I felt like I've fought a war just now.
YS informed me that special courses to prepare students for JLPT will start registration today from 10am.
Then from 2:30pm to 3:30pm, I kept calling but their phone line was engaged.
At about 4pm, I called through, and was told there were 'very limited' seats left for both time slots. I was told I couldn't reserve seats, and had to go down personally. "But have to be fast.".
2 hours later, I was there, and the time slot I wanted was already FULL. The other time slot had only 5 seats left. I took a form and started filling.
1 person came and submitted the form. Down to 4 seats. I couldn't submit my form cos my teacher hadn't signed yet. Then 2 more people came in and submitted forms, reducing the availability to the last precious 2.
"I must secure these last 2 seats!" (1 for myself, the other to help a fellow classmate get his.)
THEN ANOTHER PERSON CAME IN. At this point, kiasuism possessed me and I was standing in front of the counter, trying to show the receptionist that I was holding on to 2 forms.
And so I got it! No more seats left for this highly demanded class. And this 'first day' for registration hasn't even ended.
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Anyway, I kinda made my own day at Sentosa today, helping 3 groups of random people.
Quite coincidentally, one of the helps was given when I was reading about Karma. Of course, it was too insignificant to plant any good karmic seeds, but it did make me feel useful and appreciated.
Even more interestingly, another 'recipient' of my 'help' came back to me after taking her shower and said she wanted to "specially thank you (me) again, (for whatever reasons)". I totally felt 受宠若惊。
人生是黑白的.
10:26 PM <3
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You may or may not know, the Japanese uses 漢字（汉字） for many words, and so even if you can't read Japanese, you'd likely guess bits and parts of the meaning.
And so it is logical to say that some Chinese words are used by the Japanese as well, ever since they brought the Chinese Characters back home.
Perhaps less people are aware, that some Chinese words, actually came from the Japanese too. Which means to say, they learnt the 漢字（汉字）, formed their own words, and these words eventually came back.
These words are actually quite common in pop songs.
In S.H.E's [恋人未满], you saw the word "友达", which means 'Friends' in Japanese.
In 罗志祥's [恋爱达人], the word "达人" in Japanese means someone who's skilled at something.
In 周杰伦's [阳光宅男], "宅男" refers to guys obsessed with home-based activities like gaming.
Of course, it's relatively easy to pick out these words, cos personally I feel that they don't sound really that colloquial anyway.
BUT, after reading last Saturday's ZaoBao's lifestyle section, I realised there are more common words that actually came from Japan too. And I almost couldn't believe it.
These words were actually created by the Japanese!
金融, 投资, 抽象, 教育, 宗教, 经济, 政治, 社会, 革命, 人民, 自由, 民主, 共和, 共产, 政党, 宪法, 权利, 义务, 国会, 立法, 行政, 哲学..... and more.
In a way, the Japanese went to learn Chinese Characters, then went on to form more words with the knowledge, and it actually benefitted the language as a whole. It's actually quite amazing right?
人生是黑白的.
12:55 AM <3
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It's confirmed.
Like last year (and every year actually), this year's Stanchart Marathon clashes with JLPT Tests. (7 Dec 2008)
I chose to do the former last year. And definitely, I will settle for the latter this year.
And I won't feel so bad to miss out Stanchart this year, since I'm doing Sundown Marathon next month.
But I feel uneasy about the slow progress, especially when it's just next month.
がんばって for Sundown! がんばって for JLPT!
人生是黑白的.
6:47 PM <3
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Been to an authentic 日本料理 restaurant last night. The name is Botan, (牡丹), at Far East Square, nearest MRT is Raffles Place. And since it had made me left satisfied and happy, I feel that I should give it an appropriate mention here.
It's really nice and certainly brings back the Japan memories. Of course, a restaurant has to do more than just that.
The food's superb, and you can feel how meticulous the chef had prepared your food, which takes time and effort. And the serving's quite big--so for the amount they serve, it's really quite affordable.
The Pork Cutlet Set, priced at S$18, comes with the following:
1. A very large serving of rice with quite a decent-sized pork cutlet
2. A bowl of Soba noodles with seaweed and ingredients
3. A plate of Sashimi, about 10 mouth-sized pieces of 3 different types
4. A chawanmushi
5. A small serving of meat (guess is pork), which is quite tasty
6. Macaroni (with wasabi inside) salad
7. Miso Soup
8. A serving of watermelons
Pictures for Pork Cutlet Set!
And don't expect to think that all the sets in the menu will serve the same side-dish, i.e., just the main item is changed. A friend's Fish set, for example, has a completely different salad experience, and has some cute bite-sized fried nuggets to supplement.
And the restaurant provides quality service, with a warm towel to refreshen yourself when you get in, and a cool towel when you are leaving.. This makes the 10% service charge much more worthwhile than other places!
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On a separate note, I was preparing to sleep the night before at around 3am, when I realised there were sooo many people below.
17 vehicles were parked along the 2 sides of the small road. 2 powerful lightings were set up on both sides of the road. There was a group of people busy setting up something that I couldn't see properly. There were a few others waving warning slow-down signs for any vehicles that may decide to come by at that ungodly time. There's another group, sitting, on some temporary chairs at the opposite side of the road kerb.
Ghosts???? Hardly. It didn't take a while to realise they are preparing for some filming. But it really seemed odd to start after 3:30am. And I was trying to look out for any vans that bear the sign of the only-official-television-media-giant, but there wasn't any.
So I assumed it may well be for a movie!
Not wanting to stay up watching the process, I went to bed.
Not a while later, there was a loud screeching sound of a car that would likely have shocked many. Such a sound IS scary, you know, when there's such an emergency screeching sound, most likely it would be followed by a BANG, then perhaps AARRGh. Ok, there wasn't la, so, obviously it's part of the filming.
Then just a while later, another equally unnerving loud screech was heard. WHAT, another take? Please, no more!
And a third one came! I was very relieved that one was good enough. Seriously, in the tranquil of the night, a sudden and loud sound of something that spells danger is really detrimental to the peaceful run-up to sleep.
人生是黑白的.
7:39 AM <3
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