Sailing

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

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.

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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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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...

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

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...

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...

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!

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

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

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

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...

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!

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

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.

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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

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).