i have to confess that as of now, the suite at ritz is STILL NOT CONFIRMED. the ritz official line is that they're fully booked up, suites and rooms, because there's some sort of convention going on in town.

so my dad's friends are pulling strings, or rather, attempting to pull strings, in order to get us a suite somehow but on the off chance (or possibly the large chance) that ritz is really out of suites, we'll try to find a suite at one of the nearby hotels -- Oriental, Conrad, Pan Pacific etc.

as a result, the price might go up. i will still try my best to find someplace with a huge-ass corporate discount, but PLEASE do not get upset if we end up having to pay more, since, remember that without the discounts we were earlier prepared to pay up to around $800!!!

really really really sorry, and as i told vivien, if this whole suite thing doesn't work out, we can all come over to my place cos my family will all be out of town and we can save ALL the money and spend it on booze or midnight pizza cravings or whatever.

but since a suite at the ritz is infinitely more exciting than my house, the Search for the Hotel Suite will continue!

okay latest update people! :)

people sleeping over (15, $50 pax - $25 for room)
*any inaccuracies please tell me! would be eternally grateful if word was spread around :)
choon
aparna
vaish
grace
vivien
kelly
soph (? is your air ticket thing fixed)
claud
zhian
yiting
shooj
derrick
tszsan
yeekiat
randy

other people staying for a bit (2, $25 pax - misc)
ruth
shane

the accounts!

hotel room
tentatively is $375 (inc taxes)
(in the case that it is excluding taxes it will be $437)
$375 / 15 = $25 pax

bribing/thanking aps dad's friend
expensive chocolates. ie godiva chocolates!
I honestly have no idea how much these cost but aps (she would know right!) put it at $100
(and before you complain pls remember booking through him we're saving $425 AND he's doing a big favour by checking us in and out in the AFTERNOON on a WEEKDAY when he's working)

misc stuff (ie unforseen expenditure, booze, snacks etc)
$25 x 17 = $425
$425 - $100 = $325 ie $325 worth of whatever you want!

$100 shall be left aside as in-case money (ie for unforseen expenditure)

leaving $225 worth of drinks and snacks
proposal: buy $150 worth of drinks & $75 worth of snacks at Carreforre
*one bottle of large vodka usually costs around $70 from 7-11
NB: ratio can be adjusted
NB: think of what you guys what to buy. drinks & snacks wise and COMMENT! also need volunteers to buy. preferably guys ( hehs. can carry & girls will be busy Anyway! :) )

Other stuff you should know

1. If you want to make any changes. ie think we should charge less or want to have different forms of expenditure or What Not just COMMENT. thats what its there for. praising of organiser is also allowed :) haha. how narcissistic

2. Leftovers will be refunded! fear not! :)

3. Bring sleeping bags or its just you and the carpet

4. We're booking through aps dad's friend who is pulling strings and getting us a Corporate rate and who obviously won't be staying with us and we are obviously not part of his company. IE if we get into trouble and make too much noise etc we're not just going to be bedless, we are going to get a LOT OF PEOPLE INTO TROUBLE. so we can't be Too noisy especially along corridors where there is actually the potential to disturb. Although they dont have any official policies on maximum amount of people in the room, I asked and they said less than 10 is okay. so OOPS. in short Be Good :)

5. issue of free ritz breakfast for 2 people. retails for $30 pax. suggestions?

6. anybody wants to bring board games or what not? bring decks of cards please!

7. it might be good if some towels were brought assuming you want to bathe. we Can ask ritz people to send up towels but like 15? i think its somewhat too much right?

anything else?

:)

I Cannot Wait! :)

hey people

not sure how many of you actually read the blog daily etc but anw meeting toms after the lit paper in the hall (assuming thats where our paper is at). fairly important stuff regarding prom! :) (yes the end of A levels are almost here!!!) and would appreciate it if everybody showed! including those not going for prom please :) me would also greatly appreciate everybody who reads this to help pass on the message tomorrow! :) :) :) thankyou! ^_^

you know wad? I got an offer from this university and was happily checking out accomodation etc etc and decided i'd be quite happy going there and then I decided to check out the -course- i applied for and *have a wild guess what comes next*


realised it was the random choice one I made.. which was a MASTERS course in economics. *GAH*

Back to Utopia
lovely intersection between history and literature, on utopias/dystopias, the influence of science fiction on politics and vice versa. freaking fascinating.

(: just a few more days

Your peers think of you as a fun person, but sometimes you can be a little irresponsible. You can be somewhat childish, and can try to ignore the fact that you will one day need to really grow up and be a mature adult! Perhaps you could start reading good books; they might help you look at the world in a different light. You do want to be taken seriously, right?

Get to know yourself better
http://quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are not looking merely for a girl/boyfriend - you are looking for your life partner. Perhaps you should be more open-minded about who you spend time with. The person you are looking for might hide their charm under their exterior.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

Success in your career is not the most important thing in life. You are content with what you have and think that being with someone you love is more than spending all of your precious time just working.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

into the strenuous briefness
Life:
handorgans and April
darkness, friends

i charge laughing.
Into the hair-thin tints
of yellow dawn,
into the women-coloured twilight

i smilingly glide. I
into the big vermilion departure
swim, sayingly;

(Do you think?) the
i do, world
is probably made
of roses & hello:

(of solongs and, ashes)

amazing. someone tried to hack into my blogger account and blogger people told me. haha so i've changed my password. as in. this refers to my forgotten account. LoL. The one I used during "4th Place" I assume that's my 4th blog or smtg.

the stress is getting palpable
(not least on this blog)
therefore:

Loudon Wainwright III - Final Exam

Get on the stick and start to cram
It's almost time for your final exam
You don't want to flunk like a fool
And you don't wanna have to go to summer school

Summer school, summer school
(Oh! oh)

(Final exam, final exam
Almost time for your final exam)

If you don't pass you might as well be dead
You got to remember what your teacher said
With flying colors you just gotta come through
'Cause you mother and your father, they're counting on you

They're counting on you
They're counting on you

(Final exam, final exam
Almost time for your final exam)

-guitar solo-

(Final exam, final exam
Almost time for your final exam)
Rack your brains, bite your nails
Nobody's gonna love someone who fails
You know the pressure is on now
You know it, so it the heat
You're under the gun, feel free to cheat

C'mon, feel free to cheat
Cheat like they do in Westpoint!

(Final exam, final exam
Almost time for your final exam)

Final exam!
(aahhhhh.... almost time for your final exam!)
Get out your blue book!
(aahhhhh.... almost time for your final exam!)
Get out your number 2 pencil baby!
(aahhhhh.... almost time for your final exam!...)


inspirational stuff, wherever westpoint is. =]

incidentally loudon wainwright iii has a song called 'rufus is a tit man'.
i went to have a look at the lyrics... i conclude that mr purvis has interesting taste.

speaking of igloos, just watched a very interesting episode of globe trekker (i LOVE discovery travel and living, heh) and it was a trip to arctic canada and it was soooo damn cool. also realised that the north is arctic, south is antarctica. antartica? they travelled around on sleds pulled by the most adorable dogs, and they went polar bear hunting with some inuit polar bear experts - as in searching for polar bears just to see what they look like, not Killing them. sort of like whale-watching in boston though that's sort of boring cos you hardly see any whales. and they were the humpback variety which are rather ugly. i guess it's polar-bear-watching then.

and the inuit guy had a funny name: balusi canolusi or something that sounded like that. and his grandson's name is just jason. and there was a girl who called herself a 'half-breed' because her mother's scottish and her dad's inuit. kelly's mom has a friend who's married to an eskimo. how cool is that.

i just discovered an Air Inuit website. they're having a pre-freeze sale now. "Collectively owned by the Inuit of Nunavik through their participation in Makivik Corporation, the airline has successfully operated for more than twenty-five years in this charming and challenging operational environment." no kidding. heh the website is so cute and simple it almost looks like the oceanic airlines website from Lost. www.airinuit.com if you wanna check it out.

also. 'eskimo' is offensive in canada. i had no idea! inuit is a term of ethnic pride, so it's preferred. and inuit is plural. inuk is singular, meaning 'human being'. inuit is also a family of languages spoken by the inuit people. "but it is less well understood that Inuit cannot substitute for Eskimo in all cases, being restricted in usage to the Inuit-speaking peoples of Arctic Canada and parts of Greenland. In Alaska and Arctic Siberia, where Inuit is not spoken, the comparable terms are Inupiaq and Yupik, neither of which has gained as wide a currency in English as Inuit. While use of these terms is often preferable when speaking of the appropriate linguistic group, none of them can be used of the Eskimoan peoples as a whole; the only inclusive term remains Eskimo.•The claim that Eskimo is offensive is based primarily on a popular but disputed etymology tracing its origin to an Abenaki word meaning “eaters of raw meat.” Though modern linguists speculate that the term actually derives from a Montagnais word referring to the manner of lacing a snowshoe, the matter remains undecided, and meanwhile many English speakers have learned to perceive Eskimo as a derogatory term invented by unfriendly outsiders in scornful reference to their neighbors' unsophisticated eating habits."

it's kind of like indians vs native americans. americans are so touchy about these things.

"In spite of regional differences, Eskimo groups are surprisingly uniform in language, physical type, and culture, and, as a group, are distinct in these traits from all neighbors. They speak dialects of the same language, Eskimo, which is a major branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family of languages. Their antiquity is unknown, but it is generally agreed that they were relatively recent migrants to the Americas from NE Asia, spreading from west to east over the course of the past 5,000 years."

anthropology! eskimos etc are mongoloids, like most of you because you're chinese. vaish and i are probably caucasoid since we're brahmin, and my dad has very caucasoid features. but we're also south indian and the dravidians of south india haven't been racially classified so... we lack identities. kitson's like a confused mongo-caucasoid. must take anthropology classes in university.

i am ferociously wikepedia-ing all this. i am very fascinated! and i must do Proper Research for igloo!sex story.

actually i just realised the north pole is the one with no land, because basically there's canada that goes all the way up, and there's greenland. and the pole itself just has lots of ice. the south pole has antarctica which is actually a continent with land, though it's uninhabited except for a bunch of research stations. and it's the one with a humongous hole in the ozone layer above it. apparently staying there through the summer is worse than staying at the equator for a year. something like that.

i want to go on an arctic expedition. deep inside me, i desire silence. lots of it. and lots of open space and fresh air. i don't know why but i'm pretty sure i'd enjoy an arctic expedition. i just hope it doesn't require too much physical training like an everest expedition does, but this isn't mountain-climbing so it can't be that bad right? although i'm terribly traumatised because i can't figure out how you can possibly go to the toilet in such conditions. i mean, you pour a jug of hot water and it'll freeze in midair, so uh. what happens when you pee??? and how can you take your pants off anyway? your ass would freeze off, literally.

on that same note, how do you take off enough clothes for igloo!sex? kelly we have some logistical issues to figure out.

and also, i think food would be a problem. they mostly eat sea mammals. gross. being vegetarian seriously limits travel options, damnit.

they wear cool boots though. hahaha. they have to wear special boots because otherwise their toes freeze off. some guy made a funny comment about how he counts his fingers and toes eveyr night to make sure he's got them.

oh!
we can have an episode with one of the girls making a big fuss about having to wear chunky Clarks boots instead of her Dior fur-trimmed boots that she bought Specially for the trip and she's soooo disappointed because by the time she gets home from the trip the boots will be passe already and it's So Wasted and she could have packed another fur jacket or something if she hadn't brought those boots!!!

heh. apparently hypothermia makes people irritable.

ok yes i need an arctic expedition. i desire immense silence. i am getting SO ANNOYED by the drilling and hammering going on at the neighbours'. literally on the other side of my wall. my whole room is shaking.

the most irritating sound in the world: electric drills. i am going to go now and sleep in my parents' room.

okay i'm feeling indulgant. i will blog. am really glad the exams are here because it marks the end of 12 years of education, the first 8 of which were painfully boring, the next three being much more colourful and last two being the most interesting, busy, despite the many blows on my self esteem and the over-load of r-ff---ian competitiveness (of which I know I added to myself), well, i suppose the net outcome is pretty positive. it's also very convenient to have so many smart friends during this period. like kelly who is a lit dispenser and dan&joel who are math/hist/everything encyclopedias and the plenty of others who gave not academic help but helped to keep things relatively colored at a time that could be particularly dull.

I have been going out almost every day for the past couple weeks because as we all know I hate where I live. it sometimes makes me think I'm wasting time travelling yet... I dunno how much I'd study on my own anywhere. the company's been nice. despite smelly pens and wasted time and sad lack of money now... i can't wait till this is over. two more weeks. two more weeks then we'll all be ex-classmates.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Wiltshire | 'Napoleon's tooth' up for auction

well, that's something to casually mention in the body of your french rev essay next friday.

omg did u write tt

It was a Dark and Stormy night. Slowly the Polar Explorer pulled out of the harbour, lights gleaming like... [insert authorial pause in which she tries to think of a Really Bad Analogy]... little cats' eyes peering out of her sides. On board her vast deck, Aparna Sanjiv Aiyar stood at the port railing, looking at the dark coast of Greenland slip slowly away. In the Captain's cabin, John was tossing and turning and trying to get to sleep. He had cabin fever--and they had only just pulled out of the port.

In the Engine Room, Ted was manning the... [authorial note: suggestions welcome] Engine.

[Kelly's authorial note: Aps has objected to her lead role in the story. The heroine's name shall therefore be changed to... *drumroll*...

the Marquess Alexandra Jacqueline de Pompey Fructidor!]

Right. So the Marquess Alexandra Jacqueline de Pompey Fructidor was strolling on the port deck, watching the dark coast of Greenland slip slowly into the night's oblivion. Deep in the Engine Room, Ted was coaxing the engine to its maximum speed of fifteen knots, for they were scheduled to arrive at the Pole by morning. Despite the inordinate amount of concentration it took to get wheezing engine's speed up, he found time to wonder at the Polar Explorer's motley cast of passengers and crew.

There was Captain John, for example, in his ruffles and breeches, who had locked the door to his cabin, preventing Little Willy his cabin boy from doing any tidying there. He had winked at Ted and said, "'Tis a top secret research experedition [sic], m'boy! Can't have Little Willies peeping and prying, can we now?" Then he had given a hearty laugh and strolled off, leaving Ted feeling extremely bemused.

And then there was the the Marquess Alexandra Jacqueline de Pompey Fructidor, of whom nothing was known. Except, of course, that she was the heiress to a fortune in telephone cords. [authorial note: Kinky!] Ted had heard it whispered among the ranks of cabin boys that she was present on the Polar Explorer in connection with a Journey of Forgetting. Whatever that was.

One of the steam boilers began to hiss, black smoke billowing out in dark clouds. Ted spat, wiped his mouth, and forgot about the Marquess.

*

But what of our heroine, strolling along the port deck beneath the heavy storm clouds?

The Marquess A.J. de P.F, as she was more commonly known, was, like the weather, particularly downcast that night. I am in tune with nature, she thought to herself, sighing deeply. O, how I do miss the sunny clime of my dear, dear chateau on the outskirts of Marseilles! And the wine, and the ivy round the castle walls, and the sculpted gardens! And welcoming my mother's distant cousin, the Princess of the Caribbean Islands! O, there did I sing and dance all day, watching TimTom my pet monkey and dusting the portraits of my revered ancestor, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan! [authorial note: that is a Really Bad Anachronism. Jigme Singye Wangchuck is the present King of Bhutan.]

For indeed the Marquess was descended from a long line of royalty. Bhutanese royalty, to be sure, but blue blood was blue; that could not be denied. She raised her right arm in the moonlight and examined the vein, just to be certain.

And ma chere Elise, with her glorious stories of Egyptian headdresses, and of course, of course, mon cher Andre! Oh, how I long for him, even now that he and I are long parted, and perhaps forever! The Marquess Alexandra paused in her reflections to withdraw from her bosom a wooden box, on which was carved in exquisite lettering,

"A Jacqueline, mon amour. Toujours, Andre."
[Authorial Note: It was either a very big bosom, or a very small box. Our research in this field is inadequate. Suggestions welcome.]

The Viscomte Sheikh Andre Ricardo de Bologne de Bahrain had been her longtime lover, and her presence on the Polar Explorer was due, she felt, entirely to the enmity that had existed between him and her father, the Marquis Alexander.


*****TO BE CONTINUED*****

pancakes!!! SO CUTE.

and cabin fever -- i think we all suffer from the same disease. i have no inclination to study! it is SO UTTERLY BORING.

can't wait for university. semesters -- no studying of same topics 2 years in a row.

argh. what happened to quiet diwali. dad's friend just dropped in while rest of family was sleeping and i answered the door in most un-diwali-esque skimpy tank top and shorts! mortifying.

*

Thanks to the simultaneous onset of cabin fever, Kelly and I have decided to attempt a Really Bad Fic.

It will be set in The Olden Days. Please expect Bad Anachronisms, Really Bad Authorial Notes and the Indiscriminate Use of HTML. And lots of capital letters.

Therefore, we will Soon be presenting to you --- The Quest For Igloo!Sex

Watch. This. Space.

aps has diagnosed my condition correctly:

CABINFEVERCABINFEVERCABINFEVERCABINFEVERCABINFEVERCABINFEVERCABINFE-

amazing icons LJ users make.