Month: August 2014

Singapore, Comma

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Singapore, Comma.

For those who had been following me on Facebook and Instagram, you will have realised that I’ve been posting quite a number of pictures regarding this exhibition that was held on 15th August.

So, you must be wondering, what’s this exhibition about? Well, it’s basically to exhibit the works of the students from my course, which is Chinese Media & Communications (CMC). Yep, those works are our graded assignments for Visual Communications (Viscomm) and Publication and Design (Pubdes).
Poster for Singapore, Comma exhibition
We took quite some time to set up the exhibition area a day before (Thursday):
Looking through everyone’s magazines.

 

Trying to put the soft-copies together.

 

Testing the slide shows.

 

The covers of the magazines done by the students.
The hard copy of our magazines.

 

And here’s Rebecca, looking through the works.
So… yep. We prepared till around evening before we called it for the day.
And here’s the actual day!
My class was scheduled to be on duty after 3.30pm but I decided to reach early to take photos of visitors, which I expected there would be quite a few. And at the same time, to upload some ‘on-the-spot’ pictures to share on social media as a form of advertising.
And then, halfway through, we had a special guest…

 

Yes. Our beloved Susien laoshi was there to support us!!!
I left at 12.15PM for lunch before my final Social Psychology’s lesson at 1PM. YES, MY FINAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY LESSON! (Though I need to admit that I actually like that module quite a lot, since it’s like the first module in my Poly life that secures my an A. :D)
 After lesson, I was back again, and this time, to be their so-called ‘official’ photographer. :’D
Yep yep. To take photo of the Principal of NP when he was there. YES. THE PRINCIPAL OF NP!
Michelle and Zeliang showing Mr. Clarence Ti our works, while Cassandra looked on.
And when he left, my camera had only left with one purpose: For everyone to take random photos. 🙂
Let’s me first feature Peiyi. I swear I have a lot of her er… solo pictures in my SD card. :’D
And I was unsure who actually took this picture. I swear I wasn’t fighting with Jon. 😛
Another who deserves to be featured here, Beauwen. (Yes whoever got featured here means… that they appeared too many times in the SD card. HAHAHA). Oh, let me introduce her to you all (I guess this is the first time you see her here), Beauwen is from T02, and as I thought I would be one of the oldest in the course, she beat my age by a year plus. Ohwell.
Beauwen and Yingqian. Yingqian is also from T02, and the one who combine all the slides together into 3 big slideshows (I know it’s tough because the laptop decided to crash on her a few times. Oops.)

 

Huiqi, Peiyi with Beauwen. Must be Beauwen go photobomb them.

 

Huiqi with Cassandra. (Cass, you are lucky I decided against uploading your unglams :’D)

 

T02 girls gathering around to er… discuss about the guestbook. What?

 

Here’s Jonathan with his mum and brother. Very engaged.

 

Ya ya. Peiyi helped us to take a picture together.

 

Here’s one of the most so-called inspirational photo I’ve taken on that day. Okay, maybe not inspirational but meaningful. Not meh, Crystal?

 

Random shot of students surrounding the reception table.

 

Not sure who took this but seems like Zeliang wan’t really happy. HAHAHA!

 

Well… I guessed we have the answer… Me and Zeliang ran away in horror when this Dallies wanted to take a selfie. :’D

 

Yi Ai (Remember the girl who acted as my daughter in one of the year 2’s production?) came in the evening to support her juniors. Berenice, Jolene, Veron and Sze Jia were there earlier on, when I came running into the venue because I was almost late in taking photographs of the Principal.
(I am laughing now at the fact that one guy was yawning while looking through the works. Perfect timing. HAHAHAHA :’D)

 

Our superstar-to-be, Siqi signing her autograph. Omg. I am going crazy!!! Hahaha. Yup. This is Siqi, aka Goddess (女神), from T03.

 

So other than 女神, we also have 男神. Nah, you see, how swag these three are. The 3/6 of the guys in CMC Year 1. (From left, Si Jie, Colin and Zeliang)
Zeliang needs no introduction, I presumed. You’ve seen him around on my blog some time back. Meanwhile, Si Jie and Colin are from T02. Si Jie is like one of the good looking guys around, in my opinion and then we have Colin, the undisputed 男神. :’D
The crowd during the Year 3’s presentation next door.

 

And Susien lao shi preparing to take selfies with her most beloved selfie stick. :’D

 

And that’s what my class was doing during the presentation. All looked so damn sian. It has been a long day for them…
Okay. Here’s one of my favorite picture taken. This little girl is sooo cute. I think she’s like the daughter of one of the lecturers. And Ying Qian was playing with her. HAHAHA

 

Not sure what’s Rebecca is thinking about… hmm…

 

I swear these two girls look like those who just fallen out of love and like they seem to have lost all hopes in life. Errr… Kinda.

 

But it’s alright. Because I am so angelic, I bring the light to all darkness. Yay. (Okay, I apologise for being overly narcissistic. Oops~)
 So, the entire event was a successful one with the participation of very single students and lecturers! (I admit I used this as a chance for widening by social circle, but heyyy~ At least I know more of my own coursemates. HAHAHA)
Okok. Here are two very swag pictures to end this post:

 

Bigshot 52 Launch Event

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So, yesterday, I was there at the atrium in Ngee Ann Polytechnic to support my CMC Year 2s during the launch of Bigshot52. So what’s is this Bigshot52 all about? It’s a sort of an online bilingual entertainment and lifestyle portal managed by students from the Chinese Media and Communication (CMC) course and Chinese Studies.
(Screenshot from www.bigshot52.sg)
So… I was saying, I was present during the launch of the portal and of course, I took many photos during the event.

The stage’s ready for the event!
Let’s leave the stage alone first, I managed to take some pictures at the photobooth with a bloody backdrop (Legitly, bloody). And not bad lehh, instant photo print. First time see that kind of technology in real life, eye-opener.
With Xinyu! My laopo from filming! haha. I know I smile damn awkward here, but hey, I tried to smile normally, but don’t know why come out like that. Must be because I was still not fully awake. Must be.
With Bernice! Ya, she enthusiastically want to have a photo taken because she want to post on our CSOP (orientation)’s Whatsapp group. HAHA. Yes yes. Given that smile, you know I am awake.  
Meanwhile, someone was trying to play with my DSLR and the remote control app in my phone…
(Sorry Dallies, I just have to post this cos you look retarded here. Haha)
But at least she put it into good use after that…
After all these photos, I went over to another booth to help out…
Another bloody booth. This time, it’s a murder scene. Of course, they need someone to lie there for they to trace out the corpse outline on the ground.
Rebecca shall have the honour for being the one, lying on the floor, in the middle of the Atrium while Veron taped the outline. Thn I suddenly felt like a crime scene photographer (Hey, maybe I can consider this as a job too :P)

Calling for crime scene investigator…
The ‘murdered’ still can pose for a photo sia. Not bad. But if that happens in real life, I will definitely quit my job.
Alright. Let’s get to the stage and see the performances (Of course, I didn’t take pictures of all the performances).
Here’s a performance by RayE. They are a bunch of really talented ex-NP students who even composes their own songs! (And the songs are damn nice!)

I must mention this girl here who played the guzheng. She played many modern songs like Jay Chou’s 《髪如雪》and many of my favourite Chinese songs, and she played them really well! In the interview after that, she said that she used one night to rehearse all the songs, really really talented!

After the performance, there were a lot of games and yes, games with vouchers to be won. And so, I participated some (being sabotaged most of the time by the hosts :’D). And there, I took away with me loads of vouchers kindly sponsored by Koufu and Salad Affaire (I swear I could eat salad everyday for the rest of next week).

I was quite awkward most of the time on the stage, somehow. While I was trying the act stupid, I ended up really stupid. Especially during one of the event in which required me to sing this 《聽海》by A-mei with the earpiece on. And the earpiece was connected to an mp3 which was playing some random English song. As much as I was unfamiliar with the majority of the song, it is impossible for me to even sing the song without listening to the actual tune.

And so I gave up halfway.

Okay, not even half-way. Probably just after the first two lines.

I looked at the crowd in front of me in horror, I think I was just basically saying the lyrics out. :’D

At least, somehow, my group won in the end. Yay!

Let me not continue to expose all my embarrassing moments…

Let’s go on to some more performances…

Our two hosts for the next segment, Xiaobai and Yundi. 😛 (The photo a bit over exposed because my lens were blurred, Oops)
And guess who were the next performers???
YESSS!!! It’s Xinyu and Veron! The two with voices that are damn good.

They were singing Leehom’s ‘Forever love’. It was sooooo damn nice can. Too bad I didn’t record it down. :(((

Here’s other performances:

I need to leave at 1.45pm because my social psychology lesson was at 2pm.

But before that…
Take a look at my lunch. 🙂

The Singapore Story (National Day 2014 Special) – MV

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Since we don’t have a National Day theme song this year, we decided to make one! Hope you all will like it!
The Singapore Story
Composed by: Chen Yu
Lyrics by: Eddy Chua
Verse 1
It has been long, for we have come so far
Where our forefathers, had came hand in hand
To build the land we are proud
It has been tough, for we have done so far
To write a story, where we feel for
The country we all love
Verse 2 
This is the place, where we call home
Where we all share the same story
This is the place, where we call home
We are all the writers
This is the place, where we call home
Where our friends and families are
This is the place, where we call home
Where our future lies
Chorus 1 
This is my country, my home
This is the place where I will give my best to
This is my country, my home
This is where I want to be a part of
Chorus 2
Write the Story on our progress
We will always strive for our best
We will help Singapore grow further in her next chapter
This is the start of a new chapter and we’re ready to go again
We will always stand hand in hand 
To continue in creating the story of pride
Verse 1
It has been long, for we have come so far
Where our forefathers, had came hand in hand
To build the land we all love
It has been tough, for we have done so far
To write a story, where we feel for
The country we all love
Verse 2
This is the place, where we call home
Where we all share the same story
This is the place, where we call home
We are all the writers
This is the place, where we call home
Where our friends and families are
This is the place, where we call home
Where our future lies
Chorus 1
This is my country, my home
This is the place where I will give my best to
This is my country, my home
This is where I want to be a part of
Chorus 2
Write the Story on our progress
We will always strive for our best
We will help Singapore grow further in her next chapter
This is the start of a new chapter and we’re ready to go again
We will always stand hand in hand 
To continue in creating the Singapore Story.
For those for you who like it, the song is also available in Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/eddy-chua/the-singapore-story-1
Happy National Day!!!

10 Things You Can Do During National Day Holiday

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As National Day is coming, everyone will be wondering how are you going to celebrate this special occasion with your family and friends. Yes, I know it’s like a normal weekend, but hey! It’s National Day, it’s a special day! Here’s a list of 10 things (I wanted to do 49 things but woah, that’s really a lot) you could do during this break! (Hint: Some of them are really sarcastic or ridiculous but that doesn’t mean no one is going to do it. HAHA)

1) HAVE A MEAL WITH YOUR FAMILY
Yes, treat it as a family day for all of you. I mean, how often can you find a day when everyone in the family is on holiday? It’s a good day to get everyone down to have a meal, be it breakfast, lunch and/or even dinner! It will be a bonus if you can have the meal at the comfort of your house with delicious home cooked food (even though some may not really cook but at least, you get to taste the feel of home).

(Image: xinmsn)

2) GO FOR A PICNIC
Other than having a meal with your family, try heading out for some picnic. Don’t say Singapore got not much place for picnic. From the Marina Barrage to the Chinese Garden to East Coast Park, there are many places for you to picnic at. (If you try to have an evening picnic at the Marina Barrage on the 9th of August, there’ll be a high chance you might get to see the fireworks display from the nearby National Day Parade (NDP.)

3) GO DAISO BUY ALL THE $2 FLAGS AND DISTRIBUTE TO YOUR COMMUNITY
That’s a bit ambitious but as long as you have enough budget, why not try this? Since I think place where the Singapore flag is sold at a lower price is at Daiso, why not try getting like few dozens of them (given if they really have enough stocks) and distribute it in your community. Go door by door to distribute it and you can make use of this time to recognise and talk to your neighbours (esp. those you didn’t even know existed despite staying in the estate for year). Good community service and society bonding.

4) STAY AT HOME AND WATCH CABLE TV
A good suggestions for all your crouch potatoes out there who refused to do anything at all. I think Starhub is offering free cable tv channels for National Day, so you have like basically 300+ channels to watch and few thousands of programmes to catch. If Singtel follow suit, which I think they definitely will, you will really be pampered for choices. Get ready to stock up as many tidbits as possible because you’ll be glued to your television screen.

5) WATCH ALL THE SHOWS YOU LIKE ON YOUR PHONE

Here’s one for Singtel’s post-paid data subscribers… SPAM YOUR DATA PLAN LIKE SIAO because the telco finally want to do something good by giving you free unlimited data during National Day itself. So since it’s free and looks like it’s kind of one-in-a-lifetime thing, make full use of it. Start watching your favourite shows on your phone without the usage of wifi like a boss.

(Image: Singtel)

But of course, remember to read the terms and conditions here and make sure you ensured that your mobile data is waived before you start spamming your data like mad.

Sorry non-Singtel post-paid customers, do remember to connect to the nearest wifi around you.

6) WATCH NDP ON TV
I know many of us do not have the ticket to the NDP, like as always. Since MediaCorp is broadcasting the parade in the 4 different official languages, might as well stay at home and enjoy. Yes, so don’t keep sticking to your free cable tv channels, remember to tune in for the NDP ‘live’ broadcast, as you usually normally would do. Uhhuh, and you can catch the fireworks in those angles that you can’t possible see it at the venue itself because you can’t fly.

7) VISIT MUSEUMS
The National Heritage Board (NHB) has been encouraging everyone to visit local museums and they even have free admissions for all locals. What’s better than getting to understand the history of your country during National Day? And since it’s free, bring your entire family there, yes, your elderlies and the young ones. It will definitely be a fulfilling trip out. The elder ones can reminisce about the past while the younger ones can get to know more about the heritage and culture.

(Image: Screenshot from NHB website)

Well, other than the National Museum of Singapore, there’re also the Asian Civilisation Museum, the Paranakan Museum, Singapore Philatelic Museum and the Reflections @ Bukit Chandu. Yes, all are really FREE OF CHARGE for locals!

8) VISIT RURAL PARTS OF SINGAPORE
Going to the town to shop is just too mainstream already. Everyone seems to be doing that, like during every moment of the time.

“Today’s National Day lehh, where you going?”
“Go town to shop lah!”

“Today’s National Day lehh, where you going?”
“Go town watch movie lah!”

I swear that’s like the most common thing said during this time of the year. But… Singapore does not solely make up of the town areas.

Make a trip down to the really ulu parts in Singapore, like the Central Catchment Reserves and even Lim Chu Kang (caution: Do you dare to head there at night). I’ve went to these places before and it’s like a paradise, at least it allows me to really take a break from the busy city life and, also, from humans. Enjoy the nature in Singapore, guys.

 

 

 

 

The rural and the most natural parts of Singapore can be really pretty right?

9) TURN ON THE RADIO AND LISTEN TO TRUE-BLUE LOCAL HITS

Local Radio station 99.5FM will be playing local music during National Day this year. Means, there’ll chances that Kit Chan’s, Stefanie Sun’s, Tanya Chua’s and er… Sun Ho’s? music will be played on air. Yes, that’ll also mean that JJ’s ‘You Are The One, Singapore’ might get featured too (Remember the Youth Olympics 2010 that ‘Oh yeah, oh yeah hey!’ song?). That’s definitely a great news for those who are really into local music and also for the local showbiz. I mean, it’s really rare for a local radio station to air local songs (See the irony). So enjoy while it last.

10) KEEP CALM AND DO HOMEWORK
For all you losers out there, me alike, with prelims and test and assignments due date around the corner, what is the actual definition of holiday for us? Holiday means time to catch up on your work right?

 

Keep The Flag Flying High

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It’s already August. And guess what does that mean? Yes, National Day is coming to Singapore.

During the period between the end of July to early August, many constituencies around the island (probably in fact, all) will be busing organising National Day Observance Ceremony.

To think about it, I’ve been to quite a number of these observance ceremony since some 8 years ago. I’d remember that olden times (I think I kind of make myself sound old here) observation ceremony is much more memorable, though it’s rather small scaled. I mean, at least I could still remember about wearing my ethnic Chinese clothes, waving the flag and singing the National Anthem back in Primary School.

Ok. Maybe because I was directly being involved in it.

But nevertheless, I still like observance ceremony in the community. It’s like a chance to bond the entire community together.

Let me talk about the one I’ve went to yesterday.

A community event involved AMKSS.

So basically, that’s like a homecoming for me.

But actually, I went back (actually not really sure if that’s considered returning back to AMKSS since it’s not held in the school compound) for this guy here, cos he sibei wuseh (big shot).

In case if no one can recognise this handsome guys at the front of the picture, that’s Brendan Pang.
Yalah. People now big shot already lah, parade commander sial.
(Image: knowyourmeme)
That’s really something.

 

 

I managed to take these rather close-up shots during their rehearsal.
——————–
Guess what. The event was scheduled to start at 8am, my alarm went off at 6am. So I thought it will be way too early for me to head out so… I decided to go back to sleep.
And guess what… The next time I woke up, the hour hand was pointing at 8. It was 8AM sharp.
What to do? Jump out of bed, get dressed and then rushed all the way down to Yio Chu Kang Stadium by 8.20am.
20 minutes. That’s a record okay.
I mean from my house to the train station and from AMK Station to YCK Station and then from YCK Station to YCK Stadium. I swear that amount of time spend to travelling on foot and train being just 20 minutes is just holy.
I didn’t know I am capable of doing that.
(Image: memegenerator)
——————–
Now, let’s get back to the parade. I reached there while they were still doing their rehearsals. Hence, I was able to go forward and take some pictures before having to settle down to witness the entire parade when it’s officially starting.
So they marched in… as I stared at them (sorry for the poor photography because I wasn’t at a really good place for shooting and that my lens can’t shoot THAT far).
When everyone was ready, the real big shot came.

 

 

 

 

Ya. Ah Long came. With so much reception. HAHAHA.
Of course, everyone stood up and wave at him.
(Image: imgur)
Legitly just that.
He kinds of look older compared to the last time I saw him. PM not easy uh.
Yep. Everyone stood up to take a glimpse at Ah Long.
And I was there trying to take as much close up pictures as possible.
He went to take his seats and the parade resumes.
I shall not go into the exact details of the parade, you know, the normal procedures you see on TV during National Day. The march pass and so on and so forth. I think I will fall asleep explaining all these here. HAHAHA (See, I am a lazy blogger).
Pang asking permission to march off.
Marching off.
NCC Land cadets marching pass.
And not forgetting our Pioneer Generation.
Ang Mo Kio Constituency Merchants Association.

 

Central Singapore CDC.
Sports Singapore (feat. SEA Games 2015’s mascot Nila)
Ang Mo Kio Family Service Center.

The parade ended after all the contingents marched passed. Well. That required quite some time because there were really quite a number of contingents (apart from those I’ve shown above).

Some of the children came back to their seats and watched the remaining part of the event from the audience area.

Wearing ethnic costumes and (hey, look! Scouts uniform!) uniforms, these primary school kids reminded me of the observance ceremony I’ve attended in Teck Ghee with Townsville Primary School. I think I was involved in a group wearing the ethnic costume and to recite the pledge (I think, too long already for me to remember).
After that, there’s this zumba workout session (in which it was initially awkward because they failed to get the crowd together to do the workout).
I mean… Siao uh. Majority of the people there were either very young children or very old senior citizens (okay, to be fair, some seniors really joined in, but they were the grassroots leaders :’P), zumba a bit too hardcore for them uh.
Yes Yes. I feel sad for them even though I myself didn’t even show a single bit of interest for the workout. I stood up and then sat down. Er… Hello. How do you even expect me to do those dances with my camera on me, I’m sure I’m crying cry after my camera. So er…
As I was still trying to feel sadder for them…
This happened:

 

AMKsians started running down from the stands and charged towards the front of the stage where they were doing the zumba workout.

 

I really appreciate such gestures from these fellow juniors because they made things really less awkward and hyped up the entire scene. Can really see that they really had fun doing the workout together with those on the stage and also with the rest of the community.
Meanwhile, the sun was glaring at me.
(Image: cheezburger)
Everyone retreated one seat back without even telling me. I looked like one idiot enjoying being scorched by the sun. Of course, when I realised, I retreated back too.
Then, here comes B Pang.
Eh. Don’t play play. People got sword leh (Not sure why but my face looks exceptionally round that day -.-).
Pang damn swag with that uniform on. For once, he looked so smart :’D. And Thank you for posing a photo with me with the sword on. I can now tell people, “Hey, my friend parade commander leh, mai siao siao.”
And yes, someone went to talk to Ah Long and got specially mentioned on his FB page…
Duapai liao lorh.
He got to go off to settle other stuffs so I stayed on for a while before I left.
While I was at the MRT Station, someone messaged me say want take picture. So for her, I walked all the way back to the stadium to find her.
See. This kind of senior where to find? (HAHAHA, you must feel honoured, k!)
Oh ya, forgotten to introduce. She is Tan Ting. My junior from AMKSS Drama Club. She’s also my er… daughter. Ya. Daughter. This one the ex-Vice President of the Drama Club hor (Why that day so many big shots uh? HAHA).
Actually, she also very good lah. Give me one can of drink while I was chatting with her and her friend, Peiren (I didn’t get her name wrong, did I?) They were both from 4/1 this year, which was my class 2 years back! Time flies doesn’t it? Yeah yeah, I am getting old already.
It’s kind of good to have chat with those who are currently still in the school because you can get to know what shit is going on in there. Ok, not really shit, some good things and some not-so-good things.
Yes. We chatted and suan-ed each other before heading home.
I should have a meet-up with my juniors soon.
MEANWHILE,
HAPPY 49TH BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!