(Taken at the McDonalds at KAP. It looks so different now that they’ve redone the interior. Shows how long I haven’t been there huh? It’s not the best picture around, but still…)

Met Anqi and Qin Ning for lunch today! Lynn was supposed to come along too, but the dear girl was reading her book this morning, and kind of forgot the time. But nevermind, we’ll find the time to meet again. :)

The holidays have started for most of the people in university, but those people who are staying in hostels and are enthusiastic about taking part in hostel activities seem so busy. I wonder if i’ll even get to meet them this holidays.

I never like getting haircuts, because I can never seem to get the perfect one. I asked the hairdresser to trim my hair by 2 inches today, and after she was done and she blew dry my hair, it still looked ok. But after my hair dried after taking a shower… sigh. I really should have asked her to trim it by only 1 inch instead! It’s not really a problem with the length though, but more of the layering. Because of the layering, my hair at the end is very thin, and it curls when it’s dry. I normally don’t mind having some curls, but i’d rather have hair that’s totally straight in this case. The problem is that it curls in where the neck is, and then when my hair reaches the shoulder, it curls out again. Arrgh! That probably means that i’ll be blowing my hair and trying to straighten it for who knows how long so that I won’t look stupid. I don’t think I want to do anything else to my hair until a least 6 months later. Sigh. I know it’ll grow out in a while, but I really dislike the waiting for your hair to grow out part. I have driving to go for, and i’m meeting up with friends this week! :’(

Do NSmen learn how to drive motorcycles at the driving centre? For national service purposes that is. I saw this group of 7 army guys in their uniforms with an instructor leading them round and round the circuit this morning. They were just doing turns at the crank course used for cars, and pacticing how to control the motorcycle during turns I presume. Since when do motorcycles go on the crank course used for cars anyway? They have their own mini crank course that only motorcycles can fit into. But most of them seemed quite pro in any case.

Motorcycle road tests seem much more relaxing than the traffic police test for cars. I’ve been seeing a lot of motorcyclists having their road test recently, and they always go in rather big groups. Why do I say that it seems more relaxing? Because you don’t have the tester sitting beside you in the car the whole time, scrutinising your every single move. Instead, for the circuit courses, 1 tester sits on this really tall chair while grading every testee that goes through the course. And if i’m not mistaken, for the road portion of the test, the testers are only located at certain points along the route, so if you happen to screw up somewhere along the way but no tester is there to penalise you, you can get away with it. Correct me if i’m wrong.

But motorcycles are dangerous to drive, in my opinion. In most accidents, motorcyclists have a higher probability of getting injured as compared to car drivers, for example, because there’s really nothing to protect you from the impact besides your helmet. I once saw a motorcycle trainee flipping off his bike because he wasn’t able to balance. At the low speed he used in the circuit no injuries would probably be sustained, but imagine having the same thing happen to you while driving at 70km/h. Being thrown off your bike and you’ll probably skid some distance from the place where you fell off. It’s not a very pleasing thought. Because of similar concerns, it’s no wonder some parents are unwilling to let their children learn to ride a bike.

This was a song that I first came across a few years ago, and a few days ago, I came across it again.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know;
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”

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