The shutter is the mechanism that controls the amount of light entering the camera and the speed in which it does so. 

– Drew, Helen (2005). The Fundamentals of Photography (pp. 38). Switzerland, AVA Publishing SA. 

Ohya, if you are wondering why there are some people wearing full school uniform in a Polytechnic campus compound, let me explain to you. So… there was a msg circulating that the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Students’ Union (NPSU) ‘invites’ students to wear their ex-school uniform to campus on Friday. And our class decides to wear them to campus (other than me lah, cos my AMKSS uniform can no longer fits me and I refused to don my SRJC’s uniform). But end up, on that day, 4 people wore it, and the majority of us wore school-based t-shirts. 😀

I swear they were judged by basically everyone around the campus because of their uniform. But I call that unique.

And the four of them who wore school uniform, decided that they should that ‘step’ photos.

With their school uniform.

Before changing out of it (they can’t handle the amount of eyes staring at them :’D).

I really missed all my friends back at Ang Mo Kio Sec. It’s probably the only place where I can call it a ‘second home’. The friendships that we’ve made are irreplaceable, the bonds forged are indestructible. Hopefully one day, I can get a chance to have more reunions with all those ex-AMKsians.

This was a really a meet-up that we owed each other for very long.

Very very long.

It was supposed to happen during the March holidays. And then, everyone was busy (Yes, when I say everyone, it means that there were supposed to be more than two people. Ah well.) Then, we were supposed to meet up last weekend, for a lunch and a photo shoot because we want to take ootds with the sudden growth of flowers in the country. Plus, someone wants to take photo with a kimono that she just imported in.

And then, it was cancelled.

But then, someone misses me too much to keep postponing our ‘date’…

England’s most tragic football disaster ever happened on this day, 25 years ago. And 25 years later, today, the families of the 96 victims are still in search for the justice that were wrongfully taken away from them since the day it happened.

The handling of the incident on that day, the covering of faults, altering of witness and police statements and the pushing of responsibilities by the South Yorkshire Police should be regarded as the most disgraceful thing ever to be done by the British civil service.

And this was made worse by the infamous front page of The Sun on the next day:

They were cheated by the police into thinking that it was the fans themselves who caused the death of their fellow fans. It’s kind of stupid to actually label whatever was claimed by the local police as ‘THE TRUTH’ even before any inquiry or hearing was done. And The Sun is still paying the price for such reports with the boycott within the city of Liverpool that lasted even up till now.

Let’s not go too much into the disgrace of individuals because this is supposed to be a post in memory and tribute to the 96.

The names, as you will see below, are the names of our fellow Liverpool fans, who travelled down to Hillsborough in Sheffield with the team as they faced Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals of the FA Cup of 1988-89. They went, not to witness another astonishing victory by the great Liverpool team of the 80s. They went, but to be chosen and taken away by Hades. They went, and never return. They will never get to witness any other matches in which Liverpool’s going to play. They will never witness the winning of the league in 1990. They will never get to see the different eras of Liverpool’s leadership: from Alan Hansen to Ronnie Whelan, Steve Nicol, Mark Wright, Ian Rush, John Barnes, Paul Ince, Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Fowler and from Sami Hyppia to Steven Gerrard. They will never experience the chills in which every Liverpool supporters felt during that incredible and miracle European night at Istanbul. They will never get to witness Liverpool playing on the Fields of Anfield Road anymore…

• John Alfred Anderson (62)

• Colin Mark Ashcroft (19)

• James Gary Aspinall (18)

• Kester Roger Marcus Ball (16)

• Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron (67)

• Simon Bell (17)

• Barry Sidney Bennett (26)

• David John Benson (22)

• David William Birtle (22)

• Tony Bland (22)

• Paul David Brady (21)

• Andrew Mark Brookes (26)

• Carl Brown (18)

• David Steven Brown (25)

• Henry Thomas Burke (47)

• Peter Andrew Burkett (24)

• Paul William Carlile (19)

• Raymond Thomas Chapman (50)

• Gary Christopher Church (19)

• Joseph Clark (29)

• Paul Clark (18)

• Gary Collins (22)

• Stephen Paul Copoc (20)

• Tracey Elizabeth Cox (23)

• James Philip Delaney (19)

• Christopher Barry Devonside (18)

• Christopher Edwards (29)

• Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons (34)

• Thomas Steven Fox (21)

• Jon-Paul Gilhooley (10)

• Barry Glover (27)

• Ian Thomas Glover (20)

• Derrick George Godwin (24)

• Roy Harry Hamilton (34)

• Philip Hammond (14)

• Eric Hankin (33)

• Gary Harrison (27)

• Stephen Francis Harrison (31)

• Peter Andrew Harrison (15)

• David Hawley (39)

• James Robert Hennessy (29)

• Paul Anthony Hewitson (26)

• Carl Darren Hewitt (17)

• Nicholas Michael Hewitt (16)

• Sarah Louise Hicks (19)

• Victoria Jane Hicks (15)

• Gordon Rodney Horn (20)

• Arthur Horrocks (41)

• Thomas Howard (39)

• Thomas Anthony Howard (14)

• Eric George Hughes (42)

• Alan Johnston (29)

• Christine Anne Jones (27)

• Gary Philip Jones (18)

• Richard Jones (25)

• Nicholas Peter Joynes (27)

• Anthony Peter Kelly (29)

• Michael David Kelly (38)

• Carl David Lewis (18)

• David William Mather (19)

• Brian Christopher Mathews (38)

• Francis Joseph McAllister (27)

• John McBrien (18)

• Marian Hazel McCabe (21)

• Joseph Daniel McCarthy (21)

• Peter McDonnell (21)

• Alan McGlone (28)

• Keith McGrath (17)

• Paul Brian Murray (14)

• Lee Nicol (14)

• Stephen Francis O’Neill (17)

• Jonathon Owens (18)

• William Roy Pemberton (23)

• Carl William Rimmer (21)

• David George Rimmer (38)

• Graham John Roberts (24)

• Steven Joseph Robinson (17)

• Henry Charles Rogers (17)

• Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton (23)

• Inger Shah (38)

• Paula Ann Smith (26)

• Adam Edward Spearritt (14)

• Philip John Steele (15)

• David Leonard Thomas (23)

• Patrick John Thompson (35)

• Peter Reuben Thompson (30)

• Stuart Paul William Thompson (17)

• Peter Francis Tootle (21)

• Christopher James Traynor (26)

• Martin Kevin Traynor (16)

• Kevin Tyrrell (15)

• Colin Wafer (19)

• Ian David Whelan (19)

• Martin Kenneth Wild (29)

• Kevin Daniel Williams (15)

• Graham John Wright (17)

Many of them, whom die way too young, could have settle down and have their own families within the past 25 years. They could have had the chance to bring their children, some even grandchildren to Anfield to witness the way of Liverpool’s football.

But, they don’t have such chances anymore.

Police’s negligence has made them lose everything.

And JUSTICE haven’t been fully paid to them and hopefully it will be returned by the end of the Hillsborough Inquest that is still going on since March 31. 25 Years of waiting for justice is way to long in the history of the modern world.

The entire football community are in an emotional mood today. Tributes pouring in from all over the world and from various rival clubs.

While over at Anfield in the afternoon, an annual memorial service was being held. An emotional afternoon.

Justice will definitely be done. May our 96 dear friends rest in peace.

JUSTICE FOR THE 96.

And remember,

YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE.

It was something that may affect their (well, most of them) confidence and attitude towards their A Levels. Something that will play a very big and important role.

Something sensational.

Okay, maybe not that sensational.

As many could have guessed it already, it’s the day of the release of the A’ Level Project Work (PW) results. And I don’t know why I was excited about it. Maybe because I can go back to meet those friends whom I haven’t seen for a very long time.

Went back with  Ms Nicole See and I swear she was wearing damn red today. Not sure if that was supposed to be her lucky charm?

Let’s start with how I actually cheated with everyone’s feeling by saying I am not going back. Poor Elyssa and Peishan had to try all their best to get me back. And that Peishan even called me when I was in school. Teck Ching was beside me and he kept shouting ‘CANTEEN! CANTEEN!’.

And it still puzzles me up till now how did she even not catch that.

Had lunch with Teck Ching, Shafiqah, Jiayi and Zainur. Oh my, long time since I’ve last bought and ate food in the SRJC’s canteen, and probably the last time.

Not sure if I’ve unknowingly passed my ‘racist’ germs to Teck Ching. I swear he’s getting racist. Heightist. And, sexist. Poor Zainur got to survive all his attacks in school. But she’s lucky that I’ve left.

Went to library with Teck Ching to disturb Zichao, who was studying for his Geography test later on with Barry. But then I felt really guilty and left.

Nicole and Ratna were outside, at our usual seats at the GNC.

How times had passed. The table behind us sat a group of J1s doing the PW. That was exactly us a year ago. Memories. But not sure whether I should miss that kind of days, cracking my brains to think of ideas for my Preliminary Ideas (PI) section of the PW. I can’t remember how many days of sleepless nights I had to endure to come out with my ideas. To anyone who happens to be reading this and who happens to be J1 this year, good luck to you my friend. You will need it. If you think your life now is miserable, you will know how close you are in ending your life in the next one or two months to come (Alright, I ain’t endorsing this act of stupidity and irresponsibleness).

And of course, we took SELFIES!

We are #Incendio.  

One of the most awesome PW group ever was formed a year ago. Incendio means burn, to show our burning passion towards our task. One year later, after going through so much together, we finally see the fruit of our hardwork.  

Thank you girls for all the hardwork (yep, on the project and on bearing with all my retarded nonsense). You all are the best teammates I can ever ask for. God must have been real kind to me. 

Though I am no longer around physically with you all anymore, but remember, our affinity does not just end here. I will continue to pray for the success in whatever you all are doing, like how we’ve prayed before our OP. I will look forward to all your successes. And please stay in contact and the flames of Incendio will never cease.  

Because we are #Incendio.

Yep. The Flames of #Incendio will keep on burning as long as we keep its spirit alive.

I am probably going to chain up a new internet acronym. I mean, what’s the meaning of the internet without interesting acronyms.

Okay. To be fair to them, they really did study while I decided to stay in my room to watch some movie showing on Ch8. And then came out to the living room for the cable TV. And stumbled into a rather cool K-drama (ohgosh, I am actually interested in a K-drama…)

So it’s time for me to tell you which show it is…

Ando: “‘Everything in the future is already determined.’ So claimed the French genius astronomer, Pierre-Simon Laplace. This is his reasoning: Everything that is about to happen is a casualty of the past. By this logic it is possible to track every particle in the Universe, then it is possible to calculate everything that is about of happen. In other words, everything in the future is already determined. However, we can’t even track 1% of what is happening in the world. We cannot understand it. Thanks to our ignorance, we have empty hopes and dreams. And in turn, makes futile efforts. Even though everything in the future is already determined, then let’s try to disprove Laplace’s theory. Can one of us time travel back to Japan in December 1 of 1941, and tell them that Japan will suffer greatly if they joined the war? “

Nanase (Reiji’s sister, who is an associate professor): “If Professor Matsushima Reiji’s theory was true, then it is possible. Although we have mass, so we can’t go back in time. But data has zero mass, so it’s possible to send information back and forth though time. That’s what Professor Matsushima theorised. “

Ando: “That’s correct. Information has zero mass. Therefore, people’s desires can transcend time and space. As you can see from this equation, the speed of light is constant. However, both light and space have been confirmed to bend due to gravitational force. *Starts drawing some graph on the black board* Theoretically, there is another shortest path for light to travel from points P1 to P2. If there’s a particle that can travel through the path, than it is possible to exchange data through time using that particle. Of course, mankind does not currently possess such technology. But one day, someone here is sure to create that technology. Pierre-Simon Laplace is a great physicist, a philosopher, and a genius, but he underestimated the existence of life. Omniscience is not needed. People’s desire can change the future. They can even undo their mistakes in the past. Life is the power to lead the future into the right direction and to prevent a single life from ruling the world indefinitely. All lives end and they must hand over the baton to the next generation. Never forget that.”

Apparently, I am believing that ‘Life is the power to lead the future into the right direction.’ It doesn’t matter if there’s really such technology of transmission of data between time, we must know that it’s always of our duty and conscience to take responsibility of our life and our future. It’s our responsibility to lead our own future in the right direction.

And I am really proud to see how serious my friends were when they are doing their homework and/or revising their work. They are taking responsibility for their future. They are studying hard to get the grades they need for their dream course in the University. Most of them know what they want in the future and they are pushing towards their goals, in order words, leading their future on the right path.

However, All Work But No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy. They know that they have to balance their work and play. Hence, we decided to go down to play Table Tennis when everyone was more or less done with their work. Living a healthy lifestyle (like what I am trying to do right now) is also a mean of taking responsibility of your future. What if you achieved your dreams? What if you get to earn big bucks, buy whatever you’ve always wanted? You can’t enjoy much when you have no health. Leading your future in the right direction is to balance work and play (and/or exercising).

Remember, YOUR future is in YOUR own hands.

So the picture above summarises what I want to say for this post. The AMKsians of the 2012 batch reunited in AMKSS after 2 years! This picture features a Jazz Band performer and 3 gatecrashers. (PS: I am definitely not doing some sort of description you will hearing during English Oral examination. Although I sounded like one specific student who is unsure of what on earth he wants to convey to his examiners. Am I that bad?)

28 March 2014 can be mark down as one of the more memorable day in my life. It’s a day full of reunion. Let’s not talk about what happened in the morning because I was just slacking my ass off. The day before, the Drama Club seniors were persuaded by the juniors to return for session because it was the last day of Drama for the current batch of Sec 4s.

The current batch of Sec 4s.
Hmm…

Time passes by really fast, doesn’t it? I could remember these batch of Sec 4s Drama kids joined the CCA when my batch was in Sec 3. I remembered how difficult it was to persuade them to join Drama (Er… Not sure how we managed to rope in three guys into the gang). And so… Their first Drama session started while we were all busy preparing for the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Central Judging (Yes, it was still called ‘Central Judging’ back then. And that was my last ever SYF performance.)

They were so innocent back then and I was still unsure of how to interact with them because of that 2 years age gap. I wasn’t that confident because I never make any close friends out of the Sec 2s back then. Look how I am using my words, BACK THEN. (So that those closer to me now will never get offended. You see how important it is to foster human-to-human relations.)

The phrase ‘Back Then’ has many, or at least, a few meanings.

‘Back then’ can mean that things that one is mentioning has changed. For example, “Back then, the Sec 1s are really innocent.”

‘Back then’ can also mean, at the same time, that the thing that one is mentioning hasn’t changed at all. For example, “The Bomohs couldn’t find the missing airplanes back then, and still couldn’t locate it till now.”

My English is never accurate.

Let’s get back to topic before I start drifting away and don’t even know how to make a U-turn.

I had made it very clear from the start, I will only go if either Kai Hao or Hong Kiat go. And too bad, one supposed to have meeting and the other had CCA in the afternoon. Well, I decided to call for a dinner outing with the juniors and the senior batches.

So on Friday evening, I met up with Hong Kiat at Ang Mo Kio MRT Station because he came down from Anderson JC. Eh-hem. I was supposed to meet Kaihao earlier at 3plus PM because someone said his meeting was cancelled.

And then, he decided to stay in school.

And so, I decided to take a nap.

I thought I was late because we were suppose to meet at 5PM. But then my body decided to sweat like there is no tomorrow and I had to air myself dry before heading out. 5.30PM, I was still at home and Kaihao’s still at Botanic Gardens. Woah. I swear we are those kind of people who can’t be on time for meet-ups. :’D

After meeting Hong Kiat, we were supposed to wait outside Breadtalk for the juniors and Kaihao while Lizhong was making his way down from Hougang. It was then I received a message, from Tan Ting saying that they will reach around 6.30PM. Hong Kiat and I looked at each other, stunned. What are we supposed to do for the next one hour?

But luckily, Kaihao came while the rest reached around 6pm. Phew.

The three seniors met their juniors for the very first time since 2013, and some for the first time. Audrey and Tan Ting were the two whom we know. And then there’s a Minh Quang and Emily, in which we didn’t get to meet before this.

The meeting with the three girls were rather short because they had to go and not staying long enough for dinner. So little Minh Quang was left alone with us. And there came Lizhong.

After dinner, the old ones wanted to go back to AMKSS campus to gatecrash the alumni-organised gathering.

Yes. This one. Where many of my friends (actually almost all) decided not to go because of the $25 price tag (originally $50).

After so much hesitation and ‘loitering’ outside the school campus, the four of us finally had some balls and walked into the school.

The security guards let us in because we said we were there to see the teachers. Which is as true as it can be.

Finally got to meet a few teachers and chatted with them. Woah. The memories. The event was really very grand, and seems fun. Maybe next year’s alunmi gathering, I should persuade everyone to go, despite the amount of money. I mean, the most important thing is to enjoy the time and reunion with your beloved teachers and friends.

At the end of the event, Hong Kiat, Kaihao and I stayed behind to play Monopoly Deal.