* YO. *
-.-"
my thoughts and feelings at that point in time
went airport with the initial purpose of sending guiyi (who's going to imperial) off only.. in the end there was huang huan and kailong who were going off too. seeing huang huan there was the real surprise. so.. after all the hype about overseas university applications, in my class, 20% of them went overseas.. 2 to imperial, 1 to cambridge, 1 to stamford, 1 to brown, based on what we've gathered so far lar.. matt (and hakeem), yuk, xinhui and this other german guy were among those at the airport too.. jio-ed the rest to come but they weren't free lar.. :( poor timo.. stuck in camp. gave us false hope! tsk. at least grace and natc warned in advanced. cake ahhh...
thought i'd cry when guiyi goes off, but i figure she also didn't want all these sorrowful partings, so she gave a quick hug to all of us before she hurriedly left.. :( huang huan too! i'm so gona miss them.. won't be seeing them until like next july. sooo loong!
i missed qian's and jiayi's farewell at the airport.. :(( at least met up wif qian the day before she left.. but not jiayi.. ;(( jiayi's like one of my oldest friend lar! haha. we've known each other since we were in pre-primary (ballet).. and she was my partner on a few occasions during exams too. went to the same primary school (her mum would send me to school aft we had our practices on weekdays), and ended up as jc classmates. i mean.. how coincidental is that! :)
anyway, back to ytd.. met up with ben moh and yh who were sending kailong off.. last night was like some imperial day lar.. all the singaporeans going there flew off in the same flight. haha.. heard it's cuz the hostels opened this morning, so by the time they fly over, it'd be just nice..
err.. ABRUPT ENDING. haha. i wana beach-volley! and play netball! :D
interesting events that have happened the past two weeks....
- sumae's mooncake festival party.. THE BEST. awesome hosts, awesome food, awesome house (with narnia-like 'attic'), awesome mooncake-making session, awesome lanterns, awesome 'piak'-thing.. and an awesome place to take photos...
-netball.. DAMN FUN. great team, great games.
- seniors' musical-cum-og-supper.. UNPRECEDENTED. i'm quite sure we scared a few ppl off the bus, what with close to 10 of us singing?! k box anyone?? :)
upcoming event...
-volleyball... ready to get sand-ied.
... and so after about 8 months of holiday, sch term begins. o.O
i know it's quite lagg.. but guess what? i've passed my driving test! it's bout a wk already since i became a 'qualified driver' (since 23 July). Still, i wana blog about the all the little things that came nicely into place to play a part in this success.
1) The receptionist explained that if i managed to pass (i think) subject 25 before 1 july, i wld be able to book a test date. Or else, i would have to wait until the end of the whole course to book one, but will be given an earlier test date. Fortunately or unfortunately, i was missing by one subject in order to book my test date before 1 july.
2) After completing all my subjects and passing the pre-tests, i was very surprised (and apprehensive) to find that i could book a test date the NEXT WEEK (how fast is that?!). All along, i was under the impression that i'd have to wait until Aug/Sept.. The bad news was, i was unable to get any driving lesson on that week. :(
3) First little miracle. After many futile attemtps of checking the driving webbie for any available slots on 'the next wk', someone finally let out a 5.55pm slot for tue. Although it's considered a peak period and the lesson's more ex, i bought it. With at least one secured slot, i went on to book the Wed test date. :)
4) Second little miracle. i managed to get a after-lunch test timing. : )
5) Third little miracle. Was just casually looking through the practical lessons when someone let out a 3.20 slot. and it was for TUE! this slot is so much better, cuz it's nearer my test timing, and it's cheaper. Praise God! :D i let out my 5.55pm one, cuz 4 hours of driving can be a killer.
6) Fourth little miracle. As i was walking to the driving centre on the test day itself, i saw a funeral procession that wld have affected a few of the test rotues. This meant that, had my test timing been earlier, i wld have been affected by the procession. not superstition or whatsoever. more like usually when practising, there's no such procession, and i would want my test to be as normal (so that it'll be smooth) as possible. no offence! but the procession on the left wld mean cars wld have to overtake on the right, and when turning left, that wld mean having to continue to keep right and stuff--> anomaly!
7) Fifth little miracle. My tester was younger than i expected. Good, cuz i felt the older testers looked more intimidating. My tester also tried calming me down before the test by asking me to take deep breaths and then breathing it out 3 times.
8) Sixth little miracle. i was assigned test route 2, one of those that i found more handle-able. test rotue 8 wld have been scary!
9) Seventh little miracle. The circuit went quite smoothly. Didn't knock down poles or mount curbs or stuff like that.
10) Eighth little miracle. that passing of my test was part of God's plan. Frankly a few days before the tests, i was damn nervous each time i thought about the impending testday. Prayer helps. i was actually prepared to fail, knowing that if i did, it wld be part of God's greater plan, one whose details i wld not understand then. So i'm just glad that i managed to pass my first attempt. saves money and time. Thank God for His grace. : D
11) Ninth little miracle. Forgot to mention earlier. With the possibility that i may fail, i went to check out the test dates for re-test. it was in SEPT! And.. had i booked my test date a week later, my test date (though for first attempt) wld have been in sept too! thank God for his methodical planning!
note: My tester, after the whole test, asked, "Are you very nervous? Cuz i could see u perspiring even though i'm feeling very cold in the car!" yea mann... i was THAT nervous! just sooo thankful that everything turned out well, with God's grace. :D
This month has indeen been fulfilling, what with giving tuitions, going for driving lessons, camping and of course attending all the much-anticipated gatherings, like meeting up with slackers, aj class, rj class, rj streetdance, uni og.... whoa....
Got back from camp early yesterday morning. Well, camp officially broke on thur night, but my enthu OG went clubbing. ;) I LOVE MY OG! There’re quite a few crazy/ funny ppl in it.. and everyone was very sporting. A chat with some of my OG-mates revealed that a good thing about our Og was that everyone was likable and could mix around. :) Camp was enormous fun! Night court was unexpected. I got scared into absolute obedience, and later when things started getting ridiculous, I had to control myself from laughing out of fear. We (year 1s) got PUNKED! >.<>
Had ‘secret pals’ the next day (as well as days 3 and 4). It’s sponsored by SDU, and it’s like a blind date kind of thing, only the ‘blind’ is literal. So we were given pseudo names (mine was J.A) and paired up with ppl from another og. Blindfolded, we would talk to each other for half an hour or so each day. Interesting eh. Our identities were only revealed on the last day in front of everyone else. So paiseh! Cuz they would call our pseudo names one pair at a time, and everyone would be watching as you walk up and shake ur partner’s hand, then walked down together. I guessed my secret pal wrongly. He turned out better than i expected. Haha. Su Mae knew who my secret pal was already, cuz they were in the same jungle trek group. After our identities were revealed, she made known that she was secretly laughing to herself when she saw me marking him during ultimate Frisbee. Oops. I have no recollection, though it’d be cool to be in her shoes. Haha. We sat with our secret pals and three other pre-selected couples for the formal dinner on the last day. Oh.. my secret pal is Yee Kiat. He was a senior at RJ, but when i came, he just left.
Anyway, back to Day 2. Picnic was next. Prior to that, my OG went marche, cuz there were no other places big enough to accommodate our large group. Picnic was fun and relaxing, and it was also then that we realized Commando’s love for watermelons. Derek forewarned that after the watermelon-eating game, one would probably never touch a watermelon again, but Commando still went ahead. The funniest thing was, even after the competition had ended, and it was the tofu girls’ (jia hui and Claire) turn, Commando was still seen eating the same big slice of watermelon at the background, until my amused og-mates had to shout things like, ‘Commando! The game’s over!’ or ‘Commando! You DO know that’s the skin right?’ But Commando’s a REALLLLYYY nice guy. Very sincere. And he always ends up being funny without meaning to because of his sincerity. Awww.. so cute right! For example, in the past, Commando would not kill a mosquito, because he felt it wasn’t right to take its life when it was just trying to feed. But he kills them now, because he felt it was wrong to let the mosquitoes spread diseases and infect other ppl. SO CUTE RIGHT! >.<>
Jungle Trek was right after dinner. In groups of 6 (all from different OGs), we would be sent into the ‘jungle’. But we were blindfolded throughout the whole trail, led by an OGL/ccl who would, in a high-pitched voice, go, ‘Follow my voice’. It’s damn strenuous for the voice. So the OGL/ccl was the one leading us from one station to another. My group was one of the first few to be formed, but one of the last few to play. while waiting, we got so bored that Brosnan suggested we laugh really loudly just to show other groups we were having a great time. and that was what we did. haha. So qiao. There were 2 of us each from the same jc. Gatsby and I were from Rj. Faizal (Triumph Wonderbra!!) and Brosnan (aka Fabio, man of man) from vj. Coco (pineapple princess!) and Cheryl (sadoko sth.. it's the name of a pussycat doll) were from nj (i think). My nick was optimus prime. And... our group was called Transformers! *sings* Teh Teh Teh Teh Teh!
Oh. Brandon celebrated his 21st birthday with us at camp. Derek was damn err.. creative. He thought of planting things into Brandon’s bag, and then do a bag-raid on the false account that someone lost something. Smart eh! In the end, we didn’t have the time and materials. But we gave him a surprise celebration (thanks to the ccls for buying a secret recipe cake).
Had some inter oG games the next day (Captain’s ball, Ultimate Frisbee, Touch rubgy...), in which we lost some, won some. But it was tremendous fun, and led to more bonding! :D The OG bonded even further with Motel Rendezvous (ran up and down the building to find clues. It climaxed with excess-waterbomb-throwing. Damn fun. And i got soaking wet!) and with water telematch on the last day (underwater charades, diving to get mahjong tiles to ‘pong’, dog-and-bone and a memory game) . I got sunburnt even though I had applied su mae’s and alcina’s suntan lotion. Haha. By the end of the day, all the activities over the four days resulted in lots of muscle aches, not that i’m complaining. ^.^
Singapore is really small. Jean, my OGL in rj, ended as my OGL again in this camp. And the guy who took over Commando’s post in army was Jean’s co-OGL in RJ, which was also my jc OGL. How cool is that! Brandon was from the same pri sch as me, and his brother was in the same year as me (i think i know him...). Cheng Gong (benji’s jc classmate) was in the same OG as me too! Alcina’s sister (Athena) is my junior in street dance!
Playing games with my OG is always laughing-good fun. My Og’s damn good at charades, esp if it’s got to do with songs. Even the seniors were impressed! Polar bear was one of our fav games too, but i usually die in the first round cuz i talk too much. Haha. and even when i'm dead, i still talk. so jean would have to keep reminding that 'the dead don't talk!' Once, during my only time that i was a polar-bear, I got exposed in the first round, cuz ppl were saying i wasn’t killed, so that was suspicious. Haha. But Alvin aka polarbear-hunter managed to win that round as my fellow polar-bear. He’s damn good at acting man! Drinking Googles was a game we played to hydrate ourselves. Hangman was funny too, cuz Commando would always come up with realllyyy cheem words. Yu Hang was the unofficial games strategist, coming up with lotsa lame ideas on how to win games. Of course, they were never carried out. :P There was a funny incident involving Claire too.. Haha..
Oh! I experienced hostel-living too! Definitely unforgettable. :D Had my own room, but usually had to queue for toilets. Haha.
Oh well, i think that’s all for now. It’s a long enough entry.
Yesterday’s going to have an effect on my future. To be exact, it was a call that would make all the difference. It was a call that I did not expect, but i’m sure glad i received. Having taken some (drowsy) medicine to curb my sickness (a horrid sore throat + bad cough + uncomfortable block nose + persistent fever), I went to bed, hoping i would be better when i next open my eyes. It was the call that woke me up. My caller ID showed that it was an unidentified number.
“Hello?” (It was one of the rare times where my voice was barely audible, given that i was only half-awake, and my throat was still hurting.)
“Hi, is this Crystal Goh?”
“Yes speaking....”
What followed next was something unimaginable.
I’ll leave out the rest of the details, but will only add that if i were healthy then, I would have jumped for joy and start shouting in jubilation.
Upon hearing the good news (after telling my family about it), i messaged a few good friends to spread the joy. Cake was cute. She called me up after i just read her reply. Even if you were numb enough not to have felt her joy in the sms, you wouldn’t have been able to mistake the happiness overflowing in her voice. Sickness sapped some of my energy, making me tired and weak, so I was telling her that she “sounded happier than me”. To that, she replied with her signature laugh (and you can just imagine her smile would hide her tiny eyes).
Crystal Goh
26 Jan
zZz-ing
blue
black
nike
billabong
going online
watching tv
roller-blading
ice-skating
cycling...
for God to watch over my family and friends, keeping them safe from harm
to be inherently cheerful
to be healthy
* MeMoRiEs that WiLL LaSt (until i decide to delete this blog) *