CNY: A time for meet-ups

Woohoo, thank God for sleep...the rest that I've been getting over the past few days seem to be paying off. Except for a toady voice & a blocked nose still, I actually feel pretty ok. :)

Some photos to outline my CNY...

This was reunion dinner with my auntie's family...see the ultra big plate of yu sheng that we're about to toss? :)


First day of CNY, where all relatives visit my house. That's due to the fact that my granny lives with me.

One of my nieces!! SO CUTE right? My gosh...super cute..cannot stand it...she's my cousin's daughter.. :P

This is my cousin (the lady in red) and her children, my brother beside me..they're all so cute..

3rd day of CNY....lunch with my family's old friend & his family. The guy in the picture above is the son of my dad's old friend. We've known each other since we were little kids in HK..

And the most enjoyable meet-up of them all, is my meet with my gang of old friends from secondary school. We met up at NYDC at Holland V...

Two of my best buddies from secondary school... =)

And this is the whole big bunch of us :)
Not the full group of us yet....but will suffice for this CNY meet-up.

Toady voice

Eeks, I think I'm paying the price of not listening to my own advice:
"Just WATCH the volleyball match, don't shout."

Currently croaking away coz I think I aggravated my sore throat with all that shouting at the match yesterday :S

Sigh, no bak kwa for my this CNY I think...

CNY is finally here..

Before anyone points their finger at me and shouts "moneyface!!!!", please do not be mistaken. I'm not hyper happy that CNY is here because I'm going to be getting my yearly ang baos, but more relieved at the fact that I'm going to be able to get sufficient sleep and rest over the next 3-4 days..... :)

Has been an interesting week..so decided to update today since it's the beginning of a loong weekend! yayyy..

Sec 3 Learning Journey: Sculpture's Walk along Singapore River
So Wed (which was also friendship/valentine's day) was CHS' Learning Journey Day. Those who've been reading from here long enough would have read the post last year about the Sec2 battlefield tour that I attended last year for my class' Learning Journey. This year, along with my form class, we went on the Sculpture Walk inside the financial hub and along the Singapore River.
Actually, comparing last year's and this year's journey, think the Battlefield Tour was more interesting in terms of theme covered..was more impactful I felt.

Nevertheless, I think the sculpture walk was not bad too. If not for the learning journey, I perhaps would not even notice that those sculptures that we visited were actually there. Learnt a little about how to appreciate a sculpture, the different types of sculptures, the materials they are made of, their significance & meaning, etc.

Some pics from the Learning Journey....

At our first sculpture..

Our 2nd sculpture...I think called "Progress & Advancement"

A 'low-relief' part of "Progress & Advancement"

My form class in action!

Does this look like a combination of many boats combined into one sculpture? :)
Listening intently to our guide...
Funky project Stamp..a competition where winning entries get painted onto mailboxes all over the island.
After visiting the sculpture called "Bird"..
As you can see, this is my class' favourite sculpture.. :S
Told you it's their favourite sculpture...... :P
"Ku Cin Ta Cats"..apparently one got "adopted" home by a passerby who loved it too much..
And this is all of us, back in CHS :)

Should have been a really lovely day out with my class...if not for the fact that I was actually very ill. This current bout of flu that I've been having since last Fri is seriously a strong strain. I think I've never had more intense muscleaches from a flu, ever. I suppose I could have actually taken an MC and not gone on the learning journey....it's just that, I really treasure opportunities like that for class bonding..when the class is not in their usual classroom surroundings, when things are more relaxed and more conducive for interaction, where we can have casual chats.

Think I would have been much more chatty and interactive had I not been suffering from the bad muscleaches, sore throat and fatigue......
Thanks to my accompanying colleague and my 2 able chairmen, the whole learning journey carried on smoothly without much glitches, even though I was functioning at only about 40%. THANKS :)

South-Zone Volleyball Finals TODAY
Went down to Yio Chu Kang sports hall to support the CHS volleyball team in the volleyball finals today after our CNY celebrations in school.
Was an exciting 3 sets that we watched...we won the first, lost the second, and finally won the third! Woohoo!!
I LOVE watching matches and cheering for the kids..it's great feeling to give support to our own players, especially since I teach some of them ;) I just wish there were more of us there to give stronger support..think it makes a difference to the cheers to have more people there.
Nevertheless, we have won today!
Hopefully there'll be fuller and stronger support at the nationals :)

How to apply eye cream?

I am currently typing this post with one eye closed. 0.o
That's coz I have a slight eye infection... and please can someone tell me how to easily apply EYE CREAM into the eye?! Arrghhh..like how in the world to put eye cream into the underside of my upper eyelid?? The cream just keeps sticking to my eyelashes and all......and gravity pulls the small little tube of cream down everytime i squeeze out that 1 cm to put under my eyelid =((

And woohoo, i'm down with flu AGAIN. AGAIN!?!? I thought I was fit as fiddle, then suddenly I started sneezing and coughing on Thursday night. Seriously couldn't figure out how come I suddenly got the flu again since I have been resting enough as the common test has taken away quite a few math periods. THEN, I realised. I got the flu from a neighbouring colleague who's pretty sick -.- Fang guo wo baaaaaaaa..................

Thankfully I finished marking the common test scripts yesterday..stayed in school till I finished. Yay.
Most did pretty well....BUT, there are still failures. At least one from each of my 2 classes. =( Shall have to drill drill drill drill driiiilllll them.....

Went over to Bishan Park just now after church service...heard that the scouts are having their annual competition there. So went to kaypoh..nice structure that they had built, looks super sturdy. Hope CHS Scouts wins =)

Oh yes, Catholic High has done SUPERBLY well in the O's last year! Kudos to the sec4s 2006 batch...think the EMaths distinction rate (note: not % passes, it's % DISTINCTION) was 98.2% and the overall aggregate score is 9.6!! :) Do I hear a half day coming our way? please? :P

OKie, enough of one-eyed typing. Tired already.

Term 1, Week 6 already

Woah, should I be happy or should I be shocked..that 5 weeks of school has passed us by already. Next week is common test week, I sure hope my kids are ready for it. I foresee mass remedials this coming week.

Missed an old friends' dinner yesterday night..haha..because of my sony ericsson phone. When I used to use a nokia phone, I would be able to tell the time that a msg was sent to me, even if I switch off my phone at night. Now with my sony ericsson, if I switch off my phone at night, and someone sends me a msg laaaate at night, when I get the msg the next morning, it would register it as being sent to me at the time that I switched my phone back on. So here I was today, thinking that I had a dinner with my friends tonight (Sat), when they already HAD the dinner last night. Oh well..

Recently read this off Trisha's blog (http://trisha-reloaded.blogspot.com/), and I think it kinda describes how I feel too...... :)

Love/Hate relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with school. I mean, on 2 Jan, I was ready to slash my wrist at the thought of going back to the grindstone. The break was over, I couldn't imagine facing those students, the endless marking, meetings and those noisy juvenile Sec 1 kids.

3 Jan came. The bewildered-looking Sec 1 students amused me considerably. And my seniors, those whom I was in charge of, and who had been undergoing training since Nov 2006 to run the Orientation Program, I don't know how to express my gratitude to them. They were an awkward, diffident and lackadaisical lot when I first met them in Nov. But in the first 3 days of school, they miraculously rose to the occasion, took charge of things and had the Sec 1's eating out of their hands. It was a marvelous sight to behold and I want so much to give each one of them a big hug and say how proud I am of them!

Then I realised the transformation occurred in me too. I had met all my classes, and now I'm all ready to go. Yes, the madness will be there and I'll soon be bitching about the stupid admin work, the mountains of essays that gather under my desk and the students who terrorised me, but somehow, when I step into the class, I'm a different being. I have discovered that with each new year of teaching, I'm more confident, more certain of why I'm doing this and how I can do this better. The students are my fuel and my sustenance and it's a glorious feeling to be in the midst of so much youthful energy.

If I am not a teacher, then 3 Jan would come and go, hardly making a ripple in my working life. But now, I am in one of those few professions in which a new year literally means a new beginning, new class, new timetable, new challenges. So, in a weird, inexplicable and even perverse kind of way, I'll say "Hooray for the start of another new school year!"