The Day That Chee Kiang Graduated

Three months after Chee Kiang has entered the work force, I finally get around to blogging about his graduation which took place on the 10th of July. 😐

We also travel back to a time when I was still a student, who had her OSCA (a part of my fifth year final exams) on Monday,  and still I flew to Singapore on Saturday morning. That’s balls man! Might not have done it if it was a theory paper lah but well, I can say anything now, I passed my final year! Whee!
It was quite the adventure actually. Couldn’t sleep on Friday night because of exam tension so slept for two hours before waking up at 4am and thankfully I was quite alert while driving all the way down to Penang airport where I parked my car for the night and hopped on the plane. Spent a night in Singapore and arriving back in my room in Sungai Petani at 2pm on Sunday to plonk myself in front of my notes once more.

THANK GOD THAT’S OVER.

Taking all these graduation photos ie. playing with his mortar board, touching his gown made me worry that I might jinx my own graduation. 😛

Looking smart with an unglam background.

The microwave oven does not make a good cameraman.

This is the photo that was so wrongly interpreted by all my well meaning facebook buddies. I was only giving him his graduation present. 🙂

So apparently NUS make special graduation bears and lions for the Class of 2010 and Chee Kiang didn’t want to lose to Jon who already has the lion.

My mum hopes that AIMST will provide some kind of soft toys so she can buy one for me. <3

I’m quite happy that there was a seat for me at his graduation apparently. Seats at my graduation are kinda limited so it’s going to be tough. :(((

Meet Chee Kiang’s Aunt and Mum! We were choosing the nicest looking bear for him to hold in his pictures.

Hehe, so we chose the bear. You can’t buy the super big one though, I was told.

Meet Grad The Bear. He’s cool like that.

Like twins! Same collar and gown all..

NUs wants you to know it is an NUS bear, if you didn’t know it already.

With his parents and his aunt.

While Grad the Bear just stones at the side, waiting for his turn to camwhore together.

NUS did a pretty good job putting up some solid backdrops for the graduates to commemorate their special day.. unfortunately it started to rain. Sigh.

You can’t see the rain here but on Chee Kiang’s right shoulder is a guy with a hand over his head – showing you that it is indeed raining.

That’s Leong Hui and his family and Jon’s so nice to be the designated camera man of the day. I had just received my DSLR from my dad at that time and I was still like, “HOW DO WE WORK THISSssss” so I stuck with my PnS and Jon took over. Turns out I have been using manual focus instead of autofocus which is why my photos all suck. But it has gotten better ever since. 😀 But I am still rather miffed at the colours of my recent New Zealand pictures, too many dark ones. What am i doing wrong?!

I like this picture a lot  and the many variations of it. Even Grad the Bear gets to be in the pictures!

Much thanks to cameraman slash dear friend Jon. 🙂

Housemates <3

And we bumped into Jiun Haw there who also graduated from NUS this year! He was there for one of his friend who graduated from the Faculty of Science or something..

We used to walk home together with Chung Lern and Teng Choon after school.

Grad the Bear made for a good blanket as it was quite cold in the auditorium.

After sitting through the speeches and many other graduates, there’s Chee Kiang finally!! Yay!!

Close up shot courtesy of Jon.

Leong Hui’s close up. I didn’t bring my tele lens. 🙁

Choon Han, who is Chee Kiang’s colleague now.

Didn’t know Jon took this picture! I’m like some dinosaur, not willing to explore new photography gadgets.

The screen would constantly show happy graduated faces clapping and cheering for their classmates.

Just a quick glance at the size of the audience that day.

This is…er I can’t remember her name but she was the top student of her class. She speaks very well and is so pretty to boot! Somemore so smart!! Wahhh jealous die me. The list of  book prizes she had just went on and on and on.

The two tired photogs. With Grad the bear admiring Jon’s tie.

As the valedictorian’s speech came to an end, there was a loud explosion from the ceiling! Luckily Jon managed to capture it. I mean he already knew was going to happen because he had his graduation ceremony as well and for every ceremony, they will release streamers and balloons too!

The balloons then proceed to fall over the audiences.

People start to reach up to touch the balloons. Wish I was down there too. *bummed*

Like idiots we shouted at him from where we were standing (quite high up) and thankfully he turned up to look.

Then he ignored us and continued to layan his friends down there. ;P

Chee Kiang with his proud mummy after everything was over and done with.

Hi Adeline!

His graduation took place during my two weeks with the Samsung Galaxy S, so I had to use it to film him for a bit.

That’s Cynthia, one of Chee Kiang’s classmate as well.

Choon Han, as I have mentioned, who is Chee Kiang’s colleague and former classmate too. 🙂

ivy and Kenning with Chee Kiang.

To see how many things he can balance on his head.

The people from his class who ended up working at the same place.

Obligatory mortar board throwing photo.

Yay I’m in the pictures again! With Eng Hooi and her sister Cheryn.

One of the many couply photos of us, a must do on one of our graduation days. Ahem. Mine coming soon, so there’ll be more. Stay tuned.

If I didn’t wear this dress for his graduation day, it would have ended up being the one I would wear on mine. Oh well. I look like I am some academician!

This girl printed her classmate’s head and stuck it onto a cardboard as the guy didn’t come for his own graduation. Damn realistic right the head?

I was fooled by these cookies! Thought I could eat the icing but it’s just a damn sticker.

A meaningful monument outside the Cultural Centre.

The monument comes with some description.

Chee Kiang’s aunt with the AIDS poster that he had to do for his Vienna trip where he attended some AIDS conference as a delegate from Penang/Malaysia. 🙂 I love the colours in this picture!

In other news, thank you to those of you who commented in my previous post about whether I should just keep my blogshop a blogshop or make it a store! I have decided to set up an online store!