Group of Guy cousins posing for photos. For those who've heard me mentioned abt my cousin mark, he's the 2nd guy from the right. One thing i'e realised abt my fellow Neo cousins, they are all very entrepreneur. Noticed all my uncles and aunties are. WAH LIAO!! WHy is my mom the only "black sheep" and i've to take her genes too? LOL

Aunt & Little Michaela. Noticed my new neice loves to wear pink. What's with girls and the colour pink? are they genetically built to like pink? I've never met a girl yet who doesn't like that colour. On contrast, I've rarely met boys who like pink, maybe 1 of 2. Enough of the ramblings. More photos to come

These photos never gets posted in the manner i want them to be. How frustrating. Photo of Uncle's Bok's family and of the Bro/sis posing together. I've always wondered how come the siblings have such different personalities...

Andy's almost like a saint. Good natured, sense of humour etc etc. Claire's...almost spoilt. In fact she was a spoilt brat for some yrs. Thankfully she grew out of it. At least she's smart. In fact she's the smartest in the Neo side. (according to her exam results (o lvl and psle). SO that does excuses her occasionally demands. (1st thing after lunch she "asked" me to bring her the fruits tray so she didn't have to walk over to the table. Char bos...Can't wait to see what type of BF she gets..That guy would have to be an absolutely saint to tolerate her. (God bless his soul...)

Photo of the generation above us. (my aunties, mom, ah mah and uncle from UK)

Next photo is Andy with Uncle Siong.

my 2 cousins: Uncle Richard's family left very quickly on CNY's day. 1/2hr and Pff* off to more visiting. Other pic is a very unflattering slug like photo of my dear younger cousin whittering in the afternoon heat. She will prob kill me if she ever finds out i posted that photo. Evne though the aircon was working, it's a freakishly hot day. Realised that every CNY (the day itself) it has always been a nice and hot sunny day in the mornings- afternoons. Hmm...roasted human beings on CNY>)

Previous photo a bit blurr lah. SO here's a slightly better but still blur. My hands were a bit shaky that day. Just realised that Claire's taller than Yiyu. For the record: Yiyu's the shortest cousin for now.

Finally updated the photos for CNY 2007. So i can start blogging about that period of time. Usual stuff in the morning (breakfast at grandma's house). My aunt's chicken pies and cheese toasts are pretty awesome.

Afternoon went to my maternal grandma's house. Food wasn't as good, but *drools* the new year snacks.. (now trying to update the damm photo but blogger not responding). As the photo shows, both my cousins came wearing the same dress. Haha...the surprised look on each other's face was quite hilarious.

When families gather together during the weekends like mine do (at least for my maternal side), pple shld take note and cherish such gatherings.

Hard as it is to for me to say it, let's face it, everyone's mortal. In due time (hopefully later), our grandmas/ uncles etc etc would pass away. Life goes on, pple get married, where would such future gatherings be held? It's only due to my grandma that we have such a strong bonding amongst the Neo side. Of course we would still meet, but there would be a loss...of something precious, valuable. As ever, work and survival would weaken the bonds of the ties btw kinship.

For my paternal side, let's face it. After several decades, i might lose touch with everyone. We never gathered often, only during grandparents' birthdays, CNY. 2-5 times a yr. Compared to the Neo side, 1-4 times a MONTH, bonds btw cousins amongst the Cheongs are insignificant.

Would we grow up in a future where close relatives hardly have the time to say hi to each other? Where would our paths lead us? Growing up further to the future isn't going to be pleasant.

Hence my enjoyment during CNY where the Neo cousins can just sit back, don;t say anything but still feel warmth and contentment in each other's company. That's what true bondship/attachment is to me.

So take this time to show u care abt ur relatives. (i know some of them are bitches), but care for those u truly love.

Think i'm getting old...or rather i think i'm feeling i'm getting old, feeling my age.

It always happens when i play with my nephew and neice or some other news pops up to stupifiy my old timer's brain. Do u know JC pupils don't write out their assignments anymore? it's all done in computer work? At least that's wat my cousin claire told me.

For some reason that made me feel very old and obsolete. I mean what happened to the good old fashioned style of writing ur essays out on pieces of foolscape paper? I'm fine with more advanced comps etc etc. BUT writing on paper is like 1 of the KEY foundations of a school right? They can't take it away! ARGH!!! if it happened sooner, i would have saved like god knows how many pens and ink writing my essays.

Me thinks Victor not rdy for 21st century. Victor feel old...

It doesn't help when during the buffet spread in Uncle Richard's house on monday that we cousins sat on the bed like slugs and passed on "old" childhood stories.

I will post the pics and the events on CNY another time. It's been a very tiring but fun CNY this yr.
Last night was particularly exciting playing citedels in yh's house. He won the game with a decent 32 pts. *claps* BUT I could have won!! Sigh..foiled by my fellow bachelors on the 2 impt key moves.

Foiled plan 1: Chose thief and wanted to steal from yh (which i guessed correctly that he would take abbort). BUT Czy used the witch to possess me and also wanted to steal from yh. Czy said: "steal from so & so (wrong) character. ZZZZ..

Was desperate by then, hit on a genius plan to win the game!

Foiled Plan 2: The last turn!!! Calculated yh had 32 pts!! i had 26 at that time and 0 gold. My plan for winning consisted of 3 parts:

a) Take abbort and get 2 gold from the bank and another 2 gold from his special abilites
b) bulding final YELLOW building which would give me 4pts (30) and the additional 3 pts because i would have the 5 different colour buildings
c) gloat and bask in the glory of victory (gloating is bad but i'm the supreme overlord, so it's ok for me

William spoiled it SPECTACULARLY!! *mutters curses* he took magician and swapped his hand with mine!!! I wouldn't have been that irritated if he had at least 1 yellow district in his hand. but no...green distracts which were as helpful as giving me oil to put out a fire. Best part was the way he swapped hands with me. Will: "Hey victor, got no one to swap hands with lah, swap with u then". The very bo charp heckcare attitude which he ruined my great plan. Bo wei gong...

End story: yh won with 32 pts. I had 31 pts. ($(*@&#!#*!&*!#(&&#!*&#!(*&!&#&(*#!
CURSE U WILLIAM!!!!! I WAS SO SO SO SO SO CLOSE TO WINNING!!!! Pui!

Such harsh comments from yh on MS. But even though i might agree on certain points, i just can't call any girl a bitch. It's not built into my system. Unless she wrecks my family kills a relative etc etc. That's when i will get a whole lot more serious and name callings will be quite down the list of things on the to do list.

Yh's comments are fantastic!! Insightful bugger isn't he? Maybe if he fine tunes a bit, we might transform YH to a POET!!! Or he can be the next mr brown! of course we will call him using another colour since brown's been taken. Maybe Mr BLUE, since yh usually wears blue i think.

On to more dull news

a) just came back from x2 reunion dinners. 1 for lunch (with paternal side) and 1 with maternal side for dinner.

Paternal side nothing much to say. Dinner at a restaurent. Chit chat a bit and go home.

With my grandma side (maternal), it was fantastic as usual! There's a simple joy in having steamboat with ur relatives in the comfort of ur grandma's house. Normal basic conversations brings pleasure due to the strong kinship each of us share. Even better was the game of MONOPOLY we played together later on. Laugher boundless and shrieks/moans of frustation mixed in to blend to form a festive atmosphere.

It reminded me of the very old days when we were 10 yrs old playing little games which lasted throughout the night.

Btw did i mentioned my 2 cousins looked very pretty tonight too? Can't wait for claire to get a bf so the rest of us can interrogate her and the bf. (if bf doesn't pass our standard, drop him off at seberia.) She did mentioned she went out on V day with SOMEONE..but evasive answers clued us to SOMEONE = MALE!! That male better be someone good...no one dates our little cousin for fun. (calls in the relatives power)

As for Yiyu, only way to annoy her is to pester her to get married since she's the next eldest after my bro. (amy's overseas, mark...(dun think anyone expects him to get married for now).

End of story: played till 10om then sent yiyu and simon back home. I'm still hungry though...weird

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy when skies are gray
you'll never know dear, how much I love you,
please don't take my sunshine away.

I'll always love you and make you happy
if you will only say the same
but if you leave me to love another
you'll regret it all some day

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy, when skies are gray,
you'll never know dear, how much I love you,
please don't take my sunshine away.

Sure all of u know this song. Here's wat happened when i was in lecture and hungry:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy when skies are gray
you'll never know dear, how much I love you,
please don't take my sunshine away.

I'll always love you and make you disappear
if you will only multiply more
but if you leave me
I'll be hungry for sometime

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me drool non stop,
you'll never know dear, how much I love eating you,
please don't take my cookies away.

ME WAS HUNGRY!! ME LOVES COOKIES!!!

Hx and I had quite an interesting conversation last night. How well do we know our friends?

As i stated in my previous post, it's all in the matter of a person's perceptions.

Let's give an example: Most of us see Edward as a slimy person or a person with 0 chance with girls. On the other hand there could be 1 poor blind misguided person who sees edward as a love master (gags! chokes! vomits blood!). Our lack of knowledge of a certain person prevents us from making a full and complete analysis of that character's profile.

So we shldn't make rash judgements on pple. In addition we show only 1 side of ourselves to pple and we act to become wat they think we are. Kind of hard to explain this. Easier way to say this is..other pple's opinions/expectations are what we strive to achieve. To mold ourselves to become what they expect. Eg: pple usually expect me to laugh all the time make quake jokes etc. Ok most of it is my own character playing a part in that. But that expectation "forces" me to sort of warp into that "funny" (since i know most pple think my jokes are quite lame) person

There is another side of us which we portray to others. An example will be HX. When he's with us, he scolds vulgarities, punches/pinch pple, abuses short leg pple by walking fast etc. But I AM SURE tht he behaves different in church. (at least i hope so)

Another example: IVAN!!!! He steals food drinks our patience from us. BUT I AM 1000% SURE he doesn't do it with xl.


So to friends we show 1 side, to special pple, we show another side. I'm sure that we also show another side to relatives right?

Notice this topic is different from my usual whinning and complainning posts? behold!! the new VICTOR!! who will still whine and rant, but to a smaller degree.

So Ms Melissa Sim has flown off to Sydney. Zzz..wat a day to spend V day. Going with hx to changi to see her off. There went 3 yrs of attempts of even trying to date/talk to her

a) Tried calling (shi bai!*failure* ignored/missed calls 3 yrs ago)
b) tried sms-ing. (also ignored)
c) Email (after 3 no replies i also got the hint)
d) last choice!!! MSN!! (ignored also for 3 yrs straight. Vic:" hi".. waits for reply (sometimes sees her nick changes etc then *poof!* zz..offline!)

In other words i was sending off a friend who was supposed to be closed to us (hx and i) but while going home i realised how well did i know her? The answer? not very well. So was i saying bb to a good friend who was going to sydney or to a friend whom i knew very little of? That of course brought back to mind hx;s word of why were we going to the airport in the 1st place? Of course this is to say that i regretted it. But things might have been different. Of course a lot of pple would have said the same thing in many of the situations in their lifes

Of course i'm seeing all these through my own perspectives which is naturally greatly clouded. If 100 see the same event/action, there would be at least 75 or even 100 different views/perspectives on that particular event.

So she might have been too busy to a) reply emails (only tried this 3 times ) b) reply msn messges. But err...being too busy for 3 yrs in a row even while on holidays a bit flimsy excuse sometimes. Oh well...That's life

Btw hx photos uploaded on my friendster acct. I will mail them to u some days later.

Ah the start of a beautiful friendship is a great thing. Here's how some of mine started (of course as usual most of this will directed to make fun of pple )

a) Ivan - I knew him back in way way sec 2? 7 yrs liao...so long. How to not make friends with the guy (only person) who kana caught my mdm oen and given a personal hair cut? That was the day i 1st knew ivan. Over the yrs ivan has refined my a) patience (not blowing my top for him being continously late) b) self control (after eating most of my food and drinks)

b) Hx- 6yrs. - seated besides me for sec 4 and somewhere at the mid in sec 3. The start of a very UNPLEASANT and PAINFUL friendship at 1st. Repeated poundings on my back back when he couldn't control his str (if u can call his currently str controlled in the 1st place) has stiffen my back alot. I dun feel pain when pple hit me now. Learnt the word "fuck" from hx.

c) YH - 6yrs! Introduced me to his perverse logic and world of porn? haha. I was innocent till i met yh....

d) Ed- 6yrs - this i wouldn't even call friendship. Hell i don't even know how he became my friend. *sniff* was i cursed that day? Introduced me to the true meaning of HYPOCRITE!! Always say meet up for bb or something else but he's the top PSK. (pang sei king/kia)

e) Czy - Enuff said. Opened my eyes to see wat a true hard core gamer is. (close fight with yh though for the title. Think he won because yh has to share the comp with his bro/mom while czy has the whole comp for himself until his sister grows up)

f) CY - haha this would sound a bit bad. But cy a bit of a snoob the last time bah. He very proud his maths everytime beat me (still beats me in fact). (UN)Fortunately i also used my " powderful engrish" to gloat back. *yes gloating was bad but cy's gloating was really bua tahan in sec 3. especially since we were both left-handers and sitting side by side* That was the year my EGO/Thick skin started building in earnest.

g) GH - God knows wat sin i committed to be "blessed" with a friend like this idiot. Everyone knows the word KS. But GH took the meaning to a new lvl. HAVE NEVER EVER seen anyone ks like him. I was humbled his extensive "education" of the word "ks" by GH

i) willy!!! aka MR N***le man - can't say anything bad abt him yet leh. Too goody good shoes for now. Then again...he might be slowly corrupting me in many minor but unnoticeable ways.

See? Where pple learn good things from friends throughout the yrs...my "friends" have also educated me to be an EVIL, vulgar *a bit only) and egoistic person.(6 inch of thick skin and still growing).

SO PROUD of myself!!!

Cheers!

Hmm 1040 Sunday. Right now Hx shld be in church. Singing hyms and mixing with pretty companions. haha.

Think next yr i will go back to church. When my bro shifts out of the house and i have the car for transportation. Enjoyed singing the hyms during service.

Thus begins another day of studying. Stressed? maybe. i see none of my friends are on msn for the moment. Ivan...prob sleeping. WIll? tkd? sleeping (15% chance), most likely went out somewhere... Guess i will go mug soon.

What my friends in NTU/NUS etc don't really realise abt my "plans" for studying or reasons for mugging so hard is that i've far far far less tutorials/lecture times than them. 1 semester i will only have 7 tutorials and lectures per module. Considering the fact that the very 1st lecture covered abt 275 pgs at 1 shot, even an idiot can see my reason of panic.

Still it's pretty interesting course of studies. I've to actually check the dictionary for some words. gosh! since when was the last time i had to check a dictionary for words which meaning I don't know?

My studies have also began the introduction of looking below the surface (kind of). Many of the work is based on expressing of feelings? deductions etc. It's very unlike *ahem* engineering or the *sniff* science courses. haha. Science courses more like calculating on FACTS FACTS FACTS. Either right or wrong. (is there any essay writing on engineering?)

Btw, I AM THE YOUNGEST person in all (2) my tutorial /lecture groups. A bit lost when these pple start discussing abt their work experiences. Person A: "ya..worked for the last 10 yrs alrdy, quite tiring." ZZZZZ.... (noobshit here hasn't even worked for 1 yr). It's goingto be hard working with such an age gap.

Think the world's coming to an end man!!! 3 reasons:

1) Ivan's attached
2) Hx going to church regularly
3) GH actually doesn't ks in dota now!! and he even buys chicken at the start for 2 games in a row!!!

of course i could be nicer and write it in another way

*edited portion*
Think the world's becoming a better place!! 3 reasons:

1) Ivan's attached (wah!!! abt damm time. )
2) Hx going to church regularly (a successful conversion? hallelujah! )
3) GH actually doesn't ks in dota now!! and he even buys chicken at the start for 2 games in a row!!! (he's finally turned over a new leaf...after breaking countless ks records)

think i prefer the unedited portion. sounds more natural. Or I shld say more in tune with my own nature. haha.

OMG!! Buffet cancelled this saturday!!! NO!!!

Even more shocking: asked hx if it could be changed to sunday, but he said SUNDAYS he GOES to CHURCH!!!

Such a "DEVOTED" "converted" member. The power of faith!!! BEHOLD!! (of course it could be the power of girls in this case but let's not spoil the moment). Maybe next when pple get married they might have to really call on Pastor Teo liao. *holds bible*

THE MOST SHOCKING NEWS SO FAR!!* drum rolls*

IVAN ATTACHED?? CAn it be true?? IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE!? Yes it's true!!! (full interview with ivan coming in next blog). No wonder he pang sei satuday's buffet... Wah liao..not even 1/4 the yr of 2007 and he broke the main rule of Bachelor's club of remaining single

So with 2 such shocking news, does it surprise us to have floods in m'sia and indonesia? Floodings were a SIGN!!! A SIGN!!! Of course if hx really becomes a pastor...i think s'pore would floods too..and victor would strike $10m toto/lottery ticket win.

This yr quite exciting sia. That cheapskate ivan never buy v day gift on sunday right? maybe he saving up for something special or "special".

I shall now say a true prayer for my friends. (RARE HOR!!!)

Lord,let my friends be blessed this yr and every yr. Their wishes be granted. protect them from harm. May their ventures/attempts in whatever they do succeed. Let them cherish what they have. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Of course i say the something very simliar for my relatives everynight too. (hehe..bet u didnt know i was that devoted too right?) Doesn't mean that i don't go to church is a sign of my lack of devotion.