I'm back in school from reservist at last. The one week spent in reservist ironically provided me with more rest than normal school days, but the frequent inactivity (in waiting) was an overwhelming turnoff. I'm happy to be back in school, and in fact, even last week, I think I'm one of the few who actually would rather be at work than in camp. Most of my army mates were more than happy to escape the mundane routine of their jobs for just a while. However, this term is a really tight one. Other than the fact that I have to cover about one and a half class extra because we are short of permanent teachers (who can conduct practicals), I have three lectures coming up end of the term, and my cell leader's wedding is coming up, in which I have to help him prepare a flash presentation - simple task, but time consuming.

I think I have not spent so much time in front of the computer typing till my wrist hurt for quite a while (since the days of writing a thesis or report). Coming up with powerpoint presentations for my lectures is no easy task, especially since I am dissatisfied with the old ones which the tutors have kept on recycling over the years, and have taken it upon myself to revise everything from scratch. I am quite sure that the ones I do will probably be recycled over the next few years from now on, since I doubt the rest will bother spending their time on things such as these. Unlike perfectionistic me.

Anyway, I think God is just and fair. When I was waiting for a cab with my gf just now, there was this group of three who just blatantly walked in front of us, aware that we were waiting for a cab, and parked themselves about 5 m down from us. A similar incident happened a couple of months ago, when a family cut in front of us as well. However, for both these times, it just so happens that a hired cab would stop right in front of us, with the passenger alighting, thereby giving us an empty cab, leaving the queue-cutters stranded still. Yep, God is just. Poetic justice, if you ask me, especially if you see the 'I should have stood behind instead' look on their faces. Bwahaha.

Today I heard some odd news about stressed people. A cab driver was telling me that the other day, a teacher (from some country that he mentioned but I forgot) was so stressed out and mentally imbalanced that he whacked a student's head with a hammer. Poor dude got a blood clot in the brain, so the cab driver says. Shocking stuff, considering that here in Singapore, a principal can lose his job for whacking a student's head with a jotter book. Just now in the news, there was this woman in China who was so stressed she broke a pair of scissors into two and swallowed it. The two fragments were 10 and 16 cm long! It took the surgeons many hours just to remove the smaller piece from her stomach. What a cutting edge operation! Ok lame pun there. Fortunately I always keep myself in a state of low-to-no stress sanity. The alarming statistic around the world is that teachers rank in the top 5 professions for getting into mental institutions. I think doctors and nurses are in the running too. Heh.

I am back from 5 days of in-camp training! Unlike the previous 2 ICTs, this one was actually rather slack. Now, the army has a new initiative to maximize the use of IT, and it has converted many things into online applications. As it is now, a NSman can go online, log on to see what is in store for him for his ICT by going to MyUnit. I think it's a really cool thing, which makes it easier for tech-savvy people, or people (like me) who are perpetually connected to the internet. The unfortunate thing though is that the training schedule available on the internet wasn't accurate. At all.

The first day was supposed to have a Commanding Officer Parade, which was cancelled. In the evening, there was supposed to be a briefing, which was also cancelled. In essence, my first day was spent doing nothing but waiting (a.k.a. sleeping), and eating the regular meals. Since there was absolutely nothing to do at night for day one, we were all hoping for a night's off, but it never came, because of some ridiculously silly reason that I can't recall now, which doesn't justify keeping us in the camp. Highlight of the day: I had to have my hair cut because the hair on the back of my head did not have a slope. Argh. I actually went to the hairdresser the day before to trim my hair. Wasted 12 bucks for nothing, since the haircut in camp still costed me $5. What was irritating was that the RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major) wasn't even consistent, since I saw many people get away with longer, shabbier, or wilder hair than mine, and even some coloured ones! So I was just unfortunate to be caught by him. My hair was very short already! Just that there wasn't a slope. Duh.

Day 2 was supposed to have an IPPT (physical test) in the afternoon, which was reshuffled to the morning instead for reasons unknown to us. I managed to pass it! Bwahaha. Despite aching all over due to the choir duty, I was telling God that He must let me survive the 2.4 km run since I wore out my muscles praising Him. The 'reminder' to God was necessary because I took 1.58 min to run the first round, which was alarmingly slow, and my legs were aching before I even took the first step. In the afternoon, there was weapons training, but my group finished it about 3 hrs ahead of schedule, which meant that I went back to the bunk to rot some more. Urgh. Again, it looked promising that we could have a night's off, but again, for some silly reason, we couldn't. Essentially, there were activities for the commanders scheduled at night, which could be pushed to the late afternoon, but the neighbouring conducting company just didn't want to. Argh. Once more, I am reminded of the extreme efficiency of the SAF organization.

The third day was supposed to be tougher, with revision of section drills. The toughest drill was setting up camouflage for the bionix vehicle, which was a tedious process. We were supposed to finish it in 10.5 min in order to pass. Surprisingly, despite our lack of practice (i.e. once a year), we managed to pass it in our first attempt, while other sections floundered and failed miserably. Hence, we got to, guess what, finish early and return to the bunk (a.k.a. sleep some more). The rest had to redo till the afternoon thereabouts. Our evening was free because the time was allocated to the drivers to go familiarize themselves with the route for the battlecourse on day 4, which again was not originally in the schedule. Days 3 and 4 were supposed to be for range, but well, the army is just chock full of surprises, isn't it?

The sergeants kept implying that Thu was going to be the toughest day of the ICT. Well, during the battlecourse itself, it was tough because we just aren't used to carrying all that equipment, wearing the uniform and running all over the place. However, what we forgot was that in order for us to go for that tough 20 min battlecourse (again, my section completed it earlier than expected...some sections took twice as long as us!), we waited from breakfast to lunchtime, doing nothing but resting at the training shed. Duh. In the afternoon, we spent a lot of time cleaning all the weapons, but we cleared the cleaning pretty fast.

My platoon was assigned to assist in clearing the armskote for FFF (fit for firing), which basically is to get all the weapons (about 300 of them) examined by the armourers. We spent a long time there moving weapons in and out (the weapons could weigh up to 30 kg by the way, in case you are wondering why we need a whole platoon there), and we managed to get everything done earlier than expected, even though there were some platoon mates who went into hiding, and never showed up at all. Ah well, you get all kinds of people in the army. Although officially we are supposed to get outprocessed at 3.20 pm, we only managed to leave the place at around 6+ pm. Essentially, we were all ready to leave by 3 pm, and we waited 3 hours for apparently a 3 min process, because certain areas assigned to some other companies were not clean enough. Duh. While we were waiting there for so long, they didn't mention it, but waited till the eleventh hour to tell us we couldn't outprocess because someone else didn't do their job properly. Once again, the efficiency of the army never fails to astound me.

The food that we got for each meal was really much better than what we used to have, so in general, I had nothing to complain about, although my platoon mates still were picky about it. Considering all the time spent on doing nothing but waiting for instructions, and the limited tough physical exertions, I might actually have put on weight going for ICT. Argh. It is ironic that right now I am hoping that the coming Sep ICT will be as tough as they promised it would be. Heh.

What I am grateful for is the fact that this was a nice reunion with old comrades. Essentially, no one really changed. Sure, some of them might have switched jobs or careers, got married, bore children, but character hardly changes. The jokers, smokers, slackers and quackers are still the way they were before 8 years ago. If not for the fun and funny people, this would have been one heck of a boring ICT.

I did choir duty again, and it was really cool. Ps Cesar, when he came on stage to pray a blessing, turned around to flash the choir a big smile. Ps Art Sepulveda, when he came up, also gave the whole worship team a big compliment, saying we were phenomenal. It sure feels good to be affirmed, and I think words like 'phenomenal' are hard to come by, since it is an uncommon word that I think few people here will use anyway. I think choir duty is really quite enjoyable. To me, I'm just doing what I normally do at praise and worship anyway, throw in a few actions, and then do it on a stage instead of the floor in front.

Ps Art Sepulveda I will always remember as the MTV pastor. His sermon has been interspersed with MTVs or MTV-ish testimonies. He really knows how to connect with this generation. This weekend has been so uplifting in the spirit for me, and I pray that tomorrow when I go for my reservist training (for 5 days), the fervour and all will follow me there.

Today's the closing day of the G12 conference, and it was great. During the morning session, I went for the altar call, and received deliverance, but more importantly a rekindling of faith, and the receiving of anointing. I think my heart must have hardened along the way, because after I got up from kneeling and crying, I realized that it's been a long time since I last was moved by the Holy Spirit to tears.

There was a Hawaiian pastor Art Sepulveda who came down to preach in a couple of sessions today, and he brought great passion across in his sermons, and I feel a great empowerment from God throughout the day's sessions. I think in general, I hear nearly the same message every year in the G12 conferences. However, the same message in different years always bore different impact, because God is always doing something different, and the anointing that comes matters way more than the content of the conference per se.

God also spoke to me about quite a few things, namely about the boys under my charge right now, about my previous relationship with my ex (which, in a way, God brought a complete closure), and affirmed my current relationship, which, all in all, gives me great confidence to continue what I'm doing right now. In any case, the conference was excellent. I feel different. Lighter, as if I had dropped some burdens. Empowered to do more than I have done so far.

The choir duty was quite fun, although there were some minor adminstrative glitches. Overall, it was great to be up there on stage, and really see the multitudes gather. It's a very different view from the stage, seeing thousands of people worshipping God. That is, during the moments when the lights were on, and the dry ice didn't obscure our vision. Heh. It was my first time on the stage, and I think the feeling is superb. Unlike going on stage for performance, like last year's farewell concert to the graduating batch (then), being on stage just praising and worshipping God is almost second nature and I felt very at ease, and not self-conscious at all. Another round of choir duty tomorrow during the youth service proper, and I can't wait.

The 3-day post has returned again.

Wed 15 Mar

I went to have K Lunch with my colleagues ZH and SX at Marine Parade. Now I've always considered myself an average singer (i.e. can hit the notes most of the time, but not blessed with a terrific voice), but going with the two of them, I feel dwarfed. ZH has an excellent and rich voice, and I can see why he used to join singing competitions for fun, and win prizes. SX is a very good singer in her own right, with good voice and control. However, I do realize one thing...we are all unique. Although ZH's voice is great, he still doesn't pull off the songs of certain singers, because of style rather than lack of ability. Hence, to each his own. I wonder if I can actually improve in this area...? I do enjoy KTV a lot.

Thu 16 Mar

The G12 conference begins today! It is impressive to see the Max Pavilion packed with people. Indeed, it is looking at the multitudes, and I'll get a full view from the stage once it hits Sat evening, when I'm on choir duty. Ps Khong started off with essentially a repetition of the last 3 sermons (condensed into 1 session), but I did catch the essence of it. I asked myself the same question I asked my boys, which is the question Ps Khong threw at the congregation - what is your dream for God? In the end I narrowed it down to two things that I want to see by the end of this year:

1. I want to have 12 disciples in my cell group
2. I want to see my current bunch of boys rise up to become cell leaders (that they may become my disciples)

Ps Caesar preached a powerful message about appropriating the power of the blood of Jesus, although I seriously think that I am so used to Ps Khong's preaching that I find it challenging to distill out the points from Ps Caesar's sermon, since he doesn't present them upfront first like Ps Khong before elaboration. Still it was good. When his wife Ps Claudia came on the pulpit to share something on her mind, I felt the awesome presence of God very strongly in the auditorium. I felt the powerful and mighty presence, and it gave me butterflies in the stomach. Sometimes I feel God's gentle presence, or loving presence, and etc, which are all nice and comfortable feelings, but this time round, it was almost like a warring, military presence of God, about to mobilize us for spiritual warfare. Mind-reeling.

Fri 17 Mar

I can feel the one-week break coming to an end as it is. Now, every year, the G12 conference has fallen on weeks that are non-holidays, which meant that I cannot attend the Fri session, since I can't take leave from school or something. This year, I was delighted that it fell right smack in my 1-week break from school.

Then I found out I have to attend a course today.

So for the 4th year running, I still have not attended the G12 conference from first to last session in completion. Bleah. However, attending the brain workshop today was not a waste of time, as some workshops had proven to be. Today's speakers were extremely engaging, knowledgable, and interesting. Although I haven't fully assimilated all that they were teaching, I did take back with me at least the notion that maybe some of the things that demonstrated could be carried into the classroom. They might just work. I had lunch with some colleagues at Crystal Jade in Scotts Food Court, and then rushed down to resume the G12 conference.

Amazing stuff there. I think the preaching was good, but the more important thing is that I feel my faith strengthened, and at the end of the day, the ministry and deliverance by Ps Caesar was powerful. I like Ps Khong's honest sharing about many things, and I think the star of tonight must be his little boy grandson who was so adorable that when the congregation was clapping, he actually was waving at everyone as if he was some celebrity and we were clapping for him.

Cute is an understatement.

The latest addition to my webpage is up! Check out the new photoframe on the right corner of...

The Living Room

When inspiration comes, it really hits fast and furious. Heh.

Yesterday I attended the ROM of Sharon, a mutual friend of my gf and me. Interestingly enough, this is the first ROM I've gone to (and there's another one coming in June), and I realized that the people I'm closer to in terms of friendship are still single, hence the inexperience. It was one heck of a sunny day. Then again, so were the previous days. Uncannily hot weather. And only in Feb/Mar! I thought the heat wave arrives in May thereabouts. Hope this is not a sign of worsening global warming.

Anyway, it was a hot day. I was thankful for the aircon when it was Sharon's turn to go into the room to wait. Frankly, I think the waiting room looks like a clinic, complete with counter, and bench seats. Fortunately, they have now switched to using a big LCD screen to signal who is next, else the "now serving" billboard would have utterly completed the clinic look. Come on, why can't they change the benches to couches or something? Just to make the place look less clinical, and warmer? The whole ceremony didn't take very long. It was a litany from the solemnizer, followed by respective "I do"s, and a repetition of vows (which I heard from our married friend that her solemnizer skipped...so apparently the procedures are variable...?), signing of necessary documents, and that was it. A rather unromantic proceeding in a rather unromantic room. Suddenly I felt very grateful that I will eventually have a church wedding instead someday, now that our pastor is an official solemnizer.

Incidentally, I think the solemnizer must be one of the most photographed people around, maybe more than models. Imagine the number of couples he/she handles, each requesting a picture (seems to be the norm), per day, and for almost the whole year round. After that, we went around, in the hot sun I might add, to take more photographs of the wedded couple, and with the wedded couple. My gf caught the bouquet of flowers, but the whole affair was rigged actually. We then headed to the Legends cafe for reception. I had a $9 bowl of laksa, and I deliberately picked the dish instead of the standard Western food kinda stuff, just to see whether a $9 bowl of laksa tastes better than the average coffee shop ones. My conclusion is that other than the ingredients (especially the seafood) being extraordinarily fresh, Katong Laksa (whichever one along that road...I no longer know which is the genuine thing) beats it hands down. Not that it tastes lousy, just that I don't see how it warrants the price tag.

Today, I went for choir practice. My pastor's network is on duty this month, and I was rostered on duty for this week. The tiring thing is that I have to be on duty for both Sat for the coming G12 conference, as well as Sunday service. Honestly I am shocked at how tiring it is. The jumping around and all the big actions to be done for the praise songs I can live with, but combine that with the worship part where we are supposed to continously lift our hands throughout, I am left with aching shoulders, and calves. Having a combined rehearsal for both Sat and Sun makes it doubly tiring. I am beginning to wonder if I can clear my IPPT next Tue when I go for my in-camp training, after 3 days of conference, inclusive of 1 choir duty, and choir duty on Sun, if I am going to be aching as badly as I am now. Urgh.

Another page of my website is complete. My portfolio of artwork (whatever I still have with me that's not already given away), and some graphic design stuff I have done for fun or freelance is up. I really regret not scanning or taking a photograph of all the portraits I have drawn so far, because I think at least half a dozen have been given away as gifts without my documenting what I have done. Anyway, check out the bag icon on the shelf in...

The Living Room

I saw a genuine beefcake (read: himbo) today on the train. He wore a tight-fitting polo tee, and stood at the door at first, leaning against the glass with folded arms, arching his back so much to push his chest out. After one station, he moved into the train carriage nearer the seats, and grabbed the bar overhead in an overgrasp manner (hands over the bar, for the readers who do not know chin-up terminology), flexing his biceps all the way. This, I conclude, is one of the favourite standing positions of beefcakes, because it lets them show off the biceps a lot. After another station, he moved deeper into the middle of the carriage, and now grabbed the bar in an undergrasp manner (holding the bar with the hands wrapped from under the bar), which is the most popular position, since it flexes the biceps the maximum possible. Just when I thought that was vain enough, at the next position, he moved a bit nearer the door again, changing to overgrasp. And at the next station, he moved back to the glass next to the door, and held the bar with both hands (looking like he was about to start pole-dancing), and flexed the muscles on his side.

Ugh.

I can understand why a guy would spend hours pumping iron in a gym in order to do that. If trying to look good was actually a priority in my life, I might try to do the same. Unfortunately, it is not, and I find better uses of my time. Exercise to me is an important thing, and I regret not working out enough (i.e. mainly running, since I am aleady using my chin-up bar daily), but being obsessed with building muscles is another thing altogether. In any case, I think that if a guy has a really good build, he should wear moderate-sized shirts. Not blatantly bulging of the clothes, but showing a silhouette of well-toned muscles beneath is a more stylish appearance. I see too many beefcakes wearing tight tops and tucking them tightly into their tight jeans just so that it makes the chest look bigger, or the tummy flatter. Hello??? Tucking in the clothes that tight makes one look dorky. Beefily dorky? Dorkily beefy? The muscles do not irk me; it's the 'come look at me' behaviour that makes me roll my eyes heavenward.

Today, I went to Labrador Park for the first time. My gf's best friend planned a small barbecue (total of only 6 of us), and booked a pit there. We reached there by late evening, after some delay in Bedok due to a cats-and-dogs downpour that started suddenly. A picture of a nice setting sun here:
















We had an assortment of food, that range from the basic chicken wings to this fish that had a lot of roe in it (can't remember the name of it though). Apparently they bought a whole lot of mushrooms (abalone, portabello, and etc), as well as asparagus. These are among the more unique food I've seen in a barbecue. The guys set up the fire, and did most of the cooking till much later in the evening. I was doing up the mushrooms, which went off like hotcakes. Oddly enough, the girls liked the mushroooms a lot, even after I told them how much margarine went into them.

















Just look at the oil on the plate. When the girls took over later on, one girl added even more margarine than I did. I guess they momentarily suspended their notions of weight consciousness for the day. It was fun, to have a small scale barbecue. Of course, after that we made mental notes of what we ought to bring, if we are going to try this again next time, including a portable torch light. It is something people almost always forget, and makes it tremendously difficult to assess whether the food is cooked enough already. Then again, most people should have the mental preparation to eat over or undercooked food at a barbecue anyway. Hmm...

Interestingly enough, I actually bumped into two friends at (ulu) Labrador Park! My gf was shockingly impressed that I can bump into friends anywhere, even this out-of-the-way park. The shock for me was that these two friends who I know from different social circles are now a couple! I will interrogate the guy about it some other time. Heh.

Yesterday the whole year 1 cohort was down at Kallang River for dragonboating, for their second orientation. The civics tutors of the corresponding classes had to be down to be around, in case of anything happening. I was fortunate enough to be going the first round at 8 in the morning. The coolest thing was that I get to wear this on tie-day:





















Check it out! T-shirt, berms and slippers on tie-day. How cool is that? It felt so good to hear the flip-flop of (my) slippers in the staff room. Bwahaha. Anyway I think my earlier prediction seems true - every new batch of students moves at a slower pace from place to place. I estimate that in less than a decade, they would be crawling from point to point. In maybe two decades, they wouldn't move at all. Moving to the dragonboat event with them, there is only one word I have to describe it all - "Late". They were late for almost everything, and they shamble in general. Gosh, is there any student out there with a sense of urgency? I'm pretty sure that if TJC catches a fire someday, the students will still leisurely stroll out of the compound.

Cell group in the evening was brief but interesting. Cell brother Eric shared a fascinating testimony. I was sharing about my inviting graduated students to church. Oddly enough, Adrian has a spare SIM card, and he passed it to me to ease my sms-ing cost. We'll see how that goes. After cell group, I went to Citilink to meet my gf for a while. Interestingly enough, I bumped into two friends there, all the while just sitting at a table of a cafe in the place. The curious thing was that the two friends I bumped into (at different times) were both named Yichuan, and they were the only Yichuans I know in my whole life. Heh.

I spent an amazingly productive day in school, finishing up much work (in advance), while waiting for my gf to leave together. Inbetween, an ex-student popped by to chat with me. It's a nice feeling to have ex-students come back and visit. I think it would be even nicer next time when they are older, working, and if they actually still remember me. Anyway, she's considering teaching too, so that increases the possibility of potentially seeing my ex-student become my colleague someday, albeit far, far away. My current students also came by to see me, and I found out from them that the class is almost disbanded after reshuffling. As it stands, I only have 4 of my current students remaining in the class once term 2 starts. Looks like it will be another round of 'getting-to-know-you'...

In the evening I went to the IT Show at Suntec. It's a big, big event, spanning levels 3, 4 and 6 of Suntec Convention Halls. I was supposed to accompany my gf to hunt for a MP3 player that she has been wanting to get for quite some time, but in the end, I went around checking out many gadgets myself. I came thaaaat close to buying a 19" LCD monitor, but eventually decided not to, on the wise advice of my gf. She's right about one thing for sure - since there is no urgency in getting a new monitor, I might as well hang in there, and wait for the price of the 21" ones to drop further. Heck, want to buy a big one might as well get as big as I can afford right? I also came thaaaat close to buying a MP3 player, if not for the fact that I already have one, which is a gift from my cell group. Although the storage of the one I have is just 128 mb, I feel obliged not to discard it for some new and more fanciful one. However, I can sense obsolesence gradually creeping in, which is the curse of technology. What I did buy was a wireless keyboard and mouse. Although I did not buy my 21" monitor (yet), I thought I'd buy something in advance. It's my little plan to get a wireless keyboard and mouse, a big screen monitor, and sit on my couch to work on my computer.

Someday.

Last week during Wed's Leaders' Meeting, Ps Eugene questioned us, as a reminder, what have we been doing for the 7000 challenge, which essentially is to pack the Expo hall for Youth Service. A few weeks ago, during the Tabernacle experience, God brought me back to the roots of why He called me into teaching in the first place, and so it was timely that Ps Eugene's reminder was issued on the day the 'A' level results were released, and I saw my previous students.

"Why didn't I invite them to church?" was the question running through my head. I think I was squirmish about the issue because of last year's big fuss about proselyzing in schools, so I let some opportunities slip by, when in fact I shouldn't. My students are old enough to make decisions on their own, and neither will I compel them in any way to come, as compared to the incident that sparked off the whole thing originally. So I decided to just extend a simple invitation to them to come for service. I sent out 40+ sms to the students I have the phone numbers of, realizing at the same time that after replying each of them further, it was easily 100+ sms in total. All in all, after those who changed their minds, outrightly refused, and etc, eventually I had one ex-student who came.

Thank God nonetheless that there was one. It turned out that she had not been attending any church for 6 years already, and was considering looking for one at the moment. She came along, and was interested enough to want to stay on, and find a cell group to settle into. For this one person who came, those 100+ sms are worth it. (It's quite painful to me actually, because my mobile plan has very limited sms...) I will continue to send, because there might just be someone out there just like this girl looking for a church, or someone who might want to find out more about the faith but do not know where to look, for whom this invite is crucial. I have decided - I will not be so wishy-washy when it comes to inviting students to church. There is no coercion involved, and they have every freedom to say yes or no. A more interesting question would be: if that teacher in the news had asked his primary school kid to visit a temple instead of a church, would there have been as big an uproar and backlash?

In the evening, I was chatting with one of my graduated students, who was asking me to be her character referree. It turned out that she wants to apply to MOE for the Teaching Award, and I was asking her when she decided on this career choice. She told me it was recent, and that it was me who inspired her.

Whooooooaaaaa. You would never be able to empathize with how wonderful that felt if you aren't a teacher yourself, but in any case, that is the most powerful affirmation any teacher can have. Beyond the grades the students get, and how many 'thank you's they say. I think the closest feeling I think it resembles would be that felt by a parent when his/her child says, "When I grow up, I want to be just like you."

My cell brothers and I played mahjong from about 11 pm to 9 am the next day, stopping inbetween only to cook instant noodles at about 4 plus. Overall, I lost $2.60 last night, and I quite seldom lose money in mahjong. Originally I was leading with big winnings earlier on in the game, and there were some spectacular ones (and misses).

I was going for a shi2 san1 yao1 (十三一...I think that's the way to write it...?), and I came this close:
















I was missing only a west (西) tile! And it was three tiles away from being drawn, and there were already two being discarded, so no one would keep it. I was three tiles away from winning and J won with 一台. Argh. So far the closest I've ever been to doing a 十三一 was missing two tiles to win. This one is missing only one last tile for the win. So close, yet so far. This is a very hard to do combination, because you have to draw all the tiles yourself, and therefore imagine my surprise when I pulled this off a few games later:

















Check that out! A successful 十三一! Maybe there are others who managed this a few times, or who play a lot of mahjong, but for me, I play mahjong only maybe once during Lunar New Year, and a couple more times if there happens to be suitable occasions, in a year. So this is my first time succeeding in doing a 十三一. However, as mahjong players would say, it all goes downhill from there. The general belief is that once you pull off something this remarkable and difficult, you use up all your luck for the day, and stop winning. When I won a couple more big ones after this, I thought I could defy the idea, but after that, it was a drought of many, many rounds. The tiles just were wrong, wrong, wrong. That would explain why in the end, I still lost money.

Anyhow, we were just doing a count of what would happen if we didn't cap the winnings at 五台. Counting what I had for that game, it works out to be an actual total of 十四台. Considering that we were playing at 10c/20c, which is already a pittance, that actually works out to be $819.20 for the two players who didn't throw the winning tile, and $1638.40 for the one who did, which makes the grand total winnings $3276.80!!! If we didn't set a cap, I would have gotten an equivalent of a, say, 4D first prize. Mindblowing fact, once I consider that I know of relatives who play at $1/$2, and do not set limits. Whooooa...go figure.

Today evening, I went down to Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church again, after a break of about 3 months. The last time I was there to accompany my gf (not yet my gf then, of course) for the Alpha Course in the church. This time I am there to accompany my gf again, but only to lend her moral support as she went up to share her testimony with the participants of this current run of Alpha. I must say, she certainly has a lot of 'pulling' power. Other than me, and the two colleages already from BBTC, she managed to invite 4 other colleagues, her best friend with husband-to-be, and 4 others from our church, including her cell leader, to give her support. I am so proud of her. Hehe. After the end of the Alpha session, a big group of us went down to Blk 85 hawker centre for supper. It felt strangely nostalgic, largely due to the fact that last year when I accompanied my gf to the course, we ate supper there most of the time. I'm just wondering though whether our colleagues will continue to attend the remaining sessions...wondering and praying.

Today is yet another day of reckoning - my students received their school posting. Out of my whole class of 21, 6 were posted elsewhere. In a way, it was already a fortunate thing, because most of my class are under Direct School Admission (DSA), which meant that they were enrolled into TJC, like it or not, and if I were to look at other classes, some of them have more than half the class leaving. The unfortunate thing however is that most of these 6 students are nice and conscientious kids who had not given me problems. I don't know what the chances are, but I can only try my best to help them appeal. Now the rest is in God's hands...and I can only pray over them.

I heard an odd thing from some of my students today though. One asked me if our school did poorly, because she heard some rumour that we had fallen to eighth position in school ranking, and that Meridian and Anglo-Chinese junior colleges had beaten us. Now, last year this time, my students were asking me nearly the same thing, wondering if we lost to ACJC, because that is what they heard. I have no idea where these rumours originate from, but frankly I'm more disappointed with my students for appearing to believe them. If these are the rumours that are going around, I would suppose that would be the main reason why many students have the impression that TJC isn't very good. The fact is that for last year's batch, the percentage pass for GP was a high - in fact, 2nd highest, next only to Raffles JC. Considering that 2A and 2AO passes (including GP) is a criterion for the old system of ranking (since you would need to clear GP in order to qualify for university), that technically puts us as second. Of course, the system of ranking had long ago been scrapped, so I don't know why students still bring it up.

Anyway, today was declared a half-day due to the good results, and we had a treat at Furama Riverfront Hotel from the various Heads of Department. The food was quite good, especially the desserts, and I had a huge share of salmon sashimi and tempura. Good food, with nice ice cream as well. After the heavy lunch, 7 of us headed down for Lucky Chinatown for karaoke! I started off a bit shaky, but after warming up, today I managed to hit the high notes, and pulled off a couple of difficult songs. Haha...I finally picked up a bit of form. I think I'd better start practising, since there is a high likelihood I'll be called to sing, with a couple of other tutors, for charity at the coming Mardi Gras event in April. Heh.

Now, I am just gearing up for...overnight mahjong, at my cell member's place! Bwahaha.

The day of reckoning has finally arrived. I have been praying over my students for a long time, and today they finally receive their results. I was most worried about one student, but she managed to scrap through with E for chemistry. The rest of my students got C and better for chemistry, at least, even though some were getting O's and F's all the way through up to prelim exams. Although it's tempting to claim credit for devoted teaching, or to attribute it to their capabilities, after all the prayers, I think I'd still give glory to God. Personally, I did feel a tinge of stress for myself, because in last year's team of year 2 tutors, I was the only new teacher. Therefore, I do feel that my credibility is somewhat linked to their performance. Not that the school or my colleagues are monitoring this, but it is more for me to examine how I've taught them, and whether my inexperience had caused any damage.

Last year this time, I was also in the hall, when the batch of 03/04 received their results. But I was there as a spectator, involved only because I was in charge of setting up the AV equipment. Therefore, I viewed the whole process with some interest, but as an outsider. Today, sitting amongst them, having, in a way, vested interest in my three classes, it was a different feeling altogether. Right from the morning when I was busy helping to sort out the results and all by virtue of my being in the IT Committee, I was feeling the buzz of excitement among all the tutors. While we were churning out statistics for the school, we were also trying to check on the classes we taught.

Sitting there looking at them, and the results they got, I have to say I felt proud of many of them. Some of them have come a long way, and looking back at all the hours I've poured into remedials, and one-on-one consultations, I can confidently say it's worth all the effort. It is not so much the eventual grade that they got, but more of how I've seen them through from the start to the end, and saw their progress. I am reminded once more of the reason I came into teaching in the first place, and more importantly, I see why this road was the best and right choice, that God had prepared for me to walk. There are few things as satisfying as seeing the joy on the faces of my students.

As for those who had sorrow on their faces, I was stumped what to do or say. The reality would be that they started to buck up only far too late. I think few people can escape the principle of 'you reap what you sow'. Even then, the whole reason I was praying all this while is that no matter how I think that some of them may not have sown enough into their studies, as their teacher, I would still hope they do well, so that they can go where they want to go. Unfortunately this is something that students in their myopic view could not anticipate till it's far too late. Even now that I am warning and nagging my current civics class, I still don't think they realize fully what they are in for yet. I really hope I can nip this in the bud, and get them started on the right track.