a 'scandalous' shout-out...

to all the ‘scandalous’ girls involved in writing me the ‘scandalous’ note which was left in a very ‘scandalous’ place for me to pick up:

THANKS!

oh well, the ‘scandalous’ girls are:

- Cheryl Freshie
- Christine “Lee” (I gave you Sang Kook’s surname! ;p)
- Karina
- Claud
- Phey Ying

and especially to the ‘scandalous’ ring leader, the one who snuck into the place where she wasn’t supposed to be so the message could reach me…

YOU know who you are… haha…

a new chapter begins...

Wednesday, 18th June 2008 – 9:21am Singapore time

I had my first unofficial day at work on Monday where all us new teachers were briefed on the standard stuff like the school history, values, mission, expectations and so on… It was actually a little bit overwhelming as there was a lot to learn in such a short time… Also, I feel that I’m the most disadvantaged amongst all the new teachers as I am neither an ‘old girl’ of the school nor do I have experience in teaching… And now I wonder if I should keep blogging cos I know it’s a matter of time before my students find this blog and start digging at the bits of my personal life… How?!! ;p Well, actually I do have some teaching experience… I got it when I taught at Ngee Ann Polytechnic for awhile, so I guess I’m not that messed afterall…

I’ve been assigned two Sec 2 classes and two Sec 4 ones… And I also have my own cubicle now! Yay! But I need to do a bit of work on it though… It’s pretty apparent that this particular cubicle hasn’t been used for some time and so I’d have to do a bit of cleaning… And also lots of personalising… I remember the last time I had a cubicle was in the army… And I spent quite a bit of time making sure my desk and cubicle walls were all done up nicely… I like feeling comfy at work… Hehe…

Tomorrow shall be the first day of the term for us… Wish me luck!

And to all the NIE people: have fun together! I’m actually quite envious that y’all get to do it with each other… Make sure you keep your notes for me hor? I might come in to join you guys next sem… =)

time-trial: the aftermath...

Wednesday, 11th June 2008 – 1:03pm Singapore time

So I did my time trial yesterday and I really sucked… Like big time… At my worst, I did 14 seconds slower than my timing last year… 14 seconds is how long it takes to gulp down like 5 glasses of water or something…

I don’t really blame anyone for my dismal performance… In fact, I was so prepared to do badly, I wasn’t really upset at all… I was very unmotivated and had a defeatist attitude, even before I did my first stroke…

I guess it’s been a tough season for me so far… I still haven’t gotten a steady stroke… I appreciate all the input my team-mates have been giving me, but somehow I can’t reconcile all of their advice into executing the right stroke for myself…

I will just take this whole fiasco as it is and face up to whatever the consequences are for me in the upcoming DB Festival Race…

Meanwhile, I will focus on getting my stroke right and just enjoy the sport as much as I can…

I miss the old days when I was naïve about the politics behind dragonboat… It was so nice then… I didn’t really have to grapple with so many things…

PS: I am *not* upset, so please do not leave any consolatory comments unless you wish to invoke my anger… =)

just keep chillin'...

Monday, 9th June 2008 – 9:25pm Singapore time

I am exactly one week away from my first day of work… It’s a mish-mash of feelings: a bit excited, kinda nervous and also hoping that the days of carefree laziness will never end! =( I think this will be the last time ever that I will truly be able to have a break… Sigh… Isn’t it strange how when you’re young and have all the time and energy in the world, you usually don’t have the money to do anything? And when you’re old and tired, with enough money, you sometimes don’t have the energy to do it? That’s why rich kids suck… Cos they get the best of both worlds… Boo rich kids! ;p

Anyway, I was chatting with a friend one day… This friend is not local and was talking to me about how in many Asian cultures, the fairness of one’s skin is associated with beauty… It’s pretty sad, but true… I guess as humans, we always want something which we can’t get… Like when I was in Oslo, the more tanned or ‘brown’ you were, the better you ‘look’… This is probably because most of them are pale and blond and blue-eyed…

Oh well…

It’s my time-trials for dragonboat tomorrow!! Argh! I hate time trials… They’re painful and inconsistent and so dependable on the most insignificant factors… Like luck for example… Bleargh… Aiyah, just do la…

Alrighty, time to chill again… Till the next update…

yay-ness part 2...

Saturday, 31st May 2008 – 11:48 am Singapore time

I am still beaming from yesterday; am soooooo happy that I got my 2nd upper! It’s been really stressful this semester since the very beginning to the very end; I had trouble getting 2 of my modules when the semester opened, I missed out on quite a few lectures, the workload was terrible, I had a shitty mid-semester deadline schedule, and my exam schedule was the worst ever in all my 4 years in NUS…

It was also the semester where I really worked my ass off… I was studying like I never studied before, practically making the honours room my second home… Although my results were not stellar, I am happy with them and am definitely happy with my final CAP of 4 flat (no more, no less)… Haha! That’s been my life since 2 semesters ago: living life on the edge… I’m glad I managed to stay on though cos if I had a grade lower for any of my modules, I would have dropped in the 2nd lower range and suffer a paycut! =(

Anyway, I wanna congratulate all the fellow E-Langers for their results! I’m sure everyone did well and all ready to graduate!

Also a big congratulations to Jamal and Bon-bon, my very first friends in NUS… Even though we’ve gone our separate ways academically, we’re still pretty tight! Must take pictures during graduation hor?

And also a special shout-out to Christine Chen Huiqing for giving me advice just before my Gender paper and always believing in me and my abilities… Hugs!

Thanks to Cheryl Freshie also for recommending that I do Business Law... I got an A for it! Woo hoo! And of course, thanks for studying with me, even though I know you'd rather be sleeping... ;p

And last but not least, a big thanks to my family for always being supportive, accommodating and understanding… I owe my success to you…

Ok, it’s beginning to sound like an Oscar speech… Bleargh!

Today is going to be Ubin day!! Or at least I hope so… It looks like it will rain, but it also look that it might be fine… We’ll see how it goes…

yay-ness...

I got my 2nd upper!!! =)

keeping it down low...

Tuesday, 27th May 2008 – 3:59pm Singapore time

It’s been awhile since I last updated, so here’s a summary of what’s been going on:

- I worked at a corporate access forum at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for 4 days last week

- It was awesome! Was totally pampered and well paid… And well-fed too… *burp* ;p

- My dearest sister turned 27! No money, so couldn’t get her a present… Ooops… :(

- Had a dragonboat competition on Sunday which went ok, but it was also pretty disappointing… And somehow I felt uncomfortable throughout the whole thing, so much so that my strokes were very haphazard… Definitely not a good day for me…

So we come now to this week… I’ve been running errands today; got my contract with RGS sorted out, paid my bills (boo) and also getting ready for dragonboat today… My team trains 4 times a week now, so I hope to be able to do as much as I can…

I am a bit annoyed that I can’t do any running cos I hurt my foot (stepping on a *hot* piece of charcoal) during the team barbecue last week… Speaking of running, Clement, Melvin and myself decided not to participate in the triathlon relay this year as the fees are just too high! $94 is too much to just run 10km if you ask me… Oh well, maybe they’ll decide to be cheaper next year…

I’m enjoying my last few weeks of freedom before work starts… Cyril is coming to Singapore for one week and I’ll be hosting him… Next weekend will be a little visit to Malacca for me… I hope it’ll be fun… :)

Results will be out on Friday!! Aaargh!

Besides that, I don’t think I’ll have much going on… So yeah, this blog might be a little inactive for now… Till the next update!