Things you enjoy, not because you have to but because you want to, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it to your journal. And then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs:

1) Smoking

2) Blasting loud rock music on my earphones

3) Let the bus take me anyway and i'll alight when i feel like it, den i'll walk and walk and walk until i'm tired and see a bus stop with a bus home

4) Take out my notebook and scribble random thoughts

5) Just stare at the computer screen at home

whoever feels like being tagged, you're it.

*blahz...*,
Johnzzon

 

From Friends from Bukit Panj Pri:
An Original Nike Watch (to add on to the limitless amount of effort they've put in as well)
I don't know how to thank you guys. I already feel very bad exploiting u guys for this party, yet, you all still gave me a gift. shucks~ i feel damn guilty! heys, if u guys need me to do anything, go ahead! i owe you guys a lot!


From Weiqiang:
A pair of Havainas flip-flops from NUM shop
haha, i'm so enjoying this pair of flip-flops. so comfortable, so shuang! no wonder they're so expensive! thanks a lot wq!


From Kaixin:
"War of the Worlds" Novel
haha~ you're damn lucky, kaixin. i almost bought this book, but tot i could just borrow from library. well, i did mention i don't want books, but then this is a book i will like to own, so count yourself lucky. ;) hahaha!!


From frens of The Chinese High Band:
A pair of Golas sneakers
now, you guys gave me a terrible shock. firstly, there was only one shoe in the shoe box. and i had to call kokwee up to know that there has been some "technical" problems. and secondly, hmm, how did u know i liked this pair? i did remember shopping wif hongguan and yh once and we walked into this shoe shop and i did lift this design to give it a second look. hmm~ shant tink too much. haha~


From Yanhui:
An electronic train set
oh gosh~ oh gosh~ this is damn touching! i still remembered we were talking abt making lots of money den buying the full train set and building our own town wif them. gosh gosh~ this is such a personal gift! thanks yanhui! thanks a lot!


From Keith (TCHS 4L):
A bottle of Be facial cleanser
haha~ facial cleanser. shd i be sensitive and ask why facial cleanser? hahaha~ *kidding*


From Hwa Chong JC 01S21 (Mu, Yi, Yeokie & KY):
A pair of oh-i-so-wanted Sony earphones
Thank you ZHENGYI! for going down personally to sony gallery and even called me up to tell me there's a nicer design! haha~ thanks a lot. and... er... thanks for the receipt too!!! hahaahaha~


From Hwa Chong JC 01S21 (Ken, Qi & Jingyi):
A pair of Converse sneakers + an Adidas cap
don't worry! the size is perfect and i love the cap! thanks to not choosing pink too. haha! thanks a lot!


From Hwa Chong JC: Huang Cheng "Dian Hua" actors:
A choker wif the word "Dian" on it + a white jacket
shucks, another touching gift! so personal!! i love the house with the word dian on it. i guess it must hav been quite difficult trying to find it ba? the white jacket's very practical and nice too! shall be showing it off in uni. haha!


From the SAF Band ppl:
DKNY Be Declicious Eau de Toilette Spray + a waterproof watch
My favourite perfume!! gosh~ i'm touched! how did u guys find out?! and thanks for the waterproof watch. haha~


From the SAF Band ppl (Aloy, Weiye, Zhengguo, Bernard, Yanhui and er... Ryan?):
Lego's Harry Potter Knight Bus set
haha~ this is one of those gifts i laughed out loud. keke~ i was at raffles' city lego exhibition and was staring at the huge Harry Potter collection and was wondering if anyone wud get me anything from there. wah-la~


From Peijun and Woei Kee:
Quiksilver Sandals
haha~ thanks a lot for coming! hope it wasn't too troublesome and time-consuming. haha~ btw, i was being serious about the toilet paper too! haha, but luckily u didn't give me. ;p


From Terence Low:
A Tuba player figurine
haha~ another laugh-out-loud gift. i so expected you to get me something musically related! but it's damn nice! thanks!

you guys are damn nice! so many presents! and i'm not really those kind that really care much about them one. i was so happy u guys turn up oredi, den have to give me something~ argh, so paiseh. hope you enjoyed as much as i do that night! thanks a lot!

Ok... end of the birthday posts saga. the start of a new life! and time to give my photoshop a rest too... phew~

*staring-at-my-presents-and-grinning-to-myself*,
Johnzzon

 

Finally decided i should take a break from blogging abt my birthday. seriously, the previous 2 blog entries were a result of a conscious effort to tell ppl abt what happened during my party.

had been quite moody recently. ppl have been telling me it's just a result of post-party syndrome. i guess so. the last time i had been so high was after huang cheng 2002, when i couldn't get over the fact that huang cheng's over for me for 2 whole freaking weeks.

it's been one week, and i still feel kind of empty, kind of sad. had been forcing myself to step out of the house, sometimes even alone, but it did not seem to help. haiz. and i've been reading and hearing abt ppl in relationships, ppl hav been askin' me about my opinions abt them, and in my mind kept running the statement: "the perfect person will come eventually, don't keep hoping for a relationship or it will not last."

did it again today. went to the bus interchanged, took the first bus that came, and sat in the bus staring at the buildings and ppl outside. it used to be quite fun, but now, it did not seem to cheer me up.

wut is happening to me?

received my third A4 mail from NTU which was an orientation package. the first was the handbook, the second was the hall package. i don't think i'll be joining any others beside my own faculty and hall orientation. as for cca-wise, i'm still considering wut to take up. perhaps something new and sporty? wake-boarding and swimming came to mind...

talking about swimming, i should be beefing up for the image. read in 8 days about how christian bale beefed up from his "machinist" character (55kg) to his "batman" character (82kg). he stuffed himself abt pizzas and ice-creams. hmm~ i should be doing too. why the sudden urge once again? cos he was 55kg before, and that's my weight now!

next week's my only week free left before NTU life will start unofficially. 4jul is CS's FOC, den it's time to be moving into hall, den it's hall orientation and finally start of sch... not much time left. luckily i declined the offer by May to be selling kuehs at bugis' seiyu's basement.

so, one week left. wut shall i do? shd be really planning to wrap up the two projects on hand and get my money! haha~ i'm totally broke now, a fact to add.

aahhh~ i'm enjoying writing this entry. so carefree so aimlessly, but i know once i stopped, the darkness of the night will once again seep into my mind. will be 'njoying while i still can.

but there's nothing else to blog.

at least, nothin' really that significant. (i'm avoiding bloggin abt the NTU/NYP concert)

should be rebooting my Movie website soon. am planning it along with a second revamp to this actual blogsite, i really hate the current design scheme (i only like the font).

to be honest, i really like to read comments. yet apparently no one does leave any besides the usual ppl in my tagboard. :( then, to a particular someone who has a blog but daren't spread it to ppl, if you leave a comment here, no one will still know u hav a blog u know? and it's irritating that i've been made to feel obliged to leave comments in YOUR blog... (note that i do not do it anymore)

ramblings...

what else can i write? haiz.

*night-is-young-and-i-don't-feel-like-sleepin*,
Johnzzon

 

And so, with all those stressed thoughts and worries in mind, the bbq started wif four of us there at the bbq pit. me, zhengru, weiqiang and alvin. at 5.45pm, kaixin came! she's officially the first guest for the night! the four of them went upstairs to the cafeteria (the caterer's place) to get food and came back down to eat. the five of us, sitting at the bbq pit and chatting away, catching up wif each other's lives.



and slowly and steadily, ppl started coming, and i started getting busy sending ppl up to the cafeteria to have the catered food and coming back down to receive more ppl. i started to feel very happy to see each new face at the party. wow~

and then, it's 8pm, and the cafeteria had to be closed for the day, and the BPPS gang helped me gathered all the remaining catered food and brought them down to the bbq pit area. the rest of the guests were invited to spread around the swimming pool, find their own spots and settle down, till more ppl arrive.

and that's when i start running around the place... wa, it was quite terrible, yet fun at the same time! but i felt damn bad having to throw ppl and allow them to entertain themselves. shucks~ perhaps i'd been a bad host? :(

anyway, interestingly, they were quite dispersed thruout the area around the pool.


more and more ppl turned up, and my spirits were lifted. and finally it was time to bring out the cake and TAKE PHOTOS!!


My Family
Sis, Mum, Me, Dad, Bro-In-Law

Bukit Panjang Pri
BACK (L-R): Alvin, Weiqiang, Lip Ting, Zhengru, Sir Liang
FRONT: Kaixin, Huimin, Me, Xuejia

The Chinese High Band
Yanhui, Me, Hongguan, Jiehao (where's Kok Wee??)

The Chinese High 4L Best Friends
Keith, Me, Edmund

HCJC 01S21
BACK: Yi, Kenneth, Qi
FRONT: Mu, Jingyi, Yeok

HCJC Chinese Society: Actors of Dian Hua
Songyu, Yinjie, Wenhan, Me, Jasmine, Yunqing

SAF Band
BACK: Alvin, Kris, Zhixun, Ryan, Gerald, Yanhui
MIDDLE: Terence Low, Weiji, Wenhua, Terence Yeo, Zhiwei, Joel Wee, Anneson, Jeremy
FRONT: Me, Paul

Ok, great, Kok Wee and the SAF Band B guys were lost somewhere in Siloso, and i couldn't blow my candles. so i decided to wait, and everybody went back to where they used to be, ie, dispersed. :(

when they were back, hahaha~ i made kok wee knelt in front of me!!! and apologise to me! yea~! (does anyone have that photo?) so mad at him... and hence the expression below.


The Lost Ones
Bernard, Weiye, Me, Zhengguo, Kok Wee

The Chinese High Band *retake*
Jiehao, Yanhui, Me, Hongguan, Kok Wee

and i called for a BIG group photo!! i felt so shiok jus looking at the photo!



Finally, it's cake cutting time.





in the midst of busily making sure everyone gets a piece of the melted cake, some kind soul decided to let me have a taste of it too, with all my five senses. thanks, alvin, but apparently, my face hasn't gotten any worse until your state because of that leh~ haha!


Cake on face, Alvin laughing

and it's time to bathe too... so...





and suddenly...


Security Guard: Happy Birthday to You! (He did say this to me then)

it was finally time for my frens to leave. and hence, it was the end of the party. at that moment, my parents and sis were busy with the packing, and so were my pri sch frens. and all that while, i was actually in the chalet room bathing and showering! shucks! i felt damn bad and guilty! but they were like "it's ok la it's ok la"... oh my, i'm so embarrassed la. my party, and i had to make them do shit work for me. :( so sorry! and thanks so much so much!!

i felt damn bad for my mum oso~ haiz... in her current condition, she still helped me out with so much stuff. i felt a sudden need to be 100times more filial from now onwards.

as groups of frens slowly leave one by one, there was a suddeny emptiness left in my heart. it's like end of show, an end to the whole childhood thingy. altho zhengru, alvin, kaixin stayed over to accompany me and help me with checking out and lunging the stuff home, i still felt quite alone. perhaps i was tinking abt the future, and honestly, i am quite scared of facing it.

to all the frens who turned up (all 42 of u!), thank you so much. i really really am so grateful and gan dong that you all rushed all the way to sentosa and spent the night there just for me. there's so much to say, a lot of thank yous to mention, yet, i don't know how to begin. perhaps i should jus put it simply as so:

each of your presence alone had made my world beautiful and bright that night. thank you so much!

For more pictures, click here!

 

Date: 17th June 2005
Event: My 21st Birthday Party
Outcome: Oh shit~

ya~ exactly... i guess i'm not gonna plan something this big scale for myself anymore! no more birthday parties until i'm 60!! that's when my GRANDCHILDREN will do the planning for me. haha~

but it was terrible. guess i was just so ill-experienced and dumb to do it. haiz. lessons had been learned, quite painfully and tormentingly i must say. and i have to pass this on.

Lesson 1: Choose a venue, early! And confirm you've really booked it.

many ppl had asked me why i chose Costa Sands Sentosa. well, it was a pretty long story.

actually, my first choice was the Adventure Chalet at CDANS Bukit Batok, beside Bukit Batok Driving Centre. i kind of loved that place after junyu held his birthday party there. the chalet's like a house on stilts, a unit by itself. the basement (or rather ground floor) is the place where the cooking and washing can be done. there's a big place to place the food and cake and everything. the second level is the living room with 3 bedrooms, fully facilitated with tv, air con, toilet and everything! and further more, most of my pals live in the west, it will be quite convenient for most of them. sounds perfect right?

i went down personally to book it on 2nd May, the day after labour day. the management didn't tell me it was a balloting system, and around 20th May, when i called them up, they informed me that i lost in the balloting. "huh? why is there balloting? i tot i've confirmed my booking?" "no sir, because a school wanted to use the chalets during that period of time, so we hav to forfeit your booking"

i dun noe if i shd be angry or glad that i hadn't pay for the chalet. shit.

so, get, 20th may, less than 1 month before the party, where else to book? second on my list, Aloha. i managed to call up a close teacher of mine and see if he's willing to help me book. he's ok wif it, yea! so, i went to the website, checked. shit. every chalet's booked. ARGH~! *strike one*

next on the list NSRCC. so i went to their website. WAH~ around $300 per night because of the peak period! damn it. *strike two*

chevron's never on my list. for obvious reason. but come to tink of it now, it may not seem such a bad choice compared to Costa Sands Sentosa.

Lesson 2: Reckee and check out the place before booking it!

so, oh wells, next on my list is naturally something public and famous. Costa Sands. There are three places, pasir ris, east coast and sentosa. i knew that if i had it at pasir ris, a lot of ppl will refuse to turn up (anyway, those ppl din turn up for my sentosa too, *phark*), and i really don't want it at east coast. and sentosa sounds, wow, exotic and beachy and everything. good! i shall have it there. and i checked the website, wow, the picture shows a three-storey high unit, and there's availability on the two days i wanted. great! i got my dad to approve it, and we paid there and then, right in front of the computer half an hour after choosing Costa Sands.

it's only after booking it, did i discover Costa Sands had a lot of terrible clauses, rules and regulations. no noise, no outside catering, no this no that~ wa, i wanted to cancel the booking, but i can't anymore. i've got no other choice at that moment.

and only until the day i arrived at the place did i realise, the unit's a blardy hotel room with limited space to even walk about. and the bbq area's not big enough if all the bbq pit's booked. and there's no powerpoint ANYWHERE around the public pool area and the bbq area (so the plan of providing music was totally jeopardised!).

Lesson 3: Check the caterer

dun be afraid to keep calling the caterer up to ask any questions. be friendly with them, cos they can be helpful and wud call u up to update u on the stuff. and we knew each other by single names oredi. she's amy and i'm zhang. haha~

if ur caterer's appointed by your chalet management, check if there's any hidden clause. for mine, the caterer cannot bring the food down to the pool area, cos the stupid management said that it's difficult to clean up. i tink it's because they appoint blardy lazy bastards who're jus lazy to do work. more on that later.

i learned that fact jus ONE HOUR before 6pm which was the time i announced to my frens to come. shucks! how how how~?

in the end, because i've been quite friendly all the way with the caterer, they actually allowed me to bring the food down to the bbq pit area with my own trays. in the end, because i've got limited trays, they gave me quite a number of trays for free. each cost at least $1.90 at supermarts leh. thanks a lot!

Lesson 4: Check the management to confirm your extra bookings

damn it, i hate Costa Sands Sentosa's management team. sorry, i have to digress a bit before elaborating on the actual point. on the day i checked in (16th jun), the person at the counter had already started to show me atitude.

Guy: (threw the key with the room number 0213 written on it) Me: (took the key, read the number) so, my room's 0213? Guy: (looked at me in awe and disgust) yes, it's 0213. Me: (felt weird wif the look on his face) oh. right. Fren: Where's 0213? Me: (to Guy) er, how do i go to my room? Guy: (was looking at some records and din bother to look up) godownthestairsandproceedtothethirdstaircasedengoup Me: (blink, not sure if Guy was actually talking to me) har? sorry? Guy: (looked up wif fiery eyes) YOU SEE THAT STAIRCASE BEHIND YOU! GO DOWN THERE, OK? GO DOWN, DOWN! THEN WALK! YOU KNOW, WALK? WALK THIRD STAIRCASE! Me: Third staircase? (tinking how come i can't just walk all the way and not go down at all, but heck) (to fren) nvm, let's go, if we get lost i'll come back.

in the end, we realised why we had to walk to a separate flight of stairs. each flight will only bring us to two units per level. and in the end, it was not the third stairs we needed to climb. it was the fourth. shit management. disgusting lazy bastard. a total disgrace to his race.

so, anyway, back to the point. i've booked a bbq pit online and paid for it oredi, so on the second day (17th, the actual day of party) around one and a half hour before 6pm, i went to the counter to check the bbq pit i was assigned.

Me: sorry, what is the bbq pit i'm assigned to? Guy: (looked at me and in a very buay siong manner, opened the record book, as if it was very tiring to do so) what's your room number? Me: zero two one three Guy: (looked at record) . . . Guy: (still looking at record) . . . Guy: (decided to look up at me) you din book a pit. Me: what? (starting to get pissed) can you say that again? Guy: it's $15 to book one on the spot. Me: i've booked online! Guy: (passed the record to me) your room number's not here. if you wan, i hav to just give you the one at the kampong huts. Me: Kampong huts? i'm living in the chalet units! Guy: But it's fully booked, you can see for yourself, right? Me: (damn angry, but din raise voice. voice is soft and dangerously menacing) hullo, look. i've booked online, paid thru credit card, and expect a bbq pit to be booked for me automatically. and furthermore, i specified very specifically that i wanted it today. not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today. you get that? and i'm expecting a large group of ppl, and you don't expect them to be running to and fro from the chalet to the bbq pit rite? r u sure you want me to kick a big fuss out of this manner? Guy: (twitched mouth and stared at the records again) . . . Guy: (still staring at records) Me: (drumming my fingers on the counter) . . . Me: Yes? Guy: (took liquid paper, and a piece of paper. wrote a '2' on the paper and threw it on the counter. din say anything.) Me: What's this? Guy: Your bbq pit number! Me: So, what about the guy who booked it? Guy: Change loh. what can i do?

i was damn pissed at him and jus walked off. so, remember to check everything you've booked. don't assume things. always check. shit la~ i should hav oredi checked when i checked in.

Lesson 5: You'll be depressed on the day of the party, especially just before the start of it

on the week of the party, i kept receiving random smses and calls telling me they could not turn up. because of the randomness of the smses, i was still able to reply and try to persuade them to come, telling them it's possible to still come after OT and everything, and that it's ok esp when they told me quite early.

on the day itself, i woke up wif oredi 4 unread sms-es on my handphone. 3 out of 4 were messages that said they could not come. and it's always standard "sorry, i don't think i'll be able to turn up later for your birthday. but still, enjoy the party! Happy Birthday!" notice there's no reason given? yup... that's the frustrating part. i still can reply to each of these sms-es in the morning, but later into the day, the frequency of these sms-es became more. in the end, 75% of the messages and calls were from those who wanted to tell me they've decided not to come; 25% of them were from those who didn't know how to come. those who're coming and know the way, wouldn't call or sms. to the 75% of the messages i jus felt so tired asking each of them for the reason, and hope to persuade them. so my replies were initially "har? how come? aiya! why like that? try to come kay? i really hope to see you" --> then become --> "why cannot come?" --> then become --> "__" nothing, i din bother to reply liao.

and, i planned my party to be a very poolside loungy feeling to it, with music and balloons and candles on very nice candle holders. gone, all gone. the plan's totally ruined. furthermore, the catering's giving me a headache (how to bring down the food? will the ppl feel weird in the caterer's place? shud i set up the bbq before or after the buffet?)

expect it! anticipate it! you'll be damned troubled, worried, and depressed.

until the first guest arrives...

 

This post was planned quite long ago, even before i did the planning for my birthday party. i was thinking of scanning all my old photographs and putting them on the web. this blog is supposed to be about my life, isn't it? haha~ then, it would feel weird to leave out the first 18 years, but then, it seems to be inappropriate to post such a post anytime in the year. so i decided to do so on my 21st birthday. a bit late, but nevertheless, here it is.

anyway, WARNING this is gonna be a terribly long post.
Try clicking on the pictures for a larger version.

The Life Of A Newly-Turned 21-er

Well, it all started on a faithful early morning on 15th June 1984. it was around 2am when the world heard my first cry. heard from my mum that it was a much more painful experience, and that i was born in quite an unnatural manner, with my legs out i heard. i just know that i was a difficult kid from young. haha~ i almost didn't survived, and even though i was, i was born with jaundice and everything, and i was kept in a box and kept under supervision for at least 1 month. and then, after that, everything was well, and i was guaranteed a normal place in the world, with no handicap or whatsoever. (the army medical exam further proved the point, giving me a PES B status. shit.)

anyway, i left the hospital in my mother's arms and was welcomed into a cosy nice flat in west coast. my first home. there i stayed for the first 5 years of my life, having fun sitting at the locked gate facing my neighbour (who was a girl around my age too) and we're showing our toys to each other (yes, behind locked gates). i remembered i liked to go to the cassette shop beside the kopitiam at the nearby market and always manage to saka my father to buy me cassettes of kid songs. besides that, i also loved to pester the auntie selling newspaper at the hawker centre. i was a trouble maker, a lovable one at least. and *gasp* my nickname was hamburger, cos my sis' classmates always felt hungry after looking at me (apparently i was very fat and chubby and resembled a hamburger).

at the age of 5, i moved to bukit panjang where i stayed until now. it was quite exciting at that time, moving house, and bothering my parents to make sure they bring each and every of my belongs (mostly toys), especially my tricycle (as shown in picture above). i entered a kindergarden and was quite a snobbish show-off, always getting the teacher to give me a chance to sing in front of the whole class a song i learned from the cassettes i listen to. shucks, it's embarrassing remembering the pass.

at that time, i always liked to disturb my sis, always comparing what my sis did to what i did, always hoping i had her freedom (she was in primary 5 and 6 then). those were the days when my sis and i were loggerheads, and two of us always quarrel. always. and my mum always had to resort to family violence (cane) to keep me hush, but instead, the whole episode will always end with me wailing in tears and my sis locking herself up in her room.

the last thing i did in kindergarden was this graduation ceremony and my class was asked to perform an item. i was to be the narrator of the play with two of my best friends then (fan yan & fan hong) acting in it. i could not remember if i volunteered or was assigned the narrator role, but i felt like it was the former. *blush* yesh, i was such a show-off.



i tink my pri sch days were quite weird ones. it was a period of time when my character and my habits were formed. these distinct features in me were shown towards the end of my pri sch days. guess my pri sch days were the times when i was being molded into who i am now.

i liked the letters of the classes i go into. Pri 1H, 2I, 3J, 4J, 5J, 6J. HIJJJJ. cute hor? haha~ i used to tell most of my friends in sec sch how special i found this trivial fact to be. and interestingly, the last number of the year coincides with the primary level i studied in, like 1991 -> pri 1, 1992 -> pri 2, etc.


Interestingly, most of my pals in pri sch were my classmates for at least more than 2 years. in fact, huimin, henry, shengyong were ppl that were there in my life ever since my pri 2 days. haha~

i hated two of my teachers, a male chinese teacher when i was in pri 2, and mrs goh, my form teacher for pri 4. both of them reprimanded me for accusing me of doing something wrong when i didn't. *erhmm* er... there was once when we hung up our paper skeletons (made from the health education textbooks) up on strings across the classroom. and halfway thru a mrs goh lesson, one of the paper skeletons dropped on me and gave me a shock. instead of comforting my shocked soul, dear mrs goh actually punished me by standing up. i was so fumed and frustrated that i shouted back, demanding my innocence in the manner. and she blardy said, "You expect me to believe that paper skeletons are alive and can drop by themselves right?" blardy b*tch, there's such thing as wind you know. no no~ i didn't scold that then, i don't even know the existence of the word "b*tch* (even by it's real meaning). but i did talk back, and for that, i was rewarded with a consoling self-applauding stand-on-chair punishment. haiz. i hated her, and i still do.

but there were so many others that i respected and loved. mrs rosie au (pri 1), mrs soh (pri 2), mrs poh (pri 3), mrs ravi (pri 5), ms swee (pri 6), mdm wong (chinese & music teacher) and mdm ngeow (chinese & music teacher). mrs poh was the teacher that brought our class to a lot of places for excursions, to pasir ris beach, to bukit timah hill. haha~ she brought us to bukit timah hill and we got lost. in the end we emerged out of no where along upper bukit timah road and had to walk all the way back to school. but it was fun~ totally.

then, there's mdm ngeow. she didn't just teach us for one year. she was there with us from pri 3 i tink, if i'm not wrong. i can't remember. anyway, she's the closest teacher to all of us, and yet the fiercest. the many zhi1 shi4 bao4 she made us do, the many remedials we've had, the screamings, the flinging of exercise books. haha~ they were all still fresh in my mind. she did taught us a lot of stuff, and truely teached us with a passion for the language. it was her that my grasp in the language was better than quite a number of ppl in my sec sch class (further explained below). till now, i still respect her, and will call her every Teacher's Day to sing "Xian4 Gei2 Ni3 De Hua1" to her.

haha, how can we ever forget Mrs Ravi too, the well-known MOST FIERCEST TEACHER in Bukit Panjang Pri. my class heard the rumour that she's taking our class on the first day of our primary 5 year, and we were all terrified. she had the screeching and powerful voice that wud make every ah beng in our sch pee in their pants. yet, she has the heart of gold and soul so full of care and kindness. forget her, i never will.

then there's ms swee, sweet and fun-loving ms swee whose smile always brightened up our days (esp after Mdm Ngeow's scoldings). that's our last year in BPPS and she brought a lot of joy to the class. after PSLE, there was a long break before the end of the year, and she brought us to many places for excursions and we wud hav fun, forgetting abt the terrifying exams we had that wud determined our future. sentosa, singapore museum... well, i cant remember the places we'd visited, but i just remembered we made a lot of noises on the many bus trips we've had.



and then, we've splitted up, moving on to new places, going on with our individual lives. yet, sometimes, the memories of those days still bind us together, even until today.



from a 5 min walk to sch, it became a 20-min bus ride. i went to the chinese high school, the school i looked forward to studying after all i heard abt my sis talking abt it (she was from nanyang girls). the place sounded fun, with all the crap jokes and fun activities. and i loved travelling on buses, at that time. bus rides at that time, symbolise growing up, having a transitlink card, and going on buses all by myself. little did i know i wud dread it in times to come.

i got into a computer class in sec 1, and i was alone. none of my former pri sch classmates were in my new class, and for the first time in my life, i had to learn to warm up to ppl. still i had not shaken off the habit of showing-off, and the power of being high profile still tempted me. in no time, i was appointed the stupid monitor role and was shouting at my classmates most of the time, trying to be mr nice guy to the teachers. haha~ it all seemed so laughable now.

yup, i was correct to say chinese high was full of activities, from every saturday's morning jog (a very long jog up and down the hilly slopes of the chinese high mountain) to the many celebrations we had. i shud even mention the many half-days and full-days 'off' we had for every winnings the school got (thanks to those who had gotten their PSC scholarships and those who helped win the gold medals in inter-school games).

i joined the military band which was (at that time) quite well-known for their displays and stuff. tot i wud be having fun there, performing in front of so many ppl (remember my show-off-ness?). i used to be a trumpet player in pri sch, but the band disbanded when i was pri 4, so i didn't touch the instrument for two years, so i opted for a big and easier instrument called euphonium. (dooh~) there i made new friends, quite a number became my very good friends. kokwee, yanhui, hongguan. they're still a big part of my life now, and i really really appreciated the friendship we'd had and will have.



the band was very fun, under david glosz, and we had to chance to other parts of the world like Australia and America. Perth, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii, these places were explored at the young age of 15 and 16. it was totally enjoyable to be travelling to these places with good friends and going to these places many adults still yearn to go.


back in singapore, we also enjoyed going to weird places to perform. Suntec City Fountain (i heard we were the first sec sch band to perform there!), Toa Payoh Central, Istana, etc. fragments of the performances still are fresh in my mind, like Junyu dropping his stand during his solo performance at istana. haha~

my sec 3 and 4 years were in a mess, perhaps due to the many commitments and responsibilities i'd chosen to take up. ms mok was right, i am a kid who just doesn't know how to say "no" to things. i was asked to be the treasurer of the student council, and *poof* i was in the student council with lots of ppl stabbing me. i was asked to maintain websites for quite a number of teachers, and *poof* i became one of the many website designers for the school teachers. i was asked to compose a theme song for the school IDEAS event, and *poof* i did it, and the stupid technical ppl didn't switch on the audio during the presentation and my 3 months worth of hardwork was wasted.


class was horrible with weird and irresponsible ppl. because i was more chinese-speaking, i felt out of place with the class cos haf the class was taking English Lit and their english were like "shee shee shor shor" (very powerfully accented, not powerful, mind u). but there were a number of responsible icons that became my good frens, Malvin, Soon Keck, Edmund, Ka Leung, Keith, Zhiquan, Songyu. these were the ppl that were my frens in class, who knew the meaning of being responsible to oneself and not take advantage of those around one. then there were the teachers, Mrs Nancy Tay, Ms Mok, the fierce teachers that the class hated (noticed they were not feared). they reprimanded me and taught me the meaning of being humble and courteous.

well, on the overall, i didn't quite enjoy my actual class life, cos of some ppl who tot they were very clever (to not do homework and copy others WITHOUT THANKING) and tink that they had the rights to change things (my class actually sent a petition to change my form teacher becos she's too crappy and we got a worse and fiercer form teacher, ms mok).

but, i always look forward to my band times, when i wud jus hav fun making music (oh my gawd, the two cliche words) and bitching abt ppl. (with my section mate and buddies. no prices for guessing who.) and before i knew it, it was end of my 4 years there studying on the hill.



actually for my four years in chinese high, i wanted to go RJC, cos that's where all my euphonium seniors went. and i loved my band life. so RJC was the place for me to go. so prestigous, so high-class. den i found out abt the chinese course in HCJC. ok, i was starting to change my mind. and when the time came, HCJC was first on my list, followed by TJC.

went to hcjc in the end, gotten into the whackiest and most fun class, 01S21, the weird class of HCJC consisting of students studying three odd combis. Double Maths, Physics, Econs; Double Maths, Physics, Higher Chinese; Double Maths, Econs, Higher Chinese. we're all weird ppl who knew the meaning of thinking outside the box and working hard playing hard by instinct.

orientation was damn fun with my class, and we were all damn enthu abt activities, mass dances, performances, class flag, everything. and my senior class was damn supportive. i learned something from there, no matter how crappy the games there can be, as long as u're in the correct company, u're bound to hav fun. we sang, danced, ate bananas (peiling), sang and danced somemore. oh my goodness, by the end of the orientation camp we knew each other like forever.

then, the school wanted to split our class up, 2 weeks after the start of school. the reason? it was difficult to plan our class' timetable because of the odd-combis. it was terrible. we were having a class outing at Orchard Road, enjoying our bubble tea, when the school discipline mistress called up one of us and had us rushing back to school. we sat in the school office and argued our way thru and decided to help the DM plan our timetable. luckily it worked out, and we became a real class with a true spirit.


i tink there were many that tot hcjc was boring and the students there were all nerdy and had their noses stuck in books. haha~ if i hear that, i normally laugh at their ignorance and just kept quiet, cos if i do start, i don't know where to begin. in fact, i don't know where to begin now. we made our teachers sing "Zao3 An1 Lao3 Shi1" for every start of the class, our teachers talk to us in chinese, we had stupid and lame magic shows when our maths teacher sensed lethargism in us, we skipped class and ran off to lecture halls with piano to sing, we would be having outings at least once a month (in a WHOLE class)... oh gosh~ there're just so much things to list down la~

then, i decided to join the infamous Huang2 Cheng2 Ye4 Yun4, and miraculously, i managed to get an actor's role. a supporting role tho. er... mmm... it's the role of an old security guard being killed... there were only 4 lines for me, but haha~ it was damn fun working wif so many ppl. 150+ ppl. every day we wud be rehearsing. dinners were always fun with so much ppl altho the packaged food sucked. then, we wud be chased out of the school compound by the security guard when it was nearing the gate-closing time. the 3 months of rehearsing and preparations were full of emotional ups and downs, and these experiences were enough to fill pages of a memoir. when the actual performance came, instead of joy of tinking that the torture was almost over, there was quite an amount of sadness in the atmosphere as we had to put off the wonderful time and start to catch up on our studies.



then, there's band. yup, i still joined band. but band isn't as fun. perhaps it's because i hav my class and my chinese society oredi, that i hadnt had enough energy left for band. it was a place where i could just go to, have fun playing music, and just leave. altho i did make a couple of good frens there, but somehow, the relationships between the people were somehow more superficial. haiz. perhaps i kept having the grudge of them not allowing me to be transferred back to eupho after being in the tuba section for one year.



but then, i decided i wanted to hav a second go at Huang2 Cheng2, so i decided to go for the directorial role the second time round after being damn inspired by my own directors. and the second year was more stressful, with lots of responsibilities and work to do. the welfare of the actors have to be taken care of, the direction of the play had to be clear, the coordination of the backstage crew and the actors, and even the fostering of the bonds between the actors had to be taken note of. luckily my pool of actors (now hav become my god-children and god-grandchildren) were all very happening and very fun (shucks, i kept using the word 'fun' hor?). and i've officially taken up the role of a great-grandfather, caring for everyone working on the play. in the end, the pain of leaving huang cheng was very great. tears were shed on the last day of performance when i knew it was all over, and i could never go back to those days anymore.

at that time, huang cheng was over, but my class was still there for me. even in the second year, our enthusiasm had not decreased. if huang cheng was like a workplace with a lot of friends, 01s21 was like a family and a home which i could go back and relax. it was their passion and friendliness that inspired me to use the infamous poem "Gu3 Yuan2 Cao3" to compose a song that all my jc frens know how to sing now. it was and still is the most emotional song i've ever written to date, and will represent the memories of those days in that school whose name is now part of the history.

on the last day of school, all of us brought our sec school uniform and tried to fit into them, and we had our last formal lessons with our teachers in sec sch uni even tho we were supposed to be in HC uni. haha~ it was damn fun as the whole sch stared at us freaks running around the place, taking pictures with every significant spots in the school, including the tree. it was like reliving all the days we had in hwachong, taking pictures that we once taken before in our sec sch uni during our first 3 months, and it was our way of saying it's not the end, it's just the beginning.



army life. never was and never will be my cup of tea. it was pretty traumatising, esp if u're enlisted during the SARS period. parents were not allowed on the teeny-weeny island and they were forced to say a quick good-bye right outside the gate of the Ferry Terminal. i was taking pledge and doing all those enlistment stuff on my own, and i do not know for whom i was doing it for. i felt totally lost on the 1st of April 2003, yup, the day Zhang Guorong committed suicide, and i felt like the world closed in on me as i slept in the bunk full of strangers (except one, whom i don't really like. he's one of the idiots from my sec 3 & 4 class).

thru-out bmt, i felt i was not cut out for physical activities, and being the blur and clumsy me, i got into many injuries and scars were all over my body. these scars made me feel slightly proud in front of my parents, esp when i could say "i'm totally ok, and i can take care of myself in here." wut else can i say to them sia? 7 days a week and they only get to hav a glimpse of me for less than 24 hours each week. i don't want them to worry as well. it was during this period of time that my mum got herself a major injury: a sprain on her wrist, which had caused much trouble even until now. i was damn worried. so mother and son were both playing the "don't worry" game on each other. haiz.


after i passed out from BMT, i was posted to the SAF bands where i stayed for the rest of my NS life. strong bonds were fostered initially, yet lies, gossips and games were played out later into the army days. living a trivial life really had an impact on us as we survived each day trying to find things to talk abt. and what can we talk abt when we're in a weeny unit with less than 300 (or even barely 200) men in total? so we gossiped, bitched, back-stabbed, played weird mind games. not very enjoyable days.


of cos, there were great ppl that i fostered friendships with, and they were ppl who weren't afraid to speak their mind and tell things. they were ppl real and true to their own dignity and pride, and ironically they were the ppl we as trainees feared initially. then, there were my great pals, kok wee and yanhui there. of cos, alvin, jeremy, anney, ronnie and woei kee jus added on more fun to my life in there. true, after getting used to such slack life, it's not easy to ORD, but at least there weren't bonds that were too good and sweet that i cannot let go. (oh, if u dun understand, nvm. it's a private joke between me and my section mate, and perhaps somebody i've recently met up for movie. *smilez*)

haha~ then, there's ppl like terence, zhiwei, bernard, gerald, paul and so on and so on, that made my life a very interesting and enjoyable one. happy-go-lucky ppl still rules the earth man!

to my junior, kris, stay happy and dun bother abt certain ppl who play rank. heck him, he can't do anything. i've bitched too many times RIGHT IN FRONT of him and yet he didn't and can't do anything. haha~ see u with ur pink i/c soon!


it's time to move on. now i've gotten my pink i/c, and orientation camps for Communication Studies course and Hall are on the way, i'm preparing myself for the next major step in my life. the square hat is waiting for me at the end of this 4-year long course, and the door to my future career is waiting for me at the end of the hallway. embrace yourself are the only words i've been telling myself. yup, to all u ppl out there, don't be afraid of the future, and if u r, then embrace yourself. *smilez*

Johnzzon