The Water Here.

Has a weird mint leaf thing in it.

But it tastes the same. :O Although the water is very cold, even the tap water is freezing.

Taken with photobooth at the top of a mountain. Hah. I think the guy was staring at us though.

I'm going off now. Lenson left his bag on the bus and now we need to find the bus station and hopefully get the bag back. =S

Before I Go.

Okay my past week has been super crazy exercise week. =O Went running on Sunday, swimming on Monday, cycling on Tuesday, and swimming on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Heh I feel so accomplished, although I didn't really swim much as compared to the past when I swam 200 laps a week? This week was only about 100 laps in total, but it's okay considering I haven't gone swimming in weeks, hahaha.

Cycling on Tuesday with Deon and Russell was awesome. Haha. Will blog about it, in the future. =D The sky wasn't as nice as the previous time, but who needs nice skies when you've got nice friends? /cheese

Okay I started packing on Saturday, and spent the entire afternoon (because I woke up at 11) trying to sort out what goes where and squeeze everything in. Amazingly enough, I succeeded on my first attempt. Haha. Okay I've never packed for a 2 week trip before because I've never been on a 2 week trip, but hopefully I have enough clothes. =D

Doesn't this look like Sushi!

Ironed and rolled up all my clothes. The iron was off when this picture was taken so Patrick was not burnt.

And this is what's going in my bag:

Okay no I'm not bringing my guitar, goggles, or cycling gloves. But wouldn't it be so cool if I did?! Hahaha.

Bringing 6 rolls of film (2 black & white YEAH), Nikon Fm2 with a roll inside, camera bag that looks like an underwear (Thanks to Deon), Nikon D80 with 24-70mm f2.8 (Lens from Lenson get it get it), 18-135mm f3.5-5.6, SB-600, Macbook, Drybag (which doubles as a pillow hah), and respective electronic chargers.

Okay I should at least make an attempt at sleeping now. Hahaha. Rest assured I shall be testing the water in New Zealand and comparing it's taste to Singapore, so that you guys no longer have to stay up at night wondering if the water there tastes the same as Singapore.

The Wake Up Song.

Before reading this post, you need to watch (or listen) to Bring Me To Life by Evanescence.

Was in the car today and this song started playing on the radio. And my sisters started laughing. Then I found out the reason which I will explain here. But I must warn you, if you know the reason you will never hear the song the same way again.

The stupid part is in the chorus, where the lead singer sings:

Wake me up inside

Wake me up inside

Call my name and save me from the dark

Bid my blood to run

Before I come undone

Save me from the nothing I've become

Bring me to life

But you need to hear the backup singer, who sings:

Wake me up

I can't wake up

This is definitely the song to sing in the morning.

Coleman And Dezmand's Birthday.

Celebrated Coleman and Dezmand's birthday's two weeks ago.

Dezmand's new iPod Touch, although he already has an iPhone hahaha.

Timothy pointed out that my Macbook cover makes it look like an Oreo. =)

Coleman's house the next day for his party.

Jolene was shooting with my camera.

This boy was super cute. Kept Hi-5ing me. =D

I think it's very obvious which of my photos are digital and which are film. Hahaha. Maybe I should photoshop them until no one can tell the difference.

The Life Of An Average Student.

Wrote a pretty lengthy emo-ey post describing certain events that happened unexpectedly over the past few days when I started thinking about the whole point of blogging. So I deleted everything I wrote and now I'm writing about this. Was kind of questioning the whole point of the post, since if I did post what I'd written earlier, all it would do was bring others down. Okay maybe it wouldn't if no one reads or cares hahaha emo, but it wouldn't exactly bring cheer into other peoples' lives right? It would affect others, at least to a small extent.

But on the other hand, if my blog was just filled with endless lame jokes and or descriptions of my day, then wouldn't it end up being superficial and shallow? Okay no lame jokes are not shallow and superficial, but if there was nothing about my thoughts or opinions then this wouldn't really be my blog would it? It would be more like a descriptive essay of the life of an average student.

On the other other hand, what would I really be blogging for? Is it really for myself, or to affect someone either positively or negatively? Maybe it's happens subconsciously and unintentionally, but I think our words affect others and we have no way of controlling that other than our control of the words themselves. Like Yun Theng said, if we didn't have the internet life would be a lot less miserable. (See I quoted you back HAH)

Okay slipping away and getting lost in your thoughts at 2.30am is not a very good thing to do. Hahaha. At the end of it all, there's no point thinking about how unexpected the unexpected events were. The fact remains that these events happened, what matters now is what to do about it. Okay thinking time again.

See isn't this such a balanced post of descriptions of my life and my thoughts and opinions hahahaha.

All I need now to end the post would be like a film picture of an oil painting of a tiger.

Amazing.

Shopping with Hotshoe.

Awesome fountain thingy.

Went shopping for New Zealand stuff with Ryan and Lenson at Marina Square today. I think shopping with them is like a very different experience from shopping with other people. Hahaha. We were like, zooming straight to the shop we wanted, straight to the section which sold the thing we wanted, spent like 5 minutes there trying on what we wanted, then it was straight to the cashier and straight to the next location to find other stuff.

In around 4 hours we got pretty much everything we wanted/needed and still had time for dinner and a drink. If shopping was considered a sport we'd be the sprinters instead of the marathon runners. =D

We did lots of stupid stuff too. Was at this windbreaker section of a shop, and I was hiding in between the windbreakers posing and waiting for Lenson to take a picture of me whilst Ryan served as the lookout. When the shopkeeper walked by and asked us if we needed any help. Super awkward embarrassing moment. And Ryan completely failed in his duty and obligation as a lookout. But still hilarious, and I bought my windbreaker from there in the end hahahah.

And I finally learned our itinerary during the two weeks there. First we're going to Christchurch which has that unusual mix of urban civility and wild abandon just beyond the doorstep. Then to Mount Cook where'll we'll grab a glimpse of New Zealand's highest peak from impossibly blue Lake Tekapo, then tackle rewarding tracks closer up.

Okay I'm just copying all the descriptions from Lenson's Lonely Planet guidebook. Hahahaha. I think it's super hilarious. For example, I'm going to Queenstown to experience the ultimate combination of wild thrills and quiet contemplation against a jaw-dropping, scenic backdrop. It all sounds so amazingly advertisement-like. Okay not going to bother to copy the rest of the itinerary here because I forgot where else we were going to.

Hahahaha doesn't this look the same. Was gonna find a better looking picture but I realised we don't have any recent ones. Ah wells. =D

No Longer Fresh.

So Friday was the last day of the last block of my first year in a Polytechnic. The past week has been horribly tiring and draining but thankfully it's over. And at least I no longer have to paint anything ever again in my life. Hopefully.

Was kind of looking back at previous blog posts a year ago, which is kind of what I always do at times like these, and I was thinking a lot about what I felt then, and I realised that most of the issues and problems I was facing then are still present today, on top of the newer things that cropped up over the past year. And that's kind of depressing, the idea that although so much has changed, so much still remains the same. And I don't think I'm the same person I was a year ago, but I think change is so gradual you hardly realise it until you look back and reflect. I think there are events though, that appear insignificant but actually change you significantly intrinsically.

Okay that marks the end of Minghui's emo phrase. As I was saying, school is over! No more going to school from 9 in the morning to 11 at night, no more mixing of colours and washing of brushes and the endless painting and painting and painting. I thought this module was the worst so far, probably because I don't know how or what to paint and I was really frustrated with my lecturer who said a lot of things but didn't really mean anything. Anyways the module is over so I'm happy, at least until results are released hah.

I'm flying off in a week and there's so many things I've not done. I'm going to go swimming everyday for the rest of the week.

Opposing Branches.

I am so tired, and like Deon said about our class, I feel caught in the middle of everything. It's like for most of the situations in my life right now, I'm neither here nor there, like I'm sitting on the fence waiting and contemplating which side I should fall into. Although no matter which side I choose, the falling is still going to be unpleasant and hard. In the meantime though, I think I'm just going to sit here and wait. And do the endless amount of work that our lecturer gave us.

Unprepared.

It's been yet another crazy week, and I pretty much spent my Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Church shooting and editing a video on top of the usual school lessons with a lecturer who somehow manages to give out homework everyday. It's probably one of the most insane weeks so far; I've been reaching home only after 11pm each night (thanks to supper almost everyday =D) and waking up at 8am or so to go to school to paint and save water. Haha. But I accomplished a lot the past week, from going to Body Worlds/Science Centre to attending a workshop on Cell Group Leading to skateboarding again. =D Tiring but fulfilling, although there's still a million and one things on my mind constantly.

Over the weekend I was asked twice to do something that I was completely unprepared for. Okay maybe the something wouldn't seem very stressful to others, but to me talking to a group of 40 people spontaneously, or giving a testimony to a group of a hundred and fifty or so is very nerve-wrecking. Although maybe I don't show it, haha. Like okay, most of the times I'm not prepared for presentations either, but this was kind of different because I didn't even know I'd be presenting until the very last minute. At least when you don't prepare for presentations, you're mentally prepared to be unprepared. =P

Okay but it got me thinking a lot about the whole point of either preparing yourself for something, or just letting go and seeing what happens. Whether you're prepared for something or not is an insignificant factor, because that something is going to happen anyways. I think I'm very unprepared for a lot of things that happened this year, or are happening now, and I used to think that was a bad thing, but I realised that it really doesn't matter because being unprepared means being willing to trust in a higher power.

Haha I don't really know what I'm writing about, and I'm not going to read through what I just wrote because I can be spending my time reading something more epically awesome (like Stephen King). Yay. Anyways, to end things on a lighter note, and if you just skipped all the text because you didn't want to read it, this is Patrick.

Haven't shot him in a long time. =)

Under The Dome.

880 pages of awesomeness.

Hahaha. Saw this book in the library and immediately borrowed it, because it's the latest Stephen King book I haven't read that was published last year. Although I haven't had time to read it much thanks to an unbelievably incredibly phenomenally amazing school work schedule. Amazing. I've worked non-stop for the past 6 hours and I'm still barely halfway done. And there's a new assignment tomorrow, hurray.

Forever Young.

I'm so hyped for New Zealand with Ryan and Lenson. Hahaha. The song is stuck in my head too. And the actual music video by Youth Group has like, a bunch of people skateboarding! =O

Skateboarding's like my ultimate new obsession now. Hahahaha ever since I tried Timothy's skateboard on Sunday. It's been painful though; I have like gigantic bruises on both knees already. =(