tough period

ok so now i'm multi tasking every other nite.
i'm damn tired.
takes getting used to.
pple tink i can deal with it or dat i DONT NEED to b stressed
but hey come on, dis is uni life.
aint easy shit anymore
brain is maximised much more den b4..

i jus hope i dun suffer frm mental breakdown
i noe i'm not alone in dis.
tho lecturers did mention abt some students go into depression becos of stress
jus hope i wont b one of em'.

i've got so much work to do.
yet i hav time to blog.
dis is break time.
have to be able to detach a lil somehow.
i dun work so dis takes my mind of things for a while.
kinda letting my mind rest.
been mentally tired more den anything.
doesnt help i dun slp enuff..
abt 5-6hrs a day.
lectures drain u n so does grp discussions.

thankfully i do hav helpful and good project mates
so workload is shared

guess at dis pt in time my mental strength isnt at its best
hopefully i dun blow my top off at frens n all..
if ever i do i'm sorry
for the face or attitude
u noe i dun mean to but cant help it sometimes
jus hope u'll understand

i need to pull dis off somehow
i gotta cope someday
dis isnt the beginning cos the race has alr started.

extremely tired

*yawnz*
sorry for such a "warm" start to my blog..

it's been a long day..
attempted to detach myself frm my projects n assignments to spend a day out wif frens
herbert, javern and chek keong aka chekkerz.
jus for our usual weekly catch up/bonding session..

today's my 1st sat having class. worst part is it was law.
*rolls eyes*
wad cud b worst? darn boring. fell aslp for a gd 5-10mins i tink..
to top it all off, i've got tonnes of cases to read up b4 next sat.
damn contract law so much shit to rem.
but i am surprised patent, trademark, copyright and stuff like dat r not part of the course outline/requirement!
quite odd really.. i wud imagine stuff like dat wud b in but oh well.. wadever la

ok so after lec ended, i headed to city hall to meet the boys.
watched stealth, walked ard for a bit b4 having dinner.
i must say the new n improved marina square looks grt!
i'm well pleased.
must try the vietthai food dere real soon.
jav n herb hav the hots for 1 of the waitresses dere..
she is damn pretty tho.. hee! ;)

stealth is damn good so when ever u got time go catch it.
really worth it. story is sweet tho certain parts r really exaggerating.
dat's all i'll say.. goin to hit the sack now.
peace out.

grp pic

wassup wif chekkerz attitude face! haa :P
yea so its a grp pic...

drinks

chekkerz and me!

haha! dis is a proper shot of chekkerzzz :)

dinner feast

all-u-can-eat buffet at $17.10
a lil pricey for a poor student like me but it was nice to catch up wif my buddy chekkerz! ;)
it's been a long long time since i last saw him..
buddy! nice meeting ya! =)

*sigh* boys will be boys...

now now kids stop fighting... everyone will get some...

best of 3 worlds

Gelato anyone? *slurps!*

.... : A New Theory : ....

this is an Ah-Haa! moment! also known as a Eureka! moment

a new theory has been found!

" Being in love makes a girl stupid "

TP times...

ok so it's been a long time since i last saw arun & woan ni...
it's nice to see and catch up with dem after a while..

as usual our common topic wud be abt times back in TP
as well as to update each other abt our lives lately
haii... chan chan... he ah... cannot stop talking abt our stuff we learn in sch sia
i tink he under high stress..
y ah?
m i such a difficult person to work with? haha
so slack until he feel very pressured.. haha

oh wellz.. time will tell.
but i must say pressure is mounting even more.. 12 days more to 3 of our datelines.
tsk. i need to catch up, quickly man.
no time to lose.

so as i was saying...
arun was suggesting we meet up at least once a week.
i was like "Hah! like real dat will happen!"
the fella now works full time at Cafe Iguana's..
tsk. miss the late nites dere jus chilling out wif a nice cold beer.

arun says we shud do dat next week...
NEXT WEEK?! hell no!
got so much work to do.. haii... dis sucks man
cannot cannot
must prioritise liao... better to be safe den to be sorry man

ok so we all miss TP days.. alex n ramchand also said they wanna go chk out Tourism Academy on Sentosa.. heh
lunch dere or smthg.. *bleahz..*
with dat lousy service.. haii
those juniors.. tsktsktsk
duno wassup wif dem man...

well give dem another chance la huh.. sometime.. haha
ok so dat's all the updates for now..
till next time... stay tuned! haha :P

our dearest woan ni...
she lost so much weight.. jus by not training perhaps?
amazing man..

Suntec meet up wif my buddies

ok so this dude needs no introduction.. mr ramchand is his name
my partner in crime back in TP..
haha
we were in suntec having coffee and catching up..
it's been a while...

some snippets into my sch ways

ok guys so i'll update u guys a lil on how 'life' is in SIM
the following pics wont tell much but i suppose it's jus pictorial enough jus to have a look see
=P

mostly for cuz to be updated too! ;)

below are some pics taken 2days back while i was in sch having project meetings..

hahaha *chuckles*
lazy ol' me slackin on the job.. =P

now this would be ms sharon..
nthg much to comment abt her..

introducing one of my fellow grp member.. who was also my senior in TP frm tourism..
mr greece, Fanis, aka Zeus
hahahahahahahaha

haahaa! dere we go! chan in action! looking naturally stressed! hahaha

those are ah chan's = Alex Chan hands.. we were having a project meeting/discussion
as u can tell... lydia is always trigger happy... *rolls eyes*

my weekend in Melaka!

back to the not so sunny island of S'pore after a weekend in Melacca..
was not too bad i suppose... food was TERRIFIC!
all the fatty oily stuff... but WHO CARES! ;P
the food was simply great. the sambal stingray, satay, oyster omellette, 'han ching pang', 'you tiao', cuttlefish kang kong, ipoh hor fun, chicken wings... n the list goes on...
oh, the above mentioned were only for dinner.
for lunch i had peranakan food! *slurps*
i had a lil of everything i mentioned above! haa!

i'll upload some pics ltr..

my family wasnt the only ones that travelled up.
we went along wif uncle martin, aunty agnes, aunty tracy, sam, lucia & their 2 kids, sam's dad & lucia's mum.
haa! wad a mouth full but oh well.
lovely kids they have there. bundle of joy.
made me wish i had my own family too. haa. it'll be a story for many many yrs ltr.

ok so i did a lil shopping. was expecting to fine cheap Emily the Strange stuff BUT there wasnt ANY..
was hoping to get some plain tees.. BUT there wasnt any...
was hoping to get 3quat pants.. BUT there wasnt any either...
*SIGH*
BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*tsk* oh wellz...
am just glad to be back here somehow.. =)

the teh tarik here is SUPERB! i had 2 cups!
but this is my sis ! i caught her in action! haa! :p

me, claudia and Jacob

the mess we made at dinner

Centurt Mahkota Hotel where i stayed.. not really a hotel hotel la.. more like service apartment style..

.. the 2 cutey pies ..

one of the streets of melacca

us acting silly while waiting for the food to come... tsktsktsk...
quite in sync' eh i must say... haha =P

the basin/sink in the restoran.. damn funky man.. the fishes spit water for u to wash ur hands! heehee how cool..

the interior design of the restoran peranakan where we had our lunch upon arrival

the supposed co-driver but driving almost all the time - the highway/freeway driver

daddy, the small roads in melacca driver

at ayer keroh, on route into melacca town :)

i'm a new student! again..

my SIM student card

i got my license!

WooHoo!!!!
I got my license! ;)
as of 20July2005
i can drive!!! haa

easy listening favourites!

!!!!YAY!!!!
i is got Corrime May's : Safe In a Crazy World album!!!

i noe cuz will say a bit slow but ... haha
better late den nvr eh cuz? ;)
gd music i say!

I feel like a little girl
Trying to conquer the whole wide world!
zapping monsters into outer space
i'm gonna be a superhero! ;)

take a look at the ordinary
dont need to look at paradise
you could be next to
an angel in disguise

uh oh! i love dem all! all her songs r great! superb i say!
pls hurry go grab her album!!!!
altho i must say her songs r quite hymnal...
nicely done tho.
great lyrics.
i super super promote this album to everyone!

as i always like to say... "good things must always share!"
*winks* ;)
or if anyone got no money or dun feel like buying for lazy to buy or wadever...
but want a copy of it, let me noe cos i'll gladly burn it for u!

so kind hor.. hee! =)

let's c.... 2day i attended a 4hr lecture on:
"Making The Case Study Work For You!"

geee i realised that the curricular in the polys can n shud b changed/revised soon man.
perhaps in Comm Skills we shud be taught how to do Havard referencing. beat this.. we were jus told today dat 30% of the total grade of a report goes to its referencing!!! gdness.
the whole LT of 200+ of us were like "WHAT?!"
seriously la.. i mean i bet at least 3/4 of the entire LT do not noe how to do proper referencing can...

but the gd thing now abt uni is we got word limit n not page limit.
wah lao i tink its so stupid to hav a page limit lor.. i mean wad's the damn pt. the report wont even look presentable esp wif us widening & lengthening the margins jus to maximise the space.
at least now wif word limit, we dun hav to find ways n means to squeeze everything into the damn page limit. instead, work on our english skills..
i tink it's much better dis way. at least our pagination will be well done and sentences well structured & concise.

our space between each paragraph can be wider too. making it easier for the marker.
in poly i tink we shud also be taught how to write a damn report. the structure, language & process.
can u imagine, we're all undergrads now and not all of us type reports in a structured style.
everyone has a different style, a different way.
disgusting. jus when i thot poly gave us the best education as compared to the JCs.. looks like there r loopholes too..

altho i still tink well of poly education la.. it's jus dat perhaps our modules r far too packed alr to include such things. but really, i tink they need to look into this matter.
poly students r always supposed to hav an edge over the JC students..
also, our lecturer did make a really gd joke the other day abt the 'A' class which comprises of the from JC-students.
Patricia Chia - my lecturer - said that her students frm that class asked her several silly questions numerous times!
1 of the question went smthg like: "must we do all the case frm A to D?"
i tink Patricia must hav felt pretty exasperated by them that's y she told us abt it and hoped we wont ask her the same.

well.. pple go thru diff paths & learn things differently.
now we wont b spoon fed anymore.
it's called do or die.s
so to all my frens who r entering a new phase of ur life..
dat is.. the studying, uni life..
pls work ur ass off.
study hard, study smart & hang in dere.
i'm trying hard to be objective abt the change.
even as a poly student it was quite a culture shock for me..

Uni Life...

so far so good.
but i must say the pressure has already started to mount.
i'm feeling it.

managing only 4 modules each semester.
with 12 times - 3hr lectures for each semester.
baffled wif the amount of work tho.
lots n lots of self study to be done.
so far all the lecturers have been telling us dat we need to throw aside our "poly mentality" and cos uni life is worst.
den alex made a comment. "like as if will kill us like dat"
lecturers even mentioned dat those working part time mite wanna consider if they can manage their time effectively.. cos work's gonna be heavy.
datelines are all ard the same time. *faints*

the word datelines... big one.

somehow i like dat statement. if our seniors can do it, so can we.
jus cheong only ma.. work hard. that shud b the key. diligence.

well, so ya.. smthg new. uni life.
becos of my choice in specialisation: mktg - i hav 2 research modules dis sem.
they are opposites of each other tho. 1's for mktg purposes and the other's for mgmt purposes.
confused? pretty much... haa

i need to get my texts soon. i have already had my 1st project meeting for MOR.
was brain cell wreaking. but pretty fun la.
miss the feeling of doing projects. but somehow already dreading the typing report part.
but i must say the learning structure is so much more clearer now.
it isnt difficult to understand the lecturer, neither was it difficult to understand wad the module is abt and wad is expected of us.
everything was very clearly stated in our course information guide for each module.

dat gives me a safe feeling somehow :)
at least i noe where i'm headed and wad i'm learning.
i jus hope to get thru dis sem. wont be lookin too far ahead for now.
also, duno y but i'm feeling ambitious too.
feel u in abt the ambitious aspects a lil ltr into my semester.. :p

Double Happiness!

.. :12 July 2005 : ..

this date adds to another of my most wondefully memorable days!
at this rate... looks like my brain has to increase in capacity! :p

double happiness for me indeed.
wad differed 11thJuly nite (the nite b4 my driving test) from any other nite b4 my driving test was dat i slept very well.
didnt worry abt my driving test nor graduation.
i made a concious effort to calm my nerves & stop thinking abt my driving test. eventho i was not 100% sure if i was prepared becos i only had 1 driving rd practice b4 my actual test.. (instructor was not free to give me more lessons den 1)

so i had no choice but to go for my test with 1 rd & 1 circuit practice.
wad cud the possible outcome be? oh well. wadever happens, happens.
i failed twice already. wad's a third time eh?
but i reminded myself abt wad Grace told me, drive like u've passed!
n all the other peeps like my sis, shu, greg, my dad n so on telling me i can do it!
thanks guys for all ur support!
the encouragement did come into good use in times of distress. =)

i noe i cudnt wait to c my tourism mates & lecturers again but i noe i needed the rest. cannot afford to screw up my tuesday ahead as it was going to be a long one for me. altho a part of me told myself i can well handle the disappoinment of another failure. but den again i was struggling to stay positive as well.
damn, i'm one confused child.

started my tuesday waking at 7am, showered & rushed in a cab to Ubi Driving Centre. i must thank god & my lucky stars.
tuesday, 12July, is indeed a good day.
even uncle cab driver was so nice to me! jus when i thot all cabbies were mean pple on the rd.
tink i found an exception! =) the cab uncle asked me if i was going for driving practice & i told him no i was going for a test.
he actually encouraged me!
told me to stay calm at all times, take deep breaths, jus relax! & good luck!
wow. *stunned* those words coming frm a cabby!!!!

after hearing wad words of encouragement frm the cab uncle, i suddenly felt quite empowered! it brought out a smile from my pretty tired face. (it was so early in the day)
reached Ubi & went on a hunt for my instructor.
got into the car, drove ard Ubi den headed for practice in the circuit den out to the roads again.
all these ended by 9.45 at the centre.
so i visited the ladies, looked myself in the mirror & told myself, just do ur best lyd, just do ur best.

with that i went into the holding room & waited for the balloting process.
everything wasnt new to me.
dere were 14 of us who were taking the 10.15am driving test that morning.
as 1 by 1 the candidates' names got called out, i was siting dere wondering, pls dun let me get Foo Shou Way or Tan Chong Seng again! not route 6 pls!!!
i prayed n prayed real hard.

finally! Chong Yiling Lydia, ur testor is Goh Lim Heng ur test route is route 1.
i was like OMG!! who is Goh Lim Heng?!
i've nvr heard Mr Lim (my instructor) tell me abt dis testor b4!!!! OH NO!!!!!
shit shit shit.... how!? i wondered to myself.
immediately, with shivering hands & fingers, pulled out my hp frm my bag & smsed my instructor.

it took abt 3-5mins b4 my instructor replied my sms.
while waiting for his reply, i thot to myself.. oh he got to be kidding!?
y isnt he replying my sms?! did he not get it? or is he wondering y is lydia so sway to get another lousy testor? so many freakin thots running thru my head jus within those 3 over mins until FINALLY his reply came!!
it said: "ok gd"
in those exact words.
*bliss*

with that i told myself again. just do ur best.
waited for him to come & call my name. when he came, i was the last few to leave the holding rm.
this time told myself relax n jus go wif the flow.
dun forget the freakin seat belt!!!!
i got into the car, adjusted myself & didnt forget the seat belt! ;)
everything started jus the way it shud. thank god for dat.

Testor Goh did look pretty grumpy initially. but i must say he is a gd testor.
didnt speak unnecessary stuff. he jus gave directions at the appropriate times. =) really appreciated dat.
duno y but for all the 3 times i sat for my driving test, my mouth will get really dry & somehow it seems like i have an apple stuck in my throat.
dat feeling is seriously sucky. jia lat. disgusting feeling.

anyhow, i completed the circuit jus fine. =)
i was pleased with my performance. now it's time for the roads.
hit the roads abt 10.30am - not too bad i must say.
traffic wasnt all dat bad. no hoggers or bully.
but dun matter also becos my test route was within Ubi. didnt require me to go out much on the main Eunos Road. except a small stretch which was managable. so i was fine.
did the test route jus fine, u-turn was fine too.
overall, i was feeling jus fine. (fine is the key-word here)

ok so now time to head back to the test centre.
the whole time i kinda noticed dat Testor Goh did not at any point in time take out his test marking sheet to grade me. in my head i thot, it can b either a gd or bad thing.

so i followed him back up to be debriefed after my test.
Testor Goh hardly said anything cept opened up my marking sheet which he kept in his big black folder & ticked in 3 boxes.
after which he turned to the back/end of the marking sheet and wrote a 8 in the points box and ticked the Pass box.

my heart almost stopped. i looked closely at the marking sheet as he was signing it & my eyes grew larger.
i looked up at him & he gave me a lil smile.
all i cud say was 'Thank u sir.'
and immediately left the room in search for my instructor to break the good news. as i left the de briefing room, a thrillion thots ran thru my head. i cud hardly believed it was true! subconciously, i was kinda slightly crushing my marking sheet! as soon as i realised wad my hands were doing, i quickly stopped it & ran down the stairs.

as soon as i got down, suddenly a feeling overwhelmed me.
i miss my cousin. i wish i cud tell her my gd news at dat very instant!
called my sis, Greg, msged Fie, Sir Daltz, Jav abt the good news.
only told my darling parents when i got hm becos i wanted to tell dem in person. wanted to see how their reaction was.

bought my probational plate ($9.60), took my passport sized photos ($9), applied for my license ($50), paid my instructor ($150), watched my safety video, den left Ubi driving centre to head back to tampines to style my hair ($25).
I PASSED!!!!!
dis is a personal acheivement! i finally did it!

while applying for my license, i met another instructor whom i had a lil chat with. a friendly, endearing looking man. probably in his late 50s early 60s.. he goes by the name Mr Chia. very helpful instructor who told me dat if i needed any help even after passing that i cud give him a call. :) he accompanied me thru the waiting process until i left the centre for tampines.

let Ubi abt 12pm after settling everything.
went to a salon opposite my hse to get my nuisance hair done for grad ceremony later dat noon.
turned out not too bad. cept dat my hair felt like there was a tonne of gel & hair spray on it. YUCK.
got home. showered, dressed up, put on my make-up & rushed to TP wif my parents for a quick lunch in Design canteen b4 the ceremony.

the valedictorian gave quite a good speech i must say. tears of pride rolled down my cheeks as she spoke. "Graduands, we made it!"
after all the toils and struggles together, the late nite project rushing in the comp labs, to the chicken cutlet in biz park, the lunch sessions in Saffron, the in between classes breaks at biz park as well - brought back tonnes n tonnes of memories. both happy and sad.
again, i wished Grace was dere. the ceremony just wasnt the same without her.

i even rememered abt the day we were dressed in our sec sch uniforms becos we had to go back to our sec sch to collect our O level results, even dat day we were out b4 the results were given out. rem cuz? we went to raffles place becos u wanted to buy hp casing for ur Nokia8310..
also, we went to apply for our JAE together. u chose Hospi & i thot i'd jus try for Tourism.
and we both made it in cuz. we both made it out of the 3yrs as well.
all the studying together, pushing each other, n u helping me paid off cuz.
everything paid off. we have gotten our Diplomas cuz. we did it.

i cudnt help but feel a great sense of pride that afternoon. walking on stage and receiving that big red folder. it was another great great sense of achievement.

after the whole ceremony, i took a couple of photos wif some pple which i will upload shortly.
left TP wif my parents and met the rest for a while at TM after.
waited for Fie as he had nites off to catch up for a while as well.
this day started well and ended well.

me and my buddy Isaac!

my wonderful parents & sis. my pillars of support.

Arun - classmate, project mate, confidant in sch, tok cock buddy.. hmm wad else?

Arun, Sha, Me & Jonathan. we missed to take the pic wif Mich Santiago..

me & Javern

me & Jason

the pple siting beside me: Wenting, Andy and me.

me and diane.

our dearest most colourful frens! *winks*

Denise mei, Danielle, Me & Cuzy..
060705

....: GoodBye Cuz :...

in exactly 24hrs, Grace will be flying somewhere out there in the sky...
she'll be 7hrs away, 2hrs ahead of me.

wad will i do wifout my partner in crime?
i'm sure everyone will miss our home-grown sunshine.
her crappyness, corniness, laughter, sacarsm, joy, love, harmony etc.

cuz, we'll all miss u. but ure never too far away.
pls update ur blog whenever u can. i'll be sure to update mine.
so we'll always be in the know of each others' lives. herbert, fie, qin will all do the same.

so fast time flies. one and a half yrs will pass by quick i'm sure.
but the sheer knowledge of knowing we're continents apart frightens me somehow.
i jus wanna let u noe u'll always be my best fren & best cuzy ever.
jus be sure to take good care of urself over dere. and i'm sorry i'm not dere with u studying together like how we wanted it to be.

i'll always tink of u...

lyd's 1st day at school

ahh.. 1st day of uni life.
..-040705-..
not too bad la i must say. haa!

feels a bit old. but i'm glad i've made progress.
always thot i was not the study sort.
err.. i must admit a part of me still feels dat way.
my 1st subject of my 1st day at sch was quite a scare already.
but i must thank my lcuky stars i got alex.

he's real smart. tink i must really listen to what my professor says.
do alot of self-reading & self-assessment to chk on ur individual progress.
now in uni life, it's called no hand-outs. no cute ppt slides wif details.
everything is D.I.Y... Dr Peter Burrows mentioned that we shud use not only our main text but possibly all 20 over text book references that he listed in our course guide.
wow i'm baffled.
how in the world am i gonna read 20 over text books?!

i have to strategize man. soon. now even perhaps. effectively each sem only lasts 3mths. all my datelines will happen in august. cramped up i mite add.
shucks.
i reckon my whole 3mths will be nthg but studying & reading!
jus when i thot i cud get myself a part-time job or smthg.
doesnt seem to be the case rite now.
esp not when 3hrs of my everyday life is spent on travelling to and frm sch.
3hrs of class/lecture and dat's it.
6hrs jus like dat. say abt 6-7 hrs of slp. dat leaves me wif 11hrs of everything else. which doesnt sound too bad to me at dis pt in time...
but i'm jus wonderin how it'll all unfold.

i'll stay positive dat's for sure.
i jus know dat my social life wud b pretty affected by dis change in schedule of my life.

A lil' positive note

Think positively.
Look at the world as 1 huge fruit cake.
It would not be complete without a few sweets and nuts.
Sweets like me....

And Nuts like YOU!

*beams*

God Will Make A Way

God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way

Sch's starting tmr. Wonder how it'll all be like.
Cant help wondering how everything will unfold.

it's 3 more days til Grace leaves.
Hope God watches over each of us as we embark into a new phase of our lives.
Most imptly is to pray for wisdom, strength, courage, boldness, patience & good health.

Jus before we left TAS. In the middle of the parade square on an extremely hot Friday noon.

The main building of TAS. 1st floor is the staff room. 2nd floor mostly tutorial rms & lecture halls (wif cushion seats where the students can casually jus fall aslp in).

here in the middle we have Ms Quah! jus look at her! after 2 kids & still so damn slim! wow! doesnt she look as young as grace & me? she always likes to blend in wif us ma.. haha. thot us e-biz in our last sem. good hinter at her revision lectures! hahaha :p will miss those times man..

a great mentor, great teacher with loads of experience who saw us thru our 3yrs, wif an extremely hilarious character.. Ms Ivy Tan!

We'll all miss Mr Joseph very much.. he's goin to migrate already.. an admirable & gd lecturer whom i respect alot.

cuzy's nails & mine totally blend in wif my coffee sia.. haa!

Bread pudding anyone? =) our dessert.

In Saffron. It aint the same anymore... So different frm the main campus'. Pam in the middle, in white, is our junior.. current yr2. A total sweetie.

Welcome !!!

On route to the Tourism Academy on Sentosa!
01 July 2005