New Year's Eve with BAF!

Last post of the year 2012!

I'm writing this in the wee hours of new year's eve as I doubt I will have any time later haha.
I will be heading to Amanda's house later for New Year Countdown together with the rest of my BAF gang!

During the past one and a half years, I have been staying in this great place called Tembusu Residential College where I have been having one of the greatest times of my life. One of the reasons is because of my BAF gang.

Short for Benny and Friends, we are a bunch of ppl from different faculties who banded together in the first semester in Tembusu and have been together since. Definitely going to miss all our outings, studying together in the common lounge on level 12, breakfast at 930am, dinner at 7pm, sex talks (hehe), overseas trips (bangkok in a few days), birthday celebrations (all the fake arguments LOL), etc. They have brought so much fun, joy and love to my life.

All the pretty ladies and handsome dudes at Tembusu Dinner & Dance

Dragonboat outing at the end of Semester

One of our many birthday celebrations!

Nightly lounge gatherings in our most comfortable outfits!

Garden by the Bay outing!

First overseas trip in BALI!!!

I will never forget these people ever! <3

Old JC classmates

Just came back from outing with the oldest classmates that I still hangout with at Gardens by the Bay!

From 06S12 in National Junior College!

Nowadays we dun really go out much often as a result of the 2 years gap between the guys and girls which result in most of the girls being in the workforce already while the guys still studying. We still do try to meetup at least twice a year during the holidays (special thanks to Yonghua our chairperson who always does his best to coordinate between our free times!)

Its great fun to be able to catch up with each other and see where life has taken us after we parted after 2 years in JC. My classmates were all a pretty clever bunch of people and we all seems to have achieve some success in some way or another and its pretty good to be able to motivate each other to continue working harder when we see each others' successes. Its nice also to get some info on the good stuff that we have glimpse in our different paths that we have taken.

Another joy I have with this JC class is to be able to converse in chinese!!! I havent had such a wonderful time speaking in Chinese fully and so naturally too haha! It seems nowadays I just speak English everywhere.

Those were the times when I still listen to chinese radio (933FM) LOL!

Inline Skating

Just got back from skating session at NUS.

Inline Skating. What some people refer to as rollerblading (not the proper name but because the brand of the skate is too in line with the sports)

I got my first pair of skates when I was in primary school. I fell on my tailbone and then never skated that pair of skates again haha.

first pair of skate!

I got my next pair in Sec 3 or 4 and self learn on my own in my void deck once in a while.

When I got to NUS, I went for a couple of skating sessions and found that I really liked it!

I improved my skating skills by leaps and bounds since then, and tried the different skating paths: sliding, slalom, inline hockey, teaching, and urban skating. Along the way I picked up more injuries than I have ever had in my life haha (sore wrist, abrasions on the knee, elbow, hand, deep cut on the chin, and my most expensive ever: two avulsed front teeth (means the entire tooth was pulled out). I did get my teeth reimplanted and my other injuries healed up with some scarring but what an expensive lesson on safety... I could have bought 2 pairs of the best skates available with what I spent LOL

Braces to hold my teeth in place...my friend refused to take a pic of the bloody one without teeth

Despite all these misfortune that befell me last year, I grew to become a more careful and stable skater. I am really proud of myself for being able to stand up from these setbacks, keep calm and continue skating!

One of the reasons why I wanted to come back to skating was because of all the friends I have made through skating (other than loving the feeling of skating! WHEEEE!)

Joining the SKATING CLUB EXCO was one of the best decision in University. The friends that I made during that year that we served and the time spend together organising events and skating sessions was one of the most memorable time of my life.

First task as Vice President: Promote the club at matriculation fair

Inpulse~night skating + music

Night urban skating from vivo to bedok!

They made me and chou kit wear these for our birthday before giving us our presents!

Everyone from the current, previous and ancient generations of NUSSC exco comes for night skating hahax

haha just managed to squeeze into the picture for our disco~nnect event!

Just some of the awesome times we had!

In fact we are going to play paintball together in malaysia and then have a X'mas gift exchange afterwards!

My university journey could also be called my skating journey. When I come back from exchange, I shall cherish my final year in university by skating lots!!! 

Merry Xmas!

Its X'mas!!!!

Not my fav holiday because you spend money and dun receive any in return! (CNY ftw!!!)

X'mas today was spent doing the last bit of spring cleaning of my room and learning how to cook curry chicken with my mom! (yum!)

Ate half of the 料 so cannot see the rest of the potato and chicken wings! :P

I would like to give thanks to the family that I have had the chance to enjoy my life and love and be loved in my past 23 years. 

Thanks Mum for being supportive in my life. I know that at times I am irritated at you sometimes especially when you nag at me, but your cooking and pampering of me throughout my life will be felt deeply when I leave for Scotland. 

Thanks Dad for allowing me to do whatever I want in my life and not setting rules that restrict me. Sometimes your nagging is worse than mum haha but your ideals and way of being a person has really define the person that I am today.

Thanks Sandy for being a really nice sister. Every night I hear the piano that you play, everytime I eat the cookies that you bake, I feel that there is nothing more I could ask for in a sibling.

I hope to be a better son and brother with every X'mas that passes; to communicate with you all more, to spend more time with you all more, to make our lives all more exciting and fruitful forevermore! Thanks for baring with me all these years!

Happy birthday Daddy!!! <3

Before the beginning of an epic journey.....

It is X'mas Eve. The 24th of December.

In exactly one month's time, I would have just flown over from Singapore to London and on the way to Scotland for my student exchange program (SEP) in the University of Aberdeen.

My Chinese Name 勇凯 means BRAVE and VICTORIOUS and I hope that this journey would be embody these two characters. I have always looked forward to this since the day I stepped into NUS and finally this day has arrived.

Such a great adventure requires a means to chart my progress and boundless feelings, emotions, events, decisions, challenges, etc. that I will experience in the next 7 months. By the time I arrive back in Singapore to celebrate my 24th birthday, I would like to look back and say that I had a great time, thanks for everything.

So as I start this blog, let's review what I have done so far in the past few years and set myself goals and targets to guide myself for this trip. In the meantime, I shall continue with my preparations and meeting friends and family members for another time before flying off!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Xmas in the house!