Goodbye old friend, welcome, a new one.

As an old saying goes, nother revolution around the sun? an end of a year brings back many memories, both good and bad. The clich廥 in this writing will probably be numerous, but you know, I would say that its those clich廥 that make life fun to live by. A clich?is in my view point something that is seen as the usual ?an expression that I see is linear. This year brought many clich廥 to us, the ending of a chapter in our life, a turning of a new page, and all that other sort of crap.

So, as I have done in 2004, 2005 and 2006, I will now go onto the review of my year. So, what can we say about 2007? Most of us would agree that a lot has bloody happened again over the last 365 days, most obvious of course is the conclusion of formal schooling, the ending of Year 12 and the completion of the HSC.

The very first seconds of 2007 had me in the back yard of my step grand parents in Birmingham, England. The neighbours had their own fire works, and it was a pretty cool bang to the year. However, subsequently, I realised there was a lot missing in that one moment, some very special loved ones. I not talking about my parents, although of course they are my most dearly loved ones, but of friends, mainly J, J and K who from what I know were all getting drunk in the outer rings of Singapore.

Coming back I would hear stories of how awesome that night was, including getting drunk (standard of course) and of the green waffles which would then become a common snack item. The 3 of them would often promise me another fun night would happen again (based on my continuous pestering that I wasn there), although it wasn to ever happen, I can very much look back and still be happy that I knew these 3 other wonderful people.

Not wanting to exclude everyone else of course, but most of my time in the last two years have been spent around them and Ie loved every bit of it. But to move on, lets look at everyone else that has affected me in the last year. I will categorise everyone by groups, so we shall start with the

enchers? I give this name simply because these people would be those that sat with us during recess and lunch on the same bench, under the cover, facing the field/car park. Many stupid arguments were fought over here (Green lantern still kicks Jack Bowers ass any day), countless laughs were shared over here, food stolen from each other, money borrowed from one another, and the general chit chat and sha-bang that was life itself unfolded itself on these majestic wooden sitting apparitions. A roll call can include, Scott, KW, Anthony, Luke, Cha-von, Oliver, Cong, Alex A, Sasha, and everyone else. Apologises if I can remember. But yes, these many people would often be amongst our social network, a plethora of conversations involving multiple personalities and backgrounds. Good times indeed.

rama Class? The name is quite obvious, and it a real pity, but the fact is, I only hung around these good people in times of Drama classes and hardly anywhere else. Amy, Teresa, Chris, Hilary, Alex R and Shaza. I shall often remember the incredibly retarded things that we would come up with to annoy Toppin or Weston. The hours and mins spent in rehearsing for whatever play that was too be done or that stupid assessment task. So many hours of pretending to be someone else were played out in those two drama rooms, and many great memories again would be played over and over in one ever lasting play. (corny huh?) So what can I remember?School play (Whatever love means + Dags), Irish Theatre (cue accent), Absurd theatre (Cue retardation plus extra retardation), Realism (cue groans), Aboriginal theatre (sugar anyone?), Australian theatre (Oh god?politics) and of course the all important GP and IPs. So yes, everyone from drama, I will always remember the fun times in class and outside when we would see each other and perform more stupid things for the hell of it. Thanks for a memorable year. To HEEEELen and Westy, you two have been the best drama teachers (yeah I know youe the only drama teachers but anyway, that besides the point) and if I didn get nominated for Onstage then er. I blame you for not sweet talking the markers more.

he Asians?I really didn want to racially class this but it actually bloody hard not too. In this reference, I look towards Tsukasa, Meiysha, Zanetta, Kathlene, Candice, Rina, Eric, Achek and so on. Asian pride my brothers and sisters, keep it strong. I feel that you have always been there to present us in the best of lights (except for Tsukasa :D)

yan and Stuart and etc?Besides those two, I refer this group to include Kasper, Sam, and all others. To me you guys have always been the fun party group, ever ready to drink and make merry. I often look forward to conversing with you guys in parties and what not, knowing I will never be bored as long as you people are there.

he gamers? This is a special mention to my long time dota khakis, the Quades and Chiam and shall be written in 1337 5p34k. 1 w1!! 0f+3n 100k b4ck a+ t3h pwning we h4v3 g1v3n 0u+ ov3r t3h l45+ y34r +0 n00bs 4r0und t3h w0r1d 1n dota or CS or wh4+3v3r gg we w3r3z pwning a+. zzz f0r h4v1ng +0 5+0p. But really though, good times all around, at toa payoh, meridian and far east shopping centre. Besides gaming of course there would often follow a multitude of feeding to keep up with all that hard core gaming. Pwn hard, pwn hard.

rank and his boys/ the jocks? I remember in math class once how Frank was called a jock to which he of course denied. Jocks are seen to be arrogant ass holes (In American movies anyway), but in AISS, I think they were just arrogant. J No offence to any one in this category, which included Frank, Ericson, Pritchard, Cam, Ryan and all others, but once again, I can always count on you bunch to say something funny enough for a nice healthy laugh to start of math class. The bantering that goes on between the two surpasses irish theatre any day (drama students will understand) And I must say, singing American Pie on schoolies with you guys whilst drunk is one of the greatest memories that I will ever have. So, ere to you guys, your true blue?(I don know the rest of the lyrics)?/span>

aptains? Its quite clear to say that we were the best year 12s that the school has ever had. Many new records were achieved I believe and its nice to know that our year did a hell load of a better job then last years, and of course will do better then this years. (Sorry yr 11, but you know?Our jerseys still look way cooler) I often see the captains as the final guardians of the old school before change would come (in a drastic manner) and I believe that comment would be quite accurate. They were the last of their kind, every single captain, tradition and ethics in a way like no other. Events that were organised shall fondly be remembered from the Social, to IFF and those fun filled assemblies (a bit of sarcasm there). I say thanks for doing such a great job, although at times I might have felt it could have been more efficient, nevertheless, you came, you saw, you led.

he year cohort? More of a final shout to everyone of year 12, 2007. Guys, really, and sincerely, bloody good year, it a shame we can have another one, but damn bloody good year, best year 12 cohort ever.

eachers? To all teachers, I thank for making the year educational as well as often quite fun. Be it Angela bringing Frank down every English lesson, to Robert letting Dory explain about his actions (SHE LOOKED DEVELOPED!!), Cathereine and Helen for the great drama lessons, Katrina for being such a fun year coordinator to Daddy (doug) for the great floorball sessions and Scott for those interesting mentor lessons. So, its been so much fun, thanks for putting up with us, and I hope we do run into you lot again some day.

As the year went by, the months counting down to the HSC, huge assessments finished (PIP, IP and GPs, large and hard chem projects, English portfolio, etc etc) I often thought to myself, hen is it all gonna end??In my position now, I look back with sorrow to see that it has ended, and never again will I come to school in mufti, get to wear that green worn school bag, the comfortable and oh so cozy jumpers, and the white and green uniform that Ie been so used to wearing for the last 6 years.

To make a positive note of it, although I am a person very un favored towards change, I understand the need for moving on. Wee grown up with each other, see ourselves mature in many ways and just like the rise and fall of the day and night, we go on. To have to go and be in the Army right now is something I do not wish to happen, and only made me appreciate even further the wonderful time I had at school and at Aiss. Events occurred, new friendships bonded, old ones strengthen, relationships came and went, friends left and parties were celebrated, exams failed, food was ate, another day, another month, another year.

So to the year 2007, indeed it was an incredible time, it pains me to say good bye but through the test of time, one must forge on. I greet to us in open arms of 2008, with as much optimism as I can. For everyone else, I wish all the best in everything that you do, be it going to university or getting a job. Stay in touch, live well, drink well and eat well. Someone that really impacted my life in the last few months said she hoped 2008 was going to be a perfect year, in life I know perfection is something unattainable, but nevertheless, I still want to thank her for telling me that. So, for you, I will try to make it perfect, youe going to be very hard to forget, but either way, thank you.

To my very good friend Kirean :D and his good family of the McDonald (not the fast food chain), I thank you again very, very much for making the last few moments of 2007, a lot of fun for me, with your generosity that your family shown to me. I owe you guys a round in fact? Oh and thanks Scott also for taking care of me whilst I was, well you know what I was doing anyway.

One other thing, if I ever hurt anyone in anyway, I apologies for it, whether the intention was there or not.

 I look out to my right now, the sun is shining, the cool air is blowing into my face, soft music in the background, but you know, i still can't help but feel sad for it to be all over.

Heh, it a strange feeling having to put 01/01/2008 onto your phone date.

Lets make it happen.

                                                +?/span>

+ Another great year

+ So many amazing things that happened

+ Year 12 is finished!

- Year 12 is finished :(

- I have to go into the army

- The year had to end

- Not perfect, eh? Heh?

holy crap that took like 3 mins for the damn page to load.. how gay.

Anyway, im here to whine about losing me pen. it cost me frekin $2.10 bought during chinese new year in greatworld city, Harris bookshop (which i found out is a sub branch of popular). It was like, the best pen ever, sure i could get another one, but that means spending another $2.10 and having to go back to great world. come to think of it why didnt i buy it today when i was there... yargh. anyway, like i wwas saying, the grip of the pen was soo good and comfortable. the ink came out all freely like it was a river (but a controlled one, you know) and it was one of those where you push the thingy down and the pen comes out. im not so keen on those cap ones since u can lose the caps, and i broke both of the last 2 pens i had with caps and the ink ran out in like 3 days. (like omgwtfbbq h4x).

well then, so right now im using the pen tsukasa gave me last year, and its alright i guess, its kinda chunnky. ive been able to do the pen flipoping thingymagijig thing that billy does well which i learnt during math when i hsould be payina attention. oh yeah, 5th in the grade, woooooooo.

But really, why do the japs make such good pens? like honestly, every pen made that is good seems to be jap. something with this pilot brand i tell you, they got a monoply on pens. i wonder what the pen industry is like, or the stationary industry for that matter... maybe that can be a new carrerrs job.

heh, thats just like heroes with that dad  from the bennett family working in a paper factory. heh heh heh. prima tech sounds like a cool company. i wouldnt mind having a company with the word 'tech' in it for fun.

So....

so...

Chinese new year was good, money was collected, food was eaten and yea... it was cool, nice holiday. erm... erm...

sports carnival then. wow, im dissapointed by lachlan, frekin 4th place, *grumbles mumbles whines* and how the heck did derwent get spirit cup, what a bunch of bull shit.

Yep, and then theres the Dota tourny on monday, been training hard for that... thinking of using DP or dragon. still not sure yet. seems the more i play with them the worst i become... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

and yea... drama assesment essay on monday, written 2 paragraphs... woo.

S&C thing on vietnam in like 3 weeks, havent even looked at the question.. woo

Prata tmrw, that im looking forward too, yay.

and ah.. oh yea, not getting wisdom teeth out, but after the damn carnival ive got a sore throat, sun burns and other things that make me feel no good.

*sits and stares at monitor for 10 mins*

oh yeah, C&C 3 is out, how cool is that. i should buy it soon. PCG gave it a 90% but im waiting to see what game revolution gives it. i think my head is also sun burnt.. it hurts when i scrath it there. ow.

woo...

The Elected.

 heres my holiday entry, i just thought ill write it out for memorie's sake.

DAY 1: Waking up at the terrible time of 6 in the morning, i get groovy and stripe down to natures clothings, and adorning man clothes, i do some last miniute packing before waking up my brother to drive me step dad (either wise known as john) and my mum to the airport. after checking in, my mum and i try to find some breakkie and we go to cedele and i believe i ate a avocado, brie and chicken sandwhich which was decent, but eitherwise, expensive. their orange juice is however, pretty damn good.

we boarded the plane for our 12 hour flight to england or the uk to london heathrow, yay.... the flight was pretty crap, the food was shit as usual, qouting wolfgang puck, "the best time to diet is on an airplane". my entertainment system kept on screwing up so for like 2 hours i was doing nothing whilst my mum and john were watching their movies, naturally i was knida pissed off.

anyway, the flight was done and we arrived in the afternoon in england, and wow, was the landing really cool/weird.

ok, picture this, the sky is clear, like i mean, ub3r clear, no clouds in sight, in fact we saw 2 other planes behind us just before landing and saw the jet stream which i thought was pretty cool. no clouds and the sun was out right? lie in the matrix revolution basically on that scene where neo and that chick, trinity shoots up into the sky in their space craft thingy, it was that clear. we descend and we see clouds, like thick fat massive clouds where u cant see the ground, for miles and miles, and im like, oh, "wonder how long we have to be in them" since they did say it was really foggy. so we go into the clouds, and i just counted, one, two, three, four... and we land. im like, wtf? so yea, i have no idea how the pilot landed, basiclly couldnt see anything and i swear i thought we hit turbulance, but we landed! well, that was cool i thought.

so we got our bags and were gonna take the tube to my aunties house where we were gonna bunk for the night. for some 'security' reason, the line was shut down just as we were about to buy tickets, so we got a cab. oh yeah, even tho it was like 4pm, it was basiclly night time since the fog was so frekin thick that no sun light could get through. anywy, the cab ride was intresting, our driver was a scotsmen who worked part time for the bbc in some production and when he asked me wat i wanted for xmas (+too lazy to spell the full thing) im like, oh a phone would be nice and he laments on about teenagers wanting all this technology blah blah blah, and there on his left is a frekin o2 palm pilot, and im like, right....

anyway, we get to my aunts house, and since we were only staying over night just got some clothes out. we wwent out for dinner at a nearby italian joint which was decent. i had a chicken liver pate to start off with which wasnt too bad, having a good meaty texture and flavour which was served with buttered toast that was tasty john had a ministronie (spell check, pfft) which was good, it was light and refreshing. main courses included scottish beef steak which i have to say was dissapointingly bland and tough. my paretns had pan fried plaice which is a lovevly british fish that was simply cooked in butter served with some veg that was excellent, being well fried and fresh. good job on that. dessert was a tart, cant remember wat, i think it was apple, it was... medicore i guess. anyway, it wasnt cheap tho, this dinner, i think it was around 80 quid or pounds, amounting to X 3 is er... 240? yea. pretty expensive, but i guess its london prices and london prices are like... wow...

i decided to stay up and watch tv on sky tv, which incredibly, has around 600 channels or so. yea.. thats alot, oh yes, including some adult entertainment. :D

naa, but i stayed up watching south park, which is cool since they had a comedy channel.

DAY 2: we drove to stansterd airport in north london i think for my flight 2 hour flight to geneva. we had breakfast in the airport of eggs, beans and the saltiest bacon i ever had. thats bad btw. the flight was meh, foggy again, nothing important really...

arriving at the airport, i was picked up by lucas, my cousin whom i thought wasnt coming, so that was a pleasent surprise. we waited for like 20 mins and was chatting until our bus, another 2 hours to meribel in southern france, as geneva is pretty close to the french boarder. the bus ride was pretty shitty, it was so god damn stuffy it was bloody gay, even though like its 5 degrees outside, its possibly 30 on the inside, and wearing sweaters and stuff... god, bad bad bad.

( my plane to geneva)

we got to a bus terminal, and like, i got off and just took got down to my t shirt as it was so hot... and like after 5 mins i started freezing. so yea. we were suppoed to connect to another bus, and somehow my connecting bus ticket dissapeared. panicking i tried to buy one of the lady in the terminal, but speaking french, it didnt go well, luckily however, this man said to me, "here ill help you out" and im like, oo this guy is gonna translate, but no! he gives me a free ticket! im like, "wow, thanks so much, merry christmas btw" and told him where i was from etc etc etc.

the bus ride to our chalet in Meribel was weird, since we stayed in this village, 'Chandon' like 5 mins from the slopes, and the bus driver was like, wtf u talking about, so we showed him the map. good thing tho, we were the only ones on that bus... so yea, like a limo, lol. he drove us to the bottom hill of the village which was cool. my aunt waited for us outside and yea, it was nice seeing the family again, 18 of us altogether, compromising 2 families from london, 2 including me from singapore and one from canada. cousins, aunts and uncles, it was to be a really awesome and fun snowboarding / ski trip. dinner was ok, we had a beef stew and something else, basiclly it was pretty plah... like, a 5/10.

(view from my room)

it was cool tho, as much wine as u wanted to drink which help to drown out the taste of the very pffft stew but then again, it started putting a bad taste since the wine was shitty wine. and ahh ha! i found the reason why it was so.... not very good, the chalet owners were brits, pfft. that was gay.oh yeah, it was called chalet 'Piton' as u can see. but so, it was a good dinner mainly becos of the company, and yeah, it was nice!

everyone had signed up for their lessons already so this french guy came over to register me for snowboard school. for some reason they didnt have group snowboarding lessons so i took a private one for a ridiculously expensive 170 euros for 3 hours. anyway, soon it was general chit chat, playing card games and we went to sleep, eager for the next day.

DAY 3: so its chirstmas eve, and its looking good that tree, filled with presents, real and fake (you know, to bulk it up and make it look pretty) breakfast was pancakes i think and crossiants which were ok. the food bit of this trip was starting to look bad... anyway, we set off to get equipment and i got my board and my boots which i never did take a photo of... hmm, oh well.

 anyway, lucas and i decided to go for a warmup run before we met for lunch, oh man, bad idea. basiclly, we thought, "ok, there are 2 gondolas and 2 ski lifts, usually gondolas go to like really hard places, so the lift must be the green slope!" wow, bad idea, the maps were a bit hard to decifer and as such, we went on a red/blue run. hoooo getting down that slope was not fun, it was 11 when we started, we got down at 12. yea... a whole hour for one slope. by the end of it, my legs were so sore i couldnt walk and we were exhuasted. we met at this cafe at the bottom of the slopes where my uncles and aunties that came here 8 years ago said was good, yea... not really. a quiche was pretty average and dissapointing and my cousins and the rest of them ate like nuggets or something, wasnt impressed thats for sure. anyway, after lunch i went for my lesson with my instructor whose name was jimone? something like that, french guy, long hair, real freindly and cheerful. So APPRAENTLY, the easy slopes were on the gondola. man i felt smart. the rest of the day consisted of falling down quite a few times and being shouted at for not bending my knees enough, "Eez liikee the susspensionnn uf thee carr" he would say, and yea. by the end of it though, i felt much better, more confident and was having fun. the worst thing however, was my boots werent very well fitting but worst of all, the snow was HARD!!!! nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

it wasnt the soft fluffly white snow which i was hoping but hard, icy compacted snow that we were facing and thus, falling down was like falling on ice or on the field, and going at fast speeds, its not pleasent when u fall down. so after the lesson, we all went back to the chalet, feeling pretty damn tired and stuff, cant remember wat dinner was but i dont think it was very good. oh thats right, it was turkey and what not, which was meh, i have to say, my family does it better, but puddingw as good, chirstmas pudding with cream and custard, yum.

oh yea, and we opened presents, my loot included a new bag which is nice, 2 tshirts one nice and one not so nice, a pen that floats on some random thingy, and a new cook book, so all in all, its ok. i think afterwards we watched a movie or something, cant remember what, but after that we all went to bed pretty tired.

DAY 4: i think today i decided to look for group snowboarding lessons, and as such, i went into the slopes pretty late since i didnt have to go to class. found a shop and called them up and they basically are a bunch of british snowboarders that became instructors, so why not, for 140 euros for 3 day lesson, was damn cheaper then the other one. so walked around a bit more until lunch which we met with the whole family again. this time, lunch was good, at another restuarent but still really near by to the slopes, i had a duck cassoluet which is like a duck stew but with beans, anyway it was pretty yummy.

i went back on the slopes and boarded for like the rest of the day with my cousins who smartly enough took me on a really narrow and not steep slope, so i basically walked and sleded my way down the very unsteep slope. pfft, stupid greens.

A review of the pass year

Well, 2007 eh? man time flys, so lets take a review of the pass year, what has happened?

Well for one, the world changed, again as it always does,new things have been invented, bombs set and exploded, people killed, more consipracies about random stuff, new movies that were good, new movies that were bad, the meeting of new friends, the leaving of the old, and the general hoo haa about the year.

Meals have been eaten, wars have been fought, restaurents opened and closed, air breathed in and out, and global warming is still a big threat. through all the global incidents of fear that holds us in global suspense of what will come when iran and north korea get nukes, when japan again pisses of china or when more and more people in africa are dying and no one really seems to care as much when attention is spaced out on the middle east.

and just liket the middle east, we are as the common citizen in the middle of it. for most of us, these news of terror and acts of destruction seem rather far off, espically in singapore where no incident has occured. with the new age of globalisation, the world is getting smaller, and what was once far of news now arrives at the front door steps which in the end, seems to effect us.

wow i just realised i contridicted myself. anyway, moving on.

so year 11 is gone... and what a year, im gonna have to say the best additions this year were JJK or KJJ or JKJ, you know who you are. i have to say, its great knowing you guys and its good fun this year has been, through the exams, the projects, the racist jokes (a bit too many) and all that general hoo haa of school politics and what not, year 11 was pretty damn good.

so what can i remember? sitting at the benches, not eating mr hoes crappy food anymore (yay to me), going out lanning, watching the odd movie about religon and zeplins, panthars that are pink and trying to check out the chinese new year parade on orchard road which didnt go as planned.

the long drinks in coffee bean, going out for prata at jalan kayu, all good blended mixed up memories that shall be pickled and kept for many years to come in this brain of mine. and the trips, of course, sydney drama trip (meh), trips to thailand (meh meh), school camp (possibly the worst camp EVER), and of course the end of year holiday which i have to say, i still wish i was in France/London.

So the end of year 11, the start of year 12, pass all the papers, all the elections of the captains (yea...), the excellent school play to which u  all should buy off billy (a dvd copy) for only $5!, sports events, assemblys, the fun fun fun homegruop esp with MR T and of course, the classes where our learning takes place.

from the near impossible tasks of chemitstry to the ridiculously easy test of general math and the generalhum of the roman empire marching away on our text books, indeed, this was one heck of a year. of material wealth, new knives are all i can really think of. or was that last last year? er...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

anyway, the fact that i got a job at  a restaurent was intresting for the 2 and a half months that i was working there, nice amount of shouting and stress, ahh yes.... i wish i never have to work. oh but joy oh joy, tehres always dota to look forward too when coming back home, whether from school, work or after going out in the weekend, dota is perhaps the 2nd greatest invention besides toliet paper. god you have to loveeeeeeee toliet paper. mmmmmm all soft and white and.. and.. absorbley.

moving on, musical changes have evovlved, most noticelby, (actually pracitally the only thing i listen to now), Cat Empire and from the musical thingy that mr green made us do, nice amounts of queen. oh yes, tis has been a very good year.

so yr 12 comes along, and my birthday also, btw, to whom kirean and oliver still owe me presents which they promised me were to be given before christmas.... (good one guys) :p

anyway, more work is given out, we are told that yr 12 possibly sucks alot of ass and that if we screw this year up... well, we could be in for a rough ride in life.but hey, we get year 12 jumpers! yay! oh yeah, and i buy WoW, not a good move on my academic part.

but who cares, cos at the end of it all, was my holiday with 17 other people to the ski resort of Meribel in southern France, and you know, it was worth that one week, god was it awesome. and becos of that, this year gets extra points.

i do believe i gave last year a B-, this year, i think it deserves :

                           B+

                       +New friends are made! (yay)

                                                                 -old friends are lost (awww)

                                                                 - Camp was gay! (very)

                                                                   - Mr Hoe still runs the shitty school canteen

                                                                 + We pwned the school play

                                                                 + Got new knives! (was it this year? i think so...)

                                                                 + there were Some good movies

                                                                 - there were shitty movies

                                                                 + Partys!!! yay!!!

                                                                 - Work... noooooooooooooooo

                                                                 +Jumpers !!!

                                                                - But we cant write our own nick names cos alford is a nazi

                                                                + Im still alive!

                   And as such, let us end with Frank Sinatra's, "it was a very good year"

When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We'd ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five

But now the days grow short
I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
And it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year

It was a mess of good years

Here's looking forward to an excellent new year, if i can be bothred getting an SD card reader, ill show off my pictures, until then!