Sunday, May 11, 2008

self praise

managed to clock 48 mins for my about 10-km run. thanks to an invisible pacer, lol. Looks like I am prepared for the 2.4 run this fri. wish me all the luck.

also pray for
1) good weather
2) mozzie free
3) no sudden urge to crap cos I dun look forward to doing my business in the wild

Saturday, May 03, 2008

No. 4 and CV

din manage to get the marksman at the combat shoot. our team did pretty well in the day shoot by hitting a 72 out of 90. i contributed the most to the score for i only missed 1 out of the 15 bullets that we were given, :P morale was rather high and the prospect of getting $200 each was making the grown men act like a child in a candy store. Raymond even exclaimed, "$200 can buy alot of milk powder for my baby. so all must tau ka cheu hor."

in the midst of shooting, also needed to be the safety officer to look into the erm... safety la. what else. there was this LTA who placed his rifle down after shooting, whipped out his mobile and started texting. WTF! walked over, threw an empty cartridge at his helmet and said, "nnm, bo message eh si ah! can you do this later!!!" sheepishly, he kept his mobile and apologised. for goodness sake, you are in your 20s and here you are acting like one of the kids i have in class. "Do the right thing at the right time," i blasted and he apologised again. LOL. scary cat.

night shoot came and it was a disappointment. we were given the wrong targets to shoot and it was disastrous. not that if the targets were right, we would have been $200 richer. tho it does affect somehow, the truth is we are bo-bo shooters at night la. so for the entire day's work, there was no monetary award for us. only a pass. looks like the $200 has to be earned at my IPPT.

the weeks of running have done some good to my fitness level, lol. at my recent IPPT, i managed to cut a further 22 secs and clock a decent 10.23sec for my 2.4km. (stop rolling your eyeballs) yes, it is still far from my personal best when i was 18 years young, but at least better than letting the timing increase right. the best thing was, the guys in my platoon are ALL between 23 - 25 years young and i came in first. when the official results were released, the guys then proposed that i take the test again and try for gold so that i would get $400 instead of $200. so on 16 may, all of my guys will take turns to pace my run. *stress* with this hurdle down, will have to start training for the army half-marathon in aug. looks like as we grow older, we constantly engage in activities that make us feel young and alive. sigh, let's hope viagra would NEVER be a facet in my life.

the one-week break from school has done me some good. i dun have to face people who like to mark their territory by peeing all over the place, dun have to put up with bad english (students and teacher alike; nope, there's no missing 's' after 'teacher'), dun have to stop whatever i am doing and entertain questions that has nothing to do with me etc... but but but, i miss being in class. so to fill that viod, made a trip back on fri after i booked out primarily to collect marking and confront students who have conveniently forgotten to hand in my work. once i stepped onto the field and saw some of my kids, i knew i was at home. and this cannot be bought with all the money in the world.

the shop is doing fine, money is coming in but parents are very tired with the close 15-hr days. looks like i have to make my presence felt more often at the shop to lighten their burden. really hope that things will turn out fine so that things at home can start to look up.

said enuff. mitch, am counting down already... ...

Monday, April 28, 2008

giving in to demands

1) i am away from school for 3 weeks due to national service. hence while you are sleeping tightly in your comfortable bed and duvet, remember that at some corner of Singapore, there is someone watching the sky for you. and that person is, of course i am not the only one but you wont know the rest of them, ME. though i still have to get out of bed at the same time, i have always seen my reservist as a chance for me to "get away". notice it's within inverted commas; so this is a good chance for a language use question, :P Every in-camp training brings back fond memories of the crap and hell that we had to take but the good thing is that there are no watchful eyes, or rather ears, over my choice of words when i am happy, sad, angry, irritated. *&^%$#$%^&^%$&

so when i get back to the "exciting" (tsk tsk tsk, i am at it again) world of teaching and learning, there is only 1 week left in the term 2 and it's the june hols and it's gonna be the same old internal oral exams, june supplementary lessons, mid-year reviews etc .. .. .. So far, confirmation wrt to my suzhou trip is still pending due to pple's indecisiveness coupled by unnecessary worries held by people who feel that they are important enough to worry for me. sorry for the very ambiguous statement. this is to cover my backside for the fear of repercussions. *free speech*

if i get to go to suzhou, it's gonna be a 2-week stint that coincides with the dumpling festival which means i get to feast on my favourite chestnut inside the dumplings. the rice and meat can give u, if u wan.

2) the grand opening of Serangoon Nasi Padang @ Blk 150A, Bishan St. 11, #01-173. this shop (since 1983) has enabled me to become what i am today; my pocket money, my education, lessons on humility, perseverance and service etc ...

if you happen to be at bishan one day and have a craving for some nasi padang which serves food like bbq chicken, bbq sotong, curry chicken, curry fish, rendang etc ... please support la. especially after all that i have done for you guys. but dun keep ur expectations too high, cos even if you say u know ET, won't ensure u a discount. probably u get better service from my other-wise "black-faced-due-to-fatigue-not-cos-she-dun-like-your-face" mother.

look out for this sign.



the bbq chicken cutlet, sotong and fish that got people asking for more


asked my old man why take a picture of "achar". He replied, "See already will cause people to lau chui nua (salivate) ma." Tell me if it does, at least i can tell my dad he is right (for once).






just added the shop to the local picks application under FB. so if u have eaten there, please give a review, LOL.





Saturday, March 22, 2008

counting my blessings

2008 hasn't been good to me...

1) the chatbox on your right just went bonkers and i have no idea what i have to do to fix it. so let's jus heck it

2) i have succumbed to the flu bug once every month. keep burping as well cos my stomach is experiencing a lot of difficulty digesting what i put in my mouth. sianz... while i am typing this, the breakfast and lunch that i had eaten is still rolling around in my stomach.

3) had a nightmare that i was the prime suspect of a murder. woke up every 2 hours and kept telling myself that i have to prove my innonence before gg back to sleep. think i am going crazy.

BUT we must also learn to count our blessings...

experience a relative respectable amount of moolah for work done last year, hehehe. more dough for my "buy a car" fund (tho I must say is not making a lot of progress, but hey, at least the fund exists). yup, so far only 1 blessing.

Am reading this book by Paulo Coelho's Witch of Portobello and came across this excerpt that struck me:

"I'm finally coming to accept that I was only a temporary inhabitant, there as a favour, like someone who finds himself in a beautiful mansion, eating exquisite food, aware that this is only a party, that the mansion belongs to someone else, that the food was bought by someone else, and that the time will come when the lights will go out, the owners will go to bed, the servants will return to their quarters, the door will close and we'll be out in the street again, waiting for a taxi or a bus to restore us to the mediocrity of our everyday lives."

so please count your blessing. Relax, live, let live, forgive, sacrifice and donate. we come here with nothing and will leave with nothing.

So start giving. and a good starting point is my fund.

Monday, February 25, 2008

singapore airshow

sigh. reached pasir ris mrt only to be greeted by an anaconda. the Q is worse than queuing for 199 to get to NIE!!! and it din help cos people were cutting Q left, right and centre (which includes me)

Luckily it's a complimentary ticket. If I was one of those fools who paid a good 20 bucks, no amount of listerine can clean my mouth of the dirt caused by spewing all kinds of profanities.

in the end, settled for a nice lunch in the comfort of aircon.

so instead of seeing the A380 flying in the air, i will be in it very soon. and mitch, hopefully, I can take the a380 when i visit u in the near future. Fyi, they are flying the A380 for SQ322 (e flight that u always take when u fly back) in March. I managed to take a photo of a plane flying whilst at Bedok MRT station, so who says u need to be at the airshow to take pictures of planes.

looking forward to the vertical marathon on sun. will be hellava time. wish me luck, energy, good lungs and strong legs.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

the red monster call "nian"

am still able to keep to my goal of making 1 posting per month... phew...

sigh, CNY is approaching and as always, i am not really lookin forward to it. what is with all the preparation etc... i just treat it as a break for my family to stay home and rest. period. no house calls or wat not. thanks but no thanks.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

HK International Airport - Gate 25

attending the conference in HK has opened my eyes to how teaching and learning can be improved and how lacking some schools are in terms of their core business. Shan't bore anyone with the nitty gritty of things but there is a comment that struck me, tho not really hard:

You (i.e. me) always seek to cater to and meet everyone's needs. This is one of your biggest (my) strength and also your (my) biggest weakness.

Think in the next stage of my career, a delicate balance needs to be achieved in order for personal and group efficacy to materialise. And how is this going to happen? Like I always say: no-one but yourself (myself) will have see to it cos the others have their own issues and problems to handle. And in their eyes, their's are the most important and pressing.

Facing a dilemma or problem? No one can help you except yourself. and it better be quick.