Nicolas, and Nicholas. My cousin. Can't quite decide whether or not he's irritating or just being a kid or both cos he's always trying to disturb the two of us and the day this photo was taken, he asked me, "where's (your) Taufik ah?"

Sigh, essay due tmw...... I must stop procrastinating

My kids got confirmed today. Am absolutely exhausted by the anxiety caused with human traffic flow(or more like jam) during the 2 hr mass just now. Mass was.... imperfect. So many things went wrong. U'd think having to do this every year the coordinators would be gd at getting things done perfectly. Even me asking Sam to sing the responsorial psalm didn't end up the way I wanted it cos there was some prob wif the organist. Maybe I'm just too anal. But anyway, I shan't dwell on all these unhappy thoughts cos they're non constructive.

It's been almost 4 yrs for me being a catechist (sunday sch teacher) to these teens. My only regret is that I didn't manage to get to know all of them well enough...guess cos my class was too big. And I only hope at least some of them were semi-inspired, or perhaps it'd be better to say that I hope I haven't ruined any of them. One of the other teachers asked me, "Did u feel sad when they were getting confirmed?" Not really I think... or not yet? I was feeling worse last week after my last class actually... but today... dunno leh, maybe too much stress or cos it's just been a bad week la. Wrote cards for each of them, and one of my most idiotic boys whom i had a prob wif cos he kept skipping class said, "eh! u wrote everything the same for everybody ah!" -_- what a pig.... the irony is most of it was similar but for those whom I knew better or had things to say to them i wrote differently. And his was one of those.

But then later he was the only one who smsed me to thank me for teaching him the past few years and for the card. I replied and said that he was very welcome and to remind him of the last event next week. He actually said, "Woot. 4 years and its over, just when i started to love it". Wow. This coming from a boy who had a big prob wif attendance and showed me attitude in class. It's almost like the story of the 10 lepers and only 1 who thanked Jesus (but then again, I'm not Jesus, neither are they lepers). I guess that's all I needed, just one to affirm me. Isn't it amazing?

In other news, been having a spate of bad driving recently...yest and today la and got on the nerves of this Ah beng who tried to irritate/intimidate me on the road yest cos he thought I purposely cut his lane when it was just really bad driving on my part. -_- Sigh. I hate driving badly.... makes me feel damn cock. And I really miss my baby.... haven't spent so little time with him except when I went overseas the last time. One week more and my essays will be done and handed in and all. I can't wait to graduate.

IT IS ACCOMPLISHED

My blasted ISM is done done done! Woohoo!!! Complete with a fun (albeit extra) "acknowledgements" page. Heh....all my hons mates decided to do one so I was momentarily inspired to do one when I came home. Wanna see? :)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank firstly, my wonderful supervisor, Dr Edna Lim for her time and effort put into our consultation, without which I would not have been able to formulate my arguments coherently. Thank you for the very edifying discussions, and the familiar "so whats?" which generated much thought and greatly added to my analysis and the cool books on Shakespeare and film!

I am also most grateful to Dr Robin Loon, for without his brilliant course on postmodernism which first sparked my interest as well as his initial (and unbelievable) encouragement and guidance I would never have dared to attempt such a research paper. Thanks a lot for the unofficial chats and occasional check to see if I was surviving!

Many thanks to the following peers for their continuous support and encouragement: My TS honours mates, Ms Debbie Wong, Ms Zhou Yurou and Ms Lam Mei Mei. I do promise to try and be around in the honours room more often! Also, thanks to Ms Joanne Yip and Ms Bernissa Chia for the concern shown and providing moral support.

Last but not least, many thanks to the Sociology graduate room and Mr Shane Pereira, for the many hours of discussion, providing ideas, sharpening of my arguments and interesting sociological insights as well as being listener of my complaints and never-ending thoughts on musicals. Thank you for sitting through (the painful) Evita with me and for being my constant support and strength.

Yar...so anyways, altho its already due but I haven't handed it in cos wasn't in time for binding....so hafta go to sch early tmw. But my sup's alright and I'm just glad it's done!!

But received news frm the Franciscans Intl that my application has been rejected. :/ So...no Geneva for me. Guess I'm just a little disappointed, but it also means I won't hafta leave my baby! So....I'm sure God has another plan for me.

Shane's grandpa has also been very ill... please pray for him if you can.

Yay!!! After all that coughing over the stupid ISM, my first draft handed in and marked! And altho she didn't quite give me a grade, she said it "wasn't very bad" and certain parts were good. Hmm...at least it's not a C+ as I was expecting!! ( I think!)

Have some ammendments to make and all but then it's more or less ok....no need to change the whole concept or stuff lidat. :) Yay yay yay yay yay!!

Just feeling happy for now la...altho the feeling is very likely to die down after I really start making the final changes to the thing and u never know what the final grade might be. So tts one worry down, only another 2 more....

Oh, and jiayou to those who are pia-ing their essays now! Esp my baby.... give u lotsa hugs and mental power! (eh...might not be of much help la, but ya...better than nothing! :D)

*cough cough cough cough cough*.

Oh enuff of bloody coughing already! It refuses to go away! Altho having some momentary respite frm fretting over my bloody ISM, no respite from this stupid cough! I feel like Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! (which incidentally I was watching and been writing about for the past few days) who was coughing blood and dying of the consumption(aka Tuberculosis/TB)! -_- Oh! and I still can't break my lentern fast of Chocolate!!! Aargh!! This bloody cough!

Just one month more and I will be free of exams and all this shit!! ONE MONTH!! Although I will miss jang jang and the rest of my hons mates..(there are only another 4 of them anyway) and the beautiful hons rm now that the wonderful jang jang has so kindly sponsored us an Ikea sofa, as well as his pelt..from dunno which animal...it looks so cosy. Oh oh! And I forgot to add the cushions which Mei mei also bought and decorated for each of us. Mel Ngo came in to have a look today...and she thought it was very nice :) Oh, jang2 also feigned surprise when he came in for a while...cos he said "Eh! so nice to see you Andrea...since we know u seem only part time TS and have been relegated to almost full time soci MA student" -_- Baka... so ba gua can?! Luckily Debbie defended me by saying she does see me in the rm and I do actually come and make use of it!

Oh well....what to do....my other half is at the soci dept mah...and I'm supposedly "good for him/the dept cos we need "crossbreeding"?!" (tt was what was said to me by one of the soci ex lecturers or sthg the other day, who complained tt i was not their student but only went to eat free food! Wah!! Where is the concept of face here? She flouts the tact maxim!!! For pple who dun understand, it's ok...just learnt it in my Elang/Stylistics module)

Hmm.....was just going thru all the reasons on how to convince my mom I won't get pregnant if I go on a holiday with Shane. :/ Sigh...parents...

Eh, those of u who have the time to read, comment leh!! Stupid Nick Netto has complained tt my comments looks like only Shane and me having conversation. But it's not ok! A conversation is made up of Initiations, responses and follow ups. We barely haf it past initiation and response so it's not a conversation! Heh...sorry ah, just had test today so all my concepts still fresh in my head. :p