i've never felt so appreciated before

my class was recognised and presented with the outstanding class award. in her recognition, the principal said, "it is not true that the best class (our pupils are streamed according to their abilities) always win this award. it is the whole year's journey with the pupils and the form teacher must have put in effort to motivate them."

to be presented with the ourstanding class award is just a by-product the process i had with my class. it's been an amazing year and i am wishing that i can still be the one educating them and see them off their primary education next year. i really do.

change

27 july 2011 marks my last outfield exercise in the camo uniform. surely, in the midst of the pixelated green, the camo green holds a striking reminisce of my 2 and a half years of active service from 1999 to 2001. these pixels, though light and airy, serve to remind me of 4 more high keys to fulfill, with a new in-coming co this weekend. an omen which may mean more "highs" than "lows" in the years to come...

one two

It's been a while since I've visited the clubs. The scene had since changed. Those that I used to know are no longer there. And so are the familiar crowds. Luckily, ah pui is there. Only more pui, that's all. (don't have luxurious tea breaks at 3!)
My first club was WN in Dec 1999. I met ah pui the following year in May. That's how old ah pui is now. Last night was special to me. Thank you ah pui.

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voices from the ground (II)

bread and butter issues which are unresloved. working class is frustrated and old folks are worried.

2 days ago, a retired teacher asked me who i will be voting for. before i could give him a reply, he had asked me to vote for the ruling party. his reason: the opposition will jeopardise our economy. according to him, the value of our property will drop. to pacify him, i told him that i would vote for the ruling party. period

his reactions changed my opinion of him totally. the trigger is about the property value. i have always believe that the public housing is a ploy that benefits the foreigners entirely. it creates a vicious scarce, causing mediocre singaporeans who do not look ahead queuing up for the over-priced pigeon holes. the cov says it all - banks are not recognising it. with all the grants made available for first time home owners, it is too tempting not to fall into this trap for the next 25 to 35 years. of what value is there to talk about?

although i like how the lyrics are written to reflect the real issues, it is unfortunate that singaporeans are always asking for aids or handouts, which again, is the success of the ruling party.   



voices from the ground

i overheard the following conversation while attending rt yesterday:

A: i think the 24yr old is too young to be an mp. she'd probably just graduated and has no working experience. at least the 27yr old had working experience.

B: but her speeches during the interviews are very impressive. better then the 27yr old. she is even flamed online.

C: aiya, they write their own speech one la.

B: den the 27yr old must be very bad at writing speeches.

all: laugh~

C: i heard the 27yr old is married right? her husband is a secetary. 40+ one right? so old oso wan. marry me better.

A: she's not like pretty or what. some more no substance. like tat you oso wan?

B: so who will you vote for? the 24yr old without working experience or the 27yr old with no substance?

A: neither. one too young, ther other cmi.

C: my side walkover one. no need to vote.

the trio are probably in their late 20s and based on their conversation, they are not exactly supportive of the 2 candidates.

until this morning i came across this:

i gathered from this posting that it is somehow embarassing to be associated with the 27yr old. even for the teenagers who are not required to vote. being your senior in uni, i am embarassed how things have turned out for you. i am glad that you are not contesting in my ward. you are certainly undeserving of the $15k montly salary.

complicated men, complicate lives

well, i do not really know what ah pui is trying to say but my own interpretation is this:

we have ourselves to blame if that happens.
there had been a few instances which i thought i made it complicated for myself:


scenario 1
recently, i found out that of one the security guards drove to work and had the audacity to park at the residents' lot. i discovered this when i saw him drove out at about 2+ on a saturday afternoon while he was on duty. in the first place, who is he to park at the residents' lot. secondly, who allowed his vehicle into the property? why did he drive out while he was on duty? 


many questions were unanswered and i went to the management office to report this matter to the estate manager. she didn't believe a word i say until she called the guard house and the security guard admitted. he was told not to drive anymore but just this morning, i saw the same car again. (likelihood to react on monday: 90%)


scenario 2
it was children's day and i decided to get a small gift for the ten P6 students whom i have been giving them remedial on saturdays (note: their own form teacher did not want to come back on a saturday to help them). it was meant to be a surprise for them but instead, i surprised myself. not only did they not say thank you, two girls came up to me and asked if they could swap the colour of the pen with me. i was dumb folded and did not react to it as it was meant to be a happy occasion for them. (likelihood to react that instant: 80%)


given my personality, i would not have let the two matter go just like that but over the years, i have learnt something called 'letting go'. for people like me, it takes a lot of strength and attainment to let go of certain things which may seem trivial to others. 


i read about summiko tan's article in the today's papers about her marriage life. i had such a good laugh because it was an exact reflection of my own marriage. the marriage had brought out the monster in her and likewise in me. often, i am so blinded by getting things right but really, letting go lightens the load and allows me to enjoy the simple pleasures which had been there all along. 


complicated men, complicated lives?
i say forget about it and let me enjoy my ruffles and muscato.
(of course, before that i have to vacuum and mop the floor first)
c'est la vie!

another demise

i wrote about how i was flipping through the papers last year and found out that my former mt wo had passed away. just now, as i was changing the papers for my dogs, i saw my army buddy's big name on the obituaries section. not that he had passed away, but rather, his mother. i have not met him since our last ict, which was 2 years ago and incidentally, we are due for one at the end of the month. hope he is doing well now.

are singapore teachers overworked?

In a forum letter in The Straits Times on 15 May 2010, a teacher’s wife, Ms Aishah Quek chronicles her husband’s typical work day. She bemoans her husband’s punishing workload and questions the seeming non-existence of a work-life balance.

A teacher in a local primary school, Ms Quek’s husband wakes up at 5am every weekday, and leaves home by 6am, to reach school in time for morning ‘guard duty’ at 7am. After remedial lessons, co-curricular activities and administrative duties, her husband reaches home at 8pm for dinner, before, surprise, surprise, he starts to work from home.

If these normal working hours are representative of a typical day in the life of a teacher, do teachers; the people who play an integral role in shaping young, impressionable minds, have sufficient time to relax and recharge, before the next day comes around?

A student in the morning session has about 6 hours of lessons per day (from 7.30am to 1pm). But that’s just about the time a teacher’s after-teaching hours begin.

“On a typical day, we mark assignments, conduct remedial lessons and complete many administrative tasks, which often extend long beyond our official working hours,” said *John*, 35, a married primary school teacher with a one-year-old son.

Another educator, *Seline*, 27, who called it quits after three years, said, “When my husband and I were both teaching, we hardly had any quality time in the evenings because we’d both be busy marking assignments, preparing for the next day’s lessons or just be too tired.”

Added another teacher, *Lionel*, “I already feel drained by the time I start marking my students’ work after 5pm. This increases the likelihood of making errors.”

my take on this issue is this:

1. it's got to do with the school culture set by the management (level heads, hods, vp and p).

with foresight, they would be able to lead the school to greater heights. but where they are so micro-minded and bitter, all the nonsense would be passed on to the teachers. that's where all the add-ons comes in after a class is over. e.g. new school of thoughts: a teacher should be given the space to re-think about how they teach in groups. old school of thought: a teacher must be seen doing something until 6pm. i know of a school which makes it a point to end the weekly contact time no later than 3:30pm while my current bullshit school ends at 5:30pm weekly.

2. it's got to do with the teacher-student ratio.

not all schools have the same ratio. where schools have a balanced ratio, a teacher's weekly teaching periods is 32, at 30 mins per period. this gives them time to rest in between lessons, to complete some of their markings, to settle administrative matters or even to prepare for the next lesson. however, the teaching periods in this bullshit school is 49, one practically starts and ends the day with the students. 

at the end of the day, can you really blame someone who quits before or after their bond is up? its the littering cycle that cannot not be broken. fresh teachers fill up the gaps of the drained ones, who were busy picking up litters thrown by the system. 

tension

there was an episode yesterday while i was marking one set of papers. apparently one of the questions contained an error which was undetected and caused me 2 rounds of re-marking.

it is difficult enough to mark 41 scripts. let alone re-mark them for 2 more times?

my tolerance for such errors (from setting to vetting) has always been very low. i mean how many rounds must the paper be vetted before it is error proof? if everyone is doing their job, once is enough.

but this is not the case here. the paper was printed as and when the setter had finished setting the paper. that itself is a big mistake. it only showed weak execution and poor supervision of the testing system.

the best part is the error was neither rectified by the setter nor the head. it was some kind hearted soul who saved their asses. this was the last straw.

i always use this analogy to illustrate my point: someone throws a piece of litter on the floor and leaves. the next one who sees it may or may not picks it up. suppose it did, it gives the litter bug an incentive to keep littering because someone will eventually picks it up.

i understand that the intent is not to complicate things but to resolve the error there and then. i wonder if this is really going to be helpful in the long run? things like these keep happening, until someone stops these things from happening.

i am extremely disgusted by how things are managed here. perhaps right from the start, i have already held on to the belief that i should not even be here in the first place.

i have never slept so few hours each day for the past 5 years of my career and when i say that this is unique here, people starts to get defensive.

i just want to get out of this place at the soonest possible time.

someone help me please.

biotherm homme

$150 in all but nothing nothing compared to the sleep i need badly.

bloody messed up school. 

pui!

详细字义

1. 从尹,从口。“尹”,表示治事;从“口”,表示发布命令。
合起来的意思是:发号施令,治理国家。本义:君主,国家的最高统治者。

2. 古代大夫以上据有土地的各级统治者的通称。
思得明君《三国志·诸葛亮传》

follower

i noticed a green icon as i logged onto the dashboard of my blog:

it says "1 follower"

and so i clicked to find out this follower is:

then i thought:
who is this person? do i know her? why is she following my blog?

while reading her entries, i managed to find out who this follower is. omg! your picture totally does not look like you at all lor! then again, perhaps i have not met you in person for a long time or perhaps my image of you has always been stuck during our uni days. oh well, hope to see more of your entries soon ^ ^

atap house

i was telling my coursemate how my life in a palace had been reduced to an atap house all because a random posting.

i paid a visit to the atap house next to the granite quarry on friday.

OMG!!!

it has a space as big as a palace but still not the choice within the area.

wearing long sleeves is considered overdressed. depressing hor?

this is like the analogy which darlin gave me that time i was choosing a car: you must get one that you like; otherwise you have to sulk and face it everyday.

sulk and face it for the next 2 years?

ke lian de lian hua~

moody

ever since i've gotten my posting, i have been rather moody.
the only reason for this is because i was not posted back.
there were so much expectations for me to be back and meet my students.
it could have been happy cny for so many pple.
all these have been disrupted because some jerk at level 7 decided otherwise.
there's still 1 more week for a miracle to happen, otherwise i will have to face the tin quarry everyday for the next 2 yrs.

acne

i had a cluster of pimples (maybe 3) growing on my left shoulder several years ago. i burst them and it left a pimple scar. lately, i noticed the same area started growing pimples again and this time, it became a large lump (about 4cm in diameter) and painful. and yesterday, it burst on its own and omg, free flow of creamy + bloody pus. apparently it didnt just stop there. this morning, it continued to flow again and i am feeling the strain on my shoulder. am i going to die?

*update 28 Jan 2010*
yesterday saw a major eruption. so graphic that i refrained myself from taking any pictures. while squeezing the lump, the discharge gushed out and splattered all over the mirror. it was so painful that i did it in 3 installments, at 1hr interval each time. god! the finale was when i managed to squeezed out the root - about 1cm in length and 5mm in width. so that's what been hiding beneath my skin. i am not going to die after all.

to sidetrack, i was struck with a great setback yesterday. the pain i had while squeezing the lump did take away some of my emotional pain. now i fully understand why some people resort to self-harm to deal with their emotional pain.

im so gonna bitch about this si ah pui

here's how the story goes:

last week i sms ah pui to see if he is free for lunch this coming friday.
his immediate reply was im free, where can we go (it came with a request, si ah pui wants a ride).
i decided to ask moo moo along since we have not met for a long time.
while waiting for moo moo's reply, i told si ah pui that we are meeting next friday for lunch, no matter what.
he said okay, keep him posted.

moo moo replied on sat saying he's ok to meet during lunch for about 1.5hrs.

yesterday this si ah pui sms me asking if we can dun meet for too long because he has a TENTATIVE birthday party in the EVENING and he needs time to prepare for it. (notice how fast our original appointment is now 2nd in order of preference?)

i replied si ah pui this morning saying that moo moo cant come out too long either since its during lunch and not tat im so desperate to meet si ah pui for too long either.

guess wat si ah pui replied?

"meet him another day den, tats veri rush i think. we can meet in the morning if u wan, 11ish to 12. Palaris?"

si ah pui if you are reading this, why are you excluding moo since you want me to meet you during lunch time anyway? doesnt moo moo needs to eat?

and just in case you dunno, i so dun palaris anymore! i only straits kitchen okay?

moo moo if you are reading this, i think u should give tat si ah pui two pinches. one for yourself and the one for me. he deserves it.

1WO S Thivvianathan

i was reading the papers until i reached the obituaries.
a black and white picture of a couple ballroom dancing caught my eye.
possibly sent in by their childdren (im guessing).
then as i scroll my eyes down, i saw someone familar.
then there was an immediate feeling of sadness.
he was the mt wo during my army days.
because of my 2b military lisence, i saw him frequently about the 5 bikes with the pizza boxes.
i last saw him during my reservist last year where he was posted to a higher level.
we were reminiscing those days and i could see that he still held the level of respect from his subordinates.
i always think its because he treats his soldiers like his own children. 
incidentally, he is my parents age too.
it saddens me to see his picture in the obituaries. totally unexpected. 

昙 花

是谁带走了你 让我得不到你

你用你的爱情 说出生命的意义

着魔的瞬间 世界变好美 以为一直这样会到永远

爱你 这一切都是我自愿

你像昙花一现 雪花般消失在我眼前
人说爱痛到极点 什么都可以谅解 为什么我都不能体会

为何会爱上你 连我自己都不能了解

我是多么的想你 多么的想看到你

你明知道我还在迷恋 昙花一现的那夜

how's things?

im still trying to think of how to respond to an sms which asked "hows things?"

it all began from a dinner which never realized because of a deficiency - the venue is too far, even though there is a direct bus.

not even an sms on my birthday and 2mths later, "hows things?"

let me think about it la...



5 july 2009

a friend is still a friend no matter what. si ah pui!

seriously...

i think orchard central needs to be discerning in its selection of shops.

a trip there yesterday has detered me from going anymore.

for a moment i thought i was at a heartland mall.

utterly unglam.