Friday, July 9, 2004 12:55 a.m.

alright first things first, 4purity won the best class award!
woohoo. :)

i'm just gonna give a quick update because i've got to hit the biology books in preparation for the (predictably) turmulous test tomorrow; what with 11 long chapters to study for.

see, shock therapy.

and speaking of tests, the weekly math ones aren't going great for me either, especially if they continue at this rate.
mrs soh hasn't returned any of our papers yet because she apparently thinks we should dedicate the time spent doing corrections for revision instead.
of course this means we are not aware of our results, except that i hear people from other classes are drastically failing them.
oh gosh, imagine math-hating me.
at least we can't go negative.

anyway, my chinese orals on tuesday weren't any better.
the passage was like a chinese tongue-twister to me, and the topics left me speechlessly searching for the correct terms to use.
it was something about 66% of youths having surfed pornographic sites (i can just imagine the search engines leading porn surfers here with this keyword now in my blog), and the other on whether or not our school uniforms were necessary, and how i would modify it given the chance.
needless to say, i now regret not speaking more.
but the examiners were extremely nice. :)

with all this negativity going on in school, i must say i've been enjoying lessons.
english is particularly interesting - we're speaking more than writing in class now.

oh, and i've now a new fetish for the teh tarik in school.
i used to drink a lot of it when i was in upper primary, and come to think of it, i'm going to miss it pretty badly next year.
so now i'm on this huge teh tarik drinking frenzy in the mornings and after school.
hilarious, really, considering charm and i suspect it's the teh tarik that's been causing us our diarrhoea attack the past couple of days.
ho hum. :)

oh yes, my dad's formatting the computer so i can only upload the youth day photos once that's done.
right now, i'm using my sister's surprisingly efficient laptop that's loading webpages pretty darn fast.
haha...
now then, back to the 11 chapters.

Monday, July 5, 2004 11:48 p.m.

friday's youth day was awesome.
way better than i'd expected. :)

charm and i went out on thursday to get the class huge ear hoops, thematically retro.
everyone in class looked so pretty decked out in their retro gear!
funky cool. :)
plus, swei won the best dressed girl award with her stunning afro wig.
i do hope we win the best class. xP

anyway, saturday was our o level chinese listening comprehension...
and what a disaster.
i actually shut off halfway through the passage, and so i lost myself in the recording.
haha.
but i pretty much relied on common sense for most of the questions so i hope it turns out fine afterall.

after that, i went down for my first lesson in the new french class (up a new level!), and i'm so happy that most of the class stayed together. :)
we even got the same teacher.
also with us are 3 new students, one of whom is an old girl of st nicks.
it was quite nice catching up on the teachers who used to teach her and how things have changed so much now.
we both agree that xiao zhang can't be replaced. :)

met mum at bigO in wheelock place where she collected my grandad's birthday cake, before heading down to east coast for a seafood feast.
after going to my aunt's place to cut the cake, all of us sat around the television to watch the wimbledon tennis finals.
everyone was rooting for sharapova and commenting on how heavily made-up serena was...
haha.
hurrah for the russian. :)

sunday morning, i woke up to attend mass with my sis, kim and brendan.
it's been really long since i last went for postcon/youthcharge because of so many other commitments...
i must make it a point to attend next week.
anyhow, dad took davina and i downtown to shop for groceries, books and watch spiderman.
i loved it.
i especially love the wedding dress kirsten dunst wore. :)

in fact, i love the show so much i watched it again today...
except that i slept for about half an hour in the middle.
it's been so long since i last watched a movie with sab, mitch, sarah and trish...
so it was really nice to meet outside again. :D

sarah and i met the rest of the ld girls this morning for lunch at little india.
ms heng and ms lai were with us too...
they're very nice ladies, really, as teachers always are outside school. :)
us dance girls headed down to dramaplus, this studio in one of the shophouses, for rehearsals.
we had to walk through this stinky wet market with a smell that almost curdled the milk i drank for breakfast.
terrible.

anyhow, rehearsals went on fine and we were dismissed at 4pm, after which sarah and i took a train down to cineleisure for the movie.
town was packed with secondary kids all over the place...
and i realised it's been a long time since i last went to cine.
i mean, when i was in lower secondary, we used to go there almost everyday for lunch or to catch a movie.
but now, that place seems almost boring.
haha...
different interests i guess.

anyway, i'm probably only going to write entries on weekends from now on.
the daily tests are really getting to me.
and, i think st nicks is trying out some shock therapy on us, what with half the usual time given in tests that have also upped in the level of difficulty.
it's scaring me though...
ho hum.

and speaking of youth day, i have a few photos that i'll update once the mood strikes.
haha...
i'm lazy at the moment.
and i need to catch up on sleep...
staying up for the euro matches is really taking its toll on my entire body system.
bleh.

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 10:43 p.m.

hands up all those who experienced the roh-mahn-tick blackout last night!
thoroughly fun, yes?

after watching mean girls (sab got us premier tickets!), i made my way home and on the way, the lights suddenly went out.
i thought i went blind or something.
after a (long) while of stoning in disbelief, i quickly walked home by the light of my handphone and vehicles on the way...
because even the street lamps went out (wow, very much like in harry potter).

anyhow, u know enid blyton's faraway tree story, when the characters climb the faraway tree during the light festival with their pathway illuminated solely by the candles on the way?
yeah well, it was pretty much like that. :)
everyone on the way was really friendly, joking about the dark and electricity shortage and everything.
however, the heat was terrible...
made worse by the fact that i had to climb 16 stories up.
fun though. :D

could tell many people were affected...
smses and calls came in asking if i got the blackout too.
note to self: our home needs a flashlight.
or at least scented candles, not smoke-smell emitting ones.

alrighty, school's been a blast and i've been eating far too many chocolate sundaes.
i guess that's about all i have to say.

oh yes, and youth day's this friday.
i'm not too keen on the retro theme...
but with afro hairdos, oh yes yes yes!

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 12:05 a.m.

my ideal home

My idea of an ideal home is not one of stupendous luxury. Huge carpeted mansions, sprawling ten-acre gardens and Olympic-sized pools do not appeal to me. To speak of my most perfect haven, is to speak of my childhood home.

Tucked along a row of whitewashed, single-storey houses, my first house was not much of a stunner. The garden – a picture straight out of a storybook with its neat rose bushes, trim carpet grass, and a huge acacia tree from which a wooden swing hung – was my mother’s pride and joy. Hers was a passion rivalled only by our neighbours. In a neighbourhood of conformity, the gardens were the only thing to differentiate one identical house from the next – a difference that was always strongly upheld.

I remember waking up for school at seven every morning to the sounds of lawnmowers and clicking garden shears. From my bedroom window, I could see Mrs Ong from across the street preening her spice garden, Mr Pereira climbing his fruit trees and covering the fruits with plastic bags, and dear Aunt Susie from the house next-door releasing yet another batch of ladybugs on her row of sunflowers to counter the attacking aphids. My own mother would totter about the garden snipping at our rose bushes and weeding the soft grass. Yes, gardening was both a hobby and the lifeblood of our neighbourhood. It held the people together in mutual understanding – a merit that was never really threatened in our little community.

Breakfast was a daily affair that was hardly overlooked as it often is now. Never was there a tastier mug of hot chocolate than the one my mother made for me. There was just something about it – be it the sweetness of the cocoa, the fluffiness of the soft marshmallows floating on top, or the warmth of the mug as I cupped it in my small little hands. I remember my father reading the papers along with his breakfast, flipping the gigantic grey sheets with such relative ease. I, on the other hand, had only succeeded in crumpling the papers each time I attempted to search for the comic page. They seemed to me the only happy things in the greyish pages of gloom and doom, and it is the same simple reason why I adore the comic pages to this day.

School held such anticipation for me then. Despite the kindergarten’s mere hundred-metre distance from my house, I would insist on riding my tricycle to the school – and what a thrill it was for me. The route was a familiar one too, one of which I could meander through with my eyes closed – quite literally. Eyes shut tight and hands firmly gripping the handles, I wobbled down the street with my mother walking right behind me. People often say your other four senses magnify when one is lost, and how true it is. I could take in new smells from a single breath – of freshly cut grass and piping-hot breakfasts wafting through the air from the houses I passed. My ears pricked at the sound of church bells going off from the nearby parish, and my mouth could almost taste the freshly brewed coffee of which the intense aroma, till this day, never fails to invigorate me. Truly, it was an assault of the senses. Such an appreciation for the simple things in life never did come as easily to me as it did in those days.

Time was not a factor in my childhood. I do not remember ever rushing, maturing, or even growing – though I suppose I must have. Life just seemed so carefree back then, and it was to me an unburdened and Elysian-like lifestyle. My entire being lived to learn without the connotations of a grade-driven education system – a repose that I was much akin to. The neighbourhood itself had such an endearing charm and a quaintness that I still earnestly love to this day.

My idea of an ideal home is one of simplicity, security and self-fulfilment – a place where I can recognize beauty in everyday life, and find harmony with our world.

Home is where we can discover that peace may even be found in a mug of hot chocolate.

.....

never have i written anything as remotely mushy or politically-correct as this.
i get cringe ever so slightly everytime i read this. :D
digging through forgotten folders always bring up amusing nuggets.

Sunday, June 27, 2004 06:24 p.m.

u would think that with only 3 hours of rest last night (or this morning), i'd be slumped on my couch recovering from the dearth of sleep.
but no, i'm searching (in vain) for my holiday homework lost amidst the gazillions of other worksheets.
ho hum.

anyway, yesterday was awesome.
sab and i had this absolutely delicious yoghurt concoction thing that is now right up there with my favourites like gelato.
haha.
i'm gonna make citylink my new regular stopover. :)

after my french exam (in which we blatantly copied off our neighbours...hilarious!), i went to meet charm in town for some impromptu shopping.
my want-list has now ballooned some $700 worth of sale goods...
however, i'm cash-strapped through and through.
blimey.

anyhow, we also bought weiwei her birthday present; a pink disney princesses haversack filled with yummy stuff from toys'r'us.
cute!
tanny and chow joined us awhile later and we cabbed down to swei's place the birthday party.

we got goodie bags with yo-yos, noise-makers, bubble solution, sweets and the like....
very reminiscent of those primary school parties we used to attend. :)
and, we had a mr ramli there himself to fry us the very famous ramli burger. :D
yummy.

so basically, we pretty much pigged out the entire time...
playing bridge, blasting music from the ipods (we all have different music!), watching football, and raiding the fridge right up to 5am in the morning.
we conked off at 6.30am and woke up at 10am, surprisingly without much fuss.
made our way down to patson's at bugis and surprised janice with our presence.
haha...
she looked mighty shocked.
i actually miss that girl and all her nonsense. :)

okae, i'm off to search for my missing homework.
i hope no one gets the back-to-school blues.

Friday, June 25, 2004 06:13 p.m.

i think my house is falling apart bit by bit.

just yesterday, our water heater started leaking uncontrollably, so we had it changed.
now, just twisting the tap 5° more to the hot side will immediately ignite the already-scalding water up by about 10°c.
no kidding.
if i'm not careful, i just might boil myself one day.

anyhow, my dad's fixing my sister's leaking (surprise surprise) air conditioner now.
i think the freezer is more important though.
we can't even store ice cream anymore.

before u know it, the doors will start creaking (i think they do already) and the lights will begin to flicker (correction: they are flickering).

ho hum.

Thursday, June 24, 2004 07:07 p.m.

My name is: karina.
I may seem: too happy
But I'm really: just oblivious.
People who know me think I'm: wasting my money on things i don't need.
If you knew me you'd probably: be asking me to shut up. :)
Sometimes I feel: like i just have to have gelato, except my freezer can't store anything other than ice.
In the morning, I: perpetually ask for "5 minutes!"
I like to sleep: under the covers.
If I could be doing anything right now, I would be: shopping or reading.
Money is: not the root of all evil. greed is.
One thing I wish I had is: more money. :)
One thing I have that I wish I didn't: is homework.
What I don't need: is constant nagging.
If I had one wish it would be: to have 10 new wishes everyday. :)
Love: is indispensable.
My body: is lacking in rest.
If an angel flew into my window at night I would: ask why.
If a demon crashed into my window I would: freak out big time.
If I could see one person right now it would be: adam brody!
Something I want but I don't really need is: shopping.
Something I need but I don't really want is: stress.
I live to: accomplish.
I dare you to: try my cooking. haha.
I am afraid of: rodents and creepy crawlies.
It makes me angry when: people are ignorant.
I dream about: anything, really.
I daydream about: what i'd do after school.
My ideal mate would: prepare me food when i get hunger pangs at night. :D
My ideal life would be: free of any worry.
One thing I know that I will never be able to do: is flex like those gymnasts.
If I could change one thing about myself physically, it would be: for a leaner body!
I am disappointed with: president george bush. and my financial status.
I am elated with: the fact that there is always a good piece of literature to read.
The story behind my username:
anirak = karina
My current favourite article of clothing: are yoga pants for lounging around in.
The last cd that I bought is:
dead letters by the rasmus.
My favourite place to be: is snuggled up in bed, reading a good book.
My least favorite place: is anywhere that smells horrid (like the cineleisure lift loft, level 6. eew.)
If I could play any instrument, it would it be: the saxophone.
The last song I sang was: this love by maroon 5
In my music player: the ipod.
I am currently annoyed by: the fan blowing my hair in my face.
My favourite phrases are: "too cool", "hubba" and "nay!" (said with much gusto.)
I am currently: agonizing over my itunes (i can't seem to play any music) and waiting for the oc to start. :)

in just about 4 hours.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:35 p.m.

sab, mitch, sarah, tanny, trish and i have gone from oh-gosh-we-never-ever-meet-up to wow-i-see-you-everyday.
of course, no one's complaining.
too much of a good thing can only get better. :D

so basically, ld sessions have started and we're meeting up everyday.
sarah's back from america too!
and after all our walking and shopping, i've finally got a vague idea of how my prom dress might look like. :)

anyway, ld sessions have been awesome-slacking-fun (the props people should know).
our instructor is this dandy little lady who teaches us the disco, rock&roll, waltz, hiphop and charlston dance...
quite cute.
i wonder what we're wearing though.

and i finally got my schedule for church lectoring.
i get the jitters just thinking about reading those bible passages in front of a crowd...
it's just different presenting something before adults.
unlike in school.
oh gosh...
i might lapse into this stuttering fit even.
or worse still, trip at the altar.
hmmmm.

anyway, i desperately want to start on the books my dad bought from kinokuniya.
he got this beautiful stack of classics like ulysses and stuff by sylvia plath...
only catch, beginning to read them would entirely wipe out any time i have left to complete my homework, which at this point has already reached its most critical stage.
and so, book-reading is totally out of the question this june holiday.
ho hum.

i am in a need of a proper holiday.
i want a fly-in-an-airplane, sail-on-a-ship, cruise-in-a-car sort of getaway to some other country.
oh bummer, but that'll come only in december.
i do hope we get to go to shanghai and stay in jan's resort, visit the children i miss ever-so-much in thailand, and hit the huge shopping centre at kuala lumpur for some serious retail therapy.
all after the dratty o's.

oh yes, do run out to your nearest candy store and grab a pack of black and white m&ms.
they're too cool.
and perfect for playing weiqi with. :)

all adam-brody-swooners unite!
thursday, please come quick.

Thursday, June 17, 2004 12:51 p.m.

i'm waiting for my sis to change and get ready...
for once i'm not the slow poke.

dimsum, here we come!

*sam! :: happy sweet 16th! :) what do u want for ur birthday huh? nvm i'll pick up something later. see u at ur party later! hope u have fun. :)

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 06:51 p.m.

1. Bold all those you've read.
2. Italicise all those you started but haven't finished.
3. Underline all those you want to read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far AWAY From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Mar(i)ner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Black Bird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Jester
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bonesetter's Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookman's Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magic's Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magic's Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magic's Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving
302. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lion's Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith's Brood), Octavia Butler (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago)
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magic's Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime O'Neill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline L'Engle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
336. The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
343. Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
355. Jhereg by Steven Brust
356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
361. Neuromancer, William Gibson
362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
367. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman
369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
370. The God Boy, Ian Cross
371. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King
372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
373. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
374. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), Philip K. Dick
375. Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb
376. number9dream, David Mitchell
377. A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
378. Five Quarters of the Orange, Joanne Harris
379. Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason, Helen Fielding
380. Yann Martel - Self
381. Totto chan - Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
382. Underworld, Don DeLillo
383. The Remains Of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
384. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
385. Walden, Thoreau

i wonder why dan brown appeared only once on this list...
i loved all 4 of his novels.

Monday, June 14, 2004 09:34 p.m.

is there any sort of cake that screams, "yummy!" more than tiramisu does?
no way ho-zay.
i just had a sinful slice from hotel intercontinental...
and there are more tarts and cakes awaiting me in the fridge.
breathe...breathe...
okae, on to other things.

in my family's conquest to stuff ourselves to death, we have acquired yet another item in the house to take up our living space.
my dad bought a new bike.

frankly speaking, i think the $350 could have been put to much better use (possible by deposition into karina tham's bank account).
but of course, this also means i can now cycle instead of just walking to bishan park.
awesome.

also, i've been shopping with family and friends the past few days...
putting me in a suitably happy mood, albeit slightly worried about the progress of my study docket.
it has occured to me that i am secondary 4 and am in dire need of more study time.

oh yes, granny tanny and mitchy ______ (to be filled in as thought appropriate) bought their coveted nokia 7610s today.
the lucky things.
now that we have handy photo print machines, us narcissists can easily snap shots on the handphones and immediately print them out as photo cards.
whoopdeedoop!

anyhow, i am ecstatically happy to have spent the day in the wonderful company of sab, mitch and tanny.
i bet tomorrow's dinner will be even more fantabulous when trish and sarah joins us too!
how long has it been since we 6 last met up outside school...
hmmmm.

oh yes, swei, u looked really ill today so please rest well!
don't strain urself yes...

oh no, i have hunger pangs!
particularly, a craving for cake.
specifically, tiramisu.

that's it i'm gone.

Saturday, June 12, 2004 03:01 a.m.









stella mccartney.
pretty, yes?

Saturday, June 12, 2004 12:52 a.m.

i have difficulty sitting down - a direct result of my biking escapades yesterday.

see, my family's on this workout regime in which we troop down to bishan park every evening to walk/jog/cycle.
since i hadn't cycled in a long time, i rented a bike to appease my sudden craving and...
yes, i now have a sore butt.

anyhow, i bought a juicy couture dress yesterday which i absolutely love. :)
thanks charm for waiting endlessly for the fitting rooms to empty out.

speaking of which, i just got back from her place ealier today.
jan, swei and chow were there too. :)
we snacked like crazy...
goodness.
and also played a whole lot of bridge!

anyway, besides a sore butt, i also have a sore throat from all the screaming during our massive pillow fight just now.
charm has this huge array of pillows, cushions and stuffed toys...
of which we almost tore apart. :)

okae then, i'm off to do some homework.
here's the song's that been in my head all day.

i walked across an empty land
i knew the pathway like the back of my hand
i felt the earth beneath my feet
sat by the river and it made me complete

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old and i need something to rely on
so tell me when you're gonna let me in
i'm getting tired and i need somewhere to begin

i came across a fallen tree
i felt the branches of it looking at me
is this the place we used to love?
is this the place that i've been dreaming of?

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old and i need something to rely on
so tell me when you're gonna let me in
i'm getting tired and i need somewhere to begin

and if you have a minute why don't we go
talk about it somewhere only we know?
this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know?

oh simple thing where have you gone
i'm getting old and i need something to rely on
so tell me when you're gonna let me in
i'm getting tired and i need somewhere to begin

and if you have a minute why don't we go
talk about it somewhere only we know?
this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know?

this could be the end of everything
so why don't we go
somewhere only we know?

keane

Wednesday, June 9, 2004 01:57 a.m.

i feel like typing.

monday 31/5/2004
wow that's like eons ago.
i really don't like the exams.
they kinda cheat ur feelings.
'cause all the difficult words i mugged for didn't come out...
and all the insanely simple words that are easy to write but confusing when put together as gou ci were included in the paper.
of course, that includes the tuo jie zhao ju.
yikes.

sab, mitch, tanny, trish, sarah and i went out after that.
we watched calendar girls, which i found highly amusing.
it's good.
my first legal nc-16 movie. :)

tuesday 1/6/2004
lessons begin.
right after, jan, charm, swei, lynette and i headed down to junction8 for lunch at crystal jade.
jan was totally flirting with the waiter...
goodness.
she's such an embarrassment.
haha...
that silly girl.

charm and jan dropped me off in their cab at sarah's place after lunch.
mitch, sab, sarah and i watched dvds and played monopoly, which was fun!
i conclude that mitch has extremely bad luck with the dice. :)

wednesday 2/6/2004
i woke up bright and early for this day. :)
charm and i sent lynette off at the airport.
she was headed for vietnam!
mighty fun...
another one of her swimming competitions.
i think her team singapore polo tee is way cool.
haha.
too bad jan and tanny couldn't make it last minute.
missed out on eyecandy, those 2. :)

went shopping after that.
we were down to our last dollar.
i couldn't even afford a decent dinner.
but wow, fantastic shopping. :)
i love baylene!

thursday 3/6/2004
class camp, elit exam and chem prac test.
i was totally dreading the day, considering i couldn't go for the tanjung balai trip because of these compulsory blah-blah-blahs.

anyhow, the tests were a disaster.
and jan bleached her pinafore with the concentrated hydrochloric acid.
haha...
that's something only jan can pull off. :)
the solution with that concentrated hcl acid reeked my socks off.
i was spluttering from the initial shock of inhaling those blasted fumes.
wow, terrible smell.
and it wasn't even ammonia gas!
just bleachy chlorine gas.

anyway, mrs soh opened the camp after that.
i must say it went pretty well.
the bbq was awesome, with all our teachers and parents coming down to attend it.
even ms oh was present, probably attracted by our superb menu.

extracted from swei's entry:
we had tiger prawns that are huge huge. squid and stingrays, yummmmmmy foood. everyone contributed a lot. we had meiyan and sarah's award winning salad. charm's fired rice and mee goreng. mummy bought otah, satay, kebabs, taiwan sausage, cheese hotdog, crabmeat. so much fooooood. hahha then our dearest one and only guide, grace helped us with the fire.

yeah, fantastic spread.
and to show our appreciation to the teachers and parents, we formed the words "we love u" on the netball court.
and we gave our form teacher a box of chocolates and a bunch of white lilies. :)
i was hoping mrs soh would cry or something, but to see her teeth (because she was grinning) was good enough.
i mean, we saw her teeth okae.
how rare is that.

anyway, mrs soh refereed our clearing-up game, in which everyone split into groups of 6 and ate up tubs of ice cream (given by our dearest art teacher, mr foo!)
we were bloated stiff.
then we played the number game too, in an attempt to finish up the leftovers.

anyway, i think our class really bonded all the more.
and it was great to see the teachers' kids who came down.
all those toddlers...
so adorable!
and i saw mrs soh baby talk.
goodness.
mrs soh has a love-hate relationship with us, totally.
one minute we're cracking jokes with her, and the next she's rattling her head off.
i hope we're see-sawing more toward the 'love' side now. :)

we studied till midnight, then snuggled up for an intense chitchat session.
chow and muthu's mums stayed over with us. :)
after chatting for a long while, we finally slept at 3am.

friday 4/6/2004
talk about walking zombies.
us 4purity girls sleepwalked our way to the lit seminar with the rest of the sec4 cohort, and dozed right through it.
ms jeya was extremely sweet.
she told the teachers who wanted to wake us up to let us nap because we'd probably had a late night and lousy sleep.
she was right.
i felt so weak and dreary, i almost wanted to puke the roti prata (breakfast courtesy of shauna's parents!) and ice milo we had had for breakfast.
it felt exactly like how we were on the last day of our thailand trip, when we'd slept only at 4am the previous night.
speaking of which, i'm very disappointed at not having gone for the tanjung balai trip.
i must go to thailand again to make up for this.

saturday 5/6/2004
went down to suntec city first thing in the morning to support those in the singapore idol thing.
congrats, yes. :)
afterwards, mitch, sab and tanny dropped me off at the french school in their cab.
cindy and i bought yummy caramel biscuits from the cafe.
yay!
they're scrumptious.

after lesson, dad picked me up and we went over to my aunt's place for a popiah family dinner with my cousins and everyone else.
deanna and i went to collect the 2 cakes (i mentioned before that my family adores cakes) from this shop near serene centre called awfully chocolate.
i do recommend it.
the place was set up by this lawyer-turned-baker, and she sells only 3 varieties of chocolate cake, which are each heavenly.

the shop itself is very delectable.
it's tiled pristine white, with only a counter and 2 chairs in the entire floorspace.
no sign of what the shop might actually be selling at all.
that is until u see the catalogue on the counter with photos of their different cake designs.
very interesting concept, no?

then deanna and i irritated each other back home (it was a long walk).

sunday 6/6/2004
got up for the 8.30am mass with the group of them.
however, i missed the gospel readings and part of the homily, so i left post-con with sam and tiff after the praise and worship to attend the 10.45am mass.
colin and father brian were not very happy about that.
i hate disappointing them.
anyway, i understood the homily a lot better listening to it for the 2nd time. :)

also, it was great seeing tiff, kim, sam, brendan and all the rest after so many weeks.
we were lamenting over the chinese o's...
and it's oficial.
tuo jie is a stumper.

after church, dad took davina and me down to bugis for lunch at this pasta place.
yummy stuff!
met up with jan, swei and charm for tuition after that.
then charm and i went shopping again. :)
seriously, the both of us shouldn't really be shopping together.
we're unstoppable and psychotic when it comes to that.
we didn't have enough money between us to pay for a cab fare, so the both of us took bus 132.
haha...
extremists.

monday 7/6/2004
biology lessons.
ms lim combined us with her other classes for a mini mass lecture.
charm spent the time narrating the first 2 harry potter books for jan's benefit for when we would watch the 3rd harry potter movie. :)
us biology girls plus tanny went for coffee at starbucks, lunch at delifrance, then the harry potter movie after.
subjective, maybe, but i didn't think it was all that good.
the movie went way too fast, and people like janice who haven't read the book were obviously lost.
haha.
that silly girl.
and they missed out the good tidbits like who were the original creators of the marauder's map and such.
so who's expected to fill in these details?
i'm gonna force jan to read all 5 books.

tuesday 8/6/2004
*gasp*
today!
met charm at starbucks, followed by a twelfth night literature seminar held at this dull-looking grey building behind cineleisure.
it was mediocre, but a great refresher course nonetheless.
all the characterisations came crashing back.

after that, charm and i went window shopping...
scouting around for prom dresses.
we scavenged paragon, mainly.
but i didn't see anything fancy...
although i got the rasmus cd (because my dad and i love them) and a beautiful life dvd (which i just forced the family to watch this evening) from hmv.

anyhow, i need to shop for some stuff soon.
essentials like a new wallet to replace my cracking-leather one (it's disintegrating, seriously) are high on my list.
moolah, pls.

okae, this has been one darn long entry.
longer than all those guestbook entries, jan, charm and chow!

anyway, i've made a resolution to write those thai children letters and get down to developing the photos for them.
i miss cileum (that's gonna be the name of my hypothetical daughter)!
she's in my off-shore photo album, number 54. :)
and i'll never forget nareewan making those handsigns and jabbing at the english/thai translation sheet of paper, asking me to write and send the pictures.
no one can live with the nagging conscience of breaking a promise to a lovable kid in thailand.

hence, i will get kind pathatai to do some translating for me and then zooooom it across to amazing thailand!

the tourism slogan sticks. :)