You are lucky if you get 1!!!

Funny Pictures

Essay by Lam Guan Wah

QUESTION

Write a description of The rush hour.


ESSAY

“Sigh,”as I looked at the bus stop about 50 metres in front of me.It was bursting with people. Such was the usual state when I left for school after my Drama lesson every Monday and Wednesday at 6pm. Nonetheless, I had to move towards it in order to board the bus. People were looking at their watches and getting irritated with how slow the bus was. Others were sitting down, having a break, looking totally oblivious to the elderlies and pregnant woman near them. Minutes passed and the blue and red rectangular vehicle came.

“Screech...” the bus with the number '157' flashing brightly on it braked, causing a high pitched sound. People rushed to the door, awaiting its movement. As the door opened, people pushed and squeezed through the door as if a shopping mall was holding a sale. The commuters charged into the bus mercilessly. Patiently, I stood behind and walked in small steps, entering the shaking vehicle slowly. Some privileged few sat down on unoccupied seats, while most moved to the rear. "Why are people so impatient?” I wondered silently in my head. "There is still a lot of space left...” I quizzed beneath my breadth.

The bus with its motors started once more, black, poisonous smoke bellowing out of its exhaust pipe, exited the bus bay. Slowly, it pulled over bus-stop by bus-stop.The same scenario could be seen throughout where I was standing- the middle of the bus. Passengers pressed against the glass doors, awaiting it to open before they could move up. Once,the bus could fill no more, it rejected to serve more. The stranded ones were left behind, their mouths wide open and eyes staring at us.Some were even shouting remarks that seemed hurtful. I felt lucky not to hear it, thanks to the four metal walls surrounding me.

Everyone including me, grumbled, both silently and aloud as the old vehicle with paint dropping off, approached and pulled over at every bus-stop. Others were grumbling because they had to squeeze once more for the alighting and boarding passengers. For me, the mixture of the smelly perspiration from the male workers and aromatic perfume from the female businesswomen were making my head dizzy. Hurry up! I want to get off!

The car horns outside trumpeted violently all of a sudden. Wondering what had happened, I pressed my face against the windows behind me in an attempt to find the cause. A traffic jam! Cars of different shape and size lined up in a straight row and honked in irritation. Finally, after what seemed like 45 minutes, the stationary bus moved and roared back to life again.

As my destination came nearer and nearer, I shouted and questioned myself in my head, Great!Now, how do I alight this fully packed rusty thing later on?

Eventually, we arrived. I tried to squeeze through the sea of human beings, just to find myself in an embarrassing state. Once my upper body came into contact with the other commuter’s shoulders, all eyes shot straight up at me. At long last, I escaped from the torturous hell of the rush hour and heaved a sigh of relieve. I shall avoid the Rush Hour, I vowed. But, could I?

Essay by Joshua Wong

QUESTION

We were amazed when we heard how lucky John had been.


ESSAY

As I waited at the traffic light outside my school, I recalled a life-changing experience that happened almost exactly where I stood.

It was approximately six months ago. Our End-of-Year Examinations had just finished. My friends and I were eager to loosen up and forget about our studies for awhile. We decided to go to John’s house. I had been to it once before, and I was dying to return. John lived in a bungalow. His house had a total of five computers including two laptops. Each and every one of them had games and internet access. In addition, John had a game room, where we could enjoy ourselves with his Xbox360 and Wii.

I suppose my friends were just as eager as I to go to his house because they all agreed to go.
Two of my friends and I had to stay back with a teacher for awhile, so John and the other friend went first. They said that they would wait for us at the bus stop. After the teacher spoke to us, we rushed down to the ground floor and ran to the school gate. As the talk with the teacher had not taken long, we were able to see John in the distance, talking to the friend. The traffic light showed a green man, so they began to cross the road.

Suddenly, a black Volvo with fully tinted windows and no number plate appeared round a corner and sped straight toward where John would be in a moment. They were on a collision course.
I desperately wanted to shout to John, I wanted to ask him to stop, but I was utterly out of breath and so were my friends. John and his partner were engrossed in conversation, so they failed to notice. However, miraculously, John suddenly came to a stop. And so did the friend. John reached into his left pocket.

At that very moment, the Volvo sped past John, inches from his nose. John looked up, only to see the plume of dust the car had stirred up. By then, we were all fully energised. I ran straight toward John and told him what had just happened. John looked at me a mixed expression. Fear, horror, gratefulness and wonderment were all displayed there. Later at his house, John told us exactly what had happened.

‘’My phone suddenly vibrated. So I stopped and took up my phone’’, John continued ‘’you know what’s the freaky thing was? The message was from my mother. It read: be careful on the roads today!’’

To most people, this would have been mere coincidence, but I wonder, could it be divine intervention? Anyway, we were all amazed when we heard how lucky John had been.
I was brought back to the present by the sound of the green man coming on. I began to cross the road, thinking about John and what would have happened if the message had not been sent.

Submerged in my own thoughts, I did not realize that not all the cars had stopped at the red traffic light. I turned to the sound of screeching tires and saw the face of a horrified driver. A split second later, metal hit bone with a sickening crunch.

For some reason, I felt no pain. I just lay there on the road, wondering what had happened. When I saw the pool of blood in front of me, I figured I had not been as lucky as John. Faintly, I could hear the sirens of an ambulance. I could not help but to wonder, why John? Why not me? I desire to live too. I suddenly felt extremely weary, and closed my eyes.

T2W9 Journal Topics

For submission on T3W1D1.

1. What is something you are pessimistic about?
2. What is the best birthday present you ever received?
3. What would happen if you could become invisible whenever you wanted to? What are some of the things you could do that you cannot do now?
4. What would you do if a bully bothered you on your way home?
5. If you had to describe yourself as a colour, which would you choose?
6. What do you think makes a good friend?
7. What do you think makes a happy family?
8. How do you feel when it's your birthday? Why?

Chicken a la Carte

By Ferdinand Dimadura

On one hand, it seems the video reminds us of the need to consume what we need and not to waste morsels or for some people, chunks of food. However, as per discussion of the video in class, some of you did mention about the need to waste food so that people struggling in poverty and hunger have access to unfinished food wasted by the diners of the restaurant as shown in the movie. At the surface, it seems a valid argument, yet do these poor people deserve to eat leftover food meant for disposal?

A better solution would be establishment of organisations with the objective of feeding these people. Food for the Poor, Inc, is one ecumenical Christian non-profit organisation to provide food, medicine, and shelter, among other services, to poor people in Latin America and and the Caribbean. Red cross is yet another humanitarian organisation concerned with feeding the poor around the world. They have done so in war-raging Iraq, Tsunami-attached Aceh, even the impoverished but nuclear-ambitious hermit 'republic' of North Korea.

The efforts by these organisations are more far-reaching and efficacious in realising their goals, than what your peer has proposed earlier.

In a nut shell, the next time you could not finish your chicken drumstick on your porcelain plate, what will you do?

Just for Laugh: Generous lawyer

A local United Way office realized that the organization had never received a donation from the town's most successful lawyer. The person in charge of contributions called him to persuade him to contribute.

"Our research shows that out of a yearly income of at least $500,000, you give not a penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give back to the community in some way?"T

he lawyer mulled this over for a moment and replied, "First, did your research also show that my mother is dying after a long illness, and has medical bills that are several times her annual income?"

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbled, "Um ... no."

The lawyer interrupts, "or that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair?"

The stricken United Way rep began to stammer out an apology, but was interrupted again.

"or that my sister's husband died in a traffic accident," the lawyer's voice rising in indignation, "leaving her penniless with three children?!"

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, said simply, "I had no idea..."

On a roll, the lawyer cut him off once again, "So if I don't give any money to them, why should I give any to you?"

Just for Laugh: 0 to 200 in 6 seconds

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife wasreally pissed.

She told him "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in thedriveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE !!"

The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife wokeup, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a boxgift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.

Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, broughtthe box back in the house.She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Bob has been missing since Friday.

H1N1 : Hysteria is the real danger!!!

By a blogger

In 1976, fearing the spread of a new strain flu, the US govt started to innoculate the population. The problem was the side effects of vaccine cause a higher death rate that the flu which was quite mild.

It appears the Mexican authorities have grossly overestimated the number of deaths due to the H1N1 virus and have cut the number of deaths from 176 to 101. President Obama said at a press conference to mark his 100 days in office that the primary concern is that the virus is new- if the was an old virus spreading in the same manner, the extra precautions would be unnecessary.

The hysteria over this flu which so far has proven quite mild has caused people to overcrowd emergency rooms all over the world and causing those with genuine health emergencies to wait. The economic negative impact threatens what appear to be a weak recovery.

In Egypt the plan to cull thousands of pigs has caused riots between Christian farmers and the police. The move makes no sense given the flu has not spread to Egypt and the virus is capable of human to human transmission which means killing all the pigs in Egypt will not do anything to stock the spread.

The mortality rate of those infected by H1N1 appears no worse than that of the common cold. The Chinese have started retaining Mexicans and quarantining them even though they showed no symptons of the flu. It looks like the fear surrounding the H1N1 is starting to cause more harm than the virus itself.