Social Studies... would never be the same again.

A figure in black stepped into my classroom straight after the PCCG lesson. With that long, protruding nose, I could distinguish her right away. It was Ms Harjit Kaur, my new SS teacher, and this was her first SS lesson with us.

She has 2 expectations that we have to meet up to. First, students should never talk when she's speaking. Second, she expects students to take Social Studies seriously as it's a Combine Humanities subject. From this, I can perceive that Ms Kaur is a strict teacher.

She began the lesson by asking my class to introduce ourselves. Javin told Ms Kaur that Rui An's name is Richard, and she bought his story! So thereafter, Ms Kaur addresses Rui An as Richard, and no one corrected her mistake, not even Rui An himself! Amazing.

In just her first SS lesson with us, she had covered the chapter of Conflicts among Countries. It wasn’t a complicated chapter to me, and the 1½ hour lesson did not seem prolonged. She could even give us a 5-minute break to refresh ourselves. In my opinion, Ms Kaur is a strict, yet seemingly efficient teacher.

CD Compilation

I have a whole list of CDs to add on to my CD collection. Here’s my wishlist. Hopefully, I would be able to get them all by October this year.

1) The Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Soundtrack CD
2) Broken Bracelet (Indie Album), The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper by Michelle Branch
3) Beautiful Angel by Ruby Xiao
4) Metamorphosis by Hilary Duff
5) Anastacia by Anastacia
6) Let Go and Under My Skin by Avril Lavigne
7) “Castle” by Jolin Tsai
8) Superstar and “Magical Journey” by S.H.E.
9) Fallen by Evanescence

I’m also waiting for Lindsay Lohan’s debut album to be released in Singapore. Out of the whole list above, I would most probably be getting the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Soundtrack CD first. I truly loved Lumos! (Hedwig’s Theme). It’s really well composed, and John Williams did a great job. His music compositions were one of the best I’ve ever heard, and many were themes from renowned movies like E.T., Jaws, Dracula, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, and of course, Harry Potter, and that‘s not all. He had been composing themes for movies over 46 years! That’s a dedicated composer, I should say.

Anyway, I've heard some of the pieces from the Soundtrack, and there are a few pieces which really captured me, like The Knight Bus, Double Trouble, Buckbeak's Flight, Quidditch-Third Year, Lupin's Transformation and Chasing Scabbers, Finale, Mischief Managed etc.

Expectations

Sometimes, I feel that no matter how hard I try, it doesn’t matter if it’s my results, grades, CCA, or even the subject combination I had been posted to, my mother would compare it with someone else’s. It isn’t fair, and she actually put hopes on me just because she THINKS I can do it, NOT because I CAN do it.

Since my Primary school days, she would compare my results and grades with Lin Hui’s (so sorry to mention you, my friend, but it’s a fact) and Wei Lin’s. In my Secondary school days, she would compare my results with Lin Hui’s still, and Jolene’s (when she found out that Jolene was my ex-nursery school classmate). She kept telling me that I scored higher than both of them for my PSLE, and expect me to do at least of the standard of theirs in Secondary school. Can’t she understand? Lin Hui was 3rd in class in Primary 4. Yet, again, she told me that I got into the EM1 stream in Primary 6, Lin Hui didn’t. So what if I got into EM1? Lin Hui still clinched 3rd position in her class in Primary 6. I don’t understand what exactly is my mother trying to prove?

Not to forget, my CCA. She kept asking me why aren’t I that busy with CCA compared to my brother. The complaints started only after I entered Secondary School, since I have the same CCA as my brother in Primary School. I admit that I’m not that busy with my CCA, because my CCA is not a uniform group. She had always given support to my brother for his CCA, not for mine. When I asked for the family to support me at ITMAP2003 last year, only my parents went. My brother had a choice whether or not to go. I remembered in 2002, I wasn’t even given the choice to state whether I wanted to attend the Jubilations2002, an event which both the Concert Band and Choir was involved. This year, my mother is making me attend some performance at some community centre this Saturday because my brother is involved in it. She said that it was to support my brother. What gives her to right to do so? It didn’t seem that support was given to me by my brother, now again, why should I support him? Dream on, I’m not going and that’s final. I have better plans of my own.

By the way, she’s willing to foot the $2000 for my brother for the CCHMS Concert Band Australian Music Festival 2004 if he did not get the subsidised fee. She’s so biased, yet she doesn’t admit it. Or to say, she doesn't realise it.

Entrepreneurship - Sarpino's Pizzeria

I've just heard the news from my mother. Sarpino's had set up a branch at the Singapore Discovery Centre. Another branch at Sentosa Beachfront will be opening soon. My uncle, who is one of the shareholders, is now planning to set up yet another branch at the Singapore Science Centre, in a unit somewhere near Snow City.

I have only ONE thing to say about this, “TAKE IT EASY, Sarpino’s!” It has been less than a year since the 1st Sarpino’s Pizzeria had been set up in Singapore, and around October this year, there will be a total of 6 branches in Singapore? That would be 6 branches in around 15 months!

I understand that the government of Singapore is encouraging its people in becoming entrepreneurs, but let’s think about it, the prices in Sentosa are higher than that of Singapore Mainland. The branch at East Coast isn’t doing very well either. I don’t know about the branch at Eastpoint (Simei), but I don’t think it’s a right choice to open so many branches so soon. Sarpino’s should at least help resolve the problem at East Coast first. Hello, there’s something called publicity, you know.

In my opinion, it’s also not a very good idea to set up a branch near Snow City. The branch should be either set up in an area near the Annexe Building or beside McDonalds. Why? I’ll tell you my analysis: If the branch is set up near Snow City, the flow of customers varies directly to the number of visitors to Snow City (with the exception of the minor percentage whom ordered via the hotline). According to my “market survey”, there aren’t many visitors to Snow City on normal schooldays, and that is an abysmal sign.

But, it if the branch is set up beside McDonalds, it might be slightly better. McDonalds is the only F&B place, where the visitors of the SSC, Omni-Theatre and Snow City could get a decent meal that fills you up at a more affordable price, in the SSC area. Other F&B places in the SSC area serve either snacks only or meals at a much higher price. Naturally, visitors would visit McDonalds for their meals, and by setting up Sarpino’s could give the visitors a wider variety of choices and there’s no better place than beside McDonalds. It could be seen once visitors approach the main entrance of the SSC to purchase their admission tickets.

I can’t understand why NTUC Income offered that unit (that is near Snow City) to Sarpino’s anyway. Are they trying to promote Sarpino's? Maybe.

The Lord Of The Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition

I visited The Lord Of The Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition today! It was the last day of the exhibition, and I would not miss it since the Singapore Science Centre is the ONLY VENUE in Asia. I didn’t visit it on my own, I went there with my cousin, who is a hard-core LOTR fan ;) . We were so eager to visit it since it was launched on 13th March, but we did not manage to fork out time from our busy schedule till today.

The exhibition opens at 10am, we reached the Singapore Science Centre at 10.10am, but we were not considered early. There was quite a lot of people and several school groups. The whole exhibition was so cool and awesome. We took our time and read through all the details labelled about the exhibits.

Many technological advances had been used in the making of LOTR. There is a scaling interactive sector explaining one way in which the films managed to make the characters look different from their original heights. It allows visitors to experience in becoming Hobbit sized in a scene from The Fellowship of the Ring. It was totally dramatic and fun too.

The exhibition also showcased the props, used for the filming of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which were not on display in the previous two venues, namely New Zealand and London. Weapons belonging to Arwen, Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn were also showcased. Not only that, outfits including Arwen's riding costume, Galadriel's stunning dress and Gandalf's robes were also on display.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were screened at the exhibition. The making of the films were also screened. I watched LOTR:FOTR, but did not watch LOTR:TTT.

By the time we exited the exhibition, it was already 2.40pm. We browsed through the souvenir shop. I really wanted the LOTR collectible mug. It’s an exquisite mug, black in colour and totally cool. It’s such a pity that the mug was SOLD OUT! I should have visited the LOTR Motion Picture Trilogy - The Exhibition sooner. But, I did not go home empty handed. I bought two collectible tins, one with a picture of Arwen and the other with a picture of Saruman. Anyway, I enjoyed my time at the exhibition and it truly was unforgettable.