Desmond Keong

The time is 11.40pm.

As I watch the seconds trickle by, a sense of poignancy seems to well up. Today is the last day with my ISP, Singnet. It is also the last day with my favourite email account: kresendo@singnet.com.sg. Five years ago, I came up with this name "kresendo" as a direct meaning for crescendo. The reason why I spelled it with a ‘k’ was because Singnet only allowed us to have a maximum of 8 letters. I had to deliberately spelled it with ‘k’ so that the pronunciation of the word is unchanged and at the same time prevented others from having the misunderstanding that I did not know my spelling. (Sounds crappy here, I know)

Things have to change… at least for the better. I am upgrading to Starhub Maxonline 2000 so that I can be online for a longer period of time without worrying if my telephone toll charge is building up. For those who wish to know my new email address, it’s singapore_kid@hotmail.com. It’s actually not new. It was established at the same time as my singnet account when I was still a so called a ‘kid’, an adult kid perhaps. Tsktsk.

My account will be cut off in less than 15 min time. I will stay on and witness the process. At least I am accompanying you till the final minutes. Thanks Singnet for your service in the past 5 years. Surely I will miss you.

And Kresendo will be back…

Went to HCI (formerly known as Chinese High) today to observe how the teachers conduct lessons for the students under the Gifted Education Programme. HCI is a huge place. Visitors will most probably lose their way on their first visit. The classrooms were air-conditioned and each class had an average of 30 students. Wow, the boys were damn smart mann. They were very vocal and in a very constructive way. All the questions which they raised were critical and well thought of. The questions which the Physics teacher went through were quite ‘chim’ (i.e. difficult) leh. Did the teacher invent the questions or did he get them from outside sources? Anyway, it was an eye-opener for me.

I sort of embarrassed myself at HCI. I asked a student where the GO was when in fact I was standing beside it. Haha. Anyway, I did not think I was at fault la. The wordings were so small to the extent that you can only see it within 1 m.

Nothing much to say liao. This is the first time I type my blog in Singlish. Haha. Seeya.

Had sore throat and runny nose for the past few days. Fortunately, the symptoms have subsided.

It has been one week and I have more or less settled down. As compared with the last eight weeks, the stress level and workload are comparatively lower. One thing which I don’t like (I should say ‘detest’) is the strange timetable arranged for my batch. I cannot imagine myself staying until 7.30 pm on Friday at a secluded area in the west. My dinner time is completely disrupted too.

An article featured in TODAY commented on whether the Marina Arts Centre (aka ‘Durian’) is an icon or a costly mistake when it incurred million dollars of losses each year since opening. This brings me to the same sentiment when the place I used to belong is busy raising funds (half a million dollars to be exact) to build a so called "Arts Conservatory Centre" within the premises. As this facility is not a ‘need’ but a ‘want’, the government will not provide any subsidy in funding this project. Each and every single cent must be raised from every member who belongs to the family.

The reasons given by the highest echelon in building the Arts Conservatory Centre are: we can (1) enjoy the facility in many years to come and (2) provide something for our future generations to use and enjoy. I was quite skeptical on these comments. Do Arts really have such a high status in a civilised society that we are willing to expend our resources in it? Half a million dollars is not a huge sum on a national scale, but if this sum were to be raised by only 1 500 over members in the family, it will be a burden to those who are not as well-to-do as the person in the highest echelon. In the process of fund raising, not only do we experience a marked up price in the canteen food, there is also a back-track in the healthly eating habit which the place has been trying very hard to advocate. You may argue that one or two days of unhealthy food will not make one obese overnight. Well, it is still a debatable statement whether such a move will set precedence to unhealthy eating habits in the long run.

I do agree that Arts is gaining more recognition in an advanced society like ours. The value of Arts is unmeasurable. Whether the eventual Arts Conservatory Centre will promote greater Arts awareness among the members in the organisation, we shall let time to tell us the answer.

This afternoon, I was rejoicing over the shower in the afternoon as I thought it would dampen Singaporeans’ mood of visiting the Comex IT and Food Fairs held concurrently at Suntec Convention Centre. However, I was proven wrong, in fact totally wrong! The rain did not deter throngs of Singaporeans at these fairs. The whole place was filled with a sea of people. In normal time, it takes me only 30 seconds to cross the overhead bridge linking Suntec City and Citilink Mall. Today, I spent more than 10 minutes inching through the tremendously huge crowd!

In the IT Fair at Levels 4 and 6, the situation was even worse. Who says the economy is bad (or on the process of recovery?) When it comes to new IT gadgets and MP3 players, young Singaporeans do not even fringe when spending big bucks on these products. I bought a 40GB portable hard disk at $119 which I felt was cheaper than Sim Lim Sq. Had some problems installing it at home until I realised I did not format the hard disk. Haha, that showed how "mountain tortoise" I was when it comes to IT gadgets.

The food fair was no way better. But unlike the IT fair, I saw a very different scenario in terms of the age group of visitors. The whole place was mostly filled with middle age aunties and uncles… of course not to mention those retirees who liked to "mingle with the younger generation". In addition, the place was very smoky with the bak kwa stalls barbequing the processed meat in the confined, air-conditioned environment. Of course there were other stalls contributing to the smoky atmosphere. The shark fin soup was selling at $1 but I had no mood to eat at that type of environmental conditions.

By the time I stepped out of the food fair, I smelled like Bak kwa, together with fried chicken wings, Katong laksa and bee hoon which integrated into one strange smell… Haha…  

How many of you actually watched President S R Nathan assuming his post yesterday? I am sure no one here. Even my school principal also claimed that she watched Project Superstar Finals. We are all indifferent and aloof towards political matters.

The Project Superstar is finally over. My prediction is correct. Weilian is the ultimate Superstar even though his performance was not as good as Kelly’s. But who cares? As long as the audience were touched by his perseverance and courage, Weilian could sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or even Ke Ren Lai and he would still emerge the ultimate winner.

This show has given me one important inspiration: It does not matter how good or bad you are, as long as you are well-liked by others, people will embrace your strengths and qualities and be blinded by your shortcomings. Most importantly, it is important for us to be sure and confident of ourselves. People can go around and spread how you are "very very lousy" ; as long as you are not swayed by such callous remarks, you can still do your job and carry on with your life.

While I’d put a full-stop to my comments on Project Superstar, I have also put a full stop (not exactly though) to my unconditional love and passion for a place I used to belong. My third attachment with this place is my worst, most stressful and most unhappy of all. My sense of belonging seems to wane suddenly. I begin to question myself if I should continue to compel myself to stay and love this place… I am starting to have PMS and mood swings…