Me, Myself and I..: February 2011

Restart

School starts again tomorrow. 1 week has gone by, just like that! The workload will move up a notch from tomorrow onwards, with me having tests every week for the next three weeks. This is in addition to the weekly lab reports/tutorials/assignments that I have to do. And I'm pretty scared of my TM quiz since it falls right after the weekend when my cousin's wedding will be held. Both saturday and sunday will be spent helping, so that leaves me only 1 day to study. Shucks, the fact that it's worth 30% further add the pressure. But, nvm, if I don't do well, I'll just have to work hard for the exams. No matter what, the earth still revolves around the sun. Life still goes on. lol.

When I don't ask, people say I don't care about them. But when I ask, they think I'm just a busybody who should mind my own business, even if they don't say it explicitly. There's no need to actually, because actions speaks louder than words and I can feel it. So where do I draw the line? A friend once said to me years ago after I refused to share what's happening in my life, "Fine, if you don't want to tell me. But don't say that I didn't ask or care about you." Now I know how she felt.

Team Alpha!

Hello peeps! Hope you're doing great! Yesterday was Team Alpha chalet/bbq! Woohoo! It was something I've been looking forward to for the past few months!

Went with Kae Chian and Fauzan and reached there at about 7 plus. Even though most of the old birds did not attend, I totally had fun catching up with those who were there. The chalet was organised in conjunction with the emancipation of 3 NSFs and the transfer one of the regulars there. And talking about ORD-ing, I was actually the most senior ex-SC who attended the event yesterday! Wah, how time flies. KC was asking me, "So, how many ORD events have you attended already?" That does make me sound old! haha.. How time flies!

There are two things that normally comes out of my team-mates mouth when I attend such events. The first is about my hair, which sadly I can't control but already gotten used to. lol. The next, is of course, about the fact that I am the legendary triple 5! In case you are wondering what that is, it refers to a post that I started during my time in the team and the triple 5 is the phone number of that particular spot that I normally take care of. Yes, I'm actually proud that I was the first SC(or nsf) in the team that takes on a role that used to be strictly for regulars. From then on, my junior SCs were given similar roles. So, that is why I am the pioneer and legendary one! wahahaa.. And it gives me great pride to be told that I was given the post cos I earned it. And I'm happy too, that all the juniors that I've taught turned out to be as successful in that particular post. Maybe I'm not a bad teacher after all? haha. Oh, but wait, as what KC (one of those juniors that I've taught) says, "My favourite answer to their questions has always been 'up to you'!" lol.. And some of them said that because of that, they are able to learn and progress well as I gave them freedom to think. Nice! haha.. Of course, another way to look at it is that, I'm just a lousy teacher. LOL

Oh yeah, the regular that would be transferring out is someone whom have helped me quite a lot during my time in the team. Even though she can be fierce and throws things (lol), she is very helpful, eagerly helping all the brothers and sisters in the team. To that, I would like to say I'm very thankful and grateful that I've been under the guidance of a great and nice person. Thank you Lindy Lee P.Y. All your help and advices will always be remembered. All the best for your future endeavours. And not matter what, even though personnel come and go, Team Alpha will always remain a family. Till we meet again.

Lindy Lee!

Close-up!

Candid shot!

Team Alpha family

Informal shot. And no, it wasn't my middle finger. ^_^

While at the gym earlier, an interesting thing happened. When the parking wardens came to inspect the vehicles whether they have displayed valid parking coupons or not, the gym personnel shouted, "Mata lai liao.. mata lai liao!" And that sent people running out of the gym towards their cars. Such helpful people you have out there. haha! Went back to my Marsiling home after that. Took a short nap. Later, ate chocolate ice-cream while enjoying the quiet and serene atmosphere. Ahhh, heaven! haha.. Oh, I managed to catch one of those repeat telecast of TVB dramas, Wars of in-laws II showing at 6pm! haha.. It's been a while since I last caught TVB series. Quite a nice show. And Myolie Wu has such a cute face lah.. lol. And I actually mixed her up with Joey Yung until I googled them. haha..

All right, that's it for now. Term break ending soon, shucks! Must enjoy the last couple of days! haha.. Ciao!

Recess!

Recess week is here! Yes! Unlike last sem's though, there's a lot of school work to be done this time around. What a bummer! But it's okay. I shall work hard and play even harder! haha..

Went to school yesterday to discuss and submit our geog assignment. Still can't believe that they asked us to go back on recess week to hand it in. I thought ah yip says no academic activity during this week! lol.. Anyway, after the discussion, we had our lunch at The Deck and went out to have fun! haha..

Went to MBS firstly to walk around and window-shop. Went over to ArtSience museum and found out that there were TPs and white vehicles, presumably with VIPs visiting the place. When I went home did I only found out that it was in fact the Austrian President who were there visiting the museum! Whoa! Anyway, after MBS, we walked over to Esplanade where the rest were excited to purchase tix to Kumar's Amazing Race. Unfortunately, the tickets for the five shows were all sold out. Disappointing! Went over to Marina Square and then Suntec, while drinking Eskimo's bubble tea, where we bought tickets to The Green Hornet! Yes, I finally got a chance to catch the show! haha..

Overall, it's quite a lame show. Seth Rogen was funny as always. Jay Chou should just stick to music. And oh, I didn't know Cameron Diaz was acting in the show before yesterday! She's one of my favourite hollywood actress and she's still pretty even though she's almost 40! awwww! hahaa... After the movie, it was time for some walking exercise. Unable to come to a decision on where to eat, we walked to a lot of places. From Suntec to Raffles City to Funan to Clarke Quay, where we finally settled at MFM at The Central. After having our fill and the continuous jokes and chats, we continued our walk towards Chinatown and then Outram Park before taking the train home. It was indeed a tiring, yet fun-filled day.

It was a great way to cheer me up too, considering the fact that I fell into a depressed state, or what you may call emo, for four days last week. And I didn't realise that I sigh too much until CC commented about it yesterday. Hmm, I guess I ought to cut down on that.

That's it for now. Have a happy week!

It's not dying you need to be afraid of; it's never having lived in the first place.

Valentine's

It's 14 February today, so let me wish you,

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's the day when you see flowers being held by ladies, and men too! And they say, it's also the day when the men would get a big hole in his pocket! lol.. Anyway, I received a friendship valentine gift from someone today! So sweet! It is little things such as this that makes me happy and brightens up my days. To the person, all I can say is, Thank you. I truly appreciate it, for friendships are one of the few things that I always cherish deeply.

I'm eating the box of charity chocs from school and also the cookies I bought today. Yum Yum. If this kind of eating style doesn't make me fatter, I don't know what will. haha.

Organic test is this friday. But I don't feel the mood or motivation to study. Alamak! How ah like that? lol. My brain cannot switch off now! Please postpone it till 2 months later! ^_^

Not sure why but I always feel tired on lab days even if the experiments do no require much work. So, I shall sleep early today. Before 12, I promise! haha. Have a great week!

Honours/Graduate?

Ah, it's been a week since I last update this blog of mine. Have been busy this past week. Had to finish up assignments, tutorials, 2 x lab reports and study for quiz. The semester has now really begun!

Went home rather late on Friday. Stayed back in school after TM tutorial to do some stuff. After that, my friends and the others were discussing about going to year 4 and doing the honours project. It was an interesting discussion; some points which I've never considered before were stated by some of them. Factors such as do you intend to work in the same industry as what you're studying now, choosing your projects, horror stories about FYP supervisors, pay-wise, the fact that a lot of companies (esp pharmaceutical ones) are leaving singapore, and the fact that a lot of employers don't bother to look at your honours cert unless you're first classhonours graduate, were much discussed and debated about on that day. Needless to day, after that, the probability of me going on for honours has dropped. It is now 60% probability that I would graduate after this semester. The change has got nothing to do with peer influence though. Just that the discussion has made me thinking and I felt that the points brought across were mostly logical.

Woke up early yesterday to meet up with the two KCs, KaiChuan and KaeChian (my NS buddies), and had breakfast with them. We went to Casuarina Curry @ Casuarina Road to have prata there. It's been a while since we met, so we took the chance to catch up with each other. Topics such as our past experiences when we were in the team were inevitably reminisced. It's always great to look back at all the happy times that we had. My 1.5 years in the team has always been one of the highlights of my life. There will be a chalet coming soon too as a few SCs and regular will be leaving the team. 24th Feb, I can't wait for the date to come.

The meet yesterday was also due to KaiChuan going down under to Aussie to complete his degree. Hearing his story about how expensive it is to study at a private school in singapore (where each module cost about 3k), made me realised how fortunate I am. I can't imagine what I would do if I didn't get into my current school. I would probably be working now and not studying FT cos I can never afford that kind of money to pay for my school fees. I come from a family where we don't believe in having debts. If we want something, we pay it in full and never in installments. If we can't pay for it, then we will not buy it. That does not mean we are rich, just that we prefer to live within our means. And seeing there are many people today who are debt-ridden, I am thankful that I have been raised up the way my family has raised me.

That's it for this short update. Tomorrow is the start of another academic week. Hello Week 6! After you leave, it will be recess week! Woohooo!

Have a lovely week, as always! :)

Teaching (edited)

After a month long hiatus, I woke up early today to finally join the guys for soccer at FICO. The toe still hasn't recovered yet, but like my friend said, "Play first, regret later." haha! Unsurprisingly, the long break has taken a toll on my fitness. I felt tired after a mere few games. This is bad. I have to regain back my fitness, I have to. I've always admire people with good stamina. It is something that I always aim to attain but have so far never been able to achieve. Where did I go wrong? Probably I didn't push myself hard enough and that more often than not, I've given up too easily. Hmm..

Stopped by at Ann-Tee-You-See to buy some stuff on the way home. Met one of the staff there who had requested me before to give tuition to her kids. And today, she asked me again and for the second time, I politely declined. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against tuition or teaching other people. I would love to if I'm 'fit' enough. But to me, to be a good teacher, you need to have confidence. Without confidence, you will not be able to deliver you stuff well and your message may not be brought across to your students effectively. And truthfully, I don't have this confidence. I myself am not entirely confident about my subjects, how am I going to teach other people? I don't want other people's kids to do more badly in their studies, rather than improving. Especially since her child has the ambition to become a doctor! Omg, if I were to tutor her, I'll definitely be ultra stressed! A wrong method of teaching and her wish is wrecked! -_-

And with this, I have to say that I have the utmost respect for all teachers and teachers-to-be. I think teaching is a noble profession which often does not get the amount of recognition that it deserves. It doesn't matter which level you're teaching, be it pre-school level, primary, or JC level etc. One of the qualities that I see in good teachers, besides confidence, is patience. Being patient and knowing how to control your students are important, especially in today's society where the kids' behaviours are somewhat different from few decades ago. I myself have never been a "truly-obedient" student back in the lower levels of school. I have made mistakes, some of them I wish I've never made. But one thing that I can never forget are all the teachers whom have taught me throughout my school life. To all of them, I can only say thank you. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for imparting all the knowledge to me and correcting me when I make mistakes. Each and everyone of you have been an inspiration to me. Thank you for helping me become what I am today.

Oh, I also have to say that I think there is a big misconception that one's cleverness is gauged by where one attends his/her school. I don't really believe that being in NUS means you are clever. I am one fine example. If you ask me questions regarding what I've learnt during the early years of education, I think I would have failed terribly. Don't ask me how I got to NUS. You can call it luck or a miracle. Whatever it is, it just happened. lol.

Talking to the lady earlier kinda embarrassed me slightly. Because I can't hold a decent conversation in malay! I realised my grasp of the language is becoming poorer to the extent that it's hard for me to talk to someone in pure malay, meaning without the inclusion of english words into my sentences. To think that I once excel in this mother tongue language of mine, this is bad, really bad. I think I should start to watch more of malay shows and read malay books. And probably go and talk to people who can speak malay to me too! I have to restore my language proficiency as I don't want to be a laughing stock where people would say, "Hey, he's a malay but doesn't know his language!" Probably Sharon who is taking MALAY 3 in nus is already laughing too if she's reading this! haha

The long weekend has passed and school will resume tomorrow. I don't know how many times I've said this in my posts, but yeah, how time flies! haha. It's already week 5 this coming week! Gosh! Time to buck-up!

Till next time, have a good day! :)

You're perfect to me

Came across this song some time ago, and I think it's pretty good. The lyrics are meaningful and the message it tries to bring across, to accept each other for their true identities, is great. It's something that many people could relate to. The video is equally good too. It is about a woman's struggles (depression, alienation etc) before she eventually become a successful artist, and delivers a message against cutting and suicide.

Here it is, Perfect (clean version) by P!nk.

To me, everyone is perfect in his or her own ways. I have always believe in this. We should never try to change ourselves just because someone doesn't like a certain aspect of us or because it doesn't conform to the norm. Ultimately, being unique and special in our own ways are what differentiate us from everybody else. :)

Change the voices in your head, make them like you instead
So complicated, look happy, you'll make it!

Pretty pretty please, don't you ever ever feel
Like you're less than, less than perfect,
Pretty pretty please, if you ever ever feel like you're nothing
You're perfect to me...

Traditions

Yes! It's the long-awaited longgggg weekend! Woohooo! A great time to rest the mind and body!

To all those who are celebrating, let me take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Lunar New Year! All the best in the year of the Rabbit! Hong bao na lai! haha..

Talking about that, I will always get the same reply from my friends each year.. "I'm not married yet." Haiya... It reminds me there was once I keep pestering my friend until she really gave me one. A big hongbao somemore! But with nothing inside.. haha! I still remember it was given to me just before we enter the exam hall! I was so excited to receive it cos it was the first time that anyone gave me a red packet! lol.. What's inside doesn't matter of course.

Oh, that reminds me of another matter. Some years ago, a friend of mine told me that when they received hong bao, they can only open them after the 15 days of celebration (something to do with luck iirc). When I asked my other friends recently, they laughed at me (lol) and told me they can open even on the day they received it, just that not in front of the person who gave it. Is the 15 days thingy a custom/tradition no longer practised by most people? My friends also told me that the 'cannot sweep the floor' and 'cannot wash/cut hair' rules are some of the things they no longer practised. These raised an interesting question. Are we losing our customs and traditions? And I'm not referring to the chinese only. From observation, it seems the indians, and surely, the malays, no longer follow strictly the traditions that our forefathers practised in the past. For instance, the spirit of gotong-royong is rarely practised here in Singapore these days. Even when it does, it's not the same as what I observed when I was a child. Is modernization responsible for all these? Or has practicality taken a higher priority in this fast-paced society? One thing for sure, the customs and traditions observed by the different races here have slowly, but surely, declined.

And talking about CNY, I think my niece is surely on her way to become trilingual. She's already quite fluent in her English and Malay, and now, I think she has started to get comfortable with the Chinese language too. All this is thanks to her lessons at her kindergarten, where the language is part of the curriculum. My friends told me that I should get another set of exercise books from the school for myself so that I could learn together with her! Why didn't I think of that? Very good idea indeed! Maybe in time to come, she could tutor me too! haha

That's it for now. Have a lovely weekend! :)

Me, Myself and I..

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Restart

Friday, February 25, 2011

Team Alpha!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Recess!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Honours/Graduate?

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Teaching (edited)

Friday, February 04, 2011

You're perfect to me

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Traditions

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