Had a superbly heavy dinner on Friday - Japanese food. We had salmon sashimi and fried tofu as starters, then huge set meals, followed by California rolls. After which I demanded we go to Cafe Cartel for cake.

I didn't leave the house till very late on Saturday. Went to Bugis Junction. There were actually quite a few things to buy which I didn't buy, because I decided I'd like a little money left over for next week. :P Anyway I had already spent what I considered too much on something else already...

...what, you want to know? Let's just say I finally went out and bought something some people have been telling me to get for ages...

...a new wallet!!!

So looks like I won't be getting that purple-wallet-with-pink-butterflies for my next birthday.

Oh well, the purple poodle is still in stock. :P

Jessica wrote home at 12:07 am

Am currently very very very angry with Certain People. It does NOT help that I'm already having a pretty crap week, what with staying up one whole night editing OM and not being able to make up for lost sleep because I got chased out of the editing suite the next day. And I keep seeing the word "attitude" everywhere from CONB to CAC and it's really starting to annoy me because I know I haven't done the interview and it's not my fault because OM has been sucking up all my time, okay? And speaking of OM, why do people think it's so easy to edit the damn thing?

High Chair Hijinks

But let's stop ranting for a moment and let me tell you what happened during CAC on Monday. Better to get a firsthand account.

We had two things to do that day, mainly 1) bringing along an object from our childhood, and 2) coming up with and playing a game we used to play in our childhood.

The object wasn't too hard, although I had to spend time searching for it on Sunday. However, when I sat down to think about the games I used to play when I was younger, it dawned on me that I usually never had many - if any - people to play with. Usually I just went off on my own and did whatever I wanted by myself.

So when my group sat down to think of a game to play with (or in front of) the class, I couldn't think of anything. There were some lame suggestions like, "Let's play hide and seek in the classroom!", but finally we settled on some game I only vaguely remember playing. Basically two teams stand in line, with the first member of each team facing each other a distance apart. When the game starts both leaders have to run as far as they can to the opponent's line; the point that they meet at, they'll play scissors-paper-stone and the loser will have to step aside and go back in line, while the next member runs forward to prevent the opponent from reaching their side.

Anyway, the first childhood game I played was with another team, that eagle and mother hen thingy. Everyone behind me got caught by the eagle (who happened to be JH). Mwahaha. Although you can't really blame them 'cos the desks were getting in our way.

Then it was my group's turn. We decided to make the game a bit harder and place chairs down the line so that we'd have to run across them to get to the opponent's side.

Anyway almost my whole group was taller than the other group so you'd think we'd have some sort of an advantage (barring incredibly bad luck at scissors-paper-stone). Which was quite true because one by one my group managed to make it to the other side, whilst our opponents were still stuck at their side. Anyway, so three of my group members had already made it, leaving Sharon and I - which was basically the order we started in anyway, i.e. I was last in line.

The moment Sharon made it over, I knew I was in trouble. How the heck was I gonna beat five people and get across?! So, knowing very well the game would finally end if I won my way to the other side, I, formerly extremely cautious, decided to take a gamble and make a mad dash over the chairs.

My opponent - Timothy - was obviously also trying to save his group some embarrassment, so he went running across from the other side.

The next thing I knew, I had just crossed the halfway chair - and collided with him. It, er, wasn't my first collision, but this time I had been going so fast that I couldn't keep my balance.

After one full second of yelling and trying to regain our balance, we went happily crashing to the ground. You'd think I got the better deal 'cos I was the one who fell forward, but noooooooo. Apparently we weren't the only ones who fell awkwardly - so did the chairs.

So, not only did I get a nice scrape on my knee (typical me - first day I didn't wear jeans)...I also managed to fall on a chair LEG and have it slamming into my liver.

Anyway, as you might have guessed the game ended immediately. I should've been rolling on the carpet and moaning about my damaged liver, but I was laughing too hard.

The result is that the area now hurts so bad I can't even brush my elbow against it, not to mention bending sideways. And I also can't kneel on both knees. BAH.

Yeah, so please take pity on me. :P

Jessica wrote home at 2:26 am

Finally.

Now I would feel a lot better if I didn't still have that Attitude article due.

Anyway, yesterday capped the end of the most horrendous, sleep-deprived week so far in My Crap Life at SP. It was so horrendous I can't even remember what I did last Monday and Tuesday.

So let's start from Wednesday. My CAC group had decided to do our film critique on PotC:TCoBP, so I had to watch it by Thursday (when we were supposed to discuss it). I went to the Main Library right after LSC and spent half an hour searching every shelf four times...only to find out that, though the system stated the DVD as "available", apparently all copies had been loaned out.

Damn it.

Met Rachel after C&A at the MRT station. First we took the NEL to Little India. Which became a wasted trip because Mustafa Centre turned out to be nearer to Farrer Park station. And Farrer Park station was just one minute away by train!!!

Okay, let's just say the only productive thing we did at Mustafa was to get cheap pens to do our survey with. (They have a really fun stationery section, btw.) Other than that, we got absolutely NOBODY to survey. The only people who were free and willing to do the survey, were either 1) not Singaporean or PR, or 2) not between 25 and 29 years old.

So we gave up and took a cab to Takashimaya. Strangely enough, that was the first time I had been in Orchard since the last week of holidays. We had a bit more luck there, then had dinner at McDonald's where I managed to get my lion! Also managed to get my VCD for $9.90.

Got home late and didn't have time to nap. Watched the VCD, followed by the match.

As you can imagine, I had a hard time getting up on Thursday. In fact I was so late that I took a taxi. Just so I could get to OM and build an egg nest.

The egg nest was basically to test our teamwork (or something like that). Admittedly it was more fun than doing our usual tutorial. :P

Here's our completed egg nest. (It's the white bundle below the balloon, if you couldn't tell.)

And there's our egg nest after we threw it six floors down. Our class was the only one where all the eggs didn't break.

I can't remember why I was lurking in the DMS during the break, but anyhow my CAC group managed to discuss the film in the empty lab. We spent most of the time working out the concept statement. After we'd decided on it, we were like, "Eh, doesn't the word 'pirates' appear too many times? What should we replace it with? Crew? Sailors?" And other than some very pointless arguments ("Where's the Caribbean? Was there really a Port Royal?"), etc., we managed to delegate all the work.

Then it was FW time! The interview itself was...crap. I'm not talking about the format of the interview. I completely screwed the thing up. Not to mention I didn't particularly enjoy the little talk before the interview started. But that's another story.

Stuck around till 5 or so before most of the class went to City Hall. Walked to The Arts House and took a few pics there. It was dinnertime by the time we finished, but some of us had a sudden craving for bubble tea so we went to Bugis Junction. Haha.

Had a nap after that that went into over-time, so I ended up waking up at like 3 or 4 to check Su-fern's SPSS, then proceeding to school after that.

I still managed to be late, would you believe that. And the whole lecture group got lectured about being late, which was soooooooo not helpful. I wished I hadn't turned up for CONB. Skipped OM once again to finish our SPSS. What was supposed to be a simple job took nearly 5 hours, during which (among other things) the data from two of my surveys mysteriously vanished. We were the second-last group in the whole cohort to turn our stuff in. By that time it was like 5 p.m. and all I could do was go home and collapse on my bed.

I didn't go shopping the whole weekend, which was a first. I was both supremely busy and pathetically broke - and I hadn't spent on anything other than all those dinners and taxi fares and EZ-link top-ups!

But I did go out for dinner on Saturday. My uncle from Australia had returned briefly and we went to Pasir Panjang to eat. Anyway, his family was in Singapore too, including my two guy cousins who are around my age. I think I've never told anyone this before, but whilst it's a bit obvious my family is on the tall side, my extended family is quite the opposite. Very strange I know.

But that is not the point. The point is that I'm not a jealous person by nature, and usually when I say I am jealous I'm just kidding. But when my mother came into my room that afternoon and excitedly told me what one of the aforementioned cousins (who is 18 too) is currently studying in university (or going to study, since he's transferring from computer science)...I tell you I have NEVER BEEN SO JEALOUS IN MY WHOLE LIFE.

My actual response was, "NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care! I wanna drop out of SP NOW!!!!!!!!!!"

I shall only tell you that, whatever he's planning to study, it certainly isn't journalism.

Saturday night I had a looooong DMA discussion on MSN, where we agreed to meet the next day. So that's how I ended up spending a perfectly rainy Sunday afternoon at SP. After almost 5 hours of discussing, I went home to work on our DMA project. That was followed by the WC final, after which I had to get up and do the slides for my CAC presentation...basically I only got everything done at 8 a.m., which was obviously too late for me to turn up for MMR.

I had a grand total of 1 over hour of sleep, before arriving in school during our break to buy DMA supplies. This was followed by more hard work on DMA. After the CONB lecture, there was one hour to spare before CAC so my group met up for the last time over dinner to finalise our plans. Then four of us skipped CAC, leaving the remaining member to represent us for drawing lots.

Much as I would've liked to (and badly needed to), I didn't go home. Instead I went with my DMA group down to The Arts House once again. This time we got to explore the upper floor and take more pictures. Then we sat down in some comfy sofas to finalise our plans. Which took a really long time and we only finished past 6 p.m.

So Monday night was again spent working on DMA. Only got to sleep at 4.30 a.m. And I didn't even edit my CAC slides like I had wanted to!

Tuesday was THE DAY.

MMR lecture was just sad - we were cold and all we could think about was DMA. Plus I was late again and had to waste more than $8 on a taxi. Blah.

Right after MMR we had lunch and proceeded to assemble the sketches of our prototype on our mounting boards. That sounds easier than it really was, but we managed to finish in time and make it to our presentation.

Which was crap btw. I really shouldn't have volunteered for the Q&A. I think I would have been more effective presenting than answering questions.

After that there was no rest for me. Found my CAC group in one of the editing suites and spent the next 3-over hours editing and rehearsing our presentation. Well actually I was doing the Q&A again so it wasn't me rehearsing. :P We had so much time because the whole group skipped our next class, which was CONB for three of us and FW for the other two. Mwahaha.

Went up to class slightly before 4 p.m. We had been drawn as the last group so there was a loooooooooong wait in front of us. I spent part of it sleeping and part of it playing Pick Up Sticks with my group. Do not ask why we had a pack of Pick Up Sticks to begin with. Was fun though.

Then it was presentation time. The whole thing wasn't crap, just my Q&A. I should really just present the next time and not potentially cause my whole group to screw up. :P

Walked to the MRT whilst sniggering at another group member's upcoming DMA presentation. Then on the ride home traded some stupid answers that turned up on our MMR surveys. After which I got home, felt extremely glad that I was done for the week, and decided to take a nap before waking up to read my book (which has been rotting on my desk and is due to be returned in two weeks' time).

So I napped at 8 p.m. ....................... and didn't get up till 6 a.m.

Jessica wrote home at 9:22 pm

So many things to get done this week and the next. It just gives you the feeling it'd be better to just drop dead now and avoid everything.

Have been meeting up with far too many project groups. Can barely keep track of them since they all involve different people. One especially torturous meeting involved me sitting across from three people - one I wanted to laugh at, one I didn't want to look at, and one I just wanted to kill. And don't ask what module that was for.

In other news, I am SO screwed for Attitude. I have until next Wednesday to come up with a two-person article, which does not seem anywhere near materialising at this point. THEN I have to secure an interview with some lecturer about backpacking. And I don't know anything about backpacking except that I'll never do it. Anyway, the whole point is that I have two articles due within a month, when I like just turned in my last article in the last week of last term. Haven't recovered from the trauma of the last one. Really bad interviews I got out of them.

C&A project due sometime in the near future. I don't think I even have a complete group. I mean, how on earth are we supposed to form groups of 6 or 7 if we don't even talk to each other?

You might've figured out from the time that I'm whiling away till the match. Actually I'm not supposed to be killing time. Supposed to figure out some chinks in my FW interview brief, of which I completed at like 6.15 a.m. yesterday morning after getting up from my nap at 3 a.m.! That's the problem with Mondays. I always have work to do in the night but I can't keep awake after lasting the 10 hours of school, and since school starts early the next day, there's always the risk I'll end up sleeping the whole night through.

Wanted to post a long entry but I don't have time for pics. So that can wait and hopefully I won't forget what I was gonna say when I DO have time to say it.

Jessica wrote home at 2:42 am

*laughs evilly*

Anyway I've finally posted the entry I typed prior to leaving for Bangkok. A bit of editing 'cos I was ranting too much about e-learning.

About my trip...it was fun if not for one thing - school. The thought of returning to My Crap Life At SP bugged me the whole time. And it didn't help that I'm usually very depressed whenever I return from a holiday (the exception being Dubai, after which I swore never to go on a school trip again). Returning from a holiday with school starting in less than 12 hours' time is just the limit. I spent the whole of the first half of the week trying to sleep off the depression. Brought it down to my normal level of depression. Which is probably quite high anyway.

But about my trip. As the now-famous story goes, I had planned to finish my Alfred Hitchcock essay at like 3 a.m. on Thursday morning. I ended up finishing at 5 a.m., whereupon I could FINALLY start packing. Then I left at 6.30 a.m.

So yeah. I didn't sleep. I swear the whole airport was spinning. And just when I thought I had left all this AH business at home, what should be showing on the plane but Strangers on a Train! As it so happens, I wanted to watch that film but the school libraries don't have it. So I watched it about three-quarters through before falling alseep. Not that the film was boring (although it was in black and white)...I was just bloody tired!!!

On the way to the hotel I managed to sleep some more, after which I declared I was fully awake and ready to shop.

We didn't really shop for long on Thursday though. Three or four hours into our first foray at MBK (with me squealing at all those 50% and 70% off storewide signs), something very unfortunate occurred. It had nothing to do with me but I got dumped in the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. So I slept. And slept. And slept until dinner. Which meant, of course, that I managed to stay up to catch my matches.

Friday we went to the shopping centres nearby. En route to Siam Paragon, we passed through this shopping centre that had just opened for the day. Mango was having a sale there, so I didn't have to miss the one back home after all. Snickered and went in.

We didn't actually spend much time at Siam Paragon because the stuff there was mostly branded; however, did manage to drop by Zara. After that we wanted to go to the World Trade Centre (now renamed Central World Plaza), but it was completely under renovation. So ended up walking to Central, which was a super tiring affair. Not to mention it was so dusty along the pavements.

Part of Central was having 20% off storewide. Had an early dinner and returned to MBK. I went off on my own for over two hours and returned with...erm...quite a lot of stuff. Had bought bacardi breezers earlier in the day so drank it while watching soccer. Obviously couldn't keep awake.

Saturday was supposed to be spent solely in MBK, but by midday we'd seen enough of the place (I must've been along every floor at least four times) and left for the labyrinth of tiny outlets nearby. I managed to get the timing of the matches wrong so we ended up ordering room service. Which was fun. And I had more bacardi for dinner. So I couldn't stay awake again.

Sunday was depressing. Did some more last-minute shopping before stocking up on more bacardi and returning to the hotel to check out. Arrived in the airport quite early but had such a delay getting our tickets due to upgrading and all that. Flew home on Business class and managed to finish Strangers on a Train.

My damage:

Looks lots nicer when worn.

And how do I not know if I failed? Simply because I didn't turn up for FW. I made it to OM (finally) late (as usual), and the moment class ended it just popped into my head that I didn't want to stick around and wait for FW. For the first time I made this thought a reality and went home. Not that I stayed home for long. ;)

My damage:

Friday I missed CONB once again, because once again I missed my bus. So annoying. Should've just continued sleeping like I originally intended.

Wasn't planning on going out (for the first time on a Friday), but after school I was compelled to drop by Great World City for the Zara sale.

My damage: --> this is starting to sound like some battle sequence in an RPG...speaking of which, I couldn't find FE:TSS in Bangkok...must...play...next...holidays...

(It's not a dress btw, although it would be if I was 20-30 cm shorter.)

My damage:

Jessica wrote home at 3:39 am