2008 F1 Singapore Grand Prix

I went to the street circuit today with tickets given by my aunt. 😀 Hahah. Dad and I watched the practice sessions and it was totally awesome! The atmosphere there is never the same when compared to watching it from the television at home. The really loud whirring sounds from the F1 cars was quite deafening at first. Many people put on their ear plugs but Dad and I didn’t bring any. Haha.

Despite that, I was enjoying the race because after some time, I got used to the sounds and started enjoying it. 😀 Dad, on the other hand, couldn’t stand it. Hahah. So, we left 30 minutes before the 2nd practice session was over.

Even as we leave the area, and drive out of the city, we could hear the sound from the F1 cars! Hahah. To be frank, I miss it! 😛 Well, I support Robert Kubica! 😀 heheh. Anyway, I have some photos of the F1 practice session on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaslynology/sets/72157607708220698/

I hope that next year I can watch it again! 😀 Well, it’ll be even better if I’ll be working there. 🙂

Appointment with ENT

Today was my appointment with the ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. I had to leave school at 12:30 in order to be at TTSH at 14:00. I had mixed feelings about this appointment cause I really have no idea what I’ll be expecting the doctor to say, Furthermore, I’m not sure if the doctor will be nice or not, considering the past visits to the doctors.

I met up with mom at the MRT station and headed to TTSH together. We waited really long at Clinic 1B before my name was being called to be given a queue number. I must say that there isn’t as many people in the ENT clinic compared to the gastroenterology clinic. We waited till about 15:00 before I was being called into the doctor’s office.

I can’t remember the doctor’s name but he was a really good doctor, probably a professional one too. He had a student (trainee) in his office who was observing everything. The doctor greeted me warm-heartedly and asked me to take a seat. He started off confirming the details stated on the referral letter with me and proceeded on with his questions regarding my throat.

He asked really good questions and wrote down all the information that I gave. For some questions, I didn’t have an exact answer. He was really nice and did not say that I was too vague in providing information, unlike the other doctor at the polyclinic who said that me, being a 16 year-old is still providing vague answers. What do you expect? I mean, if I don’t remember, or didn’t take notice of any of those symptoms, there’s nothing I can do about it, right?

Anyway, this doctor took the trouble to explain things like acid reflux, regurgitation, and other stuff to me. To be frank, I’ve read all these online and stuff. However, it really shows that he is doing his job as a doctor and helping his patient to understand the causes of the problem or symptom.

Next, he asked me to move over to a seat. I could kind of guess what he wanted to do. :X I was right. He was going to perform a procedure whereby a scope is inserted through the nose to view the nasal passage and larynx. I think it’s called laryngoscopy. So, there, he started the procedure. First, he sprayed a drug into my nose. When he sprayed it, there is this weird feeling, something like how you’ll feel like when you are intolerant of wasabi. Haha. The drug diffused into my nasal passage, then down my throat. Next, he inserted a flexible tube, the scope, into my left nostril. You can feel a tube entering and moving through your nasal passage but it doesn’t hurt because of the drug. The doctor was kind of funny because he said this, “All right, I’m not going to let anyone poke you with it or what. I’m just going to hold it very steadily and let my student take a look, ok?” hehe. I nodded. 😛 When he’s done with the left nostril, he looked through my right nostril with the scope. And there, he’s done. After that whole process, my nasal passage and throat felt totally odd and my throat became number. The drug was bitter too. :X

I sat at the table again and he explained to me his diagnosis. He believed that my throat discomfort (feeling of a ‘lump in the throat’) is due to acid reflux and the liquid from the nose flowing down to the throat. He emphasized that the larynx has zero tolerance for acid. That’s something new and interesting I learn today. 🙂

So, he prescribed 2 drugs for me, one for acid reflux and one for the nasal problems:
– 240 capsules of Omeprazole 20mg (for 2 months)
– 42 tablets of Fexofenadine 180mg (for 6 weeks)

He wanted me to take these medicines and he’ll see me 2 months later to see how they work. Haha. Hmm.. He told me that they’re not miracle medicine (hahaha) so it’ll take 4 – 6 weeks to see the effects. Oh wells. I was so shocked when I saw the bag of medication at the pharmacy. >< SO MUCH! And now, my sisters are teasing me. )): Saying that I’m some elderly person, consuming so much medication. Argh.

Anyway, just glad that the doctor was nice (he was really calm when performing the procedure) and the receptionist too! Hehe. That’s about it.

Just stop it.

Hmm… what a day! Just 2 weeks after our preliminary examinations, we are given 2 mock exams, one yesterday and one today. Basically, I was feeling rather good today (before my social studies mock exam when I didn’t think about it). I received the rest of my results today and calculated my L1R4 and L1R5. I did better than I expected. I mean, this is the preliminary examinations. The exam is supposed to be more difficult than the actual ‘O’ level exam. With such an unprepared me who has problems trying to study properly, I didn’t expect myself to do better than my mid-year examination. Generally, I’ve improved. However, for subjects like Chemistry and Physics, I didn’t do that well. I’ll just state the grade for my subjects here:

English – A2
Chinese – A1
A. Math – A1
E. Math – A1
Biology – A1
Chemistry – A2
Physics – B4
Combined humanities (Geography + Social Studies) – C5

L1R4 – 6
L1R5 – 11

Looking at this, I’m starting to doubt that the preliminary examination isn’t a good gauge for the Os. I don’t know. Some teachers said the exam is actually very easy while others said it’s slightly above Os standard. I’m confused. I need to know how I should study for the rest of the days before the Os. Oh wells, I just follow my way. I’ll work on my Physics because it is very possible to score a distinction for Physics. Tuan Anh is going to help me with that I think. Thanks a lot!

There’s a question that I’ve been wondering about: Why do people like to irritate/annoy/disturb me?? I have enough of it already, you know? There’s a limit to my patience. You know what I dislike being called. You know what I dislike being described as. Why do you still say/do all these on purpose?? Just to annoy the hell out of me? Is that really that enjoyable? I’m sick of it. I don’t like it. I’ve repeated ‘stop it’ so many times and it’s often ignored. Please, by doing such irritating stuff, you’re making my impression of you become worst. I don’t like doing that, but that’s a normal reaction. Put yourself in my shoes. I really hope all these will stop. Just stop it.

Anyway, I’m going to relax a bit tomorrow. I’m going for a swim (hopefully) with my friends. It better be a good swim. No rain. No other problems. I just want to play some sports! I think if everything goes well, I’ll swim like nobody’s business.

Sigh. Everything better go on well. Stop all the extra problems. I have enough to think about.

Started off pretty sad, ended off pretty good.

For some reasons, I was pretty sad at school today. I guess I’m still upset over the fact that I’ve been getting rejected by my friends and worst, my study buddies. It’s getting really annoying now because at this point in time when studying is very important, I just can’t find a single soul to study with me. My study buddies, basically, disappeared. I get all sorts of reasons for it. It’s annoying because I called so many times trying to contact them and can’t. When I finally do, I figured that I get rejected because of their reasons. Then I ended up wasting my time and money on them. I mean, if you don’t want to study with me, then just say it, right? Why make me call repeatedly for weeks and make yourself apologise so many times because you know you aren’t going to join me? In fact, the number of times you apologise will be the number of times I get upset with myself for being so stupid trying to contact people who will say ‘no’ to studying out with me. So, basically, I have LOST all my study buddies. What a silly thing to happen when it’s only 35 days left to the Os. In addition, I figured that my supposedly ‘friends’ aren’t asking me to study with them anymore. I figured that they have their own little study group that doesn’t include me. What the hell has this world come to? I’m being so idiotic here because you know what? I feel like total crap now. Well, just imagine this happening to you. I have enough of “Sorry, … …”.

So, you guessed it, I got rejected again today. So, I went to study alone at Starbucks. I had a pretty nice time there ALONE. The weather wasn’t too bad out there cause I always occupy the table outdoors. I ordered a venti java chip frappuncino with whipped cream blended in it. I think it’s probably this beverage made me feel better. I finished what I planned to finish — geography essay, english planning and biology. Great. I was happy. So, my study plan went pretty well today.

That’s about it for today. I’m annoyed at the moment. 😡

So many things happened! :o

5 hours, not enough?

Yesterday, as mentioned, I found a study mentor, Germaine, and we planned a study plan for me. 5 hours of studying on Saturday, 4 hours on other days. Germaine managed to convince me that that was enough. Today, asked others for their opinions, Dory said that it should be double! Woah. 10 hours?? :O Then others said that it’s “Study SMART, not study HARD.” I knew that long ago. I’m just worried that 5 hours is too little. I tried to ask Mrs Lim to give me advice on that and she said that she can’t as it depends on different individuals. Well, so, is that enough?

Best Class Award

Guess what? My class, 4E1, won the Best Class Award! Cheers! 200 bucks for the class. We’ll probably use the money to have a good celebration after Os!

Results

Over the past two days and today, I’ve received my preliminary examination results for English Paper 2, A. Math, Chemistry and Physics. Good and bad.
English Paper 2. There was improvement actually. A huge improvement for the part on summary. I scored 22/25 for summary and 13/25 for comprehension. So, out of 50, I scored 35, which is 70%. A2.
A. Math. I’m actually rather satisfied with my A. Math but it could’ve been much better without those annoying careless mistakes. I scored 76/80 for Paper 1 and 91/100 for Paper 2. Overall, 44% and 56% respectively, I scored 92.8%. A1.
Chemistry. It was terrible. Lots of careless mistakes and it could’ve been way better! I scored only 31/40 for Paper 1 and 55/80 for Paper 2. Overall, I scored only 71.7%, A2.
Physics. Totally atrocious, but I kind of expected myself to fail. I didn’t. I scored 28/40 for Paper 1 and 44/80 for Paper 2. Overall, I scored 60%. B4.
Anyway, I have more papers to receive next week. I hope I’ll be mentally and physically strong enough to take it.

After school today…

I was extremely tired and exhausted. I felt like my brain was asleep and dead. I had no one to have lunch with and no one to study with. What a disappointment. So, after chatting with Gena for awhile at the LRT platform, I’ve decided that I’ll study at the McDonalds (newly-renovated) opposite my house. I was glad that it wasn’t packed and I had a good seat. I looked through my Chemistry paper, checked the errors and did corrections. I finished everything. I started packing up…

I wrote a love letter. The first one I’ve ever written, but not for someone I know and like.

I started packing up then a woman who just took the seat next to me said, “Excuse me, can you help me write a letter? I don’t know how to write.” She said that in Mandarin. So, I said, “sure, no problem.” After one moment, I was like, oh shit, I can’t remember how to write Chinese words very well! >< I told her that and she said that I’ll write in English. She wanted me to write in BIG handwritings cause the recipient has some problems with his eyesight. It took me awhile to practise writing BIG words. Then she started. She continued speaking in Mandarin. That’s when I figured out that I was going to translate everything she said in Mandarin, into English! Hahah. The recipient is actually an Indian guy from India who is in the Singapore prison at the moment. Basically the letter included things like, “I miss you very much!”, “I am very worried about you.”, “I am worried that when you return to India next year and meet up with your family, you will forget me since you don’t need me anymore.”, “I will love you forever no matter what happens.” and “I will wait for you forever.” hehehe. Of course it included other things as well. As she told me what to write, she told me more about that guy and her too. :X She’s about at least about 35++ years’ old actually. :X Finally, she wanted me to draw something cute in the letter. I didn’t know what to draw. 😮 Haha. At last, the letter was done! *phew* She asked me to write the address and stuff.

Then complaining that she hasn’t receive a letter from him this month and said that he say he will write to her once a month. She showed me the letter that stated that and confirmed with me if that was true. The letter stated, “I can only write a letter a month to you.” Well, I told her that that means that he can only write her a letter once a month and not twice and stuff. But it does not necessarily mean that he will write to you. She still kept trying to convince herself that the guy will write to her every month and he didn’t. Oh wells.

Done with the letter. What now? Text messages??

When I was packing up the rest of my stuff and wanted to tell her that I’m leaving, she asked me to help her send a text message to a girl from the Philippines who is that guy’s ex-girlfriend. So, I helped her type the message which mentioned about that guy saying that the relationship between them have ended and he just misses his daughter. Etc. Once I’m done with that 4-page text message, she looked at it and wanted me to help her send a message to an Indonesian girl. She said she wants to find out what’s that girl’s relationship with another guy. Gosh. She made me scold the girl in the message! >< She made me scold that girl ‘bitch’. ): Anyway, the last few sentences for the message gave me a shock! She wanted me to write to her to warn her not to harass that other guy because she is his WIFE, if not she’ll be sorry for it. :O She is his wife? She loves that other Indian guy in the prison? Gosh. This is so messed up. :X Oh wells, My ‘job’ was just to send the messages. Once I was done with that, I told her I need to go and she let me go. haha.

Last surprise, I think

When I reached home, I saw a letter on the coffee table. Hmmm, an envelope with MANY STAMPS. Pretty attractive too. hahaha. I was hoping that it’s for me. xP And true enough, it was for me! It was a surprise letter from Jake! Woah. It was very very surprising. hahahaha. It has a card for the Independence Day of Ukraine. 😉 That’s very cool. 🙂 Thank you so much, Jake!

Well, I guess I’ll just stop here. What a long entry today. 😡

Different approaches. Which is better?

This morning started off with feedbacks from Mrs Ali regarding our Social Studies source-based questions. I was listening attentively and copied down notes. After Social Studies was supposedly English lesson. However, Miss Krishnan wasn’t at school. So, Miss Lo took over her lesson and she gave us a lecture. It was harsh and pretty demoralising, although some of the things she mentioned were true. Her lecture left the class really quiet and she left the class with lots of disappointment.

Mrs Lim, on the other hand, was extremely positive. She came in during Chemistry lessons and told us inspiring stuff. She did her best to make us feel better. I don’t know about our Chemistry results. Our results have not reached our targeted MSG yet. However, she was happy. She believed in us. She gave us her support.

Two teachers, two different approaches. The negative approach and the positive approach. Which one is better? Apparently the positive approach! I was really grateful for how Mrs Lim sees the whole thing. I mean, I really don’t think that negativity and scolding is going to help at all. It causes us to panic, freak out and for some, break down. What will help now is by going through the mistakes with us, giving us support, believe in us and we will feel better.

Anyway, during the past weeks, I’ve been wondering how to come up with a good study plan for my Os for the remaining time. It was really silly. I’m so not a ‘follow the schedule’ kind of person! I just needed a plan that will work. Today, I panicked cause I still didn’t have a plan! So, I suddenly thought of the idea of having a study mentor. I found someone who’s willing to help me and I’m really grateful for that. That person is Germaine (from Amsterdam!). It’s really cool. He helped me a bit with planning out the subjects to study and stuff. He was really comforting and convincing. Well, now, my plan is out and I am pretty confident that I can follow it cause I have a mentor now! hahaha. Really, thank you very much! (:

All right. Now I’m sleepy, tired and irritated by the eczema. So, I’ll (happily) go to bed. Have a good day/night everyone!

New stuff.

You know what? The other side of my earpiece spoiled THIS MORNING. >< So, the whole thing became useless this morning. Oh wells. >< You know, I can’t live without music!! So, this afternoon, after school, I went to purchase a new earpiece. 🙂 Well, this time I bought a Nike one to try out cause I after Os, I’m going to workout a lot! yay! 😀

Mom bought a new body wash and rash cream from the pharmacy. At the moment, the rash cream doesn’t seem to be very helpful. The effect wears off quite soon. )):

Ahhh.. I think I’ll stop here. Hmm.. wait, one more thing. Some people are just too demoralising to be with. :X

Bad earpiece and eczema! ):

Ahhh… I can’t blast music through my earpiece anymore. ): It can never work with only 1 side functioning. I need to get a new earpiece but it’s probably not going to be soon. ): Oh wells.

My eczema is driving me nuts. It’s worsening day by day and I really don’t know what I can do about it! I went to the clinic to try to purchase a new tube of eczema cream and they wouldn’t allow me to buy it! What the hell is wrong with them?? They said that I didn’t see the doctor for too long. Why would I bother to visit the doctor when I already know what to use?? This eczema cream is really effective and I really wish I have it right now. It’s itchy, reddish and irritating! What to do? )):

Well, I guess I’ll update more tomorrow. :X

These days…

I did so many things the past few days and I’m just so lazy to type everything here. ><

Friday was Teachers’ Day celebration and Sec 4 Farewell Celebration. It was pretty touching and it did make me cry. hahaha. I just want to say that I appreciate what my teachers do, a lot. They are the people I look up to, approach when I’m in trouble, and also those that I share stuff with. 🙂 I just want to wish them a Happy Teachers’ Day! I will not forget them. 🙂 Definitely, I’ll join the school alumni and continue to help the school. Of course, I’ll stay in touch with my teachers too! 😀

That day, I went out with Alisha and Natasha for the rest of the day too. We shopped around Orchard Road, had dinner together, went to the Night Safari, and then we had supper together! It was so late by then! 😛 I only reached home at 01:00. I really enjoyed that whole day although it was pretty tiring!

The Night Safari photograph with the frame. 🙂
The picture was taken under terrible lightings (the street lamps)

Saturday was the last day I spent with them. I went to the country club and spent my time with them. 🙂 It was sad that we have to part at the shopping mall on Saturday and not the airport on Sunday because their flight was too early. :X I wish I’ll be able to visit them in Canada one day. 🙂

From left: Natasha, Alisha, me, Jolyn
That’s where we parted. :X

I spent my whole Sunday at home because I couldn’t find anyone to study out with me. ): That sucked, but I thought maybe it’ll be a day off as I kind of convinced myself that I will definitely find people to study with me on Monday. However, I was wrong. I couldn’t find anyone at all. I stayed home, and as most people know, I can’t study at home. So, I spent my time talking on skype. Dad was unhappy with me. I knew it. Mom has always been unhappy with that. But what else can I do??? Dad lectured me after that. It was horrible cause I didn’t want to sit with him and talk at all. I just want to be alone. No talks. Nothing. I cried really bad that day. I shut myself in the bedroom in the dark, blasted really noisy music to the maximum on my mp3, and cried.

I didn’t want that to happen again. So, I figured that I MUST get myself out of the house to study or something. I contacted all my study mates and AGAIN, none of them could make it on Tuesday. ))): It was such a disappointment! It turns out that I had to force myself to go out SOMEWHERE ALONE to do something, and that’ll be study. Actually, I want to thank Nick for tempting me with all the best beverages from Starbucks! I went to Starbucks and ordered a Java Chip Frappuncino and spent 4 hours practising math. It was amazing.

Today, I went to study with Dory and Huiling at terminal 3. It didn’t turn out as good as expected. The seats we got was pretty terrible. My mood wasn’t too good since I wasn’t feeling my best these days, and I just had no mood to study. The math didn’t excite me either. Sigh. It was kind of silly. I was tired and I felt nauseated. I’ve been feeling like this all the time recently! ><

Oh wells. Where to study at tomorrow? I think I prefer studying outdoors after all. I studied outdoors at Starbucks on Tuesday and it was good. I studied inside the airport with air conditioning and it wasn’t too good. Oh wells. The thing is, no one wants to study outdoors. :X

I hope the next few days will be better. Sometimes I just wish I live alone.