29/11/03 12.14.24 pm - i am so proud of myself! i finally learned how to do up my scrollbar!!! it looks so much nicer now. i also got a new chatterbox from flooble, a link i found at claire's website. and, just like her, i stuck it on top above everything else. but don't post any messages in it yet, because the font colour is the same as the bg colour, so the messages can't be seen. i'm seeking help from claire right now. so wait until it's done up properly. i'd also like to ask for your opinion - should i put a big recharged ki up there? also, sorry claire and henny for copying your font, i simply love it too much.
9.25.57 pm - yaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!! the photos are finally up!! and ppl, the chatterbox is finally accessible.

22/11/2003 3.15.31 pm - yay. today was release of psle results. i've never cried so hard before. mixed feelings. happy for my results and for beating my brother. sad for leaving everyone - so many of you ppl wanna go to rg!!! when i'm thinking of ny...i got 268, and my current dilemma is which school to go to. haiz...why do you want to go to rg...i've thought abt it, and i still think ny is a better school...waaaaaaaaaaaaah...:'( i know sally and ariel are possibly going to ny...some more? hai.

9.44.36 pm - now my mom says aiyah just go to rg lah...b'cos she says the raffles programme details are already out but ny just announced...so nvm then i shall go to rg with all of you ppl. yay!

13/11/03 - just came back this morning at 7.45, landing was at 6, touch-down was super-smooth. the on-demand movies are gooooooooooood. they've got all the recent movies, pirates of the caribbean, league of extroadinary gentlemen, uptown girls, freaky friday, the hulk, blah, blah and blah. my holiday was fun!=) basically we stayed at 4 places - cape town, mossel bay and sedgefield(along the garden route), and franschhoek(in the winelands).

Cape Town(3 nights) - stayed at cape suites hotel, B&B. breakfasts weren't too bad, but the cheese was disgusting, the sausages too salty. But anyway. We drove down to Cape Point, where we saw this huge black and orange caterpillar which was sooooooooo disgusting. but the scenery was v. good, i got to see the atlantic ocean for the first time.

Took the cable car up to Table Mountain. the cable car was huge and round and could fit up to 60 ppl or so. the floor was supposed to rotate so you could get all the different views but unfortunately it was out of order. the mountain was very rugged like all the other mountains in africa, and it's 260 million years old. Oldest i've ever been on. the view was fantastic although the mountain wasn't very tall, only 1050 m. it was absolutely silent up on the mountain - absolutely.

I saw real live cheetahs for the first time in my life when we drove over to Spier, a wine estate in Stellenbosch, part of the winelands. there were 2 cubs - 2 sisters, which were soooooooo cute and sooooooo playful. also got to let a young eagle perch on my arm & feel it. there was a barn owl too; feathers were very soft.

I HAVE TO mention lunch on the 2nd day. It was at this place in Franschhoek called The French Connection. I had chicken schnitzel(basically fried chicken) and fries. But it's the dessert i want to talk about. Warm chocolate with hazelnut torte and creme frâche. Superb. Perfect. Absolutely fantastic, i tell you. I've never tasted such a thing before. If any of you go to south africa, you have to go to this restaurant.

Mossel Bay(2 nights) - Went to the Safari Ostrich Show Farm in the morning. We were allowed to feel the ostrich eggs and stand on them(can take up to 100+ kg). Each egg weighs about 1.5 kg. There was this fat woman sitting on the opposite end of the bench and when she touched the ostrich, the ostrich nipped her in the belly and everyone laughed. It left a red mark there, which she was showing off to everyone. We got to ride the ostriches too - 4 ppl did, 2 black men, Wayne(my brother), and me. It was super. Thrilling. And I was the only one who didn't fall off XD. whee!

We drove to Cango Caves too - the cave was HUGE, very grand and pretty. Best cave i've ever seen - but very hot b'cos it wasn't wet like other caves. In one of the chambers the tour guide turned off all the lights and told us to look the other way. We heard drum sounds, and at first i thought there were real drums. The tour guide told us to turn around, and he turned the lights on again. Told us, "A bushman came. He went down that way." Actually he was hitting a wall of the cave, which wasn't hollow at all but could produce that hollow drum sound. It was also semi-transparent - light could shine through.

Sedgefield(3 nights) - First day was spent in the car, driving from Mossel Bay to Sedgefield, abt 1 hr i think? Drove to Wilderness the second day for canoeing - good fun, but tiring & my arms were aching at the end of the day. We were canoeing in this shallow river, and many a time our canoes got stuck. Btw, 'School' is spelt 'Skool' in Afrikaan, so it's actually not wrong to spell it that way. 'Geen' is 'No', 'Busse' is 'Bus', 'Vure' is 'Fire', 'Toegang' is 'Admission'.

Franschhoek(6 nights) - Again, the first day was spent driving and looking for accommodation and settling in. Was a long drive - 5 hours. We checked in to this farm called Three Streams in a valley, owned by someone called John Stubbs, with just one guest cottage which sleeps 6, and only cost R600/night - S$150 or so. Beautiful scenery, great setting and spacious and comfortable cottage, with feather pillows and down duvets. There are 7 dogs, Snoopy, Rosco, Tandy, Mooshga, Hamish and two sheepdogs, 5 horses, one is a miniature horse who's name is Onyx(will upload photos ASAP), 5 cows, 1 bull, two guinea fowl and lots of trout. We settled in and walked around the estate with Snoopy for the rest of the day. 2nd day was spent chilling out - literally. We jumped into the mountain water swimming pool - imagine: MOUNTAIN WATER. it was sooooooooooooooooooooo icy so we jumped out again after barely a few minutes. We went fly fishing at one of the dams. Once Wayne lost his balance and fell into the water. lol. looked so ridiculously cartoon. Fished for so long but didn't catch anything. The next day, we only went out for lunch, otherwise the whole day was spent at the farm, playing with the dogs, the horses, and fishing. Drove to Tulbagh in the morning of the 4th day, walked around the town and had lunch there...quite boring actually. But the afternoon was spent at the farm again. Good fun. I tell you, the days at the farm were the most fun. If you ever go to South Africa, you have to stay there. We went to Ratanga Junction Theme Park on Monday, and I was hoping to have lots of fun there, but the bloody place was CLOSED. On a MONDAY. so frustrating. But anyway we went to Canal Walk, a HUGE nearby shopping mall. Afternoon was like all other afternoons - at the farm again. The last day at the farm? We stayed there and had lots of fun. On the last morning, I said goodbye to the horses, and felt their ever-so-soft fur for the last time...that marked the end of my holiday in South Africa.

29/10/03-13/11/03 - away at cape town, south africa for holiday. will start blogging again on 14/11/03.

28/10/03 3.55.12 pm - choir practice today SUCKED. we were practising for speech day and we had to sing these two awful jap songs - sakura and kutsu ga naru. sakura is HOPELESS; sounds like ghost. and there was another awful song - high hopes. i'd rather call it no hope. ms chan and mrs tan choreographed the piece - hopeless choreography for hopeless song. they're singing this song on CIP day(11/11) for the P2s but i'm not going to be around. yay!

23/10/03 9.42.05 pm - today eleanor invited claire and natty and grace and me to go ice-skating at kallang. yay! ice-skating rox!!!eleanor is so zai!!! she can do so many things...skating next to her made me feel so stupid. but yay! i was the only one who didn't fall down! *ego ego ego* anyway i can now skate backward thanks to ele, though not very well. claire can do it much better than i can. in the end my socks got all wet and dirty and eeeeeeeeeeeeee. and unfortunately i had to go home early 'cos my mom had to cook dinner. either way we ended up having dinner so late. oh and then there was ele's cat. so fat and cute and roly-poly!=) she's mostly brown and has a white spot on her back and...dunno what else. and she has a bell. so cute! want to go ice-skating again!!!!!!=)=)=)