Recent fun stuff

Some of the more interesting things I did recently -

Playboating at RP
Damn cool sia! Currently the only place in Singapore with a rack of very nice playboats! I was a bit rusty after losing practice for quite a while, but easily got back the skills with the help of the amazing boats. We tried doing routines and attempting a bit of choreography too, very cool. Really looking forward to more such chances to play.

Shell Eco-Challenge
With my school kids, I took part in this amazing-race like event meant to promote environmental issues awareness. It was quite fun and I made it exciting by running everywhere I can (and forcing my kids to run along too).

The highlight of the trip is a visit to Poh Ern Shih at along Pasir Panjang road. Strange place for an eco-challenge stop? Well apparently the temple wants to go green in its rebuilding project, and have included many alternative energy projects on the site to achieve the 3'R's of resource management.

Solar heating - water is heated to 70 deg here with the help of solar power.

Solar roof - generation of energy via photovoltaic cells - it actually returns energy to the energy grid, and the directing monk says they are tying up a deal with Senoko Power to sell this energy to them at a 50% premium over the market rate! It will take about 15 years to recoup the investment with the tie-up, 25 years without; clearly the temple is headed by far-sighted visionaries.

A small hybrid wind-solar energy generating unit, purely for getting power to provide night lighting at this level. Now that's not hard to install in any house isn't it?

He also showed us one of the nun's room where they have this furniture module system created entirely out of bamboo (bamboo apparently renews itself in only 5 years after harvesting). It is a humble platform-bed, a storage solution, and even a tea corner! Wouldn't it be nice to have something like this in any house?


Also, they have a system to generate hydro-power by channelling water down from tanks, collecting and filtrating rainwater for drinking from the roof, collecting and storing rainwater from all around the premises for other uses, having a non-flushing urinal system and collecting urine for fertiliser-use, using natural ventilation in the design etc etc. I'm sorry to sound like a geek, but all this sounds terribly exciting to me.

Also interesting...

• Hong Kong trip planning - wanna do a hike there, the scenery of Plover Cove looks great!
• Wedding reception planning - want to wrap it up by this holiday. Where will it be? It's a surprise! (That means don't ask. Hah.)
• Nepal Trip planning - Itinerary, budget, air tickets. Dreaming of it even now.
  
• Possible paddling trip?

Already, the holiday seems too short.

Holiday season is in!

Today - First day of the holiday!

I woke up close to mid-day today, and basically lazed the day away. It was damn shiok, and I even had those aching feeling in my muscles which you get when you sleep too much. Alas I can't run away from school totally and have to go back on Wednesday for a while to settle some small niggling matters. It is bad luck for me having to remove my wisdom tooth this Thursday too, but guess it isn't that nice to take a week's MC for it also la.

Next week will see me attending a 3 day Outdoor Education Conference, and then off to Hong Kong! When I return on the 12th, that's already like half the holiday gone sigh. Just gonna climb and paddle as much as I can before school starts.

Actually, I have a secret hope that I'll accomplish something tangible in this holiday. It can be anything from building up my Gundam model or creating several great wet weather PE lessons, but yah, I just hope the holiday don't just wheeze by without me having anything to show how I passed the time.

The holiday!

Things are getting really exciting, because the holiday is coming!

Effectively school will end with the parents-teacher meeting at the end of this week, and no matter what I wouldn't be in school next week because my damn wisdom tooth hurts and I will wanna get it out on Monday.

I'm already packing my weekends with appointments - not many are enjoyable though. This week will be spent on wedding invites, attending meetings to ask about hosting wedding banquets, and flat viewings. Yup, I'm really into these adult things right now haha. Well well well...

Everything's exciting when the holiday comes, even the prospect of doing work (at my own leisurely pace). Will be planning a bit of itinerary for my Hong Kong trip, and also hoping to paddle out at sea more. More of all my sports! Can't get enough of them.

Along the way...I am actually contemplating staying on in my school after all, till the time I can get myself into HQ. Continual involvement in my CCA is good for my resume, and a possible impending change of principal might shake things up for the better too. So hard to read into the future...I'll have to carry on depending on my good fortune in life so far for the opportunity to come I suppose.

Efficiency

Today, under duress to reach school before 7am, I ended up finishing the 6km cycle to school within 16 mins! 19 minutes is a very comfortable time, and when I first started riding to school and trying to see how fast I can push myself I finish at 17-18mins. And now I got record speed without even trying very hard!

This made me realised that a fast cadence is indeed the key to better efficiency. If you're a monster maybe you can crank up all the hills on my route, but when I do that I usually find myself strangely losing all power the moment the slope is conquered and I reach the flats! Now I make myself sit in the saddle and spin easier instead, and that is definitely working much better. I do know that I need to learn how to spin smoother at a fast cadence.

The same thing probably applies to paddling, as people who uses the greenland paddle will attest to.

Picture from http://www.adanacpaddles.com/main.htm

The small and very elongated 'blade' promotes a high cadence and low angle paddling style, versus the use of european-style paddle with larger blades that demands more power and usually wielded at a lower cadence.

But then again, I can't get used to paddling with low angle strokes still, try as I may. In a way, it's satisfying to put in power into the stroke too. I wouldn't miss the chance to try one of these though, given the opportunity.

Thinking ahead

It's a busy period already, thought I was initially led to believe that the lull period has already arrived. After I'm done with all the scripts marking, it's time to key in results and remarks, prepare to meet the parents, execute post-exam programs etc. And yes, my CCA will demand a fair bit of my holiday time too - I'm particularly sore that I have to go for a trek this coming long weekend and have to sacrifice all my planned activities for it. Quite bad huh, CCA teacher not being enthusiastic in going out with his dream team.

Another blogger once divided the year into academic seasons, when teachers are hell-busy and when they are winding down and then having the holidays. The seasons go, and the years might fly too. Hopefully.

And recently I thought about my career path and think that if by next year there's no school interested to take on a PE teacher with the skills that I have, I'll probably just stay till my third year before trying a post at the HQ. At least here I have a CCA I'm interested in. And truth to tell, things are somehow more comfortable now, and I really think my colleagues are great fellows.

And without a doubt, 2008 will be the most expensive year for me ever. I'm gonna be spending a hell lot of money this year, hundreds of thousands...scary...

Marking period

It is strange, but teachers are the happiest when there's no students around in the school.

I was struck by a strong pensive mood as I went through my normal routine of changing my shoes and depositing my bike when I reached school today, upon seeing the empty parade square. The unexpected peace and quiet in that normally rambunctious physical environment created a jarring moment of cognitive dissonance.

Up at the staffroom, everyone was happily doing their work. Really. People were really happy to be doing their marking in peace. And there are those who lounge and relax as they mark. We ordered Mac breakfast delivery, another colleague was watching back-to-back CSI on streaming video, and I guiltily took out an hour to watch Heroes 2, ha!

Such a rare moment of sanity in the school. And it makes me realise how mad things are during the normal schooling season, all that daily chores, extraordinary events, frustrations from working with the kids.

2nd trip out

My K1 went out again for the second time last Sunday, and it was very nice to be able to paddle together with the PC coaching crew again - haven't met some of them for so long!

Thanks to Rx, we were able to use some great Wilderness System boats and start an expedition from SAFYC Changi, a place I never paddled in before.

I wanted to go from there to Kallang at first, thinking that the SAFYC was beside the MOE campsite. Then after that they wanted to go Marine Cove for Mac, but I wanted to aim for the ECP hawker instead for the sugarcane. I let Roland try the K1 while I paddled the Tsunami 125 - it's a good all-rounder boat, and has decent speed considering its beam width.

I got to try AT's carbon touring paddle though, which Detours is bringing in - For a carbon paddle I felt that it has too much flex to it, but it looks real neat. I can't really get used to used to such a small blade area though.

It was jellyfish season since the last time I paddled, and here again we met up with a smuck of jellyfish all along the way. I even saw a huge round umbrella one that had little fishes swimming around at its base.

Right from the start the sun was out in full force, and we were really affected by the scorching heat. It was giving everyone of us headache, making me perpetually thirsty and my skin feels dry and hot under the rashguard. I was also hit by a bout of nausea from an empty stomach ( I did ate breakfast but apparently it was simply not enjough), and was glad to take a break at ECSSC, where we met up with Enric and Mag who were learning boardsailing (poor things!)

After a 15mins break where I recovered from nausea by finishing a bun that I had with me, we paddled off eagerly in search of sugarcane juice and food at the hawker center. Someone was apparently happy to chill in the water after disembarking too (he must have forgotten about the jellyfishes).

Finally, back in my boat after a lunch of duck rice and 2 cups of juice. Despite my initial review of the boat, I find that it cruises much better than the Tsunami, and happily paddled up in front. Oh, I got the boat assembled in 45 mins this time, and have an easier time too (Also, I finished packing the boat in the same time it took for the rest to washed and stack back their hardshells).

We got back pretty quickly, and again, all of us were hungry and tired from being out in the hot sun. I think we all felt a little dazed and a spot of a headache, and we had to splash ourselves with water occasionally to cool off.

Well. all in all it was good to feel how it is like to paddle under the hot tropical sun again - really reminded me of those days when I did the Malaysia expeditions under terrible heat. Looking forward to the next trip!