Saturday, December 4, 2004 01:23 a.m.

okay i'm done with packing my luggage (have i ever mentioned how much i hate it) and the uploading and editing of graduation photos...
so let's all hear a huge sigh of relief now.
i'm exhausted.

here's the link while i go off to shower.
got to be up pretty early for the flight to shanghai tomorrow morning.
i'm going to be a trigger-happy, xiao-long-bao-eating and shopoholicly-crazy little girl over there. :D
till then.

Thursday, December 2, 2004 01:01 a.m.

graduation was primarily flashing bulbs all over the place.
and you know the little mishap i had with my digital camera still in the repair shop?
well dad popped by funan that morning to purchase the sony DSC-T3/S and photos turned out awesome, so all was well. :)

a quick run-through...
i decided on the black/gold dress.
did my hair at raffles city (painful ordeal).
bought black heels.
checked into swissôtel (mitch, sab, trish, tanny and i shared a room).
melissa, sab's sis, did a fantastic job with our make-up.
i also re-established my hatred for eyeliner (that tear-inducer).
i thought i looked egyptian which was never really my deliberate intention.
interesting look though.
lots of room visiting and room visitors.
lynette called from melbourne! :D
i haven't seen her in a long time.
hope the competitions go well, dear.
everyone was looking gorgeous down at the hall.
mrs soh (of all people to vet our dresses) almost didn't let me through because of this and that but i think she did closed one eye and accepted my dress out of goodwill.
i didn't know the dress code went to the extent of disallowing black shawls and shoes.
hmmm.
sharon au was the guest of honour.
inspiring speech.
moderately yummy dinner at which table 55 stuffed themselves with food.
result of starving the whole day.
ms choo mentioned me as karina ong in her speech.
sheesh.
cheryl lee and mr geraint wong sang a beautiful duet...
twice!
hundreds of blinding flashes all over the place.
spectacular group shots, including one with the planet girls (jiadi, karmun, cheryl sim, mitch, sab and me).
that was way back in p4.
such nostalgia.
i think the group name was partly influenced by the spice girls.
haha.
i regret not taking a photo with ms chua...but i couldn't find her anywhere.
i found it especially scary seeing a spontaneous mrs soh during our ceremony, because she just...isn't.
mrs tian, however, was being incredible nice yesterday.
believe me, she's more humane than mrs soh ever will be.
more photography in the hotel room.
changed out and headed down to 7-11 for snack shopping.
met valen and the whole bunch of them at the lobby so we travelled together.
ben & jerry's at midnight.
back to the hotel for supper.
out for smoothies at 4am on orchard road.
by 5am, i was drifting in and out of sleep.
bathed and slept in the comfy hotel beds.
woke up 6 hours later at noon to check out.

oh, and the red and white roses strewn around the place were gorgeous.
huge, red, and stunning - in theme with the roses they bloom concept this year.
come to think of it, i didn't receive my graduating certificate at all.
maybe it's still left in the hall.
hmmm.
anyway, i absolutely love st nicks and i'm going to miss it so damn much (save for the walls and railings that are turning pink and yellow; i wonder who chose the colour scheme).

st nicks has been more than a 2nd home - it's a whole lifestyle and mindset change that has been ingrained in me since i was 6.
at least i'll still visit the place when i jog around the estate. :)
valen, i can't attend the 5 justice reunion because i'll be in shanghai.
shucks.
but there'll be many more reunions to come and i'll always put st nicks first.
plus, we have undoubtedly the best canteen food.
i'll definitely be going back for the teh tarik and yu pian mian xian, if anything. :)
photos will be up once i install the photo programme and delete all rubbish shots (i'm not going to wait for 200 photos to upload - got to cut them down).
so till then, enjoy the hols people. :)

Monday, November 29, 2004 12:43 a.m.

i miss those thai children so much. :(
on top of my to-do list after graduation tomorrow is to fed-ex a huge parcel to them.
asap.

and talking about graduation, i am majorly unprepared.
i don't even know which of 2 dresses to wear and i haven't got any shoes.
but i've reserved a pair of black heels from the nine west outlet at raffles city so that's fine i guess.
the digital camera is still at the repair shop and i do hope it'll be ready by tomorrow.
they haven't called at all.
then there is the hair and make-up that isn't settled...
and let's not even mention the non-existent grad item that we're supposed to put up.
oh well.
i'll leave the whole mess to untangle on its own.

for now, i'm going to type out a few farewell letters to the teachers and maybe call up the repair shop.
i've got to keep calm.
the past few days have been a mad whirl of straightening things out and getting my life back on track.
i haven't been living normally since the o's which was followed immediately by the thailand trip and soon-to-be shanghai holiday.
then i have to prepare for 2 consecutive weeks of lectoring (i've no more clothes), and i have to be in proper attire especially because the masses are during advent and on christmas morning.
and i'm in heavy debt.
i've currently 3 items waiting in the shops held there only by a deposit of which i lack the funds to complete payment.
i am such a terrible customer.
black-listed - that's me.
i can't wait to get back to my usual pace and just slack around reading books or hanging out at eateries.
or even being placid enough to type coherently (as is definitely not the case here).
i haven't found the time for exercise either.
hello blubber.

but still, i am excited about grad tomorrow.
candice was telling us about her head prefect speech for grad night and i think it's going to be absolutely awesome. :)
her dress sounds really pretty too.
and so is everyone's i've asked.
it's going to be a room of stunners tomorrow.
i can't wait. :D

Friday, November 26, 2004 02:02 p.m.

i've just woken up to apply for the pae thing.
i think the jc of my choice is an obvious one...
hope it'll be fun. :D

anyway, the thailand trip this time round has been both better and worse at the same time.
i'll go into detail another day.
still a little groggy from coming home late last night (the flight was delayed).
i'm going to wash up and attend tiff's birthday party soon, so i'll update some other time.
till then.

Saturday, November 20, 2004 02:22 p.m.

okay i'm now online waiting for my dad to come home so that he can drop me off at the tailor's on arab street (my appointment's at 2.30pm...i'm fully late).
i need to go for a fitting.
hope the prom dress turns out well or i'd never be able to be at peace in thailand.

regarding yesterday, all hell broke loose after the chem paper. :)
mitch, sab, trish, tanny and i had dinner at billy bombers with the mighty huge portions, then we just hung around having coffee and catching up.
oh, we also popped by the miss sixty grand opening at wisma atria with the bike stunts and stuff (mitch had invites).
but the whole place smelled so bad!
i can't stand the stench of smoke, makeup (yeah i could actually smell it) and alcohol, so it was really killing me.
and i can't stand crowds either.
but i really want to peruse the new collection one day.
maybe after we get back from thailand. :)

at about 11pm, tanny and i went to meet charm, jan, swei, chow and lyn for more coffee afterwhich we headed for charm's place.
the whole night was a blur because i was sleeping, watching tv and walking up and down the stairs on and off throughout the night.
but i did sleep a collective 7 hours, with much of it disrupted by the itching of mosquito bites all over my body.
mosquitoes go crazy during wet weather.

anyway, i just got home earlier on and i'm now all changed and ready to head back to town with mitch, sab and tanny for some shopping.
we need to get so much done, especially stocking up on essentials for tomorrow's trip.
speaking of which, i won't be back here for 5 days from now...
and as much as i do want to stay in singapore to enjoy (especially after a torturous one month of deprivation), i'm determined to have fun and make more memories in thailand. :)

okay, the doorbell's ringing.
my dad's home.
till then.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004 09:02 p.m.

it's amazing how i can be in the middle of my o's and still come online (most unabashedly too).
but then, the more important subjects that i'll most probably be using are done with, so...
i'm actually feeling quite relaxed. :)
i've elective geog tomorrow though, and it's virtually untouched.
oh well.
filled this in.

three names you go by
touchy question.
probably karina (it's quite impossible to find a short form for this), kaleena and mole (courtesy of swei).

three things you like about yourself
how i can laugh and be amused at virtually anything (like changing my hair parting or discovering a fantastic song), the ability to talk myself out of trouble, and i'd like to think i bring joy to my friends. :D

three things you hate about yourself
i practise double standards, procrastinate a lot and have this perfectionist streak that drives people crazy.

three things you don't understand
the general need for formulae, fashion's love of animal fur (it's cruel), and the involuntary way we girls pms.

three things that annoy you
body odour, hair in my food and smoke.

three things that scare you
losing my loved ones, pests and my obsession with bridge (and mahjong).

three of your everyday essentials
money, handphone and sunscreen (i never step out of the house without these).

three of your favourite songs at the moment
angels or devils by dishwalla, more than us by travis and bohemian rhapsody by queen.
but i'd trade any of these songs for the whole les choristes soundtrack any day.
it's the best. :)
jean-baptiste maunier!

three people you spend the most time with
hmmm, 3 groups of people i spend the most time with are
1) my family
2) sab, mitch, tanny, trish and sarah
3) charm, jan, chow, swei, lyn and stacy.

three things you can't do
the french twist (one day, when my hair is long enough), cry on cue and fry stuff (the huge fire, scalding oil and required speed - i can't handle).

three of your favourite hobbies
shopping, chatting (on the phone, in person, online) and writing.

three things you want really bad right now
to be done with the o's, a shopping spree and a jumbo-sized cup (tub) of yami yoghurt topped with kiwi.
yum!

three careers you're considering
editor-in-chief, editor-at-large or boutique owner.
with luck!

three things you want to do before you die
achieve perfect trilingualism, indulge in all my favourite food and feel genuine happiness.

oh boy, i can almost smell the sweet scent of total liberation.
it's the last stretch now...
hold on tight.

Thursday, November 11, 2004 02:17 a.m.

this is quite sad to see.

anyhow, blast the biology paper.
those dreadful structured questions just about killed me.

mmmfftt.
but i think the st nicks teachers did a fantastic job in spotting questions.
the lock/key mcq that came out for our prelims (and the o's this round) saved us all. :)

moving on, december's british vogue has an amazing haute couture spread along the themes of fairy tale characters and pantomines - perfect for my elective art paper coming up this tuesday.
i'm going to use the article as secondary research on the topic of facades.

so finally my obsession with magazines decides to pay off. :)
i say it's money that has been well spent/invested.

now there is this imaginary area around my door post that i have mentally kept out-of-bounds due to it being the tragic deathbed of a hideous cockroach which twitched to death a couple of hours ago.
my mum drowned it in baygone, after much imploring from yours truly, and so my bedroom now reeks of chemicals.
it takes some strategical leaping to successfully manouvre my way into the room without coming even close to that execrable region.

yuck, okay, disgust aside, i think i'm going to wallow in a bit of self-pity (it's a very depressing biology test i have to reflect on) before flipping through more of that vogue followed by some much-needed sleep.
hopefully the fumes of baygone would have diffused by then.

note: as bimbotic as this entry already is, i need to further mention that i might be - gasp - dropping more hair than is necessary.
either that, or it only seems as if i'm shedding increasingly because of the long hair on my head - which looks a whole lot more when seen on the floor as compared to the shorter hair from before.
i think i might go back to the bob i once had.
i'll have to think about which is lower-maintenance.

hmmmm.
okay the air-headedness ends here. :)