happy birthday darling

a day before darling's birthday, her sec sch best friends came to surprise her. darling is really blessed to have these best friends. i already lost contact with most of my sec sch friends. the few that i kept in contact is only through facebook. 

xuanxuan had a really good time entertaining them with her 'let it go' performance as well as her own antics. 

dun you think this looks like a 全家福? hahahahaha. 

and now for the actual day. i ordered a bouquet of 30 tulips - 10 yellow, 10 red and 10 white, from my aunt who is a florist. my aunt always give me the best price, and today, she provided value-added service. she personally delivered the bouquet to darling. omg. i am touched and amazed beyond words. 

birthday cake from cat and fiddle, which i ordered. :)

dun you agree that the tulips look beautiful? :)

saturday post

during monday's assembly programme, the performing arts CCAs presented their syf items to the whole school. the rationale is for the whole school to show encouragement to the performing arts CCAs who are preparing very hard for SYF. 

when i first heard about this showcase, i have my reservations. firstly, it will affect their preparations. to have a showcase, i need to coordinate a rehearsal. and the rehearsal is on a CCA day when CCA hours are very precious. 

but it is ok, i am still a newbie at the workplace so i shall just adhere to the practises here. therefore besides the assembly programme being a showcase, i also use it to share with the whole school my performing arts journey, and to give tips to the syf performers on how to put up their best performance on stage, and finally to broadcast to the whole school when are their presentation dates and get the whole school to give the syf performers a rousing applause as an encouragement for their syf preparations (that is the primary rationale why this showcase is happening). 

my trademark tagline. effort, energy, expressions! 

today it was a very happening morning. first of all there is ADSS Cup, a football tournament organised for the students. and the criteria for the students to participate is that they must not have any demerit points and they must pass their common test. i think this is a good initiative, because it motivates everyone to behave well in order for them to participate in this. i helped to source for the referees as well as plan out the fixtures. 

and so happened on this same day, is SYF exchange at another school in the north. the dance instructor at that school is peter teo, and he jio-ed me. of course i agreed to it, because my dance girls need the exposure, to see how are the dance clubs from the other schools. there were 10 schools in total, and i am very happy to catch up with people like peter, chze siang, kenneth, elizabeth and huifen. dance is really an amazing platform to make friends. it was a good learning experience for my dancers and it was an eye opening experience for me to see the works from my dance choreographer friends. too bad xuehong is performing at GBTB today and i can't catch up with him. 

ADSS Cup group shot! thank god for lovely weather this morning. it is raining now in the afternoon. :p

peter teo giving his briefing. 2 years later please have it at my workplace. i can host. the hall at my workplace is air conditioned. hee hee hee. 

i think my dancers did very well today. it is their best performance so far. of course they can do even better. thank you to all the instructors for their feedback. :) 

i really enjoy syf. it excites me. although i can't say the same for my dancers, as well as my friends who are the choreographers. hahahahaha. 

4E1 BBQ

the school has a bbq pit. how cool is that? and if it rains, fret not, the OM also has mobile bbq pits, for us to bbq under shelter. i am amazed beyond words. 

this afternoon we have our first bbq session, to reward the students for their wonderful efforts in their VIA presentation, and also for them to catch a breather, after a stressful term 1 (of course they still have 3 more stressful terms to survive). 

my students are like paparazzi. hahaha. 

not bad leh, the boys want to bbq. at my show choir chalets that i organised, is only me and deniece bbq-ing, and the kids eat happily. 

4E1 bbq, SUCCESS! :)

Speech Day 2017

my first speech day with the workplace. this year they are celebrating their 15th anniversary. 

beside me is ziyuan, the top student of last year's sec 3 cohort. she also got best in chem, best in physics, best in higher chinese, best in e maths and best in a maths. beside her is ee qing, the second in standard, also got best in combined humanities. the two of them will most probably be the top students for this year's o level, if nothing goes wrong. 

my pe student. very cheeky, mischievous, but he is a genuine person with a good heart. his father opens two economic rice stalls in woodlands. hopefully one day can patronise the stall. :)

and last but not least, my dancers! all the best for this year's SYF! 

MR ceremony

this morning i got a day off from work because i am being called up by SAF to go to safra mount faber for the MR ceremony to collect my MR watch and 10 years NS medal. 

the watch and medal was supposedly to be collected last year, on the final day of our 10th ICT, but due to some cock up by the army logistics branch, the watches were not ready. so SAF suggested to mail the watch and medal to our house, but my CO refuse that suggestion, because he believe that a ceremony is necessary, to thank the servicemen for the 10 years of contribution to the defence of singapore. 

my CO, although he is also a NSman, but his love and loyalty to the country is second to none, and he always stress upon us the importance of national service, and the standards he demand from us are really very high. that's why he commands the respect from everyone, and we really work our buttocks off during in-camp training, so that he wun screw us if we screw up. 

it is really my honour to work under this CO, and i am really so proud and happy to go up on stage to receive the medal and watch from him personally. 

can see my rank and name being engraved on the medal? :)

behold, my name engraved wrongly. name engraved correctly on the medal, but wrongly on the watch. another cock up from SAF. #哭笑不得

no more NS. yessssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wednesday post

in the morning i brought my dance club to kallang theatre for their syf rehearsal. 

i love kallang theatre, because i performed there twice during my secondary school days, for the school anniversary celebrations. 

kallang theatre undergo a revamp and it looks more modern now, especially with the two LCD screens at both sides of the stage. 

afternoon was photo taking with my form class. this is my first time taking a graduating class as a form class, and it is the best express class, the creme of the crop. 

i really have so much love for this class. 

they got back their chemistry common test results, and half of the class fail. :'(

my chemistry rep was also very disappointed, and he has alot of heart for the class, and he couldn't sleep the whole night, thinking about how to make the class improve in chemistry. and he sent me a super long message to give me suggestions on how i can help the class improve, and the class have faith in me as their chemistry teacher, and he really wants everyone to improve together.

so much love for him as well. <3 font="">

Manchester United - League Cup Winner 2017

#GGMU!!! 

FIL's birthday celebration

on friday night FIL came to my house and we prepared the ingredients together for the yakitori. apple, pear, oranges, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and... JACKFRUIT. yes jackfruit. to be honest i have my reservations. 

taaa daaaaaa!!! that is 2 plates of pork belly shabu shabu. FIL worries that it will not be enough for all of us to eat. 

the army stew! 

my sister in-law bought pork ribs and prawns. MIL cooked a dish of asparagus with scallops and XO sauce. 

wonderful and delicious lunch. my life is complete. 

and guess what? the jackfruit yakitori taste surprisingly nice. hahahahahahaha. next time FIL wants to try using grapes and bananas. hahahahaha. 

saturday post

today i prepared these for dinner, because the in-laws are coming to our house to eat dinner. darling's mum is a very good cook, and after a tough day of sch, i seek solace and comfort in her food. i really love the egg tofu, chicken rice, tau kwa with pork, cabbage, dumplings, bitter gourd fish head and cod fish. and the soups that she make are OMG. so good and so nourishing. so when they come to our house, of course i must prepare something special for them. :)

prepared these because darling and i tasted very good yakitori at taichung's fengjia night market. they wrap bacon over interesting ingredients such as orange and mochi. the mochi one really a bit too high level so i decided not to do that. after discussing with darling, the ingredients that we use are orange (from cny hahahahaha), cherry tomatoes, oyster mushroom and yellow pepper. 

also prepared kimchi salmon. but it seems that the yakitori is more popular than the kimchi salmon. hahahahaha. 

the biggest recognition is... my FIL requests for the yakitori and the army stew he ate last week to be prepared on his birthday celebration, which is on next sat. while eating we were actually discussing where should we go and eat. so MIL suggest stay at home, and she will cook some nice dishes. she then suggested cooking curry, and my FIL said no need the curry, he wants the yakitori and army stew. and he also want to prepare the yakitori together with me next saturday. hahahahahaha. 

i can sleep very well tonight. :)

V Day

on this very special day, i did not go to sch. instead i went for an Outdoor Education workshop held at the Academy of Singapore Teachers. 

to be very honest, it feels good to take a break from school and go for a course. next wed and thur i will be going for my first aid refresher course. hee hee hee. 

after the Outdoor Education workshop i travelled to chai chee to collect the v day present that i got for darling. it is actually customised balloons inside a big box. the person who is doing this business is a lady that i got to know in tzu chi, when i was involved in their production. she is so kind to give me a 10% discount. :)

you can follow @balloonelle.official on instagram to see what products and services they provide! you can also try your luck by saying my name and see if she will also give you a discount. hahahaha. 

and guess what? the biggest beneficiaries of this big balloon are actually enxuan and yuanze. they played with the balloon so happily for a good 15 minutes. life's simplest joy is to witness your children playing happily. :)

元宵

my 元宵 was spent with my students. invited them to come to my house for a cny gathering. originally there were 12 students who are coming. 1 got the date wrong. 1 have to go for a video shoot. 2 cannot make it last min. 1 arrive at 9 pm. 

and i prepared a big pot of army stew, pork shabu shabu, kimchi salmon, and ordered 3 large pezzo pizzas. 

thank goodness my in-laws pop by and help to eat the army stew and pork. :)

it was great to see all of them again after so long. especially lee shermin (the girl in pale blue) whom i had not seen since my wedding in dec 2015. 

happy 元宵 to everybody!! 

saturday post

this year's cny was not very festive for me because yuan ze fell sick. he had cough, flu and fever. on chu yi when everyone go bai nian, we stay at home, and i also have to go to guardian to buy vicks ointment for yuan ze. :(

darling knows that at 4 months old, there's no cough or flu medicine to be prescribed, so we decided to see it through, and hope he will become better. unfortunately it did not get better, and we brought him to see the paediatrician on wednesday. the paediatrician believes that he caught a viral infection when we went out on cny eve. HAIYAAAA... 

right now he is still coughing a bit, with phlegm in his throat. there's still mucus in his nose. for the past few days, when we tried to suck the mucus out, he resisted like hell, machiam fighting a war with us. but since yesterday, when we put the SMD (suck mucus device HAHAHAHAHAHA) in his nostrils, he allowed us to do it, and he did not move at all, and from his facial expressions, we can tell that he totally enjoyed it. hahahaha. 

on a side note, the photos of my maiden performance are out!