GOOD FRIDAY? BAD THURSDAY.


If it is anything, the day started badly as early - and as soon - as it can. Mindful of this morning's Principles of Spectroscopy term test at 9am, I had every intention to reach school earlier than usual. Unlike the norm, I opted to take the train instead of the usual bus (bus concession, mah), and reached Harbour Front Station at 8am. The straight-bus-journey from Harbour Front to campus is typically 15minutes. Assuming a bus frequency waiting time of 15minutes, I had expected to reach campus at 8.30am; and relished satisfactorily - with a hint of smugness - at the 30minutes luxury of sashaying my way to the location venue.

But, as the saying goes: man propose, God disposes. There were no buses at bus stand 963 when I reached the terminal. 10 minutes passed by. Another 10 minutes came and went. As the snake of queue at the bus stand gets longer, apprehensiveness and anxiety dawned. As time ticked by, I nearly hyperventilate. And finally, before my life gets shortened dramatically and I drop dead, a bus 963 - at long last - FINALLY turned into the terminal. By the time I managed to get my ass on a bus 963, it was already 8.30am. AND IT WAS RAINING DOGS AND CATS AND MONKEYS AND WHO KNOW WHAT ELSE. Traffic was, needless to say, slower than usual. And the fact that there were a lot of other people at other bus stops waiting for the slowcoach of a bus 963 did not help either.

I reached campus at 8.55am on the dot. Quickening my step and not even bothering about the umbrella, I speed-walked across the field and finally arrived at the Faculty of Science. Racing over to LT21 near Block S5 and peeping through the door, something just doesn't feel right. For one, the students look unfamiliar. For another, they were not seated at alternative seats.
Feeling ruffled, I called up a friend who had taken the test earlier (the cohort was split into 2 groups to take the test; one at 8am, and the other at 9am). And, surprise oh surprise, the actual location is LT23, which is near Block S8.

I nearly hyperventilate for the 2nd time of the day. GOSH! It was written on the online announcement board that the test will be held at LT21. Gosh. Apparently, the venue has changed and apparently, somehow, I had missed the notice. Serves me right for skipping classes.

Aghast, I doubled back to Block S8, and reached at a grand 9.07am. Wet. Breatheless. And panting. HOW CAN ANYONE TAKE 1 HOUR TO GET FROM HARBOUR FRONT TO BUONA VISTA BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT?! YOU TELL ME!!! And after all my efforts of arriving early at school! Grrrgg...


And, just like in movie blockbusters, there's always Sequel 2, and Sequel 3, and Sequel 4. Everyone knows that good things happen in a string of events and unfortunately, so do bad things too, apparently. After finishing the paper at 10am, I decided to make fruitful use of my 2 hours break before the next lecture. Thus, I went over to CBLC (the computer and printing lab in campus) with the intention of polishing up the laboratory report which I had completed hurriedly the night before. After getting myself an unoccupied computer and plugging in my earphones listening to, of course, DBSK, I rummaged through the front pouch of my bag for my thumbdrive. And realized, to my silent horror, that I had left my thumbdrive at home for the first time of my life! AND THE THUMBDRIVE CONTAINS ALL OF MY SCHOOL STUFFS! AND MY LABORATORY REPORT IS DUE TODAY BY 5PM!

Picking up my cellphone, I called Bro on his mobile phone. That guy's lucky to have afternoon classes. Saddled with 8am lectures from Monday to Friday for 2 consecutive semesters and having to wake up at 5.30am just to attend them, oftentimes I've felt maliciously and insanely jealous.

BUT today's special. Beautiful hope replaced the ugly envy. If the spate of "bad luck" graciously decides to end here, chances are that I might wake Bro up from his sleep and pester him to log on to my laptop and send me the required files via Email.

Of course, I've mentioned that today's a Bad Thursday. The bustling of traffic over the phone killed something sacred and beautiful that's called hope.

I hang up the phone, and flirted with the brilliant idea of handing in my laboratory report in softcopy form; because honestly, I really have no wish to get penalized for late submission. Instead of printing it out nicely and dropping it into the pigeon hole by 5pm - which is a plainly impossible task, how would my laboratory instructor react if I were to submit my assignment by emailing it to him in Word Document format when I reach home after school, and ask him to print it out himself?

That's right. Ridiculous is the word. Preposterous is a more fitting one.


I sighed deeply. Desperate situations call for desperate measures. This is the ultimatum; the last resort.
When you're in sticky situations, always call Daddy.


What follows is a brief excerpt of our conversation.

SL: You've reached www.yahoo.com? Ok. Then at the right-hand side of the page, do you see a small tab button box with the words "Mail"?

The Daddy: Where?

SL: At the right-hand side. It's grey in colour.

The Daddy: Oh! Got, got. Found liao. Click on it?

SL: Ya. Hang on, I'll SMS you my email ID and password.

The Daddy: Wait ah, I'm keying them in now. *Daddy spells out as he types* ...i...n...8...6. Password. [asterisk asterisk asterisk] (Writer's note: Due to the sensitive nature of the contents, you should understand)

SL: No, no. L. Got one more. You missed out the last alphabet. L.

*5 minutes later, without much hiccups, we signed in smoothly.





SL: Ok, you're now at the Welcome page, right? Somewhere on the top left-hand corner, do you see a small grey box with the words "Compose"?

The Daddy: Don't have leh.

SL: Where are you at now? What is your screen showing?

The Daddy: (he described what the web page is showing, but I don't understand)

(giggling) SL: Never mind. Then on the left-hand side of the page, is there a word "Inbox"?

The Daddy: Ya.

SL: Click on it. (Writer's note: at least this ensures that we're on the same page now) Now, look a little above the "Inbox" button, do you see a small grey box with the word "Compose"?

The Daddy: Oh ya.

*after guiding him in keying in my email address in the "To:" box, the moment of the dreadful task of uploading arrives.





SL: Ok. Do you see a grey box with the words "Add Attachments"? Click on it.

SL: And now appears a small windows popup, right? On the left side, got a lot of panels right? Click on My Computer. Then on the menu, double-click on D:/ drive. Then double-click on the file folder "NUS".

The Daddy: Double-click? So I press both buttons on the mouse together at the same time, is it?




I grinned. Double-click = press both buttons on the mouse simultaneously.
CAN THIS GET ANY CUTER? ^_^




SL: No, no. You know the normal way you click on a mouse using your index finger? Double-click means that you click fast fast. Click 2 times. Fast.

The Daddy: Still got to click 2 times ah. So funny. So ma fan (trans: troublesome).



Anyway, it took Dad a couple of tries to attach the document. When he failed to attach it successfully on the first attempt, and because we're lost in communication, I simply told him to close the Add Attachment popup box, and start over again so that we're on the same footing. And he groaned miserably, "Wah... Then I have to go through the double-clicking thingy again ah?"


The whole process took 30minutes. After I received the Email, I sent an SMS.

SL: Received liao. Thanks!

The Daddy: Good. I clever, hor?




... ... ...

I contemplated replying something along the line of having a good teacher for guidance, and was typing halfway through the sentence when I decided to switch to a better line. A shorter sentence with lesser words, but stronger impact.


Very smart. Like me.