Looking Back... 2008

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
cut up a human being. flying solo (as a passenger of course). driving solo (as a driver la!). driving in australia. and other frivolous stuff.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
EH did i even make them? *checks archives*
oh ya i did. HAHA.

ENJOY 1st yr of med school - yes!
be more patient/understanding - yes! except 2nd sem where i kinda lost my cool
MAINTAIN existing friendships - kinda!


for next yr..

ENJOY 2nd yr of med school
be able to handle ss5 activities and school work
get HD for applied exam and maintain my HDs for the other papers.
be more active in SGIA activities! ><.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
no. only one i know would probably be josh's wife.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
no. oh wait. my lecturer although he wasnt that close but we've spoken to him and taken a pic with him too.

5. What countries did you visit?
australia, msia.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
same as ruth i guess. time? memory space. bigger room!

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
14 feb. 10 sept. off to tassie + other stuff.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
HDs and Ds? topped T1 in 1st sem and 2nd highest for T2-5 in 2nd sem.

9. What was your biggest failure?
err. i dunno?

10.Did you suffer illness or injury?
was sick in 2nd sem for quite a while..

11.What was the best thing you bought?
printer? wouldnt have survived without it. HAHA. no seriously.. im not sure. books?

12.Whose behavior merited celebration?
pam ruth for being themselves! its amazing how we're still who we are after all these years! you girls are definitely my bestest friends!

elvin3 for being mr nice guy

just1n for being that big bro to me! =D

love you guys!

13.Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Queen D. i guess i was more disappointed. there are no secrets once you tell people. secrets are best kept to yourself and those involved. you can't expect people to not take sides once things get ugly no matter how hard they try. we're all human. we may try our best to understand you but we arent perfect. besides, maybe you should try looking at yourself.

14.Where did most of your money go?
food? all the numerous birthdays celebrations. thankfully some were free. books would be a close second i think. or maybe even first. im not too sure.

15.What did you get really, really, really excited about?
dissection!!! cutting up people is exciting! like seriously. its better than presents on christmas day!

SNOW! falling snow.. fallen snow was fun too! snowball fights would have been more fun if i had better aims. ><.

16.What song will always remind you of 2008?
bleeding love. firstly because its on ryan's cd in the car and secondly because its a nice song..

*oh can i choose one more? i'm yours by jason mraz! too overplayed! def reminds me of 2008!

17.Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
happier i guess. now that i'm going to be second year plus my life seems so much better at the moment.

18.What do you wish you’d done more of?
chanting. remained in contact with friends in singapore. exercised more. studied more.

19.What do you wish you’d done less of?
eating? HAHAHA. whoops! occasional procrastination here and there.

20.How did you spend Christmas?
lunch at jeremy's and then viwawa at home. plus instant noodles. watched xiao niang re only when lydia reminded me on msn! thanks dear!

21.Did you fall in love in 2008?
hmm.

22.How many one-night stands?
none of course.

23.What was your favorite TV program?
RPA - House - two and a half men - dancing with the stars!

24.Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
not really.

25.What was the best book you read?
papa robbins. i still want to read time traveller's wife!!

26.What was your greatest musical discovery?
richard clayderman's piano sheets!

27.What did you want and get?
passing 1st yr.

28.What did you want and not get?
hm nothing i guess.

29.What was your favorite film this year?
err. wall e? both the company and movie was good. =D

30.What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
eat sakura. 20.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
more money perhaps?

32.How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
jeans. tees. jane jacket. converse shoes.

33.What kept you sane?
tv, psp and my bed! oh yes and multiple gossip sessions. =p

34.Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
eh who what?

35.What political issue stirred you the most?
ERR huh? sorry tasmania's papers do not really cover much.

36.Who did you miss?
pam ruth! diana vernice! ami monic!

37.Who was the best new person you met?
tasmania peeps i guess. =D

38.Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
follow your heart and do not be swayed by what others may say. put in your best and you will have no regrets.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
But I won't hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait, I'm yours

yay i got myself a job almost every mon and friday! =D $8/hr! working at the cruise centre at harbourfront.. got uniform summore! hahahah this sounds like something i've always wanted to do during the hols.. service industry, meet people, exciting etc.. so i start work next monday! hehe.. at least i wouldnt be stoning all the way till hols end..

i'll be working on 5, 9, 12, 16, 17, 19, 23, 27, 31 jan! actually 27th see how la. since its 2nd day of CNY but they need people on that day since a lot of people cannot make it. ><

cant wait to start work!!

i need to master the mind-over-body thing. sometimes its like i want to do something but my body is like "forget it la. dont bother. wont die even if you dont do it" and then i will just stop and give myself excuses for not doing it.

nothing in this world is free. there's always a price to pay. unfortunately. but yeah slowly slowly.. i need to have the determination to accomplish what i've set out to do! =D jiayou jiayou!

have you realised when you see half body photos of couples who are around the same height, we tend to assume that they're tall?

until you meet one half or both of them and then you realise that they're actually rather short.

*just a random observation. feel free to disagree.

which is rather >< because im 20cm shorter. cannot hide the height difference.

so christmas is over. and so will boxing day in about an hour. which just means that the year is going to be over very very soon. out goes 2008 and let's welcome 2009. but thats for next week.

sun:
had suki sushi with tyg and as usual, he was late but not as late as he used to be. haha only 5min late but considering i was like 15min early.. but anyway, headed over to cine and ate till like 2+.. headed over to kino after that and was deliberating whether i should buy a book.. but in the end i realised forget it la. shall just borrow or something like that. went to gramaphone to see if they had enya's new cd but somehow we just couldnt find it. :( didnt really do much because he had to meet his guitar mates at tanah merah so we mrted back. =D

tues:
shopping with s13 girls! omg i miss them soo much! although i met them only a few weeks back. hahahaha. and sissy foo! please eat more! omg you're too light liao la! hahaha! although its not your fault that you lost 5kg because of diarrhoea. ><

met the tuition buddies later for dinner. man i havent seen these people since j2 (except nash that i see every sat)! it was great to see how everyone's doing well.. most of them are going to ntu with jeremy n el0nn going to NIE to become PE teachers! hahahaha! plus i think apart from nash (not sure about el0nn and 5alima), the rest of us are attached! ken, kenn, yongta0, mar1lyn, jerem7.. and jerem7's been with this girl for almost 2 yrs!! wow.. peifu peifu..

wed:
spent entire afternoon till 2.30am at uncle's place. played mahjong, watched tv, ate etc. nothing special but i guess it was good to spend it with people rather than alone.

thurs:
had lunch at jerem7's with pam and ruth. played his xbox and i think we were making a hell lotta noise sia! hahah we were a little high from the teeny weeny bit of alcohol. especially when all the bulky-sized japanese characters appeared! :P stayed till 3+ before i took lrt-mrt-bus 27- bus 10- walked home to an empty house. sadddd.. what a way to spend xmas eh? oh well, not that it was terrible but just realised that its prob the first time im spending xmas alone. was emoing away until justin came online and chatted with me. =D felt much better then made instant noodles for dinner while he left for his friend's party. was playing viwawa most of the night away. ><

friday:
ice skating! and DW on ps2 with bro/uncle/cousin! hahahha i can say that i enjoyed today more than yesterday but actually everyday is the same. the hype is overrated. saw my friend's fb status which was sth about why this christmas didnt feel like christmas at all.

tmr:
help prepare food for gathering on sun! =D

sun:
4D discussion meeting at tbsc! still need to think of my new yr resolutions. ><

went out with pam and ruth yest! had our annual movie outing.. =D went back to rg first to visit and return vernic3 her umbrella too.. didnt see many people although i met sall7 wong and asked her if she went to tassie for hols.. haha! unfortunately didnt get to speak to her much.. maybe next time.. basically everyone thought we were back to work! if only.. hahaha! but there's no work to be done.. :( and besides if i were to RT again, its only gonna be like 1+ mth so might as well let the j3s do it because they can stay longer..

anw we headed off for lunch at billy bombers and watched yesman at cathay! hahahaha the first part of it was cringe-yly funny but it got better after a while. =D so pam, dont feel too bad! we did enjoy ourselves.. hahahahah! luckily the crowd was rather humorous too!

went to our fave supermarket to walk walk and look for ruth's barley milk tea which we couldnt find in the end. neither could we find sweety (sp?), some cross between a grapefruit and pomelo.. >< sounds damn sour to me. *cringe* i like sour things but there's only so much i can tahan. hehe..

after that headed over to vivo to meet the soka med group people. ruix1ang said he'll be late so i called b3ron and met them there. rx brought 3 of his dentistry friends along (including one of my vj snrs!) so it was nice to meet more people. met v1cky at tbsc!! omg so nice to see someone familiar.. hahaha and one that can actually still rmb me from last yr! wrote my wishes for 2009 on the countdown ball that will be floating down marina.. but i wrote it on the bottom half so i guess it'll be the fishies that will read my wishes.. :(

mrt-ed back with marcu5, rx, yansh3ng, jianx1ong (rx's friend).. all of us were heading east so it was like aljunied, bedok, tanah merah, simei, tampines.. was a nice ride back home.. talked lotsa crap.. hehe as usual.. :) even though it was a very very long day but it felt good at the end of it. minus the fact that i soon found out that i was bleeding from my heels cos of an old wound last sunday. ><

met up with the s5s committee today! had ah yat dimsum for lunch.. 50% off! so we ordered like free and ate $117 worth of dimsum! considering thats half priced already.... means that we are about $234 worth! hahahaha! reached there at 11.10 after meeting chri5 at toa payoh to take the shuttle down.. so we headed to giant to walk walk look see.. called christ1na and met her at the restaurant. the others were late so we had our first round while waiting and they arrived shortly! we had sooo many baskets that we almost thought we couldnt finish!! we had like 9 poluobaos because chri5 wrote Qty 3 for a 3ea item! hahah! almost died when we saw the plate of baos! HAHAHA! but it was actually quite nice. took 1 or 2. cant rmb. although i think the shuijingbao cant beat the tiong bahru one at alexandra! didnt even taste close to it la! >< the hargao, cheecheongfun etc were quite good too. =D

after kinda being chased out because they were closing at 2.15pm, we headed over to the teaparty at 6th ave. sat there and continued our s5s discussion mtg till about 6+pm. seriously, by then i was sooo seh that i didnt really register much. it seemed to go in circles.... like nothing was finalised and it was all tentative blah blah. >< planned the events next yr and it seems to be almost the same as this year. realised that its not really logistically (and financially) possible to have more events considering all the committee members atm at either doing law or med. :S

went to orchard after that. wanted to watch twilight but because by the time we got there it was 7+ and the next show at lido was 8.30pm means it will end at 10.30pm! so by the time i get home it will be 11+pm which is late! so we decided to go over to cine to see. WORSE! 9 or was it 9.30pm. so ok lor forget it. chri5 wanted to return his library book so we walked all the way down to bugis. took about 1h. hahaha!! after that, we almost walked to lavender but then my feet were alr hurting like mad so we went to bugis junction to sit sit a while before chri5 realised he had some pages of the book in his bag! so we went back again and then we just headed back. chri5 sent me all the way home, including walking up the ulu hill and somehow making his way back home again later. hope you didnt lose your way!!

as my feet were hurting like hell because i wasnt used to wearing heels, i walked barefoot all the way home from simei along the painted lines on the road because it was less pokey. he tried to make me walk on the grass which would be cooler and softer but i was afraid of dog poop! hahaha! summore in the dark, who knows what i'm stepping on! EWW! he just sent me home before leaving because it was getting late and he had to catch a bus back too so he didnt come in. :(

ok im sooo tired atm im going to sleep soon. hope the rest will also heal my poor metatarsals and make them brandnew again tmr! =D

just got back from a shopping trip msia! =D bought myself another two pairs of diesel jeans, 3 diesel long-sleeved tops and a pair of vincci shoes!

so i was already tired but happy until i received two more little gifts at home! haha today has just been such a wonderful day!

first! christmas card from my primary school mate! haha should have guessed when she started to ask us for our addresses on facebook. :P but omg it has been a long time since i've actually received mail from friends in singapore! it makes sense to send cards through slow mail but not to communicate because by the time you receive the mail, it would have become old news and besides, you probably have already told that person about the news through msn or the likes.


second would be something that i didnt actually think would come! hahaha received money in the mail from doing online surveys! you know how these websites work.. they never seem to actually be credible enough for you to think that you would actually receive the money so when i converted my points into cash after i hit the 1000pt mark, i was wondering if i would actually receive the money in '6-8weeks' after the processing and stuff. but surprisingly i did! and i can tell you that this company is rather reliable as companies like M1 use them too! how do i know? because i did an M1 survey recently. :P hahahaha had to tell them wad i liked about student plans.. wahahahah!



so now i'm a very very happy girl! =D

alrightey! its monday again! exciting because i'm all revved up for a brand new week! hopefully peppered with regular exercise. been eating too much these few days. not good at all! >< wad with the bbq and junk i've been putting into myself. hahaa although i loveeed the green bean soup! =D wouldnt mind that at all!

the weather's really bad right now. you can't do anything outdoors without fearing it will rain! thank goodness it was clear on saturday or else what a bbq it would have been! anw it was fun listening to all the goss and seeing everyone again. same old topics but its fun when everyone is into their 'VLGR' mode and just watching them shoot each other! hahahah!!

and i probably ate one of the most expensive durians i have ever encountered too. seriously. those durians were not worth the price he paid but oh well. :P $240 for 6 durians?! $15/kg. siao ah! and i think only 1-2 were actually good. the others were not that great to be honest. plus 12 bottles of wine of which we opened 5 i think. only tried the white wine which im more familiar with considering all i drink in tassie is white. wasnt too bad. much better than jane's (duh!) but still i didnt like it that much. i'd prefer champagne just because its bubbly. hahaha! *burp* the fizz makes it more exciting! i really dont know how to appreciate alcohol. i'll just stick to passion pop if i need to. hahahaha! cheap drunk. :P A$5.90 for a bottle of fruit flavoured alcoholic drink. choice drink for poor kids who dont like the alcohol taste.

anw. thing's i've acquired over the past two days.

1. 6 mosquito bites
2. 1 blister
3. 1 peeling heel.
   

last two are from trying to season my new pair of shoes! :(

and i finally understand why girls would wanna go on oral contraceptive pills just to regulate the hormones and clear their skin. hormone cycles are such things that make little zits pop up here and there! except that it is probably more expensive than just putting pimple cream and hoping it will go away. but it is definitely effective!! =D hahaha so lucky s1nhui got more than she asked for (in a way) although i think she'd prefer to just have lower levels of testosterone than having to pop a pill everyday.

bbq at uncle's house later! its gonna be fun! haven't seen some of the relatives in eons.. ok maybe not eons but at least since the last time i came back. hahaha! thats still like 5 mths ago.. :P

soka exam tmr! hopefully i wouldnt fail. it would be terrible to have to retake the exam. >< plus it isnt supposed to be that difficult. hahaha! considering its only the entrance exam. a5hley said the elementary one is harder. but she took it like 3-4 years ago.. so it might be slightly different this time around. and given my personality, i hate losing. but then again i havent really been studying for it so im not sure whats going to happen tmr. hahaha!

anw so far the plans for next wk:

wed: sss committee
thurs: ruth and pam

following wk:
mon: yj and bel

went shopping the other day and got myself a pair of shoes (finally!) and a matching bag. ok it wasnt planned that way but it turned out to be about the same colour. =D will post a photo of it once my camera has been returned to me. my brother borrowed it for his outing with his friends.

in the meantime, i'm still as bored as ever when im doing nothing. i need to get a life. or rather, i just need to plug in my HDD and enjoy the X GB worth of entertainment in there. :D

its friday again! although this week has been going by soooo slowly. time really slows to a halt when there's nth to do. dammit. thank god i'm going out next wekk. =D yay!

ok just got a random call about a job interview. whats weird is i didnt even apply for a job. i'll write more about it once i get the details.. sounds phony.. hahaha!

update:

1. the woman ol1ve refuses to tell me anything over the phone. only said i'll be assisting the manager. and she added that they have many NS guys doing it too. seriously, how many managers do you have?!
2. hours are flexible so it doesnt matter whether im having hols or wad.
3. she doesnt want to tell me the pay
4. dubious company name that sounded like vee-ee-gee. somewhere along changi road
5. job orientation can be anyday, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm. weird rite.

in conclusion. too good to be true. besides i dont think i really wanna work. i'd rather read my textbooks. they seem interesting. :P i must be insane. seriously. talking about books, i think i still need to get 'ecg made easy' and 'infectious diseases'. right now i have 10+ books to bring back already. michael.. please please please give me a bigger room!!! or else i really have no idea where to dump all these books!!! >< including the ones i already have in 2-3 boxes in the box room.

ok the previous entry is NOT to spite you. its actually more like a way for me to explain since you dont want to listen to me. and besides im not sure how to tell you all these in front of you, after all you just seem to not listen anyway. i'm terrible with words, i clam up in fear and i end up sobbing uncontrollably after you leave. so i never get my msg across.

i wouldnt say that i know him very very well, after all, you're right in saying that we've only known each other since feb and we only got closer in may. but we had been contemplating and discussing things since aug before getting together in sept. its gonna be 3mths soon. officially. although it seems like forever since it started way back during swot vac sem 1.

sometimes even i am not sure how long this will last. when we discussed the possibility the other night, because he didnt want to sour my family's relations, he was like "there's only one family but you can have many bfs." which is true, but it hurt so bad just thinking of it. although i know that if that happens, he wouldnt shed a tear. he's not someone who would cry. apart from his granny's death, he couldnt rmb the last time he cried. he's so emotionally stable (or rather stoic) that its scary sometimes. he's never angry, never jealous, never sad and he'll just have the stoned face until you say something that he actually responds to. then you'll get a whole range of reaction which is quite funny. =D

i've learnt that the aim of being in a relationship is not to find someone who will fill the gap for you but rather to find someone who would bring out the best in you, someone who would inspire you so that the both of you can advance together. its not because you feel like you NEED someone to make you whole but its finding two whole people to make it perfect.

love is a double-edged sword. it can make you feel 幸福 or 痛苦. but unless you give it your all, you'll never know if he's the right one. most girls would want to find a guy who would love them more than she loves him. but how many girls are that lucky? love isnt like trade, where things have to be fair/acceptable before the transaction occurs. you never know when you'll be hit by it. and by then, its probably too late. i never knew i liked him till rugby finals. before that, i didnt really bother myself with him because he never spoke much. it was only after rugby that i realised i had feelings for him. and he felt the same way although none of us knew it. it was awkward because his birthday was just a week after rugby but i didnt do anything considering people were still teasing him with M. M gave him a thumbdrive while C made him a cake. i, on the other hand, just ate the cake and enjoyed myself. that was why everyone was saying how despite other girls' attempt, he ended up with the right one. *shrugs* even i'm not sure if i'm the right one but i didnt do anything.

he was the one who came over to play psp to keep me company when i was studying. he was the one who studied with me in the reading room during winter. he kept me sane when i was almost on the brink of tears when studying because i was sooo stressed because i wanted so badly to do well.

once i jokingly mentioned that doctors are more prone to suicide and depression as compared to other professionals.. up to 4x more likely.. and he was like "dont worry, you've got me to keep you sane.." aww.. hahaha!

seriously, no matter what happens in future, we have our fair share of memories thus far. and i'm really grateful for it. =D i should just enjoy what i have now and be thankful for this chance.

i should stop thinking of things that probably aren't going to happen (not yet at least). it is not good once my mind starts wondering. it makes me worried, scared, insecure, dumb, foolish and emotional. i dislike this side of myself.

when i look at my friends, all happy, contented and with that blissful look on their faces, hand in hand with their bf/gf, sometimes i really wonder why can't i have that too? with no problems or obstacles in the way. its easy for you to object but it hurts me so bad. so very very very badly that sometimes i feel like my heart is being torn apart. this heart-wrenching sour feeling. i really dont like it at all.

your concerns are justified i guess, but i know what i'm doing too. i'm no longer the kid back in secondary school. i know what's more impt and what's the icing on the cake. i always wonder why they never last long. now i know. because i fear you. i fear telling you and knowing what your reaction would be. i know you'll scream and yell and vehemently refuse to accept. yet when i plucked up my courage to tell you just so that you will approve of it, you dont. again. they were always never good enough. i would never be mature enough.

you refuse to listen to me, thinking that i dont know what im doing. maybe one day i might regret what i'm doing, i'm not sure. but at least im not regretting it now. its weird how everyone thinks he's great. just except you. i know your concerns arent unfounded. you would know better. but no one knows what the next 4 years will hold. thats when we graduate. maybe i'll meet someone better, or maybe he'll meet someone more suitable for him. its not like we're getting engaged/married straightaway. we even jokingly discussed the possibility of looking out for next yrs batch for a better catch even before we got together. it definitely was not a hasty decision. one decided just by that instance. we discussed it for weeks before deciding to get together. we both knew what we were in for. he knew my studies were no. 1 and that was why he didnt want to disrupt my studies, or else he would have approached me earlier about the issue. but i knew what my priorities were and i definitely would not do things to jeopardise my own graduation. and thats how we agreed.

yes, i might have been in his room to study. why? because i knew that my room was too warm to study and if i fell asleep, there wouldnt be anyone to wake me up to continue. you know me, i love sleeping so much that even the alarm wouldnt be enough. but having someone there made me want to study more plus he would wake me up after my occasional 30min naps. if not for him, i'll prob end up sleeping like 2-3h till dinner. its not like i didnt study in his room. i tried studying in my room but i always ended up on facebook or on the bed and not studying. its only because i studied better in a bigger room thats cooler with a human alarm clock that did actually wake me up that i went over to his room. but when i needed my textbooks etc, i would stay in my room and do the relevant revision/research. i know what to do. and i didnt disappoint you this semester.

i studied really hard because i didnt want you to have an excuse to not accept him. i knew what your concerns were and i tried my very best to address them. things that i could control. i cant help that he's the eldest in a big family. i can't help that he's doing arts/law. but i can show you that i am able to handle this right now. i know when to end when things get out of hand. i'm not stupid. i may like this guy a lot but if he's going to be downright *&($%, i'm not going to hang around for sure. trust me.

by the time you finish reading this, you're probably either fuming mad at the accusations you think i'm making or just so full of emotions you're not sure what you're going to do. you'll prob end up screaming at me again and i'll probably end up crying for another 1h45min but if this is going to make you give him a chance, its going to be worth it. 4 years is a long time to go and we know its difficult to even hit the 2yr mark. but at least give us a chance. maybe maybe there's a 1% chance. if we end up together even after we graduate, i actually think that by then, those problems/concerns that you have can be ironed out one by one. after all, 4 years is definitely long enough to get to know the family etc. isnt it better this way? instead of only getting to know the family well after marriage. perhaps by then your concern would be that after we're tgt for so long, it will be awkward to break up even if either of us meet someone better. well, no one knows for sure so why worry now? =D

Title: Cardiovascular System + Respiratory System (pack)
Author: Noble & Davies

Title: Clinical Chemistry Made Easy
Author: Hughes

Title: Pathophysiology Of Heart Disease
Author: Lilly

Title: Pulmonary Pathophysiology: The Essentials
Author: West

Title: Medical Pharmacology At A Glance
Author: Neal

any suggestions? or recommendations?

t1: 81.0%
t2-5: 84.7%
applied: 70.6%

hahahha look at the great discrepancy... >< though i scored damn high for microb in pract.. was like 82.5%.. was pulled down by physio (must be neuro!), patho (stupid qns) and histo (HMM not sure)..