Updates
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Okieee, first of all, I know it's been such a long time, but this time I have a valid reason. Last week was pretty busy for once and I just finished my exams 2 days ago. So there u go!Anyway, not that many exciting things happened during the past 2 weeks. Just met up with a family friends last last Saturday. It's my dad's old friend, his wife and the children. I was really spoilt there, really so nice of them. They took me to a Jap resto for lunch and steak resto for dinner. A luxury in one day that I can't afford on my own here. Huehehehe.... Not to mention giving me some food to bring home, lend me a rice cooker and took me all the way home. Reminds me just of my beloved mom. She would've done pretty much the same as what that aunty did. Oh, she also gave me some simple recipes actually, which I tried very hard to remember but apparently forgotten on the very same day. Yeah Ross, like I said before, I think I need a husband who can cook. LOL. But u all noe wat?? I actually have a cooking and recipe website bookmarked!!! It's such a big step for me you know! Huehehehhee....
Had my French exam last Thursday and then my Sofware Engineering exam on Mon. The software engin was an oral exam. There were 2 parts, the first was presenting facts and should be easier as long as I studied, and yes, I did. How could I not when I'm scared stiff? The second was application question. I was given 30 min to prepare and then present for the next 30 min. Hmm, I'd say I didn't feel bad when I got out of the exam room, but seriously I'm not sure. I just hope I'd be able to pass. I hope the examiner understood my lousy French. My vocab was limited and my grammar was terrible. That's the thing I hate most about oral exam, I barely have time to think about the grammar while presenting my answer. I know I said a lot of what in English would sound like 'we has' or 'I does' except that it sounds even worse in French I think. LOL. Oh well, I just hope if my answer was bad, she was actually distracted by my lousy French and therefore missed my mistakes and then thought "Oh well, my fault for not listening to her carefully, let me just pass her" (*yeah riteeee, dream on!*) LOL
And last topic: Daylight Saving Time. I know, I know. I've always been ignorant and yes, it's my own fault. But this time, my ignorance really almost got me screwed up. So here's the story: Last Sun, I went for the Sunday mass at the church downhill. When I got there, however, I was surprised how come it was already so full and it has already started coz I always reach a little bit earlier and it's usually not that full yet at that timing. So I just went in quietly and joined at the back. Took me a while to realise that it's actually going to end already. I was late for almost 1 hour!! And to think the mass is only around 1 hr!! So yeah, I only caught the last 15 mins or so. I wondered so hard if they changed the mass timings or not, so when the mass had ended, I went and ask one of the warden when the mass started. He tried to explain some things, but despite his enormous effort to explain slowly and clearly (he was half shouting actually towards the end LOL) I only understood that for the whole summer, the mass starts 1 hr earlier. So, OK, I went home, cursing the French for changing schedules as and when they please.
The next day was my software engin exam. I should reach school at 12. 15. So I woke up at 10 and not long after that my friend called me, telling me to come for a project meeting. I told him I couldn't coz I'll have an exam at 12. So he said alright and hung up. 5 min later he called again, asking "btw, do u noe it's 11 o'clock now?" I told him, no, it's 10. Only then he said yesterday the time was changed, it's pushed by 1 hr coz of the daylight saving. Realising I only have less than an hour to have my lunch and get ready, I thanked him quickly and did whatever I needed to do. I mean, oh my God, if he hadn't been so kind as to bother to call me again, I'd be doomed, missing my first real exam in France!!! My friend told me that looks like God really cares about me even though I came one hr late for the mass. LOL. And so I told him it's a good thing I didn't forget to apologise and ensure God that I didn't come late on purpose. LOL :p But yeah, seriously, God must have saved me coz there wasn't supposed to be any project meeting actually, yet the night before they decided to have one. And if not because of that, my friend wouldn't have called me. Phew...
And so out of my curiousity, I went and checked on daylight saving time (DST). Apparently in Europe, DST begins at 2 a.m on the last Sunday of March. And I checked on the incidents due to DST also. Some of them are funny. According to them, DST does really save oil and electricity consumption, and also lower crime rates. But there're lots of confusions caused by it, too:
-In the spring, there are no babies born at all between 2 to 3 a.m.
-Some trains in the US have to stop in the middle of their journey in order to keep their scheduled arrival timings and so the passengers got confused as how come their travel time gets lengthened by 1 hr.
- Riots coz of bar patrons who protested against the 1 hr reduction of 'drinking time'
- And: some terrorist set up time bombs but instead of killing their enemies, it ended up killing themselves coz they exploded '1 hour earlier' due to DST.
Now, how ironic is that?? Well, life does full of the unexpected, doesn't it?!
