If I am a Fruit I will be...

If I were a fruit, I would be a watermelon. I would be sweet and juicy, and contain alot of water. I will also contain 14% Vitamin C and minimal amounts of other vitamins. I am also crunchy and juicy when eaten. Though I contain 2% potassium, people still enjoy drinking and eating me. However, drinking or eating me everyday is unhealthy for you, and you may get sick. Eating me once a moth should be alright.

When I am eaten, I would not feel any sorrow or grief as I know I am providing people with nutrients. However, I do not want to become a watermelon as I would not be able to move our do most of what humans can do.

"Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot."

Clarence Thomas

What does this mean to me? Well, I think that it means that people with good manners have many opportunities in life, while people that have good education and have no manner will have lesser opportunities.

Take for example, there are two people, John and Tom. John has good manners, but his education is poor. There is also Tom, who is very rude but has good education. They both want to apply for the same job. The day of the interview arrives. John is already there, but Tom is nowhere to be seen. 15 minutes after the interview has started, Tom storms into the room. Despite the fact that everybody is staring at Tom, he countinues storming in. He shouts, "Eh! Has the interview started yet?!!" The boss of the company stands up, and says, "Hello, you must be Tom. Please take a seat." Tom replies, "Of course what! Who else?!" Immediately, the boss calls security and they take Tom out of the room. Straight awat, John is the only one left, so the company employs him.

So remember to always have good manners!

NDP Preview 2009

There was excitement everywhere in the air. Hundreds of P5 students streamed into the floating platform. We had already been given our goody bags and our KFC Zinger Burger in school. As my friends and I sat in our assigned zones, we looked around us. There was a big EYE , the platform and a few boats. We were seated in the middle and had a view of the whole complex. While we waited for the show to begin, we all felt exhilarated.

"3...2...1!" These three big words soon appeared on the Eye. The show had started!!! Four TV celebrities then came out dancing, waving their hands. They were the hosts of that night's performance. A helicopter hovered above the stadium, and dropped the parachuters, who were known to be the Red Lions. There was nothing much after the parachute performance, but in the middle, it soon got very thrilling. Suddenly, a big newsflash appeared on the screen. It read: "Singapore under terrorist threat." Out of the blue, the bomb squad came charging, and the Civil Defence trucks, cars and buses rolled in. Next, two navy patrol boats chased after two "terrorists" on jet-skis. When they got close enough, the boats fired blank machine gun shots. The "terrorists" soon surrendered. The navy was applauded for their 'successful capture of the terrorists'. We were alerted to another newsflash - about a mine discovery and to that, the total defence responded without delay. A double-blade helicopter whizzed by and once it was close enough to the water, it dropped about half a dozen divers.

Next, the army tanks slowly drove up the platform driveway. They fired blank shots in the air too. Then came the two apaches. They were majestic flying black objects, stealthly flying and hovering in the vast sky. The next segment of the show was all about dancing, singing and marching. There were acrobatics, drummers and singers.

Now, the show was coming to an end and without warning, droplets of rain started falling down from the sky! As quick as lightning, I grabbed my poncho from the floor and covered myself. I found that my poncho was very long, so I decided to cover my bag too. But my attempt was in vain. The students in front of us unexpectedly pointed behind and a few seconds after...a heavy shower of rainfall hit me on the face! This was no ordinary rain. It was so heavy that even my poncho could not shield my whole body! My bag was also soaked wet. As we were about to sing the National Anthem to bring the show to an end, water was rising eveywhere! The chairs were flooded, the drains became "trenches" and the stairs became cascading waterfall! That night when we reached our school, we were already soaked to the bone.

It was truly an unforgettable day and also a great experience.

Book Review - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

I enjoy reading books written by C.S. Lewis. In fact, I have completed all his 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia. The one I enjoyed most is The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe which I am going to share my views. Not only have I read this particular story book a couple of times over, I also liked the movie and watched it more than 4 times with my family in one of those regular family movie nights. Sometimes we would have marathon movie nights - and we could have 3 movies back to back like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Mummy and National Treasure.

Here is my review on C. S. Lewis' - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Setting:

England and Narnia

Main Characters:

Lucy, Edmund, Susan, Peter, Aslan, Mr. Tumnus and the White Witch

Story:

During the war in England, Lucy, Edmund, Susuan and Peter were sent to an old professor. Lucy, soon discovered the magical world of Narnia while playing hide and seek. There, she befriended Mr Tumnus, who was a faun. She then found out that the land was cursed by a witch, which would cause Narnia to snow forever, as the rightful King, Aslan, the lion, was missing.

When Lucy brought her siblings into Narnia, Mr. Tumnus was captured for helping Lucy. Edmund, Lucy's older brother, then betrayed the siblings for a box of Turkish Delight, but also got imprisoned. Aslan rescued Edmund but the White Witch had the right to take him away as a slave, according to the laws of Narnia, as he had betrayed his siblings. Aslan gave his life to the White Witch so Edmund would not be slaved. However, there was deeper magic and Aslan came back to life.

Aslan joined the fighting and killed the White Witch. Soon after, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter (the eldest brother amongst the four) became the kings and queens of Narnia.

Remarks:

Narnia is a very good story book and it has an interesting scenario. It is a little fantastic, and may only be suitable for readers aged 9 to 21. Adults may also like the story. I also have learned something, that good also triumphs over evil. It is fairly easy to read and is quite mesmerizing. It will be suitable for anyone with a heart of a child to read. This book also contains many Christian values, like, Aslan (who portrayed as Jesus) was resusrected at the stone table. In my opinion, it is a book worth your time in reading.

Would I Like To Live In Ancient Greece?

Yes, I would have liked to live in Ancient Greece. If I were to live there, I could own my own property and land. I could even have my own buisiness! If I were to have a business, I would buy a piece of land with a river beside it, and dig a canal leading to my house and to a well. I would then purify the water. There, the rich would get water from there at $100 per litre. Then, I would go to the nearby trees and take seeds and sell them for $3 per packet and encourage people to grow more trees. I would also set up a stall to sell products from other countries at a great, bid price. The rich would then buy them. I would also appeal to the government to set a law that every slave should be paid a minimum of $133 per month. Once I had made enough money, I would buy another piece of land and set up houses. I would then let the poor live inside the rooms and provide them their daily necessaties. I would help every poor person qand soon everyone in Ancient Greece would be happy and Ancient Greece would be
peaceful.

The Fish Farm

On my trip to the mangrove in Langkawi, my family went to visit a Fish Farm. The Fish Farm was extremely interesting, with all kinds of rare and odd fishes that we do not commonly see. First, we saw the Archer Fish. Archer Fish are the most odd and fun fish. For the start, the guide put bread on the railings. After a few seconds, many Archer Fish gathered near the bread, and with a mighty force, the fish shot out sprays of water through its mouth. Don't look down of these fish, their aiming is 100% accurate! After just 1 shot, the bread dropped down and all the fish rushed for it. The guide then asked us to put out our hand, and the fish shot water at it. Secondly, the guide put the bread on our hands, and the fish tried to shoot it again. When I lowered my hand, to my surprise, the fish jumped up and bit it, but the guide told us that it had no teeth.

Next, we saw a cow fish. It was a small and yet cute coloured fish, with two horns in front and two at the back. Though it is cute, the look is decieving. Our guide told us that it was very poisonous, and would lower its horns and charge at its enemy. We then saw a big fish, that would use its mouth to bite you and later would suck your blood. We also saw the blowfish(puffer fish). There were lazy fish which would float around and change colour, according to which type of waters it was in. We saw Nemo's friends: stingrays, clownfish, the Regal Tang (that's Dory), baby sharks, moon fish and lastly, we saw Nemo's enemy, the Barracuda.

The Fish Farm will be a great place for anybody!

My Trip To Langkawi

My Langkawi trip was finally here! As we were just about to board the plane, it was announced that our flight was delayed due to some technical faults, so we had to switch to another Silk Air carrier. The airbus soon took off, leaving Singapore behind.

"We have reached Langkawi, Malaysia. Thank you for flying with SilkAir." We rented a car and sped off to our resort, Sheraton. On the way we also realized that many cars in Langkawi were very slow and we had to overtake many cars(some were only 600cc!).

Sheraton was a well furnished place, well equipped with many facilities and great staff. Once we checked in, we thought we were going to walk to our room, but to our surprise, we had to take a tram! As the driver drove us down the small and yet narrow road, I realised that we really had to take the truck to our room. Since our room was right in front of the seaside, it was far from the resort's lobby. The resort was great, except that the three beaches it had were very rocky, and one was just plain rocks! That was our first night there, with no activities as our flight was a late one(plus the delay).

"Alright! Deal done! 120 ringgit for 30 minutes!"my father agreed to the best offer granted by the Ski Operator. That was a sweet start to our second day and it would be my second time jet-skiing as the first one was done in Penang in 2007. My father, my brother and I boarded the 15oocc jet-ski."Three! Two! One!"I shouted. I was in entire control of the jet ski and I pressed the accelerator down to its maximum and we sped off at 70km/h. We went against the waves and each bump flew us up in the air. The time flew by and we had to stop. What a great time! I will recommend this water sport to all boys and anyone who enjoys thrills like speed, driving or be thoroughly soaked. Night arrived and my family went to the Langkawi Cineplex to watch Transformers 2. It was a great show, but was draggy and the robot battle was messy. Tickets were cheap, at RM40 for a family of 4.

On our third day, we chartered a speed boat at RM400 to take us out to the mangrove. We got so excited when we saw eagles. The Langkawi brown eagles and the huge sea eagles, swooped swiftly down to eat the fish. It was hard to capture those fleeting moments. We were so exhilarated to witness such eagle feeding. It was from the trip we learnt how Langkawi got its name. 'Lang' means eagle in Malay. 'Kawi' is the marble stone found in the island. Next on our itinerary was the Bat Cave. We saw hundreds and hundreds of bats hanging upside down with the light from torch. What was best was when the boat driver gave me the wheel to steer into the open sea, The Andaman Sea. I was the captain of the speed boat for almost 30 minutes. After our return trip, I pestered my dad to let me go jet-skiing for the 2nd time for this vacation. "Hooray!", he agreed. My dad bargained with the operator for further discount but he politely shook his head. Actually, we paid lesser amount to ski in Penang, at RM100 for 30 minutes. For my brother Lucas, the part he enjoyed most during the ski was he spotted a jellyfish.

"Don't shake, please don't shake.." my little brother's teeth went chattering. He, like my mom, was so afraid of heights. We took the cable car to the highest peak in Langkawi. It was beautiful and breathtaking to see the clear blue sea below. There are so many, many other smaller islands surrounding the main island. After we left the cable car ride, we almost wanted to catch a show at the Crocodile Farm but my mother refused. She said it was brutal and cruel to watch such act. Although the votes were three to one, we respected her decision so we gave it a miss. "Ha!Ha!" you can say we had ulterior motives.....because instead of spending time at the Crocodile Farm, we could opt again for the jet ski. "Huh! Jet ski again?" exclaimed my dad. Well, well, he did not reject us and for the third time we failed in getting a lower price. This time, the ride was terrible. Not smooth, very choppy and I could not ram up to the maximum speed. (Incidentally, the 1500cc jet ski can accomodate up to 4 persons per ride.)

All in all, it was so far the third best trip.

My Outing With A Friend

Today I went bowling with my classmate and friend, Henry. We played 3 games, and in the end I won 1 game and Henry won 2. After about 1 hour, we decided to play pool, which was in the bowling alley. I wasn't a very good player as it was my second time playing. After a tense and exciting game, Henry won 8 points while I won 7. Henry's parents brought me for lunch at Raffles Marina to eat. Over there we explored the yatch bay and saw many interesting and majestic yatchs. There was also a huge boat(which I think belonged to a millionair)named Lady D. She was a beauty, but a pity that no one was steeering her. I would love to see her in action, though. All in all, it was a great and fun time with Henry and his family.

My Brother's First Tooth Extraction

My brother had his first tooth extraction about 1 week ago. It was his first extraction and the first most painful one. The dentist did not extract his tooth with the tweezers, she used a way much more painful way to extract it. Guess what she used-the thin and sharp NEEDLE. Yes, the needle! This was the first time for my brother to extract his tooth, and the dentist was aleady using the needle. She had to inject a liquid into the gums to loosen the tooth. Imagine what kind of bad impression it will give my brother. Next time he extracts his teeth, I'm sure he would feel very scared. He did not want to extract it at first, but my kind and helpful neighbour bought my brother a BIG dog(he named it Spoty as she thought my brother had already extracted his teeth. Eventually, my brother went back to extract the tooth.

I hope he will "recover" from it.

My Favourite Place

My favourite place is my grandmother's house(In our common saying: Ah Ma's Place). My grandmother is the main cook and she is one of the eldest. We sometimes go there twice a week as it is the main gathering place for the whole family.I go there every week for my favourite dish-my grandmother's Kentang Rice!!! Kentang rice is a Hokkien term for "Potato Rice". It is mainly steamed rice mixed with Kentang soup and lastly, with mashed potatoes. I usually have sunny-side-up eggs or salted eggs to go with it. my grandmother also has a secret recipe to make the Kentang rice. my mother has tried many times to do it but she can never get the taste right.

The other reason I like going there is because I get to play there. My elder cousin has many games there, such as: Nintendo, Playstation 2, X-Box and many others! I also have another cousin, Daniel who brings his Nintendo DS, so we can all play.

Ah Ma's place is just great!

Paintball Shooting

"Prak! Prak!" The noise was not as deafening as I expected, but it was still quite loud. The gas-powered paintball gun I was holding weighed about 3kg. This was my second time shooting(each round with 50 paintballs)the paintball gun. It was a fun game with targets set up for you to aim at. The paintball travelled half the speed of a real bullet, but even your eye could not catch it. My aiming was great, and my cousin's was about the same.

It was also the first time for my brother to shoot the paintballs. At the starting, he was scared, but gradually became used to the loud sound.

All in all, it was a great experience!

HORRIBLE Go-Kart Ride

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, there was a totally horrible( YES, I do mean Horrible)Go-Kart ride. It was the first time we ever encountered this experience. We rented three Go-Karts. The track was about two kilometers long, and it had many obstacles along the way, such as: Dirt-Path, rocky road, hilly path, wet corner, tyre tracks etc. We were seated in such a way:

1st Go-Kart: My father and I
2nd Go-Kart: My mother and my brother
3rdGo-Kart: Uncle Royston and my cousin, Daniel

As my kart had finished the first lap, my aunt(who was videoing us)thought that it was odd we were the only ones who completed the lap, and the rest were not here yet. Then she asked the staff to check. Meanwhile, my kart went around the corner and saw the two other Karts, stopped in the middle of the road. The two karts had actually stalled, so my father exchanged karts with my mother and she drove off first. Then, the staff drove towards us and gave us his kart. He then started up the third kart and we all drove off.

Just as my kart caught up with my mother's kart, we realised the kart was wobbling about vigorously, but we did not bother about it. When the kart stopped, my mother and my brother were panting loudly. Once they saw us, they immediately told us what had happened. Something had hit my mother's knee and all of a sudden, they could not control the kart. The object that had hit my mother on the knee was the metal rod connecting the steering wheel to the two front wheels. That was why they could not control the kart. What was more, the brakes were not working at all! Imagine how dangerous that was! There was even a curve in front of them! By God's grace, the wheel somehow turned and the kart made it safely round the corner. They were also shouting for help, but the noise from the engine drowned everything. We exchanged karts again and waited for the staff to come . We took his kart and we sped off to the end. What an unbelieveable,horrible ,horrendous accident!

P.S: The photo above was before all the "accidents" happened.

My Trip to Malacca

"Hurry up! We are going to set off soon and you have not even showered!" my mother screamed. I was rushing as I had just came back from the maths carnival. We were going on our third trip to Malacca, and it was the second time with my cousin's family. After a long and boring four-hour ride,(due to my grandparents to stretch themselves.) we finally reached Holiday Inn, our hotel. The hotel was very clean and it was probably the best hotel in Malacca. Since it was getting dark, the best place we could go was the famous Jonker Street. It was bustling with tourists and locals and we could easily lose each other. But my father had thought about it way before hand, so he brought along our two walkie-talkies. We bought many souveniers e.g: Electric fans, catapults, and bowls.

The morning arrived quickly and the breakfast in Holiday Inn was scrumptious. We then drove to A-Famosa, a famous theme park. First, we went Go-Karting(and had a horrible experience, but that is in another blog.), then we went to the water park. My brother and I also had a hard time persuading my father to rent a float as it was quite expensive. We had a fun time in the wave pool as we went up and down the waves. Just as we were getting out of the wave poool, my mother realised that my goggles were missing. My father said that it would be washed up due to the waves, but our searched ended up in vain. Suddenly, a girl waded past me, wearing a pair of goggles similar to my brother's. Only then we realised that my brother's goggles were also missing. My Aunt asked the girl whether it was hers and she said it was, but after a while she gave it to us. After a few minutes, my father spotted a boy wearing my pair of goggles. He also said it was his, but also just handed it to us. How dishonest they are!

The next day arrived and it was finally time to go home. I reluctantly left our hotel and got into the car, leaving Malacca behind.

Courtesy

Courtesy to me is showing the act of kindness and the initiative to help other people. For example: If you see an old blind lady walking across the road, we should have the heart to help her. Or even with your own parents, if you see them with anything in their hands, you can help them carry it. I feel that nowadays, nobody in Singapore cares about courtesy. Take a donation for example, only a few people will donate, but the rest will not. Another big problem about courtesy is on the road. During the peak-hour, many people blast their horns almost every minute, due to the slow moving cars in front of them. Also, if you signal, many cars will just continue driving on, as if nothing happened. Will the world ever change?

Creativity can be born-True or False?

I feel that creativity can be both inborn and taught. Let's say there are two parents who are artists. They inherited the genes from their parents and their parents inherited it from their parents...and so on. If the parents inherit the genes from their parents, it is most likely for the latter's child to inherit it again. For creativity to be taught, it should be easier. Someone can always improve, so if a child is weak in creativity, he or she can always seek help, but I still think it will not improve until it is 100%.

Wishing. Wishing?

......A luxurious swimming pool......A hot ,refreshing steamy bath......A nice hotel resort......All day trips......

"Poof" and the dream's gone! What you wish for, will not always happen. With the recession in the picture, people out of jobs, insufficient funds, bankruptcy, the burden of getting retrenched, who's going to get their dreams? During these hard times, we still can wish, but make it happen? I'm sure every one is cutting back on everything(except the extra wealthy ones).Even though the March holidays are coming, I don't expect anything interesting. No more thrilling rides, no more restaurants, no more holidays! Almost everything I hoped from the start of 2008 has been totally washed away. In a matter of fact, wishing is out of the question now.

But I still have about 20% hope that this will get better. I will still wish, but I do not want to make it too often, as the more you wish, the more you get deppresed. I would want to go scuba diving, I want to go to Disneyland, I want to go on a holiday. But now, everyone is trying to survive, and maybe everyone would not even have money to buy food! I think the safest job now would be a teacher and a doctor and the unsafest job would be food vendors and executive restaurants.

I really hope the recession is going to improve. It seems to me that it is worse than the great depression!

The P5 Camp

Welcome back everyone!
Those who have just survived the P5 Camp, congratulations to you! HPPS has completed the P5 camp of the year, and I would like to share a few interesting things about the P5 Camp.

The first day was boring and it had no fun at all. The second day, we did all the fun and yet quite scary activicties. The most fun things on the second day were the absailing tower, the high elements and the campfire, which were a blast.When we were doing absailing, we had to put on a harness and a safety rope to go down. you had to form an L shape between the wall and you and it was pretty scary. The high elements was the best of the best. Though we had to climb a three and a half vertical wooden pole, I managed to get over it. When I had climed three-quarters of the pole, I felt the whole pole swaying. It was very frightening at first but I managed to complete the whole thing.

And last of all, the campfire. It was quite boring at first but the end was the most interesting. We sang merry songs and played games. Seeing the fire burning was soothing towards me.

For all those P5s who have not had their P5 Camp yet, I wish you all the best of luck.

Happy New Year

To Everyone,

Happy Chinese New Year! How's your school? I am more or less coping with school much better now. Still, so much tution... Wow, p5 is an extremely looooong and busy year. Almost half of my day is occupied by ENRICHMENT!!!!!! Sometimes, I can't even complete my homework in the day, and I have to do it in the morning.

My Hobbies:

I like rollerblading. I can rollerblade very fast, even backwards! It also makes my mind more relaxed and it takes away the stress from homework. I have completed all my lessons of rollerblading too.

I also like cycling. Cycling is fun, and also takes away my stress. I like cycling fast, because of the wind when I go fast. I also like going down steep hillls.

I like playing computer games, though only once a week. The most I get is only 1 hour. I play strategic games and it somehow "stumilates" my mind in a way.

I like playing the piano. It is nice to hear the soothing music and especially when I play it. I am now currently Grade 4.

I also like Tennis and Badminton. I occasionally play with my father and mother. I have finished my Badminton training, and am now halfway through my Tennis.

All in all, I like most things!!!

Start Of School

Hi Everybody!

I've been felling quite stressed from Week 2 onwards. I have so much tuition and enrichment classes going on almost everyday. Sigh...I wish the weekends will come soon. Oops... I forgot! I still have enrichment classes on weekends...Now I wish the holidays will come sooner. I've also realised the big jump from P4-P5 (especially with the Maths IQ questions and Mental Sums.) Anyway, I really like the teachers I'm having this year. I hope to study hard and do well in all my exams, make new friends and have a great year 2009!

About the article, on "Stressed Children", you can guess I totally agree with it. I feel much more stressed this year than the past years. Year by year, the work gets even tougher and tougher. I hope one day the M.O.E will change the syllabus and make it easier by a bit.