Problems I'm Facing in the Maths Course

Just sorting out and listing down exactly what I am finding tough about this course, and figuring out loud what I can do to improve the situation...

I think the main problem I'm facing is that there is a lack of an intermediate between the lectures, where we are first introduced to very new concepts, and which is held in groups of 100 to 200 people; and the supervisions, where we are expected to be familiar with all the concepts we have been introduced to, and is held in groups of 1 or 2, which makes it very taxing on the resources as well.

And because of that, I feel like I am recieving very little guidiance in this course.

Many times, I find myself seating in front of my example sheets, staring blankly at the questions. Most times, I find that there are many questions that seem to appear quite frequently in the topic, and it seems like it's quite a standard problem in the topic, but I simply do not know the way to handle these questions, because I just haven't seen it done enough times before. During these times, I just wished for someone to give me a hint and point me in the right direction, so that I wont have to waste so much time and effort trying to reinvent the mechanism to solve the problem.

Spending time figuring out how to solve a problem from scratch is good, and I've managed to do that with all the problems during the first part of this term. But in such a demanding course, where so many concepts are introduced to us in such short time, an average person cannot really afford to do that for every concept.

I think it would be good for there to be a classroom like lesson, or discussion which follows closely with what we are doing in the lectures, where we can be further exposed to the concepts first introduced to us during lectures, so that our understanding can be broadened and reinforced in such an atmosphere. And perhaps during these sessions, we could look at the existing methods of dealing with standard questions in the topics, so that we will not need to be blindly trying to find our way around...


I am wondering how many people in the course will agree with what I've just written. Think I'll first try to set up a support group, and publically seek out people in the same situation, like in forums, and maybe at the beginning of lectures. And we'll just try to work with each other first... And if there's sufficient people feeling the same way (something like twenty or so people), we could try to set up a society to provide such classroom like sessions on a regular basis to complement the lectures.

Just jotting these ideas down, so that if it works out, it could lay the foundations to the aims of the society.

Cambridge is full of geniuses who probably wouldn't need these sort of supplimentary programs. But for the rest of us who are less than geniuses, the aims of this society would be to provide a program that would complement the existing lecture-supervision system, and provide us commoners an effective means to handle the Cambridge Maths Syllabus.

Acapella!

Just came back from Acapella. Decided to join the newly formed acapella group, made up of Cumsa people, and we had the first session today!

Everyone here's really talented, and I'm really privileged to be among so many people who can organise and put together an acapalla group in one evening, and the song turned out really nice!

So many people knew how to interperate the scores, and play the piano, and put together every part of an acapella, that they could guide the few who had no clue what to do, i.e. me, so well that we managed to end very well!

Warmed up with "Away in a Manger" and practiced with "Lonesome Road". We'll be doing a very funny song next week, called "Short People"... There's a really mean line in it which goes "Short people have no reason to live" =P

And I carry one more tag on myself: I'm a tenor. Basically the middle range...

Was really enjoyable to be able to play a part in something that would sound so nice. Think it's the most fun thing I've done this term...

Also had second bible study on Genesis with Nick this evening... Just wondering how Adam and Eve knew God... Did they interact with God the way we do now, or did God appear to them in a more tengible form? And if He did, how much more tengible can He get if He's not physical?

Also wondered how Adam felt when he first came to being, recieving conciousness, and being given all these responsibilities by God.

Also had Vector Calculus supervision today... My work wasn't really satisfectory, had missed a few questions... Will be having Probability sup next Monday, gotta go figure out things like Independent-Identically Distributed Random Variables, and Moment Generating Functions :S

Yup, that was my day... one the more fun days I've had over here :)

Impure Thoughts

I'm entertaining thoughts of switching to NatSci(Phy) next year...

There are a few reasons...
1) I find myself struggling to manipulate symbols I scarcely have any feel for. i.e. Maths is too abstract for me...
2) Jack, from my college is doing physics too! and he intends to do the most physics possible, which is what I'll like to do if I switch to physics. That means I'll have a buddy to go do stuff together with. And if we get accomodation near or next to each other, he'll make a very convinient companion to discuss work with...
3) I feel like I have something to look forward to if I do change my course... Cos I don't feel any excitement when I look at the topics we're doing for maths next year...

The only consideration now is how much I've missed from the first year work... I've attended a few physics lectures, so I have an idea what they are doing, but I haven't done any lab work yet. Think I'll need to pick up those skills quickily next year.

But I think it shouldn't be too bad, cos first year natsci's do lots of other peripheral subjects like geology and material science, which I'm not too worst off not studying...

Sigh, think I'm falling behind :S

This feels like the part of the 2.4 where I give up and start walking.

Ah, the first 3 weeks went ok, did a whole set of example sheets, and think it was reasonably well done... but looks like it was unsustainable... kinda got really tired by weekend of 4th week, and now I see the impending deadlines looming, and feel like I'm crawling so slowly I'll never be able to keep pace, or make even a quarter of my next set of example sheets...

Think I'll need to reassess what I'm doing... Look for something extra-curricular to do, staying in my room all day isn't helping :S


Went to pizza hut with Shagnik, Ja and Alex today for lunch. Was a buffet. supposed to be 4 pounds, but cos I mistakenly took the salad which wasn't in the buffet, I ended up paying an extra 2 pounds for it. Didn't really eat much, 9 slices of pizza, and very little salad, really feel heart ache thinking I paid an extra 6 dollars for that little bit of salad I took... But the pizza's were quite nice...

Oh yeah, and just got an appointment for a brain scan! Will be two weeks time, 1 March...

Sigh, think I'll try to go about de-stressing myself first, before I come back to re-examine what I am covering in lectures...

Completed First Round of Supervisions.

Just had my probability supervision today. Marks the end of the first series of supervisions. Looks like I've got quite good supervisors for this term. For the first time since JC, feeling like I'm under the care of a teacher... Hope I'd be able to make the most of it...

Arh, dunno why I suddenly experienced a bout of intense stress on Sunday... Went to church in the morning, then by lunch time, I had the urge to rush straight back to my room to sleep, and sleep i did - for two hours. Woke up after at around 4, completed as much of my example sheet, and handed it up, returned back to room, and did not have anything urgent left to do, but still felt a great tension... Couldn't really do much after experiencing that tension, chatted with some people who were online then, thanks for putting up with me those of you whom I bugged... The tension I felt was somewhat comparable with the kind of stress I faced outfield in army, don't really know why... Think that's why God put me through that phase in army, so that I'll be able to deal with this kinda pressure...

But feeling better now... It seems like I'm only feeling stressed over the weekend when I don't have lectures to wake up to. Ah, why does it seem like my mood is so fickle over here in Cambridge?

Crazy Sleeping Patterns and Kopitiam Delights

Sigh, my body clock's going nuts again! Have been sleeping at 2 am the past week, even though I didn't sleep in the afternoon. And I'd still force myself to wake up for lectures, but I'll feel quite tired and stressed throughout the day. So today I decided to allow myself to sleep when I felt like it, the result: I fell asleep at 8 pm and woke up at 12 mid night.

I woke up to a cold room and an empty stomach, and suddenly felt like eating something sweet and filling. Have been eating excessive amounts of Sainsbury Basics Chocolate Digestive biscuits the past week while slogging over example sheet problems, so didn't really fancy eating more of those. Wanted something warm and sweet and filling, so I decided to make kaya toasts!

Managed to find proper bread this term, thus I had all the ingredients neccessary to recreat this authentic taste. And now I'm enjoying Kaya toasts with Hot Chocolate! Mmmm...

The kaya has gone a little hard though, but still tastes alright, just quite difficult to spread it... Which reminds me: I could use more Kaya from Singapore....

While I'm eating, I'm also thinking of Half Boiled Eggs and French Toast. Think I'll need to get some eggs soon... Haven't used eggs on my own since I started my cooking career. Looks like it's quite a good breakfast material :P

An Extraordinary Encounter.

Whoa, just met Stephen Hawking's while studying at the CMS today! He was having lunch with two other professors, and his nurse, who was feeding him.

Didn't that realise he was there when I first went in. Only discovered his presence after hearing someone breathing the words 'Stephen Hawkings', and moment's later vaguely hearing his synthesised voice.

It was like meeting a movie star! First heard of him back in primary 5, and it's been my dream to do the things he did, and now I'm seeing him in real life! Probably indicates that I'm one step closer to this dream =)

Speaking of which, about a week ago, I actually dream of seeing him. Hm... Precognition?

But the most remarkable thing was the way people around him were reacting. They were just going about therir business, acting as if nothing's happening. I mean, how often do you get to sit with a famous person and pretend like it's no big deal? I guess it happens pretty often here in the CMS, that's the awesome thing about this place, a place where making history is all in a days work...

I'm getting good at cooking...

Finished lectures at 12:00 today,

Cycled back,
Cooked spghetti,
Ate spghetti,
Cleaned up,
Blogged,

And time check: 12:45!

Spghetti was cheap, tasty and healthy.

What more could I ask for?

0 raised to the power of 0

Came across that today during supervision. Makes a good smilie too:

0^0 = ?

0_o

Tickets Booked!

Ok, feeling quite sian tonight, didn't feel like doing the regular things like my example sheets or strumming the guitar, so I went down to the main college building to watch TV, and visit the library. Nothing interesting there either, so came back and tried to purchase my tickets to Sweden. Managed to accomplish that :P

Here's the itenary and reciept:

GOING OUT
From London Stansted(STN) to Skavsta Stockholm(NYO)
Thu, 23Mar06 Flight FR052 Depart STN at 08:35 and arrive NYO at 11:40

COMING BACK
From Skavsta Stockholm(NYO) to London Stansted(STN)
Wed, 29Mar06 Flight FR055 Depart NYO at 17:10 and arrive STN at 18:25

PAYMENT DETAILS
*********1.28 GBP Adult
********27.17 GBP Taxes,Fees & Charges
*********6.96 GBP Aviation / WCHR Levy
*********0.00 GBP Car Rental
*********0.00 GBP Insurance
********35.41 GBP Total Paid

So it's confirmed, I'll be visiting Sweden this Easter! All I need to do now is to book my bus tickets from here to Stansted, and try to find my way to meet Serene at Stockholm.

This week...
It's been quite good this week... No Supervisions. Managed to do a little bit of work, almost completed 2 example sheets.

Had a few enjoyable days -
went to Macdonalds for lunch with Shagnik on Thursday;
found a new way to de-stress that night: went to a piano recital in College;
found a way to print stuff for free at the CMS;
visited a the computer laboratory at the New Museum Site;
Arranging to have regular one-on-one bible study with Nick, a guy from my focus group;
hung out with Jack a bit this week, had a few meals together;
cell this week had quite few people, but quite nice to chat smaller groups;
attended history of maths lecture on Wednessday and Friday; and
John Percival will be facilitating the discussion about predestination and election tmr at student lunch! :P

Other things I did:
Cooked spghetti in chicken tonight sauce.
Cooked spghetti with beef and tomato sauce tonight.
Should be cooking another 3 more meals, cos got 3 more portions of beef.
Ran out of onions, Finally!
Got skype and the video conferencing to work.

Think I should look for something to program: find a way to access a server... Suddenly feeling quite sian... Hm... playing reverse tic-tac-toe with hong king now :P

Intelligence Profile of

Thomas de Rivaz

College:
Gonville and Caius College

Address:
Flat 20, Adams House,
Rustat Avenue,
Cambridge, CB1 3RE

Previously:
Jail house rock
The Green Blade
Cambridge University Diplomacy Society
Haileybury School
tr1705@haileybury.herts.sch.uk
tad30@cam.ac.uk

Spghetti with Chicken Tonight Chicken

Eating sphgetti out of a pan as I'm blogging, decided to try cooking it in Chicken Tonight Sauce when I saw the sauce on offer at Sains. Didn't really know what Chicken Tonight tastes like, only recall the brand from the catchy song on TV quite a long time ago: "I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight."

The sauce looked whitish and creamy, so I associated it with Carbonara.

Well, that is where the similarity ends. This sauce tastes spicy and bland- which hardly comes close to the saltish, cheesy taste of carbonara. Cooked it with spghetti, and now it tastes like chinese noodles made with western ingredients. Weird combi, but might be an acquired taste... Then again, isn't everything an acquired taste?

Realised how to cook onions more effectively today- Cooking it on low heat increased the margin of error in timing one can afford, by quite a great degree really! So up the heat at the beginning to bring the temperature up as quickly as possible, then turn it down to reduce the rate of energy transfer so that it is not used for unwanted chemical reactions (like the combustion of food)... Quite amazing the things one can conjecture while staring at the pan in the kitchen...

CNY away from home, Sweden Trip, and lotsa work to do!!!

Chinese New Year!
My first Chinese New Year away from home, spent the weekend at a number of Cookouts, 3 to be exact, from chu xi to chu er:

• Friday - Cell Steamboat
• Saturday - Kenny's Steamboat
• Sunday - A little cookout at my place.
  

Steamboat at cell was out of a rice cooker! Held it at Daryl's place. He made wanton and muah chi! Helped Daryl to get the groceries from Cho Mee's, met Singaporeans from every corner of Cambridge in the shop! Think I'll try making muah chi one day myself. Saw how Daryl made it by heating Glutenous Rice floor in sesame oil and water, think it's quite straight forward once you get the chewy stuff right...

Kenny's steamboat was superb too! Really delicious, had it Seoul Gardens style. But dont know why the food cooked much better than in Seoul Gardens... somehow the meat wasn't stuck to the pan as much as the barbaques I've had in Singapore... And finally got to sample his pineapple tarts :P Very good, even without taking into account that he made it himself!

Ripped this photo off Kenny's blog:


Then attempted to hold my own Reunion dinner... Actually it's just a normal cookout, but invited a few more people so that I could use my Prima Deli Singapore Curry on this special occassion. Cooking that has become routine... Tried making agar agar this time round. Realised it's simply tons of sugar mixed in a little gelatin. Really unhealthy if you ask me. Might as well drink syrup! Anyway, tried using some of the coconut milk for the curry to make the white coconut milk layer of agar agar. Didn't know you have to wait for the original layer of agar agar to solidify before pouring it in. This resulted in cloudy agar agar. Tasted quite nice actually, mmm... coconut milk... It just wasn't very presentable.

Choon Howe, Jack and Shagnik were present. Choon Howe brought roast pork - that was very nice too! All he did was marinated a piece of pork, about 7cm x 7cm x 15cm of it, wrapped it in aluminium foil, and roasted it in the oven at 190 degrees for around 2 hours. Jack was responsible for the rice, and Shagnik did the dishes after.

So much for CNY. No Ang Baos this year :S Jack was suggested inviting this PhD student who was married and had children, just so that we can get Ang Baos, but because of the fact his wife and children were somewhere else, he couldn't join us for the cookout. Tough.


Sweden Trip
Just discussing with Serene about the Sweden trip. Now got to look out for the plane tickets there. Ah! So many components, so much uncertainties!

1. Cambridge to Stanstead by National Express;
2. Stanstead to Skavsta Airport in Stockholm by air - Ryan Air or Easy Jet;
3. Skavsta Airport to Stockholm City by Flybussarna;
4. then from the bus station to the youth hostel and meeting Serene - dont know how :S.
5. And from Arlanda Airport in Stockholm to Kiruna by plane, and the rest will be Serene's problem :P
   

Sigh, gotta book the plane tickets in the next few days. It's going for under a pound!

Work
Yeah, and my work's starting to pile up. Just calculated: We have 2 Example Sheets and around 6 days a week. That means I'll have to complete a third of an Example Sheet everyday. But from the looks of it, I dont think I'm pacing very well.

Nevertheless still enjoying it, but getting kinda stressful, cos now I know that I am able to change things with the effort I'm putting in, unlike last term when I felt like whether I spent time doing work or not wouldn't make a difference. And Ling came to CCCF today! Really incredible! He just decided to come after reading the CCCF email, and he isn't even a Christian! Hm... gotta pray for him to come more regularly, then I'll get a good mathmo buddy in CCCF, a legendary one at that!

Settling into a comfortable routine.

Pass few days have been busy, but i'm quite happy with it. I'm more busy now cos I've been finding work much more enjoyable this term, and I'm trying to do as much of it as possible.

A look at my calander for the week:

Sunday 220106
StAG;
Had Dinner with Choon Howe;
Followed the Portuguese Mathmos to Trinity to watch Macbeth. (Totally couldn't understand what was happening in the show!)

Monday 230106
Met Probability Supervisor at Trinity;
Attended talk by Career Services;
CCCF;
Trinity Maths Society Talk

Tuesday 240106
N&S Supervision;
Focus at StAG.

Wednessday 250106
DEq Supervision;
History of Math lecture;
Tried Cooking beef stew.

Thursday 260106
Blue Chips Fair held by Career Services;
Now stewing the beef in the thermal pot for dinner...

Friday 270106
Having steamboat at for Cell, CNY Celebration!

Saturday 280106
CNY Celebration at Kenny's place, with the steamboat I brought over! Hope Kenny makes pineapple tarts :P

A log of my experiments in the kitchen

1) Carbonara

Recipe:
- Debone Chicken,
- Fry Chicken, Mushroom
- Add in premade Carbonara Sauce
- Pour Sauce over Pasta

That easy!
And the chicken was very very tasty, and frying it produced very a fragrant aroma in the kitchen.
But felt that the pasta was quite plain as there wasnt enough sauce... Maybe I should fry the pasta in with the muchroom and chicken, then mix in the sauce, the way I cook my spghetti.

2) Chicken Soup

Recipe:
- Chop Potato, Onion, Carrot, Mushroom
- Boil Water in thermal pot
- Throw in the above mentioned Vegetables, and Chicken
- Add a little Sauce
- Leave to boil in thermal pot.

The chicken turned out quite dry. Guess chicken isn't a good meat to boil in the thermal pot for prolonged periods of time...
The best way I cooked chicken so far was in the curry made with Prima Deli Packets, and I boiled it for around half an hour.... Think that's the optimum time for cooking chicken.
Also heard that cooking chicken soup is not as easy as throwing chicken in water and boiling it... So what else is there to chicken soup if not the chicken and the soup??? :O

3) Beef Stew

Recipe:
- Dice Potato, Onion, Carrot, Mushroom
- Chop up beef
- Marinate Beef in Soy Sauce
- Boil Water in thermal pot
- Throw in Potato, Onion, Carrot, Mushroom, Beef
- Leave to stew...

Sampled the beef at intervals after stewing it in the thermal pot... Didn't seem to vary very much. Perhaps cos I only cooked it for 2 hours. Trying again now, intend to leave it stewing for 6 hours. Will report if there's any difference. But the potato was certainly softer after leaving it to stew for 1 hour. So if anything, the thermal pot is good for boiling potatoes!
Also marinated the chicken in too much pepper the last time, leaving the pepper out this time round.

Cooking Carbonara

Yup, just did that yesterday and today:

Ingredients:
Button Mushrooms - 0.57
Chicken Drumsticks - 2.69
Canned Cream Sauce - 0.98
Pasta - 0.50

Total cost - 4.74

Served 4...

Actually wasn't very filling, so next time I'll cook it for 3 meals.

Deboning is quite a hassle, but getting better at it.


Next dish: Beef Stew!

Just found the kinda beef I'll need, and the oxtail soup at Sainsbury.
Also will use potatoes, carrots, and onions, and the thermal pot.

And a rice cooker will make things much more convinient.


Looking for many things now... I'll jot these down til i make a more complete list...
Sciscors,
Boxes to keep my onions and potatoes,
A shelf,
Paper,
A rice cooker.

Newton's Laws of Motion as found in Principia Mathematica

Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare.

Lex II: Mutationem motus proportionalem esse vi motrici impressae et fieri secundum lineam rectam qua vis illa imprimitur.

Lex III: Actioni contrariam semper et aequalem esse reactionem: sive corporum duorum actiones is se mutuo semper esse aequales et in partes contrarias dirigi.

Translation:

Law 1: Every body continues in it's state of rest or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by a force impressed on it.

Law 2: The rate of change of motion is proportiona to the motive force impressed; and it is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.

Law 3: The mutual actions of two bodies are always equal and dircted to contrary paths.

Cambridge adds that extra tinge of authenticity to studying physics :P

First week of lectures

Think this is going quite well... I'm actually beginning to enjoy and look forward to lectures!

Did Sterling's formula today in lectures, gotta learn to derive that.

Have been crashing ther Physics lecture before my math lectures, it's very interesting!!! They're doing Lagrange Principle of Least Action now.

Learnt that it is simply a consequence of Newton's Second Law. Just that it's is replacing the Cartesian Coordinate system with any arbitary coordinate.

And things like Energy and Momentum are not real physical quantities at all. They only arise out of integrating F=ma wrt time and distance!

FINALLY! Internet Connection Thru a Proper Laptop!!!

Yeah, finally got this to work! Now I'm very comfortable in my room, and I think I'm going to enjoy the next 6 months here very much!

With my bed made infinitely more comfortable by the blanket I brought over; and the laptop through which I can organise my life, and conviniently access infomation; and a guitar to strum away whenever I'm stressed, or need something mindless to do when trying to solve a maths problem; and I found a place to watch TV, did it this morning at 5 am, and totally enjoying the programs! And a thermal pot to cook delicious meals in; and all the other miscellaneous things I brought over with me this time round, I now feel like I can fly! Take on anything the new term throws at me!

Just started lectures today. It's much better now that I'm mentally prepared for what to expect. Attended the physics lecture before my maths lecture, they're doing classical mechanics - Lagrangians and Hamiltonians! Think I'll frequent that lecture too!

Also just met my DOS today. Assigned me my supervisors for the term. Will have a supervision with a greek guy from Trinity! That will make a good excuse: if I cannot understand what is happening, I can always pass it off that he was speaking greek ;P

But really looking forward to having this supervision - it should allow me to know more mathmos. Trinity accounts for more than 20% of the mathmo cohort, and they are usually the best of the lot!

Shall blog about my first few days here after I've sorted it out. Also the plans for my meals... Just recceed Sains for the ingredients today, think I'll execute the meal over the weekend. Lets see.. I'll get chicken, and cook pasta and chicken soup. Also will be looking for containers to hold my fresh produce.

Here we go again.

Ok, leaving in a few hours time. This is beginning to feel routine... Grossly underestimated the amount of things I'm bringing back. After packing most stuff, my luggages are weighing at around 35 kg. Hope to get through the gates without too much hassle. Going to be carrying lotsa bags this time round... A big luggage, a haversack, a smaller pull along luggage, a laptop, and a guitar.

Schedule for Tuesday 170106 - Arrival
Will be busy from the word 'go', once i reach Cambridge this time round. Lets see... My plane's eta at Heathrow at 0830. Get to bus station, buy National Express tickets, bus ride to Cambridge, will prob reach by noon. Make my way back to my room, unpack, look for lunch, wash up, then have A&G supervision scheduled at 1430 at Peterhouse. Wonder if my college card has enough credits for my meals today... Then will have to look for dinner after supervision. Also need to go see the computer guy to configure my laptop, and go grocery shopping for breakfast and snacks. That should be about all for Tuesday.

Schedule for Wednessday 180106 - EXAM!
Will have breakfast with the focus group guys around 0800 at Ben's house. Looking forward to meeting them after a month. After, gotta look for lunch, and will be having an exam at 1330! Just received the email yesterday! Going to die! but wattahack, it's just a mock paper... I'll try to read up before that... It'll be ending at 1630. Go back, and unpack, and prepare for school the next day, and try to finish my up example sheets!

Schedule for Thursday 190106 - School Starts!
Lecture begins. Starting with Vector Calculus and Probability. Need to look for lunch, maybe I'll try cooking soup. Meeting DOS at CMS at 1400. And that marks the beginning of another 8 week marathon! But at least I'm better prepared to take it on! (At least I hope)

Random Thoughts, Visiting SAJC and SAS, and bumping into lotsa people!

Had several theraputic conversations the past few days, mainly with different groups of friends from secondary school, with CK gugu, and with Alvin.

Been confiding in them about how tough the experience of my first term in Cambridge had been, how difficult it is to have no one doing the same course to casually hang out with. How beginning the term without an idea of what to expect, without really knowing the system, or anybody there, had contributed to my feeling like I've been dragged along during the term through the lectures, not anticipating anything, and returning back everyday to a deserted room to fight a hopeless fire of example sheets and lecture notes, and having no one to turn to for help.

On top of that, having to worry about daily things like food, laundry, banking matters, library books expiring.

Basically related how I dread returning to the same situation next term, but at the same time optimism that this term would be better.

Better because I know what I'll be returning to, I'll know my way around Cambridge better, because I know who I'll be meeting, I know what lectures will be like, I know where to find resources for the topics I'm doing, because I'll have a better computer through which I can stay connected with the world, better because I know what I want to achieve, and because I should be able to provide for my meals affordably, regularly, healthily.


So much for returning to Cambridge...


Yesterday!

Yesterday was CCA display day at SAS. Went to Potong Pasir Mac for breakfast, bumped into Boon Hao. Met Alvin, visited SAJC with him, spoke with DP, had a look around the new compound. Went to Sim Lim Square and to Bugis with Alvin for lunch.


Met Jonathan after at PS, made our way back to SAS. Met some teachers. Bumped into Daniel and Sam Chong helping the BB with their flying fox act. Loitered round the school, bumped into Maowei with the NCC. Learnt later from Daniel that Derrick was hosting a BBQ for dinner, two of us decided to go, so followed Daniel to SAJC to meet his mother, also met Mr Lim in the staff room. Followed Daniel back home to wait til dinner time.
While we were there, Daniel took out our Sec 1 class photo and JC yearbook. Started chatting about the days gone by, about our paths, and that of our peers. It wasn't too long ago when we were all together in that class and it was all we knew of, when being 21 years old and having completed army and beginning university, was a far fetched prospect hardly anyone could concieve, but here we are now!

Then went to Derrick's place for dinner, met more guys - Jeffery, Gerald, and a few of Derrick's JC classmates. Hanged around for a while then left with Jonathan. Took a cab back together, discussed with him along the way about the friendships made in our lives, through Sec Sch, JC, and NS, compared the differences, and expressed hopes that good friendship is not something consigned to the past.