Alumni Outlook Setup

Apparently NUS AlumniMail has undergone some revamp. And now, you have to log in to https://www.alumni.nus.edu.sg/alumNET/groups/contactlist.jsp to log in and set up an Windows Live App alumni email account. In order to consolidate onto your own Outlook though, the servers have changed:

Alumni mailboxes lend some credibility to the emails you are sending out. So mailboxes from recognised universities are some of the best resources you have; also nowadays you can gain access to a wealth of information and contacts from the networks from Facebook LOLX.

Outlook 2007 Setup: Alumni Account + Hotmail

Ever since I got my KS20, I started to think Microsoft Outlook is really convenient. For one very huge plus, it serves as backup on my contacts and my email accounts: NUS and Hotmail. Then had wanted to add GIS account into that as well, but apparently that infringes on security issues of the company.

I always find it a pain when I format my laptop to reinstate the things back into their appropriate places, especially those settings I have painstakingly tweaked for my personal use. So I am going to post here, for all NUS Alumni out there, the steps in setting your Alumni account up on Outlook 2007 (the blardy Computer Centre gave me instructions that were slightly wrong LOLX, thankfully I have a techno-geek of a brother; that was meant as a compliment btw LOLX):

For Hotmail set up, just download 'Outlook Connector' from here. And follow the installation walkthrough. =)

Steps for NUS Alumni Account on Outlook setup:

1) Open Outlook 2007, find under 'Tools' menu, 'Options'.

2) Under the 'Mail Setup' tab, 'Email Accounts' section, click on 'Email Accounts..'.

3) Under 'Email Accounts', click 'New'.

4) Click 'Next' after ticking 'Manually Configure Settings...'5) Here, enter the Name you want to appear on all your mails, your Alumni Email Address (this is your username too), with the password to access that email. If you cannot remember, visit http://www.nus.edu.sg/, go 'myEmail', and contact them for a new password or to find out your account name.
At the same time, you need to set the Server Information with EITHER of the following:
If you set:
a. POP3: pop.nus.edu.sg
b. IMAP: imap.nus.edu.sg
c. SMTP: smtp.nus.edu.sg
Try to 'Test Account Settings ...', before clicking 'Next'.
Ok, then you are done!!

Well, nothing to be overexcited about, but just that you've got contacts, tasks, notes on your smartphone, emails on your Hotmail and NUS alumni account all at your sweet convenience,; properly archived and backed up and ready for any rainy day to come. LOLX. Not forgetting, whenever, you are offline, or in a rush to locations with limited Internet access, you still have your important emails to read through, after synching at the last location.

Tennis at NUS

Tennis is really a sport I haven't got a chance to really explore. Well it seems I might just have a chance to play it every week now that my colleagues are pretty into it! Today tennis is at NUS, but 1 hour's a little too short.

Shit, I forgot to take picture... NVM next time i will try to take... Gotta know lots of my colleague's AD's friends. They seemed a pretty closely knitted bunch of friends, maybe cos they are from the same church. In any case, it was pretty fun time hanging out with them and playing tennis with J and PT.

After our short tennis matches, with me the most clownish of them all, we even went for a 2.4km run!! Ok more than 2.4km cos we ran the outer rounds; damn it was good!! The power of having people to run with you is amazing!! Being no longer in Redhill, means I lost YC as my running partner; not that we run regularly together anyway, in fact it was only once, but nonetheless... And the 3 of them can really run - JJ, HJ, AD!

After which we went to an Indian restaurant to eat Indian food.. duh... Got introduced to Naan, smaller and supposedly healthier version of prata, and Dhal, the soup and some other wholemeal pratas (?!?) Couldn't rem the names haha! It was really cool chilling out there, where I listened to them talk about their past, their current jobs and current situations etc...

I, as a fresh graduate, realised I am in league with (other than married men and women) experienced people who are willing to share their working experiences and life and I am glad I am so blessed once again to be meeting such nice people. Reminded me of lunch today where guy colleagues, think almost 12 of us, sat in a coffee shop and talk rubbish and lunch at the same time. Though they are much older, I was having so much fun listening to them talk. They are VERY entertaining indeed. And realised CB's a running fanatic, jio-ed me to run Standard Chartered *faint*.. Let me consider... HAH! Anybody else wanna join?

AD's planning to get married, stepping into the Hall of Fame for married men at our level 3, HAHA! Seriously, everybody's either married or married with kids, even J whom I thought looked so young (but much older) actually has a 2-yr-old daughter!! Gosh!
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Last day in Hoi An brought us to the late kings' mausoleums, 2 of them only actually, the supposedly more representative ones. Forgot the names, think they were Tu Duc (cos I think the Vietnamese pronounced it very intriguingly nice haha) and the other one dunno father or son of Tu Duc. One representing the romantism, the other forgot wat LOLX. But both are pretty nice la just that they probably have become worn out after years of war and rampage and disuse, and of course nobody actually uses them.. But it took us half the day to actually finish visiting the places, with the guide giving a lecture on both. SERIOUS! A LECTURE! Well ok nvm. HA!

YT with El's work of art haha!!

Our lunch!! nice hoh..

Seriously 古色古香, an obvious influence by the Chinese

tour guide said this was a true replica of a man then - a bit vertically challenged hoh..

another statue

Subsequently we embarked on our final destination in Vietnam - HANOI! Where we will meet Ph!! And of course her fiance, who is her legal husband now as we speak. Woohoo! Overnight train was the same arrangement... Somebody commented I got a tummy... I never knew I had one HAHA! Ok well, at least given the amount of exercise I do, I hope I would never get one... So I showed her my waist pouch under my shirt... zzzz... but it's quite funny cos nobody has commented that on me before. Something to think about.. HA!

train station
Wonder what's the ice for? Anybody can answer me?

Last paper.. Finally

Tomorrow is finally my last paper!!!

Then I am done with NUS...

Suddenly I have angst for the Structural Biology paper... Ok I am going to study now.

ST4240 over....

This is my second WTF kindda paper that has ever occurred in my NUS academic career. The previous one people left the exam hall feeling peeved and perturbed... But this time, people seemed indifferent, almost like this paper was nothing...

The paper was a shock and unexpected. Ya, he said it would be more difficult than the past year papers but that took me totally by surprise. Took me 5 min to recover from the initial shock. But well, the lecturer-cum-invigilator was nice; he gave us extra time to calm our nerves, I guess, or maybe only mine :(

Sowieso I calmed myself down and stop the panic alarm that was blaring off in my head. Tried to go through the questions one by one and finally found myself doing the questions... First thing I did today this morning was to tell myself to write at least something, so that the lecturer has at least SOMETHING to give me marks, even if it's 同情分.. But well, I need those, definitely. So Prof, if you are reading this please pass EVERYBODY! LOLX...

Felt worse enough, when I looked across the whole exam room and I was the only one with a huge pile of papers and books on the floor... LOLX... I am like moving the mess I made at my place to the exam room. Second rule which applies to most of my exams, I will look kiasu, kiasee and kia-watever-u-have, if that is what it takes to pass or do well, whichever depending on the circumstances.

My friend came out and told me she would pass, cos she could do 3 out of the 5 questions.... (Both of us were worried we would fail btw...) I was flabbergasted. She told me with such confidence, I am totally stunned... Then the rest of the class of super-brainy MICs would probably have breezed through them, cos my friend skipped more lectures than me and trust me, the lecture notes per se without the lectures, are not very much... I did all the questions, albeit 2 questions incomplete, I was not sure of ANY of the answers. She spoke such vivacity and gusto.... I am so so dead...

For the people who have been telling me NUS hard to fail if you study, it's pretty hard to imagine now... This is including the taxi driver who took me to school today. 33 came damn late and damn full, at peak hour. Taxi driver told me, "You last yr right? Relac le la. Not worried about the exam right? Got study I am sure you will be fine..." He was droning on and on. But well he was good-natured so I let him talk, while I gave him half-hearted answers.

I am a worry-freak by nature when it comes to this kinda thing, though I will get over it after a good sleep which I am yearning for now... And of course to see XL tonight.. Dun wanna disturb her studying for the time being with more of my complaints (since I already did for a while) which could take even more time HA!

And she told me a piece of good news about her interview! So happy for her!!! HAHA! Yeah yeah, go wow them off their socks dear! Beat YC and TP LOLX! GOGO! That sort of eradicated part of my moodiness... Good news which come as surprises always do :P

Ending this paper means I have only one last one to go... One last bloody paper... A bit more relaxed cos I am more confident of it. For today, just today at least, rid me please of ALL exam-related stuff...

Sat's squash and Sun's Kbox - I am looking forward to you

ST4240

I did a mental calculation. Was bored from studying so decided to pen down what I think...

60% exams
40% project + tutorials

I attended 2 tutorials. Worst scenario --> 6/10
I handed my project, I reckon it should give me about 20/30
So now I have 26/40. To get a 50%, and hopefully this equates to a pass, I must get 24/60 for my paper.

4 questions, if each is 15 marks, I must get 6 points from each 15 marks.

From the looks of it, I dun think I seem to have a very good chance of passing, considering:
A) this is an optimistic view of my project, though I 100% believe my project mates did a fine job, it really depends on the lecturer,
B) 50% does not mean a pass in ANY modules; I learnt that when 80% does not constitute remotely even an A-
C) getting 6/15 for EACH question is totally beyond my reach when I dun even know how to start....
D) I am blogging when I should be mugging

Ok conclusion: I might not pass.
Implication: I might not graduate...

Somebody ought to just shoot me for morbidity...

Exams

We, the compbio people, are still having discussions about some questions hours before this first exam of mine. God bless that everything goes well for us all...

This is not my most worried paper though. The Friday one might just be the deciding factor of whether I graduate or not. That one really must push.... Looking at the notes is like looking at question marks all over...

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Decided to go Holland V today for dinner again. Went to eat Vietnamese! Wah, really love the spring rolls lehz! Ph, I dun care, you need to bring me to eat the spring rolls!!! No photos... NVM, next time.

Then after that we went to Cold Rock for ice-cream; simply good. Long time since I chill out eating ice-cream. Think one of the fav ice-cream parlours for XL. And we were sitting on these swing-chairs... Well, she was qoo-ing with delight at the sight of the swings... dotz... was wondering why ladies get infatuated with such things... well, dun think I can fathom anyway...

END OF FYP!!! once & for all...

We were so happy to finish our FYP presentation that we decided to take photos with the S16 level 8 lab that we have spent so many hours in...

The faithful lab that is exclusive to only comp bio or comp bio-related people haha, cos it's security-bound, so you need card wahahaha... Feels like a high-security vault where only selected people are allowed in the premise.. The privileged ha! *Self-delusion*

But well, gonna miss its quietness and the humming of the SunSystems, somehow.. Kindda liked the place, it's like THE fav hideout for us comp bio people. Somewhere deep within, I think I have grown attached to it. And the view from LEVEL 8 is splendid!

Here, I would like to thank WK especially for being there for my FYP, else I would really be a lone fighter and also for his career advice and his fervent emailing of open job positions! Greatly appreciated. Good luck for your phD at Novartis!

And to Christian, our ever-so-friendly-and-willing-to-help admin officer, A big thank you! Good luck in your new job at MAS! Or is it somewhere else? Arrgh egal hehe.. Best wishes for future endeavours!

Hmmm, I just realised everybody's leaving NUS.... LOLX

Protagonists in photos:
1) Ph (not in formal, cos she finished her presentation last week) - she is getting married next month!! Congrats Phuong!! I will keep you posted if I can make it to Vietnam again.

2) YY (in formal wear) - Prof Chen wants to publish her FYP project!! WOW!! Congrats!! Join GIS la, then we can go Phuong's wedding together if they allow haha...

Realization

The realization that the stats module was not THAT indigestible and incomprehensible suddenly hit me right in the face... Gave me this feeling that I might really need more time to really eat it up.... Aargh then, all the what-ifs throughout the semester starts kicking in... I am determined not to fail it, not if I can help it.

But for now, studying stats can wait I guess. Tuesday's first paper is looming its presence menacingly, zzzz...

And my stats project is not finished yet!! I really really hope that my stats proj mate pulls it through. She is our last beacon of hope :P

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Felt really good to drop everything and go to take a good look at her. Had thought she would be upset by some stuff. But well, xl, look forward dun look back ya? Believe, and you will be there.

一起加油吧！！！

Just Blogging

I totally agree that in times of exam periods, there is this increasing tendency to blog. Probably it's because you dun wanna do what u are doing now and decided to do something deemed (by self naturally) more productive than just lazing around.

Einverstanden. *nods head* Precisely what I am doing now...

My schedule is pretty tight actually, now that I think of it: 23/4 today project meeting and hopefully finish the project by this week, 25/4 FYP presentation, next Tues 29/4 first Advanced Bioinformatics exam, next Fri 2 May Stats Data Mining exam, then wait for 8th May to come for the last Structural Biology exam. Hmmm..... This is like half of my normal exam workload; maybe that's why do I do not feel so uneasy about it? Baa....

Seriously looking forward to the end of the entire thing. I am finally done with Uni, for the moment at least.

Lotsa things to look forward to after that: Vietnam-Bangkok trip, damn excited to meet Kw and Th again and how they are now, wondering what to buy for them; K Box sessions with my K kakis, my graduation, Russ return, and the subsequent meetups, and pigouts, and XL return, and probably work? Working at GIS would be both strange and familiar: meet old friends, and new colleagues. Just realised I will be on 3-month probation at GIS. Hopefully no retrenchment, else damn malu LOLX.

Oh well, better go back to my Project Pursuit regression and whatever modeling things that come with that. Hopefully I generate some R code by the end of it all...

Deutsch 6

Left to right: SW, Dave, Wen Chiong, Frau N, YZ, TP, XL, YC, JM

I think some of the good friends in life are from those whom you share certain experiences with. I am happy to say I have many and in Uni, I am glad to have met many other people to add on to that list of good friends. Here I am to present my German 6 classmates, some of whom I have grown so much closer to and of course, my dear, didn't forget u.

The friendship with YC, SW, TP and YZ are definitely some of those I wouldn't wanna lose; not in a million years.

From Germany to back in Singapore, I think time really flies. And I truly hope we still will meet up very often, even if it's as Kbox kakis (*eyes brighten*) or drinking kakis or Brotzeit kakis oder was anderes. I will be just a call away. This is our last German lesson in NUS, but certainly it's not gonna our last meeting. Really looking forward to Paintball tmr, guys! Haha.

P/S: To Frau Niemann, wenn Sie hier kommen, haha (allerdings glaube nicht), bedanke ich mich bei Ihnen!

I think I flunked the first part of my Test cos I din say 'Thank you'

My FYP Thesis

While my printer prints away, I shall blog about the entity that has been my life and bane for the past one year and has been denying me sleep for the past one month.

FYP!!!

And it all boils down to these piles of paper. Can you believe that thesis is 63 pages, appendices included?!?! Look at that thickness. Ok, I was bored waiting for 3 X 63 pages to be printed, so I did a comparison with our all-so-familiar Hueber German course book. It is about the same!!! The longest cock-and-bull story I have ever weaved! And guess what, my reference list filled up 9 A4-size FULL pages!! I couldn't believe I read that amount of literature for a single project. HA! *smug*

Ok one set of thesis done. 2 X 63 pages more to go...

Remember the 12-page map? 3X4 A4 papers, couldn't resist taking a photo of my bro and my masterpieces. Here's one of them. 3 of those k....


At 7 am in the morning, My aunt's tenant just woke up and saw me and asked, "Did you just wake up or did you not sleep?" I said "Errr dint sleep lo." Then she said,"Cos you still looked so spunky!"

Well of course la... BIG DAY lehz haha... Finally my life can be normaler and my sleep pattern can resume LOLX.

Seriously other than my thesis, my head is now a groggy piece of grey matter. Literally. So just let me stone and ya, I should be back to normal soon :P

"Looked in my mirror, who's that freak!"

How apt a 孙燕姿 song!!

Thought I saw a skeleton floating in midair im Spiegel!!! O-M-G!!

Ok exaggerating... haha

Although I am still struggling now, and that my project is NOT complete, and that WK hat mir gesagt, that that is so so not good (:P), I am SO SO glad the thesis dateline is tomorrow. God bless that nothing goes wrong :P

Then I am left with the final exams and get my ass out of school. For now at least.

HA!

GOOD Friday indeed

Ok because I have vented anger on two persons already, I shall let out the last few ounce of anger left in me. To prevent internal injury that may otherwise cause further diarrhoea sensation in the stomach. Let me recount.

I was suppose to meet my sogenannte Boss (think academic) at 1430 on a GOOD FRIDAY. No doubt that is a subarashi Empfehlung by him, considering the fact that Thursday morning he has to prepare for his Thursday afternoon lecture and I have no idea what he would like to do during his oh-so-important Thursday evening, when I asked him on Wednesday. It has to be that important to allow him to even consider FRIDAY, otherwise he really is a $&!@#&@.

*deep breath*

I reached his office at 1425. Saw his office lights off. A-HA! Sensing something wrong, I went to find his assistant, who told me he was there in the morning but has probably gone to lunch at 1300, and usually he takes more than an hour. 1430-1300 = 1 hour 30 min. Ok, never mind since he is Boss, I shall wait, considering the fact it is GOOD FRIDAY and buses are few and far to come by. Time vergeht happily, while I worked on my thesis and prepare what I wanna tell him and ask him, having this impression that I might need to explain what I did so far and what I need to do from here, considering the dateline is next week. Clock strikes 1545.

*Blood bubbles a little*

It's ok. I will wait. So then at 1600, finally he came. Forgetting the fact that 1430 was fixed by him, and Good Friday was fixed by him, I got ready my materials and laptop for a presentation of what I did and need to ask him. Went in.

"So yes. What is it about?" "I did my simulation already and would like to ask about what I should analyse from my simulation. My map is on (this) and if I could just show you..." "No, it's ok you dun have to. Just tell me briefly" -(technicals) (technicals) less than a minute - "So do I need to show you my results and perhaps my thesis before I hand up." "No it's ok. I have complete confidence in you. And I dun think I have time to read so I will just look at the final piece. Ok?"

*Blood boils to the max*

That was so obviously a 逐客令. Like I can "not ok". Plus can you sense the reluctance to wanna know about what I did from the entire procedure? For God's sake I am HIS student!! What confidence when you probably dun even remember my name and the time we were supposed to meet!?! BALLS! This is 100 degree celsius!! The entire talk was not even more than 20 minutes lo. And guess what? There was nothing official about this. I was standing the whole while just verbal exchanges!! No presentation, no specific questions to what I did, no nothing. Thanks....

*ok ok tief tief atmen*

Good: I dun really have to give a shit about him anymore. I get to do my own thing, my way.
Bad: He will probably get a shock when he sees my thesis, hopefully not mark me down, since he has confidence in me anyway. I will have less guidance.

Anyway, anger started to die down as I was trying to keep my temper from flaring outwardly and attract attention, when I saw a few interesting scenes when I was going home.

Saw this sandcastle thingy being built at the playground opposite NUS, across the bridge. Some kids must have built. So nice right? Reminds me of when I was young, when more playgrounds have sand.

Then saw this mini FIBUA in the park opposite my house!! !! A mini war was seriously taking place!! All are handmade models!! Can you see the tanks, the buildings and down to even the mines and barb wires (black things amongst the grass)?? The enthusiasts were there discussing the different techniques to model and stuff. All the tanks are remote-controlled!!! Check out the remote control in that guy's hand. So big! Maybe can fire cannon one!! Damn cool! Geil!!

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真难想象，有时简简单单的童真与玩具竟会让人的情绪变得那么快。Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most influential ones. Irony? Naw, it's just life I guess.

否极泰来，好天气即将来临！！Go Go 加油！！

撑

有那么一点撑不下去的感觉。。。

忽然狂想：到底“撑不下去”是何滋味？

脑海浮现出自己的影子，嘴里塞满了十个包子
——“你给我吃！！哼！！那还不撑死你！！”

的确不是滋味。。。

所以，我想我还是打算慢慢吃我的‘包子’，慢慢咀嚼，慢慢品尝。我想, 到最后，必定有一番滋味。

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FYP 真想把你给吃了。。。

Non-Monday Blues

I actually thought school was quite cool today, cos we happened to be looking at the X-ray machine for X-ray crystallography. It is probably the first cool gadget that I have seen in NUS ever since I stepped into that campus. Looks like some machine out of a sci-fi movie, dun you think? Well, it emits X-rays... And you get to put a crystal in the middle of that tip, with white fumes pumping out at 110K (-183 degrees)...

Went to catch 27 Dresses today with AX. We thought it was nicely done. The kind of sweet, funny, little, predictable, down-to-earth show that will touch your heart, in one way or another. But definitely not the heart-wrenching, or nerve-jarring kindda earth-shaking flick. But just say that sometimes, plain water tastes sweeter than normal. So I would say it was well worth my money.

But well, kindda find Katherine Heigl looking a tad older than normal, though still glamourous, and pairing with James Marsden was indeed a refreshing combination. Sad to say, despite being a good actor, this is probably one of the few shows James Marsden is the lead. And both of them do look good together. Oh, and I especially liked the 'Casey', the witty and hilarious 'best friend' of Kat Heigl in the show. She's really one of a kind, HAHA... Her appearance never fails to make me grin or laugh or nod my head in agreement LOLX. And the sister 'Tess', who is really such an eye candy - think a bit of Keira Knightley and a bit of Scarlett Johansson.

Then AX and me had a good chat at a 24-hour Mr Teh Tarik Cafe. Probably the only 24-hour eatery at Tiong Bahru Plaza. But it was not bad for a chill-out.

No one says you have to be gloomy on Mondays. Despite the fact that it is 4 am in the morning and I am still here doing my FYP :S But well, technically speaking, it's Tuesday...

Bodysculpting Class

I thought I would try something I have never tried before in the last semester of my NUS life.

This is a fitness class called 'Bodysculpting'. The description says that it is a whole body workout, so I thought it would be a good chance to really let the sweat out. Little did I expect...

...I was the ONLY guy in the entire class!! And the instructress has to make me stand at the front row!!! As if I am not embarrassed enough. I actually even went out of the Dance Studio to check that I really got the correct venue...

Despite the embarrassment at the start, the workout turned out to be extremely refreshing!! It was extremely hard on my lower body especially my thighs. I haven't been working out my lower body due to my knees, but apparently can't really lao kui in front of the girls right, so I have to endure the pain... Call it the male ego.

But I have to confess - the legs workout are killers. Total killers. I was shaking throughout the workout. And after the workout, I couldn't even walk properly! Literally wobbly legs, especially when you are walking down the stairs. SERIOUS! The first time I felt this lead-laden feeling in my legs since my competitive squash days in secondary school; even army wasn't that tough on my thighs and calves, but well it was strenuous in other areas - that's another story.

The upper body workout with weights and pushups are pretty much tolerable, since the weights are like 1kg. The instructress wanted me to go 4kg...

I kind of liked this kindda fitness classes already, especially the part to move with the beat of the music. That's when I realise I have coodination problem. HAHA. Anyway, so I might continue taking up such classes, maybe kickboxing or yoga, after my graduation. HAHA. Anyone I can go workout with? It would be fun in a crowd.

Like Kbox, this might become my next addiction :P

Speaking of which, when is our next Kbox session? Can we get more people?

Costume Tryout

Dies ist extrem lustig aber macht sehr Spass!!

Ph, my Vietnamese comp bio mate, participated in this In-Fusion thingy, meaning she is part of the organiser. She required a male model/mannequin for some of the ethnic costumes. And she asked me for help.

I was curious and thought it sounded fun haha. So I relented and yah it turned out to be quite fun.

The rest of the crew were quite fun-loving. Now, the photographer was a German, whom I thought wasn't very friendly. He seemed apparently friendlier to the rest of them, who incidentally are girls. I asked him "Which city he came from?". He looked at his camera and replied in a halfhearted way "I do not come from a city." *eyes wide open* Obviously, I offended him in some way but I dunno what. Either he is damn pissed or insulted that I thought he came from a city or he simply hates me. LOLX. Well, not like I gonna entertain such personalities; I have met the likes in Germany before, so I shan't exhibit my temper here.

Sowieso the photographs presented here are only those from my own camera. Those he took, are in the catalogue.

Damn malu. HAHA... I think I spoilt the costumes la. I think one set: the Pakistan one, literally. But well-hidden. Shhh.... Not born to be a model. But well, it was fun (but warm, albeit in an air-con room) trying out the costumes. You all should go try them out next week.

At the end of the day got dragged to help out as a volunteer. *bleah*

But well, I wouldn't refuse a small favour for a friend.

Ok this is trying to be funny...

This is an Indian costume.. Normal one... But why do I look like I got a tummy...

This is a Vietnamese costume! Most difficult to wear; lotsa buttons at the side. Must figure out how to wear it. And if you button all up, it kills the neck. Most fun part is the hat thingy. Cos cannot have fringe sticking out, then they start pegging my hair. One of the girls said my hair very smooth and asked what shampoo I used!!! *wat the* Ok the pose is wrong, cos not suppose to be Chinese. Oh oh oh, Phuong is wearing the female version - red colour one. The patterns are actually quite Chinese-looking: those you see wearing during Chinese New Year.

This is the Pakistani costume I was talking about. Totally white. The pants is practically one piece of cloth wrapped around your waist-down. Nearly dropped while I was walking from the toilet to the place. Dangerous dangerous... But the whole costume is a bit tight to wear, as in it is not tight when you wear it but the process of wearing it is quite tight. Ok I sound confusing, anyway - egal.

THAT's ALL FOLKS!!

Go check out the female costumes as well next week.

Haha, at least I am adding some spice to my mundane last semester in NUS.

First week of school

First week of school sucks big time. Not because it is school (although it always is part of the reason), but also because I have another hiccup with the school administration. It has never stopped happening since I began my university life; every semester's start is surely a vexing procedure of finding profs, finding admin officers and signing forms. Right until my last semester in NUS. Thank god it's the last semester. Gott sei Dank!

But the first week also marked the end of my carefree holidays. But definitely not without some programme lined up in the week haha! Thursday, celebrated LY's birthday and El's homecoming from US and Korea. Had a nice cake! *SLURPz*

Went to watch Korean movie Le Grand Chef on Friday after German class. Quite nice. Not the terrific kindda nice, but it's not bad. Met up with XL's interesting textbook buyer, then met up with YC and XL for dinner. Horrendous anecdotes that should be kept within that Carl's Junior at PS. HAHA! *embarrassing embarrassing*

Then Saturday went to celebrate SM and P's birthday. D and I bought a cake for them and we ate that at Sakae Sushi at Wheelock Place. Well, like always, I ate the biggest portion of it. YUM! Well, can't really resist nice pastries, can I?

Then SM drove us to his friend's pub. Mind you, his friends can only get richer. People wanna buy Porsche in 5 years, and has already 2 credit cards, ok. *gasp*

The friend's pub, Quarubar, is situated at Dempsey Hill, near Holland Road. It's supposed to mean some wood; that this bar is made from it, or something along that line. *scratch head* The first thing you realised is the number of posh cars in the car park and then you see the number of expatriates that hang out there and then you see the kind of restaurants, groceries, pubs that filled the hill - one word 'class'. Really for the elites manz. It really one cut above the rest - a place for the elites to chill. I feel so uneasy when I was there - out of place. Dunno should sit up straight or lean forward or 'are we talking too loudly' HAHA. But the place's ambience was great, superb live jazz band (even for a jazz idiot like me could tell they were good) and well, I had a great experience.

Experiencing the life of people who are up there. There, I felt how 'unclassy' and a country bumpkin, I am haha! As I laughed it off during the gathering, I remembered my friend's words - it doesn't have to matter where you are, just let the confidence flow, of being who you are and you will shine.

Well, it doesn't have to be so hard, I guess :P