Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Further on up the road
Another round of exams just came and went, and to commemorate its end I went to Brewerkz straight away after my last paper.
It was a time for reflection. To consider what I’d done and didn’t do, what could have been, to think about the people around me, to think about the life ahead of me.
Hah. Ah well (insert active verb here) that. Actually I just went to drink beer after going dry for a long while, read newspapers and watch the sports channel.
Which is precisely the point. This semester has seen me adopt a new ritual of heading down to the micro-brewery for lunchtime happy hour every Friday after lessons end at 11 to imbibe some liquid sustenance to round up the week. Usually accompanied by The Straits Times, New Paper, occasional Herald Tribune and of course ESPN.
Over the weeks it’s sort of become my sacred hours, away from school, projects, hall and all other miscellaneous things that tend to demand attention like a spoilt heiress. Observing this kind of quiet time in a highly conducive setting like sitting right at the bar helps me clear my mind of all the clutter accumulated in the past weekdays. You could liken it to defragmenting your computer hard disk and putting everything back where it belongs.
On occasion, when inspiration strikes I’ll whip out pen and paper to sketch down some ideas for my Final Year Project (more on that in a while) or scribble lines running through my head which might possibly work out into a song. Most of the time though, I’ll usually just make do with a couple of pints for good measure.
It’s a spacious restaurant cum microbrewery with ample outdoor seating by the Singapore river, and inside it’s deliberately dark for a cosy atmosphere. I’m usually at the bar where it’s brighter though, makes it a lot easier to read. Structural steel I-beams holding up the place are simply painted over and the walls are lined with corrugated sheets of zinc-galvanised steel to give a minimalist, Spartan feel. No fancy memorabilia, paraphernalia or assorted shmuck at all. Of course there’s the obligatory pool table, big screen TV and dart board which no self-respecting watering hole should be caught dead without.
The line-up of beer is a good variety, not too many as to be overwhelming but just enough to be interesting. Brews run the range from light lagers to hearty stouts, and there’s probably a beer for everyone there. Once in a while they’ll mix it up with some new brews to keep things fresh and to liven it up for regulars like myself. Overall, the beer is definitely comparable to the craft beer I had back in California. Perhaps a bit more of a generalized taste for the masses, but still a good treat for the thirsty throat.
Everyone needs some form of quiet time like that. Not that I’m usually very stressed or frazzled come Friday afternoon, but I figure why take the chance?
The upcoming one month vacation will be rather hectic for me, with the main highlight being my Final Year Project which I’ve been working on the past semester. I can’t furnish too much details online (ask me if you must know), but suffice to say it’s a challenging project with no textbook precedents and on paper seems to defy the laws of physics. So far it’s going alright, though the prototype needs further refining the major conceptual issues have been cleared up. Some other factors involved in this project are beyond me, but I’ll focus on the task at hand. At the end of the day, getting a good grade (hopefully) and learning what I can from the whole process are what I’ll take home from this project.
Seeing some of the first years get all uptight about their first exams made me look back at how my approach to exams has changed over the semesters. Sure, there was always the initial burst of fire in first year but that soon died out, perhaps precipitated by the gradual change in the nature of my modules from more content-based to more understanding and design-based ones. I’ve never been one for the memorise-and-regurgitate approach, which has been both my doing and undoing, perhaps one more than the other. Also, the increasing amount of freedom in choosing subjects which were more interesting (to me at least) helped a great deal. There’s no longer the flutter of butterflies in the stomach just before stepping into the exam hall, but in comparison the relief after the last paper is also more muted. I guess reaching 4th year is when you start acquiring a certain non-chalance about the whole thing, especially if your CAP (our equivalent of GPA) is more or less decided.
Mine still hangs in the balance, but I’m not getting too worked up about it, not when there’s beer to drink, sports to watch and a whole world out there to read up on.
It was a time for reflection. To consider what I’d done and didn’t do, what could have been, to think about the people around me, to think about the life ahead of me.
Hah. Ah well (insert active verb here) that. Actually I just went to drink beer after going dry for a long while, read newspapers and watch the sports channel.
Which is precisely the point. This semester has seen me adopt a new ritual of heading down to the micro-brewery for lunchtime happy hour every Friday after lessons end at 11 to imbibe some liquid sustenance to round up the week. Usually accompanied by The Straits Times, New Paper, occasional Herald Tribune and of course ESPN.
Over the weeks it’s sort of become my sacred hours, away from school, projects, hall and all other miscellaneous things that tend to demand attention like a spoilt heiress. Observing this kind of quiet time in a highly conducive setting like sitting right at the bar helps me clear my mind of all the clutter accumulated in the past weekdays. You could liken it to defragmenting your computer hard disk and putting everything back where it belongs.
On occasion, when inspiration strikes I’ll whip out pen and paper to sketch down some ideas for my Final Year Project (more on that in a while) or scribble lines running through my head which might possibly work out into a song. Most of the time though, I’ll usually just make do with a couple of pints for good measure.
It’s a spacious restaurant cum microbrewery with ample outdoor seating by the Singapore river, and inside it’s deliberately dark for a cosy atmosphere. I’m usually at the bar where it’s brighter though, makes it a lot easier to read. Structural steel I-beams holding up the place are simply painted over and the walls are lined with corrugated sheets of zinc-galvanised steel to give a minimalist, Spartan feel. No fancy memorabilia, paraphernalia or assorted shmuck at all. Of course there’s the obligatory pool table, big screen TV and dart board which no self-respecting watering hole should be caught dead without.
The line-up of beer is a good variety, not too many as to be overwhelming but just enough to be interesting. Brews run the range from light lagers to hearty stouts, and there’s probably a beer for everyone there. Once in a while they’ll mix it up with some new brews to keep things fresh and to liven it up for regulars like myself. Overall, the beer is definitely comparable to the craft beer I had back in California. Perhaps a bit more of a generalized taste for the masses, but still a good treat for the thirsty throat.
Everyone needs some form of quiet time like that. Not that I’m usually very stressed or frazzled come Friday afternoon, but I figure why take the chance?
The upcoming one month vacation will be rather hectic for me, with the main highlight being my Final Year Project which I’ve been working on the past semester. I can’t furnish too much details online (ask me if you must know), but suffice to say it’s a challenging project with no textbook precedents and on paper seems to defy the laws of physics. So far it’s going alright, though the prototype needs further refining the major conceptual issues have been cleared up. Some other factors involved in this project are beyond me, but I’ll focus on the task at hand. At the end of the day, getting a good grade (hopefully) and learning what I can from the whole process are what I’ll take home from this project.
Seeing some of the first years get all uptight about their first exams made me look back at how my approach to exams has changed over the semesters. Sure, there was always the initial burst of fire in first year but that soon died out, perhaps precipitated by the gradual change in the nature of my modules from more content-based to more understanding and design-based ones. I’ve never been one for the memorise-and-regurgitate approach, which has been both my doing and undoing, perhaps one more than the other. Also, the increasing amount of freedom in choosing subjects which were more interesting (to me at least) helped a great deal. There’s no longer the flutter of butterflies in the stomach just before stepping into the exam hall, but in comparison the relief after the last paper is also more muted. I guess reaching 4th year is when you start acquiring a certain non-chalance about the whole thing, especially if your CAP (our equivalent of GPA) is more or less decided.
Mine still hangs in the balance, but I’m not getting too worked up about it, not when there’s beer to drink, sports to watch and a whole world out there to read up on.
# posted by BloozeGit @ 4:36 pm 
