In Limbo November 7, 2006

The days are counting down, with just a little over a week to go before all my HSC exams are over. But before that, I still have two exams to go. One of which won’t count towards my HSC while the other I wouldn’t really be studying for because languages you can’t cram – just a bit of revision perhaps. And so here in lies my dilemma – the situation of limbo where I have finished all my important subjects but I haven’t officially finished so I can’t party hard but I don’t feel like studying hardcore. As a result of this most annoying limbo that I am in, so to speak, I have resorted to half day study periods with fun in between.

Having studied some Chemistry in the first half of the day, a few of the State Crew met up with everyone who just finished Economics as well as a couple who had already finished, and headed off to French Riviera. We shared four ice-creams amongst 10 people – pretty good stuff! There were bananas in two of them! Oh precious bananas!

ice cream ONE

ice cream TWO

group photo & BIG HEAD ;]

Afterwards we disbanded. Some went shopping, others went home and 5 of us went to the new K place on George Street called “Greenbox PLUS”. It’s so much better than the original Greenbox and it’s cheap too. It’s a lot like the good ones in HK! Haven’t been to K for so long so it was good stress relief. Good day it was.

Titles are for Losers November 6, 2006

Everytime I type an entry, the large majority of time is spent thinking about a title which encompasses the essense of that particular blog. Well today, I can’t be bothered so that will have to do as my title. I opened up this window this morning intending to blog and then lost my train of thought. Half a day down the track I have become a very angry person. Asian parents frustrate me to no end and this is yet another entry about said subject.

I have a strong dislike for people who don’t keep their word. People who promise something and then pretend they never said it and often go to the extremes of accusing you of making it up altogether. My mother is one of these people. She’s done it all my life and I’ve always been irritated but only recently has it worsened enough for me to take full notice of it. In Year 4, I changed primary schools – left all my best friends – because my mother wanted me to do better at school and get into selective. It was only natural that I wouldn’t want to leave my comfort zone and she told me that she’d take me to Disneyland if I got in. Never happened. The fact that I didn’t get to go doesn’t matter so much, I hear that it’s not as awesome as it’s made out to be anyway, but more the principle of making promises you don’t intend to keep. I was young, it was a way of making me do what they wanted me to do – fine.

High school. You’d think that she’d realise that I was old enough to remember promises.  “If you do well in this exam, I’ll get you a new computer.” or “Wow, you did so well, I’ll get you something.” – heard frequently, but what are they? Empty promises. Year 10. No new suit, no new shoes for formal because no money should be spent for a kid who’s still growing, after all, it’s not like you were meant to go to the formal in the first place. But by the time you’re in Year 12, everything can be purchased since you won’t be growing much anymore by that time. Yeah sure. Come Year 12, “No, it’s cheaper in Hong Kong. Just make do with everything you have and you can get something in HK (AFTER the formal).” Some incidents are big, some are petty, minor concerns but accumulated, they are frustrating.

And even now she tries to pull it off. Yes, this is not worth getting angry about but it’s the principle and the attitude. I have a habit of going to State, I study better there. I didn’t go on Friday because I needed to take deliveries for my mother, “please, it’d come today and I really can’t pick it up myself”. Naturally I stayed. It didn’t come. “Don’t worry, it’d come on the weekend” It didn’t. “Sorry, but can you stay on Monday? I have an urgent meeting. If it still doesn’t come, I’ll be home on Tuesday to pick it up”. Come Monday, today, “You’ll have to stay home tomorrow. I have to go out early tomorrow”. Okay. It’s for your work. Once maybe. Twice, I’ll put up with it. But three times, you might as well be lying to me. What if I wasn’t at home? What if I wasn’t doing the HSC this year and I was at school?

I’m a high school graduate filled with rage. Nuclear Chemistry does not aid the situation. I really need to get out of here.

Un-logic November 4, 2006

Parents. Most of us have them and most of the time we are grateful that they are a part of our lives. Asian parents. That narrows down the scope and I, be it my bad luck, have parents with Asian traditions, personalities and inherited stubborness. Of course, they have helped me through life, raised me to be the person I am – which in some instances might not be a good thing but I would like to think that I’m not that bad a person. Yet there are times when they draw from the very depths of me, my anger and frustration at their obvious unreason and what Wayne might call “un-logic”.

Example being the purchase of full time contact lenses. You see, I have eyes which are quite different – even amongst fellow spectacle wearers. When I first found out that my eyes were “whacked” (harhar venus), it was the first day of Year 4. I was sitting at the back and I realised I couldn’t see the board and my attempts at copying my friend’s notes failed. Being the little boy that I was, struggling to comprehend the situation, I cried and for some reason every once in the while I could acutally see the board when I was crying. I later found out it was because when I covered my right eye, I could see long distance with my left eye since I was long sighted in my left eye and short sighted in my right. That said, my left eye has recently “worsened” to the extent that it has now crossed the line to become short sighted. My eyesight was always extremely unstable since that incident and it wasn’t until I ditched my normal prescription glasses and wore multifocal spectacles, did my eyesight stabilise and I have worn them ever since. On the side, I also wore contacts for sport and whatnot but only in my right eye seeing as my left used to be long sighted. So after a bit of history, here’s the crux of the problem. I knew that my parents have always been concerned for my eyesight and it’s instability but I really don’t like my glasses anymore – both aesthetically and practically. In order to satisfy their concerns, I asked my optometrist about the stability of my eyesight and he told me that they were stable – good enough for me to wear contact lenses full time. Any other person would say, “Yeah, go ahead” but no, my parents don’t understand the meaning of reason nor logic and proceed to blatantly argue their stance that I shouldn’t wear contacts.

“Your eyes aren’t stable enough!” says my mother, totally ignoring the advice of a professional and making up her own theory that my eyes aren’t stable until I’m 22 (I have no idea where that number came from). Then after a while she moves on, knowing that her logic has failed in her previous statement to, “They’re really expensive! Where do you think we get all this money from?!” disregarding the fact that my current contacts cost roughly the same price anyway. What annoys me isn’t just their stubborn attitude but their refusal to accept defeat in the face of all logic and reason. They refuse to admit that they’re wrong and just say sorry but do what my mother did today – force upon me some sort of retail therapy, in the hopes of getting me to forget about these contact lenses and randomly take me shopping for formal wear which she previously refused to do. I am at a loss at the pure frustration that Asian parents can expose within their children’s normally sane selves.

And with that, I leave you with overdue photos of the State Crew’s first outing to French Riviera:

look at that fobby shirt

 

 

franky & andy

 

 

amelia & andy

 

 

nessa eating lots :]

 

 

evan & andy

 

 

random asian fingers & trinh & andy

 

 

harry & andy

 

 

jezza & andy

 

 

photo shy clarise & andy

 

 

our ice cream

It’s Me…Again. November 3, 2006

It’s another new blog. I thought that I was beyond the childish realms of blogging but perhaps this is the new stage where I won’t just be whining so much but providing healthy and interesting insights into the life of yours truly. Let’s hope I keep to that resolution.

Why do I create another such blog? Perhaps it’s a response to my final high school English exam today. Extension One English has always been a favourite of mine, what with all the talk of Individuals and Society. I like English, just not the type forced upon us by the Board of Studies, so this blog shall serve to improve my command of the English language – I hope. I have seven days to study for Chemistry, a subject which does not count towards my HSC in any form, which is also a reason why I have been tempted to create this new blog.

As I have very few knowledgeable words left for this post, let me wish everyone – those of whom have not yet finished their dreaded HSCs (no, not you Trinh) – best of luck for their remaining exams!