Back-to-school week. And the problem I had of insomnia has disappeared, so be replaced by the usual bout of tiredness again. It seems like something which is either at one end or at the other end, something which never equilibrates, a la diarrhoea and constipation.

Well no guitar this week, so it's a good way to return to school. Although there's the small issue of olympiads and H3s looming as large as the dark clouds were at SW19 in London this week.

New timetable is pretty similar to the old one except now there is a PHY-PHY to add to the 3 consecutive hours of chem we have on monday. More importantly, changes to our tutors. Our dear CT Ms. Wu is now replaced by Mr Wong but he is away for a month of so, so our current PHY teacher is a female j3 teacher who is *ahem* attracting a lot of attention. Haha. Not that there's anything wrong la, seriously.

And now our CT is this Mr Lim guy and I'll give him a few more weeks before I comment on him. So we've got back math, chemistry and GP thus far. Physics and econs - not anticipated- to come next week. Well I guess our math CT isn't as difficult as other school's, but yeah considering the fact that I had barely 3 hours of sleep the night before, and getting so angry over insomnia, I'm glad I managed to maintain my concentration for the test and did well, so I'm glad, although I know there are much sicker tests to come. Anyway 6N truly owns, with like the only 2 students who scored full marks for math coming from there! Chem was bad, and I'm relieved to have been able to scrap the grade I got. GP was truly disappointing, reminiscent of the english marks I got during sec 3 and 4. Yeah well I guess for CTs it all boils down to the word 'relative', yeah, I can compare with people such as the geniuses that are in my class, and I can also compare with a load of other people and suddenly feel fortunate to be able to do better. So, oh wells, I'm fairly content, especially considering the noise that came from above every day of the holidays. But, I suppose subjects like GP and econs for me, will be works in progress, just like Rafael Nadal, just like Arsenal. Some people just start of doing well at stuff, and I'm thankful I'm coping pretty ok with the sciences. From my point of view, GP and econs, as bad as they seem, is not chinese. So hey, it's just more time and effort needed to be put in and I'm sure it'll improve - same thing for anyone facing a problem with a subject not chinese. And yeah, there's still plenty of time to work on them. And if (BIG IF) the A ever arrives eventually, the feeling will be all the more sweeter, and if it never comes, they hey, be glad that you've given your best shot at it, and there's no need to be obsessed with wanting to do well at it and resorting to retaking or rechecking or what not. Hats off to you if you know what I'm hinting about. Sometimes, you just need to hold your hand up and admit you got outdone. The point is never to be too confident, and never to be too disappointed. (Another eg. of something which never equilibrates)

Anyway, after sounding pretty (by my low low standards) philosophical I'll shift my focus to the rest of the week's events. My parents were off to Prague on holiday for a week, so it's just me and sis and our maid at home, and no construction noise any more, thankfully. Thurs CG was just great. Attendance for it was good, and I especially liked the sermon discussion session we had after that. It was truly insightful to discuss issues from the previous sermon by Ben Lee, and just allowing each person to share his or her own free-flowing thoughts, with no 'proper notes' or 'answers' to the question we 'attempted' to figure out. It was really enriching for all of us who participated in it, and that's the way we really should act, persevering to gain knowledge of the truth.

Well, today is LIVE EARTH day, and while a large percentage of the population will be spending it romancing and getting married - nothing wrong at all, what a wonderful way to spend such a day if you could - I got to do some reflection of the state of the earth, of global warming, and the scary thoughts of the world that the generation or two ahead of us would have to endure. Then again, there is nothing much that can feasibly be done without upsetting anyone. So, sigh, to the people who insist on not helping developing countries. Week after week such insightful editorials appear within the Straits Times, and I'm sure even better ones appear in the newpapers in the US or UK, and I'm even more sure that top government officials are aware of them, and hence the conclusion that they can't do much about it, which is sad.

Not so sad, is the state of Arsenal. Yes, Man U has had big signings like Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves, and Liverpool has Torres, and Chelsea still has the only one that keeps them alive and doing so well - the special one. But there's that stubborn confidence within me of Arsenal for next term, that they are so going to cope well. At least better than Real Madrid, who are so stupidly creating speculation after speculation about all of Arsenal, players, manager. zzz. All they do is aim to get quick-fixes which would so obviously backfire. Now they will become a worse-than-arsenal team with Beckham gone. Wahaha, the ethics of journalism.

Well, 7 days ago, I would have turned 17 17 days from now, on the 17th. Do the math.