Photo Challenge~📷

LIFE- Life in its natural glory ✨.✨

After a long day at school, everyone is tired and restless. The pond with its many fishes and plants seem to rejuvenate us, making us feel refreshed and ready to continue the day.

 

 

FEAR- Creepy classroom in the evening... >.>

The classroom is dark and void of life. The darkness gives people the creeps as there is no one, no comfort, no warmth, only emanating loneliness and fear of the unknown. To us, fear is the feeling of losing our friends; the empty and unlit classroom therefore gives us fear and a sense of insecurity.

HAPPINESS- Beautiful flowers in bloom!

Starting as a young sapling in our school garden, it grew into a healthy adult plant. Looking at the beautiful flowers cheerfully in bloom, we naturally feel happy too~ :>

 

SCHOOL SPIRIT- RVians' well-wishes to the school for its 58th anniversary

For the completion of the cake, all RVians pitched in to write little messages to RV in commemoration of its 58th anniversary. Everyone must have felt the same warmth when writing their well-wishes; this "cake" would not have been done without all of us. Our feelings for the school are all contained in this nicely decorated cake for the school, showing our strong school spirit.

Poverty in Singapore?

Although poverty in Singapore is seldom seen on streets or even mentioned, it does not mean that it is non-existent. The poor and needy in our society struggle with “relative poverty” which means that their financial resources fall substantially below what is needed to pay for the necessities of living in Singapore. In fact, there are many people who are in need of financial assistance, particularly the elderlies. 

As shown in the above picture, many people these days -especially, as we said, the elderlies- are trying to make ends meet by rummaging through bins on the streets, scavenging for aluminium cans and cardboards to earn some money. Because Singapore seems to be well-off on the surface, we do not think much about the less fortunate, or even notice such an issue. In truth, Singapore has one of the highest poverty rates compared to other countries.

From 2002 to 2011, the poverty rate in Singapore increased by 1 percentage point, on average every year.  In 2013, it increased to 28%.

When people come up to us to sell packets of tissue, do we usually give them anything other than pitiful or sorry looks? No. Most of us do not make the effort to lend a helping hand to them. However, we should all think about what it is like for them and put ourselves in their shoes. Our little actions as simple as buying a packet of tissues from them may not seem that much to us, but in truth, it goes a long way in helping them gain the motivation or confidence to live through another day.

However, before giving them money out of pity, we have to consider an important factor first. Compare them to people who go about selling tissue or just begging for a living to people who work at hawker centres or as cleaners on the streets. Who do you think is more deserving of your help?

Holiday Reflections~

CONSTANCE:

The end of year holidays was quite boring at first but after a while, I started to enjoy the holidays more.

During the november holidays, I went to school mostly for the Tan Kah Kee award competition, and with Yuling, we modified the container to burn the joss paper. It was difficult to think of the problems, but with the help of our teacher-in-charge , we were able to decide on a problem and produce a product. Thus, I am very grateful to the teachers who have helped us. Making the product has been a fun and interesting experience for me, and a rare opportunity for both of us. Other than going to school during the november holidays, I only went out for my CCA VIA. As our CCA (Girl Guides) required us to do 30 hours of VIA during the November and December holidays, we were split into groups and had to find an organisation where we would do VIA.

The VIA organisation that our senior found was the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and through this VIA, I have learnt many new things and gained a whole new experience. For example, I learnt to make Christmas Angels that were to be sold at a YWCA fair. It was really fun as I got to make the different parts of the angel and glue them together. In this VIA, we also planned a 3-day programme for the children there. It was a little tough to decide on the games and allocate the timings for each of the game, but we still did in the end. When I saw them playing the games that we have prepared happily, I also felt very happy. Another interesting thing that we did during VIA was probably the selling of baby clothes. On the day of the YWCA fair, we went to sell baby clothes. At first, there were not much people who came to buy the baby clothes, but after awhile, more people came and we were able to sell a lot of the baby clothes. We had all also found the baby clothes really pretty and even wanted to buy it if we could have fitted in it. It was really fun selling the clothes! Unfortunately, I fell sick as I was selling the baby clothes, and even vomited. I was quite sad then as I could not continue selling of the clothes.

During the december holidays, I went out more frequently. When the holidays were ending, I went to east coast park with my CCA for a combined level bbq. We rented bicycles and as I did not know how to ride a bicycle, I was taught by seniors and friends. It was very tough as I could not balance and tend to fall easily. After trying many times and practicing, I finally succeeded. Thus, I have learnt to never give up.

The end of year holidays was quite boring at first but after a while, I started to enjoy the holidays more.

 

CHERLYN:

My November and December holidays are just like the normal boring ones like staying at home, playing, sleeping, eating and doing homework. But once in a while there would be a few fun occasions and one of them was a surprise birthday party.

The birthday party was held to celebrate the birthdays of two of my friends whose birthdays fell in November and December. Preparing for the birthday party was hectic as we had little time to prepare beforehand and there were many ups and downs such as the venue being unavailable, the present was not bought yet on the day itself and more. However thank goodness it turned out fine. 

On the day, we went to my house to celebrate it and decorated the house with balloons, cards and helium balloons which we had a hard time bringing it back. 

We then lit the cake and dimmed the lights while singing the happy birthday song as we popped the party popper while our friends walked in. The surprised looked on their faces made me really glad as I was really happy that they liked it but things didn't go as plan and they ended up playing with the helium balloons while the candle continued to lit and we had to re-lit the candles and all but it was really very fun and enjoyable. 

After that, we played games such as hide and seek and truth or dare. However when we were playing hide and seek, the seekers found the ones who hid very quickly and the game ended in 3 minutes but it was still fun to all of us and we had an enjoyable time. 

Truth or dare was a really meaningful game for me with my friends because during that time, we confided to each other about things we usually don't say to each other and reflect together on what we had done in the year and for me it is really very meaningful. 

However things did not turn out that successful as I had a dog and many of them were scared of dogs and thus they hid or rather locked themselves in the room. But in the room, we manage to play twister and it ended up really funny with people getting tangled up together in weird positions and us laughing together. 

This was one of the most enjoyable activities I had done during the holidays in comparison to the Christmas party, the overseas trip with my family and more. And I felt really happy during that day as we were finally able to group together as one whole clique of friends play, talk and share things together and the time spent was truly memorable and heartfelt unlike spending time interacting with my ipad which will not talk to me or share with me how it feel and it's thoughts unlike my friends. Therefore, I think that friends are really very important people and without them life will really be very boring and meaningless. Despite that, most of my time was spent at home doing nothing and time was wasted when they could actually be used to do other things such as hanging out with my friends, spending more time with my family who are just in the living room instead of coping up in the room and interacting with my ipad. Now as CCA has started, I realized that I really suck at playing my instrument even worse than how I used to played or still the same as before and I have only started to practice a lot only when the holidays ended, finding that I have not much time. Therefore as I reflect, when I think about my holidays all I could think of are just the time where I spent playing with my ipad, therefore there was a lot of regret when I reflect on my holidays.
 

YULING:

I didn't get to do much during the holidays. OTL It was just mostly homework, school stuff, lots of sleep and a little play. Though I was dying of boredom, there was still the joy from the freedom and fun. And I actually started homework early! I felt so happy and proud ♪（ｖ＾＿＾）ｖ except that... I left all the hard ones for the last and there wasn't much difference from my other holidays as I still had to rush to finish the rest during the last few days. *sigh*

 

In November, Constance and I had to go to school every other day to work on our invention for the TKK competition. There wasn't much of hard work needed; it mostly consisted us feeling helpless while trying to think of good ideas :/ and my moneeey TT.TT I'm broke from all the days I spent going out. Apart from going to school, I also had to go for CIP for my CCA. It was tiring to go there every day for a week, but it was also enriching and fun as I got to interact with the elderlies and I actually learnt how to play Rummy-o.

A particularly long round of Rummy-o. zzZ

Here comes the nice part: my friends actually planned a surprise birthday party~!! It wasn't much of a surprise however, considering how I knew what they were going to do *\(^o^)/* It was still fun though, and we played with helium balloons...! (YAYYYY!!) Haha, it was so hilarious hearing our funny voices XD All in all, it was a fun-filled and memorable day plus the fact that I even brought home a helium balloon which earned me looks from people on the bus.（≧∇≦）

On 30th December, I went all the way to ECP for a CCA outing. We generally just spent the day having fun, and had a BBQ afterwards :p I even tried to teach my friends to cycle (keyword: TRIED), but I have to say I'm not really cut out to do that. Especially seeing how our seniors managed to teach them much better than I did. orz Our BBQ, however, was quite disastrous. Unfortunately, it rained just as the fires were being started. In the end, some had to hold umbrellas while others tried to rekindle the fire. Thinking about it, it was quite a funny sight. XD We experimented with taking photos, but we failed at taking a decent jump shot (why did we even think of doing it in the dark??) so we settled for posing with sparklers instead. Against my better judgement, I was having too much fun and even got my cloth shoes wet when we were playing at the shallow edges of the sea. But I was too happy to care. :>

One of our better pictures ＼(^o^)／

That said, I only either spent the rest of the days glued to my bed with my ipad, or going out with my family. I admit my holidays were not really productive, but it was well spent to say the least. ^~^

SHINRU:

My December holidays were to be honest, not very productive. Actually it was not productive at all :/... I spent most of my days at home, slacking and playing computer games to pass the time. I kept telling myself to complete my homework early so that I would not have to rush everything at the last minute, but I didn't really do anything of the sort. I still ended up rushing everything during the last 3 days, not getting much sleep but still managing to complete the holiday assignments:). Although I spent most of my time at home, I still had a "life"(at least some of it) and went out a few times. I went outdoors a few times during November but spent time at home during the beginning and middle of December. The most tiring time was the end of December, closing to the Christmas seasons and the New Year. I spent time with my childhood friends and family during the last few weeks of December, going out almost every day of the 1.5 weeks. Though my primary school friends still stopped by my house often, I still feel like a couch/computer potato.

I used to have many pictures of the events I went to during the holidays, but as I restored my phone due to some technical difficulties I lost all my photos, and I was stupid enough not to back it up before restoring it:(... Anyways the earliest event I went to was the birthday party our friends hosted for Yuling and I. After reading the others reflections, I realized that they have already elaborated alot on the party so I'm not going to talk much about it or else it's going to be a repeat of all of theirs. I just have to say a big thank you to them for the party and the effort~ I had alot of fun. My primary school friends also hosted a birthday party for me and it was loads of fun too. We had balloons, flying cake and flying shoes too ;). Huge thanks to all who made the effort >.< love you guys.

After that, I spent my time gaming at home(mainly LoL, blackshot, sudden attack, extaliams, etc etc) and I finally got my razer naga gaming mouse for my birthday present~WHEE. Girl gamers are kind of rare nowadays huh. Oh well, uniqueness is awesomeness. 

Next was the many many outings I had during the Christmas and New Year period. I mainly went out with my childhood friends(dad's friends' children) and family, to many many places. We always ate dinner together and had alot of fun, talking, playing games and stuff. We went to the Christmas party and Clarke Quay and spent New Years countdown at my house, where we had a superb time together. Below is a picture of what we did to some ice chocolate.(+pizza+mushroom black pepper sauce+chili+coke+our unwanted veggies and many more). MUAHAHAHAA.

Afterwards, I ended up spending my time rushing my homework. The holidays weren't very productive for me but i enjoyed them very much and did not look forward to the start of school, not that I had a choice. I'm really looking forward to even more long long holidays in the future :3.FUN HOLIDAYS!
 

SEAN:

The holidays I had in November and December were worse than ever before. Having badminton practice 4 times a week and the homework that was given , it was worse than a normal school day. Luckily , there were certain occasions that  brightened up my spirit in the holidays.

The first occasion, was when the majority of the C division badminton team went out together on a prawning outing??? Prawning was always something I loved to do. However, as prawning took too much time, whenever I asked my parents to go prawning, I was always given the straight NO. As it was the holidays , I finally got my courage to ask my parents again . They said yes. I was surprised that they actually said yes but .. lets move on . When we reached the location, we had to pay $30/2.5h . All of us paid the money and for the past 2.5hrs, we were all focused on our own line that we didn’t even have much time to talk to each other . Even if someone talked, he/she would most likely get ignored . After that 2.5hr, we went to barbeque our prawns before eating them . It was a exciting and enjoyable occasion that I would never forget.

The second occasion was the trip to Universal studios with a bunch of friends from each class. As I thought that I was allowed to go for the prawning trip, I asked my mother effortlessly the day before and she gave me a straight NO. At that moment , I didn’t know what to do . I was the one who said “okay” to the trip the earliest and I was the only one who wouldn’t make it? My mind was rushing . I kept pleading with my parents but all I got was a NO over and over again . I started losing hope . I went to bed. I didn’t even dare tell my friends I couldn’t go. Until the day after…. It was about 7.30am when my brother woke me up. My parents left for work and I walked to the toilet feeling so @$%!!   I picked up my phone and made to final call to my parents  , hoping that I could go. Surprisingly, they said yes . Not sure for what reason but a yes is a yes . We did enjoy the day at USS. Although it was expensive , but everything was all worth it . I felt like an official teenager.

The third and final occasion was the trip to London and Paris . I was extremely excited for this trip as I have never been to Europe before . I did love the experience there but I shall not talk too much about it , because my grandmother passed away while we were in Paris.. yea..

The rest of the holiday was mostly spent on the not so happy stuff… like homework and training ( not saying their not fun but… I wouldn’t look forward to wrecking my brains and pushing myself to the limit physically) Anyways I guess when there's a good side of something , there will be a bad side too :P Hopefully next year’s holiday will have more fun in it! >.<!