, only to find that their going to be getting a new build of x3is, and as a result have no stock of the current model, come back in 2 weeks time. The old man who runs the shop was nice though, offered to replace my broken ones. Hope he keeps his word. Anyway, so as part of the contingency, I went to Funan Centre (technology super-mall) and finally got myself a long overdue gaming headset. That solved the music problem, the headphones problem (at least at home), and the microphone problem (been needing a proper one for a long time). Oh, grabbed a haicut on the way back, also long overdue. At least I made effective use of my time today (somewhat)!

The whole of my next week will be a terribly mad rush all the way until school starts I'm afraid, moving into my hostel tomorrow, hopefully changing my phone plan, meeting up with a few people from the OG for a movie and maybe dinner. All this in just Monday. Tuesday is Flag Day, and then I've been enlisted for last minute Rag activities from Wednesday all the way up to Friday (nights included O_O), when Rag itself will take place. Wonder who's going to turn up for all this stuff... But it's going to take quite a lot to make it worth my while >.>

Ok, I really should finish up packing if I plan to move straight into my hostel tomorrow. I might not actually stay the night there, depending on stuff. But then I might, you never know. I suppose I should start saying goodbye to this little niche I've inhabited since I returned to live in Singapore. Emotions running high, of course. Not.

Good night.