Desires? Sayonara!

Name: Lee Jun Hiang(13)
Class: 1A
Date: 17th April 2010
Personal Recount

I am not one, who believes in luck, but an incident changed my view about it and now, I actually believe that it exists. The incident occurred on the day of my secondary school posting. I wondered whether I would be going to Methodist Girls’ School or Cedar Girls’ Secondary School. I was crossing my fingers, every ounce of me praying that I would get into Cedar Girls’ Secondary School. If not, I would have to wake up at 5 every morning to be able to get to school on time and would have to spend 3 hours each day travelling there and back. However, if I went to Cedar Girls’ Secondary School, I get to wake up at 6 instead and only need to spend 1hour and 30 minutes travelling there and back. I was desperately hoping to get into Cedar Girls Secondary School.
The only reason why Methodist Girls’ School became one of my choices was because my mother wanted me to go to an independent school. She said I could handle the travelling time and I trusted her, until I experienced it first hand for myself when she took me on a trip there to experience what it was like. By then, it was too late to change my choice of the schools I wished to be posted to. Then, the phone rang. I was hoping earnestly that it was the office staff from Cedar Girls’ Secondary School calling me up, about to inform me that I had been successfully posted into Cedar Girls’ Secondary School.
My mother picked up the receiver. I stared at her unblinkingly, my eyes filled with earnest anticipation and anxiety. I was dying to know if I had been posted to Cedar Girls’ Secondary School. The atmosphere was very tense. It was so silent that one would have been able to her a pin drop clearly. I whispered to her, “Have I entered Cedar?” She nodded her head grinning. I jumped while punching my fist in the air.
My deepest desire has been fulfilled. I was overcome by a sense of relief and happiness so great that words cannot be used to express. I initially thought that this day could not get any better, until I received a text message from my dad. He told me that his friend’s female Yorkshire terrier had just given birth to 3 adorable puppies and had given him one puppy to thank him for helping his dog give birth. My dad has friends who are vets or own pet shops and through interaction with them, he has accumulated a wide range of knowledge about dogs, including how to help a dog give birth. Thus many of his friends approach him when their dogs are ill, or about to give birth. This is also partly the reason why he always emphasises to me, knowledge is power.
It was simply dream come true! I had always wanted a Yorkshire terrier puppy and now I do! Yorkshire terriers are genetically small and rarely grow bigger than the size of a puppy despite being an adult. They are prized for being small and adorable, the smaller the better and of course more expensive. I first saw one in a pet shop. I was doing a project on the different breeds of dogs and my dad suggested that the entire family go to a pet shop to look at the different breeds of dogs. It was then that I spotted it. I fell in love with it immediately. My dad then told me all about Yorkshire terriers. I was since then determined to get one. Now, it has finally been bestowed upon me! I paced around the room, eagerly waiting for him to come home. Eventually, he came home and in his arms was the cutest puppy I had ever seen! We settled on the name “beauty” for it and it became the family’s little “wonder” dog. I believe that it was too much of a coincidence for two of my deepest desires to be fulfilled in one day and there was not a more appropriate term than luck to be used. Since then, I believed that luck does exist and I can say sayonara confidently, which means good bye, to my desires.

The Gender War

Isabella Eleanor Nubari

Sec 1A      ( 9 )

16 April 2010

Personal Recount

                                                            The Gender War

The luckiest day of my life was  when I was back in my homeland, Jakarta, in Indonesia. I always used to played pranks on other people, namely boys, as they always tease me. So the legendary ‘Gender War’ was naturally an elite challenge for my profession. It was during a camp in the mountains and me and my female classmate friends were in the ‘headquarters’, plotting our next ‘attack’ on the boys. Unknown to the teachers, we have been playing countless pranks on each other throughout the first few days of the camp, with a wide variety of creative pranks  which  includes adding red water coloring in the boy’s water bottle and reported to the teachers that they ‘smuggled’ grape juice into their rooms ( we were not allowed to bring any food or beverages except water into our rooms ) and their returned thanks of sabotaging us in the race through the tunnels by removing one of our batteries in our torchlight.

 Of course, we weren’t supposed to tell the teachers about the ‘raids’ of sabotage and pranks as they were one of the ‘rules’ of the ‘game’. You see, the old tradition of that school is always the gender war at the year-end camp. Each gender would go through many months of planned attacks for the war during the camp. The rules were simple . The first rule would be “Safety’s first”, as any injuries would result as ‘foul play’. Second is “ No reporting”, as the game would automatically end with both gender losing and surrendering to the no-ending lecture of our teachers. And the third one would be “Which side pulled the most pranks wins ” , and as of that , I am pretty confident the girls would win, the score now was 7 to 8 , with girls in the lead. The fourth and final rule is “winning team gets losing team to serve them for a month”. That, was the best prize ever and we, the girls, are determined to win it.

We had our lunch and were sitting in a circle in our room, discussing the details of the attacks tomorrow, which was the final day of the  camp. As we finalized the details of our hard work, we prepared the necessary props for our ‘ Bonfire Attack ‘ tonight as well as reflecting on the prank the boys pulled on us last night, which was dressing up as ghosts and flashing past the female’s windows. When we got curious enough and sneaked a look from the door, they shocked us by appearing suddenly in front of us. We shouted on instinct and handed over one point to them, still, as I said, we were leading by one close point.  

We planned to pour water into their campfire wood so it could not fire as well as throw a stink-bomb into their rooms tomorrow. As the final day of the camp arrived, and the war  period  over, we, the girls, won by 2 points as they too also poured water into our campfire wood and resulted as an ‘even’ round, though the teachers were still puzzled why the wood got so wet. That day, where the girls was proclaimed ‘victor’ of the gender war was the luckiest day of my life. I had struck gold, the other female classmates and I had 20 guys to order around for the whole of the next month, starting the ‘ female occupation’. I guess what made me really feel lucky is the fact that I and my female friends have proven that we were not inferior to boys, maybe even better than them in areas such as playing pranks.

All in all, I really felt bliss and joy, what I would describe as lucky.

Jia Qian's Personal recount

                It has been two months since I started my secondary education at Cedar Girls’ Secondary School, however, the increasing amount of co-curriculum activities and projects had caused me to burn the midnight oil literally every day in order to hand up my homework punctually. It was really exhausting, but I always manage  to resist the temptation of my welcoming and warm bed, though on one typical Tuesday night, I finally succumbed to the temptation, leaving my Chinese homework half-done, and even found myself overslept the following morning. In my hurry to start my journey to school, I had completely forgotten to bring along my incompleted homework, but unknowingly left it on my desk, and rushed out of my house

            “Students, please pass up the Chinese homework that I had assigned you yesterday. I trust that all of you had completed and brought along your homework today.” said our Chinese teacher, while his suspicious-looking eyes roamed around the classroom, trying to identify guilty faces. Panic-stricken, I recalled my irresponsible act of drifting off to sleep without completing my homework, and to make matters worse, I discovered, after five minutes of bag-searching, that I did not bring along my Chinese homework. “I am dead.” I thought, as the Chinese teacher was one of the fiercest teachers. My heart sank and I dare not think of the consequence of my irresponsible act. With my stomach filled with over a hundred of fluttering butterflies, I walked up to the Chinese teacher, with each step I took filled with dread and fear. Slowly, I muttered what had happened. He was silent for a few moments, before he erupted like a volcano. “I want you to stand outside the classroom, facing the windows, and reflect on your irresponsible act!” he responded angrily. Shame-faced, I followed his instructions, and was truly embarrassed when other schoolmates passed by me, with a questioning look on their faces.  Though the Chinese lesson only lasted for an hour, but to me, it felt as if it lasted for the whole day. After the lesson, the Chinese teacher had assigned us with a new task, which is to write a 200 word essay on our most memorable lesson.

Upon reaching home, I immediately completed my leftover Chinese homework and after that, wrote the essay. However, the most memorable lesson that I mentioned in the essay was neither a fun lesson, nor an interesting lesson, but the time that I had spent during the Chinese lesson outside the classroom. I wrote out all my feelings, my thoughts, and my remorse. Never had I expected that the essay, which I handed in the following day punctually, was not only chosen as the best essay of the level, and also received praises from the other Chinese teachers. As I had never been praised for my essays or won any awards for any of my essays before, that was the luckiest day of my life.

♥Personal Recount: The luckiest day of Maxine's Life.♥

♥ Vanessa & I, sisters forever ♥

  Flashback 7 years ago, when I was a six year old ignorant kid, my life was sort of confined to just my family. Until the year 2004, I finally reached the age to attend primary school and at that point of my life, my life was vastly changed. I was actually terrified on the first day of school. Little did I know, I would meet someone who will always be there with me.



  I sat down quietly and hoped that no one would talk to me. But then, I felt a slight tap on my shoulder, I turned back and saw a girl of about the same age as me. She was taller and fairer than me. Then, there was silence; we both did not know what to say.


  Her name is Vanessa. She is my first friend and classmate. Then, there was some talking as she started by saying a “Hi” to me. At that time, I also realised that she lived in the same condominium with me, except that she lives across the swimming pool, at block 70.


  I don’t remember much about my primary one and two lifestyle. But I remember that we were classmates in primary one and two, class of 1Peace and 2Peace. Then, when we became primary 3 students, we were separated. She went to class 3Joy, the second class best in academics, while I went to 3Hope, the best class in academics. That year, we were not as close as we hardly talked. When we were promoted to primary 4, we were finally back together! We both appeared in the class 4Grace together and we continued being classmates till Graduation day.


  We had absolute fun together in primary six. We were the best of friends, even our PSLE aggregates were the same! Until now, she’s still with me in Cedar[She’s in class 1C]! It was as if I have a ‘sister’ and we go to school together every day. Therefore, the first day of primary one was considered my luckiest day, not because I found a friend, but I found myself such a good friend, such a good companion who will be with me till the end! Who knows, we might even end up in the same Junior Collage!

Charlotte's personal recount

Pranks… the luckiest day of my life


What is the luckiest day of my life…? Good question. My life is actually quite unlucky as I broke a mirror quite some time ago. Oh well…
The luckiest day of my life, supposedly, happened two years ago, when I was ten.
My school organized a trip to Shanghai and my best friend, Isabella, and I were chosen as one of the few from my class that could go (lucky…).
Actually, most of the time there, I was quite unlucky. But the name of this entry is ‘The Luckiest Day of My Life’ so I would not elaborate on the unlucky bits.
Okay, this is not really considered as lucky to a normal person but looking at my unlucky life, it is considered as lucky. There were only two boys from my class that came on the Shanghai trip (another lucky point as I am ‘allergic’ to boys). And on the third day, they were late for breakfast. I remembered when Isabella and I were late, they laughed at us. This could be what they call ‘rubbing salt onto the wound’ but replace the salt with wasabi.
Anyway, they were late. And since Isabella and I were late before, we came extra early. In the place where we were going to eat our breakfast, you could hear echoes. Yes, there was no one there. The lights were not even on. It was a little creepy. I was half-expecting a vampire to pop out. Also, I had thought that we were in the wrong room.
Isabella and I knew where the boys were going to sit so we ‘served’ them food. It was the ‘least’ we could do to ‘thank’ them. Yeah, I will cut to the chase. Isabella and I were getting revenge. *Evil laughter and lightning flashes*
There were two jugs of drinks. One orange juice (which everyone preferred) and one was soy milk.
We poured half of their cups with orange juice. We planned to fill them to the brim and overflow it. Then we stopped, put down the jug of orange juice and… filled the rest of the cups with SOY MILK!!! We mixed them. It looked real gross once we were done. When the other girls came, they laughed. When the boys finally arrived, we dared them to drink the concoction we made.
They drank it. And they had diarrhea. Serves them right for making fun of us.
Later that night (skipping all the boring bits), the boys called the hotel room I was staying, asking for the laptop charger (we needed to write a blog on what we did), I answered in Chinese, “Hello. This is the help desk. How may I help you?” The boys put down the phone immediately and we (Isabella and I) laughed our heads off. The second time the boys called, Isabella answered in a new language we created that sounded like a mix of Indian and Indonesian. The third time, they just came to our room and rang the doorbell, so we just had to surrender the charger. It was fun…
That was the luckiest day of my life. I managed to pull so many pranks and the teacher did not even notice!!!

Carlin's personal recount (My Luckiest Day)

Personal Recount
                                                             My Luckiest Day


To many of westerners if you asked when was their luckiest day they would probably reply you with a big grin, “The day when I picked a four-leaved clover.” Well, to us Singaporeans maybe not; because there aren’t many clovers found here. The luckiest day of our lives will defer greatly in this case. As for mine, it’s a rather special one.

My luckiest day fell on the twenty-fifth of December. Yes, it’s on a Christmas day. My cousin invited me to a Christmas Party organized by her and the house was decorated with all sorts of things ranging from balloons to banners. The children played games whilst the adults chatted merrily. There was one of the games which I enjoyed very much and it was called the “shooting” game. We each had to throw a ball and see if it could enter the basket. I was lucky and managed to have the ball enter the basket. For the later part of the games, there was one which I enjoyed entirely. It was to spin the “wheel of luck” and see what prize we are going to receive. The top prize was a big Winnie the pooh bear. When it was my turn, I span the wheel and to my utter surprise, I won the top prize! I shrieked with joy and many others congratulated me.

Later on, we played some teamwork games which were quite challenging. There was one where we had to use rubber bands which were tied together in order to lift up the cup and form a pyramid. My team faced numerous difficulties in making the cup stand. The cups toppled always and we were on the verge of giving up. However, our team spirit did not just stand there. After numerous attempts, we finally succeeded. By then, the other team still had not completed. Their rubber bands had already tore and was unfit for use. We then realized how lucky we were; we did not tear any rubber bands. We then emerged as champions!

When it was time to cut the log cake, my aunt told us that there was a little surprise for the one who managed to have a piece of log cake which a small doll have been hidden inside. Everyone was hunting for that particular doll in their cakes. When I cut open my cake, there was something in between. At a closer glance, it was a small doll! I was blithe. I received a little snow globe as prize!

With so many wonderful and lucky things happening to me, how can I say I wasn’t lucky on that day? I guess I was being very, very lucky on that particular day. Well, if every day were like this, wouldn’t it be fantastic?

Written By: Carlin

Charlotte's Favourite Primary School Memory

 I remember my ‘favourite’ primary school memory. It was not really enjoyable…


There was this haunted shed in the back of my school that the teachers did not allowed us to get close to. At least not within a 100-metre radius near the shed. It was old and creaky. My friends and I were curious, so we broke the rules.

We tried to sneak into the shed but it was locked, so we went to the second floor (the stairs were outside the house). I felt really excited, breaking the rules. Not the first time that happened.

Anyway, when we climbed up to the second floor, we saw a lot of dead birds. I was actually with a group of boy, so it was obvious they did not scream. I could tell that they were freaked out by their expressions. I was not though. I really had no idea why they were so freaked out (I still do not). It was just a bunch of dead birds. Not much. Really lame. Then a teacher shouted at us and we jumped. Then we ran away.

Yes, that was the most ‘enjoyable’ memory I have.

Carlin's Favourite Primary School Memory

My favourite primary school memory was the childrens' day celebration. It was the last childrens' day celebration for us and my favourite teacher was up on stage performing MAGIC! I loved to watch magic performed by my teacher very much and the performance that day was awesome. One of the performance was fantastic for my teacher poured salt into a large fish tank and stirred it till the salt disolved. At the later part, my teacher scooped up the salt (not disolved) with hands from the tank though all of us knew that the salt had disolved. It was so magical! I'll never forget that performance put up for us.

Written By: Carlin

Jia Qian's favourite primary school memory

My favourite primary school memory was when I participated in a floorball competition.Though we lost the match,but I still enjoy it, cause I like playing floorball.However, I only like to play as a defender, as I am better at defending.I find floorball a tough but enjoyable sports.After the competition,me and my teammates are also closer and our friendship became stronger.That was my favourite primary school memory - a floorball match.

-Jia Qian

♥JunHiang [June]'s Favourite Primary School Memory♥

My favourite memory in Primary School was when I won the debate competition. It was the annual P6 inter-class debate competition. We were against 6 Faith, and at that time, I was in 6 Patience. My Primary School by the way is Edgefield Primary School. I was the third speaker, and it was my job to give the final rebuttals and wrap up the case. I remember how nerve wrecking it was standing up on stage in front of the entire school, giving my rebuttals and proving my case, but once I started, I couldn't stop. I just kept lashing out, I wanted to win, debate was always my passion and I didn't want to let my classmates down. This was not only important to me, but to them as well. My teacher always said I had potential and his expectations of me were very high. By the time I finished, a sense of relief swept through me. It took me a while before I noticed the loud applause the audience and judges were creating, and I smiled, together with my teammates. It was the best moment of my life when they announced that we won and I even won the best speaker award. I will never forget this day, never.

Posted by:
June

Isabella's favorite primary school memory

My favorite primary school memory was when I witnessed the finals of the level basketball championships. My class' boys team was against tough competieion, the gifted-programme students. This match was highly anticipated for a whole term and we got 'front row seats' even though we were standing in the second row. I personally was never a fan of boys, to me , they were excessively immature and all they could do was blab nonsense. However, this experience of witnessing the boys in my class, representing mour class really was an eye-opener. Needless to say, I cheered for them along with my friends. Still, I could not help but to tease them a little, especially Wesly, who highly regards himself as a potato. He always used a random sense of humor to tease people and now was more or less payback. So, i gathered a group of freinds and instructed them to cheer "potato" everytime Wesly held the ball. I the whole match, we cheered and laughed and amazingly won the championships. My theory is because of our 'creative' encouragement, but who is to argue? I am really happy that our class won the championships, and that is that.

♥Maxine's favourite Primary school memory♥

Well, my favourite primary school memory is my Primary six graduation day! It was a rainy day for us [The graduating primary sixes]. Many of us were sobbing as we cherished the last moment we have together. On that day, each of the primary six classes had to perform. My class did two performances and at the end of our performance, we cried as we shouted,"Thank you Teachers!". This day is special to us as it's the last time we can spend the time together as a level. I think it's a gift to have a great class and fantastic classmates. Until now, we still contact each other and we still have fun together!