Just one day more to the end of term! One day more...

Tomorrow at this time the six of us (Amar, Soha, Alex, Darren, Lionel and I) will be in Vienna trying to locate the legendary Wombat Hostel. I don't know if I should be apprehensive about spending the next 12 days with this crazy bunch. But I do know that we're going to have loads of fun during our amazing race across Vienna, Switzerland, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.

See you in 12 days, if I make it back alive.

p/s: TOCK!!! You are in charge of minutes for any meetings held in my absence, ya? Please make them as detailed as possible. There's a good comm. sec! I'll bring you back a present from Germany.

Just came back from a gruelling elections. Sitting in one stuffy lecture theatre from 1pm till 7:30pm has given me a throbbing migraine, nausea and gastric! Anyhow, congratulations are due to our new committee. I'll wake up to the reality of the job once I clear this headache.

Imperial College Union Malaysian Society Committee for 2004/5

President - Cheah Wen Tao
Vice - Ayishwariya Menon
Secretary - some dumb ass kinky pinky!
Treasurer - Chew Fong May
Sports Secretary - Sohasini
Communications Secretary - Chris Tock
Committee - Raja Iylia Diyana, Nicole Goh, Seong Chien Liq, Tan Jia Hong

IC Malaysian Soc. elections will commence in time, t = 2 hours.

I'm getting very jittery, even though I've already written my speech (which I doubt I'll actually follow when the spotlight's on me) and I've laid out my formal clothes. But I'm still suffering from prozac-high frogs jumping around my tummy.

Oh well, best of luck to us all - Soha, Amar, Chris, Ayish, Tao, Yi Shan, Jia Hong, Nicole, Khairul, Fong May, Iylia, Chien Liq, everybody! It's going to be one very long afternoon. Wish you could be there, I'm so going to panic!

I so need to get some things done:

1. Finish lab oral presentation on transistor switching and timing (transistor what??)
2. Change pounds to euros and swiss francs
3. Write Michelle's birthday card and remember to put STAMPS on before posting!
4. Get backpack from Zeus and start packing
5. Get sleeping bag from Rich and... no, not start sleeping!
6. Read up the Handel C programs on mouse movement (input device, not lab rats!)
7. Do laundry!!! Or else will have nothing to wear in Vienna, Switzerland or Germany
8. Return library books
9. Buy real gloves! Not the pink fluff I normally wear
10. Write election speech. "Why do I want to be secretary? Because I'm an organisational freak..."

Inertia is on high. Need to reduce mass.

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p/s: Barisan National rocks! Go Pak Lah!

Ouch! Pain! Every muscle in my body seems to be on strike today. I really deserve this for not excercising for months and then playing 4 rough netball matches yesterday (it was rough for me, having never played netball since secondary school!) at the Malaysian and Singaporean London Games. And if I wasn't worn out enough from playing netball in the freezing wind and icey rain, I played a few games of badminton with Darren, Soha, Vikas, Lionel and Alex.
Was so tired after returning from Fulham Broadway, where we had dinner at Chop-chop (love the hor fun!), I fell asleep while Lionel, Alex and Amar were in my room trying to book hostels for the Easter trip. Woke up 2 hours later and found them still there... doing dodgy things to Choon Sern's air bed. Was trying to block it out as a bad dream, but couldn't pinch myself awake, so obviously wasn't dreaming.
Anyway new link to Hunger Site. Please click.
I can't type much more
Too tired
Need
Nap
...

This is my management essay question (due in 12 hours and 30 minutes):

'Critically examine the linkages between motivation and reward'

Currently I'm not very motivated to write this. It's bad enough I'm already stuck at 146 words (I need to make it to 1000 by 3pm). And I'm not doing this for the reward (how is writing an essay that accounts for 30% of your grade a reward???). I'm doing this out of the sheer terror of failing this course!

And I just can't kick start my writing engine. Hell! The last essay I remember writing was a badly written Chinese one for Mandarin class. The last time I wrote something that was more than 500 words in English was for my GP paper more than a year ago! (And it couldn't have been very good since I didn't get an A for GP!) And in the midst of calculating fourier series and analysing transistors, these jokers expect me to come up with a 1000 word essay? Hell! I'm an engineer! I'm not supposed to be able to string a sentence together!

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I'm getting obsessed about my tulips. Someone will have to forcefully stop me from mothering them too much. I practically check on them every 10 minutes, just in case they decide to die while I'm not looking. I've resisted from changing their water again. I've checked that the heater isn't causing them too much strain umpteen times today. And I've just got to stop misting them. I haven't gone to the extent of chatting with them though.

I've got a penchant for killing plants, of all shapes, sizes and colours, but I've been warned not to ill treat these ones. Lets see if they'll make it through the weekend.

On the otherhand, Kristina's palm plant is looking good! It can't be too easy to kill a palm, even for me!

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Will be attending LSE's MSS night tomorrow. You guys had better make it worth my time because I could be doing lots of important things. Like... erm... well... I was about to say studying, but lets not go there...
I'm sure you guys will be great!

It's spring...

... because I've got a bunch of red tulips sitting on my window sill, and three more in a pint glass on my desk *grin* Thank you!

It's spring...

... because my ears no longer feel numb
... because the daffodils are everywhere
... because I'm wearing a skirt today
... because the Sri Lankans were playing cricket in Princes Gardens
... and some guys were throwing a rugby ball on Queen's Lawn
... because its still bright outside when we're having dinner
... because we can stand outside Linstead at 11:30pm due to the fire alarm... and still not shiver
... because the tree outside my room is covered in white cotton buds
... because I have to keep my windows open or I'll suffocate from the heat
... because I kick off my duvet in the middle of the night
... because I want to be outside, walking in hyde park, not working in the gloomy electronic labs trying to process digital images...

Let me do an annoying 3am kiasu rant... (if this in anyway resembles any particular person, living or deceased, believe me it is not intentional...)
Haiyah! Today so wasted leh! Whole day in uni, from 9 to 6... then come back for dinner. Acherly, plan to do work after dinner. Got so much work leh... got essay due on friday, got oral presentation next week, got design project due next friday, then haven't read through lab stuff yet. How leh? Cannot get anything less than B+!!!
But instead make me stay 6 hours in the bar, until past midnight, playing kiddy kiddy games.
"If this is a stick, and this is a stick, is this a stick?"
"Red, green, blue, silver, what colour am I?"
"you can have the moon but not the sun, you can have a spoon but not a fork, you can have Darren but not Vivien..."
wahlaueh!!! Siao boh? And now I got to try finish reading my management notes before going to sleep. Aiyah, past my bed time already. Just because we were doing such bo liao things down in the bar! But must give support to Jacq mah since she on bar duty. Haha, and we confused the ang moh's kao kao. They so thick! Cannot get most of the IQ games.
"you can be happy but not delighted, you can have a butt but not an arse, you can have Rich Arckless but not a gay..."

Only 6 days more to General Elections. Barisan National is doing well. Die, PAS, die! I still bloody cannot vote, because bloody Malaysian embassy still not bloody replying my email on registering as a voter. Complaints to daddy (the civil servant and defender of entire government) not working... instead got told off for not remembering to register while still in Malaysia.

Result's of the previous night's photo shopping in Amar's room were not quite what we expected. The four of us culprits are treading very carefully around Lu. 18 years olds are quite emotional these days... or we've just forgotten how turbulent being 18 could be.

Must repeat to self several times - staying up till 3 30 am just talking is highly detrimental for academic health! Must keep EVERYONE out of my room for the next week. Owning a double room all to myself is NO EXCUSE for the Linsteadians to use it as a communal after dinner meeting point or interrogation room!

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Ponning Management lecture right now - to start on my management essay. How ironic.

While sifting through my management notes, found little footnotes written in what must have been utter boredom. Here's what my mind tends to drift towards during management:

"Thinking of living a little on the edge
...
maybe with just 1 toe dangling off it"

"my new management lecturer looks gay.
Not only does he look gay, he looks completely out of place in a classroom full of engineers. He's got that Greg Kinnear look, business suit (without the elbow patches! whoa...), square rimmed glasses... and then he opens his mouth and out comes an Italian accent. Oh my! The corporate mafia has sent us a teacher"

"In management there are 5 types of power: reward, coercive, legitimate, referent and expert. Me? I have a false perception of power. I don't know how people see me as a leader but they still put me up there time and time again to take charge... idiosyncracies and all included. Define that professor"

I went to sleep about 4 hours ago. It's interesting to watch things change overnight. They say London starts to wake at night, but she usually mellows around 3am. Then the birds start chirping at four. The sky's black blanket turns shades of blue slowly melting into a soft, velvety morning. I like mornings like these - when everything's still shrouded by a veil of greyish-blue. Only the wind's alive while the whole of Princes Garden hibernates.

Yesterday Lionel and I walked for 7 hours without a break. You can't sit down for even 5 minutes in the British Museum. You have to keep on moving or you won't get to see everything you want to see! And if you have to see only one thing, it'd better be the library. Imagine walking into a huge circular conservatory like building and just seeing a breathtaking circumference of shelves surround, level by level. It was like being in Beauty and the Beast! And if you have time to just squeeze in one more exhibition, it'd better be the whole Egypt (and perhaps the Near East) section. The Rosetta stone, sarcophagi, mummies, sphinxes, anubis, amon-re, scarabs... the whole of bloody Egypt is here with the exception of camels and pyramids! A good part of the Roman Pantheon is also there. Makes you wonder what is really left behind in Rome (blank walls according to Alex... they just came and took almost everything!). And if you can just nip by one more section - make it the Asian section. I couldn't believe my eyes were looking at artefacts from Malaysia (the loceng logam or iron bell from Klang and pottery and iron instruments from Pahang and Johor! They weren't lying to us in our textbooks after all!). And if you have an entire day... for heavens sakes, you've just got to walk the entire museum! Pity we missed out the Sainsbury's African gallery and the buried treasure exhibit, but hey, we did well for 7 hours worth of walking.

Followed this by dinner in Chinatown and then participating in some interesting photoshop-ing in Amar's room with Alex. We are going to see some shocked faces today... *evil grin*

Does she dance?
Does moonlight glow on her skin
And fireworks light up the scene
As you take it all in
It's a trance
I'm a forgotten glance

Does she dance?
To the tune that only you play
Does she twirl only your way?
Sway to what you say
It's a trance
Why did I never...
Learn to dance?

.........

You're forbidden to psychoanalyse... just some song that's been writing itself in my head for the last few days. Need to find some quiet time to listen to myself... they wipe all the artistic creativity off you once you step past those gates that clearly state 'Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine'

Just returned from Darren's room. 15 people and a cake in one single room does make for an interesting birthday celebration. Wait! Rephrase! Amar, Alex, Choon Sern, a camera and Darren's FHM posters make for a rather dodgy but hilarious birthday celebration.
Happy 22nd Birthday Darren ta ge

Congratulations are also in order to the 22nd Singapore Society Committee. Proud of you guys!

I was amusing myself while putting on my socks this morning... as I sat on my bed which faces the window overlooking the path through Princes Gardens that everyone uses in the mornings to stroll or run to classes.
I was keeping count of the number of people I recognised and the number of people I didn't.
First two were Ruby and her bright red bag and tall Melissa with her blond hair.
Then Aaron ambling along clumsily
Followed by Salman and Uju, talking and walking fast
Then Alex, with his usual 'let the world slow down for me' walk
Not long after that Lionel appears in a half walk half trot
Then little Jac, a little black figure walking as quick as she can
And then EE John, slowly taking his time, obviously not in a hurry to get to labs

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Someone rang my phone at 3am last night. Thinking it was 6am and it could be mum I picked up the phone. Some guy was asking me why I was still awake and I blurrily said "Huh? Who's this?". A conversation in French followed for some time before he realised he had dialed the wrong number and I realised I was awake! Tossed and turned in bed for the next half hour. Should always remember to take my phone off the hook before sleeping.

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SingSoc Elections this afternoon. Best of luck Lionel, Darren, Vivien, Jac, Kai Leng, Marvin (whom I really do not think is gay!). MSoc Elections in 3 weeks. The campaigning has become rather blatant and in your face... but interesting...

Before the night is over and I wonder how I've managed to spend a whole day doing absolutely nothing...

Happy Birthday Anu Babu!!! *Hugs* girl! Hope you get my card this year, or else I'll just give up sending ANYTHING to you! Know you probably had a super bash in Melbourne, and sometime in June we'll be meeting up at some mamak or Swensons looking through photos of it with Sugi, perhaps even with Bhai, Ravi, Menon and co. and nothing will ever change... nothing ever has!

Random thoughts on your birthday, Anu:
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The amount of sleep I get is proportional to the rate at which I fall asleep in lectures. 7 hours of sleep and I still drifted off to slumberland before Professor Dracotti even started talking about transmission lines.

Living on vegetables alone has caused a surge in my appetite. Wrecking the idea of sylph-like self emerging after 40 days of vegetarian Lenten diet. But these muller corners are just so yummy...

Decided to fill the void of Kristina's absence with 2 new posters, a Pink Floyd one of naked women with painted backs (back catalogue) and a Kim Anderson one of a cute little girl with dreamy eyes (dreaming of you). Not really the same as having Kristina's wild life posters... but I'm doing my best

Really need to write to my family soon... the entire clan of aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. Not that they'd really understand my life... no, not when you're a mystery to your family... but they would like to see my photos, they always have time for that.

Singapore Soc. elections are on tomorrow. Really hope the Linsteadians do us proud. Would like to see Darren and Lionel making their presidential speeches. But the Malaysians will be shopping at King's road instead. Seriously can't understand why Lionel would iron his pants but not his shirt for tomorrow...

The lull after M-Nite seems quite surreal. Its like waking up from a weekend that went by like a dream... a very nice dream, really. I couldn't picture a better way to end the whirlwind of late nights, painful feet and cold dinners. Going to Fulham to watch Big Fish the day before M-Nite was a breath of fresh air after realising I had only been travelling between Linstead Hall and Imperial College for the last 2 weeks! Seeing a Sainsbury's for the first time in 2 weeks was like being reborn again. Eating seafood hor fun (for only 3.90 quid!!!) and just talking, laughing, feeling relaxed without needing to remember if I had practised my dance steps... was just something! Thanks... I really needed the break.
Then hanging out in Amar's room till 6am in the morning after the show... we heard the birds start to chirp at 4am and by the time we went back to our rooms we could see little streaks of sunlight across the sky (if I looked high enough out of my window). I don't even recall the last time we just sat in someone's room and talked cock the whole night.
I woke up at 11am on Sunday morning and the first thing on my agenda was to visit the big Sainsbury's at Gloucester! I've missed it! And with a whole FREE Sunday afternoon in front of me I just felt I had to get out of Linstead, and so Lionel and I took a walk across Hyde Park to see the artists displaying their paintings on the park railings. We found a part of Hyde Park we'd never seen before, where ducks swim in stone fountains and rabbits were hopping about unassumingly and a dog was walking itself with its leash in its jaws. Then we walked back past the embassies to High Street Kent (the last time the Linstead gang had dinner at Wagamama on High St. Kent seemed like eons ago!). Followed with an Easter Holiday meeting in my room (our new common room since Kristina moved out), the day just seemed to go on endlessly with too much time to do too many things! The guys finally left at 2am after I fell asleep listening to the holiday plans.
And now I'm smacked face first into a new week, without any rehearsals... and it's just... just... surreal... (you're right! surreal is a really cool word to say...).

Elections around the corner. Quite determined to run for secretary. Do we foresee a Linstead domination of both the Malaysian and Singapore Society committees? Never can tell...

Statistics for the week leading up to Malaysian Night 2004: The Art of Wok

23 hours of rehearsals in total including long tormenting tech runs and messy costume changes
2 full dress rehearsals, which where never run in their full entirety and we never ever ran Act 2 in techs at all!
5 times I found myself landing wrongly on my weak right ankle, stubbing my toe on the stage's raised platforms or tripping on the uneven blocks on the stage as well stepping on my long skirt during rehearsals and thinking to myself "Really... where did I leave my sanity when they put me in dances???"
5 days I had to miss dinner and get it packed
3 days I found myself eating nothing till after 11pm, and even then it was soggy leftover veggies from dinner
6 days of carrying heavy bags and suitcases full of costumes back and forth between rehearsals and Linstead and using my room as a store room for props and costumes - (glad to see the 4kg gong leave my room!)
9 lectures/study groups slept through due to the lack of sleep coupled with long rehearsals
23 tickets sold but not necessarily paid for
1 lectured ponned just to find enough time to run down to Virgin Megastore to buy a CD for my godma to give to my brother (prior to that, had not left South Kensington in a week! Have not even seen Sainsbury's in 2 weeks! In dire straits since running out of milk!)

And in the end - man was it worth it!

Art of Wok was a tremendous success! So there were a few slip ups here and there like the damned lighting crew putting spotlights in all the wrong places and the mikes deciding to turn off when ever they felt like it... but my goodness! The crowd (which was a full house! all 700 tickets sold!) just loved it and what a lovely audience they were! They laughed even when the script wasn't meant to be funny. The lapped up all our corny jokes. They cheered for all our dances (and I *will* kill Ruby for screaming "Go Charlotte!" during the quiet romantic intro to the modern dance which completely threw me off) and even overlooked all our horrible mistakes (which included Nicole appearing late for Chinese dance and then grabbing my ribbon which was placed on stage-left such that I had to do abit of spontaneous dance steps to grab another ribbon from stage-right and finish up the dance!)

It's all over too soon...