I went to Labrador Park and Kent Ridge Park today. Singapore is one country that forgets so easily!

I recall an article in the papers that said the East Coast beach at Marine Terrace had eroded about 15 m. 15 m my foot! Ask anyone who lives here and they can tell you the sea was not visible from the bicycle station, or from the newer East Coast Recreation Centre (Now Marine Cove). It was because of erosion that Marine Cove became nearer to the sea. They moved the tracks inshore countless times! They even had to rework the shore and dump sand to redo the beach at least twice! Because the shore had reached inwards to the max limit.

Or NParks stumbling upon tunnels in Labrador Park in 2001?! I myself saw the remnants of the fort when I was in university! I'm sure the rest of the people jogging or relaxing at the park regularly then knew that there were tunnels too! But they bochup and soon everyone forgot! I bet not a lot of people know now that there was a BP tank farm and a Navy base (Tanjong Berlayer) there last time!

Or how about the Old Changi Hospital? I am old enough to have sent patients there during my NS. Indeed, I even fetched a suicide case from the SAF Ward PMIC back to camp. Most people have forgotten that the hospital was split into two sites. Yes, the A and E was not with the main hospital. I should know -- I sent a patient there and the driver was perplexed that he followed the signs to Changi hospital building but there was no A and E! We drove to the A and E further down. In fact, I think there was even a service tunnel connecting them, according to my parents who were there in the 60s. I bet everyone has forgotten that the Changi General Hospital in Simei was provisionally EGH, then was named NCH when it opened and finally changed to CGH some time later.

So much info disappears when a generation passes on... The archives should do something!

I have the best travel plan for visitors to Singapore!

Hotel Stay: 3-Star hotel (Budget? 2-Star hotel)

Day 1: City Tour and heritage tour. Suntec City and surroundings.

Day 2: Singapore Zoo. Night Safari.

Day 3: Vivo City. Sentosa.

Day 4: Sim Lim Square. Orchard Road.

Day 5: HDB heartlands. Bt Timah nature reserve. Optionals.

Day 6: Relax and return to airport.

Optional (Depends on age and interests):

Science Centre and Omnimax Theatre. Bird Park. Botanic Gardens. East Coast Park. Asian Civilizations Museum. Art Museum. Singapore Discovery Centre and Army Museum. Sungei Buloh. Actual performance at Esplanade.

Perhaps I should describe the ATEC-II ICT here so that any other SIR reservist out there will know what to expect.

The week before, I had medical refresher on Friday and Saturday -- 2 full days. Then it was the ICT.

The first day, we drew our personal stores and had a CO parade. We then had [censored]. This time, there was no night training for the entire ICT. There was an IPPT on the second day. We had [censored]. The third day was the BME and we moved out for [censored]. We then [censored], moving back to camp at 6.30 pm. On Friday, we cleaned and prepared our stores for the next week, and soaked our uniforms in insect repellent. Once we were ready for ATEC, we went for a CO briefing, and when the unit was all-prepped after inspection, we booked out at 10.30 pm on Friday.

The next week, we came back for the ATEC package. [censored] Walked to midnight [censored], ending at 3 am. Personal hygiene before sleeping till 6 am. Then we moved out for the 3rd mission, [censored]. Echo Charlie at 4.30 pm. We returned to camp at 6.30 pm on Thursday. We booked out at 6.30 pm on Friday, and all commanders 3SG and above (including me) returned on Sat for the AAR and results.

I have done much outdoor education stuff in my life and I believe that I can say that it is one of my teaching sub-specialities -- the other being a Robotics teacher (I'm very well-versed with the concepts. Do you know how many books I have on robotics?).

Anyway, back to OE. Here's my experience...

• Cadet Scout in primary school, where we did height elements with no safety, flying fox, camping, hiking, camp cooking, orienteering, etc.
  
• YLTC in JC, where we did 8 days of the standard stuff -- abseiling, sea ex, land ex, obstacle course, ropes course, solo night, etc.
  
• 21-day OBS in university, where we did everything, including cutter sailing (crew of 10), Round Island Kayaking (4 days) and solo exercise (4 days).
  
• Twin Peaks Challenge as a teacher in VJC, where we climed Mt Trusmadi and Mt Kinabalu.
  
• Expedition leader course as a teacher in Damai Sec, where we did everything in Australia, including whitewater kayaking and a 44 km 3-day exercise in the real wilderness in winter.
  
• Climbed Mt Ophir twice as an NCC teacher in Damai Sec.
  
• Kayaking 2-star personal skill
  
• Attended powerboat course and Topper sailing course (I did not take any exams though.)
  

I just came back from my 2-week Infantry reservist with ITI -- ATEC Phase 2. We managed to get good enough results to qualify for the incentive -- 6-day high-key training only in Mar 2009.

4 days in the field with two attacks and an ASO. With TES-BFI set and 9 kg of medical load. I was itching all over by the 4th day. In fact, I'm still itching...

I really despise those slackers who don't do combat reservist like us... Reservist is like a holiday to them, free leave by the SAF, stay out or night's off every day. For us, we have to work hard during ICT.

The problem with the students is that they always don't want to study Physics! They do so much math! And they also don't want to study English!

The school is Value-Added this year - Bronze, with a star. And another star for the Arts performances - SYF Central Judging. We are the best in Bedok - we appeared on the Express charts this year.

I don't know how the current batch is going to fill such big shoes.

One of my 064E1 students in MJC managed to go to the Perimeter Institute's Modern Physics summer school in Canada. One of my 054E1 students was also successful last year. 50 places were reserved for Canadians and 50 for the rest of the world. 3 were from Singapore, I think.

This reminds me of one of my students who just came back from Imperial College on an A*STAR scholarship doing Physics.

This holiday is not shaping up as one... This is Week 2 and I still have marking and admin. I have a course on Monday and Tuesday. I need to be ready for Term 3 by next Tuesday, or I will have no holiday at all. This calls for a lot of work over this weekend. I have another course from 18 to 20 June.

I went for the NCC Specialists' Course today. Many teacher officers view taking students to such activities as just a formality and a chore. Although they are there, they do not follow the students. As a result, they learn nothing. They just spend their time at the canteen, or read a book, or do work.

Worse, some teachers don't even come!

For me, I ensure that I always learn something when I take students out to HQ activities. The activities themselves, the content. The organization of the activity. Talking to the other officers and learning something from them.

But I'm glad that there are some teachers who actually function as officers when they are at HQ activities. They lead and teach the cadets, function as safety officers, etc. And they are enthusiastic.

The amount of workload I have now is incredible. I have 3 classes of Physics and 3 classes of English. And 4 of them are O Level graduating classes. Do you have any idea how many test classes that is?! We have 3 tests a semester per subject! That's 18 tests per semester! That's more than one test a week! Excluding normal marking!

And I just found out that I'm marking 4 classes of Physics and 3 classes of English for the Mid-Years! This is just mind-boggling!

The O Level results came out today. My 064E1 has a bumper crop of 6 distinctions and above: 17 of them. The school has 23 in total, so much that they did not give any honour to those with 5 distinctions this year. There were 2 with 8 distinctions. One had an L1R5 of 6, and a few had 8.

The Physics MSG is 3.0, with 5 A1s and 1 failure out of a class of 40.

23 (actually 24) of them were value-added, 8 were value-minus, 8 were value-neutral. Much better than last year.

I gave my 2 S.H.E. tickets to 2 4E3 girls. Some 4E1 girls also wanted and even 1 3E1 girl, but I did not think they were suitable. I wanted to give the tickets to 2 girls that I teach who will really appreciate the concert, who will not waste the tickets. Some boys had asked for them but I think I should stay true to the original intention of the lucky draw and give it to girls only. And I should not give it to free-loaders who only want the free tickets. The boys just want to see the girls at the concert!

At first, they all wanted to draw lots. Then the 4E3 girls said they wanted to prove that they were true fans by presenting to me S.H.E. facts. In the end, I decided to whittle down the group to true S.H.E. fans first, and then draw lots if no clear winner could be seen. Drawing lots only would encourage free-loaders to put in their chance -- most of the 4E1 girls were indeed free-loaders, I discovered.

In the end, I had 2 4E3 and 1 4E1 S.H.E. girls who really knew their stuff. All 3 were not well-to-do, and had not attended such concerts before as they could not afford it. But the 4E3 girl stood out. She even ran an S.H.E. forum as the admin. So I decided to give the tickets to her. They thought I had taken part in a candy lucky draw. When they saw the contest flyer for ******* products, they said that if they had known, they would have taken part too.

I collected my S.H.E. tickets at Jurong West today. It was really far away! Anyway, when I went there to collect the tickets, the girl before me was from 02S14 in VJC. She wasn't my student, but I did lectures, so that's why she could recognize me. Well, I have so many students...

Anyway, I drew the tickets randomly and I got 2 $98 tickets! (Instead of $68 ones...) And I got 1 set of goody bags too. I had thought that the goody bags were other separate prizes. The bags are quite expensive actually. There were 6 packs of ******* products, worth $27 I guess. That's like 2 to 3 months worth... And some skincare samples and cute ******* notebook and pen sets.

Anyway, when I got to my car, the ex-VJ girl asked for a ride to Jurong Point, so I gladly obliged. It seems that she is an NTU student and only 2 of her classmates got into Medicine. She likes S.H.E. quite a lot. That's why she was very happy when she heard she had won. She asked me if I liked S.H.E., and I replied that I did not particularly. And so would I be going with someone? Er... Probably not. A bit too old for this, I replied. I'll probably give it away to someone.

I found out today that I had won the ******* S.H.E. lucky draw. I won 2 S.H.E. tickets. Hmm... I'm a little too old for this sort of thing. I'll probably give them away to 2 of my Sec 4 girls.

They had been contacting me for a few days, but I was too busy to take any calls. Today they sms-ed, so that's how I knew. I'm collecting them tomorrow.