weekend post

darling and i planned a staycation for the in-laws. the in-laws helped us alot in renovating our new house. 

we chose grand mercure roxy because it is in the east, and is a place where the in-laws seldom go to. and the east is a food heaven, so we can treat them to have good meals 24/7. 

the first meal for them is kay lee roast meat at tanjong katong road. i am very familiar with tanjong katong road because my sec sch was at that area. :)

not very cheap. half a roast duck cost $25 and the char siew must buy at the minimum price of $10. the char siew is damn good. melts in the mouth. roast duck is good too. especially the duck skin. hahaha. father in-law totally love them and wanted to buy again the next day. 

after checking in we went to 112 katong to watch 'Mermaid', directed by stephen chow. the movie was a treat from darling's little sis. 

very nice movie with lots of humour and also inculcate an educational theme on the importance of conserving marine biodiversity. i think is nicer than aaron kwok's Journey To The West. sorry aaron kwok. #showluobetter #dengchaobetter

after the movie, darling's little sis have craving for ice cream and we went to cafe 9:30 (by awfully chocolate). she bought the dark chocolate ice cream. #caloriesintakeneedtomaintain 

we went back to the hotel room to wait for xuanxuan and her family. i booked two rooms and we are so glad to be given the connecting rooms. xuanxuan had lots of fun running from room to room. 

dinner was at roland restaurant! 

roland restaurant is known to be the founder for sg's chilli crab. the gravy is really good and matches very well with white rice. we also ordered the crab vermicelli, hor fun and a vege dish. 

the next morning we walked to marine parade hawker centre for a very sumptous breakfast. after that i sent darling and the in-laws to kay lee to da bao roast duck for their dinner, while i went to fort canning hotel for weiquan's wedding lunch. 

and that concludes my meaningful weekend! glad to see that the in-laws enjoyed the staycation. :)

Space. Time. Mind

this was taken last friday at UCC Dance Studio, during our 2nd vetting. 

this was my first time dancing in a vetting session, because i missed the 1st session as i just came back from malacca. 

this vetting session didnt turn out well for me. i forgot some of the movements (what's new anyway). 

i watched The Rites Of Spring (TROS) for the very first time, and it was quite spectacular. TROS is a collaboration between both the nuscd dancers and beijing dance academy dancers.

and we are featured on yesterday's straits times. 

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/dancing-to-the-rhythm-of-quantum-physics

we are likened to quantum physics. #deep  

quickly buy tickets to support our show! it is on 11 Mar 2016 (Fri), 8 pm at NUS UCC Hall. 

House Renovation

the house renovation is almost done. 

last saturday we have the remaining furniture delivered to the house, for example the dining table & chairs, the queen size bed for the master bedroom and the sofa. 

the dining table & chairs we got them at a very cheap price of $659, and unfortunately when the table was delivered to us, there were scratches at the corner of the table. they also dun look aesthetically pleasing with the nice blue backdrop of the dining area. so we went down to the furniture shop to ask for a change, and with the help of my sister in-law and her husband's persuasion skills, the salesman allowed us to change the table & chairs. hence we got a more atas looking table + chairs, at a more expensive price. :p

let me share the pics of our living room and master bedroom! 

the owl cushions are given by andrea, who is darling's sec sch friend and also one of darling's 姐妹s during our wedding. sofa ($1099) and coffee table ($399) from castlery. 

curtains by CurtainsTalk. cost us $1149. 

master bedroom. bedframe ($785) and nightstands ($613) also from castlery. wall painted by my mother in-law. her painting skills very professional, as she has been painting her house, all by herself, for the past few years. 

this love nest is a combination of efforts from both of us and our parents. my dad gave inputs on how we should renovate our house based on his fengshui knowledge. my FIL then asked the carpenter to make the furniture based on the inputs. MIL helped to paint the house and even cleaned our house. darling and myself help out whatever we can based on her parents' instructions. 

we are hoping to move in by mid march. looking forward to the day of moving in! 

Total Defence Day

over my past 6 years as an educator, this year's commemoration of Total Defence Day is the most big scale i have ever seen. 

firstly, last week all students' parents receive a letter from the P, stating what are the events leading up to Total Defence Day and the programme for Total Defence Day. 

today, all staff and students receive a meal coupon. there was a food rationing exercise at the canteen. we have to exchange the meal coupon for rations that were consumed during the japanese occupation, for example sweet potatoes, porridge, tapioca, corn and plain white bread. 

photo taken at the canteen with my colleagues and my form class students. 

i exchanged my coupon for two sweet potatoes. and because the food were not sufficient for my students, they asked for my sweet potato and i gladly gave one to them while i ate the other one. some of them were totally not used to eating these food and i have to educate them on what our ancestors went through during the japanese occupation, and they had to eat these food everyday. 

and then there was an assembly programme consisting of all the UGs and english drama, whereby they put up a skit to showcase the importance of total defence. alot of effort is being done and kudos to the teachers and students for making all these possible. the assembly programme ended with a fancy drill by each UG and each UG recited their own UG pledge. 

speaking of total defence, this year will be my 10th ICT. and after that i will be placed in the Mindef Reserves, which means i no need to go for ICT anymore. can't for that day to come!

初一

celebrating our first CNY as Mr and Mrs Tan! 

this is darling's 叔叔's house at sengkang. after the 拜年 we went to the newly opened waterway point at punggol with the in-laws. we are all amazed at the crowd. 大年初一 still got so many people go shopping when most of the shops are closed and only the restaurants are opened. 

除夕

for this year's reunion dinner, the grandchildren are tasked to buy the steamboat ingredients. we get to choose what we want to buy, and i chose scallops and all the balls. 

this year was also the first time that darling joined us for the reunion dinner. :)

 

and this year was also my first time giving out ang baos as a married man. i gave out the ang baos today to my younger cousins and nephew and niece because tomorrow we are not going to their house to 拜年. 

15 more minutes to 大年初一! going to stay up after 12 midnight to 守岁 for my parents. 

saturday post

watched this today with darling and her parents. 

i had high hopes for this movie because the trailer really look fantastic, but after watching the whole movie, it was just... normal. 

compared to the previous monkey god by donnie yen, this installation has slightly more humour in the 对白. 

the next movie that i am looking forward to is Deadpool! 

friday post

today the workplace celebrated CNY by having a 1 hour CNY concert from 1130 am to 1230 pm. before 1130 is still normal lessons. 

watching the concert gives me alot of memories that i had from the previous concerts that i am involved in at the previous workplace. and this is also my first time watching the wushu team perform on stage. the wushu team still has room for improvement, but they have quite alot of members, and they have one student who is very good. if you ask me honestly, the wushu team here has more potential than the wushu team at the previous workplace. 

the pe dept agreed to wear red also for today! 

the lady in blue is my hod. she actually wore a red arsenal jersey but she changed out into this blue top because she had pe lessons in the morning. #peteacherwoes

and the P actually walked around the staffroom to wish every chinese teacher happy cny. was surprised by his personal touch. batman has never done that before. only wish the teachers through email. hahahahahaha. 

the school's mascot, Addy, wishing everyone a Happy CNY 2016! 

thursday post

today i went back to the previous workplace to play netball with the b div girls. they challenged the teachers to a friendly match to prepare themselves for the upcoming b div netball competition. 

felt a great sense of nostalgia when i drove into the school gate. said hello to the security guards. the security guards greeted me. "YY! long time no see! where did you go?"

and then i told them i change school already and we chatted for a short while. 

after that i walked to the parade square. the netball girls saw me and they all screamed "MR TANNNNN". i felt so much love and warmth from them. waved at them and smiled at them happily. and then i said hello to my colleagues. mrs rose chen (VP), mr elango (PE HOD) and mr joshua foo also came out of the staffroom and chatted with me briefly. the other students (eg my last year form class students and performing arts students) also came to me and greeted me. i am so happy to be back. really. 

it was a good netball game. a very good intensive workout for me. i have never exercise that intensively since 2016. coming back home with a cramp in the quadriceps signified the good workout. :p

really miss all of you!  

saturday post

went up to the new house this morning to take a look at the furniture that has just been installed! 

this is the most hipster room with the most hipster wall and the most hipster wardrobe. 

the master bedroom!

master bedroom toilet, with the installed cabinet above the sink. 

living room. that's the backdrop for the tv. 

sliding door of the kitchen

kitchen! this is the side with all the 'fire' appliances, for example fire stove, oven, toaster, microwave. fengshui advice provided by my dad. 

the other side of the kitchen for the 'water' appliances, for eg the kitchen tap and sink, the refrigerator. 

malacca trip 2016

i have been to malacca a number of times. 

the first time was with my family, when i was in primary school. parents brought us to a road trip to malaysia, where we drove from JB to malacca to KL to genting highlands and back to singapore. i remembered we ate this awesome bak kut teh from this roadside stall, and we stayed at this super grand hotel called hotel renaissance. 

second time was with my army friends. one of them had an apartment at malacca, and had a trusted local guide, so we had a 3D2N food trip with free accommodation. 

third time was with darling, xuehong and nzj. i contacted the same trusted local guide and we engaged his services. 

fourth time was with jiepei, xuehong and nzj, when i dunno how this random trip to malacca came about, and ta da off we went there, and we stayed at this nice boutique hotel. 

and the fifth time, was with my colleagues and students. a cultural immersion trip for 3D2N, covering places like maritime museum, cheng ho museum, peranakan museum (the place where mediacorp drama little nyonya was filmed), jonker street and school visits. 

setting off with my form class 2E2! beside me is my FT partner miss ong. beside her is ms sheryl, the lower sec science level head, who is also 2E2's science teacher. 

day 2, where we visited smk bukit baru. we were so overwhelmed by their warm hospitality. 

wefie in front of their wall of friendship!

at the back alley of cheng ho museum.

dinner on the second night at this restaurant that serves delicious nyonya food! 

group photo on the final day of the trip! the guy holding my selfie stick is the VP, Mr Steven Ng. a very soft spoken guy in front of the teachers, but he still got a loud commanding voice that he used it on my mischievous boys. never judge a book by its cover. 

the 4 sec 2 classes who went from mon to wed came back to sg at about 730 pm. mr ng adjusted the itinerary by shifting an attraction on day 3 to day 2, that is really an ingenious move. 

because of this strategic move, and we really pushed the kids on day 3 so that everything was according to schedule, we reached singapore at 5 pm. 

but a small cock up happened. 

a girl from my form class left her passport in the bus when we were clearing singapore customs. she panicked like mad and was so worried, and she cried. thank goodness mr ng was with her and so we had to wait for her to go to customs office to collect her passport. and the wait was very long. half an hour later she returned back to the bus with mr ng, and she was so guilty and so apologetic for holding us up. 

so that's it about the malacca trip. the biggest take away from this trip is that i get to know my colleagues and students better. :)

malacca

i am blogging at 530 am from the staffroom. today i am bringing my sec 2 form class to malacca for 3D2N, the teachers have to be in the hall by 545 am to mark students' attendance and take their temperature. 

the last time i brought students overseas was in 2013, to kota tinggi for the sec 3 cohort camp. 

supposed to bring students to hong kong in 2014 but the trip was cancelled due to the yellow umbrella movement. 

teachers bringing students overseas has come under alot of scrutiny, especially after last year's kota kinabalu incident. 

hope that everything goes well from today to friday. everyone comes home safely, me included, and i am looking forward to saturday where i go to choose the lights for our new house with darling! :)

a series of dance performances

last week was a series of dance performance from fri to sun, as an audience. 

on friday evening i went to a black box performance at a very secluded area in woodlands to support my dance friend fionna. i can never imagine that there is a dance studio/black box in this bird dun lay egg place. and the cost is quite affordable! 15 dollars per hour to rent the dance studio! glad to meet kenneth, peter and angelene who were also watching on that day. 

fionna is the one in white dress with paint stains. i first got to know her in 2014 when she came down to the previous workplace as a dance instructor for the mass dance programme. got to know her better in jan 2015 when we were involved in a performance at JB. on the day when we had to go to JB she was late for 2 hours because she took the wrong bus from eunos, and as a result we went into JB during the peak hour and was stuck in the car for more than 2 hours, so we had nothing to do but to TALK, TALK and TALK. 

on saturday i painted the new house together with my in-laws. MIL can already be considered a professional painter because she always paint the house. i painted one of the bedrooms for our future child. darling wanted stripes so i spent at least half a day making measurements, drawing lines and pasting the masking tape, and finally doing the paint job. 

here's the outcome! 

not too bad for a first timer right? hahahaha. 

and in the evening i travelled from the north back to the east to watch guofeng's dance performance at goodman arts centre. this performance was done by sigma contemporary dance, and guofeng is the artistic director. he collaborated with this lady from indonesia (who was formerly from T.H.E), and i must say this performance was very well done. one of the nicest modern contemp performances i have watched so far. i love the incorporation of the drone in the performance! super cool. 

photos taken by jingkai, and this photo was featured in the straits times! congrats jingkai. :)

i know guofeng through 新艺. totally have no idea who was the one that invited guofeng to dance in the mongolian item (i am thinking that it was peter). from strangers initially to become beer brothers later on makes me realise how wonderful dance is in making new friends. guofeng look really good in dancing mongolian and i always look at him throughout the performance because of my poor memory in dance steps. hahahahaha. 

finally, on sunday, went to hokkien huay kuan with darling to watch Emergence 2016. xuehong and michael choreographed for this performance. dancing in xuehong's item are sandra, regina and viv. dancing in michael's item are zhunian and bin gege. 

love xuehong's concept in his item, in which the theme was the sense of hearing, and he used music from different eras and dancers wearing costumes from different eras to allow the audience travel to the past and back to the present. 

as for michael's item, i will never forget this signature move that uses the palm. hahahahaha. 

with the cast and audience from both NUSCD and 新艺。 i know i said this many times, but i am really thankful to xuehong for pulling me into NUSCD. if it wasnt for that, i wun have known so many friends, and wun have such an enriching experience as a performer. 

sunday was also our 111th month anniversary! we got together on 24102006. that day was 24012016. we celebrated our anniversary by having a wonderful and filling lunch at carousel. :)

nuscd photoshoot

this will most probably be my final photoshoot with nuscd. 

my first photoshoot with nuscd was in 2008, for the performance 'A Chasse Across Time'. 

let me bring you back to 2008. 

#那些年 sia. hahahahahahaha. 

and in 2016, i am wearing the same costume again. -.-'''

thank goodness i still can fit into the costume. 

DATE(S)

Friday, 11 March 2016 
8.00 PM - 9.30 PM

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VENUE

University Cultural Centre Hall 
50 Kent Ridge Crescent
Singapore 119279

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PRICE(S)* 

Priority Sales (NUS Student) - till 31 Jan 
Category 1: S$19
Category 2: S$19
Category 3: S$19

Standard Sales - from 15 Jan onwards 
Category 1: S$29
Category 2: S$25
Category 3: S$22

Concessions** - from 15 Jan onwards 
10% discount on ticket price

For group booking of 20 tickets and more, please call our hotline at +65 66029900. 

* Excludes $3 processing fee per ticket for prices above $20 and $1 for prices $20 and below.
** Applicable for any full time students, NUS students, NUS staff, AlumNUS, NUSS members, NSF and senior citizens.

#throwback 新艺· Post Production Party

life has been good ever since i move to woodlands. i get to play with the niece every night, and also sleep early at 10 pm every night. i wake up at 6 am every day and so i have 8 hours of sleep which is really good. this explains why i have not been blogging. 

xuehong shared some more photos of the post production party. these photos are really hilarious, because at the party we are divided into 3 groups, then each group has to do a similar pose as certain dance photos that xuehong showed us. i actually played this game a few years ago during NUSCD's 10th anniversary celebration. 

let the pictures do the talking! 

good job yokekay for imitating me so well! 

no one can ever imitate bin gege's expression. 

nice butt by both viv and me. HAHAHAHAHAHA. 

i still prefer the original version. HAHAHAHAHAHA.