man, i cant believe its come so soon; im flying off to melbourne next week.

how time flies when ure having fun, eh? these past 2 years have been filled with countless weekends of lan, pool, pubbing, n suppers extending deep into the wee hours of the morning. how i survived so long with so little sleep i dont know, but some how i did to make it to today.

speaking of today, went out with ian, tits n xan to funan where ian finally bought himself an xbox360. i must say lucky for him that we went along as advisors, otherwise he would have been easily cheated! but anyway the games he got were doa, gears of war, n n3. i thought n3 was good cos so some of my ex-camp mates were saying that it was a better version of dynasty warriors, but we didnt think so; it was kinda a mindless game where u just go round wacking people. at least in dynasty warriors u have to watch ur battle strategy n attacks. for doa... lets not go there. lol! but the best game has to be gears of war man. the graphics were second to none, i swear. n we hadnt even plugged in HD yet! game play was fantastic too, with cover fire, flanking, tactical movement n all, complete with essential teamwork. it reminded me a lot of the army where we learned flank attacks, searching for cover under fire, n switching covers to get better advantages in a gun battle. for the guys who've been through ns, this'll ring some bells. for the girls, or those who are yet to experience the male singaporean wastage of 2 teenage years, they wont really understand what i just blabbed. but they will still know how great the game is. its enough of a no-brainer to play, but it also sufficiently works ur brain as well to make sure u'll definitely "die" in the game if u charge blindly like a headless chicken.

after all that, ian, xan n myself headed to cine's hong kong cafe for supper, while tits caught his last bus. im gonna miss this bit of singapore's nights; there'll always be some where to go for late night supper, regardless which day of the week it is. dont think there're 24 hour eateries, or cafes that close late in the night in melbourne.

gonna be going out with ian n tits again tmr night. we're going to check out wisma's ck sale. tits n i passed by n saw shirts n polo tees going at 60% off; which came to 30+ per item. sounded good to both of us, but cos we were desperate to head back to ian's place to play xbox, we decided to come back the next day. n of cos we influenced ian into joining us, lol! so hopefully i can pick up a few shirts for uni. it should be a pretty good stepping stone for my outward appearance since first impressions count, no?

sighh...

im extremely irritated with myself. no, actually im not. cos thats a major understatement.

argh! cant believe i scratched the car today! one stupid wide turn in a car park, n BAM! i graze a stupidly designed lane that has walls that jut out into the road. what the hell man. but i cant blame the wall for being there (even though there were about 1230754657 other marks on the part i scraped), im the living one, the wall's dead. im supposed to avoid it, not vice versa.

n hence i inflicted a series of 2-5 cm marks on the front bumper of the car, accompanied with a slight crack on the left signal, n a slight dent in the part of the bonnet housing the left signal indicator.

i offered to pay for the damage if they wanted to change the affected parts, n i got a very sceptical look. something i didnt appreciate, but what can i say, i was at fault. owell.

ORD LOH!!

i am now officially known as: CPL (NS) Clement Lin

woo hoo!!!!

lunch on saturday was at aunty elena's house. something that was supposed to be a "new year's lunch"; according to kim. she even said that aunty elena was the one planning it n she didnt know what's going on. tsk tsk.

first, kim told me that it was just gonna be the two of us cos the rest couldnt make it. i thought that was fine cos she's a great friend anyway, n its nice having lunch with aunty elena; love her wonderful stories! :) so after i picked up my phone from the service centre, i took my own sweet time to get to her place since i was way early. well, the sky threatened to rain but i didnt have an umbrella, so i just walked briskly away from the mrt station to get to her house. but i made a wrong turn n ended up walking almost to the next mrt station. luckily (in some sense) aunty elena called me n asked me to get some ice cos she ran out. so i conveniently asked her for directions, which actually werent much help cos i had to find her place all on my own based on my own judgement from recognizing the area. but just after i hung up, it started to pour, not very heavily, but it did get me soaked by the time i reached aunty elena's house. when did finally reach her door step, i saw someone close the door just as i reaeched the last few steps before her house. so i rang the doorbell but had to wait ages someone to shout back. i thought what in the world was going on, but when the door opened n i went in, there kim was with this big grin on her face, jill was standing behind her with mingyi, calvin, kazan, n alex!

kinda shell-shocked, they shouted surprise n said that the lunch was for me cos i was leaving soon. there i stood, dripping wet from the rain, as my eyes welled up. to say i was so touched would be a severe understatement. but i wasnt about to get all emo, so the towel aunty elena gave me to dry off came in more useful than she knew then. of cos to make it even more touching, they had bought me a tee shirt on which they all signed on it with a short message accompanying it. mingyi had to leave for work so we took a quick photo n hugged before she left.

lunch was great, really, it was. i had the company of my bowling friends whom i grew up with. n actually thinking back, ive known alex n kim the longest; 8 years. that was when we first knew each other, n how much we've grown since then. ive known mingyi n calvin for 7 years, kazan for 6, n jill for 5. my, how time has flown by, n how things have occurred n changed over the years. i guess i really dont want to lose this bunch of friends, n even though we had plenty of fun joking n talking about old times, deep inside i was crying my eyes out. here in front of me were the people who left deep impressions in my life, a couple of whom ive had some history with, n here i am leaving for a foreign country, not knowing when i'll be back in singapore. it was heart wrenching, but not enough to make me break down. i just made myself treasure every moment we shared that day.

kim n jill, these two girls mean the world to me. they've both been fantastic friends over the years. i know kim was probably the main mastermind behind the whole surprise thing, but im sure jill had a part to play too; those two always work in cahoots. i hope i get to see the both of them again before i fly off, it'll mean so much to me.

sigh, between the two of them there're enough wonderful n not so wonderful memories to last a lifetime. this really really honestly comes from the bottom of my heart when i say i hope we'll always keep in contact n be friends forever.

owell, melbourne approaches, but not faster than my ORD date!

with tears in my bloodshot eyes, i drag my sunken dejected self into my bed tonight.

you'll never walk alone.

isnt it funny, how certain things in life happen, or certain people behave/become the way they do? everyone is subject to their own opinions, so for those reading this post n dont agree with me, dont go calling out for my head to roll, just shut up n move on with life.

i cant say much about myself cos what i think of myself n what i really am may not quite be exactly the same since i cant quite "see" myself. but anyway, i find it a little baffling how some people can take a 180 degree swing around on their feelings/opinions/etc.. especially with things that are closer to one's heart, or so to speak.

confused? thats not surprising, considering im being awfully vague. none the less i'll be more of a marksman n pin point what im driving at n risk all the controversy lest i spark another w_e sh_m_n saga.

basically whats intriguing in my opinion is how one person can have strong feelings for another person, yet in the span of say 2, 3 weeks, these feelings not only no longer exist, but repellent feelings towards this same person is developed. sound a bit more familiar now? ok so maybe i do know how that happens cos ive gone through that before. BUT, i repeat, BUT, for my case i was majorly backstabbed to an extent where i was totally pwned without even knowing the reason until it was much too late. i shant go too much into my scenario cos that'll just be another juicy scoop for another juicy post. so, the gist of the things occurring would have to be severe enough to render a complete turn around in one's feelings. in the case that struck this mind boggling thought in me, things werent as drastic or dramatic as a taiwanese drama (let alone korean drama).

ok since i was only an outsider, i wont really know what exactly happened or the exact words that were exchanged. but still, i wouldnt expect someone who broke up with me after a long, serious relationship to get into another relationship soon after. i just dont believe that its so easy to forget about a person whom uve had wonderful times n memories with, then in a month's time get attached again. how is that possible??? im baffled, really, i am. i know i took a year after a serious relationship before i dated another girl again. one month? give me a break man, i dont buy it. 2 months would already be pushing it in my mind, let alone one.

maybe im a snag n get too emotional to brush off one girl in my mind to let another in? i dont know. but from what i think, u just dont get over someone so quickly n completely. im reaching the end of my teenage years (damn i feel old!), n i think i can safely say that ive done all the stupid things any teenager can do (except have a mini-me running around calling me daddy), ive had all the stupid emotions n hormones any teenager can experience, n ive definitely had my fair share of experiences in relationships. so from my point of view, i no comprehendo.

having said all that, mr strait's times jounalist/editor, please dont quote me on this post; u'll just be making me say "get out of my uncaring elite face".

(thats gotta be THE quote of 2006 man. like seriously. LOL!)

ah its been quite some time since i last updated; tsk ive been lazy, what can i say. lol, this long leave period of mine is making me slack as hell!

well, i pretty much spent christmas with ian, had christmas eve dinner with him, then on christmas day met up with him at night after dinner at my aunt's place. christmas eve was pretty ok i guess, mahjong, card games, lots of alcohol, n too much of a certain neighbour of ian's (no, not joel). anyway imagine walking from ian's house, to heeren, paragon n back took us an hour! thats how packed orchard road was! but we did take lots of photos along the way n a little chit chat here n there of course. anyway, for some reason i wasnt quite "present" for the mahjong, maybe cos it was kinda boring considering we were just playing rather than like making small talk n jokes while we played. but either way i got my butt whooped, thats for sure. hah. luckily we werent playing with real money, lol! by the time i left ian's house on christmas day, it was 2, PM! haha, yeah mad stay over man. i was freezing when i woke up cos i slept in the living room with ian n he left the air con blasting through the night. the girls were clever, they snatched ian's room with the bed faster than anyone could say 'sleepover'. so being the wonderful gentlemen we were, the guys slept in the living room. ultimately, the food was good, n the company was great (though if titus didnt have to leave so early, it would've been better), what more could i have asked for. :)

hmm, new year was just about similar, but with a lot less people. ian invited lots of people, but most of them couldnt make it at the last minute, so in the end we had lots n lots of food with so few people. it started with just joel, ian n myself. then xan came followed by penny, then anthony n his sister, this dude called melvin soh, gordan n joshua khng. so that was it. lol! apparently ian was expecting more people, so he ordered 4 extra large pizzas, had like 50 chicken wings, 100 satay, n some other stuff his maid cooked (which i couldnt make out, thus didnt eat). yeah we totally stuffed outselves silly with all that food. it was a slow start to the party cos it was just the four of us joking around n eating, but when more people came we started talking about HCI's kinky stories, where n who got down n funky in the campus, the stupid things we did in tch n acsi. we were all laughing so darned hard that my sides n cheeks hurt really really bad! anthony's sister was majorly underaged n didnt quite understand some of the stuff we were saying, but i think at the end of the night, his sister grew up that little bit more away from the innocence of being a kid. lol! it ended with a movie, 40 year old virgin. n yeah, more side splitting shit. we finally all left at 6 am, where i took 14 n fell asleep on the bus only to wake up 5 bus stops after my house. by the time i got home, it was like almost 8.

madness i must say, but thoroughly fun filled shit. ah, n that night xan stayed over at my place cos we were playing soccer the next day at the kallang cage. as usual ian was with us n we drove to xan's place for supper cos ian was hungry, n when the original plan of ian staying at my place fell through, xan n i had a nice long drive to my place after sending ian home. i wonder how much petrol i consumed man, haha!

all in all, for that whole period, i probably slept no earlier than 4am n woke up no earlier than 3pm. my biological clock is gonna need plenty of re-tuning when i go back to melbourne man.

2 weeks to go!