Finding passion

Alex's blog points me to this 'One Week Job' project where this graduate wants to take on 52 jobs for a week each anywhere in the world, and donate the wages earned to charity while trying to find out what he is passionate about. His friend goes around with him on his job and together they produce a 10min video clip every week about his stint.

I don't think he'll be successful trying to find out what he might be passionate to work in, but he'll sure have a hell of an experience. I read the site materials and the blog and I get the impression that he's an earnest young man curious about the world and wanting to have the chance to see as much as he can out there, and it is just nice to read about such people's adventure, compared to the wasted lives of so many other silly ang mohs or the boring settled paths of young Singaporean adults.

Family

It's quite bad, but I never really have the time to be with family usually, so I'm glad to be able to have meals more often with them this holiday. On Saturday, Dad and mum drove to pick up Ah ma and we had a lunch at this vegetarian 'deli' inside this Metta Welfare Association somewhere in Tampines.

The food was superb! Sometimes eating good Chinese vegetarian food makes me feel as if I could give up meat, but only if I get to have those tasteful well made dishes of course ha. Their pineapple fried rice was very good for only $3! Mum enjoyed their hor fun too. We had this 'golden mushroom' or something with pine nut dish, delicious!

Mum likes this 'yam ring' dish too, a staple of the Chinese vegetarian cuisine. Their version had all sorts of vegetables in it: capsicum, pine nuts, cashew nuts, chestnuts, carrots, 2 different types of mushrooms, lian zhi and bai guo. Cost us $20 for this dish though.


Big brother is in Japan right now and my Dad seems to be enjoying the use of his Ford Focus car. I tried it too - the steering is more edgy, you get a slight booming noise with initial acceleration, and it is apparently a petrol guzzler. The most irritating thing about it is that the signal lights switch is on the left hand side, and I unwittingly used the wipers several times when I wanted to signal, argh.

All's good la. Dad is having a long break and think he will be driving a cab soon (he does drive like a cabby, much more adventurous than me!), and mum's hoping to go Australia next year for her dream farmstay. Heard big brother is applying to be a Mercedes salesperson, more money to be made there than in property? And my young niece is now a very comely young lady in secondary school, though she and her sis needs to read more for school.

Perhaps I should go on a family trip to Australia with them next year? Hm...

Days in Bangkok

Wow. It was an incredible day of shopping right from the airport. We got to the city’s excellent backpackers hostel Suk 11 and went out immediately to start feeding our shopping urges.

First, I dragged Karen to this row of sports merchandise shop near the National Stadium and bought myself 2 high-end Yonex rackets costing a total of $285SGD, THE buy of my visit here! Those two babies would have cost me over $400 in Singapore, and I am raring to try them out on the court.

Then we trawled the bewildering row of shops at MBK center for a while. Karen was more interested in this complex opposite the place which offers a great range of fashion wear at good prices, and I have to agree that many of the stuff there is so cute I’ll probably squeal in delight if I’m a girl. Back at MBK, I bought a really cute ‘Darth Vader’ 2GB thumbdrive, with the figure molded out of clay over the hardware. Damn cute.

And the food here must be mentioned. I had to go back to trying the stewed pork rice and the Thai iced tea every time I come here, and regret not having the stomach to get the mango with glutinous rice dessert.

On the streets, we got 2 bottles of the sweet orange juice to quench the thirst, a packet of goreng pisang, and 3 delicious fried chicken drumsticks on the way back. Am gonna get that mango dessert tomorrow night just outside our hostel!

I spent a cool $10000 Thai Baht just on the first day! *gasp*

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We went for a tour to the city of Ayuthaya yesterday, to see the temple ruins in that area.

We pretty much get the same picture wherever we go, and the day ended with a boat ride back to Bangkok with a so-so buffet lunch on it. Then some walking around Siam Paragon, probably the most upmarket shopping mall in the country.

Stay tuned for more updates!

How to thwart a 'Qian Bian Wen Da Ti'...

(Roughly translated from Chinese dialogue)

TF: "EH! Ask you this question: Why does penguins have a white belly but is black everywhere else?"

YH: "Dunno?"

TF: "Aiyah, you're not even making an attempt to guess!"

YH: "Oh I know! It's for camouflage purposes! Fishes beneath the swimming penguin will see white as the sun shining through the water, while predators above the water will see black as the depth of the water below!"

TF: "Eh, this answer seems correct hor, but why so scientific one! No la, it's because their fins are short so they can only rub their bellies when they bath!"

Off to BKK...

Off to my holiday trip to Bangkok for a week starting tom...

Basically this blog is pretty quiet cos most of the time I'm out having fun these days.

ODAC camp
A great success! My kids feedback that the mobile camp was the best that they ever had, not bad for a first attempt at organising a large scale activity! But then it'll be hard to top this achievement in future years though. Glad that they enjoyed the intro session to bouldering, will definitely give them the chance to learn more climbing skills this coming year. As expected, kayaking is not something they really like, but it's necessary to build character ha.

Playtime
Been trying to go to gym once a week, playing badminton twice a week. Still coaching the polo junior team, but think my playing days are numbered cos the rest of the alumni simply disappeared. For the first time, I finally joined Jacob at OBS to playboat, and it was wonderful to get back into that experience again. I could never find the motivation to continue playing by myself, guess you need to be in that clique to continue enjoying the sport. Strangely enough, I think I am closer to getting the floop than ever before, even after such a long break! Must be due to Jacob's excellent boat.

Work
I told myself to do work related things during this holiday for the next year but it is quite impossible actually, with all those distractions. I was thinking of doing work leisurely during my stay in BKK but don't think that's gonna happen too, sigh.

Anyway, now that things are so relaxed, I can't imagine how I got so stressed during term time. Maybe this is a time to reflect on how I can be more productive at work, like quitting aimless internet surfing in the office haha. Have a feeling it's a feeling of stress that leads to the low-spirited moods, all thanks to the unhelpful upper management at my workplace. In fact, this management helped made up my mind about going over to the MOE specialist track as soon as I can and get out of the factional conflicts of the school environment.

Oh well, to hell with the negative vibes. Enjoy the time while it lasts, I'm going shopping and eating next week, even if it makes me lazy and unfit.

New toy!

I've received my Lego Ferrari!

It came in a nice big box, pieces in different packets, a manual and a set of car decals.

Karen and I assembled in 2 hours or so.

I love the view from the back, rear lights and all.

Right hand drive for us!

It'll be looking pretty on my table in the coming year!

Off to camp...

Visited Stephen's wake just now, and at one or two moments I felt sudden pangs of sharp sorrow that I held back. I don't think one needs to be close friends with him to mourn his passing. So many people had visited his family these two days, and our NIE lecturers were there too; that showed how much his presence meant to us. I realised that there is much less false sentiments at a funeral, unlike weddings when courtesy sometimes made unwilling people turn up. We got to talk to his younger brother, a very eloquent and personable man who is intending to follow his footsteps and join PESS this coming semester. He and his brother will surely help his parents cope with the loss.

I'm off to a 3 day round island trip with my Odac kids tomorrow - it's has drained quite a lot of time from me during this semester, and I am kind of glad it is finally happening, hopefully according to plans. Will update this page with pictures from my grand adventures when I'm back.

Sadness

Just received news today of the passing of a friend I know in NIE - he was from another class, but we took quite a few modules together. We had shivered in the cold waters of the NIE pool together during swimming lessons, laughing at each other's goosebumps. I remember recording a funny video clip of him trying to dive into the water and ending up slapping his front flat on the surface. We played against each other in soccer and badminton, and practiced softball throwing numerous times together. We were never really close but he was one of those good-natured chap whom you get a warm feeling from whenever you see him around.

He was a man with an impressive physique, and I am sure he made his teams proud whichever team he paddled with in dragonboat races. I do not know why the national team's boat that he was in at that race in Cambodia capsized, why no one on the boat wore PFDs, and why he didn't managed to surface and keep himself safe despite being able to swim. It is almost maddening that such a tragedy occurred, because it was probably preventable. I'm not the sort to say that such a way to go was fitting - no one deserves to die for their sport. Sports ought only to empower people, make us feel alive or even give us a reason to live.

Sky Dining

It was Karen's birthday yesterday and we did 'Sky dining' inside a cable car, which went 4 rounds from Mount Faber, WTC and Sentosa. Their menu was quite pricey, but the experience is very interesting - for once, you have a great view while you leisurely consume your dinner, instead of being stuck at a table overhearing others' conversations around you.


The view just pass the WTC stop - there was this 'Asian Cruise' ship docked right beneath us, and we could hear strains of Chinese songs from it. One of the attractions was to see the sunset from the sky, but the weather was cloudy and the only glimpse of it was a parallelogram window of bright orange set among the grey.


Sun setting already - lights coming up. Main courses and appetisers were quite nice, but desserts should have been better for the price.


And finally, her present.

The defining moment of my life

There was this time recently when I went to the toilet at my office to pee, and while I was on the job I had this sudden thought of gratefulness for everything that went my way (Yes, moments of epiphanies can occur to you at the most mundane moments of life) and got me there at that moment of time.

Is this a repeat entry? I am not sure if I had previously recorded these thoughts; I just am grateful sometimes for generally getting what I wanted in life naturally and seemingly without much effort on my part. I guess it helps that I ended up pursuing things I am passionate about it and somehow indulging in these activities helped to advance me forward in life somehow. So how did I end up in JC (after getting 27 points for prelims), landed up in the Arts faculty like I hoped for, and somehow became a teacher (with my dream combination of PE-Literature, at that!)?

And it all started on an afternoon in class 2B of Ang Mo Kio Primary School, during English lesson by a certain Ms Kaur. I can still remember the setting sun outside the windows and that the school day was nearing its end. She handed out card to each of us, NLB membership cards which was laminated plain white cards with only our names printed on it. But what pride we had in it! It became my prized possession from then on, and was my key to knowledge and learning. All I had, I attributed it to the fact that she got me hooked on reading for life though that small little act.

She will never know how much she has influenced the kids in her class, nor do I have any way of expressing gratitude. But I remember this and remind myself that it is possible to effect these changes as a teacher, rare though the chances might be.

Dumb and dumber

The other night I was just telling Karen that I read this book called 'The Odd Brain' which affirms other research that draws a correlation between child intelligence and TV consumption. It writes:

TV programs artificially manipulate the brain into paying attention through the use of frequent visual and auditory changes. Healy claims that TV programs and advertisements, including those designed specifically for children, "are planned to capitalize on the brain's involuntary response to zooms, pans, loud noises, and bright colors, keeping it unnaturally alerted - but at a responding level rather than at a thinking level".

In short, if kids watch TV as the main thing in their life, they're not going to be very smart. And TV happens to be very addictive to them too, and also for teenagers.

Read this account by a columnist in the US who had this long-time teacher reporting to him that schooling kids over there are so unbelievably stupid nowadays. I'm glad our kids knows how to use a ruler at least, but that's small consolation given the fact that their standard of language use is poor.

The courage to expression

Yesterday at a staff meeting, my former supervising teacher, the one who promised brimstone and hellfire to all who opposes her, raised the question to my Principal - Why do teachers have to come at 7.45am and leave at 12.30pm even though it is officially the start of the holidays, with only a few teachers needed to 'teach' some sec 3 classes?

Now it is a common malaise that when the top management make certain decisions, they will usually defend them and wave off probing questions rather than taking concerns raised into consideration. My P is, of course, one of those who believes in standing firm by her infallible logic and the decisions made with that. She gave a 20 minutes reply about how schools need a work to prepare for next year, there are department work (surely!), and (as an aside) that is will be proper for all teachers to follow the same schedule, probably out of a sense of fairness to all.

A whole lot of oratorical BS. She just repeated those few weak arguments round and round, and win only by subduing us with her droning - who could stand it lasting any longer? She basically sidestep the point of why teachers have to stay back if they have nothing to do or if work can be done at home, when it is officially the holidays already. Does she think that the teachers who had to stay back with their classes will get some perverted satisfaction if the rest of the staff all stayed back with them? And I hate how she likes to mention that "In other schools they actually ...", seeking to convince us of her kindness of making special concessions to us (which we do not understand/appreciate and she has to highlight to us especially) compared to the practices of some other anonymous schools out there with sadistic leaders.

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At the end of the meeting, the same teacher voiced out that she realised there are teachers (one or a few, I am not sure) who thinks that she's showing off by always being the dissenting voice in meetings or when she shares her own classroom practices as possible models to follow. She wanted these people to address such things to her directly, says that it is very malicious of them...and then her voice broke and she wept!

I didn't realise that she could be so disturbed by gossips. I hoped she stays in the school, keep on doing what she has always done, and be the firebrand of our conscience. It is just unfortunate that she does not understand that the Singaporean are mostly gutless herd creatures. Not many will appreciate the strong opinionated voice, and they will scorn these voices when they can to hide their shame of being pathetic weak-minded creatures who dare not speak aloud. She can't expect them to tell her their thoughts straight to her face because they have no guts at all! If they have more courage to express themselves in public like her, Singapore will be a nation with more spirit and character.

Alas!

Going slower...

Ok, life is less of a drag nowadays!

Things are winding down already. I still have projects to settle, but it is not causing me much stress now. I still run around for nonstop errands like today, but it feels satisfying to finish them. Good plans are coming up for my PE department next year, and I am getting motivated to help our department go up in professional standing.

English department stuff is rather messy though. There's a new HOD coming in, and that means a break-in period just when I am starting to get used to current routines. There's this rumour going that my former supervising teacher during practicum is pushing for me to take the first ever lit class for upper sec next year, and it's rather startling news. A grave responsibility and I can't help but think that me and the students will suffer a tragic fate at the exams if I am to assume that responsibility, but at the same time, isn't that what I have been looking forward to? I am just painfully aware that I have no experience in teaching literature after my sohrt practicum period, that I shy away from drama stuff and don't really appreciate Shakespeare from the bottom of my heart.

So. My homework for the holidays is probably to come up with resources for PE, since my teaching duties for English/Lit is uncertain. Oh yah, though I think things will stay the same, I will hate to work with my current form-teacher for my form class. That jackass deliberately didn't turn up today and can't be bothered to leave instructions. I can't verify if his sickness is genuine, but most likely not because when I called him to ask for things, he refuse to pick up my call but replied by SMS soon after the call dropped. When I quizzed him on certain procedural irregularities which the students said he permitted, he never answered, probably fearing that his reply will be used as evidence. Gutless wimp who only knows how to make hollow noises.

Sianness at work

I hope the next person who teaches 3NT next year finds my English Scheme of Work plans usable, but that'll be a bit too much to hope for I think. I am right now reading what my predescessor wrote just to find out what one looks like, and I got to churn out 7 modules roughly detailing the content of every English lesson next year by next Tuesday.

I think once people grow older they start getting more apathetic about a lot of things, things that they would be passionate about in their younger days. I don't hate my job and I find it interesting, but once out of school I try hard to keep all thoughts of it out of my private life. I can't really be passionate about anything I do in school for the moment, or maybe it's because I don't have much of a stake in the school as yet.

It isn't fun to work under a leadership crew that you don't feel comfortable with too. Silly admin issues and ways of running things, and general negative vibes emanating from certain leaders, just makes me feel that I don't want to stay in a school's team for long. But a future career option of going to MOE HQ seems like just an escape option rather than something I want to achieve. I guess at this moment of time, I don't really feel like achieving anything.

Also dunno what I'm writing about. Basically I'm just trying to procrastinate, and I think that's about the best thing I do in the office.

Promotion Day

Today is promotion/streaming day, where every teacher will sit down and decide what to do with the kids who fail their exams. I thought it will be a clear cut business, but my principal made it really tedious, going into monologues most of the time, and only taking momentarily breaks when asking other teachers to give comments for student so-and-so in a show that she value their input. I only teach the 3NT English, so I can expect to just stone there for the entire day. We took one morning to do the sec 1s, and probably the sec 2s by today.

And my department got this CHERISH report to finish up by Deepavali, and next tuesday I am supposed to produce a Scheme of Work for the entire 2008 English lessons for 3Normal Technical. So can you imagine what a wonderful waste of time today is for me?

Boat repairs part 2

I returned almost a week later to find that the epoxy at the seat repair site is still a little sticky - JB said my mix of the epoxy resin was probably not ideal. But nothing to do about it la, and I think it holds up pretty well, so I went ahead to work on it.


The scary part was to drill a hole blindly and hope that it matches the other one on the wings that extends down from the coaming. The whole thing was actually quite tough to drill through, and I had an initial false start when I went for the wrong site to drill. I shift further down, finally got a hole, squeezed in the screw and started wriggling it around forceful in the hope of connecting through to the other hole. I missed by a bit! No choice but to enlarge the hole on one side so that the screw will go in straight. After all the effort, the whole thing look reassuringly solid.


Then, time to reveal the epoxy work at the bow. I ripped away all the masking tape, and found out that the plastic sheet was firmly epoxied to the entire area. Some epoxy have flowed down and coagulated in rivulets at the bumper, and I chipped away the brittle plastic bits where there were air pockets beneath.


After some filing down of the protruding rough bits, it looks like this. Not very pretty, but that's of no concern. Test piloting on friday!

Boat repairs

The repairs started on thursday evening, and continued on till Friday. First thing - the bow crack. I cut out a piece of carbon-kevlar cloth, spread epoxy over the area and plastered the cloth over. Another layer of epoxy goes over it after that.


There was a nice glistering layer of epoxy smoothened out over the patch, and it looked really nice. But then I was told that it is necessary to tape down a plastic sheet over the patch, so as to press down on the patch and squeeze out all the bubbles under the epoxy.

That was quite a disaster - the plastic sheet could not conform to the curvature of the area and couldn't lie flat on it, despite making slits into the sheet and trying to make them layer over each other. I tried pulling the different sides of the sheet and quickly taping them down, trying to make it taut.


It looks terrible, but what the heck. It's gonna be covered with black tape after I'm done with it.

Next, back to the seat. Having used a finely meshed carbon paste to glue back to the broken piece, I wrapped a layer of the cloth over it in a bid to strengthen it.


The last I checked yesterday morning, the whole area was thick with repair material, and feels solid. Gonna drill a hole in it tonight and bolt it back to the sides. Wish me luck!

Looking for a paddle exchange!

Someone in the US just put up his 215cm Werner Ikelos bent shaft paddle on eBay for sale - the exact same one as mine! The starting price for the bidding is high as expected, $365USD; if I convert it to SGD at a rate of $1USD to $1.5SGD, it will be around $550; the price I quoted to uncle Charles!

At least that auction validates the price that I put on this premium paddle, and I am not even offering it up for auction. Now, I'm just waiting for someone to put up a 205cm version of the same paddle so that I can snap it up! I still prefer using shorter paddles from my playboating and polo playing experiences, and my aggressive strokes don't work well with a longer paddle like my 215, not optimal, in any case.

Carbon paddles are so beautiful to behold...I can admire the fibres' weave pattern endlessly...

Silence

One good thing about invigilating exams is that for once, I can be in a classroom full of students and hear only the sound of the fans whirling. Ah...such silence. Educationists will tell you that a quiet classroom can mean unengaged students, but still it's a (beginning) teacher's dream.

And I think kids these days really need a good dose of silence in their life. There's so much noise and activity in their lives everyday, and I feel that most of them will be frustrated by a sudden powerlessness in the face of mute silence. It will be a whole new experience for them, to have nothing to entertain them except for the surrounding scenery, where they can only meditate and ponder on their own thoughts.

I recall the times I spend in Nepal, when I walk through the vast natural landscape for days, often hearing nothing but the murmuring of the wind. And everyday, I wake up to continue the same routine of hiking, undisturbed by thoughts of unread emails, phone calls not received, work not done. That was really really liberating, and I was perfectly happy with that.

If they can't take time out to think assert their own personality and straighten out their thoughts about their own lives, how can they be confident individuals? I wish I can give them an experience that rivals mine; there's no way they will ever be the same again if they can learn to talk to themselves and be happy with that conversation.

The sea is calling to me...

A series of incidents had opened my heart to the call of the sea these 2 days. Out of no reason, an old paddling kaki asked if I would consider selling my prized Werner paddle, and that got me thinking of possibly replacing it with a new one of a shorter (and preferred) length. Then Roland asked me if I wanted to go for 4 star refresher course next year; unfortunately, teachers have no leave to take, and I don't want to go for a course where I can't respect the instructors.

But anyway, that got me looking out for paddles and boats online when I was supposed to be doing work in school. I wonder if I can get a good deal on my kayak now with the local dealer, seeing that the USD is dropping to record lows. Can I? Can I?

And I am reminded of my new tent that I have yet used out in the wilderness. And my MSR hydration pack spigot tap and shower hose, and my backpack raincover, and lots more. I should go somewhere! Anywhere...