mUShy's mOSsy meadOws

Goodbye blogspot!

2007-07-02T17:27:00.001+08:00

See you over at multiply!

Migration

2007-06-22T16:12:00.001+08:00

Thinking of migrating to multiply instead...
Still thinking. Stay tuned!

你看的懂中文吧？

2007-06-21T15:24:00.000+08:00

Then please do drop by my other home when you are free!

Tree Top Walk

2007-05-31T22:35:00.000+08:00

Moments before I thought of posting this entry, there was a news report on a fatal accident involving a Vietnamese man in his 20s who was struck by a tree branch after crossing the Tree Top Walk...
Most unfortunate :|

Well, I had always wanted to visit the trail and know what it's like to be amongs the canopies. However, the trip failed to materialise until today! Wei & Pat had gone there before, so I was the newbie to the place.

Thinking that we were early since we arrived before 9am, we were surprised to see the many cars parked along the roads. Perhaps there were a lot of worms up for grabs or they just wanted to bask in the early early morning sun. Armed with our water bottles and my camera, we embarked on our journey to the top at about 8.45am.

I had no idea how long it would take to reach the top and the kind of terrain that I would be encountering. Nevertheless, it was manageable even though I could have felt slightly better if I were in my track shoes instead of tevas.

Along the way, we met many people, from as young as pre-primary to grannies and grandpas. For a moment, as we neared the only pit stop where the washrooms were, I thought we were in the Zoo instead due to the crowd and activity.

In under 45 minutes, we reached the entrance to the Tree Top Walk. It was then phototaking time! Before we knew it, we had almost reached the exit of the suspension bridge. So much effort for this short walk across the bridge?! Hee...I'm not sure if I would be so keen to be there again soon.

Besides the ma-lau (monkey) which we saw at the entrance, I did not see any other creatures, save for the mosquitoes and butterflies. We, the human intruders, had probably kept them away with our talking and marching.

In all, it was a great experience for a first timer. Perhaps the next time if I were to be there, I would spend more time to read the information displays put up albeit at the risk of being a mosquito bait, and explore the other trails!
Special thanks to Pat for making this trip possible!

My Class Blog

2007-04-28T22:49:00.000+08:00

Drop by my class blog to find out what's happening in the classroom and beyond :)

It's her 2nd!

2007-04-28T22:38:00.000+08:00

As usual, there were tell-tale signs that she was not her usual self. Less chatty, less active and spent more time at the ground level of her cage. When hub gave her a piece of crumpled tissue to play when she's having her walkabout time, she even stuffed it under her and sat on it like she's gonna hatch something!

Then, it happened. This time, we were out and did not witness her labour process.

Back from our Sat gym session, I spotted her 2nd produce, about 2 months from her last delivery on 3rd March.
It still didn't fail to amaze us :)

Snapped a few pictures and had a video to show you actually (uploading still in progress!)

p.s. she broke it though :(

Phantom Of the Opera

2007-04-15T23:31:00.000+08:00

The first Phantom that I caught was about 10 years back when it was staged at the Kallang Theatre. It was so memorable that I had to watch it this time round when it was staged at the Esplanade. The setup was different or at least the chandelier appeared different from the one I saw the first time round.
It was the first time Dan was catching it though.
The best part was we were seated at the fourth row from the stage! Nope, we did not buy the most expensive tickets so we were actually tucked in the left corner. However, it was an eye-opening experience, being so close to the orchestra box, seeing the expressions of the casts up close. I thought I could hear them breathe! Too bad, no photography's allowed or I could show you how close we were to the stage. Oops, then how did the shot of the chandelier came about? :X

Happy Meal

2007-03-18T00:57:00.000+08:00

Had an enjoyable time with xPG, CY, peanuts, gummi and pat!
The KTV session was fun as we attempted Jay's Coral Sea yet again but this time round with CY as the male singer.

As with Jen and I's earlier failed attempts, even CY was confused midway because of the different voices! :D
It's a pity that there were only 4 of us though.

Nevertheless, the dinner at PastaMania made up for it! After finishing our pasta, we had wanted to adjourn to another venue for drinks. In the end, we did not and spent 2 hours at Heeren chatting. Nope, we weren't gossiping but the highlight was the Nao Jin Ji Zhuan Wan or Qian Bian Wen Da Ti session!

I learnt at least 3 new QBWDT from CY! Doris' answers were the most entertaining and I was surprised that Pat knew the answers to so many of those questions!

Time passed quickly and soon it was time to make a move. I wonder what they did after I'd left :)
In case you are wondering why I had to leave at 9pm...it was because I had to do the ironing! Can you believe it!? Haha. I just had to get it done before school reopens and I hate to do it on a Sunday night ;)

My 'Twin' Sister's haven

2007-03-15T00:44:00.000+08:00

After hearing so much about her experiences of the renovation of her new love nest, we finally paid her a visit as a pre-ktv activity :) (Don't worry, no need to conduct any post activity. Then again, writing this post can be counted as one!)

As I'm not too good with words especially when it comes to describing home decor, I shall let the pictures do the talking!

We love the wallpaper which goes with her balcony floor tiles as well as her bathroom floor tiles!
Needless to say, we adore the 42" LCD display too!

We also spotted the Precious Moments figurine we gave her for her ROM!

Wishing her and her hubby the very best! ;)

She's definitely a Girl!

2007-03-03T12:11:00.000+08:00

At about 6.40am this morning, I was having an early breakfast because of the Meet-The-Teacher Session cum Parents' Symposium later that morning.

As I sat at the dining table, gazing at Birdie, I noticed something strange about 'her'. A very active bird, it was not surprising that she's awake at that hour. However, she seems to be extremely restless and was pacing about her cage and pausing for a few seconds in between. Whenever she paused, it looked like she was going to 'poo' but on closer look, nothing came out from her bottom. This behaviour continued for about 3 minutes when I finally decided that it's abnormal and went to wake hubby.

He too felt that she was behaving strangely. She was also making some kind of 'wheezing' sound.

I took a peek at her bottom as I wondered if she was feeling constipated or something when I saw 'something' instead.
Something white peeking from her anus.

Then, PROOP! Out came an egg!!!

An EGG!!! She laid an EGG right in front of our eyes! We were dumbfounded and stunned momentarily.

Now we know for sure that she is definitely a GIRL!

My Furry Friend

2007-02-01T21:07:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since I've given an update on how Nancy's doing.
A 5-year old standard grey female chinchilla, she's been part of my family since I started working after graduation.
An adult by now, she's reached her full size but does not appear to have aged a bit!

Although I did not have the opportunity to bond with her right after she was born, she does react when her name is called, especially when she's in her cage. When she has her own free time in the piano room before her bath, she only comes to me when I offer her treats. :X

All right, these are recent pictures of her, taken when I was at home during the days of the upgrading. A nocturnal animal, she seemed unfazed by the noise from the works though :)

Hand-over

2007-01-29T15:14:00.000+08:00

Hurray! It's the final day of the MUP (Main Upgrading Program), at least for my unit :)
Rushed back from school once again to be back by 10.30am. Once again, my neighbour saved the day be helping us open the doors to our unit at 8am for the workers to come in.

Firstly, let me "introduce" my new toilet accessories.

We were so glad that we can finally bathe "normally" again without having to be couped up in a tiny confined space. Can you imagine not being able to take a proper shower for more than a week? Eww...

Next up was our laundry woes. With the mobile platform going up and down, we have been drying our laundry indoors. I'm sure if the clothes could speak, they would have demanded to be let out in the sun! We (the clothes) want sunshine! So do we really, if not our clothes does not smell as fresh as they should be :|

There was a friendly carpenter who put back the kitchen cabinet which was removed earlier so that the water pipes could be changed. While he was hard at work, we chatted about his kids, how they struggled in the English language because the had come from China.

Finally, amidst my bouts of violent sneezing (I have ultra sensitive nose), I took down the ugly plastic sheets which are shrouded with dust. This is how the kitchen looks like now, relatively clean and spotting new window grilles and windows.
Banzai! our 9days ordeal's finally over!

Version upgrade

2007-01-24T10:48:00.000+08:00

The home edition is getting a version upgrade.
Preparations include covering up our furniture with plastic sheets. It's interesting to watch TV through a layer of plastic. Hah!

Let's take a look at the progress so far...
Day 1:
I wasn't around (thank goodness)! Hub was on UPA leave and this is the day when the workers invade our homes with their drilling and hacking. No more sitting on the floor around our living room coffee table for this is what our flooring looks like now.

The works extends to the master bedroom.

So from Day 1 till today, which is Day 5, our toilet facilities have been disrupted.
In place, we have a mobile, open-air, Japanese-size toilet which is sitting in the middle of our kitchen.
Cool eh?

Thank goodness my school allowed me to take 1 UPA and 3 half-days off. So on Day 5, which is today, I'll be ensuring that our windows (kitchen only) and toilet lourves are installed properly. So far, the frame's up.

Can't get a shot of the kitchen area as the workers are moving around :\

ETP @ Hark Music

2007-01-22T22:19:00.000+08:00

My final performance for ETP at Hark Music was finally over!

(Warning: This is a 1000 over words long post! :D)

Before I proceed to describe what happened that night, I really want to thank the supporters!
Jin: Thanks for being so supportive all these while! May the passion for music in you continue to burn! ;)

SH: Thanks for being so enthusiastic about coming down even though you hardly know the place and for sacrificing your early bedtime!

HF & YC: When wei was overseas, she took the trouble to come down to lend her support and even asked her partner along. This time round I felt extremely bad as they even got a BIG summon for parking in an alley because of the limited number of lots in the vicinity :((
Dan: Even though he changed his mind about gracing the event, he still dropped by to give me moral support. I was truly quite disappointed because I'd really wanted him to see me perform. However, I respect his wishes and the last thing I want to do is to force him to come in :)
wei: My lead singer who sang with his heart and soul despite all the phlegm and mucus running up and down the tubes ;)
Couldn't have done it without such a "tou2 ru4" singer!

All right, let's get down to the event proper.

Because of a closed door company function (AGM or something), the event which was supposed to commence at 7.30pm was pushed back by an hour. Wei and I arrived at 8pm and were hesitant about going in because the company event was still on at that time. A guy who was coming out told us to go ahead (wonder if he thought we were involved in the event).

Upon stepping in, Alex, from J3 (Superband) happened to walk past us. He glanced at us and had a faint smile on his face. As Jin had mentioned, he seemed to have some dealings with either the school or some of the teachers. Don't tell me he used to teach here?! Could he be a keyboard lao shi?

Also spotted Eddie (I think) cos I recognise him by his cap and black-framed glasses. Hmm, the spot he stood at is a place where I see smokers hanging out... :X

Anyway, as we appeared to be a little out of place, one of the vocal teacher came up to me and I told her we would like to practise for the ETP. Without hesitation, she led us up to level 2 where the classrooms are and asked Yvonne, the receptionist, to let us use one of the room, which happened to be my usual classroom. We were then left alone to practise.

Things went fine and each of us practised our songs twice. Wei tried to do a recording using his HP but it sounded weird. At about 15 min past 8, I received a message from SH and found out that not only had she arrived, Jin is also in the vicinity already. Wow! They were so early!

We wrapped up with our practice and went down to "chop" a place for our supporters. Groups of people were already seated and I guess they should be the performers with their own supporters. When Jin and SH arrived, I was sad to learn that Jin's down with a bad flu. I felt bad as she had to "blow her trumpet" several times during the whole performance and should have been resting at home...

Thereafter, the emcees (the same ones during my last performance) announced the start of the event. First up was a student graduating from Performing Stage 1 (Guitar). He appeared to be rather composed but his nervousness showed when he started playing. I can empathise with him because it can be really unnerving especially when he's the opening performer. Later, it turned out that his supporter happened to be SH's friend from BS! What a small world! Both of them then joined us at our table.

At first, we were wondering why HF had not arrived yet when she appeared suddenly from the back of the room which led to the toilet! As our table was rather packed, she and YC did not join us.

Next up was another guitar performance. Hey! I thought there was only supposed to be 8 keyboard performers? Gosh, it meant that my item would be starting even later! Anyway, Jay's songs seemed to be the most frequently played that night. Go Jielun!

Soon, our turn arrived. As I got ready behind the keyboard, the emcee started interviewing him. Prior to that, my teacher, Lewen, had told the host that it'll be a husband and wife collaboration. Hence, the emcees proceeded to ask him for his full name and addressed us as Mr and Mrs Lim. Hey, sounds like we are in school!

I barely spoke as I was trying my best to stay focused because once I get distracted, my playing goes haywire and the song would really turn out to be one of the 1000 reasons to be sad! Just in case you are wondering, the first song would be Jacky Cheung's Yi Qian Ge Shang Xin De Li You ;)

I started playing the introduction. I got into the mood and things had never gone as smoothly as this for I always fumble at different parts of the song while practising. It even got my teacher a little worried because I had never gotten it 100% right during practices. Wei sang very well despite recovering from a bad flu. I guess it helped that Jacky's his favourite singer too!
Then came the interlude, the final chorus and finally the ending. Applause! It was over! I felt a great sense of relieve as well as achievement! It's a pity I couldn't study the audience's reaction during my playing as it was really dark and I could only see people who were very near the stage. Anyway, I had never felt so happy before!!!

Oops, then it was the second song, Wan Fang's Xin Bu Liao Qing. All along, I have difficulty hitting low notes and this time round, the low E was really the lowest note I can sing. I had thought of raising the key but the high notes would have to compromised with my shrieks! LOL. Perhaps I was still rejoicing over the previous item for I fumbled several times but thankfully managed to go on without restarting :p

When it was finally all over, I left the stage (and forgot about my scores. Wei also forgot his lyrics!) and felt like jumping for joy! I was still trembling slightly from the adrenaline overdose hehe.

Thank you my dear friends for your support and making it such a memorable night for both wei and me!!!

After the 3-days orientation

2007-01-05T17:00:00.000+08:00

With the first 3 days over, I have more to add about my new bunch of kids :P

Firstly, about those who had already gotten into my good books!

I like my new class reps. A tiny boy + a girl with a sweet voice.
They emerged as the pair with the most votes during the nomination exercise.
Having a problem with remembering girls' names, I did not pay much attention to CY on the first two days except only to remember that she is rather quiet and attentive. It was only when I hear her speak when I was giving her some instructions when I realised what a sweet voice she's got. A very sweet girl-next-door type , it's no wonder why many chose her to be their class rep. D is a tiny boy with quite a matured look. Though small, he does not behaves like a little boy but more like a big brother.
I guess I've made the right choice in getting the class to nominate rather than having me select them.

Besides the class reps, there is a girl prefect, JT, who carries a very bright and warm smile on her face everyday! Very attentive, cheerful and polite, I really enjoy having her in my class. A small bespectacled girl, J, has been very helpful and often asks me if she could help me. I appreciate that but when she leaves her seat to volunteer to help me too often, it becomes a little disruptive or I'm afraid the rest would follow suit. Hence, I had no choice but to "trap" her by placing her in the middle of a group rather than having an "aisle" seat :p

Now for the boys. RY who is a prefect has a Chinese mother and a Malay father. He had made a mistake of leaving his lunch box and water bottle unattended during recess while he joins his friend at the parade square to play. After picking up his items from one of his classmates, I went back to class to ask if anyone had lost something during recess. He owned up after much hesitation. When I explained to him about being responsible for his belongings despite of their monetary value, I could see him fighting back his tears. The message I was trying to put across was not to repeat the same mistake again. Somehow, I'm confident that it would be his only time. Otherwise, I really do like him because he gives sensible answers and is very attentive in class.

I have a few bubbly boys. When I use "bubbly", there lies a risk in it becoming "talkative". One of them speaks in a very high pitched voice, one easily excited boy who looks blur, able to talk to anyone but displays the most remorse on his face when caught for talking at the wrong time :) I'm quite sure I would be sharing more stories about these characters in future!

In summary, I like my class (so far)!

New beginning

2007-01-03T22:05:00.000+08:00

Today marks the new beginning for academic year 2007. At first glance, the students in my new class looked kinda tiny when they were seated at the parade square. Perhaps it was the same when I first saw my P4s last year. However, they seemed to have all grown up so quickly that I suddenly realise they were all much bigger than before.

Anyway, this bunch of kids looked pretty intelligient (they are supposed to be the most challenging ones to handle).
Since this is the first day, I gather that they had not completely warmed up to me and hence had not shown my their "true colours" yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Of all, there are a few prominent & promising ones whom I can depend on, some outspoken ones, some chatty ones, some gloomy ones (no hint of a smile on their faces) and some extremely helpful ones.

I am often caught in a dilemma of whether or not to protray a very stern image. I guess without playing any ice-breaking games, I had chosen to start the year on a more serious note.

One girl asked my about my expectations of P4s and I did not have a model answer in mind. Discipline was one main expectation, I had said and the rest they would soon figure out for themselves. Heh.
If I were to list my expectations, it would surely be a long one.

Japan Tour

2006-12-30T17:34:00.000+08:00

My apologies for not having written a travelogue for the trip.
The photos are at http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/102273.00cfc31c1dd/overview

Post Performance

2006-11-10T22:29:00.000+08:00

As promised, I'm here to share the unforgettable experience of performing on stage for the first time :)
I arrived at about 5min past 7 after having my dinner, which I had difficulty finishing because of the butterflies which kept fluttering in my stomach. Jin arrived at the same time too. Was so glad to have her company cos she helped to distract me from my anxiety by chatting with me about anything other than the performance later.

The cafe was deserted except for the waiter who was having his dinner. After identifying ourselves, he asked us to take a seat. I then remembered Lewen (my teacher) saying that I could practise a little before the start. Hence, we went to the keyboard room behind the cafe. There, we saw a guy practising and I guessed he should be one of the performers too. It turned out that he's also my teacher's student and that night was to be his ETP (end-of-term performance?).

As I had no idea how to use the headphone, I lowered the volume and tried to recall the chords while Jin snapped a few pictures of me on her mobile. Soon after, a group of people entered who turned out to be another group of performers. Lead by their teacher, a rather good-looking guy, were his three female students. They seemed to be in their very early twenties. Gary, the guy I mentioned earlier, and me looked comparatively more senior. Haha!

The moment that we were waiting for finally arrived slightly past 7.30pm. By then, HF & partner and some other supporters of the rest of the performers had filled about a quarter of the capacity. I was glad that it wasn't a large crowd!

Being the first performer of the evening, I mustered my courage and went up the stage as the emcees introduced me. Lewen helped me with the functions of the keyboard while I tried to get used to the high chair. The cafe looked dark from where I was, under the spotlight. Although I had my music score in front of me, there was no way of referring to it because I had the mic to take care of, the strange looking keyboard, the weird sitting position (height) and talking to the emcees at the same time. All of a sudden, I really felt like a performer! LOL. Except that I'm a very inexperienced one :D

Adding on to the emcees' introduction of my song and me, I thanked my friends who had come and told the audience that I would be performing a cantonese number by Gigi Leung. As the applause faded, I began and only managed to play a few stanzas when I faltered and hit the wrong chords :(

"Oops! Sorry!" was my reaction. I was very grateful to the two emcees especially the lady who reassured me that since there were only 5 performers that evening, I had ample time to try again. So malu! (I thought) haha!
I began all over again and managed to play the interlude without any mistake! There were a few minor errors but I was able to recover from them and moved on without stopping. As I was playing and singing the last verse, I was suddenly aware that my performance was coming to an end. When the applause came on, my mind was in a blank and I gathered my file kind of hastily and stumbled off the stage. Yes, I almost tripped when I stepped off the platform stage :S It was like I had a blackout or something LOL.

All I could remember was that I muttered "sorry" to my teacher (for making those mistakes) before hurrying back to my seat. I told Jin that I could not recall much of the things I had done just moments ago. Did I forget to sing? Did I complete the song etc. Gosh!

We stayed on to listen to the other performers. The one after me was Gary (graduating from Stage 3) who played Silence all these years with Lewen singing. Lewen also performed her own composition, a jazzy English number titled Sunrise Sunset.

I sure am looking forward to my ETP this year end! However, I'm still unsure of what song to perform :?

p.s. Photos courtesy of Jin :)

Sparks

2006-11-05T16:35:00.000+08:00

Sparks, or "Hua1 Huo3" is the song that I will be playing this evening. It's a cantonese number by Gigi Leung. Always loved the piano interlude and hence had picked this song as a prelude to my ETP (I think it's End of Term Performance?)

One week ago, I had so little confidence because I couldn't focus on singing and playing at the same time that I reacted rather strongly when hub told me he had invited HF and even asked her to record the perf. On thinking back, instead of thanking him for the thought (cos he won't be able to be back in time for the perf), I had really overacted :

Fortunately, I just found out that I had 3 more lessons to my ETP!!! This time round I would be graded or something. I've gotta choose a "challenging" song to showcase but I have no idea what to play yet. With all the trips, I'm only left with 3 lessons. It's kind of freaky thinking of that. Temporarily settled on Xin Bu Liao Qing but thought it would be nice to either play a song for hub to sing or a popular number by Stefanie.

Guess I've made the right choice to agree to play a song tonight. At least I have an idea of how nerve-wrecking it is to be playing 'live' to a crowd :

Find that meeting up with Linda these days feels different (in a good way) hehe. I can't describe that feeling just that it feels like we are really old pals meeting up once in a long while because we are all busy with our lives and yet the closeness is still strongly felt.
I wonder how many of my dear friends can I catch up with this Dec. I've only 2 weeks minus all the overseas trip. Anyhow, I shall not use that as an excuse ;)

Okie, 3 more hours to go! Shall be back to update you on the experience :))

Time to clear the cobwebs!

2006-11-02T21:58:00.000+08:00

Firstly, let me introduce my new pet of about 2mths, BIRDIE!

She's a really adorable and pretty peach-faced lovebird. I guess it's fate that brought us together! How would you ever expect to find a pet bird by the kerb of a bus stop?! Anyway, there's lots to say about her (we aren't even sure if it's a 'she' hee). Shall keep that to a later post.

Hub's away on a working trip so he won't be back in time to attend my mini concert. Haha. It's just me playing and singing one song. I remember how miserable I felt when he was away for 3 wks ICT. After that experience, I guess I've learnt how to deal with the boredom and loneliness.

It's exam paper marking season. It's wonderful yet scary at the same time to learn that almost a year had past and it's two more weeks to term break. I can't wait for the 23rd!

TDay

2006-09-02T16:51:00.000+08:00

After the ACES Day workout early in the morning, there was a quick concert which ended with Mdm (we call our P that) giving us a bouquet teddy each together with a piece of cake from the PSG (Parents Support Group). I was so hungry I gobbled up the cake right after we came down from the stage :p

This year's theme song is "Do I Make You Proud". It's sung by one of the American Idols (the one with the silver hair). It's pretty unfamiliar to me but to my surprise, a no. of the kids know how to sing it when I tried to teach them in class. That goes to show even P4 kids are crazy about the Idol series. I even had a girl who actually look like Paul Twohill when she sweeps her hair from the back to cover her eyes. Naturally, she signed off as Paul in her TDay card to me :D

Partly because it was the last day of the term, the children were so rowdy that Mdm had wanted to cancel the celebration at one point in time. The irony is though they could sing the song rather well, when Mdm asked those who felt they truly made their teachers proud to raise their hands, very few did. Did you make your teachers proud back in your school days?

I was wondering what this bunch of kids have in stall for me when a prefect made me agree not to go up to the class but give them 10 minutes to do something. After waiting for about 10 minutes, I was led with my eyes shut into the classroom. Upon opening my eyes, they class greeted me with shouts of Happy TDay (took the opportunity to make noise! haha). On the whiteboard were the 45 faces which they had drawn and on my table were the gifts they had brought. I thanked them with a deep bow and a wide grin. I was smart this time round to bring my camera along so that I could capture what they had drawn on the board. My bday's experience had taught me so. I had forgotten to bring my camera along that day and could not take down the messages they had written on the board for me which was a great pity.

Someone initiated the sinigng of Happy TDay song, sung to the tune of Happy Bday. I grabbed a chair and stood on it, recording their singing and cheering. It was only when I reached home that I realised I had not pressed "Start" and so had recorded only the last 2 seconds of their singing (by that time they had finished singing and were only cheering) :S

The gifts ranged from simple handmade cards (which are still my all time favourite especially if they contained special messages for me) to pineapple tarts. It wasn't only one person who gave me homemade goodies. There were 3 of them! One even made a huge container full of sweet sticky snacks which I distributed while they watched Pearl Harbour during the last 2 periods. Since I could not finish all the tarts and cookies, I gave most of them to my mom.

These days, TDay presents do not only consist of red pens, two of them gave me fresh bouquet of flowers which I had no idea what to do with them, while some bought Tupperware. There was even a boy who bought almond jelly dessert!

In any case, it was a day where they tried to be at their best (for a short while) such that I do not need to scream or shout at them :) Some messages and gestures really touched my heart. It made the journey a little more worthwhile!

Real Run

2006-08-20T22:13:00.000+08:00

Thank goodness I managed to finish the first 10km run of my life! At the prelude to the run held at Liang Court about a week or so before, we bought the shuttle bus tickets which will take us from AMK all the way to Sentosa. The price to pay for the convenience? We had to wake up at 5 to catch the bus at 5.45am *yawn*

Clad in our running shorts and singlet, we set off after a hearty breakfast of cereal + banana (though I would still prefer carrot cake and fried bee hoon!). We arrived at about 6.25am, about 1.5 hours before the flag off time. The sky was really dark and even the locker counter had not opened yet.

After attaching our number tags and champion chips, we emptied our bladders and waited in queue to deposit our baggage. As it was still about an hour from the start of the race, we finished our energy bar and did some light warm up.

I could vaguely remember attending the Nike Real Run several years back. I seem to remember walking or jogging along the bridge to Sentosa, the chaotic scene when retrieving our baggage (it was being hurled from a huge truck or something) and the same finishing point as this year's run. The funny thing is, I can't recall who I attended the run with no matter how hard I tried to retrace my memory :

Starting line-up
After joining in a mass warm-up, we entered the gantry and waited for the flag off. This was not until the VIP's arrival and the junior's category (5.5km) flag off. Speaking of the junior category, we spotted at least 2 groups of youngsters, all lean and fit, from the Singapore Sports School. I wondered if they filled the top positions in the end.

We spotted no familiar faces until 10min before the flag off. It was wei's colleague's sister who is clearly a seasoned runner. After the juniors were off, all of us, which include people like us from the Open category, Veterans and the Home Team stepped forward and prepared to take off!

7.50 am: Off we went.

Road (6km)
There were a number of up and down slopes in the first 6km road race. Remembering what my netball coach used to tell us during our training runs at MacRitchie, I made use of every opportunity to catch up on lost time and increased my pace with the help of gravity at every down slope. As usual, I struggled a bit on the up slopes and was really tempted to walk instead.
There was much jostling and lanes changing going on since I heard there were about 7000 of us?! Some were apologetic when they bumped into my shoulders but one literally pushed me a little on my shoulder as a friend would just because he needed to zip pass me! O_O

Sand (1.6km)
Boy, I hated this section!! And to make it worse, there were two of these sandy patches to cover! No matter how hard I tried, I kept slipping and sliding. I could barely walk, let alone jog or run! All I could do was to take as big strides as I could and took that time to catch my breath. I truly admire the people who still managed to jog on the sand. How did they do it??

Trail (2.4km)
This part felt shorter than it really is. I had thought that it would be a full 2.4km, MacRitchie kind of trail. I guess if we add up the distance to the bicycle trail, somewhere near the Underwater World, and the part leading to the finishing point, it would be 2.4km. There were less slopes, except for the one at the beginning of the trail. Thereafter, it was dodging fallen twigs and branches and squeezing through the crowd. Everyone started to gather speed, especially on passing the 9km mark. My legs felt heavier with each step but I was able to push myself on, thanks to the trainings at Bishan park :)

When I could hear the announcer's voice at the Finishing point, I gathered whatever energy I had left and went straight it. I had targetted to finish within 1.5 hours but was pleasantly surprised to finish in 1:05:15. Hurray!

Post run
I couldn't locate wei at our agreed meeting point near the Food stalls. It was not until about 10-15 min later that he appeared. He had finished in about 52min and had waited at the finishing point hoping to catch me but missed. I was glad he collected the XS T-shirt and goodie bag for me as I was afraid the smaller sizes would run out fast. It turned out that XS was still too large! Never had I thought that I would have to go for XXS. Shall make a mental note for next year's run (if I am able to join).

Wei's younger brother had taken part too and he came to look for us while we were cooling down. Our nephew, sis-in-law, maid and I presume the numerous dogs that they keep, were all at the beach. They are such a "water" family as they enjoy fishing, going to the beach and wakeboarding (this before our nephew arrived).

Brunch was at People's Park Complex! We dabao-ed some tim sum from Dou Kei after having wanton noodles, fish ball noodles and a cup of hot soya bean drink from Mr Bean. Hmm, I was satisfied! We took CT8 back and couldn't wait to wash up and clear the sand out of our shoes!

What have I learnt from the run? I realised I should always push and motivate myself as very often we are faced with challenges that we have to take up on our own. Also, I should not put too much pressure on myself as I perform better with more realistic targets, it seems.

It will be time to hit the roads 2 months later!

2006-08-18T22:57:00.000+08:00

Seeing how inaccurate Jen claimed hers to be, I decided to give it a shot too :)

Your Love Style is Agape

You are a caring, kind, and selfless partner. I should be, shouldn't I?
Unsurprisingly, your love style is the most rare. Hmm, it makes me wonder what Agape really means. Extinct perhaps?
You are willing to sacrfice your world for your sweetie. Ya ya, who wouldn't really...
Except it doesn't really feel like sacrifice to you. :X
For you, nothing feels better than giving to the one you love. Goes without saying

What's Your Love Style?

Wanna see nancy in action?

2006-06-25T18:09:00.000+08:00

Go check out http://web.mac.com/kiangwee/iWeb/Site/Podcast/60963BFE-1F8A-4594-B0E0-F562AF6004B5.html !

In the video, she reveals her greedy self and huge appetite plus you can see her hopping around in the room before getting her volcanic ash bath.

Enjoy!

p.s. apologies for the sub-standard videography for I had to attend to her while holding the cam in my right hand :p

Progress report (June holidays)

2006-06-25T17:33:00.000+08:00

Alright, it has been a rather fruitful 2.5 weeks break! I shall not comment on the P4 camp and Tioman trip as they had been discussed in the previous postings.

Starting from the most recent events...

It's the last day of the holidays and I got to meet up with ziwei! She looked more like her old self (cheery, well-fed, radiant) after enduring weeks of getting used to her braces! It was a short 2.5 hours session with lunch @ pastamania (we almost always eat that haha), shopping at LMG (fruitful harvest for her!) and SEN. This is like the 5th time I've visited PS in 2 weeks.
It was only when we had to say our goodbyes when we realised that we had so much more to talk about (we only managed to cover one topic). So we decided that we must meet again before I lose myself or get buried alive under my piles of workbooks and worksheets. Hope that day will come soon!

Met up with my dear friend, ben gui the vagabond, who is finally back after his several months holiday-cum-work stinct in NZ and not forgetting the CK-Mag gang whom we belong to since the Geyao days! Glad to know that kitty's finally getting her transfer, piggy has slimmed down (despite his denial, always claiming that underneath his clothes is all the fats accumulated since the time I know him) and that baby's bond is finally up and had came back from Spain and Portugal (she loves Europe, but decided she had enough of it for the time being).

It's a tricky situation when trying to organise a get-together session. Asking too large a group would hinder more focused and deeper conversations. But since we meet no more than twice a year (not including wedding banquets), I always try to get as many people in the clique as possible. I guess if I truly want to find out how a friend is getting along, I should just arrange a one-to-one session, just like what I usually do for Jen and ziwei. Now my list has increased to include more friends, especially close ones whom I have neglected *guilty*

Jen and I met up at PS (again), had dinner at pastamania (again. but I likei t!) and spent the rest of the evening at TCC (the Orea Cheese cake's good!). Nothing beats catching up with an old friend over a cup of coffee (no caffeine for me though). The ambience was almost perfect, the crew were exemplary in their service but the only complain I had was the backrests of our seats were too far back. On one hand we wanted to sit back and relax but on the other we had to raise our volume to make ourselves heard (i dunno if you felt the same, Jen :p). Anyhow, it was still good :)

Another session held at MOS Burger (Bugis) no ordinary catch-up session but to talk to a friend who had gone through a rough patch in her marriage. During the 5 hour long session (can you believe we planted ourselves there for so long?), the 3 of us shared and exchanged quite a bit of thoughts and experiences about relationship matters. I don't know how the girls felt but I thought I had a deeper understanding of them as my friends in that 5 hour!

Hubby and I managed to get 2 of his colleagues so interested in Gamecube (Nintendo game console) that they decided to get one the next day after having much fun gaming at our place the night before :D
After getting their set and with 2 more controllers, 4 of us could fight it out in the 4-player games! I can't believe I actually played soccer although it was a less serious and wackier version.

The only regret (er, not that serious actually) that I have would be I did not get to go to the ktvs much : Well, I'll leave that till the year-end holidays I guess...

Mid-year Break

2006-06-15T12:04:00.000+08:00

The trip was supposed to be 3D2N but essentially, we spent only 45 hours on Pulau Tioman. Thanks to the 1.5 hr wait at Golden Mile, 0.5 hr to the Causeway, ~3 hr ride to Mersing, 0.5 hr wait for the ferry, 2 hr ride to Tioman, 1 hr+ wait for the speedboat to Mersing and 2.5 hr bus ride to SG.

I don't mean to harp at the time spent travelling or waiting. I just hate to see time slipping away while waiting and with me doing nothing. There was also the 1.5 hr wait for our snorkelling trip because of some "technical faults" with the boat that was supposed to arrive. Then again, I should be glad that at least the boat broke down before it took us out and not during our island-hopping trip.

Grumbles aside, the clear waters and fine, clean sand were certainly inviting. Throughout the journey to Tioman, memories of Redang came flooding back with its spotless, white, smooth sandy beaches and clear, inviting waters. In my opinion, Redang still beats Tioman when it comes to its beaches. However, the thought of enduring the long journey to Trengganu is a put-off.

Having only had a bowl of cereal for breakfast at 5am, hunger pangs hit me throughout the journey. The shop at the stop for toilet break was rather pathetic and was nothing like those stops when you travel to KL or Melaka. We shared a packet of Onion potato snack and couldn't wait till we reach Mersing so that we could have our Maggie Mee Goreng and Ramly Burgers. That, in the end, didn't come true for we did not have much time left before the ferry arrived. Still, we grabbed two packets of Twisties which came in handy when we watched Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire on Vision Four on the first night after dinner and as dessert after our second night's dinner.

We didn't do much after checking into our rooms except to utilise the complimentary 1 hr bicycle rental to explore the rest of the huge Berjaya Beach & Spa Resort.
Apart from the Donkey Ranch, we saw a helicopter on the island and more helicopters the next day as the Sultan and other VIPs were here for the opening ceremony of some convention. We even caught a glimpse of the Sultan in a SUV as he passed by the jetty where we were waiting for our boat for the snorkelling trip.

One of my "mission" for this trip was to get myself tanned! Hence, I brought all the tools of the trade (Tanning oil, sun block, after-sun lotion). Thanks to the life jacket, my arms ended up being the tannest part with the legs remaining as fair as they had been! The girls and I were determined to achieve our aim and so decided to spend an hour tanning by the poolside after coming back from snorkelling. Were we satisfied after the bbq session? I could only say the results were satisfactory but at least I got a shade darker.

Out of the 6 stops, the stop at Renggis Island proved to be the most memorable. There were a lot of beautifully landscaped coral reefs, an assortment of fishes, huge rocks which we could stand on (at the risk of slipping off) and strong underwater currents. The warm and cold currents came and go so much so that I could only move an inch each time I attempt to swim back to the boat. I'm amazed at how Pat managed to do it without a life jacket! *kao-tow*

Besides the four of us, we had a Malay family of four and a couple in their early 40s. The Malay ladies only got off the boat at the 1st stop as we disembarked on a beach. For the rest of the journey, they remained on board, waiting for us to get back and feeding the fishes at some of the stops. It was a pity I felt but at least they got to feed the hungry fishes! The other couple were the adventurous ones. It was their 2nd visit to Tioman since their first 20 years ago. Now, they've brought their 3 kids along. This lady, I must mention, doesn't look her age at all!!! She's got the outdoor, tanned complexion and a very jovial and enthusiastic personality. We were lucky we didn't got on the same boat as another couple as the wife was clearly being dragged to go on the snorkelling trip for the first thing she asked was how long would it take for the trip to be over!

I didn't get to use the snorkelling gear partly because I hopelessly short-sighted and the goggles didn't come with optical correction, and also because I was afraid that I would get my breathing (through the mouth only) wrong and end up suffocating or drowning LOL. The water tasted super salty and it sure stang our eyes!

After 2 stops, we arrived at Salang for lunch. It was the first time I ate and paraded around a public place that wasn't a swimming pool in my swim wear. Salang is less commercialised and offers basic accomodations that catered to the needs of divers who basically came to dive their hearts out :) The Rendang Ayam Rice, Pataya and Mee Goreng (with a name I can't recall) tasted superb and they came with a price tag of merely RM4-8 each! I wish I could eat more but I didn't want to risk throwing up during the rest of the journey. After buying the bread to feed the fishes for the subsequent stops, we set off for the last 3 stops. The fishes nibbled away on the bread in our hands but always managed to slip away before we could lay our other hands on them.

The 5 hour trip ended with our upper bodies (esp. arms) tanner and me leaving my goggles (refer to last para) behind in the boat. We decided to walk along the beach since it would lead to the resort. It was also time for us to take some photos. After attempting to wash the salt and sand off our hair and body, we got into position by the pool and allowed ourselves to be baked by the blazing sun. At the end of it, I was all hot, sweaty and bothered. I guess tanning in the water sounds like a much better option.

Dinner for two nights was at the same Chinese restaurant where they played the same CD and took just as long to get our food ready although there was no one else except us on the 2nd night, since we were much earlier than the night before. Anyhow, the food was platable though a tad salty unless accompanied by steamed rice.

Though not a soccer fan, I sat through the Korea vs Togo match at the Beach Side Bar, sipping my Mai Tai. It helped that there was a group of Korean soccer fanatics who entertained us with their cheers, chants and dances throughout the 90+ minutes.

Reality struck when it was time to go home. There was much work to be done before the holidays are over. Still, we cast those thoughts aside, got our Maggie Mee Goreng at Mersing (dabao-ed as the coach was waiting for us) and finished our 3rd packet of Twisties Totally Tomato during the bus ride. Goodbye Tioman~!

Side note: On the bus ride to the jetty, I told hubby that I spotted the boatman who took us out to sea yesterday riding his bike. Seeing him reminded me of my new goggles which I had left behind in his boat. When we were walking towards the jetty, we saw him riding out from the jetty and he actually remembered us and waved at us. I was just wondering if he could had kept my goggles when he suddenly made a U-turn and rode towards us.

From his gestures (he spoke little English), it dawned on me that he had kept my goggles and wanted us to wait for him while he rode back to his place to fetch it. It caught me by such a great surprise that I was at a lost for words. Nodding my head vigorously when he asked if I could wait for him, I then jumped with joy as I had never dreamt of getting it back! He returned with my goggles after we had taken a picture at the jetty. I was so grateful that all I could do was to keep repeating "Terima Kasih" and "Thank you". Of course I could not let this picture perfect moment slip away! He agreed to take a picture with me and he left shortly after I offered more Thank Yous... Such a kind man yet I didn't even get to know his name...

Looking through your eyes

2006-06-06T20:27:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday

I have never ever spent so much time in an optical shop in my whole life. In all, I spent 2.5 hours with the optometrist. The shop was having a promotion for photo-chromatic (think: Transitions) and that was what I was wishing for since getting a pair of sunglasses custom-made would be too much of a hassle and would most likely cost a bomb. Hence, we stepped in and was greeted by a jolly fellow named Nelson.

After telling him that I'd like to check out the promotion package, he proceeded to explain the longs and shorts of choosing a frame, deciding on the thickness of the lens, the reasons for the steep pricing of some of the lens and showed me a couple of his clients' yet-to-be-collected glasses. Some cost a whooping 1000 over bucks! In the process, he also brought out supporting documents ranging from pamphlets and brochures to books. Perhaps I appeared to be kind of overwhelmed by the information overload, that he assured me that he only put his first-time customers through such a detailed walkthrough.

The first horror came after he checked my glasses. The focal points were wrong! That means my eyes have not been looking through the thinnest part of the lens. Next, after a detailed eye examination, it appeared that my vision had been over-corrected for both eyes!

I had started feeling the strain in my eyes since I started teaching. Conveniently, I attributed the tiredness to that. Now, I came to realise that that was also when I got a new pair of glasses made (in an attempt to project a sterner image :p)

To someone who started wearing glasses before turning 7, a pair of spectacles is definitely more than an accessory to me. You can cut me in the arm, kick me in the leg but nothing would hurt more than damaging my specs. Even the slightest knock could result in nauseous and extreme agitation.

Long story cut short, the next hour or so was spent deciding on the frame. When I finally made my choice, a phone call by Nelson to a guy brought news that I had to pay 600 in all for my specs because I do not qualify for the cheaper lens. 600 bucks for a pair of spectacles?!! Holy moley! It was after another half an hour when a compromise was being made. 25 degrees was taken off my left lens to meet the 500 degree mark. Less is more I guess. I can always move closer to see better :)

The final price? 280. Hurray! I've finally made a pair of "transition" glasses!

Today

It sure felt weird having 75 degrees shaved off the right and 25 off the left lens. I was glad that Nelson got my specs ready in less than 3 days time. I was even more surprised when he replaced my old lenses with brand new ones FOC! So now I have 2 pairs of spectacles! \o_o/

Monday movie mania

2006-06-05T23:01:00.000+08:00

Caught The Da Vinci Code last Monday. This Monday goes to the last installment of the X-Men trilogy. I enjoyed it. I even cried watching X-Men. Are you kidding?! No I'm not. There was a particular scene in which I was truly moved. Hubby asked me on our way home:

Hub: You cried?
Me: Yah
Hub: I didn't know watching X-Men would make someone cry
Me: ...

Well, to all those who had yet to catch it, don't leave the cinema till the end of the credits!!!

During the dinner before the movie, I came to know that a friend had filed for separation. I could not believe my ears when hub told me. They were the so-called "jin tong yu nyu" aka Golden boy & golden girl when we were in Uni. In fact, we couldn't attend their wedding as theirs was a week after ours.

As we do not know the exact reasons, we could only speculate that it was probably due to neglect. He seemed to be always so caught up with work. Will be meeting up with her this Saturday. I hope she's taking it well...

Leisure

2006-05-30T08:57:00.000+08:00

This is about the only poem I can recall reading in my secondary school days!
Dedicated to all the busy souls out there. We are so caught up with work sometimes that we forget to take a breather!

Leisure
by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

p.s. ziwei, reading your post reminded me of this beautiful poem :)

Meet-The-Parents

2006-05-19T21:50:00.000+08:00

The 2-day event from 1.30pm - 5.30pm is finally over!
I had to "entertain" 21 customers each day with some who pour their household woes and some who were looking for answers on how to help their child.

Parent A: My boy's lazy. Right? He's really lazy
me: (dumbfounded. I mean what am I supposed to say? Ya? nod my head in agreement?)

Parent B: I really do not know what to do with him. He's so careless in his exam!
me: Children needs to be reminded. They forget things much faster than us it seems
Parent B: I made him repeat all the procedures of checking his work before he steps out of the house. He could do it. What else can I do? *sighs in exasperation*
me: (df)

Parent C: What's the highest mark for English in the class? You know I'm not trying to compare or what but I want to know where my girl stands.
me: (provides info)
Parent C: Oh no. Her result (70 marks i.e. Band 2) is terrible! I must make her do more practices.
me: (hands her a handout "101 Things to do instead of watching TV" before she leaves)
Parent C: Ah thanks. Instead of watching TV huh? Don't think she has time for TV unless it's during the holidays. Anyway, she has so much practices to do.
me: ...

Poor kids. I mean some children really has a learning attitude problem in that they are sloppy with their work, have illegible handwriting, only interested in playing or talking in class, but there are a handful who are subjected to pressure such as the girl of Parent C. As a result, she had stomach cramps during the exam period and is lacking in confidence when speaking aloud.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience because at least the parents that came were all concerned about their child's performance. If only I can remember some of the highlights of the event but I'm really too tired.

p.s. Thanks for the housekeeping, Jen. Truly appreciate it ;)
p.p.s. Yes ah chun, we will meet!

Contact management system

2006-04-26T19:42:00.000+08:00

A friend asked if I took a break from work.
I told her yes, and that's because I'm on MC :|
I don't recall being sick on any of my 20-over birthdays!
So today's quite a difference.

Was so traumatised by the lesson observation scheduled tomorrow and so overwhelmed with all the deadlines that some of my body systems decided to go on strike.
Yesterday's tension headache was one of the worst. I can't imagine how migraine would be like, and I don't intend to try.

This is a crazy term with so much lined up during the last few weeks.
Keying in of students' remarks (by Thurs), NAPFA test (Thurs & Fri), Lesson Observation by Supervisor & VP (Thurs), Marking of EL Paper 1 (by Fri), 2nd Marking (by next Tues, thank god Mon's a PH), cover the syllabus by next Friday. SA1 the following week, followed by marking and standardization exercise. Next in line would be Project Work (before Term 2 ends) and P4 camp between 31st May to 2 June.
Only 2 full weeks in June are we free to go abroad but with so many weddings to attend and having to set the SA2 Science paper, I guess it's not going to be a very exciting June afterall...
Omg, and I just remembered my portfolio that will determine my confirmation :S

Well, if you think I'm complaining, I'm not. Am just doing some kind of a reality-check :) I've gotta manage all these somehow!

Was glad to receive a number of well-wishes. I don't blame those we did not drop me a note. I don't expect every friend to remember my birthday because I can't remember all of my friends' either! So every email/sms is a nice little surprise for me.

I thought it was a good idea in our primary school days to write autographs for one another. Apart from the "classic" verses, the most important part is the contact information. Nowadays, the only contact information we ask from people are their handphone numbers and/or email addresses. Does anyone still bother to ask for their mailing address, date of birth or even full name?

To keep track of some of my friends' birthdays, I signed up for Ringo, BirthdayAlarm and relied on some scraps of information from my under-utilised Palm. I really wish to gather all the information of my friends from Primary School till now and store them in a Contact Management System...

How to keep the flame burning

2006-03-25T17:12:00.000+08:00

Attended 15hrs of Science-related courses in this opening week of Term 2 alone.
After attending them, I felt my interest for Science rekindled. My ignorance in how to explain some of the natural phenomena such as "What is holding the clouds in the sky up?", "Why do clouds turn grey when it is about to rain?" prompt me to do my own research over the internet.

In my time, teaching and learning was mainly chalk and talk. The obvious benefits was that it forced us to be better listeners and to be able to record information fast. How often do we question the facts and information that our teachers kept pouring into our heads? Was that why we take so many things for granted?

The challenge now is to make our active-learners sit still and listen up. That is probably not going to work much of the time. We've gotta get them involved in doing and thinking. This inevitably means more planning on the teachers' part, which is what TLLM (Teach Less, Learn More) is advocating.

One line from Prof Ip (from NUS) left a deep impression. "It's not a matter of how much the students already know but if they know how to use what they know to handle the unknown."

Ok folks, it's time to confuse the kids out there and challenge what they think they already know! :D

Give thanks II

2006-03-15T09:36:00.000+08:00

Nancy

Although I had to shout and scream at her at least thrice last night because she had chewed off a part of the corner of my wall, she never fails to amuse me. If I could spare the time, I would sit by her cage, watching her hold her food in her tiny front paws, nibbling on apple bits, or just resting on her comfort shelf in her upright position...all day long and never get tired of it or fall asleep :)

For those of you who are stressed out, keeping a pet does help.

Btw, here's a snap shot of her in her new cage. She has upgraded from a 3-room flat to a 4-room apartment (referring to the floor area :p)

Give thanks

2006-03-14T21:27:00.000+08:00

with a grateful heart,
Give thanks dah dah dah dah dah...

Heard this hymm (I'm not sure if it's called one but it does mentioned Him) when I was in JC.

So who do I want to thank?

In no order of merit a.k.a. Pai2 Ming2 Bu4 Fen1 Xian1 Hou4

Jen
My no.1 supporter who has so graciously volunteered to take up the post of The Housekeeper of this mouldy abode of mine. This girl has unbelievably fantastic memory. Reading her numerous entries of her reminiscence of the good ol'days and seeing my name being mentioned several times made me feel immensely touched and honoured. It brings back so much wonderful memories about the SoC days which I had almost forgotten if not for these wake-up-reads. Come to think of it, we did have much fun in those 3 years!
p.s. to my horror, we had never taken any shots together since then!

Dan
My beloved brother. Though he's 4 years my senior, it never ever felt that way. He shares a lot about his ups and downs with me and most of the time I, as a younger sister, could only lend him a listening ear without being able to really help solve his problems. Not many siblings can have such a close relationship and I'm really grateful to have such a brother.

to be continued...

Dilemma

2006-02-27T21:33:00.000+08:00

Since when have all reasons become excuses
Since when have a few times become always
Since when have I lost you...

I don't want to make things worse
I don't want to smoulder any hopes of reconcilation

So I chose to pause and think
So I chose to be level-headed before I react

For I feel I'm holding on to a child's hand
Too much pressure and I'd hurt the child
Too little pressure and I'll let the child go

Oh where oh where

2006-01-25T20:55:00.000+08:00

has my friends gone to? Oh where oh where can they be?
busy with boyfriend, having some setbacks,
oh where oh where can they be...

It's been ages since I'd updated this place.
As you might have guessed, once school term starts, my time is consumed by the little ones.

What prompted me to post are two incidents. One who had found her true love at last and whom I presumed has been more preoccupied with her new love and new schedule. Hence, she had not updated her sites as well. Don't be mistaken for I'm not complaining. I'm more than happy that she's well taken care of now and has no woes pour but happy recounts.

Another is a treasured friend whom I only realised today had not been particularly well these days, emotionally I mean. There was no reply to my mail and it left me baffled for quite some time. Perhaps she saw no need to reply, or perhaps my mail didn't reach her at all? It's the latter that I hoped of course.

I'm sorry for her loss and reading what she wrote brought me back to the time when the same happened to me. But what pained me most was the feelings she had for us behind the words.

I seriously don't know how to resolve this for I was unaware when it even started. We are all busy with our own lives, friends come and go, some stay, some don't. To me, maintaining a friendship means being there for a friend when he/she is in need. And how would one know if a person is need if he/she saw no need to inform?

I can only blame myself for not living up to my friend's expectations.
Very often I buy things for my friends which I never end up giving them. The xmas presents, the souvenirs from SH. So I guess something is wrong with me. Ha.

Bye Bye School Holidays

2006-01-04T18:51:00.000+08:00

Had been sleeping late and waking up late (8am's late fyi)during the school holidays.
On the eve of school re-opening, I couldn't sleep! I tried to force myself to finish up my last minute preperations by 10 so that I could get a full 8-hour rest. And guess what time I finally drifted off? Almost 1am. Bah! Less than 6 hours of sleep = headache the next day, for sure.

I was kind of nervous yet excited to meet the new class. Nervous because I was not sure if I had done enough preparations: how to handle, discipline them, what image to project, and excited to see how my methods would work and how receptive they would be to me.

To my relief, most of the infamous names were not on my class list and those who remained and have a history of being talkative were rather tame on these few days. I guess it would take a few days for some of them to show their true colours, so I'm keeping my final diagnosis till a later date :)

Well, at least it was a good start. The rule of thumb is to be strict with them during the first and following few days. It is easier to let go than tighten up later, or so they say. I must say I'm quite pleased with their performance so far!
They were a different lot from my previous class in that they were more attentive (i hope that statement would not change in time) and appeared to be more eager and motivated to learn.

Then, it dawned upon me that, hey this is a better class and it is my responsibility to stretch their potential! But I've not been taught (explicitly) how to do that...
This is one thing which I have to work on for the Meet the Parents (no Fockers on my list) session in a few weeks time. It's gonna be my first such session with parents!

Despite having a cough since the day before school reopened, my spirits are up and as much as I hope to use the MC today cos I felt so drowsy after taking the cough mixture, I made it to school and managed to cover the topics I wanna teach.

Since that's the first formal lesson, I'll have to examine their work to see if what we did in class registered in their brains!

*cough cough*

Obtw, I'm struggling with a summary of the trip to Shanghai. Shall keep you peeps posted soon, I hope :p

The Procrastinator + My Seat!!!

2005-12-22T12:46:00.000+08:00

I hate myself most when I procrastinate.
The portfolio's far from half completed. Half because the next half would be based on Jan-Jun 2006.

me: I tried, I really did!

hub: No, you should never say "try", you "must"!

me: *sulk*

Heck, we are leaving late in the night today.
Being the "bu2 jian4 guan1 cai2, bu2 diao4 lei4" person (ok, choy choy choy), I believe I will force myself to beef it up when we are back. Did I say I must? Haha...notice that I did not! Yes I'm stubborn. What can you do to me? *bleah*

Rainy morning. Is this a bad sign? Wet and cold weather will be expected in SH. Dan told me to wear waterproof shoes. I don't have one! What kind of shoes will be 100% waterproof except those rubber boots worn by those at the wet market??

Realised that I'm not used to not having Nancy around. It's always only when someone is not around that you yearn for them...is that not?

Read a wonderful account written by The Writer, Jen, yesterday before I rushed off for the afternoon gym class. I'd come to that later, grrrr.
I am in awe of how she manages to put her thoughts down so effortlessly, making it such an engaging piece of writing. It was certainly a page "scroller" (read it in msword, so can't say I "turn" it right?). I must agree with you, Jen, that yes, it's largely because of the melodrama that you inject into your writing that gripped me each time I read any of them. I must strive to improve my writing skills! (Noticed that I used "must" haha).

Ok in case you are wondering what's this "must" and "try" thing is about, I used to debate with hub about what's wrong with saying the "I will try to..." as compared to "I must..."? Being a realist, how can you promise yourself something which you aren't even sure you are capable of? Well, never mind. The debate ended with me insisting that as a stubborn old bull (I'm a Taurean, in case you do not know), I'm entitled to my own belief and refuse to adopt what "Ad*m K*oo preached.

Wait a minute!!! Just received a call from APS. Bran called to inform that I'd have to relocate to the 3rd floor because Mdm doesn't what the new teachers to be (stick) together. WT*?! The whole lot of us were happily settled in our deserted lorong and now Shirley and me gotta move?! It's not so much of the thought of being seperated from them that made me mad because we'd definitely still pop by one another's cube, it's the hassle of shifting my barang barang up!!!

So I gotta be back on Tues, preferably, to start moving house. The only consolation will be that the 3rd floor will be less inhabited (i.e. less gvt?!), it is on the same floor as the washroom, and my class will (I hope) be located on the 3rd floor.

The heavy rain adds to my madness. I'm supposed to go to the NLB and J8!!!

[edit]
Yeah I said later and I'd almost forgotten to add this part in.
Attended my first Intro Aerobics class yesterday. To my utter disappointment, the instructor, IMHO, is either a greenhorn or a great pretender who makes it seem like he knows his stuff but yet his actions say otherwise!

1) We can't hear him clearly. I ruled out the possibility of the loud music and bad mic as the causes because all the instructors use the same mic set and blast the music the way he did. So it leaves us with his poor articulation. Ok I'm bad. I'm in a bad mood now anyway.

2) To his much clearly expressed disappointment, more than 80% of us were first-timers. He had a theme in mind for that particular day's workout. A latino theme. So what's the big deal about the turn out? Aren't first timers welcomed?! I had to stay to see how difficult the latino moves were.

3) The steps weren't too complicated except I always have a problem when it comes to doing the movements starting on my left. Towards the middle, he kinda got carried away with his own steps that he started to go off beat!! He was a tad faster than them music. And it was so important to be in time with the music or else our steps would go haywire, which it did for some of us.

Should I give him another chance?

Nope.

Preps for the trip

2005-12-21T11:03:00.000+08:00

#1 Packing up
Realised that hub has no long-sleeved tops! To do: Buy!

#2 Sending off
Nancy went off a day earlier for her little vacation at her boarding home this morning. Tata nancy girl~!
Oh yes. Getting her a new cage, her yearly xmas present. And it cost 100+. Big pressie for a small gal huh? Throwing in a couple of treats like papaya and lava blocks for her as well.
This reminded me of the article in today's ST. Rich countries are not doing enough to help the poor ones. Examples cited were the amount of money the wealthy spend on their pets and the Europeans on their ice-cream. Hmm...food for thought?

#3 Trimming
My fringe. Couldn't bear to touch the rest except the fringe cos it seems I always end up cutting the little bit that has grown. I want longer hair! But that means stickier neck during hot days :S

#4 Research
The most important of all. What are we gonna do during the rest of the 4D3N Shanghai trip? Only a day's taken up by the day tour to Suzhou. The rest of the time, we'd be on our own. Dan's most "enthusiastic and supportive fan" had kindly compiled a whole load of info from which I had yet to sieve out places that we'd like to visit. Hmm...Dan, don't hit me!

Ok. Off to complete #3 then #1 before heading for a quick workout!

Heartaches

2005-12-20T17:07:00.000+08:00

Heartache #1

Visited dear ziwei last evening together with hubby. BG was there too.
She was awake, with a bandage over her nose and looked visibiliy worn out.
It was the first time that I had visited a friend who was hospitalised not because she had just delivered. I felt a lump in my throat. But hey, my dear friend's op was successful (that's what I gathered) and she could recognise me, talk to me and attempt a few faint smiles! What's there to cry about? Still, seeing her feeling all weak and nauseous made me feel helpless. There was nothing much I could do except trying to chat about things other than the op to keep her mind off the post surgery discomfort and offer her a sip of water.

I wished I could really give her a hug then.

As we didn't want to zap more of her energy that she had remaining, we decided to make a move slightly before 8. Couldn't resist the urge and heck care the dangling equipments, we managed a little hug before I left with a heavy heart. I hope she would never have to go through anything like this again and I applaude her for her brave decision to go for this op. Meanwhile, I wish her a speedy recovery so that we can meet up again soon :)

Heartache #2

My conclusion after watching the movie, King Kong, that he is truly a romantic.
If you have not but is intending to catch the movie, please skip this section and drop by after you've caught it for there is much spoiler alerts below!

We were up at 8 in the morning and went to j8 for Mac bf before 9. The 10am movie started at about 1020 after numerous Pepsi ads (the footballers one) and of course the VISA ad starring the charismatic Gere. There were about 5 groups of families with kids under 10. I wonder if they would be better off watching HP or waiting for the release of Narnia. I was going to expect some screams from these little ones.

Back to our romantic guy. It was not until about a third into the movie that we finally see our hairy guy. I find some inconsistencies with his size, particularly when he was amongst the dinos. Speilberg brought back his favourite pet T-Rexes but included my most hated enemies, the GIANT roaches and the whole family of crawlies and creepies. I was squirming in my seat for that whole sequence of face-offs between the humans and the insect kingdom.

The effects were really good, considering that about two-thirds of the movie are CGI effects. Except the parts where our dear barbie was being flung about in the grasp of our hero (not the pianist pls) and the last part where the planes hovered around the skies of the Empire State Building, I would say the whole setup looks totally believable.

since I'm not attempting to write a movie review, I shall zoom in on our BFM (you read Roald Dahl's books, don't you?). I simply adored him from start till the end. Who would risk his life to save you from the ferocious carnivores, come to your rescue at the crucial moment when you are in danger, bring you to a place in the forest with the best view of the sunset and remember the little gesture that you taught him which you thought probably makes no sense to him?

I had no idea of what the story of King Kong is like prior to the movie. In fact, I had likened it to Godzilla, a movie which I took no great interest in because I thought it would be loaded with CGI effects, endless brutal fighting scenes and a weak plot. I was wrong. I enjoyed every second of it, despite being grossed out in the earlier mentioned sequence and another one involving the hideous looking tribal folks.

Never would I imagine shedding tears in a movie like this one. Of course I did not cry for the defeated beasts/creatures. I could hold it no longer during the last half an hour or so. It was when I know the end was near but I had no idea how it would come. The chemistry between Kong and Ann was so intense, I couldn't help but marvel at the capabilities of CGI effects, making our hero so much alive, communicating with his love not through words but through his gaze... :~~|

*dabs tears from corner of eyes*

Go watch it if you have not. Not with the highest of expectations but with uncovering the character behind King Kong, my hero.

Reflections

2005-12-19T09:31:00.000+08:00

What are the things that we can reflect upon? Practically anything, from your daily activities, major events to your last toilet visit.
This 'R' word (reflections) has been the 'in' thing ever since I've left school. What good does reflections do? Why do we ask our students to reflect on their knowledge? Why, in particular, do we ask teachers to reflect upon their teaching?

I'm very much troubled by the last point simply because I have a major task of reflecting upon what I had done since last July till this year end. I've been procrastinating my main task this holidays of doing up my first year portfolio. And in a flash, it's already the 19th!

To get myself going is one of the reason why I decided to update my blog. Reflections about events which are still fresh in my mind is much easier to pen. How on earth am I going to dig up the significant things (if any) which I've done months ago from my STM. Don't ask me what happened to my LTM. I guess it as reached its full capacity or something.

Anyhow, I've gotta start working on the portfolio and at least have the skeleton out b4 I'm out in the jungle again. The thought of school re-opening frightens me sometimes. Facing a new bunch of 40-odd ten-year-olds for the next 10 months. The pessimistic me would anticipate loads of new behavioural issues and the stress of coming up with innovative and creative teaching strategies. My optimistic other half would simply take things in his stride. Period.

Enough of acad stuff.
Today's an important day of an important friend of mine, my best friend to be exact. She's due for an op which would, and I pray hard that it would, relief her from those nauseous spells due to her sinus condition. I can't visualise myself being pushed into an operating theatre with masked strangers by my side, bright lights and hearing the clink-clank of the metal instruments.
I told her that it would be a really unforgetable experience. Who would think not?
May your operation be a success and that you'll have a speedy recovery!!!

Articles about the tsunami survivors have surfaced recently with the approaching one-year anniversary of the boxing day catastrophe. Must we truly be put on the brink of death before we could realise the importance of people who are dear to us? I admit that I'm self-centered in the sense that I'm happy just knowing that I'm well, my spouse is well, my family and dear friends are all alive and well. 'Well' being such a big and vague word. Are they really emotionally taken care of? Have I met their needs as their partner, daughter, friend etc? No wonder as we grow older, our circle of friends diminish. We are forced by circumstances to specialise and channel our energy to a small target group. That isn't so bad isn't it? It's just that in the process, we neglected people who were once very dear to us as well...

An author of an article in the ST once wondered what would remain in the memory of those who know her, should she be gone the next day. I wonder the same too. I often lament that time is not enough. But doesn't the words said by Gandalf make sense? "...it is what we choose to do with the time that is given to us..." (sorry I can't remember the words in front)

So I told myself that I have to accomplish something each day this holidays. And I think I did. Even sweeping the floor counts as an accomplishment, doesn't it? :)

The rest of my accomplishments today would be to work on one small part of the portfolio, hit the treadmill and visit my dear friend this evening. Feels good being able to accomplish something.

Any last minute changes aside, I should be going for my first Treetop walk tomorrow morning! Till then, may you have a fulfilling day!

SoC Gals Get-together + NY Res #1

2005-12-17T22:07:00.000+08:00

Hee don't be misled by the title. We did not invite the whole kampung of SoC gals. Come to think of it, the only gals whom I'm closer to are just the 3 of them.
Sitting together at the LTs, our shared claypot luncheons, hanging out at the labs and of course not forgetting queueing up for the silly online module registrations!

Thought I was gonna be late and almost decided to brave the blazing sun for a 10min walk to the MRT station so that I can shorten my journey to Orchard Rd. Well, I said 'almost' so I went by 162 instead. It was a long 40min ride. Alright I'm not complaining, considering it takes hours to get by most places in other countries.

I was about 10min late yet I'm the earliest. We were supposed to meet at 1230, so I'll leave it to you to guess what time we finally sat down at Sushi Tei for our makan session :)
Again, I'm not complaining cos I managed to grab a bargain along the streets at one of the makeshift stalls near the Hello shop!

We had to wait for like 15min for our turn at Sushi Tei but were rewarded with a comfy sofa seat! We were famished! We surveyed the plates on the belt but nothing much really interest me and gummi. xpg was easier to please hehe.

The funny part came when gummi and me were looking through the menu, deciding what to order. Gummi has a liking for the egg sushi and egg = tamago in jap. Doesn't it sound a little offensive when read as TAMA-!go? :p
The next part, contributed by gummi, has to be the joke of the day. Ever ate the Jap paper claypot thingy? I din realise that it's called Kaminabe (or something like that). Now read that japanese word out loud! Ka*ina~be! :D

It's been a long time since we last caught up with one another. We discussed about work (that was when xpg and gummi rattled on about some project or job switch thingy when I switched off for a moment), Ro's lightning marriage plans, extraordinary New Year countdown experiences and gummi's married life.

I enjoyed the last part the most. Not only because it was interesting to know what brought both of them together, it was surprising to us that he had such a passion for surfing the net :)

Too bad I had to leave to meet hub at Queensway. Still it was the quality and not quantity of time spent together that mattered I guess ;)

---
Some post-dated events
---
We've signed the papers...for our gym membership. I used to think it was crazy spending 1000+ on such memberships. Anyway, I used to think that I'd rather die than teach. So... *shrug*

Despite holding on to the Lady's Card for a couple of years, I'd never utilised the 2hrs per visit, 2 times per month complimentary pass to Cali gym. Thanks to a complimentary 1-mth pass from hubby's colleague, HF, we spent much of our holidays trying out the facilities since the beginning of this Dec.

I must tell you about the first class that I attended! I always thought (and still do) that I'm hopeless in dancing. Yet, the first class that I went to was a Hip Hop class! I tried to hide myself in a corner while making desperate attempts at following the steps. Before I could remember the footwork, the instructor had gone on to the hand movements. And before the 1st set of moves had registered in my STM, he had gone on to the subsequent steps. I thought I was really just plain SLOW and CLUMSY. I never gave up though :p My consolation comes when HF and DH (another of hub's colleague) agreed that the instructor did a rather sloppy job at teaching us the moves. *MEGA PHEW!*

Now, I frequent body combat and pilates classes. Ever since the first brush with Intro Steps at Bugis, it has been my new favourite. Tried the Spinning class and it really left me with sore bums and thighs. There would definitely be a second time since there are so many different types of cycling classes. Oh yes, bro Dan accompanied my to a body balance class as well. Tai-chi moves...anyone? :)

I've never made any New Year Resolution before but I guess I should set at least this one for the coming year.
"I must go for a workout at least twice a week"!
I'm still thinking if "I must leave school by 4pm everyday" is a realistic resolution. Still thinking...

The most disgusting creature on earth~!

2005-12-15T13:12:00.000+08:00

Finally a day without gym (not that I go everyday but it sure feels like it!)
So I got down to some housekeeping matters, changing the bedsheets and stuffing those to be washed into the washing machine. While it was churning and spinning away, I got down to sweeping the floor. I ALWAYS wonder why there's endless dust around. Especially those that appear in clumps and refuse to stay in my dust pan and insists on flying around. Never mind about the rest of the sweeping. Let's go on to the 'highlights'.

SCREAM #1

After hanging out the first batch of bedlinen and just after I've put in the next batch, I spotted a familiar crawlie. One that I will never fail (99.999%) to miss when I'm out roaming at night. It was full grown, looks rather well fed and was making its way slowly out from under one of the kitchen cabinets. I YELLED, of course. It was something like what Rui en did in the add where she was searching for someone based on his backview. Unfazed by my outburst, it crept into a small rectangular hole, which I started wondering what purpose it serves only now, under where the washing machine was.

I was devastated. I grabbed the insecticide, not forgetting to take a second look if there were anymore of its siblings that could spring out from the cabinet where the insecticide was kept. "Does the hole leads to a deadend or to somewhere else?!" I wondered.

On one hand, I hoped it would disappear forever into where the hole may lead to and never come back. On the other, I wanted to make sure that it truly never returned. And the only way to made sure was to take a peek into the dark hole. Armed with a torch and my only weapon, I inched forward.

@#$%!@#! Don't think I couldn't see you!! Your hideous-looking body and feelers are unmistakable despite the dim light!!! I'm going to kill you!!!I...I......I.......Must I really do it?!!

I made the preparations for the assault. Got my laudry basket out of the way and cleared anything that could serve as a shield against me. 1...2....3.....PPPPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssstttttttttttt......!!!!!
I could see the fumes escaping from the hole which leads to nowhere.
And then comes the moment! Its attempted escape! Bwwwaahahahaha... how would I let it escape my clutches, now that I had set my mind on exterminating it! :E
The only moment when I felt threatened was when it attempted to flex its WINGS! OH MAN!!! The last thing I want it to do was to fly around like a crazy blind bat!!!
I doubled, tripled and xxx-pled my attack. (Can someone pls recommend a more deadly insecticide please??) It continued its final run, into a dark little alley, hitting against the wall (hurray! it's a deadend!) and scrambling to and fro while it gasped for breath (I suppose it does, ya?).

I stood there laughing. Nah, those who know how terrified I am at the sight of xiao qiang would know that was not true :p

I was on my toes the whole time with the torch on my left hand and my Sheltox on my right. The assault lasted much longer as I've expected and that was when I lost faith in this brand :(

A long greasy trail of insecticide was left at the scene, which I had yet to clear till now and I will tell you why in a moment.

It struggled on its back, kicking those hairy legs back and forth. There was still too much movement which left me very unsettled. Let me speed up the process and end its misery. Did I use up half a can?

Feeling a little more settled, I decided to clear up the greasy mess. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 second, check. Still not giving up, still kicking away. I cut up a big piece of rag into 4 pieces and got ready my disposable gloves (don't wanna aggravate my skin allergy).

SCREAM #2

SPIDEY!!! My only consolation was it wasn't another of the first kind.

It looked just like what I had imagined itsy bitsy spider to be, except that it was no where near a water spout. Guess where it had appeared from? Yep, it's that black hole down there. I swear i'm gonna get it cleaned up and sealed! With the help from hubby of course :S

That was my 2nd kill of the morning.

Thank you for hearing me out. I had to let it out to minimise any side effects the traumatic experience could have left me with...
To those who never have any second thoughts on chasing after roaches and swashing them with their feet, I hope the above described incident had not tarnished my image in anyway.
To those who could emphatise with me, I urge you to share any of your such distressing encounters.

(Darn, the greasy mess is still there and most hideous looking body laid there still)

From Jakarta with love

2005-12-01T10:18:00.000+08:00

groupshot,
originally uploaded by mushykiwi.

Wondering where I've been for the past few weeks? Spent 3 days at Jakarta to attend a very good friend's engagement ceremony. Although there was a lot of waiting and getting caught in jams, I enjoyed the overall experience as it was certainly not easy to gather a bunch of kakis together for an overseas trip. Had it not been for this special occasion, I doubt we'd hardly ever go on a trip together!

In case you are wondering where the lucky couple is, there are at the back row (lady in pink & our dear friend papa joe on her left) :)

Wishing them eternal bliss!

Retreat

2005-11-22T22:19:00.000+08:00

Went through day 1 of our staff retreat at GWPH. I had the impression that retreats are usually more informal and fun, like the ones we had when we were at CL. No doubt we had to do silly ice breakers and group tasks, I felt I had more fun back then. Today's session started off on a high note with the guessing of songs as the tuning in activity. However, I failed to catch the underlying meaning or make any connection with the activity that followed it :|

Before we know it, it was tea break time, barely 2 hours after breakfast. It was followed by lots of reflection about the needs of our students and how we teachers and the school has/has not met them and what we can do to ensure that they are met.
I don't quite remembered what followed. Lunch perhaps. More eating.

The percussion section where we had to clap rhythm, use our body as percussion instruments etc was enjoyable at first but it became too draggy. Heard that we'd be playing drums tomorrow. Looking forward to that!

Finally came the pilates session. The hall could barely accomodate the near hundred of us. Imagine each person being allocated a space the size of a bath towel. Thank goodness no one had "Hong Kong feet"!

You must be wondering why of all activities music making and pilates. Well, to sum it up, it's about getting out of our comfort zone, to try something different and to try to relate these experiences to our classroom teaching. Chim leh...

---

Ma kuang din work. Or perhaps a week is too short to see its effect? Guess I'll go for the polyclinic referral. Hope everything can be settle within the hols.

--

Looking forward to the Jakarta trip this weekend. Both excited and nervous cos of the sensitive location. Glad to be making the trip with a close bunch of kakis!

I'm back

2005-11-18T12:14:00.000+08:00

Thought things would be more 'relac' now that the term is coming to an end. But on the contrary, it was a mad rush to meet all the deadlines! From completing surveys from various departments, collating results of students' surveys, completing the remaining exercises in workbooks, chasing after parents for report books and travel declaration forms etc etc.

Anyways, today marks the end of the official school term!!
i.e. it's a break from all the shouting and screaming HURRAY!!!

Wasting precious moments while waiting for our turn for the staff photo taking session :| Feeling drowsy after the reception. Wish our turn would come soon!
Tonight's the red carpet event, our annual staff dinner at Suntec. Hope it'll be fun and the food be good. Since I can't transform myself into a glam queen, I'd be going in something casual and most importantly, more comfy.

Lymph nodes are less swollen but there are still 3 that I can feel on the left of my neck. Hope the Ma Kuang med will work. :)

Day 10 - Thunder Dental

2005-10-27T22:19:00.000+08:00

Finally went for dental checkup at De Pacific. Have been wondering why it's so hard to make an appointment even though there are a no. of dentists at the outlet. I guess it has to be their service. I got a call the day before reminding me about my appointment. When I reached the clinic, I was greated by professional looking clinic assistant who was very warm and friendly, and so professional that I almost thought she could be the dentist I'm supposed to see! :P

Confessed to the dentist that my last visit to a dentist was more than 1.5 years ago and that I'm 'too lazy to floss'! LOL. When she took a first look at my teeth, she commented that I had been doing a pretty good job with my brushing and asked me to keep it up :D To get me interested, she demonstrated flossing to me patiently before starting on the cleaning. Everything was fine until the polishing part! A very powerful jet of liquid that smells much like ENO salt was used for polishing. The jet was so powerful and the liquid so 'salty' that it stunk my lips and gums :S Worst thing is, the water was splashing all over my goggles and face *urgh* The assistant kindly wiped my cheeks with a piece of tissue. All in all, I spent on $45 which I thought was pretty reasonable!

Right now, a crazy thunderstorm is going on in the background. Haven't seen so much lightning and heard so much thunder roaring in a single night! The lightning felt so close as the thunder came barely 2 seconds later :S I'll be a cooling night's sleep but have I ever told you that I'm rather afraid of thunder?

Day 9 - The Call

2005-10-26T21:15:00.000+08:00

Finally, a call! Hearing a person's voice beats reading text hands down anytime. Perked me up a bit :)

Recently, been having to raise my voice at a no. of troublemakers. Felt that I can project my voice much better than before but it's really tiring me out. Sigh. In my time, I really don't remember students giving teachers so much headache. They may engage in fights or quarrels but at least they do not defy authority. Can you imagine having kids who talk back or challenge you? I guess I must get used to this? Get used to handling these stakeholders so to speak. :S

Making preps to move back this wkend. Looking fwd to mum's morning fried bee hoon! Then again, if I need to wake up before 5, will she be able to get ready by then? Don't wanna make her wake up even earlier for my sake :|

Day 8 - FJ

2005-10-25T19:52:00.000+08:00

Couldn't succumb to temptation and almost ended up buying a pack of fish crackers from a fellow Malay colleague.
Luckily she ran out of stock! :p
SH bought a packet of tapioca chips and offered to share it with us. Though I'm still troubled by my half-sore throat, I just couldn't control myself but ate quite a lot of it. Now, I'm beginning to regret.

Was hit by tension headache again. Forced myself to finish marking a stack of Sci WB before calling it a day. Fought sleep on the train and couldn't wait to jump into my bed back home. Managed to catch a few winks and woke up feeling slightly feverish. Gee...I can't fall sick at this time! Not when I'm alone :| I thought to myself.

Fortunately, I feel fine after having my dinner. Back to more markings. Can I finish 33 scripts in 2 hours? I must... :X
If you have noticed, I really am not to oexcited about anything recently. I hate being alone. Period.
But there are things that we can't control, that we can't change. We just have to learn to...adapt :S

Day 7 - Silence

2005-10-24T21:40:00.000+08:00

Called mum and told her that i'd be back this wkend till hub's back. Can't stand the silence sometimes.
Isn't it nice to have someone waiting for you at home after a long day's work? I kinda miss that feeling :|

Anyway, was glad that i had the company of my colleagues. Went K-ge again! Think we are like regulars there already. I'm sure some, at least 1 shuai waiter, should remember us haha.

Ok. time to do some marking. Really kinda dread compo marking... :S

Day 6 - Chit Chat

2005-10-23T20:59:00.000+08:00

Had wanted to post my morning encounters with 2 aunties decided not after I've given a vivid description to ziwei :p
Thought of using the 30% Borders voucher but to my utter dismay, it turns out that almost all the interesting titles are on discount :S

Met ziwei @ isetan scotts before emarking on our shopping spree. Had lunch at yoshinoka. They have a new setto! I thought I'd never enjoy eating eggplant but after it's fried, it tastes great! So were the sweet potato and carrot. Yummy!
Felt bad to let ziwei wait for so long as I tried the clothes at Potpourri :| Fortunately I did buy 2 pieces from the shop.

After much shopping, we retreated to BigO cafe. Glad that the banana waffle turned out good! I'm not sure what advice to give regarding your op as I feel the final decision really lies in your own hands as it's your health :)
I still can't remember how we ended up talking about raising kids! LOL.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to run into freedom! It was such a pleasant surprise as we had not met for ages...
He looked much tanner and manly :D Apart from that, he's still the same old benguiz!

After a final round of shopping at Far East Plaza and dinner at Scotts FC, it was back to preparing for tmr's activities. I'm always clueless about what physical activity to plan for them :S
Intend to do some Eng WS corrections and go through the Maths mock SA2 paper. Hope the groups who are supposed to present their project work will be prepared. That should suffice for tmr's lesson plan :p

As I was walking home, I started to think about hub and counted how many more days it was till his return. 11 more days...
The more I think about it, the more sense of loneliness I get. I was alright for the days before until today. So I should stop thinking about it...

Day 5 - $10 & Kolo mian

2005-10-22T23:25:00.001+08:00

Had a great time with Bro Dan @ $10 club. First time singing at the hall. It was a wonderful experience!
Was pleased with the mic cos I had no Pen1 mic problem at all which I always encounter when singing at all other KTVs.
Throat was very dry since morning so much so that I feel nauseous :|
Looks like my throat infection has yet to fully recover. Felt that Dan had improved in his singing. Happy for him!!
Wished we had more time to sing and that there were less waiting. I guess I'm a closet performer haha...longed to perform in public but lack the self-confidence and stage image :p

Dinner was Sarawak Kuching Kolo noodles. It was YUMMY!!! We ordered the Zhao Pai Mian which costs 5 bucks. It comes with prawns, dumpling and char siew. We had the prawns replaced with dumplings. The mince meat toppings and the really curly and yummilicious kolo noodles really left me hungry for more! Next time, I'll try the $3 char siew + mince pork noodles. Btw it's near the stretch where Chang Cheng Porridge is located. Don't miss it!! Heard there are other springoffs but they don't fare as well as this original outlet.

Still have yet to mark the mock SA2 maths papers. My bad. Procrastinating again. Though hub is not around, I end up sleeping later. Surfing the net, sourcing for the latest hits by Stefanie, Cheer Chen, Yang Chen Lin and Nan Quan Ma Ma. NQMM's Dan Tou really sounds like Jay in the track titled Yuan2 Lai2. The intro music even sounded a bit like Ge Qian :S
Btw the MV is directed by none other than Jay~!

Can't wait for November Chopin's release... :P~~

Day 4 - Last day of marking/recording/scanning

2005-10-21T20:53:00.000+08:00

Final day of recording! Celebrated the scanning of the last piece of EMS by announcing to all in the scanning room :p
Though we missed the buffet lunch sponsored by the Hokkien Huay Kuan and did not get as early a release as past year, we still managed to finish up 3 hrs before the official time.

Went jln jln at J8. Managed to resist the temptation of shopping! Had lunch, bought a stick of yummy gyoza from OCK + a cup of sour plum sugar cane drink. Kinda like the combi of the latter. Sour + sweet!

Intend to spend the remaining 2 hrs marking the mock SA2 maths paper and watching E Nan Zhai Ji Dian. Come to think of it, I do agree with Jin that guys with single eyelid has more cool factor :) Hence, I'm watching the drama just to catch He Jun Xiang!!
He kinda resembles Takuya in some ways...at least that what I think :D

Msia's PM had lost her battle with breast cancer. Screening? I'm not keen on it though I think it's necessary :|
It's awkward isn't it?

Lymph node seems to have stopped swelling but it hasn't gone down either.
Looking fwd to possible visit to $10 club!

---
What kind of seducer I am? (credits: little foot)

Your Seduction Style: Sweet Talker

Your seduction technique can be summed up with "charm"
You know that if you have the chance to talk to someone...
Well, you won't be talking for long! ;-)

You're great at telling potential lovers what they want to hear.
Partially, because you're a great reflective listener and good at complementing.
The other part of your formula? Focusing your conversation completely on the other person.

Your "sweet talking" ways have taken you far in romance - and in life.
You can finess your way through any difficult situation, with a smile on your face.
Speeding tickets, job interviews... bring it on! You truly live a *charmed life*

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

Day 3 - Ladies Nite

2005-10-20T23:22:00.000+08:00

Business was brisk at the scanning room. But, we have only processed about half of Day 3's work!
Ended almost 45 mins late today cos of one missing piece. Sigh. Hope tomorrow will be a short day as promised!

3 APS buddies dropped by this evening. Felt so sorry for making Jin and SH wait. All because of that missing piece lah!
Had a so so dinner (at least for my salmon bento) @ Sumo House (iirc) at amk central. By the time we reach my place, it was almost 8.

Din really know what to keep them entertained with so I suggested ice-cream! Glad they we rather on about it hehe. They finally met Nancy in person too! :D Too bad JL had to leave earlier. SH's reaction to my home decor amazed me yet again! Seems like my home quite fits the one that her bf had described to her. So he'll be the next guest on my invitation list.

Left with SH & Jin, we chit chatted while watching Mei Mei Kan MTV. All of a sudden, we let out an extremely loud scream!!!
Nope it wasn't xiao qiang. It was JAY!!! We saw his new advertisement and it caught us totally unaware. Though SH ain't exactly a great fan of his but she joined in the screaming too! And in the commotion, I knocked over my glass of water while making a weak attempt at closing the main door so as to minimize any disturbance to the neighbours, just in case Jay pops up on screen again :p So it was a frantic round of wiping the coffee table and floor :P

Jin was waiting for Yang Chen Lin's MVs but they kept playing Jolin's and Cindy's outdated songs :|
The only consolation was that we saw Jay's Jie Kou and the shuai shuai Jay in Yi Fu Zhi Ming... :D
Huang Tian Bu Fu Ku Xin Ren, Jin did manage to catch Li Xiang Qing Ren MV before she left at about 10.30pm.
Though we didn't do much except sit around and chit chat, it was a really enjoyable evening. Something new and refreshing!

p.s. Thanks gals for being such great company and such wonderful audience!!

Day 2 - Housekeeping

2005-10-19T23:23:00.000+08:00

Still not much business at the scanning room today. Luckily I brought the SA2 paper 1 to mark. In fact, I should have brought a few more stacks!

Hubby's arrived at Wallaby and will be leaving his base camp and won't be easily contactable till the end of the month. Hope all will be well for him as well as me! The left lymph nodes are getting even more swollen after taking the antibiotics. At least the doc said only lumps that are noticeable and painless would be a cause for alarm :)

Went back home for wen1 xin1 dinner. I'm in a mini dilemma about how to spend my coming wkend. Should I accompany bro to attend the workshop at HDB hub or should I accompany buddy to wherever she wanna go? But for sure I know I have to make a trip back to APS :|

Was motivated to do some housekeeping since my close gal colleagues would be dropping by to ease my boredom of living alone :) However, I have no idea how to keep them entertained. They don't seem like the gaming sort :S
Told them to bring cards cos I don't even have a set of UNO :p

Looking fwd to our ladies night!

Day 1 - I'm a recorder! Erh shld be scanner.

2005-10-18T22:10:00.000+08:00

Day 1 as recorder at ATPS. Volunteered myself to do the scanning of the EMS and RMS forms since no one from my group seems at all keen to take up the task. Was with another beginning teacher whom I've seen around in NIE. Our session began at 11.30 with a briefing. After reporting to our leader and signing in, we were given our $3 pocket money and were dismissed for lunch till about 1.10pm. Spent the rest of the afternoon chit chatting about school, work, past job experience etc since we had nothing to scan. Business should come in by tomorrow. Nothing much to say about the work yet as such :)

Day 1 of my home alone stint. Occupied myself with the marking of the recent LC. Brother called and asked for the new age instrumental CDs which I had brought to AMK. I'm now listening to Jeffrey Michael's piano cd. I can't even remember which tune made me buy it when I heard it while shopping at Thomson Plaza. When I started digging for these cds, I realise I do have quite a couple of them.

Ranging from S.E.N.S., Yukie Nishimura, Kitaro, Secret Garden, David Lanz, Kevin Kern, Yanni to Jeffrey Michael. Sounds without words leaves more to the imagination isnt it?

Had intended to invite my buddy over this wkend but I realised I had too many WB markings to do back in sch. Yet I can't go back till Friday (when I finish earlier at the recording centre) or Sat. Sigh, I should have brought them back on Mon!! Anyways, I was too groggy from the running nose, sore throat and fever that was coming on then. Thought of 'pontanging' school today but I seem to have chalked up too many MCs already!!

3 weeks should pass in a flash...ya?
Ni bu zai~~~

Pasir Ris Park

2005-10-15T23:55:00.000+08:00

Went cycling at Pasir Ris park. It's been a long while since I cycled. Was off to a wobbly start and it was then followed by a blood donation exercise. Man! There were so many hungry mosquitoes. Can you imagine they were like flies circling around your leg whenever you pause to stop to wait for the rest to catch up or just to rest your butt? And talking about butt, it's really sore now. Can't they invent bicycle seats with better cushioning??

Dinner was steamboat near White Water. Food's so-so and we ended up with nothing to do for the rest of the evening. In the end, we went up to hubby's friend's apartment and played Pit using poker cards hehe. They started to Chua Dai Di next but...I forgot how to play the game! So I joined another friend to watch Batman Begins again.

I love the show. It's like the next comic-based movie after Spiderman that I enjoyed.
Cycling at Pasir Ris park again? Maybe...at least there was less dodging to do than at East Coast Park :)

Shopping!

2005-10-02T12:01:00.000+08:00

Our hunt began at Tangs, initially for a microwave, then it became an oven and finally a steamer. Although we had decided on the model, we had not bought it since we've yet to get our voucher from our agent. Had a bit of step workout cos the escalators were under maintainance.

I wonder if you guys remember the CNY couplet that we had on one of our walls? Had wanted to replace that with some photo display but had yet to find the right frames although the photos were ready. So, we went to Isetan and then to Takashimaya when we were attracted by the beautifully designed Umbra photo frames. They were costly though!! Bought an 8R behold frame to display a pic of me (yeah! hardly look good on photos hehe). It had me on a train bound for Jungfrau, looking out of the window. Hub liked the shot and of cos I was happy cos I was the subject of that composition :p

Ok, for some backdated updates from last week.
After debating whether to buy the PS2, Gamecube, PSP or the Nintendo DS, hub finally decided on the Gamecube. I'm currently hooked on Mario Party 6, a monopoly like game with lots of fun-filled and sometimes silly mini games :) Hub loves the Mario tennis game. They were all super duper cute games. You must come and play somtime!

Am about to complete watching part 2 of the Ghost in the Shell anime series. Was never really into anime until catching this. Still a bit confused by the futuristic theme cos we'd not watched the first part. So, the next target would be to get hold of Part one of this highly accalimed anime series.

Tomorrow's gonna be my judgement day! VP and sup will be coming to observe my lessons next morning!
My sup's an easy-going guy but my VP's a stern-faced and rather intimidating figure...
Please wish me luck for tomorrow!!!

The Child in us

2005-09-30T11:29:00.000+08:00

Childrens' Day celebration day.
Lessons were on as per normal with the last one hour of the day spent at the hall.
The gift from the school was a stress ball that imho adds to a person's stress level when one or others play with it for fear of it bursting. It's more like a yo-yo water ball. I'm glad I only handed it out at the end of the day. Heard some horror stories about the ball bursting and all the slime spilling all over the place and the cord snapping etc :S
I bought a $1 set gift for each of the kids. Handed them out kinda last minute so I did not notice their reaction.
The highlight for the day was the performance put up by the teachers!
It included 2 dance segments. I was truly impressed by their level of energy and GROOVE when they moved to the beat of the fast beats!!! Dancers, i feel, need to have loads of self-confidence. Really envy how they were able to shake their booties and sway their hips so stylo-milo-ly!

Come evening, I went to the Settlers Cafe @ Central tonight with hub's colleagues.
I was wondering what kind of place it was. Though I've never been there, the name seems familiar.
We reached there at about 6 (our booking was from 6 to 9) and were given a table right at the end of the room (it's a shophouse btw). The staff were mainly males in their twenties or early thirties. There was a bigger and older boss-like guy whom I presume to be the owner of the first boardgame themed cafe restaurant. There's another branch located at Holland V.
The games there were unique and ingeniously designed and not seen in the normal consumer mkt.
Since it was the first time for all but one of us, we played 3 games in all under that friend's recommendation.

First was Pit, a Heart-attacd-like game although it was much less organised. You trade any number of cards with anyone in the game simultaneously. Can you imagine the noise when everyone starts hawking their cards?
Opps I forgot to mention that we played this game while having our drinks. And you know what? When someone shouted PIT!!! Everyone dived forward to stack their hands at the center of the table to await for the hammering. Disaster struck not only once but twice when we spilled a sprite float (in the first round on victim no. 1) and ice peach tea on another occasion on victim no.2. So we literally have to wipe down our tables twice... haha...so much for the excitement.

Next we played a more toned-down and civilised card game, Guillotine. I can't explain the rules but it has to do with executing 12 prisoners per day over a course of three days using special action cards. Sounds like bore but it's not!
Requirement: a sane mind with relatively sound command of English :)

Lastly was our favourite game of the day, Niagara Falls! The game boards is ingeniously designed to resemble a water fall with canoes on disks which move after each round when disks are added to the start of the stream (what's the term for this?)
The aim is to collect a certain amount of composition of crystals to win the game. A must-try!!!

Random Thoughts

2005-09-18T14:31:00.000+08:00

I really ought to post more frequently cos I can't think of what title to give my post!

Sis-in-law gave birth to nephew-in-law, Ashton on Sat!
Holly molly (allow me to quote peanuts-san :p), she had a completely natural birth with no epidural!!! Hearing her describe the process and the final push being the worst imaginable pain in her life gave me the jitters!!! How (or should I say Why) on earth are we (gals) built to possess such functions? Why isn't there an easier way to procreate? "Cultivating" the baby anywhere but inside the mother's womb for example??

Everyone keep asking when's our turn. It's all easier said than done isn't it?!
The 1st issue that we have to deal with is, "Who is going to take care of the baby?!"
No maids please...mom's tied up looking after en-en, mom-in-law's working, so I guess that leaves with me, myself and watashi.

To be continued...hahaa...

School reopened and my life was back to "normal" (or should I say that's abnormal!).
Planning lessons, trying to cope with my endless markings (I must add that marking English workbook's the greatest torture!!!), trying to stick to my once a week jogging regime...

Went for my favourite activity, KTV, last Fri!
There was so much echo in the sound system that it all sounded a bit like "getai" singing :S
However, it was still satisfying, at least for me hehe...

Finally developed and collected some photos which I wanted to put in my album that will be placed at my workstation. There's a pic of me and buddy, hubby, group photo of gsocks family, honeymoon pics etc. Perhaps seeing these images of my loved ones will up my efficiency in school so that I can spend more time with them? :)

Gotta attend a wedding dinner later. Till then...see ya next time!

Friendster

2005-09-09T17:04:00.000+08:00

Hi-5, Multiply and whatnots aside, I truly have Friendster to thank for reuniting me with many long-lost friends. Sec friends like Brandon, Fabian, ex-neighbour Snoopy, Journey-to-the-West gang etc.

Looking at the photos they've posted, I realised that some people have managed to withstand the damages of the environment and time! The gals grew prettier, seriously! The guys showed no signs of ageing. It suddenly made me conscious of the 'me' in my photos. Have I aged? Do I show signs of being battered by my bunch of kids? Or had the 4 years of long-hour radiation from computers damaged my skin?! I need some honest answers...or do I really want to hear them? :)

Then again, I've said that I look forward to hiting the big '3'. Why? Simply because I felt that that would be the best time for me to reflect on what I had achieved, how I had lived my life and how I intend to carry on.

Unlike some of my friends who writes really well, I often find it difficult to keep my chain of thoughts in place and to sound coherent. So please my dear friend who's reading this, do bear with me :P

I can't remember when I finally decided to register as a member but I do remember the first few friends whom I've added, Linda, Ellen, Lyonisse...
There were many occasions when I get a few pleasant surprises, spotting one or two long-lost school/classmates from one of my friend's network of friends.
Friend-get-friend. Amazing isn't it?

And to think that (as I am composing this post) I'm going through each and every friends' list of friends, hoping that the names or snapshots could bring back some recollections that we were once acquaintances or buddies. I should do this while I could spare sometime. If not, it will be another 2mths+ when I get another break.

I remember promising my best friend that I'd write her a testimonial. She must have thought that I've forgotten about it, with my infamous short-term memory. Please rest assured that I have not forgotten my promise. It's just that I find it a challenge to condense the most mentionable qualities of a person in a few short paragraphs. Hence, as I was going through my list of friends, I read the testimonials posted by their friends to get some ideas. To those who have written a testimonial for me, a million thanks!

Wedding bells & the vagabond

2005-09-08T10:20:00.000+08:00

It's that time of the year where the sounds of wedding bells can be heard!
Just attended hubby's colleague's dinner at Hyatt last Monday.
The most memorable part was rushing down to the hotel with hubby's priced Apple because the groom's laptop where hubby was trying to run the slideshow which he created using the Apple refused to hook up to the projector. Perhaps it was due to my applaudable effort of getting dressed and ready and packed (the fruit) all in under 15 mins that the projector decided to cooperate just when I arrived at the lobby.

Next wedding on the line will be Mr Woon's which will be held on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Following his would be my dear friend, Ah Chun's. I love his specially designed e-invite with him as Mr Smith and Ah Ching as Mrs Smith (of course the title has been changed to Mr & Mrs Yong). :)
Last night, amidst the screening of Mr Holland's Opus at our place, I received a call from my Pri Sch mate, Mr Chong Pang, reminding me of his wedding in Nov. *Dong Dong Dong* Yet another wedding bell! He mentioned that there would be a church wedding followed by a dinner at Fullerton. Yes, Fullerton! O__O

While I was clearing my overflooding mailbox, I came across a long awaited wedding invite. My dear Baby's!! I'm soooooooo happy for her! And I must add that I truly admire her fiance's relentless efforts in asking for her hand! I'm definitely looking forward with my necks extended to the ROM cum reception at Ai Qin Hai. I wanna hear you sing, Baby!
With the wedding invite came several replies from friends whom I never realised I missed so much. From the happily single @C to the freedom-seeking backpacker-cum-explorer-cum-writer Za Cao.

It doesn't take much effort to send an sms, compose an email or make a call but I've failed to do so. As much as I long for their company, there's always 'work' that's keeping me back. *sigh*
Nevertheless, it's heartening enough to know that they are well and are pursuing their own dreams and happiness. I miss you guys!!!

p.s. To Za Cao and Jen, the talented writers, both of you have my utmost admiration! *Bow*

I'm back!

2005-09-06T20:59:00.000+08:00

A 1000 apologies for allowing my meadoes to turn mouldy :P

It's the Sept 1-wk break and I've been enjoying myself thus far! (i.e. have not done any prep for the coming term yet! *guilty*)
*Shrugs* I need a breather what!

Let's see where I should start from...

Guess what? It was Teachers' Day! My first!
Celebrated by going for KLunch at Suntec City. Both of us sang to our hearts' content :@
As I was still pretty much hit by the Superstar Fever, I attempted several songs which the semi-finalist and finalists had sung. They include Open Your Eyes, Yi Shi De Mei Hao, Gu Dan De Ye Li Wo Bu Gu Dan etc etc.

We left the KTV half an hour past the time we were allocated. In fact, no one chased us out but we left voluntarily. It's a good idea to pop by the Suntec branch again as there was no crowd to fight over the rooms with :)

Initially, I thought of doing some marking back home after the karaoke. However, we got a call from my mother-in-law telling us to meet at 4.45pm for dinner at Bugis Junction before making our way to meet the relatives at 5.45pm at the East Entrance of the SIS. I began to worry about the pile of compositions which I had yet to mark and it suddenly dawned upon us that we forgot to bring the camera along!
As hub's handphone was undergoing a facelift at a booth in Suntec, I had to be the one to rush back home to get the camera. The time I left Suntec was about 15mins to 4. By the time I reached home half-drenched from the sudden downpour, it was almost 4.30pm. Hence, I decided to skip the dinner date with mom-in-law and hub and had instant noodles instead. In between gobbles, I managed to mark about 5 scripts before I grabbed the rest of the scripts and rushed off to hail a cab to the SIS.

What followed was a long but interesting wait. The first person I bumped into was Uncle Ah Bee (JY's dad). Got some updates about JY from him and when hub arrived, he asked Uncle Ah Bee, rather bluntly, if there was any truth to the JY & Can romance. I was glad, I didn't know why haha, that they were merely friends at this point in time.

After collecting the JYFC Tee and changing into it, we took a few photos with the fans and relatives. JJ's mom also came to support JY, wearing the blue JYFC Tee. Derrick's mom also came by. She happened to be mom-in-law and her cousins' co-worker at Van Houten (iirc) many years back! Such a small world.

We were handed blue neon sticks (as we were supposed to support the blue team) on our way in. The JYFC members pain-stakingly prepared several yellow pom-poms for the JY supporters. In fact, we were the only FC with pom-poms! Woo HOo!

I love 'live' performances as I get to see what happens during commercial breaks, how they got ready before each segment, how Weilian had to be guided on the stage, how skinny Quan Yifeng looked in real-life etc :D
Our task for the night was to cheer by 'pomping' our pom-poms, waving the JY pai2 ban3 each time JY appears on the screen or in person :)

The downside to watching the 'live' performance as compared to the telecast was that there was too much echo :( The music was so loud I could hardly make out what the performers are singing!

Some side notes: Mayce (dunno how to speel her name) looked really unproportional as she was really tall which made her head appear so much smaller that the rest of her body.
Silver's thighs had not appeared any slimmer. Shi Ni's really rather rounded and chubby. I must say that their costumes did not help to hide their flaws as the former was made to wear tight white slacks, and although Shi Ni was all wrapped up in mainly black, it still didn't help much.
A few other gals looked grossly underweight and Xin Hui appeared to have lost several significant kilos and inches!

JJ was cute. Liked the way he moved and danced on stage and still amazed as always by his vocal range. As for the judges, Li Fei Hui looked like he tried too hard to appear younger than his age. His long, dyed and flyaway locks seems out of place. Jean looked like a dwarf beside all the judges when they sashayed down the steps of the stage. She looked much better in real-life cos we bumped into her at Mount E about a week later. My favourite judges are the "chang2 sheng1 bu4 lao3" Li Weisong and the respectable Mr Shui Shang Piao (Xu Huanliang). These judges, particularly the latter had their fair share of fans who would shout out their names during the commercial breaks :p

Kelly's performance was noticeably more varied and eye-catching. Although I had no real preference for the winner, I had silently hoped for Weilian to be crowned the champion :)

Now that the Superstar series had finally ended, I wonder what's the next major event that will excite Singaporeans? Will it be Project SuperHost or Ming2 Xing1 Ou3 Xiang4?

I hate bullies!

2005-08-12T19:47:00.000+08:00

Woo hoo...it's the weekends again! Mon was NDay celebration, Tues was NDay and Wed was school holiday! How I wish every week would be like this :p
Then again, I'm getting worried about how to complete the syllabus in time for CA2 :S

Since my last post was almost 2 weeks ago, let me try to recall what happened within this time frame...

Big B
Within 2 weeks, I've got 2 visits from parents. It was regarding a bully case in my class.
Sigh, kids nowadays! I realised that some kids can really angels at home and devils in the class. From my short conversation with the accused mother, she painted a rosy picture of her son. Calling him 'soft', 'the one being bullied at home' etc. The 2nd phrase caught my attention. Perhaps he decided to let his frustration out at someone in class? I don't know. The victim's father was more objective as his main concern was to find out the reason behind the accused actions. I guess I really have to seperate them. I wonder if it'll cause new problems haha...*touch wood*

Charlie & Willy
Caught the movie at GV PS. I like Johnny Depp! But boy was his makeup thick in the movie!! LOL. It's a pity that I have little recollections of what exactly happened in the novel. I should read it again! May I add that I really enjoyed the parts where the irritating, snobbish and conceited kids were punished!!! *YES*

NDay
I didn't catch the NDay parade at all as I was doing my favourite activity, Karaoke-ing! Hehe...
Especially enjoyed the last hour where we sang all time favourite duets.

Got loads to talk about regarding Project Superstar! Shall leave that to the next post when we get tonight's results!

Testing 123...

2005-07-30T16:55:00.000+08:00

Yeah! I can talk again albeit in a lower and sexier voice lol...
That's it, I'm gonna use a mic from now onwards.
I can't imagine not being able to sing again! (that was my greatest fear LOL)
Alright jokes aside. Special thanks to my warm and caring friends who dropped encouraging and comforting notes. A million thanks to all of you!

Yeah you guys are right. Kids will be kids. I was truly overcome by emotions that Wednesday partly because i had so much woes to pour but I could not speak! Feels really like a Ya Ba eating Huang Lian.

I'm oh so glad to get my voice back. To be able to order my Shredded Chicken Noodles dry without chilli and without mushroom, favourite Fried Bee Hoon with yummy Fish Cake, 2 extra Chui Kuey & a bit of chilli and Sliced Fish Hong Kong Noodles Soup with no mushrooms and more vegie!
Hahaha so now you know why I was so frustrated with not being able to place order for my food and ended up having instant noodles. I had only myself to blame for being such a picky eater!!!

Argh! Last night, when I was trying to bath Nancy (my pet Chinchilla), she refused to come out from her cage! She was always extremely eager for her weekly free roaming time (hehe sounds like auto-roaming) & bathing time. I thought animals recognise people from their scents. I didn't know she recognises me by my voice haha. During the past few days when I was croaking, she behaved rather weirdly and didn't respond to me that much. So I gathered that she was wonder who this stranger was trying to coax her out of her cage (trying to abduct her perhaps!)

The coming 2 weeks will be packed with activities, from the NE symposium that my school is hosting for the N5 cluster, P1 Phase (i dunno what) registration & the National Day celebrations. Where got time to finish the syllabus!? Anyway, we'll get by somehow...always...don't we? :)

Have a great weekend pals!

Loss

2005-07-28T12:49:00.000+08:00

There are 2 losses that affected me recently.

Hubby & me were walking down the stairs for breakfast last Sun when we passed by our neighbour's house directly below ours. The front door and gates were opened and there were many pairs of shoes and slippers strewn outside. "What's the special occasion?" I wondered to myself. It was not until we reached the ground floor via the stairs that saw what looks like the setting up of a funeral wake.

The first thought that came to our mind was that the elderly uncle who is wheelchair-bound was probably the 'one'. It was not until later in the afternoon that hubby reported that he saw the picture of the aunty instead...the friendly and jovial aunty who spoke to us whenever we bump into her and whom I tried to strike simple conversations with my limited hokkien/teochew.
When hubby told me that, "it was the aunty, not the uncle", I was dumbfounded. The fact did not sink in until I passed by the void deck again later in the day.

The thought of someone who looks so healthy and is always in such good spirits passing away all of a sudden was a little hard for me to comprehend. Although we do not know one another very well, we did not even visit them during CNY (due to procrastination i think, or we thought it was a little awkward I can't remember), I felt really saddened. Saddened because I would not be seeing her around anymore. I feel my eyes welling up with tears whenever I pass by the void deck or even when I pass by her unit. Life is so unpredictable, isn't it? It's when we thought we should attend her wake that came another loss.

The loss of my voice.

I was struck with Laryngitis, an irritation and swelling of the voice box and area around it. It started with a mild cough on last Sunday when the HDB contractors came to replace the window rivets. (This would bring us to another long episode which I shall not bore you with for the time being). The cough worsened and this time its accompanied by a sore throat after lessons on Monday. I consulted a doctor on Monday night and was given a day's MC. I could still 'talk' in a hoarse voice then. Still, I journeyed to school to settle some housekeeping stuff and to assign those bunch of kids with some tasks to complete while I was away. By Tuesday, my voice was reduced to a whisper.

No more MC for Wednesday, hence I went back to school in an attempt to 'teach' with no voice.
I prepared PPT slides and made them do lots of corrections (there was a huge pile of marked worksheets). I thought these kids would take some pity on me but I was wrong. Yes, a handful did attempt (but failed) to shut the noisy ones up. There were several who took the opportunity to make merry and celebrate by playing in class. I was really disappointed with their lack of self-discipline and sympathy. On thinking back, I guess I had too much expectations on these 9-10yr olds. I literally felt my heart rate increase and blood pressure rising for that whole morning while I was with them.

The bad thing about me is that I tend to tear when I'm stressed and angry. So in between the coughs and blowing of nose, I was wiping away those angry tears. Haa, it sounds really silly, isnt' it? To get mad over their behaviour. Nevertheless, I managed to put up a brave front and was totally relieved to be out of the class at 12 noon. The day did not end then for I had PSLE prelim oral timekeeping duty. Thank goodness it does not require me to talk. But a little miscommuncation and poor planning with the issuing of stopwatches did get me a little agitated again. I guess my tolerance for nonsense is much lower when I'm not well hahah...

With a heavy heart, I left school at 6pm+ after marking 2 piles of spelling & mental sums books after the timekeeping which lasted till about 5+. When I finally met up with hubby for dinner, my tear ducts failed me again. I was literally eating and tearing at the same time. There was no sniffing and sobbing...just an endless stream of hot, boiling, angry tears. I pity my hubby as there wasn't really much he could do to alleviate me of the pain (both mentally and physically) right then. So we went home after buying a "kai1 Sheng1" herbal mixture from the medical hall and drank it while watching the Superstars. Btw, please support Jun Yang! He's my cousin-in-law (if there's such a term haha) plus his sings really well.

So here I am today, typing out probably the longest blog of my life (?) after visiting another doctor who gave me 2 days of MC and advised me to rest my voice as much as possible i.e. no talking. I guess I can somehow emphatise with people who do not have the ability to speak. It felt really frustrating to have so much to say but couldn't articulate them there and then. Writing notes doesn't convey that same emotions and it's too slow. When I wanted to order food, I felt embarassed of my condition and ended up having cup noodles. I could use hand gestures and point here and there but I chose not. Stubborn I guess? It's also because my orders always comes with many conditions haha, like no chilli, no mushrooms, more vegie. What the heck! I'll just eat instant noodles!

Right now, I can only wait patiently for the swelling to go down and I can't wait to regain my voice again. I think I can imagine what Julie Andrews feels like to lose the ability to sing...
Like a singer, the voice is also the prized possession of an educator...

Post-concert relief

2005-07-21T15:47:00.000+08:00

Been ages since my last post!
The whole of this week has been spent mainly on preparing for a AEP (Arts Ed Pgm) production which was held today as part of the Racial Harmony Day celebration.

It was really a pain, getting the kids to be serious about their segment. They had to do a Malay fashion parade! So the first headache was costume! Thank goodness there were close to 70% of Malays in my class. But still, they keep forgetting to bring their costumes and the costumes that they are lending to their friend :(

As my first school production, I was rather 'blur' about what preparations were needed. Simple things like coordinating the movement in and out of the hall, on and off the stage were overlooked until the eve of the event.

Long story cut short, the kids did rise to the occasion (after I threatened that those who didn't pose properly or behaved badly will get extra homework from me!!!). They managed to move to the right places, did some nice poses, and the group I/Cs did take care of their movement on the stage as I can't be on both sides of the stage at the same time! It was a 'sell-out' concert LOL, at least for the P3 concert. Seems like the turn out for the P4 concert was rather pathetic.
Oh, fyi, P3 had to perform Malay culture related programmes while the P4 did Chinese culture and P5 Indian culture. Last time where got such activities!

Well, now that it's over, I had forgotten all my rantings that I had wanted to record here but failed to due to the lack of time...
Just glad that it's FINALLY over! :)

Happy Meal

2005-07-09T22:44:00.000+08:00

Nope it's not uncle M's happy meal.
Had a candlelight dinner at Jack's Place *wolf-whistle*
Actually it wasn't any special occasion. Just the spur of the moment thing.

Since when do they have candle light dinner at Jack's Place?
Those few farewell lunches we had at the West Coast branch doesn't have that right?
Then again, that was lunch...duh.

Not feeling exactly fit and strong yet but a happy dinner and a fruitful shopping trip at amk Sportslink left me satisfied. We have become regulars at that outlet already, chalking up close to 500 bucks of goods iirc. Why did we spend so much? Nike apparels was on 20% off during the GSS mah (discovered today that even though the GSS hasn't ended, the discounts had). Furthermore, I had to stock up on track pants since I gotta teach PE. Boy, it's hard to find a pair that can hid my fat thighs and bums!! Also, these track pants certainly cost a bomb! ~$~
Anyways, I managed to buy my 3rd and 4th pair today. And that's all that matters for now!

GSS's ending huh! I wanna do some last min shopping!!! Still haven't bought anything from Little Match Girl yet. The clothes there look pretty!

K.O.

2005-07-08T21:16:00.000+08:00

Finally slept to my heart's content today cos I am down with flu.
Think I caught the bug on Wed afternoon and it hasn't gotten better since then.
I guess I needed the break haha.

Btw, thanks for all the responses from you! They really motivate me to keep on blogging :)
Still sniffing away a little and have this stupid dry cough!
Hope I'll be back to normal tomorrow!
Meanwhile my dear friends, pls take care!

Freaky Friday but Happy Long Weekend

2005-07-04T20:42:00.000+08:00

Why freaky friday? Sigh, I had a really bad day in school on Friday. Up till now, I don't know if they kids really played a trick on me. But the idea of being "shua3" by a bunch of 43 kids really makes my blood boil.

If I were to be writing this on the actual day, I could have written a lot of negative things about them. But after cooling off for 3 days, I'm able to look at the problem more objectively.

The bottomline is, there is still no rapport between the class and me. I don't blame them because it really takes time to establish rapport. I'm giving myself at least a month.
Till then, some of them may hate me as I had to be harsh on them, jumping on them at every misbehaviour etc. I don't want to let them think I'm lax. But by doing so, I seem to be always reprimanding or finding fault with them.

I can't blame them for being inattentive for the 1st week because my lessons WERE indeed boring because I (GUILTY x infinity) have not done any preparations during the holidays.
Hence, I hope to start this 2nd week afresh. I hope the new groupings and seating arrangements will work out fine and does not generate new problems!

Anyway, there's new problems everyday hahaha...

Stay tuned then for more updates!

p.s. long weekend because of Youth day!! :p

So far

2005-06-28T17:38:00.000+08:00

It has been ok. The kids were pretty well-behaved on the 1st day. It's deteriorated a bit today and I had to spend quite a fair bit of time to remind them of my expectation of their behaviour *sweat*. So glad tomorrow's an off day cos it's the Investiture ceremony!! Hubby will be going :D Always loved a break on Wednesdays!

I wonder why I always felt I'm a very organised person at home but when it comes to the classroom...I tend to feel a bit lost and disorganised :(

Handover + kailan

2005-06-24T20:38:00.000+08:00

Somehow I just felt the handover by the previous teacher wasn't complete. I have a strong feeling that I'd be in for a certain degree of surprise (I shall not use shock) on the first day.
Anyhow, I managed to accomplish something hahaa...i.e. to get my workstation ready!

The process of rearranging the PC and the idea of sitting in a cubicle reminds me of those days in the workforce. (C'mon, I've been 'studying' for a year mah...so am a bit out of touch with working)

The problem now is to decide how to start the 1st day's lessons. I really have to exercise a great deal of self-discipline to sit down and plan, which I've yet to do so.!
My excuse this time is that I shall get my bookshelf at home ready for the new term first. Haha, not a bad excuse eh? So, that shall be my task for the remaining hours of the day.

Wondering why I mentioned Kailan in the title? Today's the 2nd time in about 3 days that I spotted a tiny light green worm (dead of course) on one of the kailan leaves :S
They seem to love kailan. Glad to say that I wasn't that grossed out so I could still finish the remaining vegie but not without examining each leave stalk carefully.
So my dear friends, the next time to eat kailan (esp at those economical rice stalls), watch out for our little green crawlie! :P

p.s. Watching Initial D on Sunday! Yeah!

Connection

2005-06-22T10:43:00.000+08:00

I think this is the 3rd blogging website which I've signed up with LOL.
Let's say I'm inspired once again by 3 of my friends who blogs religiously and whose blogs I read whenever I have the time.

Someone mentioned that it's kinda sad when you see no comments on the posts, that the blogger's actually talking to him/herself. It's true to a certain extent but I see blogging as a means of self-expression :p
Not that I don't welcome comments (I LOVE responses). Just that I felt the lack of it should not deter the blogger from blogging :)

School's re-opening very soon. I'm still struggling to get my engine started in preparation for the new term. Frankly, I don't know what to expect. Meeting a whole new bunch of students, try to establish rapport with them and 'buying' them over eventually. Let's just say it's not as easy as you may think it is :@

I'm still in a holiday mood, missing the worry-free time I had during early June. Especially missing the time when all I had to worry about was when would the next meal would be, where we would be visiting, what time is the morning call tomorrow :D

Okie, time to snap back to reality. Gosh, that means I've gotta sort out all those photos from the vacation by today and get them developed :S

p.s. Thanks to friendster, I get to see some old familiar faces!