I couldn't think of a title for this post, so I scrolled through my iTunes to look for some well-needed inspiration.

Then this song "Do It Now, Remember It Later" by the band Sleeping With Sirens started to play, and it goes: "now that I'm older I've seen all the things that I want and I'm ready to make my move". Those words there pretty much summed up the way I felt when I wrote this post about my adventures here in Ngee Ann.

And sharing with you here - the most memorable moments that I'll always remember:

My first camp at NP!

I was cast as an extra in the indie short film " Band of Mischief" by final-year Film, Sound & Video students. This film later went on to claim several awards in film festivals.

Scarefest 2010, a Halloween movement organized by stage production CCA - Stage52. It was my first Halloween and I dressed up as Pocahontas. Some of us spent hours making our characters as convincing as possible, it was effort well spent as I had so much fun!

Parading around the school in our costumes.

My CCA - New Revolving Age (NRA), hiphop dance club. This was our first performance as Freshman.

Overseas Leadership Camp in Malacca. It was a really fun trip as there was so much to see in Malacca. The hidden streets were the most enjoyable discoveries.

In 2011, I joined the Freshmen Camp 2011/12 as one of the crew members.

My first opportunity of being a Student Leader for the School of Media Studies' Freshmen Bonding Camp. You're looking at us proudly singing our 'National Anthem'.

Yes, I can do a split! Warming up for Dance4Fund, an inter-faculty dance competition.

At Camp Eleven, with the fellow Muslim girls, for our morning exercise! 

Another Stage52 Movement. This time it's a theatrical one and I was a dancer in a cabaret musical called The Guilty Ones. A big thank you to our Aunty Make Up Artist for doing our makeup! 

This is us.

Another year of the Freshmen Orientation Camp.

Here, with the people of NRA, after participating in a flash mob for nEbO's 4th birthday at Downtown East, Pasir Ris. It was quite an experience to be dancing in public to the hit song Party Rock by LMFAO. 

My coursemates.

The NRA's Freshmen Camp with an interesting theme - "Bubble Tea". It came about because almost everyone brings Bubble Tea to dance class!

Again, I had the opportunity of being a Group Leader for my group. They're an adorable bunch of dancers.

A 30-minute fish spa for US$1 in Cambodia. This tickles! I remember dipping my feet into the giant tank, laughing and crying when the fishes came nibbling at my feet (and this supposedly removes dead skin). My skin did feel smoother afterwards, so it wasn't too bad! Thank you fishies!

Star-jumping in Cambodia's Angkor Wat. For US$20, you get to visit this World Heritage Site.

Together with some NRA dancers that supported and performed for The Carnival Act, the closing event for Arts Fiesta 2011, a movement by Ngee Ann, in conjuction with the President's Challenge 2011. In total, we raised about $140,000! Good job everyone!

Yet again, another opportunity to become a Student Leader for Red Camp 8.

Learning new hiphop dance steps.

With good friend, Mardiana. We go a long way back in terms of our friendship! I first met her in a Freshmen Orientation Camp, and we've been really good friends since. I'm very thankful to have met her.

Well friends, thank you so much for reading this. Unfortunately, this would be my last post and I hope you've enjoyed reading my entries. And I'm ending off with a quote from the movie "Up":

Adventure is out there, so chase your dreams. I'm on my way chasing mine. 

Ideawerkz has launched their annual competition yet again. This year's competition is called the Ideawerkz Innovation Challenge 2011. Students participate by forming a team, or by working solo. What they had to do is to come up with ideas for the betterment of the school, at the same time fulfilling these criterias:-

1)  What can you do to make campus a livelier and cozier place?
2)  What initiatives can you mount to help students manage stress?
3)  What can you do to encourage students to be innovative? 

With so many inventive ideas, here are some of the ideas our students have contributed! Congratulations to our winners!

Shawn Tan's Proximity Sensors is pure genius. This way, I dont have to go on a Scavenger Hunt for tables and seats for lunch! With that, this makes him the Winner of Ideawerkz Challenge 2011!

Now this I find pretty cool. This will keep my feet dry! Normally, if you're wearing just socks and shoes during a rainy day, your socks will get wet, and then it will wrinkle up your toes, and you don't want that.

This movement will be great for budding musicians! Entertaining too!

This is really cool, considering there aren't enough seats available during lunch time in school.

The first time I walked past this contraption, I thought it was pretty annoying. But after seeing the reaction on the people's faces after passing this station, it's actually pretty entertaining.

Having a food delivery service in NP would totally help beat the queues during lunch hours.

I would be so thrilled if this actually happened. I could use a mini foot spa everyday after school!

Congratulations once again to all the participants!

Yes, RED Camp 8 is coming!

(RED Campers have already been informed of their tribes! There's the mighty Spartans, the stealthy Ninjas, the hot & super cute Apaches, the vivacious Vikings, and the sexy Centurions!)

RED Camp is your Roadmap to Explore and Discover Ngee Ann Poly, an exciting stay-out camp for 'O' Level students to learn what NP has to offer!

This year's RED Camp will be from 22-24 November. During these three days, secondary school graduates (fresh out of their battle with the big O's), will be coming to NP to have a feel of our campus life. As each year's RED Camp gets bigger and better, we're expecting lots of people!

For our soon-to-be RED Campers, our student leaders can’t wait (just had to have that extra emphasis to express how we're feeling) to meet you! Over the three days of RED Camp, you’ll get to meet them, and they are the ones who will be with you throughout the whole programme.

If you didn’t manage to sign up for RED Camp, don’t worry! We will be having our Open House in early Jan 2012, so do come down then and check out what NP has to offer.

So see you at RED Camp, or at Open House!

Hey you! Have you heard of the Arts Fiesta?

If you haven’t, just know that you’re in for a treat! Our various performing groups will be showcasing their talents outside Munch, and at the Student Plaza. These mini performances will be on 24, 27, and 31 Oct, as well as 2 Nov.

Here's a sneak peek of what happened at Munch! There was a performance by the Contemporary Dance Club and other performing groups.

Members from hip-hop dance club New Revolving Age (NRA) were also selling tickets for their performance, The Carnival Act, which will be held on 4 & 5 Nov 2011 at the University Cultural Centre at NUS.

There will also be more ticketed performances by some of our performing groups, like the NP Voices, Indian Cultural Society, Concert Band Club, Chinese Orchestra Club and Contemporary Dance Club at the new MusicBox@73.

NP Voices Club's recent concert, Grandioso IV. (Photo credit: Lee Zhi Xiong)

What will they bring to the stage at this upcoming performance? )

The best part? All proceeds from the ticketed performances will be donated to the President’s Challenge 2011. You get to enjoy performances while doing your part for charity!

So grab your friends, and support the Arts Fiesta 2011! More information can be found here!

Lady Gaga hopes to die as free as her hair. The vivacious Glee character, Mercedez, sings about not having to change her weave. It is a norm for many to express themselves through their hair, but how many would express their support for cancer patients by shaving their hair?

66 signed up, but a total of 106 turned up to get their hair shaved off recently at Ngee Ann Poly's very first Hair For Hope initiative. Organised and initiated by Clarissa Sih, a year 2 Mass Communication student, this was the second year that Clarissa's involved herself in the event.

From left to right: Lecturer-Advisor Mrs.Shirlyn Toh, Jeanette Yeo & Clarissa Sih, organising team for Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Hair For Hope 2011.

When asked about her thoughts on the event, she said she feels happy that she is able to help ease the burden of children cancer sufferers by raising funds and awareness through this event. 

For her, Hair For Hope is a walking testament of the bravery possessed by child cancer sufferers. She shares that some do not understand the cause and gave her disapproving looks, especially when she pays a visit to public toilets. 

And it was certainly not easy juggling school work and organising this event at the same time. She's had doubts about the success of the event when stress got the better of her. The negative thoughts, however, went away when the event unfolded before her very eyes. 

Our very own Principal, Mr Chia, came down to grace the occasion. 

Among the participants were also lecturers!

A courageous lady!

Participants offering megawatt smiles as they get their head shaved :') 

Jay Jay, year 2 Advertising & Public Relations student feels that shaving hair off for a good cause was just like donating blood, and there's nothing to lose if it's in the name of charity.

And guess who else came down for Hair For Hope?

Dynamic duo, Jack & Rai entertained the participants that day! 

I was amazed when Clarissa shared with me that her core team only consisted of three people (her co-organiser - Jeanette Yeo, and lecturer-advisor - Mrs Shirlyn Toh)! She hopes for increased awareness of this meaningful event that supports children cancer patients and that more people will participate the event in future.

"Anyone can be confident with a full head of hair. But a confident bald man - there's your diamond in the rough."- Larry David.

Photo credits: Thilagan Narayanasamy

If you've been keeping up with the latest campus hype, you'd know that C'ING 2011 has been running for 7 weeks, from late May to mid July. And the final concert took place on 7 August at the St. James Power Station!

C'ING 2011 (pronounced "sing") was organised to encourage the creation and composition of good, original music that's uniquely Singapore. It also aims to get people to appreciate the Chinese language through music. To run the campaign, the Chinese & Media Communication students who conceptualised the event had even set up their own productions company known as JIJ Productions.

I'll leave you with pictures of the artistes who showed up to perform!:

The Mainworks

Black Forest

Nic Lee from MiLuBing

Teresa Tseng & Jim Lim

Shuang Zi Zuo

The winner of C'ING 2011 was Nelson Tan! He took home cash and prizes worth over $2000, which included a music production course as well a publishing contract with SOMA Productions and Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group.

Top honors goes to Nelson Tan (second from left) and his "Growing Up".

The team behind C'ING 2011 - JIJ Productions: Jessica Shen, Zhou Jingyi and Isaac Lim.

Ms Sim Ann, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Law also showed up!

Jessica presenting Ms Sim with the token of appreciation.

Pictures courtesy of C'ING 2011

My cravings are the weirdest, and the worst. On some days, I crave for cupcakes. Yes, CUPCAKES. Gosh, I feel like a pregnant woman sometimes.

You must be thinking, "Fatin, you're crazy. There's no way you can satisfy your crazy cravings in school. The variety of food here's limited."

Now here's when I tell you we have the following!:

Anyway, coming back to my favourite cupcakes. So where can we find such delicate cupcakes?

You'll find them here at:

Smooch Cafe, located at Ourspace@72!

Now let me take you on a cupcake trail...

Cupcake #1 - Salted Caramel Cupcake With Roasted Almonds

This would be the first cupcake from Smooch that I've ever tried, and I must say, my expectations were met. You must be thinking, SALTED? Like salty? Isn't that weird, and uncommon? Yes, it is, my dear friend. But sometimes, good things come in weird packages.

So how does this baby taste like? It taste like heaven. The frosting is not too heavy, it's actually very light, so you won't get sick of it. And the almonds make a good divider for the sweetness of the caramel. When chewed, the almonds actually taste like peanut butter. So it's really interesting, that you can incorporate caramel AND peanut butter, without having it too overwhelming. A definite must try!

Cupcake #2 - Caramel Banana Cupcake

This baby here, goes really well with a warm cup of tea. If you like banana cake, I'm positive you'll like this one. The frosting is made out of fresh bananas and cream. And the aroma of the banana, just leaves you lingering for more. This baby would be a good start to your morning. I mean it gives you your carbs and your fruits. I'M KIDDING. Please, take your fruits properly alright? Fruit flavored cupcakes are not proper alternatives to fruits! No worries though, you can still have this moderately yeah?

Cupcake #3 - Coffee Nut Cupcake

This cupcake is for you coffee lovers! The sprinkle of chopped nuts goes well with the coffee. And a pinch of seasalt, if you can see in the picture, just tops it all off nicely!

The nuts adds a twist to the sweetness for a more nutty flavor. The seasalt too separates your tongue from extreme sweetness, giving you a splash of the sea spray. Really cool cupcake.

Cupcake #4 - Pink Blossom Cupcake

Okay honestly, I haven't tasted this one. SHAME ON ME! My apologies. But don't you think it looks so pretty? Maybe you guys should have a go at this one, and tell me how it turns out yeah?

Cupcake #5 - Red Velvet Whoopie Pie with Cream Cheese Frosting

You have no idea how long I've waited for Red Velvet or even a cupcake with cheese in it. I've loved Red Velvet since I found out about it five years ago. I think that Red Velvet has a really awesome flavor, and the color is just gorgeous. Red Velvet usually has a flavor of chocolate or vanilla. You must be scratching your head thinking there is no way chocolate or vanilla can turn red. Okay well maybe vanilla can turn red since it's more of a lighter color, but chocolate? You've got to be kidding me!

So anyway, how can chocolate become red? Well it's actually the combination of cocoa powder and an acidic ingredient - buttermilk. Buttermilk, is a genius invention to me. It is splendid with pancakes and chicken. CHICKEN? Yes chicken. We'll save that for another story yes?

So usually, we have cream cheese to pair with the Red Velvet, yum!

Cupcake #6 - Earl Grey

"What is that black thinggys you speak of Fatin?" Ah good question. Those black thinggys are actually Earl Grey Tea leaves! How creative that is dont you think! It actually tastes quite interesting, for the leaves feel and taste hard, so you gotta chew on them more, instead of just a soft one bite feeling. I would say, you've got to try this one.

That would be the last cupcake, and that concludes this cupcake adventure! Each cupcake, is sold at $2.95. Except Cupcake #5 - Red Velvet Whoopie Pie with Cream Cheese Frosting, which goes for $2.50. Until then!

Toodles my noodles!

P.S You might be wondering how you can eat a cupcake without feeling sick. I'll tell you a little secret. Eat it like a hamburger! That I'll leave you to figure out, which is not that difficult really. 

Operation Juvi is a student-initiated humanitarian project started in 2010 after the 2009 Sumatra earthquakes and 2009 fire in metro Manila, providing the needy clothes donated from Ngee Ann Poly's staff and students. This is the second year in running and they are aiming to collect 10,000 pieces of clothes!

Joel, a Year 2 student from the School of Business & Accountancy, and volunteer of this project explained that the project name came from the latin word 'Juvi', which means 'Aid' in English. To date, the project has provided clothes to poverty-stricken areas in neighbouring countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, and has further plans to include countries such as Malaysia in future.

"They live in poor living conditions and they are lacking in basic necessities such as clothes. As such, the donation of clothes would provide them of some relief and to assure them that they are not forgotten and there are still people who care for them," Joel said.

Rather than collecting donations in the form of food or money, they decided that clothes is a better choice as it was a necessity. On top of that, it's easy to encourage people to donate used clothes as there are many who have clothes that they no longer wear or want.

The clothes are all piled up together in one room.

As a firm believer that the donations will go a long way in helping the people in those countries, Joel told me that the people there are suffering from poverty and some are even still recovering from the effects of natural disasters.

"Disasters will always occur. Natural disasters are real and recurring in the Philippines. They are hit about 20 times a year. And as a result has displaced many Filipinos, destroyed buildings and driven a more than a few hundred thousandof them into poverty. The people there are also trying to move on with their lives and living in areas with very few facilities with little clothing and food," he says.

Operation Juvi Team working together to split the task

Students working hard to organize the clothes into different categories

And it's not just NP students that Joel and his team are gathering clothes from. Over the past few weeks, the team has sought the help of secondary schools here and would be collecting the bags of items from them.

If you think it all stops at collecting and gathering clothing donations from the public, the process is more tedious than that! After the mass collection from the public, the team goes on to sort the clothes by gender and the category of clothing (i.e. shorts, skirts, shirts, etc.) and then send the boxes over to the organisation that they're working with, before being transported overseas.

They are currently working with HighPoint, an organisation that aims to help rebuild lives of people in need, especially ex-offenders and their families. In this case, HighPoint is helping the people in the needy countries in collaboration with Operation Juvi.

Carefully labelled and categorised!

Joel is also heartened by the eagerness of the students who donated the clothes, saying "the reception has been good and our own students have been very helpful in taking some of their precious time to pack their clothes. I'm also glad that they make the effort to bring them to school to donate it".

Joel Tan, the Year 2 Business & Accountancy student who decided to follow up Operation Juvi 2011

When asked if they would be able to successfully gather 10,000 pieces of clothes, Joel replies with a smile, "I believe that we can hit that goal. After all, nothing is impossible." As of now, there's no future plans for Operation Juvi (next year) because the students would be starting on their internship soon and it would be difficult to organize any plans.

"So what was the most interesting piece of clothing that you've collected thus far?" I asked.

"We have collected many unique clothing such as traditional dresses but the most interesting piece to me would be a super large sized baju kurung. It could fit two people in it!"

Project 79 is a student-initiated project by Chinese Media & Communication students, paying sentimental tribute to the now-defunct Tanjoy Pagar Railway Station through a series of photo essays and short stories. A little fun fact: the figure “79” represents the 79 years of service provided by the railyway station since its commencement in 1932.

The girls behind the project: Shi Min, Xiao Xia and Dandan

Bob Lee, the photography lecturer and award-winning SPH photojournalist behind Project 79

It started out as a project to showcase various historical landmarks in Singapore such as the Victoria Concert Hall and Raffles Hotel but the girls decided to focus on showcasing the Tanjong Pagar Railway station following its impending closure. The project records the heritage and the collective memories of the Malayan Railway in Singapore.

The three girls hard at work with their cameras

The stories were collected through interviewing passengers at the railway station. During the course of the project, they have visited the place almost everyday to source for stories, over the span of 3 months. Out of all the materials collected, 79 top moving stories are published on their website, titled "Our 79 Stories". 

One story featured was a romantic tale of a couple who first met each other at the coffee shop at the railway station. Their relationship blossomed at the railway station and eventually decided to get married. They chose to take their wedding photos at the place where they first met which was the last day of operation for the railway station. For them, it was a special moment as it was where they first met. They also held a event to invite visitors to sketch their best memory of the train station.

The couple who met at the railway station

Visitors sketching their best memory of the railway station at the couple's wedding

A huge crowd turned up at the railway station on its last day of operation and the girls felt like they were attending a press event with celebrity appearances. The last train out of the place was driven by Sultan Ibrahim Ismail of Johor, whose grandfather, Ismail of Johor, had also opened the causeway between Singapore and Malaya in 1923.

Check out some picture the girls took on the railway station's last day of operation:

Their project also received media coverage on local Chinese newspapers such as Lianhe Zaobao and Shin Min Daily News as well as being invited for a radio interview on Radio 1003.

The girls initially had to work with very little budget and had difficulty in acquiring funding for their project. Fortunately, the success of the project sparked interest from the National Library Board (NLB), who decided to aid their project. The girls are now collaborating with NLB in publishing a hardcopy version of their e-book. 

Currently, the girls are working on an exhibition to showcase their project and busy working on the publishing of their e-book, which will be available in August 2011 at their website. You can also visit their the Project 79 Facebook Page. Let's wish them the best of luck in their project!

Check out the pictures from the local music showcase, CHANGE:

Just few weeks back, Schzm,

a company formed to promote the local arts scene, held an event at the new seventy3.

That event, is known as CHANGE (CH▲NGE).

What is CHANGE? Basically, it's part of Schzm's effort to help raise funds for the Red Cross Society Singapore. They invited local artists to perform, and in doing so, fans bought the tickets (which goes into the donation) to support their favourite stars.

Now, would you look at that long queue over there?

Before the event started, I walked around to find familiar faces, and indeed, I managed to!

Fellow blogger Dyan was there! (Despite being sick, he still turned up to support one of his favourite bands.)

To kickstart the event, our school's very own bboys, MnM, did their 'thang' and that got the audiences clapping!

This is cool, but kids, do not try this at home! LOL.

After which, Sixx came on and they definitely rocked the house down with their wonderful performance!

Aarika, female lead singer of Sixx.

Kevin, the rapper of the band. The two were so good I don't even-

Then came along Stopgap, a band consisting of mostly Ngee Ann's students/graduates.

Lead singer Adin lightened up the atmosphere once in awhile with his jokes.

Calvin does the acoustic-like guitar playing, while

Grayson did all the funky groove-to-the-beat strumming.

A performance from Ingride

ShiGGaShay with his awesome rapping…

till the point the audience moved from the back of the theatre to the front:

YouTube sensation Inch Chua came on too and I believe everyone at the theatre went speechless. She was just so good that words can't even describe her talent!

Inch's soothing voice touched the hearts of everyone.

The representative from the Red Cross Society Singapore thanking the audience for their support

The Schzm Team!