Childhood stories in today's context.

On a fine summer day, a lovely couple married and they gave birth to a daughter and name her Cinderella. Cinderella's mother then diagnosed with cancer passed away gradually. Her wealthy father, a business man, then married another woman and gave birth to two beautiful,yet evil, daughters. 


Since young, Cinderella were never closed to her father because he travels around as a business man and they hardly had time together. Seeing that her father is not around, her step mother and sisters took advantage of Cinderella. They made her cook, made her wash the clothes and clean the house. They threatened her not to tell her father or they will beat her. Whenever her father comes home from a business trip, Cinderella would not dare to accept any gifts from her father as she knows her step-sisters will be jealous and they will be unhappy with her.


One day, the Prince of England invites all of the beautiful girls in the country to attend a ball as the Prince wants to select and marry a bride for himself. Cinderella and her two step-sisters were invited to the ball, but her step mother forbid her to go to the ball, telling her that she had no dress nor shoes to wear. Her step mother threw her a basket of dirty clothes for her to wash and made her do the job. Her step-sisters and her step mother then left the house, leaving Cinderella crying at home. 


Cinderella's neighbors, two beautiful lady, knows about Cinderella's situation at home and they decide to help her with the laundry so she can attend the ball. With the help of her neighbors, she finished the laundry in no time. "How am i suppose to attend the ball without any beautiful dress?", cried Cinderella. 


"No worries my dear, we had it all prepared for you", said the ladies.


Cinderella then took a taxi together with the two ladies and attend the ball. When Cinderella appears at the entrance of the hall, she immediately catches everyone's attention. 


"Wow! She's gorgeous!", said a lady.


The Prince was then talking to Cinderella's step-sisters, and his attention was diverted to Cinderella. He went up to her and asked her for a dance. The Prince fell deeply in love with Cinderella, he then proposed to her in front of everyone at the ball with a ring, and put it on her fingers. The prince then went to look for his parents, the King and Queen. 


Meanwhile, her step-sisters were so jealous that they went over to Cinderella with their mother. Their mother find it unbelievable and outrageous that Cinderella did not obey her and came for the ball. Her step-mother then gave her a slap on Cinderella's face in front of the crowd and left Cinderella crying. Cinderella then ran away from the ball, crying, and the ring dropped on the floor. 


The Prince tried to went after her, but couldn't chased and found the ring. The next day, the Prince proclaimed that he will marry the lady whose finger will fit the golden ring. He went into Cinderella's house and tried the ring on her step-sisters. Their fingers couldn't fit into the ring, the Prince was disappointed and thought he couldn't find the lady. When the Prince was about to leave their house, Cinderella dashed out from her room and said she want to try to fit in the ring. 


The Prince then put on the ring for her and slowly, out of his surprised, the ring fits perfectly and nicely on her beautiful fingers. The Prince was so happy and glad that he found her. 


The Prince and Cinderella then marry, and they lived happily ever after.

Character Profile

Choose a storybook: Harry Potter & the Chambers of Secrets

Harry Potter is an orphan who discovers at the age of eleven that he is a wizard, living within the ordinary world of Muggle people ( non-magical people ). His ability is inborn and such children are invited to attend a school that teaches necessary skills to succeed in the wizarding world. 

Harry is staying home with the Dursleys for the summer, and he is not getting any mail from his friends, Ron and Hermione. Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf, who warns Harry that he will be in great danger if he returns to Hogwarts this year. In order to counter Harry's determination on going back to school, Dobby decides to destroy, by the use of a charm, a large cake that Aunt Petunia has bake for an important dinner party attended by Vernon Dursley's boss and his wife. The Dursleys then lock Harry's books and wand away and fit bars onto his bedroom window, making Harry a prisoner.

Harry is then saved by Fred, George and Ron Weasley in their father's enchanted Ford Anglia car. After a pleasant summer together in the Weasley's house, everyone heads to Platform 93/4 to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. Harry and Ron then realized that they are unable to enter the barrier between platform 9 and 10. They then fly to Hogwarts in the car.

Harry, Ron and Hermione attempt to discover the Heir of Slytherin's true identity. Using polyjuice potion, they disguise themselves as Slytherin students, hoping to learn from Draco Malfoy the identity of the Heir.  

The attacks increase throughout the year, petrifying more students, including Hermione. Most horribly, a message written on a wall declares that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber, where "her skeleton will lie forever."

Harry makes it to the Chamber where he finds an unconscious Ginny. He meets a young man named Tom Riddle, who claims to be a memory. Lord Voldemort, whose real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, imprinted his memory in an enchanted diary, in order to one day continue the work he began when he reopened the Chamber fifty years ago ridding Hogwarts of non-pureblood witches and wizards.

Tom Riddle's memory grows more powerful as it steals life from Ginny's body, and it tries to kill Harry by setting loose a basilisk. But Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, arrives carrying the Sorting Hat, from which Harry draws out the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, destroying its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. In attempting to slay the basilisk Harry's arm has been pierced by the creature's fang. Harry stabs the diary with one of the basilisk's fangs, and the memory of Riddle is destroyed, while Ginny revives from her near-death state. Harry seems to be dying quickly from the venom but Fawkes comes to heal Harry with his tears (phoenix tears have healing power).

Dumbledore dispels Harry's fears that he could have been put into Slytherin rather than into Gryffindor when he tells Harry that it is his choices that define him and not his abilities, and that Harry could not have wielded the sword of Gryffindor if he did not truly belong to that house.

Blog #4 - Write a story about a person

For the past few years, i've been wandering around Tampines since i'm staying there.
So, Tampines is quite a big estate i can say, but i'm always around the whole of Tampines.


There's this day where i was near Tampines Stadium cycling and i noticed this man, in his 40s, who looks kind of slumpy, carrying a sling bag and an umbrella in hand. The first impression he gave me is that he looks odd and weird, but unique in a way.


Another day, i saw the very same man while i was having my supper at Mr Prata Family Restaurant at Tampines. Again, his attire is the same, carrying the same umbrella and bag. But the previous time i saw him was at the west side of Tampines, now at the east side. I thought to myself, he must be "some thing".


This cycle repeats itself more than 10 times in a few months. I see him everywhere in Tampines, but at different time of the day. Be it day or night, i'll still see him. 


So my friends and i decided to name him, "The Man from the Future".


We thought to ourselves, why do we see this guy so often than anybody else?
Is he trying to show us a sign that bad things are going to happened in the future?
Or is he just another ordinary homeless guy?

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_705011.html


I would like to share a story that has left an impact on me.


A few years back when i was serving my National Service, i was being deployed to Sumatra a western island in Indonesia on a rescue mission. A partial part of Sumatra was affected by massive earthquakes and tsunami, millions of people are affected, many lives lost and some homeless.


While flying on the chopper, i looked down at the island it was terribly wrecked. There were many missing casualties that we have to search for, many were trapped under the collapsed building, some were swept away by the tsunami waves. Through this mission i thought to myself that how lucky we Singaporeans are living in a small countries that won't be easily affected by natural disasters as Singapore is surrounded by our neighboring countries.


We were around Lake Toba, which is well known as the largest volcanic lake in the world. Suddenly i felt a little tremor. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but the tremor gets heavier and harder that they sounded for evacuation. My team leader hurried us to get on the chopper for evacuation as the disaster site is getting unstable and dangerous. We managed to get on the chopper and flew off. While on the chopper i heard a massive explosion "boom"! like an atomic bomb that just dropped onto the ground. I look out of the chopper''s window and saw the super volcano erupted, a moment of guilt and irresponsibility haunted me ever since that incident happened. 


THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY CONTINUED FROM THE ARTICLE ABOVE.

The story behind every song

"Turbulence - Bowling for Soup

I overheard this song through the radio when i was working at a retail store during the holidays.
Basically when the intro of the song is played, which is just a simple few notes of the acoustic guitar it somehow took my attention away to stop everything i do and just listen to every second of the song.


As i was working at the retail store during the long vacation, many things happened.
Things just can't go on the right track for me, which i also brought my emotions and thoughts to work that affects my 100% performance at work.
With motivation and encouragement i had from many close friends, i manage to continue and carry on with my 2 months contract job.


The lyrics of this song clearly explains my thoughts and the situation I'm in during the 2 months vacation.

"Its so hard to figure out, which way to turn. There's no going back now, all your bridges burned"
this is the first verse of the song, it explains the thoughts i had where i can't find a right direction of life and i've been thinking too much about the past which caused me to be unsure of my directions in life.

"Storm clouds all around you, but a blue skies on the way."
this is the pre-chorus of the song, which is also a very motivation phrase to me personally.
I'm feeling down most of the time during work where the storm clouds represent my emotions but i never thought that there's always happy moments up ahead of me which is also the blue sky.

"And we're all just passengers tonight, and we're all just traveling through our lives. We will reach our destination, so just hang on for the ride. Say a prayer and close your eyes, it's just a little turbulence."
We are all traveling on a very long journey, a journey of lives where we are all passengers. But every journey comes a point where its our destination which is our goal. So say a prayers and hang on, its just a little turbulence which affects our mind a little.

Last but not least.
"take a look around you, look how far you've come. Your whole life in front of you, you've only just begun. We've all got our problems, but they're just bumps in the road. If you only keep on fighting, there's no where you can't go."
This second verse really keeps me going on and tells me not to give up. Every journey, be it our lives or a bus ride, there's always bumps and unstable roads, but if our minds are strong like the engine of the car, we can definitely over come the humps and slopes of live.

My Memorable Childhood "Bicycle"

Bicycle.

It started out one day when i was at the age of 5, my mummy bought me a bicycle.
A young and innocent toddler, of course i have no experience in riding a bicycle, therefore my mum bought me a bicycle that comes with styrofoam tires with two support wheels screwed at the rear wheel.

I rode the very same bike until i was at the age of 7, the bicycle has worn out and one of the support wheels came off and was unable to be fixed.

Instead of crying and pleading for a new bicycle, i rode my old bike with one support wheels.
Of course depending on the support wheels for two years balancing the bicycle, i would depend on them a lot and felt uncomfortable riding with only one support wheels, i just continued with what i have.

The playful me, still young and naive, went downstairs at the playground to play.
I brought my bicycle along with me, riding around the estate.

I was so not used to balancing the bicycle with just one support wheel, i fell badly and scarred my arms and knees. But that did not stop me from riding my bicycle.
So i kept on riding the bicycle until the last support wheel came off and wasn't able to be fixed, it eventually turn into a two-wheeler.

With my perseverance and courage, i hopped on my bicycle and started riding it.
Without knowing and realizing that i do not have my support wheels on, i rode my bike smoothly like an adult.

Through this childhood experience, i've learnt that Perseverance and Determination is a key that will lead you to success.