wednesday post

大年初三 (yesterday) was a bad day for me, because i had severe gastric pain and diarrhoea. i lao sai 8 times, and did not have any appetite to eat lunch/dinner. thank goodness darling was with me yesterday, showering me with love and concern. :)

thank you darling for the nice collage to encourage me to get well soon! :)

today i wanted to force myself to go to school because i have a performance for the cny concert. but i felt really weak and decided to not to go school for lessons, go and see the doctor first and take medicine, hopefully i will be feeling better and go for the performance. 

thankfully i felt a bit better after taking the medicine and i braced myself and drag my cmi body to the workplace. 

my performers didnt perform that well. a girl did not manage to 搬后腿 and she felt very sad. but the saddest thing is ALL of them missed the count to come out on stage to join me to do the finale part of the item! i was really quite disappointed in them but when i saw that the girls were already in tears and the boys are hanging their heads in shame i relented and decided not to scold them, but told them the what are the lessons to be learnt as a performer. :)

this is what they wrote for me after the performance. very sweet and nice of them.

one of the girls is still wearing the mask because she cried the most. :p

thank you performers. i am still very proud of all of you. 

大年初一

happy cny everyone!!! 

scallop making

long overdue post.

i went to darling's house on tuesday night to make cream cheese hotate. yum yum!

they taste really good! :)

friday post

it was the friday before cny, and i think that many schools out there either have cny celebrations or half day. my workplace still have normal lessons, with normal dismissal time, but to give fairness, our cny celebrations is on next wednesday. although majority of us will prefer to have the celebrations today. hahahaha. when i heard the lion dance drum and cymbals at the primary school side i also felt a bit sian. :p

but tonight is a happy night, because it was our first nuscd preview for the march 17 performance. the preview was very professionally done, with a clear markout of the stage using blue and red tape, clear entry and exit points, and a proper briefing done so that all of us are very sure of what to do and what to expect. 

what made the night happier is that i saw many familiar faces, as compared to the last emcc performance. xuehong's random comments were present again, and seriously only him could pull it off without getting scolded by DLS. hahahaha. 

after the preview some of the alumni dancers went for supper together. reminded me of the good old days of dancing together and having supper after that. 

although i felt that the duration of the performance is really a bit too short with just 8 items, but hopefully the quality makes up for the quantity and we can put up a production that all of us will be proud of. :)

OYEA

i like to share this piece of happy news with everyone. 

i am being nominated for OYEA - Outstanding Youth in Education Award. 

Here's some background information regarding OYEA:
The OYEA recognises and honours young teachers for their passion, drive, commitment and teaching excellence within and beyond the classroom. 

i do not expect myself to win this award because out of so many nominees in the whole of singapore, only 3 will be selected. and after reading the 2012 winners' profile, these winners really did alot for their workplace and their students, and my achievements pale in comparison to theirs. 

therefore i am already very happy to be nominated, and to be recognised by batman, the two robins and my HODs. 

the statement i am going to write next, may sound cliche, but it really describe my true feelings:

得不得奖并不重要，能够被入围已经是一种肯定。

:)

1600th post

the 1600th post is dedicated to the mauritians who visited sg from 30th jan to 2nd feb. 

we welcomed them warmly by treating them to a sumptous seafood dinner at por kee. yes the name sounds funny when i first heard it, and i thought is some simple zhi char place at a coffee shop, but when i reach there, i was surprised that it is actually a big restaurant, and business is very good!

btw nzj please tell me how much is the dinner and i can pay you my share. :)

hw can you identify who are the chio mauritius cousins?

it is a pity that i cannot bring the mauritians around! if i can, i will bring them to my usual hangouts such as katong and siglap, let them eat nyonya food, korean bbq, chicken rice, katong laksa, cheesecake, etc etc. 

on friday night, lou hei at crystal jade after the tense dance practise at nus. 

the crazy ah sens who are crazy enough to go mustafa centre for shopping at 1 am!
  

xuehong looks exceptionally thrilled in lao-ing yusheng with his family and friends.

i look exceptionally happy too, after feeling upset and tensed.

weekend post

something happened on friday morning that made me very upset. 

it was the mass exercise in the morning, whereby the whole workplace will be involved in physical activity for an hour. the objectives are to encourage everybody to lead a healthy lifestyle through exercising, and to nurture active and engaged individuals through a holistic health program. 

i was in charge of the mass exercise, and i divided the students into two groups. the lower sec students went up to the hall, and the upper sec students were at the parade square. 

because the upper sec students were a tougher group to motivate, i took that group and let my other pe colleague take the lower sec group at the hall. 

and the disaster begins for me. the mic volume at the parade square was very soft. the music volume was also very soft. and the upper sec students were really not motivated. when i was leading the mass dance, most of them, especially the boys, folded their arms and look at me "perform". 

however, what upsets me most, is that majority of the colleagues all stood at the back and did not do anything. it is ok that if you do not want to exercise. but the minimum thing that you can do is to instill discipline in your class, getting the students organised.

but of course i will shoulder the whole blame, because the mass exercise is not interesting enough and hence it doesnt engage the students. i will definitely review the whole thing and make sure such an incident wont happen again. 

as a result i was very emo the whole day. going for dance practise didnt help, because DLS was in a cranky mood and made the atmosphere so tense. i felt better during the supper session with darling and the dancers. 

after the supper i drove xuehong and his family to mustafa centre for midnight shopping. they are really crazy! i am already so tired and they still have the energy to shop. now i know why xuehong is alwys so energetic whenever it comes to shopping. it lies in the family!

it is already sunday, and it is a cooling sunday. i shall now look "forward" to monday. but knowing that next week is the week before cny makes me feel a bit better. :)

wednesday post

miss chua, the dance dynamics teacher in-charge, shared something very interesting with me today.

she told me that whenever there are performing arts combined rehearsals, and when her dance dynamics students are dancing on stage, they do not care whether the applause comes from the students from the other performing arts ccas. 

instead, while they are dancing, they keep on looking at my face, to see whether am i smiling or am i stern. just a short applause from me or a look of encouragement, means alot to them. 

oops... 

they will always complain to miss chua, why is my face always so stern when they are dancing, and they will start to worry whether have they done well enough.

it is good to hear that i am their source of "motivation" to make them perform better. :p

art science museum

went to art science museum for free, because there was an educators' event. eudora tan signed both of us up, together with another colleague, but he pang sei us at the very last minute. :(

here are the pics!

all these above are made of lego! omg...

POTD

the boy totally bochup the men in white. :p

misaki's one month baby shower

we went to bliss restaurant at cheng san cc for misaki's 满月. misaki is the lovely daughter of the singaporean hz and the japanese shin kushiya (i hope i got the surname correct hahahaha). 

it is really awesome to see so many nuscd people coming for the baby shower! :)

the most delicious food at the baby shower was actually the 糯米饭 prepared by hz's parents, and the cupcakes from 'Twelve Cupcakes'. oops~~~

POTD

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. 

- Albert Einstein

show choir

when i first started teaching, i can never ever expect myself to be the teacher in-charge for choir. 

my pe friends are either teachers in-charge for sports ccas or for uniform groups, and i think i am the one of the very rare pe teachers to be in charge of performing arts cca. 

thank goodness this is a show choir, not the traditional choir, hence i can offer my professional advice based on my experience as a stage performer, and value add to the cca. 

for the past few practises the committee members and a few seniors will always stay behind, and we will chit chat together, talking about the future direction of the cca and other random stuff. it is really quite enjoyable chatting with them. :)

but now the cca is in a danger zone. my core performers in sec 4 do not want to join the show choir competition in july because they want to focus on their studies. i have 5 sec 2 students quitting because the chief instructor is too fierce. and i am worried that i will have a very small sec 1 intake because only 10 sec 1 students turned up for the audition and the instructor only identified 3 better ones. 

i am really beginning to worry... worry that i will spoil the great work done by Miss OCA 2012... worry that the show choir dynasty will crumple in my hands... :(

please let show choir have an awesome 2013! 

the chosen unit

finally we have our own flat!

the queue number was quite big, so by the time it was our turn to choose, we were only left with the units on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor. 

our appointment time is at 415 pm, but we already reach toa payoh hdb hub at 230 pm, hoping that we can choose earlier, but our number only got called at 420 pm. so much for kiasu-ism. :p

so we chose a 4-room apartment on the 4th floor, with a floor area of 93 square meters.

it will be ready by july 2017! 

and once i move there i will definitely change a new workplace. on my last day at the current workplace, i will kneel down in the middle of the parade square, facing the school crest and cry. what a dramatic ending to conclude my journey. 

friday post

yesterday was the release of o level results. the workplace din do quite well, and batman was unhappy. :(

tomorrow is cca display, and i really glad that i have responsible show choir students who stayed back after rehearsal to do the publicity posters. :)

 eudora tan has trained them well! 

photos of the sister's ROM (professional photographer)

Gardens By The Bay

finally i am here! :)

if there is some gigantic creature flying here and there or some avatar running here and there, gardens by the bay will be perfect! :p

friday post

just finished a 2 days 1 night sec one orientation camp. i am now very tired, because i did not sleep well at the workplace yesterday night. 

today we are in the Singapore Book Of Records again, for having the greatest number of people doing cup stacking, in the 3-3-3 formation. we have our own students and staff, and we even got students from the primary school, and also senior citizens from various old folks' homes in the east area. 

the last record holder was by ITE college east, having 1130 participants in 2010. today, we have 2041 participants! win liao win liao really win liao. we break record, we contributed to the community by asking old folks, and we even invited one of the tampines MPs to grace this event. what we lack is mediacorp coverage. haha. and by now you should have guessed this record breaking event is organised by the PE dept. :)

can you recognise the MP? anyway the indian guy is my new PE HOD. my previous pe hod, the one in lime green, is now the PD HOD. PD stands for pupil development. 

and the 4 house masters took this yesterday:

i really love my workplace's PE dept! 

first post of 2013

happy new year everybody!

on previous years' new year celebration i was always with darling, but on 31 Dec 2012 i was with darling at a clinic because she was not feeling well. so poor thing. :(

as such my new year countdown was spent with a handsome korean celebrity, whose name is Lee Min Ho, the 道明寺 of Boys Over Flowers. of course i did not watch Boys Over Flowers. i am now watching City Hunter, and i am hooked onto it! 

i am looking forward to next sunday 13 Jan because darling and i are making a trip to toa payoh hdb hub to select our flat! hope we still can get a good unit. i am thankful to have my dad who works in the construction line and knows a bit of fengshui. he helped us analyse the floor plan as well as the map and told us what are the units that are worth choosing. and true enough when darling checked the hdb website alot of these units are already taken up! 

in 2011 and 2012 i was really feeling apprehensive and nervous because the next day is the first day of school.

but this time round i am feeling nothing. i guess i am more experienced and more chill and went through alot of challenges. what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. :)