birthday post

the birthday celebration started with watching Thor Ragnarok at gv gold class at great world city. and if i remember correctly, this is the only movie we watch together for the year 2017. the last movie we watched together was Dr Strange in 2016. 

movie was good. i like the humour elements inside this movie. watching at gold class is even more good. although is very expensive. hahahahaha. 

i wanna introduce to everyone my birthday cake! darling chose the birthday cake, and the birthday cake was bought and collected by my FIL. :)

(pictures taken from danial food diary)

from danial food diary:

D’Pastriez by Bread Fresh
Osmanthus Onde Onde Cake

Locations: Fusionopolis One, Telok Blangah Crescent Blk 9, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 Blk 629, Bangkit Road Blk 257, Fajar Road Blk 445, Gek Poh Shopping Centre, Ghim Moh Road Blk 19, Yishun Ring Road Blk 103, Bukit Batok St 31 Blk 376

Oh, this was a surprise.

I would not have expected beneath the glossy (almost mirror-like) cake glaze, was the local favourite of Onde Onde (flavour).

There are three layers to this dessert. The exterior has a cooling osmanthus jelly, the main portion onde onde inspired cream, with a base comprising of caramelised roasted coconut sablé.

The familiar yet out-of-the-expected combination of pandan and coconut should make this a family favourite.

I totally agree with him. It is worthy of a family favourite. Approved by my mum. My mum is a baker at marriott and she dislikes cakes that are too sweet. If my mum says the sweetness of this cake is just nice, that means this cake got distinction already. hahahahaha. 

photo credit: FIL (wah so coincidental both yz and xx wore pink hahahahahaha)

birthday celebration part 2 was at derek's house, where he invited me to his house to celebrate my birthday. upon reaching his house he confessed to me that celebrating my birthday is secondary, the primary reason is that both his twin kids wanna eat cake. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 

presenting to you, the 4 heavenly monkeys. #四大天猴 

what a confrontation between wilson and xiaoyun's daughter (ria) and yuanze. hahahahahaha. 

the kids totally not interested whether isit my birthday. they more interested in the cake. 

thank you everyone for coming down to celebrate my birthday! my heart is filled with love. :)

and the final round of birthday celebrations is at my tampines home the next day. my parents prepared teppanyaki steamboat! 

look at the spread omg. the meat and fish marinated by my dad. the tray of lamb chops is from cold storage cost 25 bucks, and is my birthday present from my little sis. hahahahaha. teppanyaki lamb chops taste really good, just that need quite a long time for them to be nicely cooked. 
  

look at that fish. so fresh. and so nicely cut. is cut by my dad. omg my dad's 刀功 is out of this world. worthy of a professional chef. 

finally, some creative birthday present and wishes to share. :)

wooo hoooo blackberry from my lovely wife! :) 

from my colleague, miss sylvia lim, who has a crazy thing for turtles. 

and the above 4 photos are done by the super creative Mr Fen! thank you so much for the effort! :)

the most creative birthday wish for this year is from my tpss colleague, mr felix yap. he is a musician and he used his trumpet or trombone or whatever you call that to blow the tune of happy birthday song for me. thank you mr felix! love you many many! :)

i also want to thank all my students, colleagues, friends, relatives and family for all the birthday wishes. thank you so much, i am truly blessed. 

Happy Graduation 4E1

The sec 4 & 5 students had their Graduation Ceremony last Friday evening. 

For the Graduation Ceremony, all teachers are required to attend, even if you do not teach any graduating classes. 

Last year when I attended, I was still a new teacher, and I do not really know the sec 4 and 5 students, except for a few who are in Dance Club. 

This year is different. I am the form teacher of 4E1. The best express class. Until now I still cannot imagine how fortunate I am to be their form teacher. They are a bunch of really good students. 

At my previous workplace, when I first started as a fully trained teacher, I was the form teacher of 3E2 2010. I clicked with them immediately. They are also a bunch of very good students. I requested to follow up with them in 2011, but unfortunately I did not get my wish. 

In 2011 and 2012 I was the form teacher of 1E1 and follow up with them to 2E1. Yes it is the first express class, but there are some special characters in this class, and these special characters give me the thinking that:"Why the F*** am I the FT of this class?" One of them is a super laid back guy, who can't be bothered with anything, who walk all the way for every 2.4km run, but he is a smart boy. The ultimate came when he was in sec 4 and he attened the prom nite in tshirt and bermudas, when every single boy came in blazer, shirt and pants. Another special character is a boy who really has strong leadership qualities, but he has an inferior complex because he is the shortest boy in the class. So once a while he will do something funny to attract the attention of his teachers but unfortunately I am so not impressed. 

And then in 2013 I was the form teacher of 1N2. Also a very nice class but I remember got one boy who has very bad EQ, very bad social awareness and really cannot interact with his peers. Until some of his peers got very irritated by him and start to bully him, because he irritated them. And this boy's parents are helicopter parents, gave me many phone calls just to make sure their son is well protected and also came down to school a few times to talk to me about their son. Again, I ask myself, why the F*** am I the FT of this class?

Finally in 2014 and 2015 I was the form teacher of 1T1 and follow up with them to 2T1. Yes it is a normal tech class. People keep telling me must be fierce to them but I was not very fierce with them. I am more of being firm with them and I rationalise with them. This class is really a very interesting class. I have a pair of twins who are always late for school, because they got no self management as they come from a single parent family, and they are staying with their mum, and their mum work long hours everyday in order to make ends meet. I have a chinese gangster, with piercings on his ears, nose, tongue or whatever body part you can think of, but he has a good heart, and he also come from a single parent family and he is staying with his father. I have a boy who got so carried away during teacher's day celebration in the class that he jump from the top of the table up to the ceiling fan, and the ceiling fan can't hold his weight and both the fan and boy dropped on the ground. So thankful that there was nobody around and of course that crazy boy wasn't hurt. He is quite a darling actually. Hahahahaha. And I got a girl who has some depression issue, who thinks that the whole world is against her, until one day she brought a fruit knife to school and pointed it at her classmate because of some friendship issues. The police even had to come down on that very day, and so happen one of the Investigating Officers is my wushu junior from Chung Cheng. Teaching is such an interesting job, isn't it? 

And strangely, I do not have the feeling of why the F*** am I the FT of this class. Because it is this class who made my job meaningful, because they have their own problems at home, and they seek solace and comfort when they come to school, and they feel safe and happy in this class, with me as their form teacher. This year during their graduation ceremony, they still mentioned my name in their graduation speech, and I am touched that they still remember me. :)

2016 I transferred to the current workplace and I am the form teacher of 2E2. A very notorious class, with special individuals. But I think they were still manageable. 

And finally this year. I am the form teacher of 4E1. This is the class that make me look forward to go to class every single day. They are a pleasure to teach. Of course every class have one or two special individuals. And this class also got that one or two special individuals. Got one individual who has attendance issue, and comes up with all sorts of excuses, for example uniform still in the laundry, not feeling well, this and that. His forte is making empty promises. During teacher's day party he is supposed to make an oreo cheesecake and bring to school. However on the bus journey to school, the oreo cheesecake toppled, fell on his pants, dirtied his pants, so he went back home to change his pants, and he was late for school and with no oreo cheesecake. So on the last day of school, I told him to make the oreo cheesecake that never happened. This is also to force him to come to school because I know that he will most likely not come to school. He promised that he will bring the oreo cheesecake and unfortunately, he still did not come to school. He said in the group chat that he fell asleep while having dinner. -.-'''

There is also another individual who had lost focus, because he won a gaming competition in September and he received a cash prize of 20,000 dollars. So he now see his future in gaming, and not o levels. And he begin to act abnormally in class. Always falling asleep. Always sweeping the floor. Always wear a jacket that shows his gaming team name in school, even though Singapore is so hot. And there was one time when we are talking about future career, he shared that he want to open a cafe and he already rope in a few of his classmates to be his staff. His classmates and even myself start to become more and more uncomfortable with his actions. So I had a good talk with him. Even the school counsellor also had to talk to him. He got more normal after that but unfortunately, the content knowledge in his brain is still zero. He is not prepared for o levels at all. 

Ok lah, enough of all the recap. 

Happy Graduation 4E1, as well as all the sec 4 and 5 students! I am really proud to be your Form Teacher. 

their last PE lesson in ADSS

can you spot me? :)

farewell gift for each student, from me and my partner FT. the calligraphy is of course not written by the both of us. hahahahaha. it is done by my ex colleague's fiancee. she has to do 40 pieces leh! not easy man. so thankful for ther artistic talent and her worksmanship. if you need any specialised gifts that involves calligraphy, you can get from me her contact! 

my partner FT and I doing a farewell message for 4E1. hahahahahaha. 

check out the beautiful balloon sculptures! the parents from the parent support group did these from early evening until 12 midnight!! and these are not the only balloon sculptures. there were a few more! 

let us all rise to welcome the graduating students! yes i am the emcee for this graduation ceremony. 

displaying their farewell gifts from the school, which is a personalised 4 gb thumbdrive. 

4E1 on stage, with the chairperson and vice chairperson representing the class in saying the farewell speech

All the best for your o levels 4E1! Please do well in all subjects, especially for Chemistry!!!

Yuan Ze is 1

Yuan Ze turned 1 on 14 Sept 2017. 

For his 1 year old bday, we did not throw any birthday bash for him. We just celebrated his birthday with my family as well as darling's family on two separate occasions. 

We held a baby shower for Yuan Ze, and to be honest, I do like the part where all our relatives, good friends, colleagues, and students gather to share this joyous occasion. However, during the baby shower, Yuan Ze was asleep the whole time. And when we got back home at night, he was crying very terribly. So I told darling, if we have a second child, no need to hold a baby shower for him/her. 

As for Yuan Ze's baby shower, we held it at my sister's condo function room, and the function room is quite small. We had to ask our guests to come at 2 different timings. And as a result, we did not get to invite some of our other friends. And I did not invite my pe classmates. It is not that I do not like them. I love them alot. And so they got wind of this baby shower through social media. And one of them was unhappy with me for not inviting them. And the other person also keep harping on that. So whenever there are other baby showers or weddings or whatsoever, that same person will keep making this an issue. If you ask me, I think this is equivalent to the adult version of... whatsapp bullying. Hahahahahaha. But is ok lah, I still love that person alot. I still love going for JB seafood trips with him. 

Anyway to commemorate Yuan Ze's first birthday, we let him do a photoshoot. When Enxuan turned 1 years old, Audrey (my student from the previous workplace) was the photograher. And of course, for my son's first photoshoot, I of course have to engage Audrey. I jokingly told Audrey that when my son turns 21 years old I will also engage her as the official photographer. And the next thing she told me is that she also wants to be Enxuan's official photographer when she gets married. Hahahahaha. 

The photoshoot location for Yuan Ze was at Pan Pacific Singapore. We had a staycation there for 2 nights during the sept holidays. It was Yuan Ze's second staycation. His first staycation was at JW Marriott Singapore. I like Pan Pacific. First of all, the room is much bigger than JW's. Secondly it is easily accessible to places such as Marina Square, Suntec and Esplanade. We went to Ya Kun at Marina Square for breakfast for two consecutive days. Hahahahaha. Xuehong and NZJ also joined us for breakfast on the 2nd day. Both of them specially took cab down to Marina Square to eat breakfast with us. I am touched. :)

Ok lah, here are the photos! Thank you Audrey! :)

We had 3 themes. The pilot theme, the minion theme and the outdoor pool theme. We got the pilot romper from an online store like 4 days before the photoshoot. And have to ask for express mail to send to us the next day. The planes are bought by darling's father. 

Minion romper was from darling's meimei. She bought it at USS. Minion soft toy and minion figurines are borrowed from Yoke Kay. I specially drove to her house (she stays at CCK) to get from her. Until now I still haven return them to her. Hahahahahaha. 

Right now is the End Of Year exams period. So is pretty much holiday mood already. And this year I am the chief presiding examiner again for O levels. I a bit sian because the school that I am going to this year do not have air-conditioned hall. :p

Anyway, looking forward to the dec holidays, because we are going to Ritz Carlton for staycation. And I really hope that I can bring darling and Yuan Ze as well as darling's family to Taiwan during next year's June holidays. 

Teacher's Day 2017

this week is a lovely week for all teachers, as well as students. 

1st september (fri) is hari raya haji. hence teacher's day holiday is on 31st august (thur). and teacher's day celebration is on 30th august (wed). which means it is a very short week! woo hoo!! 

it started off with aces day. in my current workplace, aces day is a big thing. very big credit goes to miss nuriah, who has been the choreographer for 7 years, and every year is almost 100% of the whole school will dance, including teachers and the vice-principals and principal. i know because i personally saw the principal and vice-principal dancing. 

on the makeshift stage that is made of canteen tables, together with the sec 4 and 5 dance leaders. the dance leaders have to go through an audition by miss nuriah in order to get selected. out of these dance leaders 4 of them are from dance club. :p

a group photo with the pe dept after a successful aces day! pardon that white rubbish on the right. hahahahaha. 

after aces day the teachers will go back to their classes for class party. we are only given one hour for class party, and during the class party we have to give out report books and that takes up about 25 minutes. :(

but anyway, myself and my partner FT are very touched by our form class efforts. the moment both of us stepped into the class they sprayed confetti at us. hahahaha. they prepared a gigantic card for each of us, with all the teacher's day wishes by every student in the card. so touched sia~ 

thank you for doing my trademark pose! hahahahaha. 

the 4E1 ladies

as well as the 4E1 gentleman. and so coincidental that me and my partner FT wore the same colour combi shirt. :)

after the class party was teacher's day concert, put up by the students, a band that consists of teachers, as well as a dance performance by the parent support group. kudos to the parents who actually come back to school on saturdays to choreo the dance steps and practise the dance! and they really look synchro on stage. i am impressed. this year's parent support group is super strong. they made gifts for teachers. and during night study, they came down to distribute oreo biscuits, as well as made bookmarks for every student to encourage them to study hard. so much effort. i really applaud them. 

with the wushu team! the balloon sculpture in front was also prepared by the parents. 

another photo with 4E1. :)


let me share with you some of the presents/cards that i received! 

handbaked cookies by my colleague who always wish me good morning when she walk past my table. :)

this is from my science HOD. so personalised! i love it! 

the other science teachers in the department. he really tried to match every teacher with their hobby/cca. i am impressed by his sincerity. 

and this is the most creative card that i received for this year. she is a very good student who got very good results. she will definitely be one of the top students. not only can study, can draw very well too. so talented. thank you so much for the card, i really like it alot. 


after that i went back to the previous workplace to play soccer with my ex colleagues. so happy to go back again, and so happy to see them again. 

what makes me even happier is that i saw my form class students when i was their form teacher when they were in sec 1 and 2. now they are already in sec 4. time really flies. 

happy teacher's day to all my friends and colleagues!