The New Year.

I slept. I woke up. It was gone. There was no countdown for me. I don't quite enjoy the feeling of being among crowds anymore. So I stayed home on the eve and 2005 went by quietly. I heard it rained in the early morning, thank goodness I wasn't at the beach or something, probably be drenched.

I wonder how many people are still having new year resolutions these days, and how many bloggers are putting theirs down. I think it is good the set goals and satisfying when you fulfil them. Maybe I'll slowly reveal mine with the account of the first day of the year.

It was rather fruitful day except for a minor hiccup like my Ezlink card expiring. That was really annoying cuz I had to pay the single trip fare to Bishan. Anyone had their Ezlink card expired before? I suppose the student concession expire once you graduate, but didn't they switched it to deduct adult fare already. I remember the "doo-doo" became a sharp "beep!" months ago. C'mon, if there was a 6 months grace to get a new card, they should have informed us right? Thanks for the surprise on the first day of the year, and having the ticket office closed on public holidays. Ha ha. Luckily they did have some sense as the station masters doubled as Ezlink card sellers for the day.

With the slight hiccup aside, I enjoyed my one hour badminton with my girlfriend at the Bishan Sports Hall. Tho' the fun was accompanied by aching wrists and arms, we are making it a weekly event and probably increasing it to two hours. Yes, one of my new year resolution is to get into better shape. I had not be able to do so in the past few years, but no harm trying again. Anyone else wanna join us?

In the afternoon we wenta the SAM, one of my favourite haunt.

Most of the exhibits like the "BLINK!" were still there. But I had more fun this time describing to my girlfriend about the lil' facts and history of Singapore I know relating to the art pieces. We also sat down to watch three black and white video clips by the Ministry of Culture of Singapore which I did not get to watch the previous visits. If you can imagine those American wartime propaganda film, it was more or less the same kind of feeling. The first clip was about rehabilitation of convicts in Singapore. They were transported to Pulau Senang to build a habitat from scratch, that meant clearing of forest to construction of houses. During their stay there, the learned to farming, and different skills. Quoting the narrator in the clip, "life at Pulau Senang was not senang at all." These convicts were former gangsters who had terrorised the streets of Singapore. My guess is that they did not have chance for proper education and were forced to roam the streets by poverty. Anyway it was interesting that they formed brotherhood among themselves and turned over a new leaf. Perhaps all that was possible as life was simpler back then. The second and third clip were about how Singapore transformed from a fishing village to a metropolis. It was the first time I saw clips of how how life was back then, the roadside hawkers, the manufacturing industry, the cobblers and barbers. It was surprising that these footages were never shown in the national education exhibitions in the past. I wonder why they don't put them on the net for people to download and learn more about the history of Singapore.

The other galleries that left a deeper impression in me this time round were the ones with works of Liu Kang, Georgette Chen and Chen Wen Hsi. I think they are permanent displays in the museum, althought they do rotate their works once in a while. But it is only after a few visits that I can better appreciate their works. Then there was also the featured exhibition of ink works by Gao Xingjian, a Nobel Prize Laureate. I could not really understand what this works were about. They were supposed to be expression of his thoughts. What I saw was mostly patches of black ink, and occasionally blots which looked like human beings. The clearest painting was one entitled "The Flower". My conclusion is that those paintings were images he saw in his mind at the time of creation, not images in our minds, so it is normal that we are unable to comprehend his paintings. Perhaps that is the true meaning of retrospective painting.

We walked to Queen Street to take some photographs of the area in the late afternoon. I spotted my alma mater from some red words on a grey building. These words were from my school pledge which I can still recite. It is not easy to forget something you recite daily for four years. Although I never attended any lesson in this old campus, I feel attached to it. The school building does not have fancy architecture like the SJI (presently the SAM) or CHIJ (presently the CHIJMES, but the fact my seniors, many who are great figures in the society, studied there, made me proud. It is one of the schools in Queen Street, the traditional area of good schools in Singapore.

We went on to take some photos of Sculpture Square. They had painted the building orange. There was a mural of Lu Xun, the father of modern Chinese Literature, on the facade. The first time I saw it, I wanted to go back to take a picture of it. I'm lucky that it was still there after a month or so.

The night ended with dinner at my girlfriend's place and a good chat with her mum about her trips to Europe and China. It is one of my resolutions to visit those two places, but I don't think it will be possible to do so this year. Of cuz, unless, I strike lottery, which is totally possible! Hear my prayers?

Well back to my other resolutions, they include gathering my lazy bones to finish up two entries of blog which I wanted to do last year. They are supposed to be the photos for Justus' birthday celebration and some sort of wrap up for the year or the chapter of my life. I will also like to spend more time with my family and to treat my girlfriend better. I want to also inject more activities in my life now that my job is more or less settled. Work work work, get paid, pay the bills, spend spend spend. Everything is like a clockwork. *Tick tock - Tick tock* There is still no concrete plan on that yet. I think they will be mostly self-improvement activities. Learn this, learn that, appreciate this, appreciate that. Splash more money on books, read read read. Finally, my last resolution is to GET RICH. I am pretty sure I can do it. =)