english blog

Terrorism (E-learning)

2009-07-14T04:02:00.000-07:00

3. On your personal English blog, discuss your views on terrorism. How is it affecting you –are you afraid? What will you do about this matter? (150 words)

To me, terrorism is a major news that everyone should be told about. Those who know about the news can help by alerting more people around them about terrorism in the country. Terrorism might seem harmless to those people who think that they are not the ones the terrorists are wanting to attack. But, they are wrong. If they are not the ones the terrorist want to attack, it does not mean that terrorist are harmless to them. In fact, they are not harmless to anyone, everyone has the risk of being a victim.

Terrorist might plant bombs at places in that country just to attack the person they want to. Which will cause innocent victims at the scene to get hurt. As long as the terrorist is not caught, anyone can be the victim. Hence, everyone should keep themselves alert of suspicious people whom may be a terrorist and suspicious articles that may be something explosive.

Yes, terrorism affects me. I do not want to be innocently bombed into pieces. Imagine having your body parts strewned on the ground, having your head flying off your body, onto the train track. You wouldn't want that, neither do I. Hence, we have to help capture the terrorist.

To reduce the number of victims getting hurt, I will spread the message of the terrorist to as many people as possible, specially to those I know. By sacrificing a little time of yours to help a handful of people who are possible victims. Maybe, those people whom I had alerted, has seen this terrorist and can report him/her to the police so that nobody will get hurt in a possible explosion.

(278 words)

places i have never visited, but wish to go.

2009-05-03T01:10:00.000-07:00

From the pictures above, where do you think you can see all those beautiful scenery?
Japan Hokkaido? BINGO! You've guessed it.

The best time to go there is around late June till early August. It is when most the flowers bloom into their vibrant colours. Why do I want to go there personally when I can see them online? This is because I would like to enjoy the scenery there and feel them, breathe in their fresh aroma and enjoy being there. For me, I enjoy nature more than any technology. Being in the beautiful nature allows me to relax myself. There is this feeling I am not able to describe from inside me how much I want to go experience everything there physically.

Being able to eat the delicious sashimi and local delights there was what I desire to eat most as a picky eater. The ice-cream in Singapore is nothing compared to the ones in Hokkaido. They are very tempting. During the period where the flowers there bloom, the sea urchins there are one of the treasures as they only come out in that period of time. The sea urchins are caught in baskets from the sea and then taken to the factory to extract the meat. This sound pretty gross until you get to taste them. From the documentary program I have watched, they say that the sea urchins taste better than the little treats. They are much tastier than any sweets we eat and it is not at all bitter. If I am there, I would definitely want to visit one of the restaurants which I have seen in the documentary. He can make many dishes using sea urchins. Chawamushi, baked sea urchins and sea urchin rice practically almost in any cooking style you can think off. Most of all, sea urchins can be eaten fresh, just like our sashimi.

Hopefully, i will be lucky enough to experience one of the performances on street in Hokkaido for their events. They would dress up in Kiminos and other costumes to dance on the streets.

The 2nd place I would like to visit is Taiwan! Where you can eat all you want and shopping spree. All you get for shopping are cheap deals. Most of them are of reasonable prices. Plus travelling there is cheap. Bus fare of less than a dollar can bring you from one to the other end of the city. Of course, not forgetting the beautiful sceneries you get to see in Taiwan. My camera will be filled with thousands of picture. If you have watched the movie 'Cape 7' you will know what I mean and understand how much I would like to go the North side of Taiwan (Tainan). I would like to visit the places being filmed in 'Cape 7' specially the house Fan Yi Cheng lives in the movie and the seas they have been.

(485 words)

Summary

2009-05-03T00:52:00.000-07:00

According to legend, Ethiopian goatherd discovered coffee cherries. Coffee started as main intakes for African tribesmen. Coffee is on of the top in value in trade sold in large quantities worldwide as it is a popular drink. in 1975, a frost killed many coffee trees in Brazil which changed the price greatly. In 1979, frost hit Brazil again. Every tree lost result in no income for three to five years. The income lost is huge considering 15 million trees were lost. Brazil had to stop the export of coffee while importers bought more afraid of the shortage. Coffee prices increased and farmers planted more then it was in abundant and prices fell. Farmers began replacing coffee with other crops. Both producers and consumers decided to limit production to what the market can absorb, plus have a reserve and sell at and agreeable price.
(143 words)

Childhood memories

2009-04-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

Nothing can be compared to the fun times I had when I was young. Not even the latest technology. Though I am commonly seen as the only girl within the boys playing games at the playground, they never left me out. In the past, my brother and I loves going down to meet out fellow friends from the surrounding blocks to play. Games such as blind mice, catching and police and thieves were the most commonly played by children of our age at that time. Everyone gets sick of the same old games, we do too. Hence, coming up with new games were what we all did best. Games are the most fun when they do not include any technology but just plain nature around us. We can do magic with just leaves and branches fallen from the trees.

Gabriel, Russel and Sanon, they are brothers and live in the 4th floor opposite block of ours. Whenever my brother and I go to the playground with no other playmates, we would shout out their names and they would rush to see whose calling them. Some times, a friend of ours, Wee Kiat, would come join us in our games. He told us he wished he could play with us more often but, we all know how strict his mother can get.

There was this game, this really crazy game we all came up with, teacher teacher. Got us all wild at the playground our parents could not recognize us. In this game, it is like a small skit, we got into different roles but with no scripts. We just come up with our own lines and crank up loads of noise from the things around us and our voices filling up the whole area. As young children, we believe teachers study a lot and people who study a lot wear spectacles. We used the fallen branches and bent them into spectacle frames and wore it on our ears. Yes, indeed it is dirty but as children, we do not know that. As for students, we know that we need pencil (in kindergarten and lower primary, we use pencil instead of pen) and paper. We used the ground as our “paper” and as for the “pencil” we would use the red rocks around the small shelter near the playground. There is this rock which is covered with mud and it is dried up giving out brown or red. These stones vary in sizes from big to small just like stones. They are one of the most common items we use for drawing. What about erasers? We would just use our slippers to rub them off. It will always start from the classroom. Like schools, we do have our principal too! “Presenting… Gabriel, our principal! Applause please!” he would walk out proudly from the shelter lifting his head up walking with his hands behind his waist walking proudly. Then he would start scolding “students”, “why you not in your class get back now!”. Gabriel and I in the game were in the higher position compared to the others as we were the oldest (He and I are of the same age). So he played the principal and I played the teacher while the rest played the students. In “class” the “students” would act like little gangsters going on defiance with the “teacher” using slippers as “guns” and start creating havoc to the place. We would run from blocks to blocks, playground to playground, level to level on a wild goose chase. The “principal” and “teacher” will be chased by the “students” on their scooters and bicycles with badminton rackets, shutter-cocks, rocks, leaves and slippers throwing at you. They almost threw Sanon (he is the youngest, hence the lightest) at us. Jumping of the slides of the playground while being chased used to be one of the most dangerous acts that can be done in the playground. All those havoc could get us going on from afternoon 3 plus till 8 plus in the evening when the sun sets. We were always having so much fun we didn’t want to rest for the day and go home when our parents called. Though it doesn’t sound fun here, but if you experience them, you will think that it is one of the happiest moments in your childhood. Gabriel’s and his brother’s parents loved my brother and I and always invite us to their house for tea in the afternoon. Their house was like toy city, a place where by you can see toys at every corner of the house. Ice cream was something their mother love to treat us to.

There were a couple of times when the exams are around the corner, Wee Kiat, Gabriel and I would go to the table under my block to study. While Wee Kiat’s sister, Gabriel’s brothers and my brother will be playing at the playground.

But as time past, technology and studies got more and more into our lives… we do not go down to play as often as we did before. Slowly, we don’t even meet until lantern festival when everyone goes down to play with candles. I still remembered once, all of us together with some other friends we made who lived in my block, lit up candles around the playground. At that time, it was when everyone got together to block the win and light up the candles again. This is commonly seen in the 1980s where technology is not advanced and when children see each other more often to play. This is a very rare scene happening in the 2000s when children of different ages and family comes together to get things done. It was a very memorable experience. I didn’t go down last year; I was at my grandmother’s house but would definitely go down this year to see all my friends. Wee Kiat didn’t go down last year too. He was in Malaysia at his grandparent’s house. Hopefully, when my brother and I go down this year, we would see all the friends we had when we were young.

(1019 words)

reflective summary

2009-04-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

From this project, I have learnt that conserving biodiversity means to protect and maintain a nature reserve of all forms of life such as plants, animals and fungi from going extinct.

I use to think that orangutans can be found easily in any forest in Asia. It is only after this research then I know that are only found in South Asia and they are endangered animals as their species have decreased from hundreds of thousands to less than 50 000 to 60 000 and now, three-quarter of them could be found in Borneo.

Why are orangutans endangered? It is due to destructive human activities such as intense permitted logging, illegal logging, settlements, road constructions, conversation to palm oil plantation and farmlands. Logging cuts down the habitats of the orang-utans, settlements and conversion of forests to palm oil plantation and farmlands clears the forest for our needs. Road constructions disturbs the habitat, there is a risk whereby animals might run onto the roads then being run down by oblivious drivers, especially truck drivers. Clearing the forest for palm oil plantation includes burning as ashes left behind are fertilisers to the palm trees in which causes global warming and pollution to the air quality. More palm trees must be planted as there is a world growing demand for products which major ingredient is oil, such as soap and lipstick.

We can help conserve orangutans by not buying or selling endangered animals or animal part, not buying products made of endangered animals(e.g. ivory and rhinoceros horn), not buying food made of endangered animals, report to authorities if you know of anyone who endangered animal parts and save paper or use recycled paper.

We can also help save their habitats by building more high-rise apartments than using more land to build low-rise apartments, producing more recycled paper, producing lesser products made of oil, promoting conservation campaigns and educating people.

(316 words)

reflective journal 5

2009-04-05T03:57:00.001-07:00

My suggestions are to build more high-rise apartments than using more land to build low-rise apartments, produce more recycled paper, produce lesser products made of oil, promote conservation campaigns and educate people.

Building more high-rise apartments t saves land. This will decrease the clearing of forests for settlements.
By producing more recycled paper, helps to reduce the cutting down of logs to make paper. Why more recycled paper? If recycled paper is seen commonly on sale, more people will buy it.
If we produce lesser products made of oil, palm oil companies will not have to clear more forests to plant palm trees.
Educating people will teach them how to save the endangered animals. Hence, instead of hunting them for their skin, they will encourage people not to hunt for their skin. By doing this, it can teach those people who treated hunting as sport to find something more meaningful to do.
Promoting conservation campaigns helps to inform the world that what some of us have done indirectly caused the plants and animals to be endangered and that what we have done have caused global warming and the worsening of air quality.

We can all help in some way to save the endangered ones.

(204 words)

reflective journal 4

2009-04-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

We can all help to save the endangered animals by not buying or selling endangered animals or animal part, not buying products made of endangered animals(e.g. ivory and rhinoceros horn), not buying food made of endangered animals, report to authorities if you know of anyone who endangered animal parts and save paper or use recycled paper.

By not buying endangered animals, animal parts, any food or products made out of endangered animals, means there will be a decrease in demand of those animals. Hence, lesser animals will be hunted for. If we know about people who sell or buy endangered animals or endangered animal products, we should report them to the authorities so that they can track down the hunters of these endangered animals and stop them.

By saving paper and using recycled paper, lesser logs will be cut down to make paper. Logging of forest will lead to shrinking of habitats, one of the main causes of animals becoming endangered.

We can also help by using lesser oil and products made of palm oil as palm oil plantations have used many of the forests to grow palm trees. As said in the previous reflective journal, there is an increase in demand of oil to make products such as lipsticks and soap. Hence, we can help by using lesser lipsticks and use soap made of lesser oil.

(227 words)

reflective journal 3

2009-04-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

I think that Orangutans’ habitats are cleared due to the increase of human needs. These are called destructive activities of humans. They are intense permitted logging, illegal logging, settlements, road constructions, conversation to palm oil plantation and farmlands. Logging cuts down the trees in the forest. As time goes by, most of the trees will be cut off, causing the Orangutans to lose their homes. Settlements are places humans live in. They clear forest and built up houses to live. Road construction is when part of the forest is cleared to make roads for more convenient travels. This causes disturbance to the orangutans. Take an example if an orangutan run out of the forest onto the road, a tall and big truck might not be able to see it and eventually run over it. Conversion to palm oil plantation and farmlands are similar to settlements. Orangutan’s habitats are cleared by chasing the animals out first then clearing the wild vegetations, lastly burning the forest. Those animals which refuse to leave will be burned away together with the forest.

Why burn the forest? The ashes left behind after burning act as fetilisers for the palm oil plantation. Burning will increase the carbon dioxide contributed into the atmosphere adding more problems to the current global warming.

Don’t they have enough land for planting palm oil? Why do they need more lands?
There is a world growing demand for palm oil, it being a major ingredient of soap, lipsticks, and food stuff, is likely to lead to a doubling in the area of oil plantations in Indonesia. Threatening the country’s already dwindling forests, and the animals that depend on them.

After knowing how much harm we have caused to the orangutans, I felt very guilty wasting so much paper in the past. I think that everyone should be responsible of their own doings and not over use resources from the forests. We should high rise houses instead of using more land area to low rise houses.

(333 words)

reflective journal 2

2009-03-29T04:11:00.001-07:00

I use to think that orangutans can be commonly found in many forests of asia. But, after I had done a research on endangered animals, then did i get to know orangutans are decreasing.

I learnt that orangutans are endangered animals and they live in forest in throughout Southeast Asia ranging all the way to Southern china. In the past, the orangutans populated to hundreds of thousands. But today, their populations are cut down by half into less than 50 000 to 60 00 and three quarter of them are found in Borneo. Hence, they are considered as endangered animals. I use to think that orangutans are not endangered animals as I have seen many of them.

Why orangutans not hunted for but are endangered? This is not caused by the change of climate neither global warming. It is due to the increase of human need. Us human beings, require more and more things as time pass. In the past, very little ladies use lipsticks. Now, it is one of the most common cosmetics used by ladies on the streets. In order to make lipsticks, they need oil. People nowadays also use more oil than in the past to cook food. Most of this oil comes from palm trees. In requirement of more oil, more of these trees need to be planted. Hence, these oil factories cleared forest, homes of these orangutans to plant more palm trees. These will leave the orangutans and other animals homeless. Having their food resource cleared, the orangutans have no food and do not know other places where they can find food, will eventually die of hunger.

(238 words)

reflective journal 1

2009-03-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

I have learnt what conservation and biodiversity are after the research.

Conservation is to protect and maintain resources and habitats such as animals and plants or anything utilized by humans. We conserve to prevent them from going extinct. This has to be done as many animal habitats are being disturbed by human activities causing the animals to escape having nowhere to run to. Some of these animals will stay idling there looking for food and their home. Those who find that those animals are obstructing their way to do work will eventually kill them. Those cruel people are adding to those who are striving hard to conserve the animals. Besides that, everyone can also do apart to help conserve animals and plants by eating and hunting lesser of them.

I have also learnt what biodiversity means. It means all living things on earth including bacteria, fungi, plants, insects and animals. Regardless of how similar they are to other species or how useful they are to us.

Hence, conservation on biodiversity means to protect all living things on earth. We can help conserve animals by hunting lesser of them and encouraging more people to hunt less of them and advice them to not hunt for them for unnecessary materials such as the tusk of elephants and the skin of beautiful wild dogs.

(221 words)

cross-country & total defence day

2009-03-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

On 13 February, our school commemorated Total defence day by having a cross-country run at Nayang Polytechnic. When we reached Nayang Polytechnic, we gathered at the amphitheatre first. Once everyone has settled down, a man went up to the front and talked to us about what Total Defence day is and what it represents. After his speech, our school's uniform groups went up to present. Red Cross showed us what we should do if we fall during cross-country, National Cadet Corp(NCC) showed us how we can retaliate when we are attack and as for National Police Cadet Corp(NPCC) I dont know what they were doing. They were showing us how they can carry people and that size doesn't matter because they have the strength to carry them.

After their presentation, we walked to the stadium for our run. As I am one of the competitors, I have to wear a tag. Some teachers lead us in the work out before the run. I had a hard time running as I have not been working out for the past 8 months. My stamina have dropped, other competitors have built up theirs and there are new competitors. Hence, I have deproved in position and came in 16th position. I was actually quite satisfied because previously I fear that i will not have the strength to complete the race. But perseverance got the better of me and lead me throught the race. During the race, I saw a few Pathlight students runnning with us determined to get first in place. It was an intense race, every competitor are strong in their own ways and wewre trying their best to win a medal. After the race, I went down with my friend to the Milo van for a drink. When we got back to our seats, everyone has already finished the race and they were about to announce the winners of the race. A couple of my friends got in top 10 for the race. The bright smiles on their face brought many of us laughthers.
After giving out the prizes, we sang the school song. For once, the school was singing it so loudly I thought it was recorded and played. Then, we were dismissed.

Some students had their parents to pick them up while some went back on their own. For me, i went out to hang out with my friends had dinner then went home.

Chek Jawa

2009-02-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

The beauty of the vibrant coloured Sponges in the sea of Chek Jawa interest me most. They are full of fascinating facts. It was believed by the scientists to be one of the first animals alive. Ancestors of today's Sponges were alive for billions of years ago. Sponges have looked the same after millions of years. It has no organ and brain. It is just a simple animal living in the underwater world. It was believed as a plant until the year 1765.

You must be wondering why are Sponges animals if they do not have brain, organ, heart and etc. This is because they do not need sunlight to make food. They get food from their surroundings. The pores, or tiny holes, in the skin of a sponge water in so that the sponge can extract oxygen and food for all of its cells to stay alive. If you look closer, you will come to realize that Sponges contain one large hole at the top of their bodies, known as an osculum, and they also have smaller holes on the sides known as ostia. The water passes by the mesohyl, also called the mesenchyme which contains cells and the sclerocytes. Sclerocytes make spicules. After the water is filtered, it is pushed out of the sponge. First it goes to a hollow area called the spongocoel, which is a large, empty cavity. To my surprise, sponges in the Caribbean Sea can filter the entire sea in just one day. Thanks to Sponges, the sea ain't as dirty as it seem to be.

How does the sponge take all the food and oxygen out of the water? Oxygen is absorbed right into the cells. But for food, there are special cells that help to take the food out of the water. These cells are known as choanocytes. Each choanocyte has a collar which takes the food and a flagellum, or little whip. The whip catches the food as it sways with the water. Then, archaeocytes (the best cells in the sponge that do everything from transport food to make new sponges) come and take it to other sponge cells. After this, water is pushed into the spongocoel and out of the osculum or ostia.

Sponge's cells are really interesting. Every cell in a sponge has a special job. When cells of the same type come together, they make tissues. Tissues create organs, but sponges don't have any organs. That means no brain, eyes, hearts, etc. However, despite all that is set against them, they always manage to stick together. While their spicules, tiny needles that stick out from all sides of the sponge, hold them together, sponges also have another special way to stick together. If you had a sponge in a salt-water aquarium and break it up into thousands of pieces, the cells would come back together again in the exact same shape within several hours. How amazing is that?

Eventually, food chains can be found in every part of the world not leaving out the underwater world. Sponges do have predators too. Every living thing has it's ways to protect themselves from predators. Sponges protect themselves by their spicules. Spicules are sharp and bristly. Not only do they help protect them, it holds them up too.

At first, i thought sponges are plants and stones. But now, they are no more plants and stones in my head, they are animals. Animals that are really different from the others. Today, there are more than 5, 000 different types of sponges out at sea. Their existence have left us a humongous book of their history.

http://www.smithlifescience.com/SpongeInformation.htm
http://chekjawa.nus.edu.sg/ria/text/sponges.htm

Confessions of an Agliophobia(fear of pain)

2009-01-27T05:07:00.000-08:00

Everyone including I have Agliophobia unless you cannot feel at all. Agliophobia is a phobia of pain. Who out there isn’t afraid of pain? Some pains are just for a few minutes while some others may last forever. I once had a very painful experience. Until today, this kind of pain is still etched in my mind.

I was a bubbly little six year old girl. My brother and I visited my aunty who lives in the opposite block that we live in. My parents brought us there to have our lunch and dinner as they have to attend their friend's wedding dinner. My father was dressed in a luxurious black western coat while my mother was dressed in an elegant flowery dress. My brother and I looked at my mother board the white Mercedes. My brother and I waved goodbye and took the lift up to find my aunt.
We had nice spaghetti for lunch, cooked by my uncle. He is a western chef working at Harbourfront. My aunt is really fortunate to have him as her husband as she is a bad cook. All she knows how to cook is instant noodles, scrambled eggs and some vegetables. After lunch, we had our afternoon naps then watched our favourite 'HI-5' series on 'kids central'. For dinner, my aunty brought my brother and I to patronise the restaurant my uncle is working in. We took the lift to ground floor to hail a cab.

As the lift door was wide open, a very big dog ran past me. Being a six year old girl I’m still small in size and I’m afraid of big dogs. I had to get out of the lift first as i was standing on the outside. I thought for a while what to do. Then running came into my mind. I sprinted out of the lift towards the street. The next minute, I tilted my head to check on the dog, i found myself being chase by the dog. I ran in circles under the block as fast as my legs cold carry me. Traumatised, my eyes were brimmed with tears. The dog's owner tried stopping it and my aunt told me to stop so that the dog will stop chasing me. I turn my head to look. The dog glared at me with big bulging eyes. If looks could kill, i could have withered there and then. It looks as if it is going to eat me up and after running in circles for so long, it never gave up. I was breathless, hence came to a stop unwillingly and petrified. When I turned around, I could only see a fierce dog with big bulging eyes and sharp nails ready to be stabbed into my thigh in no time. In that second, many questions ran through my mind. "What will happen? Will I die? Will anyone help me? Do I still have enough time to run? " Then everything went black after a sharp pain on my lower thigh.

When I woke up, my leg was pain and was wrapped up in bandage. Then, I found myself lying in a place I am unfamiliar with. There were children around in the same room i am in wearing the same clothes and lying in the same kind of bed. For a second I thought I was dead until my brother shouted out to me, I knew I was still alive. My parents and aunt came in after him with fruit basket and my favourite teddy bear. They told me that I passed out due to the shock I got by the dog and the scratch the dog left on my left lower thigh, hence was admitted to the hospital. I had difficulty sleeping in the hospital though my mother was by my side and my teddy bear in my arms. My thigh hurt a lot I could barely move.

I was overjoyed when I was discharged from the hospital after two week. The hospital is really boring. All you could do was to sit there and watch TV and the people around you. When I got home, I was surprised to see the dog's owner on the coach. She smiled at me and apologise for what had happened. She then thought me what I should do if I ever come across a big dog like hers. I should walk slowly and not look at it. She said something really interesting till now I still don't understand. She said, “Don’t be afraid of them. The more you are afraid of them the more they will attack you.“ After saying that she left and gave me a present..
It was a really painful experience. I swear after that incident, every time I see a big dog, I didn't dare to look at it when I walked past.

School holiday

2009-01-26T01:43:00.000-08:00

School holidays are what almost every student are looking forward too. To clear your doubts why, it is probably because you don't have to listen to boring lessons and wake up early to go to school. The other way round, why some people prefer to go to school might be because they would get to meet their friends almost every day to chat and play with. I belong to those who are looking forward to school holidays. Though there will be band practice every twice or thrice a week, but that is what I enjoy most during the holidays.

Last November and December holiday, I had to go back to school for band practice every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday due to the upcoming Singapore Youth Festival(SYF) and performance at Hong Kong Disneyland. Band practices are tiring but it is fun and enjoyable. Most importantly, you will gain a very meaningful experience.

Finally, during the December holidays, our school band had a trip to Hong Kong for band exchange and performance. We went to a few schools for band exchange. We had a hard time finding ways to communicate. But eventually found out that the best communicating way was through the latest technology, cell phone.

After many months of practice, our hard work has paid off at the performance in Hong Kong Disneyland. Everyone did their best. As percussionist, we have to stand to play our instruments except for the drumset. Hence, we have decided to bring up the atmosphere by dancing at the back. What a sight! Little did we expect the crowd to dance along. That was my first experience to see how our music and dance moves can lift the atmosphere. Don't you feel like a superstar when the crowd starts taking pictures of you and the band. I think you too will remember this wonderful experience. After our performance, we were allowed to move around Disneyland freely to play and shop. Then there was a firework. They were really nice as it is behind the castle and it was displayed with beautiful music and people speaking.

Though it was a fun trip, there were a still a couple of unpleasant incidents that we cannot prevent. Some of our band members were sick. Some even had the runs. I think it is due to the food. During the trip, there were three horrible meals. I don't think even a cat will eat it. Two of the meals are breakfast in the same restaurant for both mornings. That place was hell! It was unhygienic and dirty. You will see spider webs on the corner of the ceiling and on the corner of the floor. The corners of the chairs and tables are also full of dust maybe collected for a year or more! The last one will be the western food on the last day of the trip. They wanted a change of food but it turned out to be a disaster. Everyone was served fish fillet spaghetti and ice lemon tea. Ice lemon tea was nice and refreshing but the fish was not fresh and carries an irritating smell. The spaghetti had an expired taste. Then there is the vegetables in the spaghetti, it was all soapy everyone agreed on that too. Don't talk about the cheese there. I swear i did not eat cheese for a couple of weeks after that bad experience. The cheese was really pungent. It isn't the smell of blue cheese; it was the smell of an expired cheese. The cheese isn't yellow, it is orange and it seems as if it was the smell of shit. That was not the worst. The worst is the people working there do not practice the basic hygiene habits. I went to the toilet to wash my hands then a waitress came out of the cubical flushing the toilet bowl but not washing her hands. How bad is that?! Hard to believe this is coming from a restaurant which looked so formal and nicely decorated. Then a couple of my friends went to the toilet and passed by the kitchen. They saw how the dish washer washed the dish. There were two red buckets one is tap water while the other wash water and soap. Guess how they wash the dish. They cleared the leftovers on the plate then just simply dip it into the bucket of soap then the tap water then use the towel to wipe it dry. Isn't it dirty? Maybe this explains why everyone rushed for the toilet after their meals. Luckily, I wasn't one of them. I didn't eat much; I just ate half of the fish and drink my ice lemon tea.

After the Hong Kong trip, there were two more weeks to school reopen. There was the secondary one orientation camp. It was a one day camp. It was a day full of fun and thrill. I was the orientation group leader (OGL) for yellow house. The group was kind of shy at first but when ice breakers started, everything was the other way round. Till the end of the day, everyone was dead beat. This was my holiday, how was yours?

Growth Day

2009-01-12T01:22:00.000-08:00

Growth Day this year was rather boring. Unlike last year, everyone in the class contributed in the paintings. As usual, i had morning duty patrolling the secondary one students. Then, we had assembly. Five secondary four students talked about their overseas school trip. Their presentation was unique. To be honest, that was the first time i saw such a presentation. Those trips were interesting. After their presentation, i had the urge to try them out. Go to Bintan for bomb-netting and tree climbing. I bet it will be a very worthy experience. The elephants in Thailand are just way too gorgeous. I would love to live with them. The two girls who went to Hong Kong was on a band exchange and performance trip. I am in band, so, i went there too. We had quite a lot of fun trying to figure out how to communicate with the student there. Eventually, we found a way out, the mobile phone. We were carried away by the conversation we weren't aware that the conductor there was calling for 1 more player until a teacher came up to us. After a tiring day in having band exchanges and lessons in the morning, we finally had the program everyone was looking for, shopping. I say, it was the best retail therapy any girl can get after a day of hard work.

Back to the topic, Growth Day. After assembly, we went back to class and took a video. I was the video taker while Mahkes, Junda, Ming Wei and Darren were the actors. It was suppose to be a funny clip. But it wasn't such a success isn't it? After video taking, we went back to class to set our targets. I guessed i really have dropped my studies last year. There were a lot of 'C' and 'B'. It wasn't nice, I wanted more 'A' . Well, the best way to improve my studies is to pay more attention in class and study harder than before. My target is to get into A maths and pure science class. I got to work really hard for that to happen.

After school was CCA orientation. Our section was busy going through our assemble over and over again. We had this piece for less than 2 weeks. After a few days of playing our assemble, it still sounds horrible. We played it in the end when all the secondary one students left so that we won't disgrace ourselves. Surprised to see a few students who signed up for band are previously from band too. There were none last year. I went home after CCA orientation. When I reach home, I was exhausted. I had my dinner, bathed and dived into my comfy and springy bed. Soon after i was lying on my bed, i fell into deep slumber.