If you want the rainbow, you must first learn to embrace the rain

2010-04-25T15:03:00.004+08:00

Ok, previous post is like so OUT-DATED... cos i went to Hoddaido in like December 2009? Haha...

Now what else...

These people INSIST that I talk about them...

Well, they are... a rather lovable, bubbly bunch I would say... Of course if they use the same amount of spirit they have for EVERYTHING else, on their studies too, they will be fantastic. There were really enjoyable times spent with them. Of course I have my share of disappointing moments with them too... but let's not talk about them here. :)

I started off the year with a lot of 'warnings' from various people. Basically that's what we always do. We'll ask around... so how are they? Who are the people to look out for? Some will be very general and say, they're not easy, but just continue with what you've been doing and you can do it! Some are more 'specific' and say look out for the A****, the X*****, the R*****, and R***. So, I went in with certain expectations. :)

They are not easy I would say, I had to crack my brains on how to bring them to my side and when they celebrated my birthday with me, I felt that my efforts have not gone to waste.

The celebration was a pleasant surprise. This was really one of the 'surprise' celebrations that was REALLY a surprise. In the past, someone will always manage to leak out something... Actually I should have thought of it when they asked for $20 to buy stuff for 'class deco'. Even when my colleagues came and ask me whether it's my birthday, I still didn't expect the celebration. I walked into class to see them 'extremely' obedient, greeting with extra enthusiasm, with some empty seats. Then some walked in with the cake, think they were hiding in the toilet before I came in. Well, from the noise they made, they managed to let a whole lot of people know that my birthday was coming, and had two 'seniors' walk by to see what is going on, and one even got her hp confiscated cos she's trying to get the cake.

Recently we had this carnival, which many of them worked very hard for. I was really so proud of them, seeing the way they did the carnival and how they worked together. I was actually so worried at some point of time whether things are getting done, and when I asked, they were like, ya we're doing it and everything turned out great. We were the first stall to finish selling our food. I personally think we had the best decorations, so upset when I knew there were no prizes for that. We had the best advertisers... the way they go around shouting was so amusing. The games stall was like giving away prizes at a loss, the little children kept coming back to our stall cos we place the ball soooo close to the target for them and we gave a whole lot of presents no matter what score they hit.

Then there was sports day... I was SOOO looking forward to the class relay... then they cancelled it cos of lack of time. So disappointing... I was so sure we would win something... sigh... But a number of them still won prizes in other events. This people a lot of sporty ones... Cannot stay still. This makes me miss MY Sec School's sports day. I never took part though... I'm not the type who participate in sports... see my size you'll know :)... but i love watching sports... basketball, badminton, volleyball, swimming, diving, gymnastics etc... but no soccer... I think it's boring...

So now the important time of the year is coming! Work hard! It's 40% of final ok! Don't disregard it's importance. MUST WORK HARD! Do yourself proud! Make me proud. :)

2010-04-24T13:48:00.002+08:00

FINALLY...

Today is 'almost' FIVE months from my last entry. Ppl around are like... Hello... your blog? is it still alive? Well, I get that a lot...

Anyway, I've lots to talk about... but first let's talk about my HOKKAIDO trip... :)

Well, it's UNFORGETTABLE... the guide says it's all white when it snows... True enough... but i had lots of first times in this trip...

I saw so much snow that I almost couldn't walk through it...

Tasted snow...

Made my first snow angel

Ate KOBE beef... Cost like S$120 for a piece slightly large than your palm. It's the BEST type of beef ever available... Apparently they play music to the cows starting from 3 months old.

Made a snow man... (guess how BIG is it?)

Drank beer fresh from factory...

Ate ice-cream in the snow...

Ate sea-urchin...

Saw TWO Frozen waterfalls...

Slept on extremely comfortable Tatami... I don't mind my bed room like this in future... Save on bed frame.

and woke up in the morning and saw THIS

Love this place... I'll be back again... during the summer season... but that has to be during July... which with my current job, is quite impossible... Well, the day will come... Maybe... in many years from now.

Untitled Document

2009-11-27T13:27:00.001+08:00

Memories of China CIP 2009

Well, finally I’m back to update my blog again. Actually not really back in the mood, but I’ve always blogged about my overseas trips, so let’s not make this the exception.

Well let’s start from the question that my colleague asked me on the last day of our trip, when we were already back in Singapore. ‘This trip is very much different from the Cambodia trip right?

I totally agreed. But of course it’s actually not so fair to make the comparison because the location was different and the people accompanying were different. On top of that the things that we did were rather different too. There’s no ‘constant’ so to speak (in the scientific sense), except me and him.

One thing that I really enjoyed in Cambodia was not the teaching… but the painting of the murals. We didn’t manage to paint any murals this time, which I was sort of disappointed. As for the English teaching, firstly the standard in China and in Cambodia is like miles apart. We could teach simple sentences for primary 3 in Cambodia, and they could read simple words, but in China, they only start their ABCs in primary 3, means we are teaching from scratch. So we’re like teaching English in Mandarin. And they have a slightly different alphabet song from us.

And now, I don’t have to do anything while they’re teaching, other than giving advice sometimes and helping out in the small group discussions. And of course taking pictures of the children and the little teachers.

Major problems that we faced were actually getting the attention of the children. Because of their background, many still do not understand the importance of English, or many simply do not even know what this language is. Therefore many show no interest. The progress of the students is also slow, and many a times, the little teachers were going too fast that they just stare blank and gave up.

Actually observing my students aka the little teachers, made me understand a lot of things and why we do or do not do during lessons. As much as we tell them, see this is what YOUR teachers have been dealing with. Now that you have the experience of it, you should know how your teachers were feeling when they were teaching. On the other hand, as a teacher, I see a lot of things too. I’m actually one who is very satisfied with chorus answers. Most of my students simply shout out the answers before I could ask anyone to answer it. The few days of lessons in Fengban Primary made me see directly the disadvantages of chorus answering. Most of the kids simply chorus with their classmates. When it comes to doing work, they simply couldn’t write a single alphabet.

The school was very small, like the school in Cambodia, 1 class per level. But the class size is only about 20 whereas the Cambodian school had up to about 40. But the school is rather big I would say, had a classroom block, a hostel, a canteen building, another classroom block for the kindergarten, and a rather large open space with a basketball court.

I had rather long conversations with one of the teachers there to understand the school’s situation… Everything in the school is provided for, including textbooks, even pillows and quilts in the hostels are provided by the government. So the students only need to buy exercise books and foolscap paper and stationary… The government also gives them a sum of money, calculated according to the number of students they have, for the running of the school… including phone, water, electricity bills, renovations, purchasing things for the school, building new facilities… But with the number of students they have in the school, they actually do not get a lot of money, considering their campus is actually quite big.

The teachers there were definitely not as fortunate as us. They had to teach almost every subject. Except English, which they had one teacher to specially teach English. But for all other subjects like Art, Music, Chinese, Science, PE etc, they had to take turns to teach every year. And of course, their pay is ‘peanuts’ as compared to us. I think their annual salary is not even my one month’s pay… (And to think I’m complaining about the 0.25 month end of year bonus).

But I admire their passion for the children. I saw the teachers play with the children, running around, and we got to learn new games like ‘Xiao Mi Feng’ and ‘Rabbit and Wolf’. They’re like one of them, but when the teacher disciplines them, the children are all ears. For me, I think I accomplished the first part, becoming one of them, but the second part on disciplining them… well, there’s still room for improvement…

Oh and I envy their pace of life. The teachers, including the Principal, were playing badminton and basketball in between lessons. Here, we’re slogging in our staffrooms and preparing lessons…. What a contrast… Maybe there’s where the difference in pay comes in…

2009-09-20T22:18:00.002+08:00

This year's Teachers' Day seems extremely memorable. Why?

Because I fell VERY sick on that day. FLU, SORETHROAT, COUGH, FEVER... everything come together. Almost thought i have h1n1. Fever subsided so i dragged myself to school one day, then cannot tahan took mc the following day.

Even until now, the cough is still not fully cleared. Always lidat.. left a bit. Urgh...

Anyway, I'm going Hokkaido! Finally! But... we couldn't extend our stay in Tokyo, cos the agent said it's very difficult to extend during that time as air tickets are hard to get. So we now only going Hokkaido. Sigh... Was looking forward to DisneySea, shopping at the disneyland shop, going to Harajuku where the Snoopy shop, Kiddyland and the gigantic 100Yen shop is, Shinjuku to buy another Porter bag. T_T

I'm also joining the school on a CIP to Fuzhou China. At first say not confirm whether I'm going, cos P say give chance to other teachers who haven't gone b4. Now say confirm i'm in the team, but then MOE haven't confirm whether we can go or not... cos scared the 2nd wave of h1n1 i think.

Anyway, looking forward to both trips. Went shopping past few weeks, bought new luggage, well prepared for CCCOOOLLLDD weather now. I hope it snows in Hokkaido... I saw snow in Korea last year, but fallen ones... Haven't seen it SNOWING yet...

Also coming up. H41B chalet! Promise... I'll make cheesecake and maybe cupcakes. :)
but i still have to go back school in the morning... sigh...

Oh and I promised my ex-students I'll organise a bbq at my house again... I'll try. How about boxing day? We can exchange presents too? hehe... see how... will try my VERY best.

2009-08-09T16:13:00.005+08:00

I discovered my talent! For so many years, my mum always asked me and I have wondered... if I don't teach, what will I do? I never had the answer... cos since like primary school, I've always wanted to be a teacher. (Actually changed to vet once... but immediately objected by my mum)

But I've found the answer! I can bake and sell cakes! There're so many people making a fortune selling cakes online... Maybe I could be one too... Anyway, I've been making cheesecakes... chilled ones actually... but I'm proud to say, people who have eaten it keep asking for more. Then some time ago I bought this cupcake recipe book by impulse... So I've been wanting to make some. Therefore this weekend, cos my relatives coming to eat popiah at my place, I decided to bake some cupcakes.

Orange Almond Cupcakes:
My mum and cousins were my guinea pigs. My mum ate it on Friday, the night I made it, and my cousins on Saturday when they came to play Mahjong... I overbaked it a little cos I was talking to my mum... Cupcakes were a little too dry... but smells and tastes good!

Chocolate Raisin Cupcakes:
I made these the following night... at 10.30 pm, cos my cousins came to play mahjong until about 9pm. This didn't come from the recipe book. I just put in some raisins, cocoa powder sprinkled some almond flakes on top, and TADA! Oh these are nice... soft and springy... Success!

Ok this is the unsuccessful one... I tried to make a Pandan cake with a recipe found on the newspaper, cos my mum likes pandan cake... but it didn't rise enough, then the centre cracked open... Dunno what's wrong... I'm bad at troubleshooting such things... Anyway, my whole family still say it tastes nice... but I think that its texture is a bit funny...

2009-08-07T16:01:00.000+08:00

Happy National Day Singapore!

Once again, my busybody-ness got me into more work.

I supposedly have nothing to do with National Day Celebrations.... But big mouth me 'volunteered' my choir to sing during the celebrations. We kept on trying to make things better, had to practice with the band again and again, in the end had to change song, and I think we took up a lot of time of the band that they didn't have much time to practice on their own. Think my girls are not used to sing with live band. Tat's why need time to get used to. But in the end, I was the one who messed it up... Sang my part too early... Anyway, I was suppose to be a 'phantom' singer, my smart suggestion to my colleague, but in the end got 'dragged' out by another teacher to show the WHOLE school that their teacher is singing so they should too...

Then I 'volunteered' to click PowerPoint too... then it was quite messed up AGAIN, cos I couldn't hear a single thing the singer is singing, and the singer never follow the lyrics! and I couldn't figure which part the guitar is playing too... Urgh... Anyway, I hope nobody blames me... :( I'm already terribly sorry...

But the good thing is, I went around asking, and most people actually didn't know it was me singing until I came out... Which means, the 'phantom singer' question would have been quite challenging actually. :(

2009-08-06T14:59:00.000+08:00

Two long weekends. Last week had one, and now another. How wonderful!

Last week was our school's Thanksgiving. So we had a Monday off... Long weekend!
Watched the long anticipated Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Saturday after Thanksgiving with my family. Story line not fantastic, but the effects were good. .
And where do you think a family of four, parents and two daughters with the younger one in mid-twenties can go on a Sunday?
Clue: Famous tourist attraction, found in northwestern part of Singapore, Internationally renowned.

The ZOO! Ok the last time I went was actually in March this year, for our school's Sec 2 Subject Camp. But I was stationed at the Polar Bear for the whole day, cos I asked my colleague to give me a sheltered place hehe... so I didn't get to walk around. And the even more previous time I went was as one of the field trips in my modules in NUS, and that's like 5 years ago? As a family, I think it's at least 15 years ago.

Me and the 'otter family'

The otters are REALLY cute. No wonder they put them near the entrance. The moment they see people coming, they start running in all directions.
Cant remember what monkey this is. Not orang utan or chimpanzee. Anyway, it's a real show-off. The moment it saw a lot of people walking pass, it just kept on swing to and fro the hanging branches with all sorts of stunts.

My family and the parrots. I think I took pictures with their ancestors when I was... erm... 6?

Chimpanzees: Do you know that they are 99% genetically identical to human beings? They are our closest relative in the animal kingdom. So that 1% difference in DNA, actually made us able to walk upright, talk, NOT have hair all over our body... blah x3

Great is the Wonder of DNA.

Ah Meng Memorial. I thought a Memorial was going to be a gallery with her life story and pictures of her with tourists...

White tiger... Is this the one that killed the worker few months ago? Anyway, this one just kept on walking left and right... Is it wondering who is more delicious to eat? Anyway, the tiger show in Dreamland Australia was much more spectacular.

Elephants! My favourite animal. Gentle giants that carry heavy weights. In my opinion, one of the rare animals that are HUGE and CUTE.

2009-06-25T22:09:00.001+08:00

Seriously, I think I'm hopeless in maintaining blogs...

No one bothers to read my blogs I think... since the frequency at which I update is like once very FEW months... and... it's always VERY long... =)

Lots of things has happen since the last time I really sat down to type something here... (which was since Feb) Just tat I didn't get the mood to really sit down and write anything...

All the excitement, stress, and tension is over now... A new wave is coming in... Thanksgiving, prelims, exams on and on...

Holidays ending in just about 3 days. 1st day of school is going to be a hectic one, doing a lot of checks... temperature check, travel plans check, hair check etc... Got to teach the students to use the HBL site, which I think is not very user friendly... tmr hav to go school and start calling parents...

Had quite a good rest... I think... I went back on wednesday n my colleague was like... Wow... u looked refreshed... Ok... I had my share of shopping, movies, family gatherings, barbeques, wedding dinners... But a longer holiday, will definitely be better...

But. One can't rest too long. Starting of the holidays I was all geared up to prepare revision worksheets, lessons blah blah blah... but into the third wk, I lost concentration haha... started to prefer to watching tv, and online drama... I think I need some stress to quicken my pace...

Picking up knitting again... I'm 're-knitting' the scarf that I did for my Korea trip last year. I made too 'wide' for my neck... Tried to do something different, but I think I can only do the basic one... I can only do knit stitch... If I do knit and purl, I never seem to be able to make the side stitches tight enough. It's always too loose. Urgh...

2009-06-17T21:30:00.001+08:00

Bbq was fun... They're always my fav lot of students... And I'm always the one to start the fire for them (if I'm around). I should really fold my arms and sit down to play cards the next time. Anyway, we were like fighting the wind, lighter refused to light up, starter refused to catch fire, I had to 'modify' and resort to burning napkins. Luckily I took it last minute (William still ask me buy for what?). But once the charcoal was heated up, the wind really help in keeping the fire burning... Didn't even have to fan as much this time. And gatherings and team work are always the time that one discovers talents!

Announcing the Talents of H41B...

William: Bao ga liao

(I think he did a bit of everything)

Rahul: Chicken Marinator

Janice: Chicken Marinator cum Skewer

Yvonne: Wind Blocker

(she's the one holding the cover of the styrofoam box to block the wind)

ChoonKee: Chicken Chef

(Does experience in McDonalds help?)

JunKai: Fan Master

(Oh this boy fans up the fire very well... Does McDonalds teach ppl to fan charcoal?)

Quote of the Day (by me): Please refer to the 'Cooked food section'.

If I failed to acknowledge your contributions, maybe I old la... never see wat u did. Come tell me, I'll add u to the list... No problem one...

Oh special Thanks to HsinWei who carried ALL the left over food home!

We must REALLY learn how to estimate the food we buy the next time.

So. When's the next BBQ?

2009-02-09T13:00:00.000+08:00

Today, MC...

Actually doctor gave me the MC on saturday and said I should take a break on Monday too. Actually yesterday was not so bad already... My cousins came over to play mahjong. And I won! No much though... If I didn't insist on playing a few more games I would have won more... Cos last few games I kept losing... But then today morning wake up, I couldn't even produce a 'sound' from my throat... like stuck. Call office when wayne picked up the phone I was like 'stretching' my vocal cords to the fullest to talk.

So I asked my mum to help me dig out the microphone of our old karoake system. Will bring to school, plug into patch panel and talk... Louder than my portable microphone which recently keeps giving me problems...

Well, now... preparing worksheets, setting test papers... Sad ah... MC still work at home... sigh... will sleep VERY early tonight...

2009-02-07T15:26:00.000+08:00

Happy Belated Birthday. To Me!

Seriously, my birthday this year started off really bad... I think I'm over-stressed... A few days before, I couldn't handle anymore, and I broke down.

The day itself wasn't fantastic too. Not many ppl remembers or even know it's my birthday. Perhaps my choir, 41B n 42. But my resolution is always never to scold on this day. But I've been terribly sick. My voice keeps on threatening to say goodbye (Today it really decided to leave me, tat's why I'm on MC at home). And when I'm sick, I'm VERY short-tempered. True enough, first class of the day stepped on my tail and there goes the volcano eruption. Used up half my energy for that.

Second class was not too bad, cos I warned them of all the mistakes that the previous class made, so they were more careful. Hoping very much that it will end nicely. And fortunately... everything went smoothly.

Last class, my form class... drove me up the wall again... sigh... I think I'm reaching a bottleneck... A bit lost now...

I can't control my class, and my classes can't seem to understand what I'm saying no matter how many times I say it, and how many different times or ways I say it. What's wrong? Why is it that I have to repeat the same thing 3 or 4 times? I'm so very tired.

2009-01-25T10:39:00.002+08:00

Forgot to mention... My greatest event since beginning of the year. I got my hair cut. Finally!!

Went with an ex-student last Wednesday to a salon opposite school to cut. He was the one who went around checking price and 'decor' of place haha...

Anyway, I like my hair now... Can't show picture cos I tried taking picture but my hair looks nice and my face looks stupid.

Oh, and I love this salon. The hairdresser said the student looked 21, when he's only 16, and said I looked 24, when I'm well, a little older than that. YEAH! finally some one who actually guess my age YOUNGER than actual. Ok lah... i know they trying to make me happy so I can come back and spend money again right... Ya I know...

2009-01-25T10:28:00.002+08:00

EPA Video

Ok,

I managed to 'RE-publish' the movie from Movie Maker and set to a smaller size. So now I managed to upload the file...

http://www.4shared.com/file/82355906/8a981bbf/EPA_08_0006.html

You can either choose to watch the imeem one (in previous post) online, or download this one. But I think quality not so good... cos from 190 MB now shrink to 80+ MB only. So if you still want the 190MB file, I'm sorry you'll have to come school with thumbdrive to find me. =P

2009-01-24T22:47:00.008+08:00

Here's the link to the EPA Video... I'm still finding a way to upload the 190 MB file so that you all can download... but as of now, just view it from here ba... (Right click and Open in New Tab/Window will be good... It takes quite some time to load...)

EPA Korea Video'08

It's doesn't work when embedded... dunno why... so have to watch from link.

It appears that I forgot to bring the PowerPoint slides home... So have to wait until after CNY then can download... so, wait a while more ba...

2009-01-24T22:13:00.003+08:00

Eventful 3 weeks of school. Including Sec 1 Orientation, CCA Selection, O level results, EPA Presentation....

Sec 1 Orientation:
had to stay in school until 9pm tat day, just because I was a subject teacher of HALF a class of Sec 1. Sigh... Suppose to help the EPA students edit their video, but the student had to wait so long to pass me the file, that I fell a sleep. My Friday timetable has EIGHT periods... drained me out man... by the time he passed me the file, I was sleeping... then woke up do a bit here and there and cannot continue le... big headache... so much things to change... ok I was a bit ambitious...
Luckily got ex-students to 'entertain' me... Like last year, chit chat at the sofa area in staff room haha... After that went supper with the MR boys, where we kept walking in circles... duh... and we made the two sec 2 boys hold hands... SO FUNNY....

CCA Selection/Fair.
This year's selection seems to make more sense. They view the CCAs, then make their choice. So we were able to match their interest to the CCAs as much as possible... Sad to say, only got around 15... even fewer chose dance... Strange... cos last year, there was a WHOLE crowd going to dance. Oh but after the fair, more people signed up! So now we got around 18. Yeah! Not too bad.

O level results.
The DAY we were all waiting for. In the morning, we were joking... Got half day? (Like last time in RSS, DHS and TJ, we have half day off if results were good. TJ even got a full day off once)
Anyway, it turns out, we should be glad that we won't asked to stay back EXTRA... Cos... results... sigh... There were Happy ones, she got what she expected, she's contented and jumping with joy. There were those who wanted better, though she didn't really 'need' the results cos she already got a place in a JC thru DSA. And of course there were those who got the results and suddenly just stared blank and sat down there quietly...

Well, too many times I've said the words 'I told you so'... I'm not referring to everyone... Admission exercise is over, what's left is to wait... everything will start from point zero again. By the end of poly/JC, NOBODY will care what you did for O levels. So please do not waste your time again. If you worked hard but didn't get what you wanted, then just keep trying... it was just not your time yet. You still have lots of chances to prove to people what you've got.

EPA Presentation.
I'm VERY SORRY that I clicked the powerpoint too fast... T.T... But you all like have nothing to say already then I dunno whether I'm suppose to just click slowly to let people see photos or click quickly so that you don't have to stand up there and stone. No telepathy haha... And that stupid laptop had to conk out just before the presentation, IN FRONT of the whole school (though the agreement was that I'm suppose to hide backstage and click the powerpoint.)
Anyway, it ended well, I'm trying to upload the video and powerpoint slide... will get it done asap.

The video is nice right! Actually the video long time finish le.... just that I had a hard time finding songs lor... The Korean songs HL gave me were all love love ones... accept one called 2gether 4ever by Shinhwa... but one hungry morning I heard something really funny in that song (if you know, you know haha...) The other 2 song actually i wanted to put one Eng one Chi... but then the Chinese one damn slow... urgh... so in the end still use Eng songs...

I'm always proud of my 'video making' skills haha... My sis say that the software is lousy... but well she is Multimedia Grad lor... Work in MediaCorp one... of course use advance stuff.... As for me, it was dummy proof enough...

2009-01-01T14:53:00.001+08:00

I guess I won't be blogging for quite some time after today. Cos school starts TOMORROW!!!

2009 school year is going to be BBBBBUSY...
*SYF,
*Arts Nite,
*Thanksgiving,
*Overseas trip (oh this one I'll gladly be busy for)
*NWSP,
*Preparing and teaching as usual (First time teaching N level classes... stress...)
*My god son preparing for O levels... I think I more gan jiong than him...
*New P, there'll be new things to get used to

As for personal life...
there's my 'gan jie's wedding! finally... she's going to be real pretty
and planning for my year-end hokkaido trip... HOKKAIDO here I come!!!
and I think I'm suppose to go China with my parents too... to visit our distant relatives

MOTTO for 2009
Eat Well Sleep Well Live Well
Work Hard Play Hard

I WANT to:
1. Have a LIFE!!! I need my life... So far it's been school, students and family for 99% of the time... but now since most of the students have been 'promoted' to friends, that % should decrease.
2. Slim down (hard and slow process... must perservere!!!)
3. Be Cheerful always and brighten up everyone's day
4. Be fair to my students and give them the respect and care they need.
5. Save Money

The time now is 2.55pm, School is starting in 16 hours and 25 minutes...

2009-01-01T13:48:00.002+08:00

How IMPORTANT are you?

Have you ever thought of how important you are to another person? The extent of how important you ARE, varies among all the people around you. The same goes for the importance of these people, TO you. This friend may not be important to you, or be able to influence/affect you in anyway. But YOU may be of the utmost importance to this same friend, and every thing YOU do, affects him or her greatly.

Have you ever hurt someone unknowingly? Or been hurt unintentionally by someone? It's really the problem of the difference in the level of importance you treat each other with. If this person is important to you, you'll never dream of wanting to hurt them.

As a teacher, I have to believe that I'm important to everbody. I have to practice what I preach, and tell myself that everything that I do in front of ANYONE, can affect them. Similarly, EVERYONE is important to me. So many times have I been struck by a simple sentence, which made my heart sinks.

Do you believe that your smile can brighten up someone's day and make them forget about all the unhappines that has accumulated in them? I do. There has been so many instances that I needed just to see someone I trust, or just a simple sms, to reassure myself that there's still people on my side. There're times that the wish is not fulfilled of course... and all I can do is to swallow my grievances... It's hard. I know.

So many times have I done so much, and not received any gratitude, or someone just says that nobody cares for them. It tells me that I'm not as important to you, as you are important to me.

Don't always think that you're the only one suffering. Don't always say that you're a nobody in people's eyes. Because when you say that, you're hurting the very person who's trying to help you, because you're important to this person.

Don't belittle your importance. Because you never know when you'll really need this person again, but has left you, because she thought that she's no longer needed in your life.

2008-12-22T22:51:00.007+08:00

My Choir Alumni came back today... I really missed them... I think I had two years of really good and easy time, having committee members who can auto-run, having minds that really click that we can complement each other on the spot. Their enthusiasm and hyper-ness has really pulled me through hard times, and gave me the passion to drive myself to give all out to these ppl. I made it a point to make them cry during their ROD. Didn't succeed the first year, but the second batch was a success. I know they'll miss the choir as much as I'll miss them. Even now, when I'm feeling lifeless or drained out, I'll watch the videos I did for them to recharge myself.

When my first batch of students left, I managed to convince myself that students come and go, they get on in life, I'll get on too. And it's not that I'll never see them again. I got over it. I still see them once in a while, and I'm satisfied.

Next year, the students who are closest to me won't be coming back. Some have joked about how I'll miss them when they're not around. Indeed, I have thought about that. It will not be the same, that's for sure. I WILL miss them. No more hugs, no more teasing and jokes, no more hi's along the corridor, no more 'niang' and 'mum' (except one), no more complains, no more funny stories that happen in class, no more shoulder massage... and the list goes on.

So I guess a big portion of my life in school is going to be missing... They won't be missing from my life, that's for sure... just missing from school life... which is already quite a huge missing piece. Seriously, I don't know how it'll be without u ppl. Next year is a busy year... With my ready made cheerleaders and listening ears gone... There have been instance that I feel that I'm losing passion and drive. I'm trying very hard to find it back. I cant even imagine the day that teaching is not part of my life. I've never thought of that at all... not even once...

I'll fill up the missing parts... somehow... hopefully not with more work. But I think they'll be around... just hope that I can find them easily...

But I promised that when they're old enough, go out to work and have enough money, I'll bring them overseas... I know that's a lot of conditions to fulfil... but going overseas need money ah...
and I want them to be old enough, so I won't feel like bringing little children ard.

Anyway, I heard this song in Tampines today. Don't know where it came from, whether it was played from a shop, thru radio or cd, or just suddenly came to my mind. I remembered this was the song my batch sang during Grad Nite for our band seniors, when we were in Sec 3.
Lovely song... for all my graduating students

《放心去飞》

作词:刘虞瑞　作曲:陈大力.陈秀男编曲:RickyHo 演唱：小虎队

终于还是走到这一天
要奔向各自的世界
没人能取代记忆中的你
和那段青春岁月

一路我们曾携手并肩
用汗和泪写下永远
拿欢笑荣耀换一句誓言
夜夜在梦里相约

放心去飞　
勇敢地去追
追一切我们未完成地梦
放心去飞　
勇敢地挥别
说好了这一次不掉眼泪

2008-12-08T23:39:00.002+08:00

Korea Photos:

Flickr website: http://flickr.com/photos/clarinet_fantasy/sets/72157610840917313/

Facebook: email address - clarinet_fantasy@yahoo.com

2008-12-08T21:20:00.013+08:00

Wonderful Times will never be forgotten...

Before the trip, I had many expectations. I knew it was going to be a fun trip, considering I have 5 choir girls in the trip (I'm so proud haha... out of 17 EPA, 5 are from choir HAHAHA), I probably know at least half of them, and I'm sharing room with my goddaughter.

But the trip wasn't just fun. It was AWESOME and definitely unforgettable. From the first chilling wind of Seoul the moment we stepped out of airport, to being amazed by the technology of Hyundai Motors, to the once in a lifetime, n**** and going to a hotspring with female students, to my first ever Viking ride, and my now still painful backside from my unsuccessful attempts of skiing down the slope. Not forgetting learning about the historical background of the ties btn N & S Korea, their fight for independence, and their efforts to preserve their heritage. The itinerary was really well planned... 3 cheers to my colleague, and the tour guide who was like a father and fed us well.... BUT, the company was even better. =P

Special thanks to my dear goddaughter, who accompanied me almost everywhere, and did almost everything with me, being the casualty no. 1, who refuse to admit that she's cold until she's terribly freezing, making me so angry because she wouldn't listen but at the same time so worried that I couldn't bring myself to scold her. My choir girls who are forever bubbly and cheering me on, crazy about korean drama and culture, the casualty no.2 who first injured her knee at the ski resort and then tried to run through a string between two poles and fell 'gracefully' onto the pavement, and ALL who sang so beautifully during the trip, further assuring me that my efforts in the choir are not wasted.

The rest of the girls whom I do not know well before the trip, but have definitely sent warmth in the cold weather and brought joy around me, saying kind words when you know that I'm not feeling well after that Viking, wanting the same photo to be taken in every camera even though it's the digital era and the photos can be shared online, and taking pictures of everything around you, starting from scenary to individual to group to specific people, not forgetting the one who keeps saying she's pretty in every picture, afraid that any extra accessory will make her look less pretty and loves everything that's white.

Not forgetting the boys, for being around all the time, to help everybody around, including carrying my bag even though you may not be feeling that well too, blocking the wind even when you are already very cold, entertaining everyone around (even though I keep saying I don't know you, but I was still greatly amused), buying every other thing that you see other people want to buy (which makes me laugh all the time), pulling me away from oncoming traffic when I wasn't paying attention, carrying our luggage up and down the bus, and very importantly finishing the food that we can't finish...

Thank You.

May your life after secondary school be as fulfilling and exciting as this trip. And remember, even when it's cold out there, just remember this trip, cos wherever you are, there'll always be people around who will give you the WARMTH that you need.

2008-12-08T19:10:00.000+08:00

Korean Experience Part I

Day 1:

First step out of the airport, the chill went all the way into the bones... That was just around 10oC. Basically I obviously don't know how 10 or 0 or even -10 oC felt like before I landed in Korea. But after a while, it seemed not too bad.. it just feels like some very cold aircon... first hiccup happened when one of the girl's luggage got carried onto another coach, luckily discovered in time, and dear my goddaughter almost left our luggage behind...

First stop, Dongdaemun Market. Or was it dinner first? Whatever... The only thing I could think of is 'COLD'... and some of the students were like, 'Not cold... Where got cold? I scared hot not scared cold'... Well, they haven't seen the worst.

In Seoul, we stayed at Stay 7 Residences.. it's a 1.5 storey room, twin sharing, one sleeps upstairs and the other downstairs. I was afraid of heights, so I asked my girl to sleep upstairs... But I didn't expect her to knock her head that night, and then once again in one of the restaurants the following day. So when we got back to the same hotel on the 4th day, I insisted that I slept upstairs.

We went to the convenience store to buy food cos the boys were still hungry, they wanted to buy instant noodles, and then, they saw Baskin Robbins, which became a very strong magnet and attracted all of us there. So they bought ice cream to eat, at about 8 oC, one of them even wearing slippers. I told them what's the hurry? Eat on the last day la... My treat... Ya.. me and my big mouth haha... Oh on the last night Seoul when I treated them to icecream fondue, it was -8oC. The boys went to eat out in the open, without gloves... They were shivering to bring the spoons into their mouths...

Day 2:

The next day we went to the Independence Hall of Korea. We learnt about history and war, their development and so on. That was where I realised, these kids can really take their own sweet time... sigh... a group of 22 ppl can stretch for like 200 metres apart.

After that that was Hyundai Motors Factory. To describe in one word... WOW... It's almost fully dependent on robots which are highly intelligent and specific to the smallest drill holes on the car. The place where there're the most workers and the finally assembly line, in which each segment has to finish their work on the car in 57 seconds (I was thinking why not just make it one min? 57 is so troublesome to count)... It makes me want to learn driving and buy a car haha...

Hot Spring haha... We're not suppose to wear anything... So it's a once in a lifetime with students haha... the place looks like a hugh bathhouse... We didn't dare go into the hottest one, but I made the girls try the cold one.. I like it... but they couldn't stand the cold.

2008-12-08T18:46:00.015+08:00

Korean Experience Part II

Day 3:

Everland Theme Park... Is the place where the sick will recover... b4 getting off the bus, my colleague warned the students who are not feeling well to not play the 'over-exciting' rides. But I commented that, when there're things to play, they'll recover from whatever sickness they have. True enough, we asked the boy who had fever the previous night... He's all ready to play...

I love roller coasters... But I hate Vikings... and I was half carried and half pushed onto the Viking... As I expected, I went all giddy and wobbly... I hate that... I lost my appetite for lunch... But it gave me the chance to ask for nicer treatment and the boys helped me carry my bag... =P And guess how I recovered? Another roller coaster ride does it!

Skiing... URGH... my success rate is barely 20%... Worse than my Time Crisis accuracy...
Out of the five times that I tried skiing down the slope, I only succeeded once, and it was the shortest one... I think I'm lousy when my own feet are not touching the floor. Just like rollerblading... urgh...

Day 4:

Nxt day we went to the Digital Pavilion, where you can imagine everything and anything become 'virtual' in front of your eyes.

Then our guide brought us to the World Cup Stadium... It wasn't in the itinerary, but he paid for our entrance fees. Where the students went crazy... and I was like... ok... stadium lor... But that's where I bought the stamps of the Olympics in Korea in 1987... I love stamps... YEAH!

Then we went to the DMZ, the border between N & S Korea. Very strict security, where they have to check our passports, and we can only take pictures behind the yellow line... Then we went down the 3rd tunnel... discovered in 1978... It's a NE Journey cum workout session. Halfway down the slope, I wanted to go back but I still went on to the end... at the bottom of the slope there's still another long tunnel, and the boys' safety helmet kept on hitting the ceiling cos it's low and they had to bend their necks haha... That's when the girls including me start talking about the benefits of being short. =P As expected, the walk upwards was exhausting... by the time I reached the top, I have half a life left... I was sweating even though it was very cold outside...

Then we went to Kimchi school! We had to pay for the session cos it wasn't in our itinerary. But it was all worth it. We made our very own very small Kimchi. Then we could wear the traditional Korean Costume and take as many pictures as we want! My sis said I looked slim in the costume... Ya... cos the costume is meant to be very loose. Oh we took numerous pictures. While the girls had many different colours to our costumes, the boys all had the same ones. They became the background that all the girls wanted to take pictures with.

2008-12-08T18:30:00.000+08:00

Korean Experience Part III

Day 5:

Today is THE day. It's -8oC, and the wind is FREEZING cold. But miraculously, I survived the day safe and sound. I was totally amazed by my limits. I thought I would be the one down with flu or shivering with cold... But I didn't. A few things I realised though...

1. Hoping around when you're cold doesn't help. Cos the more you jump, the more you pant, and then the more deep breaths you'll take in, and the air is COLD, which makes you EVEN colder!

2. It's best to have minimal movements. Cos it conserves your energy and therefore maintains your body heat. The heart will beat faster to generate more heat and then the body slowly heats up. That's why I walk slowly and keep quiet haha... At first it's because I'm tired... Then I realised it helps in keeping warm!

3. Last of all, my cousin was very right. Ears, Hands and Feet... Most important part of the body. Keep them warm, that's half the job done. So, I was a good girl cos I listened to instructions.

So, today we went to the Folklore Museum and the Gyeongbok Palace. We could hardly concentrate on what the guide was saying, cos everybody was busy trying to keep warm. I must salute the guide. He only had a coat. No gloves, no hat. WOW... I would have frozen... It's unimaginable. Then my girl became almost frozen, that we had to half carry her onto the bus. I tried asking the guide whether we could go back to the hotel to get her some more layers of clothing... but he said we're very far from our hotel...

We also went to a Duty free Face Shop outlet... I think we totally amazed the tour guide... He said it was really an experience for him... haha... the way we girls AND boys shop hahaha... young and old, girls and boys all buy a lot of things...

Then we went shopping at Myeongdong shopping street... It was so damn cold, that I kept asking my goddaughter whether she's cold and kept on making her go into the shops cos there're heaters in the shop. Nearer the end of the street, when we said we'll turn back, and that's where I saw Krispy Kreme!!! And I was like running towards it... It's like warmth and hope in the cold haha... Then when they gave the free donut as usual... Mmmmmm.... Heavenly...

Then at night we went back to Baskin Robbins to eat our chocolate fondue and icecream. Didn't stay long outside cos it was cold, so we went back to pack cos we'll check out the next morning. Helped two students squeeze their stuff into their luggage... I'm amazed at myself too... the way I stuffed their things for them... My mum and sis are even better... but I think my skills are good enough for those kids haha... Then almost everyone came to our room, saying they want to stay up the whole night playing card and chatting... but well, too tired la... as expected they couldn't last, went back to sleep at around 4am.

Day 6:

The next morning, I made sure my daughter was well wrapped up with any extra woolen clothing, woolen socks and stockings that I have (of which she has none of the above). So she's well wrapped like a dumpling before we went off for lunch. Our bus couldn't start after lunch... So my choir girls started singing haha... then it went on to worship songs and on and on, and I took many videos of them singing... We were supposed to go the the first Methodist Church in Seoul... but because after waiting for an hour or so, the bus still wouldn't start, so we took a walk to the 'Ladies Street' instead, and did the last bit of shopping.

We had to change bus, but the new bus was so bumpy that I felt nauseous within like 5 minutes. So silly... with the other bus, nothing happen for 2 hour bus rides, but with this new one, 5 min I KO. So I didn't get off the bus when they reached the church. I think some didn't even know I was sick... Most thought I was too fast asleep or too cold or too lazy to get off...

Whatever it is, I survived the trip to the airport, where we stopped at a supermarket to buy all the local goodies and spent the last of the money. When we reached the airport, that's where the exciting part starts... The moment we passed the customs, we had to RUN to the train and the RUN to our boarding gate... WHY? Because our bus broke down and so we were late... Imagine running with all the winter clothing still on inside the airport which has the heater on...

The moment we boarded the plane, we started to take off layers and layers of clothes... Too hot la... Cannot stand it... After take off, one of the boys fell sick... I think he felt so terrible that he was totally curling up... Must have caught a cold after the running and sweating...

The journey home was so long... when we touched down, I was so happy... finally... Positive, Double digit temperature... WARMTH!! HOME!! Finally. Went to buy liquor for a friend... First time buy liquor lor... Felt so 'SUAKU'... Luckily my girl tell me to buy the cheaper one... otherwise I would have bought the $100+ one... which I think my fren has no money to pay me.

Even before go home still go problem. One boy left his Krispy Kreme donuts under his seat. Sigh... Duo1 Zai1 Duo1 Nan4... So went to lost and found... Eventually got back his donuts after almost an hour... with only 4 out of the 6 left. I told him should have scolded the person, but he said he no strength le... The cleaners or crew must have found it, thought nobody wants it so started eating already... Should have told them to pay up.

Finally... My journey is over...

Sorry lah... I know I don't blog often and wheneve I update, it's an extremely long essay. =P

2008-12-08T16:14:00.005+08:00

Cambodia Revisited

Yes. I went Cambodia AGAIN. The 3RD time. And I told myself, unless I'm bring my children here, I'm not going back there again haha...

Imagine visiting the same thing for a second time. Well ok, the people are different. Last two times was with students, this time with family. The food is different for sure, we were very well fed, and my mum kept on thinking that we're going to like 'starve' or eat very simple food there cos the country is poor. Every meal like has 8 dishes plus one soup (at least), and not forgetting the numerous buffets that we had.

My family at the palace of the Cambodian king

Didn't take much pictures, cos the previous trip I took plenty. The problem was that the previous trip I didn't really listen to the guide when we went to Angkor Wat, cos a few and I wandered off on our own. So basically Angkor Wat has three layers, representing hell, earth and heaven. And the place that I climbed so bravely three years ago, was actually the 'heaven' level. However, It's now cordoned off, and we can't access the 'heaven' level now. Pity... It seems that they're not going to open it anymore... they want to preserve the place.

2008-08-11T14:17:00.002+08:00

Last Friday was Beijing Olympics Opening...

I watched the opening ceremony on TV. It was so wonderful... full of antipation and wonder. It's like everything they're doing you'll be wondering how did they do it?

Then thinking of our NDP... hmmm...

And my dad actually told me that in China, they actually forecasted that there'll be a thunderstorm over the stadium, so they fired thousands of rockets at the dark clouds some miles away (the same clouds that will eventually reach the olympic stadium) and 'forced' the rain to fall. That's why it didn't rain at the stadium. Imagine the amount of money and effort the government and organising committee put in to ensure that the opening ceremony goes on smoothly with no flaws.

As for Saturday, our own country's birthday. Also rain, but the news made used of the rain to highlight the 'spirit' of Singapore. Well it's another way of looking at this rain issue. But on comparison, hmmm...

I think it's just our luck that our nation's birthday is after the day of olympics' opening. Considering the amount of preparation, manpower, money etc... there's almost nothing that we can match up. If you think our fireworks was good... Well, I agree it was, that's why my sis recorded it and i bothered to put it up here... but China invented fireworks... so... who's better?

NDP Preview Fireworks - lileagle

2008-08-04T19:20:00.002+08:00

I went to watch Batman yesterday...

It's rather good... Christian Bale was handsome... =P

But the funny thing is, when we thought the show is over, there's another climax coming up...

Cos that Joker kept on getting caught... So when he's caught we thought show over... but then he escape and create havoc again...

But overall not bad la...

Next wk long weekend AGAIN! I want to watch Mummy III. Yeah!

2008-08-04T19:02:00.004+08:00

Finally! A Long Weekend and a Short Week...

No school today cos Thanksgiving was on Sat... so today off in lieu... so I went to get my hair trimmed.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was... not as good as I wanted it to be... But we tried out best, that's for sure... just that well... there're many other factors involved.

Then there was lunch, not too bad, but I only heard from my colleague that the caterer who catered our lunch hit the headlines tat morning, causing food poisoning apparently... but looks like we're all fine... hehe...

Anyway, I went for the NDP preview that afternoon... We walked one big fat round before finding the actual entrance to the place...urgh... they sealed off so many roads, got us all confused. Don't want to be a spoiler, but it wasn't really that great. I went for another preview a few years ago at the national stadium, the atmosphere was really different.

Firstly, the construction site of the IR was really not so nice.

Then some one kept on playing with the sound system, and the speakers kept on changing volume, and balance of the music kept on changing...

Then, it was scorching hot, and one of the audience actually fainted.

Then, the bottle of water they provided in the pack was NEWater, as usual, which is a miserably SMALL bottle of water for that kind of weather.

The stage was big no doubt, but there're too many sections on the stage, and different 'sections' have different things happening, causing us to be very 'busy' turning our heads around, trying to see everything that's happening, afraid that we'll miss anything exciting.

There're still great performances for sure. The Parachuting was exciting, they actually dropped off straight from above and we could actually see them falling (by acceleration of free fall), which seems frightening fast. Wow.

And of course the 'Black Knights', the fighter plane display was exciting, the planes seem to be so much closer as compared to when I last saw them at the stadium.

The fireworks were great, I think there'll be even more on the actual day. My sis made a video of the fireworks. I shan't be a spoiler by putting it up now hehe... I'll put up after NDP for those who didn't see it.

Oh but the esplanade area were flooded with people waiting just to see the fireworks. They stood there since 4 pm i think... and the fireworks only started about 7 sumthing... what a long wait.

Oh yes... and I thought it'll be good experience for the choir to go for the combined schools choir at ndp... but next year got syf, arts nite, thanksgiving... a lot of things leh... maybe another year ba... still thinking...

2008-07-29T09:50:00.002+08:00

Term started fine, with loads of things to do as usual.

Term 3 is always busy. lots of events. Choir as usual, practices until 6 sumthing, in preparation for a performance at Parkway and thanksgiving.

And it's also the time when graduating students get frantic. So many looking for teachers for 'extra tuition'.

I also received some terrible news...

Had a terrible rehearsal that almost made my brain explode...

Anyway, the Parkway performance was made known to the alumni, thru the blog and all the contacts the students had. It was also announced to the school and teachers! So on that day, the response was overwhelming. So many students, alumni, even teachers. We even have people cheering for us when the choir went on stage.

Girl: 'Wow, very scary leh... so many people'.
I: 'But concert hall even more!'
Girl: 'But concert hall cannot see!'
I: '...'

Anyway, the choir was great, though the stage was small, a little squeeze to put all of them into the 'boundary', and the microphones kept on 'feeding back', all went well. It was actually raining dogs and cats before our item. But it stopped just in time for the crowd to gather around and view our performance. YEAH!

Oh I went to watch RED CLIFF. It was GREAT!! Anyway any movie with tony leung in it is a fantastic movie. MUST WATCH.

I went for a Workshop last thurs and fri. I had to wake up at 5.30AM! Travelling time is almost 2 hours. And all I could take home is a huge grey file, and something about 'BIG IDEAS' and that Learning Science by Inquiry needs MONEY.

Seriously couldn't understand the part on 'assessment and evaluation'. I was totally confused and kept on asking my colleague what the speaker is talking about.

And through tat two days, I also discovered something. Boon Lay interchange is terrible. It has SWARMS of people moving in AND out of that place. I had to queue like 3 minutes before I could squueze my way to get from the train door to the escalator.

2008-07-26T09:28:00.000+08:00

It's been ages since I posted anything here... people around are seeing me and saying... hello... can you go update your blog? it's dead...

ok ok... and so here I am.

So many things happened since I last blogged...

June Hols.

Hols is the time we meet up with friends and students/ex-students.
I had lunch with my choir ex-comm, though they made me wait very long haha... but I still enjoyed the lunch. Too bad we forgot to take pictures.

Then one monday a friend called to say 'hey i'm at tampines! want to go makan?' And at that point of time, I was having lunch at citylink mall, on my way to the book fair. I'm not rooted in tampines with nowhere to go la... Another time ba...

Then there was F41 BBQ again. It's always great to see them. And it's at a different place every year... They go house hopping i guess. Though this time round a lot of people 'suddenly' could not make it. I finally made my promise to make them a cheesecake for dessert.

Then there's chalet with the usual gang, we have that almost every year every hols.

Then the hols ended with a bang, which was my sec sch fren's wedding. One of my closer frens in sec sch, though didn't really maintain contact for quite some time. But it was so great to see him, and all the rest of the people from my band! My teacher in charge too! We were like, hey you changed so much! and well, you look the same as you were 10 years ago... And one of my friends was also the 'highlight' cos he's taking part in superband.

We went for a drink after the dinner, chatted for quite some time. The good old days sort of flashed back bit by bit. Now suddenly everybody is adding everybody to facebook.

Well, Hols is also a time to fall sick! =(

I fell terribly ill this hols, fever for almost a week, my nose, throat, lungs and head all declared war at the same time. This whole ordeal lasted for about 2.5 weeks, and after I recovered, I'm back to school! What 'GREAT' timing my body has ya?

2008-05-18T12:59:00.004+08:00

Godmother aey? I think I'm not much of a use sometimes... After results released, so far only two told me their results on their own accord. The rest... never say anything... Good or bad also never say. Then I scared I ask they'll be even more upset. Some can ask straight... usually the boys. but some... I'm at a lost...

Very stupid ah? I always use waiting strategy. If you want to tell me you'll tell me. If you don't want to tell me I'll wait until you're willing to tell me. I can still give you a hug even if you don't wish to tell me anything. If you want to cry, I can lend you my shoulder and I won't ask a single question if you don't want me to. Please don't hide yourself in a corner. It pains to see you like this... especially there're so many people around who wants to care for you.

2008-05-18T12:42:00.004+08:00

I should explain why was I so free...

Because this year... My exam papers came in so late. Exams started on 7th... and my papers only come in on ther 13th and 14th... So by 12th, which was monday... I had this feeling that I'm the only teacher left in the staffroom with no papers to mark. (which I later found out that there's another colleague with the same situation, so I'm one of the TWO). Everybody else in the staffroom was busy marking and I'm sitting around doing nothing, watching drama online, packing my files. Then I got so sian that I went to throw things from my department cupboard, which was something that needed to be done ages ago but I was just too lazy. It's like it became I'm so 'eager' to mark exam papers, so free that I was begging for things to do... URGH...

My marking comes in so late... and it's not like I got less things to mark ok... It's the same load for everyone... but other people's one start earlier but mine starts later... My department always gets the last bit. Ok Art and HE and DT even later la. But SC is massive! We always rush and always meet deadline la... tat's why they still put us at the end. Now tuesday morning have to key in marks... have to go lesson somemore... hopefully got enough time. Then after checking of scripts, must make changes in marks if any... but then afternoon got project work presentation how to change marks? I also dunno... SPLIT lor... like my colleague says I seem quite capable of spliting myself up when necessary.

I finished marking now of course... my colleague says I seem to mark very fast. Of course la... I rush marking in school and then rush marking at home until 11 plus... I seriously don't want to carry that FOUR huge piles of sec 2 papers back home, on top of the sec 3 papers. I die die also finish the sec 2 by friday and then bring home the sec 3 papers. This is called strategic planning... Finish more during the weekdays, and bring less home during weekends. Then you'll have more time to play during the weekends... Which is what I'm going to do for the next two days! YEAH

2008-05-12T12:20:00.001+08:00

11th May 2008: Mother's Day.

A day on which all mothers celebrate their motherhood. I'm not a mother, obviously. Though I hope to be come one in future, but I happen to be a godmother. 8 in total... including 2 new ones 'owned' recently while the rest were for two years already. But not all are brothers or sisters of each other... Complicated aey? Anyway, none wished me happy mother's day last year... Not complaining lah... It just felt strange when this year 3 of them wished me happy mother's day.

Sometimes I wonder what I've done to become a 'mother' of these 8 kids. If I recall, I didn't make them my godchildren... They were the ones who 'appointed' me their godmother... I think it's because I'm naggy and I'm always concerned about every detail happening around them... Ya.. like all mothers do haha...

Wonder how long will my 'godmothership' last. Forever? So in future when I have my own children, I'm suppose to introduce this ppl as their brother and sisters? hmmm... and when these kids eventually get married, do I get to drink tea at the tea ceremony? So after they get married, are they suppose to give angbao to my children?

OK... Miss Ng... you're thinking too far... YA... too free is lidat one... Anyway... it's just for fun now I think... I more of like big sister la. I always wanted a little brother or little sister... So I guess I fulfiled my wish with loads of 'gan er zi' and 'gan nu er'...

2008-05-03T16:05:00.002+08:00

Oh yes... and HOW on earth do you change the blog skin? I spend the whole morning trying do it then it turned out like rubbish... URGH... I think I'm a dummy when it comes to such things... I'm going to get someone to do it for me after exams... URGH

2008-05-03T15:19:00.010+08:00

Ok... I know I don't update my blog often ... then everytime write something, it's massive haha. No choice la... sometimes lazy... then when I feel like typing, I just throw everything out at one go haha...

First, Choir ROD. Made the longest video ever for the Sec 4s, and successfully made them cry haha. First time we had buffet! We used the money from last year's concert. And from there I realised that one of the girls was sooo greedy!!! haha... When I said can 'da bao'... Wah... she take and take and take... But no one else was taking already lah... So she continue taking haha... I was greatly amused hahaha..

The sec 4s still had to go for remedials, so they only came in at 4.30. The rest of the choir were waiting for them in the music room. Someone once said that my choir really knows how to buy presents for me. True enough. First there was the biscuit (story behind pls refer to previous blogs =D), then there was that HUGE Pooh Bear cushion that occupies almost the entire chair in the staffroom now. So when HL came in holding that HUGE Chip, my eyes almost popped out haha...

Anyway, it was wonderful. I'll really miss this batch of students. They really left behind fond memories. And what is most comforting about this batch, is that the leaders, esp my chairman, is independent, and they seem to know me so well that they can anticipate my instructions and even get the choir prepared before that. I really hope that this experience that they go through in choir will really do them good in their future ventures.

Exams for Sec 4 and 5s are here finally. Next week, it'll be the sec 1-3. So all these classes are doing revision now. H31B most gan jiong one haha... Good.. at least some students are motivated. The worst thing that can happen to a student is to lose motivation in studies. My godson became motivated in studying suddenly. It's definitely a good thing, and I'm happy for him. But I just feel weird.. not knowing where that suddenly motivation came from. But since you say you're fine, I'll trust you.

Oh I went for my promotion ceremony on Monday. Met a whole lot of ex-schoolmates. I had a friend from uni who's also teaching... and he's in DHS! Sigh... I'm still thinking... really want to go back there... but GM seems fine now... wasn't tat good last year though. But the colleagues are nice and I'm given more opportunities now... I think... And all my close students are leaving... Hopefully will still have one left next year... I'll be at such a loss next year.

Went for dinner with ex-NIE classmates... ALL my NIE classmates are getting married or planning to get married... And I 'failed' the 'assignment' my fren gave me to find a 'boyfriend' haha... Sigh... even my uni friends are like attached, getting married, pregnant... Sigh... when on earth am I going to move on to the next stage of my life? I think the problem lies in me lah... I know... I hardly go out to meet new friends or go for social activities... I always go out with my sis (which is also why my sis is ALSO single)... otherwise I go out with my students (which is obviously not the type of 'social activity' that I need)... The whole world around me is telling me to find someone... My mum is complaining every now and then that the house needs a 'young man' to do some stuff...

Last thing... I can solve the 5x5 cube!!!!! hahahaha... self learn from video on youtube haha... yeah!!! But I like take half an hour to solve one lah hehe... actually sometimes it's because the cube very hard to turn... always get stuck... but the important thing is I can solve! haha

Well... exams are coming... means MARKING is COMING!!! and invigilation will be so boring... I'll need to drink more coffee than usual to keep myself awake.

2008-03-30T13:53:00.003+08:00

This week was both fantastic and disastrous. It's like I visited heaven and hell in the short span of a few days.

THURSDAY was cross-country. Then I went tampines with the sec 5s. I was totally regretting... haha... the place was flooded with students, and when they saw me at pasta mania, all were like... "treat me leh"... Then I told them I'm not your school's teacher... I'm your teacher's twin sister. Haha. Then the whole gang of us were laughing like crazy over the ultra lame joke. =P Being with students too much made me very lame sometimes... all influenced by them one... haha
Then we went arcade. I saw the pool table, and I was like asking... who's 16 already ah... we can go play pool... when out of a sudden I realised, all are Sec 5 already, means all 16 already! Duh... SY was like... We old already ok... not young anymore haha... After arcade, we went to take neo-prints... Again. Ya... go out with these ppl always go take new print one haha...

Then FRIDAY was terrible. I had a headache on Thursday night, didn't think much of eat, just took some panadol and went to bed as usual. But then early in the morning, I started to feel terrible. The heart was beating very fast, I was shivering with cold from inside out, and my stomach felt like there's a tornado inside. So when I woke up, I had a terrible encounter in the toilet. Dragged myself to school still, cos firstly, I couldn't sleep with that terrible headache, tornado in my stomach and heart pumping like a rock band. And also got two classes with double periods. Once I miss it's very hard to make up, and they're already behind other classes.

First two periods were horrible, my legs were weak, I could hardly lift my voice. I went in and pleaded with the class and asked them to be nice cos I'm feeling very bad. Good thing they were cooperative and behaved rather well. Other than at one point I did use a lot of effort to scream at some of them. Finally endured through the day, actually got contact time but asked for leave from VP and she kindly let me go home. Choir duty also asked my colleague to take over for me. So went around telling my student leaders that they have to make sure things go well cos I won't be around.

So I slept the entire afternoon at home, so much better at night. Must get well enough for high tea and karoake with my cousins the next day! My fren told me I better stay at home... but... high tea and karoake! My favourite pasttime next to mahjong! How can miss! So I slept early, but still endured until past 10pm cos got last episode of Ch55 hongkong drama and the next morning, YES! I feel good! I think...

But all went well yesterday... Went to the temple for 'QingMing' in the early afternoon, then went to Marriot hotel with my cousins for high tea. Initially I told myself I shouldn't eat the raw oysters cos they'll definitely create a war inside my tummy, but it turned out that the oyster 'crisis' was not settled, so the hotel didn't have oysters at all. Great. or else my sis will be tempting me. Then we went to international plaza for Karoake... Sang until 10pm haha... Yeah! Mission accomplished!!!

And therefore, TODAY, I shall be a good girl, stay at home, and finish setting my last exam paper. Ok. go set paper now... I think Friday was a sign... I shall be kind for the mid year exams this year. =D

2008-03-15T23:03:00.002+08:00

GREAT. I literally 'nua' at home for the past few days. Did nothing related to marking and setting papers. Now have to rush over the weekend. Then my sis say tmr want to go watch Horton.

I practically crammed up my whole week, with facial, manipedi, meet my best fren for dinner, go gym... one after another, then there's choir on thurs n fri, went ikea with sis today. Other than that, like I said, I 'nua'ed at home, watch TV, VCD, play computer games. My mum was like, 'Hey, your holiday over soon hor?'. I said,"Yar... and I did nothing... Wow."

2008-03-10T22:14:00.002+08:00

For the first time ever!! I'm actually able to solve the rubiks cube! For the past 20over years of my life, I've been dismantling the whole cube and putting it back... haha...

Dunno why the sudden craze over the cube actually... I've not touched this toy for over 10 yrs I think. Last time I played with it (meaning dismantling and putting it back) was like when I was in Sec Sch? This cube thing, sort of 'reappeared' in my life last nov, when an ex-student kept on playing with it and was named the 'magic cube' boy because the instructor who wanted to call him didn't know his name and the boy was too engrossed with the cube.

Then this year, just before CNY, my colleague started confiscating from her class because they were playing during her lesson. At first was only one, then it became three... we used them to 'decorate' our cabinet partition for a while, until she sort of 'remembered' she wanted to return to the students. I also confiscated one from my class... the rest were smart enough to quickly keep theirs when they saw their fren's one being confiscated and I even explicitly warned them about that toy. Apparently it's now everywhere in the school. Dunno where the sudden craze came from... It's not like there's advertisement on TV or something...

I realised that students always don't 'remember' to claim back their confiscated items. Usually we confiscated and tell the students to come claim the item after school... but sometimes, they never come. Only handphones they SURE remember.... Things like calculators, stationary, storybooks are always 'unclaimed'. Well we say u don't come and claim, we're not going to bring it to class for you.

Like recently I confiscated a basketball. Usually, students will come and hog you every other day, or every time they're free to get their ball back. But this boy, strangely didn't ask at all. So I thought, should I be kind? Probably Sec 1 don't dare to hog teacher yet... Or I too fierce... Anyway... in the end I gave the ball back to the boy. It was taking up space under my table...

2008-03-09T22:33:00.002+08:00

Went to the PC fair today... It was SOOOO crowded. I could hardly move!! This is TERRIBLE. It's like they're giving away PCs for free. The crowd starts all the way from city link mall... Imagine having to squeeze all the way from citylink to suntec... And sometimes the whole place is stuck like crazy and cannot even move. But we had to buy the PC for my dad, so die die also have to go in.

But the things are really cheap I think... Otherwise, people won't be wheeling the SONY Bravia TVs out the fair one after another... the TVs are just strapped to the trolleys, the type they give you when you buy printers? just that now the TV is much bigger compared to the trolley. Then the PSP and playstation all soldout. PSP only selling at $280!!... sob sob T-T... When I finally made up my mind again to buy the PSP, it's soldout... URGH... and so cheap somemore... AHHH!

Oh yes, my sis and I finally went to Raffles City and bought the J.Co Donuts. It's fantastic!! Better than the Munchies that the PSG bought for us. Not too sweet, as my cousin said, Krispy Creme is a little too sweet, but the donut melts in your mouth and not in your hand haha... Wonderful! MUST try!!.

2008-03-08T17:37:00.002+08:00

Oh yes. Did I say my class won 'Good effort award' for the classroom deco? I was seriously amused. I think we won we cause we used a lot of recycled materials. like newspapers and the drink cans. And we also put the 'commitment' pieces of papers on the noticeboard. But the deco is falling apart anyway. The skyline is no-more. and the drink cans keep dropping... I didn't even bother to ask the class to put it back. Oh ya, and the mahjong paper backing actually collapsed the week before. The student's managed to pin it back though... But overall... it's falling apart... haha...

2008-03-08T16:37:00.007+08:00

FINALLY!! the first term is over. Holiday at last. But not much of a holiday... need to mark test paper, prepare lesson, and set exam paper... Oh no...

I told myself ten thousand times that my desk is far TOO messy, and I'll tidy it over the hols. I actually said that LAST year. U believe that I didn't even pack my table during last year's hols? Really dunno what I was doing. My colleague says I keep on mumbling to myself when I search for things on my table... and I'm doing that more and more often recently... For a few reasons I guess... I'm stressed, and I really can't find my things!! And the even best thing is I'm even occupying the empty table left behind by my ex-colleague that has transferred to another school. Great... Now I need to pack TWO tables instead of one.

Ok, last two days of the term ended with a 'bang'. More like the sound when I finally saw and landed on my bed last night when I reached home. Dead tired... Luckily got people to entertain me haha...

1st day was not too bad, I wasn't very much involved in the day activities, cos I'm not form teacher this year, and I'm not in charge of the activities on the first day. So lesson as usual, but had to go lab to prepare for the datalogging session for the next day. It rained rather badly, so they could only launch their PET rockets from the hall onto the quadrangle. Then at night went to Terminal 2 with H22 for night trail. Very friendly class. Rather well behaved too. Makes me think of Sec 2 camp with my form class last year. Rather enjoyed it too, though tired. My class was quite fun. I still remember a lot of teachers come and tell me my class very good, even their teachers now say they're very 'well-trained'. So proud of them... but they still got a lot of scolding from me in Sec 2. Apparently to them, Tuesday is my 'ANGRY' day.

Anyway, 2nd day was the datalogging workshop, morning F23 and afternoon F22. As I told my colleague, it was the first time since beginning of the year that I'm glad that F23 is my Sci class. So well behaved yesterday... totally different from the other lab sessions they had before. Maybe because it's something different so they're more interested. But they say the rocket making on the first day not fun. Strange leh... every year the students say fun.. dunno what's wrong with this class... hmmm... Then I ask them what they think is more fun, they tell me PSP... Sigh... this kids really dunno how to enjoy childhood.

J21 went to Snow City in the morning, where they had ice-cream making workshop and play with snow. And they got CHOCOLATE ICECREAM!! Last year we only got artificial flavouring lor... Their teacher told me the class totally enjoyed themselves that they 'forgot to be naughty'. He even suggested that all the classes should have go for the trip, as the class really bonded together as a family after that. Yes Yes agree... Shall put up for AAR... then my form class can go next year hahaha...

2008-02-03T18:15:00.000+08:00

Truely, as much as I tell my parents that 'you don't understand me', I sometimes don't understand myself either. I don't understand how my reactions can be so drastic and so extreme sometimes. But whatever I do, I try my best to calm down and use those instances as experiences that I can share. I admit that I do cook up stories. But I only do that in class. When I talk heart to heart, I share true experiences.

Being not a very easy to understand person myself, I still realise that there're even more complicated people out there who are even harder to understand. But I see it as my responsibility to help them, no matter how much time and effort I need to put in, no matter how much it will drain my emotional and psychological limits. Especially if they're people whom I care for. Whether I'm capable or not, I don't know. For I know that I'm not perfect, and not 'ALL-purpose'. But I know that I'm definitely willing to help.

Several things have been happening recently. As much as I put in effort to try to help these people, nothing seems to improving. There're still things that I'm afraid to probe into, fearing that it'll strain the relationship further and I'll totally loose the connection. And as I help these people, I also realised that I have not been able to help the people who are even closer to me, whom I'm supposed to understand better.

It really pains me when you look so happy and lack of worries in front of me and I hear that you're actually still miserable from others. It makes me feel so incompetent, being someone who is on the surface so 'close' to you, and with the assumption that you trust me, but yet not being able to understand you or help you in anyway. As much as I like to ask you, I really wish that you'll talk to me yourself. I know it's hard for you, so I'll still wait and hope that you'll talk to me. Otherwise, just know that I'm always with you by your side, in moments of despair and when you thought all's lost, I'm still here. Always.

2008-02-02T17:50:00.000+08:00

Classroom deco... OVER at last... Seriously dunno whether it's MY class or my student's class. I got so 'desperate' that I almost did everything and 'ask' the students to help me. My colleague said she's quite impressed... But really I think my class deco very lousy... Even though I did quite a lot of it... I seriously have no creativity lah...

CNY rehearsal was a disaster. NOTHING seems to be going well. Made us go on stand by... wait and wait... Then by the time we go on stage, not given enough time to do all the necessary technical adjustments. Just closed curtain and tell us to exit.. then I was told that we sang very badly. Can't hear piano sing what? I was like fuming mad... desperately trying to make myself cool down and smile. Then I said that choir needs some time for sound check... ok... then just barely few minutes after I said that, they got the MCs to start the full run from the beginning. I really got fed up, went over and insisted that choir needs a sound check before they can do a full SMOOTH run. Even got my choir to go stand in front of the stage and stare at the MCs and give them pressure. Like going on strike. Actually come to think of it now, I a bit bad lah... But I was fuming mad lah... Very difficult to hold back... Marcus and Robin were like.... ya we're angry too... but cool down...

After the rehearsal, back in the Music room, choir got a lecture from me... Ask them to smile, don't want to smile. Ask them to relax and move with the music and don't stand still and stiff, all standing like wooden blocks. I already have people telling me that they're too tense and they're too still and I assured them that they'll be fine if they relax and more ready with singing, the choir has always been able to stand up to occasion... Then? High hopes but in the end I had to eat all my words. I really don't know whether to scream at them or not... cos effectively I had no energy left after that rehearsal. Was supposed to take bus home with WeeKeng but in the end took cab home. I was so worn out that I can't even 'visualise' myself being able to walk from the bus stop back home.

So on friday, the choir had to do their rehearsal in the hall, to perfect their singing and get used to singing in the hall and its acoustics. Initially told the MR crew that only from 4-5... but in the end drag until 6. Must really thank them and Robin for staying back for us and help us with all the technical stuff. As for the choir, they finally look 'alive' and my 'head' was convinced that they are ready to perform on Wednesday.

After that, went to JX's place to have steamboat with the whole bunch of Sec 4s, from F24 '06. We actually moved out utensils and food in and out of the house 3 times! 1st time... drizzling... ok, we moved IN. but then, inside too crowded... so we look outside... aey... like no more rain... ok, move OUT. Then, 5 min later... hmm got raindrops leh... 10 mins later... oh no... rain drops getting bigger and bigger.... so... move IN. Then the steamboat was not like we cook what we want, but me and pam just throw in lots of food by random, and they just eat. Haha quite fun la.. then went upstairs for karaoke.

We were discussing abt our HK trip... all were like they don't trust JX for planning and wanted me to be backup plan. But seriously ah.. i v scared plan tis type of thing one... i already the oldest there, like big sister... later i have to take care of itinerary and still have to take care of 8 little 'kids' ... wah.. my head will burst.

2008-01-29T17:25:00.000+08:00

In the end, I'm left with 12 Sec 1s. TWELVE! I seriously dunno what to do. We sent out twenty plus forms, and only 8 actually came on the CCA Fair day. Can you imagine all the other aesthetics groups with 20-30 ppl seating by their booth and only 8 at ours? I was at a lost, and simply don't know what to do. In the end, we had to get dance to slice off some people for us. WS said he'll go help me advertise and find people to join haha... Tis boy can sure make me laugh when I'm pissed off...

Last time, they're not suppose to reject selection. Now, they can. Then what's the point of selection? I'm starting to feel less confident of myself in taking charge of the choir. Ever since I became in-charge, the intake has not been good. Am I making choir a very boring CCA?

Went out with the F45 ppl last thurs and on friday. Thursday went to PS with J, SK, Davina, Alicia, Jiamin. HM also came a while later. The boys are still putting that 'stick' into their mouths... I told J that I'll not take him as my godson until he quits it. Actually he's quite a good boy la, doesn't talk back, lets me win arguments... haha... but I just don't like him puffing away... He and SK, their 'alarm clock' always rings at about the same time... So both 'disappears' together also. Friday went to downtown east w T, J and SK. Met J and SK at Aljunied after Choir... I thought I was late and I rushed to meet them, only to realise that they and the whole bunch of H51 boys were wait for one more boy. Made me so fed up, cos I actually had to do one more thing in sch but left it undone and rushed to meet them. Then... that boy turned up with NO MONEY! WHAT THE!!... got really mad that I stormed off to the platform first to wait. And that Robin can laugh over my frustrating experience when I complained to him.

2008-01-10T21:20:00.000+08:00

Finally, School started...

So far it has been exciting... tiring too... I had to drag myself to school EVERY morning. Form class is now Faith 1-5... No longer Joy 1-1. Not that easy too ey... but ok la... so far so good. As usual... trying to be good guy and bad guy at the same time...

Faith 2-3 seems to be needing time to warm up... Don't know any one in the class... so everything starting from scratch, so far, that's the only class left to remember names... (Oh yes. I can match 90% of the names to the faces already... haha)...

H31B and H32 needs no introduction. I even know the names of those 'new' people in the class... Reason being they are 'famous' enough, and I was there during their moderation. But well, it's almost the same dynamics. Not to difficult to handle... They know I can be crazy with them and also scold them like hell... And importantly... SMALL class... only 30+. Even if they're noisy still can scream them down haha... but H31B is more motivated than H32. Some of the students are 'physically' in class but 'spiritually' somewhere else. And they just don't feel like, or can't be bothered to study. Actually most of the teachers already pointed out that since they were in Sec 1. But still no improvement... Hopefully they get better this year...

And so, I shall see these people grow from little monkeys to big gorillas... as I've told them. If things goes right, I would most likely be seeing them for another three more years... means I'm basically their science teacher for their entire 5 years in the school. Cool ah... it's like seeing your own kid grow.

Oh.. Choir selection was rather well run this year. Big thanks to the Alumnis and the leaders for doing a good job in testing and also 'babysitting' the classes in the other room. I think the 'babysitters' really had a taste of what it's like to be in a class of 40 'active' students. Response was not too bad too... We desperately need members this year. Hopefully 30 new recruits. We've only 23 members... without the Sec 4s. And quota for SYF is usually at about 40. So to play safe... we need more than that. Hope that part goes well too... I seem to always lose in the 'snatching' process...

2007-09-20T16:39:00.000+08:00

MY SHOPPING!!!

2007-09-15T13:25:00.000+08:00

Ok... I'm supposed to talk more about my Japan trip.
We stayed at the Ikebukuro House, at Ikebukuro of course. Nice place, with a tiny common area furnished with a comp w internet access, fridge, microwave, toaster, and attached bathroom/toilet.

First day. Harajuku. Went to the Meiji Shrine to pray... heard tat the typhoon on the way from the news... so better pray for safe journey haha...

There's Snoopy Town, where I spent almost 200 bucks on things with snoopy on it, bought a very cute snoopy soft toy, which became my bolster for the next few days in Japan. Kiddy Land, lots of nice stationary, bought some for my students, also bought a nice Chip and Dale diary. Then, there's the 100 yen shop. It's crazy. It's 5 storeys high, and the variety of stuff tat it sells is like unimaginable. Definitely much better than our Daiso in Singapore. Anyway, my cousin went in and bought like 50 over things... we even bought pepper and soy sauce to go with our half boil eggs we eat for breakfast. Then the most useful purchase, paper bags haha... to put in our other shopping...

But the 4 of us felt we didn't buy enough, so we went back again on another day and bought even more... haha...

Second day was Disneyland!! haha... there's a saying that even if you're not a Disney fan, you go into disney land, you'll go crazy. Well, we spent almost an hour just at the bridge that LEADS to disneyland, taking pictures of the sculptures along the bridge.

Finally got in, the characters are everywhere, people are queueing up to take pictures with them. And the longest queue? Mickey Mouse and Pooh. And the interesting thing is, how do find the end of the queue? Well, there’s actually someone there holding a sign that says, ‘Mickey Mouse queue ends HERE’. Cool yeh?

I had to follow tat Chip and Dale around cos they don’t seem to want to take pictures with ‘adults’... they keep on running to little children, babies to take pics with them, and we adults have to follow them and grab them desperately in order to stop them to take picture. Oh yes the popcorn tub... Cute right? Haha

One thing I like about the place is everywhere you go, for every ride, there’s a sign to tell you what’s the waiting time, or when’s the next show. Very tourist friendly place, and no worries about language and communication. There’re signs everywhere in english. Just tat you’ll hear Mickey Mouse talking in Japanese tat’s all.

Fireworks started at 8pm. But a bit too short.. My cousin say the Hongkong one lasted almost half hour. This one only like 10 mins. After tat, we went to the shop outside Disneyland to shop. There’s actually this HUGE shop just beside the train station that sells almost everything tat you can find inside the themepark. I think it’s for people who want to just buy disneyland stuff but don’t want to spend money going inside. Tat place closes at 11pm.. so we spent like one n half hour inside there, well... spending money... haha

3rd day we went Yokohama... Nothing much there la... The roller coaster was though fun but was too short. Still miss the Goldcoast ones... sigh... Those were more than shiok. The Chinatown was so commercialised.. and things so expensive. So in the end, we went back to Harajuku 100 yen shop... haha...

Day 4, we went to Mitaka... My sis day dream night dream also dreaming of tat place. Nice place, bought lots of things again. But the typhoon was approaching... so weather was rather bad... kept on raining. The wind was so strong tat our umbrellas kept on ‘flipping’ back. We finally understood why Japanese like to hold the long transparent umbrellas. Cos they don’t ‘flip’ like our foldable ones, and you can hold it in front of you to block the wind/rain, and still see where you’re going! Haha.

Anyway, then we went to Shinjuku, the ‘Orchard Road’ of Japan. We went to Tokyu Hands... a 7 storeys megashop... selling stationary and craft. Well, you can imagine, I went crazy there again la... I also bought a nice ‘Porter’ bag, not cheap.. $100 over... but worth it la. Then we found Krispy Cremes!!! And they actually give you a free donut when you’re queueing. Nice right? Tat was our dinner anyway... we bought a dozen. So 3 each. I tell you, after eating Krispy Cremes, you’ll NOT want to eat any donut found in Singapore.

Anyway, we were SOO lucky. When we went back, turned on the tv, the news annouced tat all trains are stopped because the typhoon is coming. All the people at the train stations are stranded. We are so lucky we were home. And the Typhoon hit tokyo at midnight.. when we were sleeping like pigs haha... My sis said she felt the house shake... My cousin said could be a tremor... But... I didn’t feel anything.. hehe

Day 5, Odaiba... Weather still bad though the worse was over. There was the Statue of liberty... U don’t need to go to US to take a picture of it. Though this is the smaller version la. The bridge behind is Rainbow Bridge... i think. Wanted to take the Ferris Wheel, supposedly the largest in Tokyo... BUT... tat stupid wind and rain won’t go away, and the closed down the Wheel... URGH.... Bought another expensive bag... with apple prints on it... supposed to be limited edition. The shop has only 3 outlets and each outlet has only 1 of each kind of bag.

Oh.. ate ramen for lunch... SOO nice... nothing in Singapore can beat it man...

Last day. Went to Nippori, which according to a tourist book on Tokyo, has a street tat sells lots of traditional toys and sweets. But in the end, the whole place look totally different from the map we had in the book! But after much trial and error, we actually found the place haha... Nice place. Bought lots of sweets, bought back to distribute to students haha...

Then went to Asakusa... Also another famous shrine in Japan which also has a street tat sells lots of traditional tidbits and handicraft. Ramen for lunch again... Ooooo... delicious...

Went back earlier to shop around Ikebukuro.

Following day was our flight, which was in the afternoon. So we went to walk around the neighbouhood... shop again. Haha...

Sounds boring ah? Always shopping? But there are some things tat’re really cheap in Japan. Like Japan brand facial products. It’s at least 20% cheaper here. Things are expensive, but there’re of course things tat you can only find in Japan. Oh.. and MUJI is damn cheap. The Singpore outlets are sucking our blood.

Sigh... I want to Go Back!! But no money liao... must stock up first haha...

2007-09-11T22:55:00.000+08:00

YEAH!! Japan was great! I shop like crazy, walk like crazy... every night muscle ache the next day still walk the whole day haha... The funny thing is, I thought I bought a lot of things for my friends... But turns out when I sort out my things back home, still so many are my one haha...

No time to post details now... setting paper... sob sob... I spent my entire hols in japan and I'm seriously behind time for submitting my exam papers... ahaha... squeeze squeeze squeeze... questions come out quick...

Two of my favourite photos: Chip and Dale!!

Yeah!! Wanted to take picture with BOTH of them... but somehow they refuse to get together... The only time they took pic together was when they were trying to disturb a baby sleeping in a pram...

Anyway... My sis said I went 'Chip n Dale' and 'Snoopy' crazy... haha... true enough... everything got 'Chip and Dale' and 'Snoopy' I buy, ranging from popcorn tubs, calendars, biscuit tins, soft toys, stickers, pens, handphone strap, keychain, even post-it... haha...

Tat's all for now... will give detailed itinerary another time...

2007-07-02T22:09:00.001+08:00

Arts Nite Over! Finally! Thank you choir, for working so hard, and for putting up such a great show for both nights!

I'm really thankful to see that you all have grown so much through the past months, and I really hoped that you have gained much over these months, through the intensive practices, SYF and Arts Nite. You've become more independent, and initiative. So paiseh when the other teachers kept on praising you all. I'm really proud of you.

2007-06-24T21:08:00.000+08:00

The June Holidays are finally over. My friends are rejoicing over not having to see teenagers on the streets everyday anymore, at least for 5 to 6 more months. Which also means back to school I'll be!!

Choir practices have began again, and we received a last minute notice to sing a new piece, which means we have only two practices to practise that before our first Arts Nite rehearsal in school. And tat two practices meant friday and yesterday (saturday). The saturday practice is added last minute, or else it would have to be monday, and that would mean I have to see my choir, and they have to see me from monday to saturday for consecutive six days!!! NO MAN!!

My june hols were busy. Met up with old friends at Settler's Cafe and received yet another red bomb. People around me are getting married... sigh... 4 red bombs within 3 months... not tat i'm complaining... but... sigh...

My parents still trying to get a HDB flat, cos the condo is rather small, though I really liked the thought of having a swimming pool at our doorstep, and the unblocked view just out of my room's window such tat I can even see Suntec City at night and even fireworks during NDP. So they're busy 'shopping' for houses, while I'm still busy thinking of how to best use that new room of mine.

Of course, not forgetting the PC fair and book fairs at the beginning of the month. Just in tat week, I learnt something. There are tonnes and tonnes of people who do not hold 9 to 5 jobs, such that there are still millions of people, on the WEEKDAY afternoon, walking in and out of the fairs! How can this be! I know it's school hols, but the people I see are NOT students! Anyway, my sis and I still managed to get our new printers and our new PCs, which are now sitting nicely on our tables. Not forgetting the books tat we bought at the book fair.. I bought a whole set of PEANUTS comics for just $30!! HAHAHA...

Oh yes, the new school. While the world is going green, our school looks bare enough. Nice school, full of new facilities, but too concrete. The new staffroom is nice. It's huge, yet cosy, cos you just need to stand up and you can see the entire staffroom. All the teachers are in the staffroom now, but the DnT teachers are still in using the room near the workshop. Went through yet another process of throwing things. Bearing in mind that I already threw almost one third of my things during packing, and yet I'm throwing somemore during UNpacking. My colleagues were so curious tat they asked me how come I have so much things? I've only been teaching for 2 years! Then I even collected the used boxes tat are still in good condition and got my sis and cousin in law to come to my school to help move the used boxes back home... yeah.

So, tomorrow's the first day of school. I'm going to have a hard time waking up early... sigh...

2007-05-15T18:21:00.000+08:00

You know, I must have been a serial murderer or some sort of big bad wolf/guy/gal in my previous life. Or I must have owed someone great debts then. I'm like suffering all this retributions that I accumulated in my previous lives and all these people that I am indebted are asking for pay back now. I was boiling mad yesterday. REALLY MAD. Why are they doing this to me? On one side, I'm being accused of something that I have not done. On the other side, I'm not being trusted when I said that NO I DID NOT DO IT? HOW MANY times must I say that? I was asked the SAME question over and over again for 5-10 minutes on this little paragraph, with this 'quote' of what I 'supposedly' said, and asked to verify things that brings HUGE question marks into my field of view.

All these people are trying to drive me nuts. What on earth is happening to people around me?

2007-05-13T18:00:00.000+08:00

To my choir.

I know it's a bit late and all the emotional moments are over. I wanted to post this weeks ago but it kept slipping my mind. So... here goes.

I never doubted you. Even the moment you finished the last note, I believed that you have done your best. Remember how you have stunned others when you sang in school, how you amazed your teachers with your beautiful voices. Singing is not about awards. We did not lose anything. In fact, look around you and note all the things that you have gained for the past months. Have your friendships become stronger? Do you know each other better now? What have you learned? Musically? About managing life?

Remember this: twenty years down the road, you will not remember what award you had. What you'll remember will be all the good times we had together, singing with one mind, in one voice, as a choir.

That day on stage, you sparkled like diamonds, and you're already STARS in my heart.

Keep up this shine in you, and may you shine from within, from your hearts. Keep up this confidence in you, and you've taken one big step to a brighter future ahead of you.

2007-05-12T10:04:00.000+08:00

OK. I'm back. Have not been blogging for the past few months... Too busy I guess... like a busy bee... buzzing here and there, everyday in school until 5/6 o'clock, even if I leave early, I'll be somewhere out there in Singapore, buying stuff for choir. Not that I'm complaining.. but now's the time for me to rest... BEFORE my exam papers come in.

So. The past few months have been eventful. First there was Sec 2 camp. Almost went crazy with all the planning, everything takes so long to get settled, and there were so many llooonnnggg meetings. The activity that I planned was too rushed for time, and we couldn't finish what we planed to do in the 2 hour slot. Then, for two afternoons, until 9 plus at night, we stayed back for the activities, and I had to stick to my class like glue, babysit them and follow them around everywhere. We even went to Snow City, where I was almost buried in snow by the students. My class nearly went to NEWater plant, but I knew they'll be terribly bored there so I insisted that they should be brought to Snow City instead. Resulted in some changes in timetable. Actually also because I want to go Snow City too hehe... Those two days were physically and mentally draining. But above all, we had lots of fun, and the class spirit now is so much better than last year.

On top of all that, there were choir practices. Although there're supposedly three teachers to rotate around, I'm somehow still around for all the practices, either becuase the teacher on duty is on MC and the other teacher cannot take over, or I've things to tell the choir, or I've matters to discuss with the instructor, or I just felt that I had to be around to 'jaga' those kids. They can't seem to get themselves settled down without someone nagging at them. It was only nearer the competition that they were more motivated and disciplined.

The choir looked fantastic on stage that day. It made all the hard work well paid off. As one of my colleagues said, our girls 'make heads turn'. Aesthetics is about cultivating this passion for performing and the self-confidence in themselves. Quoting from another colleague, to develop an 'addiction to applause'. These cannot be taught explicitly, but learned through experience and development of their inner self.

The judges awarded us a Bronze. The students were disappointed. We went to BK after the announcement of results and they stuffed their stomachs with all the food they can. My colleagues gave varied responses. Some showed concern and comforted the students and me. Some gave very blunt responses like 'it's expected'. Even students from other aesthetics groups who knew about our results sent us messages of comfort. This brings me to wonder, why is it that a 14 year old student can tell me, 'it's ok, there's always two years later to try again', but a working adult can tell me' it's expected, at least one event down now'.

To me the medal is not important. It's performing arts we're in, not competition arts. When they stood on stage that day, it was already my mission accomplished. Seeing some of them from the 'can't be bothered' look to the 'enjoying the moment' look, and from the 'I can't make it' attitude to the 'let's go for it' attitude. Through the months of intensive practices and singing the same songs again and again, even during eating, sleeping and dreaming. They had gone so far from what they were. And they had this spirit in them that they never had a few months ago. The spirit of 'YES, I can do it'.

2007-02-07T15:05:00.000+08:00

The time has come. I've finally reached my half-way mark of the 20+ in age. Soon I'll cross that mark and I'll reach my 30s!! Oh no! Too many of my past resolutions not met. Still no boyfriend, still not married, still cant drive, still cant play guitar (actually I gave up on guitar sometime ago cos my fingers too short), still no house, still no million dollars, still haven't start going for my piano lessons again........................... =(

Anyway, this year's birthday was full of surprises. I think it all started with this apple tree in my class. So everyone has to put this apple on with their baby photos and write down the things they like, and if they want, their birthdates. So I did too, and it resulted in so many birthday celebrations for me...so pai seh...Sigh

So my choir started first last Friday, cos sec 3s won't be around on monday, supposed to be a surprise, but some smart boy leak out and then I managed to gather clues when every choir member I saw that day was like, miss ng, today 2.30 choir right?? (when the usual is 3). And then my chair-woman was holding that canadian pizza receipt and walking in front of me, obviously I'm not stupid right? But these kids are really amusing. After one whole year, they still remember vividly the incident that happen in KL, when I screamed my head off when a boy took away my packet of biscuits without asking me. They bought me FOUR whole packs of that biscuit. I'm going to take months to finish those. But I was so happy, more of amused, when I opened that present that I was hugging that present and laughing non-stop in the middle of the canteen. Thank You my dears.

Saturday went for dinner with family, then went to that extremely crowded Chinatown to 'experience' the festive joy. It was so #@!*&# packed.

Then yesterday, my science class sang birthday song for me in class, and my form class gave me a 'surprise' birthday party. Why 'surprise', because once again, some smart people leak out secret again lor. Then they say go market eat lunch, but they’ll come look for me in staff room. So they played a prank on me, with two boys running to tell me that a girl fell down while trying to decorate the classroom. Gave me a shock at first, but from far I say the candlelight through the glass panels, I realised it was a trick. The boys opened the door, and the kids inside had poppers. Luckily I hide behind the door...

So, today, later, there'll be another one, with my sec 4 students. The strange things about these kids I didn't know how exactly we got so close. I never really taught them at all. I was their teacher for half a year when I first join the school, but it was always the co-teacher teaching. Then I didn't teach them at all after they went to upper sec. But then we somehow got closer and closer. But they're really a lovely bunch. So cut cake again and maybe go out...dunno what's their plan yet.

Last round, saturday, from my 'family'. Another bunch whom we have this very strange affinity. Started off with bringing them to KL to take part in a conference. Was unwillingly volunteered at first, but after interacting with the kids, I was so glad I was going, and after the first day there, I wished we never had to come back. They are really a fun bunch. So from there I 'adopted' a number of children, and we go out sometimes. But these people very not consistent one...One was saying, 'niang, we have surprise for you on saturday'. Another one was saying, 'huh? we where got celebrate your birthday? only going out wat?'

2007-01-02T18:42:00.000+08:00

Ok, not updated for half a month now. Nothing much to talk about. Much of the excitement of the holidays were over, and tomorrow is the day that my life starts to get exciting again.

Went to KL two weeks ago for 2 days of crazy shopping. Bought 3 entire sets of comics from KL, total of almost 100 books. Walk and walk like crazy... and rain somemore. On the way back, the highway was flooded, and the bus moved like a tortoise. Both sides of the expressway was all water. Even got people on the bus take camera out to take pictures. ha.

Nothing to do at home for 2 weeks, I started to look for things to throw away. Our new house is going to be much small then the present one. So many things that we have to throw or else we wont fit into the house.

Watch Confession of Pain yesterday. It was GREAT! Why? Because there's Tony Leung! ok fine... there's Takeshi too. And both were such wonderful actors. (ok my vocab is limited) Anyway... it's a must-watch.

School's starting tomorrow. My mind is already running through again and again what i need to do tomorrow. It's going to be a busy year. Especially for my choir. SYF, Arts Nite, Thanksgiving. There'll be more instances that I have to do more that one thing at a time or be in more than one place at a time and that I wish that I can split myself up like the Sun Wu Kong.

I realised that I have a co-teacher in all my classes now. I'm no longer alone. It's very helpful when u have a bunch of monkeys that can't stay still. But it also means I can't do whatever I want with my kids... *evil grin*... Well, I'll meet new students, not many though... cos 2 of my classes are followed up from sec 1. Teachers in the staffroom always relate going to class as going to war. It IS really a war. And it's not everytime we finish victorious. Even if we are, we're totally exhausted. Worse when your timetable tells you that you have another war straight after. And it doesn't help when your throat is dry and painful and you feel a sudden breeze of giddiness in your head.

We visited the new campus and joked about a walkway that links the staffroom block to the classroom block. We should label the start of the walkway... "Gateway to Hell".

School... here I come.

2006-12-15T14:09:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... How come everyone is saying I'm going crazy... Thanks for all your concern... I'm still very much sane. You won't see me in Woodbridge anytime within the next 10 years at least.

Went Ikea last thursday... It is soooo huge but soooo crowded... I queue for 45 mins to get my food at the cafe... not hungry also hungry already.

Kuishin bo lunch on Sunday was enjoyable... though the food wasn't that up to standard anymore. But my Uni frens can hardly get to meet up anymore. Either there's no one with time to organise, or there're so many of us who can't make it. Maybe last time we used to meet every week for practices, and we got used to it. Now it's been such a long time since we were able to get 'full' attendance at our gatherings. But CNY coming... our annual steamboat dinner is a tradition that cannot be missed... yeah!

I finally got all the photos for the Cambodia trip... and the photo of my nice nice mural... yeah!

Mural at the kindergarden playground.

Team photo with this year's Pri 4 class... My favourite class... =P

The same class... Last year when they were Pri 3... =D

My friend says I'm crazy over little children... Always suan me... 'How come you're so close to your students now? How come I don't remember being so close to a teacher when I was in secondary school?'. My family also... don't be so close to your students... you'll get yourself into trouble. I can only say... well, times are different... It's no long the time where we can just use the cane and solve the problem. Although I very much would like that to be possible sometimes. And teenagers hate nagging... how I know? cos I am not far from being a teenager 'once'... I can tell u i still have to 'adolescence temper' when I'm at home.

I know what things will get me into trouble and what would not. And if I really get into trouble, I deserve it. No need to hide. But many have told me not to get too 'emotionally attached' to the students. Cos they come and go, while we'll stay. It can never remain the same. True... I agree. But through the years of growing up, I've seen friends come and go... I really believe in fate. If it's meant to be, the bond will remain. If' it's not, means they have moved on and so, I'll do the same.

Well, my first batch of students have graduated. I'll sure miss them. Their cranky jokes, their mischief, the way they like to 'suan' me sometimes also... sometimes treating me like a little girl, sometimes like a friend, sometimes like a big sister. I'll sure miss my sources of gossips too... cos so many came from them.... Now I need to look for other gossip resources...

2006-12-06T23:44:00.000+08:00

Spent my whole morning watching Asian Games. The problem with the telecast is that they always focus on the matches with Singapore taking part in. But they don't play well at all and the whole match is so boring. I spent half an hour watching a Singapore against Thailand Badminton match. No smacking... boring... It just looks like our kids playing badminton in the school hall. I think some of our kids can put up a better show than that.

And then they show beach volleyball. Another boring sport. U just see four gals in bikini running around hitting the volleyball and falling down on the sand. boring...

Ok swimming is more exciting. China and Japan are the main groups fighting for the Gold. Saw a relay where China was ahead all the while utill the last 10m the Japan caught up and got the gold medal. Not much expectations for Singapore. As long as they don't come in last. But then our news kept on emphasizing on breaking the 'National' record. Duh... like no news to report.

After that went out to collect the choir scores from tempest. die die must spend more of this year's budget or else go to waste. Then had to bring the scores and invoice back to school and submit the invoice. Yeah... manage to spend more money... hahaha

Then thought... might as well do some stock taking. Regret lah... had to go through those 'once termite infested' scores... Urgh... Must think of a way to clean those scores and keep them properly... they can't stay in the A4 paper box forever... But I kept the new ones in my cupboard... safer... cleaner...

2006-12-01T12:11:00.000+08:00

Went to watch Happy Feet with sis on Wednesday. Cute movie... with penguins doing tap dancing haha... the baby penquins are soooo cute! but some parts a bit draggy...

Then yesterday went to watch Casino Royale with students. Got so pissed off when we entered the cinema... cos some other students took our seats... They don't even know where they're seating.. Think they got their tickets all mixed up... They were already making themselves comfortable at our seats... Then when I asked them to leave... they said 'oh we're from the school of the blind'.... What a thing to say! So I starred at the guy and told him that it's not funny. and told him to check his seat number before he goes around sitting anywhere and everywhere.

Anyway... The new James Bond not very handsome... a bit fat also. Dunno y got so many scenes of him not wearing shirt when he doesn't even have six pacs....The movie is quite exciting lah.. It's like about the origins of James Bond.... just short of the usual gadgets that James Bond has. But the car is still cool. Then when he crashed the car every one in the theatre was like 'oh no'... But I think he never brought back a car in one piece anyway... Movie a bit draggy also.. Too much shots of 'I look at you, you look at me' type... Why all the movies I see are draggy? maybe i'm becoming a bit unpatient...

Then the boys are so horny... with us girls kicking them from the back and the people around them starring at them... then can still give all those stupid remarks. But well, teenagers... adolescence... hormonal rage...

2006-11-28T22:20:00.000+08:00

Let's continue my Cambodian Story. Let's see. I've already said so much... Some things better not put up here or else will put my head on the chopper.

Let's talk about our mural paintings. This year was much easier. Cos the pictures were all simple fruits, vegetables and trees... Not like previous years had to draw complicated precious moments pictures with all the patterns and so on... need to mix a lot of colours. And also this year we didn't have to use the left over paint of the previous groups. So the art teacher and me went out to buy all the paint we needed at one go.

We painted a lot of walls actually, just that the pictures were simpler. We painted food in the canteen, imagine a carrot bigger than yourself. The little kids were so facinated when they saw the paintings on the walls, even when it was still unfinished. I was trying to get the art teacher to draw a gigantic drumstick. Won't it be great? To have such a huge drumstick in front of you when you have your lunch? Eat plain rice also taste good haha... Anyway... in the end they didn't draw. Healthy lifestyle lah... All fruits and vegetables. But the paint keeps on dripping when they're drawing... Then all the fruits look like they're melting... and pictures look like they're crying... My fav was the grape and the orange. The egg looks cute too... Then they even drew cherries, bananas etc on the pillars. Nice!

Then we had this wall outside near the sand pit. That was quite a disaster lah. The trees look weird, the oranges on the tree landed on the floor in the end and we just had to explain that the oranges had fallen off. As usual the paint keeps dripping, so the oranges became bigger and bigger as we try to 'save' the oranges. When we thought all's well, the oranges 'melted' again overnight, so we had lots of 'orange juice' on the tree. So someone had to go rescue the oranges again.

Last one was my favourite wall. Mainly drawn by my english group and some others. We painted the wall inside the playground for the kindergarden. It was the nicest wall of all. Everything simply drawn from freehand, the students just came up with the ideas one by one... from the grass, to the trees, to the little white flowers on the bushes, the large flowers among the grasses, the butterflies, the bee, the clouds and the sun. It was really enjoyable painting that wall, and so much memories came from there. So how felt that my main contribution this time was painting that wall. We painted the pictures together, and I did the finishing touches (including the toning, effects etc), and the whole thing was like 'WOW'... You can't deny that it was my magical touch right? right? haha...

Cos I was the one who did the toning, so I had to climb the ladder to draw the tree and clouds. Then I'm a bit afraid of heights lah... While I was on the ladder painting the tree, our dear friend came climbing up the ladder to draw the clouds. I almost screamed my head off and burst into tears. Then he promised he won't shake the ladder, but then he draw one cloud and then keep turning around to ask his friend, "like that can or not?"... THEN the whole ladder shake like mad...

But really this group of students that we brought are much more artistic than last year's batch. Last year we had boys who would put paint 'everywhere' except on the correct part of the wall. At least this year we had boys who can come up with constructive ideas and paint properly. [Althought sometimes they'll just sit down there and say 'this one nice', 'that one not nice' etc]

All was well until someone painted some HUGE words on it... and totally destroyed my beautiful painting. Almost fainted when I saw them write the words on the wall. Then I vented all my anger on poking the chopstick into the coconut. Like I said, it's no use crying over split milk. But then again, number 1: can you ask the artist(s) before you write?, number 2: can you get a more artistic person to draw those words?

Still waiting for another teacher to send me the picture of that wall. My only memory left of the beautiful painting.

Performance at TTSH

2006-11-28T21:59:00.000+08:00

Brought my choir to TTSH to put up a performance. They sang three songs and did very well. The whole place was like a gigantic bathroom, echos back all the sounds... which made them sound exceptionally well. The band also sounded great. But my dear girls, you need to learn how to relax and smile at the same time... =D

2006-11-28T21:30:00.000+08:00

Apart from the PAIN in the LEG, which is still aching now... I'm also suffering from mozzie bites. Can you imagine? The mozzies here must have missed me too much while I was in Cambodia. I had only like two bites in Cambodia, and now, barely three days after my return, I have almost 20 bites!!! I'm scratching like hell!

But how come I didn't see any mozzies around here? Hmmm... could it be the bites from Cambodia, but only surfaced till now? Maybe my skin too thick? Maybe too much fat? Or my body reaction slow? Urgh... So itchy...

Lessons learnt in Cambodia =P

2006-11-27T22:25:00.000+08:00

Lessons Learnt in Cambodia =P

1. U just need some good PR skills, and a clever way of 'describing the situation', and morning call would be an easy task. People will 'give u face' and wake up... don't need to kick and slap.. My ice towel didn't even leave my luggage.

2. It's useless to get 4 lazy worms to work. There isn't that much work to do anyway. So get 1 or 2 out of the 4 to work... They'll rotate... Get the remainder to run odd jobs occasionally. But studies have also shown that lazy worms work better when they are separated.

3. Which of the following is true?
A) Angkor Wat is man made.
B) Angkor Wat was actually a meteor which fell from the sky and landed on earth leaving the present architectural wonder.
C) Someone planted explosives in a mountain and 'puff' it became Angkor Wat!
(for answer: please see end of post)

4. What is the easiest way to avoid the scorching sun? Stand near the boys (the taller ones)
But it becomes useless when it's the mid-day sun. The boys are never tall enough.

5. Uses of a straw hat:
a. To block the sun
b. To fan yourself
c. To block you and your friends when you're gossiping
d. To act as money container when you're busking

6. Never spoil a child.

7. It's easier to be a nanny than to be a displinarian. I'm like a big sister cum 24-7 nanny, adopted yet another few more sons and daughters... Have to be alert, take care of people, set distance (5 metres!!), keep an eye on those rascals all the time. So tiring... Now that I'm back home, I'm going to become the whiney kid and be a little girl at home.

8. Boys like to sleep topless. No use avoiding.. Just get used to it.

9. There're two types of people who paint. One is those who can paint and willing to paint, and those who can't paint and extra one...

10. People who don't paint are the most dangerous when it comes to giving ideas.

11. There're people who just do not respect others, and never ask for your permission to do something. So just remember to good times... No use crying over spilt milk.

12. Boys are just... BLUR...
Example-
Boy: Why is she crying?
Me: Because we're leaving tomorrow, so she'll miss the students?
Boy: Huh? lidat also cry ah?

13. Punching a coconut with a chopstick is a very good way to vent anger and freak people out.

14. Boys show no sense of shame when they wear bathrobes and walk on the streets into a convenience store, and walking past a massage parlour with a lady standing outside saying "Sir, massage?".

15. Last one... There're people in this world other than my dad, who can sleep anytime, anywhere, any position... And will be totally unaware of what has happened during the times of sleeping, and how bright the flashlight of the camera was.

Almost forgot... answer to the question 3. Which one did you choose?
If you chose A), thank goodness you're sane.
If you chose B), maybe you should go do some reading up on Angkor Wat or see a psychologist.
If you chose C), you're eating too much Coco Crunch.

Cambodian Experience Part 3

2006-11-27T21:10:00.000+08:00

Cambodian Experience - Part 3

I don't blog in sequence... just in case if anyone is wondering... I just type anything that comes in mind.

Did I say that my leg is hurting? It is SO painful!!! Every step I make I make it with PAIN. Why am I in pain? Because two days ago, we walked and walked and walked until my leg almost broke. Ok, I know my body reaction a bit slow. But the leg started to hurt last night... so only one day late. But I'm like that since young... my body aches always comes one day later. And true enough... after all the walking... like I said... My weight has reduced!! YEAH! Another accomplishment from the trip.

Let me explain why we walked. First we had to walk through this big gate to a temple which is like 20 min walk away from the gate... Harlo... it's under the hot sun lor... And it's only half way down the road that we realised that we could take a 'toot-toot'.

Argh... stupid... But if we hadn't walked, we won't have seen the macaques and the big piggy in the pool...

But that was still fine... We walk and walk so fast that the rest of the group were left far behind... gossip also nobody know. hahaha... But the way back we INSISTED that we took the 'toot-toot'... Pay pay lah... 2 usd only... ta boleh tahan already.

Then we went for lunch... where I fell asleep at the lunch table. Had to drink coffee to keep myself alert... or else dunno how to jaga my little princess and 4 kings.

Then we went to Angkor Wat...

That was where the nightmare came... We went to the centre of the temple... where there was this 25 m high tower. The steps were so narrow that we can hardly put our feet on it. But it's really pointless to go there and don't climb that thing... So... we did... Well, it's always easy to go up... but harder to come down!

So while we were up there, we tried to roam around... trying to delay the hard truth that we still need to come down... while we were scared stiff, our dear kings managed to nearly give us a heart attack by coming up and down again and again... and attempted to leave my camera halfway on a rock on the wall and make me go down to get it.

So we ladies die die also go queue up at the part where they installed railings and walked down gingerly...... My legs were like jelly jelly...

Cos we walked so fast... we had so much time that we went shopping at the roadside stalls, and sat under a tree, where the boys tried playing tunes with that 'out of tune' flute that they bought from the stalls, and I thought of some 'science' questions to test the few of them there.

If that wasn't enough, right after that, we went to a mountain, where we were suppose to climb up and watch the sunset. Almost fainted lah... But all the young kids going... I have to go right? Or else lose face. So chiong lor... Not that bad lah at least... the mountain wasn't difficult... cos it's just up the slope all the way... then when we reached the top, there's yet another tower... What to do? go up lor... So went up and sat under that glaring evening sun and gossip again... But even before the sun set, we were told to go down... We were like huh? come up all the way here and then never watch sunset and go down already? But luckily we went down... the mountain roads had no lights at all... And it was already getting dark when we were on the way down. Quite dangerous actually...

So... totally exhausted... the buffet dinner didn't look that attractive at all cos I lost my appetite... But it's the last day there already... who cares... Only slept two hours that night... went to sleep at 3 am and woke up at 5. I spent the whole night with some students by the pool, watching stars and chit chatting... and of course gossiping...

Above all that workout... I really enjoyed myself.. Thanx to all who made that day so wonderful...

Cambodian Experience Part 2

2006-11-27T16:31:00.000+08:00

Cambodian Experience - Part 2

So much to write. And I didn't want to cram them all in one post. So bear with me. You know I'm long-winded.... sometimes VERY.

Let's talk about my english group. Initially we just had to sit in class and assist the students. Not much teaching required. But our english group teacher managed to get the school teacher to let us teach on the last day. And we had our very own students BECOME a teacher for once. You see them bring out the confidence in themselves, and use all sorts of innovative ideas to teach different words. It was not only an experience for them but also for me. Trying to reach the balance in giving them to free hand exploring how to teach the little kids, and also to give them hints on how to carry on and keep on track. Sometimes I couldn't stop laughing at the way they explain things. I'm more like watching a comedy than being in an English lesson. Now you know it's not easy to earn a few thousand bucks a month right? Overall, I must say they did very well, considering we only gave them one hour to practice on the day before, and they put up a reasonably good show. CHEERS!

English Group (consisting of three beauties, an ah beng and a bo chap aka artist)

How do you explain 'resort'? Hehe... My masterpiece...

P4 Lesson: What is your name? My name is XXXXXX...

P6: Wide wider widest

One of my favourites... Cute Cuter Cutest (guess who is who? erm... picture shows no direct reference to the actual person)

This is where I discovered that our Sec 3 students can't spell for nuts...

Another favourite: How do you explain 'cemetery'?

Cambodian Experience Part 1

2006-11-27T16:17:00.000+08:00

Cambodian Experience - Part 1

Finally back from Cambodia... Totally exhausted... Slept the whole afternoon and went to bed early yesterday... Missed my mum's cooking, miss singapore's air, water and food... gobble down wanton mee and fried carrot cake tis morning... shiok...

Not that food there was bad... It was not bad actually, we were quite well fed... Not talking about those guys who dislike vegetables (cos we had a lot of veges). But got a little sick of eating bread and bread every morning... cos personally I don't like eating bread... And the rice there is like FOC cos they give us one whole big styrofoam box of rice, and I can eat like only 1/3 of it. And the water also... We can't drink from tap water, so we either had to boil or drink bottled water. The boiled water is fine when it's hot, but tastes very weird when it's cooled. Then the bottled water tastes different too. When I came back to drink the water at home, I felt like my entire digestive track cleared...

As I expected, the trip this year was so much different from last year. What's most different is our programme, and our 'boldness' to ask for changes. I daringly brought just two boys and walk out of the school to buy stuff... which is something that the teacher in charge would never let me do last year. And I brought them out more than once some more. My colleague managed to find an orphanage to bring some of the students there in the morning, and they totally enjoyed it. Wished I was there. I was told it was a totally different experience as compared to the school we were in. The orphanage was made from attap houses, basically just 'spaces' for different activities and not rooms.

We saw so much more of Cambodia this time. The contrast between the forsaken capital city Phnom Penh and the vibrant tourist hotspot Siem Reap. Along the roads of the capital city, we see abandoned shop houses. On the outskirts, we see golden rice fields, and slumps and villages, where families live in houses made from attap and twigs which are barely bigger than our toilets. Everything that we do seem to bring them so much hope, every little thing that we do made a big difference to them. People come and go in their lives everyday... but when will their lives be really changed for the better. The children pose willingly at every picture that you take of them. They wave at anyone who walks by, whether or not you wave back at them. They look so happy and contented... yet most of them will stay in poverty for life.

However, are we always able to stop and think of these people, who have barely 10% of everything that we possess. Who are we to complain, who are we to be uncontented, when we know that there are people who have nothing at all.

2006-11-15T23:01:00.000+08:00

Holidays now... but still had to go back to school. Tomorrow is our last 'official' day... supposedly friday but because we going overseas on friday so friday we're excused.

Three and a half weeks in school... no teaching... 50% of the time I'm loitering around, trying to find things to do. The problem is there ARE things to be done... but I some how don't know where to start.

But I did quite a lot of things though...

1. Finally packed my table... and placed a big forever friends calendar mat on the table... at last there's space on my table and not mountains and mountains of papers that I simply chucked aside.
2. Cleared UNDER my table (sort of)... now I stretch my legs without hitting things.
3. Packed the Dept Resource cupboard... I tell you there're tonnes of things inside that cupboard that I don't why they are there. There're even books that were published even before I was born... and then all not recorded in inventory... had to write down everything all over again.
4. Collect ang-bao money for a retiring lab assistant. He's retiring and his child is still in primary school.
Had to get people to sign cards for the lab assistant and another teacher who is also leaving to further her studies.
5. Preparation for the end of year staff gathering at the chalet. The blowing of the balloons was so tiring... Then I had to host the games... a bit scary leh... have to talk in front of so many teachers.. including P n VP.
6. Preparation for Cambodia trip... Learn mass dance, packing, prepare lesson, brief students... the same thing have to say 10 times... (not me ah)
There was chalet also... Some problematic people 'emerged'... Will have to crack my brains to tackle them in Cambodia.
7. and last of all... Choir...
- changed attendance book
- purchase SYF set piece, and a whole list of scores (to use up budget... =D)
- settle accounts for choir fund
- ordered new S-sized t-shirts for Sec 1s
- supervise choir practices... today even had to sight read a piece to let them run through, cos instructor not around.
- oh and I learned how to set up the keyboard and sound system...

Problem with things during the holidays is so many people are not around, so things get done last minute, or not done at all.

Whatever it is we're all ready to go Cambodia now. Just a few loose ends to settle tomorrow in school, and friday we're off to Cambodia! It'll definitely be a different experience as compared to last year... looking at the students who're going with us. Just hope I don't fall sick over there and when I come back on the 26th, cos I have to bring the choir out for a performance on the 28th.
How come my schedule always filled up one... last year also come back from Cambodia the next day bring choir to perform in concert. But no complains lah... I'm happy with my choir.

Anybody wants presents? I see what I can bring back lah. Really not much things to buy over there. All I see are shawls. And I don't think guys like shawls. Food or tidbits... nothing special leh.. except chewing gum... but I admit I have no guts to bring them back. So err... see how lah... hehe

2006-10-28T21:59:00.000+08:00

Had some peaceful days... Today had to meet parents to give results slips... business not so good... sometime wait long long also no body come... then one comes and then got so many others come also. Some of my cute cute students going to the other class... sigh... but well, the teacher's will still most likely be the same... so no worries lah.

Sec 2 dunno class yet haha... I know leh... but don't want to tell u. Thou shalt be kept in suspense. =P

2006-10-25T21:59:00.000+08:00

On Monday, for the first time in my life, I played golf. Not easy aey...

Of course I learn faster la. The kids spend two sessions, I just need one session haha... and I didn't even listen to the instructor when he was briefing the students... busy signing result slips (no one knows rite? hahaha)

Quite fun lah... but at the end of the whole session it got a little boring... AND tired... cos just repeating the same thing over and over again for like 3 to 4 hours... My max was like only 50 metres... and that's only one out of the 10 balls I hit out... sigh... And then I kept on missing the ball when I swing the club (stick.. whatever)... That's even more tiring.

The funny thing is my class got news tat their form teacher is playing and all came to our place to play... gimme pressure... then say want to challenge me... Totally ignored them... hahaha... Play golf must concentrate u know?? Then these 'extra' visitors kept on using our balls and we had to go and refill so often...

Today brought the class on learning journey at the civil district (around the singapore river). Actually not I bring one lah... We teachers left the kids with the facilitators then we went on our "Teachers' Trail"... to 'lim kopi'... haha

At least I think our kids had fun... they filled up most of the book at least...

Oh we FINALLY harvested our melon from the vegetable garden... The one and only melon. A bit odd in shape... not very sweet... but still... it's from our garden... yeah... We got the seeds from the fruit and intend to plant again... Our garden is in a terrible mess now... Sigh... All the leaves turning dry and yellow...
Our maize plants are ants infested and dying...
Our melon plants are overcrowded... actually it's because we were afraid the seeds won't grow so we put in a lot of seeds... and then all of them grew... argh...
Our vegetables are... dunno how to describe... over grown?? over ripe??

The bringal, lady's fingers and cucumber grown by the contract workers and dnt department are growing so well... so jealous.

We are wishing we'll have a rooftop garden in the new school... Initially we thought there'll still be some land on 'ground level'... but what's left is going to be covered up by a running track... so no hope liao. So must think high haha...

2006-10-22T12:59:00.000+08:00

All the excitement is over now. No more exams, no more marking...

Tuesday and wednesday were holiday for students... Moderation and Promotion exercise in school. These are the days when teachers sit down in a room, and go through all the students who do not meet the critiria for promotion. There, were decide whether to push them up, or to transfer laterally, or to retain them.

Push them up, means to promote them... Usually occurs for deserving students... those whom the teachers feel that they have good learning attitudes and good behaviour. Of course there are some who are pushed up because there's no space in other classes.
Laterally transfer can mean two ways. Either downwards from Exp to NA to NT, or upwards from NT to NA to Exp. My form class have two students promoted to Express class next year. So happy for them... but that'll mean I have less two good students in my class next year... sigh...
Retain... well, goes for students who practically failed all subjects... which means they can't cope, or they don't deserved to be 'saved' as we call it.

After we decide all these, we come to allocation of classes. Sec 3 is the easiest... they usually go up to the same class in Sec 4. Sec 1 and 2 more problematic... Cos there's streaming... So students are 'streamed' according to their results into various classes. Of course the better one will go into the first class and so on. But there're still certain criteria here and there... Don't quite understand though...

My students kept coming to ask me... which class I go to? I want to go 'this' class... can you help me?

Sigh... how I help you?? If your results don't help you? There's really nothing much I can do for you. Yes yes, I know which class you're going to.... BUT I CANT TELL YOU!! Special orders from the top you know... you want my head to roll? So I can only say... "I don't know... I don't know... I don't know." So PLEASE understand ok? Don't worry people, you'll know when you get your result slip... which is soon...

So meanwhile, enjoy the post exam activities all lined up for you... Still hazy out there... so some times outdoor activities may be stopped. But relax all you can... Cos in two months time... that's next year, there'll be another round of hard work.

2006-10-13T22:18:00.000+08:00

TO MY HORROR...

The lady at MS Sakae Sushi remembered me!!! When she came to serve us sushi... she looked at me and said, " U came before right? With those boys that ate a lot of salmon sushi?"

My eyes almost popped out... are we blacklisted? I asked... She laughed and said no... I said no salmon sushi now haha... Then one of the students said, I think i want to order leh...

She even remembered one was tall and another one was small and skinny... Called them the 'salmon sushi boys'... HAHAHA... AND she even remembered the joke about JX needing a box on his seat (like those that kids use to put on the cinema seats...) HAHAHAHAHAHA

2006-10-11T13:43:00.000+08:00

Terrible headache last night... decided to take a break. Luckily I brought one whole class of papers home... Can still catch up with the marking...

Few things I've observed over the past few days of marking...
They don't read the question carefully... and just assume that they think they know what the question is asking for and just write the whole chunk out from head to toe. So I'm suppose to go treasure hunting among the words izzit?
Handwriting getting worse... all becoming vertically challenged... the capital letters are as tall as the small letters... how to read lidat?
They complain teachers are too strict in marking... no.1, they don't write a single thing, how i give marks? no.2, I ask for the 'sky' they give me the 'earth'... no connection at all... how to give mark???

Well, finished 4 sets... 5th set today... 2 more to go! Still meeting target.

2006-10-09T21:29:00.000+08:00

Let's not think about how much work is left but how much work has been done. Positive thinking... yeah...
So... 1NA done! Sec 2... 1 class done! 4 more to go... Target: 1 class per day! Finish on Friday! I want my weekend!

Our dear friend broke his specs... AGAIN... for the nth time... I think the optician is so glad that he has such a customer. Always go back and give him more business...

2006-10-07T16:33:00.000+08:00

Cross = Ikan bilis

Interesting. The way students can link two totally different 'items' together. How come they're not applying it in actual learning???

It actually took me some time to understand the above linkage. Because my crosses consist of two straight (quite) lines. Now that I got what it meant... my crosses ARE beginning to look like ikan bilis.

Carried 3 stacks of papars home yesterday. My arm almost broke. Burying my heads in papers, shaking my head and busy drawing 'ikan bilis' since last night. Of course there're good ones also lah. Lots of 'ticks' too. Maybe someone can come out with another one for the 'ticks'? Or else ikan bilis very lonely.

2006-10-04T16:26:00.000+08:00

These few days, I found myself drinking lots and lots of water. Not because of the haze. But because one can get so bored during invigilation that the only thing we can do is drink water.

Count down to exam with joy eh? Exam period not that enjoyable ok.
Aim of invigilation:
Stare at the students and make sure they're not doing anything funny.
Things to be done:
Stare at students
Stand and walk around for 1 hour plus
Cannot talk
Continue staring...

But it is really getting hot and hazy... My cough is coming back...

2006-10-02T16:22:00.000+08:00

Count down to Exams!

Finally, the day before exams. Years ago, I count down to exams with fear. Now, I count down with joy. Because it meant less talking, less scolding, less shouting. And of course less work... until the papers come in. Papers only coming in on friday. I'm going to take a well-deserved rest these few days.

2006-09-28T21:11:00.000+08:00

"LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THE COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU "

WHY WE SHOULD GO HOME ON TIME...

Mr. Narayana Murthy is undoubtedly one of the most famous persons from Karnataka. He is known not just for building the biggest IT Empire in India but also for his simplicity. Almost every important dignitary visits InfoSys campus. He delivered an interesting speech during an employee session with another IT company in India . He is incidentally, one of the top 50 influential people of Asia according to an Asiaweek publication and also the new IT Advisor to the Thailand Prime Minister.

Extract of Mr. Narayana Murthy's Speech during Mentor Session:

I know people who work 12 hours a day, six days a week, or more. Some people do so because of a work emergency where the long hours are only temporary. Other people I know have put in these hours for years. I do not know if they are working all these hours, but I do know they are in the office this long. Others put in long office hours because they are addicted to the workplace.

Whatever the reason for putting in overtime, working long hours over the long term is harmful to the person and to the organization. There are things managers can do to change this for everyone's benefit. Being in the office long hours, over long periods of time, makes way for potential errors. My colleagues who are in the office long hours frequently make mistakes caused by fatigue. Correcting these mistakes requires their time as well as the time and energy of others. I have seen people work Tuesday through Friday to correct mistakes made after 5 PM on Monday.

Another problem is that people who are in the office long hours are not pleasant company. They often complain about other people (who are not working as hard); they are irritable, or cranky, or even angry. Other people avoid them. Such behaviour poses problems, where work goes much better when people work together instead of avoiding one another.

As Managers, there are things we can do to help people leave the office. First and foremost is to set the example and go home ourselves. I work with a manager who chides people for working long hours. His words quickly lose their meaning when he sends these chiding group e-mails with a time-stamp of 2 AM, Sunday.

Second is to encourage people to put some balance in their lives. For instance, here is a guideline I find helpful:
1) Wake up, eat a good breakfast, and go to work.
2) Work hard and smart for eight or nine hours.
3) Go home.
4) Read the books/comics, watch a funny movie, dig in the dirt, play with your kids, etc.
5) Eat well and sleep well.

This is called recreating. Doing steps 1, 3, 4, and 5 enable step 2. Working regular hours and recreating daily are simple concepts. They are hard for some of us because that requires 'personal change'. They are possible since we all have the power to choose to do them.

In considering the issue of overtime, I am reminded of my oldest son. When he was a toddler, if people were visiting the apartment, he would not fall asleep no matter how long the visit was, and no matter what time of day it was. He would fight off sleep until the visitors left. It was as if he was afraid that he would miss some thing. Once our visitors' left, he would go to sleep. By this time, however, he was over tired and would scream through half the night with nightmares. He, my wife, and I, all paid the price for his fear of missing out.

Perhaps some people put in such long hours because they do not want to miss anything when they leave the office. The trouble with this is that events will never stop happening. That is life! Things happen 24 hours a day.

Allowing for little rest is not ultimately practical. So, take a nap. Things will happen while you are asleep, but you will have the energy to catch up when you wake.

Hence, "LOVE YOUR JOB, BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN THE COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU " - Narayana Murthy

2006-09-27T21:00:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I cried... but there were only a few tears... what hurt most is my heart. I regret my carelessness. I blame no one. I was overwhelmed with other things to even notice that I have made a mistake. I didn't know what had happen. I spent the entire afternoon trying to recall. And that was after I enjoyed lunch and icecream with some students. I was afraid it would be my end. I was unsure of my future.

I thought I would be miserable. I thought I would not be able to smile again. Somehow, today, that did not happen for long. Close to the end of the day, I somehow managed to let go. I don't know who brought back the smile to me. But thank you, whoever made my day. Like a friend said, do not worry about things that are beyond our control. I just have to hope that things will turn out fine. I'm just glad that things did not turn out even worse than this. Still no news yet. As of now, no news means good news.

I'm alright now, back to my bubbly self, I think. Maybe I'm in denial. But well, life has to go on whether I'm miserable or happy. So I chose the latter.

2006-09-23T16:34:00.000+08:00

Went for the crystal growing prize presentation ceremony today...

Didn't win any awards, but all of us are winners because we put in our best. I really like our display, think it's the most striking of all... Judges have no taste lah...

Hwa Chong Institution are the big winners... Almost all the teams they sent in got a prize, 1st 2nd or 3rd... Sigh... how come their crytals all so nice?

2006-09-23T16:00:00.000+08:00

teaching the most 'interesting' topic in science now. It's really amazing how students can get so excited in this chapter. It's one of the chapters in the syllabus that there's at least 70% attentiveness in the class, no matter how boring the teaching is... haha.

What's so interesting ah? I don't remember getting SOOO excited when i was a student. It's really so tiring teaching in a class that gets SOO excited. Already in a rush for syllabus and they all still get so excited and ask all sorts of questions that sometimes get themselves AND me even more confused. But it's really fun to see them so eager to learn... hope their results will be as high as their enthusiasm...

2006-09-15T21:57:00.000+08:00

Today was so tired... I went in to my last class of the day, double period... I just sat there and told them to do their own work... only started teaching the second period. Totally exhausted... Anyway they are so much ahead of time... I've like 1 and a half weeks to do revision for them. Not like Sec 2.. rushing like mad...

Last night tried uploading files but failed so now have to attach the files to email send them to the students... Powerpoint slides lor... so huge... the yahoo mail takes ages to attach the files. After half an hour I'm still in the process of attaching the second file.

The crystals grew even bigger... took pictures of it... it's nice and clear... Ibut still quite small... the clear crystals are small... there are some very big ones.. but very blur inside and out of shape... Sigh... hope the clear one grows bigger over the weekend...
I'll show the photos when the competition over... or else later people copy... hehe...

Had to take over choir duties today again... not suppose to be mine... but the teacher went for marking without informing us and another one just 'siam' as usual... so left me lor... poor me... but choir always fun... the students are great... it's just the time that I go home is so late... sigh...

2006-09-14T21:23:00.000+08:00

The boy who fell down yesterday was admitted to hospital. The mother called to say that his bones at the knee joint has shifted and he had to undergo operation to insert some metal pieces into his knee joint. So his knee will be in a cast for 6 months. Not sure how he's going to take his exam and when he's coming back to school. His classmates kept on asking which hospital he's in and whether they can go see him. But I think it'll be good for him to rest first, maybe they can visit him at home when he's discharged.

The second part of the paper was finally finished. She almost wanted to just hand in and go off... luckily reminded her in time. But still, after she changed a bit and left, we still found mistakes... and in the end I had to do the editting...

Recently I found out something... there're so many people around who can't do formatting of the documents. They don't know how to align text using tabs... so instead they resort to pressing the space bar until it is more or less align or just simply any how shift the indents until they think they get what they want. The strange thing is there're so many weird places in the document that I simply cannot imagine how those things came about.

This brought me to think of another point. When students make mistake, sometimes we do understand why. For example, they jumble up the concepts, forget bits and pieces, here and there. But sometimes they can really come up with answers that I'm unable to figure out where they got it from. I'm sure I never mentioned it in class, or it was never written on the notes or powerpoint slides. How come they managed to link up things that are so unrelated??

Met a very friendly cab driver today. We talked all the way from school back home. At first I realised I forgot to bring my wallet... so he had to drive me back to school, luckily the school attendant was just about to leave. So the school attendant had to open the gate, disarm the alarm, open the office and then open the staffroom... The cab driver's has been a part time driver for 7 years. We started talking about how the students add 'spice' to the teachers' lives. He said his greatest wish is to fetch the teachers that have taught him when he was a student. But so far, he's never got any. He also talked about fetching professors from university... and some professors will just start talking about things that he's never heard before or things that we'll never have a chance to know... And interestingly, he makes record of the people he has fetch... especially those who come from overseas. So he's met people from Germany, Australia, Czech, France and so on... Now his target is to meet people from all over the world.

It's such amazing that such a humble job can meet so many people. I think it's a joy when you meet people and share experiences. You don't need to be a CEO of a MNC who travel all over the world for meetings to meet so many people. Neither do you need lots of money to fly around the world. Sometimes, opportunities just comes to you. Truely... the world is at our doorstep... it's a matter of whether we see it... and whether we want take that step forward.

2006-09-13T23:02:00.000+08:00

Crystals Crystals grow grow grow...

Forgot to talk about our crystals... two students growing crystals in the lab to take part in a competition held in NUS nxt week. Will be going down on nxt thursday to do the setup... After many many tries... our babies are finally growing well!!! Yeah!!!

Though not very symmetrical... but it's crystal clear and the shape is more or less there. Hope it's a good crystal... Don't know what the other schools have... Ours still quite small.. percentage yield is so low.... sigh...

Now have to think of how to decorate the whole display. Think think think...

2006-09-13T22:36:00.000+08:00

Ok ok... here I am to update my blog. I think if I still don't update by today some people are going to come and 'hum tum' me already......

Well, many things happened last few days. It's now the period of deadlines for setting papers. Everyone's rushing to set, edit and vett the papers. Set paper until 2 am in the morning on Monday... went to bed then went to school at 6.30am. Zombie the whole day...

Monday night was the terrible night. I had gastric pains... or rather I don't what's wrong with me and just knew that my stomach is bloated and I'm in pain and don't want to move a single inch. Didn't even dream of taking MC, cos if I'm going to take any MC, my science class is going to suffer... cos we're rushing syllabus now!!!

Tuesday still not good. Walk also pain... luckily I have kind students who show compassion. Some students even surprised me with the concern they show the moment I stepped into the class. Sometimes people that you least expect to show concern will say very comforting words. Of course there're still those who lack compassion... They'll wait until you faint in front of them then they'll realise the teacher is sick. Cannot walk fast... cos once I move, my stomach hurts... hungry but no appetite, dunno what to eat for lunch. In the end went Han's with students to eat porridge and almost forgot about my colleague's lunch until he called to say he's starving. The porridge was good... felt so much better after that. Funny thing is still got people ask me play badminton. Please lah... I walk also pain... u want me to play badminton???

Edited paper until 12.30 midnight... Sigh... late night again. Paper too simple... Had to change a lot of the qns. Today was a sleepy day. I almost fell asleep at the last period while giving a test. My students were like... are you sick? why don't we dismiss early and you can go and rest?... ya... like real... let me rest... haha

Today is 'getting injured/sick' day. One student had stomachache in the morning and then vomitted after that. But insisted on sitting for the geog test and said he felt better. But we still managed to get his mother to bring him home.
Another one, play ball until the knee sprain/twisted... I was in the office when my class boys suddenly run in to tell me the boy got bone jutting out of his leg. Got me scared.. I was thinking of lots of bleeding and broken bone jutting out. But no bloody scene, the knee joint was slightly shifted (i think)... the boy wasn't crying and said it's not painful. Then 10 mins later, the whole joint was swollen, and he was in tears.
The last one is the 'injury' of an object, not the person. Playing basketball... balls again... that's why I have phobia of balls flying around... can hit anything any time. Anyway... the ball has no eyes, so hit him on the face... be glad his nose is not flattened... and specs fell apart. Supposedly the 6th pair of frameless specs that's broken over the past X years. Frameless specs not cheap leh... Sigh...

Anyway, exam paper finished finally... Actually should thank the other teacher who set one part in the paper for being on mc for the past two days... cos if she's not back, she can't edit her part, i rush finish also no use... so my deadline extended until tomorrow... Haha

2006-09-08T22:26:00.000+08:00

Today brought 2 students to SP to take part in a competition. So few contestents as compared to last year. Only a few schools taking part this year. But competition was keen. We could see the other students still busy studying their textbooks and notes given to them by their teachers while our students were busy talking.

We teachers also took up the challenged and tried to answer the questions ourselves. Well, we didn't get full marks ourselves, but if we took part we sure win. So we were joking that if we wore school uniforms and went to take part nobody would know too. hmmm....

Well, we didn't win the top 5 prizes of DNA amplification kits, PCR kits, DNA isolation kits, micropipettes and digital camera. But I can say we got the consolation prize... haha... During the 'audience participation' session, we teachers were writing down all the answers for the students to answer. It's basically spelling and you have to rush to the microphone to answer. So we managed to booked the seats near to the microphone, so we won the most prizes. Nothing great, just notebooks. (not the laptop notebooks ok... it's the paper notebook) But we feel proud that we got the most... HAHAHA....

What's important is never the result... I think we learned a lot from this competition. The students got exposed to vocabulary and information that their peers and classmates would not have heard about, and even learn some basic knowledge of the chapters they're going to learn next year. So they can become assistant teachers ya?

But the organisers said they might end this series of competition soon. How can? Not after I realise that they recycle like 60% of their questions and I copied down almost all the the questions in the competition! At least have one more year.... please.... =P

2006-09-05T17:55:00.000+08:00

I got a message from my sis today to tell me that one of her friends got abalone from her students for teacher's day present. Then she ask me why I don't get shark's fin?

Well, I told her my kids are not that rich. Poor kids. Basically they have other things to spend their money. How many kids would buy abalone for their teacher? This is the first time i ever heard of it. Maybe the parents bought it. Must be.

Teachers always tell the students, no need to buy present... as long as you do well in your studies we're happy... no need to buy expensive present... it's the thought that count. I also tell my student this. But wait... I'm a materialistic person. I like the feeling of being able to look at something 'concrete' and recall all the memories. Cards are the best. Easy to keep, and you know who gave it to you. But.. consecutively for two years, I receive 1 EMPTY card. The envelope has my name on it, the card is beautiful, but when I opened it? It's EMPTY! Is this a trend or something? Luckily it wasn't threat mail. How strange can people get nowadays.

What are teenagers thinking of these days?

2006-09-03T22:33:00.000+08:00

What are teenagers thinking of these days?

I lost count of how many times I ask myself every week the same question. It's an occupation hazard. Whether I want it or not, these people's problems will revolve around me and to help these people, I have to understand.

Personally, I'm not far from their age. Ok fine, a decade apart, plus minus. Why do they think so differently from people of my age, when we were at that age??

I never understood the fun of LAN games. They complain that they don't have money to buy textbooks, assessment books and stationary. They claim that they don't have time to do their homework. Yet they can spend their time (and money) in internet shops playing games online until midnight. One told me that once they were challenged by a group of adults and they won. They felt a sudden rush of sense of satisfaction in them. And they felt great.

So it's for the sense of satisfaction. How come they don't get it in school? Let's see... They don't do their work, teacher chases after them for homework, they ignore, and fail their test. Experience have told me that kids love praises. They can come jumping with joy to tell me that 'Mr so and so praise me for doing my work!' or 'Mrs so and so praise me for being attentive in class!'.

So since they like the praises so much, why can't they just be a good student all the time? And that's where I realised another problem. Good students get praised less often than bad students. Good students tend to go unnoticed while the mischievous ones gets all the attention (= scolding to be exact). Then... when the mischievous ones be good, they get praised sky high.

So why be a good student? I was a good student. The fact that I was seldom scolded by teacher tells me that I'm probably not a bad nut. But neither was I praised. So what's the problem? Good students don't get attention, don't get praises. So why be good?

Another big problem. It's how youngsters complicate their lives. And I mean in all aspects. When I was a student, life was simple. Go to school, go home, lunch, homework, dinner, tv, sleep. If there's band practice, I stay in school, then go home after practice for dinner. Weekend, I stay at home or go out with my parents. Boring ah? I call it simple. No worries, except probably homework stress.

Today some worry about saving money to get the latest mp3, handphones etc. Some cry and cry when their handphones were confiscated, despite several warnings to tell them to keep it. Some cry and cry when their handphones were lost when we tell them not even to bring it to school.

Some worry about the people around them when they can't even solve their own problems. Education aims to broaden their minds. We teach them to be global and to widen their circle of friends. We teach them not to be self-centred but to show compassion for others. Have these caused them to stop thinking about themselves?

Relationship with others is another BIG problem. Some have no common sense at all when facing a girl or a boy. Some see an obstacle, and choose to avoid and run away. Defence tactic ah? Run away in order not to get hurt further? But how can you run away from a person who comes to the same building as you every day? Face it. Trash it out. If it has reached the point that you hate the person, ignore the person. Note the difference between ignore and avoid. Ignoring is taking that the person does not exist. Avoiding is wishing that you yourself don't exist.

The more you run, the more hurt you'll get. It's like digging a knife into a wound. And does that person know that you're running away? If the person doesn't, what on earth are you doing? It's totally senseless. It's just like scolding a person in the face that that person doesn't know that you're scolding him. It's a waste of energy and no purpose is reached. Get it?

Happy Teachers' Day

2006-09-01T18:01:00.000+08:00

Happy Teachers' Day

My 2nd Teachers' Day. The teachers' day celebration day yesterday was really fun. Looks like the students were enjoying it even more. Staffroom became an open house, with hundreds of students and teachers trying to squeeze through the narrow aisle in the staffroom. Some clever ones left the presents in the pigeon hole. Carried two big bags home in the rain. Mum's first reaction: So much stuff again! But mum, it's the thought that counts.

Interesting presents I have this year, spend last night unwrapping the presents and also trying to figure out which one is given by who. Next time write your name please...

One student gave me a bottle of 'Chuan Bei Pi Pa Gao'. I kept wondering why that present was so heavy and thought it's a porcelain figurine. Got chocolates from Wee Keng, a very cute photo frame from Winson (my very cute class monitor), a mug from Pearlyn and Jiawen and another one from XinYing. There's one that's a scented leaf. Another interesting gift given by anonymous. Not forgetting Kok Chun who gave me a candle holder and Jane gave me a box of hearts. There were also other photo frames and figurines.

I like hand-made stuff. Cookies from Sandra, koniyaku jelly from Wanjie. Many cards, both bought and hand made. Dear Fiona bought me my favourite biscuits. It's such a nice feeling when students remember your favourite things. But the story of these biscuits is only known to the choir members who went to KL with me last year. The H31A students gave me a jigsaw puzzle of Chip and Dale. Also another bunch who remembers my favourites. Thank you very much.

Almost went to woodlands. Luckily didn't go. Halfway to MS to meet jinxuan kaijing janice and lydia, singyee called to say they're bored and want to come MS to find me.

Got my last teacher's day present at MS. Janice and lydia went to buy the piggy pillow, that i was eyeing at action city, when kaijing jinxuan and me went to arcade. Actually i knew more or less when jinxuan asked me if i really wanted it and then u all started looking at your wallets and talking behind my back. But I'm really really very touched.

Bowling was a disaster cos my hand still aching from tuesday's badminton. So many zeros... sigh... throwing money into 'long kang' again. Stomach totally bloated after sakae. Kaijing and Jinxuan u two are ultimate lor. The shop owner sure scared of u all if you go too often. They sure suffer loss. And I think I won't dare to go to that shop within the next month.
I had great fun yesterday. Thanks for telling me so much of your stories. Thank you so much.

Thinking thinking...

2004-11-09T10:25:00.000+08:00

Thinking thinking...

Remember the NUSWS yahoogroups incident? Some of us alumnus were 'selectively' removed from the members list. Happened a few months ago, but I'm still not added back. I was told by a friend that the comm said that if we want to be added back, we have to email the moderator to tell them to do so.

Talked to a NIE colleague about this incident. Not purposely mentioned. Was talking about band and this thing just popped up. I've been saying that I dun wan to bother anymore and I can't be bother. But I still feel bitter about this thing even up to now. I always say I'm a forgetful person - I forgive and forget easily. But he said that if I still feel bitter about, it simply means that I've not forgotten and neither have I forgiven.

Maybe I'm not forgetful after all. By lying to myself that I forgive and forget, I comfort myself temporarily to escape the disappointment and moment of anger.

I still remember that my Primary 2 English teacher slapped me and only me when a few of us were talking during her lesson. I still remember her face AND her name.

I remember that the teacher in charge of the calligraphy club in JC told me when I left the school that my masterpieces would be returned to me after the exhibition in the following year. I was the logistic officer. My friend was clever. She took back everything before she left the school. I trusted my teacher and left my works in the store with all others.

After the exhibition, my teacher wanted me to pay for the touching up fees of my works that were exhibited if I want to bring them home. She even refused to let me take back my works that were not on the exhibition. I was told by the juniors that she didn't want alumnus' works in the exhibition as it would show that the club lacked talents and needed to depend on the works of the alumnus which were left behind after graduation. I was the alumni who had the most works in the exhibition. I could safely say that out of everyone, I had the most works put up. Main reason was I wrote 隶书 and almost everyone else wrote 楷书. My calligraphy teacher wanted a variety. So a lot of my works were put up. But I had to BUY my masterpieces back. She said that I have not contribute much and that was the least I could do for the club.

WHAT!! She said I've NOT contributed much. She has no idea at all how much effort I've put in for this club and how much time and brain cells I've spent on the logistic matters. Where is she when I was running around settling all the problems big and small for her? Sitting comfortably in her office?

Many times, things that I did were unknown. I do not put myself in the limelight. I'll do thing quietly in the background, and wish and hope that someday, someone would recognize my effort. But most of the times, they think someone else did it. Nobody knows I did it.

I'm not a person who gives everything without expecting anything in return. I'm no charity organization. Not a noble person as many friends see me as. Maybe not even a promising housewife or a future good wife as many have said I am. What I wanted all this while and why I've been doing so much things is that I want acknowledgement. I wanted praises.

I may not do things in front of you and expect you to praise me. I might do things quietly and expect you to find out what I've done and then praise me for the good job done.

All this while, what I need is security. I needed recognition. A warranty card that would never expire, a position in my friends' life that will never be replaced. That's why I'm always helping and doing a lot of things in front of my friends. I'm not that helpful at home.

U can say that I'm an attention seeker. I say that I'm not. I need attention. But I do not seek it. Complicated? I'm confused sometimes too. I enjoyed the attention, the recognition and the praises. But I become more depressed when I started to think about the truthfulness of the praises. Were they sincere? Were they truthful? Or were they merely passing remarks? Were they laughing behind me? Did the remarks mean something sarcastic?

Friends say I think too much. They say I complicate things that are simple. My family say I don't think enough. They say that I do not think further or deeper. What on earth is wrong with me?

Strong I may look. Fierce I may seem. I'm still sensitive and fragile. Sensitivity is something about me that I've not change since young. I feel uncomfortable when my friends are talking about something I don't know. I feel that they are talking about me. I feel left out.

Should I continue looking strong? Is this the reason why I've not been in any relationships before? I do not look like someone who needed protection from a guy? What exactly is my real identity? Everyone has a mask. Am I wearing a mask now? Or do I need to put on my mask?

Thanks everyone for the great fun

2004-11-08T08:45:00.000+08:00

Thanks everyone for the great fun

It's been quite some time since I enjoyed myself that much. NIE has been tiring and time consuming. My times of leisure were only on computer games and meal gatherings with the NUS buddies.

Monday at Little India. I enjoyed the entire day there. But I did not enjoy the food as I thought I would. The poori and the cracker (dunno wat name) was nice. But the curry and other side dishes were not to my liking. Maybe because it's my first time. Everything tastes weird. The girls say I look funny... they found it interesting to look at the way I eat and fidle abt with the food. But from the bottom of my heart, I enjoyed myself there. I did my first every henna at the bazaar there and bought the first every deepavali cards for Deepa and Nootan (they chose it themselves). It's so nice to have friends from so many races. Gives me chances to buck up on my English communication skills too.

Frankly... It's weird. I'm a Chinese speaking person. Before I entered NIE, 99% of my friends were Chinese. I spoke Mandarin 90% of the time. English was difficult. I cant express myself well. Even if I'm thinking in English... my thinking is in Chinese... haha

Now, it's English for almost 100% of the time. Not that I don't like it. I still trying tat's all. If u all realise, I often get tongue-tied. Have long pauses. My communication is slow in English. What if I rattle off in Mandarin during praticum when the supervisor is observing???

Yesterday was even more exciting. Apart from the more than 50% of the food not finished, and we don't have enough money to pay for the curry chicken. Everything else was great. The little drizzle came at the right time, all of us went into the pavilion and we played the passing parcel game. Well, the swimming pool is forever very tempting... Halfway through, the guys started throwing and dragging people into the pool. Some smart people left so quietly that we didn't even know until we all sat down again (and tat was like half an hour later).

Few hid behind the bbq pit. I kept quiet, remained on my seat hoping that no one will notice I existed. But to play safe, few of us left our phone on the table. We don't want our phone to go into the pool too. Needless to say, I was eventually thrown in too. Actually I was dragged to the pool and then told to jump in myself.

And then we were scolded by the security guard. Told to get out immediately. This came at the right time, allowed us to continue with the passing parcel game again. After the guard left, the pool throwing activity started again. On and off, we managed to finish the game.

Pack up time, obviously guys are still playing while girls are packing. The throw and drag thing is still on-going. All of us are already wet and shivering with cold. It's just the process of throwing and dragging that they enjoyed. I entered the pool the second time, with a guy dragging me by the neck, almost choking me, and giving everyone a shock. I was lucky. Or should I say he was lucky. The way he dropped me in, I could have hit my head against the wall of the pool.

I think the guys are also worried when they throw the gals into the pool. They're afraid we'll get angry. haha... Tat's the thing lah... Guys are the most afraid of tears and anger of girls. But well, everything ended well. No one was hurt. And we all had fun. I guess no one would believe it if we say we are from NIE and are future teachers and principals.

Why worry? Everyone has a child at heart. I believe that a person is only his or her true self in times of play. It's only this time that you go all out to enjoy and do not purposely hide or show anything. I like myself when I'm playing. Do you?