My new specs just came in.

A few weeks ago, my mom said "Hey, Xueqi, your specs look really dowdy and rusted, get your bf to go with you to get a new pair."

So one day we were walking in TM, and we passed by Spec Hut. i pulled him in, and tried on specs, and i found a $200+ blue half-framed pair that he liked.

So the following week, i was walking around in school, and guess what? there's a booth selling specs at a discount! i found a pair of blue half-framed specs! its selling at $149!

So i happily went back to tell les about it, and decided to buy it! and he said "Don't be rash, take your time to decide" and i happily decided it was fated for me to buy that pair of specs coz everything happened so... coincidentally. So i happily bought it from the booth, it'll take 1 week and yadar yadar...

And then i went back to TM, dropped by Spec Hut and found out that they are selling that particular pair at $149. they are having a sale as well. ... ... ... ...i'm glad i didn't buy it that day... ... ...

and now my specs came in, and... i look weird. seriously. hmmmm.

I SHOULDA WAITED FOR THAT FREAKING SPEC HUT SALE! (if only i'd known) sigh~

i'll wear it, and wear it, and wear it until everyone around me gets used to this new contraption sitting atop my nose.

and please don't anyone say "i told you so". you know who you are. >_< 

The International Games is screwed up. Hmmm. Actually, so's the Interschool Games, but that's only the case for my school.

We joined the IG Scrabble again this year. Les got all the people together, we marked 3rd Feb on our calendar one month ago, we checked the fixtures, and on Saturday we turned up to an empty hall.

oh. So they changed the date to Sunday. We went by the website again, now its stated Sunday, "last updated 26 January". No announcement, no nothing.

so we got pissed, contemplated boycotting the whole tournament, but decided what the hell, we'll just stay back in hall one more day. so we scratched all our schedules, chionged all our assignments, cancelled all our meetings... 

and this time we double-checked everything once again. the games drag from 10am to 5pm, with the most crucial match with Indonesia at 4pm. As our star player has a job which ends at 3, we had her promise to rush down to play.

and this morning we went there, and the place was in chaos. Apparently there is no umpire, and no dictionary. eventually we lent them ours. and i set off on a "I want the IG shirt i ordered quest" which lasted for a good half hour.

Since there was no umpire, I asked around to see who was the In-charge. I got referred from one person to the next, none of whom knew what was going on. There were two teams WEARING their respective shirts, but no one had any idea where their shirt popped out from.

In the end I reached the welfare station, where the person took out a set of mud-brown shirts and said "Do you mind all M?"

us: "Uh, we ordered specific sizes for the team. You only have M?"

him: "We didn't print out the order, do you remember what sizes you ordered?"

us: "Um... 1 XS, 1 S, 2M, and 2L..." "Hey, wat size does Jobe wear har?" (discuss discuss) "Sorry, 2 XS's"

him: "I see... ok. Oh I forgot, we don't have XS."

us: (-___-) "ok. 3S den."

him: "Please wait here for me. The shirts are a distance away."

us: "Sure, thank you very much!" (watches as he walked back where we came from)

us: (to the other person) "Where are the shirts?"

other person: "Activity Room 2." (our game is held in act. room 3)

us: (Scurries after him) 

And so I received my overly large mud-brown shirt, and refused to wear it during the tournament.

And at last the tournament started! Our first match was up against...

Indonesia.

I screamed at the organiser. 

I think I brought her close to tears.

I felt really guilty about it, lowered my tone half a minute later, and said "its ok, its ok, we just want to know how this happened and if we can do anything about it" but I think she still got very very scared of me and very very distressed. 

Apparently, they "...informed the captains of the change in fixture, but since Singapore has no captain, you weren't informed." which really explains a big deal. i have a lot of comments about this issue, but let's just leave it be.

Once again, I suggested we do a majestic walk-out on the tournament. 

Doesn't help that the website was only updated this morning.

We beat Indonesia and got the championship title anyway. but it just makes you wonder~~~ who the hell is ruinning this thing?

Fine. Singapore just barged into the competition and bullied all the poor organizers and opponents. but more so than feeling guilty about that, i just feel utterly disgusted at how the whole thing was run.

and NBS scrabble team has a strength of one. we walk over 4 boards. yay.

Conversation with NBS in-charge at 4.40pm:

him: "hi, you signed up for the team right?"

me: "yep. you called my roomie ytd right?"

him: "yea, i did. ...do you know anyone who can play?"

me: "not a lot; the people i know aren't in NBS. you can try calling up the rec secs to ask for recommendations"

him: "i see, i see, thanks! btw, the scrabble prelims is later this evening, can you make it?"

me: "... i... heard from MSE that the prelims is postponed to the 12th." (thinks "anyway, you want to fight 1 vs. 5 ah?")

him: "really? i didn't know about it!"

orh. 

 

 

I had an early dinner.

I had an early bath.

So at 8pm I got out my Derivatives Textbook to study... and according to YY i was asleep at 9pm, kicked my book off the bed halfway through and started snoring at midnight. -___-

so i slept for 11 hours, and when i woke up, my glasses are marked deeply into the bridge of my nose.

=guilt=

2 days behind schedule. 

 

My grandmother passed away on Tuesday evening.

I didn't get to see her before her demise; I didn't even know she was hospitalized under serious condition. I just spent my days happily in hall, attending competitions, doing homework, reading online manga... until the bolt descended from the heavens and struck me out of the blue.

It was totally unexpected. I'd expected her to be out of the hospital within a few days and I'll just visit her at her home once I get out of the freaking school. The first thing that ran through my mind was 'I thought you said it wasn't serious!' 

The evilness in this was that I had the chance to visit her in the hospital on Sat- les even offered to drive me down to Changi; but I was afraid it would be too awkward as I don't know her full name, her ward, her language, or if there were anyone else there as well. So I thought, I'll just wait another week. And so I rushed back to hall to prepare my presentation slides.

Yes, I'm wracked with guilt. which is why it took so long for this blog entry to make its way here.

So I attended the wake, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... and she was cremated on Saturday morning near Reservoir Peirce. I am an atheist. But I strangely found myself hoping, and believing that my thoughts could actually travel through the spiralling wisps of smoke from the incense. I found myself getting worked up about whether the smoke would actually reach the heavens when confined within the Singapore Casket air-conditioned room. And when I burned myself with a joss stick, it felt like an admonition.

When my grandfather passed away more then a decade ago, I kicked myself and swore I would pick up Cantonese so I could communicate with my grandma. In secondary school, when she fell down once, and I visited her at the hospital, once again I couldn't understand a word she spoke. She had to attempt to converse in Chinese "Shang Xue Ma?", and once again I relit the resolve to learn Canto. I remembered that incident all through the years since then, but alas, even now, I still couldn't speak a word. 

I finally recognized the wisdom of the many rituals, gatherings and other customs pertaining to a chinese death; the excessiveness, busy-ness, presence of each others' company and need to entertain guests turns one's attention away from the event, and also adds as a conclusion to an episode. 

I'll remember. I etch a scar deep inside my heart to mark - a lesson learnt, my regrets and a treasure lost, and I'll remember. 

This day is gonna be one of those days that go off on a wrong footing.

what am i doing up at this ungodly hour, 8.58am?!

yesterday was a day of tutorials, doing assignments, scrabble competition and flower wrapping (more of paper cutting)

and i slept at 4am doing project work and writing my chapter summary until my words slurred off the lines.

so methodically, i checked my phone to show the alarm set at 0730, clicked my alarm clock, and systematically went back to sleep. you can forsee what's going to happen. its a novel xueqi syndrome.

yes! the tutorial is 1030!!! i forgot tuesday was the only ONE blessed day when i get to wake up at 1030 for my tutorial! so i got up all grumpy grarrled at the stupid person at the front of the ATM queue, said a lot of evil words, mass-emailed a bunch of friends 2 hours before their due all because of this screw up! weh...

i can foresee, its a terrible terrible day. i hate tuesdays, cute tutor and all. 

Everytime I look up from typing, I see a pair of yellow, uncentred eyes. Evil grin, showing small pointy yellow teeth. Deathly unearthly skin. Black raggedy wings.

RYUK!!! <<< my vday present!!! =D

For the uninitiated, Ryuk is the evil shinigami from Death Note. heh.

 

in the wake of the chinese new year, and after the hectic and tiring week, i went onto fansub.tv to check if there were any new anime in the months that i'd been gone.

Saiunkoku Monogatari was the only one i bothered to continue watching.

its great, really great...! although i don't follow the melodramatism in the anime, but i really enjoy the story!

and sadly enough i feel myself rooting for the baddest bad guy. who just died. which is why i'm here whining about the anime. *cries~~~*

itsumo, itsumo, itsumo! when i see the bad guys, fleshed out in all their insecurities, personal demons and warped loves, i feel myself feeling and rooting for them, and wishing the 'good guys' would just go away and leave them alone. forgive and forget!!! love and peace!!! even if he's the evilest of all the evil people, and done countless bad deeds, he deserves his little bit of happiness~~~

go away~~~ don't kill him~~~!!! *wails*