It Begins..

Welcome Back to NTU..

And so the new academic year begins.. and it has advanced very quickly to week 3 already. Come to think of it, week 3 is ending tmr.. goodness me. It’s happening too fast.

Spent the last 2 weeks pretty busy with the club’s recruitment. Had to plan and sort out the booth and then had to try to convince ppl to join the band. Haha.. We had about 130 signups but only about 30 odd turned up for the Welcome Tea.. well that’s not too bad considering that we actually had a welcome tea.. didn’t have one last year.

The recruitment booth location that was given to us was quite good this year actually. We were at a nice corner and had lots of space and wind.. good stuff.. and they provided table cloth and etc.. so we didn’t need to sort those out.. haha.. at least SOMEONE in NTU is doing things right.. =P

Jazz & Blues Recruitment Fair 07/08

Then there’s the Welcome Tea.. the band did a couple of songs and we addressed their questions.. quite weird actually.. after the band performed they just sat there and didn’t really move. No one really touched the finger food either.. haha.. paiseh-freshie-syndrome. =)

Well that was last week and this week is the auditions and interview.. I can’t wait for it to be over. The auditions wasn’t VERY fruitful, but we managed to spot a few potentials.. heh. So that’s good news. All that’s left would be tmr’s interview.. *phew* hopefully we get potential ppl to take over the committee..

Jazz & Blues Welcome Tea 07/08

School work itself has been quite crazy too. It’s only week 3 and I’m starting to feel the stress.. of course, traveling 2 hours to school is also starting to take its toil on me.. which is why I thank God for providing me with a hostel. Hall 12. Not exactly my first choice since it’s so far from my classes and totally at the other end of where I’m used to but hey.. at least I got a place.. there’s probably also a good reason why I’m there.. so just need to figure that part out.

My room mate hasn’t moved in yet.. so for now I got me a single room.. *cheers* hah.. and praying that he won’t be turning up anytime soon. Heh. Now I just need to find out where the pantry and water cooler is.. apparently my new neighbours aren’t too helpful too.. they didn’t even know that they had a mailbox.. hah. And he was going to go for classes today during the ‘Union Day’ period.. if I hadn’t stop him he’d probably be the only one in class waiting.. =P which also makes me wonder.. why NTU must have one of these Onion uhhh.. Union Day thing. They should just leave the classes on instead of disrupting everything. I think it does more harm than good.. hur.. and this year, both candidates contesting for the EEE Chairperson are both from China. Help.. they’re taking over the world I tell ya..

Happy Birthday Singapore!

oh and I’ve been eyeing on a polarizing filter for my camera.. I’m waiting to see if this fad wears out or whether I should really get one. There’s this shop off ebay that sells a brand new Polarizing Filter and UV Filter, together with a lens cap and an adapter tube to fit them onto my Canon Powershot A520.. all for the price of only 38 SGD, delivery inclusive.. It’s probably one of those things that I’ll just keep wondering whether I should get.. anyone have any comments/suggestions?

Donuts & Cheap Booze

Back from the trip.. quite glad that we had chosen it instead of a chalet.. for one, it’s much more relaxing and exciting..

We got a 15 buck package that brought us around for a day trip; got to see some funny bridge, see some local produce shops and a seafood lunch.. and then a couple of hours for shopping.. quite nice.. the places that they brought us to weren’t exactly very cheap though, I kinda figure that there’s some commission involved, so these shops were prob meant to KAR singaporeans like us..

They called the bridge the Silver Gate Bridge. Named after the golden one at San Francisco. I kinda think she’s joking.. but I’m not all too sure.. anyway, it isn’t exactly anything spectacular.. just a bridge that allows 2 carriage ways and it offers some view of the many islands that surround Batam. Other than that.. nothing special. Give it a miss..

Silver Gate Bridge

Lunch was quite good.. some sorta communion dining style involving the entire group of about 12. Typical seafood stuff but the highlight of the lunch was probably the fact that the kelong place had a stage for ppl to sing karaoke.. and towards the end of the meal there were some older folks from the other table, singing their hokkien songs heartily.. thank God it was at the end of the meal..

The lunch place also had a short little performance.. there was some fire/coal eating thing.. he also ate some glass too.. and jumped through a hoop of fire.. nothing too exciting.. but well.. you don’t really see that around in orchard, so it’s worth a few pictures I guess.. the last time I saw something like this was in Crescendo..

LEFT: Fire eating

RIGHT: Glass eating.. morbid.. heh.

So anyway, the view from the balcony was quite good.. some pool view.. we didn’t really realize that it was nice until we saw the other side of the blocks and realized that their balconies faced the bleak lifeless hill/mountain landscape.. boring.. so I’m happy we got a nice place. =)



the nice big mushroom is actually part of the pool, loads of water starts flowing from it later in the morning..

the spa in the resort..

We also managed to get to Mega Mall, Batam Center to get those donuts.. J Co Donuts.. did some shopping there too.. and things are pretty cheap.. well, not ALL but some are.. I got me a shirt and a polo shirt for 30 bucks total. And I almost got a pair of jeans for 14 bucks.. but well, I don’t really need it and I don’t want to be buying something just cos it’s cheap.. so I gave that a miss.. but really.. some of the stuff there’s quite good and cheap. Take the beer for example.. I opened the mini bar and saw that a can of beer was 4 bucks.. Good. I thought that was cheap.. cos I mean, you walk into NTUC and you’ll prob get it around 4 bucks too.. but until we went to the supermarket there, then I realized how cheap beer was. A can of tiger/carlsberg/Heineken beer costs 1 SGD. And a can of bintang beer costs slightly under 1 dollar.. MADNESS!! Too bad you can’t bring it thru custom.. unless of course you live by the Do Anything Just Don’t Get Caught rule.. =P

And then of course, there’s the much hyped about donuts.. weren’t too expensive either.. it works out to be about 54 cents a donut. That’s about the same price you pay for donuts from any neighbourhood bakery.. so really, it’s nice and cheap.


Clockwise from Top: DONUTS.. 48 of them, Hello Panda crackers with chocolate dip, mentos chewing gum, gummy candies, more gummy candies, kueh lapis (VERY CHEAP), and more kueh lapis.

Not included in the picture are cans of beer ($1 each) and 2 Gatsby hair wax ($1.20 each).. woohoo!

Oh and we also finally tried the ATV, All Terrain Vehicle.. about 20 min which was just about right; anymore and you’ll probably get bored and a sore thumb from pushing the throttle. There were a few different tracks/circuits which includes a speed track (with a 5 feet mount that dar bravely jumped over with the vehicle), a mud bar, some s-course thingy and even a jungle trail one.. quite cool.. these vehicles..

I’d like to go back again. Probably for a day trip since megamall is just beside the other ferry terminal. Take a boat down and do some shopping, eat at the A&W there and get a whole tonne of donuts back.. =) that would nice.. heh.