The results for the last exams are out today. I’ve been grumbling to as many people as I could about the horrible mathematics subject I had to take. And about how I just don’t seem to have the talent for converting common sense into mathematical statements. Basically, I just plain suck at discrete mathematics.

For the past month while I’ve been enjoying my holidays, meeting up with people and tearing big holes in my wallet, there’s always this gnawing feeling around that annoyingly seems to read “Bye, your high distinction streak is over!”

Well guess what? Hah! It’s not! I just made it to a high distinction barely. 85 was the borderline mark for that grade. I got an 86!

I love the brilliant subject coordinator who smacked on a 70% weightage for the examinations. While almost everyone grumbled, I was secretly happy and smiling. Life is unfair indeed! But thank heavens for these moments, so long as I’m the one benefiting. -smirks-

This Valentine’s Day was spent a little differently. Or perhaps more ordinary. It’s just another normal day. Vincent finally agreed to meet up with Mae after we pestered him for the umpteenth time. Expecting Mae’s usual pattern, Vincent and I agreed to trick Mae into believing that the movie we planned to watch was at 11.45am and lunch would be after. And to make sure she’d get up on time, we told her the tickets have already been booked. The actual plan was to have lunch and then watch the movie at 2.15pm.

I was still rather doubtful. Hence, the pleasant surprise when the plan worked perfectly. At 9.45am, I got an SMS from her although I believe I shouldn’t be trying this too often. It may backfire after a while.

I was chauffeured to Lot 1 by Mae which was a first. And then to Bugis and then to Holland Village. Surprisingly, she was quite a steady hand in driving for someone who hardly drove. She was a highly cautious driver - driving a little too slow out of fear and anxiety and sticking to lanes waaaaay before junctions in preparation for the turnings.

When I mean way before, I meant, sticking to the left lane immediately after Sim Lim Square when the turning was to be made at Sixth Avenue. -.-” She was otherwise really good. I find making turns in tight places like multi-level carparks to be quite a feat and she did it quite smoothly. She also managed to do perfect reverse parking at Albert Complex. We took a photo of the the car being parked parallel to the white parking lot lines as a commemoration.

Driving skills aside, inexperience with Singapore roads got us on a really long and panicky Bugis scenic tour. I was her navigator since she’s driving and I had to read the Street Directory. It’s my first time seriously trying to figure out the Street Directory book so I was a little skeptical if I could do it well enough. The stereotyping of women’s disability to read maps was also not very encouraging. Turns out it wasn’t really that hard but we still went the wrong way. The first major mistake was when we were driving past Parco Bugis Junction’s front. She got instructions to enter the building from the back. I used the Street Directory, coupled with her boyfriend’s instructions to guide her. It should be foolproof. Until we spotted something that seemed to be a carpark entrance in front. I wasn’t really in the mood to experiment so I told her to stick to the instructions but I guess she was feeling adventurous. So we disregarded the instruction to enter by the back and tried the front one instead. We wound up in the Loading Bay carpark. Great. Furthermore, that place has heavy human traffic. It’s so embarrassing. We must have looked like bimbos to the pedestrians.

Eventually, we went to sidetrack a little (okay more than a little) and managed to get back to the same route again. And we happily drove past Bugis Junction’s front entrance again, this time following the instructions and the map rigidly. At about 100m away from the back carpark’s entrance, I felt so relieved! There was this rush of confidence that I can get out of the car really soon. I got hyper and started conversing, asking Mae if she was feeling a great sense of achievement while I shut the book, letting my guard slip. When I turn my attention on the road again, I realised we were getting further away from our destination. Again. Apparently, there was a miscommunication with my instructions. Opps. I said the carpark was just ahead in front so she can turn right (into the carpark). But she made a right turn after the traffic light instead.

Asides these two major screw ups, the rest of the time on the road was spent more on getting back on track after we screw up.

The petrol wasted must have cost a bomb with all the little detours we did. Can you imagine the movie ending at 4.15pm in Lot 1 and a drive from there to Parco Bugis Junction ended at almost 7pm? I don’t mind though. It was a panicky and fun. I think it’s more thrilling than theme park rides, lol!

With that, I conclude our 2.5 hour long Bugis road trip.

I’ve been slacking so much this semester and have been neglecting this blog. I realise that I only blog when I do not have a social life and just spend my time on the computer. Ever since Mae returned, I’ve kept going out with a new small circle of friends. Well, not new. More like old acquaintances. Faces that I knew more than 6 years ago. Actually, it’s just upgrading two old acquaintances into friends. But still, I never imagined that I’d be going out with them on an almost weekly basis.

A lot of things happened these two months for Mae. Good things that is. I’m happy for her. As for me, I’ve been to a lot of new places, met a lot more new people and did a lot more things in these two months than I ever did in half of last year. Unfortunately, in exchange for this, I haven’t paid as much attention to school as much as I did the last two semester.

I don’t mind the deal frankly speaking. Overall, my perspective towards a lot of things have been changing remarkably. The annual hometown visiting every Chinese New Year I used to dread is now a welcome. Mae told me yesterday that I’m speaking up a lot more for some strange reason suddenly and it actually made my fear of social events diminish. I spoke quite a bit more to cousins this year, mostly to my maternal side of the family. It scares me to see that they’re all so intellectual and analytical.

I’ve also been met friends of friends, something that I was quite adverse to doing previously. I’ve always felt that in a group of friends, an outsider is not really welcomed because I myself used to not welcome that. At first when I get invited, I forced myself to go and it felt really weird. I got used to it after a few times. Then, it got fun. Never thought I’d find meeting people fun. Through that, I see a lot more different people recently. Most of them are also quite brainy with half of them going on overseas scholarships. I feel quite dumb when I think of how I’m stuck in SIM. The other half of them are also studying overseas. -sigh-

Well the overseas people are starting to leave one by one as the semester starts. The first one left yesterday. I went with Mae to send him and his friend off. It’s a little depressing. From here on, my social life is going down until they come back again in December.

I still have my usual group of good friends of course. Asides that, the only good news is that Fish is back for me to stalk. Permanently. evil grin