To the zoo on Friday

Finally, FINALLY Friday came and I had a wonderful time at the zoo with these gorgeous ladies. For the first time, we manage to catch all three animal shows, and simply spend quality time after not seeing each other for months.

In the free bus ride we had from AMK MRT station. The salesgirl said it was cheaper than the usual rate if we bought the entry and tram tickets from them plus a free bus ride. We paid $23. When we got there, we found out that actually it was the same price.

This crocodile looks kinda fake in pictures.

A monkey swinging on tree branches.

Oh-so-adorable otters.

Vanessa is like my substitute date whenever Fariz is not around

I guess these were the tigers which contributed to the big hoo-haa about the recent suicide. It probably attracted more visitors due to the media coverage. I told Vanessa to photoshop herself to the picture of the white tiger above since she's so in love with it. Oh I met Justin and Shoawei today too, they were working there and when I bumped into them they said that they had to feed the tigers. "Humaira why don't we feed you to the tigers", haha very funny Justin.

Look at the baby red-ass baboon eating. And here it is again.

Now its hanging on its mother's tummy.

HI RACHEL

Us at the elephant show

An elephant balancing on a log. I told Fariz that he resembles like this elephant when he balanced on a sidewalk when he send me back home later. He grabs my neck with his arm and totally messed up my hair.

This baby manitee was born last Sunday, and for a few days old its kinda big!

I love Philipe the seal. He's so cheeky and adorable, responding to us audience, as if he was almost human.

The four of us : Rachel, Deepana, Vanessa, Me

While uploading the zoo pictures to my laptop, I found this picture of Khalid. He was being a narcissist, cam-whoring himself.

Ain't he adorable? I'd say, not bad for a 5-year-old.

A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for

It was my second time going to OBS, and I preferred this year's experience compared to the first (see http://embrace-the-mystery.blogspot.com/2007/06/obs.html). We did the norm, high element, land expedition and sea expedition, but with a twist. First of all, the sea expedition was split into two days, the first day we kayaked for 3km to another campsite which we stayed for a night, and we continued our sea expedition another 13km around Ubin. During the land expedition, we stopped by Singapore's only granite quarry and did rafting there, enjoying the clear water and beautiful scenery and we started singing on our raft as well. This OBS was meant for us SLs to sit in and observe the juniors, and I think they did a splendid job.

Meet Sean. He's my partner for the high element challenge. Both of us nearly died. Meet Cindy, we go everywhere together during the 5-day camp.

This is what we had to climb on the first night. It's wasn't easy, my whole group did struggle with this one 'cause the logs were quite a distance from each other. People who are vertically challenged like me need tall people like Sean to lift us up to the next pole.

Meet Hi-Zul. He's the instructor for the other group, Eng Soon. His shorts kept getting shorter and shorter by the day and he claims that he won't get any insect bites 'cause his immune to it but in the end he had loads of it. His philosophies of life never fail to amuse me.

Maisha and I were once again in the same watch. Vivian was our instructor and she's uber nice and friendly. She loves the colour orange like Cindy. On the last day when we had to sit in the circle and say our final words, she intend to make us apple crumble as we voice out, but left it aside to focus on us. And I guess she totally forgot about it 'cause we never did see the progress of that apple crumble or even taste it.

Meet Maria Humairah. Last year, a lot of people got the two of us mixed up due to our similar names. Guess what, her boyfriend's name is Fariz too! We shared gazillions of relationship problems, realized that there was similarities, and almost every day of those 5 days, she, Cindy and I would express how much we missed our boyfriends. Then start bitching about their bad points.


Meet Darwina . We partnered each other during the sea expedition. Both of us nearly died kayaking, we kept bumping into other kayaks and always cannot keep our kayak going staright, and we always go beyond the boundaries. I have to thank her tremendous strength and effort 'cause towards the last few kilometers of the expedition, I got so dizzy that I couldn't even think straight or paddle properly. And I feel asleep while kayaking 'cause I was so tired. Oh I only peed once this time round.I slept in a tent for 5 days with Maria, Maisha, Cindy and Darwina. We had our favourite 10 o'clock show which would sometimes extend beyond midnight. Darwina and Maisha would usually turn to talk to each other while me and Maria would talk about our relationship. Cindy slept in the middle, and as she didnt have a partner to talk to, she'll be the first one to fall asleep.

Here are the lovely Year 2 student leaders who attended OBS.

Here's my lovely watch Bo Seng.

Presenting all of us from Millennia.

And I'm done with OBS.

I need you, I don't need you

"It's the answer spoken by the young and old, rich and
poor, democrat and republican, black, white, hispanic, asian, native american,
gays, straight, disabled and non-disabled. Americans that send a message to the
world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection
of red states and blue states, we are and always be the United States of
America."

I have been of unsound mind, I have one too many flaws, I just wish I would stop being dumb

Common sense doesn't come easily for me, I get frustrated easily when everything goes wrong. I kept pondering what's wrong with them, ultimately what's wrong with me, why I can't see eye to eye with the world anymore. I've been so cooped in my own little world, oblivious to those outside, or have they made me this way? Character is build from within, so my egoistic self and stupidity has always to be blamed for. These two best friends has got to go. I will change. I am trying to change. I have been changing. This change does not seem to be progressing. I am trying hard. I've tried harder. I'm not trying hard enough. This is not enough. I'm sick of trying and getting the same mundane results. Learn and apply, yea I just have to learn and apply.

This fall, our vision of the world would change forever

A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hording the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is however one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble. Their voyage is fraught with danger, yet their survival and ultimate redemption reflect the tenacity and depth of the human spirit.

I love how the protagonist, Julianne Moore who plays the doctor's wife, the only one who did not go blind (she avoided to get infected with the disease for not sleeping for days) is portrayed. Her character's responsibility beginning is simply her husband. But her ability to see ultimately both isolates her and makes her into a leader. As time goes on, she feels isolated in being the only one with sight.

This movie portrays the metophorical meaning of blindness, social degradation and disorder, as well as the inevitable traits of greed and temptation in every human being. There's this scene where some idiotic dickhead with a gun appoints himself 'the King of Ward 3', a room in the prison which is made up of all men prisoners who take over the food rations. As people begin to starve the room of all men offer food in exchange for valuables. After no more valuables are to be had an orgy with the women and wives is wanted. Women volunteer to save the rest of the prisoners from starvation. Half with bravery, half in tears they walk into the room of blind men reaching out in the air for them. The movie fades to black as the grunts of the men and a flicker of a spotlight show a fist in air cracking down on the skull of a woman who has gone into shock and called by the blind men a "dead fish". The fist moves and the sound of the skull being hit as she is being raped with his loud voice "Move for me!" unsettles the other women who in the end of the scene bring out her dead body in their arms like pallbearer. Welcome to the cruel real world. Despite me revealing some spoilers, do catch the movie, it's really an eye-opener. (its M18)

http://www.blindness-themovie.com/



PW IS FINALLY OVER

Many loves to my groupmates (: Thank you for making PW a blast.

Baby, I must say that I loovvvveeee you so. Thank you for staying up with me when I have tons of work to do (even though you're up 'cause you're lepak-ing with your friends, but I do appreciate you for encouraging to complete my tasks when I don't feel like doing so)