Relax

Finally I am done with the TOEFL and GRE!

The GRE was quite nightmarish! I took quite a lot of time to decide on the topic for the first essay, cos neither of the topics appealed to me. Eventually managed to squeeze out some stuff, but I didn't think it was very good...

I thought the Verbal part was BAD...didn't know the meaning to half the words and had to make educated (or in many cases, wild) guesses cos there really wasn't much time to think them over. And this was despite me trying my hardest to cram in loads of new words over the past few weeks...

The Maths bit was harder than expected too; the practice questions posted on the Internet were deceivingly easy! For the real test, I spent so much time puzzling them out that I couldn't finish all the questions.

So when I was about to view my scores, I was seriously thinking, should I not report the score if it falls below the requirements? But I was pleasantly surprised by the score I received...definitely much better than what I had imagined and thankfully meeting the requirements set. I guess I was very lucky lor!

Can finally relax for a while now. For a treat, I bought myself a couple of CDs (Aikawa Nanase, yeah!) and am blasting "R.U.O.K.?!" now.

Blog Game

Yeah it's one of those games. I usually have no patience for these. But well, there's always a first time. Just for fun!

你點我﹐我點你

點點點~你中標﹗﹗~快點答﹗
The following 5 :
Francine, irishblue, littlefish, eowplum & wenzi

參加者請複製以下兩項!(遊戲+規則)
?遊戲名稱：【愛的大集合】

?遊戲規則
1.必須發表一篇文章，把所有愛的問題都答出來
(問題請看指名你的那位朋友的網誌在複製過來寫就OK了)
2.寫完所有愛的問題後，自己加多一題，請點名５位的lucky朋友繼續串聯下去！_


1 點我的人 ﹕CaoGu
2 寫出填寫日期吧 - 24/05/06
3 愛的食物︰媽媽煮的
4 愛的音樂︰搖滾
5 愛的地方︰家
6 愛的口頭禪︰哦
7 愛的顏色︰藍﹐綠﹐紫
8 愛的偶像︰Sammi & hocc
9 愛的甜食︰雪糕
10 愛的節目: 音樂
11 愛的書籍︰Harry Potter
12 愛的店︰唱片店
13 愛的作家︰Sammi (writing those columns, 算不算?)
14 愛的唱作人︰hocc
15 愛的國家︰新加坡
16 愛的座右銘︰Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you.
17 愛的習慣︰胡思亂想
18 愛的腔調︰堅強
19 愛的是受還是攻︰Both?
20 愛的星座︰雙子座
21 愛的休閒︰聽歌﹑睇DVD/VCD
22 愛的個性︰穩扎穩打
23 愛的女人︰媽媽
24 愛的男人︰爸爸
25 愛的公仔︰Kinokoron
26 愛的動作︰忘形時搭膊
27 愛係點的︰互相扶持
28 愛人地點對你︰真心
29 愛的飲品︰可樂
30 愛的感覺︰甜
31 愛的類型︰像hocc
32 愛的朋友︰一起共患難的
33 愛的承諾︰I’ll be there for you
35 愛的運動︰ 籃球
36 愛的人︰ 爸爸媽媽
37 愛的歌詞︰能成為密友大概總帶著愛
38 愛的收藏品︰CDs, Toy MINIs
39 愛的工作︰現在這份
40 愛的服飾︰Casual
41 愛的牌子︰Reebok
42 愛的subject︰Chemistry
43 愛的結果︰圓滿
44 愛的勇氣：當面表白
男山咖啡 問 45 愛的時間：放假
建仔 問 46 愛的文章：如無意外 by hocc
藥丸 問 47 愛既季節：秋
denise 問 48 愛的節日：hocc 出碟的日子，算不算?
在途中...沒停站 問 49 愛的興趣： 結他
nochoice 問 50 愛的反面(除了恨)：無情
Vanassa 問 51 愛的願望: 我愛的人健康快樂
痴心情長劍 問 52 你相信愛可以改變一切嗎? 相信
天使之淚 問 53 : 愛到極愛但得不到愛，你會報復嗎？ 不會
自由鳥 問 54 : 當你發覺自己越愛越深，同時卻愛得越深越痛，你會??? 不知道﹐等真的發生了再說﹗
CaoGu問55﹕ 愛為她/他做什麼﹖拍照
yung 問 56 愛的歌曲:

Complete

This is for my friend A who is getting married today! (Well they are behind us by 7 or 8hrs...) Gong hey nei!

圓滿 (何韻詩)
作曲： 何韻詩 作詞： 黃偉文

舊日在我生命　
砌圖留下一方先完成
遺失的風景當方向沒法被對證　
空空的框框只有白色的背景

但現在我肯定　
遊人其實在隨後接應
將一幅一幅精彩畫面拼入去　
美滿結局變得確定

未完善的身影　
要無縫的跟你合拼　
今生最重要志願才達成

由從前若有所失　
由從前認輸怨命　
經已變做自信和後勁

原來我所失去那半正是你 　
我已完全因我已獲得你我未完備　ａh~ｈa
當空缺被你完全縫合才是我自己
嘴角上留下一吻的距離
等你填滿這傳奇

並無什麼都好
最祈求的經已遇到　
未來回顧我亦能自豪　ａh~hａ
何來遺憾要修補　猶如甜蜜的句號　
繪了個圓讓我們共舞

原來我所失去那半正是你
我已完全因我已獲得你我未完備　ａh~ｈa
當空缺被你完全縫合才是我自己

原來我所需要那半正是你
我已完全 因我已滿滿地裝滿你 再未完備 ａh~ｈa　
都可靠著你神乎奇技重造我自己
這結局其實使我很好奇

為何尋遍世上　追溯著名與利　
令人圓滿卻是你

Worried

Radiotherapy is very, very terrible gar! Esp at the throat area. All along she didn't puke while doing chemo and I thought everything's ok. Who knows that two weeks into radio her mouth becomes dry and throat hurts so badly that she can't eat solid food. Now can't even swallow porridge and can only drink the nutritional drink which smells horrid! Six times a day! Maybe it's that smell or one of the medicines that's causing the vomiting. This evening she couldn't eat anything...And I can't do anything until she goes and see what the doc says tomorrow...So worried...

Some updates about the past week or so. Tiff visited last week. Dinner at Purvis St and drinks at Boat Quay last Tues. But that turned out to be the only day I could join them, cos my sickening cough got worse. Felt so sorry to Tiff. I rested on Wed then joined bobble, wenzi and pris for dinner on Thurs cos we'd already arranged to meet long ago. Then as the evening progressed I coughed more and more until by the time I reached home I had no voice left! Spent the next few days resting and staying away from air-con. In the end decided to try the 'coughing soup', this Chinese herbal thing that comes with all the ingredients packed nicely. Just need to throw everything into boiling water and simmer at low heat. So far I've drunk three packets. Good thing it doesn't taste too yucky. Hope to get rid of this cough soon.

First packet:


Second packet (cheaper!):

Mother

Honestly these few days not much mood to blog. Cough still on-off. Thurs night was the worst, cough until almost no voice left. I think I'd better stop going out esp to air-con places! This morning also coughed quite badly. The kind when once it starts it takes a while to stop.

My mum isn't feeling too good either. If we thought chemotherapy was bad, then radiotherapy is much worse! Cos it's in the nose/throat area, so it's affecting her ability to swallow. She's now eating mostly porridge and nutritional drinks, both very yucky things to me lor...I feel so sorry for her. And despite her own troubles she just bought me some "咳嗽湯". Just one packet first in case I can't stand it. I'll have to try it and see if it works. Let you all know how it tastes later. It's being brewed now!

Anyway, the main purpose of blogging today:



She doesn't like me to waste money on expensive and useless things. So I just bought her some simple purple silk roses. Happy Mother's Day!

Calligraphy

I first started practising Chinese calligraphy in Dec 2004. My initial thought was to improve my ugly handwriting and to be able to write Fai Chun for CNY. I don't think my handwriting has gotten better and I can't write Fai Chun yet!

Then again I haven't been very disciplined. There were several periods of long breaks during the past one and a half years, but happily I managed to pick it up again this year.

From the beginning, there was no cfoo. I just bought elementary books and cheap ink and brushes and started writing on old newspaper. My mum gave me comments now and then but she wasn't a master herself. I haven't kept my earliest (and ugliest) pieces so I'm not able to make a comparison with my latest ones. But I have improved though, I hope!

Ok, it's not good, but here are my latest works, written during my last practice session last Sun:



Happy Birthday to Ho C Goo!

Weak

WHO seems to be warning about flu epidemics quite a lot recently.

The flu viruses are getting stronger? Or am I just weak?

Every year I get little colds and flus, and these are ok lor. But I find that the last two major flus I had, I took so long to recover completely. Last July it was so bad that I had 4 days MC (accumulative) and it took me another 2 or 3 weeks to regain my appetite.

This time I'd already spent one long weekend sleeping plus 2 days MC. But still not well! The throat just gets painful now and then, and the cough makes its presence felt on and off. Not to mention the stupid phlegm that refuses to vanish! My colleagues advise me to rest more and don't talk. But if people talk to me I have to respond mah...

Worse thing is my mum's illness...chemo drugs lower the body's immunity so my dad keeps telling us to try to avoid getting sick so as not to spread the germs to her. As if we can help such things!

I really need to get well soon!

Remedy

I guess I'm still not completely recovered from that sore throat/cold/cough that first surfaced 1 week plus ago.

Finished the doc's medicine a few days ago but still got a lingering cough and some phlegm residing happily in my nose/throat! And I tend to lose my voice sometimes.

What to do? Don't speak? Drink honey water? I think maybe I drank too much of it, this morning got diarrhoea :(

Anyone got any remedies to suggest?

Btw Workers Party has been offered the NCMP seat. So we are going to see Sylvia Lim in the Parliament? Supporters of 'Aljunied's Ah Lian' (haha, I read that in the newspapers...thought that was a rather cute and endearing nickname coined by someone!) and those hoping for a louder Opposition Voice will be pleased.

Gala Spectacular 1986

One of those re-runs of classics by TVB again this afternoon. It was great! A no frills charity show for one of HK's oldest charity organisations 保良局, the six performers were truly singers while the four comperes (Lydia Sum, Ho B, Ah Lek and Carina Lau) were witty and funny.

First off was a very young Lui Fong. Even though I wasn't familiar with his songs, I remembered his duet with Carina, and 君心知我心, the theme song of a very old TVB series 赤腳紳士 which I watched when I was very young. Sometimes I'm a bit amazed by my memory!

Next was George Lam. He and his moustache looked exactly the same then and now! I only knew a few of his hits and he sang all of them, the classic 最愛是誰, the tongue-twister monster of numbers 數字人生, the even-more-of-a-tongue-twister 阿Lam日記, and 千億個夜晚.

Then it was Anita! She and her Grasshoppers did three songs including 愛將 and 將冰山劈開. During the latter, her mic suddenly went silent and her vocals couldn't be heard. One Grasshopper cooly went up to her and gave her his mic while an equally calm and collected Mui-jeh passed him her spoilt one, as if it was all part of the dance routine. 型爆!

Teresa Teng was up next but I wasn't very familiar with her songs apart from the evergreen 月亮代表我的心 and 償還, later covered by Anita and Sammi respectively. Her Cantonese wasn't perfect but I actually found her slightly clumsy speeches rather endearing, and so did the audience, I think.

Then it was Leslie, who opened with two slow numbers 當年情 and 有誰共鳴 before getting the audience high with his by-now classic duet with Anita 冰山大火 and another fast song.

Last to perform was Jenny Tseng. I didn't know any of her songs, except her final take with an innovative combination of 明天會更好/We are the World.

But even though some of the songs were dated and the make-up and dressing rather weird by today's standards, after watching the show, I was again reminded that some people are just born with the poise and charm to be a star.

有些人站出來就是巨星.

Election

It's Polling Day tomorrow but I'm not getting to vote AGAIN.

Even though I’m not very interested in politics, I seriously think that this GRC business is terribly unhealthy in the long run. Can you blame young people for their apathy towards politics when half the time people don't get to vote because there is a walkover in their 5- or 6-membered GRC helmed by a heavyweight minister?

Can we have all SMCs next election? (wishful thinking?) In a GRC, it seems that people are mostly voting for one or two particular ministers with proven capabilities, while the rest of the members just ride on it and get elected together. Rather than just tell people that these candidates are capable, why not put them through the test by making all of them fight a contest, and when they win, everyone will be convinced of their abilities.

The theory behind GRCs is supposedly to ensure representation of the minority races. But aren’t we a society built on meritocracy? Surely minority candidates of calibre shouldn’t have problems winning the votes if they are really capable and care for their people. Anyway, there are still NMPs in the event that the minority races are under-represented. Or at the very least, GRCs should contain fewer members, perhaps three each.

I don’t know if it’s because they are not being challenged, but in the last 5 years, I have never seen any of my five MPs, except once when one of them came for a very short house visit. And I had to be very ill when he visited so I never got to meet him! But even this one MP has now moved to another constituency! I wonder if I will ever see any of my MPs on a walk-about the next 5 years.

Let me also say that I think it’s unfair to link upgrading of housing estates to voting. People pay taxes irregardless of which ward they live in, so if there should be any priority at all, it should be given to the oldest flats. It’s the people’s money, not the party’s money, for goodness sake.

Wasteful

Started having a sore throat on Friday. Seemed like getting better on Saturday cos my throat wasn't very painful anymore. I was practising guitar and even met Satoshi for dinner. Long time never met him! Supposed to meet up on Sunday as well, but he was sick and so was I! My nose started running like a tap...slept pretty much the whole day until my back aches! Today feeling better but still nursing a slight headache due to my now choc-a-block nose! Aaargh...what a waste of a long weekend!