the sound of music

music of the piano

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Problem you encountered and how you solved or managed it

It was an accident. No one wanted it to happen. In fact everyone wanted to make sure that nothing of that kind happened. In short, I was to be blamed, as everyone else had said so because I had left the ladder against the wall knowing that there was a child around. I had been hanging the curtains to help the maid from the 2^nd floor as she had asked me for help and I was kind enough to help her.

But how could I have known that it would cause so many problems as I had expected the maid to put away the ladder later but she just forgot about it and went on to do her cooking. Children are unpredictable, and that was true of Ryan too. Seeing that there was no one around, he started to climb up the ladder with his short arms and legs just as he had seen his neighbor, me, do so. The maid was inside the house and heard him calling out excitedly and just thought that he was just playing and calling out to her as he had usually did. Then she heard a loud scream and a thud and then silence. The maid quickly ran out just to see Ryan on the floor bleeding from his head.

As expected, she went hysterical and went door to door shouting for help. I quickly came out and was shocked but I recovered quickly and gave Ryan first aid and called for the ambulance. The ambulance soon came and took away the little guy to the hospital. Now as the maid and I were outside the hospital emergency ward. I was comforting the others but my heart was aching with guilt and I was worried too but pretended not to. After about half an hour, the doctor emerged from the door and smiled, then I knew that everything was alright. Then the maid, Ryan's mother, and I trooped in to see the little imp. He looked alright except for the large bandage on his forehead. What a relief! The problem had been solved.

A Special moment you enjoyed with your family

I still remembered that day vividly when my father agreed to bring us to Europe for a tour for a 14 days. I was beside myself with joy and anticipation as the tour was just a month away. Since the exams had just passed, I counted down the days to the tour: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3…..
The day for the tour finally came and I waited excitedly at the airport to go for the trip.

We arrived about 3 hours earlier to prepare for our departure at terminal 2. As we were waiting, we bought some biscuits to eat. Finally we are ready to board the aeroplane, and the facilities in the aeroplane were excellent; there was enough space between the seats and the entertainment was also very good. There were also both games and movies to watch. In the morning, I woke up in the aeroplane. It was very beautiful and enchanting to my eyes.

The trip was 13 hours and when finally I landed in the airport of Italy, I realized that the weather was quite cold compared to Singapore as the windows of the aeroplane which was previously fogged up, disappeared immediately. Straight away the tour guide gave us a tour in Italy. I enjoyed the trip around Italy and we went to several other places such as Germany, Switzerland and France etc…I saw the churches in Italy and I went to the leaning tower of Pisa and we took a picture as though I was supporting the tower with my hands.

We also went to Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart and we bought many Mozart chocolates and they were quite cheap as compared to Singapore. In France, we ate snails (Yuk!) L but it turned out to be quite nice J and we also ate the liver of the goose which was extremely salty. It was very nutritious and expensive so my parents forced me to eat it. LL We also ate the cheese in Switzerland and took a picture of a black and white duck that I had never seen before. But my favorite place is the Black Forest in Germany. Although we visited churches in Italy, and went to the birthplace of Mozart, it is nothing as compared to the snow-covered Black Forest and the most amazing thing is that it was the only place that snowed in all the places I went to in within this 14 days. My whole family was blissful and we took a picture of us holding the snow together.

It was the sweetest and the most special moment I enjoyed in the snow with my family and I could feel the warm love between us. 14 days passed quickly and soon it was time to go back to Singapore. Although I felt reluctant and a tinge of sadness that I had to leave Europe so quickly, I still felt happy and my heart still radiates with warmth when I remember that special moment with my family in Europe.

Something unusual happened that day

Uncle Sam and Aunt Susie treated their nephews and nieces: Rachael, Shenise, Royston and I for a vacation to Bangkok during our school holiday in the first week of December in the year 2008. I was feeling very elated as this was the first time going to Bangkok and we were taking an airplane there. On the 1^st day, we took a tour around the streets of Bangkok and saw many shops, as we were walking past the shops, something glittering caught our aunt's eye - it was a Red Ruby ring! Though we saw it at first sight, but I was wondering how could it be sold at such a street stall?

The ring was made of real crystal Ruby, and it looks quite ancient like about a decade ago. When Aunt Susie asked about the price of the ring, the seller quoted the price of $30 in Singapore currency. Wow! That was very cheap! Without hesitation, she paid the seller straight away. We then took a good look at the ring that Aunt Susie bought. It looked suspicious and perhaps due to our imagination, it looked like it was dripping with blood. Aunt Susie took the ring and admired it and after doing so, put on the ring. Later in the evening, we went for a buffet in the hotel, and what shocked us was that Aunt Susie actually kept filling up her plate with food which was not what her personal character was, as she always wanted to maintain a good and slim figure, by not eating so much. And she also acts as though she was drunk and kept laughing. Now our aunt we saw before our eyes was a completely different person. But we thought our aunt is just in a good mood after she bought the ruby ring so she had a good appetite. After we finished eating, we went back to the hotel room. When Aunt Susie took off the ring so that she could go to the toilet for a shower, Aunt Susie looked like she just woke up from a daze and started vomiting out all the food she ate at the buffet.

Uncle Sam quickly knocked on our door and told us to come. We saw Aunt Susie vomit as Uncle Sam asked anxiously, "What's wrong, honey?" Our 10 year old cousin, Rachael, said, "Aunt Susie must be under a spell!" The next day, Uncle Sam went to the stall that sold the ring and asked the seller about the ring as he suspected that the ring had something to do with Aunt Susie's vomiting. The seller then told him about the strange origin of the red ring. He said, "This ring was actually from a beggar on the road who was very hungry as he had not eaten for days and he had only this red ring. Until one day, he met a kind woman who traded the ring for some money. Then as the beggar ran across the road to buy food to eat, he suddenly got knocked down by a car. The woman who had the red ring witnessed this tragic accident gave this red ring to me and so this is actually a ring of a dead man." After hearing this story, Uncle Sam brought us to the beggar's tomb and did some rituals for the beggar and returned the ring to him. Thereafter, nothing happened to Aunt Susie anymore.

After we went back to Singapore, I felt it strange that such things can happen in this modern world. After this incident, we cousins learnt a lesson that is not to buy jewelry from an improper shop, especially our female cousins. And of course I don't wear jewelry myself. This was indeed something unusual that happened that day.

Something that took place in school

I still remember in primary school when we celebrated our 70^th anniversary and we had put in a lot of effort to celebrate it. It also marked a sad occasion that the library had to be renovated as it was very old and so we could not go to the library for about 2 months. L HDB had struck again.

On the day of celebration, we had a lot of crazy events and sports such as a fancy soccer match- with only 1 rule that I shall reveal later-and it was between the teachers and the students. There was no such thing as handball or throw in as we were allowed to touch the ball with our hands and if the ball was out, we were also allowed to kick in the ball out of the borders.

We had a time limit of 67 minutes (the 7 was for the 70^th anniversary). So at the end of the match, the organizers announced that the students had won when the score was 3 to the teachers and 2 to the students. The organizers then revealed that actually, the players were supposed to let in as much goals as possible, so that was the only rule!! JJJ

The students then went up to receive the prizes which were "thumb drives" that was actually a picture of a thumb with a paperclip on it. HAHA…….. More funny business followed throughout the day. And like the soccer game, everything was in reverse; I guess that the theme could probably be "reverse".JJ Of course, there were some serious games like musical chairs and etc….We all had a good time with the games galore and talentimes.

At night, all the ex-pupils of my primary school came and at 7.30pm my school played the old recording of the school song and we sang the school song. My friend and I noticed that most of the ex-pupils were not singing and they were just merely moving their lips. We chuckled at their ingenuity and helplessness.

The principal then proceeded to make a speech and invited an ex-pupil up on stage to make his speech. The ex-pupil fumbled a bit and then apologized for not being prepared. He then made a long and boring speech that almost made me doze off. Then it was dinner time. My friends and I helped to serve and we had a good time keeping our ears and mouths open; the ex-pupils were talking about the good ol' days. The dinner ended at about 9.30pm but we ended up going home at 10pm as we had to help clean up the place. It was really something interesting that took place in school.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

A moment spent alone doing something you enjoyed

I have several hobbies such as playing music, fishing and table tennis, though sometimes I have not enough time to do all my hobbies. Occasionally, I get to go for table tennis and playing music but I am usually too busy with homework that I do not have the time to do so. The hobby that I can enjoy the most would be fishing as it can calm down the nerves and stress after a hectic week. The place that I usually like to go for fishing is Pasir Ris Park as it is legal and it is usually not so filled with people.

I usually come at 9am as it is the time where I can catch the most fish or occasionally, prawns and crabs which I, being a kind hearted soul, would normally throw them back into the water as they were not edible rather than leave them on the shore to torture themJ. One day, on Sunday morning, my friends "predicted" that I would have no fish to catch that day. As I was not a superstitious person, I was determined to prove them wrong and decided to bring back my fish (es) to show them. (This was not my usual practice as I fish for fun and usually throw the fishes back into the water).

So I set out and started to fish, strangely the fishes did not appear as quickly as last time but I saw other people having good day fishing, it seemed that the fishes or seafood just did not want to be caught by me. As the day dragged on, my face became directly proportionately longer with the shadows. I decided that I would just try 1 more time. So I threw the line and immediately got a bite, so I fought the fish and finally landed it. It was a big whopper my friends would be silent……..HAHAHA…... I could feel the wind blowing through my hair and I felt relaxed……………….

Everybody was left, I was alone and I enjoyed this moment of mixture of relaxation and satisfaction. Later when I showed my friends the whopper, they said that it was just a bluff, trying to discourage me. After that I threw the fish back into the water (It was still alive because I put it in a pail with water from the river). Actually, what I felt happy about was not that I caught a whopper, but I had a good hobby helps me to relax and train my patience. It was indeed the special moment that I spent doing something I enjoyed alone.