Getting Out of the House...

Being admitted to Singapore Polytechnic via DPA has gifted me with two wonderful opportunities to do my learning beyond the classroom in just the space of my first two weeks of school. To others, this may not be of much significance. But to me, a girl on wheelchair who rarely goes anywhere save school and church, this is extremely significant.

My first outing was to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on 6 February 2009. After being hemmed in by concrete skyscrapers all year long, I felt a long-forgotten sense of freedom at being reconciled with nature. The various tree and flower species of the mangrove habitat that I had learnt about in my secondary school geography textbooks came alive all around me and I even saw a monitor lizard and kingfisher within close proximity. The guide leading my group was very informative and through him I garnered knowledge of natural medicines that could be found in the forest.

I had nothing but praises for my trip to Sungei Buloh, but the one to Malaysia was even more fantastic. For the first time in more than ten years, I was presented with the opportunity to travel beyond the boundaries of Singapore—thanks to SP! The one-and-a-half hour journey to Mawai Eco Camp itself was wonderful, being able to see the vast spread of palm tree plantations on both sides of the road and simply no buildings at all for tens of kilometres, a sight that I never got to see in Singapore. Upon reaching my destination, I was thrilled to know that I was going to take a dinghy across the river—for the first time in my life! It was an amazing experience! So enthralled by the rustic setting of the place was I that I could not stop snapping photographs. The open-concept long houses built by the Orang Asli were beautiful to behold and even more fascinating to be in. These houses are unique in that they have no wall panels to obstruct the scenic view of the surrounding forest and are fitted with canvas beds on wooden poles. Looking through the gaps between the wooden floorboards, I saw the grass beneath and I became very careful with anything I was holding, for fear of dropping them through the openings. Long houses are built above the ground, which means that you have to climb some steps to get up there. This would have prevented me from getting into one if not for the help of the SP staff and a couple of fellow DPA students who made this obstacle cease to exist. Lunch was provided at the cookhouse at half-past-one, right after the camp briefing and making of beds. There, I tasted some of the best mutton ever. It was simply sublime, done just right, succulent and tender. I also had my rice drowned in generous amounts of the gravy, which turned out to be utterly delicious. Shortly after lunch, the campers broke off into different groups for different activities and I had the pleasure of watching the group that was to cross the water obstacles. While the students were either labouring over tight ropes or falling off a skinny tree trunk into the water, a dozen or so monkeys invaded the cookhouse and rummaged through the dustbin for scraps of food. How interesting the sight was! They came and went so quickly that I could scarce snap a photograph of them. After watching the students for a little while more, the time for me to leave came and I once again had to take a dinghy back across the river.

Now that I am back in Singapore, with a whole load of pleasant memories from my two enjoyable trips, I would like to thank Ms Angelvin for driving me to and from Sungei Buloh and Malaysia. Without her help, these trips would never have been possible. Thank you, Ms Angelvin!

Picking Your Goods at the Bookstore

Reading books is akin to eating. You will only enjoy and continue eating food that suits your palate. So, how do you pick books that “suit your palate”? Selecting a book to read sounds simple enough, but there actually is an art to it. Here are some questions you can ask yourself before choosing your books and also some book-choosing tips I have discovered from my own reading experience that may help to enhance your own.

1) Do you prefer stories written in the first-person or third-person account?
2) What type of writing style do you like? Descriptive? Action-packed? Lots of dialogue?
3) What length of story are you comfortable with? Trilogies? Multiple-book series? Short stories? This is very important, or you will probably loose interest halfway through.
4) What kind of era do you like your story to be set in? Ancient? Modern? Futuristic?
5) Always look up book reviews on the internet first before deciding to buy a book. (Amazon is a good choice) Through these reviews, you will be able to get a glimpse into the story and you can decide whether the content of the book is to your interest.
6) Try to read free excerpts of the book on websites such as RandomHouse (it provides the first chapter free) before buying it to get a feel of what the story is like.
7) Always choose the genre that you like.

The Benefits of Reading Part One

Being an avid reader, the fact that some people dislike reading is simply incomprehensible to me. You see, reading has so many benefits that I feel that it would be a loss if I did not like it. I see the need to convince these book-haters that reading is good and so I will post the benefits of reading in a few parts. The first part is as follows:

1) Reading is a form of self-discovery. When you read storybooks, you will come to like and dislike certain characters. After reading more books, you will notice a trend in the type of characters you like or dislike. For example, all the characters possess a similar quality (quiet? strong-willed? compassionate? pragmatic? studious?). This will be an indication of what kind of people you would get along well with or most probably end up arguing with in real life. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to find the type of friends that will suit you most or the type of project partners that you are less likely to have a conflict with. Also, when you read, you will realise that you like certain types of places or environments (e.g. type of workplace, education system, house etc). A trend in your preferences will again surface and you can use this trend to help you choose an environment in which you would most probably feel comfortable with in real life.

Curse of the Mistwraith

I only have praise for this book. Wonderful! Riveting! Lovely! A fantasy masterpiece! Curse of the Mistwraith is one of those books which I will vividly remember for years to come. It captured my attention from the very first page and kept me interested till the last. CotM s the first book in The Wars of Light and Shadow series written by Janny Wurts and it promises greater adventure in the sequels. I regret not discovering this book earlier. Rather than the usual theme of Good vs Evil in most fantasy books, CotM is unique in that its underlying theme is Justice vs Compassion. There is also no evil dark lord in this story, only two half-brothers who are bound in unnatural enmity as a result of a curse laid upon them by the Mistwraith. CotM is not one book which you can skim through quickly, as the author packs her writing with superbly fine detail (you must read each sentence carefully, or you’ll miss some hidden meaning, and the author never spoon-feeds her readers by directly stating what she implies), stunning vocabulary (you might need to keep the dictionary close by) and complex sentence structures. If you’re looking for a challenging read with a deep plot, this is the book for you. Besides an engaging storyline, CotM also rewards its readers with three-dimensional characters who will make you smile when they smile and make you weep when they weep.

I must say that my favourite character is Arithon (I can’t seem to like Lysaer, even though I know what he became was no fault of his. I will try to like him.). Arithon is one of those characters who will stay in my mind for a very very long while, being so mysterious, self-sacrificial, quiet and compassionate—all qualities that I like (if ‘mysterious’ can be considered a quality). My heart simply breaks when he gets hurt or faints from exhaustion somehow…

Well, I shall not reveal anything more about the story as such a treasure will be best appreciated only if you discover it yourself.

The Hobbit

Well, this is the first book I have read by J. R. R. Tolkien. Quite a boring book, I must say, as I read it at a wrong age of 16. If I had read this book eight or nine years ago, I might have enjoyed it as The Hobbit was written for children. So, if you’re around eight to ten years old and you like the fairytale kind of book, this book is one of the best I can recommend to you. However, if you’re older and you like action-packed fantasy with wars and magic and such, I would suggest that you stay away from this one. Anyway, no book is ever perfect. Now, don’t be worried, I’m not going to launch into a lengthy review here. Just a few important points…

1) There is simply too much unneeded dialogue. It decreased the quality of the story as the author seemed to be rambling on and on about unimportant stuff. It made me terribly bored.

2) The story didn’t manage to get me emotionally involved. Nothing made me laugh or weep. The characters were one-dimensional and they were simply moving from place to place.

3) Smaug died too abruptly and easily. It seemed as if the author created the character, then felt that it was a mistake or got tired of it, and so got rid of it in a slipshod manner. A supposedly powerful and fearsome dragon dying of an arrow-shot that easily? I was expecting some great battle. Oh well, this is a children’s book.