Tuition
POSTED AT 11:40 AM

Giving tuition has made me realise just how much of my school work that I've forgotten. I've managed pretty well so far with physics; obviously my grasp of the related concepts is stronger than I had expected.

However during the last lesson my student brought out the Maths, which I had previously dismissed as being even less of a problem than physics for me. After all, in my JC days my Maths didn't give me any problems, quite unlike physics, for which I had to work hard to understand.

Thus it was pretty embarrassing to find myself continuously getting stuck in all of the Maths problems that she presented to me. Friends like calculus, summation, statistics and trigonometry had long deserted me; I was left with little more than the elementary skills of addition and multiplication.

So I spent the weekend digging through my old mathematics files and attempting to reacquire all of my lost knowledge.

Anyway, to psyche: It affects my German course because I had originally intended to spend this time revising my German before going for the course. There are many different levels of courses to choose from, and before the course they'll put you through a placement test to determine which level is most suitable for you.

So I'm quite determined to at least revise myself up to the level which I had previously obtained during my O-level course so that I can enrol myself in the highest possible level and save the time and fees of a few semesters perhaps.

Barbershop Talk
POSTED AT 04:13 PM

It's really funny how I have the same conversation with my barber every time I go there for a haircut.

First he'll ask if I'm serving NS, which of course the answer is yes. Then he'll ask me which camp I'm serving at, after which he would remark that the food around the area there is really good.

I think we've gone through this drill at least 4 times already.

Anyway, after a week of late night prawn omelette / bak chor mee / roti john / spring chicken supper binges comes a week of outfield training and combat rations. It's nice how life balances itself out perfectly sometimes.

Enrichment
POSTED AT 10:49 PM

Now that my NS life is starting to wind down, it's finally time to crank up a gear in the other life. Driving lessons, language courses, travel plans are afoot!

Having endured the relative immobility of a lack of a driving licence for 2 years (since I turned 18), I daresay driving lessons can now be considered to be way overdue. Unfortunately it's not exactly an overnight process, so I'm going to have to be patient on this.

I did think that I would have to postpone my plans to sign up for my German course, but by the looks of things I might not have to do so after all. The next placement test is still more than 2 weeks away, and with the time on my hands I think I'll be able to catch up on my German sufficiently to make a good impact on the examiner.

Exciting times are ahead!

Bargain
POSTED AT 10:36 PM

I took a short trip down to town yesterday to buy new strings for my guitar and was pleasantly surprised to find a little book bargain sale had been laid out in the cosy lobby of Parklane Mall.

And they were pretty cutthroat bargains, too. I came away with:

The Future Just Happened by Michael Lewis ($1)
The Wind in the Willows by George Grahame ($1)
The Rainbow by D H Lawrence ($3)

OK so I'm slowly building up my book collection. Now all I need to do is to read them.

Ugh
POSTED AT 12:41 AM

I just got back from watching The Banquet. I must say, brilliant cinematography, but a truly baffling plot and with numerous disjointed scenes to boot. It gave me a very strong impression of trying to be Hero-like a la Zhang Yimou but didn't quite pull it off right.

My friends wanted to watch Miami Vice at first (which I strongly suspect to be an equally dubious show as well), but in the end we decided against it and landed outselves with this excuse of a movie instead. Nice way to spend $10.

I cut my foot (pretty stupidly) on the edge of my wardrobe. Or perhaps more accurately, I bludgeoned my foot on the edge of the wardrobe. And now it's giving me a bit of a limp and being a general annoying-as-hell nuisance.

Wistful Thinking
POSTED AT 07:45 PM

It's that time of the year again when people start flying off to all the different corners of the globe to begin their new lives abroad. This time, however, it's different, because the people that are leaving are people that I know: my friends.

I must say the UK-bound folks have managed to pull off quite a coup d'etat to squeeze themselves on to the round of outbound flights this year, while the rest of us US-bound lads can only look on. I'm really happy for those of my friends who've managed the improbable despite the daunting obstacles; of course it's hard not to be envious as well.

This is the harsh legacy that postdates this 2 year phase of my life that is coming to an end; it is the masterstroke, the final twist of the dagger.

Et tu... ?

------------------------------

My Mom just returned from her little trip to France, which turned out to be pretty fruitful for her. I'm sure that shopping opportunities are plenty abound in a place like France, but my Mom was extremely focussed in her goals by concentrating all her purchases at one store. Or boutique, I should say.

She's now the delighted owner of 2 x Louis Vuitton handbags, and a wallet to match. Of which the total cost comes up to €2000, or about S$4000.

She said that if I ever wanted to get her a gift in the future, now I know what I should get.

I'll keep that in mind.

One day, I will be able to make gifts out of LV handbags. Not yet, but eventually.

Singapore Idol
POSTED AT 09:40 PM

I just watched the Grand Finals of Singapore Idol, of which Hady won, congratulations to him. I haven't really been following this season at all (if catching the occasional glimpse on TV Mobile counts), so I didn't really support either of the two finalists.

Actually my real reason for watching the Grand Finals (on the TV) was to catch Taufik Batisah, who I think is simply quite talented. He would beat either of this season's final two, easily, hands down. I still remember being pretty impressed with his rendition of Al Greene's Ain't No Sunshine two years ago during his run-up to his fairy-tale victory.

I couldn't help but notice as well that amongst the rest of the top 10 finalists, there were actually some good singers, a fact that had previously eluded me. However (and strangely) they all seemed to be amongst the first few to be eliminated, while the less-talented stayed on to grab the limelight.

I think this lack of quality this season is a bit worrying. Hopefully it doesn't kill of the possibility of a season 3? I must admit, I did enjoy watching through the entirety of Season 1.