Mon 29 Jun

I managed to settle some work that came with the start of the term, and left relatively early for driving lessons at 3.30 pm. Today was my first time at the circuit, and I found it quite fun. Of course, it wasn't as stressful for me since I was learning auto, as my wife was quick to point out the agonizing control of gear and clutch in the S-curve and Z-curve and whatever else.

My wife and I were somewhat unhealthy today, and we ordered a late night supper from Mcdelivery. The oddest thing was that the delivery boy got the order wrong. I didn't realize it because he got the drink (iced milo) right, and that was the one in the transparent bag. The rest of the order, which was the food, was wrong. I had ordered a Fillet O-Fish upsized, added with an apple pie and cinnamon melts, and what was in the paper bag was a McChicken meal and a McSpicy meal, with two apple pies. Technically I got more than I paid for, but seriously, neither my wife nor me wanted either burger, so it was a filling but agonizing supper.

Tue 30 Jun

I was in school doing some work and preparations for next week. For lunch, a bunch of us headed down to Old Airport Rd for lunch. I had the staple Whitley Rd Prawn Noodles, and a durian goreng. I wanted dessert originally, but my favourite Blanco Court one was closed for the day. My wife and I left school in the mid-afternoon and went to spend some time with Jadon before going home to do a bucketload of chores.

Wed 1 Jul

This was one heck of a long day. I had visual screening duty in the morning, so I was in school at 6 am. I did the duty till about 7.45 am before I went back to the staff room to do some work. For lunch, we headed out to 216 market. I went with one group of colleagues, and ate a bowl of you mian and a bowl of laksa. Another group of colleagues came later, but because one of them had to rush back, I swapped places with her, and went back later with the other group.

By right I was supposed to invigilate my own Year 2 chemistry paper, but I was assigned to be on one of the panels for the interviews of next year's potential TA students. That took up my time from 2.30 (one hour for pre-discussions) till 7.30 pm! Some of my colleagues wanted dinner, so we went down to Siglap to grab some nice chicken rice with zi char dishes. The colleague who drove, my Magic the Gathering kaki, gave me a ride down to Bukit Merah, so I was able to join my pastor for cell meeting when worship was almost over, and the whole thing took till 10.30. My pastor graciously drove me back to Bedok, so I ended my day at 11 pm. I was barely awake by then, especially considering the sleep debt owed.

Thu 2 Jul

I have been supporting the Good News Cafe which newly opened on college campus by buying the ice-blended drinks, which at $2.20 were pretty decent. Lunch was a treat by some colleagues who were promoted earlier this year, and they brought in Rite Pizza, which served decent pizza (I found the ingredients too little on the pizza though), and interesting sides like samosas, prawn rolls, spring rolls and chicken wings. They also bought shepherd's pie from one shop from Sempang (is that how you spell it?) Bedok, which was delicious!

In the evening, I headed down to Bedok Camp for remedial training, and again we ran a total of 2.8 km in addition of many other exercises. I wonder if I'm losing weight through all this. Hmm.

Fri 3 Jul

It was good that I finished marking yesterday, so I spent the time sorting out some administration, and for lunch, my colleague felt like going somewhere different, so I brought them down to Downtown East to eat at Mr Chicken Rice. After that, we bought the creamy ice-tea from the basement Chipshop which was still fabulously rich, before heading back to college for invigilation of the Year 1 chemistry paper. The TA 1 chemistry papers ran concurrently, so I wanted to start marking after I was done with invigilation, but I decided to bring the scripts back to mark. In case I didn't have time to mark over the weekend, I marked the scripts till about 1 am in the morning.

Sat 4 Jul

My wife and I went over to my in-laws' place quite early to spend time with Jadon. For dinner, we went to the newly renovated Kopitiam next to Bedok library to eat at Astons Express. My wife had the grilled fish with herbs and I had a prime ribeye xtra cut. The food was good, but the drinks at the coffee shop suck. Big time. I ordered barley, which looked like murky water. It was awfully translucent to the point of almost being clear, and it tasted extremely diluted. To give the drinks stall a second chance, I ordered iced milo, and it was about two-thirds ice, and one-third not even thick milo. If I ever eat there again, I will order a canned drink and nothing else.

Sun 5 Jul

My wife was still sick, so I made my own way down to Simei. I ate my favourite fishball noodles at the NTUC foodcourt for breakfast and took the shuttle bus to church for service. After service, I rushed off with my cell, and we headed down to Bedok interchange for lunch. One of my boys, Junhui, was having a magic performance, and he asked for us to go and support him, so we did. He told me the show was at 1.30 pm, so since I thought we'd be late, I took a cab there.

When we got to the address, I was confused, because we could only find some big Malay-styled event setup at the void deck. I verified with Junhui's friend, and we were indeed at the right place. So we hung around, not knowing where we were. Someone came to us and asked us to take a seat and help ourselves to the food, but we already ate. In the end, the show started at 2.50! Inbetween it felt like racial harmony day, and we listened to the Quran scriptural reading, the traditional Malay singing (don't know how to describe it otherwise...), and a Silat performance. We felt extremely out of place. The feeling was only mitigated by the fact that there were many other Chinese people around, and it looked like they were there for the free food. Only later I found out that the event was actually a celebration of the birthday of the prophet. Anyway, after catching Junhui's performance, which had some minor glitches but otherwise went well and was well-received, I took a cab down to Bedok Camp for another round of Remedial Training.