I am exhausted today. I wanted to nap from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm, but my mum couldn't wake me up, even when she tried. So I slept till now, more or less. I had a project work (PW) standardisation meeting from 8.30 am to 1 pm. Actually, it was merely fortunate that I was there at all. There was a note inside a file passed to me about the meeting today, which I didn't see, and there was an email sent about the meeting which I didn't check yet. I went to school earlier (my first consultation was scheduled at 9 am) only because my cab kakis had to be there at the time, so I thought I would share cab with them anyway and do some work. Only when I reached there, and happened to look at the file again, did I realize that I had this meeting. Anyway, I found out that PW project file marking is absolutely worse than marking SPA. The descriptors to check against are so subjective and free-ranging, and I hope for the best that my perspective would match that of my moderator, else I'll be in trouble. I was making a comment to a PW teacher that marking this is worse than marking SPA, and she was saying something like now I know how cham she is, whereupon I replied that I had to mark SPA and project work. I'll be marking this disgusting thing till next week, every working day most likely. Any more band descriptors introduced into the curriculum, and the teachers will puke blood and white foam, flip over and die.

After the (longest) meeting ended, I had 30 min for lunch, including walking out and in, and then began consultations all the way from 1.30 pm till about 4.30 pm. I was drained at the end of it, more because of the tedious morning, than by the students who came to consult me. I finally saw a weak student show up, who I've not seen since a few weeks back, before lessons were officially over, i.e. he skipped school. Right now, one week before the chemistry paper, and he's still looking at the notes. Only. I think my heart kinda stopped for a moment when he said so. I told him quite earnestly that I'll be praying for him; from where I stand, it seems like nothing short of a miracle can help a small handful of my students. Sigh. I think some of them haven't even realized the weight of this moment in time.

I went to visit my colleague's church Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church (BBTC) with Sherry. The guest speaker is this guy Freddy Boey, who I heard is some lecturer in NTU, if I remember correctly. His sermon was on the topic of God's Word, and I find him very humourous. His sermon was pretty engaging as well, but what I found interesting was something else altogether. Yesterday I was thinking of getting my new boy a bible, but I have time to do so only later this week. I prayed for a verse for him, and interestingly enough, the same verse is the verse of the month of BBTC, right smack on their bulletin. Then yesterday, Adrian shared a verse to the cell group in 1 Peter, and the same verse was shown on the screen before worship. I think God must be saying something specific for this moment.

I noted one thing though: the worship songs they sang were largely Hillsongs. I was actually expecting, well, somewhat more old-fashioned stuff. Apparently they sang the same songs I sing in FCBC, except maybe our band is more rock n roll-ish. I was so tempted to start dancing, but seeing the relative immobility of the folks there, I figured I did not want to risk looking demon-possessed and get exorcised or something, so I kept my feet rooted to the floor.

Later in the afternoon, we went to catch Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. It's another of those shows I walk out of, not knowing whether I like it or not. It is rather grim in content, about a woman who was framed to take the blame for someone else seeking vengeance after she was released from prison. There were humourous moments in the show, but not a lot. Generally the mood is rather macabre, right to the end, where there is a lawless conclusion (can't say more without spoiling the ending). However, I find the ending part draggy, maybe because I was sitting directly under an air-con vent, and I was freezing away at the end of it, even with a jacket. Brrrrrrrr. Note to self: do not sit at end seats of row C in Cineleisure cinemas 7 to 9.

Dinner was at Phin's Steakhouse, and I had fish and chips, not steak. The fish was goooood. I didn't want fries, so I asked to swap them for a baked potato perhaps, and they gave me three baked potatoes. I didn't know there was the equivalent of 3 potatoes in the fries that comes with fish and chips, but I sure won't kick up a fuss getting larger servings. Hehe. Dessert was at NYDC, but I think the sundae isn't anything great to warrant its cost of $16 (after adding service charge and blah blah blah). I'd rather go for Gelare or Haagen Daaz with that cost.

I just finished the anime Gilgamesh. The overall plot was not bad, but the conclusion was a grim one. Apocalyptical, with almost everyone dead in the end kind of grim. However, I think there were too many plot points that were insufficiently explained, else it would have been a much better anime. Next up, Full House! I usually watch only Japanese anime, but considering that I have heard good reviews about Full House, and I think many of my students seem to be quite into it, I decided to give Korean drama a shot. I've only caught one episode so far, but I think I'm sufficiently interested to finish the whole series. The lead actress is pretty. The actors look darn good too. What impresses me more is their wardrobe! Just in the first episode, I noted how many different pieces of clothes the guys wore, and the shirts look really nice. Oops. In the mood for more shopping. Hehe.

I'm in a good mood today. The friend of one of my boys who received Christ during the Spook Show a few months back finally came to cell group for the first time today! He hadn't turned up so far because his mother forbade him till his PSLE exams were over. I was quite worried at first that after such a long lag, he would not be interested to come anymore, so I was praying hard. Thank God that He preserved the boy's faith. He settled into the cell group relatively quickly, as boys their age tend to anyway, and at least I know he enjoyed the cell group and service time enough to come back again. I am so relieved!

After service, Adrian, J, Linus (new brother in cell group recently!) and I went to play pool. I played only with J, and won half the games thereabouts. I played well, really well, today. All but one of my rebound shots were spot-on, including a game-ending one. J had a disbelieving look some of the time actually...heh. In fact, he had to deliberately snook me a couple of games, which signified that I was leading by a lot for those games, which in itself is rare when you play with J. There was one game I almost cleared the table, except that I missed my placing for the last black ball shot and snooked myself by accident. Unfortunately for J, today he made two really spectacular shots to end those two games (those that need to rebound a few times), and the black balls went in, except that the cue ball went in first, so he lost them. Bad day for J, good day for me.

I ended up at Chijmes, Father Flanigan's, after the pool game. Adrian dragged us there, presumably to talk. The actual agenda is that he wanted to watch soccer, besides just wanting to talk. I had a tequila sunrise, which was not too bad - not dilute, though not strong either. We shared some calamari, which was quite nice in the tangy tartar sauce with a wasabi taste, although the oil in it made me wonder why I'm taking it at so late in the night. Supper is going to make me fat again one of these days. I think it's time to resume jogging. Regularly.

There was a farewell concert for my principal this morning. Considering the fact that it was put together within 4 days, I must say, it turned out excellent. There were some collaborations between the performing arts groups, and they were pretty well done. My AVC people did up a video which was rather humourous and touching, and ZH did a very professional video as well, having lost 3 days worth of sleep in the process. Principal gave an impromptu speech at the end of it, and what she shared was resoundingly touching, because it was obviously straight from her heart. Frankly, she is an amazing individual of a principal, and I suspect that there won't be another one as cool as she is anymore.

I finally had my char kway teow for lunch today! Bwahaha. After that I had a consultation session, and interestingly enough, today was supposed to be packed with consultations again, but because of the concert, I cancelled one, one student didn't show up at all (I assume she forgot), and the last one thought everything was pushed back in timing too late, and he would rather look for me next week instead.

In the evening was the weekly alpha course, and I think today is the end of it. There is one more session to come, but there is a school function which clashes, so today marks the last session for us. All things considered, I think I wouldn't mind sitting through it again, some time down the road. I've learnt some fresh perspectives along the way, and the material itself is good for me, even though I'm not a prebeliever or young Christian.

I had only one consultation session, but it was split into two because I had a department meeting in between. It is a sort of review of this year's achievements, and a preview of next year's workload. Basically, it will be heavier than what I have now, but that may be also because what I am having now is considered not too bad. I spent quite a long time on one topic with a couple of students, one of whom didn't quite get it. However, I am still glad that she came, because, based on results, she appears to be my weakest student, and I can see that she is working very hard, so it's a great relief and encouragement.

I still didn't manage to eat char kway teow today. I have been having this craving for good char kway teow for the past few days, but it has been unsuccessful thus far. It's either I have to wait super long for the char kway teow at the hawker centre opposite school, or the stall is closed, as I found out when I was going for dinner yesterday at Bukit Merah. I will try again tomorrow. Grrr.

After school, I headed down to Suntec with Sherry. Today is a good day for shopping. She managed to find a nice pair of shoes, which she has been hunting for, and I found a nice shirt and pants on sale from Bods. We were aiming to catch Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, but only when we got to the cinema at Suntec did I realize that only GV screened the movie. For a while, K Box seemed like a good alternative, but today, neither of us were really that keen on it. We had dinner at Congress Cafe, the corner place near Suntec Convention Hall. Now, everytime I walk by that place, it's really crowded, and the smell of laksa permeates the air. I have been wanting to try the laksa there for eons, so I did it today. It wasn't as fantastic as I thought. First thing is that it is hum-less, which is an ingredient I find necessary in laksa, and the second thing is that the gravy just didn't have that special taste to it. My conclusion is that it smelled (from far) way better than it tasted, so it was just passable. At least my curiosity has finally been sated.

We made our way to Marina Square, only to discover that the next showtime was 9.40 pm. Lesson learnt: always check the web or newspapers for exact timing before going down; impromptu movie watching is risky if the show is not immensely popular, hence with many showtimes. In the end, we shopped around, and eventually made our way to the Esplanade. Only today did I realize that there was a rooftop terrace in Esplanade. I think I visit the place too infrequently, and had not checked out the library before either. We then went down to the riverside to hang around and chit-chat. Suddenly we heard what we first thought was thunder, only to be pleasantly surprised by...fireworks! I have no idea whether they were testing fireworks for some festivities some other day, or using up excess ones from National Day (not too likely though), but in any case, the fireworks were nice. It was only those low flying ones that go to a few storeys high at maximum, but to be able to catch fireworks for no special occasion seemed quirkily enjoyable.

Till now, I still have no clue what the fireworks were for...

I spent yesterday finishing up a couple more pieces for the design project, so didn't even have the energy left to blog. Taking someone else's skeletal idea and transforming it into something engaging, creative and concrete takes a lot more brainpower than if I come up with the idea myself, to be honest. Too bad it's a hush-hush project, so I can't show off my work. Bwahaha. Sssshhh.

Today I had a whole string of consultations, and then a few of us went down to Lagoon to have lunch. Today's meal was big for me, because I was dead hungry by the time I'm done with the students. I had a plate of duck rice with extra rice, added on roasted meat, and a bowl of pig liver soup, plus a bowl of ice kachang after that! Shiok.

I bought a new pair of sandals from Beetlebug today, on a sale! My Bata sandals are wearing out a bit faster than I hoped for, although it has lasted me quite well, so I don't fully agree with nay-sayers who think Bata is an acronym for 'buy and throw away'. Hmm...I think I'm getting sick of my wardrobe again. I need to bring new life to it soon. Now where can I find more funky shirts?

Just came back from my network meeting. We did the second session on work by pastor Benny Ho, and it was great! Today's blog seem particularly fragmented, probably because I am blogging while chatting with 4 friends online, and giving online consultation to a group of 3 students. The wonders of technology!

I had thought today would be a short day, but adding on a couple of consultations, I left school only around 4 plus, which is late, considering that there aren't any more lessons. Although this week is the official last week of school, I am looking at an impending mountainload of work in the coming weeks. I doubt I'll have a proper holiday till end of Nov or start of Dec.

I was a bit discouraged in the morning. One of the publishers I sent my manuscript to has rejected me. He said it read well, but that the market for poetry is too small in Singapore. I'm not sure if he was just being polite in his refusal, but still, it leaves me with a nagging suspicion that it will be hard to get my poems published without forking out a cent. The market is indeed small, and that's tough. Maybe I should just write trashy fiction. Those seem to do well. Sigh.

I shall declare the early part of this week as unhappening week! After all considerations, I still agreed to help my friend with the freelance graphic design project I mentioned some time ago. He needs some help, and I feel that our friendship is worth my helping him, so I'm on it. There's an impending deadline for the artwork this Thu, so come what may, I've gotta finish it. I just finished a third of it, and I'll still need the next couple of evenings probably to end the first phase of work. Hmmm...Thu then play hard to make up for it! I must show some self-discipline.

In any case, I'm now absolutely convinced that I can produce the best work fastest when the deadline is near and looming. It's a powerful trigger of creativity for me. Sounds like a good excuse for procrastination, doesn't it? Hehe.

I spent a fun day at the beach with some cell group brothers, and most of my boys. However, we failed to achieve the primary objective - we had only about two hours of sun. I had assumed that since last night there was a big thunderstorm, there should be some sun today, but I guessed wrongly. We played volleyball and rugby, and at least this time round, the wounds were limited. The last time I was there, we played soccer, and both my feet were covered with cuts and torn skin. We left relatively early after the sun went to hide behind a vast expanse of clouds. We grabbed a quick dinner at Harbourfront, and then my brothers and I went off to play pool for a couple of hours.

We didn't play long because we were all rushing back to watch TV, channel 8. Nope, we weren't interested in the charity thing, in Zoe Tay's walking on needles. Senior pastor went on TV! There was this te4 xie3 (translated as special report?) about him, his Magic of Love shows, and his family relationships. It's exciting to see that there's a whole half hour interview and showcase of him, because I suppose this is exactly what he hoped to achieve - that people will stand up and take notice of the magic show that he has worked so hard to put together. One of the big reasons why he went into the media, other than the fact that he can reach more people, is that when a celebrity speaks, people listen. Celebrities of any sort have much stronger influence than the average Joe. It was very amusing to see his photographs in his earlier years though. Hehe. I have an uber cool senior pastor.

I accompanied Sherry to the Weekend Away of the alpha course this morning, along with our colleague who invited her to the course in the first place. The venue was at YWCA, just off Fort Canning, and the place is big and nice. Today's session was all about the Holy Spirit, and I learnt a couple of new things from the session actually. The food at the restaurant there was quite good, surprisingly, and I would have taken a lot more if not for having consumed half a cup of expired milk last night. We ended too late for me to try to rush down to service, so we decided to hang out instead. I seldom have Sat evenings to spend like this, come to think of it.

We shopped at Plaza Sing for some time, which turned out unfruitful, so we took a long stroll down to Lucky Plaza. I was determined to eat at that Rabbit Brand Restaurant again. Strangely, today the boss was extra chatty. At one point in time, he came by our table, and started talking to me about the business, his children, and later on about high-temperature steam being dangerous, and how canned food is sterilized. I think I have an approachable face. My ex used to say that I have a 'harmless' face. When I am outside, amidst a group of strangers, a lost person would come to me to ask for directions. Anyway, I, being the naturally sociable creature that I am, chatted with him quite casually.

We both had too much to eat, so we went to walk around, and eventually we ended up at Indochines at Wisma Atria. I ordered a Coney Island Tea (like Long Island, but instead of sour mix and pepsi or lime and coke, orange juice was used), which was fairly strong and tasted good. The live band (didn't catch the name!) was solid. This is the first time I've seen a live band having only 3 members who play (plugged-in) accoustic guitar. All three of them can really sing well though. And they are humourous on stage too. It's a good place to chill out, I guess, although my initial impression of the place whenever I passed by it was that I can just sit outside the place on the public benches and still enjoy the music.

It is truly ironic how the days are getting longer now that the year 2s are no longer coming to school. After a couple of consultations right after breakfast, there was this drug discovery talk by Prof Dave Alker, a visiting professor with NTU currently. The guy was intelligent, engaging, and humourous. He was so passionate about chemistry he was enthusing about it all the way through his talk and after. However, it is the content of his talk that I find fascinating. He was talking about this new drug that has not been marketing and is still in the phase of testing, but results have been positive that it can treat Aids. He was describing the process in which a drug is discovered, refined and later tested, and like the talk a few weeks back, it planted the desire to go into research in me. I wonder if it had any effect on our students though.

I had another consultation after that (the hours spent on consultation is in fact longer than the teaching hours of an average day, which is why the day seems longer), and then I went to sit in the assessment of oral presentations by the Temasek Academy kids. Although their presentation skills still have room for improvement, considering the fact that they are merely 15 years of age (or younger!), their project was superbly done, and the presentations they gave were impressive. Actually, I would think that some of them easily surpass the current year 1 batch's project work oral presentation. On seeing this, although I was reluctant at first because I was informed rather last minute, I am encouraged by the result of the programme, and I think in their 4 years here, they would emerge pretty exceptional. Again, I receive new drive for next year's IP programme.

I just came back from Club Momo, at Central Mall. It took the place of the now-defunct Sultan of Swing, so it is a pretty big place. First impressions: decor was not too bad, and the live band today was good. One plus point is that there is no cover charge if you go in before 10 pm, and before 10 pm happens to be happy hour, where house pours and beers are 1 for 1. So Collin, J and I went in early, and ordered 1 jug of Vodka lime (which means 2 jugs, since it is 1 for 1), and 1 jug of Bourbon coke. Out of 4 jugs, we each drank one jug by ourselves, and shared the last one with Steph and Weiling who came later. The alcohol is dilute, for sure; after drinking down 1 jug each, we didn't even feel a thing. Later around 11 pm, when the dance floor started to pack, we popped over to dance. I didn't like the music. It was R&B most of the time, and some pop or hip-hop, which didn't appeal to me; the tempo to me is too slow. After an agonizingly long period of such music, it finally picked up a bit to heavier beats and music leaning to trance. Now that's clubbing to me. It went back to R&B after a while, and by then we were resigned to it.

Club Momo seems to attract a big range of age groups, despite the age limit of 21 for guys and 18 for gals. There is a good mixture of army dudes, undergrads (look like lah), and working adults in there. A good thing I noticed was that there wasn't any wolf pack today! There was only a lone wolf, who was exceedingly tall, and he positioned himself next to these 2 girls beside me, one of whom was wearing a very low-cut top. He was practically staring down her cleavage, so much so that the two girls exchanged positions to move out of his line of sight, which he adjusted accordingly, so the two of them stormed off with a disgusted look soon after. And the guy left, probably to find another victim. Later on, there was a pair of wolves, who also managed to repel a big group of girls behind me to leave. I wonder what's the success rate for these people, since they seem to keep trying through the night.

The other day, my students actually asked me to bring them clubbing. I find it odd though that they still want to venture there despite reading all these warnings about wolf packs on my blog. The thought of bringing them there sounds interesting, but considering that the guys in their class probably can't tag along because of the age limit, and that one big group of gals in a club is just fodder for wolves, I don't think I have the capacity to try to protect them all, and they, in their wide-eyed 18-year-old innocence probably wouldn't even what hit them if it did. Ah, and the concept of professional image. What if some parent sends a complaint letter to the forum that teachers are only to spend time with students in the classroom during school hours, and only teach them subject content? Eh, wait...think it has already happened.

It's another tiring day. I realize consultations with students are really intensive, requiring a lot of brainpower to be answering questions on the spot, and therefore draining. However, at the same time, I feel that it is particularly effective to teach a small group, and more can be achieved in that same period of time, so overall, it's worth it. 2+ more weeks to the 'A's, and I'll help as much as I possibly can in the meantime.

Right after consultation, there was a mock MCQ exam for the year 2s, and I had the 'privilege' of marking the OAS (can't remember what it stands for already, but it's the sheet of paper where you have to shade in the answers for MCQ) with the scanning machine in the computer lab. The lady in charge of the lab was supposed to help me, but she went for lunch already. Now I have used the machine a few times, but each time is after a span of months. So I fumbled around with the computer, and finally found the software. I tried to scan in the answer key, but no matter how I did it, it failed. My colleague then commented, "Doesn't look like it was shaded in pencil leh". I checked, and realized it was shaded in blue pen. The machine can only read graphite lor. Kau. Wasted my time, and I shaded in all the answers myself. Fortunately I finished marking them in time. I went back to the audi to check which colleague made the blunder, and I found out from my level head that the careless colleague actually said something like, "What? Buy 4D also can use pen shade what, how come this one cannot?" -_-'

I had another consultation, and then it was off to Ikea! Sherry wanted to buy some stuff from there, and I wanted to get document trays (actually, I was after the Swedish meatballs...). Singapore seems particularly small today. In the span of about an hour, I bumped into 8 people I know, each one on a separate occasion. This has got to be a new record. Walking into Bedok MRT station, I bumped into an old friend. At the MRT track, I saw a current colleague, but didn't say hi to her because she was busy handling her kid. Still at the MRT track, one of my current students saw me, came over to say hi, and asked if I am coming back to school on Sat. Hmmm...anyway, I replied her that I am not noble enough to do that, so I'd probably meet her next Mon. We made a slight detour to the butterfly trail at Alexandria Hospital. Crossing the road, I bumped into an ex-student (from my practicum school) going the opposite direction. Along the way to the trail, I bumped into one church friend; on the way back, I bumped into another. We detoured to Queensway Shopping Centre briefly, and I'm sure I will return again because there are so many shops which actually have male apparel. In the shopping centre, while waiting for Sherry who went for the ladies, I turned around and saw another ex-student inside the optician shop I was standing outside of, and she came out to talk to me. I still remember her name, fortunately. Then at Ikea, I saw an ex-colleague of mine from NIE. Small world. Too small!

I had consultations all the way from about 8.15 am to 12 pm. I finally met up with three of my weaker students from one class, who for some reason or another, I was unable to meet till now. I'm not exactly sure how much they have picked up or worked on, but I see some improvement in attitude and content at least, and I'm really glad for that. I believe that 'A' level miracles can be brought about by sheer hard work, and I eagerly anticipate to be surprised next year when the results are released.

Today's staff conference was a bit heavy in mood. Principal finally addressed some rumours that have been flying around the staff room as of late, and confirmed some of them. Our principal has received her official posting, and it's a promotion of sorts to become the Deputy Director of the English Lang and Lit unit (I think I remember correctly) next year, so she will be leaving. Now, I had not come in early enough to experience what it was like with the previous principals, which I heard leave little to be desired. However, I think my current principal is a dynamic powerhouse, willing and capable of making radical changes. According to my colleagues, almost all of the new things I see nowadays as compared to 9 years ago when I was a student here was pushed for by her. Whether infrastructure or work culture, she put quite a lot of beneficial things in place in her stay here. I have not interacted with her a lot so far, but what I know of her I respect, and I'm impressed by her super high-flyer status. It will be sad to see her go. Same goes for my deputy head IT. We have worked well together in the last year. I think the impact of hearing about their departure is greater after sending off an entire batch of students just yesterday. Sigh.

Inbetween the principal's talk and the farewell concert, I managed to squeeze out enough time to go finish up my admin work. Doing purchasing with the GeBiz system is a really tedious process. Argh. The farewell concert was really fun. The GP department put up a really entertaining item, and we had the regular performance by the band and modern dance club. It would have been more enjoyable had I not watched them both during the Open House. The tutors' main gripe with the concert was the part where they allow students to come up on stage to say a few words, which somehow became very long and draggy after a while. Personally, I was shocked at the rudeness of a student to the compere when she refused to leave the stage till she finished what she had to say, even though we were clearly running short of time. By the time they were all done, the students were obviously bored and restless.

At that point, ZH and I realized that our item would not have as strong an impact because of the break in mood. In any case, when it was our turn, we went up on stage too early in a way, and the crew was setting up all the mikes for us. A student from my sports class said that the class cheered for me but I didn't acknowledge them (but that's because I didn't hear them...oops). Then it all kinda went wrong from there. After ZH started playing the guitar, he was to lead into the first song, whereupon we discovered that his mike was not working! I motioned (must have looked unsightly...argh) to the control room to up the volume, but something was still wrong. When it reached the line that he was supposed to sing, no voice came through, and I quickly filled in for him. I knew from then on, there would be problems, because usually after his guitar intro, he would start the song to lead us in. As expected, since no one could hear him, we all went into the various songs in the medley a little off. By the time we reached our spoof of Tong Hua, I told a colleague to sing with me, because by right, ZH and I were supposed to take the two lines (with the highest note), and I was freaking out by then. ZH had a wealth of experience taking part in singing competitions and all, but I had nothing. I think what was running through my head at that point was the thought "Oh no, I'm going to go off-key and make a fool of myself in front of the whole cohort...argh!"

The consolation was that on the stage, I absolutely could not hear myself. I asked some colleagues and students later if I went off-key, but they said no, so I hope nothing went wrong. Poor ZH again. He was pissed right from the start, because, other than the malfunctioned mike, the stage crew did not have a score stand (is this the term?) for him, and he had to put his lyrics and chords on the floor. Considering that he more or less put the whole thing together, with a couple of us helping him out a lot, the fact that he couldn't sing must have irked him a lot. The thing that irked me was that I couldn't trace the problem even after I went to confront my crew. It seemed to be a defective mike, but I'm annoyed that they had not tried to remedy the situation with a new mike.

My happy class invited me to join them for lunch. Their civics tutor was there too, and we ended up at the Pizza Hut at Siglap. It was very, very amusing to eat with that whole class. One group of girls was camera-crazy, taking pictures of themselves almost everywhere they went. In school, on the bus to Siglap, at Pizza Hut. They are a really lively bunch, and I know I will miss them a lot, even in the coming weeks when they hide themselves at home and mug all day. At that point in time, it dawned on me what job fulfilment means to a teacher: it is about witnessing the growth of individuals, knowing that you are involved in the molding process, and seeing the fingerprints of your touch upon them, even if the clues of it were merely written in some appreciation card or letter. It's almost like parenting, I'm guessing - the sadness that comes with the moment is one where you feel like you have nurtured them for so long, and now is the time to let them spread their wings and fly away somewhere, to a better place, even if it means leaving your side.

Bleah. I'm getting sentimental.

They took a lot of photos, and I'm waiting for them to send them over to me before I blog some. They did get scolded by a member of the public for making too much noise though. Some things never change. Haha...Sigh. I'm gonna miss them. All three classes of them.

In the evening, Evie (sometimes referred to as Evan on my blog too), Dawn and I went to Ikoi Restaurant at Miramar Hotel for dinner. I think if I go back again, I would pick a Sunday noon like the last time I went with Huijun, because when we went today, we were only given a table from 6 to about 8 pm. Fortunately, the food came pretty fast once we ordered it, so we had a good 1.5 hours of good food. I still think the sashimi at Ikoi is excellent, although somehow I think today's quality seemed to be worse than the previous time I was there. Maybe I had set a high expectation unknowingly. Hmmm. Here's the sashimi, and I had it all to myself! Bwahaha.

















Under the lighting of the place, my camera phone really doesn't do the food justice. Anyway there was a mixture of salmon, snapper, tuna, yellow-tail, swordfish, octopus and squid in there. Variety in the menu is more limited than IGen at Siglap, which Evie and I went to last time round with Lena. Tempura was fantastic though, especially the ebi (prawn), when it came in the first order. We ordered a second round of tempura, but it was not as tasty the second time. I figured that maybe they wanted us to leave already, because it was nearly eight, and there was another batch of customers coming in. We also had udon, ramen, handrolls, chawan mushi, yakitori, teapot soup (I'm guessing), paper steamboat, sushi, and etc. However, I can't really get my money's worth in 1.5 hours, I reckon, especially if I'm paying $34 for it. Give me the whole Sunday afternoon, I'll probably be able to eat another plate of sashimi like the one in the picture at least. Hmmm, now that I think about it, no wonder one of my students who reads my blog commented that she thinks I go for good (read: costly) food often. It's probably just the way I rave about the food is that gives the illusion. Heh.

My first lesson of the day saw only 8 students in class, out of a class strength of 19 now. I wore an all black outfit today, along with my cross pendant (looks like clubbing attire to many), so one student in class asked me after greeting me, "Cher, tonight going clubbing ah?" I replied him with an absolutely straight face, "No, I went clubbing last night till 6 am, and came straight down." His jaw dropped, "Cher, really ah?" Bwahaha...of course joking lah! Even if I went clubbing to 6 am I would still bathe and get changed into something else. Heh.

My second lesson of the day saw 13 students out of 21. The exasperating thing is that the students who really need to be there are not. One of the major ironies of teaching life. They were asking me essentially the same thing, except that they thought I'm going out somewhere special to dress up in long sleeves, albeit folded up. Nobody seems to believe me when I say that it's merely because the weather's cooler today, so I can wear a long sleeved shirt without perspiring to death. On a more positive note, there are quite a few good comments about my outfit, from students and colleagues. Hmm...apparently, I should stick to G2000 shirts then. Suitable cutting for me!

The rest of the time was spent on consultations, administration, and other menial tasks. I think my level head is going to call for a meeting tomorrow to discuss planning for next year's programme for Temasek Academy. The major workload is coming in already, and with the Project Work written report marking coming in late October, I'm all psyched up to be having my hands full in weeks to come. Therefore, I am determined to have as much fun as I can possibly have this week. In the late afternoon, we had our full rehearsal for tomorrow's farewell concert. When I went solo at one part, I found my voice shaky, and I can't tell if it was stage fright or the ridiculously cold air-con in the audi today. ZH got pissed off again today by some colleague, and I can totally empathize. Poor guy...think too many people have been stepping on his toes lately. I wonder if our item will run smoothly tomorrow; ideally, we aim to make some students cry...hehe...I hope they have enough heart to be touched by our spoofed and normal songs; I know some of us tutors really put our feelings into it.

In the evening, I met Sherry for dinner at Tampines, before we met Jon and Lena for a movie. We went to catch The 40 Year Old Virgin. Be forewarned though, the language is crude, often vulgar, and there are some crude scenes, with some nudity. However, the show is hilarious! I like the humour, despite the crudeness of it, because it is not slapstick, and some of it is genuinely funny and at times, even subtle. What I like most about it is how the protagonist, who is obviously a virgin from the title, is made to look abnormal at the start of the show while his sex-perienced friends seem normal, and towards the end, he looks like the sanest and wiser man. Of course, if one can look past all the bad stuff, there is at least a silver lining of a good moral in the movie. In any case, it's still very funny. One of the more entertaining movies of late. I think I'll probably catch Deuce Bigalow next, despite knowing it will be cheesy and slapstick humour. I generally enjoy comedies.

Yesterday's cell group with my boys was interesting. One of my boys had some dispute with his parents, and he came to cell with a black face. Initially, he said he was tired when I asked him what was wrong, but I knew it was far beyond that. After I finally got him to share a bit more, I ministered and prayed over him. I'm really glad that he chose to open up eventually, and I feel like I've gotten to know him a little bit better through it. I'm equally glad that he shared it with the cell group, and I hope that such an atmosphere of openness and earnestness would develop in this cell of mine.

After service, five of us headed down to Bugis to play pool. It's been a long time since such a big group of us from my adult cell played pool together. I didn't play as well as the other day with shups! though. Against J, I did manage to clinch a few decent wins, but overall, I'm still far, far behind. As I was telling shups!, whether fortunately or unfortunately, I had set J's level as the next milestone to reach. Hmm maybe I should go and usurp the Billiards club in my school, and once I have the keys, I can go and practise every time I have a free period! Bwahaha.

Today I met up with Huijun for a movie. After much consideration, she decided she was willing to give The Myth a shot. Apparently, among all the girls I've asked about this movie, every single one has said some variation of "I don't like Jackie Chan". Reviews I've read have been fairly negative about the movie. However, I think the show was better than I expected. Sure, it isn't as fantastic as many of his earlier movies, but it is more entertaining than the recent Seven Swords, and House of Flying Daggers at least. I still find his fight scenes humourous, although this movie has a bit more blood than his shows normally have. Frankly, I think it's good that he has returned to chinese films. Besides Rush Hour (and sequel), Shanghai Noon (and sequel), Hollywood doesn't do him enough justice with too many special effects.

On my way there, I bumped into a sec sch friend on the bus. We were both headed to the same place. There was a change of timing in meeting Huijun, and my ex-classmate was way too early for gym. So we hung out at Heeren and chatted for quite a while. As we talked, I realized that I had lost contact with many sec sch friends already. Apparently, one by one is getting married as well. She was complaining about her boyfriend, and it reminded me of a long time ago when we were closer friends. It is interesting that there is a time and season for friendship as well. I just hope that there is greater permanence in my current friendships at least.

I had a long day yesterday. Two students booked a slot for consultation with me, but didn't show up! Fortunately, I had work to occupy me in the meantime, so I wasn't exactly waiting for them. I'll go question them on Mon as to what had happened. Hmm...Later in the morning, more vendors came. One vendor I was waiting for was very late, and two other vendors showed up without having made a prior appointment with me. It was quite messy at the start, and we couldn't quite begin the on-site survey until all the vendors were gathered. It was another hot and sweaty walk around the school, but this time round, without my deputy head IT, I had to brief the vendors on the important details. The good thing was that I had a good enough memory to remember most of the details, but the bad thing was that I didn't have enough background technical know-how actually. At least the vendors who came down this time didn't ask many technical queries, else I am sure I would have been panicking.

For lunch, my colleague Mrs Lim brought us to this coffee shop in Joo Chiat area. I didn't pay attention to the road, stall or coffee-shop name (argh! wasted) though. We had teochew porridge, and ordered dishes such as prawn fritters, pig trotters, mussels, 2 plates of kangkong, and a red snapper, shared by 7 of us. The cost came up to $62, which I think was quite reasonable, considering we ordered a fish. The main thing though was that the food was excellent! I can always trust Mrs Lim's recommendation; she's the kind of person who would drive to anywhere in Singapore just to eat the best of a particular food, therefore, her repertoire of recommended places has never yet disappointed. It helps that her sister is just like her too, so between the two of them, I'm pretty sure that they have eaten at most parts of Singapore already. Anyway, the food was great - the snapper was fresh, the mussels too, and the kangkong was the best I've tasted in zi char so far. The vegetables weren't soggy, and there is slight crisp to it with a pleasant wok smell and taste. Good stuff there. Too bad I wouldn't know how to get there myself though. The place seems closeted in the midst of a private estate and shophouses.

In the afternoon, it was TJC Open House. I think this year we drew in a pretty big crowd, and the whole place was extremely lively. There were enjoyable performances put up by the various performing arts groups at the atrium, and the art exhibition at the Scope drew a lot of visitors too. I was anchoring myself at the Auditorium most of the time though, because principal was giving a talk there. Many things screwed up during the first round of the talk, and my crew was scolded by a colleague. However, I think it wasn't their fault that they were not given a schedule of the different items in the one-hour talk, and that they inserted events totally last minute. Another colleague who was overall in charge of the open house came by, and she told us that she herself didn't know why the talk was so different from originally planned. I've always commented that the AVC is sai gang (direct translation: shit job), along with many other service clubs. It is an underappreciated club when things are progressing fine, and when things go wrong, the AVC always get the blame. I have little wonder why my club this year had only 8 members once MOE scrapped the PEARLs system, which gave incentives for serving in a service club. Next year's recruitment drive will be tough. Sigh.

Right after the open house ended at 6 pm, I accompanied Sherry to the alpha course. The topic for this session was quite heavy: "how to resist evil", but again I think Nicky Gumbel in the video brought out many salient points that bring a different perspective to me. Overall, I think I've benefitted a lot from being in the course as well. We went for supper at blk 85 afterwards, with colleagues Jon and Lena joining us. I finally bumped into Bao and friends there! I've always thought that they do go there for supper on many occasions, and I was just expecting to see them there sooner or later. Supper was sumptuous! We had BCM, oyster omelette and sambal stingray. Shiok! I think I will be feeling particularly fat every Sat till the alpha course is over. Heh.

Today was my last lesson with one of my classes, and it began with glitches. The computer labs where a few classes were supposed to be having lessons were not opened! I suspect it's likely the fault of the One Man (words are chosen to have special meaning in the acronym) again. After that was settled, then we realized that the air-con wasn't switched on. Bleah. Anyway, I went into extra time of remediation, and some chit-chatting. I think I'm gonna miss the whole lot of them, down to even the unresponsive ones, once all my classes go into hibernation for 'A's. After that, it was more consultations, all the way till almost lunchtime where Jon and I met my AVC president and vice-president to discuss some work stuff. I told them we would be giving them a treat in Nov, considering that they are a bare 9 member team handling all the AV requests of the college. They have worked hard enough to deserve a treat, I am sure.

Jon managed to get his dad's car today again, so we went down to Parkway Parade to have lunch at the food court. We also went to Yakun to takeaway some coffee, went to V Hive to look for foldable chairts, and then to popular to buy some stationery. The problem was that I was late for a tech rehearsal for the farewell concert next week! When I called ZH, he was pretty pissed, but not at me exactly, but rather that many are not taking the thing as seriously as he wants them to, I reckon. In the end, I managed to herd the rest of the teachers I could get hold of down to the auditorium. We did two dry runs in the presence of some students who were performing as well, and the spoof songs really got them laughing hard. However, considering the difficulty of the songs (high notes), ZH has arrowed me to take some little parts solo alongside him. Now, despite my current interest in karaoke, I think singing in front of (hopefully) 600+ students is no joke. I think I will get stage fright, honestly. But I do appreciate ZH's faith in a rookie like me.

I met shups! for dinner in the evening, and we went for pool after. Too bad J wasn't free to join us. I enjoyed today's games particularly because my placing was more accurate today. If only J was there to witness the improvement! Haha. We started off on par, then she went on a winning streak, but after one game where she got in the white ball along with the black, I took over the winning streak all the way to when we left the place. My best shot of the day: cutting the black ball that is parked at the wall across 7/8 of the table into the pocket. I think I played well today. Heh. If not for some inconsistencies, I could have been real gooood. I still need more practice!

The earlier part of today was marked by minor frustrations. Now, the year 2 students are currently under post-prelim timetable, and we were instructed to book venues and timeslots for 1 extra lesson with each class if we wanted to. So most of the tutors did, as far as I can tell. Unknown to us, project work oral presentations are taking place today and tomorrow, and they have booked all the venues in the general office block, many of which we had previously booked for the year 2 students! Now the weird thing is, I dunno which timetable or schedule either group of us were referring to, but they were seriously not in sync. So in the light of a clash of venues, we had to give way and at a few points of the day, one can see nomadic herds of students with a frantic teacher searching for greener pastures in the new block. I can trace the problem to possibly one man, whom I have too frequently complained about, so I shall spare him today, because he was somewhat cooperative later on.

I had free ice cream to eat before lunch, but the gift came by under upsetting circumstances. Now ZH and I happen to teach one same class, and right after my lesson was his lesson. I took that herd of students to the new block, and in the next period, his lesson was in Siberia, which we 'affectionately' term the IP (integrated programme) block, which is at the other end of the campus. I released the class on time, with a handful of students staying behind to ask questions. Now, on Wednesdays, sometimes an ice cream man comes in to sell ice cream, parking himself outside the audi, which is next to the new block. This class which I dismissed ended up buying ice cream, even though it was up to 15 min into ZH's lesson! Unfortunately they were out of my line of vision, else I would have rounded them up and sent them scooting. The more unfortunate thing for them is that ZH came by, saw them buying ice cream, and left in a fury. They tried to atone by buying him ice cream, but he refused to eat it, and gave to me. I can understand his frustration. 1 month before 'A's, and they can still be so carefree about things. It was his last lesson with the class, and they regarded it so flippantly, especially those students he thinks need help the most. The more frustrating thing was that ZH argued with two teachers and the OM just to hang on to the classroom, and no one showed up. I'll be mad too, if that happened to me. I've never seen him this upset before, and no matter how I tried to cheer him out of it, it didn't work.

In the late afternoon, I sweated myself silly, bringing some vendors around the school along with my deputy head IT to see where they can install more wireless access points. Somehow, strangely enough, although now I have fewer lessons to teach, I feel busier than normal. All these nitty-gritty things are menial, do not require much brain power to do, but boy, do they exhaust a lot of time! I can't remember exactly how, but someone offhandedly mentioned that the students' lounge now housed a pool table. Last year when I first came into TJC, I noted that the room had three billiards tables, so I was skeptical. A colleague got excited about it, and we went down to check it out. Apparently, the pool table came in only this year, and it's a 9 ft table! Woohoo! Granted, the balls haven't been polished, and the cloth wasn't particularly smooth, but it is still a lot better than many outside places. And it's free! The only thing is, students will be there, so there is a compulsion not to lose face. Also, I don't feel good knowing that the students will probably give us, the teachers, priority to play, despite that it is us 'invading' their territory. I watched the students finish their game before my colleague and I had one game, and I think they were pretty good. In fact, I'm not even sure if I can confidently beat them. In fact, the students in the club are being trained by a schoolmate who is in the junior (under 21?) national team. However, I am setting my sights on the Nov holidays where students will not be around, but many of us teachers will. Now how do I get hold of the keys to the place...?

I had a network meeting in the evening. Today's subject was about work, and I thought the teaching was fantastic! I haven't fully processed it, but it changed a little bit of my paradigm. At the end of it, pastor YC spoke about the recent issue about teachers evangelising, which seems to be getting some media attention, which triggered off some thoughts. I do not think I would be so foolhardy as to share the gospel right smack in the classroom, but to remove spirituality from my influence of them is impossible. How do I interact with students and divorce the very essence of my lifestyle, beliefs, morals and principles in the interaction? Every right thing I teach them to do outside of academics stem from a belief system that has been shaped by Christian values. How could that be separated? In that sense, every teacher who follows some religion will inadvertently impart something to the students. The teacher is not an information dispensing robot, and values will be exchanged through prolonged interaction for sure. Even a teacher who does not follow a religion is imparting some form of belief still - that of Godlessness. And if I truly, truly believe in my faith, and acknowledge all the good things that have arisen from it, why would I not want to share it with my students, who are as dear to me as friends may be?

A relatively short day in school today. I had mainly consultations, and I was looking through my manuscript of my poetry. I had finally stopped procrastinating and sent some emails out to a few publishers. So far, it seems particularly challenging, since one of them who replied said the company had stopped publishing poetry because there is too small a market here in Singapore. Unfortunately, I know that is true. Yet, it's an unrealized dream I have, and even if I am going to get turned down by all the publishers, at least I must know I have tried. I will commit this little project to the Lord, and trust that He who gave me the talent will one day open the door for me to get the poems published. I suppose my job is to keep trying.

I came across this interesting software Google Earth, which appears to be some program that can zoom into any locale on the globe via satellite. Actually it kinda reminds me of the show Enemy of the State years back, but anyway, the image doesn't seem to be in real time, and I am still wondering if it's really a satellite image or a 3D rendered image. I managed to find...TJC!





















I took the liberty of labelling the visible landmarks of the college! The picture is a little dark probably because the sky was overcast...I think. And I found my block! Woohoo~





















How cool is that? Bwahaha. From an aerial view, my place seems quite nice! It's actually near water! Ooh waterfront living! Yeah, right. Heh.

The colleague who claims she is the superbug who infected 6, and as of today 7, of us is on MC today. Apparently it went one round back to her, and she's down with flu again. We theorize that by the time it hit the last of us, the strain of virus had already mutated to some new strain that went back to her. Of course, without scientific proof.

I feel somewhat exasperated. From the past week till now, two students who I really want to talk to because I'm very worried about them have vanished from school completely, which adds to the worry, and now frustration. I can only hope and assume that when they played truant, they were in fact at home mugging. Otherwise, I think they are in deep trouble. I met up with the student who cried over the phone yesterday after lessons. She and her friend were looking for me to ask me questions about TYS. Just like last week, other than covering the essential chemistry stuff, we also talked a lot about other things, and I managed to uncover the reasons behind her stress. What a difference I can possibly make in each life that opens up to me, even just a little! I don't know if I talked her out of her stress, but at least I know my encouragement cheered her up a bit. Call me idealistic, but I still feel that this ought to be the kind of work I should be doing, other than just dumping them loads of chemistry stuff.

I was reading this letter to the forum by an upset parent that questioned a teacher's use of MSN to converse with her friend's daughter, specifically to ask the girl to visit his church (in Suntec) and that she should make up her own mind to go, and not be limited by the parent's disapproval. Obviously MOE's stand is that teachers should not bear any form of religious agenda, which is the expected response, but I think partly why the parent was so upset was that the teacher insinuated disobedience in a way. The main thing I was looking at though was that MOE views that a teacher's influence in a student's life does and should go beyond the academic and the school hours, which that parent strongly feels should be where it ends. That is a relief; I do interact with my students sometimes over MSN. Technology should be properly utilized for good purposes anyway. If a teacher's role is strictly to teach subject content, and not be human and humane towards the students in his charge, the school would be so clinical. As far as I can tell, a teacher's influence at the right moment in time sometimes can achieve wonders that a parent is unable to, simply because of the role he has. The view conveyed in the letter, in my (teacher) perspective, is myopic and over-protective - exactly the descriptors that I have come to associate with many parents these days.

In the evening, I was heading down to Marine Parade. I decided to take an alternative route, and hopped onto bus 16. That was a grave mistake! The moment the bus turned into that long curved road towards the Indoor Stadium, it was jammed all the way. I suddenly remembered...it's Michael Buble's concert tonight there. What was a usual 5 min ride past the place became closer to 20 min. I met Sherry for ice cream at Gelare, an impromptu meeting, and hung out a while. Nice, breezy night to hang out. The sky was dreadfully overcast though. I saw a lot of cats today though, and even at the lift landing of my block on my floor, there was a timid-looking grey cat curled up near a big PVC pipe. I've seen the cat walk past my door a few times, but it doesn't seem to be owned by anyone on my floor though.

It dawned on me what turbulent times we are in right now, and I'm only looking at the natural disasters. Since the tsunami last year, we have had hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a major earthquake in Pakistan with another big death toll, and right now, another hurricane (Stan) that hit Guatemala caused landslides that are suspected to have buried thousands. Terrifying death tolls indeed. This is a year of relief efforts, in essence.

Hmm...suddenly I wonder if it's safe to be travelling abroad.

I met Sherry in the evening and headed down to ai4 qin2 hai3 (literal translation: love piano ocean?) at Marina Square. The last time we meant to go, we got sidetracked and ended up at k box. So today, we were more focused. The last time I was there was in junior college days, if I remember correctly, which was close to a decade ago! Today's singers were quite good. There was one lady singer, who was only there for the first half. There were two guys, one at the piano, one (rarely) at the guitar. The guitarist guy had the best voice, I reckon, but he was quite a joker personality. I didn't like my orange milkshake much, because I think they used some powdered form of milk for it, but the chicken nuggets were excellent! They were so crispy I think they beat MacDonald's by a long mile. Anyway, it was quite a relaxing time, listening to other people sing. If I wasn't down with flu though, I would have opted for karaoke, of course. Bwahaha. If only I could sing as well as those people. Ah well, looks like of all the talents that God bestowed upon me, a good voice and musical flair aren't included. Then again, I haven't really tried my hand at music, so for all I know...hmm....

A student just smsed me, asking for honest advice as to whether she should retain a year. Now, she has not been performing well thus far, but I know she has been trying very hard lately, and she has been seeing me for consultation along with one of her classmates. I was going to message her my reply (that she should give it a shot), but suddenly I sensed that something isn't right. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit's wisdom or something, but I decided to give her a call instead. I asked her why she would suddenly ask me something like that, and she told me she didn't know. It then dawned upon me what the issue was, so I asked her, "Are you alright? Are you feeling overly stressed out?" That opened a floodgate of tears, and I could hear her sobbing. The male brain suddenly froze and wondered what to do next. In any case, before I can say anything, she said she would call me later and hung up. It wrenches my heart to see or hear a woman cry, especially if it's a friend or kin, and I guess I can now safely add student to that list.

I think I would assume a female student wouldn't want to cry in front of (even if it's over the phone) a male teacher, and it's not because I mishandled it or something. I also think that I should sign up for the next counselling course available for teachers. The current generation of students seem particularly fragile, and it would be wise to be better equipped to help them. Sigh. Currently, two of my students had already pulled out of the 'A's, and I have been hearing from my various colleagues of many more such cases from their own classes, and I really wonder about the cause of it all.

In fact, looking at the current hullabaloo about the PSLE maths exam, I am seriously beginning to think that the fragile spirit or lack of resilience of the current generation of youths isn't because the kids are weak, or too distracted by having so much technology to play with, and etc, but it's purely the over-protectiveness of the parents. Pure handholding, spoonfeeding, and coddling. So what if the paper is tougher? Or has some questions that are too difficult? If the whole nation of students feel the same way, it is no loss to anyone in particular. It's precisely because Cambridge exams seem to be getting easier, and we are seeing an increasing number of students who get straight 'A's, but in reality, aren't of that high a calibre, that worries me. I am guessing that it worries the government too, because we are producing really exam-smart students who are so drilled into answering Ten Year Series (which is probably why they can't apply concepts to a question that looks alien to them, like this PSLE maths exam) that they can perform really well in exams, but have little creative thought, or are able to think out of the box, or are capable of lateral and flexible thinking - and all these are the traits that employers are looking for, but have been known to complain about, regarding the Singaporean student/graduate in general.

After all the ruckus kicked up by the parents, I am now absolutely convinced that the current direction pushed in teaching, especially with all the through-train programmes, is really the right way to go. I shall embrace my role next year in my school's through-train programme with greater fervour.

I survived cell group and church service without dozing off, despite my heavy head, blocked nose and nasal voice. In fact, I still have enough energy to jump around during praise and worship. As time goes by, I feel that I know less and less of other people. Something is inherently very, very wrong. I can feel it in the air, but I just can't place it. I can still vaguely recall the couple of times I visited my ex's previous church, and the atmosphere of friendliness is so...differently warm. I think I am forging good friendships with my cell group brothers, and getting to know my own boys better along the way, but beyond that, right now if you ask me, I would honestly say, I don't know the rest well enough, and I don't give a damn about it. I've grown tired of trying to smile and wave to people I thought I'm supposed to know, but whose field of vision seem to less than 10 degrees wide. To me, it is painfully ironic to see the people so enthusiastic and friendly, rushing to greet a newcomer or visitor, and yet so cold and distant to acquaintances and friends. Or maybe the friendship never existed in the first place, and I was just being gullible and over optimistic. I'm happy that the church is moving to Expo, I really am, but I foresee that instead of the good that now two different venues of people are brought together, I think the sheer size of the place will make us more estranged from one another. I really hope I am just hallucinating all these impressions, but even in the least, I feel that when I drop by shups!' side in the NTU ministry, I am greeted with more warmth than my own network, or just TCT in general. It just feels wrong. Dead wrong. And the unfortunate thing is, I honestly don't think I am the problem. It would be so much easier, and even comforting to know, if it was just me.

After service, I went to play pool with J. It's been only one week since we last played, but it feels so long ago. Today's game was so erratic. I was consistently good with the tougher shots, but goofed up too many times on the simple shots. It was frustrating, but at least today I won two games against J. Sadly, the statistics had went down horribly low against me in recent games. The last couple of times we played, I lost to J completely. Neither of us know what has gone wrong lately. And I don't attribute my flu to be the cause of the problem.

I have been suffering from having a blocked nose the whole day. In fact, in the day, my right nostril was blocked, and later in the night, the left nostril took over to be blocked. J had jio-ed me for k box on Sat morning, but looking at the state of my nose, I would not want to be singing with a horribly nasal voice. Sigh. Karaoke will have to wait for a better time.

In the morning, there was another IT Comm meeting, this time regarding installation of more wireless access points in the school. I foresee that over the next few weeks, this is another thing I'll be busy with. I also foresee that I may have to return to college during the holidays on some occasions to check on the installation progress. More work! I submitted another request for quotations for this project, and I think my phone will keep ringing next week as well. This week, my phone was very busy because of the vendors calling to fix a day to see the auditorium for an on-site survey; I regret not subscribing to a plan with free incoming calls. Today, an impressive ten of us colleagues went out for lunch together. However, I could not savour my meal for long, as one vendor I was supposed to meet after lunch came down 40 min too early, and I had to rush back to college for him. Anyway, it was this friendly chap I met a few months when he came down to do a demo for visualizers.

I accompanied Sherry to the Alpha course in the evening, and I must say, Nicky Gumbel's illustrations and examples in the video were really good. Even as I sit through the teachings, I'm trying to capture some of the good parts, hopefully able to use them in ministry or in teaching my boys. After the session, we headed down to blk 85 market to eat BCM, shups!' gang's acronym for Bak Chor Mee (minced meat noodles). We hung around talking from 10+ to almost 2 am in the morning! After eating the famous BCM a few times, I'm beginning to like it a lot; originally, I didn't particularly fancy it, largely due to the fact that I seldom eat BCM in the first place. I suppose that's why I'm here groggily blogging so 'early' in the morning.

Today is packed with consultations! The oddest one is when a student asked me to prove the equation for surface area of a sphere. Haha Lena's frequent error may be in fact correct! I am a maths teacher! Bwahaha. Ok just because I still remember my 'A' level maths doesn't make me qualified to teach maths, nor does the fact that I'm sitting right smack in the midst of the maths department. I had a fun session with the maths teachers today though. There's a farewell concert coming up on 18th October for the year twos, and I have been roped in to join a group of teachers who would be singing by virtue of a spoof song I wrote in March, led by none other than ZH. We will be performing a medley of songs, out of which two are heavy spoofs. In fact, we wrote one today as we were practising! The content was so funny that we were laughing the whole way through. After the concert, I'll try to remember to post it up. Hehe...

Still bitten by flu bug though. Joining the practice session today, I realized that my sore throat is recovering, since I could sing along and hit the higher notes, but after my nap just now in the evening, I realized the deadly blocked nose has hit me. Tomorrow I shall teach with a nasal voice. Sigh.

Today was a long day, and packed! I started the day with an IT Committee meeting, and we were testing out different models of tablet laptops. This year's through-train students have purchased Toshiba's tablet PCs, but for next year, the brand to recommend is still unknown. It's a tough fight during the evaluation, and we are still going to sit on it for a few more days. When will I get my tablet PC? I'm going to teach Temasek Academy (TA), our name for through-train programme, next year, so I'm bugging my IT deputy head for a tablet PC. Technically, all the TA tutors are supposed to be allocated tablets, for the sake of convenience of teaching. I want mine too! Bwahaha.

Immediately following the meeting, I had three periods of tutorials straight. In the end, it turned out to be two. Apparently, I had forgotten to remind one class that there's an additional tutorial slot for them today. I distinctly thought I mentioned it last week during the tutorial though. In any case, the second tutorial spilled over a lot because a couple of students stayed behind to ask me questions. By the time I returned to the staff room, I had about a short 15 min break before the chemistry lecture. Today's lecture was for going through the structured questions. Actually, my allocated marking was two relatively small parts of two different questions. In stark contrast, one colleague offered to discuss the part I marked because she sees a hassle getting me to come up just to talk about one 3-mark part after her; the other colleague insisted otherwise. A colleague Tearle was very amused, and laughingly commented, 'xin ku ni le' (hard on you), because under normal circumstances, most of us would have just gone through the whole question ourselves, and skipped the changing of tutors, if we marked the major bulk of the question. At the end of the lecture, some of my students came by to squeeze some more marks out, because they were on the verge of making a higher grade, and another student was asking about chemical engineering course. By the time I made it back to the staff room, I had about 15 min to go out for a late lunch and come back, because there was a tea session with the higher-ups in place of staff conference. Fortunately, Jon and Lena gamely accompanied me, eating equally hastily, though they had no need to rush. The day ended only after the 1.5 hr brainstorming tea session was over, and in the whole day combined, I only saw a half an hour break in total. Argh. Not a good day at all, especially considering I'm still flu-bugged. Bleah.

After school, I went down to Bedok with Sherry, who wanted to grab a bite. Essentially, I was heading to her house to borrow a power drill to install my chin-up bar, which her dad graciously lent me. Inbetween, we dropped by Bedok library to grab some Tim Burton's Corpse Bride postcards. When I went in through the cafe portion, I saw a familiar face, which I placed to be someone from my practicum school (Queenstown), especially after he addressed me as 'Mr Low', and I don't remember seeing him in TJ at all. But he was studying in a library in Bedok! Being uncertain, I said, "Hmm...you look very familiar." He confirmed that he was my student from QTSS. Suddenly, last year's practicum seemed like a long time ago in the past. How odd. There was another student with him, this nice Indian chap, from a neighbouring class, who remembered my face, and the three of us started chatting a bit. It's a small world after all, again. Apparently, my former student's cousin is from TJ, and the cousin is giving them tuition help because they are in the midst of their 'N' levels. Sherry, meanwhile, had walked past and walked on to find the postcards, and here's the punchline of the day: the Indian chap asked me, "Mr Low, what you doing here? You out with your grandma ah?" Sherry = grandma? -_-???Bwahahahaha. Of course, when she came back, he saw for himself her young face, and recoiled in embarrassment. That got me in stitches laughing, even when I told (a very upset) Sherry later.

Laughter is indeed good medicine, especially for tiredness. Nevertheless, I managed to borrow an electric drill. I was hoping that the set would come with a philips screwdriver bit, but it didn't. So I had to do it the old-fashioned way by drilling a hole for the screws first, before manually screwing in the last cm into the still surprisingly hard wood. It is finished! My chin-up bar is now the sentry to my bedroom. Now that it's conveniently there, I will go do some chin-ups as and when I feel like it every day! I will ensure that it would not turn out to be a white elephant and collect dust, and clear my IPPT from next year (maybe even this year, hopefully not too late to start training now) onwards at least. Yeah~ In any case, I'll still have to shelve my fitness ambitions till I recover from this irritating flu, which has successfully confined me to bed this evening. Sigh.

I feel sickly today. I think the sore throat is just a small part of the big picture - flu! Apparently one colleague who fell sick a couple of weeks back suspects she is the superbug who has infected about 5 of us in the chem department. My level head kenna the worse. One colleague has headache the whole day today, another was coughing and sneezing, another had a lot of phlegm built up, and I have the sore throat, cough, and heavy head (i.e. flu lethargy). Mightily contagious flu bug this one is. Urgh.

I signed up for a destressing course held in the school by some external counsellors/facilitators. There were some icebreaker games, and they used art (drawing) as a means to relieve stress by expressing the stress pictorially. The facilitators were rather good, but overall, I think I generally manage stress well enough not to be bothered by it, so for me, it was just for the sake of fun, relaxation, and the company that I was there in the first place.

I had to do stocktaking today, which wrapped up surprisingly fast, and from tomorrow onwards, I would have to meet quite a few vendors who would be coming down for an on-site survey of the school auditorium in order to sell us a suitable high-powered projector. Anyway I see a mountain pile of work coming up through now to November, but I'm powerless right now to do anything about it, because the work is all bottle-necked somewhere else that I can't touch. At this point, I think I feel like the Titanic headed straight for that iceberg.

In the late afternoon, I went to Parkway Parade with Sherry. She was looking to buy shoes (again, a fruitless trip), and I bought, at last, a chin-up bar that can be installed upon the door frame. I went back happily, took out everything in the package, and thought that I could manually get the screws into the wood. I have apparently grossly overestimated my strength. The wood was hard! Grrr. To think Benruth told me the installation would not need a power drill; his door frame has probably been infested by termites or something. So now the bracket hangs there with screws half exposed, waiting to be rescued by some Black and Decker machine. Ugly. Positively unsightly.

Highlight of today: chem department lunch! We went down to this restaurant by the name of Gourmet Plus at Frankel Ave. Too bad a couple of colleagues couldn't join us for the meal though. I think the colleagues who went there a couple of weeks back raved about it so much that they set high expectations in the rest of us. The food wasn't disappointing, but I think we were expecting to be bowled over perhaps. The appetizers were quite good. The mozarella cheese with tomatos I had was good (the cheese was nice), but someone else's breaded mushrooms were delicious! The main course steak was not bad at all, but it wasn't spectacular. But the climax of it all, the creme brulee was fabulous. I think it would have tasted more heavenly if the careless waiters had not left it out sitting for so long and forgetting to serve us dessert, serving the concluding coffee and tea instead, hence receiving a minor thumbs down for service, in my opinion. A picture of the steak here...
















I went home to change out of constrictive work attire, and met Sherry at Bugis to go shopping. She wanted to look for shoes, but in the end, it was me who ended up buying a t-shirt. Hmm...when should I wear it? I'm still considering another polo tee, but it costs $39...tough decision there. After the fruitless (for her) shopping, we ended up going to Ajisen Dining at the corner of Bugis Junction. It has openly fairly recently, with a conveyor belt system not unlike Sakae Sushi (personal note to self: Sakae Sushi seems to be my current benchmark for average quality jap food). The price is within the same range as Sakae and Suki Sushi, and the quality and range likewise. The salmon roe though did not taste like drain water (not that I've tasted drain water though...hmmm) as those I tried from Sakae before, but then again, it could be one isolated experience.

We then rushed down to meet Lena at Bedok, because we were running kinda late by the time we caught the train. The three of us were going to watch Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (that's the full name actually, not just 'Corpse Bride', which sounds like some horror flick) at, all of places, Princess cinema. Of course, after going there and watching the show, I suspended my initial negative response to the neighbourhood cinema. It was pretty clean, just that the chairs did not have that good a backrest (for the head, more or less), and the sound wasn't very sharp. I liked the show a lot! I really appreciated the wittiness of the humour, and I think at many points, I was the only one laughing in the cinema. I would dismiss my slight embarrassment by assuming the other cinema-goers were not witty enough to catch the humour of the sharp dialogue. I would probably have laughed more if the sound was clearer and I could clearly pick out what they were saying and singing. Ah well, it's still a pretty good deal for a movie ticket price of $5, cleanly $2 below the 'exhorbitant' (quoting Lena) prices charged by other cinemas. Anyway, the movie has a neat storyline with a easily-guessed but sweet conclusion. The inherent humour is very good in my opinion, and it is particularly impressive considering that this is stop-motion animation, which relies on posable and expressive figurines instead of hand drawings or computer graphics.

After the relatively short movie (maybe 1 hr and 15 min?), we decided that it was too early to call it a day, so we headed off to some coffee shop for supper and kopi. We chatted for about two hours there, which was entertaining in itself. By then, I had missed the last bus most probably, so I took a cab home. Interesting enough, though my cab fare hit $9.35, when I gave the cab driver $10, he gave me $2 change with a big smile. I'm pretty sure he didn't misread the fare, so I'm surprised at the generosity. Actually, come to think of it, when I was at the FreshBox at the Edge upstairs of Bugis Junction, I was trying out quite a number of pieces of clothes, but the salesgirl was very friendly and still full of smiles. In fact, I think I found myself a hassle more than she did. Therefore, all things considered, I think I see more examples of good service than bad ones on an average day of shopping. I think it's just that the bad examples leave a bitter taste in the mouth and probably stay in the memory more distinctly, giving rise to the impression that our service industry is just baaaad. I still remember last week's Sunday Times when the reporter went 'undercover' in a shoe shop and a restaurant, and had first-hand experience of bad customers, writing about them in his article. I would agree with him that bad customers are more frequent an occurence than bad service industry people; after all, the former are way larger in numbers.

I'm following the news again on the recent Bali bombings. Frankly, I didn't expect that it would happen again. Only a couple of weeks back, my blood brudders and I were discussing about a possible end of year trip, probably to hit some beach resort. We were shortlisting options, and by the time we came to Bali, blood brudder SF was commenting that we should consider safer places. I commented, on the other hand, that I didn't think terrorists would bother bombing the same place twice. Apparently, I am very wrong. Possibly very naive too. I realize the news coverage these days are getting more and more sensational. From a different perspective, I could, of course, see it as more realism. I think years ago, it seemed taboo to show gore of any kind. Cameramen seem to have filtered off any disturbing or bloody scenes. These days, it seems to be the reverse. The media seems more than happy to show all forms of devastation. In any case, while the damage is not as severe as the previous bombing, I'm sure that this, being the second occurence, will cause a bigger media furore. Especially since reportedly, information about a threat of bombing of Bali was received two days before it happened.

Argh! Full fledged sore throat! Yeah, I know it's a common occurence, but still, tomorrow some of us are treating the chem department to a good meal. I want to be able to enjoy the food. Sigh. I shall gulp down a few gallons of water now...

I just noticed the advertisements for CMC (Community Mediation Centre) on TV. My goodness, they have to set up a centre for that in Singapore? Frankly, I think this might add to the list of items that put Singapore on the world map in areas of being laughing-stocks. The whole Joo Chiat fiasco has already escalated to a disgusting level over the past year, and the media has successfully picked up the trail of some other baaaad neighbours elsewhere. However, I could not have anticipated that the government would be this concerned to set up a centre to do mediation between neighbours, or at least, that's what the advert seems to suggest to me. I do see the government's good intentions in that, of course, but I think it goes down the road of coddling. I wonder if there are enough bad neighbours in the country to give continual 'business' to CMC? Hmm I would not want to be proven naively wrong in this supposition too; if so, it would be a sad, sad thing indeed.

Today's post will be a long one, because today is a long day.

I woke up at 7 am this morning, and headed down to Chinatown. It's Touch Community Services (TCS) flag day today! Three of my boys volunteered to join my cell group to do flag day, and we aimed to start at 8 am. I'm proud of my boys for showing commitment to such a cause despite them being right smack in the midst of their end-of-year exams. Every year, doing TCS flag day always serves as a moment of humbling. To be standing there for hours, perspiring to death (maybe it's just me) in the hot sun, and asking people to donate money for charity is one kind of experience. I have always wondered if it's to let us experience rejection to understand Jesus' sufferings better - to be ignored, given queer looks, steered clear of by a long mile, waved off, frowned at, and etc. However, on a more positive note, I would say that there is a large number of people who donated, and most of them gave either 50c or $1, the latter being more common! Somehow, after so many years, I really think this year I see more generosity than the past couple of years at least. Or maybe it's the location. I like my boy's greeting 'speech' which went, "Hi, would you like to make a donation? We're not related to NKF." It got me laughing the first time I heard it.

Every year, I learn the same precious lessons:

1. Never ever judge a book by its cover. Most of the time, the people you see and think they look like they will donate, they don't; similarly, the people who look like they wouldn't bother sometimes turn out the most generous.
2. Enthusiasm counts. Most of the time, people are hoping to just walk on by, but are actually willing to donate if asked. I would estimate that out of the people I accost, about 70% would donate something. This would also explain why many students who do flag day for CIP's sake return with near empty cans; they practically just stand there, and hardly say or do anything.
3. There are good and bad examples from both genders and all races, and so stinginess or generosity are definitely traits that are not gender or racially predisposed. However, in terms of age groups, the teenagers hardly stop to donate, as contrasted to the elderly, many of whom look much poorer than the fashionable, gadget-wielding youths. There is really something seriously wrong with this generation of youths.

Frankly, I would have thought I couldn't bump into anyone I know in Chinatown, but I still bumped into my colleague, KW. The timing was impeccable, because I had roamed around People's Park Complex before returning to Lucky Chinatown, and just when I headed back to change locations for a short while, I saw KW. I bugged her for a donation, and she told me she would come back and look for me once she was done with her massage, which was the whole reason why she was in Chinatown this early in the morning. At that point in time, a massage sounded heavenly. When she returned, she really found me still there, and offered to treat me to a drink at Mac. We had a good chat, and I found out that among the staff in TJC, there are really many Christians. More interestingly, the biggest shots in the school, namely the principal and two vice-principals, are all Christians too. I think it does make a difference in terms of spiritual climate. There is a certain inherent pleasant warmth in the place, which gives a nurturing feel. I thank God for planting me back in my alma mater - it's a wonderful place to be at.

After we were done with flag day, we grabbed a quick lunch at a small market, and I had one of the most dilute bak kut teh I have ever tasted so far. I honestly think my second aunt's bak kut teh is at least ten times better. Bleah. Because there was a lag before church service starts, Adrian, J and I went to play an hour plus of pool. J was reigning champion throughout. I thought I played well, but I faltered a couple of times at the last shot where I should have won. Sigh. Lost the mental battle there. What was worse with the bak kut teh was that after two hours, I was hungry again! I upsized my serving, and added youtiao somemore. Argh. We managed to squeeze in char kway teow before service began though, fortunately, but we ended up being late. The time taken to wolf down the food was about a third of the time taken for waiting. Service was great, because my dear senior pastor has returned from his magic shows in Japan to preach, although I was seriously trying to keep awake at one point. It is really tiring to be out doing flag day, with the proper passion, that is.

J and I headed down to play pool again for a couple of hours before meeting Steph and Elaine. We decided to head to Mohammad Sultan (MS) to pub and chill. We had several ideas in mind at first, but we ended up going to Double O. Elaine doesn't like to dance, so we decided to just go to the O Bar section to unwind a bit. The lady at the door told us the respective charges ($20 for men, and $10 for ladies), and I asked her if the cover charge included drinks, and she told us there would be 2 free drinks. After we went in, we realized that we had no coupons or receipt to redeem drinks. I headed to the cashier counter to check things out, and this (butch) waitress told us that there were no free drinks. The cover charge apparently doesn't cover any drinks, because the feature of Double O is that after you pay the cover charge, you get to buy drinks (house pours and beer) at $3 a glass, or $12 a jug, which was supposed to be dirt cheap. After you part with $20 first, that is. At that point, I felt rather swindled and pissed off. Mathematically speaking, in order to get your money's worth (sorta), you would have to buy at least a jug (hitting a total cost of $32) to make it relatively cheaper than other places. So I did. Reluctantly, at that. I didn't want to spend that much on just pubbing originally. I had a jug of Screwdriver to myself, and drank some of what my friends ordered as well. One good point about Double O at least - the drinks aren't as watered down as the places I've been to lately. In fact, there is quite a lot of alcohol (I estimate about 1.5 times more than the usual in other clubs/pubs), so much so that J and Teck Loon, an old friend who joined us, were wobbling their way around after we left the place, and sounded somewhat incoherent. I think on average, the three of us had at least a jug each thereabouts.

The girls drank relatively less, but still an substantial amount, because of penalties from playing some table games (cai1 quan2). In the end, by the time we reached Plaza Sing's MacDonald's for supper, Steph looked like this.

We had a relaxing supper, which would explain why I'm blogging this early on Sunday morning. I realize that alcohol has several phases of effect on me. The first phase is flushing my face and body red quickly. The second phase is a head-heavy phase where I can feel quite 'stoned' if I had a lot to drink. The third phase, if I were to choose not to sleep during the 'stoned' stage, is the super-wide-awake stage, which I am in right now. Especially after a nice cold shower. Works better than coffee. Yikes.