Both Sides of the Causeway

Happy Birthday Malaysia

To my Malaysian friends, family and relatives: Selamat menyambut Hari Kebangsaan ke-49 Malaysia! Should be a cheerful day for all Malaysians but here I am stuck doing a Business Finance tutorial concerning "the time value of money"... haha...

The current situation in Malaysia doesn't seem healthy... Don't really wanna comment much on that. I hope it changes for the better. That's my Merdeka Wish : )

AIESEC induction #1, Hall 5 DnD 2006, SSBR & AHM, SYC concert

Last Saturday I was in charge of the first induction session for AIESEC. Basically for this event I'm supposed to inform the new members briefly what is AIESEC's identity (vision, role, history etc.) and also it's organisational structure. As usual I'm a last minute person so I ended up finishing the slides around 2 hours before the event started. Worse still, I didn't manage to get a projector--I forgot to get one on Friday, but when I checked the website of the Centre for Educational Development (CED), they said it was open on Saturdays. Somebody needs to update the website man... coz the info was wrong and I was left panicking what to do. So in the end I just printed out 25 copies of my slides.

When I arrived at the venue where the induction was being held, they were nearly finished with their ice-breaker games (I put Lita in charge of this). Then I had to start... Surprisingly I was less nervous than I thought, speaking in front of about 40 people. I guessed I rushed through most of my points and missed out on some detail, coz I finished my presentation in less than 15 minutes, and I had allocated 30 minutes for it. It really helped that the audience was a supportive bunch. Anyway, seniors Tong and Zafirah took over after that.

After having lunch at the Quad I got my much-needed rest. When I woke up I realised I was kinda late for Hall 5's annual Dinner and Dance (DnD). The theme was Hollywood but I didn't bother to look for costumes (too bloody ex!). Had to take a cab there...and apparently getting a cab in NTU on a Saturday evening wasn't easy. In the end I walked out all the way to a HDB flat near to City Harvest Church to hail a cab.

The taxi driver, I later found out, was called Aziz. Dunno how old is he, but we had a nice conversation all the way from Jurong West to Grand Plaza ParkRoyal Hotel. Apparently he used to be a regional manager in a company and had worked in Malaysia for years. He's been to places... told me jokes about Italy and commented on some Singaporeans being arrogant when they travel overseas. I in return mentioned about how different I found Malay Singaporeans compared to Malay Malaysians, and he's against special rights as well. Says that we must have a level playing field and fair competition. We need more enlightened people like him in Malaysia!!! Anyway, totally enjoyed the taxi ride; probably the best ride that I've had.

Hall 5 DnD was OK. We had our laughs and enjoyed the company. Lots of "games" which require audience participation. Hall 5 pageant nominees also strutted on stage and showed their ~~bodies~~ stuff. There were also Hip Hop performances, a live band, and a beat boxer. The food was... OK-OK only lah. Anyway, I rushed back in a cab with Eric, Dorothy and another guy as soon as we had our fill with the incessant Photo-taking sessions.

Only got 3 hours of sleep before waking up to take one of the earliest buses and MRT to City Hall for the SAFRA Sheares Bridge Run and Army Half Marathon. I signed up for the 10km run, which flags off at 8am. It was impossible to run for the first 10 or so minutes however, because there were simply tooooooo many people. At many points along the route there were also bottleneck situations where I had to jog on the spot to maintain my momentum. Finished the run in around 1 hour. Surprisingly I didn't feel lethargic. It's quite an achievement for me... it's the first time I've completed 10km without stopping. So now I regret signing up for the 10km category in the Standard Chartered run in December. Oh well, guess I'll just try to improve my timing then.

After having my lunch at Carl's Junior with KV and Jonathan, went back to get my much-needed sleep. Woke up realising that I was supposed to be meeting Winnie at City Hall in 20 minutes time. If you refer to the 3rd paragraph in this blog entry you'll realise why I felt it was like deja vu. So anyway, I took a cab (again) and managed to meet Winnie, Vi and their NUS Choir friends just before the SYC Concert started. The concert was held at the Esplanade, but the tickets were relatively cheap compared to most other performances held there. The theme was "Gloria" and the songs were sacred/contemporary music. "Gloria" by Hyo-Won Woo was one of my favorite pieces, and I also enjoyed the "encore" piece "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Freddie Mercury, done in a SATB arrangement. There was a German song called "Ich bin das Brot des Lebens" (I am the bread of life) by Wolfram Buchenberg and I was impressed because the pronunciation was on spot! Ms. Jennifer Tham (the conductor, my JC choir conductor as well) is rather particular on diction and pronunciation.

Many more events will be going on this week. I hope to be able to blog about it. : )