A Better Title

For the past few years, whether I am in Singapore or Indonesia, other than the occasional going to the church, Chrismas Eve had been spent without anything special. Only twice did I go to Orchard, once with my friends, and the other with my sister. Never in my life had I received any Christmas presents either.

But this year’s Christmas Eve was slightly different.

Not only did I receive this lovely coffee mug from Nicole, I also went for my first Christmas date–with none other than Nicole herself.

Well, actually the day started with a panic, because I had absent-mindedly washed my shoes the day the night before.

How on earth would the shoes be dry by 3 p.m.?!?

That question had happily slipped my mind that previous night.

And so in the morning of Christmas Eve, I panicked, frantically trying to dry the shoes.

I was thankful that Nicole called me after I texted her saying that my shoes were still wet, because her sister got an idea of hanging the shoes underneath a fan to dry them. How the silly news that my shoes were wet on the day of the date broke to Nicole’s mum and sis didn’t matter anymore. I quickly tied the shoes to the industrial fan that my flatmate owns, and lo and behold, the seemingly silly idea worked! By the time I had to leave home, the shoes were 95% dry! Not too bad…

We met at 3 p.m. at City Hall, and the plan was to have an early dinner because we expected the Christmas crowd. And so we walked around, went to Carrefour to buy a drink, and proceeded to the restaurants to choose a suitable one.

Our choice fell on a restaurant called “Tuk Tuk Thai Kitchen” where they were having a special Christmas buffet–complete with a serving of prawns drizzled with loads of tartar sauce and fruits, wine, and unlimited servings of dessert.

Reminder to self: The Classic wine tastes much better than Red.

We had mango salad, two servings of Tom Yam seafood soup, fried rice, and crab meat roll with minced pork. Nicole thinks that the meal was good, while I think that my tastebuds still need to get used to the authentic spiciness and sourness of Thai food.

Close to two hours of dining later, we made our way to Marina Square, where I bought some cookies for Nicole’s mum as a form of thanks for everything that she had given–from T-shirts to simple worries about me, even though we were not together.

Afterwards, we made our way to Esplanade to exchange gifts.

This was my present for Nicole: a bear with a silver star. The moment I saw him in the shop a couple of weeks ago, I had made up my mind. There was something about the bear that attracted me that I just knew it, it’s like “Ok, this will be my present” kind of thing.

Imagine my horror when Nicole happily walked into the shop a few days before Christmas with me…

And imagine my delight when she skipped the entire row containing the bear. Was it a sign that the present was meant to be?

Well anyway… Some of you might have known Nicole for quite some time now. In my old blog, she was the one who rose as the top commenter in little time.

Some of you might better know her as The Sis, as well as the guest blogger in the blog.

Unfortunately, starting from Christmas Eve, 24 December 2005, about 8.20 p.m., the terms The Sis and similarly The Bro were to be discontinued.

Because from Christmas Eve, 24 December 2005, about 8.20 p.m. onwards, they are known as The Gal and The Guy respectively.

(And if you’re Akin Budi, don’t get too excited and tell Mum just yet. Thanks.)

We made our way back to Marina Square to have our first meal as a couple–chocolate mint and mango ice cream from the shop next to Famous Amos.

We found our way to the MRT, and to The Gal’s house, where I passed the cookies to The Gal’s mum.

(And yes, she’s kept in the dark at the moment too.)

But I was so nervous that other than a “Hi Auntie” and an “I have something for you”, I practically froze there in front of the house with that silly grin of mine, before The Gal’s mum broke the silence with “Merry Christmas to you”.

Silly me.

But that had to be the most memorable Christmas Eve ever.
And to everyone else out there: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

The Guy,
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Well, on hindsight, this holiday is unlike any other holidays I’ve ever had. It was definitely one of the most hectic holidays.

First thing that happened was the disappearance of our club’s Art Director. By right he was the one who was supposed to come up with the course outline for our Photoshop and Flash courses. The first time I asked, he said there was a blackout in his hall. By Sunday, 3 December, he had disappeared into thin air, unable to be reached by phone, SMS, MSN, nor email.

And thus, the responsibility of doing the course outline was suddenly thrown to me as the Special Projects Manager, and Nicole, as the only Artist who knows how to use Flash. We did our course notes, and prepared ourselves for the course. We struggled, doing the notes at the same time as assisting people for the Cinema 4D course. And the Art Director was still not to be found.

On hindsight, it’s funny right? The Art Director was the one who did the time slots for assistants for the course, and even added “These time slots are compulsory” but he was the one who didn’t come to any of his own time slots.

Taking emergency measures, the council main committee promoted Nicole to Assistant Art Director to replace the Art Director when he was away. I’m so proud of her, that shows how much the main committee can trust her.
But the workload was probably too much for her that she fell sick on the course day itself. Poor thing, luckily she has recovered since then.

We received quite a bit of feedback from the course participants. It seemed like most of them wanted more to be taught, but what they probably did not realise was that without the basics, it would be hard to go on to advanced topics. Of course, another problem from our part was that we didn’t have enough manpower who really knows how to use the softwares. It was almost like a one-man show for some of the parts of the courses. I guess we need more internal trainings for these.

The next big thing that happened was the release of result. I must say that I’m very satisfied with this semester’s results. Credits must go to Nicole and Theresia, my studying buddies who motivated me even though we are in different courses. Especially to Nicole for forcing me to attend lectures no matter how much I dread them. LOL.

CS226: Desktop Publishing - B+
This is quite expected. Like any design modules I’ve taken, I lost momentum by the end of the course. I flunked my last design work, and didn’t really take the final exam too seriously. This is the last requirement for my Minor in Communication Studies. I’m glad that I passed everything.
EE2001: Circuit Analysis - A+
A nemesis turned into an ally. I used to dread this subject, but by the few weeks leading to exams, I turned to love the subject.

EE2006: Engineering Mathematics I - A
Maths was one of the subjects I don’t really like, because of the abstract concepts of some of the topics. But in the end, it was pretty good after all.

EE2008: Data Structures and Algorithms - A+
My favourite subject.
EE2009: Technical Communication - B+
With problems within our group, it was a surprise that I still managed to obtain a B+ for the module.

EE2010: Signals and Systems - A+
Another of my favourite subjects.

EE2071: Laboratory - A-
The first time ever I’ve got an A for formal report and the entire laboratory module.
EE8084: Cybersecurity - B+
A subject I take as Prescribed Elective. Bullshit all the way, and B+ was the bullshit that I got. ^^

Well, the update for Christmas Eve should be in another entry, so see you soon.

Free at last,
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