My Neighbourhood

1)In the early evenings, families start to gather at the playground. Caring mothers stand by the slides, worrying about their children's safety. Not far off, 2 adults are sitting beneath a shelter, having a chat. Standing at my doorstep, I close my eyes, I feel the wind blowing onto my face, I hear the rustling leaves.
2)The next morning when I wake up and look around, I see a quiet corner of the neighbourhood, where there are seats, longing for the warmth of Man's presence. Looking from the 4th floor, I admire the pattern and the neatness of the corner. I can smell the freshness of the morning, the fragrance of the flower, I admire the greenery before my eyes.
3)In the evening, as it gets late, as the sky starts to darken, I was about to go back into my house, but then, something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was an old man. A balding semi-naked old man stuck his head out of the window, looking downstairs. From where he is, he might not be able to see the playground, but it seems to me that he is staring into blank space, listening to the excited voices and laughter of the children playing at the playground. This picture tells a story of sadness.
4)Looking up, I see an almost symetrical building. Looking at the leaves of each tree carefully, I hardly see any brown or yellow leaves. The paint on the building still looks as fresh as it was 2 years back. From my view, every unit looks the same. But behind the windows of each unit, there is a different family, with a different background, with different types of people, and they each have a different story to tell.
5)From the window of my home, I look out at the path outside, there is hardly any movement, neither is there any sound. I don't see people walking down the path, nor do I feel the movement of the wind. On this Sunday evening, nearly everybody in my neighbourhood are spending time with their family, whether at home, at the playground, or at a shopping mall.
6)At the back of this neighbourhood, there is another playground, with an exercise corner beside it. Just like humans, if a playground is located away from the central, away from where everybody else is, the chances are, that less people would notice it, and fewer people would use the facilities over there. There the benches are, 4 of them to be exact, longing for someone to sit on them, just like how a child wishes for the arrival of Christmas.
7)On my way to run errands for my mum, I happened to pass by this area. The badminton court beside the playground was half-occupied by an old man and his grandchildren. They were playing a fun and cheap sport-Frisbee. The children's parents and grandmother were sitting on benches nearby, clapping their hands, supporting their family members.

This is how my neighbourhood is. There are quiet and lonely parts of the neighbourhood, and there are also more lively parts of it where families gather to have fun together and make merry.

"I'm grateful..."

I am grateful for having a complete family, a shelter over my head, and not needing to worry about where my next bowl of rice would come from.
Sometimes when I read the newspapers, there are children and teenagers with broken families. Some are orphans, some have only one parent. Whenever I read such articles, there are few possible cases:
-Both parents divorced because they could not get along
-One parent murdered the other, the living parent was jailed
-One parent passed away because of illness

The child sometimes turns to the underworld, and gets involved with gangs, fights and drugs. In other cases, the child is hardworking and good in his/her studies, but also has to help his or her parents earn some money.

I feel really fortunate, to have a complete family, kind and caring relatives,siblings and parents. I can have a peace of mind when I am studying, and my life is not too busy. When I was young, I thought I was just leading a normal life, and that it was too boring.

But when I hear of broken families, I start to imagine: How will my life be like without a complete family? Would my life still be what it is if my parents were gambling addicts?

I am really grateful for having a nice complete family.

Addictive Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular networking tools which many people around the globe from all walks of life use.
In Facebook, there are many applications. There are games, there are quizzes, and there applications which allows people to socialise.
In the Facebook games, people are able to see their friends' game progress in the game, and can also send messages to their friends through the game and also send "Gifts".
There are applications like "Social Interview" where people are asked random questions about their friends, and the answers would be posted on the "walls" of their friend.
There is much more about Facebook, and teachers are even using Facebook to teach.(E.g. Setting up a Facebook group and post instructions for his students there)

Facebook might sound like a really nice networking site. But, this is where the problem is. Facebook is addictive. Many teenagers have over 600 Facebook friends, and therefore, when one of them posts something on Facebook, that person gets many notifications that his or her friends have commented on his or her statuses or posts, and the teenager cannot resist the urge to check what his or her friend said and reply to them. And very often, the teenager has problems logging out from Facebook because the teen receives notifications continuously.

In the end, what is most important is... CONTROL

"I'm afraid"

I am afraid of my results thus year. That is because it is streaming year, and also because it is Secondary 2, and not Secondary 1 anymore, so education is more advanced . Thus I hope I can get into my desired stream, any stream, but not the "O" Level Class.
I know, that once I enter the "O" Level class, my confidence would be greatly affected, because the other students are learning more and most would be enjoying their curriculum, but I am not. Furthermore, I would feel inferior to others because most of them would be in the Special Programme and I am not.
So far, my test results has not been very good, and teachers' description of their tests have been scaring me.
"Class, this is Secondary 2. If you don't learn how to do my hard test papers, then that is your fault."
I think, I really need to work towards achieving my goal of below 2.0 for End-Of-Year exams and below 3.0 for Terms 2 and 3. If I have a goal, I should work towards it.
I just hope that everything will work out fine for me and I would go to my desired stream.

"Just Do It"

Tolerance(Online Lesson)

After some serious consideration, my group and I have decided to write about Jem for this online assignment.



In the opening part of the story, it was stated...

“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken ly at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, who was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn’t have cared less so long as he could pass and punt.”



Physically, Jem would need great tolerance of pain. Being different from others in terms of physical appearances, every other person would feel inferior and helpless. If you were in a similar situation, I am sure you would feel sad too. Every person wants to look good, and be normal. Furthermore, at that time, Jem as only about thirteen years old! He still has a long way to go in life, yet such an accident caused him to live with his body for the rest of his life! But, “He couldn’t have cared less so long as he could pass and punt.” This sentence tells us that Jem tolerated it. He was probably mature enough and optimistic enough to tell himself that he could not change it, but he has to live with it and make the best of his life. In this area, Jem has impressively displayed tolerance.



On page 21, at the bottom of the page, it was stated that “Jem condescended to take me to school the first day, a job usually done by one’s parents, but Atticus had said Jem would be delighted to show me where my room was.” Here, Jem took on a role which one’s parents would usually do. Although Jem might be delighted to show his younger sister her the location of her room, I am sure he would not have liked taking his sister to school, the main activity is to show her her room. Often, children don’t like to do jobs which their parents are supposed to do. But, Jem endured it and brought his sister to school. Tolerance.


Through the whole novel, Jem had slowly understood that there are racism and prejudice in the society. In page 217, when Jem heard the results of the jury, he knew it was the jury’s prejudice that caused the result to be guilty. He clenched his fist, both in anger and uncontrollably disappointed. This was when his tolerance came in and he did not turn it into a commotion, but merely cried it out. In such a case, one would need especial tolerance and endurance to be able to handle such mixed emotions.



On page 113 it was stated that “when Jem came to a word he didn’t know, he skipped it, but Mrs Dubose would catch him and make him spell it out. ” Mrs Dubose kept on correcting Jem’s mistake, when Jem took the time to rea for her. She did not treasure the privilage she had at all. However, Jem was not angered at all. Often, children feel angry an irritated when they are doing something that is not fun, like reading a book to a person they hate, and being corrected with every mistake they made. But Jem did not feel angered at all and tolerated the words and comments from Mrs Dubose.

"I'm tired"

I am feeling really tired. There have been so many tests recently, and I still have 4 tests this week. Everyday, it is best to sleep by 10:30pm if I want to get sufficient sleep so I can pay attention the next day during lessons. However, sometimes, there is quite a lot of homework to complete, thus I cannot focus all my time on studying for upcoming tests. Furthermore, I am quite busy with my CCA, because SYF(Singapore Youth Festival) is soon approaching, and my CCA is participating in the competition. If you do not know, I am from English Drama Club. Now, instead of training twice a week, now we have to go for training sessions 3 times a week so that we are able to have more time to receive advice from our instructor, improve the standard of our play, and to ensure we are familiar with the procedure. But well, I enjoy my CCA and I look at it as a form of relaxation. I did not realise I looked at CCA in such a way till I started finding that I forget about time while I am engrossed in acting. Sometimes, I just feel like lying on my bed,slowly falling into a deep slumber, not needing to bother about what tomorrow may bring.

Neighbourhood where I live.

The neighbourhood where I live is Eunos, Kaki Bukit. I shifted here last year in the middle of March. Well, I was very elated when I shifted. Because the location of my house is now much more convenient, most importantly, transportation. Anyway, the important thing is, my neighbourhood is rather quiet most of the time, and because I live on the 4th floors, one of the lower floors, I might get affected if there is noise downstairs. Because it is far from the road, I get to sleep well at night and I am able to study peacefully as the quietness serves as a conducive learning environment. Downstairs, there are 2 exercise corners, a badminton court, and a little mini-mart. Well, there is a little noise in the evening as kids and teens play with their friends when they are done with their homework... So there would be few people playing badminton... Kids running around with toy guns...
Well, I feel that such a neighbourhood is the "Singaporean" type... I mean, it is what a typical Singaporean neighbourhood would be like. All my childhood, I have been living in a private apartments. And thus it is very quiet throughout the day... Unless there are facilities(e.g. swimming pools, etc,.), then there might be some people using them in the evenings or weekends...
Well, yes, that is the neighbourhood where I live.

Vivid Childhood Memory that helped to influence the person I am today

Childhood, did you just say childhood? Well, people usually think that childhood is a time when we are still little boys... But in my opinion, childhood is a time when we are still a child. Not physically, but mentally too. Childhood is a time when we were not mature.
Thus, today, I am going to speak about a statement by my senior which ended my childhood. Well, it isn't a very long incident, but a very brief one.
Well, that was during the December holidays. At that time, I was in a bus with my now Secondary 4 senior. We were heading for a cinema in Dhoby Ghaut. At that time, I was speaking to him about my troubles in life. But, there was this one statement, a really simple one, but yet a statement which not many realises, and that is "What parents tell us to do is for our own good in one way or another". It really struck me greatly. Day and night, that senior's words still remains in my mind. That statement from him really makes sense. It is a statement which made me more mature. He told me that we might not think so while we are still immature, but in time to come, we will understand their intentions. When we are immature, when our parents scold us we always speak back and are angry at them for scolding us. When we are still childish, we only think from our perspective and not from others'. We only think for ourselves, we do not put ourselves in others' shoes. But this statement struck me. It was the beginning of my maturing.

LA-Draft 2

“Precisely! The creator of that game is a genius!”
The class was in chaos, most of the students were chatting in their cliques, the class’ clown was fooling around in the front of the classroom, and another was standing on the chair singing. Everybody turned a deaf ear to the monitor’s request to keep the noise level low.
The classroom’s door swung open. It was Mr. Lim. Instantly, everybody returned to their seats.
“Class greet!”
“Good morning, Mr Lim.”
Everybody sat quietly, no one made a single sound as Mr. Lim had a reputation for being the fiercest teacher around. Clearing his throat, Mr. Lim said, “Class, today, I will be returning you your Math test papers, some of you have done exceptionally well, yet, the same cannot be said for certain individuals. Edgar Tan! Come here right now!”
The severely underweight boy walked up to him slowly, not sure of what to expect.
The teacher threw his test paper onto the ground, exclaiming, ”Edgar Tan! You have done badly again! When will you learn to be more responsible and hardworking?”
Edgar was on the verge of tears, he slowly walked back to his seat. He thought to himself: Am I such a failure? What did I do to deserve such grades? Is this going to go on forever? I promised my dad I would at least score an A2 for this test.
After school, Edgar was reluctant to go home. Heading towards the school gate, he thought it might help to head to the game arcade at the shopping centre nearby. To Edgar’s surprise, his father was waiting for him at the school gate! Mr.Tan was smiling and waving at his son , Edgar felt guilty. He was stunned, at a lost for words.
While they were eating lunch at the shopping centre “Plaza Singapura”, Mr. Tan asked, “Son, so how was school today?” Edgar told his father that it was a fine day for him. Somehow, Mr. Tan sensed that something was not right, and told Edgar not to try to lie to him. Being forced into a corner, the boy confessed about his results. His father’s face turned pale. Feeling afraid of what his father might do to him, he said, “I am sorry, Dad, I tried my best! I just can’t seem to beat Samuel! He scores high marks, he is so boastful! I want to beat him, but I can’t.”
After lunch, Edgar walked home with his father silently, he did not even utter a single word to his son. When they reached home, Edgar went back to my room quietly, and laid in his bed, staring into space. Suddenly, his dad rushed into the room, carrying a stick with him, saying,” Son, I am left with no choice, but to leave matters to the rod! I try to be nice to you, I try to give chances, I try not to hit or hit you!”
With that, his father began “caning” him, as Singaporeans call it. Edgar cried loudly due to the excruciating pain. 10 minutes later, Edgar lay on his bed, looking at the wounds on his legs, he sobbed. He fell to the ground, his eyelids felt ever so heavy. Soon, Edgar Tan fell into a deep slumber…
Edgar had a dream, all his classmates, his father, and that biased Mr. Lim surrounded him. They were mocking him with hurtful words! He felt his mind spinning!
“Your grades are ridiculous!”
“You fool! You will never beat me!”
“Useless fool!”
“I am going to call your parents!”
“Loser!”
“Hopeless failure!”
Edgar seemed to be under too much stress, in his mind, he could hear Samuel, Mr. Tan and Mr. Lim mocking at him! He can hear the world’s laughter!
Edgar was jolted awake when the hour hand on the grandfather’s clock struck an hour. Glancing around, he suddenly noticed the mess his room was in. He remembered his father flipping his bag over to search for his worksheets. He remembers his father knocking his desk over…
He thought back in the past few years…
All the while, from Primary 1 to Secondary 1, Edgar’s grades were either lower than average or ranked last in class. Yet, his father always told him it was fine and things would somehow work out. Perhaps his father has been too patient with him. It has been so many years after all.
Few days later, Edgar’s class’ results for going to be released. Edgar’s heart was beating rapidly. He was extremely nervous. Then he heard Mr. Lim’s thundering voice, “Edgar Tan! ” Edgar went up to take his test paper. Mr. Lim shouted, “ What are your brains for? Can you tell me?! Why is it that your grades are getting from bad to worse?! This is the streaming year, if you want to go to Technical Stream, you are welcomed to get the hell out of this classroom!” Returning to his seat, Edgar looked at his test paper hoping to pass at the very least. Edgar sighed and buried his head in his hands. It was an F9 grade, 29 marks.
When class was over, Edgar was about to walk out of the classroom when Samuel stopped him in his tracks. He questioned sarcastically, “ Brainless pig! How many marks did you get for this test? Why did you look so sad? Well, you can’t believe what I scored, 80 out of 100!”
Edgar muttered,” I scored 29 out of 100.”
Samuel laughed,” Did I just hear 29?! What other names can I call you?! Shouldn’t you get a license for being that dumb? Not even an E8! I would love to insult you further, but I can’t be bothered. So long, moron!”
Edgar shook his head vigorously, he could not believe it. Edgar shouted,” This can’t be true! Can someone tell me that this is just but a dream?!”
That afternoon, I sneaked into my room from the doorstep as silently as possible, hoping not to attract the attention of my father. Just when he successfully enters his room, a strong wind passed and slammed the door shut!
In the master bedroom, Mr. Tan was woken up by the loud noise. He then proceeded to open the door and brought along a door stopper.
Opening the door, Mr. Tan was just in time to see Edgar still carrying his school bag and holding the test paper in his hand. Without hesitation, Mr. Tan snatched it over. Edgar’s heart was in his mouth. His father threw the paper on the ground. Within seconds, Mr. Tan returned.
Edgar shivered, now, it was not just a “cane”, it was a bunch of them tied together with rubber bands!!!! Edgar walked backwards, quickly squatting in a dark corner of his room as his father ran towards him with the sticks.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
In this modern day and age in Singapore, grades are everything to a student. Singapore is known for its education, which is known to be quite competitive. “Kiasu”(paranoid) parents send their children to tuition for all subjects in hope that their children would be able to achieve good academic grades. Very often, parents do not consider the stress their child would feel. In Singapore, such cases are common, especially to weaker students. Most of the time, the child is afraid of complaining to their parents about stress in fear of getting beaten up.
Sometimes, they just have to let go.

Scene from my favorite movie

The movie I am speaking about is "The Ghosts must be crazy". It is a Singaporean movie which came out recently during Week 1 of the school term. My favorite scene was when the Ah Tan(People call him Sickly Chicken) fainted(The officer took his Chinese medicine away while he was boiling it). Encik(Indian officer) had to take him to the medical centre for recovery. On the way, Encik was driving in the jungle and saw a scary ghost in front of him. That was my favorite scene. Encik's face turned as white as a sheet, Ah Tan was semi-conscious in the back seat. The jungle looked dark and there was mist around. Then, in front of the vehicle was a ghost, her hair was so long till it touched the ground, her hair concealed her face. She was wearing a long red robe and white shoes... She was floating in mid-air. She really caught my attention when I was watching the show with my friends from my CCA. The whole jungle was dark, Encik was driving on a path... And straight ahead a bright light arose from somewhere. It was... The Ghost.

Favorite Fictional Character

My favorite character is Alex Rider from Anthony Horowitz's series " Alex Rider". Currrently, there are many stories in that series already, thus I get to know more about the character.
To me, I feel that Alex is a very adventurous and brave person. He is always willing to try out new things and do dangerous stuff. Very often in the stories, Alex came quite close to death. He is more of a spy and also a detective and stories in his series never fail to excite me and keep me reading. What I really respect him for is that in every story of the series, he goes through numerous obstacles and there were many times when his life was threatened and he had to take risks. There have been few stories in the series so far, and I really respect him for always going on his missions in every story and never look back and let his legs turn jelly. Alex is an incredible person. The author of the series, Anthony Horowitz, is a good writer, I am able to imagine the scenes and the behaviour and expressions of the character. You aren't sure what I'm talking about? Read the series yourself and you'll know! :D