How shall I start? By saying sorry? Or by saying that I’m back at last?

It’s been a loooong while since I last updated my blog. The last update as you can see was when I was so excited that I’m leaving Singapore for

my 2 weeks break in mid-December. And now, one month down the road, in mid-January, here I am writing my next post. What happened in the one month hiatus from blogging that I self-declared?

The reason I did not blog was because I was busy. OK. Maybe while in KL in December I wasn’t too busy but was just too lazy. But the fact remains that the moment I set foot in Singapore-land again, I was just too occupied with school work that I hardly had time to post an entry here.

Here’s the chain of events that I went through:

14 Nov – 27 Dec: Back in KL
28 Dec: In school for Orientation Group Leaders Workshop
29-30 Dec: Had some outing with friends
31 Dec: Was in school preparing for Orientation & New Year celebration
2-4 Jan: Orientation in School for JC1s
5 Jan: Clean-up
5-6 Jan: Finish schoolwork
7-12 Jan: 2nd week of school
13-14 Jan: Catch up time after missing 1st week of school
15-19 Jan: 3rd week of school (Stayed back every single day after school)

Doesn’t seem that bad right? The schedule does not depict reality. That is because I have a lot of other commitments that is hard to put into a concise schedule. This is especially so when I’m a Student Councillor in school.

Well, I’m involved in the planning of the upcoming SC Elections and Paradigma, some high-level forum where ministers are invited to speak. Both are long running Ad-Hocs that will keep me occupied all the way till the end of July!

People always ask me how’s life in Singapore. I would only have one word to tell them. HECTIC. Now I’m sure by now you would believe me right?

It’s the last day I’m reporting in Data Storage Institute for my year end research. It’s been a fruitful? month….Or so I chose to take it. Learned some new stuff especially coding in C++. I still have lots to learn in C++ but I’ve got the basics right.

Tomorrow morning  I’ll take my First Coach bus back to Bangsar.  I’m so HAPPY that my holidays is finally starting.  Finally I can watch Astro again…..EPL, StarWorld…..ahhh…can’t wait for tv…lol

Ever planned a very last minute trip and wondered where to get cheap hotel rates at? Afraid that hotel rates would skyrocket for bookings at the very last minute? Fret not. CheaperThanHotels.co.uk is here to help you out.

With this website, you can book hotels be it budget or luxury well inside 20 days. It offers a wide range of hotels from all over the world. Whether you need to book a room in London, in Singapore or in New York, CheaperThanHotels.co.uk has all the functions you need. It offers discount hotels with more than 35 000 deals. It’s on 365 days a year and you can book either at the last minute or all year.

The best part about this is, you only need to pay a small booking fee on the internet to reserve your room with a deposit. The rest of the amount can be paid in full once you arrive at the hotel. So what are you waiting for? Hop on to CheaperThanHotels.co.uk to start booking your discounted hotel rooms!

I’ve noticed lately that I received quite a number of incoming links from search engines regarding the keywords, Asean, Asean scholarships, Oldham Hall, Victoria JC etc…..hmmmm….I wonder why….I guess it’s because the new batch of Asean scholars are coming soon to Singapore. If I’m not wrong the new 2008 Malaysians Asean scholars will be coming in on 18th December 2007? Haha….just like me last year, no time to enjoy after SPM…Only 2 weeks at most.

Anyway, when the scholarship letter arrives, it doesn’t state which hostel one is posted to. It simply mentions the hostel name and asks one to report there at so and so date and time. I was Googling around last year also to find out which college I had been posted to. I ended up doing a search at streetdirectory.com to look for colleges near my hostel.

Just to make things simpler, here’s a list of hostels and the JCs one will be posted to.

Oldham Hall – Anderson JC
Victoria Hall – Victoria JC
Raffles Boarding – Raffles JC
Hwa Chong Boarding – National JC
NUS High School Residence – Anglo Chinese JC
Dunman High Boarding – Temasek JC
McNair Lodge – Saint Andrews JC

So which is the best hostel? Can’t really say much. But let me talk from my 1 year experience.

Just in case you are wondering, I’m staying in Oldham Hall, and goes to Anderson JC. I’m a direct scholar, meaning I came to Singapore only during JC level. I’ve just completed JC1 and will be in JC2 next year.

From experience and hearsay from other scholars, it seems like Oldham Hall is the best (ok dun kill me, I shall change to one of the best) place to live in. It has all the facilities one can dream of, except a running track (Near town la, no land!). It has air-cond in rooms (I’m surprised too when I first came last year, lol!), gym, indoor basketball courts, swimming pool, futsal court, music room, laundry service (free & unlimited number of clothes!).

The only drawback is it’s kinda expensive to stay in Oldham Hall and Anderson JC is a little far from hostel (35-45 minutes travelling time via public transport). We gotta pay around S$10 per month for aircond, S$1 per hour for internet and gym membership (not compulsory) is S$40 per year. Next year there will be wireless access but it’s not free. There’s some special plan from some private company and the price range from S$5 to S$22 depending on speed. And also since school is far from hostel, we have a chartered bus in the mornings which charges us around S$15 per month. It’s simpler and faster this way.

I don’t think I wanna babble much here about my hostel. I guess many of you are also hunting for information on which is the best JC in Singapore right?

Well, the Government has stopped releasing the rankings a few years back. But one can basically gauge the rankings of the schools from the cut-off points required by Singapore O-level students to enter these colleges.

This is an unofficial list but based on historical data and cut-off points the rankings are somewhere like this.

1. Raffles JC
2. Hwa Chong JC
3. Victoria JC
4. National JC
5. Temasek JC

These are basically the Top 5 JCs in Singapore. I prefer to call them the Tier 1 JCs.

6. Anderson JC
7. Saint Andrews JC
8. Anglo-Chinese JC

The above 3 JCs I would prefer to call the Tier 2 JCs. Now don’t come killing me saying AC is better than SA or better than AJ. This is an unofficial list and the schools shuffle among themselves for better rankings every year.

From experience, the MOE usually places new direct Malaysian scholars in the above JCs. The only exception is Hwa Chong JC. I have no idea why direct scholars don’t go there….

Technorati Tags: Asean scholarships, Oldham Hall, Anderson JC, rankings

I’m coming home! Yes! The time that I had been waiting for….for such a loooooooong time….4 more days to go in my research institute here in DSI and I’m done! Wednesday and Friday will be presentation day. After that Saturday morning will be my departure date! I’m so happy, i’m so happy, i’m so happy…..

lol…i’ve never been this eager to get back home before this….dunno why now so so so eager….perhaps coz it’s holidays and it’s damn bored whenever i’m in hostel…coz most ppl went home alr….

but the sad thing is my holidays only less than 2 weeks….gotta get back to singapore on 27dec….got OGL workshop….but nevermind….1 1/2 week can do a lot a lot of things….gonna catch up wit all my friends….gotta go jalan-jalan in sucky buses again….hahaha….4 more days! yea! hahaha