Muthu's first haircut

Back to blog again. Please forgive me for breaking my promise that I will post photos of my trip to prague on this blog. I guess it will not happen anytime soon. If you want to see the photos, please see them on my facebook account. I have always wanted to resume blogging, but just couldn't find the motivation to do so. With facebook around, don't really see the need to blog to share snippets of my life on this blog. Facebook is far more instant and convenient to keep in touch with people.

So you must be wondering, what gives me the motivation to resume writing on this blog again? Well, I have made a lot of empty promises and claims in life saying that I would do this and I would do that. But most of them turned out to be unfulfilled and uncompleted. One of the things that I have always wanted to do is to write a book, a promise that I made to myself. I wanted this blog to record the manuscript of my book and allowing people to give suggestions on how make the book more interesting and readable.

I have thought for quite some time, pondering about what kind of book I will write? Eventually, it was towards the end of my first year in university I decided to write a book about the snippets of my university life. Then I thought to myself, would it be an interesting book. I doubt anyone, maybe my even my university friends would be interested to read it. So I sought opinions from my closest friends in university and to my surprise, they actually like the idea. I thought that since this is the first time I would be writing a book, it might seemed like a daunting task to complete it alone. I suggested to them the idea of them becoming co-authors of the book, each contributing some stories to the book and this book would eventually become a yearbook for the graduating class of 2010.

But as expected, I was enthusiastic about it, then passion died down. If I don't start writing now, I probably wouldn't start writing at all and will regret years later why I haven't written the book. The initial deadline was to complete the book before the graduation ceremony of my good friends Andrew and Jasmine, and my "sister", Marissa, and give them the book as a graduation gift but apparently this did not happened. But better to be late than never. I'm sure they don't mind having the book some time later and hopefully, this book can be completed by my graduation.

I would try to write as frequently as possible and hopefully but the end of my honours year, I would have sufficient information for the book to be published (perhaps not for sale, but as a private read and yearbook for all my university friends).

The blog entries that I write from now on would form the backbone of my book and hopefully once I get it up and running, I can get my friends to contribute to the articles that I would post here (properly acknowledged of course). The stories may not be in chronological order as I just want to write down what I remember and what I feel like writing on the day itself. The final version may be rearranged in order but that's the least of my worries now.

So, what would I write for the opening chapter (for the purpose to just start writing)? It has to be Muthu's first haircut. Just to sidetrack a little bit, for the sake of those who don't know who Muthu is. That's me! You must be wondering since why I became Muthu? The nickname was initiated by my best friend since primary school, Jason, who happened to be studying in the same university with me and was also my housemate for 1 year when I am studying in Melbourne (12 years of friendship and still going strong). So, why was I called Muthu?

I have to admit that I was a really poor cook when I first came to Melbourne. While Jason did most of the cooking during my first year, I did helped out when he cooked. The first incident when I was called Muthu happened when we wanted to cook curry. We went to the Asian grocer to buy some curry paste. But, instead of the curry paste, I got the wrong pack and we ended up buying coconut paste. The funniest of all was we did not realize we got the wrong stuff until we starting cooking and we ended up having coconut soup.

When Jason discovered that I got the wrong pack, he jovially blurted out "Hey Muthu, I ask you buy curry, you buy coconut paste". Why Muthu? Probably, he thinks that Indians cook curry and so he just blurted that out that name. Then, in the end, it became our role play for the entire year, where he became the boss of the household and I was Muthu. There will be more stories about Muthu, but let's just leave it as that for now.

So what's about Muthu's first haircut? It was actually the first haircut that I got after I came over to Melbourne. I remembered that I was window shopping with my newly made friends when we past by BigW and they were having a sale on shavers. I said to my friends "Whoa, the shaver only cost $14.95, just cut 2 times can save money already. Can you all cut for me?" Andrew questioned if I really dared to let him cut my hair? Not sure what prompted me to do it but I actually threw down the gaunlet. "I will let you all cut, but you all dare a not? You dare to cut, I will let you cut". Eventually, I bought the $9.95 shaver which Andrew pointed out was cheaper.

As soon as I bought the shaver, we went back to my place where all the action takes place. We started unpacking the package and Jason and Andrew being first time hairdressers, started to read the instructions manual. I have a crazy idea to create a video parody of Army daze where the actor points out a Andy Lau photo for the Army barber to follow. And so it began.

Jason was the first to start shaving, he started from my forehead, from front to back. The first shave removed most of my fringe but apparently all except him realize that the majority of my fringe was missing until Andrew pointed out to him. Damaged done. No choice but to finish the haircut. Who knows, the lousy shaver can only sustain one shave and got jammed for the remaining shaves. Shaving the head became a chore. I remember we took so long and I was so tired that I dozed off while they were cutting my hair. We struggled for almost 90 minutes before the haircut was "completed". Of course it was ugly, with jagged edges everywhere. I remembered I had to wear a cap to hide my hideous hair when we went to victoria market for grocery shopping that next morning.

The video was edited and posted by Jason on youtube and facebook and actually caused quite a stir when our families and friends saw the video and comments came pouring in. Not actually a bad idea after all, to do something that can make them laugh. We laughed at ourselves for the rest of the week. So what happened to the fate of the shaver? I still have that shaver in the corner of my room but probably that's the only time the shaver will be seen in action.

Muthu

IYLC Day 2-3 - UN and ICC simulations and culture night

Hi,

The past 2 days of the conference were really really amazing. On day 2, we had UN simulations where I represented Russia and have to debate my way to the UN security council and other members in the UN that Kosovo's independence was illegal under international law. On the same day, we also visited the Embassy of Ireland to pay a visit to the ambassador, where he would talk to us about his experiences in international relations and diplomacy. It's a pity that the ambassador had something on in the last minute and could not meet us; we had an Irish diplomat talking to us and I was a little disappointed. We also visited the Parliament house of the Czech Republic. 

On day 3, we had ICC simulations where we simulated pre-trials, arguing on whether we should allow the ICC to take over Germain Katanga's genocide case. I was a defence witness, simulating as the Minister of Justice and Human Rights of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We also visited the Pricewaterhouse Coopers HQ in Prague and had a panel discussion on responsible leadership with Dasa van der Horst, the Director of Amnesty International Czech Republic, Pavel Franc, Founder of the Global Alliance for Responsibility, Democracy and Equity, Tomas Bouska, Project Manager at ANO pro Europu (YES Europe) and Simon Panek, Executive Director of People in Need Foundation. Next, we had a reception party at PwC where I met with numerous foreign service officers, including diplomats from the Embassy of China. 

The highlight of day 3 was the Culture night. We had various nationalities trying to present to us their cultures and traditions and in one single night, I thought I have travelled to countries like Corea (Nope... I didn't spelled it wrongly, it's not Korea. The original spelling of Korea is supposed to be Corea but when Japan invaded Corea, they changed it's spelling to Korea as K is behind J (Japan) - interesting=), Indonesia, USA, Philippines, Pakistan, Canada, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, India, Australia amongst many other countries. I truly enjoyed the entire night and this had to be one of the best day so far.

Today, we are going to have the European Parliament simulations and I'm looking forward to it as this is the largest simulation we are going to have during the IYLC and will last for 2 days of the conference. 

Just in case you're wondering why there are no photographs posted, it's because I forgot to bring my transfer cable along and I promise to upload it all on my blog and facebook once I get back to Singapore.

That's all for now!

Bye =)

"The language of friendship is not words but meaning."

IYLC Day 1 - Opening Ceremony

Hi,

Today's the opening ceremony for IYLC but the rest of the participants wouldn't arrive the venue until 3pm. Thus, the few of us, the early arrivals, decided to wake up early to go to a couple more attractions. After breakfast, we took a metro back to musek station, Wesceslas Square, where we had dinner yesterday. We walk down the streets, through the beautiful architecture of prague, to old town square where we visited last night. The day's scenery as compared to the night's scenery is totally different. Their Sunday market is open and there are many stores selling Czech handicraft and candies. Didn't get any as I was running out of Czech Kc and was searching for a money changer with a reasonable rate - The hotel rate was horrible. Passing old town square, we arrived at Charles Bridge where we took pictures with our lousy cameras last night. We took more pictures of beautiful scenery across the river, where the prague castle is. As we walked across the Charles Bridge, we saw many of prague's best caricature artists, performers as well as people selling handmade handicraft. Crossing the bridge, we arrived at the foot of the Prague castle where we decided to have a drink before visiting the castle. After our drink, we had a very steep climb up, towards the castle. We took more pictures in the castle but didn't manage to enter the cathedrals there as it was too crowded and we didn't want to waste our time queuing for it. Next, we split up. The girls wanted shopping while the rest of us wanted to to have lunch. We had our lunch at MacDonalds and I missed having my MacDonalds with Garlic Chili Sauce and I was pretty surprised you have to pay 5 kc to enter the toilet in MacDonalds. What a weird culture. I never paid to enter a toilet in MacDonalds in any country before, ever!!!

After lunch, we went back to the hotel. It's about 3pm when we reached and most of the participants have arrived and we went around introducing ourselves and meeting new people and I can't believe I travelled half way around the globe to meet like 10 Singaporeans here. We registered ourselves and got our conference package and met our facilitators. My facilitator is a beautiful Czech Republican girl named Katarina. We were also given nametags to identify ourselves.

Finally at 6pm, the opening ceremony starts and we had dinner, mingled around with other participants and listened to a couple of opening addresses. After dinner's the group discussions and we discussed some rules and got to know our teammates better through some ice breaking games. The itinerary was also briefed to us and I found out the my group will be visiting the Embassy of Ireland tomorrow and we will be meeting the Ambassador . Other groups will be visiting other embassies in prague, like Bosnia, Germany, Switzerland, Afghansitan embassies.

Our meeting was adjourned and we will invited to a nearby pub for some drinks. I went along but it was too crowded and smoky and so I decided to head back to hotel to rest.

Looking forward to meet the Ambassador of Ireland to Czech Republic. It's definitely going to be interesting.

That's all for now!

Bye =)

"The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the wonder of shoreline."

IYLC Day 0 - Culture shock in Prague

Hi,

I've arrived earlier in Prague for the IYLC. Met with my roommate, Fabian, a German who's studying in London. My original roommate is suppose to be Ka Chuan from Malaysia, but apparently due to the poor management and miscommunication between the organisers and the hotel, they mixed up the records and many people were left without roommates and had to pay for the entire room.

Earlier on, some of the participants who arrived early went on a tour to old town square and charles bridge. Everywhere is full of beautiful structures and we enjoyed the sightseeing trip with exception of the horrible czech cuisine at one of the bistros. I ordered 2 very salty czech sausages and was ripped off. The sausages and a sprite costs approximately 400 czech korunas (~40 Singapore Dollars). 

Drinking water is so expensive here. A 1.5 L bottle of mineral water cost me 80 korunas (~8 Singapore Dollars). It's not shocking to me as before the trip, I already know how expensive mineral water is in Prague. I thought I was smart enough to bring a water bottle along so that I can boil some water to drink but I was outsmarted by the hotel. They didn't even provide an electric kettle for me to boil water and my bottle became useless if I can't fill it with drinkable water. We always take clean water for granted in Singapore - It's so cheap that I always thought it's free. Ironically, the topic for the essay I wrote which got me to IYLC is on "Lack of clean water is the most important issue the world is facing now". After this trip, I'll will appreciate my privilege to be able to drink straight from the tap.

The conference will begin tomorrow and I think I may not be prepared enough. The conference is very academic intensive and I haven't been hitting the books much. Hopefully, they will start slow tomorrow.

That's all for now!

Bye =)

"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement."

Back to blog

I'm back to blog. Zero updates since 13 Feb. I've always told myself that I'll blog later on but it never happened. I realised - If I didn't blog today, I would probably have gave up blogging totally. I gave myself many reasons to continue blogging, but even more excuses on why I can't blog - No time, too tired. Whatever it is, I'm going to start blogging again.

Recently, an acquaintance which I knew from my camp met with an fatal motorcycle accident and died. It is shocking to me. Although I don't even know him well, It made me realise how fragile human life actually is. One day you may be talking to the person, the next day, he may have left you. It made me rethink my goals in life.

A while ago, I lost focus of my goals and my aims. I was not as focused as when I was in manjusri, ngee ann or even during bmt and supply supervisor course. My thoughts were rambling. There were so many questions in my mind that I wished I can have solutions to. I'm keeping a lot of things to myself and sometimes I just feel like finding someone whom I can share these things with. But often, when the opportunities came, I just didn't know how to or felt uncomfortable expressing them. I just feel really tired at times and don't feel like doing anything at all. I'm always busy with my army stuff. Despite having a lot of off-in-lieu, I didn't have the opportunity to take them as I'm the only person managing my stores and it would be very irresponsible for me to leave them alone. As there are no training conducted these 2 weeks, I have taken the opportunity to clear my off as well as leave to attend IYLC. I have been resting the past 2 days and I feel so much refreshed adn relaxed now. I realised that work can never be finished and as long as you know how to prioritise, a short break can make you a more productive worker. This is another skill that the army has taught me and I believe that it will definitely benefit me in university.

I have began to re-read my textbooks. Many things seemed to be unfamilar to me after 1 year after graduation and starting to revise my work now will ensure that catching up in university will not be too difficult.

I'll be flying to prague in approximately 4 hours time. I'm looking forward to meeting all the people of different nationalities and cultures, and trust me, I'm going to blog all about the conference here.

That's all for now!

Bye =)

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

Updates, updates, updates...

Hi,

Here's a post to cover the events that happened to me in the past 2 months.

1) Army Life

I have successfully graduated from the Supply Supervisor Course and have been posted to the Infantry Training Institute manning the signal and optical stores. The camp has excellent facilities such as a business centre with internet access, great gym and the best SAF cookhouse that I have ever eaten in. The food taste heavenly and that explains the reason why I have gained quite some weight. =)

2) SAT & University applications

I have finally taken my SAT on the 26th Jan after postponing for so long due to my Army training requirements. Results are coming out in 2 days time and I really hope I will do well enough to allow me to apply to great universities like the John Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and most importantly my most desired NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Wish me luck. =)

3) Celebrations

I attended Michelle's babies first month celebration at Fort Canning and Debra's birthday apart from multiple Chinese New Year celebrations that the Army has planned for the servicemen. Below are some photographs taken during the celebrations:

4) Pulau Ubin

I revisited Pulau Ubin again but this time with Jason and Jinkai. We visited Chek Jawa which was recently opened to the public and the place is great. Did not take many photographs though, so not posting any here.

5) The 16th International Youth Leadership Conference

This is by far the best thing that has happened to me in the year 2008. I'll have been accepted to attend the 16th International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague, Czech Republic from 20th - 25th July. The 16th International Youth Leadership Conference is a week-long youth forum on world politics, international relations and international law and selection is based on the following 3 criteria:

1. Educational Background (year, grade point average, and area of study)
2. Level of English (as a second language)
3. Two Short Essays (both are required)

As you probably know, I majored in Biomedical Science in Ngee Ann so I have a great disadvantage in the educational background criteria as they would have prefered political science, business, mass communications or law students. Also, since this conference is intended only for current university students, I am very lucky to be chosen since I am no university student and have graduated from Ngee Ann for more than 6 months. =)

The conference will cost me 850 euros with food and accomodation included. The air ticket to prague will cost me another S$2200. Doing some simple calculations, the whole trip will cost me about S$5000 including the miscellaneous. Thus, I hope that I can find companies or institutions that may be willing to sponsor me for the trip. According to the organisers, Ngee Ann is a student sponsor but I'm not sure if they would sponsor an alumnus but I am going to try anyway. The National Youth Council is another sponsor that have sponsored students to the same conference and thus I am also applying for their grant.

The 15th International Youth Leadership Conference had about 100 participants from 35 countries and I hope that the 16th conference would attract the same number of participants. I am so looking forward to interacting and debating world issues with them.

Anyway, to all my friends who are interested to participate in the same conference, the application is still open and you may like to check it out @ http://www.czechleadership.com/

Lastly, a belated happy new year, happy chinese new year and early happy valentines day to all my friends.

That's all for now!

Bye =)

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."

Merry Christmas

Hi,

It's been a long, long time since I last updated my blog. I've been too busy or rather too tired to update especially after every day of training.

First, I did not manage to take my SAT on December and had it postponed to January next year. I have realised that I will not be able to perform to my best if I had taken the test the day after my exercise. Anyway, I have been slacking since I missed the test and have to buck up soon. Otherwise, I'm sure I will perform badly.

This December, I also went to Pulau Ubin for cycling with two of my secondary school friends. Pulau Ubin has changed a lot since I last visted 3 years ago. The ferry terminal was also much more pleasant and cleaner compared to 3 years ago. Here are some of the photographs we took on the island:

As usual, this christmas season, I went to the Red Cross Home for the Disabled to celebrate with the residents. I haven't been visiting the home since I was enlisted into the Army. Probably, I should visit them more frequently. The party was great despite the rain. I also met a couple of friends who I didn't expect would be present - Suan Sin, Ximin. It's really great to catch up with them.

It has been a long, long time since I went to Orchard during christmas season. I usually purchase my christmas presents in other places to avoid the christmas crowd. Last Friday, I met up with my polytechnic friends in orchard to buy presents for a lecturer's newborn twins. It took us quite a while before we finally decided what to get. Sylvia surprised me by giving me a T-shirt which I was tricked into believing it was for Edison's friend. Thanks for the nice christmas present and surprise. The christmas lightings this year were fantastic and we just can't help taking a couple of photographs:

That's all for now!

Have a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Bye =)

"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect."