Esio Trot Book Review

This book basically revolves around the three characters, Mr Hoppy, Mrs Silver and Alfie. This book is written by Roald Dahl. Mr Hoppy is a man who is secretly in love with Mrs Silver who lives just directly below him. Mrs Silver has a pet tortoise called Alfie and Mr Hoppy envious that tortoise so much as Mrs Silver always embraces Alfie that Mr Hoppy wishes to be Alfie.

Mrs Silver loves Alfie so much but she feels that Alfie is a little too small in size. She thinks that Alfie wants to grow up but he is unable to grow up faster and would feel sad when he sees other tortoises that are so much bigger than himself. Alfie has only gained about three ounces for the eleven years Mrs Silver had him. Mr Hoppy then thinks of a brilliant plan to help Mrs Silver as Mrs Silver said that she was willing to be his servant for the rest of her life if he managed to think of a plan to help her.

Mr Hoppy then says that he has a secret which he knew of when he was in North Africa where all the tortoises in England came from. He pens it down and gives it to Mrs Silver. It writes :

ESIO TROT, ESIO TROT,
TEG REGGIB REGGIB!
EMOC NO, ESIO TROT,
WORG PU, FFUP PU, TOOHS PU!
GNIRPS PU, WOLB PU, LLEWS PU!
EGROG! ELZZUG! FFUTS! PLUG!
TUP NO TAF, ESIO TROT, TUP NO TAF!
TEG NO, TEG NO! ELBBOB DOOF!

These are actually words written backwards by Mr Hoppy. It is actually :

TORTOISE, TORTOISE,
GET BIGGER, BIGGER!
COME ON, TORTOISE,
GROW UP, PUFF UP, SHOOT UP!
SPRING UP, BLOW UP, SWELL UP!
GORGE! GUZZLE! STUFF! GULP!
PUT ON FAT, TORTOISE, PUT ON FAT!
GET ON, GET ON! GOBBLE FOOD!

This is actually just a scam-plan devised by Mr Hoppy while he goes to a tortoise shop to buy all kinds of tortoise varying in different sizes. He then replaces Alfie with a tortoise two ounces heavier than Alfie with his tortoise catcher which he uses to reach the Alfie which is directlybelow his balcony to bring him up to his house. Starting from then, he replaces the tortoise in Mrs Silver house with a tortoise two ounces heavier to prevent Mrs Silver from noticing the distinct change in size. Also, the tortoise must have the same shell colour as the previous tortoise. Until the eighth week, Mrs Silver then feels that his tortoise has grown two times bigger and then weighs the tortoise. She then finds out that her tortoise has grown two times bigger and thank Mr Hoppy so much.

But Mrs Silver finds out that Alfie is too big to enter his pet house and then wants Alfie to be smaller, Mr Hoppy then applies the same concept on Mrs Silver. He gives the same coding to Mrs Silver, except that the coding now has the words "Bigger" is replaced by "Smaller". He then quickly replaces the tortoise with a smaller one that has the same shell colour. The tortoise is then able to fit into its pet house.

Mrs Silver then accepts Mr Hoppy and they get married. They then live happily ever after. As for Alfie, he lives with Roberta who took him to her home when she was young. She is now married and has two children of her own. But Alfie still lives with her, finally growing twice his size only after about nineteen years.

The reason I like this book is that this book shows the innocence of a vibrant man who is in love with the his neighbour. It also reflects his wit and shows that he is willing to do anything to gain his crush's love. This brings me back to my childhood and makes me feel nostalgic about the innocent thinking I once had.

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian

This book is basically about the Percy Jackson, a.k.a Perseus Jackson, which is the son of the Greek god Poseidon in the book. This book is actually the last book of the entire series, which actually has five different books. But do not misread my point here, the book is still relatively thick.

In this book, the main point of this book is that Perseus is waging a very huge-scale war with the other evil Olympians. Apparently, they are having war right in New York. The leader of the enemy is Kronos, the evil titan, as he wants revenge from the time when he was cut up into pieces with his own sword and thrown into an abyss. He then seeks revenge by gathering forces to stage a battle with the other gods. The other gods consists of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades and many of Zeus's children. Poseidon, the god of the seas, is also having problems in his own territory. Kronos has garnered some support from some sea lords and they are giving Poseidon many problems so he himself cannot help out in the war against Kronos.

Most of the Gods were having problems dealing with Typhoon, a monster with incredible skills raging through the cities so they were not able to help out in the direct battle against Kronos.

Perseus and all the other young heroes from the camp are called out to help out with the battle. Perseus carries his pen-sword as usual which has a special function, it can change into a sword when the cap is removed and it will always come back to his pocket in a few seconds no matter how far it is thrown to. Annabeth, Perseus crush, although he refuses to admit it, is also involved. During the battle, they were successfully dealing with the enemies on one side of New York but they were surprised by the sudden outburst of enemy from the other side, led by Kronos in the form of Luke. They were then cornered right all the way to the Empire State Building, where in the building, is the place where all the Gods gather in their human forms to have meetings. They then continued fighting and fighting all the way to the top, where the final battle between Kronos, Luke and Perseus is staged. Luke is still being possessed by Kronos. When Kronos uses his body to hurt Annabeth, Luke suddenly goes back to his normal self as he remembers his promise to Annabeth, never to harm her.

Finally, the decision lies with Percy as to whether he should hand the dagger over to Luke or to keep it with himself. He then hands it over to Luke and Luke commits suicide, killing both himself and Kronos inside him. The story then ends with Percy finally admitting his crush on Annabeth and the story ends.

I like this story book as the plot reveals itself very naturally and the reader, in this case myself, is totally absorbed in the book while he reads it. The detailed descriptions of the things happening in the book and the suspense it gives you while reading it makes me want to just continue flipping the pages on and on forever. The plot is also very well developed, having a captivating first book, and an extremely exhilarating climax and finally, a suitable ending which puts the book in proper.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Book Review

The first classic I have read during my holidays are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The 1st story is about a boy who is extremely rebellious but in actual self he is a very kind person. However, he is only excited about the new things that happen in life and not the usual routine of life. He loathes the normal life he has --- going to church, going to school and so on. The story is talking about his self-initiated adventures when the last adventure lead to a happy ending. At the start, it was just about his excitements in life, playing with a beetle in church, having a crush on a girl and using his wits to cheat others to do work for him. Then, after the character Huckleberry Finn was introduced, the story starts to develop as a whole on the path of adventure.

There were two major adventures in this story. The first, after he gets hurt by the girl he likes, Becky, he is heartbroken and plans to leave the town to make everyone who once felt bullied or made him unhappy feel sad. He then source for his friends to go on a pirate adventure. He finds Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper and they set off on a pirate adventure, pretending to be pirates on a nearby island, bringing with them the bacon and ham they stole. Tom and Joe learnt to smoke from Huckleberry Finn then.

The other adventure is based on the time when Tom meets Huckleberry Finn to go to the graveyard. There, they saw a murder case happen right before their eyes. They saw Injun Joe and Muff Potter with a doctor there. They then started to argue and a fight broke out. In the midst of the fight, Potter got knocked out and Injun Joe stabbed the doctor. He then put the murder weapon into Potter's hands and accused him of murder when Potter woke up. Potter took the story and believed that he was the one who killed the doctor. Of course, Tom and Huckleberry witnessed the whole thing and is afraid to tell the truth.

Soon, Potter got arrested because he "admitted" he was the one who kileed the doctor. Tom's conscience began to eat into him and he finally relented, telling the truth in court. But at that very time when Injun Joe was present and Tom began to speak the truth, Injun Joe took off, crashing into the window and running away.

After that incident, Becky tore the principal's book by accident and Tom witnessed it. She thought that he would expose her but he didn't. Instead, after looking at how nervous Becky was and knowing that she would expose herself, he took the blame for her. This made her so touched for him that they made up.


Tom was then afraid that Injun Joe would come back to kill him. But after getting over with that fear, Huckleberry Finn and him then began to search for underground treasures. Coincidentally, while doing so, they land themselves in a Injun Joe's Spanish friend and Injun Joe's hideout. Coincidentally again, Injun Joe and his friend dug up a hidden treasure with so much money in it while Huckleberry and Tom was staring at it with large eyes. They then began to search for the treasure after hearing where Injun Joe has kept it. But they could not find it until one day while Tom went out with Becky on a picnic she has organised. They went extremely deep into the cave and got lost. They soon used up their provisions, which included candles and some cake Tom had saved from the picnic. With one last try, Tom found his way out and found Injun Joe hiding in the same cave as him. He then realised that the treasure was actually hidden there. He then escaped and and they were saved out of the cave. Before that, Injun Joe was trying to kill a widow whose late husband humiliated Injun Joe, while Huckleberry followed them sneakily, thinking that they would lead him to the treasure they had hidden.

Tom and Huckleberry then headed back to the cave by themselves without letting anyone know and they found the lost treasure. After taking the lost treasure out of the cave, they were invited to a party to celebrate them as heroes of the town, as Injun Joe died without water and food trapped in the cave after the cave was locked momentarily and Huckleberry Finn saved the widow. At the party then, they then declared that they were rich by showing everyone the gold and money they had brought from the cave. They were then highly respected after these series of incidents and Huckleberry Finn was adopted by the widow. Soon, Huckleberry Finn escaped from the widow as he could not stand the tidyness of the widow as he liked his old living place, the streets where he was free to do anything he wants. He preferred being dirty to being clean.
Tom then coax him to go back by saying that if he does, he would tell the widow to abandon some rules of hers and allow Huckleberry Finn to join the gang he would soon create.

The whole story then ends like this, after revolving around Tom's adventures, saying that the adulthood of Tom is not to be revealed.

I gave you two choices. Don't give me a third.

The title is rather cool isn't it? Just thought of it while I was eating dinner. Lets get back to the topic here, if we even have one. These twenty nine days of non-blogging shaped me into a non-blogger but my life still goes on, learning new stuff and of course, falling down. Lets start with the new stuff first before I become a pessimistic guy when I blog about the latter.

Hurdles, hurdles and more hurdles. It was during June, when this word entered my life and well, affected my life. I was given a new aim, to cross hurdles at the fastest speed possible. Of course, that would come with a risk, a BIG one indeed. Every time you jump across a hurdle, what happens, you either hook your back leg or jump with the wrong technique. I got the former more often, resulting in a BIG cut every Wednesday. Wednesday seemed to be a really bad "omen" day for me, I trip over a hurdle every Wednesday, Wednesday is usually packed with homework and finally, the next day holds my third language classes.

There are two types of hurdle races for me now, the 100m hurdle race and 400m hurdle race. I am more focused in the 400m hurdle race as 100m hurdle races focuses on the person's technique but 400m hurdle focuses on the acceleration of the person before the hurdle to use momentum to carry you over the hurdle. Well, I will keep you updated about this soon enough, after I master the art of HURDLING.

Maths test comes and goes again, leaving me in a complete whirl. What have I done wrongly? Was my efforts not enough? But, there is one last final chance to prove to myself that I can do it. There is another Maths test coming up on week 7 and this is the final test of the whole year. After this, it will be the end of year exams. But of course, I know that I will not be exempted for maths anymore as I need an average grade of A1. I am sure that you all can see from my post that I will not be able to make it.

Nevertheless, I want to work hard and do my best to score well for the test.

My Book Review

The two Classics I have read throughout my holidays are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Mysterious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The 1st story is about a boy who is extremely rebellious but in actual self he is a very kind person. However, he is only excited about the new things that happen in life and not the usual routine of life. He loathes the normal life he has --- going to church, going to school and so on. The story is talking about his self-initiated adventures when the last adventure lead to a happy ending. At the start, it was just about his excitements in life, playing with a beetle in church, having a crush on a girl and using his wits to cheat others to do work for him. Then, after the character Huckleberry Finn was introduced, the story starts to develop as a whole on the path of adventure.

There were two major adventures in this story. The first, after he gets hurt by the girl he likes, Becky, he is heartbroken and plans to leave the town to make everyone who once felt bullied or made him unhappy feel sad. He then source for his friends to go on a pirate adventure. He finds Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper and they set off on a pirate adventure, pretending to be pirates on a nearby island, bringing with them the bacon and ham they stole. Tom and Joe learnt to smoke from Huckleberry Finn then.

The other adventure is based on the time when Tom meets Huckleberry Finn to go to the graveyard. There, they saw a murder case happen right before their eyes. They saw Injun Joe and Muff Potter with a doctor there. They then started to argue and a fight broke out. In the midst of the fight, Potter got knocked out and Injun Joe stabbed the doctor. He then put the murder weapon into Potter's hands and accused him of murder when Potter woke up. Potter took the story and believed that he was the one who killed the doctor. Of course, Tom and Huckleberry witnessed the whole thing and is afraid to tell the truth.

Soon, Potter got arrested because he "admitted" he was the one who kileed the doctor. Tom's conscience began to eat into him and he finally relented, telling the truth in court. But at that very time when Injun Joe was present and Tom began to speak the truth, Injun Joe took off, crashing into the window and running away.

After that incident, Becky tore the principal's book by accident and Tom witnessed it. She thought that he would expose her but he didn't. Instead, after looking at how nervous Becky was and knowing that she would expose herself, he took the blame for her. This made her so touched for him that they made up.


Tom was then afraid that Injun Joe would come back to kill him. But after getting over with that fear, Huckleberry Finn and him then began to search for underground treasures. Coincidentally, while doing so, they land themselves in a Injun Joe's Spanish friend and Injun Joe's hideout. Coincidentally again, Injun Joe and his friend dug up a hidden treasure with so much money in it while Huckleberry and Tom was staring at it with large eyes. They then began to search for the treasure after hearing where Injun Joe has kept it. But they could not find it until one day while Tom went out with Becky on a picnic she has organised. They went extremely deep into the cave and got lost. They soon used up their provisions, which included candles and some cake Tom had saved from the picnic. With one last try, Tom found his way out and found Injun Joe hiding in the same cave as him. He then realised that the treasure was actually hidden there. He then escaped and and they were saved out of the cave. Before that, Injun Joe was trying to kill a widow whose late husband humiliated Injun Joe, while Huckleberry followed them sneakily, thinking that they would lead him to the treasure they had hidden.

Tom and Huckleberry then headed back to the cave by themselves without letting anyone know and they found the lost treasure. After taking the lost treasure out of the cave, they were invited to a party to celebrate them as heroes of the town, as Injun Joe died without water and food trapped in the cave after the cave was locked momentarily and Huckleberry Finn saved the widow. At the party then, they then declared that they were rich by showing everyone the gold and money they had brought from the cave. They were then highly respected after these series of incidents and Huckleberry Finn was adopted by the widow. Soon, Huckleberry Finn escaped from the widow as he could not stand the tidyness of the widow as he liked his old living place, the streets where he was free to do anything he wants. He preferred being dirty to being clean.
Tom then coax him to go back by saying that if he does, he would tell the widow to abandon some rules of hers and allow Huckleberry Finn to join the gang he would soon create.

The whole story then ends like this, after revolving around Tom's adventures, saying that the adulthood of Tom is not to be revealed.



The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

This story is about a man named Mr Utterson, a lawyer which holds a will of Dr Jekyll stating that if Dr Jekyll dies, all his properties and money will be transferred to a man called Mr Hyde. Mr Utterson then finds out that this Mr Hyde is actually a very cruel man who is seldom seen except for midnights who once stepped over a little girl who blocked his way. He is then intrigued by the will of his old friend, Dr Jekyll.

In actual fact, everything is revealed when Mr Utterson and Poole, Dr Jekyll's butler break into the office of Dr Jekyll as they suspected that Dr Jekyll was replaced by a certain Mr Hyde, but what the find is a dead Mr Hyde.

The whole story is revealed in the end when Mr Utterson reads the letter written by Dr Jekyll and Dr Lanyon, another old friend of Mr Utterson and Dr Jekyll. Dr Jekyll is ACTUALLY Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll invented a potion to change his appearance and personality into Mr Hyde when he drank it. Therefore, Mr Hyde is rarely seen. But Dr Jekyll soon lost control of himself and the personality change came by itself, not by its will. He had to increase the dosage and strength of the potion to change his personality if he wanted to do so. But after some time, he lost total control of his personality change. On a certain midnight, he was in the form of Mr Hyde when his personality was evil and cruel, he killed a man. The police was chasing after him all over London and he immediately tried to change his personality back to Dr Jekyll and burnt all of Mr Hyde's papers and stuff in Mr Hyde's stuff. But the next morning, he wakes up finding himself in the body of Mr Hyde. He cannot come out of his house as he would be caught so he had no choice but to call Dr Lanyon to help him.

He wrote a letter to Dr Lanyon and the butler, calling Dr Lanyon to enter his laboratory with a key given to him by his butler to get the ingredients in the drawer for the potion he needs, then he himself would take the risk to go to Dr Lanyon's house to get the potion and drink it. But, when he drank it, he purposely drank it and turn into Dr Jekyll in front of Dr Lanyon. Dr Lanyon then became listless throughout, unable to accept what the potion can do to a person.

Dr Jekyll eventually turned into Mr Hyde not by will and died in the body of Mr Hyde. The story then ends like this, after revealing the story.

My 2 weeks (Ouch)

I am so sorry for not posting for this past two weeks of my holidays. Well, the main reason is I went to HOLIDAY. I went to Port Dickson for my Church Camp Retreat. Everything there was nice, and the most important thing was, I slept with my friends in a same room. This was the first time I slept with my friends in the same room for 3 entire nights. Well, as you can expect, the tidyness of our room was definitely not up to standard. Sand was everywhere, towels were everywhere, undergarments were everywhere, so dirty that we had to call for Housekeeping just after one night. The Housekeeping helpers were extremely helpful in helping us clean the room.

For the last night, we went to party, well as it was the last night. What a night it was. The joy in every man's heart began to manifest as we played cards, played a game called Saboteur and many others until it was 3am. My freinds and I just went back to our room to sleep as we thought that we had hit the limit, but before we went back, our party group decided that we would meet at 6am to see the sunrise. After reaching my room, I just plopped on my bed and fell into a deep slumber, but my other two friends decided not to sleep for the whole night. Well, one of them suceeded while the other fell asleep while doing his Kumon homework.

Finally, we all woke up at 5.45am and went down at 6am. But there was absoulutely no one! We waited, and waited, and waited until waiting had became a habit of us, then I decided to call their room. To my surprise, they were all sleeping except for one who answered the call as they could not wake up after partying the whole night without sleeping until six.

Then after much twisting and turning of events, we finally headed home. The journey was nevertheless tedious and I, tired and sad. These past few days were gone as fast as a whirlwind, leaving me behind to reflect on my actions and think about what I have learnt from this Church Retreat.

Going on from that, three days after I came back, I have a swollen eye, headaches, and a horrendous cough. Either I am super unlucky or some mysterious guy passed this diseases to me, now,

WHO HAVE THIS DISEASES AND HAD CONTACT WITH ME THESE PAST 3 DAYS PLEASE OWN UP?

Term 2 Home Learning Assignment

My badge has a Latin motto
Hope for the future
The future is hope
Or something

The writer is thinking about the little thinks that were part of his school life but we can see that he does not really pay much attention to his school as he is unsure about his own school's motto.

At times black crows try to interrupt
When we sing the National Anthem

I guess he was thinking about how these little "bad" occurrences help shaped him into the man he was and played a part in his life.

It is difficult to maintain
The whiteness of my shoes
Especially on Wednesdays

He should mean that wednesday was a day when something would usually stain his shoes, or maybe he might be thinking, "stain" his heart.

I must admit there is something quite special
About the bare thighs of hardworking scouts

The fact that he ADMITS means that he despises the scouts initially.

The Malay chauffeurs
Who wait for my schoolmates
Sit on the car park kerb
Telling jokes to one another

We can see that the author himself does not have a chauffeur and seeing his classmates' chauffeur waiting for them everyday makes him jealous. While being jealous, then he takes down every single detail of what the chauffeurs are doing.

Seven to the power of five is unreasonable

I guess that he does not really like maths and finds that the maths equations are not logical and unreasonable.

On Chinese New Year
Mrs Lee dressed up
In a sarong kebaya
And sang Bengawan Solo

He respects Mrs Lee and her way of dressing up. Judging from the way the author takes note of Mrs Lee specially, perhaps she must have a high priority in his heart.

The capital of Singapore is Singapore

This shows that he has enough of the facts and things he has to memorise about Singapore that he just wants to forget everything and remember that the capital of Singapore is Singapore.

My best friend did a heroic thing once
Shaded all A’s
For his Chinese Language
Multiple-choice paper

He respected his friend doing such and act and even says it is heroic. This proves that he is thinking how bored an exam can be and these things should be done to add a tinge of excitement.

In our annual yearbook
There is a photograph of me

He appreciates the fact that his photograph is taken.

Pushing a wheelchair and smiling
They caught me
At the exact moment


When my eyes were actually closed


I guess these are the final stanzas which could mean that his life is full of many surprises. Some surprises may caught him without even him knowing him, like him saying, "When my eyes are actually closed".


PART 2 (My Memories as a primary school boy)

My memories as a primary school boy is very different from the memories of the author's primary school life. No one really attempted to cheat in the exams and even if something like that happen, I think I would not find it very heroic. My teachers are strict, but I guess that is what forms the core and character in me. One incident I remember clearly is a betrayal. Even though it happened when I was Primary 2, I still remember it vividly. One day, sitting in my school bus innocently, my friend came up to me and called me to spray him with my water bottle. Listen well, he told me to spray him. After that, he went to complain to my teacher that I sprayed him. At that time, spraying of water was taboo in my teacher's eyes. Then I got scolded and embarrassed in front of all my classmates. That was it, part of my life but I guess from then onwards I know who are my true friends and who are not.



MY VERY OWN POEM

Summer ends with a school ahead
Winter comes with a sudden dread
There I enter my destined school
Unaware of the tears I shed

I made it through Year 1
Roughed it by Year 6
What happened from Year 3-6?
Only remembered the dreadful Year 2

An innocent boy in a bus
Trusted and betrayed by his friend
A pure heart unpurified in the end

A primary school life over
A betrayal forgotten
A new life awaits
Not forgetting my friends

The Death of Dr Goh... and others...

As you have all know, Dr Goh Keng Swee had just passed away, leaving the face of the world. But his achievements have left a mark on the world, just like the the Great Wall of China, visible even from outer space, or maybe even greater than that. Its impact on Singapore was massive, even though he was born in Malaysia. I woke up today, brushed my teeth and began reading the newspaper. There it was, Dr Goh on the headlines once again. He was not a celebrity, to be honest, I did not even hear his name before he died. Sometimes, doing good does not lead to being famous. This spirit was evident in Dr Goh's life, the young Singaporeans including me never even hear his name before he died, but he strived on, leading to achievements comparable to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

Perhaps, God has ended the life of a memorable man to inspire many more people, leading them to the right path. Even at Dr Goh's death, he has given the people a lesson to learnt. What a man, what a man to learn from. Having learnt such a lesson, I am again inspired to be a person just like Dr Goh! May God bless him.

Now, for the "others" part in my title, the term is almost ending and I think you have guessed it right, the topic "Results" is back once again. This term was... by all means, Horrendous. A string of B3's was by right the worst judgement I could ever have. Maths, Science, Chinese and Infocomm were given B3s as if my luck in life took a serious plunge. However, after looking at my results from another point of view, I realised that perhaps God was giving me a warning to buck up, to train in subjects I was bad in.

After saying so much, I have not even reach the climax yet. Now, for the climax, I told my Mum that I wanted a Mathematics tutor. In my heart, I knew that this decision was important in my learning of Maths. Of course, I would have to be responsible for my choice, which means attending tution and doing the additional homework, but I am not afraid, I know that I have my friends, teachers and most importantly, God behind me supporting me.

Jack Da Man

Sunday... Just another day...

Guess what? Athens is in a disorder right now while I am happily blogging. Ironic right? Just fits the topic Mrs Anu always talk about in class. Speaking about class, many things have happened there. Lets leave that for another post.

This post is specially dedicated to Kevyn and Yuxiang. Well, we just ran our 4x100m two days back. It started off quite well, with Zihan sprinting, although not really taking the lead. Yuxiang made an outstanding run by overtaking all the other runners. But, the interesting part has not come yet. He was about to pass the baton to Kevyn when he stepped on Kevyn and tripped. He fell down himself and his spikes accidentally cut Kevyn's leg. By the way, the spikes I am referring to are the ones found on spike shoes specially made for sprinting. Anyway, Kevyn still maintained the lead and we won! The thing is that they did not give up when they were injured, not mentioning that Yuxiang himself fell down and had some bruises while Kevyn had quite a deep cut on his leg. Thanks you all!!

Jack Da Man

The Finals...

Today, was the day, that the day, said that the day would be good, as predicted. Finals sound like a word to be taken into account, especially when it comes to your CCA. The stadium was packed and filled with students swarming all around the place. Hwa Chong students were visibly seen with their uniform so "neatly" tucked in, and them being clustered into a group. I was one of them, as I was a reserve for the first team, or should I say, Reserve's reserve's reserve's reserve. Yes, that is my position and I am proud to be there.

I always wished to run in an atmosphere full of students cheering hard and the atmosphere was present today. However, I lack the speed and technique to be fit running for the school as the Secondary Twos were extraordinary! Although we did not get first for our relays events, eventually, we got 1st for the overall points.

The whole Hwa Chong Track and Field team was invited to the field. There was a gut feeling that something good will happen. And it did. The B boys won 1st too!!! Having the experience of standing still and singing the school song proudly in front of the audience was extremely valuable to me. Deep inside my heart, a sense of pride stood like the Tan Kah Kee statue in school, high and mighty, proud of myself, Jack Tan and most importantly, proud of my school, Hwa Chong Institution.

Track and Field Competition 2010

Hey! I just realised that I have never talked to you about my CCA competitions. The 51st Annual National Track and Field Competition have already began. I took the 400m singles event. If you are my classmate, I guess you know that I did not qualify. Of course I was disappointed when I saw the results but the comfort was I missed the qualifying mark by 2 seconds only. I am still a Secondary 1 student and I am racing with the Secondary 2 students. I still have another year to catch up with the timing and I am confident that I can pass the qualifying mark next year. Just to let you know, my cousin is also in Track and Field but she is in a different division from mine. She is in Hwa Chong Junior College and she managed to ace her events (If I am not wrong). From that, I realised that it takes time to adapt to your CCA requirements and ace it. I am sure I can do it next year and for all who are reading my post now, thanks!

400m is a very tiring event, well in my opinion, it is. Well, I am slow in 100m, medium at 200m, even worse at steeplechase and I like Bobby. Bobby is my friend, BEST friend. To avoid any confusion, the person I am referring to is not in my class, so, not you Zihan, or Yuxiang, or David. I am referring to the guy from 1A2, I knew him when I was primary three, when I was looking like this! (Above there)

One very day, Bobby was running the corridoor, chasing his friend. At first, Bobby ran past me, then Bobby's friend ran past me, at first I thought they were two same people, then I wondered, how can that guy (I did not know him yet) run so fast that I see a split image of him? Finally, I found out the truth from him and that was what actually started our friendship.

English Ace Assignment (Part 1)

Child Labour in India

India, what a huge country compared to Singapore, but it pales in comparison when the topic entitled "Economy" is brought up. It is internationally agreed that the economy of a country plays an inportant role in terms of determining the stability of a country. Indian has vast area of land, many people and needless to say, many geniuses. Returning to the economy, it is always pulled in when the topic "Child Labour" is mentioned. Is the reason for child labour the poor economy of India? Is this the inexplicable truth or are there many other hidden reasons which lies beneath the dense outlook of the this problem, which might bring us straight to the crux of the problem to solve it. To me, taking the very first step is to look at things in different viewpoints, the government of India's viewpoint and the viewpoint of the World Human Rights Organisation.

Government of India's viewpoint

In Northen India, the exploitation of little children for labour is an accepted practive and perceived by the locals a necessity to alleviate poverty. Even if the government feels that this practive is unacceptable, it has not other choice but to accept it. The main reason is the lack of innovative solution to this problem - poor economy. They cannot come up with revolutionary ideas which would help the locals change their perception so they are forced to use this mean of improving India's economy.
If I were the India's government...
We are trying our best to alleviate the problem of child labour by invoking a law that makes the employment of children between 14 illigal, except in family owned enterprise. We are trapped in a situation where we have to choose between improving the coiuntry's economy or protecting the children of the country.
Verdict --- Give us a solution or banning child labour will be a difficult task.



World Human Rights Organisation's viewpoint

They feel that the situation of child labour is desperate. The children work for eight hours at a stretch with only a small break for meals. The meals are also frugal and the children are ill nourished. They do not have education and are ill treated. Serious actions should be done to this problem. We must put greater emphasis on health and safety issues regarding the children working. In order to prevent risking the children's safety, we must ban child labour. Children are often exploited and deprived of their rights in India, and until further measures are taken, many Indian children will continue to be working in danger.
Verdict --- Ban child labour to prevent the children from being in danger.


My viewpoints

I feel that child labour is of course something which everyone wants banned but major actions are not taking palce. Coming back to my very first point, there are abundant geniuses in India. Instead of implementing rules which are easy to break, India should gather all manpower to think of a solution. As I have said, there are many more geniuses in India than in Singapore, but Singapore can still continue to upgrade itself, even without vast spaces of land. I think that the major changes that should be made are - changing the mindset of the people living in villiages, changing their way of life in terms of child labour and frequent checks on the areas of suspected child labour. Indeed, child labour will help the economy grow, but in turn, the children's education is affected badly. In addition to that, the change of the state of economy is insignificant. On the other hand, if the children are not given the chance to study, the undeveloped child geniuses may not be groomed well and the country will have less leaders. The future of the country is bleack as there will be less future leaders.
Verdict --- Ban child labour and think of the future.





Sources --- www.indianchild.com/child-labour-india.htm
www.childlabor.in/child-labour-in-india.htm

Live with meanings...

Sad. That was the feeling I had when my maid entered the boarding hall. Today was the day my maid went back to her hometown. I wondered if I should be happy or sad, but my expression said it all. She had been working for my family for three and a half year already. She knew what my needs were, attended to them and took care of me. I remembered once when I received bad results when I was in primary school and was crying. I felt all alone, as my parents went to work in the afternoon, then she came to comfort me. I also remembered the fact that when I go out, she always follows me. She brings me safely to my destination, no matter how far it is from my house. She watched me grow, from a puny little primary 4, to a tall secondary 1 student who is taller than her now. I just wish, just wish to say once more, a short little "Thank You".

Dedicated to my maid, Leha.

ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT!

Journal According to Jack Noonan on Lamb to The Slaughter...

I was resting in the police station, after a hard day at work. Then, out of the blue, a call popped out, saying that Patrick Maloney was dead. That made my heart skip a beat. Without an hesitation, I volunteered to be present to investigate. On the way, my heart pounded wildly as I told myself that he was not dead. Who would ever kill Patrick? He could not have done anything so bad that he was to be killed, as he was a cop! He was one of my closest friend, his wife was amicable too.

Just as I reached the scene, my worst fears were confirmed. Patrick was dead. I wiped a trickle of teardrop off my eyelids as I told myself that as a fellow cop, I will find the murderer. But before I knew it, Mary Maloney ran straight at me, flying into my arms. She was weeping. However, I had a feeling when she ran to hug me. That feeling told me that this was all a deception whenever I looked at her. Her weeping face seemed to be fake but from her expression, everyone could tell that she was crying. I shook my head, got rid of that thought and went through the usual process, comforting her and calming her down.

After her matter was settled, I started with the serious things. I thoroughly scanned the area, searching for any clues but to no avail. But when I checked Patrick's body, I found a small tink of blood on the back of his head and quickly gathered all the cops. We then fairly concluded that he was dealt with a hard strike ont he back of his head with a heavy blunt weapon. We then proceeded by "interrogating" Mary. She portrayed a pitiful expression but at the same time, I cant help feeling the same feeling which gushed back into my mind, the feeling that this was all a deception.

We followed her statements accordingly, especially the part when she said that she visited the grocer. One of my subordinates went to find the grocer and he confirmed that Mary visited him to buy food for Patrick around the estimated time of death. We were intrigued and as there was nothing we could get from Mary's statement, we then continued our search for clues. Half of our group left and four cops, including me, continued our tedious search. It was obviously getting late and our stomach;s were obviously growling. Mary offered us lamb and we could not reject the treat. We then gorged ourselves on the food, but whenever I put a pice of lamb into my mouth, I get this weird feeling, one which I cannot express, then I heard Mary giggling. What a mystery...

My feelings (I am a very sensitive guy)

Well, personally, I feel that the Multiple Intelligence Test was quite useful as it tells us what catagory we would fit in. Then, when we work on that specific catagory, we will improve by leaps and bounds. Another point to note, I do not understand why people have many areas which they are potentially good at. I am thus wondering how are they going to choose from these areas, at least I am lucky to have only one area of expertise.

For me, I am Intrapersonal, which means myself smart. To you, the definition of this word may sound incompatible to me, as I tend to rely and ask people before I start being independent. But, I think that this attributes to me being Intrapersonal, I can work it out myself without much help. My score for Music Smart is also not bad, as I come from a musical background, having learnt the piano. In a nutshell, I hope that everyone will continue with their area of expertise and strive for the best.

Cheers,
Jack

Difference between LTTS and The Way Up to Heaven

Just want to let you know that I worked until quite late just to think of this, so please enjoy!!!
*I am sure you can tell I am joking.

Well, lets start! The main difference between Lamb to the Slaughter and The Way up to Heaven is the way of murder presented in the story. In LTTS, the character, Mary Maloney directly kills Patrick, another character while in The Way up to Heaven, Mrs Foster indirectly kills Mr Foster, by leaving him in a trapped lift as she goes on a holiday. There is also another difference, in LTTS Mary kills Patrick because of a negative news which is told to her, while in The Way up to Heaven, Mrs Foster lets Mr Foster dies because the fact that she found out Mr Foster is deceiving her.

Now, for the similarity. The men in both stories have a certain dominance over the women in the story, but towards the end of the story, the women then overthrow the men and kill them instead. At the beggining of the story, both women are submissive and shy, not wanting to speak up in front of their husbands but after a high degree of impact is dealt on them, they killed their husbands, indirectly or directly.




NOW... FOR THE VERDICT.... I PREFER THE WAY UP TO HEAVEN MORE THAN LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER...
I just love the way the murder and deception is presented in The Way Up to Heaven.

PS: This is done after the reminder by Qiyuan so THANKS Qiyuan!!!

5th February 2010. What exactly happened...

I will remember that day for the rest of my life. Well, on that very day, I got back my Mathematics results and guess what... I got quite bad for it. I was pondering over this incident for quite some time. I really did work hard for it. I really studied and spent at least 2 hrs revising my work. Why this result?! I am really sad and I want to know the answer. In my heart, I really can promise to everyone I did study for this exam. I want to know why I did not do well. What is the answer for this?!

Please give your comments and advice...




Just to add a tinge of fun...
It is the GREAT BATTLE TONIGHT!!! REDS vs BLUES
In other words, LIVERPOOL vs EVERTON

VOTE FOR YOUR WINNING TEAM HERE

The story of Mary Maloney, Frankie and Chuan Poon.

Once upon a time... I am not going to start with that heading for now as we are speaking about realisitic stories. Well, lets start by defining deception. Deception is to mislead someone by faking an appearance or statement. We had already discuss about the deception of Mary Moloney in class.


Mary Maloney was described as someone who was very neat and seeked attention from her husband. However ,the husband told her a bad news, which I conclude that it was the fact that he was leaving her for another woman. She was so badly hit by it and the impact made her change. The change was no simple one. She changed drastically in character and thinking. She ended up killing her husband and getting away with it by destroying all the evidence there is.

Lets talk about the deception in Male Child. Chuan Poon was described as someone who was caring and kind person. However , after having six daughters, he feels that he is somewhat cursed with a curse to never have a son. He thought it was because he did wrong when he was a younger. He does not blame his wife but sometime does that when he is irritated and feels embarrassed having so many daughters. His wife is pregnant once again and at first he hopes to have a son. Unfortunately, he met a prostitute which he wants to marry. But his mind is in debate as to whether he should leave his current wife or leave the prostitute. He hates it when other men visits the other woman. He then hopes his wife gives birth to a daughter once again because the wife then allows him to find another wife. The reader is deceived to believe that Chuan Poon was a good man.


Lastly, lets talk about Frankie. The first decepion, Frankie describes Pearl, his girlfriend, as someone who is perfect. She is also described someone who is unwilling to serve her future husband. She expects herself to live in bliss all the time and is only to marry men who she finds suitable for her. In the end, she leaves Frankie because she thinks that his parents will affect his happiness. She is also worried that Frankie might be ''disabled'' when he grows older and is not willing to take care of him. However at the end, she throws away her materialism and is willing to marry Hong who has many troubles.


JUST A VERY SHORT ADDITION TO ANALYSIS!!!

For Mary Maloney, the way she used to let us see her deception is when she killed her husband. She brought out the killer intent in her and the aggresiveness she had, although we can all argue that she done it in the spur of moment. However, we can elude the fact that it was on the spur of the moment after reading the part on how she planned her plot so well in order to get away scot free. In the process, she showed no remorse. This can truly prove the difference between the shy and submissive personality she shown at the beginning of the story and the character she had at the end of the story.
(PS: Mary was never justified for what she did. She got away from the police)


Just a general analysis for all the stories. I feel that the deception in the story about Frankie and the Lamb to the Slaughter is about the same. They both talk about the stark contrast in personality after a party suffer an impact by another party. To add on, the impact they suffer is usually quite heavy, which then makes a dent in their personality.

Pictures of me!

Well, I know that my display picture is a little small and it is a little difficult to see my face so I have decided to post pictures of me! But before that, I have to do a little reflection about english lessons this week. This week seems to be like a reading week. We were asked to read Little Ironies and short Roald Dahl stories. Perhaps to you reading this stories seems boring. To me, once I pick one of those books, I will completely be in my own world. Those stories totally enraptures me! People reading my blog should try to read those stories!

Actually, reading books play a part in our life. They affect our actions and thoughts, even our imagination! They enrich us! However, one very important note is that once you do not feel like reading books, don't! Do not feel like you are being forced to read books because the knowledge you gain will not be entering your memory to leave a mark there. You will just be wasting your time so I got 1 very important tip to help you read books with interest. Imagine yourself as the person in the book! That will honestly help!

A significant friendship formed within 2 weeks

So... You could have just stumbled onto my blog by just clicking the ''next blog'' on the webpage, but I would just give you a very brief introduction about me. I guess you all have heard about boys changing in the classroom, well, thats quite true.

Before PE lessons, seeing everyone rushing to the toilet to change is quite normal, well its the ''norm''. But after just 1.6km or maybe approximately 10 mins in the immense heat of the sun, it seemed that the everyone, including me, was ''brainwashed'' by the Sun. Reaching class, everyone stared at each other and there was just a moment of silence. Following that, ''Someone'' ( I am sparing the guy who shouted that) exclaimed, ''Everyone change!''

I guess you all would have guessed what followed it ; everyone just took off their pants and changed! Fortunately, no female teachers were present at the scene. I am not implementing that this is any place where people change but seriously, this actually signifies our friendship just within 2 weeks so this is just a small little note to everyone, '' treasure those around you''. I guess you have roughly understood my character. Thanks to all who have read this post and another awaits you soon!

Comments? Anyone?