Self Reminder

In the midst of studying and trying to memorize all the facts about Singapore's geology, lithology and rock forms... I seem to have forgotten the Rock of my life.

Time to come back to relying on that ever faithful and reliable source of support man...

With me all seems impossible, but with Him everything is possible!

Jiayou to everyone stuck in this exam rut!



I'm gonna blow that horn for help righttt about nooow....

The Finishing Line...

1,2,3,4 years of uni.......going going gone.

It's almost coming to an end. I've been so busy enjoying myself that I've forgotten there's a finishing line to end all of this. That we are all in a cap race where most of us have started strolling to admire the scenery. Haha...someone told me that the funniest people also tend to be the most emo people. Well today as I'm writing my very last essay, my very last assignment in 16 years,
a flood of feelings are washing over me.

I hope that those who started this race with me will finish it together with me.
And as we walk pass that finishing line,
we'll continue walking beside each other
not as classmates anymore, but as lifelong friends.

Who's with me?






P.S: yo Lcc you Tissuepaper! if ur reading this pls give me an sms! I need to see that you are alive!

Just for entertainment...

Okie... I have been contemplating for a while now on whether I should post this here. It has a high potential of wiping away whatever scrap of reputation I have left and may probably make some view me in a different light. I'd like to make clear I'm still the same as before, maybe just more misunderstood than ever. (Haha... oh well, whatever makes people happy.)

聪明的人喜欢猜心，

虽然会猜对

但往往失去 自己的心。

傻气的人常常给心，

虽然被人笑

但却得到了 别人的心。

I guess I don't mind sacrificing a bit and be a joke,
if it lets someone smile for a while.


This is for all those who have just completed long strenuous essays (HTs/Isms), or those who are still in the midst of more work, whoever who may be in a need to de-stress or something to laugh at...







Presenting Clarissa's classic (mis)qoutes!............................

Mulu, Sarawak fieldtrip

(As the class was taking a break, we were waiting for two of my project mates who went with the guides to find the intersecting point where the rivers meet, so that we could test the geochemistry of the waters with a multi-channel probe. The two of them (Ms S and Mr Hy) came back a while later, looking slightly flustered with all the rushing of things)

Me to them: So did you find the part that joins?

Turns to Mr Hy: Did you manage to put that (stick ie. probe) thing in?

Geolab

(I wanted to transfer some photo files from my friend’s laptop)

Me to Ms J: Can I stick my thumb in your drive?

Ms E: I also want!

Me: With so many stuck inside, will become congested a not?

At the bookstore, Popular

(I was searching for a replacement eraser since I lost mine and happen to come across a box of the type of erasers recommended by my brother）

Me: Ooooh…my brother uses this type of rubber coz 比较好插!

At Din Tai Feng

(While eating a delicious xiaolongbao, the juice of that bun shoots out of the spoon…)

Me: Arrgghh…it squirted wrongly!

Cue stunned silence.

Me (being oblivious and irritated): I should have put the whole thing in my mouth!

Later……as I began to tackle the larger size shrimp dumpling…

Mr H: So are you gonna try to put the whole thing in your mouth this time?

Me: Cannot lah…it’s too big!

The next time you see me in class, I'll most probably be wearing a mask and not answer your call. But considering that tomorrow is the last geog lecture of my life, the odds are on my side that I wouldn't have to put a paper bag over my head for too long..ahah~!




P.S: See evil-tofu, my chinese can be power also too!

P.P.S: For people who don't get the jokes, it's okay... it's actually better this way!

Differences...

What happens when you find someone or something in someone that is so different from you that you just find it difficult/ impossible to accept?


How do you cope with it?
Do you avoid? Reject completely? Fake being nice while secretly cursing and be like what someone told me, "smile nicely outside and die bitterly inside"?
Haha...



Maybe if we just bothered to bend down our heads and take time to get to know others who we deem to belong to another "species", we may actually achieve a level of understanding, then tolerance, and over time... acceptance?

Pure acceptance is not tolerance.
If we accepted it, than there's nothing to tolerate in the first place!

I guess tolerance is not condoning what we don't like but still accepting the person for who he/she is. Not liking what we see but still treating the other person as a person.
Easier said than done but we still need to try.
Who knows, if everybody tried than we can all be like that nickelback song:

If everyone cared and nobody cried

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we'd see the day that nobody died












That will be the day when we are

"Acknowledging differences, accepting differences,
until differences make no difference anymore."



*pardon me coz I just completed a philosophy paper on tolerance that drove me into ponder-mode*

When Hunger strikes...

After spending the earlier part of the day working, I had a sudden urge for spaghetti and so in a spur of a moment, I decided to whip up a pan of that Italian pasta for my hungry tummy. Gosh! Thinking back, it must have been ages since I last cook that stuff.
(A quick scan through my previous blog posts revealed that the last mention of me cooking was almost 2 years ago in 2006! *audible gasps!*)



I recommend this 'Thai Sing' brand of Chilli Crab sauce for anyone interested in whipping up a killer treat. Just a few spoonfuls of this paste is enough to give any pasta a fiery kick..shiok!


And so after managing to scoff down that entire pan of pasta, (I can't believe I was that hungry!) my mind was somehow afloat with more images of food that I have tasted and eaten over the years. What can I say, once a foodie, always a foodie. It's a natural past time for Singaporeans.
Anyway I made a list of the best food experiences I have had so far.
If given a chance I want to do it all over again!
These are:





Paper Steamboat at Sakae Sushi. Four greedy souls picking away at that pot of nabe and slurping til the last drop of soup is gone. What made it better still was that it was freee!



Pretty cupcakes at Paisley & Cream, Clark Quay Central.
$5 for a cupcake and hot drink set with a river view and good company, what's there not to like!



Beef Goulash at Soup Spoon. The soup that I always order when I'm there.
Mr HJJ seems to be particularly enamoured by this dish as well though my new love there now is actually the 'Garlic Buttons'. (Breaded button mushrooms stuffed with mozzarella cheese dipped in garlic butter...*drools*)




Currywurst in Berlin. Costing only 1 Euro (S$2), a long sausage sliced into pieces with lots of curry powder, ketchup and red sauce, served piping hot in the cold winter weather.
The Ultimate heart warmer.



Tiramisu in Munich. A huge block of that dessert soaked in good espresso and spiked with lots of alcoholic rum. Yum!



Gyros in Greece. Ten times better than the expensive and dry kebabs we have in Singapore and also twice as cheap. Fresh garden vegetables of tomatoes, purple onions, crunchy lettuce paired with soft tender juicy kebab meat with a slathering of mayo all wrapped up in a Gyro.
Plus....
The Greek guy serving them was also quite hunky like the meat!
See picture below...heeheehee...



Okie that's all for now..time for dinner!

GE4000: Living in the Geography Department

A Random sample mapping of a day in my present life...

9am: Wake up, spend a few minutes recollecting what I have to do.
10am: Make way to school
11am: Arrive at Geography Honours Room, grunt greetings to fellow inhabitants
12pm: Geography Honours Room, mulling around some project or another
1pm: Lunch at the deck canteen
2pm: Back at Geography Honours Room
2.15pm: Leave to pee
2.45pm: Leave to throw rubbish
3pm: Engage in some part-time work as a photocopying pirate
4pm: Geography Honours Room, continue with 10% project discussion, 30% random fits of laughter and 60% irrelevant conversation
6.30pm: Cue audible ramblings of hungry classmate(s)'s stomach
7pm: Dinner at (insert faculty) canteen
7.45pm: Geography Honours Room to collect bags
8pm: Colonialization of yet another geographical space..the Geolab!
10pm: Make way home.
12mn: At home to blog this down.




I am officially grounded in Geography.














But surprisingly, I quite enjoy it. If given the same scenario in the time context of a few years back when I was in Year 2/3, I know i would have cursed and swear and dread every minute of it.
But not now.
Perhaps it's in knowing that these really are the last days of school that I will ever have. Perhaps it's in the gradual appreciation of the academic vigour, the intellectual stimulating debates and all the thought-provoking theories that the school offers.
More importantly, perhaps it's the sudden realization of how much I will miss the places which we can call our own, the people who are a big part of it and the friendships that have been forged through torture and laughter, sickness and health, life and death, rivers and batshit.

As the saying goes, it's the little things that count the most.

-- All the long late nights we spent in school trying to complete assignments. Just knowing that we are all in it together is comfort and a reassurance in itself. An unspoken form of support.

-- Getting tickled into peals of laughter by the atrocious misuse of the English language, both written and spoken! "Chek JaVa", "Alway", "LaBtop", and a classic line
"My friend can't eat, coz she's Halal!"
(you know who you are. wahaha! *jingles-in-glee*:P)

-- More laughter at said person's antics and expressions.

-- Even more side-splitting-stomach-pain-laugh-til-speechless when while trying to mimic said person's sighing expression, a sushi pops out of the mouth like a merlion fountain from fellow laugh-er!

-- Laughing. Laughing at people. Being laughed at By people.

-- Mass communal dinners.

-- Finding the unexpected connection with another person through a common (dis)interest. Be it music, religion, food, hobby, people, etc...

-- Holding a msn conversation with the person(s) who is sitting right beside/in front of you!
(Funnier still if we are all complaining about the people who are in the same room !)

-- Coming up with funny nicknames for classmates and then checking dictionary.com for the various translations!

-- Taking silly photos all over school

-- Making silly videos while dancing on a wobbly concrete slab of pavement, only to find out later that we were facing the open window of a room full of people attending a tutorial right beside us!

-- Seeing familiar friendly faces when stepping into class and

-- Being greeted with an over-enthusiastic, over-the-top, loud-hailer shout of
"Hi Clarissaaaaaaaaaaaaa..!!"
(The same zealous greeting person also accuses me of being a stalker when in fact, I'm like jack beside her towering bean-STALk lah! When we first met, I was effectively talking to a chest bone which probably explains why I didn't get any response nor acknowledgement of my presence. *haha.. I'm so gona be whacked if she saw this but luckily I don't think she reads my blog* heng!)

There are many many more...all the little stories and encounters etched into the pages of my memory. I wonder how many of these lines of friendship and bonds will remain unbroken after graduation.
Guess only time can tell.