The sound of laughter filled my ears when i stepped into Siloso beach. All around me, i could see many people having fun with their families and friends. There were children building sandcastles, people taking a dip into the sea and also people playing volleyball. Today, my parents decided to bring us to the Siloso beach to reward us for putting a lot of effort in our studies.

My sister and I helped my parents to find a shady spot to place our picnic mat. After that, i immediately went to build my own sandcastle. I wanted to build something like a big fort to keep water out from the castle. With the help of my sister, we managed to gather a huge pile of mildly wet sand and piled them together and shaped them into a wall. I enjoyed watching the waves crashing against the wall, water not being to find a way inside. We then began to build a sandcastle. It took us a whole morning as we had to make sure everything was perfect, from the exterior of the castle to the decorations on it.

After a whole morning of playing with the sand, i realised that we were very dirty, so i went into the cooling water of the sea. When i came back, i was as extremely wet. My mother brought out all the food we had prepared and we began to tuck in hungrily. I wolfed down any food i could lay my hands on. We had brought many bacon sandwiches and many packets of chips. Soon, as the sun was setting, we decided to leave. I looked back at the beach one last time and wondered when we would come back again.

embarassing experience

One thing that i really like doing is to kick a soccer ball around, be it my in my house or at the void deck underneath my house. One thing i discovered is that a simple soccer ball can help make your day better. For example, when i am feeling angry, i think the ball against the wall as hard as i can to vent my frustration. Sometimes when i am very angry, i would kick the ball against the wall so hard that there is a resounding ‘boom’ heard. Then, my parents would tell me off and forbid me from kicking the ball for that day.

During the weekends, i would usually find some spare time to go downstairs to practice and hone my skills with the ball. i would usually kick the ball at the mailbox at the end of the void deck to improve my accuracy. Sometimes, i also run around with the ball and try to dribble past pillars located at the edges of the void deck to practice my control of the ball and also to juggle the ball.

One day as i was doing my usual routine of kicking the ball against the mailbox, a seven-year old girl cycled past. I kicked the ball against the mailbox, hard. It flew towards it and produced a loud bang. Suddenly, the girl stopped to glare at me.She pointed at a spot above the mailbox. I looked towards where he was pointing. There, above the mailbox, was a newly pasted sign, telling residents not to play football, litter or to park motorcycles at the void deck.

I flushed with embarrassment. I did not see the sign while i was playing just now. I mumbled my apologies as i picked up the ball and hurried home. It was embarrassing but i had learnt my lesson: always see and think before you act.

cousins' visit

Throughout the December holidays, i have visited several theme parks like the escape theme park and the one located at the Genting highlands. I am not being biased but i have to say, Singapore’s recently opened universal studios currently tops my list of best theme parks.

When my parents announced that my cousins who live in Malaysia were coming over to visit us as well as to sightsee, i was thrilled to the core. Did i mention that my cousins were a bunch of fun-loving and humorous teenagers?

They arrived in Singapore via the plane and we hurried to the airport to fetch them. On the first few days of their visit, we went to places like the marina bay sands, marina barrage, wild wild wet and dined at posh restaurants. That was life at its best!

At the second last day of their stay, we were going to enter the universal studios! Just thinking about how much fun we were going to have inside made me as happy as a lark. When we entered the universal studios, it was packed with throngs of visitors from other countries such as India,Thailand and even from America.

Universal studios was split in to a few small parks with each having unique rides. For example, one can ride the canopy flier at the Jurassic park, or take a journey through the land of far far away via the enchanted airways. There were also some very thrilling rides, such as the revenge of the mummy, a high speed physiological thrill ride through sharp turns and fast reverses, as it pits the riders against fire, robotic mummies and scarabs-all in total darkness.

For lunch, we dined at Loui’s NY pizza palor, where we had the best pizza and pasted i had ever eaten. After lunch, we went for a show at waterworks. It was very entertaining and exciting. The loud blaring noises of the ships and jet skis made my do a drumroll.

Soon, after a day fun of fun at the universal studios, it was time to go home. we took a taxi home and as my cousins had to leave early the next day, we had to sleep early. The next morning, we bade our cousin goodbye at the airport, promising that they would come back again.

Baking cupcakes!

Today, we were told that we are going to bake cupcakes during home economics lesson. Our teacher, Miss Jessica Chan, told us to bring out our textbooks and bring our chairs to the front. She started going through how to kill germs and stuff like that. After that, she told us to go back to our seats, take out our apron and go to the middle of the kitchen for a demonstration.

After the demonstration, we went back to our seats to star work. Firstly, me and my partner, Nicholas, sieved some flour and told us that it is to prevent the cup cakes from turning lumpy. Then, she cut some butter, put it in a bowl with some sugar, and whisked it. When the mixture turned bright yellow, she cracked two eggs into another bowl and beat them, resulting in a yellow goo-like liquid. She then poured the mixture bit by bit into the mixing bowl and continued to whisk it. She also added half a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Then, she added the sieved flour spoonful by spoonful. we also added some raisins.The end product turned out to be something like mashed bananas, and it smelled real good!

One of the last few steps was to put the mixture into cute little paper cups and bake them. We shared our baking tray with Tuck Yern and Ernest. While we were waiting for the cupcakes to bake, we seated around the oven and talked about amusing things that happened recently and at the same time, observing or cupcakes.

After what was like ten minutes or so, we began to smell the aroma wafting out from the over. We were told that the cupcakes had to bake for twenty minutes or so before consumption. The next ten minutes was gruelling as we could not wait to tuck into our cupcakes. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, our cupcakes were ready! Miss Chan came over to our table and tasted one of our cupcakes. She said it was “ok” and Nicholas said, ”ma’am, this is the closest to perfection that you can get, it deserves full marks!” After much consideration, she wrote “15” beside each of our scores, which meant we had gotten full marks!

I brought my cupcakes home for my parents and siblings to try it. They said it was nice and i swelled with pride. It was such a joy to bake!

chinese new year decorations

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.

To me, this is my favourite time of the year as i get to recieve money from red packets and "put them to good use".As monday was a half day, we took this chance to decorate our classroom.Mr maran, our english teacher, had left us some work to do as he could not make it for the lesson. Those who had finished the work assigned could help with the classroom decoration for chinese new year. Everyone was told the week before to bring 5 red packets each for the class decorations.

Some of us brought not only five, but an entire pack of red packets!As most of us had already finished the work assigned, we helped the class commitee in decorating the classroom.Everyone was playing a part in the classroom decoration.some helped cut the red packets and made them into lanterns, some helped paste them onto the wall, and some were the "supervisors" of the classroom decorrations,contributing more innovative ideas as well.

It was the team spirit that everyone showed that caught my attention the most. People from different races working together to celebrate chinese new year. Sikngapore is indeed a multi racial society!