Any Other Way

I've just uploaded my Media Law paper, and when I wake up later this morning I will gather all the material I've amassed in the past couple of weeks on Freedom of Speech (yes, you know it deserves those capitals) in Singapore under the reign of the good ol' PAP and shove it on top of my IP notes from last semester until my exams end and I have to clean up my room because Jon's exams finish 5 days after mine.

Yax pointed out to me on Saturday that we've got about 3 more weeks of cai fan at student prices at The Summit, on top of Bukit Timah Campus Mountain. And we had the Collegiate Dinner on Friday, where the food was awesome and that was pretty much about it.

But I'm feeling nostalgic and a little sad. Although I think I hold to what I've said before, that I'm looking forward to graduating and getting on with my life. Still, I'm going to miss being a student. Not a law student really, just a student.

Everytime I go back to KR - the Central Library, specifically - I look at the neverending shelves of books and wonder at all the things I don't know, might never know, might never have the chance to know. I wonder if I'd have read beyond the required readings if I'd done an Arts degree and was constantly in the library running between the RBR section and the photocopying room.

Probably not, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Yet I feel wistful thinking of how it's almost time for me to give up my membership to the NUS libraries, almost time to give up cheap and good food, sleeping in and cutting class when I feel like it, watching brainless daytime TV like Martha and Everyday Food and My Parents' House.

I wonder how I'd have turned out if I'd stayed in hall, been involved in all the typical freshmen activities: rag and flag, painting banners and constructing floats and being a part of a hall production.

These little tinges of regret for all the things I never did and will now never have the chance to do; for the things I can do and might not have much chance to do, in the near future.

Again, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

This is a picture of Jon and I outside LT 15 where all our lectures were held when we were in Year 1, taken as he walked me to the bus stop after I decided to leave the Collegiate Dinner early, by a PRC student getting ready to Skype, probably with someone back in China.

It's an apt place, I think, with the dearest person to me in the whole wide world.

And it probably best sums up what I shall miss about NUS.

University life looks like it's going to end without any fireworks.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Really

The Dreamcatchers ended yesterday, and although it was a really bad serial by most standards, I miss it.

Probably because I thought Tay Ping Hui and Jesseca Liu were really cute together, and I also thought they gave realistic performances. Like, I feel as though my older sister whom I'm really close to got married and moved out, and I miss seeing her and my brother-in-law. Who's also very nice and dotes on you.

Even though I think this is how one of the pivotal scenes in yesterday's show should have proceeded:

TPH: Look! You've fallen into a huge hole filled with water in the middle of a forested area in Batam where there usually aren't any such holes! Oh, I'm so sure it was those nasty producers who dug it! I just knew they were up to no good when I saw them sneaking off with shovels just now! And they've even filled it up with a mixture of what looks like flour and water so the water won't seep into the ground, and give it a sort of grey tinge so that it looks like . . . I can't remember what it's supposed to look like . . .

JL: You idiot, don't you remember I'm supposed to have fallen into quicksand, and now you're supposed to heroically jump right in and save me? Have you forgotten already? Quick! The camera's rolling! Jump in and start bending your knees after you deliver your cheesy lines so we can look like we're struggling and about to drown, then the calefare can run over and save us.

TPH (getting into water): I feel like the Little Nyonya. Remember that scene when she was struggling in the well? She and I even share the same mother . . . although she was her stepmother . . . Or is it step-grandmother . . . Or is it both? I'm confused. That's the trouble with these inter-generational shows, I'm glad ours is set in modern-day Singapore.

JL: You're stepping on my foot!

TPH: It's alright, you're supposed to grimace as I declare my undying love for you, because even though you're really happy about that, we might both be about to drown in quicksand. Hey, what's this in my pocket?

JL: Don't tell me . . .

TPH: Oh dear, it feels like a Soo Kee jewellery box!

JL: It's only in the show that it's supposed to seem that you have the engagement ring with you when you attempt to heroically rescue me from drowning in quicksand! Why didn't you remember to give the ring to the cameraman like we discussed just now? The box isn't waterproof you know! And we have to return the ring later, it's a REAL 1-carat diamond ring so that we can send the message to Singaporeans that engineers earn a lot of money and can afford expensive engagement rings.

TPH: Alright, I think I'm supposed to bend my knees now and look like I'm going under. You have to follow suit. Stop talking and let me look lovingly into your eyes.

They really were very cute together lah. And I'm so glad Rui En's character chose Elvin Ng's, I can't abide Shaun Chen, especially after he played Surgical Maniac in Crimebusters x 2. I've got a soft spot for Elvin Ng too, ever since Peiyu told me she saw him in NUS when she was Year 1 and he was Year 4, and he was wearing army sandals. I haven't seen them before, but apparently they're Really Obiang and Uncle.

I have an inherent bias against well-dressed boys, I just don't think they're man enough.

By my standards, Jon is very man.