Thursday, December 30, 2004
// When disaster strikes

Bahh. Every time I log on to CNA's website, the death toll keeps rising. My heart goes out to all the victims and those who have lost loved ones. Its scary how a small movement in the Earth's crust can lead to such a disaster. Seriously! Viewing the pictures and videos really send shivers down my spine.

I'm really thankful our small sunny island of Singapore is unscathed. I wouldn't want to imagine what would happen should the tsunami happened in the South China Sea. My instincts (or maybe just plain old common sense) tells me that the whole of Singapore had the possibility of just disappearing and just cease to exist. I shudder at that thought.

Now since this is a natural disaster, no one can point fingers at anyone. Every other calamity that strikes this poor world, fingers are pointed at just about anybody. Now we can't. No point saying its Indonesia's fault for not having those neat thingamabobs to detect the tsunami. They have no money man. Really sad, considering the fact that Indonesia is relatively volcanic. So shouldn't that be the first thing they invest in? Oh well. They do have other pressing problems. Yikes. This content sounds so GP-ish.

So yea. As all of you would have known, there is a mass appeal for donations of any kind to the appropriate organisations. To list them out would take a long long time since there are so many of them. Singaporeans have a good heart. If they can spend hundreds of dollars a week voting for their favourite Idol, what's a $50 donation to those who need it, right?

Monday, December 27, 2004
// Someone famous

I was out with my sister today, walking, minding OUR own damn business when ONE guy approached us.

THAT guy: Hi! Excuse me, do you speak English?

Us:-silence- -looks away, trying to avoid eye contact- (maybe he's trying to sell something)

THAT guy: Oh anyway, -shoves a piece of laminated newspaper article in our faces- I'M ACTUALLY A VERY FAMOUS PERSON IN SINGAPORE...

me & my sis: (riiiiiiiigghhtt..I'm sure. Then please explain why we've never seen you before?) -wave hand vigourously like swatting an annoying fly-

And we walked away bursting out in laughter.

People nowadays. -shakes head-

Sunday, December 26, 2004
// Body Clock

I've finally uploaded the pics and looking back on them makes me miss Turkey so much! The flight Journey was all in all 13 hours including the stopovers at Bangkok and what nots. Food onboard pretty much sucked and I feel that it was an ominous sign to warn us of the horrid food they have over in Turkey. There, its 6 Hours behind Singapore. My body clock is screwed up. I sleep like 12 hours a day. Either that or I'm turning into a pig.

I've covered the trip online! Hehe. so click on the pics yup. >>



As some of you would already know, Turkey is a continent that has one leg in the Asian continent and the other in the Europe continent. When you switch on the TV there, almost every channel is broadcasting the great hype of Turkey joining the EU. I shan't talk about that.

Ait. The 12 day escapade involved us landing in Istanbul, then driving in the tour bus to Troy, then Izmir, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Konya, Nevsehir (copadoccia), then to Ankara, capital of Turkey. From Ankara, we took a domestic flight back to Istanbul, where we spent 3 nights in Istanbul, again. It was a long journey, but fun, nonetheless. Turkey is a beautiful country and Copadoccia is by far my favourite city. Temperatures dip pretty low in Copadoccia in the winter. The lowest ever experienced by my tour guide was -44 deg. The lowest I experienced there was -22 deg. The winds were strong, the kind that can lift you off the ground (can imagine Aizat going 'wahh angin menyelinap ah'), and too much exposure gave you burns (yea like sun burns). My cheeks were badly burnt, but recovered in Istanbul, where temperature was about 8 deg, not that cold.

An insight to life in Turkey..

In istanbul, we stayed near Galatasaray's home stadium. When we got there, it was a Sunday and there was a match going on. Its really scary to see people marching down the streets like marching for a protest. The streets leading up to the stadium was entirely covered with people and we could hear the chants and cheers from our room. People are very enthusiastic about soccer. You don't see people marching down Orchard Road cheering and whatnot when Geylang plays against Sinchi FC, do you? hehe. The tour brought us for dinner at "Istanbulin" some posh place with a live Belly dancing show (can just imsgine Suff going "hello!") which I personally found a waste of time. How can you eat dinner with almost the entire restaurant smoking. It was actually foggy in the restaurant!

Food wise, it was horrible, well with the exception of the kebabs. Who drinks Lentil soup?!?!? Goodness me. The word "Lentil" already sounds disgusting. Most of our meals were 5-course meals, and every restaurant served the exact same thing. Main course was glutinous rice with bland chicken/lamb. I came home missing Singaporean food!

If you think crossing Singapore roads was dangerous, think again. People in Turkey drive without obeying traffic lights. It doesn't matter if some one is crossing the road, the drivers will not slow down. Zebra crossings do not work too. Taxi drivers are rather reckless as well.

Since Ataturk found modern Turkey, he changed many Islamic rules. Its funny to see many beautiful mosques in Turkey, yet no one prays in them. Ataturk aimed to 'revamp' them into modern Muslims. So, they don't pray 5 times a day, their excuse being that God understands, and they can always pay back in their old age. (what if you die young??) So you can see only the old wear tudungs. The young are very much westernized. Ataturk banned the use of 'songkok's (that thingy that Muslim guys wear on their head) because it showed too much themselves being Muslims. Muslims live in the same house as dogs, they don't eat pork BUT they drink wine. Wierd eh?

Anyhows, I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to be Singaporean. hehe.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004
// A quick update

My goodness! I just realise how atrociously the characters appear on my blog. I must explain myself. In turkey, the keyboard has slightly different characters. The Turkish alphabet has two "i"s one with dot, one without dot because they make different sounds. In my haste, i just used the "i"s interchangeably.

Hehe. Okay. I'm going out for dinner, then I'll blog abt my trip plus, pics!

Coming soon!

Friday, December 17, 2004
// Let ıt snow, let ıt snow, let ıt snow

Hey Guys! Greetıngs from Turkey!!!!

I fınally found a hotel wıth ınternet connectıon. Today has been a long day for me. We've covered 700km today ın 11 hours. I'm no longwer ın Istanbul, but am ın the southwestern part of turkey. The tour bus drove from Pamukkale to where we are now, Kopadokkıa whıch ıs 1200m above sea level and ıts freeeeeezıng cold here.

Outsıdes covered wıth snow and yea ıts cold. (You get what I mean)

Its 3am ın Sıngapore, but 9pm here. Turkey's 6 hrs behınd... Gahh. I gotto go now.. Mıss all of you so so much..talk to you guys soon when I return on Tuesday!!

Saturday, December 11, 2004
// One more thing before I go..

Hi guys! I'll be leaving in just about 6 hours time. I'll sincerely try to find a cybercafe in Istanbul to keep in touch with every single one of you. Istanbul seems to be the only place which will have a cybercafe because the rest of the places i'm going to are snowy mountainous regions. I doubt I'll have any luck there.

I'll get belly dancers for the guys and turkish dudes for the girls, okay.

I have already uploaded the Hari Raya pictures, thanks so much for your patience. My computer sometimes doesn't want to co-operate with me. pfffft. You know the drill>> Click on pics, yup.

Alrighty, I won't be bringing my phone, so don't sms me till the 23rd okay?

I'll miss every single one of you!

Take care guys! =)

Friday, December 10, 2004
// Friends, jobs and everything in between

Hi guys. I'm very much in the Turkey mood. Actually I'm just looking forward to the plane ride. I love airplanes! Fact: When asked in Kindergarten what my ambition was, I innocently (and sweetly) replied "Pilot". But that dream of mine has been dashed one too many times. I thought I had it all. Perfect eyesight, and a whole shitload of enthusiasm, but the thing that held me back was an unappealing job prospect and my darn height. I'm 2 cm shy of the minimum height requirement, damn.

I'll be leaving tomorrow night (Saturday, 11.12.2004), but blogging on this Chilly Friday night because I'm afraid I won't have enough time to blog tomorrow. (All the kecoh-ness of packing and last minute checks)

Aaah. So many things have happened over the past days. I have really fallen in love with my group of friends. I can safely say that we're really tight. I recall speaking to Raph online last night.

(in net language)
amylia -- ich und frau Jones: everytime i see u 2 together i feel damn happy i dono why

=RuFf170703=: hahahaha

=RuFf170703=: amy u are a true fren thats why ah!

I don't know, but his words really touched me. This will be the group of people whom I never want to let go of. Its funny how close we've become when we're not even in the same class. Lydia's the artsy, sometimes jiwang, i-wanna-marry-a-millionaire girl. Baba's the perfect housewife, clean freak, cooking for everyone girl. Halim's the big rugger that looks scary at first sight, but actually has a really soft side, which, happens to appeal to me alot (hehe). Suff's the merepek king who's so influential, obsessed with toiletbowls, all-nonsense kinda guy. Aizat is as crappy but has a mature side that will impress you, he's the sensitive practical guy. Irwan is the one with the brains, but sometimes may leave that brain of his at home, funny, candid. Raph's the love doctor, the caring one and by far the fastest person to grasp the malay language. Me? Well, i'm just the nerd. haha! Everyone's so diverse, yet we click so well. So much so that when one is in trouble, I feel so worried for them! -shrugs-

It seems to me that every entry I have is a tribute to my friends and class. I guess it just shows how much I appreciate them being there making our friendship whole.

And... I need a job. Like, desperately. I figured I'd give tuition, (God bless those kids) or work somewhere that would benefit me in other ways than financially (like intellectually). My dad made that requirement (because maybe he thinks I'm lacking the intellect). No working at fast food outlets, beverage chains because he thinks that the environment that i'll be working in is unhealthy. Well, maybe he has a point there. I'm thinking of admin work, but, again, he dismissed that thought by saying that it wouldn't benefit me intellectually. But hey! If I get paid generously by doing simple filing and whatnots without having to exercise my grey matter, I'll take the job hands down! Duh!

Oh well, -shrugs-. Job hunting for me will begin on 24th Dec, when I return from Turkey on the 23rd. Employers, i'm very much available.

Thursday, December 09, 2004
// pics are up!!

ok guys, the gradnite pics are finally up. after 4 days of uploading, i realise that I was using the wrong mode at webshots. But i'm ecstatic now, nonetheless. -prances around-

go click the pics on your right hand side.

some pictures were artificially enhanced using photoshop. (hehe)

I will not be held responsible for any loss of eyesight.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004
--

Oh. Pics are in the process of being uploaded.

//little updates

Hi guys! I'm back from KL! Busy packing stuff for Turkey and all.

Gradnite on Friday was a blast. It was so fun and at the same time amazing to see everyone dressed up for the occassion. Everyone looked so good! We watched movies at night. Shutter was spoilt so we ended up watching Ju-On which we spent more time understanding than appreciating the horrifying parts.

KL was fun! My whole family shopped till we dropped. My dad couldn't stop buying watches, my mum was obsessed with kain baju (cloth) and me and my sis were obsessed with Starbucks AND shoes! Woohoo!

Looking forward to Turkey where the temperature's going to dip as low as zero. I'm thrilled. Don't worry guys. I'll get all of you souvenirs!

Sigh. 2004 has just zoomed by. I'm amazed at how short time is now. Despite a short 2 years, its very comforting to know that I have built some remarkable friendships with quite a number of people. While the guys leave for NS, the girls will be looking for jobs, applying for universities, having fun.

Edward left me a parting gift after gradnite, which he personally delivered to the hotel. I'm incredibly touched by his gift. I couldn't thank him before he left for Malaysia because i was already in KL. Its a very beautiful frame that he handmade. On it were words that really touched me.



It reads:
Amylia,
Every kind of friendship
is a precious work of art
For friendship is a blessing
And a treasure of the heart.

Friends Forever,
Edward

Indeed. Friends Forever. It sounds so cliched, so primary school, but friendship is forever. Near or far.

03S14, Lyd, Ba, Halim, Zat, Suff, Wan, Raph, thanks for the memories.

Thursday, December 02, 2004
// Pre gradnite preps

Gradnite's tomorrow! I'm excited! Got all my stuff ready, just hope nothing goes wrong. Oh, I just finished watching the Singapore Idols finals. My sister recorded it for me as I had that tea session yesterday night. I couldn't help but notice that the judges were not being very sincere in giving their comments. The performance by *ahem* was so obviously horrendous. Pitching was all out. Some parts out of tune and they still said that the performance was good.

Thank goodness. Singaporeans definitely disagreed with them.

I won't be updating this blog for quite some time. Friday's gradnite, I'm leaving for KL on Saturday and won't be back till tuesday. Come Saturday, I'll be leaving for Turkey for 2 weeks.

Miss me guys. I'll try to snoop around the streets of Istanbul for a cybercafe.

// tired!

Wow. eversince the As ended, I've been going out non stop. Town, bugis, town, people's houses, town again. My goodness. I need a rest. Been shopping for gradnite stuff and all. Went out with Lyd and Ba today. It was fun! hehe. After that I had to meet my mum for some PSC tea session thing. I need to submit my scholarship application!! But I haven't written that darned essay! The question evokes a wth expression in you.

I have transferred the hari raya pics into a folder in my computer. I have not uploaded it yet, but will do it soon. I have a video of Irwan shaking his head as if he's high on drugs. He looks retarded. hehe.

Went home and caught Sly singing the last song. I'm sorry Sly fans. but

TAUFIK WON!!

hehehe. I told you. Singaporeans aren't that deaf after all. Okaylah. I must go and sleep already. Going out tomorrow also. hehehe. and Friday's Gradnite!