Paddle and All

Reservist!

2010-05-21T20:09:00.002+08:00

My first ever reservist!

I'm deployed to a unit to do base defence, meaning it's largely a 'lobo' job which entails participation in mock defence exercises against intruders into a military base. As this is the first year, we are in the training phrase, doing revision of all our combat skills acquired during our military training when we were NSFs, but after this year, no more of those 'leap and bound' chiong swa.

The commanders were in a week earlier than the men, and most of the time we were just listening to lectures in the training room. For the entire week, we booked in at 9am and booked out at 2pm or slightly later. This week, the men came in, listened to the exact same lessons, and so the book in-out schedule is still the same! Next week will be as 'siong' as it can get though, doing IMT, ATP shoot, battle course and a summary base defence exercise (that is the only night we had to stay over).

Roughly half the people there used to be from that unit, and I got to know most of the other specialists eventually through the long one and a half hour lunch breaks. Quite interesting and refreshing to talk to a big group of people who ain't teachers, and somehow, me being a teacher makes for an interesting conversation topic for them, or maybe they're just being polite by actively asking about life in school.

Anyway, it has been a very good 2 weeks already, so slack that I feel guilty to waste time doing nothing in the training room. Wow, I can't ever remember such a time since I started working that I feel such an urge to do something productive out of pure boredom! And it makes me realise that I have been stagnating in terms of personal development for so long, just ignoring the need in the face of ever-present deadlines at work. Such a time is good for some self-reflection, and sadly I only feel frustration for not being able to feel that I have any goals to work towards even with free time on my hand to dream...

Once in a while

2010-04-08T01:09:00.002+08:00

A long post once in a while is the norm now...somehow I kind of lost interest in writing here, lazy for the most part. I am quite a workaholic nowadays, or perhaps a worry-wart. Always trying to do something in advance, always wanted to plan ahead.

Work has been ok so far I guess, things are pretty relaxed at the office, but the bad thing is that I find it really hard to be productive when I'm sitting at my table. I surf the net aimlessly, do small bite-sized manageable stuff and can't focus on doing the more tedious things like marking for example. Really wasting time actually. What I'll have to do more is to go home early and do the necessary in the comfort of my own place.

Still haven't paddled as much as I would like to, but I should be going on some day trips soon enough as my 3 star kids need to log sea journeys. Would want to take the chance to get the PC people to go paddle together again, really nice to see all of them whenever we get the chance.

And because of my new bike, I now feel the urge to go out for a ride whenever I look at it. But then it still strange for me to go for a round trip without some purpose or objective, no matter how small that is. I do know that I just want to go at a nice easy pace, be able to spin easily, and enjoy the sensations of being in the flow of traffic and the constant wind on my face. Maybe I should tell myself to go Tiong Bahru to get a bowl of Cheng Tng...

Finally, I have to say that it is good to let your office knows about what you think once in a while. Had the chance to do say what I wanted to say and do things the way I wanted at work recently, and it's quite refreshing. To hell with politics and hiding your thoughts because you think the bosses will want things done their way always - I think telling people what's the best way to do some things really helps, and they'll appreciate honesty and constructive feedback.

New hobby...

2010-03-01T23:34:00.003+08:00

I've got a new hobby called bikegazing! Wanna see how it goes?

Hope that was fun for you too! haha...

Ok anyway besides being lame I thought maybe I'll write a little more here...hm...CNY was good this year, as usual. Though I don't get as much angbaos anymore and have to give them out instead, reunion dinner was interesting with my uncle as the cook, I get to Lo Hei like ten different times, and I have my fair share of gambling (and winning!). Ahh...if only I can play more mahjong still...

Somehow, this term my timetable is quite slack but I'm still busy with work whenever I sit down to think about it. Lots of paperwork to do with my CCA, and I just can't muster up enough effort to clear it all up once and for all. I'm taking things easy but at the same time stressing myself by thinking of all the work still around all the time, weird.

So what am I looking forward to this year then?

Building up my form class to be the best class in the level! It sure is hard work trying to gel noisy sec 1s together, with their daily bickering, but I think I'm on the right track...
Training a select group of kids to go for and complete 3 star kayaking! Are they the only secondary school ever to try for that? Half of them already knows how to roll before they even went to the course under my tutelage! I'm so proud of them...
Holidays? Going Korea in June, but actually, what will really make me happy is a short paddling trip somewhere...anyway...
Cycling more on my new lean mean biking machine!

Things have been idyllic and peaceful so far this year...hope it lasts...

A new ride!

2010-02-16T01:35:00.002+08:00

My new bike!

It is a carbon-tubed bike with aluminium lugs and weighs 7.92kg without accessories . I bought the frame on the cheap and built it up with parts new, second-hand or transferred from my previous bike.

Just took it out for a spin...the difference in the feel of the ride was huge. Pedals were so smooth due to the ceramic bearings, and the dampening of the road vibrations were superb. Finally, I experienced the fabled carbon ride, and it was real good.

Falling in love with cycling all over again!

Bike project

2010-02-04T21:57:00.002+08:00

My new bike frame! Bought this last season's model on the cheap to build up, and it has been lying on the carpet for 2 weeks already waiting for its parts. I've always liked BMC for its interesting design, and it's really a steal now. Besides, now that BMC has divorced from Easton for its tubes and such, its quality is probably not going to be as good, despite whatever technical jargon they cooked up to convince others that they are doing that for better quality.

So, what's going up on it? Another pair of cheap Soul 3 wheels (the same one on my Fondriest now), a FSA K-wing bars, Enric's Ultegra set on the cheap, and carbon cranks (got to have that la). Want to get the very reliable KMC gold chain again too. Will be transferring my saddle and pedals over because they were good buys and it'll be expensive to replace them, and selling the rest of the Fondriest.

Everything will fall into place next week!

Kite flying

2010-02-04T21:45:00.003+08:00

About 3 weeks ago the guys arranged for a kite flying outing, and it was quite nice to try this again after so long. They went out of their way to buy the kites, and there's quite a bit of variety in the ones that they got.

It seems like everyone's hard at work, but I'm a little lazy. My new kite (I forgot to take a picture of it!) was up in no time and was at the end of its tether after a minute. And then it was a problem of 'so how now'...

I hooked it up to my bike brake levers...and it dropped quite soon after....went to retrieved it, got it up a second time, and again the same thing happened when I anchored it down. It seems that my patience for the activity is pretty low...after it is soaring comfortably I can't really stand standing there not doing anything. So I kept it after a while.

It was quite interesting to watch other people's kite actually, these spectacular ones look damn huge with its long trailing tentacles, really nice!

And on a separate occasion - I got my kids down for the Singapore International Kite Festival for CIP, and the variety of kites there is pretty impressive too. There's a massive teddy bear and turtle which are 'inflated' with the wind, but don't really go very high, and a parachute kite with a long line of small kites on its line below it.

Will I try it again? Hm...not a bad day out la, just to be in the outdoors. But it's really freaking hot! Sun protection is mandatory.

Review: Buried Treasures

2010-01-24T19:29:00.002+08:00

Went for this concert on Friday, just to hear Shostakovich's violin concerto. We should have looked carefully and noticed that the concerto only starts after the interval, and should have went for dinner instead of going in on time. My goodness, Schumann is really insipid in some ways. Nice motifs here and there, but the whole piece hardly qualifies as a symphony. Seems to me like he treated the orchestra as a string ensemble, and uses the other parts of the orchestra sparingly in unimaginative ways.

And then, Shostakovich was next. From the first few bars, I decided that I like Ivanov's playing, strong notes with secure intonation that was well projected. His phrasing and cadence was good as he went through the piece, and at the end of it, I have to say that I couldn't expect anything more in terms of interpretative intelligence. His virtuosity showed in the fast movements, very strong technique that carried off the cadenze very well, and the last movement too.

I was transfixed as I watched the concert, stiff and straight as he captured my attention entirely for the 40 minutes. I thought it will be hard for me to accept anything other than Oistrakh's archetypical recording, but I am mightily pleased with this too! He topped it off with Ysaye's Les Furies, showing off his technical skills again.

I look forward to more concert like this! The next one by Leonidas Kavakos promises to be equally spectacular too!

Cycling on roads

2010-01-23T11:24:00.002+08:00

Thoughts on the recent road cyclign debate

Motorists are supposed to overtake or give way to slow moving traffic, so what's the argument about? It is legal for a bicycle to take up a whole lane. And if they don't, it is because they act out of courtesy, allowing cars to overtake them without having to change lane. That should not be seen as a fault that makes cars want to swerve out!
Motorists often misjudge our speed - we can go much faster than we seem. So don't try to do that right turn when you see us coming from a distance. We can't stop as easily as them too; trying to stop probably results in as much accidents as collisions themselves, though with less serious consequences.
There's so many insane drivers on the road, catch them all first before talking about rule-breaking cyclists. Just as there are reckless cyclists, there are also (much more) reckless drivers.
Cyclists on pedestrain walk ways should push or quietly pedal behind pedestrians. They have no right to get them to give way just because they have a bell. Pedestrains should exercise their right not to give way!
The road tax excuse for getting bikes off roads is damn stupid, if drivers have some sense they should stop invoking this lame reason.
Cycling groups are a little dangerous in my opinion, but it's just an impression. If they want to cut across 3 lanes, they should be a tight group, not a train.
The government should stop giving lame excuses and start building those bike lanes. Developed countries with a huge load of cars have bike lanes too.
I beat red lights only when I'm going straight along T-Junctions, and that's because I don't hog a lane.

Actually, despite commuting to work everyday, I have very little unpleasant experiences with motorists. I like to think that's because I've experience in knowing what I should do and what other motorists are thinking, and react accordingly to give everyone their space.

Reading fads

2010-01-17T17:19:00.002+08:00

It's interesting to see students following certain trends in their reading choices, blindly subscribing to the bookshops' marketing promotions. First there was the Harry Potter series, then the Vampire trilogy (the one which made vampirism really attractive and sexy), and also there's the Endearing Animal stories (Which spawned off from Marley & Me).

I think Harry Potter's pretty ok probably (I never read a word of it though), and the vampire stories at least teaches them courage in tackling thick volumes. I'm very much disturbed by the most recent reading fad though, which I called the Depraved Adult literature. Those which promises stories of various forms of child abuse in all their sordid details. What a disgusting choice of book for leisure reading! Not something I'll recommend 13 year olds to read, and my sec 1 kids do read them ok.

Now if only the booksellers go back to promoting the classics in a similar fashion, I'm sure children will end up being more literate and intelligent by reading the good stuff instead.

Misused terms

2010-01-11T10:15:00.003+08:00

Unleash potential
Potential is an ambiguous word that is hard to define in concrete terms. It is 'latent' ability that may or may not manifest. So it is debatable whether a certain potential exists in a certain person ; barring physical and mental deficiencies, we can all potentially break any record! The pairing of potential with 'unleash' assumes firstly the existence of potential, and that it is 'leashed' some how (by what?).

If the term refers to the breaking down of boundaries that might hinder the manifestation of potential, it is too vague because it presupposes the presence of both. In any case, it is a hideous term - you unleash animals, not ideas. Nurturing talents sounds better, or if you want it the bombastic way, actualising talents.

Strategic thrusts
Continuing the theme of violence, measures and objectives must be strategically 'thrusted' into the system, probably to jolt it alive (in pain). Why can't they use 'organisational goals' or something else equally bombastic if they so wish? Another hideous term...

Grow students
Students grow by themselves, we don't need to feed them fertilisers or water them. The person who thought of this term must be a biology teacher.

World class (anything)
Singapore favourite term, which refers to being among the best in anything. Usually refers to indicators of economic status like airports, ports, education system etc. But no one ever presses the relevant organisation of the benchmark of 'world class'! And why not try to be world class in something that money can't buy, like world class service or world class sports achievements or world class civil society?

My new class

2010-01-09T01:11:00.002+08:00

I had the fortune of being assigned as the form teacher for the first express class for the sec 1 level this year - I think the management finally realised that I'm best suited to teaching high ability learners. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy teaching the second last class last year and the year before, but I think the management is not convinced that my methods will develop their language skills rather than confusing them.

The first class is quite noisy when they are relaxed around me actually, which my students always do. They will raise quick suggestions all over, and counter-suggestions will come from other parts of the classroom without my intervention. They perpetually remind me of the hundred and one forms that they are supposed to hand up to me and the stuff that i'm supposed to collect from them. a third of the class shot up their hands in the air when I asked if anyone's willing to try be the class chairperson and vice-chairperson. And amazingly, when the classroom is empty in between lessons, they are all in their seats and eerily quiet. The last one is really a winning quality that will no doubt score points with the school management.

Ahh...life is gonna be good. I am going to try revolutionary ideas to make my form class a real home for them this year, and it is good to know so early on that I have an appreciative group. Maybe they will be my best teaching class ever. Perhaps they might even be the class to hold me back in this school for another 2 years.

A new start

2010-01-05T23:04:00.002+08:00

Someone remarked about why I stopped blogging, and I don't really know why too. It's seems as if the impulse to blog interesting thoughts just stopped acting up on me nowadays. Perhaps I'm just content to let things happen without contemplating too much, perhaps I was too busy at work or on holiday, or maybe I just stopped thinking, full stop. Which is which? I really don't know.

So anyway, it's the dreaded start to school again. Actually, I don't really feel it's dreadful la. I regret the end of the holidays that's for sure, but then school isn't that bad at all for me this year. I've done a lot of preparatory work, beginning of school is quite slack, I'm the form teacher of the best class in the level, and as usual, my healthy optimism for the future kicks in (before it gets destroyed in mid-term).

It's nice to go back and see the kids I taught last year now supposedly more mature. They are really conscious of their new status in school, and truly behave accordingly without any prompting. And I was thinking that it's so nice to see some of the angelic kids, and that sustains my motivation to continue teaching. But in no way am I inclined to have kids of my own, still!

So, a brand new year with a new class, and I'm going to kickstart my plan of moulding them into the best class of the level in spirits and character. Let's see what happens!

A holiday report

2009-12-17T11:37:00.002+08:00

Have been ages since I posted anything here, I must have lost all my audience. It's not that I'm busy in school (in fact I think the last semester was the easiest one ever), but somehow just lazy to write? Either because I don't find much urge to write about my common life or I'm just more into other things now. I am getting much more forward looking with my work, always looking to see if I can prepare something for the future always. And I still stay away from facebook, of course.

Well, since the holidays, I had done 2 of my CCA's camp, where I spent sleepless nights making leaders out of them haha. Starting to think the kids do much better than me in terms of resilience, and I'm really amazed at what they can do sometimes, when we give them a push and a shove. My biggest triumph was to get my sec 2 kids to learn the 'Virginia Reel' dance and teach their seniors; it was great to see them laughing themselves silly learning it and then enjoying the performance.

And I went for a 10 day Melbourne trip! Flew there on the new Airbus, very shiok to watch big screen tv! It was a driving trip mainly, going around the Grampians National Park and the Great Ocean Road. Nice scenic views there, cute penguins on Philip Island, got to see real koalas too. But ultimately, somehow it didn't gave me memories that makes me wanna go back there again, like how I felt after going to Perth. Maybe it was the lack of sporting action - the only physical activity in the itinerary was to swim with the seals at Sorrento, and it was freaking cold. We're already thinking of a return trip in the future, with surfing and climbing and more shopping at Macpac and Kathmandu haha.

Now, I'm eagerly counting down to the Southern Islands paddling trip happening on Sunday. I miss sea expeditions badly, and seeing how much I am anticipating it I realised I really ought to go out to sea more often like this. It's just damn sad that a day trip around Ubin just doesn't cut it, and the SIE is the only trip that feels like a proper expedition around Singapore. Time to venture into Malaysia perhaps? Or maybe do more weekend staycations on the islands like this haha.

Ok, I'll promise to post photos and trip report after the SIE!

Family

2009-10-11T18:43:00.003+08:00

On Thursday, Mum called to say that Ah ma was hospitalised due to a weak heart, and asked me to go down pay her a visit if I can - she might just go anytime with the next attack.

I wanted to visit her the next day, but then apparently she was discharged. Turns out that she was admitted just as a precaution after suffering a moment of difficulty, but she's fine enough to stay at home already. There's probably no difference resting at hospital or at home, and the latter is definitely much preferred.

Still, it was a moment of fateful dread that I felt when I first heard the news; Quite a while back I said that I wanted to get her over to my house for a visit, to make her proud of her grandson's own home. I thought that I wouldn't have the chance to do so man.

Anyway, I visited her at home the next day, and she was quite dismissive of her condition. Staying beside her while she was watching TV, she asked me to take care of my aunt who's single and living alone by herself, telling me how much my aunt loved me when I was younger.

And yes, I did kind of forgot about her, among the other relatives around me. My life revolves around my work (stupidly) and the activities I do to escape from it (sports). I actually miss my nephews too, but never could find the opportunity to meet them up or visit their place.

It's sad, but i think I need post-it memos to remind myself of my relatives so that I'll think of them. Thought everyone has their own families and pretty much live in their own universe after that, it's not something I want happen to myself.

Training for running

2009-10-09T09:51:00.001+08:00

Has booked my first ever IPPT since I ORD-ed on the 7th of November, and I'm trying to get myself into shape to try go for Gold. The only difficult thinga bout that is the 10min 2.4km run.

It was only last week that I started the training. I chose to do interval training cos I like speed training, and the rest after that. My mental strength is quite weak and training by running the actual distance probably wouldn't be very productive as I cannot push myself hard. So, progressively longer distances for my interval training, from 400m per lap, to 800m per lap yesterday. Today I'll try half the distance and get it under four and a half minutes.

Indeed, I think many students of mine are quite capable of pushing themselves harder than me. There are students who run until they puke doing the distance, though I'm not sure whether that's due to a weak body. Nevertheless, I have never reach the state of total exhaustion after a race yet, and see it as a lack of total commitment to my goal.

Need to get that all-out mentality in preparation for my polo competitive play!

Playing at it.

2009-10-06T22:29:00.002+08:00

For the second time of the week, I became a cat care volunteer, offering large slices of fish to strays around my place. Unfortunately, it wasn't very well-received by them at all!

For the first time since we moved in, we tried cooking for ourselves, a meal of fish and angmoh soup. Batang fish is quite nice, but this Toman species is really tasteless and dull, and it was a waste that it came in such large slices. We could just imagine this huge fish swimming happily in the sea meeting up with two tragic fate, first being caught in the net and second being rejected at the dining table.

So I took the slice and walked around downstairs trying to find cats to feed. After walking 2 round, I found one that sniffed it for ages, took a miniscule bite off it, then lost interest. Another ran away when I approached, and I had to waste the huge chunk of meat. The memory of seeing this National Geographic picture of a fishmonger selling a long string of fish bones to the poor people in Africa who couldn't afford the meat itself keep appearing in my mind. The entire episode happened again today, but with the same cat eating a bit more of it.

And it seems like the two of us are simply playing 'house', trying to act out a semblance of life as a 'normal' married couple. Buying groceries, cooking, cleaning up. The truth though, we really don't want to go through the trouble of cooking unless we are hosting or just want a couple activity, and I haven't moped the floor the last two Sundays.

Still I like things the way they are now. I was always abhorrant of the banality of the cloistered married couple, shut up in their own home (T.S. Eliot's poewrful images of this in 'Rhapsody on a Windy Night' is firmly etched in my mind). Cooking is more fun when it is not a necessity.

Sailing

2009-09-17T18:41:00.004+08:00

Just went for the MOE sailing course for teachers, and it was a tiring 4 day course out in the sun. Tiring not because the activity itself is demanding, but because somehow just sitting out in the sun going round and round markers is a drain on the brain.

It was pretty fun when the wind blows strongly (it was never very strong though), I pull in the sail taut when going upwind, and hike out the side of the boat to balance the boat. But we actually spend more time sitting in the boat when the wind is low, and that's where I take a dip in the spa pool onboard (my boat was leaky) and hang around. At first I'll get psyched up and go around the triangle course as if i'm in a race, gybing with reckless abandon and loving the sudden flip of the boom, but boredom takes over when the instructors just leave us there to go round and round for a long while.

So what's next? Maybe I'll try is a few more times to get my skills fully proficient, and perhaps get level 2 in the future. I don't think I like it enough to be too 'on' about it, but perhaps just for the satisfaction of mastering a new skill (and getting a new cert/adding one more line to my CV), I might pursue the next level still.

Here's how it looks like out there. I'm actually risking capsize here by sailing one handed and only steering by hiking out, but after a while even that becomes routine.

Change

2009-09-06T23:18:00.003+08:00

As always, James asks the most interesting questions: "Do you think you will fulfill your potential if you teach in an international school?"

Potential? What potential?

Why an international school? Never seriously thought about it...I suppose the pay will be better I guess, and the work load lighter perhaps? But I'm sure it comes with its own set of problems, like having to treat the students and parents like clients. Plus my innate ah-bengness might disagree with the environment, especially if I have to deal with bratty ang moh kids.

What exactly am I capable of anyway? I always want to inspire my kids and tell them that anything can be learnt and achieved with sufficient will, but as yet I have no grand dream to work on now. I'm just content (relieved?) to be able to do what's demanded of my job on time, and spend my own personal time vicariously for leisure. It's too demanding, inconceivable for me right now to strive towards personal goals in my out-of-office life.

ST featured this forex trader today who worked for 4 years, calculated that he'll never be able to be financially independent if he stayed on being a salaried worker, learnt to trade in currencies, and now earn USD $15k and beyond each month. Now that's someone with the strength to make life-changing decisions. 0

I'm far from that state of being right now, and I hope Alex can make it ahead of me first!

I just feel like languishing and dragging my feet along the education track for a while mroe...ironically, mindless drudgery can be easier than mustering courage to change.

Slow pedagogy

2009-08-13T23:46:00.001+08:00

I need to learn to live by slow pedagogy.

Walk slower.
Do less.
Relax more.

And realise that quiet time can be good times.

Argh. I need to slow my blood down.

Days of happiness

2009-08-13T17:09:00.004+08:00

Had a bout of stomach flu last week, giving me a surprise in the form of a 2 day MC - it's a surprise because I haven't been sick this badly for a long while. Then after post-National Day holiday on Monday, I had spent the last 2 days and today at a first aid course. I can't say it's better than going back to school, but well, it got to be done, and is a change from routine at least. And next week I have to answer a ridiculous charge from SAF on Thursday, yet another day of school missed!

Indeed, these days I don't like to stay in school longer than necessary. I will try to bring breakfast to school, eat something else during recess, then after that look forward to leaving school after 2.30pm so that I can go out for lunch and then go home. Home is really enticing, and it's maddening sometimes for me to sit at my desk waiting for 2.30pm to come. Your own home is really the best place to be.

And my place has been transformed quite a bit since I moved in and took 'showflat' pics of it.

We now hang out the laundry on the balcony, and usually the coffee table is very messy with papers because we do work in front of the tv...

We put these soft toys on the carpet - A National Geographic gorilla I bought in Paris, a crocodile rug from Hong Kong, showed here eating up Domo Kun... The brown slates are extra pieces from the Ikea blinds that I bought for the study.

I fixed up the hangboard! And play with it sometimes, when I remember it whenever I'm out at the balcony.

There's now 2 small pots of plants, which thrives and wilts in turn depending on whether we remember to water them. Poor things...

The thing on the left is a water fountaing thingy which is really the most modern looking water fountain I have seen, a gift from my eldest brother. The right Buddha face is from Barang Barang of course.

A $300 Ikea cupboard placed in the spare room for the things that we couldn't stuff into the study's cupboard. It is already 1/3 filled with my university's literature notes, backpacks, soft toys etc...

Ever seen a storeroom with 3 kayaks, 5 paddles and a bike?

Karen moved in her study table last weekend and we're clearing up stuff. All my lit notes were on the floor, and I was sorting them out methodically, for the day when my student asks me about critical theory or cold war logic and I can turn them out again to refer to.

This is now my work place proper, very comfortable!

Anyway, I alighted at Jurong East MRT and was walking to IMM when I walked by a guitarist busking at the station, playing the famous Prelude from Bach for the solo violin crisply! I had to whip out my wallet and gave that guy something for providing me with a bright spark of beauty today with that music. And then during the course, I suddenly remembered that I've got tickets to Tang Tee Khoon's recital tonight! I'm sure it'll be good later.

Oh, and I've bought a few books in Kino during their N-Day sale, and 2 Adidas shirt at their discount shop at IMM recently.

How much better can things be?

No computers for kids!

2009-07-26T01:13:00.002+08:00

Am watching a Nat Geo documentary on South Korea and its gaming culture there. It's basically stories after stories of people being addicted to computer games because of the easy access of high-speed internet. The kids start using it from a very young age, and most of them gets addicted to the screen in some way or another.

The kids talk about not going to school to play games, wanted to go professional, and am really quite unable to do anything social other than that. The parents don't know how to raise kids in the internet age, and can only let them live out their lives this way. Some of the kids play 24-48 hours non-stop, eating by the computer, and then faint from exhaustion (Quite a few die, of course).

It's a really crazy world - the teenager here on the screen is now saying that he feels that he has achieved something when he kills characters on the screen. He confuses reality with cyberspace, fearing that people be hiding behind doors stalking him, and have to sleep with his dad, waking up several times a day.

I hope this post can warn parents about the dangers of early exposure - there's already so many cases that I see in school, with the parents being unable to admit that they have long relinquished their control over to the computer screen. Sigh, and now I am reminded of the silly parents I'm dealing with, those that needs advice from their just-married, young and childless teacher...

OE Symposium

2009-07-19T17:34:00.003+08:00

I sacrificed my weekend attending the OE Symposium, and come away with ambivalent feelings. I do have a clear sense that symposiums ain't lectures and one don't 'learn' things from it as if it's a classroom, and with this mindset, I think I gained a lot more from it.

For one thing, I made a conscious effort to do some networking with the people there. It was a small group and thus pretty informal, making it easy to find chances to talk to people. It's this interaction that I learnt much from, knowing about how people do things within their own sphere of influence. And I also wrote down the names of the people I met, so that I can call them at the next such event!

Most importantly, the symposium made me imagine possibilities of how I can push OE into the school, and spread it to students beyond my ODAC. Contentious questions raised also helped me to reflect and consider my own opinions on them -

Should one explore within 'our own backyard', or is 'the further, the better'?
Is facilitation a bad word? Should we let the mountain speak to the students instead?
Specialised programs for the selected few, or exposure to OE for the masses?
What exactly is our sphere of influence and power, when trying to push OE to schools?

For one thing, it has helped me made decisions about the way I want to run this year's RITE expedition, and I can't wait to share the outdoors with the kids.

New sports

2009-07-15T11:33:00.002+08:00

Have been taking up new sports recently, and it's nice to get a chance to play more, particularly since I dropped canoe polo already.

James got me into trying handball, and it is really easy to pick up. My polo training definitely helps with the passing and shooting, and I had a great game last week, when our newbies team won or draw other teams with experienced players! It is really nice to play with people whom you have camaraderie with, and the memory of last Friday night's games lingers still.

Am also playing football on a street soccer court regularly for about a month already, and it's fun even though I'm not really good at it. I play the persistent defender, and does manage to score at least a goal or two every session with good positioning. Will want to learn how to hold up the ball confidently and dribbling skills though.

Actually, I got a chance to join next month's canoe polo national champs competition with a team looking for people to fill up their team list, but turned it down. I don't like to play knowing that I'm not well-prepared for it, and ultimately, the one-off chance to play again is meaningless if I'm not going to join the team permanently. Have learnt to let go of it finally, though it's hard to do so. Truly, a little part of you dies when you drop an activity that you loved, but I've to let it rest in peace.

And perhaps I can spend effort and teach my ODAC kids to be the promising polo players of the future!

A new leatherman!

2009-07-12T18:32:00.002+08:00

The guys gave me a new leatherman for my birthday present, the new Skeletool CX!

Actually, I requested for it because they asked what I wanted, and I thought it'll be great to get another tool after my leatherman Blast was confiscated at the airport on a previous trip.

The Skeletool CX looks cool, is compact and light, and has all the basic tools that I'll ever need. I didn't used like 80% of the tools on the old Blast before anyway. This is so much better for carrying around. Hope the pliers don't break, like a few Amazon reviews purported!

So late...

2009-07-09T18:16:00.002+08:00

This is the first time since Semester 2 started that I stayed till so late in school to do work. Actually I'm waiting for Karen to pick me up to go back home together, but still, I'm no longer used to staying till this hour. Everyday, I would think about what time can I make my escape out of school, and unless absolutely necessary, everything should be brought back home to do (although it's not a conducive work environment).

Still, it's the most comfortable place for me right now. I actually had this nightmare last night of being forced to move house and to go through another renovation process! Really love the place right now and hope I can stay there for the longest time.

Anyway, work is full of crappy admin work these days because of my recalcitrant students and the H1N1 flu. Hate to stay up late at night to do nonsense like these.

6.30pm! I must make my escape now!

Paddling with my kids

2009-07-07T18:23:00.002+08:00

Some of the more enthusiastic students asked me to go paddling with them before the holiday, and I kept the promise to them on Saturday. 6 of them rented boats, I brought my playboat down let them try, and got them the ball to play with. There was Dog and Bone games with the ball, teaching of ball shielding and stern dips and of course, rolling practice. Here's one of them camwhoring with my boat.

Yet another record for me - I taught a 13 year old how to do a handroll, within an hour!

Here's one of them trying to do handroll with forward recovery - I taught him to forward leaning handroll previously and he couldn't make himself learn the backward recovery handroll after that, and he's now so close to learning what most paddlers can't do!

I think they have so much potential, and I wonder if I should ask them if they want to receive specialised training in canoe polo or even playboating regularly. If they were to continue training like this on a regular basis, I think they will be at a second-year polo player level the moment they go into an IVP team! They only thing holding me back is...should I take up this commitment of time and effort, with no promise of reward other than gratitude?

Honeymoon trip...

2009-06-26T08:42:00.003+08:00

It was a good trip to Europe, and the only pity is that it was rather short on the whole, and that I didn't get a victorinox tool when I was in Switzerland.

Only stayed a day in Germany, and Heidelburg and the Black Forest were both beautiful in their different ways, one being the oldest university-city in the country, the other for its dense pine forests all around a lake. I rediscovered the German language again, and find myself recalling much of what I learnt of it in the past; being in Germany was very comfortable in that way, being able to read the menus and signs etc.

Switzerland is just amazingly beautiful, there doesn't seem to have a squalid bit anyway in the country. Cyclists must have a great time cycling anywhere due to the cool weather and scenic landscape, and everyday on the bus I feel happy just looking at the fields which the bus passes by. Going up to Jungfraujoch mountaintop by train is a great experience which further convinced me not to have a go at technical mountaineering - I really hate to be in the cold man.

Paris really does deserves being the world's most visited city. The old city is dominanted by endless rows of classical-period buildings with ornate carvings on them, and it is impressive everywhere. Of course, the Champs-Elysee and the Eiffel Tower proved to be as interesting as their reputation boasts of.

See the pictures here!

Doing up the house...

2009-06-19T00:36:00.002+08:00

Today I spent a total of $350+ at NTUC, buying stuff for daily day to day living and for our housewarming parties coming soon. Ended up with so much stuff to stuff into the kitchen cupboards. Man.

And we have been doing laundry every day, still trying to sort out the organisation of clothes in the wardrobe, and I have to set up 2 ikea furnitures still in the boxes. I've postponed trying to unpacked the boxes in the study as it is.

I wonder if I can really settle down in comfort before school starts...

Returned from honeymoon!

2009-06-17T06:50:00.003+08:00

Have been back from honeymoon on Sunday 5+pm, but life has been tipsy-turvy since then. First time I suffered jetlag in my life - I woke up at 1am the next day (it would be 7am in Europe), and finally gave up on the sleep at 4am, waking up to do housework instead. And that was the start of my irregular sleeping hours, late mornings, noon naps past dinnertime etc.

Right now, I have been kept awake since 3am because of hunger, and after doing some things I decided not to sleep, sorting out my trip photos and intending to go to school then Ikea later before concussing big time in the noon.

We didn't manage to really tidy up the house before we left for the trip, and now there's loads (of laundry) to do. It'll take at least till Friday before we whip the whole house into order, and I tell you, time does passes fast when you are doing all these things (or is it because both of us are sleeping too much?). It's satisfying to see things being organised, but a tiring job. Must persevere on...

Oh, about the honeymoon huh...in short, my honeymoon was pretty good, a generally well-paced tour (except for a dearth of shopping time in Switzerland) with lots of great sights seen. Will be blogging on and off about them in these few days, wait for them!

Books for another time

2009-06-05T01:18:00.002+08:00

Quite a bit of memories and thoughts flood my mind when I cleaned my old books before placing them in order in the new bookcase. The books that I treasured most are often the ones that I purchased but have not read, those that you somehow know should be worth your time even before you open a page of it. I feel excited just to hold them and look at their cover, wondering what literary gems of wisdom lies in wait for me within their pages.

But these books that had been cloistered up for years are really a relic of my younger days, many of them. I realise that now I will hardly have the patience to read and savour the experience of reading them. My work life has made me quite a nervous wreck in a way nowadays, and every free moment I feel as if I should use the time to think about work instead. There's just endless things to do, and even a holiday can make me pick up a book that requires intense concentration to absorb.

Reading for leisure seems to be literally a pastime now...

Wedding Montage

2009-06-04T00:30:00.008+08:00

Most of you will not be at my wedding banquet, so here's the wedding montage Karen created for the event for you guys. I must say it's quite nice la.

I only slept 3 hours before the big day, busy with things, and so was glad I survived the day. Our wedding was one of the most fuss-free ever, we simply made our grand entrance, and sat down to eat. After a few dishes, went up for the toast, then eat again haha.

All in all it was all right la, not a bad day at all!

Round one over

2009-05-27T23:28:00.000+08:00

So, the deed's done last Saturday, and we're officially married!

Both of us felt rather embarrassed about the whole experience in general, but I'm happy that the ceremony was a short one. It was like one big party instead of our wedding, with both of us gathering together so many dear friends. I was just busy trying to go all around and entertain everyone that eating was the last thing on my mind.

It was great to see you guys, hope you enjoyed it!

Will post up good photos of the whole thing when my photographer's done with it, can't wait!

Conferences, symposiums, workshops...

2009-05-27T14:21:00.000+08:00

Have been attending quite a lot of these things in the last 3 months, and most was it are a waste of time.

What's wrong with these people man? Organisers make them mega-events and so many teachers waste manhours to attend it. Alas, most of the time the content is sorely lacking.

Many presenters seem to use the opportunity as a platform to up their own credentials, and give some inane speech with information that anyone could have googled if they so wanted. Others take it as a chance to showcase their school's/organisation's innovative practices. No one, however, is interested to divulge trade secrets and explain the 'how', instead of simply telling the 'what'.

And right at this moment I'm stuck at a workshop which started promisingly but lost the plot along the way with a presenter who spent too much time on the obvious and the unnecessary.

Really, most of these people in MOE HQ will be crucified if their lesson was assessed. Is their terrible presentations the reason why they choose to come to HQ?

Arqh! I have no patience to listen to incompetent people..

New paddle!

2009-05-13T01:30:00.004+08:00

I had to replace my playboat paddle cos the old 'shotover' aluminium shaft-plastic bladed paddle is going to expire soon. The shaft had numerous scars on it showing fatigue, streaks of silver fibres are exposed on the plastic blades due to constant degradation by UV rays, and one side of the blade is shaky and leaking water into the shaft.

So I was looking for another cheap plastic paddle, and found it during the last course when I used this one that SCF had. It's a 2 piece paddle, with a reasonably stiff blade (for plastic at least), can set zero blade offset angle, and best of all, it's only $84. On the other hand, it's 200cm long, a little too long for a playboater. I bought it nonetheless, and wanted to cut it down - yet another kayaking technical project!

First, I marked the length that I am going to cut, and measured the distance from the end of shaft to the holes. Noting the position of the zero offset fitting hole, I used a 8mm drill bit and made another exactly 6cm away from the position that I'm cutting the excess off. Thank goodness the sawing created reasonable straight and clean edges, or else I'll be filing it away like a madman.

After filing off what I can, I can see the pin at the right position but it is obstructed from popping up from the hole fully. I can either 1) file off the end a little more or 2) file the hole wider. Cautiously I proceeded with step 1 first, and went on to widen the hole just a little once I'm absolutely sure that the pin and hole position are alighned.

Final result - a perfect fit! It is very snug and tight, and doesn't not really have freeplay around it. I like it this way, but will ask JB to see if that's the way it should be. Going to try it out immediately later today! Kallang, here I come!

School teachers Vs Tuition teachers

2009-05-13T00:49:00.003+08:00

I always wonder if tuition teachers have an symbiotic or exclusive relationship with school teachers. Do school teachers need this spinoff industry?

My advice to my kids are that if they listen attentively during class time and ask any questions they need after classes, they should be able to get all that was taught. The only problem is that most kids never bother to ask when they do not understand classroom content, whether in or after the class. So they rely on their tuition teacher to help them.

It seems to be that over time, most students who receive tuition (and that's almost all students nowadays!) will tune out classroom teaching, thinknig that they can ask whatever they want back at home, or that there's no point learning in class when they'll hear the same things being repeated back home.

So this situation makes the tuition teachers indispensable for those who are already using them, and I don't think it's healthy at all. It's good to receive personal attention as I do know the classroom can be a crappy place to learn in sometimes, but then it's not really necessary unless the kid is really struggling to catch up with his/her peers, or the parents want to hothouse them.

And today while doing invigilation, I was considering how interesting it might be if I take on a tuition kid for English and Literature, and teach the kid English the way I taught myself - the reading method. Just get the kid to read and read, go through vocab, talk about the content, test for understanding, expressing response in different ways etc.

I'm a product of this style of intuitive learning, and I still believe that that is the best way to go about learning a language in a relatively painless way. Is it worthwhile to try out this experiment?

Deep water soloing

2009-05-10T12:06:00.003+08:00

Here's possibly the world's biggest climber (perhaps in terms of reputation) doing a deep water solo (climbing without ropes and falling into the water if you get detached from the wall) in Spain, Mallorca, part of the footage from his new DVD 'King Lines'.

I think the videography is in many ways as amazing as the climb itself. Lots of questions -

How did the videographer get up there for the above-head footage of him? The rock is a sea arch standing alone in the sea, if they didn't climb up there first, they were dropped in by helicopter?
If they did us helicopters, would they need to rappel down to the underside of the cliff to film him in action?
When he did his dyno, how did they get that action from several camera angles? Does the side view shows that someone was on the main land filming across the sea?
If he's the first person to send it, how come there's chalk marks on all the holds?
He'll need a new chalk bag after every attempt isn't it? Doesnb't that limit the number of attempts he can do each day? (And that's provided they can make it dry for the next day).

Picking up the violin again

2009-05-08T21:41:00.002+08:00

This is my dream - to play any of Bach's pieces for unaccompanied violin

I'm going to use my study room or the spare room as my music room. Get a music stand, some music to start practicing (the suzuki volumes, and some simple etudes), and a tuner. Catch up on some of the familiar pieces and work those fingers a little with finger-twisting exercises. I hope I'll soon come to the point when I know I can't go on on my own anymore, and maybe then I'll take lessons. Maybe I can target grade 8 exams in 5 years time.

I can't let my brain rot anymore - I haven't been learning anything new for ages!

Old things

2009-05-08T13:57:00.003+08:00

I am in the midst of clearing my belongings in my room to be transported to the house. Steadily, the cupboards regurgitated books both new and old, which has not seen the light of day for ages. Whole boxes of CDs, school notes, photographs, and miscellaneous gifts were packed, needing many many trips to get to its destination.

I can really just sit there and reminiscence about the old days looking at them. I thought of how I started my CD collections (with Chopin's Nocturnes and Boston Pops recordings), reread my schoolday writings (I can't believe I wrote that well in Secondary school!), as well as the cheem stuff that I read in my NUS literature modules.

I look at the handicrafts that I made and I remember my secondary school days, a really nice period of my life when I just play the days away without a care (and somehow passed). There's a few JC photos of my CT teacher whom I fondly remembered, and I recall the relationships that I had with the few people I was close to then.

All in all, I think I have wonderful memories even though I'm just another ordinary guy on the street. Though there will be a lot of significant people in my past who I do not see much of nowadays, they will always be fondly remembered, and always welcomed back into my life even for the briefest moment if I get to see them again.

My gear attic!

2009-05-07T09:19:00.004+08:00

Haha finally I got a proper room for my gear!

Bad news is, it doesn't really look like it's big enough. Another Ikea storage shelf will come in and the balls etc will be thrown there. I want to clear the space in the wardrobe so I can store all my technical wear (splash jacket, hard and soft shell outer wear, rain gear, neoprene suit etc) hanging inside. All my small pieces of miscellaneous gear are floating around in the drawer though, but at least it is consolidated together.

And the clothes rack at the side, and maybe an ironing board or ladder will share this space in the future too, shucks. There's a few cans of paint left over from the paint job, don't know how long I should hold on to them too, and where I should store them meanwhile.

View of the room from outside the door, with the bike right in front of the window, nice!

Think I should put some adventure photos of mine around the room!

New badminton shoes!

2009-05-02T23:38:00.004+08:00

As part of some obscure Chinese tradition, Karen's parents have to buy me a belt and a pair of shoes, and I went over to Queensway to shop for it today. I hardly wear my running shoes, my trail running shoes are excellent for teaching in the field, and I guess the pair of shoes that is gonna wear out soon will be my badminton shoes, hence the choice.

I had worn 2 pairs of Mizuno court shoes before, the first one cheap but quite ok though it doesn't exactly have a tight feel, the current pair more expensive but actually less fitting and feel clunky. This 'Wave Lightning 5' costs $135, but feels really agile and good! I can't wait to try it out tomorrow, and hope it makes my footwork better!

This is really the year of presents; getting married brings all sorts of gifts to you from your relatives. Kinda shows you their love I guess, and it makes me feel guilty for not giving them more of my time.

A short note

2009-04-29T23:53:00.002+08:00

House - all done up. Slowing moving bags of stuff there every few days when we can. Think it will take ages to do clear the mess there now. I thought my utility room will be just great for my gear, but now I'm having second thoughts on whether everything can fit it! I fixed up a bike hook on the wall and now my bike's hung vertical, really cool! Show you pics next time.

By the way, wait till my open house invitation if you wanna take a look at it, don't want to spoil the surprise!

Wedding prep - lots of people has been asking me how's it going, and well, it's not really fully thought out. Still got much loose ends to tie up, but we'll get through it slowly. If you haven't reply to my email invitation, go do it now!

School - pretty good! Waiting for the exams, and things are already kind of slack. Will take lots of leave between my 2 weddings, so looking forward to that. Things are really much better with the new principal in charge, and my school is really quite a nice place at this moment of time.

All in all, things' good! Hope to see you all soon!

Go green!

2009-04-20T23:54:00.001+08:00

Here's a picture of a plant I got about a month ago from Ikea. At the time I bought it, it was really cute; all the leaves were standing uniformly tall like the beansprouts we eat, with mostly identical-sized round leaves.

With some tender loving care from me, it has now grown bigger. Some stalks are standing much taller, some extending to the side beyond the small pot, and the leaves are definitely larger. On Fridays, I will water it a little more, and put them in this conference room behind my office table, where it can get some sunlight during the weekend.

Isn't it ironic to know that this plant, this life, costs only $1.50? That is exactly the same price as the saucer below the pot which I bought together with it. Humans are really filling the world with cheap and useless things, consuming endless resources in the process, while neglecting to treasure those things that are alive and precious.

Paddling future

2009-04-19T14:36:00.002+08:00

It was really good to see my former group of coaches last week, and the reunion sort of draw me back in into a small paddling community again.

Some of us are still doing freelance work, a few on a regular basis. Some are in the outdoor industry, and some specifically in the paddling sports industry. For only a few, there is still things that they look forward to in terms of personal development and in how they can forward the industry's practices, while most others like me are just engaging with the sport on a recreational basis.

It does awaken some dreams in me though, perhaps bringing back memories of my former self who is industrious in acquiring personal skills development. One suggested to JB that there should be a level 3 course just for us because so many of us are stuck at level 2 for so long. I wouldn't want to be coaching freelance unless it's for my own students or my friends, but I guess it'll look good on paper for me.

More expeditions and trips? I think I'm really rather sedate now, and weekend getaways to malaysian rivers will simply stress me out if I have to work on Monday. I do look forward very much to sea expeditions though, and will want to go for the yearly folding kayak trips (and persuade you-know-who to go with me!)

Special trips - I do dream of going on a park-and-play playboating excursion on a river, compared to a river-running trip. Somewhere with a nice wave that you can try surfing on, and do wave moves. And of course, go kayak surfing! Somewhere on a cheap Indonesian island perhaps. If the whitewater stadium does appear on this island, I'll want to try slalom too.

Can't hurt to dream right? I think it's fortunate I got a bunch of friends who have time to get these lobangs for trips sometimes, and each trip really invigorates you for months.

Annual kayak course

2009-04-16T23:41:00.003+08:00

It was time for the annual paddling courses for my Odac kids again. Every year, I have to say that it's a hell lot of trouble to organise the course. Loads of paper work, admin processes to settle selection of vendor, mode of payment, edusave forms to chase, name list for each course, indemnity forms etc, and it's so crazy that almost a week after the course now, I am still trying to clear up the paper mess, chasing after forms/MCs/payments.

But it was felt really good to be able to rally the old coaching group together to do it with me, I have so much trust in them, and it's really nice to work together again as we hardly ever see each other, not to mention do coaching together these days. And when we started the course that day, everything ran smoothly like the old times, with good communications or through common understanding.

And I delighted in doing the unconventional in my 2 star refresher course. This year, there was only a grand total of 5 participants for my group, but that disappointment was offset by the fact that everyone had more individual attention to them. They learnt about their 2 star skills in depth, learnt hybrid strokes and several others not in the entire syllabus like the 'C' stroke and the bow draw, and covered everything in 3 star except for towing too!

Learning and practicing sprinting and rolling is a daily affair, and after they got to know about the characteristics of different boats and their uses, I got them my playboat and polo boat to try. It was really an eye-opener for them, and they really went away appreciating different paddlng activities.

Some notable achievements by my class:

Turning 360 degrees using hybrid strokes in one smooth action
Successful C to C rolls by most of them
Good sprints with boat control in my polo boat
2 successful ends in a clean lean
Successive hanging draws!

Not bad for a 2 star refresher course eh?

Holistic education

2009-04-09T23:39:00.002+08:00

There's almost something thought-provoking that comes up everytime I talk to James. He was sharing with me about how his brother-in-law (with only an O' level certificate) set up a business at age 30 with only $5000 and is now the biggest distributor of its kind in Singapore.

His questions

What are the sort of values and attitudes that someone must possess to find success in such unconventional way? Compared to scholars who breeze their way up through the ranks of a civil service job, for instance.
What experience in education can imbue a person with these values such that they can replicate such successes?

This is what I meant by holistic development - thinking about what skills the students need, and then working backward to see how we can provide it. MOE tries its best, but ultimately most of its efforts is only geared towards academic excellence. Providing life skills and inculcating good attitudes are only things that schools try to do outside of curriculum time.

And also, he differs from the typical educator who believes that lessons should always help students achieve success, no matter how small, in order to keep them going. To him, learning to manage failure should be an integral part of character education, and the only way to build resiliency. There should be situations where teachers have lessons which plans for failure, with a stake that's symbolically important but realistically trivial, such that students can be led to reflect on their experiences.

But then again, motivation is the objection of building successes, and without that, I think many of my school's kids will not attempt something again after meeting with failure once. But I think a knowing what your end objective is for the students, and having a balanced curriculum is important.

The impact of CCA teachers

2009-04-02T21:27:00.002+08:00

The most vivid memories of my secondary school life is probably of my time spent in my school band group. I remember going to the band room immediateloy after school, doing homework there, running around with my guy friends there, the fun and challenge of music practice, and interacting with a group of very interesting band seniors, whom I still remember fondly.

Today, I think CCA life is still a big part of students' life, and there are a hell lot of kids who pursue their CCAs more actively than their studies.

However, I see many teachers in my school who have no interest in putting effort into their CCAs to develop their kids' potentials and help them gain achievements. As a PE teacher, I think it's a shame that many teachers who are indifferent to sports are managing sports CCAs. They do not know, or care to find out, how to give the best training to their students, and merely go to CCA sessions to mark attendance.

Students can attend sessions religiously weekly, even train hard, but never able to excel or fully develop their potential, and probably end up getting trashed in zonal competitions. I can imagine them leaving the CCA after 4 years with bittersweet feelings, having developed a love for their sports but always regretting and wondering why they failed to achieved anything significant in their CCA lives.

With each CCA having more than 50 kids across the levels, the failure of CCA teachers in helping their charges gain success is a major failing of their duties.

I'm an idiot!

2009-04-01T23:36:00.003+08:00

Sigh, it seems that every time I arrange for my school kids to go for their star courses spectacular problems will crop up. Last year, I went into extensive discussion with a vendor before realising in the end that they are too expensive and cannot meet my needs. It was also hard to arrange for things to happen because I had to update my boss at every twist of the plot.

The same happened this year too - next week's the course and things are still not fully planned out. I am lucky to get most of my coaching buddies along, but I realised that I myself can't teach my 2 star refresher course because my first aid cert expired!

MOE does have a first aid course that happens to fall on the 7th-9th April, but my boss is adamant in not letting me even ask for permission to go, as it is too late notice and will (in her opinion) get me in my P's black books. Luckily my kids all have 2 star already, so I can still take them and they do not need the extra 2 star cert.

And I just purchased my third Pentax Optio camera, this time a w60; I soemhow misplaced my last one during my last trip out to sea, and never found it since.

I got it over the popular Olympus waterproof versions because I can get 5x optical zoom at the same price. I bought it on eBay and the seller actually has free shipping, so I sent it to borderlinx which will consolidate all my US online shopping together in a parcel to forward over.

And when I traced the parcel delivery status today, I realised that the item was actually shipped from Hong Kong! Which means I have to waste time waiting for it to reach US before I can forward it over, and also waste money sending it here. Now I'm really doubtful I can use it before my kayak course next week ends, seeing that Friday is a public holiday.

OMG I'm damn stupid la...

A great paddling day!

2009-03-27T23:23:00.002+08:00

I had the chance to bring my students out for a very short kayaking program last Friday, and am glad I really made full use of it. The challenge was to fully utilise a 3 hour session with 42 kids, which will also have to include the shifting and fitting of all equipments from storage to the water, and back again after a washup of course.

It took 45 minutes to get eveyone into the water, with each sec 1 kids paired up with a senior. I wanted the session to be one whereby the newbies get some informal training from their seniors and an introduction to the water before their star course. And it turned out real good! I send them out in their boats without teaching a single thing, and from the first dip of the paddle each senior was busying themselves teaching basic paddling skills to the juniors. They raft up, and I just reinforced the learning points briefly.

Next, sometime I never tried before - I got the group in a raft about 30-40m facing the shore, teach the sec 1s how to disembark from their boats to get into the water, and then tell them they are to jump in from there one by one and swim to the shore, with their senior trailing in the kayak behind them. It was an exciting challenge that I think excited the seniors more than the swimmers, but all of them did the swim perfectly, with constant encouragement from the paddlers.

With a little bit of coaching about reverse paddling and seating position/boat control, it was time for the capsize drill. The seniors felt sort of deprived that they couldn't go swimming under the hot sun, and was clamouring to go in. When I told them that I'm going to grant them their wish, all went shouting "Yay! Capsize drill!!" Again, their enthusiasm rubbed onto the juniors all the capsize drill for the 21 kayaks was over in 5 minutes.

Water drained from the boats on shore, they hopped back in and proceeded back to the pontoon and the centre. With everything done, they reached the bus at 1815 - not bad at all!

Have a good feeling about the coming star course!

Pride and learning

2009-03-21T01:29:00.005+08:00

I am getting quite excited about the upcoming kayak course for my school kids, where I will be conducting a 2 star refresher course for my kids. It's really the highlight of the year for me, to be in my elements, teaching my kids fun and cool things, and really passing on the love for paddling to them. It's probably the only 2 star course in the world that will incorporate sprinting and canoe polo introductions in them too, and I've even finished my extensive lesson plan for it.

I felt that it will be good for teachers in my school to go for this advanced 2 star course so that they can learn much more, and so invited all teachers in my school to it. 2 teachers from the NCC unit wanted to join in, a middle-aged family man and a young female teacher just a batch before me. The guy was the CO for the unit in my school, a very friendly person who is quietly passionate about giving his best to his CCA. For example, I was surprised to meet him at the last outdoor education conference, which he somehow got wind of and signed up himself, when I had thought I was the only teacher interested in such things.

Yesterday, I met that guy in school, and he said that the lady teacher did not want to go for the course anymore because my ODAC kids will be there as well, but that he will still be joining us. Now that was really a disappointment man. A young teacher who gives us on a learning opportunity, just because she don't want to be seen as a student by her own students! If she is ashamed to be seen as a student, what kind of message is she sending to the kids?

The kids didn't know that she was supposed to be there, but that's not the point. I just feel disappointed that people would rather preserve their pride than be seen as being amateurish, especially when she's a teacher who has to constantly encourage her students to work hard by telling them that everyone has to start somewhere.

Promoting school sports

2009-03-17T01:21:00.003+08:00

Went for a North Zone Sports Development Committee retreat today, and it was pretty interesting. Apparently the committee is made up of a group of volunteer PE teachers/HODs etc who represent North zone schools, and they come together to think of initiatives to nurture and encourage the growth of school sports.

What is commendable is that these people look beyond the focus on organising the yearly competitive leagues, and instead shifted their focus on bringing sports to non-school team players and the general school population. They came up with an idea of getting schools to play home and away matches in a few sports to generate healthy school rivalry, build school identity and also giving the sports' second-stringers a chance to play against others. Another idea is to have a North zone sports carnival, with schools able to send a team each for a few different sports, and with all these games being played at this games hub of Innova JC-Innova Primary-Sports school.

The idea is grand, the intentional noble, and the task a massive one, and for all these I have to salute these guys for daring to dream big. I can see the passion in these guys, and it is amazing to see these uncles being so committed to the casuse of PE after so many years in service. What an inspiration!

By the way, there was this speaker who reminded us that there are people working hard to make it possible for local school sporting events (The Schools Nationals) to be aired on Channel 5, during primetime slot no less. If they realise that the viewership is not sufficient, such shows, and the opportunity to promote school sports, will never take happen again. Therefore, if you want to help promote all our young athletes, do your part in a small one - watch it on TV!

IT fair 2009

2009-03-15T22:37:00.003+08:00

...was a big squeeze. I figured the jam on Orchard road on the way there can be attributed to the fair, and when I was near, the signboard giving you parking lot info says that Marina Square in full and there are only 10+ lots in the whole of Suntec! After queueing up to turn into Suntec, I realised that they closed the carpark entrance at the convention hall area, and I decided to miss it altogether, parking at Shaw Tower instead.

The big squeeze started when I walked into Suntec from the bridge - the short passageway past Watsons took like 20 minutes to clear! But I have to say that things were much better when you're inside the hall. It helps if you're skinny like me too!

Got an Acer Extensa 4630 laptop with 3GB RAM at $859 instead of $999 outside, so think it's worth the trip down after all. Bought an LG 160GB DVD recorder for $388 for my new place too, have been waiting so long to get my hands on one! Gonna record hours of Discovery channel and Sports events when I move into my new place and get my SCV channels!

Holiday? What holiday?

2009-03-13T19:11:00.002+08:00

Term one is over!

The students are probably happy to enjoy their one week term break, but only after they finished a few online assignments given to them, and maybe a CCA camp. For me, I have a camp tom till Sunday noon, a retreat for PE teachers on Monday, and another camp from Tuesday to Friday. Having to stay out means that my holiday week is actually busier than my normal school week! It's total madness.

And that only means that it will be one full week away from doing preparatory work for my wedding. I'm pissing in my pants now because Jacob told me last week that with my wedding at end May, I should be sending out invitations by the end of March - I haven't even confirmed the guest list! I'm so gonna die loh.

I have to say that my house renovation is going on quite nicely, even though it wasn't on schedule. Karen and I spend countless days arguing about the colour scheme, and that really slowed down the work because the paint job has to be done before many other things can be installed. But we're reaching the finishing line soon, and quite in love with what we saw already!

To make up for the rough week, I'm gonna do retail therapy at IT fair this Sunday. Will be getting a laptop, among other things. Maybe I'll take my laptop outdoors to play with...

Captain Planet's Dog - Tubby!

2009-03-13T18:57:00.002+08:00

BBC features Tubby of Wales who goes hunting for plastic bottles whenever he goes for his walks, then crushes them with its jaws before handing them over to its owner, making it the ultimate environmentally-friendly pet! The picture is just too cute to resist, and it will be real cool if everyone train their dogs like this. I have to say that the town must be full of rubbish everywhere for Tubby to collect at least 6 bottles on its twice-daily walks!

Garang-guni men should start training pets to find and crush metal cans for them too! Too bad they can't help to collect cardboard boxes - dogs will probably be more interested in chewing them up.

Obama Pop Art!

2009-03-08T21:07:00.002+08:00

Go to Obamicon.Me and you can get a Obama-style pop art portrait of yourself! Here's Karen's...

And mine! Quite cool, go make your own!

There used to be a time...

2009-03-07T21:12:00.002+08:00

...that this picture could adequately illustrates my life. Being in the outdoors most of the time. Enjoying myself under the sun. Proud to be a member of NUS ODAC. Happy and carefree.

That lifestyle, like that beloved t-shirt, is nowhere to be found now apparently...

Waterproofing electronics

2009-02-23T22:06:00.001+08:00

For those out there who wants to bring electronics out to sea, I have to say that unless the unit is waterproof in itself, there are few storage containers that you can trust for submersion.

Aquapacs
Reputed to be the best stuff around, but I personally drowned 2 phones and a set of walkie talkies encased inside them before.

Boxit
About the only thing I trust for submersion of phones, but you got to sacrifice usability when using your phone and live with its bulkiness. No flip phones or smart phones or phones with jog dials allowed, and call volume is much reduced.

Sealline
I saw this one with a roll-top, definitely a no-no. Roll top style bags cannot be submerged! (But they did say it only afford watertight protection.

Pelican Micro Cases
I bought it thinking it was waterproof, but every time I used it water will find its way in without fail; you only need to slosh it around an inch of water at the bottom of your kayak and it'll be wet inside. I went to the product website and scanned the entire site - nowhere on the site does it use the word 'waterproof'. Caveat Emptor!

D&G
I bought this green medium sized bag recently for $10 only at Beach Road, and stored my Solio charger in it. It has a 'ziploc' closure which then rolls down and is velcro-ed fast in that position. Inside, there are two thin plastic flaps which seals up together when pressed against each other, and can presumably keep any water from touching the stored items, quite a cool concept. Don't think I tried submerging it for long, should try someday.

And on waterproof electronics...
Pentax WP-series camera
Proved itself to be really good in operating underwater, never had problems with it. Picture quality leaves much to be desired though, even to my untrained eye, but maybe the newer models nowadays have better lens/processor.

Garmin GPS
My Garmin 76cx is supposed to be waterproof, being designed for boating use, but I had never dared to use it without protection - it's too expensive a toy! I am quite comfortable in using an Aquapac over it though.

And maybe I'll try waterproof mp3 players soon...

Dreaming on...

2009-02-22T21:46:00.002+08:00

A friend Alex in PESS now just informed me of his successful application for an exchange semester in Canada! Congrats to him for going through the many rounds of trouble the application gave him, it has all been worth it certainly!

Thanks to him, I was suddenly inspired again to learn about the outdoors and more from visiting great places like these. I had once dreamt of going Canada to explore its vast nature parks and learn playboating on the Ottawa river from Liquid Skills. If only I can still find time to go NOLS someday, or to take my L3 coaching course or perhaps even a sea surfing course. The possibilities are endless (elsewhere).

Now I just need loads of cash and the heart to plonk it all down for them...think that'll be very difficult now that I'm all grown up and have already *ahem* shifted my priorities to other things in life...

(PS - just booked a holiday tour package for 10D Europe today, but would have loved to go for a cruise in Alaska to visit Denali and more...)

Batam Trip

2009-02-16T21:24:00.002+08:00

We have always been interested in doing short getaways whenever we can, so for the V-day weekend, we tried Batam for the first time. Before going, I was wondering how Batam made itself a leisure island, without much natural attractions or...any attractions that I can think of actually! After the trip, I was even more confused...

Holiday Inn saved our trip - it's pretty nice, and we got a suite room with 2 bedrooms, so actually it can house four person very comfortably - damn!

The resort is nice, the pool is rather pretty, and we had fun playing table tennis too (that has become a standard activity for our recent holiday trips hm).

Nothing much else was good though. We went to Nagoya town center, which had a megamall selling things we weren't interested in. It was very noisy there with this terribly loud performance inside the mall, and we had to endure it throughout dinner at Pizza Hut; there really isn't anything nicer to eat. Before that, we had to endure a torturous 2 hour massage which was rather painful at times, and not very soothing or relaxing overall, offered little privacy, and irritated us with instrumental tracks of chinese pop played loudly. I couldn't wait to go back to the hotel.

And so we hereby resolved that...

We will stop masseurs from inflicting torture on us in the future when things get painful
We will not go travel overseas for the weekend - taking the ferry twice in two days is rather bleah.

I want better trips!
.

Reno update 12th Feb

2009-02-13T23:47:00.002+08:00

Things are going really fast, and I'm getting excited too. The rate of progress is really quite amazing to a noob like me, and I wonder if that's normal, or if my contractor is really good.

With the old cabinet beneath the stairs and the sliding balcony windows gone, the house looks big and spacious. Light, glorious light!

The view of the living room again, this time from the balcony. Wiring work has started already, hence the wires all around.

The open kitchen, with the cupboards still to come. There will be an island worktop in the middle of it all, and the sink will be on it, hence the three pipes sticking out on the ground.

At this corner where the toilet used to be, there is now a washing area with a half-height wall, and a raised platform for the washing machine. Can't imagine this narrow space used to be the width of the toilet.

A look down the rail-less stairs from the top.

The plastering work was really good, and after taking out and replacing the windows, they are going to lay the parquet floor on the second floor already.

Today, we just choose the laminate colours of the cupboards, got some ideas on paint colours coordination, and selected some sanitary wares for the toilets. Contractor hurrying us on various things now and we have to do our market research diligently these days, busy!

Work in Progress

2009-02-08T22:06:00.002+08:00

The contractor started hacking work on Monday, and was supposed to finish it on Wednesday; we went to take a look on Wednesday evening and they were already tiling the toilets! Went to take a peek again on Saturday, and they are plastering the walls right now.

The house looks rather strange with the rail-less staircase; we could see all across to the balcony through it. Everything is everywhere, and tiles are all there in their packaging ready to be used.

This is the kitchen, with the corner wall hacked so that it is more 'open'. Eventually there will be a glass wall around the corner, and a swinging glass door too, all to let the light in. The kitchen does looks much better without the toilet.

The master bedroom toilet has been tiled already, and it looks pretty good, according to what we want.

Can't resist the view from the bedroom everytime I'm there...

This has been the most expensive weekend for us - we just returned from Harvey Norman today and blew $1860 there for the fridge, washing machine, microwave, a handheld vacuum, hifi, rice cooker etc. I have to say that the sale is genuine and good lah. Another $1800 was spent on the bed yesterday. And the airconditioning's gonna cost us $3.3k soon. Coupled with the previous $1.5k spent on the sofa and console and $2k for the stuff from Barang Barang, that's over 10k leow!

Oh, I forgot the lights...oops.

Waiting to get wet...

2009-02-07T22:50:00.002+08:00

Everytime I return home I see the foldable boat bags propped up there against the wall, just waiting to be used and assembled. It always remind me of how great the last trip was, and how long I'll probably have to wait before I can use it again.

Maybe when my new place's up I can assemble the frame and hang it up or something, that'll make a nice display piece! It'll be a fantastic dust-trap though, and maybe we'll eventually start hanging up clothes on the frame even...

Man I miss paddling. It's terrible to do it like once every half year!

Should you depend on the external for happiness?

2009-02-04T13:33:00.003+08:00

I had 2 great PE lessons today!

I took the pain to split them my class into their groups and brief them about all the routines that they will be doing for all lessons last week, so as to make sure this week's lessons will go smoothly. In the morning, I took time to sort them out again, make sure they go for their warmup lap orderly, and start all activities briefings only after everyone is settled. They had fun trying out different things and I didn't had to waste their time organising them and slowing down the flow and momentum of the lesson. All that made my day.

And I wonder if it's a good thing to be excited by the success of my lessons, because it also means I'll be negatively affected if I don't have a successful lesson (and I have pretty high standards for myself). The alternative is to be the cool/cold teacher who is detached and unaffected by his performance at work, which probably translate to a lack of enthusiasm in teaching. Sometimes I wish to be the latter, but I'm plainly too excitable and emotionally involved really, which makes it really draining when things don't go the way I want.

I love to be the involved teacher, but it drains so much from me. That's why I think good teachers that lasts like that for long are really really rare.

Postscript - 5th Feb

Things didn't go as smoothly today, it took a long time for me to get them organised, even though I improved on my 'script' and clarified my instructions. Things still work but just not efficiently. So that's how it is, ups and downs, and one just have to take it all I guess. Just wondering sometimes when I'll take it until...

Keep a dog, lower your stress

2009-02-03T22:33:00.002+08:00

It's always nice to come back and be welcomed by a dog, even though you don't really like to be licked all over on the legs. At least you know there's something who actually looks forward to you going home as much as yourself.

Here's Hockey in a fetal position during a rainstorm. He's such a furball isn't he?

And here's my cousin with her St.Bernard...it's really huge and quite ready to scare the wits our of anyone whom it doesn't know well, but apparently it's a darling for the family (so they say).

I'll actually think I'll like to keep a dog too, but it'll have to be smaller than Hockey of course. Something mid-sized will be nice, one that's intelligence and wouldn't bark at anything that moves. In the day, maybe it can play with Hockey till we come back to fetch it after work haha.

Hope you've had a better New Year

2009-01-28T13:33:00.002+08:00

It's disgusting how unpleasant my CNY is. I spend a large part of my Saturday and yesterday doing school work, and am both pissed and frustrated that I got to do these nonsense on the only festival that I celebrate.

Today was terrible, I didn't go into the classes feeling prepared, and though I think things were done satisfactorily, it was terrible going to classes. Anyway, I got to quite complaining now, much more work to do!

Frankly speaking this is a terrible job la. Wonder when I'll call it quits in school and move elsewhere...

Settling down?

2009-01-17T01:56:00.004+08:00

There is an eerie calm in school, and I wonder when the storm will break out.

Somehow, I find myself able to feel pretty lax at work for the past week. No doubt there are things to be done, but I don't find myself chained to work at night, nor rushing to churn out things during the day. But that has not made my mind feel much more relaxed though. I'm just waiting for the work to hit me. Or could it be that I'm finally getting comfortable with my work life?

These days I'm actively corresponding to my renovator, helping to make small decisions about the wedding, and even squeezing out much time to try ways to rediscover an entire folder of pictures in my kaput hard disk. I'm just thinking when I'll be paying for the slackness, sigh.

It has been so long since I even thought about going back to climbing, skating, polo, sea paddling, and even playboating. Such a scatterbrain now, my attention is all over the place. My priorities are definitely changing. I'm growing up, I think.

But no time for pessimistic thoughts, it's gonna be CNY soon! A much looked-forward to holiday. I'm gonna mahjong day and night, if I could, and stuff myself with sinful snacks.

Shopping again...

2009-01-11T20:51:00.002+08:00

It seems like every weekend will include some kind of window shopping it seems. But I have to say that Sunday is a good time to shop, without ERP and with cheaper parking (it was $2.50 per entry at Clarke Quay!). We visited a wedding fair to look into organising the ROM ceremony, went to Liang Court's Audio House to look at appliances, and was nearly tempted into buying our bed too.

Actually, it's quite draining to keep looking at these things without buying. I felt that it's going nowhere comparing products all over, and we probably waste enough time and money in the process to warrant buying it all in one go at one megastore. So when I found a good deal for the cooking hob and hood, I had to pounce on it. I wanted to get a cheap DVD recorder too, but Karen think's there'll definitely be a better deal 3 months down the road, or she'll pay the difference. Ok, we shall see about that. At least that's one thing down.

And we paid $1800 extra for wedding photos yesterday when we couldn't decide which ones to leave out of our photo album. To think that I was initially scornful of the whole idea of doing posed wedding photography. Surprisingly I don't really feel the pinch, though I know it's a big sum. But all the bills are really adding up...

The work has started!

2009-01-08T22:38:00.003+08:00

Have visited the new place the past week sporadically, and am surprised the hacking work goes quite smoothly. One day the whole flat was full of wood piles from the torn-down cabinets, the next day it was all cleared, and a pile of sand appeared instead.

Kitchen all ready for further work here - the wall on the right of the picture encloses the toilet, which will be demolished to expand the place. Wall hacking has not started however, as all other hacking work will have to wait for HDB's approval first before being carried out. Can't wait!

And of course, my work in school have started. I can't say I have been terribly productive at the office, but yet at the same time I am constantly worrying about my next few literature lessons. It's terrible - I think of that in the middle of badminton action on the court!

Can't wait for CNY to come and I can play mahjong again! I'm gonna do back to back sessions then haha. Hope I draw back this hand again!

Going in circles

2009-01-04T21:05:00.002+08:00

I saw an advertisement for Barang Barang's warehouse sale on the papers yesterday and ended up spending today running around the industrial estates of Singapore browsing around for furniture buys. One shop leads to another as each area has at least 2-3 big stores, but eventually we ended up with no buys. On the one hand it is nice to catch a deal that will make you proud even years down the road, but on the other hand it feels as if I've wasted a full Sunday afternoon.

We both ended up quite tired and drained after the expedition, and ended up at Geylang's He Ji Bao for some food before going home. It's back to work nonetheless, as with any other Sunday evenings.

We're gonna make Sundays a no-outing day soon I think.

Thoughts for the new year

2008-12-30T00:02:00.002+08:00

Waiting around for the bridal shoot, I was thinking about the coming year ahead. 2009 promises a great number of firsts for me, and I'm sure my work will take a backseat, with my personal life's businesses coming to the fore. Now shouldn't that be true for most of us who wants a healthy life?

It's really rather sad that I need such tumultous changes to my life to push work concerns away for me to reach this conclusion, but I guess I've been blinded to the bigger picture of things busying myself with the trivialities at work.

For me at least, work should be fulfilling, and life meaningful. But I guess I'm still too green at the job to feel that it's a fulfilling one; a new teacher's lot is to always keep trying, and to continually cope with unexpected loads, rejection, and failures. So if I don't even make time to make sure my life is meaningful, then that'll be really sad.

So, some resolutions perhaps?

Put personal basic needs first! Sleep more, work only on the essential things. Prioritise things on hand. All things should be given its appropriate time and attention, nothing more or less.
Build my dream home. It'll be strange, peculiar, idiosyncratic, but wholly my own. I want it to be cosy for myself and others.
Go through the whole wedding process smoothly. That'll be a real achievement I think.
Go for a great honeymoon to somewhere far and beautiful. We're probably gonna visit Europe on a package tour, and not think at all about the itinerary. Maybe.

And in many other different ways, find the things that will fulfill my need for the aesthetics, movement, and exuberant joy.

Day at the Bridal Studio

2008-12-27T17:16:00.002+08:00

We had our wedding photoshoot yesterday, and it was really quite a funny experience in retrospect.

It was all about making up, changing costumes, and striking poses really. Karen took about 2 hours for her makeup to be done once we got there, while I went to the nearby hawker center for an excellent bowl of loh mee. In contrast, the beautician only spent 10mins with me styling my hair with wax and brushing my face with powder.

We had 3 costume changes at the studio, with a round of photos each. I had thought that it will be hard to fake the smile during the shoot, but it turns our to be surprisingly easy because of the genuine bemusement I felt when given the directions by the photographer. He peppered his directions with funny comments too, like asking me not to sit like a boor and to drop that jian smile with the upward glance of the eyes at the camera. Sometimes the look will turn out to be a stare and he'll go "Wah, so fierce ah!", or he'll go "Eh, the smile very fake leh!" when we tried to squeeze it out.

It's rather strange that we are so reluctant to dole out the smiles, since it's not often that one gets to be the stars in front of the camera, but maybe the pose-ness of the process makes it hard to be natural. It was a day spent practicing the furtive glance (usually at some spot on the floor) and the far-away dreamy look. There was once when he asked Karen to look up and for me to look down, and I had this sudden fantasy that she's looking at the pigeon in the sky and I'm staring at its shit on the floor. Bizarre huh.

At close to 5pm, we went out to Botanic Gardens to shoot, and we went by at least 5 other couples doing their shoots there too. But it's really a nice place, and I had no complaints about that. Next, we drove down to Tanjong beach in Sentosa and took shots with the sunset at the background. Wonder how it will all turn out - you'll know in May next year.

Langkawi Paddling Day 7 - Last paddling day

2008-12-23T03:43:00.005+08:00

Next morning, we couldn't care less about tourists looking at us cook and eat porridge as they take brisk morning walks along the beach. It was the last day of paddling and the mood was relaxed and easy. We are to go over to Pebble beach, just 1.2km away from Datai, disassemble our boats there and catch cab from the road that runs by the beach. It will be too much trouble to try lug gear across the vast Andaman/Datai resort to take a cab at their lobby, even if they allowed us to.

In the morning light, we could see a flat stretch of sand and rocks linking Datai island to the bay, elevated almost half a metre above the water. We had to go around Datai island on the other side. The sandy beach on the right is the island where we camped the previous night.

After beaching up at Pebble beach, we took an hour in all to get all our gear disassembled, packed and waiting by the side of the road for some taxi to turn up. We didn't see any after almost half an hour, then a Proton Wira just stopped by us and offered to send us to town for a fee.

It was back to civillisation once again. We checked in Holiday Villa again, unpacked, went out to look for a spa to make an appointment the next day, and had good chinese restaurant food before lazying in the room.

It was a nice trip overall, with a few hiccups but hey, that's adventure isn't it? I'm sure Karen agrees.

Langkawi Paddling Day 6 - Eventful evening

2008-12-23T03:38:00.008+08:00

As usual, we have a slow breakfast and check out around noon. Packing really gets easier by the day, and we launch off very easily, with the kayaks packed just above the beach. I think it must have attracted much stares throughout the night.

We are aiming to reach Datai in around 4 hours at a leisurely pace, but it turns out to be a little tough with the strong winds again. The heat spell is still on us too, and at some parts paddling can get real slow. We are going past one of the 'geopark' on the island, and it's all layers and layers of rocks on the cliffs.

Here's an interesting area where the rock gets folded like a large slab of plasticine after pressure from the side produces arches and whorls in the structure.

A pee break at this nice sheltered stream outlet to the sea. It's filled with smooth round pebbles and rocks all over, and I find it endlessly fascinating marvelling at their smooth shapes and natural colours.

I can't tell you why, but I really would love to cart a whole bag of these back home to display at my new place. I have a strong attraction to rocks apparently.

The wind was pretty bad when we turned round the corner of the island - Karen was going at 2km/h again, and if you were to stare at the cliff when you paddle you wouldn't be seeing yourself moving away from a fixed spot for 5 minutes. But I had loads of energy and towed her in, taking the chance to do sprinting strokes. Towing her, we were going at 5km/h and I didn't stop till we reached the beach a kilometer away. It was hard but quite exhilarating really, to fight the wind and waves.

We rested at a beach just after the turn and before Pantai Datai. Cute hermit crabs were everywhere around here too - how many can you spot here? Apparently, some of them are terrestrial, and maybe that's why they are always a handful scuttling across the beaches here.

The Nautiraid is point at Datai island here, which is a very short distance away from the end of Datai bay. The beach and the scenery here is nothing impressive, but apparently Datai resort is the most expensive one on the island because of its golf course.

I wanted to camp on Datai island and not feel like an alien staying between the 2 resorts on Datai beach with tourists walking around. The water was very shallow and rocks were all around in the water as we landed. It was here that we got our first sandfly bites for the trip, and we doused our feet with medicated oil (a very good idea, but we should have done it earlier).

In the evening, fishermen were out wading out from mainland and coming over to the island to fish. We had early dinner again and were in our tents before 9pm.

Due to the early nights, I have the tendency to wake up in the middle of the night. I woke up at half past two in the morning, hearing the loud lapping noises of the waves on the shore. It seems that the water level has climbed quite fast, and might possibly flooded the entire beach area! It was close to spring tide with the moon just waning from its fullness, and the big pile of shell debris behind our tent indicated the possible height of the water level at its peak.

In haste, we hurriedly pack up for our first night paddle. With all extraneous things already in the dry bags after dinner, we managed to break camp and get on the water in only 20 minutes! Headlights on us, we paddled easy for only ten minutes before reaching the Datai beach. There was a light somewhere in the middle of the stretch and we decided to land there, as it has a relatively flat area beside it for camping.

It turns out to be a walkway to the beach from Datai resort restaurant. 3 men came out eventually to the beach making their rounds while we were getting comfortable making milo for ourselves, but they wasn't very interested in us at all, which was nice because I had wondered if the resort would drive campers off their areas.

With another 3 hours to go before sunrise, I decided that it was still worthwhile to pitch the tent and get good sleep, and so we did.

Langkawi Paddling Day 5 - Best beach in Langkawi

2008-12-23T03:29:00.005+08:00

I wake up very early everyday from the early night, and it is very refreshing to wake up before sunrise and enjoy the cool air. That gave us lots of time to have a great breakfast and pack up to go just before it gets too hot.

We paddle past the shallow waters off Pulau Rebak and head straight for the southwestern end of the island. In front of Pantai (which means 'beach') Kok, there's this long barrier surrounding the entire bay from far out. We thought we saw this bridge-like structure in the middle of it, but ther was no car or people on it. On the last day of our trip, we found out from a local that it is actually a tsunami barrier! Apparently Langkawi didn't lose any life during the last great tsunami from the Andaman sea, but the waters did wash up high over the land.

Right at the corner of the island is Pantai Burau, with 2 resorts there. From afar, we saw the Berjaya resort huts lined up looking at the sea, with the numerous peaks behind framing it, really nice.

The sun was strong on us, but the strong wind made the paddling feels all right. We had to constantly adjust our steering to go straight with the beam wind on us, and I towed the Nautiraid so that it can point at the right place. It was a really efficient way of guiding someone - very often the boat gets tugged back when it veers off because the line drags the water and that pulls the bow in.

I don't recall seeing anything comparable to this over at Tioman...

...but do make sure you get an upgrade to the deluxe sea-facing chalet - the view from the balcony of the chalet behind the tree probably ain't that great.

Karen wants to stay the night at a resort today, so we intended to paddle to Datai bay instead, on the northern shore. But after taking a break here, we decided to make a call to her sister and get her to check out the rates at these places. It turns out that Datai has the most expensive resorts on the island, and so it looks like we'll have to enjoy Burau bay instead.

Landing in front of Mutiara Burau resort, the other resort on the bay. Karen checked out the rates at the counter, but eventually got her sis to help us do internet reservations to get the only room for the night at almost half the price!

There's a nice rock garden on the left side of the bay, and it made for a scenic view.

On the right, Berjaya resort again. Berjaya has a nicer, more gentle beach, while Mutiara had a steep slope and a short stretch before the water. But then, we're price sensitive tourists. The view from here looks much better too, being at the middle of the bay.

Beyond the rock gardens on the right is Harbour Park, a place with lots of yatchs packed there.

We walked from the resort after checking in and a little cleanup, and walked over to a KFC nearby for food. We passed by this place along the coast with hawkers on vans and al fresco dining, a great idea! Seems like the locals enjoy the seaview too.

At sunset, the water receded and everyone had fun walking far out to the water's edge. It was a great stay at Mutiara Burau, they've got good courteous service, and it feels more like a resort rather than a hotel, and the beach can't possibly get better than this here.

Langkawi Paddling Day 4 - Holiday-style paddling

2008-12-23T00:52:00.005+08:00

We set off quietly the next day from the village. Advice - don't be lazy and wake up late on an expedition, because when the sun comes out and shines with its might on you, you'll hardly want to eat/pack/move.

After last night's adventure in looking for a beach, I decided to head back to go anti-clockwise around the western stretch of the island instead of heading for the huge Kilim Karst Geopark in the east. Rock cliffs are bound to dominate for most stretches of the coastline there, and there's a swamp up at the northeastern corner too. The wind also plays a part in the decision. Now that we're turning around, Karen gets to move downwind fast with the sail.

We landed on this patch of rock and sand for a rest after some diligent paddling. Karen got first hand experience of the paddling heat spell which even I'm not immune to, and both of us were eager to relax out of the boat for a while.

The break made her feel a little more like she's actually on a holiday. Rest is good.

It's strange that she's fine with the Nautiraid's seat which kills my back quite quickly. She's showing off her gloves where she wears it the wrong side so that the rubber-impregnated surface is on the top instead to save her from a tan line at the wrist.

My one and only experience with JB's greenland paddle, for 2 hours of paddling before we ended the day. I can achieve a very smooth and quiet entry into the water with it, and can hold a very good speed, but ultimately I miss having the power and versatility to do different strokes. I'm not sure i'm holding it right too, and it bites into my thumb and index finger joints when I hold the 'blade' itself.

Another 2 small piece of rock opposite our rest point, with a cute row of neat mangrove trees in between them.
Round the rock, there's a light beacon to warn ships of its presence.

We were aiming to land at Pulau Rebak Kechil, just slightly ahead of our Holiday Villa's beach stretch. For the first time, it got cloudy on the trip, and eventually it did shower after we land, albeit a very light shower, for all of three minutes.

The place draws a regular stream of paddlers who rented kayaks from Pantai Cenang and paddled over, and there's even a group of people doing teambuilding program when we arrived. The beach was nice enough, but in addition there's some mysterious slabs of concrete there that we can't figure out what it's for, but it makes a wonderful site for cooking and sleeping on. Beach camping without the sand! We realised there's a small drawback though - the tent floor was very warm when we entered it at night, but thank goodness our mats insulated us from it.

There are hermit crabs scuttling everywhere! I managed to get several closeups of this particular one. They really are very adorable creatures. When night comes, they became fearless and ran across our campsite in droves.

We hold conversation for quite a while after dinner, sitting there in the dark with our lights off, admiring both the lighted beach and the dark sky. This is one very enjoyable paddling day, and I can't think of any single day on my other trips to match this.

Langkawi Paddling Day 3 - A beach too far

2008-12-20T15:35:00.004+08:00

I never had such a easy time launching off on expedition day. We had a leisurely brunch, packed slowly in the air-conditioned comfort of the room, and then moved everything out to the beach at the checkout time of noon. We were quite a sight there on the beach, with everyone else lazing under the sun on deck chairs while the two of us moved around building our boats. I think many of the tourists there are envious of our freedom.

A Cambodian-Chinese man was fascinated with our trip and offered to take pictures for us before we set off. It's pretty hard to get couple photos when there's only 2 of you on the trip.

I think we spent another 20 minutes floating on the water after going out, adjusting our gear and so on. Karen's pinning a scarf onto her hat so that she can get all-round face protection against the strong sun.

The pink bandit. It didn't last long however - she reported being nauseous trying to breathe through the scarf, and gave up the idea early in the trip.

So what happened was that we started the paddling just before 3pm. The wind was demonically strong and the spring tide against us, making us go at a little more than 1km/h around a jetty. We passed a becah at 5pm, at which point I persuaded her to go further seeing that there's 2 more hours of light. Bad decision. The strong winds blew unabated and it turns out that that was the last patch of sand for that stretch! After an hour, we could only see jetties and ports stretching all the way up, and the town of Kuah still 8km away.

We wasn't mentally prepared to do night paddling, and pounced upon this fishing boat with 3 men, wanting to get them to help tow us to the nearest beach. They couldn't understand our English and we couldn't say more than a handful of Malay words, and initially they thought we were asking for directions. They intended to stay at the spot to fish overnight, and were reluctant to leave and return, but they gave in eventually after some pleading from us. Thank goodness we were pretty good with Charades.

We clambered on board and their motor boat towed the kayaks alongside. It was totally dark by then, and we travelled for 30 minutes before we entered a small river outlet at a village area. We basically camped on the ground beside the small boat pier, attracting much curious attention from the locals with our camping activity.

It was saturday night, and the KTV session nearby screeched till 3am. There was also a constant stream of people walking by our tent, apparently to fish at the pier. The sleep wasn't good, needless to say.

Langkawi Paddling Day 1 & 2 - Touring

2008-12-20T15:14:00.004+08:00

We were kind of tired out somehow on the hour long flight, and walked out of our hotel to a nearby Zi Char place forcheap but not-so-tasty Chinese food. We knew we wanted a car to go around as we don't see much taxis plying the roads and it'll be too costly to go point-to-point anyway. Planning for the day was simply a matter of selecting the places of interests and recording them in the GPS set.

The next day, we rented an RM80 Proton to zip around. It is a manual car (which means I can't drive it) and does not come with power steering - Karen has a helluva time wrestling with the wheels when doing reverse parking.

We wanted to know whether the weather is dry or wet then, but the big sunny skies says it all. We didn't get a drop of rain throughout our week's stay there, I think.

We had some difficulty trying to visit the cable car attraction because the GPS says it is not accessible by road; turns out the station is within this 'Oriental Village' place. It's just a place for tourists to take pictures in, with these funny looking buildings that bears no resemblances to anything oriental at all.

It was a very nice experience, because the cable car went up steeply and the wind whistled as it went through our car cabin. That's the Harbour Park and Burau Bay you see at the background.

The suspended bridge looks really nice and futuristic, and we want to go there too! There is an intermediate and a top station for the cable car station, and you can alight and board the cable car anytime to go further up or descend to base station.

Enjoying a childhood threat...

The whole island is really mountainous, and is one of the nicest resort island I've seen so far, by virtue of its varied landscape.

The suspended bridge has just one central pillar, and actually sways quite a bit even when everyone is just walking on it. Don't think too much when you're on it, just try to enjoy the view...

And after a climb back up to the top station, we descended and visited the shopping malls for the supermarkets. There really isn't much to shop for, so we just bought the essentials and returned to the resort. I rather watch Star Movies on cable...

Langkawi - pre-paddling post

2008-12-13T10:21:00.004+08:00

I'm in Holiday Villa in Langkawi now, with a stuffed stomach and a roomful of gear to lug to the beach later. Arrived here the evening 2 days ago, and spent yesterday visiting some places and shopping for camp food. We rented a car (much cheaper than taxi-ing) to move around so that we can dump our shopping inside, and drove to take the cable car and visited the suspension bridge. It offers nice scenery, and is probably the only attraction worth visiting. Anyway, we spent over an hour queueing up for it, and had to deal with a bunch of tourists from hell behind us, so I'm glad it's worth it.

The place is much less crowded/exciting compared to Patong in Phuket, both in terms of the crowd and the noise generated by the shops. It's definitely more family-friendly here, and I've seen lots of big families and middle-aged people here, and hardly any younger travellers like myself. It's definitely more scenic here though, with lots of hills and nearby islands to be seen everywhere. The sea looks nice and blue from the cable car station, and the weather has been very sunny, just perfect for paddling trips.

Pictures and more when I'm back!

End of Laos Expedition

2008-12-11T14:24:00.005+08:00

Sala Hin Boun again in the morning sun. Breakfast was again a leisurely affair, and it felt as if the momentum for the trip has dwindled. It didn't help that we had to bring all our gear down the narrow staircase to load our boat one by one.

Despite yesterday's lesson on the estimate of distance on the river, we were all thoroughly relaxed on our last day of paddling, we're gonna reach there sooner or later right? Again, we only hope that we do not go past the rendezvous point with Soonthone. We did meet up with him easily after 5 hours of paddling till 3pm, though he caused us a bit of concern when we had to paddle past the village before we could see him. The boats were dismantled and we moved to Xoksay Guest House again for a comfortable night's stay. The coffee served during breakfast was much better too.

The next day, we travelled for 5 hours to Vientiane, and moved into this huge family suite in Saysouly Guest House which is essentially a 3-room flat.

Vientiane feels like little Bangkok to me, with much lesser people on the streets. Lots of caucasian tourists in berms walking around, and it turns out that in the evenings more came out in droves to dine and get drunk. We had a view of the Mekong across the street from this eatery, which was really huge and had this big sand bank at in the middle.

An impressive hotel we saw along the way; our accomodations does not look like this by the way.

Their cultural center, which looks really tacky with all that gold embellishments. Walking along the streets, we visited 2 bookshops, and that's about it. You really should patronise those fruit juice shops, they go for a dollar for each cup and you get real juice. We tried their baguette sandwich too, and decided to buy it for breakfast also.

Planning for the trip back to KL was an adventure in itself. That evening, David and TC chanced upon a sports equipment shop and bought golf equipment bags for cheap, intending to load the kayak parts in it to beat Airasia's silly rule on only allow golf equipments for sport equipment allowance. I rolled up my kayak skin with the sail and the seasock in it for carry-on luggage (it was ridiculously heavy), and check in all other things in the FC bag, and in the end it only costs me 3kg excess. JB wasn't that lucky though.

Back at KL, we figured that we couldn't take the connecting flight back to Singapore that way, and JB and I decided to take a coach back instead. We went to TC's place in KL and had a nice chicken dinner near his place before getting onto the coach ride...

...which only costs us 45 ringgit! It comes with a drink and a small cake and videos, and I spent the time on the road watching two and a half movies. JB is an idiot - he wasted time watching thrillers which he had watched before!

All in all, it was a nice trip, a great (costly) learning experience, and I hope that our next destination will be cheaper. I promise to bring 150% in excess of the budget that Huey calculated, lots of cable ties, my book and my fleece jacket. And some lighter fluid for David if he's coming along.

Laos Expedition - Day 7 Kong Lor Caves

2008-12-10T18:07:00.016+08:00

It actually gets me quite excited to see all the boats lined up like this all waiting to go into the water. For the day, we need to paddle upstream to the Kong Lor cave, a straight-line distance of 8km away on the GPS. The guide and the resort staff actually told us it's about 5km away, but you should never trust the time/distance approximation of people living in 3rd world countries apparently - for all their kindness, they do have a warped sense of distance and time (everything seems near and fast to them).

A proper picture of my sail's mast base. I got this design from a forum member on the folding kayak forum, and it was just perfect for the purpose. For the day, i had this idea of strapping the mounting pipe of the Brightstar together with the 2 masts so that it will be solidly propped up with no chance of wobbling, and I thought it was such an eureka moment for me when I thought of the idea. My teammates should really learn how to pay compliments...

Launching off was a little slow cos we had to do it one by one. Great scenery, don't you think so?

We set off enthusiastically, and we had a good average speed of 4.5km/h, but it was actually tough going. There were a lot of areas where the water was very shallow, and we had to go left and right avoiding all those areas or risk getting grounded.

This river seems to support a much larger population, and there were such farming plots all along the river. The villagers will dig shallow holes in a grid within their area and each hole will have a clump of vegetable in it.

There are patches with large patches of this underwater vegetation all around, I wonder if they are edible...

This is the type of attention we get when we go by the villages. Hordes of children will just run over to the river bank to receive us, just to say hi and bye. It seems that many of them do not attend school, and our guide told us that they only learn English for an hour every week. By the way, our excellent replacement guide for this river, Soonthone, speak really fluent English, and it seems to me that having a mastery of the language really helps people get good jobs in third-world countries.

Fantastic rest spot, with shade and great scenery.

There are lots of ducks around the river, but then we had never seen it featured on any menu in Laos! We asked the guide, who said that Laotians do eat duck, but they think it's too tough to serve to tourists. I guess they are not really good at cooking it. Mindy says she's swearing off ducks after taking too many photos of them, especially the fluffy pure white ones.

The overhanging bamboo tree made me think of paddling in China too. At this point of time I vividly recall thinking about what nice food we can have if we were to paddle there...

Ok eventually we got really tired. It was our slowest trip ever. Instead of 8km indicated on the GPS unit, we eventually had to travel a solid 20km through the meandering river. A tourist staying at the same resort who had went up to the cave on the longtail boat passed us on her way back, saying that it was "not far ahead", but we were too tired of hearing that to really believe it, not wanting to raise our hopes.

We arrived! There was a small bridge across the river which serves as a gate, and we had to paddle through it before we saw the rapids at the mouth of the cave, just like Xe Bang Fai cave. Huey was there talking to the locals in Thai - apparently we had to pay entrance fees to go in, and we had to use their longtail boats to go in. Sue is here going along the side of the rapid into the cave entrance. It was late. We were supposed to turn back at 2.45pm, and it was already 2.15pm when we arrived.

The cave is smaller in height than Xe Bang Fai cave, but the water is equally green and calm just after the rapid.

Here we walk alongside the cave into an area where quite a lot of longtail boats are parked. After walking in, we turned around to see the longtail boaters carrying our kayaks into the cave, one on each of their shoulders! Huey had asked them to bring all of the boats in and have them transported in the longtail boats to the start of the cave so that we can paddle through and come back out again. We had other ideas though - we didn't want to paddle the 20km down Nam Hin Boun's shallow waters in the dark (sunset is at 6pm). So Huey did the only logical thing, which is to do a solo through the cave, while we took the longtail boat in, have a look, and come out by boat again.
So the longtail boats carried us in. We saw many such mineral deposits caused by dripping water from the roof, growing from the wall.

After 15 minutes, The boat stopped and there above a slope before us lies a very impressive array of limestone structures lit up by yellow lights and blue LEDs. It extended very far in, and Xe Bang Fai cave certainly didn't have anything this impressive.

After half an hour inside admiring these structures, we decided that we need to go before it turns dark. The longtail boats took us out, and we hopped onto our kayaks and went off.

It was pretty nice to paddle in the sunset actually, and with most things in kayaking I'm pretty fearless about the night paddling if I actually decide it's safe enough to participate, but then I wasn't sure whether the group psyche is up to it. TC took up the role of leading the group, deciding when we should stop to put on our light sticks and switch on our strobe lights, and then inserted himself in th ecenter of the group to hold it together. We went about the trip patiently, though I could somehow sense mild anxiety held in check through deliberate effort in the air. I just want to enjoy the starry night.

Without daylight, we had to depend on the GPS to roughly tell us where the resort is, just in case we happen to just paddle by without noticeing it. Every 2-3km, David would inform the group of our progress and bolster our spirits, and almost at 7pm sharp, we managed to identify our resort by sight. We had to take turns to disembark and go up the staircase, while JB rounded up the kayaks one by one after I pushed it over to him when one of us leaves it.

And what of Huey? He actually turned up before all of us disembarked! Apparently he paddled really fast, but for a good reason - his boat was constantly flooding after the sharp rocks in the cave made several gashes to the hull. But well, we all manage to have our dinner together, an hour earlier than expected even, and that was what's important. We wouldn't have waited for him to start dinner, that's for sure.

Laos Expedition - Day 6 Travel

2008-12-10T12:28:00.005+08:00

We hit the road again after a treat of watermelon from a nearby grocery, before boarding our van to the breakfast point. We are heading to Sala Hin Boun resort, from where we will access Nam Hin Boun river the next day to go to the Kong Lor caves.

We were a little disappointed to end up at the phở (rice noodle) store near the local bus station again, having visited the place for dinner on our first night in Laos. The delightful thing is to buy skewers of meat from the nearby market stores to up our protein intake. There is barbequed chicken dumstick and wing, pork fillet, a whole stick of chicken hearts, and even roasted frogs...

The limestone cliffs litter the landscape like it does along the river too, and the scenery is just as nice on the road. Here we take a toilet break alongside the road, and give our bum a rest.

We were brought to this viewpoint where we can get a panaromic view of the entire karstic landscape around the region, with layers of ragged peaks receding all the way into the misty background. Our photographic crew is hard at work as usual.

After lunch at Xoksay Guest House, we went to the market to get fresh fruits, and David and Sue went on a rampage through the place buying up the market. Mindy took the chance to take aim with the camera on a poor child sitting at a store. It is interesting that they only sells two types of fish, one called the 'Mekong' fish which is pretty large and can be quite tasty, and the catfish. Fish dishes command a premium price however.

We reached the nice cosy resort of Sala Hin Boun at around 3pm, and with some day light left, we decided to assembly our boats for the paddling tomorrow. The place have a menu in french translation and seems quite suited to catering to tourists' tastes, and being so close to the river, we really have no complaints about it at all. Coffee-water in the morning left much to be desired however.

Laos Expedition - Day 4 & 5 Downriver

2008-12-09T18:04:00.010+08:00

We went downriver to our extraction point for 3 days, travelling around 120km. I didn't thought that it will be very enjoyable, but it didn't bore me at all. Sun was hot but the water was cold, and winds were blowing every which way. For the record, the temperature went down to 10 degrees in the evening, and the stars filled the dark night sky with their unflinching brilliance. Every morning I wake up early but cannot drag my body out of the sleeping bag in the cold.

Huey in his beloved Fullmoon. He's quite a passive leader, and almost kind of disappears out of attention whenever we are on the river. Think he's surprised to have been caught in a picture here.

David looking rather bored here. Maybe that's why he got music blaring out from speakers all day long throughout the whole trip.

Mel is out there in front, most of the time leading the pack. He called all of us babies (he's 61 years old), paddled at a slower cadence than any of us but yet sped on ahead like he's on steroids everyday.

And yes, I managed to sail! For some moments at least. The wind blows unpredictably on the river, and I can only use it for a short while each time. I didn't adjust it properly and the masts get blown around quite a bit, needing me to adjust it by pushing my paddle off on it. But I reckoned I did 3km with the wind helping, and attained 14km/h once!
We have a huge audience turning out to see us paddle every hour of the trip, because we are basically paddling in their backyard. Life is pretty much centered around the life-sustaining water, and there are small plots of farming done all along the river banks. Curious villagers turn out in droves when they spot the first kayaks, and it seems that the entire village will turn out in force to gawk at us. Even at the campsite, they watch us go through every single set in setting up camp, changing out of wet clothes, cooking and having dinner. Not surprisingly, they reappeared again the next morning too to watch us set out. If only I can converse with them and not feel like aliens.

At one point, we heard a rapid ahead of us, but I can't see it as yet. The group had already stopped at the bank, intending to do a portage. Huey said the K1 can run it and I decided to take a look, but I ended up going down anyway. It was great fun! Some exciting waves which my bow punches through easily with speed, no moves necessary, just perfect for a foldable kayak to go. I went back up and persuaded the rest to run it instead of missing the fun, and here I caught Sue in action.

Limestone crags are all around at each bend of the river, and I imagine China's Guilin will look something like this too. A few following photos of it below...

We reached our pickup point at around 3pm on the 5th day, when we spotted our guide at the side of the river. We moved our gear up the banks and found our resting place just atop the slope, and dismantled our boats with a crowd around us.

Dinner was sumptuous but a little on the spicy side. We ate 4.5 eggs per person in omelettes, and watched the chaos on the streets of Bangkok on the local TV.

Laos Expedition - Day 3 Cave

2008-12-09T16:43:00.000+08:00

The view of the cave from the outside...it makes my blood excited thinking of the trip in. It wasn't so easy however. The adventurous few of us climbed up the side of the rapids to recce the portage route first - it will not be an easy task carrying the boats in.

The rest of the group waited outside in their boats for our observations.

The rush of water outside at the mouth belies the placid (almost eerily) calm of the jade green waters inside the cave.

Huey went out to the group with the news - portage will not be easy, and within the cave itself there is another 3 small rapids which will require similar portages before the beginning of the river cave is reached. And of course, we need to carry the boats back out too!

Meanwhile, I earnestly carried my K1 in with JB's and the guide's help, after the inflatable raft was moved in. Huey's K-light was next, and then David and Sue's Kahunas. We were the 6 who decided to carry on with the adventure, while the rest opted out and went back to camp for an early rest; there is always the cave at Nam Hin Boun to explore. JB's Nautiraid was too heavy to portage and he went with the guide onto the raft.

200m into the cave and the left turn made everything pitch dark. Our light module works great, but the three heads pointed at different directions, and the cave didn't reflect much of the light back as it was really huge.

Our ringleader Huey was the photographer, and we were the lightsmen, aiming our lights at anything he wanted to shoot with his directions. You can see the Brightstar perched atop a plastic toilet pipe, very secure but wobbly.

At the first rapid we encountered inside, we gathered together and the few of us went ahead to recce again while David and Sue relaxed. The distance we need to portage our boat is pretty far but then it's just the first obstacle, and we didn't want to stop there.

Sue and David decided to turn back instead, saying that that's enough for them. Actually, I had to agree that the paddling was largely boring after the novelty wears off, it was just a paddle in a big black space after all.

To save our effort, I tethered my K1 to the rocks there, and went with JB and the guide in the inflatable, while Huey still used his K-light. Second rapid reached - go or no go? JB was always inclined to turn back as evacuation will be difficult if anything happens, but Huey was raring to go all the way, and I guess I don't mind going along, though not with that much passion. off we go again, portaging the boats.

There wasn't much sights to see inside the cave except for huge rock islands occasionally, but we chanced upon this huge mineral mound formed by dripping water from the cave roof. The guide showed us that it can be climbed, and we went up.

It was pretty amazing - there's this pool of clear water around the top layer just like a fountain, and water was dripping nonstop like a shower on the top of the mound. The whole surface looks like a huge fungi with the rings of mineral deposit.

We finally reached the last major rapid in the cave after 2 hours or so, and I felt really sleepy paddling in the dark. Huey told us that we should turn back as the cave will end not soon after this rapid, and there was no point wasting effort going there and back. I gratefully agreed, while JB was probably thinking it's high time Huey started thinking that way.

We reached back at the campsite almost close to 10pm, and only David and Sue was awake. We narrated our tale to them over heated camp food, and I wondered if the highlight of the trip was gone just like that in a day.

Laos Expedition - Day 3 Journey

2008-12-09T16:18:00.000+08:00

So this is the place where we spent the night. It probably needs to fleece the occasional traveller who somehow managed to find their way to this fringe area (probably miles away from any tourist attraction). We were also wondering how the eatery where we had our noodle breakfast can afford their spacious place with a huge TV set and a full karaoke system.

We were well-prepared for the dust the next day.

We ended up at the tail end of a certain village, where longtail boats will take us upstream on Xe Bang Fai river all the way to the cave's opening. Loading the boats with our gear and ourselves left only like 2 inches of freeboard from the water at the sides, and some of us ended up having to bail water constantly throughout the hour and a half.

Buffaloes were everywhere along the river banks, and the comical-silly look on their faces never fails to amuse me.

We reached this large sand bank where we assembled our boats and set camp for the night too. It was mid day already and the plan was to go into the cave and return around 9-10pm in the evening.

I was really glad to have a nice campsite to return too after the paddling, and loved the fact that it is so near the cave entrance, just across a large pool of water where the cliff overlooking our campsite is.

We paddled across to the opening of the cave, and had to leave our boat and clamber up the sharp-edged eroded limestone rocks to view the entrance proper as there is a small rapid just at the mouth. The cliff was overwhelming around us, and the cave is...well, cavernous.

Laos Expedition - Day 2

2008-12-09T11:20:00.007+08:00

We got the message - the group arrive at KL LCCT, checking in already.

We went over to the counter and I was introduced to the rest. It seems that they have already encountered our excess luggage problems, with the anally-constipated staff at Airasia refusing to give us sports equipment allowance. I paid 585RM for excess baggage.

A van was up at the Wattay International Airport waiting for our stuff when we reached Vientiane. We didn't know that we would be holed up for many dreary hours inside it.

Our dear guide brought us to this place where we bought some fruits and 10 litres of mineral water per person, and the total bill came up to $55USD! "Cold Storage is cheaper..." David was overheard saying. The seller was seen shoving some money to our guide just before we left the place.

This is the type of weather over there in Laos all day, bright and hot with the direct sun with nary a cloud in sight. The wind blows cold and dry however, and it felt exactly like the weather in Perth.

We started off all cheery in the morning...

...but pretty soon all of us got tired. The incessant winds blowing into the van made all of us looks like we were braving winter, and when the ride went deep into the night all of us were shivering in the freezing hell. Close to midnight, we ate dust from the dirt trail just before reaching our final stop, which was pretty much a s***ty place which had the audacity to charge exorbitant rates for toilet facilities and refuge.

Laos Expedition - Day 1

2008-12-07T22:09:00.003+08:00

I'm hardly ever this forgetful in planning for trekking trips, but paddling trips are another thing altogether. On the way to pick up JB to go to the airport, I realised that I forgotten to take my fleece jacket along with me for the Laotian winter. I consoled myself with the thought that I can simply layer all the clothes I have in the cold, while silently rueing that fact that the splash jacket I bought for the trip did not arrive through Vpostusa in time. Later, I would regret not bring Kundera's latest book along.

Bad fortune continued

Airasia refused to give us sports equipment allowances - I checked in my boat while JB dumped his with the group going up to KL in a van. Damage - $75 for 10kg excess.

Wxtex bag (newly bought but second-hand) delaminated at the seams. It didn't survive to Vientiane. Damage - $110
Unwittingly tried to checked in Leatherman tool because of repacking at the check-in counter. Damage - $150?

JB and I spent 6 hours at this foodcourt at KL LCC terminal mulling over our misfortune and worrying about upcoming ones while waiting for the rest of the team.

Pre-expedition photos

2008-11-26T15:58:00.003+08:00

I'm still midway through packing with 3 hours to go before leaving the house, but there isn't much on the list to go. Very restless now, walking around to get individual items, coming back to the laptop to surf the net and chat, I still am not feeling real excitement about the trip but just a nervous tension thinking of the immediate arrangements.

Photograph from National Geographic website

Here's the Nat Geo report of a recent exploration of the Xe Bang Fai cave there which was probably the inspiration for the trip. Looks really cool isn't it? It takes a lot in terms of planning to get there, but I'm sure it will be the trip of my life (for this year at least). This is the reason why I bought my foldable boat. Though it's an insane investment to many, it is the stuff dreams are made of.

Pre-trip prep

2008-11-25T12:06:00.006+08:00

Things have been silent so far here because I was busy with stuff; had lots of meetings with the various contractors, attended (wasted time) at school camps, and did preparations for my trip. Actually, I haven't been doing very much of the last, which should be the most important thing because I'm due to leave TOMORROW. But all I have done so far is to throw a few bits of stuff at one corner of the room's floor, waiting to sweep them all into the bag. But I'm good with packing my stuff, will get it done in a while.

I'm proud to have improvised my sail mounting base myself! Last week I went back to school and looked for the friendly workshop technician there. He gave me an aluminium plate which was exactly the size I wanted, and I had fun using the hacksaw, file, and the drilling machine, which I haven't used in more than a decade. It was really satisfying to create something that is functional.

I had to put 2 D-ring patches on the side of the boat to secure the mast down, but because of the uneven top surface, it is hard to apply weight down on it for it to be securely glued on. I actually have to tear off one of the patch because it was so non-sticky, scratch off the glue layer and redo it again yesterday night.

This afternoon, I picked up JB and we went around, printed maps at Peace center, and buying loads of lithium batteries. We came back home and sprayed on UV protectant on our boat decks and lubricated our frame's tube joints, then went out again to collect the lights from his friend who made it for him. It's really quite an remarkable piece of engineering, with many thoughtful features, will post pictures if I can after my trip.

Just now while folding the boat to keep it, the D-ring patch came off again, and I had to spend an hour peeling away the old glue layer to stick on again at a better position. The glue refused to came off on the other piece though, and in frustration I made a new patch. Unfortunately, I need to secure the glueing of the D-ring to the strap first before I can stick it to the boat proper. So probably I will wake up at 7am tomorrow to do it, and hope that by 6pm before I leave for the airport tomorrow I can get it secured!

Suddenly feel very mad about it...should sleep soon...

Busy with expedition planning

2008-11-11T14:53:00.003+08:00

The upcoming Laos river trip is really quite a major expedition. The gangleader has repeatedly told us to expect hiccups everywhere due to transport/access/logistic problems. The interesting thing about the trip is that we will be paddling through kilometers of caves, and that means it will be pitch dark inside. JB's got a friend to come up with some lighting system, but we'll need to improvise a stand for mounting onto our boats.

Meanwhile, I am doing other things

Trying to download a GPS map of Laos and get it installed in the set
Getting emergency camp food packets - I hope it comes on time from the US!
Packing all logistics for myself and JB
Planning for food - and both of us are fussy eaters!

Also, I need to create this mounting base for my downwind sail, something like this -

This improvisation is necessary because usually the cleats are fixed directly on hardshell kayaks by drilling through the deck and fixing it on; but for skin kayaks that's definitely not possible. It prevents the sail base from rubbing against the cloth deck and also adds rigidity to the whole setup so that the energy gained from the wind can be better transferred to forward motion (and not side-to-side rocking etc).

Whole lot of work - thankfully the holiday is here!

Playing with my GPS

2008-11-10T12:12:00.003+08:00

I got my Garmin 76cx GPS about 2 months back, but really just got to know how to use it these past few days. First, I didn't know how to upload maps that I downloaded from the internet into it, and it took a long while for me to learn that from Addi.

Now that that's done, I played around with the different functions these days. I select waypoints to go to on the map and followed the directions while driving, and tried to explore places and features in far off places in Malaysia like Putrajaya and Langkawi (with some success).

It's really cool how the map gives you information like food places, petrol stations, hospitals and other notable features near your current location, so you can really just have fun exploring a place with it. I'm looking forward to doing things like driving up KL with it some day!

Expeditions completed!

2008-11-02T18:57:00.007+08:00

Took my CCA kids out for their annual round island expedition last weekend, and am glad the whole thing was completed without much hiccups. The planning was hellish for me, as I was the only one slaving away to cobble up the program, and there were many different parties I had to liaise with.

Thank goodness I had Jame's help on the expedition for spontaneous problem-solving. There was endless things to worry about and it was fortunate that he decided to hang around for the entire expedition to help me out with the planning.

The most important thing I have learnt on the trip - Time for facilitation of the experiences should not be compromised! Must learn how to do it properly too, and must somehow teach the other teachers as well.

I am glad to hear from a few of the kids that they really enjoyed the whole thing, and that really makes me wonder (like last year) if I can outdo this next year ha. One of them said that she slept 2 hours for the two nights! I slept more, but then, I worry more during the trip too ha.

And then I am back today from a river paddling race, after leaving yesterday! James and I left from Golden Mile at 8pm, and ended up in Serimbun bus station at 2pm, where we were picked up to rest at the accomodation. After a short nap, we work up at 7am and waited a long while for breakfast beforewe were told to go to the competition grounds to consume that instead.

The water level was very low, and that made the river race poor in quality. On the flat stretches, one couldn't plant a full blade into the water to paddle without hitting the bottom, and on the rapids, much of the boulders were exposed. We scrapped over the rocks countless times, and many including myself got stuck when we couldn't control our boats round the narrow gaps where the water runs between the rocks.

It was frustrating to get stuck so often, and up till now I still don't know if my ability to choose my paddling line down the river was so poor, or if it was the length of the boat that gave me problems (though others were using even longer boats). All thoughts of competing vanished pretty soon, and I told myself I'll rather try enjoying the experience instead.

Alas, things were not that easy. The rapids were over within the hour, and we paddled a flat stretch to the finishing line, which we were told was about 5km away. We ended up paddling for 2 hours downriver! It's unbelievable how a river race can have such an extensive flat stretch, which I have to remind again, was so shallow that it made paddling very awkward. James and I kept wondering if we missed the end point, took a wrong turn etc etc...

Finally we reached the end, the coming in 3rd and 4th from last. We couldn't care less, and we decided that there's no way we'll want to do this again the next day. So we hurriedly made arrangements to leave, hitching a ride with this small group going to KL for a climb before returning back to the event that evening.

So in one day, I paddled in a river race, visited Camp 5 climbing center (it was truly cavernous), had a great dinner, and took the bus back to Singapore, reaching at 5am. Quite a fruitful day actually, but pity the quality of the paddling.

Ambivalent feelings

2008-10-30T23:12:00.002+08:00

Currently I'm feeling quite odd about the things occupying my time now. It's supposed to be the holiday and I think most teachers will feel a sense of freedom, but my days are still terribly packed, with meetings on 4 different days, parents to meet on 2 different days, a briefing concerning the YOG, a 3 day camp to go for, and 2 more days of invigilation. Plus, there's work to submit in mid-nov too.

But then again I am starting to do enjoyable things already. Just completed 3 small Gundam models, repaired a few paddling equipments and am going to put a new patch up my polo boat. Going out for river paddling this weekend, and of course, there's the 2 sea expeditions too. I am seriously busy having fun, and it seems like the holidays in NUS when I would be out on trips every few days.

The prospect of working for the new year isn't that unthinkable too. I'm going to teach upper sec literature next year, and will need to prepare lessons for it. And maybe, I'll end up writing a paper for my department too. Seriously, I don't think it's too hard to do that actually, and perhaps I might even make it my speciality, giving myself another item to brag about in my work review form.

Have contacted contractors and will meet up with them next week to talk - hope I don't faint upon seeing their quotes. I badly need a new place of my own to consolidate all my gear! Things in my house just disappear one by one...

Meeting up at S11

2008-10-24T11:18:00.002+08:00

Met my sec sch classmates yesterday, and it was nice to dine out with them at a very familiar place to all of us, even though many of them have moved away from AMK already. It is always nice to catch up but then the complaint is that such meetups are rare. Remedial actions are taken though, next appointment for a dinner-drinking session is already made! The girls are going to teach us guys how to guzzle beer...amazing.

So they were asking me to get a Facebook account, post up pics and at least go be a voyeur and check out their own pictures so as to get updates. It's a thought, but I'll never get around it la. I think it's something that girls will be much more interested in, checking out other people's pictures. I think guys are inherently less curious?

So, sorry to disappoint you all! Just read this blog if you want updates la huh.

Still busy

2008-10-21T21:59:00.002+08:00

It's 2 days to school closure but I'm still busy fretting about the upcoming school trip that I am organising. And it's utter chaos in school, new decrees come from the management everyday demanding new tasks to be performed instantaneously. Terrible administrative system.

Anyway, I do have a sense of perspective - for all my business, I am very aware that my immediate bosses have it much worse. Which really reinforces the point that I shouldn't get myself into a middle management position like that, not in the near future at least. It's a real shitty job, at least in my current workplace.

And my last work review made me realised that I'm not cut out for the job of an ordinary teacher doing routine things in and out. I love the holidays, but the school can never appreciate the novel ideas I have, or accept the speed that I like to implement new and exciting changes. They only reward those who can be the perfect slave doing everything thrown their way without complains. People like me are seen as being 'flighty' and 'unstable', and can only be trusted to a certain extent.

Well, through the ages, genius has always been feared by the mindless. Ha.

Paying it forward

2008-10-18T11:08:00.002+08:00

I've got book prizes for the best literature students in my 3 classes, out of my own pocket. Thinking about it, I should have got 6 of them - 3 for best end of year scripts and 3 for best overall results.

I used to get a few book prizes in Primary school, but I think I got none at the Secondary level, strange huh? I remember I got a 3-in-1 volume of Agatha Christie's crime novels, which I was barely able to read but did finish it in the end after some effort, and I used a popular book voucher to buy the unabridged version of Oliver Twist, which I tried reading several times but always gave up. I can't find it now, but I'll always remember the effort I put into the attempt to understand it; that is memorable too.

And of course, in my formative years in JC, I've got D.H Lawrence's Sons and Lovers which did much to help me understand my literature text Women in Love, from the same writer. That was one book that made me a more mature reader/person.

I think students treasure book prizes especially when they come with personal messages from the teacher, and for my case, I'll make effort to finish them even though they were not really suitable for my reading ability then. It did me a whole lot of good, and I want to pay it forward. Who knows, one of them might graduate summa cum laude from the Literature department from a university someday because I had done my part to encouraged them.

What a waste...

2008-10-15T14:36:00.002+08:00

That the US currency had gone up and stayed stable. Wanted to see if it'll drop and I can buy myself enough greenbacks for a honeymoon in the US next year.

I just threw away another inkless pen. I think I read statistics that says only 5-10% of plastics ever gets recycled, and I don't think that will be one of them. Our plastic rubbish either gets burned and contributes to greenhouse gases and landfills, or inevitably end up in the sea, littering beaches or broken down by sunlight until it becomes plastic pellets small enough for animals to ingest them, thus entering the food chain (Which we are part of, btw).

It always seems like a crime to me that we use more water to wash a cup compared to the amount that we actually drink.

By the way, have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Read about it in the Natural History Magazine and Discover Magazine.

The big trip ahead...

2008-10-04T23:08:00.003+08:00

Exams have started last Friday, which signals the start of the 'lull period', leaving me with more time to think about things other than work.

I just started planning for my touring trip in Langkawi, and it's both daunting and exciting to think about it, all the logistics and preparations involved! From small things like scrapping suncream into plastic containers (cos its current metal can will rust) and charging all extra batteries, I also am trying to figure out the best way to get there still - I missed the Silkair direct flight promotion last month! It feels like my first paddling trip all over again; maybe one can never stop fretting over the organisation of such trips.

Some other things I need to settle -

Handling the weight of all the things we are bringing - boats are 20+ kg each already, plus camping gear and water and food and personal items.
Food planning - planning for meals that do not need to be cooked for lunches, and breakfasts that are not a hassle.
If I fly there, where do I get fuel for my camping stove over there?
Still haven't found a nautical map of the place (not sure if the Singapore sea charts includes it though).
And yes, I bought a GPS already, have it for almost a month now but I still don't know how to use it!

But, think of the beach! The water!

No rhyme or reason...

2008-10-03T12:43:00.003+08:00

This is damn funny la, a German fees agency charged Mr Friedrich Schiller, the celebrated (and dead for 200+ years) poet over 40,000 euros for his TV and radio license fees. The bill was sent to a primary school which bears his name. How the hell did they manage to get his name, and who was the smart aleck that decided that his address must be that primary school? See the problem of being an illiterate philistine?

Incidentally, he's the guy who wrote 'Ode to Joy', which Beethoven then set to music and include it into that glorious 9th symphony's last movement. Sing along next time you hear the music!

An Die Freude	To Joy
1 Freude, schoener Goetterfunken,	1 Joy, beautiful spark of Gods,
2 Tochter aus Elysium,	2 Daughter of Elysium,
3 Wir betreten feuertrunken,	3 We enter, fire-imbibed,
4 Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.	4 Heavenly, thy sanctuary.
5 Deine Zauber binden wieder	5 Thy magic powers re-unite
6 Was der Mode Schwert geteilt	6 What custom's sword has divided
7 Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder	7 Beggars become Princes' brothers
8 Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt.	8 Where thy gentle wing abides.

Lyrics taken from http://raptusassociation.org/ode1785.html

An initial tour

2008-09-30T20:45:00.008+08:00

Ok, so I got the house keys last Sunday. Here's the floor plan of the place; the major change to it is probably my plan to tear down the kitchen toilet so that the kitchen will be bigger.

Here's the living area with the balcony. The place doesn't get any glaring sun directly in the day, so it's nice in that way.

This storage under the staircase has got to go. It separates the dining and living area and makes the place feels small because you can't see the whole place from either end.

The rusty handrail at the balcony is pretty much reflective of the condition of the whole place. Everything has really got to go, leaving only the bare walls. Anything metal like door and window frames have all been corroded, and even the main door has to be changed (looks like a dog chewed on it regularly).

The stairs starts from the dining area, and the table probably would have to be nicely placed so that the staircase wouldn't be blocked. I doubt we'll have much meals sitting there too anyway.

The entrance to the utility room is just beside the door, and it's a pretty big space for all my gear. Think the shoe cabinet will have to go in there too, a bit strange to cramp that into the dining area.

The kitchen entrance definitely have to be expanded, more hacking here.

The long wooden cabinet hides a pipe behind it. There are a few of these in the house, here and upstairs too, very unsightly. To specifically build something over to mask it might make the obstruction stand out even more...what to do about it?

Up the stairs - gonna change the railings too, and give it wooden steps.

Here's the ugly pipe just outside the toilet upstairs. This common toilet is long and narrow, thank goodness for the bedroom toilet. Guests will have to bear with it :p

The best part of the place - the view. It's just low building and the big blue sky in front of us from the balcony. To make it even better, we want to build a wooden platform to elevate the balcony floor. Enjoy!

Sarah Palin - The Great Pretender

2008-09-30T11:01:00.006+08:00

She came from nowhere and tried to impress stupid Americans with her power dressing and vitriolic words against things like global warming and abortion and gun ownership and hunting and wildlife conservation. Now she's being exposed for being the ignorant fool that she is after the insult-hurling start of her campaign was over. I didn't knew how bad she was till I saw this on Mr Brown's site. What a cringe-worthy video, when you consider the fact that this person is trying to be the vice-president of the most powerful country in the world.

Smart Americans should be ashamed of people like her...

Here's a dumb blond trying to be the Vice-President being interviewed on her reading habits...

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

If she really is "the New Energy" of America, God bless the world...

More from the paddling world...

2008-09-28T20:58:00.002+08:00

Got a mail from a fellow paddler that the paddling DVD This is the Sea 4 is out already - do visit to tkae a look at the trailers.

More interestingly, from there I stumbled upon this Paddling Instructor website, which has much informative content that actually have much that is new to me (I don't think I know that much, but it's just that new knowledge is hard to find). If you're a paddling coach, do pay the site a visit, and register to get some of its resources.