Hey. Point to note: I'm through with the year. I know my teachers must be really upset, cuz they like me so much but I'm not retaining.

*Beams*

Hee. =D

Anyway.. Onto other random stuff...

Was talking to Dad sometime ago about how being a Chinese you gotta be proud of your culture, you gotta know the language.

Sure. Yeah, I agree. Its a pity if you don't know it well.

But can you blame me?

Look, all my life, though I've been in Chinese schools and all that, I have been experiencing English oriented lessons, English oriented friends, English oriented CCAs, when you switch on the TV its english, when you listen to the radio its English, hell even the vulgarities spray-painted on the void decks are in English.

What did you expect I'd turn out to be?

No, don't be mistaken, I wasn't being scolded. But I'm saying under my circumstances, I had no choice but to be really bad at the language. And I do feel its a pity.

However one thing I detest is this:

You know when you have all the Chinese cultural performances and all that? Its so.. Fake. And we all know that its the past and has absolutely nothing to do with our present lives anymore. Isn't that right? The calligraphy, the dances, the costumes, the music. It has become so separate from our lives that it seems so out of place. And its not just in Singapore, same thing even happens in the Fatherland. Went Guangxi last year. I couldn't feel the slightest sense of culture. Nothing, not in houses, not in streets, not anywhere at all. The performances were so unreal. It wasn't culture at all, just some messed up dance choreography.

Then I look at Vienna. That was different. It was almost as if you were living centuries of history in that city. I'm serious. Their streets were as they were back to the Renaissance. The things people appreciated, the arts, the music, it was all part of them, of what they saw, felt and heard.

Of what they LIVED.

The difference is this: They managed to integrate their culture into their very lives. That's what we need to appreciate fully and to be proud of who we are. Here in Singapore, we are a young nation. We are multi-clutural. We are small. We have no choice but to succumb the wills and might of those towering over us. We have to ADAPT to SURVIVE. In doing so, we open our doors, we invite the infiltration of others, and the dilution of our identity.

That's the problem.

Hello everyone! Nothing much to say here except I've been half-slacking, half-mugging all this while. At a nice leisurely pace and its not bad living really. Haha. Had back the last two papers yesterday, not bad, not bad indeed.

Indeed.

Haha! Everything comes at a cost lah.

Heya changed blog music to as stated above. Brahms Violin Concerto, 2nd movement. Wish he wrote more violin concertos. Haha. Maybe viola ones too.

Just realised that just two more posts and the Vienna one will be kicked out of the main page. After this, just one more. Haha.

But we all move on.

So the exams are over, just one more to go. You know the feeling like everything's gonna be over, and you're just being held back by one irritating thread? Yeah this is it, folks. O'level higher chinese.

Ahahaha. Wasn't any good at that language. Way back till P4. Haha.

So there's nothing much to say except the day-to-day mundane stuff..

Wednesday. After the final exam.. We had to stay back for some CCA and NE thingies that took up so much time. The CCA thingy didn't go too bad. Liked my accumulated points. =)

Then we had back our chem papers and I MUST say I did like crap. No more glistening As. Just a half-polished one that I wonder will pull me up to the required grade.

Then the NE. Nonsensical yet fun in a way. Quite fun to invest in stuff and with help I managed to pull off a master builder grade. So yeah. Free to leave and go after that. Everybody around wanted to LAN but I was pooped after the day. So just went for lunch at KAP and left.

That's about it. Went home, slacked, mug abit of chinese..

Then Thursday. Lenard came over in the morning and we badminton-ed for 2hours. Legs still aching now. Then tried to find people but nobody seemed free. Went pooling at BTP by our lonesome selves but still fun lah. After an hour we ended up in KAP eating icecream and talking a whole load of cock. Spied Ying Tse at the Video Ezy. With her mom? I think.

Then after that. Just went home. Mugged/Slacked.

That's about all the "interesting" stuff that's been happening.. Its starting to get a little boring as I type this. Yuck. I realise I'm just blabbering.

True there's always something to do. But it doesn't mean others will find what you're doing interesting anyway. At least to me, just staring into the nice blue sky for hours on end would probably be quite interesting. Got moving clouds right? Nice what.

I'm back to practicing like I'm gonna lose my instruments the very next day. But its fun. Yeah, fun.

Yesterday's trip to Little India was... Tiring. Walking along, with nothing much to see really. Feel the same way about China Town during the CNY. Just people. Nothing interesting to see. Just ornamental stuff, traditional stuff that I know I wouldn't use for the sheer reason that it looks incredibly OBIANG whether its chinese, hindu or malay.

Back to blabbering. Ah well. I shall mug Chinese again lah. Please don't call me a mugger. Heaven knows I'm bloody not.

Hello. So I haven't been posting much.. Just that with exams, its a tight schedule. So there're certain things that you just have to cut back on and this is, unfortunately, one of them.

Haha.. How I've grown. Now this blog.. Its like an empty shell that I've broken from, and when I look down.. At least I'm reminded of where I came from, what I've been doing.

Every new post is a new instance of breaking free.

Not that I need to post to be free. Its just like.. How everyday is a completely NEW day where the past iniquities are washed away, and its a brand new slate for me. "New". Its a great word.

And its a great life. Have fun all you guys!

Hmm? Blogger seems screwed again. Anyway best of luck to everyone for exams and any other endeavours yeah? May victory guide your paths.

I searched in vain in barren lands
Looking for what pirates seek.
Truding through the dreadful days
My soul and heart would weep.

I could not find, I did not know
Even what I sought, I searched.
And vultures high above the air
And naked branch, would perch.

It came to me, one day, it did
After years of sweat and toil
The greatest gift that one could have
That devils' plans will foil.

So now I smile.

I hope you will too.