a trip to the sub court

Reaching the Subordinate Courts, we soon learned that there was the trial in Court 26 for the recent murder of opposition party member, Tan Lead Shake’s brother and the slashing of Tan’s sister-in-law. The news had reported that Tan was suspected to have called to police to arrest his wife after she had committed the murder and stabbing.
Upon entering Court 26, there were a string of mentions concerning various cases, most of which were either put on police bail or was postponed to a later date due to the need for further investigations. I had expected a full blown trial for this murder case, considering the interest that has been generated and the people involved. However, the hearing was postponed to 7 July pending investigations. What I had managed to gather was that the name of Tan’s wife was Wu Yun Yun and that she was charged with the suspected murder of Tan’s brother.
Seeing as how the rest of the court cases were mentions, we decided to try Courts 1 to 4 at Level 7. However, most of the courts had present only lawyers and people seated at the public gallery, but no judge. We tried the courts on Level 5 as well, but it was the same. Finally, we decided to try asking for the Charge Sheet, hoping that in so doing, we could get details about potential cases and perhaps even the time the cases were going to start. If we ran out of time to sit through the entire court case, at least the details would be sufficient to write a report. We then went back to Court 2 and asked the court office if we could obtain a copy of the Charge Sheet. They directed us to the Corporate Offices who later told us we could not get a copy as we were not licensed journalists and did have the necessary paperwork.
Considering that this was the second time we were in the Subordinate Courts to get a story, I honestly thought we would be more equipped. This time, I knew from experience to expect that there would be a lot of waiting. The last time, we waited one and a half hours for a case that got postponed, and then sat through another two cases for approximately half an hour. I was prepared for mentions of section numbers and abbreviations that I did not understand and for soft spoken judges who spoke fast. That time however, we could afford the luxury of time to get a proper story. Now however, we only had effectively half an hour to get a story. Even with the printed hearing list, we somehow chose all the wrong courts. We chose the courts based on the description of the case – Court 2 had cases concerning “causing grievous hurt, outrage of modesty, misuse of drugs, theft” and Court 4 had “theft and robbery”. We thought those were big ticket stories. We checked the top 2 levels and only Court 26 on the first level and left out the courts in between.
I think the issue was limited persistence. I was really disappointed we did not get a story. If journalism were to be my career, I knew not being able to get a story was not an answer. We should have gone through all the levels and checked the rest of the courts, even if the charge or case did not seem as interesting or that big a deal. Experience might have gotten the better of us, we thought we knew how to handle and what to expect, but then forgot the basics of simple persistence.

okay, that looks like something worth considering. takes up just that little place, leaving me space for a home gym, mwhaha.

sorry i haven been blogging. too much is happening in work. sheryl and i both got a new watch which we like(mine's a timex and her's nike). the only reason i could think of why she have not posted a picture is due to us not being able to take a nice shot? isnt that right?

ah, so many things i want to purchase. got to prioritize them, get the more important ones. hopefully work will decrease in the next two weeks so i could see sheryl more. and of course, able to keep up with my scheduled workouts.

just an idea of the some things i want: see above. thats just two of them. need to always remember that it is God's provision.

alrighty, till the next time then

double desk bookshelves

another great home decor idea! this time from apartment therapy. it even has diy pdf files for you to download and try out. i'd like to have one of these next time. *hint andrew* (:

anyhoo, was trying desperately to do my pr readings. i also *finally* got my journalism and media law&ethics textbooks. think i looked like a total nerd. with 3 textbooks and a pile of readings - which btw i barely got through. was ploughing through it like quicksand. yea, i know you cant plough through quicksand, you sink right? felt like i was sinking. the readings were just so unbelievably, WRETCHEDLY dense. ): so i started to take photos of my table every hour or so. think the people at gloria jeans thought *i* was dense. ahwells.

found this really great quote tho while reading. its on the blue post-it. but i shall type it out in case its too small. (:

"mud that sticks to the wall of knowledge should be retained. that which falls off is indeed mud and should be discarded. this theory of knowledge accumulation suggests that the more individuals there are throwing different kinds of mud, the more likely is that some of them will throw something that sticks."

-Campbell, Daft & Hulin (1982)

with 2 essays in the thousands word count and a journal (that needs a gazillion readings, press releases and writing exercises) to hand in by next week, i'd better be getting myself some of that "mud that sticks to the wall of knowledge".
*sheryl

ice lollies & 3M

i found this "new" ben&jerry ice-cream flavour! i say new, but it mightn't be. its just that i noticed it only last night while grocery shopping. its cheesecake & brownie! my 2 favourite cakes! its really reaaaaally good. the ice-cream mostly has a cheesecake flavour, then there are these delicious chunks of brownies inside. *yum.

i made a fetta cream pasta just now for lunch. turned out unexpectedly good. going to try to grill steak with fetta cheese later. yea, i know, seems like a lot of fetta huh? :p

did i mention how much i *heart* 3M stuff?! stationery makes me happy. found these post-its highlighters that had glitter! the ones i had before (the pink one) were just a plain solid colour. and donut tape. how cute is that?! plus its portable. but i digress. (:

ohh, and i made this for myself. blogged about it at squiggletown. and there's a new notebook up for sale! (:

*sheryl

pizzaz*

i realise that adding a little pizzaz* to anything brightens it up immediately. takes away that want to buy a new version of it. like my sony vaio thumbdrive seemed to be crying out to me to dress it up a bit! so i gave it a studded rhinestone pearl and heart charm. there, all pretty now. (:
*sheryl

cork board

i found this really cool picture online of an unusual cork board. when and if i get a chance to renovate my room, i would love to have a cork board like that. at the moment, i do have a sizeable cork board already at my desk. so i'll make do with it. but this is the cork board!

*sheryl

dymo it

lately i've had a fixation with label makers. andrew thinks i'm going overboard. i've got 2 dymo label makers - one has a bigger font than the other, thats why. and i got 1 atb label maker. there are 8 interchangable templates with different fonts and icons. label makers are like a hot glue gun. you'll find things to glue when you get a hot glue gun, and with label makers, you'll want to label everything possible. :p i almost wanted to make an andrew label to stick on andrew, but andrew stuck it on his sigg waterbottle instead. and his iTouch. and he's got a spare in his wallet. just in case. i mean you'll never know? (:

you know how some brands become the product? like when you think of tissue you say kleenex and sticky paper are post-its, all sticky paper are post-its regardless of brand? well, label maker is such a long word. there's like 4 syllables! dymo is just two. so when i say i like to dymo stuff it means i want to plaster labels all over said object. dymo-ing things is fun. and not the new fancy-smancy dymo labels are are like 2D. its the old school dymo labels that rock - the 3D embossed type? mom thinks it looks cheap. i think andrew likes it too. i think it looks vintage. what do you think?

*sheryl

imposter staples

okay, spot the difference (or the odd one out)
look at the collection of staples!
i've got large staples, small staples, cat staples, foldable staples...
ohh, you want a close up?
tadahh! yepp! its a sewing machine! can you believe it?!
i couldn't. haha. its a really portable sewing machine.
it can sew a running stich and a chain stich. not too bad i'd say.

okay, smallish sewing machines aside, i did a really quick fathers' day pressie.

so i got a tee and i just sewed the base and sleeves together so it becomes a pouch!

i decided to make it into a drawstring since this is the shirt. if it were sleeveless, the armholes could be the straps and it could then be a slingbag. but then since it was for my dad, i really didnt think he would use a slingbag, so a pouch would be just fine. (:

and then personalised it with fabric paint. (:


ohh, and a long over-due picture. these are the other 6 notebooks i did for my mom. i realise i've been doing a lot of budget notebooks. i still got a few more to complete. would love to try doing a full-blown proper album notebook without scrimping on materials soon. got several assignments to complete first tho. sigh.

church camp was fantastic btw.
prof william harding is such an excellent speaker. the message topics were all pertinent and extremely thought provoking. we left last sunday afternoon after church, stayed one night in malacca and then drove up to kl for lunch, afterwhich we then drove up to genting. had camp till friday afternoon, then bypassed kl on the way back because we heard on the news that there might be a protest at the petrona towers. stopped by malacca again on the way back for a night, then arrived back in singapore on saturday night.

i'm so glad my parents let andrew come with us this trip. seeing him 24-7 for a whole week was just heavenly. and when we didn't get to meet on sunday, there were immediate withdrawal syndromes.

anyhow, i'll leave you with this picture of us taken on saturday morning at an old dutch fort. (:

(version 1 - original)

love lots, sheryl.

p/s: trying out new photoshop stuff. love this old photograph feel

(version 2)

(version 3)

which version do you like best? [:

4 years and a month

today is 4 years and 1 month to the date. i don't know if its just the day or just the feeling of being overwhelmed. i miss him so much and he's probably like 1246736 miles across the south china sea.

i've got an opinion piece due tmr at 4pm. i've barely started readings, barely analysed the question, and i'm itching to scrap. andrew was right. i shouldn't have told myself i got plenty of time. because i didn't. i don't. i feel like i'm sinking into desparity (i just realised this isn't even a real word. goodness.) this is horrible. i told myself i'll NEVER get caught in a time wrap like that - not being able to complete an urgent assignment, which i badly want to do well for. and even as i type i'm clearly conscious of time ticking past, of minutes and seconds that i'll never be able to regain, and why am i still typing. (stop sheryl)

okay. i shall stop griping. i mean there's nothing i can do, but just to do the blasted paper. just in case you're wondering, the questions are:

1. Quality journalism is the life blood of liberal democracy.
2. Journalism is a tumour and its seeping puss is slowly killing liberal democracy.

i'm more inclined towards the first. i firmly believe in the power of the press. i am aware of its shortcomings but still. i need to mull over this a bit. okay. off to do my essay. sometimes a controlled ranting is good. gives you time to read what you're typing and then decide a probable outcome.

i can't wait for friday.

*sheryl

i bought a new cup

i bought a new stoneware cup. love the colour - matte creamy grey. i saw a tea set made from the same materials but in this lovely creamy pea colour.

other notable events - cotty got a new cage! (cotty is my rabbit) it has 2 levels and its on wheels! so we can wheel him to wherever we want. (: i put the hay on the upper deck, so that he has to exercise to get food (but also because the base floor has holes for his poop and pee to go through and the hay will just fall through if its left there). but sometimes when he gets lazy he just reaches up and nibbles at the hay around the edge of the deck. uberly adorable.

andrew has left for his "short" sailing trip today. i say "short" but honestly its going to feel like eons. i have decided i shall keep busy by trying to finish up my truckload of assignments and readings (hopefully that will ease the "wanting-to-see-andrew" syndrome). plus i'm comforting myself by saying that next week i'm going to see him practically 24-7 during church camp. and its also because of church camp that i've got alot of work to do, because i'll be missing a week of school so i'll need to catch up and all. finally managed to print the readings (thanks thulasi!). still need to organise them and come up with a workable system. you know, its partly because i have all the resources i need from home that i'm a tad bit reluctant to go to aussieland to study. plus the comfort of home and familiarity. everyone says that i should go for the experience. plus the fact i feel like a second class student because i'm studying from here and not at campus, coupled with the fact that i'm still pretty sore about not getting into nus or ntu. its like, "since-i'm-already-not-in-a-local-uni-i-might-as-well-go-overseas" type of mentality. but the school fees as they are cost a bomb and then there's the added cost of textbooks. i need to print my readings from the net, so printing cost, which is "nil" here because dad buys the ink, but will probably cost alot more if i go over. everyone talks about wanting independence and freedom, but i've been seriously thinking about the notions of words like that, and well, all i can say is i'm glad i'm still 20. i don't think i'm ready to be fully responsible for myself. responsible in all senses, especially monetary. but *yikes, i've only got another 8 months to not be an adult. its funny how you look forward to it your entire life and then dread it when its imminent.

*sheryl

p/s: btw, whenever i upload pictures into albums on shutterfly, i'll put a link at the end of the post. you can get all the posts with shutterfly links by clicking the label "shutterfly" at the sidebar. squiggletown links are at the bottom of the site. (:

57 notebooks

i just made 57 notebooks. okay. 45 of them were just glue-binded together, so technically they are more like notepads. but still. and out of the 12 that were ring-binded, i scrapped 7 asap for mom. she needs them by tomorrow. so here they are!the colours are reaaaaally pretty. pastel splotches and organic browns.
you know, this kinda looks like layers in a rock. like sediments over time.
i'm sorry if i sound deadpan. its just that the inevitable inhaling of glue, while in the midst of binding the truckload of paper and raking the creative cobwebs away is usually a draining process. plus school starts tomorrow. and i haven't done my opinion piece. i don't even know what its about. i think its due tmr. or is it friday? i need a list. andrew says i should. prioritise. you know, that process of elimination by which you determine the most needful and expedient task that requires imminent attention and execution. immediate. pronto. post haste. okay i better go.
*sheryl